Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: Long time, right? How about a slightly longer chapter as an apology?

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A (WiB; TY; DP; Share; T3; SN; LiCK; FR; O3; SHoE; AD; FPC; BAON; ToS; StL; SIN; NC; LL; PP; SoC; FF; NCR; RC; Star; Fence; ER; RoB; MLG; Rum; Cluster; VV; MT; WF)
Individual Challenges: Iron Son; Logical Crossing; Feast; Gryffindor MC; Sett to Destroy; Summer Vacation; Seeds; No Proof; Obstinate, Headstrong Girl (Y); Golden Times; The First Phase; New Fandom Smell; Old Shoes; Marvelous Cinema; Themes & Things A [Love]; Themes & Things B [Protection]; Lovely Triangle; Advice from the Mug; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent (x2); Quiet Time (x2); Letter of the Day (x2); Rian-Russo Inversion; Flags & Ribbons; Laws; Hold the Mayo; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux; The Real MC; Two Cakes!; Green Ribbon
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 12 – Assignment 3
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [769] (Superhero AU); 365 [172] (Journal)
Other MC4A Challenges: Wi Bingo [3C] (Bell)
Representation(s): James Potter/Lily Evans/Tony Stark (past); Autistic & Asexual Tony Stark; Autistic & Black Harry Potter; BAMF Pepper Potts; BAMF Veronica Brandt (OC)
Bonus Challenges: Fruit Fly; Gingersnap; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Lyre Liar; Most Human Bean; Muck & Slime; Casper's House; Corvid Brain; Hot Apple; Shiver & Shake; Under the Bridge; Lettuce Hold Hands); Chorus (Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Machismo; Rediscovery; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus; In the Trench; Surprise!; Turtle-Duck; Sitting Hummingbird; Some Beach; Getting On; Hot Stuff)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Tether); SN (Rail; Spare); LiCK (Poppy; Amaranth; Narcissus; Yarrow); FR (Liberation); O3 (Orator; Ox); TY (Ntaiv; Avasa; Kulonbozo; Enfant); SHoE (Oblique); DP (Yearn); AD (Association; Amphibian)
Word Count: 2616

(^^)
How to Engineer a Family
Chapter 03: Plans
(^^)

Harry should have known that traveling with the Dursleys would not be any kind of improvement on their behavior. He also should not have been surprised that they didn't leave him in their suite while they went around New York. A part of him had actually thought that the Dursleys wouldn't have been willing to pay all the ticket fees that it would take to include him in the tourist trap activities that were likely on the itinerary. After all, he wasn't ten anymore, and it wasn't like they had to be concern about him potentially tainting their home by being the only one in it.

It wasn't until Uncle Vernon told the cab driver to take them to the new Stark Tower that Harry truly had a grasp on why Aunt Petunia had the satisfied smirk on her face while they had eaten breakfast at the hotel. The pettiness of it stung like sweat dripping into a cut. The single muffin and orange juice he had been allowed to take from the free breakfast buffet refused to settle right in his stomach from the moment they had joined the queue for the free tour of the building. He tried not to think about whether he was worried that he would catch a glimpse of the man that was biologically his father or if he wouldn't.

Even worse than that issue was seeing all the cutting-edge science and not being able to ask any of the questions burning through his mind. His fingers itched to explore, to trace the smooth lines of numbers and coding while comparing them to what he had read over the years. Catching glimpses of designs with different kinds of flaws or things that while not flaws could still be improved was a special kind of torture. It reminded him of seeing the same kind of things in Hermione's work or in potion recipes. Neither Hermione nor Snape would appreciate having Harry say anything about his insights. His solution at Hogwarts would have been to write out the corrects in the journal he had for just that, but there was no way the Dursleys wouldn't notice him pulling it from his satchel, let alone writing in it.

He chewed on his tongue to give himself some distraction from it all.

He almost missed Aunt Petunia handing Uncle Vernon a haunting familiar blue journel. The golden flowers embossed on its cover flashed as Uncle Vernon tucked it into his suit jacket. Then he grabbed Harry right above his elbow and dragged him away from their tour group. Used to being manhandled like this, Harry knew better than to protest the rough treatment. Instead, he ducked his head and tucked his other arm in to avoid bumping into anything.

Uncle Vernon pulled him into an elevator just as a group of construction workers left it. As soon as the doors closed, he shoved Harry at the corner farthest from buttons. That was fine. Harry didn't want to stay within arm distance anyway, not that the elevator really had a lot of ways to get completely out of reach with the doors shut. Not being able to escape if needed made him feel sick as Uncle Vernon jabbed the button for the top floor impatiently.

The elevator still didn't move. Nor did it respond to the button being held down for increasing lengths of time. Harry huddled in the corner, trying to make himself as small as possible as Uncle Vernon darkened with the flush of his growing rage. Harry hadn't seen that particular shade of purple since the zoo trip for Dudley's eleventh birthday.

There had been a few times that Harry had been certain that Uncle Vernon was finally going to go beyond merely beating him. After nearly dying at Hogwarts so many times, the prospect of doing so didn't frighten Harry as much as it probably should. He had to bite back hysterical laughter at the idea of dying right then, actually. Wouldn't it be the height of irony that he survived death traps, Dark Lords, and dementors only to die in a very nonmagical way? Wouldn't it be fitting that he died in a building owned by the parent he had always wished for but couldn't have?

Luckily, just when Uncle Vernon had turned towards him with his hand reaching for Harry's neck, the elevator lurched into motion. The initial start caused Uncle Vernon to lose his balance and fall backwards into the wall. Harry slumped a bit in his corner as relief flooded him. It was a bit strange that there was even a jerk like that at all, as all the elevators so far had been very smooth, but maybe whatever had kept the elevator from responding in the first place had made created it. The moving stairs at Hogwarts did that sometimes, if a professor had frozen it temporarily.

Harry was just thankful that it had happened.

The elevator opens into a carpeted foyer that is empty except for a simple desk and a handful of equally simple benches. The benches are upholstered with real leather that had been dyed a rich plum that looked stately with the chrome that made up the rest of it. Standing next to the desk was a brunette wearing a pale blue blouse and black pencil skirt. On her feet were navy heels that looked painful to be standing while wearing, never mind walking. Harry couldn't repress a wince of sympathy.

"May I help you?" the brunette asked. One of her hands slid under the edge of her desk for just a moment before she turned to face them completely. Harry hunched his shoulders and moved to stand next to one of the benches nearest the elevator. He just knew that they weren't supposed to be here, no matter how they had actually achieved it. "I'm afraid Ms. Potts is currently unavailable."

"That's fine," Uncle Vernon dismissed as he marched up to the desk. Harry had to give the woman credit for maintaining her politely unimpressed look in the face of Uncle Vernon's approach. "I'm here to see Tony Stark."

"I see," she replied. Her eyes cut to Harry before dismissing him. "Do you have an appointment, Mister…?"

"Dursley," Uncle Vernon answered gruffly, "and I don't have an appointment—not for lack of trying. Stark's been dodging me for months! Now get him here straight away or he'll see why he can't just duck his responsibilities!"

"Mr. Dursley, you must understand that Mr. Stark is a very busy man—"

"And you think I'm NOT?" Uncle Vernon yelled. "I had to take time off work to get here! I had to travel to an entirely different country!"

Harry's mouth went dry as he noticed his uncle beginning to flush with temper. Careful not to draw attention to himself, he moved around the edge of foyer to get closer to the adults. He didn't think that his uncle would be stupid enough to lash out like he normally did towards Harry, but he couldn't really let the risk just stand. The woman wasn't showing any sign that she recognized the growing danger.

"Perhaps you should take a seat, Mr. Dursley," the woman suggested. "I can check Mr. Stark's calendar for any openings in the near future."

"You will get Stark here within short order," Uncle Vernon ordered. "None of this 'check his calendar' tripe. I will not be put off! You get him here!"

"Perhaps if you told me what this concerned—"

"It's a private matter!"

At that moment, one of the elevators in the bank dinged with a new arrival. Uncle Vernon turned towards it, momentarily distracted. A man in a suit exited calmly but with obvious purpose. What felt like gravel settled in Harry's gut at the sight of the portly man. There was no way the man would be able to stop Uncle Vernon at all, let alone before he could hurt the receptionist.

Harry moved at the same time that Uncle Vernon turned and swung a meaty fist at the woman. He barely managed to place himself in the way of the blow in time. Pain exploded in his left cheekbone, whiting out his vision and making his ears ring. But no amount of ringing could cover his uncle's enraged bellows as small hands gripped Harry's arms and pulled him farther away.

"Are you hurt?" Harry asked. Or at least he tried to, but the words felt smeared together. A faint coppery taste was flooding his mouth. That was just great, because of course he needed a cut in his mouth or a loosen tooth, both of which took forever to heal and were likely to get infected and take even longer. He tried to focus on the woman, but she was nothing but a blur.

Did he lose his glasses somewhere?

"I'm just fine, honey," she answered. She sounded like she was disapproving of the question. That was fine. Harry was used to everyone disapproving of him. "It's you that I'm worried about. He got you really good."

"I'm fine," Harry muttered, even though it felt like his cheek was numb and there were black spots in the blurs that he could see. "I'm fine."

"Uh-huh, sure," she agreed before raising her voice. "Happy, add medical services to your call list. Maybe an ambulance?"

"I'm fine," Harry repeated, trying to reassure her. It might have worked better if the black spots hadn't picked that moment to swamp him completely.

(^^)

"I'm just saying that since I'm not CEO," Tony ranted as he worked his way through the stack of paperwork that Pepper had brought him, "I shouldn't still be required to sign all this. I'm just the owner and major stockholder. Shouldn't I be able to just hide away in the lab or something?"

"Most of this paperwork is actually about patents," Pepper answered without looking up from either her Pad Thai noodles or her ever-present tablet. "JARVIS can do many things with your projects, but the patent office still requires paper copies with physical signatures. As CEO, I am invested in being able to use as much as possible of what you come up with while you live your dream of being a lab hermit."

"Are you…are you conspiring with my AI?" Tony asked in mock surprise. Pepper hummed around a bite of noodles. JARVIS echoed the tone through his speakers. Tony gasped dramatically. "You are! The betrayal! The sneaky sneaking! What is next? The bots? Are you going to take all my children?"

"I wouldn't dream of trying to turn the bots." Pepper smirked at him. "I love my shoes too much to risk them with the bots' antics. Sign your paperwork so I can sell your inventions to the world."

"I feel so used," Tony whined. He didn't stop his signing. "Say, did you get a chance to read over my proposal to move the tower to an ARC reactor?"

"It does have merit," she started, "but after the explosion of the previous one, I think the Manhattan zoning commission may be hesitant to have one right in the middle of the borough."

"That's fair," he agreed after a moment of reflection. No matter how stable the reactor design was, now that they had seen the explosive radius of one, putting a reactor anywhere in the city was just asking for unnecessary collateral damage. However, the renovations needed to place the reactor in an isolated but still accessible location would far exceed what could be justified for only one building. There was another option, of course. "Do you think we could convince them to let us provide power for the entire district?"

There was a beat of silence before Pepper slowly raised her head.

"You want to put the entirety of Turtle Bay on ARC power?"

"I was actually thinking of trying for the entirety of Midtown, but we can start with Turtle Bay and add in neighborhoods as the tie-ins get done." Tony let the numbers he had long since memorized fill his head even as he continued to rattle off his plan. "I mean a single reactor the size of the one that had been powering the LA campus should be able to handle a good chunk of South Manhattan. It would have been all, but hey, Times Square and Madison Square Gardens are total power sucks, and that's before getting into the individual locations that are weirding the grid. If we double the size or plant multiples along the bed of the East River, we should be able to systematically move the entire borough and a good chunk of Queens and the Bronx as well. Not to mention if we start doing the same in the Hudson—but we already have good reason to start doing it in Queens because the Expo grounds are in Flushing."

"You aren't kidding."

"No," Tony agreed cautiously, uncertain with how surprised Pepper sounded. "The world needs clean energy. We have the technology and the influence to make it happen. New Yorkers also won't hesitate to tell us to get fucked if there's issues with the service."

"Tony, this is crazy—"

"Yes, I know it's crazy, but you know what else was crazy?" He stood up, unable to stay still as frustration overcame him. Out of habit, he doubled his words with sign, letting the size of the gestures punctuate his points. "Identical insurance packages from top to bottom. Making sure all employees are capable of focusing on their job rather than if they have enough hours to afford basic necessities. Having employees doing only a reasonable amount for one person instead twelve. Paid and insured internships. We specialize in crazy, Pep!"

"I know, but other multi-billion-dollar companies don't—"

"I don't care," Tony interrupted, because he really didn't care what ways those other companies kept their profits up—actually, wait, he did. "Actually, you know what? Fuck those guys. Musk and Bozos can use pineapples for flesh lights for all I care. Richards has better ideas than both of them combined—"

"I am sorry to interrupt," JARVIS said, "but there is a situation developing on the executive floor that I believe requires Sir's personal attention. Mr. Hogan has already called emergency services."

"Oh, god," Pepper said as she abandoned her lunch and hurried towards the elevator with Tony right behind her. "Is Veronica okay? What happened?"

"Ms. Brandt is fine. Her rescuer is not. Mr. Hogan has since subdued their attacker, who is most insistent on discussing a personal matter with Sir." There was a pause as the elevator began descending the few floors necessary. "I have filtered 163 increasingly irate emails from this individual over the past six months."

"What? Why am I just hearing about this now, J?"

"I had no reason to substantiate his claims until he accessed your personal elevator approximately fifteen minutes ago."

"What claim was that?"

JARVIS opened the elevator doors instead of answering. The foyer of the executive floor was filled with the inarticulate yelling of the fattest man that Tony had ever seen squeezed into a business suit. Pepper's personal assistant (since Rushmanoff had scurried back to SHIELD after dumping that bullshit report) looked like the only thing stopping her from putting her heel through the man was Happy standing between them. Despite all that chaos, Tony's gaze locked on the figure laid out by Veronica's desk.

A hundred years (let alone only fifteen) wouldn't be enough to make him not recognize the distinct stamp of Lily Potter on that slack face.

"Oh," Tony whispered as he leaned against the elevator wall.

"Oh, indeed, Sir."

(^^)
To Be Continued
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