Disclaimer: I don't own either harry potter or x-men

Chapter 6

Food, Fights and Friends

Harry was walking up the grand staircase when he heard his stomach growl. So changing paths he headed down towards the kitchen.

As he opened the door he was momentarily swarmed by the house-elves and their normal over enthusiastic greeting. He noticed the startled looks that he received from the elves that had accidentally hit with his tail as he walked to the table in the corner.

"Hey Dobby." He greeted, "Is there any chance that you could get me some roast beef and a couple of buns?"

"Of course Harry Potter, Sir." The small elf exclaimed.

Mere moments later he spotted the trays being ushered towards him and his mouth started to water at the delicious smell of five pound roast that was being placed in front of him along with a basket of a half a dozen buns.

As he was removing his pack and about to grab the knife and fork he remembered that his pants and gloves still needed to be altered.

"Can one of you guys alter these for me?" Harry asked. "They are the right size just a couple of pieces need to be adjusted a little."

"What do they need sir?" asked a female elf that stepped forward.

"Well I can show you but all of you must swear not to tell any who might ask about me, even the headmaster. Can you do that?" Harry asked them.

"We swears sir." The elf replied as all of the others nodded their accent.

Harry then proceeded to remove the chain about his neck. He was pleased to note that other then the odd gasp from a couple of the elves he took his change in appearance in stride.

"Well in the pants and underwear I need to have a hole made for my tail, also in my gloves I need to have three hole made in each glove between the finger knuckles along with slits made in the tips for my fingernails the grow from." Harry said.

"How big do you want the holes in the gloves sir?" The elf asked.

Lifting up his hand Harry extended his claws and looked at them for a second and ignored the gasps that came from around him. He then pulled them back in and finally sat down.

"Make the holes about two centimetres in diameter." Harry said.

Sure the claws were only about one and a half centimetres in diameter right now but he figured that as he was only fifteen almost sixteen that he might still grow some more. So if the main bones in his body got bigger his claws might grow as well.

"As you wish sir." She replied and took his bag to the back to do as he had asked as a couple of others followed her.

Harry was then able to sit down, grab his knife and fork and sat down to his meal. The elves had sliced the meat while he was getting his clothing order in.

As Harry ate the elves had gone back to their original tasks. Just as he went to reach for a goblet of water that wasn't even their Dobby came over with both a goblet and a pitcher of water.

Nodding his thanks Harry reached over, grabbed the pitcher and chugged it down. Putting down the jug he sat back with a contented sigh and looked at his plate just before Dobby grabbed it to take and wash. He blinked in surprise when he realised that he had eaten the entire roast and all of the buns that the elves had brought for him.

Waving off the elves when they asked if he wanted anything else Harry checked his watch and found out that he had eaten a five pound roast and six buns in less than half an hour.

Thanking the elves he stood to leave as he grabbed the gloves and put them on. Smiling as he found out that they now fit perfectly as if they had been molded to his hands, with the adjustments in the proper place that he asked.

Half way to the door Harry froze. Someone else had just entered the kitchen and he had left the chain on the table. He knew that it was probably a teacher as not to many students knew where the kitchens were but also that they were out of bounds and it was only a couple of hours after lunch. So in other words he was more than likely about to scare someone and get a dentition at the same time. Joy.

Deciding to try and hide Harry slunk into the shadows between the warm ovens to see who it was while almost purring at the comforting heat they gave off.

A breeze blew in from behind the two that entered and Harry was struck by the scents of parchment and ink mixed strawberries, as well as leather, sweat and the scent of the shampoo that Ron used.

As the two people unknowingly turned towards Harry was able to recognize the faces of his two best friends in the dim light of the kitchens. On the spur of the moment he decided to stay hidden and listen in to what they were saying.

"Are you sure he's down here?" Hermione asked, whilst looking around the kitchen but unable to see him hidden as he was.

"Yes, I am sure he's down here. It's what the map said before I put it back and we would have passed him if he had left." Ron told her.

"I still think you should have brought along, that way we would know for sure if he was here." Hermione grumbled under her breath.

"If he caught us with it he would be pissed Hermione besides what about that tracking charm Dumbledore had you put on that chain he was going to give to Harry you should be able to find him no problem. Why didn't he have Filtwick do it anyway?" Ron retorted.

Suppressing a growl of irritation Harry crept forward to hear her explanation of the tracking charm and why she didn't use it to find him.

"I have told you this before Ron. He said that Filtwick was too busy grading exams. Besides he had me key it so only he could track Harry which you need a third party to do so he needed someone to do it, and as I had been looking tracking charms up in the library for extra credit he let me try it. Which I succeeded with might I add. So only Dumbledore can track Harry so there won't be a mix up like last year with the guards for him." Hermione said smugly.

"Besides he couldn't place it on Harry directly as unless it's a parent placing a charm on a young child, it's illegal to place the charm on a living person but on an item you give to them is fine you don't even have to tell them about it." She continued as normal like she was reading straight from the text book.

"That's the charm that was given to Harry." Hermione said as they arrived at the table.

Meanwhile Harry snuck up behind them determined to scare them, after he heard what they were saying. Just to see their reactions of course.

"So that means that he is around here somewhere then." Ron said while peering around him in the darkness.

"He is right behind you." Harry growled, smirking when they jumped a good foot in the air before turning around and stepping back at his new appearance.

He then had to dodge as two stunners were sent his way by his best friends.

"What the bloody hell!" Harry shouted as leapt forward and removed the wands form their hands.

"Calm down its me." Harry said, "I will give these back to you when I know you won't attack me. Have you calmed down now?"

When they both nodded Harry returned their wands and ran his fingers through his hair exposing his scar on 'accident'.

Stepping forward they couldn't believe it was him but after a few moments of looking at him with his hands raised in a non-threatening manner they both seemed to relax.

"Bloody hell mate. We were told you had changed but we weren't expecting this." Ron said as Hermione wacked him on the back of the head for his language.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Apparently the stress of that night triggered some sort of hidden mutation in my DNA and changed me to this. Yes it's permanent and that chain on the table has a glamour in it as well as the tracking charm that I didn't know about until now." Harry said not wanting to go into too much detail.

Watching as they didn't respond right away Harry saw as the looks of confusion turned into horror at his appearance. It was all too much for him to take so he stood up, grabbed the chain and walked away. His head lowered, ears and tail drooping he made for the door.

With the door closed behind him Harry slung his bag over his shoulder, pulled up his hood, wrapped his tail around his waist and went up to the Gryffindor boys dorms.

When he finally got to the common room he ignored everyone and went straight up to his bed. Once there he pulled out his trunk and dumped the contents onto his bed, doing the same with his backpack.

First he took his invisibility cloak and placed it and the map at the bottom of his bag, then wrapped his most recent school books for the main subjects, (ie potions, transfiguration, DADA, charms and herbology along with his quidditch and other favourite books, adding some parchment, quills and ink as well in his cloak and wrapped it around them. Smiling as they disappeared from sight and you could see the bottom of the bag. He then placed his new clothes on top of everything else.

Packing everything else into his trunk and emptying his closet for the train ride back to London tomorrow. He froze when he saw a wrapped package on his bed and remembered Sirius words to him just before he got on the Knight Bus last Christmas. *"I want you to use this if you need to contact me alright."*

Opening it up Harry froze when he read the note telling him it was a two way mirror. If only he hadn't been so stuck up and had opened it up earlier maybe Sirius would still be alive, maybe he wouldn't look like he does now, maybe... it was useless to think of all the maybes in life.

He placed the mirror in his pack wrapped in some old socks from his trunk and froze as a thought hit him.

"Dobby!" Harry called out and sighed at the crack that followed quickly after.

"Yes Harry Potter sir?" Dobby asked.

"Can you go to Sirius Blacks house and retrieve the two sided mirror that is their? I left it there on accident at Christmas and forgot to have it sent here and as I am going home first I would like it for the summer." Harry lied quickly feeling a little guilty at lying to the elf. But not guilty enough to tell him to stay as he didn't want anyone to trace him using the mirror it was bad enough with the chain but that he would be willing to leave behind but not the mirror. His last gift from Sirius, he wasn't about to let someone use it against him, and he sure as hell wouldn't toss it out.

"Here you go sir. Anything else I can do for you?" Dobby asked seeing Harry shake his head "Just call if you need anything." Popping back to the kitchens to continue working on supper.

Placing the other mirror in a similar old pair of socks beside its mate Harry closed and locked his trunk placing it on the floor, closed his bag placing it on top of his trunk and went to lay down for a nap leaving his boots on.

His nap was to be in vain however as less than twenty minutes later he woke up to a shouting match going on in the common room.

Standing up and grabbing his pack Harry placed his chain in his pocket and went to find out what was going on.

"Just who do you think you are trying to tell me what to do?" Ginny's voice carried up to him.

"You don't understand Ginny he is dangerous." Ron said, "and as your older brother its my job to protect you more so now that Fred and George have left."

"Well what a smashing job you have done so far. Until the twins left you completely ignored me other than trying to dictate who I can and can't date. You hardly ever gave me the time of the day let alone protected me." Ginny retorted.

"Ginny listen on our way back here we overheard McGonagall telling Hagrid that he had mauled a dog and didn't even blink." Hermione's voice cut in and killed whatever hope he had that they weren't talking about him.

"Harry wouldn't do that." Ginny protested.

But I did. Harry thought.

"Ginny," Ron snapped, "I know for a fact that you saw what he did to Bellatrix. He tore through all of the muscles on her back and removed her kidneys from her body. Why wouldn't he attack a dog? What says he won't attack you?"

"No, Harry wouldn't attack any one of us unless he had a reason to. Yes he killed Bellatrix but she had just killed Sirius he wasn't in the right state of mind. As for the dog there must have been a good reason." Ginny tried to argue back but Harry could hear that she was starting to believe what Ron had said.

"The Harry you knew that we all knew is dead Ginny. He has changed almost like that of a werewolf but not. He isn't even considered a magical creature right now let alone a wizard or even human." Hermione said her words causing ripples of gasps and whispers to spread around the common room.

"What do you mean?" Neville asked.

"He is a mutant and from what I have read when a witch or wizards mutation is triggered it suppress their magic making it almost impossible for them to channel it anymore."

"I still don't see why he is no longer a wizard. Look at Professor Lupin he is a werewolf but is still allowed a wand and everything." Neville said.

"Because before he was bitten he was a wizard, and after he still had control over his magic and unless it is a full moon he is still classified as a being. On the full moon when he is transformed he is classified as a beast and nothing more. A dangerous beast, but still a beast." Hermione said.

"With Harry he the ministry doesn't have a classification for mutants and until one is sorted out he will be considered a beast until he can prove otherwise. Also as we don't know his magical abilities we don't know if he is a magical creature. It also doesn't help that one of the first things he did was kill someone and quite gruesomely I might add it would be best to stay away from him." She finished.

While she had been speaking Harry had moved so that he could see the faces of those in the common room. With his heart sinking at every word she said, each syllable cutting deep into his heart. But when he saw all but Neville and Ginny nodding that pain turned into anger.

Jumping over the railing he landed in the middle of the room right between Neville and Hermione glaring at the latter.

"At least I now know where I stand with my friends and who my friends really are." Harry snarled at Ron and Hermione. Nodding his head in thanks to Neville and then Ginny he turned and left the common room. As he left he couldn't help the feeling of finality as if he had just slammed and caused a sticking charm on the door of what he life used to be and what it would now become.

Outside the portrait hole Harry started to walk, not even pausing as he slid his bag onto his back. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize that he was beside the lake when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Spinning around he grabbed the person by the throat on to release him a moment latter when he recognized it to be Neville.

"Sorry." He muttered not meeting Neville's eyes for the embarrassment of not being able to control himself.

"Don't worry about it." Neville said, "I've been jumpy ever since the ministry myself. Same with Ginny, Luna is doing fine as she is well Luna and Ron and Hermione are not dealing with it at all. Just trying to place blame wanting to forget what happened and not accept that you had warned them before hand. Also knowing that their best friend has killed that same night is just too much for them right now I think."

"What about you and Ginny?" Harry asked.

"Well Ginny is turning out to be quite the strong witch with quite the fiery attitude. The both of us broke into the infirmary to see you. The two of us don't blame you at all. You didn't want us to come along in fact you tried to stop us. We also understand that this change you have gone through is not your fault it's something that is beyond your control. As a matter of fact just after you left Ginny started to tear them a new one and when I left ten minutes later she was still at it."

Chuckling at the thought Harry walked over to a boulder and sat down on a boulder that over looked the lake.

"You still haven't told me what you think." Harry pressed Neville who he hoped to still call a friend in five minutes time.

"Me? I'm jealous that I wasn't the one to kill that psychopathic bitch myself. Remember she was the reason that my parents are the way that they are." He went on when he saw the look on Harry's face.

"In fact I feel that you should get an award for stopping her before she was set free on the world again to cause more people pain."

"Before you ask Harry yes everything Hermione said was true but she doesn't know everything." Neville then chuckled when he saw the look on Harry's face at that comment.

Taking a deep breath he continued. "Mutations are common in some wizard blood lines. So common in fact, that the trait not showing up is considered weird. Parseltonuge is one of those traits that started with the Slytherin and continued throughout his family line. Some abilities can help enhance a person's 'normal' abilities. Take for example Madam Hooch the colour of her eyes is different but that's not all. She could stand on the astronomy tower and ref a match no problem.'

'There are rumors that all of the founders were mutants not just Salazar. As mutations in wizards normally just enhance ones gifted branch of magic well beyond what would be considered normal, even for a particularly gifted witch or wizard."

"How do you know all of this?" Harry asked.

Looking him straight in the eye so as there could be no mistake Neville said quite clearly, "My Mother's side of the family is one of those that it is common to have a mutation with it. Its why my Uncle Algie pushed me so hard when I was younger he was trying to get the mutation to show its self early so I could get some control on it before I started school. Also I think he wanted to know if he was the only one in our family that had it now as it had skipped my mother.'

'My ability didn't become known until Christmas this year when I was arguing with a cousin in the green houses about how the care for a fanged geranium when the plant in question almost tore off her finger from over a foot away."

"So what, you can control plants?" Harry asked.

"Yep and before the end of seventh year if I can keep up practicing I should be able to get the Whomping Willow to pick up a kitten and not harm it if I want to. Just look at these reeds if you want to."

Looking at the water's edge Harry watched as the reeds in question started to weave themselves into a small basket. Glancing back at Neville he saw the look of concentration on his face as he started to gain hope that he wasn't alone. As the sweat started to build on his brow Neville lost his connection with the plants and they went back to normal.

"Cool huh?" Neville asked, "And as I am a wizard all I have to do is point my wand in the direction of the plants and no one will think differently of me. At least that's what my uncle says anyway."

"Very." Harry replied, "So do you know of anyone who would be able to help me?"

"No. Unfortunately other then my uncle I am the only one in my family that has it right now. You see sometimes a Wizards magic prevents it from showing when they are in school at all or if it does start to show after they have graduated their bodies can't handle it and they die. Another reason for what my uncle did. For such a reason any mutations are a close kept family secret. I could get into a lot of trouble from my family if they found out that I had told you about this and the only reason I know about Hooch is that she came to talk to me this Christmas after the episode in the green house to let me know if anything happened here at school pertaining to it I could go and talk to her.'

'For you though I don't know of any one. I heard rumors muggle man over in North America somewhere either Canada or the USA that is helping other new mutants with their powers. Well at least that was what my Uncle told me at Christmas. You might want to try and check it out if you want to but I don't know how to find him though."

"Thanks I will think about it." Harry replied while looking around and was surprised to see the sun setting.

"While I think we best be getting in." Neville said.

"I'll be in soon. As all of my stuff is packed I might just spend the night in the hospital. I don't think I can look at Ron or Hermione or anyone else other then you and Ginny right now. Pomfery said she would keep a bed ready for me just in case." Harry told him.

"Yea, Look Harry I will do what I can to get them to smarten up but I can't promise they will see common sense any time soon. But I can see why you want to stay away as everyone was acting like idiots. So I will see you at breakfast then." Neville said while he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Don't worry about it Neville and thanks a lot. Let's get a compartment together on the train at least then there will be one friendly face sitting with me then." Harry said as continued to look out over the lake.

"Sure thing Harry, see you tomorrow." Neville said as he stood up to leave.

"Hey, Neville." Harry called, "Thanks for everything."

"No problem Harry, what are friends for? Well Good night then." Neville said as he turned and walked back to the castle.

A/N: Thanks to everyone that has favourite and reviewed and are now following either just the story or me as well.

Sorry for the delay but with a course I was taking and moving from the east to west coast it has been a busy few months.

I will update whenever possible.

Alavear