(Author's Note): First, I'm sorry for the wait and the fact that this chapter isn't as much of a thing as I implied it would be. Haven't had much time or ambition. Depression, college, and other things. Second, thank you for all the follows. Hopefully I can get the number of favorites to match it. As for people who have reviewed, I sent a response through PMs to a few, don't want to clog up my notes and inflate my word count with responses in the chapters themselves. I'll try to be consistent with responding to them when I can. I'll probably do that around when I post new chapters. This chapter is the first chapter with any real action in it. Hopefully it's decent, I've never written an action scene before, but I gave it my absolute best. I'll try to get the next out sooner.
Harry had now learned the hard way that agreeing to go shopping with the group of people he was in the company of, especially when he was in actual need of clothes, was a quick trip to being little more than a dress-up doll for them. The car ride had been mostly uneventful. Hope and Megan had started to ask him various questions that he was finding it increasingly difficult to provide non-answers for until Laurie and Sofia had come to his aid by consistently bringing up inane small talk. Dani and Jean-Paul had been engrossed in their own conversation at the front of the car. When the seven of them had arrived at the Salem Center mall Dani asked Harry if he had any preferences for where he got his clothes from. Harry deeply regretted his answer.
"I've… I've never been clothes shopping before. In the U.K. or here in the States." The wide-eyed looks he received, Hope's and Sofia's bordering on abject terror, were worrying. Though he saw a completely different expression on Jean-Paul, something between a Cheshire Cat and cartoon shark smiling, which filled him with an unexpected sense of dread. Against all his self-preservation instincts he continued to speak. "I had hand-me-downs. My relatives were… thrifty. Then I had rob-a uniform that I wore at the boarding school I was at. I've never had a chance to really get my "own" clothes."
"Well, Harry, we'll have to fix that." Jean Pierre moved forward and set a hand each on Hope and Sofia's shoulders, the smile he wore still not looking like it belonged on his face. "Won't we girls?"
Sofia and Hope's response was to charge forward, grab a hand from Harry, and then charging forward to the large department store that served as one of the mall's main attractions. The rest of the group followed seconds later, Dani unable to suppress her laughter at the ridiculousness of the two teenage girl's reactions.
Laurie had an entirely different response. "Dani, do you think Harry was being honest. That his relatives were just…" She paused for a moment, "Thrifty? Because it didn't seem completely- ".
Dani interrupted with a quiet voice that was a total shift from the jovial laughter she'd let out moments before, "Completely honest? I'd be very surprised if he was. But that shouldn't be too surprising." Laurie looked down with a small frown before nodding. She and the others who'd been the first to meet Harry had already realized and accepted the only way they were going to get any more information from Harry was if the boy gave it willingly. Questions of any real depth wouldn't work for the time being.
Megan piped in, confusion evident in her tone, "Does Harry just like to come off as mysterious or something? He didn't answer any of Hope and I's questions. He just clammed up on us or had half-answers that just raised more questions."
Jean-Paul had turned from watching Harry being pulled forward by two rather focused looking young women. "I don't think it's anything like that Megan. It's more that he doesn't know how to handle being the center of anyone's attention very well." He gave a glance towards Dani, "Sound about right Moonstar?"
Dani sighed, "That's around the same lines that Shan and I came to. There's a bit more to it than that though, but it's not my place to say, especially when I don't have any concrete details."
"Didn't he tell you anything more about himself when he was speaking to the professor?" Laurie questioned.
Dani shook her head, "No, nothing more than what he told us, save his last name. Potter."
"Harry Potter? It sounds like the name of someone from a book." Megan tilted her head as she spoke, in rather perfect timing with Harry turning around to see what everyone had been doing as he'd been dragged through the parking lot.
If he was honest, beyond a mild crush or two he'd had back in Hogwarts he'd put little thought into the fairer sex as anything other than friends for the most part. He'd had a crush on Cho Chang, but that quickly fizzled in the wake of everything that happened to him. There was one other person, but that was a can of worms he didn't want to open. This considerable lack of experience was not enough to prevent him from understanding that the reason why he was suddenly blushing quite furiously and had turned away from the fairy-like girl was that he found her incredibly cute. He'd noticed she was rather fetching when he'd met her back at the school, but just now, with her head tilted and nose scrunched up in a thoughtful expression he became incredibly aware of just how much. Unknown to him Jean-Paul had noticed his fierce blush in reaction to looking at Megan and filed that away for later teasing.
The group had now made their way into one of the larger department stores in the mall, Sofia and Hope still leading the charge to the men's department with harry in grasp.
Laurie had decided then to further explain Harry's situation to Megan, "Harry is really nice and actually pretty funny. He just takes a moment to get used to people. I'm not completely sure how long as I think he got as comfortable as he has with me and Dani and everyone else that ran into him so soon because we were the first people he'd met in months."
Megan was surprised at that, "Months? I know you said he was homeless but surely he would have talked to people?"
Dani answered her, "It might sound odd but from everything he's told me he's been alone for a while now. Even before he was living like he was. But that's enough of talking about him literally behind his back. He'll open up to people eventually." Megan gave an affirmative nod, she was being rather rude. Deciding to make it up to the boy, even if he was unaware of her behavior, the girl ran to catch-up with him and his kidnappers.
XXXXXX
Harry had been through a lot in his almost fifteen years, but nothing had prepared him for the kind of exhaustion and amusement shopping with two passionate teenage girls could provide. He was currently sitting in the mall food court with Jean Paul as they waited for the rest of their group to rejoin them. They'd sat in silence, Jean Paul occasional glancing at Harry in a look of what the boy assumed was continued appraisal. Harry sat fiddling with one of the buttons on the denim jacket he was now wearing. Along with the red low-cut canvas shoes he was wearing the jacket was the only piece of clothing that Harry had picked himself, Megan and Laurie had prodded him into not letting the other girls be completely responsible for his new wardrobe and at least pick something out. Harry had been mostly compliant with the two girls, save for refusing anything with short sleeves unless he was given a button down or jacket to wear with it. He really didn't want to explain the obvious scars he had his arms, Hank having seen them that morning was enough. After two hours of trying on different combinations of pants, shirts, shoes, and the occasional jacket he was left with enough clothes to wear for about two weeks without having to repeat anything. Everything was still a bit big on him, Northstar had insisted as Harry was bound to gain a few sizes with a proper diet and it wouldn't do to have to replace all his clothes in just a few months. Northstar had taken Harry to put the numerous bags he had into the van before waiting in the food court while the girls went and did their own shopping.
Harry wasn't sure of what to make of the man. He was hard to nail down with his sharp comments that teetered between insults and harsh jokes, but Harry could tell there wasn't any genuine malice behind his comments, at least he felt he could tell. A few awkward minutes later Jean stood up with a stretch and a groan.
His arms fell to his sigh as the groan turned to a sigh and the older man locked eyes with Harry, "I'm going to grab some coffee, you want anything?"
Harry shook his head, "Ah, I'm fine thank you."
Jean nodded, his expression blank. "Suit yourself. Try not to get into any trouble alright? Dani wouldn't be very pleased with me if I lost her new pet project."
Harry frowned as the man walked away towards a coffee shop in the corner of the wide-open mess of seating and greasy food stands, a gaudy fountain sat in the middle of it all. The mall reminded him a lot of Diagon Alley, but he quickly squashed any desire to reminisce when a strange feeling ran down his spine, somewhere between warning and a call to action. He stood, eyes narrowing a little as he clenched his fists. Just as he was about to try and find Jean and let him know something felt wrong in a way Harry knew was more than paranoia, loud cracking sounds echoed everywhere.
Harry slowly began walking towards the fountain where the water had stopped its flow and the concrete making up the awful decoration was starting to fracture. Other shoppers were keeping their distance while trading concerned looks with each other whereas Harry kept going forwards. He could feel something coming, the sensation on the periphery of his awareness, and knew he had to do something about whatever was going to inevitably going to burst from the fountain in front of him.
Just as he began considering his options, the ground let out a loud almost groan like sound and the fountain caved in on itself, falling into the ground and leaving a gaping hole behind. The murmuring crowd quickly turned to a screaming one as they all made to get as far away from the new fissure as quickly as possible. Harry remained still a few feet away and had anyone taken a moment to examine the boy they would have noticed his hair blowing in a non-existent wind and his eyes seemingly glowing.
A moment later a large hulking creature burst from the hole letting out a scream of rage, its skin brown like clay and globe like head featureless save for a massive maw filled with teeth and a tongue that seemed far too long for it to be anything other than sinister. The creature was towering above Harry now, arms like redwoods pulled back and ready to smash down onto the boy. Harry's immediate response was to dive away, landing on his stomach and almost knocking the wind out of him when the shockwave of the beast's blow ruined any chance of graceful landing. Harry quickly scrambled to his feet and took off running, blind to the screams and panic that had ensued with the arrival of his pursuer.
Harry quickly realized the creature was slow and not particularly intelligent as he took the occasional glance behind him whilst running, as instead of simply jumping at him the beast had taken to lumbering forward, its gait awkward and somewhere between Gorilla and spastic cartoon. Its body was as featureless as it's face, creepy mouth and tongue notwithstanding, and oddly proportioned. The torso rather small for it's trunk like legs and arms that were of similar lengths. Harry kept himself from considering the creature for too long and instead looked inward, pulling on the feeling he'd felt just the night before when he'd intervened on the fight his new friends had been in.
It was sort of like using a wand, but different. A wand was almost like a hose with a valve to him, open and shut on command. This was more trying to use a well, having to pump everything to the surface himself. The analogy wasn't perfect, as he couldn't cast proper spells like this, but it didn't matter to the boy as he was more focused on the creature bearing down on him than proper prose to describe his tenuous connection to his magic. Harry let out a grunt of effort as he shoved both arms forward, forcing what he'd brought up to the surface and barreling down at the creature. The creature was knocked onto its back upon contact with a compressed ball of kinetic energy that warped space around it, but immediately began rising to its feet again. Harry took the opportunity to put more distance between himself and his opponent and quickly pulled on his magic again, trying to focus more into his next blast.
The creature let out another roar as it regained its footing and began lumbering toward Harry again, before suddenly charging forward at a speed Harry wasn't expecting. Harry forced out what magic he'd been able to channel before diving out of the way of the creature, the kinetic blast not even staggering the creature this time. Harry watched as the creature, instead of barreling forward into the wall that had been a few feet behind him, somehow ignored the laws of inertia and immediately turned and continued after the boy at high speed. Harry was scrambling to get to his feet before the creature was able to reach him when a figure sailed over his head and smashed feet first into the creature's torso, sending it flying back and through the air.
The figure flipped back after making contact and landing on his feet, ready to make another move if need be. Harry recognized it was Jean Paul and scrambled back to his feet to stand alongside him as the creature seemed to be inanimate for the moment.
"I believe I asked you not to get into any trouble Harry. Care to explain why you felt it necessary to fight a monster like this instead of finding me or Dani?"
Harry frowned at the man before turning to face the creature and begin pulling on his magic again, "Sorry sir, but I wasn't going to let anyone get hurt if I could help and this thing seems to be after me in particular. It started moving right for me when it popped out of the hole where that fountain was."
Northstar gave Harry an unimpressed look before focusing back on the creature. "I see, well, stand back and let me deal with this. It wouldn't do for an X-man to let someone else deal with giant monsters in their hometown, let alone a child." Just as Northstar finished speaking the brown monster began moving again, slowly rising to its feet as though nothing had happened, though two indents were now it's chest where Northstar had made impact.
Harry ignored the comment and instead pulled further on his magic, trying to remember how it felt to cast one spell in particular with a wand. Northstar himself flew into the air before diving leg first once again at the creature. The creature snarled before lashing out with speed it hadn't had before, smacking the flying man with one its arms and sending Jean Paul flying into to the air. Having experienced this exact situation more times than he could count, other than a grunt of pain his response was to quickly right himself midair and fly right back into the fray, this time at a much greater speed. He'd hoped he wouldn't have to push too hard, he was rather fond of the dress shoes he was wearing which weren't exactly suited for combat and he wanted minimize collateral to the only decent shopping mall in Salem Center, but he needed to put this creature down before it could hurt anyone.
Just as he was about to strike the creature with a literal flying roundhouse, he heard Harry let out a grunt of effort and saw a flash of light before the creature was sent blasting back and its left arm was suddenly rubble flying in the air. Jean Paul was quick to dodge before flying over to Harry, who was obviously panting in exhaustion.
"Harry, stand down! You could have taken me out with the shrapnel from that!"
Harry grimaced and turned to the ground, "I'm sorry! But you can't expect me to stand here and just let you fight alone!"
"Yes I can! You're a student at Xavier's institute now! You can't-"
Harry watched as Jean was cut off by the creature suddenly roaring out and spitting a massive torrent of fire towards the two of them. Something inside Harry snapped as he forced Jean out of the way. His eyes lit up and the air around him suddenly seemed alive.
Harry's voice echoed throughout the food court as the fire almost made contact with him though he sounded as if he were whispering, "Fiendfyre."
Jean watched as the flames suddenly wrapped around Harry before blasting around him and turning a dark red color, animals of all shapes and sizes being able to me made out in the undulating mass of magic and fire. The creature was suddenly gone, swallowed in what had been in its own fire, before all the flames pulled in, swirling and almost laughing at the screams of exertion Harry was now letting out, trying to keep the flames from getting away from him.
Jean Paul watched as the flames began to swirl around Harry, trapping him in the middle of them. With one last scream Harry pulled them into himself, snuffing them out with everything he could, refusing to lose control. Moments later, they were gone, leaving a heaving, crying, exhausted boy.
Harry let out a sob, unable to hold it in anymore, "I'm sorry! I just had to, had to do something!"
Jean Paul's response was to kneel down and put a hand on his shoulder, "I understand. I do. Come on, let's find Dani and try and get all this sorted out."
(AN2): Some updates on continuity and a little proof I'm not making this up as I go along. I took the time to re-read a LOT of X-Men comics, notably a lot of Clermont's X-treme X-men that ran alongside Morrison's New X-Men. The continuity is a lot more concurrent than I realized and incorporating events from it is something I really want to do, especially as it gives me reason to have Harry interacting with Sage and Bishop before the murder of Emma. He'll also be meeting Kitty, who is currently a college student at the University of Chicago and has very different perspective on the X-Men and being a superhero than you'll be familiar with if you've read recent comics. So our current timeline looks something like this: Harry is found and meets Academy X characters (New Mutants v.2) – Harry is involved with the X-treme X-men (X-treme X-men #26 – 30 – God Loves, Man Kills II) – Harry goes back to school (New Mutants v.2 again) – More X-treme X-men shenanigans – We wrap the Morrison X-men run – Academy X/X-Men – M-Day.
M-Day will be the end of what I'm calling the first 'Book' of this fic. I have a lot of issues with M-Day, though it's thankfully nowhere near as bad as the recent Inhumans Vs. X-men was, and what it did to X-Men's books and continuity. It will not resolve the same way it did canonically. It must happen for what I have planned, but it is not going to be the same.
The reason why I'm sharing all this is to show I have a plan for what I'm doing, this isn't a seat of my pants thing. This is me engaging in the closest thing I can do to my childhood dream of writing an X-Men comic and giving Harry a proper character arc building from his early series self, before he becomes, well a rather lacking protagonist I am not personally a fan of. I'm taking this pretty seriously, at least to the point that it stays fun.
Stay classy.