A/N: Charles' reaction to Harry, extra credit, troll, Quidditch with Raven, ask about Flamel, Darwin Hank "Did you know that blood has …iron", closing feast

September 1991

"Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived?" Charles asked skeptically, fanning out the pages of his Daily Prophet, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely positive!" Raven insisted, hair excitedly growing a brighter shade of red, "Fred and George bumped into him trying to figure out where the platform was! I passed by his compartment myself to take a look."

"And?" Pepper asked, shuffling a pack of Exploding Snap cards.

"He looks pretty normal," Raven admits, sitting down, "He was telling off Draco Malfoy, last I saw."

Erik made a noise of disgust, stealing the headline news section from Charles' paper, "That brat is here? He's going to end up in Slytherin, isn't he?"

(Even if the Xaviers are seen as blood traitors of sorts, they are a very old and perhaps more importantly, very rich family and therefore do get invited to the sort of functions that the Malfoys also attend. Charles doesn't even remember how many times he made the feeling of slime clumping in his hair and dripping down his back reverberate in Lucius Malfoy's mind for various comments made about Erik, and on one memorable occasion Erik, Tony, and him had conspired together to make a cream pie land straight on his face for having insulted Raven's blue form. Draco Malfoy from his memories had been a somewhat arrogant child who had a penchant for repeating whatever his father had said, which Charles had tried to not hold against him, but Erik had no such qualms if Draco Malfoy repeated anything derogatory about Charles. The exploding cake had been one of the worst of the altercations, but he was sure Erik could come up with something much more inventive now.)

"You are going to have too much fun terrorizing the poor boy, aren't you?" Charles said, giving Erik a disparaging look, "Try not to make him wet his pants again, that would make a terrible first impression on his fellow classmates, I'm sure."

"That 'poor boy' is fully capable of accomplishing that on his own, I'm sure," Erik retorts, as Charles leans against his side to read the paper over his shoulder, "Pissing off the Boy Who Lived on the first day? Bad move."

"It is interesting though," Charles comments, mind beginning to fill with possibilities, "Harry Potter, sent off to god knows where after the death of his parents and You-Know-Who and now at Hogwarts. Children do not form actual memories until around the age of three and a half, but perhaps if one questioned him about how his magic manifested and if he has any special talents—"

"You are not interrogating the Boy Who Lived, Charles," Erik said flatly, giving him a reproving glance.

"I bet you he'll be in Gryffindor," Raven mused happily, munching on a pumpkin pasty, "Stands to reason since he defeated You-Know-Who. Do you think he plays Quidditch? I think Oliver may die if we don't win the Cup this year."

Erik snorted, looking at her over the paper, "Not with the way all of you were playing last year. How many points did we win by?"

"Five hundred, and stop gloating, you ass," Raven groused, glaring at him, "Charlie Weasley was sick that day, or we so would have won. Anyway, this year Oliver is captain, and Fred and George have come up with the perfect strategy to keep you busy this time around."

"If it involves me in any capacity, I'm not attending," Charles stated firmly, turning the page.

"But you always go to our Quidditch games!" Raven said with wide-eyes, "You don't want to miss Erik all sweaty and manly looking while attempting to bludgeon people to death do you? Besides, Erik is so, how did you put it… 'ruggedly handsome on a broom.'" she quotes maliciously.

"Raven!" Charles sputters as Erik turns toward him with an amused look, "That was spoken in extreme confidence! And this is the prefects' compartment! Out!"

Raven sticks her tongue out at him and flounces at the door, "When Harry Potter is sorted into my house, I'll tell him to never answer any of your questions!" she calls over her shoulder as she leaves.

As soon as it is quiet again, Erik smirks at Charles and repeats, "'Ruggedly handsome,' Charles?"

"Shut up," Charles grumbles, trying to bury his red face in Erik's shoulder.

"Should I ask you to come to see me at Quidditch practices, or would the excitement be too much for you?" Erik teases, kissing Charles' hair.

"I'm going to kill Raven," Charles mutters balefully.

(Before he manages to do so however, he gets distracted by the sight of Harry Potter sitting across from her. He only manages to begin asking the wide-eyed boy about blood magic, the Dark Arts, natural innate magic, You-Know-Who's known powers, and the Potter family, before Erik is dragging him away from the table and Raven is profusely apologizing. He thought he could just try again whenever he saw the boy again, but now every time Harry Potter sees him, he quickly turns tail and runs. Raven says that he scared him, which is completely ridiculous because Harry Potter is in Gryffindor, isn't he? Erik just sighs and distracts him with a chess game, and Tony offers to lend him a robot, but he thinks that they shouldn't scare the poor boy.)

Erik thinks that if Draco Malfoy talked about Harry Potter any more than he already did, the boy himself would pop up in the middle of the Slytherin common room. While it is good to hear something out of the brat's mouth besides, "My father once said…" Erik is getting tired of hearing rants about "that Potter" every time he walks into the common room.

He's trying to decide between using one of the spiders or a suit of armor to terrify the brat into silence (the spiders are a tried and true method, but suits of armors had swords) when Charles bursts into the room.

"Erik!" Charles exclaims, hurrying over to the green couch where Erik is lounging, "Professor McGonagall has just told me the most wonderful news! She's offering extra credit!"

"Just to you or in general?" Erik asks, moving his legs over so that Charles could sit down.

"To any N.E.W.T. student who can transfigure her a few life size chess pieces!" Charles excitedly says, eyes shining, "It'll be just like our childhood project!"

"That blew up in our faces," Erik reminds him, "Somehow I doubt McGonagall would be amused."

"We didn't have wands back then," Charles says dismissively, summoning over Erik's transfiguration textbook with a flick of his wand, "How many should we make? The whole set?"

"We do have other classes you know," Erik says wryly, smoothing out his star chart in front of him, "Perhaps three pieces? A bishop, a castle, and a knight?"

Charles nodded, flipping through the transfiguration textbook, "Yes, that might work. We'd have to use metal of course and a bit of charmwork…last time we tried using granite for the base, but I'm thinking that marble would—"

"Are you so stupid, blood traitor, that you need your pet to do all of your work for you?" Malfoy sneers, cementing Erik's opinion of him as the snottiest brat alive.

One of the spider-chandeliers instantly scuttles down from the ceiling and pins the brat to the ground, its pincers snapping in front of the brat's terrified eyes while a suit of armor strolls over and casually rests his sword on the base of his neck.

"Malfoy, I thought I taught you to never speak of Charles that way when you were five," Erik drawled with narrowed eyes, "Perhaps you need a more permanent reminder?"

Charles slapped Erik's arm, "Stop bullying the first year, Erik. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, he can't even fight back." he said in an annoyed tone.

"When I was a first year, I made these spiders," Erik pointed out, as Malfoy paled even further as the suit of armor tightened its grip on the sword and the spider leaned over.

"Do what you want Erik, but remember that if you make him faint, you're the one taking him to the hospital wing," Pepper calls out, not even bothering to look up from her Arithmancy notes.

Erik weighs the satisfaction of making the brat faint in front of his little cronies against the horror of actually having to bring the brat to the hospital wing and explain the situation to Madam Pomfrey (Healers, he had decided, were more fearsome than any Auror when annoyed, especially about injuries that may have been caused by transfigured metal objects), and grudgingly made the spider skitter back up the ceiling and the suit of armor resume its stance by the wall.

The brat managed to shakily pull himself back up, shoot a glance full of hate and fear at the two of them, and then run off, followed by his two ever present thugs.

Charles shook his head and sighed, "It's hardly the worst thing anyone has ever said about me," he chides, bumping their knees together.

"He shouldn't have said it at all," Erik maintained, holding Charles' gaze with his own, Not about you.

Charles sighed again but smiled at him affectionately (sunlight streaming through a window) and tapped a section in the transfiguration textbook, "Now here it says…"

(They manage to finish three pieces by the end of the month, after a lot of gathering scrap metal around the castle, prying off random pieces of marble, trying out different combinations of charms and transfiguration, arguing over the style of the pieces with Charles wanting ornate fantastical pieces and Erik wanting simplistic abstract pieces, compromising with a more traditional style of knights on a battlefield, hiding the pieces from Tony who wanted to "improve" them by adding the sort of destructive firepower more commonly found in heat-seeking missiles, undoing the spells the Weasley twins had used to make the pieces make rude gestures at each other, and finally delicately working the spells needed to make the pieces follow orders. McGonagall seems quite pleased with their work, awards them thirty points apiece for their respective houses along with extra points on their next essays, and then whisks away the pieces. Charles is over the moon, and the way he's clinging to Erik's arm is very distracting, but Erik still thinks that he saw a glimpse of McGonagall directing their chess pieces into the forbidden room on the third floor when they had walked by. It's interesting, but whether or not it is important, Erik cannot decide. Charles says that Erik has too many conspiracy theories running around in his mind and draws his attention to the fact that if McGonagall gave extra credit, perhaps other professors could be similarly convinced. Erik flatly draws the line at asking Snape for extra credit because he isn't suicidal, and Charles pouts but eventually agrees.)

October 1991

Pepper always enjoyed the Halloween feast. The music is wonderful (although one of the Hufflepuff boys keeps hitting screechy high notes), the decorations are always inventive and lively (although after the cloud of bats are released, she's a bit worried about bat droppings), and the food is always excellent.

No matter how nastily exhausting N.E.W.T. classes really are, or how suddenly annoying her prefect duties have become (midnight duels, seriously? What idiot first year decides to challenge someone to a midnight duel?), or how very annoying Tony's current girlfriend is (she keeps reminding herself that the blonde Ravenclaw will be gone in about a week, but if Christine Everhart made one more snide remark about her, she would not be held responsible for her actions), nothing is better than enjoying freshly baked pumpkin pie on Halloween.

She is carefully cutting herself a slice when Quirrell bursts through the doors and runs screaming down the Great Hall, "TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" he skids to a halt in front of the headmaster and says faintly, "Thought you ought to know," before collapsing down onto the ground.

As everyone begins screaming around her and Professor Dumbledore commands the prefects to lead the students back to the dormitories, Pepper sighs, carefully shrinks the pumpkin pie in front of her to place in a Tupperware container (they always came in handy, and she was determined to enjoy her pie sometime today), and nods at Erik who has begun making the suits of armor herd all the Slytherins together.

"Come along now," she said mildly, drawing her wand and summoning all the remaining panicking Slytherin first years into the group.

"But the troll is in the dungeons!" Malfoy shrieked, "We live in the dungeons. What do we do if we meet it?"

"Then Erik will stab him to death, and I will instruct you on which spells he is using," Pepper replied calmly, looking at her fellow prefect, "Is that an acceptable plan?"

"You dealing with the brats while I get to fight a troll?" Erik asks sarcastically, eyes scanning the bustling crowd (and she had no doubt that he was holding another conversation with Charles while also talking to her), "Just make sure one of them doesn't get in the way."

She nods, guiding the Slytherins out of the halls (and occasionally using a Knockback Jinx on the stragglers) while glancing around to make sure that Charles is pushing a protesting Tony up the stairs to Ravenclaw Tower.

(She knows he is better, but she cannot forget the way he leaned out of the Astronomy Tower window as though it didn't matter if he fell or not. She's fairly sure that something changed that day, but she's still trying to decide if she likes that or not. He flirts more subtly with her now than with other girls, and there have been no more protestations of undying love or asking of dates. That Christmas, he had sent her a small, cylindrical robot that according to the note in the box, would sit on her shoulders and shoot lasers at her command, which is a definite improvement from the general, obnoxiously singing gifts that she used to receive from him, but she doesn't know what it means. She could ask Charles or Raven, or perhaps even Erik about it, but she gets the idea that Erik would snort and make sarcastic comments, and Charles and Raven would see it as an invitation to match-make, which it really isn't. She still sees Tony Stark as the spoilt, narcissistic pureblood heir who likes to make things blow up in a spectacular fashion and doesn't care about anything outside of his own desires. He would have to mature a lot more for her to want to date him.)

By the time she and Erik and the rest of the prefects have finally managed to herd all the Slytherins back into their rooms (a very difficult task given the weeping and wailing of the lower years), Snape limps in (what happened to his leg?),barks that the troll has been taken care of, and half-stumbles, half-stalks out.

It's only later, while sharing the rest of the pie with everyone that they hear from Raven how Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger managed to take down a troll.

"And he's our Seeker!" Raven exclaimed, happily munching on her slice.

"Unless there's going to be trolls storming the match, I doubt this will be useful skill set," Erik replied snarkily, cutting his slice.

"You're just mad that McGonagall bent all the rules to get him and the team and give him a Nimbus 2000," Raven replied cheerfully, helping herself to more pie, "Although, geez, a Nimbus 2000, paid by the school, that would be nice, it has a mahogany handle and it's the fastest racing broom and…"

Raven continues on with a dreamy expression, until Christine Everhart arrives and says something snippy about Raven's red robes and blue skin, and then Darwin has to keep everyone from strangling, hexing, jinxing, or cursing the girl. Tony promptly breaks up with her at the end of the fight. (If Pepper feels pleased about the fact, she keeps it to herself.)

November 1991

"Fly fast around the Slytherins," Oliver advises seriously, tapping his chalkboard, "None of them are shy about committing any and all fouls available in order to steal the Quaffle, score a goal, or catch the Snitch."

"And try to stay out of Erik's notice," Raven comments to Harry, "He's usually too busy trying to block me from scoring, but if he decides to go after you, just fly. His bludgers are ridiculously accurate."

"That's Erik Lehnsherr, the Slytherin Beater?" Harry asks worriedly, fiddling with his Quidditch gloves.

(She's found the Boy Who Lived to be refreshingly ordinary. He was really surprised at her blue form, but his eyes had taken on a look of wonder as she had explained and demonstrated her metamorphmagus abilities. He's completely uncomfortable about overdue attention and questions, which is why he always runs away from Charles, which she finds absolutely hilarious if only because Charles is so very put out. It's also great that he's a natural Seeker because with him, they could finally redeem their ignominious defeat last year and wipe the smirk off of Erik's gloating face.)

"The brooding, tall one, yes," she replies, counting off points on her fingers, "Nimbus 2000's are faster than Cleansweep 7's, so you can definitely beat him in terms of speed, but watch out because sometimes his bludgers do a sharp right hook at the end. He usually hits to the left, so veer to the right. If you decide to dive, make sure he isn't hovering above you first, because then you just gave him the easiest target in the world."

"What about the other Beater? And why do you know so much about him?" Harry asks, giving her a confused look.

"Don't worry about him; he's not the one who can pin you with a bludger at fifty feet. And he's my brother," Raven takes in Harry's shocked look, "Didn't I mention that? Father married into the Xavier family, and Erik is the Xaviers' ward."

"But he's in Slytherin!" Harry protested, pushing his glasses up.

(While it's true that Slytherin has a darker reputation than the rest of the houses, especially because of You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters, Raven thinks that Harry's view on the house is a bit skewed. Of course, the first Slytherins he had met were You-Know-Who and Draco Malfoy, and neither probably ever gave anyone the best first impression of Slytherins.)

She shrugs, "So are a lot of my friends," she tsks at Harry's horrified expression, "Being cunning and shrewd are not necessarily bad qualities, you know. Not every Slytherin is a spoiled princeling like Malfoy or a possible Death Eater."

"But if it helps you focus your rage against the Slytherins and win the match tomorrow, then Slytherins are all arrogant, blood obsessed bastards," Oliver cut in, waving his hands around frantically.

"Anyway," Raven said, giving Oliver a quelling glance, "back to the point. Fred and George will be watching your back, so for the most part, just look for the Snitch. Signal one of them if Erik's on your tail though."

Harry nodded determinedly as Fred chipped in, "And if you don't even have time for that, you should remember to yell—"

"—that Charles is about to elope with the Wolverine!" George finished with a huge grin, "Distracts him completely every time."

Oliver nodded seriously, "You might die if you use that move, Potter, but you will have won us the match, and that's what matters!"

"Don't worry," Raven assured a pale Harry, "If you do yell that, I'll turn into you and distract Erik," she said shifting into Harry, smiling, and then shifting back, "But seriously only use that move if you're really, really desperate and never want to go walking by the lake again."

(It turns out that they never had to use that move because after the first twenty minutes of the game, Harry's broom begins jerking around uncontrollably, and it looks like he's about to fall off, but then he suddenly speeding toward the ground and spitting out the Snitch, and Raven is too busy cheering, hoisting Harry up into the air with the rest of the team, and laughing at Erik's annoyed expression to worry about it.

It's only later that Erik points out, after muttering about the ridiculousness of a Seeker catching the Snitch with his mouth, that no broomstick should have acted like that. After further prodding and smiles from Charles, he grudgingly admits that he had tried steadying the broom by reaching out to control the stirrups and pivot, but had been shaken off by something. Raven's a bit distracted by the opportunity to mercilessly tease Erik about helping their little Gryffindor Seeker, but she does admit that perhaps something is a bit off about the situation. They don't really know what to do about it though, and in the wake of even more homework and papers due, it slips their minds.)

February 1992

Harry thinks they've gone through every single book in the library, besides the Restricted Section (and he wasn't about to try that again), and they have still found absolutely no mention of Nicholas Flamel.

"Who is this guy?" he groans, slumping over the latest books Hermione has checked out for them, "Does he even exist?"

"Homework troubles, Harry?" Fred asks, plopping down beside him.

"Best thing to do is to ask Professor X," George says adamantly, sitting on his other side, "He knows everything."

Harry looks up at the two of them, "Who's Professor X?" he asks curiously.

The twins share an amused look, "Raven's older brother," they both reply.

"Erik Lehnsherr?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

(He's heard a lot of rumors about Erik Lehnsherr; everyone has. They say that he keeps an army of metal animals around the school, that people who piss him off come to messy ends, that he's training himself to either become the next Dark Lord or kill a Death Eater, that Professor Snape has personally taught him Dark Arts, that he trained his owl to kill on sight, that he rules Slytherin House with a literal iron fist, and that he has a Ravenclaw boyfriend that he is utterly besotted with. He's not actually sure which of these rumors are true; Raven laughs too hard to answer every time she hears one for him to tell, but he knows for certain that that rumor about Erik Lehsnherr having some sort of long-standing hatred against the Wolverine is after watching the heated, highly-anticipated Slytherin-Hufflepuff game in which the two beaters had volleyed flurries of bludgers at each other so furiously that one of them had broken off one of the goals.)

"No," George says emphatically, pulling on a horrified face, "That's Magneto. Professor X is—"

"—Raven's other brother, Charles Xavier," Fred finishes, looking at Harry, "You want to talk to him?"

They've tried everything else already, so they may as well try this guy. Harry shrugs and says, "Okay."

Both twins grin and yell, "Raven! Harry wants to talk to Charles!"

"Really?" Raven asked incredulously, walking up to them, "You want to talk to Charles?"

Harry glances at the twins who are urging him on with little hand-wavy motions. "Yes, I need to ask him a question," he says firmly.

She shrugs and says, "Alright then, but it's your funeral."

Harry has a bad feeling about this, but he still follows Raven out of the Gryffindor common room and down to the (much to familiar at this point) library. Raven strides over to a table piled with a small mountain of books and notes and calls out, "Charles!"

A harried sounding voice floats from over the books, "Raven, if this is about Hank, now really isn't the best time—"

"Harry Potter is here, and he wants to ask you a question," Raven cuts in, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder.

A tousled head pops up from behind the books, and Harry backs away because the Ravenclaw that is grinning so widely at him was the same guy who had interrogated him mercilessly about his magic on his first day before being dragged off by someone else (while he supposes that it had been a rather less traumatizing experience than nearly being eaten by Fluffy, he still ran every time he had seen the Ravenclaw because he didn't want to talk about You-Know-Who and his magic. He wanted to be normal). He should have known the twins were up to something.

"Harry! Hello!" Charles says happily, waving his wand to move aside some of the books, "I'm glad we finally get a chance to talk. Now tell me, when you were a young child, did you ever manifest any particularly unusual abilities, such as—"

"The kid has a question Charles, stop trying to research him," an irritated voice says, as Erik Lehnsherr appears from behind the mountain of books and glowers at everyone around him.

"Oh right, what is your question Harry?" Charles asks, unperturbedly stroking Erik's arm calmingly and looking at Harry expectantly.

And Harry is really, really confused about what is going on (why was Erik Lehnsherr here? If they are both Raven's brothers, then he guesses that they are sort of each others as well, but they seem awfully…close. Was the rumor about the Ravenclaw boyfriend actually true? He and Ron had agreed that that was the least likely one.), but he has to find out who Nicholas Flamel is so that they can stop Snape's evil plan, so he asks, "Who is Nicholas Flamel?"

"Nicholas Flamel?' Charles asked in a surprised voice, "He's a famous alchemist and only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone. Is Professor Binns teaching you this? He never taught our class anything half as interesting."

"It's for a-a project," Harry invents, hope rising at the prospect of an actual answer, "What's the Philosopher's Stone?"

"It's a legendary substance that can transform any metal into pure gold. It can also be used to create the Elixir of Life, which could grant a person an indefinitely long extended life, as long as they keep drinking it. For example, Nicholas Flamel is currently six-hundred and sixty-five," Charles replied commenting, "I never remember Professor Binns assigning us any such interesting projects, only essays on goblin rebellions."

"Be thankful or else we would be even more stressed," Erik said, retreating behind the mountain of books once again, "And there is a six-foot long essay on goblin rebellions due in three days, in case you forgot."

Charles curses and rushes back to his books and notes, "I'm sorry Raven, Harry," he calls out as notes begin to fly around the table, "But there's urgent work to be done. I hope I answered your question at least, Harry?"

Harry nods happily, "Yeah, you did."

"Great!" Charles flashes him a grin above all the books, "Then perhaps next time we could talk about—"

"Aaand, that's our cue to leave," Raven said, grabbing Harry by the arm, "Bye Charles! Try not to overdose on caffeine and Pepper-Up Potion! And don't let Erik kill anyone!"

While Charles' complaints fade around them, Raven says in an off-hand manner, "But you know, even if Charles is half-delirious from N.E.W.T. classes, he is right. Binns definitely doesn't give out projects that are that interesting. Why did you need to know that fact, Harry?"

"Er—Someone mentioned it once, and I was curious, that's all," Harry said vaguely, hoping that she would drop this train of thought.

"Really? Why would anyone talk about an old alchemist?" Raven mused out loud, giving Harry a long look, "Well, whatever it is, don't get into too much trouble. Oliver will probably have a heart attack and die if you get banned from playing Quidditch."

(Later on, when they have lost Gryffindor so many points for Norbert, Raven sighs but treats the three of them more or less the same as always instead of ignoring them like most of the rest of his house. He thinks that while she may have really strange relatives, Raven herself is pretty nice.)

May 1992

"Hank asked me out!" Raven yelled, running in happily, skin a particularly rich shade of blue.

Despite the fact that final exams are in a few weeks, and he feels absolutely exhausted, and Madam Pince is glaring at them (they would have gotten thrown out a long time ago if it wasn't for the fact that Charles was just that charming), Darwin claps for her (it was about time,) and Pepper smiles and offers her congratulations. Charles and Erik smile at her, but Darwin notices the quick look they shared between them (Hank was going to be in for it).

"Where are you two going?" Pepper asks, casually flipping through her Muggle Studies textbook that he knows is hiding a romance novel (Darwin is so jealous of her right now; she somehow has pretty much finished studying and is probably the only 6th year in all of Hogwarts who has time to be reading a novel, albeit in a discreet way so as not to attract unwanted attention or mockery).

"Hogsmeade, this weekend," Raven happily replied, sitting down next to her.

Charles frowned as he looked up from his books, "Not Madam Puddifoot's I hope?"

Raven made a face at him, "No; we heard enough complaints about it from you already to last a lifetime. We're going to the Three Broomsticks at a private table, so you guys better go somewhere else."

"I don't know, I think we should return the favor of stalking people on their dates, don't you Erik?" Charles asked sweetly, turning to Erik beside him.

Erik nods, laying an arm across Charles' shoulders, "Along with 'commemorative' photos," he added maliciously.

"You do that, and I'll burn all of your notes," Raven replies mutinously, "This is our first date, and Hank seems kind of nervous, so back off."

As Raven flounces out of the library, Charles turns to Darwin and asks, "Darwin, you do own a camera, do you not?"

"Sure," Darwin admitted, scratching the back of his head, "But are you sure you can survive without all of your notes?"

"I've already fire-proofed them all," Charles reassured him cheerfully (of course he had. As far as he knew, only Pepper was more meticulous about her notes than Charles), "I feel like going to the Three Broomsticks with Erik this weekend. Perhaps you want to bring Alex there as well? And Pepper, perhaps you wish to push Tony there?"

(Darwin still doesn't quite understand the current relationship between Tony and Pepper, and he doesn't think anyone else, including the two involved, really did either. Tony still badgered Pepper, but he was with so many other girls all the time. Pepper still seemed somewhat annoyed at Tony, but she also kept close tabs on him. It was odd, but Darwin respected Pepper's desire for privacy, so he didn't try asking her about it, and asking Tony would never result in a straight answer. He guesses that all of them will figure it out eventually.)

"Tony is currently moderating a misunderstanding of interests between himself and two Gryffindor seventh year girls, so I doubt he will be joining us," Pepper replied, not looking up from her book, "However, Moira wants to rant about Potter and his friends losing their house so many points, and as a good friend, I was already thinking about taking her to the Three Broomsticks."

"Excellent!" Charles exclaims, scooting closer to Erik as he glares at Pepper (there is no love lost between Moira and Erik, even after Moira has obviously moved on. However, Moira is friends with both Pepper and Raven, and Darwin resigns himself to a night full of moderating cutting remarks and glares as Erik curls himself more and more possessively around Charles, Charles tries to reign him in and be awkwardly nice to Moira, and Moira rolls her eyes), "We will all be coincidentally bumping into Raven and Hank over the weekend then. And then Erik and I are going to have a little talk with Hank."

It's a supremely bad idea (because even if the Weasley twins respect Charles, they're best friends with Raven, and the twins and Raven could be quite inventive with their pranks), but it's no worse than when Raven had dragged him, Pepper, and Tony to spy on Erik and Charles (and probably less dangerous because while Raven had the twins, Charles and Erik are scary when pissed off separately and nightmarish when pissed off at someone together), and he had planned to go to Hogsmeade with Alex, so he agrees.

(It's about as disastrous as he thought it would be, with Hank stuttering, Raven fuming, Charles laughing, Erik smirking, Pepper discreetly taking photos, Moira wearing an amused expression on her face, and Darwin apologizing to a bemused Alex about bringing him here while trying to keep Raven from setting fire to anything. She's only distracted in the end by Tony running in, begging for someone to hide him before two Gryffindor girls slam open the doors furiously and seem to be intent on transfiguring Tony into a toad. Pepper manages to talk them down from it by agreeing that Tony Stark is a lying, cheating bastard, but pointing out that Gryffindor cannot afford to lose any more points, and that Tony Stark definitely isn't worth it. Moira buys them some butterbeer, and then all of the girls are swapping increasingly embarrassing stories about the guys they know, to the discomfort of the male portion of the group.

A few days later, Hank tremblingly asks Darwin if Erik really could rip the iron out of blood and if Legilimens could really make you think you were a twelve year old girl for the rest of your life, and Darwin has to calm Hank down from hysterics while wondering if his two friends really could do all that. Erik isn't one for idle threats after all, and Charles' magic had always seemed stronger than usual when it came to Legilimency.

Then finals start, and he's too busy trying to remember how to vanish a whole elephant and how to brew a Draught of Living Death to think about anything else.)

June 1992

Charles does think that the formal uniform with the pointy hats looks quite silly, but it's required for the End-Of-Year feast, and it's kind of hilarious to see everyone wearing them (Raven has tried shifting into so many different forms, but even she cannot find one where wearing the hat doesn't look somewhat ridiculous).

The halls are decked in silver and green, and he can feel a pulse of vague satisfactionpride from Erik, who had managed to send a bludger at the Ravenclaw Seeker during the last match, distracting her long enough for Terence Higgs to take the Snitch, winning Slytherin the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup.

If you look any more smug, I think Raven may try punching you, he comments, cutting into his steak.

It's not my fault they lost so badly to Hufflepuff, Erik replied, helping himself to some mashed potatoes, She should punch the Wolverine instead. Or Harry Potter for unnecessary or excessive heroics.

The poor boy nearly got killed, Charles scolded mildly, sending him the sensation of a smack on the arm.

By Quirrell of all people, Erik mused wonderingly, You do realize your minions may have been on his hit-list since they enchanted snowballs to follow and whack him around?

I did tell them off about that, Charles sighed, pouring himself more pumpkin juice, I also had to restrain them from sending Harry a toilet seat, if you can believe that.

I will believe anything and everything about what the twins have been up to, Erik replied dryly.

Dumbledore tapped his glass for attention and began to give his customary end-of-year speech. Charles didn't really bother to listen, having heard most of it before, helping himself to more food and obligingly cheering at the announcing of house points. It isn't until he feels Erik's growing displeasure (sandpaper across the skin) that he looks up to see Dumbledore give out last minute points.

By the time Dumbledore has given out enough points so that Gryffindor has edged past Slytherin and changed all the silver and green decoration to red and gold, Erik looks as though he's trying to murder Dumbledore with his eyes.

It's okay Erik, Charles said soothingly, ignoring his fellow Ravenclaws' cheers (Slytherin had been a bit too smug about their continued House championships), It's not even like you care about the House Cup.

That's not the point, it's the principle of the matter, Erik snapped as the forks around him twanged oddly, Since when did any house get last minute points? Also, why was that Weasley awarded fifty points for beating our chess set? We only got thirty apiece and we made it.

We made three pieces, Charles corrected, sending calming emotions (water lapping against the sand) to him, and Professor McGonagall designed the rest. He does deserve the points for managing to beat it.

We could have done that easily, Erik argued back stubbornly, And don't bother saying that's because we're older; we could have done that when we were eleven as well.

True, Charles admitted but added, but we are and were quite good at chess. He still deserves the points.

Maybe, Erik grudgingly admits before saying wonderingly, It's almost over, you know. We'll formally be adults soon.

Yes, Charles replies with a frission of unease, Only if we pass our N.E.W.T.s though.

We will, Erik says, and he can feel him rolling his eyes even if he can't see him.

(It's true; they are leaving soon, and it's exciting, it really is, but it's also a bit scary. He's still not entirely sure which Ministry Department he wants to work in yet since they all seem so interesting, but he knows Erik will become an Auror and move one step closer to finding Shaw. Shaw is dangerous, and he knows that Erik has to face his demons, but at the same time, that old fear that he will lose Erik, that he will never see him again, still persists and sinks its talons into his mind.)

I am here, Erik says steadily, meeting his eyes across the hall, And it is not yet; I promised you that.

I know, he replies, grasping his hand in his mind, I know. One more year here. Let's make it one to remember?

As long as you can bear to tear yourself away from studying for N.E.W.T.s, Erik teases, grasping his hand tightly in his mind, We'll be fine.

A/N: More fluffy this one, because the next one is less? Not sure how well this all worked. Christine Everhart is the Vainity Fair reporter in the Iron Man movies.