A/N - Hello readers. Before we get into the new chapter I just wanted to mention that I made a correction to chapter 35 (Another Magical Mutant (Continued)). Originally I wrote that when Madame Longbottom mentioned Neville's parents being tortured to insanity that Lightning was surprised because he'd never known that. Actually he DID know it. He learned that fact back in chapter 5 of Part 1 when Sharpshard was going over the list of potential guardians that his parents had left in their will to look after him if they were killed. The Longbottoms were on that list and Sharpshard told Harry about them being tortured. I went back and changed chapter 35 to take care of that. It's not a big deal and only meant revising one paragraph but it's one of those continuity errors that sooner or later someone always calls a writer out on.
That's all. Now here's the new chapter.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
"Normal speech"
"Telepathy"
36) EASTER BREAK
Friday, April 7th, 1995, was the last day of classes at Hogwarts before Easter Break. When classes were over for the day Remus collected Neville and the two of them flooed to the ministry where they took a portkey to New York City. From there they took the traditional taxi ride to Xavier's School. Neville was overwhelmed by New York. He'd never seen such a place. Although he had been to London he'd only been to the magical parts, never really having been out in the main city with all of the muggles. For a magical there wasn't much need to do so as floos, portkeys, and apparition took you everywhere you needed to go in the magical parts of London. This was the first time Neville had gotten a good look at a mundane city and he was blown away by it. The fact that it was New York City just made the impact all that much greater. Unlike when Sirius and Remus had come here for the first time or when the Weasleys and Hermione had arrived last summer he didn't see any superheroes flying around but that didn't make any difference to him.
About an hour later the cab pulled up in front of Xavier's school and its two passengers got out.
"What a nice house" said Neville looking it over.
"Wait until you see the inside" said Remus. The two of them headed to the front door. Before either of them could ring the doorbell the door opened and Harry was there to greet them. Standing next to him was a black girl with white hair that Neville remembered as one of the Ilvermorny students he'd met, Ororo Munroe was her name he thought. Behind them both was Sirius Black.
"Neville, Remus" said Harry, "good to see you both."
"Thanks Harry" said Remus, "hello Ms. Munroe, good to see you Padfoot."
"Thank you Professor Lupin" said Ororo. They had met twice, first at the Yule Ball and then before the second task.
"Likewise Moony" said Sirius, "welcome back." The two adults went inside leaving the three teens alone.
"Neville I believe you've met my girlfriend Ororo Munroe?" asked Harry.
"Yes" said Neville kissing the back of Ororo's hand like he'd been taught to do, "a pleasure to see you again Princess Ororo."
"Please" said Ororo, "just Ororo is fine. Us magical mutants have to stick together."
"You're – ?" began Neville.
"Yes" said Ororo with a nod, "I'm a mutant too as well as a magical like you and Harry."
"Welcome to the Magical Mutants Club" Harry said with a bit of a smirk
"Thank you" said Neville, "I assume you know all about the X-Men?"
"Of course" said Ororo, "I'm not one myself being too young."
"And a princess" said Harry, "can't forget that."
"You and Warren have more money between you than probably exists in my entire kingdom" said Ororo, "but it doesn't stop you from being on the team."
"I don't know about that" said Harry, "but thanks for the thought. Come on in Neville. We'll take you to your room, get you settled, and introduce you to everyone."
"Are you staying here too?" Neville asked Ororo as they all entered the mansion.
"Just for tonight" said Ororo, "I'm heading home to Kenya tomorrow for the break." Neither Neville or Ororo saw it but Harry's face took on a thoughtful expression at that moment.
Late that evening Harry and Ororo were sitting together in his room talking.
"Ororo" Harry said, "what happens to us after this year is over?"
"What do you mean?" asked Ororo.
"You'll be back at Uagadou" said Harry.
"I will" said Ororo.
"I really like you" said Harry, "I don't want us to end just because we're not at the same school anymore."
"Same here" said Ororo, "we'll work something out."
"I hope so."
"We will" said Ororo firmly, "that kiss of ours at the Yule Ball? That meant something. I'm not sure what exactly, but I believe it."
"I do too" said Harry. They kissed again and said goodnight to each other.
For Neville Longbottom that first stay at the X-Mansion was much too short. He would have gladly stayed there longer than just for that week. Even before he returned to Hogwarts he was looking forward to the summer when he could come back to Xavier's School for a longer stay.
On that first day he was introduced to all of the X-Men and learned all of their names. He now knew that Marvel Girl's name was Jean. He also met Scott, Bobby, Warren, and Hank for the first time and which X-Men they were. He also learned that Sirius was a member of the team too, having joined after the Quidditch World Cup and that Remus was considered to be an ally of the school as he tended to stay there when he wasn't at Hogwarts. All of them were friendly to him and made him feel welcome right from the start. It didn't matter to them that he wasn't joining the team. He was a fellow mutant and that's what counted as far as they were concerned.
After he met the team and got settled in his room he went to see Professor Xavier in his office. When he walked in he found both Harry and Scott there too.
"Neville, come in and have a seat" said the professor. Once Neville was seated Xavier began to explain to Neville how things would work for him while he was at the mansion. First he wanted Neville to start exercising regularly. He explained to Neville that building up his physical strength would help strengthen both his mutant powers and his magic. Scott would help him by instructing him in the use of the gym and in giving him a regular routine to follow.
"Before I came here" said Harry to his friend, "I was that scrawny kid you remember from my two years at Hogwarts. Regular exercising made me stronger and it will do the same for you. You might not enjoy it – it can be a grind – but it will be good for you."
"After we're done here I can show you the gym and how to use the equipment" said Scott, "if you want to see a regular exercise session Harry exercises every morning before breakfast, even on the weekends. You don't have to exercise at that time if you don't want to but you should pick a regular time to exercise during the day and stick with it. Don't overdo it by trying to do too much too soon. You can start at three times a week or so if you like but eventually you should try to get up to almost every day."
"It sounds daunting" said Harry, "but once you get into a routine you'll get used to it."
"Now tomorrow" said Xavier, "you and I will start working with your powers. During the week the X-Men train in the mornings and I'll work with you in the afternoons however as tomorrow is Saturday the X-Men have the day off so you and I will meet after breakfast."
"Yes sir" said Neville.
"Good, that's all for now" said Xavier, "Harry why don't you give Neville a tour of the school?"
"Sure professor," said Harry.
Harry showed Neville around the school. Neville was amazed at the many devices mundanes had for doing things without magic. Oddly enough his favorite thing was Bobby's video game system. He would spend quite a bit of free time learning to use it to play some of the games with Bobby, Harry, and Warren.
Later that day Scott and Harry spent some time showing Neville the gym and how to use the equipment. Neville didn't have any gym clothes so Harry lent him some of his own to use while he was at the school. Scott gave Neville a routine similar to Harry's when he'd first arrived at the mansion but, mindful that Neville hadn't had any physical education where he grew up he gave him an easier routine to start with than the one he gave Harry. As it turned out Neville had more stamina than anyone realized but Harry soon explained it by reminding him and Scott that it probably came from having to climb so many stairs at Hogwarts every day. With that being the case Scott increased Neville's routine to be the same one he'd given Harry back in the summer of '93 and told him to increase the difficulty of the exercises slowly and only when he really felt he was ready.
Neville enjoyed the exercises more than he thought he would. Soon he was getting up at the same time as Harry so he could work out alongside his friend. This also allowed Harry to keep an eye on Neville while they were in the gym and be there in case Neville needed help or had questions about any of the exercises.
After breakfast that next morning Professor Xavier called Neville into his office. On the professor's desk were several items, a few rocks, a couple of bars of metal, and a block of wood.
"First we're going to try to establish the breadth and limitations of your power" said the professor, "to start with we should find out if you can only affect rock or if you can affect other materials too. Let's begin."
Over the following week Neville learned quite a lot about his new power. He learned that he could affect more than just rock. He could affect almost anything as long as it wasn't living or was the carcass of something that had just died. He couldn't affect a dead tree but he could affect the wood produced from it after it was manufactured. He couldn't affect the hide of a cow but he could affect leather after it was finished being made, and so on.
Another thing he learned was that he couldn't change an item's mass. For example he could take a round rock and change it into a long rod but it would only be as long as the amount of mass the original rock contained. He couldn't add extra mass to it nor could he take mass away from it. Within this limitation, though, he could turn that rock into almost anything he wanted.
The last thing he and the professor explored was whether he had to touch an object to change it. The answer to that turned out to be no. As long as he could see the object and know what it was he could change it by will alone without making physical contact with it.
Not all of his time was spent in training. Harry (usually with Warren's help since he couldn't drive yet) took him into New York City a couple of times and showed him some of the sights. Knowing Neville's love of plants he took him to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and also to Central Park. Neville enjoyed both places. Harry also took Neville to Colony Alley to show him the New York magical district. The modern atmosphere there was a surprise to Neville who was used to Diagon Alley.
"When you come this summer" said Harry, "we'll get you properly outfitted for modern American life. You won't be wearing robes much here."
"So I see" said Neville looking around at all of the people in Colony Alley who were dressed in mundane clothing. Almost no one was wearing robes.
Before he went back to Hogwarts Neville was permitted to watch an X-Man training session in the Danger Room. The experience brought home to him how hard Harry and his teammates had to train to be able to do what they did. It explained how they were able to take on the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants when he had watched them at Hogwarts or a whole lot of Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup. Neville was very impressed. He also felt something stirring inside him that he hadn't felt before. He wanted to be like the X-Men, more than that he wanted to be one of them if he could. He knew that wouldn't be possible before he turned 18 but he decided that when he did turn 18 he wanted to join the team. He realized that he would have to work very hard to develop his powers and to grow stronger. He'd also have get over his shyness and timidity.
With these resolutions he threw himself whole heartedly into his training. Even after he got back to Hogwarts he continued to exercise regularly. He made sure to buy proper workout clothes and shoes during the week he was in New York as running and exercising in his robes and other heavy clothes didn't appeal to him at all. When no one was watching him he also worked with his mutant power, refining what he could do and learning to get better. Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione were the only ones who knew he was doing this. He was a boy on a mission and he was determined to succeed.
Draco Malfoy was scared, no he was more than scared. He was terrified. He was back home at Malfoy Manor for Easter Break. He hadn't wanted to come but his father insisted that he do so in order to get more comfortable being around Voldemort and learn about being a proper Death Eater. Unknown to his father and Voldemort himself Malfoy didn't want to be a Death Eater anymore but he had to be very careful not to let anyone know that while he was at home.
He could tell that his mother wasn't happy having the Dark Lord in the house but there wasn't anything she could do about it so she just bore it as best as she could and played the part of the perfect pureblood hostess as well as she knew how.
As for himself he was trying to stay out of Voldemort's way as much as possible without raising the Dark Lord's suspicions.
Now, however, after three days at home, he'd received his first assignment from the Dark Lord and he didn't like it one bit. If he didn't do as he was commanded Voldemort would likely kill him, probably after torturing him first. What he'd been asked to do wasn't hard. He'd have no problem doing it – it was just passing information to the members of his house whose parents were already Death Eaters without alerting anyone else. It was the reason behind it that he didn't like.
He couldn't warn Dumbledore without raising suspicions. He couldn't go to the ministry either, not when there were unmarked supporters of the Dark Lord working there who might see him. He could tell Snape. He was sure Snape could pass along a message to Dumbledore but even that was risky because Snape was now outed as spy for the headmaster.
What to do? What to do?
It hit him. There was one person he might be able to contact who could potentially help if his letter could reach him.
He went back to his room and, after making sure he was alone, got out some parchment, ink, and a quill. As quickly as he could he wrote his letter, sealed it in its envelope and addressed it as well as he could. He was preparing to take it to the house owlery when there was a tapping on his window. He turned around and saw his owl there.
"Oh thank Merlin" he said to himself. It was important that no one know he was sending this letter, not even the house elves in case they were discovered. He hadn't been looking forward to trying to reach the owlery without anyone seeing him. That wouldn't be a problem now. He quickly let his owl in through his window.
"Achilles, your timing is perfect" he whispered to his owl as he stroked him. Achilles was an Eagle Owl, one of the largest owls there is. He was a magnificent owl and quite smart too. The owl nuzzled him in return before eyeing the letter that Malfoy had.
"Yes, this letter is for you" said Malfoy, "but there's a problem. I don't know the person's actual name, just what people call him. I also don't know where he is except for a general area. Can you still find him?"
Malfoy offered the letter to his owl who took it in his beak for a moment and seemed to concentrate. When he was done he gave it back to Malfoy and stuck out his leg.
"You can? That's great" said Malfoy as he tied the letter to Achilles' leg, "and try not to let anyone else here at the manor see you. You can wait until darkness before leaving if that helps."
Achilles hooted at Malfoy but didn't wait. He spread his wings and took off carrying perhaps the most consequential letter Malfoy would ever write. The letter was addressed:
Professor X
X-Men Headquarters
United States of America
At the X-Mansion the next morning all of the team plus Neville were having breakfast in the kitchen when there was a tapping at the kitchen window which took everyone by surprise. The usual member of the household who might go about tapping at windows, i.e. Hedwig, was already sitting on the table in the kitchen being given bacon by Harry. Everyone turned toward the tapping.
"Whoa" said Bobby spotting their visitor outside the window, "get a load of that owl."
"That's a Eurasian Eagle Owl if I'm not mistaken" said Hank looking at it
"I recognize that owl" said Neville, "he belongs to Draco Malfoy."
"You're right" said Harry looking over at the window, "I remember him from when I was at Hogwarts. What's he doing here? And more importantly, how did he get here? Dumbledore is still screening letters for me that come from Hogwarts."
"Let's let him in and see" said Scott who got up and opened the window. Achilles hooted at Scott as if thanking him and flew into the kitchen. To everyone's surprise the owl didn't go to Harry. He landed in front of Professor Xavier and held out the letter with his leg.
"That explains it" said Harry, "there might still be a mail ward on me but there isn't one on you professor."
"So it would seem" said Xavier as he reached for the letter.
"Hold it" said Sirius stopping Xavier from taking the letter, "let me screen it first and make sure it's safe." Achilles hooted indignantly at the idea that any letter he carried would be cursed but he let Sirius scan it anyway.
"It's clean" Sirius said to Xavier, "you can take it. There are no curses, jinxes, hexes, or spells of any kind on it."
"Good to know" said Xavier as he took the letter from Achilles. "Thank you" he said politely to the owl, "would you like something to eat after your journey?" Achilles hooted at the professor and eyed his bacon. Harry laughed.
"Another bacon lover" he said as Achilles turned to look at him, "come on over here traveler. You can join Hedwig for breakfast." Achilles walked over to where Harry was and stood next to Hedwig. The two owls looked at each for a moment before nodding to one another. Harry began feeding Achilles a share of bacon while Hedwig looked on in an approving manner.
Xavier broke the seal on the letter and took out the parchment inside which he unfolded and read silently to himself. When he was done he looked up at everyone with a grave expression on his face.
"I'm calling an impromptu team meeting" said Xavier, "Neville, you may stay as this will likely affect you too."
"What is it professor?" asked Scott.
"Let me read you the letter" said Xavier.
Dear Professor X the letter went.
My name is Draco Malfoy. You don't know me. We only met for a moment on the day that you healed my Godfather Professor Snape. I'm contacting you because I don't know who else to turn to.
When you were here helping Professor Snape I had a conversation with one of your X-Men, the one known as Lightning. Things that he said led me to believe that you know about our own Dark Lord whom we call Lord Voldemort. If this is true perhaps you can help me.
Lord Voldemort returned to power this past January. Since then he has been living at Malfoy Manor which he has turned into his headquarters. I was called home for a weekend not long after his return so I could be introduced to him as a potential future Death Eater. For years I was a fan of the Dark Lord and his ideals and I was excited to meet him. During that weekend, however, I discovered that he is a complete monster who will do nothing except destroy our whole society. He kills his own supporters for any reason at all and tortures people for the slightest of failures – or just for fun. Lightning will probably tell you that I'm an arrogant, self-centered, spoiled brat. He's right. I am an arrogant, self-centered, spoiled brat and until I met the Dark Lord I didn't see any reason for this to change. Things are different now. No matter how much of a jerk I am I can't kill or torture anyone but If I am to enter the Dark Lord's service I would eventually have to do both of those things.
I don't know how much you know about the Dark Lord and his history – here Malfoy's letter talked a bit about how Voldemort was stopped by Harry Potter and how one of Voldemort's primary goals to was to kill Potter. Malfoy added that although he and Potter were not friends, more like enemies actually, he had no wish to see Potter get killed. This was followed by some words about the Triwizard Tournament and how Potter had been entered into it against his will. This brought him to the crux of the letter.
The Dark Lord plans to invade Hogwarts two weeks before the Third Task of the Tournament in the early morning of Saturday June 10th while a lot of the castle will be sleeping late. My task is to pass the word to the children of his supporters in Slytherin House and prepare them to side with the Dark Lord when he attacks. He wishes to take over the school while Potter is not here, presumably when the staff will not be as watchful as they would be otherwise and no aurors will be present. Once he has the school he will continue the tournament having the third task take place as scheduled. He knows that as a champion Potter must come to Hogwarts for the third task or lose his magic. The Dark Lord considers this a win-win situation for himself because either Potter refuses to show for the third task and loses his magic, or he comes and the Dark Lord will be able to kill him. Either way the Dark Lord wins.
If the Dark Lord kills Potter he will take over Magical Britain but he won't stop there. I've heard him say that once he has Britain he will extend his realm to Europe and beyond. I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to take over the whole world and that would be a catastrophe for all of us.
I can't go to Headmaster Dumbledore with this information. I can't send him a letter now during our break because my owl is too well known at Hogwarts for people not to know that I wrote him a letter and several of the children of Death Eaters are staying at school for break so they would see Achilles if he arrived with something for the headmaster. I can't speak to Dumbledore at school because my father is an enemy of his and until recently I thought I was too. If I were seen to speak to Dumbledore it would make the Death Eater children here at school suspicious and they would inform their parents who would certainly tell the Dark Lord. Whether or not I would survive what he would do to me after that is not something I want to think about.
As my last hope I'm contacting you. As far as anyone knows I have no reason to contact you so I can do so safely. I've heard that you're friends with Headmaster Dumbledore. Since I can't do it myself please pass this information along to Dumbledore. He's said to be the only wizard the Dark Lord's afraid of. Just please keep my name out of it as much as possible.
Hoping for the best,
Draco Malfoy,
Heir of the Noble House of Malfoy.
There was silence around the kitchen table as everyone digested the letter.
"That has to be the most positive, or at least neutral, attitude that Malfoy has ever had towards me" said Harry, "both as me and as Lightning."
"He wasn't writing to you" pointed out Neville, "and while he knows that Lightning might hear what he told the professor he has no reason to think that Harry Potter would."
"That's very insightful Master Neville" said Hank, "so professor, what are we going to do about this?"
"The first thing I will do is contact Albus" said Xavier, "after that, we'll see. At least now we have an idea of what Voldemort is planning and can begin making plans to deal with him."
"We might also need to find a way to protect Mr. Malfoy" said Scott, "if Voldemort or his Death Eaters find out that he was the one who told us about their plans he'll be in a lot of danger."
"That was very brave of him" said Harry, "I didn't think he had it in him to do something like this."
"I'll keep an eye on him" said Xavier, "he'll probably be okay as long as no one knows what he did. If anyone does find out we'll find a way to rescue him."
"Malfoy here, just what we needed" said Harry rolling his eyes.
"Don't worry" said Xavier, "I wouldn't bring him here. Albus would probably place him somewhere safe."
The others all accepted this and the conversation returned to normal topics. Achilles left as soon as he was done eating. Apparently he had not been told to wait for a reply. That was all right. The professor would contact Malfoy in his own way.
Late that evening Draco Malfoy was preparing to go to sleep. He was sitting in his bed reading a bit first when he felt a touch on his mind which made him drop his book in surprise.
"Who's there?" he called, although not too loudly. The touch didn't feel malicious but he didn't understand how it was happening as he was alone in the room.
"Greetings Draco Malfoy" said a voice in his head, "it would be best if you thought your replies to me. That way we can't be overheard."
"Who are you?" asked Malfoy out loud although still keeping his voice soft.
"I am Professor X" was the reply and Malfoy's eyebrows went up in surprise, "I received your letter. I waited until now to contact you because I wanted to be sure you were alone when we talked. You took a real risk writing to me. That was very brave of you."
"How are you talking to me in my head?" asked Draco thinking his replies now, "Where are you?"
"As for how I'm able to contact you" said the professor, "Like my X-Men I'm also a mutant. In my case I'm a telepath. We're having a mind to mind conversation."
"You're contacting me from America?"
"Yes. I could contact you anywhere in the world if necessary."
"Impressive" said Malfoy, "what can I do for you professor?"
"Nothing for now" said Professor X, "I just wanted you to know that I'd gotten your letter. Be as careful as possible and tell no one about this except for Professor Snape if you can speak to him alone and you trust him not to tell anyone else except for the headmaster. If you feel the need to contact me just think at me and I'll hear you."
"Thank you" said Malfoy, "what are you going to do?"
"I've passed on your information to Albus" said Professor, "which I'm sure you already figured out. Beyond that it's best you not know. Plans that you don't know can't be taken from you. If you feel that you're in danger let me know at once. I'll let you go to sleep now. Goodnight Mr. Malfoy. Oh by the way, Lightning says 'hi'."
"That's good to know" said Malfoy, "say 'hi' back to him for me please. Goodnight professor, and thanks again."
Malfoy could feel that Professor X was gone from his head. He put his book on his night stand and lay down to go to sleep. That night he slept better than he had in weeks.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's all for this week. Last week I said that someone would be making a fateful choice in this chapter. How many of you thought it would be Draco Malfoy? I hope this puts to rest complaints about Malfoy being a "bash" character. Yeah he started out that way but he had to so his change could be more surprising. This doesn't mean he's going to be nicer to Harry or his friends in the future. He's still Malfoy after all.
By the way please spare me any jokes about Achilles the owl being Voldemort's Achilles heel. Yes, I thought of it but not until after the chapter was finished and I didn't feel like changing it. Malfoy's owl was never named in canon as far as I know and Achilles seemed to fit. Maybe my subconscious was telling me the Achilles heel joke too. At any rate I'm not changing it now.
That's all for this week. Next week the story continues. As usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.