Chapter 27

Chapter 27 -

"Urgh...what..." Dr Connors groaned as he slowly started to wake up. His eyes felt heavy, he could feel the sweat rolling down his body. Eventually, he was able to look open his eye and found himself sitting in his lab, dressed in trousers that weren't quite his size plus a slightly oversized shirt and a large lab coat. "What is going on?" He wondered out loud.

"Well, that's the question, isn't it?" A voice spoke, causing him to look up. He all but jumped out of his seat when he saw none other than Spiderman hanging upside down from a web that was attached to the ceiling. "Are you okay, Dr Connors?" He asked.

"How did you know my name?" Dr Connors couldn't help but ask.

"It was on your other lab coat," Spiderman replied, tilting his head slightly. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I...I...oh god!" Dr Connors gasped. "That...that really happened? I had...I had..."

"Transformed into a giant and crazy lizard, yes," Spiderman confirmed. "Got to be honest, never thought I'd be attacked by a human lizard."

"I'm so sorry!" Dr Connors quickly apologised, looking horrified. "Did I...did I hurt anyone?"

"Just me, at least to the best of my knowledge," Spiderman replied.

"It's a miracle that nobody was killed," Dr Connors muttered to himself.

"You should feel lucky that nobody was killed, if they had been then I would have dumped you in a police station," Spiderman responded.

"And why haven't you?" He asked, sounding ashamed.

"Because I know that wasn't you in control, you don't seem like the sort of guy who would intentionally harm somebody. You were trying to regrow your arm, weren't you?"

"I...yes, how did you know?" Dr Connors asked.

"I'm smart like that," Spiderman shrugged. "From now on, I recommend you don't test experiments on yourself. The last thing I want is to go another round with you, agreed?"

"Agreed," Dr Connors nodded his head tiredly before Spiderman dropped down to his feet.

"Dr Connors, I probably should take you to jail, but I won't," Spiderman said. "I know you have a wife and son and I don't want to remove you from their lives, I'm willing to keep quiet about this if you are. If you think for even a moment that you might go lizard again then I want you to get help, contact whoever you need to contact."

"Yes, you're right," Dr Connors quickly agreed. "If I even think I'll turn again then I'll get help. But...I will be studying my body to make sure there are no ill effects from what has happened."

"I've no problem against that," Spiderman agreed. "I was able to stop your scaly half, but I have no guarantees that he won't resurface sometime soon. I'll get you a burner phone soon so you contact me if you need to. Now, I'd advise getting your health checked out by a doctor, I wouldn't tell them that you were a lizard though. Either way, it was nice to meet you," Spiderman said, holding out a hand for him. "Wish it was in better circumstances though."

"Likewise," Dr Connors sighed, shaking his head before he shook Spiderman's hand. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done."

"Don't worry about it, it's what I do," He shrugged before he turned and walked towards the window. "Good luck, Doc." He added before jumping out.

"Boy," Dr Connors slumped into his seat. "This has been hectic."

"Hmm," Harry hummed thoughtfully.

He was currently in his room and had shed his Spiderman costume and had hidden it away before simply putting on a pair of tracksuit bottoms, he let out a small sigh as he thought about what had just happened. Part of him had been very tempted to drop Dr Connors off to a police station, but he had stopped himself from doing so. Partly because he didn't think that the good doctor deserved to be in a jail cell since the man hadn't intended to hurt anyone and didn't really do anything too horrible apart from scaring the crap out of people and some property damage, though it was possible that he may have eaten a few of the animals at the zoo. Besides, if Harry could forgive Ginny Weasley for the petrification's in his second year then he could surely forgive Dr Connors for a bad result from trying to regain an arm.

But Harry also recognised that his decision was mainly due to the fact that he didn't want to throw Dr Connors in jail, Harry had always found the man to be smart but also kind, and as far as Harry was concerned he didn't really deserve to be put in jail, even if he knew that other people might disagree.

Harry picked up one of his books and tossed it on his bed, he aimed his hand at it and concentrated.

"Wingardium leviosa," He whispered, staring intently at the book.

...

...

...

"I said 'Wingardium leviosa'," He said in an irritated voice as he tried to will the book to levitate up into the air, however, it didn't move even a millimetre, much to Harry's annoyance. Harry glared at the book before trying several more times with the same result each and every time. "There's only one possible conclusion for why this doesn't work," Harry realised a few moments later. "The book is clearly racist." He huffed just before his phone began ringing.

"What's the up?" Harry asked casually as he answered the phone.

"Harry," Peter's voice spoke into his ear. "How's Dr Connors?"

"He's fine, for now," Harry answered.

"How did you stop him anyway?" Peter asked.

"I'll tell you at school," Harry yawned. "Either way, I'm going to sleep now, I'll see you soon."

"Okay, cool, I'll see you at school."

"Sure," Harry agreed just as a smirk came onto his face. "Say goodnight to your aunt for me." He added.

"Oh, you motherfuc..." Harry quickly cut the call before Peter could finish.

"So you can talk to snakes?" Gwen asked as the trio sat together in a corner of a school canteen.

"Yeah," Harry nodded awkwardly. "I used to be able to do it before but I hadn't done it in years so I didn't know if I still could."

"Wait, before the spider bite?" Peter whispered. "How does that work? I thought the bite was what gave you your powers."

"I may or may not have had some powers before that," Harry quietly admitted.

"What? Like what?" Gwen asked.

"I used to be able to levitate things," Harry shrugged. "But I can't really do that anymore."

"Why not?"

"Beats me," Harry shrugged, he himself hadn't worked out why his spell wasn't working. His best working theory was that it was because he didn't have a wand. In this life, his mind had always been mature enough that he hadn't ever experienced accidental magic, nor had he really been in any experience that would have generated sufficiently powerful emotions for him to experience accidental magic.

He knew that wandless magic was possible, he had seen Dumbledore do it a few times over the years. But the problem was, Harry was no Dumbledore, that man was over a hundred years old with decades of experience in magic. Harry had a total of nearly five years of actively trying to use magic and that had all been whilst using a wand.

"And how were you able to do that?" Peter asked curiously. Harry turned to Peter and looked him dead in the eye.

"Magic," He answered simply.

"Fine, don't tell us." Peter rolled his eyes before looking down at his food. Harry was slightly amused by his response, but not enough to not notice the calculating look that Gwen was giving him.

"By the way guys, my father will be hosting a party at Oscorp next week," Harry said, wanting to change the topic. "You guys are both invited if you want to come, your parents/guardians can come as well."

"I'll talk to them," Peter shrugged.

"And don't think we're going to forget about your extra powers," Gwen told him, giving him a mild glare.

"Fine," Harry sighed. "But can we leave it for later?"

"Fine," Gwen said after a few moments. "By the way, have you seen what the Daily Bugle has been saying about you?"

"What the hell did I do?" Harry blinked.

"She means the other you," Peter explained as he reached into his school bag and pulled out a newspaper before tossing it to Harry.

Harry caught it and frowned as he saw the front page held a picture of him battling the lizard, Harry's frown only got worse as he continued to read the article. The paper mentioned the Lizard's attack and the damage that was caused, but it also appeared to be trying to pin the majority of the blame on Spiderman for everything. The paper even tried to blame him for it being there along with several other accusations.

"What the fuck is this bullshit?" Harry said after having finished reading the article.

"I don't think they like you," Peter said simply.

"Yes, I can see that, Sherlock," Harry rolled his eyes. "But what the fuck?"

"Yeah, I know, it's nice," Gwen shrugged. "But it's not like we can do much about it, what are you going to do? Sue them? You can't do that without revealing your identity."

"Yeah, but I could..." Harry stopped and paused. "...No, actually scratch that, the idea I had was fairly illegal."

"It's not like this is a massive problem though," Gwen added. "I mean, you didn't go into this for the fame after all."

"I suppose you're right," Harry sighed, this wasn't the first time a newspaper organisation had tried to attack him, truth be told, he just found it annoying at this point. "At least they're going after the other me." He added.

"Yes, but that could reduce the firing rate," Harry frowned as the trio walked to their next lesson.

"It's a shame we can't work all of your father's resources," Peter sighed, thinking of how much better Harry's webshooters would be if they weren't so limited in what they could use.

"Well, it's not like we can keep stealing from his father," Gwen pointed out.

"You know what, fuck it, I'm going to ask Dad for a lab," Harry said before pausing. "That sounded very nerdy and spoilt, I apologise for that." He added just as they turned the corner. "Oh, crap baskets," Harry said under his breath as the trio stopped and found themselves face to face with Chloe and Lita.

"Hello, Harry," Chloe said in a cold voice.

"Um...wagwan," Harry said after a short pause.

"So, you want to explain to me what happened on our date?" She glared at him as she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Not much to explain, is there?" Harry shrugged. "Your friends and you were being unreasonable and I left, simple really."

"We were not being unreasonable, you were!" Chloe said angrily while some nearby students had stopped so they could 'subtly' listen in to the conversation. "You should have just paid for the dinner!"

"I was willing to pay for you, but what I was not willing to do is pay for your friends as well, I ain't a damn bank account." Harry glared at her. "And you know damn well that I didn't agree to pay for everyone."

"Yeah, well how were we supposed to know that you were such a cheapskate?" Lita scoffed.

"Short pier, long walk bitch," Harry said, aiming his glare at her.

"Oi, don't talk to her like that!" Chloe cut in.

"Then tell her to butt out," Harry replied, bringing his attention back to her. "Let me ask you something, Chloe, when you asked me out, was it because you actually liked me or were you just interested in my money?" He asked, focusing his hearing on her heartbeat.

"Why would you even ask that?!" Chloe said in an offended voice.

"Answer the question," Harry said, staring directly at her.

"I didn't just ask you out for your money," She said whilst rolling her eyes at him.

Harry frowned, despite what she said he had heard her heartbeat and it had told him that she was lying. He wasn't sure how accurate this lie-detecting method was but in this moment he didn't really care since he really didn't want anything more to do with her at this point.

"You see, I don't really believe you," Harry shrugged. "And quite frankly, I don't want to date you anymore."

"Are you kidding me?!" She screeched. "You're dumping me?!"

"Don't think we ever got to a point where this could be considered dumping, but yeah, pretty much." Harry nodded. "I thought we had something, but now I realise we don't, so I suggest you go your way and I'll go mine. We're through."

"Damn, that's cold," Peter whispered to Gwen.

"Is this because of her?!" Chloe said accusingly whilst pointing at Gwen.

"We're not together, you twit," Gwen glared at the girl.

"It's not because of her, simply because you and I are not meant to be," Harry sighed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, we've got stuff to do. Bye-Bye." Harry told her and walked past her before she could respond while Peter and Gwen followed after him.

"You okay?" Gwen asked Harry.

"Honestly, I'm fine, mostly just annoyed that I wasted my time with her." Harry sighed.

"From what I've heard, bad dates happen," Peter commented. "You just got to wait until you meet the right woman, you never know when it can happen."