Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or any of the X-men. The same can be said of the wonderful world of J.K. Rowling *pouts*. I am in no way making any kind of money from this story and I promise to return the characters just the way I found them.

That being said a little introduction into the story is in order. Basically the story takes place between X-men 2 and X-men 3 (number three will never take place). The Harry Potter world is AU since I scrambled things about there. I hope you enjoy it and if you do then please review, it makes the plot bunnies go into hyper drive :)

'Cause I'm sick and tired

Of always being sick and tired

Anastacia - Sick and Tired

It was July and Emma had been feeling restless most of the summer. Being at Hogwarts after the war stifled her even if most of the faculty had not returned yet to start the new semester. Emma had been working as a muggle studies teacher for two years now and she needed a change. She had had no idea that teaching teenagers would be so strenuous; especially when the children asked questions that had nothing to do with school and everything to do with her private life.

Like many veterans of war she felt stifled, jaded and had serious problems seeing the simple pleasures of life. Albus had offered her to stay another year on the teaching post and even though it sounded interesting she was not ready to commit to it.

Not another year, not the same routine. She had had enough of it to last her a lifetime.

The world was out there and the young woman had hardly gotten a taste for it yet. She was twenty-one years old and had taste for adventures, for meeting new people and last but not least to be free. Emma had been dreaming for a long time to go out of the magic world for a while, a year or even more and just be one face of so many in the crowd.

She had more or less decided to leave and essentially only needed Albus's blessing. The old wizard and Minerva had become her only family and she wanted them to know her plans and to approve of them. All the public scrutiny she had been under since the end of the war was suffocating her and she felt like a caged animal that desperately needed to get out.

Ever since Rita Skeeter had written about her story it had been blasted over every magic newspaper making her feel ill at the sight of them. If she went out with friends it was posted in the papers as if everyone she met were her boyfriends or lovers. It had been so bad over the last months that she didn't go out anymore and rather had her friends come to Hogwarts to meet her. That had only fuelled her claustrophobia that was large enough to begin with.

Emma felt herself fuming thinking of that good for nothing gossip columnist. That had been the last straw in her decision of going away for a while. The pitying glances she was getting from both students and faculty were enough to make her want to scream with frustration. She could almost picture the violin music that should be played under every single sad story that Rita had written about her private life.

She was too lazy to walk to Dumbledore's office since it was situated quite far away from her office. Walking up and down the temperamental staircases of Hogwarts was no pleasure, especially if you were in a hurry to get somewhere. That's why most of the teachers could floo to each other fireplaces during the school year.

After quick thinking she decided rather to floo to the headmaster's office that was situated in the very steep headmaster's tower and decided to floo there instead. Not many had the privilege of being able to floo into Dumbledore's office. As far as she knew only her, Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape were able to do so. They were the inner circle of Dumbledore's life in one way or another.

Emma walked over to her fireplace and took a handful of silvery powder from a bowl from the top of the fireplace. Emma cast the floo powder into the hearth as she spoke Dumbledore's name. The fireplace filled with green flames and covered the young witch without burning her before she disappeared. A few seconds later she appeared again in Dumbledore's office.

It was a familiar setting the old office that had housed headmasters of Hogwarts for millennia. It was filled with all kinds of magical wonders most notably the famous sorting hat that sorted the first year students into one of the four houses of Hogwarts.

The office itself was immensely big, cluttered with books and objects but somehow Albus Dumbledore always seemed to know where everything was situated witch amazed Emma even after all the years she had spent at Hogwarts.

"Albus I need to speak with you," Emma said as soon as she stepped out of the hearth. If Dumbledore would have been busy the fireplace would have been closed and no one would have been able to get in. Therefore she felt comfortable enough about barging in on him; after all she was more like his own daughter than his ward.

"Ah Emma, please come in and give me a moment. I'm going over the student records for next year. There will be more students than ever!" the old wizard said merrily as he greeted the woman and pointed towards a large armchair that was situated in front of his desk.

She grumbled something under her breath at that. More students than ever? The whole castle was packed up to its rafters with students as it were. Where Dumbledore was going to place all the newcomers was beyond her.

Looking around the office meanwhile Dumbledore finished his work she saw Fawkes perched on his stick looking stunningly beautiful. The bird was a phoenix and had been reborn only a few weeks prior. The golden and red feathers gleamed in the light giving him an unearthly look. The bird squawked in a greeting to her and then continued his nap completely unfazed by the world.

"So my dear, why do you need to talk to me?" Albus asked curiously looking at her over his half moon spectacles. His appearance was absolutely how non magic people would imagine a wizard to look like, if they thought one would exist. He had on a reddish silk robe with starts and moons scattered all over. His thick, white beard covered half of his face and then flowed gracefully all the way down his chest.

As to top off the look he had a wizard's hat in the same colour as the robe. Albus Dumbledore was a very unusual man, even unusual for wizards and was often misunderstood or mistrusted for he didn't see the world like anyone else. Those that knew him well trusted them with their life and were completely untouched by the critic of the wizard in the past. However the ones close to him were the first to admit that Albus Dumbledore was an unusual human being, extraordinary unusual.

"Albus, I think I need to get away from Hogwarts for a while. Explore a bit and live life outside of the magic world," Emma said in a gush expecting him to stop her in midsentence like he so often did when things were not going his way.

"Ah yes. What a marvellous timing you have Emma!" the old wizard said merrily. Too merrily for Emma's taste as she saw his signature twinkle light up his eyes. He was up to something, Albus was usually up to something but this time it involved her, of that she was certain.

"What are you up to?" she said accusingly as the wizard chuckled at her suspicion. Emma might be young in years but she was not naive. The innocence of other people's plans had rubbed off her a long time ago. How could it not being sorted into the famous house of Salazar Slytherin?

"Now child do not look at me like that," Dumbledore chuckled and pushed forward a bowl of lemon drops. Emma raised her hand in refusal and waited for the wizards next words.

"It so happens that Harry and Ginny are going on their honeymoon. They have taken an extended leave to go have a proper holiday that they didn't have time for when they married last year."

"I heard about it from 'Moine," Emma said cheekily. She and the brain of the golden trio had been in constant contact ever since their unusual friendship had grown during Emma's years of being a student. Ever since they graduated they had tried to contact each other regularly to keep track of each other's lives and often tried to meet up as well.

"Yes, it is good you have heard about it," the wizard kindly said popping a lemon drop into his mouth and studying her intently. As ever he was quite certain that Emma would do his bidding, she had never refused him so far. The trick with the stubborn Slytherin was to ask her directly and give her no time to rebuff him. In other words bulldoze her into saying yes to whatever he wanted her to do.

"Harry wants their location to be a secret. We cannot be sure that some death eaters are not still out there even though it's been three years since the final battle."

"Then he better not tell anyone" She said with an uninterested voice not understanding how it got to do with her. In fact she didn't want to know what it had to do with her for it would most likely ruin the plans she had for getting away.

"Now Emma no need to be like that. Harry asked for a secret keeper to make sure that their location could not be weaselled out of anyone. He asked for you."

The young witch was stunned; the responsibility was enormous of having the golden boy's life on her conscience. If something would happen she would never be able to live with herself. If something would ever happen to him because of her she would be torn to pieces by a very angry crowd of pissed off wizards.

"Me? Why me? Why not Ron or Hermione? They are much closer to him," she said in defence trying to get out of it even though she suspected Dumbledore of already deciding this. Even though Albus was over one hundred fifty years old his mind worked quicker than most and he usually was a few steps ahead of everyone else.

"For that exact reason he is hesitant. His reasons are that if someone was looking for him they would go immediately after Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger."

Emma nodded, okay that sounded reasonable enough even though she had no idea what she would do being a secret keeper. The last secret keeper she had heard of was Peter Pettigrew who had given up the Potter's location to Voldemort causing the young couple to be murdered. So it was all in all not a very good track record.

"If you agree to it then it would be good if you would ... what do muggles call it... stay off the radar as much as you could for the next year. Not using floo, disapparating or any other type of magic that can easily traced by prying eyes of the Ministry of magic. Will you do this for them? You were planning to leave anyway," he said with an insisting voice that gave no option for refuse.

Emma really wasn't too interested to become a secret keeper for them and being stuck by the magical force of the Fidelus charm. However who should she want to tell anyway? She didn't have many friends and she was leaving so there would be no one around anyway to tell. She would just send Hermione a letter saying she would be away for a year and that she please understand the situation.

Emma was sure that 'Moine would appreciate it had to do with Harry and Ginny but she also knew that Hermione Granger would never utter anything aloud to anyone, not even to her fiancé Ron Weasley. After years of knowing Hermione Emma knew she would trust the witch with her life. After all she had done so many times in the past without any problems.

"Fine I can do it," she said giving up even though she wasn't totally happy about being bound to Harry that way. She wasn't happy about being bound magically to anyone; it was a contract not to be taken lightly by anyone. When you were bound by magic the only way for you to get out of it before the contract time was over was to drop dead. Emma wanted almost nothing less than to be bound to Harry, the only thing she wanted less was death.

"Excellent! Harry will be here tonight. We will go the spell and then you are free to go as you please," the wizard said happily at the witch that sat stunned in the chair opposite him. Dumbledore didn't have to be a legimens to feel the anger radiating from her after his words.

Emma never much liked to be taken for granted not even by her former guardian.

Two days later she arrived at JFK airport in New York. Dumbledore had suggested an open position as a history teacher at a school for gifted young people close to North Salem in the state of New York. It seemed that even Dumbledore wasn't too happy about losing her completely off the radar so he rather wanted her to start there and then she could decide if she wanted to go somewhere else.

After thinking about it she decided to grab the job. It would be fun to work around non magic people for once and actually just enjoy being a muggle. Even if Dumbledore had found the position through some dubious connection didn't mean that anyone at the school knew anything about magic. Albus Dumbledore simply had many ears listening to an awful many things.

"Are you Emma?" a beautiful dark skinned woman with platinum blonde hair said approaching Emma as she stood waiting to be picked up by someone from the school. Her accent was not strong but noticeable to Emma and sounded African the way she almost sang each word giving them poetic beauty.

"Yes I am," Emma said smiling and shaking hands with the woman who smiled friendly back while her dark eyes studied the new teacher intently. The young witch cringed under the blatant look from the woman as she was not used to such public scrutiny. In the magical world people usually gossiped as soon as you turned your back but few had the audacity to do so while you were still facing them.

"Welcome to the United States, I'm Ororo," she said smiling a pearly white smile at the new history teacher. Ororo was quite surprised; the new teacher looked just like one of the students. Emma Winter didn't look a day older than twenty, her long dark hair in a braid down her back and a shy blush on her face as she smiled at the person that was picking her up.

"Thank you so much, I'm very excited to be here," Emma said enthusiastically and following Ororo out of the building holding her heavy backpack with a stagger. She hadn't wanted to pack too heavy, better to buy a new wardrobe in the new place to be able to fit in. That was a good excuse as most of her clothes were wizard robes that would not be considered too stylish in the muggle world.

The problem was that she had packed too many magical books that were heavy. That much she had felt on her long walk through Heathrow Airport in London. Next time she would not make the same mistake of packing books with her, they were bloody heavy when you couldn't use magic to lighten the load.

"We were a little surprised that Xavier would hire a normal person to Xavier's," Ororo said when they had sat in the car and were driving off.

"A normal person?" Emma asked stunned. The way Ororo had said normal had a similar spite to it as when Draco Malfoy called people mudbloods. It rubbed the young witch the wrong way to be greeted like this as she first stepped ground in a new country where she thought things would be completely different for her.

"Yes someone like you."

Emma looked at her taken aback and a little surprised, "Why would that be so strange?"

"Well I don't know if you know but this is a school for mutants," Ororo said in a strange tone looking expectantly at Emma and surprised to see the hurt in the eyes of the young woman. The young witch felt very vulnerable under the strong gaze of the woman and thought to herself she wouldn't be giving out what she was on the first day in a new place. Not a great undercover work if that happened.

Emma had been living in the magic world for nine years and had not come in to the normal world but for a few moments at a time. Not enough to know really what was going on outside the magic community. Coming from the magic world and not having read a muggle news paper in years the word mutant didn't tell her anything.

What the hell was a mutant?

"Umm I suspect that this might sound bizarre but what is a mutant?" Emma asked feeling like a total idiot when the woman stared at her with an astonished expression on her face as if she didn't believe what the new teacher had just said.

"Seriously you don't know what a mutant is?" Ororo asked completely flabbergasted. After the campaign in the media all over the world she thought anyone and everyone had heard about the mutants. The legislation was such a hot topic everywhere in the world. From under what rock had Xavier found this history teacher? Had she been frozen in ice for a hundred years?

"No I don't," Emma answered feeling her face burn with shame. Obviously the stay in the magical world could have its discomforts especially when it came to news of the muggle world. The magic world rarely cared what happened with muggles unless it was something caused by wizards or witches.

"Right. Well then I better inform you before you get to Xavier's" Ororo said thoughtful and doubting more than ever Xavier's decision in bringing someone in that wasn't a mutant. Their new history teacher would be an outsider from the start since she wasn't one of them. She would probably stare at the students making them uncomfortable and Ororo would not stand for it. As soon as she would get a private moment with Xavier she would try to get him to reconsider his decision.

"You are sure you haven't heard of mutants where you come from?" she asked sceptically as the new teacher shook her head in refusal to her question.

"No I haven't heard anything about a mutant phenomenon where I was working," Emma said honestly and felt slightly dim-witted for not knowing it. It made it even more obvious that she had not been living in the muggle world. The reaction of the white haired woman next to her hinted that. Emma cursed Dumbledore in her mind for sending her to a place where she was an outsider even before starting.

"All right. I better fill you in then. Every person on the planet has an x gene in their system. A gene that has been with man ever since the beginning of time, it is the gene that has helped us to move forward in evolution. With most people today this gene is dormant for the moment. However..." she said looking to her right at the woman that was absorbing her every word with interest.

"... with some this gene is very much active, another stage in evolution so to speak," Ororo said quoting her friend Jean who was a physician and had studied the mutant gene actively.

"Okay I follow you so far," the young British woman said with a strong accent smiling friendly and thoughtfully. Ororo couldn't help thinking that Emma didn't understand at all what she was saying.

"Right, so some people when they are born have this gene active. Evolution gives them some gifts that are out of the ordinary. To the outside world we are called mutants but we like to call them gifts"

Emma was silent at that. Gifts, difference, all this she could understand. It sounded more or less like the way a muggle child was born with magical powers even though no records of any ancestors having that power.

"All of you have gifts at the institute?" Emma asked curiously eyeing Ororo.

"Yes," Ororo said dryly.

"How are these gifts?" the witch asked curiously wondering if these mutants were so different from her after all.

"Well they are as various as we are many. Some can teleport, others can read minds..." she noticed a slight twitch in the new school teacher at that. Not surprising since most had these reaction, no one liked that someone could read their minds.

"... others can bend metal and there are so many that it's really difficult to explain it in general."

"What kind of power do you have?" Emma asked quietly and looking at Ororo with curiosity.

"Weather, I can affect the weather," Ororo replied.

"Really? Can you show me?" Emma asked excited almost bouncing up and down in her seat. Ororo looked at Emma for a second while she was making a decision, finally she settled on showing the new teacher.

"Yes wait I will pull over," Ororo said and a few moments later she had found the perfect place. Maybe she would scare the woman and she would resign even before reaching the school. That would be the best for them all.

Ororo stepped out of the car with Emma following her with curiosity marked in her features.

Ororo's eyes turned milky white as she stared up into the sky. A wind gushed away from her and sky filled sky changed into a clear sunny day.

"Oh that's wonderful," Emma gushed absolutely thrilled at the powers she saw coming from the woman.

"So this is not a problem for you?" Ororo asked sceptically.

"No why should it, it's beautiful," Emma replied smiling looking up at the sky. She had a feeling she would feel just at home at Xavier's. She was an outsider too, the others just wouldn't know of it.

Ororo couldn't quite put her finger on it but the new teacher was not right. It was not that she wasn't happy that the young woman had an open mind, which was necessary when working with children with mutant powers. However Ororo had never met someone who was so interested in a positive way in mutant powers.

She would have to talk to Xavier when she came to the house and try to get him to reconsider his decision. Ororo didn't feel too optimistic though, Xavier rarely misjudged people. However this time she felt he had.