Jean narrowed her eyes and when the next shot came she blocked it with her power. She retaliated by tossing a croissant at him. He blocked that and retaliated with a small piece of egg that she again blocked. Before anyone else could speak up suddenly they were flinging food at one another at an insane rate and everyone else ducked and ran from the sudden food fight.
Soon Jean upped the ante by blasting at Harry with her power and tossing plates at him. Harry responded by catching the plates and sending them through the door into the kitchen to land in the sink and tossing even more food her way. Some splattered Kurt, who was the only one who hadn't backed away from the table, and he retaliated by joining in. Soon all the kids, even Rogue and Scott had joined in and it took several mental shouts from Charles to get everyone to stop. ENOUGH, stop it, this sort of display is childish in the extreme, cease and desist!
The fight petered out, and everyone looked around a little sheepishly. Yet Harry merely waved his hand and used a massive scourgify to clean everything then he shrugged nonchalantly as the ruined food, strangely little from the amount that had been on the table (Kurt had eaten quite a lot before the battle really got going) formed in the air and shot off toward the trash, which Jean helpfully opened as the pile of food passed the kitchen doorway. "A bit of childishness is good for you from time to time Baldy. I think we all needed a bit of a release from the seriousness of the past few days anyway." Besides, we're going to ramp up the seriousness in our training tonight, so it evens out.
Jean frowned a little at that but nodded too. That was strangely exhilarating; who knew something so random could be so fun? And it was also tough keeping all those little things in the air at once. Still… "Alright, now that the food is ruined, how were you keeping me here this time?"
Harry looked at her, and for a moment there was something in his eyes she hadn't seen before, worry maybe but then it was gone and he grinned lopsidedly. "I didn't." Jean frowned and he laughed. "I didn't have time this morning, I had to spend some time getting a few things ready for later today, and I wanted to see how you'd react."
"You mean I could have left at any time!?" Jean exclaimed as the others began to chuckle a little, led by Ororo who had used a bit of wind power to keep all the thrown food away from her and Charles. And if she had used a bit to redirect some of the flying food toward Kurt or Evan no one would ever get the truth out of her… Just because she had to control her emotions all the time didn't mean that she couldn't have a little fun from time to time.
Harry nodded, then leaned forward seriously over the table towards Jean. "Yes you may have gained weight, but you haven't put on any pounds, you've simply gained muscles. Can you honestly say you are feeling any fatter or heavier than before? Because from where I'm sitting you're just as gorgeous now as you were when I first arrived." Ororo, who well knew that Jean's diet had been doing more damage than good, nodded firmly while the others simply nodded agreeing with him, though Scott frowned at the compliment paid to the redhead.
Jean looked away a very slight blush on her face. "I suppose not," she muttered. Stupid emerald eyes and handsome face, god those eyes should be illegal and anyway I've got a boyfriend. Huh, haven't really thought of him much lately have I? Still obviously my work as an X-woman comes first. "Alright, you win, I won't diet anymore."
Harry leaned back nodding. "Glad you finally see reason Red." He then turned to Kitty. "You ready to go apprentice?"
Kitty nodded eagerly and got up from where she had been using her phasing power to avoid the food being thrown around. "Sure teach, let's go!"
One of Charles' eyebrows quirked in inquiry, "What's this?"
"Curly-cat here came up with a new and interesting way to use a runic array to help her augment her power, as well as an idea to help all of you so I decided I might as well take her on formally as an apprentice in runes."
Charles turned to regard Kitty as the others looked at her in question save Evan and Kurt, who had heard of some of her ideas already. "Um, well, you know how we want to, like, um keep our identities secret? Well I thought about adding what is called a notice-me-not ward to just our faces and voices, so no one could recognize it." Charles blinked in surprise, but nodded firmly, that sounded like an excellent addition to their normal operation. "Like, I'll be working on studying runes from teach's books and figuring out the array for that and um, another idea for just me. We figured out a bit ago that I can do a lot of damage to something if I carry something else into it and push it along right?" Scott and the others winced having seen what she had left of the tree that one time. "But that takes a lot out of me for some reason, imparting momentum I mean. So I thought maybe if I started wearing a rune that could do the same thing." She wasn't certain yet how big it would be or wear to put it on her suit, but that would be later.
Harry grinned at the younger girl, amused by how enthused she was about learning the one aspect of magic she could use and manipulate. Well she could probably also be taught the local invocation stuff, but Harry would be damned before he relied on otherworldly beings for damn-all anything. Honestly the more time I'm around her the more she reminds me of Hermione. A far more naïve and less worldly Hermione, like the younger sister she never had. That had been one aspect of the death of the Grangers that bothered Harry almost as much as Hermione's death. Her mother had been two months pregnant when Snape used and then killed her and her unborn child.
If that child had lived, he could easily imagine the girl turning out like Kitty. Her mind was very sharp beneath that valley girl exterior and helping her inquisitive nature along was immensely rewarding. "While she's doing that I'll be working on a few of my own projects and trying to see if I can figure out a way to augment the power of the suits further, draw more bio-energy out without draining the wearer."
"All those sound worthwhile exercises," Charles said smiling. "I wish you luck on your exploration."
Harry said standing up and waving Kitty out of her chair and before him as he walked out of the dining area. As he walked out toward the main hall he called over his shoulder. "Remember Charles, one and a half weeks now." Charles stiffened but the two of them were gone before he could respond. The others looked on worriedly, wondering what that was about.
Harry led Kitty not up to his room as she had expected but to a room closer to the stairs but on the same floor. Inside what should have been a generic bedroom had been changed so much as to be almost unrecognizable. All the furniture was gone, replaced by a large table in one corner, a large hanger in another holding the Juggernaut's helmet, and in the center dominating the room was a runic tablet, a kind of sand box where someone could practice writing out the runes and then erase them easily. Only if someone could get the rune perfect on the sand would they be allowed to put a rune on something more permanent. In front of it was a large comfy looking bean bag, the same color and make of another one placed in front of the desk. On the walls was a massive drawn out runic array making its way all the way around the room in a spiral. Kitty recognized a few of the runes, mostly Grecian runes for defense, but the purpose of the rest eluded her, though she suspected it was meant to protect the people inside and out from magical accidents.
Harry gestured Kitty into the bean bag in front of the practice tablet and stood on the other side looking at her. "Runes are dangerous, deadly and among the most basic of magical skills, some even say that they are the basis of all magic, that a long time ago they were the first magic discovered. Regardless, venturing into creating your own runic arrays is dangerous, demanding and alas often tedious work. Before this we were only dabbling, from now on the true learning begins. Are you ready?"
Kitty nodded, and realizing that this was a serious moment she sat up straight, her face firming. "Yes sir."
Harry looked deep into her eyes for a moment then nodded firmly. "Alright, we're going to start you off on drawing several simple runes. This process was supposed to take a year to learn, but I know how smart you are, so I expect you to get a few of these down everyday and be able to use them, well once I empower them anyway. Understand?" Kitty nodded firmly. "Good. Now, this rune is the Grecian rune for 'Light'….
At around six that night the teens were called as a group into the Danger Room. They all looked at one another, having worked with their instructors most of the day, and were now wondering what they were going to do now. Scott thought it would be a team exercise, and was wondering if they would be asked to take on a Danger Room created version of Juggernaut. He had seen that programmed into the computer so thought it a good bet. The others were simply leery of anything their slave drivers could come up with.
This concern ratcheted higher when they saw the Danger Room configured into a simple plain flat clearing, with Harry standing in the middle. He met each of their eyes as they came closer, and Jean once more saw a flicker of something like worry or concern in Harry's face as he looked at her before it was gone again. Once the group of them stood around him in a loose half circle he began. "Okay you lot, this exercise is simple, use your powers, use teamwork and planning and fight me. Nothing else. You have five minutes to plan and then I'm coming for you."
Scott bit back a groan but nodded, seeing the point. If they could fight Harry, who had so many different skills and abilities, that would build their experience against other mutants and power users better than anything else, which made it a good exercise to mix up with the ones pitting them against trained normal troops, so they could cover both bases. The others had various reactions.
Rogue looked a little interested in seeing how her new strength and durability would stand up against Harry.
Kitty too looked interested anxious to see how something she personally created, a few small stones etched with a few simple runes such as hold, slow and other things, would work. Harry had been correct, she had indeed been able to reproduce some of the simplest runes, and engrave them into stones the size of her palm, which was actually incredible work for only five hours, as she had joined the others in some of their exercises throughout the day. Harry had praised her for her progress but also warned her that it would only become harder as they went on, especially when they got to full runic arrays rather than one rune effects.
Jean seemed resigned, though inside she felt a bit of excitement at the idea.
Kurt and Evan though both groaned. "We're going to get our butts kicked man!"
That might be, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try!" Scott said forcefully. "Now, let's put together a game plan!"
Rogue led off charging forward in an attempt to pin Harry in place, with Kurt and Evan spreading out quickly to either side in an attempt to keep him boxed in. Cyclops fired over Rogues shoulder at full blast hoping to cover their charge as Jean did the same. Kitty was nowhere to be seen, though given her power that really didn't mean much.
Harry charged forward, ducking under Scott's beams and surprisingly closing the range between his starting point and Rogue. The southern belle jerked to a halt but her gauntlet covered fist lashed out in a roundhouse. Instead of pasting the wizard however it passed right through him. "An Illusion, crap!"
Evan and Kurt turned, but Harry was already by Kurt, a spell lashing out. "Rifela!" The spell caught Kurt right in the chest throwing him back with a cry of pain as to the others it seemed as if a bullet had drilled right through him.
The Danger Room blandly announced. "Nightcrawler, mission kill."
The others all stopped and stared as Kurt fell to the ground, then was held there by the tractor beams that were everywhere in the Danger Room. "Wh-what the?" Scott said in shock then he shouted "There's something wrong with the program! Abort session!"
Harry didn't stop, and suddenly the ground came alive beneath them all, forming spires fists and feet that attacked all the others. "There's nothing wrong with the program, we upped the realism as much as we could. Treat this as real people or you're all going down, and this time I won't use any of my healing potions on you!"
Evan and the others gulped looking at Kurt's body on the ground, then their faces firmed and they began to fight back in earnest.
Evan started to throw spears at Harry with one hand while Rogue backed him up while across from them Scott fired while Jean performed defense, both her and Rogue ripping apart the fists and tendrils coming out of the ground.
Harry conjured up other beasts and lions, as well as one massive metal wall, which took the brunt of the combined attacks. Harry threw another spell into the air and suddenly it exploded like the sun, blinding all the X-men. They kept firing blindly, But Harry was already moving. His next shot changed the ground back to normal then made it so slippery that none of them were able to keep their feet. A overpowered "Reducto" shot out, smashing Rogue into the air and a Leviosa kept her there to be neatly struck in the neck by a cutting curse. She shouted in pain as the spell struck but swiftly the pain knocked her out as the Danger Room covered her with the image of what the cutting curse could have done, removing her head in a geyser of gore, as despite her new endurance she had not gained any magical resistance. "Rogue, mission kill."
Again the others stopped and stared, but this time Kitty showed up, using one of her stones with the runes for a holding field to try and take Harry out. She was barely an inch away from placing it on him when he teleported away, appearing right behind her. "Nice try Curly-cat! Fulgur!" The blast of lightening smashed out and impacted her and once again Kitty went down due to a lightning attack.
She hadn't felt much pain due to Harry barely powering the spell, but her friends all saw her smoking corpse. The hologram technology of the danger room was truly advanced. "Shadowcat, mission kill."
Evan snarled and pulled out two blades from his hands then charged forward, trying to catch Harry before he could teleport away, but a simple tripping spell at his feet followed by a bombarda took him out of the fight as he had forgotten to cover himself in his bone armor, a egregious mistake that cost him dearly. "Spyke, mission kill."
Scott, who had felt the impact of the blinding attack more than the others, finally got his eyesight back in time to see Jean charge forward in a corona of telekinetic power. Harry shot out a protego maximo which took and refracted Scott's eyebeams back to him, but he simply absorbed the power and kept firing his beam more powerfully than before. Harry ducked and then set several dozen conjured beasts at him to keep him busy before turning his full attention on Jean.
He dodged her initial blasts and retaliated with several cutting curses, which she blocked or deflected away. She moved her head just enough to dodge one and finally landed a blast on Harry that caught him in the chest, smashing the air out of him and throwing him away as a thin cut appeared on her cheek.
Scott killed the last of the beasts and tried to immediately follow up firing after him but Harry recovered quickly, shooting out a spell based off of Fred and George's Peruvian Darkness Powder, making a massive amount of black smoke that blinded Scott and Jean. Before Jean could figure out how to push the darkness away Harry closed the distance, and a conjured knife slammed into Scott's chest. "Cyclops, mission kill."
The darkness dissipated and Jean hammered Harry away across the room with another tk blast. Harry shook his head and got up none the worse for wear thanks to his reinforced Magia Erebea. Jean smirked a little, excitement rising in her for some reason as she wiped away the bit of blood on her cheek with her finger, completely forgetting for a moment the sight of her downed comrades. "You know, out of that little food fight this morning I don't think the two of us have ever really fought one another, not since you first showed up."
Harry smirked a little, forgetting the purpose of this exercise, his eyes beginning to crackle with magical power. "You know what Red, I think you're right."
"Nor is that going to happen now." Charles said firmly. Jean frowned at that but Charles went on, a little leery about letting the powerful telekinetic and magic user fight, afraid Harry might blurt something out in the heat of the moment. "This exercise was not an excuse for you to simply beat on one another like children, but for you and the others to actually learn something Jean."
The grass and the rest of the simulation faded and the 'dead' began to rise, freed from the hold of the system's numerous tractor beams. Rogue found herself lowered to the ground easily and she shook her head, touching her neck right above her armor where the cutting curse had impacted. She muttered to Kurt, who had regained his feet as Harry brought her down out of the side of her mouth, "That was really disturbing sugah."
"Truly," he muttered back. "Seeing a large hole straight through your own body was…. Brrr."
"That was the point of the exercise," Harry informed them. "You all need to know that there is no do over, there is no retry in a real battle. Those corpses could well have been real." A shudder went through all the X-men, both at that idea and at Harry's far away eyes. "I don't want any of you to feel the pain of losing a comrade, this is a serious business, and if you're too far gone, even if I'm right there my potions and spells won't help. I wanted you all to see how bad it could get."
They all nodded seriously and he went on. "So I want you all to start thinking up new ways of using your powers, getting stronger and working as a team on your own time and this time every night we will have you all fight me or the simulations until you can win as a team. And every time I'm going to use different tactics and spells, to get you used to fighting different types of powers. And this program will be there every night to show you the price of failing. Understand?" They all looked at one another, but nodded. From then on the session became much more serious, but the X-men could feel themselves getting stronger.
That was how the next few days went before spring break ended. The X-men would work out with Logan (Scott, Evan and Kurt) Harry (Kitty) and Ororo (Rogue and Jean) during the day then would spend two hours with Harry. The first hour would be full on combat either against him or a large group of robots that would each use a random set of three of the spells he had so far shown. When they went down the same thing occurred to them that happened to the X-men when they did; the dead robot or team member was covered with a hologram showing their corpse. The second hour they would talk about ways to work better as a team, and Harry would help them correct the mistakes they made in the exercises.
Harry's project to figure out the properties of Juggernauts armor had hit a dead end, he just didn't have the sensors or magical items to analyze it. He had designed a few but for now he had to leave it. His other little projects though proceeded apace.
The strain between Harry and Charles became more and more pronounced every day that went by without Charles speaking to Jean. Nothing was said, but the tension would cause everyone else to leave swiftly whenever the two men were in the same room for long. The kids for the most part were still steering clear but Scott was beginning to push at Harry's authority during their sessions, feeling that whatever the issue was, the professor was in the right.
Jean took him to task about his attitude the Sunday evening before school was going to start as the two of them were walking up to their rooms. "Scott you need to stop pushing Harry, he's the one in charge of our training for a reason, and if he pushes back you won't like what happens."
Scott frowned at her. "You can't tell me you don't feel the tension between them? Potter's obviously done something, and the professor is just too decent to toss him out."
"If that was the case why in the world would he let him continue training us? And why do you think that it has to be something Harry's done? It could just be a difference of opinion about something, like how they argued about how to handle Juggernaut."
Scott frowned, that hadn't actually occurred to him but after a moment he dismissed it. "But still, the professor was right about that, and I think we should show solidarity and back him up. Harry's made no bones about how he will eventually move on after all."
"So what, does that change the fact he's helping us now? No it doesn't and whatever is going on between the professor and Harry is their own affair, not ours." She turned and kept walking toward the girl's wing, but a voice stopped her and she turned, seeing Ororo come out of the solarium, a book in one hand.
"That is a very mature and intelligent attitude to take Jean, and your argument was sound."
Jean shrugged. "It just makes sense to me that's all. I don't know why Scott is trying to make it into a big deal. I don't even know if he believes what he says of if he's just trying to strike back at Harry because he's sort of stolen Scott's thunder. Before Harry arrived Scott led us through a lot of our training exercises. He's also always very critical about Scott's leadership in the team drills."
Not without reason, she had to admit. Scott wasn't very flexible, and he couldn't really handle the chaos of a battlefield that was the natural occurrence when fighting someone like Harry, or dozens of enemies at once. More he clearly plays favorites, always keeping me at the back regardless of the situation. As if I can't tell why he's doing it, I suppose it could be called sweet but I just find it really annoying and rather presumptuous. It's kind of insulting really, as I know I've become one of the teams three big hitters at this point.
"Well I am glad of it nonetheless." Ororo looked at the younger girl, seeing her stare off into the distance with an introspective look on her face. "Is there something else wrong?" Jean sighed, only confirming Ororo's guess. "Would you like to come up to my room and talk about it?" Jean looked at the older woman for a moment then nodded her head.
The two went up to her room and entered Jean looking around with interest. None of the younger set had ever been in Ms. Munroe's room (in fact no one else had been in her room ever, not even Charles or her nephew) and she was very interested to see what it looked like. The room was dominated by a large circular futon instead of the normal bed, draped with several furs. Along one wall was a bookshelf filled with books, mostly language books and classics, made of dark wood next to a dresser of the same wood while on the other was a large painting of what Jean supposed was the Serengeti, and on either side was a picture of her family. Next to a picture of her and Evan were three diplomas, all bachelors of languages. The back of the room was a wall to wall window, wide open to let in as much of the air as possible, and a small tree sat in a pot right next to the door. On the floor was a very fine afghan rug. All in all the room gave the impression of both refined intelligence and a certain wild barbarity. Jean found this room told her more about Ms. Munroe than she had learned in the last year living with her, and she was a little humbled at being welcomed into it.
She sat on the floor and was surprised that the older woman sat on the floor as well instead of on the bed. This made them much more like equals though, something that flattered Jean quite a bit. After all, Ms. Munroe routinely beat both her and Rogue in their spars and she was a teacher and older to boot. "Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong. Unless you would like some tea, in which case I'd have to go over to my arboretum to retrieve my tea service." Ororo smirked a little. "I thought that it wouldn't be nearly as good as Harry's."
Jean shook her head in response, running one hand through her red hair as she thought of how to begin. "Have you ever, have you ever felt as if you were being pulled this way and that, stretched and yet at the same time as if you're being forced into a mold, something you are rapidly growing out of?"
Ororo smiled a little. "I wouldn't put it like that but I know what you mean. You have your duties as an X-man, your schoolwork, and your boyfriend all making demands on your time. And you are also growing as a person, but aren't certain where that growth is taking you, correct?" Jean gaped at her astonished and the black woman laughed for a moment, though a sudden peal of thunder made her stop and recompose herself. Jean frowned, feeling sorry for the other woman, hoping the Harry was making progress in his ward for her.
Storm went on. "Suffice to say I have felt like that a time or two. I felt pulled between a desire to leave and find myself, to see the world beyond the tribes that worshiped me, and to stay and continue to be seen as their weather goddess because it was the life i knew. And when my powers first awakened, let us say that I broke the mold I was in then. Being a thief and low on the totem pole of a gang and able to manipulate the weather just did not go together. And that doesn't consider the mold I was forced into when gaining full control of my powers or when I was at college. The question is why are you feeling this way now? I realize you've gotten far stronger in the use of your powers, but that can't be the only reason can it?"
Jean shook her head. "No, though my new control of my telepathy is part of it. I always had to be the best for my parents, but lately I've been wondering if that was ever for me as well, or simply what others expected of me. My being an X-man is important to me, but at the same time I, I don't want to be important just as Marvel Girl, but as Jean Grey, and I, I don't know if the others can see it. I just seem to be growing, not just in powers but in other ways, and I'm no longer certain what I want out of life, and I don't like the fact that there's this assumption that we'll always be here, that being an X-man will be the main thing in my life. It's important but…."
She realized she was rambling but that was sort of the point in and of itself really. She had been making headway in organizing her mind via occlumency, but while that had helped her keep other peoples thoughts out, it hadn't helped in controlling her own and she had found herself thinking about the future more and more, and wondering where the hell she was going to be when high school ended, and hating the fact that Scott, Charles and everyone else just assumed that they would all still be here, unchanging.
This was in fact a normal occurrence when organizing your mind via occlumency: you suddenly were able to think clearer, to notice things you have never noticed before, and in a way you come to understand yourself to a far better degree. Hermione found out she had been slowly moving away from her parents in their second year, and moved swiftly to stop this, and that a few of her friends in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had simply been using her for her smarts rather than true friends. Harry too had discovered something about himself, that being he hadn't yet moved past his abandonment issues and other problems caused by his childhood with the Dursleys. Of course in this case it wasn't just Jean herself that was being effected, but she didn't know that, nor did anyone else.
Ororo looked at her for a moment, smiling internally. Ah, one of the little ones wants to spread her wings in more ways than one, lovely. She was always in favor of growth. "And going back to school tomorrow, with all of your obligations there, it brought it all to a head."
Jean sighed, leaning against the remarkably soft side of the bed behind her. "Yes. I'm part of the cheerleader squad, and I find the idea starting up practice again with them unappealing now." For more than one reason she thought grimly, remembering some of the thoughts, emotions and angst of the other girls. Even her best friend had some thoughts that disturbed her. "And after that I'll have my place as captain of the soccer team starting in a few weeks after the football season ends, and then there's my boyfriend."
Who I haven't thought of even calling despite being back in town this entire week, she thought rather morosely. It wasn't that Duncan was a bad person, he was just a typical male teen, with all that entailed, and she had begun to see his bad points far more, unable to hide from her own memories of his bullying attitude, his lack of empathy (something he shared with Scott she knew, and briefly thought of pointing that out to them both to see their reaction to sharing something) and his bigoted ways against anyone different from the norm.
If I'm nothing else, I am not normal, nor would I want to be. I want to be extraordinary! And I have no idea how he would react to that. "That's part of why I want so desperately to learn to fly under my own power, because it gives me a semblance of freedom and I can imagine travelling the world seeing new and interesting things." She suddenly shot a grin at the older woman, "Use some of those language lessons you've hammered into us."
"You could always quit both teams" Ororo suggested. "And perhaps we could figure out a trip over the summer, just to get away, see a bit of the world. That would be most fun and a learning experience for all of you I think. Jean smiled at the thought, snuggling happily against the side of Ororo's bed. I have got to get something like this for my room! "That would be lovely, though just talking about it has helped a little. Thanks for listening Ms. Munroe."
Ororo smiled. "I think you should start to call me Ororo outside of lessons. And that is what I am here for my dear, if you ever want to talk you know where to find me, just remember to knock hmm?" Jean laughed and the conversation turned to other things, and the two talked together for several more hours.
The next day was Monday, and the kids went back to school, some with irritation, some with anticipation and others with eagerness. Evan was looking forward to using his new mad skills to hammer any of the brotherhood that tried to start anything, even Scott was feeling a little grimly anticipatory at the idea. Kitty was happy to be seeing her non-X-ish friends. Rogue and Jean were both irritated for different reasons. Jean was leery about being around her boyfriend and other friends, wondering how she would react to them given her new thoughts and feelings about them. Rogue was worried about controlling her strength. It hadn't gone down at all, and judging from the tests Charles ran, it seemed to be permanent, something that made her happy, but also made her worried about controlling it.
The breakfast meal was dominated by Kurt, Evan, Kitty and Scott as usual, while Jean made small talk with Ororo and Charles and Logan talked about some kind of weapons package Logan wanted to add to the X-jet.
No one noticed that Harry hadn't sat down to eat with them until he suddenly popped up right behind Ororo's seat. "Hey Ororo, I have a present for you."
Ororo turned slightly then stilled as she felt his hands on her shoulders, a gentle touch that made her turn her head back forward. Harry began to gather and move her hair to the side to bare her neck a gesture that, while not sexual was certainly sensual and sent a shiver of pleasure through her. She closed her eyes into mere slits, trying to control herself and not effect the weather around her. It had been so long since she had allowed herself the touch of another person…
She was brought back to the here and now when Jean gasped from across from her and she felt a slight weight settle just below her neck. Ororo opened and looked down to see a golden necklace composed of small quarter inch gold links (made by melting galleons together) and centered on a large diamond (taken from some of his family's jewelry he had brought with him). It seemed to sparkle with an inner light and she turned to stare at Harry, her eyes filled with hope. "Ha-Harry, is this what I think it is?"
Harry's answering grin threatened to split his face, reminding a few of the kids of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. "Yep, I finished it last night. The trouble was to make the runes small enough to all fit on one item of jewelry, and to only block your subconscious connection not your powers entirely. That was a bit of an issue, and why I had you testing so many arrays the past few days. Still the final product is mmh…"
He was interrupted by the exuberant African woman jumping to her feet and kissing him fiercely on the lips. As the others looked on with various emotions ranging from happiness, shock and amusement to a gathering rage the kiss deepened for several moments, Harry's arms going around her waist as her own went around him.
It was about to involve tongues when Evan finally lost his temper and jumped to his feet, shooting a few bone knives out at Harry. "God-damnit stop necking with my aunt you perverted bastard!"
Harry broke the lip lock and simply waved his hand a 'Protego' knocking the knives away easily. Ororo however simply giggled and ran outside to see a clear day, no winds, no reaction at all from her emotional storm and she began to laugh aloud and shot into the air, a fierce joy filling her at finally being able to use her powers without worrying about even a momentary loss of control could do. She swooped into her room and changed into her X-man uniform. She grabbed a pair of headphones and some music then shot back out of the room, intending to enjoy her day to the fullest.
Harry smirked a little as laughter began around the table. "Huh I guess she likes it." He nodded to Rogue and she looked at him with hope in her eyes. "Your ward is next, though I won't say how long it will take, it'll be a little more difficult alas." Rogue nodded and the breakfast broke up as the students went their separate ways to prepare for school.
Lance and the others came to school for once eagerly, anxious to start something with the X-men to see how their week of training would stack up. "Now remember, don't start anything right away, see if we can isolate the Boy Scout or one of the others first, take them out piecemeal." Fred and Todd both nodded but Pietro merely rolled his eyes, yet Lance knew the punk wouldn't do anything to mess this up. Their little 'talk' about Pietro running off and not coming back to help against Juggernaut had gone as well as it could, and he was sufficiently cowed by the other three to go along with things. Lance knew it wouldn't last; Pietro had an ego way bigger than his powers could account for, but Lance would deal with that later if he had to.
Their chance came almost immediately and Lance sent off Todd and Fred to prepare. Evan and Kurt had as normal skateboarded to school and Lance smirked as they saw them coming in late past the gate. A little rumble of his power threw them both off their boards for a second and then Pietro zoomed in grabbing them both and dragging them to a distant part of the parking area with no witnesses.
Surprisingly the two X-men didn't fight this, simply going along with things while internally laughing aloud in glee. Fred and Todd both smirked at the x-dorks when Pietro let them go. "You know, we've been training for the past week, and we were hoping to see how well we do with a bit of a fight. You don't mind do you?" As soon as Lance finished saying this the Blob swung a huge ham sized hand forward at Evan then he howled in surprised pain as Evan went flying away, only to flip and land on his feet. His body was covered in armor right below his clothing, bulking him up a bit and his face, where Fred's punch had been aimed, was covered in small spikes for a moment before they receded back under his skin, which healed as they sank back in.
Kurt suddenly bamfed, appearing right behind the speedster, who turned as fast as his heightened nervous system could allow. His punch though was caught and they bamfed away, appearing in the air where Pietro's speed was negated. A few hard punches to the other German's stomach sent him down to the ground gasping for air, out of the fight for now. Kurt bamfed again, appearing next to Evan with the normal smell of brimstone and smoke. "Oh no mine fruend, we haf no problem at all vith that." With that both X-men charged forward.
Lance was able to hold his own against Evan, keeping his distance with judicious use of his power, and when Kurt tried to join in he found Lance had studied enough martial arts to counter him. Fred and Toad worked well together, but by the time the bell rang all three of the brotherhood were sweaty and sore while the two X-men both seemed they could go on for hours more. By mutual agreement the fight ended when the bell rang, leaving one side exhilarated and the other frustrated and a little scared. Lance thought grimly, their teamwork was the thing that killed us, not just their powers but their hand to hand skills. If the whole team was here we would have been schooled. Mystique is not going to like this. He was of course proven correct in this assumption later that day.
As it was a school night the team had only a few hours of practice but that was enough to tell them that Ororo with her emotions unbound was a very different person. For one thing, she was far more vocal, she was demanding, she laughed a lot and she cajoled them along with jokes at times and abrasive sarcastic comments at others.
Scott in particular received quite a few of these when she ordered him to attack her with only his knife work. Her comments on his skill, as she stood above him with his knife in one hand and twirling her own in the other, were utterly scathing. Scott determined to take that training more seriously from now on, if only in an attempt to not receive any more such comments. He still didn't see the point to them though. Evan too was brought to task on not taking the hand to hand lessons seriously enough and was heard to mutter he wanted the old Auntie O back.
Jean however enjoyed seeing this aspect of the older woman's personality, as did the others, especially after she pranked Kurt in return for a paint balloon aimed at her back during a break in their training. Kitty received the new nickname Kitten, which she liked as it was something her mother called her and Ororo like this seemed to be a great big sister type, and Kurt enjoyed her newfound sense of humor and Rogue the fact she played music in the background of their training sessions.
The next morning Ororo smirked as she remembered that, then her lips widened into a smile as Harry walked in, a smile on his own face. "I see that you're enjoying being able to show your emotions, I'm glad."
"As am I," Ororo purred, standing up and stalking, that was the only word for it, toward him. She greatly enjoyed his gulp and she watched with eagerness as his eyes lit up with a matching desire. She molded her body against his still clothed form, kissing him gently on the lips then nibbling her way to his ear as he did the same. Her skin felt like the finest satin under his touch, and she tasted like cardamom and some other spice he couldn't place. "So" she whispered in his ear, barely controlling a moan as Harry nipped at her neck, "When are you going to take me out on a date?" With that she pulled back and moved away to water her plants, keeping one eye on Harry to see his reaction to her teasing.
She was surprised when he simply shook his head and laughed, showing not a single sign of irritation at her teasing, nor any uncontrollable desire, oh there was desire there, quite a lot of it but it went away as he shook his head, now able to, not ignore nor overlook, just not react to her naked form and she put another large check mark next to his name. Harry seemed, much like her, to not just want a flash in the pants relationship, and was willing to play the game. "Well, I'm going to be leaving in about an hour or so on a trip that may or may not take a few days, so how about this weekend?"
She nodded, wondering what he was up to but supposing it had something to do with his ongoing research projects. She knew his inability to analyze what he still insisted on calling Harrytanium was bothering the heck out of him. "That will be fine. I trust you will be able to find a suitable restaurant on your own? You haven't exactly gone anywhere lately after all. And what do you want our Kitten to be working on while you're gone?" During the school week Logan and Ororo took over all of the student's exercises, as Harry's were bruising in the extreme, something the kids wouldn't be able to hide at school simply because of how they would move.
"I'll talk to Kitty before I go, she won't be working on anything new without me here, runes and magic can be very dangerous to tinker with even if she doesn't have a magical core of her own, hence why my runic workroom is warded as much as I can make it." Well without using one of my hearth stones anyway. "She'll be working on practicing drawing the runes she already knows smaller than she can now. That should keep her busy, and not tempt her to mess with some of the runes I've already powered without me here." Ororo nodded, and the conversation changed to what kind of food she liked when eating out, what she would like and hadn't had the opportunity to try and other things.
Kitty was one of the first to come down to breakfast and was surprised to see Logan there. Logan had not had a good night, haunted by a nightmare, possibly a memory. He was suspended in some kind of amniotic fluid in a tank, then he escapes, is attacked and runs away through the snow, in pain, angry and confused.
Kitty sat down across form him, her lips gripping a pen as she began to write a letter to her parents as she did every few weeks. She looked up as Logan rustled his newspaper, and he glanced at her. "Am I reading to loud or something Kitty?"
Kitty shook her head. "Nah, I just am enjoying the quiet, its so rare around here." Even as she said that the boys came in, talking excitedly to one another about some TV show they had all watched last night and she shook her head. "See what I mean?"
Rogue came in and sat down next to her, handing the younger girl a set of her big headphones. Kitty took them gratefully while Jean and Ororo came in talking about something about flying. They sat down and continued their discussion, with Ororo using her hands to illustrate some point to the redhead, who was nodding her head in understanding.
Harry walked in at that point not partaking of the meal. Teleportation over any kind of distance had a lot of the same issues apparition had, and using either magical method of transportation with food in your stomach was a very bad idea. "I'm going on a little trip" he announced, and everyone at the table looked at him. "I might be gone as long as two days, I don't know just yet."
Jean looked up in surprise, wondering what their most chaotic and unpredictable teacher was going to be doing. "Where are you going Harry?"
"Europe eventually, well, that is if the first part of this little trip doesn't kill me. That's a definite possibility really, should be fun anyway." With that he gathered his magical power, and focused all his thoughts on the image in his brain even as the others all gaped at him or choked on their food in surprise at his statement. He ignored their surprise and waved a hand jauntily. "Wish me luck."
Before any of them could do more than gape he disappeared, making a faint popping noise. A moment later, Hedwig who had perched on the back of Ororo's chair to look at her over her shoulder at the manga she was reading (yes Ah My Goddess was silly, but it was also funny and Ororo liked it), squawked angrily and flopped forward, barely catching herself before she landed on the table, precking irritably.
Ororo frowned. "I take it he ran into a bit of trouble?" Hedwig nodded her head fiercely, not stopping her irritated diatribe. Despite not being in any kind of human language the meaning of her precks came through quite clearly. Charles was almost tempted to say something about watching her language, but realized that in her present mood the owl might well rip his ear off. "Well in that case could you peck him a few times for me as well? He needs to get used to the fact that there are people who care for him now, and he can't just go and risk himself like this." Hedwig recovered herself, precked and nodded firm agreement with that statement then launched herself into the air. A moment later she too disappeared from sight.
Jean chuckled a little, saying "Never a dull moment around here, especially with Potter here." Everyone around the table nodded mute agreement.
The trick to teleportation was that you could only do it to a place you could picture accurately in your mind. If you couldn't do that you wouldn't be able to forge the connection between where you were to where you wanted to go. You could still try to push through of course that was what caused splinching more often than not. Harry had never been to any place in Europe, and he had only been to a few places in London, but he didn't know any of them well enough to teleport to, and when he tried to picture them, it didn't work. There was one place however, that when he tried to create a connection he succeeded. It was the most surprising of all, a place he tried to connect to only on a whim, with no real hope that it would be there, not after Madame Harkness had told him there was no Wizarding World, that magic users had never come together and retreated away from the non magical societies.
Yet Hogwarts existed here as it did in his own dimension. Hogwarts, a huge, massive castle still existed here, yet he found no mention of it on the internet, which made him believe that somehow it was still hidden to non-magical senses. So he tried to picture himself teleporting to land right before the main entrance, the place he could picture the most comprehensively yet still outside so the least likely to run into wards.
This hadn't worked. Instead of just the building being warded, a large area around it was too, and Harry bounced off the outer anti-apparition ward like a tennis ball off a wall, only with the ball in this case being alive to feel the pain and humiliation. "FUuuccckkkk!" He shouted, his mind and stomach assaulting him too much to let him react as he bounced off the wards and then off the water of the lake several times, before his momentum finally gave out about a mile from the shore. He groaned a little while beginning to tread water, thankful yet again that he routinely wore his crisis suit underneath his regular clothing. With a freezing spell he froze a large area of the water's surface, enough so he could pull himself up onto it and sort of lay there like a landed fish as he recovered, his stomach feeling like someone had tried to use it as a battlefield, his mind fogged with pain and his body a little sore, though thankfully not so much. He'd felt far worse, but his stomach and head were new and he had to rest there for a few minutes as the pain in both subsided.
Hedwig appeared overhead, her entire body screaming righteous indignation. After circling him to make certain her Harry was alright she landed on the ice next to his head, her claws sinking in, then she began to chew his ear off. And with an owl that was not a figure of speech.
For a few moments Harry just lay there, letting his body get back to normal. After he felt well enough to stand up he did so, pushing to his knees and after renewing his freezing spell he wobbled over to the edge of the piece of ice, leaned over and fed the fish for a bit. Hedwig turned away fastidiously as her Harry lost a few of his last meals, but hopped onto his shoulder and continued her assault on his ear as he stood up on still wobbly legs to look around.
Harry gave her a weak smile. "I know Hedwig, I was an idiot, I just thought, well I didn't really think this through huh? Guess my family's Gryffindor heritage overwhelmed my Ravenclaw common sense huh?" Hedwig gave the owl equivalent of a harrumph but stopped chewing on his ear after a final far more gentle nibble.
Despite what he said Harry had expected to run into some issues boldly trying to teleport to Hogwarts, but had thought that he would appear nearby, simply deposited elsewhere safely with nothing wrong save a upset stomach. Instead he had bounced off full power wards and nearly hit the other side of the lake from the castle. With a sigh he turned his attention to the distant castle, a smell repelling charm sending the ice over the lake. When he got closer both he stared as tears came to his eyes, remembering how he had first seen the castle and all of the things that had happened here.
The medieval castle sat there, unchanged since some distant past when it was first built. The towers, the turrets, the little overlook which hid the first year's entrance, it was all there. He remembered entering that way with Hermione, Padma and the others, and smiled a little sadly at the fact he would never see any of his old friends among the living ever again. He felt a niggling little tickle at the edge of his senses, and knew he was somehow under an anti-muggle ward of some kind. He then used his mage sight spell and his eyes widened in shock.
The wards of Hogwarts were the wonders of the world for hundreds of years, yet by the time Harry started school there, they were a bare shadow of what they could, indeed what they should have been. They were powered by three things; one, the students ambient magic, keeping magical accidents to a minimum.
The second power source was the teachers, who were supposed to give up a portion of their own magic to power them on a daily basis after they signed their contracts. Dumbledore as the headmaster should have not only given the largest portion of his own power to these wards, tying him into them, but he should have enforced this for all the teachers he hired in his tenure. He didn't do either, and thus by the time Harry arrived the wards were only sustained by the two teachers who he hadn't hired, Flitwick and McGonagall, which was why there were so many dangers able to get onto the grounds and fights inside the castle between students with the teacher none-the-wiser.