A couple of days after Harry saw Bobby in his "Iceman" guise for the first time Professor Xavier called him into his office. When he got there he was surprised to see Professor Dumbledore with him.
"Hello headmaster" said Harry, "I didn't know you were here."
"That's all right Harry my boy" said Dumbledore, "how you are you settling in?"
"Quite well sir" said Harry, "this place is brilliant."
"I'm glad you like it" said Professor Xavier, "we do our best."
"Good" said Dumbledore, "now the reason I came here today was I so could answer your question."
"What question is that sir?"
"The one about why I put you with the Dursleys." said Dumbledore gravely. Harry's face took on a blank expression as he remembered when he had asked that question in Gringotts a week earlier.
"Yes" said Harry, "I'm listening." Dumbledore sighed.
"First of all I believe you were told that everyone on the list of potential guardians that your parents left was either unavailable for one reason or another or dead?"
"Yes" said Harry.
"After that I was told to use my best judgment" said Dumbledore, "and like it or not the Dursleys was the safest place I could think of for you to go to in order to be protected from Death Eaters. Voldemort was gone, but in the immediate aftermath of his defeat his followers were still free. Some of them were almost as bad as he was. I don't know how many of them you've heard of but trust me on this. You've met one of them in Lucius Malfoy who was one of Voldemort's most trusted followers and one of his biggest financial backers. They would have certainly tried to get revenge for their master's defeat by killing you if they could. It would not matter to them that you were a baby. Many of his followers did things much worse than kill a child. I could ward a wizarding home all the way up to the heavens and I still couldn't be absolutely sure you would be safe there.
"The only option I could think of that I could be sure would protect you was through the use of blood wards that I erected around the Dursley house. Lily's sacrifice allowed me to create those wards so that where her blood dwelled, meaning her sister Petunia, you would be safe from any wizard who would want to harm you. It worked. During the first year you were there those blood wards stopped no less than five attempts to get at you by some of Voldemort's followers who had escaped justice.
"Did I know that Petunia hated Lily? Yes, I did. Did I think she would hate you? I hoped she wouldn't but I'm not going lie about this. I was well aware that probably neither she nor her husband would treat you well. But at least you would be alive. You can heal from abuse but dead is dead. I know of no spell that can bring the dead back to life and I would be damned before I let you die, not if there was any way at all in which I could protect you.
"It was far from ideal but it was the best I could think of at the time. Also it wasn't supposed to be long term. I was hoping that the Death Eaters would all be arrested and sent to Azkaban. Once that was done I would have been able to remove you from the Dursleys and give you to an appropriate wizarding family to raise. It would have been safe to do that by then and I admit you would have been much better off. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way and many of the Death Eaters escaped justice. For instance Lucius Malfoy managed to worm his way out of trouble, mainly through bribery I think, and he wasn't the only one who managed to escape. In the end it seemed like there was no other option to ensure your safety than to leave you with your aunt and her family."
"But I wasn't safe there" said Harry, "maybe bad wizards couldn't get at me but that didn't stop the Dursleys from abusing me."
"I know" said Dumbledore, "that was the one thing I couldn't guard you from all the time and Lord knows I tried."
"You did?" asked Harry.
"Tell me Harry" said Dumbledore, "what was the pattern of how the Dursleys treated you? Were there ever times when they suddenly stopped abusing you for extended periods, physically at least?"
"Yes there were" said Harry. That was indeed what had happened. After several beatings the Dursleys would suddenly stop abusing him and would treat him better – for a while anyway. Then the abuse would start up again later before suddenly stopping again. This happened several times.
"Yes, well" said Dumbledore, "the abuse would stop because your aunt and uncle had to deal with me."
"They did?" asked Harry in surprise.
"I kept an eye on you" said Dumbledore, "do you remember Arabella Figg?"
"The lady with all the cats?" said Harry, "I'm not likely to forget her."
"She's a squib" said Dumbledore, "she works for me and kept me informed about how you were doing. When things got really bad I would pay the Dursleys a visit. That would stop things for a while but unfortunately people like them never stay cowed forever and the cycle would start again. And that wasn't the only thing that was tried. There were times when Miss Figg called the police on the Dursleys."
"I remember" said Harry, "that happened three times and Uncle Vernon was arrested. But it never stuck and he was always back home in a day or two."
"Your uncle" said Dumbledore grimly, "happens to be very well connected to members of your neighborhood's police force. In exchange for a favor or two – bribes usually – they were happy to make any charges against him disappear. I couldn't do anything about that without risking breaching the Statute of Secrecy.
"Are there more things we could have done to protect you?" said Dumbledore, "I'm sure there are but I couldn't think of them at the time. Professor McGonagall was there the night I sent you to your relatives. She watched the Dursleys that day and she said they were "the worst sort of muggles" and she was right. I would have gotten you out of there if I could have but I couldn't, at least not without putting you in more danger than you already were in by staying there.
"I'm sorry you had to go through all of that" said Dumbledore, "and I hope you'll forgive me for it eventually. It wasn't a good situation all around and I know it's not what you would have wanted but it's all I can tell you and it's the truth."
Harry sat deep in thought for several minutes before he finally nodded.
"As long as I never have to go back there ever again" he said, "I'll let it go."
"I'll try to see to it that you don't have to" said Dumbledore, "but if, for whatever reason, you do have to go back there well, don't tell anyone I said this but your mutant powers don't register as magic." Harry looked at Dumbledore in surprise.
"Are you actually giving me permission to – "
"I'm just stating a fact Mr. Potter" said Dumbledore, his eyes twinking as usual, "and now I must be going. I need to make a stop at Colony Alley before returning to Hogwarts. It's amazing that even in the summer there's always so much work to do. Goodbye Harry. Goodbye Charles."
"Goodbye Albus" said Xavier. Dumbledore turned on his heel and vanished from the professor's office with a loud crack.
"Okay, how did he do that?" said Harry to himself before remembering something he'd heard before, "that must have been apparition. I wondered what that looked like."
"Harry" said Xavier, "are you all right?"
"What?" said Harry coming out of his reverie, "I'm fine professor."
"Have you ever considered talking to someone about the Dursleys?"
"What do you mean?" asked Harry, "like one of my friends?"
"No" said Xavier, "I mean like someone professional, a psychologist perhaps?"
"I'm not crazy" said Harry a little defensively.
"I never said you were" said the professor, "nor do I think it. It just might be helpful to do so for your own peace of mind."
"I don't like talking about the Dursleys" said Harry, "I'd rather just forget about them."
"I'm sure you would" said Xavier, "I don't know the full story of what happened to you when you were living there and I won't ask you to tell me, but it's clear that despite everything Albus or anyone else could do you suffered a lot of abuse there. In my experience it's not a good idea to keep such traumatic experiences bottled up. Eventually that will take its toll."
Harry didn't say anything to that.
"Just think about it" said the professor before dismissing Harry from his office.
Harry did think about it but decided he really didn't want to start telling a stranger his life story. It would be impossible to do so without mentioning magic anyway. Professor Xavier didn't mention it again so eventually Harry forgot about it.
The days at Xavier's school began to fly by for Harry. Pretty soon he had been there for almost three weeks. He was becoming good friends with both Bobby and Scott although he was not permitted to watch them train in the Danger Room. Actually he never ran into Scott when he was entering or leaving training although he saw Bobby in his Iceman form a few more times.
One afternoon he entered the main livingroom on the mansion's first floor to find Bobby staring intently at the TV with Scott looking over his shoulder.
"What's going on guys?" asked Harry.
"There's this thing on the news about a guy with wings flying around" said Bobby.
"Wings?" said Harry, "really?"
"Yeah" said Bobby, "we're wondering if he might be another mutant."
"Maybe" said Harry, "I don't know of any spells that could give a man wings. Of course I'm not an expert on advanced magic so I suppose it's possible."
"If he is a mutant" said Scott, "I'm sure the professor will find him sooner or later." Harry nodded and left the livingroom to head to the kitchen for a snack. As he walked he snorted. 'Wings' he thought to himself, 'whatever will they think of next?'