Muir Island

Mutant Research Center

Wednesday, July 31

The morning of his birthday, Harry didn't suspect a thing out of the ordinary. He'd gone to bed the night before without a worry in the world, his belly was full from a large and healthy supper, and he'd worn himself to exhaustion with the added benefits of physical exercises with Brian, Meggan, and the other more dexterous and physical-based mutants at the Center.

Sometimes he only kept track of it for the simple purpose of keeping up with his own age, occasionally drawing himself a birthday cake like he saw Dudley get every year. Not that he ate it or anything like that, but sometimes it was nice to make wishes on the depicted candles.

This year, his life was wholly different, more different than anything his life had ever resembled before. So he had no reason to draw himself a birthday cake and make wishes of drawn candles, because he literally had more than he could ever wish for even now.

Needless to say, he was very surprised when he got to the dining hall and the moment he stepped through the entrance, everybody in there shouted out loud, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!"

"AAHHH!" he screamed out loud, nearly charging the air with a plasma field, but he had enough control of his instincts to keep that from happening. He was grateful for that as when he saw what was before him, he nearly wept with joy. All of the Center's staff, the mutants there with him, some of the X-Men, and even Brian, Meggan and Hagrid were all there, standing around a rather large lightning-bolt shaped cake and a small pile of presents that could've rivaled anything Dudley ever got for any of his eleven birthdays.

He couldn't care less about the presents though, as his eyes were all on the people, every last one of them looking at him with friendship and even something akin to love in their eyes and faces. It blew every dream he'd ever had of a birthday clear out of existence.

"Thanks everyone," he finally said, choking up just a bit. "I don't know what to say."

"How about 'Don't let Jamie eat all of my birthday cake', to start with?" Forge offered.

"Good starting point," Harry agreed, getting over his overload of emotions and laughing a bit. "Madrox, stay the bloody hell away from my cake, and if you touch my presents, I'll set all the women loose on ya!"

"Oh, and how would you do that, half-pint?" Kitty argued back with the kid she was starting to view as a little brother. He was, as of today, only five years younger than her.

"Simple, promise to help you drag him and all his duplicates on a shopping spree and makeover," Harry answered without missing a beat.

"I'll be good!" Multiple Man squeaked out from the back of the room.

The whole room exploded in laughter as Harry raced forward to check out his, his birthday cake! It was almost unreal to the now eleven-year-old. And then the pile of presents, and all the people. Come to think of it, now that he was taking a second look around, he realized that he didn't know all of the people present.

Turning to the most noticeable of them all, Harry looked over at the almost as tall as Hagrid, strong looking blond man standing next to Brian. Noticing this, Brian stepped forward with the man to introduce him.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine. His name is Thor. Thor, Harry Potter," the superhero known as Captain Britain introduce the God of Thunder to the Boy Who Lived.

"Tis an honour to meet one such as yourself, young warrior," Thor bowed even with his waist.

"Nice to meet you," Harry replied politely, while holding out his hand.

"A pleasure as well," Thor accepted the small hand gently into his mighty fist. Neither could miss that the moment they touched, a bolt of lightning connected them and almost fused their hands together. Thor smiled and nodded his head at the young boy. "If you ever require Thor's presence, young warrior, simply cry out my name to the trembling heavens and ask for my help, and I shall be there to give it. It is my oath to you."

Surprised, Harry blinked, but smiled anyway and said impulsively, "Thank you. And if you ever need my help, just ask and I'll do my best too!"

More surprisingly, Thor did not laugh, instead he looked seriously down on the young mutant wizard and nodded his head again. "I am sure that you will, young warrior. I look forward to your future adventures."

Then he turned and let Brian introduce a few more people, most notably those that were still part of the 'we' of Meggan and Brian's group that he hadn't met yet, which included Brian's sister Betsy Braddock, codenamed Psylocke, and Alison Blaire aka Dazzler. It was also finally explained to him that Kitty, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Colossus' sister Illyana Rasputin were not members of the X-Men as Beast, Professor X and others were. With the exception of the girl that was only two years older than himself, they were actually apart of an England-based group called Excalibur.

After all of the introductions had been done, they all insisted on singing 'Happy Birthday' to him, with a multitude of humorous anecdotes thrown in by various parties, but it was all in good fun. Then, at the insistence of 2-to-1 voting, the cry went up for presents, so Harry decided to just grab the first one off the top of the pile, which actually happened to be a potted plant with a card tied to the pot, claiming it as being from Meggan.

"Wow," he breathed, taking in the long stalk and the vivid orange-red colors of the petals.

"It's a lily," Meggan said to him, smiling as he kept staring at the plant. "It likes you. Do you like it?"

Absently, he nodded, while answering just loud enough to be heard, "My mum's name was Lily..."

"Ah," Beast spoke as he came up behind the two, remarking on the plant, "Lilium bulbiferum, also called the Orange Lily, or Fire Lily. A most auspicious plant for a gift, and most lovely, I must admit."

"Thank you, Meggan," Harry said to the giver of the gift, and made sure to put the plant where it wouldn't get trampled on.

"Next! My gift!" Nightcrawler was unusually exuberant as he teleported from the pile to the ceiling, holding the gift out to Harry with a wide grin on his blue-skinned face.

"All right, all right," Harry laughed and opened the wrapping.

It went much like that for the rest of the time, some demanding he open their presents next, others simply waiting patiently for him to move through the pile, until he was to the last few gifts. They weren't all emotional stoppers like Meggan's gift had been, instead many were more useful, while others were just plain silly, but appreciated all the more because of it.

In the final count, as Jamie called it; Nightcrawler had given him a couple of books, which were called mangas, these were of a series called One Piece. Wanda got him a gyroscope looking device that she called a Sneak'o'scope, it sounded an alarm anytime somebody nearby was doing something untrustworthy towards the owner. In demonstration, Harry put it next to the cake and less than a minute later a high-pitched whistling sound erupted and everyone turned to look at Jamie sneaking a lick of the cake.

Brian gave him another series of mangas, well actually a set of several series, from Ranma ½, Dragonball, Ninja Scroll, Inu-yasha, BLEACH, and Naruto. Sean, on the other hand, gave him a single disc that they were both assured by Forge, held a comprehensive collection of numerous anime titles, and given that it was one disc and Banshee was saying there were over thirty-five complete series on that one disc, not counting the movies, the OVAs, and the Special Features, that's pretty impressive. Colossus got him a picture book and then three other 'How-to-draw' books, the latter in "How to draw Manga", "How to draw Anime", and "How to draw Superheroes" while the picture book, Harry was surprised to find individual images of numerous characters, all drawn anime/manga style, but what really surprised him was that they were all signed by Colossus as the artist. Illyana, almost embarrassed after her brother's gift, had him open hers, which was a simple figurine of a boy wizard waving a wand. It was beautiful, and Harry told her so, placing it next to his flower from Meggan.

Wolfsbane got him a set of herbal soaps, claiming she wasn't sure what to get him. Kitty, Betsy and Alison all got him clothes, but they fit and he needed more t-shirts and jeans anyway, so he thanked them, seeing as he'd never gotten more than Dudley's hand-me-downs before this. Moira got him what she called, "Some ole thing ah had lyin' around, gatherin' dust." It turned out to be one of the advanced medical scanners that they'd managed to beg off their alien allies, and only the fact that Beast and Forge both had an even more advanced model to play with was she allowed to hand it out. It was also simple to use, basically what was put into a field trauma kit for medics during any kind of conflict. Harry, while appreciating the value, hoped that he would never have to use it.

Beast and Forge actually gave him two gifts each, one of which was a combo gift from the two of them together, and then another gift for each of them. The one from both of them was a small little cube that had a big red button on the top of it. They explained that when he pressed that button, whatever room he was currently in would be transformed into it's own mini-Danger Room. It didn't have safety features or shielding, but it would let him keep up with basic exercises. It also acted as a personal holosuite, allowing Harry to pretty much go anyplace he desired just by pressing a button.

Beast also gave him a book, but not a manga unfortunately. It's title was "Compilation of William Shakespeare's Greatest Works" and it was the size of a small dictionary. Harry gave him a funny look afterwards, but Beast went on to explain that Shakespeare's words had done more to help him in coping with the harshness of reality in more ways than anyone else could imagine. Harry promised to read it. Eventually.

Forge, gave him a new pair of glasses, in three sets. When they came to the high-tech looking sunglasses, Forge immediately had him put them away, saying he'd explain later, while a few of the women were giving the older mutant some suspicious glares.

Jamie gave him another few issues of mangas that the others hadn't given him yet, and what was still missing from his collection, the others quickly filled in so that for every title that he owned, he had nearly every issue that was available to be bought. Hagrid, unfortunately couldn't add to his collection, but he did give him a neat little pouch that he called 'mokeskin' that anything that was placed in that pouch could only be removed by the one that placed it in there. Finally, Professor Xavier gave him another book, this one called "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White, saying he can read it whenever, but likewise with Beast, Charles had found it to be a much vaunted and valuable read.

Finally, after all the presents had been opened, they tore into the cake and other party food that had been gathered. Soon, the girls talked Harry into trying on a few of their gifts, and after that Sean talked everyone into an anime marathon and lead the way into the Big Screen Room, which was actually the briefing room, and Wanda took a moment to "demonstrate" the magic Harry would eventually be doing by transfiguring the conference table and a few other things into comfortable couches for them all to sit on. It surprised many there when Illyana pulled out her own wand and then transfigured her own chair into a plushy recliner.

"Are you going to Hogwarts too?" Harry couldn't help asking the older girl.

She smiled and shook her head, her Russian accent as thick as her brother's. "No, I am afraid I go to a different magic school. Russia is not as powerful as it once was, but we do have our magical elite, the same as everyone. Unfortunately, there are only three primary magic schools in all of Europe; Hogwarts, Beaubaxtons, and my school, Durmstrang. It is not so bad, though it is in the north, so it can be very cold at times. They're admissions are also very light, so I do not have to worry so long as I keep my grades up."

"That's funny," Harry frowned, "Professor Dumbledore and Wanda never said anything about admissions fee... Is it because of..." he absently pointed to his forehead.

Illyana giggled, and shook her head. "No, though in a way yes. Your parents were both magical, yes?"

Harry just shrugged, and repeated what Wanda had told him weeks ago. "My father was a wizard, and my mother was the first witch of her family. So... I guess."

Illyana nodded. "The way it is spoken of, you are what is called a half-blood. I am like what your mother must have been, with neither of my parents being a witch or wizard. I have heard it called... muggle-born. Because none of my parents were magical, I am on what is called a scholarship. So long as I meet the grade requirements for the year, all my expenses are paid for by the government. Once I graduate, I can either take a position within the magical government, or I can fashion my own business within the magical world. There are so few who can use magic across the world that those willing to join it are well taken care of."

"Sounds brilliant," Harry grinned at her, and she back at him. Then the anime started and they were occupied with the adventures of a young girl who accidentally opened a magic book and had to go on a quest to capture all the magical cards that had escaped with a plushy winged lion at her side.

Kings Cross Station

Downtown London

September 1st

"Oh Mum, honestly!" Hermione Jean Granger complained to her parents, but her mother, Jane McCoy Granger especially. Although the way her father, Kenneth R. Granger immediately hugged her tight the moment his wife was done didn't cut him any slack. "Dad!"

"I'm sorry, it's just here you are, off to school and it's going to be a year before I see you again," he cried.

"I'll be back for Christmas," Hermione told him, trying very hard not to cry herself.

"Are you sure you don't want us to come with you? I mean to help you get your things on the train," her mother asked once more.

"Honestly Dad, I can handle one trunk by myself," Giving her parents an exasperated look, she shook her head, speaking over her shoulder as she pushed her trolley towards the designated barrier her letter had told her to look for. It had actually been an extra note that was put in by the Deputy Headmistress, not part of the letter itself.

"Besides, I honestly don't think you'll be able to get through the barrier, it is magically sealed to prevent ordinary people from accidentally stumbling through it, you know," she quoted the note that'd been in her letter.

"Well, still," her mother took one last chance to hold her daughter, "we'll miss you. Be good, clean your teeth after every meal and before bed. Make lots of friends, and have fun, baby girl."

"Mum!" Hermione screeched, only to be assaulted by her father again, who had to be forcibly removed by her mother before he finally let her go.

"Have fun, sweetheart!" he managed to get out. She smiled at them, turned towards the barrier, and took a deep breath, before turning again and running back to her parents and hugging them with every fiber of her being. She was an only child, and while she was embarrassed by their behavior, they were still her parents.

Once the final goodbyes had been said, she sighed, turned back to her trunk, and then resolutely walked it through the barrier onto the Platform 9 ¾ and to her future as a witch attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her only fear was what her mother had told her. She wasn't really sure she could make lots of friends, even if it was a new start.

Kings Cross Station

10:30 AM

Ron Weasley was the youngest son of the latest incarnation of the Weasley Clan. This latest incarnation also happened to go under a different name most of the time. The Wizard Wonders were a well-known and much loved group of superheroes. And while suspicions of family connections were talked about in things like the Quibbler, Teen Witch magazine, and even the Daily Prophet occasionally, nobody knew that the Wizard Wonders and the Weasley Clan were one in the same.

Ron often wondered why he bothered really. He'd grown up in this life, his parents and older siblings being superheroes, all of them being magical, and the occasional encounter with a super villain of some sort. And now it was his first year at school, at Hogwarts, and they were running late!

All because the super villain known as Sphinx (Really, who names themselves after a creature that does nothing but ask riddles?) had to pop up in Diagon Alley and Mum couldn't leave well enough alone and let the Aurors or just Bill and Dad handle it, no they all had to go! It didn't help that before he could even get his own costume on, Percy, Mum and the twins had taken care of the maniac and all his traps. Now they were stuck in traffic and still half a mile out from the station.

He didn't even have his powers yet, even while his father was promising that they would manifest when he needed them the most, Ron seriously doubted the validity of what a man calling himself the "Repairman" had to say to him. The only reason he trained so hard and actually bothered learning how to use the gadgets and gizmo's his father and the twins came up with was so he could go into the hero business as soon as possible. But no... He had to wait for his powers to come in, he had to wait until he could control them, he had to wait until he had a freaking Arch-Enemy! It was enough to make a bloke go bonkers, y'know?

It all started back when his dad had just graduated Hogwarts, or so he'd been told by his parents more times than he could count. Just after leaving Hogwarts, instead of going to work for the Ministry of Magic, he went right back to school, but this time at Oxford! Muggle university!

Turns out, it was a turning point for Arthur Weasley and his young wife Molly Prewitt Weasley. They were recruited by the Ministry, but not of Magic, instead the Ministry of Defense took a vested interest in the "mysterious" young genius Arthur and fanned the flames of his intellect. He got his degrees from Oxford in an astounding four years, while Molly took a few courses herself and was likewise picked up by the same people in the Defense Ministry. After graduating Oxford, they were both brought in on a special project, being hosted by England, but funded by an International Operations outfit, called the Green Knight Project.

The name had absolutely nothing to do with what they were doing, at least not at first.

To begin with, it was just experimenting and studying genetic and physical adaptations to various types of energy. Not all of the energy was natural, some was supernatural, some magical, some even metaphysical. Eventually, after Bill was born and barely a toddler, a discovery was made, and the project took on a whole new light for Arthur. He'd discovered a new energy wave that when exposed to human tissue, caused specific, evolutionary mutations on the cellular level.

It was still highly experimental and they were no where near human testing, but Arthur was the key to it all. He found the wave and he very soon learned how to manipulate it to give off specific functions, make it able to be harnessed. It was no good as an energy source, but it would push the boundaries of genetic research and biology beyond what anyone else could know.

Then the Generals started to arrive. First it was just for an "observation" then more and more of them, then a hard-lining military business man was stationed as Project Lead. And Arthur's friends among the project left him and his wife a book to read, a story of the King Arthur of Merlin Legends. The story was called "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and it was all about how Morgana sent a transformed warrior under the guise and appearance as the Green Knight to test the Knights of the Round Table.

King Arthur and the Knights, in the story, could not defeat the Green Knight, and it took Sir Gawain besting the other Knight in a Code of Honor and getting him to admit defeat and retreat to finally best the unstoppable monster of Morgana's. And that's what the Green Knight Project was really all about, creating a super soldier that would be loyal to those at the leash and adhere to a strict code of obedience. While Arthur had been working on the physical mutations, other scientists had been working on brainwashing techniques to make all soldiers exposed to his Bio-Wave absolutely loyal to those in command.

Arthur was nobody's fool, and he did not miss the fact that nobody was saying the soldiers would be loyal to England, King and Country, or even the Royal Army. Over the course of a year, during which Charlie was born, Arthur furthered his experiments with the Bio-Wave technology, while at the same time destroying all traces of his notes and evidence of his experiments, making it so that he really was the only one capable of using the technology.

When Percy was born, they made their move, and the Weasleys destroyed the Green Knight Project and freed the other scientists, all the while making it look like the Ministry of Magic had come in to Obliviate a few random muggles that had learned too much about the magical world. They went to Dumbledore himself to make sure that they would no longer be hunted by those that had spawned the project.

It wasn't until the twins were born that they finally noticed it happening, but because of Arthur's experiments, every member of his family, and their children as a result of it, had been affected by the Bio-Wave. When Bill came home from Hogwarts able to perform feats of strength and endurance that were beyond human, they wondered. When Charlie revealed he could speak to and understand magical creatures and even take on their attributes for a while, they grew concerned. When Arthur started inventing and repairing technology that was more advanced than anything anyone had ever seen and Molly gained super strength and her shouts could shatter cinder blocks and Percy could run just under the speed of sound, they suspected.

But it wasn't until the twins started turning into quadruplets, then sextuplets, and then into a small army of pranksters, they knew for a fact that it wasn't just magic. Their bodies and physiologies had been fundamentally altered and Arthur knew that, after the twins, any more children he and Molly had would also develop bio-kinetic powers. Before that happened though, Dumbledore asked them to join the Order of the Phoenix, and they had to deal with Voldemort and his ilk.

Still, it bothered Arthur, having powers such as theirs, and having to hide it just because they weren't 'natural' magical gifts. Eventually, and after a lot of long, hard talks with Molly, they decided to do something about it, and dressed in simple cloaks and party-masks, they went out and used their powers as freely as they wished, not even bothering to hide from the muggles and letting everybody see them.

They were branded superheroes within a day.

Within a week, they had attracted the attention of both super villains and other superheroes, on top of becoming the stuff of legend amongst the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore seemed to know something, but he never came outright and said anything, neither to them, nor to anyone else. They even fought Voldemort himself a few times, narrowly escaping whenever it became clear they couldn't beat him otherwise, but they still managed to save a lot of lives.

During this time, Bill was still in Hogwarts, but his powers had been growing stronger, not weaker as his father had hypothesized, and as a result by the time he was in his 7th Year, Bill could hold his own with almost anything out there, and his magical skills were nothing to laugh at either. On a whim, early in his 7th Year, Bill went out and used his powers in public, putting on a ratty cloak and a child's goblin mask. At first he was thought of as a street performer, but when the Death Eaters attacked Diagon Alley while he was "performing", he managed to save a lot of lives and personally captured the full squad of evil wizards. One of the lives he'd saved had, incidentally, been that of Fliptrask, the Bank Manager of Gringotts.

It wasn't until Christmas that Arthur and Molly even knew their eldest son was following in their footsteps and going out as a superhero, let alone one that had strong connections with the Goblin nation. It was actually from the goblins that he received his costume and many of his weapons. Once he graduated Hogwarts, they immediately offered him the "secret identity" of William Weasley, Curse-Breaker for Gringotts. And while he did perform the function, every goblin knew him by another name and the rest of the world knew him as "The Goblin Warrior", one of the Wizard Wonders.

Charlie, who'd only graduated the year before, also took up a superhero mantle, about the same time that their parents found out Bill was doing it anyway. He could communicate with and take on the magical abilities of any magical creature that was within his range, even flobberworms. So, when the opportunity came, he went off to help with the dragon preserves in Romania and took the moniker, "The Dragon Tamer" as even before he got the job, he somehow always managed to call a dragon to him to aid him in whatever his fight was.

Percy, at the same time that Charlie did, also took up a superhero identity, and chose to name himself after the Messenger of the Greek Gods, "Hermes" god of travelers and speed. Like all the others, as he grew older, his powers matured and grew with him, and he can now run several times the speed of sound, and move at amazing speeds without going into a full run either. Their father grew concerned when Percy's speed continued to increase, until he analyzed his middle child and discovered that along with his powers of super speed, Percy's body was developing adaptations so that it wouldn't tear itself apart whenever he moved too fast.

The Twins... Ron shuddered internally... Everybody and their grandfather dreaded facing the wrath of the Twin Devils. To start with, they can overwhelm an enemy with superior numbers in the blink of an eye. And while it's happened, there doesn't seem to be any side-effect if one of their copies gets injured or is even killed. That was a grave concern to their parents for the longest time until the Twins finally sat down and explained that they weren't really copies, but more like clones, and even that wasn't wholly accurate.

And it wasn't just their powers either. Ron himself sometimes borrowed a gadget the Twins had cooked up, usually as a joke, but their activities as superheroes switched the jokes around to potential weapons and restraining devices very quickly. Ron's favorite was the Extendible Ears, a brilliant piece of work that allowed you to hear or listen in on conversations whole rooms away.

Then there was himself, Ronald Bilius Weasley. No powers, barely even any magical talent to speak of, not that great on a broom, and mediocre in his use of his father's and brother's crime stopping devices. He'd been very young when his older brothers all became superheroes. He'd once pieced together a costume for himself and asked to go with them. His brothers all laughed and left without him, while he and Ginny stayed home with a babysitter. Although there was some compensation in that the babysitter, more often than not turned out to be their older cousin Theresa, on their mother's side of the family, although the fact that she had red hair often called that into question. She wasn't a witch herself, but she was fully aware of the magical world, and unfortunately that meant they couldn't get away with a lot with her. Sometimes Ron wondered if she had learned how to scream from their mother, or if it was just something the women of the family inherited.

That just left Ron's, and everyone else's, baby sister, Ginerva Weasley. Thankfully, Ginny's powers hadn't shown up either, otherwise he would feel seriously put down. She was also a year younger than him, so that was another reason to be grateful her powers hadn't manifested either, and why he was going to Hogwarts this year and she had to wait until next year. She'd been pouting all over the place ever since Charlie had handed him the Dragon Tamer's old wand, but he could tell she was sad about him leaving. It wasn't too surprising, since for the past few years, it had just been them at home, but Ron wanted to step up and join in with the rest of the family. He wanted to learn the magic of his wizard inheritance, get his superpowers and go out and start saving the world today!

Ginny, on the other hand, was rather content to live in the now, and she didn't bother daydreaming about 'What If' and 'When I'm older' and all that. She trained with him in the same weapons and gadgets, she accepted the same warrior training the Bill gave them whenever he was home, and she made sure Ron did the exercises they all needed to do to maintain their bodies. But she also pointed out the flaws in his logic whenever he did something stupid, she reminded him of the dangers of being a superhero, and she did her best to keep him from losing his temper all of the time over the littlest things.

Suddenly, Ron was wondering who would miss who more, him or Ginny. Then, as he looked at the clock one more time, he realized that it wouldn't make any difference if they missed the train!

TBC...