The next day Professor Xavier called Harry into his office.
"Good afternoon Harry" said Xavier, "please have a seat. How are you feeling after your first mission as an X-Man?"
"Not bad" said Harry, "I didn't expect to do accidental magic but other than that everything seemed to work out pretty well."
"It did" said the professor, "you handled yourself well."
"Thank you" said Harry.
"That bit of accidental magic you did" said the professor, "got me thinking. You haven't used magic in the Danger Room because I've been wanting you to concentrate on your mutant powers with the team but there's no reason you shouldn't ever use it. It could be a very good back up weapon to hold in reserve. There is, however, one problem that you'll need to overcome and that's your wand."
"What about it?" said Harry.
"First of all your uniform doesn't have a place where you could carry it" said the professor, "but that's negligible. We can always fix that. The real problem is what happens if you should lose your wand. Or what if it gets broken?"
"That would be bad" said Harry not wanting to even think about such a thing.
"It would" agreed the professor, "but when you turned the Conquistador's weapon into a rooster you didn't use a wand."
"Well, no" said Harry, "but that was accidental magic. I couldn't control it."
"You're not quite getting my point though" said the professor, "whether you could control it or not you did magic without a wand. And those other incidents of accidental magic you told us about, you didn't use a wand for those either. If that's the case do you really need a wand at all?"
"I – " said Harry, "I never thought of it like that."
"Albus has told me that wandless magic is possible" said Xavier, "he's able to use it himself although he says it's very difficult even for the most powerful wizards and he can't do very high grade spells with it. I'm not sure he's right."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry leaning forward in his chair.
"Look at it this way" said the professor, "magic is a power that you have. When you can't control it accidental magic happens so you get a wand to help you learn to control it. Your telekinesis and your electricity are powers too. When they first appeared you couldn't control them but through hard work you learned how to control them and then to begin using them effectively. There's still plenty for you to learn of course but in neither case did you use an external tool to help you with those powers. Think about that and ask yourself this: why should learning to control and use your magic be any different?"
"Are you saying that I don't need a wand?" asked Harry.
"Do you?" replied the professor, "I have no doubt that using a wand makes it easier to learn magic but what if you never had one? Isn't it possible that you could still learn to control your magic? I want you to train yourself to do your magic without your wand. I can't really guide you on how to do this because I'm not a wizard but I can offer you something to think about that might help. Think of your magic as being like your mutant powers. Try to get in touch with your magic. Feel for it inside of you and see if you can begin to use it without your wand. Start with simple spells and go from there. I think you can do it."
"Wow" said Harry who was very intrigued by what the professor was saying, "have you told Dumbledore any of this?"
"No" said the professor, "this is a new idea of mine that I thought of only as we were returning from dealing with the Conquistador. I don't know if it will work but I think it's a real possibility. If you can make it work then I will probably inform Albus of that fact. Why don't you try it now?"
"Okay" said Harry slowly, "how should I start?"
"What's the easiest spell you can think of?" asked the professor, "let's say the very first one you learn when you first get a wand?"
"Probably the lumos charm" said Harry, "it lights up the end of your wand."
"Try it without your wand. Hold up a finger and try to create a light there."
Harry held up his right forefinger.
"Lumos" he said. Nothing happened.
"Try again" said the professor, "concentrate as hard as you can. Try to feel your magic and direct it to do what you want it to do."
Harry stared at his finger. He concentrated hard this time and tried to feel for his magic as the professor said.
"Lumos" he said again. Was that – ? Yes, he felt something moving through him towards his finger. After a few seconds a faint glow appeared from his fingertip. Over the next few seconds it brightened into a very definite light.
"I did it" whispered Harry staring at his finger in amazement before whispering "nox" and seeing the light fade away.
"Of course you did" said the professor sounding pleased, "well done."
"Thanks" said Harry still a bit amazed.
"From now on I want you to take some time each day to work on this" said the professor, "it may prove to be very useful to you in the future."
"I will" said Harry, "I'll talk to some of the teachers at Ilvermorny as well."
"You do that" said the professor, "as soon as you're secure in casting some spells without your wand we'll show Albus. I think he'll be surprised."
After that Harry began to experiment with trying to perform his magic without his wand. It was slow going but he learned a valuable lesson as he went. Wands definitely made it easier to learn to cast – but they weren't absolutely required for it. The more he thought about it the more it seemed to him as if wands were like training devices to help you learn magic more quickly. That made him curious to learn more about magic wands and their history. As time went on he began researching the subject in the Ilvermorny library. There he made a surprising discovery while browsing through an ancient tome about wands that he'd found tucked away in one of the most remote shelves in the library.
It seemed that originally wands were training tools for young wizards and witches to learn how to use their magic but were not meant to be permanent tools. The tool of the mature wizard was the staff which was able to amplify a spell's power. Staves did not make using magic easier though. One could not use a staff unless one had fully trained up their magic first – and was able to do magic without a tool of any kind. In other words if you couldn't do wandless magic you couldn't use a staff. (Harry mused that this didn't seem to make sense but soon shrugged it off. After all, how often did magic ever make sense?) Early wizards understood this however over time this understanding seemed to decline. Wands became permanent tools because they were convenient. They did make it easier to learn magic but without taking the next step and learning to use magic without a wand a wizard would become helpless if the wand was ever taken away.
Staves had fallen out of use in recent centuries because only a wizard or witch who had mastered their magic without a wand was able to use one and these days hardly anyone was trying to do that. Magic users, it seemed, had gotten complacently lazy and wands had become the go to tool of choice.
Harry realized that Professor Xavier was right. If he could learn to use his magic without a wand it would be a very good thing. With that in mind he began working through his first and second years again trying to cast the spells without his wand. He made the wand motions with one of his fingers or his hand and that seemed to do the trick. It was slow but it was easier after he took the professor's advice and began looking at his magic as a power like his mutant powers which could be trained without an external tool. He continued to practice and slowly he began to make progress.
A few days after they first met him Hank arrived at the school. He was quickly made a part of the X-Men and was soon joining them in team training every day. His uniform was a little different from the others' in that he didn't wear gloves or boots. This was appropriate as both would have interfered with his hands and especially his feet which were as dextrous and useful as a second pair of hands. He could climb, leap, and balance better than anyone Harry had ever met. That, as they all later found out, was why Conquistador had kidnapped him. He wanted to use Hank's climbing ability to break into places that would otherwise have been inaccessible. His strength was also much greater than the norm. The professor gave Hank the code name of Beast which everyone, especially Hank himself, agreed was appropriate.
Despite his large appearance and athleticism Hank was a friendly, easy going guy. He was also a very intellectual guy. His intelligence was obviously at a genius level and he had a very refined vocabulary. At one point Warren observed that Hank never used a small word where a big one would do. He didn't have a superiority complex though and was easy enough to talk to even if you sometimes had to ask him to explain himself in easy words. In this he had something in common with Hermione although you didn't usually need either a dictionary or a thesaurus to understand what Hermione was saying. Harry occasionally wondered what a conversation between Hank and Hermione would be like. He was sure they would get along very well with each other.
Although he had described himself as a "rational human being" Hank was fascinated by Harry's magic and asked him many questions about it. It seemed like he was trying to find ways to explain magic in a logical manner although he eventually admitted that it was probably impossible to do so. Instead he contented himself with reading Harry's school books and learning as much as he could about the magical world.
A couple of weeks after Hank's arrival at the mansion the news broke about a new superhero team that had just formed in New York City. It wasn't just any team either, it was an all-star team made up of several established heroes. The members of the new team were the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Ant Man and his partner the Wasp. They were calling their group "The Avengers" and they were already making a big name for themselves.
"Wow" said Harry as he pored over newspaper articles about the Avengers on the kitchen table, "I wonder what brought them together? It would have to be something really big to get a bunch of famous heroes like them to band together and stay together."
"Maybe someday we'll find out" said Warren looking at the articles alongside Harry, "I heard that Tony Stark is letting them use his mansion as their headquarters."
"The one we were at?" asked Harry, "where will he live then – no, don't answer that. Tony Stark undoubtedly has several residences to choose from just in New York City alone."
"Of course he does" said Warren, "how many residences do you have?"
"Ten" said Harry, "but only one of them is in New York City. Speaking of which I still have to visit that penthouse of mine. I always seem to forget to do that." He went back to reading about the Avengers.
"I'd really like to meet the Avengers" he said.
"We might get the chance" said Warren, "we are in the same business."
"Yeah but these people are the top of the heap" said Harry, real admiration in his voice as he looked at the articles, "we're the new kids."
"Is that hero worship I'm hearing?" asked Warren with a smirk, "and from a bonafide hero himself no less?" Harry picked up one of the newspapers and lightly whacked Warren over the head with it.
At Hogwarts things seemed to be going along more or less as usual. Classes were held, study groups met, Quidditch teams practiced, and friends spent time together. However this year things were a bit more subdued. A lot of that could be put down to the threat of Sirius Black hanging over the school what with the dementors patrolling the borders of the school grounds. Although they weren't allowed to come anywhere near the students their presence was still felt throughout the school.
Oliver Wood, captain of Gryffindor Quidditch team, had been very unhappy that Harry hadn't come back to Hogwarts but there was nothing he could do about it and Professor Dumbledore refused to let him send Harry a howler. All Wood could do was try to find someone to take Harry's place as the team seeker. Eventually he chose second year Ginny Weasley who was the best of the people who tried out. Although she wasn't at Harry's level she was a good flyer and would probably do all right. At least Oliver hoped she would.
One person who wasn't as happy as he'd hoped to be was Professor Snape. This surprised him. He had thought that with Harry Potter not coming back to Hogwarts things would settle down and the year would be easier to handle. In some ways it was. The Gryffindors were more subdued, especially in Potter's year. Even the Weasley twins weren't as loud as usual. The two remaining members of the so-called "golden trio," Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, had drawn closer to each other in Potter's absence. He was writing to them (even Snape knew who Hedwig belonged to) and that seemed to help their moods. They had also grown closer to their other Gryffindor year mates, especially that dunderheaded Longbottom boy. Well, any help he got could only be good and with Granger helping him in potions he wasn't having nearly as many accidents as before.
No, the problem wasn't with Potter's friends it was with his enemies, or one enemy in particular: Draco Malfoy. Snape had thought that with Potter being gone Draco would have a quieter year of his own. Snape was sure that all of Draco's and Potter's encounters had been a result of Potter starting stuff with Draco. However, far from calming down at all, Draco was actually louder this year than he had ever been. He was strutting around the castle like he was the owner of the place and all of the other students were his subjects. He was more aggressive towards Potter's friends in Gryffindor, not less. Snape was starting to think that maybe Potter hadn't been the instigator in all of the confrontations he'd had with Malfoy as he'd always assumed. Maybe, just maybe, Potter wasn't the spoiled brat that Snape had always been convinced he was.
As for Malfoy he wasn't as happy as he appeared to be either. Sure, he was glad Potter was gone and he enjoyed lording it over Potter's friends. He'd even started to say that Potter must have been too cowardly to come back to Hogwarts despite what the headmaster said. The problem was that lording it over people wasn't as much fun as it should have been because his chief rival wasn't there to also be lorded over. It both frustrated and angered him that Potter wasn't there. He actually missed him – although he would have vehemently denied it if anyone had said that to him.
He did think of one thing that helped him to feel better. Dumbledore had said that he would pass on letters to Potter that anyone wanted to send to him. Why shouldn't he, Draco Malfoy, send Potter a letter? It would be a clean letter. There wouldn't be any hexes, jinxes, or curses on it as he knew that the headmaster would never allow that. However he also knew that Dumbledore was too honorable to screen any letters of their actual written content. He could say whatever he wanted, be as nasty and insulting as he wished. Yes, even though Potter wasn't at Hogwarts he would still put that half blood mudblood lover in his place. The best part was that Potter wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
He would soon find out just how wrong he was.
Harry frowned at the letter he'd just read. Of all the people he thought he might hear from whenever Dumbledore forwarded letters from Hogwarts Draco Malfoy wasn't on that list. But when Dumbledore had sent on new letters from Hogwarts this one had been among them.
It wasn't a nice letter. Malfoy was gloating to him that he wasn't there. He claimed that Harry had to have been too afraid to come back and face him again, or too stupid, but then again he was only a half-blood, too far below Malfoy's level to be taken seriously. Malfoy then went on and on (and on) about how he was now ruling Slytherin. He said he was now the "Slytherin King," whatever that meant, and everyone in the house was deferring to him. With his father to back him up no one dared to stand against him and he would rule all of Hogwarts soon enough. He might allow Harry to come back to Hogwarts in the future if Harry got down on his knees in public, begged him for several days, and licked his feet clean of dirt.
Harry put down Malfoy's letter. It wasn't fun having to read abuse like that even though Harry knew it was completely ridiculous. He was the owner of Hogwarts, not Malfoy. Of course almost no one knew that but it was still true. Why had Malfoy done it? Wasn't it enough that Harry wasn't at Hogwarts to banter with him? Or maybe Malfoy thought there wasn't any way for Harry to strike back.
Suddenly Harry remembered something from early in his second year. An evil smile began forming on his face as he decided what he would do. First he needed to get the proper materials. He walked across the hallway to Warren's room and knocked.
"Hi Warren" Harry said as he entered the room after being told to come in.
"Hi Harry" said Warren from where he was reclining on his bed, "what's up?"
"I'd like to ask you for a favor" said Harry, "are you doing anything this afternoon?"
"I don't have any plans right now" said Warren, "what do you need?"
"Could you drive me into the city?" said Harry, "I need to go to Colony Alley to buy a few things."
"Sure" said Warren.
"Did someone utter the name of 'Colony Alley?'" Harry and Warren turned to see Hank standing in the doorway, "Could I accompany you on your expedition? I'd like to witness that fine institution of wizarding culture for myself."
"Why not?" said Harry. The three of them drove into the city and soon Hank was introduced to the wonders of Colony Alley.
"Fascinating" he said as they walked down the alley and he saw all of the shops, "I never dreamed such a place as this might exist."
"There are places like this in many countries" said Harry, "the first one I saw is Diagon Alley in London, although that place looks like it exists in Victorian times as compared to here."
"Diagon Alley?" said Hank, "do they all have monikers like that?"
"Yes" said Harry, "I believe they do. Ah, here's the shop I want." He turned and went into what was obviously a magical stationary store. A few minutes later he came out again with an evil grin on his face.
"Am I to assume that you obtained the object of your desire?" asked Hank.
"Oh yes" said Harry who quickly explained what it was all about to the amusement of the other two boys.
"Now I just need to hire a public owl" said Harry, "there's no way I'll ask Hedwig to dirty her talons with this delivery."
It was a few mornings later and the entire student body of Hogwarts was having breakfast in the Great Hall. As usual the mail came in during the meal when about two hundred owls arrived and began making deliveries to people. One barn owl approached Draco Malfoy, dropped a red envelope in front of him and immediately flew away. Malfoy looked at the envelope in surprise. He wasn't the only one.
"That's odd" said Theodore Nott, "who sent you a howler?"
"No idea" said Malfoy, "but whoever it is will regret it." He ignored the red envelope which had started to smoke around the edges.
"You really should open that before it explodes" said Nott, "it'll be worse if it does."
"Oh all right" said Malfoy sounding aggrieved. He picked up the envelope and opened it.
"GOOD MORNING DRACO MALFOY!" boomed the voice of Harry Potter magnified to many times its usual level. Every head in the Great Hall turned to see who had gotten the howler and to hear what it said because it was very unusual for a howler to start out with such a cordial greeting.
"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LETTER" Harry yelled, "I CERTAINLY DIDN'T EXPECT IT SINCE YOU'VE SO OFTEN MADE IT CLEAR THAT I'M JUST A LITTLE HALF-BLOODED PEON WHO ISN'T WORTHY TO LICK THE BOTTOMS OF YOUR PURE BLOODED SHOES. BUT PERHAPS YOU'RE FEELING LESS ANTAGONISTIC TOWARDS ME THESE DAYS BECAUSE I'M NOT AT HOGWARTS WITH YOU? ANYWAY, CONGRATULATIONS ON BECOMING THE SLYTHERIN KING! THAT'S ONE HECK OF AN ACHIEVEMENT, ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU'RE ONLY IN YOUR THIRD YEAR! I'M SURE YOU'LL DO A GREAT JOB OF KEEPING ALL OF YOUR SLYTHERIN SUBJECTS IN LINE, ESPECIALLY THE OLDER YEARS. DON'T PUNISH THEM TOO HARSHLY IF ANY OF THEM MESS UP AND HEY, AS THE SLYTHERIN KING THAT MAKES YOU A PRINCE OF HOGWARTS! THAT'S A LOT OF POWER FOR A THIRD YEAR TO HAVE SO DON'T ABUSE IT. NO NEED TO WRITE ME AGAIN. I'M SURE MY FRIENDS WILL LET ME KNOW OF THE WONDERFUL JOB YOU'RE DOING RULING SLYTHERIN HOUSE. HAVE A GOOD DAY.
"SINCERELY
"HARRY POTTER
"P.S. – DO GIVE MY KINDEST REGARDS TO PROFESSOR SNAPE AND TELL HIM I HOPE HE'S HAVING A SIMPLY FABULOUS YEAR! I KNOW I AM!"
The Great Hall was absolutely silent as the howler burst into flames and quickly burned to ashes. When a shocked Malfoy looked up from remains of the letter he saw that the entire student body and all of the teachers were staring at him. The looks were not very friendly either although many students in the other houses, especially Gryffindor, looked like they were trying hard not to laugh.
"The Slytherin king, huh?" came a voice to Malfoy's right. He turned to see Marcus Flint looking at him with a decidedly hostile expression. Behind him were several more upperclassmen giving him angry looks. In fact almost all of his house was glaring at him. Even Pansy Parkinson didn't looked pleased. Malfoy gulped.
"It was just a joke" he said.
"Oh really?" said Flint, "I think we're going to have a little private chat about that. Right now." Flint grabbed Malfoy's arm and hauled him to his feet. Crabbe and Goyle both made to get up.
"You two stay here" ordered Flint who then turned and looked at Professor Snape.
"You know the rules" said Snape with a nod. His own mood was quite sour and it wasn't helped by Potter's greeting to him although he was self-aware enough to admit to himself that from Potter's point of view he deserved the jab. Flint and his classmates marched Malfoy out of the Great Hall. As soon as they were gone all of the students began talking again. A lot of them started to laugh.
"Gred that was brilliant!" said George to his twin, "who knew Harry had it in him?"
"Indeed it was Forge" said Fred as he raised his glass, "a toast to Mr. Harry Potter, wherever he is, for a well-played long distance prank." Both twins clinked their cups and drank.
"Wow" said Neville to Ron and Hermione, "what did Malfoy write to Harry?"
"A better question" said Hermione, "is why did Malfoy write to Harry? It couldn't have been anything nice for Harry to respond like that." She looked a bit disapproving but was also trying hard not to laugh. Ron had no such trouble. He was laughing hard and couldn't stop for a whole minute.
"Good for Harry" said Ron when he finally caught his breath, "that's the best howler I've ever heard. I want to remember it for as long as I live."
"Even when he's not here Potter still causes trouble" sneered Snape up at the high table although with less than his usual malice and even a hint of respect at how thoroughly and effectively Potter had taken down Malfoy.
"It sounded to me" said McGonagall, "like he was responding to something that young Malfoy wrote to him. Probably something very insulting considering what they think of each other."
"He is his parents' son" said Professor Lupin.
"Whatever it was" said Dumbledore, "it seems to have backfired on Mr. Malfoy. Perhaps I shouldn't have passed that letter along with the others but it wasn't jinxed, hexed, or cursed in any way so there didn't seem to be any harm in it. By the way Severus, what are the rules these days? Have they changed at all recently?"
"No" said Snape, "they're still the same. All disputes in Slytherin have to be settled within the house away from the eyes and ears of the other houses. Also no permanent damage of any kind is allowed to be inflicted on any of the parties involved."
Draco Malfoy wasn't seen again by the school until he showed up to the Great Hall for dinner. He was very subdued and tried to avoid meeting anyone's eyes. No one outside of Slytherin House knew what had happened to him but whatever it was had humbled him for the time being. As Dumbledore had observed at breakfast his attempt to "put Potter in his place" had completely backfired on him and it would take time for him to live it down.