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 31st 2011 and because of the de-aging, Harry is 21.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A/N: So this is only my second Marvel/Harry Potter crossover and after years of reading, and loving, Thor/Jotun Loki arranged/forced marriage fics, I decided to take a step into this trope myself, just in a different direction. Tony is the perfect target for a forced marriage contract, and this plot has actually worked out incredibly well and I'm very pleased.

This is just a teaser chapter, it'll be a while before chapter 2 follows it, even though I have chapters 2 and 3 already written, just because I want a few more chapters under my belt first, but my readers on Facebook wanted to know what happened next after I shared the first scene with them, and I'm just too excited to share this plot to keep it behind closed doors for too long.

But, I hope you have all enjoyed reading this chapter, and I hope you'll carry on enjoying it as the story progresses. Next chapter is CEO Potter versus CEO Stark, and if Tony truly thought that Harry would be a push over because of his age, he definitely has another thing coming. Until then, lovelies,

StarLight Massacre. X