AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Here ends the first part of Tony and Harry's new life. This story was always intended to deal with their emotional issues and the issues surrounding Hogwarts (i.e., rampant bullying, life-threatening danger two years running), and I like to think I've done that - at least from Tony's perspective.

The next part will be fourth year/Goblet of Fire, but it won't show up until I've internally reconciled the events of both universes - notably, that Thor isn't on Earth for much of that time and I don't remember when the Bifrost is repaired to allow for relatively easy travel between the worlds.

In the meantime, some questions came up in comments that I either didn't have a chance to respond to or thought deserved broader address. And there were some things I thought people would ask about but didn't. Here are the answers to those, in no particular order, if anyone's interested:

Re: 2013

I originally set this story in 2012, and then remembered that 2012 was the year of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. Checking dates told me that the Jubilee celebrations were held during the first weekend of June - well before Harry's birthday, which is when I knew the story would start.

The Olympics, though - those ran from 27 July through 12 August. Harry's birthday, of course, is 31 July…and I really didn't want to deal with all the disruptions (traffic, economy, more tourists than usual, and so on) the Olympics must have caused - nor with researching to find out just what those disruptions were.

Thus, 2013.

Re: Magical World Bashing

No apologies for this. The magical world IS evil as JKR has presented it (at worst; at best, it's dystopian). From rampant unchecked bullying and racism (against Muggle-born) to blatant political corruption and lawlessness, there's a lot of evil in that world.

(One commenter told me I was bashing the world too much - and then told me that Tony couldn't do much against said world because he would be obliviated so much he'd "forget to wipe himself." My irony meter self-destructed at that.)

Re: Steve, not Pepper

Canon's responsible for this decision, because of one scene in Civil War, when Steve, Tony, and Bucky are all fighting. Steve says, "He's my friend." Tony then says, "I'm your friend, too."

My brain screeched to a halt at that. Steve and Bucky have been friends since childhood. Steve and Tony have been friends a couple of years (four at most, if you compare release dates of Avengers and Civil War), and the depth of that friendship isn't really explored in the films. So for Tony to believe he has the same claim on Steve's friendship that Bucky does … doesn't work for me.

So I decided to remedy that, at least a little. That Steve could've known Dumbledore during the war was a bonus.

And Pepper - to me, she's portrayed somewhat inconsistently, and I really didn't want to deal with that in this story. I was more interested in Tony and Harry's relationship and, as a secondary matter, Tony and Steve's friendship.

Re: "Not another one!"

Okay, that was my fault for not being clear. I meant to imply, "Not another woman claiming to have had your child! I thought we agreed to ignore them." In hindsight, Tony interrupted too soon. Ah, well, c'est la vie.

Re: Ron and Molly Weasley

At this point in canon, Harry has spent four weeks at the Burrow (per the HP Lexicon, from 5 August to 31 August), which is plenty of time for her to get to know Harry and start thinking of him like one of the family but, IMO, not enough time for her to assert any maternal claims against his biological father. If I'd set the story later in the series - say, the summer before fifth year (OotP), then she'd be reacting very differently.

Ron is … challenging to write, and I freely admit that I lost all respect for him after the Goblet of Fire incident. That said, prior to that moment, he was…okay. Not great, not bad, just okay. I explained why in response to a private message to one person who loves Ron, and repeat that explanation here:

When we first meet him as a character in his own right (after he boards the train, in other words), he:

1. acts a bit ... somewhere between star-struck and awed, and that's fine (he's 11, after all), but the way his behavior is described (the words JKR chose) don't paint him in a good light. Asking about the scar, and then when Harry says he doesn't remember it, "Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.

The "eagerly" makes it sound like he's angling for information or gossip or something and it hits my "reading ear" (for lack of a better term) as though he's just eager to turn around and tell someone else what he found out about the Boy Who Lived. Or otherwise isn't genuinely interested in Harry as a person/potential friend.

2. when Harry makes a leading comment, "You must know loads of magic already," Ron diverts the conversation. This, I think, is where JKR failed with Ron as a character. He should have been Harry's (and, possibly, Hermione's) guide to the magical world. At the very least, he could've said, "We're not allowed to do magic outside of school." Instead, he says, "I heard you went to live with Muggles. What are they like?"

3. He complains about his family ("You never get anything new, either, with five brothers." and "[Mum] always forgets I don't like corned beef." and "You don't want this [sandwich], it's all dry.") even AFTER hearing about Harry not having any money until a month ago, getting old clothes, and never having birthday presents. Learning that "seemed to cheer Ron up."

So he's introduced in an off-putting way, and that's a shame, but (looking back, and trying to remember what I thought when I first read the series all those years ago) I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Then he went and volunteered Harry for a wizard's duel, which duels (the "proper" ones between "real wizards) can turn fatal - KNOWING that Harry was ignorant of such things. And THEN he said "I bet [Malfoy] expected you to refuse, anyway," when HE accepted before Harry could say anything.

Add in the bit with Hermione (he never apologized to her for that, I don't think), and by the end of the first book, I wasn't thrilled with him as a character.

I don't believe he's evil - just suffering from a whole bunch of youngest-brother issues - and I know he has good qualities. It's just that first impression colors my view of him. (We won't even mention that his middle name is Bilious, which means secreting an excess amount of bile and/or angry and disagreeable, and is not a pleasant thing to name a child. What was JKR thinking?)

Re: Diagon Alley

I referenced Steve VanderArk's map of Diagon Alley (available at /?attachment_id=4927) for the locations of the various shops. For my convenience, I've placed the offices of the Daily Prophet (which are not included on the map) at the corner of Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, kitty-corner from Gringotts.

Re: Tony Stark's Wealth vs. Lucius Malfoy's

From the Forbes wealthiest fictional characters list:

Tony's net worth (not including Stark Industries) is about $100B, or £78B, or G15.7M

Lucius Malfoy's net worth is about $1.3B

Re: Harry's Wealth

There was a little over US$1.25 million (in Harry's vault at the beginning of PS) or about G150,000. I don't remember how I calculated this number or where I found it, but considering that Dr. Bronner's soap company is worth $50 million (current estimation), and it's one of the smallest independently-owned personal-care product companies I could find on a quick (but likely longer than strictly necessary) search, having about US$1 million in a trust account for a child seems more than reasonable, especially given ten years of compound interest.

Re: Money in General

Money in the Harry Potter series is … well, all meshuga. To start with - 17 sickles to a galleon, and 29 knuts to a sickle? The only thing those numbers have in common is that they're prime. The conversion rate - one galleon roughly equal to five pounds/six and a quarter dollars - makes even less sense, and that's before we figure in the possibilities for currency fraud (arbitrage, if you're being polite about it).

Those problems (or features, depending on your point of view) are tame, though, compared to this line from CoS (ch. 4, p. 57 in my edition): "Harry … felt dreadful … when [the Weasleys' vault] was opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon. Mrs. Wealsey felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag."

At this point, the Weasleys have FIVE kids at Hogwarts (Percy, the twins, Ron, and Ginny), and those two Galleons (rounding up the "small pile" of sickles to be generous) were supposed to cover schoolbooks for all of them. While a number of books could be handed down (possibly older editions, but still serviceable), that was the year of Lockhart and his SEVEN required textbooks. (Granted, the Weasleys could share, in theory, but seven brand-new books still cost a fair amount of money.)

Somehow, though, two Galleons should cover all of the Weasleys' school expenses that year. (And do not, for the love of all that's good in this world, get me started on why, given so little money in their vault, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley visited Bill in Egypt that Christmas (ch. 12, p. 211), or why they'd visited Charlie in Romania in PS/SS (ch. 12, p. 195 in my edition).)

All that to say, when it comes to money, I'm trying to be a bit more realistic than JKR was, by assuming a basic cost of US$20 per book (about 3 Galleons), and 8 books per year for first and second year and 11 books per year fourth through seventh years. That totals 60 books (and that's fairly conservative; NEWT students probably have more than one book per class), and therefore 180 Galleons for a full set - round up to 200 for easy math. Tony gets two sets = 400 Galleons, plus about six other books. A grand total of about 450 Galleons isn't unreasonable.

Re: Grades

In PS/SS (ch. 17, p. 307), "…both [Harry] and Ron passed with good marks."

There are canon references to Ron's general performance and attitudes as a student scattered throughout the books (examples mostly from PS/SS):

In Charms ("waving his long arms like a windmill" rather than swish and flick);

In Potions (Ron being as clueless about potions ingredients as Harry was, despite having grown up in the magical world and with a mother who (per PoA) brewed a love potion "as a young girl");

His advice to Harry before the planned duel with Malfoy ("If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them." - Not "don't know," but "can't remember");

His lack of structured approach to researching Nicholas Flamel (he "started pulling [books] off the shelves at random");

His absolute lack of taking action to secure the future he desires ("I'm Head Boy … holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup … I'm Quidditch Captain, too!" (yes, he got the Quidditch Captaincy, but only because Dumbledore thought Harry already had too much on his plate, not out of any genuine effort on Ron's part)); and

Going over their exams afterward "made him feel ill."

Because of these, I have a hard time imagining him getting better than the equivalent of a C average (A or Acceptable at Hogwarts, maybe one or two EE or Exceeds Expectations).

Harry probably did a little bit better, if only because Hermione encouraged him, so EE in general, with an O in Defense, maybe an A in Potions.

In CoS (ch. 18, p. 331), Ron and Harry each receive a Special Award for Services to the School. Then, in the same chapter, p. 340, "…McGonagall [stood] up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat…." So we have no idea what Harry's grades might have been.

In PoA (ch. 22, p. 429), "Harry, Ron, and Hermione had passed every subject. Harry … had a shrewd suspicion that Dumbledore might have stepped in to stop Snape failing him on purpose." The implication is that he passed Potions on his own merit that year.

But then, on p. 430, Ron says that Hermione "…passed [her] exam with three hundred and twenty percent!" Which makes me depressed, because my schools only ever offered 10-20% extra credit on anything, let alone exams. Clearly, I should've gone to Hogwarts instead.

Re: Steve's reading material

Parting the Waters is not, in fact, about Moses. It is, rather, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning story of America during the Martin Luther King, Jr. years by Taylor Branch.

When I was thinking about what Steve would be reading, I realized that he'd be fine with a summary of the end of the Second World War, because by 1945 the tide of the war was certainly turning, and he'd likely be aware of that when he took the Valkyrie down. So what, I thought, were the major events or trends of the 20th Century after the war?

At least from an American perspective, the rise and fall of Communism and the Civil Rights Movement fit that bill quite nicely. (There are, of course, other events/trends, including Women's Lib and the technological/computer revolution, but if you're taking things in chronological order, Communism and Civil Rights win, hands down.)

So, I mentally flipped a coin and picked Civil Rights, and when I searched for a good book on the topic, chose Mr. Branch's book for Steve's reading material.

Re: Musee du Cinema et de la Miniature

It's a real place, but I have no idea whether it was closed for renovation during the time this story was set. In my universe, it was. GRIN

Re: A Puff of Logic

Thank you, Douglas Adams, for such a lovely turn of phrase.

Re: Dumbledore's Hogwarts Career

Dates come from the Harry Potter Lexicon.

Re: Name Dropping

I write the stories I want to read, and then share them. Yes, I'm going to name-drop when it seems relevant. As long as it's just a mention, don't read any more into it than that. On a similar note…

Re: Timelines for NCIS and Stargate

I hadn't really thought about it when I wrote, because I was just name-dropping for fun.

On reflection, I think Season 6 of NCIS is contemporaneous with this story. Right now, Tony's doing a favor for his cousin(s), but I could absolutely see him leaving NCIS toward the end of season 6 (among other times, of course).

For Stargate - again, on reflection, it's while Rodney's still attached to the Mountain, before Stargate: Atlantis begins.

Re: Tutors

Spelling it out in this story seemed a bit pedantic, but the tutors are a short-term solution. Tony hasn't had time to research American schools (i.e., send inquiries, request curricula, visit), so he's hiring tutors until he does. The tutors would probably end by mid-year break (Christmas), when that research is done, but certainly they wouldn't last longer than one school year.

For those who are concerned about Rodney's lack of social skills, I envision his tutoring as consisting of a videoconference lecture once or twice a week on each subject and then email availability for questions and assignments. His direct interaction with the kids will be minimal, and I honestly suspect he has more tolerance for children (who are merely ignorant, not stupid) than adults (who should not be ignorant and are frequently stupid). Your mileage may vary. GRIN