This is actually a story idea I've been mulling for some time now, but it had to wait until I finally got the motivation to watch X-Men: First Class. I have to admit, I loved that film. And I finally knew now how I was going to do this story. I wanted to do an X-Men movieverse fanfic, and I really wanted to do a Harry/Raven story. I thought Raven/Mystique in the AU films, from what I had read, was a much better character than the version in the original films, with all due respect to Rebecca Romijn. And I was right after watching First Class. Unlike Raven from those films, though, thanks to Harry's friendship, Raven is already more self-confident, because, as much as Charles cared for her, I got the impression that he didn't quite understand what she truly wanted, even before Erik came along. Not out of malice, just ignorance,

Just some warnings, though. This is a Master of Death Harry story, and it's not going to have much crack, not like Nitimur in Vetitum or Newport Mage. There's going to be angst, not quite at Ex Umbra in Solem levels, but still...

REVENANT

CHAPTER 1:

ARRIVAL

January 5, 1959. Oxford. England…

A trio of gargoyle-like insects sit hanging upon a mass of web-like strands strewn all over the hidden compartment. "The demons," whispers a rather scholarly-looking man, a military man in uniform by his side. Both are ill at ease, and both of them suddenly flinch as one of the insects drops down a bit suddenly with a crackling noise. "It's all right," the scholarly-looking man said. "They're dead. They've been dead a long time." Then, bombastic horns and string music starts up, the credits rolling over a final shot of one of the insects.

Watching the TV screen on which this all occurred are an interesting pair of people, in their early twenties. One of them is a handsome, dark-haired man with dark eyes that had a mischievous twinkle to them. The other is a woman, with red hair, a rather elegant body underneath a dressing gown…and blue, scaly skin and golden eyes.

Both were grimacing a little, but the man remarked, "Still, rather good story. And Professor Quatermass is interesting. A hero who relies on science and his mind to fight(1)."

"Of course that'd appeal to you, Charles," the woman said, rolling her golden eyes. "Apart from using cheesy pick-up lines for women here. I swear, if you use that line about mutations again…"

Whatever she was going to say was suddenly interrupted when the house they were staying in during their time in England shook, a loud bang echoing through the house. Then, through the ceiling of the room crashed a messy lump of meat that smashed into the floor, smearing blood all over the place. The occupants of the room leapt back with cries of surprise. "What the hell is that?" the woman demanded.

"I don't know…but it looks remarkably like a corpse, Raven," Charles remarked, shaken and perhaps a little stirred. He gingerly stepped over the mangled corpse, and then looked up through the hole in the ceiling at the sky. "It's like he dropped out of the sky."

"Charles…look," Raven said, her voice tinged with an edge of disgust. And Charles looked down at the corpse…only to see the blood and flesh seem to flow back onto the body, the mangled ruin forming back together. Charles stepped away, and watched, both fascinated and disgusted as the body seemingly reformed.

What now remained was a young man, about their age, with a messy mop of black hair, from beneath which a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt zig-zagged. He was dressed in tattered robes, and a twisted pair of glasses was on his face. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, revealing emerald orbs, and he inhaled sharply. Then, after a moment, he looked at Charles and Raven, and gave a rather sheepish, if tired, smile as he got to his feet. "Sorry for dropping in unannounced." He then looked at Raven, who hadn't had the time or the lack of distraction to change into her habitual blonde disguise. "Huh. You're…blue. And scaly. Was it a Polyjuice Potion accident? Are you an alien?"

Charles and Raven shot each other looks. However, it was Raven who responded. "No. Why did you crash through our roof? And how did you survive?"

"I decided to skydive without a parachute," the intruder remarked sarcastically. "I have a knack of not dying when I'm supposed to. Hurts like a bitch, though." He took off the glasses, and murmured, "Reparo." The glasses became more or less normal.

"Hmm," Charles said. "That was interesting. I don't suppose you could do the same to our ceiling?"

The intruder sighed, before he waved a hand at the ceiling, and said the same word. The debris that had been brought down with him immediately leapt back into place. "Annnd I've probably broken the Statute of Secrecy. I find myself not giving a fuck. Especially not with the blue-skinned woman who probably has her own reasons to hide." He looked at the TV, and frowned. "Wait a moment…okay, this is going to sound like a very, VERY stupid question…but what year is this?"

Charles and Raven looked at each other in understandable confusion, but decided to humour the intruder. "It's 1959," Charles said.

This provoked an outburst of laughter from the intruder, cracked and braying. "1959…fifty years. I wonder if Padfoot's alive and well?" Something seemed to occur to him, and he said, "Crap, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Harry Potter." Then, his expression darkened as Charles put a couple of fingers to his head. "And I don't appreciate people rummaging around in my head. I've had bad experiences with that."

"Sorry, I just…I just needed to be sure. You fell right into my house, and saw my sister Raven in her…default form. So…you think you're a wizard?"

"I know I am, and I said stop rummaging in my head." After a moment, he said, "Thank you. Now I won't use an Entrail Expelling Curse. Okay…so, given that you claim not to be a wizard, given how you treated my own claims…you're a psychic, right?"

"Yes. I'm Charles Xavier," Charles said with a smile, despite the threat of an 'Entrail Expelling Curse', whatever that was. "And this is my sister Raven. You're not shocked or scared of her appearance?"

"I've seen stranger and weirder things, especially on the internet. Gah, you don't have that yet. Well, be thankful. The porn online gets weird," Harry said.

On Raven's look, Charles said, "He believes himself to have travelled back in time, Raven. And he seemed genuinely intrigued by your true form. Still, why not show him your ability?"

After a moment's contemplation, Raven nodded, and a wave of change, like blue spikes briefly poking out from her skin, she changed to her usual, blonde human form. Harry blinked. "Huh…so, you're a Metamorphmagus? Only, you look blue and scaly normally? Hey, that means you look like a sexy human chameleon by default!" He then winced, embarrassed at having let that slip.

And he wasn't the only one who was embarrassed. Charles was frowning, his protective instincts awoken slightly by Harry's comments. And Raven found herself blushing in embarrassment. But somewhere, deep within her, she found herself enjoying the compliment. He found her default form sexy? Admittedly, she hadn't really shown anyone that state before other than her brother, but still…it was a slight but noticeable boost to her confidence. And in a way, it would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…

Over three years later…

"Look at him," Harry muttered as he drank more from the glass. "On the pull, again. How do you cope with having such an oversexed adoptive brother?"

Raven snorted as she watched her brother use a pick-up line with some woman in the pub they were in, a woman with heterochromia, different coloured eyes. "Before we took our own relationship up a notch, it was either by being the third wheel, or with earplugs. Not that those always work. A telepath does sometimes lose control of their powers in the heat of the moment."

Harry snickered. "I don't know how he's got the time to consider sex and drinking, with the PhD he's working on. Still, with our own little testamurs, we can act as his lab assistants. Better than you being a waitress, at least."

Raven nodded. "He's not a bad brother…but Charles sometimes doesn't truly think of the needs of other people, or at least individuals. It's nothing malicious, and he's nowhere as stupid as that old fart you told me about, Dumbledore or whatever his name was…but it's like the thought of me doing anything academic didn't occur to him."

"Well, remember the looks you got when we did our studies, especially when we took more courses than most," Harry said. "Even in our time, chauvinism is alive and well, just less present. Anyway, look at it this way, if you want, in a few years, you can become Doctor Raven Xavier…or is it Darkhölme?"

"I'd rather be a Xavier," Raven said. Harry knew that she was currently under a special charm based on a Disillusionment charm, designed to make her look like her habitual blonde human form, but without her having to use her powers. While she still used them as a means of practise, for more social occasions, when her control might slip, Harry used the charm.

Case in point, when he reached his hand over to touch her own, he felt the ridges of her reptilian skin, cool and soothing. Of course, the charm didn't allow other people to feel the reptilian nature of her skin, but as he was the one who cast it, it wasn't a problem. And there was the ring, of course.

"What about a Potter?" Harry asked with a wry smirk.

Raven laughed. "Don't take this the wrong way, Harry. But…I'm definitely keeping the name, even when we get married. Charles…he gave me a family. True, he needed to persuade his parents to take me in, but…I'm grateful for that. I was afraid to go to school, my parents tried to kill me…he was the first person to show me kindness in spite of all that."

Harry knew this already. They had once gotten to comparing childhoods while drunk (thankfully at home, as Raven had some trouble controlling her powers when drunk: she generally had soft drink when at a pub, and Harry, as a measure of solidarity, had the same most of the time), and Harry did win the 'shitty childhood game'. Though Raven had gone through quite a lot before she encountered Charles while trying to steal from the Xavier mansion in Westchester, New York. It was partly this that drew the two together. Charles, although he had his own share of problems from his powers and a few family issues, had a privileged childhood by comparison.

Harry sighed morosely to himself, thinking about how he got here, to a world where wizards and witches seemingly didn't exist (though Charles believed that the genes governing magic were similar to those that caused Charles and Raven's powers). Of the attack on the wedding between him and Ginny. Of reforming from the ashes, to find most of the Weasley family and many of his friends dead. Of learning he was the Master of Death, or more aptly, her lackey. Sending the remainder of his friends into hiding. Going on an onslaught throughout Magical Britain, wiping out entire lines in revenge, only to finally get caught by the Ministry. The attempts to have him Kissed, executed in any way, before the Minister decided to have him thrown through the Veil. And somehow, he ended up in another universe, five decades back in time. Charles and Raven took him in, helped him cope with what he went through.

And now, here he was. Engaged to a beautiful woman who had the power to perfectly emulate the appearance of anyone, even if picking up behaviours was tricky. And frankly, he actually liked her in her default, reptilian form. It took a bit of getting used to, but Harry realised, in retrospect, that his acceptance of her base form had done wonders for Raven's self-esteem and confidence. As loving as Charles was towards Raven, he was a bit clueless at times to what she really wanted, though that was partly because he had agreed not to read her mind without her permission. And partly because, well, he had a certain notion of Mutants blending in, and he thought Raven should get used to looking more like a normal human.

"Looks like he's managed to get her," Raven remarked, as Charles and his possible bedwarmer for the night began to have drinks. "Here's hoping he goes to her place, not ours, like we asked."

I heard that, Charles said, his voice echoing into their heads. And yes, I will be allowing you two some privacy. I don't need to actively read your minds to know what you want to do. Just remember to keep it safe.

Pot, meet kettle, have we met? Harry snarked in his head. In any case, he stood, along with Raven, and the two headed back home…

As they got through the front door, Harry was singing a wordless song, an eerie song. After a moment, he groused, "I've still got to wait an entire year for Doctor Who to start. I'm going to have to figure out a way to record them. If I ever go back home, I could give the missing episodes back to the Beeb(2). Hermione'd be jealous." His face fell. "If she's still alive."

"Hey…you killed the bastards who murdered your fiancée and her family," Raven said quietly, Harry removing the charm and her reptilian features showing once more. "Charles may not approve of your killing spree, but he at least understands why."

"Yeah…but…sorry, Raven. I didn't want to spoil the evening, and I did just that."

"No, no, you haven't." The red-haired, blue-skinned shapeshifter gently hugged him. "You accepted me for what I am, and I accepted you for what you are."

The two stood there like that, embracing, for some time. One, an immortal wizard, stuck in the past of another world. The other, a blue-skinned shapeshifter, an outcast from society, forced to hide. Two broken souls, finding solace in each other, unaware that events were soon about to come to a head, and bring them out onto the world stage…

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

So, yeah. We've got a Master of Death Harry ending up in the X-Men movieverse. And hooking up with Mystique. What else needs to be said?

1. My username does come from somewhere. The show Charles and Raven are watching on the TV is the end of the third episode of the third and, debatably, the best of the Quatermass serials, Quatermass and the Pit. Given the themes of evolution and xenophobia that are present in that serial, along with the timing of when the serial was transmitted, I put this in as a cheeky nod. Oh, and the opening and closing theme? It's a piece of music by Trevor Duncan called Mutations. How's that for serendipity?

2. As of writing, 97 episodes of Doctor Who are missing from the Sixties run of the programme, though all are available as audio recordings thanks to fans. The reasons why are manifold and complicated (home video didn't exist, videotape was reused, there was a different attitude to TV at the time, repeats often required fees being paid, etc), but the sad truth is, there's a number of episodes and even whole stories missing.