Chapter Ten

Harry's breath puffed a white cloud of mist into the air as he hurried down the grounds to the Whomping Willow. When it came time to decide where to meet Superman for training, it was immediately decided that they needed a location out of view from the castle, in case any curious students happened to look out their windows before breakfast.

The wizard suggested the Shrieking Shack as few knew of its secrets, so no one would question the odd noise that came from it, and Superman already knew how to find it. So all Harry had to do was use his Invisibility Cloak to sneak out of the Tower and down to the tree, prod the root and sneak into the passage. A short, stooped jog later and he was opening the trap door.

Before he could climb out, a hand dropped in, startling him. "Good morning," Superman said, a grin on his face.

Harry accepted it and allowed the man to effortlessly yank him out of the passage.

"'Morning," he said sheepishly. "And thanks."

"It's no trouble," Superman said, his cape casually sweeping around his ankles as he walked through the destroyed living room. "This is... nice."

"I don't think it's ever been that," Harry admitted, kicking at a chair that had been torn apart. "One of my dad's school friends is a werewolf." At Superman's quirked eyebrow, the teen nodded and huffed a laugh. "Seriously. This is where he used to transform every full moon, while he was in school." He lifted a piece of the curtains that had been ripped to shreds. "No one uses it anymore, so I thought it would be a good place for us to work."

Superman eyed the ragged curtains that covered the windows. "Good thinking," he said. "Let's start with seeing what you can do so far." He then took a half step backwards, spreading his legs out and putting his fists up. "Hit me."

"Wha—really?" Superman nodded and Harry blinked. "Well, alright then," the teen said slowly, putting up uncertain fists.

He thrust out a jab, trying to put as much power as he could behind it. Superman barely shifted before his fist caught Harry's punch with a short smack. "Not bad," the man said, letting go. "But stop trying to put power behind it. When you punch, drive from your hip and let your body weight drive your fist forward."

At Harry's nod, Superman lined up again and waited. Harry adjusted and tried again. This time, his fist impacted Superman's hand with a loud, low thwump and a short gust of air. Superman rocked back slightly and smiled. "It's getting there," he said. "Again." With more confidence, Harry punched again. Superman still caught the punch, but the force pushed him to take a step back to keep his balance. "Better." The man smiled. "You've got the strength. Now we just have to work on dialing it up and back."

Harry grinned.

Ron tromped down the dormitory staircase, yanking his robes over his head. He stumbled blindly when he misjudged the step and tripped—only to be caught by a pair of hands.

"Honestly, Ron!" His bushy-haired friend muttered before tugging his robes down. When his eyes were finally exposed, they set upon Hermione's twinkling brown orbs. "One of these days, you're going to break your neck."

"Nah," he joked, "you or Harry will save me first." He looked around. "Speaking of, where is he?"

"Again?" Hermione sighed exasperatedly.

Ron shook his head. "This is the third time this week," he complained. "I thought he'd come down early to finish an essay or something 'cause his bag is gone, but..." He gestured to the empty common room. "Where do you reckon he keeps going so early in the morning?"

"Isn't that the question?" She threw up her hands. "Well, we better get a move on if we want to have any breakfast," she suggested. "Come on."

The two Gryffindors made their way to the Great Hall. It was practically bubbling with the chatter of hungry students... except Harry. As they sat and started filling their plates, Hermione looked around, as if to discover him hiding behind a Slytherin.

"If you had to guess, where do you think he is?" Ron asked through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

She shrugged. "Maybe he was telling the truth yesterday when he said he went to the library?" she offered weakly. Ron snorted into his pumpkin juice.

"No offense Hermione, but you're the only one who's mad enough to go to the library before class starts."

Hermione scowled, but swallowed her retort when a familiar face popped into the empty seat by Ron.

"Hi guys! Sorry I'm late!" Harry said, huffing breathlessly. Ron and Hermione came to a full stop as they took him in and shared a wide-eyed look. "Oh Merlin, I'm starving!"

The black-haired wizard began shoveling heaping piles of everything onto his plate, almost enough to rival Ron. He then proceeded to clean his plate faster than either of his friends had ever seen him eat in the last five years of knowing him.

"Blimey, Harry!" Ron exclaimed, his toast hanging slightly out of his mouth.

"Huh?" Harry muttered, already filling his plate with seconds. He glanced at his friends and paused when he saw their faces. "What is it?"

"You..." Hermione squeaked. "Your glasses—"

"What about them?"

"They're not on your face!" Ron blurted out.

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Oh, right. Them." He gingerly pulled the round frames out of his robes and put them on. "Thanks for reminding me."

"Since when can you see without your glasses?" Hermione demanded, crossing her arms.

Ron swallowed a bite. "And where do you keep going before breakfast?" he asked.

Hermione nodded. "And since when can you eat more than Ron in half the time?"

Both boys stared at her. "What?" she defended, blushing. "It's a relevant question."

Harry looked around furtively before shaking his head. "Not here," he muttered lowly. "Come on."

He finished his pumpkin juice, grabbed an apple and swung his bag over his shoulder, quickly retreating to the doors. Hermione and Ron shared one look before scrambling after him, trying to be as innocent and inconspicuous as possible, not realizing that there were three suspicious sets of eyes following them from the Head Table.

"You're a what?"

"Harry, don't be silly. There's no such thing as aliens."

"Alright, what the hell are aliens?!"

"What do you call Superman?"

"He's just a man! He's probably a wizard doing odd tricks to impress the Muggles."

Harry scowled. "You said you believed me at Headquarters!"

"I believed that you said he could fly! Not that he was an actual alien! That's just mad!"

"He can fly without a broom."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Magical flight can occur without a broomstick, you know."

"He isn't exactly waving a wand around every time he does his 'tricks'," Harry pointed out.

She shrugged. "Maybe he's doing it wandlessly?"

"Wandless magic? Since when is that a thing?!"

"Americans are weird, you don't know," defended Hermione.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Hermione and Harry turned to a red-faced Ron who was breathing heavily. "What are you two talking about?" he demanded. "What are aliens? What has Superman got to do with this? And what do you mean you can fly without a broom?!"

The two Muggle-raised teens sighed. Harry waved to Hermione, as if to cede the explanations to her.

"Aliens are fictional beings that are not born on this planet, Ron," she explained, throwing a stern glance at Harry. "They are generally assumed to be non-human, and Muggles have often depicted them as short green men with large black eyes and telepathic abilities."

Harry snorted. "Those are Martians," he threw in helpfully, ignoring Hermione's vicious glare, "and they're actually quite tall with red eyes."

"You—"

"What's this about Superman, then?" Ron asked hastily, cutting off Hermione's argument.

"I told you over the summer: Superman is an alien. He was born on a planet called Krypton, billions of light-years away—" Harry explained.

"What's—"

"—A light-year is a how Muggles measure distance in space, Ron. Look, it's just really, really far, alright?" the half-Kryptonian huffed.

"Harry, you have to understand that that's just not possible," Hermione argued. "No Muggle has been able to travel beyond the Moon as yet—yes Ron, that has happened. I'll explain it to you later!—and you want us to believe that one of your parents—"

"—My dad."

"—your father, James Potter, traveled billions of light-years in a spaceship going faster than anything in existence because he was an alien?"

"From Krypton, yes."

Hermione swore, creatively enough that Ron stared at her in awe.

"You don't believe me."

"Of course I don't Harry! The technology doesn't exist yet!"

Harry groaned. "It did on Krypton! Superman said so."

"Don't you realize that you are getting all of this information from a man you didn't even know just a few months ago? How do you know any of this is true?"

"Because I've been to space," Harry said earnestly. He smiled at their dumbstruck faces. "On Saturday, when I said I'd gone to the Owlery before breakfast? I actually snuck out to the Shrieking Shack to meet Superman. He took me to a teleporter that brought me to the Justice League's satellite in space." Harry's eyes glazed over. "I saw the Earth, as big and as blue as you can imagine, just floating there in all of this black. I'm never going to forget that, as long as I live."

"You— He— What?!"

Harry nodded, trying not to laugh at the look on their faces. "Met a Martian too, from the actual Mars. His name is J'onn and he can read minds and travel through the floor just like the ghosts, but he's solid like you or me."

Ron waved a hand in front of Hermione's face but she didn't blink. "I think you broke her," he said, shaking his head. "Blimey."

"You don't seem that fazed by it," Harry offered.

Ron shrugged. "I don't understand it all, really," he admitted, scrunching his face in confusion. "So what's this mean? That you're half-alien?" Ron lit up with a grin. "You don't actually have green skin, right?"

Harry laughed. "No," he said. "I'll look the way I always have." He shrugged. "I'm just, I don't know, stronger than I've ever been? I broke stone the other day with my bare hands and I'm developing these powers, the same powers Superman has."

"Bloody hell," Ron muttered. "Does that mean you'll be able to fly without a broom?"

"Maybe one day?" Harry offered. "Superman says he couldn't until he was eighteen, but that I'm coming into my powers so fast that maybe it'll be sooner for me. We also don't know how being half-human will affect me. I'm not as strong or as fast as him. Could be, I never get all the powers he does."

"Or maybe you're just growing and it'll take a few years before you have all of them," Hermione offered weakly.

"Hermione! You're alive!" Ron teased, hugging her with one arm.

She snorted and pushed him away. "Very funny, Ron. But really Harry, what can you do?"

Harry grinned impishly.

A/N: Heheh, so this was unexpected. After posting Chapter 9, my brain was like 'HERE'S ALL THE THOUGHTS, GO!' and suddenly I found myself finishing Chapter 11. I was able to get it done and it actually is pretty good (enough to move on to Chapter 12), so I figured I would post Chapter 10, as promised. So here y'all go! Two chapters in one day! (Essentially). At least this makes it more fair, as the combined word count from 9 and 10 is more than Chapter 8.

Thanks so much to those who have already read and/or reviewed Chapter 9! I really appreciate your support and wish you all a great week ahead.