AN: I would like to say that I loved Quicksilver in DoFP so I'm modeling my Pietro mostly after him (with a little Evo thrown in for good measure). Also, my only reference point for Wanda is Evo at this point in time, as I have not been to see Age of Ultron yet. (NO SPOILERS PLEASE; I'm going to see it for my birthday in two weeks-YAY!)

Chapter 4: The Foibles of Family

November 22, 1994: Time flew by as Remus and Rogue poured over his photo albums and sifted through his far-off memories of their parents. Rogue couldn't help but notice, however, that despite all the stories he told about their parents, their aunt and uncle, and their cousin, he said precious little of himself. Deciding that the best way to get her newly-found brother to open up was to talk about her own childhood, she dove right in. "So, mah adopted parents were pretty great. Well, right up until mah powers showed and ah ran off, anyway," she said.

"You have powers too?" asked Remus softly. "I thought I was the only one."

Rogue smiled sadly. "You're not alone, Remus," she said. "We all have powers here. This is a school for mutants, after all."

Remus furrowed his brow. "Is that was it is?" he said. "I thought it was maybe just my magic reacting to the curse."

Rogue looked at her brother in confusion. "Magic? Magic's not real, right? And what curse are you talking about?"

Remus sighed and closed his amber eyes tiredly. "We still have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

"Ah'll say," said Rogue. "Ah'll tell you more about mah power if you tell me about yours."

He smiled softly at her. "Deal. Shall I start or would you like to?"

"Ah'll start," she said. "Ah'm the one who brought it up."

XXXX

Minerva and Charles chatted amicably as they wandered through the halls of the mansion. "Are you planning to see Erik while you're here?" Charles asked curiously.

Minerva pursed her lips. "I ought to," she said. "He is my husband after all."

"You've known him longer than I," said Charles. "I'm sure it would cheer him to see you."

"I know it would," said Minerva, sighing. "He is much changed from the angry boy I married long ago, but in some ways he is still exactly the same."

"He still loves you," said Charles.

"He loves his power and his crusade more." Charles could not argue with that. Minerva sighed. "Perhaps I shall call the children and see if we can't make a family outing of it. Pietro still talks to Erik, as does Malcolm, and the girls as well, but Wanda…" She sighed again.

"She resents him," said Charles knowingly.

"Aye," agreed Minerva. "He was never there for her growing up and she is far too much like him for her own good."

Charles smiled softly. "She has much of you in her, though, my dear friend."

Minerva smiled back. "That she does. Of all our children, she is both the most and the least like us both." Charles gently squeezed Minerva's hand in comfort. "Oh alright, I'll do it," she said wearily. "May I use your fireplace again, Charles?"

"Always, Minerva. I do hope your visit does all of you some good."

"I hope so too, Charles, I really do."

XXXX

"Honey, there's a head in our fireplace again."

Wanda Summers groaned and rolled over on the couch to bury her face against the back. "Tell Pietro to man up and stop freaking out over every little thing his kids do," she mumbled.

A large, warm hand rested on her head. "It's not Pietro," said her husband, his voice rumbling through her brain. "It's your mother."

Wanda sighed and rolled back over to look into her husband's clear blue eyes, staring down at her sympathetically. "Can't you tell her I'm napping, Alex?" she whined.

Alex glanced over toward the fireplace. "Judging by the look on her face, she heard you."

"Damn," cursed Wanda, leveraging herself into a sitting position and gently clutched at her swollen belly. "I'm too old for this pregnancy shit," she grumbled and Alex took her hand to pull her to her feet.

"Just think how I feel," mumbled Alex, who was ten years older than his wife.

Wanda glared at the blonde man. "You're not the one carrying a beach ball around in your stomach," she snapped. "Besides, you did this to me."

"It takes two to tango, sweetheart," he snapped back. "God, I'm gonna be in my sixties before this kid's out of the house."

"That's what we call an empty-nest child, dears," said Minerva, her eyes sparkling with amusement in the fireplace. "Were it not for Lorna, Malcolm would have been mine."

Wanda groaned again. "God, this kid's gonna be closer in age to her uncle than her siblings."

Minerva's look turned stern. "You're the ones who wanted another baby, may I remind you," she said. "I warned you of the difficulties of such a space between children, but you decided you wanted another one anyway."

"I know, I know," said Wanda, settling down onto the cream colored footstool Alex brought over for her. "I'm sure that's not what you flooed about, though, Mum. What can I do for you?"

"I'm in Westchester at Xavier's," said Minerva. "I wanted to ask you to please join our family outing to see your father this evening. Pietro, Mattie, and Lorna have all agreed and I'm pulling Malcolm out of school after his classes are done for the day."

Wanda stiffened. "You want me to voluntarily go see Dad," she said, her voice dangerously low.

Minerva raised an eyebrow at her eldest daughter. "I'd greatly appreciate your cooperation in this, Wanda dear," she said. "You don't have to bring the children or your husband; it's just going to be your siblings and myself."

Wanda huffed angrily. "Fine, I'll go," she snapped. "But I won't like it and I won't promise to talk to him."

"I'll take what I can get," said Minerva dryly. "Floo over to Charles' room around six o'clock this evening please. We'll meet up there then portkey over to the prison. Don't be late."

"Of course not, Mum. I'll see you then."

"I love you, darling," said Minerva, her voice softening. "Thank you for doing this for me."

Wanda rolled her dark eyes (just like her mothers'). "Of course, Mum. Love you too."

XXXX

"So your bare skin can absorb other people's powers and memories?" said Remus.

Rogue nodded. "Their life force too, if ah touch them skin tah skin for too long," she said.

Remus hugged her gently. "I'm sorry, Marie," he said sadly. "That's no way to live."

She shrugged. "Ah'm learning to deal with it," she said. "It's not perfect, but ah'm just glad not to hurt anyone else. The voices don't go away, though," she admitted. "Ah don't need anyone else up there, if ah can help it."

Remus nodded. "I can understand that," he said. "Not that my powers are anything like that," he added. "I always thought they were just an extension of either my magic or my curse until the school nurse told me that I healed abnormally fast, even for one of my kind."

"Yer kahnd?" said Rogue, frowning. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Remus sighed heavily. "I suppose it's better to get this all out in the open now. Magic is real, Marie. Our family is magical, on Mum's side, going back to the founding of Rome. To top that off, something happened to me when I was a child, back even before I went off to boarding school."

"What happened?" asked Rogue, taking the news of magic in stride.

"When I was four years old, I was bitten by a werewolf," said Remus solemnly. "Some of the myths I've read regarding lycanthropy are ridiculous, but it is very true that if you are bitten by a transformed werewolf, you will become one yourself on the next full moon. There is no cure. Mother spent the better part of the family fortune trying to find a cure, but of course she never did. Father simply took it in stride and ensured that I could take care of myself should I ever be attacked for what I am." His gaze drifted over to the closed door. "Perhaps I understand his reasoning a bit better now that I am older, but at the time I thought it was a splendid game. No matter my feelings for the man now, I shall always be grateful that he gave me the tools I needed to survive in a world where people like me are looked down upon and persecuted for something that we simply cannot control."

Rogue was silent for a moment. "Ah know it doesn't compare," she said slowly, "but ah know something about being looked at as a social pariah because of something you can't control."

Remus smiled sadly at her. "What a pair we make," he joked weakly.

Rogue smiled back and tentatively hugged him around the shoulders. "At least we have each other to be outcasts with now," she said. "Well, this whole school as well. We're pretty much all social outcasts here."

Remus' smile grew warmer. "Yes, I suppose there is that. Do you like it here, Marie?"

"Very much," she replied. "Ah've never felt ah really belonged anywhere until ah came here."

Remus nodded his head slightly. "I'm glad to hear it." He paused, then continued on tentatively. "If you like, I'll tell you about my childhood now," he offered.

She smiled wider. "Ah'd like that very much Remus."

XXXX

Minerva was the first to arrive back in Charles' room that evening, her thirteen-year-old son Malcolm at her heels. She didn't have to wait long for her middle daughters to show, one right after the other. They offered their mother warm greetings and ruffled their little brother's mop of dark hair affectionately before settling in to wait for the twins. Pietro came through next, forcefully pushed through the fireplace by his irritated wife who needed a break from his overzealous parenting of their own young twins. Wanda was last to arrive, making it to the room just before the grandfather clock in the Professor's study chimed six. She dusted off her jeans and accepted the cooing and fawning of her sisters (and Pietro) with more prickliness than usual.

"Are we ready to set off?" asked Minerva after Malcolm had his turn to greet his eldest sister.

"Let's get this over with," said Wanda, her voice devoid of emotion.

"Tell us how you really feel, sis," snarked Pietro.

"Children," snapped Minerva, "I will not tolerate fighting tonight. If you cannot be civil to one another—or to your father—I will silence the lot of you. Are we clear?" A chorus of 'Yes Mother' answered her promptly. She nodded her head. "Good. Now, everyone grab ahold of the portkey," she held out a green ball of yarn, "and we're off in five, four, three, two, one." The McGonagall family disappeared from Xavier's mansion with a slight pop, leaving nothing behind but a small trace of ash on the crème colored carpet.

AN: Minerva & Erik's kids are as follows (if anyone is interested): Pietro & Wanda (38), Mathilda "Mattie" (27), Lorna (19), and Malcolm (13). Wanda is married with three grown kids: Morgan (20) and twins Zoë & Soren (18) (Yes, she was eighteen when she had the first kid; I messed up the math and had to fudge around with the numbers to fix things without rewriting everything I had.). Pietro is married and has twins Norah & Jude (2). Mattie is also married with twins Morwen & Mikhail (7), Deirdre (4), and Ioan (2).

Mattie is, in my head, Pietro's little sister in DoFP (the one he watches TV with). I don't know much about Lorna other than who she is, so she's kinda going to be my own creation, if I do much with her at all. Malcolm is my own HP creation that I came up with when I discovered that McGonagall was married; outside of this story he is Minerva's late-in-life son with her husband Elphinstone Urquat.

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