The entire hall buzzed with various levels of excitement as Hagrid took his seat at the beginning of the week
The entire hall buzzed with various levels of excitement as Hagrid took his seat at the beginning of the week. Umbridge watched with disapproval as some of the students even jumped out of their seats and rushed toward the half-giant and gave him their best giant hugs to the big man. "So that's the infamous Hagrid huh?" Peter questioned noticing that only a handful of the second and third year Slytherians actually appeared to be happy to see the big man. Those few were all quickly wilting under the glares of their housemates though, who did not seem to be as happy on seeing the man sitting there.
"Huh? From all the talk about him I thought that he'd be bigger." Kitty said shrugging, as she turned back toward a book she was reading.
Hermione watched them both suspiciously at this. "Really, and how many people have you heard or seen that are bigger than Hagrid?" She questioned them lightly.
"Well lets see there's my old professor's stepbrother." Kitty said as she looked at the man. "He's quiet a bit bigger looking than Hagrid over there."
"Uh huh, and I'd say he's around the same size shoulder wise as Ben Grimm is." Peter said, as he began sliding some hash browns onto his plate.
"Then there's Peter, a friend of mine from my old school who can come pretty close to him in height."
"Ever wonder if maybe you know to many people named Peter?" Harry asked curiously.
"Hey it's a good name, and you can never have to much of a good thing." Peter joked. "Besides there have been times that I have thought that there were to many Harry's out there. He said giving Harry a pointed look.
Harry laughed along with the others at this. "Hey I need something that is somewhat ordinary." He defended.
Peter and Kitty nodded in understanding at this.
"Then there's Bruce Banner, now that is a guy who has the muscle and height thing going for him." Peter added with a grin as he looked at all of the muggleborn's to see if they recognized the name that he had just used.
"True."
"Hold on. The Bruce Banner as in Dr. Bruce Banner?" Hermione questioned. "How in the world can you think that he counts? He's a homicidal maniac I doubt either of you have ever been that close to him." She said crossly.
"Ah he's not that bad, he's just a guy who has a lot of anger management problems." Peter returned lightly. "He and Harry have that much in common at least. Well, that and their eye color that is." He joked while Kitty snickered. "And as for how we can use him as an a example, hello that used to be my job." He said jerking his thumb at his chest indignantly. "I know you were looking through my book earlier. So yeah, I've seen the infamous Hulk, and Kitty was in and out of New York enough times when she was going to school in Westchester that she was able to see him and a handful of others as well."
"Don't forget the Rhino, you've had a few photo shoots with him as well." Kitty pointed out.
"True, and they all are a lot more dangerous than your Hagrid looks."
Harry smiled at some memory. "As long as you don't insult Dumbledore, then he's not someone you want to be on the bad side of. I once saw him tie a shotgun into a knot without even thinking about it when I first met him. And that was before he got angry."
"Sounds like that must have been something to see." Peter said. "Particularly from the look on your face." Harry shrugged and grinned happily at the memory.
"So shall we get to class?" Peter questioned, as he noticed that everyone was getting up to leave.
"I suppose so." Harry said as he grabbed his book bag. The others nodded and they all headed outside so that they could deal with COMC first.
"Just remember that despite how dangerous some of the creatures look we have to put on a brave front." Hermione lectured the other Gryffindors.
"Whatever Hermione." Lavender said brushing the other girl off. "I just want this class to be over with already."
"The animals really that scary?"
"Yes in fact sometimes they're worse." The blonde said. "It's a miracle that no one has actually been eaten yet." The girl said sniffing into the air.
"Wouldn't mind if Malfoy would have been though." Ron muttered, earning an agreeing laugh from Harry and a glare from Hermione.
"Of course, you two are likely to be new his favorites with that bloody dragon of yours Pryde." Dean said shaking his head at the girl as they all looked at the small dragon that was flying over their heads.
The Gryffinors were amongst the first to get there. Behind them came Slytherin with Malfoy leading them. The blonde boy immediately began bad mouthing Hagrid.
"Save your breath blondie." Peter told the boy in a bored tone as he casually stepped between the Slytherian and the other Gryffindors. "You don't want to use up all your mediocre material before you and I get to face off now do you?" He asked with a grin, while Ron and Harry chuckled at the boy as he was defused.
"I'll face off with you any time anywhere squib line." The boy spat angrily ready to go.
"Keep yourself back blondie, your teams not here and neither is mine. Now how about we worry about class instead of your stupid pride."
The boy was cut off from saying anything when Hagrid came out from around the corner carrying two large carcasses. "Al'right den are all of ya ere?" The man asked.
"Yeah including your two new ones." Kitty said as she stepped forward.
"Ah yeah, McGonagall told me bout yeh an your friend Parker right?" The big man asked as he looked over at Peter who was currently ignoring a glaring Malfoy as if he was nothing. "Right then, we need to get going. The man said, as he led them all into the Forbidden Forest much to the fear of a number of students.
They then watched as Hagrid summoned the ugly looking horses that only a handful of them could see. "Gotta say big guy I don't think these guys will be winning any beauty contests anytime soon." Peter said as he looked the horses over.
"What are they?" Malfoy asked fearfully, as he looked around trying to figure out what it was that was there, eating the meat that Hagrid had thrown out earlier.
"Threstals boy." Hagrid said. "Darn useful creatures they are. Though I do suppose that they're a bit on the shabby looking side." He admitted as he eyed the animals over.
Peter snorted at this. "Hagrid your joking right? They're more than a bit on the shabby side. I'd say that they're on the far right side of it. They need some serious grooming done to them, or they're going to give people nightmares for a while."
Hagrid shook his head at this as he then watched one of the horses nuzzle Kitty as if it liked her scent or something. "Easy there you." Hagrid warned the horse. "There'll be no eating the student's."
Kitty laughed at this as she scratched the horse behind the ears. "Don't worry professor, I seriously doubt that this guy can really hurt me all that much. Come on over here Harry and pet this guy." Kitty said ushering the boy over toward the horse. Harry reluctantly placed his hand on the neck of the horse and grimaced a bit as he felt bone and lizard skin. Hagrid then began telling about the various things that the creatures were useful for and what the school used them for.
They were interrupted from going any farther as they watched Hagrid's class get destroyed in less than a minute by Umbridge. The toad like woman read out her report, as she wrote making Hagrid sound like nothing more than some idiotic barbarian. Peter and Kitty noticed that Lavender and Parvati were actually holding Hermione back, while Dean, Neville and Seamus had all managed to casually move themselves in between Harry, Ron and Umbridge.
Everyone watched silently while the Slytherians made a joke of the giant man and his teachings. "Think we should make a move?"
"No, lets see if the staff will come to the aide of one of their own." Kitty told Peter. "They've already shown that they won't take a chance for their students, but for one of their own? They might just make an exception."
"Fine, but I don't like it." Peter grumbled, as he watched the show that was being put on for all of their benefits. This was a show of power and the Umbridge woman was milking it for all it was worth.
The trio grumbled as they sat down for lunch, and no one but a few supposedly brave or stupid people had joined them in their meal. "So, how mad do you think that they are?" Kitty asked the people that she was eating with.
-"Mad enough."-
-"To spit nails."- The twins said, not looking overly happy either after hearing what it was that had happened to their friend.
"Don't worry, I'm sure that they'll cool down sooner or later." Kitty said with a smile. "That reminds me, I finished something and I need to talk to Harry about it."
"Good luck." Fred said, as he looked over at the trio. "The sooner you get them to calm down the better. We can't really afford to have all three of them in a bad mood all at the same time."
"Yeah, honestly it could get real bad." George said nodding in agreement with his brother. "Do you have any idea what sort of trouble and damage those three will get into around the school if they decide that they're not going to play by the rules anymore?"
"To true oh brother of mine. I mean look at the whole D.A thing that they got going, and that was only when they were annoyed."
"Yeah, now imagine what those three might do if they were to get really mad and take it out on people? Why with Harry's old hair trigger temper, Ron's red head temper, and Hermione's idea of revenge and what not."
"They could take away our title as the chief troublemakers." At this the twins shivered in fear at the idea of loosing their title to their younger brother and his friends.
"So the sooner they have something to distract them."
"The better for all of us."
"Not to mention the fact they have the Power, Brains and Muscle to do almost anything if they work together." Peter pointed out to the twins as he watched the trio. The twins nodded in agreement at this.
Kitty nodded in understanding to the duo. "Understood," she said as she got up. "I just hope this project of mine will get them interested enough to hold onto those tempers of theirs."
"Hey Harry, can we all talk somewhere private? I want to talk to you about something". The mutant asked. The raven-haired boy nodded to her and headed after her followed by his friends. Kitty smiled at them as she led them to the room of requirement. "I finally managed to make that training room that I suggested earlier. She explained to them. "It took me a while, but it's ready now. I'd like to give it a test run though, which mean either the D.A can test it out or I can let you three blow off some steam." She said with a grin.
Hermione smiled at this and Ron nodded in agreement. "Do it." Harry ordered. The girl nodded and paced back and forth in front of the spot where the door would show up in a moment. The door appeared and they followed Kitty into the room. The three teens walked in and saw a long hallway like room. At the end of the room was a stone that looked like a copy of the Philosopher's Stone to the trio.
Kitty walked over to a set of levers and other gems that were set up in a hidden area. "This will let me control the room for things like difficulty and all that." She explained as she sat down began adjusting a few things.
"And what do we have to do?"
"Get to the other side of the room and touch the gem." The girl said with a grin. "So, who wants to go first?"
"That's all? I thought it would be difficult." Ron said with annoyance. "I mean you sure spent an awful lot of time on this for just a room with a rock and a table with lots of gadgets on it. If this all you got you wasted a lot of time." The boy said. "I thought this was going to be hard."
"Then why don't you go first if you're so sure that I've wasted so much of my time." Kitty told him with an evil grin on her face.
The boy nodded and confidently starting walking down the hallway. Kitty grinned and pushed a couple of levers. As he took a couple of more steps a pair of statues that had been standing guard began shooting small cloth covered arrows with paint on them that began hitting the cocky redhead. "Hey!" The boy said as he began ducking the arrows. He began flinging curses back at the statues, but was getting hit more often than he was hitting the arrows or statues. Harry and Hermione smirked at the boy as he finally gave up and ran back covered in small bits of paint from the arrows.
"Hard enough for you?" Kitty asked, while eyeing the boy up and down with a grin.
"That was unfair." The redhead growled at the girl through the face full of paint that he was wearing. "Its like McGonagall's giant chess set all over again." He said, while Hermione began casting a cleaning charm on the boy. "Only difference is that this time we're supposed to fight back."
"Whatever you say chief." Kitty told him mockingly. "Maybe next time you won't be so quick to judge something before you know what exactly it is that your facing."
"I sincerely doubt it." Hermione said dryly as she looked at her friend. "Ron is not one to stop judging a book from its cover, at best you bought us a couple of days from acting like that before he starts it all over again."
"Huh, pity. So, Harry, want to take a go at it?" She asked turning to look at the boy in question.
Harry shrugged and stepped forward to take Ron's place. At a nod from Kitty he moved forward as the room prepared itself. As the paint arrows struck, he put up a shield charm and watched the arrows and archers. "Reducto!" He shouted, and caught one of the statues. Ducking another arrow, he looked at the other statue and began firing various curses at the archer. Some of the arrows were bursting into flames and landed far away from the dark haired boy as he began to cut loose on the statue.
"Hurry up there Harry, we're going on timing to." Kitty told him, after he had spent a minute releasing his frustrations at the statue and arrows with his various spells.
The boy nodded, and sent a high-powered bludgeoning spell at the statue, which broke one of the arms off the statue. He moved past the statues at a jog, carefully looking around his wand gripped tightly in his hand. He turned around slowly as if expecting something to be coming up behind him. A panel opened up on either side of him and began to shoot paint soaked pillows at him. Swallowing the boy dove beneath the pillows that were flying back and forth. One of the pillows managed to clip him on the leg, but left him others wise unmarked. Shaking his head the boy looked up wondering what Kitty would throw at him next. A pendulum with a giant round cushion answered his question, as he watched the pillow fly back and forth he aimed a cutting curse at the line that it was swinging from and snapped the pillow off. Harry walked forward and was about to touch the stone when a mattress came from either side and smashed him.
"Ouch." Harry said as he fell down as the two mattresses parted.
Kitty adjusted the controls before she nodded to the two. "All right, you can go and get him now." She told them. The other two nodded and ran out after their friend.
"Did I get it?" Harry asked, a little out of it from the hit that he had taken.
"Almost mate." Ron said enviously, though after looking at everything that his friend had been forced to run through he wasn't overly jealous that he had missed out on going through it all.
"Well guys, what do you think?" Kitty questioned after they were all sure that Harry was all right.
"Bloody hell, where did you get the idea for this?" Ron asked, as he sat down next Harry.
"Oh just something I kind of got the idea from one of my old schools." Kitty said shrugging a bit as if it was nothing. She walked toward the control table and pulled a lever and a handful of stuffed practice dummies were lowered from above them. "Now let me get some tensions out." She said. "You guys can look at the controls while I do this, just don't touch anything." She told them, as she resized her wand into a staff and began going through a practice routine striking at the dummies.
The trio began looking over the control table, and Hermione began making notes on a piece of parchment as she looked over the design. Look at this. Hermione said as she traced a design on one of the emblems.
The two boys looked the design over curiously. "I've seen that emblem somewhere." Harry said as he tried to make out one of the symbols.
"It's the Black family crest Harry." Hermione explained to them.
"What? But how could something from the Black house be here?" Ron questioned, as he looked at the symbol curiously.
"It doesn't have to be from the Black House to have the crest on it Ron." Harry said as he studied the Crest with interest. "It could have been from the family, and it could also have been around in the school for a while."
"Exactly." Hermione said nodding in agreement. "So the question is, what does the crest mean?"
"That the Black Family may or may not be more connected to everything than we really know?" Harry tried.
"Possibly, or it could mean that Peter and Kitty are connected to the other Blacks." Hermione said as she eyed Kitty curiously, wondering what the secrets were that the girl was hiding and if they were dangerous to her and her friends. "If they are trained by the Blacks to cause us problems, then we'll have to be particularly careful around them then."
The trio then watched as the group of dummies was torn into leaving nothing but the remains. "I really hope that they are on our side." Ron said as he watched. "Cause I don't really fancy getting into it with either of them you know and why isn't Peter here?"
"He wanted to talk with the twins about the insult-a-thon." Hermione said with a sniff. "I can't believe that he's actually going to try and do it."
"Can't say that I blame him." Harry said with a grin. "Imagine just for a minute if you can Mione. If you got to tell Malfoy and Snape off without having to worry about losing any points at all. How many times would you like to have told Snape off for his bad teaching methods or for his favoritism?"
Hermione smiled at the thought of that before starting guiltily. "No, its not right." She said shaking her head defiantly. "No matter how we do it, its still wrong. Why should we have to stoop down to their level? We can easily do the things that we should without lowering ourselves."
"Maybe." Harry said as if he was unsure. "On the other hand, if you let a bully run over you then all that is going to happen is that the bully will keep going over you. Isn't it better then to go ahead and stand up to someone?"
Hermione reluctantly nodded with her friend. "Maybe." She said softly, "and maybe you just need a certain type of courage to say what you really mean. I wish I had that kind of courage sometimes."
"Hey you're brave." Harry argued with her. "You just don't go about being reckless is all." Harry said as he hesitantly gave her a hug. Hermione smiled and held onto him tightly.
"We still need to figure out why they have a Black crest here don't we?" Ron asked interrupting the two.
They were saved from responding to him when a voice echoed throughout the halls. "Will all students please report to the Grand Hall. It's time to rumble in the jungle folks. Its time for the very first Hogwarts insult-a-thon." A voice echoed throughout the castle. The group shrugged and grabbed their book bags and headed for the Great Hall. They walked into the room and looked around curiously. The usual house tables were all gone, instead there were bleachers that were set up against the two main walls and two small stages set up in between the bleachers.
Lee Jordan was sitting down alongside a Slytherian boy at a small table. The two 7th years were busy glaring at each other as they waited for everyone to take a seat.
"Welcome everybody." Lee said after they were sure that everyone was there. "I hope your ready to start, cause its time to get started. Now then since this is the first time we've ever done this we're going to have to kind of play with it as we go." The boy explained. "Beside me is my replacement if I ever loose control and need to be relieved of my duty up here. Now then lets get started coming up first is Draco Malfoy the Slytherian prince himself and Peter Parker the newest Gryffindor to get on the bad side of Malfoy!" There were cheers as the two students strode out where they could all see them. Their individual advisors and seconds were escorting the two. The two boys each climbed up onto the stages. Peter smiled and waved at everyone while Malfoy smirked and gave everyone a haughty look.
"Lets get to this party now people." Lee said.
"Go ahead Malfoy," Peter said, "I'll let you start off. Your going to need all the help that you can get."
"Ooh and Parker starts off with a mocking jeer." Lee said
"Let them go at it without your interrupting them Gryffindor." The other seventh year said taking the megaphone away so that the two could talk uninterrupted.
"Humph, this is actually beneath me." Malfoy drawled out. "Your nothing more than a want to be pureblood, you're a squid liner."
The purebloods all hissed at the insult, but Peter merely cocked an eye at the pureblood. "You really want to go into hitting on families?" The teen asked. "Tell me does anyone know how the pureblood die ice fishing? Give up? He was run over by the zambonis machine." At this a number of half blood and muggle born students snorted in amusement.
"Oh yeah, well your dumber than a flobberworm."
"Really? Well hey everyone, remember the grease spill that was in the potion room the other day? Well the official story is a second years cauldron overflowed however I happen to have a source that told me that it was actually Malfoy and Snape cleaning out their combs from all of the grease and gel that they use." At this more people chuckled as they looked at the two with their hair firmly in place.
"Yeah well at least I actually got to know my parents." Malfoy drawled out. "The way I hear it you never even got that much your parents were to busy doing other things to worry about you." Several people hissed at this one.
"Yeah," Peter said with a grin. "Isn't it cool having parents that worked as super spies? I mean seriously they lied to the Red Skull of all people in the face more than once and all he could come up with was blowing them up? Really gotta say that is so cool." Peter said with a grin
Malfoy and Snape glared as he turned the reminder of his dead family around and put a positive spin on it. " So tell me, does anyone know why the pureblood die in a helicopter crash?" Peter waited a moment before he answered for them. "They got cold and turned off the fan." At this all of the muggleborn and half bloods began to snicker along with a smaller group of purebloods.
"So you think that your funny do you squib-blood?" Malfoy growled as he realized that he was being made a mockery of. "Then maybe you would like to explain to all of the people why it is that your family always seems to die." Peter glared at this but didn't say anything for a moment as he reigned in his temper. "Better than opening a box of cheerios and thinking that they're a box of donut seeds."
Malfoy glared at this. "Are you really so stupid that you can't even use insults that everyone can understand? Is it beyond your flobberworm like compression to remind yourself that you are no longer surrounded by filth like muggles?"
"Yeah, the streets of New York can get pretty dirty at times gel for brains, but at least I still have a few brain cells left. Tell us what caused the drop in your intelligence? The fact that you're a blonde, or the fact that all of the potions that you applied to your head?"
"Please you may be a pureblood, but you come from a weak family if your line is filled with squibs." Malfoy said. Snape tapped his student on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. The blonde nodded before turning back toward Peter. "Perhaps you should go and cry to those inbred mongrel creatures that are always running around in your city. I hear some of those dirty and unnatural mutants even consider themselves as better than normal humans and have the audacity to consider themselves the future."
"Why not? I mean wizards have been around for over a thousand years and they don't seem to care to much."
Malfoy actually snorted at this. "Please. Mutants and their companions have often proved themselves to be incapable of any intelligent thought and prefer to fight. How can they truly be considered the greater beings?"
"Cause wizards are too cowardly to do anything about the world. They'd rather hide out in their hidden communities and act like their superior when in reality they're nothing but a bunch of cowards. But hey, we're getting off topic here." Peter said with a nod. "How about this one since we were just talking about regular world things. Two Malfoy's were walking through the woods when one looked down and said 'Oh, look at the deer tracks.' The other Malfoy looks and says 'Those aren't deer tracks, those are wolf tracks.' 'No. Those are deer tracks.' They keep arguing, and arguing, and a half hour later they were both killed by a train." At this the seriousness of the conversation broke and everyone began to snicker.
"Hem, Hem, hem." A voice interrupted before either of them could say anything else. Everyone turned and saw that an angry looking Umbridge was standing there. She shot a disappointed look at Malfoy before she turned her eyes on Peter and his friends. "That will be quiet enough out of all of you." The Ministry employee screeched out. "I want all of you to return to your common rooms at once." The toad like woman ordered. Everyone nodded and then the woman turned her eyes toward Malfoy and his group. "Mr. Malfoy come with me, I have some questions to ask of you." The woman said coolly ushering the boy to follow her.
"So what did you think?" Peter asked as he and the twins joined the others.
"I think that you let him off lightly." Kitty said shaking her head at her friend. "I mean seriously, blond jokes converted into pureblood and Malfoy jokes?"
"Hey I thought I might as well save my good stuff for when I might need it and Malfoy was the one using Mama jokes the other day on Harry and the Weasley's." Peter pointed out to his friend.
Kitty sighed. "Good point, besides knowing you, you would have preferred doing gymnastics while you insulted him."
"What can I say I'm weird that way." Peter said flashing a grin as he slung his shoulder over Kitty's shoulder as they walked down the hallway. "Besides if Malfoy hadn't been saved from his humiliation by Umbridge then I would have really gotten him. As it is though, people are going to be making comments about his hair and intelligence for quiet a while now."
Yes and he's also given us-
-"An area in which to direct certain types of pranks."
The twins told the others happily as they walked along planning out grease spills and train track spells that could be used in the future.
"See? Everything works out for the best." Peter said confidentially, as they all slid into the common room where Peter was treated to a heroes welcome.
Kitty stepped back into the shadows her mind deep in thought. The matter of things like mutants was not something that most wizards thought about. Yet Snape had managed to get Malfoy to get Peter onto his soapbox about meta humans. The only question was which of the man's controllers had wanted him to get Malfoy to ask that type of question. Was it Voldemort or Dumbledore whom had set up that question?Both sides were curious about them and that sort of information while not much to either of them might mean something to the wizards. Of course the Ministry could have had something to do with it as well. The mutant mused. Kitty couldn't help but notice that Umbridge had waited to interfere until after that question had come up to break up the little insult-a-thon that Peter had managed to put together. The only question though who had wanted that tidbit of information on Peter's thoughts towards meta's? Dumbledore or Voldemort. Were the two groups interested in trying to get other beings of power to get involved in the war? She could just imagine the chaos that the Brotherhood of Mutants or the Marauders could cause in the wizarding world.
Dumbledore eyed the pensive memory of the insult-a-thon that the Gryffindor and Slytherian houses had managed to put together. It seemed that if anything Mr. Parker had a wit that might easily match that of Sirus or James when they were younger. The boy also had a tongue that was in its own way as deadly as Severerus's was making for quiet a deadly combination deadly; for Mr. Parker that is. If the boy couldn't back up what it was that he was saying then he was likely to get himself seriously hurt one day when he mouthed off to the wrong person.
Dumbledore looked up at a loud popping sound and coughed as a large cloud of smoke filled the office. With a wave of his wand he blew the smoke out of the room. The old wizard was rather surprised to see a figure wearing a long muggle jacket. He cautiously raised his wand at the figure. "And who may I ask are you?"
"A friend of some of your students herr professor." The figure said, not bothering to look at the man as he was examining Fawkes. "This is a beautiful bird mein friend. I don't believe I've ever seen a regular Phoenix before."
"Really? And what phoenixes have you seen?" Dumbledore asked with mild interest. The accent had taken a moment, but now he was fairly sure that he was dealing with a German. How the man had managed to get inside his office he was unsure though.
"The only Phoenixes I have ever had the joy of seeing are people possessed by the Phoenix Force. Other than that I am afraid I have never seen one."
"Really? I have heard of phenomenon, it is supposed to be quiet impressive." Dumbledore said with interest.
"Yes, the amount of power that someone with the Phoenix Force is both very beautiful and very deadly herr professor." The man said before shaking his head. "That is not why I am here though."
"And just why are you?" Dumbeldore questioned.
"The third Thursday of this month is a special holiday in America it is known as Thanksgiving." The man explained.
"Yes, I have heard of this holiday." Dumbledore said. "Something to do with a pilgrimage I believe."
"This is good, what I request then may be easier then." The man said. "Katherine and Peter are both American born, and they are a part of our family. We were wondering if you would consent to letting them go for the evening so that they may celebrate with their friends and family or will the punishment that they have incurred from earlier prevent them from following this tradition?" The man asked finally turning around he kept his hat pulled down and the collar of his jacket high though making it near impossible for the old wizard to be able to make out any details other than the man had yellow eyes and dark skin.
Dumbledore looked at the man in surprise. Of all the things that he had been suspecting when a mysterious figure had appeared in a cloud of smoke in his office this was not it. Perhaps a threat from an unspeakable or a Ministry member maybe even information from a rogue death eater but not this. This man was merely trying to get people that he considered family free for an afternoon so that they could follow their National Holidays. "Do the schools in America release their students for this holiday?" He questioned.
"Ja, it usually is a short school week or something like that." The German told the man. "Kitty and Peter are family though and we would like for them to be there."
"You say it is a family thing though?" Dumbledore said. "Will you be inviting Mr. Parker's Uncle?"
"No mein friend, this is for close friends that are like family." The man explained to the professor. "Besides we want there to be the matter of trust not dislike and suspicion when we feast. Particularly after all that Peter has lost he sometimes needs to be reminded that he is not alone."
Dumbledore nodded he could understand that, after all such feasts were needed and they might help young Mr. Parker since he seemed to have lost all of his family. Having people that cared for him feast with him for the night would be helpful. "Could you do this feast in Hogsmeade?"
"Does anyone have a telephone down there?" The man asked. "We thought that we could let Peter call his best friends and let him know how things are. I understand that the two of them wanted to come and freeze you up to your neck in ice and then barbeque you for the punishment that you placed upon Peter."
"It would appear that young Mr. Parker was quiet popular back at his home." Dumbledore said with interest.
The figure nodded and Dumbledore thought he saw a flash of teeth. "Indeed Peter has many friends, he's not someone to harm, or his friends will make you pay if they ever find out."
"One afternoon is all that your requesting though?"
"That is all."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "If Peter and Kitty's friends are willing to come all the way out here just to ensure that they have a good Thanksgiving the least we can do is to let them go after the classes are done that day."
"Thank you for being so understanding headmaster." The man said thankfully.
"Of course, and who do I tell them requested that they come?"
" Tell them that Kurt Wagner was here." The man said flashing another grin at the headmaster. "Brian Braddock will be the one to pick them up. I'm sure that your agents know who he is considering the number of tracking spells that certain people have been throwing at him in the last couple of months." Dumbledore gave his best innocent smile at Kurt acting as if he had no idea whom it could be doing that despite the fact that some of those spells had come from his people. The man chuckled. "I really must be going now." With a wave the man disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Dumbledore shook his head there had been something off about that hand.
Dumbledore sighed as he watched the two students be escorted by Hagrid to the gates he had considered going himself but had changed his mind and had arranged for Umbridge to have a few things to deal with thanks to the Weasleys. He knew that a number of the teachers hadn't agreed with letting the two Americans leave for this little party, particularly after the whole debacle with Dr. Strange.
At first he had wondered if this wasn't just an elaborate way of getting information to their friends, but the joy that the two had gotten at hearing about the feast had put a damper on that theory. While it was true that they could pass information back and forth for a while on this he also knew that they had actually been happy to go and have this feast. He had looked into some books and had found the Thanksgiving feast in several books and it had included the fact that several schools did indeed take off for the feast. The old man turned back to his own work, perhaps with the two Americans gone and Umbridge busy he could get some work done on how to deal with the upcoming war that the Ministry simply refused to believe was coming. He also knew that he needed to decide just what it was that he was going to do with the two Americans come the Christmas Holidays.
Peter and Kitty waved goodbye to Hagrid as they saw Brian waiting for them at the gate. Brian grinned as he gave Kitty a hug and Peter a friendly backslap. The three then waved to Hagrid one last time before they headed off toward the ride that Brian had used to get there. "Having fun lately?" Brian asked them with a grin as they boarded the Excalibur teams jet. None of them even noticed a scowling Moody jerk his invisibility cloak off and glare after the jet.
"Oh its been a blast." Peter scoffed as he stood up clinging to the ground through his sock feet. "I have to exercise like a regular person just so I can get some of the physical level of energy out of me or I'm stuck being unable to sit still or use my powers without realizing it." The boy complained to his friend.
The man chuckled at this. "Sorry webhead, but there's not a thing that I can do about that as it is we're all on kind of thin ice as it is. The Magical Ministry is always trying to zap me with some sort of tracking spell or other."
"Yeah well you can actually feed off of that stuff though." Peter complained to the large man. "I'm stuck listening to people who are so stuck behind the times its crazy. Sometimes I think that as long as we're in the wizarding world that we're on the wrong side of the Berlin wall. The way people walk all over each other is crazy and I'm kind of interested in what will happen when we tell them that we're not completely interested in hanging around the wizarding world after everything is said and done."
"It will be interesting." Kitty said in agreement. "Personally I'll be glad when this is all over and we can go back to our own kind of crazy."
"Amen to that." Peter said. "I'll take a fight with the Kingpin's goons than dealing with all of the crap that these people are always playing around with in the wizard world."
Brian smirked at the two as they finally headed over the ocean on their way back to Muir Island. They landed and turned to enjoying themselves and being able to use their powers and abilities without having to worry about people seeing them. The only things that had caused a problem was when Pete Wisdom had tried to trash talk Peter as a hero and Kitty had ended up tossing the man into a wall.
The two friends smiled as they walked up the path with Brian the three of them were laughing and joking as they walked up to the powerful gates that blocked the way into the castle. Waiting for them like a father time figure stood Dumbledore, complete with a lantern hanging nearby him. The three friends chuckled as they saw the headmaster but walked onward. "Greetings." Dumbledore said cheerfully. "I am so glad that you could make it back before midnight." The old headmaster said with a sparkle in his eyes.
"Good to see you around as well professor." Kitty said cordially, ignoring the slight reprimand in the man's voice. The two teens were accustomed to long night hours and so were wide-awake.
"I trust you enjoyed your time?"
"Indeed we did. Tell you what Brian, thanks for everything but we got classes tomorrow so we'll see you later all man?"
"Later Peter, try not to embarrass to many people all right?"
"No promises." Peter said with a chuckle as he headed off.
Kitty shook her head at her friend before she gave Brian a quick hug. "Try and stay out of trouble all right?"
"Hey, you make it sound like I go looking for trouble. Brian protested with a grin as he engulfed the girl in a bear hug.
"You do." Kitty deadpanned as she was released. "Or should I tell Kurt that your saying that you don't?"
"Awe come on Kitty." Brian complained. "That's cheating, by going to him."
"Then try and stay out of trouble." Kitty told him with a grin before heading through the gate.
"They are both fairly remarkable." Dumbledore noted as the two watched the teens head up to the castle Lockheed was blowing a small spout of flame that lit the path up for them to see.
"That they are." Brian said with a smug grin. "Though sometimes they can some of the most stubborn people I have ever seen in my life. Personally I'll be glad when Peter finally allows himself to grieve for the loss of the rest of his family cause as it stands I'm rather tempted to make him angry so he'll cut loose."
"Ah you have noticed that young Mr. Parker has trouble allowing himself to be happy." Dumbledore said sadly as he watched the young man.
"Rather hard not to." The blonde said as he turned to face the wizard. "I suppose I should bid you a goodnight, you do have a school to run."
"Yes I suppose so, though I do have to ask you a question Mr. Braddock?"
"I thought you might have wanted something more." The broad shouldered man said.
"Yes, I was wondering why it is that you are helping Titans and their allies in getting involved in the Magical Government?"
"Its not so much that I'm helping meta humans get involved, it's the fact that we want your bit of the world in the 21st century with the rest of the country." Brian informed the man. "Your people have been hiding for so long that you're no longer completely in touch with the rest of the world. Your typical everyday clothes for example range anywhere from the middle-ages with your robes and what not to somewhere around the sixties I would guess. That puts you some thirty years behind the rest of the world at the very least. We want all of the Citizens of Europe to benefit from these sorts of things." Brian explained, "but in order to help the people you have to let us."
"So in other words, you are worried about how far behind the rest of the world everyone in the wizarding world is?" Dumbledore clarified.
"Yes, that is one of our chief concerns. Now I don't doubt your ability as a teacher, but what training did you get before you became a teacher?"
"Well none really." The old man admitted. "Here in the wizarding world that's not how we usually do things. I was considered a master of transfiguration and so was given the post when I applied for the post."
"And that's one of the ways that your behind headmaster." Brian explained. "In the non-magical world a person has to go through all sorts of training to become a teacher, and yet you don't do that sort of thing. I don't doubt that each and every member of your staff are highly skilled people in their fields but how many of them were actually trained to be teachers before they taught?"
Dumbledore was silent as he realized that what the man said made a certain amount of sense. While some of his teachers were good at giving information to their students others were not so well. If they had such a program it might have even saved them from problems like Lockhart. "And this is all that you are trying to change? You are merely trying to bring us even with the non-magical world?" He doubted this was all but he wanted the man to come out and say it.
"Amongst other things." Brian admitted. "Take your Ministry for example. They throw their weight around the place. They seem to think they can just give an oh by the way to the Prime Minister when your Ministry should be following the orders of the Prime Minister, not treated like he's just someone that they have to inform about various things whenever they feel like it. There is also the matter that some of your laws are extremely outdated and a host of other various things that really need to be addressed. As it is your society will be lucky to survive much longer without help fixing itself. Your society will likely collapse upon itself if it continues in the way that it is going."
"A possibility." Dumbledore nodded in reluctant agreement. "However we have survived in hiding for a thousand years and are doing alright." He pointed out to the young man.
"But the world is changing now headmaster. Tell me what do you think of things like the moon missions?"
"The what?" Dumbledore asked in confusion.
"See headmaster, that's what I'm talking about. The space race between America and Russia was well known even in History. Yet you, a man who was alive during that time in history know nothing about it. These sorts of things aren't good that's why we need to get you with rest of the world."
"That may be, but now is not the time for change. Though others may not admit it we are on the brink of war. For us to try and push these changes in now could be dangerous and because of how old many of our people are we are more resistant to change."
"That may be headmaster, but if your people don't learn to adapt at least somewhat you could all be extreme trouble." Brian warned. "Peter says that your people have some romantic idea about people like Von Doom. Did you know that he has killed thousands of people to get where he is and that most of them he doesn't even really care about? Most of the world knows that he is a dangerous person that should be treated with the utmost caution and yet you probably one of the head diplomats thinks he's just some magic user."
Dumbledore sighed, if what the young man in front of him was right then their society was in danger. "And what would you have us do Mr. Braddock? Threatening the Ministry of Magic is not the way to do things."
"You said it yourself headmaster, you're on the brink of war. We need to be hard line now so that even if the war does break out despite everything we do there are forces that can help you. Tradition only goes so far headmaster."
"Perhaps you are right." Dumbledore said nodding. The young man didn't act like he had some great mischievous or vile plan in mind. In fact he was a bit of a dreamer in that he reminded him somewhat of people like Hermione Granger. "I bid you good night you have been most enlightening."
"Always a pleasure." Brian nodded, as he turned and walked back down the path that lead to Hogsmeade from there he would hike out to his jet. Dumbledore watched him till he was out of sight before turning and heading toward the castle. The conversation had given him quite a bit to think about. Young Lord Braddock had not been anything like he had been expecting. He had been expecting someone like Lucius instead he had gotten someone like Harry it would take time to figure where everything went in all of this. Perhaps there was some truth to what it was that he had been told. Still though they would have to be careful because the Ministry would hold themselves back only so long before they tried something.
Peter and Kitty walked into their common room to find a glum looking Gryffindor team sitting around the table. "Should we even ask?" Kitty questioned.
Katie smiled at the two. "Its Umbridge, she gave Angelina an ultimatum today."
"Oh and what's that?"
"Harry off the team or the team is off." The team captain growled out angrily. "I have one of the best teams, even if Ron here needs a bit of work." She added. "Now I have to deal with the fact that hag wants to control my team and make me get rid of one of my best players."
"Now that's not very nice to say, your giving hags a bad name comparing her to them." Peter said with a smirk, which got a few chuckles from the team. "Seriously though, I guess you have to decide what's more important. Playing the game in an unfair system, or sticking with your people." The twins smirked at the Chasers at this.
"Something tells me that you're only rehashing an old argument Peter." Kitty said as she watched them.
"Look at it this way, you can tell the others that you'll play them for non cup status." Peter said. If you beat them then you can still hold your heads up high and say that you're the best. I mean you've already beat the Snakes so the other teams might be willing to take you on as well."
"We're in." The twins said immediately. Katie looked between the two groups before reluctantly nodding her head with them.
The others looked at the rest. Angelina and Alicia looked torn in their choice.
"You could just let me quit and we wouldn't have this problem." Harry grumbled, but quieted down under the combined glare of Hermione and the twins. "Fine." The boy muttered defiantly.
"In for a penny in for a pound." Angelina said sadly. She then turned to glare at Harry. "I hope you know that your buying us the balls we'll need to keep practicing." She growled, before reluctantly getting up tossing her Captains badge into her book bag.
"Well that was fun." Peter said as he collapsed in the vacated seat.
"So where were you lot? You missed supper." A miserable Ron Weasley asked.
"Thanksgiving feast."
"You had a feast without us?" Ron asked in surprise.
"Its an American tradition Ron, I doubt you would have wanted to come, the turkey was good though."
"You had a turkey without us." Ron complained.
"Come on little brother, we have other things to do than worry about that." Fred said darkly.
"Yeah, we need to show Umbridge that just cause the team is gone doesn't mean that we are." George said in agreement smacking his fist into his hand angrily.
"Very well then," Peter said, "ladies and Gentlemen start your pranking." The twins smiled as they began making plans.