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It was going on 7am when Tony was ejected from the Pensieve, his head spinning with all the memories which had been returned to him. At some point, Tony must have cried as his head pounded as if he had a hangover and the dehydration it brought, even though he knew he hadn't had but 2 drinks at the gala. Tony's public persona may have led people to believe he was still the hard drinking, mad scientist of his college and post-doctorate period, but his tolerance for alcohol was very high and he no longer took recreational drugs. Of the former, Tony had learned how to appear to be blinding drunk – interesting what people said when they thought he wasn't coherent enough to understand or remember.
It was his parents' deaths in a vehicle accident just before Christmas in 1991, which had a literal sobering effect on Tony and he'd spent several months cleaning up himself and his mind in order to take back Stark Industries from his godfather, Obadiah Stane. Obie didn't seem to think Tony ready or capable of the responsibility, but in the past almost three years since Tony took the reins, he'd more than tripled SI profits with his weapons designs and the new technology division he'd created. The first Starkphones released had been widely popular and Obie had backed off trying to pressure Tony into making him CEO. Quietly, and in the background. Tony had steadily been requiring the shares of SI stock his father had "gifted" to people over the years. He definitely needed an edge against of the almost thirty-five percent Obie held, as Howard's long-time business partner.
All of those thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind, as the memories Tony had regained swirled through the forefront. The analytical portion of his brain was calculating the probability that James and Lily were dead, based on the information and the charm placed on the Pensieve, while the side which turned his genius ideas into tangible items was making a list of tasks and prioritizing them. The emotional center was pushing him to find Harry, find his son, as soon as possible and that was the side Tony was listening to – what was the use of being a multibillionaire if he couldn't put that money and influence to work.
However, to begin any of the swirling ideas, Tony needed to be in England.
"JARVIS" Tony called, heading toward his bedroom, needing a wake-up shower.
"Good morning, sir," JARVIS responded. "Coffee is ready in the kitchen, Ms. Potts has safely returned to California, and Colonel Rhodes called earlier but left no message."
"Thanks, J. Is the plane here and serviced?"
"Yes, Sir, with a takeoff time of noon and an arrival time at Stark Island at—"
"Need to change the flight plan, J, to London and take off time as soon as possible. I'm going to clean up and head for the airstrip in about 30 minutes. Notify the crew and Happy, please. Have the London penthouse readied." Tony stopped at the door of his bathroom. "And JARVIS? Please research everywhere for any mention of Lily Evans Potter, James Fleamont Potter, Harry James Anthony Potter, and Sirius Orion Black. Oh, and for a Petunia Evans Dudsly or something similar."
"Immediately, sir. Should I also inform Ms. Potts?"
Tony shook his head as he stripped off his underwear. "Not necessary, J. she thinks I'm headed to the island for ten days off anyway, so she's not expecting me."
"Yes, sir," JARVIS acknowledge and Tony swore there was a question to the AI's tone.
Ignoring it, Tony stepped into the shower, washing and shaving on autopilot as his mind made up a list of things he needed to do and then prioritized the: First he needed to get to Gringotts and see if the Potter account manager had any further information for him; second was to arrange a refresher course in using his magic – just because he remembered ihow/I to Apparate, didn't mean he ishould/i; and third, find out what happened to Lily and James, and where his son was. Something had prompted the charm Lily left on that package to deliver it
It was closer to an hour before Tony had gathered what he needed and arrived at his private jet on an airstrip near LaGuardia Airport. Jarvis had assured him that his London penthouse at Center Pointe, in London's West End was prepared and stocked with food. Happy was going with him as driver and bodyguard, but the London office had sent its Security Chief to make sure everything was in place.
With a glance at Happy, who was sound asleep, Tony opened his laptop and pulled up the document JARVIS had sent him. One of the things Tony was the proudest of, was having seen the vision and invested in the development of the internet. While it had only been publicly available for less than four years, Tony immediately transitioned Stark Industries onto the world wide web and had created the servers necessary for his companies to run efficiently. It was an ever developing and evolving technology; one which Tony had embraced since his MIT days, when the idea of it was in its infancy.
Looking over the document, Tony found a copy of a news article from Wales about a couple being killed in an apparent gas explosion near Swansea. The article went on to state the couple's fifteen-month-old son had been spared and was sent to live with his mother's family in Surrey. Tony actually snorted at that, despite his level of anxiety as the entire article was a fabrication based on the picture of the cottage where only the area of Harry's nursery was blown out. While JARVIS hadn't been able to find any death certificates or obituaries for the Potters, he had found the address for Petunia in Little Whinging.
Tony's first instinct was to storm the house with a contingent of lawyers and security guards, taking his son back immediately, but he took a deep breath and forced his mind to consider the ramifications. He needed legal documents, in both the Wizarding world and the mundane world. Which meant his best bet was Gringotts for what information they had on the Potters and have them recommend a barrister and a solicitor with cutthroat tendencies. Tony wanted nothing more than Harry in his arms before nightfall. If necessary, Tony wanted the funds at his disposal to ipersuade/i anyone reluctant to approve his child being placed in his custody.
Surprisingly, there were no references in the information JARVIS complied on the self-styled dark lord James and Lily had been hiding from. The closest were a few reports of supposed IRA bombings in smaller villages around the outskirts of London. Nowhere in any of the information was Albus Dumbledore mentioned, which didn't make sense when Tony knew his cousin and Sirius were both members of Dumbledore's vigilante group. Dumbledore was also the headmaster of the boarding school Lily, James, and Sirius had attended – Tony had received summer tutoring from several of the professors who also taught at Hogwarts.
He'd not been impressed by the old wizard, seemed to Tony that all his past accomplishments had given Dumbledore a superior and entitled attitude, which grated on Tony. No one knew more than Tony about feeling entitled – after all he'd almost killed himself with it when he'd turned thirteen and gone to MIT; a reckless, entitled genius in a college setting. Tony had almost self-destructed, booze, marijuana, cocaine, and LSD all plentiful. If it hadn't been for his roommate, James Rhodes, Tony knew he would have died.
Since he'd graduated, Tony had continued his drunken playboy ways – claiming it made him more creative, Rhodey and even James had done interventions. It was, however, since his parents' deaths, Tony had quietly worked hard to turn himself around. At the same time allowing the public to believe he was still a hard partying, drunken genius playboy, who somehow managed to invent new technology despite his supposed alcohol intake. No one looked too hard into what he was really doing.
Tony looked back at the screen, scrolling through the pages JARVIS had put together, trying to find any mention of James' friends: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter something. James had been insistent, even before Harry had been born, should anything happen to he and Lily, Sirius and Tony should raise Harry together. Tony remembered snarking about Sirius making a good mother and James losing it over Lily accusing them of being "kissing cousins" despite them being third cousins, twice removed. Sirius was devoted to Harry, even naming him his heir; why would Sirius not have contacted Tony if something had happened to Lily and James.
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