Faultlines

The Hippogriff

The Hippogriff

Tony Stark knew what a hippogriff was. First of all, yes, he was a fan of mythology, or more accurately Harry was and Tony used to read to him before bed. And secondly: When they found out Harry  was a wizard their mom had bought almost all the books in that wizarding bookstore in an attempt to understand her son’s new world and Tony had read them all. Really. You could ask him almost anything. Goblin rebellions? Sure. Potion ingredients?  Hell yes. Devinition? Yeah, no. He had given up on that one fairly quickly.
So yes, Tony knew what a hippogriff was, he even remembered the not blinking and bowing part, but when he stepped onto the terrace of his house in France on a sunny morning at the beginning of June and found a huge hippogriff standing there, eating what looked like a rat, Tony really, really hoped there was a good explanation for this.
“Harry?”, he called hopefully and totally not panicky.
“No.”, came a raspy, unknown voice from behind him.
There was a man lying in one of his garden chairs. He had very long, filthy hair and his clothes were more rags than anything else. His face was incredibly deep set and he was way too thin. Why would a magical homeless person hang out on his terrace? Was there even such a thing? And why did none of his stupid books talk about things like that?
Something was awfully familiar about this face. Then it hit Tony full force, where he knew that face from.
His eyes narrowed in anger and fear. He couldn’t really protect himself against a crazy magical killer, but simultaneously that man was after Harry and that was pretty much the only thing that would make Tony forget self preservation. His mind was racing. What exactly  were his options here? Outside on a bloody terrace and no where near his inventions or even magical aids. Yes. He had bought those. He wasn’t stupid, after all.
“Don’t panic!”, Black almost shouted at him, his arms raised in the universal gesture of surrender, “Harry told me where to go.”
“Like hell he did!”, Tony spit out, trying to get around Black and back inside.
“Have my back!”
“Excuse me?”, Tony stopped dead in this time really did stare at Black open mouthed.
“Harry told me to tell you that he needs you to have my back right now.”, Black looked both hopeful and confused, he obviously didn't know what significance these words  held for the Stark Brothers, but he seemed to be hoping for the best.
Tony blinked, before relaxing his stance and saying: “ Fine. Come in. Have some food.  There is leftover Pizza in the fridge. And then get a fucking shower for God’s sake. I’ll see about getting you some clothes.”
Black blinked at him in shock, his arms still raised. “What?”
“You look like you need food. And you look like I need you to take a shower. And then you can tell my why exactly my brother decided to send a crazy murderer my way, who he told me wanted to kill him.”
“I don't want to kill him.”, Black responded  (stupidly, Tony thought).
“Obviously. “, Tony rolled his eyes in annoyance, “You can lower your arms now and get inside. Your hippogriff?”
“Is best left outside. I found water for him and a rat, but he might still be hungry.”
“Great. I still have a raw steak in the fridge and then I’ll tell my assistant to have more delivered. You got any preferences? Something you really don't like? Like bananas?”
“No.”, Black answered very carefully, like Tony was the crazy one, “Just any kind of food, to be honest.”
“Cool.”, and Tony simply walked past the man and back inside to get the steak. He assumed the poor animal had carried Black all the way from Scotland.
When he came back Black was still standing there, just looking at him.
“What?”, Tony asked, already annoyed, “There is food in the fridge and you have been on the run for almost a year. What are you still standing there for?”
Black hurried past him and into the kitchen. Tony carefully made his way over to the hippogriff. 
“I am gonna go ahead and guess that you must be Buckbeak, Harry told me all about you and your trial. That really sucked, man, but it seems like they found a solution for you.”, Tony just kept talking, steak in hand and trying very hard not to blink, “You know Harry, of course, that scrawny black haired kid. I hear you like him and he is quite fond of me, so I hope we can make this work. And I have your food. Actually you are the one that should be nice to me.” Tony bowed carefully and to his great relief the hippogriff bowed back almost immediately.
“Well, hurray for us.”, Tony grinned and patted the huge animal carefully. Buckbeak for his part tried to get to the steak.
“Thank you for not pretending this one was about me.”, Tony huffed, but couldn’t help but smile at how happy his newest houseguest seemed to be. He truly was magnificent, there was no other word for it.
Buckbeak looked at him expectantly.
“I will go and have a look. And yes, I will get you delivered more food.”
Black was sitting at his kitchen counter, already through the Pizza and onto what seemed to be Pasta.
“I am not sure how long that has been in there.”, Tony informed him.
“I don't really care.”
“Fair enough.”
He pulled out his phone and called his driver, who was staying at the smaller house next to the gate and told him to go and buy lots als lots of food.  And raw meat. And clothes. Here he had to guess Black’s size, but whatever,  it couldn’t really get much worse.
Luckily his driver didn’t ask unnecessary questions.
Black just continued eating and Tony stood there watching him. The Fuck was going on here? When Harry had come home over Christmas and told him Black had not only been responsible for the deaths of Lily and James, but was after Harry now as well, Tony had almost taken Harry out of school. Again. Not only did he seem to constantly be in danger, but again no one had informed him that a crazy madman was after Harry. Not only was he Harry’s brother. He was also his guardian. Who did these people think they were?!
And then they always insisted on calling him Harry Potter. Harry had told him how people kept telling him things like “you look just like your father”, but did they not realize that for Harry his father had been Howard Stark? He did understand that it might be tough for them, since they had known Lily and James,  but dismissing the way Harry grew up and his family was just plain rude and insensitive, and if even Tony could realize that…
Except for Remus Lupin. Harry had told him that his newest teacher had called them Lily and James in his presence and politely inquired after Harry’s parents, instead of just trampling all over a kid who had lost his parents during his first year.
Black had meanwhile worked himself through all the food available. Tony told him where to find the shower and a bathrobe for now. And then he would burn these clothes. Ew.
Black seemed to be taking a very long shower, which Tony was totally fine with. It gave him time to think. And maybe go out and pet Buckbeak a little. When Black came out almost an hour later, Tony was chilling outside in the sun, dark shades covering his eyes and yes, some files Obie had sent over for reviewing in his hands. Even he could not escape work all the time. Especially not when he was hoping to spend as much time as possible with his brother over the summer. Which was also why he was already here to prepare everything. He had taken to the house in France. It held much less memories than the places in the US and he was that much closer to the UK. Never again would he be somewhere in LA  when he got a message like “Your brother went after a crazy man, now he is in the infirmary and will probably wake up soon. “
At least he had been in Hamburg for the indeed very charming “we think your brother went into a monster infested secret room in our castle. We are not sure, but we can't find him, so yeah”
Tony would grey prematurely. That much was obvious.
“So why exactly did Harry send you here? Besides for my amazing food and charming personality?”, Tony asked, forcing a smile onto his face.
“Because I was his parents’ best friend and did not kill them.”
Tony’s smile became a lot more forced and Sirius Black had no idea that he had just lost almost all chances to ever get onto Tony Stark’s Christmas list.