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At home she was met almost immediately by the majordomo, who ushered her into a sitting area where she found Firestar and her two parents being entertained by Cordelia, talking about some kind of scandal or other in Hollywood. When her older sister entered the room, Cordelia bowed out quickly, sending an apologetic glance at Firestar, who returned it with a shrug.
While Emma looked at the trio her thoughts raced looking through the information she had learned about them. Angelica Jones was a B/C average student in most everything except for Language Arts, where she'd scored A's practically going back to kindergarten. She didn't seem to have any passion but reading and writing little short stories, many of whom had been published in various student magazines. For all that however Angelica was a little on the meek side, and was most distinctly a follower in personality. Her powers didn't seem to have changed that, though she had begun to act out a few of her stories, using those powers to solve small crimes near the school and her house.
Her two parents were from a middle-class background. They had enough money to get by but not enough money to squander, much like Kitty's parents only a little worse off. But where Kitty's parents were very loving and understanding about their daughter's mutation, these two were only slightly below outright antagonistic about it.
They looked at their daughter's mutation as if it was some kind of disease that could be cured so long as they kept their distance and could keep their daughter from acting out with her powers. That hadn't stopped Angelica from experimenting with them however, which was part of the problem. That, and their own affairs had taken a turn for the worse at the same time they learned of her mutation, so it made for a convenient target.
As such while dealing with the parents at least Emma would keep her full Ice Bitch mask on, if powered down slightly. "Good afternoon. I apologize for not being here in person to welcome you, but unfortunately I have several companies I need to run which takes up my time. I trust that my sister has told you what this is all about?"
"You want our daughter to use her powers as some kind of bodyguard for you correct?" the father asked roughly.
He was a largish man, though nowhere near Piotr's size, and his weight was more fat than muscles these days, but he hadn't forgotten his roots as a blue-collar worker despite having moved up in the world. His gruffness also lost quite a bit of its impact since Emma knew that he was the manager of a ladies clothing store now rather than the steel mill he had worked at a few months ago.
"We haven't seen any kind of contract or anything like that yet! Your younger sister only said for us to wait to talk to you about that, which makes me think we're wasting our time here!" The woman next to him on the sofa said sharply.
Everything about her was sharp, her face was thin and almost pointed, her nails were pointed, her glare was sharp, and her clothing was quite neat and tidy. The notes that Emma had read about these two indicated that the mother was the power in the relationship, she browbeat the larger man into doing everything she wanted, and looking at the two Emma could well believe it.
"That is because I have no idea what I have to work with at present." Emma replied smiling coldly at the woman. Her sharpness met Emma's self-control, and it was the older woman who flinched away quickly, unable to match Emma stare. "Do you know any martial arts, how adept are you at using your power? Besides flight and energy blasts, which Cordelia told me about, what else can you do?" Emma asked, switching her gaze over to the younger girl.
"W-well I'm pretty good at using my powers, I think." Angelica stammered a little feeling the weight of that gaze herself but she shook it off a little better than her mother did. Firestar went on to describe what she could do with her powers, which was based off the control of microwave energy. As she went she grew more and more animated, while her parents became more and more stone-faced, something Emma noticed.
"I see," Emma said when the girl wound down. "You'll need quite a bit of training in martial arts and tactics at the very least, as well as how to work with others. Payment for that training will be taken out of your pay, but don't worry, it won't be all that much. For now however, I am going to introduce you to our doctor here, who will be giving you a full physical. There have been numerous mutants reported whose powers have detrimental effects to their health, not just their looks or anything of that nature, and full medical is free to all those on my security detail."
Emma had read about a few mutants whose powers basically were different forms of self-mutilation, not accompanied by any kind of healing factor to take away the damage after they were used. Even discounting simple physical 'modifications', some mutations definitely had downsides, and she wanted to make certain anyone working for her had the best medical resources money could buy.
She rang a small bell, and a second later a servant entered. "Please direct Miss Jones here to the medical rooms please, the doctor should be waiting for her. If he isn't I'll ream him a new asshole, Emma thought to herself scowling internally. The man hadn't been one of her father's followers, but he did tend to look down at her, with more reason than most admittedly. After all he had delivered her and Cordelia both right here in this mansion.
After Angelica left, Emma turned back to the parents smiling pleasantly or as pleasantly as a shark could at any rate. "Now, I understand that you have issues with your daughter's mutation. I can understand that but I can assure you that there is nothing unnatural or freakish about mutations. I've seen all of the paperwork and all of the research, I researched this heavily before deciding to employ someone like your daughter to defend me."
"Just because some science book says its natural doesn't mean it's not freakish." The mother muttered then paled a little as Emma speared her with her eyes.
"I am going to offer her a limited employee option now, half of which will be hers and put into an account which she will be able to access when she turns 18. The rest, besides a stipend for daily needs, will be turned over to you as her guardians. However, realize that I will be watching what you do with it very closely, and if I feel that the money is not being used for the long-term benefits of the individual who is actually earning that pay, I will remove it from your control and turn it over to a neutral third party until she turns 18. That too will be part of the contract, and she will be signing it with you two as witnesses, not cosigners."
The mother growled a little, but couldn't fight back against Emma's cold gaze nor could she argue against what Emma had said. Emma was in fact being incredibly generous, at least in her terms. The salary itself would be much more realistic than anything Harry would have offered, but Emma did not have Harry's soft spot, and knew what she was paying for.
"Now," she said standing up. "I have other business to attend to while your daughter is getting her physical. There is a TV here obviously and some magazines I believe, feel free to spend the time however you wish. If you need anything just ask for it at the door and a servant will provide, save for alcoholic beverages." Emma left then, heading up to her office to get some work done.
An hour later however she was called back down to the medical room, where a very worried Dr. was standing. "Her powers of microwaves affect her body." he said quickly. "She's got a small cancer growing already."
"How bad is it?" Emma asked, worriedly.
"Not very bad right now we caught it before could get worse. But if she keeps using her powers obviously it will get worse exponentially as she goes along."
Still sitting on the examination bed Angelica looked both relieved and shocked at what the doctor had discovered. It had never occurred to Angelica that her powers would be harming her own body, and to hear it had begun to do so was scary. Still, they had caught it early enough. Yet if I want to keep using my powers like the doc said…
Emma frowned, looking at the medical reports that the doctor held out to her. "I will have to bring in that specialist I mentioned much quicker than I had expected in that case."
The doctor simply nodded, looking over at one cabinet in the corner of the room surreptitiously. Emma had bought a small supply of ten potions from Harry, one of every potion he made at this point, even those that he wasn't selling on the open marked. The man hadn't been allowed to test them on anything just yet, Emma wasn't about to let him break someone's arm just to see if the bone-knitting potion could work as advertised. Still, he knew she was connected to the new medicines coming out of the UK even though he hadn't realized that Frost Pharmaceuticals was part of the distribution network.
"Still, it's not life-threatening right now?" Emma asked.
"No, not yet, but as I said the more she uses her power the more it will grow. It would've gone unnoticed at this point however if we hadn't given her a full physical, you know that we have a lot more medical equipment here and much better scanners than nearly any hospital."
She nodded at that, then excused herself to go and explain it to the parents. She spent several minutes listening to them rant on and on about how Angelica's powers were evil and obviously harming their daughter so couldn't possibly be a good thing. After they wound down Emma eventually got them and the girl to agree to the contract she had written up.
Emma watched as Angelica signed it, then watched as the two parents signed where she pointed, as cosigners. After that she politely showed the two parents the door. Neither had taken up her offer of hospitality, wanting to rush off the moment they could, leaving their daughter behind. There was an air of finality about that act which made Emma angry, but Angelica didn't seem surprised.
"Now." she said turning back to the younger girl, who looked both relieved and lost now that her parents were out of the picture for a while and still shocked by the doctor's discovery. "Let's get you situated one of the rooms, and then you and my little sister can do something while I go back to work."
OOOOOOO
The next evening Emma had been able to get away, but she had requested a girl's night only for some reason. Harry, having no idea what a girls night implied, stayed away and decided to find out what the hell a 'boy's night' would be like. With that in mind he corralled Nikolai and Piotr, who both had some ideas, though said it was more normally called a bro night or similar. That was why they were now sitting in one of the unused rooms of the castle, which Harry had quickly changed into a den for the evening, watching Die Hard and drinking beer.
Shiang Chi, Dennis and Dr. Druid had been invited, but all three had declined for various reasons. Dennis had an early morning the next day, he was going to go down to London to meet with one of the agents he was recruiting for Harry's espionage service, and wanted a clear head for the interview. The other two were against alcohol for moral and personal reasons.
"So this is what guys do together?" Harry asked, reaching forward to grab a handful of popcorn and scarfing it quickly. The house-elves had, as always done him proud, something he'd been certain to tell the two of them who had created the food for the evening. Pizza, chicken wings, popcorn and other snacks, all made by the house-elves, with several different cases of peers, ranging from American loggers to the German types, which Nikolai had gone out to purchase.
"Pretty much." Nikolai said belching a little. "I don't have much experience with it, but this is what my fellow troopers always did when they could get off base for a time. Or even sneak in liquor into the base, though that was a rather dangerous proposition, considering the penalties for doing so. I understand there should also be a stripper or something, but I figure with your relationship with the fiery one and she-who-throws-lightning that would be a bad idea."
"You show wisdom." Harry laughed, "Much wisdom." So saying he drained his beer, smacking his lips thoughtfully afterwards. He smirked internally, knowing a secret that would irritate his to fellows the next day.
"I understand we are also supposed to talk about girls, but again that doesn't seem to be a necessity." Scott said. He was sitting on another sofa, having been invited by Harry to join them. Sam had also joined them but he stayed away from the beers until Piotr and Nikolai had ganged up on him, forcing him to drink a German lager of some sort. He was now unconscious on a conjured bed at the back of the room. Evidently the Guthrie couldn't hold their liquor.
Scott had tried to bring in Kurt and Evan along as well, but that had been vetoed by Charles, who stated that they were too young to drink, and worse, that the effect of alcohol on someone who could teleport was an unknown variable. Harry actually agreed with that one, considering he had seen a few splinching incidents in his time. Of course Harry also promised both teens that when they did hit 18, which was the drinking age in Britain he would take both of them out for a bender.
"I don't know about that one." Nikolai said smirking evilly at the American Cyclops. They hadn't spent much time together of course but he had liked what he had seen. Seeing the American unwind a bit had been rather amusing too. "What about you and that Rogue girl? And is that her real name?"
"It's going well I suppose." Scott answered a little hesitantly. He had no idea where the line between gossiping and simply talking about his girlfriend was, and had no wish to let even a hint that he was talking about Rogue behind her back get back to her. "We haven't, you know gone further than simply making it official that we're going out or anything, and yes that is her real name as far as you are concerned. Telling you Rogue's birth name would get me banned from further kissing time, so yeah, not going there."
Harry laughed amused at the change from the young man he had first met. "You are looking much more mellow these days, I take it Rogue has finally succeeded in removing the remainder of that stick up your ass?"
"You could say that yes, though the process was started long before this by you and the others." Scott replied drolly then took another swig of the beer in his hand, one of the German lagers. They were a little too strong for his tastes, but seeing as this was only the second time he had a drink, he wasn't about to turn them down.
Wyatt chuckled, sipping at his light beer. He had been to several guy nights before, and had no wish to deal with a hangover the next morning, even if it was part of a team building exercise, which was the way Harry had rather glibly described the evening to Susan.
Next to him Nikolai changed targets to his fellow Russian. "And what about you, Paige and Amara? Is there another ménage-a-trois in the making, or just a catfight? If the second option, I might need to buy my ticket now, despite them being friendlier with one another these days."
Piotr blushed brightly and turned away trying to change the subject. He latched onto the fact the movie had just ended and got up quickly raising over to the player. "So, what should we watch now? I have not heard good things about Die Hard two, so possibly a Bond movie?" Behind him he heard laughter, and Piotr could swear that his ears were burning.
The evening went on, with the boys getting steadily getting more and more drunk, while Harry simply sat there, drinking his beers and laughing at them all. During this time he got to know them all a little better, mostly their childhoods, their dreams for the future and other things. Some of which was surprising. Nikolai for instance had wanted to be a deep sea diver when he was younger. Scott wanted to be a pilot, and was well on his way to getting a private license, thanks to his time with the X-men.
One particular topic was role models, where Harry learned more about Piotr's older brother, who he held up as a personal hero.
It had been Mikhail who had convinced their parents, when they were alive, that Piotr had a real gift for painting and should be allowed to continue it. He had also taught Piotr to stand up for himself, and sent money to the family when he was training as a cosmonaut that kept the family eating in that time between their mother's death and when Piotr was large enough to work the communal farmland. His death had struck Piotr and his grandparents hard. It was an interesting insight into the highly moral young man.
"We knew it was coming long before the government had admitted it of course, but it still hurt when we received the formal notice in the mail." Piotr sighed heavily, looking up at the roof and through it to the sky beyond. "That is part of why I am so interested in your space going endeavors tovarishch. Perhaps I may at the least discover his body up there someday, and return it to rest in consecrated ground." He didn't make a big deal of it, but Piotr had been brought up in the Russian Orthodox Church. So saying, Piotr had grabbed up another bottle of beer, turning to laugh at one of Sean Connery's one-liners.
Nikolai on the other hand had held up the original Red Guardian as a role model, none in his family being worth it. He had been, in his words, sold to the state by his parents, both of whom worked for the government. "Mind you," he said reflectively, "It turned out to be a good thing, especially that I excelled so much to get into the Super-Soldier program. I hate to imagine what my sister would have gone through without someone there to watch her back."
Scott opened up about his own past, how his parents had died in a plane crash and how he had only recently found out that his brother was still alive. He had tried to contact Alex occasionally, but the other young man didn't want to have anything to do with the X-men right now, being too busy enjoying life as a surfer boy down south to take anything seriously at time.
In turn Harry had opened up further about his own time in Durzkaban, and how he came to be conscripted to fight the good fight because no one else in the magical kingdom had wanted to do the dirty work. That segued into a halfway serious, halfway amusing discussion on the proper punishment for Dumbledore and the other adults who hadn't helped Harry in trying to combat Voldemort and his forces.
Eventually Wyatt left to head home, and the others fell into the sleep of the exceedingly drunk, leaving only Harry and Piotr awake. The large Russian was helped by his size and the fact he had been drinking locally brewed bears for several years back in his village. Still, Piotr was just on that edge between where he was lucid enough to be called sober but not quite enough to actually do anything.
"So Piotr," Harry said pushing aside the last of his beers and not showing any sign of actually having drunk more than any two of the others combined. "What do you think of life in the castle so far?"
"It is good." Piotr said smiling faintly but enunciating his words with the carefulness of the very drunk. "I like spending so much time with my sestrenka and my grandparents, I like learning, and the team is excellent, I have made friends here."
"No regrets in joining up then?"
"Not a one." Piotr said firmly. "We might not be fighting just for mutant rights as I thought it would be, but we are fighting the good fight, and that is enough for me."
Harry looked at him thoughtfully. Piotr had impressed him. Above and beyond his powers and his willingness to learn it was his mentality that Harry liked. He was empathic, gentle, very insightful when called upon, and intelligent. Nikolai had some of the same qualities, but he actually wasn't that good of a leader despite having been trained as a possible candidate for that position on the Russian Super-Soldier team. He didn't put himself forward, while Piotr did when he felt the need. Harry had been told that had been Piotr who made the decision to go in and rescue Paige when Father Garnoff had seen her name change colors.
"Starting tomorrow I'm going to take the time to start training you in squad tactics." He said abruptly. "It's not set in stone yet, but you're the one that has stepped up the plate when leadership is needed when myself or my ladies aren't around. I think it's time to get you some learning to go with that attitude."
Piotr looked at him, then looked down at the beer and then up at Harry's serious face before setting it aside. Even through his buzz he could understand what was being asked of him, and he thought about it seriously then he nodded slowly. "Yes sir, I think I'd like that. I promise I won't let you down."
"Good." Harry said. "Now, tell me about your latest art project, it looked magnificent with what I could see of it the other day."
OOOOOOO
The conversation among the three women was much more serious, at least in part, though the rest of their evening did bear a resemblance to the boys. They had good food, much more highbrow food in their case, and wine rather than beer, but they had also watched a few movies, romantic ones in their case. Now they were all on the bed up in the Headmaster's tower. Jean and Emma were taking turns coloring their toenails in different colors using a magical color changing spell stuck on a tiny paint brush, while Ororo laid next to them brushing slowly at her hair.
At first the discussion had of course centered on their relationship with one another and with Harry. Storm was happy to see that Emma was moving forward in their relationship, though she hadn't yet voiced the words it was obvious now what she felt for Harry.
And Emma's growing feelings toward Jean and Ororo were evident even now. She was constantly touching them, smiling faintly whenever they looked at her. Even their present activity showed a level of trust that Emma had never shown anyone before. For her part, Emma was still reluctant to say the words, but her affection towards both other women, and Harry when he was around, made it obvious what she felt.
Jean was happy with how things were going as well, though she would have liked to push her and Harry's (and the others after) physical relationship to the next level. But the time had just never been right, and like Harry, she wanted her first time to be perfect. Emma on the other hand wanted to, in her own deliberately crude words 'lose her V card' at the earliest opportunity.
In many ways she was actually more experienced than Ororo, let alone Jean. Or at least she was more experienced now than Ororo had been before she and Harry got together. She had done practically everything that didn't involve actual intercourse, and had a few 'lovers', including a teacher at her high school, that had shown her many things. She had never been able to take that final step due to her family however, and was looking forward to it with relish.
Now however their conversation had shifted to family matters, specifically, Emma's.
"I think you should just tell Cordelia eventually, but first get Harry to give you something to use on her that will make certain she can't tell anyone else. From what you've said of your younger sister, I think you can trust her to not push or get in your way, or stick a knife in your back I guess, which given your family's history I can see you being worried about. But she also doesn't seem to watch her mouth as well as I would have expected from Frost going by what by your example." Jean said, looking across at Emma.
"She was always the youngest one, and somewhat spoiled because of it. Also protected from our father's interest by myself and my older sister." Emma replied shaking her head. "He never really had much time for her one way or the other. When he did, he would come down on Cordelia much harder because of it. The dichotomy there probably has something to do with her overall attitude, I'm just…" She cut off abruptly shaking your head, hissing a little as she messed up on the color that she was painting Jean's toenails.
After correcting for error she went on, while the two other women waited patiently. "I guess part of it is the fact that Cordelia is family, and I've spent so much time equating that word to 'enemy'. I never even considered my brother family, he was just a different category altogether. Yes I know Cordelia's not a threat, and I've slowly moved away from that thought, but there's a difference between 'not an enemy' and 'trusted friend'. I've tried to treat her like family, or at least as I think family should be treated, but trusting her, with what I've been up to? That's a major leap."
"You are facing the spy dilemma." Ororo said, leaning back slightly against the wall behind the bed. "Spies have to think very hard about what they tell their families of their occupation, those who have come clean about being spies at all. It's a quandary that you will have to deal with. I can't advise you either way, it's a decision you need to make entirely on your own."
That mature response and lack of input made Emma scowl at the older woman but after a moment she shook her head. "I understand, it's just irritating that's all."
"I will however help you with Firestar and her medical issue." Ororo said, very firmly. "I think she would much prefer to be treated by a female doctor, and my magical abilities can deal with that issue easily enough."
Indeed about a fourth of what she was learning from the mother goddess was the utilization and control necessary for a healing spell. It was not one designed to heal a specific ailment but rather a denial of anything that was not healthy. It basically boiled down to having an image in your head of what the individual or object being healed should be like, then imposing that reality on the reality in front of you, rejecting what had been there before. They were much more power intensive spells than Harry's various medical ones, not having the shape as it were of those spells. But she could also heal literally anything with a single spell while Harry had to use different ones.
Unfortunately there were also some limitations. First the power requirement was intense, the larger the wound the more power needed, and Ororo was nowhere near the level where she could regrow limbs yet, hence why she hadn't offered to heal Dr. Druid. Healing internal injuries was also bad since they had no visual component, but a scanner could help with that, along with images of what the area should look like healed.
"Enough about that," Jean said slapping her hands together. "We've had our serious discussions for the evening, now what should we do with Ororo's hair?"
OOOOOOO
The next day, Piotr and the others woke up late the next day with pounding headaches and blurry vision to Harry's whistling as he moved about the room, cleaning up the DVD's. "Morning all, you can go back to sleep, just grabbing up the DVDs."
"H-how are you… why don't you have a hangover!?" Nikolai began, almost shouting before he winced in pain at the sound of his own voice. This didn't stop him glaring at his leader/friend however. "You drank more than me, hell more than all of us!"
On the floor Scott nodded in agreement, holding his head as if afraid the movement would cause his head to fall off. Piotr just kept on sleeping, and Sam curled up with a moan, hiding his head under his arms.
"Oh that?" Harry smirked. "Magic old boy. My body's got magic always flowing through it, and an upshot is it keeps me from getting drunk. Now, normally I would provide hangover potions for you all, but seeing this is the first time many of you have gotten drunk, I have decided you all need to see the negative side to alcohol, or at least one of them. See you all later." With that he walked out of the room, still whistling cheerfully, ignoring the two glares trying to set his back on fire.
"You realize we've got to get him back for this, right?" Said Nikolai, looking over at the others.
Scott shook his head gingerly, wishing Harry haven't decided to turn this into a learning experience. A valuable experience, he thought to himself sardonically, but one I could have cheerfully done without. "I think I'm going to bow out of that. Trying to prank Harry is a losing proposition, he's got experience and magic on his side, a deadly combination that kind of conflict."
His tone of voice was so deadly serious that all of the others looked at him blankly for a few moments before cracking up a little then wincing, holding their heads. Sam groaned, falling back onto the sofa turned bed. "Ah'm just hopin' that I can get out of here without my mother figurin' out what I did last night. Mama holds views about drinking. She had many an argument about it with my old man, and with a lot of my neighbors who own their own stills."
"I feel your pain." Nikolai said dryly. "And I don't care." Despite his desire to get back at Harry, he looked the least irritated by his hangover, having felt it several times before. But there was the principle of the thing to consider. "There has to be some way of pranking him back."
Piotr had been silent, simply rubbing his forehead. Like Nicolai he had been introduced to alcohol well before this, though unlike Nicolai he had never been drunk before. His grandparents would not have looked favorably upon that idea, and life on the farming commune was hard enough without having to deal with addiction of any sort.
He spoke up now, a smile lurking on his lips. "I think I have an idea, but we would have to find a sympathetic house-elf…"
OOOOOOO
Harry watched Jean and Ororo talking with Melody on the other side of the dining table, filling her in on some storybook or other that they had bought her. His daughter was literally jumping up and down in her seat a wide beaming smile on her face. Beside her, Sergei also had a smile on his face. The two adults had generously included him in their discussion considering that this was about an audiobook they had bought for Melody, a story about talking mice and others and their battles against 'vermin'. It sounded interesting, and Harry made a mental note to look up the series.
His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a small tug on his shirt. Illyana had moved from her seat by her grandparents and now stood next to his chair. Harry had gotten rid of the long benches, replacing them with comfortable chairs.
"Yes?" he said smiling down at her before ruffling her hair, smirking as she shook her head trying to get it back to normal. "What can I do for you, Illyana?"
The young girl looked a little concerned about something, but her words were clear when she spoke. "Can, can I ask a question, about Melody?"
Harry's eyebrows rose. He had expected this question to come from one of the other teenagers, but Illyana was a very bright young girl, not even considering her magical potential, which he had already begun to formulate plans to train. Unfortunately, unlike with Kitty who Jean had introduced occlumency to, you could not start with mental disciplines like that with young children.
What occlumency did was organize your mind, solidifying that organization into the image the user thought up. But the mind changed so often from ages 7 to 18, that kind of organization actually hampered their ability to grow, which was why it wasn't routinely taught at Hogwarts. This could be overcome if you understood the problem, and knew how to control it enough to slide any new ideas or learning/growth into place, or even just simply redo your entire defense, but children couldn't do that.
But that didn't mean Illyana couldn't start learning control, something she needed to do since one of the house-elves had reported that she had changed the colors on one of Melody's pillows the last night the girls had a sleep over. "Sure, I wanted to show you something anyway." He reached down and took Illyana's hand nodding over at her grandparents who nodded back.
The two of elderly Rasputins had been enjoying their time in Hogwarts. It was a much simpler life than on the farm, and both of them had loved simply having days of nothing to do but sit around and interact with children. They listened to the problems of the older teenagers, and were there to talk to the youngsters as well, not just Illyana. They had been a godsend in particular to Rahne since she arrived. The young werewolf mutant had a very rough upbringing, and she found solace in their attitudes towards life.
Harry led Illyana up the stairs to the sixth floor, then into the room containing the hearthstone. The young girl's gasp was all he could wish for. "This is the hearthstone…" He said softly, moving over to it touching the surface of the massive slab of granite almost tenderly. "From here all the magic of the castle begins, and all of it ends. Every defensive ward, every spell on Hogwarts has to be tied into this hearthstone, and from thence be powered by me and the ley lines laying in the ground below us."
At a gesture, Illyana came over to touch it gingerly, gasping in delight. "It feels, it feels like it's alive! Like it's a giant heart beating or something!" She exclaimed happily, giggling a little. "And it likes me!"
"This place was built to be a school, and you are among its first students. And yes, it is alive in a way. Not sentient as we would understand the term, though that will probably come in time. Let that be a lesson to you, spells and magic in general can sometimes have effects far beyond what the person using it might think."
He left the hearthstone then, conjuring up a pair of padded chairs, one smaller than the other, before sitting down in the larger one. "Now, you had some questions about Melody?"
Illyana sat down, still staring back at the Hearthstone, so much so that she almost missed when she tried to sit down without looking where she was going. But she corrected herself quickly. She frowned a little then began hesitantly. "I asked her age, she said she's nearly 13, but she acts sometimes like she is younger than me, it is… strange. Not that she isn't nice or anything," she added hurriedly. "It is just odd."
Harry smiled sadly. "You know how she sees songs?"
Illyana nodded. "Yes, but that doesn't bother me! She's nice, friendly, the song she sees are really interesting! I don't… I don't understand why someone would want to lock her up like she said she was before you rescued her!"
"While I still have issues with the nature of her incarceration, the fact of the matter is that Melody could not live on her own, not in the outside world." Harry growled a little. If he ever found Melody's parents they would be having words, and a lot of them would be along the lines of the 'please don't turn me into anything unnatural variety'' variety.
He stopped himself from saying more, not wanting to scare the girl. He went on in a normal tone of voice. "For one thing, she can't deal with crowds, there are too many songs, they crowd her senses and she can't deal with it. For another, they take her attention. She can't drive, she could never learn to concentrate on something that much, indeed even walking in a busy place like a city would be dangerous for her if she didn't have me or Ororo around to block them out."
"And…" he said sighing faintly. "The music in her head has affected how she can think, and how she can grow mentally. Do you understand how that could be a problem?"
Illyana had to ponder that for a moment then she frowned. "Do you mean like the difference between a kid thought and a teenage thought?"
"Very good." Harry replied, nodding approvingly. "You have the right idea, just not the right words. Illyana, Melody will never be able to think like an adult, will never be able to take care of herself, will never be able to grow up, to put it simply. We're not certain if that will affect her body or not, you've certainly noticed her ears, they have something to do with her powers, some kind of physical manifestation of it, but if her age will always be stuck where it is I can't say, not yet. But mentally, some areas of her personality will mature, while others simply won't.
"That's really sad." Illyana said shaking her head.
"It might be to us, but Melody doesn't see it that way, she's been like this all her life, and doesn't understand what she would be missing. It does not matter to me and never has, I will love her as my own for her entire life regardless."
"Now." Harry said clapping his hands causing Illyana to start for a moment. "Let's leave this topic for now, I know I can trust you to keep what we talked about to yourself, and that it won't affect how you treat Melody?" Illyana nodded her head rapidly and Harry smiled. "Good, then let us go onto a little… experiment."
He conjured up a small marble, then a table which he sat between them before placing the marble in the center of it. "What did I just do?"
"Conjuration." Illyana answered promptly. She had been utterly fascinated by magic well before Harry had walked into her life, and constantly asked Kitty, Ororo and harry questions about it. She had first been confused by the difference between several magical spells and the telekinesis that Jean used, but with Harry's help had come to understand the difference.
She went, on reciting from memory some of the information she had read in a few of the books Harry had pointed her to. The magic of the library tower had allowed her to read them as if they had been written in her native Russian. "It is a magical discipline where you conjure or create things out of the very air. It is different from transfiguration because it isn't changing one physical thing to another but creating something from your mind. But much like Transfiguration, it is about what you imagine, what you can picture as you cast the spell will affect what appears. While conjuration of some objects is harder than others, transfiguration comes slightly easier and all training in the first must come after the second."
"Enough, enough!" Harry laughed reaching across the table to pat Illyana's head fondly. "Very good, more of an answer than I had expected. Now, if I move this," he tapped the marble, "what discipline would I be using?"
Illyana nibbled on her bottom lip as she thought for a moment. "You're not fundamentally changing the object, but you are affecting it, which means you are casting a charm on it. What does 'fundamentally' mean? I read it, but I don't know what it means."
"Again a good answer, and the word fundamental means that something of central importance or the essential structure of something. But for future reference, I would be leery of using that word when it comes to magical disciplines, because at the edges they tend to blend. For instance." He tapped the marble changing its color. "The book your read would say that is not a fundamental change, but it changed the marble didn't it? But this would be a charm, not a transfiguration, because the marble is still a marble, still made of the same material."
He tapped the marble gently intoning, "Wingardium Leviosa." The marble rose up about a foot off the table. Harry smiled faintly watching Illyana's eyes follow the marble. "This wasn't the first term charm I ever learned, but it turned out to be one of the most useful."
"Now, most books that I brought for my old dimension would say that you have to intone the spell, as if the magic were all in the words themselves." Harry scoffed his face twisted in such a way that Illyana actually laughed a little. Internally though she was beginning to wonder why Harry was teaching her this, but deep inside a wild hope was beginning to boil away in her mind.
"The words however help you concentrate, which is a necessary crutch at first. The words for this one Wingaardium Leviosaaa, make the 'aaa' sounds nice and long." He held up his finger and traced the actions that a wand user would have to make to cast the spell, explaining each movement carefully. "You understand?" Illyana nodded and he went on softly. "Good, now you try it."
Illyana's eyes widened in shock, the hope in her bubbling over but for a moment all she could do was stare at Harry and he smiled. "Try it." he said, his voice still soft, a gentle smile on his face.
Illyana took a deep shuddering breath, then raised her hand and moved it through the same motions that Harry did. Harry corrected her, and she nodded then said "Wingardium Leviosa!" while she moved made the motions with her finger. Nothing happened, and she almost cried.
"Remember what you said about transfiguration? You need an image in your mind of what you want to see happen, even with charms. Imagine in your mind what you want the spell to do. Remember what I said, the words are not the power, the powers already in you." Harry said, smiling still.
Illyana looked up at him again, and saw nothing there but kindness, not a single hint that he was making fun of her. Again she took a deep breath, and then imagined what she wanted the marble to do in her mind before opening them and concentrating on it. Her fingers waved again in the motion, as she intoned softly "Wingardium Leviosa."
The marble lifted off the table, hovering 3 feet in the air before seemingly doing a little dance there as Illyana almost dropped her hand entirely away from pointing at it before catching it again. Her eyes were now almost as wide as Melody could make hers as she stared at Harry.
"Well done!" Harry said reaching out to grab the marble out of the air placing it back down on the table. He reached across the table to rub the top of her head fondly. "When we first met, I could sense something in you, Illyana Rasputin. Do you remember my astonishment that Hedwig liked you? That was first clue. You had magical potential in you, and being in this castle with all its ambient magic has awakened it. You have it in you to be a sorceress Illyana, possibly a very powerful one."
"I, I can be a Volshebnitsa?" she said slipping into Russian despite all the practice she had been doing speaking in English as often as she could. "Truly?"
"Yes!" Harry said laughing. "This was not a joke, that wasn't me levitating the marble just now, that was you casting a spell. Oh," he waved his hand. "I'll admit that it was easier to do in this room with all the background magic in the air, but you do have it in you to be a magic user."
For a moment Illyana simply sat there as if stupefied, then she hurled herself across the small table hugging Harry for all she was worth. Harry laughed again, gathering her into his lap and hugging her back gently. Through her sobs Harry got out that she wasn't happy about being a magic user simply because it was every child's dream to use magic. No, she wanted to use her powers to help people, most particularly her brother, who she was very worried about despite knowing he could handle himself and had the rest of the team to back him up.
Hearing that Harry smiled, glad his chosen apprentice was approaching magic with such an attitude. As the sniffles lessoned he pushed Illyana away from him softly looking down at her seriously. "I want to make certain that you understand that magic is not a toy. The fact you can use magic does not make you better than the people who do not have it, magic should not be used to simply give you everything you want or to control other people. I will not teach someone who will use her magic for purely selfish reasons, do you understand?"
Illyana nodded seriously and he smiled. "Good, now, realize that your true magical education will need to wait for a few years, we want your core to build up enough so that when you cast spells you don't tire yourself out." Indeed, Illyana was yawning even as Harry spoke. "But we will be starting little exercises like this." Harry gestured back down at the marble. "Once a week, to teach you control."
Again Illyana nodded. Harry laughed sitting up and pushing her to her feet gently. "Good, now let's go find the others."
By the time they made it back to the dining hall however everyone had vacated it for their various activities, and he frowned, unable to remember for a moment where Ms. Brown had set up her lessons for the day. "Was it an outside day, or an inside day, should've looked on the map before we came down here." He muttered shaking his head. "Dilly?"
"Yes master?" Harry looked down with a smile which froze we looked at the majordomo. Beside him, Illyana began to giggle.
The elderly house-elf was wearing a uniform, though it looked more like the uniform of someone working at a discotheque whose employees had to be high on LSD. It had a normal Butler's overcoat to it, but underneath it was what looked like something that wouldn't have been out of place on an Elvis impersonator. Its leggings were tight, almost like those ballerinas used but not quite, and there were sparkly sequins at the joints.
That alone could have been born, but it was colors that made Harry's eyebrows begin to twitch. Because each piece wasn't a single color no, they were all the colors of the rainbow. It was fuchsia, it was red it was orange, it was white, silver, violet. The ensemble was a true riot of colors, all of them clashing horribly with their neighbors.
Harry closed his eyes, wishing desperately that this image would be gone when he opened them. Yet when he hesitantly opened one eye it was still there! He sighed shaking his head. Good god even house-elves, at least the female house-elves, have to look at that and be appalled, don't they?
Alas this was not the case. Despite the books that Harry had bought them even Nessy, the house-elf who served as Ororo's maid, didn't really have much of an idea of fashion in relation to themselves. To the house-elves' minds the equation was simple: more colors were better. This uniform was their idea of an excellent piece of clothing.
Hearing some quiet snickering Harry groaned, realizing what had happened. "Can I ask, did you think that uniform up yourselves or did someone help you?"
"Yes master" the elderly house-elf said him bowing creakily. "Metal boy helped us, and so did the others."
"I see." Harry said to the background of Illyana now laughing, smacking her hands on her knees as she bent over.
He looked towards the doorway leading into the main hall and from there down to the dungeon, where he spotted Nikolai looking around one of the doorways. Scott had evidently left for New York, but the others were all there as well. "Of course you know," he said in a loud voice. "This means war."
That was just the start of a nice, calm few days, interspersed with pranks of all sorts, while the team continued to jell and Harry and the adults got back to work.