AUTHORS NOTE: I'm attempting to take the level of this story up a bit, if that makes any sense. Sorry that I haven't posted in, well, more then two months. I hope those who are still reading this enjoy Chapter 10. Thank you for your reviews.
Oh, and sorry if the characters aren't quite the way they were before, I haven't written in them in some time and it takes a while for me to get back into the flow of each character.
Oh and to Addictedxtoxfanfics sorry but no go for Rogue/Draco, I'm with you on not being a fan of Rogue and Bobby, but considering the way Draco is developing I have my doubts as to whether he'll be a redeemable character and I don't want Rogue evil. So again sorry!
It was three in the afternoon on the day of the first Quidditch match of the season, Ravenclaw verse Gryffindor, to the relief of a great number of Hogwarts students, the mutants were witnessing their first Quidditch match ever and they no longer exhausted themselves attempting to explain the game to people who seemed even less likely to understand it then regular muggle-borns
The stands teeming with wizards, witches and mutants shook under the roars of delight and excitement that echoed forth to fill the empty grounds of the school. With so many of the schools residents compacted into the stands of the Quidditch Pitch, only one witch saw the arrival of the blood stained medi-wizards carrying the limp forms of several teenagers.
Only one person saw the group hurry towards the hospital wing, and only one person saw the removal of all but two of those teenage bodies as disheartened wizards departed after their efforts to save the young ones failed.
And only one Madam Pomfrey let tears stream forth as she saw the young mutants die when they were so close to salvation. She cried as the school shook with the cheers of those enthralled by the worthless game being played. What use was life when those in the bloom of it were stricken and taken?
Sobbing she closed the curtains to hide the beds that contained the two young ones who were healing. Sealing the doors to the hospital wing, she set off to inform Albus Dumbledore of the fate that had befallen the newest arrivals of the school.
Her tear stained cheeks glistened as she stepped out into the light of day and headed towards the pitch, chilled inside despite the warmth that beat down upon her.
The whispers had spread through the school by the following morning, that there were new mutants in the hospital wing of Hogwarts. Rogue just shrugged them off as she settled next to Bobby at the Gryffindor table.
What did it matter if a few new mutants had been brought in? Their being in the hospital wing just meant that they'd had a bit of trouble in the human world before they were found.
But all the same a slight shiver raced down her spine each time the subject was brought up.
"Harry, that was absolutely incredible" Jubilee declared, dropping into a seat across the table "I mean I know I've already said that, but seriously the way you were flitting around on that broom yesterday…You were just flying circles around everyone else, and that chick on the other team was in tears when you got that golden ball thing -"
"-Snitch" Harry muttered
Jubilee ignored him and just continued to rant about how great the game had been. Though in her defence she wasn't the only one, most of the mutant population was still in an uproar about it.
Rogue couldn't help but smile at the assault most of the quidditch players were under, the mutants interest in the game had been waning until they saw it for themselves, now most of them wanted a shot at it. She herself wouldn't have minded taking a quick little jaunt in the air; it must be incredible to be able to fly she thought. Wistfully imagining it.
"So what do you guys want to do today?" Jubilee asked, swivelling her attention towards Bobby and Rogue, evidently having given up pestering Harry.
But before either of them could answer Jubilees eyes flicked up to register what was going on beyond them. "Oh damn" she stated "blonde alert"
Rogue just sighed as Bobby glanced behind them, aside from Jubilees blonde remark, she could see Harry's eyes hardening as he watched Draco Malfoy approach. Aside from having heard pretty much every tale concerning Draco since he'd arrived at Hogwarts, and his fierce distaste for Harry she'd also noticed that Harry closed down when Draco was around him.
Emerald green eyes dulling as they hardened, and voice lowering a pitch or two he spoke in a tone of false cheer "Good Morning Ferret, what brings you to the Gryffindor table today?"
The candles through out the hall began to flicker, subtly but simultaneous even as the air grew stiller.
No one noticed.
In a voice that practically screamed a seething intensity Draco replied "Nothing much Potter" Straining Harry's last name "Just heard the pretty mutant exclaiming her delight at the match yesterday". Almost painfully he pushed Rogue aside to lean across the table and stare down at Jubilee "If you thought he was good, wait until you see the Slytherin Team in action, then there will be something to see…"
Flickering in unison the candles were beginning to cast unsteady shadows across the hall, as they bent and experienced miniature flares.
And still no one noticed
"…Of course if you really want something to see I'd be glad to give a…private…demonstration" smirking suggestively while he put a great deal of emphasis on 'private'.
Jubilee leaned closer to Draco from her side of the table with a suggestive smile echoing his that slipped upon her lips. Anyone else would probably have said it was provocative, but Rogue knew her better then that. "And I" Jubilee whispered in a husky tone "Would be glad to give you" Now tracing a small figure eight pattern on the back of his hand. "A…"
Draco's eyes were lighting up with the prospect of whatever Jubilee was to say, she brought him in close enough to whisper in his ear.
A whisper that was loud enough for everyone in the immediate area to hear. Jerking back he looked enraged, his eyes screaming out while his face remained carefully composed.
While Draco Malfoy prepared himself to respond, Students throughout the hall finally noticed the candles as their flames flared three or four feet tall and bent as a whole to horizontally face the entrance to the Great Hall.
With silence descending upon the occupants of the hall, an uneasy feeling spread through Rogue as moments ticked by until a good three or so minutes had passed and whispers and murmurs had begun to break out through the hall.
Draco had disappeared back to the Slytherin table and people were beginning to shrug off the candles odd behaviour until they once more exploded in unison and a tidal wave of flame roared through the hall to engulf the halls entrance.
And then with all attention directed towards the inferno that was the entrance to the Great Hall a shadowy figure emerged from the flames, unscathed by the bone charring heat he casually waved towards the teacher's table as the flames crawled away to rejoin the candles that had once held them.
In his wake a teenage girl was revealed, thin, she was maybe five-'ten or five-'eleven, luscious black hair cascaded past her shoulders, highlighting her pale face. Black knee high leathers decorated her feet while fishnet and more leather covered the rest of her.
Rogue was rather taken back by the boldness of what the girl wore, but more then that she was taken back by the figure in front of the girl. In his casual clothes and short un-brushed ashy brown hair, just seeing him again was a delight like she couldn't express; after all it had been nearly eight months since he had vanished with the brotherhood.
She was shocked to say the least, but before she knew it, she was swept up in his arms for a tight and very appreciated hug as he squeezed between her and Bobby.
"John… its good to see you again" Bobby exclaimed with a wide grin claiming his face, which was quickly echoed by Johns. With his entrance made the hall was rapidly returning to a semblance of normality, though more then a few eyes constantly turned towards the new mutant. Including those of the Wolverine.
"You couldn't help the big entrance could you?" Bobby quizzed
"Nope" he replied happily as he drew up some toast "Man I'm hungry" he exclaimed. Glancing back at the girl behind him, John looked at the tightly squeezed group of Gryffindors and yelled out "Hey! Would you mind making some room?"
And as if in a trance more then half of the Gryffindors shoved down to make room for the girl to sit beside him. "She's a little shy," John stated as he casually slipped his arm through the mystery girls as he settled down to eat, the smile he flashed the girl, and her half-hearted scolding look back showed he obviously thought he was being funny.
It also showed her pain and fear, the girl beside Rogue had a fine tremor in her hands which seemed to be easing with Johns touch, but her eyes were barely masking something else, something Rogue couldn't quite decipher.
As John settled into his meal, Rogue couldn't help but also become aware of the tension in him, as if at any moment all out war would break loose. Knowing him better she was also able to see past the arrogant, nonchalant façade that he was projecting. He was grieving.
"Oh…" Looking up from his food as if he'd just remembered something he looked at Bobby and Rogue and said "The names just Pyro now" And with those final words she felt a final shiver creep down her spine, as if some part of fate or destiny had just been sealed.
Pyro winced as he slumped to the ground with his breakfast; the resident Mutants of Hogwarts had brought him out to sit by the Lake to finish his meal. He kind of had brought on the attention of the masses with his 'little' stunt.
Stretching back he winced again as he pulled on the rapidly forming scar tissue that centred around his torso. Pushing Magneto out of the way seemed like a good idea at the time, he thought to himself.
He hoped Magneto was in one piece; the battle had still been raging around them when he passed out
Trying to keep his breathing slow and steady let Pyro appreciate the breeze and the way it was playing along his skin and ruffling his shirt, a shirt that was in dire need of changing as it was coated in dried blood.
Blood that became hideously obvious to his two old friends when he carefully shrugged off his jacket. He was kind of surprised to see that there was barely a whole in the shirt itself, just a small slit where the blade had punched through.
"Oh God…" Rogue gasped, "John what happened…" He didn't bother to correct her on the name; she'd eventually get use to the fact that John was dead and Pyro was all that remained.
"The Brotherhood was attacked" he said simply, sooner or later they'd get to asking why he left with Magneto to begin with, but at the moment Bobby and Rogue seemed more concerned with his immediate condition
"Apparently" he began with no traces of humour "Xavier's decision to bring his" almost a seething tone now "school to Hogwarts has dragged the entire mutant world into their damn war, as if we didn't have our own to fight"
"It's not like that John" Rogue said, "Professor Dumbledore invited us here, and this school is a sanctuary for mutants, we're safe here"
He'd never really noticed how strong her coy little accent could be, or how annoying. He was about to retort with a scathing reply but was saved the trouble.
"His name" Came the low husky, and pissed off, voice of Sync "Is Pyro, John is dead" a little more bluntly then he would have put it, but effective nonetheless. Even more so in drawing all eyes to her.
"And this…Sanctuary" Sneering at the term "Is pointless, a select few, sit here fawned upon and sheltered while thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of others are being hunted and slaughtered" With every word she spoke Pyro could see the other two mutants drawing back slightly, as her words impacted as if they were punches.
The light was also growing dimmer as she vented. Pyro couldn't help but think just what a good name she had chosen for herself. Sync. For that was exactly what she was. Life, emotion, light, power everything was just drawn into her, or neutralized around her, he wasn't entirely sure how her gifts worked, but when she chose to be she was…formidable…to say the least.
Reaching out a hand to calm her he got a nasty shock, it felt like Rogues gifts, only intensified a thousand times. The instant she realised what she was doing to him it ceased, leaving him feeling clammy and shivering, the area around the four mutants also sprung back into life, the unnatural stillness that had taken the grass was lifted and light sprung back into the air.
Slipping down beside him she wrapped her arms around him to try and quell his shaking. Until they'd woken in the hospital wing they had barely spoken two words to each other since they had become members of the Brotherhood, but it seemed as if being the only two members of the brotherhood who hadn't been able to leave the slaughter grounds under their own power had helped them to bond.
"Maybe we should have waited for the old bat to clear me before leaving the hospital?" Pyro suggested, trying to inconspicuously clutch the scar tissue that had just torn and was leaking over his already blood stained t-shirt…
Pyro woke up back in the Hospital Wing a few hours later, a slight groan attracting the witches attention he was soon sputtering as she forced a half dozen concoctions down his throat.
"If you had only stayed put this morning young man you would not be here now" The plump witch stated, more to herself then him.
"Sorry" he muttered without much enthusiasm, of course he was pleasantly surprised to find the process that had been magically induced the day before was now complete. There was a faint white line across his stomach, but aside from that there was no indication that he had recently been impaled.
She was still attempting to force more potions onto him a half hour later; she had almost pushed him to the point where he going to summon fire from the torches that lined the walls. The flames were actually beginning to twirl in odd patterns until another force nullified them.
"I think he's had enough for the moment Madam Pomfrey" Pyro was more then a little glad to see Sync step forth from the shadows in all her menacing attitude, he had a vague thought that she looked like some kind of a dark goddess, clad in Punk Goth attire with the light retreating from her as she moved to his side.
The witch, Madam Pomfrey he thought Sync had said, seemed to get the idea and backed away.
"Reckon I'm cleared to leave now?" he asked in a sarcastic tone. Sync just smiled at him and pushed his top up enough to reveal the smooth slightly marred skin where a gaping wound had recently been. He shivered slightly as her fish net-gloved hand traced his non-existent injury.
"I'd say you're good to go" And with that she yanked him to his feet and for the second time escorted him from the Hospital Wing.
The wizard smashed back against the cold stonewall of the dungeons, his nose bleeding freely as he struggled back to his feet. Grim and sweat stained his face, and the robes trailing down his legs were savagely torn, revealing a nasty cut that ran half way down his thigh.
Smiling viciously he slammed a protego-inflicted shield before him, which made an almost fleshy sound as a half dozen spells battered against it.
Jet black hair plastered to his face the wizard screamed a spell in reply as he dodged the shattered remains of his shield, grunting as his battered and bruised body impacted with the stone floors he rolled to his feet to take shelter behind the wreckage of a desk.
Barely pausing for a moment he was on the move again, an array of spells issuing forth from his wand to force the enemy to move. Wincing with every casual movement the dark haired wizard slipped on the dampened floor and struck it hard, it was an accident that was going to cost him dearly as he almost let loose a pained scream when a spell of some variety skidded across his back, slashing deeply, he could feel the new wound bleeding and was thankful for the small mercies, the quick bleeding meant it only felt deep, but was actually a shallow cut.
Rolling out of the path of a foot that slammed into the ground where his chest has been he viciously swiped his wand in a manor that sent a desk hurtling into the assaulting wizard.
The desk shattered on impact and sent the second wizard careening back, in the space of a heart beat he moved across the room knowing his stunt had barely stunned his attacker, with one final and desperate strike he managed to send the enemies wand into the wall and jam his own into the death eaters throat.
The young wizards blazing green eyes stared down into the cold black ones of the "death eater" he had just defeated. Severus Snape… The wizard smiled down at him before offering a hand to help him up.
Sooner or later Harry Potter knew he would have to face Lord Voldemort and either die… or kill him. He didn't intend to die. Summoning Snapes wand back to the Professor, Harry strode/limped across the room and prepared to duel once more…
AUTHORS NOTE: Again I'm really sorry for how long this has taken, but I'm on holidays and should have regular updates now. And also sorry for the way the chapter is, I know its pretty bad, and for people who want more of the Wizard side of things I'll try and get to that. Also not a lot occurred in this chapter, just really bringing in a few characters to up the tension in the school.
Criticism and Comments are always appreciated.
Oh and finally thank you to
Ruffyan
Addictedxtoxfanfics
Slash-a-holic
DKorley
Cinammon – One of my personal favourite writers who I highly recommend people should check out.
ME
Annikaya
Skydragon5290
Sam
ScruffyWes
Some guy
And everyone else who has reviewed by fan fiction.