Chapter 2

By Ordinaryguy2

Room of Requirement

"It's getting late, you two. You have to choose soon."

Hermione looked over to Xander. Both teens had been deleting some of the many possible options they had to choose among. "You didn't mention a timetable before."

"I didn't want to pressure you both," Xander said from the amber cage he was enclosed within. "Now, however, we are getting down to the wire."

"How much time do we have to make a choice?" Harry asked.

"Midnight. The witching hour." The last part he said trying to be mysterious as well as humorous. Neither of the teens were amused.

"That is half an hour from now!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I know, I know," Xander said, his hands held us in order to placate submission. "Look, how about this. Harry and I will go over his remaining selections while you narrow yours down a little further. Remember that the more common factors you have, the easier the integration will be in accepting the new abilities."

The remaining small screens that Harry had been looking at moved over to the wall of amber. Harry glanced over to Hermione whose choices had moved to the far end of the amber wall, but she had already turned to regard her choices and deleted one of the possibilities presented for her.

Harry let out a sigh as he felt his frustrations weighing him down.

"Ok, Harry. I think if we narrow it down some more it will help you to choose."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Xander said, "for instance, as much as I love Benjamin Grimm, I don't think the xenophobic Wizarding World you described would welcome you as the lookalike of the Thing." Xander tapped that screen from his side of the amber wall and it faded away. "The same for the Savage Dragon, Beast, Nightcrawler, Metamorpho, Swamp Thing, Concrete, Gorilla-Man and Groot."

"I could have amalgamed with them?" Harry said, confused. "I don't see a lot that I would have in common with them."

"It would have been a stretch, I admit," Xander said with a nod. "But still cool." He then paused as he spotted one of the screens. "Speaking of things in common, are you straight?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you gay? Do you like girls or boys more?"

Harry immediately flushed. "Girls!" He looked over at Hermione who had glanced his way for a moment before returning to her own project. "Girls," Harry said again, much quieter this time. "I just… don't know how to… be in a relationship. I didn't have the best examples with my relatives."

"That I can understand," Xander said. Over at the screens, Xander discarded a few choices. "Northstar is not a match then. Neither would DC's Tasmanian Devil or Obsidian." He deleted the next two as well.

"Sexual preference is a factor then?" Harry asked.

"It can be. We don't want you rejecting the amalgamizing because you don't want those thoughts. Now are you a vegetarian?"

"That's a factor?"

"If you are a vegan, and I try to merge you with a heavy meat eater, there could be an internal conflict."

"I eat most anything I can. I'm not picky."

Xander frowned at that answer. He'd said something like that when he was a teenager. For him it had meant that he was lucky to get anything edible at his home. His mother was notorious for setting off the smoke detector and his dad would drink most of the food money when he got a chance. Good thing Willow would invite him over to graze or his growth would have been stunted.

"Are you ok with violence?"

The teen regarded him for a second. "When I have to, I can fight."

"That's good. I don't see any pacifists among your choices."

"Oh, well," said Harry, "what next?"

"This redhead is Jason Blood. He's got a connection to a demon. They are sort of tied together. I think that could affect what we are trying to do here. Plus, I fight demons, so…" Xander deleted that screen. "And Dracula? Hell, no! Why is he even an option?" Xander deleted that one, too. "Sorry, I have history with a version of that dude in my world. Not of the good. Now let's see… Spawn, Ghost Rider, Venom and Hellboy can be given a skip, too. Best not to have connections to monsters."

Harry wanted to ask more about the names Xander was mentioning, but decided he had enough to focus on in making a decision in the next few minutes. Xander was specifically chosen to help Harry in this area, so Harry was determined to accept that help.

Xander glanced at the nearest screen. "Creeper?" Xander pointed to a yellow-skinned, green-haired leaping through the darkness while laughing maddingly. "Mental issues. I think we can give him a skip."

"Mental issues?"

"He's insane," Xander deadpanned. "But in that sense, I think we can remove the Badger, Moon Knight, Madman, Deadpool, Madcap, Hank Pym, Captain Jack Sparrow and the Mask." More choices disappeared.

"Can I ask a question?" Harry asked.

"You just did, but go for another."

"Well, you said that these characters all had some common factors with me. Some of those that you removed I can't see me having anything in common with."

Xander was about to reference when Isabel spoke to him. Xander listened carefully to the spirit that was the embodiment of the castle. He expression became more and more somber. "I see."

Harry was now used to the silent conversations Xander had with Isabel who the teen could not perceive. "See what?"

Xander sighed. "There is no easy way to say it, Harry. Isabel told me what she could, and it isn't good. Evidently, the night old Voldie made you an orphan, he somehow tainted you with part of himself."

"He made me a parselmouth."

"A what-now?" Xander said, confused.

"I gained the ability to speak with snakes from him. That's what Dumbledore says anyway."

Xander shrugged. "Maybe so, maybe not. Don't know right now. It's just some of these selections are evidently tainted by him. Obviously, the monster and insane ones. Possibly the gay ones. I don't suppose you know if Voldie had a significant other in his life?"

Harry shook his head, baffled at the idea of anyone being romantically interested in someone so twistedly evil.

"Well, nothing for us to do now except move on." Xander returned to looking at the charts on the little screens. "I suppose we can take out Sub-Mariner, too. He's best in water. And has a bit of mental instability at times. And Hulk… lots of power, but extreme anger issues. He'd probably break the castle and I just couldn't do that to Isabel." He frowned. "I should probably leave out Judge Dredd and Punisher for those issues, too."

He paused as he stared at one of the choices. "The hell? Angel? There is no way I am allowing you to amalgamize with broody dead-boy!" He deleted that one with relish and more than a bit of enthusiasm.

"Thor and Hercules? I would love to make those work, but if there are any versions of Thor and Hercules in this universe, having a doppelganger suddenly appear would cause an altercation of significant destruction." He deleted the two gods from the que.

"Oh wow! Indiana Jones! He's quite the adventurer and really good with a whip. But probably not the skills we are looking for." With regret, Xander let Dr. Jones go.

"Oh, and look, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker! I love Han Solo, but the wizards and witches probably would not allow you to bring a blaster into their contests. Luke, however, can use the force even if his lightsaber is not allowed." Xander studied the information at the side of the screen. "There could be a problem. The fact that he is a blonde and you most definitely are not could be too big a factor to allow a connection."

"How do we know for sure?"

"We try the ritual. If it works, great; if not, you are out of luck because we can only try it on you once."

The teen shook his head. "It's not worth it."

Xander nodded his agreement. "You know what, we should just take out those that are blonde since that would work against you, too." Almost a third of what remained of the screens disappeared. "Dang, that took out Dr. Fate. It would have been cool to see what your magicals thought of him. And Iron Fist, too? And Naruto. And the Mighty Samson, Doc Savage and the Flash."

"Plastic Man?" Harry said, pointing to a screen that was still there.

"Hmm, I like the guy," said Xander. "Main problem is that he tends to see the world as a cartoon. His rather bizarre antics could cause problems with your 17th century magicals mindset. Tell you what, we will consider him for a final selection."

The Plastic Man screen was moved off to one side while they considered the others.

Soon more were removed. Dr. Druid, Magnus Robot Fighter, Vibe and the Phantom.

"Oh, my! It's Spock!" Xander looked to Harry with gleeful anticipation, which than fell at Harry's look of confusion. "You don't know Star Trek, do you?"

"I've heard the term before. Something about torpedoes and green-skinned women in outer space."

Xander snorted despite his dismay. "Spock is… Spock. He's the chief science officer of the Enterprise, a massive spaceship. He's part Human, part Vulcan. He's got green blood and is stronger than regular Humans. He also slightly telepathic. Extremely intelligent and basically has such extreme control of his emotions than it seems he has none."

Harry frowned and didn't know what to say regarding that.

"I'm just going to put him in the 'maybe' pile with Plastic Man for now," Harry said, now realizing he'd been sounding like Andrew Wells.

They then decided that while most action heroes can be awesome, that Harry needed extra powers more. That led to the removal of James Bond, John Rambo, Bryan Mills, Jason Bourne, Aragorn, John Wick, Martin Riggs, John McClane, Harry Callahan, Kull, King Leonidas, Autolocus, William Wallace, Ethan Hunt, Ash Williams, Conan, Casey Jones, Jack Ryan, Riddick, 'Mad' Max Rockatansky, Dominic Toretto, Snake Plissken, Barney Ross, Frank Martin and Inigo Montoya. Xander almost seemed to go into a geek coma after that.

Harry said no to Starfox as soon as he had heard that despite being able to fly and have some super strength, the alien also generated a love field. Xander determined that Cyclops, though extremely powerful, could be devastating to everyone around if he lost his visor. Xander did insist that Batman was a contender despite the lack of abilities, because of his genius in planning to overcome those with greater abilities. Xander also talked Harry into considering Beast Boy, Iceman, Cosmic Boy, Mage, Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Green Lama & Dr. Strange. Sadly, Xander suggested that Iron Man should be let go since modern technology didn't seem to work around Hogwarts. Neo was also let go when Xander realized that outside of the Matrix, Neo wouldn't have very many abilities.

When Xander asked if he had ever used a sword, Harry brought up the sword of Gryffindor and a brief mention of his venture in the Chamber of Secrets. "The Black Knight! He's got a magical sword that can cut through anything."

"That could be cool!" Harry grinned.

"But then there is the curse to consider."

"What curse?" asked Harry.

Xander sighed. "The curse on the sword. It can't be used to spill blood or… Never mind, let's just remove him from the running." He grimaced. "Too bad the Shining Knight was a blonde. And then Grant Morrison had to turn him into a her. The bastard."

"What?"

Xander shook his head. "Somebody wrecked one of my favorite characters. Don't worry about it. But here's another guy who can cut through almost anything. Wolverine." Xander went on to talk about the Marvel mutant. He was quickly put in the 'to be considered' section. Several more were put in the pile to be considered including Birdman, Superboy, Hawkman, Spider-Man, Mr. Miracle, Space Ghost, The Doctor, Black Condor and DC's Captain Marvel, and then Xander left Harry to consider things while he went to help Hermione with her selection process.

"I see you've removed the blonde choices," Xander said.

"Isabel sent me a message." She held up a note that had writing on it. "I wasn't happy about letting go of Supergirl or Powergirl."

"I wouldn't be happy with letting them go either," Xander said with a grin. "But serious, how are you doing?"

She sighed. "I'm still trying to accept this is possible." She regarded him. "You are sure that these are just copies we will be absorbing; not the real person."

"Isabel has assured me that that is not the case." He turned to her list. "Now do you mind if I help you remove some of the clutter. I've read or watched most of these characters while growing up."

"I never realized there was such a variety." Hermione glanced at the wall covered with characters. Biting her lip, she then looked over at Harry.

"Are you two an item?" Xander asked.

"What? No!" She blushed looking away. "Harry would never look at me like that."

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much!" Xander said in one of the worst Shakespearian accents Hermione had ever heard, and that included Shamus' attempt at reciting from 'Romeo & Juliet'.

"Please, don't ever do that again."

"Everybody hates my Shakespeare," the one-eyed man complained. "But that…" He stopped to look at one of her possible choices. "Vampirella? Really?"

Hermione looked to who he referred to. "Oh, her. I don't know. She isn't really like the vampires around here. She's actually an alien. But she has some admirable powers."

"That's not what most people admire about her, kid. Plus, she drinks blood. And with most people's prejudice against vampires, justified though it is, well, you can see where I am going with this. Plus, I have this thing about vampires. Let's remove Selene from the list, too, if you don't mind."

She didn't want to continue on the subject since it seemed to be a hot button for him. Plus, the thought of drinking blood made her nauseous.

"This one, Katniss Everdeen. All she seems to do is use a crossbow as a weapon," Hermione complained.

"I'll agree that Katniss isn't for you," Xander stated. "However, it's how you use the weapon that counts. See here." Xander pointed to a screen showing a woman moving through the shadows on a roof while aiming a crossbow. "Huntress is a serious kick-butt fighter. She is a good possibility for you to choose even if she doesn't have any powers. A couple other non-powered fighters like that would be Batgirl, Scarlett and Black Widow. Sarah Connor is another non-powered heroine that still knows how to take out the enemy, but she is not of the same category as the others. Lara Croft is, well, wow. Sometimes she reminds me of my friend Buffy. If you want someone younger, then you have Hit-Girl, but she can be a bit homicidal."

"That's a little girl!" Hermione said horrified.

"Yeah, just a little younger than you. Evidently her father was a little nuts and he was trying to have a vigilante family bonding with his daughter. It didn't work out well for him. She survived though."

Hermione quickly removed Hit-Girl from the list. She really didn't think it would be good for her to have moments of homicidal tendencies with Draco Malfoy around.

Xander sighed. "Cameron Phillips. She is basically a killer robot covered by a very hot meat suit. She doesn't understand emotions and is very literal. She will do whatever it takes to complete her objective. Her biggest problem is she doesn't care if people get hurt or die. Plus, being a robot, she might not be able to function properly due to the high concentration of magic."

"Plus, I don't want to be a robot." Hermione quickly deleted the female terminator. She glanced over her choices only to do a doubletake. "There she is again. I just got rid of her."

Xander instantly understood the problem. "That is River Tam. They just look alike. River is more… well, she is hard to describe. She is from hundreds of years in the future after mankind had fled Earth for the stars. River was a brilliant child, but unethical scientists were tasked to see if they could modify children like her to be super agents that would do whatever was asked of them. Kind of like the Cameron robot. Fortunately for River, her brother broke her out. Unfortunately for River, a lot of the damage was done."

"I think I will skip brain damage," Hermione said with a shiver.

"This one is Ellen Ripley. She's also from a couple hundred years in the future. She has explored space for a corporation trying to find planet to settle and utilize." He paused as he looked over the info next to the picture. "Oh. This might be a problem. This particular Ripley is the cloned one that in part Human and part Xenomorph."

"Xenomorth?" Hermione asked.

"Just think scaly and very alien. Also, she and the aliens have acid for blood."

"What?" She looked horrified.

"Yeah, the kind of acid that can eat right through metal in seconds. And the alien part of her influences her in some ways. Not sure how completely, because that is where the movie ended and fanfiction picked up."

"What's fanfiction?"

Xander help up his hands again. "That would take too long. And we have a deadline approaching."

She begrudgingly agreed to save those questions for later. She was unsure about Ripley, and put her in the grouping for her second round of considerations.

"Is that Ariel from 'The Little Mermaid'?" Xander turned to regard Hermione who was blushing. "Why did you put her in the pile of those to be considered?"

"Sue me. I like the idea of becoming a mermaid. It's actually a common phenomenon among girls since that Disney movie came out."

Xander nodded and tried to hide his grin. "Just not practical since the castle you go to school in is way above water."

"I know you are right. Still, I am going to leave her with the others for now. Just because," she insisted.

Xander held up his hands in mock surrender. Instead, he glanced at the group she had already set aside for a second consideration. Miss Martian? Most likely possible thanks to her shape changing abilities. Leeloo from "The Fifth Element" was there making Xander grin from ear to ear. The hair might cause some problems with Hermione accepting the bonding ritual, but it might not. Mary Marvel made Xander want to say "Shazam!" Tigra made him want to say "Meow!" The Scarlet Witch made Xander a bit nervous. The red hair was a lot closer than blonde was, so the risk was more acceptable. Her mental stability could be a problem at times which Xander wanted to blame on the writers seeking a bad plot device. The She-Hulk could be very interesting and turn more than a few heads. Jade, the daughter of DC's first Green Lantern, could be very powerful as well as useful. Ghost had his approval, though the magicals might complain if she started using guns around the school. Wonder Woman could work out nicely, especially if she has the golden lasso and bracelets. Monet had him frown. The mighty mutant was as powerful as she was intelligent, but also very arrogant. If her personality were to bleed over into Hermione, that could cause problems.

Glancing over, Xander saw Hermione removing Hawkwoman from the list. "What's wrong with her?"

Hermione looked embarrassed. "I don't enjoy flying."

The one-eyed man chuckled. "She could have helped you overcome that."

"And now we will never know," Hermione answered back with a humorous tone. She then discarded the Wasp, too.

"You know that some of those in your saving pile can fly, too, right?" Xander pointed to a picture of the Phoenix, Mary Marvel and Miss Martian.

She was biting her lip again. "I'll… They don't have to fly if they don't want to. Hawkwoman and the Wasp fly most of the time. I just don't know if I can deal with that."

Xander's finger stayed on the picture of the Phoenix. "I don't think this is a good one."

Hermione frowned. "Why? She seems very powerful."

"That is part of the problem. Jean Grey has become host to the Phoenix Force, which can become ravenous at times, consuming stars, and thus destroys planets that need their stars. It's not a good combination."

The teen witch stared at the screen for a few seconds before discarding it.

Xander went back to perusing her choices and was glad to see Hermione was considering Xena, Shadowcat and Zatanna.

He made a gasping sound that drew Hermione's attention.

"Problem?"

"Not… necessarily." Xander scratched at the back of his neck. He then, with reluctance, pointed to the screen depicting a dark-haired young woman fighting a demon. "That's Faith Lehane. Um, she is a Slayer. From my world. An… acquaintance of mine. We've fought both for and against each other."

Hermione regarded him, trying to understand the problem he seemed to be having. "Is she unstable?"

"Hmm? Not really. No more than anyone else, I guess. She fights solely for the white hats now. She has super-strength, fighting skills, prophetic dreams, heals quickly, lots of energy. Etcetera, Etcetera." He stopped talking.

"I don't understand the problem," Hermione admitted.

Xander lowered his eye to the floor. "You see, when you merge with one of these girls, you will not only gain their abilities, you also pick up their knowledge and life experiences."

"And that is the problem?"

Xander couldn't think of any other way to say it. "Faith and I have been intimate. Faith has actually been intimate with quite a few people as I understand it."

"Please stop talking!" she said in a hushed tone, moving Faith's screen to the discard pile refusing to look at him at the moment.

"That's probably for the best," Xander admitted. He glanced at her remaining choices and sighed. "Willow. This one is my best bud since kindergarten." He turned to the side. "Isabel, did you have to pull copies of my friends into this?" He listened to her answer and sighed.

"This says she is a powerful witch," Hermione said, reading the information about Willow.

"Yeah, she has super computer kung fu skills, too. She's been learning several dead languages, also, in order to stop the occasional apocalypse and various other unnatural disasters."

Hermione eyed Xander who was trying to hide his discomfort. "Would it be bad if I were to join with a copy of your friend?"

"Uh, well, there is a couple of things you should know beforehand since you would probably get some or all of her memories. See, first, Willow and I kind of had an affair, I guess. We were both seeing other people… and the kissing just started."

Hermione held up her hand for him to stop. "Anything else?"

"Now that you mention it, she is extremely powerful. I mean really extremely. The bad part is the magic can be rather overwhelming at times. Good Willow can become Angry Willow to the point she almost destroyed the world."

"Because of your affair?" Hermione asked, wondering just how much power Willow must have.

"What? No! This happened a couple of years later. Willow's lover, Tara, was killed. She didn't take it well. Thus, the whole Going-To-End-The-World phase."

"Tara? A woman. She was gay? Or I guess bi-sexual would be the term if she had an affair with you, too."

"I'm not labeling my friend. I just want her happy."

Hermione's eyes widened. "If I amalgamed with her, would I also become… gay or bi-sexual?" Her eyes shot over to Harry who, thankfully, could not hear her conversation with Xander.

"Not a clue? Does it matter to you?"

"I-I think I have feelings for someone, and I don't want to change that."

"I don't know that it would change anything. But something like this… who really knows?"

Hermione bit her lower lip as she considered this new problem.

Xander decided to distract her by pointing to one of the remaining choices. "Wolvesbane. One of the original New Mutants. Born in bonny Scotland. Treated horribly by the man who raised her to the point he led a mob to kill her when her mutant abilities first appeared."

"That's-that's horrible!" Hermione said. "Why would they do such a thing?"

"People can be a cowardly, superstitious lot. And one day in public, poor Rahne turned into a wolf. That's going to shake up most people. But, let's list her good points… she can maintain a form halfway between wolf and Human. In that state she has quicker reflexes and is stronger than a regular person. She also has claws and can bite."

Hermione moved to discard Wolvesbane. "The witches and wizards we deal with already have extremely outdated prejudices against those with lycanthrope. If I were to take on Wolvesbane's abilities, I would be instantly ostracized."

That left just one profile left to look at. She was an orange-skin female with a large amount of frilly hair. She shot beams of energy from her hands, and worst of all… she flew.

"Starfire," Xander said with a sigh.

"You know her, too?"

"One of DC Comics hottest babes."

Hermione rolled her eyes, annoyed at Xander comment. "Such a ringing endorsement of praise."

"She's a princess from her planet."

"And an alien?" Hermione regarded Starfire again, but the only alien feature she could see was her totally green eyes.

"She escaped enslavement by another alien race by fleeing to Earth and joined the Teen Titans. She was trained as a warrior from her youth, is stronger than a Human, and she is powered by solar energy. In her head is the knowledge of the histories, philosophy and technology of her race. And to top it off, she has the ability to learn another person's language just by kissing them."

"That can't be a real power!"

"Actually, it is. How many languages do you know?" he asked with a grin.

"English, French, German, Spanish and the majority of Latin. I've just started studying Portuguese and Japanese this summer."

"And Starfire can learn all of them with a kiss."

Hermione scowled, turning her eyes back to the screen. She decided to move on from that focus. "Why does she dress that way? It's so exposed."

"Probably an artist thing. But I think the most common comic geek answer is that her planet is much warmer than Earth. Plus, with her powers, the less skin covering her makes it easier for her to absorb solar energy. I think she has flown in outer space, so her powers probably keep her warm as well as protect her from radiation."

"No one should look that good," Xander heard her mutter to herself before she glanced back towards Harry.

Xander tilted his head to the side. "Uh, Isabel said it is almost time if we are going to get the full effect of the spell. You have, I think, just under twenty people to select among. I am going to over to check on Harry." He paused as she glanced through her choices again. "Hermione, you can do this if you want to. But, if you are having second thought, Harry could do this on his own."

She shot him a look and shook her head. "I will not abandon Harry. He is going to need all the help he can get."

"I'm sure you would be plenty helpful as your normal self. This is entirely your choice."

"I'll be ready in two minutes," she insisted. "Go help Harry."

Xander nodded from his side of the amber cage he was in. Once he was in front of Harry, he noted that the teen had narrowed his ideas down to two possibilities. "So, any questions?"

Harry ran his hand through his already messy hair. "I just wish I didn't have to choose just one."

That struck a chord inside Xander. "Maybe you don't have to. I mean we are talking amalgamizing you to someone. Maybe we can merge those two in front of you together as we are merging them into you."

"It that possible?" Harry said, wide-eyed.

Xander stopped to listen to a voice only he could here. Harry waited as Isabel talked with Xander wondering what she sounded like or even looked like.

"She says she thinks we can do it. Since it is still Halloween, tonight's spell will have the greatest strength. It should be able to do what we are asking."

"Does that mean this spell could be done on other days, but that it would not work as well?"

"It would not last as long, and it would have greater chances of failure."

As midnight neared, Xander and Hermione had illusions of their chosen characters in place over them. Xander recited the wording of the ritual while his hands pressed against the amber wall around him.

There was a flare of magic that filled the room, and both teens were left with trying to establish who they were with who they had become. It quickly became apparent that the two teens original personalities were dominate, but their new characteristics were also there.

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AuThOr'S NoTeS: 10/10/2019

Here I am again. I clearly wanted to show how the two teens made their selection. Lots of people made suggestions, but I've already had this thought out. Hopefully, some of those people will decide to take up my challenge and use their choices for amalgams. I know I'd be interested in reading them.

Yes, I didn't tell what the choices were. Sorry about that, but the big reveal will be in the next chapter.