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Tony’s head snapped up at the sound of the door and he opened his mouth to ridicule the student in front of him for entering without knocking, when he saw that the intruder was just a young boy - a first or second year at most - doubled over, clutching his side and panting as if he’d ran a mile.
Tony frowned, dropping his screwdriver. “Kid, are you okay?”
The boy - who’d clearly been unaware of his presence - tensed and whirled around. When Tony saw the tears of the panicked doe-eyed stranger, he softened considerably.
The boy’s wet, brown eyes widened comically as he realized who was stood in front of him, because of course he didn’t need an introduction to know whose private lab he’d just accidentally invaded.
Professor Tony Stark taught Magical Engineering: an elective only available to those in their sixth en seventh year, that passed their Magical Theory-OWL with an O or EE. During the course, students learned to build spells and enchantments from scratch and embed them in objects.
As a budding mechanic, ME was destined to be Peter’s favourite subject ever. He could scarcely wait to finish his OWLS so he could just get on with it already.
Especially since it was taught by Tony freaking Stark, who was revolutionary in mixing magic and muggle technology and had been Peter’s biggest idol ever since he’d first set foot in the Wizarding World.
Peter had been beyond thrilled to learn that his role model would be living in the very same building as him for nine months each year, but to his grave disappointment Tony Stark rarely ever left his private quarters, resurfacing only for his classes, so even though Peter had been at Hogwarts for three years at this point, he hadn’t ever seen Tony before, let alone spoken to him.
Now, he was standing right in front of his idol - like he’d always aspired to - but he felt wholly unprepared, mightily uncomfortable and immensely guilty for intruding into the Professor’s private space. Especially for something as stupid and embarrassing as hiding from his Slytherin-year mate, Flash Thompson.
As always, his discomfort turned him into a rambling mess, as he tripped over his own words of apology in his his haste to get them out.
“Professor Stark!” The boy squeaked. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize anyone would be in here, I didn’t mean to disturb or bother you or to to be disrespectful in any way…”
“Hey, hey kid, breathe.” Tony interrupted, moving away from his desk. “It’s alright. What’s your name?”
“Peter.” The boy, Peter, said immediately, looking extremely apologetic. “Parker. Peter Parker.”
“Alright. Nice to meet you Peter. So what’s up?”
“S-sorry?”
“What’s up?” Tony repeated patiently, lazily gesturing to the door through which Peter had come barging in. “You came running in in a frenzy. You’re clearly in some kind of trouble. So what’s wrong? Running from Filch? Kicked his cat?”
“No!” Peter protested, looking indignant and offended. He reminded Tony of a bristling kitten. It was adorable. “That’d be animal cruelty!”
“So what’re you running from then?” Tony questioned, brown eyes boring into Peter’s teary ones. He softened his tone. “Or should I say, who?”
Peter looked down at the toes of his scruffy sneakers. He almost appeared to be curling in on himself, as if wishing to Apparate away, in spite of the charms making that impossible on Hogwarts grounds.
The action made him look younger than he probably was. Tony frowned, concern flaring up in his chest. “Kid? Who is bothering you?”
“No one.” Peter said, studying the floor as if it was the most interesting part of the entire castle. “I’m alright.”
Tony snorted. “I’m not going to judge you, you know. I’ve dealt with bullies in my own time.”
Peter peered up through his lashes, apparently surprised that the great Tony Stark would’ve suffered through something as mundane as bullying. Tony granted the kid a small, reassuring smile, hoping to coax him into spilling.
No such luck. “You’re a teacher. I don’t want anyone to be in trouble.” Stupidly kind and forgiving Hufflepuffs, with their frustrating tendency to efface themselves and their own feelings for the sake of - often undeserving - others.
“Sorry, it’s just… I didn’t come to tattle on anyone. I just needed a place to hide.”
It was annoying, because Tony despised bullies and he wanted to help the kid in front of him, but he understood. He’d been the same. “That’s alright. I understand. Stay as long as you like.” He turned back to the project he’d been working on.
For a moment, Peter hovered hesitantly on the spot, but then he cautiously approached Tony, peering over his shoulder to see what he was working on. They were quiet for a while, Tony frowning at the material he’d been enchanting as if it had personally offended him, Peter deliberating on whether or not he was allowed to speak up.
“Uhm, Professor?” He eventually inquired softly. “Sorry to interrupt, but you’re doing it… wrong.” He winced at his own wording and Tony felt his eyebrows climb all the way up into his hairline. He was the leading expert in his field. That didn’t mean he never made mistakes, but it did mean that anyone rarely could or dared pointing one out.
“You’re not doing it wrong per se,” Peter rushed to reiterate, at Tony’s stunned expression. “but you forgot a step.” He pointed at the metal. “That’s not iron, but Vibranium, right?”
Tony felt like he could kick himself! Of course! He knew exactly what the kid was getting at! But the kid couldn’t really know this, right? Tony sure as hell didn’t teach his students about Vibranium and the different rules that applied when charming the rare metal. People rarely got their hands on the stuff anyway and the necessary spellwork was too advanced for anyone without a Charms Mastery. He was impressed that the kid could even recognize the rare material on sight.
He nodded, signaling to Peter that he had permission to go on. He was intrigued to see whether the kid would know the correct approach, at least in theory.
“Right, so because of the elements that make up Vibranium, which work averse to magic, unreinforced enchantments usually don’t stick.” Peter rambled. “But the special charm binding the material and the cast magic together makes the material highly unstable, because it taps into an energy flow on the quantum level that is virtually infinite. That’s why you have to always cast a protective charm around Vibranium, to contain that energy. Only, this spell basically cancels out the binding charm because it feeds on energy and magic is a brighter energy source, demanding the spell’s attention before the quantum source. You forgot that you have to intertwine a target spell with this protective spell, to make sure it is focuses on the quatum energy instead of the magical energy.”
Tony gawked. Peter blushed, as his rambling faltered.
“That’s impressive, for a first year.”
“I’m a third year!” Peter said, indignant again, although still flustered.
Oops. “Potato, potatoh.” Tony shrugged. “Still impressive. You planning on hiding out here more often?”
Peter blinked, surprised and suddenly subdued again. “Err..”
“I don’t mind.” Tony said casually. “I could use an extra set of brains here, every once in a while.”
Tony turned away from the kid, when he saw the blatant gratitude on the kid’s face.
“I… thank you, Professor.”
“Alright, if you’re going to stick around you can drop the honorific out of class, don’t you think?”
Peter flushed. “Right. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Stark.”
Tony looked amused and exasperated simultaneously. “Yeah, sure thing kid.”