Chapter 42: Interactions

Chapter TextChapter Forty Two: Interactions. 

Harry took a moment to take a few strides towards his destination. The young wizard took a few steps forward to the law offices that he took his trip towards. He hoped that this lawyer would be able to assist him with Wanda. Whilst he managed to make some concessions with getting her out of that place a lot more often, legally there was only so much he could do. Illegally, there was a lot he could do but eliminating the paper trail would be a problem. And if he missed one scrap of paper, that would mean the wrong people looking ofr him.

He sat out in the room outside of the office, before his arms crossed before he tapped his foot on the ground and waited. He heard the music playing in the background, before the door opened and an aide walked out.

"Ms. Walters will see you now," the aide stated in a bright and sunny voice.

Harry smiled, before he walked into the office of his attorney. Her fees seemed rather reasonable, providing of course she could help him. That was the problem, finding an attorney that was worth their salt. He inclined his head, before he closed his eyes and continued to walk forward towards the office, crossing his arms.

"Mr. Potter."

Harry stopped at the desk, with a young woman, maybe not five or six years older than him. She had dark hair and glasses, with a conservative business suit.

"Jennifer Walters," the woman stated in a businesslike tone of voice. She eyed Harry before a thought reached her mind. "I believe you've met my cousin."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Your cousin?"

Jen smiled before she decided to clue Harry in on the fact. "Big, green, smashes things a lot, you know a guy that you wouldn't like when you were angry."

Harry realized that immediately. "So your cousin is...Banner."

"Yeah, that's a talking point at family gatherings," Jen stated with a smile before she looked at Harry and cleared her throat. "Down to business, I believe we have a few things to discuss about Ms. Maximoff and her future."

Harry decided that was for the best, after all that was the reason why they were here.

"I must admit, Wanda's case is rather intriguing and odd, especially given the circumstances she was sent to the Asylum," Jen answered when she looked at Harry through a pair of narrowed eyes.

Harry waited to see what she found odd about it and his lawyer was not about to let him down.

"She was sent there when she was seven years old, if I'm not mistaken," Jen responded when she looked at Harry and the young wizard responded with a crisp nod. "Yes, and you've included in your claim that the drugs were causing her to lose more control of her powers, not gain them."

"I have words from an expert, no less than the Sorcerer Supreme, that the drugs in her system has caused her to lose all control of his powers," Harry answered, showing the written statement of Strange to his lawyer. "And if you want to talk to him, I'm sure he'll give you more information. She might have been trained up properly by now if they hadn't been drugging her."

Harry paused before he added.

"Thankfully I was able to convince them to stop the dosages but there was still damage that was done."

"So do you think that you can get the Asylum for negligence?" Jen asked and Harry shrugged his shoulders before he dove into a further explanation.

"That's not high on my list of priorities, I wouldn't expect a group of mundanes to understand the type of magic that Wanda has. It's beyond their studies, their capabilities to understand, and they treated her powers like some kind of medical disorder, some sickness. I don't know what her father told them, if anything, if they dropped her off and run."

Jen rubbed her chin in thought before she took a moment to think.

"That could be a concern but the problem is her guardian, Raven Darkholme," Jen stated when she looked at Harry.

Harry nodded; he understood that to be a problem as well.

"A problem I've managed to figure out how to deal with," Harry answered when he threw the papers down on the table. "Here is evidence supporting crimes that she did, so she wouldn't be a fit guardian. Many of them involve murder and blackmail."

Jen looked over the information Harry obtained, with a raised eyebrow and a smile on her face when she flicked over everything. She tapped the book on the side of the table, before she read through the information.

"Also, I'm certain that we could get records of the dosages and how they may have been potentially fatal if Wanda hadn't had her powers," Harry added when he looked at the lawyer.

"As long as you don't do anything too shifty to get them," Jen answered but Harry offered an innocent smile, before he twisted his head around.

"I don't know what you could be implying."

Jen smiled back at them but she read the information, it was hard to believe some of this information but in her line of work, she was not surprising. She dealt with a few weird cases in her short time as a lawyer. "I believe that with this information, we can get the custody of Wanda transferred over you by the end of the summer."

Harry thought that fit into his timetable quite nicely, he was about ready to leave the Xavier Institute, making that announcement officially at the end of August. He had a place lined up where he would be setting up shop, although it was more of an unofficial headquarters for now until he got everything outfitted out. Although that unofficial headquarters would be his base of operations as far as the general public was concerned, he was setting up another base that was more private and exclusive, with a portal in between the two of them that could be only accessed by him and people he keyed it. It needed three elements, blood, a password, and the brainwave patterns of the person keyed in. Magic could do a lot of things. Even with that, Harry felt a bit more security was necessary. There were a million things to do between now and then, and Harry hoped to get everything lined up properly.

As for Wanda, well he got her out of there every weekend, and gave her plenty to do during the week. The doctors in that place left her alone for the most part, which was a good thing, because she had her share of bad memories. Harry saw flashes of the doctors tying her down and injecting various drugs into her system.

That was a horrifying thought but one that Harry would ensure was a thing for the past for her.

"We'll have another meeting next week when I have more information," Jen answered when she looked at Harry.

Harry smiled back at her. "Looking forward to it."

This was going to be one of those days where Harry hoped everything was going to turn out for the best, even though he suspected there was some kind of dark storm cloud hovering over everything.

Adapting to the modern life was a challenge for Captain America but one that he hoped to deal with. Life in the year 2001 was most certainly different from the year of the 1940s. He stood outside of the Danger Room in the Xavier Institute, standing next to Logan, with a smile on his face when he surveyed the group inside.

"It's weird how the world has changed," Steve stated when he looked at Logan.

Logan's eyes narrowed and a grin cracked over his face. "I've lived every year since the 1940s and before, and I still find it weird, so you're in good company, Cap."

Logan's eyes snapped towards the Danger Room when he watched the New Mutants. He had to give Harry credit, he really made something out of these kids. They weren't the best in the world but there were far worse people in there and far worse people who could train them.

"Not too bad," Steve responded when he watched them. "Some of them...well a couple of them tend to take their eye off the ball. But you'd get that on any team."

"Yeah, the ice cube," Logan grunted, knowing who his old friend was talking about, when he turned around and watched everything.

"So where is the leader?"

"Depends on what one you're talking about," Logan answered, sure Summers was there, hanging in the background but he had a sinking feeling that wasn't who Captain America was talking about.

"Arcane, young Mr. Potter, I don't think I have had a chance to properly talk to him when we're not getting killed," Steve stated and Logan turned before he nodded.

"Well, Potter's always busy with something, doing something," Logan stated before he mentally added "or someone", before he cleared his mind and turned his head a little bit. "He'll be around. So are the Avengers getting off the ground?"

Captain America mulled this over in his mind. "We're...well a team isn't built in a day and we've had our share of growing pains."

"You don't say," Logan answered when he stopped and stared.

"That's for sure."

Harry turned up, looking rather tense but pleased all things considered.

"I figured you'd be showing up sometime soon," Logan commented without taking his eyes off of the action.

"It's good to see you again," Captain America agreed when he turned towards Harry.

"You as well," Harry said when he shook hands with the Spirit of America.

Harry did not say anything this entire time but actually he had been standing there the entire time during most of the training session. All he missed was the first couple minutes at the beginning, he crossed his arms when he closed his eyes and thought about everything. There were many things that they were doing right, more right.

He turned and could tell that Captain America made his share of notes in the back of his head, the team could benefit from the experience of someone like Captain America. He had been through many battles and many wars. The man's eyes looked forward and Harry offered a look towards him. He did not want to seem like that he was fishing for input but still to have the input of someone like this old soldier would allow Harry to see what still needed to be done. While he had a good amount of ideas what to do, there were instances where he thought he had a blind spot or two.

Fortunately, Captain America was all too ready to tell him what was going to happen.

"They aren't doing too bad," Captain America admitted when he turned towards Harry. "The best thing is that you've got them to a point where they can function on their own without too many problems. There will be circumstances where you won't always be around to lead them. The strength of a team leader is not how well he leads them when he or she is there, but rather how well the team functions when the leader is absent."

Were they going through their growing pains, yes they were? Harry knew that, Logan knew that, Cap knew that, and every single member of the team who was on the senior squad and many of the new recruits knew that.

It was all about practice, all about making sure that they got the most out of everything.

"And that's a wrap," Logan stated when the new recruits staggered out. "A new record, none of you passed out, well done."

Harry cracked a slight smile in amusement. Some of them looked sick, with Jubilee and Sunspot being the two key offenders.

"Great, wonderful," Jubilee stated, when she hung onto the wall and panted heavily.

"No sweat," Boom Boom remarked but she got a few looks from her teammates that insisted that this was the wrong thing today. "Okay, maybe a little bit of sweat."

"Nah, we nailed it pretty good, didn't we?" Iceman asked when he looked at them with a smug expression, but in reality his knees barely were able to hold his weight.

"You'll get my notes later, as always and I'm sure Logan will have a few words for you all," Harry stated and Logan nodded.

"Not bad but you need a bit more focus in there and you need to quit tripping over each other," Logan stated.

"It only happened once..."

"Once is what kills ya."

No one could argue with that statement from Logan but Steve took a moment to chuckle, Logan never changed. Some might say that the years mellowed people out but with Logan, the inverse was true. The years did not mellow him out at all, they made him more grizzled.

"Now, you have potential," Steve stated when he looked at them all and they listened to him, their ears wide open and with wide eyes. "Out on the battlefield, it's good to listen to your leader but there can be a problem. There are times where the leader does not have the right answers or even if he is indisposed. If you wish to go against orders, you got to justify it and improvise."

Iceman decided to be the one to ask the question. "When do we know?"

"Trust me, you'll know," Captain America responded but he then paused and amended. "You need to creatively engaging your surroundings. There will be times where there will be nothing around you but the clothes on your back or so it seems. Anything can be used as a tactical advantage; you need to master everything around you."

The new recruits nodded in rapt attention, not blinking, but rather they soaked in all of the knowledge from Captain America. It was them sitting underneath the learning tree and absorbing all of the morsels of information that he offered them.

Harry smiled, he would like to pick Captain America's brain himself but that was going to have to be at another time. He returned to make his observations but he had other things on his mind.

"Amazing, simply amazing...I know I've said that before, but that's amazing."

Gwen continued to pour over the Sinister data, although there was a lot of it that remained a mystery. It was very extensive all things considered.

"Well, he's dedicated to his work," Harry remarked with a smile when he sat down next to Gwen in her room, in the second chair beside her computer. "The last data he got was of Rachel and Jean, before we pulled the plug."

Gwen decided to voice something she had been thinking. "He's got to have more backups, more data, lying around somewhere. This can't be the extent of the data he's collected, someone that's been around that long..."

Harry agreed, Sinister would have to have more, much more, a lot more in fact. He collected a lot over the centuries that he had been on Earth. His eyes closed when he thought about everything that he went through in order to get this much data.

"Well we know what's on the line, I think," Gwen responded when she worked through the data before her, clicking through one line after another. "And that's...look at Rachel's DNA."

Harry decided to look at it, granted he was not the most adapt in understanding science, although he did hold his own more often than not. Still he did wonder what he was supposed to be looking at. Was Gwen going to clue him in on that fact or not?

"See these DNA strands, they're unique, she's...I don't know where she came from," Gwen answered when she closed her eyes and mulled over the possibilities. "I think that wherever she came from, she's been experimented on, no human DNA is quite like this, at least none that I've seen. She matches up pretty well with Jean."

Harry smiled; Gwen really had no idea how well she matched up with her. Although looking at the DNA strands, things tended to get curious and curiouser the more he read everything. He blinked when he looked at everything and thought about the enigma that was Rachel Grey. He found that her DNA was unique.

Rachel's DNA seemed to be a pretty good match to Jean, although Harry saw under trace DNA elements in her strands. His eyes widened when he saw what was there but said nothing.

It was too weird to be a coincidence, but he then figured that he should not believe in coincidences. Especially after everything that happened, all of the weird things that he went through during his life. Of course, he could be misreading things, science was not his thing.

Gwen answered her cell phone when it rang. "Hey...yeah Peter. Your aunt finally decided that there was no excuse and set you up on that date. Well...that's great, yeah I'm here hanging out with a friend, so what if it's Harry, what's that to you? Yeah...well good look with Mary Jane, hopefully her personality is as wonderful as Aunt May says it is. I'm sure you'll have a great time. Don't get into trouble...yeah things have been very quiet on the super hero front. Talk to you later, bye."

Gwen hung up the phone.

"Pete's just being what Pete is," Gwen offered with a shrug, he carried the guilt of his uncle's murder with him for longer than anyone should. "So let's get back down to business, I think we've got everything, unless there are some hidden files."

Gwen and Harry spent a few more moments looking over everything. Harry spotted Gwen bending over slightly, showing a little bit of her cleavage in the tight black top that she wore. Whether she was doing that intentionally or not, Harry had no idea but it sure got his attention. Harry looked at Gwen and the attire that she was wearing.

She wore a short black tank top that showed her slender shoulders and cleavage. She had a nice chest as well, as the top was strained against it. His eyes traveled down to the sexy belly button that she had, along with the tight jean shorts that stretched around her legs.

Gwen wondered if she got Harry's attention, she wore a short top and tight jean shorts today for the explicit purpose of getting Harry's attention after all. She decided that it was time to move on and when he mentioned his powers, her scientific curiosity was indulged.

Harry thought that his attention was grabbed quite nicely, although it was a shame that he had a few things that he had to do.

"This took a lot longer than I thought it would," Gwen remarked in a tense and tired voice, before she spun around and stretched a little bit, to cause her shirt to ride up and show more skin. "The two of us, we should get together sometime...without going through a madman's data and figuring out what's on it."

"How about Saturday?" Harry asked her, feeling that it would be the best time.

"It's a date," Gwen offered with a smile, knowing that she was finally going to make certain dreams she had over the past few weeks become a reality. She thought of all of the things that Harry could do with her and she talked with Kitty about it. Whilst Kitty was too explicit, there was something about the brunette's words that build up a certain amount of anticipation in Gwen's mind.

She could hardly wait and she could tell that Harry could not either. If she did not know that he had some plans he had to get to soon, she would have jumped him now but good things came to those who waited.

Gwen needed a shower at the thoughts she had.

Kitty thought one of the joys in life that many took for granted was a nice and quiet peaceful evening, hanging out with friends, without anyone killing them. Okay, maybe some people would not even think of the anyone killing them part. However, the near death experiences were something that was completely with the territory of being an X-Men. It offered an amount of excitement and danger that Kitty could hardly believe. But yet despite all that, she would not have things any other way.

Currently, she sat, with her head on Harry's shoulder, his arm wrapped around her. Rogue sat on the other side, with Jean and Rachel near them. Amara sat there as well, and Wanda, here for her weekend visit, sat there. Despite not being a member of the group, at least officially, she was always welcomed.

Wanda thought about the strange last few weeks she had been having, to be honest, she was glad that things improved at the Asylum, even though it was only a slight bit.

"Thank you for having me over and being a part of this," Wanda stated, she was far calmer than she was. Providing that her father and brother were not brought up in any form of the conversation, that was still a sticking point that she had to work on with her temper.

That was something that Harry obliged her with. Pietro and the other members of the Brotherhood were locked up by SHIELD for their actions. Fury made a comment that he would make something out of them although Harry had no idea what that meant.

"Wanda, it isn't a problem at all," Kitty offered, speaking for Harry. "You've had a rough life and soon Harry will get you out."

Wanda hoped so but she could not help but think that everything was not going to be that easy. She feared that her father and Mystique would make things harder than they needed to be with getting her out of that place. Mystique more so.

Rogue frowned, she knew Mystique had custody of Wanda, legally, although not for long. She could attest to how Mystique messed with a person's mind but Mystique was pretty messed up herself. "We're going..."

"Yeah we're going to figure out everything," Rachel stated and Rogue offered her a frown.

"I hate it when you read my mind like that," Rogue stated, offering a bit of a pout, which looked ucharacteristic on her.

Rachel offered a shifty smile before she looked back at Rogue. "Sorry."

"No problem," Rogue offered but Harry thought about everything.

His powers were stronger but he held them back. Actually the reason he held them back was quite simple, he did not want the full scope of his powers to somehow get back to an extremely powerful enemy. Harry sensed that there was something dangerous in the offing and he would need that trump card.

Then the dreams, those dreams, he could not really piece them together, although a field featured in them prominently once again. And there was a ritual that he underwent when he was younger, blood was involved.

A whisper from Lily indicated that he was her miracle child.

He shook his head, these dreams got more weird but he was not about to share them. The last thing he wanted was his sanity questioned.

"Harry?" Kitty asked and Harry turned around towards her.

"I'm fine, really I am," Harry offered to Kitty and she frowned. "Just thinking about everything that's happened lately."

"A lot's been happening since you've been here," Jean offered when she looked at Harry and he could not resist asking the question that hung in the air between them all like a bad stench.

"Have you talked to Scott since we got together?"

Jean decided to offer an honest answer. "As friends, not really, as teammates, we spoke a few times yes. Scott needs to understand that everything is not going to go his way."

That was a harsh statement perhaps one might say but it was an accurate one.

"He had his hopes set on us but..." Jean offered but her voice trailed off. She was too polite to say anything negative.

Rachel on the other hand, had no such tact. "He's a bit of a dick and he'll only get worse."

Jean frowned but Kitty, Rogue, Amara, and even Wanda broke out into laughter. "I'm not sure if I would put it quite that way but..."

"You can't deny that it's true," Rachel offered when she looked at Harry.

Harry smiled back at her, choosing his next words rather carefully. He tried to keep the team together because he had this funny feeling that the X-Men would crumble apart when he left. Yet he would not be a slave to staying around out of obligation. He wanted Scott to stand up for something but he had a feeling that he was more of a figurehead for Xavier than anything. He hated to admit that but it was the truth.

"Scott will be what Scott is."

"A dick?" Rachel asked but Wanda looked at her, a smile crossing her face. She smiled a lot more around Harry.

"And Harry lets you to kiss him with that mouth."

Rachel offered a saucy grin before she turned to Wanda. "Harry allows me to do many things with this mouth, thank you very much."

"Okay, need not know any more," Wanda answered with Kitty shaking her head in amusement.

"It is nice, getting together without having someone try and kill us," Kitty answered when she looked at them all.

Harry heard foosteps and Scott approached them, he dragged his feet nervously from behind him. Jean decided to be cool about his presence at first. It was obvious that there was some kind of unspoken agreement.

"Harry, can I speak to you for one moment?" Scott asked but Kitty and Rogue got up, sensing there was some trouble.

"It's alright, Scott couldn't do anything against me," Harry offered, with Scott wondering if that was a statement of trust or a slight jab at his lack of abilities. Or perhaps some combination of both tied together.

Harry and Scott walked off with the two of them staring each other down. Harry paused and invited him to speak and speak was what he did.

"You won."

That was a strong declaration, not to mention extremely bold and brash. Harry wondered what he won about and his eyebrow raised. He took a moment to look at Scott, towering over him a little bit. Or perhaps it was because Scott slumped over in a defeated posture, it was kind of hard to tell really.

"With Jean..."

"Please do not imply that Jean was some trophy to be won in a contest," Harry answered, not liking his tone but Scott shook his head, he decided to try a different track.

"No, no, of course not," Scott answered, backtracking quickly. "It's just that...that with my leadership skills not the best, I figure that it's the best that I focus on that and not about any relationship drama. I don't know how you can handle that."

Harry offered a swift declaration. "If you have to ask, you'll never know."

Scott figured that statement was going to come out of Harry's mouth. "So do you..."

"Scott, it's healthier for all if you drop this and just do whatever you need to do to get your head on straight," Harry answered when he looked at Scott. "Trust me, if you don't have your head out there in battle, you'll get it blown off."

One could consider that statement to be mean but it was apt.

"Right and..."

Scott had nothing else left to say and Harry for sure did not have anything left to say to him.

"See you in training, I guess," Scott offered but he turned around. He did wonder if Jean would be following Harry out the door. Perhaps she could stay because of her loyalty to Xavier and this relationship she had with Harry was some kind of parting fling. He could reassess this situation later.

Scott would have to wait and see.

"So what was that all about?" Jean asked when Harry returned.

"Scott decided to concede defeat," Harry stated when he sat down and explained it to them.

"Like he had any chance," Kitty murmured underneath her breath. She hoped that Scott would pull his head out of his ass and soon because he was being a liability for their team.

Even though the Red Skull was taken down, there were a few pockets of HYDRA that were still around. Black Widow, as she always was, vowed to put them on the endangered species list. She slid forward a little bit, pulling out a communicator device.

"I'm at one of the final HYDRA bases on this list that we got from Sin," Natasha remarked when she saw them scurrying around like ants outside. "The game is afoot."

"Keep us posted, Widow, Hawkeye is on his way," Fury responded through the communication link.

"Understood," Black Widow stated with a small inclination of her head and a smile on her face.

"I might not be Hawkeye, but I'm sure I can give you a hand or two."

Natasha jumped a little bit when she saw Harry show up, dressed in a black overcoat, with a white t-shirt and blue jeans. His face was obscured to any that he did not trust, it was a handy bit of charm work and it also offered a slight distortion of his voice. He knocked down several of the scurrying HYDRA agents and summoned their weapons.

"I wondered when you would show up," Natasha stated when she closed her eyes and flipped into the air.

"I'm sure you did," Harry offered when he rolled his shoulders and blew a blue light towards the pods. "HYDRA, they won't die."

"Thankfully Sin is willing to part with information, in exchange for a suspended sentence," Black Widow responded when she turned around.

"The Brotherhood are still under lock and key?" Harry asked and Black Widow nodded in affirmation.

"Commander Fury believes that they can be of some use but they need to cool their heels for a while," Black Widow stated when she shocked one of the enemies. "A good work out, isn't it?"

"I'm sure we can have a better work out after this mission," Harry offered and Natasha smirked back to him.

"I'm sure, but I have taken out more pods than you have," she fired back.

Harry was not going to let that one go without a fight. "That remains to be seen."

Natasha grinned, her competitive fire not extinguished by any means, when she knocked through the pods that she had to face. They blew up and Hawkeye popped up, followed by Mockingbird.

"Sorry we're late," Hawkeye stated when he looked over his shoulder.

"You just got here in time for clean up, something you have experience in," Harry answered without skipping a beat and blasting the pods. Hawkeye gave an exasperated look while Mockingbird snickered by his side. "I think that's another HYDRA base that's down."

"That's the last one, but knowing HYDRA, there will be more," Black Widow stated when she remembered what Sin mentioned. HYDRA was working on replicating powerful strains of DNA, although this base was something that the Red Skull did not tell his daughter about.

"Let's clean up, I guess," Hawkeye stated, he barely was able to fire one arrow but hey, it was another HYDRA base destroyed that they would not be able to use.

"Erik, I do think that now comes a time where we should stand together so we could not drift apart."

Xavier sat across with Magneto at a park, in a neutral territory, both men placing chess when they stared each other down.

"Do any of your students know that you are meeting with me, Charles?" Magneto asked his counterpart across from them. He added another statement. "For that matter, does your staff?"

"No this meeting is strictly known by you and I, I don't know how you escaped the SHIELD prison," Xavier responded but Magneto responded by staring down Xavier through narrowed eyes.

"That's something that I will never tell."

Xavier nodded in response. "Very well then...my students have come across the mutant known as Mesmero, stealing three discs and he got the key."

"If he got the key, that means we are one step closer to the apocalypse that Adler foretold," Magneto responded, not mincing his words for a second.

"Yes, I will not deny that we are in a situation where we will need to work together," Xavier responded when he looked at Magneto.

"Or all of mutant kind needs a strong leader, which needs to do what is best for us all," Magneto responded, implying that he thought that Xavier's recent leadership skills left something to be desired.

Xavier thought about it, oh boy did he think about it, and he feared that there was going to come a time where they were going to stand together or they would fail. The X-Men, as much as they were trained, were not quite ready to fight what was to come. The dangerous force before them was something that Xavier barely fathomed in his mind.

"Are you ready to make the ultimate decision?" Magneto asked Xavier and there was a pause.

Xavier could not answer that question straight away; the ultimate decision was one that he hoped that he would not have to make ever. There came a time where he thought about everything and realized that time was running out to do the right thing. In fact, one could argue that the right thing might not even be the right thing any longer.

"I do not know, ask me again when the time comes."

"When the time comes, it may be too late."

Xavier paused and looked on with a grimace. "I certainly hope not but I fear you may be right."

There was no more than what needed to be said at that statement as the friendly chess game continued.