A/N - I'm spoiling you too much...
o-0-o
Sean Cassidy smiled as he moved his pawn across the board and looked at Harry. One thing that he quickly learned about the youngest member of his team was that he was intelligent and knew how to use it. Playing chess with Harry quickly confirmed his suspicions as beating him, was a thing that required a lot of Sean's concentration and he needed to watch out for traps and moves that were something more than simple moves.
"That's a trap, isn't it?" Harry asked indicating the pawn that was just moved.
"Who knows," Sean said with a smile. "I'm your opponent and I won't give you any clue, use your brain and think about it."
Harry was silent for a moment and than on his lips appeared a mischievous smirk that didn't bode too well. He moved his rook and removed the pawn.
"Not bad," Sean said approvingly, took a small sip of a coffee and looked at the board. He moved a figure and frowned as he once again looked at it. "You are used to thinking in three dimensions, not just two like you need in normal chess," he said and Harry looked up at him. "Your lines are designed in a way that suggest that you expect something to attack from above or below."
Harry followed Sean's gaze. "On Asgard we play a similar version of chess, though in three dimensions, so attack there can also come from above or below."
"Here you need to get used to attacks coming from straight ahead or from the sides, but not above or below," Sean said. "You are good, so you should do that rather quickly."
"But this is not the main reason why you are talking about this with me," Harry said, making Sean's eyes widen in surprise.
"Yes, this is not the reason. I'm playing chess with you, so I can see how good you are in creating strategies, if you are going to stay here for a longer period of time, one day you might be a leader of a team, " Sean said and paused, thinking how to explain what he wanted to say, "So I want to make sure that you know how to solve problems and make, but more importantly adapt plans to what is happening."
Harry didn't say a word, instead moved a figure on his own. Sean smiled as he saw that it was going to be one of their long games of chess, that would most likely take a couple of hours to finish. He didn't mind them as they forced him to think in a way he rarely had an opportunity to do and it allowed him to learn more about Harry. So far he learned two things, Harry was smart and knew how to think. The second being the more important one, he saw a lot of intelligent people that didn't know how to use their intelligence.
o-0-o
Harry smiled as he sent another log into the air for Freki and Geri to play with, they were old and big wolves, but wanted to play as much as pups and younger ones. He heard footsteps behind and saw Rahne and Danielle walk out of the forests surrounding the Institute. They were one of those to whom he was closest at the Institute, training together usually forged such bonds.
"Your wolves look kind of scary," Danielle said as Freki and Geri ran towards them.
"They only look like such," he said with a smile when Freki came to stop in front of him, panting happily and showing his impressive set of teeth. "You just need to get used to them. Also unless provoked, they won't bite you."
"They are something more than wolves?" Rahne said and he looked at her, he saw her watch them closely.
"Yes, they are," he said and they looked at him. "They are bulletproof, almost completely immune to magic and their teeth can chew through steel. Also far more intelligent than normal wolf ever will be."
"Nice," Rahne whistled, "No wonders you keep them close to you."
"Yeah, they are the reason for my nickname on Asgard, also I like them very much."
"Who doesn't want to have dogs or some other type of pet," Danielle chuckled as she reluctantly moved her hand and placed it on the head of Freki who looked at her, but didn't move.
"Go on, he won't bite you."
She looked at him and later at Freki who was laying on the ground, not caring about her hand. She slowly moved it through its fur and he didn't move away.
"You see," Harry said. "You don't need to be afraid of them."
"Yeah," she said. "It's just that they look kind of scary."
"Well, wolves look kind of scary," Rahne chuckled. "After all they are predators and they need to look such."
"Says one that can change shape into a wolf," Danielle pointed out.
"Says one that can use people's greatest fears against them," Harry said and looked towards the horizon, where sun was getting close to hiding behind it. "I'm going for a run." Standing up he dusted off his clothes and looked at them. "Are you going to join me?"
"Why not," Rahne said and after a bit of reluctance Danielle also nodded.
He smiled as he started to run, keeping in check his speed as not to leave them behind, too much, he knew that he was faster than they were and ever could be.
o-0-o
"He is good," Scott said as he looked at Warren "You know that and I know that."
"Who is good?" Warren asked as he turned to look at Scott.
"You know who, your younger cousin, Black Eagle. I'm still surprised that he didn't demand to be placed on an actual team, instead of a training one."
Warren was silent for a moment, he was a bit surprised by those words. "I don't know him as good as I would like to, but I think he is a patient one and he likes his team. Also he wants to be away from the spotlight."
"Right," Scott nodded. "I forgot that he is also a Prince of Asgard and he might want to be just a normal person, or as normal as we can be."
"Yes, also I think that he came to like Banshee and his style of leadership."
"Which is a bit specific, but he knows how to rein more foolhardy people. After all he has been working for SHIELD, MI-13 and a couple of other organizations for last fifteen or so years," Scott said and Warren nodded.
"You don't need to remind me about it, after all he took a great pleasure in explaining to me why you need to wait before charging straight into the battle," Warren said with a smile and looked at the sky, it was lacking a single cloud and it was relatively warm, which was a bit weird for this time of the year. "It is too quiet, way too quiet."
"You mean no troubles and no new mutants appearing?"
"Yes," he nodded "While I don't mind it, I also don't really like it. It feels as if the storm was gathering and will strike soonish."
"Hopefully it won't," Scott said and Warren could see that his friend and mentor was not really happy. "Tomorrow those students from Hogwarts will arrive and the last thing which we want is something disturbing their stay."
"Good thing is that weather should get awful enough to keep most of people inside of their houses and away from troubles. Nobody will be able to rally a mob with snow and frost, humans are animals that love warmth and safety," Warren said with a grin and looked at Scott. "Speaking about those Hogwarts students, do you know anything about them?"
"Not really, we only know that they should behave and are more open-minded than an average wizard is."
"Let's just hope that they will be okay as dad mentioned to me that they can be an awful lot of people," Warren said and sighed as a loud thunder rumbled above their heads. "They could choose a better moment for training, not now."
Scott only chuckled as they walked into the building.
o-0-o
He has much more energy than I had at his age, Ororo thought as she watched Harry summon another bolt of lightning. Sweat was dripping from his whole body and he was starting to pant heavily, but he was still doing it. His stubbornness at trying to achieve his goals was a thing she needed to praise as many people gave up well before this point.
"Enough," she said and he looked at her. "For now it is enough as you will exhaust yourself and tomorrow you will be useless."
"I still can train," he protested as he summoned yet another bolt of energy.
"I know that you can," she said. "But what's the point of exhausting yourself and making you sleep through most of the day." He looked at her and she snorted "I was some time ago as stubborn and young as you are, so I know how you think."
He nodded, though she didn't know if he did it, just so that she would let him live or if he was truly convinced.
"Good," she said with a nod and sat down on the roof, trying to find somewhat even spot. She waited for him to do the same before she said anything else, "You know how to summon lightning bolts and you are doing it better than you did it before, but I do not think it is your main power."
He looked at her, not understanding what she meant by those words.
"I mean that while you are able to summon lightning bolts, your main gift is somewhere else. Not lightning bolts," she said and looked at him, to see if he understood what she meant. He nodded, but remained silent, "Good that you are willing to listen, I can control all aspects of weather and I will try to show you how to manipulate them to see what's your main power."
He nodded and she could see determination and focus in him that she rarely saw in most of students of the Institute. Truth to be told, she kind of expected it from him, she saw him interact with other people long enough to have at least the faintest idea of who he was. He reminded her a bit of Warren, but with few other things thrown into the mix.
"Control over storms and thunders is just one of many aspects of control over the weather," she said and looked at the sky, easily summoning a massive cloud, from which rain started to pour, "It can also summon and banish clouds, cause rain, summon winds." She closed her eyes for a second and massive gust of wind came from nowhere. "It is limited by only three things, your power, imagination and creativity. You can make whatever you desire to do and as long as you have energy to fuel it, you will do it."
"So can I summon a tornado or hurricane?"
"Assuming that you can control weather and wind, yes," she said and saw him perk up. At least I know how to keep him focused and motivated, she thought, who would think that such a simple way would work on him.
"So what are we going to do?"
"Now?" she asked and he nodded. "Nothing as you are exhausted, but let's say on tomorrow afternoon, assuming that there will be time, I will show you how to manipulate various other aspects of weather."
"But-," he protested, but stopped when she glared at him.
"I'm still your teacher, even if you are an X-Men on training team, it doesn't mean that you can ignore my orders. I'm still Vice Principal and while X-Men have a certain leeway, you still need to obey me," she said and looked at him. "I know that you are used to be one that is ordering other around, but here you do not have such position and won't have. Is it clear?"
"Yes."
She smiled briefly when she saw him so quickly understand that he needed to obey what he was being told. "Since we had agreed on it, I want you to know one thing. Mutants usually develop their powers when they are older than you are. So even if you don't have them now..."
"I might develop them later in my life," he finished with a small smile. "So you mean that I shouldn't care if I have any powers as of now."
She looked at him and nodded in agreement. "But now I want you to get some rest and relax, you are tired, even exhausted and training is pointless as of now."
"Fine," he huffed and jumped of the roof, his wings opening to slow down his fall. She sat there silently for a moment, contemplating things that had happened. She knew that abilities of mutants needed to be nurtured and carefully developed, but he was a different one than most of them she had ever see.
His father is Thor, yet he isn't arrogant and can actually think when he needs to, she thought and shook her head, there is much more to him than he is willing to openly tell. His past is dark, the way he behaves at times and way he reacted to my words, those are old wounds, but still sensitive, she stood up and jumped of the roof. She landed in front of the mansion and walked inside to find Beast as he might have answers to her questions.
o-0-o
Wanda Maximoff walked to the window of Sanctum Sanctorum and looked outside, she needed to calm her thoughts before they were going to blow up something, or worse, change it into something else.
"What made you so irked and angry?" Strange asked as he walked to her.
"Few things that I learned from Xavier, as much as I would like not to agree with him, on this one he is right," she said and sighed. "That scar on Harry's forehead is something more than a normal scar, or at least was. He dealt with the thing that was hidden inside of it, but owner of it is still around."
"It was a horcrux?"
"Yes, one of seven parts of his soul, assuming that I did my calculations right." She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and turned to look at her mentor, one that trained and shaped her into a person she became. "He is obsessed with avoiding death, so all of those things are most likely well hidden and protected."
Strange was silent for a moment, she could see him thinking about something. "He was a wicked and insane person, so seven would be a number he was aiming at. Do you have an idea what he could have used as those things?"
She closed her eyes, allowing her thoughts to run in all directions. He was fascinated with the founders of Hogwarts and great wizards of the past, she thought, so if I were him, I would use something of importance as a container for a shard of my soul. Which doesn't help too much as there are hundreds of great wizards and witches that are famous throughout the history of wizarding world. She opened her eyes and looked at Strange who was looking at her, weird expression on his face. Like if he knew something she didn't know.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"Think about Hogwarts for a moment," he said. "There are four founders of it, at least four remembered ones and each one of them left something. So at least three will be..."
"Will be easy to find and once we have them, we can use tracking rituals and spells to pinpoint location of the rest of them. Sword of Godric won't be an option as it was forged by Goblins and they make sure that nobody can tamper with their craft," she finished and winced "It's just that finding one of them will be hard."
"Yes and no," he said and she looked at him, arching an eyebrow, "Did you forget that Asgard has a large bone to pick with him?"
Her eyes widened as she realized what he meant. Than on her lips appeared a smirk. "This is going to be so, so easy."
"Yes, so go and ask them for help. I think that they will gladly provide you with all that you will need."
"Oh, I will, I will indeed," she said and for the last time looked at him, "Do you have anything else to tell me?"
"Just be careful and do not do anything foolish," he said. "I don't want to explain how some things were turned into chickens of all things."
"That was an accident, they angered me," she protested and summoned for herself a portal to Asgard. It was taking a toll on her magic, but after Loki showed her how to do it, she was able to do it quite easily and didn't need to wait for Heimdall to open the bridge for her.
She stepped out of it in one of few hundreds, if not thousands of chambers that made the Citadel. She took a look around, trying to find where he was and nodded as she recognized the spot where her portal opened.
She walked out of the room and walked to the part of the Citadel reserved for the royal family, she needed to speak with two people. Servants and other courtiers looked at her with some curiosity and even disdain in few cases, but she ignored them. She enjoyed much more attention from the royal family of Asgard than they could dream of and they were jealous of it.
She smiled when she saw Sif walking out of those chambers, she stopped and saw that Goddess of War noticed her and was walking to her.
"What is the reason for your presence on Asgard?" Sif asked. "I thought that you would stay with His Highness on Midgard."
"Tracking down one criminal, one that left this scar on His Highness forehead," Wanda said and Sif looked at her, than on Sif's face appeared smirk. She knows about something, but what is it, Wanda thought.
"Come with me," Sif said, "There is something that you need to see."
"What is it?" Wanda asked as they walked through the corridors of the Citadel. She lost an idea of where they were going after a couple of turns as Sif was using paths that weren't known to her.
"Wraith that was caught by Prince Freyr during a hunt on Midgard, he will look and feel familiar to you. Though you should be careful around him as he tries to hurl himself at everybody around," Sif said.
"Don't you have cells designed to contain such things?" Wanda asked as she looked at the Goddess of War. "I have thought that they were designed with gods in mind, not some upstart dark wizard."
"We have, but he tries to do it, even with runes at full power and other defenses activated, as if he thought that he can break them."
Wanda winced at those words, she accidentally activate such runes once and it was more than enough for her. "He seems like an interesting wraith, not many have enough power to do so."
"He is." Sif nodded as they stopped in front of large doors inscribed with hundreds of runes. They groaned and slowly moved out of their way, revealing hundreds of cells with various prisoners.
Wanda whistled when she saw how massive dungeons under the Citadel were, they were huge and her whistle got louder when she saw the amount of runes that were placed in the floor and the walls of the corridor. She followed Sif into the maze and after a moment they stopped in front of a cell with a wraith inside.
"Is it?"
"Yes, it is Voldemort," Sif said and wraith looked at them.
"What do you want from me?" he hissed, his voice high and pitched, than his eyes landed on Wanda and she shuddered from his cold gaze. "Wanda Maximoff, so you had decided to stop hiding behind your father-"
"Don't bring him into this," Wanda snapped at him, her magic lashing out and silencing the wraith. "I'm not him and don't even dare to speak his name. It's my past, not yours and leave it alone or you will feel my wrath."
"Calm yourself," Sif said, placing hand on Wanda's shoulder. "He is trying to play you into making something that you do not want to do."
"Thank you," Wanda said and looked at Voldemort. She launched her magic at him and tore a part of him from the rest of the body. "This will do," she said as she enclosed it in a field of her own magic.
"Tracking spells?" Sif asked.
"Yes, he has some things that keep him alive, even if you behead this body and I want to destroy them."
Sif nodded and they walked out of the dungeons, leaving Voldemort and the rest of prisoners to their own devices.
o-0-o
"Why this scar is not disappearing?" Warren asked and Harry tensed, it was one of few topics he didn't want to talk about, with anybody.
"Can we not talk about it?" he asked as he focused on the fire roaring in the fireplace and avoided Warren's gaze. "It's personal thing and I do not like talking about it."
"Personal?" Jean asked, arching an eyebrow, only sign of her curiosity.
Harry sighed and looked at the fireplace, he knew he would need to confront demons of his past sooner or later, but he didn't know that it would happen so quickly. He was silent for a long time before he diverted his eyes from the flames and looked at his friends. "Let's just say that it's a thing connected to one that attempted to murder me, when I was year old. He killed my mum and when he tried to kill me, his Killing Curse bounced off me and hit him, killing him."
"So..., let me get this straight," Bobby said. "You were whole year old when you killed that wizard?"
"Yes," Harry said and sighed. "According to what my uncle told me, in the UK magical community I'm known as the Boy-Who-Lived."
"That's a lovely name," Warren said, placing hand on Harry's shoulder. "No wonders you don't like talking about the topic."
"Yes," Harry said quietly as his gaze once again darted to the flames, their mesmerizing pattern calming him down. "Wizards that will come to the Institute will know who I am, at least in the magical community of the UK. So I'm not that happy with them coming here as I want to have peace, not to deal with them."
"You will need to face it, sooner or later," Jean said and he glared at her, yet she ignored it. "What I mean is that you need to face it, not run away from it as if it was a thing that you cannot confront. You aren't a weak person, are you?"
"No," he said as he clenched his fists, so hard that the bones creaked, he finally looked at her, grim determination visible in his eyes. "I'm not a weak person. I'm a Prince of Asgard!"
"Much better," she said with a smile. "You need to confront those things and here is the best place to do so, you are surrounded by friends and ones that care about you."
"I-I will try," he said, fierce fire in his eyes.
o-0-o
Loki summoned himself a portal and walked into it, stepping out he arrived in the middle of a pristine landscape. Wild, ancient forests were spreading in all directions, but he was here not to marvel beauty of the landscape. He looked around, until his eyes found an entrance into a cave that was sitting between two trees, when he walked into it, a wave of energy washed over him, testing if he was a worthy one.
He ignored it and stepped deeper into the cave, his steps echoing as he walked through the darkness, using his magical sense and his memory to keep going. It wasn't his first trip into this cave system, but the first one when he needed answers and beings that lived here seemed weirdly open.
They want me to ask them about that thing, he thought and looked around, his eyes glowing in the darkness of the corridor, the fact that there was no test is only a further proof. Last time their test almost killed me, this time nothing jumped at me, nothing even tested if I am a worthy one.
He stopped in front of stone doors inscribed with runes and struck them three times with his scepter, each strike sounding like a thunder in the tight confines of the corridor. He waited for the last echo to go away before he pushed doors open and stepped into a large circular chamber with pillows scattered all over the floor. On three of them were seated Norns, they were ancient, older than Odin, yet they looked as good as if they were half his age. In the middle of the chamber was a massive well, it's water milk white and for every sorcerer it was a beacon of raw, untamed magic.
As Loki looked at them he was forced to once again marvel the power of magic, the room was overflowing with their magic and it was almost impossible to breath, so powerful it was.
"What the proud House of Odin wants to know?" Middle one, named Wyrd, asked, her voice vibrating with power.
Not good, really not good, Loki thought, she lets the other two normally speak. Something is coming, she as the eldest is speaking, from what father told me, she did it only once from what he remembers. It was when Laufey decided to attack Midgard and he was forced to defend it. Question is what's the thing that made them so worried, his gaze for a moment darted to his scepter, unless they know what's hidden in my scepter and they know who gave it to me. He schooled his features and looked at the Norns.
"The future to come, events to happen and the fate that yet needs to be decided," he said, sitting down on one of pillows, his eyes not leaving Norns for a moment. "The universe is changing and we want to know how it will change."
"The fate of the universe is a thing that even we cannot predict at the moment," Wyrd said, not good, really not good, Loki thought, they are supposed to know the future and the events to come. "We do not know what will happen exactly, but we know that the great turmoil is coming and that nothing will stop it from happening. The Dark One comes and his coming will be a sign of the turmoil, you cannot stop it and nothing will stop his coming.
"Beyond that, we only know that the Asgard will survive his coming, but we do not know in what shape it will be. We do not know who will be the King of it and what will happen next, use this warning well and do not come seek our help before the Dark One was awoken." Wyrd said and into him slammed a wave of magic that thrown him out of the chamber.
o-0-o
"This is all going to end really badly," Harry said as he walked to Professor's X office.
"You don't like taking a risk?" Kitty asked, as she and Rogue walked from a side corridor.
"Hmm... Let's just say that I don't have too much love for wizards, especially for ones from the UK," he said and twirled a knife that somehow made its way into his hand. She didn't even want to know how did he get it, he was a strange guy, but in a good way. "So the lesser amount of contact I have with them, I'm happier, now I'm a very unhappy Æsir and you don't want to see me mad."
"Oh?" Kitty asked "What are you going to do? Punch walls, throw us through them or do something else?"
"You really don't want to see me mad," Harry said quietly and she looked at him, taken aback by how cold his voice was. She never heard him behave so coldly before, but now he has changed, gone was this friendly fire from his eyes and instead she could see something that was much, much darker and dangerous. Something she didn't want to awake and every single sense was telling her to get away from it. As she looked at him, she noticed things that previously escaped her attention, his hair normally tied into a ponytail, now was set free and they hid his scar from prying eyes, while the rest looked like a crow nest.
"Why are you so mad at them?"
Harry looked at her and must have seen that she was afraid of him, he took a couple of deep breaths and she could see friendly flicker once again appear in his eyes. "I'm not mad," he finally said. "It's just that I'm worshipped by them because of the fact, I stopped Dark Lord when whole year old. It doesn't matter for them that he had almost killed me, killed my mum and injured father."
"I can see why you don't like it," she said. "But they shouldn't be that bad, should they?"
"No, they should not," he said and shook his head. "I just hope that they are nicer than an average wizard is."
"We will see," she said as they walked into the office of Professor X. They nodded to Professor, Cyclops, Storm and Beast that were waiting for them inside of it.
"The portkey should be arriving any time now," Professor said when he saw them, "So stand by the walls and wait."
"Portkey?" Rogue asked.
"Means of magical communication," Harry said. "From what uncle had told me it's pretty uncomfortable and not the best way if you want to look good."
"Why?"
"You will see when they will arrive," he smirked. "It will look amusing, at least that's what my uncle told."
"Meaning what?" Kitty asked, trying to pry as much as she could.
"Just wait and see," Harry said, she nodded a bit unhappy.
There was a loud pop and onto the floor tumbled four people with bags in their hands, and holding a piece of a rope.
"The hell that was?" Rogue asked
"That was portkey," Harry chuckled as he helped those that landed with getting up, "Looks the way my my uncle told me it would look."
They were about to say something when Professor X cleared his throat and everybody looked at him. "I want to welcome you to the Institute, Professor Dumbledore is my good friend and I hope that you will enjoy your stay here." He indicated Harry, Kitty and Rogue. "Those three will be your guides at the Institute, today and tomorrow you have to get acclimated and know other people. But after that you will attend classes with my students."
o-0-o
Ulf threw forward his hand, looking for any ledge that he could use to lift himself, it took him a moment, but he finally found it and used it to support himself. He ignored the wind that was attempting to slam him into the mountain, he was born in those mountains and he came to know them. Sweat was pouring down his brow as he climbed, it was an exhausting activity, but he loved it and didn't miss any opportunity to climb.
He crawled onto the ledge and with legs spread far apart he looked at the landscape visible below, jagged peaks of Nordmark Mountains spread to the east and west, while between them was visible huge, almost untouched forest with hundreds, if not thousands of lakes and rivers hidden among the trees. As his gaze ran over the forest, he could see a large clearing where was a palace of his father and houses of smaller vassals and housecarls, his honor guard. Even further he could see golden walls of Asgard and the spires of the Citadel, place where he recently spent more time than he spent in his father's realm. But than that was the price of training alongside member of royal family, price that he was eager to accept as he knew well that spending time with His Highness meant an open gate to titles and positions of importance.
He saw hands of Hrolf try to find the ledge, he smiled and lifted him onto the ledge, he came to like Hrolf, especially since he was less annoying than His Highness was at times. "You're slow," Ulf said, laughing.
"It's not like I can climb mountains every single day of my life,"
"No, it's not," he said and looked at Hrolf, who was almost a head and a half taller than he was, as well as much more massive, which made him look kind of small. Even if in his own right he wasn't small as he was easily taller and more massive than His Highness was, "Though with your size it is a wonder that you managed to get so high, so quickly."
"Some of us much more prefer having solid ground under their feet and a heavy axe in their hands," Hrolf said and turned to look at the landscape, "From here it looks different, everything seems smaller and less majestic than it is."
"Indeed," Ulf smiled and looked at Hrolf, mischievous fire in his eyes, "You know that His Highness will be back around the solstice?"
"He didn't mention that, he said that he will be back around summer one."
"It seems that I have better sources than you have," Ulf chuckled and sat down on the ledge. "As much as I dislike agreeing with Atalanta, she is right that it is silent without His Highness being on Asgard."
"He will be soonish," Hrolf said and turned to look at the peak behind them. "How tall is this mountain?"
"Another few hundred of yards," Ulf shrugged off as he followed the gaze of his friend. "So you want to keep climbing?"
"We don't have anything better to do, do we?"
"No," he laughed as he walked to the slope and started looking for any ridges and other points that he could use to support his hands and legs. Putting them in holes he started to climb upwards, each move getting him higher and higher.
o-0-o
"So all of you are X-Men?" Oliver Wood asked as he looked at Harry, Rogue and Kitty. They looked like average people, way too average to be X-Men. Only standing out things about them were massive wings on Harry's back and a pair of huge wolves that followed him wherever he went. They were currently sitting in the Quiet Lounge, one of few rooms that he came immediately to like.
"Yes," Harry smiled. "Generally most of older students were or are a part of X-Men, though it's not always a case."
"You being the best example," Kitty said.
"What can I say when for last few years I was training how to use all kinds of weapons that we have on Asgard,"
Oliver's eyes widened and he almost lost control of his jaw at those words. He slowly turned and looked at Harry, he expected surprises to be a common occurrence, but this, but this was too much for him. He took a deep breath and finally asked, "You are what?"
"Prince of Asgard," Harry said, smiling smugly. "Half-blood Æsir, half-blood human, son of Thor."
"So who is your human parent?" Oliver asked and gulped when Harry looked at him, his green eyes froze him in place. They were cold and dark, as if the storm was coming, also they were far older than they should be.
"Don't ever dare to ask that question," Harry hissed, his voice dangerous and low, each word full of malice and venom, his wolves looked up and Oliver gulped in fear. It was not that he was afraid of wolves, but those two were huge and their fangs looked lethal. "This is a thing that I'm not willing to tell, especially not to you, wizard." Harry stood up and stormed out of the room, wolves following him in his tracks, fur on their backs bristling and fangs bared.
"What did I do wrong?" Oliver asked, looking at the girls. He didn't know what the hell just happened, one moment they were talking and now Harry stormed out of the room.
"Nothing," Kitty said. "Or at least nothing that you could have avoided, he let's say doesn't have a lot of love for wizards from the UK and especially when they start poking this subject. So you just touched thing that he isn't willing to talk about, though considering his past, I'm surprised that he was so patient."
"What do you mean?"
"She means that my cousin's life was not the best and it was caused by a certain wizard from the UK," said tall blond-haired and blue-eyed winged person that walked to them, "So don't expect him to be warm and open to you, if I'm honest, I'm not surprised by him and his behavior."
"Warren, don't scare them," Kitty said, "If you are in dark mood join your cousin, he should be brooding or flying outside."
"Thank you, Kitty." Warren smiled. "I was going to ask you where did he go."
"That was local biggest asshole or the richest teen on this side of the planet," Rogue said, some amusement in her voice. "Warren Worthington III or Angel, he can be an asshole or a helpful one."
"And this was his asshole version?"
"Yes," Rogue nodded, he could see that she didn't seem happy about Warren's behavior. "Although, you provoked it, he and Harry are close, they were separated because of a wizard and his meddlings for eleven years."
"So if you see them behave like if they are furious at the whole world, ignore it," Kitty said. "Sooner or later it will go away, most likely sooner."
"Is there anybody else that I should know about?" Oliver asked. "As much as I wanted to meet you as X-Men are also known in the magical community, those two are interesting."
"A couple more," Kitty said. "But you will get to know them on your own, we were given as a sort of a guide for you inside of the Institute. Some of them are members of the staff, so if you see some of us having a lot of leeway, well it means that we are X-Men."
"So you are above the rest?"
"Not really, let's just say that they turn a blind eye on some things and will pretend that they do not see some," Kitty said and looked at him. "But than, some missions are like just that, in the middle of classes or worse in the middle of night and we need to be ready for them. Warren is leader of the second team, Harald is on training one, at least for the time being. I am on the second and Rogue is on the first one."
He nodded in understanding, he could see some sort of chemistry between all of them and the fact that they seemed to be communicating with each other through some weird means. As a player of Quidditch he easily saw it, it was one of those few things that created a good team.
Content he poured himself a glass of water and looked around the room, trying to get used to the fact that it was a completely different timezone and it had a completely different culture than he was used to. His family was half-blood wizards, so he was used to non-magicals, but for last few years he was spending most of his time at Hogwarts.
o-0-o
Harry slammed his fist into a dummy, his strength was so huge that it sent it flying. He looked around, searching for more targets and he was surprised when he found none. All other dummies were on the ground and in various pieces scattered across the room.
"Are you calm enough to think?" he heard someone say and his head turned in that direction to see Warren leaning against the wall. Harry took a deep breath and focused on his magic, trying to calm himself. "I think that the answer is yes," Warren said walking to him.
"When did you get here?" Harry asked, braiding his hair backwards, so that strings of them wouldn't fall into his eyes, in the process revealing his lightning bolt scar.
"When you were demolishing training dummies," Warren said as he walked to one of dummies or whatever has survived Harry's attempts to calm himself. "Impressive strength," he said looking at it and later at Harry, "I thought that I was unstable emotionally, but you are something more."
Harry growled and looked at Warren. "Get away from me before I lose remains of control over myself."
"What are you going to do? Kill me? I highly doubt that."
Harry growled and shook his head. "I don't know," he said and added quietly. "I don't know what is going on with me."
"You lost your temper," Warren said, motioning Harry to sit down. Harry nodded dumbly, following his cousins orders. "Better." Warren smiled, "I know in a way how you feel right now."
"You know?" Harry looked up, he didn't hear a lot about Warren's past.
"I also lost my mum when I was few years old," Warren said quietly, his voice sombre, "She died out of illness, but it feels the same as if she was killed. The time you spent on Asgard made you forget about the fact that she died."
Harry was silent for a moment, but than nodded. "Yes... The fact that I had feeling made me forget about lack of her and now..."
"Now it hit you even harder," Warren finished. "It isn't pleasant feeling and you cannot run away from it, it's impossible and you need either to deal with it or it will haunt you till it drives you mad."
Harry nodded and looked at Warren, he could tell that his cousin was not lying about it. "I will try to control it, but that's Æsir way of dealing with what you do not like."
"Punch it?" Warren asked, corners of his lips twitching.
"Among other things, or beat each other into the land of unconscious."
"Interesting way of solving issues," Warren chuckled and looked at Harry. "Are you calm enough not to cause mayhem?"
"Yes," he nodded and looked at Warren. "I guess that you have more reasons for being here."
"Yes, one thing you are going to enjoy, second not so much," Warren said and Harry arched an eyebrow. "One that you are going to enjoy, family has a nice mansion in the Rockies and if you want, we can go there around Christmas as it is one of break periods."
"Neat," Harry smiled, "And the second thing is what?"
"Your fighting style," Warren said. "Banshee asked me to tell you that you need to focus less on being carefree berserker when fighting." Harry looked at him, not sure what he meant. "Those are his words and he only asked me to be a messenger."
"Fine," Harry sighed. "I will try to be less carefree, but that is just my style and even Sif wasn't able to beat it out of me."
Warren laughed at those words and Harry looked at him. "Believe me, you don't want to see Banshee getting creative, Sif wouldn't break a couple of bones to get the message into your skull or would she?"
"No." Harry shook his head. "She isn't that nasty, she can be firm, but she usually limited herself to making us run around the Citadel until she was satisfied with it."
"Satisfied with it and us?"
"Ah, I didn't mention my friends from Asgard, did I?"
"No," Warren grinned, "So I guess that now is a good time as any to do so."
Harry smiled and looked at Warren. "Well, there is a lot that I can say about them."
"Start from the beginning," Warren said and got up. "But we better get somewhere more comfortable than this."
"Where?"
"My room, I have it all for myself and nobody will interrupt us."
"Lead then," Harry smiled and followed his cousin through the maze of the corridors. After few minutes of navigating them, they got into Warren's room and Harry was forced to admit that it didn't look bad. He sat down on Warren's bed and looked at him. "So what do you want to know?"
"Everything," Warren said throwing him an energy drink.
"Than you get better comfortable," Harry smiled, "It will take me a while to tell."
Warren rolled his eyes and looked at Harry. "I'm used to people taking an awful lot of time to say things, so I won't mind it."
"So, I've been friends with Ulf, who is son of Ullr, who was and still is my tutor, Atalanta who is daughter of Hercules and my third cousin two or so times removed, and Hrolf, who is son of Volstagg, who is one of dad's closest friends," he said and opened the energy drink, "We trained together and we had fun together."
"You mentioned Sif making you run until she was satisfied with you, what did you mean?"
"That we were throwing up our breakfast," Harry said, some disdain in his voice, "And the Citadel is awfully large, so running around was not pleasant, only a lot of people had an opportunity to laugh at us. Or polishing weapons that were getting dull and do it isn't that pleasant either."
"I can imagine that," Warren said, Harry could see some compassion in Warren's voice. "Banshee will be more creative when he will try to teach you something, Danger Room gives him a lot of opportunities for it and he will use it, all of it."
"Ouch." Harry winced. "Than I better start trying to be less of a carefree berserker, but focus some on defense."
"Yes." Warren nodded, "You miss them?" He asked and Harry blinked a couple of times, "Do you miss your friends from Asgard."
"Yes, I grew attached to them and while they are certainly annoying at times, I like them," Harry said. "So I miss them, not as much as an opportunity to have some fun with them, but still."
"Can't you ask them if they can drop by at the Institute?"
Harry's eyes widened as he looked at Warren, it surprised him, he never considered such thing. "I guess I can as during Yule I wouldn't mind visiting Asgard."
"After our little stay in the Rockies?" Warren grinned
"Yes, after it," Harry smiled and finishing his energy drink. He banished it towards the trash can with just a wave of his hand, "If you want, you could come to Asgard with me, I am also considering inviting few more people."
"You can?" Warren frowned. "I have thought that Asgard was out of reach, of us, mortals and that nobody was invited there."
"I'm one of Princes of Asgard and there are still people invited there," Harry smiled, "I think, dad was going to invite Avengers there and it is a fun place, so you should love it."
Warren was silent for a moment and than nodded. "Why not, you're the inviting one, so we will be your problem," he said with a grin, making Harry groan.
"You wouldn't survive without mentioning it, would you?"
"No," Warren laughed merrily and than looked at his watch, "As much as I love talking, it's late and you need sleep, so get to your room and get some rest."
Harry sighed and nodded, he knew well that his cousin was a stubborn one and he didn't have a single chance of convincing him to change his mind. He slipped out of the room and walked to his own, wandering about the adventures that the future would bring.
o-0-o
Sif's behavior might seem a bit weird, but remember that she can't really use more convincing ways of getting into their minds so she needs to think out of the box. And believe me, sharpening the edge of any blade takes a really long time, especially if you want to get it done properly. I mean you can do it in a couple of minutes, but it will be still there, just less visible. Also they need to learn how to care for their weapon even when away from anybody that could it for them. Unless you think that anybody will be willing to sharpen the edge of his commander's blade when he is in a damp, miserable pit dug out of mud and needs to take care of his own weapons.
Reviews:
shugokage - The usual things that happen to every traitor/assasin. Interrogate him and learn whatever can be learned from him and Voldemort won't enjoy it. After that quick trial that is more of a show of power of Asgard and *cough* fairness *cough* of law and quick execution. Also there are his horcruxes.
TL14 - I know, it's just that my keyboard loves to surprise me with weird swaps of words and 'than' and 'then' are the most common ones.
UnitedOsprey1991 - Voldemort is tougher to kill and he will live much longer than all of you think, also he has horcruxes that are just a tiny, tiny annoyance. About big bad, I think that his name was mentioned at least once.