AUTHORS NOTE: Thank You very much Reviewers! Hopefully your questions so
far should be answered in this chapter. Oh and if anyone can think of some
of the more interesting students I might have missed, your welcome to point
them out!
~*~
Rogue watched in fascination as the Students of Hogwarts slipped into their robes, all but one of them bearing a lion on their crests. The non-lion, or non-Gryffindor she thought, must have been a Ravenclaw due to the Raven she was displaying, it was interesting to her the way that they were all broken into different houses according to what some hat read in their minds, and from what she'd read about the sorting process itself, it would be even more interesting to observe.
Shouldering her bag she stood up, straightened her hood, and adjusted her gloves, maybe once she was at the school itself and all the Hogwarts Students knew about her and the other newcomers, she could be a little more relaxed, but until then no one knew of the danger walking among them, that the lightest of touches could throw them into coma's or even kill.
With a slight shake of her head, she thought of what Bobby would say, that she worried too much. And so she followed the others from the train and took her first look at Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry.
It was awe-inspiring; the pure beauty of it left Rogue gaping, the immensity of the lake before her, and then in the distance the castle itself, from the little she could see, it was beautiful. She lost track of everything else until Harry gave her a nudge and she shot him a startled look.
"Pretty as it is, we need to be getting into one of those," he said, flinging a hand out to indicate the horseless carriages, blushing a little she followed him into one with Hermione and Ron, giving the grounds one last, almost lusting, look as a number of pre-teens were escorted down to boats with a very large man.
"That's Hagrid" Hermione said, seeing where she was looking.
"Yeah, he takes the first years across the lake in the boats," Ron continued "trust me, you wouldn't want ta go across in the boats today, its gonna start raining pretty bad soon"
"A little rain never killed anyone" Rogue quoted absent-mindedly, she was shocked as hell when Hermione quoted back.
"Yeah, but a lot can kill you" A big smile on her face "Go Jumanji"
Focusing her attention back on the wizards, she shook her head a little to shake off some of the drizzle that had started to soak through while she'd been standing in awe, as she did she began to wonder how Hermione had seen Jumanji, she didn't think wizards cared much for human entertainment, she didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until Harry replied,
"Some of us are half bloods, we come from Muggle families.and you're definitely not a witch, sooo why are you coming to Hogwarts?"
Rogue just smiled at him, seeing the curiosity re-emerge. She remembered reading about the word muggle in Hogwarts; A History, so she knew that it meant non-magic folk, by that definition she could probable have told him that that was what she was.
By now she was wishing she'd read more of the book than just the first few chapters and resolved to do so when she had some time to herself, so she said simply "I suppose you could call me a, a Muggle, and-" giving Hermione a look "-I don't think you're friend would like me to spoil the surprise"
Harry shot Hermione an irritated look and settled back to sulk for the rest of the trip, the conversation winding down from there.
While Rogue continued to marvel at the sights through the window, she could swear that she had seen a shimmering white movement in the forest some distance from them. The forest itself was dark and gave her the feeling that it was very old and very unforgiving to the unwary.
And finally, after what had seemed an eternity, came the school itself, its large doors that Harry said lead to the Great Hall where the feast would begin, by some measure of luck the carriage she was in pulled up directly in front of those immense doors as they swung open to reveal a large hallway and the vanishing traces of a ghostly figure.
"That was just Nic" Hermione whispered to her "he's one of the ghosts that reside at Hogwarts"
"Yeah" pitched in Ron "He's a good enough dead guy, its Peeves you've gotta watch out for"
"Peeves?"
"A Poltergeist" Rogue jumped at the addition of Neville's voice from behind her "he likes to cause trouble, but come on, or we'll be late for the feast". She was quickly gathering herself and realizing that she had been gaping again and that most of the students had already trailed past her and into the hall.
She followed the tugging of Neville on her sleeve and the two of them caught up to Harry and the others as Ron was making a joke that Neville should probable keep a hold of Rogue or she'd probable be standing in awe of the Great Hall for hours and hold up the feast, feeling herself blush again she braced herself.
.And felt that Ron had been right, the hall was immense in size, candles floated through the air and four massive tables lay up the room, each one draped in different colours, reds and gold's, silvers, greens and others, with another smaller table at the very end of the hall for the teachers, oh and of course no ceiling!
Exposing the hall to the now raging thunderstorms surrounding the castle and its grounds, she agreed with Ron now and felt sorry for the first years coming across the lake, while wondering why the hall and its occupants weren't yet saturated themselves.
Neville grinned at the direction of her gaze and told her about the enchanted roof, but by that time her attention was captivated by the flash of yellow leather she saw between two Hogwarts robes, and with the sight of that, she began to notice more flashes of normal human clothing dotted through out the hall.
And then there was Bobby, clad in denim blue jeans; a loose fitting top and denim jacket sitting besides one of the Prefects Rogue had met earlier, Ginny.
She was hardly aware of her feet moving and him standing to meet her, their arms encircling each other in the frenzy of those that hadn't seen each other in months. She almost kissed him in the frenzy before she began to calm down, she gave him another fierce hug before pushing him back down to were he had been sitting and dropping down beside him, there hands intertwining.
It was rapture to see him again, and she would have loved to spend more time just sitting there with him, but by then most of the students had already found themselves seats, and the hall was beginning to quiet as a bunch of dripping wet young ones had just burst in behind an elderly woman, with a pointed hat and gray hair that looked as if it was held back in a tight bun.
The group stood there for a few moments, dripping and gazing about in awe as she herself had done only minutes earlier, before following the woman to the front of the hall where they took their places in a line, waiting.
Than it clicked for her that the sorting was about to take place and she anxiously looked around to see the old man come out and place a wizened old hat down on a stool. She heard the whispers of mutants through out the hall asking what was going on, but they were quickly shushed.
For the mouth of the Sorting Hat had opened, and its voice had begun.
To All, I Welcome, New And Old Alike,
Witch, Wizard and Blood brethren,
You are all the Same to Me,
I'd look through your head,
And tell you were you ought to be,
To Join Old Rowena's lot,
You should read your books,
And fill your brains,
For that's what Old Ravenclaw respected best,
To Be of loving Hufflepuff,
Be kind,
And caring,
And show no bounds where friendship lies,
She didn't care, and was always ready
To teach the lot
Old Salazar only took the best,
Smart, Cunning, and vicious,
Slytherin Only wanted the purest,
And the best to boot,
He dwelled on dreams of
A Pure blooded World!
Now Gryffindor,
He respected strength,
And bravery did he prize,
Above all the Rest!
He taught any kind that showed
The knack and skill,
So now Wizard and Witch,
Whip me on,
And I'll show you where you belong,
But Brethren I fear, You were not around
When I was near to new,
I could no more sort a Muggle,
Than I could sort you,
So for you I cannot choose,
Choose Yourself and Use your brains!
But Witch and Wizard
Whip me on.
So the Sorting can Go on!
The hall burst into a mild sort of applause for the hat, some people clearly having enjoyed the song, others not so sure. Rogue was wondering whether the Hat had been referring to the Mutants when he said Blood brethren, she had been told it was a sentient hat, but now that fact seemed a reality. If it was calling mutants brethren to wizard kind.she let the thoughts trail off as the Old Woman stepped forward with a roll of parchment.
She cleared her throat and began "For those of you who do not know me I Am Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, and it is time for the Sorting to begin," her voice was slightly shrill "when I call your name, please come and place the Sorting hat upon your head. ADLEY, Emmers"
The hat boomed out "RAVENCLAW" The moment it touched his head
McGonagall went through the list from Adley, Emmers, to Zan, Janie. With the various tables in the hall exploding into applause each time they received a new person to their number. With the final student sorted, and the quieting of the hall the old man who had brought forth the hat, stood again.
Rogue jumped to the conclusion that he must have been the head master due to the seat he had just come from.
He was an old man with a long white beard, a pair of slim spectacles, and very dark green and gray robes, with dashes of gold.
"I am Professor Dumbledore and I would like to welcome you all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, new Students and.others.and while I would generally wait until after the feast to address matters. I believe that many of you will not be able to refrain from disturbing the dinner of our guests, in your quest to know why they are here."
He gave a pointed gaze to quite a few of the students with that comment before continuing, Harry being one that he lingered the longest on.
"So I shall explain now, Many of you here come from Muggle homes and families, so you may already be aware of the rising situations in the Muggle World" he let those words sink in, and Rogue could see the word on a dozen faces around her. "And for those of you who do not pay attention to the Muggle world, you may have seen some small articles in the Daily Prophet on the situation"
Rogue was amused to see that maybe half the hall still had blank expressions, until Professor Dumbledore continued that is.
"The Rising situation being the mutation of normal humans, or in more simple words, the Mutant -"
But that was as far as he got before the hall erupted into chaos, witches and wizards that came from the human world, understood first, and many were overcome with expressions of fear. Hypocrites popped into her mind at that.
They were witches and wizards after all! What reason did they have to fear Mutant Kind? They wielded more power than most mutants in their pinkies! She could feel herself flushing, but this time not from embarrassment, she was angry, and so could she see where a number of other mutants.
Though that anger froze in its place when she heard what some of the wizards where shouting, they were even bringing a smile to her face. They were yelling that Dumbledore was having them on, that mutants didn't exist.
That's what she'd thought about witches and wizards until a few weeks ago. At least they hadn't moved from their seats yet, she thought, the violence being restrained to shouts.
Than something more incredibly happened, the hall was plunged into silence and she swore she could have heard a pin drop at the other end of the hall!
And now Dumbledore was continuing as if there had been no interruption "- The Mutant Situation in the muggle world has been peaking for some time now, and our Blood Cousins have been feared and persecuted by Muggles. They have recently lost their one advantage of anonymity and now many flee for their lives."
"With the full Support of the Ministry I have opened the doors of Hogwarts to a school for the Gifted, for the Mutants who have recently lost their home at that school. As you saw when you came in a dozen or two have arrived already, and several came with you aboard the Hogwarts Express"
He gave everyone a few minutes to allow his words to sink in before continuing, not that he needed to, no one would have been able to not be listening as they had lost the ability to be shouting.
"In this time, the Wizarding World needs all of the Allies that it can have, we must also be willing to extend the hand of friendship to all who are willing to aid us in the coming war" he said something else then that Rogue didn't quite hear and their was an audible sound of people breathing again, voices returned the teenagers had broken out into hushed whispers rather then violent shouts.
Rogue looked down at the antique plate set before her on the table to avoid the eyes of so many students turning towards her and the others.
Dumbledores voice rose again "I believe that will do for the moment. Tuck In"
And with his last words, the plates she had been staring at were suddenly filled, it shocked her enough that she jerked back from the table and probable would have fallen if not for Bobby's hands on hers.
"Calm down" he whispered to her "Most people are already helping themselves to food"
She hesitantly looked up, but not at the food, her eyes caught the emerald green ones of Harry across from her, he just smiled. "I'm gonna kill Hermione later"
Relieved to see that he wasn't afraid of the mutants surrounding him, something must have shown on her face
His smile cracked his face more as he worked out her expression, "Everything around here is unusual, give everyone a day or two and the fuss will die down, and no one will care much that your not exactly normal" Something flickered through his eyes with his last remark, but she couldn't decipher it so she let it go.
And at Bobby's example dug into her food as he introduced himself to Harry and the others around them, she noticed he gave his given name, not his real name. Generally it went the other way with mutants, shedding the identities they had been given on discovering who they really were.
But she didn't give it much more thought as the food enflamed her tongue, tantalizing to the senses, it was so rich it took barely more than a few mouthful before she felt bloated. And had to pass on any more, something she greatly regretted as the desserts arrived.
Leaning back into her chair she looked around the room to see just who was there, too many of them had been separated before they could leave for their new haven, and as Dumbledore had said many were still on their way, Rogue assumed that's where the X-men where, out scouting for them. Though she would have felt a little better if one or two of them had been there.
Bobby must have seen what she was doing because he began to point people out, Jubilee in her yellow coat she saw for herself, but he showed her Siryn, Kitty, another half dozen that she couldn't think the names of, and Colossus she spotted as well.
The feast was beginning to wind down, and everyone was quieting once more as Dumbledore stood back up and gave the basic ground rules of the School, and mentioned that the New Students would be having their own classes by their own teachers once those teachers arrived.
"Also, all of the Students from Xavier's School for the Gifted will be welcome to observe and participate in Hogwarts classes, time and abilities permitting, as Professor Xavier has given the same option to all Hogwarts students"
"And finally as there are no dormitories large enough for all the new students together, you will have to divide to the separate houses of Hogwarts for the time being, I am willing to leave it to you discretion as to who will go where, I am sure our students will make you comfortable. Though I would ask that you do not all try to stay together, as I am sure it would be good for you to begin associating with Hogwarts Students as soon as possible"
With that the feast broke up, most of the younger years following Prefects to their common rooms. While a number of mutants looked distinctly uneasy about separating, even more so as no one had seen any of there own teachers, but they did so.
Rogue snagging Jubilee and Bobby with her, she gave a last look over at Kitty but she didn't seem to mind getting separated so much, probable because she was just going to go through the walls to find everyone later anyway.
That thought produced a faint smile and mouthed 'See you later"'
She slipped out of her seat, and along with the other two Mutants followed Harry through a maze of corridors, hallways and passages, Rogue occasionally stopping to gape at the sights, or at the people moving around in the pictures.
Eventually the four reached a portrait of a Fat Lady, and Harry announced that it was the Entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Lady Mutation" he stated and the portrait swung open, as he explained to the three that each of the Common Rooms was protected by a password that only the students of that house where meant to know.
Rogue noted that the room was draped in the colours of the Gryffindor house and that it was.cozy, there was a roaring fire, portraits, and some small tables around the edge of the room, couches for several people, and some single person ones and fabulous furs crisscrossing the floor.
There were also two spiraling stairwells, she was guessing that the dormitories where divided, and aside from all of that. She saw that there were only four people already in the Common Room, Hermione, Ginny, Ron and Neville, she had the feeling that she and the other two mutants were about to face an inquisition, though probable a nicer one than the Spanish.
Jubilee had no inhibitions about the people already there, tossed off her leather coat and splayed across one of the couches, Bobby did likewise in removing his coat and finding himself a seat, it seemed they'd both been expecting a question session.
Sighing she sat down next to Bobby. Only going as far as brushing back her hood and freeing her hair, even though she could already feel beads of sweat begin to run down her body in the stifling heat.
She felt envious that the others were probable quite comfortable soaking in the heat of the fire to combat the cold of the castles, amplified by the raging storm outside while she had to bake in the heat. Not for her safety, but for theirs.
It was making her a little.disgruntled.
Harry started ranting a little at Hermione for not telling him, after everything they went through last summer about secrets, and she simply countered with. "It was Prefect business at the time" taking on an air of superiority.
"Now be quiet" Hermione shushed him, turning her attention to the three
"So." She started "Your mutants"
~*~
AUTHORS NOTE: See, other mutants! *G* I hope you enjoy. And Please review
~*~
Rogue watched in fascination as the Students of Hogwarts slipped into their robes, all but one of them bearing a lion on their crests. The non-lion, or non-Gryffindor she thought, must have been a Ravenclaw due to the Raven she was displaying, it was interesting to her the way that they were all broken into different houses according to what some hat read in their minds, and from what she'd read about the sorting process itself, it would be even more interesting to observe.
Shouldering her bag she stood up, straightened her hood, and adjusted her gloves, maybe once she was at the school itself and all the Hogwarts Students knew about her and the other newcomers, she could be a little more relaxed, but until then no one knew of the danger walking among them, that the lightest of touches could throw them into coma's or even kill.
With a slight shake of her head, she thought of what Bobby would say, that she worried too much. And so she followed the others from the train and took her first look at Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry.
It was awe-inspiring; the pure beauty of it left Rogue gaping, the immensity of the lake before her, and then in the distance the castle itself, from the little she could see, it was beautiful. She lost track of everything else until Harry gave her a nudge and she shot him a startled look.
"Pretty as it is, we need to be getting into one of those," he said, flinging a hand out to indicate the horseless carriages, blushing a little she followed him into one with Hermione and Ron, giving the grounds one last, almost lusting, look as a number of pre-teens were escorted down to boats with a very large man.
"That's Hagrid" Hermione said, seeing where she was looking.
"Yeah, he takes the first years across the lake in the boats," Ron continued "trust me, you wouldn't want ta go across in the boats today, its gonna start raining pretty bad soon"
"A little rain never killed anyone" Rogue quoted absent-mindedly, she was shocked as hell when Hermione quoted back.
"Yeah, but a lot can kill you" A big smile on her face "Go Jumanji"
Focusing her attention back on the wizards, she shook her head a little to shake off some of the drizzle that had started to soak through while she'd been standing in awe, as she did she began to wonder how Hermione had seen Jumanji, she didn't think wizards cared much for human entertainment, she didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until Harry replied,
"Some of us are half bloods, we come from Muggle families.and you're definitely not a witch, sooo why are you coming to Hogwarts?"
Rogue just smiled at him, seeing the curiosity re-emerge. She remembered reading about the word muggle in Hogwarts; A History, so she knew that it meant non-magic folk, by that definition she could probable have told him that that was what she was.
By now she was wishing she'd read more of the book than just the first few chapters and resolved to do so when she had some time to herself, so she said simply "I suppose you could call me a, a Muggle, and-" giving Hermione a look "-I don't think you're friend would like me to spoil the surprise"
Harry shot Hermione an irritated look and settled back to sulk for the rest of the trip, the conversation winding down from there.
While Rogue continued to marvel at the sights through the window, she could swear that she had seen a shimmering white movement in the forest some distance from them. The forest itself was dark and gave her the feeling that it was very old and very unforgiving to the unwary.
And finally, after what had seemed an eternity, came the school itself, its large doors that Harry said lead to the Great Hall where the feast would begin, by some measure of luck the carriage she was in pulled up directly in front of those immense doors as they swung open to reveal a large hallway and the vanishing traces of a ghostly figure.
"That was just Nic" Hermione whispered to her "he's one of the ghosts that reside at Hogwarts"
"Yeah" pitched in Ron "He's a good enough dead guy, its Peeves you've gotta watch out for"
"Peeves?"
"A Poltergeist" Rogue jumped at the addition of Neville's voice from behind her "he likes to cause trouble, but come on, or we'll be late for the feast". She was quickly gathering herself and realizing that she had been gaping again and that most of the students had already trailed past her and into the hall.
She followed the tugging of Neville on her sleeve and the two of them caught up to Harry and the others as Ron was making a joke that Neville should probable keep a hold of Rogue or she'd probable be standing in awe of the Great Hall for hours and hold up the feast, feeling herself blush again she braced herself.
.And felt that Ron had been right, the hall was immense in size, candles floated through the air and four massive tables lay up the room, each one draped in different colours, reds and gold's, silvers, greens and others, with another smaller table at the very end of the hall for the teachers, oh and of course no ceiling!
Exposing the hall to the now raging thunderstorms surrounding the castle and its grounds, she agreed with Ron now and felt sorry for the first years coming across the lake, while wondering why the hall and its occupants weren't yet saturated themselves.
Neville grinned at the direction of her gaze and told her about the enchanted roof, but by that time her attention was captivated by the flash of yellow leather she saw between two Hogwarts robes, and with the sight of that, she began to notice more flashes of normal human clothing dotted through out the hall.
And then there was Bobby, clad in denim blue jeans; a loose fitting top and denim jacket sitting besides one of the Prefects Rogue had met earlier, Ginny.
She was hardly aware of her feet moving and him standing to meet her, their arms encircling each other in the frenzy of those that hadn't seen each other in months. She almost kissed him in the frenzy before she began to calm down, she gave him another fierce hug before pushing him back down to were he had been sitting and dropping down beside him, there hands intertwining.
It was rapture to see him again, and she would have loved to spend more time just sitting there with him, but by then most of the students had already found themselves seats, and the hall was beginning to quiet as a bunch of dripping wet young ones had just burst in behind an elderly woman, with a pointed hat and gray hair that looked as if it was held back in a tight bun.
The group stood there for a few moments, dripping and gazing about in awe as she herself had done only minutes earlier, before following the woman to the front of the hall where they took their places in a line, waiting.
Than it clicked for her that the sorting was about to take place and she anxiously looked around to see the old man come out and place a wizened old hat down on a stool. She heard the whispers of mutants through out the hall asking what was going on, but they were quickly shushed.
For the mouth of the Sorting Hat had opened, and its voice had begun.
To All, I Welcome, New And Old Alike,
Witch, Wizard and Blood brethren,
You are all the Same to Me,
I'd look through your head,
And tell you were you ought to be,
To Join Old Rowena's lot,
You should read your books,
And fill your brains,
For that's what Old Ravenclaw respected best,
To Be of loving Hufflepuff,
Be kind,
And caring,
And show no bounds where friendship lies,
She didn't care, and was always ready
To teach the lot
Old Salazar only took the best,
Smart, Cunning, and vicious,
Slytherin Only wanted the purest,
And the best to boot,
He dwelled on dreams of
A Pure blooded World!
Now Gryffindor,
He respected strength,
And bravery did he prize,
Above all the Rest!
He taught any kind that showed
The knack and skill,
So now Wizard and Witch,
Whip me on,
And I'll show you where you belong,
But Brethren I fear, You were not around
When I was near to new,
I could no more sort a Muggle,
Than I could sort you,
So for you I cannot choose,
Choose Yourself and Use your brains!
But Witch and Wizard
Whip me on.
So the Sorting can Go on!
The hall burst into a mild sort of applause for the hat, some people clearly having enjoyed the song, others not so sure. Rogue was wondering whether the Hat had been referring to the Mutants when he said Blood brethren, she had been told it was a sentient hat, but now that fact seemed a reality. If it was calling mutants brethren to wizard kind.she let the thoughts trail off as the Old Woman stepped forward with a roll of parchment.
She cleared her throat and began "For those of you who do not know me I Am Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, and it is time for the Sorting to begin," her voice was slightly shrill "when I call your name, please come and place the Sorting hat upon your head. ADLEY, Emmers"
The hat boomed out "RAVENCLAW" The moment it touched his head
McGonagall went through the list from Adley, Emmers, to Zan, Janie. With the various tables in the hall exploding into applause each time they received a new person to their number. With the final student sorted, and the quieting of the hall the old man who had brought forth the hat, stood again.
Rogue jumped to the conclusion that he must have been the head master due to the seat he had just come from.
He was an old man with a long white beard, a pair of slim spectacles, and very dark green and gray robes, with dashes of gold.
"I am Professor Dumbledore and I would like to welcome you all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, new Students and.others.and while I would generally wait until after the feast to address matters. I believe that many of you will not be able to refrain from disturbing the dinner of our guests, in your quest to know why they are here."
He gave a pointed gaze to quite a few of the students with that comment before continuing, Harry being one that he lingered the longest on.
"So I shall explain now, Many of you here come from Muggle homes and families, so you may already be aware of the rising situations in the Muggle World" he let those words sink in, and Rogue could see the word on a dozen faces around her. "And for those of you who do not pay attention to the Muggle world, you may have seen some small articles in the Daily Prophet on the situation"
Rogue was amused to see that maybe half the hall still had blank expressions, until Professor Dumbledore continued that is.
"The Rising situation being the mutation of normal humans, or in more simple words, the Mutant -"
But that was as far as he got before the hall erupted into chaos, witches and wizards that came from the human world, understood first, and many were overcome with expressions of fear. Hypocrites popped into her mind at that.
They were witches and wizards after all! What reason did they have to fear Mutant Kind? They wielded more power than most mutants in their pinkies! She could feel herself flushing, but this time not from embarrassment, she was angry, and so could she see where a number of other mutants.
Though that anger froze in its place when she heard what some of the wizards where shouting, they were even bringing a smile to her face. They were yelling that Dumbledore was having them on, that mutants didn't exist.
That's what she'd thought about witches and wizards until a few weeks ago. At least they hadn't moved from their seats yet, she thought, the violence being restrained to shouts.
Than something more incredibly happened, the hall was plunged into silence and she swore she could have heard a pin drop at the other end of the hall!
And now Dumbledore was continuing as if there had been no interruption "- The Mutant Situation in the muggle world has been peaking for some time now, and our Blood Cousins have been feared and persecuted by Muggles. They have recently lost their one advantage of anonymity and now many flee for their lives."
"With the full Support of the Ministry I have opened the doors of Hogwarts to a school for the Gifted, for the Mutants who have recently lost their home at that school. As you saw when you came in a dozen or two have arrived already, and several came with you aboard the Hogwarts Express"
He gave everyone a few minutes to allow his words to sink in before continuing, not that he needed to, no one would have been able to not be listening as they had lost the ability to be shouting.
"In this time, the Wizarding World needs all of the Allies that it can have, we must also be willing to extend the hand of friendship to all who are willing to aid us in the coming war" he said something else then that Rogue didn't quite hear and their was an audible sound of people breathing again, voices returned the teenagers had broken out into hushed whispers rather then violent shouts.
Rogue looked down at the antique plate set before her on the table to avoid the eyes of so many students turning towards her and the others.
Dumbledores voice rose again "I believe that will do for the moment. Tuck In"
And with his last words, the plates she had been staring at were suddenly filled, it shocked her enough that she jerked back from the table and probable would have fallen if not for Bobby's hands on hers.
"Calm down" he whispered to her "Most people are already helping themselves to food"
She hesitantly looked up, but not at the food, her eyes caught the emerald green ones of Harry across from her, he just smiled. "I'm gonna kill Hermione later"
Relieved to see that he wasn't afraid of the mutants surrounding him, something must have shown on her face
His smile cracked his face more as he worked out her expression, "Everything around here is unusual, give everyone a day or two and the fuss will die down, and no one will care much that your not exactly normal" Something flickered through his eyes with his last remark, but she couldn't decipher it so she let it go.
And at Bobby's example dug into her food as he introduced himself to Harry and the others around them, she noticed he gave his given name, not his real name. Generally it went the other way with mutants, shedding the identities they had been given on discovering who they really were.
But she didn't give it much more thought as the food enflamed her tongue, tantalizing to the senses, it was so rich it took barely more than a few mouthful before she felt bloated. And had to pass on any more, something she greatly regretted as the desserts arrived.
Leaning back into her chair she looked around the room to see just who was there, too many of them had been separated before they could leave for their new haven, and as Dumbledore had said many were still on their way, Rogue assumed that's where the X-men where, out scouting for them. Though she would have felt a little better if one or two of them had been there.
Bobby must have seen what she was doing because he began to point people out, Jubilee in her yellow coat she saw for herself, but he showed her Siryn, Kitty, another half dozen that she couldn't think the names of, and Colossus she spotted as well.
The feast was beginning to wind down, and everyone was quieting once more as Dumbledore stood back up and gave the basic ground rules of the School, and mentioned that the New Students would be having their own classes by their own teachers once those teachers arrived.
"Also, all of the Students from Xavier's School for the Gifted will be welcome to observe and participate in Hogwarts classes, time and abilities permitting, as Professor Xavier has given the same option to all Hogwarts students"
"And finally as there are no dormitories large enough for all the new students together, you will have to divide to the separate houses of Hogwarts for the time being, I am willing to leave it to you discretion as to who will go where, I am sure our students will make you comfortable. Though I would ask that you do not all try to stay together, as I am sure it would be good for you to begin associating with Hogwarts Students as soon as possible"
With that the feast broke up, most of the younger years following Prefects to their common rooms. While a number of mutants looked distinctly uneasy about separating, even more so as no one had seen any of there own teachers, but they did so.
Rogue snagging Jubilee and Bobby with her, she gave a last look over at Kitty but she didn't seem to mind getting separated so much, probable because she was just going to go through the walls to find everyone later anyway.
That thought produced a faint smile and mouthed 'See you later"'
She slipped out of her seat, and along with the other two Mutants followed Harry through a maze of corridors, hallways and passages, Rogue occasionally stopping to gape at the sights, or at the people moving around in the pictures.
Eventually the four reached a portrait of a Fat Lady, and Harry announced that it was the Entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Lady Mutation" he stated and the portrait swung open, as he explained to the three that each of the Common Rooms was protected by a password that only the students of that house where meant to know.
Rogue noted that the room was draped in the colours of the Gryffindor house and that it was.cozy, there was a roaring fire, portraits, and some small tables around the edge of the room, couches for several people, and some single person ones and fabulous furs crisscrossing the floor.
There were also two spiraling stairwells, she was guessing that the dormitories where divided, and aside from all of that. She saw that there were only four people already in the Common Room, Hermione, Ginny, Ron and Neville, she had the feeling that she and the other two mutants were about to face an inquisition, though probable a nicer one than the Spanish.
Jubilee had no inhibitions about the people already there, tossed off her leather coat and splayed across one of the couches, Bobby did likewise in removing his coat and finding himself a seat, it seemed they'd both been expecting a question session.
Sighing she sat down next to Bobby. Only going as far as brushing back her hood and freeing her hair, even though she could already feel beads of sweat begin to run down her body in the stifling heat.
She felt envious that the others were probable quite comfortable soaking in the heat of the fire to combat the cold of the castles, amplified by the raging storm outside while she had to bake in the heat. Not for her safety, but for theirs.
It was making her a little.disgruntled.
Harry started ranting a little at Hermione for not telling him, after everything they went through last summer about secrets, and she simply countered with. "It was Prefect business at the time" taking on an air of superiority.
"Now be quiet" Hermione shushed him, turning her attention to the three
"So." She started "Your mutants"
~*~
AUTHORS NOTE: See, other mutants! *G* I hope you enjoy. And Please review