Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or any of the X-men. The same can be said of the wonderful world of J.K. Rowling. I am not making any profit, but simply having fun. I did however create Emma Winter.
Memories and dreams are in italics.
Edited in March 2021 during lockdown.
Emma stood in a field, it was dark and freezing. She was breathing shakily, and her warm breath clashed with the icy air as she breathed out forming a mist in the air. The witch stood still listening if she could hear anyone or anything close by, but everything was eerily silent. Her dark eyes looked frantically around, her instincts told her she wasn't alone, but where was everyone?
It felt like déjà vu, something that she had lived before but couldn't recall. It was on the tip of her tongue; it was something that Emma knew she should remember. A feeling of great dread came over her as she bent down and desperately tried to feel for her wand on the cold ground. A great sigh of relief came from her when her hand clasped tightly her trusted wand that had been by her side for years. Roars of thunders could be heard in the distance and a bolt of lightning illuminated the field where she stood. Then the rain started pouring down.
Emma looked frantically around, there were dead bodies scattered everywhere as far as the eye could see. The people closest to her were the ones she loved the most, Dumbledore, McGonagall, the trio and others. All dead. Their lifeless faces bringing waves of terror to Emma's horrified mind. As the witch tried to scream for help no sounds seemed to leave her mouth no matter how hard she tried. Nothing. Emma was alone and terrified beyond words. Her heartbeat was erratic and so loud that she had trouble trying to concentrate on anything else but the sounds of her fast-beating heart
Fright was suffocating her and her instincts kicked in forcing her to try to run out of the field without touching any of the bodies. That was a failed task from the start as the witch stumbled on the wet ground and fell onto one body as soon as she tried moving in the darkness. Emma jumped inhumanly fast to her feet as she started screaming in pure horror. Fright was smothering her and Emma had no idea where to hide from the threat that was looming over her.
The witch could hear sounds in the distance as if something was coming closer in the darkness, but she couldn't see what it was, nor did she want to as it was sure to kill her. Her feet had gotten lodged to the ground and she was stuck to meet her destiny amongst all her loved ones that were dead. Emma felt her body trembling violently and she looked around into the darkness to see if the unknown threat was causing the earth to tremble.
Emma woke up from her nightmare screaming with terror, her hand automatically reaching for her wand to defend herself against any threat that might be looming around her. A male voice called out her name urgently in the shadows, but her mind was too terrified to register the voice. Emma looked around frantically in the darkness trying to see who was calling out to her but the witch saw nobody as the room was pitch black. Finally, her eyes adjusted enough for her to see a dark shadow looming over her bedside.
It took her a moment to understand that the dark mass in front of her was shaking her roughly and holding her shoulders tightly. Before Emma knew what she was doing, she pointed her trusty wand at the shadow. It was a normal reflex for one that had lived so long with the aid of magic.
"Stupefy!" Emma bellowed in self-defence and watched as a red bolt of light sparked from her wand towards the ominous shade that had loomed so threateningly over her. The shadow was violently thrust away from the bed by the curse and only seconds later it crashed into the hallway wall that was opposite her open bedroom door. A loud crashing sound was heard as a startled Logan crashed violently into the wall.
In the dim lights of the hallway, Emma could finally see that the shadow was Logan and not a part of her unbearable nightly torments. Before she could apologize Logan was up in a split second seemingly unharmed. The mutant looked livid as he stared at the terrified woman before moving swiftly towards her.
It had been a nightmare; the one about the killing field was a reoccurring one. A nightmare that had started shortly after the last battle of Voldemort and had tormented Emma ever since. As the witch threw off the last clutches of the nightmare from her confused mind she instantly regretted her actions towards the enraged mutant who looked murderous.
Logan was inside her room again; he slammed the door shut behind him and turned on the ceiling light to see what he was dealing with.
Emma had heard a rumbling sound that she couldn't locate until she realized that Logan was growling at her. The man was growling at her like a furious animal. The sound terrified the witch because it was primal and there was no mistaking the intimidating sound that vibrated from Logan's chest and into the room. That growl meant Logan was about to attack her.
"What the hell was that?!" Logan snarled menacingly as he stomped towards her. Emma looked terrified as she stared back at Logan, her eyes almost black with fright and her breathing dangerously close to hyperventilating. Her lower lip was trembling as if the witch was a split second from breaking down crying at the sight of the furious mutant. How in Merlin's name was Emma supposed to fix the mess she had caused by accident? The witch had no idea how to even begin to apologize to her friend for using such forceful magic on him.
The strange scent Logan had noticed as he had come into her room earlier had intensified; the scent of warm cinnamon seemed to be coming from the young woman who sat wide-eyed and terrified on the bed. He had never felt that scent from any human being before and it made him even more suspicious of the nature of this new teacher whom Xavier had embraced and invited into the school. The thing that stuck out the most to Logan was a wooden stick Emma held pointing at him as if it were a formidable weapon that could actually stop the legendary Wolverine.
"You think some stupid stick can stop me kid!" Logan snarled feeling the scent of terror in the air. It did not help the situation as it only drove the beast forward to feel her so terrified of him. The beast was howling for blood and even though Logan could usually reel it in, the wildness in him still affected his judgments at times. The beast within him wanted nothing more than to spill blood; Emma's blood and make her pay for what she had done. Even though Emma had a sweet personality and an innocent face there was no denying the fact that she was dangerous, probably even lethal. The beast roared inside Logan in warning that the woman was a clear danger to himself and everybody else within the school.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you! What were you doing in my room anyway?" Emma snarled back at Logan who looked angrier with every passing second. The witch tried to think straight and understand what had happened, she had been having a nightmare sleeping and that man-beast had terrified her. She had not yet connected the dots that Logan had simply been trying to wake her up, as he understood very well how it was to be tormented by nightmares.
Logan's glance strayed automatically from Emma's teary face to her body that was very visible through the almost transparent bed sheet. Every curve of her well-shaped body was visible through the fabric and Logan felt his eyes linger on the woman longer than she liked.
"Do you mind? What the hell is wrong with you? Get out!" Emma hissed indignantly and dragging the cover to hide better with shaking fingers. Emma had gotten used to sleeping in the nude in her quarters back at Hogwarts but realized how stupid that had been to keep that custom when coming to Xavier's. It was a different world, where privacy was not respected as it was by the faculty of Hogwarts.
Logan seemed to have snapped out of his momentary distraction and narrowed his eyes angrily at her. His stance was almost a crouch as if he was about to jump and attack her at any moment if she would try to run for it.
"Oh no, you ain't gonna twist things around and pin this on me. You and I are going to the professor, something about you ain't right," Logan barked at Emma who looked shocked at his words. The last thing she wanted was to explain things to Charles Xavier who could read minds.
Logan glared angrily at Emma, only to be paid back in the same way. It seemed he was not the only one who was seething with anger and that infuriated him further. The new teacher, Emma, had seemed normal but she sure as hell blew that out of the water with her little stunt.
Emma put her wand down beside her on the bed and took a deep breath to calm down; there was little chance she would be allowed to continue her stay at Xavier's if the professor would hear about what had occurred. The witch was quite certain that the professor would be very disappointed in her for hiding such a gigantic secret from him and she had no desire to even find out what Charles Xavier would think about her being a witch. Emma was quite certain she would be treated as an outsider when the mutants would find out what she was.
"I don't think we have to go to Xavier, we can simply …"
Logan had heard enough, there was no way that he would have Emma talk her way out of the mess she was in. He quickly walked the few steps that were between him and her bed; grabbed Emma's arm securely and dragged her out of bed. Emma squealed with fright and managed to drag the cover along with her shaky hands to cover herself. The mutant bent his face down so it was inches from Emma's startled face before he growled menacingly at her. Emma gasped and tried to struggle out of his arms but with no luck. The witch could feel Logan's fingers bore mercilessly into the muscles of her upper arms and his hold only got tighter every time she tried to break free.
"Just let me go!" Emma yelped with desperation as she continued to struggle to get away from the livid mutant. The witch hated to be confined, it was an unfortunate side effect of being in the war. No matter what good intentions led Logan into her room to wake her up from her nightmare had quickly vanished when the man had realised that there was something dangerously off about the young teacher.
The witch wondered angrily why none of the staff had arrived by the commotion that had to have been heard all over the house but then she remembered that Ororo had taken her class to New York. They would spend the night in the city and as support, she had gotten Scott and Hank to accompany her to help with the unruly teenagers. Meanwhile, Logan and Emma had been put in charge of the younger students and thankfully they were all in bed instead of witnessing the mess that their teachers had created.
That left only Emma and Logan in the staff quarters as Xavier slept elsewhere on the lower level of the mansion as he was wheelchair-bound. That thought scared her more than she was willing to admit; perhaps going to Charles was the only way to get out of being mauled by Logan.
"We are going now to sort this shit out right now!" Logan barked at her like a drill sergeant and dragged Emma out of her room as if she were light as a feather. Mercifully, there was no one around to see her being dragged through the hallways of Xavier's while covered in her bedsheets by a furious mutant that looked like he wanted to throttle the witch on the spot.