BONUS CHAPTER: OUTTAKES FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
A/N - Hello everyone and Season's Greetings as today is both Christmas Day, the seventh day / eighth night of Hanukkah, and the day before the first day of Kwanzaa. So Happy Holidays Everyone!
I said last week that now that Part 2 is finished I had a few outtakes I thought I might post. As we all know the rule "writing is rewriting" is quite true. Very little in a finished story comes out as one first wrote it in the original rough draft, however I tend not to throw things away even if I don't use them in the end. I find looking them over now can be both cringe worthy and intriguing for showing how a story evolved in different ways. These are rougher than what ultimately made it into the story's final form and I'll explain why they were changed / deleted in the first place.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
I have three outtakes here of increasing length:
1) This first one, which is very short, was originally going to start chapter 16 where Harry is preparing to go to Hogwarts after being selected as a Triwizard champion and is deciding what he's going to wear:
Early on the afternoon of November 2nd Harry prepared to go to Hogwarts.
"Okay" Harry said to himself as he considered what to wear, "if I have to go to Hogwarts today for this thing I'm going to bloody well make an entrance. Now what should I wear? Ah, I know..."
When he was done dressing he took his portkey to Ilvermorny where Headmaster Pope was waiting for him. The headmaster looked him up and down and raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Interesting look you have today."
"Well" said Harry, "if I have to do this I thought that for once in my life I'd make it memorable. Do you disapprove?"
"No, but a lot of people at Hogwarts are going to be very surprised" said Pope, "which I suspect is the point. Are you ready?"
"Let's get this over with" said Harry, "I want to be back in time for dinner." The Headmaster Pope nodded and held out a new portkey for Harry to grab on to.
This scene is completely redundant and would have diluted the entrance scene that came after it so I cut it and started chapter 16 with the scene at Hogwarts where Harry makes his entrance.
2) This one was originally part of chapter 42 where Harry faces Voldemort at the battle at Hogwarts. In the original conception of this story Voldemort was going to attack Hogwarts during the Third Task of the tournament, cause a lot of chaos, and call for Harry to come out and face him - which he would. In this version Lightning's identity would have been revealed to everyone and this is the moment when that would have happened:
Harry looked at Voldemort and made his decision. 'It was always going to come to this eventually' he thought, 'now is as good a time as any.'
"Fine" said Harry, "if you're so set on me dueling you I hope you'll at least let me change into some clothes that are little more combat friendly."
"As you wish" said Voldemort, "since the best dueling robes in the world won't save you from me I don't mind giving you a few extra moments to live."
Harry didn't bother replying to the taunt. Instead he raised his wand, cast a switching spell, and his clothes were replaced by his X-Man uniform. The Death Eaters who were present all gasped but Voldemort looked puzzled.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"Allow me to introduce myself" said Lightning calmly, "I'm called Lightning. I'm one of the X-Men."
Voldemort narrowed his eyes at this statement. He'd heard about the X-Men from his Death Eaters and what they'd done but he didn't believe they could possibly be a threat to him. After all he was much more powerful than any of his minions and the X-Men had never faced him so how dangerous could they possibly be to him? On the other hand it seemed that none of his people knew that Harry was one of the X-Men himself which was an unexpected development.
"Is that right?" asked Voldemort deciding to act like he didn't care, "and I should be impressed why?"
"Good lord man" snapped Lightning, "don't you follow what goes on in the world at all? Your Death Eaters know who I am. Perhaps some of them remember me and my teammates from the Quidditch World Cup?"
"He wasn't there Lightning" said a voice from behind him. Lightning turned and saw Cyclops followed by the others all running up to him.
"Glad you could all join me" said Lightning.
"We told you we wouldn't let you go through this alone" said Cyclops.
"Be careful my lord" said one of the Death Eaters "these people are dangerous." Lightning recognized the voice. It was Lucius Malfoy.
"Nonsense" snarled Voldemort raising his wand, "I am the greatest wizard alive. No one can beat me."
"We've heard that one before, haven't we?" Lightning murmured to his teammates, "I've got this. The rest of you keep the Death Eaters busy."
"Are you sure?" asked Cyclops.
"Yes" said Lightning, "this bastard destroyed my family and ruined my childhood. I WANT to deal with him!"
"All right" said Cyclops, "he's all yours. The rest of us will deal with the others but at least one of us will keep an eye on you at all times in case you need help." Cyclops nodded at Beast who stepped over near Lightning.
"I'll take first watch" said Beast to Lightning, "I'll make sure no one can interfere. Good luck – not that you'll need it."
"Thank you" said Lightning before turning back to Voldemort. Very deliberately he bent down and shoved his wand into its slot in his boot. Voldemort looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Are you surrendering Potter?" he asked.
"Nope" said Lightning standing up again, "just getting into optimal fighting mode. Are we doing this or not?"
"You're very eager to die Potter" said Voldemort, "very well. I'll make it quick. Avada Kedavra!" The curse flew toward Lightning who threw up a telekinetic shield while moving just a little so the curse would miss him if the shield failed.
Obviously the shield doesn't fail and the fight that followed after this is more or less the same as what made it into the final story only it focused more on just Lightning and Voldemort rather than using the other members of the team. I changed it for two reasons: first if the X-Men have pledged that Harry doesn't have to go through this fight alone than he shouldn't and originally he more or less did. I liked it better with the whole team more involved.
The second reason was because despite it being so dramatic I don't think Voldemort would have attacked Hogwarts during the third task. There would have been much more security there and more adults around who might fight back. Voldemort would have known this and would have preferred to attack the castle when the odds would be more in his favor, hence attacking two weeks early when it (theoretically) should have been simpler to take the school. This had the added bonus of making Harry's position tougher because he still would have to come to Hogwarts for the task, something that Voldemort knew and was counting on. The finished version also meant that Lightning's secret identity was not revealed to the wizarding public. More and more I realized that Harry should not be exposed as Lightning and in the published version that didn't happen.
3) This last one is special, as well as being the longest of the three. What follows is one of the very first scenes written for Lightning after I decided to turn it into a full story from the preview. The first scene ever written was the second half of chapter 28 of Part 1 where Harry breaks down on the X-Jet after meeting the Dursleys in London. This scene was the next one to be written and deals with the fight with the Death Eaters after the Quidditch World Cup.
As this scene was originally written Harry went with the Weasleys and Hermione to the World Cup alone (as in canon) without the other X-Men and faced the Death Eaters by himself. It wasn't his birthday and Sirius and Remus also weren't there. After I wrote this scene it sat on my computer for over a year while I worked on Part 1. By the time I started Part 2 I had come to realize that this version of the chapter was wrong. Having Lightning fight the Death Eaters alone wasn't plausible. It would have meant that Lightning was overpowered as well as being impetuous and cocky which I didn't like. Also the Death Eaters were even more ineffective. In short, Lightning couldn't do this alone, even with Professor X's help, so I rewrote the chapter. I had fun when I wrote the first version so I saved it. Here it is. In this version, like in canon, Harry goes with the Weasley siblings into the woods after the Death Eaters attack. This chapter starts after they've gone into the woods:
GOING BACK TO DEAL WITH DEATH EATERS (Outtake)
"Normal Speech"
"Telepathy"
Once they reached a forest clearing Harry stopped the others.
"Okay" he said "who were those people?"
"They're Death Eaters" said Hermione, "You-Know-Who's supporters. Plenty of them were never caught or wriggled out of trouble after the war."
"This is probably the first time a whole bunch of them have been together in one place in a long time" said George.
"So let me get this straight" said Harry, "those are people who supported a maniac who caused massive terror, many of them committed crimes themselves, they got away with it, and now they're back to terrorizing innocent people just because there happen to be a lot of them in one place and they think they can? Is that what you're telling me?"
Ron and Hermione saw the deep rage on Harry's face from what he was hearing. Fred, George, and Ginny could understand anger but didn't know why it was hitting Harry so hard.
"You're going back, aren't you?" said Ron.
"Ron," said Harry in a quietly deadly voice, "There are some innocent people out there who are being tortured just because they don't have magic and because the torturers feel like it. What do you think?"
He looked around to make sure no one else was nearby, said a word they couldn't hear, made a gesture with a hand to finish a switching spell and his regular clothes disappeared to be replaced by his X-Man uniform. The Weasley twins and Ginny all felt their eyes widen and their jaws drop.
"Damn right I'm going back!" Lightning hissed, "Those people are bullies. Let's see how they like facing someone who can actually fight back."
"Be careful Lightning" said Hermione.
"I'm always careful in the field" said Lightning, "you don't survive facing the likes of Magneto and his Brotherhood by being careless." And with that he took off and was soon lost to view in the darkness.
"He's still such a Gryffindor" murmured Ron to Hermione who nodded her head. There was silence as they all looked in the direction he had gone. Then Fred spoke.
"George, brother mine" said Fred.
"Yes dear brother?" said George.
"Did I see that right?" said Fred, "did little Harrikins just turn into Lightning the X-Man and go flying away?"
"Yes I think he did" said George before turning to look at Ron and Hermione, "did you two know about this?"
"Yes" said Hermione, "but only since this past April after the attack on Hogwarts. Harry told us then. Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Professor Lupin, Hagrid, Mad Eye Moody, and the two of us are the only ones who knew and Dumbledore is the only one who has known the whole time."
"You better keep this to yourselves" warned Ron with unusual seriousness, "if Harry was willing to change to Lightning in front of you that means he trusts you to keep his secret. Don't let him down. That goes for you too Ginny."
For once the twins were completely serious.
"We won't tell anyone" said Fred, "we don't want to get on his bad side."
"We saw him in action at Hogwarts" said George, "besides we have too many secrets of our own not to respect other people's secrets."
"I also promise not to say anything" said Ginny in a low voice.
Suddenly they heard a couple of loud thunderclaps from nearby. Instinctively they all looked up to see that the sky was clear. Shortly thereafter they heard several more thunderclaps in quick succession.
"Methinks Harry has engaged the enemy" said George.
Lightning flew over the tree tops until he reached the campsite. It was easy to spot the Death Eaters and there seemed to be more of them now. The ones marching in front were waving their wands and turning the muggle family all different directions and messing with them in all sorts of nasty ways. Not far away he saw a lot of other wizards who were trying to stop them but, except for some aurors that Lightning was able to pick out they weren't organized at all and that was hampering their efforts.
"Professor" Lightning thought, "are you there?"
"I'm here" Professor X said in Lightning's head.
"Can you see what's going on?" Lightning called lowering his mental defenses to allow the professor to see through his eyes along with him.
"Yes" was the reply.
"We've got to get those people to safety" said Lightning, "can you guide me to where I can throw lightning to disrupt those Death Eaters without harming that family?"
"They haven't noticed you yet?"
"No. I'm probably not very visible up here even if a lot of what I'm wearing is yellow."
"Fly over them" said the professor, "you should be able to see a space that you can use between the wizards and the victims."
Lightning flew around until he was above the Death Eater crowd and he did indeed see such a space.
"Got it" he said.
"Then go X-Man" said Professor X.
Lightning didn't hesitate any longer.
"Okay" said Lightning to himself, "enough is enough." He stretched out his hands and shot a lightning bolt from each one. Both bolts struck the ground right in front of the Death Eaters taking them all completely by surprise and breaking the spells on the muggles.
"What the hell was that?" yelled one of them.
Lightning didn't answer. As soon as he released the bolts he turned his attention to the muggle family and concentrated hard to grab all of them with his telekinesis as soon as they started to fall. It was a real effort as he'd never lifted four people at the same time before but at least two of them were kids. Once he was sure he had them all he moved them away from the Death Eaters and set them down near the edge of the field. Then he flew back to the crowd.
"Good work" said Professor X.
"Thank you sir" said Lightning, "but we're not out of trouble yet." He flew over the crowd, luckily they hadn't spotted him yet, before he reached the front of the Death Eater crowd. It was in considerable disarray but the ministry wizards weren't yet able to take control of it. Coming to a decision Lightning landed in the clear space in front of the Death Eaters with the "good" wizards behind him. This time everyone saw him though even with the light of the fires they couldn't make him out all that well. He didn't give them time to think.
"So" Lightning said, "you're the infamous Death Eaters."
"Who are you?" demanded one of the lead Death Eaters holding out his wand.
"The name's Lightning" was the reply, "I'm one of the X-Men. Maybe you've heard of us?" To judge by some of the gasps that Lightning heard both in front of him and behind him, they had indeed heard of them. It had been big news in the Wizarding world when the X-Men had saved Hogwarts from Magneto and his Brotherhood.
"What are you doing here?" said another Death Eater who also raised a wand, "what do you want?"
"You won't do it" said Lightning, "but I want you to lower your wands and walk away so we can resolve this peacefully."
"You're alone" snorted a third Death Eater as the others started to laugh, "What are you going to do about it?"
"Well" said Lightning as he held up his hands, "first I'm going to do this – " he released two lightning bolts straight at the Death Eaters.
"Then I'll do this – " he released two more.
"And this – " another two released.
"And this – " yet two more lightning bolts released.
"And finally this!" he spread his arms wide and this time released a wide spread of lightning that struck a large part of the crowd amidst many screams. It all happened so fast that none of the Death Eaters were able to react in time to fire back any spells.
When the lightning finished Lightning saw that many of the Death Eaters were lying on the ground unmoving. In the silence that fell he saw the rear part of the crowd of Death Eaters scrambling to get away from him. He looked over his shoulder at the aurors standing behind him.
"Well?" he said, "what are you waiting for? Go clean them up!"
"You killed them!" he heard someone shout.
"No I didn't!" Lightning shouted back, "my lightning bolts may hurt a lot but I have enough control over my powers to keep them non-lethal. Go see for yourselves." But they didn't have to see because they could all hear the sounds of groans coming from the people who had been struck.
"Let's go" one of the aurors yelled and the ministry wizards move quickly past Lightning and began to bend over the Death Eaters.
"They're alive!" someone yelled, "all of them! Let's get them into custody and then get some healers for them."
"Let's see who they are first" said another auror who began pulling a mask off one of the lead Death Eaters before rearing back in shock.
"Lucius Malfoy!" he yelled causing Lightning to raise his eyebrows. Soon other names were being yelled as the defenders ran over and began unmasking all the Death Eaters.
"Excuse me Mr. Lightning" Lightning turned to see a stern looking witch with a monocle in one eye looking at him.
"Just Lightning is fine" he said to her.
"Very well" she said, "I am Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We met briefly at Hogwarts back in April."
"Yes, I remember" said Lightning as he held out his hand, "how do you do?"
"Very well, thank you" was the reply as she shook his hand, "and better now that this attack is over. I'm not going to ask how it is that you come to be here tonight but I'm very glad that you are here. Thank you for your help and also for not killing anyone."
"I don't kill if it can possibly be avoided" said Lightning, "and self-defense is really the only reason I or any of my teammates might do so. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet."
"I'm glad" said Madame Bones, "you've done more tonight than anyone has in years to bring in Death Eaters who got away."
"Well" said Lightning, "I figured that they would be of more use to you alive anyway."
"Indeed" was the reply, "also, thank you for helping to save Hogwarts this past April. My niece goes there and I'm thankful you were able to keep her and the other students safe." Lightning nodded.
"You're welcome" he said, "is there anything else you need from me?"
"No, I think we have things in hand now" said Madame Bones, "but is there any way I or someone in my department can reach you and the other X-Men in the future if we might need to?" Lightning had not expected such a request but he supposed it was logical. Because of its secretiveness the British wizarding world was unlikely to ever contact the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. Even approaching Dr. Strange was unlikely. Tonight, however, was the second time in just a few months that the X-Men or, in this case, an X-Man had stepped in to help out in a British wizarding crisis. They were now a known quantity to the UK magical community. When one considered just how conservative, even reactionary, that community often tended to be that was saying a good deal.
"If you really need to reach us" he said after thinking about it for a moment, "talk to Professor Dumbledore. He can get in touch with us. He's the only one who can."
"Thank you" said Madame Bones but before she could say anything else there was a flash of green light over in the woods and then a huge shape began to rise up into the air. It was skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. There was silence for a long moment as people watched, and then screams broke out all over the field.
"What's that?" Lightning asked Madame Bones.
"The Dark Mark" she hissed, "You Know Who's mark" she began calling nearby aurors to form a team to go find the person who had cast it.
"Do you want me to destroy it?" Lightning asked her, electricity dancing on his fingers.
"No" she said, "its light will help us find whoever did this more easily."
"Then I'll go find my friends" said Lightning. Amelia turned to look at him.
"The other X-Men are here?" she asked. Lightning shook his head.
"No" he said, "just some friends. Nice to meet you again Director Bones" and he took off and flew away before she could reply.
"Well done Lightning" Professor Xavier said to the X-Man.
"Thank you professor" was the reply, "I need to find my friends now. Thanks for the help."
"You're welcome. Have a good night."
"You too" said Lightning as the professor broke off contact.
Lightning flew back to where he had left his friends. They were still in the same clearing which oddly enough was right near where the Dark Mark was. No one else was there yet so Lightning quickly landed by his friends.
"You're back!" said Hermione, "are you okay?" Lightning raised a hand to stop her and performed the switching spell again to put away his uniform and get his regular clothes back.
"I'm fine" Harry said, "what about you? Do you know who did that?" he pointed towards the Dark Mark.
"We just heard a voice – " Ginny began when she was interrupted by the arrival of several adults. Harry recognized Mr. Weasley, Mr. Crouch and Mr. Diggory but not anyone else.
What followed was a rather hectic conversation in which Mr. Crouch first demanded to know who had cast the Dark Mark and refused to accept that none of the kids could have done it, at one point even turning on Harry himself before Mr. Diggory was able to rein him in by asking him if he really thought that Harry Potter would be likely to cast the Dark Mark? There was no real resolution to the problem. No one was caught. Whoever had done it was gone.
"Are you all okay?" Mr. Weasley asked Harry, Hermione, and his children.
"We're fine dad" said George, "we were here the whole time."
"Is it safe to go back?" asked Ginny. Mr. Weasley nodded.
"It's safe" he said, "come on."
As Mr. Weasley led his party back toward the campsite Ron and Hermione walked on either side of Harry and they fell to the back of the group.
"What did you do?" Ron asked Harry in a low voice, "we heard a lot of thunder."
"Caught a bunch of Death Eaters" Harry said in a low voice so only Ron and Hermione could hear, "I'll give you the full details once we can be alone."
"The twins and Ginny too" said Hermione.
"Yes" said Harry, "I will say this though but don't yell when I tell you. Mr. Malfoy was one of the people they caught – stop!" Harry's hand shot out and covered Ron's mouth as it opened. Ron quickly got control of himself.
"Really?" he whispered in an excited voice.
"Really" said Harry with a grin.
"That's one in the eye for Draco" said Hermione.
"Hey what are you three – " George called back to them.
" – Whispering about?" called Fred.
"And why – "
"– Are you leaving us out?"
"It's not important" said Harry, "we'll tell you later" he then mouthed "when it's safe." He wasn't sure if the twins saw him do that but they both nodded and turned away. They all soon arrived back at the campsite and found everything was under control again. The Death Eaters whom Lightning had caught were all being guarded by a large group of Aurors. They were being apparated away a few at time by other aurors. None of them were wearing masks but Harry wasn't close enough to make out faces.
"I can't wait to read the news tomorrow" said Ron looking at the group.
"No kidding" said Ginny, "I hope they list everyone who was caught.
Harry said nothing. They soon reached their tent and went inside. Fortunately their area of the campsite had not been damaged during the excitement. Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already there. Mr. Weasley served everyone cups of tea which helped them all to calm down. The four adult Weasleys then told the kids what they had seen which included the sudden appearance of Lightning and his taking down of a large number of the Death Eaters. Harry kept his mouth firmly shut during this narrative although he found it fascinating to hear someone else talk about what he had done when they didn't know he was the one who had done it.
Eventually everyone turned in again. As Harry dropped off to sleep a second time his last thoughts were of the inevitable conversation that he would be having tomorrow with Hermione and the four youngest Weasley siblings.
And that's that. I hope you enjoyed these outtakes. I hope you also agree that the finished versions are better than these even if I enjoyed writing them at the time.
As I said last week if you want to know when I start posting Part 3 just follow this story and I'll post an announcement here which will be sent to anyone who is following this story.
And one more time please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well.
See you in Part 3 and once again Happy Holidays!