A/N So sorry it took a couple weeks to make this, busy life was busy (My computer gave me a Blue Screen of Death) but that's no reason to not update, and for that I plead guilty
IM SO SORRY.
ALSO, I got a HUNDRED AND FIVE REVIEWS?! WHAAAAAATTT?! That. Is. So. Amazing!
Thanks to everyone who favorited this and followed! I LOVE YOU ALL! :D
NOW ON WITH THE STORY!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, or Marvel, and uh… um… Well, it seems I've run out of jokes to put in the disclaimer (Oh the horror!).
WARNING: Tony's personality.
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London, A Dirty Alley. February 16th,2011, 8:45 PM.
Tony landed rather dramatically a few dozen streets over. In all actuality, he had been aiming for a nearby park, but, he was truly awful at judging landings when he went so fast, and it was nighttime by now, so he didn't think he could be blamed.
And fast they had gone, whizzing out of the abandoned warehouse as quickly as he could without endangering Hali.
Speaking of Hali, he took a peek to check his package was still with him.
Hali, who was under his robotic arm like a loaf of bread, smiled, her eyes wide with delight.
"Can we do that again?" Hali said, somehow making the question like a statement.
"No, no, we're not doing that again." Tony replied distractedly, trying to get his visor down. Unluckily for him, JARVIS was ignoring him in favor of scanning the facial recognition Tony had built in his suit. JARVIS was attempting to try to find out all information he (Tony liked to assign genders to his AI) could about Hali, so they could return her home.
In the meantime, Tony planned to take the little girl he found to his house in California, thinking that this was along of the lines of picking up a stray, and not even realizing that this was not something socially acceptable,
Tony turned to Hali, and lifted his arm slightly so she could free herself of his hold.
"Yes we are, I want to fly again!" The stubborn girl said in an adorable British accent, managing to look determined. How she did that was anybody's guess, considering she was having difficulties climbing down from him due to her short size.
Tony tried not to squeal, he really did, so he was pretty proud he managed to tone his squeal down to a muffled squeak.
"Are you ok?" He asked, coughing to hide his unmanly squeal, and wondering why she wasn't crying.
Weren't tiny humans supposed to be emotional like that?
Or as least, that's what he'd heard from the internet, though to be fair, a place where cats became famous for looking sad might not be the best of sources.
Hali rolled her eyes, and did one of her 'You're not worth my time to answer that' looks, a look he was quickly becoming familiar with. Again, Tony was reluctantly impressed how she gave off that look, even after just managing to climb to the ground.
"Yes Tin-Man, I'm fine!" Hali snapped, Tony nodded in relief, his hand twitching the only sign he'd even heard the insulting nickname (Because it was not tin, tin was amateurs work! He was a seasoned professional, and his suit was gold titanium alloy, thank you very much!).
"Well actually, no, I'm not ok." Hali then added as an afterthought.
Apparently her goal was to give him a heart attack with the things she sprouted about.
"What?!" Tony cried, and his heart leapt his throat (Odd, how it still did that, even with shrapnel trying desperately to pin his heart up like a voodoo doll). "Where does it hurt, what's wrong?!" He exclaimed, lifting her up and causing her to stop picking at the quickly drying bloodstains on her sweater.
Hali, being spun around in his arms as he searched for any fatal wounds on her body, inexplicably snickered (Weren't small children supposed to giggle?).
Tony froze, and stared at her confusedly. If she was laughing, it couldn't be that bad, surely?
"I'm not ok, because you won't take me on another flight." Hali said plainly, giving him another condescending look.
Tony sagged with relief, and felt his heart rate go back a nice, safe speed, returning back to his chest (Where is should stay, notgoing and hiding up in his throat).
"Oh that's good, you know, little chipmunk –"
"HALI!" Screeched Hali indignantly, and the look she gave him was one that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand at attention.
"Yeah, whatever, so, Hula," Tony grinned at the cute indignation on her face, not to be deterred by a single glare, no matter how bloodthirsty. Because in the end, she still looked really cute, or at least, to Tony, in her mind, she seemed to see herself as a god over all.
Maybe her parents wouldn't mind if he kept her, he thought, if not, he could always give them some money to spend time with her, take her to the park or something. Like one would a dog, or a cat.
It could be attributed to the accent that made Tony like Hali, maybe it was because she was nice, and with a kind heart. It could be supposed that Tony had a maternal instinct (Ha-ha-ha-ha, that's – that's cute to even think of, but NO.), another guess can be made that Tony simply loved all children (That was complete fantasy, a good number of young children were horribly bratty, or Tony just found uncomfortable to talk with).
But, more likely it was that Hali was sarcastic, and had such an air of 'bring it on' (A delicate way of saying she an over confident sassy girl who seemed like she would easily be able to seek revenge in many, many dangerous and vicious ways.) that Tony didn't feel so bad teasing her, or treating her more like an equal, well, as equal as he treated anyone.
The entire mental rant contemplation went down in under three seconds, and he continued his sentence like nothing happened. "You know you're not supposed to freak out your saviors, right? It's a jerky thing to do. I mean, come on, a thank you would be ok, maybe some groveling to me, making an altar and praying to me, or some money, because you can always do with some of that. But right now? Some wine would do wonders right now, if you could whip some of that up." Tony said, not even realizing that any other child would have no idea what he was on about.
But, luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you look on it, Hali wasn't a normal child. So she understood what he was going on about just fine.
"My savior? You, my savior?" Hali said, in a bizarre mixture of irritation and delight.
"Yes." Tony said simply, there wasn't much to say, after all. He was the hero, plain and simple, if he wasn't the hero, he would have made his suit a more villain-y (Yes, he was aware that wasn't a word, but he also didn't care, he was Tony Stark, he could make up any word he wanted.), such as… A nice scary villainous green, or an intimidating bronze color. He could even do a fake rust pattern on his suit (He would never stand for any actual rustiness, so it would have to be fake.), just so people would know that he was clearly the evil guy.
Because, wouldn't it be just so annoying, if the villains were the same color as the protagonist? Like, for instance, Tony would be awfully confused if he was fighting some people dressed in silver, and someone on his own side was silver as well.
So no, he would never settle for something like that, after all, he was all about style. And if everyone was too confused by who was good, and who was bad, no one would appreciate how epic he was.
Tony came back to reality when Hali spoke again, "I had it under control." Hali declared dismissively.
Tony cleared his throat, feeling relieved that no one would ever know about his disturbingly detailed plans for what he'd do if he was the villain.
But, once what she had said impacted his mind, he did a comedic double take.
"Oh really? That's what you like to think? Well, sorry, Princess, but, unless 'under control' is you –" He lightly tapped a metal finger on her head, "–being surrounded," (He opted out how she was surrounded by dead people) "And completely helpless, then no. You had nothing under control."
Hali just looked up at him with large childlike eyes – although he swore, just for a second they hardened into something quite deadly that spoke of revenge for the 'Princess' comment. But, as that was ridiculous, he waved it off as his eyes playing tricks on him.
"Well, my family would have come for me, eventually." Even as she spoke, Tony could feel the uncertainty of that. Then, Hali started gaining more confidence as she spoke, and a gleam entered her eyes. "And I know for sure that if I was there for a really long time, then H – my, um, best friend, would have rescued me."
Tony snorted, as if some tiny human would have been able to rescue another tiny human from the Ten Rings.
Hearing his very obvious doubt at her friend's ability, Hali bristled like an angry sentient cactus, scowling at him strongly.
"She would too! Hel is always there for me; you just don't know what you're talking about." Hali seemed ready to go on with her passionate speech, but Tony had learned some things from Pepper, one which was, never let the girl catch steam or else there was nothing stopping them from wreaking havoc on the world.
"What kind of name is Hell? Is it short for Hellen or something?" Tony interrupted, "Because, really, when you look at your baby, do you think 'you know what, lets name her after the fiery pit where devil's live in, I think it really suits her personality!'" Tony said, swinging his metal clad arms in an animated fashion throughout his speech.
"Well… actually 'fiery pit of Hell' does suit Hel." A contemplating cause gave Tony an opportune moment to blink statistically in confusion, "But, her name isn't Hell, her name is Hel."
"Sounds the same to me."
"Its…" Hali looked a little confused herself, not having asked Hel about her name before, "It's with one L, not two."
"Still sounds the same."
"No it doesn –" A pause as Hali seemed to rethink her answer, "Well yeah… I guess it does." Hali admitted, crossing her arms and acting like that's what she'd been going to say the entire time.
"But, it doesn't matter! Hel is a perfectly nice name, so… don't name-shame!"
Tony gave a frustrated sigh, and wondered if this was how people felt when dealing with him, and decided that it probably was.
Tony had the odd thought, that if anyone were to walk in on them, they would do the smart thing and back up slowly, then run very, very far away.
Walking into an alley, or even taking a glance to them, would prove for quite the shock. Who would ever except to see Iron Man, arguing with a young girl, who just so happened to be coated in dried blood, in the dark of night?
Tony made a face, eyes flickering inside his helmet to where the holograms danced around his field of view – checking Jarvis's process of the facial recognition.
Faces flashed briefly through in his peripheral vison, vanishing as quickly as they came, all female with black hair and green eyes, proof of JARVIS trying to find a match. It wasn't done yet, and Tony figured he should probably get Hali a bite to eat, or do something other than hang out in a dirty alleyway.
"Come'on Chipmunk–" ("My name is HALI!") "–We've gone to go find a bathroom, get you cleaned up." Tony motioned towards her red stained sweater. "And grab some food, I'm starved, could really do with some pizza right now."
Hali didn't argue with him, and he was just glad that he wouldn't have to force a bloodstained young girl through London, which would have spiked the gossip level up to dangerous levels.
The two misfits walked out of the grimy alley, Hali bouncing a bit ahead of Tony, who walked after her, easily ignoring how everyone stopped their errands to stare.
He wasn't embarrassed about what he was doing, Tony Stark didn't get embarrassed, and sure, he might regret this course of action after Pepper see's the newspapers…
After Pepper see's the newspapers…. The phrase echoed dauntingly in his mind, and it took the super-genius a pitiful amount of time to realize what he'd just thought.
Oh crap.
Tony had completely forgotten about Pepper, and forgetting about Pepper meant he was sleeping on the coach, no matter that it was his house (And wasn't that just so unfair!).
Now, Tony Stark doesn't get embarrassed, but he does keep contrite, and he was certainly contrite right about now. A terribly large group of tourists that didn't want to stop touring despite the lateness of the hour, all with 'I LOVE LONDON' T-shirts, snapped photos of him. Getting an excellent shot of him hiding behind Hali, as though the lithe body would spare him from Pepper's ire.
Hali merely, mostly on impulse based on being famous in her own world (Not that Tony would know about that), waved at the cameras.
Giving the terrified billionaire an odd look (He didn't strike her as the type to shy from camera's), Hali turned to the nearest woman. Who just so happened to be an elderly grandmother, closely followed by a herd of small sleepy children who were all complaining about how they wanted to go home.
"I think he's camera shy." Hali whispered leaning to her, like she was telling a massive secret. Hali jerked her head behind herself, towards the cowering robot, so the elderly woman couldn't mistake who she was talking about.
Little did Hali know, was that when the news spread of Tony secretly being a kindred shy soul, (who clearly was only acting arrogant to overcompensate his insecurity), spread to his fangirls. Thousands of teenage girls (And a good number of boys) squealed in delight. In the next week alone, Iron Man merchandise sold five times quicker than ever before.
Tony however, knew exactly what would be the result of Hali saying that (He was still in earshot, after all), and did the only thing any sane person would do if they had a flying suit.
He grabbed Hali's hand, lifted her into her arms securely, and launched them both into the black, foggy nighttime sky, the crowd cheering happily for getting what they saw as a show.
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London, In one of Tony's Many, Many Expensive Cars. February 16th, 2011, 9:09 PM.
Hali and her new buddy, Tony, were sitting in the back of a fancy sports car, heading to lunch. Where the robot had gotten ahold of such a thing was a mystery to Hali. He'd only made a quick phone call after landing again, and then an expensive car and a driver drove up to them in record time.
Hali took to staring out the window, seeing brightly lit buildings whizz by, their light scaring away the darkness of the night and making the city glow, still teaming with people enjoying the nightlife. And thus, she was understandably bewildered when Tony started talking to the air, jerking her out of her staring.
"JARVIS, what do you mean there's no files on her?" Tony said, and Hali twisted around to look at him. It didn't seem like the comment was directed at her, and she frowned in indecision about whether she should reply or not.
A few seconds passed, during which Hali tried to figure out what – or who – a JARVIS was.
"Yes, you just said that, I'm not doubting your abilities, I'm just making sure…. It was rhetorical, leave it already! I know you always get things right. Well, except that one time…"
A lengthy pause, and Hali opened her mouth to ask what the hell (In no way related to Hel) was going on.
"Oh yes, it was so your fault. Not mine."
Hali narrowed her eyes dangerously at the possibly insane robot (Could robot's even become insane? Wouldn't that mean they had a virus, or were corrupted? She wouldn't claim to know.).
"I've heard that responding to the voices inside of your head is the first sign of craziness." Hali said as offhandedly as she could, and she was rewarded by a choking sound coming from the vibrantly colored robot.
"That must have sounded really bad from your angle." Tony remarked, turning to face her.
"Yeah, it seems pretty bad." Hali said, with a sympathetic look towards the metal-man, only to stop short when, in a single smooth motion, his visor slid down to reveal a perfectly human face.
Hali would never claim to be completely sane, in fact, there was a good chance she wasn't. And she probably hadn't been since Death had come knocking on her door (Not in a figurative sense) sometime after the Battle of Hogwarts.
Maybe, after Hali had promptly slammed the door shut on Hel (Who, at the time, was cosplaying as the stereotypical skeleton scythe Death, some dare she'd been given.), some bit of her sanity had ditched her mind.
Since there was a fifty-fifty chance of her being mildly mentally unstable, Hali blamed that for why she didn't catch on sooner.
"What." Hali said blankly.
Tony rolled his brown eyes (He had eyes!), "Told'ya I wasn't a robot."
"Oh." Hali said dumbly, mouth parted open in surprise, "I really should have seen that coming."
The not-robot snorted, "Yeah, not your brightest moment, Princess." (By now Hali didn't even bother trying to correct him, but the irritated twitch under her eye gave away how she felt about all these nicknames) "We've got food to get, and a plane to catch." (When he'd gotten a flight was beyond Hali) "JARVIS is going to start badgering me 'bout missing my own flight unless we're quick about eating. Which is ridiculous, it's my jet, so they're not going to leave without me! That's exactly why I got my own jet!"
"Because you're late for things?" Hali questioned, cocking her head to the side.
"Ah, no, I'm never late."
"Then wha-" Hali began, but Tony interrupted her.
"I'm fashionably late." Tony said smugly, his expressive face much less creepy than the faceless suit he had worn. "Even JARVIS agrees with that, right JARVIS?"
"If that's what you want to believe, Sir." A smooth British voice said, and Hali spun around to find the culprit, but nothing was there.
"What was that?" Hali said, and, on reflex, she tried to summon the Elder Wand to her. But, naturally, as that wand was still on Privet Drive (Or Hel had already gotten it back, she didn't know), all that happened was the Resurrection Stone – currently shaped like a necklace – twitched slightly against her chest.
Hali twisted wildly around in her seat again, and found herself back to facing a laughing Tony.
Feeling like she'd be tricked (And not sure how), Hali glared at the laughing man, mind working to figure out what was going on. "Are you a wizard?" Hali blurted out, it would explain a few things, and if not, she could chalk it up to her being a 'child'. Kids could get away with a lot of stuff before anyone batted an eyelid, it made her secret ever the safer.
"Well, people do call me a wizard with tech," Tony said thoughtfully, before a grin lit up his face, "So, hell yeah, I'm a wizard, Abracadabra!" He said loudly. And Hali laughed nervously along, taking that as a no. No real wizard would dare say Abracadabra, as it was awfully similar sounding to Avada Kedavra, and widely caused mass panic whenever a naïve muggle-born mentioned it.
Tony, it seemed, finally took pity on the bewildered gir, or, more like he wanted to show off. "JARVIS here is an AI, artificial intelligence, who I made a while back." He said, "Oh you know," He said with false modesty, "Not a big deal, just the most intelligent AI to ever to be built. He runs the company, and finds the time to run all my houses as well, he also makes flying tons easier, doing all the mathematical business while I shoot down the bad guys." He said, still with exaggerated modesty that no one in their right mind, or damaged mind, would ever believe.
Hali nodded slowly, she hadn't missed the casual references towards his multiple houses, nor all the other hints that this man was very rich. It was pretty clear considering he tipped the pizza waitress a hundred bucks, and Hali was relatively sure that was a lot (She wasn't very good with American currency).
"What's with the robot suit then?" Hali asked, wondering if all the Muggles in this world had a pastime of wandering around in metal tin-cans.
"Oh…" Tony said, with a theatrical look of surprise on his face, "One other thing I forgot to mention. I'm, you know, a superhero that's saved hundreds of thousands of people." He tried to say this casually, but couldn't keep the pride out of his voice.
"Anything else you'd like to mention?" Hali said sarcastically, while internally being rather worried that he might actuallyhave another secret up his sleeve.
"Nope!"
The relief she felt at that surely wasn't normal, Hali idly thought, as they reached pizza parking lot.
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London, A Pizza Parlor. February 16th,2011, 9:12 PM.
Silence.
Silence was like a disease, spreading throughout the entire store, everyone was staring, aghast, making sure to forever encrypt the truly historical moment of Tony Stark ordering cheap London pizza in their minds.
A boyfriend turned to his girlfriend, who was staring, transfixed, at fricking Iron Man, who now had turned to the cute little girl next to him, clearing asking what she wanted.
His girlfriend of two years, Jessica Porleese, twisted back to Abe Tolket, her boyfriend, and said, in the most awed voice he'd ever heard her use –
"Tony Stark eats?"
Abe nodded, looking at Tony Stark in a puzzled sort of understanding.
"I know, I never thought about it, I mean, it's kinda obvious. Everyone's got to eat food, to, you know, survive." Abe said.
Jessica ignored him in favor of continuing to chat, "Not only does he eat, but he eats normal food. I mean…" She gasped, and looked for all the world as though she'd discovered to solution to world peace. "Do'ya reckon that the Queen eats as well?"
Not even finding that worthy of an answer, Abe cocked his head to the side, "Why's he in his suit?"
"Fundraiser?" Jessica suggested, eye's affixed on Tony, who was now carrying a water over to a small table for two, handing it to the little girl. "A lost bet? I have no idea."
"Well, who's the girl?" Abe questioned, considering Jessica was the encyclopedia of all things Tony Stark, he thought for sure she'd know.
"No clue." A pause. "Illegitimate daughter?" another beat. "Wait, no…. Maybe – maybe he and Virginia Pott's actually are together! I never put much stock into that rumor, but here we have living proof! Oh my god, I so called it. Tony and Virginia are perfect for each other."
"I thought you thought him and that other celebrity were good together." Abe said, blanking on said person's name.
Jessica waved that off, "No I didn't."
"Oh yes you did."
"Nope! I always said that Tony and Virginia were perfect." Jessica denied, "And ha, they so are a couple! Awwww, that kid is so cute. I can really see the resemblance."
"I can't" Abe said dryly, there was absolutely nothing similar between them. Abe cocked his head and squinted slightly at the unlikely pair. "Wait, I think they might have a slightly similar hair color. But Stark's hair is more brown, and the kid's got black hair."
"Got it from the mother."
"But Pott's has red hair!"
"You're just not as observant as me." Jessica explained, cooing when the black-haired girl giggled at something.
Abe sighed, but didn't argue in favor of eating his pizza.
Girls were weird.
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Up Real High, Like, Really High. February 16th,2011, 10:01 PM.
Up in the sky, Hali peered out the window of the irritatingly steady airplane, unlike with brooms, it flew very smoothly, and unlike brooms, it had a bar, a few televisions, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Indeed, it felt more like a car then a plane, well, a normal car, not the Knight Bus, or Ron's flying car. Both of those were a lot crazier then this, and she was enjoying it.
It had taken a short car ride after grabbing pizza to get to the airport, going through a special entrance to one of Tony's private planes, that had been lent to one of Tony's friends – its reason for being so far from Amercia. So now she was in an airplane for the first time in her life. Despite having grown up with Muggles, she'd never even set foot in an airport.
Instead she was always left at Number 4 whenever the Dursleys went on vacation, thus she was understandably in awe of the giant metal bird-thing. Although she was certain that this luxury wasn't normal, seriously, why would you ever need a spa on a jet? Overkill much?
For the next hour, Hali was delighted by the glorious view, watching pinpricks of glowing lights going by, but the cities quickly melted into a never-ending ocean of blue, that looked nearly black in the dark. But, she started getting bored with the repetitive ocean pretty quickly, even the fluffy clouds were growing uninteresting.
"Are we there yet?" Hali questioned, and, from where he was scrolling through a phone, Tony turned to look at her with some surprise, like he'd forgotten about her already.
"No pipsqueak, we're not there yet." Tony said, before he went back to his flicking of the phone.
Hali sighed, looking out the window morosely.
"How long?" Hali asked dully.
"Eleven hours."
Hali groaned, "Why couldn't we just fly in your nifty robot suit?"
"Too dangerous when carrying someone, and my arms would be real cramped by the end of it, so… nope!"
Hali stared out the window for another few moments, "Eleven hours…." She repeated, and sighed, wishing she could apparate without a wand. "So, how does this thing work, anyway?" Hali asked, thinking about Mr. Weasley and his deserve to learn all about how airplanes stayed up.
Tony perked up, actually going as far as to place his phone down.
"Well –" He began excitedly, and Hali began to regret this immediately.
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London, Pigmenhorn Avenue, The sidewalk. February 16th,2011, 10:04 PM.
Meanwhile, away from Hali (Who was being subjected to a special type of torture called Tony Stark) and Tony (Who was passionately explaining how airplanes fly to a partially awed at his vigor, and partially stunned, Hali.), down a grimy side road, a group of Aurors appeared with a series of loud cracks, similar to gunshots.
The leader of this particular squad motioned towards a side door, set into the outside wall of an eerily quiet warehouse.
They hurried forward, footsteps nonexistent – as they had the foresight to put silencing charms onto their feet – and mouths shut tight.
As they were all very focused on their important rescue mission, none of the seasoned Aurors noticed a broken bicycle, sitting innocently further along the side road.
Because of this, the Aurors (After discovering the grisly mess inside) would take an extra hour to find their next clue, and get back on the trail of the missing young witch.
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London, Raylin Road, The sidewalk. February 16th,2011, 10:12 PM.
In another place, not too far from where the Aurors had just set off into the warehouse with determination, a gaggle of people stood by the side of a busy London road. Old buildings sprung up around them, the beautiful olden architecture aweing tourists, and being completely ignored by locals.
"Are you sure this is what we do?" James Potter said, looking suspiciously as his wife, this had got to be some type of prank, it was simply ridiculous!
"Yep! I saw it in a movie, so it'll work for us just fine." Lily chirped, as she jumped from foot to foot in a show of anxious energy.
Giving her a look that clearly showed he didn't believe her, James was about to make another comment, when Remus gave an exasperated sigh.
"Go ahead and at least try, James." He said in his meditative voice that managed to calm everyone down.
Except Lily, Lily was still a mass of churning vengeance ready to be unleashed on the next person to accidentally bump into her, all thoughts focused solely towards finding her daughter.
In fact, is arguable that she didn't even know what Remus had just said.
"Why can't we just take the Knight Bus?" James's whined.
Remus groaned, "Because, James, we don't have a definite address to give them, what with your stupid Rune Stone not telling us much, just the direction that she is. And you know what it's telling us? That she's over in the direction of the airport, and since that's a good escape route, we're going to guess that's where they've gone, ok?"
James's looked unconvinced, and looked uncertainty towards the road again.
Sirius rolled his eyes beside his friends, "I'll do it, your all just a bunch of wimps." He said, he was anxious as Lily to find Hali (Well, actually he doubted anyone could come close to that level of extreme, but it was a close match.), and, with a confidence many insecure high schoolers would be jealous of, he exaggerated the motion of extending his hand, and…
Stuck out his thumb.
"Was that so hard?" He said sarcastically, tilting the appendage so it would lean to where Lily said an airport would be.
Peter laughed, and James shrugged weakly, not having a good enough defense to do argue back.
Lily brightened suddenly, and, proving she was somewhat paying attention, pointed excitedly as blue minivan pulled up, parking next to a sign that declared it was for 'drop off only'.
The window lowered, and a shaggy head poked out, "You need a lift?" A man asked, smiling somewhat nervously at the group of misfits.
They all nodded, and the man shrugged weakly, looking like he was regretting this already. Something that probably had to do with how Lily looked homicidal, Remus like a sleep-deprived could-be-homeless man (As he always did when stressed), Sirius, who had the air of an arrogant prince around him. Not to forget James, who, at the moment, was acting like a sad puppy, and then Peter, who just looked extremely worried, constantly peering around as if frightened they were being followed.
All in all, not a good mix.
But, in good spirit, the man-in-the-minivan gave a forced smile, clicking a button to open the car doors. And, to the man's confusion, most of the group looked fascinated when his modern car doors slide open automatically.
"Oh my Merlin! The doors just opened on their own. Did you see that Lily Flower? Is it haunted? Is it magic?" James asked, edging away from the car, while staring at it with a slightly awed yet terrified expression.
Lily shook herself out of her thoughts that, judging by her expression, were somewhere in the murderous variety, long enough to roll her eyes. But, she didn't give any explanation, much preferring to script out just what she would say to the monsters who stole away her daughter in her mind.
"Your fine, James. He's a Muggle! Nothing to worry about." Sirius said, climbing into the car and grinning at the somewhat frightened man who'd be giving them a ride to the airport.
"A… Muggle?" The man asked confusedly, as though not sure if he should be offended or not, he was still sitting in the driver's seat and had to turn to look at the group.
"Umm…." Sirius said blankly, "It's… its…" While Sirius fumbled for a believable response, Remus stepped in before his friend would blurt out something and make the entire situation even worse than it was.
"It's a word where we come from, meaning 'nice man'." Remus said in his ever-calm voice, smiling benignly at him and hoping that the bemused man wouldn't take notice of how suspicious the entire group was acting.
"Really? That's cool, you guys are Muggle's too!" The man said, brightening up and grinning at the people who were climbing into his car.
Remus smiled at him, and relaxed into a leather seat that was directly behind Lily – so better for him to stop her from doing anything mad – and gestured for Peter to join him.
"No we're not, we're wiz–" James started confusedly, but Lily non-too gently kneed him from her own seat next to James's. Proving once more she was aware of what was happening, although the same couldn't be said for Sirius, who was staring at his seatbelt in fascination and not paying attention.
"What he means is, um, he's a wiz...word" Remus said, with an awkward pause as he wildly invented what he was saying, now understanding why Lily didn't like to let James's go into the Muggle world. It seems he was capable of destroying the Statue of Secrecy in a couple minutes, a great feat, to be honest.
"Yeah!" Agreed Peter from next to Remus, "Wizar – I mean – wizword." He said, nodding along, and causing the rest of the group to do so as well, even Sirius had left alone his seatbelt to nod.
"What does wizword mean?" The shaggy-haired man asked excitedly, looking eager to learn some new slang.
Because Sirius looked dangerously ready to pipe up, Remus stepped in yet again, "Wizword," He began, trying to act like he knew exactly what he was inventing "Wizword means…." He looked around for inspiration, "It means your 'a wiz at… Life.'"
"What does the word part of it mean?" The curious man asked, the man's eyes drifting to where Sirius was still standing up, snapping and unsnapping the seatbelt, having lost interest in the conversation.
"Look what this does!" Sirius gasped, grinning as he yet again unsnapped his seatbelt, "How does it work? Do I sit on it?" He promptly sat on top of the seatbelt, shifting a bit to be more comfortable.
Attention diverted, the shaggy-haired man stared at shock at Sirius.
"You're not from around here, are you?" He said, and the group nodded, Lily elbowing James in warning when he opened his mouth, predictably ready to do an American accent.
"No, we're not." Peter said, "Um... we're from, um…. Um… Antarctica! Yeah, Antarctica!" Peter ignored Remus's groan of, "Antarctica, really?", and James's confused mumble of, "What accents do people in Antarctica have?", in favor of trying to look as sincere as possible.
The man just nodded, not even doubting it, after all, they were acting like foreigners. "Not used to cars, then?" He said, looking pointedly towards James, who was conspiring with Sirius on how they were supposed to use the seatbelts.
"No, they're not. Now can we get to the airport already?" Lily snapped, evidentially impatient.
"O…K…" The man drawled out, glaring a bit at the collection of weirdoes to prove he wasn't happy with them. "No manners…" He muttered, but he dutifully turned around, and started the car.
He's barely pulled out from where he'd parked, when a muffled 'oomph' came from behind, caused when a surprised James's was jolted out of his seat, unprepared for the sudden movement.
"Lily!" James's complained, and – with a long suffering sigh that Remus knew was from someone who was tired of dealing with things like this – Lily impatiently buckled him in, "Now help Sirius do his own, Merlin knows that two grown men can't figure it out."
She turned around to peer into the seat row behind her, and smiled in satisfaction when Remus and Peter had already gotten theirs on.
"See? Peter and Remus figured it out, not that hard, now was it?" She said, and both Remus and Peter 'forgot' to mention that they had merely copied how Lily had done her own. "Now snap too it, nearest airport, now." Lily demanded of their irate driver.
With a morose sigh, the man who really was regretting this started up the car, and off they went, under the dark shadow of night, down a populated road, and towards Hali.
X - X - X - X - X - X - X
A/N This is so short (Only 13 pages!), but I really wanted to upload something.
As you can tell, I'm setting up for a very fun time when the Auror's, the Potter's, and anyone else who I add to the wild chase, finally catch up to Hali.
What do you think about pairing Hali with Hel? It wouldn't be the main focus of the story, but just in the background? You guys seem to like the idea of a pairing, so… thoughts? I'm rather partial to it, but would like to know what you think. Obviously Hali and Hel would have to look older than they are when they do any romance stuff, I can't handle it otherwise. But, Hel can shapeshift, and she can do the same to Hali.
Like always, please review, and like always, send me your death threats when I don't upload a new chapter in a while (Guilt tripping me does wonders with how fast I write!)
(Also the couple at the pizza parlor called Pepper, Virginia, because that's her real name. Pepper is just a nickname Tony gave her that Pepper likes.)