Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Author: StarLight Massacre

Title: Iron-Bound Commitment

Rating: M

Warnings: M/M, Forced Marriage, dubious consent on both sides due to forced consummation, sort of Mpreg via surrogacy, violence, language.

Pairing: Tony Stark/Harry Potter

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Harry Potter or the Marvel universe; all rights go to J. K. Rowling, Marvel comics and Stan Lee. I make no money for this piece of fictional writing and never will.

Summary: Appalled by the sudden emergence of a legal contract, Harry and Tony now risk losing everything they’ve built up if they don’t comply. On the one hand, a marriage with a complete stranger, and on the other, losing absolutely everything they own. When personalities clash and tempers run high, lives are left in tatters as CEO Potter takes on CEO Stark in a desperate struggle to negate the contract. Will either of them win, or will the contract end up being a blessing in disguise?

Additional Notes: I have de-aged the Harry Potter timeline by ten years to make this plot work better, and additionally I have moved the events of Avengers Assemble forward by one year. So Loki attacked New York in 2011, not in 2012, but that is the only difference in both timelines. All canon events still happened, with a few added extras that are mentioned within the fic. This fic starts on July 31^st 2011 and because of the de-aging, Harry is 21.

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Iron-Bound Commitment

Chapter One – The Contract

Anthony Edward ‘Tony’ Stark clenched a fist as he read through the contract in front of him, feeling his heartrate pick up further with each page that he turned over. He was outwardly calm and collected, but inside he was seething.

“It’s fake.” He said as he reached the end of the last page, speaking in his calmest, ‘I’m not bothered by this’, tone. He was proud that his voice didn’t actually waver with how angry he was feeling.

“I assure you, it’s not fake.” The severe woman who had brought this innocent looking contract to his desk insisted crisply. “This document has been with our offices for several decades now, waiting to be enforced. The terms were missed with your Father, but now the opportunity has finally arisen and this contract is now fully enforceable.”

Tony looked at the names listed on the contract. His Father’s name was there, Howard Anthony Walter Stark. He was supposed to have been married to the first suitable child born of Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, but they hadn’t had children until they were really old. The contract had been written up in the nineteen-forties, but their first child had come twenty years after. They’d had a son named James Potter who was born in March nineteen-sixty, ten years before Tony was born himself.

But Howard had avoided the terms of the contract, which stipulated that he had to marry a child of Fleamont Potter and his wife, by marrying Maria Collins Carbonell before James Potter had reached the age of twenty-one. So a proxy had been named on the contract. Anthony Edward Stark.

This contract and its terms had been passed onto him. He was supposed to have married this James Potter, a man ten years older than himself. Only James Potter had avoided the terms of the contract when he had married a woman, Lily Evans, when they were both twenty, and again the contract, which stipulated that those marrying had to be a minimum age of twenty-one, was unenforceable. Until James Potter had had his own son in nineteen-ninety who had been added to the contract as a proxy. Harry James Potter. A boy who had turned twenty-one today, and with Tony being unmarried himself, as he hadn’t known about this stupid contract that had been written thirty years before he’d been born…they were now subject to the terms of this contract. Trapped into it without any foreknowledge and without a way to negate its terms.

“We’re both men.” Tony hissed through his teeth.

“Unfortunately the contract does not make limitations based on gender.” The woman told him simply.

Tony wanted to pick her up and throw her from the room and spend the rest of his life pretending that none of this had happened.

“I assume that your grandfather, Howard Sr, believed that at least one of his descendants would have a daughter, or that one of the Potters would have a daughter. But that said, with the current stance on same-sex marriage being legal and accepted in most states of this country, and in Great Britain too, it is not grounds to void the contract. And despite both you and Mister Potter being male, the contract is still legally enforceable as your grandfather never stipulated gender as a voidable reason for not fulfilling the contract.”

Tony felt like his world was falling down around him, there was a faint buzzing in his ears, growing louder by the second, as he realised that he, a forty-one year old, would be forced to marry a twenty-one year old boy. All because his grandfather, Howard Sr, had borrowed a vast amount of money from Fleamont Potter, to set up Stark Industries for his son, Tony’s Father, Howard Jr back in nineteen-forty.

“I can pay back the original investment.” He pleaded. “I can pay it back tenfold! A hundredfold! There is no need for this.”

“Unfortunately that is not an option…”

“Why not?” Tony demanded furiously. “My grandfather borrowed the initial sum of money as an investment, it can now be paid back in full, with interest!”

“Paying the money back was never a term of the contract. Mister Fleamont Potter gave the money to his good friend in good faith, all he wanted in return was a deeper link between their two families. A shared child of the two bloodlines born in wedlock. It was supposed to have been fulfilled by the direct children of Howard Sr and Fleamont, but Mister Potter and his wife had trouble conceiving and had only the one son very late in life, which is where all of these problems have occurred, preventing the contract from being fulfilled.”

“That is never going to happen, a child born in wedlock, unless you didn’t realise, we’re both men, we can’t have a child of the two bloodlines!”

“Mister Harry Potter has taken his grandfather’s knowledge in building his own cosmetics company from the ground up and has used that knowledge to found his own pharmaceutical and medical research company. He has developed a way for two men to have a blood child with the aid of a surrogate to carry the baby to term. The first baby born of such a procedure is a healthy little girl who was born last year and is thriving. You will both be able to fulfil the full terms of the contract.”

“What does he have to say about all of this?” Tony demanded, his throat feeling too tight.

“Mister Potter has yet to be informed. My colleague is on his way to inform Mister Potter and should reach Britain tomorrow morning.”

“I’m keeping this contract. I will have my own lawyers look over it.” Tony said, meaning it to be threatening, but it came out sounding more desperate than he’d intended.

“Of course, Mister Stark. That is your copy of the contract. The originals are safely at our offices in New York.” The woman said primly, before closing her briefcase and standing. “I will see myself out, Mister Stark. You have three months from today to fulfil the contract before all of your assets are frozen and auctioned off.”

Tony felt like he couldn’t breathe and distantly he heard the door opening and then closing again, even as he sat and hyperventilated, a hand to his chest, protectively over the arc reactor.

A quiet knock on the door preceded it opening and heels shuffled over the carpet, and suddenly a small hand was pressed to his face and Pepper was there, looking worried and concerned. Wonderful, fierce, reliable Pepper, she would sort this for him. She always sorted everything for him, no matter how big or small.

“Tony, what is it?” She asked him. “Are we being sued? Was it something you did, or the company? What did that lawyer want?”

He shook his head, tried to swallow, and shook his head again. Pepper seized the glass of water from his desk and offered it out. Tony took a deep swallow, careful not to touch the glass with his hand, letting Pepper support it for him, but still he couldn’t speak. He was angry, frustrated, he needed a way out of this contract. He needed this to be put right.

He handed Pepper the contract and watched her face as she read it through. She looked as shocked and horrified as he did.

“A marriage contract?” She whispered in horror. “With another man? You’re not even…you don’t even like men. Have you ever even slept with another man before?”

Tony shook his head. “I’ve never…I don’t like men. This is a disaster, Pepper. I need a way out of this. I need for this to not be happening.”

“I’ll take it to your lawyers. There’s no way this can be enforceable, they have to take the health of those involved into consideration, if you aren’t gay, or even bisexual, there is no way anyone can force you to marry another man. It’s not in your best interests and it could adversely affect your mental health to force you to go through with this.”

Tony clung to that small bit of hope with both hands as Pepper hurried out of his office, shoes giving a muffled clicking as she went, as she took the contract to his legal team. He knew he could trust Pepper, she could do anything. She and the legal team would find something to break this contract. Anything. He couldn’t lose all he’d earned, all he’d built up, just because he refused to marry another man. It was ridiculous.

He hated his grandfather in that moment. Hated him with a fierceness that he had never felt before. How dare that man do this to him. How dare he sign that contract with absolutely no loopholes or gender stipulations. He hated Fleamont Potter too, for not wanting the original investment back, but instead asking for a marriage contract. He hated everything about him, from his stupid name, to his idea of a shared child between Stark and Potter, and he hated his fucking grandson too.

With a yell he swiped everything from the desk, listening to it crash to the floor as he stared hard at the wall in front of him and he breathed deeply for several minutes, trying to calm himself. He needed to get to work, he had a different contract to fulfil soon. His hands itched with just the thought of contracts and fulfilling them and he stormed from his office and went down to the ground floor and out of the doors to his car, which was parked right out front.

Happy rushed from the driver’s seat and hurried to open the back door for him.

“Where too, Sir?” Happy asked.

“Home. Now.” Tony demanded harshly.

The car door was closed and Happy broke the speed limits to get Tony back to his Malibu mansion. Tony looked at it as it came into view, and he felt sick knowing that in just three months’ time it could be auctioned off to someone else. He would destroy it before he saw anyone else living here.

He needed to make provisions too, transfer money to others so that it couldn’t be seized. He needed to figure out a way to stop Stark Industries from being seized and liquefied. Everything he had built up, his entire life was being threatened by this one contract. He wanted to rage against the world. This wasn’t fair, and he wasn’t going to accept it without a fight.

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Harry James Potter was barely aware of where he even was when the hammering on his front door registered in his mind, disturbing his peaceful rest and jerking him completely from the warm, snuggly haze he’d been luxuriating in. He’d been dragged out last night for his twenty-first birthday by his friends…or so-called friends, as he was now calling them.

His head felt like it had been bludgeoned and his mouth was drier than the Sahara desert. He also thought he might still be slightly drunk, as it took him several minutes to realise that he couldn’t see properly because he wasn’t wearing his glasses.

He stumbled around, trying to find clothes to put on, as the hammering at the front door got worse, which made his head throb. He needed to find and down a hangover cure in the next two seconds or he was going to murder whoever was banging on his door like that.

Finally managing to locate adequate, clean clothes, and go next door to wash his face in the bathroom, after emptying half his bodyweight through his bladder, Harry took longer than normal to get dressed after a frustrating several minutes of trying to get his shirt on before realising that he was trying to shove his head through an arm hole. He barely survived the stumbling lurch down the stairs when he missed a step, but Harry finally managed to reach his kitchen, walking past the front door, ignoring the person knocking on it hard enough to rattle the windows.

Finding the extra strength hangover cure he’d left on the kitchen counter last night for just this reason, Harry felt instantly more human after downing it. He couldn’t remember when they’d started drinking Firewhiskey last night, but the awful heartburn he had was telling him that they had definitely started drinking it at some point. He’d curse the lot of them for forcing that on him, they knew that he was near enough tee-total apart from special occasions. He drained a glass of water to get rid of the taste of the vile potion lingering on his tongue and as the headache eased off, and the heartburn cooled, he moved back into the passageway and he yanked open the door to see who was on the other side, disturbing him from only the third day he’d had off of work this year.

“Can I help you?” He asked a little more harshly than he otherwise might have done.

“Mister Harry Potter?” The man in the sharp, well pressed business suit asked him, sounding as annoyed as Harry felt. Probably because Harry had left him on the doorstep, knocking for half an hour while he sorted himself out…and that was since he’d woken up too, he had no idea how long the man had been there before he’d dragged himself from his alcohol induced unconsciousness. At least this time he’d actually made it home and he wasn’t waking up under a park bench like he had on the morning after his nineteenth.

Harry noticed immediately that the man on his doorstep was holding a briefcase and he tried to remember if he had a meeting today…but no, he would never have scheduled one for the day after his birthday. Not knowing how Bill, Charlie, George and Ron got whenever there was alcohol to be had. He should have known that they’d manage to get Firewhiskey into him at some point during the night.

“Yes, that’s me. Can I help you?” He asked more forcibly this time.

“May I come in?”

“Not until you tell me who you are.” Harry said firmly, his instincts left over from the war flaring up.

“I am Linford Shaw, of Preston and Herbert law firm in New York.”

“Am…am I being sued?” Harry demanded in shock, trying to think of anything that he, or his company, might have done to warrant this visit.

“No, nothing of that sort, Mister Potter, but perhaps this is best discussed inside?”

Harry debated that for a moment, before he nodded and opened the door, letting Linford Shaw into his modest, two bedroomed house. Harry led him into the living room.

“Would you like tea or coffee? A water perhaps?”

“No, thank you.” Linford Shaw declined, but Harry was gasping for a drink, so he made himself a cup of tea before sitting on his settee, the one adjacent to the one that Linford Shaw had taken.

“Now, can you explain why you’re here, on one of my very rare day’s off at that?”

“You have just turned twenty-one.”

“Yes, yesterday, hence the reason for a rare day off.” Harry said.

“There was a contract written up by your paternal grandfather, Fleamont Potter, which came into effect as soon as you turned twenty-one.” Linford told him, opening his briefcase as he spoke and pulling out several pieces of paper stapled together.

Harry got a very bad feeling in his gut and he took a shaky sip of tea and placed the cup down on the coffee table, accepting the papers being handed to him.

He read the contract one page at a time and he felt his stomach dropping to his knees with every line that he read.

“This…it can’t be true.” He said weakly.

He read it through again and he swallowed hard. He wanted to vomit, and it had nothing to do with how much alcohol he’d consumed last night, as the hangover cure fixed all the after effects.

“I assure you that this is real, and the contract is finally enforceable between you and Mister Stark now that you’re twenty-one and the both of you are still unmarried.”

“How…” Harry stopped and had to cough to clear his throat. “How old is Mister Stark?” He asked shakily, when he saw that the man he was being forced to marry was supposed to have been married to his Father.

“He is forty-one.” Linford Shaw told him. Harry felt faint. “He was born on the twenty-ninth of May, nineteen-seventy.”

Harry didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He read through the contract again, desperately hoping that perhaps the words had changed. He had to be married to Tony Stark within three months, and they had to have a child together too, though there was thankfully not a deadline on that, not that he could see.

“As you can see, you need to be married to Mister Stark within three months, per the request of the contract.” Shaw said, reiterating what Harry had just read for himself, three times now, obviously wanting to fill the awkward silence with words as he stared nervously at Harry, trying to gauge a reaction. “And the stipulated child is expected to be produced between you both as soon as…”

“There’s no time limit for when the baby needs to be born.” Harry said, and even to his own ears his voice sounded distant and shocky.

“Well, no, but as the contract was actually drawn up to produce a shared child between both parties it is implied and expected for as soon as poss…”

“There is no enforceable time limit written into this contract.” Harry growled, his green eyes flashing dangerously.

Linford Shaw settled his shoulders. “No. No there isn’t.”

Harry nodded decisively. He breathed in deeply and reached out for his cup of tea. He wished now that he’d put a few drops of calming draught in it as he gulped a few swallows. He needed to call Hermione. He needed her advice for this. He didn’t see how this could be at all legal.

“If that was all?” Harry asked coldly.

“I…yes, you can keep that copy of the contract, the original is…”

“Oh, I was fully planning on keeping it.” Harry cut in. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have business to attend to, and now a contract to scrutinise.”

Harry saw Linford Shaw safely out of his house before storming back to his living room. He lit the fire with a wave of his wand, he grabbed a pinch of floo powder from the tin on the mantelpiece and he fell to his knees, throwing it into the flames.

“Hermione!” He yelled out as soon as his head stopped spinning on his shoulders. “Hermione!”

“Harry! What in the name of Merlin is the matter, are you okay?” She asked as she came running into her living room, following his yells.

“I need you. Here. Now.” He said, feeling like a panic attack was building up, making his chest feel like it was being crushed.

“The hangover cure is on your kitchen counter, Harry. I told you boys not to drink so much last night, but you never listen to…”

“It’s not that. Dear Merlin, Hermione, it isn’t that! Please, I need you here.”

“Oh, alright. Stand back.”

Harry pulled his head from the fireplace and stood out of the way, choosing to pace back and forth over his carpet just to keep himself moving, holding the contract in a white-knuckled fist.

The fireplace flared green and Hermione stepped out, brushing soot from her jeans and tee-shirt.

“Right, what is this about, Harry?”

“A man from a New York law firm came to see me this morning.”

“You’re not being sued are you?” Hermione asked, looking at him in shock.

“No! No, I asked, it’s not that. It’s actually nothing to do with the company, just…look!” Harry thrust the contract at her. “It can’t be legal, there’s no way it’s legal, it has to be against human rights laws.”

“Put the kettle on, Harry.” Hermione said, as Harry hovered over her.

“I can’t, I can’t do anything right now, I need to know that this can’t be legally enforced.”

“I can’t read with you hovering over me like a fly. Go and make some tea.”

Harry was breathing heavily, but he nodded and moved to the kitchen, leaving Hermione to read the contract in peace.

He was rather shaky as he carried the two cups of tea back into his living room. Hermione was sat on his settee, clutching the contract in weak fingers, just as white-faced as Harry.

“This…this can’t be real.” She said faintly, looking up at him in horror. “Someone’s idea of a bad joke because of the process you created last year, especially when you lost two investors over it. We knew certain people wouldn’t be okay with it, this is just someone protesting how you found a way to incorporate a male DNA sample into a genetically blank egg to create a baby that biologically comes from two men.”

“Who would have known about my grandfather, Hermione? No one knows my family tree or history because they were Pureblood wizards who had very few dealings in the Muggle world.”

“Apparently only the one, with Stark Industries.”

“I’ve never even heard of Stark Industries.” Harry said desperately.

“The link between your families was broken when Fleamont Potter retired and sold his company for a vast profit.” Hermione said. “But, Harry, Stark Industries, the last I looked they were a weapons manufacturer.”

Harry felt like the floor would open up and swallow him whole. “My…my grandfather funded…he funded a company that makes weapons?”

Harry had to sit down before his knees collapsed on him and he desperately groped the coffee table for his cup of tea so that he could take a few shaky sips.

“I feel sick.” He said weakly, his mind playing that information over and over.

His Grandfather, Fleamont Potter, had had a cosmetics company. He’d invented Sleekeazy’s hair potion and made an absolute fortune from the formula, which he’d actually adapted to be sold to Muggles as well as witches and wizards. He’d assumed…he’d just assumed that Stark Industries had had something to do with cosmetics because of that.

“It…I’m so sorry, Harry. All I can say is that this was before even the first war, your Grandfather had no idea that his grandson would one day fight for his life in a war, or that his son and daughter-in-law would die because of it. Voldemort didn’t exist when he made this contract.”

“He…he died before I was born.” Harry said gruffly. “I…I actually died fighting during that war, Hermione, and he funded a Muggle weapons company and he’s pushed this onto me too. A goddamned marriage contract, Hermione, it can’t be legal. There has to be something that we can use.”

“At least the company isn’t going to be taken from you.”

“No, that’s not right, the contract says that…”

“It puts up Fleamont Potter’s cosmetic company as collateral…the company that he sold when he retired, Harry. Potter Pharmaceuticals is yours only, and it wasn’t an actual company when this contract was written. For that reason it cannot be used as collateral if you fail to meet the terms of this contract, which was written fifty years before you were born, and sixty-seven years before you founded Potter Pharmaceuticals. You’ll lose anything and everything that came to you from the Potters, so your vaults, your houses, all of your gold, but your company will still be yours.”

“I wouldn’t care about the vaults and the gold, but I can’t lose Godric’s Hollow. It…you know how much it means to me, even if…even if it is difficult to go back there.” Harry whispered. “I’m still tied to this contract, even if it won’t affect the company.”

“We’ll get it to the goblins and see if they think it’s real, and more so, if it is legally enforceable. Grab your keys.”

Harry rubbed a hand through his hair and righted his glasses after knocking them askew. He took a deep breath and went to find his trainers and his keys. He wanted this sorted, and he wanted to be told that it was all a lie and that this contract wasn’t legally binding, or was against human rights, or something. He needed for this to just go away.

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Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts strode into Tony’s Tower in New York, expecting him to be there, as she had asked, only to be told by Jarvis that Tony wasn’t there.

“Where is he, Jarvis?” She demanded as she rode the elevator up to the communal floor of the Tower. “I told him to be here.”

“He is flying, Miss Potts.” Jarvis informed her as the elevator doors opened into the communal living room.

“He’s flying? As in flying, flying, in the suit? Jarvis, you can’t let him fly himself in his condition!” She raged, striding across the floor.

“Why is Tony unable to fly? What condition does he have?”

Pepper spun around, a hand to her chest. “Oh, Clint, it’s you.” She breathed easier. She took note of the other people in the room, and realised that yes, the Avengers team were all here.

“When is Tony getting here, he was supposed to be here last week.” Steve said, his big blue eyes looking rather reproachful.

“Tony is…he’s had some bad news.” She said, trying not to reveal anything, but still making excuses for her boss. “He hasn’t been very…stable since he got this news last week and he isn’t thinking about anything else.”

“So, he can’t be trusted to be on call?”

“Trusted to be on call?” Pepper echoed. “He can’t be trusted with anything at the moment after this. Especially not flying himself, Jarvis! He could hit something, he could injure himself!”

“Sir has almost collided with three buildings and a bridge.” Jarvis reported clinically.

“Oh god.” Pepper said weakly, collapsing into a seat. “Please tell me he isn’t drunk, Jarvis.”

“His blood alcohol levels are…”

“I don’t care what his blood alcohol levels are, has he drunk anything alcoholic or not?” Pepper cried.

“Yes, Miss Potts.”

Pepper swallowed and closed her eyes. “How far away is he?”

“Approximately seventeen minutes.” Jarvis replied.

“Tell him, I want to see him immediately when he arrives.” She said.

“He wishes to know if you have the reply from the legal team.”

“I will tell him about it, when he is actually here.” She growled. “He doesn’t need more distractions while he’s flying, drunk, through New York!”

“Pepper, what is going on, why are the legal team involved?” Natasha asked.

“Oh, it’s been awful, Natalie, Natasha, sorry.” Pepper said, covering her face with her hands for a moment. Doing so only reminded her about the folder she was carrying, the detailed breakdown of the contract from Tony’s legal team.

“Is Tony being sued?” Clint asked.

Pepper shook her head, looking back up. “No, it’s not that.”

“Please tell me he hasn’t got a kid.” Natasha asked, moving to sit beside Pepper to offer her support. She had liked the strong, intelligent woman when she had been posing as a member of Tony’s legal team to scope him out for SHIELD.

“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s much worse.” She said weakly. “This…it’s going to affect everything. Tony could lose everything, his money, the company, his Malibu house, this Tower. Even the Ironman suits. He could be left destitute, with absolutely nothing to his name.”

“Holy fuck.” Clint said with wide eyes, looking at the rest of the team.

“What happened, Pepper?” Natasha asked kindly. “What did he do?”

“That’s the worst thing, he hasn’t done anything. He didn’t even know, but his grandfather, Howard Sr, wrote a contract seventy-one years ago, way before Tony was even born. He needed to borrow the money to set up Stark Industries for his son, Howard Jr. He borrowed it from someone called Fleamont Potter, a long standing family friend by all accounts that I’ve found.”

“And now the descendants want to bankrupt Tony to get back the original investment?” Bruce asked curiously.

Pepper swallowed and bit the bullet. Tony wasn’t here and his teammates needed to know. SHIELD would need to know, as they couldn’t use the Tower as a base if it was to be auctioned off, and there would be no more Ironman to save the world if Tony lost his suits.

“No, the Potters never wanted the original investment back. They wanted a link to the Stark family as proof of their close friendship. It’s…it’s a legal marriage contract. It’s going to force Tony, the last living Stark, to marry the last remaining member of the Potter family.”

“Well, fuck.” Clint said. “I can understand why he’s not dealing well with that.”

“He hates being told what to do.” Natasha agreed. “Is there a time limit or…”

“The youngest had to reach the age of twenty-one to activate the contract, and…”

“So the last member of the Potter family is now twenty-one?” Steve asked.

“July thirty-first.” Pepper nodded. “They had to be married within three months, starting when the contract was activated.”

“So eleven weeks from now?” Bruce questioned, automatically counting from July thirty-first.

Pepper nodded. “Tony has, of course, gone off the handle in pure Tony fashion. He’s moved as much money into my account, Happy’s account and even Rhodey’s account; he’s threatening to blow up his Malibu mansion; and worse, he’s steadfastly refusing to hand over his Ironman suit to anyone and dares anyone to try to take it from him. He’s still trying to find a way to save the company and this Tower.”

“Can the young lady be reasoned with?” Steve asked. “She must be as shocked as Tony is to hear this.”

Pepper sighed heavily, knowing that this was the crux of the actual problem.

“He. The last Potter family member is a man. Harry James Potter.” She said. “We haven’t had any word from him. Tony refuses to call him and says that even if Potter does get in touch, he won’t speak to him. He’s convinced the boy knew about the contract, and purposefully didn’t tell him about it so that he would be trapped into it.”

“Surely the very fact that he hasn’t contacted Tony yet shows that he doesn’t want this?” Natasha said, trying to absorb that Tony, prominent playboy, public womaniser, Tony Stark, was being forced to marry a man.

“Tony doesn’t even…he doesn’t like men in that way, does he?” Steve asked uncomfortably.

“No. He doesn’t.” Pepper said sadly. “I had hoped that I could use that to get him out of this contract but…but with it being bounced so often, without anyone fulfilling it, and with them both being the very last members of their respective families, the court has said no.”

“It was written seventy-one years ago, you said.” Natasha said.

Pepper nodded. “The original contract was supposed to be fulfilled by Tony’s Father, Howard Stark Jr. and the child of Fleamont and his wife. They had problems conceiving, and their only child, a boy named James, wasn’t born until nineteen-sixty. Howard was already married, so the contract was bounced down the line. It fell to Tony to fulfil it then, with James Potter, only…only James Potter married when he was twenty, and Tony was only ten. So it bounced again. Onto James Potter’s only child. Harry James Potter, who was born in nineteen-ninety and is now twenty-one, and Tony isn’t married, so the contract can now be legally enforced and it’s all such a mess.”

“It has to be enforced?” Bruce asked.

Pepper nodded. “They have three months, or they both lose everything.”

“So, this Potter boy, what does he lose?” Clint questioned.

“He has his own company, Potter Pharmaceuticals.” Pepper said. “He’s a doctor slash medical researcher. He also inherited money and property from his Father and Grandfather, which will be taken from him if he doesn’t fulfil the contract.”

“And Tony thinks he knew of this contract and agrees with its terms?” Clint carried on, raising an eyebrow.

“The company shares and profits dropped dramatically two years ago, and it has never recovered. We think that the company is in financial distress, but it’s being covered up on the outside, for the public view. They throw up this façade of doing really well, of being successful, but under the surface that company is struggling and if it is in such distress, it’s only a matter of time before it folds unless drastic action is taken.”

“Merging with Stark Industries would not only increase the shares and the value of the company, but it could give it a much-needed cash injection.” Natasha said in stunned shock.

“That’s what we believe.” Pepper nodded. “The contract also states that the two parties need to have a legitimate blood related child in wedlock…”

“They’re both men!” Steve burst out in shock.

“Capt, you’ve been on ice for a while, and medical advancements have come on amazingly well in the last several years.” Clint said. “The first baby created from the DNA of two men, and no one else, was born last year.”

Steve looked shocked, and he stared at them all in turn as if he was wondering if they were joking or not.

“It’s not an issue in this time, Steve.” Natasha said gently. “Same-sex marriage is legal in nearly every state and now same-sex babies are being born too.”

“That’s another reason why Tony thinks that this Harry knew. It was his company that developed the technology and the medical knowhow to create a baby between same-sex parents.” Pepper said. “Tony thinks that Potter focused so much on this research, and how to create a baby successfully between two men, so that the biological baby clause of the contract couldn’t be used as an excuse not to enforce it.”

“That…that’s really messed up if he knew and didn’t say anything so he could trap Tony with this contract.” Clint said. “He has to put himself through a marriage, through having a baby with Tony, just to keep his company afloat?”

“That’s what we believe. But even if that is why he did it, and we can indisputably prove that Tony was tricked, it doesn’t matter. Potter is now twenty-one, they are both unmarried, and they’re going to be forced to marry each other regardless of anyone’s reasons or complaints or they’ll both be made destitute.”

A thud on the ceiling alerted them that Tony had arrived in the Tower.

“Send him down here, Jarvis. No excuses. No overrides.” Pepper ordered. “This needs to be sorted.”

“Yes, Miss Potts.”

“What are you going to say to him?” Natasha asked softly.

“What can I say? What can anyone say? He’s a straight, forty-one year old man who never wanted to marry and never wanted kids. Now he’s being forced to marry a twenty-one year old man and have a baby with him, or he loses everything he’s worked for over his life. There’s nothing to say.”

Pepper sighed heavily and looked at the folder on her lap. She tried to unclench her fingers, but it felt like her whole body was knotted up. She wanted to find a way out of this for Tony, but she had only encountered brick walls down every avenue she had explored, and now she would have to tell him even more bad news, when he looked to her so expectantly to make this right for him.

“Was there a loophole?” Tony asked desperately as soon as he was out of the elevator and caught sight of her. “Did the legal team find something that we could use?”

He looked dreadful, ungroomed, and not at all like his normal self. He usually had black bags under his eyes, as he rarely slept enough, but now they were very prominent against his chalky skin. He looked like he was dying and Pepper hated bringing him even more bad news.

“I’m sorry, Tony. The legal team tried. The court won’t let the contract bounce again because you’re both the last members of your families. After the both of you there is no one else to fulfil the contract. I even…I even tried to claim to be your girlfriend, but they said the only way out would have been if you were legally married to someone else, a girlfriend wasn’t enough, and a fiancée wouldn’t have been enough.”

“If I married someone now…”

“You’d be in breach of contract and you’d still lose everything.” Pepper told him gently. “You’d have needed to produce a legitimate marriage certificate from before the thirty-first of July.”

Tony stood there, in a dirty tee-shirt and ripped jeans, and to Pepper he looked like a lost little boy.

“Has he made contact yet?” He asked, his voice sounding hoarse and strained.

“No. The court is insisting that…that as the older party, you have to go to him.”

The flash of anger was instantaneous. “He wanted this. He can come here.” Tony demanded. “Phone him, Pepper, get in contact. I want him here, on my terms.”

Tony turned and walked back to the elevator. Pepper knew he was going straight down to his workshop.

Pepper swallowed the pain she felt for Tony and took out her phone, dialling the number she’d been given by the New York law firm for Harry Potter.

‘Hello.’ A bright female answered.

“This is Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s personal assistant. Who is this?”

‘This is Luna Lovegood.’

“I was told that this number was for Harry Potter, CEO of Potter Pharmaceuticals.” Pepper snapped, losing patience quickly. Much, much quicker than she usually would have given the nature of the situation.

‘Oh, it is.’ The girl, Luna replied, sounding rather dreamy.

“Is he there?” Pepper demanded.

‘Harry, are you here?’

‘Fuck off!’ A distinctly male voice demanded, barely audible to Pepper. He was clearly standing much further away.

“Put him on the phone.” Pepper hissed. “Now.”

‘Harry, it’s for you.’

‘Unless someone is dying, Luna, I don’t care. Why are you in my lab anyway? How many times have I told you not to come down here?! If this blows up in my face because you’re distracting me, I’ll haunt you forever.’

‘That would be nice, a friend for eternity. I’m sorry, Harry Potter is busy.’

“I don’t care if he’s busy, put him on the phone.” Pepper demanded.

‘Harry, they’re not going away.’

‘Hang up on them, Luna. This is time sensitive, very volatile and I don’t need these distractions right now!’ Pepper heard the man, Harry Potter, say.

“Don’t you dare hang up!” Pepper demanded.

‘I don’t know how to hang up on this phone, Harry.’

There was a loud explosion and Pepper had to rip the phone away from her ear.

“Was that…?” Natasha asked from next to her before a voice over the phone took their attention again.

‘Damn it, Luna, are you alright?’

‘You’re the one with your stomach hanging out.’ The woman, Luna, pointed out.

‘That’s not my stomach, it’s a portion of small intestine.’ The man, presumably Harry Potter, said casually, as if it was absolutely nothing to be so severely injured.

“Oh my god.” Pepper cried out, listening to them.

‘Oh, hello, are you still there?’ The woman, Luna, asked. ‘Harry, the phone is still on.’

‘Well seeing as you just ruined three months of work I might as well take the call, hadn’t I?’

Pepper was worried, concerned, and rather alarmed. Was this some sort of trick? Was Harry Potter trying to fake his own death to get out of the contract? But that negated all of their thoughts that Harry Potter had wanted this to happen.

‘Hello, who is this?’

“Harry Potter?”

‘Yeah, who is this, please? Ow, Luna, stop poking it, it hurts.’

‘You should fix that.’

‘I’ll sort it now, just stop poking my insides. Human organs do not like to be touched.’

“I…I am Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s personal assistant.”

‘Oh, fuck no. I’m not dealing with that right now.’

The next thing Pepper heard was the dial tone and she pulled her phone from her ear, completely bemused by the interaction that had just happened.

“He hung up?” Clint asked.

Pepper nodded numbly. “I…I have no idea what just happened.”

“There was something about his intestines being outside his body.” Natasha pointed out.

“What?!” Steve demanded worriedly, shifting forward in his seat.

“He was down in his lab, the woman, Luna, was distracting him, and…something must have gone wrong, there was an explosion and his intestines were outside of his body.” Pepper babbled.

“Do you think it might have been a trick?”

“For what reason?” Pepper asked. “He couldn’t have known I would call right at that moment.”

“To get out of the contract. Maybe he doesn’t want it as much as Tony thinks he does. Maybe he didn’t know anything about it.” Natasha said. “He certainly wasn’t happy that you’d called.”

“I don’t know what to think anymore.” Pepper sighed. “Everything made more sense when…when it seemed like he knew and hadn’t said anything.”

“Tony didn’t know a thing about it, and he’s twenty years older, is it such a shock that this young twenty-one year old knew nothing about it as well?” Natasha tried.

“I’d have to meet him to see for sure.” Pepper said. “He obviously won’t come here. I need to go to Britain to meet him.”

Pepper inhaled deeply and settled herself, before picking up her phone again and calling another number.

“This is Pepper Potts, ready the jet for Heathrow, London. No, Mister Stark will not be joining the flight plan, it’s just me.”

Pepper hung up on that call, now knowing that her orders would be followed, and she called another number, this one she knew off of memory alone, she didn’t even need to go into her contact list.

“Happy, I need you. No, Tony made it here in one piece, he’s fine. Down in his workshop, as always. I need a ride to Tony’s jet, I’m going to London, I need to sort this mess. Thank you, love.”

Pepper hung up and looked at the remaining Avengers.

“I need a favour.” She said.

“You don’t need to ask, Pepper.” Natasha said gently. “We’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Thank you. I just don’t know what he’s going to do in his state, and with this latest round of bad news too…I’m really worried. He might blow himself up down in that workshop.”

“I’ll go down with him.” Bruce said. “I might be more of a help, and I won’t distract him when he’s working with explosive substances.”

“This is all such a mess, and he doesn’t deserve this. The press will have a field day with him when they all find out about this and he hates bad press.”

“Pepper, don’t worry about what might happen in the future, just go and drag that Potter boy here and actually get him and Tony talking. That’s the biggest concern right now. It might all be misunderstanding and miscommunication that’s just adding to the tension, especially if they both blame the other for this, or believe that the other knew when they didn’t.” Natasha said firmly.

Pepper nodded and stood, going down to the lobby to wait for her lover, Tony’s driver and bodyguard, Happy, to take her to the airport. It was time for a face to face meeting with the elusive CEO of Potter Pharmaceuticals, who never took press conferences in person, who never publically announced himself as the CEO of his own company, and was as different to Tony as chalk and cheese. She hoped that their meeting went well, she just knew that Tony’s future depended on it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry had already been in a bad mood all day, without the full schedule of meetings that he’d had to conduct. The goblins had gotten back to him that morning, and they couldn’t find a way out of the contract, but worse, they were now threatening to pull their investment out of his company if he didn’t go through with the terms of it. Apparently they felt the need to give him such an ultimatum because this contract was threatening the shares that Gringotts had with Potter Pharmaceuticals as a primary investor. Of course to them the thought of losing so much gold was obviously worse than forcing him to marry another man, as that didn’t affect them, or Gringotts, at all. Hermione had tried to assure him that they’d reached a point in the growth of the company that they could survive the blow that Gringotts pulling their shares out would bring, but Harry still didn’t want to lose their investment…because others might get the same idea and after they’d lost those two investors two years ago that would be disastrous for Potter Pharmaceuticals. They were only just starting to recover from that massive blow, losing Gringotts now would cripple the company, but even worse than that if others got the same idea to pull their investment, and they lost the shareholders, then the company wouldn’t last much longer and they did too much good in the world for Harry to give up so easily on his brainchild.

‘Mister Potter. Miss Potts is still here, waiting to see you.’ His secretary, Amelia, told him through the intercom on the phone. She sounded rather stern and Harry sighed heavily. He couldn’t put this conversation off anymore. Mostly because it just wasn’t fair on Amelia to force her to deal with Miss Potts just because he didn’t feel like facing her.

He knew Potts was here, of course. He’d known the moment she’d walked into his office building two hours ago, and he’d kept her waiting all this time because he didn’t want to face her, or the problems that she would bring. But, he reasoned, this mess wasn’t her fault either. Tony Stark had sent her instead of coming himself, and Harry swore that if she was here just to invite him to a meeting with Stark, he’d Apparate to New York and kill the man with his bare hands for such a show of disrespect.

“See her in, Amelia, please.” He said, trying to make his desk look a little tidier, but there was so much paperwork to be done, he was never finished with it, not ever. There was always something or other that required his attention, his signature, or his approval or disapproval.

The woman who strode into the room was undeniably beautiful, but one look at her face and Harry knew she wasn’t a woman to be messed with. She was intelligent and she had the same look to her that Ginny got sometimes. It made Harry sit straighter and he was automatically on the lookout for a hex aimed at him. She was visibly angry for being kept waiting around in his offices for two hours, he’d need to deflect that.

“I apologise for keeping you waiting, Miss Potts. Paperwork is a killer and I got a little carried away with it.”

He stood and offered his hand, which she took, but Harry saw her giving him the once over, scrutinising every inch of him. He had never been particularly tall, it had never really bothered him, but having her rip him apart with her eyes made him wish for a few extra inches.

“Do you always leave your paperwork to the last minute?” She asked him, having a not so subtle dig.

“None of this is last minute.” He said, giving her a not so pleasant smile. “It’s all under two days old, I am actually ahead of schedule, despite the rather distracting personal issues I’m facing at the moment. But at least I do all of my own paperwork. How are you finding doing the never ending pile of paperwork of a CEO, without being an actual CEO?” He dug right back.

He watched as a slight hint of pinkness graced her cheeks, but she wasn’t a highly paid PA for no reason.

“I manage it rather well.” She told him, taking the seat opposite his desk.

“I suppose with a man like that as a boss, you have to manage everything rather well.” He quipped.

“I…Mister Stark is a very busy man…”

“Aren’t we all?” Harry asked. “Then, at least I can be bothered to do my own paperwork, and not just fob it off onto others like it doesn’t matter.”

“Mister Stark is more of an inventor…”

“And I’m more of a medical researcher, that doesn’t mean I neglect the needs of my company.”

“Is that why your shares dropped dramatically two years ago?”

“I see you did your homework, just not well enough.” Harry snapped. “The business suffered, yes, I’m not trying to hide that. Two main investors pulled out and no longer wanted to be associated with Potter Pharmaceuticals because I chose to explore with DNA splicing to find a way for same-sex couples to have their own biological child. The company suffered, Miss Potts, because discrimination and hate are still very much alive, even in this day and age, and there are still some people that don’t want to be associated with a company that is so vocal and proactive about such things.”

Harry stopped to take a big, deep breath, trying to rein in his emotions, and his temper. Having those two investors pull out of his brainchild, for the reasons they had, still made him terribly angry. The breathing helped and he felt calmer when he started speaking again.

“I had the chance to keep those investors, Miss Potts. They gave me an ultimatum, they’d stay with my company if I stopped my research into egg splicing immediately and abandoned it, and I said no. I waved goodbye to them happily and yes, the company shares suffered, the profits suffered, but I do not regret the decision I made then and I’d do it again if I needed to. The company is slowly recovering from the loss of two investors so suddenly, and at the same time, but we are in absolutely no danger of folding, thank you very much.”

Harry could see from her face that she hadn’t known that particularly sensitive bit of information, and she was rather shocked by the reason behind the sudden, sharp dip in the company’s shares and profits. He knew that in most cases it meant either embezzlement, or the company was on the brink of collapse. He had scrimped and saved, put more of his own money into his more important, highly invested projects and he had benched others, that weren’t so important, to pick up at a later time. He had even cut his own salary in half, just to keep the company afloat through that awful period in Potter Pharmaceutical’s history, and they were slowly recovering, especially now that the egg splicing had turned out to be such a huge success. It had gained attention from all over the world, not all of it positive, but it was enough for the moment to keep the company stable.

He was still in contact with the Fathers’ of the first baby girl born of the egg splicing, little Molly, who was perfectly happy, healthy and thriving. She was a perfectly normal little girl in every way…except she had two biological Fathers, and no genetic Mother.

“Why are you here, Miss Potts?” He asked tiredly.

“You know why.” She told him, taking the topic change with a little bit of relief.

“No, I really don’t. Why isn’t Mister Stark here instead? Why did he send his PA instead of coming himself? Because I tell you now, if he’s sent you here to drag me to America, I’ll throttle him myself.”

“He doesn’t know I’m here. I just think all of this is very immature. You need to speak to one another…”

“Oh, you think it’s immature that we are having our lives destroyed, do you? How very inconvenient to you.”

Pepper Potts closed her eyes and breathed out visibly.

“I think it’s immature that you’re both ignoring the situation when it’s so serious.” She said, rather forcedly.

“Is that why he’s not here and you are?” Harry asked. “Is this him being the bigger man by making the first step to sorting this problem?”

“You never took the step either.”

“I was going to tomorrow. I only heard back from my legal team this morning. Then, from all of the reports I’ve been reading since this issue popped up, Mister Stark is a very erratic, unstable and very immature man.”

“You shouldn’t believe the reports that you read.”

“No? Then he’s not a very erratic, unstable, immature man?” Harry demanded.

The woman opposite him sighed again. “This is getting us nowhere.”

Harry took that to mean that he was right, and the American was all of the things that Harry had just accused him of being, and probably more on top too. Just fucking great, that’s just what he’d always wanted, a man-child for a husband.

“It’s not, but as he has more to lose, I thought he might have actually come himself.”

“You’re both losing everything.” Pepper said quickly, but she looked very discomforted by the smile that he gave her.

“My legal team have assured me that my company is not a part of this contract, as it was written sixty-seven years before I founded it in two thousand and seven.”

“Your grandfather’s company was…”

“Was sold for a vast amount of money when he retired in nineteen-sixty-one, just a year after his son, my Father, James was born. My company is not the same one my grandfather offered up as collateral, and is not a part of the contract, thus if this contract is broken, I’ll still have my company to fall back on. I’ll lose family money and property, but my own personal legacy will live on and Potter Pharmaceuticals will remain untouched by this nasty dealing. Mister Stark is not so lucky, having inherited the very same company that is stipulated as collateral in the contract.”

Harry watched as the woman, Pepper, swallowed nervously.

“Is the man-child going to see me, or not?” Harry asked.

“He’s trying to bury his head in the sand, he doesn’t want to admit that this is happening.”

“That’s such a shame.” Harry said in such a disingenuous way that it couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than sarcasm.

“He doesn’t want to be married to you.” Pepper Potts burst out.

“And you actually think I want to be married to an old man twice my age?” Harry demanded, slamming his hand on his desk furiously. “Do you think I want any of this? Being forced to marry an immature little slut who’ll fuck any woman who gets too close? Who in their right mind would want to be married to him? He’s an absolute mess and if he didn’t have so much money to throw around then no one would look at him twice! I’m twenty-one, in the prime of my life, trying to run a company that I built myself, from the ground up, when I was just seventeen. A company that I’m passionate about, personally invested in, that actually helps people worldwide! Our medical breakthroughs have eradicated measles, meningitis C, malaria and HIV from the entire world, Miss Potts, in just four short years, and we don’t plan on stopping there! I don’t want to be married and I don’t want kids, especially not with Tony fucking Stark, playboy whore of America.”

“You didn’t know about the contract.” Potts said in a voice full of surprise, and that pissed Harry off more.

“Know about it? If anyone knew it was Stark! He’s forty-one, the law firm used was based in New York, right where Stark now lives. But most of all his Father, who the contract was made for, knew about it and could have told him about it as Stark was seventeen when his Father died. You come here, into my office, thinking that I should know all about the existence of this contract and on the other hand you expect me to believe that Howard Stark never mentioned this vitally important contract, that was drawn up for him in the first place, a contract that he witnessed being written and signed, to his own son? Or perhaps he was just too drunk to remember the conversation, that seems to be keeping to his character.” Harry hissed furiously.

He stared at the shocked face of Pepper Potts from across his desk, and he knew, like most people who took one look at him and dismissed him for a multitude of reasons, the top two being his age and his height, that he had not been what she had been expecting. He’d lived through a terrible war, dealing now with the ruthless businessmen, and women too, that he met with on a daily basis was child’s play compared to what he’d already been through.

“Of course I knew nothing about this contract, if I had known anything about it I would have gotten a marriage of convenience with a friend to avoid it.”

“A convenience marriage?”

Harry breathed in deeply, and blew out the air in a slow, controlled manner.

“I’m asexual, Miss Potts. The thought of sex in general makes me physically heave. I experimented when I was younger, because I believed it to be normal to at least try, but I decided long ago that I didn’t like it and I never wanted to do it again, and I’ve never seen any reason to change that. Just the thought of being in a bed with Stark makes my skin crawl.” He told her.

Harry swallowed and consciously counted his breathing to calm himself down. He coached himself to not think of the consummation clause of the contract or he was going to vomit over his desk.

“We’re done here. I can’t go through with this marriage, he’s not even willing to come here and prove his public image wrong, perhaps because he actually can’t as it’s all true. I’ve never been materialistic, my family money means nothing to me and I rarely touch it. One house in particular is rather sentimental to me, but it’s not worth the pain I’ll be putting myself through to keep it. I’ve already explained I won’t be losing my company and I have friends who are more like siblings to me who are willing to give me a spare room until I can buy a new house to live in. Tell Stark we won’t be enforcing the contract and we will not be married. I’m willing to deal with the consequences of it, I don’t care if he isn’t, now kindly leave and never contact me again.”

Harry never gave Pepper Potts the option of refusing, he stood and he left his office himself. He needed to talk to Hermione, and he needed to talk to her right now before he lost his temper, or his stomach, in public. It would be very bad for company moral if his employees saw him in such a state.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Tony was fed up of being manhandled around in his own home. Bruce was always there with him, which he didn’t mind as the man’s mind worked in the same way that his did and when they were involved in a project together, he could forget everything else, which at the moment was a blessing.

But it was when Steve kept disturbing them and forcing them to eat, dragging Tony around as if he were a child when he tried to refuse, while Natasha got Jarvis to lock him out of his own workshop until he’d eaten enough to appease them, he just couldn’t deal with that.

It was during one of these forced meals, where he was a mere breath away from jumping from his own Tower to escape from everything, when his phone rang.

“Pepper.” He answered.

‘You need to get here, right now, Tony.’

“I’m not going, Pep. If he won’t come here…”

‘You’re going to lose more than he is. The company isn’t the same, Tony! Fleamont Potter sold the company he put up for collateral in nineteen-sixty-one. Potter Pharmaceuticals is not affiliated with that contract. He won’t lose it if you don’t fulfil the contract, but you will lose Stark Industries.’

Tony felt like he’d just been sucker punched.

“He’s not even going to lose…”

‘No. If he refuses to honour this contract, you lose everything, absolutely everything, but he won’t.’

“He wanted this in the first place, he…”

‘Didn’t know about it, he doesn’t want to be married to you and accused you of knowing because your Father knew of the contract. Howard was one of the witnesses to the signing and he was the direct recipient of the money invested. Potter demands to know why we think he knew of it, when he fully believes that your Father told you of this contract and that it was you who never told him about it.’

“He…he thinks that I’m the one who wants this?” Tony asked, feeling stunned.

‘In his own words he demanded I tell him why he would want to marry a man twice his age. He’s not going to sign it, Tony. He doesn’t feel the need to as he’s not losing his company. He considers everything else a fair sacrifice to get out of being married to you.’

“Get our legal team on it, he can’t do that.” Tony said desperately.

‘This meeting happened two days ago, Tony. I’ve already alerted the legal team and…and it’s not the same company put up as collateral. They looked into it and Fleamont Potter did sell his entire company in nineteen-sixty-one and no one on the Stark side of the contract challenged the sale at the time. He didn’t even keep a single share in it. He sold it entirely for a massive profit and he banked every penny. It’s not the same company, so it can’t be used as collateral. You need to sort this, Tony. He has the advantage here, not you.’

“His company is struggling, he wanted the cash injection.” Tony tried.

‘That’s the thing, Tony, it’s not struggling, the massive dip we saw in the profits and the shares were caused by two investors pulling out at the same time because he announced his plans to research into same-sex DNA splicing. They pulled out because they’re homophobic bigots and Potter happily waved them off, taking the hit to the shares and profits willingly after ignoring the ultimatum he was given to stop his research and abandon it. After the recent successes with the company, the share price is climbing again, as is their profit margin. Tony, he didn’t know and he doesn’t need money or anything. He’s going to leave you destitute unless you come here and defend yourself.’

Tony felt his chest tighten and he placed a hand protectively over the arc reactor that was shining through his shirt. He felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“I can’t. I can’t do this.”

‘You need to.’ Pepper told him sternly. ‘This isn’t just about you, if you lose everything, you won’t be able to be Ironman, you will have no company, no house, no workshop. You won’t even have the shirt on your back, Tony. I’m not even sure if the arc reactor won’t be included in the forfeited assets. Get over here, immediately. Do not make me come and get you.’

Pepper hung up on him and Tony just looked at his teammates, begging them silently to help him.

“Do you want us to come with you to London?” Natasha asked him.

He just nodded minimally. He couldn’t speak. He didn’t know what to do. How could his grandfather have done this to him? How could his Father do this to him? Howard had known about the contract, and he hadn’t told him about it. Howard had let him just walk into this blind, letting him be blindsided by this marriage contract when he was supposed to have been the one to fulfil it in the first place. He had wanted the investment to set up Stark Industries, and Howard Sr had found a way to do it by borrowing money from a friend, but it had been Fleamont fucking Potter who had made this personal by making it a marriage contract, and not allowing the original monetary investment to be paid back. He still didn’t understand why he’d never been told. All of this could have been avoided if only he’d been told about it!

“Come on, Tony, let’s get some bits packed up and we can take a quinjet over. Pepper took your personal jet.” Natasha said, taking his arm and leading him off to pack up a small bag.

Tony sunk onto his bed and allowed Natasha to pack for him. He stared at the wall and tried to imagine what life would be like if he had nothing. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like and it scared him. What would he do? Where would he live? He couldn’t even work…he’d have no workshop, no company, no projects. He wanted to vomit. He wanted to curl up on his bed, pull the covers over his head, and block out the world.

“Tony, come on. Clint has the jet ready.” Natasha told him.

“I don’t know what to do.” He confessed to her, his voice almost strangled with emotion. “I never expected this, I don’t want it.”

“Let’s just get you to London and we’ll speak to Pepper.”

“There’s no way out of it. He has the upper hand. I’ll have nothing.”

“That’s not true, you’ll still have us.” Natasha told him. “We all got off to a rocky start, but we’re a team now, and we won’t abandon you, Tony. We’ll sort this, even if you do have to marry this man.”

“We have to have a baby.”

“It’s a genetically modified baby carried by a surrogate. It’ll be created in a lab and implanted into the chosen surrogate. That doesn’t mean you have to have sex with him past consummation.”

Tony heaved at just the thought of consummating a marriage with another man and he had to stop walking to control his breathing.

“We’ll sort it.” Natasha insisted, rubbing his back. “Let’s just go and speak to Pepper, maybe see this Potter as well, just to scope him out, and we’ll go from there.”

Tony took a step forward and Natasha kept pace with him as they made their way to the quinjet that would take him to London…to the man he was going to be forced to marry. The urge to jump from the top of the Tower grew stronger. Natasha’s hand on his arm kept him walking, and supported him into the quinjet. It wouldn’t hurt to see the Potter boy, he reasoned, at least just once.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X 

Chapter Text

Chapter Two – Face-to-Face

Harry was tired, very tired, as he sat at his kitchen table and finished off more paperwork, a cup of tea growing colder by his left hand. It was his fifth cup since midnight, he’d lost count of how many he’d had the day before.

He’d been awake for thirty-two hours now, but he couldn’t sleep, he hadn’t even tried. He couldn’t even bring himself to stop working so that he could rest a little, he knew that the moment he did then his mind would be dragged back to that topic. He just really needed to concentrate on his paperwork right now, he had two big meetings today, one of them vitally important to his company, that he wanted to plan out and prepare for and he just didn’t have the time or the energy to spare by continuously distracting himself by thinking of that damn marriage contract. It was proving to be detrimental to his work ethic.

He flipped a page and studied it, rolling his pen between the fingers of his right hand as he considered what to write.

His phone rang and he looked at it in annoyance as he was disturbed yet again. He picked it up and saw that it was Hermione. The annoyance fled, but he was still wary. She had told him to go to bed ten hours ago. He hadn’t listened.

“Hermione.” He said by way of answering his phone.

‘Harry, have you seen the news?’ She asked him.

“No, I’m doing paperwork. Please tell me this marriage contract hasn’t gotten out to the public?” He pleaded.

‘No, it’s not that.’ Hermione said. ‘Tony Stark is in London.’

Harry groaned. “Please no. I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to see him.”

‘He’s come to see you, Harry. You need to at least make an effort to speak to him or it can negatively impact you, especially with the goblins.’

“Don’t say things like that and don’t make it sound logical. I don’t want this, Hermione. You know I don’t see people in…in that way!”

Hermione sighed. ‘Of course I remember that, Harry. By all accounts Stark is straight, so he’s probably fretting as much about that as you are. This is a good thing, that he’s come over here. It means you have him backed into a corner.’

Harry blinked as he considered that. “He knows he will lose everything. He knows that I hold the upper hand.”

‘Yes, he does. If him coming here is any indication then he knows that he has to win you over, just don’t be stubborn about it! Do you want me to come with you?’

“Thank you, but no. You know it’ll look better if I go alone.”

‘You don’t have to force yourself through this alone, Harry. We’re all here to support you.’

“Thank you, Hermione. I really think Ron and I would both be long dead without you.” He chuckled.

‘Harry, sweetheart, I already know that.’ Hermione teased.

Harry laughed for what felt like the first time in days. “I love you so much, you and Ron both. Give him my love. I’ll call you if Stark, or his PA, makes contact to keep you informed. Your next call after that might be from a doctor, or a police officer.”

‘Harry.’ Hermione warned seriously.

Harry laughed again. “I’ll try to be good.” He insisted. “But no promises.” He added with a louder laugh before he hung up.

He smiled to himself for a moment, before looking back at his paperwork. He sighed and closed the files and left them on the table as he went to grab a pepper-up potion, just to perk himself up a little, before he went for a shower.

He had two meetings today and he needed to be able to think, argue and defend himself if need be, the first meeting was in the next hour, and it was vitally important to him and to the company that he secured this investor, so he picked out a very sharp, very nice suit, matched it with a colour coordinated tie, and made sure his shoes were nicely shined. First impressions would always count for something, after all.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and his instincts from the war spiked and he snapped his head to the window in his bedroom, looking out onto the perfectly ordinary street below. It was about nine in the morning, so it wasn’t completely dead out there, but neither was it terribly busy. He saw nothing that rose any alarm bells.

He closed his eyes and sucked in a calming breath. It was probably because he’d had no sleep. It was likely the added stress from this contract. He’d been through intense therapy after the war, and he was doing well. He was much better now than he had been just a few years ago.

His company had kept him going through the worst parts of his life, and his little research centre, the very first premises for Potter Pharmaceuticals in Diagon Alley, had been a safe haven for so many people while he’d been away, hunting Horcruxes. The goblins, his very first investors who had taken a chance on him despite the very stuttered business proposal from a sixteen year old, had helped to ward it and keep it safe through the war, and people had flocked there with their families. Not that anyone had known that it was the goblins keeping it safe, they had all assumed that as he was the ‘saviour’ that it was just automatically protected from the Death Eaters and Snatchers.

He blew out his held breath and pushed away the feeling of being watched. His mind was playing tricks on him because Tony Stark was now in the country and he knew that very soon he would have to meet the arsehole face-to-face.

Harry made sure that he had everything, that his wand was in the holster in the top pocket of his suit jacket, that he had his wallet and his keys. He would never forget the day he’d taken Galleons and Sickles into the Muggle world and had wanted to buy a coffee. Thankfully he’d noticed while in the queue, and not after he’d already ordered. Now he kept a wallet for his Muggle money and a small pouch for his Wizarding money, both in very different colours. His wallet was a nice brown and the pouch was a gift from Luna and it was what she called Ravenclaw blue. He hadn’t made the same mistake again.

He made his way back into the kitchen to grab his paperwork from the table, putting it neatly into his handsome, leather briefcase, the one that Hermione had gotten him as a present one year, and made sure that his phone was in his pocket.

It was on the way to work that it started ringing again. He pulled it out almost apprehensively, and he sighed in relief. This was getting ridiculous, he shouldn’t bloody fear answering his own phone. He’d never hesitated to answer it before, and he’d never before taken the time to check who was calling first.

“Hi, Luna. How are you this morning?” He asked.

‘Harry, it’s nice to hear your voice today.’

Harry chuckled. “I’ve given up not speaking to you for that lab accident.”

‘How is your abdomen?’

“Perfectly healed, Luna.”

‘I am sorry that I distracted you. We’re you able to fix the potion?’

“Nah, it was a write off. I’m going to start it again tomorrow while the ingredients are all still in the right phase, hopefully it’ll only take a couple of hours or I’m going to have to wait another three months to try again. Besides, you know I wasn’t angry with you for distracting me, it was the phone call that did that anyway, but you could have been hurt, Luna.” He said seriously.

‘I wasn’t hit by anything.’

“You could have been, dearest. From now on, no phones in the lab.”

Luna giggled. ‘It was your phone.’ She told him.

“And from now on I will be following my own advice and keeping my phone out of my lab.” Harry laughed. “You’re alright though, aren’t you?”

‘Yes, I called because I wanted to know if you’d seen the Muggle news.’

“Ah, yes. Hermione did mention it to me this morning, but I haven’t actually see the newscast myself.”

‘He’s taken over the entire top floor of some fancy hotel. He’s brought friends.’

“Well, Hermione forgot to mention that.”

‘It was a breaking newscast, in the last few minutes. The reporters thought he was here alone, but his friends have been seen in the hotel in the last few minutes.’

Harry sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, under the frame of his glasses.

“Great, he’s brought back up to the party.”

‘You know that we’ll come and be your back up, Harry.’ Luna said seriously. ‘You only need to ask.’

“You’ll have them all on the next flight home.” Harry laughed happily.

‘Oh, is that not the plan?’

Harry had to chuckle as he walked down the street.

“I love you so much, Luna. But no, that’s not the plan. I can’t lose Godric’s Hollow, or the investment from Gringotts.”

‘Will you be alright?’ Luna asked him seriously.

“Absolutely fine. I’m at the offices now, Luna. I’ve got a meeting at ten.”

‘Knock the Nargles dead, Harry.’

“You know I will, dearest. Stay safe, and thank you for keeping me updated.”

Harry shut the phone and went to slide it back into his pocket when it started ringing again. Growling in frustration when he saw the caller ID, he debated answering or not.

“Good morning, Mister Potter!” A woman called out brightly as he entered the building.

“Morning, Georgia.” Harry called out to the lobby receptionist, waving at her before he answered the phone as he decided to take the stairs, so the lift wouldn’t cut off the call. “Miss Potts.” He greeted calmly.

‘I have been calling you on and off all morning, your phone line is always busy.’

“Oh, well pardon me for being rather busy and taking calls on the morning that you wanted to chat. Or perhaps you expect me to be telepathic about that too and automatically know when you’re going to call me so I can keep the line clear.” Harry snapped sarcastically.

‘I apologise for my tone.’ Pepper Potts said, sounding as if she had to force herself to be calm. ‘Are you free now?’

“You have ten minutes and counting before I’m needed in a meeting.” Harry said, looking at his watch to check the time as he finally made it up to the top floor, where his office and personal meeting rooms were located.

“Good morning, Mister Potter!”

“Amelia, how are you?” He asked her with a smile.

“Oh, I never realised that you were on the phone, Sir. I’m very sorry.” Amelia apologised sincerely.

“Don’t fret about it, Amelia. Has my ten O’clock arrived yet?”

“He’s down in the staff car park, Sir.”

“See that he is settled and has his choice of drinks. You know the deal, Amelia.”

“Yes, Sir. Would you like your usual?”

“Please. Let me know when Mister Bradford is in meeting room two, please. I’ll be in my office.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Harry shut the door and put his briefcase down and opened it, rifling through to make sure that he had everything.

‘Do I have your attention now, Mister Potter?’ Miss Potts definitely sounded angry now.

“Barely. This meeting is vitally important to me, and to my company, so forgive me for being rather distracted when it is happening very soon. Now you have exactly three minutes and counting before I hang up and switch my phone off for the next two hours.”

‘Can we schedule a lunch meeting, please?’

“Of course. Would you like to come to my home, or to my office?” Harry asked, taking back the control by agreeing immediately and offering up only two options for the meeting, both on his very familiar turf. But then he reasoned that as Mister Stark had brought back up with him, it was only fair that he chose the location for their first meeting.

‘I think your office might be more of a neutral setting.’

“As you wish. Is one O’clock sharp convenient to you and to Mister Stark?”

There was a pause and Harry smiled. He loved having such close knit friends who looked out for him and kept him informed of things that he might have otherwise missed or not seen until it was too late…like Muggle news gossip on a billionaire flying into the country.

‘That will be acceptable, thank you for cooperating, Mister Potter.’

“Oh no, I believe that it was you who was cooperating with me. Have a nice morning, Miss Potts.”

Harry hung up and chuckled to himself. He was just in time as Amelia cautiously poked her head around the office door.

“Sir?”

“Everything is fine, Amelia, I’m done with my phone call. Is Mister Bradford in meeting room two?”

“Yes Sir, he has been given fresh pastries and tea and he seems to be in a very pleasant mood. He also mentioned off-handed to me that he is happy to be here and is excited to hear what you have to say. Your tea is also waiting for you.”

“Oh, you are a life saver, Amelia, thank you.” Harry said happily. “What would I do without your capable hands?”

The young woman grinned widely and went back to her desk with a skip in her step while Harry walked confidently down the plush hall to the small, more intimate meeting room. It was time to gain himself another investor to try and sort out the mess he’d been put in, especially with the goblins threating to put out their shares. Another investor could help limit the damage and backlash if Gringotts did indeed pull their investment, and it would help bolster their shares and profits if they didn’t, which was always a good thing from a business point of view. He would steadfastly not think of the lunchtime meeting with Stark…the first face-to-face meeting with his possible future husband. Merlin save him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Tony was on edge, antsy, as he watched the clock tick closer to one in the afternoon. He was jet lagged, he hadn’t slept much the night before either, and he didn’t want to be here as Pepper fluttered around the room, telling him the bits and pieces that she had found out about Potter.

“I think he’s insecure about his height, so try not to loom over him.” Pepper told him as she made another lap of the room.

“How tall is he?” Tony asked, mildly interested.

“Not much over five foot, maybe four inches. It was hard to tell, but he was uncomfortable with us both standing. I was taller than he was.”

Tony snickered, but Pepper caught it and whacked his shoulder with a paper file that she was holding.

“No. No, Tony.” She said firmly. “Remember that he can ruin you.”

Tony sighed. He wanted to go back into his bubble, he wanted to be inventing, upgrading the Ironman armour. He didn’t want to be here, with everything he’d worked for being threatened to be ripped from under him.

“What does he look like?” He asked, interrupting Pepper.

“You’ll see him soon for yourself.” Pepper told him.

“Pep, give me something.” He pleaded. “It took a lot for me to even come. You know it took a lot to get me here.”

“He’s…” Pepper sighed. “He’s rather…strange looking.”

“Strange looking?” Tony demanded, sitting up straighter, suddenly a lot more interested. “I can’t marry anyone strange looking!”

“Stop being so vain.” Steve told him from where he was leaning against the wall by the window, looking out at the bright, bustling London street thirty floors below.

“It’s not bad, strange.” Pepper insisted, now very frustrated. “He looks unfinished. Like he’s still growing, almost like a teenager just coming into their bodies. His eyes are rather large, they’re a nice colour green, very bright and intense. His hair looks like he’s never combed it, it’s black. He’s very pale, like you get when you spend too long in your workshop with no sleep. Oh, he also wears glasses, small, thin framed and silver. He doesn’t wear a beard or stubble. He’s clean-shaven.”

“How is he as a person?”

“Stubborn, rather direct, and he keeps eye contact. It’s rather unnerving how he’ll stare at you, straight in the eye. He rarely looks away and it feels almost like he’s scrutinising every decision you’ve ever made and it can at times be very unnerving and uncomfortable. I can understand how he founded his own company at just seventeen and made it successful.”

The door knocked and then opened, letting in the two missing SHIELD agents.

“Did you find him?” Tony asked hopefully, looking to Clint and Natasha.

“We found him and followed him from his home address to his work place. He’s probably the complete polar opposite to you.” Clint said. “He lives in a nice, normal two bedroomed house in the suburbs. It’s not even gated off or anything, anyone can just approach him.”

“His neighbours adore him and don’t have a bad word to say about him. His house is often the first port of call when a kid in the street is sick or injured.” Natasha added. “He doesn’t care if it’s the middle of the night, or if he’s interrupted in his sleep, his work or research, he’s always willing to help them.”

“I like him already.” Steve said.

“You marry him then!” Tony demanded.

Steve sighed. “I never meant it like that, and I never meant to make light of the situation.”

“How does he look?” Tony asked them both.

“Short.” Clint replied immediately.

“Determined and confident.” Natasha said, with a look to her partner.

“His appearance.” Tony stressed.

“Short.” Clint reiterated.

“He hasn’t slept in a few days, but he was freshly showered. He doesn’t comb his hair, his suit was high quality and freshly pressed. He didn’t eat before leaving the house, he had three cups of tea in the time that we were observing him. He takes it with milk, no sugar. His eyes are green, his hair is black, he is pale skinned and wears glasses. His bottom lip is fuller than the upper lip, his nose is straight and thin. He has a scar on his forehead that he continually tries to hide with his hair. There are scars over his hands that he isn’t as bothered with, he wore a cheap, battered watch on his left wrist.”

Everyone stared at Natasha, but she merely shrugged.

“All in a day’s work.” She said simply.

“He was odd.” Clint added. “Like he’s a contradiction to himself. His suit and shoes were perfect, his briefcase was in perfect condition and high end, yet he wore a cheap, scuffed watch. He kept covering the scar on his forehead, brushing his hair down with every slight rustle of wind, but he didn’t care in the slightest about the scars on his hands.”

“I didn’t notice a scar on his head.” Pepper said.

“He goes to great lengths to keep it covered.” Natasha answered.

“Does he carry any weapons?” Steve asked curiously.

“None that could be made out at such a distance.” Clint shook his head. “No holster lines, the suit was tailored to his body with no unknown lumps or bumps.”

“He had his keys and wallet in his left front pants pocket, his cell in his right jacket pocket.” Natasha reported. “Nothing else broke the line of his suit. He had no weapons.”

“He just, walked down the street?” Steve asked.

“He had no bodyguards, he didn’t call for a driver. He just walked to work from his home like a regular commuter.”

“We need to keep in mind that he doesn’t take press conferences himself.” Pepper said. “He is the CEO, but he speaks through spokespeople, he doesn’t like being the public face and is happier to stay behind closed doors. To the people on the street he could be just a normal employee of Potter Pharmaceuticals, they don’t know him as the CEO.”

The phone in the room rang and Bruce, who was sat right next to it, answered.

“The car is ready downstairs.” He announced after cradling the phone.

“I’m not ready for this.” Tony declared.

“You’ll do fine.” Pepper told him, taking his arm and getting him moving. “Remember that you need to do this.”

Tony nodded and allowed himself to be escorted down to the hotel lobby, and then out onto the sidewalk, where the car he had rented was waiting.

He slid in, aware that there were cameras flashing from further back. He was quickly joined by Pepper and the Avengers team. The door closed and suddenly it felt like there was no air and he couldn’t breathe. This car was taking him to go to his first face-to-face meeting with the twenty-one year old he was being forced to marry. He needed a bottle of bourbon.

The journey was entirely too short, even with the traffic congestion of the London roads, and much too soon Pepper was shimmying him out of the car in front of a tall, glass building with painted white stone. It looked too clean, like it was newly built. It looked as sterile as the profession it served as ‘Potter Pharmaceuticals’ was emblazoned at the top in gleaming silver, to the right hand side, as if naming the building was a mere afterthought.  

Pepper led the way into the building and Tony felt his mouth go dry as he realised that this was it. This meeting could seal his fate and either save him, or entirely ruin him and leave him destitute. He wanted to turn tail and run right back out.

“Good afternoon, Miss Potts. It’s lovely for you to visit again.” A friendly woman in a dark blue pencil suit greeted, already tapping away at her keyboard. “You have an appointment for…oh. I’m very sorry, but I can’t seem to find your appointment.” She said, her smile falling.

“It’s for one O’clock. A lunch meeting with Mister Potter.” Pepper said in a clipped tone that was a warning to those who heard it. Tony took an automatic step back from her. Potter was messing with them on purpose, he was sure.

“Let me just confirm that.” The woman said with a forced smile as she moved to a phone and pushed a single button. “Hello, Amelia. Yes, it’s me. Does Mister Potter have any lunch appointments with Miss Potts and party?”

Tony watched as the woman nodded and made positive noises.

“Okay, that’s lovely, thank you.” The woman said happily before cradling the phone. “Your appointment wasn’t scheduled as it is an informal, personal meeting, off the record so to speak. You’re free to go on up, Miss Potts. Mister Potter’s office is on the top floor and Amelia will look after you once you arrive.”

Pepper nodded stiffly and strode over to the elevator. Everyone else just sort of followed behind her like a line of obedient ducklings, Tony included. He already felt wrong footed for the mix up with the meeting, though he was confident that it had been done on purpose and he just knew there would be even more wrong footing ahead. Potter would do anything to give himself a bigger advantage in the coming meeting, including angering them and frustrating them purposefully, before they even got into the same room with him. Tony was absolutely expecting this ‘Amelia’ that they were going to meet next would do something very similar.

It was cramped and claustrophobic in the elevator with all six of them, but Bruce was far worse with that than even Tony was, and Tony stared at Bruce, as he in turn stared at the electronic floor guide to keep himself distracted, the both of them praying that they got there soon.

The doors slid open on the top floor and Tony felt like he could breathe again.

“Miss Potts, it’s nice to see you again.” A young, beautiful brunette said pleasantly, with a nice smile.

“Amelia. Where is Mister Potter?”

“It is not quite one O’clock yet, but if you would like to follow me, I will settle you all in meeting room one.”

“How do you enjoy working here?” Tony asked her, trying to wrong foot her before she could do the same.

She blinked big brown eyes, not expecting the sudden questioning.

“I am very happy with my position here at Potter Pharmaceuticals, thank you.” She said, staring at him hard. He got the impression that she wanted to glare, but was too polite and too professional. “Now, if you would all please follow me.”

“How do you find your boss?” Tony asked.

Tony heard Amelia inhaling deeply as she walked primly ahead of them, leading them to the mentioned meeting room.

“Mister Potter is professional, kind and understanding. He makes this company a wonderful place to work, especially for women.”

“Why is that?” Pepper asked curiously.

“Mister Potter has a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment and discrimination. His employees know that they can speak to him at any time about any issues and feel that they are being listened to. He is very fair and he understands about family commitments and emergencies and he never makes his employees choose between one or the other. He knows that family comes first, always and is thus very lenient with family engagements. He is a wonderful man, a decent man, and I don’t like you being here knowing that it upsets him for whatever reason.” Amelia said protectively. “Here we are, meeting room one. I will inform Mister Potter that you are here, please make yourselves comfortable.”

Amelia opened the door for them and strode off in her peach pants suit, presumably back to her desk to call Potter.

“I think someone has a crush.” Clint said as he entered the room, automatically looking for exits, blind spots and where to take cover if needed.

Natasha joined him, and immediately started sweeping the room for bugging devices, even looking in the large bowl of fresh fruit and under the top of the huge, solid wood table that was shaped like half an oval. The flat part of the table was clearly for the CEO, who would be able to see everyone from his position. Pepper pulled Tony away from the seat automatically with a curt reminder that he wasn’t the CEO of this company.

“She’s wasting her time if she does have a crush on him.” Pepper declared as she took a seat and started organising papers, pushing Tony into the seat beside her.

“Oh god, he’s not…he’s not actually gay is he?” Tony asked, feeling bile slip up his throat.

Pepper looked up immediately at the panic she heard in his voice. “No, he’s not. He’s asexual.”

“I’m still getting used to these new terms, which one is that again?” Steve asked as he sat in his own high quality, sumptuously soft, leather swivel chair on the other side of Pepper.

“He has no sexual attraction to either gender.” Pepper answered. “He even told me that the thought of physically having sex made him feel sick. He tried when he was younger, because he was pressured into ‘being normal’ but he never liked it and he didn’t try again.”

“So he won’t…he doesn’t want to…”

“I told you, Tony. He doesn’t want to be married to you, and he certainly doesn’t want to sleep with you.”

“Oh, thank god.” Tony cursed, throwing his head back over the chair.

“You just have to survive the wedding night.” Clint put in simply. He winced when Pepper and Natasha both snapped their heads around to glare at him.

“The room is clean.” Natasha reported, breaking the sudden tension as she sat on Tony’s other side, boxing him in, making a show of strength around him.

“It’s gone one.” Pepper said angrily, looking at her watch, and looking at the clock on the wall to compare them both. “He’s purposefully doing this. He said one sharp.”

The door knocked and suddenly Amelia was back, all smiles and professionalism.

“Are you all settled? May I get you anything, tea, coffee, water?” She asked politely. “Miss Potts, you took coffee with cream and two sugars on your last visit, if I remember correctly, would you like the same again?”

“I would, Amelia, thank you, but where is Mister Potter? Our appointment was for one.”

“I will serve you refreshments and I will see where he has gotten to.” Amelia said.

“So he isn’t here?” Tony demanded.

Amelia cut him a look that could have wilted flowers. “He is in the building, just not in his office, Mister Stark. He is a busy man and has work to conduct regardless of your presence here. Now would you like anything to drink?”

“Scotch, neat.”

“I’m sorry, Mister Stark, but this is a medical establishment. Mister Potter is very strict when it comes to intoxicants and there is no drinking alcohol on the premises. I can offer you a hot drink, a soft drink or water.”

“Coffee. Black, no sugar.” Tony said with a sigh.

Amelia nodded sharply, took everyone else’s drink requests and left the room again. The young woman served Pepper and Natasha first, before leaving and coming back with the mugs for Steve and Bruce.

“Miss Potts, I’ve located Mister Potter. I’m very sorry but there was a problem in the lab downstairs and he has had to immediately assist. He assures me that your meeting is not cancelled and as soon as the situation has stabilised, he will be right with you.” Amelia announced.

“Thank you for keeping us informed, Amelia.” Pepper said, breathing out the frustration and trying to remain calm. She knew that this was hard enough on Tony as it was, without making him wait when he had nothing to distract himself and nothing to tinker with. She wished she’d brought a screwdriver and a circuit board or something to keep him entertained…the comparison to distracting a toddler with a colouring book and crayons was not lost on her either.

Amelia nodded and left the room. Pepper noticed that she was wearing flat soled, casual trainers with her smart suit. Harry Potter was clearly very lax about dress codes and didn’t mind his employees wearing what they liked.

Amelia came back into the room several minutes later with Clint and Tony’s mugs. She placed them down and looked at them all.

“Please feel free to eat the fruit.” She said indicating the large bowl overflowing with a variety of fruit. “Is there anything else that I can get you, or anything I can do to make your visit more comfortable?”

“No, thank you, Amelia.” Pepper said immediately, before Tony could say anything, probably along the lines of a dead Harry Potter. She gave him a warning glare for good measure.

Amelia left the room, but they were aware that they weren’t truly alone, as every few minutes Amelia would randomly enter the room to ask if they were alright and if they needed anything, while assuring them that Mister Potter would be here soon.

“Yeah, find me a coffee that doesn’t taste like dirt.” Tony ordered her snappishly after the fourth interruption, shoving the coffee he’d barely tasted away from himself.

Pepper could see that his foot was bouncing, his hands continuously clenching. He was a hair’s breadth away from leaping up and doing something stupid just to do something.

“You do not speak to her like that.”

Pepper closed her eyes and tried to breathe as Harry Potter stormed into the room, a white lab coat pinned over his expensive suit. Talk about terrible timing.

“Mister Potter, it’s alright.” Amelia said gently.

“No. No, it’s not alright.” He said, glaring at Tony. “How dare you speak to her like that, she’s a person, not your property. I want you to apologise to her, immediately, or this meeting is over.”

“I’m very sorry.” Tony said, backing down after a very tense moment where it looked like he would leap to his feet and start shouting. Pepper could see that it almost killed him to back down.

“Thank you for your apology, Mister Stark.” Amelia said stiffly. “I will try to find you a coffee more to your…tastes. Mister Potter, would you like some tea.”

“Please, Amelia.” He said happily, turning and moving to a seat, slipping his fingers between the poppers on his lab coat and ripping it open in one smooth move that showed years of practice.

The suit underneath was pristine as he stripped the lab coat off and draped it over the back of the chair before he sat down. Pepper was surprised that he hadn’t chosen to sit in the seat reserved for the CEO, the one at the head of the table. The seat she had had to stop Tony from automatically taking by reminding him that he wasn’t the CEO here. He had instead chosen to sit directly opposite her, staring at her with those intense eyes.

“I apologise greatly for my lateness, Miss Potts. I know I said one sharp, and under usual circumstances I pride myself on my punctuality, unfortunately two of our blank eggs in the lab destabilised and I had to immediately jump in to assist.”

“I trust that everything went well.” Pepper said politely, even though she had very little clue of what the process actually entailed.

Harry Potter nodded his head just once. “Of course. Both eggs are now fully stabilised and thriving once more. They are very temperature sensitive and the lab is a very controlled environment, unfortunately there are three trainees observing today, and my lab technicians didn’t remember to adjust the room temperature accordingly. Even one extra body produces enough heat to throw the eggs into distress, much less three extra bodies. My technicians have been chastised and I’m sure this issue will not happen again.”

“You’re…you’re actually growing the babies down in a lab?” Steve asked, horrified.

“We are not growing babies like vegetables in a field.” Harry insisted, turning to stare at Steve. “The eggs need to be sufficiently matured before they can be modified with a male DNA sample. Once accepted and adequately stabilised, the egg with the male genetic material is fertilised in the same process as in-vitro and at that point, when the egg is actually successfully fertilised, it is implanted into the surrogate to grow into a child. At the moment both eggs are blank of any and all genetic material and could never become anything, much less a child.”

“You’re playing god with children.” Steve said in disgust, and all of a sudden Pepper felt like this meeting was getting well out of her control. This wasn’t what they were here for.

“Would you say the same thing if it was a man and a woman who needed IVF treatment, or is it simply because I’m creating a way for same-sexed couples to have their own genetic child that bothers you?” Potter demanded, giving Steve his own disgusted look. “It’s not playing god with children if they go on to be loved and cared for, like all children should be. We are not doing this to keep the children in labs, or to be experimented on. Some people need help to conceive, others need surrogates to be able to have a child as they have trouble carrying a baby to term, do you think that that’s playing god too just because they don’t have a baby the good, old-fashioned way?”

“This isn’t why we’re here.” Pepper cut in quickly, trying to regain control.

“No, it’s not. But you brought the homophobic, religious zealot to this meeting, not me.” Potter snapped.

The door knocked and Amelia was back, and Pepper was so very glad for the timely distraction.

“Here you are, Mister Potter.” Amelia said, placing a cup by his hand.

“Thank you, Amelia.”

“Is there anything else that I can get for you?”

“No, this is wonderful, thank you.”

“Mister Stark.” Amelia said more stiffly. “I hope this is more to your tastes.” She said it almost like a threat as she placed the mug in front of him. “Was that all, Mister Potter?”

“That will be all, Amelia. You can take an extended lunch break if you would like to.”

“Thank you, Sir.” She said, giving him a bright smile.

They waited for Amelia to leave the room again, and Pepper hoped that the previous conversation was dropped. She gave a stern look to Captain Rogers, just to ensure that he got the message. She made a mental note to explain to him exactly what IVF was after this meeting was over.

“Now, perhaps we could get to the point of this actual meeting, before we run out of time.” Potter said.

“I didn’t realise that we were on a time limit.” Pepper said, her temper definitely rising now.

“I have a meeting at three.” Potter told her. “I do apologise that we have less time than originally planned because I was not here when expected, that is my fault and I’m sorry. If we do need to carry this meeting over to another time I will be sure to accommodate you as best as I can, but I can’t see this meeting lasting for twenty minutes, let alone the hour and a half that I’ve set aside for you.”

Of course that little comment grated right on Pepper’s nerves too, but she needed this meeting to go well. It wasn’t only her job, and Happy’s, on the line, it was Tony’s life. He would have nothing, absolutely nothing, if this went south, and she was worried that he might even commit suicide if they couldn’t make this work. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she was the one who lost her temper and was the cause of these meetings breaking down.

“Well, if we could please get onto some even ground.” Pepper said, feeling the weight of the situation bearing down on her shoulders, knowing that just one wrong word could screw this up. “I know that neither of you want to be in this situation, it is a very terrible situation and all of us here understand that. You have both been forced into this, and surely all this animosity is making things worse when you should be trying to sort this out. You have just ten weeks left before the deadline.”

No one said anything and Pepper felt like she was the only one who was trying to make this situation work. It was like banging her head against a brick wall, though thankfully she was used to that when it came to Tony.

“Right, this is getting ridiculous now.” She said, as patiently as she could. “Neither of you knew about this…”

“I told you my thoughts on that matter during our last meeting.” Potter said, staring at her with those intense green eyes that had yet to look away from her.

“Tony didn’t know about the contract, Mister Potter.” Pepper said.

“How do we know you never knew about it?” Tony demanded.

“It was your Father’s contract!” Potter said, turning to stare at Tony. “He witnessed it being signed, he was the direct recipient of the invested money to set up the company that you are now the CEO of…”

“Both of my parents died in a car accident when I was seventeen, I didn’t know anything about this contract or I would have made damn sure it was never activated! What about your Father, James? He knew about it too!” Tony shouted.

Pepper watched as Potter went white and his hands, the both of them visible on the table top, clenched into tight fists, a knuckle on his left hand cracked. She had well and truly lost control of this now. These two men were so different from one another, but they both shared those awful qualities that was making this meeting, and the situation in general, impossible to deal with. They were both stubborn, fiery, intelligent men, and neither of them were used to backing down from a fight. Pepper didn’t see any way that they could be amicable with one another, let alone married together.

“You didn’t even bother to look such basic information up before you came here?” Potter demanded. “Is that the extent of how much you actually care about this situation? Maybe you want to lose everything you own.”

“We couldn’t find anything relating to you.” Natasha jumped in. “There are several thousand Harry James Potter’s in the world, and we didn’t know what you looked like so we couldn’t match you to a profile. We even tried to find you via this company, but the only information we could find was your name and birthdate.”

Potter looked like he would swing for them, and his right hand flexed a little towards his jacket pocket. Perhaps he was armed after all, and that made them tense right up.

The twenty-one year old breathed out, and looked back at Tony.

“Both of my parents were murdered when I was fifteen months old. My Father wouldn’t have had a chance to tell me about any contract, and if he had, I obviously wouldn’t have remembered, what with being so young.” He said.

“Thank you for sharing such a tragic, very personal piece of information with us.” Pepper said, trying to shove down the sadness to try to use this information to get this meeting moving. It might be a little bit ruthless, given what she’d just heard, but she needed this opening. “We respect your feelings and how you must be feeling right now. We didn’t know about that, and I’m personally sorry that this was brought up.”

Potter nodded, and he reached out for his cup to take a sip of tea.

“So why didn’t your Father tell you about the contract?” Potter asked Tony, turning to stare at him. “I understand that he died rather suddenly, but you were seventeen at the time, surely he would have mentioned it to you.”

“I’ll be sure to ask him when I next see him.” Tony replied.

“Tony.” Pepper warned.

“He couldn’t be bothered with me when he was alive.” Tony said, ignoring how Steve tensed up. “He probably didn’t give a damn that this contract would ruin my life, as long as it didn’t affect his own.”

Potter pulled a face, before he actually took his gaze from Tony and looked to his right, out of the window. He didn’t seem to be looking at anything in particular, but there was something in his eyes when he turned back to them.

“I think what we can take from this is that neither of you knew about the existence of this contract.” Pepper tried.

She wanted to sag in relief when Potter nodded his head, once, in agreement. This felt like a start. This felt like they were taking a step in the right direction at last.

“Did he ever hit you?” Potter asked Tony.

“I probably would have beaten him if he’d dared.” Tony said stiffly, glaring at the younger man. “He drank too much, but…”

“Words were his weapon of choice.” Potter said, a knowing look on his face. “He’d say things to drag you down, to keep you questioning your self-worth while making you feel useless and stupid, like everything that had ever gone wrong in the world, or in his life, was your fault and only your fault.”

“You too?” Tony asked, his tension draining out, as he saw the look being given to him.

Potter nodded, again just the once. But there was a look of understanding to him and to Tony too. They were finding common ground. Of course it was a terrible common ground to have and Pepper was torn between being thankful that this might just work, and being angry and upset that both of these men seemed to have lived abusive lives.

“They never stopped at verbal, though. I suffered rather severe physical abuse too. There’s a reason I’m…” Potter blew out a heavy breath. “There’s a medical reason that I’m so short and skinny.” He smiled, but it was twisted and humourless. “They kept me locked in a cupboard.” He confessed.

“Please tell me they’re in prison.” Pepper said, horrified. It wasn’t any wonder that he was insecure about his height, given the reasons behind it.

Potter blinked and seemed to realise where he was, or more importantly who he was talking to.

“This isn’t why we are here.” He said suddenly.

“No, but it helps to settle the situation.” Bruce tried.

“Truly, all this boils down to is can we live with being married to one another, yes or no. Either way it ruins our lives but which choice ruins our lives the most. Being married, or having everything we own auctioned off to various charities.”

“You have nothing to lose.” Tony growled. “You get to keep this company. I’m the one that loses everything.”

“Then you’d best start being nicer to me!” Potter demanded, their previous mutual understanding of their awful childhoods gone in an instant, as if it had never been mentioned. “You’re right though, you lose the most if we choose to ignore the contract, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be completely unaffected by it.”

“Pepper has already said you’re not materialistic and don’t care about the money you’ll lose.”

“I suppose it pays to love people more than things.” Potter said smugly. “This contract can’t take people from me.”

“You just said that you wouldn’t be unaffected.” Clint pointed out, trying to avoid the coming fight as Tony stiffened and looked like he wanted to leap over the table and start a fist fight.

Potter inhaled and turned his gaze to Clint. “My parents’ house, it’ll be forfeit if I don’t go through with this ridiculous contract. It’s…it’s bittersweet for me.” He said, his voice hitching. “It was the home where we were all living, the only home I knew, back when I was actually happy, even if I don’t remember it. They lived there, had a life together there. But they were also murdered there too. It was where I was most happy, and the most loved, but it was also where everything went terribly wrong. I won’t forfeit that house for anyone.”

“So, you don’t have me at as big a disadvantage as you were trying to make out.” Tony put in. Pepper glared at him.

“Do you really think that that was an appropriate response?” Potter demanded.

Tony blinked at the rebuke and tried to figure out what he’d done wrong. Of course he had no idea what he’d said wrong. Pepper wanted to hit him.

“Please, let’s not go backwards now.” Pepper said soothingly. “We were making progress.”

Potter sighed and took another drink of tea. He folded his arms over one another and looked back at her.

“I feel like you’re the mediator here. What’s the next step to talk out?”

“The biggest issue is of course the time limit.” Pepper said. “Ten weeks is not a lot of time to plan this…”

“Wait, hold up one second. Plan this?” Potter demanded. “I thought it would be a registry affair, you know, sign a piece of paper and then leave. I will not have an actual wedding!”

“I vote for what he said.” Tony agreed immediately. “I’m not wearing a suit and he’d look terrible in a dress.”

Potter gave Tony such a venomous glare that it was surprising he didn’t drop dead…or burst into flames.

“Are there any clauses about getting out of this contract based on mental impairment? I’m afraid this man-child is not mentally old enough to be married.”

“Enough.” Pepper snapped, losing patience with them both. “Tony, no more comments like that. Mister Potter, Tony is not mentally impaired, comments like that are not helping.”

“Fine, I’m sorry.” Tony said savagely. “You’d look wonderful in a dress.”

Potter said nothing, he just stood up and he left the room and Pepper threw the folder that she’d had open on the table, taking notes about the meeting, right at Tony.

“Why did you do that?” She demanded. “I feel like we were finally getting somewhere, why am I the only one trying here, Tony? Do you want to lose everything?!”

“Of course not, I just…”

“Then stop antagonising him on purpose!” Pepper shouted.

“I’ll apologise, properly.” Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“If he comes back. I wouldn’t.” Clint pointed out helpfully.

“He wants to sort this too.” Steve said calmly, easing back the aggression in the room. Pepper could have kissed him. “He’ll come back. He just needs to cool off.”

It was an agonising wait for Potter to come back. A very anxious, tension riddled twelve minutes before the door opened and he walked calmly back into the room and sat back down.

Pepper glared at Tony until he got the hint.

“Oh, ah…right, I’m sorry, for the comment I made.” Tony said, cottoning on, finally.

Potter glanced at Tony, before looking back to her. He stared at her with such a pointed gaze that it was bordering on uncomfortable.

“Do you wish to continue?” She asked, unsure about this entire meeting now.

“If I didn’t wish to continue I wouldn’t have come back and you would have been escorted out by security.” Potter said simply.

“Right, well…you’ve both agreed on a registry wedding, no ceremony. I’m sure we all agree that having a ceremony would just be a mockery more than anything else.” Pepper tried, now more worried than ever that she would make the wrong move, or say the wrong thing, and blow this entire meeting out of the water.

No one said anything and the tension in the room increased again. Pepper looked at the clock on the wall for the first time and realised with dread that it was twenty-past two. She had just forty minutes, probably five to ten minutes less than that, before Potter would kick them out for his three O’clock meeting.

“I suppose the other biggest issue of the contract is of course the child.” She said, trying to move this along quickly.

“I can’t have a child. I don’t want one.” Tony immediately jumped in. Pepper swore that she would beat him with her shoe when this was over.

“There is no enforceable time limit on when we need to have the child. Only that we do eventually need to have one together.” Potter put in, and it was perhaps the most helpful he’d been in the entire meeting.

Pepper immediately took out the contract from the folder and found the clause relating to a child of shared blood lines, scrutinising it, and the wording used. She had been so focused on the three month deadline for the marriage that she hadn’t noticed that there wasn’t a deadline for the birth, or rather the conception, of the stipulated shared child that was actually the true focus of the entire contract. She’d read the contract and had immediately assumed that the deadline applied to the child as well.

“You’re right.” She said, one of the weights that had been pinning her down lifting.

“Of course I am. I actually read and tear apart contracts for a living.” He said cattily before turning to Tony. “I suppose that being much younger than you, we can wait until you’re on your death bed to start the process to create the child. That way it won’t be influenced by you either, yet the contract is still fulfilled.”

Even Pepper felt hurt for Tony at hearing that.

“That’s not happening!” Tony exploded, sitting forward in his seat. “It’s not solely your decision to make and you can’t keep me out of my child’s life.”

“You just said you didn’t want a child!” Potter shouted right back. “After what I went through in my own childhood I will not ever subject an innocent child to the sort of abuse and hate that I was raised with!”

“I would never abuse a child!” Tony yelled, leaping to his feet and slamming both fists onto the table.

“Abuse via neglect is still abuse!” Potter shouted back. “How do you think the child will feel knowing that you never wanted them and only had them because you were forced into it?”

“That’s going to happen anyway!”

Potter sucked in a huge breath and held it. Pepper actually counted with him. He reached seven seconds before be blew out the breath in a ragged gasp.

“I don’t want you in my life.” He said. “I deserve better than you as a spouse, but the child we’ll be forced to have will not be subject to those same feelings, not even by association. I’ll love that child for the pure fact that he or she will be an innocent, defenceless child who’ll need me. I will never, not once, let my child think or feel that they are unwanted or unloved, despite the situation they’ll be born into. Somehow I don’t think you have the patience or the self-control to do the same. For that reason, I will wait until you are closer to the end of your life so I can limit the amount of damage you’ll do to the baby we’re being forced to create together.”

“That isn’t fair, Tony deserves…” Pepper tried, but there was a stubborn stance to Potter’s jaw, that was reflected in those green eyes, that told her that she was going up against an unmoveable object on this subject.

“Nothing about this situation is fair, Miss Potts.” He snapped at her, cutting her off. “But it’s most unfair on the poor child who is going to be dragged into this mess.”

“Tony deserves the right to raise his child.” Steve said sternly.

“Oh, I invite him to try to change my mind over the course of our married life, we’ll see if leopards can change their spots if given enough time, but as the situation stands right now, the baby will not be born until he is out of the picture. I won’t let that sort of toxic mess near an innocent child.”

Tony was the one who left this time, and Pepper knew he wouldn’t be coming back.

“Is it alright if we schedule another meeting soon to finalise details?” She asked, even though she really just wanted to sock him right in the jaw.

Potter nodded. He only ever dipped his head once, she noticed, but she didn’t care enough to be curious right now. She needed to leave before the small bit of progress that had been made was completely ruined and undone.

“I’d say that it had been a pleasure, Miss Potts, but it really wasn’t.” Was Potter’s parting shot as he followed them out of the meeting room. He went down the hall and opened the door at the end. Pepper knew it was his office from the last meeting she’d had with him. She followed the others to the elevator.

“Thank you for your visit today.” Amelia said from behind her own desk. “We hope to see you again.”

Pepper really wished that she could say that they would never be coming back here, but she couldn’t, as they really did need to come back to sort this mess. She really needed an extra dry martini…or a dozen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry wanted to jump from the window and splatter himself all over the pavement below. He knocked his head against the glass window a few times, looking all the way down to the street, before sighing heavily.

He turned and sat down in his chair and tried to get his head back on his three O’clock meeting, but it was very difficult. All he could think about was Tony fucking Stark and that damn disaster of a meeting. He supposed it could have always gone worse. It could have been a lot better also, but at least everyone was actually still alive, and no one had been arrested either.

He sat down and took out his mobile. He called Hermione on automatic. She answered after barely half a ring, she’d had it in front of her, waiting for him to call.

‘Harry. How are you? How did it go?’ She asked before he could even say hello.

“It could have gone better.” He said, looking at his watch, seeing that he needed to prepare for his meeting soon.

‘Well that’s code for it was an absolute disaster.’ Hermione said.

“Oh, Hermione, it really was a disaster!” He said, bending forward and thunking his head onto his desk. “It was so awful. I let slip about the Dursleys, his Father was abusive too. He accused me of knowing about the contract, and he demanded to know why my Dad hadn’t told me about it, so I had to bring up…up that Halloween. I had to leave the room at one point because he was being so childish and told me I’d be wearing a wedding dress. I just…I needed a moment to cool off.”

‘He actually said that to you?’ Hermione demanded.

“People see how short I am and either assume I’m just really effeminate or that I’m gay. They expect me to fit in the box that they want to put me in and I don’t and it confuses them. I’m just so sick of those expectations! I’m short because I was abused, why should that lead to any other stereotype like crossdressing?”

‘I’m so sorry that people keep pushing their expectations onto you, Harry.’ Hermione said softly. ‘Did you get anything sorted?’

“Some things.” Harry said. “We agreed on a registry wedding, no ceremony, no glitz and glamour. Just sign the certificate with the needed witnesses and be done with it.”

‘That is definitely for the best.’ Hermione said with a happy sigh. ‘I’m glad that he agreed with that, with what Luna and I are looking up about him, he’s very much all about pageantry and living his life in the limelight.’

“You know me, you know there’s no way I can be a part of that. It’s hard enough keeping the Muggles from finding out I’m the CEO of Potter Pharmaceuticals, especially with the entire wizarding world knowing. You know I’ve never been all about the limelight.”

‘I know, Harry. Those who know you, know that. Just remember that we love you, we’ll do absolutely anything for you and we’re here when you need us, whether you need someone to debate with, someone to support you, or even a shoulder to cry on and a cuddle with tea.’

Harry chuckled. “Tea and sympathy.”

‘Don’t underestimate how beneficial tea and sympathy can be.’ Hermione teased. ‘Or just a cuddle with a friend. When was the last time you had body contact, Harry?’

“Probably too long.” He sighed. “Definitely not since this whole issue with the contract came up.”

‘Are you up for company tonight? I’ll bring Ron, Ginny and George. I’ll see if Luna is free too. We can have a nice meal and a catch up, talk properly about the meeting you just had, and then we’ll get you some platonic cuddling.’

“You know cuddling is my weakness.” He joked.

‘It’s even more important for you to get good, positive body contact with your asexuality.’ Hermione told him.

“I know.” He said with a good-natured groan. “I’ve been cuddling you, and everyone else, for years now. I know going too long without body contact makes me grumpy and I know it can affect my health, mentally and physically. It helps that I really like cuddling.”

‘Really you just like all platonic affection.’ Hermione teased.

“Who doesn’t?” Harry laughed. “Right, I’m going to have to cut this short, Hermione. I have a three O’clock meeting, but if you set up dinner, with a side of tea and sympathy, I’ll tell you all about the awful meeting with Stark.”

‘Your house or mine?’

“Mine, I just want to strip off my work clothes, get into my slouches and lounge around. Plus I need to set up for tomorrow and I won’t be getting out until late today either. Is that alright?”

‘You know it is. Take care, Harry. I’ll see you tonight.’

“Stay safe, Hermione.”

Harry cut the call and tried to shove everything from his mind as he opened his briefcase and took out the remaining paperwork, the presentation he’d meticulously prepared for this meeting, not that it would do much good after the crisis they’d had at midday. He made sure that everything was in order and he was as prepared as he could be before he picked up the phone and pressed a single number to get an update on the blank eggs.

‘Hello, lab one.’ An accented female voice answered after several rings.

“It’s Harry, how are the two eggs now?” He asked.

‘Oh, Mister Potter! The readings are very good, the eggs have both remained stabilised. The trainees have left, to a different lab, and I adjusted the room temperature accordingly. The eggs remained stable throughout.’

Harry breathed out a long, relieved breath. “Thank god.” He said. “Those eggs are worth a fortune to this company, losing just one of them will lose us hundreds of thousands, without losing both. We need to keep those eggs healthy, am I clear?”

‘Yes, Sir. Of course, Sir.’

“I want to know the moment they seem to be failing, call Amelia if anything looks off so that she can come and get me from my meeting.” He ordered.

‘Yes, Sir.’

“I cannot stress enough the importance of those two eggs. They need to reach maturity. We cannot afford to fail in this.”

‘I will watch them continuously, Sir. My shift ends at five, and Cooper will take over. I will ensure that she knows of the issue we had this afternoon, and how important it is to keep an extra close eye on them.’

“Thank you, Ayida.” He said gratefully. “I’ll check in with you after my meeting.”

Harry cradled the phone and sucked in a deep breath. This coming meeting would have gone much, much worse if he’d had to tell Mister Keyes that the eggs he was paying for had both expired due to human error on his lab technicians’ part. He was already trying to find a way to word his way out of the shit storm he was expecting when he mentioned the blip that afternoon. At least he had the dinner with his friends to look forward to later, or he would have had to write this day off as a complete disaster.

“Mister Potter? Mister Keyes is in meeting room two.” Amelia said, poking her head around the door.

“Thank you, Amelia.” He said, standing up and checking his suit automatically as he picked up the paperwork that he needed for this meeting.

“Are you okay, Sir?” Amelia asked nervously.

“Best not to ask.” He said, not unkindly. “Could I get some tea, please, Amelia?”

“Of course, Sir, I’ll bring it in to you right away.”

Harry steeled himself and threw his shoulders back, holding his chin high. He didn’t feel very confident at the moment, but he needed to come across that way. He took a deep breath, plastered on a smile and prepared to fake his way through this meeting. The only thing that kept him going was the thought of seeing all his friends later. He really needed them right now.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry was grateful to get home. He had a headache, his feet were throbbing and he was exhausted. It was gone six O’clock, he’d stayed a much longer than usual just to check on those two eggs after being shouted at for an hour and called an idiot several times, all in different ways, by Mister Keyes for the incident that afternoon, and being threatened with financial ruin if those eggs weren’t viable.

He wasn’t in the best of moods, in fact his mood could only be called black, but seeing his house lit up, knowing his friends were inside, it instantly made him feel lighter.

He opened the door, shut it and kicked off his shoes.

“Harry! Welcome home.”

Arms wrapped around him and squeezed and Harry smiled.

“Hi, Luna.” He said, hugging her back after putting down his briefcase. “Thanks for coming.”

“Of course. It’s nice to be with friends.” She said.

“Let me go and get changed real quick and I’ll be back down.” Harry said.

“I’ll make you some tea. Hermione says that dinner is almost ready.”

This was just what he needed, some time to unwind with his friends as he headed up to his bedroom to get changed. He dumped the suit into a laundry bag that he’d take to a dry cleaners before slipping into a tee-shirt and shorts. He remained barefoot.

“There you are, how are you?” Hermione asked as he walked into the room. She was standing in his kitchen, making dinner, while everyone else sat at the kitchen table, chatting happily.

“Angry, a little upset, my feet are killing and I have a killer headache too.” He said truthfully as he sat by his favourite mug and took a sip of tea. “Thanks for this guys, I really need the company.”

“Don’t mention it, Harry.” George said. “Besides, I could really use a good meal, and good company too.”

“The shop busy during the summer holidays?” Harry grinned.

George groaned. “You have no idea. Angelina and I are run off our feet. We argued this morning, so I think she’s glad to have the flat to herself for a bit, so we can both cool off without being under one another’s feet.”

“Nothing serious, I hope.” Ginny said.

“No, we’re just a little overworked, the shop was overcrowded and patience and tempers were a little thin and frayed. We ended up snapping at one another for most of the morning and it led to an argument. We just need some space and time to cool down and we’ll be fine.”

“Here, Harry.” Hermione said, putting one of his own headache potions down in front of him.

“Thank you.” He said gratefully, opening it and draining it in one go before falling on his tea to get rid of the taste that remained on his tongue.

“Do you want to talk about the meeting now, Harry, or after dinner?” Hermione asked.

Harry sighed. “After. I’ve had enough of Stark for the moment. I won an investor this morning…”

“That’s wonderful news.” Ginny said.

“Yeah, mate.” Ron agreed. “Well done.”

Harry smiled and nodded. “It all went downhill from there, though. Stark’s meeting was after, but there was an issue with the eggs before that.”

“Oh no.” Hermione said, turning to give him a sad look.

“Both are now stabilised, but…we almost lost them both this afternoon. That damn new lab technician is to blame, but of course I never said it at the time. There were three trainees in the lab and he didn’t adjust the environment temperature to compensate. So I was late for the meeting with Stark to begin with, I was distracted because of the issue and it had to be on the day that Mister Keyes came in for an update meeting about the eggs. I had to tell him about the fuck up and he spent an hour shouting and screaming at me, calling me an idiot and threating to financially ruin me.”

“Oh, Harry.” Luna said softly, wrapping an arm around him and leaning to rest her head on his arm.

“What an arse.” Ron declared. “Want me to go and hex him?”

That made Harry grin. “Nah, it’s alright. I managed to calm him down and assured him that the eggs are stable and that this won’t happen again. I put the new technician into a different lab, on a different project. And from today the trainees are not allowed in lab one with the eggs. I can’t risk them, especially during this period of uncertainty.”

“Well no one blames you for that.” George insisted. “I wouldn’t want to be forced to marry anyone.”

“Was he as immature as you were expecting?” Ginny asked.

“Worse.” Harry said, shaking his head. “The first time I saw him…no, actually I heard him before I saw him, but he was actually shouting at Amelia to find him coffee that didn’t taste like dirt. She told me after that he’d asked for scotch first of all, at one in the afternoon.”

“Do you think he might be an alcoholic?” Hermione asked as she spooned out the simple pasta dish onto several plates.

“I’d need more time with him to see for sure. It could have just been jet lag messing with his internal clock, but it would have only been eight in the morning in New York. It could have also just been the stressful situation, maybe he always drinks a little something before such things, I just don’t know.”

Hermione served them all and they thanked her as they dug in and started eating. Conversation was steered away from Stark and Harry’s work, as everyone else said what they’d been doing recently, and Harry enjoyed the catch up, and the meal, but all too soon they were done and they moved to the living room while Hermione put a spell on the dishes to do themselves.

“So, was he at least as handsome as his pictures show?” Ginny grinned.

Harry chuckled. “I suppose he would be considered handsome, in a detached, objective way. He’s just so old, though.” Harry sighed. “He’s twenty years older than I am. My life now, he’s lived that again.”

“He’s forty, not decrepit, Harry.” Ginny giggled.

Harry snorted. “No. He’s still straight backed and has no grey hair.”

“For another couple of years, at least.” George joked.

“It’s probably because he’s so active.” Harry mused. “He’s an inventor, so I imagine he’s always tinkering and doing something.”

“So, what did you sort out?” Luna asked, as she snuggled into his side and rested on him, giving him the body contact he needed.

“That we would be signing a marriage certificate in a registry office, nothing else.” Harry sighed. “They hadn’t clocked that there was no time limit on the needed baby either. So that was a relief to them when I mentioned it.”

“Did…did you figure out how to handle the baby issue?” Hermione asked, looking worried.

“Oh, he made a huge song and dance about how he didn’t want a baby and how he couldn’t have one in his life and then he blew up at me when I said that I would wait until he was on his death bed to start the process, so he wouldn’t have to bother. It’s not like I want a kid with him either, you know?”

“So he said he didn’t want a kid, then started shouting when you agreed and said the baby could wait until later?” Ron asked with a frown.

“To be honest, I don’t think he knows what he wants.” Harry sighed. “His PA did all of the talking and he slouched in his chair like a sulky child until he felt the need to open his big mouth to try and humiliate me. You know he insisted that I wear a wedding dress.”

“He did what?” George demanded angrily.

“It was when the registry conversation popped up, and we agreed that neither of us wanted a ceremony. He said he didn’t want to wear a suit and I’d look terrible in a dress. His shitty apology was a very insincere sorry and a quip about how I would look good in a dress.”

“Wow. He sounds like an arsehole.” Ginny pointed out.

“Mate, are you sure you don’t want me to go and hex him, ‘cause you know I really will do it for you.” Ron said. “Happily too.”

Harry smiled and tipped himself sideways to rest on Ron, dragging Luna with him. Ron forced his arm out from between them and threw it over him, tugging him in further.

“It’s fine. He really is an immature prick, and I actually have to be married to him.” Harry groaned. “Why would anyone write up a marriage contract? A legitimate fucking marriage contract to get a shared child, just to pay back a loan.”

“It was a substantial amount of money back in the forties.” Hermione said. “Your grandfather probably never expected to get that money back, and he and Howard Sr were friends. He didn’t want to leave his friend with such a massive debt hanging over him, so…so he thought maybe this would be a better way than to ask for the investment back when he probably thought that he would never see that money again.”

Harry sighed, and nodded. He’d read the reports of the transaction that Hermione had shown him. He knew that that was probably exactly what Fleamont Potter had been thinking, and from all accounts he was a lovely man, if a little too generous. He probably thought that he was doing the Starks a favour, offering a marriage in place of the money he never believed they’d be able to pay him back.

“There wasn’t even a payment clause, just in case they could pay him back. There was no gender clause, nothing.” Harry said sadly. “I have ten weeks to marry him, and…and as soon as we sign that certificate, we have to…have to consummate.”

Ron’s arm clenched him tight and Luna turned her head to press a kiss to his bare arm.

“Can you just…not do it and say that you did?” Ginny asked. “I mean, no one is going to be there actually watching you, and he doesn’t want to have sex either, so…?”

“We have to swear that we’ve consummated on an affidavit. If it’s then found out that we didn’t actually consummate, then we’ll be in breach of contract and lose everything regardless.” Harry said. “With the goblins involved too, I just don’t trust them to not slip me Veritaserum or something to test that I’m not putting their investment at risk. It’s just not worth it to take that sort of chance. If I’m marrying him, and having a baby with him too, it would be stupid of me to risk it all by not consummating the marriage and then losing everything anyway if it then comes to light that we never followed through with that clause, but being stuck with him as a husband and with a poor child in the middle too.”

“Well, tell him you want a sick bucket by the side of the bed or you’ll vomit on his face.” George offered with a smirk.

Harry was tricked into laughing as he pictured vomiting on Tony Stark, billionaire playboy of America.

“He’s just going to have to accommodate your asexuality.” Hermione said more seriously. “He needs to understand that it’ll be difficult for you to fulfil that part of the contract, and he needs to be patient with you.”

“Oh, he’s very impatient.” Harry said. “Very, very impatient. He’s a terrible fidgeter too. He was always moving his hands, tapping his feet, playing with pens and his coffee mug. At one point he even reached over and started playing with the edge of the folder that Potts was making notes in. He really couldn’t keep still, it was very distracting.”

“So you really got nothing more than that done?” Ginny asked him.

Harry shook his head. “No, nothing more than that. He stormed off after I told him I’d wait until he was out of the picture to have the stipulated child. Of course I encouraged him to use our married life to try and change my mind about it, but I told him straight that I believed him to be too impatient and too self-absorbed to put the needs of a child first, especially given the circumstances that’ll lead to this child being born between us. After what I went through in my own childhood there is no way I’ll ever subject a child to abuse or neglect in any form. Besides, I have the company to think about, I don’t have the time to dedicate to a child right about now, so until that changes, this baby is not a priority.”

“I think that’s the smart thing to do.” Hermione nodded. “Focus on the business right now, wait twenty or thirty years and then you can take a step back and have your child. Stark will be how old then? Sixty or seventy?”

“He’ll be too old to interfere, if he’s even still alive, given he’s supposedly a superhero, saviour of America with his little band of misfits who all came with him to gang up on me.” Harry complained. “I think I’m going to demand that he keeps his semen samples frozen at the company, just in case he goes and gets killed before the contract is fulfilled. That’ll be the last thing I need. Him going and dying and we haven’t had that contracted baby and I lose everything anyway.”

“That will probably be for the best. Have they scheduled another meeting yet?” Hermione asked him.

Harry shook his head against Ron’s chest. “No. I’ll expect a call tomorrow now. Or maybe the day after if Stark isn’t done with his tantrum.”

“Let me know, and don’t be afraid to ask us for support, Harry. You know we will come with you if you need us to.”

“I know, Hermione. Thank you. I think I held my own, I needed to take a breather after the whole dress comment, but I think I came off better than he did.”

“Hopefully the next meeting will go a little better.” Luna said. “You deserve to be happy, and this is a terrible situation for anyone to be in.”

“I hope they do go better. With a bit of luck we can sign this damn certificate, consummate the marriage, and then he can fuck off back to America and we can get on with our own separate lives. There’s nothing in that contract that says we have to live together.”

“You don’t think he’ll accept that.” George pointed out.

Harry shook his head. “No. I think he’s used to doing whatever he wants and getting his own way. I’m fully expecting him to try and demand that I live in his damn egotistical Tower in New York with him. He probably won’t even ask, thinking on it, he’ll just expect it.”

“I’m so sorry you have to marry him, Harry.” Luna told him sadly.

“I am too, Luna. He seems like the worst sort of person, though maybe that’s unfair of me to say. He does do some good, I suppose. And he does sacrifice his own life to help others, I can understand that. But he’s just not a very nice person outside of that, and I can’t find any redeeming qualities about him. Arrogant, impatient, egotistical, rude, and a possible alcoholic on top of all that.”

“Don’t forget he’s a weapons manufacturer.” George added.

“We looked it up.” Harry said with a nod to Hermione. “After two thousand and eight he suddenly shut down the weapons manufacturing his company was doing. He’s more into green energy now. His ego Tower runs completely on green energy generated by something called an arc reactor, which is technology that Stark created himself. So that’s another point in his favour, sort of. At least I won’t have to have it out with him about that.”

“Did you mention the war at all?” Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. “It never came up, a talk for another time I suppose.”

“You don’t have to lay all of your cards on the table all at once.” Ginny said. “You don’t need to tell him something that personal right away. I can guarantee that he hasn’t told you everything. I doubt he’s told you even a quarter of everything.”

Harry smiled. “I suppose not. Now, enough talk about Tony bloody Stark. Let’s get a film on and forget about it. I have to be up early to go back to work, I want to go in an hour earlier to check on those eggs and pray they’ve lasted through the night.”

“You’re on call, aren’t you?” Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes.

Harry nodded. “I need to be. I need those eggs to be a success, now more than ever.”

“Enough work talk!” Ginny said. “Harry needs to be on call, but he needs to relax now while he can. It’s time for films and relaxing.”

Harry settled more comfortably on Ron as Hermione set up the first film, switching on the TV and then sitting back on the settee next to George and Ginny.

He enjoyed the evening with his friends, and when he did finally say goodnight to them, he felt a million times better than he had when he arrived home. He ignored his paperwork and just slipped into bed instead. He hadn’t slept last night, he needed to catch up tonight. He steadfastly refused to think of work, or the meeting, instead he thought only of his friends and the evening he’d just had. It was the best night’s sleep he’d had since that lawyer had turned up on his doorstep the day after his twenty-first birthday.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Chapter Text

Chapter Three – Interrupting Emergencies

Pepper had finally tracked Tony down to a very exclusive, expensive nightclub in London at four in the morning. She was tired, frustrated, she wanted to be in bed and instead she’d had to go looking for her wayward boss before he did anything stupid that either got him injured or killed, or on the front page of a newspaper.

She found him drinking something from a small tumbler glass, chatting up several very pretty girls in a booth. He was well and truly drunk. He was doing the dopey, slack faced grin he only ever did when he was very drunk.

“Pepper, you found me!” He declared with that wide grin, standing, stumbling, and spreading his arms wide.

“I did, yes. Come on, the car is out front.”

“I’m taking this one with me.” He said, pulling a pretty blonde up.

“No. No, Tony.” She said. “I’m sorry, Miss, he really can’t. He has work to do still.”

“I have work?” He asked. “You’d think I’d know of it, you know, it being my work and all.”

“Yes, you have work. Come on, now.”

Tony sighed, and tried to hold onto the blonde, but Pepper was an expert at extracting Tony from these situations by now, and she did manage to get him out of the nightclub and into the car, without the giggly, clingy blonde.

Pepper gave Tony a disgusted look as he slouched against the car door and she pulled out her cell, dialling a number.

“I have him.” She said, as soon as it was answered.

‘Where was he?’ Natasha asked from the other end.

“Some exclusive club on a table of grasping, giggling women, drunk out of his mind. Nothing I didn’t expect.”

‘How is he now?’

“In need of a shower and a bed.” Pepper declared.

“Pepper, I want a burger.” Tony declared from beside her. “Driver, the nearest burger place!”

Pepper caught eyes with the driver and nodded her head.

“We’re going to get him some food first.” Pepper sighed. “Try and absorb some of the alcohol he’s drank. What about Potter, what did he do?”

‘Clint is on his detail now.’ Natasha said. ‘He left work really late, it was gone six. He walked home, he had five friends over and as far as I saw he ate dinner with them and watched two movies before his friends left and he went to bed. Clint has reported nothing else, Potter is in bed, sleeping.’

Pepper sighed and chewed on her lip for a moment.

“I don’t think Clint needs to stay there all night.” She said. “It’s doubtful that he’ll do anything useful that we can use overnight, while he’s asleep, so there’s little point to it. I’ll get Tony back to the hotel now, once we’ve got him drive-thru burgers from Burger King.”

‘Understood. I’ll call Clint now, and the rest of us will make sure that everything is ready here for Tony to have a shower and crawl into bed.’

“He won’t go willingly.” Pepper warned, looking at Tony, who was looking out of the window as if he was contemplating jumping from the moving car. “Hide the suit too.”

‘Already done. Steve has it in his room.’ Natasha told her and Pepper sighed, for once happy that she wasn’t dealing with this alone.

Of course they all understood what Tony was going through. None of them blamed him for acting out in such a way. Pepper tried to imagine how it would feel to just one day, out of the blue, be confronted with a legal contract that she’d known nothing about, that forced her to marry another woman, a veritable stranger, forsaking her long-term relationship with her lover, Happy, or risk losing everything she’d ever worked for. It made her feel cold and she reached out to place her hand on Tony’s shoulder.

“We’ll be there soon, Natasha. Thank you.” She said, before closing her phone, shooting off a quick text to Happy to keep him informed, and then she gave her full attention to Tony, who was looking so very small and lost.

There was nothing that she could say, and it was rapidly becoming clear that there was nothing that she could do either. She felt powerless, insignificant and useless. She always got Tony out of these situations. He always turned to her to fix things that went wrong in his life, it was why she was likely the highest paid PA ever recorded, and why she was allowed so many perks, like spending Tony’s money on dresses, jewellery and art. He didn’t care about money, he cared about keeping her, because he trusted her, because in his own way he loved her, and she knew that. Losing her would devastate him, and it sounded arrogant and conceited, even thinking it about herself, but she knew it to be true. Tony would not survive a week without her, he didn’t know how to. She wasn’t even sure he knew where food came from…or coffee.

“There’s no way out of it.” Tony said softly.

Pepper inhaled and swallowed hard. “No.” She said. “There isn’t.”

“He wants…he wants to wait until I’m dying to put my baby in a surrogate.”

“You were steadfast in your stance that you didn’t want a baby. I think it was just a misunderstanding. He took it as you hating the idea of a child, instead of what it actually is, which is you’re just scared to be that responsible for another person who’ll be so tiny and defenceless, entirely dependent on those around them.”

“Babies are so fragile, Pepper! I take things apart for a living, I’m rough with everything, and babies cry, and scream, and make mess, I can’t. I just can’t, but…but that doesn’t mean I don’t want the chance to get to know the child we’ll be forced to share.”

“You need to tell him this, Tony. You need to tell him that he got the wrong end of the stick and it wasn’t that you hated the very thought of a baby and more that you just don’t know what to do. I think he would understand if you told him in the right way.”

“We have to have another meeting, don’t we?” Tony said tiredly. “I just want to go home. I need my workshop.”

“You need to sort this, Tony. I know it’s hard, I know you don’t want to, but you need to. You know that we would support you if you needed us to. You’ve put enough money into mine, Happy, and Rhodey’s accounts that money probably won’t be an issue, but I know you. I know that you wouldn’t be able to live without Stark Industries. I know you wouldn’t be able to live without the Ironman suits…I hate those things. I hate you risking your life in such a way, but…but I know that you…” Pepper stopped to take in a deep breath. “I know that you feel the need to do what you do and you wouldn’t be able to stop. They’ll take everything from you, Tony and it’ll end up killing you.”

“It might be better in the end. I can’t be married to another man for the rest of my life. I can’t go through my life only being able to sleep with one man. Those divorce and adultery clauses…Pepper, I don’t like men, I’m not gay. I don’t think I’d even be able to get it up for the consummation. I’d rather be dead.”

Pepper closed her eyes in horror as she heard that. She knew Tony so well and she knew that he didn’t bluff about such things. If he said he would rather be dead…then he would rather be dead.

“Tony, please.” She begged.

He shook his head and went back to looking out of the car window. Pepper swallowed heavily, feeling like she was fighting a losing battle. As soon as they got back to the hotel, she was enlisting the other Avengers to help her. She needed to convince Tony to keep living, to keep talking to Potter. She needed to schedule another meeting, and it absolutely needed to go better than the first one.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry was having a slightly better day than the one before. He’d had breakfast, he’d showered and dressed and remembered all of his paperwork. The two blank eggs had remained stable throughout the night and were doing well this morning. He’d already sucked it up and called Mister Keyes to tell him the news. He’d gotten through to his secretary, who had assured him that she would pass on the message. Harry had recorded the call, just in case anyone tried to say that he hadn’t called in the first place.

“Mister Potter, would you like a cup of tea?” His weekend secretary, Ruth, asked him as she poked her head around his door.

Harry looked up at her, and smiled. She reminded him of an older Missus Weasley and he adored her.

“Thank you, Ruth. I think a tea break is in order. Make sure you grab one for yourself too.”

Harry pushed back from his desk and he stretched happily, until his back clicked in a very satisfying way, before he stood and left his office to nip into the private bathroom on this floor to take care of business. He stared at himself in the mirror above the sink and he had to close his eyes on himself. How had his life come to this? How had he been forced into this contract? He still didn’t see how it was legal. He couldn’t understand how, in twenty-eleven, forcing two people to marry one another against their wishes was legal.

He sighed heavily and left the bathroom. That was a worry for later. He wanted to go down to his private, personal lab and he wanted to create more formulas. Nothing made him feel more fulfilled in life than when he successfully adapted a potion to be able to cure Muggles of diseases that wizards didn’t even have to worry about. If a wizard got measles, or meningitis, all they did was swallow a potion, nice and quick, which while utterly vile, would completely cure them of the disease. Muggles were dying from these diseases still, babies becoming amputees, people suffering and dying, all because of these diseases that wizards had developed potions to fight.

So Harry took those potions, and he found a way to adapt them to cure Muggles with a simple injection to get the potion into their bloodstream. It made him feel…it was penance in his mind, for the war, and all the terrible things he’d done. All the Muggles who had died not knowing what was happening to them, and without a way to fight back. All the witches and wizards who had died fighting, trying to hold back the Death Eaters and the allied magical creatures for just another moment longer, to give him the time he needed to destroy the Horcruxes and Voldemort. He swallowed and pushed back the urge to cry. He would need to call his therapist, he needed to talk.

“I put your tea on your desk, Mister Potter.” Ruth told him as he reached her desk, just down the hall from his office.

“Thank you, Ruth. Oh, you started a new project?” He asked, playing at normalcy as he saw the balls of purple yarn. “You didn’t show me the last cardigan that you knitted.”

“Oh, yes. I dropped off a box of them to the hospital just yesterday. I started this one only a few hours ago, when it seemed a bit quiet, is that alright?”

“Of course, Ruth. You know I don’t mind you knitting for hospitals and charities. I don’t have any meetings scheduled and I’m almost done with my paperwork. I think I’m going to sort it and then go down to the labs. It’s been a while since I threw myself into the development aspect of the company.”

“I won’t pretend to know what you get up to down in that lab, but please be careful.”

Harry smiled then, genuinely. “I will, I promise. I think having my intestines torn out of my body is going too far.”

“Are you feeling alright with that injury?” Ruth asked concernedly, her fingers stilling on the needles.

Harry nodded. “It’s perfectly fine now. You know I can easily patch myself up if needed. I will be more careful though. If anyone calls take a message, Ruth, I’m going to be unavailable for a while. If Andy calls get a message to one of the technicians to come and get me.”

“Of course, Mister Potter.”

Harry felt slightly better as he made it to his office. He shut the door and sat at his desk, taking a deep gulp of tea. It was perfect and he blessed Ruth…and Amelia too. He had the greatest secretaries in the world.

He picked up his phone, answered texts from Hermione and Luna, before he called his therapist, a top rated mind healer called Sebastian Vasey. He needed a chat, to get all of this off of his mind, and he needed it as soon as possible.

‘Hello, this is the business number for healer Sebastian Vasey, please leave your name.’ A smooth, female voice answered. The same one that the Ministry used for their phone box, Muggle entrance.

“Harry Potter.” He said, very used to speaking to the automated woman who was Vasey’s secretary slash appointment maker.

‘Healer Vasey will call you back at fifteen-thirty. Is this acceptable?’

Harry sighed. He had been hoping for sooner, but it would do. “Yes.” He said.

‘Thank you for your call today.’  

Harry sighed as the line went dead and he put the phone down and picked up his pen. He wanted to finish this last round of paperwork so that he could go down and start researching a little. He wanted to develop a cure for meningitis B next. That was what he’d been doing when Miss Potts had called him before, and Luna had answered his phone. The one with the little accident with the explosion and having his stomach ripped open and his intestines poke through the resulting gash.

He finally finished the paperwork and it felt so good to close the file and take a nice, deep breath. He happily stood and left his office. It was time to immerse himself in the sort of work that he loved the most.

“Ruth, I’m going down to the labs. Take care of yourself.”

“I always do, Mister Potter. It’s you who needs to take care of yourself.”

Harry laughed. “I should be back up by half three, I have a scheduled call coming through that I really don’t want to miss, so if I’m not here by quarter past, call the technicians to disrupt me.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Harry gave her a wave and went straight for the lift. He headed down to the ground floor before he went to the stairs and took those down to the labs, as the lift didn’t go down that far for security reasons. He swiped his key card through the first of two locked doors that were at intervals down the hall. He reached the lockers and kicked off his shoes, took off his tie and everything else that would interfere, like his watch, and he put it all in his personal locker along with his phone.

He sterilised his hands with a semi-liquid gel before he slipped on little blue plastic booties over his socks. He hated the booties, but when working in such sterile conditions, such things were needed. Feeling more relaxed the closer he got to actually doing what he loved the most, Harry walked down the hall, swiped his key card through the second door and walked down the hall beyond it, labs to either side of him, as he headed to his personal, private lab. The one that no one else was allowed in. Scanning his key card at the door, he walked inside and made sure the door was shut as he slipped on one of his personal white lab coats that was hanging right beside the door.

This was where he loved to be, this was what he wanted to be doing, and this was exactly what he needed as he moved over to the cauldron and checked on the progress of the potion inside it. The potion for meningitis B was very complex, very volatile and it took a fully qualified potions master to even attempt it. The up side to it was obviously that it cured a horrible disease, usually from babies and children, the downside was that it could actually kill the one who was trying to make it if it went wrong…which for Harry it had gone wrong the last several times that he’d tried to make it.

He lost himself in brewing and testing. Trying to adapt this very volatile, rather explosive potion into a vaccine for Muggles. He was damn determined to do this, even if he had to suffer through several explosions, broken bones and yes, even through a perforated intestine. He’d do whatever he needed to to make this work for Muggles just as well as it worked for witches and wizards.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Tony was going to self-destruct soon. He’d woken up after only three hours of sleep with a hangover, and Pepper had convinced him to try again with Potter. Well, everyone had convinced him to try again with Potter. He’d finally caved and called him, only to reach voicemail…over and over all he got was voicemail and now he was so frustrated, and wound up so tight that he felt like he would snap.

“Try and call his office.” Natasha suggested.

“He’s doing this on purpose!” Tony hissed. “I’m not doing it, I’m not calling him.”

“Tony, you need…” Pepper tried.

“No. I’ve had enough. I’m going back to New York.”

“If you don’t sort this now then you won’t have a Tower to go back to!” Pepper shouted at him. “You are staying right here, in London, until you sort out this mess!”

“He’s not answering the phone, Pepper!”

“Give it to me.”

Pepper didn’t wait for him to hand the cell phone over, she just snatched it right from him. She pressed several keys and then waited as the phone rang. It was still on loudspeaker from when Tony had tried dialling.

‘Hello, Potter Pharmaceuticals, Luke speaking. How may I help you today?’ A pleasant male voice asked them brightly.  

“This is Pepper Potts, PA for Mister Tony Stark. I would like to speak to Mister Potter.”

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t just put you through to Mister Potter without verification of who you are.’

Pepper closed her eyes and Tony could almost see her praying for patience.

“You listen to me. You put me through to Mister Potter’s office, right now, or I’m going to come down there and drag him out of his office by his collar!”

‘Hold please.’ Luke said coldly, his voice just daring them to lay a finger on ‘Mister Potter’ who they all loved so damn much.

They all sat there, listening to the awful music coming down the line, getting angrier as the minutes ticked by.

“This is fucking ridiculous. I say we go down there and really drag the bastard out of his office.” Clint said. “Only by his damn hair, not his collar.”

“Calm yourself, Clint. We just need to be calm and wait.” Steve said, looking as patient as a saint. Tony was just itching for a fight, and if the good Captain kept saying things like that, then he was going to become a very convenient target.

‘Hello, this is Ruth, personal secretary of Mister Potter’s office. How can I help you?’ An elderly, female voice asked the moment the hold music stopped.

“Yes, this is Pepper Potts, PA to Mister Tony Stark.” Pepper said, visibly trying to control her anger. “Can I speak to Mister Potter?”

‘I’m sorry, he’s very busy down in the lab and is currently unreachable. May I take a message and I will have Mister Potter call you back as soon as it is convenient to him.’

“Yes, you can take a message. You can tell him that he has exactly one hour to call me back or I’m going to storm his office and force him to listen to me!” Pepper hissed.

‘Excuse me! That is not…’

Pepper surprised Tony by hanging up. She stood up and said nothing, she just stormed out.

“Well…she’s angrier than I’ve ever seen her before.” Tony pointed out.

“She doesn’t like being messed around, and that is exactly what is happening.” Natasha insisted. “Potter is playing hard ball, and he’s fucking all of us off on purpose.”

“He could just be down in his lab.” Bruce pointed out, trying to be a peacemaker. “I know I don’t keep track of time when I’m working on something, and Tony can be lost in his workshop for days before he emerges. Harry is a medical researcher as well as the CEO of his company, and I’ve actually been looking into his work and research. He rarely publishes anything, but what he has published is revolutionary. He has cured malaria, HIV, measles and even meningitis C. Those diseases are eradicated from this world because of him and the work he does.”

“What are you saying?” Clint asked him.

“I’m just saying he’s more than a businessman. He’s more than that company. If he is down in his lab, developing more vaccines and cures for these diseases, then maybe it’s best to leave him until he comes back out on his own. I hate being disturbed when I’m onto something. Tony, you do too, I imagine?” Bruce asked, almost desperately.

Tony sighed and nodded. “I hate it when I’m doing something and Pepper overrides my locks to come and talk to me about anything. I don’t care what it is, if I’m onto something, I want to be left alone to get on with it.”

“Exactly.” Bruce nodded, sighing in relief.

“So…we leave Potter alone until he emerges from his lab?” Clint asked, looking between Bruce and Tony.

“We leave him.” Tony sighed, shaking his head. He’d never thought he’d have anything in common with Potter, but if Bruce was right, then they could both spend days locked in their labs and didn’t want distractions of any kind.

“I’ll go and tell Pepper.” Natasha said, standing and following the path the other woman had taken.

“We can still go to his offices and wait, if you’d like.” Steve said.

“We’ll go at midday.” Tony said, standing and moving to the coffee machine that was in the hotel suite. “Bruce, do you still have the published articles? I’d like to look them over before we head over to his offices.”

Bruce nodded and left the room to go and get the articles he’d been reading. He really hoped that by reading the published articles on his medical work, that Tony could actually find something, anything, that helped him to relate to Harry Potter, who really was a medical genius. 

Tony took the magazines handed to him, all of them marked, and he flipped the first one open to the marker to find a very word dense article, with no pictures. Of course, he remembered then that Potter hated having his photo taken and refused to be the public face of his company.

Tony settled in his chair, drank his coffee, and read article after article. The more he read, the more he found a kindred spirit, especially as he read one article, that was less about what Potter did, and more about how he did it, where he spoke about various injuries that he’d received, about testing on himself instead of animals or other people, and how he sometimes spent days in his lab without eating or sleeping when he was close to a breakthrough. It all hit very close to home for Tony, who could see himself in the way that Potter worked. He imagined that Bruce could see himself too, which was why he’d brought it up.

“Tony, are you ready to go?” Pepper asked.

Tony looked up and breathed out, nodding his head. He put the magazine he’d been reading down, stood and followed the others down to the car that would take them to Potter Pharmaceuticals. The journey was over just as quick as the first time they’d made it, and Tony’s heart was hammering against his ribs. He didn’t want to do this. He wanted to be back home, in his New York Tower, tinkering and inventing. Improving the Ironman armour, getting to know his brand new teammates that he’d been told he would never have because he wasn’t fit to be a part of the team. He didn’t want to be here, trying to force a conversation with a twenty-one year old man about their marriage and the child they had to have together.

“Hello, welcome to Potter Pharmaceuticals. Can I help you at all?” A bright, preppy young man asked. They recognised his voice as ‘Luke’ from the phone call.

“Yes, I am Pepper Potts…” Luke’s face immediately closed off and his blue eyes hardened. “…this is Mister Tony Stark. We’re here to see Mister Potter.”

Tony hated the smirk on Luke’s face as he tapped away at the keys on his computer. They all knew what was coming.

“I’m sorry, but you don’t seem to have an appointment. I’m going to have to ask you to leave until you have a valid appointment.”

“Can you book one in now?” Steve asked, giving the young man a disapproving look.

Luke hummed and he clicked away some more. “Ah, here we go. I can get you a consultation with Mister Potter for the sixteenth of September.”

Tony wanted to turn tail and run as Pepper took a threatening step forward. Luke didn’t even blink.

“You will book an appointment for today.” She said furiously.

“Unfortunately Mister Potter only takes consultation meetings on Mondays and Fridays.” Luke said, in a very false tone that said it wasn’t unfortunate to him at all.

“You will make an exception. Mister Potter will want to see Mister Stark.”

“Then why hasn’t Mister Potter booked you into a timeslot?” Luke asked stubbornly.

Tony was beginning to think that absolutely everyone in this company was going to hate them purely for the fact that they all seemed to love Potter so damn much. Maybe he only hired people who showed such dedication to him?

“Look, please just call up to his office, Amelia knows his schedule and that we saw him just yesterday for a lunch meeting.”

Luke hummed again and clicked away. Tony was going to punch him in the fucking face if he carried on.

“That meeting isn’t on the schedule either.” Luke said, flicking his eyes back up to them.

“It was off the record as it was an informal meeting.” Pepper all but growled. “Call Amelia, she will tell you.”

“Amelia doesn’t work the weekends, I’m sorry.” Luke told them savagely, not sounding sorry at all. He was enjoying this. It wasn’t any wonder that Potter had hired him. He was just as stubborn and as frustrating.

“Now listen, son.” Steve started. “Both Mister Stark and Mister Potter have private business with one another. Business that threatens both of their livelihoods and needs to be sorted as soon as possible. Mister Potter will not be very impressed to hear that you’ve prevented this important meeting from going ahead just because you didn’t call up to Mister Potter’s office to check.”

Tony could have hugged Steve for his patience in that moment, as Luke stared at them, his blue eyes narrowed, before he turned slightly and picked up his phone. He pressed a single button and waited.

“Hi, Ruth, it’s Luke. I have several people in the lobby demanding a meeting with Mister Potter. I know there’s nothing on the schedule, they’re insisting that it’s a vitally important personal meeting. I know, Mister Potter said nothing to me about it either. No, they don’t look like reporters. Yes. Yes, okay. Thank you, Ruth.”

Luke cradled the phone, and Tony hated the smirk on his face and the gleam in his eyes.

“I’m sorry. Ruth has nothing on the books either. Mister Potter has not left either of us any instructions and has not mentioned any personal meetings taking place today. Mister Potter is currently unavailable to correct us and cannot be reached to get a message through. I’m going to have to insist that you leave.”

“Fuck this.” Tony snapped and he stormed across the lobby floor and to the stairs.

Luke looked shocked that he’d even dared do such a thing, but he was Tony Stark and he was used to doing as he pleased with no consequences.

He was surprised that the stairs went up and down, when the elevator only went up, and Tony remembered that Potter was in his lab. Tony was willing to bet that all the labs were underground. He immediately started going down.

The reinforced doors were good, really good, but it still only took Tony a minute or so to hack into them with his Starkphone and disengage the locks.

It was like candy land down here for chemists, as he looked through the observation windows, seeing lab after lab, each with different equipment, different set ups and different technicians inside, all doing something or other for Potter Pharmaceuticals.

Tony hurried past lab seven and six, when he saw that Potter wasn’t in either of them. Then past lab five and four, for the same reason. He remembered that lab one was the big lab, the one where the blank eggs were being looked after, and with the issues Potter had had with them yesterday, Tony reasoned that he’d be in there, but he wasn’t. Lab one was actually the smallest lab here, and seemed to consist mostly of a large metal table and a lot of glass equipment, but the very beautiful black technician, the only occupant of lab one, was mostly focused on the two petri dishes in the centre of the table.

Tony blew out a breath. Potter wasn’t down here. Not in these labs. The secretaries had either been lying on Potter’s orders so he wouldn’t have to have another meeting with them, or Potter was not where he’d told them he was.

That was when Tony saw the other door. The one right at the end of the corridor. It was unmarked, and had no observational windows. Tony was just about to try the door when security caught up with him, with enough noise and commotion to draw out the technicians from their various labs.

“Just what is going on out here?” Came Potter’s sharp, angry voice. “These labs are designated quiet zones!”

The security guards both looked shame-faced, as they turned to their boss, but Tony just stared right into those green eyes. As soon as Potter saw him, he sighed heavily.

“Mister Stark. How did you get down here?”

“Hacked your security system.” Tony said with a shrug. “It wasn’t that hard. You should get a new one.”

Potter blinked. “I will do just that.”

“Sir, should we take him back upstairs?” One security guard asked, unsure of what to do.

“No. That’s alright, Richard.” Potter said. “Leave him there. I’ll be back out in a moment. Back to work, all of you. Ayida, don’t leave those eggs, please.”

“Of course, Mister Potter. I’m sorry.” The tall, black woman apologised and went right back into lab one.

“You, stay there.” Potter ordered him.

He went back into the lab that seemed to be completely closed off. The two security guards stayed with Tony, at his shoulders, though he had no intentions of going anywhere without Potter.

Potter came out of the lab ten minutes later, minus the lab coat and thick, rubber gloves that he had been wearing. His hair was much messier than usual, and it was stuck right up in places. He was wearing another high-end suit. His feet were covered in sterile blue booties, Tony noticed that there were no shoes underneath them, just socks.

Potter said nothing as he led the way to the first door, to the hallway full of lockers, where he opened the one with his name tag on it and took out his shoes, tie, jacket, watch and Tony noticed that he also picked up his phone, which he automatically switched back on. It started buzzing and beeping immediately as Potter binned the booties he’d been wearing after swapping them for his shoes. Potter led the way back out of the labs, and he started going through his phone, checking missed calls and messages.

“I assume that these calls from you were to alert me to your visit this afternoon?” Potter asked mildly without turning to look back at him.

“Yes.”

“You should have probably called earlier, or even last night, to avoid this sort of situation where you feel the need to break into my company labs.”

“At least I tested your security. It’s very lacking.”

“Truthfully not many are technological geniuses like you, so many of them would have been stumped at the first door. Though I will be sure to improve security so that this doesn’t happen again.”

“Do you get many people trying to break in?” Tony asked.

“Not many, but most of them are just reporters, so they’re usually caught before they get halfway across the lobby. I assume it was exactly who you are that made my security team hesitate.”

Here Potter did turn, but he didn’t look at Tony, but instead he stared at Richard, and the other unnamed guard.

“Yes, Sir. We’re very sorry, but it looked like Luke was handing the situation. Until…well, Mister Stark just suddenly took off across the lobby. We followed, but we thought he’d gone upstairs, to your office, not down to the labs.”

Potter stared at them both for another moment, before nodding and turning back around. They went out through the second door, and Tony watched, impressed, as Potter set the locks back into place with the keypad, making sure each of the doors was secured before moving on.

“I take it you didn’t sterilise your hands or shoes before walking down the lab corridor?” He asked.

“Oh, ah…no.” Tony answered.

“I didn’t think so.” Potter said before dialling a number. “Hi Bianca. I want the lab floor completely sterilised tonight, please. We’ve had a breach. No, nothing serious, just someone who didn’t sterilise their hands or cover their shoes before waltzing down the corridor. No, he didn’t go into any of the actual labs. Thank you, Bianca, you will, of course, be paid overtime for the extra work and I will try to ensure that it never happens again in future.”

“I can cover the costs of the cleaning.” Tony said. “As it was my mistake.”

“It’s fine. Just don’t do it again. If you’re going to break into my labs, the booties are awful, but necessary, and the sterilising fluid is there for a reason. I’m making vaccines in those labs, Mister Stark, any outside bacteria or viruses could create tainted vaccines, which then goes into children’s bodies. I’m sure you don’t want to be behind any sort of vaccine scandal that makes kids sicker. Not to mention I would be sued down to the last penny and I would lose absolutely everything I own, which is a serious problem for you, given the nature of your visit and your need for my compliance.”

Tony realised that he was exactly right and if Potter was sued, and lost the company and his money as well as his house, he would have no reason to marry Tony except to help Tony keep his company, houses and money, and after losing everything, he likely would not be in the mood to help Tony out by marrying him.

They made it back up into the lobby and they walked into another shit storm of an argument between Pepper, who was facing off against a very stubborn Luke.

“Luke.” Potter said simply, and the young man looked over and took a deep breath.

“Mister Potter, Sir, I’ve really tried to deal with this situation, but they refuse to go away.”

“That’s alright, Luke. I’ll deal with them now. They should certainly not be shouting at you, however.” Here Potter glared at Pepper. “Do you get off on shouting at young, twenty-somethings for a living, Miss Potts? Don’t you have something better to be doing than harassing my receptionist? Like, for example, running Mister Stark’s business for him?”

“Hey! That’s…”

“Entirely true and you have no defence to it.” Potter cut Tony off harshly. “Actually, aren’t you supposed to be his wrangler too?” He turned to ask Pepper. “I don’t call letting him free to break into my very sterile vaccine labs with his dirty shoes on, touching everything with his unsterile hands, keeping him on his leash. You’re a terrible wrangler.”

“Can we take this to a more private setting?” Pepper asked, red faced and visibly fuming.

“I suppose you won’t take no for an answer?” Potter quipped.

“No.” Pepper all but growled.

“Luke, I’ll take them from here.” Potter told the young boy, giving him a nice smile.

“Of course, Sir.” Luke all but gushed, sending a look of hero-worship after his boss. Tony wanted to be sick. Everyone here, working for this company, loved Potter unconditionally. He’d never really experienced that, ever.

“Follow me, and don’t wander off!” Potter told them sternly.

He led them up to the top floor, to his office, where there was an elderly woman knitting behind the secretary’s desk.

“Oh, Mister Potter! I thought you didn’t have any meetings today?” She said, looking at him worriedly as she put the knitting down quickly.

“Not to fret, Ruth. It isn’t a planned meeting and there is no reason for you to stop knitting.” Potter said kindly with an adoring smile to her. It was like she was his own grandma or something.

“Would you like tea, Sir?” Ruth asked.

“I would, but please, take your time, Ruth.”

Ruth nodded and Potter led them straight to meeting room one.

“Now, would you care to explain why you decided to just turn up at my workplace, disrupting me and my staff, upsetting and shouting at others, all without a cursory phone call?”

“We tried calling you and you didn’t…”

“So you decided to just turn up, because I wasn’t answering?” Potter demanded. “Well, after the little incident when I had something blow-up in my face and rip out half my intestines I made the decision to leave my phone in a locker, where it belongs.”

“How are you recovering after that?” Natasha asked.

“Well enough. I’m a doctor also, I can patch myself up easily enough.” Potter said, laying a hand low over his abdomen, as if he felt phantom pain.

“Did we disrupt your process enough to cause irreparable damage?” Bruce asked.

“No, thankfully I was nearly done for the day when Tony decided to cause a ruckus in my corridor. I just needed five minutes to finish off.”

“What are you working on now? Your last interview said that you wanted to find a cure for lymphoma.” Tony said, remembering that particular article.

“That is proving incredibly difficult.” Potter, Harry, sighed unhappily. “No, I think I’ve finally figured out how to get rid of Meningitis B. Several parents got in touch with me after I successfully created the cure for Meningitis C to tell me that their children unfortunately had, or had died from, Meningitis B, of which there isn’t even a readily available vaccine. So I decided to change that. It’ll need to be tested, of course, but after a lot of mishaps, and a few explosions, I think I’ve got it.”

Tony almost smiled. Harry sounded almost like he did when he got to talking about something he was passionate about. There was something more to his expression, a gleam in those already intense green eyes, that spoke volumes of how much he enjoyed what he did. Tony understood that gleam, Bruce had been right, they were similar in some ways and it was…a relief really, to find that he had some common ground with Potter.

“You could help a lot of people with that vaccine.” Bruce said approvingly.

Harry nodded. “Particularly in Africa and here in Britain. Men B is the most prevalent strain here, a vaccine is sorely needed.”

“Are you taking about the meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa?” Bruce asked.

Harry nodded happily. “Yes, they need help with meningitis A as well, I need to develop something for that too. I want all these awful diseases eradicated.”

“Will you try for cancer too?” Clint asked.

Potter pulled a face. “Unfortunately there isn’t a be all end all cure for cancer. It affects different cells in different ways, affects different areas of the body and each strain works in different ways. I’d have to develop a different cure for each and every different strain of cancer, and that is a huge undertaking. I’m up for the challenge, but it is proving very, very difficult to actually do in practice. I am trying though.”

The door knocked and Ruth walked in happily, all smiles as she placed a cup down by Potter’s hand, and the look she gave him actually made Tony think they were grandmother and grandson.

“Can I get anyone else a drink?” She asked.

“No, thank you.” Pepper answered with a smile of her own, but she was eager to get to business.

“Was that all, Mister Potter?”

“Yes, Ruth. Thank you very much.”

“I’ll be just outside if you need anything, Sir. Oh, and don’t forget that you have a phone call at three-thirty.” She said politely.

Potter grimaced, as if he would have rathered she didn’t mention that, but he nodded his head.

“I won’t forget, thank you, Ruth.”

The elderly woman left the room, closing the door behind her.

“What phone call?” Pepper asked.

Potter, Harry, sighed heavily. “If you must know, I have a scheduled call with my therapist, so I would rather not miss it.”

“You have a therapist?” Pepper asked quickly.

“Oh, don’t sound so bloody interested, as if you can claim I’m mentally unsound or something to get out of this sham. I was severely abused as a child, remember? Of course I had therapy for that, and from time to time I need to have a chat with my therapist when things pop up. Such as being forced into a marriage contract and forced to have a child with someone who doesn’t want a baby.”

“That wasn’t what I said!” Tony cut in immediately. “Well, it was, but that wasn’t what I meant.”

“No?” Potter questioned. “Then please, elaborate. What did you mean?”

“I…I’ve never been comfortable around kids.” Tony said awkwardly. “It’s…I’d want the chance to know my child, but I don’t think I could look after it. Like, I take things apart for a living, I drop everything, it’s…it’s terrifying to me.”

Potter just stared at him with those intense eyes. Tony thought that perhaps he’d fucked up again, until a slow smile spread over Potter’s face. He laughed softly before picking up his phone. He scrolled through it and Tony shared a bemused look with Pepper.

“This is my godson, Teddy. Before him I’d never had any contact with a baby or any small children before. This is how I used to hold him.”

Potter turned the phone and showed a younger version of himself clutching a tiny baby to his chest, sat on the floor, surrounded by cushions.

“I was so paranoid that I would drop him that I never held him standing up. I put cushions all over the floor. I wouldn’t drink anything while holding him in case I dripped something on him. I could literally only be called paranoid. I assure you, that feeling passes very quickly.”

“How old is…Teddy?” Tony asked.

“He’s three now.”

Potter turned the phone again and there was a bright eyed, toothy child grinning right at the camera.

“His actual name is Edward, he was born on the twentieth of April, two thousand and eight. Both his parents are dead, so he’s being looked after by his grandmother, Andy. I suppose what I’m trying to say is, everyone who has no experience with children are wary of them. Everyone always says ‘oh what if I drop him?’ but it never actually happens. Do you actually know anyone who has ever dropped a baby? Because I don’t.”

“You don’t know how clumsy I am.”

“You’re an engineer!” Potter cried out. “You have to deal with tiny, miniscule components and of course you need a steady hand. How can you be that, and still call yourself clumsy?”

“I have a steady hand when it comes to work…”

“But you’re saying you won’t take the same care with your own child in your arms?”

“He’s not saying that at all!”

Potter snapped his gaze to Pepper, before turning back to Tony.

“Perhaps our next meeting should be between the both of us, just us, instead of you bringing your friends every time.”

“I can’t do this on my own.” Tony said immediately.

“You are twice my age.” Potter hissed. “And you think I’m dealing with this? I need to talk to my damn therapist because of how much this is affecting me! I can’t do this on my own either, yet here I am.”

“I don’t know how to say what I actually mean. Pepper is my translator!”

“Then it’s about time that you started to learn how to say what you mean…without help.”

“We got off track.” Bruce said, trying to calm the situation.

Potter took a deep breath, picked up his cup and drank some tea. He put the cup down and rubbed his face. His hand automatically flattened his bangs over his forehead and Tony remembered what Natasha had said, about him being careful of a scar on his head, but not caring at all about the scars on his hands.

Now that he actually looked, he could see the pale, silvery scars on his hands and fingers, and round shiny scars that indicated burns. They were small, nicely healed, and were barely noticeable, but they were still there. It was strange that he didn’t care about anyone seeing those scars, but that he did care about the one on his head, enough so that it had become habitual for Potter to smoothen his hair down automatically if he so much as touched his face. It was a puzzle. Tony liked puzzles.

Potter’s phone rang and he automatically checked it, before standing immediately and answering it.

“Jack, what is it?” He asked worriedly.

They couldn’t hear what was said, but Potter’s face went white.

“Is she fitting?” He asked seriously, before listening to the reply.

Potter shook his head and automatically started patting his pockets. “Right, listen to me, are you closer to my home or to the office? I’ll meet you there.”

Potter cut the call and stared at them.

“I have a sick child to deal with. This meeting is over.”

“You wouldn’t leave for just anyone.” Natasha said, as if she already knew the answer.

“Jack is one of the Fathers of Molly. The first child born of my egg splicing process. I am naturally still in contact with her Fathers, and she’s gotten sick. They don’t trust her care to anyone else.”

As he spoke, Potter started stripping off his jacket, tie and his shoes. He left the meeting room and everyone followed him. He went to his office, shutting the door behind him and Tony just stood with everyone, looking at the door, waiting.

“Oh dear, what has happened?” Ruth asked, putting her knitting down and standing, her face full of genuine concern.

“He got a phone call, Molly is sick.” Pepper said and they all watched as Ruth’s face fell and a hand rose to her mouth as she gasped.

Potter came back out in shorts and tee-shirt, running trainers on. He was on the phone.

“No, Hermione.” He was saying. “Yeah, Jack and Ryan are taking her to mine, it’s closer to them. I need you to set up the downstairs room for her. I’m on my way. It’ll take me ten minutes running. See you soon.”

“We’re coming with you.” Tony demanded suddenly.

“I’m going to tend to a sick child. What part of that do you think needs an audience?” Potter said as he strode off towards the elevator.

“We need to sort our lives out too. Once you’re done we can talk more.”

“Can you actually even run? Stupid question, of course you don’t run anywhere.” Potter bit out impatiently. “I’ll text you my address now.”

“I already know where you live.” Tony said without thinking.

Potter snapped his head to stare at him. “How do you…? No, you know what, we’ll talk about that later.”

Potter turned right at the elevator and took the stairs instead.

“I’ll run with you, if you don’t mind.” Steve said.

“Can you keep up? No, stupid question again. Of course you can. Can you run in that?” He asked, looking at the Captain’s rather tight jeans.

“Yes.”

Potter nodded and he sped up, taking the stairs three at a time. For such a small guy, he was quick. He almost flew down the stairs and as soon as they reached the lobby, he was almost jogging. Tony belatedly realised that he’d used it as a warm-up, as they hit the street, and without even a goodbye, Potter was gone, weaving through the crowds of people, as nimble and as quick as a mouse.

Steve kept pace with him and before Tony could blink, they were no longer visible. He shook his head and looked at those remaining.

“Anyone else expecting that?” He asked.

“Not in the slightest.” Clint replied, looking down the street too. “Damn he’s fast.”

“The car has been called. Just remember to keep out of the way. There is going to be a sick child here and as Potter said, none of them will want an audience. We stay in one room, out of the way until he is finished.” Pepper ordered.

No one dared to argue, and as the car that Pepper had called pulled up, Tony was actually very curious to see what Potter’s house actually looked like. This was going to be insightful and he was looking forward to it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry was aware that Steve Rogers, Captain America himself, was slowing himself down to keep pace with him. It was understandable, the guy was physically enhanced by science, so of course he could run much faster.

“It’s right here.” Harry said, slowing a little to be able to control his breathing. “I need to jump right in the shower and disinfect myself when I get in, but my friend, Hermione, she’ll be there and she’ll make you welcome.”

“I understand that this is a very difficult situation for you, both this sick child and Tony. We probably aren’t making it any better either.”

“It’s fine, just…just try to keep everyone out of the way. Jack and Ryan will be frantic and worried, Molly is obviously sick. This isn’t the sort of situation to fret about personal issues.”

Harry turned off the street, into his garden and he slowed to a jog down the path to his door. He already had his key in hand and he unlocked the door.

“Hermione?”

“I’m sorting the room, Harry.” A voice called out from further away.

“I’m going to shower and disinfect myself. Stark and his friends will be arriving too. They’ve followed me.”

“Oh for the love of…really? Can’t they understand that this is a serious situation?”

“I think maybe they thought I was lying to get out of the meeting.” Harry shouted back. “One is with me now, he ran home with me, make him welcome, yeah? Steve, go into that room there and make yourself comfortable.” He said, pointing through a doorway.

He took the stairs three at a time and went right into his bathroom, opening the cabinet and pulling out a hospital strength cleansing potion. Saint Mungos staff used it on their contagious wards.

He turned on the shower and stripped, quickly, before he leapt into the spray of water and used a clean flannel to dip into the potion and wash his body. It actually smelt of mint, the up side to potions, and not using Muggle disinfectant.

He was quick, but thorough, knowing that at any moment Jack and Ryan could arrive with Molly. His heart was beating out of his chest and as he stepped out from under the shower, he made a conscious effort to slow his breathing. A quick wave of his wand and he was nice and dry and he jogged naked to his bedroom to get into medical scrubs. The green tunic went on easy, as did the matching, elasticated trousers. He swept his hair back from his face, before automatically flattening his fringe over his lightning bolt scar.

He took a moment to breathe, putting his glasses back onto his nose, before looking at himself in his mirror to see if everything was sitting right and that his scar was covered.

He rushed back down the stairs and into the living room to wait for his patient and he tried to remain calm.

“I’ve set up the downstairs room, Harry.”

Harry nodded. “Thank you, Hermione.”

“I know you’re tense and stressed, finding out that you have a patient, but drink this.”

Hermione handed him a glass of water and Harry nodded, taking the glass and drinking deeply.

“Everything will be alright, Harry. Molly will be fine. Kids get sick.” She reassured him.

Harry nodded again, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he actually saw Molly and assessed her.

“Harry, you’re a wonderful doctor. You know what you’re doing.” Hermione told him.

Harry sighed. “I don’t…I don’t want to lose her.”

“It won’t be your fault, honey. It depends what she has and if it is serious, whatever happens will not be your fault. Kids do get sick, and sometimes they die.”

Harry swallowed hard, and his voice was thicker than usual as he repeated the only thought in his head. “I don’t want to lose her.”

“I know you don’t. Just try your best.”

Harry nodded and he steeled himself. He threw back the rest of his water and put the glass down. There was a frantic knock on the door and then it started, as Harry opened the door to Ryan cradling the year old Molly in his arms, almost in tears.

Harry took control of the situation and got Ryan to the spare, downstairs room that he used as a medical room for situations such as this.

“She just…she was fine when she went down for her nap, I swear.” Jack said, tears already rolling down his cheeks. “When she woke up she…she was lethargic and she just went floppy in my arms!”

“Please go and wait in the living room. I need the room to move and look after her. As soon as I know anything, I will tell you.” He said, already checking Molly’s pulse.

“I…I can’t leave her, Harry. Please.” Jack begged.

“Has she been responsive at all?” Harry asked.

“N…no.” Jack said, looking to his partner and then back to Harry. “It’s something serious, isn’t it?”

“Please go and wait outside. I need to focus everything on Molly right now.”

“Jack, love, let’s do what Harry says. He has Molly’s best interests at heart, he needs to look after her.”

Harry was thankful for Ryan as he pulled Jack from the room and left him to work. With them both gone, he pulled out his wand from his trouser pocket and he started casting diagnostic charms.

He noticed immediately that Molly had a fever, a rather high fever and he checked her eyes, just to make sure that she wasn’t actually having a fit.

Harry cast more diagnostic spells and then his heart lurched as he found a lead.

“Oh no.” He said to himself. It couldn’t possibly be…

He went to the door and opened it, stashing his wand back in his pocket.

“Ryan!” He called out.

Of course Jack came running too.

“What is it?” Ryan asked.

“I need you to be an observer. Jack, no offence, but you’re a distraction in your state.”

Ryan kissed his husband and pushed him back down the hall.

“What is wrong with our daughter, Harry?” Ryan asked, as Harry shut the door again.

“I actually suspect that she has meningitis. If so then time is critical and I need to check her body for a rash. Obviously I would rather do this with a parent in the room.”

“Meningitis?” Ryan asked with a shocky look to his face.

“Ryan, I need you with me. Time is a huge factor here. Help me undress her.”

Ryan did as asked, pulling Molly’s unresponsive limbs from her onesie as Harry cradled her head gently. Harry stared as he saw the beginnings of a pinprick rash forming on her ribs.

“It’s meningococcal septicaemia.” Harry said with certainty.

“So it’s not meningitis?” Ryan asked.

“No, it is. Meningitis B, the infection is in the blood and has reached the meninges.” Harry said. “She needs a hospital, right now, Ryan. Call an ambulance.”

Ryan was frozen for a moment, then he was gone. Harry went to his bag and he took out two potions. He could at the very least give Molly a fighting chance.

“Is it true?” Jack asked, hurrying back into the room and looking at his daughter desperately. “Is it meningitis? Are you sure?”

“I work a lot with meningitis, Jack. I’m very sure that that is what it is.” He said seriously. “Molly needs a hospital, and a dedicated team of doctor and nurses.”

Harry finished getting the potions into Molly and he stood with her slight weight in his arms, carrying her to the living room, closer to the front door.

“I never noticed.” Jack said as he followed. “I never even saw the signs.”

“Jack. You need to stop.” Harry said sharply. “I cannot babysit your feelings when Molly is so sick. If it makes you feel better then there are not many warning signs and those that Molly is displaying can be confused with other less serious illnesses. The distinctive rash is only just coming through, you did well to get her here so quickly. She has a good chance of coming through this, but you need to pull yourself together. She’s going to need you.”

Harry ignored the Avengers, Hermione and Pepper Potts too, as he sat on the settee with Molly on his lap and he felt each of her hands and feet. He shook his head when he realised that they were cold compared to her fevered body.

“Ryan, did you get an ETA for the ambulance.” He asked calmly.

“I told them what it was, that you were a doctor, and they said they’d be here as soon as they could.” Ryan answered, staring at Molly on Harry’s lap.

Harry supported the little girl’s head and nodded to show that he’d heard.

“Is she…is she going to die?” Jack asked, his hands rubbing together worriedly.

Harry shook his head. “No. It’s the very early stages, Jack. There might be complications, and I’m sorry but those complications could be serious, but she should recover from this.”

“When you say complications, you mean…you mean loss of limbs?” Ryan said, looking devastated.

Harry sighed. “Amputation is a necessary measure to stop the septicaemia from spreading, which will kill her. But I think right at this moment she will avoid that too. We’re talking hearing or sight loss. There is the potential for brain injury too, but I think she might miss that too, it depends how soon this fever is brought down. I cannot stress how quickly you caught this, you’ve both done well and done as much for her as you could have. If you’d passed this off as a cold, or just a fever, she could very well have died.”

Jack placed a hand on Molly’s beautiful brown hair and made a visible effort to suck up his emotions.

“Where the hell is that ambulance?” Jack demanded. “Ryan, call them again.”

“It’s on its way, the urge to call again is going to be strong, but it won’t made the ambulance come faster.” Harry said soothingly.

“I feel like I’m doing nothing to help her.”

“You’ve brought her to me, and that has saved her life. Now you are going to take her to the hospital, and let the doctors there save her life. That is you being helpful, that is you saving your daughter’s life and that is as much as you can do.”

Harry cradled Molly, supporting her head, right until they heard the sirens off in the distance. He stood, the year old girl in his arms.

“Stay calm, the both of you. Let the paramedics take her and do their jobs.”

Harry opened the door and stepped out into the garden. The neighbours were already out, watching in shock as the ambulance pulled up.

“What has happened?” One of the paramedics asked quickly.

“I’m Doctor Potter, of Potter Pharmaceuticals.” Harry said, so that the paramedics would know that he understood exactly what was wrong with the baby. “This is Molly Heard, sixteen months old. She has meningitis B, caused by meningococcal septicaemia. She is already showing signs of the pinprick rash.” Here Harry showed the paramedic the rash on Molly’s ribs.

“Hand her to me. Where are her parents?” The other paramedic asked.

“Here. We’re here.” Jack said.

“We can take one of you in the ambulance. The other needs to travel separately.”

“Jack, you go in the ambulance. I don’t want you driving.” Ryan said. “I’ll find you at the hospital.”

Harry watched as Molly was loaded up into the ambulance and Jack followed after a hug to his husband. The sirens bleared and the ambulance took off.

“Ryan. Molly needs to be your priority now. Molly and Jack, but if you get a moment, please let me know how she is.” Harry said.

“I will, Harry. Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

“Drive carefully!” Harry yelled out as Ryan ran to his car. “We don’t need you in the hospital too!”

Harry took a deep breath and he watched as Ryan took off in his car, following the ambulance as best as he could. He felt stressed, panicked, but he took a breath and closed his eyes.

“Harry, are you okay?” Hermione asked, touching his arm.

“Meningitis B.” He echoed softly. “Hermione…”

Harry was distantly aware of being pulled back into his own home, and Hermione got him sat on his settee and crouched in front of him.

“Harry, don’t take the blame for this.” She told him.

“Meningitis B…of all the…why the B strain? Why the one strain that I hadn’t developed a vaccine for?”

“You couldn’t have known, Harry.” Hermione said firmly.

“I knew that the B strain was the most prevalent in this country. I knew that two years ago, Hermione and I still did other things instead of focusing on it. If I’d done it sooner, Molly would have been vaccinated!”

“The formula was too temperamental. It was volatile and explosive. The first time you tried to develop it, it blew you fifteen feet through a window and you were in a coma for ten days, held together with stitches, Harry. Do you perchance remember that? Waking up in a hospital bed, not knowing what had happened or why you were there?”

Harry nodded miserably.

“How many broken bones has this one formula given you? I can remember your arm, your leg, your jaw and five ribs off the top of my head, not to mention how it ripped out half your intestines. You’ve put your own body, and your life, on the line to create this vaccine, Harry. You’ve done as much as you could do, and just because Molly has meningitis B now, that doesn’t make it your fault.”

“I finished it today.”

“Finished what today?” Hermine asked.

“I finally managed to get a working formula. I created the vaccine today, Hermione.”

“You finally managed to…?”

Harry nodded. “I have a working vaccine, just a few months more and it’ll be tested and rolled out to hospitals and GP practices and we can eradicated meningitis B. Just a few months, Hermione, that’s all I needed.”

“It’s not your fault.” Hermione reiterated. “If it wasn’t Molly it could have been any other child, hundreds are diagnosed with meningitis B every day, Harry. You’ve risked your own life to create this vaccine, and now you’ve managed it. It’s not too late at all. You’ll still be saving thousands of lives, does Molly deserve to live any more than any other child just because she was the first created of your egg splicing?”

Harry’s heart missed a beat and he swallowed heavily.

“I never thought myself so biased. That I would care more for the life of a child I knew over a child I didn’t. Is that what’s happening?”

Harry looked up at Hermione, the shocked horror he felt displayed on his face.

Hermione kissed his forehead and it made Harry smile, even as he automatically flattened his fringe back down.

“That isn’t what’s happening, Harry, but of course you’ll feel worse if it’s Molly who fell sick, or Teddy, or any of your neighbours kids, because you’ve bonded with them. You know them and that makes watching them suffer worse, but I know you, and I know that if you saw a child you didn’t know suffering, then you would do your all to help and protect them.”

Harry bent forward to rest his head on Hermione’s shoulder and he sighed.

“That vaccine is well overdue and I can’t wait until it’s tested and cleared.” Harry said miserably.

“I’ll go and get you some tea.”

“Thank you.” Harry replied, throwing himself backwards into his seat and slouching miserably.

“So…that was…I have no words.” Tony told him.

Harry blinked and looked up at the visitors in his house. “Oh fuck, please tell me that you’ve all been vaccinated against meningitis?”

“I haven’t, the vaccine wasn’t created until I was already in the ice.” Steve said. “But the serum in my body means I don’t get sick.”

“I have.” Clint immediately said.

“Me too.” Natasha nodded.

“I have no idea.” Tony answered and Harry closed his eyes and looked to Pepper.

“I assume that you know more of his medical records than he does?” He asked.

“Yes, and we’ve both been vaccinated, but if it’s the B strain won’t that be different?”

“It is different, but any vaccination for it will help. Of course it’s rare for adults to get it, and rarer for fit, healthy adults to actually get sick with it, that’s why it’s mostly children and the elderly who suffer the most from it. But it’s always better to be safe and if you have been infected, and you fight it off, others you come into contact with, children especially, could be put at risk too.”

“Here you are.” Hermione said, sitting next to him and handing him a big cup of tea.

Just inhaling the scent of tea made Harry feel calmer and he smiled.

“Thank you, what would I do without you?”

“Curl up and die?” Hermione offered.

“Been there, done that, it wasn’t as nice as people make out.”

Hermione snorted a laugh and Harry grinned crookedly at her.

“So, who is she?” Tony asked.

Harry swallowed the gulp of tea he’d taken.

“My best friend, Hermione Granger. Engaged to my other best friend, Ron. We’ve been inseparable since we were eleven.”

“Is that the man-child you’re being forced to marry?” Hermione asked innocently. Harry’s grin hurt it was so wide.

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“When you said he was old I was expecting something…different.”

Harry grunted as Hermione scrutinised Tony.

“I’m not old!” Tony said angrily.

“To us you are.” Hermione pointed out logically. “We’d have to live our entire lives over again to reach your age, and to us, that is obviously a very long time.”

“It’s another lifetime to us.” Harry agreed. “That’s not to say that we don’t understand that you’re not even halfway through your approximated life expectancy. I’m a doctor, I know that more and more people are living to be a hundred years old and over and that at forty-one, you’re not halfway through your own life, but mine has only just begun. I’m twenty-one, it wasn’t that long ago that I was still a teenager, going through school and fretting who to take to the Christmas ball.”

Here Hermione snorted a laugh and Harry glared at her.

“I wasn’t that bad!”

“You were. You really, really were.” She giggled.

“Well, you’re one to talk Herm-own-ninny.” Harry said and Hermione burst into a fit of laughter, two red spots forming on her cheeks.

Harry laughed with her and shook his head, taking another drink of tea.

“Do…do we actually want to know about that?” Tony asked curiously.

“I’m asexual, I have been my entire life. The worst thing I can think of is being forced to go to a school dance. I had to ask someone to go with me, I actually had to dance…”

“If you can call what you did dancing.” Hermione cut in.

“Thank you for that addition, Hermione.” Harry deadpanned. “Anyway, all the expectations and the hype, I just didn’t understand it. I have never, not once, felt the same excitement or desire for other people that I’ve been told is normal, not even as a teenager. When all of my other friends started expressing interest in girls, I was confused by it. I didn’t feel the same thing. I was worried that I was gay at first, but I never felt anything for boys either. All these things my friends were describing, all the dreams and things they mentioned, I had none of that. In true ignorant teenager fashion, I actually thought I was broken somehow.”

“Which led to him trying too hard.” Hermione nodded.

“I forced myself to emulate my friends, to kiss girls and hold their hands even though it felt weird and awkward. The very few dates I went on were…”

“Horrendous.” Hermine offered when Harry stopped to fumble for a suitable word.

“I was going to say disastrous, but either works fine.” Harry grinned. “It wasn’t until I was nineteen that I found out about asexuality and…it was like a lightbulb went off, the more I read about it, the more I saw bits of myself. I have no interest in sex, I have no sexual desire, I don’t find others sexually attractive, I had none of the fantasies or wet dreams that my friends suffered with. I can still see attractiveness, of course. I can see that Hermione is a beautiful woman, I can see other men are handsome, I just never look at people and imagine having sex with them. Even thinking that now makes me uncomfortable. I feel wrong when I try to think of it and it felt wrong to force myself to have sex when I didn’t want it.”

“I’m not asexual. I’m not gay.” Tony said. “I’m a very active heterosexual. It’s fine for you to deal with this contract, you don’t even like sex, but what am I supposed to do with the adultery clause?”

Harry shrugged. “Create a life like sex doll? I don’t think it’ll count if she’s not real.”

“Harry.” Hermione warned. “Remember what I told you about your stubbornness and not letting it get in the way?”

“Well, what am I supposed to say to him? I can’t help. There is a clause that forbids either of us from getting divorced or committing adultery. I can’t change that and there’s nothing I can do. He’s just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.”

“I can see now why you’ve gotten so little sorted out.” Hermione sighed.

“They do clash heads often.” Pepper offered up.

“Harry clashes with other people a lot.”

“They shouldn’t be dicks then.” Harry said, rather childishly.

“Right, you’re not doing this alone anymore. I’m staying with you.” Hermione decided.

“Go ahead. See if you can sort this mess, because I can’t.” Harry waved, going back to his tea.

“Right then.” Hermione said, sitting up straighter. “I believe that you’ve already decided that it’ll be just a registry signing, no ceremony.”

“That’s correct.” Pepper answered.

“Has anything else changed since yesterday?”

“No.” Harry replied.

“Then the next important thing to mention would of course be the merging clause.” Hermione said. “Where did you put the contract, Harry? Go and get it.”

Harry stood and went to get his copy of the contract from the safe he kept in his bedroom.

“I don’t want to merge my company with his!” He heard Tony yelling.

“I don’t want my company, that actually does some good in this world, linked to yours when you used to make weapons!” Harry yelled back from the stairs, storming back into the living room.

“We don’t make weapons anymore!” Tony growled.

“But you used to. For seventy years your company made weapons! It’s only been in the last three years that that changed.”

“Because I was kidnapped in Afghanistan by a terrorist group who wanted to force me to make weapons for them! They had all of my inventions there, all of my weapons and tech. I realised then that the weapons I was making to keep America safe was the same tech being used against them. I shut down that operation the moment I was back on American soil and I stopped developing weapons the moment I realised what was going on.”

“The weapons manufacturing was only a small part of what Stark Industries was doing, even then.” Pepper cut in smoothly.

“I think you’re both missing the point.” Hermione said. “Neither of you have a choice, your companies will merge when you’re married.”

“Does that clause even count considering it was Fleamont’s company offered up for collateral?” Harry asked desperately.

“I’m sorry, Harry. The clause is very tight and there are no loopholes. It says that the two who are to marry will merge all assets. That means there’s no chance for a pre-nuptial, what’s his will become yours and what’s yours becomes his the moment you sign the marriage certificate. The companies are not excluded from this.”

“You’re saying we’ll have one bank account.” Tony demanded.

“Just what I always wanted.” Harry said sarcastically.

“I’m a billionaire!” Tony said.

“You also spend money like its water. I live in a two bedroomed house and don’t even own a car. How much did you spend on your ego Tower?”

“Ego Tower?” Tony demanded.

“It has your name all over it.” Harry shrugged. “Truthfully I just thought you were overcompensating for something, if you get what I mean.”

Tony clenched his teeth and his right hand.

“Harry, that doesn’t help. You both earn enough money that having a shared bank account really shouldn’t be an issue to either of you.” Hermione said calmly.

“His company is almost in debt!”

“No it’s not!” Harry argued back. “Potter Pharmaceuticals is doing just fine, thank you very much!”

“The net profit of Stark Industries just last year was…”

“I couldn’t give a fuck what your company made. Our profit margins are tight, I’m not hiding that, but I refuse to be bullied into stopping my own fucking research because of homophobic bigots that don’t think gay couples have the right to have their own children! Or perhaps the issue is that you’re also one of them?”

“I’m not a homophobe!” Tony shouted, leaping to his feet. “I don’t care what anyone does, or who they choose to have sex with, as long as they don’t come after me!”

“Then why are you so hung up on my profit margins when I told you the reason behind them? The company is recovering well, we’re getting back onto even territory! We gained a new investor just the other day and we’re doing fine despite the backlash we’ve endured!”

“Enough.” Hermione snapped. “You’re behaving like children. You have no choice in this matter. What part of that is escaping your brains? You have no choice!”

“No, I have a choice.” Harry said, breathing hard. “I keep my company if this falls through. I’ll survive and gain everything lost back bit by bit. The two new eggs will be matured in three days. They’ll be implanted into surrogates by next week and I’ll bank enough to buy a new house. Two more successful births and we’ll gain more interest and more people wanting to use the procedure. I can get through this, I came from nothing, unlike you.” Harry spat. “I came from a fucking cupboard, being beaten and starved and everything I have now I built up myself and if need be, I’ll do it again!”

“Harry…”

“No, Hermione. I can’t go through with this. I can’t be married to him, or to anyone. I’m going back to work. You, be out of my house before I get back.” He directed at Tony.

Harry grabbed his keys and his phone from the coffee table and he stormed out of his own house. It was only as he shut the front door that he remembered that he hadn’t demanded to know how Tony knew where he lived. He was too angry to go back in and start up another fight now, because the urge to pull out his wand and curse Stark was getting too tempting. Another argument for another time. He blew out a breath and started the walk back to his office building. He was already preparing himself to be chewed out by Hermione later, but first, he needed to get the meningitis B vaccine through testing as quickly as he could. He really hoped that Molly ended up being alright.

He’d only just sat behind his desk in his office when his phone rang. It was exactly three-thirty, it was time to get his mind healer caught up on the situation and perhaps get some outside advice on this awful contract, maybe then he would feel calmer about it all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Chapter Text

Chapter Four – Forwards and Backwards

Potter was refusing to see them and there was nothing that Pepper could do about it. She had even taken his best friend, Hermione Granger’s, phone number and tried to get a meeting set up through her, but though she was sure that Hermione was trying, Potter was still refusing.

Pepper was worried, very worried, given that Potter’s last words were that he wasn’t going to go through with this marriage, because he would keep his company, but that meant that Tony would lose everything, absolutely everything. He was refusing all meeting requests, he’d told his receptionists and secretaries to deny them any meeting requests and security, which had been tightened, wouldn’t even let them into the building anymore. Potter had well and truly cut them off.

All Hermione could say was that Harry was very, very busy at work, what with the testing of the new vaccine and the eggs finally being matured and that this week was a very bad week to try to contact him or disturb him, but as it was now the thirtieth of August, and they had just a little under nine weeks left to sort this mess, Pepper was getting antsy with all the delays and stonewalling.

She called Potter every day, but he never answered her calls. She called his offices every day, but was met by polite refusal, and she called Hermione every day. Hermione who always answered, who tried to be helpful, but repeatedly refused to force Potter into a meeting and made excuses for him.

Clint was all for storming Potter’s house, but even that wouldn’t work, as Natasha reported that he was sleeping in his office building as his work piled up on him.

“I’ve had enough of this.” Tony said suddenly, breaking the thick, oppressive silence that had built up in the hotel room. “I’m wasting time, I’m going back to New York.”

“Will you blow the Tower and your Malibu home up?” Pepper demanded immediately.

“What do you want me to do, Pepper?” He asked, throwing his arms out.

“I want you to realise how serious this is and try to be calmer and more understanding.”

“He’s not being understanding himself!”

You’re twenty years older than him.” Pepper growled.

Tony’s reply was cut off before he could say it when Pepper’s phone rang. The angry woman looked at the caller ID and then hurried to answer it.

“Hermione, please tell me you have some good news.”

‘Yes, the eggs that Harry has been living with for the last week have finally matured. They were successfully implanted into two different surrogates this morning. The stress he’s been under has vanished, little Molly is doing much better, and all the tests on the men B vaccine are promising. Harry is tired, but he’s in a much better mood. We’ve all convinced him to take a rest, and we’ve convinced him to try again with these meetings, if that’s still what you want.’

“It is, yes.” Pepper replied, staring hard at Tony. “When would be convenient?”

‘Well, we’ve literally dragged Harry away from his work after the last week, so he’s home right now with all of us, we can keep him calmer and with a bit of luck, we can sort this out once and for all. They’re running out of time.’

“We’ll be right there.”

‘I’ll be waiting.’

Pepper shut the phone and stood up. “Move, Tony. Now. You are going to this meeting, you will be polite and this will be the last meeting we have because absolutely everything will be sorted today. Do you understand me?”

Tony could only nod and he stood and was bracketed in on all sides.

“Wait until Fury finds out about this.” He groaned.

“He already knows. I told him.” Natasha said. “He’s told me, all of us, to get you through these meetings by any means necessary because under no circumstances are you allowed to lose the Ironman armour in an auction in which anyone could buy it.”

“We’ll help you stay calm, as Hermione will help Potter.” Pepper said.

“How many times have we done this?” Tony asked, sighing heavily. “This won’t end any differently.”

“That’s not the right attitude to have.” Steve chastised him.

“Whose side are you on?” Tony asked.

“You’re my teammate, I’m on your side, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been listening and I won’t pretend to understand all this asexuality business and forcing two men who don’t like one another to marry and have a baby, but I have been listening, and I can see the issue from both sides. You’re both hurting, neither of you want this, but you have our support. We will get you through this.”

Tony slung an arm around Steve and squeezed.

“Let’s go and get me through this then, Capt.”

The ride to Potter’s house was not slow enough for Tony, and not fast enough for the rest of them. Bruce was particularly anxious to get out of the car that barely fit the six of them to breathe in the fresh air. It looked like it was going to rain, despite it still being August.

It was Pepper who rapped smartly on the door with her knuckles. It was opened shortly after by a tall, lanky red head. He didn’t look happy to see them.

“Let them in, Ron.” Hermione’s voice came from behind his back.

Ah…Potter’s other best friend was here today. The man, Ron, grunted and stepped aside. Hermione was more welcoming, as she led them back into Potter’s living room, only for them to see Potter fast asleep on a good-looking blonde who stared at them with rather protuberant silvery blue eyes.

“I…okay.” Tony said, one eyebrow lifted as he sat on the other settee.

“Harry has had a long week.” The woman said slowly, in a rather dreamy way.

“Luna, I presume?” Pepper asked, recognising her voice.

“I am, yes.” She said, her arms pulling the sleeping Harry closer.

He murmured a little and snuggled in tighter.

“Are you two a thing?” Clint asked.

“Oh no.” Luna replied. “Harry just likes cuddling.” She said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

“He says he’s asexual.”

“He is. Which is why it’s more important for him to get platonic body contact with other people.” Hermione said sternly. “People get depression when they go too long without body contact with others, and asexuals are more at risk because they don’t like people touching them in a sexual way. Harry’s lucky to have his friends around him, we don’t care if he needs to lean on us or cuddle up to keep himself healthy.”

“When he’s really relaxed he’ll just give odd touches, he’ll pull you into a quick hug or even a kiss. It’s all platonic to him, which made it easier to deal with in school. We’ve been best friends for years.” The man, Ron, told them. “Hermione and me, we knew that he didn’t see other people in a sexual way. We took that journey with him and when he told us that he thought he was asexual at nineteen, we helped him to come to the realisation that he was. Just because he likes kissing and cuddling doesn’t mean he’s not asexual.”

“I’ll get everyone a drink.” Hermione said. “Luna, give Harry a shake.”

Hermione asked them what they wanted and left Luna to shake Harry awake. She had a plan for this meeting, and it involved a drop of calming draught in every cup. Two drops in Ron’s case, because he was the hottest head here and most likely to cause trouble and run outside interference on Harry’s behalf.

“Are they here?” Charlie asked, looking up from the newspaper he was reading.

“Yes. Go and say hello, Charlie.” Hermione insisted.

Charlie nodded and he closed the paper and stood. He was big, broad and muscled and he was intimidating. Not to mention the shiny burns on his very visible arms that made him look like a badass.

“Why didn’t you wake me before they arrived?” Charlie heard Harry complain sleepily.

“You needed the sleep.” Luna’s dreamy voice came back and it made Charlie smile.

He ducked into the room and shot a look to the six people taking up two of Harry’s settees. They’d been magically extended for this visit.

“Charlie, you came.” Harry said when he saw him.

“Of course. I’ll always be here when you need support.”

Charlie reached over and hugged the sleepy Harry tight and laid a kiss to his cheek.

“Could Ginny get the time off?” Harry asked.

“Unfortunately not. She’s pissed that she isn’t here to come and see your husband in the flesh. She’ll be here later for dinner, though.”

Here Charlie flicked his gaze to said future husband and stared at him. He tried to be objective, but knowing that this man was upsetting Harry so much made it difficult. He was handsome, Charlie supposed. He definitely had the look down, with a nice, trim body, designer stubble, clear skin, and thick black hair. He certainly didn’t see the old man that Harry had been complaining about, but he was twenty-nine himself, he supposed that maybe it would seem worse to Harry, who was eight years younger than him.

“I’m sure she’ll see him soon.” Harry grumped.

“Come on now.” Charlie chided, pushing his hand through Harry’s nest of hair. A small hand automatically reached up to flatten his fringe back down. Harry had had that habit since Charlie had first met him. He’d always hated his lightning bolt scar being on show.

Harry pouted up at him and Charlie grinned.

“You’ll be just fine. Just remember, he lays a hand on you, you tell me and Bill and we’ll make sure there’s nothing but a red speck left behind.”

Of course he said that for Stark’s benefit more than Harry’s. It didn’t hurt to let the guy know that if he dared hit Harry, or push him into anything he didn’t want to do, then he had family who would absolutely go to Azkaban for him.

“Thank you, Charlie.” Harry said softly.

“Don’t mention it, kid. You’re like another little brother. You’re family and I’d kill to protect you. You know that Bill would too.”

“Enough posturing.” Hermione said sternly, walking in with a large tray. She placed it down and handed out mugs. “We’re here to talk and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Now everyone have a damn drink and let’s get started.”

Everyone took a drink, from a mere sip, to a few gulps of their tea or coffee, and Hermione watched approvingly. Perhaps now they could actually get something done, calmly, and without the anger that always seemed to be present when these two hot-headed men got into a room together.

“Right. No distractions, no shouting, no cursing, no barbed comments. You are staying here until this is fully sorted. I’m sick of all this aggression and upset, which I believe is on both sides, not just the side I’ve personally witnessed.” Hermione started.

“We are also committed to staying here today until this is sorted.” Pepper answered, thankful now that there was someone who thought like she did. That the sooner this was sorted, the better. At the moment all the fighting and arguing was doing was dragging this out and delaying the inevitable.

“Today is a get-together day.” Luna added.

“That’s not until tonight.” Harry said. “Hopefully they’ll be gone by then.”

“I was actually going to invite them to stay.” Hermione said.

Harry blinked, and she could see that he wanted to be angry, but the calming draught kept him calm and mellow.

“Hermione, Teddy is coming later.” He told her, as if she had somehow forgotten that Teddy always came to these get-together dinners.

“I’m aware. I thought perhaps it could be a little test, to see how Mister Stark handles Teddy.”

“I am not using my three year old godson as a test, Hermione! He can’t look after himself, much less keep a three year old happy and safe!”

Hermione sighed. “He’s not going to be alone with Teddy, Harry. I’m sure you’ll be doing the perfect impression of a helicopter and hovering over them both, but if you want to see how he’ll handle a child, we can test him with Teddy, who will be a lot more durable than a newborn.”

Harry took a deep breath, the calming draught taking away his anger before it took root, and he turned to stare at Stark. He nodded his head.

“Alright. We’ll see how he handles Teddy, and the rest of the crazy family.”

“Would you allow the rest of us to stay with him?” Natasha asked.

“The more the merrier.” Harry said, but cut his gaze to Steve. “I feel the need to warn you that Teddy is a fan of Captain America. He might go on about it a bit, but if you don’t want him fangirling over you, just don’t tell him who you are. He doesn’t link real people to superheroes yet, so if you introduce yourself as Steve, he won’t bat an eyelash.”

Steve looked a little shocked, but he nodded his understanding.

“I…I have no experience with kids, I feel like I’m being put on the spot here.” Tony spoke up. “I have had zero interaction with any kids, I’ve not even seen a kid in twenty years.”

“This is a chance for you to prove that you’re not as hopeless as I think you are.” Harry told him.

“Harry doesn’t want kids.” Hermione said. “He has always wanted to focus more on the company. If you want this stipulated child born before you are dead, you need to convince Harry that you can actually look after one.”

“I thought if I was ever going to have kids, it would be when I was forty, or rather the age you are now.” Harry added to Hermione’s explanation. “My company is too new for me to abandon it now in favour of a child, and I feel that that is exactly what would happen. I would have to give up working full time, give up researching and developing, because I don’t think you would do the same to help me. This is a chance for you to try to prove me wrong.”

“Of course I would help to raise my own child!”

“Would you?” Harry demanded. “It means less time in your workshop, no time doing what you want to do. When we do have a baby, they come first one hundred percent of the time, not when it suits you. You can’t just take off to your workshop when a thought strikes you, it means breaking away from your work, even when you’re on a roll, to deal with sick or shit, and it’s endless feeding, cleaning, changing and bathing. You don’t get to take a break just because you want one.”

“Did you raise Teddy?” Natasha asked, looking at him consideringly.

Harry looked at her and sighed. “I helped Andy to raise him, I still am helping to raise him. I have Teddy around more often than not. The second bedroom upstairs is his. Teddy is my godson, and I remember those early days. I remember getting a call from Andy about Teddy not settling, and I’d leave whatever I was doing at the time to go to him. Many research breakthroughs were disturbed because Teddy wouldn’t sleep, or Andy needed a break, or even because he was missing me and wanted me with him. I have always put Teddy first, and I would do the same with my own child, but am I honestly ready to do that again? Forsake my company and the research I’m doing in favour of a child? No. I’m really not, not at this point in my life.”

There was silence, Harry had expected no different. But this, he had decided, he needed to be truthful on. He couldn’t trust Stark to look after a baby, and he could not afford to take time away from his company at the moment to look after one himself. He couldn’t hold his silence on it when it would affect him so greatly.

“So, you’d need me to look after the baby the most.” Stark said, looking as horrified as Harry expected of him.

“I would, but I can’t trust you to do that either.” Harry sighed. “So at the moment, we’re waiting for the baby until I can leave the company for longer than a few days without it collapsing on itself.”

No one said anything. The silence was thick, and Harry could see that Stark wanted to argue, but he didn’t know how. Which only proved to Harry that he was doing the right thing by holding off on this needed child for a few more years.

“Harry, have you spoken to the DMLE?” Hermione asked seriously, breaking the thick, oppressive silence that was stretching on.

“I’ve put my application in, they haven’t gotten back to me yet and until they do, I refuse to break the law.” He said stiffly. “I have too much to think about to be threatened with prison too.”

“You’re facing prison, why?” Pepper Potts demanded.

“Let me know when they get back to you.” Hermione said.

“You know I will. And as for telling you why I’m facing prison, I’ve just told you that I can’t say anything. You’ll find out when I get approval to tell you.”

“And if you don’t get approval for whatever this is?” Pepper snarled.

“They have to give me permission. I’m marrying him.” Harry waved off, blithely.

He was fully expecting the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to approve him to tell these Muggles about magic, that would actually help him a lot considering he used magic in and outside of his home and work every single day. Not to mention poor Teddy, who would have to come over with a suppressant covering him to stop him from changing his appearance.

He was dreading when it was leaked to the papers that Harry Potter, Saviour of the Wizarding World was marrying a mere Muggle. Of course he didn’t care about such things, and not having magic didn’t make people lesser in his eyes, and truly, there was nothing ‘mere’ about Tony bloody Stark. But he was still expecting a backlash, and he was still expecting people to try to petition to stop his marriage going ahead. Wait until they found out that he was being forced into it via a contract…he’d have to be on the lookout for anyone trying to harm Tony on his behalf. He wouldn’t accept that, not at all.

“Is this the reason we can’t find your personal file?” Natasha asked with a shrewd gaze. “It doesn’t matter what parameters we put in, your file is never found.”

“Something like that.” Harry sighed. “But, please, stop digging. I’ll have permission to tell you in a few days, maybe a week, and I will tell you everything then. It’s not…well I don’t think it’s bad, you might have another opinion, but just so you know, I’ve already checked and it is not grounds to void the contract, we’ll still have to be married regardless of what you think or feel about it.”

“Are you ill?” Steve asked.

“Why would that require me to hold my silence via a law?” Harry demanded. “Or put me in prison if I told you I was ill, of which I’m not. Just, be patient for a few more days.” He insisted. “I will tell you then.”

It would be just his luck that one of them blew the Statute of Secrecy out of the water on accident by stumbling across it or actually guessing correctly.

“I’m not going to like it, am I?” Stark growled.

“Do you like anything about me or this situation?”

“No.”

“Then what does it matter?” Harry scoffed.

“I don’t like things I don’t know about.”

“Translation, you don’t like things you can’t control. But, unfortunately, that’s just life and you can’t control everything. This situation is out of both of our control, and you’re just going to have to deal with that.”

“Mister Potter…”

“Damn it, just call me Harry. I feel like I’m back in school.” He insisted. “It’s about time we moved onto a first name basis, considering me and him will be married and I assume you will not be out of the picture at any point.”

“No, I won’t be.” Miss Potts said confidently.

“Right then, I probably should have done this when you all first arrived. But I’m Harry, this lovely lady is Luna. That is Charlie. He is Ron and this wonderful woman is Hermione. If you choose to stay for dinner, you’ll meet Andy and Teddy, Ginny and George and I think Neville said that he could come today?”

“Neville is coming over too. He’s bringing Hannah.”

“Has he gathered up the courage to propose yet?” Harry grinned.

“Yesterday, but shhh, he doesn’t know that we knew what he was planning and I don’t want you ruining his thunder.” Hermione insisted.

“Would I ever? Besides, I’m going to upstage him considering I’m being forced to marry him and he’s going to be sat at the table.”

“Neville already knows.” Ron announced.

“Did you tell everyone, loud mouth?” Harry teased.

Ron went red, but he grinned bashfully. “Yeah, I did. Mum is beside herself.”

“If anyone deserves to be happy, it’s that poor boy.” Charlie imitated his mother’s voice, badly. “How could they possible force him into this, taking his choice of marriage away from him.”

Harry laughed. “Oh, I need to see her again soon. I take it she’s going to Bill’s tonight?”

“Yeah, you know she adores Victoire. Her first grandchild.”

“Poor Victoire.” Harry laughed. “A year and a half old and already spoilt beyond ruin.”

“She was spoilt being born a daughter of Bill and Fleur.” Ron piped up with a grin.

“Spoilt being the first child of the new generation of Weasleys.” Charlie added.

Harry snorted and looked to the other people in the room. “Don’t worry, you’ll soon meet all of the huge, dysfunctional family, especially being married into it.”

“So, there are two kids in the family?” Tony asked.

“My godson, Teddy and Bill’s daughter, Victoire. Bill is Charlie and Ron’s older brother.” Harry nodded. “I was sort of adopted into their family when I was eleven, so…” Harry shrugged. “They’re like brothers to me too.”

“Of course you’re a part of the family.” Charlie insisted, leaning back over the settee to snag him into a hug. “You have been since Ron dragged you home that first time and Mum adopted you. You get a jumper every Christmas too, that makes it official.”

Harry laughed and he felt better. Just a little bit, but it was enough.

“Hermione never started getting jumpers until I introduced her as my girlfriend for the first time.” Ron grinned.

Hermine sniffed. “That still might change.” She replied.

“Oh, what?” Ron demanded. “You can’t change your mind now that you’ve said yes!”

Harry laughed. “Of course she can. It’s a person’s right to change their mind at any moment. But I don’t think she will.” Harry gave Ron a wink.

“Good. ‘Cause I do love you, you know.”

“I know.” Hermione said with a smile, while Charlie and Harry mimed vomiting like children. Luna just giggled.

“Now, after that disgusting and sappy…”

“Harry!” Hermione snapped.

“Okay, after that vile and sickening display of…”

“Harry!”

Harry sighed. “After that lovely and romantic declaration, please, let us move on.”

Luna was laughing, holding her middle, while Charlie was biting his lip to control himself.

“Where did we get to in our discussion?”

“You aren’t going to let me have my own child!” Tony bit out angrily.

“Unless you can prove that you can be our child’s primary carer, then no.” Harry said. “At the moment I wouldn’t trust you with a coffee mug, let alone a child.”

“I’ll show you I can look after a child.”

“Good. I want you to.” Harry replied. “We’ll start you with Teddy tonight, then if you do well, and Bill and Fleur agree of course, maybe we can see what you do with Victoire.”

“They’ll agree, you know they will.” Charlie said. “Fleur might be a little apprehensive, but they want you to do what is right for yourself, and if you can’t trust him with a child, they wouldn’t want you to be forced to have one.”

“I have a say in this too!” Stark burst out.

“Actually, as the younger party, I hold all the power with that decision.” Harry smiled grimly. “If I say we don’t have a child until I’m forty, and you’re sixty, that is exactly what will happen. I’m going to petition the court too, to get your semen samples kept frozen in my company, just in case…”

“What for?!” Tony demanded.

Harry gave him a very unimpressed look.

“Just in case you go and die in your suicidal ventures as a supposed superhero.”

“I refuse!”

“You won’t be able to.” Hermione put in. “Given your line of…work? We’ll call it work, but as you are a member of the Avengers team, putting your life in danger, the courts will side with Harry on this, as if you die, the contract can’t be fulfilled fully, and that is by no fault of Harry’s. You should be getting a notification to provide viable samples soon.”

“This is unacceptable!” Tony exploded. “You can’t just demand that I…that I give…it’s not acceptable!”

“You risk your life every time you go do…whatever it is that you do. I’m just protecting myself and my assets.” Harry said simply. “I’m sure you would do exactly the same if you were in my position.”

“I want full control of those samples!” Tony hissed furiously.

“They will be stored in my company, in the same way that any other customer’s samples would be stored. You will have full control of them, and they will not be used unless under your express permission. There will be a clause added however, that states upon your death that those samples become my sole property, to use when I wish to fulfil that contract.”

“You’ll be allowed to do that?” Pepper asked.

Harry nodded. “If it weren’t for that contract and the stipulation for a baby between us, there would be no way I would be allowed to do it. Because of that contract however, I will be allowed to seize control of those samples to use when needed if Mister Stark, Tony, dies before we have a child.”

“Pepper, he can’t do that.” Tony said, almost desperately.

“He might be able to, Tony.” Pepper sighed.

“He’s not going to give me a chance at all! He’s just going to wait until I’m dead and use those samples to save himself!”

“I am going to give you a chance.” Harry said. “I don’t expect it to make a difference, as I believe that you’re too selfish and impatient to look after a child, but you will have your chance. I wouldn’t bother to risk Teddy, or Victoire, if I was planning to just use the samples taken from you after your death. I don’t care what you think of me, I’m not a monster. You have the chance you want, don’t fuck it up, or I really will wait until you’re dead to have our child.”

“Can you put that in writing?” Pepper asked, pulling a piece of paper from her folder.

Harry rolled his eyes but took the paper and opened the drawer in his coffee table to take out a pen. He started writing, thinking about what to say and how to word it in a way that couldn’t be used against him, or misconstrued. He handed it straight to Luna when he was done, who read it through critically, nodded, and then handed it to Hermione.

Hermione took a long time to read it, but when she did finish it she nodded.

“That’s very well worded, Harry.” She said and Harry smirked and watched as Hermione handed it to Pepper.

Pepper sucked in a breath as she read the contract, and Harry guessed that she could find nothing to exploit, as she looked rather unhappy.

“This is acceptable.” She admitted finally. “Tony, you need to sign it.”

Harry slid Tony the pen he was holding across the table and he watched as Tony picked it up and signed the paper. Harry took the pen and contract back, and he signed it himself. He then took out his phone and took a photo of it.

“If I trust you to keep a hold of this contract, can I also trust that you won’t…add to it?” Harry asked.

“We are a professional company, Mister…Harry. We would never doctor a legal document.”

Harry nodded. He hadn’t left any room for it to be doctored, his words were close together, and he’d drawn a line underneath the writing, before being signed by them both.

“I think we all need a small tea break.” He said, standing. “Or at least I do.” He groused, collecting up cups to take to the kitchen.

He went into the kitchen to boil his kettle to make another round of tea and coffee. He suspected that Hermione had put calming draught into the cups. He was grateful, if a bit miffed that he couldn’t express his own emotions when he actually wanted to be angry, but the time for anger was over now. They were running out of time to get this sorted, they couldn’t afford their anger and upset at this situation getting in the way any longer. It needed to be sorted, and it needed to be sorted now, as soon as possible. A single day under nine weeks before the deadline just wasn’t a lot of time when it came down to it and they had a lot to still get through and agree on before they could even touch their marriage certificate to sign it.

“Are you okay?” Luna asked. “I think that you’re doing very well.”

“I’m fine.” Harry smiled at her as he pulled out the calming draught, placing a drop in the bottom of each cup, including his own, before stashing the potion back in the cupboard. “I just want this sorted. It doesn’t matter to me if we’re married or not. It’s the child that needs to be figured out, because he will have equal right to them unless I can prove he’s a danger and I just can’t handle being a single parent right now. Not with the company.”

“You know that we would help you if it ever came down to that.” Luna said softly. “I’m not doing much lately, and I could help you when you needed to go into work.”

“Thank you, Luna, but it’s not your responsibility, it’ll be mine and his. I need him to step up.”

“I will!”

Harry sighed and turned to Stark.

“I want to trust you.” Harry said softly. “I want to trust that you’ll be able to look after our child, I want to give you the chance, but I can’t agree to this, then it turns out that you can’t cope. I can’t do that to an innocent child.”

“How am I going to prove that I’ll care for a child if you won’t let me try?”

“We’ll see how you do with Teddy.”

“He’ll be here soon.” Luna put in helpfully.

Harry sighed and looked at his watch. “He’ll be here for three, dinner will be at five. I’ve got to go shopping too. I wasn’t expecting any of this.”

“Tony can go shopping with you.” Hermione said.

“What?” Harry demanded. “I don’t want my photo splashed about, Hermione!”

“You’re going to have to deal with it sooner or later, Harry. This won’t stay a secret forever.”

Harry closed his eyes and turned to the cups. He made tea and coffee again and pushed Tony’s cup across the counter to him before falling on his own and taking a needed drink.

“There’s no getting out of this now, is there?” He asked weakly.

“No, Harry. You’re committed, this will be happening. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to get over that now. It will come out that you’re the CEO of Potter Pharmaceuticals.”

“Call my spokeswoman. I’ll make an announcement to the company and then to the public.” He sighed unhappily. “If I’m going to be seen with Tony Stark, the public might as well know who I am before they start saying I’m some little gold digging slut or something. This is a complete nightmare.”

“I’ll do that now. It means you’ll have to deal with photos and press conferences.”

“Just like old times.” He complained.

“It won’t be so bad, it’ll just mean everything is finally equal.” Luna told him.

Harry knew what she was getting at. Obviously everyone in the magical world knew exactly who he was and what he’d done. They knew he was the CEO of Potter Pharmaceuticals. It was about time that the Muggle world knew too.

“Right. I can do this. I can be the public face of the company. I don’t like it, or that it has been forced, but it’s just another complication of this situation that I never wanted to be in.

“You’ll be just fine, sweetie.” Hermione told him. “Now write a list of everything you need. You’ll only forget something with so much on your mind.”

Harry nodded and Hermione and Luna helped him to carry the cups back into the living room. Tony followed after them, looking around at everything. Harry wondered if he’d ever been in such a small house before or if it was a novelty to him.

“What are you doing for dinner?” Ron asked him, when he saw that Harry was writing a shopping list.

“Lasagne. If that’s alright with everyone.”

“Wait, you’re actually cooking?” Stark asked.

“Yes, I came from nothing, remember?” Harry said. “I actually know how to cook and clean and look after myself.”

“Bruce is a vegetarian.” Natasha told him.

“It’s no bother, honestly.” The very quiet Bruce insisted, colouring up a little.

“That’s fine. Luna doesn’t eat meat either. I usually do two varieties of everything, meat and vegetarian.”

“Meat doesn’t settle well in my stomach.” Luna said serenely. “I don’t eat it very often.”

Harry continued listing everything he needed and then sat back and handed it to Hermione who usually checked everything he did anyway. It was a habit she had gotten into when they were still in Hogwarts, when she would automatically, and happily, go over his and Ron’s homework for them.

“That’s fine, Harry. Are you going to go now?”

“I suppose that depends on Mister Stark and if he is ready to go.” Harry put in.

“You don’t have a car.” Stark pointed out.

“Are you really that averse to walking twenty minutes to get to the supermarket?” Harry demanded.

“I’m Tony Stark, I don’t walk.”

“You will walk today. I’m not taking a car to get three bags of shopping that is easily carried, especially between two people. Now quit grizzling and come on, you’re as bad as Teddy.”

Harry drained his cup of tea in five large swallows, mostly because he would need the calming draught on this shopping trip, before he said goodbye to his friends and left his house. He walked off, not caring if Tony followed him or not. The billionaire was following and easily caught up to Harry.

“So…Pepper told me to make small talk. I don’t know how to do that.”

Harry sighed and cut a look to the other man. “Of course you don’t, but luckily for you I don’t much like small talk. So how about you explain exactly what it is your company does now that it doesn’t manufacture weapons?”

“Oh, Stark Industries is much more into green energy now. I’m looking into arc reactor technology, as well as upgrading the Ironman armour.”

“What is arc reactor technology?” Harry asked interestedly. And of course, the moment he showed a bit of interest, Stark opened right up. He became the passionate man that Harry did when he was talking to someone about synthesising vaccines and medicines. Hermione was right, they were kindred spirits in certain ways, if not in others.

The entire twenty minute walk to the supermarket was spent listening to Tony explain the technology he created, and Harry really was fascinated by it. He asked just the right questions, and Tony was impressed despite himself, Harry could read that in his expression easily enough.

“Is this a supermarket?” Tony asked, even as Harry grabbed a trolley and pushed it into the building.

“Yes, Tony. Please try to act like a normal person. This isn’t a big deal for normal people.”

“I’ve never been shopping before.”

“I can actually believe that. Now come on. I want to get back for Teddy.”

“Is he…will he like me?”

“He’s three. Be kind to him and he likes everyone.”

“He likes Captain America?”

Harry nodded. “He watches the animated cartoons. It’s why he won’t link Steve to his favourite cartoon character, as long as no one points it out to him.”

“Should I get him a present? Kids like presents right?”

“Like any normal child he would love a present, just don’t go mad. Something small, any sort of toy, and he’ll love it.”

“So…so I can get him a present?”

Harry sighed. “Yes, I’ll even help you, let’s just get what we need first.”

Of course people stopped and stared as Tony Stark, the guy they all mostly knew, considering he was a household name all around the world, followed Harry around the supermarket, acting like a tourist in Paris, staring at everything and touching things. It was almost like when Harry had brought Arthur Weasley to his company to see how things worked. He had been more interested in the phones and computers than any of the vaccines or medicines, and he’d enjoyed the swivel chair in Harry’s office so much that Harry had bought him one for Christmas that same year.

“Tony, stop playing with the fruit.” Harry chastised as he turned to see where Tony had gotten to, only to see him going through a cardboard crate of watermelons.

“Sorry.” He said, walking over to him as Harry bagged up vegetables and put them in the trolley. “Want me to push the cart?”

“Will you play with it?” Harry asked seriously.

“No.”

Harry let go of the handlebar and let Tony take it. It was probably a mistake, but if it stopped him playing with watermelons…Harry sighed and shook his head.

His instincts were playing up again. He knew people were taking his photo, at this point it was purely because he was obviously food shopping with Tony Stark, but he was always wary when people took his picture. It probably wasn’t limited to pictures either, but also video recordings. He would kill Hermione for this.

Conversation was slow, on Harry’s part at least, but Tony didn’t care about talking to others, telling everyone this was his first time in a supermarket as he pushed the trolley while Harry added what they needed from his list.

Harry was angry, and rather humiliated, when Tony started chatting up the beautiful brunette who came over to ask for a selfie with him.

He took the trolley and went around to get the rest of what they needed, while Tony happily played with his fans. Merlin help him, this had been a terrible idea.

When he’d gotten everything from the list he went looking for Tony. Hell, he hoped the bastard hadn’t left the store. He didn’t want to go home and tell Pepper that he’d lost her boss. Fortunately he found Tony still in the store. He was in the toy aisle, looking at everything consideringly.

“Will Teddy like play-doh?” He asked. “He’s three, you said, this is for three year olds, can he have it?”

“Sure, maybe not that huge tub though, get him something smaller.” Harry insisted, picking up the smaller, three pack selection, instead of the massive box that had twenty tubs of play-doh and twenty-five accessories that Tony was inspecting.

“I need to make an impression on him. A good one.”

“You’d do that if you bought him a cheap piece of shit. You’re still giving him a present, he won’t care how big it is, as long as he can play with it. This will be fine. Now come on before everything I’ve bought goes to waste.”

Harry added the smaller play-doh kit to the trolley and then walked off in the direction of the checkouts, this time making sure that Tony was following him.

Of course the cashier was just as star-struck and just as surprised to see Tony Stark, the actual Ironman, in this particular store, or any store at all for that matter.

“Can you please just ring up the items before half of it spoils?” Harry demanded. “I am never bringing you here again.” He added to Tony.

“I didn’t want to come this time.” Tony told him honestly.

Harry sighed and turned back to the cashier. He rose an unimpressed eyebrow and the poor boy immediately went back to scanning Harry’s items through.

“Not that one.” Tony said, picking up the play-doh before the cashier could. “I need to pay for that one.”

Harry felt a headache forming and he rubbed his head. He packed everything into two bags, as he was sure he would be left carrying them, while Tony paid for the play-doh himself. He knew that it would end up all over the news that Tony Stark had gone into a supermarket to buy play-doh. Harry’s face would be splashed all over it too, he hated paparazzi and the glitzy magazines they served.

He was thankful to be on his way back home, Tony proudly carrying his carrier bag of play-doh. Harry almost wished that he’d said Tony couldn’t buy anything for Teddy, but that would have just been spiteful, and it wouldn’t have helped the situation at all. He hated this situation so fucking much.

His phone started ringing and he groaned.

“Is that going to be your work?” Tony asked.

“It’s Hermione’s number. It’s probably Teddy.” Harry said, answering. “He…”

‘Harry!’ Teddy’s voice screamed down the phone, cutting him off.

“Hi, Ted-bear. How are you, sweetie?”

‘I at your house now.’ He said before giggling.

“I’ll be there soon, okay, honey?”

‘There’s lots of people.’

“I know, they’re all friendly though, they won’t hurt you.”

‘Nuh-uh. Uncle Charlie and Uncle Ron are here. So is Auntie Mione and Auntie Luna. And Nana here too.’

“Oh, so you have lots of people looking after you. Have they introduced you to everyone?”

‘Yuh-huh.’ Teddy answered. Harry could almost see him nodding his head.

“I’ll be home soon, honey. We can play then.”

‘Dinner!’

Harry chuckled. “Yes, then we’ll have dinner and you’re staying at mine, if you still want to.”

‘I do! I do!’

Harry grinned. He’d known exactly what Teddy was going to say. The little squirt loved sleeping over at his and any excuse to stay was used. Sometimes it wasn’t possible with Harry working, but he wasn’t working today or tomorrow, so he would happily have Teddy tonight and drop him back off with Andy tomorrow afternoon, but Teddy was used to that routine now and Harry already knew that he would be up later than usual just to try and get as much time with him as possible.

“Alright then, Teeny. I’ll see you soon, okay? Ask Auntie Mione to put some cartoons on for you.”

‘Captain!’ Teddy screeched and Harry heard a thud as Teddy dropped the phone to the floor.

Harry laughed.

‘Harry?’

“Hey, Hermione. We’re almost home, just stick Captain America on, it’s all downloaded onto the box.”

‘Okay. Did Stark survive?’

Harry cut a look to Tony, who was listening.

“Just barely, but truly I think it’s all this walking more than shopping. He liked playing with the watermelons.”

“I’ve never seen so many watermelons in a box before.” Tony tried to defend himself. It made Harry grin.

“I’ll see you soon, Hermione.”

‘Do you want tea when you get back?’

“Oh, you know that I do. I’ll play with Teddy for half an hour, then I’ll start dinner.”

‘Okay. I’ll put his cartoons on and get your tea ready.’

Harry clicked the phone off and put it back in his pocket, shuffling the one shopping bag back into his other hand.

“Right, come on you. I want to introduce you to Teddy. For what notice he’ll give you now that his beloved Captain America will be on. I wonder if he’s brought out his teddy bear Captain to watch it with. That’ll make poor Steve so uncomfortable.” Harry laughed.

“He’s good with kids.” Tony said. “He’s always been good with his younger fans. It’s the women that frighten Steve. He’s a virgin you know.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that. I’d be a virgin if I hadn’t panicked in my teens about looking so normal.”

“Right, how does this asexuality thing work?”

Harry looked at Tony. “What do you want to know?” He asked.

“I guess I just don’t really understand.”

“Well, you know when you look at a beautiful woman, how do you feel?”

“I like them. I can appreciate them, of course. Some of them I want to take to bed…”

“That’s where the differences start.” Harry said. “I don’t get that last one. I can see beauty, I can appreciate it, I have never looked at anyone and wanted to take them to bed. I’ve never felt sexually aroused by other people. I just…yeah, that never happened for me. I forced it when I was a teenager. I wanted so badly to be normal. After that, I knew that I never could be. I felt like I could never do that again. I was almost sick during, and just thinking of it now does make my stomach turn.”

“So…how are we going to handle the…”

“The consummation.” Harry sighed when Tony hesitated.

“I can’t…I can’t let anyone penetrate me. I wouldn’t…”

“I can bottom if you want to top, Tony, seeing as it makes absolutely no difference to me. I suppose we’ll just have to do what we need to, with a sick bucket each.”

“I’m not even sure I can…rise to the occasion.”

“Oh, I can give you medication for that. It should be alright.”

“Can you get an erection?”

Harry laughed. “I’m asexual, it’s not a physical issue. I still get hard and I do masturbate from time to time. Mostly for stress relief more than sexual relief, but I assure you everything does actually work as it should.”

“Right, so Viagra for me and lie back and think of England for you.” Tony quipped.

Harry sighed. “It’ll be once, Tony. Once because we’re forced to. That doesn’t make you gay or bisexual, just as it doesn’t make me any less asexual.”

“That’s the thing, I’m a very sexual person and I’m going to be forced to sleep with only you for the rest of my life.”

Harry was shocked, and a little horrified, as he snapped his head to stare at Tony.

“You’re not…you’re not saying that you want more sex from me, more than just the consummation?”

“What else are you suggesting? Those adultery clauses speak for themselves.”

“No. No! Tony, I can’t. I can barely get through the thought of the consummation. I couldn’t…I couldn’t again.”

“We’re going to have to compromise.”

“I’ll compromise with you. You can have my fist in your face!” Harry hissed. “It’s not happening.”

“I don’t want to have sex with you either! But…”

“Then don’t! I don’t want to have sex with you once, but I can handle that, it’s just the once and we’re being forced to. After that, no. It’s not going to happen.”

Harry ignored Tony after that, not responding to any of his words, and speeding up so that he reached home sooner. He needed another few drops of calming draught, and maybe a stomach settler too, because the thought of being talked into more sex with Tony was making him feel ill.

He switched both bags to the one hand again and fished out his house key while he was still walking down the path. He couldn’t wait to get in the house and snag Hermione for a chat, but first he knew he needed to greet Teddy, so he forced a smile as he unlocked the door and walked in, leaving the door open for Tony, even though he really wanted to just slam it shut in his face and leave him outside.

“I’m home! Where is my Ted-Bear at?”

Harry heard the scream from the living room and he grinned genuinely, not having to force anything, as Teddy came running into the hallway from the living room, his little arms already outstretched.

“Harry!” He cried out, as Harry crouched down and let his godson bowl into him.

Harry stood with Teddy in the crook of his arm, holding on tight.

“Hello, Teddy. How are you, Teeny?”

“I’m happy. I love being with you.”

Harry kissed Teddy as he carried him back into the living room. “I love you being here too. Go on, back to your cartoons. I need to put all of this away.”

Harry dumped Teddy back over the settee and tried not to smirk as he saw the Captain America teddy bear that Teddy picked up and sat in his lap as he went back to the cartoon.

“Is Tony still alive?” Hermione asked.

“I almost lost him in a crate of watermelons, and I almost shoved him in front of a bus on the walk home, but he’s still alive.” Harry said quietly, so that Teddy wouldn’t hear him.

“What did he say?” Charlie demanded.

“Later. Not in front of Teddy.” Harry insisted.

“I have those, Harry. Go and see Teddy.” Hermione said, taking the two shopping bags from him.

“Has Ginny arrived yet?” He asked.

“You’d have heard her before now if she had.” Ron told him, and Harry was forced into grinning.

He went to sit beside Teddy, who was surprisingly watching his Captain America cartoons with Luna, and a suitably horrified Steve.

Harry picked up his godson and sat himself down before cuddling the three year old on his lap, one hand automatically going to stroke through his beautiful brown hair. Hermione had called Andromeda to tell her of the situation and the need for Teddy to be placed under a suppressor that hid his abilities from Muggles. Teddy hated not being able to express himself, but now that he was getting older he was understanding a little more about why he needed to wear a suppressor in front of Muggles. He still didn’t like it though, but at least he didn’t scream anymore like he had when he was a baby.

“Harry, I like this one.” Teddy told him.

“Do you like this episode, love?” Harry asked, looking at the screen.

“Yuh.”

Teddy had brought his bear, who was dressed like Captain America, with him and was snuggling that on his lap, much like how Harry was cuddling him.

“Are you enjoying the show, Steve?” Harry teased.

“It’s…wonderful.” He said, with a quick glance to Teddy, who was watching him and waiting for his answer. Harry just knew that Steve would have probably said something else.

“Steve likes Captain!” Teddy declared.

“Does he?” Harry asked brightly, trying not to die of suppressed laughter.

“Yuh.” Teddy said and Harry kissed him and directed him back to the TV.

“Are you disturbed or horrified?” Harry asked with a chuckle.

“This…this isn’t me!” Steve whispered.

Harry shook his head. “Of course not, Steve. But Captain America is first and foremost a brand. Not a person. This is Captain America at his finest. Not plain old Steve Rogers. You might be Captain America, but Captain America is not Steve Rogers. I wouldn’t let it bother you, Steve.”

Steve nodded and settled himself more and Harry went back to stroking Teddy’s hair and back. He gave a smile to Luna on his other side, but it fell when he saw Tony standing by the door acting like Teddy was a bomb that would explode.

“Will you stop hovering? You’re making me nervous!” Harry said to him.

“Can I give him the…”

“Not yet, Tony.” Harry said, noticing that Tony was holding the little play-doh kit. “After dinner, or he won’t want to eat.”

“Oh. Oh!” Tony turned and handed the kit off to, Harry assumed that it was Pepper, before coming back into the room without it.

Harry rolled his eyes. “Luna, go and check on Hermione, please?”

“Of course.” Luna said easily, standing up.

Harry patted the settee and Tony gingerly sat down next to him. He was still staring at Teddy as if he were a different species. Teddy was staring right back at Tony, cuddling his Captain America bear.

“Uh…hi.” Tony greeted, giving a strange, half wave of his hand, as if he wasn’t sure he should even be waving. Harry wanted to laugh, but he didn’t.

“Hello.” Teddy said politely.

“I’m Tony.”

“I Teddy.” The three year old said back.

“I like your bear.”

“My fav’ite.” Teddy said, mashing his face into the bear.

“You like Captain America?” Tony asked.

Teddy nodded. “Toons!” He said, pointing.

“I can see. Do you like the other Avengers?”

Teddy blinked and then looked at Harry.

“He doesn’t know who the Avengers are, only Captain America. The cartoons are everywhere, and he found them and he loved them. So now he’s Captain America mad.”

“Wanta shield.”

“You want a shield?” Harry asked with a laugh. “I don’t know, love, I think it might end up bigger than you are.”

“Littler one.”

“You want a smaller one?”

“I could make him one.” Tony offered.

“Make it out of foam and plastic, Tony. I mean it, if you give him anything metal that can hurt him…”

“I can do that. I can get him a proper shield, but make it child friendly, I know I could.”

“I’m pretty sure you could make anything if you put your mind to it.” Harry insisted.

“Was that a compliment?” Tony asked.

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Harry answered. “I need to go and start dinner.”

Harry put Teddy on Tony’s lap, smirking at the look of panic on the older man’s face, and he stood up and went into the kitchen.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

“How are you feeling?” Ron asked, coming to Harry and throwing an arm around him.

“Alright. I need some tea.”

“Oh, right here.” Hermione said, turning and picking up Harry’s favourite mug from the counter and handing it over.

Harry took a deep drink and sighed happily. “Tea makes everything better.” He declared.

“Do you want us to go and play devil’s advocate?” Hermione asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Tony’s under control and I actually trust Steve to step in if he needs a hand. I like Steve, when he’s not attacking my egg splicing process.”

“Well, at least you like one of them.” Charlie chuckled.

“Bruce is nice too, I suppose.” Harry allowed with a grin. “The others are up in the air, they mostly stay silent and let Pepper try to talk Tony out of the hole he’s talked himself into.”

Harry put his mug down within easy reach and he got the ingredients out of the fridge, and found the others on the counter and he started making dinner.

“Want a hand?” Hermione asked him. “Or do you need the stress relief?”

“I need the stress relief of slicing things up with a very sharp knife.”

His friends laughed and Harry laughed with them as he started the prep work, putting everything in the order he wanted it and he started by peeling garlic.

His friends let him be, going into the living room, knowing that he needed this time to sort out his thoughts. It was calming as he focused on cooking, he could hear Teddy laughing and shrieking, so he assumed that Ron or Charlie had started a game with him. He didn’t think anyone else would be so confident, not unless Teddy had wrangled them into it, which was entirely possible.

Harry startled when he turned around and found Natasha Romanoff leaning against the wall, watching him.

“Need something?” He asked.

“No.”

Harry stared at her. “Alright then.” He said, turning around and going back to what he was doing.

He was aware of her now, though, and the hair on his neck kept standing up and making him uncomfortable.

“Can you come and sit down or something?”

“Why does it make you uncomfortable?”

“It just does.” He said.

“Is it because I’m a woman?”

Harry laughed and shook his head. “No sexual desire, remember? You could be a man, a child, an elephant or a balloon and I still wouldn’t like it. You’re out of place.”

Natasha sauntered into the room and sat at the table. “Is that better?” She asked him.

“Yes, I’m used to people sitting at the table. People lurking behind me, not so much.”

“You’ve been attacked from behind before.”

Harry stiffened and scenes from the war flew through his mind. He took a breath and eased down, shaking those thoughts away.

“I was severely abused as a child. Anyone who approached me from behind was not doing so to be friendly. Those instincts, those memories, never go away, not even with continued, intense therapy. I’ll never be comfortable with people standing behind me, in my blind spots.”

“Of course, I’m sorry.”

Harry nodded and went back to preparing the two lasagnes, one made with meat, the other just vegetables. He’d made them both extra big, to accommodate the extra people.

Teddy came running into the room, all excited energy and big smiles. Harry hunched down quickly and caught Teddy by the waist.

“Honey, remember that you can’t run in the kitchen when I’m cooking. It’s dangerous.”

Teddy clapped a hand over his mouth and gasped.

“Harry, I’m sorry.” He said.

“I know. And I know that it was an accident. But you need to be more aware and you need to keep yourself safe.”

Teddy nodded. “I just want juice.”

“Do you want orange or blackcurrant?”

“Bena.”

“Ribena?” Harry asked with a smile.

Teddy nodded happily.

Harry swept him up and sat him on the booster seat that had been attached to a chair just for him. He went to the cupboard and he go out a plastic beaker and he made up some blackcurrant squash for the three year old before placing it in front of him and watching him drink for a moment before going back to making dinner.

“Are you making sana?”

“Lasagne, yes. Do you want garlic bread?”

“Yuh! Lots.”

Harry laughed and nodded. “Okay.”

Once in the oven, Harry could pick up Teddy and take him back into the living room. He sat down on the floor and sent Teddy to get some toys.

“Dinner will be in forty minutes.” He announced.

“Ginny will be here in five.” George announced.

“George, you should have come and said hi.” Harry said, standing back up and going to hug him.

“You were cooking, you hate us picking at what you’re making and I have no control around your food.”

Harry laughed. “Then it’s probably a good thing you stayed in here. I’d have hated to chop off a finger for stealing from my chopping board.”

“Don’t lie, you’d have loved it.” George told him.

That made Harry laugh harder.

“See, there’s a small, evil gnomish side to him that just wants to cut off fingers.”

“Who are you calling a gnome you one-eared git?” Harry demanded.

“I only meant your head looks a little bit like a lopsided potato.” George insisted innocently.

“That’s it, your plate is being poisoned.” Harry said with a grin.

“You can’t poison me. I’m the only one here with a sense of humour.”

“That’s debatable.” Charlie told his brother.

“No it’s not! I own a bloody joke shop. Of course I’m the only one here with a sense of humour.”

“I think it’s debatable if you have any sense at all.”

Harry turned to smile at Ginny as she walked into the room, her tight Quidditch leggings still on and a tank top that proudly declared her a member of the Holyhead Harpies.

“Ginny.” He said, going to hug her tight. She kissed his mouth and he let it go. They’d once tried to date, and it hadn’t worked, but he knew now that Ginny held no lingering feelings towards him. It was awkward, but it was better because he knew she no longer held any sexual, or otherwise, attraction to him.

“How are you, Harry? Where’s this crackpot you’re being forced to marry?”

“Over there.” Harry nodded to Tony, who had yet to take his gaze from Ginny’s legs. It made Harry feel very uncomfortable to see such blatant desire on anyone. He didn’t like it.

“Gin-Gin!” Teddy declared, rushing at her.

“Teddy bear!” She cried out, hunching down to swipe him into a hug and roll.

Teddy screeched and giggled and Harry smiled as he watched them rolling all over the floor. Ginny would make an amazing Mother one day.

“I smell food. Harry, what are you making?” Ginny asked, propping herself up over Teddy, who was flushed and giggling.

“Lasagne.” He answered, still smiling.

“Oh, you amazing god.” Ginny exclaimed. “Your lasagne is to die for!”

“Everything Harry makes is to die for.” Ron said seriously.

“You don’t need to butter me up, you’re all getting food.” Harry said with a grin.

“Even me!” Teddy exclaimed for the floor.

Harry hunched down by his head and tickled him. “Especially you. We need to feed you up.” He said over Teddy’s laughter and shrieks.

“Harry, no.” Teddy complained while giggling.

Harry stopped and picked him up, planting a kiss on Teddy’s cheek.

“I love you.” He said with a smile.

“Love you!” Teddy screeched back, little stick arms wrapping around Harry’s neck and squeezing.

Harry wrapped his own arms around Teddy and shook him gently. “Go on. Go and play.”

Teddy ran off to the toy box that Harry kept at his house for these occasions, but of course Teddy picked up a Captain America action figure and started saving a toy car from a pyramid that he’d made from blocks.

Harry sat back and he smiled to watch him. This was what childhoods should be about. Laughter and play. His own had been fear and pain, and he had sworn when he was first handed a newborn Teddy, holding that slight weight in his arms, that Teddy would know none of what Harry had. Of course Teddy had suffered young. He had lost both of his parents just a few days after he was born. He was still a tiny, wrinkled little baby and after the battle, Harry had gone to see him, to give Andromeda, whom he had been left with, the terrible news that not only had she lost her husband to this war, but she had also lost her daughter and son-in-law too.

He remembered Andy’s grief. The shocked, glassy quality to her face as she handed him Teddy and sunk onto a chair. Harry remembered awkwardly juggling the baby, worried about hurting or dropping him, to lay a hand on Andy’s arm. He still remembered the words he spoke to her.

‘I’m so sorry, Andromeda. So very sorry. I know it won’t make your grief any better, but they died to make the world a better place for their son. They died to give him the freedom to grow up in a world not oppressed by darkness and evil. They died for a reason and I know, that if given the option to go back, even knowing how it ends, that they would do exactly the same thing again.’

Andromeda’s grief had been terrible to witness. She had shrunk into herself, all but collapsed, and Harry had been forced to step up and take Teddy. Missus Weasley had been a massive help to him, when Harry had never before been expected to care for a newborn baby. She had shown him what he needed to do, how to feed him, change him, bathe him, dress him, wind him. Everything. Under her tutelage he’d gained more confidence with baby Teddy, and yes, in those early days he used to crouch low to the floor, put cushions all around him just in case. He used to use a thermometer to test Teddy’s milk and bath water, instead of trusting his own skin. He second guessed everything that he did in relation to Teddy and his care, but he’d soon gotten over that. He’d become confident and more self-assured. He started trusting in his own decisions and his own judgement and very soon he took away the cushions and stood tall with Teddy in his arms. He stopped testing everything several times with thermometers and temperature charms and started trusting his own common sense. He’d started enjoying his time with Teddy, instead of fretting that he was going to hurt, or even kill, the tiny baby.

Andromeda had recovered from her grief…or perhaps that was the wrong word to use, you could never recover from something like that, but she had gotten used to the pain, the emptiness, and she had learned to carry on while carrying it with her. She had thrown herself into her only grandchild, baby Teddy, and Harry had offered himself as a willing guardian. A real godfather.
He’d written his mobile number down and put it next to Andy’s phone. Having been married to a Muggle man, Andy knew exactly how to use a phone, and he’d told her firmly that anything she needed, day or night, then she was to call him. If she needed a moment, if Teddy wouldn’t settle, she was to call him and as he had his mobile on him at all times, she would always reach him. That had been the lifeline that she’d needed and in the early days she had called him several times throughout the day to take Teddy, or even to just sit with him while she took a moment. Harry hadn’t minded in the slightest. Of course it was frustrating when he was trying to build up his company, or in the middle of research or developing, but he would stop, check himself, and calm himself down…family was always more important. Always.

“Harry.” A soft voice called out to him and he blinked.

He turned his head to look at Hermione.

“There you are. Are you okay?” She asked.

“Did I do it again?”

“You mean sitting there staring gormlessly at the wall? Yes.” Ron pointed out.

“You can’t call anyone gormless.” Ginny put in from Harry’s other side.

Harry rubbed his face and centred himself again.

“Sorry.” He sighed.

“You don’t have to be sorry. What brought it on this time? Do you want to say?”

“Watching Teddy.” Harry said. “I was just thinking that he’d never have a childhood like mine.”

Both girls on either side of him wrapped an arm around him and squashed him between them.

“I’m alright.” He insisted. “Just…just thinking too hard, as usual.”

“We’d never let anyone hurt Teddy.” Ginny said. “Or Victoire. The next generation will not go through what we have, what you have.”

Harry smiled at her and turned to give her a kiss. Ginny smiled at him and hugged him tighter.

“Neville has sent me a message, he apologises but he can’t make it. He says next week definitely.” Hermione told him.

Harry nodded. “Might be for the best. We’re already at capacity as it is.” He laughed.

“The boys have sorted out the tables outside. So that’s done at least.”

“Thanks, Hermione.” Harry said. He sighed. “I suppose I better go and make sure dinner hasn’t burnt.”

He pushed himself up, ignored everyone who was staring, mostly the Avengers, and he went into the kitchen to check on dinner. It was bubbling away in the oven and he smiled happily. At least his little moment hadn’t ruined dinner too.

He put the six garlic baguettes into the oven after taking out the two lasagnes, and he left them both to rest on the counter while he started making up a side salad into two large bowls.

He pushed all thoughts away and just sunk into the feel of slicing and chopping. He felt better when he was finished and his head no longer felt so heavy.

“Guys, dinner’s up!” He shouted.

Teddy was the first to come careening into the kitchen, but as soon as his feet hit the tile floor, he slowed to a walk, and he went around the table, away from the oven.

“Good boy, Teddy. Well done for remembering to be safe in the kitchen.” Harry praised him easily.

“Come here, bear, we’ll get you settled outside.” George said, as he followed Teddy and swept him up into his arms, carrying him out the back.

“We’re eating outside?” Tony asked.

Harry smiled at him. “You’re an engineer. Did you really think this little table would fit all of us?” Harry asked, pointing to the six seater table in the middle of the room.

“I didn’t think of it.” Tony said with a shrug.

Harry snorted. “No, we’re eating outside. Though do me a favour, grab this and take it with you.”

Harry handed over a bowl of salad, but Tony flinched and leapt back as if Harry had offered him a spitting viper. Harry only just managed to catch the bowl before it hit the floor. Some of the salad had spilt out and Harry glared at Tony.

“I didn’t think salad was that offensive. Or is it actually doing something to help others that’s the problem?”

“Tony doesn’t like being handed things.” Pepper said, immediately inserting herself into the situation and taking the bowl of salad.

“Too many subpoenas?” Harry quipped, hunching down and using his hands to pick up the dropped bits of lettuce and tomato from the floor. He went to drop it into his food recycling and tried not to get too angry. It was difficult after the moment he’d had not half an hour before. Slipping into a flashback like that always put him into a bad mood. He tried to push it away.

“Can I take anything for you?” Steve asked, the picture of helpfulness.

Why the hell couldn’t the marriage contract have been with him? He didn’t think that Steve would ever pressure him into anything or make him feel like a freak for not wanting to have sex. Tony wasn’t even gay, but he still wanted sex from him. It turned his stomach to think about it. Somehow he just didn’t think Steve would have behaved in the same way.

“You can take anything on this counter.” Harry said, pointing to the jugs of water, the other salad bowl and the four plates piled high with sliced garlic bread fresh from the oven.

Harry himself started using a knife to slice the two lasagnes into portions, so that they could be removed easily. Charlie came into get one of those, while Tony made sure that Harry saw him carrying out a jug of water.

Bruce grabbed the other lasagne and Harry sighed and smiled. He’d managed to make it through the cooking without burning anything, that could only be considered a positive, as he made up another beaker of fruit squash for Teddy and carried that out to find the table a hive of activity as everyone served themselves as usual.

Harry went and placed the beaker down for Teddy, and he served him himself, getting him the specially cut piece of lasagne that was half the size of the others, spooned on some salad and then got him three pieces of garlic bread.

“There you go, honey.” He said, dropping a kiss to Teddy’s head.

“Thank you.” Teddy said, immediately going for the garlic bread.

“This is unlike anything I’ve ever done before.” The quiet Avenger said…his name was Clint, Harry remembered.

“Welcome to family get-togethers!” George shouted out. “It doesn’t matter whose house you go to, this is near enough how it ends up. Only Harry is the best cook out of everyone!”

“Your Mum is the best cook!” Harry shouted back.

“Only because she makes you treacle tarts!” Charlie added.

“I will bow down to anyone who makes me treacle tarts!” Harry insisted with a laugh.

He started serving himself and then everything got quieter, as they all started eating. Harry sat right beside Teddy, just to make sure he didn’t choke and to be on hand if he needed any help. It was just gone five in the evening, so it was still light outside, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly bright or hot. It was the perfect time of the day, and Harry did have a large garden. It was much longer than it was wide, but there was more than enough space.

The food was finished, second helpings were eaten, jokes and laughter was abound, people were talking, and it was nice. Really, really nice. Teddy, having the smallest stomach, was done well before everyone else, and Harry let him go and play on his garden playground. It was only a climbing frame, a little bridge, a swing and a slide, but Teddy liked it and Harry watched him like a hawk as he played, just in case.

“You really are a good cook.” Steve told him.

Harry turned to smile. “Thank you. I was forced to do it when I was a child, so I learnt young how to cook. I learnt to enjoy it once I was free of those people and I could actually eat what I’d made instead of being made to watch and slowly starve.”

“I wish you’d tell me where they are so I could go and snuff them out.” Ron growled protectively.

“Violence isn’t the answer, Ron. Hurting them won’t make up for what they did to me. Revenge never makes anyone feel better in the end. It would probably make me feel worse, actually, knowing that they also cost me my best mate, who would end up in prison.”

Ron groaned. “Stop being so Hermione-ish.”

“Excuse me?” Hermione demanded.

Harry laughed. “He means logical. You were always the logical one of us. He’s not used to me being logical, we were always the hot headed ones. You were the one who would step back and think things through, us two would just jump right in, no plan, no thinking, just reacting.”

“You’ve grown up since then.” Hermione said. “Unfortunately the same can’t be said for you.” She directed at Ron, which made his brothers, and Ginny, laugh at him.

“Harry! Watch me!” Teddy called out, and Harry turned immediately to check on him.

“I’m watching.” He said, smiling as the little boy giggled at having so much attention on him as he bunny hopped over the little bridge. Harry laughed. “Well done, Teddy.” He said. “That looks like so much fun.”

“Is!” Teddy called back. “Watch me.”

“I’m still watching.” Harry assured him.

Teddy grinned at him and then threw himself down his slide on his belly, head first. Harry’s heart leapt into his throat, but he calmed himself down as Teddy just shrieked in laughter and stood to run back around to do it again.

“Oh, my heart.” Harry complained, thunking his head to the table.

Luna patted his back for him.

“He’s fine, Harry.” Charlie told him.

“I know. I know he’s fine and fearless and wonderful, but the doctor in me just really doesn’t want him to do things like that.”

“At least you silence the doctor side of yourself and let him make his own mistakes.” Hermione said approvingly.

Harry nodded. “It’s important for him to learn from his own mistakes. I know that. Still doesn’t stop me aging a decade every time I find him swinging from the curtains, throwing himself down stairs or dancing on the bloody roof.”

“To be fair that last one was only once.” Luna pointed out.

“Once was enough.” Harry insisted, shuddering at the memory. “Damn kid will be the death of me.”

“Stop complaining and go and get dessert.” Ron told him.

Harry laughed. “You suck as a friend.”

“Hey, I cuddle you when you demand it.” Ron grinned.

“Hmm, I suppose that you do give good body contact.”

Harry chuckled and took several plates back into the kitchen. Luna and George automatically helped and so did Steve.

“Steve, you’re technically a guest, you don’t need to do that.” Harry said.

“My Mother would rise from her grave to give me an earful if I didn’t.” Steve said with a sad smile.

Harry smiled at him too. Steve was a nice guy, Harry was finding that he really liked him. Especially after Hermione had pointed out that he was technically ninety years old and that maybe he just didn’t understand what IVF was, and needed it to be explained to him properly. Harry would do so if he was asked, until then, he was feeling calm and rather forgiving.

“Thank you.” He said softly, taking the dishes and leaving them by the sink. He would charm them to clean themselves later, when the Muggles were gone.

He took out a massive chocolate and cream cake from the fridge and George actually moaned.

“I love you so much, Harry. Marry me instead.”

Harry laughed. “Angelina would skin me alive, George. No thanks.”

“She has been so moody lately.” George sighed.

“She’s not pregnant is she?” Luna asked innocently, but Harry saw the lightbulb go off over George’s head.

“Oh hell, she might be.” Harry said with a laugh.

George looked stunned and he nodded his head.

“Congratulations.” Luna said brightly.

Harry just laughed harder. “Oh hell, she’s going to murder you before she gives birth, you know that, right?”

“Mum is going to murder me when she finds out and breaks my neck in a hug.” George said, thrusting a hand through his hair. “Damn, how do I broach this with Angelina?”

“She probably already knows, George.” Harry said. “She might just be trying to find a way to tell you, especially if you haven’t shown any interest in having children, or you haven’t picked up on any hints she’s been trying to give you. Just mention how much fun you had tonight with Teddy, maybe slip in that you’d like one of your own, and remain calm and supportive when she tells you.”

George nodded, looking less panicked. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.” He said. “I…I might actually be a Father.”

“Congratulations if you are.” Harry smiled. “But keep in mind that she might just have a lot on her mind and she’s moody from that.”

“No. She’s been feeling sick in the mornings and she won’t eat certain things anymore. I…looking back I really should have twigged. She’s fucking pregnant.” George said, looking more excited this time.

Harry laughed. “I am a doctor, so if Angie wants to come to me for a check-up, I promise not to make it weird. But I think you should go home and talk to her.”

“Give me cake first.” George demanded.

Harry laughed harder and he nodded, turning to get a large knife to cut two pieces.

“Here.” He said, handing over both slices on a piece of kitchen roll with a grin. “Make sure Angelina actually gets one of them.”

George left quickly with a wave and Harry shook his head.

“Crazy. This entire family is crazy.” Harry said with a laugh.

“You’re crazy too, you fit right in.” Luna told him.

Harry shook his head and looked to Steve.

“This is normal. I assure you.” Harry said, laughing.

“It’s nice.” Steve insisted. “You’re all like a real family.”

“You could be family too.” Luna pointed out. “Tony and Harry will be married, that will make you family as well.”

Harry sighed. “Just my luck that I’m marrying the worst one here.”

“Tony isn’t all bad.” Steve said, sticking up for his team mate. “He…he just has a very strange way of dealing with things, especially if they’re sprung on him. He likes to take his time to figure out how to deal with something and this situation is just making him stressed. He’s not usually this bad. Trust me, I started out hating him too, then it was a rather severe dislike, but he has a way of growing on you, especially when you witness him almost dying to save the world.”

“He’s walling himself in to protect himself from being hurt?” Harry asked, trying to determine if he could figure out how Tony worked.

Steve looked relieved. “Yes! He does that.”

“So he’s hurting me to try and stop himself from being hurt? Great. That really needs to stop. I can’t sort this situation out if he’s not meeting me half way, and walling himself up is not going to get anything done.”

“I can talk to him, if you want me too.”

“I think we’ve talked enough for one day. He’s barely gone near Teddy tonight. I just…” Harry shook his head. “He’s not the easiest man to talk to, or to get along with. At this point I’m resigning myself to an unhappy marriage and a child I don’t want when Tony’s no longer around. It’s the only way I’ll be able to keep my sanity. I’m giving him chances to prove himself, and he’s just not taking them.”

“I’ll talk to him tonight, if it’s alright for us to come back tomorrow, of course.”

“Sure, I’ve taken the day off tomorrow, especially with those eggs finally being implanted into surrogates. I want to spend some of it with Teddy, so I’m taking him out in the morning, but he’ll have a nap at midday, you can come then.” Harry said, throwing his hand through his hair before flattening his fringe automatically. “I wanted this sorted today. Why does nothing ever go the way I want it to?”

“Come on, Harry. Let’s go and serve everyone cake and we’ll talk more about it later, once Teddy is in bed.” Luna told him softly.

Harry nodded and turned to the back door, carrying the cake and the knife out into the garden, Luna following with a stack of plates. Ron cheered when he saw dessert.

Harry laughed and shook his head at his friends’ response to his dessert.

“Freshly made this morning, for your enjoyment.” He grinned, as he placed it on the table and took up the knife.

“You’re a mad baker, Harry.” Charlie said. “That cake is phenomenal.”

“Who doesn’t like chocolate and cream?” Harry asked with a smirk as he sliced the cake as equally as he could manage and handing out plates.

“Teddy, come and grab some cake!” Hermione called out.

Teddy, who couldn’t be seen from the table, popped up out of nowhere to come running to the table chanting ‘cake’ over and over. It made Harry laugh.

Harry cut a thinner, smaller piece for him and got him sat down. Of course Teddy mashed his hand straight into it and then put his hand right into his mouth. It made Harry grin at him. He fucking loved that little boy.

“You really are a good cook.” Tony told him. “A good baker too.”

Harry hummed. “I do prefer baking to cooking, but then I always did have a large sweet tooth. It doesn’t help that I was never fed as a child, let alone allowed sweets or cakes or ice cream. So now I overcompensate and I do have more sweet things than maybe I should, strictly speaking, since I’m a doctor.”

“Healer.” Teddy corrected.

“That’s right, Teddy. I heal people and make them feel better.” He said with a smile, bending to kiss a cake free patch of skin, hoping no one questioned Teddy’s correction.

Most Muggles didn’t. They assumed that Teddy was just a child and didn’t understand such things. And they blamed some of his more outrageous claims, such as magic and dragons, and the fact that he could change his hair and eye colour at will, as just childish imagination or a pretend game. They laughed it off and patted him on the head as if he were the most adorable thing they’d ever seen, and they praised him on his imagination and creativity.

“Does anyone want after dinner tea or coffee?” Harry asked when the cake was finished.

“Want tea.” Teddy announced.

“Okay, I’ll get you a cup of chamomile.” Harry told him. “You need a bath and you can play for an hour, and then it’ll be time for a bedtime story and bed.”

“Do I go back to Nana’s tomorrow?” Teddy asked.

“No, I’m not working, honey. You’re staying with me tomorrow.”

Teddy looked so excited that Harry felt bad for not doing this more often. He needed to make more time for Teddy, and he swore to do just that.

“We go out?”

“Yes, I’m taking you out, as always.” Harry smiled.

Teddy cheered and started running around the table. Harry laughed and shook his head.

“Come on, bath time.” Harry said. “After you come back I think Tony has a present for you.”

“I get present too?” Teddy asked, stopping by Harry’s chair and looking over at Tony.

“Sure, kiddo. I got you something earlier, because I’m a new person.”

“Want it now.” Teddy insisted.

“After your bath.” Harry said. “You wanted tea too.”

“You go and bathe him and I’ll get the tea.” Hermione insisted.

“Thanks, Hermione.” Harry said, taking Teddy’s hand and pulling him to the house.

Charlie and Ron were already stacking plates and collecting cutlery from the table. Everything would be sorted and stored back in its original place by the time he was done.

“How did you get cake down your shirt?” Harry despaired as he pulled the top from Teddy to find his chest smeared with chocolate.

Teddy just giggled at him and Harry shook his head, stripping the three year old and hefting him over into the bath. Teddy went for the bath toys and Harry went for the body wash.

He enjoyed playing a few games with Teddy, in between washing him and his hair, before he hefted him out with the promise of tea before bed. Teddy reminded him so much of Remus that way. Remus had loved tea too and Harry definitely encouraged it in his son.

He got Teddy into his Captain America onesie and carried him downstairs and into the living room, where a tiny tea cup was waiting for Teddy, and a normal cup was waiting for Harry.

“Want present, please.” Teddy said as soon as he saw Tony.

Harry offloaded the three year old as he walked past and Teddy giggled as he ended up on Tony’s lap.

“I…oh. Well, I just got this for you.” Tony said, holding his hand out, and Pepper brought the play-doh set out from her handbag and placed it by Tony’ hand, who picked it up and handed it to Teddy.

“Pay-doh!” Teddy cheered. “Thank you. Open it.”

Tony opened the box and gave Teddy the three pots of play-doh and the little cutters that came with the kit.

Teddy squirmed and slipped to the floor and he went to play on the coffee table. He stopped a moment later to take a drink from his cup before going back to playing with the colourful dough and Harry chuckled and shook his head, grabbing his own cup and taking a deep gulp.

Everything was quiet for several minutes, as everyone sipped their after dinner drinks, watching Teddy as he played and sculpted with his play-doh, making what he called a dog, but it looked more like a green log with four branches coming out of it.

“Are we going to speak more about why we’re here?” Pepper asked eventually, once everyone’s cup was empty.

“No.” Harry said. “You can come back tomorrow afternoon, if you’d like. But we’re done for the day.”

Pepper stood and the Avengers followed her lead.

“Thank you for having us.” Steve said politely. “And thank you for dinner.”

“No problem, Steve. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Harry said easily.

He saw them all out quickly after that and it was actually a relief to shut the door on them.

“Do you want to tell us why you came back from the store so angry?” Charlie asked.

Harry shook his head. “No. Not yet. Let me get Teddy settled in bed first.”

“Five more minutes!” Teddy insisted from the coffee table.

Harry laughed. That was definitely a learned phrase. “You have ten more minutes.” He said.

Teddy nodded and went back to playing with the play-doh, ripping it and cutting it. Watching him play, so carefree, made Harry feel bittersweet. He loved Teddy, loved watching him playing, but he knew that it shouldn’t be him sat here watching him. It should be Remus and Tonks.

Harry left Teddy to play for fifteen minutes, while he drank his tea, and joked about with his friends. But all too soon he was hefting Teddy up, ignoring his pleads to play for just five more minutes, and got him upstairs and into his bed.

He let Teddy choose his story, once he’d calmed down about his play-doh, which Harry assured him would still be there tomorrow.

Teddy fell asleep shortly before Harry finished the story and he sat still for several minutes, just enjoying the slight weight of Teddy sleeping against him.

He sighed and shifted Teddy to the pillow, covering him over and standing up. He turned and kissed a soft cheek before he left the bedroom, leaving the door ajar, to let in a thin line of light from the landing. He cast a barrier charm on the top of the stairs as he walked down them, to stop Teddy from falling down them while he was having tea in the living room.

“Come on then, tell us what he did.” Ginny insisted as Harry came into the living room, sitting back in his seat and nodding gratefully at his friends, one of whom had refreshed his tea.

“He doesn’t like the adultery clause.” Harry said wearily as he settled himself back on the settee.

“You don’t have the power to change it.” Hermione said. “Just like he can’t change anything about this contract either.”

“He knows that.” Harry said, before taking a drink of tea.

“What does he want then?” Ron asked, but Harry could see from Hermione’s face that she was on the right track.

“He doesn’t…tell me that he doesn’t want…” She whispered in a horrified stutter.

Harry nodded. “He wants regular sex from me.”

“He can’t do that!” Ginny burst out furiously. “You don’t fucking like it!”

“He believes that we have to compromise on it. I don’t want it at all, he likes sex a lot. So we have to compromise to regular sex which is more than I want, but less than what he wants. The thought of it makes me want to say bollocks to this contract. I’ll lose everything except the company, losing Godric’s Hollow will be a massive blow, the potential loss of Gringotts, and other investors who’ll follow might throw the company into turmoil, but with the testing for the men B vaccine going really well, more investors will come to the company, I’m sure, especially if the two surrogates now carry to term.”

“Is that truly the path you want to take?” Hermione asked softly.

“No. None of this is what I wanted, Hermione, but what else can I do? The consummation is going to traumatise me enough, without having to put up with what amounts to spousal rape whenever he clicks his fingers. I can’t let myself sink so low, not after what I’ve already suffered through in my life.”

“He needs to understand that you’re asexual, why does he not get that?” Charlie demanded angrily.

“He says I need to understand that he’s a sexual, that he is used to having a lot of sex and he can’t go the rest of his life with nothing and it’s not fair for him to have to. I understand where he’s coming from. I do. But I can’t do what he wants me to do. He doesn’t want me anyway, he’s not gay. It’s those damn adultery clauses. If he could just have whatever women he wanted, we could both put up with just the consummation and we’d never have to think of it again. With those adultery clauses…it means neither of us can have sex with anyone else while the other is alive.”

“Wasn’t that the clause that says if he cheats, then you get his company?” Ginny asked.

Harry nodded. “Yeah. If we break any of our marriage clauses, the injured party receives all the assets of the one who committed the misconduct. So it’ll be good for me, not so good for him. He’ll refuse to cheat because of that clause, but he’s going to push me for sex because I’m the only one he can have sex with.”

“That’s messed up.” Ron said, shaking his head.

“Just say no, Harry, otherwise you can get him done for rape.” Ginny pointed out. “Spousal rape is still rape and it’s still illegal.”

“That’s what these talks are for.” Harry said. “We talk it all out, probably sign another contract between ourselves on what we’ve agreed on, and if it breaks down on my side, he receives all the damages, and vice versa. That’s why his PA is writing everything down.”

“I don’t even know what to say.” Charlie said, shaking his head. “If he does pressure you, then you come to me and Bill, we’ll sort him out. If he actually rapes you though, that’s it, he’s a dead man.”

Harry sighed. “It’s all messed up. You wouldn’t be able to do it these days.”

“It wasn’t written in these days though, that’s where the loophole is.” Hermione sighed. “What are you going to do, Harry?”

“I’ll sleep on it, and we’ll see if tomorrow makes anything look better. At the least it’ll give me some more time to decide on things. Either way I lose something. Marry him and lose my freedom, probably my identity too, and be forced to have sex, or don’t marry him and lose my houses, my vaults, probably my company too if all my investors pull out at the same time. It’s a shit situation whatever way you look at it. I was right when I said it was a choice between which decision ruins my life more.”

“You know that we’ll all support you, no matter which choice you make.” Luna told him, turning herself and resting on Harry.

He sighed and threw an arm around her, snuggling her into his body.

“At least that damn contract can’t take you guys away from me.” He said softly. “If it did…” He stopped and reflected for a moment. What would be a life without his friends? He sighed again. “That would be it.” He told them. “If I lost you, suicide would be the best option. I wouldn’t want to live.”

Immediately all five of them started speaking and clamouring, speaking over one another, but Harry got the gist perfectly clear. They weren’t going anywhere. The contract couldn’t take them away. They would always be there for him, whenever he needed them. Or in Ron’s case ‘let them bloody try to keep us apart, mate.’

It made Harry smile, and he had to swallow hard before he could speak.

“You really are the greatest friends anyone could ever want.” He said, reaching out to grapple Ron into a hug on his other side. “That’s why life without you, any of you, wouldn’t be worth living. If this contract did take you away from me…I’d end it and go and join my parents, Sirius, Remus, all of them. I’ve always needed people around me. Not fake people, not the so-called fans and admirers who only know the stories, but you guys, who know me, the real me. I need my friends, my family.”

“We love you too.” Ginny said, reaching forward and putting a small hand on his knee. “We’re with you every step of the way, and like Luna said, whatever you decide, we’ll help you. Whether that decision is to marry him and you need us to help be a buffer and to keep him away from you, or if you don’t marry him and you need a bed to crash on and a meal in your belly. We’d never turn you away, Harry, not after all we’ve been through together.”

He smiled, feeling a little choked up. He had to swallow again. Who the fuck was Tony Stark compared to this? He had everything he needed, right here in this room, his friends who were like his family. He had Teddy to look after, he had Mister and Missus Weasley, Andromeda, little Victoire, Neville and Hannah, George and Angelina. He was surrounded by people he loved, who loved him in return. Nothing could beat that, and while he still had the people he loved, he was never really losing. Sure it would suck to lose everything, even the company he’d build from the ground up at seventeen, sixteen if you went right back to when he first proposed the idea to the Gringotts goblins, but it was all materialistic stuff. Things that could be replaced. He could get another job, would it be as fulfilling as what he was doing now? No, but it would be a job and he could slowly get back on his feet again, and maybe start Potter Pharmaceuticals back up in twenty years’ time, when he was in a more secure position.

He breathed out and absorbed the feeling of being loved and surrounded by his friends. Those few people who had gotten close enough to him to be considered his family. Whatever he chose to do, they would be with him, one hundred percent. Sometimes all you needed in life was the backing of those closest to you. Their love and support. Harry had that in spades, and now it was time to sit down and truly consider all of his options. It was time to make his decision. He just hoped that he made the right one in the end.

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Chapter Text

Chapter Five – Decision Time

Tony had had very little sleep. His hands were itching, aching to work on something. It had been over a week since he’d last worked on anything and it was driving him crazy. His mind was a hive of activity, he wanted to upgrade the Ironman armour, improve it, add things to it, create better weaponry, better everything. But he couldn’t. He was stuck here in London until this was sorted out. Stuck here until he had agreed to marry another man. The thought of it still made him feel queasy, but at least Potter wasn’t terrible to look at.

He’d been worried about that, especially after Pepper had said he was strange looking, but he understood now what she had meant. He was strange looking, no twenty-one year old should look that young. But it wasn’t a bad thing. It helped that Potter was small, slight and yes, Tony knew that it was from abuse, but it helped him out here, because he could close his eyes and pretend he was holding a woman. If he’d had to marry someone as big as Steve, covered in muscle, with a beard and a moustache, he’d have had a lot more trouble dealing with all of this and he wasn’t afraid to admit that.

Of course he would know that Potter was a man, there was no escaping that, it would just be easier for him to have someone smaller and slimmer than he was in bed with him as that was what he was used to and what he liked.

He knew he would have to finish off the talk they’d had yesterday, Steve had already sat him down and told him that Potter didn’t think he’d done enough with the kid, Teddy, but surprisingly Steve had fought his corner for him, and gotten Potter to agree to carry on speaking to him. He was very aware that time was running short though. They had just several weeks to plan everything out and talk about everything that they needed to and the both of them were stubborn and unwilling to compromise.

Potter was not who he had believed he would be. He’d come here thinking that the boy had wanted this contract activated, that he had held his silence about it out of some desire to be married to Tony Stark the name, not the man. He’d since learnt that the extreme opposite was true. Potter not only didn’t want this, but he wouldn’t lose his company if this contract wasn’t enforced. Which left it up to Tony to fight for his lifestyle, for his homes and property. For his company and Ironman. He was at the disadvantage, and yes, Potter had said that he didn’t want to lose the one house, the one his parents had been murdered in, but Tony had come to know the boy a little better after meeting him face to face several times, and he just knew that if it really did come down to it, and all of these talks failed and fell through, then Potter would sacrifice that house in order to escape the terms of the contract. It was up to Tony to convince him otherwise, and that was a scary thought, truly. He wasn’t used to this, he didn’t know how to do this sort of thing. He could talk people into buying his products, the weapons he used to create, because he knew exactly how they would work and what they would do. On this, he had no clue.

He was lost, unsure, and that was so not like him that it set his teeth on edge. He didn’t want to be here, he didn’t want to be in this situation and he didn’t want to marry another man…or have a baby with him for that matter. Though if they were going to have a baby, then he at least wanted to be in that baby’s life.

He sighed, mumbled to himself, and thrust a hand through his hair in aggravation. This entire situation was messed up. He blamed his grandfather, his father. He blamed Potter’s grandfather too. How dare they force him into this situation. How dare they even think that this was an acceptable form of payment for an investment loan. Tony would never have thought to have done this to anyone else. If he’d been an investor and his investment couldn’t be paid back to him when asked, he’d have taken the value out of the company, demanding that portions were sold off, not this.

This entire situation was horrifying. No one ever thought of a damn marriage contract…or a baby contract for that matter, to pay back a loan. Only Fleamont Potter had thought of it, and his grandfather had agreed. His own Father had screwed him over by not telling him of the contract, and by negating the terms of it when it had been his responsibility to fulfil the contract in the first place. It should have been his Father marrying James Potter, not him being forced to marry James’ twenty-one year old, asexual son.

He’d been reading up on that too, on Pepper’s instructions, and he was horrified that anyone could even live like that. Like with most things there were different levels, and Potter seemed to have it bad. Some people could have sex with a partner, but wouldn’t think to ask for sex themselves. Some enjoyed being in a relationship, as long as there was no sex. But some, like Potter it seemed, were so disgusted by the idea of sex that they couldn’t bring themselves to have it. He seemed to like cuddling and kissing, from what his friends had been saying, but anything at all sexual was repulsive to him.

It naturally made everything more difficult, because Tony was a very sexual person. They couldn’t be less suited to one another and that only made the situation worse.

He would go back today and talk to Potter though. If he could save everything he owned, he would at least try to put things into his own favour. Unfortunately Potter was a very shrewd businessman, despite being so young, and he would not make this any easier for Tony. He wouldn’t let Tony gain the upper hand or any sort of advantage in this situation…he held all of the cards and he knew it, and he was going to exploit it, and there was nothing that Tony could do about that.

Things would have gone much better if Potter had been a young nobody, just a regular twenty-one year old working minimum wage. He could have exploited that himself, used it to his advantage as much as possible. He didn’t like things being out of his control.

“How are you feeling?” Steve asked, sitting beside him, looking at him searchingly.

“How am I supposed to feel?” Tony replied waspishly, fed up of people asking him how he was feeling all the time.

Steve sighed and laid a hand on his arm. “We’re here for you, no matter how you’re feeling, and no matter what you decided to do.”

“I don’t have a choice, Capt.!” Tony burst out. “There’s only one choice, I’m being forced into it. Even SHIELD won’t help, all Fury said was to prevent the Ironman suits being auctioned off at all costs.”

“He’s not a bad person, Tony.” Steve said.

“He’s hiding something.” Tony said.

“I’ve found out through experience that everyone is always hiding something.” Steve said mildly. “That doesn’t mean that what he’s hiding is bad, just private.”

“His personal files are hidden, Steve. You don’t have your file hidden for good reasons. I’ve never even heard of the DMLE that was mentioned, Pepper looked for it and nothing came up, not a single search result to even point us in the right direction.”

“You’re putting him at risk by digging.” Steve said disapprovingly. “He said he could go to prison if he doesn’t get the right permission and you won’t get out of this contract by getting him thrown in prison.”

Tony sighed and threw a hand through his hair in agitation. “I just, I can’t help digging, Steve! I need to know things, it’s killing me, not knowing what it is he’s hiding that’s so important.”

Steve sighed himself and laid a hand gently on Tony’s knee. “It’ll be alright. We’re all here with you. We’re a team now, and we look out for one another. He is going to tell you what it is he’s hiding, and soon from what he was saying, just, try to distract yourself with other things.”

Tony went to open his mouth, but Steve’s hand clamped over it tight and he smiled wryly.

“I know it’s going to be difficult, given the weight on your mind, but try. I know you, Tony. I know there’s a brilliant mind in there that could probably find something else to fixate on for a short time. Why don’t you play with the TV remotes, or…I don’t know, express order some scrap metal to build something. You did say that you’d build a shield for Teddy too.”

Tony blinked and reached up to pull Steve’s hand from his mouth.

“I can do that.” He said distractedly, already reaching into his pocket for his cell to see what he could get at short notice.

Steve watched for a moment, before he stood and made to leave the room. “I’ll get some coffee ordered up for you.”

Tony waved a hand to show that he’d heard, but he didn’t look up from his phone, scrolling through various hardware sites. Steve smiled and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Did you get through to him?” Natasha asked as soon as he appeared in the common area of this very large penthouse suite.

“I think so. I got him thinking about other things. He’s scrolling through his cell, looking for scrap metal and circuit boards. He wants coffee.”

Pepper sighed, almost in relief. “That’s almost normal behaviour for Tony.”

“It won’t work for long.” Natasha frowned.

“No, it won’t, but it’s something for now.” Steve said firmly.

“He needs the distraction.” Bruce agreed before shaking his head. “This whole situation has really gotten to him. He hasn’t worked on anything in weeks, just stepping back and getting his hands dirty, and engaging his brain, it will help him calm down. It’s a good idea, Steve. Tony needs to feel like himself again and this really will help.”

“I’ll get him that coffee.” Pepper told them, putting her file aside and standing.

Steve looked at the remaining members of his team.

“What is it?” Natasha asked, looking at him discerningly.

“I don’t think Tony is coping.” Steve answered quietly, moving to stand by the window so he could peer down onto the street far below.

“Not coping in what way?” Clint asked, his eyebrows furrowed as he played with an arrow between his fingers.

“He’s a danger to himself.” Steve said heavily. “I can see it in his eyes. A lot of guys I fought with had the same hopeless look. He’s backed into a corner, trapped, and he’s lashing out. It won’t take much more for him to snap.”

“Is that why you’ve been so nice to him lately?” Clint asked curiously.

“We’re supposed to be a team.” Steve replied evenly.

“That didn’t stop you from hating his guts when you first met him.”

“I thought he’d died.” Steve said softly.

“When he went through the wormhole?” Natasha asked.

“I ordered it closed, knowing that he was on the other side and he wouldn’t be able to get back, and I did it anyway.”

“You had to make the call.” Clint assured him. “Besides, Tony fell out before it closed. He’s fine.”

“He’s not.” Bruce said, with such certainty that the three others looked at him. “Do you look at Tony and think that he’s alright? Are you looking at the same Tony that I am?”

“I see it.” Steve said with a nod. “I see it and I want to help.”

“See what?” Clint demanded. “He’s Tony Stark.”

“He was fine when I went to evaluate him in twenty-ten.” Natasha insisted.

“He’s not fine now.” Bruce told them. “Evaluate him here and now, forget about what you previously saw, and actually look at him. He changed from when he was on the Helicarrier, to after the battle of New York. He was a different person. Now this contract has popped up, and Steve is right, Tony’s close to snapping.”

“He seems the same to me.” Natasha told them, her arms folding over her chest. “Pepper doesn’t seem worried.”

“Pepper is very worried about him.” Bruce contradicted. “I’ve never seen someone so stressed.”

“That’s because Potter is stonewalling and generally being…” Clint started, but he trailed off as Bruce shook his head.

“No. Pepper was stressed before she’d even met Potter for the first time.” Bruce told him. “She was highly strung before this contract was brought up. Which makes me think that Tony wasn’t behaving like his normal self, even before this contract was brought to light.”

“He isn’t himself.” Pepper said as she came back into the room and sat herself back down, flipping open the paper file that contained everything from the meetings with Potter. “He hasn’t been himself since the battle in New York.”

“He seems the same.” Natasha said, her arms dropping to her sides.

Pepper barely looked up, but she shook her head. “No. He’s pretending to be his normal self, there’s a difference if you know him well enough to see it. But he loves speaking about himself, and the things that he’s done, but he hasn’t said a word about that battle. He glosses over it, and from what he does say about it he was barely there at all. Something happened during that battle that has changed him. I’ve been trying to push him to get help, to see a therapist, but he’s still Tony, and he won’t have it.”

“So, he’s not being his normal self?” Clint asked.

“No, he’s trying to act like his normal self.” Pepper said seriously. “That’s the problem. He’s got to think about it, instead of it being just Tony being Tony. He has to force himself to act like himself. Something is wrong and he won’t tell me and now this contract has come up and I’m worried he’s going to do something stupid.”

“You mean like suicide?” Natasha asked, genuinely shocked.

“He’s mentioned it twice now.” Pepper said quietly, as if saying it any louder would make Tony leap from the hotel window.

“Do you think that he would?” Steve asked seriously.

“Tony always says what he means.” Pepper said. “If he says he’d rather be dead, I believe that he means it. He can’t see a way out of this contract, if we can’t come to some sort of understanding with Potter, one that Tony can live with, then I do believe that Tony would end things on his own terms.”

“So, we need to sort this, right now.” Clint insisted.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?” Pepper demanded. “Things would have gone much better if Potter had been a normal young man, maybe one who could be bought with money, but that isn’t the case and he’s just as stubborn as Tony himself.”

“We’ll help you, Pepper.” Steve said gently. “I’ve spoken to Tony and distracted him a little. I don’t believe that Harry is a bad man, he’ll listen to reason. He’s just trying to protect himself, as much as Tony is.”

“I thought that things were going well yesterday.” Bruce nodded. “It was nice of him to even allow any of us to be there, around his godson. Steve’s right, he’s willing to try and we can use that.”

“We’ll keep tabs on Potter.” Clint said, nodding to Natasha.

“I think it’s gone beyond that now.” Bruce said, then he’d never approved of spying on Harry in the first place. “They are going to be married, he’ll be Tony’s husband. They’re running out of time and trying to find a way out of the contract is not going to help either of them now.”

“So…we find a way to make them both accept it?” Clint questioned.

Bruce and Pepper both nodded.

“I think that would be for the best.” Pepper sighed. “The two of them need to come to a mutual understanding now. The time for finding a way out of this contract is over, there isn’t one. They have a little over eight weeks left before the deadline. We need to focus everything on getting them to sign a marriage certificate. More particularly Potter, as he has less to lose than Tony.”

“He’s said several times that he won’t do it.” Natasha pointed out.

“He’s going backwards and forwards, he doesn’t know what he wants to do.” Steve pointed out.

“We have to make sure he decides right.” Pepper said with a weary sigh.

“We’ll sort everything out now later today. We have to make sure we stay quiet though, because Teddy will be there, sleeping.” Steve said.

The rest of them nodded and Steve sighed and looked at the wall, behind which Tony was ordering parts to fiddle with. He hoped that things today went well. He swore that he would stay close to Tony when they went to see Harry later. Tony would need someone to guide him through this coming meeting and if Pepper was worried for Tony’s life, that he would be a suicide risk…Steve refused to lose another teammate, no matter the cause, and while he did find Tony irritating and annoying he had also watched Tony sacrifice his own life to prevent New York from being nuked.

Maybe the front Tony put up was all an act, or otherwise there was another layer underneath it, one that was willing to lay down on a wire and let others crawl over him. Steve didn’t know Tony well enough to say for sure which one it was just yet, but he’d taken the first step to making the Avengers a real team, and he would get to know Tony better. He would find out who the real Tony Stark was when he was stripped back to his core, and not the man that was portrayed almost like a brand name to the public, like those cartoons that Teddy watched about Captain America, who was far from who the real Steve Rogers actually was.

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Harry was having a very good morning, as he carried Teddy up on his shoulders, the three year old mesmerised by the skeletons of dinosaurs all around him as they explored the Natural History Museum.

“Harry! Harry, look. Look at the skull.” Teddy said excitedly, pointing at the Triceratops.

Harry walked over to it, like he had been doing all morning, and he started reading from the information plaque.

“‘With its three horns, a parrot-like beak and a large frill that could reach nearly a metre across, the Triceratops skull is one of the largest and most striking of any land animal.

The horns could have been used to fend off attacks from Tyrannosaurus. A partial Triceratops fossil collected in nineteen-ninety-seven has a horn that was bitten off, with bite marks that match Tyrannosaurus. The fossil shows that the horn healed after being bitten, so at least some Triceratops survived these encounters.

Puncture marks on fossil frills show that male Triceratops also used their horns to fight each other, probably to impress females.’”

“Why do boy ones fight to impress girl ones?” Teddy asked.

“A lot of animals do fight one another to impress females, Ted-Bear. They use it to show that they’re stronger, and thus they’d be a better mate.”

“Do people do that too?” Teddy asked.

“Stupid people try to do that.” Harry said honestly. “A lot of women these days are far too smart to fall for such tricks though, and you’ll find that they’ll be more disgusted than impressed if you fight someone in front of them.”

Teddy nodded and he looked at the giant skull in front of him with wide eyes, marvelling at how very big it was.

“He wasn’t a meat eater, was he?” Teddy said, sounding a little worried.

“No, Triceratops was a herbivore, Ted. That means he only ate leaves. Ah, here we go, the Triceratops only ate palm fronds.” Harry said, pointing to the plaque.

“How can something so big eat only leaves?” Teddy asked.

“He would have eaten a lot of leaves.” Harry told him with a smile.

“What does Tricetatops mean?”

“It means three-horned face.”

That made Teddy giggle and Harry craned his head back to grin at him.

“A lot of dinosaur names are very literal.” Harry said. “The Triceratops has three horns on his head, thus he was called three-horned face.”

“I wanna see a T-Rex!” Teddy exclaimed. “He was much bigger, wasn’t he?”

“He would have been, yes. Come on, I know that there is one here. Let’s go and find him.”

“What does T-Rex mean?” Teddy asked him as they walked through the exhibit.

“It’s short for Tyrannosaurus Rex. Tyranno means tyrant in Greek, Saurus means lizard in Greek and Rex is Latin for King. So together his name meant king of the tyrant lizards.”

“What’s a tyrant?”

“A tyrant is a cruel or oppressive ruler. A bully.”

“I don’t like bullies.”

“No one should ever like a bully.” Harry insisted.

“Was…was Voldemort a tyrant?” Teddy asked quietly. “The one you stood up to?”

Harry looked at the floor and swallowed before he inhaled deeply.

“That’s right, Teddy, he was. You should never lie down and let bullies hurt you, or others. You should always stand up to them.”

“Bullies don’t like that.”

“No, which is why we should do it all the more.” Harry said, tipping his head back to give Teddy a smile.

“I don’t think I want to see T-Rex anymore.”

“He was an animal, Teddy. Animals don’t have the brain power to have done what Voldemort did. T-Rex was named what he was because of how big he was. How big his teeth were and because he was an apex predator, which means he was the top predator in his territory, which is why he was called a king.”

Harry heard Teddy gasp as they entered the room housing the massive T-Rex skeleton. It took up most of the space, from floor to ceiling in the vaulted room, and Harry, with Teddy on his shoulders too, did not make up one of the legs.

“It’s huge!” Teddy gasped. “We’d have been eated in one bite, Harry!”

“Then it’s a good thing that he’s extinct, isn’t it?” Harry chuckled.

Teddy nodded distractedly, as he gaped up at the dinosaur skeleton. Harry walked over to the plaque and he started reading aloud to Teddy, and to a group of children, about seven or eight years old, who were also gaping up at the dinosaur nearby.

“‘Tyrannosaurus lives up to its reputation as one of the most fearsome animals of all time. Its powerful jaws had sixty teeth, each one up to eight inches long and its bite was around three times as powerful than that of a lion.

Bite marks found on Triceratops and Edmontosaurus fossil bones show that Tyrannosaurus could crunch through bone. Analysis of fossilised Tyrannosaurus dung show that it contained the bones of its prey.’”

“It even ate the bones?!” Teddy gasped.

“He wouldn’t have noticed, honey.” Harry told him. “With the size of his mouth, he would have bitten chunks from his prey and he would have swallowed a lot of it without chewing. So naturally some bones would have made it into his stomach and he would have pooed them out.”

Teddy giggled and Harry tipped his head back to give him a grin.

“Did he fight others for girl T-Rexes?” Teddy asked curiously, as they stood and looked up at the bones.

“Yes, nearly all animals do, honey. Here… ‘Some Tyrannosaurus fossils show bite marks from other tyrannosaurs, so it's clear that they fought each other, whether over food or mates.’”

“They fought for food too?” Teddy questioned.

“I would imagine that they fought over everything.” Harry said. “If a bigger, stronger T-Rex wanted the food of another, smaller T-Rex, then he could have fought him off and gotten an easy meal without having to kill it himself.”

Teddy nodded and Harry walked off, looking at more skeletons, reading out more information plaques. Teddy was very interested in the dinosaur egg that the museum was displaying.

When midday approached, they left the museum and Harry took Teddy to a nearby café, ordering them both a small lunch. Harry smiled to watch his godson, as he played with a stuffed Triceratops that was being named, as far as he could tell, Horn Face. He also had two books and a real fossil, which was a small Velociraptor claw in a sealed case.

Harry helped Teddy to eat his lunch and Harry ate his own in between bites. Teddy couldn’t finish his food, and Harry hefted him into his lap and cuddled him as he drifted off to sleep with the stuffed dinosaur clutched in his arms. He finished his own lunch, drank the rest of his tea, and he stood with Teddy in his arms, the carrier bag of Teddy’s other gifts wrapped around his wrist.

He headed out and walked down the street until he found a deserted alleyway. He Apparated from here to an alleyway he’d boxed off behind his work building. He slipped back out onto the street and set to carrying Teddy home. It wouldn’t take very long, but it was more the thought of what would be waiting for him at his home…Tony bloody Stark.

He’d been awake for half the night, thinking and agonising over what to do, and sadly, no sudden strike of inspiration had hit him. He still didn’t know what he was going to do and it was making him anxious and panicky. It took him back to the war, back to the hunt for the Horcruxes, where he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders and the expectation of thousands of people, while he had no clue what he was doing or what he was looking for.

He had muddled through that, and it had almost cost him his life. He had willingly sacrificed himself, and coming back from that had left him with rather severe anxiety and trauma that only an experienced mind healer had been able to help him with, and even then it had taken years.

Harry shoved those thoughts away and bumped Teddy more securely in his arms. The three year old made a soft noise, but pulled the stuffed triceratops closer and snuffled into it. It made Harry smile softly and he sighed and carried on walking.

He wished now that he hadn’t sold Grimmauld Place, or that he had bought the house that he currently lived in with the money from the sale of Grimmauld Place instead of putting it into the company. He just hadn’t wanted Teddy being raised in that toxic environment, and he himself couldn’t stand to live there, it had reminded him too much of Sirius, with too many bad memories attached. But that house would have been safe from the terms of this contract, which only took assets from the Potter side of his family from him. That was also why his company was safe, because not only was it not the same company put up for collateral, but Harry had built it and funded it over the years using the money that Sirius had left to him, thus it was safe from the terms of the contract on all fronts as it wasn’t considered an asset of the Potter family, despite him being the CEO and a legal Potter, as it had been built on Black funds.

Harry sighed and looked down at Teddy, he had to do what was best for his godson, not just himself. He breathed deeply to calm himself down. He could do this. He would stay true to himself and despite being forced to consummate his marriage, he would not agree to anything else and Stark would just have to deal with that.

Harry made it home and he knocked on his own front door. He smiled when he saw Hermione.

“Aw, is he all tuckered out?” She asked quietly.

Harry chuckled. “Yeah, poor thing is exhausted.”

Harry went into his living room and he wanted to walk right back out again when he saw that his guests were already here.

He ignored them for the moment as he sat down in a free seat, put down the carrier bag and supported Teddy as he took off the three year old’s shoes.

“Do you want tea, Harry?” Hermione asked him.

“Please. I’m just going to go tuck Teddy up in bed, I’ll be back down in a minute.”

“Okay.” Hermione answered as she left for the kitchen and went to boil the kettle.

Harry got Teddy’s other shoe off and left them where they’d fallen as he stood back up and he carried Teddy upstairs, to his bedroom, and he laid the three year old down on his bed and tucked him in.

He smiled gently at the rise and fall of Teddy’s chest, the stuffed dinosaur still snuffled into his face.

“You’ll never know a life like mine.” Harry whispered to him softly, stroking that brown hair with gentle fingers. “You’ll never suffer like I have.”

Harry bent and kissed Teddy’s head and he stood with a sigh. He cast a barrier ward at the top of the stairs and headed down them to the living room. It was time to sort this situation, once and for all. He was sick of it now, right to his back teeth he was fed up of it all.

“Did Teddy have a good morning?” Tony asked him.

Harry blinked and looked at Tony consideringly, wondering if he’d been prompted, or if Steve had actually had that chat with him and it had sunk in.

“He has. I think he’s found a new attachment to Triceratopses.” He said with a grin. “I took him to the Natural History Museum, to the dinosaur exhibit this time. He thought it was hilarious that Triceratops means three-horned face and he doesn’t like T-Rexes because they were bullies. That’s your influence, Captain.”

Harry grinned at Steve as he sat down, taking off his own trainers and putting them under the coffee table, picking up Teddy’s tiny shoes and putting them beside his own.

“Do I apologise for that?” Steve asked.

“Nah, the morals in those cartoons are making him into a better person. Teddy won’t stand for bullying of any kind and he will even stand up to adults if he feels the need to. I wish he bloody wouldn’t, because then I might not feel like I’m going to get my face kicked in, but I’m proud of him…even if he no longer likes T-Rexes because he sees them as bullies for picking on the other dinosaurs.”

“Oh, that sounds so much like Teddy.” Hermione chuckled as she came back in and held out a cup of tea to him.

Harry grinned at her and accepted his cup of tea. “Thank you, Hermione. Teddy is going to be a huge pariah for equality when he’s older though, I can see him now, a placard in hand, campaigning to have T-Rexes brought to justice over their bullying behaviour.”

The two of them, him and Hermione, broke down into fits of giggles like they were still in Hogwarts. It felt good to laugh with his friend.

“Did you get permission to tell us whatever it is you’re hiding?” Pepper asked, once Harry and Hermione had calmed down and each taken a sip of tea.

“Not yet, but I’m not expecting that to happen for a few more days yet.” Harry said, calming himself down by taking another deep drink of tea.

Pepper nodded and Harry gave a side eyed look to Hermione and they both snorted and started giggling again.

“Okay, who took the two mature, responsible people we met yesterday and replaced them with teenagers?” Clint asked.

“We’re only just outside the limit of teenagers.” Hermione pointed out with a grin.

Harry shrugged. “I’ve had a good day. Good days make me giggly. It doesn’t happen all that often.”

“Did Teddy like his play-doh?” Tony asked, and Harry actually saw a hint of vulnerability to him that he hadn’t seen before.

“Yes, he loved it.” Harry said mildly. “I told you that he would.”

“Right, let us not beat around too much.” Pepper said as everything went quiet again for a few minutes. “We need to sort everything out today. So can we please agree on a date for the registry signing?”

“The last day possible, Pep. Obviously.” Tony put in immediately.

Hermione flinched and reached out to him, and everyone saw it.

“No.” Harry said immediately.

“The last day is the thirty-first of October.” Hermione said quickly. “This isn’t convenient for Harry.”

“I’m sure you can still take Teddy trick-or-treating if you get married in the morning.” Bruce tried, but he didn’t understand what the issue was.

Harry shook his head and breathed deeply to calm down.

“It’s not that.” Harry said. “I was fifteen months old when my parents were murdered. Exactly fifteen months old. They were murdered on Halloween. I don’t want to get married, even via a forced contract, on the day my parents were killed.”

There was silence for a moment and then Tony sat forward.

“Saturday the twenty-ninth?” He offered instead.

Harry was actually surprised that Tony wasn’t causing a fuss over it, but thinking about it Tony had lost both of his parents in a tragic accident too, so Harry reasoned that he was comparing how he would have felt if he’d been forced to get married on the date of his parents’ deaths.

Harry acknowledged the effort Stark was making with a nod. “The twenty-ninth is fine. Thank you.”

“Do you…do anything for their…?” Pepper asked, stumbling over her words.

Harry nodded. “I look at photos of them, and if I can I’ll go and visit their graves.”

“Where are they buried?” Tony asked him.

“The West Country.” Harry said softly. “Down in Devon. I can’t always get down there between work, and Teddy too, of course, but I do like to go and visit them at least three times a year.”

“I can fly you down there if you want.” Tony told him. “I have my private jet, or the Ironman suit. It could take a few hours, that’s all.”

Harry actually found himself smiling at Stark, despite himself.

“Thank you. We’ll see if my work schedule allows for me to have the time off.”

“So, you’re both agreed for the twenty-ninth of October? It’s the thirty-first of August today, that gives us eight weeks and three days to work with.” Pepper said, checking the date on her watch and making a note.

“You need witnesses too.” Hermione added.

“I’ll bring Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and the team.” Tony said, before turning to said team. “If you guys will come, of course.”

“We’re here with you.” Natasha told him, laying a hand on his shoulder while Steve nodded.

“I’m taking about a dozen.” Harry said, mentally tallying everyone up. “It’ll be fifteen if everyone can come.”

“Will you invite Teddy and Andy?” Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head. “Teddy shouldn’t see such a farce of marriage. I don’t want that image in his head that marriage is this unhappy event where two people are forced together, it’s not fair to him.”

“What will you tell him?” Hermione asked curiously.

“I don’t know. How do you explain a forced marriage, via a legal contract, to a three year old?” Harry sighed and shook his head again. “I’ll think on that later.”

“Where would you get married?” Pepper asked.

“America.” Tony said immediately.

Harry sighed again. “It really doesn’t matter to me, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work, but I should be able to manage a few days in America, as long as I’m back the following day.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Pepper said, making notes in her ever present file, and Harry sighed yet again and shook his head.

This entire farce was a mess of complications. Harry took a big gulp of tea and swallowed hard. He reminded himself that he needed to do this, to keep his way of life. He would refuse to do anything that he didn’t want to, namely sex. No one could force him to do that, not unless they wanted rape charges thrown at them. He was strong enough to hold off any verbal attacks or cajolement, and he had his magic if anyone actually tried to physically force him. Not that he expected anyone to do that, of course, but just in case, he could protect himself easily enough.

“I could show you Stark Tower, if you wanted.”

“I’m less interested in that and more interested in seeing your lab.” Harry said. “Seeing as you broke into my work labs.”

“Did I apologise for that?” Tony asked, looking genuinely unsure.

“You did, you even offered to pay for the extra cleaning my staff had to undertake because of it, but I waved that off as long as you promised to wear the booties and sterilise your hands if you ever went down there again.” Harry explained. “Thankfully you also had the presence of mind to not enter any of the actual labs, or I would have been forced to throw out sixteen thousand, five hundred vaccines that are worth several million pounds stored inside them on the risk of contamination.”

“I would have paid for that too.” Tony told him.

Harry shook his head. “That isn’t the point.”

“I imagine the point is that that’s sixteen and a half thousand vaccines that can’t be used, Tony.” Bruce pointed out.

Harry nodded. “That’s the point. They were being sealed and boxed up, ready to be shipped to Africa. We were on a very tight schedule, we couldn’t have afforded the delay, and neither could the people those vaccines are going to. Thankfully, as said, you didn’t enter the labs, and that shipment was sent four days ago.”

“I promise to show you my lab. I could set you up a lab at the Tower too.” Tony said.

“That won’t be necessary. I won’t be there all that long and you really don’t want me blowing a hole in your floor.”

Harry could see that the others had taken it as a joke, until Hermione shivered at the memory.

“Never do that again.” She told him.

Harry shrugged and smiled. “It was an accident?” He tried to offer, but he just laughed when Hermione carried on glaring.

“You really blew a hole in the floor?” Steve asked confusedly.

“And then fell through it and broke his leg, yes he did.” Hermione growled.

“What even happened?” Bruce asked.

“It was back in the early days, I was only eighteen and…yeah, it just happened. I was synthesising when tired, and yes, looking back I know how stupid it was of me, but I was close to my first ever breakthrough. I was pushing myself, and I must have picked up the wrong thing, because the next thing I knew there was no floor underneath me and I was falling.”

“You’re lucky it didn’t blow off your damn legs.” Hermione huffed.

“I was wearing full protective gear.” Harry waved off. “Besides, it led to my first ever cure for measles, so it wasn’t all bad.”

“No you almost lose your legs, but you made a cure for measles, no, everything is fine.” Hermione said sarcastically.

Harry chuckled. “You know I would risk all of my limbs to eradicate these diseases. You know I’m not going to stop.”

“You’re a moron, that’s why.” Hermione sniffed.

Harry was surprised into laughing and he trailed off into giggles. That made Hermione look over at him and smile.

“I love you too.” Harry told her with a grin.

“Oh, I love you. Never doubt that, but it doesn’t stop you from being a moron.”

“How…how are we going to work living arrangements?” Tony burst out.

Harry blinked and looked at him. “Living arrangements? What do you mean?”

“Your house isn’t big enough, so I assumed you’d be staying at the Tower.”

“Why would I do that?”

“We’ll be married.”

“And you just assumed that that meant that we’d be living together too?” Harry asked, his stomach dropping. He’d been right about that as well, it seemed, and Tony had just assumed that Harry would be going to America and living in his ego Tower.

“Yes.” Tony replied easily. “We’ll have a child together too, so considering you don’t have the space, I thought it made more sense for you to just come to the Tower, or even my house in Malibu, if you’d prefer.”

“You know that I work based in London, don’t you?”

“That’s why I offered you a lab at the Tower. You could work from there instead.”

“We’re not living together.” Harry said sharply. “My entire life is here, in London. My work is here, my friends and family are here. I’m not moving anywhere and I certainly wouldn’t leave Teddy behind.”

“Teddy could come too.” Tony insisted.

“It’s not happening. Teddy is all Andy has left. I’m not moving, Teddy is not moving, we are not living together. It’s not a contractual obligation, which was about the only thing they didn’t put in writing.”

“It is assumed that after you’re married that you will be living together, to raise the baby together.” Pepper said quickly.

“The thing with contracts and assumptions is that it leaves room for loopholes, that I will definitely be exploiting.” Harry said firmly. “The contract assumes living arrangements, and thus didn’t write it in, which means it can’t be legally enforceable, thus it is not happening.”

“You’re going to keep my child away from me that way instead. Keep them here where I’ll never see them!” Tony snapped. 

“You haven’t even shown yourself capable of having a child yet!” Harry hissed. “At the moment you won’t be getting a child!”

“You said that you’d need me to be the primary carer!” Tony reminded him.

“I did, and I meant it, but you haven’t convinced me in the slightest that you can even be a secondary carer.”

“I think we all need to calm down.” Steve interrupted quickly, looking at the two heavily breathing men who were glaring at one another.

“No, he’s not doing this fairly, Steve!” Tony argued. “He’s going to keep my child away from me, here in Britain.”

“At the moment you’re not even getting a child from me.” Harry insisted. “You can’t handle a three year old, I don’t even want to imagine you with a newborn.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Life isn’t fair, Stark.” Harry snapped. “Nothing about this situation or that contract is fucking fair! We’re being forced together, to marry and merge assets, but I will not let you wrangle everything to suit you. I will not be staying in America, I will not be living in your damn ego Tower and I will not bring a baby into this world a single minute before I am ready to have one! I have sole control over that, and you will go at my pace, or I will never agree to have this baby while you’re still alive.”

Stark was white-faced and breathing heavily. He looked a breath away from either leaping up and throwing a punch, or passing out.

“Mister Potter, Harry…” Pepper interrupted, taking Harry’s focus, and he levelled her with his full gaze, staring at her, daring her to try and change his mind. “What do you suggest as an alternative? You house is not big enough, and it’s not right that the baby be kept from their other parent.”

“It’s not fair on the poor baby to be landed with that as a parent either.” Harry snarled, tipping his head to indicate Tony. “My mind is made up. This baby will not even be planned until I am satisfied that I can ensure their safety and wellbeing as my paramount priority. Whether that means I have to wait until I am in my forties and I can leave the company for several days at a time to look after my child, or Stark somehow surprises everyone and learns that he’s not the centre of the universe, time will tell. But that baby is not even a thought in my mind at the moment, Miss Potts, neither of us are ready. Perhaps by the time the baby does come around I will have a larger house, and Mister Stark can come to visit.”

“If I’m still alive.” Stark snarled.

Harry wasn’t cowed, and he nodded his head. “If you’re still alive.” He agreed simply.

“I thought we were making progress, Harry.” Steve said quietly, in a very disappointed tone. It actually reminded Harry of Dumbledore and because of that, Harry couldn’t meet Steve’s disappointed blue eyes.

“We were.” Harry said, looking at the wall instead of at Steve. “Then he went and ruined it all by expecting me to uproot and move to America just to please him. So I’m on hand whenever he feels the urge to rape me.”

“Tony would never…” Pepper started furiously, but Harry had had enough.

“He said he would yesterday, so don’t tell me he fucking wouldn’t!” He burst out angrily, and suddenly all eyes were on Tony.

“That wasn’t what I said!” The pale faced Tony leapt up to shout at him.

“It’s what you meant.” Harry growled back.

“Of course it wasn’t!” Tony shouted, flinging his arms around.

“What did you think it would mean?” Harry demanded, standing up to confront Tony on his feet, not liking being loomed over, even if there was a coffee table between them.

“I said we should compromise.”

“Harry is asexual. Any sexual contact to him is unwelcomed, and unwelcomed sexual contact is assault.” Hermione explained calmly. “Unwanted sexual intercourse is rape, Mister Stark. You can word it how you please, insist on a compromise, but if you push Harry for sex, it’s rape and I will see you behind bars for it if you try to force the issue.”

“I can’t go the rest of my life without sex!” Tony insisted.

“And I can’t stand the thought of having you even touch me.” Harry spat. “The very thought of it makes my skin crawl. I’m asexual, and there is absolutely nothing that you can do to change that. You’re just going to have to learn to live with it.”

Harry honestly thought that Tony would lean those extra few inches over the table and punch him, but Steve got there first and inserted himself between them by pulling Tony back a few steps.

“This is getting us nowhere.” Steve said sternly. “Every time you make the slightest bit of progress, you ruin it again by taking several steps backwards.”

“I’m not living with him and I’m not having sex with him after the forced consummation.” Harry said firmly. “It’s non-negotiable. I’m not putting my mental health at risk because he can’t control himself.”

“It’s not as if I want to have sex with you, you’re the only option I have because of those clauses!” Tony told him.

“And you think that makes it better? You think that makes it alright to force me to have sex with you because you’ll be forcing yourself? It doesn’t!”

“We need to draw a line under this.” Pepper said firmly. “No one is forcing anyone else to have sex. Tony, we’ll find another way.”

“There isn’t another way.” Tony said.

“It’s just tough.” Harry told him. “I’m not having sex with anyone past this consummation. If you even try to force me, I’ll have you in court on assault charges.”

“Enough!” Steve cut in. “Sit back down, the both of you. Don’t let this issue ruin the progress that you’ve made.”

“It’s a pretty big issue, Steve!” Tony declared.

“Just masturbate like the rest of normal humanity!” Harry told him.

“It’s not the same!” Tony growled.

“I’ll take your word on that.” Harry said. “But it still doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“Harry, go and cool off for a moment.” Hermione suggested, reaching out to touch his arm.

Harry breathed out raggedly, and nodded his head once, sharply, and he took off for the kitchen, out of the back door and down his garden.

He really didn’t know why these things always seemed to happen to him. Hadn’t he suffered enough in his life to be done with all of this? He pushed those thoughts aside quickly, he had never really been the sort of person to wallow in his own misfortune and he didn’t intend to start now.

“I’m sorry.”

Harry breathed out heavily and turned to face Tony.

“I assume that the apology is for trying to force me to put up with spousal rape?” He asked mildly.

“Yes. I didn’t realise that that was essentially what I was asking you to do until it was explained to me. I told you that I needed Pepper as a translator. I would never rape anyone. Never.”

Harry nodded and moved to sit on the swing. He was surprised that Tony sat next to him on the other swing. Tony pushed off and swung back and forth for a while in silence.

“This situation is seriously fucked up, Tony. I know that.” Harry said with a frown. “It was never meant to be us, but it is.”

“If my father was still alive, I’d have beaten him to death for doing this to me.” Tony said angrily. “If he’d just told me about it, I could have been married and nullified this contract.”

“I could have done the same.” Harry nodded, kicking off himself and swinging.

“I suppose we’re not going to ignore the contract.” Tony sighed.

“We can’t now.” Harry said with a look at Tony swinging next to him. “We’re in too deep, Tony. We’ve set a date to sign the contract even. I don’t want to risk losing everything. I’ve worked too damn hard to build up the life I’ve carved out for myself, and you have too. It’s not fair, not by a long shot, but it is what it is. You never know, I might accidentally kill myself doing my research or synthesising, then you’ll be free to carry on your life as normal. Just…just…if that does happen, do right by Teddy. If I die you take control of everything, I can’t leave anything to him, or to any of my friends. Just make sure he’s got enough to live comfortably, please?”

“I will, I’ll even put that in writing if you want to.”

Harry shook his head. “I think it’s time to start putting a little trust in each other. I don’t believe that you’re a bad person, Tony. I don’t believe that you’ll stitch Teddy up, not with the amount of money you have in your own right, and what I can leave to him from liquefying my assets.”

“I got the feeling that you didn’t have much spare money lying around.” Tony said, looking up at the house.

“Do you know why the contract can’t touch my company?”

“It’s not the same company put up as collateral.” Tony said immediately.

“The contract forfeits everything given to me by my Potter relatives, which includes anything bought with Potter money.”

Tony blinked and Harry saw his brilliant mind working.

“It would have included anything given to you by your mother too, as she was a Potter by marriage. Who gave you the money for the company?”

“My godfather, Sirius.” Harry said softly. “I sold the house he left me and used the money from that and everything that he’d left me to build that company up, and that’s why it’s excluded completely from the contract. I used Potter money to buy this house to live in.” He said, looking at the back of the house with a small smile. “It’s small, cosy, but most of all, it’s mine. I don’t have much disposable funds, it’s all tied up in the company, in this house, but I’m comfortable and I can treat Teddy and help my friends out if they need it. I was happy until this came crashing down around me.”

“I was too.” Tony told him. “I was busy working on upgrades for the Ironman armour when I was called into the Stark Industries main building and confronted with this contract. By then it was too late to do anything about it.”

Harry sighed and kicked himself higher.

“If…if you can die from your research, and from what you’ve been saying there have been some close calls, what happens if you die and I can’t fulfil the contract?” Tony asked. He seemed to really be trying and Harry was so very fed up of being angry. He was tired more than anything.

“I thought of that when I wrote up the contract to have your semen stored at the company in the event of your death. My samples are already frozen there. If I die before the contract is fulfilled, you have sole control over those samples, as I will have control of yours. That way you could have the contracted baby when you wanted.”

“I…I want to try with Teddy. I’m nervous though. It’s not like me at all, it’s a strange feeling for me, but I feel like I’m being judged if I so much as look at him.”

“I’m not ready for a baby, Tony. Teddy…he’s still so young. He’s only just three years old and I’m struggling to juggle him and work, and I’m not even his primary carer. Maybe a few years down the line things will be more settled and we can talk about it again. Would you have wanted a baby at twenty-one?”

Tony chuckled. “I don’t remember much of being twenty-one, but I was mostly perpetually drunk or burying myself in this new, shiny company that I’d just taken over after my parents death.”

“I saw that your guardian turned out to be a shit too. I’m sorry about that.”

“Obi.” Tony sighed and put his feet down, stopping himself mid-swing. “I never saw that coming, I trusted him with everything and he tried to kill me and Pepper. He was behind me being taken by those terrorists in Afghanistan.”

“I suppose that half of this aggression is coming from trust issues linked to that? I mean he knew you since you were a child according to news articles, he took over the company after your parents’ death until you came of age even. Did you ever see a therapist for that?”

“I’ve always had trust issues, but I’m doing fine on my own.”

Harry shook his head and planted his own feet. “Therapy isn’t so bad. I was apprehensive at first, I tried to dig my heels in and insist I didn’t need it, that I was fine…until I realised that I wasn’t.”

“What happened?” Tony asked him curiously.

“I’ve always suffered with nightmares. In the sort of situation that I grew up in…well, after you survive the living nightmare, you get actual nightmares. It was normal, so when they intensified, I played it off. Until I started having night terrors, where I would wake up screaming and clawing at myself. It got to the point where my neighbour thought I was being murdered and called the police. It was at that point that I realised I was far from okay.”

Harry stared up at the sky and sighed heavily, picking up his legs and letting himself swing ever so slightly.

“I couldn’t see it before that point. I believed that I was fine, that I was doing as well as I could expect of myself. It took the police hammering on my door at four in the morning and scoping my house for intruders and asking me repeatedly if I’d been attacked when they saw the bloody scratches on my arms and face for me to realise that…that what I was going through, how I was feeling, it wasn’t normal at all.”

“Did the therapy help?” Tony asked him.

Harry turned to look at him and he smiled. “Yeah, Tony. It really helped. Living with that stress and pressure crushing you into the ground, well, you never notice it until it’s gone. Therapy can be incredibly freeing.”

“Pepper’s been on to me about seeing one.”

“You know, there’s no contract for that.” Harry joked. “You can go once, or a few times, and see how it goes. Isn’t it worth it to see if it can help you? Of course you might not be at the stage where you want help at the moment. I know I didn’t want help until I realised that I was living my life in the shadow of what I went through. It took years for me to admit there was a problem, then years still to come through the therapy and become more normal.”

“I’m sorry this contract sent you back to the therapist.”

Harry snorted. “It’s not like it was your fault. Neither of us knew about it and those who did know are all dead. I’ve long since learnt the value of asking for help when I need it and I know exactly how much help just talking can be. After the battle in New York that you went through, not to mention being captured by terrorists and held captive, then finding out it was orchestrated by someone you trusted, damn Tony, Pepper is right, you need therapy. It can be done discreetly, no one would know, and the nightmares will finally stop. Isn’t that incentive enough?”

“How do you know I have nightmares?” Tony asked with narrowed eyes.

Harry gave him a look and then looked back at the house. “Anyone would have nightmares after what you’ve been through. There’s no shame in it, I had to learn that the hard way too. I felt belittled, ashamed, when I first went to therapy. Almost as if I couldn’t believe I’d gotten so bad, sunk so low. Actually going through the therapy though, I realised how wrong I’d been. There’s nothing wrong with going to therapy when you need it. It helps, Tony, I can’t tell you in words how much it helps.”

“How did you…” Tony trailed off and shrugged. “How did you stick with it?”

“I wanted the nightmares to stop.” Harry said. “I wanted to be able to go to bed and just sleep with no worries and without waking up in a cold sweat every few hours. I wanted to stop clawing myself to pieces in my sleep, I almost lost an eye once because of it. Of course I never wanted the neighbours to call the police again either, that was humiliating as well. I just wanted to be the guardian that Teddy deserved, the man I knew I could be. The sleeplessness was affecting every aspect of my life. At work I was less focused and in meetings I was less eloquent, which didn’t endear me to clients, and at home I was grouchy, lethargic, and unconcerned with the people around me who wanted to help. I pushed them away before I allowed them in. I’m thankful that none of them gave up on me and just called it quits.”

“How long does it take?”

Harry gave Tony a long look. “It can take a while, Tony, maybe years like it did for me, but each session is usually an hour. Sometimes they were shorter, if I stood up and walked out, or longer, if I made a significant breakthrough.”

“Did you walk out often?”

“A fair few times.” Harry said with a grin. “Particularly in the beginning, before I learned that to open up was to free myself of the pain and poison of the past. It takes a while to settle in and get used to talking about such awful, painful things, but given enough time, you can get there, as I did. It took several months of going before I finally settled into a routine, and then the real healing could start.”

They sat in silence and Harry didn’t push. Tony said nothing either and the silence stretched on, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, it was quite nice to sit in silence without shouting and screaming in one another’s faces.

“Harry!” Hermine called out from the back door. “Teddy’s awake.”

Harry smiled and stood. “That’s my cue to go back and talk about dinosaurs.”

“I…I need help speaking to him.” Tony said, also standing.

“Come on then. He’ll be groggy for about ten minutes now, while he gets used to being awake, then he’ll be everywhere.”

Harry went back into the house with Tony, then into the living room.

“You’re both still alive?” Hermione asked.

Harry smiled as he went to the settee and picked up the groggy Teddy.

“Yes, we’ve had a nice, calm talk.” He said as he sat Teddy on his lap and cuddled him in tightly.

“So…what did you speak about?” Pepper asked.

Harry smiled and sent a look at Tony, who bit the bullet and sat next to Harry and awkwardly raised a hand to touch Teddy’s hair.

“A lot of things, Pep, but we have decided to call a truce. I mean, that was what we decided, wasn’t it?” He asked of Harry.

Harry snorted. “Yeah, we’ve agreed to a truce. I can’t deal with so much stress in my life and I can’t keep running to my therapist every other day. We’re both committed to this now, it’s time to just get on with it.”

“Can I hold him?” Tony asked.

Harry smiled and kissed Teddy before transferring him over to Tony’s lap.

“Am I doing it right?”

Harry reached over and adjusted Tony’s arms more securely around Teddy.

“There, that’s perfect.”

“I’m glad you’re both on the same page.” Bruce said. “It was uncomfortable to be around so much anger.”

“It was a stressful situation.” Natasha said. “No one is denying that, but I’m glad you’re both working things out.”

“It’s about time.” Harry said. “We can’t escape this situation, but we were only making it worse with so much anger and hostility. Hopefully, moving forward, things will be better.”

“Harry, want horn face.” Teddy said sleepily from against Tony’s chest.

Harry looked around for the triceratops teddy, and not seeing it he went upstairs to Teddy’s bedroom and he found the teddy on the floor, where it had been knocked during Teddy’s nap.

He picked up the soft triceratops and carried it back downstairs.

“Here you go, honey.” He said, sitting back down and rubbing the soft toy against Teddy’s cheek.

Teddy’s one arm snaked out and wrapped around the toy and he once again snuffled his face into it. Harry reached forward and smoothed Teddy’s hair back from his face. He assumed that Hermione had recast the suppression charm on Teddy.

It took another few minutes of quiet chat around him before Teddy squirmed and stretched on Tony’s lap. He broke free of Tony’s unsure grip and squirmed down to the floor.

“Do you want a drink, Ted?” Harry asked.

“Want juice.” Teddy said, not even looking up from where he was walking the dinosaur across the carpet.

“Do you want orange or blackcurrant?”

“Orange.”

“Okay. Anyone else want tea or coffee?”

“You know I want tea.” Hermione chuckled.

“You’re as bad as I am.” Harry grinned.

Harry took everyone else’s orders and he went out into the kitchen. He was rather surprised that Tony followed him.

“Did I do okay?” Tony asked him.

“With Teddy? Sure.” Harry nodded, allowing Tony to have the verbal praise he obviously sought. He really was like a man-child.

Harry set about making tea and coffee for everyone, and while waiting for the kettle to boil, he made a beaker of orange juice for Teddy. Was everything fixed and now hunky dory? No.

Harry might have decided that all this fighting and aggression was just getting in the way of everything, but they still had a lot to work out, and a lot to still talk about. This time though, Harry hoped that it didn’t all devolved back into fighting and arguing, he meant what he’d said, he was thoroughly sick of it.

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Tony watched as Harry moved. He didn’t stop and his hands were always doing something. He was at a loss as to what to say, or what to do, until he spied the cup of orange juice on the side.

“Should…should I take this to Teddy?” He asked.

Harry looked over his shoulder and he nodded.

“Yeah, make sure he says thank you. I don’t mind so much if he doesn’t say please, I don’t believe he has to beg to get food or drink from me, but I like him to thank people who hand him things.”

“Okay. Okay, I can do that.” Tony said, ignoring his inner panic as he picked up the cup and carried it back to where Teddy was playing.

“Ted…Teddy.” He called out, offering the cup.

Teddy looked up and then dropped his toy and stretched out both hands.

“Thanky.” He said, before Tony had even passed him the cup.

He made sure the three year old had hold of the cup before letting go and, feeling exhausted from just that small interaction, he sat next to Natasha and breathed.

“Are you alright?” Natasha asked, bending forward to whisper to him.

“Yeah. I think we’re doing well today, despite the argument.”

Natasha touched his back in silent support, as she’d been doing for the last few days, just giving him a small touch of physical reassurance as she did what she did best, sitting and observing. Remembering every word that was spoken for future reference.

Harry came back in with the tray of tea and coffee and he handed Hermione her tea first, before handing out everyone else’s. He looked calmer at least, as far as Tony could tell. He sat on the sofa with his own cup of tea and he looked at Teddy playing, smiling softly at him.

Tony remembered that this was his chance to prove that he could interact with a child, but it would mean putting everyone’s sole attention on him, and he was nervous, he couldn’t help it. If it had been an adult he would have been much more secure in the conversation, he loved talking about what he did, like when Harry had asked about arc reactor technology yesterday. He had gotten so into that conversation that he’d actually forgotten who he was talking to for a moment, that he would have to marry and have a baby with this bright, intelligent young man who was asking the right questions and seemed to be understanding exactly what Tony was saying. It was very rare for anyone to understand him when he spoke shop, and he was much more used to seeing confused frowns and having to try to explain in much simpler terms, which only ended up frustrating him.

But the point was that he couldn’t speak shop with Teddy. He couldn’t even put anything into simpler terms, because Teddy wouldn’t understand any of it.

“Stop over thinking it, just get on the floor and play with him.” Natasha encouraged, perhaps picking up on his tension as he just stared at Teddy.

Tony baulked at that idea, but Natasha gave him a push, right at the bottom of his spine, and Tony found himself on the floor before he could stop her.

Teddy looked over at him, and he laughed happily in the high, giggling voice of children, and Tony had to smile.

Potter had the audacity to snort out a laugh, but ultimately ignored him and went right back to talking to Hermione, Tony mentally thanked him for that, as he could see that he wasn’t being watched. But the problem now was that Teddy was playing with the stuffed triceratops, and there were no other toys around.

“Teddy, why don’t you show Tony your blocks?” Harry offered, and the little boy lit up.

“Yes, can I have them?”

“Of course, do you want me to get them?”

Teddy nodded his head and Harry put his tea down and stood to get a large bucket of chunky blocks. He put it down and Teddy ripped the lid off and upended it happily, with a large grin.

The three year old immediately started stacking the interlocking blocks and Tony tentatively reached out to help. When he wasn’t shouted at, and Teddy didn’t seem to be upset by his help, Tony got more confident and the engineer in him came out.

“Come on, Teddy, we can make this epic.” Tony insisted, as he slotted another chunky block into place, and kept an eye on Teddy, who was watching him, and then copying him.

“Wanna tower.”

“You want to put a tower in? I have a tower too, we should do it.” Tony said, looking behind him for more blocks, pushing them towards Teddy so that he could build a tower next to their structure.

“Harry, I need more blocks.” Teddy said, turning to his godfather, who turned from his conversation and looked at him.

“You want your other sets?” Harry asked.

“Yes, all of them.” Teddy said.

“Okay. I’ll move the table out of the way too.” Harry said, looking at the coffee table that was getting in their way.

“I can do that.” Steve offered immediately, like the good Captain he was. “Just tell me where to put it.”

“Behind this settee would be great, Steve. Thank you.” Harry said, as he went out of the room and rummaging under the stairs.

Steve picked up the table easily and lifted it over their structure carefully, putting it out of the way. Harry came back in carrying three other big buckets of blocks and Teddy grinned happily.

Teddy had the lids off and the buckets upended the moment Harry put them on the floor, and Harry laughed, ruffling Teddy’s hair.

“Does anyone want more tea or coffee?” Harry asked.

“Oh!” Teddy turned and crawled to a side table, where he’d left his beaker of juice, and he drank.

Harry grinned at the three year old, shook his head, and left for the kitchen to get more drinks. Tony was thoroughly entranced in building with the kids’ blocks, and having a little helper was an added bonus. Despite himself he was actually enjoying this. His nervousness was forgotten, he didn’t think about anyone watching him, as he instead focused on Teddy and engaged the little boy’s engineering skills, encouraging him to think of more ways to build the little structure they had started and the more Teddy wanted to add to it, Tony thought of a way to make it work so that the blocks stayed upright and where they were meant to be. Teddy looked amazed as he stood back and saw what they’d managed to do, and Teddy being happy made Harry happy. He was certainly smiling a lot more than he usually did as he watched Teddy laughing and clapping.

“Another tower!” Teddy demanded, coming to stand all over him, tiny hands griping his shirt and tugging. “Tony, more towers!”

“Alright, where do you want to put it?” He asked, gathering more blocks.

“In the middle!” Teddy said excitedly, as he ducked under an arch of blocks and held his hands out for more blocks to build a fifth tower.

“I feel I should warn you now that Teddy’s favourite part of playing with blocks is getting to knock them all over when he’s done.” Harry said with a smile. He looked even younger when he smiled and that unnerved Tony more.

“That’s okay, half my experiments end up with things crashing around me or exploding in my face.”

“Oh, snap.” Harry actually laughed.

“Only half?” Hermione teased. “I thought it was more like ninety-five percent.”

Harry snorted. “No, not that much, it’s more like seventy-eight percent.” He joked. “It’s more things exploding in my face though, it’s not often that things come crashing around me.”

“Unless the entire thing explodes and sends shards of glass and metal everywhere.” Hermione pointed out. “Then it breaks everything else too.”

“Usually me first.” Harry said blithely.

“Is that where all the scars on your hands came from?” Tony asked.

Far from being self-conscious about the subject, Harry sat forward and spread both hands out, showing all the white and silvery scars on show.

“Oh yeah.” He said happily. “All of these have come from inventing and tinkering. This one is the most recent.” He said, pointing to a scar that was still a pinkish-red going down the side of his hand from his thumb. “Thankfully it didn’t need stitches, so I could just patch it up and carry on, but it’s still healing and I’ve lost some sensation in that part of my hand. I believe it to only be temporary, though.”

“Tony! Help me with a tower!” Teddy interrupted, reaching out to tug on Tony’s sleeve.

“Alright, bud, I’m helping.” Tony laughed, turning back to the three year old and collecting up more blocks.

It was more relaxed now that they weren’t shouting in one another’s faces, and Tony felt the slightest bit better. They’d set a date for their marriage, one that was now stuck in his mind and refused to leave, it was the worst situation Tony had ever found himself in, but he would find a way to make it work. He had to.

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