As the Night Falls

[A Harry Potter and Avengers Crossover]

Disclaimer: Ownership goes to their respective creators.

Warnings: Uh, none, I guess.

Author's Note: All dates in HP have been pushed forward to correlate with MCU events.

The Weaver's are my O.C. American family.

Chapter Six: The Boy in the Morning

Once Bruce determined that the boy would be fine with enough rest and proper care,

Tony, at Pepper's insistence, gave up one of his many rooms on his floor. He didn't know why it had to be his floor that the boy had to stay on, but no amount of arguing would change Pepper's mind.

While he was at it, he also made sure Bruce had everything he would need to treat the ailing child (see he was a good host!) for the next few days before he went back to his relatives, or until they were able to find a more suitable guardian for him.

Afterward, Tony settled in the common area to read the questionnaire packets that he had meant to get around to reading earlier. At the same time, Pepper stayed with Bruce to try to gather more information on the child. With all the prior excitement over the child cutting into the few hours he had left, Tony knew that he would have to read the files now, or he wouldn't have time to do it. But as the saying goes, better late than never.

Pulling up the file on the Dursley fellow, as he was mentioned earlier, Tony began to read the pages of background information on the man.

In the end, the only thing Tony was able to gather was that Vernon Dudley held a minimal position of importance at a drill manufacturer in Surrey. The family also consisted of one kid, Dudley, who loved playing video games and hanging out with his friends and a stay-at-home wife (and as Pep had said, there was no mention of the nephew that he currently harbored upstairs). The wife, one Mrs. Petunia Dursley, who shared a likeness to an anorexic giraffe and enjoyed gardening (although Tony knew this already from Pepper's earlier research) and book club. Tony looked at Mrs. Dursley and knew that even if he was drunk off his rocker he would not have spent an evening with her. Dursley, himself, was about as exciting to read about as his wife was, which was to say: he wasn't. With no real interest in technology, Tony gathered that the only reason why he had entered the competition was for the sole purpose to have his son meet the great Tony Stark. As apparently, Tony Stark was his son's idol, and the boy wanted nothing more than to grow up to be just like him one day.

Tony preened at that; he was always happy to welcome someone else into his fanbase.

Be that as it may, he couldn't say he was overly impressed with the family just by looking at the pictures.

The husband was fat, in a way that would be detrimental to his health much sooner rather than later. The woman was as skinny as her husband was fat- guess opposites really did attract each other. Their equally rotund son, who looked to be around the same age as his cousin (thirteen) looked like he had never exercised a day in his life, and probably never would.

Tony wondered why, out of everyone who had entered the contest, this man had won. On paper, Vernon Dursley certainly did not appear to be the kind of person Tony had envisioned winning the contest, but maybe there was something else that had made the man deserving of Tony's time.

Riffling through the sheets of paper again, Tony checked to make sure he hadn't missed anything before moving on two the second winner and his family, hoping that this person, at least, held some appreciation for his technology.

Unlike the winner from England, the American winner from California, Liza Weaver, worked in the research field and appeared to hold a deeper understanding and appreciation for what Tony did than Dursley had. Also, unlike Vernon Dursley, she would have two kids ages fifteen and eight accompanying her today, alongside her husband, Ben, who was a middle school technology teacher.

Nowhere on Liza's interview did she mention what an amazing experience it would be for her children. Instead, she focused on herself and how she hoped to be able to integrate some of Tony's newest creations into her research lab after seeing demos at the presentation.

Tony was relieved that at least one of the winners actually knew something about his innovations.

By the time Pepper finally came downstairs and joined him in the common room, Tony had finished reading the files and was downing the last remaining bit of his coffee.

"Did you read the files?" Pepper asked while eyeing the folders that were thrown haphazardly on the couch.

"Yeah," Tony said as he got up to get some more coffee from the freshly brewed coffee, Clint had just made, "I gotta say, what were the criteria the contestants had to meet to qualify for the sweepstakes, again? Because I'm pretty sure that the winner from England was not the best nor most qualified person we must have had."

"The only criteria that they had to meet was that they worked for a company that used Stark Technologies."
"That's it!? Whatever happened to the idea of the contestants having a degree in technology or science or something?"
"I told you, Tony, we needed to set stricter guidelines of entry."
"So why didn't we?"
"Because you wouldn't listen to me when I said that if we allowed just anyone to enter, then we might get someone who did not know anything about your research or your technologies."

"So we just take my word for it now? You're the CEO of the company; you should have come up with stricter guidelines."
"I might be the C.E.O., Tony Stark, but this was your idea to give a personal tour of the Expo. Don't you dare blame me for something I had no part in."
"Well, can't we do something? Get rid of them somehow and get another family who would actually appreciate my ingenuity? Surely there must have been runner ups or something? Call one of them up and say that they won. If you have to, send my jet to pick them up."
"Tony, no. We cannot get another family to come and take Mr. Dursley's place. If you had read the files earlier, perhaps we could have made a consolation prize and given it to them instead, but the doors open in fifteen minutes, and you are due to meet the Dursley's and the Weaver's in an hour. Besides, you have their nephew upstairs. Bruce wants you to figure out why they would leave their nephew unattended and allow him to roam around in a city he's not familiar with."
"Are you sure we can't just forget this whole thing and-"
"Yes, Tony, I am sure. You have already paid for both families to spend a week in New York just so they could attend the Expo. Now get your coffee, and let's go."

"Fine." Tony sulked as he poured himself another cup of coffee, ignoring Steve, Clint, and Natasha, who was watching the exchange with varying degrees of interest.

Forty minutes later found Tony and Pepper greeting the two lucky winners and their families. Tony and Pepper had to discretely wipe their hands after shaking Vernon Dursley's sweaty hand and force polite smiles as he loudly boasted how his son was going to become the next Tony Stark. Oddly enough, the boy hadn't even taken his off his game long enough to realize that his "idol" was standing right in front of him.

When it became clear that Dudley wasn't interested or even cared, about what Tony did, the man tried to impress them by talking loudly about what a good business venture it would be for Tony Stark to start doing business with Grunnings.

Feeling a headache coming on, Pepper gritted her teeth throughout the whole onesided conversation and politely nodded her head acting like she following along and considering the offer. Finding potential business prospects was not the intended purpose of this meet and greet tour. Not that it really mattered, Pepper was sure that Stark Industries would never do business with someone like Vernon Dursley- even if the walrus of a man had been in a position to make such contracts between two companies.

Pepper at least was doing a better job of concealing her uninterest than Tony, who wasn't even attempting to hide his boredom anymore- not that Mr. Dursley seemed to care or notice.

She smiled apologetically at the Weaver's, hoping that Tony would be able to somehow shake it out of them, why their nephew wasn't apart of the group.

"You know," Tony said randomly after listening to what had to be Dursley's fiftieth attempt to convenience Tony that Grunning's was the answer to all his problems. "I was wondering whatever came of the fourth ticket I sent. I believe Pepper wrote in the letter that all unused tickets should be returned."
The Weaver's appeared confused, but the Dursley's faltered, they seemed to know exactly where the line of questioning was going. Well, Vernon did, as he was the only one talking. Petunia just blanched at the question.

"Er, well, you see, Vernon's sister was supposed to come but fell ill at the last moment. We tried to find someone to come instead, but since it was last second, all of Dudley's little friends were busy." Petunia said when it appeared that her husband had finally run out of things to say.
"Isn't there another child that lives with you?"

"What?" Petunia gasped as she looked nervously at her husband, while Vernon looked flustered. How exactly had he known about him? Vernon had never listed the boy down on any of the paperwork.

"We did a background check on both winners and documents came up stating that you had a nephew living with you," Tony said casually as if he didn't care one way or the other. He didn't, not really; he just needed to figure out why he was taking care of their thirteen-year-old nephew.

At that moment, Pepper decided it was best if she ushered the other family away to check out a cool prototype that could potentially eliminate the need to vacuum the house with a traditional vacuum cleaner. She guided the other family away so that Tony could have the privacy he needed to dig deeper into their lives to find out about the child.

"We didn't consent to have a background check! What kind of-"
"I believe the entry forms all stated that the winning families would be subjected to a thorough background check."
"Vernon," his wife hissed silently while clutching his arm desperately.

Tony found it odd that the woman seemed terrified at the thought of Tony finding out about their nephew. However, it was Petunia who spoke up, over her husband, who was still sputtering.

"I do have a nephew." Her lips curled briefly at the admission. She ignored him and continued with a long-suffering sigh. "We had no choice but to bring him along after we couldn't find anyone else who could come or anyone who would be willing to watch him. You see, he has serious social anxiety and acts out very frequently when in public places. We try to avoid taking him out, at all, since it is so stressful for him. We left him back in the hotel, where he'd be more comfortable."
Tony didn't comment. While it would be a plausible explanation, the boy wasn't back at the hotel like they claimed, unless Stark Tower had become a hotel at some point. Plus, he was supposed to defend those who were too weak to protect themselves, and even if the kid wasn't laid up in bed with pneumonia, the waiflike kid didn't look like he had much of a chance to defend himself.

"I am sorry to hear that he couldn't make it. Perhaps, I should stop by one day and meet him, so that he doesn't feel left out." He mused out loud, observing their reaction.

Tony did not miss the strangled sound Vernon made or the nervous titter of his wife. Their son, who seemed to be oblivious to the conversation before then, spoke up and said. "You can't. The freak ran off yesterday. Mum, I'm hungry! I want biscuits!"
"What?" Tony spoke directly to the son. Perhaps Tony could get some useful information from the boy if he could pry him away from his cellphone long enough.

Unfortunately, the boy frowned at him and screwed up his fat piggy face and howled while pretending to sob, "I want- I want- I want a biscuit, Mum! You promised that you would get me a biscuit if I let you and dad talk. You've talked, now I want my biscuit! Mum, I'm hungry!"

"Duddykims, dear," The woman said over the boy's theatrics. "I promise you though the moment we are done talking to Mr. Stark, we will get you a biscuit." But the word "wait" must not have been in the boy's dictionary, as he continued on as if she hadn't spoken, or as if Tony Stark wasn't standing there.
"But I want it now! Can I get a choccy one?"
"Of course you can," Cooed his mother, leaving Tony to feel slightly nauseous.

"Can I get more than one choccy biscuit?" Tony didn't know why the boy looked up at his mother with pleading eyes; it was evident by the size of his girth that he hadn't ever been denied a "biscuit" in his life.
"Most certainly, my Dudders. You can get four or five if you want it. Now let mummy and daddy finish talking to Mr. Stark so that we can get our growing boy something to eat. I promise we will be done in just a couple of minutes."
With that promise, the boy went back to his game. At least one of them appeared to be satisfied.

Looking at the boy once more, Tony couldn't help but feel relieved that he didn't have any children. He was sure any children he might have had would have been equally as spoiled, but not in the same repulsive way, as the piglet in front of him.

Turning back to his parents, Tony asked the question that had been bothering him throughout the whole exchange. "What did he mean your nephew ran off?"
Petunia flushed crimson and nervously pressed her pink skirt. "Oh, what my darling boy means, is that the boy had a panic attack yesterday at the terminal and ran off."

"I am sorry to hear that! Did you find him?"

"Well, no." She admitted but rushed to continue when Tony frowned, "But he does this sort of thing all the time, he usually turns up when he wants to." She laughed anxiously while looking at Vernon.

"He's mentally disturbed," Vernon said as if to bring an end to the conversation.

At this, Tony sent a quick text to Pepper, telling her to get back here now. He wanted her here for this, as he knew the Dursley's were lying about the events leading up to Pepper finding him.

Pepper had made him promise not to mention having their nephew until they got the full story as Bruce, as well as Pepper, strongly suspected the boy was being neglected if not downright abused by his relative.
"I thought you said you left him at the hotel?"
The Dursley's floundered for an answer as Pepper came walking up without the Weaver's.

"What's wrong, Tony? I left the Weaver's with one of the technicians."
Tony acknowledged his girlfriend before looking hard at the Dursley's, causing Petunia to shrink into her husband.

"We- we left the key at the front desk and alerted the receptionist that our nephew might come in while we were out." Tony nodded his understanding, before entering his next line of questioning. "So, why did your son call his cousin a freak?"

Vernon laughed loudly at this, although it sounded a bit forced, "Oh, you know how kids are. It's hard for them to understand this kind of thing. No matter how much we try to explain it to Dudley, he still as trouble understanding the extent of his cousin's illness. It used to freak him out when the boy was going through these episodes when they were younger. In truth, it scared us a bit too, but Pet and I have learned to just deal with the boy."

"I see," Pepper said distractedly, as something on her phone seemed to catch her attention. "Excuse me. I must take this." And Pepper hurried off as she put her phone to the ear and listened.

"What about the boy's parents? I did not see anything on them." Tony said, trying to dig deeper.
Petunia sniffed as if she smelled something particularly horrid. "My sister started seeing his father while attending that god-awful school. By the time they graduated, he had her hooked on alcohol and who knows what else. Vernon and I tried our hardest to intervene and get her help, but she refused and ended up marrying him and getting pregnant." She spat the words out bitterly. "Then fifteen months after the boy was born, the boy's father had to go and kill him and his wife while driving under the influence." The disdain and hatred couldn't be missed.

But now that she was on a roll and had hopefully found a sympathetic ear in the form of Tony Stark, she discovered that she couldn't stop. After all, it wasn't every day she could trash her dead sister and her husband to a billionaire. "Vernon and I believe that is why the boy is so screwed up now. His mother was probably drunk the whole time she carried him and there is no telling what kind of mental issues her husband had. Not that I would know, we did not talk after she married that drunk."

Tony nodded again, those were valid concerns, he supposed, but that hardly addressed the boy's state. The boy had been in her and her husband's care since his parents passing over ten years ago. That meant they were legally responsible for the boy and therefore, should know his whereabouts.

He was going to ask if they had notified the local police when Pepper came back with the Weaver's. Pepper and Mr. and Mrs. Weaver appeared to be discussing one of Tony's latest inventions, which Tony was all too eager to go deeper into the specs and its features.

For the moment, the Dursley's were forgotten, and the tour resumed.

Pepper and Tony eventually managed to break away from the two families when it was time for Tony to do his presentation.

The presentation went off without a hitch, and soon, Tony found himself listening to Pepper's closing remarks and meeting up with the Dursley's and the Weaver's one last time.

The second time Tony met the Dursley's proved to be just as exciting as the next.

"Did you report your nephew as missing when he ran off?" Pepper asked, concern coloring her voice.

"No, he does it all the time at home, and we have never bothered the authorities. He'll come home if he's hungry, is what I've always said. Besides, don't you have to wait twenty-four hours before filing a missing person's report? We would not be able to report him missing for another couple of hours." Petunia said as if she hadn't put any thought into reporting her nephew missing.

"Yes, that would normally be the case, however, since your nephew is still very much a minor, the police would send out an AMBER alert, with a description of your nephew. What is his name, by the way?"

"Harry James Potter."
Tony couldn't help but smile a bit smugly; they had all but confirmed their relationship with the boy.
Between Pepper and Tony, they managed to hassle the Dursley's for more information regarding their supposedly missing nephew before finally bidding them, and the Weaver's a goodbye.

Tony regretted that he hadn't been able to show the two winners all his creations, however, Pepper had insisted that since Tony was the one who wanted to do the whole contest, to begin with, he be the one that tried to get answers from the Dursley's. The American family, however, didn't seem to mind.

Once Happy picked them up in the Rolls Royce, Tony got on his phone and checked for any miss calls or messages. He wasn't expecting any, as everyone knew he was going to be presenting today, however, he was surprised to see a notification from JARVIS stating that there was a confirmed DNA match to his.

Although he hadn't been expecting to receive any hits on his DNA, he had thought it might be a good idea to program JARVIS to send an alert on his phone should there ever be one. That way, no matter where he was, he wouldn't be taken by surprise by finding a child at home.

"Hey, Pepper, do you know anything about this?" Tony said while passing over his phone for her to look at the alert.

Pepper raised her eyebrows at this before glaring at Tony. "What is this? You didn't tell me you had a child!"

"I didn't! I mean, I didn't have a kid until this." He said as he frantically gestured to his phone.

"Do you know who it is?" Pepper asked, wondering about the poor woman Tony had managed to seduce and of the child who was totally innocent in all of this.

"I don't know! I don't even know how old the kid is or who the mother is!" Tony said in a mild panic. He wasn't supposed to become a father! He knew nothing about how to be a dad or how to raise a child!
"Well, I suppose we will find out when we get back to the tower, now won't we?" Pepper said cooly before picking up her phone and making a call.

When Tony went to try to defend himself, she simply held up a finger shushing him and continued talking to the person on the other side.

She ignored him the rest of the way home, and when Happy finally pulled into the parking garage, she opened her door and walked off without saying a word to Tony.

Tony sighed as he made his way to the elevator.

"JARVIS, where is Bruce?" Tony knew that he wanted Bruce to double-check the test results. Not that he didn't trust the guys down in the lab who were in charge of this sort of thing, but he wanted Bruce to review it too.

"Dr. Banner is currently with Mr. Potter."

Tony took off for the boy's room. He would check on the kid, make sure he was still alive and convince Bruce to rerun the DNA Then, while Bruce was rerunning the DNA., he would enjoy a glass of bourbon, or whiskey. Or both. Yeah, that sounded good. He hadn't had anything to drink in the past week. Then after Bruce confirmed that the child was his, he would meet his kid.

That was the plan until he approached the child's sickroom and heard the boy ask.

"...that I'm his son, then why haven't you told him yet?"

"He hasn't told me, because I left before the DNA results came in," Tony said as he opened the door and took in the scene before him. The boy...his son… was sitting up in bed, talking to Bruce, who had pulled up a chair.

Not knowing what else to say, Tony sarcastically said, "I got your call, Bruce."