A Third Path to the Future

by Vimesenthusiast

Rescued from the Negative Zone by the Fantastic Four, Harry Potter discovers he is a mutant and decides to take up the cause of equality between mutants and humans (among other causes). How will a dimensionally displaced Harry Potter, one who is extremely intelligent, proactive and not afraid to get his hands dirty effect the marvel universe? Pairings: Harry/Jean/Ororo/others pos.

8. Orders from on High we Were Told

I don't own marvel (oh my god that would be sweet, heh, you think you know retcon, you know nothing) or Harry Potter (heh again, die twinkly-eyes!)

Some reviews that jumped out at me:

Libri Ignis: yes, yes it is. I imagine that Harry will be barely established as a third power among mutantkind (not to mention a power in the world at large) before it dwarfs all of my other works. It's a little daunting honestly, but I will continue to write it as long as I continue to have fun doing so, and with the size of the Marvel universe I don't see it not being fun any time soon.

ThomasNealy: his creations for the FF were one shot items that he made on the fly, still great but not something that is meant to last through a full battle or work for a long time. He may go back at some point, but I think Reed can recreate the effects if he really tries.

Naidoga: not consciously, not for a long time anyway, sorry

MWRandom: I hope I caught them all this time.

TJG: I think you will like my Harry/Stephen discussion, tell me what you think.

Cj-cold: Kitty will be taking a step backward from frontline duty, but her ability with runes will continue to grow, making her very dangerous down the road. Harry will be practicing what he preaches eventually, not in the next chapter but in the chapters after that when he moves to separate himself from Xavier. You're not the only one who noticed that the X-men never included a 'normal' with the notable exception of Moira Mctaggert. I hope you'll like how I deal with the all new Jean going forward. Thank you, its nice to hear you like how I used Emma. Unfortunately she won't be in this chapter, for a reason I mention in my notes at the end of the chapter. Your point about how the larger countries would see his using the smaller countries for his business is well taken, and I have a plan for that going forward, but it will be a rocky road. Harry can't become a Gary-Stue that has everything go the right way for him, he will make mistakes because he is human and that's the end of it.

Orchamus: If you want to know about Emma and Jean's first meeting pm me and I will send you what I have. I would honestly like a second opinion on that part.

Randmoirunner14: No, she just kept taking language classes. I know several people who keep going back for more classes simply because they love to learn.

Plums: I will say it again, you are the man. Loved both of the latest chapters for your stories (hadn't read them before my last chapter). I tried to cut down on the number of long paragraphs and cut the number of times I have thoughts and speech in the same paragraph well down. I also think I cut down on the number of perspectives. Tell me if you think it flows better this way. Barton will not appear in this chapter, but he will redeem himself a little in the next one and will be back to his normal extremely capable self at that point. Mystique was venting yes, fanatics are normally not very good at debate, and despite her ability to think, she is a fanatic when it comes to mutant supremacy. Only one thing, or person really, can offset that fanaticism.

Narsil: I hope you like my part with Strange and where I expand on what Jean felt during the merger. Charles and harry won't have a deep discussion about that or about the future for a while, but Charles will admit he was wrong offstage. They won't fully bury the hatchet for a while, but they will remain acquaintances throughout my story. They want the same thing, but how they go about it (which Harry will talk about in the next chapter) will be different.

I want to thank all the reviewers who give me more than 'nice update faster' or 'you suck', real reviews are like marijuana to a fanfiction author, and they help me get better as a writer.

Oh, I am looking for a FF expert, I want to inject Harry into some of their adventures, but I know practically nothing about them after Franklin was born. Anyone who can help me there would be appreciated.

Anyway, here we go. This chapter covers a bit of ground because I wanted to get a move on to the first important challenge Harry will face. I'm not certain I hit the Strange/Potter discussion right, but your opinions on it will be appreciated. I might in fact go back and add more at some point, but right now I am sort of at a loss as to where I want their acquaintance to go.

---

Chapter 8 Orders from on high we were told

Harry stretched contentedly as he put the last of the lunch dishes on the table. He had made chicken, turkey, other meats and things along with putting out several different kinds of bread and other fixings so the kids could grab and eat as they wanted today.

The kids, after spending all of breakfast trying to drag answers out of him and Charles (stopping only on pain of pranking), had and gone each their own way for the morning, but their stomachs would bring them back soon enough. Logan wasn't there that morning, sent on some trip in the black-jet by Charles, which should have left Harry in charge of their morning practice. Luckily Charles had let the kids have some free time until four that afternoon, and that had allowed Harry some peace and quiet to work on his projects.

Harry had been up all night repairing the damage to the defensive warding array in his workshop and finishing up two of his projects as well, both of which he was anxious to try out. He grimaced as he placed a gallon container of lemonade on the table. The damage to the array had been severe, a visible and brutal testament to the power Jean had been putting out during the merging or whatever it had been.

Red really impressed me there, he thought as he snagged a grape a popped it into his mouth, chewing slowly. I wasn't nearly as happy about her decision to merge with the phoenix but despite my concern she survived. Very impressive, and we get to see who she is when she can cut loose. That should be fun, well for me anyway, maybe not so much for her wannabe bully of a boyfriend and Scott. Things have been building up in that cute head of hers, you can see it, and it should be interesting to see what happens when she doesn't have to button it up anymore.

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the presence of another magical core nearby, one whose size and control startled him almost as much as how close it was to him before he sensed it. How the hell did that sneak up on me? Regardless, we've got guests, I wonder if they are the polite or impolite kind? Only way to find out.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Charles waved his old acquaintance into the sitting room, frowning a little as he wondered what Steven wanted with Harry then he frowned. "Are you a wizard as well? Did you somehow sense what was going on here yesterday?"

Steven shook his head, chuckling a little. "I had forgotten how observant you could be Charles. No, I didn't feel anything yesterday, I'm here because I was told by my manservant that Mr. Potter stopped by and wished to touch base with a local. I then found a message left by an old acquaintance by the name of Madame Harkness which told me more about our inter-dimensional visitor." A message left on the interior of my personal workroom, he thought ruefully. How the old woman had managed that undetected past his wards and his manservant was something he would never know, if her quiet smugness when he called her was any indication.

He then frowned, looking down at Charles. "I wasn't a very learned wizard when we met all those years ago, else I would have possibly been able to do something about your legs. I am sorry, but it has been too long for me to do anything about them now."

Charles waved that worry away. "I had assumed such Steven, and truly it isn't as if I had not become used to it by this point. Wait here I will get Mr. Potter for you."

"Don't bother Charles, I'm here. Lunch is ready, just sandwiches this time, the kids can grab and go whenever." The two older men turned to see Harry standing in the doorway leading into the dining room, his emerald eyes sparkling with interest as he studied the tall, dignified man standing there in a decent and well tailored suit, his black hair touched with gray.

Even if he hadn't felt him earlier Harry would have known the moment he clapped eyes on him that Dr. Strange that he was a magic user. The man's sheer presence filled the air to his magical senses. It felt like a very scary combination of Voldemort in terms of power and Dumbledore in terms of control.

A common misconception among the sheeple that had stood on the sidelines during the war against Voldemort was that Harry fought Voldemort one on one and killed him that way. In point of fact Harry never even tried to fight Voldemort in a stand up fight, instead using a hit and run strategy, never facing him head on. Even then he nearly lost his life several times. It was only after the horcrux in his scar was taken care of that Harry was able to match his power and it was the chaos of the fight after Voldemort summoned demons that allowed him to actually kill the psychopath, well that and the fact Nagini had just died, and the backlash from the horcrux in the snake had caused Voldemort to lower his guard. Harry knew he was stronger now, on an order of magnitude stronger than he had been back in his old dimension, so much so that he could have ripped Voldemort apart easily. Yet even with that he didn't want to tangle with the man in front of him, his aura of power was equal or maybe even stronger than Harry's own.

Yet what was even more disturbing was the control Harry could sense. Voldemort was easily the most powerful wizard in the world at the time of the war, but Dumbledore had Control, with a capital C. He could do with far less power what Voldemort would have to brute force. Harry never fought the headmaster head on either, indeed it was his own ignorance of the crysis suit Harry and Hermione had created and his arrogance that gave Harry a momentary victory over him. Dumbledore, even without the Elder Wand, put up one hell of a fight against the younger more powerful Voldemort before going down (or so Professor Flitwick said. He had been a part of the Order of Phoenix, and he and McGonagall were the only survivors having created emergency port-keys back to Hogwarts before the Death Eaters stormed the order's headquarters, though neither had been the same after them). This mild seeming man had a magical aura even more tightly controlled than Dumbledore's.

"You would be the gentleman whose house in New York has that rather interesting ward scheme?" Harry asked.

"Indeed Mr. Potter, my manservant Wong told me you stopped by, and then I spoke to Agatha Harkness. It isn't often I meet a wizard from another dimension. Demons yes, wizards no, so I decided to look you up for the chance to talk shop."

Harry grinned and looked over at Charles. "Do you mind if we take over the solarium Charles? I think this is going to be a long discussion." Steven smiled as well, and Charles chuckled and led the way to the solarium.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

There was fire all around her.

She could remember wanting to be a painter when she was younger, or a ballerina. Didn't all little girls want to be a ballerina or a princess or something? She remembered trying out for the art class in her first year in high school and being told that she wasn't passionate enough about it, that her paintings looked as if they had been painted by a robot, a sharp contrast to her earlier paintings, so much so she was almost accused of submitting someone else's work. She could go into realistic painting obviously or portraiture but that would be it, nothing that really interested her. She'd felt a momentary irritation and sadness, but it was gone within an hour and she moved on, going into the hard sciences instead.

Flames all around her, devouring her soul, searing it bare to the core.

She remembered trying out for the dance class when she was younger too, and being told that she just didn't have enough passion or drive to be a really good dancer. The woman in charge of it refused to keep her on if she was just going to be there to go through the motions. So she had joined the cheerleading team, and even there people said she didn't have enough passion about it.

The flames licked up all around her trying to consume her, not because of malice but because it was what it did, death and rebirth. She fought back, knowing that if she gave in, even for a single instant all that she was, all that made her Jean Grey would be subsumed by the Phoenix. Again not because of malice or because the Phoenix wanted to consume her, but because its existence was so much vaster, on an order of magnitude greater than humanity, that it could not simply understand what it's power could do to her.

She remembered her anger at some of the things that were said about her in high school and then completely forgetting her anger in a few seconds or at most ten minutes as if she couldn't hold onto the emotion. She remembered the joys of having a favorite snack or performing well on a test or something, only for it to seemingly dissipate as if she couldn't hold onto that emotion either. She remembered hearing a rumor that Duncan thought her a bit of a cold fish from one of the other cheerleaders, how it angered her and how she went to confront him about it yet by the time she found him it had turned cold and she had simply verbally lashed out at him for a few seconds before agreeing to forgive him. She remembered her anger at Scott for always trying to protect her as if she was some kind of glass figurine that needed to be defended at all costs despite being one of their best offensive weapons. She remembered trying to keep control of the anger until the end of the session but by that time it had just faded into low key irritation and she had decided it wasn't worth the effort, simply coldly snubbing him on the way out.

The flames were slowly consuming her, the power of life and rebirth filling her from the tip of her hair down to her toes. All that was left was her soul, that molten will and steely intelligence, and she refused to yield. A voice calling out from behind the flames, immune to their power somehow, calling out and urging her on, giving her strength, then other voices, remembered like a dream, friends.

She remembered that feeling the jealousy of the other cheerleaders, wondering what the hell that was about, wanting to do something about it, but then simply forgetting about it and moving on. She remembered the anger and even the fear she felt at being manhandled by the Blob when Fred first showed up, yet as soon as he let her go it began to dissipate. It was as if she couldn't contain any of the hard emotions, as if the moment she felt them they were being sucked away from her. Leaving her less than she was, leaving her almost like a drone but not quite, more like a shell or half of what she could be.

She fought and fought and fought until the flames receded, her soul still intact and her mind finally, blessedly whole, and hers alone. Then she was pulled back to reality, opening your eyes to see emerald eyes glowing with power looking into hers and behind them eyes of pure white also crackling with hidden energy and beyond them the faces of her friends, pulling her back to reality, pulling her back to herself and home.

Jean woke up, and felt everything, all her emotions, all her senses to a point that was astonishing. She tentatively reached out and felt the minds of her friends and of the professor. At that thought a spark or pure rage shot through her so strong her body shuddered but she fought it back, realizing with dismay that she would have to get used to controlling her emotions to a degree that she had never needed to before. The cracks had already been appearing, had been appearing for weeks, even months. The mental blocks that Charles had put inside her mind had stopped her from feeling those emotions consciously, but instead of dissipating they were just bottled up inside her, like a river behind a dam just waiting to burst out.

Was it arrogance or ignorance that convinced Xavier those damn blocks were a good idea? My god the damage to my emotional range, hell even the rest of my mind is… In fact she knew that it was almost certainly ignorance, the professor wasn't the sort to let his arrogance get the better of him like that, at least she didn't think so. Yet that didn't make it any easier to control her anger. After all if the blocks had shattered, on their own and the eventually would have, she saw that now, she would have been something like a walking time bomb just waiting for a place to go off, and when you added in her telekinetic and telepathic powers….

Jean looked up as she felt a presence outside her door, and she tentatively reached out with her telepathy only to find that she could only read a few surface thoughts, the rest was buried underneath something like static, or electrical discharges, and she pulled back swiftly realizing who it had to be. "Come in Ororo." She said aloud, trying to sit up and finding herself still a little weak.

Being reborn will do that to one I suppose, she thought and then had to stifle a spontaneous laugh. Evidently it wasn't only the darker emotions that had been buried so deeply in her. She hadn't felt so much happiness or joy in years as she felt when she made that little joke. A part of her mind realized it wasn't very funny, but the rest of her was too busy laughing. This is going to take some getting used to.

Ororo walked in, the African woman striding as normal towards the bed wearing her jeans and a vaguely African looking shirt and a very nice scarf. In her arms she carried a tray, and Jean nearly broke down and laughed again at seeing all of her favorite lunch meals on it. How Harry knew that her favorite lunchtime meal was a simple sandwich, just chicken, tomato and lettuce but with flat bread with rosemary in it she didn't know, but that and the bowl of fruit, filled with cherries, blueberries and passion fruit made her want to laugh.

Ororo smiled at her younger friend placing the tray down on the bedside table next to her and sitting down on the bed next to Jean, reaching out to stroke her hair gently. "How are you feeling Jean?"

Jean grimaced a little then shrugged. "Emotional. I get the feeling this is going to be a very emotional roller coaster of a time for me until I get used to having to control my emotions twenty-four-seven. Did… did Harry tell all of you what was going on?"

The white-haired woman shook her head. "No he didn't. He told us a bit but indicated that the full story was only yours to share. I won't try to question you if that's what you want, just know that the others and I are here for you if you need us."

Jean reached up and grabbed her hand with both of hers squeezing it gratefully, smiling internally at Harry letting her do the talking about what happened. "Thank you. I don't have a problem with you all knowing what happened, but regaining my emotional control is something no one can really help me with. Luckily I already started organizing my mind with Harry's mental discipline lessons, hopefully that'll keep my emotions in check as well as my powers but I might have to miss school for a few days just in case."

So saying she recounted what had occurred in her mind, as well as what the mental blocks had been doing to her. She didn't try to either sugarcoat or vilify Charles' interference in a good light she simply stated the facts and let Ororo draw her own conclusions.

The slight frown on the other woman's face as well as the fact that her eyes were snapping a little with lightning told Jean that her friend had reached the same conclusion that she had. The breaks in the blocks would have caused a tremendous issue later on, and it was only with Harry's intervention that was not the case anymore.

"Whatever you want my dear you will have, I will call the school tomorrow morning personally" said Ororo firmly, squeezing the redhead's hands back. "But tell me more of this Phoenix entity. Could you sense anything more about it? Will it actually be happy just looking at your emotions and your life through… what was the analogy, like through a TV screen?"

Jean leaned back and thought as she took the first bite of her sandwich savoring the taste. She didn't like hot things or anything like that, but she loved chicken, especially grilled with seasoning which was what this was.

"The Phoenix is hard to describe," she said around the bite then swallowed with a sheepish smile on her face and went on. "I don't know what Harry saw, but when I saw it I sensed an entity that was so far removed from our plane of existence as to be… to be difficult, almost impossible to comprehend. Yet at the same time it has avatars, like, I don't know, like fingers or something that go out and search through the universes for different planes of existence, letting the Phoenix find the areas that need to be burned out and remade. Life and rebirth are its charges, and as such it detests death, but that's not it, the good kind of death like a tree falling down becoming soil is good, that it understands and is a part of, but death that serves no purpose. It finds it wasteful, yet at the same time will not hesitate to kill millions if the total is served by it, and yet would go out of the way to save, well me for instance, when I tried to…. To save my best friends soul when I was younger."

"I see," Ororo said thoughtfully, not commenting on that last point. If Jean wanted to talk about it she would, but Ororo would not push. "So a mixed bag at best."

Jean nodded firmly. "Yes exactly. From our perspective it's a very complex, very imbalanced entity, but from its own, it sees its function as very, very simple."

"So have you become one of its avatars?" Ororo asked worriedly, wondering what that would do to the young woman who had changed from being a student to being a friend in the past few weeks.

"No, I'm not an avatar, are you the avatar of weather?"

"No but neither am I it's mistress in the truest sense, as in total command of it" said Ororo, "I manipulate the weather, I can get it to do what I like around me yet afterwards I must go back and solve any problems that I have caused in terms of weather in the area. That old saw about a butterfly causing a tornado across the world can actually be true, so I try not to overuse my power." That was actually why, even under her emotional shell, she had made certain that the local weather pattern stayed relatively normal rather than simply being sunny all the time like Kurt had once asked. He understood of course once she explained it to him, but it had still been an amusing thought.

"That's pretty much what it will be with me and the Phoenix. I can access its power a little bit, but not a lot. It just seems to augment my own power and maybe gives me access to some specialties." She snapped her fingers and suddenly a small burst of flame appeared above them for dissipating. "I rubbed a few of the molecules in the air together to do that, something I couldn't have done a few weeks ago. More," she smirked at the older woman, "I think I'll be able to get flying down now."

Ororo giggled a little, a light tinkling sound that fell nicely on Jean's ears and she grinned in response. "Very well," Ororo said, a wide smile on her face, "as soon as you are up and about we can see whether or not you can back up that claim."

"You're on," said the redhead with an answering grin and the two women shook hands firmly then laughed.

After a little while Jean sobered a little going back to their previous conversation. "This will be more like having someone just sort of watching my life through a TV like I said. The bit of it that was in me has merged entirely with me rather than rejoining the whole, but there is a little, some kind of one way connection forged there, going from me to it, but not from it to me. Again I'm really not up to really explaining things well, but that's the gist of it."

Ororo nodded thoughtfully, "all right, I can understand that. But I am glad that you as a person won't change. I like the person you are growing into Jean, and would hate to see that go away."

Jean thought back to what had been going on in the past few weeks, not just how much stronger she was in terms of her powers, but in terms of her growing maturity and her emotions which had already begun to leak out from the mental blocks. "You know," she said smiling a little "I think I would too." She resolutely ignored the fact that most of those changes brought to mind Harry Potter, and the feelings she sometimes got looking into his emerald eyes. It would never do to let her friend realize that she might be developing a bit of a crush on her boyfriend.

The two women kept talking for a time, until Jean finished her meal and started to fall asleep again whereupon Ororo took the food away and left her alone with a last kiss on the cheek.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Harry leaned back in his chair looking across at the so-called Sorcerer Supreme, a title that demanded an explanation when he first heard it, which the other man gave him readily before Harry began to describe his home universe. His respect for the older man had risen considerably during that tale, and it raised several interesting questions about the nature of demons and spirits. In return he had just finished telling the older man about his life back in his home dimension and how he came to be in this one, as well as much of the magical lore from his home dimension he could remember.

The man had sat there silently taking it all in, reminding Harry that sometimes the greatest gift a person could have was the ability to listen. He'd asked a few questions, mostly about the magical government, as well as what Harry remembered about the massive wards that had separated the non-magical from the community magical. That and a few questions about his education at Hogwarts was the main thrust of his questions, though his eyes had narrowed intently when Harry described his war against Voldemort and his part in it.

He also politely ignored the fact Harry only gave the vaguest details of his life in the Negative Zone, something Harry was thankful for. He wasn't ready to share much of that time with anyone. Indeed he hadn't even shared much of it with Reed Richards, not wanting to encourage the other man's interest in the dying dimension. I wonder if he's figured out that he can spend more time in his lab as long as he spends four hours with his family per day? Heh.

Stephen leaned back in turn contemplating the young man in front of him. "You have led a very tumultuous life Harry Potter," he said thoughtfully. "Prophecies are dangerous at the best of times, especially self-fulfilling ones like you were labeled with."

He shook his head not understanding at all how a man like this Albus Dumbledore was described could've fallen so far and done nothing with his powers for so long. If Dumbledore truly held the positions he had and used them he could've gotten most of the pureblood bigots put in jail for being Death Eaters long before Harry went to Hogwarts, thus removing the majority of Voldemort's power. "It is distressing in the extreme to see a man with that many positions of power not living up to his position's expectations."

"So, do you have any idea where my kind of wizards went in this world?" Harry asked. "I've seen a few clues that they existed at one point, but no evidence that they're still around," he said obliquely, not wanting to go into detail about a version of Hogwarts existing here in this dimension. That was going to be his own little secret for a time until he could get away to examine it properly. Only this time I'll try to teleport outside its protective area, he thought ruefully, remembering skidding across the lake like a bloody skipping stone.

Stephen frowned a little. "There were some notes from Merlin's time or should I say Merlin's original time that mentioned something about wand using wizards, who took their power entirely from their own magical cores. I understand that Agatha told you about the three types of wizardry in this world?" Harry nodded and Stephen went on. "Well Merlin was the first to use all three of them, and he was also bit of a time traveler."

Harry groaned and Stephen chuckled a little. "Indeed. There are accounts of Merlin being around in the time of Camelot in Britain, as well as well before that, at a time when the city of Atlantis was around. There's even a brief recounting of a time when he was an advisor to one of the emperors of Rome, though I would discount that one. It might've been an imposter, as I don't think the original Merlin would have had anything to do with throwing the Christians to the lions."

"What is known however was that he was able to create wards like you described, completely able to cut off magical beings from non-magicals, and did so during a war against several magical species, cutting them off from easy victims. He also held the title Sorcerer Supreme like myself for a time, though whether or not he was that throughout his life or if he was even the first back in Atlantis is still unknown. One could wish all my predecessors believed in leaving notes, but no." He said this last bit a little caustically. "Instead they leave items that sometimes impart words of wisdom, and even then no actual information about their own lives."

Harry frowned a little. "I hope time traveling isn't that normal around here, I imagine that kind of thing can really cause issues, to put it mildly."

Stephen nodded rueful agreement. "Indeed. Merlin himself left little in the way of notes, and the research myself and my master did about his time, heh, what little we did, is confusing to say the least. Some of his contemporaries described him as being a bit of a trickster, others a grim warrior, others point to him being an honorable elderly statesman, all of them point to him being powerful in the extreme and wise beyond all knowing of course."

"Of course. What is it with wizards coming over all knowing honestly, most of the times we're just people like everyone else. We might know things they don't but that doesn't mean we're wise." Harry shook his head in amusement.

Steven smiled wry agreement. "True. At any rate, during the time of Camelot there was a, a sect I suppose you could say of wizards and sorcerers who were completely core-based users. They called themselves battle wizards, and it was a name that was not without basis. You must know that at person with an actual magical core can cast spells faster than any who use simple incantations?"

Harry nodded at that, but he also knew that a person without a core that learned other types of magic could eventually build up his magical core to the point where he could use it as his main power source as well. Thus any speed advantage would be minimal against someone like, oh just off the top of my head, the man in front me right now. He might not have been born with my kind of magic, but I'm damn certain he could use it now if he knew the spells, and I'm not going to comment on what spells he already knows. And of course the effects that an enchanter could achieve through invocation, calling on otherworldly beings to power his spells, was beyond anything any normal wizard could do calling on his own magic.

"These battle wizards helped defend Camelot in its early years, and helped defend the shores of Britain against all comers for quite a while. Merlin of course was their leader, and they looked to him as something of a savior a lot like Christians would look at Jesus Christ yes?"

He looked over to see if Harry was following and Harry nodded. "That follows with the way he was almost worshipped back in my home dimension. Merlin, Morgana and Maeve were the three main, deities, I suppose you could say. Almost a form of ancestor worship really." He paused struck by a sudden thought. "That would explain the pureblood's actually they were so proud of how their ancestors had magic that they never realized that magic itself was the point, not the fact that they came from a family which had it. Magic has its own rules and guidelines, and I've seen a few examples of what happens to people who break those rules."

A life debt for example. Albus had tried to recruit Ginny Weasley to spy on Harry and get close to him, and the girl had gone along with it, but the moment she tried to use a love potion on him in their fourth year his magic saw this as an attack on him and retaliated. She lost most of her magical power as well as her ability to actually be near him at all without pain, and it was only the fact it hadn't been her idea that kept her from losing her entire magical core. This of course had only put her in a place to be killed with the majority of the Order of the Phoenix with Dumbledore.

"Yes," Stephen said leaning forward intently, "that is my thought as well. Magic seems to have some very firm, set rules, even when they cannot be seen. We may not understand the meaning behind them but they are there. My teachers felt the same, and of course there are known rules but even more unknown. Even when I speak with ancient elder gods and other beings they tell me that magic has 'some very odd but firm rules'. It isn't as simple as waving your hand and wishing something to happen, there must be a give-and-take, and unlike in the sciences the take is often hidden, or perhaps the word I am looking for is delayed. Of course, with invocation the take can be ameliorated or magnified depending on who or what you call on."

This turned the conversation from the original topic into a dissertation on magical theory that the two wizards got lost in for more than an hour before turning back to the main topic.

Stephen shook his head, reminding himself to come back to this topic at a later date before going back to Harry's original question. "At any rate the battle wizards separated themselves more and more from the rest of the magical community, which at the time was much larger and in the open than now, and began to inbreed. Oh, a few would take lovers outside their little clique, but such instances became rarer and rarer, as their type of magic bred true. About two generations on from this they became arrogant and retreated from Camelot into their own community. Merlin, seeing this and still bound by loyalty to the King's family first tried to convince and then demand they return, but they saw this as a betrayal. They wanted to rule themselves and saw themselves above normal people simply because they were inherently magical."

"Now that's a familiar refrain," Harry said shaking his head. "So the pureblood movement I fought was just falling in their ancestor's footsteps huh? Nice."

Stephen chuckled a little but went on seriously. "As sorcerer supreme I know more about magic in this world than nearly any other human alive, but there are still places where my magic cannot go. One of those places might hold your battle wizards, but if so I cannot help you find them. I would warn you however that if they are alive…"

"They aren't," Harry said firmly. Stephen looked at him in surprise and Harry sighed. "There are several spells, spells developed for wand wizards who have had too much to drink while abroad amongst muggles if I'm honest, that help a user to find his way to other wizards. I did a few when I first arrived and I didn't receive a response. As strong as I am if there was another wizard like me, one whose power is purely based on manipulation of the world around him via his magical core anywhere on this whole planet, I would've found him or her. That's not to say," he said thoughtfully to himself, "that there aren't any other people with magical cores, just not wizards trained like me." He shook that off and went on. "More I've looked at some of the places where the wizarding world was in my universe and come up empty on almost all of them."

"Almost all of them?" Stephen asked interestedly, leaned forward.

"Yes," Harry said blandly, his eyes twinkling with humor, yet his tone unresponsive to Steven's overture to learn more, "Almost all of them. Whatever happened after they broke off, they're no longer around." Ah, is this what Dumbledore felt withholding information. Huh, rather amusing from this side of things.

Stephen nodded thoughtfully, realizing that the young man before him was a little cagier than he had expected, but respecting his reticence. One thing Harry was not was evil or a magical threat to the world, which was his purview, so he would let the young man keep his secrets.

"So what are your plans going forward? I realize you are also a mutant, and that you seem to be fitting in well with Charles and his group," Stephen smirked a little. Charles had tried to downplay things, but Stephen saw Logan when he came back from his mission abroad, and even ignoring his odd (and rather singed around the edges) suit that was the kind of man that wasn't around just to teach a bunch of kids. That was a warrior, a soldier training soldiers. "All that I would ask as Sorcerer Supreme would be to keep your magic as secret as possible."

Harry frowned a little, thinking of his long term plans and his research and projects. "In the long term," he said slowly, "that might not be possible. I'll keep it a secret for a while, not just because you're asking me to but because it makes sense, but in the long term I might be forced to out myself as a Wizard. I won't tell anyone that there are other magic users obviously, but you and I both know that there are at least a few other dabblers in the world and I doubt that the world governments are completely ignorant of magic as it is."

"But surely you can see that if you share wizardry with the world at large people will start to come to you as a miracle worker?" Stephen asked. In his opinion the normal man on the street just wasn't ready to realize that magic was real but couldn't solve all his problems. "And that doesn't even consider the religious aspect."

Harry frowned again "I don't see that happening the way I'm going to go about it. The majority of what I propose to share is in the form of potions. Some items, but most of them will be, well I found out how to do things magically and now I'm searching for how to do the same things scientifically."

"What sort of potions?" Stephen asked half warily, half interestedly. Potion use in this dimension wasn't very well thought of by most mages and sorcerers, sort of like hedge witchcraft really. Agatha was the only respected sorceress he knew who used and created potions and her potions were more along the lines of short term pick me ups and other simple things.

"A truth serum for one, and something that will, well, I need to see how well they work on somebody without a magical core first but several different types of healing potions, particularly two of them. I already know one of them can work on non-magicals but I need to see about the others. One of them targets bones and can grow back bones, and the other can repair nerve damage."

Stephen gaped. "If they work those would be worth their weight in gold. But do you really think that it's such a good idea to introduce them to the world at large? Couldn't they be abused?"

"I've been thinking along those lines myself already and will be certain to put in place several different kinds of protection to stop that from happening. I don't think I'll stop it entirely, but as I'll be the only source for the ingredients, I'll be able to stop most of it."

"Even so, I would really prefer magic to remain largely unknown Harry." Stephen said.

"I can't promise that, I won't go out of my way to show it, and my being a mutant will cover a lot of it, but I won't make a promise I might not be able to keep." Harry replied firmly, locking eyes with the older sorcerer.

After a moment spent looking into that firm, almost implacable emerald gaze Stephen looked away, rubbing his forehead, and decided to give up on this point. It was obvious that he and Harry were not going to see eye to eye on this issue and really they didn't have to. So long as Harry didn't out any of the other wizards and sorcerers in the world it would be fine. After all, even if his use of magic did come out Harry had a ready-made excuse for why magic was real in his case, he came from another dimension entirely, that didn't imply magic existed here after all. That will satisfy the majority of people at least.

"I cannot say I am happy about that but I won't try to force you or convince you further," he said looking back at the younger man and Harry nodded agreeably.

Stephen went on changing the subject. "Still, if you have this magical draining power or mutant magic draining power whichever the case may be, would you be willing to drain a few items for me? There are several items in my collection, mine and my predecessors really, that are simply vile and I would much prefer that their magic was utterly destroyed as well as the items themselves."

Harry stilled a moment. It shocked Stephen, seeing the young affable man go completely still like that. He suddenly gave off the impression of waiting menace, like a volcano that had just decided it would go off in the near future. A very dangerous young man indeed.

"Tell me," Harry said, his voice still conversational but his eyes beginning to flare with power, "there aren't any items that, Oh I don't know, could be used to resurrect someone is there?"

Stephen raised an eyebrow in surprise then excitedly leaned forward. "One of the items I was thinking about is such an item yes. It's an old sarcophagus that was in a tomb in Egypt. The hieroglyphics on the side of it say that it could be used to resurrect an ancient mage. Another has some storied links to Morgan Le Fay."

Harry scowled angrily then nodded firmly. "I'll do it right now if you like. Do you know how such a thing is created?"

Stephen leaned back a little feeling the energy around him now crackling with Harry's anger. "No," he said soothingly, "perhaps you could enlighten me."

"It is called a soul trap or a horcrux, and what the user does is break off a portion of his soul and embed it into the item in question. The user then cannot truly die he will simply live on as a shade until someone resurrects him. But that isn't the whole story. You can only break off a piece of your soul when you use magic to do something inherently beyond the norm evil, such as killing a newborn babe, a true and complete innocent."

Stephen frowned angrily. "Then it is even more important these items are destroyed. I will call upon you as soon as I can to destroy them, and any others I can think of it turns out you can do so."

Harry nodded. "Do so and I will drain them dry, or if not I know very well how to destroy such things" he promised. "It will be a wonderful feeling to send another asshole like that to the end that he deserves."

OOOOOOOOOO

After Stephen left, Harry called the X-Men (minus Jean) together to lead them through their exercises. After changing into their uniforms they met Ororo outside the danger room, who gave them a brief description of what had happened to Jean, not giving any details, just enough for the kids to understand what had happened, and why. It wasn't enough to ameliorate Scott's worry for Jean, but it helped the other teens a little. Well except for Rogue who wasn't as close to the redhead as the others.

After that the teens entered the Danger Room to find Harry waiting for them, and he motioned Rogue over to him.

When she was close he said, "I've made some progress in creating a ward array for you, but I still haven't thought up a finished product. What I've got now is loosely based on what I did for Ororo to keep her emotions from impacting local weather patterns, but targets the entire mind rather than the emotional center. This will make you unable to 'take in' other people's memories. I haven't figured out a way to stop you from draining someone's bio energy or abilities and still retain a sense of touch, it's a tricky situation. Do you want what I have now or do you want to wait, and do you want it in the form of a piece of jewelry or something else?"

Rogue blinked in shock having thought that Harry would have to give up on helping her that was just the way her life worked. "Ah'll take what you've got now Mr. Potter. Um, if yah can make it into ah belt buckle or something, that'd be great. And um, thanks sir. This means a lot tah me even if ya can't figure out anything more."

Harry merely grinned and waved her on to join the others.

Unfortunately that was the last enjoyment Harry had for a while. The X-men just weren't concentrating on the exercises that day. Most of them were still worried about Jean, Kurt was worried about what his connection to the mysterious woman in Rogue's dream was, Rogue was still wondering what her dream meant, Evan was irritated with Harry due to his relationship with his aunt, Kitty was still skittish about combat at and Scott continued to let his irritation with Harry show..

Things came to a head when Kitty was charged with using her power to disable a computer. She did so by putting one of her small pebbles into it and imparting some momentum, but what she hadn't counted on was the shrapnel of the resulting explosion taking out two of the guards of the facility they were infiltrating with the shrapnel. At the sight of the blood she froze, and without her rejoining the team they didn't know about a few of the traps she had bypassed, which in turn caught Kurt and left the others without a scout.

Scott soon led them into a rather simple ambush, and despite the large numbers of enemies they took with them the rest of the team soon went down, even Rogue once she was hit with a magical attack from one of the 'special' troopers Harry continued to sneak into every match. In this case it was a trooper armed with a simple tickling charm, which took her out of action long enough for another trooper to hit her head with a cutting spell. As she didn't retain any of the magical defense Juggernaut had from his shield this counted as a kill.

At this point Harry called a halt to the proceedings before any of them could start pointing fingers. "All right, that's it, all of you are just going through the motions, and that barely. Evan and Scott target practice for you two, Rogue, Kurt martial arts." At his words the Danger Room's hard light display, which had been in the form of a underground military installation, disappeared and the room separated into two areas much like it did for Rogue and Jeans training with Ororo. "Kitty, come over here for a minute."

Kitty stood in front of him looking a little shamefaced but when she looked up at Harry she saw only concern on his face. "It was the realism of that exercise wasn't it? That was what made you freeze like that?"

Kitty nodded morosely. "Yeah, I can fight against robots easily enough, but you made our opponents as realistic this time as possible and the moment I saw the blood I just, I froze up."

Harry nodded. "It happens Kitten, especially after an experience like you had. Have you thought about whether or not you want to stay on the team at all?"

"I have," Kitty answered, not realizing that Scott was close enough to hear, and even if she had it wouldn't have bothered her. "I want to wait and talk to my folks before I make a decision, but even if I do stay on the team I want to switch to a support role. I'll go out on missions if they need me, but I'm not going to be fighting, not anymore."

Harry nodded, not surprised by her decision, and reached forward ruffling her hair affectionately. "Remember Kitten this is a choice you need to live with so make the one that makes you happy. Whatever you decide we'll back you."

Kitty breathed a sigh of relief. Even knowing Harry had encouraged her to make her own decision a part of her had still been afraid he would look down on her for not wanting to be a frontline combatant anymore. Then she grinned. "I take it Storm won the nickname war?"

Harry harrumphed, then grinned a little wickedly down at her. "Well, let's just say she has a certain advantage over me hmm?" Kitty giggled and the two of them talked about where her studies in runes was going for an hour then he dismissed her to go and work on them in his repaired research lab.

Soon after that he decided to dismiss the others but kept Scott back to talk to him. Leaning back against the Danger Room's wall, he stared at the younger man. "All right Summers, what's your problem with me?"

Scott frowned staring at Harry his eyes narrowed angrily, though of course no one could see that through his visor. "I don't know what you mean Sir," he said yet his very tone, a mix of sullen anger and irritation, gave him the lie.

"While Charles and I were having our little spat about coming clean with Jean you had a reason for your attitude towards me," Harry said coldly leaning forward now his emerald eyes hard. "In fact I kind of respected you for backing him up, but he and I buried the hatchet last night so is this just a holdover or something entirely new? Because I'm getting the impression this is something personal."

Scott frowned heavily. He had seen Harry and Charles, not exactly makeup or anything like that but they had seemingly buried the hatchet as Harry said, they were much more convivial towards one another at breakfast, and even struck up a conversation about whether or not right and wrong were products of society or unchanging morality. But it was obvious that while Harry agreed with Charles' dream, he was thinking of other ways to achieve it above and beyond (or perhaps more descriptively to the side of) what Charles was prepared to use.

Yet that wasn't the reason why Scott was giving him grief. No, Scott was jealous of Harry. It was as simple as that. Harry was a natural leader, both experienced and easy-going, with an easy air of authority yet was also friendly. He had stolen a lot of Scott's own authority, and everyone on the team looked to Harry first for leadership and advice, and he made it seem so easy that it made Scott even more jealous.

To top it off he was closer to Jean than Scott was comfortable with. Ever since Scott had met her he had known somehow that the two of them were meant to be together, it was just something he felt deep down, like she was a gift from the universe to offset his cursed eyes. The fact that Jean had a boyfriend was bad enough, but Jean's recent changes in attitude, her newfound willingness to go her own way and her growing independence seemed to be causing a rift between them. All of which he felt he could lay at the feet of Harry, and that didn't even mention how comfortable they were around one another or what little he and the others had been told about this strange entity that Harry had convinced Jean to bond with. The little Ororo had passed on to them before this session was worrisome in the extreme.

Not that he was going to actually share any of that Harry. Except for that last part, that could do as an excuse he thought. "I'm not comfortable with the fact that you convinced Jean to let this strange alien thing bond with her head. I'm also not exactly happy that you're encouraging Kitty to go her own way, that's taking a valuable resource from the team." There he thought, that sounded diplomatic enough and impersonal as well, and is about decisions that concern the team as a whole rather than about anything personal.

Harry nodded. He knew there was something more to Scott's attitude than what younger man was saying, but he wasn't going to push, if Scott wanted to keep it professional then he was fine with that. "I can understand that," he said honestly then went on thoughtfully. "I'll be honest with you Scott, I wasn't entirely certain of the idea of bonding with the Phoenix either." Scott blinked and Harry barked a laugh. "If any leader says he's absolutely certain that something that he can't control is a good idea he's lying. That was Jean's choice though, and I wasn't going to argue her out of it. You guys are on the cusp of adulthood, and you have to start making your own decisions. I just wanted the mental blocks gone. And I have no doubt when she gets her head together a few days from now she'll say that it was a good thing."

Scott frowned but nodded. "All right I can understand that and I'll reserve judgment for the moment on that point but on Kitty's case? She's going to tell her parents and you and storm actually encouraged it. I'm not happy with them knowing more about what the X-Men are supposed to be doing. You yourself said we should be worried about the hate groups out there and if they know about us, they could be forced to tell others."

Harry frowned in turn but had to concede to at least a bit of what Scott was saying. "I understand that as well, but they are her parents. Admittedly most of us here can't play happy families," he smirked a little and Scott nodded in agreement. The fact that Harry was an orphan was something he had in common with him, Kurt and Rogue, and Jean's relationship with her parents was cordial at best. Evan's relationship with his parents was ok, but nowhere near as close as Kitty was to her parents. "But I think it would be a very bad idea for Kitty to cut her parents out of her life entirely."

Then he sobered a little and went on, his eyes on something only he could see. "More, there is an edge to being a soldier, a fighter. I have it, Logan has it and Storm has it, though she hides it better than Logan. You and the others can grow into it, but Kitty, she's already seen the elephant, and she doesn't have that center of ruthlessness you sometimes need. If she's going to freeze up when the only choice between letting a friend die is to kill someone than I don't think you want her in a fight with the rest of you."

Scott blanched a little then nodded. "I hadn't thought of it from that perspective I guess."

"Scott" Harry said softly, reaching forward and grabbing the teen's shoulders, "Part of being a leader is having a little bit of empathy for your soldiers. You have to see what they can and what they can't do, what they are and what they aren't comfortable with doing, how hard you can push them and how, what makes them tick and what they can and can't face. Don't think of this as losing Kitty from the team, think of this as an opportunity to figure out how best to use her mind and her skills as a resource going forward okay?"

Scott nodded, and Harry hoped he was listening. Done talking for now he thumped Scott on the shoulders and then waved him off. "Good, now get out of here." Scott nodded and Harry leaned back against the wall thoughtfully staring after him.

There goes a very strange case, he thought to himself, extremely bright and extremely motivated, Scott's the only one of the group that's willing to put forth the effort to learn tactics and strategy, which makes him the leader of the team by default. Yet he can't seem to understand that other people had opinions too, that maybe their ideas would work better than his own, and don't get me started on his empathy! Harry was at a loss as to how to instill that ability in him, and decided to talk it over with the other teachers once Logan got back from his little errands that evening. Unfortunately when he did he would find that neither Logan nor Ororo had a better idea except for simply letting it grow on its own which Harry thought was a losing proposition in the long run, though Logan didn't honestly see the empathy thing as a problem.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Monday morning Harry waited a time in the arboretum for Ororo surprised she wasn't there before him, something that hadn't happened before. Still it let him have some time alone with Hedwig, so it was all good in his opinion. Hedwig had been spending her time hunting and getting acquainted with the area surrounding the mansion, something she hadn't had time to do before this, and establishing her utter dominance of every bird and animal in that territory, including several creatures that she shouldn't ever have been able to tangle with, but with his magic infusing her Hedwig was far more dangerous than any normal owl.

"So what would you call your reign Hedwig? A Hed-ocracy, an owl empire?" he asked her, smirking a little as his fingers found the sweet spot around her neck head, stroking gently.

Hedwig precked back complacently, as is saying 'silly human, I would simply call it normal', and Harry chuckled.

The arboretum door opened and Ororo walked in, dressed this time as she had been checking on Jean. Jean was feeling far better and had woken up but was still organizing her mind and emotions, and had been excused from school for the day and up to Wednesday to get her head in order. Since she had nearly ripped Charles' head off when he stopped in, and then nearly broke out in tears when Kitty came in with Ororo after dinner and nearly ripped Evan's head off within five minutes, her need for some time alone to put her head in order was obvious.

She smiled at seeing Harry waiting for her, and slowly stripped off her clothing, amused by the fact Harry merely glanced her way as she did before going back to looking at Hedwig. Any other man would have been staring at her, but Harry had quickly gotten over that silly nudity taboo, and while she knew it still aroused him, his control over it was admirable. "How are you this morning Harry?"

"Well enough luv, well enough, a little sad the two of us couldn't get out for our date this weekend. Do you think we could go out tonight instead?"

Ororo smiled happily as she moved around the room watering her plants naked save for the necklace Harry had given her, which never left her person. "That would be lovely, what do you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking of another picnic actually, though this time I'll make the food. And I think you should wear your X-men uniform, trust me on this."

Ororo's eyebrows rose in surprise, wondering what that was about, but Harry refused to answer any more questions, and the two soon turned their discussion to other things, including a brief make out session before the two left to prepare for the day.

OOOOOOOOOOO

On Monday Logan drove Charles down to the school as well as the other kids after Charles assured Nightcrawler that he would do all that he could to find out who the mysterious woman from Rogue's dream was, and what her connection to Kurt was. In fact Charles had a very good idea of who it was, indeed he had thought about it for quite some time, but now he had proof. Well, proof of a sort, enough to maybe get her talking.

The secretary made Charles wait for a few minutes, a spiteful little way of making him seem less important that Mystique took pleasure in. After little while he was allowed in. Raven looked across her desk at him, her eyes hard but not nearly as coldly as normal. Her talk with Harry on Friday had shown Mystique that there was no real point to letting personal feelings get in the way of business here, that everything that occurred here was more of a microcosm for the conflict to come.

"Well Charles," she said, leaning back a little, "what can I do for you? I already gave my word to Potter that the Brotherhood wouldn't make trouble in public anymore."

Charles shook his head smiling a little. "No, on that issue your word is good enough. I'll note that your brotherhood hasn't been making much trouble lately anyway. No I am here because of a memory that Rogue seems to have gotten from you. She mentioned touching you recently, so it had to come from you or my brother Cain, and you are a much more likely suspect given the subject matter."

Raven seemed to freeze in place for a moment, remembering the momentary touch from Rogue when the younger girl had slammed into her on Friday. What the hell did that girl see?! There were so many secrets in Mystiques head, both personal and not that the idea of anyone else knowing any of them was a cause for concern. After all she knew secrets that could cause several powerful governments a lot of trouble (for instance she knew who really shot JFK). "Oh," she replied, and was pleased that her voice came out its normal flat tone, "and what did she see what does that do with me?"

"Mystique, do you remember running from a certain castle in Germany? About running away with little blue furred baby in your arms?" His voice was soft now, almost apologetic but firm. "Do you want to know what happened to that baby?"

Mystique frowned. Of all the memories Rogue could've found she had to find that one. Mystique had given a lot in following the cause mutant supremacy, and one of them was searching down her own lost son. She had tried to move past it, by taking in Rogue and while that had filled the gap momentarily part of her still wondered what happened to her son. "No I don't know. I found tracks later of Roma carts, but the person who was coming after me hadn't given up his search and I decided to lead him away, just in case. Why, do you know what happened to him?"

"I should've spotted it right away of course," Charles said almost to himself but staring at her all the while. "You and Kurt even look alike. Don't tell me you never thought of it?"

Mystique sighed and leaned back. "I, I have long suspected, but how was I supposed to bring it up? He follows you and your dream," she said bitterly, "just like Rogue. Neither of them have the experience to see reality for what it is, they'd rather cling to that dream of yours rather than embrace the harshness of what needs to be done."

"And yet should that matter right now?" Charles said gently. "Surely even with that you can make the time to talk to them, perhaps get to know him. He is your son after all."

Mystique sighed. "Hope springs eternal huh? Very well Charles, I'll try to arrange a clandestine meeting between us. I don't want anyone to know about it, so keep it a secret for now, and it's best if it's kept between him and myself." She frowned. "I'm uncertain how… well never mind, it's just best that we keep it as secret as possible."

That afternoon, after school let out Mystique made her way over to the institute in her raven form, and, since she wasn't feeling any ill intent towards anyone who lived there, passed straight through the ward Harry had placed around the property. Flitting through an open window she dropped the note on Kurt's bed (his room was easily discernible by the number of metal poles sticking out of the walls and ceiling as well as the posters for German rock bands and a few German super models spread around liberally) before winging her way back out.

Unfortunately for her she was seen winging her way to and from the institute by Quicksilver, who had gone there wanting to prank Evan a bit only to be turned around by the ward. He frowned, wondering then followed the odd bird until it landed and transformed back to Mystique. With that done, he turned back and raced back to the mansion and, now only feeling curiosity rather than and malice was able to bypass the ward (though again he didn't even know it was there) checked which window she had flitted in and out of.

He raced off again, wondering why the hell Mystique would be trying to contact Wagner like that and he decided to send it upstairs so to speak, just in case.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The kids came home and saw Harry waiting outside dressed in his normal attire of jeans and a good shirt. Kitty smiled waving at him as she got out of Scott's car. "Hey master, were you waiting for us?"

Harry merely smiled and waved back while tapping a lunch basket next to him on the ground with one foot. "Not this time Kitten, Ororo and I are heading out for a date. Logan is available as spotter if you lot want to exercise, or you can take the day off." Kitty and Rogue grinned at one another, wondering what the two adults were going to be doing on their date while Scott frowned at the idea of missing an entire day of training. Kurt simply shrugged, his thoughts on his own worries.

Evan frowned angrily, still not approving of his aunt's relationship with Harry. It wasn't just the fact he was only two years older than Jean and Scott, five years Storm's junior, but the fact that he wasn't used to thinking of his aunt as a woman, as a sexual being. That bothered the hell out of him especially remembering the look on her face after their first date. He decided to talk to his mom about it, surely this wasn't healthy for her, to get into a relationship so quickly with someone so much younger?

Before he could say anything Storm came out of the mansion dressed as Harry had asked her in her X-men uniform. That drew some looks of surprise but she merely smiled at the children and turned to look at Harry. "Well here I am Harry, now, care to tell me why you wanted me to dress like this?"

Harry smiled and reached down with one hand to pick up the picnic basket on the ground. When he straightened back up he seemed to concentrate for a moment and then, to the surprise of everyone there, rose two feet off the ground to hover in the air. If any other magic user was there they would have seen a circle of runes centered around He grinned at Ororo's surprised face and held out a hand to her. "Would you like to fly away with me milady? For the rest of the day at least."

Kitty laughed aloud and jumped up and down excitedly, her fluffy hair bouncing. "I can't believe it, you finished the flight array! Oh that is so awesome, when are you going to put them on our uniforms?"

"As soon as I figure out how to power them along with everything else we want to add to them," Harry said dryly, "One thing at a time Kitten. Oh, I also have a notice-me-not ward around me and the basket, and I'll put one around Ororo too, something I might put on your uniforms at some point."

Ororo chuckled and with a thought summoned up a wind, rising up into the air to join Harry then leaned down to place a kiss on her nephew's forehead. "We'll see you later children." The two adults smiled at one another and Ororo turned and led the way up into the air and away.

Kitty and Rogue looked at one another then broke out into giggles again while Scott went inside to the danger room, determined to get in some training for himself at least. Evan scowled and went to the TV room, determined to get some of his anger out via some video games.

Kurt teleported into his room having had enough of being around the other kids, well except for Rogue, she was the only one who really understood and commiserated. All the others knew who their parents were, and none of them could see how this affected him. He hadn't really thought about who his real parents were in a long time, being more than happy with the gypsies who raised him. They hadn't showered him with physical affection, but they had raised him well, helped him and never judged him because of his appearance and if he had any problems growing up they were always there for him.

This whole thing with the mystery woman carrying him away from a castle as a baby had torn open a wound he hadn't even known he had. Now he was filled with questions, questions about who his parents really were, why they abandoned him, who was the woman, was she his mother, why was she running away from that castle Rogue saw? And the sudden desire, his need to answer those questions a sort of slap to his adopted parents? He didn't want to replace them, he knew they loved him, but he needed to know where he came from.

So many questions were going through his head he couldn't really concentrate on anything else, and it wasn't helped by the others just banging on about it, bringing it up all the time yet not contributing anything except to reiterate what was already known.

He suddenly stopped, seeing a letter of some kind on his bed that hadn't been there when he left this morning. Hesitantly he, thinking this might be a prank from Harry (though Harry hadn't had much time for elaborate pranks for a while) he grabbed it off his bed and opened it, then bamfed away swiftly to the far corner of his room. When nothing happened he picked it up again and opened it. After a moment he set it down, eyes looking at nothing for a moment as he contemplated what it said.

OOOOOOOOO

Later that evening Kurt snuck out of the mansion and made his way as sneakily as he could to the empty construction area on the outskirts of Bayville where a new mall was being built.

He waited in silence, hiding until about five minutes before the designated meeting time. It was full night by that time and he moved silently into the shell that had already been constructed, moving toward the center of the mall where the roof was open to the sky above.

He waited there, standing just outside the light coming from the nighttime sky above, and after a few seconds another person appeared at the far edge and moved into the light. It seemed to wait there, and Kurt, gulping in trepidation moved forward as well. "A-Are you her?" he said almost trembling, "The woman from Rogue's dream? W-what is your connection to me? Are, are you my mother?"

"I am," the voice said, and Kurt stiffened in shock, recognizing it from several battles, though the sorrowful, melancholic tone was new. "But it isn't that simple is it?"

"Mystique," he growled jumping backwards to give him some room to maneuver, his hands outstretched and ready. "What are you doing here!"

Mystique pulled back her hood and looked at him smiling sadly. "I already answered that, I'm your mother, or at least the woman who gave birth to you."

"You're lying!" he said angrily, shaking his head in denial.

Mystique shook her head. "No I'm not, for once. You can't tell you don't see how alike we look. Your eyes, your coloration, the shape of your face," she muttered, moving slowly toward him, her eyes on his face. "You can't tell me you can't see the resemblance there?"

Kurt frowned. That is true he reflected calmly, or as calmly as he could under the circumstances. But it is as welcome a thought as the idea of being related to a serpent. While Mystique had mellowed out in the past month or so, the way she had treated Rogue and tried to use her against the rest of the X-Men, as well as her leadership of the Brotherhood made her very suspect in his eyes. "Do you have any proof?" he said almost desperately.

"What would you like me to say!" she said waving her arms in the air. This was not getting isn't any easier, but then she hadn't thought it would be. "What do you want to hear? I remember giving birth to you! I remember you used to wet your crib all the time, and giggle when I had to come in and clean it. Or how about how you were a biter even before you had teeth, always gumming things especially when I was fee…"

"None of that!" he shouted waving his hands and blushing heavily. There were just some things that no grown man wanted to know about their early years. Then he frowned. "Fine so maybe you are my mother, who was my father?"

"Pray you never find" out she said, her voice having gone from somewhat humorous to hard and angry as she stared up at him with hard eyes. "Don't go searching for him, trust me on this, you're not ready now, and you may never be. And if he ever comes looking for you somehow, keep that Potter man around." He mentioned having a thing about demons after all she thought to himself.

Her dalliance with Azazel while she was in Germany and away from Irene for the first time in years was one of her biggest regrets in life. He had seemed so debonair, so enchanting, but when you learned to look past that face, you found something very different underneath. And it was only with Irene's ability to see what would happen if she stayed that she found out what he truly was and escaped from him.

Kurt frowned a little at that but shrugged, seeing the real anger and even a little bit of fear in her eyes, wondering what kind of man could cause such a reaction in a woman like Mystique. This wasn't going anything like he expected this meeting to go, and it left him bereft of direction for a moment. "So, so what do we do now?"

"Well," Mystique answered thoughtfully, "do you have any questions you want to ask me other than about your father? I won't answer those until you're older and can take care of yourself better. And before you ask I'm including the X-Men and the Brotherhood in that. You kids are good, for kids, but you're not quite ready for the big leagues."

Kurt huffed a little at that but then nodded. Harry still handed the entire team their heads on a daily basis both by himself and in the tactical exercises he created. Even with Rogue's juggernaut given strength and all of their new abilities they still couldn't beat him, and they had a lot of trouble with Storm too when she joined him. Though it might change once Jean came back he thought happily. "Well, I guess I do have a few questions I guess."

Mystique nodded and motioned him to continue but suddenly Pietro zoomed out of the darkness clipping Kurt upside the head with a punch. The blow made Kurt cry out and fall to his knees, but he didn't stay there long, his training under Harry coming to the fore as he bamfed away immediately. He touched down a few feet away, his eyes wide and angry. "You tricked me you bitch!"

Mystique yelled out angrily. "No! I, I had nothing to do with this, Pietro what the hell are you doing here! This is, you're not supposed to be here!"

Toad's tongue came out of the dark to grab Kurt's hand, stalling him when he tried to teleport away, letting Fred's massive ham handed fist catch him in the side of his chest and smash him to the floor with a cry of pain. Lance and Pietro moved out of the dark, one arrogant the other cautious but it was Pietro who answered Mystique's shouted query. "Sorry boss lady, but we're under orders from higher now."

Pietro suddenly gasped as two hands solidified around his feet, grabbing his ankles and pulling him down into the ground. "What the hell!"

Kitty rose out of the ground as a beam of red shot out from the side of the construction area to slam into Fred who grunted in pain but didn't move, simply wincing in pain. "Hey speedy, remember you mess with one X-man you mess with us all!"

"You, you bitch, get me out of here!" Pietro yelled, the feeling of his legs fused into the ground freaking him out immensely.

Kitty ignored him and her own jitters, only dropping a stone with a hold rune inscribed on it next to him, just in case.

A second later Rogue charged forward, slamming into Fred at the same time Lance began to use his power, shaking the ground around the construction area and momentarily spilling Rogue, Scott and Evan, who had just engaged Toad to the ground. "Fred, Todd regroup on me, stay together don't let them pick us off!" Then he turned to Pietro and growled, "I don't know what the hell we're doing here, but if any of us get hurt I'm blaming you!" before moving to join his fellows., ignoring the trapped speedsters yells.

He used his power again to dump Cyclops on his rear as the X-man tried to line up for a shot on Toad, making him miss high. His eye's laser beam shot up and out into the nighttime sky.

That done Lance chanced a glance back at Kitty, who was rushing toward where Kurt was groggily getting to his feet. What a girl, he thought admiringly, takes one shot and puts one of us out of the fight. Thank god that whatever kept Grey out of school has kept her from joining us here. Still, Pryde's not the real threat here. The books and articles about tactics and strategy that Potter had given him had taught him how to analyze his opponent's threat level, and without Grey here it was between Summers and Rogue, and with his powers he could keep both of them hopping.

Fred and Toad moved to stand with him as the X-men formed up around Kurt. He shook his head groggily, slurring his words slightly after the punch from Blob. "Ho, how di-did you all know where I was?"

"Rogue saw you leave the mansion and called the rest of us to follow you, good thing we did too."

Rogue rushed in out of the dark, slamming a hard blow in passing into Todd's head before clashing with the blob, but Lance was ready for it. "Blob turn to your left, grab and throw now!" He used his power to slow Rogue's charge, nearly dumping her on the floor but before she could ready herself Fred had grabbed her around the shoulders, lifted her off the ground and threw her away. It didn't hurt but it took her away from the Brotherhood trio and that was what Lance wanted.

Scott and Evan however were still in contact and Cyclops' eye beams shot in again, singeing Fred again, and then Lance was forced to duck and cover from hundreds of tiny bone shrapnel coming from another direction. He cursed as he was separated momentarily from the other two, then cursed even more as he rolled away from an axe kick from Evan, and when you said that about someone with his powers you relay meant it.

Lances rattled the ground again, putting both the X-men on the ground, and then tried to punch Evan out, but Spyke's bone armor protected him, all Lance did was hurt his hand. Another blast of his power kept Spyke and Cyclops on the ground though and let him move back and rejoin Fred and Todd. But Kurt and Kitty had moved to join them, and Rogue was even now running back into the fight from where Fred had thrown her.

Mystique stood alone now apart from the two groups. "Stop it, Stop it damn it, you've all ruined it, you've ruined everything!" Her shout was made of anger and grief, as she knew that there was no way after her history with the X-men she could convince Kurt she hadn't had a part of this.

A loud cry from the open sky above her made everyone looked up only to freeze in place as a spell grabbed them like a giant's fist. "Immobulus Maxim!" More words followed, shouting "Wingardium Arrestium!" and suddenly all the teens found themselves about a foot of the ground, hovering there immobile.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Harry sighed happily as he looked over at Ororo, who was lounging back on the flying carpet, smiling at him while he played with her long hair. Watching the sunset from among the clouds like this had been fantastic. The two of them had flown around for over an hour with Ororo always in the lead showing Harry the places she liked to fly to, the places with the best views.

Flying had been everything Harry had hoped it would be. He had always loved being in the air on his broom, zooming around unencumbered by gravity, the rest of the world laid out around him. This was better not only because he was moving around under his own power with no broom between him and the sensation, but also because of the company.

They just continued to fly side by side, talking quietly for a time until Ororo mentioned being hungry. Then, as the moon rose above them Harry broke out the flying carpet that he had made a few weeks ago and the two sat down to the meal he had made, a light antipasto salad and a lasagna, kept warm in the basket by a small charm along with a bottle of red wine which was chilled by yet another charm to drink.

The two sat next to one another, eating slowly and talking about the kids, their own childhoods, and whether or not she would have made a good Marauder. Harry was of the opinion that a background in their very would have made her an excellent prankster, thought she felt she didn't have enough imagination to be a truly good prankster.

She also had given him some advice about world politics, and argued the devil's advocate position about why he should base his company in America or another first world country, as it would make them much more liable to actually purchase whatever he was going to be selling. He had shared some of his ideas along those lines, but as she had yet to indicate one way or another that she would follow him or stay with Charles and the X-men he hadn't shared any specifics.

Ororo leaned back to lie down on the carpet, her white hair spreading around her head. "A magnificent date Harry, but I must say you are setting the bar incredibly high. Whatever will you do for an encore?"

He leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss, smiling as she arched under him for a moment before pulling away slowly. "We'll just see what comes up hmm?"

She giggled a little, then reached up and pulled him down on top of her, her tongue out and questing even before their lips met again. Harry shuddered a little as her tongue wrestled with his, letting her dominate the kiss for a moment before taking control again, running his hands down her sides.

Underneath them the carpet floated on without any direction as the two of them got more and more into their make out session.

About ten minutes later however a beam of red light zoomed into the night sky to their right with a zap-like sound, so loud in the silence of the night around them it startled them out of their enjoyment to stare over at it. Almost as one they scowled and said "Scott/Summers!" then looked back to each other and laughed a little.

Harry reluctantly got up off of Ororo, being very careful to rub his crotch against hers before doing so, pulling one of those delightful low moans out of her as her eyes closed into slits looking up at him. "I suppose we should go and see what that's about." His words said one thing, his tone told how he was very much unenthused by that idea. In point of fact all he wanted to do was lean down and drag that sound out of her again as often as he could.

Alas Ororo had a very developed sense of duty, and she sighed and pushed to her knees and then to her feet. "I suppose that we should. Though I have to wonder what the kids are up to.

Harry shrugged, and after a second of concentration stepped off the carpet. Ororo followed and he took a moment to wrap up the remains of the meal and then stuffed the carpet and the rest back into the basket. That done the two of them zoomed down towards where the blast had come from.

OOOOOOOOOO

Both sides of the conflict looked up in shock as Harry and Strom floated down through the opening in the roof. All of them could tell the two were not in a good mood for some reason, but only Kitty was brave enough to actually voice why, well that and the fact she had been in phase and Harry's area effect spell hadn't caught her. She floted over to the duo, poking her fingers together. "Er, hey guys, um, how was the date?"

Ororo smiled at her and reached over to touch her hair fondly. "It was magnificent Kitten, if ended too abruptly. I think you should tell us about what is going on here."

Harry landed easily next to her, glaring all around him. He raised one hand and intoned "Lumos!" A bright light like that of a powerful signal light filled the area, letting them all see one another more easily. That done he strode over to first Summers who he released and then Lance, who he only released enough to move around, not enough to stand on the ground, making him unable to use his earthquake powers. "Well, you two are the field leaders of your respective teams, mind telling me what exactly was going on here? I thought we agreed to not fight in areas where you all would be a danger to others. Admittedly this place qualifies as safe on that, but on a school night?"

Lance shrugged a little irritably, having thought this wasn't a good idea himself, and not at all wanting to tangle with the weather goddess or the wizard. "Orders from on high we were told, stop Mystique and Nightcrawler from talking. Don't know why, but as it was in this place with no civilians in the area I went with it." I also wasn't told who the hell the boss is, he thought grimly, but what else is new? Lance was beginning to realize how little control he really had over the actions of his faction and it worried him.

Harry nodded then turned to Scott and raised an eyebrow in query, whereupon the visor wearing X-men gave their story. "Rogue saw Kurt leaving the mansion at around ten. She told the rest of us, and after checking his room we found a note telling him to meet someone who could 'answer his questions' here. We thought it might be a trap and followed him here. We arrived about a minute after the Brotherhood attacked."

Harry nodded then moved over to Mystique who he only partially released from his spell, enough so she could move her jaw now. "Well Mystique, do you have anything to say?"

Mystique scowled, shaking her head, not letting the panic she felt at being caught like this, something of a long term terror for her, show on her face. "What's the point, none of you will believe me, and why should you?"

One eyebrow rose and he looked over at Kurt, releasing him from his spells. "Blue-boy?"

"She said she was my mother, and I, I believed her until the brotherhood showed up. Now, now I don't know what to think." Kurt sighed heavily then sat down, holding his side. That first shot from Fred had caught him before he could ready himself, and was definitely going to leave a bruise. He might be a little stronger and tougher than a normal human, but not that much.

Harry scratched his chin for a moment, then grinned a little. "Ororo, would you mind watching the store here for a bit luv? I've got something back home that might be able to help us here." He wasn't about to let Kurt and Mystique part without solving this issue.

Ororo nodded. "Of course, though if you could do something about young Maximoff's mouth? That would be very helpful, both for the rest of us and to ensure his continued health." She narrowed her eyes on the last words, her hands beginning to crackle with lightning.

Pietro had in fact been cursing under his breath, getting louder and louder as time went on with none of the others helping him. Since the others and been immobilized he had been shouting in the background. Harry shook his head and with a wave of one hand and a "Silencio!" the speedster was silenced, much to the relief of everyone else. Another wave and everyone could move their bodies but were still stuck about a foot above the air.

Nodding to all and sundry Harry rose off the ground and flew off into the night.

After a few minutes Kitty smirked, coming out of phase to nudge Ororo in the side. "So, that date, how was it?"

Ororo looked at the younger girl then laughed aloud and put an arm around her shoulders. "Oh Kitten, don't ever change!" Kitty grinned and led Ororo to stand by where Rogue was still hanging in the air, and the Goth girl smirked and leaned forward eagerly.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Harry landed in front of the mansion and walked in, still covered by the notice-me not he had built into the runic array that let him fly. Still it didn't surprise him that Charles and Logan were waiting for him when he entered.

Logan spoke in his usual abrupt manner. "Other than Grey all the kids are missing from their rooms, you know anything Potter?"

Harry nodded. "Kurt snuck out to meet someone who had information about his family, then he got jumped by the Brotherhood, who were in turn jumped by the X-teens. I've got them all immobilized and playing nice, so we're going to get a few answers. No more violence tonight though."

Logan frowned but nodded and Charles cocked his head. "I presume you are talking about Mystique? I would warn you to take anything but the barest minimum form her with a grain of salt. She is duplicitous, and is very good at answering a question without in fact giving any information." Logan growled and nodded, having been told about Kurt and Mystique and having had several run-ins with the shapeshifter over the years.

"Hmm, well if this works, we'll actually get a bit of truth out of her tonight."

Logan reared back in shock. "Be careful with that Potter, Mystique knows a lot of secrets, most of them dangerous, things best buried. Be careful you don't find more than ya bargain for."

"I'll take that under advisement, but trust me, she'll only be answering the questions I give her." With that he went upstairs and entered his workroom, where his trunk was. He opened it and reached in, pulling out a vial with a clear crystal potion in it and another smaller vial with a greenish liquid inside, then turned and left.

He arrived back at the construction site quickly. His brows drew together at seeing the looks on Kitty and Rogue's faces then shrugged it off as unimportant. Little did he know that the girls had been giggling and sighing in turns after being told about his date with Ororo. Scott and the other boys had heard a bit of it too, and had been torn between jealousy and taking notes.

Harry strode up to where Mystique was hanging in the air, arms crossed irritably and looking anywhere but at Rogue or Kurt. Once she looked at him he held up the two potions. "Now, this is a bit of an experiment, one I'm actually very interested in seeing the result of. What we have here in the clear vial is something called veritaserum, and it is pretty much a truth serum. What it means is that you won't be able to lie or prevaricate as long as the questions are as clear and focused as possible. The other vial is the antidote. I will ask you four questions, which I will write down and let you see now, before asking them. I will also mute everyone else so they can't speak and disturb the flow understand?"

Despite her blue skin it was obvious that Mystique had paled during that explanation and Harry kept speaking calmly, his eyes locked on her own, letting her see his sincerity there. "I'm not going to do this without your permission, nor will I ask any questions but the four I show you. But it's the only way that Kurt and the others will believe you, you've burned too many bridges with them."

Mystique frowned sadly, looking away. It was the truth and she knew it, and she knew this might be the last time she was given a chance to connect with her offspring both blood and adopted. After a moment she nodded, startling all the X-men and indeed the brotherhood, who had all thought that she would refuse. "All right Potter, show me the questions and I'll agree to this."

Harry nodded and with an almost absent minded wave let Rogue and Kurt close in with Ororo following swiftly. Kitty, realizing this was both an invasion of privacy and something private for Rogue and Kurt (and even Mystique, though Kitty didn't particularly care about her) moved off to join the others, who Ororo had moved into a corner. Only Toad was still immobilized entirely, Harry fearing he could move around easily enough through use of his tongue, but the others could all move in place, they just couldn't touch the ground. Most of them were, not taking it in stride but okay with this, but Fred was looking decidedly sick to the stomach.

Harry quickly conjured up a piece of paper and a pencil (much simpler to conjure than a pen) and wrote down the four questions. The first one was simple, asking her full name and when she was born. The second was to prove to the kids that she was under the influence of the truth serum, and asked her to tell them the most embarrassing thing that ever happened when she was in the form of an animal. The last two were simple, asking her if she loved Kurt and Rogue in turn. Both kids looked at that portion and gulped wondering where the hell the answers to that question would take them.

Mystique however was caught by the second question. "What the hell, why do you want to know that?"

"Well it's not something you'd ever share with anyone willingly is it?" Harry answered easily, keeping all his amusement off his face. The two teens looked at one another and grinned, realizing this could be a bit of payback for Mystique trying to turn Rogue against the X-men.

Mystique scowled but nodded. "Alright Potter, do it. But know if you ask any other questions I'll be coming for you."

Harry nodded, taking the threat seriously, not that he was going to do anything of the sort of course. He first silence the two kids, trusting Ororo to keep quiet.

After that he raised the vial to her lips and let three drops fall from it into her mouth. After five minutes her eyes went blank and he nodded. "What is your name and when were you born?"

"Ravene Alegamoria Callisa Darkeholme. I was born in 1883," Mystique answered in droning sort of voice.

Harry's eyebrows flew up in shock at that. I guess her shape-shifting powers work to offset her aging. Good grief. Still it seems as if Viritaserum works on non-magicals.

Knowing that he went on to the question that would prove to the kids that the truth serum was working. "So, that power of yours, shape shifting is pretty awesome, you can assume any shape you want. What are the two most embarrassing things that happened to you when you assumed an animal form?"

"The most embarrassing thing that happened to me was during WW2. I assumed the shape of a guard dog to infiltrate a small German military installation along the border with Russia, as I could not change forms to one of the workers because they all knew one another too well for that to work. I was able to get in alright but one of the officers was a dog breeder in his spare time, and noticed I was female. He took me and put me in a kennel, where I was almost assaulted by a male dog. I had to change into a human form and escape through a window aborting the mission." Her voice was still a drone, but it carried an undercurrent of frustration and remembered anger.

To the side of the semi-interrogation/semi-scientific experiment, the two kids were gaping in amusement and horror, and even Ororo looked torn between amusement and commiseration.

"The second most embarrassing thing happened more recently when I attempted to spy on Xavier's mansion. I had taken the form of a giant eagle, and even as I was turning away for some reason your owl attacked me. I thought I would win the battle easily, but I was wrong. Your owl nearly killed me, and forced me out of the sky and onto the ground. I was forced to flee in human mode from there."

Well done Hedwig. Harry laughed to himself while the other three listeners merely grinned. "Mystique, do you love your son Kurt?"

Mystique answered honestly, this time wanting to answer the question and not fighting it. "I loved him when he was a baby. I do not know the boy he is now, but I do still care for him greatly, he is my son after all."

Kurt gulped, staring at Mystique and wondering where they would go from here after that answer. He wasn't certain what their relationship would be like, but he did want to get to know his mother better, maybe that would do for a start.

"Mystique, do you love your adopted daughter Rogue?"

"I love Ann Marie, even if she insists on using that silly codename all the time. I know I haven't shown it often, and I won't apologize for what I did, but I do love her."

Rogue on the other hand scowled, remembering how Mystique had abused her trust and tried to turn her against the X-men when her powers first manifested. Just because Mystique loved her didn't mean the southern belle would forget what the shape shifter had done to her.

Harry brought out the antidote and then opened Mystique's mouth and dripped a single drop into it. After a moment the faraway look went away and she looked around at them, her face somewhere between triumphant, embarrassed and concerned as she looked at the kids. Harry smiled and moved off, motioning Ororo to follow. "I think we'll leave you three alone to talk it over for a bit. Just remember it's past 12 now, and it's a school night, yeah?"

The two adults moved off and Harry walked up to where Lance and Scott were floating, apparently doing their best to ignore one another.

With a wave of his hand he released Toad from his stasis and he waved the short misshapen boy off to join Fred, who Kitty had pushed away from his original place, where Harry could see a pile of sick. Another wave of his hand let Fred touchdown, and he kneeled down to kiss the round enthusiastically. "Alright you two, take off. Big due, I'll give one of the X-kids a bit of a special lunch for you last night to make up for the whole throwing up thing."

At the mention of Food Fred perked up a little, but Toad looked mutinous for a moment before moving off with his gigantic friend.

Harry then turned to look at Pietro still stuck in the ground then pointed at him, using a old dueling spell that made Pietro unable to get any purchase on the ground. "You can let that one out Kitty, he won't be doing anything."

Kitty frowned but went over and released Pietro from the ground. The boy immediately tried to take a swing at her but his fist passed right through her and when he tried to take a step Harry's spell went to work, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. He tried to get up only to fall again.

Kitty laughed and moved away, still unable to hear any of the curses the silver haired boy was shouting. She moved over to Storm to ask her some questions about the next language she was going to introduce to the teens.

Harry smirked at that and Scott and Lance both chuckled a little. Lance was already planning some payback for the silver haired asshole for getting them all into this mess that should have just been a family issue for no reason he could see. Harry looked over at them and waved his hands, causing the two teens to float towards him. "Now, while the trio over there is getting acquainted and the ladies are talking about languages, let's have a little AAR discussion shall we? Dissect your own then your team's performance, and I'll see if I can spot places to improve on."

The two teenagers looked at him, then at one another and began.

About forty minutes later the trio around Mystique separated, the two X-men moving off to join Kitty and Ororo, and Mystique moving to talk to Harry. She waited a bit until Harry finished describing the proper methods of identifying an ambush and how to best respond to the two types of ambush before speaking up. "Thanks Potter. This, this means a lot to me."

"Glad you lot made up." Harry responded, turning to her. The two teens by this point had gotten into the lesson, and were a little miffed that it was over, but realizing that it was a school night, and that none of them would be excused from it, they knew it had to end.

"I wouldn't go that far Potter, but it was better than any other outcome. I'm meeting with them both every Saturday for lunch, so put that on your calendars."

Mystique was correct, the trio had not really made up entirely, but they had agreed to try and know one another at least. The two teens weren't willing to join Mystique and the brotherhood, and she saw Xavier's dream as the fantasy it was. Still, for now at least they could forget their 'political' differences. Too much time had passed for her and Kurt to be a real family but they did want to get to know one another and Rogue was a little more leery of her, but was willing to give her another chance, both for her own sake and Kurt, in return for Raven's help in trying to find out what happened to her own biological parents.

"So I'll see you on Saturday when I drop by to pick them up." She moved over and reached down to grab one of Pietro's arms from where he was still flailing on the ground. She twisted it up behind his back and her other arm went around him in a choke hold. "You can let this one go now Potter, he's not going to cause any trouble."

Harry shrugged and released the frictionless spell on Pietro dissipated as well as the silencing charm, not that he could take advantage of it with Mystique having him in a chokehold. "You and I are going to have a long talk Maximoff about who is in charge here, and then you're going to answer some questions." The normally arrogant teen gulped, and said nothing. With a final nod towards Harry and the X-men Mystique moved off dragging Pietro with her.

Lance stayed for a moment, walking up to Kitty. "Um, Kitty, uh, are, um, are you free this weekend, er say Saturday?"

Kitty looked at him in shock. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"Um, if you want to, y'know, be formal about it?" he asked, wincing a little.

Kitty grinned. "Sure, I'm free, I'll meet you down at the Starbucks down on Littleton Street around six okay?"

"Deal." Lance grinned, nearly sagging with relief, and walked off.

Kitty shrugged a little at Rogue's and Ororo's amused gazes, while Scott simply gaped, not understanding what had just happened at all while Kurt just gave her a thumbs up and Harry merely laughed. "And now children, I think it's time we get you lot back to the mansion. It is well past your bedtimes you know."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Mystique woke up on Tuesday very slowly, after all she had a very late night. However her senses immediately switched to full combat mode as she sensed someone else in the room with her.

"Don't bother getting up on my account," said a very cold, commanding voice from one corner or her bedroom and Mystique froze. Even if she had tried to move the pressure suddenly pushing down on her, the iron in her own blood pressing her down would have kept her in place. She couldn't even turn to look at the man in the corner. A very thin but needle sharp metal pole suddenly appeared in the air above her wide, startled eyes, and then lowered slowly so that the tip pressed ever so gently against her jugular.

"I thought you loyal Mystique, I thought you saw the way of the world and what must be done to ensure mutantkind's place at the top. Was I wrong? What other reason could you have for opening up dialogue with this Harry Potter without my permission? What other reason could you have for trying to connect emotionally with one of Xavier's followers?"

The pressure on her upper body let up just enough for her to talk and she did so with alacrity, having already thought up what to say. Never let it be said that Mystique was anything but quick in a corner, be it physical or mental. "I thought to use my familial connection with Rogue and Kurt to try and suborn them to our side," she said, keeping her voice level, honest but worried, which was what her interlocutor would expect to see, the better to make him believe the 'honest' part.

"And Harry Potter isn't a follower of Xavier. He wants to go his own way soon, but he's realistic enough to know that eventually he may need to ally himself with someone else. He doesn't believe in Xavier's dream overmuch, he's just with them because he's being paid to train the kids." Not quite true but close enough to pass muster. "They met through the Fantastic Four, who I hope to learn more about via my discussions with him, since neither I nor any of our other spies can get into the Baxter building."

The figure paused thoughtfully. Some of those points were obviously lies, but some of them were truthful. The Fantastic Four were a concern going forward, as there was no way to really predict which way they would jump when the war between Homo Superior and Homo Sapien came. "And were you successful?"

The shapeshifter knew not to lie at this moment, besides lying to the figure in the corner was almost always impossible. His ability to read another person's expressions was almost telepathic in its scope. She could prevaricate, she could mislead, but outright lying was beyond what she could do with him. "Yes and no, they're not willing to fight me personally at this point, but they still believe in Xavier's dream. Their young yet," she hastened to add, "I think a few more years of dealing with the bigotry present in the world and seeing the news about riots and hate groups rising against mutant kind will turn them sour to the idea of peaceful coexistence."

The figure frowned a moment then slowly nodded. While Pietro's report to him hadn't been very detailed and mostly filled with curses at all and sundry for how he had been treated (and my god was the boy a disappointment, no brains and little combat ability if he could be taken out that quickly) it had told him something about this Potter's magical powers. And while he was certain there was more than Mystique was telling him about this meeting, and in fact there might've been some kind of emotional connection on her part as well as the two teens, she was still too valuable asset to discard willingly.

"Very well Mystique," said still frowning and making certain that his displeasure was felt by pressing down on her further with his power. The iron in her blood congealed and the woman nearly screamed aloud in pain as he said coldly, "But remember, cross me and I will bury you."

Mystique tried to nod, but the power holding her in place didn't let her. A second later it was gone, as was the metal pole that had been hovering over her throat throughout. She groaned in pain twitching occasionally as her body recovered.

When she was able to move, she looked over and was not surprised at all to see no one else in her room. She frowned heavily, thinking about how much her boss had changed over the years. When they first met he had been the young but passionate in his stance, ruthless but compassionate and very, very determined to make certain that nothing like the Holocaust could ever happen to mutantkind. He fully understood that war between Homo Superior and Homo Sapien was inevitable but he hadn't been this grim, controlling force back then. He'd respected other people's ideas and beliefs, and was willing to back them to the hell so long as what they did furthered the goal of mutant superiority.

About five years ago however that started to change, and he had begun to become secretive, scheming and standoffish. She wondered why that was, what had changed him so much. She still believed in him and the cause of course, as she knew that his power could be the difference between victory and defeat when war came, but it certainly didn't make for a very comfortable association between them.

She sighed and glanced over at the time, then frowned heavily as she noticed that the clock had been utterly destroyed. "So that's where he got the metal from, I thought I had removed all the metal from the room, but live and learn I guess," she said sarcastically, touching her jugular gingerly then shrugged and looked outside. The sun was up, but barely. She looked back at her bed debating with herself whether or not to go back to sleep, then shuddered and shook her head. No, she reflected that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, not unless she wanted to deal with the nightmares that little session would certainly have given her subconscious.

OOOOOOOO

The next two days passed uneventfully at the mansion except for Harry pranking the x-kids as usual, something they actually enjoyed as it took their minds off the Kurt and Rogue's issues and distracted them from Jean's continued isolation.

At school Pietro tried to make trouble at school but unfortunately for him both Lance and Mystique sat on him heavily whenever he tried, and when they couldn't had told Fred and Todd not to help him if he got into any trouble with the X-men. Neither was unwilling to use their powers for personal gain, but since at the moment that gain would come at a price of a beating at Harry's hands Lance wasn't enthused by the idea. Not to mention the fact he had a date to look forward to that weekend, and didn't want anything to happen that could sour Kitty to the idea. Mystique on the other hand was simply very, very angry that the speedster had called their boss and then disrupted what should have been a family matter.

On Wednesday Mystique was leaning back in her chair in her office at Bayville High contemplating the upcoming meeting that weekend with her two disenchanted children. She had no idea what that conversation go, but had some very firm ideas of where it would not be go. She would not be answering any questions about Kurt's father for example, and she hoped to steer the entire conversation away from their conflicting viewpoints of the world. Time enough to get them on her side later when the two of them were out and about and were forced to face the hatred and bigotry of Homo Sapiens.

Her thoughts were thankfully interrupted by her cell phone ringing and she frowned at it. While Wednesday was the normal time for her and Irene to check in with one another it was very rare that Irene would be the one to call. She lifted it to her ear and said "yes?"

"I'm sorry," said the voice of her friend in low, almost remorseful tones. "I would have warned you before the meeting about what would've happened, but that would have changed the outcome, and it would not have been nearly as good for you or your children. This way it is more real, and they know without a doubt you care for them."

Mystique sighed leaning back, a small smile on her face. Regardless of anything else Irene was her friend, and she could no more blame Irene for not warning her about every little thing (or even medium sized thing) than she could blame her own hand. "I figured it was something like that. No worries Irene. But how are you doing my friend? I haven't seen you in person for a few months now." That last was said sadly, as her work as principal of the high school and as the leader of the Brotherhood kept her from taking trips to where she had helped Irene hide. She missed her friend/lover immensely, especially at night.

"I am well for now," said her friend, much calmer are as her friend hadn't reacted as a part of her had feared. It had been a low key fear, but Raven was her best friend, and the one lover she ever had that did not try to suborn or use her for her/his own gain.

Mystique's eyes narrowed, warned by the wording and something in her friends tone, leaning forward almost letting her body shift back to her normal form. "For now, does that mean you won't be fine in the near future?"

"I will need to move in two weeks time," said Irene calmly, a calm she for once was not feeling. "Someone is hunting me, for what purpose I cannot say. That future is clouded with pain, all I get is the impression of a pale face, and a name from the past."

Now Mystique's mind had fully engaged and she was already forming ideas and plans as to where she could take Irene in the time allowed and how to cover their tracks, maybe even leave a nasty little surprise behind. She and Irene had talked several times about how they had hidden her talent for seeing the future from their current leader. He was under the impression that she could only see a few months into the future which while useful was not exactly a game changer. She had thought several times at the beginning that it was a mistake, but in the last few years that thought had disappeared. The way he was now she would not trust her best friend, her only friend in fact and her lover on top of that, to his control.

Now that would prove to have been an excellent decision, as it would make it easier for them to disappear. "What name from the past?"

"Essex," she Irene said her voice grim, and Raven blanched, remembering a time during WW2 when the two of them saw what that mad doctor had left behind from his experiments. "I know not how, but his face has not changed at all over time, and he is searching for me."

Mystique nodded thoughtfully. "Two weeks, I can have something prepared easily enough in that time. I'll meet you this Monday."

Irene said softly, "If you do you'll need to abandon your current guise entirely as we will be on the run for quite some time. And you will miss a pivotal point in the development of the brotherhood and the X-Men."

Mystique paused, thinking that through. "Something to do with our esteemed leader?"

"Yes ,"Irene answered easily. "Luckily he is in Japan at the moment, and thus cannot monitor this call. But he will attempt something, and many things will change, and the teenagers of both groups will be changed by it. Some for the better, some for the worse and many will seek independence. If you are there you can mitigate some of it, control some of it, and gain an ally rather than a mere student or follower."

"But if I don't help you escape Essex, whatever he is, finds you." Mystique said softly. "No choice there Irene."

"Are you sure of this?" asked Irene equally softly, her voice loving, tender. "If you try to save me you will lose the ability to be where you can affect what is coming. Xavier and our current backer are the focal points, if you move away from them you lose the chance to influence those who will shape the future of mutantkind one way or the other and not regain it for years."

"You're more important than the future Irene," Mystique replied quickly, smiling easily. Choose between her best friend and lover or the uncertain ability to shape the next generation of mutants, no, that was no real choice to her. "I'll see you Tuesday."

Irene let out a sigh of relief, and it was only then that mystique realized that her friend had been deeply concerned about what would've happened to her if Mystique had not wanted to go with her. "Thank you my friend."

Mystique merely nodded and reiterated that she would see her friend Tuesday and then hung up the phone and began immediately to work on plans for the next few days, and where the tow of them would go and how. She was still planning to meet her children that weekend, but anything long term would have to be cancelled.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Thursday morning Jean came out of her meditative trance once again and stretched languidly, moving out of the lotus position she was sitting in. It had taken her four days of almost nonstop work, but at last her mind was fully organized. First her belsham-trees as a defense, then behind it a high tower with hard concrete walls encircling the rest of her mind, with a diamond shaped magnifying glass on the roof, signifying where she could send out or take in telepathic signals.

She had decided weeks ago to organize her mind like a tower, the outer design of which she taken from the Tolkien books. She had always thought that the betrayal of Saruman had been one of the two most important turning points of the saga, no matter that it had happened almost completely off screen as it were. Thus her tower was built to resemble Orthanc in design, though the colors she used on the exterior were orange, red and white rather than matte black like the original.

Her emotions too were organized, and she felt she would be able to keep a rein on her temper from now on, thought that would be tougher than it ever had been before, since anger, like lust and love, were fiery, powerful emotions, and thus called out to the portion of the Phoenix in her. Still she was ready to face the world outside again, and she moved around her room humming happily as she prepared for the day.

She walked into the dining room area and was immediately greeted by ecstatic exclamations of surprise and happiness from all and sundry. She smiled happily back, returning a hug from Kitty and a strong hand clasp from Ororo. Her friendship with the older African woman was one of the best things that had happened lately, and the two had come even closer in the past few days.

Ororo, Harry, Logan and Charles were the only ones she had seen in the past few days since none of the others could protect their mind from her power if she let out stray telepathic feelers. Harry of course she couldn't get a read on at all, and Storm's connection to the weather somehow gave her a partial immunity that allowed a telepath to connect to her only superficially. Logan had immense mental defenses despite not being a telepath though he couldn't control his emotions as well, and of course Charles could protect his own mind easily enough though he only visited the once. Storm and Harry however visited often, a few times every day for Ororo and once a day for Harry.

Scott looked as if he wanted a hug to and she frowned a little and swiftly moved Kitty between the two of them. An aspect of occlumency that she had already seen before this whole incident was that you had more insight into yourself and those around you after you organized and sifted through your memories, and she had found she didn't actually like how Scott looked at her at times. It was an odd mix between friendship possessiveness and a crush, and it confused and worried her.

"So you are well Jean?" asked Charles.

Jean looked at him and her eyes turned a little colder but that was all, a great step up from nearly ripping his head off telekinetically like she almost did when he stopped by on Sunday. "I'm fine Sir," she replied, her voice markedly more reserved than it had been when greeting her friends. "My mind is fully organized, and my emotions are as controlled as a normal person's can be."

The others realized there was something new about Jean, something that hadn't been there before. She moved differently than she had before, which Rogue, the most blunt speaking of the group, would have called a mix between a little girl, a robot and a spoiled princess. It wasn't the same mature, quietly confident yet self-effacing way Ororo used to move, but what it had been eluded them. Whatever it was it was gone now, leaving behind someone who moved like a confident woman, not a little girl, someone who didn't mind calling attention to herself, who was certain in herself to handle anything that came her way.

Logan looked at her, and for just a moment Jean caught a bit of the same look in his eyes that she had seen so often in her memories of Scott, which caused her to shiver a little and to almost glare at the older man. He's ancient and he's so fucking hairy, ewww! She swiftly turned her eyes to Harry, who was standing next to Ororo, a crooked smile on his face and his emerald eyes shining in welcome. She met that gaze grinning widely and nodded her head in thanks. Harry understood and nodded back and then they all sat down and dug into breakfast.

Charles took in all the little changes in Jean with a bit of concern and more than a little sadness, knowing he had his work cut out for him to regain her trust since he could now see how much the mental blocks he had placed in her mind had changed her. Jean had always been quiet, almost shy despite her powers, very self-effacing and standoffish. There was a bit of an edge to her now, a fire in her, her emotions plain to see in a way that was startling considering how she was before. If this was the way she always should have been, then my blocks really did more harm than good. I must find a way to apologize for that and bury the hatchet further with Harry.

Her friends weren't the only ones who noticed a difference in Jean. The moment she walked into Bayville high everyone who saw here was struck by the difference. She moved differently, her face was more open, her eyes snapping with energy, gone was the cool reserve that had so marked her out among her peers, replaced by confidence and an unspoken challenge to her step.

Duncan had actually been thinking of dumping Jean for the past week or so, ever since she had treated him and his friends like a bunch of little kids. She might be hot, but she didn't put out so that really didn't matter, and frankly he was at a loss as to why they had gotten together in the first place except for her being one of the hottest girls on the cheerleading squad and him being the quarterback of the football team. They had nothing else in common not classes, not interests, nothing. Now though, seeing her like this, well it made him reconsider and he went out of his way that day and Friday to cozy up to her, with little results alas, as he wasn't the only one wondering why the hell they were together.

Of course there were those that didn't take to well to the change, and Jean's new, challenging attitude and new take no prisoners' attitude. When the other cheerleaders became even more jealous than they had been and tried to take verbal shots at her she shot back with both barrels. When she spotted Pietro using his powers to cause a wind that blew girls skirts up, she telepathically threatened to use him like a bouncy ball, and proceeded to do so the moment she could with no witnesses.

Not that the kids at school were the only ones to feel the fury of her new attitude.

OOOOOOOOO

The mission parameter this time was a hostage situation. The objective was to get as many of the hostages out as possible without leaving any of their own behind. The place was regular 20 story apartment building, with no structural improvements of any kind.

Scott's initial plan was sound, he used Kurt and Kitty to scout around, figuring out where all the 'terrorists' were the Kitty gave them all a few shield and notice-me not runes. These runes were made to act like a simple protégo shield, blocking incoming attacks for a few seconds. They could be overcome through brute force or enough impacts, but they were still better than nothing. After that she assumed a lookout position, showing the watchers that Scott had taken to heart the little discussion he had about Kitty with Harry.

Things went well after they entered the building. They entered from the 18th floor in an area that wasn't under surveillance either by the terrorists or the apartments spotty security. They then moved down into the bowels of the building, using the notice-me not runes to cover their advance.

It was when they got to the fifteenth floor that things started to go wrong. Spyke tripped a trap that exploded in his face, nearly taking him out, but he was saved by his bone armor. With that the notice-me-not wards went down and their opponents were warned they were under attack. Worse the bomb had taken out the stairs to the next level down. Scott used Kurt and Jean to get the others over the new pit but by then the terrorists had moved troops toward the disturbance and they ran into actual opposition soon.

They learned to their cost that Harry had put in a more than usual portion of the magic using troops. Jean used her powers effectively from the get go, causing an explosion that took out three of the terrorists but Scott ordered her to fall back and protect the others. She scowled but obeyed, falling back in the advancing group. Next Rogue tripped another trap that brought the ceiling down on top of their position. Rogue and Jean worked together to keep it off them, but Kurt was isolated in a apartment and gunned down by the defenders there, who roared out and attacked the X-men before they realized Kurt was down.

Rogue charged forward, ignoring the gunfire thanks to her armor and Juggernaut given durability, slaughtering the terrorists in close range with Spyke's support while Jean dug out Scott easily hefting several large pieces of rubble with her power. Jean leaned in smiling sweetly and said "Scott, if you don't start using me for offense and keep treating me like I'm a fragile doll that needs to be protected I'm going to burn your legs off okay?"

Scott gulped, more terrified because the threat had been delivered so blandly and with a smile on her face than with any kind of histrionics. "Um, uh, Marvel Girl, take point, um use your powers to scout us a route?" he said ending on a question, looking at him worriedly.

Jean smiled happily and turned away, concentrating. "There are forty more terrorists, with fifteen still between us taking up defensive positions. Five more are moving to reinforce five more around the hostages on the ninth floor in some kind of atrium. The other fifteen are below the ninth floor some of them spread out, with a group of eight on the second floor in defensive positions."

Scott frowned, castigating himself for forgetting that an telepath could use his/her power to find people like that, but before he could say anything Jean gestures in front of her and a wave of telekinetic power raced out, picking up and tossing debris away. This triggered to more traps on this floor, blowing a hole in the floor and giving them a way down. Jean smiled grimly and Rogue jumped down quickly, looking around before signaling the coast was clear. "Let's go."

With Jean contributing on offense the team was not able to power through the defenses, although Scott lost a bit of control as she seemed to override his orders if she thought she saw an alternative, the only problem was most of the time she was correct, something that made Scott wince whenever it happened. In the end they were able to get all of the hostages out, and even stopped on their way back to the roof to pick up Kurt's 'corpse'. They were battered, bloody and exhausted but it was the first time they had succeeded in beating one of Harry's scenarios for the first time ever, and it was because of Jean and her new personality.

That night Jean successfully flew for the first time, and she and Ororo went for a flight around the mansion and away over the nearby mountains laughing and playing tag, thrilled beyond words at her ability to fly. They left behind a happy Harry, ecstatic over the team's success, thought this of course did not stop him from pointing out where there was room for improvement, and a worried Scott, who now saw his secret (or not so secret) love interest challenging his position, as well as a worried Charles, who was watching the evolving changes to the group dynamic, and was wondering how much of it would become the new norm, and how much of it would turn out to be teenage angst.

As the two women disappeared into the night, a final telepathic message hit all of them. Oh and I'm not Marvel Girl anymore. I'm changing my codename. From now on I am Phoenix. This did not alleviate Scott's or Charles' concerns, though it did make Harry grin, happy that the redhead was continuing to break out of her shell.

End chapter

---

I had intended to have more in this chapter, but I decided I was short changing a relationship that will eventually become one of the cornerstones of the story. Next chapter will be mostly action as the 'mysterious leader' makes his move (honestly if there is even one person who doesn't know who it is I'll be surprised) as well as some comedy points, some magic and some other things.

As always read and review.