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: At the end of the author's note at the end of this chapter, I'm going to reply to a flurry of reviews I got from one person the other day. Feel free to skip said reply if you'd rather not read it; it's very long, as the person left me nine separate reviews with no PM box to reply to, lol. I swear over half this chapter's word count is made up of that reply. :P

Chapter 15

Connect: Part II

Ororo watched McGonagall lead Charles over to the side of the room.

That woman grew concerned the moment Charles said he could read minds, she thought. Not an unusual reaction, but I hope it does not cause a problem for relations between our schools in the future.

Her thought process was interrupted by Neville asking, "So are there a lot of mutants at your school? If it's a school just for mutants, there must be a lot of them, right?"

Ororo smiled. "Well, that depends on how many you consider a lot. To answer your question, we have a little over a dozen students in total, along with several teachers. However, there are thousands of mutants in the world, so compared to the mutant population as a whole, we don't truly have very many mutant students at our school. Still, there are more mutants living at the Institute than can be found in one place anywhere else. I suppose that must count for something."

Neville thought about how chaotic it had been over the last several weeks with just 6 mutants at the school, and only four of them with troublesome powers...

"More than a dozen..." he whispered in awe. "And they can all control their powers?"

"Oh, none of the students are perfect. Some of them have abilities whose very nature makes them difficult or impossible to control, and others only started at our school fairly recently, and therefore haven't had the opportunity to get a strong handle on their abilities yet. But they are all learning, and they are doing very well."

"Er... What do you mean, about abilities that are impossible to control?"

Kitty piped in then. "Well, for example, there's my friend Rogue. She has the power to, like, copy people's powers by touching them. But the thing is she can, like, totally kill someone if she touches them for too long, so she has to be super careful with, like, covering up her skin, y'know?"

Neville grimaced. "Ouch." then, curious, he asked, "So what other powers do people have?"

Kitty grinned. "Well... There's Scott. He shoots lasers from his eyes. And Bobby- he makes ice. And then there's Evan. He can shoot these big spikes out of his body." She giggled. "We have to watch out sometimes because he's got, like, a bad habit of shooting spikes everywhere and just, like, leaving them there, y'know? Anyway... There's Jean, she can move things with her mind, and Kurt- he's got blue fur and a tail, and he can teleport."

Neville blinked, taking that in. "Blue fur?"

"Yep! He's our blue fuzzy elf!"

His eyes widened. "A blue elf?"

Ororo stepped in. "Kitty, I know he asked, but let's not overwhelm the poor boy."

Kitty paused, in the middle of opening her mouth to continue her babbling. "Oh. Sorry, Neville, I just got a little excited. It's always cool to meet a new mutant, y'know? So... that was a little bit about us. What about you? Like, what kind of powers do you have?"

Neville shifted a bit. "Oh, um. I can make plants grow really fast."

"Really? Cool! So like, that means you could grow the bush in that pot over there, right?"

He hesitated. "Er, well... I could, yeah. But I don't know that that's such a good idea. I'd make it grow too big, and I don't think the restaurant would be very happy with me if I ruined their plants."

"Oh. You're right. Well... Maybe we could go somewhere after the meeting and you can show us your powers then?"

Neville nodded. "I think that'd be okay, if Professor McGonagall's okay with it."

"Great! We'll ask them later, alright?"

He smiled. "Alright."

McGonagall regarded Professor Xavier pensively. "So you are aware of the magical community, then."

Xavier steepled his fingers together. "Yes. Though, I observed at quite a young age that magical people try to avoid being noticed by non-magical people as much as they possibly can. Considering my own secrets, I have done my best to respect theirs as well. I've never brought the subject up with anyone." He tilted his head. "I must say it's rather refreshing, being confronted about it for once."

McGonagall considered him a moment, then seemed to come to a decision, for she said, "I hope you realize I must be careful in how I proceed. There are certain laws in place which prevent me from being open about our existence with your colleagues at this time, at least until I have the chance to consult with my employer."

"I understand."

"Good. In that case, would you mind detailing to me how much you already know? I do not intend to harm you for your knowledge- in fact, this will probably prove beneficial to our working relationship- but before I say anything more, I must have an understanding of what you are already aware of."

"That's certainly an acceptable request. Very well, then. To start with, I have been aware of the existence of people with magical abilities since I was a child, although it wasn't until I was a young adult that I put the clues together to correlate witches and wizards with the various strange anomalies I noticed over the years. I am aware that there are various locations which most normal people seem to pass over or even be unable to see. I have, many times, seen and even briefly spoken with people who had rather strange behavior patterns for someone who allegedly lives in the area.

Also, I've occasionally encountered strange 'pockets' of space, which contain many more people than the size of the place would normally account for. It was rather overwhelming the first few times I encountered these in my teen years- I was unprepared for the sheer number of people concentrated in one area. There are other small things I've noticed over the years, but that should cover the gist of what I know."

"Hmm. It's a good start, certainly. I don't suppose you've ever actually seen magic being performed?"

"No. I'm aware it exists, but being non-magical myself I've never had the opportunity to see more than what I happened to pick up from people's minds."

"Of course. Well, I suppose I might as well offer you clarification regarding some of what you've told me. After all, even if you hadn't known about us already, it is very likely that we would have needed to inform you about our society anyway, as it would be rather difficult for you to come to us- or indeed for us to come to you- without you being aware of magic and what to expect. Several of the students who have manifested as mutants come from pureblood wizarding families, and wouldn't know the first thing about how to act naturally within the non-magical world. The magical world is highly segregated from the non-magical world, you see. We try to keep ourselves secret so as to prevent such uprisings against us as we saw during the Middle Ages."

"I see. That would explain the oddities in behaviour of most of the wizards I've come across."

"Yes. Much of the segregation comes from the incompatibility of magic with non-magical technology, which has led to a great discrepancy in the cultural development between magicals and non-magicals. This is also largely encouraged by extreme differences in education. There are many schools dedicated to teaching magical children how to use their abilities in preparation for life within the magical world, and they rarely, if ever, cover any non-magical topics. Hogwarts is one such school, and one of the most distinguished, but there are several others, including schools located in America."

Xavier raised an eyebrow at that. "If your people are already experienced with teaching magical children to use their abilities, I find it a bit strange that you would feel the need to look to non-magical assistance when it comes to training mutant children in the same."

"Yes, well... It's like this. Because of this segregation of cultures I've mentioned, the magical world has been largely unaware of mutants until this past month. In fact, even when one young man's powers emerged right in the middle of class, we believed someone had cast something on him at first. It wasn't until Professor Snape- who was raised in a non-magical area- recognized the phenomenon for what it was and informed the Hogwarts staff of what was going on, that we had any idea that anything of the sort even existed."

"Really? That's very surprising. The non-magical world has known about mutants for decades, now."

"Indeed. As a result, we have no idea what to expect, because we can't be certain how a person's mutations will interact with their magical abilities which were already present. While we have been doing our best to work with the children who have recently discovered their mutant abilities, we have found that mutations manifest in a completely different way than magic. We can help them manage the fallout of their powers, certainly, but as for the powers themselves? We've been having a rather difficult time finding how to give any really useful assistance. It doesn't help that each ability is extremely varied from the next- magic tends to be fairly uniform, you see, and so we can teach everyone the same techniques at the same time. Not so with these new abilities."

"And so, you require outside help because you're lacking information and experience with students whose abilities are unpredictable and work differently from what your people are accustomed to."

"That's right."

Someone knocked on the door. Ororo answered it, and found a waiter standing outside.

"Good afternoon. Is the Xavier party ready to order?"

Ororo glanced over to where Charles was deep in quiet conversation with Professor McGonagall, then to Kitty, who was excitedly telling stories to Neville about life at the Institute.

"I think we'll be a little longer, if that's alright. Please return in five minutes. I'll make sure we're ready by the time you get back."

The waiter acquiesced, and left to oversee another table. Ororo turned around and cleared her throat. "We should probably take a look at the menu. It would be impolite to stay without ordering anything."

Charles nodded. "Agreed. Perhaps we should table any serious discussions until after we've been served. There will be less likelihood of being interrupted that way."

"Very well," said Professor McGonagall. She settled at the table and flipped open her menu. "Anyone for fish?"

The rest of the meeting was mostly taken up with McGonagall asking Professor Xavier to explain how, exactly he helps the mutants in his care. As he began detailing the various types of training he put his students through, McGonagall found her eyebrows raising. Holographic simulations? Shooting their powers at targets? What on earth was this man trying to prepare these children for?

Then again, she supposed that if mutants were truly as ostracized in the Muggle world as Severus said they tended to be, she'd probably do her utmost to teach them to use their abilities to defend themselves as well.

Xavier went on to explain the individualized sessions, and how he and the other teachers worked with each mutant on their specific mutations, helping them not only learn to keep their powers in check, but also teaching them to use them effectively, and in more creative ways.

"It's not enough to simply learn how to turn them on and off. What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are the limits of their abilities? How do their powers actually work? They need to know what they are and aren't capable of. Take Miss Pryde, for instance. Not only can she move through solid matter herself, but she can also use her power to move other people and objects through it as well. If she had only ever learned how to stop accidentally phasing through things, and never discovered that she could use this ability to help her friends, then she would have only ever reached a fraction of her power's true potential."

Kitty blushed at that, and ducked her head to hide a grin.

"I comprehend what you're saying, Professor Xavier," stated McGonagall. "But Hogwarts is a bit understaffed as it is, and the few teachers who don't teach an exorbitant amount of classes are not ones whom I would consider qualified to help these students. I just don't see how we can hope to find the time to be so involved in training the mutant students. If it were only one student involved, perhaps... But it's not just one, it's six, and of those six only two of them have any degree of real control over their abilities. You're talking about working with them on a daily basis, at least at the start. If you ask me, I'm not certain we could reasonably do that."

"I understand completely, Minerva. This is why I usually ask my students to come and live at the Institute. Our entire focus is on teaching mutants control. Any other classes we may teach run secondary to that goal." He leaned forward in his wheelchair. "I realize that your students follow a... unique curriculum, which may be difficult for us to provide at the Institute. However, based on what you've told me... You may wish to consider sending one or two of your students over to live with us for a time. Perhaps not the entire year, but a period of two or three months might be a good idea."

McGonagall blinked. Three months? She supposed the students could take their books with them, and do their work long-distance for the duration, but...

Goodness. Longbottom and Potter would probably be alright, however...

Convincing Mr. Diggory's parents to allow him to go live at some unknown Muggle school in New York would be difficult enough... But Mr. Malfoy? The one student who needed Xavier's help the most? She'd be lucky if she could convince him or his parents to let him meet with Xavier, let alone anything else.

As if sensing her inner conflict, Xavier added, "You don't need to make your decision today. It is enough for now that you agreed to meet with me, and we had this chance to exchange information."

"Very well, Professor. I will speak with my superiors, along with the children's parents, and get back to you."

Before they went their separate ways, they went to a park that happened to be nearby, so Neville could show Kitty his power. It went rather well, he thought. He managed to only grow the marigolds to three times their usual size, rather than a hundred.

Miss Ororo and Kitty were duly impressed, and went home with an armful of large yellow flowers, to be placed in a vase on the dining room table when they got home.

Author's Note:

You know, it's kind of annoying when I write out one section of a scene, I'm perfectly happy with it, I hit the save button... only to end up with a "server unavailable" message. Which means I have to go back and rewrite everything.

I have got to start remembering to copy/paste to a separate document before I attempt to save, just in case, haha.

So, I looked up Amos Diggory when I was researching a bit about Cedric, and...

Is J. a Pokemon fan? Because it mentioned in the wiki that at one point Amos told someone to choose between a fire crab, a murtlap, and a porlock as a present for Hagrid's birthday, and I looked up the descriptions for those creatures, and... uh...

Fire-based, water-based, and earth/grass-based creatures, anyone?

By the way, brief side-note for those of you unfamiliar with X-men:Evolution, a large part of Kitty's characterization in that show was that she had a valley girl accent. To the point where I'm pretty sure I actually remember her saying the sentence, "Like, what-EVER, y'know?" as one of her lines of dialogue, LOL.

Replying to a flurry of reviews by Bronze:

-Regarding what you said about Dumbledore: I somewhat agree with both sides when it comes to Dumbledore; on the one hand, his intentions with everything he did were geared towards Voldemort's defeat, so I'm fine with it when people write him as completely good.

On the other hand, he absolutely made a lot of questionable decisions about a lot of things, particularly regarding Harry, so I don't really mind Evil Dumbledore fics either because you can definitely twist him in that direction pretty easily.

However, I personally think he's somewhere in the middle. Like I said a few chapters ago, he's used to being the most experienced person in the room, used to taking his own council. And in the process, some of "his own council" isn't exactly the best. (alright let's call it what it is: sometimes his decisions are downright stupid) So, he's not someone I would necessarily want to entrust with the welfare of my children, at least not on his own without someone who was willing to contradict him on certain types of things... but I do not think of him as being, like, dark and evil and the absolute worst person ever let's vilify him and make him a creep either. *shrug*
The only character I've ever seen anywhere that has ever made me feel that way towards them is Danzo from Naruto.

-Regarding your observation that this is kinda fluffy: Yeah. It kind of is. Not because I'm making it fluffy on purpose, that's just kinda the direction my brain would rather go. I don't mind reading dark stuff sometimes but I don't wanna become drenched in it, y'know? :P

-Regarding your comment on Luna's chapter: Yes, I always like fics where Pandora's alive and we get to know her and stuff... however, as I'm trying to stick mostly to canon up until third year, unfortunately I couldn't just have her not die. Considering it's an actual thing that happened. In the actual canonical story. So. Yeah.

Also, I'm not exactly starting this story with the intention of making all the mutants Omega-level, or even Alpha-level really. :P We've got a plethora of ultra-powerful mutants in x-men canon, y'know? I'm just going with whatever I come up with, and one of my favorite things to do when thinking about X-men is to come up with a power that's not something someone could immediately put to use in battle (Cedric's power, for instance) and then find ways they could make it useful. Which also means that when I develop mutant powers for this story, all my prior "what about this power, or this one, or this one" imaginings come into play. So honestly, I'll be surprised if any of the powers I come up with do end up being "Omega-level."

-Regarding Harry's powers: Oooh, that would be so epic if Harry could create a thunderstorm. You would probably like the fic "Lightning" by The New York Bear. Unfortunately, his power doesn't exactly work like that... His abilities aren't so much similar to Storm's weather powers as they are to Aang's airbending ability from Avatar The Last Airbender.

I would like to reiterate once more that it's more fun (for me, anyway) to take what seems to be a "weak" ability and make it cool/useful, than to take a super extremely over-powered ability and make a character INVINCIBLE! So... sorry if you're a bit disappointed in Harry's power, but I'm not actually trying to make these people SUPER STRONG HIGH-LEVEL OMEGA CLASS mutants or anything...

-Regarding Cedric's powers: Cedric has a very specific form of telekinesis. He can move objects with his mind, but only if his energy field is able to permeate the substance (such as a sponge or fabric, for instance) or if the object in question is thin enough that his energy field can "vibe" with itself (like paper and parchment). He would be able to lift a piece of aluminum foil, and possibly an aluminum can so long as it was empty, but he'd have a much harder time moving a solid cube of the same amount of the same material.

Wormtail wouldn't exactly be flying around crashing into gravestones- Cedric's telekinetic ability purposely doesn't work in a way that could make that specific scenario feasible, and he would still feel the weight of lifting a full grown man, even if it was by the clothes... That said, he could definitely shove Wormtail over, force his robes to stay in a position that would throw off his aim, make his robes fly up in his face so he can't see what he's doing, etc... so yes, it could definitely come in handy during the graveyard scene. If I actually ever end up including the graveyard scene in this fic, that is... :P

-Regarding the concept of the Weasley twins getting mutant powers: hehehehehehehehehe... I thought about it. I really, seriously thought about it. I ultimately decided against it because I'm trying not to end up with half the main ensemble cast as mutants, but... I really, really considered it.

-Regarding Draco's powers: Yeah, his powers aren't inspired by any one specific thing, but I figure it's still within the realm of mutant possibility. In X-Men, there are mutants who can turn into a specific substance, such as Emma Frost and Colossus, mutants who are able to control a specific material, such as Magneto and Pyro, and mutants who are able to produce various substances from their bodies which can be rather odd (and often explosive), such as Boom Boom and Jubilee. So, I just combined all three concepts together: A mutant who can create, and turn into, a specific strange substance which he is also able to control.

-Regarding Harry's decision to tell the Professors about himself: I'm not gonna comment on whether he should trust them or not, because the choice of trust is a subjective thing for anyone, but I will say this: His decision to tell the professors was less about actually trusting them completely, and more about recognizing that his powers are volatile enough and obvious enough that, one way or the other, they would have come out eventually. Therefore, he tells the teachers about it via Neville after the meeting because he figures he might as well get it out of the way now. It's less to do with trust, and more about making sure he's the one calling the shots about whether they know or not.

Thank you for your reviews! I hope you actually see these replies...