32 Chapter 32 Getting comfortable.

It took about two hours of tests for ForgetMeNot to believe Harry would not in fact forget him. Harry then turned to Goose and said, "Hey Goose, do the things inside your pocket dimension get absorbed, digested, or get stored?"

ForgetMeNot said, "Wait, are you talking to the cat?"

Goose conveyed back through their familiar link, 'Just give me a lock of his hair. It will do for your purposes and I'm not comfortable meeting someone for the first time over and over.'

Harry looked over to ForgetMeNot and said, "Goose can do something similar with a pinch of your hair. Give me a second, I'll get some scissors."

ForgetMeNot said, "At this rate won't I go bald?"

Harry got a pair of scissors from his 'backpack' and went over to snip a band of hair from his scalp while saying, "If one day you have a girlfriend who complains about you being bald, you can say something to me then."

Harry then said, "You may want to turn around for this. It isn't for those with a weak stomach."

"Umm. I think I'll be fine," he responded back. "I don't know how watching a cat eat my-"

Goose's mouth ejected out a mass of purple flesh covered in serrated teeth and wiggling tentacles. From within the void at the center of the flesh came a snake-like appendage of a tongue with its own set of razor sharp teeth that approached Harry's hand and quicker than a snake strike grabbed the lock of hair before retreating in the pit, followed shortly after by the remaining mass of indescribable flesh that vanished into the Flerken's mouth.

After a moment of silence ForgetMeNot said, "Harry?"

"Yes ForgetMeNot?"

"What is that?"

"That's Goose, my familiar. Don't worry, I've already asked her not to eat anyone."

"Is.. Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Harry considered it and said, "I'm not sure. At least this way, she won't forget you either."

"Umm. I'm not sure how to feel about that."

Harry and ForgetMeNot spent another hour chatting before they both headed out for lunch. So far they were becoming good friends, though ForgetMeNot wouldn't give Harry his original name claiming 'Everyone who knew it has forgotten it,' so that person was already gone. Harry didn't say it out loud to get his new friend's hopes up, but he was going to work on a way of allowing others to remember him. Harry and Goose both had internal pocket dimensions though Goose never told Harry how her own worked and Harry had refrained from asking out of politeness. He couldn't expect others to have the same ability but at least it proved that FrgetMeNot's power had a loophole and if there was one, they may be more.

Although Harry could have skipped lunch or taken something out from his inventory, he didn't want to turtle up on his first day. According to ForgetMeNot, there was a rotating roster of kids or adults who would stay in the kitchen for two hours cooking during lunch and dinner time. Today's lunch would be served by Jubilee which meant the soda would soon run out to get the taste out of the recipient's mouths. He said she once set her cereal on fire.

The kitchen had three kids at the table with a petite girl of Asian decent wearing a yellow long coat standing over a stove making what Harry smelled to be burnt grilled cheese sandwiches. Harry sat down one seat away from the others and ForgetMeNot sat down on his opposite side.

The one called Jubilee turned around and said, "Hiya, will you be having the rib-eye, the fresh Italian pasta, the baby lamb, or the lobster?"

ForgetMeNot said, "I'll be having the rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes." He pointed at Harry and said, "Today's his first day here so he'll be having the special of the day."

Jubilee turned back around and said, "Two specials of the day, coming up!"

The trio sitting at the table looked over from their discussion and one said, "You're new here? Hi. I'm Danielle. That's Rahne and Brian." The others she pointed at smiled back at Harry who said, "Hello and nice to meet you, I'm Harry."

The redhead named Rahne asked, "Yer British?" Harry recognized her clearly Scottish accent that reminded him a little of Professor McGonagall.

He answered back, 'That's right. I was born in Godric's Hollow near Suffolk."

She nodded, "Born in Ullapool myself."

"In the Highlands? I have a house up there. I actually went to a boarding school in a big ol' castle built at the base of the Highlands Mountains. Had to leave though because people kept trying to kill me."

Rahne looked shocked, sad, and a little understanding about that last part.

Danielle, who seemed to be of Native American descent said, "A good reason to leave. So what's your power?"

Harry answered, "I can turn into an owl."

Rahne and Danielle both said, "Really?"

Harry shrugged, "Maybe, I don't know. I probably could."

Brian said, "Be careful there Harry, these two love animals and toying with them like that will end badly."

Harry pulled a piece of Smoky Quartz out of his pocket and said, "In that case, I can grant one wish, but only one wish and then I can never grant wishes again. What would you two wish for?"

Brian quickly said, "I wish for actual food that will stay in my stomach."

Both girls turned to glare at him and Harry Paused. He was half joking but since that was the request, he might as well go with it. Plus, this was an opportunity to empty some of the food in his inventory.

Harry picked up the Smoky Quartz and said, "Your wish is my command."

He cast a Lumos inside the gem to make it glow which attracted everyone's attention, even Jubilee who was letting the sandwich on the stove burn for way too long. Harry then cast a wordless Immobulus Maxima on the room which had everyone frozen in place. Every electronic in the room would fry, but wishes had consequences so he'd blame Brain for it.

First he used telekinesis to lift the burning bread off the pan so it wouldn't catch fire while he was working. Next, while everyone was frozen, he took out dish after dish from his inventory and set it on the table. Harry couldn't put food or water into his inventory unless it was on a plate or in a container so he had hundreds of plates, cups, bowls, and ect, in his inventory. Each plate even had the proper utensils for the dish. This did make Harry feel a little bad for whoever would be doing the dishes today.

When the table had no more room for dishes, Harry cast some preservation and warming charms that would last until the dishes were picked up and he sat back down in the same position but with the gem placed in his inventory and he put the burnt bread back on the pan. Last, he cast a large Finite Incantatem which unfroze everyone who lacked awareness of time while frozen and now saw the table filled with food. Harry wanted to stack another layer of food on top but his Telepathy sensed someone else on their way to the kitchen and he couldn't have them walk in while everyone was frozen. Thankfully that teleporter wasn't likely to show due to the pink hair though Harry was unsure how many teleporters the Institute had.

From their perspective, the Smoky Quartz in Harry's hand was glowing and now it was gone and the table was filled with food.

Jubilee was the first to break out of her stupor and said, "Oh hell yeah!" and grabbed a plate and started chowing down. She didn't bother turning off the stove, almost like she had forgotten she was making food for someone.

Danielle said, "What? Is this an illusion?"

Jubilee said between bites, "Best. Tasting. Illusion. Ever."

Harry said, "It's all real so please help yourself to a plate."

Each of the three picked up a plate and took a bite. Rahne then quickly glared at Brian and slowly said, "Ye stole our wish!"

Danielle quickly turned to Brian who realized his joke could now be taken as a declaration of war.

He took his plate and ran around the table and was quickly followed by the pair of angry teenage girls. On the first circle he touched the two chairs they were sitting in and then he ran at them who weren't expecting a turn around and touched each of them. A moment later they both were pulled out of the air into their chairs and Brian ran away.

Rahne shouted at the running mutant, "Dinna think ye can hide from me! I know yuir scent!"

Danielle placed her shoulder on the angry Scotswoman which calmed her down. Danielle said, "Forget about it. More for us."

Harry wondered if anyone would remember the burning grilled cheese on the pan which was now on fire. ForgetMeNot sighed.

!-Smoke Alarm Blares-!

Rahne shouted over the alarm, "Jub'lee, ye forgot to turn off te bloody stove!"

"Opps, sorry." She went back over to the stove and put it and the flaming sandwich into the sink, taking a moment to soak them both with water before taking a nearby cutting board and waving it at the smoke alarm until it went silent.

The student Harry sensed earlier had arrived in the kitchen and said, "Anything not on fire?"

Harry said, "A few things, Jubilee really outdid herself today."

When the table was in sight the newcomer said, "What? No way Jubilee did this."

Harry said, "I think Brian did it then."

Two more students came in, though Harry figured they came more to witness the carnage than they came to eat as the Smoke Alarm was quite loud.

Harry saw that ForgetMeNot had taken his chair over to the wall and was calmly watching the new arrivals drop their jaws at the table of assorted food while holding the bowl of mashed potatoes Harry had originally set in front of him.

Harry pulled his own chair over to sit next to ForgetMeNot and said, "So you like people watching?"

He shrugged, "I guess. Not much else to do. If I tell someone something they'll either forget what I told them or forget where they learned it at some point during the conversation. Long conversations don't happen often for me."

Several of the students started calling dibs on specific plates such as the meat plates or pasta plates. Some were just admiring it and trying to figure out where it came from since it was Jubilee's turn to cook. The noise coming from the kitchen seemed to attract more students which in turn created more noise.

One of the students who grabbed a plate, an African American teen with a crew cut hair noticed Harry sitting in the corner with a plate and walked over. "Hey, you're the new guy who turned Kurt pink right?"

Harry was tempted to point out that his name was not Hey, but he couldn't expect everyone to have manners so he said, "I'm pretty sure that's me, or at least someone going around looking like me. I'm Harry, it's nice to meet you."

"Cool to meet you too Harry. I'm Evan. You play any sports?"

Harry shook his head, "Can't say I do. I'm a nerd who spends his days in books and messing with the laws of reality."

Evan looked slightly disappointed but still said, "That's cool too. I think our nerds have a study group in the library after dinner so you should totally meet up with them."

Harry smiled and said, "Thanks, I'll definitely show up."

Even nodded and said, "So are you gonna try out for the team?"

Harry gave a confused look which caused Evan to continue, "The 3rd X-Men Team. Lots of those here want to be an X-Men so we train a whole bunch to see who will make the final cut for the 3rd Team."

Harry said, "If you don't mind me asking, what about the first and second teams?"

"Well, the first team is my Auntie Storm, Wolverine, Angel, Beast, Colossus, Gambit, and Domino. There were others but they either left or.. didn't make it out of the battle with the Shadow King. The Second Team is made from the best of the first batch of recruits. Bishop, Shadowcat, Pixie, Marrow, and Blink. They actually got captured by aliens last year and ended up getting dragged into a battle where they defeated a swarm of alien insects and saved a planet. They got an alien ship they used to fly back to the mansion. There was this guy called Warpath too, but he stayed behind. The current roster for the 3rd team is myself, and I'm called Spike by the way, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Rogue, and Nightcrawler, who you turned pink."

"So all these kids are trying out for a single team?"

"Well not exactly. No one is allowed to go on missions until you're at least sixteen and most of us third gen recruits are sixteen or younger. To be honest the current team is just the guys who are sixteen or the guys closest to sixteen. I'm turning sixteen next year."

"Ah, me too. Never fought with a team before so I'll probably try it out.

"Oh, you've fought before?"

"That's right. I've had a few crazy adventures up to this point."

"No way dude."

"It's true. You know the red laser eye guy?"

"Cyclops?"

"That's his name? Well, I kicked his ass yesterday."

"No way. Seriously? Dude's been spending all day in the Danger Room like someone set a fire under his butt. Guess that explains why. Well, I'll see you later then, I'm gonna get a second plate."

Harry wondered what would happen if he used his new Multiplayer feature on any of these teens. Unfortunately, it would not be that easy.

According to the FAQ on adding a new player, it was basically Harry directly injected his own Obscurus Particles into someone else's body and then having the Particles mimic the cells of that person to directly boost their physiology. Doing so would permanently cost him some Obscurus Particles and lower his level, forcing him to regain those levels. The weaker someone was, the less he needed to inject to grant them Player status. So someone like ForgetMeNot would probably cost Harry five to ten levels. Someone like Logan could cost Harry over a hundred levels. Moreover, the person had to have absolute trust in Harry or they would reject the Particles and the process would fail. The only person he might be able to get to trust him that much was the Ancient One, but she would probably cost more Obscurus Particles than Harry actually had to convert her which would take Harry to level zero and permanently kill him. The process for both parties would also be indescribably painful.

Turning someone into a New Player would apply some of the benefits of Harry's abilities, but not all. Such a person would be able to absorb the energy of defeated foes and the Obscurus Particles would use that energy to replicate and further strengthen the body, allowing levels ups. If injured, the Particles could also take the place of damaged cells, giving the Player a limited Healing factor dependent on the amount of Particles they had. Harry's Path System and Menu would be applied, so the cells would apply Autocorrect to skills they used that were a part of Paths they practiced often. They would also be able to choose what Stats increased with each level up. There was even a way for them to use Battle Mediation through Harry to generate monsters matching their level they could fight, but Harry had to be present and couldn't deal any damage himself or else he would get the experience instead of the other Player.

What they would not be able to gain was the Inventory, Settings, Pause Function, or Respawn features. Those were tied to Harry's soul and existence and features like Respawn only worked because Harry was 100% Obscurus Particles while players would still have real flesh and blood. However though they were not be able to Respawn, increasing their level would increase the amount of Obscurus Particles which would raise the amount of damage they could recover from which was not a bad consolation prize.

Besides the pain, loss of levels, and high trust requirements, another reason Harry wasn't going to just give everyone this ability was because it would permanently connect them to Harry for the rest of their lives.

ForgetMeNot finished his mashed potatoes and said, "Thanks man. I'm heading back to the room. You should spend the day wandering around and meet more of the guys. Later."

Harry wanted to say something but his roommate was already off. He couldn't help but notice that when Evan listed off the members of the first X-Men team, there were a lot, but the second X-Men team had so few and seemed to be the same age group as ForgetMeNot. He'd ask him about that later.

It didn't take long for details about the Lunch Miracle to spread around and much of the Mansion showed up. However that only amounted to about twenty or so as it was still summer and more than half the students had returned to their families who lived further out. Evan apparently had a nice family, but they lived nearby so he would stay at the mansion during the summer anyways to train and play with friends while still going to see his parents pretty often.

Since Harry was fully moving in, he had a lot of paperwork to do himself so he headed over to the library with a large stack of sheets and got to work. Forms for permanent address change were among the easier ones he needed while forms for further correspondence between himself and the Goblins was harder. He would basically teleport to a warehouse they had and give them a large batch of gems and metals and they would manually ship it to Xavier's institute twice a month. It would take some time before they had the mundane machinery required for the mass production of large gemstones so Harry would need to make them himself for now.

One upside was that in the last few months before Harry moved to the states, the Goblins had come up with a nearly perfect means of shielding electronics from Exotic energy up to a specific range. It couldn't withstand direct apparition, but could survive indefinitely in a magic rich environment without issue. The shielding itself was an inlay of specific metal alloys in specific configurations similar to runes, but in appearance more closely resembled circuitry. The technical term would be metamaterial as it was a material that had properties outside the properties of the materials that it was constructed from. In addition to shielding the equipment from Exotic energy, it also shielded from nearly every other type of energy except for heat. Radiation, Radio Waves, and even a few forms of extradimensional energy could not pass easily through this shielding. The shielding against Radio Waves meant that it could not transmit or receive signals but that could be gotten around with a hard line connection or building in a paired set of quantum entanglement transmitters within. A massive benefit for this that Harry saw was that preventing energy coming in or out of the equipment meant it could not be wirelessly hacked, even using technopathy and wouldn't need to be magically charged.

Harry and the Goblins however agreed this shielding would not be sold to the general public. It was perfectly acceptable to make their own equipment unhackable through any means, but quite a few Goblins had become very good with computers and enjoyed the art of hacking others. It was a new battlefield and though there was far less blood then they would have liked, the battles won in the field of hacking could still grant considerable wealth to the Goblin who achieved it. Harry rented out his Hack Boxes to them to make sure they didn't get traced though they weren't allowed to hack from important locations regardless.

Once finished with his final sheet of paperwork he made sure no one was around and set it all into his inventory. He'd send it via portkey to the Goblins from his room and give the Goblins the magical coordinates of his room so they had a location they could send portkey mail back to him at their convenience.

Harry felt the Phoenix Flame within him act up and turned to see Jean enter the library and spot him. "Hey Harry. So how's your first day been?"

"Well, everyone is certainly very friendly which is a welcome change. Not that the temple or my last school was cruel, but most everyone there was more or less indifferent to others."

"Yeah, we really try to be one big family here. Where'd you go before here?"

"Well, I spent the last two years in a temple in Tibet training in martial arts and the more mystical aspects of my abilities. Before that I attended a boarding school in Scotland for a year. Apparently it was the same one my parents went to but I got targeted by a terrorist and though he was dealt with, I decided the school wasn't for me."

Harry thought out as well that he memorized the school's library and knew more than many of the teachers so he had nothing left to learn there.

Jean looked like she wanted to ask something so Harry just said aloud, "I can absorb books so I ordered a copy of pretty much every textbook the school had which is how I got all that knowledge."

Having her question answered she said, "Oh, that's convenient. I wish I could do something like that but I can only read people who are usually not comfortable with being read."

Harry considered it and said, "Well, you're still welcome in my head when you wish and every book I've memorized is within. Would you like a library card?"

"Umm, what happens if I take a book without a library card?"

"Nothing. The library card will allow you to find specific pieces of knowledge without having to look for it. However if you take a book out and open it outside of the little reading area in my head, automated defenses will activate so be careful. So would you like a library card or not?"

Jean looked as if she was mulling it over and said, "I'm not sure it's such a good idea to spend so long in a boy's head."

Harry thought wryly to himself that he didn't know she was already considering spending long amounts of time in his head which caused her to blush when she heard the thought. She quickly said, "I didn't mean it that way, it's just, well. When I'm inside your head, the thoughts of others are gone. I can usually hear everyone's thoughts around me but for some reason when I specifically go inside your head, the thoughts of others are silent." She had no intention of telling him it also felt warm and comfortable in there, like relaxing in front of a fireplace after a long day.

Harry said, "That should be an effect of some of the mental practices I use. I can channel Psionic energy like a telepath when I absorb a Quartz Crystal and I've used that combined with some esoteric practices I've learned to create a very sturdy mind."

Jean thought about that for a moment and asked, "Do you think I can learn that then? I would love to not have to listen to the thoughts of others day in and day out."

Harry held out his hand in a gesture for Jean to take it which she did after a moment of hesitation. Within the library of Harry's mind a small card appeared in front of Jean's mental avatar which she picked up. It vanished and Harry said, "Library card acquired. Just think about the knowledge you want and the books will appear. Just remember that you can only read them in the reading area."

Jean frowned and said, "I can't accept that Harry. I mean we've only just met and I feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

Harry considered it and said, "In that case there is something you can do for me." Within Harry's mind Harry gave a book to Jean who went over to the reading area and opened it. She gasped, "ForgetMeNot! Oh, no." The book contained Harry's knowledge on the imperceptible mutant.

Harry asked, "You remember him?"

She sighed, "Not completely. I think I told him I'd try not to forget him but even then. Oh, he must hate me."

Harry shook his head, "No, I doubt that very much. Professor Xavier gave me an 'empty' room with him so he's my new roommate. I absorbed a lock of his hair the same way I can books and now I won't forget him."

"Really? That's great!"

"Indeed. However I want to see if I can figure out a way for others to remember him."

"I see. That won't be easy. Even his thoughts are practically invisible. I'm not sure if I can't hear his thoughts or if I simply forget them when I can no longer hear them. And, oh no. I won't even remember talking about him later will I?"

Harry said, "Probably. But that's what I'd like to test. With your permission, I'd like to look inside your head as you are forgetting him and try a few different ways to see if I can get people to remember him."

Jean thought it was a bit hypocritical that she could see into other people's minds so easily yet was uncomfortable with someone else going through her mind. That being said, it was for a good cause, she didn't want to owe Harry for letting her use his knowledge and head, and she also wanted to help ForgetMeNot.

"Alright, but don't judge me for what you see and keep anything you find to yourself, ok?"

"No problem. Plus I can help you arrange your mind if you want after you learn a few things."

Harry had to purposefully allow thoughts to be heard when he wanted them to be heard by visiting telepaths so many of his thoughts were not in fact heard by Jean. He was pretty satisfied with his idea and that it actually worked. With this, he would be able to get a closer look at the mental blocks within Jean and figure out a way to safely remove them. He could also test a few means to help ForgetMeNot so it was a case of the proverbial two birds with one stone.

Plus he really did want to get to know Jean and didn't mind her looking through his head. She'd find a lot of things that didn't make sense but in doing so would slowly acclimate herself to Harry's secrets and when she knew him well enough, he hoped she would trust him to remove the mental blocks once he found a means to do it safely.