Man of Iron, Child of Magic

9

In the end, Tony had to play the guardian card to convince Harry to let him pay for Harry's holster and a second one for his other arm.

"No sense tipping anyone off where the attack's coming from," Steve said when Harry protested the second bracer.

Harry had, however, paid for the holster for his friend. "She's my friend. Do you even know her last name?"

Tony had given in with ill grace, he knew, but it rankled to be outsmarted by a thirteen-year-old.

He'd eventually won the entire game, though, when, over Ollivander's objections, he insisted on all the protections that a member of the magical military or police force - "Aurors," Harry told him - would have.

"This is Harry Potter, who the lot of you so rudely call the Boy-Who-Lived," Tony had said when Ollivander protested. "The darkest bastard in a generation or more came after him personally - and you think you'll convince me he doesn't need military-grade equipment?"

So Harry was now wearing two leather wristbands - each one of them a holster, though only the one on his right wrist actually held a wand.

For now, Tony told himself. Redundant backups were always a good thing, so why wouldn't a backup wand be a good thing? Especially a backup few people knew you had.

The only question was, how would he find an American wandmaker?

He dropped back a few paces, letting Steve and Harry lead the way back through Diagon Alley as he pulled out his phone and called up JARVIS.

"How may I assist, sir?"

"Put out feelers," Tony said, "or run a search algorithm or something - I need a witch or wizard, preferably American, but I'll take what we can get."

"For what purpose, sir?" And only JARVIS could ask that without a hint of innuendo.

"I need a guide to the magical world," Tony replied. "Someone who knows where Harry can get a backup wand, things like that."

"Very good, sir," JARVIS replied. "I'll start immediately."

"Thanks, J." Tony shoved his phone back in his pocket and looked up to see that Steve and Harry were almost at the bookstore, Flourish and Blotts. Tony jogged a little and caught up with them just as Steve was opening the door.

"That's new," Harry muttered, gesturing to an iron cage. By the furor within the cage, Tony deduced that all of the books were The Monster Book of Monsters, and as torn pages flew everywhere, Tony wondered what kind of madman thought that was an appropriate book for thirteen-year-old students to use.

"Hogwarts?" The abrupt question came from the clerk on duty, a man who looked far too harried for a bookstore. "Third year?"

"Yes," Harry replied, and the clerk came from around the till.

"Out of the way," he snapped, and Tony blinked in surprise at the man's tone, then his eyes widened as he saw the thick, heavy gloves the man pulled on before heading toward the cage.

"Hang on," Harry said. "I've already got that one."

Profound relief washed over the clerk's face. "Oh, thank Magic. I thought we had it bad with the Invisible Book of Invisibility - ordered two hundred copies, never actually found them. But this! I'm never stocking them again!"

Only the man's distressed expression kept Tony from laughing aloud, but he did have to cough to cover it.

"Right," the clerk said, visibly calming himself. "So - third year. What are your electives?"