My Dad, the Boy (*Man) Who Lives

1987

Tony had just graduated from high school (he’s an A-class genius and high school was overrated) and his mom was preparing a special celebration for him. It was a small party with only his parents, Aunt Peg and the Jarvises.

The boy was glad that Obie wasn’t invited to the party. He felt guilty for thinking like that, but since the first time he could remember and interact with his godfather, he felt an intense need to get away from the man. Yet, he still needed to socialize with the man if he didn’t want to have Jarvis ‘I’m disappointed in you. I teach you better manner, young master’ look directed at him.

The boy couldn’t wait for the night to begin. Jarvis and Anna were cooking his favorite meal in the kitchen and mom was baking her famous chocolate blueberry three-layered cake. Aunt Peg even promised to teach him self-defense lessons. Father presented him with the newest set of tools for engineering. Overall, Tony was happy with all the gifts and presents. The most exciting presents of all were the candies Dad bought from honey dukes store at Hogsmeade.

The wizard promised the little genius that if he studied well and behaved nicely until he graduated from high school, he would be given sweets from the magic world.

Since he could ever remember, Tony had heard many stories about his dad and his friends. Most of them were the adventures he had with his two best friends at the magical boarding school and they always sounded exciting and adventurous for the little boy. Tony loved the stories about the school itself. The ceiling with the animated sky on it in the great hall. The ghosts haunting the school. The books with furs, monster’s teeth and wings in Hogwarts’ library.

He knew he couldn’t ever be able to go to that school if he didn’t show any manifestation towards magic and the fact that the school brought sadness to his dad’s face. He didn’t really talk about the sad stuff. All he said was that there was a war and people died. It was a simple explanation, same as the one he got when Harry let it slipped that as a child he rarely gotten candies.

“…Everybody was so excited about Hogsmeade. There were stories about the Three Broomsticks, a pub where they served the most delicious Butterbeer. Zonko’s Joke Shop, where you can buy toys or potions to prank your friends. But the place that I really want to visit was the Honeydukes. It’s a candy stores, they said they sell the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable and…”

“What is succulent, dad?” Tony cut him in.

“It means yummy, Tony.” He smiled gently at him. The man looked happy when he talked about the wizarding village, that Tony felt a tiny bit guilty for interrupting the story. “So, where was I?”

“Honeydukes, da,” he chimed in.

“Yes, Honeydukes.” Harry cleared his throat as he continued about the chocolates and sweets filling the shelves in the store. There was an indescribable child-like joy when his dad talked about those wonderful candies that Tony couldn’t help but asked.

“You really likes sweets, don’t you dad?”

The wizard looked startled at his son’s proclamation that he accidentally blurted out, “I didn’t really have a chance to eat candies when I was your age, pumpkin.”

The moment he said that his da looked regretful and shameful almost immediately.

Curious at his dad’s weird reaction, Tony pried on,” Why? Kids get candies all the time, at least my friends were.”

Scratching the back of his ear slowly, the wizard forced himself to smile at Tony. “You know that my mom and dad died when I was young, right?”

Satisfied with a short nod from Tony, Harry continued. “I was raised by my mom’s sister, my aunt, and his husband. Well, they don’t really like me. So I don’t really ever get to eat candies or chocolate from them.”

Soon, Tony moved as fast as lightning and held his arms around his dad, planted his face under the man’s chin. “I’m sorry da.”

Right at that moment, Anthony Edward Stark, or legally in magical world (Not many people knew his existence as Harry Potter’s son) known as Anthony Orion Potter (Orion, his dad’s god dad’s middle name and the name he sometimes called Tony in private) felt like he wanted to kick his dad’s relatives in their bottoms. Even at the cost of getting Jarvis’ ‘I’m most disappointed in you, young master and I disapprove of your recent actions’ look.

“What for, my little genius?”

“For making you sad,” Tony regretted being a nosy boy when he saw the sorrow expression on the man’s face. He hated seeing his dad like that.

“I’m fine, Tony.” He pulled Tony away within arms’ reach. “It was a long time ago.”

The little boy didn’t appear to believe his dad, but he gave the wizard a nod assuring him that he would cease over the subject.

“So, about the shop.” He cleared his throat before moving onward with the story. “ As I was saying. The way the other students talked about those sweets, made me want to go and buy them with my own money.” His dad has that nostalgic look on his face as he described the first sweet that he ate. “The first bite was heavenly. I can’t even stop eating until I felt the pain in my stomach and the sound of it grumbled in protest from eating too much sugar.”

Harry chuckled as he said it, which prompted Tony to giggle as well.

The boy was just happy to see his dad back to his usual self that time. And the story about those Godlike sweets made Tony’s mouth watery just from imagining how tasty those sugary snacks were.

So imagined his excitement when his dad told him quietly about the graduation present that he had prepared under Tony’s bed.

In exhilaration, Tony ran upstairs into his bedroom. There, under the bed, as promised, he found a shoe-box-like package. At opening the package, he found two boxes of delectable fragrant chocolate truffles and a few handful of sweets in different kinds of packaging.

It wasn’t dinner yet, but the little boy felt that he had waited long enough to taste the interesting sweets that came from his dad’s other world.

He regretted it immediately and even cursed himself when he felt the weird taste of… Stinking socks? Maybe… No. Definitely shouldn’t have tried those jelly beans first.

His dad warned him about Bertie Bott’s beans, but did he listen (remember)? Nooooo.

And now he couldn’t get off the taste of smelling stinky (sweaty? Bleh) feet from his tongue.

So, when his dad went upstairs to bring him down for dinner, he got a full-on laughter from the wizard (coz Tony kept saying,” ugh, feet… Yuck, yuck, yuck…so stinky, Bleh, bleh…”)

He pouted his lips and crossed his arms. He did not like dad, at all. Even if he’s happy hearing his dad’s laughter since it was rare for the young man to full blown out laugh his heart out.

Well, at least there was something good happening from his little ‘accident’. Having his poor tastebud ‘damaged’ for a little while was a-okay if he got to see his dad’s joy.

***

It was an accident when his magic suddenly revealed itself. Get it. Accidental magic. 

They were eating together as a family in the dining room, something that the Jarvises usually reluctant to do since they were the caretakers of the mansion. But for Tony, they agreed to celebrate his graduation by eating together with them in the dining room.

It was all and all a great day for Tony.

After dinner was over, he volunteered to take his mom’s specialty cake out from the kitchen to the dining room. As they have cooked and baked for him, Tony also wanted to be useful.

It was a good thing that the kitchen was a separated room from the dining room because what happened next was something that Tony only saw his Dad do with his wandless magic.

The kitchen door had just closed behind him and his eyes immediately zeroed in on the platter of a whole yummy delicious cake on the counter. Slowly he walked towards it and held the platter with both hands carefully. As he walked to the door, his mom’s voice kept repeating in his mind.

Be careful, Anthony. If you want a slice, watch your steps carefully.

“Slowly, slowly, slowly…” He muttered to himself. The boy could feel sweat rolling down his forehead. The genius was almost to the door when he accidentally stepped on his own toes and slipped.

He cried out in surprise and his heart was beating loudly inside his chest. He shut his eyes on reflex. Tony waited for the crash, but nothing happened.

Consequently, he opened his eyes and…

The little boy was amazed. His body still looked as if he was falling in a diagonal position, yet, he was also suspended in the air. As if something has paused the VCR on a particular scene.

“Tony, what…?”

In the middle of his amusement, he forgot that his shout must have alerted his family of something happening to him. Fortunately, his dad was the one who showed up to check on him. The wizard immediately closed the door behind him.

There was a look of pure joy, wonder, and surprise on his face. Before his dad could react to the sudden bout of accidental magic, his mom’s voice travelled through the door.

“Harry, how is Anthony?” His mom sounded worried from behind the door. “Maybe I should…”

“Maria, I…” His dad opened his mouth and then closed it again with a constipated look, probably searching for a reason to stop his mom from coming in.

The door was about to be opened before another voice intercepted her. “Honey, I think Tony is okay and Harry can help Tony carry the cake just fine. Let’s go back to our seats, okay? I think Edwin was getting to the good part of the story.”

Way to go, Father!

They both sighed in relieve at the same time with the same way. At a time like this, Tony could see the likeness between the two of them. Beside the same color of hair, they didn’t really look alike. The Brit always told him that he got his mom’s feature and his dad’s temper. As much as he loved his Stark’s parents and even somehow turned up to be as intelligent as his father and compassionate liked his mom, the young boy felt guilty that he didn’t share that much of similarities with his dad.

It was what it was, but he just couldn’t help himself. Tony was hoping that his magic would show up one day, and then his dad would be proud of him. Happy that his son turned out to be just like him, a wizard. Not a squib.

“Oh, I’m so happy for you, my little genius.” His dad’s musing broke him out of his thoughts.

With a flick of his fingers, the cake floated in the air heading towards his dad, who held the platter like a pro on one hand; furthermore, Tony was back to a standing position once more on the floor without having to worry about his weird unusual position before.

“Yeah, I’m so excited dad. Finally, I have magic, just like you,” he smiled widely at his dad.

“Oh, Tony,” Harry looked a little disappointed at him. “I will always love you, Orion, magic or no magic.”

Sheepishly, Tony looked down on his feet. “I know dad. I… I just want to be more like you.”

“I understand, Tony.”

He felt his dad’s finger under his chin, pushing him to look up so that he could look at the boy’s face. “Look at me, son.”

When he finally met his eyes, Harry emphasized,” I do. I was like you once. People always told me that I look exactly like my dad but I have my mom’s eyes. My parents were… great heroes. I was just a baby when they died protecting me from the enemy. And I wanted to make them proud.”

The young father paused for a second, licking his lips nervously before continuing. He looked serious as he looked deeply into Tony’s eyes. “But, the thing is, Tony. Living up to your parents’ image is a burden. I never felt worthy enough of their sacrifice. In the end, I let myself free from those expectations and it felt great.”

He quietly chuckled before solemnly stressed his next words. “I don’t want you to ever feel like that. All I want for you is to grow up healthy and happy. You don’t need to make me proud, Orion. I already am proud of what you’ve become. Do you understand?”

The boy sniffed slowly, wiping the tears from his eyes before they had a chance to stain his face with it’s tracks. He gave his dad a tiny nod.

“Good. Now I think we have another thing to celebrate,” the wizard stood up, looking elated. “Let’s tell your father and Aunt Peg about it. I bet your Father would be thrilled.”

The mood has lightened considerably up at the mention of his father’s reaction. After all, dad did promise Father that he would be able to accompany Harry and Tony to Trinity Alley, New York’s version of Diagon Alley.

"Thrilled?! Father is going to be super excited."

“And I will give you the honor to tell him, My little genius,” Harry winked at him.

Oh, it’s going to be fun seeing Father bounced like a five years old with his creaking knees.

***