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One the other hand, Scott had gained the empathy and flexibility that he had so desperately needed to become a more effective leader. He was still stiff at times and very regimented, but he was also personable, innovative, and outgoing. There was also a maturity, a sense of tried and tested confidence to Scott that he hadn't had before. No longer was Scott trying to measure up to Xavier, or Logan or even Harry, he was simply being his own man and that was enough.
After saying her goodbyes to Evan, Jean asked Cory, who Harry had assigned to her almost full time, to teleport her to Hogwarts. With her work on Cerebro coming to a dead end, she wanted to work on the wiring in the power generator.
She found Harry outside the castle setting up what looked like a large wind turbine by the lake's edge. "Do you need any help?" she moving up beside him and kissing the back of his neck gently.
Harry turned and gave Jean a kiss on the lips in turn pulling her into a brief hug before saying Not really, though if you could find where you want the electrical generator for the Castle to go that would be a good thing. And maybe start making some headway on putting down the wires?"
"Are there any rooms that you we don't want power lines going to?"
"The room of requirement," Harry responded promptly. "I have no idea if there's a saturation point for magic interfering with electronics, certainly my own lightning runes short out electronics rather quickly even if ambient magic doesn't have the same effect, and I don't want to know what would happen in there. Keep them out of the Hearthstone area as well, and the room next to it. Other than that, I'd like modern lighting in every room, including the central hall, the staircases, the dining hall and the training areas I've created downstairs."
Leaving what he had been working on Harry walked her through his the changes he had made to the basement already, explaining the setup he wanted to use for the rest of the castle: "Gryffindor dormitories for the students, youngest to highest, with the third floor being used as the primary learning area for use of their powers. Fourth floor for regular classes up to the middle school level, high school for fifth and the sixth floor turned into housing for teachers and others, including any guests or short term residents. The first two floors I'm going to convert to general science labs, biology, metallurgy, engineering, expand as we go along. Basement and seventh floor for the team we're going to put together. That's just a rough outline of course, but it gives you an idea of where we're going with this. Where would you want to put the generator?"
"Normally the generator would be in the basement out of the way somewhere," she said thoughtfully. "But since that's no long an option somewhere central would be good. You said you made a room with a map of the school?"
Harry nodded and they headed up to the seventh floor, occasionally stopping to kiss, enjoying their new relationship very much indeed.
Once they reached the room with the large scale model of the castle in it Harry walked her through what he had done to it and what he planned to add in the future. He finished by saying "I realize most of this could be done through technology eventually but at this point it's simply easier and cheaper to do it with magic for me."
Jean frowned. "Can I interact with this model thing? Will the spells recognize me even though I'm not a magic user?"
Harry nodded and she stepped forward, touching one section of the outer castle and watching in surprise as the rest of the map disappeared to be replaced by a blown up version of that floor, rotated onto its side in front of her in midair. She tapped the solid feeling construct again on the side and it went back to the regular castle view. "Impressive."
"That took me an entire day today, but it actually wasn't that intensive. Hogwarts seems to be able to feel what we wanted to do, and for something like this it worked with me since it was mostly pure spellwork, and my intentions were clear, that of making the castle safer for our eventual students. It wasn't pure runic work, not like the room of requirement, which the castle strangely enough can't work with. There are other limits of course but this was actually fun to play with at the time."
Jean laughed, "The idea of a sentient Castle is actually pretty cool so long as is on our side."
"The castle is on the side of the students and the headmaster in that order. The fact that we want it to be a school as it was designed to be is probably a mark in our favor, as is my own role as headmaster, though I have no idea how sentient it is. The Hogwarts in my birth dimension was just short of being able to communicate, this one seems to not be nearly as far along in the process. Possibly because it stood empty save for dementors for so long, though it's further along that road than I would have expected in many ways. I'm just glad it didn't take in some of the essence of the dementors." Harry said seriously.
"I'm going to say amen to that," said Jean shaking her head and bending over the map again. After a moment of flipping through all the floors she nodded. "This little room here should be good for a generator, it's deep enough inside to be protected, it's on the third floor and wiring should be simple enough or at least made simpler thanks to its central location, and it's too small to be used as a classroom."
Harry gazed at the map for a moment then laughed. "Hah, that's the janitor's room, Old Filch's office, or at least it was in my old dimension! Oh that's rich, using the room of a man who hated all things muggle simply because he was born a squib to house a purely muggle device that well bring more muggle devices to life throughout the castle! Hah!" The humor was rather dubious since there had never been an Argus Filch in this dimension, but the idea appealed to Harry anyway.
He gave Jean another kiss, this time allowing his tongue to tap against her closed lips after a moment. Jean moaned low in her throat as her tongue darted out to duel with his but after a few minutes she pulled away reluctantly. "None of that," she gasped. "W-We've got too much to do, and I believe you promised me a real date after this week is over?"
"And I will fulfill that promise, lady fair," said Harry laughing.
The two broke apart there, with Jean going down to the small room that to Harry would always be connected to memories of the irascible, hateful caretaker to check it out and figure out where she wanted to put the generators in the room.
While the redhead worked on that, Harry went out and put up some more wind turbines. What he did was create a regular wind turbine by using his powers to cut and slice wood into the form of a wind turbine and then transfiguring the wood into metal. This way it would remain permanently, since it wasn't conjuration, which would normally dissipate over time given how much power you put into the spell but transfiguration, which could be made permanent much more easily. Then he set another pole in front of each of the wind turbines with a rune that would send wind through them. He created six such power turbines.
During this time Jean had figured out where she wanted the magical generator to go, as well as where the permanent generator would go once they've finished it. The idea would be to have one arc reactor, which Harry and Jean would work on in the near future, then to have the wind powered generator backing it up just in case or vice versa, that was still up in the air.
Next Jean sat down at the table in the great hall. Using Harry's laptop she created a 3-D map of the school to match the map up on the seventh floor, then made changes to it to show where the electrical runs would go.
By this point Harry was finished his job and came back in. At that point the two of them went back up to the seventh floor and the Hearthstone.
This was the first time Jean had been in this room, and she gaped at the massive slab of red-gray granite. It was almost a head taller than her, so wide around that it would take both Harry and Jean to circle it, and had light red striations running through its predominately gray body, with countless small runes imprinted everywhere on its sides. The thing seemed to pulse like a heart, giving off warmth and energy. "That," she said reverently, "that is amazing."
"I know," Harry replied, moving over and stroking the side of the stone as if it was a favorite pet or something (though Harry wouldn't put it that way, even in the dark confines of his own mind. Hedwig would never put up with him having another pet/animal friend).
Is it my imagination or did the pulsing there start to go faster for a moment? Jean thought before shaking it off.
Harry continued. "A regular Hearthstone doesn't look like this, it's just a big slab of granite with runes etched on it, but this one… I don't know if it was just the sheer amount of magic going through it or what, but I could definitely say this thing is alive, just as much as the one back in my old dimension. Sentient I'm still not certain of, but certainly living."
"I agree" Jean breathed again before shaking her head. "Anyway, let's get this done."
As Master of Hogwarts Harry could, given time, rearrange the layout of the castle. The magic of the walls and hallways allowed this, and he had used it the day before to make the changes he did in the basement. This change however would be going everywhere in the castle, barring the Room of Requirement course. On top of that it was more a series of tiny changes that made up one big change rather than a series of small changes that equated to a medium change.
"Fiddly bits," he muttered to himself as he laid his hands on top of the Hearthstone. The wall between this room and the next disappeared, allowing the map of Hogwarts to be seen. With a thought the scale model of the castle broke apart, with each level of Hogwarts separated from the map twisting in midair.
Jean shook her head amused. "I spent half the day figuring out how to use hard light and how to project it and you can do this with magic?"
"Magic and science mix my love," he said softly. "This was the work of a full day for me, and it wasn't as if I came up with the idea from scratch. No one else could do this either, only myself as master of the wards and Hogwarts. And only someone in my presence and with my approval could even manipulate the map at all."
Jean nodded, and the two of them worked together to create the changes she had made on her 3-D map on his computer, going level by level. They had to backtrack and correct things often, the layout of the castle including its main supports columns and beams just slightly different in areas from the map she had created. But this was almost incidental. Putting the real changes into place took forever.
Doing the dungeons the first floor and the second floor took them five hours to do, since the changes were very gradual, the stone shifting and moving out of its own way, the Castle as a whole creaking and groaning around them.
After they were done with the second level Harry shook his head. "I think we're done for the day." He pulled his hands away staring at the maps as it went back to normal. "I think those changes took permanently, but let's wait a day to see if the castle reverts back for some reason before we keep going. After all it wouldn't be good if the changes are only temporary unless someone is here forcing them into being"
Jean nodded and stretched, reveling openly in the appreciative glance Harry sent her way as she did. She noticed it was near 12 o'clock at in the evening local time, and shook her head. "Are Melody and Ororo joining us or are we joining the kids back it the mansion for dinner?"
"Ororo and Melody should be here soon for dinner, at least I think so," said Harry shaking his head wearily. Working on the Room of Requirement had taken a lot out of him, and so had this. Fiddly bits, Fiddly bits, oh god save me from the fiddly bits!
Indeed Melody and Ororo had already arrived from High Note, and were waiting for the two workers in the dining hall. The two of them had spent the day together, though not on High Note. Ororo had introduced Melody to Kitty and the three of them had gone out on the town for a time.
FLASHBACK:
Kitty stood waiting in the mansion's foyer. Ororo had told her that the two of them would go out today for some girl time down in Bayville, since like Jean the only final she had been at all worried about was the first one she had this week. Every other one would be easy in comparison, and Ororo knew it, so had no issues with taking the young teen out.
She looked up as a sound from the staircase drew her attention and smiled when she saw Ororo, dressed in one of her semi-business suit ensembles, then cocked her head as she looked at the young girl that was holding onto one of Ororo's hands.
She moved toward them while Ororo turned to look down at the young house-elf who had handled their transportation, a young female with a small pristine blue dress on, with the Potter family crest set into one puffy shoulder piece. "Thank you for your help Clare."
Clare was Gordon's young daughter, barely the house-elf equivalent of a sixteen year olds. She was one of the youngest house-elves, and her father had gifted her with a real name, as he had been named by his family. She was one of the ten new house-elves transferred from Hogwarts up to High Note and was also turning into the second best 'popper' among the house-elves. "You are most welcome miss, if you need anything please call for me."
With that the house-elf popped away, and Ororo turned to smile at Kitty. "Hello Kitten, how did you do on your test today? This is Melody, a young lady who Harry saw fit to rescue from durance vile. You might have heard about her from Nightcrawler."
Kitty smiled. "I think I did well Ororo, but we'll see. Hello Melody, I'm Kitty Pryde, but this one and Teach both call me kitten."
Melody looked up at the older girl who radiated such fun, almost cuddly songs, like some of the Disney songs she had listened to lately, with lots of flutes and clarinets. "Hello, Ms Kitten. But I thought it was lions who had prides, shouldn't that be your nickname instead?"
Kitty giggled. "Well sure, but just between you and me," she leaned down to whisper into the younger girl's ear. "I'm more of a cuddler than a mauler." Before Melody could object (not that she would have of course) Kitty had picked her up into a hug. "Ohmygosh, she's so cute Ororo!"
"We like to think so," Ororo replied, smiling faintly as she saw Melody's bright smile. In many ways the young girl was still not used to physical affection, but that was slowly changing under the nigh constant positive reinforcement Harry and the others lavished on her.
At this point they were interrupted by Charles pushing himself out to join them from his office. "Ah, I thought I recognized that voice. How are you my dear, do you enjoy living with Mr. Potter?"
Melody waved from where she was still being cuddled like a giant teddy bear by Kitty. "Hello Professor, yes I love living with Mr. Harry. I have my own bed, birds to sing with, a TV I can watch movies on, and playmates too! Oh, but your songs are so muddled professor." She frowned a little, looking at the muddled lines songs and jumbled notes that made up the other man at the moment. The single spell of purpose the one that so defined him seemed to have diminished and become muddied.
The professor chuckled, reaching up to where Kitty held the young girl off the floor to ruffle Melody's multi-colored hair. "I'm afraid thinking in circle can do that to one my dear."
Charles had not had an easy time of it since Jean had told him about the 'trust me' field he was putting out subconsciously. While he had stopped it, the fact he had been putting out a telepathic field of that nature without even realizing it had brought into question whether or not he had used it to influence the rest of his charges like he had apparently tried to do to Jean. In the end he had decided that maybe questioning his own decisions and thoughts would make him a better person in the long run, but his self-confidence had taken a hit.
"Are you ready to go Kitten?" Ororo asked.
Kitty nodded then looked down at the younger girl as she set her onto the floor again. "This is going to be really odd though." The two adults looked at her quizzically and she shrugged. "Well, I mean, I'm used to being the young one, now I have to act like the big sister here. How am I supposed to act?"
Ororo and Charles exchanged a look and then laughed, while Kitty pouted. She had been serious darn it.
End Flashback
When the two walked into the dining hall Ororo took one look at their weary faces and shook her finger at Harry. "Sit," she ordered. They both sat down and she sighed. "You two look exhausted. Honestly Harry I think we need to get some more help, you can't keep doing everything yourself. Didn't you tell Dr. Druid you might have a job for him?"
"I was thinking of using him as a researcher honestly. He's got a master's in psychiatry, so having him work with the potions would be a good idea. The house elves should do most of the work creating the potions but I would like someone else to oversee it. I'd also like him to look into creating a reaction table dealing with the potions , why this potion does what it does, how it does it etc."
That in point of fact was one of several areas he wanted actual scientific research done on. The other was the effect magic had that allowed it to extend the lives of its users. It was a known fact that wizards lived longer than nonmagical humans. Even for those born without cores who later gained them like the sorcerers of this world this was true, but why? What did the magic do to their bodies to slow down the aging process? It was an area of research Harry was determined to see expanded in the future, but one he didn't have the background to pursue on his own.
"I'd also like to ask Dr. Druid if he can create magical limbs for other people. I noticed when we were talking his limbs specifically his fingers on his wooden hand moved as if they were real fingers. I know that there are prosthetics that come close to that, but they are massively expensive at the moment." Unfortunately Harry was reasonably certain that it was the user's own magic that made that possible. But if Harry could somehow find another way to power them…
"Unfortunately that's all for the long term, right now he couldn't help me much love. He doesn't use runes and no one but me as master of the castle could do some of the things we're doing there, which neatly covers most of my present projects. I wish I did have more help, then maybe I could spend the time to go over and see Betsy Braddock and see what I could do to help her, but I just don't have the time."
"Then bring Dr. Druid in now and let him gain the experience, put him in charge of the farming section, ask his opinion on some of the projects you are currently thinking of using your runic arrays for, maybe he can come up with alternatives. And I will be taking that list of people Emma passed to use as possible employees." Ororo reposted decisively. "You look exhausted my love, not in body perhaps but in mind, and we need to start delegating some of the workload."
"I have someone we want need to think of contacting as well," said Jean. "He is a Native American named Forge, you remember, Emma used him as an excuse to come to the Institute? He's real, and his contact information was a part of what I took from the Cerebro mainframe." She shook her head "that didn't go nearly as well as I hoped. It can't detect mutants until they use their power, and even then it is far too hit or miss."
"That's isn't good," said Harry thinking hard.
"The problem is that there isn't any single gene that defines what a mutant is," said Jean. It's a whole series of genetic strands, and it's just the way they're put together can create a mutation. I have no idea how the hell we could scan for something that complicated."
"Nor do I Jean, but the Cerebro data will at least give us a starting point. And once we have a team together, will start to expand it to include a spy team to hunt for threats and endangered mutants. I hope to be able to use existing spy agencies or at least to use thier information, but we'll see."
After that Melody broke in and asked Jean if she had a favorite Disney movie, taking over control of the conversation and forcing it to a less serious topic.
After dinner the quartet adjourned to the castle's TV room where once again Harry used his lightning runes to momentarily power the TV and a new DVD player. They watched another old Disney movie called Water Babies. There wasn't nearly as many good songs in it, but Melody still had fun, and she and Jean decided to share an enlarged bed that Harry created. Jean was more than willing to share a bed with Ororo and Harry, but not when she had to get up in the morning. She was also certain that such a thing would challenge her self control in a big way, and she wasn't ready to say which way it would go at this point.
The next day Harry made good on his word, and went to see Dr. Druid, transporting the older man back to Hogwarts. The doctor was ecstatic at the knowledge that this place represented, and willingly signed a contract binding him to work for Harry in the realm of potions. The idea of mixing scientific methods and magical knowledge intrigue him tremendously, though as harry had predicted he didn't have the required runic knowledge to help Harry in any of his current project.
Harry did however run into a bit of good news: the changes he and Jean had wrought in the castle had taken. After she joined him the two of them were able to finish the rest of the redesign quickly, the castle now understanding what they were doing and working with them rather than passively letting them work on it. When they were done Jean got to work using her telekinetic powers to lay cable through the exposed runs. This was really fiddly, work, but it helped her practice her fine telekinetic control which was all to the good. In the end it would take her three days hard work to completely wire the castle, a task that would have taken a trained crew of electricians an equal number of weeks.
During this time she also learned that she was indeed going to be her graduating class valedictorian. This caused her a moments anxiety, but that was all. Over the next few evenings she and Melody spent quite a bit of time together laughing about something which she later enlisted the aid of Kurt in.
While Jean worked on the wiring both inside and outside the castle to the wind turbines, Harry spent his time working on the time manipulation runes. While difficult and finicky to get working they were not nearly as hard as the thousands of runic arrays he had to make work together to get the Room of Requirement to come out just right. They had a fantastically large start-up energy requirement but that was no problem for Harry. The time manipulation arrays was a major trial and error experiment, but over the next few days he would make a lot of progress on this project.
Dr. Druid would prove a capable student in runes, and would eventually be able to take over some of his tasks from Harry, but that was well into the future.
Of course the two of them were not the only ones working hard, Ororo did her part as well, and Emma's own trials were nothing to sneeze at.
OOOOOOO
Ororo spent Tuesday finalizing the interior design of the castle while Jean and Harry were working on putting down the wiring. She had decided to let the classrooms alone for the most part, but had designed one of them for herself. Whatever her other duties, she loved teaching different languages to people.
Along with her chosen trio of house elves, all three of whom had worked with her on various projects before, put it together. Instead of desks, there were dozens of soft plushy chairs and beanbags scattered around the room, next to which were small adjustable stands (bought in bulk from an IKEA) which students could use to hold their notes or, eventually, their laptops. The front of the room was demarked by a white board on one side and space enough for a computer screen on the other once the wiring was done. One whole side was dominated by a series of floor to ceiling windows, which was open to let in the sunlight and wind. Here in Scotland it was still somewhat cold at this time of year, but to Ororo that did not matter.
She hung some of her pictures and paintings from back in the mansion along the walls, as well as the many bachelors in languages she had earned by the doorway. All the language books she possessed, as well as most of the other books should possess went into a small bookshelf along the interior wall.
Once her room was finished, Ororo and her chosen helpers began to decorate the rest of the Castle. Instead of trying to put down rugs everywhere, Ororo had decided to only put down rugs in the living quarters, which helped immensely, and a single strip of loose carpet in the seventh floor's hallway. A few tapestries went on the walls in the hallways, but there were still a lot of room to be done there. Ororo, who was acting at the moment both as interior designer and possible principal of the school, knew that students of all ages could use that space to put up their own work.
After that she went down to the dungeons more than a little leery in all honesty, because she had avoided it up to this point fearing that her claustrophobia would hit her. Yet the moment Ororo stepped onto the staircase leading down she found a spell that Harry had devised to follow her around in the Castle. Across from her suddenly appeared window that showed her a scene from the outside.
She hesitantly reached out and gasped when she was able to actually open the window to let in the air from the outside. She stepped back, then hesitantly continued down into the dungeons, watching with widening eyes as the now open window followed her.
Ororo looked at the open window that had just followed her from the stairwell into the dungeon then looked down at one of her helpers, an ancient male house-elf named Wady. "Could you tell me if making the castle do this for me would be easy or hard?"
Wady cocked his head to the side, watching as the mistress walked on and the moving window followed her. "I's," he stopped as she looked at him and he gulped. "I don't know miss. It not be, um, it isn't something I's see, er I have seen before." He sighed in relief as she nodded approval at his corrections. "The moving bit, that bes, I mean that was probably very hard."
"That's what I thought. If you three could wait here for me, I just remembered something I need to do." With that Ororo turned and strode purposefully up the stairs.
She found Harry and Jean working in the map room, trying to fix an issue with the wiring setup on the fifth floor. They both looked up and Harry smiled at her, not raising his hands away from where they laid on top of the hearthstone. "What's up… O-Ororo?" His voice faltered as her walk suddenly became less purposeful and far more sensual. One corner of his brain wondered how the hell she was able to do that, look like both a stalking lioness and one of the sexiest thing on two legs. The rest of him however was too busy dealing with the sudden redistribution of the blood in his body to his lower regions.
Jean too gulped as Ororo stalked/slithered toward Harry, her own mind making a note to ask her soon to be lover how she was able to move like that. Then she simply smiled and decided to watch the show.
The African beauty slowly made her way towards her intended target, smiling as she saw his reaction. "I was just down in the basement my love, and I ran into a bit of spellwork that you created for me."
"O-oh?" Harry squeaked a little, wondering how the hell Ororo could make him act like this after all they had done together. "Er, I thought I'd leave it as a surprise did you mmpmhhh?"
Ororo interrupted the rather stupid question by putting her arms around Harry and kissing him on the lips. The kiss was loving, sensual and, to the watching Jean, hot as all get out. The kiss continued for some time, with Ororo putting all her emotion into it, letting her tongue out into Harry's mouth, where their tongues began to twin around his.
It was only when they had to breath that she relented, leaving a somewhat glassy-eyed Harry with a distinct trouser problem, very visible when she backed away. "Does that answer your question, you sweet, silly man?"
Jean chuckled and shook her head. "I think you broke him a little Ororo. I can practically see the blue screen of death in his eyes."
Ororo laughed and moved over to exchange a kiss with Jean, murmuring into her ear what Harry had done for her. Jean chuckled and hugged her friend, glad that Harry had come up with a way to combat her claustrophobia. It was something that Ororo had successfully kept a secret from all the kids including Jean before they became friends. Yet the redhead had since learned that it was something that truly disturbed Ororo, a terror from her worst nightmares. That Harry had gone to such lengths to stop Ororo from feeling it meant a lot to the weather goddess, and showed them both what lengths he was willing to go to for those he loved.
The two women broke off their embrace to look back over at Harry, who was still slumped against the hearthstone, his hands on top of it more to support him than any other reason at the moment, his brain slowly coming back online.
They laughed again, and this seemed to bring Harry out of his stupor. He first looked down at the hearthstone, where the red striations were for some reason pulsing more rapidly than normal, though they were calming down as he watched. For some reason he shook his head and muttered "Perverted rock."
The stone seemed to pulse once more almost in reaction then stilled to its normal rate and Harry looked up at his two ladies who were still looking at him, smiling faintly. He shook his head again and smirked at Ororo. "I'll take that as a yes?" they all laughed and after a few more kisses exchanged they all went back to work.
The rest of Ororo's limited work on interior design took the rest of that day. On the second day, while Harry and Jean continued their ongoing projects, Ororo began the interview process for their new company.
For this with the help of a few of the female elves (and Emma's example) Ororo dressed in a very smart business suit with an Egyptian cotton weave scarf around her neck, her hair tied behind her head into on and the necklace Harry had given her to control her emotional connection to the weather around her neck hidden under her shirt.
She was sitting in a café waiting for the two people she was here to interview from the Oxford University. Both had been recommended by Emma along with four more soon to be graduates she was thinking of scouting for her companies. Upon closer review however Harry and his ladies had decided that three of them looked a little too arrogant for him to want to work with, and the other had swiftly replied that he had already made a verbal agreement to work with another company. That he spoke as if that bound him as much as a written contract spoke well of the young man, but it also removed him from their discussions.
The remaining two were both going for their bachelor's degree in business, who Emma had exchanged e-mails with a time or two, and she felt were number two and number three of the six people from this school she had told them about. Emma had also bluntly told Harry that morning in her suite at the hotel in L.A. that if he didn't employ both of them she would be doing so soon enough.
Terrence Caspersen and Daniel Graham surprisingly came in together and Ororo looked them over, waving one hand to indicate they should join her at her table. As they walked toward her she took a moment to study them. Terrence was a black man as 'black as the ace of spades' as it were American national, wearing a very nice suit with a purple shirt underneath but not a tie, which was a mark against him in her opinion. So was the comment that he made as he walked towards her, which carried to her despite the distance between them. "Damn that is one fine woman."
Daniel to his credit did not make any comments. He was a Scotsman who looked quite a bit fitter than his companion, despite being shorter. He looked sort of like a fullback, with that same sort of stocky solid build, whereas Terrence was simply thin. He also didn't seem at all interested in ogling her in any fashion, keeping his eyes on Ororo's face.
"Gentlemen," she said crisply "have a seat please." They both sat down, and she shook her head again at Terrence's inability to keep his eyes on her face. She had dressed conservatively hoping that would stop her from being looked at like that, but Terrence and several café service people had not been able to look beyond her good looks.
"I represent a company that is just starting up that will be a very big name in the medical industry in the near future. As you both are up for graduation this summer and were recommended to me by a mutual friend, I am here to see if you might have a place in our company." She began the interview from there.
Terrence seemed to have more book learning, which matched up with his grades which were slightly better than Daniel's. But he didn't seem to be able to think outside the box, and did not impress her with his general attitude. That was beyond the fact he seemingly could not move past the fact that she was an attractive woman.
Daniel on the other hand could, and was able to think in terms of past the here and now and his book learning to using real world knowledge. About 10 minutes in she had made her decision.
She decided to cut the interview short there, saying that they would be in touch soon enough with a contract, not hinting at who she had chosen. Luckily Terrence had seemingly gotten the hint that she wasn't interested, and she was able to escape easily enough.
With Cory, who had been assigned to her for this duty full-time she teleported to her next meeting, which was with a group of farmers whose farms could supply the castle with food. That went well, and she walked away having made an agreement to buy the land of two of the farms, which would help give them a visible means of production, though of course it would be a ruse. The others were willing to sell her food directly at cost, which was good as well.
Next she arrived in Ireland, and interviewed for the position of personnel director. This was an older gentleman, gray-haired going to seed rather badly named Stephen O'Cairn. He had recently been an employee of a company that specialized in medical equipment large and small, and he was very experienced. It was only due to the fact that Emma wrote a personal letter of introduction for them that let him hold off offers from other businesses long enough to talk to Ororo.
Here it was not so much that she was interviewing him, as much as it was that she was trying to interest him in their company. The older gentleman bowed her into a seat across from him at his table in another café, looking at her with his head cocked to one side. "The letter of introduction from Ms. Frost was interesting Miss, and the idea of being the personnel director an entire company is certainly a step in the right direction for me, but I am still at a loss as to what exactly our company will be selling. Her introduction letter did not in point of fact did not even say what market you are going to be in."
Ororo smiled faintly and sipped at the cup of tea that had just been delivered waving off the offer of anything to eat. "We will be going into medicines and pharmaceuticals in a big way, Mr. O'Cairn. Specifically our company will be selling new types of medicines to the military first and then the commercial sector after. There is no need at this point in time for a trial run, as there is already a trial going on that we are certain will prove the efficacy of our products over the next month or so."
Something about the way she said that seemed to spark something in the older man and he looked around conspiratorially before leaning in close. "Does this have anything to do with that news coming out of the London sector about some new strange medicines being used after the terrorist attack there?"
Ororo raised one fine white eyebrow and the man smiled. "The only thing that goes faster than light madam is rumor, and that rumor went around the medical field like wildfire. An entirely new, incredibly effective medicine comes along only once in 100 years, and never to the extent rumor makes these new medicines of yours. The sheer number of ailments your medicines helped heal made it certain that the news would spread quickly. And you're certain that these products will have no side effects? I know at least three of the doctors that are following that news with interest."
The African beauty smiled faintly. "In point of fact these are not new medicines we are using, they are very old medicines whose creation has been lost until recently. There was no issue with them reported before, and I doubt there will be any more now. Well," she frowned then went on honestly. "There is one that does have a slightly addictive quality, but it is easily taken care of."
The man nodded thoughtfully his eyes distant. "I could name off the top of my head at least 15 people that would love to get in on the ground floor of something like this. Doctors distribution people, PR reps…"
"That's why we came to you," said Ororo smiling faintly. "Now the contract were looking for full to offer you is…"
After some haggling over the initial payment, and shooting down the idea of buying stock in the company as the stock would not be put out in the open market but remained solely owned by Harry, she left with a signed contract, leaving behind a extremely large check that would allow him to do the first round of hiring they needed
Later that evening she sat down with Jean and Harry at the table with Melody for another meal in Hogwart's dining hall. After making small talk they all shared what they had accomplished during thier time apart, including Melody finishing her math homework from Ororo. All three of the adults praised the young girl then moved on to more important matters.
"Your impression was good then?" asked Harry sipping at his water.
"Oh yes," she said smiling. "A very proper gentleman he was, and very organized and good thinker. Emma was right he's perfect for our needs. And young Daniel seems eager to get to work on the marketing."
"That's excellent," said Jean honestly. "I hated the idea of having to go out and hire all these people ourselves, but if he can do the majority of the hiring for us that leaves us with much more time on our hands for other projects."
Harry nodded agreement. "Jean I should be done renovating the Castle this week, we would be done sooner if she didn't have tests in the mornings, and if I didn't have to keep working on the Room of Requirement."
Harry was really getting anxious about testing himself out in terms of his magical power, and he wanted to do so in the Room of Requirement. He knew that without its extreme defensive arrays he could do a lot of damage to the environment.
"You did tell him that we don't need a workforce on the ground to actually create our products? The house elves are a tremendous help in that area."
"I did indeed," she smiled again. "I think this has been an excellent day all around frankly."
Jean leaned over and kissed her African friend on the cheek before nuzzling into her neck, breathing in deeply that scent of wind and rain of Ororo's that never faded. "I think the same thing. I am so looking forward to leaving the mansion behind. That means we can go onto the more interesting projects, like the arc reactor." her eyes opened again, snapping with humor as she looked across at Harry. "I'm looking forward to that."
"As am I," said Harry nodding.
Ororo stood up pulling Jean to her feet and kissing the younger woman on the neck moving up to her ear and nibbling at it, causing the redhead to moan slightly. "Come my loves, I believe it is time for us to adjourn to bed." Jean stiffened a little but Ororo nuzzled her neck again. "Just cuddling my friend, after a hard days work we all could use it."
Hearing that Melody looked away from the vast vista of space, pouting. "Can I join then?"
The three exchanged glances then Harry shrugged and the other two eventually nodded. "Sure, I'll just have to enlarge the bed slightly."
That night they went to bed with Harry in the middle, with Jean in his arms and Melody in between them, with Ororo on his other side.
The odd family dynamic of the quartet was something strange to see, but it was definitely a family, one they were all happy to be part of.
OOOOOOO
Emma rubbed her eyes tiredly looking across the desk at her secretary. Greg Oldfield had been her father's secretary, and was as apolitical in matters concerning the family and who owned what or who controlled what as someone could be and still have a pulse. All he cared about was the fact that the company kept on ticking like a metronome, and that was why she had kept him on despite the fact that he should really have been one of her father's partisans. Greg obeyed whoever was in charge of the company that was all. "Is that all for today Greg?"
"It is Ms." The man responded, smiling faintly. If Emma was getting more than three or four hours of sleep a day he would eat his bowler hat. Yet despite her 'inexperience' in the past four days she had been able to consolidate her position as head of Frost Corps with ruthless dispatch. She had weeded out several of her father's partisans, like-minded men who had worked with him for years and who resented the idea of a young woman being elevated above them.
Despite her success in making deals with the other members of the Hellfire Club this belief, that she was young and inexperienced had prevailed in the upper management positions, until she fired several of them, brought in her own people and made the company keep on ticking without even a single bump in the road.
It hadn't been easy, Winston's people had been deeply entrenched in most areas of the family's holdings. The only exception to this rule were the Frost Pharmaceuticals, where Emma had made inroads in several of the key managerial positions befriending the people there. The family stockbroker had also been solidly behind her for years though had never acted in any way to show this.
In stark contrast to the corporation as a whole taking control of her actual family and household had been ridiculously easy for Emma. She hadn't realized quite how much resentment and anger had built up in the maids and other servants against Adrienne, or even her father, not having taken the effort to search the servants minds that often.
While Winston had been simply coldly dismissive to everyone he employed, Adrienne had been cruel and callous to all of them at one point or another. Many of the maids could also remember having to clean up a few times after Adrienne 'amused' herself with a pet or two when she was younger, and the fact that several house servants had disappeared over the years was well known to everyone else in the household. There was no proof of wrongdoing there of course, and opinion was divided on why they had disappeared. Two of the maids might have been disposed of by Winston's orders after having gotten pregnant or possibly after attempts at blackmailing him, or Adrienne could have had some 'fun' with them and disposed of her toys after playing with them too hard.
Needless to say after hearing that rumor Emma had checked in with David, who didn't know a thing about it, but had pointed her at a group of four bodyguards with even sketchier than usual pasts that might have been involved in that sort of thing without his knowledge. They were immediately dismissed, joining more than half of the bodyguard contingent which Emma had summarily dismissed after looking at their files. She was willing to turn a blind eye to anything short or rape or murder before they joined up, but she wasn't willing to look over things like assault or battery or domestic violence after they had been hired.
Emma had set up her mother at a separate household, with several dedicated workers there to see to her every need, and to keep her away from booze. She had also hired a full time (female) doctor on the down low to come in and help her through kicking her various habits. It was going to be a long arduous road, but maybe at some point Emma could have her mother back in truth. She honestly doubted it however, the woman was simply weak in many ways, if she could truly kick alcoholism permanently Emma would be astonished. Emma wanted to hate her mother in some way for abandoning Emma Adrienne and their younger daughter as well as Christian to Winston's not at all tender mercies, but in the end she really wasn't worth the energy.
"Ms Cordelia is arriving back from boarding school tomorrow, she was able to complete all the tests as you predicted quickly, but there are some notes here about disciplinary issues that you might wish to have a look at, and a note that says the school would be against inviting her back next year. I also have some paperwork from Frost Freight and Walsh Seaborne Shipping that you need to sign, and there is a memo here about you wanting to talk to our European director for FP?"
Emma nodded decisively. The deal she had made with the shipping magnate would help their Asian market decisively, and her deal with Harry would make Frost pharmaceuticals the corporations best earner by far once his potions hit the open market. That would probably take at least two months more, but she predicted that they would make up any money they lost in those two months in the two months after. "Excellent, set up an appointment with him, I want him here to talk to me in three or four days. Beyond that initial push has there been any corporate espionage tempted beyond the norm? Or have I shown that Frost Corporation is not weak at present."
"Our commercial rivals do seem to have gotten the message yes," said Greg dryly. He pulled out a few more notes giving them briefly. "There were two espionage attempts at the main office for Cold Steel, but your use of David as a troubleshooter seems to have paid off dividends there. He reports both were stopped, and the perpetrator handed over to the police."
"Good, I expected it to." Emma had decided she couldn't keep David on as head of security, there were simply too many discrepancies and bungles under his watch, no matter that her father had forbidden him from rooting out any bad seeds without his say-so. Instead she had taken the head of security for Frost Telecommunications and transferred him over to command rebuild the security teams. So far the man, an ex-marine, had gutted the security team, leaving only five guards in total on the roster, but given the fact Emma had no intention of leaving the mansion for a while that was fine by her.
She had instead appointed David as a sort of trouble shooter for the family's interests. Given almost a total carte blanche, the man had been death on wheels against any attempts at corporate espionage. "And Shaw Industries, have they made any moves against us?"
"None that we can trade back to them," Greg said shaking his head. "While his initial attempts to take control of you was less than subtle, Sebastian Shaw is normally a very subtle dangerous man in the realms of business. We have a few cyber attacks, some low key public quality control questions that could be from his company against Shaw Industries and Cold Steel but even that is doubtful. We're screening all our new hires as best we can, and the fact that you had several names already ready to go and all of those names were promoted from inside the corporation, has helped the changeover tremendously."
Emma nodded faintly thankful beyond reason that she had finally gotten ahead of her workload. Say what you would about Winston, she thought to herself, the man was a workaholic and very good at his job. It was just a pity that his job didn't Include being a human being with a heart or a father with any kind of familial affection for his family. "In that case Greg I think we can call it a night." She stretched languidly, cracking her neck explosively. "I'll see you early tomorrow."
"Yes Ms., have a pleasant evening."
Emma walked him to the door, where he was picked up by one of the guards and then escorted out of the estate. She paused for a moment then sent her mind around searching for anything kind of threats and then nodded.
With that she made her way to the master bedroom, one of the few rooms in the house that did not have any kind of security inside it. The windows and the door out to the balcony both had motion sensors and other security devices, but there was not a camera in here, much like her own room and Adrienne's, though for very different reasons. Winston of course simply preferred his privacy, but there had been cameras in their rooms at one point, until one of the guards was found collecting videos of them undressing and changing (and more…). After that Winston had decided that it was not worth the aggravation, and simply make certain that neither sister had any means of communication outside the house in either of their rooms.
She looked at the bed that had replaced her father's, and it had only been Winston's, her mother had a separate room next door, the two had not shared a bed since Cordelia's conception. After getting changed she picked up the locket that Harry had given her, and after inputting the code spent the next hour talking to him about her day and what it happened.
These talks had started the evening after she got back to New York. They had actually brought her and the others closer, something she was coming to cherish even in Ororo's case. While for the most part these talks were simple things, some issues came through.
For one thing, Emma had not found even a hint of where the computer worms her father employed came from, which was worrisome. In return Harry had promised to introduce her at some point to Reed Richards, who might be able to help her with that. Other than that however things were moving along smoothly for all of them, which only made Harry more paranoid about what next disaster was coming up next.
OOOOOOO
The week passed thus, with Jean and Harry finishing work on the redesign of the Castle and Harry actually finishing up the Room of Requirement just in time for the weekend.
Back in New York groans and sighs of relief abounded at the end of the school year for everyone, and the end of their high school years for the seniors, with the graduation ceremony occurring Saturday afternoon.
Throughout this week Harry refused to share with anyone the plans he had made for a graduation present for Jean and Scott and end-of-the-year present for the younger teens, which had them all looking forward to it.
They all went to bed that Friday evening wondering what tomorrow would bring them, and wondering why Jean had been spending so much time talking to Kurt of late. For some reason that thought sent a chill down most of the kid's spines.