Title: Harry Potter and the Horcruxes' Quest

Genre: slight AU, crossover (HP/X-men), slash

Characters: Harry/Scott, cast

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine; they belong to their respective creators

Summary: After OotP, Harry decides to run away in order to train to be ready to face Voldemort. He goes to find the one person he trusted as a child: Scott Summer. Sparks fly. Spoilers for HBP and DH.

Author's note: Many thanks to Aoife, the wonderful beta that corrected my mistakes! If some are left, they are mine and mine only.

Thanks to all of those who reviewed!

Chapter 3

Scott was fidgeting under Professor Xavier's amused eyes. When Charles had called him into his office, saying that Logan was on the phone and asking for him, he hadn't know exactly what to expect and he had half a mind to hang up without talking to the other mutant, if it hadn't been for the Professor and the half-intrigued, half-concerned look he sported.

However, as soon as Logan had mentioned that someone who called himself Green-Eyes was looking for him, he had almost fallen down on the floor, under the strength of his surprise. There was only one person with such a nickname that would be looking for him and it was someone he had lost all hope of seeing ever again, since that day he had disappeared in an explosion. He hadn't even known if Harry had made it out alive and after so many years…

He just couldn't believe that Harry was, at the moment, on the way to the mansion with Logan, and the stress he was feeling at the moment was almost too much to handle.

Xavier was watching the young man he had began to consider as his adopted son during the years he had been there and a small smile made his way to his lips. Since Jean's death, Scott hadn't been himself, falling into a kind of apathy, not letting show any emotions apart from the extreme sadness he thought he was hiding well but that was obvious to anyone who really knew him. It was nice to finally see him care about something again.

He had no idea who Harry, as Scott had called him, was. He probably could have found out if he had looked into his protégé's mind but he wasn't going to do that. Already back at the moment when he had taken the young man under his wing, he had refused to looking into his head any more than what was really necessary. He had consequently never seen anything about that friend of his. However, he knew that to be able to get along with Wolverine long enough to ask for his help and, even more, get him to agree to give it, he had to be an exceptional individual.

"Calm yourself, Scott. They will be arriving soon."

It was a testament of how impatient Scott was to see Harry again that he startled as much as he did when the Professor's voice resonated in his head. He turned to him as he heard him chuckle.

"I'm sorry professor. It's just… it had been a very long time since I've seen Harry."

"Why don't you tell me about him while we're waiting?" Charles proposed, as much to help Scott relax as to satisfy his own curiosity.

"I was thirteen when I met him. He was seven at the time and he had just been abandoned by his Uncle in the middle of the night. We literally bumped into each other and, well, I guess we just hit it off. We stayed together for years," Scott explained, knowing that Xavier would understand what he meant by that. "He helped me cope with my powers, refused to leave even if it was dangerous for 

him. He would always invent excuses for why I didn't open my eyes and there was something so innocent about him that almost everyone believed him, no matter how odd the explanation was."

"He seems to be quite a fine young man. Should I assume he was the one you were looking for when you woke up at the Institute?" Xavier asked.

Scott nodded. Yes, back then, when he had woken up after the explosion, he had found himself in a bed, in the infirmary of the Institute. He had called out for Harry but hadn't received any answer. Then Xavier had come and explained where he was but, when he had asked about another boy, he had been told that there had been so sign of anyone else with him when he had been rescued from the rumbles of the explosion. He had known at once that the chances of Harry having survived without being found were slim.

Just as Scott was about to continue his story, they heard the front door open and close and voices coming the entrance hall.

"I don't see why ye refused to use that power of yers to take us here," a gruff voice that could only be attributed to Logan was saying.

There was an exasperated sigh.

"Because," began a voice with an obvious English accent. "Even if we're invited, it's just not polite to show up in the middle of a house; you use the door. Plus, the garage is at twenty meters not ten kilometers. You can bloody well walk!"

There were a few gasps coming from the students who were rather amazed that someone who wasn't Rogue could talk like that to the Wolverine and still keep all his limbs attached to his body.

"You should go and greet your friend, Scott."

That was something the professor didn't have to tell him twice. He may not have been running out of the room, but it was damn close and he made a bee-line for the room where he knew the two incomers would be, just in time to hear Rogue ask Logan in her southern brogue who Harry was.

If Scott was surprised by how much Harry had grown during the years they had been apart, he didn't show it and went straight to hugging him, which startled the young wizard, who was only used to receive that kind of gesture from Hermione or Mrs. Weasley, and stunned the students who had rarely seen their teacher show such marks of affection to anyone but Jean. Never mind his surprise, Harry returned the hug for a while before they both let go of each other.

"Damn, you've grown, Green-Eyes," Scott said, reverting to the use of that old nickname, even though he couldn't see the color of Harry's eyes anymore.

"Well, I'm not ten anymore. It has been a long time," Harry sighed, worrying his lower lip, not very at ease with being the center of attention of so many people, even though he should have been used to it by now.

"You've got your accent back. You went back to England?"

Harry shrugged carelessly. It wasn't exactly as if he had chosen to go back, he had had little say in it after all. Fate had been playing with him, as always.

"I woke up in London a few days after explosion," Harry said at last. "In a hospital. With absolutely no idea how I ended up there."

Scott was going to answer when Harry heard a new voice.

"Scott, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Harry looked at the person who had just spoken and found himself face to face with a dark-skinned woman with long, white, hair. She was beautiful and Harry immediately felt as if she could be trusted. Looking at her, you could guess that she was very serene… like she was at peace with the world, with the elements. He had learnt that elementals wizards would sometimes give that feeling but he knew that she was a mutant, not a wizard, so it couldn't be.

"Of course Ororo," Scott said. "This is Harry… hum?" he turned to Harry who chuckled.

"Potter," he helped out. "Harry Potter. Yeah, kinda the difficulty I had too," he admitted with a self-depreciating smile. "Anyway, nice to meet you all."

"Well kid, ye'll get to know your classmates, since it's a school for mutant, ye'll join classes."

Harry winced as soon as he heard Logan. It wasn't that he didn't want to join them all; they all seemed nice enough and, at least, they didn't know that whole 'boy-who-lived' crap, but there was just a little problem with that plan. A little problem that he, maybe, should have told Logan while they were on their way to the Institute.

"Yeah…. About, that…" he begun, hesitating, only to be cut by a man in a wheelchair that entered the room.

"Mr. Potter isn't a mutant, Logan. He's a wizard."

The tone employed by the bald man was enough to reassure Harry that he held no ill-feeling towards him for not being one of them, though the fact that Xavier was able to tell he was a wizard meant that he hadn't succeeded in his task.

For, as he hadn't been able to do magic for almost a month after his arrival in the States, Harry had done all he could to learn occlumency and learnt it right this time around. For hours a day he had concentrated on that task only and, even though he hadn't been tested, he had thought he had come to a certain level of mastery of that particular discipline. However, it now seemed that the professor Xavier – who was a telepath as Logan had mentioned – had been able to see into his mind, without him even noticing.

"I guess I should work some more on my shield," Harry said with a grimace, ignoring for now the bewildered looks that people wore in reaction to that revelation, including Scott.

Xavier offered a smile to his new guest before introducing himself formally.

"My name is Charles Xavier and, like I suspect you already know by now, this is my school where, may I add, you're more than welcome to stay even if you aren't a mutant. And do not worry yourself about your shield; it's strong enough that I would be hard pressed to get through it even if I wanted to."

"Oh," Harry said and then frowned. "So, how do you know I'm a wizard?"

"No one aware of the Wizarding World can ignore who you are Mister Potter," Xavier said with a smile.

Harry's jaw dropped as people around them where trying to find out what was going on and where the conversation was leading. Also, why did the Professor mean by Wizarding world?

"You're bloody joking?" Harry asked with a groan. "Don't tell me that all of that has reached this side of the ocean!"

Xavier made a compassionate face, understanding that Harry didn't like the fame he had gained. He had, of course, heard the stories about the infant that had defeated the Dark Lord terrorizing the United Kingdom that cold October night fourteen years ago. He was also aware that people had hailed him a hero, as the world had been mourning the loss of his parents. On the other hand, he didn't know the details since he had never been one to take that much interest in the Wizarding world to begin with. Of course, he found it interesting but he had more than enough on his plate with the 'muggles', as they were called by wizards, and mutants, especially as he wasn't a wizard himself.

"Do not worry yourself, Mister Potter. My knowledge ends with what has been told by the newspaper about that Halloween night," Xavier said amiably, avoiding any mention of his parents' murder, knowing that Harry wouldn't appreciate such a thing to be revealed in front of so many strangers.

Harry nodded, relieved.

"Call me Harry, just Harry," he said.

He then turned to Scott but was cut off by Logan before he even had time to open his mouth.

"So what's this thing ye can do, kid?"

Harry reflected for a second, wondering if Logan was asking him to tell about what were his powers in general when he remembered that he had actually used apparition when he was with the feral.

"Ah the teleportation thing!" he exclaimed, looking at Scott with a big smile. "And wouldn't have it been way easier if I had known about magic back then? Anyway, we call it apparition," he shrugged.

"You hadn't known about magic?" Scott asked.

When he had heard Xavier telling Logan that Harry wasn't a mutant but a wizard ant that the latter hadn't denied it, he had been hurt to know that his friend had hidden such a thing from him and had let him believe that he was a mutant when he knew it wasn't the truth.

"Well, if I had known about it, I would have told you," Harry answered, rolling his eyes but making sure that Scott understood that it was nothing but the truth, not having missed the brief flick of relief that had crossed his friend when he had admitted his past ignorance about his nature.

Xavier, however thin his magical knowledge was, was aware of most magical laws and couldn't help commenting on Harry's apparently abilities at apparating.

"I had come to understand that the legal age to attempt to learn how to apparate was seventeen and thus because of the level of concentration required, as well as the consequent risks incurred by a faulty tentative."

"What?" Scott asked, not believing what he was hearing. "What risks?"

"Well, it's not if I had any way to know about that pesky little law back then. Plus, I had a very good teacher," Harry said, using his charm on Scott to try to make his forget the professor's comment about risks.

"So what else can you do?" a guy about his age asked. "Bobby Drake," he added when Harry looked at him questioningly, while Scott was repeating his previous question.

"Lot of things, but it's kind of difficult to explain. There are different domains in magic," he admitted. "And the risks are not that bad," he added for Scott's benefit.

Scott didn't look convinced but let it go for the time being.

"Can you do a demonstration," a girl asked and as Scott was going to open his mouth to answer at Harry's place, Xavier intervened.

"Kitty, why don't we let Harry get installed and take some rest, now? I'm sure that he will be more than willing to show you what he can do tomorrow morning, aren't you?"

Harry just nodded, showing his agreement.

"Now, Scott, why don't you show Harry where he can sleep? I'm sure the both of you have a lot catch up with," the Professor said.

"Of course, Professor," Scott approved.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality, Professor," Harry thanked, looking at the man in his eyes.

Harry then lowered his mind shield and connected to Xavier, showing him the sincerity of his words: I don't want to hurt any of them. And Xavier, convinced by the truth that he could see behind the words only gave Harry a real smile.