Hogwarts: New School Year.
The first day of her new school was quite different for Hazel Sophia Frost. Vi's wind-up clock that jarred the whole dorm to action.
"Damn it," the purple-haired mutant said as she rolled out of their shared bed. Hopefully she would actually have her own bed tonight. She pushed herself through the slot in the canopy and out into the cool room. Luckily there were throw rugs of green, black and white beneath her feet. "Come on, Miss Frost. It's time to get up."
"Unlike you, I've been up for a bit," came the reply from the bed. And it was true. Unfortunately for her, one of the other girls had woken up and sent out a very loud mental yell in complaint of the cold water for her shower. The poorly blocked psychic shout had done the job of an alarm clock.
"That's a horrible, horrible thing," Pansy called out as she exited her bed, letting its canopy curtains drop behind her.
"It was the only one I could find that wasn't electronic or even electric at the shop," Vi admitted. "That's going to be annoying. The mutant looked at the dim light filtering through high up, curtained windows. It seemed to be undulating slightly. "Are we under water here?"
"That's right," Millicent called out as she slipped on a heavy bathrobe over her stocky frame. "Not a problem for you, is it?"
"Not really."
They continued their chat as they worked their way through the bathing room for the girl's dorm. Soon they were back in their rooms putting on their uniforms.
"You really only brought white robes? Merlin, you are trying to get into fights with the professors, aren't you?" Tracey said with a shake of her head as she slipped on her black robes over her white blouse and black skirt. Her green tie was settled perfectly on her collar.
"I think I'll have to find that coloring spell that McGonnagal used," Hazel groused.
"You are lucky. White is the easiest to charm. And silk helps," Daphne said with an admiring look at the expensive outfit. "Madam Malkin did a wonderful job. I'll have to introduce you to my own seamstress. She can do very amazing things with silk and brocade."
Millicent blinked as she noticed for just a second a very famous scar on Hazel's forehead. "I thought you said you got a new, clowned body just after You-Know-Who killed your birth parents?"
"Cloned, Miss Bullistrode. And the 'curse' that was used must be something into the soul, I guess. My mother said it actually will return no matter how I try. Which did not stop me from trying later. I had an agonizing headache for days after that." Hazel shrugged at that as she set herself in her perfectly white robes and polished shoes. The only bit of color on her was her badge and green neck-tie.
"Oh, that's what that was. I thought your mother was going to fillet his, er, him." Vi tried to recover from her almost misstep of mentioning her mother's mental powers. "So, do any of you know how to get back to the Great Hall?"
"I'm just going to follow one of the other girls when they leave," Tracey said as she waved at the slightly open door. "Like that one." Following true to her words, she took off after the older Slytherin that was just leaving.
With squawks of indignation for the lack of warning, all of the girls finished up and followed Tracey. The trip through the gloomy dungeon was only broken by minimal conversation as the girls tried to memorize the path. The low number of torches made that hard.
"I'm going to be lost for at least a week. It wouldn't hurt them to light up more torches," Pansy complained as they finally came out onto the anteroom that led to the Great Hall.
"There are only fifty-two torches back to our room, so that should not be too hard," Hazel replied in a smug tone.
Daphne frowned in thought. "That's a trick. Use the torches to figure out how to get back? Wonder why I hadn't thought of that?"
The other girls snickered, but held them back from making an unkind comment. So Daphne merely glared back them.
Hazel's green eyes studied the other, older students at their table. "How many of you can cast a charm or transfiguration on my robes to turn them temporarily black?" she asked down the table as she sat at the lowest end.
Most of them ignored her, but two girls and one boy nodded to them.
"It's not that complicated, though you probably won't get the hang of that charm until third year," the youngest said.
"How much for you to tutor me in the spell and counter-spell?" Hazel started filling her plate.
The other two girls just shook their heads and went back to their conversation.
"Ten galleons. Fifteen if you want me to spell and unspell your robes for you," he replied. His black hair was perfectly coiffed and his smile quite sunny.
"Thirteen," she countered.
"Fourteen galleons and six sickles," was his quick response. It was obvious he would have be charming her clothes also.
"Fourteen and two sickles. Deal?" Hazel finished.
"I would have fought to go a bit higher, but it is impeding my food intake. Deal. I'm Robert Baron, by the way. The first thing you will need to learn is a swish-flick-hook-jab." He carefully went through with exaggerated motions so she could watch. "See?"
"I do," the Girl-That-Lived said. She reached under her cloak to pull out the galleons and sickles from her purse. "Here. I want you to charm them before you or I leave the table this morning."
"I take it you are not hurting for money," Daphne asked as she poured her pumpkin juice. Once she was done, she passed it to Vi who filled Hazel's cup and then her own.
"You could say that," she replied in false modesty. It was obvious to her that she was the only 'real' wealth in their dorm.
"Mail's here!" Millicent called out as the first owls came through opening far up in the great hall.
An owl landed in front of Daphne with a small package while a very dark brown owl landed in front of Hazel and stuck out its left claw which a letter was attached to.
"A letter? You must have gotten tons before," Pansy said before taking a big bite of her toast.
"Not by owl. I think I've only gotten three owls in my life," she replied absently as she removed the letter. "Sirius Black?"
That information surprised all of the girls within listening distance. No letters at all? They shared a quick glance with each other. Millicent and Pansy leaned together to whisper to each other. They had actually sent a very nice set of chocolates to the Boy-That-Lived last year on his birthday. So what had happened?
"Oh. Him," Daphne said as she thoughtlessly answered. "He's not considered too well in most pure-blooded society. He's a total embarrassment to the families. I can't believe he reinstated that muggle lover-"
Hazel slapped her hand down in a move that was quite startling. "I would ask you very carefully think about finishing that statement when considering that Lilly Potter was muggle born and the mother that raised me is, by your terms, a muggle." Her green eyes stared very coldly at Daphne.
She just tilted her head slightly at Hazel. "I see."
The Girl-That-Lived turned back to her letter.
"Hey, Mandy!" Vi called out as she waved to the other girl.
The young Ravenclaw looked torn, then after a moment was pushed by two of the girls her age over towards their table. "Hello, Violette." She looked at Hazel for a long moment, then spoke in a rush. "Are you really Harry Potter cursed to be a girl?" She was horribly blushing by the end of it.
"I was not cursed, but that is fairly close. I prefer Hazel, even if my name hasn't been legally changed her in England." Hazel was still reading her letter. "I have another godfather? Why am I always the last one to learn of these things?"
"Because your mother is too busy to focus on your old life before she rescued you," Vi replied as she happy scooped up some scrambled eggs onto her plate next to her pile of bacon.
"Well, that is very different, even for wizards. I'll see you around, Hazel," Mandy said and then went back to her seat over the objections of her Ravenclaw friends.
That was when Professor Snape appeared at the end of the table. All the tables had filled up in the Great Hall and it was quite noisy. That seemed to be much to his displeasure. He started handing out schedules. He handed the final one to Hazel.
"Really, Miss Potter. Are you trying to be expelled on your first day?" the potion master drawled.
"No, sir. It's rather an affection I picked up from my mother," the young mutant said in a pleasant tone.
"Well, as I would rather that you not cost our house the Cup nor alienate the entire house with your antics, I will bespell a few of your robes black." His wand was out almost faster than the eye could follow.
The witches could barely see the fast motions as he charmed her robes black. Hazel has been watching closely and noted that he had used the described wand motions, just like Robert had mentioned. "Very nice," she faux-admitted. "Thank you very much, Professor Snape."
With a sniff, he turned and walked off at a fast pace, his cloak billowing behind him dramatically.
Hazel started to fuss with the edge of her sleeves. "And don't think you are getting off, Mr. Baron. I expect my robes to be white outside of class."
"Yes, mistress!" he replied cheekily after he quickly swallowed.
"Looks like you have Defense Against the 'Dark Arts' first," Vi noted as she read Hazel's schedule.
"This is really just a politically correct way to refer to the Dark Arts," Draco was explaining to his two book-end cohorts at the back of the class. They were sitting under the skeleton of a dragon.
Goyle frowned, his face somehow managing to look even more dull. "But it's protecting-"
"Even the darkest wizard has to protect himself against other dark wizards," the scion of Malfoy said as he cut off his croney. "Ah, Hazel... Frost was it?"
"Mr. Malfoy," she replied politely as she sat down while Vi sat behind her on the back row. The ugly emotions she was feeling off of him was an immediate turn off. He was the sort that wanted to degrade and control, though he was only feeling around the edges of that within him.
Draco was just starting to open his mouth again when Professor Quirrell scuttled into the room, sending a wave of garlic smell behind him.
And Hazel had a very unusual experience of a poorly taught lesson. Quirrell seemed almost unable to even confront his student, much to Draco, Pansy and Daphne's entertainment. He would not have lasted a week under her mother.
Midway during the first lesson, while Quirrell was writing on the board, something quite odd happened. Her scar shrieked in pain as something dark seemed to impinge upon her mind for the briefest moments. Hazel slammed her mental shields up as she sat up in her desk. 'Somone intruded in my mind,' she hissed mentally to Vi who was starting to come out of her doze of boredom. She had forgotten her own schoolwork back at the dorm.
Hazel's awakening mind lashed out a bit haphazardly, checking each of the student in quick order, then finally the teacher. The only one that she could not read was Quirrell, surprisingly, but his mind did not feel the same as that presence. So as far as she could tell, it was not anyone within the classroom.
She would only later discover that this was not true, much to her dismay. She just did not realize what was hiding and who it was hiding in.
The other teachers she had this week were much better, other than the History of Magic teacher that was taught by a deadly boring ghost. Professor Flitwick nearly fell out of his chair when he was calling role and got to her. Professor Sprout was a kindly sort, though Hazel thought she was terribly low class with her shabby and slightly ragged clothes smudged with dirt from the greenhouses. Professor McGonnagal ran a very tight class. Not even Draco stepped out of line there, as he privately admitted to his cronies that Transfiguration really could be that dangerous. Daphne was the first person to actually transfigure a matchstick into a needle and earned her two house points, though Hazel was not far behind. Thursday night was astronomy, where Hazel just had to shake her head about how behind the witch was. Did they not know this was the space age?
Finally, Friday rolled around and the sleepy Slytherin First Years all made it to breakfast without a hassle. Even Crabbe and Goyle managed to not get lost. The girls were all talking over the latest Teen Witch magazine and the hunky French seeker that was listed as the most kissable wizard of the year (some things seemed to be more universal than others, it appeared) when an owl landed in front of her.
"Another letter from your godfather?" Vi asked as she happily filled up her plate. They were going to use this afternoon to get in some 'Danger Room' type training. They had heard that there were some 'monsters' within the Forbidden Woods. Giant spiders almost made it sound like back home in the Savage Land.
"No, this is from that groundskeeper Hagrid. Says he was a friend of the family and would like to invite me out for tea. He even wrote up a charming little map to his... hut." Hazel was not quite sure what to make of this. Hagrid definitely was not Haze's 'sort' of people.
There was a suddenly sound of some man yelling very loudly out in the hall and then the sound of a muted explosion.
"What the hell?" Vi said as she zipped to her feet from the end of the bench, hands crackling with electricity.
The Great Hall doors opened to admit a slightly singed girl that was wearing a Hufflepuff tie and prefect badge on her robes. She had the most outrageous bubblegum pink hair that Vi was immediately jealous of. With a shake of her hair, she stomped over to the Slytherin's table.
"Wotcher, Harriet?" the girl said. "The supreme head-ass of the Black Family wants me to introduce myself and let you know that if you need something, you make sure to let me or him know. So I'm letting you know."
"Another howler, Nymph?" an older boy yelled from the Hufflepuff table.
"It's Tonks!" she shouted back, much to the amusement of most everyone including herself. She turned back to the white-robed girl. "Only my father gets to call me Nymphradora."
"Of course, prefect," Hazel replied. "Is Mr. Black really that bad?"
"Well, he's serious about it. Get it?" Tonks ignored the groans at her pun and kept on going. "I'll be around. And if you need something from Hogsmeade, I'll see about hooking you up."
Vi sat back down. "That explains everything about you, Hazel."
"I'm sorry? What are you referring to, Vi?" the scion of the Frost fortunes asked.
"You magic users are all nuts."
Tracy just giggled. "You just now figured that out? That's pretty common knowledge. Too bad common sense isn't." That set off all the girls at the end of the table.
After their breakfast, they all trooped down to the dungeons, where Professor Snape's potions class was sheduled. It was actually quite cool and Hazel was seriously thinking about making sure to wear a sweater for the next time. Winter would probably be even colder, she thought glumly. Vi sat in the back, pulling out a romance novel to pass her time. Not being a student was turning out to be incredibly boring.
The Gryffindors trooped in loudly, forced to the front by the early arriving Slytherins who took most of the back seats. The door opened slightly and then slammed shut behind the professor, quite startling all the student. He started an engaging monologue, extolling potions while simultaneously denigrating every single student.
He was starting to call roll when there was a knocking at the door. Snape gestured at the door so that it opened. "Mr. Weasley. Two points from Gryffindor for your tardiness. Failing to learn the layout of the school is no excuse."
There were snickers from both houses present.
"Harry Potter, you are quite the enigma now, are you not?" Snape was staring at her with his very dark eyes for a long moment, almost as if in challenge. "But that will not get you a free pass here."
Hazel just tilted her head slightly for her response.
Then he turned to an unfortunate boy sitting to her left among the Gryffindors. It was the same boy that had lost his toad on the Hogwart's Express. Neville Longbottom answered exactly one of three question right, as he knew that Wolfsbane was and its alternate names.
He rounded on them after thoroughly ignoring Hermione, who was desperately trying to show that she was not a dunderhead by raising her hand to try to answer. "Well, what are you waiting for? You should be taking notes," the professor called out. His wand was out as he walked up and then along his slate board. With a tap, a recipe appeared on the board.
Their first potion... Hazel thought it quite boring as she cut and prepared her portions. With a frown, she realized that her use of a knife was fairly lackluster. The cuts were neither fine nor even. It looked so easy when the cook did it.
About halfway through the class, Neville's potion started to bubble faster and faster. Hazel barely caught a hint of glee from the potion's professor before it exploded, covering Neville and spattering Hazel and Ron Weasley, who was sitting on the other side of the boy.
"Minus five points for destroying your potion and cauldron, Longbottom-? And what did you do to Frost? She's turned into a statue!" Snape thundered at the stricken boy. "Get to Madam Pomphrey immediately."
"I think I'd better go too, professor," Ron said as he quickly dabbed some smears off his face as they started to cause boils. He tried to help the chubby boy up. Neville was in too much pain as his face was covered.
"I am not in need of medical assistance, Professor Snape. I just reacted to defend myself." Hazel started to carefully wipe the blotches of puss-making potion off her face with the edge of her robes. Her body and hair had turned crystal of a pale greenish-lavender color. "This is my mutation."
"You can turn into crystal?" Draco exclaimed in shock. All this week he had been watching her closely. The articles in the Daily Prophet had been entertaining to read also.
"Diamond, actually. It's very handy when you are about to take some damage. Professor, my potion is contanimated and I should probably change out of these robes before resuming my human form," she explained in a cold tone.
Snape studied her for only a second, then turned to her potion. "Yes. Do make sure to not let anyone contanimate your potion in the future." With a lazy wave of his wand, her cauldron was suddenly perfectly empty. "You will have no score."
Hazel then gathered all of her items sedately and then left the class with Violette trailing behind her.
"Miss Frost, I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist that you sit away from Longbottom in the future. Or at least to one side of the classroom with someone competent as your partner. I don't want to have to explain to your mother that you got hurt like that in one of your classes." Vi's demeanor was sober and proper, much different than her normal behavoir. She sounded older than her thirteen years. "And I'd hate to have to hurt him for being a dumb klutz."
"We'll see. I'll make sure not to sit next to him again."
After a quick change, Hazel decided she had enough of school so headed out to Hagrid's hut. She knocked primely on the door to the large, wood building as a dog started barking in a hoarse, low tone.
"Down Fang. Down boy," the deep voice of Hagrid boomed from within. The door opened to show the bleary eyed man who looked down at the white robed girl and her mutant companion in her muggle atire. "Er, yer a bit early."
"I'm sorry, but I figure I would come over after class. One of our classmates had an accident and so I had to change. My potion, being ruined, made my decision to not go back to watch everyone else make their potions a done deal." She shrugged.
"That ken happen. Seems ta be always someone dat messes 'em up. I weren't the best potion student mahself, you know. Come in. I'll put a pot on." He stepped back from the door and put some wood in the coals fo the fireplace, stoking the fire as he slide a pot onto a hook.
The burly dog whined at Vi and scurried under the bed.
"Fang's a coward, you know. Usually more friendly. So you are interested in your parents? I knew James, of course. Had to chase him and his friends out of the Forbidden Forest more than once," the gigantic man said.
"Really. I know so little of my father and first mother. Sounds like he was a character," Hazel said politely. She was not overly interested in her father though. "What of my mother?" Hazel discretely wormed a tendril of her awareness into him as he talked, which was remarkably easy. He was quite a trusting fellow.
"Ah didn't really know her that closely while at Hogwarts. She spent a lot of time inside studying. I really got to know 'er after, when she joined the fight against You-Know-Who. Made her and James a target. Eventually led ta him killing them," he continued he lost himself to his memories.
The young telepath almost let her shock show on her face. Voldemort had come to her parent's house not to kill her father and mother, but to kill her. Dumbledore had told Hagrid a long time ago after was sent to recover Harry after the attack. Hagrid just did not have the heart to tell 'her' that. "Really?" she said in as calm a matter as possible, but off enough that Vi looked over in a surprise. "So did my mother have any friends at Hogwarts that you know of?"
"Only Professor Snape, but I think they may of had a falling out during school," Hagrid replied carefully. The words Mudblood seared ugly through his mind and old anger at the young man with greasy black hair.
"Say, do you mind if I ask a personal question?" Vi called out from where she was leaning against the wall. She accepted her cup of tea and rock cake from the huge man. "You're bigger than almost anyone I've met. Do you happen to be a mutant?"
The incredibly hairy man blinked in confusion. "A wot?"
Hazel had to hide a snort as the thought of his mother drifted through his mind.
"Er, no. Actually, I'm half-giant." He seemed abashed.
"No worries, Hagrid. Violette and I are mutants so we were just curious. You are almost as big as Juggernaut. I'm sure that my turning to diamond is going to be all over the school in just a few hours," the blonde mutant witch explained languidly.
The half-giant nodded as he smiled. "That's interestin'." His gaze passed over his morning paper and the article on the cover as he picked up his cup. A simple glee at stopping the theft of the Philosopher's Stone drifted through his mind as the Goblins investigated the break in at the Gringott's bank. Then he took a sip.
Hazel blinked at that. "Well, we should be off. I appreciate the tea. If you can remember anyone else that might now my parents, let me know."
"I'm sure Sirius and Lupin would know better than me, but I'll see what I can do," he promised heartfeltedly.
Hazel led the pair out the hut and made sure it was closed. With a small suggestion to ignore them walking into the woods, she led them under the dark boughs. "So, that was interesting," Hazel said as she hopped over a low root.
"Poked around in the big guys brain? Should have expected that, I suppose." Vi was already starting to tense and loosen muscle in preperation for a fight, just like she had been taught.
"Why yes, I did. It seems that the maniac that killed James and Lilly Potter killed them to get to me." She let Vi digest that for a long second. She discarded bringing up the philospher's stone, as it seemed unrelated to anything. She might go see 'Fluffy' that was guarding the third floor on her own.
"Well, head in the game. Let's see if we can get into a friendly little fight with some spiders now," the electrokinetic said with a grin as she started zipping around between trees.
Hazel scrunched up her face, showing the most emotion all day. "I hate 'Danger Room' training that mother insists on."
"Anti-mutant bigots don't care if you're young. Except that you haven't had any children yet," Vi quoted from Magneto.
"Damn flat-" Hazel shook her head. "Speaking of... our potion's professor is a bigot against muggle-born..."
"He is? Actually, wouldn't surprise me. He's a right jerk."
"And used to be a friend with my first mother. So there may be a love triangle thing going on. I'm really wondering if this was the smartest thing to do," she admitted. But magic itself was very wonderful.
"Give it a bit longer. At least you haven't been kidnapped this year."
"So what did you find out?" Vi finally asked as she played with some of her purple hair. She was probably going to have to dye her hair again.
"They are semi-sentient and crave fresh, warm blood. And we do not want to go in there. You know how the older kids said they thought there was a dozen or so of them?" Hazel said as sweat beaded of her chilled brow. This was taxing her emerging telepathy to its utmost to read the spider's mind that was across the small clearing. It was almost invisible up in the tree, but not to a telepath. "They are off by more than a factor. There's over two hundred of them. Most the size of car tires. Though a good quarter of them are much larger."
"Are you shitting me?" When Vi realized that Hazel was totally serious, she starting pulling her back the way they came. "Can you reach your mother?"
"No, she left for America on Wednesday. And I can't reach nearly that far." Hazel stopped. "Get out of here. I'll turn to diamond and they won't be able to hurt me."
"Bodyguard, remember. I'll be lucky to be able to drool on my straight-jacket if I leave," Vi called back as they kept moving. "Besides, they might be able to web you up and you can't keep that form for more than twenty minutes at a time."
"Stupid pre-pubescent body," the telepathic witch said. "I think... I hear a mental voice that way. One that isn't worried about things in the forest."
Ten minutes of scrabbling and they came closer to a figure looking across a stream.
"Wow! A centaur!" Vi squealed in amazement. "And a hunk, too."
Hazel just rolled her eyes. "Excuse me, sir."
"Hogwarts students in the woods?" the black-maned centaur asked angrily. "There are dangerous creatures."
"Why, yes, there are. We were just losing the many, many spiders that infest this area," the telepath admitted. The spider was starting to retreat quickly. Its fear of the centaurs arrows was quite loud in its mind.
"Yes, that's why I'm up at this misbegotten hour." The centaur seemed quite upset. "We watch for Hagrid's pets so they do not come closer to the herd."
"Those are Hagrid's pets?" Vi asked in consternation. "Is he nuts?"
"He is unworried, as little threatens him," he said dryly. "You should return to your herd, younglings. And do not stray into the woods until you can defend yourself better."
"Thank you, sir." Hazel nodded her head graciously. There was no reason to be impolite.
They managed to make it back to Hogwarts just in time for lunch. The other girls seemed mostly oblivious, but Tracey noted that Hazel had a small green smear on her pristine, white outfit.
"Is there a problem?" Hazel asked in her best snooty tone. She took her cup of black tea that she had just filled.
"You two went for a walk?" Tracey asked in a low tone as she put some peas on her plate.
"Yes, it is terribly nice outside and I really did not feel like coming back to class. Longbottom managed to get my grade for the assignment ruined. So why come back?"
Tracey nodded. Her forehead crinkled slightly in thought. "Say, Hazel?"
"Yes?" she drawled out carefully.
"How did you get tea? I've only seen the teacher drink anything but pumpkin juice or milk."
"Ah, there's a trick. You can tap your cup while saying what you want to drink and the servers will make it appear. Only tea, milk, juices and water, but I'm not really a fan of pumpkin juice. I had to do something to defend my waistline," she said. It had been something she had picked up from the weakest of the minds at the professors tables. The half-mauled man that taught Care for Creatures really liked his tea.
"Do you mind if I fill up? I was just drinking pumpkin juice because everyone else was," she admitted.
"I miss cola," Vi lamented. "Noriko says I shouldn't drink it, but I want something cold with serious amounts of caffeine." Her mind was filling with thoughts of different colas or sodas in wistful hope.
"Is Noriko your mother?" Millicent asked carefully. She seemed oddly discomfited by asking a question.
"She's my original, actually. Like Miss Frost here, I'm a clone. I got a bit of tinkering done so I don't look the same. And Miss Frost went to bat to protect me when most of our... group wanted me to disappear. Including Noriko."
"How many clones do you know?" Pansy asked in consternation. Then her eyes narrowed in sudden thought as she considered the concept more fully.
"A few," the Girl-That-Lived admitted evasively.
"Budge over," a voice called out right next to Hazel.
"Miss Tonks?" Hazel asked as all the girls of her year were staring at the platinum-blonde girl as she almost fumbled sitting down.
"I figured I had a few minutes, so would chat. Your mum is also Emma Frost? The CEO of Frost Industries? That's seriously loaded? I didn't think she was a witch though." Tonks snagged a glass and filled it with juice.
"She's not. Why would you think she was?"
"Oh, just all the stories in the Daily Prophet. They range from Professor Dumbledore having done this to protect you to your new mother kidnapping you and doing some sort of ritual to make you her daughter." Tonks put a cheeky smile on her face. "Inquiring minds want to know!"
Vi and Tracey both started giggling at that.
"She rescued what she thought was a mutant. Then she took a few questionable actions to make me her daughter to protect herself and me. Then she raised me as one of her daughters." Hazel had a cold smile on her face. "I've never had a need that was not filled. My mother tries very hard to be there for me and my sisters, even though she is not the best mother."
"Well, bully for her. My mother knows a bit about raising a problem child." Tonks grinned at their giggles.
"Say, Tonks?" Vi asked from the other side of Hazel as she refilled her glass with pumpkin juice. "Is there a spell for changing your hair? Every time I've seen you, you have a different color."
"There's magic, but transfiguring any part of your body is always tricky and not recommended. You can get stuck if you aren't careful. I can change my appearance because I'm a metamorphagus." Tonks looked over at Daphne's gasp of shock. "I'm still learning how to get the most out of it, that's why I keep changing my hair."
"That's the only way?" the purple-haired girl asked.
"There's some potions and more advanced spells. But for something like hair, probably better to do it the muggle way. Not everyone is born with the right magical talent." Tonks decided a momentary showcase of her ability was warranted. With a shake of her hair it went from long blonde to short purple that was just as vivid as Vi's hair.
All the Slytherin First Year girls were terribly impressed and started talking about what they would do if they had that ability. It ranged from just enhancing their hair by Daphne and Pansy (no split ends!) to ones like Tracey and Vi who would have a different color each day of the week. Though that might have been a bit of false bravado on Tracey's part. Millicent thought it would be neat to try all those different styles to see which one best suited yourself. Hazel got from her a sense of desperately trying to correct her appearance.
"So how does one test themselves for this ability?" Hazel asked the 7th year prefect. She frowned to herself as she bounced off weak mental shields. After all the mental strain today, she did not think she could bypass that barrier too easily. Maybe later.
"Usually accidentally. It takes a lot of hard work to control too. And the guys," Tonks was explaining, turning to glare at the nearest boys, "they usually want you to sexify yourself for their fantasies."
"Men are pigs. Some are just better at hiding it than others," Hazel said in agreement. Not that women were much better at times, she privately admitted.
"We're just being true to ourselves, ladies," Robert called back rauciously with a big grin. "Don't think I don't know what you talk about when you don't think us boys are around. Right scary it is."
"How would you know?" Goyle asked in puzzlement.
"Three sisters that liked to torment me."
That night, Hazel lay in bed as she felt a strong, mental presence trying to reach out to her. 'Mother?' she called out.
'Hello, Hazel. How are things this weekend?' the telepath said from her office at Xavier's Institute for Gifted.
'Could be better, I suppose. I found out something. It appears Voldemort was not there to kill all of the Potters, but just one toddler.' She let her mother go over that part. 'School is interesting, though I have a lot of free time. I've been helping Vi do her own school work. You should be receiving her first set of papers for grading in the post soon.'
Emma leaned forward as she looked over the sunset across the pool of the school yard. 'I'm glad she is taking things somewhat seriously. She has not gotten into any troubles?'
'I haven't really seen her do anything, so far. She's been oddly subdued.'
'She has been releasing the pent up charge inside her, correct?' The White Queen was quite particular on all of her students. Violette had to release the electricity she absorbed or she became unbalanced. Even more so than Noriko Ashida did when she was not regulating her powers.
Hazel's mouth turned down in a frown. 'I have not see her actually zap something or do more than charge up herself to attack someone.'
'I thought you said nothing had happened?' her mother asked in a disapproving tone.
As her eyes were closed, Hazel went without rolling her eyes. 'Nothing did happen. I managed to head off the confrontations. A couple of the professors thought I was pulling a prank on them by being a girl. So they tried a counter-charm. Speaking of that unpleasant man, it seems one of the professors knew my mother in school. And does not appear to like me. Luckily, I'm in his house so he does not deduct house points.'
'What is his name? It might give the private investigator another angle to dig up information.'
'His name is Professor Snape. Mother?'
'I'm just covering all of my bases, daughter. I'd rather that Dumbledore not try to pull any legal actions that I am unprepared for.' Her smile was mirthless as she watched the students playing basketball outside. 'I might let you meet your aunt, but I am taking action to document her worthlessness as a parent if that bearded goat tries to take you from me.'
'He's a strange man. He knew where I lived and my name, but did not change the name on my letter because I did not get my name legally changed. He says he sent you some forms and pointers on how to go about that in their Ministry of Magic.'
'Yes, I received those papers. My Wizarding lawyer is already processing the documents. If he wants that bonus I promised him, he had better complete that by Monday. I need to let you go, Hazel. Do be a darling and try to not come to any harm.' Emma turned to the door as she swiveled her chair. "Come in."
In her dorm room, Hazel let loose a heavy sigh. Her mother was hiding things again. She had not even gotten a chance to ask about Laurel and the quintuplets.
"Hello, girls." The White Queen looked at the triplet clones and scowled at Laura. "This is a family meeting. You are neither wanted, nor invited."
"It's about Hazel. So I would like to hear how she is doing." The cloned daughter of Wolverine narrowed her eyes at the headmistress. "Please."
"Fine. Esme? Has Hazel's psychosis weakened at all?" Emma asked.
"No. She is still projecting mental illusions of our dead sisters. We still think that we should just rip the delusion out of her mind." The three telepaths seemed totally unconcerned with the ethics of the matter. "Though we strangely still feel some emotion for her."
"That is surprising. And her latching onto Laura? Is she going to make Violette one of 'my daughters' in her head?"
"Why don't you just read her mind?" Minde and Phoebe said simultaneously.
"Speak your own words. We are trying to impress some individuality on your sense of self, girls." Emma trailed her white-gloved finger along her chin slowly. "Hazel is very sensitive to my intrusions. You three can get into her head in a way I can't."
"She only trusts you. You do not want to hurt that." Celeste was staring at the White Queen in an almost challenge.
"That would indicate that I care for her." Her lips curled in an almost smile.
"You do. You do everything for her. This plan to let her learn magic is silly. Salem is right here in the United States," Phoebe said slightly uncertainly. "But she wanted to know about her other mother."
"So you gave it to her. Like you do everything." That was all three clones.
Laura finally spoke. "Like you don't for them."
"I am still getting used to having so many daughters," Emma pointed out in a cold tone.
"Huh. Yet you never do things with the Cuckoos like you do with Hazel." Laura turned and left the office.
"She's right. We are done for now," the triplets said, turning and following her out the door.
The White Queen hid her dismay behind her hard facade and impenetrable mental shields. It only hurt because it was true. Perhaps she should try and take them shopping. But not tomorrow. In a few days.
It was not their fault that they were created from her without her consent. And damn that thing for daring to challenge her like that. Without even consciously realizing it, Emma had turned diamond hard and flipped over her table with a shout of rage.
Damn that girl.
Afterword.
I'll be taking things in a slightly different canon-direction (Joe, I believe, said this was originally based on Ultimate X-Men, but there are major discrepancies beyond the 'ultimized' OCs.) I'll be using 616 for the most part as I know it better, hence some of the changes. The Cuckoos are the surviving triplets, but Hazel is suppressing that information in her head in a 'not-good' manner. Laura is not actually a Frost, but because of Hazel's issues with the deaths of Sophe and Esme, Hazel tends to attach herself to any 'clones' that appear (much to Emma's frustration). She is also projecting a mental illusion of the two dead Cuckoos to herself. Violette Nowak is actually a younger (in body age) clone of Noriko Ashida, slightly altered. She is technically part of Weapon X28, an attempt to synergize different mutants and their powers to create an anti-mutant weapon (Violette was created to be a gestalt. She is able to take in electrical energy and turn it into mutant empowering energies thanks to cyber implants, but does not have great control.)
The reference to the Savage Land is a reality hiccup caused by "A Wizard Did It with a Cosmic Cube" so that we can have the canon 616 Mr. Sinister and the Savage Land mention. Hogwarts Year One is just before House of M. (Thanks to Fanboyimusprime for that idea of a "Wizard did it with a Cosmic Cube.")
Yes, this does technically make Hazel crazy, but she has family trying to help her get past her issues. She is a Frost, after all.