Chapter 14

The students didn't notice Umbridge coming and going as they were focused on their powers. Aside from Luna, this was the first time any of them really got to use their abilities openly. Ginny was loving it. Her armored skin took on a metallic copper-color and found that she was stronger, faster, and mostly invulnerable. She busied herself with lifting one of the car-sized weights. Ginny's powers reminded Jubilee of Pitor's, an old friend the X-Men helped out a while back in Russia.

"Hey Ginny, think fast," Bobby called out as he shot a snowball right in her back.

"Ah!" the redhead cried out and immediately chased after Bobby. Not that the snowball would do anything, considering Ginny in her armored form could survive out in the open during an air raid.

Neville, looking at ease, was manipulating the vines and other plants in one of the small flower beds that dotted the grounds. The plants obeyed every command he thoughts of, and each time he manipulated them, his hands would glow green. It was no wonder that he did so well in herbology class back at Hogwarts. Neville manipulated several of the flowers into rings, each composed of flowers of a single color.

"What do you think?" Neville asked Kitty.

"Wow!" Kitty exclaimed. She was really impressed with the colors and arrangement.

Hannah, while at first a little disgusted with her powers, soon took joy in the fact of how she towered over everyone. Literally. She found she could stretch out her limbs and she made herself very tall for fun. Gambit took note.

"Well chere, looks like ya would give ol' Reed Richards a run for his money," Gambit said with a laugh.

"Who's Reed Richards?" Hannah asked as she returned to normal size.

"He's a friend of the X-Men, who does the same you do," Gambit answered.

This answer satisfied Hannah as she continued to stretch out and play around with the others. She quite liked how Gambit had a laid back and fun approach to training than Wolverine, who seemed to be very stern and like to "torture" the students.

Luna was having a great time making rocks float and making them too heavy to move. She was in her energized form, which was solid black with "cobwebs" of green and purple energy. Seeing that she can manipulate the local gravity, Luna had a great idea.

"Hey Jubilee, Kurt. Want to float in the air?" Luna asked them.

Kurt and Jubilee looked at one another and then looked back at Luna.

"Sure," Jubilee answered.

Soon, the two teens were floating and bouncing around like they were on the moon.

"Vhoa! This is awesome!" Kurt cried out as he did a somersault in the air.

Jubilee, on the other hand, wasn't getting a hang on it as much as Kurt was. Soon, she was upside down and struggling to right herself.

"O-okay, I've got this, I-" Jubilee quickly cut herself off when her stomach churned.

Luna saw this and quickly returned the gravity to normal. Luckily, Jubilee had an easier landing. Kurt on the other hand found himself to be very sore.

"Hey vhat gives?" Kurt asked as he rubbed his backside.

Then he saw Luna tending to Jubilee. He went over to see if he could help.

"Sorry, Jubilee. I didn't mean for you to get sick," Luna said, worried.

"It's all… good Luna," Jubilee reassured her.

Luna turned to Kurt.

"Kurt, could you go get some water for her please," Luna asked.

"Sure thing," Kurt replied.

BAMF! He was gone in a flash.

Seamus and Susan were testing their powers separately from the other. Seamus was having a time lifting the same weights that Ginny was lifting earlier. He never thought he could lift something so heavy, and wanted to see how hard he could punch something. So, he punched the ground and caused a depression to form. Little did he realize this would have consequences later.

Susan was redirecting the mild energy bolts being fired at her from a portable training turret. It surprised her that the laser bolts didn't hurt her, but she did feel a sort of 'charge' inside of herself. It surprised her more when she released the bolt back at the turret when. Luckily the turret didn't get destroyed.

In the engineering bay of the lower levels, Cedric was slowly learning how to manipulate the tech inside under Forge's guidance. Cedric had the ability to manipulate the electrical flow in various electronics and thus control nearly any device. However, having little exposure to Muggle technology meant that Cedric's powers were stunted. Hence the oversight by Forge.

"Alright, let's try out this old computer here. I want you to try and turn it on," Forge instructed.

Cedric reached out with his hand and closed his eyes. The old IBM's screen began to flicker, and after a few more seconds the computer began to boot up.

"Good. Soon, you'll get the hang of it," Forge said patting Cedric on the back.

"Yeah," Cedric said, proud of himself.

It was going to take time, but Forge figured the more familiarized Cedric became with Muggle tech, the better he could use his powers.

Ron and Hermione watched Harry as he was practicing his telekinetic flying. He had been hovering about two meters off of the ground for about five minutes.

"Five minutes and counting," Hermione said, looking at her watch.

"How long are you going for Harry?" Ron asked.

"I'm trying to see if I can stay up for ten minutes at least," Harry said, starting to feel the strain.

That's when Gambit came up to the trio.

"Hey y'all, you have the rest of the day off. The Professor has called all of the adults for a meeting, so there won't be any more training today," Gambit said cheerfully.

Harry lowered himself to the ground upon hearing the news. Hermione and Ron were also keen on hearing Gambit's response.

"Remy, is everything ok?" Harry asked.

"Remy's sure things are fine, but I'm not sure what's up. Nothin' you gotta worry 'bout," Gambit said as he made his way to the War Room.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron went to find Jubilee to see if she knew anything. Jubilee had been around the longest out of all of the Junior X-Men. So it was likely she would be privy to some of the more secretive meetings. Fortunately, Jubilee was feeling much better after the 'moonwalk' experience.

"Jubilee, do you know anything about the meeting Remy mentioned?" Harry asked.

"No, and I see it's caught your attention too?" Jubilee replied.

"Yeah. We're wondering if it has anything to do with Hogwarts," Harry said.

"Not sure, but I think we can meet up with Scott and find out," Jubilee said, leading the way to the Lower Levels.

"Do you think that Umbitch is up to anything?" Ron asked Hermione.

"Maybe, but we don't have much to go on," Hermione answered.

Both of them weren't too keen on the situation that was brewing at Hogwarts before they left.

In the War Room, the X-Men and Agatha gathered around to listen to the revelation Xavier had during Umbridge's visit. Rogue and Psylocke were listening in as they were making their way back from the Savage Land.

They were aware of the toad-woman's visit after receiving the letter from Dumbledore. On Xavier's insistence, the X-Men remained in the background and allowed their mentor to deal with Umbridge. Much to the delight of the X-Men and Agatha, Xavier had Umbridge running. However, the small victory was tainted with a new threat.

"As you all know, Dolores Umbridge has visited and I have learned some rather disturbing news. It appears that certain elements of the Ministry of Magic have acquired Sentinels," Xavier started.

Everyone shared a grim expression upon hearing that. Sentinels were one of the X-Men's oldest enemies, and they never seem to go away. When the robots are dealt with in one place, they pop up in another.

"Should we go to Hogwarts again?" Cyclops asked.

"No. I've convinced Umbridge to leave Hogwarts," Xavier said. The professor had a mild expression of shame.

"Don't beat yerself up, Chuck. Ya did it fer the kids," Wolverine reassured Xavier.

"Either way, when I scanned her mind I found out about the Sentinels. However, she didn't have all of the details. She does have an assistant who may know more," Xavier continued.

"I think keeping an eye on the assistant would be advisable," Storm added.

"I agree. Her name is Maline Sarras and I think some undercover work is at hand," Xavier said and looked over to Cyclops.

"Right, we'll come up with a plan and go from there," Cyclops answered.

Agatha joined in as well.

"I'll help you. I know the Ministry building quite well and I have some friends there as well."

"Thank you, Agatha, I'll …" Xavier was interrupted.

On the other side of the door stood Jubilee, Harry, Hermione, and Ron. The professor nodded and soon Wolverine stood in the doorway much to the group's shock.

"What do you four think yer doin'?" Wolverine said with grit in his teeth.

"Just a little curious about what's going down is all," Jubilee said, trying to sound innocent.

"We're wondering if there's going to be more trouble at Hogwarts?" Harry said, a little defiant.

Wolverine smirked a bit, but that wasn't enough to take the edge off.

"Look, you kids be on yer way. We'll let ya know something later," Wolverine growled.

All four teens scurried away as ordered and quickly found their way back upstairs. However, this left them with a lot of questions. They all regrouped in Harry's room to discuss what they had learned.

"So, Umbitch made her way over her? That's wonderful," Ron said sarcastically.

"I wouldn't worry about it. Professor Xavier sent her packing from the sounds of it," Jubilee said as she sat on the floor.

"I can't imagine how that would go down. Given how kind-hearted the professor is," Harry admitted.

"Professor Xavier doesn't fool around when people like her show up. I've seen it for myself," Jubilee said.

Hermione was in silent thought and didn't immediately respond to the conversation.

"What's on your mind, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Just trying to piece together Umbridge's plan," Hermione said.

"Well, it seems the professor mind-wiped her. So I don't think we would have to worry about any Sentinels turning up at your school," Jubilee reassured Hermione.

"Still, who would be operating the Sentinels in the Ministry?" Harry asked.

"Maybe my dad would know. After all, he knows more about Muggle stuff than anyone else in the Ministry," Ron suggested.

"Right, send an owl to your dad and see if he can tell us anything. If we learn anything we can forward it to Professor Xavier," said Harry.

Ron nodded and set about writing a letter to his Dad. Then, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Harry said.

It was Jean.

"Hi everyone, can I borrow Harry for a moment?" Jean asked.

"Be right back," Harry said to the others as he went to go speak with Jean.

Harry followed Jean to the library where Scott was waiting for them. Harry was a little worried about getting in trouble for eavesdropping on the X-Men's meeting. Jean noted the worried look on Harry's face.

"You're not any trouble, Harry. Just try to refrain from eavesdropping in the future," Jean said with a smile.

That was a relief to Harry and he took a seat with Scott and Jean.

"Harry, since your relatives have passed away we were wondering if you would like for us to adopt you?" Scott asked, tactfully as possible.

The question took Harry for a loop. It's true that he didn't have a home, if it could be called that, anymore now that the Dursleys have been murdered. Sirius was the only person he had as family. However, due to Sirius being on the run he couldn't formally adopt Harry. So, he wouldn't have to endure the cruelty he did at the hands of the Dursleys and Sirius could visit him safely.

Since Harry has been at Xavier's, Jean and Scott have been great to him. Plus, the opportunity to have siblings excited Harry a bit.

"I would have to think about it more, but I'm very tempted to take you up on it," Harry admitted.

"That's fine Harry, take your time," Scott reassured him.

"Plus, we would like to introduce you to Nathan and Rachael," Jean told Harry.

This added a bit of excitement to their talk and Harry was eager to get to know them. He had heard stories about them from Scott and Jean, plus what the other Juniors told him.

"I can't wait," Harry replied.

"Usually, Nathan and Rachael send us messages through the space-time telegraph. But this time we're going to attempt a video call," Jean continued.

"Provided the Doctor's idea works," Scott added.

"Hank said that the communicator was ready, I'll ask if he can bring it up," Jean said. She then telepathically contacted Hank.

A few minutes later, Hank came into the library with what looked like a rather large laptop. It had a small TV camera attached to it with a microphone connected to it as well. Sticking out of the top was a radar dish crossed with a tic-tac-toe grid. It was a small project Forge and Hank had been working on for the past year and was based on the Doctor's designs.

"Sorry to interrupt my friends, but I believe there are two people who are dying to talk to you," Hank said politely as he sat the assembly down at the table.

Hank tinkered with the settings a bit and tuned in to the right frequency. At first, the screen revealed a rather odd-looking man with a thick curly head of hair and a ridiculously long, multicolored scarf. The image was a bit fuzzy, and there was an echo to the sound.

"Oh! Hello there! Here are Nathan and Rachael!" said the man, in a loudly cheerful and deep British accent.

Two teens, a bit older than Harry appeared on the screen.

"Thanks, Doctor!" said the older boy. The boy looked a lot like Scott.

"Mom! Dad!" said the girl, who obviously took after Jean.

"Nathan! Rachael!" Jean cried out as she teared up seeing her children.

Scott too, teared up a bit.

"How are you? Are you coming home?" Scott asked.

"We're fine Dad," Nathan answered.

"We'll be home soon, Dad. Just having a bit of trouble with the TARDIS," Rachael said.

"Yeah, plus we have a friend with us. Say hello Lara," Nathan said excitedly.

Another teenaged girl appeared in the background waved at Scott, Jean, and Harry.

"Is that Harry? Hi Harry," Rachael continued.

"Yes, I'm Harry. Hi," Harry said with a wave.

"He's adorable! I'm going to hug him as soon as I get home," Rachael exclaimed.

Harry wasn't sure what to think about that, and just gave a laugh. The family conversation carried on for about ten more minutes before the signal was lost, but not without giving goodbyes and saying 'love you's. Needless to say, meeting Nathan and Rachael really tipped Harry in favor of adoption.