Chapter Six:

The world stopped. He had only been a father for about 24 hours and he felt like he was already failing at it. He shook his head gaining a grip on reality, his genius mind running through several different scenarios on what could have possibly happened. His brain kept getting stuck on abduction, but there would be no reason for anyone to have taken Harry, nobody knew yet.

"Run that by me again," Tony seethed. "I thought you just said that Harry is missing. That almost seems impossible, he was supposed to be taken in for surgery this morning, it's now," Tony glanced down at his watch, "almost noon. Why weren't we informed, how long has he been missing? What if his no good relatives got him?"

Tony started panicking, something that he was not accustomed too. Remus looked at Tony in concern. He was trying not to listen in to the conversation, but it was hard with his enhanced senses.

Tony took in a deep breath, gaining control of himself. He was Tony Stark, damn it, he rarely lost control of situations.

Pepper breathed in a deep breath. "Tony, get a hold of yourself! The nurse took Harry down for x-rays since they lost the previous set, and when she came back from the processing lab, and well, it looks like he just wandered off. They called the Dursleys to let them know, but because you don't have custody yet, that is why they didn't tell you. They need a picture for the staff, but his family said they didn't have one."

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course they don't have a picture of him! I have one I snapped last night with him. I told him I would send it to his phone, but of course he doesn't have one," he seethed. "I'll send one to you. Send Happy to the Dursleys and have him scope them out."

"Got it Tony. What are you going to do now?" Pepper asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"I am going to find my son."

Tony ended the call and looked at his old friend. James and Sirius had always said that Remus was horrible to play hide and seek with because of his over heightened senses.

"Sorry Tony, I couldn't help but over hear . . ."

"It looks like my son has the same temperament as me. He looks just like I did at that age too."

Tony pulled out a picture on his phone, looking at one of the several pictures he had on him and Harry together. Previously, all he had were pictures of his hot rods, some models on the hot rods, and a couple of architectural pictures of buildings. It made it seem more real, having a picture of his son on his phone.

His son.

He needed to find him.

Harry, a small boy, too small for his age with messy hair and green eyes.

"Is there a magical way you can locate him?" Tony asked, hoping.

Remus shook his head. "Unless his parents put a tracking charm on him previously, then no. Is his mother a witch?"

"Yes, but she died." Tony closed his eyes, swearing to himself that he would find his and Lily's son. He wouldn't fail him now that he knew that he had a son.

"Tracking charms need to be renewed, and if the mother is no longer with us, then there is no way there would be one on him anyway. Magic has laws, just like physics. Magic won't allow tracking or summoning of humans and sentient beings," Remus explained. "Show me a picture, I know London like the back of my hand. If anything I can at least help you look for him."

"Thanks, I appreciate that. I hope he just got bored waiting, and went to go find a hot nurse to stare at," Tony mumbled.

He pulled up a picture of him and Harry. Pepper had snapped it as the two of them were leafing through Tech Today, the one that Tony was on the cover of. He had signed it and given it to Harry.

Tony heard Remus suck in a deep breath when he saw the picture.

"Later you will tell me how in the world Harry James Potter is your son. The rest of the world believes he is the son of Lily and James Potter," Remus told his old friend. "But, yes we need to find him, as quickly as possible."

Tony nodded, knowing that he owed an explanation to him.

"Where would you have gone? Assuming he wandered off," Remus asked, trying to figure out where to look first.

"I would have snuck into the closest strip bar," Tny snapped.

"He is eight, what would have done at eight?" Remus snapped back forgetting how infuriating it was to deal with the Black men, magical, squib, or mutant.

The stress of it all was finally getting to Tony, his defensive magic rising to the surface. The defensive magic reminding Remus of Tony's powers. He remembered that Howard was strict about the public finding out about Tony's abilities, not wanting his son to be experimented on or labeled as anything other than a genius.

"I would have done just that," He whispered furiously. "I don't know, I didn't exactly have a normal childhood!"

"Just think for a second, where would Harry go. You claim to be a genius, think like one!"

Tony closed his eyes for a second, thinking through everything. "Harry is a neglected at best eight year old, at best. He is a genius who has had to hide from the world. His cousin only let him get through 20 minutes of the expo before his fat ass pushed him into the genetic reader."

Remus nodded, listening through Tony's reasoning.

"Surrey is about an hour away from here, the hospital is only a couple of blocks away. I would have snuck away, came here to see everything I could get my eyes and hands on. I mean, it isn't too often we come to the UK to begin with," Tony kept talking to himself.

Remus started sweeping the crowd. He knew he needed to find Harry soon. It wouldn't do to have him wondering around in open, the contacts he had in the werewolf world still had some of the most loyal looking for Harry.

Remus quickly told Tony his cell number so they could text one another if one or the other found the wayward child.

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Tony scanned the crowd quickly trying to figure out where he would go if he was a curious 8 year old child. He remembered loving cars, making his way over to the display.

There on display was the original hover car that Howard had designed that year. It was entitled the "Father, Son Project."

It had floated for 10 seconds before falling on the techs foot.

The blueprints were on display, notes from Howard about the projects, and off on some of the prints, he could see his own contributions. Not that Howard paid attention to them. A publicity stunt to try to get more children involved in tech.

The notes were in Tony's hurried print, and looking at them, he made a note to come back to it later. His 8 year old brain had figured out how to make the car work, but the tech was just not there yet at the time.

You learn by doing. Howard always said.

Tony looked down at the designs, seeing that he father had in fact made notations to try it Tony's way when he revisited the project.

Enough remembering, you need to find your son.

Where would I be if I was a curious 8 year old?

Building a circuit board.

He made his way over to the hand's on portion of the expo. His sharp eyes sweeping back and forth looking for that familiar shock of dark hair.

There was a group of children playing video games, but Harry wasn't there.

"Come on kiddo, where can you be?" Tony muttered.

He kept his eyes sweeping the crown, ignoring the calls of his fans keeping his attention on what he needed too, finding Harry.

He swept one more time, his eyes catching a familiar looking child, tucked away in the corner, messing with the most advanced board that was on display. He quickly fired a text off to Pepper and to Remus. He wanted Happy out in Surrey still gathering information on the people that Harry called family.

Tony stood back watching his son work through the problem. Tony had come up with that particular board himself to power a prosthetic limb. He was waiting to see what Harry would come up with, if he could get it to work.

His son was brilliant.

He worked through the problem methodically, only missing one piece.

Tony walked quickly, not drawing attention to himself to help give Harry some pointers before he got frustrated. He heard his son emit a small sigh; whenever Tony did that it was a sign he got stuck on something and just couldn't get past it.

"You are missing a transducer."

Harry jumped, not expecting someone behind him.

"Mr. Stark!"

"Tony," he corrected gently.

"Tony, I'm sorry I snuck in. I know the school only paid for yesterday, but . . . I will pay you back, I promise." The words rushed out of Harry's mouth. He had no excuse, he knew that the Expo makes money for SI, but he snuck in anyway.

"I don't know how I will come up with the 30 pounds, but I will figure out a way. Maybe I can sneak away and cook for you a couple of times."

Tony put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Harry I am not worried about the money. Hell, I am giving you a lifetime pass. But, if I remember right, you were supposed to be in surgery right now."

Harry looked down at his arm. He didn't know what to say to his idol, Tony Stark. Sometimes when his uncle hurt him real bad, he would be healed over night, other times, it took awhile. Harry didn't quite understand it, but his body seemed to have healed the broken bones overnight, just like . . . .

He wouldn't think of the word, just thinking of it would mean punishment.

Tony looked at his arm. "Can you make a fist? Squeeze my hand tight?" Harry nodded, doing as Tony request. "Doesn't seem broken anymore, but still I would like you to get looked at."

Tony had seen the panic in Harry's eyes and heard the shift in his breathing.

"Harry, breathe with me now," Tony said, keeping his eyes locked on Lily's familiar shade of jade.

"I'm a freak," Harry whispered, before breaking down, sobbing.

Tony instinctually grabbed him, pulling the small child into his arms. "You aren't," he promised, but when he looked down, he saw that Harry was fast asleep.

Tony looked up and saw Remus standing there. "Mild sleeping charm. Is your place close?"

Tony nodded, feeling like an egg had been cracked over his head. "Disillusionment charm. I can still see you with my enhancements, but normal wizards and muggles won't be able to see you. Just keep in mind you can't bump into anyone."

Tony nodded, standing with Harry in his arms. He frowned at the lack of weight on his son, swearing that he would get his vengeance on Harry's so called guardians.

They should have been guarding and protecting them, but in his gut, he knew this wasn't the case.

The small group made their way through the back exit of the expo to avoid the crowds. Lunch time was some of the busiest time with random people coming in to marvel the new, exciting tech coming up. Tony wanted to take some time when he had a chance to go through the expo properly, but right now he knew he had to be with Harry.

666666

Remus followed them through the lobby and up to the penthouse near Hyde Park. He watched as Tony laid the small boy in his bed, closing the door softly behind them.

"Tony?"

"Hungry Remus?" Tony cut him off, not wanting to answer the questions at this point. "What do werewolves eat? Steak, rare?"

"Only closer to the moon, I could do whatever right now. I took up most of my lunch break looking for your son, a boy I thought was James and Lily's son."

"Let me order us a light lunch, and then I will bring you up to speed to what I know, which isn't much," Tony answered, compromising with Remus.

Remus nodded, knowing when to wait. Tony would tell him soon enough.

They spent a couple of minutes in companionable silence, Tony staring out the window at the surrounding park. "Did you know that I own a townhouse not to far from here?"

Remus looked at his friend, trying to figure out where he was going with it. He just shook his head in response.

Tony took a long sip of his whiskey. "Lily and I stayed there for almost nine months back when James was missing. You were on a mission with the werewolves, Sirius was mad with grief and busy looking for James. We took an oath to James on their wedding day to look out for Lily, so when she called less than a year after that, I came."

Remus hung his head, remembering the oath the three of them took on James's wedding day. Peter hadn't been there, his mom had died three days before hand.

"You came when the rest of us didn't," Remus surmised.

Tony nodded. "We were told he was dead, that all they could find was his snapped wand. Lily was catatonic the first night I was here. I just laid in bed and held her. I listened to her sob her heart out. There was nothing I could do for her. I never felt so helpless in my life.

"She laid there for days, and I brought her soup and other things that I could heat up from a can, when she one day came out of the room and said, 'I won't join James in the afterlife because you kept feeding me all this processed food.' She taught me how to cook, and started helping me restructure the UK branch of SI. She needed to stay busy, and I helped. One night, she went out drinking with Marlene and Alice, you remember them? Marlene had the hair you could just grab on to in bed . . ."

Remus cleared his throat bring Tony back to the point.

"She was drunk, and I was up working on a weapon design. She started kissing me, and I kept trying to shrug her off."

"Lily was persistent when she wanted to be," Remus said. Not many people knew, but Remus and Lily had dated in fourth year, briefly. She nagged and nagged him to kiss her. Remus was scared because of his curse, but Lily was determined to show him that she knew better. Lily had the kindest heart. And Remus knew though deep down that she belonged with James, just like his heart belonged to somebody else. Their romance had only lasted a brief month at the most with them staying friends.

"One thing lead to another," Tony whispered. "She never told me about having a child, I just found out through Fortis when Harry was pushed into the machine. If I had known about him I would have never allowed him to go to his aunts."

"Do you want him?" Remus asked, he looked at his friend continuing quickly, "I wanted him. I saw him on accident one day, I was at a bookshop where his aunt was, and I followed them as far as I could back into Surrey. Once I got too close to his house, I was redirected. There are powerful wards and enchantments on the house keeping creatures and dark wizards away. Since I am a creature . . . I saw the bruises, I wanted to help, I begged the headmaster to let me take him. I was denied. So I bought a house close to Surrey in hopes I could just keep an eye out on Harry, but I only saw him from a distance just a few times. I worried that if I tried to make a scene that it would be worse for him."

Tony nodded, understanding. He knew there was no way that the laws would allow Remus to take in Harry, but at least Remus had tried.

"He's my son. He's Lily's child, and further more I would have taken him even if he wasn't mine."

A pounding at the door broke the conversation effectively. Lunch came, effectively making the two men take a break from the heavy conversations and just planning on their next steps.

One thing was clear to Tony. Remus himself was very intelligent, and someone he needed to help with Harry.

"Can bones heal magically?" Tony asked as he picked at his salad. He hard ordered grilled chicken and vegetables for Harry, knowing that he could heat that up later on.

"Not most of the time, it is an odd case, and most of the time they don't heal properly. A child's healing magic only kicks in when there is severe problems or the problem has been ignored causing magic to protect the child." Remus sighed, knowing that Harry was probably neglected for so long that his magic started taking over. "We need to get him to a healer so he can properly be looked at, and hopefully some of the damage can be reversed."

Tony nodded. "Do you have a good one?"

Remus looked thoughtful for a minute. He had almost instinctually said Madame Pomfrey, but with Hogwarts in session, he didn't want Harry exposed too the wizarding world yet.

"She is a good friend of mine, has been taking care of me since, well . . ." Remus pointed to the bite mark he received as a child. "She is discrete and will not break the confidentiality vow she took."

He nodded, firing a text to Pepper to cancel the rest of his life at the moment. Tony needed to make Harry a priority.

"Now, I guess the question is what now?" Remus asked.

Tony chewed thoughtfully on his salad, running through multiple scenarios at a time. He wouldn't have heard Harry enter the kitchen if it hadn't been so quiet at the moment.

"I'll leave. I am sorry for tainting you with my freakishness," Harry said quietly making his way toward the door.

"Well, if you are a freak, then I must be one too," Tony told him, bringing out Harry's lunch. "I got you lunch, and I hope you will eat it and join me. I have some things I need to tell you . . ."

AN: I know, horrible place to leave it, but no real cliffhanger. I will be posting a new story soon, Captain America and Tony has Harry's parents, one that is a ficception inspired by njchrispatrick Darkness of Birth. Keep an eye out on that and check his stuff out. Also I have another one floating in my head using a spin on Thor being the god of fertility. But with that being said, I will try to be more faithful on updating. Most of this was finished in the beginning of September but got erased due to computer error.

As always reviews rock my socks. Leave me some inspiring words or ideas you want incorporated if you have ides.

Thanks!