Faultlines

Harry's Choice

Harry's choice

Harry Stark (or Potter, as he was mostly referred to in the wizarding world) was not having the best of days. Why was it that children of a family always went insane at roughly the same time? He stretched his tired muscles and took a huge sip from the even bigger cup of coffee his assistant had waiting for him every morning. Lily was almost two and supposed to sleep through the night. Except for the last week she really hadn't. He and Ginny had talked about maybe having more kids, they were both not even 30 yet, but after this week they had agreed that five was quite enough after all. Five was nice, really. And so was sleep. "Mr. Potter?", Sam (the coffee god) entered timidly. He still didn't have the knocking down, but Harry was ready to forgive that. Coffee was his main focus anyway.

"Yes? What is it?"

"There is a call for you at the Muggle liaison office.", Sam told him, looking nervous.

Odd. He had a Muggle phone at home, because he did of course have a lot of friends and contacts in the non-magical world, but who would actually call him at the ministry? When they had to know he was working?

Harry put the love of his sad life down.

"Did they know who it was?", he asked, trying hard not to immediately panic.

"A Colonel James Rhodes, Sir."

Rhodey. All right. Time to panic. Harry stormed past Sam, past his confused looking Aurors and straight towards the lift. That damn office was way down. He wished it were possible to simply keep a phone on him, but those tended to explode. Too much magic in the ministry of magic. Go figure.

People kept giving him glances between curiosity and wonder, as they got onto the lift on his way down. At least that he was used to, didn't matter if he used Potter or Stark.

At long last he reached the damn floor and stormed into the small liaison office, where one of the employees was softly talking into the phone: "I am sorry, Sir, I cannot tell you how long this will take. You must know Mr. Potter is a very busy..."

He never got to finish that sentence as Harry very rudely snatched the phone from him.

"Rhodey? What happened?"

Always the military man Rhodey did not try and sugar coat anything: "Our convoy was attacked. We came under heavy fire. They took Tony."

"Took Tony.", Harry repeated mechanically. This was his job, damn it, he was good in a crisis.

"Eyewitnesses say he was hurt and most likely unconscious. They went to a lot of trouble to get to him, so we can at least assume they don't want him dead."

"Send the coordinates and everything I need to my phone at home. I am on my way."

Harry hung up without another word and turned around. Sam had obviously followed him and was standing nervously behind him.

"Sam. Tell the Minister that I need time off. I'll be leaving immediately. Family emergency."

Harry didn't say goodbye to Sam either, instead storming back to the lifts. He made it home in less than ten minutes. Ginny was already waiting for him. There was a duffle bag in her hands. She had packed for him. Damn, there was a reason he loved that woman.

She handed him his Stark Phone.

"Rhodey called you?", he asked her, carefully taking the phone. He could see the info Rhodey had send him.

"No. Obie did. He said he was sending a Stark Security team and had someone looking into mercenaries in the region. Oh, and he is having all the intel send to you that they have on groups in that area. And that you don't have to worry, he is taking care of everything at SI."