Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, settings, or worlds within this work, outside of a few OC's. Any recognizable characters are not mine; I'm just playing with them. Harry Potter and its associated works belongs to J.K. Rowling. X-men and Marvel belongs to... er... Disney, I suppose? I am not making any money off of this fan work, nor do I wish to.

Author's Note: I looked up which day of the week September 1st, 1993 fell on, and it was a Wednesday. Which, oddly enough, would indicate that in the original book, Malfoy was in the hospital wing for a full week after that Hippogriff scratch. Which kind of makes it even funnier to me that Malfoy, in canon, had his arm all wrapped up in a sling and whatnot considering he, and I quote, "didn't reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning." I'm not entirely sure whether or not J.K. Rowling actually checked the days on that or not when she was writing her book, but for this fic, I'm using the real-world days of the week based on date.

So, thus far: they arrived at school on Wednesday, the first day of classes in which Draco's mutation emerged was on Thursday, and the meeting and subsequent conversations on mutants took place on Friday, Which means the end of last chapter was also the beginning of the weekend.

Chapter 10

Readjust

Saturday morning after breakfast saw Neville and Harry being dragged across the grounds by an overexcited Hermione on a mission, with a somewhat less worked up but no less curious Ron trailing after. She was taking them a little ways around the Black Lake so they could show her their abilities.

They found a nice little spot that was out of sight of the main castle, and Hermione dropped their hands and turned around.

"Alright, we're here. Now who's first?"

Harry and Neville gave each other a glance. They didn't necessarily mind showing Hermione their powers, but... neither of them really had the best control. Harry had taken a pretty big risk the day before when he used his wind in the dormitories- he wasn't sure if he could pull off such a small use of power again so soon. Neville was in a pretty similar boat- while he was a bit more aware of when his power was activated than Harry was, that didn't necessarily mean he was very good at actually focusing it. He worried he might accidentally get them all so tangled up in plants that they wouldn't be able to get out until someone found them. It wasn't like Neville could un-grow a plant, after all. The two of them held a silent conversation with eye contact and gestures. If it were translated into words, it would have gone something like-

You should go first.

No, you go first. We're outside. It's, like, the perfect environment. Plants everywhere and all.

It's a perfect place for your powers, too! It's not like a miniature cyclone is indoor-friendly either.

Well, I think-

At this point, they were interrupted by Ron. "Just flip a coin for it or something!"

They both turned to glare at him. Then Harry sighed and pulled out a sickle, handing it to Ron. "Here. I'll be Heads, and Neville's Tails."

Ron flipped the coin. It landed on Tails.

Neville slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Fine."

He stepped forward, scanning the ground for something that would be good to use for a demonstration- there! A small patch of harebells grew close beside the roots of a large tree. He reached out and plucked one, then turned to Hermione and concentrated on the little blue flower.

He tried to do the same thing he'd done the other day with the clover, and simply grow them enough to fill his hand... but he miscalculated the strength of his nudge, and suddenly found himself with both arms full of little skinny stems which were already beginning to sprout buds, which were growing into flowers, and... and there went the flowers, spreading quickly across the ground, springing up and growing larger and larger until there were dozens upon dozens of pale-blue bell-shaped flowers spanning in various sizes. Some were the normal size of the flower, about half an inch across, some were about the size of a person's head, and there were even a few which managed to grow so large that a person could fit inside.

Neville cringed. "Sorry about that... I think I, um. Overdid it... a little.

Hermione barely even heard him. She was absolutely enthralled with the flowers, her eyes wide. "Hooooly... Wow. This is... amazing. Neville, this is absolutely incredible!"

Ron raised an eyebrow. Sure, it was pretty cool, but they were just flowers. Great, huge flowers that sprung up out of a tiny sprig... But still!

Hermione walked through the mass of giant harebells, reaching out to touch them gently. Stopping before one of the medium-sized ones, she hesitated a moment, then plucked it from its stem, giggling to herself. Before the boys could ask her what was so funny, she had spun back around and plopped the flower right over her head as if it were a hat. "How do I look?"

What a scary question. The three boys glanced at each other. She looked pretty ridiculous, with the points of the flower poking down around her face. Did they... tell her that? Or would the safer route be to tell her the flower looked great on her? Some sort of semi-compliment, perhaps?

Hermione rolled her eyes and took it off. "Forget I asked."

She moved to one of the larger flowers and studied it a moment. "Do you suppose I could make a skirt out of this?"

Neville blinked. A skirt out of flowers? "Er, well... You probably could, but I dunno how long it'd last. Being a flower and all. I guess you could, if you used a Preservation Charm or something."

She hummed. "That could work... but it'd be a bit difficult to bring the floral material into the school without people asking me where I got it from, and I know you said you wanted to keep your mutation a secret for now..." She sighed. "I suppose I'll have to revisit the idea later..."

She turned to Harry. "Now... I believe it's your turn, Mr. Potter, and don't think you're getting out of it. I still don't know what your power actually is."

Harry blinked. That's right. He was part of this little performance too. "Okay. I'll do it... but you should stand back. I'm... not actually sure how strong I can go, and I don't want to accidentally send you flying."

"Send me flying?"

"You'll see. Just... just back up."

"Alright..."

Ron, Hermione, and Neville all shuffled over to a corner of the clearing, next to a tall tree. Harry checked the tree over from where he was standing. That should work for something they could hold onto if things got out of hand.

Good. He wouldn't have to worry too much about blowing them over. Now... as for actually using his power...

He reached for his "on" switch, and pulled. Instantly, a breeze sprang up, cycling around his body with a radius of about five feet. Hermione gasped. "Whoa!"

Harry grinned. "Pretty cool, right?" He pulled a little more, and the wind grew stronger. "Hold on!" he called.

WHOOOOOSH

The air blew harder and harder, but thankfully, as far as he could tell, it was still within his control. He could do this... he could do this-

Suddenly, he felt something shift within the wind. Not only was it blowing fast... but the air itself was starting to grow- thicker?

Wait... what?

Harry quickly reigned his wind back in, but not before he saw all three of his friends bowled over, despite the tree standing at their backs. The moment the wind had died, he rushed over, concerned he'd hurt them somehow, but they waved him off.

"We're fine, Harry," said Ron. "Just didn't quite expect... that, I suppose."

Hermione smiled. "That was so cool! How strong do you think you could make it if we weren't here? How wide can you go? Can you do this for a long time or does it make you tire quickly? Are you able to feel it when it's blowing or-"

"Whoa, whoa! One question at a time, Hermione! Wind user or not, he can't answer twenty questions all at once!"

Harry scratched the back of his neck. "Ron's right, Hermione... besides. I, uh. Don't actually know the answers to most of those questions, anyway... I've only known about my power since the end of last year, and I spent most of the summer at the Dursleys. Haven't had much of a chance to experiment."

"Well, we'll just have to work on it, won't we?"

Ron raised an eyebrow at her. "Work on it? Hermione, you were barely able to drag us out here as it is, your schedule's so full! When are you going to have time to help him work on it?"

Harry and Neville watched as Ron and Hermione began a familiar back-and-forth.

Harry turned to Neville. "So, er... Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm just fine, Harry." Neville grinned at him. "Just a little, ah...winded."

Harry snorted and shoved Neville's shoulder as the group began to head back to the castle.

Yeah. They were all just fine.

The teachers gave the students a bit more time, in case there was anyone else who wished to come forward. Then on Sunday afternoon, Professors Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Dumbledore reconvened to compare notes on student responses to the meeting on Friday morning, and decide where to go from there. Apparently, all the students who wished to confess, had done so by the end of Friday, so they really needn't have waited. But, well... It was what it was.

McGonagall ran through the list for the benefit of Flitwick and Dumbledore, who had not yet had the time to peruse it. When she got to Harry, Dumbledore was genuinely startled.

"Harry is a mutant? Are we certain about this? You say he asked another student to inform the teachers in his place, after all. His status is technically hearsay."

"It's a bit difficult to be certain about any of these students at the moment, Albus," McGonagall said wryly. "considering none of us save Severus had any idea such a thing existed three days ago, and we are currently taking their word for it. He is one of the only two out of seven students besides Mr. Malfoy professing to have a mutation who actually resides in the Muggle world outside of school and was aware of mutants before Mr. Malfoy's mutation manifested. I'm rather inclined to be more certain of his claim than any others, despite the roundabout way he took of stating it. Besides, the person Mr. Potter asked to talk to the teachers was Mr. Longbottom- he's not the type to tell false tales."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "I suppose you have a point. You also have a point that it is difficult to be certain of the claims the students are making when we have not seen their abilities for ourselves. It is all well and good that there are students coming forward, but if we simply take their words at face value without taking the time to verify them, then any number of students could pretend to be a mutant in an attempt to give them some form of distinction amongst their peers."

"I've seen Mr. Longbottom's ability," said Professor Sprout, "he showed it to me when he came up after class to talk. I can confirm that his powers are genuine."

"And Miss Lovegood confirmed her ability with me." added Flitwick.

"Then, that leaves us with Mr. Potter, Mr. Kettleburn, and Mr. Diggory who have yet to confirm their status in person."

McGonagall spoke up. "Perhaps it would be prudent to set up a private meeting with any student who approaches us believing they possess a mutation. Even if we choose to trust in their self-perception, it may be for the best to see all of these abilities for ourselves, so that we might determine what sort of assistance such a student may need as their mutation continues to develop. Mr. Kettleburn, for instance, is far less likely to require much of anything from us, as his alleged-powers are minor, and relatively stable. Mr. Malfoy, on the other hand..."

They all recalled a slight incident right before breakfast, which caused a large section of the Slytherin corridor to be spattered with small glittering spots of silvery not-actually-diamond, and led to the aforementioned Mr. Malfoy choosing to take breakfast in the dorms that morning of his own accord.

"Yes, we'll certainly need to find some way to help him with any accidents. Particularly if he is to return to classes anytime soon."

"Perhaps we could give him a bag with an Expansion Charm placed on it?"

"That would be a stopgap measure at best, Albus." said Snape, "and he would never agree to carry it on his person."

"Ah, well. We can determine how best to help him later. For the time being, do we all agree to set up meetings with each of the mutant students for the purpose of confirming the authenticity of their mutations, and to determine what sort of assistance they may require?"

He received three affirming nods. However, Sprout seemed a bit uncertain. "Not to be smart with you, Headmaster, but while it's all well and good that we're going to confirm the mutations, have you considered the possibility that one of them might try to fake it with magic? I believe Mr. Longbottom, certainly- his power was too markedly obvious to be false- but this balancing fellow for instance, Mr. Kettleburn... It's not so hard to pretend to have an unnatural ability with something like that, you know?"

Dumbledore frowned. "Hmm. I didn't consider that. A powerful mutation would be difficult to imitate consistently, but considering there's plenty of mutants with weaker abilities out there..."

Flitwick beamed. "I believe I have a solution for that, don't worry."

"Oh, really? What's that?" Sprout asked.

"Our young friend Miss Lovegood- she says her ability works on more than just magic, and I'm inclined to believe her assessment of her own abilities."

"I see. And she can tell when someone's a mutant then, can she?"

"According to her, she not only knew there were other mutants in the school, but she also could identify things that have interacted with their mutations. She says that all the magic makes everything mix together, so she can't tell if someone's a mutant or not just by looking at them, but when they're actively using their powers..."

"Excellent!" chirped Dumbledore. "We shall ask Miss Lovegood if she would be willing to assist us with these meetings- with the other students' permission, of course. Now that that's settled... are we all in agreement?"

There were four nods this time.

"Excellent! Minerva, I will leave scheduling these meetings and contacting the students to you."

The letters went out on Monday morning.

Luna saw a flash of Tony Kettleburn balancing atop a thin metal strip, and preparing to hop onto the head of a pin in front of the four Heads of House. She blinked in bewilderment. "What on earth-"

There was a sudden *pop* and a piece of rolled up parchment appeared before her, resting innocently on her textbook. As she read what it said, she began to understand what her little flash-vision had meant.

Cedric studied the letter he'd received from Professor McGonagall. A demonstration? Using what? Should he bring his own paper (he's been learning a lot about origami this summer, so he actually owns paper now), or can he just lift the Professor's hat?

...Scratch that, he's definitely bringing his own paper. He's not willing to risk McGonagall's ire.

It could be pretty funny, though...

No! Bad brain. No playing pranks on the professors. It would trace back to him immediately anyway, considering he was the only person he knew of who could pick up a hat without either touching it or using a wand.

Neville stopped Ron and Hermione on the way to Transfiguration. "Have you guys seen Harry?"

Ron blinked at him, then paused to think about it. "No... No, I don't think I have. Not since the first class got out."

Neville drooped visibly. "Oh, dear. I'm supposed to tell him- Er. Nevermind."

Hermione peered at him quizzically. "Nevermind what, Neville?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, forget I-"

She raised her eyebrows at him.

He sighed. "Fine. It's about- well, you know. That. I'm supposed to tell him he has a meeting with McGonagall this afternoon at four."

"Well, it's almost time for Transfiguration anyway, why don't you tell him then?"

"I was going to, but... I dunno, he seemed kind of... off. During Charms, I mean."

Hermione focused sharply on Neville. "Off?"

"Yeah. He seemed a bit distracted. Left class pretty quickly, too. I'm a bit worried."

Ron stared down the hallway as if that would make Harry appear out of thin air. "Now that you mention it... He did leave class a bit quickly. Said he was going to- er." He glanced at Hermione before whispering. "Going to the.. Y'know."

"Oh for heaven's sake, Ron, you can just say he was going to the bathroom."

Ron blushed. "Hermione!"

"So," Hermione continued as if he hadn't spoken, "Harry said he was going to the bathroom, and then he left you?"

"Yeah."

"Was there anything that seemed unusual about his body language? Was he upset about something, maybe?"

Ron started to shake his head, then stopped. "Actually..."

"What? What is it, what did you remember?!"

"Well... It wasn't anything in his body language, per say..."

"So? What was it, then?"

"I think... I think I noticed a bit of a breeze blowing in class, a couple times. And, well... I wasn't paying much attention at the time, but... I think it started getting stronger a couple minutes before class let out."

They all stared at each other. Neville grimaced. "...I think we'd better go find him," he said.

Hermione tilted her head. "Are you sure? He might want to be alone, if he's... you know."

Neville shuffled a bit. "I'm sure. I- he- it's..." he took a deep breath. "Whenever I'm... having problems, it... it helps, sometimes. If I'm not alone. If I am alone, then I just get more upset. But if someone's there, to help me focus on something else... It's a little better."

They mulled this over for a bit, then Ron gave a firm nod. "That's it, then. We're finding him."

Hermione agreed. "I... I hate to miss Transfiguration, but... Harry's more important."

Neville relaxed. "Okay. Let's see if we can figure out where he's gone, then."

They decided that the best route to take would be to head back to the Charms classroom and then think it through to find where would be a good place to go if they were dealing with a mutant-powers-related breakdown.

It took them about fifteen minutes- they were going to be so late for class- but they finally located him in an empty classroom on the floor above.

Ron wasn't quite sure what he was expecting. He knew Harry's powers were strong. He knew that having his powers out of control would probably be quite the experience.

Even so... He hadn't quite expected this.

Despite being abandoned, the classroom still contained plenty of desks, abandoned school supplies, chairs...

All of which were being blown around the room as if they weighed nothing more than a tumbleweed.

Merlin's beard.

They hadn't even entered the room yet, and they could already feel the pressure of the wind in the room.

Hermione steeled herself, and knocked on the wall by the entrance. "Harry?" she called.

"Stay back!" they heard a faint yell from inside- faint because of how loud the wind noise was. "Don't come in, you hear me? It's too strong!"

Hermione glared at the doorway, and made as if to walk inside regardless, but Neville stopped her. "Best do as he says, Hermione."

She gave him an incredulous look. "It was your idea to come find him in the first place!" she snapped.

"I know. And we did. Come find him, that is... But that doesn't mean we shouldn't listen to what he says. He knows his own powers best- and we can still help from out here."

He then turned to the door, and stepped close to it without going inside. "Are you alright, Harry?" he asked, yelling into the wind. "What brought this on?"

"I don't know!" Harry called back. "It just started pulling at me earlier, and I knew I had to get somewhere before it blew up! I can't stop it- I won't be able to get to class for awhile. You guys should just go ahead to Transfiguration. I'll be fine!"

"Not a chance, Harry!" called Ron. "We came all this way to find you, and we might as well stay!"

There was a long pause. The wind shifted in tone; it was still chaotic, but it seemed a bit more focused, and less panicked. "You'll stay outside the door?"

"We'll stay outside the door."

Another pause, then- "I... I guess that's alright, then."

They remained outside, as promised. It took the better part of the hour for Harry's powers to finally calm down. They definitely missed Transfiguration.

Ron just shook his head when Hermione turned up later with three copies of their homework, stating that she had explained everything to McGonagall and their absence had been excused, and seemed to have somehow managed to make up her own absence already, despite having stayed with Harry along with him and Neville.

At least Neville had the chance to deliver his message.

Author's Note:

Ugh. Not for the first time since I started this fic, I wrote out this one couple of paragraphs of this chapter, forgot to save before moving on, and accidentally hit the "back a page" arrow button. Which means I lost that whole section, lol.

At least I remembered the basic gist of what I meant to say... but it still feels like it turned out a bit different from how I originally wrote it, and it stole my muse for a few minutes. Oh well.. at least it was just one part and not the whole chapter!

By the way, this is a really long author's note again, sorry...

It might seem a bit like I'm overdoing the whole "the mutants powers are misbehaving" side of this story, particularly as pertains to Harry...

Well, here's the thing.

I've always thought that, in X-Men: Evolution anyway, the fact that various mutants needed to go to Xavier's in order to learn to control their powers should mean that they actually have trouble with controlling their powers.

And, well... They do, yes. Sometimes. For like one episode. Each. There (spoilers) was the time when Rogue had a colossal powers freakout because she had absorbed too many memories and abilities for her mind to properly handle. There was the time when Beast did an experiment on himself and had to wrestle his animalistic-mutation side into submission. There was the time when Jean had trouble with her telepathic abilities because of Phoenix Arc Foreshadowing...

But aside from that, and one or two other minor instances... that's about it. Over the course of 52 episodes.

The rest of the time, the mutants generally have pretty good control over their powers from the moment they arrive at the Institute. Few to no slip-ups at all, outside of times when they're intentionally reckless with their abilities because they're trying to one-up each other.

And while that makes sense for a cartoon TV show that's trying to focus on the plot... At the same time, it doesn't quite make sense as far as the whole "they came here for the express purpose of learning how to use/control their powers in a safe/secure environment" side of things goes.

So, for this fic, I'm making it so that as their powers develop, especially if someone's powers awaken early, a mutant's powers tend to "surge" similarly to how Jean's telepathy does in that one episode, where it just randomly starts acting up for no reason sometimes. Think of it as the mutant variation on growing pains and mood swings. This is not so much of a problem for less powerful mutants, but when a mutant has a more destructive ability? Watch out.

In Harry's case, this means that he gets this surge and suddenly he's in the middle of what's basically a weak-on-the-tornado-scale-but-still-pretty-strong cyclone that he can't shut off. (Kind of like when a teenager gets upset for no reason because of hormones, and they know they're upset for no reason but they can't help but cry anyway, which might even make them cry harder because why the heck am I crying there's nothing to cry about. I had that happen to me in junior high a couple times. It was annoying, lol.)

Harebells are my favorite flower. I'm shamelessly using Neville's mutant power as an excuse to put a bunch of them into that one bit. :)

They're in the same basic family as bluebells, except where bluebells are kind of longish and droopy and an intense purple-lavender sort of color, harebells are smaller and shorter, but a bit plumper-looking and more like an actual bell shape, with a pale shade of blue that's less purplish and closer to actual blue.

Both are very pretty flowers, but I just love harebells. They're so cute and they look like little fairy dresses or something.

There. Mini-squee rant over, haha.