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.

10. I'll Put out Your Fire

just a minor update, some word changes at the very end that were necessary.

I Don't own Marvel, I don't have enough drawing talent for that, nor do I own Harry Potter, I don't like plot holes enough.

Want to first give a shout out to Paladeus who has returned to fanfiction after a long absence and updated Death's Pride, one of the best back in time fics out there!

I have posted a poll on my profile about what I should do after book 1 of Chaotic Space ends in a month or so if you're interested in my Ranma fics, as well as some information on a new story idea I thought up.

Thank you all for the encouraging reviews, I was really sweating some bits of this chapter. Some specific reviews I'd like to mention:

Tolreve Fodrol: Not quite yet, but something like that is in the works.

Gatemaster: Sorry, no. Rogue will not be part of the harem, that will be shown to be moving forward a bit in this chapter.

tylerbamafan34: I'm not neutering Shield, its just they have a shit ton of things going on all at once, and they have just been getting started. In this chapter and going forward you will see them starting to step their game up, though in the long run I will remind you that Harry won't have the best relationship with them, and maybe not America in general.

MisterJoke: Sorry you didn't think there was any tension, whatever that means in this case. Who would you like me to kill? Magneto? Far too good a villain and character to kill off, and far too many future events need him alive, though as I said not exactly whole. Besides I think his estranged daughters deserve a chance to kick him in the nuts before I allow him to die. One of the Brotherhood? Which of the kids do you think has it in them right now to kill?

The Fox Boss: Yes, Harry's magical core grows whenever he drains an object/person of its magic. His current abilities will gain a little more, for example his Magia Erebea has been strengthened twentyfold by his draining two of Cyttorak's tethers/gems.

Joe Lawyer: Blame the original Evolution for the jet thing as well as Marvel in general, sorry but I'm not even going to try to fix the science of this universe. I have a question for your next point: Do you think Harry would want to be a god? In any event, that is far in the future, though he will see a bit of a power-up from this – not as much as before, but a bit. The robot things are an idea, but I believe that it was Magneto himself that created the wormholes, sorry. Harry will remain the main focus of this story, the ringmaster which everything else revolves around, but I still maintain that the girls in his harem will be almost as close to one another as they are to him, it's the only way the group dynamic will work with the number of strong-willed individuals that comprise it.

Morbious20: He transfigured when he could, but most of the time Magneto fought him doing it which will be explored further in this chapter.

FleeingReality: I am still debating Betsy being in the harem. PM me and see if you can convince me otherwise it depends on how the writing goes. I blocked the user in question, hope that is enough. Though no fear of me losing interest for a long while if ever, this story is just fun to write.

Kitsune of darkfire: Again blame marvel for this. Magneto's shields have withstood a nuclear explosion and even Phoenix Flame (with difficulty on that one). The Black-Fyre was pressing him and would have eventually won through but not quickly, so he had time to open the area to space, and the flames did need air to breath, one of their few weaknesses.

plums: It was indeed, it was more to showcase Jean and Ororo's skills than anything else really. More training sessions will be mentioned, but none will be described like they have been, just another sign of Harry moving on, which he will start to lay the foundation for in this chapter.

Libri Igni: Yes, the egos. The two of them will have many…interesting meetings. I have read of Melody in a few fanfics, but can't remember her from all those years back when I watched Evolution, so I am sorry to say she was probably fan created.

Kid Coheed: Who is Squirrel Girl?

Dracco: Harry didn't point that out this time because he was simply too angry and on edge given what happened to Ororo and the gem, but he will point that out when next they meet/try to kill one another.

Koroby: Heh. You're forgetting the Bloody Insane spells. But no, Harry doesn't want to rule over people, he wants them to stand beside him.

KrisB-71854: Thanks for the great review! You're right, other than Fury and a few of his veterans (Duggan and a few others) SHIELD is much like the world at large, unprepared to believe in magic. Hogwarts and many other things will be seen next chapter. As for the X-men and who stays and goes, that is still up in the air. Real recruitment will not start for a while yet.

In terms of mistakes as a few people pointed them out: I use Dragon Naturally Speaking, and I sometimes miss mistakes it makes. Sometimes even when I go back I miss them. If you give me specifics I will go back and correct them, but other than that, rewriting doesn't really allow me the outlet that writing does. I've gone back a few times, but I am not arrogant enough to think I caught them all.

In other news, I should mention that pop culture and movies and stuff will still be the same despite the tech being all over the place. I have also been asked about alternate realities and stuff, and I will say no to any of that. While one or two characters might make an appearance from them, they simply confuse the issue way too much. And that doesn't even mention the fact that Harry's presence will prevent many of the events that gave rise to those alternate dimensions in the first place, as well as a lot of the 'alternate futures. Of course it will be a while before the ripples of his presence spread that far forward….

Oh, someone asked me in a review or PM a while back about how the characters looked, and the answer is a mix. In terms of Kurt, Scott, Evan and Rogue, they look much like they did in Evolution, a bit broader in the shoulders for the guys and a bit older looking for Rogue, her body a bit more filled out. Kitty looks exactly like she initially appeared in the comics, no relation at all to how she looked in Evolution except for her clothing. Ororo and the other adults (including Jean) look as they did in the comics. To that end I will be using American bra sizes from now on, I didn't at first because I was taken by how amazing the Anime version of Ororo looked, but I'm over it now, and will go back and correct that sometime after New Years. In the future unless specifically mentioned the characters appearing later will look like they do in the comics. The good looking ones, not like they looked during that damn Cassandra Nova crap.

WARNING: there is limeish content in this chapter! You may skip it by searching for Lime End.

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Chapter Ten: I'll Put out Your Fire

Emma Frost stood before her father's desk having been summoned to his office the moment she got in from a day spent out with her friends. Well they weren't really friends per-se, as a Frost she couldn't afford friends, especially not this close to where her family lived. So more acquaintances really, but hanging out with then had given her an excuse to get out of the house on a Saturday which was really the only point.

She stood at something approaching parade rest, her face cold, controlled and revealing absolutely nothing as a Frost's should. Nothing about her manner indicated anything but cool indifference, but the fact that her elder sister Adrienne was again standing to one side of the desk worried her.

Her father had been looking at her for a few minutes silently after her arrival. Now, his eyes flicked from Emma to her sister and he said abruptly, "Analyze the recent upheaval in Stark Enterprises. Is it on the level?"

This question was obviously addressed to both his daughters and Emma waited for sister to go first. The girl did so quickly, frowning thoughtfully but eager to show her skills as always. "I believe it is on the level, Stark apparently ran into a group of terrorists in the Middle East somewhere that were armed with Stark weapons. He's overreacting of course, but he has always had a flair for the melodramatic."

Their father nodded sharply to indicate that she didn't have to explain that line. All three of them knew it was true after all. Tony Stark was one of the most flamboyant and brilliant men in the world, on par with Reed Richards and very few others, but with none of their stability. He jumped from bed to bed, and the number of for affairs he had with celebrities, ambassador's wives, and other women would fill a good sized phonebook. Saying he had a flair for the dramatic was an understatement.

Adrienne went on thoughtfully. "A better way would have been to shut down the company for a short time, hold all new sales and shipments until the leak's been found and then fire or levy fines appropriately, but he's not doing that. Halting permanently all sales of weapons, will hammer their bottom line and their stocks. Whether or not he can actually succeed in doing that will depend on whether or not the board can get him certified insane."

"And the odds of that happening?" Winston asked, looking over at Emma indicating she should answer.

"Low," Emma answered promptly then elaborated. "Tony Stark was the company's money maker the moment he graduated from college. In fact there's been indications that he was a major contributor before he graduated from college, almost all the new weapons designs they have sold since come from his mind. He also still has controlling interest of the company, a holdover from his father."

The elder Frost leaned back nodding thoughtfully, as his daughters' analysis matched his own. Tony Stark Senior had been a thorn in his side in several business endeavors and strode the business world like a giant until his death. The fact that his son had stepped in so quickly after graduating college and had brought Stark Industries to new heights had, he thought at the time, been the death knell of anyone else in the weapons industry. In fact if not for Hammer Industries Stark would have a monopoly on weapons manufacture or at least high-end weapons manufacture in the States. Their sale outside of America was comparable, with Hammer selling mostly to Europe and Asia, and With Stark selling to the Americas, Canada as well as portions of Africa and Japan. Neither sold much to Russia or the former communist states around it, but that would possibly change in the future if any of those nations righted their economy. Both also sold to the Middle East, but were very careful about who they did business with there, Hammer just a bit less so than Stark.

Taking his silence as a signal Emma went on. "Regardless, if their weapons sales stops, Stark Industries cannot sustain itself as it is now structured. That will require major reorganization across the board. Their losses for the quarter will be horrible, and their pulling out of the industry will open the door for other competitors to enlarge their profit margin" she said the last more thoughtfully, her eyes narrowed just slightly in speculation.

She wondered briefly if her father had had any hint that this would be happening, which was why he hadn't gone through with the sale of their weapons company just yet. Cold Steel, the family's weapons design and manufactory had actually been posting a loss after all, and it was unlike the old man to not cut his losses quickly. But with this maybe they would regain some of their footing and the money invested into it.

"No new weapons means a lot of designers and factory workers will be looking for a job shortly, we could probably pick them up for song." she went on thoughtfully to which her father snorted. He had in fact already begun to do so. Cold Steel had acquired over a hundred weapons developers and enough manpower to open up two new factories.

His gaze switched back to his older daughter and she answered swiftly, sending an almost unseen glare at her sister for having spoken for so long. "In any event it means there is a major upheaval going on in the weapons industry which we can take advantage of if we wish. With Stark gone there's only one other real high-tech weapons manufacturer, and it is doubtful Hammer industries will be able to corner the market in America, which is by the most lucrative market in the world. Stark's stocks are plummeting, and investors are leaving the sinking ship like rats."

"What about these rumors about how Stark escaped?" Winston asked with one eyebrow raised.

Adrienne answered quickly. "Almost certainly true in some ways, Tony Stark is a genius, this cannot be overstated. What he could build on his own I have no idea I'm not an engineer, but the fact of the matter is he was not rescued by Marines as the American government is saying, and no other group is taking credit for it."

All three of them sneered a little at that. Such saving face gestures were well-known of course in the business world as well as in politics, but if you were in such a bad way that you needed to save face you'd done something wrong far earlier. In Frost Corporation if something like that happened heads would roll, and that was not a euphemism.

"It is doubtful at this point that Stark will make such a weapon open for the market, but it will still fire the imaginations of weapons designers everywhere. Hammer industries in particular will probably be able to follow it up, and China could possibly field its own version of whatever it was. Hammer industries has been making some inquiries in Russia recently and hiring several scientists from there. One of the names, Ivan Vanko, caught my attention. Anton Vanko worked with Tony Stark senior on some projects in the past, and there were rumors of some kind of rift between the two when Anton went back to Russia."

Frost industries had one of the greatest spy networks of any organization, and their computer sprites, designed to ferret out information that could be of use for any of their various enterprises, were extremely efficient. Of course neither daughter knew where those sprites came from originally, nor was their father about to tell them. Some secrets were far too dangerous to share with anyone, especially family.

Winston nodded and looked over at his younger daughter. "Your debut at the Hellfire Club is been moved up," he said abruptly changing the subject or at least appearing to for the moment. "You will be presented to the Hellfire Club's inner circle in two weeks as its new White Queen."

Emma froze a little inside, but externally she showed no reaction other than single eyebrow lifting inquiry. "Might I ask why this is occurring during the school year year, and will it affect my standings there?"

"It will not, though that will be your responsibility of course," her father replied coldly. "I have shared some of your abilities with certain other members, and that is a resource that they all wish to make use of." Not once did he mention the fact that as a female she would be under the control of one of the Kings, in fact it would almost certainly be the new Black King, Sebastian Shaw, who was also one of his personal friends if such a word could be used by a Frost. The only other one that might make the attempt to control her would be the White King, Edward Buckman, though he had been getting reports latel ytaht the man was becoming increasingly paranoid about mutants, so he might not be interested. It would be decided by who could either woo or simply outright purchase her of course. "You will use your powers as they see fit for two months after your debut there."

"I assume this is in payment of something" she said, her voice still conversational, still cold showing none of her inner rage. Inside however she once more wished desperately that her powers could work on family members. It would be so easy just to reach out into their minds and shut them down from the inside. That image would warm her heart for weeks to come.

"It is," he said not showing any sign that the thought of basically pimping her out to an older man bothered him in the slightest. Family members were just like everyone else after all, tools to enlarge the Frost fortune. He was actually proud that his daughter seemed to understand this. It seemed that her childish delusion of getting away had faded now and her acceptance of what would be required pleased him.

"Several of the other members have agreed to sell me some other factories, our push into the weapons industry will be much larger and more coordinated than it would have been otherwise, and one of them has even agreed to transfer the contract of one of his think tanks over to us entirely." Not Edward's unfortunately, his think tank had recently been transferred elsewhere, their spies couldn't find out where. "With the upheaval in the weapons industry going on we'll be in position to expand quickly."

Emma took this opening this sudden opening as quickly as she could. "In point of fact I might be able to help us bring in someone else, I think I've been able to hunt down a lead on a young mutant whose power is connected to machinery somehow. He made an antigravity device in ninth grade, and is already being headhunted by several colleges, but his domicile has always been unknown. I was going to leave next weekend to see if I could hunt him down personally."

Her father thought about it for a minute then nodded. "What was the name of this young mutant?"

"His name is Forge actually, though whether that is an alias or his real name I don't know, what is known is his age and the fact he is a Native American hailing from the Cheyenne tribes."

"And how did you exactly hunt this mutants name down?" asked her sister coldly yet forcefully. Her powers of psychometry were useful in keeping tabs on what her family was up to, and she hadn't seen any hints that her sister had used any of their computers to hunt for this Forge character.

The key to lying, thought Emma sardonically keeping all of her thoughts hidden behind her cold exterior with the ease of a lifetime of practice, is to tell just enough of the truth so that the lie goes down smoothly. "I heard of him from an acquaintance of mine at school actually, and was able to hunt up his previous domicile on their network."

That the truth to go along with the lie. She had come across Forge's name when she was doing a paper on recent developments in science, and the fact his name had been mentioned in a paper alongside Reed Richards had caught her attention. The picture of him standing in front of a working antigravity generator that the he apparently had built based on something the older man had worked on at one point had caught her attention. The fact that she was not in fact searching for him was the lie.

"Very well, you may have next weekend to search for him. That is all," Winston said, and then turned back to his work.

The two sisters continued to glare at one another for a few seconds before moving out of the room still glaring at one another as they walked. "Don't take it so hard dear sister," Adrienne said as soon as the door closed behind them. "after all who knows you might have fun."

"I'll take that under advisement sister dear," said Emma coldly. She just knew her sister had been the one to suggest this in some way, the look of triumph on her face, the fact that it had been visible at all, told her that. The fact that her sister was also involved in the decision-making process despite her father naming Emma the heir of the company was worrisome.

I might have to take my shots sooner than I expected she thought, as she walked away, and she wondered how she could do it. She also prayed that Harry had finished the work on her rooms, as she had run out of time. Her family would now be looking over her shoulder even more closely than ever and there was no way she could send him any kind of signal without them knowing. Oh well, showing up unannounced is the fashionable thing to do anyway, and at least I can arrive bearing gifts.

OOOOOOO

Deep up in the forested mountains of Wyoming was a house standing alone in a little clearing. It was of simple yet sturdy construction, had a power generator out the back and, if one entered, they would find that it had all the modern accoutrements despite it being so isolated from civilization. The individual who had lived here had no need or wish to mingle with humanity as a whole, and preferred the secluded life.

This made it all the more easier for the two individuals who were now sneaking through the nighttime forest toward the house. One was a woman, dressed in a strangely eye watering skintight uniform or green and blue swirls. Her name was Vertigo, and her powers were much like her uniform.

Approaching the house from another side was a Native American with long black hair down to his shoulder and a mustache that bent down over his mouth like down-turned horns. He was wearing a outfit that was seemingly made out of high tech electrical gear. In one hand he held a large handgun of unusual design, and he had another one strapped to one of his thighs. He was Scalphunter, and his powers too were hinted at by his uniform.

He was the nominal leader of this little expedition, and signaled he was in position by double clicking his teeth into the headset. The two killers approached the house at a run, with Vertigo in the lead. She entered by slamming the front door open and trying to run inside.

The 'trying' part came into play when instead of entering the house and taking one supposedly elderly woman hostage she tripped a very simple, low tech trap. This consisted of someone having left the gas on in the kitchen, then spreading as much flour into the air as possible, and attaching a lighter to a tripwire across the door that would break and make a spark if the door was opened. The outcome was, well, "BOOOM!"

A massive explosion rocked the clearing around the house and the house disintegrated in the explosion, bits and pieces going everywhere, along with the burned, broken and very much dead body of Vertigo.

The explosion also threw Scalphunter away, but because he hadn't quite reached his position just yet and because his suit was much more effective armor than Vertigo's skintight spandex suit he escaped with only third degree burns on half his torso and face. As such he was spared a brutal sudden death for an excruciatingly painful and long one. His low scale healing factor could keep him alive, but couldn't combat all of his injuries before they killed him.

Another man, his features hidden in a hood suddenly appeared in the clearing by the rapidly dying Scalphunter. The former bounty hunter looked up hopefully only to take a needle through the eye, ending his suffering in a way though obviously not as he would have wished.

The man then nonchalantly walked forward to examine the remains of the building before activating his headset. "Master, the precog is gone. Someone set a booby-trap for any followers here, which took out Vertigo and Scalphunter and utterly destroyed the house. I doubt I will be able to find any clues as to where she went after this."

The voice on the other end chuckled quietly, its tone one of dark amusement. "One does not chase after Mystique or who she protects without consequences. Very well, return to base, I have other servants who can take up this chase for me. Oh and do remember, no loose ends."

"Of course master," said the man in the hood. That said he moved around and put a small device on each of the bodies, and within seconds the bodies went up in flames, burning to ash in seconds. Luckily this was all that was necessary as neither of the bodies had lost any bits he would have had to collect. And within moments he left the scene of the explosion, leaving no clue as to its cause.

OOOOOOO

The moment they got back to the mansion Ororo herded the X-men into the medical wing. After Logan unceremoniously dumped the Summers brothers into two of the beds Ororo started to work on the others. Jean was fine, a little sore in her ribs from one shot from Magneto that had gotten through, but that was all. Kurt too had superficial wounds, none of which were serious. Logan took over administering to him quickly, simply helping him apply Band-Aids, gauze and wraps to his wounds.

Rogue too wasn't that hurt, a little banged up but that was all (and utterly ecstatic about the way she had performed), and Kitty of course was unhurt. She had been shocked at one point after phasing through some of Magneto's lab equipment, but there was no lasting damage done.

The two Summers brothers had bumps on their heads the size of ducks eggs and possibly concussions, but Logan didn't care enough to comment, the fact they were alive was enough for him.

Evan was the worst off. Sabertooth had shattered his armor over his side at one point, causing some bruising along that side. Thankfully Evan had developed the ability to have a dual shield, one layer of bone above and one directly below his skin, which protected him from further wounds there, but he couldn't use it throughout his body yet. The worst injury he had sustained was a gash in his unprotected thigh from the berserk Sabertooth that had come perilously close to slicing into his femoral artery on that leg. It hadn't hit it but the wound was still a deep one, and he had lost a lot of blood.

Ororo quickly gave him a sedative which knocked him out, and she set up an IV while the table he was laying on came alive with robotic arms. The tables were an incredible (and incredibly expensive) piece of technology developed by Henry Pym. Programmed with the medical knowledge of hundreds of the world's best doctors and with a surface that could scan and diagnose any injury on a patient laid on them, they could help all but the worst cases.

Now the robot arms went to work, first deadening the area around the wound and then beginning to stitch the area together after cleaning it as much as possible. When the machine was done Evan would have a neat scar on his thigh, but that was all.

Once she was certain her nephew would be alright, Ororo raced out of the room to find Hedwig and send her after Harry. Something both owl and woman agreed upon was that Harry could not be left to his own devices for long without female control or else Bad Things would happen. Whether those Bad Things would happen to him or to someone else was up in the air.

While this was going on Lance stood talking quietly to Kitty in one corner of the room. Pietro had escaped the moment he woke up, none of the others had been fast enough to stop him from sprinting out of the jet and out of the mansion. Lance however had opted to stay and explain what had happened and why he had been a part of it to his sort-of girlfriend.

This took a bit but by the end Kitty was mollified that he had done what he could to minimize the conflict. The fact he had influenced the fights enough to send Blob and Toad after her and Rogue, the ones they matched up with the worst, was a major point in his favor. "But next time," she said tapping his forehead, "call me, and we'll see if we can come up with a better solution together."

"If there is a next time," Lance muttered. "I really don't know what me and the others'll do from here."

"If you wish for it there is a place among the X-men for you Mr. Alvers," Charles interjected as he came through the medical wing's door, having just finished calling in a few favors to have Candra's comatose body delivered no questions asked to the Vault. He had been saddened by the length Ororo had been forced to go to stop the so-called immortal, but he wasn't so naive as to go into her brain and help her recover so that she could threaten his charges again.

Lance frowned at the old man then looked at Kitty's hopeful face. Sighing he shook his head. "Sorry professor, Kitty, but I wasn't with the brotherhood because I was brainwashed or something like that. I'm with them because I believe in their cause. The need to defend mutants from persecution is real, and I'm not interested in trying to co-exist with them until they prove as a group it's something they want. None of the world governments have shown themselves willing to make a stand like that, and I haven't seen any group coming forward to defend mutants except other mutants."

Xavier sighed sadly. He understood Lance's reluctance. Unlike his other charges who despite several personal tragedies hadn't had that harsh a life Lance had seen quite a bit of the seedier side of humanity. Lance had grown up in a poor family and been bullied most of his life for it, had his father leave them and dealt with drugs and gangs from a young age. It was no wonder he had grabbed onto his power as a way to separate himself from those around him, nor was it hard to see why he would demand homo sapiens prove themselves first. It was unrealistic in the extreme of course, but understandable. "I understand your reluctance Mr. Alvers, just remember that there is a place open for you here."

Lance nodded and then looked over to Kitty. "I'll see you at school okay?"

Kitty nodded sadly. "Yeah, I'll see you there." She smirked suddenly. "We can discuss your penalty for your part in this debacle then." Lance nodded rueful agreement and swiftly left the mansion.

However, unknown to Lance he was followed as soon as he left the mansion's grounds. SHIELD might not be able to penetrate the mansion, but they could see who was coming and going, and Lance didn't move nearly as fast as Pietro. Both teens would soon find, along with Blob and Toad, that there were other powers on the move in the world beyond Magneto and Charles.

Kitty watched her boyfriend leave, then grinned and joined Kurt over by Scott's bed, where the blue-furred teen had begun to make his displeasure about Scott's actions known in no uncertain terms through adroit use of a black marker.

It was at this point that everyone blinked, reaching up to grab their heads as the memory of the environment they had fought Magneto and his allies in disappeared from their minds. After a moment Ororo smiled taking this as a sign that her boyfriend was alive and kicking.

Much to Ororo's consternation another hour swiftly passed without Harry showing up. By this point it was pushing eleven at night and Kurt, Kitty and Rogue turned in for the night, trusting Harry to look after himself. Charles excused himself to his office and Logan took himself off on his bike to the pub, thinking he had earned himself a drink or twenty.

Ororo had thought that Jean had turned in too, and was thus surprised when someone smacked the back of her head lightly with something that swished. She looked up from her position in a chair by the door in Harry's workroom to see Jean standing in the doorway, a bottle of wine in one hand and two wine glasses in the other.

Jean smirked a little at having snuck up on her friend like that. It was obvious that Ororo was more worried than she wanted to let on about Harry. "Thought you could use some company while you're waiting up for Mr. Oh so heroic wizard."

Ororo smiled up at her friend then chuckled at the sight of the wine bottle, taken from the mansion's cellars no doubt. Charles kept several bottles down there for guests mainly, since Logan was a beer drinker and Charles himself didn't drink. Ororo was more of a brandy person, but truly didn't imbibe that often to care. "You do know that you're still a minor yes?"

Jean shrugged unrepentedly. "So report me. After the day we've all had I think we deserve a bit of a treat."

Ororo chuckled again, and took the bottle from her, pouring a glass for each of them while Jean sat down across from her in the beanbag. Jean sipped at her wine appreciatively, but decided on the whole she didn't see what the big deal about alcohol was. "So, what should we talk about to get your mind off your missing beau? Not my own love life for preference."

Ororo shook her head at her friend's attitude, but was grateful for the company all the same. The two spent the next few hours talking together as they waited for harry to return.

OOOOOOO

Candra had been reported to the authorities as someone going after Storm because of her previous profession as a young child on the streets of Cairo, telling a bit of the truth but nowhere near the whole of it. The story however was enough for a team of guards to be sent from the local FBI branch to take her into custody, medical or prison had been up in the air. Of course someone else had learned of this request and pulled the jurisdiction card, which meant the agents who actually took Candra from Logan at the front gate had been SHIELD agents. They had gone there to ask some pointed questions, but just like Agent Barton the moment they tried to concentrate on the mansion or what might be going on there they lost interest and left without further discussion

The truck carrying Candra and the SHIELD had just turned off the highway when they were attacked out of the blue by several cars whose sides suddenly opened up and out poured fire from masked attackers who wore a strange ensemble of red and purple body suits with blank silver masks covering their faces.

The group had been taken completely by surprise, and the driver went down with a bullet through his chest.

Despite their training all the other guards were similarly dispatched swiftly, though one of them had been able to get off a shot that took one of the assailants in the head. The mask fell away to reveal an even blanker face underneath with gaping eyes and a metallic cast.

A van swiftly pulled up alongside the bullet riddled prison van and out stepped an even larger man, this one obviously not completely human given his hulking size and over muscled forearms. He reached forward and ripped the door off the back of the van. Reaching inside he pulled out Candra's comatose form, and transferred her into another car. After that the cleanup crew went to work, destroying the bodies and taking the car with them. Moments later the road was once more empty, without a single hint of what had happened.

OOOOOOO

Harry had rested a good 45 minutes after finishing his initial inspection of his new Asteroid H before deciding to apparate down to his workroom, more because his nerves and adrenaline needed to calm down some more then the fact that his magic needed to refill itself. In fact magically speaking Harry felt like he was still good to go for another round with the magnetic using bastard. He estimated that he was at least 5% stronger after draining the gem (and the two numbskulls thought that didn't add much) than he had been before, not as much as he had been after draining the gem of Juggernaut and Cyttorak himself, but still an appreciable difference.

It was about 1 at night when he appeared his workroom, and he was honestly surprised to find that Ororo and surprisingly Jean had waited up for them. The fact he saw the two nursing two glasses of wine was beside the point. "Er, Hello ladies."

Jean sprang to her feet but before she could say anything Ororo spoke up quickly reaching out to grab Harry's shoulders. "Are you all right, what happened after we left? Where have you been all this time? Don't tell me you were fighting Magneto this entire time! I felt that odd spell, the hiding one start to work in my head, is everything alright?"

Harry blinked at the deluge of questions and before he could respond Jean broke in. "Yeah, what's the big idea Potter, there's no way you were fighting this entire time, if you were alright you should've got in contact with us immediately. We sent Hedwig to you for that purpose after all." Jean glared a little at the owl which had teleported in with her master. Hedwig shrugged her shoulders and hopped away turning her back on the angry redhead.

Harry shook his head slightly, a small but happy smile on his face. He brought a hand up to touch Ororo's cheek tenderly. "Sorry, luv. I'm still getting used to the idea that I've got people who care about me again. I didn't mean to worry you by staying out of contact."

"Of course I'm worried, you green-eyed moron," said Ororo, slapping his chest angrily with Jean nodding fervent agreement. "We care for you, that means we worry about you! This is not just a one way street!"

"That's something I'm going to have to get used to I suppose," responded Harry, wrapping his arms around the woman. "I'm sorry for worrying you." He laid a chaste kiss on her forehead than reached out to pull Jean into a hug with a hand on her head, ruffling her hair affectionately. Jean stiffened a little, but relaxed as Ororo's arm wound around her as well. Jean had become her closest friend, and a rock that she could lean on at times, proven when she stayed up to stay with Ororo tonight.

After a moment Jean pushed Harry's hand off her head and stood back grinning. "All right, now answer our questions! What the hell happened! I've been sort of told what was going on by the others, so I know what I missed from their perspective but how did the fight end?"

"It ended with magneto running away with his tail between his legs," Harry said sardonically. "I won't say it was easy because you know it really, really wasn't. That bastard took nearly everything I could throw at him and matched a lot of it."

Harry had analyzed the fight a little during his cleanup of the asteroid's interior, something he had gotten into the habit of doing after tough fights. In the case of a mages or wizards the old saw of knowledge equating to power was true beyond a shadow of a doubt. Harry had to know what worked and what didn't against Magneto for the next time. His higher end attacks seemed to work a little better than anything else, but cutting attacks and area effect spells just could not get through his shield. Maybe if the fight had continued the Black-Fyre would have gotten through, but Harry wasn't certain Magneto wouldn't find some way of blocking it.

Magneto also seemed to wield an almost subconscious field of control on the molecules around him. Electromagnetism was just fucking scary as a power and it allowed Magneto to counter some of Harry's transfiguration skills. During the fight Harry could actually feel their wills clashing for control of some of the bits and pieces around them. In the air, Harry could conjure anything he wanted, but it was almost immediately countered by something from Magneto, as if the very act of conjuring warned him a little. In nonferrous materials their wills fought, and eventually Harry was able to win through and transfigure things, but it slowed it down enough again to give Magneto warning and time to counter. The only time this hadn't been the case was when Harry had overpowered his spell on the floor right after draining the gem, and that was because Magneto had been so incandescently angry that he had neglected to keep watch for attacks.

But it was in metals, especially steel, where Harry lost. Harry simply could not transfigure metals around Magneto without giving the task his full attention, his power of magnetism and electromagnetism had given him some kind of home-field advantage in stopping Harry's ability there. The only time that hadn't been true was when Jean and Ororo attacked Magneto, forcing his attention away from his giant cannon shell attack that knocked Harry into the Genetic Enhancer.

In fact if Harry was honest with himself (and he was) the whole experience had been sobering. Fun too, Harry had loved the challenge, but sobering. In point of fact Harry knew that without the power he had gotten from draining Juggernaut's gem and the God connected to it he might have lost, or worse been forced to use some of his Bloody Insane spells while the teens were still around. If he had done that the asteroid might have been blown up and probably him as well, after all there was a reason he called them Bloody Insane, every one of them was a world killer.

"It's not a story I want to tell twice however, are any of the others awake?"

Ororo nodded and led the way out of the room, with Harry rushing to his room to change out of his crysis suit. He rejoined the two women swiftly in the living room and Harry was surprised to see that Logan was still awake, sitting there and well into his second six pack of beer. The bar had been full of punk kids, and Logan had decided he'd had enough irritation for one day so just grabbed three six packs of beer and went home. Charles too was awake though he looked very weary.

"How are the kids?" Harry asked looking at the two men.

"Exhausted," said Charles bluntly, "Evan was the only one that was badly injured however, for which we have you to thank. He's in the medical wing with the Summers brothers, who still haven't woken up, and will recover in a few days." Harry nodded taking note of that for his cooking in the future, Evan would need even more calcium in his diet from now. "Kurt was a little cut up as well, but the others were more tired than hurt." He looked at Jean, surprised the redhead was still awake, but shrugging it off as unimportant for now.

Harry nodded. "If he was awake I'd feed Evan some healing potions, but as they're all asleep I'll wait until tomorrow."

"That's fine, not like he really needs it though. Hell it might be a good learning experience if we let him heal naturally." Logan ignored the sudden angry stare directed his way from Ororo with ease, asking, "But what happened after we all left? Is old bucket head dead?"

Harry shook his head sadly. "No, though not for lack of trying I assure you." He filled them all in on the fight. After he finished Harry leaned forward and whispered into Ororo's ear. "The fight between Magneto and Harry Potter happened on Asteroid M in orbit over Earth."

Suddenly the memories flooded back into her head and she frowned tapping the side of her head. "That was a most unusual experience."

"You should've seen Hedwig," Harry laughed. "When it happens to a place that you're actually still in it is the most utterly disorienting feeling. Especially to an owl like her, who relies on knowing where she is and where her target is to travel the way she does."

"I can imagine," she said, smiling a little.

"So you used some kind of magic trick to get us to forget the place?" Logan grunted, popping the top off the next bottle of beer.

"Yep," said Harry happily. "The place as you put it is under new management, and I don't want any interlopers."

"And you will not share this secret with us Mr. Potter?" asked Charles sadly.

"I don't know," said Harry looking at him a little angrily. "Maybe when you start sharing some of your secrets with me I'll think about sharing some of mine with you. Care to inform us how you knew that asshole in red?"

Jean and Ororo joined in to glare at the man too, and Charles sighed. "I will inform you all of that at the same time tomorrow, it is not so interesting a story that I would like to tell it twice."

Harry frowned a little but nodded. "I can accept that I guess, but I will reiterate something I pointed out to you a while back Charles. Keeping secrets from your own side is folly."

"And whose side are you on Mr. Potter?" said Charles looking at him shrewdly.

"That of the Earth as a whole," said Harry cryptically, bouncing with to his feet. "And with that gentlemen and ladies I believe it's time for bed."

The group reluctantly broke up, with Charles and Jean going to bed and Logan popping another beer. Harry made his way up to his workroom, his mind already on his projects, all of which he wanted to try and finish in the next few days so he could concentrate on working on Asteroid H. This was why he didn't notice that Ororo was following him.

Just as he was about to enter his workroom Harry stopped as a slim hand gently touched his shoulder. He turned and saw Ororo there, smiling faintly. She didn't speak, merely indicated that she wanted him to follow her with a slight wave of one hand, then turned to walk to her room, her hips swaying hypnotically. Harry gulped a little, but followed her and soon the two entered Storm's bedroom.

Harry barely had time to look around (he hadn't actually been in here before) when Ororo turned and pushed him against the door, kissing him hungrily. Harry returned the kiss immediately and his hands went around her waist, slowly making their way down to rest on her hips. Just as he was about to deepen the kiss Ororo moved away, pulling him further into her room and she sat on the bed, pulling him down to sit beside her. "When you leave," she said abruptly, leaning in to nibble at his neck between words, "I'll be leaving with you."

Harry paused in leaning forward to give her the same treatment. "I, I didn't want to presume, you've got a life here, and Evan to look after. You've done enough just listening to some of my plans. I can't ask you to leave your life behind for me."

"You're not asking, it is my choice to go with you. I have, I have become too fond of you to let you go just like that. And I have come to believe that you might represent a better chance for mutant coexistence than Charles. He seems to talk a good fight, but doesn't show enough."

Harry stared into the cerulean eyes of this woman who had wormed her way into his heart so easily, helping to mend a part of him he hadn't even known was broken. He couldn't say just yet that he loved her, they hadn't known each other for more than three month after all, but his feelings were definitely building in that direction, and the idea of making this a more permanent commitment appealed to him greatly. But he was still getting used to the idea of other people caring about him again, so the idea that Storm would put that much emphasis on their relationship as to willingly follow him when he left, that was something else. "Are you sure this is what you want? I, bloody hell, I'd love it more than anything if you did, on a personal and professional level, but are you sure you want to leave with me?"

Ororo brought her hands up and lightly slapped him on both cheeks. "Yes. I am not letting you go so easily Harry Potter. I will go with you, and together we will forge that third path that Mystique's friend told her about."

Harry frowned for an instant remembering that conversation and Mystiques disappearance, but then grinned widely. "I wanted you to come, but I didn't want to pressure you. This means a lot to me Ororo." He leaned forward, capturing her lips, and Ororo's hands slid from his cheeks to the back of his head, pulling him deeper, her mouth opening in invitation, an invitation Harry immediately took.

LIME CONTENT WARNING

As their tongues twirled around one another she let go of her grip on the back of his head, moving down his body and grasping the bottom of his shirt. They broke off just long enough for Harry to pull his shirt off then were back to making out furiously.

Harry suddenly took charge, pushing Ororo down to lay on the bed, trailing kiss down to her neck where he began to nip and kiss at her collarbone. Ororo moaned, closing her eyes and lifting her hips slightly in response to the stimulation. Harry reached down, laying his hands on the bottom of her button-up blouse, looking up at Ororo's face. She nodded, her white hair billowing out around her head on her pillow, her eyes half-lidded, her lips wet and just a little open, easily the most magnificent sight Harry had ever seen. Even his girlfriend's back in his home dimension didn't hold a candle to Ororo in terms of beauty, and this pose was no exception.

Harry deftly began to undo the buttons on her blouse, taking the time to kiss every inch of milk-chocolate colored skin that appeared as he did so, while Ororo began to make the low moaning sound that he found so irresistible. She began to run the fingers of one hand down his muscled back while the other began to help undoing the top buttons of her blouse.

Harry reveled in the feel of Ororo's skin, like silk under his lips and fingers, the taste like a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and something else he couldn't put a name to, a vision of loveliness with her now exposed D-cup breasts, full yet somehow firm cradled in a gold colored lace bra with frills around the upper edge. He rained little kisses down on her flat stomach, loving the little gurgle of laughter that escaped as he did so. He then nipped and sucked at the skin, causing the laughter to change into a moan, then flicked his tongue into her belly button before sucking hard enough on the skin right above it to cause a hicky.

Harry looked up at her face again, resting his hands on her jeans, but there Ororo shook her head, unwilling to go that far after only a few weeks of dating him. Harry nodded in reply but his eyes widened when instead Ororo reached under her back and undid the clasp on her bra. She pulled it off and threw it away, exposing her breasts to his eyes.

It wasn't the first time he had seen them of course, not even the first time when they were engaged in similar activities, but again he was struck by how amazing they were. Large, a little more than a handful for him, but not overdone, full but not fat, firm yet bouncy, capped with small areola the color or dark chocolate centered around large nipples that looked hard enough to cut glass right now. It shouldn't have to be pointed out by this point, but Harry was a breast man, and a big one too. Ororo's were easily the best he had ever seen, putting the girls he had seen like this back in his old dimension (not nearly as many as he went out with admittedly) to shame.

He worked his way up her body, thrilling in the little news, mewls, moans and gasps that Ororo made, the fingers of both hands now worked into his hair and rubbing at his scalp. That grip became far firmer as he at last reached her breast and began to kiss and nip at the bottom curve of them making his way around and up in a circular fashion while his hands began to play with them, staying away from her nipples for now. "Magnificent, my goddess, every part of you, just magnificent."

Ororo had been worshiped back in Africa as a goddess, but she was rapidly coming to the conclusion that there was being worshiped and being worshiped. The attention Harry was lavishing on her, the love, the sensual pleasure, the desire she felt under every caress and lick was so different than anything her previous two lovers had done. Neither the forceful and experienced nature of the tribesman, who cared not for foreplay, nor the egotistical fumbling of the college boy came even close to this. For him getting her worked up was a means to an end, and he spent just as much time as he could get away with on it before trying to move on to his own pleasure.

It was obviously not the same for Harry. This slow, sensual buildup was pushing all her buttons, and she could feel herself getting wetter by the second, so much so that when she looked past Harry down her own body she saw a wet stain actually seeping through her pants!

Harry gently began to lick and nip at the valley between her breast and his fingers at last moved in to play with her nipples. His right hand began to just gently roll the nipple it was playing with between his thumb and forefinger. His left hand however began to pull on that nipple, and the mix of hard and soft treatment revved Ororo's motor even higher, causing her to lift her hips up in response, her moans even louder.

After about fifteen minutes of this slow torture Harry stopped playing with Ororo's nipples, bringing his hands to the outer side of her breasts and pushing them together. Despite their size he was able to push them together enough to get both of her nipples in his mouth, sucking and biting them gently between his teeth.

"OH goddess, YES!" Ororo came with a shriek, an orgasm that made even the one he had given her on their picnic in the mountains pale by comparison. It was only because of Harry's fast casting of a Mufilatio that stopped telling everyone else in the mansion what the two were doing.

Harry let go of her nipples but continued to rain little kisses around them, occasionally licking them as she shuddered and gasped coming down from her orgasm.

Eventually she pushed Harry away, turning his body so that he was now laying beside her, whereupon she began to return the favor. Her dark lips began to trail licks and kisses down his body while her hands worked at the belt buckle on his pants. She pulled them off him easily, but left his boxers on, though this didn't do much to hide his excitement. Still Ororo wasn't willing to go that far, not quite yet anyway.

She moved back up his body, letting her hands rest on his cock where it was making a very sizable tent in his boxers, slowly working her hands up and around it, giving him a hand job through his boxers. When she reached his face he immediately latched onto her lips, and the two began a very deep kiss while her hands continued to work him over.

Ororo was somewhat surprised at the size of the member she could feel through his boxers. She had known he was well endowed, but the extent of it was still surprising. He was easily larger in girth than either of her previous lovers, and possibly a little larger in length than the tribesman who had taken her virginity (looking back on it that phrase seemed to fit far more than any other she could choose). Her two hands were barely able to work his shaft now, but by the fact he was lifting his hips in an attempt to get more of the feeling it was obviously enough for him. It was calling out to something in her, almost demanding that the two of them go further than she wanted to at the moment, but she held off the feeling.

His kisses too became more forceful, and this hands around her body, one hand on her jean clad rear and the other on her bare back tightened pulling her into his side, her breasts mashing against him. One hand moved around to fondle one of her breasts, a little harder now, but still with that underlying tenderness.

This continued for about fifteen more minutes, with Ororo getting more worked up, heading for a second peak, while Harry manfully tried to stave off his own. He reached down and moved he so that he could once more latch his lips onto one of her nipples and began to play with it, causing her to moan aloud again, here hands working even faster along his boxer-clad shaft.

This went on for several more minutes, until Harry finally couldn't hold it anymore. He let the dark chocolate nipple in his mouth lose for just long enough to say "Ororo, Luv, I'm going to CUMMM!" Before latching onto it even harder, using his teeth to stimulate it even more.

Ororo cried out again, the sensation of teeth on her nipple sending her over the edge once more while Harry shot off his load, his cock moving under his boxers like a cannon, firing shot after shot which soaked through the boxers, quite a lot of it shooting up out of the hole for pissing, going everywhere and covering his thighs, her thighs and even a bit of her mattress under them. In the end it looked like someone had dribbled some kind of slightly watered down clear glue on their thighs, there was so much of it.

Ororo stuck her head into Harry's shoulder, shuddering through her second orgasm in this session, another one that made the ones she had slogged through with her previous lovers seem weak by comparison. She opened her eyes to see him looking at her with his emerald one, a small, loving smile on his face. He leaned in to kiss her gently, which she returned just as gently, basking in the afterglow.

After a few minutes she languidly raised on of her hands to her mouth, tasting his essence, moaning at the taste, a mix of vanilla and cinnamon to her taste buds. She then began to use two fingers to scoop up the cum on their thighs and bring it up to her mouth where she sucked it off her fingers.

Harry watched this with widening eyes then stopped her with a gentle touch on her wrist. "Stop that." He chuckled as she looked up at him in surprise. "If you don't I'm afraid we'll have to go again." He waved down at his crotch, where his cock hadn't flagged despite the almost ridiculous amount of cum he had shot out.

Ororo chuckled throatily, licking her finger in such a manner that Harry nearly jumped her there and then despite their desire to take it slow. "Oh, we wouldn't want that, would we?"

LIME END

She glanced idly over at a clock set on her book shelf and frowned a little, seeing it was nearly three in the morning. Time certainly flies when you are having fun, she thought. "Actually you're right, we both need to get some sleep." She turned back to look into his face. "Stay with me?"

The offer hovered in the air between them, ripe with far more than the words alone conveyed, but after a moment of staring into hr cerulean eyes Harry shook his head. "No. I'd love to, I really would, but I know you like to sleep naked, and there is no way I would be able to stop myself from trying something with you in the morning if we both slept that way. Sorry." He waved one hand, hitting them both with a Scourgify that cleaned off the fluids from both of them and their clothing.

Ororo smiled, actually happy Harry hadn't taken her spur of the moment offer. She was of much the same opinion of him after all, and she really didn't want to get to that stage that fast. "That is fine Harry, thank you for respecting me enough to not push it."

Harry smiled and stood up from the bed, grabbing his pants and shirt off the floor where they had been thrown earlier before leaning down to place one last, lingering kiss on Ororo's lips. "And with that my goddess, I will bid you ado till the morn."

Ororo chuckled, shaking her head at her boyfriend's antics. "Goodnight Harry." She began to strip off her pants and panties in preparation for bed, enjoying the fact Harry nearly stumbled on his walk out at the sight, but kept going. She chuckled again, then reached over and turned out her light as the door closed behind him.

OOOOOOO

Director Fury was utterly furious, something major had happened, and he and his people had no idea what. They knew something had happened in orbit, when a gigantic fucking asteroid appeared out of nowhere (and that had startled the hell out of his sensor teams) on their 'radar' only to break apart before his pilots very eyes before they could fire a single missile. Then target MM, the wanted super-threat Magneto, had been seen leaving in bad shape before disappearing off their sensors.

What the fuck are we paying these eggheads for if they can't make a device that will actually detect people? He knew he was being unkind, the extent of Magneto's power was not well known, but it was obvious it extended far beyond simply magnetism, no matter how powerful that alone could be.

SHIELD had also lost a retrieval team. The team had been mostly taken from the FBI and CIA, but Fury would have thought they would have been relatively competent despite that, but no trace of the ambush that hit them was to be found. Five men dead for no return was a harsh pill to swallow. Add to that their charge, a mutant that might have been involved in the whole thing apparently named Candra had disappeared entirely.

Now here he was the next day standing in front of the 'oh so mysterious' board of executives. As if he didn't know who we they all were. The number had grown slightly since SHIELD had been commissioned in the first place, yet despite this they were still all Americans. He knew that there were ten others up for confirmation for the board of but none of them had been confirmed yet, nor had SHIELD been approved by the UN so its jurisdiction was basically America openly. Everywhere else they could go so long as they weren't discovered, much like other secret services, which wasn't the point of SHIELD at all, their purpose was supposed to be dealing with threats to the world and to humanity as a whole, but they weren't there just yet.

"You had a chance to capture Magneto and you weren't able to? This is a massive blunder on your part Director Fury," said one of them interrupting his thoughts. The fact that her voice was a woman did not make her words any more welcome, nor did that slightly western accent of hers.

"SHIELD was created to handle issues like this. If it cannot, why should we keep paying your monstrous budget? The fact MM seemingly had an asteroid fortress in orbit that no one knew about is another black mark on your record." Another councilor joined in quickly.

Fury replied quickly, biting his teeth and spitting each word out as if they personally pained him. "With all due respect counselors the extent of Magneto's power is still only loosely understood. In all honesty the fact that he could hide from us this easily doesn't surprise me. In fact as you know counselor we barely have our sensor net up and running, and we haven't extended over the entire globe yet, let alone into space, where we are still relying on NASA's satellites."

"I'm hearing excuses," said another voice this one with an eastern drawl that spoke of Massachusetts. "We don't pay you for excuses Fury, we pay for results."

"Then I suggest you let me bring in the only people who might be able to tell us what happened up there. Xavier and his group are a bunch of loose cannons. If you let me bring them in we can figure out what happened, and maybe put them all to better use."

He actually didn't believe what he was saying, he felt that the X-Men were necessary right where they were, but god-damnit he was a spy, and he needed to know what the fuck had happened, and right now he didn't have any lines of communication with Xavier or any of his kids.

His instincts, instincts honed both as a spy and as a leader of the Howling Commandos, were screaming at him that the Potter enigma was somewhere involved in this. There was no way it was coincidence, Potter showing up then a month and a bit later this happens, and all the odd things happening before Magneto made his move? The fact that his spies couldn't even spy on the mansion at all bothered the hell out of him. It tasted a little too much like the occult to his mind, and was starting to give him nightmares about his time during the world war fighting Baron Strucker.

Luckily Barton seems to have regained most of his form, and his report about the telekinetic's abilities, the fact that we were able to pick up the fire manipulator so quickly are both down to him.

Four of the heads shook from side to side firmly. "No," said one of them. "Xavier has too much backing in Congress for his coexistence ideal right now to make any moves against him an allowable option."

Congress was in fact becoming more and more split on the whole mutant issue. On one side were those that were tacitly backing Xavier, who in the mutterings of one of the mysterious financiers were 'namby-pamby idiots', and on the other was a group led by the firebrand Senator Kelly of Texas, who felt that mutants needed to be regulated, controlled, identified and separated from society for the good of everyone. Fury wasn't happy about that idea at all, it sounded too much like an idea taken from the Nazis for him, but there was no doubt that it was slowly gaining ground. The fact that he felt America should take the lead on this issue need not be stated, but it wasn't happening anytime soon. Luckily no other country seemed willing to step up to the bat either.

"In that case counselors," Fury said calmly "I suggest you wait. SHIELD has so many irons in the fire at the moment it's not even funny. And I'm still running into jurisdictional issues with a lot of the other bureaus, not to mention the Army. I thought we had an agreement that the Big Guy fell under my jurisdiction, but Ross is still making problems." In fact he knew Ross had found some lead on the Big Guy, but what it was his agents hadn't been able to discover. Say what you would about Old Thunderbolt, but he was a man who knew who he could trust, and his hand-picked crew of Marines and Army regulars were fanatically loyal to him. Of course that brought up the whole other issue of personal armies, but the president didn't want to make waves there just yet. It would need something major for the president to step in and relieve Ross of his rank given his status as a war hero. To Fury's mind it could not come soon enough however.

That comment brought everyone up short and there was a thoughtful pause. Fury could almost see their faces as they worked out how many fires he was in fact juggling at the moment.

There was the Big Guy, there was anti-spy stuff (which he really shouldn't have to handle but was) there was the continued breakdown of communism in Russia and all that entailed with its super soldier programs and who knew how many skeletons ready to jump out at the unwary. The fact that they still didn't know where Omega Red was as well as some of the other failed experiments to combat the Captain America super-serum bothered Fury a hell of a lot. There was no telling what that those individuals would do in a world without Communist Russia, if they had even been loyal to it in the first place.

Then there was the whole Stark thing which Fury just knew was going to blow up in their faces at any moment. Already the idea of a metal soldier was going viral, and he could practically guarantee there would be copycat attempts the world over soon. After all the world had already seen what Dr. Doom's suit could do.

Then there were some powers in Asia staring, and his spies had been picking up signs of some new group called AIM. The fact that it had been linked to disappearances of several high-level scientists in Europe was bothering him, as eggheads like that were a problem all on their own.

And then there was that hammer that had appeared like a shooting star a few weeks ago. In fact he was considering moving Barton to the protection detail on that thing, given what it might represent.

That didn't even count the issues that these people had him checking up on that he didn't think were actually worth it, such as the Fantastic Four and the rising number of superheroes appearing recently. Oh sure some of them needed to be watched but the FF had certainly proven their bona-fides. In point of fact he was happy that the Fantastic Four were around because that meant he didn't have to deal with the threats they dealt with. The Skrull, the Kree, and Galcatus in particular were issues he was thankful he didn't have to handle. That didn't even mention their more terrestrial foes.

"That's true," said one of the voices thoughtfully. "Still I wish we could devote more resources to finding this terrorist. Someone with his power running around loose is unacceptable."

"Some would call him a freedom fighter," said Fury, though he personally didn't believe it. The rumors of Magneto's doctrine that they had gotten (and he really needed to start recruiting some mutants of his own there was only so much he could do in the growing mutant community without them) was again something Hitler would have approved of.

One of the figures barked a cynical laugh. "One country's terrorist is another's freedom fighter? It really doesn't matter since we're the ones calling the shots here does it? Status quo needs to be maintained Fury, and Magneto is nothing else if someone who will disturb said status quo."

The fact that he had used his power to utterly destroy several years arms submarines of Russia and America a few months back, and continued to take out nuclear weapons anywhere he found them was a major problem.

"Then I suggest counselors you let me get back to work and stop jogging my elbow."

The counselors looked at one another then frowning heavily signed off one after another. The last to leave was the woman with the western drawl that had to get the last word in. "You were put in this position Fury because we felt you were the one who had the best chance of juggling all the responsibilities a director of SHIELD would need, the one that could get the best results. If you don't start actually getting some results you can be replaced. Remember that."

Fury scowled heavily and smashed his fist into his palm a few times to relieve some anger. Of course they would say that, and he was constitutionally mandated to step down if they asked him to, but on the other hand these weren't exactly elected officials, and threatening the a person who knew where so many of the skeletons lay like he did was idiocy.

For now though he had to put such thoughts aside and concentrate on his work. "Well, at least we'll get some of the answers once that punk wakes up."

OOOOOOO

When Scott woke up the day after the battle against Magneto (and why couldn't he remember where that had actually happened?) he knew he had screwed up by the numbers, not only big time but comprehensively. He raised one hand to slap his face, groaning aloud. "Holy hell, I fucked up so badly they'll need to invent a new word to describe it!"

"All too true boyo," said a voice from the side of his bed. Scott turned his head slightly to see Harry sitting there, face grim. Charles sat next to him in his wheelchair looking incredibly disappointed, and Logan leaned against the wall by the head of the bed looking grim but somewhat less disappointed than Charles. Ororo leaned against the far wall impassively, her face not giving a hint of her thoughts.

Outside of the door to the medical room he could see all the others but Evan staring in at him. Evan was sitting up in the bed behind Harry glaring at him, though for some reason his lips kept twitching like he was trying to keep a smile off his face. On Scott's other side Alex continued to sleep peacefully in the next bed over.

Harry had decided to keep him that way until they were done 'talking' with Scott, figuring it would be humiliating enough for the older brother without it happening in front of his newly rediscovered younger sibling. Harry was all for using publicly humiliating people via pranks, but not for life lessons.

Harry went on. "Seeing as you seem to have come to terms with the fact you screwed up, you want to go over how badly you did so before or after you render your apologies to your teammates?"

Scott rubbed his face, looking more haggard and repentant than any of the teens had ever seen him before. "I…. I guess I should probably take my lumps sir so if it's all the same to you I'll let you lay into me first."

"Alright. Like you said you fucked up on so many levels it's not even funny. I've never had any family to miss so I don't know what it feels like to find one, but you let Alex and his wants, his mostly uninformed wants at that, influence you far too much. On top of that you made two very big mistakes in judgment. First you trusted Magneto despite the fact it was obvious given his imprisoning myself and the girls that he had ulterior motives at best for what he was 'offering' because you only saw what you wanted to see, a way to end your personal problems. Then after achieving what you expressed as your dream you turned your powers on your friends. I realize by that point there was extenuating circumstances, mind control is scary stuff, but it was still well beyond the pale."

Scott nodded grimly. "That, that about covers it sir. I, I realize I fucked up, and I'll try my best to apologize to the others after you're done with me. I just was blinded by the idea of controlling my power like that, of being able to see the world normally with my own eyes uncovered. I'll willingly step down as team leader sir, what I did, attacking my own teammates like I did, it shows a lack of control that you can't have in a team leader."

Charles shook his head, smiling faintly at Scott's offer. "I don't think that's necessary Scott. Simply make your apologies and…"

"Charles." Harry's voice was like ice as he cut the older man off. "Scott's right, he needs to be punished for turning on his comrades like that. Strip him of his leadership duties for a few weeks at minimum, make him earn it back."

Logan's gruff voice spoke up then, "Potter's right, Chuck. Scott fucked up you can't let things go on like nothing happened." Ororo nodded agreement.

Scott nodded too. "Sir, I'm grateful that you want me to remain as team leader, but I know I messed up and I need to pay for it."

Charles nodded sadly. "If everyone agrees then I will not fight it, I simply think you are all underestimating the power of Magneto's charisma, and there was certainly a mind control element to the transformation, so I don't blame you for what happened after that Scott."

"Which we may very well be, but seeing as you still haven't told us about him or how you know him, we'll need to go with what we do know." Harry replied sharply.

"Regardless I should still have realized Magneto was manipulating me," Scott replied stubbornly. "Everything before that transformation was definitely all me, sir."

Harry stared at Scott thoughtfully, pleased that the teen was being as honest as he was about his shortcomings. It was something Harry had been hoping for from him for a while. Now to make certain he learns the rest of the lesson, he thought, then waved a hand, putting a Mufilatio around the bed and him.

The others looked on as a brief shimmer went up around Harry and Scott, something that would keep their words from being overheard and Harry leaned forward intently. "Scott, making mistakes doesn't make you a bad leader or even a bad person. You think I never made a mistake? Hell, I made personal mistakes and as a leader. Making mistakes comes with being human, no one is perfect. It's how you deal with your mistakes that show the measure of a man. You and Rogue, and other mutants whose powers are dangerous to those around them, you all got knocked down the moment they activated. You stood up when you agreed to be an X-men, turning a dangerous mutation into something you could use for your own good and that of others. Now your own mistakes have laid you low again, but it isn't how often you fall, it's how often you get up again. You screwed up, take it to heart and move on."

Scott nodded firmly, at last truly listening to Harry for the first time and Harry waved his hand dispelling the privacy spell. "Now I believe that you have some apologies to make, and then I'd suggest cleaning up your face before anything else. I hope someone knows how to get permanent marker off."

The teen looked at him quizzically. Harry conjured a handheld mirror and handed it over letting himself chuckle a little now before standing up and making way for the other X-men. Scott gaped at what he saw in the mirror. On one cheek someone had drawn the image of a lump of crap, while on the other someone had written 'idiot', 'fool' and other names. His forehead was now marred by the word 'Asshole' surrounded by flowers and vines.

To the shock of Harry and the other teens rather than becoming angry or sad, Scott actually chuckled a little, shaking his head. "I can tell Kurt was part of this, Evan too I guess, but who drew the roses? I don't think either of you have that much artistic ability."

Evan and Kurt snorted but it was Kitty who answered, her arms crossed while behind her Rogue and Jean looked on with frowns on their faces. "I did it, I think that word really encapsulates how you acted, don't you?"

Scott nodded, looking down at the floor. "Guys, I'm really sorry. I just lost my mind, what with finding my brother and wanting to stay with him, and finally getting full control of my powers, it just blinded me to everything."

"Yeah it blinded you to the fact that red armor wearing asshole was using you. Instead you were all, 'my power is a burden', 'oh I'm so cursed', 'no-one understands me' and then turned on us, on me!" Rogue yelled out before anyone else could.

Scott flushed, and shot back angrily "You have no idea what living with these cursed eyes is like! To know that one moment of inattention, one second without my visor or glasses could kill someone!"

Jean whistled a little to herself, stepping back out of range and motioning Kitty to do the same as Rogue seemed to swell up with anger. The powerhouse reached forward grabbing up Scott and pulling him out of the bed so they were face to face as if he weighed no more than a feather. "Ah don't know what it's like!? You say that to me?! Me, who since mah powers activated haven't been able to touch someone, not even for an instant, for fear of draining a person of his life force?! Ah put my first boyfriend in a fucking coma by kissing him for god's sake! Get the fuck over yourself!"

Kurt grinned a little but Ororo clamped a firm hand over his mouth, knowing this was not a time for the young teen's dubious sense of humor.

Scott gulped a little, both from the proximity of the rather good looking Goth girl, and her words hitting far too deeply. "I, I hadn't thought of that I guess, there are other people worse off than me aren't there? I guess I've been a bit of a dick for longer than this latest crap huh?"

Rogue nodded grimly. "Just remember you're not the only one sufferin' around heah sugah. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and realize how much yah've got to be thankful for." Scott nodded and Rogue huffed, dropping him back onto the bed before turning away, leaving the medical wing. Scott couldn't stop himself from staring after her for a moment, watching her rear flex and move athletically under her exercise shorts.

Kurt and Evan looked at one another then grinned. "We'll be pranking you for a week or so Scott, after that we'll be even. Just don't get yourself controlled by any more magical devices okay?" With that the two most easygoing of the X-men walked away Evan limping a little, but that was now the only sign of his wound from battling Sabertooth.

Kitty followed them a few seconds later. It wasn't like Scott could have hurt her anyway, so her main problem with Scott was the fact he'd turned on them for his brother, but if she ever had to choose between family and the X-men she might have done the same.

Jean stared down at Scott, shaking her head. "I guess if the others are willing to forgive you after a few pranks then I won't make a big deal out of this, especially since I was unconscious when you made your choice to first go along with Magneto." Her jade green eyes narrowed. "But that doesn't mean I won't remember it." Scott winced a little. Despite the mildness of Jean's response, that comment cut deeper than the others because of his feelings for her.

Behind the two teens Ororo looked at Jean for a moment then motioned the other adults out of the room. Harry lifted one eyebrow in inquiry as he followed his lady out of the room, but she simply smirked in reply before leaning forward after the door shot behind them. "It seems time for the two of them to clear the air between them, and for some misconceptions to be laid to rest if I'm any judge of my friend's response to that line."

Harry reared back a bit then laughed gently. "Ah, so Jean is going to lay down the law a bit?" Ororo chuckled in reply and Harry shook his head. "Ouch, but possibly about time too." Ororo nodded as well, hoping that Scott could let go his fixation on her friend.

OOOOOOO

After a second Scott got up the courage to respond in a way that might get him out of this, or at least sound a little romantic. "I know I messed up, I just, I wanted to look at you without my glasses in the way." Scott muttered, blushing a little then looked away.

Jean sighed, shaking her head, her red hair swishing slowly through the air. "Scott, I know you've got some feelings for me. When I cleared by head of the blocks, it was pretty obvious in the looks you sometimes sent my way. Maybe at one point I might have been flattered. Maybe at one point I might have come to return your feelings, but not anymore."

Scott frowned. "It's not Duncan, even I can tell that these days, so who is it?" Who is keeping us apart, was the unsaid portion of that question.

"Why does it have to be anyone Scott? We've just become too different from who we were. You have devoted your entire life to the X-men, I can see it. Five, ten years from now you'll still be here. Not me. A year from now I don't know where I'll be, but I won't be here. The professor's dream is a magnificent idea, but I don't agree with how he wants to work toward it. I want to make a difference in this world not just as the X-woman Phoenix, but as Jean Grey. Ororo says I'm like a butterfly, I'm ready to spread my wings and leave the cocoon. For you, the cocoon is enough for now. You may be willing to put your own stamp on it but that's all. And I'm not going to wait until it isn't."

She wasn't going to point out but beyond their lives moving in different directions she had long since decided Scott was far too needy, too emotionally unstable for her. She wasn't going to waste her life propping him up and keeping him going. She very much preferred a man who was an independent sort, the kind she could lean on rather than vice versa.

The image of Harry as he had appeared during the fight with Magneto, his power roiling off him like a heat haze, emerald eyes glowing with power and amusement as he looked down at her in his arms shot through her mind, and she bit her lip to keep from blushing. Her crush had yet to go away, and it couldn't leave fast enough to suit her. The idea of getting between Harry and Ororo was enough to make her skin crawl with self-revulsion. Though maybe you should be thinking of joining them instead, a small voice at the back of her psyche said, and Jean shook her head firmly, banishing it back into its book which was labeled 'immoral desires'. Looks like I'll need to meditate a bit longer tonight than usual, she thought ruefully.

Scott had no idea what was happening in the redhead's head, which was just as well considering. "So, that's it, just forget about us and move on?"

"There was never any us, Scott, just you being interested in me." Jean shook her head, this time much more emphatically. "Get over it Scott, and move on, please. You'll be much happier when you leave this fixation of yours on me behind."

Scott frowned at her word choice, but under her hard stare simply nodded. He wasn't going to get over his first crush anytime soon, but it was obvious just the way she was talking to him that what hope there might have been for her to become interested in him in turn was long gone.

Jean smiled. "Good, trust me, you'll find someone for you eventually. Someone you can be happier with than you would with me, someone who can match you better than I can." With that she turned and left Scott to his thoughts.

OOOOOOO

About an hour later the adults returned to the medical wing, where they found Scott staring out the window introspectively. Charles took up position by the younger Summer's bed and nodded at Harry who shrugged. "I'd wait until someone removed those doodles on Surfer-boys face, but meh." He waved his hand over Alex's face and moments later the teen woke up.

"What, what the hell happened? Where the hell am I, what happened to all that power I felt?"

"That power, Alex Summers, came at a price I doubt you would like to pay," Charles said frowning a little, then going on to explain what had happened. After a while Alex's frown receded a little, but he still looked put out and very suspicious too.

"Magneto used us Alex," Scott said earnestly, leaning over from his own bed to stare at his brother. "That power up, it came with something that let him influence our minds, control us. The professor's telling the truth."

Alex looked over at his brother and nodded. "I guess I can see it, he did have a whole megalomaniac thing going there didn't he?" Chuckles went around the room at that, but Alex went on. "That doesn't change the fact that I've got these new powers of mine."

"Indeed, well despite our rather regretful introduction I would like to offer you a spot among the X-men. We will train you in your powers, and perhaps give some direction in which to use them for the betterment of all." Charles said, smiling faintly in hope.

The blond Summers brother shook his head. "No, I'm not going to follow this Magneto character, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to follow yours either. All I want is to be left alone, have a normal life. I'm not interested in taking sides or being a child soldier for either group. Right now I just want to live my life as normally as I can."

Scott frowned at that and was about to speak when Harry put a hand on his shoulder squeezing. Scott looked up at him and Harry shook his head. Scott frowned but stayed silent.

Charles sighed sadly. "That is your prerogative Alex. We're not going to conscript you or anything like that. If you wish to return to your normal life, we will of course allow it. I'll have Logan drop you off where we met you."

Alex nodded and looked over to Scott. "Sorry bro, but I'm not a hero or a freedom fighter, not yet anyway. Maybe in the future, but right now I just want to enjoy being a regular teenager you know. I've got a girlfriend too," he grinned reaching out to punch his brother's knee. "That kind of soaks up a lot of my time."

Scott pushed aside his thoughts about Jean and what might have been to smirk at his younger brother. "Yeah I know how that is, I'm dating this cheerleader named Taryn and other than being a chatter box, let me tell you there's nothing else wrong with her if you know what I mean."

"Oh yeah, well my girls a surfer and a gymnast. There's this thing she can do with her legs…"

Harry rolled his eyes. He had never seen the point of dick beating contests, even when he had been a teenager they had seemed pointless at best, and indelicate at worst. Ororo shook her head resignedly and Charles smiled while Logan grunted in amusement. "Well, you just tell me when you want to leave surfer boy, we can afford to give you two a few hours to keep jawing." With that the four adults got up and left. The two teens so engrossed were they in their game of one-upmanship didn't even notice.

A moment later outside the room they heard someone shout. "What the hell are these doodles on my face!"

Alex left a few hours later to rejoin his foster family, leaving behind a few good memories and his phone number with his brother. However just because Alex had no interest in choosing sides didn't mean that other groups would be as nice as Charles and the X-men when accepting his decline.

OOOOOOO

About an hour later Harry finally had enough of Charles's procrastination, and after a late lunch asked him bluntly "Now, I believe you were going to tell us all how you met that, what did you call him Jean, that 'megalomaniacal asshole'?"

Jean nodded firmly, also looking at the professor. The other teens, most of whom had been about to leave the table, sat back down again. Logan and Ororo both looked at Charles too. Logan knew about Magneto, but Chuck had never told him how the two of them met. Ororo had known about him, but not about his backing the Brotherhood or his overall dogma, she had simply been told he was a mutant who used his powers for personal gain.

Charles looked around at all the curious faces and sighed. It wasn't that he didn't want to share this with them. It was just a painful memory for him, one that he didn't like revisiting. "Eric Magnus Lensherr and I met about 20 years ago. We were both working at a psychiatric hospital in Israel, and became friends through a mutual friend named Gabrielle Haller….."

For the next hour he filled them in about how the two had met, how they debated for hours on end about the future of the world and the rise of mutants and what they would face, their endless chess games while Gabrielle would watch and play the winner and how Eric eventually opened up to Charles about what he had faced in the war, the loss of his family and friends to the concentration camps. He told them about how they had opened up to one another about their powers when they were forced to work together to protect their friend from a rouge Nazi faction led by Baron Strucker a war criminal of the highest order. And how Eric, convinced that war between Homo sapiens and Homo superior was inevitable had left Charles and Gabrielle absconding with the gold the war criminal had been after.

Harry frowned. "So he basically became a mutant Nazi to prevent the mutants from being treated like the original Nazis treated the Jews. Talk about becoming what you hate."

Charles nodded. "I would not put it so bluntly, but I am not unaware of the bitter irony there Mr. Potter. Eric alas cannot see it."

Jean frowned. "So he used this gold to set up his own faction, which the brotherhood was involved with. But why do that chooser of the victor thing he did?" As they all looked at her wondering what that garbled sentence meant she hastened to explain herself. "I mean why did he pick the winners of the fights and bring them to wherever that was? Did he think he could brainwash us all? That doesn't match to someone who is doing what he's doing for moral reasons professor."

Charles frowned in turn at the memory. "Eric has a need to show that he is in the right, he will take every opportunity to try and convince other mutants such as all of you that his is the right path to follow. But he was not acting like the man I once knew. I put it down to it having been so long since we last saw one another, but his use of that mind altering magic gem is very much out of character for him. I have no idea why he would have changed so drastically as to think brainwashing you would have been acceptable. Kill you if you refused to join him perhaps, he is a ruthless man when he needs to be, but brainwashing? No."

"The gem might have been influencing him somehow, the better to spread its own influence, or perhaps something else happened in the past." Harry said thoughtfully. A subtle compulsion spell might do it, though that helmet might be able to block that kind of thing. It certainly blocked the Confoundus spell I tried.

"In any event, we know he's dangerous, and we know at least some of his abilities, with that we can figure out ways to combat him in the future." Logan said, and after that the group broke up, allowing Harry to clear the table.

While he worked Harry had a thoughtful frown on his face. Something about that story is off somehow. Charles told us a lot but I still get the impression he knows more than he told, or something else happened there that he doesn't want to share. I wonder what it was? Ah well, hopefully it isn't something that will bite us in the ass later.

OOOOOOO

The kids were given the rest of Sunday off from training given their ordeal on Saturday, but Harry decided to work himself to the bone. He wanted to finish as many projects as he could so that during the week he could spend his time fixing up the asteroid.

He was still trying to think of a name for it, Potterland sprang to mind, but he knew that was kind of egotistical. He couldn't use Sanctuary, since Magneto had used that name a few times in relation to the asteroid, and he obviously wasn't going to name it asteroid H permanently, he liked to think he had more imagination than that whatever Ororo thought of his naming ability. Still that was a very minor problem.

Before he could put any of his plans into motion for the asteroid, and boy did he have plans, he needed to finish his jobs for the X-Men. The first thing he did was to put up heavier wards around the house, which met with limited success. He strengthened the notice-me-not-ward around the house but his attempt to link it to the bio energies of the people inside the area thus cover failed. It was simply too wide an area, and the bio absorption just would not take.

Wards over large areas tended to either have their own internal power source i.e. a fully powered hearthstone, the individuals living there, or lay lines. There were no lay lines anywhere near the mansion, in fact there was only one lay line flowing straight through the state of New York and the city of the same name. Harry was willing to bet a lot of his gold that it flowed directly below Dr. Strange's house. Harry only had two hearthstones, and while he knew the mechanics of trying to make another one it was a time-consuming and laborious process and even then he wasn't certain he could get it right without considerable trial and error. And alas he was the only magic user in attendance. This unfortunately meant that the moment he left the ward would start to lose power (and did so now whenever he was away for long periods of time), unless he figured out a way for the X-Men to power them when he was gone. He decided he'd share that problem with Charles and the others later.

On the other hand he had placed some semi-permanent charms and wards on the mansion itself. An unbreakable charm and fireproofing wards and set up the array to power them via the bio-energy of the inhabitants, and that seemed to work well enough. At least it didn't immediately go dark and fail like his attempt to power the notice-me-not ward over the whole grounds.

With that done he went on to the next project and at last, finally, finished a working ward array for Rogue. The charm/Ward he had finally devised was difficult, and rather large despite his best efforts to shrink it down. First it took the ward he had already devised for protecting her mind against absorbing the memories and thoughts of other people and added a choice to it, sort of like a cut off in a circuit.

Then he added a ward that would turn invert any energy released from her into someone else returning them to her painlessly without any attempt to siphon power from the other person. Again he added a cut off switch to this, so she could use her powers at will. The final result was a rather two inch wide bracelet with bronze and copper interlaced discs, shaped but not transfigured by Harry's magic with each segment of the array on a different piece. The two cut off points were represented by a ruby colored quartz and white spherical stone. Rogue would have to touch either one to activate the cut off to use her powers, as Harry had set it so that the normal mode would be with her powers off. The last hurdle, whether it would somehow interfere in her new secondary mutation, her Juggernaut derived strength, proved to be a non issue thankfully.

All in all, it was one of the most difficult arrays he had ever devised. Not just the memory inhibition part, which he'd finished first, but the whole thing. A cut off to a ward like this, and intent based at that, was unheard of. Then there was the problem of figuring out how to stop the loop from happening between Rogue and another person's bio field. That had been appallingly difficult. After all, he didn't want to figure out a way to completely stop her power, just to stop the transfer from happening every time she touched someone, and he didn't want it to fail with continued use, so it had to be robust.

In a few years time a certain person who would call himself the Genegineer would figure out a way to inhibit mutants powers via a collar and a technology based inhibitor, but it wouldn't compare to Harry's work. That work after all would be made to take away the rights of the individual, Harry's was to allow the individual to have those rights in the first place. Self-control was what this ward allowed, not control by another person.

He presented that to her during dinner, and her effusive thanks for it, her tears of gratitude was a sight to see. The look of thanks on Ororo's face however was even more precious to Harry. Jean's dual thumbs-up was also very welcome, as was everyone else's praise. Scott, who even as little as a week ago would have been a little jealous of Rogue simply smiled and congratulated her.

Harry's color changing spell on his glasses had taken away a bit of his anger at his mutant ability, and he wanted to prove that he was in control of himself. He needed to know, that he was the one in control of his powers, and besides Harry had once told him offhandedly that creating a ward for him would be almost impossible. Harry could stop the feedback occurring in Rogue because it was based off touch. Scott's mutant ability was based off of actual chemical changes in his eyes and body directly connected to his ability to see. Harry couldn't stop his mutant power from working without making him blind in the process.

Waving away their thanks, Harry went back to his workroom and began his next project. This was the mix of charms, wards and defensive spells for Emma.

The only other project that was still ongoing, the research into what he still (somewhat jokingly) insisted on calling Harrytanium had run into a dead end, and he realized he needed more high-tech scanning equipment than he currently had to get any further. It was obviously going to take a mix of science and magic to figure out why he couldn't duplicate that metal, and a way to get around the problem and start producing it. The idea of creating Kevlar vests for example with this metal built into them was intriguing to say the least.

With that done, he spent the evening with Ororo simply sitting in silence solace interrupted by a few questions from Kitty and Jean at times.

OOOOOOO

After the kids have left for school on Monday Harry turned to Charles wanting to ask a question before he left to head up to asteroid H (he still hadn't thought of a better name for it and had no desire to ask for help). There was a lot of work that needed to be done, and he had plans, oh yes.

Storm had volunteered to come with him and help, but until he had finished re-pressurizing the interior and made certain that there was no chance of another rupture occurring, he wasn't about to let her along. "So, were you able to help Stephen and his acquaintance get custody of Wanda?"

Charles shook his head. "No unfortunately I was not." he looked a little irritated at that fact himself, though nowhere near as irritated as Harry suddenly felt when he heard it. "I attempted to do so, and was told in no uncertain terms that Wanda's powers mad her far too dangerous to ever let out of the Vault." Well, not without some insurance that she would never be able to use it against American interests, but Charles wasn't about to share that aspect with Harry. He knew the young man well enough by now to understand that such a thing would set him off badly.

"They do know that this was to actually get her training so she could use her power safely right?" Harry asked incredulously, his hand bending the fork it was holding into a pretzel shape.

Charles nodded sadly. "Unfortunately they do and their decision was the same. Wanda's ability to change reality and chance is far too dangerous in their eyes." He paused a moment, shaking his head sadly, "I'm sorry Mr. Potter but there's nothing I can do."

"No," Harry said drawlingly, controlling his anger with the ease of long practice, "there's nothing you choose to do. I on the other hand, I will choose to act." With that he stood up abruptly, kissed Ororo on the cheek and between one step and another vanished from the room.

Charles looked after him sadly shaking his head. "He just does not understand," he said to the others, "we must work within the system as much as possible or we become what they fear the most, feeding the hate towards mutants when we should be combating it."

Logan shrugged. "Sorry Chuck but I'm with Harry on this one. Sometimes the system's broken, or blind to the needs of the individual. When that happens you need someone out on the outside, isn't that what the X-Men are for?"

"True," said Charles, then he sighed. "Perhaps I miss judged the seriousness of this matter." He brightened up a little bit. "I believe I have a map of the Vault somewhere. It would be a help should anyone, foolishly obviously, try to break in, wouldn't it?"

Ororo smiled at him. "Yes I believe it would."

Charles nodded firmly and then moved off to a study to find the map in question.

OOOOOOO

In his anger Harry had made the mistake of trying to teleport directly into Dr. Strange's domicile, a big no-no in mage circles. He knew it was a mistake almost as soon as he attempted it, but he had basically expected to bounce off the wards much like he had done when trying to apparate onto the grounds of Hogwarts. Instead he found himself in a very small holding area complete with benches and some extremely old magazine set onto a table. It was very nice little area, but it was obviously artificial, almost like the inside of a magical trunk or wizard tents.

Within seconds of his arrival however a door to the side opened and Stephen looked in, eldritch energies surrounding him for a moment. He looked at Harry quizzically, not letting go of his manifest power. "Yes Harry? Is there something I can do for you?"

Harry looked at him and then laughed a little, letting go of a bit of his anger simply because of the absurdity of the situation. "All right, I have no idea how you did this. Adding a waiting room to your anti-teleportation runes? Connecting a pocket dimension to the anti-teleport wards, that is just amazing!"

Stephen chuckled too releasing his power now. "We all have things to learn my young friend. Come, at present I would like to learn what made you so angry and rude as to try and barge into my house like this."

Harry nodded gravely, walking forward to Follow Steven through the doorway, and he was unsurprised to find himself in the main room of Steven's basement laboratory. "I heard from Charles that you're attempts to gain custody of Wanda failed. Moreover the government is against ever letting her out."

Stephen sighed sadly. "Indeed, we tried first on our own. With my own background as a doctor and as a psychologist I had hoped to get access to her at the very least, but without outright stating that I would be training her in her mystical powers we were not able to get anywhere. We then asked Charles to help, but he was turned down even more firmly. It's obvious that the government fears her power, and is willing to look the other way so long as she is only a danger to herself where she is."

Harry nodded grimly. "Well then there goes the lawful solution, I suppose we'll have to take matters into our own hands."

Stephen frowned a little. It was not exactly happy at the idea of breaking into a maximum security prison, especially a federal prison, but it wasn't like they would have any defense against magic there.

Clea came up and put one arm around his shoulders nodding at Harry. "We need to get that young girl out as quickly as possible. If I understand it correctly she is losing more and more control of her powers on a daily basis. Training must begin as soon as possible, before she becomes an even worse danger to herself and others."

Stephen sighed, but nodded all the same. It looked at them both with one eyebrow raised. "Tonight?"

Harry smirked a little. "I have nothing planned that can't be changed. Besides, I was thinking of breaking out someone else from the Vault anyway."

Clea got it immediately. "That Melody child you mentioned? She seems like a true innocent from the description you gave of her, I agree she shouldn't be institutionalized like that."

Harry touched his lightning scar briefly frowning a little. "I actually looked up her and Wanda's information on Charles' computer, and got a better idea of how Melody's powers have affected her and why. It's true that she really couldn't function as a part of society, but honestly there's no reason that she couldn't be moved to a much nicer home." There were also aspects to her power that worried Harry, since he could easily see them being misused by someone. "Tonight," he said nodding sharply.

Harry went back to the mansion and sent Hedwig ahead to scout out a place where they could teleport to without being observed. While his familiar was doing this he made a copy of the map for Steven and Clea and then spent the rest of the day going over the work Kitty was doing with runes.

At around two that evening Hedwig returned with the spot in her mind, which he read there. Harry teleported there and then waited for the other two magic users to show up, assuming they would have their own methods of getting around undetected.

Soon enough he was joined by Stephen and Clea, though their teleportation's were much flashier than his own, consisting of a circle on the ground first appearing that pentagram inside it and then them arising out of the ground. "I see what you mean when you said 'same outcome but different styles,'" Harry said thoughtfully nodding at the two.

He held up the map Charles had given him and motioned them over to look. "Wanda's room is over here in the maximum security area. Her cell will have three different cameras inside, 24-hour two-guard detail on the door, and a team of three guards down here along the corridor as well as cameras covering every inch of the hallway."

Stephen nodded stroking his mustache thoughtfully. "Clea and I will get Wanda, I have several charms and spells prepared to counteract any mechanical or electrical up observation or recording. That plus an invisibility charm will work wonders."

Harry nodded but added a word of caution. "I probably don't have to tell you to this, but remember to quite your feet okay, sound can point you out just as easily as sight sometimes."

Stephen snorted magnificently. "What's that phrase, 'teach your grandmother to suck eggs'? That fits my thoughts along that line appropriately."

Harry grinned at him then pulled out his invisibility cloak, pulling it on over him until only his head was visible then silencing his feet. "Do we want to meet back here, or just go our separate ways?"

Steven stared at Harry's cloak for a moment, for some reason it was giving him a very odd feeling but he shook it off and tapped the sash around his waist twice, disappearing after the second tap. A moment later he had charmed his feet for silent movement.

While Steven replied to Harry's question, Clea tapped her forehead, mumbling an incantation under her breath and slowly began to turn invisible, much like the dissolution charm in Harry's own world. "I believe it would be safer for us to simply make our way back to my domicile. You are free to stop by later if you wish, but we will be getting Wanda there as swiftly as possible."

Stephen didn't show it, but his protective instincts had been aroused when he heard of the plight of this young magic user, especially considering the fact that she might well be a pawn of one of the elder gods, and one of the nastier of the bunch at that. Expelling such entities and keeping their influence to as bare a minimum as possible in the tangible world was one of his main duties as Sorcerer Supreme, and it was thus his duty to help this girl. Added to this was is natural inclination to help anyone who was as in as bad away as Wanda.

His girlfriend's view of things was even more clear-cut. Clea's mothering instincts, which had never actually been aroused at all before, had been awoken swiftly by the plight of this young girl, and both were determined to get her out and do their best to help her. "In that case let's be about it."

Before they left however Stephen asked, "Before I forget, you said you read Wanda's file?"

"Yes," Harry said pausing mid-step, "was there something you wanted to know?"

"Was there a hint as to who her parents were?"

"Only that she was left with authorities in New York after traveling here from Germany, her last name is Maximoff, if that tells you something. It sure as heck didn't tell me anything."

Stephen nodded. Clea on the other hand scowled fiercely. "If ever her parents come to reclaim her then I will be having… words with them, the kind that mostly end with screaming and shouts of 'argh no' and 'no that's not supposed to bend that way'!"

Harry grinned conspiratorially at her. "Fine by me."

With that the three went their separate ways. Clea went to the front of the institution, intent on making a bit of a diversion. Nothing obviously magical or anything, just something to get the guards looking outside the building while Steven and Harry went about their business inside

Stephen and Harry made their way swiftly toward the building itself, then Steven waited until the door opened and a few guards poured out onto the grounds to start searching for the disturbance, allowing him to slip inside unseen.

Having memorized the map of the building he easily wound his way around guard positions and past cameras unseen. Soon he came to the position where Wanda's cell was. Just like Harry had said there were two guards stationed at a small defensive position directly opposite the door to Wanda's cell, with a camera above them. the two guards were at that moment playing cards.

Steven swiftly let loose an incantation and pointed one finger at the camera trained on the door. The spell was one that forced the camera to show only what it had seen in the fifteen minutes before the spell hit it.

One of the guards, wearing a green stripe on one arm which indicated he was a new hire (not that Steven knew that of course) scowled angrily, throwing his hand down on the table between him and his fellow guard. "Fuck, damn mutie, forcing us to stay up this late!"

The other guard shook his head. He wore a blue and red stripe on his uniform, which meant he had worked there for two years minimum on both sides of the complex. "It's not Wanda's fault we're here this late, it's our paranoid bosses. She never tries anything at night for some reason, so having a guard here this late is pointless, but we're not the ones in charge."

"She's still a mutie bitch," the first guard muttered, dealing out a new hand.

"Don't let captain Stone hear you talk like that," the second guard cautioned. "And what's your problem with Wanda anyway? Sure she's a problem child, but hell she's a teenager, aren't all teens problem children at one point or another?"

"She's a damn mutie, not human, that's the problem! They're a fucking menace, the freaks!"

The second guard glared at him and shook his head. "With an attitude like that you won't be around here long. And if I hear you giving any of the prisoners trouble, I'll see captain Stone sacks you so fast it'll make your head spin, am I clear?"

As the first guard muttered his reply Steven finished a longer incantation putting a spell on the two guards taking care to hit them both at once. This spell was a little more subtle; first it was part sleeping spell that put their minds asleep but not their bodies, so they would remain in their current positions unmoving. Then came the portion of the spell that modified their memories slightly, so that neither of the two guards would remember even feeling sleepy and would simply be able to report honestly that they hadn't seen or heard anything.

With that done he used a simple unlocking charm and the door let him inside.

Wanda had felt the power being used outside her door and had looked up, her face a mix of wild apprehension and hope. When she saw no one there she frowned and concentrated a little, causing her eyes to start sparking a little before she seemed to zero in on Steven, or rather the spells around him.

Stephen was a little surprised at that, it showed that she could indeed already consciously control her power. Before she could speak however he cast spells on the three cameras in the cell, the same spell he had already used on the one outside. The camera's taken care of Steven disillusioned himself before introducing himself to the young magic user. "I am Stephen Strange, Harry Potter contacted me, he described your situation here and I decided to help you if I could. We have decided you will be the apprentice of my lover and I, which is if you agree to it. If not I will go away and leave you here in peace."

Wanda hadn't really held out much hope for Harry coming through for her, but to see someone actually break into the Vault (it was obvious he wouldn't be here at this time of night if he was allowed to be here after all) to help her? The fact this elderly man was offering to train her, help her control her powers, which was beyond anything she had dared hope for. She nodded quickly, "please, take me with you. I-I can't, I need to learn," she stumbled over her words. A single tear of frustration appeared in her eye, which sparkled and became a crystal before it fell from her eye, her chaotic magic reacting to her frustration.

Stephen nodded compassionately, ignoring the strange magical phenomena. Swiftly he undid the bindings of her straitjacket. With that done he tapped her on the forehead gently and she looked down in shock and amazement as her body began to slowly becoming visible. "This is an invisibility spell, a bit crude but simple to learn. I estimate you will be able to cast this yourself in a month or so."

Another tap on her forehead and she suddenly realized her breathing and heartbeat was gone. "And that is a silencing spell, again relatively easy once you get used to the need for visualization."

Evidently the invisibility spell didn't work on her new master since a second later she felt someone grab her hand and then the two were moving swiftly through the Vault, only stopping momentarily outside her cell to close and lock the door and cancel the spell on the two talkative guards.

Within 30 minutes, Stephen Clea and Wanda were back of Stephan's house, and she was being shown her room. Clea proved to be a harsh mistress, informing Wanda when she would be awake to start lessons, and what those lessons would entail in detail as well as what punishments she would hand out for tardiness and other di delinquency (mostly cleaning and the loss of TV and music privileges, nothing physical in any way). With that done she send Wanda off to bed down for the rest of the night in the best bed she had ever has.

Despite her harsh manner Clea's kindness shown through and Wanda agreed to everything readily. She went to bed happier than she had been since her father and brother had left her with the authorities. Her last memory of the night was Clea tucking her in like a little baby, and a strong yet soft hand gently touching her cheek before she fell asleep.

OOOOOOO

Harry had an even easier time of it, not even needing to enter the building. He simply moved around the outer wall building until he saw the patch where the wall was open to his senses, the magical window he had created for Melody still in place. Since the change he had wrought was a permanent one, a permanent transformation that wasn't a surprise, though the fact the glamour hiding it to the senses of others was still in place surprised him a little. He had put quite a bit into that spell after all.

He then flew up, and after looking inside was able to easily teleport into the room on the other side of the window. Once there he looked around for cameras, finding only one in the corner facing the bed which he hit with his own version of Steven's spell.

That done He looked around scowling a little at the lack of life or feeling in this room, and shook his head. This gilded cage, he thought to himself, isn't as gilded as I thought. From the outside he could only see the bed, which looked like a normal twin bed with nice covers and a wooden frame. But from the inside it was obvious that was the only piece of furniture, and Harry scowled angrily at the neglect.

He moved over to the bed and was unsurprised to see that Melody had sat up in bed and was staring at him, or at least in his direction. "Mr. Harry? You still have so many songs bubbling and whirling around you, though one is brighter than it was before, did something happen with your girlfriend?"

"Hello Melody," he said calmly, not bothering to remove his cloak since the girl could obviously see him despite it somehow (which he hoped wouldn't become a reoccurrence). "Would you like to come with me?"

Melody paled a little at that. "Oh is that why you're here, I," she stammered a little looking around then went on sadly, her entire body drooping. "I know I'm here for a reason. I, my songs, they bother people. I didn't really like it when I was around other people, there were too many songs, too many noises, crowding in and no one understood. I don't, I don't think it would be a good idea."

Harry went to one knee in front of her, though he still didn't remove his cloak. "What if I told you" he said gently, reaching out to grasp one of her hands where it lay on the top of the blanket. "What if I told you that I had a place where no one could bother you, where you would be only around people like me who understood you? Where there is grass and flowers and eventually even some animals I hope? Where you could have your own room, your own things, where you can dress in something different than that single piece uniform you have. Where you wouldn't have to interact with the outer world if you didn't want to, but could still have that option?"

Melody stared at where she knew Harry was kneeling. The songs never lied to her after all, and they told her he was there. They hadn't lied to her about her stepfather and his unhealthy interest in her, they hadn't lied to her about her mother and the lack of help there, and they hadn't lied to her about trusting Charles when she needed to go away. The songs were telling her to trust him now; they were telling her that so strongly it actually overwrote every other song in this place.

There were hundreds, thousands of songs surrounding Harry, more than she had seen in nearly any other person. But one thread of music was below them all, stable, resolute and powerful, like steel given sound. It wasn't quite the beat of war drums, or the beating of a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil. But it was immutable, part of his solid form, unyielding and unchanging as steel. It was the beat of the defender, the song of the guardian at the gate, the steadfast hero.

After a moment she shyly nodded and pulled her covers off. "I-I think I would like that," she said, still stammering a little and Harry nodded.

He reached forward and gently lifted Melody off the bed. He pulled the young girl against his chest, and without another word teleported out of the room down onto the ground below. He didn't even bother to reverse the spell placed on the wall, let someone wonder what the hell had happened, he didn't care. There was nothing here linking what had happened to him after all and soon enough the time for hiding would end anyway.

"I should warn you, this may feel odd, but don't worry, I'm just transporting us to our new home. Harry Potter now owns Magneto's asteroid," he said, confusing Melody for a moment then concentrating on the teleport point in the asteroid which had yet to be named. "I think it might help if you close your eyes."

The teleport point was in the forest/Arboretum that Magneto's room had overlooked. Harry had some rather specific plans for that room, after all it was certain that his first time with Storm would be noisy, and the room and it's view could be rather romantic…

The two appeared in a small burst of light, not even Harry was able to teleport that large a distance (and into space from the ground, which seemingly made it even harder) without some noise at the other end, and Harry gently put Melody on her feet. She wobbled a little but then opened her eyes and looked around gasping in wonder.

Harry hadn't yet figured out how large the asteroid was, but this section was at least 2 km long by itself, the others sections weren't as large individually, but probably added a few more kilometers to its length, and a bit to its width and height. He had been through most of it, but hadn't actually mapped everything out just yet, just making sure that there were no traps or anything else that could attack him or his allies. There hasn't been anything all the defenses were on the exterior of the asteroid or in the hangar bay, Magneto had been slightly arrogant about that, but Harry realized with his power he had a reason to feel confident.

"What do you think?" He asked, smiling down at the young girl.

Melody gaped around her then gasped as she saw few birds alight on a tree nearby watching them. "I think it's wonderful!" she breathed.

"Excellent!" Harry replied, clapping his hands together. He looked over at a tree stump and waved his hands, transfiguring it into a bedpost. With another wave of his hand he conjured up a mattress out of air that landed on it neatly and some blankets. The last bit was a large bear shaped body pillow that landed with a soft thump onto the bed. Melody grinned and walked over curling up in bed, hugging the bear print pillow to her and looking around in wonder, the soothing sounds of nature filling her. "I'm going to be busy elsewhere on the asteroid," said Harry, if but I'll be back tomorrow morning for breakfast. Do you have any preferences?"

Melody looked up happily. "English muffins with gooseberry please!"

Harry grinned at her and nodded. "Eventually I'll have a kitchen and stuff up here, but for a while it'll be just be me transporting food up. When we do get a kitchen do you want to start learning how to cook?"

Melody shook her head. "I already know how to cook, or what my mother taught me at least." That had actually been one of the few happy memories she had of her parents, learning how to cook simple meals alongside her mother.

Harry nodded. "Well in that case I'll bring up some stuff and you can show me what you like when we put together your bedroom okay?"

She nodded sleepily, snuggled back into her bed, humming gently to the song of the wild thrush that had just landed on the bedpost by her head. Other birds were now also looking at her and moving towards her cautiously. "That would be fine Mr. Harry." As Harry turned to go she stopped him saying "Mr. Harry?"

He looked back at her and she said "thank you."

Harry blushed a little at the sincere praise and simply waved a hand airily. "It was no trouble my dear. Sleep well, and I'll see you in the morning," I with that he walked off, through the woods and out to the outer section of the asteroid.

OOOOOOO

He spent the rest of the night moving around the asteroid repairing what he could, and figuring out functions of everything he found, having just concentrated on the exterior and the defenses before, putting aside the mobile robots he found for now. Despite the fact that his Fidelis charm should cover the entire asteroid against anything that could find it (after all he and the New Marauders had hid a large mansion on a busy street in the center of London with the same spell) he reactivated the ECM and visual camouflage devices that Magneto had come up with, marveling at their simplicity and high level of technological design. They almost matched something that he would expect from Reed, not quite but almost, definitely not something a normal person could figure out, let alone build.

That done he teleported back to the mansion, where he had rigged up a large canister which he filled with air. He made several trips refilling the asteroid's outer sections with air. Up to that point the only areas that had air was the arboretum in the center and the observation room. After about fifteen such trips he opened all the doors and checked the pressure gauge. He was pleased to note that there was no leak which meant that everything inside had been re-pressurized now. He continued on slapping more spells around, or and then made one last teleportation down to the planet pick up breakfast for himself and Melody, as well as one of his hearthstones.

He placed the two breakfasts under stasis charms then spent the rest of the night in powering the Hearthstone.

Un-plottable wards, anti-demon wars, anti-spy wards, anti-teleportation wards with himself as the sole person keyed in at the moment, which meant that he could side apparate other people along with him but other people couldn't teleport in. He carved in numerous defense wards, anything he could think of, trying to copy the sheer number of wards he had seen around this dimensions Hogwarts, though they wouldn't be nearly as powerful.

Of course the wards weren't all he put on the hearthstone as he connected it to the asteroid. A warming charm to combat the chill of space, and an Unbreakable spell whose effects spread throughout the outer shell of the asteroid. The last spell he put on it was a large application of a space expansion charm, targeting the arboretum and two of the other larger rooms in the asteroid, expanding them each fifteen-thousand times over, giving him enough room in those to equal a good portion of New York's farmable land.

A hearthstone was in essence an almost sentient piece of stone that bonded to the territory it was magically linked to. This could range from a school like Hogwarts and its grounds, to a single family home, something smaller and sometimes even larger. The owner bonded the stone to the area using a very specific spell, then carved the wards on the surface he wanted, and cast any spells on the stone. The stone would do the rest, spreading the effects of the wards and charms/spells throughout the entire area it was connected to unless told specifics such as in the case of the space expansion charms.

Of course, the stone would then pull as much power as it needed to power the spells from the user, the larger the area, the more power needed. It was why powering hearthstones usually took the simultaneous effort of a large number of people. The more wards and spells, the more people needed to help power the startup process. Another way would be to connect the hearthstone to a lay line, which was far easier. After the spells were in place, the hearthstone would take power from the magicals in its territory to continue powering them. Harry had done all this alone, and was the only magical in the area.

Thus by the time he was finished he was utterly exhausted, his magic almost completely depleted for the first time since ever really. Harry spent a few hours stumbling through breakfast with Melody yawning as he did before bowing out and returning to the mansion to sleep the day away until the kids came home. He had dinner with them then spent the evening with Ororo, making out with her occasionally, but mostly just telling her what he had done in the past two days of solid work.

OOOOOOO

The next day Harry returned to the asteroid, and started to renovate the place. He left the master bedroom for later, realizing that doing it himself would be a bad thing as a boyfriend. After all it was going to be as much Ororo's as his (eventually anyway) and she'd probably want to have some input on it.

Instead he concentrated on renovating the rest of the asteroid. He repainted everything inside, using magical brushes, something that had Melody laughing and chasing them around yelling about some Disney movie come to life, which he thought was rather cute.

At lunchtime he returned to the mansion to collect Ororo, something she had requested that morning. They returned with a pop, and after letting Ororo regain control of her equilibrium, Harry waved a hand at Melody, who was sitting at a conjured table eating a large slice of pizza with gusto. "Ororo, this is Melody, Melody, this is Ororo, my girlfriend."

"How do you do child?" Ororo asked, reaching out a hand to gently touch the younger girl's rather mangy hair in lieu of shaking hands. The feel of it caused her to frown a little and she turned to Harry. "Is there any reason this child doesn't seem to have had a bath or a shower of late?"

"Oh, I tried to stay away from the shower, no one else liked listening to me sing, and it isn't a proper shower without singing along with the water," Melody replied, her eyes looking away from the two adults for a moment. The guards couldn't protect her from the other inmates while they were in the shower. There were only so many female guards after all, and they had to watch the more dangerous criminals.

"I hadn't actually thought of it," Harry admitted wincing as Ororo glared at him. Evidently that was the wrong answer. "Um, I could go and do it now I guess."

"Do so," Ororo ordered imperiously, "Then you will return to the mansion and bring back some soap and shampoo."

"Yes dear," Harry replied, knowing when a battle wasn't worth the effort to fight.

That took him about an hour, figuring out where Magneto's bathroom was, finding the pipes that fed into it from the thankfully still intact water reservoir, and then adding another pipe run to the room he had thought to give to Melody as her permanent room. It abutted the arboretum near the 'front' of it, the section that held the plants and birds now that the area had been expanded by his charm, the charm having simply expanded outward along one axis, leaving the plants in place but somehow (not even Harry was clear how this part worked) expanding the ground underneath to match the new dimensions of the room.

Then he figured out how to heat the water, which took a bit longer and returned to his lady and the young charge. While Melody was enjoying her first bath since she was a little girl Ororo, after kissing Harry rather heatedly for saving Melody and fixing up the bath so quickly, went to work.

First the two of them worked on creating a workroom for his wards in one section, and in another section, the area where Magneto had his laboratory, Harry and Ororo renovated into his own research lab.

After that the two of them and the now clean Melody got dirty, to the delight of the young girl and the chagrin of Ororo, got dirty. They spent most of the day planting the magical seeds Harry was going to use to brew his magic potions for later sale. So long as Harry controlled the source of production, and he did, Steven had never even heard of the potions he was looking to sell, no one else could recreate them. It also cut down the change for them to be misused. It would take a while, about two months before he had his first crop and then at least two weeks of solid brewing to make his first batch, but with the size he had to work with he would eventually be able to make enough to meet demand.

The last project for the day (other projects would wait for him to buy furniture and some scientific devices) Storm took one look at the overlooking the throne room with a view of Earth and scoffed, then removed the chair, brought in several chairs from Magneto's room and demanded that Harry create a telescope to look out into the stars. Harry did so then went outside to put as high tech a sensor as he could on the outer hull, routing it to the observation room, where eventually he would set up a computer to monitor its readings. This wasn't exactly radar but that term would do for now. Harry assumed that anything in space would reflect light from the sun, which would tell the computer if anything was heading toward Earth. It wouldn't be the fastest, and it wouldn't tell him any real-time data but it could see anything that was in the solar system eventually and tell him about it.

That was for later however, and after a full day the two teleported down to the planet, once more having dinner with the other X-men.

The next day he and Ororo spent the morning out buying furniture at several local stores, where they could buy the furniture and transport it themselves. "Notice-me-not and shrinking charms are lovely things aren't they?" asked Harry as he and his lady finished with their final stop for the day.

Ororo chuckled. "Indeed, they saved us quite a bit of time. You truly are a handy person to have around Mr. Potter."

"Hah, says the lady who's basically every farmer's patron saint!" The two laughed and returned to the mansion where Harry transported the furniture up to the asteroid in bulk.

Melody waited for them, grinning at the idea of having her own furniture and other things. "Hello Mr. Harry, Ms. Ororo! Oohh, your songs are a duet today, 'riders of the Storm, how nice!"

Ororo coughed a little at the inadvertent innuendo, while Harry grinned before shaking his head sorrowfully. "Alas, not quite yet Melody, perhaps someday…" that was as far as he got before a bolt of lightning slammed into him causing him to break off. Melody gaped but then giggled as Harry laughed, waving one hand to get rid of the smoke caused by the impact. "So, let's put this stuff together and you two can tell me where you want it all.

After a few hours Melody had her room fully furnished. One wall led into her bathroom, another one was open to the arboretum beyond, with a small wall between them. The other two walls were painted light blue and green, blending in well with the forest beyond. The bed was a double sized bed made to look like a single log, with compartments underneath the mattress for clothing. She had a night light and a small table with a big comfy chair in front of it.

Magneto's bedroom received a makeover as well under Ororo's demanding hand. Gone were the 'royal' bed and the metal dresser and tables. In their place was a king sized futon on the floor, with several fur carpets scattered around and a fur blanket draped over it much like on her own bed back at the mansion, though the size and the mattress had been chosen by Harry, as had the bed stand and dresser, both in dark wood. For some reason Harry had told her that when they moved out there would be someplace else for that furniture so all this was new. Along one wall were several computers for the asteroid and the radar, as well as a computer that connected to the internet and allowed Harry access via wi-fi anywhere in the asteroid. The other wall led into the master bathroom, which was dominated by a large Jacuzzi. Ororo was a woman who enjoyed bathing, having done it so seldom (never) in Cairo and very rarely on the plains of the Serengeti.

OOOOOOO

So after four days of nearly nonstop work Harry felt they had done as much work as they could on the asteroid for now. Melody was happy, she had her own room and her own furniture, and had opted to stay behind to have her very own concert. They left her listening to Les Miserable and singing along on all the males songs for some reason.

Ororo too was happy, redecorating with her boyfriend had been rather fun, and the ideas he shared with her about how to use the asteroid filled her with anticipation.

Harry wanted to do something to celebrate, something to let the tow of them relax a bit but he wasn't certain what. He decided on a movie, but hadn't really spent a lot of time watching them back in his old dimension, so had no idea what he was in the mood for. He brought this up at dinner time and all the kids clambered in with some of their favorites, but it was Jean who swayed them all. "How about Star Wars?"

Harry looked at her, head cocked to one side, "What's Star Wars?"

Evan and the other boys all gasped and nodded fiercely. "If you don't know what Star Wars is, we need to teach you right now!" Even Scott nodded firmly.

Jean grinned. "Definitely, since magic can do a lot of the same stuff the force can. This should be interesting."

Minus Logan and Charles the group piled into the TV room. Logan didn't join because he had no stomach for anything that smacked of family bonding time, and Charles didn't particularly like the Star Wars universe, thinking it was far too bloody and didn't particularly like the idea that even that far in the future there would still be war. He much preferred Star Trek thanks to its concentration on diplomacy, despite having to deal with being compared to Piccard.

Harry frowned a little at the TV screen then decided to try a charm that would enlarge it just a little, being very careful that it wouldn't damage the interior of the TV in anyway. So soon enough the TV was big enough to cover the entire side of the wall, and when he turned it on it still worked. Harry grinned a little happily at that then sat down on the loveseat with Ororo, while Jean went to fetch the movies from her room.

Rogue sat between Evan and Scott on the larger sofa, reveling in the fact that she could touch them now without absorbing their powers or life force. Kurt perched on one end, then flopped to the ground by their legs, while Kitty curled up against Ororo's legs leaning against the loveseat.

Ororo rested a gentle hand on Kitty's wild curly brown locks, stroking her hair and bringing a grin to the younger girl's face.

Jean came back quickly with the movies in hand and looked at the other kids. "Episode One?"

Evan nodded firmly, speaking for all the teens. "Best start at the beginning after all."

Jean grinned and popped it into the player, then changed the input to VCR, and moved over to sit beside Ororo and Harry in a chair she grabbed from the dining room. Harry frowned at the little chair she had pulled up, and with a wave of his hand changed it into a plush leather chair. She smiled thankfully at him, and then leaned back a little and snuggled in. The fact that this allowed Harry to look over and see down her shirt a bit only occurred to her moment later when she felt him looking at her, though when she looked up he hurriedly turned away.

Inside she crowed happily at that, while outside she merely smirked a little. It was nice to know that despite the fact that their relationship was going so well she was attractive enough to catch his eye. She crossed her legs and then noticed Ororo looking at her then she smiled back happily when the older woman grinned at her, pursing her lips as if doing a wolf whistle. The two girls exchanged a wink and then looked at the bemused Harry between them then giggled a little before the movie began.

After that everyone was silent watching the movie, and as Jean had predicted Harry was fully engrossed within the first 20 minutes.

Everyone cheered at appropriate moments, and Harry enjoyed almost everything bar the idea of a 'chosen one' (which struck too close to home) and one other point. Jar-Jar-Binks however seem to piss him off immensely. He muttered something about some kind of weasel but the others didn't catch it except Ororo who merely smiled and hugged his arm to her, driving such thoughts out of his mind easily.

As the credits rolled he said one simple thing which got everyone laughing. "I want a light saber."

As it was a school night a lasted group broke up at that point, but they determined that they would continue it one movie and night, an idea that the two supposed chaperones wholeheartedly agreed with.

OOOOOOO

The next day was Friday and that afternoon found Harry sitting in the living room, working on his laptop while in the background the Star Wars movie played for the fifth time that day. To say that Harry had become a fan would be an understatement, but he didn't want to ruin it by going on to the other movies without the kids around.

He looked up from trying to connect to the Fantastic Four server to have a chat with Reed as the door to the mansion opened. Jean walked in, the sound of her feet hitting the woodwork a staccato rhythm of anger. A moment later she joined him to the sitting room after changing out of her the clothing she had worn to school. The redhead flopped down onto the sofa across from him looking a little irritable.

"Had rough day at school, Red?" Harry asked dryly.

"You might say that," Jean ground out, flopping even further down and almost growling. "Apparently Scott and Taryn might be breaking up, and Taryn seems to think it's my fault for quote 'leading him on' end quote." She made the obligatory quote signs in midair shaking her head in disgust. "I just don't understand why people think his emotional problems are my fault. It's not like he isn't getting better or anything, in fact I think he's almost over me now."

Harry tried not to stare at Jean who wearing very tight, very short cut-off jeans and a loose T-shirt. Kurt had added something to the washing machine yesterday which just so happened to be the Ororo, Jean and Rogue's laundry day. Kitty never washed her clothing with the other girls, she was always a bit depressed how she was the smallest there in every way, and hated seeing the evidence of this lack. Nearly all of their clothing was now dyed various colors of orange or blue, which left Jean with very little to wear. It was either the clothing she had worn to school, a long skirt and blouse that her mother bought for her that she didn't like at all, or the two pairs of exercise clothing she wore on her daily runs around the mansion.

As punishment Kurt had been forced to actually figure out a way to get the dye out or buy their clothing from his allowance. That meant he was going to be without money for possibly as long as two months, but it was his own fault for trying out a prank that inaccurate.

"That's good," Harry said, and then looked away as Jean looked at him in surprise, trying to keep his own thoughts from getting away getting away from him. After all I'm with Ororo now, can't go around looking at other girls. No matter how sexy they are or how amazing their personality is. "I mean hopefully he'll be able to grow emotionally as well as a leader now."

Jean forcefully ignored the thrill she felt at hearing something else in Harry's words there, shaking her head a little. "Hopefully," she agreed, then looked up as Ororo walked in, dressed in much the same clothing as she was. She giggled a little at Harry's groan and the way he hunched up a little looking purposefully at his screen. She shared a grin with her older friend who nodded at the redhead.

Ororo moved to the sofa Jean was laying out on across from Harry and lifted the redheads legs out of her way before sitting down, allowing them to plop back onto her lap. Jean chuckled wiggling her toes at her friend until Ororo jokingly began to tickle her, which caused Jean to try and wriggle away laughing. "Gah, don't do that!"

"OH," Ororo giggled, "Is someone ticklish?"

"I plead the fifth!" Jean shouted then tried to wiggle away from the other woman's fingers.

Harry tried his best to ignore their banter, keeping his eyes on his screen to avoid looking at all the wriggling, barely covered flesh.

He concentrated on connecting to the Fantastic Four's server. After a few minutes he did so, but was surprised when the chat video opened up and there was no one in view of the screen. "Hello?" he said experimentally, "is anyone there? Please don't let this be Madame Harkness's cat pushing buttons he shouldn't."

A voice he hadn't heard before answered him, sounding very hesitant. "Hello, is, is there someone there?"

Harry frowned, that didn't sound like someone who'd broken in or was someplace they shouldn't be. He decided to take the soft approach for now. "I'm Harry Potter, a friend of the Fantastic Four. Who are you?"

`"Oh!" the voice exclaimed a little, as a woman came into view, staring in the direction of the speaker Harry's voice was coming out of with blind eyes. She was a blond woman of normal height and build, maybe a bit thin looking but that seemed to be her body type rather than a sign of ill health. Despite her blind eyes she had smile line around her face which denoted a kind spirit, even if her face was creased in worry now. "You must be, um, I'm Alicia, Ben's girlfriend? He gave me this necklace that he said you made, it, it did something and I appeared here! Oh, I'm so worried, Ben was…"

Harry interrupted her, his voice calm despite his own growing worry. "Calm down Alicia. Can you tell if there's anyone there?" He wasn't going to say 'can you see anyone', because from what he remembered Ben had said his girlfriend was blind. Harry, unlike the idiot blonde, hadn't made any comments about only a blind woman being able to love him, and had simply smiled and said he hoped they were happy together.

Across from him the girls stopped their little game and looked over at him then at one another before Jean scooted out from under Ororo, heading towards her room to grab her uniform and then Storm's from hers. Ororo stayed, looking at Harry quizzically, and making certain he didn't go haring off on his own. Or perhaps that should be Harry-ing she chuckled to herself.

"I,I don't know, I don't know this place well enough to move around very easily, there's too many odd noises. I think there might be someone else here, but they're not answering when I call."

"That would be because I was in the ladies room dear," said an elderly voice that Harry immediately recognized as Agatha's. "Whatever seems to be the matter Alicia?"

"Oh Madame Harkness, I was with Ben, one of the doctors in Europe had said he might be able to repair my eyesight, and we flew to the clinic there, but it was a trap! They wanted to capture Ben and they tried to take me hostage but when they did the thing Harry made for me activated and I was suddenly somehow here!"

At this point Agatha appeared on the screen at last, staring into it. "And why were you calling young Harry? And don't think we won't be talking about setting up a ward that would feed off my ambient energy to power that prank you placed on Reed's lab. That was quite rude, relying on my magic without asking."

"Heh, um didn't think of it that way Madame, um I wanted to get in touch with Reed, but this appears to be a bit more serious don't think?"

"Indeed, do you think you can teleport here to get to the bottom of this?"

"He will," said Ororo, moving into the picture behind Harry and leaning over his head. "And he'll be bringing some allies as well just in case."

Harry looked up at her and she frowned fiercely at him. "Don't even think it. They're your friends, that means if they need help I'll help them as readily as you would. That's how it works."

Harry shook his head, grinning a little. "All right, I won't even try."

"Wow," said Jean sarcastically walking in already dressed in her X-Men uniform. "He can be taught!"

She tossed Storm's to her and the African woman caught it deftly. She swiftly stripped out of her clothing, unmindful of the twitch on Jean's face, or Harry's chuckling.

It was fascinating to Harry how Ororo could sort of manipulate the idea of nudity to suit her. Most of their time she didn't care at all about it, and yet sometimes she just sort of changed her body language just a little and he could tell that she knew she was naked and enjoyed the fact He was looking. It was like changing from merely undressed to naked. This was part of the former times, where nudity didn't matter at all and as such he ignored it. "Has the sitting room there been changed or anything since I was last there Madame Harkness?"

Agatha shook her gray-manned head, still a little bemused by the idea that someone could teleport from one side of America to the other without any kind of construct or build up. While she could do the same thing, it took a lengthy invocation or a runic circle to aid her.

Storm was swiftly ready, and Harry stood up, saying into the computer "I'll be there them a few seconds, just leave the area open for me."

He shut the laptop down, turned and held up his hand, whereupon Hedwig appeared in the air above him landing swiftly. She precked at him, and he shrugged. "Some kind of trouble, with just Ben hopefully, we'll see when we get there."

He stood up, and Jean shook his head her head. "You should really get some kind of uniform you now?"

Harry scoffed, "Uniforms her for you Americans, my crysis suit is underneath this and it protects me way better than those suits of yours do. You won't catch me wearing spandex." Though hopefully soon your suits will give you as much protection as mine does me, but that's for later.

"I don't know" said Ororo thoughtfully trying to lighten the added to the a little further. She didn't like the hard glint in Harry's eyes. "You certainly have the butt for it."

Harry blushed a little at that, but held out his hands to them. "Grab on, and try not to lose your lunch. Side along apparition is among the most irritating things that happen to magic users."

"He's telling the truth," Storm said when Jean looked at her. "It is a very disconcerting experience." Jean shrugged and nodded and the two women reached out to grab his hands.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment concentrating, filling in the image of the fantastic four's sitting room, until he had it firmly in his mind and then without pop all four of them are gone, just as Evan and Kurt walked in the latter coming home from an impromptu basketball game, while the former had been forced home at claw-point to take his medicine for his prank. He was not looking forward to the torture the females called shopping.

The two boys blinked in shock then noticed a piece of paper on the coffee table. Kurt picked it up and red "Off to save the FF or at least one member, may return with autographs, Jean."

The two teens looked at one another then shrugged and Kurt went to the kitchen to raid the fridge for a fortifying snack before his ordeal while Evan calmly made his way up to the boy's bathroom. Just a day in the life around here.

OOOOOOO

The four of them appeared in the sitting room. Jean and Storm staggered, letting go of Harry and rubbing their heads and belly the same time. "That," growled Jean shaking her head "was a most irritating experience."

"Indeed," said Ororo, holding her stomach for a moment before straightening up resolutely. "It does not get better with repetition that much I can tell you."

"Interesting," replied Agatha calmly, looking at the newcomers. "I've never noticed any irritation when I teleport." Beside her sat Alicia, worrying her hands together slightly, but she had composed herself from her earlier panic.

"Yes, yes," said Harry waving a hand airily but now staring at the young woman. "Don't try to rub it in or anything Madame. You must be Alicia, it's nice to put a face to the name, Ben's told me quite a bit about you. He's quite sweet on you, you know?"

Alicia blushed. "I, yes, well, we've been going out for a while. Other people can't seem to get past his appearance, but I now he is a good man no matter what he looks like, he's just Ben to me."

Storm smiled reaching over to gently touch did slightly older woman's hair, then as the young woman looked around grasping her hand and bringing it up gently to touch her face. "That sounds like a good description from all I know of him, I am Storm of the X-Men, this is Phoenix, we're here to help."

Alicia's delicate fingers traced Ororo's face slowly, and she began to smile. Alicia had long ago developed the ability to discern a person's character by touching their faces. Ororo's face spoke of kindness, pride, intelligence and strength.

Agatha had been looking at the women wondering why Harry had brought them along, but hearing that they were part of the group that Potter had been training decided they might be more help than hindrance as she had first expected.

"Where's Franklin?" Harry asked, looking around.

"Taking a nap at present. It is something toddlers do often at that age, though not nearly enough for these old bones," Agatha replied dryly.

"Johnny is out with one of his girls, I can't remember what flavor of the day it is," she went on a little heatedly. Johnny had not been making points with her since having to break up with crystal. He had become somewhat of a manwhore, moving from bed to bed in an effort to make himself forget her. Agatha however simply saw it as a desecration of the memory of what had at the time been one of the sweetest couples she had seen in a long while. And for someone as old as Agatha was a long while was far, well, longer than for most people.

"Reed and Susan are at Reed's class reunion, they're down in Florida at a resort of some kind, though I would probably have called them if you hadn't been on the line Harry."

Harry shrugged "I'd call them up now, but while you're doing that, Alicia," he said turning to the younger woman, "maybe you can give me some more details about what happened?"

Phoenix, Harry and Storm listened while Alicia explained. Recently there had been articles in several papers, and some even translated into brail about a clinic that opened up in Germany just outside of Berlin that had advertised that they had new techniques and surgeries available for curing blindness. Several people had already gone to it and had their blindness cured, and she had been approached by the clinic to be one of their patients. As the girlfriend of the Thing from the Fantastic Four she was a sort of a celebrity, not really famous, but still famous enough to give them some needed publicity.

The two of them had traveled there despite Ben's misgivings about the whole thing being too good to be true, which made Harry nod. Both Ben and Reed had impressed him with their instincts and even Susan had to a lesser degree.

The trip had been going well, and nothing had seemed out of place though Ben remained suspicious. When they arrived at the clinic they found that the doctor that would be performing her surgery had yet to arrive. He'd been caught in traffic apparently, but the nurse escorted her into the room to get her prepped. While there she had been grabbed by someone or something, who had tried to use her to force Ben to surrender

Of course she hadn't seen what it looked like, but the voice had been coarse and harsh, grating on her ears, the arm around her almost as massive as one of Ben's own, slightly rough to the touch, not slimy but not human skin, almost like that of a lizard. The moment whoever it was had tried to take her captive her, the necklace Harry had made sensed her fear and its ill intent and activated, teleporting her away.

Harry leaned over the coffee table, his eyes intent. "Can I look at the necklace for a moment please?" Alicia nodded, and then she felt Harry gently lifting it away from her throat turning it this way and that. She took the opportunity to touch his face the way she had Ororo's moments before, startling Harry far more than Ororo as he had never been around a blind person before. After a moment however he subsided and let her trace the contours of his face as he went back to work.

Alicia smiled a little. The face before her was strong, yet there was humility and kindness written there, as well as a fierce protectiveness and determination which reminded her strongly of Ben, without any of the insecurities that sometimes marred her boyfriend's soul.

Harry didn't know what Alicia was thinking, he simply frowned a little as he explained the charm on the necklace. "It was a one-shot defensive charm with an intent based Portkey, drained now of course. I didn't know at the time what I could do, that normal humans would be able to use, so I went with what I knew worked in my home dimension, transportation and one shot defensive wards, like the kind Kitty has on her pebbles." He turned back to Alicia. "I've learned a lot since then, and if Ben's okay with it I'll make a more comprehensive and permanent ward scheme that'll power itself via your bio-energy. It'll mean that you'll have to eat more, but it will be a major long term deterrent rather than a strong but short-lived one."

Alicia cocked her head wondering what that was about, but Harry didn't respond to her unspoken query simply looking up as Agatha entered the room looking more concerned than she had been a moment ago. "Neither Susan nor Reed are responding, which is very odd. Since the incident with Annihilus Susan's made a point of keeping both a regular cell phone and an emergency communicator on her at all times." Even when she and Reed were, ahem, busy in the bedroom the communicators were nearby.

Harry frowned a little at that. Ben disappearing or at least fighting for his life was one thing, Susan and Reed disappearing at the same time or at least out of communication at the same time so far away from one another meant something much more serious was going on. "Europe," he said to himself looking over at Agatha. "We both know someone over there who isn't exactly fond of the Fantastic Four don't we?"

Harry had made a study of some of the Fantastic Four's previous adventures, though he mostly concentrated on the aliens that they had faced. But there were some names that had cropped up often enough to interest him, and one of them was right at the top of their danger list too.

Agatha nodded grimly. "The thought had occurred to me as well. He certainly has a long enough arm to do this, and is more than intelligent enough to try and pull it off."

"Yes," Harry murmured, "and the use of the class reunion to get to Reed would tickle his fancy I'd assume, since they were part of the same graduating class."

"Who exactly are we talking about here? asked Jean. "Unlike Rogue and Kitty, I don't make a habit of following the fantastic Four's adventures."

"Dr. Doom ,"said Harry thoughtfully. I would rate him at the same threat level as Magneto, possibly a bit more. Magneto still wants to hide from the general public and isn't willing to operate that openly. Dr. Doom can operate openly in Europe, as he's the leader of a country out over there named Latveria. It used to be part of the Russian block until communism collapsed, and since he somehow turned the country around from being a barely industrialized state with medieval level living conditions to a more modern way of life the rest of the Europe looks the other way."

And on top of that, Harry thought to himself a little grimly, none of the other powers in Europe want to a tangle with him. There aren't many superpower groups in the world just yet, and Dr. Doom is dangerous with a capital D. Spying they do, at least I hope, but trying to kick him out of power, that's not going to happen any time soon.

"The question is, which is the most important go after, Reed and Susan or Ben?" Ororo asked, exchanging a look with Jean.

"I don't think we should leave Alicia here, no offense to you Madame Harkness, but without the Fantastic Four here this place is a major target chuck full of tech and other secrets that Doom or anyone else would love to get their hands on." Said Jean looking around. "One of us should stay here, unless their defenses are good enough to repel attacks on their own?"

"They're not, not to that extent anyway. Most of their defenses are based on slowing an enemy down enough to give the FF time to ready a response, and they can't put defenses everywhere, the mayor and the city council won't let them." Agatha answered, having actually overheard discussions along those lines.

"Well I'm going, I'm the teleportation device after all," Harry said sardonically.

Storm and Jean looked at one another, and then moved off to one side to talk about it.

"How are you getting there?" asked Agatha.

Harry looked over at Hedwig, who shrugged her shoulders a little, precked once then leaped off his shoulder. A moment later she returned, appearing again in midair above Harry to land on his shoulder, precking at him and ruffling her fathers. Harry listened and shook his head. "Out of his range huh?"

Hedwig precked irritably, but Harry understood. Hedwig was, despite everything else still a mortal bird, or at least had some of the limitations of a mortal delivery owl. She couldn't fly far enough to find Ben, just like she hadn't been able to fly from New York to London.

Well it wasn't actually flight, but then again it wasn't actually teleporting either. Nor did it seem like Kurt's bamfing ability, since her reappearances didn't come with the smell of brimstone. Harry had vowed several times to look into how exactly Hedwig did what she did, but something always came up that took his mind off it.

"Well," he said now, getting to his feet, "that just means we need to be creative. Have you ladies worked out whose staying?"

Storm nodded, hiding one hand behind her body. "Phoenix has agreed to stay." She didn't want Harry to know that they had decided who would stay or go by playing rock-paper-scissors. A moment of levity had amused them both, but overall it did seem a little out of place.

Harry nodded and reached out to take Ororo's hand, then looked over at the morose redhead. "Agatha can walk you through how to activate this place's defenses, Franklin is in his room which is down that hallway, check in on him if you can, and tell Johnny what's going on if he returns. If he doesn't, I'll think of some way to prank him when we get back. Being out with one of his conquests during a time like this is…" he shook his head sadly. "I'm going to prank him a lot later."

Agatha nodded a little grimly. "That boy does need a stern talking to." In point of fact even with his pranks Harry was far more mature and reliable than Johnny in her mind, at least these days. If he finally got over Crystal and got a real girlfriend rather than this continued train of one night stands he'd be much more stable. She shook that thought off and went on. "I'll get in touch with Wyatt, he's over at the University tonight working on some kind of project I believe, he could hunt up Johnny for us."

Jean frowned a little. She'd heard stories of Johnny Storm, and while Rogue and Kitty seemed to think he was quite handsome and attractive, Jean didn't like his devil may care attitude, or the fact that he was a bit of a manwhore by all accounts. "If he hits on me can I castrate him?"

"Yes," said Storm and Harry automatically, then looked at each other and grinned before nodding at their friend. "We'll see you in a bit, hopefully with Ben at the very least."

The two of them disappeared along with Hedwig without another word. Alicia gaped a little, her sense telling her several of the people who had been there had suddenly disappeared. "What was that popping noise?"

"That was just Harry being Harry," said Jean patting the older woman on the shoulder. "Can I get you anything while we wait?"

OOOOOOO

Harry and Ororo appeared in the still unnamed asteroid in the observation room. Harry swiftly moved over to the controls, and the asteroid's small thrusters fired, shifting its position in orbit from above New York to over Europe in about 45 min. During this time Ororo went to say hello to Melody, and came back just as Harry sent off Hedwig to search for Ben. For some reason distance in height matter not at all to her odd ability, whereas lengthwise distance did.

At that moment the Thing was busy fighting a purple skinned demon that had introduced himself as Darkoth. The demon wasn't quite as strong as Ben, but was just as durable, extremely flexible, and fast. The two had been fighting on and off for a while now, Darkoth retreating and Ben following ever since Darkoth had tried to grab Alicia and use her as a hostage. It was only the demon's own astonishment at her disappearance that convinced Ben it hadn't had something to do with it, and it took him a few minutes to remember that Alicia had Harry's emergency Port-thingy and calm down.

Not that it had saved Darkoth from a clobberin'. The purple demon had escaped his fury for a few minutes, escaping down into the sewers and then through some weird glowing doorway, but Ben had followed him relentlessly. Now they were fighting it out on a metal bridge over an underground crevasse.

A flash of white above him caught Ben's attention and he ducked under a punch from his opponent, returning with an uppercut that sent Darkoth back a few paces. He looked up and blinked in shock seeing Harry's bird of all things in the air above them.

Darkoth thundered back in taking advantage of his momentary distraction to land a blow that slammed into his stomach. Ben grimaced but returned his concentration to the fight, wondering what the heck the bird was doing here.

The bird landed on a beam up above them, seeming to look all around the area, and a moment later disappeared again. A second later Harry appeared out of thin air with Storm, the black woman that had come with Logan and Charles to persuade harry to leave with them, on one arm, both of them flying in midair.

Not wanting to give up the element of surprise Harry swiftly pointed one finger and the purple colored monster Ben had been fighting flew away from his friend to slam into the wall.

Darkoth gaped up at him in astonishment at their sudden appearance and the force that had just invisibly thrown him around so easily, but didn't have any time to question what it happened because Storm immediately hit him with a lightning bolt straight to the head. Darkoth shrieked in pain and ducked to avoid some of it but a moment later a spherical red beam of energy washed over him, and he fell unconscious to the sewer's floor.

With that done Harry landed gently next to his craggy faced friend. "Hey Ben, how're you doing?"

Ben guffawed a little, slapping Harry on the back. To his surprise the younger man didn't even flinch under the blow merely smirking back at him. "Better now Potter! I guess my girl Alicia got away? I really can't thank you enough for that teleportation thing you gave her!"

Harry shrugged. "It's what friends are for mate. In fact I've had a lot of time to perfect some other, better defenses for her. Though that won't actually be a gift, since I want something from Reed in return, I'm afraid to say."

"I'll make sure Stretch gives you whatever you want," said Ben fervently. He'd never forget the look of fear on his girlfriends face as she was grabbed by that purple asshole.

"That is for later, right now we have other things to worry about," Storm said. Harry nodded and explained that Reed and Susan had also disappeared, and Agatha had been unable to contact him, as well as whom Harry believed was probably behind this.

Ben scowled. "So Stretch and Susie disappeared huh? Well, I went through some weird glowing doorway a while back chasing the purple demon. It could have been a teleporter of some kind, definitely up Doom's alley like you said. So they could be around here someplace. Let's get to searchin' and then to clobberin' in that order."

"Demon, that monster isn't a demon." Harry said, looking over at the still form of the monster Ben had been fighting. "Trust me demons have a higher natural immunity to magic than that thing, a demon of that size wouldn't have gone down from a simple Stupefy. Besides," he smirked a little, "I've got a bit of a reputation among demons apparently, it should have recognized me."

Steven had mentioned the reaction the demons he had been fighting had when they sensed Harry's presence on this plane, at it amused him no end. Of course he did have a few dozen spells in his arsenal developed specifically to wipe out demons, one of them was even listed under his BI spells, so it wasn't without cause.

"Then it's probably some weird android or somethin'. Doom's always trotting out weird shit like that." Ben grossed. "Who cares what it is, let's just get going."

Their conversation was interrupted by something crashing through the wall of the tunnel beside them. It looked like a cross between a lizard and a robot, giving credence to Ben's belief. It had green scales a grill for a mouth, and tines for arms between which energy crackled. "I am… the Seeker… the master… has commanded… your death!"

Storm was closest and reacted quickly, slamming another lightning bolt into the beast, but it seemingly absorbed it, firing back at her with her own. She dodged and it charged forward, shooting at Ben next who Yowled in pain at the impact and went to one knee dazed for the moment.

Harry hit the thing with aReducto, blowing off one of the things arms in a welter of electric sparks. The android didn't even notice, turning to blast him in turn when Storm, her hand entirely covered by hurricane force winds, smashed her fist into the back of its head.

It was an idea she had thought up when she was figuring out ways to make herself a better hand to hand combatant. It was difficult to contain the winds to just her arm for an extended period of time, and it took a minute to build up, but after that it was devastating. As a case in point the winds around her arm tore into the android's head like a drill, ripping and tearing it apart.

Storm wrung out her hand wincing, the strain of holding the wind around it showing for a moment, but she tried to make light of it. "What a rude android, just ignoring me like that."

Harry gave her a look and gently took her arm, sending a silent low level healing spell into it, like the Episkey spell only designed for internal strains and bruises. "It was a sign of terminal ignorance on his part my dear."

Storm smiled at him while Ben got to his feet, rolling his eyes a little at their interplay. They're worse than Stretcho and Susie. "Time for flirtin' later you two, let's get a move on and find my friends."

Storm and Harry nodded, and then the trio moved off. Harry took a moment to stupefy Darkoth again, then put him in stasis and stuck him in his now mostly empty trunk, which he carried with him at all times these days, just in case.

About two hours searching found them making their way steadily upward, and soon they found themselves in a castle-like structure.

As they ascended further the noise of combat reached their ears, and Ben grinned. "Shoulda known Stretch and Susie couldn't be held quietly. Lets go!" With that he barreled forward, yelling his fearsome warcry, "It's Clobberin' Time!"

Storm and Harry looked at one another and Harry took a moment to put a notice me not spell on both their faces. They would be seen, but any attempts to recall their exact features would fail. "You heard the man, luv, are you ready to clobber?"

"Indeed, let us clobber," Storm said straight-faced, then giggled and the two flew up the steps after their friend.

OOOOOOO

Jean looked up as Agatha suddenly stood up. "It would appear my charge is awake, come I'll introduce you." She took Alicia's hand, and led the blind woman down the hallway with Jean following after.

When they reached the baby room, the toddler was indeed awake and already trying to escape his cradle. He was reaching up to the top, as if trying to pull himself up and over, but he stopped and stared as the two newcomers entered with the one he knew as 'nanny." The toddlers attention however was grabbed by Jean's hair, the sheer red of it something he had never seen before.

He would have of course if Medusa, another friend of the FF had stopped by recently, but she hadn't been by in several months. Unbeknownst to the FF she and Lockjaw, the massive teleporting pet of the royal family, were searching for her younger sister Crystal, whose teleportation back to the Immortal's city of Attilan had somehow failed. This search would involve the FF and Harry at a later date, but at the moment no one could have predicted this.

"OooHH!" the toddler cooed and held out his chubby little hands as if wanting to grab it. Jean felt something tug on her hair and one eyebrow shot up in surprise but she swiftly blocked whatever it was with her own power and walked forward instead. She bopped the little guy on the nose causing him to giggle, and whatever the power pushing at her was it disappeared. "Aren't you a cute little tyke?"

Franklin grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled making Jean wince a little, but she ignored it easily, and pick him up moving over to the other women. Agatha guided Alicia's hands to the baby's head and the blind woman felt around his face smiling faintly as he let go of Jean's hair and grabbed her hand gurgling happily at the game.

"Such a pretty little baby," she said softly. "I haven't been around children that much, this one seems quite happy doesn't he?"

Agatha smiled watching as the two younger women lost themselves in the pleasure of a baby. There was something about holding a baby that just called to most women, and these two were proving no exception to that rule.

Their play was interrupted however by the ring of the elevator bell announcing an arrival, and the announcement from the hallway of Wyatt dragging Johnny in.

Johnny was drunk that much was obvious to both Jean and Agatha. Even Alicia would have been able to tell if she could have smelled his breath. He hadn't been able to find a girl tonight, and so had drowned his sorrows about Crystal in beer, only for Wyatt to find him and drag him home, at times literally. "I found him," said Wyatt sucks shaking his head at his friend's antics and pushing him onto the sofa in the living area. "But I'm afraid he's not going to be much use."

Jean shook her head in disgust. "This is the guy that Rogue and Kitty think is so hot? I don't see it."

Wyatt chuckled a little. "I'm Wyatt Wingfoot," he said holding out his hand to the costumed redhead, "and you are?"

"Phoenix," said Jean shaking hands. No matter the fact that Wyatt was a friend of Fantastic Four and of Harry, she wasn't about to share her real name with anyone here. She was also little irritated that the confounding ward that Kitty had designed hadn't been installed on her suit yet, but then again she had been thinking of redesigning it anyway. For some reason she was thinking of a suit in green with red highlights.

By this time Johnny had recovered enough to look around him, and spotted the hot redhead. "Heelllloo 'ovely laddddy," he slurred, "I don't suppose I c'ld make y'r dreams come true?"

"I rather doubt it," Phoenix replied, her voice cold. "My dreams have never included a blonde, or a drunken idiot."

"OH, d'n't knock it till ya try it babe," said Johnny smirking a little and trying to get to his feet and failing. "I'm not only hot on the battlefield ya know."

Jean shook her head and gestured, and a telekinetic tendril reached out and grabbed him around the middle. "Wow, kinky!" he said giggling a little.

"Where's the kitchen?" Jean asked.

"Through that doorway over there past the first room with the table in it," Agatha replied.

Jean nodded and gestured, and John floated in the air before her as she moved in that direction.

A moment later the three who had stayed in the living room heard the water running, and then a splash and quite a lot of cursing interspersed with more splashing. The sound made Franklin wriggle about in Alicia's arms, wondering what was going on and if it was fun. She calmly subdued his wriggles however, and began to lightly tickle his stomach, distracting him.

"Are we sober now?" asked the redhead, staring down at the Human Torch, who had just raised his head again from a sink full of water. She then laughed a little and marched away, rejoining the others. Behind her Johnny growled at her retreating backside, but his buzz was gone. Moments later, after Agatha had explained what was going on, his anger had joined it to be replaced by guilt and worry.

OOOOOOO

Ben had charged out into a large dining/dance hall to find Susan and Reed battling several robots styled to look like humans. The two were trying to fight their way to a large door at the far end of the hall, but were having no luck. The robots were coming out of two doors on either side of the hall in an unending tide, and they just couldn't force their way past them.

Ben charged forward, his fist crushing one android to the floor while a backhand smashed another's head clear off. "Haw, thse things aren't nearly as tough as that Seeker or Darkoth was. Hey you two, what's going on?"

Reed smiled in relief and Susan grinned weakly. Doom had fed them some kind of drug that made their bodies weak, and they had been having a very rough time of it after escaping their cells, which they had only done because of the new ways she was able to use her powers. Creating a invisible hand and guiding it through the bars to reach the switch that opened their doors was something she would never have been able to do even as little as two months ago.

Reed however was able to push past their weakened state to fill Ben in. "Dr. Doom has some kind of device that he's going to launch into orbit which he says will make everyone on Earth susceptible to his mind control."

Harry and Storm rushed out to join the assault at this point and Harry shook his head even as he transfigure one robot into a spear and magically hurled it another tow before freezing six others around Susan solid, allowing her to shatter them with ease. "Okay that's just weird, and utterly illogical. Detonating something that could be transferred through the air over a city to two I could see, but the whole world? Hey Reed, Susan, I wanted to talk to you but you weren't answering the computer, so I figured I'd come and see you instead."

Reed shook his head at his young friend's bravura while Susan just looked relived they had some backup. The drug was making this a hell of a lot more difficult than it should have been. "Perhaps, but we can't take the chance that he's wrong about the effects the bomb will achieve. We need to stop its launch somehow, or barring that destroy it before it reaches orbit."

Between the five of them they made short work of the robots around them and moved swiftly toward the doorway. Ben scoffed, removing the carcass of one robot from where he had punched his arm right through it to crush the head of another robot behind it. "Man, I think Doom's been cuttin' corners with these things, they were damn flimsy in comparison to the ones he used the last time we tangled."

"A quantity over quality approach you think?" Harry asked sardonically, as he and Reed pushed the large doors to Doom's control room open.

"Definitely." Ben replied, trudging forward to stand with the others.

Rather than being enraged or looking at all put out by their sudden appearance Doom was sitting calmly on his throne, hands folded in his lap as he stared at the erstwhile intruders.

While they moved toward him Harry took a moment to take in Dr. Doom's appearance and stance. The man was dressed in a steel grey suit of armor made to look somewhat like a knight's full plate, but if it was mere armor Harry was a pureblood. The FF's files had that suit giving Doom the ability to fly, fire devastating laser blasts from his hands, withstand punches from the Thing, and numerous other abilities. His eyes, staring out beyond the mask on his face were sharp, intelligent and calculating. The way he stood on his thrown was arrogant, controlled, as if he had no need to fear them.

After a moment Harry figure out why when he tried to transfigure his armor into glass. The spell didn't take, not like it was being repulsed somehow, but as if his target wasn't there at all. "That's a projection of some kind the real Doom is somewhere else."

The figure on the throne laughed. "Indeed, your unknown friend is correct Richards. I am not here I have never been here in fact." Reed's eyes narrowed while Ben simply strode forward punching out and pouting a little as his fist went right through the projection's head. "Oh do stop that Grimm, it is a very disconcerting experience to try and talk to someone with your arm seemingly stuck through my head."

"Spread out, find where the vibro bomb is," Reed ordered, and the others save Harry nodded. Harry was too busy staring hard at Doom, who was in turn looking at him.

Doom sighed. "Really Reed, we both know the vibro-bomb was a bluff, no one bomb could spread enough vibrations across the globe."

"So what's the real plan then?" Ben asked.

"The real plan was to capture you all while testing out several of my newest android designs on you while I drugged Reed and Susan with the real mind control substance." The figure seemed to scowl. "The Darkoth experiment seems to have worked for a time but as for the Seeker prototype, far too flimsy. And as for the mind control drug, it would appear as if the gamma rays in your body neutralize much of its potency, making it useless for my purposes." He looked at Ben. "Darkoth's idea of taking your significant other hostage was its own. I would not target such as her in such a manner."

Ben frowned, but nodded. Alicia and Doom had actually met once, and the blind woman had somehow affected Doom profoundly at the time. "What about the clinic, and the treatment for her eyes?"

"Real, but put on the market several years too early by one of the doctors who invented it after killing his partner to reap the rewards and fame alone. The operation has only a one in ten chance of working at this stage, but the failures are swept under the rug because the owner of the clinic, which is on land I own, is the brother of the mayor of Berlin and rich besides."

Doom shrugged, his armored shoulders lifting and falling. "It had come to my attention because a citizen of Latveria had gone through the procedure, and been subsequently killed to keep the failure a secret. The doctor's life was forfeit from that point on, the citizens of this country are mine to rule and it is only I who has the power to order their deaths. I did not use him to lure you through Alicia, but simply took advantage of your presence so close to one of my bases."

"But that is unimportant now, what interests me is your new companion. The woman, however magnificent," here Doom bowed to Ororo, who smiled faintly and bowed her head in response, "Is obviously a mutant, with power over the weather judging by her attacks. No, it is the young wizard with the truly odd repertoire of spells that interest me."

Harry waved Ben off, obviously the time for fighting was over. He strode forward to stand in front of the throne, locking his eyes on Doom's once more. "And what about my powers interest you?"

"Your speed or conjuration, the breadth and scope of your spells, the ease with which you transfigure objects to something else, all of these interest me." Doom stated, steepling his gauntlets together. "And the fact you said something my recorders caught, about having a reputation among demons, one that would make them fear you. Perhaps in the future we could do business, if you are not as blinded by your own sense of justice as these three."

Harry stared at the man thinking hard. There was something about Victor Von Doom, something beyond his obvious charisma and power. He did seem to have a sense of honor, at least judging by Ben's acceptance of his not having targeted Alicia. Whatever else he was he wasn't evil as Harry defined the word. He would not rape a child in front of his parents and enjoy it and he would not slaughter the innocent and laugh as they died. While he was not above torturing his opponents and gaining some pleasure in that, he would not take some random civilian off street and do the same. There were limits to him, and there was something else, some concern or worry inside of him that had come out when he mentioned demons.

After a moment Harry nodded slowly. "Perhaps. I have my own plans for the future, but perhaps once I am situated the two of us can talk. Though you'll excuse me if I request that such a talk happen on neutral ground somewhere?"

"In that case I will bid you all adieu," said Doom bowing his head slightly. "The staircase beyond this throne will lead you out of here, from there you may make your own ways home however you wish. I hope the next time we meet my dear," he said looking at Storm and then at Harry. "that we can look beyond bad first impressions."

Harry and Ororo exchanged a look and Harry shrugged a smile on his face. Ororo smiled slightly too. "Very well Dr. Doom, to our mind the slate is wiped clean. Until the next time we meet, let it be under more peaceful surroundings."

Doom nodded his head once more and disappeared.

Harry chuckled and touched one of Ororo's hands. "It would appear as if I'm not the only one who can see your charms luv, good I was afraid all the men on this world needed their heads examined."

Ororo shook her head looping her arm with his. "Alas, metal is not a fetish of mine, and I am already taken."

"Too right," Harry replied, leaning in to kiss her gently on the lips, causing her to chuckle a little at his possessiveness.

Reed and Sue chuckled while Ben grumbled about being the only single guy there. As the group walked towards the exit Doom had pointed out Reed asked, "You said you wanted to talk to me Harry?"

Harry nodded. "I did. Sort of a tech exchange for now, but in the future, well, how'd you like access to your very own space station?"

The group returned to find that nothing had happened back at the Baxter building thankfully. The discussion however would continue for quite some time. Jean however interrupted the discussion at one point to ask for a specific favor.

OOOOOOO

Kitty and Rogue woke up the next morning and saw two small envelopes shoved under their room's door. When they opened them they found a picture of the Fantastic Four standing all together, and the words "to our greatest fans, from the Fantastic Four' and was signed by all four of them. Their gleeful shouts resounded throughout the mansion.

OOOOOOO

The next day was Friday, and Duncan was once again driving Jean home to the mansion while still trying to get her to agree to come out on a date with him Saturday, something he had stopped doing for some reason lately. Jean simply ignored him, not willing to put up with his airs and arrogance today, not after the bit of adventure she had the day before. She almost wished all her days could be that exciting, whisked off to aid their allies and fight with friends by her side. She was still thinking about the fact Harry was already moving forward with his plans to leave, and where her own future might take her.

She also knew Duncan was barely passing his classes, and was unwilling to go out on dates with him until he pulled his grades up. Nor was she willing to do the work for him anymore. If Duncan wanted to be known as a dumb jock that was his problem.

As Duncan drove her up to the mansions front gate in his Dodge Viper the two high school seniors noticed a car parked in front of it. Jean's eyebrows rose in surprise at the sight of the white Ferrari 458 idling there, wondering who would be coming around here with a car like that.

As they watched a statuesque blonde with a magnificent body got out of the car moving to push the intercom button but she stopped as they drove up.

Duncan let out a low whistle of approval and Jean scowled at him and he shut up quickly.

It's not like I really have a problem with him looking it's just must he react like that, and in front of me too? Jean felt that when you were out with your boyfriend or girlfriend your attention should be completely on that person. "You can drop me off here Duncan," she said sternly, and got out of the car. She then turned to the blonde easily ignoring her boyfriend's protests at this easy dismissal. "Can I help you?"

Emma Frost looked at the redhead approvingly. While as a Frost she was not supposed to see anyone else as her equal, this girl radiated power, poise and confidence, all things that Emma approved of, as well as being quite the beauty, causing a bit of interest to rear up in her. Emma had long known she was bisexual, she'd had a few flings with girls in the past and this girl was truly magnificent, and that hair! "I hope you can," she replied, with a faint smile on her "is this where Harry Potter lives?"

Jean cocked her head, looking over the blond in front of her. She was tall, about Jean's own height, with a near or equivalent bust, long legs shown off by her short but not quite scandalous skirt, both it and the top being white. "He does, is he expecting you?"

Emma frowned, her eyes hardening along with the rest of her face. "No, I told him I would try to get in touch with him before showing up, but the business we have with each other has become a bit more urgent than I had first expected." She said this all obliquely without even giving a hint of how important that business was, while at the same time she sent a light telepathic probe towards the other girl.

She stopped however at the first level of defense and actually gaped at the redhead before she broke out into a chuckle. "Interesting defense you have there," she said as the boy turned his car around and left with a huff or irritation. "Rather, what is the Japanese term, ah yes, hentai. Is there something you would like to share?"

"Not with a complete stranger," said Jean smirking a little. She had felt the probe of course and she could tell it was far more refined and controlled than her own telepathic techniques. She usually went for power over finesse, but the girl in front of her, her control reminded her of the professor rather forcefully.

"Hmm, well I'm Emma Frost, and you are?"

"Jean Grey. And do you probe everyone you meet like that?"

Emma gaped at her for a moment before laughing aloud and Jean frowned before she realized what she said and how it could have sounded given what Emma had said a moment before. "Oh you know damn well what I meant!"

Emma giggled a little more but nodded. "Indeed, well no I don't 'probe' everyone I meet, but given my current situation I can't be too careful."

Jean frowned at that, but nodded all the same and went over to type the security code in. "I can understand that I guess, even without knowing any of the particulars. A young woman as good looking as you are probably needs to be more wary in any event, just watch it in the future. You mind giving me a lift?" She could of course have walked, or her personal preference flown the quarter mile up the driveway to the mansion, but she wasn't about to do so and let Emma enter the property unsupervised.

"Certainly, hop in. I doubt you've ever been in a car like this though, your little boy-toy's Dodge Viper can't compare at all." Emma replied, smirking a little and waving grandly over toward her white Ferrari 458.

"He's not my boy-toy he's my boyfriend, though I will admit that his Viper loses out to European cars." Jean got into the car, looking around appreciatively. She hadn't yet seen the interior of Harry's Huayra, but this was nice. She really didn't care much about most of the trappings of wealth but she had to admit to having a soft spot for fast cars.

"Oh please, the way you just brushed him off like that, there's no way you have any real feelings for him." Emma got in the driver's seat and reached out, laying a hand on Jean's knee for a moment as she shifted gears.

Jean frowned again at that but couldn't deny it. The only reason she was still with Duncan was to shield herself from Scott's attention and the boys at school. Since breaking up with Taryn Scott had shown he wasn't quite as over her as she could have wanted, and still sent her puppy-dog eyes every time he could. Well that, and because it would be too much of an effort to dump him. Still she decided to change the subject for a moment. "So what's a rich bi-girl such as you here to see Harry for?"

Emma's eyes narrowed slightly at the word that Jean almost used then she actually scowled as she saw that the girl had seen her reaction. She wondered why the redhead was able to get under her skin so easily, but chalked it up to her not being family. After all, I don't need to protect myself from her, and she didn't seem to even recognize the Frost name. "I need his special help with a bit of a problem, which is all I am willing to share."

"Hmm," Jean said thoughtfully, looking over at her. "So something magical then?" Emma nodded slowly, not willing to give the redhead any more information. "Well I have no doubt that he will do his best to help you. Harry's like that with anything he does really, he always tries his best."

Having heard something in her voice Emma suddenly smirked at the redhead. "Oh, so it's Harry huh? Is that just admiration I sense, or is it something else? I thought he had a girlfriend anyway."

Jean scowled, wondering how the hell the other girl had seen she had a crush on Harry so easily. "He does, and trust me if you think you have a chance with him think again."

"Oh is there a line or something?" Emma laughed, pulling her car up to the main entrance.

Jean growled again, not liking how this girl was poking fun at her about this. She was already feeling guilty about her crush on Harry as it was. "Nothing like that, it's just the woman in question has everything we've got and then some."

Emma shrugged as she got out of her Ferrari and walked around to join Jean as she walked towards the front door. "Well, its not like I'm unwilling to share after all. Or maybe I should be looking elsewhere for a bit of fun." She said this last as she was lightly running her hand down the redhead's rear, which was just as magnificent as the rest of her.

Jean gasped, then turned swiftly and glared at her, though she was also blushing a little. "Are you trying to play with fire? You'll get burned."

Emma didn't back away simply staring into Jean's face from a bare inch away. "Silly girl," she murmured, "I'm a Frost, I'll put out your fire."

The door opened to reveal Scott, Evan, Kurt and Logan all dressed in exercise shorts and about to go on a run before their training exercises. They stopped and stared at the two girls who were almost nose to nose with one another, unsure whether or not they were glaring or simply looking at one another.

Logan took the lead, moving forward and glaring at the unknown girl. "You lookin' for somethin' frail? Grey, you know her?"

Noticing their audience for the first time both young women stopped staring at one another, turning to look at the boys then back at one another before they broke into laughter. "Where did that line come from," Jean howled holding her sides "I'm a Frost I'll, oh god I can't say it, too damn corny!"

Emma snorted pushing at her shoulder playfully. "What about your line? Play with fire, how cliché can you get? Besides, I'd be more terrified of your hentai mental defenses. I'll take fire over tentacles any day." Out of the corner of her eye she looked Scott and the others up and down, finding them appealing, far more than the socialites and rich boys she had to hang out with at school or social functions, but not up to Harry's level.

"That is merely a sign of my brilliance," Jean said smugly poking her in the side with an elbow. "No one expects the girl to be the hentai one, and it shocks them out of continuing to attack me."

She led the way inside, waving off the trio of males who looked at one another then shrugged, Logan deciding this looked way too irritating to get involved in. He turned and pushed the three teens ahead of him outside and then into a light jog to take them into the woods.

Emma snorted again then frowned as she felt another telepath gently probe at the solid crystalline matrix that was her own mental defense. She glanced sharply over at Jean who shook her head even as the professor's voice made itself known in their minds. If you wouldn't mind bringing your new friend into the dining area Jean, I'm certain we have many things we need to talk about.

Emma frowned then sent back her own message. I'm not here to talk to you old man, and the next time you try to get into my head without being invited I'll respond appropriately. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jean smirk a little, which caused her to raise one eyebrow in query but she went on, I'm here to talk to Harry Potter, not you.

Jean's smirk now widened into a momentary smile, but before Charles could respond a cool female voice spoke up from the staircase. "You must be Emma."

Emma turned and looked up at the woman coming down the stairs and had to admit that Jean was right, if this was the woman Harry had spoken of she did have everything Emma did and more. The woman's sheer presence was something to see. "I am, and you are?"

Ororo smiled, walking down towards Jean and the blond. She nodded warmly at her friend who smiled back before turning to Emma. "I am Ororo Munroe. Harry's told me a bit about you and your circumstances." She held up a hand as Emma's expression grew stormy. "Which I have shared with no one else, nor will I without your permission. But it is part of being a good boyfriend is it not, that you tell your girlfriend when another girl flirts with you?"

Emma frowned a little, not liking anyone knowing how badly she needed Harry's help, but she realized that the black woman's point was a good one. And she was surprised to see no wariness or anger in the other woman, just acceptance. "I suppose I can agree with that, but is Harry here? I really do need to talk to him."

"Here," said Harry, walking into the room pushing Charles' wheelchair. "I take it that things have progressed too quickly for you to call ahead?"

Emma nodded, speaking circuitously as she didn't want to share anymore than necessary with the two other telepaths in the room. Jean was nice enough but they had just met after all, and there was something about the bald man that made her hackles rise, some kind of continual pressure on her mental shields coming form his direction. It wasn't like he was trying to get in on purpose, but surely he had more control than that? Something to think about later, right now more important things beckoned. "Indeed, I am in need of your aid now. The issue we discussed was pushed up suddenly due to… certain events. I require the items you promised today, I won't be able to get away again, and by next weekend it will be too late."

Harry nodded. "Wait here then, I finished them up this past Sunday. I'll bring it down to you." He turned, gave Ororo a brief kiss on the cheek in passing, and headed up to his workroom, leaving Charles there with the tree women.

Charles smiled pleasantly at the young telepath. "Your mental defenses are magnificent my dear, and I apologize if I gave offense earlier, I simply find telepathic communication much more polite than shouting through three rooms. I am Professor Charles Xavier, and this is my home."

Emma calmed down a little but still looked at the old man warily. ""I can see that, but try not to do it again. I'm very leery of anyone trying to get into my head for any reason."

"Be that as it may, I was wondering if I could have a moment of you time? After all, as good as your defenses are, there is always room for improvement. Those teens here are hear to receive help in controlling and refining their powers. We are always open to welcoming new students."

Emma's eye's narrowed again. "And what would that help cost me? No, I don't have the time or the inclination to become a student here, even if that was all you wanted and I am not so naïve as to think that is the case. Whatever you are selling, I'm not buying, sorry."

Jean stifled a chuckle at her response, while Ororo frowned a little at the rudeness, but given what she knew of Emma's situation, there was never a chance of her joining the school let alone the X-men, even if she had been so inclined. Charles frowned trying to think of a way to sound out the woman on her position in regards to using her power for personal gain or her position on the idea of coexistence between mutants and humans, without admitting to the existence of the X-men.

Before he could think of one however Harry returned. He was carrying a large jewelry box about the side of Emma's hands put together. He sat down on the steps, motioning her over to look. Emma came close followed by the others who looked on curiously. Emma wasn't particularly happy with this, but couldn't very well ask them to go away, after all they lived here.

Once they were in front of him Harry opened the box with a somewhat dramatic flourish. Inside was two diamond earrings and a silver necklace centered on another two diamonds. The two earrings were shaped like small snowflakes, with the diamond in the center. The silver necklace was made of very fine chain made to resemble thin strings entwined around one another, with two such at the front being filled with two slightly larger diamonds then on the earrings. "One earring has a notice-me not ward to cover the earrings and the other the offensive charm that'll targets any guys wedding tackle if he touches you. That was actually a match smaller array then for the next bit."

"Wedding tackle?" Jean murmured, interrupting his speech, though by the looks on their faces both Emma and Ororo had wanted to ask the same question.

Harry glared at the redhead playfully. "Quiet you." Jean and Ororo broke into quiet giggles but Harry loftily ignored them, going on with his explanation. Now, where was I? Oh yes, the third component. The necklace has the subtle attack, the charm that will influence any guys nearby and turn them away if they think of hitting on you." He paused, looking at Emma seriously. "The diamonds act as the bio-energy draining component of the arrays, you'll probably be eating at least twice as much as before. This diamond however is something else." He gently tapped the diamond set on the left in the necklace. "This is set up for a one shot distress emergency Portkey. I've set it for… for a safe house of mine." Harry didn't want to let Emma in on the secret of his asteroid (which still hadn't been named) just yet, he needed to see a little more of her before trusting her to that level, and he didn't want Charles to know about it at all.

Emma took the pieces of jewelry out of the box one at a time putting them on as she did so. Once she was done she looked at Jean. "What do you think?"

Jean rolled her eyes. "I think you look like a very well to do woman of negotiable affection. Honestly that skirt is too damn short to be legal."

Emma twitched a little but fired back. "I suppose you would know all about that sort of profession wouldn't you?"

Jean scowled a little but before she could fire back Emma turned away. "Now, I just need to see if these charms of yours work Mr. Potter."

"My charms always work Emma," Harry replied drolly, causing Ororo to chuckle and Jean to roll her eyes again.

"Hmm, well I always want to try out the product before buying it Harry." She wondered how to do this, obviously Harry wouldn't flirt with her with his girlfriend right there even if he wanted to, and there was no way she was going to let the bald man touch her. She brightened up after a moment, and grabbed her arm. "This call's for a night on the town, celebration and field test all in one, and you my fine red-haired pervert are coming with me. Are there any nightclubs nearby?"

Harry's eyebrows rose at the name Emma had used to address Jean, but then he grinned. "I see you ran into Jean's tentacle trees?"

"They left quite the impression yes," Emma nodded, smirking at the redhead.

Jean scowled as the others all chuckled she liked her Belsham trees, thank you very much. Turning back to Emma she made a halfhearted gesture of pulling away from her grip. "That's really not my scene, you might be better going off alone, and I don't know where any nightclubs are."

"Oh in that case," answered Emma, dragging the redhead along and heading up the stairs, "you're definitely coming with me. Someone with those legs and your looks and you don't know where the nightclubs are? That's a travesty." The two disappeared up the stairs still bickering, though to Harry's ear it sounded more good natured ribbing than comments meant to actually hurt.

Harry and Ororo looked after them, then looked at one another. "You want to go along?" asked Harry.

Ororo frowned a little then smiled. "I've never been dancing, it could be interesting."

Harry shrugged. He wasn't really of the opinion it would be, loud noises and large crowds didn't really appeal to him all that much, but dancing did, and a little part of his mind said the idea of seeing Jean and Emma dancing especially if they danced together or with Ororo would be a sight to see. He only concentrated on the first aspect of that thought however, imagining moving around the dance floor with his girlfriend and smiling at the image.

Moments later the two no-longer-teenage girls came down. Jean was dressed in jeans so tight they almost looked painted on, and a tight stripped shirt over it leaving only a little to the imagination thanks mostly to the fact she also wore a bra underneath it. Emma wore the same tight skirt as before, which barely came to mid thigh on her, but had replaced her blouse with a cropped shirt that covered her chest but let her stomach bare.

She was frowning however, in that the shirt was creamy pink. She looked down at Harry from the staircase, asking "I Don't suppose you could change the color of this for me could you?"

"You do know though that white is the color associated with virgins, right? It doesn't exactly suit you." said Jean dryly.

"And diamonds and snow and frost," Emma reposted, looking at her and smirking a little. "All of which white also signifies and does fit me quite well." She turned back to Harry, gesturing at Jean grandly. "Change hers to red too, will be a bit of a matching pair that way."

Before Jean could protest her shirt changed color as she watched, and so did her jeans. Her shirt now was striped black and red, and her jeans were solid red. Emma nodded approvingly. "Excellent, what do you two think?"

"I think it looks good," Harry replied shrugging, "then again Red always looks good whatever she's wearing, just like you and Ororo." Emma and the others smiled at the compliment, recognizing it for an honest compliment.

Ororo interlaced her arm with Harry's, looking up at the two younger girls. "We'll be coming out with you if that's alright."

Emma nodded. "That would be fine by me," thinking that if her charmed items didn't work Harry would be right there to try and fix them. Jean just nodded gratefully, happy that her friend (and Harry too) would be there.

The four of them piled into Harry's car, leaving Emma's at the mansion for now. Both younger girls were surprised by the amount of room in the back of the supercar. Normally there wouldn't be any room back there, but Harry had somehow expanded it enough to put to more seats down. At their astonished looks Harry merely said, "space expansion charm," and left it at that.

Once they were all in Harry looked back at the girls. "Now, where are we going exactly?"

Jean sighed, not happy to admit she did know where a dance club was after her earlier protests to the contrary. "There's a discotheque downtown, it's called Margaritaville." Duncan's attempted to take me on dates there a few times."

"Attempted," said Emma laughing softly. "And you continue to reiterate that he's not your boy-toy?"

Jean looked at him her and sighed then said bluntly. "He's my meat shield, there are you happy, I'm going out with him because that protects me from the interest of other people."

"I see," Emma laughed again. "Now it becomes clear. That poor boy, though I doubt he complains overmuch, being able to be seen in public with someone like you."

"Hell no," said Jean gesturing down at herself, "Would you if you got close to this?"

"Only if I couldn't touch." Emma reached out, rubbing her hand down the outside of one of Jean's thighs causing the other girl to stiffen and smack her hand away.

"Am I going to have to tie you up or something? Then again you might just enjoy that." Emma chuckled, raising one finger as if she were a fencer indicating a touch.

Ororo chuckled at the byplay going on behind them while Harry merely smirked and revved the engine. "Now, seeing as this has a notice-me -not ward on it, I wonder if I can get up to its max speed before I reached this Margaritaville place."

Both the women in the back grinned along with Ororo and Harry put his peddle down and went for it, and was only because the entrance was very well greased that the gate opened before they slammed into it. As the houses whizzed by Jean shook her head. "You know I didn't think you could go 90 miles on a 25 mile an hour road."

"With magic my dear anything is possible," replied Harry, smirking.

Not 10 minutes later the group arrived at the front of the night club, causing quite a stir in the crowd outside with the sheer magnificence of Harry's car, which wasn't actually on sale in the states just yet. They zoomed around a bit searching for a parking space, since Harry refused to let the valet park his car. That done the quartet got out of the car and was soon joining the line entering the club.

The trio of exotically beautiful girls drew ma, many an admiring look as did Harry, who had taken the time to change his clothing a bit. Now he wore loose black pants and a good shirt. Ororo was dressed in tight black business pants, a creamy white shirt that set off her skin color beautifully, and a scarf with a jaguar pattern on it around her neck, something her sister had bought her for her last birthday (actually her sister had bought most of what she was wearing tonight at various holidays).

They watched as a few people were turned away for no reason that Harry could see, but eventually they came to the front and the bouncer took one look at them and was about to wave them off due to the girls ages when Emma held up a credit card. The name Frost was at the top, and it was an exclusive business credit card.

The bouncer took it a look at it a little stunned then said roughly "ID?"

Emma glared at him. "That is my ID."

The bouncer shifted a little uncomfortably under her cold stare, and whispered something to the man with the clipboard standing next to him. The man looked at the card whispered something into a microphone and got a reply which caused him to pale dramatically, and the two bowed them in quickly.

The club was a two story building, with the central section a dance floor surrounding by booths set into the walls and a bar along one wall with a high ceiling. The second floor was two overlooking strips along two sides filled with loose tables. The music was pounding, the dance floor was almost full and the bar and tables were busy too.

Jean smiled a little, she hadn't been in a place like this before, mostly because of fear that her power would act out as well as Charles' mental blocks on her. But now she wasn't as concerned about her power acting out the mental blocks as she had been, and the blocks were gone, allowing her more passionate emotions and feelings out so she could enjoy this kind of thing far more. She didn't like the flashing light things, but the music was decent and the atmosphere was pretty lively, and she felt excitement building up in her.

Emma pulled her onto the dance floor immediately, and the two girls began to dance around one another moving to the beat of the music. Ororo and Harry exchanged a glance, and after chuckling a little followed. When they began to dance it was much more sensual, with Ororo and Harry grinding against one another from the back and front, and despite the fact that this was the first time either of them had done something like this they were enjoying themselves immensely.

Emma was ecstatic. Normally if she was out on the town and dressed like this she would be getting hit on almost constantly, but the charm seemed to be working perfectly. Not one boy tried to hit on her, though many tried to get between her and Jean, only to be shot down the moment they tried to dance with the redhead.

The group stayed on the dance floor for about five songs, and then moved off to a booth that had just cleared, sitting down and waving their hands in their faces trying to cool down. Harry waved a waiter over, and looked over the drinks menu. "I'll have a Long Island Iced Tea."

Ororo spoke next. "I will have a Jack Rose I believe it is called?" The waiter nodded, almost mesmerized by the exotic beauty in front of him and Ororo cocked a white eyebrow at the two girls across from her. "Do you two want anything?"

"I'll have an Appletini," said Emma crisply, as will the lady beside me."

"Don't order for me like that!" said Jean angrily smacking her shoulder. "I'll have…" she looked over the menu. She had never actually been out to drink, and had no idea what she liked. She just didn't want to go along with Emma's suggestion, so she decided. "I'll have a Long Island iced tea too please."

Emma smirked a little at her."I would've pegged you as someone who's never been drunk before, but if you want to go straight to the hard stuff that's fine by me. I predict you will be an amusing drunk."

"And I predict that you will catch an STD within a year," said Jean looking at her drolly. Emma twitched, her eyes narrowing angrily.

The quartet continued to banter back and forth, enjoying themselves and the atmosphere around them as their drinks arrived. Emma alas was proven a little too correct for Jean's tastes; the first sip of her drink nearly had her gasping. Before the waiter could leave she asked, "Could we get some pretzels or something for the table please?"

She had to put something in her belly or else the drink would go straight to her head and she vowed never to let Emma see her drunk. She just knew the other girl would hold that over her. Emma smirked at her, signaling that she in fact already knew what Jean was thinking, and Jean scowled back at her.

The discussion continued, with all four of them drinking their drinks happily and talking and laughing. Emma felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her, seeing the charm work that Harry had given her had made her feel as if she could face the Hellfire Club with her head held high. Despite the fact she couldn't test the other charm yet, it made her feel very hopeful that it would work just as well. If it did she could deal with anything else they threw at her.

Jean and Ororo stood up for a moment, heading towards the bathroom. Emma waved them off when they asked if she wanted to come with them.

Harry leaned back looking at the girl in front of him thoughtfully. Even now, there was a certain caginess to Emma, an inner self that she wasn't letting anyone see. Not so much an inner self though, more like inner thoughts and some worry that she isn't willing to share.

He decided to see if he could get her to confide in him a bit. "I can tell something else is bothering you, something not related to the spells I gave you?"

"My worries are my own," responded Emma coldly, her good humor dimming. "I thank you for your help area, but there are some things that one needs to do alone. Some things you can't help me with."

Harry shrugged. "Wasn't offering actually, I have my own irons in the fire, frankly a little too many at the moment. No, I was just going to give you a bit of advice and tell you a little bit of a story." Emma cocked her head to one side, her interest aroused.

Harry began, waving a hand and putting up a mild notice-me-not ward, making people around them unable to hear what they were talking about. "Back in my home dimension, there was a school for witchcraft and sorcery called Hogwarts, where I learned how to use my magic. At Hogwarts there were four different houses, which you were sorted into as a child because the sorting device could sense in you specific traits." He wasn't about to describe the sorting hat, the thing had been utterly ridiculous to him when he was a child.

"Typecasting so early," said Emma leaning back and looking at him then around at the crowd. Most of her attention was on his story, wondering where he was going with this.

Harry smiled a little sadly. "Yes that's not exactly a good idea normal long run is it? Anyway, they were Gryffindor, home of the brave or so they thought, most of them were just headstrong and foolish which they thought was bravery. Then there was my house of Ravenclaw, the home of the intelligent or at least the book smart. It was a rare Raven that knew that life outside of books could teach you much more than the books themselves alone. Then there was Hufflepuff, home of the hard-working and loyal, and sadly the easily led and influenced, with a certain herd mentality. Finally the last was Slytherin, the house of the cunning and ambitious. Also home of the arrogant and the idiotically inbred, but like all the other houses it had its good people too."

"A few of my friends were in that house, and they were most cunning the most ambitious and above all sneaky. I don't know what your problems are, but from the moment I met you, you struck me as intelligent, cunning and driven, so I'm going to simply suggest you keep on being a Slytherin. Bide your time with whatever your problem is until you have the perfect opportunity, then strike like a snake." His eyes hardened noticeably. "No hesitation, no remorse, quick and certain. It is the only way sometimes."

Emma's head cocked to one side, her eyes far colder than they had been. "And If I have to break laws or do something most people would consider immoral, what then?"

Harry shrugged. "Given your situation and what I know of your family I don't care, and neither do you. Sometimes laws are merely guidelines, made to fit the norm but not the specific. So long as like a true Slytherin don't do anything that can be traced back to you it doesn't really matter to me. I trust you enough to know that you won't go overboard or involve innocents. But I would hate to see you take unnecessary risks."

Emma smiled a little coldly, thankful that her friend understood. "I'll take that advice to heart Harry." She went on changing the subject. "but I would like some way to keep in contact, you mentioned several business opportunities that might be very interesting."

Harry nodded. "I'll have Hedwig deliver something a communication mirror to you with instructions on how it works. Since it's based off magic I doubt you'll run into anyone who can trace it, and seeing as that was almost impossible in my old dimension evenwith magic it should be safe even if you do."

Emma smirked a little at him. "Just make sure the mirror is something I can be seen with hmm? Make it small and white please."

The serious moment passed and a minute later Jean and Ororo rejoined them, having turned down several offers to dance from various guys, and at one point a very tipsy girl. The two sat down, and the group ordered another round of munchies and drinks, before getting up to dance again forty minutes later.

Ororo and Harry moved to the center of the dance floor, gently moving against one another, Ororo's back to Harry's front in a sensual dance as Harry gently kissed up the side of her neck to her ear nibbling on it before she turned in his arms, kissing him slowly, then making her way to his neck, where she snuggled in a little. Harry's hands fell to Ororo's thighs while hers went around his waist and grabbed his rear, and the two continued to move against one another, ignoring the outside world for a moment.

There was just something about their movements, something more than a normal couple dancing that made people back away and stare. It caused blushes to appear on the girl's faces and grins on many of the guys. Others developed leers until they saw Harry looking at them with hard emerald eyes speaking eloquently of pain, causing them to look away fearfully.

Emma and Jean were dancing together nearby, though unlike their friends they were actually dancing with the music which had changed back to a heavy metal song. They looked over and saw this and Emma bit down on the urge to frown, a little bit of jealousy making itself known in her mind.

Jean again was somehow able to see it despite her control and laughed. "See what I mean. That is a very, very tough act to follow."

"But not an impossible one," answered Emma looking at her. "Besides, something easily gained isn't worth the effort taken the first place."

Jean stared at her for a moment before leaning forward so that their faces were an inch away from one another. This time there was no teasing note in their staring contest, Jean was completely serious. "If you try to fuck up their relationship I will kill you, understand?"

Emma shook her head smirking a little. "I wasn't thinking of anything so crass. Joining them was what I had in mind, I told you that before we left the mansion."

"I didn't think you are serious," Jean said leaning away and blushing a little at the idea, ignoring the guys who had been looking at the hot chicks who almost looked like they were going to start making out in any second.

Emma shook her head again. "Oh please, as if the thought hadn't occurred to you a time or two. I saw how you look at him, and her too."

Jean frowned again, wondering how the hell this girl could read her so easily. Then she saw something over Emma's shoulder which made her frown even harder. "Excuse me a moment," she said, her voice an alloy of fury and control. "I see someone I need to…talk to." With that she strode away, the crowd of dancers parting for her easily.

Emma turned and saw what had caused her new friend to react like that and her eyes widened. "Oh dear, she murmured, smirking a little evilly. "The boy-toy is out with another girl!"

Indeed that was the case. Duncan sat on one of the barstools, with a girl Jean recognized as another cheerleader in his lap making out furiously with her.

"This should be good," Emma said to herself and moved up behind Jean to watch the proceedings.

Harry and Ororo had spotted Jean moving through the crowd, the anger crackling off her and almost making her hair stand on end despite her self-control, and the two of them shared a glance before moving to join the two younger women.

"Well at least now I know why you haven't been pressuring me to go out with you so much lately Duncan," said Jean coldly staring at the boy.

Duncan broke off his lip lock with the girl on his lap and stared at Jean incredulously. "Jeanie? What are you doing here?"

"Dancing" said Jean coldly. "Not what you've been doing obviously."

The girl in Duncan's lap, a brunette who jean thought was a junior, turned and looked at her. "Sorry Jean," she said smirking a little at the other girl. "But men have needs you know, if the they can't be met by someone they're going to look for someone else."

"Yes, and opening your legs out for him as such in an excellent way of proving your superiority," said Jean sighed a little and shrugged.

"Honestly Duncan I was going to break up with you anyway. I realized a few weeks ago that we really had nothing in common Duncan, so the idea of dumping you had been sort of playing in my mind. In a way I really should thank you for this," she said looking at the cheerleader on his lap who was frowning at her reaction. "This shows me once and for all what kind of boy he is, not able to keep it in his pants and too cowardly to tell it to my face."

"Ah well," she said flipping a hand airily, "You're welcome to him I suppose. I will say that he has no prospects other than mooching off his family, isn't quite good enough as a quarterback to make it at the college level let alone the pros, his grades are abysmal and he's a bit of a bully and also apparently a cheater. But if that's what you want in a boyfriend be my guest."

"And Duncan," she looked back at the boy who is now a little angrily staring at her. "You kept on pressuring me throughout our entire relationship to go further with you, but if you had been a gentleman, if you had at actually stepped up your game in other ways, maybe I would've let you touch me the way you wanted. Now the closest you'll ever get to me is watching this," she said turning, "walk away."

She deliberately swayed her hips and wrapped one arm around Emma's waist pulling her along, and making her move in the same fashion. Harry smacked his forehead and chuckled a little while Ororo merely shook her head. The two of them followed after the two now grinning and giggling girls.

"Oh," said Emma between chuckles, "that was evil. That little boy's got a hard on now caused by you and the other girl will know it too."

Jean shrugged unrepentantly. "Her fault for letting him cheating on me with her, you get what you pay for after all."

"Of course," Emma said laughing again before she pulled Jean onto the dance floor again. She turned so they would be visible from the bar and ground herself against the other girl's waist. "Now let's see if we can heighten the impact." Jean laughed a little but brought her hands down along the other girl's waist and moved with her to the music.

"I can't take you two anywhere can I?" asked Harry smirking a little at the two girls while he and Ororo danced beside them. They had stopped dancing in their sensual way were not just simply rocking to the music, and as Duncan continued to stare at his now ex-girlfriend they simply enjoyed themselves. After a moment the girl on his waist got disgusted by the fact that he was still staring at Jean while she was on his lap, and left with a huff.

Ororo whispered something in Harry's ear, and then disengaged, reaching over and pulling Jean towards her, pushing her into Harry's arms as Ororo began to dance with Emma. Emma giggled, "Oh my, are you sharing now Ororo? Where do I sign up?"

Ororo smirked a little evilly. "I've never liked her boyfriend you know, so anything I can do to make this more painful for him I'll do. As for signing up, your turn will come."

Jean heard nothing of this, lost in the sensation of Harry's toned, wiry form moving against her, the feel of the bulge in his pants that Ororo (and dare she think it jean herself) had caused grinding against her center as they moved to the music. It was now official, her crush wasn't going away, if anything it was being reinforced every time she was around him.

"You alright Red? I know you and that dick went out for a long time." Harry stared at Jean, his eyes showing his concern for her even as his hands and body ignited the fire within her.

Jean sighed, letting her head fall forward, her hair cascading down her face. "I am now, just, keep holding me like this." Harry didn't reply, simply continued to dance with her.

Behind them Duncan stared even more angrily now, his hands clenching and unclenching as he saw the Potter poof dance with his girl. A moment later he got up, determined to get back at the man where it would hurt the most.

After another few minutes Jean leaned back, staring at him through narrowed eyes. "Why the hell do you keep claling me Red? I haven't heard you use my name since the whole Phoenix thing."

Harry chuckled, leaning away a little nervously, and was saved by Emma pulling Jean away and taking her place. Well for a given value of saved, since Emma's attempt to grind against him apparently activated the second ward, and his burgeoning excitement died swiftly. Emma felt it and stared up at him with wide eyes, then the two broke into laughter, only reinforced by the looks of confusion on Jean and Ororo's face.

The night passed quickly after that, and soon enough the quartet made their way outside. Jean was not drunk much to the chagrin of Emma, but Emma was a little tired, not having eaten enough to sustain the aversion charm for several hours and the single activation of the other ward.

They walked to their car, and stopped suddenly, looking at Duncan's unconscious form. Ororo looked at Harry who shrugged. 'I have a few surrpsies for anyone trying to steal or deface my car. Guess the dickless wonder wanted to get back at us for some reason."

Jean shrugged and stepped over Duncan's comatose form, ignoring the temptation to follow Emma's suggestion of stepping on him in various sensitive places. "I guess he's even more of a coward than I thought then."

The group piled in and made their way back to the mansion. Once there Harry looked at Emma. "You have a choice, either I can give you an anti-hangover potion and let you drive home or you can stay here."

Since it was nearly three in the morning this was a no brainer to Emma even before Jean spoke up. "You can stay in my room if you want, it's big enough."

'I'll stay here then," Emma answered Harry. "I've always wanted to have a sleepover, this could be fun."

Ororo smiled. "You know I never gone to a sleepover, this could be fun." Jean nodded happily at that, though said they should still use her room since it had a TV, which Ororo's did not. The women made their way upstairs but Emma turned back to Harry, who was about to raid the kitchen for a drink. "Oh by the way, I have that scanner equipment you wanted, its in two boxes in the boot of my car." She tossed him her keys, which Harry caught easily. "I think with that our deal is concluded Harry Potter."

Harry grinned up at her then went to her car and found the two boxes in her boot as Emma had said. It was a tough fit, and a person would normally have had difficulty getting the things out, but harry simply used a Wingardium Leviosa on both boxes and they swiftly levitated them into the air.

Moments later Harry was in his work room, setting up the monitors, Juggernaut's helmet ready and waiting to be scanned. This analysis would take him the rest of the night, but with Harry's magic sustaining him he felt it was time well spent, because by the time dawn broke he had figured out the atomic properties of Harrytanium, and even how to make more of it.

As sunlight began to stream in through the windows Harry smiled, looking out over the mansion's grounds. "With this, I can figure out how to use it, and maybe even add it to my crysis suit and the others outfits. Once that is done, it will be time to move on. The time had come to gather some allies of his own, and to move his plans forward.

---

End chapter

Not certain I'm all that happy with some of the dialogue in this chapter, some of it comes out a little too forced. Still, a lot of things happened or began to move in this chapter huh?

Specifics: what will the result of Wanda being trained by Steven and Clea rather than Agatha be? No damn Vision marriage that's for sure, and no brother fixation/angst. Anything else, well you will have to see.

And Emma and Jean have met along with introducing the blonde to Ororo. Tell me what you think about that part, particularly the interaction between Emma and Jean. I read once that best female friends can be utterly bitchy to one another one minute than laughing and hugging the next. This will not be a restful friendship for either girl, but it will be a good one as they'll push each other to expand their horizons in different ways.

Quick query: I am having second thoughts about simply repairing Alicia and Ben's relationship. For one thing it seemed, and this is not a joke, rather rocky at times. For another it made her a target for his enemies, as shown here and in the original story that portion of the chapter was based off. And for another I read that he doesn't age when in his 'Thing form' apparently later someone figures out a way he can be human for a time, and they discover he doesn't age at all. That made me think of maybe having him have short term relationships with female super-powered heroes, or maybe an immortal girlfriend. Are Asgardians immortal? Not a bit deal as he won't be that important a character for a while, but I want to know what you all think, since I think Ben Grimm is the best of the FF.

Also, I'm wondering what everyone felt about my portrayal of Doom, I tried to change the plot from that lame ass Vibro-bomb idea in the original comics to something more believable. I didn't want to spend much time on that section, just hit the highlights. What could Doom want with Harry though?….heh

For those of you who don't like semi-OC's (I wasn't the first to create her) don't worry Melody won't feature heavily in the story, she'll simply be there in the background, cared for an protected but not doing much except occasional comic relief.

Oh and what happened to Lance will be explained in a flashback in future chapters.

I am looking for help from anyone who knows about X-calibur the Fantastic Four! Give me a PM please, as I want to start incorporating the larger marvel universe going forward. At this point we'll begin to see segments of the Avengers/Iron Man movies going forward, and some world conflicts as well, but I still need information, and the wiki's just don't give me a good idea of specific adventures/timelines!

Want to ask everyone, should I use the movie version of Fury or the original comic version? I'm leaning toward the comic version for now, but would like to know everyone's opinions. Until I decide I just won't give him a physical description other than the eye patch. Oh and should I come up with a suit for Harry? Up to this point he's jast been wearing regular clothing over his crysis suit.

Next chapter Harry goes searching for allies and Hogwarts gets explored once again while evil things start to move elsewhere, and Harry finishes his various projects for the X-men and begins to move forward.

As always read and review, and please have a lovely Holiday!