A/N - Happy Sunday everyone. Since I've replied to most comments via PM this time I have little to say here regarding them. I will mention this which pertains more to this chapter than the previous one. Unfortunately I've never been the best fight writer and find extended fight scenes to be very difficult to write so this chapter isn't as good as I wanted it to be. It has its moments but on the whole it could be better. Having said that I hope you enjoy it anyway.
BTW I have decided on Harry's pairing and will be revealing who it is at the very end of part 1.
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.
"Normal dialogue"
"Telepathy"
32) MELEE OF MUTANTS AND MAGICALS
Dumbledore dropped the shield. The X-Men were ready. At the word of their leader they went charging toward Magneto and his Brotherhood, all of whom were very surprised to see them.
"Impossible!" exclaimed Magneto, "how are you X-Men here of all places?"
"What can we say?" said Angel, "We get around."
Both Cyclops and Lightning struck as soon as the shield fell getting in some early shots while the Brotherhood was off balance. Lightning's first strike hit Mastermind dead on and he dropped at once.
"One down" said Lightning with some satisfaction. He'd been wanting to beat Mastermind to a pulp ever since Asteroid M.
"Don't get cocky" said Beast, "there are plenty more of them."
"Oh I know" said Lightning with a grim smile, "but it's a start. Now it's clobberin' time!"
"Hey!" yelled Iceman, "don't steal the Thing's catchphrase!"
"What he doesn't know won't hurt him" shot back Lightning as he took to the air, "and I'm not stealing it, just borrowing it."
"Even if he did have knowledge of it" Beast called after him, "it still wouldn't cause him undue physical discomfort."
"I like them" Moody growled to Dumbledore as he prepared to fire a spell, "they know the value of surprise and they used it."
"Well they are experienced at this sort of thing" replied Dumbledore as he fired stunner after stunner at Quicksilver who managed to avoid each spell although not by much. It was a testament to how fast Dumbledore was that Quicksilver had to work as hard as he did to avoid the headmaster's spells. Then without warning a red beam caught Quicksilver from the other side and sent him flying and knocked him unconscious.
"Thanks for the distraction headmaster" said Cyclops coming up to Dumbledore, "it's hard to get a clear shot at Quicksilver at the best of times but thanks to you I was finally able to do it."
"Don't mention it my boy" said Dumbledore, "it was nothing." He brought up his wand to cast another spell on Quicksilver.
"Don't do anything too bad to him" said Cyclops, "he and his sister, the Scarlet Witch, aren't like the others. They're only with Magneto because they feel they owe him a debt as he saved their lives once. They've helped us a little in the past. It seems like they don't want to be in the Brotherhood and I don't think they really belong there but they won't leave until they think their debt is paid." Dumbledore's face became solemn.
"I see" he said, "life debts are a serious thing both in our world and in yours it seems. Very well." Dumbledore case a strong sleeping spell on Quicksilver.
"He won't wake up until after the battle is over" he said.
"Good" said Cyclops who dragged Quicksilver away from the middle of the fight. As he was doing this the Scarlet Witch spotted him and came running over.
"What did you do to my brother?" she called. Before she could reach him Iceman intercepted her.
"Where are you going?" he said as he blocked her path.
"Your leader hurt my brother" she said in reply, "I'll get him for that."
"You'll have to go through me first" said Iceman as he raised an ice wall blocking her way.
"That won't stop me" she said and threw her power at the wall causing it to crumble. Once she was through the wall she found that Iceman had created another wall behind the first one. She destroyed that one too and found a third one behind that.
"I could do this all day" said Iceman.
"Let me go to my brother!" said the Scarlet Witch as she struck down the third wall. Iceman was about to make a fourth wall when Cyclops came back and stopped him.
"Let her through" he said. He'd had enough time to get Quicksilver off of the immediate battlefield. Iceman nodded and stepped aside.
"What have you done to my brother?" the Scarlet Witch demanded.
"He's just unconscious" said Cyclops, "the headmaster put him into a deep sleep but he'll be fine. He's just over there. You should go look after him."
"If he's been hurt – "
"He hasn't been" said Cyclops, "at least not much, if at all. He might have a few aches for a while but that's all. You two really should get away from Magneto." For a moment the Scarlet Witch hesitated.
"I wish we could" was all she said before she went to look after her brother.
"Right" said Cyclops, "she probably won't give us any more trouble as long as we keep Magneto away from her and Quicksilver. Let's go help the others."
While the above was happening Toad had gotten it into his head to confront Beast.
"You intend to attempt to combat me?" said Beast, "I'll punch you into next week!"
"Magneto will beat you no matter what you try to do to me" said Toad.
"Magneto's not here" said Beast, "he's on the other side of the field."
"He'll be here" said Toad with confidence and he launched himself at Beast.
Beast did knock Toad into next week – or at least he sent him flying a good distance and the Toad came down hard on his back knocking the wind out of him. But Toad was right about one thing. When he landed he looked up and Magneto was standing over him.
"I knew you'd be here master" said Toad with a grin.
"Be quiet you fool" said Magneto who turned to face Beast.
"Toad may be a fool" he said to Beast, "but he's still one of mine and you shouldn't have hurt him."
"Then he shouldn't have attempted to engage me in a physical altercation" said Beast getting into a combat ready stance.
"No, he probably shouldn't have" agreed Magneto, "but it's the principle of the thing that matters." Magneto lashed out with pure magnetic power against Beast. There wasn't very much metal on the grounds of Hogwarts but that didn't stop Magneto. His power didn't only affect solid metal, it could work on metal in all states, including the iron in a person's blood.
Beast was no fool. He had a genius level intellect for a reason and he had a very good idea of what Magneto might be trying to do. He knew that if he was grabbed by Magneto's power that it would be very bad for him. He immediately began leaping and bouncing around the area as quickly as he could figuring that it would make it harder for Magneto to catch him. His enhanced senses didn't hurt either in helping him in this fight.
"Stand still, blast you!" Magneto yelled at him.
"No, thank you" said Beast making another leap, "your commonly cliched villainous demand notwithstanding, please forgive me that I do not attempt to accommodate your desires but it would be a lamentable occasion if the big cuddly Beast were struck down by your magnetic malevolence."
Despite his banter Beast knew that he couldn't avoid Magneto forever. He changed tactics and charged straight at Magneto. Before Magneto could hit him with his power he leaped up and over Magneto, striking him hard in the face as he went and throwing him to the ground. Beast landed and looked at his foe. Magneto wasn't moving.
'Is he really out?' Beast wondered but before he could investigate he saw Cyclops signaling to him from another part of the field. Giving one last glance at Magneto he went bounding over to join his leader. If he had looked back again a few seconds later he would have seen Magneto getting back up. He had only been pretending to be knocked out.
"Nice try" the master of magnetism muttered, "but I'm not beaten that easily."
In another part of the field Mastermind had recovered from Lightning's shock and now he was preparing to send some nasty illusions at the X-Men. Unfortunately for him he ran into Mad Eye Moody. As the old auror raised his wand Mastermind created an illusion of a stone wall to stop Moody and then was extremely surprised when Moody calmly walked right through it.
"Your fancy illusions don't work on me laddie" growled Moody as his magic eye spun to look at Mastermind.
"Oh really?" challenged Mastermind. He gestured and suddenly a dense cloud of impenetrable fog surrounded both him and Moody. Any onlooker would have been unable to see either of them.
"Stupefy" yelled Moody and Mastermind dropped to the ground again as the fog quickly vanished.
"Yes really" growled Moody. He looked at the unconscious Mastermind, gave a snort, muttered "amateur" in a low voice, turned away and began stomping off. He noticed Angel watching him from about ten feet up in the air.
"What are you looking at?" Moody barked at the young mutant who didn't look put out in the least.
"That was awesome" said Angel, "I've never seen anyone take down Mastermind so effectively."
"Well what can I say?" said Moody with a smirk as he began turning away – before suddenly spinning back around and yelling "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" up at Angel who moved back in surprise.
"That's my secret" Moody said, "if you want to survive to my age in this business you'll learn it." With that he stomped away leaving Angel staring after him.
"What a character" said Angel to himself before putting the incident out of his mind and heading back into the battle. He was soon engaged by one of the four new members of the Brotherhood that neither he nor any of his teammates knew. Angel didn't catch his name but he appeared to have super strength and the power of flight. He didn't have Angel's maneuverability though or maybe he hadn't been trained, and the X-Man literally flew rings around him before suddenly turning around and hitting him with an uppercut to the face that knocked him out of the air and knocked him unconscious when he hit the ground. It didn't kill him, fortunately, as Angel could see him breathing but he was down for the count.
"Very nice" said Lightning who flew up to Angel.
"He was a pushover" said Angel, "probably has no experience or training yet. Magneto must have just recruited him."
"Too bad we didn't find him first" said Lightning before pointing, "oh, look at Professor Flitwick."
Angel looked to where Lightning was pointing and his eyebrows went up. The diminutive charms professors was facing two of the other new members of the Brotherhood by himself – and winning. He was literally poetry in motion as he spun, dodged, fired spells and basically ran his opponents ragged, and he was smiling the whole time!
"He seems to be enjoying himself" said Angel.
"Professor Flitwick is an excellent and well known duelist" said Lightning, "I'm told that he was an international dueling champion several times over before becoming a professor."
"I believe it" said Angel, "if what we're seeing is any indication then he hasn't lost his touch."
"And he's such an easygoing guy" said Lightning before suddenly stiffening with attention. Marvel Girl was calling him.
"Lightning" she said, "would you please join me? I think I need your help." Lightning turned and spotted Marvel Girl not far away. She was facing Blob.
"Oh boy" said Lightning, "I'd better get down there. One thing Blob is not, is a pushover."
"You said it" said Angel. The two of them headed in opposite directions. Lightning flew over to Marvel Girl and landed next to her. Blob was looking at both of them with contempt.
"You really think you can take me?" he sneered, "Beast's hardest punches don't harm me at all. What can you do?" Lightning and Marvel Girl looked at each other.
"Do you think we can do this?" asked Lightning, "he prides himself on being immovable and we've seen it for ourselves. Neither of us could lift him the last time we faced him."
"By ourselves no" said Marvel Girl, "but together we might be able to do it."
"Worth a shot" said Lightning. They nodded their heads and turned back to Blob. They combined their telekinesis and after several seconds Blob began to move upward – but the ground moved up with him. He looked at them with a smug expression.
"Come on, come on" muttered Lightning as he and Marvel Girl continued to strain to lift Blob up, the ground still moving up with him although the area of ground that was moving up with him was shrinking. Seeing this the two X-Men redoubled their efforts but it still wasn't quite enough to detach Blob from the ground.
"You're wasting your time" said Blob, smirking at them. Neither teammate replied. Fortunately Sirius showed up just then.
"What's happening?" he yelled catching Lightning's attention.
"Sirius" he called, "do a levitation spell. Now!" Sirius aimed his wand at Blob.
"Wingardium Leviosa" said Sirius. The levitation spell combined with the power of two telekinetics finally did the trick. Blob came free of the ground and he shot up like a cork coming out of a champagne bottle as the two mutants' high levels of telekinesis and one wizard's spell lifted him high up into the air well above their heads much to his surprise.
"We did it" said Lightning concentrating hard to keep Blob up in the air.
"Yes" said Marvel Girl doing the same, "but he's so heavy. No wonder he's usually immovable."
"What are you doing?" Blob demanded, "put me down!"
"He wants us to put him down" said Lightning.
"Yes he does" said Marvel Girl, "let's do it."
"Gladly" said Lightning nodding at both her and Sirius. Both telekinesis and levitation charm were simultaneously stopped and Blob unceremoniously dropped to the ground. He hit the ground hard and was completely disoriented. Before he could recover he was lifted up a second time by the two X-Men and one wizard. This time it was much easier to lift him because he was distracted from making himself immovable again. They dropped him again, then lifted and dropped him again, and again, and again.
"It isn't really hurting him you know" said Marvel Girl who was breathing hard from the effort.
"I know" replied Lightning who wasn't much better, "but at least it'll knock him off balance for a bit."
"This guy must weigh several tons" put in Sirius straining with the effort of the charm, "how much does he eat?"
Sirius, Lightning, and Marvel Girl now used their combined powers to make Blob to turn over and over a few times before they finally released him and he fell back down again on his stomach. He was quite dazed but he began to push himself to his feet anyway. Marvel Girl motioned for Lightning and Sirius to step back.
"I've got this now" she said and she reached out with her telepathy and began attacking Blob's mind. Any outside observer would have thought she was just looking at Blob but after a few seconds he let out a cry of pain and collapsed to the ground unconscious.
"What did you do to him?" asked Sirius in surprise, still breathing hard.
"Mind blast" said Marvel Girl, "he's out of the fight now."
"Oh" said Sirius, "um, forgive me for asking but why didn't you just do that in the first place?" Lightning slapped his forehead with the palm of his right hand while Marvel Girl looked both a little embarrassed and defiant.
"I just wanted to wipe that smug, condescending expression off of his fat, bloated face" she shot back.
"Remind me again to never get on your bad side" said Sirius holding up his hands in a placating manner.
"I can't blame you for that" said Lightning to Marvel Girl, "but the professor will probably have a thing or two to say about it later."
"Probably" replied Marvel Girl, "I really don't care."
Sirius grinned at her and started to turn around before stopping abruptly.
"Oh no" he said.
"What?" asked Lightning. Both he and Marvel Girl looked over to where he was pointing. In the distance they saw a visibly angry Magneto and facing him was – Draco Malfoy?
"What the – ?" Lightning exclaimed when he saw Malfoy, "is he out of his mind?!"
"Probably" said Sirius, "we need to get over there. Magneto will kill him."
"I'll go" said Lightning, "I can get there the fastest." He'd managed to gain a second wind by now. He took off and flew over to where Magneto and Malfoy were facing off and wondered how on Earth Malfoy had come to be mixed up in the battle.
Some Minutes Earlier...
In the Great Hall almost the entire student body was watching the battle outside through the room's large windows. Ever since the Brotherhood had appeared at Hogwarts the students had been glued to the windows watching the action outside. When Dumbledore raised the Hogwarts shield the students had begun to drift away from the windows thinking the action was over but when the X-Men arrived they all realized it was just beginning and before long every student who could see out the windows in any way possible was watching the events outside.
"So they're the X-Men?" Neville asked Hermione from his place next to her at the window.
"Yes" said Hermione. She named each of them and pointed out who was who to Neville and the others who were nearby. On Hermione's other side Ron was watching the battle with rapt attention.
"That guy with the huge wings" he said pointing at Angel and then at Lightning, "and that other one who is also flying – those are the two you met during the holidays?"
"Yes" said Hermione, "it's different watching them in battle though. They really know what they're doing."
"Wicked" said Ron in admiration, "I wish I could fly like they do."
"Ooh" said Dean with a grimace as they all saw Beast punch Toad and send him flying, "I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that!"
"Yeah that's going to leave a mark" said Seamus, "whoa! Look at the headmaster go!"
"Wow!" said Hermione as they all saw Dumbledore take down one of the new members of the Brotherhood with a chain of spells that shot out of his wand so quickly that his wand arm was a blur, "he's fast!"
The student body was enthralled watching the battle happening outside the school and almost all of them were very impressed as they saw the X-Men battling their foes. Even most of the more hardcore purebloods were taken aback by the mutants and their powers.
The biggest exception, however, was Draco Malfoy. He watched the battle just like everyone else but unlike them he sneered the whole time. Draco had been brought up to believe that not only were pureblood wizards the best of all magicals but that they were also the best people on Earth, full stop. That muggles might be anything more than lowly trash still stuck in the middle ages was not something he'd ever considered. He really believed that because he had magic that he was better than the muggles. Watching the X-Men and the Brotherhood in action against each other was a huge challenge to his world view that he wasn't about to put up with and he said so quite loudly. Unfortunately for him no one was listening. In fact a lot of his fellow Slytherins were looking at him with increasing annoyance and eventually Marcus Flint told him in no uncertain terms to shut up and not talk about things he obviously didn't understand. That didn't go down well with Malfoy at all. For a few minutes he seethed in silence before deciding that he would show everyone just how superior a pureblood like him really was.
A short time later Crabbe turned to Goyle and asked what was possibly the first truly intelligent question anyone had ever heard him ask.
"Where's Draco?" he asked his fellow Slytherin. Goyle looked around and also noticed that Malfoy was gone before they both heard a shout from Daphne Greengrass a few places down from them.
"What is that idiot doing?" she yelled. Both Crabbe and Goyle looked back out the window and both of their mouths fell open at the sight of Malfoy striding across the lawn straight towards Magneto.
"Oh no" said Goyle.
"You said it" said Crabbe who then proceeded to ask his second intelligent question, "Gregory, aren't we supposed to be the stupid ones?"
It hadn't been hard for Malfoy to sneak out of the Great Hall and head out through the front doors of Hogwarts. The professors who were supposed to be watching the students were as captivated by the fight as their charges were. Even Snape was caught up in it although he watched events with his arms folded and his face in a sneer – in other words his default expression.
Once outside the castle Malfoy looked around the battlefield. For a brief moment he felt a twinge of doubt over what he was doing but he quickly pushed it away.
'No silly muggle can pose a threat to me' he thought to himself and he decided to prove his superiority by going after the leader of the invaders himself. He stepped off the front steps of the castle and headed straight for where he saw Magneto standing on the other side of the field. Magneto saw him coming and his eyebrows went up. He waited until Malfoy was right in front of him before he spoke.
"Who do we have here?" he said to Malfoy, "that dares to face Magneto?"
"I'll ask the questions muggle" snapped Malfoy.
"You're either badly informed" said Magneto, "or extremely foolish to talk to me like that. Considering you're a British wizarding child you're probably both."
"What's that supposed to mean muggle?" asked Malfoy.
"It means" said Magneto, "that you should expand your world view and realize that there's more to life than your shallow, narrow-minded, bigoted provincialism. The mere fact that you don't know who I or any of the other mutants here are just proves my words to be true. In light of your obvious youth and ignorance I will allow you to walk away. I have more important things to deal with right now than an important-in-his-own-mind egoistic child. Now shoo." Magneto made a shooing motion with his hand and began to turn away from Malfoy.
"Don't you turn away from me!" yelled Malfoy, "petrificus totalus!" The full body bind issued from Malfoy's wand straight at Magneto but it fell short when it hit his magnetic shield. Magneto turned back to Malfoy with an angry expression on his face.
"Insolent whelp" he hissed at Malfoy, "that was a very foolish thing you just did. So be it. If you want to try fighting with the adults than you'll be attacked like one." He lashed out at Malfoy with a huge blast of his power. But when Magneto looked again at his target he was gone. Looking up he saw Malfoy being flown away by the telekinetic power of Lightning who had arrived just in time to pluck Malfoy out of danger. Magneto let them go. Malfoy wasn't important anyway.
"What the –?" Malfoy said after he had been yanked away from Magneto and was now being carried through the air without any visible means of support.
"Don't worry, I've got you" said a voice above him and he looked up to see Lightning flying there.
"Where did you come from?" called Malfoy.
"Well" Lightning said with a grin, "when a man and a woman love each other very much or get really drunk – "
"Ha ha!" yelled Malfoy, "you're flying but you don't have a broom.
"Really?" said Lightning, "Fancy that. I didn't even notice."
"How are you doing that?" said Malfoy.
"It's easy if you know how." replied Lightning who now descended toward the front doors of Hogwarts Castle where he put Malfoy down and landed near him.
"Are you all right?" Lightning asked Malfoy, "Magneto didn't hurt you, did he?"
"As if he could" sneered Malfoy causing Lightning to frown.
"Why did you do that?" he asked Malfoy, "why didn't you stay with the other students? You'd have been safer that way."
"I don't have to explain myself to you" said Malfoy.
"Since I just pulled your metaphorical fat out of the fire" said Lightning, "I believe I'm entitled to an answer." He was trying to be nice because he knew Malfoy didn't know who he really was and probably wouldn't recognize his voice now that it was changing but it was getting harder with every second.
"You're not entitled to anything I don't feel like giving you " said Malfoy, "and you should be grateful I even deign to speak to you at all you filthy muggle." Lightning's mouth compressed into a thin line. He was out of patience.
"Insults now? Is that how you treat someone who helped you out?" said Lightning fully turning on Malfoy now, "what the hell were you thinking? Are you out of your mind trying to go up against Magneto by yourself? Do you have a death wish or something?"
"I was fine" said Malfoy somewhat taken aback at Lightning's vehemence, "I didn't need your help."
"Yes you did," shot back Lightning, "you're welcome by the way."
"I would have beaten him" snarled Malfoy.
"No, you wouldn't have" retorted Lightning, "you have no idea who and what you were messing with."
"I am a scion of the great pureblood house of Malfoy!" shouted Malfoy.
"Well that's just wonderful for you" said Lightning in exasperation as he really didn't have time for this, and with Malfoy of all people, "but it doesn't matter how pure or tainted your blood is if you're dead. And make no mistake, if I hadn't plucked you out of there when I did he almost certainly would have killed you. Now why don't you go back into the castle and let the professionals deal with this, okay kid?"
"Who are you calling a kid?" demanded Malfoy, "you look like you're the same age as me."
"Maybe I am" said Lightning, "but training and experience is what matters when dealing with people like Magneto and his Brotherhood. That's something I and my teammates have and you don't. Now go inside."
Malfoy stubbornly refused to move.
"I said" Lightning hissed, "go inside."
Malfoy crossed his arms and still refused to move, a mild smirk forming on his face. Lightning threw out his arm.
"NOW Mr. Malfoy!" he roared before sending a mini-lightning bolt towards Malfoy. It impacted the stone right in front of Malfoy's feet. Malfoy jumped back in alarm before looking with wide eyes at Lightning who was forming another bolt in his hand.
"The next one won't miss" said Lightning. That did it. Malfoy turned to run back into the castle before stopping abruptly. Lightning looked over in surprise to see Professor Snape standing in the open doorway and looking quite angry. He wondered when the professor had arrived and how much he had heard of what he and Malfoy said to each other.
"Get. Inside. Now!" Snape hissed at Malfoy who went running into the castle as if all of the demons of Hell were chasing him. Snape regarded Lightning for a moment in silence before nodding to him. Without another word Snape turned and swept back into the castle, his black robe billowing behind him. Lightning took a moment to wonder if perhaps Snape suspected who he was but quickly dismissed that as he realized that if Snape had known Lightning's true identity he would have behaved very differently.
"Bizarre" Lightning chuckled to himself as he took a moment to recover from his surprise, "I know it's wrong of me to feel this way but that was very satisfying." With that he took off again and headed back into the battle. He flew straight over the field back to where Magneto was.
"Magneto!" he called as he approached causing Magneto to look up, "would you really have killed that kid?"
"No" said Magneto, "and I never said I would either despite how things may have looked to you before you plucked him away."
"Ah I see" said Lightning as he landed in front of Magneto, "unfortunately your efforts would have been wasted with that particular one. He is one of the most arrogant, snobby, self-superior, egotistical – "
"You know him?" interrupted Magneto.
"I know his type" Lightning said, "after listening to him whine because I saved him from you it's clear that he's just another rich spoiled brat who thinks that the world owes him simply because – "
"Then why not let me punish him for his presumption?" Magneto interrupted him again.
"Why do we X-Men always save them?" asked Lightning, "you think it's a weakness on our part."
"Because it leaves you open to extra attacks" said Magneto.
"Maybe" said Lightning, "but we'll save them anyway. It's what we do. With all of your power why don't you do something like that? You could help a lot of people."
"I think we've had this conversation before" said Magneto, "and I don't have to justify myself to you. Now stand aside."
"Why?" said Lightning, "what do you want with this school anyway?"
"That's none of your business" said Magneto, "although I'm not surprised you'd be concerned seeing as how you have magic." Lightning did a double take.
"How do you figure that?" he asked Magneto.
"Please" said Magneto in a dismissive manner, "there's no other way you could have gotten out of your cell when I held you prisoner. The camera recording confirmed it. I know a charm when I see one. Which school do you go to? Ilvermorny or Salem?"
"To use your own words" said Lightning, "that's none of your business."
"You shouldn't give me attitude" said Magneto who took a step forward. Instinctively Lightning took a step back.
"You're afraid" said Magneto with a smirk.
"Of course I'm afraid" said Lightning, "how many times have we fought? And after what you did to me up on Asteroid M did you really think I wouldn't be at least a little afraid? It's not going to stop me."
"How noble" scoffed Magneto, "but perfectly useless."
"Not at all" said a new voice, "true courage isn't an absence of fear but the ability to overcome it. I would say young Lightning certainly has that." Both Lightning and Magneto turned to see that Professor Dumbledore had arrived.
"Thank you headmaster" said Lightning before turning back to Magneto, "if you want this school then I'm one of the people you're going to have to go through to get it." Dumbledore bent over to whisper in Lightning's ear.
"Harry, are you sure about this?" he said so that only Lightning heard him.
"Yes professor" said Lightning, "but I wouldn't say no to some support."
"Do what you must" said Dumbledore as he straightened up, "I will back you up."
"Thank you" said Lightning as he prepared to throw some lightning bolts.
"Give it your best shot child" said Magneto.
"If you insist" said Lightning who hurled two lightning bolts straight at Magneto who immediately raised a magnetic shield to block them. Unfortunately for Magneto lightning strikes can create magnetic fields of their own. The magnetization that the lightning produced when it hit Magneto's own magnetic shield caused them to repel each other. Lightning was standing further away so he didn't feel much. Magneto, however, was repelled quite violently in the other direction and he did not land on his feet.
"Whoa" said Lightning, "that was wicked. I'd better do it again!"
He hurled more lightning. This time Magneto didn't have a chance to raise a shield so the lightning struck the magnetic field that was part of his personal space. He was thrown back further this time.
"Well" said Dumbledore with his usual twinkle, "so much for lightning never striking the same place twice." Lightning rolled his eyes and gave a slight groan.
"Really headmaster?" he said but didn't wait for a response. Instead he pressed his advantage with another strike and Magneto was thrown back a third time but he landed on his feet now and he was mad.
"You'll pay for that!" he yelled. This time he opted to rush Lightning.
"Reducto!" bellowed Dumbledore and the spell hit Magneto full on hurling him back again. His shield was the only thing that prevented him from being blasted apart.
"Nice one headmaster" said Lightning.
"Thank you Harry" said Dumbledore.
"Um, please don't call me 'Harry' when I'm in uniform" said Lightning.
"My apologies Lightning" said Dumbledore, "it would appear that Mr. Magneto is recovering."
"Not for long" said Lightning as he prepared another bolt. Dumbledore stopped him.
"It's my turn now Lightning, please step away" he said with a grim and determined tone that Lightning had never heard the man use before. Lightning could actually feel power gathering around Dumbledore and took a few steps off to one side. Magneto was not impressed as he approached the headmaster.
"You think you can take me?" he snarled at Dumbledore, "you weren't very good at that earlier."
"Earlier you took us all somewhat by surprise" replied Dumbledore, "that's not the case now – Deprimo!" The ground exploded just in front of Magneto as a huge chunk of the earth was blasted up as the spell made a large hole in the ground. The ground that was blasted away slammed into Magneto's shield. His shield held but it took effort. Magneto soon responded with a magnetic blast and the two of them were at it like there was no tomorrow. Despite his own experiences in the field Lightning had never seen a fight like this as the two combatants traded blows. Magneto might only have one power but it was a very potent one and he knew how to use it very, very well. He didn't just have control over metals, he could control the very magnetic fields of the air and these he brought to bear against Dumbledore who took a page out of Lightning's book and sent a lightning bolt of his own to repel the field.
Dumbledore now cast another spell and three columns rose up out of the ground around Magneto and transformed into golems which attacked Magneto who struck back at them. He was physically strong too and he beat back the golems with several large punches and kicks. He struck back by trying to grab the buckles on Dumbledore's boots to pull the headmaster off of his feet but Dumbledore shielded against this just in time before saying "Depulso!" and banishing Magneto back a good number of yards to give himself a moment to plan his next attack.
The duel continued on like this for several minutes. Lightning could only watch in awe as the headmaster battled the master of magnetism to a virtual standstill. For sheer power they seemed to be evenly matched which, Lightning decided, was a very frightening thought. 'No wonder everyone says Dumbledore's the only wizard Voldemort's afraid of' Lightning thought not realizing that the same thought was running through the minds of all of the students and staff watching from the Great Hall. No one was making any comments on what they were seeing. They just stared. The only sound in the Great Hall was the click of Colin Creevey's camera as he took picture after picture of the battle.
"You are indeed very powerful" said Magneto, "if you were to join my Brotherhood think of all you could do alongside me."
"No" said Dumbledore, "you invaded my school – Confringo!" A fiery blast struck at Magneto's shield. Dumbledore was just getting started.
"You attacked and injured the aurors – Bombarda!" Magneto was showing strain of this attack but he wasn't down yet and he was gathering his strength for another attack even as he shielded himself from Dumbledore.
"You threatened my students!" yelled Dumbledore as he unleashed another spell. Lightning didn't know what it was but it was so powerful he could actually feel the energy of it in the air. At the same time Magneto sent out one of his most powerful magnetic blasts. The two attacks met in the middle and struck each other. There they stayed, spell and blast clashing against each other as the two combatants tried to gain the upper hand. Spells and magnetism are completely unrelated things but power knows power and the two powers were fighting against each other for dominance. For now, neither was winning. It was a stalemate.
"How long can you maintain your spell?" yelled Magneto as he kept pushing his attack, "you're much older than I am. Do you really think you can keep going long enough to tire me?"
"Maybe not" said Dumbledore, "but I don't have to. All I need to do is keep going long enough."
"What nonsense is this?" spouted Magneto, "long enough for what?" Before Dumbledore could reply a red beam shot past him and hit Magneto squarely in the chest. It took him completely by surprise and threw him back again, causing him to break off his attack.
"Just that" said Dumbledore with his usual twinkle as Cyclops ran up next to him and Lightning.
"Are you both all right?" the oldest X-Man asked the two of them.
"Certainly" said Dumbledore.
"I'm fine" said Lightning, "good shot."
"We've taken care of the others" said Cyclops as the other X-Men also arrived followed by Professor Flitwick and Sirius with Moody bringing up the rear, "and they're all retreating."
"Yeah but he's not leader man" said Iceman. And indeed Magneto was recovering, although a bit more slowly than before.
"X-Men look sharp" said Cyclops, "Lightning, Iceman, Marvel Girl, headmaster, let's all strike him together."
"Filius and I will shield you" said Moody, "Sirius, make sure nobody's coming back to sneak up on us."
Sirius nodded and started scanning the area for any lingering threats. Cyclops now unleashed his beams against Magneto, Lightning shot two more bolts, Marvel Girl began hurling large rocks with her telekinesis, Iceman sent ice spears, and Dumbledore fired a spell chain of more offensive spells. As soon as they had fired their volleys Moody and Flitwick created a combined Protego to shield them from any possible returning fire. Fortunately there was none. Magneto managed to shield himself from some of the attacks but not all of them and he was thrown back once again. This time as soon as he landed he used his power to take to the air.
"You haven't seen the last of me even now X-Men" he yelled as he began to fly away.
"We are aware of that knowledge!" Beast yelled after him as he left. Soon he was out of sight and the six X-Men and the four wizards relaxed.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - And that's that. Yes, Magneto did have a camera in Lightning's cell back in chapter 26 and he knows Lightning has magic. Next week we'll get into why Magneto might have gone after Hogwarts.
I was going to have four original Brotherhood members be detailed in this chapter but my imagination, for reasons best known to itself, completely blanked on me in that regard which was a disappointment for me, especially as some people were unable to shine as they should have (though I did enjoy Moody's take down of Mastermind). Hopefully someday I'll be able to fix that.
05/18/2021 - The last part of this chapter was revised to give Dumbledore a better role. He and Magneto just had to face off.
If you're a Draco Malfoy fan his problems are just starting I'm afraid. I should probably label this as a Malfoy bashing fic. except 1) he doesn't appear that much except for this last arc, and 2) He seems to get himself into these situations without any prompting from me. I must admit that his scenes are fun to write.
Please take a moment now to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please.
There are four chapters left in Part 1. That's all for now. See you all next week. Thanks for reading and, as always, stay safe and well. Cheers!
