A/N – Another chapter, chapters will be shorter than in my other stories, but other than that read and enjoy.
Harry groaned as he opened his eyes, they were immediately assaulted by the bright sunlight pouring into the room through the huge windows of the room. He felt as if his whole body was set on fire and burned to ash, not leaving a single piece of it untouched. He sat up and noticed that to the side of his bed was a male sitting in a wheelchair. Harry turned to look at him and quickly noticed that he was bald and dressed in quite an unusual clothes for a person being at Hogwarts, Muggle suit. "Who are you?" Harry finally asked.
"Professor Charles Xavier," male introduced himself. "I've been waiting for an opportunity to meet you, I was a friend of your parents."
"Why did you wait until now to meet me?" Harry asked warily.
"Because I thought that you had died on that night ten years ago, but it seems that I was wrong." Professor paused for a moment. "You are also a mutant, your powers waking up told me that you were alive."
"I am what?"
"A mutant, human being with powers that cannot be explained through scientific means and are the effect of a mutation of your genes. I am a powerful telepath, but it is just one of hundreds of possible powers that a mutant can have."
Harry looked at Professor and blinked a couple of times. "It's impossible, I'm just a wizard, not a mutant."
Professor smiled and looked at him. "Think about extending claws from your hands," he said mysteriously.
Harry looked at the Professor as if he was crazy, but then glanced at his own hands and felt a weird sensation inside of them. Closing his eyes Harry slowly exhaled and when he opened them from his hands were extending two, long, almost black claws. "It's a trick of my mind," he said looking at the Professor.
"No," the elder man smiled. "Touch them and you will see that they are real, as real as we are real or this whole building."
Harry looked at him as if he was crazy, but when he touched the claws he found them real and as he moved his finger along the lower edge of them he hissed as he almost cut his finger open. Those claws were sharp and dangerous. "Yes, they are real," he said and glared at the man. "How is it that I cannot be a normal person."
"Define normal," Professor said with a smile. "Before you do it, it's impossible everybody is different and everybody has different traits, gifts, quirks and powers. So there is no such thing as normal and you need to accept whoever you are, I can offer you a place where you can discover who you are how to safely utilize your powers."
"And you should choose it," Oliver said as he appeared out of the shadows. "I'm also a mutant, even if I don't openly show my powers I have them and I learned how to control them thanks to Professor."
Harry looked at his Quidditch Captain and later at Professor. "Assuming that I would accept, what would I get?"
"A place where you won't be persecuted because of who you are, an opportunity to meet fellow mutants and a chance to learn how to control your powers as well as an opportunity to be taught by the Sorcerer Supreme," Professor quickly said. "I won't force you to come to the Institute as is called that place, but I think that you will benefit from it and there is nothing bad about tasting something new."
Harry was silent for a long moment, he looked at his claws and they easily slid back into their places between bones of his hands. He slowly exhaled and looked at the Professor. "I love Hogwarts as it is my true home away from my aunt and uncle."
"I know about them," Professor quietly said. "I have connections in proper places so that if you desire to, you wouldn't need to see them at least during this summer and instead could spend it at the Institute mastering your powers and trying to get used to being a mutant."
It didn't take a long for Harry to choose. "I will be coming with you to the Institute."
"Good choice," Oliver said and patted him on the shoulder. "You will meet one former Hogwarts students there and she might help you with some things."
"Good." Professor smiled. "I spoke with Albus and he agreed to let you come with me, of course if you want to do it. You may also stay here until the end of a school year and than come to the Institute."
Harry was silent for a moment, considering those words and than he nodded. "I will come with you, but can I say my goodbyes to my friends here."
"You can," Professor said. "We are not in hurry," he glanced at Oliver. "Can you explain other things to him as he will say his goodbyes as I would stand out too much and we don't want attention to us, at least not now."
"Sure," Oliver said and looked at Harry. "In the bathroom you will find your clothes, change and meet me here."
Harry nodded, got up and slowly made his way into the bathroom.
o-0-o
It was a perfect silence and a perfect stillness as Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and the most powerful user of magic on the surface of the planet meditated. He was a tall, muscular man with cropped black hair, neatly trimmed black beard he was currently focused on his meditation, keeping breathing and heartbeat under total control, even and slow. Around him on various shelves, stands and the floor were placed candles, their flames even and tall, smoke filled with incense and gray. It's long whisps flying to the ceiling where they disappeared.
Than his eyes opened, they were gray and full of power. Power able to destroy, but also capable of creation, power that not many had ability to harness and safely use, power that drove many mad. Yet was capable of creating many beautiful things.
"It is an unexpected, but a desired chain of events," he said to himself and stood up, his cloak flaring around him. "Harry Potter beint a mutant might force wizards to open up and accept that not everybody needs to be a wizard to be powerful or dangerous. And that there are better things to do.
He walked across the room, with a wave of his hand extinguishing flames and opened in front of himself a portal. Stepping through it, he was gone from the Sanctum Sanctorum.
o-0-o
Harry dressed into Hogwarts robe and joined Oliver. "So you are a mutant?"
"Yes," Oliver said with a small smile. "I don't show my powers, but I have them, pretty nice at times."
"What are they?"
"I can see far further and clearer than it is possible for a wizard and there are few small gifts that go along with it," Oliver said and paused. "But generally they are connected with eyes and sight. Pretty useful when you are playing in the rain and need to see something through those meters of water in front of you."
"Isn't that cheating?"
Oliver laughed and made Harry look at him. "As long as nobody proved that I used it, it is as legal as it gets, it's not like other teams won't play dirty. They will also use it as much as they can, so we also can use it."
"Cool, I guess," Harry said, a bit surprised, he knew that Oliver wanted to win, but didn't think he wanted so badly. "So what can I expect from the Institute?"
"A lot of fun, nice people and an opportunity to learn how to control your powers," Oliver said and looked at him. "Your claws are one of more common mutations so they will know how to teach you quickly, in most cases we need to see what is a maximum reach of our powers."
"They look kind of cool," Harry said as he extended claws in his right hand.
"And are dangerous," Oliver quietly said. "Also people will look here at you and some discretion would be good."
"Sorry," Harry mumbled as he saw gazes focused on them, he looked at his hand and his claws slipped into their proper places between bones of his hand. "It just happened on its own."
Oliver chuckled lightly. "It's better than what happens to one of X-Men when she is embarrassed or annoyed, she falls through the floor, so you have nothing to worry about. You just need to learn control over your mutation."
"Cool, I guess," Harry said and looked at his knuckles, there was no sign of his claws. "How did it happen?"
"Lack of scars?" Oliver asked and Harry nodded. "If I had to guess I would have said that it is thanks to the regenerative powers, other two mutants with those claws are able to heal almost any wound they suffer, so you might be similar."
Harry nodded and steeled himself as they stopped in front of the door leading into the common room of the Gryffindor House, also known as the House of the Brave. He looked at the Fat Lady, said the password and portrait moved out of his way.
"Here we go," he muttered stepping inside, be felt Oliver's presence behind and was glad that he was here. To be continued...
A/N – Reviews:
AngelLaNelle, Pikachu79 – I can confirm that it is Tonks
Otsutsuki no Yami – Yes, Dumbledore is frankly speaking tired of life and world. He was born in 1880s and since that time he survived two world wars, at least two uprisings of Dark Lord and few other things. Usually one world war is enough to leave someone scarred for life.
Ron and Hermione, let's put it that way, it will be changed as he hanged out with them because he lacked other friends. So he was forced to be with them, but here he will have other people to be around.
Guest – It doesn't take a lot of genius to figure out that someone has a cloak or something similar when he disappears out of sight. Also maybe, maybe Oliver saw Harry hidden under it. Dumbledore is powerful, with Xavier he would have a chance to win, with Cyclops and Phoenix backing Xavier up? Doubtful. About Hogwarts and Blackbird, Xavier knows Strange, so now tell me how hard it would be for the Sorcerer Supreme to enchant Blackbird so that magic ignores it?
ObsessedWithHPFanFic – Xavier saw enough of things to be able to rip apart such games and Dumbledore is getting senile. Placing a child at the doorstep in the middle of November night with just a letter could be considered a crime.
randomplotbunny – that old goat is getting senile and it is still better than boxing with the Phoenix or Strange.