Heroic Histrionics

NAME: Anthony Edward Stark
NATIONALITY: British
ETHNICITY: Italian
SPECIES: Human (MOSTLY) His grandfather on his mother’s side was a Centaur and no one told him until he was accidentally turned into one and it was unfixable.
BLOOD: Halfblood, his dad is Muggleborn
SIGN: Gemini
SPECIAL ABILITIES? Learned from his dad how to make tech reliably magic friendly. Excellent flier.
SCHOOL: Hogwarts
HOUSE: Ravenclaw
WAND: Ebony, Dragon Heartstring, 11 and ½ inches, exceptionally springy
FAMILIAR: Owl, Butterfingers
PATRONUS: European Lynx
ANIMAGUS?: No
QUIDDITCH?: Beater
BEST 3 CLASSES: Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Potions
WORST 3 CLASSES: Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies (Horrible habit of correcting the teacher)

NAME: Anthony Edward Stark
NATIONALITY: American
ETHNICITY: Jewish/Italian
SPECIES: Human
BLOOD: Dad is still a no-maj-born first-gen, so still halfblood, but mom is fully non-magic
SIGN: Gemini
SPECIAL ABILITIES?: Still an excellent flier, still can modify tech, much to the GREAT JOY of magic users in the US in later years.
SCHOOL: Ilvermorny - He did correspondence courses with MIT while attending and used breaks at Ilvermorny to take exams and turn in projects. When he had free days that permitted him off campus opportunities, basically.
HOUSE: Thunderbird
WAND: Walnut, Thunderbird tail feather, 12 and ¾ inches, Flexible
PATRONUS: Puma
ANIMAGUS?: Yes, Also Puma
QUIDDITCH?: No
BEST 3 CLASSES: Arithmancy, Magical Theory, Alchemy
WORST 3 CLASSES: Herbology, Creatures Handling, Apparition

Okay, so the above meme outlining Tony at Hogwarts and Tony in the MCU proper while being magical. I’d like to expand on that now. I have ideas. Mind, anyone who wants to play in this verse can change any of these points to suit their muse, but I like the idea of all these people being related to it and just never mentioning it to each other for the longest time.

Tony clearly went to Ilvermony, this just makes sense if he also went to MIT and did the whole magical education schtick. Now, imagine for a moment if all the human Avengers were in some way related to the magical world, and that the serum only ever worked properly at all on people who had magic in the first place.

Bruce’s dad didn’t let Bruce go even though he was magical because of his experiments, and instead, part of why the Hulk came out as he did was that his magic lent a degree of stable sentience to the transformation that wouldn’t have been there without it. After the Hulk he ends up grateful he never got to train his magic because what little he’d figured out how to do wandlessly stops working entirely.

Natasha, after the Red Room, actually took a turn through Durmstang, starting three years late, but there they’re actually used to things like that happening because so many parents got paranoid after Grindelwald that they always make sure that their kids know everything they need to know to survive the magical world at that school. Sometimes the parents never send their kids at all, even when offered scholarships, depending on which country the student was from.

Clint is someone who should have gone to Ilvermony but didn’t, mainly because of his moving around as a kid made him damn near impossible to pin down to get a letter to, let alone a representative. Whether or not he ever got proper training when he was older is debatable, but he does use his bow as a focus and there’s a reason he favors this one specific one of his.

Steve was a child of a magical. In fact, the only reason his ailments weren’t worse when he was a kid was because of the magical blood from his dad’s side, which his mom knew about but hadn’t ever told her son about. Why share about a world he wouldn’t be allowed into if she couldn’t go either? After the serum, his magical abilities suddenly worked, having been enhanced with the rest of him, but no one realized this was the case and he channeled it all inwardly, which redoubled his physical abilities and how fast his mind moved because it needed to go somewhere.

Bucky actually ended up attending Ilvermony himself, though he didn’t go the full seven years, instead only going until he was old enough that he could leave and still do the magic thing outside class so that he’d be able to help his family when he got back to New York. A little magic to do repairs went a long way toward saving money for his sisters to be able to have what they needed, and his family overall profited from sending him. When the war came, and he went, he left with the assurance that his little sister would be safe at school herself.

Rhodey never attended Ilvermony, but he did know about it, Tony having explained to him at length about it, only to get a simple ‘yeah I’ve heard of it’ because Rhodey’s little sister was a magical, even if Rhodey himself wasn’t. He figured it was fair trade because she was deaf that she got something special. It did smooth the way for Rhodey making sure Tony always had everything he needed sorted out for MIT when he had to be at his other school though.

Sam is another one who went to Ilvermony, though he went straight from there to college, having kept up with his high school classes on his mom’s insistence so that he didn’t fall behind. When he decided to be a pararescue, that insistence paid off, and his magical training is why their rate of success was so high compared to most of the teams.

Pepper was a second generation latent (squib) before she got nailed with Extremis, and that’s why she lived. Her magic wasn’t unlocked, but it was why she survived in the first place. It’s also why her body acclimated so quickly, since her lack of active magic didn’t interfere in the process by fighting and making her more explodey.

On the flip side of the situation was Killian who was a latent who did know about the magical world and had been barred entry. It only added to his bitterness.

The Maximoffs actually had a creature inheritance rather than being of wizarding stock, and while a magical creature inheritance, it wasn’t active enough to get them invited to any of the major schools. The application of the Mind gem unlocked this, though far more intensely in Wanda than in Pietro.

Scott’s daughter is actually magical, as is her mother. Scott does know about the magical world however because of this. He just has no particular reason to try to visit without his daughter.

The entire Wakanda panther situation is known about in the Magical world and is respected and left alone as its own thing. They were not more social on the magical side of things than they were on the non-magical side of things since they have very little separation of the two in their country.

Okay, so because of how little there is about modern American Wizarding culture… I have made up things. I have made up a lot of things. So these are all things that apply to my Wizard Tony, alright folks? Have a dump of my personal Wizarding headcanons.

Howard hid out on the non-magical side of the world the moment he got out of school because of the intense segregation between the magical and no-maj population in the European descended wizard areas. In other words, places like New York and the like. He pretended he wasn’t magical, mostly.

He is, however, responsible for the gremlins of the Stark line, given he started that.

Gremlins: Known among most of the wizarding populace as a non-magical invention, these little beings came to exist all over the world in small numbers shortly before WWII. Many human magicals don’t believe they exist, as they tend to be about as easy to spot when they don’t want to be as house elves.

Howard, having heard the story and not realizing it came from the non-magical literature side of things, ended up spending considerable effort to catch one, and that had an impact on their form. Instead of being purely magic, they acquired a shape, and Howard taught Tony how to communicate with them when he was a kid.

Tony made deals with the Gremlins so all Stark tech has them, but their energy eating habits are compensated for via carefully created runes which sift the electricity in the technology through a magic filter. This way, the gremlins don’t just kill the tech by eating everything that runs it in one go, and in this way they protect the device from other malfunctions.

He accidentally sicced a group of Gremlins on Hammer when he was in his early twenties in a fit of pique and has since given up on trying to get them to leave the company alone because they like it over there.

Americans have a far more cordial relationship with Gnomes due to the vast farming culture, and the little beings are often invited to live in fallow fields to replenish the magic and nutrients in them on a rotation rather than being driven off.

Similarly, Wood nymphs are incredibly common in fruit orchards.

Bog Lights, also known as Bog Fairies and not to be confused with the normal species of Fairy modern wizards are familiar with, are rather rare in Europe due to the little beings being used in many time turner experiments early in their creation before the standard charms that make them were stabilized. Confined to one type of magical glowing flower that grows at the edge of swampland for their reproduction cycle, it was found to be incredibly easy for wizards to catch these creatures. Their wings were used to create a kind of ‘fairy dust’ that was used in early time turners in an attempt to replicate their ability to warp time in their immediate vicinity and has since led to the European variation of the glowing species of ‘fairy’ being run nearly into extinction.

The American species of this creature, known instead by the name of Bog Sprites rather than fairies when not called by their proper name, are not confined to one type of flower as their European counterparts, however, they are still typically only found in swampy areas. Just as all others of their species, regardless of origin, they tend to glow. Both types, be they European or North American, are known for leading humans astray and drowning them in the swamps they call home.

Given that both types of Bog Light have time warping capabilities, Howard took note of the matter while overseas during WWII and made notes. Upon discovering these notes and learning of ‘Time Turners’, Tony ended up figuring out how to sweet talk them into giving him dust (his perception of them being fairies admittedly colored by Peter Pan) which he then learned to be extremely effective in achieving what in the original Time Turner experiments was a failure. He used the item to satisfy requirements for his Enchantment Mastery.

Tony went out of his way in the wake of leaving MIT to get Masteries in Arithmancy, Runes, Warding, Enchanting, and Alchemy. He got them in that order given the first two weighed heavily toward cutting time for the second pair due to interrelated studies. The Alchemy Mastery was something he got simply because someone told him it was outdated and useless.

He’s since found a use for it.

Masteries are achieved by doing extended study under a Master of the craft and making an innovation within the field while apprenticed.

Due to how much later Ilvermorny was in being created as compared to the other ten of the Eleven Official Schools recognized by the ICW, North America actually has a great many types of magic and schools that aren’t really admitted as being ‘proper schooling’ by the ICW run Education Board.

These include the Magical Tribes that reclused themselves from the world during the time of Columbus and ‘vanished’ from non-magical perception, the Voodoo using people of New Orleans, and many others that bridge the gaps between. Many of these schools are not admitted to being ‘adequate’ because of the fact that wand magic is far from their primary focus.

Tribal magic is heavy in rituals, and what is known as animagus training in the European lexicon is fairly commonly taught to small children so they can grow up and be a shapeshifter without hardships. Those who do well with this are often sent upon completing adult rights to guide and watch over those without magic as spirit guides, and so that they can easily collect and bring home any first generation magicals in those tribes without fuss.

Voodoo, on the other hand, is a magical branch that is heavy in what many in Europe view as necromantic rites, though such things are very rarely ever used for malice, and the ritual work is often incredibly effective.

There are other types of magic that have been important with the immigrants bearing them as well, and these are not uncommon to see either, such as those based in music and art.

Normal Wand Magic is, of course, becoming increasingly common, however, due to the effectiveness of schools like Ilvermorny in recruiting students.

American Wizards show what Europeans often consider to be an alarming lack of focus. Where overseas it’s often considered normal for a Wizard to put all their focus in one field to the exclusion of all others, in the vastness of the North American continent this is simply impractical. While magical travel often shortens the time it takes to move from point to point, people would by and large rather do what is most convenient instead.

This has led to things such as household and beauty charms being taught in schools, transfiguration being widely used for spot fixes, and many whose hobbies and favored jobs overlap their non-magical friends’ learning magic far outside their original specializations. The more isolated a wizard is on this continent, the more likely they are to have a multitasking habit.

Also, due to the inability to nationally monitor as Europe has without issues cropping up of an entirely different nature, charms for monitoring under-age magic use are only placed on wands. Because of this, wandless magic is often taught and encouraged in magical families to avoid stagnation of gifts. Movies such as Star Wars have only given inspiration in this field for even those born from the non-magical due to their popularity in the States and while not commonly taught, it’s considered acceptable to use Wandless Magics around the non-magical as long as you don’t do anything too obvious.

Ilvermorny is often viewed, in America, as the school for extreme students. Usually, only those magical students who are very rich, and thus would be at boarding school anyway, or those who are in the system as orphans (also in this category are often the very poor) and thus have nowhere better to go, are to be found in attendance in Ilvermorny’s halls.

Instead, there are many day schools that are treated as ‘homeschooling’ by the Education Board that take in students all over the country for those of the middle class that makes up the majority. Much like the various post-primary schooling of 11-17 years that Trade Schools offer, the Day Schools are all of varying quality, though it is widely accepted that if you have non-traditional talents or lower power levels that this is likely the place for you.

More than a few of these Day Schools and Trade Schools in America take in those who would be deemed as ‘magical beings’ and ‘squibs’ in other parts of the world, as their limitations are catered to.

It should be noted that Wizarding folk born on American soil will have extended lifespans due to the cultivation of the Tribes (both Magical and non) of the land before the United States was created in the late 1700s. Since then the spaces that give health boosts have become a bit less common, but they are thankfully still very present, and wild places still exist.

There are many tribal elders who refuse to have their ages documented, though it’s rumored that one of the old Toltec tribes has elders that surpass the old record for age among their spirit council.

Tony, having been a leader in non-magical technology because of his dad, is widely regarded as a first-gen wizard in America, in spite of his corrections to the contrary, and outside the borders of the US isn’t known for being magical at all. He finds this quite amusing, given that he’s not unaware of how strict the laws were in his dad’s time about mixing magicals with non-magicals, but is unaware that it’s a deliberate movement on behalf of the American magicals to protect him from those overseas.

The reason for this is because, due to his former business, he went out of his way to bring the community in touch with their non-magical counterparts and in turn kept them safe from detection even when their European cousins started to struggle due to their own stubbornness. This had the twofold result of creating the maginet, a magical only safe zone for discussing magic in parallel to the normal internet across the country and internationally, and making it safe for Magicals to regularly interact with non-magicals without the possible risk of exposure.

In the last thirty years, due to these efforts and innovations, the Magicals of America have caught up to, and surpassed, those of the Orient in terms of modern innovation.

Tony has been doing many many careful experiments using the frame (but not the actual program itself) that Extremis created to try to offer a method for magical couples otherwise incapable of having children to be able to do so. Far more successful, so far, is his work on unlocking the gene structure that blocks magic for squibs (also known now as latents, or magic locked) and makes them so wildly unhealthy.

It is this research and the funding to further it, more than any other, which has led to the protectiveness on Tony’s behalf among American Magicals.

Tony has a habit of poaching first-gen wizards and latents from places overseas into SI. This has the added bonus of depriving still-prejudiced communities of those they would mistreat while also attempting to revitalize said communities. Alternately, those first-gen wizards and latent folks put all their money into the non-magical side or move to America eventually.

Regardless, Tony counts it as a win.

Firstly, Tony spent his last few years concurrently enrolled in MIT, mostly with correspondence courses in his free time to get his degrees sorted out in the non-magical world.

Secondly, he could do this because he tested out of some of his magical classes with the proper accreditation testing long enough back that he had said free time.

Of course, after some research into how schools worked in the Magical world as far as we know outside Britain, I ended up creating a whole system for how the Ilvermorny in my headcanon happened to work. Now, I shall share it with all of you because I’m ridiculous.

First years get all the core classes and are run through all the basic material and are expected to take up a club, as well as turn in a project of their choice by the end of the year for their teachers to look at. Those are usually explained to the kids as something they have to choose over the winter holidays.

In second year, kids pick more classes and are permitted to drop one core class for the year, though they will have to take it up again after a year off, and they can rotate classes like this until seventh year so that nobody gets overloaded.

On the other hand, students are expected to do more. They have to pick a sport, pick a game club, pick some other club, or band, but you’re expected to do something social.

I have no idea why this is the system my brain picked but I find it interesting kids are never really allowed to permanently drop any core classes until they take their final tests in those classes, which can be taken any year. You just have to take the mid levels, then the final exiting exams and you’re good. Passing, of course.

Tony, of course, tested out of Astronomy in first year, the mid levels halfway through the year, and the final tests at the end of the year. He did that for multiple courses, in fact, but he took every course they’d let him by the time he actually left the school and has a trunk filled with all his books that he still keeps. The only class he didn’t even attempt to go through quicker or skip a year in was Wandless Magic.

Please note that the year indicators are the years he would have taken the classes if Tony Stark was a normal human being rather than himself, as well as how those courses differ between Europe and American Standard in the modern age.

Transfiguration (1-7): Changing one thing to another and a study in how to make it permanent.
Charms (1-7): Household spells, combative magic, and the first steps to learning how to enchant.
Potions (1-7): Brewing and the magic of reshaping. Ilvermorny is known to have the best potions course in the world according to my research.
History (1-7): Magical Society, Non-magical society and how interactions of the two cultures shaped and changed both.
DADA (2-7): A Study in what makes magic Dark, how to avoid addiction, practice safely, and avoid running afoul of international law.
Astronomy (1-4): The stars and their interactions with the life of a magical being.
Herbology (1-7): Plants, their care and how to respect them.
Flight and other Transport (2-5): Flying, Apparition, Floo, Portkeys, Driving, Creature Riding, Boating, and Shadowstepping (which tends to be something that looks more like how house elves ‘apparate’ than the wizarding method in Europe).
Arithmancy (2-7): Maths and the art of telling the future.
Magical Culture and Diplomacy (1-5): How to deal with magical beings, non-magicals, and magicals of other cultures. Also covers high holidays, their purpose and celebration.
Technology and Science (1-5): Non-magical advancements, the dangers posed by non-magical weaponry, and non-magical sciences.
Divination and Scrying (2-7): Covers all forms of fortune telling, how to locate people or things when in need, and the general uses of each method.
Ancient Runes and Lore (2-7): Runes of Egyptian, Mayan, Norse and other traditions as well as the tales that shaped their formation.
Creature Handling (2-7): The care for, study of, and defense from creatures both dangerous and non in the magical and non-magical world.
Wandless Magic (1-7): Magical forms, how to shapeshift, and sensing magic beyond yourself.
Alchemy (2-7): The art of turning one thing into another permanently, using integrated non-magical sciences to create something new, and the evolution of medicine.
Magical Theory (1-7): The hows and whys of magic.
Ritual Magic (2-7): Covers coven rituals, rain dances, ancient sacrificial magics (and the dos and don’ts therein), the differences made with willing and unwilling sacrifices (as well as why you don’t use unwilling sacrifices from any creature), and how to self heal when you’ve strained your magic.

Tony went out of his way to get Masteries (which in my variation are more than just becoming a teacher thank you, there is secondary schooling for some subjects in the Magical world I noticed.) He has one in Arithmancy, Runes, Warding, Enchanting, and Alchemy.

His Enchanting one he got in New Orleans with a Voodun master, so he’s definitely got a ritualistic slant to it. He got it by making a stable, but a distinctly different variant of Time Turner from those in Europe.

Money. To start with, American Magicals have this thing they do where all those coming in from overseas have to ‘convert to local magical currency’. Since Goblins don’t run the banks in the US, the foreigners just assume that of course, it’s a coin system like Galleons and whatnot.

In actuality, it’s an easy tourist spotting mechanism since it’s just normal non-magical coinage. In other words, foreign wizarding folk, especially from Europe, are just getting a mess of dollar coins and the like in their ‘conversion’ that can be spent pretty much anywhere in the US.

Let’s just say that people in East Coast magical areas tend to play ‘spot the tourist’.

In the above sections, I went over gnomes and nymphs and some folks along those lines, but they’re not the only magical beings that have a different lot of life over in the US.

Vampires: These guys have the biggest community in the world in the United States since legislation has been passed that protect them from overt racism of any kind, and there are blood banks and protected underground areas owned by various clans.

Werewolves: Often taken in by the Tribes of Natives that teach their children shapeshifting, there are chunks of the National Forests that have been claimed for the use of the bigger packs, giving them running space where they’re no danger to anyone, and have their own schools for their kids there.

Goblins: Not being in charge of the banking system in the US, the population of Goblins is far smaller, and largely consists of outcasts and those that left the Goblin tribes of Europe for personal reasons. While more than a few work with money, there is a growing population of Goblin artisans.

Merfolk: Mostly found in the ocean areas, there is a decent merfolk population in the Great Lakes, and even a smaller subset of one at one of the Disney theme parks for the magical area in it.

House Elves: Treated far more like their brownie counterparts than their European cousins, House Elves work by contract. If there is to be a binding, then the Magical they’re bound to must first sign a contract as to what is, and isn’t, acceptable. It also ensures that either party can break the bond, not just a wizard.

There are more, of course, but it can hardly all be encompassed here.

The Internet! Ah, the internet. It’s one of those things that, when first emerging, wasn’t approached very well by Magicals, but by the late 90s had started to become something of interest to Magicals all over the country. These days, there’s a whole subsection of the internet accessible to magicals all over the world. Any magical being can use a touch of magic on their device and get into this section of the internet.

Because of the anonymity, there are the typical problems, but it’s also a hot and heavy exchange of information that is banned in certain countries, or just unknown in others. America is, typically, rather loud there.

Because of this, some countries have tried to ban its use upon realizing it existed.

Wandless magic is the most common kind of magic used in the US. Due to the edge of secrecy and how integrated the magical and non-magicals are to one another in the modern day, wand use in public, or possible public is largely frowned on. Wandless magic, while hardly approved of, is considered acceptable and far more discreet to use around non-magicals of any degree of ‘in the know’.

There are many things like tapping shelves in bookstores to get to magical sections, or doing similar to get from any other variety of non-magical to magical areas. Whipping out one’s wand to do this simply wouldn’t be practical, and it isn’t unknown for American Magicals to not even carry such a thing.

With the large number of day-schools and the way magical beings and magical humans are all kinds of swirled together, it’s understandable that magical children are handled differently. Any First Generation magicals have their families approached at the first sign of noted magic so that their kids can start going to mixed day schools or otherwise be taken care of if their parents have issues.

Sadly, there are both up and downsides to this. More than one child has been removed from parents who took the news poorly and attempted to harm their children or exorcise them, though many of these children end up with magic friendly couples, that is sadly not always the case. On the other hand, the children being informed so early means that they end up going to school far more prepared and aren’t as crippled in the learning of certain magics that are best started young.

The reason that this was ever put into effect is because of the coming out of information on the abandoned magical child that Newt ended up interacting with as an Obscurus many years previous. Moves were made after that to prevent it from becoming a trend, if possible.

Due to Americans being unwilling to let anything lie, there are many new spells and potions from this part of the world on a somewhat regular basis, though unfortunately many of them never make it out of the country because of laws where they might end up going. Often, the integration of non-magical methods is enough to cause their offerings to be rejected.

There is a tendency, among American Magicals, to not even try to go for their own fashion, though in an amusing turn, in the modern area due to cosplay and things like the SCA, more and more options have been opening up for more traditional dress that many magicals have come to appreciate. Some have embraced this, and others have simply stuck with modern trends instead.

However, Magicals at conventions, be it their own or non-magical ones, have skyrocketed the costume industry in the magical realm, and let’s just say that they have the most impressive wings.

Just some quick terminology that I’ve established for how Tony as an American Modern Wizard uses language.

No-maj: Known as a muggle overseas, these people are instead simply those that have no magical capacity of any kind, including being unable to see warded spaces or create magical items. The terms Non-Magical and Baseline have started to become more popular in recent years than the old slang of this term, however.

Latent/Magic-locked: Known in Europe as Squibs, Latents in the US are those born of magical blood who can’t actively use magic outside their bodies. They can see magical spaces without help, create items with magical properties, and in general, simply have Latent magical genes that are still actively present, merely weak.

Magical: Known in Europe to only encompass a Witch or Wizard typically, this term in the United States includes anyone or anything that can actively cast in the US. This means that a US Magical talking about Magicals might mean a Vampire or Werewolf as much as a purely human person who can use magic.

First-Gen: Equivalent to a European Muggleborn, this is anyone born from a set of Latent or No-maj parents.

Half-Blood: Someone known to have creature and human lineage. Calling someone who has purely human blood is incredibly confusing to American Magicals. Because what are they half of?

For Tony, the many derogatory meanings of the word squib make the word quite the insult in his mind, and he’s far from the only person in America to believe so.

Conversely, mudblood, while hardly a compliment, has a very different meaning in the US. Often used to refer to those who do heavily earth based magics due to having nymph or similar types of non-human blood, it’s actually very confusing to those unfamiliar with the culture overseas to see it aimed at first-gen magicals.

Pureblood, on the other hand, while a term that exists, is less about purity of magical lines and more about species in America. After all, with all the magical creatures, it makes sense that those who are of pureblood stock take pride in it. However, pureblood can be applied to any species in this context, and it’s not unheard of that non-human people use the term.