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orderoftheavengers · 4 years

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Hufflepuff Rescue

Summary: Only a true Hufflepuff could put up with a Slytherin like Tony for all those years!

House: Hufflepuff

Species: Human/Salamander hybrid (formerly Human)

Blood Status: Muggleborn (sans one possibly magic uncle)

Wand: Hazel, 10 inches, jackalope antler

Broom: the Rescue Mark-7

Patronus: Giant flaming rabbit from Hell

Specialties: Charms, practical magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts

Sorting

Pepper would've made a fine Ravenclaw, but her most defining traits are Hufflepuff ones. She's a workaholic; insanely (some would say literally) loyal to her friends and employers; empathetic and sensitive; and has an almost superhuman ability to tolerate damn near anyone. The fact that she would accept whatever House the Hat chose for her only increased her candidacy for Hufflepuff.

"You're all I have too, Tony."

When Virginia Potts received her letter from Hogwarts, her Muggle family did not outright disown her; but they distanced themselves from her, and made their disdain for her magic clear. She was miserable at home, and took every extra job and class she could to stay in the magical world over the summer and holidays. (Though American, Pepper's family had recently moved to the U.K. for business related reasons.)

Virginia Potts was extremely skilled at charms, and her wand frequently rained excess sparks when she wielded it. Friends joked that she had the "hot-pepper wand," leading to her Hogwarts nickname Pepper. Ms. Potts was more than happy to keep this new identity, and took to using her Muggle first name only for legalities. Early into her first year, Pepper was ecstatic to get hired by a rich classmate, for a summer job at

Stark Castle

When Pepper wrote to her family explaining that she wouldn't be home for summer break, they wrote back politely implying that they preferred it that way.

Her fellow Hufflepuffs laughed, fretted, or had nervous breakdowns when they learned who Pepper was going to spend the summer working for. They all assumed that Tony Stark would either discount Pepper immediately for being a "mudblood," or would hire her only to troll her mercilessly. Neither was the case. Howard Stark himself had been a muggleborn Slytherin, who'd worked his way up the wizard social ladder from nothing, and the Starks had never bought into prejudice of any kind. (Howard worked with a female auror Peggy Carter in the '40s, and was married to a Ravenclaw named Maria; Tony's two best homeboys Happy and Rhodey were both Gryffindors.) Pepper's Muggle background actually contributed to her hiring, as Tony had an affinity for Muggle cars and food, and one of his best friends, Happy Hogan, was a Muggleborn.

Tony was, however, every bit as much of a headache as he was infamous for. But Pepper was made of much stronger stuff than even her best friends credited her for. Tony's Slytherin-to-the-max traits run amok were tempered by Pepper's Hufflepuff patience, grounded focus, and sensitivity. She established herself quickly as someone neither Tony nor his Veela dancers could screw around with, and took great pride in her job.

Things changed in forth year, when Tony was captured by Neo Death Eaters and has a magical amulet implanted in his chest.

Despite her love for her job, and the chance to see Tony Stark's bare chest, Pepper was not enthused to help change his chest amulet. ("There's puss!" "It's not puss, it's just poisoned basilisk venom mixed with phoenix tears, calm down.") She was understandably upset to find Tony working in his dungeon lab on a dangerously experimental broom, for missions that could get him killed. She reminded him, "You're all I have too, Tony." She eventually came to except Tony as a vigilante; but still freaked out when he attempted to drive a Muggle race car and set himself on fire.

Proof My Slytherin Has a Heart

....is what Pepper had magically inscribed on Tony's Christmas present: his old chest amulet, framed in two silver snakes forming a heart.

The entire school squeed at the unlikely Hufflepuff/Slytherin hookup. Fortunately, the pair did not have to face as much antagonism as a Slytherin/Non-Slyth couple in "Harry Potter's" day might have. Any negativity they did face was met with Tony's wrath. But everyone knew Stark's best friends were comprised almost entirely of non-Slytherins, and most people weren't dumb enough to hassle him about it.

Night of the Flaming Lepus

After Loki's attack on Hogwarts, Tony developed PTSD and became paranoid about protecting everyone, especially Pepper. He taught her as much Defense Against the Dark Arts as he could, but she really struggled with conjuring her Patronus. The tiny wisp she managed to squeeze from her wand resembled a very nonthreatening looking bunny.

That Christmas, Tony surprised Pepper with a giant rabbit he'd bought on the magical black market, thinking bigger = better. She didn't like it, as it had a tendency to eat chunks out of furniture, block the fireplace, and eat all of the magical plants around the Hufflepuff commonroom. They all got fed up, and Pepper magically teleported the eleven-foot rabbit down to the Slytherin commonroom, causing some awkwardness for Tony, who was already getting on his fellow Slytherins' nerves.

Shortly afterwards, the Slytherin commonroom was obliterated by Tony's enemies. Fortunately no one was killed--except, sadly, the giant rabbit.

But it lived on in spirit...

The villain who'd tried to kill Tony turned out to be Pepper's ex boyfriend, a Ravenclaw named Alderich Killian, whom she'd dated back in first year. Killian, once a regular human wizard, had transformed himself and several henchmen into Salamander hybrids, granting them fire-shooting and regeneration powers. Killian captured Pepper, and subjected her to a painful transformation that made her too part-Salamander.

While trying to rescue Pepper atop the Astronomy tower, Tony failed to catch her, and saw her seemingly plummet into an inferno below. Suffering a sudden attack of amnesia regarding Pepper's new powers, Tony thought she was dead, and in a Heroic Blue Screen of Death, went for Killian's blood. But Tony didn't have his wand or his broom with him, and was no match for the fire-breathing lizard man.

Killian prepared for the killing blow, when he was interrupted by an a voice screaming, "Expecto Patronum!" He and Tony both turned to see Pepper, glowing red with her new Salamander powers, aiming her wand at Killian. Flames traveled up her arm to her wand, mixing with her patronus as it emerged. An eleven-foot-tall rabbit made entirely out of fire charged at Killian, barring fangs with flaming eyes straight out of "Watership Down." Killian died screaming like a teletubby, just before the bunny from Hell leaped across the roof and bit his head off.

Staring up at his lover, Tony quipped, "I got nothing."

Tony offered to cure Pepper of her condition, to which she replied, "Why in the name of Merlin's facial hair would I want to lose these kickass powers? I like being a Hot Pepper!"

Tony then apologized for the sh*t he'd put her through, and blew up all of his brooms, creating a shower of fireworks for her and Hogwarts. (And an excuse for himself to build new brooms.)

Lovers Divided Get Reunited... Then Divided Again

After going through all that hell together, it seemed nothing was going to break Pepper and Tony up. Then Tony accidentally created a super-annoying gargoyle villain that destroyed Durmstrang, and Pepper declared it time for them to "take a break." That Halloween, she went home for the first holiday in years. After half a week back in the Muggle world, Pepper remembered why she'd left, and hurried back to Hogwarts.

She was not surprised to learn that Tony had been involved in a violent drunken Quidditch game. However, she was shocked to hear he and Rhodey were both at St. Mungo's, for physical and psychological damage respectively. Rhodey had been transformed into a merman, with Healers unable to restore his legs. Tony meanwhile had undergone an experience that would have broken far more stable people than him. Pepper did not have nice words for Steve Rogers after she learned the whole story. She did, however, have an eleven-foot-tall, hopping-mad, flaming Patronus ready for him. Rumor has it Steve grew the beard in the hopes of disguising himself from the Hell Bunny.

Pepper saw Tony emerge from the sh*t pile that was his life with a shocking new maturity. Well, mature for Tony; he was still snarking like a petulant child to Stephen Strange. But otherwise, he was more sensible and stable than she'd ever seen him. He devoted himself to mentoring a cute little Ravenclaw with spider powers, and building more magical shields and gadgets to protect the world from Titan invaders. At graduation, Tony gave Pepper the most awkward proposal in history. She wrinkled her nose at first, but came around and said, "What the hell."

Then a new kid with a cape resembling Ming the Merciless stole Tony from Pepper, and took him for a ride on a giant flying donut.

Not An Entirely Muggle Family?

Shortly before Strange arrived to steal Pepper's boyfriend, Tony related to her what he'd seen in the crystal ball in Divination class that morning (after several eye-rolling innuendos about "balls," naturally). In the crystal, he saw them have a baby together, and named the child after Pepper's "eccentric uncle," whose name happened to be Morgan. (Note: That's canon.) Uncle Morgan was one of the few relatives who didn't shun Pepper after her Hogwarts letter, though he was extremely strange. Pepper didn't see him perform magic, and Uncle Morgan wouldn't elaborate on the subject--or, more precisely, he would elaborate, exaggerate, and then truncate. Tony speculated that Uncle Morgan may have been a Muggleborn who'd somehow gotten himself expelled from Hogwarts.

A Hufflepuff Rescue

After the Snap, Tony and Pepper eloped, and Pepper indeed gave birth to a baby girl, who they named Morgan. Determined to protect his family, Tony built Pepper a new upgraded broom, wand, and impenetrable robes. She loved the color purple, but Tony chose royal purple and gold for other reasons as well. Sick of seeing his queen underrated and often dismissed as "Tony Stark's mudblood servant," Tony wanted to make sure no one mistook his wife's role in his life ever again. Pepper wore and wielded these accessories in the final battle against Thanos.

At one point in the fight, a man with an old-fashioned camera interrupted the battle to request that all of the females in the Hogwarts army gather at one area, and strike badass poses. The man was Denis Creevey, and explained that this photo was for the Daily Prophet's issue on Witch's History Month. The Avengers, Thanos, and all parties sighed and begrudgingly put their epic battle on hold to meet Creevey's request. Creevey then hurried off the battlefield, and the fight resumed. Weeks later, the Prophet's front page featured an undeniably smashing (somewhat literally!) moving portrait of all the witches fighting for Hogwarts, plus Deadpool in drag.

Pepper was horrified when Tony used the Infinity Wand to seemingly sacrifice himself and dust Thanos and his army. But even then, her Hufflepuff loyalty and compassion prevailed. She accepted Tony's sacrifice, and told him, "you can rest now."

She was of course, overjoyed to have her husband resurrected. She was less happy the following year, when Tony took a potion that allowed him to talk to animals, and adopted a number of very talkative exotic creatures, but that's a story for another day.

Wand, Patronus

Rabbits and jackalopes are known to be soft and maternal, yet tricksy and clever. And anyone who has seen "Watership Down" knows not to be fooled by their cuteness.

AN: A lot of people peg both Pepper and Tony as Ravenclaws, and I get it. J.K. herself would likely sort them there, if not straight into Gryffindor like most of the important characters (sigh). But I'm basing the Sorting partially on the characters' roles in the series. Pepper is brilliant, but her role is that of a loyal workaholic and empathetic lover, while Tony's is that of a genius who just. Never. Quits. Plus, the Hufflepuff/Slytherin dynamic was impossible to resist.

#pepper potts #order of the avengers #hogwarts #hogwarts au #avengers at hogwarts #hufflepuff #iron man #tony stark #harry potter #j.k. rowling #rescue #witch #chibi #fanart

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