Author's Note: How many people remember who Johann Shmidt or Synthia Shmidt is/was? Before you ask, I am not going to answer why I'm asking these questions.
Ok, timeline wise, this story begins a couple months before Wolverine joins up with the X-Men. By the time Harry and Hannah start Hogwarts, Kitty Pryde should be in the picture somewhere and a year or two later, the New Mutants will show up. I know that the timeline's a bit… messed up, but we're talking about rationalizing comic book time. If there are any glaring mistakes, please tell me.
And thirdly, the entire thing about the Grangers was inspired by the character Bob, Agent of HYDRA. Those of you who know who that character is and love him like I do… Wow, you're as crazy as I am. As for Hermione's schooling, I have nothing against that particular method, though I do feel that something such as that would explain her attitude towards school and her teachers.
Fourthly, I know this chapter is a bit on the short side, but I had to cut it because if I hadn't, it would have been monstrously huge. I'm sorry about that and I'll try to post the next chapter sometime soon. I have a midterm on Friday, so I won't be able to post anything at all until after that. But luckily, next week is Spring Break.
Pairings: Hannah/Neville, Harry/Sally-Anne, and Luna Lovegood/Dean Thomas unless I get a real good reason for a different pairing.
Chapter 3
"Mum, can Hannah and I get a book to read on the flight?"
Neena flinched, leaning against a pillar. Harry had called her mum. Harry thought of her as his mother. Wordlessly she handed him enough money for several books.
"G-get a couple books. And make sure they're in English before you buy them."
Harry gave her a worried look before grabbing Hannah and dragging her off to a souvenir shop that looked to contain books and newspapers as well. They had a little over half an hour before their flight from Paris to New York would start boarding.
It had been less than a week since she'd taken them and Harry was calling her mum. Harry thought of her as his mother. Hannah was much more reserved, and seemed to take pains to avoid having to call her anything. But then, maybe it was a reflection of how they were raised.
It had taken a surprisingly short amount of time to decide what to do. She knew where Logan was and had no idea where Nate was. Once in the United States she'd meet Logan and try to figure out how she was going to raise the twins. Nate would be a bit more difficult to find.
The best she could come up with was to leave him a message. There were several different places that she could send a message to and trust that he would eventually receive it. Of course, it might very well be months before he got the message. For a moment she considered just using an owl. But that thought was quickly dismissed. Yes, he'd get the letter within the week, but he certainly wouldn't know what to do with it and would have endless questions when next they met-if he actually trusted that the letter was from her.
Either way, she'd have to tell Nate about the Wizarding world-assuming he didn't know. He'd question where the children went off to for the school year and she couldn't ask them to hide their magical abilities from him.
"Neena, what the hell're you doing?"
"I don't know. I just don't know," sighed Neena.
She glanced at the children playing a makeshift game of tag several yards away. She and Logan had agreed to meet at his cabin in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.
As if sensing that Neena wouldn't say anything more on the subject after her brief show of weakness, Logan changed the subject. "Where did the boy get that scar? Doesn't seem to be healing right."
That gave Neena pause. She hadn't given the scar on Harry's forehead more than a passing glance. Now that she thought about it… Well, one more thing to work out before Hogwarts.
She'd considered sending the twins to a different school, but Hogwarts was one of the best magical schools in the world. Which, in Neena's opinion said a great deal about the lack of quality magical education. And the twins were still Potters-through her if nothing else. Potters had been going to Hogwarts since it was founded.
"Eight years ago."
"Logan looked stunned. "It shoulda healed or killed him by now."
"Could you watch the kids? I need to go into town."
"See, these are rabbit tracks. These are the front feet and these are the back," Hannah explained, kneeling next to the afore mentioned tracks.
"What're you two up to?"
Hannah and Harry turned to look at the man Neena had introduced as Mr. Logan, one of her friends. He was rather big, hairy, and according to Harry, scary.
"Showing Harry how to track. He's never been in a forest before."
"Who taught yah?"
"Uncle Remy. He takes me hunting and camping all the time."
"Huh," said a sleepy voice, the person it belonged to not quite catching what she'd said.
Neena tried not to let her temper get the better of her. "Remus, get up off your ass and tell me how the Killing Curse works."
"Uh… it's based on legilimency. All the unforgiveables are based on legilimency."
"Legal-what?"
"Legilimency. It's magical telepathy. Telepathy is-"
"I know what telepathy is. Wait-what unforgiveables?"
"The three unforgiveable curses. Use of any of the three on a human being is a one way ticket to Azkaban."
"Oh." Once more, Neena cursed her mother. Obviously this had been one of the things obliviated from her memories. "How do they work?"
"The Imperius Curse gives the castor control over the victim's mind. Only the particularly strong willed have a chance of fighting it off, and even then, few manage it. It clouds the victim's mind, inducing euphoria to the point that the victim will do anything the castor orders them to do.
"The Cruciatus Curse," continued Remus. "Or the pain curse is a torture curse. It fool's the victim's mind into thinking that all-and I do mean all-of their nerves are feeling pain at the same time. It's been known to drive people insane if they're under it long enough."
"And the Killing Curse?"
"It makes the victim's mind believe that the body is dead, resulting in the mind shutting down the heart, lungs, and finally the brain itself."
"Does it leave a mark?"
"Not when used on a sentient being. The point of impact explodes when used on plants and inanimate objects. Is something wrong with Harry?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe."
Neena glanced over at where Harry and Hannah were curled up on a couch that really couldn't hold two sleeping children. She had gotten back to the cabin several minutes before.
"I need to find Nate. Immeadiately."
"They're his, then."
She didn't bother to acknowledge the distate in Logan's voice. Logan and Nate didn't get along well at all.
"Can you watch Harry and Hannah for a week or two?"
"Why do yah have to find Cable? This ain't about them being his."
"Harry… Harry should have died when he got that scar." A long pause. "I need Nate's help."
A sigh. "What've you taught the kids so far?"
"I was too busy getting them out of Europe to teach them anything useful." She looked at the children. "Nothing too strenuous until Harry's in better health. I'll teach them to use weapons myself."
Most girls Hermione's age would have been quite happy with this task. After all, most ten year olds loved watching a toddler. It was like having a living doll.
But Hermione Granger was not a normal girl. She had better things to do with her day than to baby sit some brat while her mother gave the girl's nanny a root canal. As if Hermione cared about the daughter of some important HYDRA agent or some such-she wasn't really sure, Hermione had tuned out her mother after she heard the dreaded words: baby sitting.
Most of her parents' clients were HYDRA agents after all. The Grangers were the only dentists that HYDRA sent their agents to-again, Hermione hadn't been paying much attention, but from what she understood, HYDRA only offered partial dental and the Grangers were the only dentists that were willing to travel around the world to fix the teeth of members of a terrorist group that had once been associated with Nazis. Well, for what HYDRA was willing to pay, at any rate.
It certainly didn't help that the child had very little command of the English language. It seemed that Maren Shmidt knew all of four words in English. However, for the past hour and a half, the girl had been babbling in incomprehensible German.
Hermione glared at the little girl that was speaking what sounded like nonsense to her. "I'm trying to read."
Maren blinked before started to talk again.
"Be quiet!" snapped Hermione, keeping her voice just low enough that it wouldn't carry outside the room. "I need to read this for class."
Admittedly, Hermione was home schooled by her parents, who were always willing to accommodate their daughter should she need more time for a project-not that she ever did. However, she'd been assigned to read the book, and read she would. Even if she had to find some way to keep the little terror quiet.
Neena absentmindedly thumbed through a menu, her mind racing. It had taken longer than she would have wanted to get into contact with Nate and arrange a meeting. They had arranged to meet for lunch, though Neena would have preferred something a bit more private.
She'd arrived early-much earlier than she normally would have. But Harry's life could well be on the line. If Nate couldn't help, she would have to head back into the Wizarding world to find somebody that could.
Magic was a fickle thing, but a legilimency based curse that had failed to kill her son was too much of a coincidence.
"Dom," said a low male voice as a large man slid into the chair across from her.
Nate looked much the same as he had when she'd last seen him. Although there was a bit less brown and much more gray in his hair.
"Nate," acknowledged Neena. Being called Dom instead of Neena or her codename Domino was not something she'd expected. But perhaps after leaving her and the rest of the Six Pack to die, Neena would have been too familiar and Domino too formal.
"You look well," said Nate.
Neena's eyes narrowed, but she didn't rise to the bait. This was going to be awkward, she could feel it. After a long moment, she decided to just say it.
"I think our son already has his mutant powers."
Nate said nothing for several minutes, but when he did speak, Neena had her answer. Though Nate had said nothing, he'd known about his children.
"What happened?"
"He fought off a mental attack meant to kill him when he was a little over a year old. I didn't find out until a couple weeks ago," explained Neena. She'd leave the magic part of the story for another time.
"Is he alright?"
"Seems to be. Hannah hasn't shown any signs of being a mutant yet, but if Harry has his powers already, would she as well?"
"Hannah? Harry?"
"Our son, Harry-well, Henry, technically-and his twin sister, Hannah."
It seemed that there were some things that Nate didn't know. Had he even been aware of the genders of his children, let alone the number?
"Most mutant powers don't become active until puberty, unless the child was born with active powers." He paused. "They can also become active in high stress or life threatening situations."
"Oh." Though Neena had had contact with a number of mutants in her life, exactly how or when they got their powers was not something generally talked about.
