A/N - Hi everyone. Here's the newest chapter. First things first: next week's chapter will occur on schedule but after that I'm taking a trip and may not have full internet access for a little while where I'm going so there will be a three week break before the chapter after that gets posted. I'll post about that again next week to give you all more specific info.

Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.

21) THE RUN UP TO CHRISTMAS

Harry had not realized just how much planning and preparation would be needed to attend the Yule Ball with Ororo. There was the question of what each of them would wear: would they wear matching outfits or contrasting ones? Would Harry wear open robes over a suit and tie or closed robes? He opted for the open robes as he already possessed a suit that he had bought quite recently. Actually he'd had to replace a lot of his clothes recently because of how much he'd grown in the last year. A new suit had been one of the things he bought along with everything else. Now he just needed dress robes to go with them. He and Ororo took a Saturday in early December to pay a visit to Colony Alley to consult with a magical tailor there for help. It was a good thing they did as the wizard in question was an expert at what he did and soon had Harry properly outfitted in robes to go with his suit. Both suit and robes were dark blue which Ororo stated would go quite well with what she was wearing although she would not show him what that was until the day of the ball.

Ilvermorny had dance lessons in the late afternoons a couple of times a week over the next month for people who would be attending the ball and Harry was very glad to take them. Except for being in a mosh pit he'd never danced before. Without the lessons he was sure he would make a complete fool of himself at the Yule Ball.

In the middle of all of that Harry quite forgot that people back in Britain would be wondering about who his date would be. He was still the Boy-Who-Lived after all. This was brought home to him when he received a letter from Hermione asking him if he still needed a date. If he did Ginny was available. Harry sent back a reply with Hedwig telling her to thank Ginny for him but he already had a date for the ball. He hoped, however, that someone else would ask Ginny to go with them, perhaps Neville? He was a good guy after all. He concluded the letter by asking Hermione if she had a date? Hedwig brought back Hermione's reply to say that yes, she did have a date and he would find who it was when she saw him at the ball.

Then there was the question of Christmas gifts. Harry had a large list of people to buy gifts for this year: all of his teammates and the professor of course, Remus, the Weasleys, Hermione, Hagrid, and Dumbledore. Then there was Luna who he didn't know that well but did like so he would get her a little something. Also Neville whom he hadn't been that close to while he was at Hogwarts and was now sorry about that. This year he had begun writing letters to both Neville and Luna and they had written back. Harry hoped to be better friends with them in the future. The one difference between them was that Luna knew about his being Lightning while Neville didn't.

Finally there was Ororo. He would give her gift to her on Christmas Day before they left for the Yule Ball. The main issue he had was what do you give a princess for Christmas? Especially one who is the heir to the throne of her country? He'd figure something out, at least he hoped he would.

As the Yule ball would take place at Hogwarts at 8 PM British time Headmaster Pope had told all of the students who were going to be ready to leave from the Ilvermorny entrance hall at 2:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. As taking a portkey while dressed in formal clothes was – not the best idea in the world to put it mildly – Dumbledore had asked Dr. Strange to help out. Dr. Strange would be at Ilvermorny at 2:30 PM and he would make a portal straight to the Hogwarts entrance hall that everyone would use. He would use it too as Dumbledore felt that it would be rude to ask Dr. Strange to make a portal and then not allow him to stay for the ball so Dumbledore invited him to attend as his personal guest. At midnight British time Dr. Strange would make another portal and the students would return to Ilvermorny.

As he didn't want to take a portkey to Ilvermorny from the X-Mansion while dressed up Harry would come to Ilvermorny around 1:30 PM and get changed into his formal clothes at the school. After the ball he would change back to his casual clothes before portkeying back home from Ilvermorny. It would be 7 PM when the Ilvermorny students got back to school so food would be available to them if they wanted it but as a banquet was part of the ball no one anticipated being very hungry after the party.

December 15th had come and gone and yet again the Dursleys had not responded to the letter from HSBC. On the late afternoon of the 16th Harry and Sirius met with John Hurt to discuss the situation.

"I think it's clear what's going on" said Mr. Hurt, "they're playing for time. I've seen this sort of thing before. They'll probably claim they didn't receive either of the first two letters and know nothing of their contents, therefore they should get more time."

"Unfortunately for them" Hurt continued with a predatory grin, "the goblins attached trackers to the letters. We know they were received and that they were opened. The Dursleys won't be able to sticky with that excuse."

"So what happens now?" asked Harry.

"Representatives from the bank pay the Dursleys a visit" said Hurt, "I will be with them and we will explain the facts of life to the Dursleys. There's one of two ways we can go. First we can demand immediate payment of all of the money in full plus interest. If they don't have enough to pay it all back at once we can seize and sell their house. If that doesn't appeal to you we can put them on a payment plan. It would be the same as paying back a loan. They will have to pay a set amount every month until it's all paid back. That will take a goodly number of years. Harry, as you're the aggrieved party in this case what do you want to do?"

Harry thought it over for a while. Both choices had things to recommend them. If he chose option one he could very likely dispossess the Dursleys of everything they owned at a single stroke. Vernon and Petunia were very conscious about their social status. Taking everything away from them at once would drop them way down the ladder. They might even be forced into bankruptcy. Who knew if they could recover from that?

On the other hand with the payment plan the Dursleys would be stuck paying him money for a long time to come. There was something appealing about having them serving him (such as it was) for a change.

"I think" said Harry when he finally spoke, "that we should go with the payment plan for now. However if they miss any payments please swoop in and demand everything at once."

"All right" said Hurt writing the decision in his notes, "we can do this as soon as you give the word."

"Wait until after the new year" said Harry, "no need for you or the goblins to disrupt your holiday plans."

"It will also give the Dursleys a false sense of security" said Sirius, "if they don't hear from us at once they might think we aren't going to do anything."

"And they will be very wrong" said Hurt, "no bank or law firm would ever let something like this go."

"When you do go to see them" said Harry, "please scare them as much as possible. This isn't like a detention they might have with Professor McGonagall, or even Snape."

"It will be done" said Hurt.

After the meeting was done Harry and Sirius headed back to the X-Mansion.

"How are you feeling pup?" asked Sirius.

"Fine" said Harry, "looking forward to getting a little payback."

"You'll get it" said Sirius, "do you want me to have Vernon fired from Grunnings now?"

"No" said Harry, "what would be the point of putting the Dursleys on a payment plan if I take away their ability to make the payments?"

"That would be half the fun" said Sirius, "you're being much nicer to them than I would have been."

"A Marauder to the end, huh?" said Harry, "besides Vernon is supposed to be very good at his job – at least he says he is. If he really is that good it would be a pity to let him go. But is he that good? Or is he just blowing his own horn?"

"I can have him investigated through the company if you want."

"Please do" said Harry, "and if he isn't as good as he says he is, well..."

Once they were back at the mansion Harry went looking for Professor Xavier and found him, as usual, in his office.

"Is there something I can help you with Harry?" Xavier asked him.

"Not really" said Harry, "it's never come up but I was just wondering about detentions."

"What about them?" asked the professor.

"Well at Hogwarts and Ilvermorny" said Harry, "if I got a detention I might write lines, or be stuck cleaning out cauldrons in the potions lab, or help the caretaker to clean the halls. If that happened here what kind of detentions would you give?"

"What brought this on?" asked Xavier in surprise. Harry explained about his remark at his lawyer's office.

"It just made me wonder afterwards" said Harry, "I don't think any of us have ever had a detention."

"That's true" said Professor Xavier, "which is good. It shows how seriously you take what we do here."

"But if you had to?" asked Harry. Xavier thought about that.

"Well" he said, "for first offences I might assign you extra hours in the Danger Room. If it was something really bad you'd probably be suspended from the team for a while."

"Ouch" said Harry, "I shouldn't have asked."

The 1994 Winter Solstice fell on Thursday, December 22nd. On that day Dr. Strange intended to go after another of Voldemort's horcruxes. As before he made a portal from his Sanctum Sanctorum in New York to the Ancient One's temple in the Himalayas. The Ancient One was waiting for him when he arrived.

"Welcome my son" said the Ancient One.

"Thank you master" said Dr. Strange.

"Come to my study. The box is still there."

"Are there any new streamers coming out of it?"

"No" said the Ancient One, "it is as it was when you last left here."

"That's good" was the reply. The two sorcerers went into the Ancient One's private study where they found the silver box that contained a piece of Voldemort's soul. There were still three uncut streamers radiating out of it.

"Well now" said Dr. Strange as he pointed at one of the streamers, "I remember you said that this streamer appeared when Voldemort made his most recent horcrux."

"That is right."

"So that leaves us these other two" pondered Dr. Strange, "of which one leads to a horcrux and the other leads to Voldemort himself."

"Unfortunately there is no way to tell which streamer is which" said the Ancient One.

"That's too bad" said the Sorcerer Supreme to his mentor, "well, here goes nothing."

Dr. Strange sat in a chair and concentrated. Once again his astral form slipped free of his physical body and he floated above it. He floated over to the box and considered which streamer to choose this time.

"Which came out" murmured Dr. Strange to himself, "the lady or the tiger?" After another long moment he chose the middle streamer and entered it.

As soon as he was fully inside the streamer Dr. Strange knew that something was wrong. The other streamers that he'd entered had felt evil but it had been a passive evil that had not tried to do anything. This time as soon as he entered the streamer he felt something grab his leg. Looking down he saw a tentacle-like thing coming up from the floor and wrapping itself around his shin. Fortunately there was only one and he soon got away from it.

"What was that?" he asked himself as he began to travel down the hallway. For a little while nothing happened but then another tentacle shot up and tried to grab him, and then another. The further down the hall he went the more tentacles he encountered. It was obvious now that this streamer must lead to Voldemort himself so it was much better defended. He considered leaving the streamer and going back to the temple to try another one but decided against it. He might be able to get definite information about Voldemort if he kept going.

The further he traveled the more tentacles he went up against and he knew that if this kept up he would eventually have to leave the streamer. That became very clear as he approached its end. There were so many tentacles up ahead waving at him that he could barely see the end of the hallway. Rather than a black mass being there he caught a glimpse of a face that was waking up and starting to look back toward him.

Yes, it was time to leave. He didn't want the face to make contact with him so he shot up to the hallway ceiling. There were a lot of tentacles up there waiting for him and he had to gather a lot of his power and shoot it out at them to get them to back off. He chanced a look back at the face and it seemed to be grimacing, as if in mild pain. He didn't stick around to be sure of that though.

Dr. Strange finally fought his way out of the streamer and looked around at where he was. He was in a rather run down room in a house that had clearly seen better days. The room was lit but the light was low. Directly in front of him was the back of a large comfy chair that was positioned near a fireplace. Whoever was in it could not be seen but it was clear that there was someone in it as he heard two voices coming from the other side.

"Are you sure my lord?" a rather timid voice was saying.

"I know what I felt Wormtail" said as cold and menacing a voice as Dr. Strange had ever heard except that it was high pitched for some reason, "someone was trying to invade my essence."

"Do you know who?"

"No. I could sense him but he disappeared before I could discover his identity."

"But surely with your occlumency skills" said Wormtail, "he shouldn't have been able to – "

"Normally you would be right" said the cold voice, "but this invader was not coming from the usual direction. This invader was trying to enter my soul."

"Your soul?" asked a shocked Wormtail.

"Yes" was the reply, "and whoever he was evaded my defenses but it seems he left before fully getting past them."

"That's good" said Wormtail, "isn't it my lord?"

"So it would seem" said the voice, "it would indicate that my defenses aren't completely useless. I will have to strengthen them to stop such an invasion from happening again."

There was silence from the other side of the chair. Dr. Strange realized that the cold voice must be Voldemort himself although he didn't know why he had such a high sounding voice.

'I must see him' the Sorcerer Supreme thought to himself, 'he should not be able to see me in my astral form otherwise he would have already sensed that I was in this room.' Dr. Strange floated around to the front of the chair. Kneeling on the floor in front of the chair was a short man with a grubby appearance that had more than a passing resemblance to that of a rat. He gave no sign that he knew Dr. Strange was there so the Sorcerer Supreme turned to look at the person in the chair.

He quickly wished he hadn't looked. Sitting in the chair was a small – person or thing. For a very brief moment Dr. Strange mistook it for a baby – by far the ugliest baby he had ever seen. This baby was so ugly that not even a mother could love it. In fact any mother bearing a baby who looked like that would probably put it out of its misery at once.

In the next moment the impression passed and Dr. Strange realized that this was Lord Voldemort, or what he had become. The Sorcerer Supreme wondered just how the Dark Lord had gotten into such a state. From what he knew about horcruxes if a wizard made one and then lost his body he would be left in a wraith-like state until he could either get a new body somehow or his horcrux was destroyed which would cause the wizard to pass on. Presumably this had happened to Voldemort on October 31, 1981. Somehow he had managed to obtain a new physical body – of a sort – for himself. Perhaps he had possessed a baby which became ugly as a result of the possession.

He was brought out of his reflections when he heard Wormtail speak.

"My lord" he said, "must we go back to that house? The aurors know we were there. Will they not watch the place?

"That was almost two months ago" said Voldemort, "from what you have told me the DMLE is short handed. They will not waste aurors by constantly monitoring that house on the off chance that we go back. And yes, we do have to go back fairly soon. One of the things I need most is there and it cannot be found anywhere else."

"What about Harry Potter my lord? How will you get to him?" Voldemort gave off a humorless chuckle.

"Harry Potter is out of my reach for now" he said, "Crouch's capture has made it unfeasible to continue with that plan. But don't worry about that. I'll kill the illustrious Mr. Potter in due time. In the meantime do as I tell you and question me no more."

Dr. Strange's attention was diverted by a slithering noise. He turned and saw an enormous green scaled snake slithering into the room. Although the snake was impressive in its own right what really caught Dr. Strange's attention was the streamer coming out of it and shooting off in the same direction as the one connected to Voldemort.

"The snake is a horcrux" the sorcerer said to himself, "and if I had to guess I would bet that it's the new one. This complicates things a bit."

There was nothing more for Dr. Strange to do here. It was clear that Voldemort did not know he was there and neither did the man called Wormtail or the snake. The Sorcerer Supreme floated up through the ceiling of the room and out of the house they were in. Once outside he looked around. The house was in the middle of nowhere. In all directions all Dr. Strange could see was moorland with some mountains in the distance. If he had to guess the sorcerer thought that he might be in Wales. In any case he needed to get back to the temple so he flew off at almost the speed of thought and was soon back at the temple where he rejoined his physical body.

"My son" said the Ancient One, "what has happened?"

"I found Voldemort" said Dr. Strange who felt very tired for some reason, "and his other horcrux." He quickly told the Ancient One what had happened.

"Do you have any thoughts on what he might be planning?" asked Dr. Strange. The Ancient One stroked his beard.

"He may be planning to gain a new body" he said, "there are certain ways in which this can be done as long as there is someone to help him which, as you have told me, there is."

"What should we do about it?"

"I do not know if we can do anything right now except to stay vigilant" was the reply, "I think we will know when he makes his move. You should warn Dumbledore. He, at least, needs to know about this. There may be other enemies in the not too distant future. I have felt some troubling currents in the various auras of the world lately but I do not yet know what they mean. I feel that something else is coming and it will be big when it happens."

"I'll be seeing him in a few days so I will inform him of what you said when I do" said Dr. Strange, "we now know which streamers are horcruxes and which leads to Voldemort. Should I go after the other horcrux now?"

"No" said the Ancient One, "I can see that you are tired. Fighting your way down that streamer to Voldemort has taken more out of you than you know. Rest now. You can go after the other horcrux in March."

"As you say master."

(To Be Continued)

A/N - That's it for now. Voldemort has finally made his first appearance in the story, such as it is. No, he and Wormtail are not at the house in Little Hangleton right now.

Next week is the Yule Ball. As usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.