After the kids have left for school on Monday Harry turned to Charles wanting to ask a question before he left to head up to asteroid H (he still hadn't thought of a better name for it and had no desire to ask for help). There was a lot of work that needed to be done, and he had plans, oh yes.
Storm had volunteered to come with him and help, but until he had finished re-pressurizing the interior and made certain that there was no chance of another rupture occurring, he wasn't about to let her along. "So, were you able to help Stephen and his acquaintance get custody of Wanda?"
Charles shook his head. "No unfortunately I was not." he looked a little irritated at that fact himself, though nowhere near as irritated as Harry suddenly felt when he heard it. "I attempted to do so, and was told in no uncertain terms that Wanda's powers mad her far too dangerous to ever let out of the Vault." Well, not without some insurance that she would never be able to use it against American interests, but Charles wasn't about to share that aspect with Harry. He knew the young man well enough by now to understand that such a thing would set him off badly.
"They do know that this was to actually get her training so she could use her power safely right?" Harry asked incredulously, his hand bending the fork it was holding into a pretzel shape.
Charles nodded sadly. "Unfortunately they do and their decision was the same. Wanda's ability to change reality and chance is far too dangerous in their eyes." He paused a moment, shaking his head sadly, "I'm sorry Mr. Potter but there's nothing I can do."
"No," Harry said drawlingly, controlling his anger with the ease of long practice, "there's nothing you choose to do. I on the other hand, I will choose to act." With that he stood up abruptly, kissed Ororo on the cheek and between one step and another vanished from the room.
Charles looked after him sadly shaking his head. "He just does not understand," he said to the others, "we must work within the system as much as possible or we become what they fear the most, feeding the hate towards mutants when we should be combating it."
Logan shrugged. "Sorry Chuck but I'm with Harry on this one. Sometimes the system's broken, or blind to the needs of the individual. When that happens you need someone out on the outside, isn't that what the X-Men are for?"
"True," said Charles, then he sighed. "Perhaps I miss judged the seriousness of this matter." He brightened up a little bit. "I believe I have a map of the Vault somewhere. It would be a help should anyone, foolishly obviously, try to break in, wouldn't it?"
Ororo smiled at him. "Yes I believe it would."
Charles nodded firmly and then moved off to a study to find the map in question.
OOOOOOO
In his anger Harry had made the mistake of trying to teleport directly into Dr. Strange's domicile, a big no-no in mage circles. He knew it was a mistake almost as soon as he attempted it, but he had basically expected to bounce off the wards much like he had done when trying to apparate onto the grounds of Hogwarts. Instead he found himself in a very small holding area complete with benches and some extremely old magazine set onto a table. It was very nice little area, but it was obviously artificial, almost like the inside of a magical trunk or wizard tents.
Within seconds of his arrival however a door to the side opened and Stephen looked in, eldritch energies surrounding him for a moment. He looked at Harry quizzically, not letting go of his manifest power. "Yes Harry? Is there something I can do for you?"
Harry looked at him and then laughed a little, letting go of a bit of his anger simply because of the absurdity of the situation. "All right, I have no idea how you did this. Adding a waiting room to your anti-teleportation runes? Connecting a pocket dimension to the anti-teleport wards, that is just amazing!"
Stephen chuckled too releasing his power now. "We all have things to learn my young friend. Come, at present I would like to learn what made you so angry and rude as to try and barge into my house like this."
Harry nodded gravely, walking forward to Follow Steven through the doorway, and he was unsurprised to find himself in the main room of Steven's basement laboratory. "I heard from Charles that you're attempts to gain custody of Wanda failed. Moreover the government is against ever letting her out."
Stephen sighed sadly. "Indeed, we tried first on our own. With my own background as a doctor and as a psychologist I had hoped to get access to her at the very least, but without outright stating that I would be training her in her mystical powers we were not able to get anywhere. We then asked Charles to help, but he was turned down even more firmly. It's obvious that the government fears her power, and is willing to look the other way so long as she is only a danger to herself where she is."
Harry nodded grimly. "Well then there goes the lawful solution, I suppose we'll have to take matters into our own hands."
Stephen frowned a little. It was not exactly happy at the idea of breaking into a maximum security prison, especially a federal prison, but it wasn't like they would have any defense against magic there.
Clea came up and put one arm around his shoulders nodding at Harry. "We need to get that young girl out as quickly as possible. If I understand it correctly she is losing more and more control of her powers on a daily basis. Training must begin as soon as possible, before she becomes an even worse danger to herself and others."
Stephen sighed, but nodded all the same. It looked at them both with one eyebrow raised. "Tonight?"
Harry smirked a little. "I have nothing planned that can't be changed. Besides, I was thinking of breaking out someone else from the Vault anyway."
Clea got it immediately. "That Melody child you mentioned? She seems like a true innocent from the description you gave of her, I agree she shouldn't be institutionalized like that."
Harry touched his lightning scar briefly frowning a little. "I actually looked up her and Wanda's information on Charles' computer, and got a better idea of how Melody's powers have affected her and why. It's true that she really couldn't function as a part of society, but honestly there's no reason that she couldn't be moved to a much nicer home." There were also aspects to her power that worried Harry, since he could easily see them being misused by someone. "Tonight," he said nodding sharply.
Harry went back to the mansion and sent Hedwig ahead to scout out a place where they could teleport to without being observed. While his familiar was doing this he made a copy of the map for Steven and Clea and then spent the rest of the day going over the work Kitty was doing with runes.
At around two that evening Hedwig returned with the spot in her mind, which he read there. Harry teleported there and then waited for the other two magic users to show up, assuming they would have their own methods of getting around undetected.
Soon enough he was joined by Stephen and Clea, though their teleportation's were much flashier than his own, consisting of a circle on the ground first appearing that pentagram inside it and then them arising out of the ground. "I see what you mean when you said 'same outcome but different styles,'" Harry said thoughtfully nodding at the two.
He held up the map Charles had given him and motioned them over to look. "Wanda's room is over here in the maximum security area. Her cell will have three different cameras inside, 24-hour two-guard detail on the door, and a team of three guards down here along the corridor as well as cameras covering every inch of the hallway."
Stephen nodded stroking his mustache thoughtfully. "Clea and I will get Wanda, I have several charms and spells prepared to counteract any mechanical or electrical up observation or recording. That plus an invisibility charm will work wonders."
Harry nodded but added a word of caution. "I probably don't have to tell you to this, but remember to quite your feet okay, sound can point you out just as easily as sight sometimes."
Stephen snorted magnificently. "What's that phrase, 'teach your grandmother to suck eggs'? That fits my thoughts along that line appropriately."
Harry grinned at him then pulled out his invisibility cloak, pulling it on over him until only his head was visible then silencing his feet. "Do we want to meet back here, or just go our separate ways?"
Steven stared at Harry's cloak for a moment, for some reason it was giving him a very odd feeling but he shook it off and tapped the sash around his waist twice, disappearing after the second tap. A moment later he had charmed his feet for silent movement.
While Steven replied to Harry's question, Clea tapped her forehead, mumbling an incantation under her breath and slowly began to turn invisible, much like the dissolution charm in Harry's own world. "I believe it would be safer for us to simply make our way back to my domicile. You are free to stop by later if you wish, but we will be getting Wanda there as swiftly as possible."
Stephen didn't show it, but his protective instincts had been aroused when he heard of the plight of this young magic user, especially considering the fact that she might well be a pawn of one of the elder gods, and one of the nastier of the bunch at that. Expelling such entities and keeping their influence to as bare a minimum as possible in the tangible world was one of his main duties as Sorcerer Supreme, and it was thus his duty to help this girl. Added to this was is natural inclination to help anyone who was as in as bad away as Wanda.
His girlfriend's view of things was even more clear-cut. Clea's mothering instincts, which had never actually been aroused at all before, had been awoken swiftly by the plight of this young girl, and both were determined to get her out and do their best to help her. "In that case let's be about it."
Before they left however Stephen asked, "Before I forget, you said you read Wanda's file?"
"Yes," Harry said pausing mid-step, "was there something you wanted to know?"
"Was there a hint as to who her parents were?"
"Only that she was left with authorities in New York after traveling here from Germany, her last name is Maximoff, if that tells you something. It sure as heck didn't tell me anything."
Stephen nodded. Clea on the other hand scowled fiercely. "If ever her parents come to reclaim her then I will be having… words with them, the kind that mostly end with screaming and shouts of 'argh no' and 'no that's not supposed to bend that way'!"
Harry grinned conspiratorially at her. "Fine by me."
With that the three went their separate ways. Clea went to the front of the institution, intent on making a bit of a diversion. Nothing obviously magical or anything, just something to get the guards looking outside the building while Steven and Harry went about their business inside
Stephen and Harry made their way swiftly toward the building itself, then Steven waited until the door opened and a few guards poured out onto the grounds to start searching for the disturbance, allowing him to slip inside unseen.
Having memorized the map of the building he easily wound his way around guard positions and past cameras unseen. Soon he came to the position where Wanda's cell was. Just like Harry had said there were two guards stationed at a small defensive position directly opposite the door to Wanda's cell, with a camera above them. the two guards were at that moment playing cards.
Steven swiftly let loose an incantation and pointed one finger at the camera trained on the door. The spell was one that forced the camera to show only what it had seen in the fifteen minutes before the spell hit it.
One of the guards, wearing a green stripe on one arm which indicated he was a new hire (not that Steven knew that of course) scowled angrily, throwing his hand down on the table between him and his fellow guard. "Fuck, damn mutie, forcing us to stay up this late!"
The other guard shook his head. He wore a blue and red stripe on his uniform, which meant he had worked there for two years minimum on both sides of the complex. "It's not Wanda's fault we're here this late, it's our paranoid bosses. She never tries anything at night for some reason, so having a guard here this late is pointless, but we're not the ones in charge."
"She's still a mutie bitch," the first guard muttered, dealing out a new hand.
"Don't let captain Stone hear you talk like that," the second guard cautioned. "And what's your problem with Wanda anyway? Sure she's a problem child, but hell she's a teenager, aren't all teens problem children at one point or another?"
"She's a damn mutie, not human, that's the problem! They're a fucking menace, the freaks!"
The second guard glared at him and shook his head. "With an attitude like that you won't be around here long. And if I hear you giving any of the prisoners trouble, I'll see captain Stone sacks you so fast it'll make your head spin, am I clear?"
As the first guard muttered his reply Steven finished a longer incantation putting a spell on the two guards taking care to hit them both at once. This spell was a little more subtle; first it was part sleeping spell that put their minds asleep but not their bodies, so they would remain in their current positions unmoving. Then came the portion of the spell that modified their memories slightly, so that neither of the two guards would remember even feeling sleepy and would simply be able to report honestly that they hadn't seen or heard anything.
With that done he used a simple unlocking charm and the door let him inside.
Wanda had felt the power being used outside her door and had looked up, her face a mix of wild apprehension and hope. When she saw no one there she frowned and concentrated a little, causing her eyes to start sparking a little before she seemed to zero in on Steven, or rather the spells around him.
Stephen was a little surprised at that, it showed that she could indeed already consciously control her power. Before she could speak however he cast spells on the three cameras in the cell, the same spell he had already used on the one outside. The camera's taken care of Steven disillusioned himself before introducing himself to the young magic user. "I am Stephen Strange, Harry Potter contacted me, he described your situation here and I decided to help you if I could. We have decided you will be the apprentice of my lover and I, which is if you agree to it. If not I will go away and leave you here in peace."
Wanda hadn't really held out much hope for Harry coming through for her, but to see someone actually break into the Vault (it was obvious he wouldn't be here at this time of night if he was allowed to be here after all) to help her? The fact this elderly man was offering to train her, help her control her powers, which was beyond anything she had dared hope for. She nodded quickly, "please, take me with you. I-I can't, I need to learn," she stumbled over her words. A single tear of frustration appeared in her eye, which sparkled and became a crystal before it fell from her eye, her chaotic magic reacting to her frustration.
Stephen nodded compassionately, ignoring the strange magical phenomena. Swiftly he undid the bindings of her straitjacket. With that done he tapped her on the forehead gently and she looked down in shock and amazement as her body began to slowly becoming visible. "This is an invisibility spell, a bit crude but simple to learn. I estimate you will be able to cast this yourself in a month or so."
Another tap on her forehead and she suddenly realized her breathing and heartbeat was gone. "And that is a silencing spell, again relatively easy once you get used to the need for visualization."
Evidently the invisibility spell didn't work on her new master since a second later she felt someone grab her hand and then the two were moving swiftly through the Vault, only stopping momentarily outside her cell to close and lock the door and cancel the spell on the two talkative guards.
Within 30 minutes, Stephen Clea and Wanda were back of Stephan's house, and she was being shown her room. Clea proved to be a harsh mistress, informing Wanda when she would be awake to start lessons, and what those lessons would entail in detail as well as what punishments she would hand out for tardiness and other di delinquency (mostly cleaning and the loss of TV and music privileges, nothing physical in any way). With that done she send Wanda off to bed down for the rest of the night in the best bed she had ever has.
Despite her harsh manner Clea's kindness shown through and Wanda agreed to everything readily. She went to bed happier than she had been since her father and brother had left her with the authorities. Her last memory of the night was Clea tucking her in like a little baby, and a strong yet soft hand gently touching her cheek before she fell asleep.
OOOOOOO
Harry had an even easier time of it, not even needing to enter the building. He simply moved around the outer wall building until he saw the patch where the wall was open to his senses, the magical window he had created for Melody still in place. Since the change he had wrought was a permanent one, a permanent transformation that wasn't a surprise, though the fact the glamour hiding it to the senses of others was still in place surprised him a little. He had put quite a bit into that spell after all.
He then flew up, and after looking inside was able to easily teleport into the room on the other side of the window. Once there he looked around for cameras, finding only one in the corner facing the bed which he hit with his own version of Steven's spell.
That done He looked around scowling a little at the lack of life or feeling in this room, and shook his head. This gilded cage, he thought to himself, isn't as gilded as I thought. From the outside he could only see the bed, which looked like a normal twin bed with nice covers and a wooden frame. But from the inside it was obvious that was the only piece of furniture, and Harry scowled angrily at the neglect.
He moved over to the bed and was unsurprised to see that Melody had sat up in bed and was staring at him, or at least in his direction. "Mr. Harry? You still have so many songs bubbling and whirling around you, though one is brighter than it was before, did something happen with your girlfriend?"
"Hello Melody," he said calmly, not bothering to remove his cloak since the girl could obviously see him despite it somehow (which he hoped wouldn't become a reoccurrence). "Would you like to come with me?"
Melody paled a little at that. "Oh is that why you're here, I," she stammered a little looking around then went on sadly, her entire body drooping. "I know I'm here for a reason. I, my songs, they bother people. I didn't really like it when I was around other people, there were too many songs, too many noises, crowding in and no one understood. I don't, I don't think it would be a good idea."
Harry went to one knee in front of her, though he still didn't remove his cloak. "What if I told you" he said gently, reaching out to grasp one of her hands where it lay on the top of the blanket. "What if I told you that I had a place where no one could bother you, where you would be only around people like me who understood you? Where there is grass and flowers and eventually even some animals I hope? Where you could have your own room, your own things, where you can dress in something different than that single piece uniform you have. Where you wouldn't have to interact with the outer world if you didn't want to, but could still have that option?"
Melody stared at where she knew Harry was kneeling. The songs never lied to her after all, and they told her he was there. They hadn't lied to her about her stepfather and his unhealthy interest in her, they hadn't lied to her about her mother and the lack of help there, and they hadn't lied to her about trusting Charles when she needed to go away. The songs were telling her to trust him now; they were telling her that so strongly it actually overwrote every other song in this place.
There were hundreds, thousands of songs surrounding Harry, more than she had seen in nearly any other person. But one thread of music was below them all, stable, resolute and powerful, like steel given sound. It wasn't quite the beat of war drums, or the beating of a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil. But it was immutable, part of his solid form, unyielding and unchanging as steel. It was the beat of the defender, the song of the guardian at the gate, the steadfast hero.
After a moment she shyly nodded and pulled her covers off. "I-I think I would like that," she said, still stammering a little and Harry nodded.
He reached forward and gently lifted Melody off the bed. He pulled the young girl against his chest, and without another word teleported out of the room down onto the ground below. He didn't even bother to reverse the spell placed on the wall, let someone wonder what the hell had happened, he didn't care. There was nothing here linking what had happened to him after all and soon enough the time for hiding would end anyway.
"I should warn you, this may feel odd, but don't worry, I'm just transporting us to our new home. Harry Potter now owns Magneto's asteroid," he said, confusing Melody for a moment then concentrating on the teleport point in the asteroid which had yet to be named. "I think it might help if you close your eyes."
The teleport point was in the forest/Arboretum that Magneto's room had overlooked. Harry had some rather specific plans for that room, after all it was certain that his first time with Storm would be noisy, and the room and it's view could be rather romantic…
The two appeared in a small burst of light, not even Harry was able to teleport that large a distance (and into space from the ground, which seemingly made it even harder) without some noise at the other end, and Harry gently put Melody on her feet. She wobbled a little but then opened her eyes and looked around gasping in wonder.
Harry hadn't yet figured out how large the asteroid was, but this section was at least 2 km long by itself, the others sections weren't as large individually, but probably added a few more kilometers to its length, and a bit to its width and height. He had been through most of it, but hadn't actually mapped everything out just yet, just making sure that there were no traps or anything else that could attack him or his allies. There hasn't been anything all the defenses were on the exterior of the asteroid or in the hangar bay, Magneto had been slightly arrogant about that, but Harry realized with his power he had a reason to feel confident.
"What do you think?" He asked, smiling down at the young girl.
Melody gaped around her then gasped as she saw few birds alight on a tree nearby watching them. "I think it's wonderful!" she breathed.
"Excellent!" Harry replied, clapping his hands together. He looked over at a tree stump and waved his hands, transfiguring it into a bedpost. With another wave of his hand he conjured up a mattress out of air that landed on it neatly and some blankets. The last bit was a large bear shaped body pillow that landed with a soft thump onto the bed. Melody grinned and walked over curling up in bed, hugging the bear print pillow to her and looking around in wonder, the soothing sounds of nature filling her. "I'm going to be busy elsewhere on the asteroid," said Harry, if but I'll be back tomorrow morning for breakfast. Do you have any preferences?"
Melody looked up happily. "English muffins with gooseberry please!"
Harry grinned at her and nodded. "Eventually I'll have a kitchen and stuff up here, but for a while it'll be just be me transporting food up. When we do get a kitchen do you want to start learning how to cook?"
Melody shook her head. "I already know how to cook, or what my mother taught me at least." That had actually been one of the few happy memories she had of her parents, learning how to cook simple meals alongside her mother.
Harry nodded. "Well in that case I'll bring up some stuff and you can show me what you like when we put together your bedroom okay?"
She nodded sleepily, snuggled back into her bed, humming gently to the song of the wild thrush that had just landed on the bedpost by her head. Other birds were now also looking at her and moving towards her cautiously. "That would be fine Mr. Harry." As Harry turned to go she stopped him saying "Mr. Harry?"
He looked back at her and she said "thank you."
Harry blushed a little at the sincere praise and simply waved a hand airily. "It was no trouble my dear. Sleep well, and I'll see you in the morning," I with that he walked off, through the woods and out to the outer section of the asteroid.
OOOOOOO
He spent the rest of the night moving around the asteroid repairing what he could, and figuring out functions of everything he found, having just concentrated on the exterior and the defenses before, putting aside the mobile robots he found for now. Despite the fact that his Fidelis charm should cover the entire asteroid against anything that could find it (after all he and the New Marauders had hid a large mansion on a busy street in the center of London with the same spell) he reactivated the ECM and visual camouflage devices that Magneto had come up with, marveling at their simplicity and high level of technological design. They almost matched something that he would expect from Reed, not quite but almost, definitely not something a normal person could figure out, let alone build.
That done he teleported back to the mansion, where he had rigged up a large canister which he filled with air. He made several trips refilling the asteroid's outer sections with air. Up to that point the only areas that had air was the arboretum in the center and the observation room. After about fifteen such trips he opened all the doors and checked the pressure gauge. He was pleased to note that there was no leak which meant that everything inside had been re-pressurized now. He continued on slapping more spells around, or and then made one last teleportation down to the planet pick up breakfast for himself and Melody, as well as one of his hearthstones.
He placed the two breakfasts under stasis charms then spent the rest of the night in powering the Hearthstone.
Un-plottable wards, anti-demon wars, anti-spy wards, anti-teleportation wards with himself as the sole person keyed in at the moment, which meant that he could side apparate other people along with him but other people couldn't teleport in. He carved in numerous defense wards, anything he could think of, trying to copy the sheer number of wards he had seen around this dimensions Hogwarts, though they wouldn't be nearly as powerful.
Of course the wards weren't all he put on the hearthstone as he connected it to the asteroid. A warming charm to combat the chill of space, and an Unbreakable spell whose effects spread throughout the outer shell of the asteroid. The last spell he put on it was a large application of a space expansion charm, targeting the arboretum and two of the other larger rooms in the asteroid, expanding them each fifteen-thousand times over, giving him enough room in those to equal a good portion of New York's farmable land.
A hearthstone was in essence an almost sentient piece of stone that bonded to the territory it was magically linked to. This could range from a school like Hogwarts and its grounds, to a single family home, something smaller and sometimes even larger. The owner bonded the stone to the area using a very specific spell, then carved the wards on the surface he wanted, and cast any spells on the stone. The stone would do the rest, spreading the effects of the wards and charms/spells throughout the entire area it was connected to unless told specifics such as in the case of the space expansion charms.
Of course, the stone would then pull as much power as it needed to power the spells from the user, the larger the area, the more power needed. It was why powering hearthstones usually took the simultaneous effort of a large number of people. The more wards and spells, the more people needed to help power the startup process. Another way would be to connect the hearthstone to a lay line, which was far easier. After the spells were in place, the hearthstone would take power from the magicals in its territory to continue powering them. Harry had done all this alone, and was the only magical in the area.
Thus by the time he was finished he was utterly exhausted, his magic almost completely depleted for the first time since ever really. Harry spent a few hours stumbling through breakfast with Melody yawning as he did before bowing out and returning to the mansion to sleep the day away until the kids came home. He had dinner with them then spent the evening with Ororo, making out with her occasionally, but mostly just telling her what he had done in the past two days of solid work.
OOOOOOO
The next day Harry returned to the asteroid, and started to renovate the place. He left the master bedroom for later, realizing that doing it himself would be a bad thing as a boyfriend. After all it was going to be as much Ororo's as his (eventually anyway) and she'd probably want to have some input on it.
Instead he concentrated on renovating the rest of the asteroid. He repainted everything inside, using magical brushes, something that had Melody laughing and chasing them around yelling about some Disney movie come to life, which he thought was rather cute.
At lunchtime he returned to the mansion to collect Ororo, something she had requested that morning. They returned with a pop, and after letting Ororo regain control of her equilibrium, Harry waved a hand at Melody, who was sitting at a conjured table eating a large slice of pizza with gusto. "Ororo, this is Melody, Melody, this is Ororo, my girlfriend."
"How do you do child?" Ororo asked, reaching out a hand to gently touch the younger girl's rather mangy hair in lieu of shaking hands. The feel of it caused her to frown a little and she turned to Harry. "Is there any reason this child doesn't seem to have had a bath or a shower of late?"
"Oh, I tried to stay away from the shower, no one else liked listening to me sing, and it isn't a proper shower without singing along with the water," Melody replied, her eyes looking away from the two adults for a moment. The guards couldn't protect her from the other inmates while they were in the shower. There were only so many female guards after all, and they had to watch the more dangerous criminals.
"I hadn't actually thought of it," Harry admitted wincing as Ororo glared at him. Evidently that was the wrong answer. "Um, I could go and do it now I guess."
"Do so," Ororo ordered imperiously, "Then you will return to the mansion and bring back some soap and shampoo."
"Yes dear," Harry replied, knowing when a battle wasn't worth the effort to fight.
That took him about an hour, figuring out where Magneto's bathroom was, finding the pipes that fed into it from the thankfully still intact water reservoir, and then adding another pipe run to the room he had thought to give to Melody as her permanent room. It abutted the arboretum near the 'front' of it, the section that held the plants and birds now that the area had been expanded by his charm, the charm having simply expanded outward along one axis, leaving the plants in place but somehow (not even Harry was clear how this part worked) expanding the ground underneath to match the new dimensions of the room.
Then he figured out how to heat the water, which took a bit longer and returned to his lady and the young charge. While Melody was enjoying her first bath since she was a little girl Ororo, after kissing Harry rather heatedly for saving Melody and fixing up the bath so quickly, went to work.
First the two of them worked on creating a workroom for his wards in one section, and in another section, the area where Magneto had his laboratory, Harry and Ororo renovated into his own research lab.
After that the two of them and the now clean Melody got dirty, to the delight of the young girl and the chagrin of Ororo, got dirty. They spent most of the day planting the magical seeds Harry was going to use to brew his magic potions for later sale. So long as Harry controlled the source of production, and he did, Steven had never even heard of the potions he was looking to sell, no one else could recreate them. It also cut down the change for them to be misused. It would take a while, about two months before he had his first crop and then at least two weeks of solid brewing to make his first batch, but with the size he had to work with he would eventually be able to make enough to meet demand.
The last project for the day (other projects would wait for him to buy furniture and some scientific devices) Storm took one look at the overlooking the throne room with a view of Earth and scoffed, then removed the chair, brought in several chairs from Magneto's room and demanded that Harry create a telescope to look out into the stars. Harry did so then went outside to put as high tech a sensor as he could on the outer hull, routing it to the observation room, where eventually he would set up a computer to monitor its readings. This wasn't exactly radar but that term would do for now. Harry assumed that anything in space would reflect light from the sun, which would tell the computer if anything was heading toward Earth. It wouldn't be the fastest, and it wouldn't tell him any real-time data but it could see anything that was in the solar system eventually and tell him about it.
That was for later however, and after a full day the two teleported down to the planet, once more having dinner with the other X-men.
The next day he and Ororo spent the morning out buying furniture at several local stores, where they could buy the furniture and transport it themselves. "Notice-me-not and shrinking charms are lovely things aren't they?" asked Harry as he and his lady finished with their final stop for the day.
Ororo chuckled. "Indeed, they saved us quite a bit of time. You truly are a handy person to have around Mr. Potter."
"Hah, says the lady who's basically every farmer's patron saint!" The two laughed and returned to the mansion where Harry transported the furniture up to the asteroid in bulk.
Melody waited for them, grinning at the idea of having her own furniture and other things. "Hello Mr. Harry, Ms. Ororo! Oohh, your songs are a duet today, 'riders of the Storm, how nice!"
Ororo coughed a little at the inadvertent innuendo, while Harry grinned before shaking his head sorrowfully. "Alas, not quite yet Melody, perhaps someday…" that was as far as he got before a bolt of lightning slammed into him causing him to break off. Melody gaped but then giggled as Harry laughed, waving one hand to get rid of the smoke caused by the impact. "So, let's put this stuff together and you two can tell me where you want it all.
After a few hours Melody had her room fully furnished. One wall led into her bathroom, another one was open to the arboretum beyond, with a small wall between them. The other two walls were painted light blue and green, blending in well with the forest beyond. The bed was a double sized bed made to look like a single log, with compartments underneath the mattress for clothing. She had a night light and a small table with a big comfy chair in front of it.
Magneto's bedroom received a makeover as well under Ororo's demanding hand. Gone were the 'royal' bed and the metal dresser and tables. In their place was a king sized futon on the floor, with several fur carpets scattered around and a fur blanket draped over it much like on her own bed back at the mansion, though the size and the mattress had been chosen by Harry, as had the bed stand and dresser, both in dark wood. For some reason Harry had told her that when they moved out there would be someplace else for that furniture so all this was new. Along one wall were several computers for the asteroid and the radar, as well as a computer that connected to the internet and allowed Harry access via wi-fi anywhere in the asteroid. The other wall led into the master bathroom, which was dominated by a large Jacuzzi. Ororo was a woman who enjoyed bathing, having done it so seldom (never) in Cairo and very rarely on the plains of the Serengeti.
OOOOOOO
So after four days of nearly nonstop work Harry felt they had done as much work as they could on the asteroid for now. Melody was happy, she had her own room and her own furniture, and had opted to stay behind to have her very own concert. They left her listening to Les Miserable and singing along on all the males songs for some reason.
Ororo too was happy, redecorating with her boyfriend had been rather fun, and the ideas he shared with her about how to use the asteroid filled her with anticipation.
Harry wanted to do something to celebrate, something to let the tow of them relax a bit but he wasn't certain what. He decided on a movie, but hadn't really spent a lot of time watching them back in his old dimension, so had no idea what he was in the mood for. He brought this up at dinner time and all the kids clambered in with some of their favorites, but it was Jean who swayed them all. "How about Star Wars?"
Harry looked at her, head cocked to one side, "What's Star Wars?"
Evan and the other boys all gasped and nodded fiercely. "If you don't know what Star Wars is, we need to teach you right now!" Even Scott nodded firmly.
Jean grinned. "Definitely, since magic can do a lot of the same stuff the force can. This should be interesting."
Minus Logan and Charles the group piled into the TV room. Logan didn't join because he had no stomach for anything that smacked of family bonding time, and Charles didn't particularly like the Star Wars universe, thinking it was far too bloody and didn't particularly like the idea that even that far in the future there would still be war. He much preferred Star Trek thanks to its concentration on diplomacy, despite having to deal with being compared to Piccard.
Harry frowned a little at the TV screen then decided to try a charm that would enlarge it just a little, being very careful that it wouldn't damage the interior of the TV in anyway. So soon enough the TV was big enough to cover the entire side of the wall, and when he turned it on it still worked. Harry grinned a little happily at that then sat down on the loveseat with Ororo, while Jean went to fetch the movies from her room.
Rogue sat between Evan and Scott on the larger sofa, reveling in the fact that she could touch them now without absorbing their powers or life force. Kurt perched on one end, then flopped to the ground by their legs, while Kitty curled up against Ororo's legs leaning against the loveseat.
Ororo rested a gentle hand on Kitty's wild curly brown locks, stroking her hair and bringing a grin to the younger girl's face.
Jean came back quickly with the movies in hand and looked at the other kids. "Episode One?"
Evan nodded firmly, speaking for all the teens. "Best start at the beginning after all."
Jean grinned and popped it into the player, then changed the input to VCR, and moved over to sit beside Ororo and Harry in a chair she grabbed from the dining room. Harry frowned at the little chair she had pulled up, and with a wave of his hand changed it into a plush leather chair. She smiled thankfully at him, and then leaned back a little and snuggled in. The fact that this allowed Harry to look over and see down her shirt a bit only occurred to her moment later when she felt him looking at her, though when she looked up he hurriedly turned away.
Inside she crowed happily at that, while outside she merely smirked a little. It was nice to know that despite the fact that their relationship was going so well she was attractive enough to catch his eye. She crossed her legs and then noticed Ororo looking at her then she smiled back happily when the older woman grinned at her, pursing her lips as if doing a wolf whistle. The two girls exchanged a wink and then looked at the bemused Harry between them then giggled a little before the movie began.
After that everyone was silent watching the movie, and as Jean had predicted Harry was fully engrossed within the first 20 minutes.
Everyone cheered at appropriate moments, and Harry enjoyed almost everything bar the idea of a 'chosen one' (which struck too close to home) and one other point. Jar-Jar-Binks however seem to piss him off immensely. He muttered something about some kind of weasel but the others didn't catch it except Ororo who merely smiled and hugged his arm to her, driving such thoughts out of his mind easily.
As the credits rolled he said one simple thing which got everyone laughing. "I want a light saber."
As it was a school night a lasted group broke up at that point, but they determined that they would continue it one movie and night, an idea that the two supposed chaperones wholeheartedly agreed with.
If you want to help me financially, you can do it on https://www.patreon.com/NeverluckySMILE