A/N - Hello everyone. I'm back with chapter 33 of this story. Hard to believe we're actually closing in on the end of it as there are only 3 more chapters after this one. I've never published a long story on such a regular schedule and actually managed to keep to that schedule. That's amazing to me but I'm glad I'm able to do it for once. Thanks to everyone who left comments.

Royslady51 - I'm sure Harry knows that but if you take into account how insecure he is about having friends he probably didn't say anything because he wouldn't want to potentially alienate someone he was meeting for the first time. By the time he would have been comfortable enough to mention it to Bobby he would have been in America long enough to know about how Bobby is a shortening of Robert in the U.S.

Thank you TashaLee2476 for becoming the 750th person to follow this story.

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 Speech"

"Telepathy"

33) DEBRIEFING AND ENCOUNTERS

"That was – quite something" said Professor Dumbledore, "I don't know exactly what it was, but it was something. It's been a while since I've been in battle and I've never been in one quite like this one."

"I feel invigorated" said Flitwick, "that was the best set of duels I've had in years!"

"Speak for yourself" growled Moody.

"Headmaster" said Lightning, "would you please punish that Malfoy kid? He had the bright idea to try to take on Magneto by himself."

"I saw that" said Dumbledore, "and I will give him a long lasting detention plus, I think, take at least 75 points from Slytherin for sheer stupidity."

"Make it 100 Albus" said Flitwick, "by endangering himself in that way he also could have made it much harder for the rest of us to fight because we would have been worrying about him. I'm glad Lightning got him out of there before he got hurt. Oh, and make sure Severus isn't able to just restore the points for some silly thing like answering one question right in class."

"I doubt he will" said Dumbledore, "Severus hates stupidity just as much as the rest of us, if not more. I wouldn't be surprised to find that he also punishes Mr. Malfoy for what he did. He didn't look pleased when he met young Malfoy at the castle doors."

'Finally someone punishes Malfoy' thought Lightning to himself, 'it's too bad things had to get so extreme first.'

"Filius" said Dumbledore to Flitwick, "would you please go notify the school that the danger has passed? Alastor, Sirius, will you go with him?"

"Yes Albus" said Flitwick before turning and heading towards the entrance to the castle. The other two wizards nodded at Dumbledore and followed the charms professor. Dumbledore turned to the X-Men.

"I really want to thank you all for helping us today" said Dumbledore, "but not here. If you would all please come with me to my office? We can talk properly there."

"All right headmaster" said Cyclops, "we have time. The X-Jet won't be here for some hours yet."

"Thank you" said Dumbledore and he led them back inside Hogwarts. They followed him across the entrance hall which was now empty as all of the students were still in the Great Hall, up the grand staircase and then higher up the main stairs and down several halls. As they walked Lightning looked around at the school as if still not quite sure he was really back.

"Are those paintings moving?" Marvel Girl asked him as they passed some portraits which were turning to look at them. Some of the figures in the paintings moved between frames to follow them as they walked.

"Yes" said Lightning, "the portraits often visit each other. Also they can talk to you."

"Fascinating" said Beast, "I wonder how it's done – Lightning I can see that you want to say 'magic.' Don't."

"Darn" said Lightning with a grin.

Eventually they reached the gargoyle that guarded the headmaster's office. Dumbledore gave the password ("Chocolate Frogs") and when the gargoyle jumped aside to let them through he led them up the moving spiral stairway to his office door.

"Enter" Dumbledore said opening the door and ushering the X-Men inside. Once they were all in the office Dumbledore conjured enough comfortable chairs for everyone to use before sitting behind his desk. Before sitting down Lightning looked over and saw Fawkes on his stand.

"Hello Fawkes" he said going over to the phoenix and stroking his feathers, "it's good to see you again." Fawkes trilled a few notes and leaned in to his touch.

"What a beautiful bird" said Beast, "I've never seen anything like it. What is it?"

"Fawkes is a phoenix" said Dumbledore with a smile. Beast's eyebrows went up.

"Really?" he said, "a real phoenix? Incredible."

"They are rather wonderful" said Dumbledore.

"That they are" said Lightning, "Fawkes is the one who saved my life from the basilisk on the night my powers woke up."

"Well done Fawkes" said Cyclops. Fawkes trilled a few notes in a reply that everyone sensed was a thank you.

"Why don't you all sit down?" said Dumbledore, The X-Men all moved to sit down. Before moving Lightning held up his right arm to Fawkes.

"Want to join us?" he asked the phoenix. He wasn't sure why he asked that as Fawkes was already in the room with them but for some reason it seemed like a good idea. Fawkes seemed to think so too because he stepped onto Lightning's arm and from there moved to his right shoulder. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled a little more than usual at this but he said nothing. When Lightning sat down Marvel Girl sat down on his right. Fawkes turned and looked straight at Marvel Girl who turned and looked at him. Marvel Girl's eyes opened wider than usual as her vision suddenly filled with an image of an enormous firebird that seemed to take up the whole universe.

"Is everything all right my dear?" asked Dumbledore breaking Marvel Girl's trance.

"I - I'm fine" said Marvel Girl as she shook her head to recover herself, "just not sure what came over me for a second." Fawkes sang a few notes which seemed to calm her down again and everyone relaxed into their seats. Dumbledore took out his wand and waved it.

"There" he said, "that will give us complete privacy. Not even the portraits will be able to hear what we say or read our lips. I thought it would be better if we talked here so as to avoid risk of slip ups. Harry reminded me earlier – quite correctly I might add – not to use your given names when you're in the field. Sirius of course knows better and Alastor will keep your secret too. Other than Professor Lupin I'm the only other one regularly at Hogwarts who knows who you all are so at least this way we can speak freely. Not that I have anything of a really Earth shattering nature to say but I thought you might prefer it this way."

"Thank you headmaster" said Cyclops, "what did you want to tell us?"

"Well Mr. Summers" said Dumbledore, "first I want to thank you all again for coming to help us here today. I know that Scotland is not exactly your usual, how do muggles put it? Ah yes, your usual 'stomping grounds.'"

"We'll go just about anywhere if it means stopping Magneto" said Angel.

"My biggest concern now" said Dumbledore, "is will he and his Brotherhood come back and try again?"

"That's always a possibility" said Beast, "on the other hand now that Magneto knows you can contact us he may think twice."

"Plus you, Flitwick, Sirius, and Moody weren't exactly pushovers out there today" said Lightning, "and if he knows about Hogwarts and magic in general then he has to know that you can contact others besides us to come help you."

"True" said Dumbledore without mentioning the failure of the aurors against Magneto earlier that day, "I just wish I knew why he wanted Hogwarts and its students. Charles, would you have any ideas?" To the surprise of absolutely no one in the room Professor Xavier's voice sounded in all of their heads.

"I might have a theory" he said as he mentally joined the conversation, "we all know that Magneto views mutants as being superior to normal humans dubbing us as 'homo superior.' If he knows about magic and it's clear that he does, including the fact that Lightning has magic, it's possible that he views witches and wizards as a fellow community of super powered people he can use, especially if he finds more magicals who are also mutants. He may, or may not, also think magicals are mutants of a very specific type. A school of developing magic users would be a very tempting target."

"But why would he choose Hogwarts?" asked Lightning, "why not Ilvermorny? Or the Salem Academy? They're much closer to home."

"They are" said Xavier, "but Ilvermorny and the Salem Academy have strong ties to the muggle world. They require muggle subjects and they routinely send students to non-magical universities after they graduate. Those schools know far more about the muggle world than Hogwarts does – no disrespect meant Albus."

"None taken" said Dumbledore, "and I see your point although the same can be said to a lesser extent about the other European schools. The fact remains that due to our self-imposed isolation from the muggle world the aurors have had no experience dealing with people like the Brotherhood. They probably had never even heard of them. Today it showed. That would not be true of the American schools. With their connections to the muggle world if Magneto tried to seize one of them word would get out much faster than here and it would only be a matter of time before you X-Men heard about it and went to the rescue, or the Avengers did, or the Fantastic Four. In fact he probably thinks that Lightning is a student at one of those school – which he is – and would be able to contact his teammates almost at once. He probably knows how much more secretive and isolated the European magical world is and that he wouldn't have to worry about interference from you here. You saw how surprised Magneto was when I dropped the shield and he saw you rushing at him? He really didn't expect to see you and normally he would have been right. It's pure luck, Charles, that Harry left Hogwarts to go to your school and join the X-Men that made it possible for me to even think of calling you for help.

"I think" said Xavier, "that knowing how separate magicals usually are from non-magicals, especially in Europe, Magneto may think that magicals view themselves as superior to regular humans just as he does."

"God knows many of the purebloods in this country do" said Lightning.

"Indeed" said Xavier.

"In that case why not offer an alliance?" asked Marvel Girl.

"Because Magneto is the sort of person who believes that he, and he alone, should be in charge" said Xavier, "he'll accept allies but he much prefers subordinates."

"He's a lot like Voldemort in that respect" said Dumbledore.

"Except that Magneto doesn't kill people as often or as indiscriminately as Voldemort does" said Xavier.

"He's tried to kill us more than once" said Iceman.

"Yes" said Angel, "but we were trying to stop him. When Lightning and I were being held prisoner by him up on Asteroid M he tortured us but he didn't kill us, and he could have done that quite easily.

"You got that right" said Lightning, "on the other hand, from what I know about Voldemort, he kills people for fun."

"They seem to have similar aims though" said Beast, "might they team up in the future?"

"Now that's a scary thought" said Iceman.

"I highly doubt it" said Xavier, "they're too similar. They wouldn't be able to work together for very long."

"I agree" said Dumbledore, "they're both very powerful and they both want to be the one in charge but Voldemort would look down on Magneto because he's not magical. Magneto would never stand for that and would strike back. It would be a miracle if they could cooperate with each other for even a day – which is fortunate for us."

"At least it's over for now" said Angel.

"Yes Mr. Worthington, it is" said Dumbledore, "and I will definitely be shoring up the defenses of this school in case he, or anyone else, tries to attack it again. In the meantime, as a token of our thanks I hope that you'll all be willing to join us for dinner tonight. At the very least we can feed you a good meal after that battle. I'm sure the rest of the school would like to show you their appreciation too and a feast seems to be in order. You have a lot of fans among the students. Not only that but the DMLE will have to be informed that the crisis is over and Hogwarts is safe. I wouldn't be surprised if Minister Fudge himself comes here to meet you."

"Are you sure we should stay?" asked Cyclops, "Harry has told us about how the British wizarding world tries to stay as secret as possible from outsiders and not only doesn't welcome non-magical visitors but actively works to keep them out."

"As a rule that's true" said Dumbledore, "but you're forgetting something very important that will make all the difference. You just fought to defend Hogwarts from an outside threat. You saved a school full of magical children. If there's one thing that the British wizarding world does agree on it's that our children are very precious. The light, neutral, and dark families all think the same on this and there are children here at Hogwarts from all of those families. Believe me when I say that it won't matter that you're outsiders and, except for Harry, not magical. You saved a large number of magical children. That will trump everything. Even someone like Lucius Malfoy will want to shake your hands because of what you did here today. And if that isn't enough I'm sure there are those who will consider your mutant powers to be enough like magic, in appearance at least, that they'll be less likely to protest your being here."

The X-Men looked at each other as if not sure what to say. Finally Lightning spoke up.

"The food is good" he said, "Hogwarts feasts are not to be missed, and it's been ten months since I've been to one. I can live with the extra shmooze session, even shaking Lucius Malfoy's hand (which are not words I ever thought I'd say or something I ever thought I'd do) if it means staying for the feast."

"Thank you Harry" said Dumbledore, "if you stay I'll tell the kitchen to serve an extra top notch meal tonight."

"If you want to stay" said Cyclops to Lightning, "we can stay. Does anyone object?" The other X-Men all shook their heads.

"Excellent" said Dumbledore, "until then please do enjoy our hospitality, oh and Harry, Charles just told me that he thinks it's okay for you to tell Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger where you've been and what you've been doing since you left Hogwarts at the end of last year. I think that's a splendid idea. They've missed you and I know you've missed them. I think they'll be glad to see you again."

"As will I" said Lightning as the X-Men all got to their feet. Fawkes left Lightning's shoulder and flew back to his perch.

"It's a very nice day out there now" said Dumbledore, "why don't you show your teammates the grounds? I'm sure they'd be glad to see it without the threat of another attack to mar the view. Oh, and Charles, thank you for your help and your insights."

"You're welcome" said Xavier who then disappeared from everyone's minds.

The X-Men left Dumbledore's office and started walking through the halls of Hogwarts as they made their way towards the entrance hall. As they walked all of Lightning's teammates noticed him looking around at everything.

"How does it feel to be back?" Beast finally asked him, "even if only briefly and under such unpleasant circumstances?"

"It's weird" said Lightning, "it's only been ten months since I was last here but it feels as if my time here belonged to a different life, a different person even."

"You are a different person than when we first met" said Cyclops, "we all are but you in particular have grown a lot and I don't just mean physically."

"Thank you" said Lightning.

"Would you come back here?" asked Marvel Girl. Lightning thought about that before answering."

"Too much has happened since I left" he finally said "I don't feel like I belong here anymore even though I'm the owner of the place. I would also feel weird attending a school that I personally own."

"Where do you feel you belong?" asked Angel. Lightning grinned.

"Well isn't that a silly question?" he chuckled a bit, "you all know the answer to that." Lightning stopped and faced the other X-Men.

"You've all been the best teammates and friends I could ever ask for" he said, "and you're not getting rid of me any time soon."

"Good" said Cyclops, "I feel the same way."

"So do I" said Beast as the others also nodded.

"Group hug!" called Iceman and they actually did do a group hug.

"Well isn't this sweet" came a sneering voice interrupting the hug. The X-Men broke apart and turned to see Malfoy standing there blocking the hallway with Crabbe and Goyle on either side of him.

"Oh it's you" muttered Lightning, "what do you want Mr. Malfoy?"

"How do you know my name?" hissed Malfoy. Lightning rolled his eyes before sending Marvel Girl a thought.

"That's Draco Malfoy" sent Lightning, "you remember I told you about him? His henchman are Crabbe and Goyle. Please let me handle this."

"Got it" replied Marvel Girl before passing the message to the others. Cyclops gave a brief nod as Lightning answered Malfoy.

"You told me your name. Remember?" he said, "you said you were, what was it? Oh yes: 'a scion of the great pureblood house of Malfoy!' Right? Were you looking for us?" Malfoy looked like he wanted to snap back at Lightning but with an effort he restrained himself before answering.

"Yes" he said, "one of the professors said you'd gone to the headmaster's office."

"We did" said Lightning, "what can we do for you?"

"You impressed me today" said Malfoy to Lightning "even if I didn't need your help – "

"Which you did" interrupted Lightning. Malfoy took a deep breath.

"You did me a good turn" said Malfoy, "and to pay you back for that help I've decided to allow you to become my personal servant." There was a long pause as all of the X-Men looked at Malfoy in something like disbelief.

"You're joking, right?" Lightning finally said.

"I'm not" said Malfoy, "you should feel honored by my offer."

Lightning laughed. He couldn't help it. Looking at his teammates he saw that they were all trying not to laugh themselves albeit not very successfully. After a few seconds Lightning calmed down.

"Pull the other one" he said to Malfoy, "if that's your idea of a reward I'd hate to see what you think a punishment is. Thank you, but no. Thanks for the laugh though, I needed it." Malfoy turned very red.

"You'll pay for that!" he said, "when my father hears about this he'll – "

"– do nothing" said Lightning, "we're not British – well technically I am but I don't live here anymore. And is that really all you can say? 'You turned me down so I'm running to tell daddy.' What are you, five? Grow up kid. The world doesn't revolve around you."

"Don't call me kid!" Malfoy snarled. He pulled out his wand but before he could even begin to cast a spell it was telekinetically yanked out of his hand and flew over to Lightning who caught it.

"That was another very stupid thing you just tried to do" Lightning said, his voice getting distinctly cooler, "and I'd advise your shadows not to follow your example."

"It's not smart to attack someone you've only just met" said Beast, "especially when you don't know what they're capable of."

"You shouldn't be surprised" said Lightning to Beast, "he did try to take on Magneto."

"We noticed" said Cyclops to Lightning, "good job getting him out of there."

"No problem" said Lightning twirling Malfoy's wand.

"Give me that!" Malfoy yelled and tried to go grab his wand but he was telekinetically stopped by Marvel Girl and held in place.

"Thanks" Lightning said to Marvel Girl.

"You're welcome" was the reply.

"What are you doing?" said Malfoy, "let me go!" Lightning ignored him and handed Malfoy's wand to Cyclops.

"Why don't you hold onto that for now?" he said to his leader, "let's give it to one of the teachers and let them decide when he can have it back."

"Fine" said Cyclops.

"Speaking of teachers" said Beast who was looking down the hall past Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle "two of this academic institution's fine purveyors of knowledge are striding towards us even as I speak." Lightning looked up and saw both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape walking towards them.

"What's going on here?" asked a stern Professor McGonagall observing the scene.

Cyclops explained what had happened. Both professors were displeased by what they heard. Snape, in particular, looked angry.

"Mr. Malfoy" said McGonagall, "is all of this true?" Malfoy didn't say anything but looked defiantly at her.

"I see" said McGonagall, "well for trying to attack the people who saved this castle I think – "

"No Minerva" said Snape forcefully, "I'll handle this."

"Severus?" McGonagall said to him.

"Why don't you hold onto his wand until we decide he can have it back?" said Snape, "meanwhile I'll deal with Draco." McGonagall looked like she was going to protest but Snape cut her off. "Don't worry Minerva. This is the second stupid thing he's done today which could easily have led to him being injured. He may be my godson but it won't help him this time. I'll see to it that he's properly disciplined and it won't be a soft detention either."

"Very well" said McGonagall who held out her hand for Malfoy's wand which Cyclops handed to her.

"I'm going need that" said Malfoy, "how can I do my class work without it?"

"You should have thought of that first" said McGonagall, "however, if you behave yourself I'll see about letting you use it during class, but only then until I decide otherwise."

"My father will hear about this" said Malfoy.

"Here we go again" muttered Iceman while Lightning rolled his eyes. Snape both heard and saw this and turned to talk to the two youngest X-Men.

"His father won't help him" Snape said to Lightning and Iceman, "he doesn't like stupidity any more than I do."

"Good" said Iceman. Lightning just nodded. He was keeping a serious expression on his face but inside he was quite pleased to see Malfoy finally get called out – and by Snape of all people. But, Lightning reflected, if Snape knew that he was really Harry Potter under his mask he probably would have been a lot less harsh with Malfoy. He probably would have tried to blame Lightning for the whole thing and given points to Malfoy because that's what Snape always did with Harry. It didn't matter if Harry was completely blameless. Lightning shook his head a little and decided to just enjoy watching Malfoy finally get punished for his actions instead of getting mad over what had happened in the past.

"As for you two – " Snape began addressing Crabbe and Goyle but Lightning stopped him.

"They didn't do anything professor" Lightning said. He didn't like Crabbe and Goyle either but he tried to keep a fair mind and they hadn't actually helped Malfoy. "They just stood there, as backup I guess, but they didn't do anything to help him beyond that." Snape gave Lightning a sharp look before nodding.

"All right" he said turning back to Crabbe and Goyle, "you two are off the hook for now but next time I'd suggest you try to stop Malfoy before he does something like that again. Come along you." Snape took Malfoy by the arm and, after nodding to the X-Men, marched the young Slytherin away.

"I'm sorry you had to see that" said McGonagall to the X-Men.

"It's all right" said Angel, "it's not like we've never dealt with stupid people before."

"Even so" said McGonagall, "I still appreciate your restraint. Oh, and you two – " she turned to address Crabbe and Goyle who were still there, "– should probably go back to your common room." She then walked off leaving the X-Men with the two Slytherins.

"Um, why did you do that?" Crabbe asked Lightning.

"Do what?" asked Lightning.

"Get us out of trouble?" was the reply.

"Why shouldn't I?" said Lightning, "You two didn't do anything. Okay, you could have tried to stop your friend – but I noticed you didn't help him either."

"Your offense" said Beast, "if offense it was, did not rise nearly to the same level as that of your fellow student. Why should you be disciplined in the same manner that he is? If you feel the need to make amends for what happened here then just do your best to stop him from getting into a similar situation in the future."

Both Crabbe and Goyle took some time to think this over before finally deciding that Beast was right. They thanked the X-Men, shook hands with them, and left to go back to the Slytherin common room. Lightning waited until they were out of sight before he said anything.

"Am I a bad person because I enjoyed that?" he asked the others.

"No" said Cyclops, "you told us about Malfoy. It must have been nice to see him finally get punished."

"It was" said Lightning, "it was even nicer to take him down a peg or two myself, something I couldn't do when I was a student here since Snape always protected him. It's so strange to see him punishing Malfoy now, and neither of them know that they were dealing with – " he looked around to make sure no one else was nearby before he lowered his voice to almost a whisper " – Harry Potter."

"I don't blame you" said Angel, "talk about a spoiled brat! And I know about spoiled brats."

"You were never that bad" said Beast.

"Uh, yes I was for a while" said Angel, "you just didn't know me in those days. I like to think I've matured a bit since then."

"Well" said Cyclops, "hopefully Malfoy will mature someday too."

"I'm not holding my breath" said Lightning.

"Shall we get moving again?" said Marvel Girl, "I'd like to get back outside."

"Yeah" said Lightning, "and I still need to find Ron and Hermione." They started walking again. The other X-Men were glad Lightning was there to guide them because they all admitted that they would have easily gotten lost in Hogwarts without him.

"The school can be very confusing at first" said Lightning, "but you get used to it. At the beginning of my first year it took me a whole week before I was able to go from Gryffindor Tower to the Great Hall without getting lost at least once."

"I believe it" said Marvel Girl. Eventually they did make it back down to the entrance hall. As they were coming down the grand staircase to the first floor Lightning saw that there were a lot of students both milling about there and coming and going from the Great Hall now that it was safe. It didn't take very long before they noticed the X-Men arriving.

"Uh-oh" muttered Lightning.

"The horde doth await us" said Beast and indeed there were exclamations from many of the students who started to move towards them. Before the X-Men could be crowded Lightning raised a hand and released a lightning bolt up towards the ceiling of the entrance hall. That got the students' attention and they all stopped where they were.

"Thank you" said Cyclops, "we were happy to help you and we're glad you appreciate it but please don't rush us. If you want to say "hi" to any of us that would be fine but please don't crowd us." That seemed to do the trick as the students got themselves under control again but, just to be safe, Marvel Girl sent out a low level telepathic calming field which helped calm down the crowd even more.

Nevertheless it took quite a while before any of the X-Men made it out through the front doors of the castle. Almost all of the students who were present wanted to meet them, shake their hands, and thank them for coming to their aid. Lightning experienced a big sense of deja vu as the whole thing took him back to the first time he entered the Leaky Cauldron before first year when everyone there wanted to shake Harry Potter's hand. There were many people that he knew in the crowd even if they didn't recognize him because of his mask. He saw his fellow Gryffindor year mates Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown, some of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws such as Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Padma Patil (Parvati's twin sister), Michael Corner, Ernie MacMillan, Justin Finch Fletchley, and Sally-Anne Perks, and even a few Slytherins, particularly Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Theodore Nott, and Blaise Zabini. He wondered if these last ones would have been so eager to shake his hand if they knew who he really was. It was hard to believe that it had been ten whole months since he had last seen any of these people.

He also saw many others that he knew from other years. His Quidditch teammates were there: Fred and George Weasley, Oliver Wood, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and Alicia Spinnet. Ginny Weasley was also there and she was a real surprise because when she shook his hand she was very effusive, talking at 50 miles an hour. This was a very different Ginny from the one he remembered from second year who could barely say two words around him. According to Ron when he had visited the Burrow during the summer after first year, this was the normal Ginny, the one who, "never shuts up." Of course this time she didn't know she was talking to Harry Potter which probably made a difference. It seemed she had fully recovered from her ordeal with Tom Riddle's diary and the Chamber of Secrets.

And then, of course, there was Colin Creevey the camera obsessed student who was one year behind Harry when he was at Hogwarts. He was there all right trying to take pictures of the X-Men as fast as he could.

"I got some great shots of your fight" Colin said to them, "I hope they come out well!"

Through all of the meeting and greeting he didn't see Ron or Hermione. He wondered where they were and hoped that nothing had happened to them since he had last heard from them earlier that month.

After shaking what seemed like almost every hand in the school the X-Men made it back out through the front doors of the castle. Angel took a deep breath.

"Good to be outside again" he said.

"Yes" said Beast looking around, "it would seem that a few of the students have also decided to avail themselves of the opportunity to head beyond the exterior of this formidable edifice." It was true. Scattered here and there they saw a few students walking around or sitting on the grass or by a tree. Lightning turned his head looking at the familiar scene before finally, in the distance, spotting the pair he had been hoping to see.

"There they are" he said as he made out Ron and Hermione sitting over near the edge of the lake "I wondered where they'd got to." They weren't looking directly at Hogwarts but they were facing toward it enough that Lightning recognized them.

"Go" said Cyclops, "we have time and I know how much you want to see them." Lightning nodded his thanks to Cyclops, took a deep breath and walked down the front steps of the castle.

(To Be Continued)

A/N - That's it for this week. Next time Harry reunites with his friends. Please take a moment now to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always, thanks for reading and stay safe and well. Cheers!