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After that they returned to examine the items in the room with the paintings. All of them were very odd looking, and only one or two were actually magical. One was a helix made out of stone, but for some reason it moved occasionally on its plinth. Harry frowned a little at it, wondering what the story behind that was, but decided not to ask, simply placing it in the mokeskin pouch.
Another was a statue of a naga, but Steven and Clea both stated it was an actual naga, frozen in stone. Steven pointed to the being's neck, where you could make out a collar that was part of the stone. "That would be a control necklace of some sort. I imagine that it cannot be activated without the other end. A pity, but nothing we can do after so long. Even if the spell was lifted, if it is at all like other such spells I have seen, the time passed since would hit the creature all at once. And even without that, he would be alone, there are no more nagas in this world."
There were other curios, but they didn't seem to be magical in nature, simply curious in appearance or as to why they were here. A set of armor much like any Greek hoplite would use, but there was no magic on it. A guan-do made of some green metal shaped like a dragon, which Steven took with Harry's blessing. There were also a dozen paintings, but from unknown painters, picturing scenes of both debauchery and terror.
Harry and Steven went over them all, but could only say they had once been magical. The magic on them had long since faded, the stasis wards not having effected them for some reason. Still, they both agreed there was something… off about them, some kind of psychic residue. So they were destroyed then and there, though they were not alone in that.
There was also a necklace made of a reddish gold metal. Upon seeing it, Clea immediately destroyed it with a spell that resembled a spear of ice and pure magic, snarling and spitting in a language that none of the others understood.
Steven tried to ask her what it was, but whatever it had been had disturbed Clea so much she refused to answer him at present, merely striding outside to join the two on watch. He shrugged ignorance and the exploration continued.
Oddly enough there were no traps in the garden, so they were able to cross the diamond from one corner to another easily. There the teens repeated the trick of ripping the roof off to circumvent a large part of the traps, and then fought the next set of conjured golems. This time it was a herd of centaurs, who proved much more troublesome. What happened after the battle however was worse.
In this room there were several dozen raised dais, much like the few that had displayed the oddities in the other room. These however looked strangely otherworldly in origin. A inhuman eye, a skull that, except for having a much larger brainbox looked like some kind of dinosaur, a chest piece that was made of what looked like glass, were some of them. A sword made of small scales of some kind, something that was clearly a gun of otherworldly origins harry snagged for Jean to look at. There was also a statuette that looked vaguely Egyptian made out of black rock with a golden spear with a crescent moon shaped blade that was radiating magic which grabbed Steven's attention.
But the thing that grabbed Paige's attention, and made her forget Harry's injunction on not touching anything, was a bracelet of silver covered with precious stones. "Oh my god, that thing is so gorgeous!" Paige reached forward before anyone could stop her.
There was a flash of black light then Paige screamed as she was flung backward, her metal arm smoking and bubbling. Harry and Steven hurried over while the rest of the teens backed away warily.
Paige was whimpering in agony and rolling around on the ground, but Harry quickly hit her with an Immobulus, halting her movement. With that the two wizards went to work, Harry with potions and small healing spells, while Steven chanted a longer spell of healing. "Damn it Paige, this is why I said not to touch anything! Fuck, if not for your steel body, you'd have been naught more than a pile of burning bones! And even now, it's a wonder you still have your am."
"She can't hear you Mr. Potter, she's fainted. Though I won't say anything about your words, and they were doing so well up to this point." Steven said, shaking his head. "They handled everything they ran into as well as could be expected, and obeyed orders about not touching anything up to this point. I was impressed."
"So was I up till now." Harry muttered, and the two wizards bent to their work. Eventually, using a mix of Reparo type and healing spells they were able to reverse the damage, though they decided to let Paige unconscious for now. It wasn't anything magical, it simply came from the pain she had endured. Still, better to learn this lesson now my dear: just because you can turn to metal doesn't make you invulnerable. Learn it now, because if you don't I'm never going to let you be on the team. Better to let you be mad at me forever than for me to bring your body home to your family.
Later on, after returning to Hogwarts, Harry would say that very thing to Paige, who at that point was looking shaken and jittery. He could see it hit home, and he hoped that would be enough. That was for later however. Right now they still had this room and the last to plunder.
This room's artifacts would take more time to study than the last ones, so Harry split the artifacts between them. Harry put all of his in his mokeskin pouch, while Steven merely teleported them directly back to his workshop back in New York.
After that they turned to the last building to be searched, finding Ororo and the others standing in the already cleared walkway, looking at it with trepidation. "There is something about that building that worries me, beloved. I cannot detect any traps for one thing, and for another, it is too unassuming in comparison to the others. There just seems to be a sort of aura about it."
Harry and Steven looked at one another then ordered everyone back outside to join the watchers, even Ororo. A moment later they were joined by Clea, who nodded to them both. The trio of magic users readied themselves, then entered the room. At first, nothing happened, but that lasted a bare second before they were utterly inundated by offensive magic. No normal traps here, no these were all of the magical scorched earth variety, designed to kill anyone entering the room with extreme prejudice.
Harry's shouted "Protego!" Lasted only a second, long enough for Clea and Steven to shout out their own shied spells, but those barely lasted longer. It was Harry's "SciathnaBhFéadfadh!" that saved them, the power being so overwhelming so quickly neither of the sorcerers . The anti-magic shield went up all around the trio, confining them inside, much like Jean's phoenix fire had done during her initial assault on the first of Selene's caches.
"Remind me to congratulate Jean on facing this and walking out alive!" Harry shouted over the din of the attack spells constant inly slamming into his shield. "I realize the power she can call on, but this is something else altogether!"
The monstrous assault lasted only a few minutes however, much like it had against Jean. But unlike the redhead Harry and his two companions were untouched. Clea was a little rattled, but none of the three were winded.
A quick scan via mage sight confirmed that whatever trap had been there had burned itself out. With that, Harry made his way forward, looking around warily. "There's nothing here…"
Steven conjured up a large globe of light, which hovered in the air of the room for a moment. "I do not think that Selene would set such monstrous protections on an empty room. There is something here, we cannot simply see it at present."
That reminded Harry of how Jean had described the way Selene had hidden Balthakk's gemstone. "Look for a hidden panel, some kind of small hidey-hole."
The urgency in his voice compelled both of the other magic users to redouble their search, while Harry filled them in on the gems, some of which Dr. Strange had already been told. The idea however that Selene might have found two such, and not only knew not to try and use them, but separated them so they would be harder to find, was astonishing, and made Steven see her in a slightly better light than before. Only slightly of course.
The eventually found it. In a corner of the room on the floor was a small hole, barely large enough for Clea to fit her hand through, though Harry warned her not to try. He got down on his hand and knees to peer in and was not surprised to see a gem there. It was not yellow or red like the others from this pantheon Harry had seen, but lusterless grey, as if someone had made a gem out of iron. "Interesting, another gem, but not one I've seen before. Do you have any idea how many Elder gods were in this pantheon of Cyttorak's, Steven?"
"I believe Cyttorak had dealings with seven others, though I would certainly not call it a pantheon, they were too loosely allied for such, nor do I have any idea of which one this could be. I would hazard a guess however that it would belong to Krakkan. Through use of the orb of Agamotto, I know that Watoomb, Ikonn and the other more… intelligent members have released many of the tethers that could call them to this plane. They still give powers to spells when called upon, but could no longer create avatars in our dimension. The one thing any god fears above all else after all, is losing their power, which two fo them have had to deal with thanks to you.
"Krakkan however, was, in the words of Watoomb to my predecessor when he was asked about other Elder gods, 'dumb as a box of rocks'. Watoomb is the master of illusion, but he is also one of the more, not affable but straight speaking magical entities." Steven's tone bellied the real worry he felt staring down into the hidey-hole at the gem inside.
Clea frowned as well. "Should we use magic to reach in and pull it out?"
"No." Harry said firmly. "Who knows what kind of trap could be waiting on active magic crossing into that space? No, I'll call Jean, she can get down here, and use her telekinesis to lift it out, like she did for the first one we found like this."
Jean was indeed done with her meeting by this point, but she refused to let one of the house elves pop her down, saying instead she wanted to fly down, the better to burn off some energy. So she had Cory pop her up to High Note, moved it into position over Greece, then flew down from there.
She arrived, her phoenix aura fully active as she flew through the air. As she flew in to land, Harry looked up, in awe of once more of the beautiful, fiery maiden who had decided to share her life with him. Jean landed, her aura flickering out, her hair settling down her neck and back, her good humor restored. She cocked her head at Harry, seeing the fond, loving expression on his face. She smield back at him, linking her hand with his. "So, where is this jewel of yours Harry?"
Harry tucked her hand in his arm, leading her over to the hidden cubicle, while Ororo joined them, glancing at Jean. "Any reason why you need to blow of steam?"
Jean reached out, pulling her other lover into a one armed hug. "I'll tell you about it later, lets just get this over with and head home. I am in serious need of some 'us' time."
This pronouncement won her some laughs but also firm agreement from her two lovers. Soon enough Jean had pulled the metal looking jewel out of its alcove, and Harry, who used a specially empty 'bag of holding' for it, then ordered Cory to deliver it to the secure room in the RoR.
After determining there were no other hidden surprises, the quartet of magic users and Jean returned to the others to find Paige had woken up, shocky and shaky. Harry clapped his hands together. "Well that was an almost perfect field exercise my friends, but we're done here."
"A quick question before we head back." Wyatt said from where he had position himself on the ground, sighting out over the hills and dales of the surrounding area. "Did you all look into the well?"
"No, why would we do that?" Harry asked quizzically, a feeling shared by everyone else.
Wyatt looked surprised. "You didn't notice? The shadow that hides the inside of the well, it never moved as we were flying over it. That isn't natural."
Not two minutes later, after making certain everyone else was outside the monastery, Stephen joined Harry gazing down into the well that was the center of the monastery's inner garden. "We walked right by this thing and we never even noticed." Harry muttered. "Score one for the nature specialist."
He and Steven looked at one another then Steven's hands began to move, weaving an anti-illusion spell. That spelled hit whatever was blocking their site deeper into the well, and they now looked into a much less deep well than had previously been there. At the very bottom there was a statue. It looked like some kind of statue to Zeus of the Greek gods, complete with lightning bolts in one upraised hand made of silver, gold, bronze and copper. Other than that, it looked like any other statue.
However to their mage sight it was thrumming with power. A lot of power, far more power than nearly any of the other knickknacks in this cache, though not quite as much as the gem.
He looked at Stephen for an explanation. "I have only heard tell of these." The Sorcerer Supreme murmured. "You know of course that many of the old time pantheons of gods are real, yes?"
"I'd pay dearly to know where the hell they all came from, I have a vague idea of how Gaia came into being, but the others, well my response to them would be a lot more different if I knew that they were just aliens that it moved in after religions had popped up that they could take advantage of, or had simply been created by some kind gestalt mind."
Harry liked Balder well enough, and he was willing to treat with the Asgardians, even after researching the mythology, though with some qualms about bits of it. Specifically, the way they treated their own at times, Loki's treatment by Odin, Loki's treatment of his children. That and the idea of Ragnarok worried him too. Thankfully however it didn't seem to be his problem, and he was willing to take the Asgardians as individuals.
"But the Greeks…" He shook his head. "I've spent a few hours every night looking into the mythology of the world, and the Greeks in particular were nothing more than giant bullies. The tale of the Gorgon and Arachne in particular pissed me off when I read them, since those were done by supposedly 'good' gods. And don't get me started on the way they viewed humans as a whole."
"True." Stephen nodded, not taking his eyes off the statue down in the well. "Even their so-called heroes were not exactly heroic if judged by today's morals."
"So this is, what, one of them frozen or something by another god's spell?"
"No, I believe it is a portal of sorts. Whether or not it is one you actually need to impart some sort of outward stimuli too, or whether or not it will react on its own I cannot tell without further study, and I would prefer not to study such. It is almost certainly booby trapped for one, above and beyond any surprises Selene might have put around it."
Harry nodded crisply. "We've got enough issues already, no need to invite more down on top of us. Hell, I'm not even willing to touch the thing to see if I can drain it, I really don't want more shit on my plate like that right now." So saying Harry opened his mokeskin pouch, emptying it of what it had already inside, putting that all in his trunk, which he still always carried on him, the habit of years.
The mokeskin pouch was special however because it cancelled anything magical put inside it. The statue was then slowly lifted into the pouch while Harry forced the pouch open as far as it could be. Even so, the statue nearly didn't fit. But soon enough it was gone, cut off from whatever realm it might be a bridge for.
After that the weary group apparated back to Hogwarts.
OOOOOOO
The next day, while the team had the day off, and Paige was still getting her ear talked off by her mother for being stupid and for lying to her about not being in danger, Harry was down at the grand opening of the Magical Mind's building. Emma was there too, though hidden by a notice-me-not field, just in case Harry needed her advice in case something else came up.
The headquarters for Harry's new corporation was more a complex rather than a single building. There were three buildings really, though they were all connected by walled walkways. The main building was the business offices, three stories of different rooms dedicated to running the business, talking to and managing clients, computers and all that jazz, though there was still room for even more to be added. The second building was scheduled to be a laboratory, though as yet it hadn't been filled either with devices or people. Still, Harry had plans there.
The last building was a massive silo and receiving bay, which already had two trucks in it. Dr. Druid and his elf work crew had done Harry proud, producing the number of potions for the four orders that had already been made, and the ones to the army here in the UK would be going out at the end of the ceremony.
Of course, the potions, and indeed the trucks that carried them, had defenses in place as well. Indeed, to get them ready for the day Harry had been going without sleep for the past few days. The interior of each truck was now covered by an illusion to make them seem empty, and the door and sides were lined with spells to make them much tougher than normal, almost to the level of a battleship's hull. That didn't even consider the recall runic array on the potion flasks themselves.
The batches to be used in the field by the army had other protections, which had been even harder to come up with considering they couldn't be linked to a specific place and still work when shipped off to various army bases. But he had eventually come up with a few. He was certain some of them would still leak to people he didn't want them to, but deliberate resale was not going to happen.
That was why Harry's now stood in front of said building, the doorway to which was blocked off by a ribbon. He couched, somehow nervous as the ten reporters and other interested individuals, mostly locals from the surrounding businesses and farms, looked up at him.
Despite his nervousness however, the opening ceremony went out off without a hitch. Harry gave his speech, which was mainly about Magical Minds being built on the premise of helping people worldwide through the use of revolutionary medicines. The question-and-answer session went quickly as well, since only business and medical journalists were there. While there had been a connection made between Magical Minds and the medicines used on the Gurkhas after the terrorist attack in London, no one had connected them to Guardian or as he had called himself at the time, Mr. Wizard.. That persona was still an unknown to the general community, and would remain so as long as Harry could make it stick.
The Business reporters asked about his business operation, what wages he would be offering at various positions and his hiring policies, which he answered crisply and concisely. When asked about his financial backing however, Harry simply smiled and said proprietary knowledge, that he had put down the money himself, and did not answer any questions about where he had come up with the money other than a bland 'next question please', which wasn't so unusual as to raise eyebrows, especially since it was known he had already sold shipments to the military. The reporters were also more concerned about his business plans going forward, which Harry responded to in vague terms, again something that was expected.
The medical questions were much more pointed, but also not asked with any real hope of getting answers. After all, most medical companies kept their medicine formulas secret, or at least only shared what they had to. Harry's bland and non-informative responses to those questions weren't abnormal especially with something really revolutionary.
The real moment of surprise however came when General Demontebanks came out walking. It was well known in the UK that the general was a paraplegic, having taken some spinal damage that ruined his nerves along his lower spine making his legs completely unresponsive and unfeeling. Harry had healed him with a dose each of nerve healing potion and bone healing potion. A few hours to make certain it worked, this was the first time Harry had used them personally to heal spine damage after all, and the general could walk once more.
To see him walking, albeit with a cane and very slowly thanks to his leg muscles having atrophied somewhat despite therapy, was beyond astonishing. All the medical reporters there made that the center of their articles and when the ceremony ended surrounded Arthur, piling the general with questions.
When a letter delivered by owl arrived asking for his aid in showcasing the efficacy of Potter's potions, Arthur had agreed without reservation. The need to talk to reporters like this was a small price to pay for being able to walk. He in particular was looking forward to this weekend when his grandchildren would be coming up with his son and step-daughter. Being able to walk the two young boys around the house was something he would cherish forever.
While the general took center stage after the formal portion of the grand opening/question and answer session ended, Harry bowed out, stage right. He found Emma there, smirking as she continued to watch the crowd of busily note-taking reporters, still hidden under the notice-me-not he had cast on this small portion of the area. "So, what do you think?"
Emma reached forward, grasping harry firmly by his tie, pulling him into a searing kiss. Though surprised, Harry returned it, his arms going around Emma as he too disappeared under the notice- me-not. The two made out for more than a minute before Emma was forced to pull back to get breathe. She smirked impishly at Harry shaking her head, her blonde hair moving this way and that, smacking against his chest before she pulled back. "What do I think, I think you're idea of bringing in General Demontebanks to show what you're potions could do was inspired!"
She gestured out past Harry's back to where many of the reporters had begun to leave the area, hurrying off to be the first to get their stories out. "Those reporters aren't just from British publications, they were from Irish, Italian, German, American, a lot of other first world countries, and you just proved that your potions work unequivocally on a known, and well regarded, paraplegic! Even if doctors themselves, or even governments remain leery of you and where your medicines come from, individual citizens will read those magazine and news articles and start pushing for access to them! Good god Harry, it wouldn't surprise me if public opinion forced even the American FDA to let you start selling to the civilian side quickly!"
"You'll have the resources of a king even before you spread to other industries!" So saying Emma leaned up to capture his lips again, and Harry chuckled into her lips, amused as always by how business, and riches in particular was such a turn on for the blonde.
One problem however that Harry nor Emma had realized yet was that he had yet to get used to the idea of robotic agents. Intent-based wards or spells would never be able to find mechanical intelligences because they did not, as the spell saw it, have minds that could be full of intent. They were simply pieces of furniture. That wouldn't work against a ward scheme that had become connected to a hearthstone which was developing what could very easily be called sentience, such as Hogwarts. There were also some defensive wards worked very well on robots, attacking their senses just as much as any humans. However the Magical Minds building was not blessed with such a hearthstone, and the majority of its magical defenses were based on intent and mitigating the damage of an all-out assault.
Thus using robots to spy on the building was possible. Two different terrorist organizations and thought to send in robotic agents after their first few attempts to send in human agents had failed during the hiring process. They were concerned about how that had happened, but had hoped to use robots to bypass whatever had been used to turn the human agents aside. So among the workers that were even now filing into the building there were two androids, assigned to figure out where the hell Harry Potter was getting his potions from and anything else useful for their masters. They would not succeed in this, but they would pick up some other relevant information eventually.
For now however, harry had no idea about this small scale infiltration, and he and Emma left the building several hours later with the happiness of a job well done.
OOOOOOO
Over the next few days, Harry's prediction of more orders for potions coming in swiftly was proven quickly correct. Despite the fact that the civilian medical side would have to wait another month before his potions were approved to be sold to civilians, several UK hospitals were already placing orders with his company, and plans were being made to fill them out as soon as they legally could.
With that and his already very considerable monetary base Harry began to work the Hellfire Club's London Branch with Emma's help. Quickly Harry began to make business connections there, as well as starting the process to weed out the few people there that were truly evil. There was a kind of benign avarice inherent in the club, but Harry couldn't care less that most of them did illegal drugs or had other vices, peccadillos really since every member was filthy rich.
What he and Emma cared about was the fact that one of them was running several sweatshops down in Africa in which the people there were treated more like disposable pieces than employees. Another one was connected to the organized crime, funding the Maggia in their attempt to gain a foothold in the UK. Two others were connected to a kidnapping and extortion ring, and one had a thing for young boys.
It would take some time to build up enough evidence to point MI5 at them however, but until then Harry made nice with them all. He quickly found himself as a Bishop in the club hierarchy already thanks to his monetary resources, which were incredible at this point despite the need to pay his employees and funding Jean's projects. In fact he was the only one at that level, though several, including two of the ones Harry was determined to shut down, were close to that level.
Emma of course wasn't actually connected to him publicly. If the other members of the London Branch were asked they would say that they the two of them were semi-cordial, but not in any way connected beyond the business deal for distributing Magical Minds potions. Emma used telepathy to communicate with him, the first time Harry allowed her access to his mind, something she was ecstatic about. As a sign of trust having a little corner of that invisibility cloak raised for you took some beating.
She did so while sitting up in the overlooking area reserved for the Kings, but since this branch didn't have a King it was opened her as Queen. The rules of the club were rather idiotic and old-fashioned, but at least they allowed for some carryover from one branch to another. And the resources of the club itself allowed her and Harry a large hand up in monitoring the activities of their fellows.
Harry also made the time to pick up the weapons from Stark, and make an appointment to drop in on him next week to see what could be done for his mysterious medical issue. Tony had arranged for the weapons to be in an old, due to be demolished warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia. Harry swooped in, disabled the two hundred and ten listening and monitoring devices (he didn't take it personally, Tony was a genius, not knowing something was like an itch you couldn't scratch for him) and then removed the weapons with the help of Cory and his band of popper specialists. Tony would have to wait a week to get his answers which no doubt frustrated him no end.
While Harry was busy with this however, life continued apace in the Castle.
OOOOOOO
Dr. Druid looked up from where he was marking off something on a checklist as the door to the series of rooms that had been designated for brewing purposes opened, revealing Fay Brown on the other side. He smiled in welcome, waving her over to where he was working. "Anything I can help you with, Fay?"
"Nothing serious, though I did want to ask if you had heard anything from Harry or the others about when the next batch of students and teachers would arrive?"
The big book of students hasn't reported a mutant activating his power in the past two days, and none been in danger since that incident with Paige. "As far as I'm aware, they have plans to wait for a time barring a child's name entering into the orange. They plan to bring in new teachers before searching for more students."
"Good." Brown nodded. "I can handle the workload now, thanks mostly to the house-elves helping me, but if we add more students of varying levels I'll need another teacher at the least. Anyway, I was wondering if you would be able to go with me on a short shopping trip? The classroom I've been using is nice, but I would like to go out and grab a few things for it, add my own touch so to speak."
Dr. Druid frowned thoughtfully looking at the woman and then nodded with a smile. "Certainly, I believe the elves here have this potion business down, certainly than I do. Just let me tell them, and we can go. And um… perhaps we could also stop for a bite to eat while we're out?"
The rather voluptuous middle-aged teacher smiled faintly. "I would like that."
Later that day they left the castle arm-in-arm, using one of the house-elves to teleport them down to London. Neither adult noticed that several of the students were watching them and wondering what was going on there.
OOOOOOO
"ENOUGH!" Shiang Chi yelled, quickly stepping into the training ring. He grabbed both Rahne and Illyich by the scruff of their necks, hurling them to either side. "Enough, I say!"
Both teens looked rebellious, glaring around him at one another, eager to continue the fight, but it was obvious that Shiang had done the right thing stepping in as he did. Both of them were looking much the worse for wear, with bits and pieces of fur missing from Rahne's werewolf form, and several claw marks coupled with a black eye for Illyich.
The martial arts instructor rubbed at his forehead, shaking his head sadly. "So, that old comment about cats and dogs is really true. Good to know."
Both of the animal type mutants had lost it the moment they came within six feet of one another. There wasn't anything said or done to start the fight, nothing like that. It was as if a switch had been flipped in both of them the moment they were close enough to smell one another over the background scent of the dojo. "I think from now on, you two are not allowed to spar with one another." After a moment, Rahne and Illyich nodded sheepishly.
OOOOOOO
Harry was enjoying a sleep in, having not even noticed that Jean and Ororo left the bed much earlier. They had wanted to let him sleep since he had been doing so much down on the business side of things, which both of them new he didn't enjoy. He was rudely awakened however when he heard a young female voice yelling "Attack!"
He bolted upright in bed just in time to catch Melody and Illyana and several of the other pre-teen kids jumping on to the bed, bouncing around. "Hello father!" Melody said laughing merely. "Time to get up!"
Harry laughed, grabbing up his daughter in one arm and flinging her over a shoulder while he did the same to Illyana with his other arm, then got out of bed despite all the teens trying to push him back down laughing all the while. It was moments like this, he thought, and moments with his ladies, which makes all this work worth it.
Over the past few days, despite having been busy, Harry had been unhappy that his time with his family had been so disrupted by the business crap he was dealing with. Harry had wanted a family for so long, and had hated that other priorities had taken time away from them. With that in mind, he decided to take the rest of the day off to spend time with his daughter. The day ended with a flight around the castle's environs on his magic carpet, with Jean and Ororo having joined them.
Watching Ororo teaching Melody about some of the birds they saw as they flew over the forest, Harry was filled with a sense of love and wellbeing, gazing at them, a tender smile on his face. Ororo caught his glance and cocked an eyebrow in query. "Harry?"
"Oh nothing Ororo, just, thinking how much I love you all, and moments like this." Harry replied simply, his smile widening slightly as he tasted the words and the rightness of them.
Ororo's eyes widened as she actually found herself blushing like a school girl at the love in Harry's voice. Melody simply laughed, leaping up from next to the wind rider to hug Harry firmly in response
Jean looked up from where she had been gazing over the side, looking over the side of the carpet to gaze back at Harry, a tender smile forming on her own face as she gazed back at her lover. "Oooh, that was very nice Harry, utterly spontaneous and right from the heart." She moved over to him, leaning in to kiss him over Melody's head. "Never doubt we love you too, Harry Potter."
Ororo joined them as well, while in the center of the group hug Melody smiled so hard her face hurt as the songs of her family enveloped her.
OOOOOOO
Emma stretched luxuriantly where she slay between Jean and Harry on their bed in High Note. They had decided the evening before to have dinner up there and to check the detections systems. The house elves hadn't reported anything untoward, but it was the kind of thing they wanted to make certain about. It had also allowed Harry and the others to give her a tour of this part of their operation.
That amount of trust yet again nearly brought her to tears, and she vowed once again to be worthy of this relationship she had joined. Ororo had also decided that Emma could sleep in the same bed as them now, though they didn't do anything else. None of the others had really been in the mood for anything physical since the meeting with the FF, the knowledge Betsy was enslaved in Mojoland niggling at the back of their minds, even at their happiest. It just seemed wrong somehow, especially given what routinely happened to female slaves in human society.
That hadn't effected the sheer, not quite sensual enjoyment Emma had gotten out of sleeping next to the other three though. It was again part trust, the knowledge that she could trust them at her most vulnerable and was trusted in turn. This was coupled with the feeling of security and safety she got sleeping next to the others. It was easily the best night's sleep she ever had in her life, well worth the knowledge she would probably have to come up with a cover story for her sister, who was getting more and more suspicious of her older sister's movements.
And of course Emma's enjoyment was also part physical pleasure. Emma had known since even before meeting Jean that she was attracted to both sexes, and Ororo's habit of sleeping naked was a sight to see. The African woman's body put any celebrity's to shame, and that didn't even consider Jean's own chemise clad form, which at present was pressed up tight against Emma's back. The redhead's arm was flung over Emma's body and her hand resting on Harry's hard, toned stomach, intertwining with Ororo's there. Harry's arms were around them all, his hand's resting on Jean's hip and Ororo's rear.
Emma took all this in as she began to get up, a laborious process for her without coffee. Giving it up as a lost cause, she deiced to simply bask in the feeling of belonging for as long as she could before the rest of the world intruded.
OOOOOOO
"Well at least I have hips to speak of! You're flat coming and going!"
Harry looked up from a conversation with Ororo, Melody and Illyana about what they wanted to do for Illyana's coming birthday, which Harry had marked out especially because he wanted to get her to learning occlumency soon. She wasn't quite old enough yet to start teaching magic too, but mental and self-control, yes. That would make learning the actual spells much easier.
Looking at Paige and Amara, who were once more arguing, Harry shook his head. "I've had just about enough of this."
I had hoped it would blow over, myself." Jean nodded from where she had been talking to Dennis. "Still, what can we do but hope they get over it? Any attempt from an authority figure to step in might make it worse, or simply make them keep it out of sight of the rest of us."
"I have a suggestion actually." Ororo said, smirking a little before she leaned into whisper into Harry's ear.
After a moment, Harry laughed. "Kill or cure I suppose!" With that he stood up, making his way down the long table.
At the other end of the table the two arguing girls looked up as Harry came towards them, not noticing Nicolai and Piotr both breathing deep sighs of relief as the argument ended for the moment. Suddenly both girls found themselves in midair, floating behind Harry as he trooped out of the dining hall. "What the… Put me down!" Paige exclaimed. Magma however simply stayed silent, wondering where this was going.
"We've all had enough of your arguing and sniping at one another. It's hurting team unity, it's interrupting our mealtimes, and it's disrupting the harmony of the castle." Harry said, walking down the hall briskly.
They came upon one of the teaching areas, and Harry quickly cast a few spells on both of them, then sat them down facing one another in admittedly comfortable chairs. "Neither of you are leaving this room until you figure out what the hell is bothering the both of you about one another. No powers." He said looking at Paige and Magma severely. "No killing or crippling blows, I'll have one of the house-elves standing by with a few potions to help heal any wounds. Other than that, you're here until you have gotten over whatever the hell this is and can work together and be friends. Do I make myself clear?"
Both girls gulped under his glare, nodding despite themselves. Harry closed the door after him, locking it behind him while the two girls went back to glaring at one another.
The insults began again after a moment, but strangely enough the house-elf that Harry had asked to watch the duo reported that neither of them tried to come to blows. Harry knew that if he had tried something like that with two men they certainly would have come to blows. Women however were simply wired differently.
The two of them stayed in that room for the rest of that day and that evening, causing Harry to ask a house-elf to pop in with two of the beds from the student's tower.
However, the next morning he and the others were pleased that Ororo's idea had actually worked. The next day they both came out up of the room, having proved to the elves watching them unseen that they had made up, and both of them having come clean about their real reasons for disliking one another. Once spoken aloud, their reasons all seemed small and petty. After which they had found quite a bit to admire in one another instead, and were now friends.
OOOOOOO
Jean and Reed smiled at one another as they watched Wyatt test out the abilities of the suit the two of them had put together in front of Harry. They had called him in for this, wanting to see if Harry could think of anything to add to their work.
While Jean's original work was excellent in reverse engineering Vulture's suit, she had been correct in that actually using it to fly was much more difficult than it first appeared. So Reed had removed the wings of the suit as well as the propulsion, but the small battery of the suit was surprisingly powerful. It had to be to run the rest of the suit, though of course it wasn't on part with something like the reactor Iron Man used. Reed had his own ideas about that one, but wasn't going to go and mess around with Tony's toys. In scientific circles something like that was a big no-no.
However, the battery was small, so there was room for two more without adding overmuch to the weight. One battery handled the strength enhancement. One battery was an emergency one which would take over the duties of either of the others.
And the third powered Reed's addition to the suit: a line of sight teleportation device. It wasn't very powerful in terms of range, but it was the most energy efficient design he had come up with so far. With it, Wyatt would be able to teleport around fifty times in a ten meter radius before running out of power.
The suit was now comprised of a bodysuit like everyone else wore, over which Wyatt wore heavy gauntlets that covered his hands and forearms, heavy boots coming up to his knees, and a chest plate. All of it, at Wyatt's suggestion, was painted dark earth colors, brown and deep red.
He also had a full helmet, which Wyatt had helped design. The helmet was like the head of a wild dog, painted black with long ears sticking out at the back, a long muzzle which somehow conveyed a smirk at the viewers expense, and red tinted eyes.
Harry was incredibly impressed by the work the two engineers had put into the suit, and said so. "It was really Jean who did most of the design work," Reed said modestly. "I only added the teleportation device, plus redesigned the power routes to allow for it and its power source."
"Still this, and some user activated Disillusion charms…" Harry shook his head, a wicked smile on his face. He then turned to Wyatt, who had just teleported back over to them from the other end of the FF's training area. "By the way Wyatt, have you decided on your callsign yet?"
"I have." Even the speaker system of the helmet had been created with Wyatt's input. His voice came out with a little growl to it, yet there was also some humor there, like a prankster who took his work seriously. "Call me Coyote."
OOOOOOO
Harry looked up from having dinner with Jean and Ororo, Emma not able to join them for this evening, as a house-elves popped in looking a little worried, wringing his ears in both hands. "Yes, what is it?" He recognized the young house-elf is one of those assigned to the students tower full-time, and wondered if there had been some kind of emergency.
"Master we be…" the house-elf caught Ororo's look and went on hurriedly. "That is, Drippy and I are assigned to clean the men's side of the tower. But it be too noisy! We not, er we don't care how messy it gets, that be fine, but they is always leaving this thing on that plays music, it's horrible!"
Harry frowned for a moment then stood up bowing to Jean and Ororo. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go deal with this." The two ladies rather than excusing him followed him, wondering what kind of cacophony could make a house-elf refuse to work in an area.
They entered what had been the Gryffindor tower in Harry's old dimension. The smiled at the girls, who were crowded around the TV watching some kind of sappy movie or other save for Melody and Illyana who were both already asleep in Melody's room, having spent half the day with Illyana's grandparents.
The three adults moved up the staircase into the men's side, looking in on the area that was currently being used by the pre-teens. It was an utter pigsty. Clothes were strewn everywhere and for some reason there was food as well left out on plates, and even several bags of snack foods. Harry wondered how they had convinced one of the house-elves to let them bring food up here in the first place. Books were strewn everywhere, including a new comic series that Ms. Brown had picked up for Jeb at his behest.
Sergei was leaning against the wall along his bed, bobbing his head to incredibly loud music coming from a speaker, so loud it was only because of the sound dampening of the stone walls that had kept them from hearing it outside of the tower. Jesse and Christopher were dancing to the music, or were they play fighting? Harry couldn't quite tell, nor could Ororo who at first thought it was some kind of tribal dance. Ivan was laying have on and half off his bed, munching on something while reading a comic next to Jeb, who had the next in the series.
With a wave of his hand Harry shut the music off, glaring around at the kids. "I see." he said softly. All four boys looked up with trepidation at him, and Harry said softly. "Why don't you five just sit there for a moment, I'll be right back."
With that Harry left with Ororo staying behind to stare at the two she had saved from Sudan in disapproval. "Really?"
"But everyone likes the music! This hardcore rock stuff from America is awesome!"
"That does not excuse playing it so loudly that the house-elves refused to be in here!" Ororo said, causing both to look away. Ororo's eyes cut to Jeb who bowed his head. "Pray we don't decide to get your mother involved. I know for a fact its past your bedtime, and I doubt she would condone this mess." Jeb winced at that, but stayed silent.
Harry made his way up to the second dormitory room, where the older teens shared their own room for now. Once more students came in, Piotr and Nikolai would each get their own room elsewhere in the castle. This room was much cleaner except for one area which looked as if it had been set aside for a painting area for Piotr. That was all right, one man's mess in that kind of environment was another man's organization. However all five older teens were listening on large headphones to different things as they lay in their beds.
Harry waved his hand, his magic reaching out to grab the headphones off each of the boys' heads. As they gasped and looked around, Harry stared at them sternly. "Well?"
Sam spoke up. Sam spent most of his time he in New York with the X-Men exercising with them, but he lived in the castle for now to stay with his family. "Sorry sir, the kids're always playin' their music so loudly we need ta use headphones ta get any sleep our own selves. And the last time we tried to get them to stop playin' it, they messed up our stuff in here, and wrecked my Walkman somehow."
Harry frowned angrily at that, but nodded. "All right, all of you come with me. This is going to get solved right now."
Once he had all the boys in one room, Harry gave two lectures. One was that house-elves and their cleaning up after the humans was a privilege, one that would not be disabused. The next was about personal space and respect for one another. He ended that speech by saying "I understand that you like this music Jesse, Christopher, but that does not give you the right to play it so loudly, or deep into the night as you are. You can headphones all the time outside of class, wreck your ears for all I care. But do not disturb the peace of the castle as a whole. And Christopher, I understand from Sam that you or your brother ruined his Walkman when they asked you to keep your music down? You two are going to be paying for that. Your powers are a gift, do not abuse them in such a manner."
Both African boys nodded, and Harry looked at all of the men/boys sternly. "I trust I won't be called back again?"
All of them nodded and Harry returned it firmly. "Good, in that case I suggest you five get to cleaning. I'm going to assign a house-elf to look at the job, but he's not going to help you and you won't be done it until he's satisfied. That should do as punishment for now, plus paying for the Walkman. I'll assign you some work outside, cutting grass or something of that nature, until you have worked enough hours on minimum wage to pay for it."
Jesse and Christopher looked at one another morosely, but nodded, knowing they were getting off lightly.
With that the three adults left, followed quickly by the older teens. Behind them the boys looked around, wondering where the hell to start.
OOOOOOO
Dani entered the dining hall with some trepidation. She had been here a little under a week now, but this was the first time Jean had given Dani the okay to leave her room for an extended period of time with the kids around. Today Jean had said that she had built up her mental discipline enough to stop her power from lashing out without direction, and had even begun to work with on using them on purpose. They had spent most of the morning picking up some furniture for her room, just enough to make it homely. Surprisingly, Dani's taste of furniture was a mix of Ororo's and Melody's, wooden furniture made to look natural with dark colors and furs with several items showing proudly her Native American heritage.
Paige ran up to her, grabbing one hand. "Hey Dani come over here and sit with Amara and me."
The two of them had met and bonded over music and movies in one of the few times that Jean had allowed Dani out of her room to interact with the others. The two had become semi-close friends, though Dani also got on well with Amara. Really she was simply a calm, understanding individual, who could get along well with anyone.
Dani was hesitant, but sat down with the other girls and began to eat with them. the two girls, having buried the hatchet, made her welcome easily. Having found so much to admire in one another rather than feel jealous about, they were well on their way to becoming real friends, and were much more secure in themselves because of it.
Later that day she and the others went out to the lake to swim around, and she startled herself by joining in a splash war with all of them against Jean and Harry. The two adults lost when Ororo came out to aid the kids, using her powers to deadly effect.
She smiled to herself as she went to bed that night. I think I'm going to like it here.
OOOOOOO
Six days after Magical Minds had opened for business, this period of calm ended. In the middle of the night local time, Harry was woken from a deep sleep by the ringing of his cell phone on the table by the bed. The wizard frowned, but reached over Ororo's naked body to pick it up, noticing that she and Jean were both already waking up, looking rather irritable which increased when they noticed the time as only three in the morning. Despite all of them being early risers, this was a bit much. Still, only a very few people in the world had access to this phone number, and it behooved Harry to treat the call as if it was possibly an emergency.
With that in mind his tone was moderately cordial when he picked up the phone and asked. "Yes, who is this?"
Hearing Mr. Fantastic's worried voice caused Harry to sit up in bed, dislodging the covers from over himself and the other two, whose eyes widened at his sudden movement. "Harry, I'm sorry to wake you, I know were dealing with some severe time differences here, but this can't wait. I've found something on the drones I've been sending into Mojoworld, and I think if we don't strike soon, we may lose what might be our best opportunity to set up a true government there."
Now fully awake Harry said quickly. "We'll be ready to go in thirty minutes, lower your teleport block until we're all there." If you give a job to a genius, you would be a fool to ignore his advice.
He turned to Jean and Ororo, noticing that they had both already got out of bed. Ororo was using her newfound magical powers to heat a pot of tea for herself while Jean pulled on her uniform set. "Jean, since you're the most dressed, rouse the team and make sure they have full load out of all our new toys. Also hand out some Pepper-Up potions, just in case anyone needs it. I'm going to hop down to Captain Britain and pick him up, Ororo you write out a message for Shiang Chi and the others, I want us gone in thirty minutes."
Both women nodded seriously, Ororo conjured up a piece of paper and a pen to start writing, even as Jean finished pulling on her uniform. "Does that include Paige or Amara?"
Harry shook his head. "Not Paige, but Amara, yes. She proved herself well enough on the operation down in Greece. Paige however is still in the doghouse." Jean nodded then raced down the steps out of the headmaster's quarters.
Harry frowned thoughtfully, closing his eyes as he concentrated on what he could remember of the main hall of the Braddock estate. After a moment he felt he had it, and disappeared with a far louder pop than normal. He reappeared in his target area, stumbling slightly as he did so, nearly smashing his head into the bannister of the massive staircase. But when you were forced to teleport into an area you hadn't entirely memorized, that was as close to perfect as you were likely to get. He looked around and began to yell for Captain Britain, and ignored the two elderly servants who rushed in with a carving knife and a very old hunting rifle respectively.
Brian himself appeared on the staircase's upper landing, looking down at him with as much dignity as he could manage dressed in a fuzzy bathrobe. That wasn't even counting what he wore on his feet, which despite the seriousness of the situation made Harry smile. Bright blue slippers with what looked like googly eyes on them were just not something he would picture from mister stoic himself.
"Guardian?" Brian said quickly, unmindful of his appearance, not knowing what was going through Harry' head. "Is there something wrong? My sister?"
"Mr. Fantastic just called me." Harry said quickly, hitting both of the servants with confounding spells. Just because Brian trusted them didn't mean Harry was going to, and he hadn't bothered to cover himself with any notice-me not-wards or anything of that nature. "He says there's something going on, and that we should all be ready to go. Given the urgency I'm afraid it either has to do with your sister, or something that will fundamentally make any rescue of her harder."
"Give me two minutes." Brian said and quickly turned racing back into his room to reappear dressed in his uniform. He jumped over the railing landing lightly on his toes and raced over to Harry who grabbed his arm. "I'm going to drop you off at the Baxter building and return for the others." Harry said quickly. Brian nodded, and a second later after Harriet called he had they stood in the teleportation room at the Baxter Bell building. Harry was unsurprised to find that the other Fantastic Four members were up and about, and he gently pushed Brian towards him before disappearing with crack back to Hogwarts, his normal could self-control in abeyance.
Thankfully the others were already, the same group as the last time he had been to the Baxter Building. Paige, while not badly injured during the debacle down in Greece, had been grounded by her mother for lying to Harry about having gotten her permission, something Harry too was still angry about. Not a minute later they were all at the Baxter building once more.
"Ya added another face ta yer team, Potter?" Ben asked, looking at the young girl who he didn't know.
Harry nodded. "The young lady with the tan is Magma, her name is rather descriptive of her powers, hence why she is not in her activated state. It was by far the easiest name we've ever had to come up with."
Amara nodded with a smile, trying to hold in her awe of meeting the famous Fantastic Four with all the self-control of a politician's daughter. She was dressed in a tight dark blue and red outfit, made to be as light as possible. Yet it incorporated the thin slivers of the yellow version Orihalcum scale mail like everyone else's save Colossus'. Even outside her energy state, this protected her from quite a bit more than anyone would think at first glance, and the unstable molecules worked to absorb the impetus of impact.
Colossus, already protected by his metal form, was further armored with heavy plate armor over his torso, vambraces and greaves all made out of the original version of Orihalcum, which was more durable but also heavier than the yellow kind Harry had gotten from his battle with Balthakk. That was something Harry had found out since receiving that second set of armor.
With that in mind, Harry had subsequently redone the uniforms for the others, making them much lighter, and allowing him to put the tiny scale mail pieces throughout their uniforms rather than just their torsos. This had given him enough ammunition to talk Ororo into wearing a full body uniform, which she was wearing now. It was black, with gold highlights along her belt, neckline and shoulders, and fit her as well as Jean's uniform fit her. She still retained a cape though, but this cape had more defensive properties on it than Harry's original crysis suit. And she also still had her headpiece on her head, whose defensive properties had again been added to, now that Harry knew she could power the runic arrays herself.
Amara's suit had heavier armor at the back of her elbows and on her knees, as well as a full head mask that she could pull up over her head only with difficulty thanks to her hair. For now however it would do to protect Amara's head with the same level of protection as the rest of her. At Amara's side she wore a short sword, and on one forearm she had a small rectangle of metal that she could enlarge to a heavy shield. At the moment that was due to a runic array set into the metal, but eventually Jean would create a scientific equivalent, since powering the array to enlarge it used a lot of bio-energy.
Reed nodded cordially to them all, not asking questions about the newcomer, looking a little harried.
There was already a picture up on the screen behind him. It was showing a youngish looking blonde haired man with the looks of a movie star. He was jumping through what looked like some kind of action scene where he was throwing knives at several hidden enemies while dodging return blasts from what looked to be several different types of laser based weapons. "I apologize for waking you all up, and I normally would have liked to use the full week I asked for to do this, but something has come up. This is a Longshot, he is one of the star attractions for Mojo, his biggest seller in fact in terms of ratings. However, he has no loyalty to Mojo per-se. My drones caught a snippet of a conversation that indicate he is preparing to lead a full rebellion against him. The conversation indicated they were nearly ready to 'rise up and grasp our freedom with our own hands.'"
Harry whistled in astonishment. Jean did too and she put their thoughts into words. "So these Couch Potatoes don't have anything implanted in their slaves to ensure loyalty? No mental or genetic indoctrination or chips implanted into their brains? That's bizarre as hell!"
"It would seem not. From what little I've been able to glean on my drones, all of the technology, or practically all of the technology, is based around a few major advancements, three of which came from the same individual, a doctor called Arise. He was the one who developed those hover-beds they use to get around in, and he was the one to develop a method to create their slaves. He was apparently also in charge of ensuring the loyalty somehow, but that apparently did not, in fact, happen."
"I take it you think this Longshot's rebellion will fail without outside intervention?" Brian asked leaning forward intently. "Is my sister involved in it in some way?"
"I have found your sister, your description of her was most helpful for that, but there is no indication she's involved in the rebellion." Reed replied. "She's part of some Mojo's most popular programs, though I cannot tell you if it is voluntary or not. In one she plays a love interest for Longshot but that seems to be their only connection. In another she's a spy, and in the third a gladiator. In all of them she plays strong, combative women, with quite a bit more marital art skill than I had expected, and her eyes seem to have been replaced, though if they are biologic, magical or electronic in nature I cannot say."
Reed looked uncomfortable for a moment. "A fourth series starring Betsy had been suggested in one conversation a drone picked up in the coliseum stage and would've been of a… hard-core nature." He coughed uncomfortably. "Apparently there is a fetish among the spineless ones, which is what they call themselves, for non-spineless one females with spineless one males."
He coughed again looking incredibly uncomfortable while all of his listeners looked both aghast and sick at the same time. "Thankfully I have seen nothing from my drones that indicates that was seriously being considered." Or at least nothing he was going to share with the woman's brother in any case. He had caught Mojo and one of his chief directors discussing the possibility, but Mojo had shot the man down for the suggestion telling him to wait a while until 'the fighting female concept grows passé'.
"As to why I think Longshot will fail, the latest version of my drones are able to take bio readings, and one of Longshot's closest companions in this rebellion are not human. He reads as some kind of android. The recorded output matches a few others that I've noticed in Mojo's service even if its physical form is vastly different. I believe this type is called War Wolves, but do not quote me on that. If Mojo already knows about the rebellion, then he's probably using it as a 'special event' to bolster his 'ratings' and crush the spirit of the genetically created slave race by putting it down as harshly as he can."