Title: Magical Mutations

Summary: Not all mutants found their way to one of the many factions in America. Jean and Scott had a baby...a baby they wanted to grow up apart from the fight they dedicated their lives to. But what happens when their gifted little girl isn't just a mutant...she's also a witch?

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the idea or the main character. That belongs to Shanna. I own Headmistress Lebeau, Evie, and Professor Starr.

Author's Notes: This story is written in response to a challenge. Thank you so so much to everyone who reviewed! You are the reason I keep writing.

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The test was pretty weird, some questions seemingly having nothing to do with IQ at all. Why did it matter what she'd do if she found money on the road? It took her about two-two and a half hours to complete, Ginny sitting peaceably beside her, making daisy chains.

"There!" Kalli folded the last page up, and slipped it into the envelope Dumbledore had given her. "All done!"

"Was it very evil?" asked Ginny teasingly.

"Awfully," Kalli shot back in a mock-English accent.

"Do me a favour, Kalli. Never talk like that again." The pair began walking back to the house.

Kalli pretended to think about it, then mock-sighed. "Very well, just because I'm nice."

Grinning, Ginny shoved her, then ran for the house.

"Hey!" Kalli made chase, her concerns about whether or not she could take the potion forgotten for now.

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The next day Dumbledore came by again, this time bringing with him a pretty woman, who could have been anywhere from her late thirties to her early fifties, dressed in what look like a Victorian Nurse's outfit.

"Miss Grey, this is the Hogwarts nurse, Poppy Pomfrey. Madam Pomfrey, this is Kallista Grey. Madam Pomfrey will be doing your physical, to determine the possible effects of the potion on your body, as well as the dosage your body can handle."

"Nice to meet you," said Kalli warily.

Madam Pomfrey dimpled. "You, too, Kallista," she said kindly. "Shall we retire to the relative privacy of your bedroom for the physical?"

"Whatever." Kalli couldn't bring herself to be rude to this woman. She was just too pleasant, with her lilting Yorkshire accent and her smiling blue eyes. "This way." She led Madam Pomfrey up to Ginny's room, feeling slightly embarrassed about the mess. She'd been levitating things all morning, under Ginny's watchful eye.

"Strip to your undergarments, please," Madam Pomfrey said in a brisk tone, putting her bag down on the bed and beginning to take things out of it, a collection of glass bottles, a tape measure, a long pale wand, and...Kalli's eyebrows raised in surprise, a set of scales. The wand, though, really held Kalli's attention. It was long and pale, with such a small width Kalli thought she could break it with one hand.

Madam Pomfrey saw what she was looking at, and giggled merrily. "I wouldn't try it," she advised, "my wand's rather temperamental. Onto the scales, please."

Without so much as a flicker of an eyelash, Kalli did so.

Waving her wand, Madam Pomfrey enchanted the tape measure to take measurements of every conceivable part of Kalli's body. When she was satisfied, she indicated for it to stop, noting things down on her clipboard quickly.

"Drink this." She handed Kalli a crimson potion which tasted and smelled of actual cherries.

Kalli gasped, feeling warmth spread throughout her body. "What was that?"

"General immuniser," the nurse answered. "We DO have diseases, just like you, Kalli. In addition, I'm not sure what you might have picked up. I don't want you giving anything to my students."

The fondness in Madam Pomfrey's voice when she spoke about her students made the redhead's chest hurt. She seemed to have an almost motherly concern for them.

"I hope I don't give them anything."

"Are you a virgin?" Madam Pomfrey snapped suddenly.

"What?!" Kalli spluttered.

She cocked one champagne eyebrow. "Well? Are you?"

"Of course!"

"Hmm...where are you on your cycle?"

Kalli's cheeks went scarlet. "It's my break week." she mumbled.

"Good." Madam Pomfrey noted that down. "I'm sorry to be asking such personal questions, Kalli, but they're important. Please forgive me?"

"Uh, sure..."

"Good. Drink this, please." This time, the potion was acid green.

Remembering the pleasant taste of the first potion, Kalli didn't even smell this one before downing it in one gulp. She gagged, shocked and disgusted. It tasted like gym socks that had been marinating inside a hot sports locker for an entire year!

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" She coughed.

"Hmm, that was a potion," Madam Pomfrey said dryly. "Now, tell me how you feel."

"Gross. It tasted foul!"

"I do apologise, but not all potions are delicious. But they all have a purpose. So, be a love and tell me how you feel. Discounting your disgust over the taste, please."

"Um...fine."

"Mmmm..." Madam Pomfrey wrote something down. "Not feeling nauseas, achy, lethargic, or flushed?"

"No...I feel fine."

"Good, good. You're a good height and weight, you have better than average muscle tone, and you're perfectly healthy, not to mention very intelligent." Madam Pomfrey beamed at her, sapphire eyes sparkling like stars. "Here, this is the last one." This potion was a pale grey in colour.

Cautiously, Kalli sniffed it. "What is it?" she asked guardedly.

"A neutraliser. In case the other two potions had a negative impact upon your metabolism. It's been known to happen, occasionally. You need to drink it, Miss Grey, so I would not put it off if I were you."

Reluctantly, the mutant-witch took a sip, and was quite surprised. Granted, it wasn't as nice as the first one, but it certainly didn't taste bad. If anything, it tasted something like spring water, with a hint of citrus. "Not bad."

"I'm not asking you to evaluate it, I'm asking you to drink it," Madam Pomfrey said, amused.

Shrugging, Kalli obeyed, and was amazed to feel a cool wave crash over her body, cooling any lingering embarrassment from the rather probing questions Madam Pomfrey had asked her. "Thank you for taking the time to do this," she began politely.

"Miss Grey, let me get one thing straight with you. I did not take the time off my busy job to listen to you thank me. And I did not do it for you, I barely know you. I did it for Albus, whom I respect greatly." Madam Pomfrey was repacking her bag. "You appear to be a nice person, though, so remember this. I never, ever want to see you in the hospital wing!" She smiled suddenly.

Kalli giggled. Well, at least Madam Pomfrey didn't want to be thanked. "Understood. I'll endeavour to avoid it, Madam."

"You do that. Now," the nurse said, folding the parchment she had been writing on in half and slipping it into an envelope. "We should know within a few days whether or not you're compatible with the potion. In the meantime, eat whenever you feel hungry, and keep eating until you feel comfortably full. Take any and all excuses for physical and cognitive exercise, and definitely keep studying. Now, let's rejoin the rest of the world, shall we?"

Shaking her head at the strange directions Madam Pomfrey's mood could go, Kalli followed her down the stairs.

"All done?" Professor Dumbledore asked, rising from the chair he was sitting on.

"Yes." Madam Pomfrey held up the clipboard she'd been using. "We're all done."

"Good, good." The headmaster rubbed his hands. "Well, we'll be on our way, then, Molly. Thank you for the tea."

Molly smiled slightly. "You're welcome, Albus. It was nice to see you without there being something wrong, Poppy."

"You too, Molly. We should catch up." Madam Pomfrey smiled in return.

"Yes, well, we must bid you adieu, I'm afraid. Miss Grey, it goes without saying that while waiting for the results, you will continue working at your regular pace."

Kalli nodded.

"Good, good. We should know within a few days, so I'll get back to you, then."

Ginny slumped into her armchair as soon as they left. "Never do that again," she pleaded.

"Do what?"

"Leave me alone with Professor Dumbledore." The English teen scowled darkly, her pretty features twisting into something vicious. "Going on about how this is all for my own good, and I should just study like a good girl so I can be useful. I'd like to be useful now! I'm not some bloody princess to be bruised by a pea!"

"I'm sorry," Kalli replied, amused. "Madam Pomfrey, she's uh..."

"Isn't she wonderful?" Ginny's mood changed quickly. "She's so...well..."

"Like Luna." Kalli sat down across from Ginny. "So...what're we going to study now?"

"I thought we'd go over some more wand movements. It's the weekend tomorrow, so I don't want to get into anything too ostentatious. Mum might do some Potions work with us this afternoon. And...the twins are coming home tonight." Ginny hesitated, before continuing. "Uh...they're a little bit strange...never ever eat anything they give you. Don't accept any presents...and most importantly, make sure you have your best sense of humour tonight."

"Why?"

"They're...different from other people," the English witch said tentatively. "They like practical jokes..."

"Ah." Kalli smiled. Just like Bobby Drake, one of the mutants and Mum and Dad's old school. Mum and Dad...thoughts of them didn't sting so much anymore, now that she was with family who loved her, who had time for her.

It wasn't that Auntie Beth and Uncle Liam hadn't loved her, not at all. But they'd both worked, and she'd been left alone most of the time. It hadn't mattered when Mum and Dad were still alive, but after they died, first Mum, then Dad, then, strangely, Mum again, she'd needed more comfort than her grieving aunt could give her. And Uncle Liam couldn't look at her most of the time; she just looked too much like her mother for his comfort. The Weasleys, though, had never met Mum and Dad, and so weren't quite so affected by their deaths. Well, that was different, somehow. There was sadness in this house, but they didn't let it outweigh the joy, not like the O'Connor's did.

"Don't worry," she comforted her younger cousin, "I know how to handle pranksters. Are they absolutely identical?"

"Oh, yes. But don't worry, I can teach you a few ways to tell them apart." Ginny's dark eyes sparkled. "I'm the only one who can, you know, other than Luna. Even Mum gets confused sometimes."

"She has lots on her plate." Kalli objected.

"Duh." Ginny had picked up many of the American colloquialisms Kalli tossed about. "C'mon, I have a recent picture of them in my room."

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Dinner that night was a joyous affair, the twins were every bit as mischievous as Ginny warned her, and had quite a hard time believing she could actually tell them apart, and wasn't being helped by Ginny, until their sister went to do the washing up, leaving Kalli alone in the lounge with the pair of them. Then, exchanging an impish glance that Kalli saw over the top of Ginny's old Charms text, they headed over to her.

"We have a game!" they announced in unison.

"Oh?" Kalli drawled.

"Yes! It's called the guess which is Fred and which is George game!" Fred said, grinning.

"If milady will allow herself to be blindfolded-" George produced a spotted silk scarf in lime green and burnt orange from somewhere and brandished it meaningfully.

"We can begin!"

"And if milady says no?" Kalli asked. She wasn't going to, she thought they were pretty funny, and wanted to see if she really could tell them apart.

"She would?" Fred's face fell.

"To think!"

"Such a thing could happen!"

"Hold me, Gred!"

"Of course, Forge!"

"Oh hell, I'll play!" Kalli giggled at their antics. They seriously looked like they were about to cry, the pair of them.

"Wicked!" the twins chorused.

"You two should join the Mormon Tabernacle Choir," she told them. "Go on, put the blindfold on me."

"What's the-"

"-Mormon Tabernacle Choir?"

"If you win, I'll tell you. If I win...you can suffer," Kalli said wickedly. "Now hurry, or you'll forfeit."

"You and Ginny are a good pair," Fred grumbled, taking the blindfold from George and tying it around Kalli's face, completely covering her eyes.

"You're both evil," George added.

"We learned from the best." Kalli's smile was decidedly evil. "Now what?"

For a few minutes there was silence. Then, the blindfold was whipped off.

"Which one am I?" Fred demanded.

"Am I Fred?"

"Or am I Fred?"

"Who knows!" The pair threw their arms around one another, blue eyes glittering with challenge.

Standing, Kalli walked from her chair to them, never taking her eyes off their faces. "You," she said, placing her hand on the left twin's shoulder, "Are George. And you." The other hand went onto the right twin's shoulder. "Are Fred. Any questions?"

The twins looked at one another in amazement.

"How-"

"-Did you know?"

"It's a talent." Kalli shrugged. "I just can."

"But we're-"

"-Identical in every way!"

"Not quite true," Ginny objected, wiping her sudsy hands on her jeans.

"Yeah," Kalli agreed, seeing where Ginny was going with this, and figuring the twins deserved a little taste of their own medicine. "You might be identical physically,"

"But your souls are completely different," Ginny finished, her eyes soft. "George, you're the creative one, the ideas man. You come up with most of the pranks and products for the Weasley Wizard Wheezes. And Fred, you're the brains of the operation, the logical one. You see all the possible problems, and adjust George's ideas to fit the reality."

The twins exchanged a look. "Okay," they chorused. Suddenly, they threw a red ball at Kalli.

Startled, she caught it. She felt weird, and, looking down at her arms, saw them turn a multitude of different colours. Even the few freckles she had changed, standing out as brilliant chartreuse, magenta, and lime.

"What did you do that for?!" Ginny exclaimed.

"For FUN! It's pranking time!" the twins chorused.

Slowly, Kalli made her way over to the mirror in the entrance hall. She took in her electric blue hair, her turquoise skin, multicoloured freckles, pink cheeks, and yellow eyes. The purple lips were the last straw.

She began to snicker. The snicker turned into a giggle, which quickly mutated into a laugh. The laugh turned into a very unladylike guffaw, and tears of laughter ran down her cheeks. Even the tears were colourful, being a very brilliant red. Kalli had to stifle a snort of amusement at that.

Her laughter was apparently infectious, as Ginny, then the twins began to laugh. They were standing there, laughing with one another, when Molly came in.

"WHAT! IS! GOING! ON?!"

"Nothing, Mum," Ginny soothed. "We're just having fun."

"Why is Kalli a rainbow girl?" Molly hissed, seeming to tower over everyone.

"Because Fred and George pranked me. Isn't it hilarious?" Kalli giggled. "How do I change back?"

"You'll be back to normal by sunrise," George answered quickly. "And, just so you know-"

"-You're a brick."

"Gee, thanks," Kalli said dryly. "I'm a brick. I've fulfilled my purpose in life."

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The weekend passed quickly, Kalli somehow managing to become friends with Fred and George. She had to wonder if there was something special about the Weasleys, which made people like them. When she lived with Auntie Beth and Uncle Liam, she hadn't particularly liked anyone. In fact, since Evie died, she hadn't befriended anyone. So...what was it that made the Weasleys so likeable?

What Kalli didn't realise was that it wasn't the people around her who had changed. It was her. Finding out she was a witch, and meeting the Weasleys, who accepted her unconditionally and without question, had soothed the part of her soul that had been hurt by living with people other than her parents, by Evie's rejection, and by her parents' death. She was happier, more open to the people around her, and they sensed that. Of course, it didn't hurt that the people she'd met so far (Draco Malfoy not included) were all quite willing to like her back.

On Monday, Kalli, Ginny and Luna gathered in the lounge to look over their Charms work. Luna and Ginny were busy writing an essay for Flitwick, while Kalli worked her way through the revision questions at the end of chapter 5.

At noon, the flames in the fireplace roared, turning green, and Professor Dumbledore and a tall, dark haired woman stepped out.

Kalli abandoned her work to stand before them. "Well?" she asked. "Can I take it?"

"Miss Grey, it is my duty to inform you that yes, you can take the Mindbender potion. This is Professor Starr. She will be your Potions Professor this year, and will administer the potion every Monday at precisely 12:30."

Professor Starr smiled charmingly. "Hello, Kalli," she said in a sweet voice. "Shall we begin?"

End Chapter 6