"Yep, that's me, a mutate," Doreen said. "I like the extraordinary bit, though. Makes it sound kinda cool."
"In what way are you different, Doreen?" Luna asked.
"How much do you already know?" Doreen asked.
Harry shook his head. "Not a lot. Apart from the squirrel-speaking thing. I know that you can jump really high. And I'm pretty sure that you're strong and that you've got some amazing reflexes."
"How'd you work out?" she asked.
"I, uh, I saw you one night jumping from the ally up to your bedroom window," Harry admitted. "I gave you a couple of little tests the next morning – asked you to move a heavy box; nearly dropped a mug, which you caught. I can promise you that I haven't told a soul; not even Luna here or Gwen or anyone."
"So dumb luck, huh?" Doreen sighed. "Guess I should be glad that it was only you."
For a second, Luna could have sworn that Harry had a guilty look on his face, but it was gone much too quickly to be sure. That didn't mean that Luna had no plans to question her friend about that later, though.
"Doreen's definitely not a witch then?" Luna asked disappointedly, crossing her arms. "Phooey. I was sure that she'd used accidental magic to become an Animagus squirrel and had gotten stuck half-way."
"I have no idea what you just said," Doreen admitted, staring at the woman.
"When magical children are still developing their gifts, their magic can do strange things," Harry explained. "An Animagus is a witch or wizard that can magically change themselves into an animal – that's another rare-ish piece of magic. Once they turn eleven, they get their first wand and go to magic school to learn to control their magic."
"Wow! Witches and wizards and magic," Doreen said, shaking her head. "Who'da thought that that was real. Hang on! Magic. Magic. Like … like Mage. That's it, isn't it? You! You're Mage! Please, please, please tell me that's true."
Harry's head dropped, but not before he saw the wide smile on Luna's face.
"I was hoping to build up to it a little more. But, yeah. I'm Mage," Harry admitted.
For a few seconds, there was dead silence as Doreen sat there, her jaw dropped open as she stared at the guy she'd been living with for the past weeks. Then, without warning, she let out a loud, long, piercing scream of excitement. Instantly, she was up, bouncing around the room. Her erratic movements sent Monkey Joe scurrying from the floor where he'd been dumped from her lap up the closest curtain to perch on the rail and begin chittering angrily down at her.
Barely pausing in her bouncing, Doreen chittered back at the squirrel, the other two guessing that she was telling her friend what she'd just found out. Obviously, she got the point across because Monkey Joe shifted position until he was nearly right above Harry and began staring down at him.
Finally, Doreen dropped back into her seat, but even then, she didn't quite stop her bouncing.
"You're him! Mage! One of the Avengers. And I've been living with you! How could I not realise that? You helped stop the invasion from aliens! And you've been flying around the city on your magic broom! Bruce! You said Bruce before. That's Bruce Banner isn't it? The Hulk! And you've been on the phone with Tony Stark. Iron Man! The one and only. You can introduce me to the Avengers, can't you? Please? I'll do anything! Anything! It's why I came to New York in the first place," Doreen said, staring intently at Harry the whole time.
Harry, for his part, simply stared back, wondering how the girl was still conscious. He was sure that she'd said that entire speech in one breath.
"You came to New York to meet Harry and the Avengers?" Luna asked.
"Well, Iron Man and the Avengers," Doreen said sheepishly. "But really, I've wanted to meet Iron Man ever since he became a hero and started doing all those amazing things and helping people and everything. And then after I saw the Battle of New York with all of the Avengers, well, I knew that I could have helped if I'd been there. So, I thought that if I came here and met Iron Man and the rest of them and showed them what I could do, well …"
"But you're still in school," Harry protested.
"And were you any different, Harry Potter?" Luna asked. "I seem to remember you leading a group of students on a rescue mission when you were Doreen's age. Not to mention winning a war for us when you were not much older."
"But that was different!" Harry protested.
"Perhaps to some extent, but it all boiled down to you wanting to help others. I believe Hermione calls it your 'saving people thing'?" Luna countered.
Harry scowled at her momentarily before deciding that he wasn't going to win that argument.
"What exactly is it that you can do?" Harry hedged.
"Well, you know that I can talk to squirrels, which can be dead useful, especially if I need a little extra help," Doreen began. "And you know that I can jump really high and that I'm strong and have good reflexes. I'm also really fast, have excellent hand-eye coordination and great agility. I can heal quicker than normal people. And then there's my physical differences."
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