I don't own Harry Potter or The X-men! End/AN/

The X Academy was huge. Huger than huge, stretching like a vast video game over so much land. Harry stared at the enormous pool, the hangar, the building itself, the dorms... It was bigger than he could imagine any place being.

He walked behind Ororo and Professor Xavier, staring at the huge windows and the solid build of the Academy. He could make out gardens, flowering with lilacs and day lilies and daffodils, among other flowers. He could see a big fountain in the main area.

And as they came closer, he could make out the voices of other children.

"Hey, hey! Fred—George, ow! Stop it!"

There was a chorus of laughter, all the many voices strangely identical. "Come on, Ron, you can do it! Who has your rat?"

As they entered unto the courtyard, he could see there was a huge mess of kids. From one with butterfly wings and pink hair, to another with moody black clothes, to the more prominent clump of red-headed kids, all of whom looked very much alike except for the one trying to swipe something from them, there was quite the variety of kids.

Xavier came wheeling among them, and said to all the red-headed boys who looked alike, "Fred, George, don't you think your brother would like his pet back?"

All the lookalikes exchanged glances, and quite suddenly, there were only two, one holding a grumpy-looking rat. "Sorry, Prof! We were just playing!"

"Yeah! He's our brother, we play with him!" the other one said, and Harry had to conclude they were twins, and the other redhead was their brother.

Said redhead snatched the rat from the one. "Splinter is my rat! Don't hurt him!"

Splinter? Harry couldn't believe his ears. He was hanging around Ororo's shadow right then, but he hesitantly stepped forward. Could this boy like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as much as he did? What if he even liked Harry himself?

"Fred, George, go on," Professor Xavier sighed, gesturing towards the big set of doors nearby in the building. They looked enormously heavy, but the twins, with a properly chastised look, ran for the doors and pushed on them like they were nothing.

They couldn't have been that sorry, though, because Harry already heard them say, "What d'you think Mom'll do if we tell her in our email that Ron died of choking on Jell-o?" "Come on, George, she's not gonna believe that..."

Ron, meanwhile, clutched his rat to his chest. Professor Xavier smiled at him, and said, "There, now, Splinter is all right, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Ron said, frowning down at the rat. "He didn't even bite them like I said to."

Professor Xavier chuckled. "Well, to be fair, your rat isn't trained to heed voice commands." He turned back a bit in her chair, saying, "Harry, will you please come over here? Ororo will make sure your things get to your room."

Harry glanced at Ororo to make sure this was true, licking his lips nervously. She smiled and nodded at him, and took his things from him. He didn't see if she handed them off to a student, or if she took them herself; either way, it didn't really matter.

He slowly walked up to Professor Xavier, fingers curled into the bottom of his cheap t-shirt. It had a smiling cheese on it, some sort of amusement park far away that he'd never been to.

Ron was watching him, holding his rat in his hands. The rat watched him too, eyes beady and almost like it was aware of who he was.

But it was a rat, so Harry just stood next to Professor Xavier's wheelchair, and looked across at Ron.

"Ron," Professor Xavier said with a smile, "Would you be willing to show Harry around? He needs someone who knows the place and understands what it's like to have powers to mind him."

Ron nodded vigorously. "Of course, Professor Xavier, I know all about the school!" He clutched Splinter a little tightly for the rat's liking, as it seemed to try to wriggle out of his grip. But Splinter was not lucky enough to break free, and Harry watched as Professor Xavier turned to go.

"Ron will take good care of you. You're safe here, Harry."

With that, Professor Xavier was gone.

Ron, a skinny redhead peppered with freckles, abruptly held out his rat. "You wanna hold him?"

Harry's hands reached out hesitantly. "His... his name's Splinter, huh?"

Ron nearly dropped Splinter into his hands. "Yup! Percy had a different name for him, but he didn't want him anymore... Who names a rat Quincy anyway?"

Harry held Splinter carefully, feeling his fast-beating heart from the way his tiny chest was against his hand. "Is he named because of, um..."

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Yeah!" Ron grinned, delighted that Harry knew of this show. He immediately started off into a spiel about his favorite character, Michelangelo. He seemed to have far more knowledge of the show than Harry did, but Harry was content to pad along beside him as Ron led him towards the building that seemed to be the academy.

Harry was quickly losing his hesitance as they rounded the corner towards the cafeteria, which had the smells of good food wafting down the hallway. It smelled like biscuits and sausage gravy, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, something very broccoli-like, and undeniably cake, strawberry shortcake.

There were other, less strong smells too, but Harry's mouth was watering as they entered the huge place.

"This is where we eat!" Ron said excitedly, gesturing to the whole room.

There were long lunch tables, with a variations of kinds of seats, from single to bench. There were also a couple that seemed to have a hole in the back, possibly for a tail. The whole thing was the good quality plastic, not cheap like some of Dudley's tantrum-induced gifts from his parents. It was a grayish color, and the seats were ringed around in rubberish black.

He eyed the food, all in metal bins along a jutting counter-top. There was a stack of black trays and gray-brown dishes, and Harry must have been obvious in his eyeing of the beautiful, steaming food, because Ron looked towards it too.

Then, puffing out his chest a little, Ron said, "D'you need me to show you how to get food? Cause you can even have as much as you want."

Harry nodded mutely, following him.

Ron, as if to prove you could get as much as you wanted, piled his plate. "See, you can have a lot, it's okay! Even two slices of cake!"

Encouraged by this, Harry loaded up his plate, getting everything that looked good.

Both boys sat down together, and Ron must have lost his appetite very quickly, because he started by feeding small bits to Splinter.

But Harry tucked in, enjoying the many flavors. It was savory, then it was sweet, then it was tangy, and so much more. Comforting, hot food settled in his stomach, and he didn't remember feeling this sure about food ever before. Then, he glanced towards the rest of the food, not so much thinking of eating more, but instead... "Is... can we get more later, if... if we need it?"

"Yeah! We can get food all the time!" Ron chirped.

Harry nodded, feeling a bit of relief. He didn't like to admit he worried about food. He almost didn't admit it to himself, but he still remembered the stomach-sucking dread of being banned from dinner and hoping that breakfast wouldn't fall under the same ban (sometimes it did).

Ron was quick to show him around the children's dormitory. "There aren't tons of us our age, but there're more than ever! Ever in the history of the school, Professor Xavier said!"

"So, all the people under thirteen are here?" Harry asked, clarifying things.

"Yeah. So, a bunch of my older siblings are in the older students dorms—they're huge. Real huge. That's cause there're so many of them." Ron was about to carry on, when another voice came into the hallway.

"Excuse me, but that's not the case. The problem is that powers really often get stronger as you age, and that's why there're so many older students."

Harry to see this new person. He had no idea she would become a part of his world.

/AN/ I hope you like it! Everything kinda went to hell in a handbasket this month. I mean, thank god I wasn't kicked out or anything, but I lost my job and have been getting snippy cause I figured out my parents have kinda sorta been medically abusing me by putting me on extremely strong psych meds, when I am only mildly mentally ill. I draw from real life for this story! :D Anyway, I hope y'all are enjoying this story and haven't abandoned it cause I took so long. Sorry about that.

I am also excited to do more Hermione in the next chapter.