H...Harry." Professor Xavier spoke in a pained voice, he realized that this was going to be very hard to explain. He refused to mess with the memories of his students unless absolutely necessary, and even if he did he knew that Harry would be able to block him. "I..."
"You had better have a good explanation." Harry growled.
"H...Harry?" Jean asked, looking back and forth between the two with a shocked look on her face.
"Jean, go and get Professor Munroe and my granddad." Harry said as he stepped in front of Professor Xavier and now had his claw pressed against the front of the Professor's neck. "Go." Harry commanded, Jean took one last look between the two before she got up and quickly rushed out of her room.
"Harry..." Professor Xavier tried to speak, thought that was quite hard with a metal claw pressed against your throat.
"Shut up." Harry said as he pressed hic claw further into the Professor's throat, not enough to cause bleeding but both of them knew that it would easily happen with just a bit more effort from Harry.
The two fell into a silence, Professor Xavier's blue eyes were locked onto Harry's green ones, neither of them spoke. Professor Xavier felt very uncomfortable, he wanted to speak, to try and explain but he had the feeling that Harry would not be very appreciative of that, and the last thing the Professor wanted to do now was anger the young mutant even more. Harry appeared to be perfectly fine in the silence, his face had shifted and adopted what seemed like a permanent glare that showed no signs of leaving soon.
After about two or so minutes of the intense silence footsteps were heard, Logan arrived while wearing grey pajama bottoms and a white vest, Ororo arrived as well, she was wearing a light blue nightgown that stretched down to just past her knees. Both of them were looking at Harry and Professor Xavier with shocked expressions, standing behind Logan and peaking her head past him to see what was going on was Jean. While Laura was doing the same as she stood behind Ororo.
"Laura, you're supposed to be asleep." Harry said without taking his eyes off of Xavier.
"So are you." Laura pointed out.
"Fair enough." Harry replied after a moment of silence.
"What the hell is going on?" Logan said as he and the others walked into the room.
"Professor Xavier was going to start messing with Jean's mind." Harry began explaining. "I stopped him before he did anything."
"Wait a sec, why were you even awake?" Ororo asked while she was processing what Harry was telling her.
"I was thirsty and went down for a drink, I came back up and I heard the Professor talking to Jean while she was asleep. He was going to mess with her mind." Harry growled.
"Chuck," Logan said as he gently pushed Harry's claw away from Professor Xavier's neck. "is that true?" He asked just as Harry retracted his claw. Professor Xavier did not immediately respond, he instead rubbed his neck and gave Logan a nod in thanks.
"Before I start explaining, perhaps we should move this discussion to my office." Professor Xavier suggested. "That way there would be less chance of disturbing any of the other sleeping students." He added.
Logan and Ororo exchanged looks, both easily picking up on the double meaning behind Charles's words. While he probably didn't want to disturb the students, it was also clear that he did not want to chance any of the students waking up and over hearing whatever it was he had to say.
"Fine, but there had better be a good explanation, Charles." Ororo said after a few moments of silence.
A few minutes later everyone was in Professor Xavier's office, Professor Xavier was sat behind his desk while the others all stood in front of him, except for Harry who had moved so he was standing behind the Professor.
"Harry?" Professor Xavier asked but he didn't get to say much more because Harry had brought his right hand up and placed his fist on the back of Professor Xavier's head. "What are you doing?" He asked.
"I am the only one in here whose mind you can't mess with." Harry explained as he glared at Professor Xavier. "So if I see you mess with any of their minds then I'm going to turn your mind off." Harry said, pushing his fist forwards slightly to make sure that there was no doubt about what he meant when he said 'turn his mind off'.
"Mr Potter, that really isn't necessary." Professor Xavier protested.
"I think it is," Harry growled. "now start talking." He said.
"Very well," Professor Xavier sighed, he had to admit that it hurt a lot to have one of his own students distrust him so much. "first of all, I was not attempting to harm Jean in anyway or form. I promise you that."
"Then what were you trying to do?" Ororo asked.
"It's quite complicated." Professor Xavier sighed.
"Then uncomplicate it." Harry said as he continued to glare at him.
"I...I was trying to help Jean." Professor Xavier said after taking a deep breath.
"Help me?" Jean asked quietly. "Why do I need help?"
"Jean, do you know how I can find mutants?" Professor Xavier asked. When she shook her head to say 'no', he continued speaking. "I have a very advanced machine called 'Cerebro'. Cerebro amplifies the brainwaves of the user. In the case of telepaths, it enables the user to detect traces of others worldwide, it is also able to distinguish between humans and mutants. That was how I found you, but it wasn't you that I had originally detected with Cerebro."
"What? Do you mean my mum and dad are mutants?" Jean asked, sounding very confused.
"No," Professor Xavier shook his head. "no, they are not mutants, at least as far as I am aware. The thing I sensed...was someone else...something else. And it is currently housed in your mind."
"You mean something is inside of her?" Laura asked as Jean gaped at the Professor.
"Yes," Professor Xavier nodded, a sad look on his face. "it is a foreign entity, I am not entirely sure what it is. Jean, you may recall that during your first few days here I had called you up to my office a few times." Jean nodded and the Professor continued speaking. "I told you that those were just to help me gather an idea about how powerful your mutation is, and that was the truth, only it was partly the truth. I also used the time to examine the entity inside of your mind and see if I could subtly push it out. When I realized I could not I was left with a few options.
One of which was to forcefully push it out, but I don't think that that is a good option as it might cause permanent damage to your mind, and I don't think either of us want that. My other option was to - for lack of a better term - close it off. I was hoping to seal it away, prevent it from influencing Jean's mind."
"Why didn't you tell her about it?" Logan growled. "Why sneak into her room at night?"
"I was hoping to do it discreetly," Professor Xavier sighed as he shook his head slightly, this really had not gone the way he was hoping for it to go. "if everything had went to plan then I would have done it without Jean knowing and then she would have been able to enjoy the rest of her childhood without suffering through the knowledge of what she has in her head. I had planned to tell her the truth when she was an adult and her mind had fully developed." He explained. Harry pulled his head back and slapped Xavier hard on the head, not hard enough to cause serious damage, but hard enough to hurt a lot.
"You're an idiot." Harry hissed before he turned to Laura. "Laura go to our room and pack our things." Harry ordered. "We're leaving."
"What?" Logan gaped at Harry.
"Harry, you can't be serious!" Ororo protested.
"I am," Harry glared at her before he turned to both girls. "Jean, get your stuff as well. I've saved enough money to be able to get you back home."
"Harry, think this through." Ororo all but begged. "Jean may go back home but what about you and Laura? Where would you go?"
"I don't know," Harry admitted. "but probably somewhere where I don't have to worry about someone sneaking into her room at night and messing with her mind." Harry finished, glaring at Professor Xavier.
"Harry, I don't want to go." Laura said in a quiet voice.
"Laura," Harry spoke. "I..."
"Please Harry," Laura spoke again, looking like she was on the brink of tears. "I don't want to go." She said.
"Fucking hell." Harry said under his breath, he never could stand to see her upset.
"Kid," Logan spoke up. "look, none of us here are happy with what the Professor did. Me and Ororo will have a talk with him, just...just go to your room and spend the night here, just calm down a little and we can talk about this in the morning." Logan said, all but begging him to stay. Harry stared between Logan, Ororo and Laura for several moments.
"Fine." Harry said through gritted teeth before he walked over and grabbed Laura's hand with his left hand and Jean's with his right. "Jean, you're staying in my room tonight." Harry said in a voice that made it clear he did not want to hear her argue with him.
"What?" Logan asked.
"Someone's got to make sure that nobody comes at night and messes with her head." Harry growled before he walked out, pulling the girls with him. Eventually Harry and the girls arrived in Harry and Laura's room. "Go to sleep." Harry said as he gently guided Laura into her own bed.
"Goodnight, Harry." Laura said, kissing Harry on the forehead.
"Goodnight." Harry said as he kissed her head, he then turned to Jean. "you can sleep in my bed." He said as he gently pushed her so she dropped onto his bed. Harry pulled up the bed covers and tucked her in before he went over and sat against the wall opposite the door.
"Aren't you going to sleep?" Jean asked in a quiet voice. She and Laura looked at him with concern.
"I'll sleep later." Harry said dismissively as he kept his eyes on the door. "Go to sleep." He ordered. The girls looked uncomfortable but they were also very tired and easily fell under the powers of comfy beds.
"What in the seven hells is wrong with you, Charles?!" Ororo demanded once the kids had all left. "Have you taken leave of your senses?!"
"Ororo, I..." Professor Xavier began but was interrupted by Logan.
"That was the stupidest thing I have ever heard of," He growled, glaring at the Professor. "people say I am the hot headed and impulsive one, but even I wouldn't have done something that stupid."
"I was only doing what I thought was best." Professor Xavier protested.
"What you 'thought was best'?" Logan repeated in sheer disbelief. "You could have caused permanent damage to the girl!"
"Logan, I am an expert in all aspects of the mind, I have have several degrees that say so if you require proof. My actions would not have harmed her."
"Could you say that with one hundred percent certainty?!" Ororo shouted at him. "You said that this was a 'foreign' entity, that means you have no idea what it was or how it could have affected Jean if you blocked it off. You could only guess at best! The girl possess telekinesis and telepathy, do you have any idea what messing with her brain could result in?!"
"Save it, Chuck." Logan cut off Professor Xavier when he was about to speak. "Do you know what your problem is? It's that you can easily jump in and out of other people's minds whenever you want, you've never felt the helplessness that others would feel if we had somebody else running around in our head. The closest you ever felt to it is when Harry pressed his claws against your neck. Me, Harry and Laura have all had people try and mess with our minds, and we did not like it!" Logan finished, slamming a fist on Professor Xavier's desk, when he removed his hand there was a small fist shape in the Professor's desk.
"Charles," Ororo spoke, looking angrier than Professor Xavier had ever seen her. "we spent so much time trying to convince him that this was a safe place, and now he wants to leave because he doesn't trust us with the safety of his sister. You've cost us whatever trust we have managed to gain, and if other students realized that you tried to mess with Jean's mind then they might also be worried about their safety. You need to get past your stubbornness and think on your actions, perhaps then you can realize where you went wrong and hopefully you'll not be stupid enough to do it again in the future." She said, she glanced at Logan and saw he looked too angry to move. She slid her hand into his own and pulled him with her as she left the office, taking him out of there was the best she could do as she knew it was likely that Logan would end up doing something he'd regret.
"You...you don't think Harry would really take Laura and leave, do you?" Logan asked in a quiet voice, causing Ororo to pause and look at him. It was an odd sight, seeing Logan - the mighty and fierce Wolverine - looking so vulnerable.
"I think he is definitely thinking about it." Ororo sighed. "But give him some time and he will realize that despite what Charles did, this is still the safest place for him and for Laura. She is why he wanted to leave, Harry knows that he can take care of himself. But Laura, no matter how many powers she has, she will always look up to him and he will always look after her. She is his greatest weakness, and his greatest strength."
The next day Logan and Ororo arrived at breakfast where they saw Harry sitting with Laura and Jean, the two walked over and sat with them.
"How did you guys sleep?" Logan asked, noticing that Harry looked noticeably more tired than the girls.
"Harry didn't sleep." Laura said in a concerned voice.
"Why not?" Ororo frowned.
"He wanted to stay awake to make sure that nobody would come into the room when we were sleeping." Jean answered, speaking in a quiet voice. The two adults exchanged looks before they looked at Harry who avoided their gaze in favour of focusing on his breakfast.
"You didn't have to do that, Harry." Ororo said, trying not to sound like she was telling him off. Harry didn't respond, he just kept eating.