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By the time Harry ran off, Ororo had already left the castle heading to New York to meet up with Kitty and her parents. She did so by having Cory pop her over to the mansion. She used Cory, despite the fact that there were now other house-elves who could pop that far, simply because he was also one of the most comfortable around technology and she had a meeting in New York later that day.
She found Kitty waiting for her with a bright grin on her face as she launched herself at Storm, which brought a smile of pleasure to Ororo's face as well. Ororo wasn't certain why the two of them had become so close, but there was most definitely a connection between them and the thought of seeing Kitty every day again was a pleasing one to the African woman. Eventually Ororo moved back, waving a thin folder at the curly haired girl, who grinned. "My parents should be here soon, do you think we should make tea or something?"
"Why don't you get your grades for this past year while I make tea?" Ororo replied. "I'm certain that they would like to see your progress in your regular scholastic endeavors before we talk about the job Harry and I would like to offer you. Where are Charles and the others?"
"The others all went to the beach, the Professor and Logan went some place. Not sure where, but the Professor was talking about upgrading our security." With that, Kitty ran up the stairs to her room from the foyer, which was where Cory had popped Ororo in.
The older woman chuckled a little at the younger girl's exuberance and then looked down at the folder she was carrying. It contained the contract that Kitty would be kept to, with four copies of course, as well as a few legal forms her parents would need to sign to let her work with them, and a few she would sign as well with them as a witness. It was something that she had made up, not Harry. She and Jean had been talking about it recently. They were going to be sitting down with him sometime soon and basically pointing out that he was far too trusting with money and the future of his company.
Harry was a rather odd person. Once he trusted someone and that final barrier came down, he trusted completely. To make matters worse, he saw money as simply a means to an end. That was changing slowly but it wasn't changing fast enough. In point of fact, Ororo had worked with Jean on writing up a new contract for the redhead in her position as chief engineer for Future-Tech, the name they were using at the moment for the engineering division of their corporation, Magical Minds. Jean had been very thankful that it hadn't just been her that had been a little freaked out by the amount of trust Harry had put in her. She had gratefully signed a new contract rather than putting pen to paper for the old one.
Kitty's contract, while very generous, wasn't about to break the bank. Yet even so, they might not have been able to pay her after a single month. If Jean hadn't found that gold, they would be in a very bad way in a few weeks, considering their ongoing expenses in terms of furniture for the Castle and High Note, food expenses, and the ongoing contracts they were paying for their growing workforce. The biggest expense thought was the high-tech gear that Jean had installed in the castle, which had wiped out nearly all of Harry's reserve.
To that end, Jean was going to be dropping off the gold bars and coins she had found the day before directly into Harry's Swiss account. Harry hadn't found any curses on those when he perused the items for a few minutes last night, but the statues and other items had yet to be cleared. Harry had already set it up so that she could access that account, though Jean had asked the bank earlier that week to make it so that she couldn't withdraw funds, merely add them. The person on the other end of the phone line had sounded a little surprised at that, but they had agreed. Jean was going to set up her own bank account, eventually, which would do for things that she wanted to buy for herself such as clothing and other items of that nature. But that would wait until they were actually in a position to start paying her for the job as a chief engineer.
At that point in Ororo's musings, she heard the intercom come on and she quickly moved over to the speaker. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Ororo opened the gates, allowing Kitty's parents to drive their car up to the front of the mansion. Moments later, she opened the door with a smile, allowing Terry and Kathleen inside. "It's good to see you two. As I said, I'm afraid Harry couldn't make it today but I have full authority to speak about the job we wish to hire Kitty for and, if you wish, can negotiate within a certain limit." Of course, Ororo had set those limits herself, but she wasn't about to share with anyone else Harry's bad fiscal habits.
Both Kitty's parents nodded at their daughter's favorite teacher. They had heard that she was moving out to be part of this company, but what it was doing they didn't quite understand just yet and hoped to learn during this conversation. Their greetings, however, were interrupted by their daughter racing down the stairs and enveloping them both in a hug.
Ororo smiled as she watched the three get reacquainted, then coughed gently. "Perhaps we should move to the sitting room?"
The weather witch let Kitty dominate the conversation for a time, as the girl talked about schoolwork, the trip to Vietnam that Harry had paid for as a present for Scott and Jean's graduation, and her ongoing relationship with Lance, which she said wasn't serious, but it was still fun. "Don't worry mom, I know there are limits to how far we should go at our age."
The pained look on Terry's face at that portion of the conversation had Ororo chuckling into her hand, but she controlled herself quickly. "Ahem, perhaps we can move on to why we're all here?"
Terry took that opportunity to change the conversation with delight. "YES, um we have some questions about this job you want to hire Kitty for. For one thing we were looking forward to spending more time with our daughter this summer. If this job cuts into that I'm not certain we would be willing to allow her to do it."
Both Kitty and her Kathleen smiled first at his attempt to change the conversation, but Kathleen nodded, her arm around her daughter hugged her tighter for a moment. Both of her parents had dearly missed their only daughter since Kitty had been fostered here at the Institute and even though it had only been a year it had been very rough for the two of them.
Ororo understood that of course, she had long known that this family was very close, not only physically but emotionally as well. In fact, she was going to bring up something at the end of this conversation about that. "Let me first describe the job we wish to hire Kitten for and then I will tell you about a portion of it that will help assuage that particular worry." She said smoothly. "First of all, you know that Kitty has learned how to use runes and runic arrays?"
Both parents nodded, though they had only the barest knowledge of those disciplines taken from conversations with their daughter in person. Kitty had followed Harry's stern injunction to not mention magic or what she was learning to anyone except in person and, even then, only if she trusted them.
"What you might not understand is that much of what Harry, Jean, and I are up to at the moment is based around magic and in particular runic arrays. The problem is that, despite the fact that we have hired several other individuals to handle some areas or our ongoing work, including one who can aid in magical areas, we haven't found anyone who has skill with creating runic arrays. This forces Harry to spend time on those projects while he could use that time more effectively in other ways. He also would like someone to devote some time to actually thinking up ways to use and make money on runic arrays in the future. Those two aspects will, if Kitty agrees and you agree to let her sign the contract, be part of Kitty's job."
"As she is Harry's apprentice in runes," she went on, "room and board of course will be provided without any charge, and we're looking to pay her an hourly wage starting at $100, going up to $300 when we move into expanding her repertoire."
Both parents' eyes widened at the number and they looked at their daughter who was also startled. "For that kind of money, ah," Kathleen paused, then gathered herself "are you paying her that much because the knowledge, this job, is dangerous, or because her knowledge is so rare? That amount is…"
"Under no circumstances will this be dangerous." Ororo replied firmly. "There is a room here in the mansion that is set up to protect against any issues that might arise in a runic array. I believe Kitty might have mentioned it?"
Terry nodded, though his wife frowned for a moment, having trouble bringing that conversation to mind. "In any event, there is a similar room in the headquarters we are currently using. Anything Kitty does, will be done in that room first and then, only when it is approved by Harry, will she be allowed to recreate the array elsewhere. At the moment, we're paying for this because Kitten is literally the only other person we can get to do the work."
Which was true. Dr. Strange had a vast knowledge of runic arrays, but only in terms of wards or protective arrays woven into his clothing. He could do several things in those areas with them that Harry was only barely able to understand at the moment, not having enough time to really devote to figuring them out. Connecting a anti-teleportation ward to the waiting room Harry had run into for instance. But using them in the myriad ways that Harry was thinking of, such as the lie detector, was out of Steven's area of expertise.
And it wasn't like they could ask Steven to work for them. He had his own duties, which judging from a brief conversation he had had with Harry during the last week seemed to have picked up for some reason. Even so, he seemed confident in his ability to handle things, but Steven, his girlfriend, and Wanda would not be available for a time outside of short discussions.
Kitty leaned forward eagerly. "Will I be just copying out arrays at first, or will I be experimenting?"
"At first you will be simply copying out arrays, I'm afraid," Ororo replied, chuckling lightly when Kitty pouted. The girl's interest in learning and pushing her brain was a treasure to watch. "I'm afraid at this point we need one specific array as quickly as we can get it," she said obliquely, not wishing to mention, even to Kitty's parents, the fact that Harry knew a runic array that could inform a person that someone else was lying, or untrustworthy. That, among everything else, was a real game changer and not something she wanted anyone else to know they possessed. After all, the moment something like that was known, people would begin to either copy it somehow, block it, or maneuver around it.
"One of the first arrays you will have to do is an array that Harry has devised that will protect your mind from invasion. We're uncertain how well it will do against a telepath, because I have a natural protection against such given my mutant power and Harry uses an entirely different system. So you'll have to work with Jean for a time to make certain it works before we allow you to start working on secret projects."
"I'm fine with that," Kitty nodded, "so long as the professor can still reach me mentally at need anyway." Both of her parents looked a little worried but Kitty waved them off. "I trust Jean." she said simply. "I trust the professor as well or, even as scared as I was when my powers activated, I wouldn't be here."
Terry and Kathleen nodded as well, at that. They too had trusted Xavier and, for the most part, the man had done a very good job with their daughter. The mistakes (those they knew about) seemed to have been out of his control, in fact, they had more of a problem with Logan than with the professor.
"I don't think we need to haggle about the wages." Kathleen said, understating things quite a bit, though neither parent truly realized how scarce the skills they were paying Kitty to use were. "That's a very generous offer but now we come to what my husband and I consider the main point here. We want to spend more time with our daughter and, if this job takes away from that, I'm sorry Kitten," she said looking down at her daughter "but your father and I just would not be comfortable with it."
Kitty hugged both of her parents to her tightly and it was easy to see that she would not have been happy with that, either. Despite how mature she was in many ways, Kitty was still a young girl and she loved her parents very much.
"Actually," Ororo said smiling widely, "while it won't be your first job, one of your jobs that Harry has mentioned to me is creating what he calls permanent teleportation doors. It's a theory of course and it will probably involve quite a bit of trial and error, but he would like to set them up between us and one of our allies, as well as other places. Of course, they can be also secured to only let certain people through, but I see no reason why they couldn't be set up between you and your home and here, say, or from your home to where Kitty will be working."
She watched as their eyes lit up at that prospect. Having their daughter only a single room away would be fantastic, though in all honesty, Ororo didn't know how well the doors would work. If they were all interconnected, no matter where they were, then having one of them at Hogwarts with its heavy magical atmosphere would power them all, but if not, well Ororo just didn't know enough about them to say if that was possible or not. She did know however that Harry would come up with some other solution if this didn't work. "Regardless of that, this job will have flexible work hours, and we are more than happy to work with you so you can all spend time together."
Ororo opened up the folder, and handed over the three copies of the agreement, as well as showing her own copy to them and waited silently while they went over it. "The nondisclosure aspect is the most important part there, besides your daughter's hourly wage of course."
"We agreed to allow….such that… Use any and all means necessary to safeguard the classified secrets of the company as well as the well being of the individual in question? Is that… that's not normal, why…" Kathleen asked worriedly.
"Keep reading" Ororo said gently.
Kathleen complied sighing in relief when it listed all the things that the company would not do and would do to protect their workers, regardless of where they were in the world or what threats they faced, be it in the pursuit of the companies work or normal life.
Her father however was looking at Ororo his head cocked to the side thoughtfully. "Eventually, you know that your secrets are going to get out."
"Yes," Ororo said simply, "we do. However we intend to put that off as much is possible, and there are certain secrets that will never be shared with the public, at least not for a very long time."
For a moment everyone was silent as the parents communicated in that way that married couples who have been together for a long time could. Ororo idly wondered if she and Harry would ever get that point, not realizing that in some ways they were already there, despite having only been around one another for under half a year now. Eventually, Terry nodded and said brightly, "Well, I don't think we have any issues with any of this, so long as it doesn't take away from her school work when the school year starts."
Kitty grinned wildly, hugged both her parents and then raced off to grab a pen.
When she left, Ororo asked the parents. "By the way, would you be willing to do some PR work, eventually? I don't have to tell you that the whole 'mutant issue'" she said, making quote marks in the air, "has the world pretty badly divided, even here in America. Eventually, once we start moving openly on the world stage, my Harry plans to do something about that and a PR blitz is going to be a part of it. You two are, forgive me for saying it this way, poster children for how we want parents of mutants to act like."
Both parents blushed a little at the praise, not really understanding why they were worthy of it. It wasn't as if they would have done anything different after all, their daughter was their daughter was their daughter, and that was that. "We'll have to think about it or course," Kathleen said, "I don't have any problem with it in principle, but we'll have to see."
"Of course, take all the time you need," Ororo replied, then Kitty was back, jumping onto the sofa between her parents with a pen in one hand. The weather witch looked at the time and frowned a little. She had scheduled another meeting today down in New York, though she hoped it would be relatively quick. "Unfortunately, I need to run. I have a meeting down in New York and the transfer time from here to there, well you know how it is."
Both parents nodded and Ororo looked over at Kitty. "Kitty can show you around again. I think the workroom in particular would assuage some of your concerns, but hopefully you'll still be here when I get back. I have been authorized to take you two, as well as Kitty, to where she'll be working."
Terry and Kathleen expressed interest in that, and Kitty pulled them out of their seats heading up the stairs to show them the workroom, which Harry had turned over entirely to her. After, of course, powering all of the wards inside to the highest level he could. The house elves that rotated into the mansion, had the task of making certain that those wards never reached a low level as those around the entire house had, which Harry let die.
Ororo had been about to take Harry to task about having a house elf work for the X-Men, until Harry had mentioned that it was primarily because Kitty was still his apprentice that he had done so. After that, she hadn't had an issue with it. And of course they still used the mansion as their teleportation point in America, or at least this side of America, so it wasn't like they weren't being paid for it.
After watching the trio walk off, she stretched, smiling faintly as she moved to the garage, where she found the X-Men van still there despite all the kids and Charles and Logan being gone. It wasn't exactly glamorous, but it would get her there. About two hours later (no traffic until she reached the city, praise the goddess, which Ororo did) Ororo pulled into the parking area for one of the public libraries in New York, which had been designated by the man she was meeting as their meeting point.
She looked up briefly as through the noise, hustle and bustle of the city she heard a faint swish, and caught a glimpse of someone swinging away overhead. "That must be that Spider fellow that we've heard about." Ororo mused to herself. She briefly wondered if the young man was a mutant, but decided that it really didn't matter one way or another. He seemed to be one of the good guys and that was enough. Possibly, eventually, they would get in contact with him, although with the amount of crime in New York and the job he was doing protecting the city against it, possibly they wouldn't.
Ororo walked into the library searching around for the person that she was here to meet and saw him waiting, seemingly nervously, by one of the windows.
The man was of only normal height, but was massively muscled across his chest and had long arms reaching down to his thighs with massive, dexterous, yet muscled hands. He had wire-rimmed glasses on and short cropped brown hair over a pleasant, yet somewhat absent-minded looking expression on a handsome face, which at the moment looked oddly nervous. She strolled up to him, "Henry McCoy? Dr. Henry McCoy?"
The man turned from the window, nervously tapping the fingers of one hand on his thigh. "You must be Ms. Munroe, a pleasure to meet you. But I'm afraid I have some bad news. You see, prior to you getting in contact with me I had been in contact with a school at offering my services there. They have accepted and, unfortunately, they have a prior claim on my time."
Ororo frowned faintly, "A teaching job? I would not think that would be your calling, Dr. McCoy."
"We all have different callings pulling on our souls, my lady," Henry, or Hank to his friends, said, bowing his head slightly. "Research is one of mine but teaching is another. This job will allow me to have time to research on my own and also to teach. My own… personal research has reached a critical juncture and I cannot leave it as is. And as I said, the school in question has a prior claim on me. I cannot, in good conscience, ignore that claim."
"Very well, I have to say that I'm happy that you actually were willing to meet with me at all in that case and I completely understand." Ororo said smiling a little. "In point of fact, this will allow me to spend more time at my day with two of my favorite parents, so it's all to the good despite the irritation of driving down here. But please, do keep us in mind in the future. Your intelligence and knowledge in the fields of chemistry and biology would make you uniquely suited to working with us. I assure you further, that in a matter of months we will be at the forefront of several new fields of interest in those areas."
"Good parents are a teacher's dream." Henry said nodding. "And yes of course, if this job falls through for any reason, I will try to contact you again but may I ask what precisely about me had you contact me in the first place?"
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to say that is proprietary, Dr. McCoy, though of course if you ever start work with us, I will tell you then. All I will say is that we were referred to you and that your previous work in the fields of medicine, as well as your grades in your Master's program, were both important to us. Have a pleasant day." she said shaking his hand once more and departing quickly. That haven't gone nearly as well as she had hoped.
She wondered what research it was that the good doctor was working on. It was obvious it was the research, not the teaching that was the reason why he turned them down. Also, Ororo wondered why Henry looked so nervous and jumpy. Still, it wasn't any of her business. She also had showcasing Hogwarts to Kitty and her parents to look forward to, so with a shrug, Ororo got back in her van and drove back to the mansion.
OOOOOOO
After sending out his Patronus, Harry and Hedwig (who had arrived on his shoulder just as he was about to apparate out with her consummate sense of timing) had gone up to High Note, swiftly maneuvering the asteroid fortress over Russia, then hit himself with a translation spell, before exiting.
Russia was one of the countries in the world where he was most concerned about their response to the mutant question. It was 'officially' a democratic nation now but anyone who even looked in their direction could tell that that was not the case. The Communists might be out of power on the surface but that didn't change the fact that there was a small cabal of people making the decisions, with little in the way of the democratic process visible.
According to Xavier, since they first started to show up in Russia during World War 2, mutants tended to die the moment their powers came out, ripped apart by wild mobs or killed by the police or military, showing how intolerant Russians were to those different from themselves. Nowadays, Russia had woken up to the potential resource mutants could be, causing a push for all mutants to be registered and to be educated 'for the good of the nation'. The fact that they were so open about it bothered him and so did the fact that no other country had objected to the policy being carried out inside Russia's borders.
Harry had no idea how many mutants had been rounded up already by Russia's government but he was determined to make certain that one at least wouldn't be today. To that end, Harry exited High Note and flew down through the atmosphere towards a small farming community near Lake Baikal in Siberia, where the Big Book of Students had told him a mutant had activated his powers a few hours ago. Given the time difference, it was dark by the time Harry arrived, which was possibly a good thing.
Using his invisibility cloak to cover himself, Harry flew down, allowing Hedwig to make her own way. He eventually landed in a wheat field, noticing that there were a few people out, more than he expected this late at night in a farming community. More than one of them seemed scared of one small house on the edge of the community, yet kept watching it warily as well. Several of them looked at it whispering to one another even as he watched and Harry frowned. I was skeptical of the idea of mobs forming and tearing apart mutants without someone instigating it, like the Friends of Humanity, which surprisingly Russia doesn't have, but while it looks like that's not happening here just yet, there is certainly a lot of fear in the air here. And fear can make animals of men.
He pushed that aside for now and made his way unseen over to the house. He briefly scanned around it then looked at Hedwig who was circling overhead. He waited there for about ten minutes, then breathed a sigh of relief as the last of the villagers who had been watching the back of the house moved away, heading back to their own houses. He waited another five minutes then moved in, hopped over the privacy wall around the small garden at the back of the cottage, and made his way to the backdoor. He knew someone was still awake because he could see a few lights inside. He hoped to put them at ease quickly, yet didn't want anyone to see the door opening.
Harry rapped gently on the door then calmly pulled off his invisibility cloak, allowing Hedwig to alight on his shoulder. He didn't have to wait long and soon the door opened. Harry had to crane his neck upwards to stare into the face of a man who was as tall as the Blob, yet built on a much more streamlined body type. "Good grief, you're a tall one aren't you?"
The surprised comment seemed to startle the big man who had looked both fearful and defiant when he opened the door and he blinked. "You would not be the first one to say so." He then shook himself, staring at the man before him and the owl on his shoulder. "You do not seem to be from the government, stranger. What brings you to our backdoor? The one in our private garden, which just so happens to have a wall around it?" he said looking around at the wall and beyond it out into the night of the small community.
Harry shrugged. "I didn't want any of your neighbors to see me knocking on your door. As to why I'm here, may I come in? It's not something we should be discussing outside."
"No threats, no duplicitous statements, no soldiers behind you," the man said chuckling a little now. "Most definitely not from the government. You can come in, I suppose. But know I will be watching you, stranger."
"Not a problem, I come in peace and all that." Harry replied. That won another chuckle from the younger man, who moved back to let Harry enter.
Harry took a moment, as he was ushered inside, to study him further. Not only was the young man (Harry estimated he was a year or at most two years older than Scott or Jean) taller than Harry, he was fit, with the kind of build you get when you have to work from dawn to dusk. Heavy shoulders, powerful arms with the rest of his body similarly developed. He had short cropped black hair, the kind of haircut that you got when you couldn't pay for someone else to do it so had someone in your family cut your hair short for hygiene reasons rather, than aesthetics. He wore simple and durable clothing, which fit the environment of the farming community. His eyes, deep set into a face that had been in all sorts of weather, were blue. Yet, for all that he looked like the poster child for the bucolic farm life, his face was lively with intelligence and there were even smile lines around his mouth.
The man led him into a small kitchen, which had an equally small table set in the center of it on the other side of which sat a very elderly couple. The man looked almost as big as the younger man, although he was now stooped with age, and his hair, equally short, was completely white. His face was craggy, what could be seen of it from behind a large beard. His hands were gnarled with arthritis, his eyes nearly blind with cataracts. The woman next to him was equally elderly and equally wrinkled, though she didn't seem to have been out in the sun as much as he but she was even more stooped. Her hands trembled where they rested on the table. Both of them wore simple clothing, as well, in dark colors. They were both also clearly worried and stared at Harry as if he were some kind of venomous snake.
"Peace." he said calmly raising his hand to touch Hedwig's plumage gently, causing the old couple's eyes to widen as if they hadn't noticed his owl perched on his shoulder. Given the concern and worry that almost radiated off them, that was actually possible, though Harry suspected Hedwig had been using some kind of trick or other. He wasn't about to ask her what kind, she'd just come over all smug, again. "My name is Harry Potter and I just want to talk."
"That government never wants to just talk," the old man said bitterly, "they take."
Before the woman could shush him, which seemed to be an automatic response rather than something that she was doing because she was afraid of Harry's response, Harry replied simply. "I'm not from the government, any government, not just the Russian one."
That seemed to startle them and, while two older people looked at him rather dubiously, the younger man frowned thoughtfully. "As I said before, you do not carry yourself like a government man with their arrogance and sneering contempt for all. You carry yourself with something else, confidence perhaps? You're not from Russia at all, are you?"
Harry smiled slightly. "No I am not, I originally hail from Britain, but that is not the country I give my allegiance to. I don't give my allegiance to any country, at present. My hand in friendship perhaps, but not allegiance. My name is Harry Potter, as I said and I am here, Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin,to talk to you. Something has happened recently hasn't it, something has awoken inside you? And you are worried because you know the government's response to such things, such mutations."
"I am concerned about it." the younger man said, waving his grandmother to silence when she opened her mouth and staring at the shorter man. Harry was of a decent height at 6'2" (feeding on his magic in the Negative Zone had cured much of his malnutrition, surprisingly) but Piotr dwarfed him by at least four inches, and was far wider across the shoulders.
Yet, the idea of using violence on Harry gave Piotr the willies. There was just something about his stance and tone of voice that said he would be able to handle anything that came his way. Even so, Piotr was a very self-possessed individual and none of those thoughts showed up on his face. "But I am not so concerned as to talk about such to someone who has not yet told me why he is here."
"Bravely spoken." Harry replied with a smile. He was beginning to like this young man. There was an air of toughness about him, not the toughness of someone who was trying to be, but that kind of proven toughness that came from facing a life of fighting the nature and the elements, that came from being your family's main support. "To be honest, I'm here to see if I can convince you to come with me. I am opening a school for mutants, where they can learn to use and control their powers and, of course, further their own education in a safe environment."
The phrase 'further their own education' made the grandmother perk up noticeably, and she exchanged a glance with her husband.
"And how would I pay for this?" Piotr was rather skeptical of this man who had appeared out of nowhere. Certainly, he was trying to do a soft sell, whereas the government would not sell, as his grandfather said, but take, yet Piotr was not willing to just jump in right away.
"First, I should tell you that you won't be the first one I've recruited. I have several others who are helping me and you'll meet them later on if you agree to join us. Yet, to start, I am a mutant as well. My mutant power isn't very applicable in most situations," Harry said chuckling a little, "though it's extremely helpful for me. Because it isn't my primary power. My primary power... is magic." Having said that, he conjured up a tea set, complete with tea. The tea wouldn't actually give anyone any nourishment, but it was warm at least.
There was a gasp from the hallway, and all of the people around the table turned in that direction.
Harry cocked an eyebrow at Piotr who frowned for a moment then sighed. "My sister, Illyana." Harry nodded and Piotr raised his voice. "You know you should not be eavesdropping, sestrenka."
A moment later a young girl of around ten or so shuffled in, looking a little sheepish. She had blonde hair down to her shoulders and was wearing an obviously hand me down nightgown. Her face was pretty, in a little girl way, and her eyes were bright blue, twinkling with interest over a small, expressive mouth twisted into a pout, at the moment. There was something about the girl, something that called to him, yet Harry couldn't figure out what and merely smiled gently at her. "Hello little one." he said. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"
The girl pouted a little at this even as her grandparents chuckled and Piotr nodded his head firmly. "Yes, she most certainly should be. Illyana, what are you even doing up?"
"I heard voices and came to see what was going on." She said, then stared at Harry. "Are you really a koldun?"
"Technically I am a… a volshebnik, a wizard, not a mage. The distinction has to do with where you get your power from." Harry then paused in shock as Hedwig left his shoulder, swirling around the younger girl before alighting daintily on her right shoulder.
The little girl bobbled a little at the weight of the owl. Her eyes were wide and startled, yet joyous at the same time. "She's beautiful, what's her name?"
"Her name is Hedwig, she seems to like you. She doesn't do that often, as in almost never really." Harry shook his head and turned back to Piotr. "Where were we?"
"I think you were trying to sell me on this idea of going to school to learn how to use my mutant power. On the surface," Piotr said, shrugging his shoulders, "it sounds like a good deal, but, if you were not their targets, so did communism. And while you have convinced me you have magic or something equivalent, that is not enough to get me to agree that you are a better bet than the government."
Harry laughed, liking this young man more and more. He was confident, he was intelligent, and he was unafraid to speak his mind, yet wasn't arrogant, all in all a very good combination. He waited to respond while Piotr picked up his younger sister gently in his lap. Hedwig flew to the table in front of them, where Illyana continued to rub her plumage just the way she liked it. "I am not trying to sell you something right away, though in time I might. I am putting together a team to help protect mutant rights the world over as well as face other threats. But joining us will be your personal decision. The schooling is free," he went on, looking around at the family "as is the relocation of your family to the school. Eventually they might have to be moved out of the school, but at the moment the castle is pretty empty."
"Castle!" they all said, with tones ranging from incredulity to surprise and joy in Illyana's case. The little girl was clapping her hands together in glee.
"A Castle," Piotr said incredulously. "Really?"
"Really!" Harry said laughing at Piotr's face and the joy on the little girl's face. "Trust me, I can understand where you're coming from. I was astonished to find it here as well. I'm not from around here, to put it mildly." he said, shaking his head. "That's why I said I'm a wizard rather than a mage or a sorcerer. But I'll explain that to you later, if you agree to come with me."
Piotr frowned faintly, the idea of going off and leaving his grandparents to care for his sister had not appealed to him at all, which was what would have happened if the government had come to take him away, so that aspect was a major draw. Both of his parents had died years ago. His father had died during one of the communist government's last gasps at foreign expansion and his mother had died when Illyana was only a baby, a few months after his older brother was chosen to become a cosmonaut. It had been just him and his grandparents for so long, working the communal farm with Piotr doing the majority of the work assigned to their family for years now. Yet at the same time, he was aware of the fact that his family could be used as hostages for his good conduct.
Harry laughed a little, looking at the man. "I'm not going to use your family against you or anything like that, if that's what you're worried about," he said, as if he could read Piotr's mind. And before Piotr could gasp in surprise he said "No, I can't read your mind, but your face is an open book when it comes to your emotions and you were looking in their direction, seemingly very worried."
Illyana and his grandparents all chuckled and Piotr looked down, slightly abashed. He was not good at hiding his feelings, his thoughts yes, but not his emotions. People tended to see him his size and assume that he was as slow as he looked, but Piotr was not in fact slow either in body or mind.
Harry stopped chuckling quickly and went on. "Seriously, I'm not going to coerce you into anything. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you and your family. As I said, eventually you may wish to join the team I'm putting together, but that will be your choice. I will not pressure you into it. Training in your powers is what I offer, as well as continued education up to and including college if your grades are good enough. If they're not, I can help you find a job or hire you myself eventually. I have quite a few rods in the fire at the moment, all of whom could use people."
"And are all of them supposed to help mutant kind?"
"They are supposed all help humanity." Harry shrugged. "Helping mutant kind is part and parcel of what I'm doing, but eventually, I hope that the entire world will benefit from what I'm doing eventually. But can you honestly say you like the way mutants are being treated, here or abroad? It is becoming a larger issue every month as more and more mutants discover their mutations."
Piotr stared at him, trying to stare into Harry's soul. He couldn't of course, but eventually he decided he liked what he saw. He frowned, leaning back and scratching his chin, as he thought.
During this momentary silence Illyana spoke up eagerly. "So what can you do with magic? Can you fly? Do you have a broom? All the witches and wizards in the old stories carry brooms, like old Baba Yaga! Do you brew potions? Can you transform into a bear?"
Harry laughed shaking his head. "I can't wait to introduce you to Melody. I think the two of you will get on quite well. In order, I can do quite a lot with my magic." he said pointing a finger at her. Suddenly Illyana was wearing a fluffy and comfortable pajama top and bottom shaped into a comic book version of a tiger. Harry had seen a book called Calvin and Hobbes in Harrods when they were shopping there, and the tiger in it had tickled his fancy.
The girl giggled hugging herself and feeling the soft fur of the pajamas under her hands. Piotr looked down and smiled faintly, but Harry went on before he could speak. "I can fly yes. I used to have to use a broom, but then someone pointed out a rather stupid point I had been overlooking. She's another person that I think you'll both like to talk to, but we'll see. I can brew potions, that's partially what I'm going to be doing worldwide. I think a lot of them can help humanity, quite a lot. We'll see how that goes soon enough. As to transforming into a bear, I can't change my form like that, but I knew someone who could."
Neville Longbottom was the only one among his friends who had been able to figure out how to become an animagus before they died and he had transformed into an immense Kodiak bear. Harry smiled gently, his eyes far away as he remembered his dead friend, a look both the as yet unnamed grandparents recognized. They had seen that look before, often in the mirror, of bittersweet memories of friends long gone.
"Neville was a good friend, brave and true as the saying goes. We went to a school for wizardry from where I was from, and he was in the house, which were a kind of way to split up the students, that was known for being the bravest and yes, he transformed into a giant bear. I remember the first time he did it, scared the life out of me. Here I am," Harry said, laughing and looking at them now, "standing across from a friend who is going through this meditation, do you know if that means?" He looked at Illyana with one quizzically and she nodded listening eagerly to the story. Harry went on, "And then suddenly I'm faced with this giant bear whose head is an inch away from my face. And then he yawns and all I can see is this maw that could bite my head off and dirty yellow teeth."
"No matter what he said later," Harry said firmly, "I did not scream like a little girl." Illyana broke out into giggles, and even the parents and Piotr chuckled.
Piotr shook his head, amused. Harry came off as human above all else, personable and open in a way that no one from the government could ever be. "Will your offer for schooling apply to Illyana as well?"
"Of course!" Harry replied, looking a little startled at the idea that it wouldn't. "We'll probably have to bring in a special tutor for the younger ages. We were setting up more for secondary level schooling at the moment, since most mutant powers activate during or after puberty. Or maybe Illyana can go to school nearby, not certain yet. But she and your grandparents will, of course, be living with you, we can even set up a small area for families rather than single students. Might have to think about reorganizing the Castle that way in the future, and of course your grandparents won't have to do anything." He shrugged, "That is for later however."
Piotr looked over at his grandparents. They looked at one another before nodding. The older man, who had been silent since his initial outburst, shrugged. "It would be difficult to leave on our own, the government knows by now that you are a mutant. But if you were able to get here mere hours after Piotr's power awoke then maybe we can get away in the same fashion, Mr. Potter. And to my mind, it will be good to be pampered for a time."
Harry chuckled. "Eventually, we might be opening up our own farming community and, if we do, the two of you could possibly be put into the position of overseers or advisers. Again, we'll have to see." At this point, Harry was speaking more in terms of possibilities than before, since he did want to get to the point where the school at the least was self-sufficient, but didn't know if he would eventually have other tasks for his house elves to work on. At the moment, they got their food from various farms in Scotland and New York, but eventually they might need to start growing their own.
Both the grandparents nodded, they liked that idea. Sitting down and ordering young people around all day sounded like an excellent plan.
Piotr also nodded his head. "I will agree, I would like to be able to practice and be able to control my mutant power. Since it activated, I have not been able to recall it. But other than that, I am uncertain if I would be willing to fight, though we will see."
Harry nodded. "In that case I would suggest you all pack, and we will be on our way."
"How are we going to get there," Illyana said piping up again.
Harry chuckled then waved his fingers in the little girl's face, "maaagiiiccc!"
Illyana smacked his hand aside, pouting a little and he chuckled even more, with Piotr and the others joining him.
About ten minutes later Piotr was ready to go, though Illyana and his grandparents were still gathering their keepsakes. Piotr had stopped and was looking at Harry quizzically. Something about his manner, the way he was staring out into the night was telling Piotr that Harry was worried about something. He moved over to Harry as his grandparents finished putting together their few valuables and family keepsakes, while Illyana ran upstairs to grab a few articles of clothing and pictures as well as the ones stuffed animal that she had, a very battered and elderly stuffed bear. "What are you thinking about?"
Harry looked up abruptly and shook his head "Was I that obvious?"
"Not really," Piotr said shrugging, "but you seem to be slightly more serious now than you were when you were talking to us, and you've been staring out the window."
Harry shrugged. "I'm just wondering how the government will react. Have you heard any stories about them rounding up new mutants or anything like that?"
"We have," Piotr said nodding his head. "The propaganda tells us that mutants are dangerous, and a threat to the public unless safely controlled. There was one young man in another farming commune about 60 miles from here who was taken. According to rumor they came for him quickly, and took him to the local magistrates and then from there to somewhere else."
Harry frowned. "That's worrisome," he said mildly, belying his true feelings on the matter.
"And something you wish to do something about," Piotr said shrewdly. "I can see that you are worried. For all your talk about reading me like a book, you aren't any better. And you do not look like the type to simply turn around and leave now that you are here."
"No I'm not," Harry said softly, tapping one finger against his chin for a moment, "no I'm not. You know of any other mutants that have been taken away?"
Piotr hesitated for a moment then said slowly. "My, my older brother Mikhail could've been a mutant. He was about 10 years my senior, and he was chosen as a cosmonaut nine years ago. Illyana was barely speaking before he left us."
"Does that mean he went into space? Sorry, but I don't know much about much of the world's space programs. Well, except for the fact that they are rather mediocre in scope, and have mostly stopped altogether after the accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, three years ago."
"Yes, he was. Mikhail was sent into space on a mission seven years ago with a crew and he never returned. The government of course said that nothing went wrong but," he shrugged, "when the government changed hands, they told us he died along with his crew. One of the first and only times we ever got the truth out of them, though they would not tell us how he died."
"I'm sorry for your loss." Harry said. "Still, I want to know what's going on in this country and, since I'm here anyway, I might as well look into it if I can."
Piotr frowned faintly wondering about himself than shrugged. "If you can tell me how to activate my mutant power, I will stay with you. You may need a local expert. You speak Russian well enough, but you know nothing of the land here or its people, or how they will react to outside aid or interference, if you make your presence known."
"True enough," Harry said looking up at him and smiling faintly. "In answer to how to activate your powers, the best I can tell you is to try and summon up the feelings of it activating or possibly just replay the memory in your head. It seems to vary. What exactly is your power by the way?"
Piotr chuckled. "I would like to keep that a secret for a time, if that is alright, I would like to see your expression when I use it. Will you be able to send off my grandparents and sister without going yourself?"
"Oh yes, though I'll have to send Hedwig with them. She's my familiar, so she'll be able to get them through the castle's protective magics. I'm not actually certain if Storm or Phoenix, the two acquaintances I mentioned, will be around, yet there should be someone there, my, I guess you could call them house gremlins, if no one else will be there."
Piotr nodded, and moved over to have a quiet conversation with his grandfather before Illyana and his grandmother came back into the kitchen. "How are we doing this?" Illyana said bouncing up and down.
Harry chuckled and tapped the table muttering, "Portus." The table glowed for a moment and he nodded. "I would like you all to touch the table please. I will warn you however that the transportation will upset your stomachs a bit." Once they did he took his hand away, letting Hedwig move onto the table, ruffling her feathers in irritation at the necessity. Once Hedwig was situated, Harry nodded. "Now say the word activate."
Piotr's grandparents did so before Illyana could point out that neither Harry nor Piotr were touching the table and a moment later they were elsewhere.
"Now," Harry said clapping his hands together. "Let's figure out how to do this appropriately. Could I borrow a bit of your hair?"
OOOOOOO
Jean had woken up late and after asking one of the house elves to make up something for a brunch, found Melody in the dining hall along with Shiang- Chi and Sir Dennis eating lunch. "Hello you three, what have you all been doing today?"
Dennis smiled faintly, but it didn't touch his eyes for once. He was carrying what looked like a large parasol under one hand, with a cheap, folding beach chair under the other. A house-elf, who was wearing what looked like a Hawaiian t-shirt cut down to fit and a very nervous expression, stood behind him, holding several bottles of what appeared to be different kinds of alcohol on a tray. "Good morning, Ms. Grey. Shiang and the little lady have a plan to explore the woods again today."
The young girl nodded eagerly and Shiang-Chi smiled, although he was looking at his older friend and advisor with worry.
Dennis went on. "I alas, have decided to call it an early day. A friend of mine I tried to contact has passed away. He and I had a bit of a promise between us on how we would celebrate one another's passing. The shore of the lake isn't quite the ocean and my little friend here isn't in anyway the type of waitress either of us would have wished, but it will have to do."
Jean nodded, not sure what to say, and the man with the small, rather elderly house-elf following him left the dining hall and the castle, heading down to the lake. Shiang-Chi murmured something about getting ready for their exploring the woods before heading back to his room, leaving Melody and Jean alone at the table. The redhead hugged the young girl with one arm, then began to grab some of the fruit and a bagel for herself from the table. "So, looking forward to seeing what sorts of animals are out there, Melody?"
"Oh yes," Melody said excitedly, "There were some animal tracks Mr. Shiang wanted to show me and there are so many birds that have already moved into the area!" she frowned a little. "Um, he helped me finish all the work Ms. Ororo gave me for the day except for my math stuff. I just…"
"I understand." Jean said, slipping her arm around the girl again. Melody tried, but numbers simply didn't come easy to her at all. "I think you're doing great just as you are, don't worry about the speed you're learning any of your subjects. Ororo just wants you to be well rounded, so long as you continue your education at your own pace, she will be more than satisfied."
In fact, Ororo had told Jean that much a few days back. Melody's mutant power made it unlikely she would ever be able to truly mature, messing as it did with her mental faculties, and learning was much the same. The weather goddess however wanted to give her as much of an education as she could grasp, so that she could at least interact well enough with children her own age or younger. This was why despite all the other demands on her time Ororo still made time to create work for Melody to go through, and to work with her at times as well.
Melody smiled, leaning her head against Jean's arm for a moment and then going back to merrily munching on the grapes she had piled on her plate.
The two of them looked up in shock, gasping as a large golden and silver creature made of energy, yet remarkably solid looking for all of that, in the shape of a stag bounded into the room. Melody's gasp was much louder than Jean's, since Jean simply thought it was a magical thing that Harry had made for some reason. Melody, however, actually began to tear up, hugging her arms around herself as she stared at the stag, a wide grin blossoming on her face despite her tears.
As soon as it reached the two, its mouth opened and Harry's voice came out of it. "Jean, I'm done connecting the ley lines to the book of students. It's already started to write down the names of possible mutants. I'm going to go out and check the first one because the Book indicates he might be in danger."
"Hmm…" Jean said shaking her head. "An interesting way of sending a message, I guess Harry was really concerned if he didn't even want to make time to come himself." She was more than a little irritated by that, but hopefully Harry wouldn't run into anything that he couldn't handle. Of all of them, Harry was easily the one who was the most capable of handling himself, but the fact he had run off on his own, bothered her. Still, he had trusted her to handle Selene's caches, so Jean decided to trust him to handle this on his own. She didn't like it and it gave her something else to talk to him about when she and Ororo sat down with him, but there was nothing they could do about it now.
She looked down and Melody and frowned. "What's wrong Melody?" Jean knelt down on the floor next to the shorter girl's chair, putting both her arms around her shoulders.
"All his happy songs," she said, "it's, the stag, it's made of Mr. Harry's happy songs, all his good emotions! I can hear them better now without any of his other songs in the way. He's so happy and so loving…" She began to sway her head to music that only she could hear, her hands reaching out to gently touch the stag's nose. A bright burst of laughter broke out of the girl and she flung her arms around the stag laughing and giggling. Jean shook her head a little but laughed as well seeing the young girl like this was rather infectious.
Melody turned to look at Jean, her eyes bright. "He really loves you, you know. You and Ms. Ororo. Most of the memories he used to make this are from the two of you. And me!" Melody giggled, turning away and burying her head into the side of the stag's neck, which somehow, despite the fact it was made out of energy, felt real and warm and solid under her touch.
For some reason Jean actually blushed at Melody's explanation, and she quickly changed the subject asking "So, where are you and Shiang going to explore today, out in the woods or near the lake?"
About ten minutes later, while Melody, the still-corporeal stag (which seemed to have bonded with her for some reason) and Shiang-Chi left the castle, Jean got to work. First, she connected two more computers up to the system, adding their computational power to it.
This would allow them to have more users throughout the castle, though she estimated that they would have to add several more, once they started to have actual classes and more people here. At least three dedicated to classwork and the teachers, with another one for the still unnamed team's use for various reasons. Then two, possibly more, would be dedicated to organizing the company(ies). Then Sir Dennis would have access to one and at least one more would be primarily for research purposes of all sorts, as well as some of the more secretive information and files Harry, Jean, and the others would be building up. Eventually of course, they could all be placed into one high tech system, but at the moment they were making do with computers that Jean could buy as a private citizen.
The ones they had were good, really high-end, really expensive computers, which was one of the reasons Harry had nearly run out of money. Yet for all that, they were nowhere near the level of a computer system that could run, say one of Stark Enterprise's buildings, let alone the ones the Fantastic Four used. Harry's laptop was actually far better than any of the ones Jean had bought and was the main one that Jean had used to run her design programs.
The difference between what was available on the open market and what was available to the more high-end scientists, government agencies, and such was simply amazing at this point, although that might change now that Stark was joining the commercial computer game, along with a few other new companies. Still, it made Jean wonder where the heck the professor had gotten the stuff needed to create the Danger Room and the security system in the basement, but she didn't think about it too hard, really.
After that, Jean went to work on finalizing the design for their arc reactor. Once she blew it up and used the holographic and hard light system to view it, she could see a few issues with the initial design. Eventually she was able to solve them (only one output port, the inside of the casing being too close to the actual energy core among others), but Jean eventually felt that she had come up with a design she could start to work with in the real world that, hopefully, wouldn't take them all that much in the way of resources to build. To that end, Jean decided to work with the Room of Requirement. So, since the computers couldn't work in the Room of Requirement, she grabbed a paper and several pens instead, along with a copy of the Orihalcum which would allow the RoR to recreate it.
While the computers could now work in the majority of the castle, not enough wild, ambient magic to bother them, they couldn't work in a few places in it. The first place, and the hardest to understand, was the Library tower, which was where the Ravenclaw tower had been. For some reason, the spells on the books and the massive array of spells on the Big Book of Students just couldn't be grounded enough to let a computer work in there. It was a shame, since Harry had mentioned at one point he wanted to create a computerized version of the library, with an index, quick search functions, and other things but it was impossible at this point. Maybe sometime down the line, Harry might figure out a way to create a magical version of a computer.
The other two areas were much more obvious. The hearthstone room and the room next to it with the living map Harry had created of Hogwarts was one; the Room of Requirement was the other. There was simply too much ambient, ungrounded magic in them to allow anything based off science to work.
Jean felt a little silly pacing in front of the door to the RoR while muttering "I want a high-tech engineering lab to work on my arc reactor design like the one hovering in the air in the dining room" three times but it was the only way to get the room to work. It was a holdover from Harry's old universe, which he had kept for nostalgia's sake. Still, it worked and a moment later she entered, finding the room changed to meet her parameters.
Inside was a room matching her needs almost exactly, a major engineering and physics laboratory complete with everything she wanted. Some of it was a little rough around the edges, as if the magic couldn't quite figure out what some of the gear was supposed to do but, since her command had been so specific, it was still amazingly close. "So this room can really create everything I want can't it? Pity it's all magically created and wouldn't last beyond the doorway. If it could we would solve most of our issues with one fell swoop. Still, I can see why Harry spent so much time on it."
With that she went to work, first building the outer shell with the magically created Orihalcum that the room provided for her and then the electronics for the outer shell. She ran into a few more problems with the design, some things that she wouldn't have been able to see if she hadn't gotten her hands dirty, so to speak, but she enjoyed herself greatly. Right up until she began to work with the actual energy portion and powered it up. "Boom!"
It was only Jean automatically raising a telekinetic shield when she saw the arc fluctuating that saved her from the explosion. It nearly took her head off as it shot out of the top of the generator. Even with the shield, she was still thrown around the lab, which itself was vaporized. She got up woozily, rubbing her face. "All right, that hurt." she muttered coughing a little. "Ouch… What exactly did I do wrong there?"
It turned out, she had made a very simple mistake in the early stages, routing far too much of the power back into the plasma containment system. Her system wasn't toroidal like Stark's design, but more of a helix, with one helix inside the other. This meant the generator could handle more power in a smaller space, but the material had to handle more strain. It was only the monstrous amount of durability that Orihalcum gave them that allowed it. But the angle of the helix had to be changed slightly so that the curve of the upper edge didn't take as much strain.
Eventually, after several false starts, she got it to work, thrumming away. Of course she would need to try and recreate it out in the real world, since everything in here was made by magic so it might not react like it would in the real world, but it seemed to be a viable design. She wondered why the room could create high tech devices like this and, yet, such devices could not be brought into it. Still, the end design was much like an air-core transformer choke, ten feet tall by fifteen feet wide, with a very faint glow of blue coming from the top. Wires led off from the bottom to where they could be hooked into the electrical network.
She hooked it up to an industrial oscilloscope and volt meter, noting down the numbers she got. She smiled faintly as the Geiger counter and other emission detectors scattered around it didn't detect any harmful radiation or gases coming from it. Still, Jean continued to run several experiments on the system, a hit or miss part of the project, as the Room of Requirement couldn't quite figure out how to give her a few of the things she wanted such as "I want to see what would happen if you pulled as much energy out of it as a city the size of London would need." It left Jean with a lot more work to do in the real world, but it was still a major advancement.
She gathered up the dozens of pieces of paper that were around the room, filled with very small, tight scribbles that she had made during her experiments here in the RoR. Jean spent a moment looking them over, making certain that she had them all. Harry hadn't told any of them what happened to items left in one of the RoR's configurations, so she wanted to make certain she didn't leave any notes behind, just in case. After she was satisfied she had them all, Jean patted the wall by the doorway, then then exited the lab, sighing tiredly.
As she walked up the stairs from the basement, Jean stretched her arms above her head, cracking her shoulders and neck, whistling the tune that Melody had been humming when she rode out on the Patronus stag's back, with she said had sentimental value to her. "Because the truth may vary, this ship will carry us to shore."
Exiting the stairwell, Jean came upon Ororo showing the Prydes around the castle. "You look tired, Jean." Ororo said, smiling a little as she took in Jean's mode of dress. Since she had been busy getting dirty, Jean had dressed in a tank top and exercise shorts, which showed off her body, although that hadn't been why she wore them. She wore them because she didn't care what happened to them or what filth got on them. "I take it you had a productive day?"
"I have had a magnificent day, Ororo." Jean said moving over and giving the older woman a hug then looking over at Kitty and high-fiving the younger girl. "And since these three are here, I assume that you have as well?"
"Yep!" Kitty said, grinning widely. "My parents and I have already signed the contract and I am good to go! But this place is incredible, not only what you guys have done with this castle, the castle itself. It's fantastic!"
Terry, an amateur historian who particularly liked architecture, was looking around still, though right now he was doing that for more reasons than simple interest. "This place is amazing, though I was more concerned about the story of what happened to Mr. Potter's sort of wizards. Storm didn't go into much detail, but what she did say sounded bad enough."
"It was that." Jean replied. She shook her head a little, amused by the fact that the older man was pointedly looking around the hall and at his wife rather than at her as they were talking. The smile of satisfaction on Kathleen's face however broke a grin out on her face and she winked at the older woman who smirked a little wickedly in response.
"I think I'm going to go get a bath and grab a change of clothing." Jean said, shaking her head. "By the way, Harry's out. The Big Book of Students apparently is working now and the location of the first name on the list worried him, so he went off to do his hero thing."
"That man." Ororo muttered.
"Do you want to talk about that as well? I think I'd be up for our little group effort tonight," Jean said obliquely, not really wanting to get into the fact that the three of them were dating in front of Kitty's parents. Kitty was fine with it, but that was no certainty that her parents would be and dealing with it would be irritating and unnecessary.
Ororo nodded, smiling a little at the idea. "I think that that would be an excellent idea, in fact, I made up a list of ingredients already."
Nessy popped in behind her. "Where is the list, mistress? We will go and get them and then cook for you."
Ororo knelt down in front of the elf and said softly, "I would like you to get the items, Nessy, but I wish to cook for myself and my friends tonight. Sometimes it means more if you do the cooking yourself."
The house elf frowned. "We have heard this argument from the master, mistress, we do not agree with it but we will do as you order."
She popped off in a huff, and Ororo shook her head. "I think the idea of humans looking out for ourselves bothers the house elves for some reason."
Kathleen chuckled, but frowned as she looked down at her watch. "If you could return us to New York, I think we've seen all we can see today. When do you want Kitty to start work?"
"Tomorrow." Ororo said firmly. "As I said, there are several arrays that we require almost immediately."
"That's fine by me." Kitty said, nodding her head happily. "The time difference is going to be annoying at first, but I'm a teenager, so we're supposed to keep odd sleep schedules." That won a chuckle out of the others and Ororo called for Clare, the young female house-elf that Kitty had worked with before, to take the group back to New York. This she did by taking the two women first, then Terry, who was heavier than either his wife or daughter.
After the trio was gone, Ororo walked up the stairs to the seventh floor with Jean. "Where are Melody, Shiang-Chi, and Dennis?"
"Sir Dennis is down by the lake. He's sunning himself and taking it easy with one of the house elves bringing him piña coladas, I think, something like that anyway." Jean shrugged. "Apparently, one of his old friends died recently, so he's having his own personal wake for him or something. He's been down there since lunch."
"Melody finished most of the work you gave her for the day save her math. She and Shiang-Chi are out and about exploring the woods, along with some kind of magical construct Harry used as a messaging service. Shiang found some animal tracks, including a badger according to Melody. How they'll get close enough for her to see a badger's 'songs', I have no idea."
"I seem to remember seeing a series of children's books that had badgers and other small animals forming their own communities and fighting against various vermin." Ororo mused. "I was never a big reader of fiction, but do you think Melody would like to use it to learn from?"
Jean laughed, leaning against Ororo's shoulder for a moment. "The series you're thinking of is the Redwall series, and there are three books in it that I know of. And yes, I think that Melody would love it. It's got songs mixed into the stories and it's all about good versus evil with a bit of romance at times. I think the first one was made into an audiobook recently. I'll look it up. But Melody ran into problems again with her math work."
"I know." Ororo sighed sorrowfully. "Her mutant ability changes her mental abilities and in many ways hampers her. That happens to be one of them. I am fine with her not learning much math as long as she continues to learn reading and writing. Audiobooks and audio lessons might help her, we will have to see."
The redhead nodded and the rest of the walk up the stairs passed in convivial silence. When they reached the sixth floor, Ororo leaned down to kiss the redhead briefly on the lips, then pulled back, wrinkling her nose. "Why don't you go get that shower?"
Jean laughed, stretching up to kiss the taller woman again and raced off eagerly, looking forward to the triple date they had planned with Harry that evening. Well the two of them had planned, that was sort of the point it was going to be a surprise for Harry. That man deserves some pampering and he is, by God, going to get it.
While her friend went on her way, Ororo went to look at the Big Book of Students. While she didn't understand how it worked, she could see what it did. Each name appeared on its own line along with a location by country and then longitude and latitude. If it could, the book would also give a specific address, but if not, it would give a description of where the prospective students were living.
But the Big Book of Students didn't stop there. The names were color-coded to show how much danger, physical danger the person was in. Harry had said red would indicate imminent danger, and yellow would be incoming danger while blue was no danger.
The spells on it were complex as hell. If Harry had needed to start from scratch, it might well have taken him as long as the RoR, with the added difficulty that half of it was based off spells rather than runic arrays and you couldn't leave a spell matrix like that half-finished. Another problem, it wasn't as accurate as it could be, just yet. It only picked up mutants as their powers were used, which caused something of a noticeable surge, changing what was there to something new, though how accurate it was, was up in the air.
Ororo however didn't know that last part. What she noticed right now, was that two names, brothers apparently, since they shared the same name, were blazing in red on the page as she stood there. The location was in Sudan and that wasn't very good, since the Sudanese were not known for being very understanding of those with physical (or even spiritual) differences from the norm.
She frowned thoughtfully tapping her fingers on her thigh in thought. Then decisively she nodded, copied out their names, the longitude and latitude and description of their domicile, then raced out of the room. "I require a house elf."
One appeared in front of her, bowing his head. "I am Simmy, miss. What do you be wanting?"
"That's 'what do you need', I think?" Ororo said distractedly. "Follow me please." Ororo quickly changed into her combat uniform, then moved down the stairs to the dining hall, which was the room with the largest amount of holographic and hard light projectors. Grabbing up a wrist controller from where the two of them were stored, she swiftly opened up a connection to the network and then, from there, opened up a map program, entering the coordinates she had copied out. Turning back to the house elf, she nodded at the large map, handing over a headset. "I am going somewhere to this point. When I get far enough away from Hogwarts, my own dot will appear on this map. Once I am down in Africa, I will need you to direct me to this dot, do you understand?"
Simmy looked a little worried and Ororo smiled gently. "Once Jean finishes her bath, have one of your fellows have her come down and help you if you need it." that made Simmy perk up a little and Ororo smiled, then raced outside, ascending swiftly into the sky.