Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Son of the Serpents
Chapter 10: picking a fight
picking a fight, the new sorting method, a 2nd heist, what Lucius in up to
?Blocked
Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling
The Serpent Society is owned by Marvel Comics.
Chapter 10: picking a fight
Harry stepped into the Slytherin playroom where the Captain of the Quidditch team, a 7th year named Marcus Flint, was currently engaged in a domination scene over a 5th year girl named Atia Junii. The girl was currently manacled to a Saint Andrew’s X Cross, dressed only in her knickers. Her up upper back was red from the attention Flint had given her with his flogger.
Harry was less disturbed by the scene before him than some of the things he has seen during ‘Slave Week’. The couple before him were closer in age than the 17-18 year-old ‘masters’ and their 11-12 year-old ‘slaves’. Especially since the way Junii girl was moaning, made him think she was enjoying this. Harry had nearly intervened to come to the aid of a pair of his classmates, Daphane and Tracy, when he came upon them crying as they were being deflowered, but his ‘Mistress’, Tonks, had talked him out of it.
“Do you have any idea just how many Dark Ritual require a virgin sacrifice?” explained Tonks. “Believe me, it’s better to get this out of the way, now, in public, than to have them abducted in the night by some ambitious house-mate who wants to use them as a material component!”
In the end, Harry had gone along with Slave week because he intended to take over Slytherin House and in order to do that, he needed to be one of them. ‘Slave Week’ was a Slytherin tradition.
And it was his intension to take over his house that had brought him into the room with his burly housemate. Flint was big, in 7th year, and important. He’d suit Harry’s purposes perfectly.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Flint swatted the girl with his flogger as Harry snuck up on him. With a sweep of his tail, Harry knocked Flint’s feet out from under him. Reaching into his Shadow Cloak, Harry pulled our one of Cutthroat’s daggers. Flint gunted in pain as Harry hopped onto his belly with both knees and put the dagger up to the older boy’s throat.
“I’m your Dom now!” proclaimed Harry.
“Huh?” asked the dazed 7th year boy, who had struck his head when he hit the floor.
Harry sliced across Flints throat, just barely cutting through the skin. But doing no fatal damage. “I SAID, I’m your Dom now! Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master,” replied Flint, with a gulp.
Flint taken care of, Harry turned his attention to his submissive. He rolled of the boy and onto his feet before stepping over to the 5th year girl. Harry was still only 11-years-old, so Junii was quite a bit taller than him. When Harry reached around and caressed to front of her upper thigh, she flinched. With his other hand, he reached around a traced the knife up her tummy.
“Now then,” said Harry, as she felt his breath against the small of her back. “Since your Dom is my Submissive, that makes me you submissive, too, doesn’t it?”
She nodded her head, with a whimper.
“I don’t think I heard that,” said Harry as he continued to trace upwards with the dagger and was approaching the underside of her breast. “Could you speak a little louder?”
“Y- yes, Master!” whimpered Atia Junii.
“That wasn’t so hard was it?” said Harry, as he put the dagger, back into the Shadow Cloak and stepped away from the girl. He waved from Flint to her back, before walking away. “Carry on.”
This sort of scene would be repeated as Harry staged his take-over of the house, but for now, he had his first Potions class this morning after breakfast. Classes had been canceled for the 1st week of school because Professor Snape had been in the infirmary. Although it hadn’t taken Madame Pomphrey long to heal his physical injuries, she had proclaimed him psychotic and due to his previous escape from her care had be doubley vigilant in making sure that he was not allow ed near students until he could act calmly concerning a particular student.
When Harry went into the Potions lab, he took a seat at the table with Daphane Greengrass. Both she and her friend, Tracy Davis had been amused and touched by his chivalrous attempt and stopping them from being raped and the three had become friends of a sort. As more of the Syltherin and Gryfindor 1st years came into the lab, Harry glanced over at Ron Weasley. Harry’s short-lived friendship with Ron had died the second he had been sorted into Slytherin. The red-head wouldn’t even speak to him now. Harry didn’t think that was much of a problem. The Weasley boy had proven to be a little slow in classes . . . no like that Granger girl, who also didn’t speak to him. But in her case, it was because she was afraid of him.
Snape entered the lab and began his 1st year speech. Once the preliminaries were done, he proceeded to embarrass Ron by asking a bunch of advanced questions. As the Class progressed, it soon became apparent that Snape of going out of his was to avoid acknowledging or even looking at Harry. Harry filed this bit of information away for future reference.
After a day of classes. It was now time for the evening meal. But there was no food on the table.
“Attention Studdents,” began Headmaster Dumbledore. “As you all know, there was an incident during the sorting this years and a few of you didn’t get be sorted. The Sorting Hat was a tradition at Hogwarts since its’ founding, more than a 1000 years ago. Now, thank to Mister Potter, we will start a new tradition.”
Dumbledore raised his wand and an enormous set of scales appeared. There was a needle indicator and dial indication that Gryfindor was to the left of center and Hufflepuff was on the far left. While Ravenclaw was to the right of center and Slytherin was to the far right.
“According to ancient Egyptian tradition, when people when to the underworld, the Goddess, Maat would weight their hearts against a feather. This is a potent symbol. Indeed, in the colonies, the muggle tax agency uses Maat and her scales as their seal. While we don’t have a Goddess to weigh your hearts . . . we do have a phoenix. Fawkes?”
With a roar of flame, a phoenix appeared and landed on the right side of the scale.
Harry took one look at the set up and began snickering. “So, if she weighs the same as a duck . . .”
“Then she’s a Witch!” laughed Hermione.
“How do you know she’s a witch?” laughed Roger Starkey, a 6th year, muggle-born, Hufflepuff.
“She turned me into a newt!” laughed Justin Finch-Fletchly. “I got better.”
“Nobody throws a rock, until I say so, even if he says Voldemort” laughed a 5th year, muggle-born Ravenclaw, as the pure-bloods gasped.
“That’s Life of Brian,” scolded Hermione.
“Oh yeah,” replied the Ravenclaw.
“If we could get on with the sorting?” admonished Dumbledore, interrupting the obscure jokes of the muggle-raised students.
Professor McGonna,,gal stood and continued on the list from where she’d had to stop when Harry destroyed the Sorting Hat.
“Thomas, Dean!”
Dean rose from the Hufflepuff table and sat on the scale. The needle immediately tilted over to Gryfindor.
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The older students had, at first, laughed at 11-year-old Harry’s attempt to take over Syltherin House. But the more of them he beat into submission, the more vicious their response became. One day, Harry was coming into the Common room alone when he spotted a 7th Year student, Leah Hirsig, drawing her wand.
“Sectumsempra!” shouted a voice from the corner behind Harry’s Left Shoulder, as Harry leaped to the chandelier.
Candles fell from it as the chandelier shifted with Harry’s weight and fell onto the couch below. Most of the candles snuffed out, but one, ignighted the fabric of the sofa.
Harry pulled out one of Oddball’s trick billiard balls from his Shadow Cloak and tossed it at Tonks in the right corner who had silently cast a spell with an orange ray that Harry dodged, just as she dodged the ball Harry had thrown at her. Under Hogwarts’ wards, the ball wouldn’t deliver an electric shock like it was supposed to. But it was still a hard object that could injure her.
Harry turned the arc of his swing on the chandelier into a fall aimed, tail-first, at Drusus Regardie, the 7th year student in the left corner who had cast the cutting curse at Harry. As he turned his fall into a flying tail-slap of the boy, Harry also flung one of Diamondback’s throwing diamonds at Leah Hirsig, impaling her forearm and caused her to drop her wand with a scream.
“Locomotor Mor-!” Drusus’ spell was interrupted as Harry’s tail hit the side of his head, knocking him out.
Harry’s feet had landed on the boy’s chest, which he used as a springboard to leap to the nearby wall, knocking Drusus down in the process, but not before a Harry-dodged spell cast by Tonks hit the 7th year boy, with a red light.
Bunching up him leg muscles, Harry leaped across the room at Tonks. She dodged his attempt to tackle her, but Harry had managed to grab her wand arm as he passed by. Harry squeezed her wrist hard enough to make her drop her wand as his feet hit the ground and he twisted her arm behind her. Tonks twisted around and punched him in the jaw. When Harry grabbed her other wrist, she raised her arms, lifting the 11-year-old boy off the ground. Harry kicked her in the solar plexus and she crumpled forward. Once Harry’s feet were back on the ground, he performed an aikido twist of her wrist that caused sudden pain and forced her prone on the ground, as he released her other wrist. Kneeling on the small of her back, he kept her arm in a painful hold, twisted behind her. Tonks responded by changing the shape of her other shoulder joint so she could hit him with her free arm. Harry dodged her swing and twisted her pinned arm even more painfully.
“Stop! Or I’ll break the arm!” warned Harry. When she stopped struggling, Harry said: “Now, who’s the king of our house?”
“Oww! You are, Harry!” groaned Tonks, as he twisted her arm.
“You are, Rattler, Sir!” insisted Harry as he twisted her arm some more.
“Oww! Okay! Okay! You are Rattler, Sir!” squealed Tonks.
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It was Halloween night, but Harry decided not to attend the Halloween feast. Instead, he was itching to pull off a heist. His first attempt at robbing Gringotts had been aborted by Sidewinder. But Harry wanted to get his feet wet as a Supervillain. So when everyone else went off to the Great Hall for dinner, Harry stepped into his Shadow Cloak and stepped back out of it in London. Knowing that the Magical authorities would object to another attempt at looting Gringotts, but wouldn’t care if he knocked off a muggle bank, Harry walked the streets looking for a likely prospect. He was dressed in his Rattler costume with his Shadow Cloak expanded to cover it. But the tail still drooped carelessly to stick out from under the bottom of it. People gave his strange looks as he walked the streets. A slightly pudgy red-haired man in his early 20’s coming from the other direction openly gaped at him as they passed each other. Harry glared at the man and resumed his walk. Neither of them noticed the face of a teen-aged girl with brown hair and eyes emerge from a wall to gaze at them for a moment before receding back into the wall.
Eventually, The Rattler found a likely looking bank. He discreetly walked past it a couple of times to check it out before seeking a nearby alley. Once he was out of sight, he reached into his Shadow Cloak and pulled out one of the Punisher’s 38 revolvers. After checking to make sure it was loaded, the Rattler apparated into the bank.
POP!
Bang!
Bang!
As soon as he appeared he shot out the security cameras. The Rattler then, used the Shadow Cloak to put the gun back where he’d gotten it before the Punisher missed it. (He didn’t want the Punisher seeking him out) When the Rattler pulled his hand back out of the Shadow Cloak, instead of a gun, he now held Nemesis’ sword. The Taskmaster had told him about the obscure Canadian superheroine who wielded a molecule-thin sword that could cut through nearly anything. The Rattler stepped over to the vault and sliced through the deadbolts before also cutting through the hinges. Sticking the sword back into the Shadow Cloak to return to its’ owner, the Rattler grabbed the door of the vault and lifted it out of its’ frame.
“I don’t think you should be doing that. . .” said a girlish voice.
“Ugh!” grunted the Rattler as he threw the vault door at where the sound of the voice had come from. The vault door was near the limit of how much weight he could perform this feat with, and the fact that it was so much bigger than him, just made it more difficult. At he hurled it, he turned to see the vault door go sailing through a teen-age girl who was only slightly taller than him. She was wearing an all blue costume with a mask and had permed brown hair. But the biggest clue to the identity of this teen superheroine was the face that the vault door had passed through her like a ghost before crashing through the glass door of the bank.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The alarm began ringing!
“Now that wasn’t very nice,” admonished Shadowcat as she made a flying kick that connected with his jaw.
“Sorry I didn’t expect the X-Men to try to stop my bank robbery,” replied the Rattler as his tail swipe passed right through her.
“Oh, I’m not with the X-Men any more, I’m in Excaliber, now,” explained Shadowcat as she punched him in the solar plexus. “I can’t help noticing that you’re dressed as a snake. Are you trying to get into the Serpent Society?”
“I am in the Serpent Society!” growled the Rattler, as he leaped at her and once again passed through her like she was a ghost.
Now that he had some distance from her, the Rattler began quickly moving around the room while pulling explosive throwing diamonds, billiard balls and pumpkin bombs out of his Shadow Cloak to hurl at her. But the effects of all of them passed right through her. And even when he tried to use objects in the bank like the counters as a barrier, she kept passing through them and coming at him. Finally, the Rattler had to acknowledge to himself that she was not going to let him get anything from this heist. He apparated back to the alley with a:
POP!
As soon as he appeared, the Rattler felt a great weight come down upon him.
“Halt evildoer! In the name of the law!” shouted a pudgy man dressed as giant frog with springs on his feet.
“Who the heck are you?” asked the Rattler as he swept the hero’s feet out from under him with his tail.
His opponent turned his fall into a roll that had him back on his feet and leaping into the air.
Sproing!
“I and the Fabulous Frog- Man!” proclaimed the green-clad hero as he bounced off a wall to make a flying leap at the Rattler.
Sproing!
The Rattler ducked and Frog-Man sail over his head.
“Didn’t a see you in New York fighting the Toad?” asked the Rattler as he pulled throwing diamonds out of his Shadow Cloak and hurled them at Frog-Man. “What are you doing in London?”
“I was on vacation, when I spotted you going down the street, kid,” replied Frog-Man as he leaped over the missiles and tried to hop on the Rattler again.
“Just my luck, I try to knock over a British bank and run into a couple of Americans on my first try,” groused the Rattler as he dodged Frog-Man’s hop.
“What do you mean a cou-“ begain Frog-Man as Shadowcat emerged from the wall behind him and passed through him, disrupting the electrical systems of his Frog-Man suit as she did so.
Zzzzzzzzzz!
Sproing! Sproing! Sproing!
Frog-Man began hopping around erratically out of control in random directions.
“Ooops!” said Shadowcat, before turning her attention to the Rattler.
She resumed the fight they’d begun in the bank, where she kept hitting him, but every time he’d try to hit back, his fist, tail, leg or weapon would pass right through her. But the fight came to an abrupt end when Frog-Man accidently slammed into the back of the Rattler’s head.
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Harry was not surprised to wake up in a jail cell. While he had been out, they’d taken his costume and Shadow Cloak. Leaning against the bars, Harry check to see there was only one guard in the hall. With a spin, Harry apparated out of his cell with a:
Pop!
Appearing behind him, Harry used his tail to sweep the guard’s feet out from under him and quickly knocked him out with a kick to the head.
“Wow! How did you do that?” asked the teen-aged boy in the cell next to Harry.
Harry held a finger to his lips in a shushing motion as he retrieved the keys from the guard’s belt. Thanking the British for having such an antique jail, rather than a modern one with electronic locks, Harry looked at the keys trying to figure out which one would open the door leading out from the jail. He was about to try one when the door’s lock clicked! As the door opened, Harry saw Headmaster Dumbledore standing on the otherside with his wand pointed at the door.
“Ah! There you are, Harry! I’ve been looking for you all night!” said Dumbledore, cheerfully with a twinkle in his eye. “You really shouldn’t be leaving school like this without permission. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take 20 points from Slytherin for this. Now let’s get you back to Hogwarts.”
“HEY!” protested Harry, as Dumbledore tapped him on top of the head and he felt a cold sensation running down his head.
“Relax Harry, it’s just a little disillusionment charm,” assured Dumbledore, before turning to the gaping teen-aged muggle in the cell in front of them. “Obliviate!”
“I’m not leaving until I’ve gotten back my costume and Cloak,” said Harry and he tossed the keys into the cell of the boy whom Dumbledore had just obliviated.
“I’ve good them right here,” replied Dumbledore, pulling a shrunken version of his costume and cloak out of his pocket. “I was quite surprised that you didn’t bring your wand with you.”
“I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble with the Ministry for using magic out of school,” replied Harry.
“But you thought nothing of getting in trouble with the muggle authorities?” queried Dumbledore.
Harry just shrugged as Dumbledore grabbed his arm and apparated the two of them to Hogsmead.
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After walking with the Headmaster back to the school, Harry found that they had arrived slightly early for Breakfast. Harry wandered over to the Slytherin table and sat across from Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom were shoveling down food like it was going to become scarce. Harry had just helped his plate to some bangers and eggs when he spotted the red hair of Ron Weasley walking into the Great hall followed by the ghostly form of Hermione Granger.
“Honestly Ron, if you’d only been a little nicer to me, I wouldn’t have been killed by that troll!” screeched the ghost of Hermione.
“I’m sorry! How many times do I have to say it before you stop haunting me?” whined Ron.
“Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy with a simple apology,” screeched the ghost of Hermione. “If you thought I was a nightmare before, you just try slacking off now. I’m going haunt you and make sure you do your school work until you graduate from Hogwarts!”
Cringing, Ron sat and the table and began helping his plate.
“And slow down! You don’t have to eat so fast!” admonished the ghost of Hermione.
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“I’m sorry Lucius but I can’t sponsor your bill to make muggle acts illegal,” replied Rufus Scrimgeour. “I can understand how you feel about what happened to you son, but that was an isolated incident. I already forced Moody into retirement. Isn’t that enough?”
“And what happens when the Potter kid kills again?” demanded Lucius Malfoy.
“He’s at Hogwarts now, learning magic,” replied Scrimgeour. “I’m sure that next time he kills, he’ll use magic, and that will give me an excuse to arrest him.”
Growling in frustration, Lucius Malfoy stomped off.
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“T- t-t-today well be c- c- c- covering the d- d- d- different type of d- d- d- demons: q- q- q- quiphothic, g- g- g- goetic and ab- ab- ab-abramaelin,” stuttered Professor Quirrel with a frightened look.
Harry rubbed his forehead cringing.
“Harry, you really should go see Madame Pomfrey about your headaches!” whispered Daphane Greengrass.
“What am I going to tell her? Quirrels studdering gives me a headache!” whispered Harry. “I hate this class!”
“Shhhhhh!” shushed the ghost of Hermione.
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“Thank you for seeing me son Baron Mordo,” said Lucius Malfoy. “Can you offer me any hope?”
“I’m afraid with that diamond piercing his heart, if we remove the stasis, he’ll die,” replied Baron Mordo. “However, we could replace the heart with a mystical gem of sufficient size. There are several possibilities. . . .”
“What about the Bloodstone? I’ve heard that the muggle, Ulysses Bloodstone lived for 10,000 years?” suggested Lucius Malfoy.
“The Bloodstone would have been an excellent candidate,” replied Baron Mordo, as he reached in to his pocket pulled out and enlarged an ancient tome. “How about this one?”
“NO! I refuse to make my son become the next Red Raja!” growled Lucius Malfoy.
“Probably for the best,” agreed Baron Mordo, as he turned pages in the book. “We could use Dr. Spectrum’s gem, but it’s rumored to be intelligent and could over whelm the boy’s personality. How about this one?”
Lucius Malfoy gazed and the page he was pointing to and broke into a grin.
“Yes, this will do most nicely!” said Lucius Malfoy. “I’ll hire some goblins to retrieve it from the ruins of the temple in Siam.”
Notes
I came up with the scales as a replacement for the sorting hat before it occurred to me that I’d seen a Witch weighed with a scale in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Frog-Man (Eugene Patilio) is a minor comedic superhero created by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Kerry Gammill for Marvel Comics
Eugene Patillo was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Vincent Patillo, the minor Daredevil supervillain Leap-Frog. After several defeats by Daredevil, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, which eventually landed him in jail, Vincent had decided to retire and go straight.
His son, Eugene, donned his father's costume as Fabulous Frog-Man in an attempt to be a crime-fighter to clear his father's name. However, his crime-fighting career became essentially a joke. His two major enemy villains are the White Rabbit, a villainess inspired by the Alice in Wonderland character, and the Walrus, a dimwitted character who essentially had the proportionate abilities of a walrus (tough skin and super-strength, though well below Spider-Man's class).
Frog-Man had a tendency to capture villains simply by dumb luck. Eugene's inability to fully pilot his automated Frog-Man costume caused him to wildly bounce around, scoring sure wins against villains by crashing into them. This questionable method of fighting supervillains accounts for his luck in dealing with the Yellow Claw and Speed Demon.
Katherine "Kitty" Pryde is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980) and was created by writer-artist John Byrne.
A mutant, Pryde possesses a "phasing" ability that essentially allows her and objects or people with which she is in contact to become intangible. This power also disrupts any electrical field she passes through, and lets her simulate levitation. At the time of her membership, under the codename Shadowcat, Pryde was the youngest person invited to join the team of mutant superheroes the X-Men. Pryde also used the names Sprite and Ariel briefly.
During her early years, she is portrayed as a "kid sister" to many older members of the X-Men, filling the role of literary foil to the more established characters. In the years since her introduction, she has aged and matured, and has become a main character on her own.
Kitty Pryde was portrayed by actress Ellen Page in the 2006 superhero film, X-Men: The Last Stand.
Uncanny X-Men artist John Byrne said he named Kitty Pryde after a classmate he met in art school in Calgary in 1973, telling her he liked her name and receiving permission to use it for his first original comics character. Also, Byrne had drawn the character to slightly resemble an adolescent Sigourney Weaver. The fictional Kitty Pryde first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980), by writer Chris Claremont and artist Byrne, as a highly intelligent, 13-year-old girl. Claremont said several elements of the character's personality were derived from those of the daughter of Claremont's and Byrne's acquaintance Louise Simonson, Julie. Claremont and Byrne made the new character a full-fledged X-Man in issue #139, where she was codenamed "Sprite". She was the main character in the issues #141-142, the Days of Future Past storyline, where she is possessed by her older self, who time travels into the past to prevent the mass extermination of mutants. The six-issue miniseries Kitty Pryde and Wolverine (1984–1985), written by Claremont, was a coming-of-age storyline in which she matures from a girl to a young woman and receives the new name "Shadowcat".
The fictional Kitty Pryde also had a profound effect on the real-life Kitty Pryde: the latter became so overwhelmed by attention from Shadowcat fans after the publication of the X-Men comics that she abbreviated her name to K.D. Pryde to avoid association with her fictional counterpart. She has since stated that she has mixed feelings about her fame, saying that she values Byrne's comics for their entertainment and artistic value, but wishes that more people could appreciate her as more than just Shadowcat's namesake.
Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde was born in Deerfield, Illinois to Carmen and Theresa Pryde. Of Jewish descent, her paternal grandfather, Samuel Prydeman, was held in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Kitty started to have headaches at age thirteen, headaches which signaled the emergence of her mutant powers. She was approached by both the X-Men's Charles Xavier and the Hellfire Club's White Queen, Emma Frost, both of whom hoped to recruit her for their respective causes. Kitty was unnerved by Frost, observing that the White Queen had looked at her as if she were "something good to eat." She got along better with Xavier and the three X-Men who escorted him to his meeting with her and her parents, becoming fast friends with Ororo Munroe. Ororo told Kitty who she really was and about the X-Men, which made the teenager even more enthusiastic about attending Xavier's school.
Their conversation was cut short, however, when they (along with Wolverine and Colossus) were attacked by armored mercenaries in the employ of Frost and the Hellfire Club. The X-Men defeated their assailants, but were subdued by the White Queen's telepathic powers immediately after. In the confusion, Kitty had become separated from the X-Men and therefore was not captured along with them. She managed to contact Cyclops, Phoenix, and Nightcrawler. With the help of Dazzler and Pryde, those X-Men rescued their teammates and Xavier (who had also been captured) from the Hellfire Club.
The White Queen appeared to perish in the battle, which meant she was no longer competing with Xavier for the approval of Kitty's parents. Unfortunately, Kitty's parents hadn't heard from her in more than a day, because during that time she was first being pursued by the Hellfire Club's men and then working with the X-Men to save their friends. All they knew was that Kitty had left with Xavier's "students" to get a soda, there had been reports that the soda shop had been blown up, and that Kitty had been missing since. Understandably, they were angry at Xavier when he finally returned with Kitty in tow. At first, it seemed like there was no chance of Kitty being allowed to attend the school and join the X-Men. Phoenix then decided to use her considerable telepathic power to erase the memories of Kitty's parents and plant false ones, resulting in a complete shift in their attitude towards Xavier. Questions concerning the morality of tampering with minds in such a fashion aside, Kitty was then allowed to enroll at Xavier's school with her parents' blessing. She was the youngest person to join the X-Men up to that point.
Joining the X-Men
Shadowcat as member of Excalibur with Lockheed and Widget. Art by Alan Davis
Kitty joined the X-Men, and assumed the costumed identity of Sprite. Early in her career as an X-Man, Kitty's adult self from an alternate future took possession of her body in the present to help X-Men thwart the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Kitty then single-handedly defeated a N'Garai demon. Kitty also briefly attended the White Queen's Massachusetts Academy.
During her teen years, Kitty fostered a number of close relationships with others at the school and in the X-Men. She developed a crush on Colossus and became close friends with his little sister Illyana Rasputin. Initially uneasy around Nightcrawler and other mutants with physical deformities, Kitty finally overcame her fears and became close friends with him. Kitty also befriended Lockheed, a highly intelligent alien resembling a dragon, who followed her home after a mission in outer space. Lockheed is extremely loyal to Kitty, and the two of them share a psychic bond. Wolverine became something of a mentor to Kitty despite his usually gruff personality. Storm came to view Kitty as the daughter she never had.
Kitty was later assigned to the New Mutants, a team of younger mutants established in the absence of the X-Men while they were in outer space. Kitty convinced Professor Xavier to allow her to remain a full member of the X-Men on the basis of her high intelligence, maturity, and the fact that she was already a fully-trained member of the team. Kitty was later abducted by the Morlocks and nearly forced to wed Caliban. She was then abducted by the White Queen, but rescued by the New Mutants.
During this time, Kitty began to "date" Colossus, but this did not last long. Colossus developed feelings for an alien woman named Zsaji whom he met on the Beyonder's planet in the first Secret Wars. Colossus' feelings toward Zsaji were primarily a side effect of her own unique healing abilities, which she had used on him after he became injured. Regardless, Colossus' feelings were real and he returned to Earth consumed with grief after Zsaji's death. He admitted to Kitty that he loved Zsaji, which hurt her deeply and ended the budding romantic relationship. Kitty had made good friends with a local boy from Salem Central named Doug Ramsey around this time, but her feelings for him never went as deep as his for her, and they never actually dated, though they remained close, even more so after Doug's status as a mutant was revealed and he joined the New Mutants under the codename Cypher. They remained friends until his death some time later.
Ogun
During the 1985 Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries, Kitty is possessed by a demon, the ninja Ogun. Ogun psychically bestows upon Kitty a virtual lifetime of martial arts training. Kitty was brainwashed by Ogun into becoming a ninja assassin, and was sent to attack Wolverine. Kitty is able to resist Ogun's influence with Wolverine's help and the two form a strong teacher/student bond. Kitty returns to the X-Men, no longer the innocent girl they once knew, and officially adopts the codename Shadowcat.
Morlock Massacre
Kitty was badly injured by Harpoon's energy spear during the Mutant Massacre story arc, in the massacre of the Morlocks, with the result that she lost control of her power and was stuck in an intangible state and could not regain her solidity. She was rushed to Muir Island along with other surviving casualties of the Massacre to be tended to by Moira MacTaggert. MacTaggert was able to keep Kitty's condition from deteriorating to the point where she completely lost physical substance and ceased to exist, but wasn't able to do any more to help her. At this time, Kitty's natural state was to be intangible. Where she once had to make a conscious effort to phase, she could now only maintain her solidity through an act of conscious will. She was saved by Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, but not without trouble. The X-Men had gone to Richards for aid, but he had initially refused because he was not sure he would be able to help (Reed was in a struggle with the rest of the Fantastic Four about their origins. They thought that Reed deliberately caused their accident which turned them into the Fantastic Four, thus making him very uncertain about his personal motives and abilities). Having nowhere else to go, the X-Men turned to Richards' enemy Doctor Doom. This created a moral dilemma for both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Both teams fought each other because the Fantastic Four were trying to stop the treatment while the X-Men were determined to save Kitty's life. In the end, both the personal crisis of the Fantastic Four and the life of Shadowcat were saved. It was Franklin Richards, with the help of Lockheed, who brought both teams to their senses. Kitty has since recovered from this state and now has full control over her power again.
Excalibur
Kitty Pryde as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D
Among the others injured and brought to Muir Isle were Colossus and Nightcrawler, although Colossus left the United Kingdom shortly after being released from MacTaggert's care to join the rest of the X-Men on their mission to battle the Adversary. The X-Men sacrificed their lives to defeat the Adversary, and the battle was televised and broadcast across the world. The X-Men were resurrected later, unknown to the world at large, but chose to keep a low profile and perpetuate the belief that they were still dead. This strategy was enforced to more effectively fight their enemies. This meant avoiding contact with friends and family, including Kitty. Thinking the X-Men were dead, Kitty and Nightcrawler joined Rachel Summers, Captain Britain, and Meggan to form the Britain-based team Excalibur.[21] For a brief time, Kitty studied at St. Searle's school for girls in Britain.[22] During her time with Excalibur, Kitty developed a crush on Professor Alistaire Stuart which went unreciprocated since Alistaire was attracted to Rachel.
Powers and abilities
Kitty is a mutant with the ability to pass through solid matter by altering the vibratory rates of her atoms: passing her atoms through the spaces between the atoms of the object through which she is moving. In this way she and the object through which she is passing can temporarily merge without interacting, and each is unharmed when Shadowcat has finished passing through the object. This process is called phasing, and it renders her almost completely intangible to physical touch. Shadowcat passes through objects at the same speed at which she is moving before she "enters" them. Since she is unable to breathe while "inside" an object, she can only continuously phase through solid objects (as when she travels underground) as long as she can hold her breath.(Though disagreements were made about ex. she has phased miles within a object)
Using her power began as an optional ability, but for a period (over ten years of published comics, approximately two years in-continuity) Kitty existed in a naturally "phased" state, and had to consciously choose to become solid. However, she has now returned to her original form; i.e. she is now naturally solid and must choose when to use her power. While phasing, she does not physically walk on surfaces, but rather interacts with the molecules of air above them, allowing her to ascend and descend, allowing her to seemingly walk on air. While phased, she is immune to most physical attacks, and has inconsistent showings of some resistance to telepathy. The density of some materials (such as adamantium) can prove deleterious to her phasing, causing her to be severely disoriented or experience pain if she tries to pass through them. Some energy attacks also prove problematic for Kitty. For example, an energy blast fired by Harpoon, a member of the Marauders caused her to lose her ability to become fully tangible for months. Magic and magical beings also prove to be an enigma in regards to Kitty's phasing, as proven in a battle with a N'Garai demon that showed it could cause harm to Kitty even while in her phased state--the demon's claws left no visible marks, but caused Kitty severe pain as they passed through her intangible body.
The use of her abilities also interferes with any electrical systems (including, in some stories, the bio-electric systems of the human body), as she passes through by disrupting the flow of electrons from atom to atom.
Kitty can also extend her powers to phase other people and objects. Currently, she is able to phase at least a half a dozen other people (or objects of similar mass) with her, so long as they establish and maintain physical contact with her. She can extend her phasing effect to her own clothing or any other object with mass up to that of a small truck, as long as she remains in contact with it. She has threatened to leave people phased into a wall and used her power offensively to harm the Technarch Magus and Danger. Kitty's powers seem to have increased over the years. During an X-Treme X-Men story arc where she is kidnapped by Reverend William Stryker, she phases out of sync with the earth's rotation to move from one place in the world (only east or west) to another seemingly instantaneously. At the climax of Astonishing X-Men, Kitty phases a ten mile long "bullet" composed of super-dense alien metals through the entire planet earth. This is her greatest phasing feat to date and may have cost Kitty her life.
She has trained herself to go automatically, by reflex, into a phasing state at any indication of danger, such as a loud noise like a gunshot, in order to protect herself.
Kitty also shares a sort of mental or empathic connection with Lockheed (her pet dragon); both she and the alien dragon can 'sense' each other's presence at times.
Besides her mutant powers, Kitty is a genius in the field of applied technology and computer science. Shadowcat is highly talented in the design and use of computer hardware. She is a skilled pilot of piston and jet engine aircraft, and a competent pilot of certain advanced interstellar vehicles. She has previously shown a unique ability to wield the Soulsword and also be harmed by it. Since her possession by Ogun, she has been consistently shown to be an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, having since been trained in the arts of aikido, karate, ninjutsu, and Krav Maga. She possesses moderate expertise of the martial arts of the Japanese ninja and samurai. She is a professional level dancer in both ballet and modern dance. She speaks fluent English, Japanese, Russian, and the royal and standard languages of the alien Shi'ar, and has moderate expertise in Gaelic, Hebrew, and German.
The Serpent Society is owned by Marvel Comics.
Chapter 10: picking a fight
Harry stepped into the Slytherin playroom where the Captain of the Quidditch team, a 7th year named Marcus Flint, was currently engaged in a domination scene over a 5th year girl named Atia Junii. The girl was currently manacled to a Saint Andrew’s X Cross, dressed only in her knickers. Her up upper back was red from the attention Flint had given her with his flogger.
Harry was less disturbed by the scene before him than some of the things he has seen during ‘Slave Week’. The couple before him were closer in age than the 17-18 year-old ‘masters’ and their 11-12 year-old ‘slaves’. Especially since the way Junii girl was moaning, made him think she was enjoying this. Harry had nearly intervened to come to the aid of a pair of his classmates, Daphane and Tracy, when he came upon them crying as they were being deflowered, but his ‘Mistress’, Tonks, had talked him out of it.
“Do you have any idea just how many Dark Ritual require a virgin sacrifice?” explained Tonks. “Believe me, it’s better to get this out of the way, now, in public, than to have them abducted in the night by some ambitious house-mate who wants to use them as a material component!”
In the end, Harry had gone along with Slave week because he intended to take over Slytherin House and in order to do that, he needed to be one of them. ‘Slave Week’ was a Slytherin tradition.
And it was his intension to take over his house that had brought him into the room with his burly housemate. Flint was big, in 7th year, and important. He’d suit Harry’s purposes perfectly.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Flint swatted the girl with his flogger as Harry snuck up on him. With a sweep of his tail, Harry knocked Flint’s feet out from under him. Reaching into his Shadow Cloak, Harry pulled our one of Cutthroat’s daggers. Flint gunted in pain as Harry hopped onto his belly with both knees and put the dagger up to the older boy’s throat.
“I’m your Dom now!” proclaimed Harry.
“Huh?” asked the dazed 7th year boy, who had struck his head when he hit the floor.
Harry sliced across Flints throat, just barely cutting through the skin. But doing no fatal damage. “I SAID, I’m your Dom now! Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master,” replied Flint, with a gulp.
Flint taken care of, Harry turned his attention to his submissive. He rolled of the boy and onto his feet before stepping over to the 5th year girl. Harry was still only 11-years-old, so Junii was quite a bit taller than him. When Harry reached around and caressed to front of her upper thigh, she flinched. With his other hand, he reached around a traced the knife up her tummy.
“Now then,” said Harry, as she felt his breath against the small of her back. “Since your Dom is my Submissive, that makes me you submissive, too, doesn’t it?”
She nodded her head, with a whimper.
“I don’t think I heard that,” said Harry as he continued to trace upwards with the dagger and was approaching the underside of her breast. “Could you speak a little louder?”
“Y- yes, Master!” whimpered Atia Junii.
“That wasn’t so hard was it?” said Harry, as he put the dagger, back into the Shadow Cloak and stepped away from the girl. He waved from Flint to her back, before walking away. “Carry on.”
This sort of scene would be repeated as Harry staged his take-over of the house, but for now, he had his first Potions class this morning after breakfast. Classes had been canceled for the 1st week of school because Professor Snape had been in the infirmary. Although it hadn’t taken Madame Pomphrey long to heal his physical injuries, she had proclaimed him psychotic and due to his previous escape from her care had be doubley vigilant in making sure that he was not allow ed near students until he could act calmly concerning a particular student.
When Harry went into the Potions lab, he took a seat at the table with Daphane Greengrass. Both she and her friend, Tracy Davis had been amused and touched by his chivalrous attempt and stopping them from being raped and the three had become friends of a sort. As more of the Syltherin and Gryfindor 1st years came into the lab, Harry glanced over at Ron Weasley. Harry’s short-lived friendship with Ron had died the second he had been sorted into Slytherin. The red-head wouldn’t even speak to him now. Harry didn’t think that was much of a problem. The Weasley boy had proven to be a little slow in classes . . . no like that Granger girl, who also didn’t speak to him. But in her case, it was because she was afraid of him.
Snape entered the lab and began his 1st year speech. Once the preliminaries were done, he proceeded to embarrass Ron by asking a bunch of advanced questions. As the Class progressed, it soon became apparent that Snape of going out of his was to avoid acknowledging or even looking at Harry. Harry filed this bit of information away for future reference.
After a day of classes. It was now time for the evening meal. But there was no food on the table.
“Attention Studdents,” began Headmaster Dumbledore. “As you all know, there was an incident during the sorting this years and a few of you didn’t get be sorted. The Sorting Hat was a tradition at Hogwarts since its’ founding, more than a 1000 years ago. Now, thank to Mister Potter, we will start a new tradition.”
Dumbledore raised his wand and an enormous set of scales appeared. There was a needle indicator and dial indication that Gryfindor was to the left of center and Hufflepuff was on the far left. While Ravenclaw was to the right of center and Slytherin was to the far right.
“According to ancient Egyptian tradition, when people when to the underworld, the Goddess, Maat would weight their hearts against a feather. This is a potent symbol. Indeed, in the colonies, the muggle tax agency uses Maat and her scales as their seal. While we don’t have a Goddess to weigh your hearts . . . we do have a phoenix. Fawkes?”
With a roar of flame, a phoenix appeared and landed on the right side of the scale.
Harry took one look at the set up and began snickering. “So, if she weighs the same as a duck . . .”
“Then she’s a Witch!” laughed Hermione.
“How do you know she’s a witch?” laughed Roger Starkey, a 6th year, muggle-born, Hufflepuff.
“She turned me into a newt!” laughed Justin Finch-Fletchly. “I got better.”
“Nobody throws a rock, until I say so, even if he says Voldemort” laughed a 5th year, muggle-born Ravenclaw, as the pure-bloods gasped.
“That’s Life of Brian,” scolded Hermione.
“Oh yeah,” replied the Ravenclaw.
“If we could get on with the sorting?” admonished Dumbledore, interrupting the obscure jokes of the muggle-raised students.
Professor McGonna,,gal stood and continued on the list from where she’d had to stop when Harry destroyed the Sorting Hat.
“Thomas, Dean!”
Dean rose from the Hufflepuff table and sat on the scale. The needle immediately tilted over to Gryfindor.
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The older students had, at first, laughed at 11-year-old Harry’s attempt to take over Syltherin House. But the more of them he beat into submission, the more vicious their response became. One day, Harry was coming into the Common room alone when he spotted a 7th Year student, Leah Hirsig, drawing her wand.
“Sectumsempra!” shouted a voice from the corner behind Harry’s Left Shoulder, as Harry leaped to the chandelier.
Candles fell from it as the chandelier shifted with Harry’s weight and fell onto the couch below. Most of the candles snuffed out, but one, ignighted the fabric of the sofa.
Harry pulled out one of Oddball’s trick billiard balls from his Shadow Cloak and tossed it at Tonks in the right corner who had silently cast a spell with an orange ray that Harry dodged, just as she dodged the ball Harry had thrown at her. Under Hogwarts’ wards, the ball wouldn’t deliver an electric shock like it was supposed to. But it was still a hard object that could injure her.
Harry turned the arc of his swing on the chandelier into a fall aimed, tail-first, at Drusus Regardie, the 7th year student in the left corner who had cast the cutting curse at Harry. As he turned his fall into a flying tail-slap of the boy, Harry also flung one of Diamondback’s throwing diamonds at Leah Hirsig, impaling her forearm and caused her to drop her wand with a scream.
“Locomotor Mor-!” Drusus’ spell was interrupted as Harry’s tail hit the side of his head, knocking him out.
Harry’s feet had landed on the boy’s chest, which he used as a springboard to leap to the nearby wall, knocking Drusus down in the process, but not before a Harry-dodged spell cast by Tonks hit the 7th year boy, with a red light.
Bunching up him leg muscles, Harry leaped across the room at Tonks. She dodged his attempt to tackle her, but Harry had managed to grab her wand arm as he passed by. Harry squeezed her wrist hard enough to make her drop her wand as his feet hit the ground and he twisted her arm behind her. Tonks twisted around and punched him in the jaw. When Harry grabbed her other wrist, she raised her arms, lifting the 11-year-old boy off the ground. Harry kicked her in the solar plexus and she crumpled forward. Once Harry’s feet were back on the ground, he performed an aikido twist of her wrist that caused sudden pain and forced her prone on the ground, as he released her other wrist. Kneeling on the small of her back, he kept her arm in a painful hold, twisted behind her. Tonks responded by changing the shape of her other shoulder joint so she could hit him with her free arm. Harry dodged her swing and twisted her pinned arm even more painfully.
“Stop! Or I’ll break the arm!” warned Harry. When she stopped struggling, Harry said: “Now, who’s the king of our house?”
“Oww! You are, Harry!” groaned Tonks, as he twisted her arm.
“You are, Rattler, Sir!” insisted Harry as he twisted her arm some more.
“Oww! Okay! Okay! You are Rattler, Sir!” squealed Tonks.
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It was Halloween night, but Harry decided not to attend the Halloween feast. Instead, he was itching to pull off a heist. His first attempt at robbing Gringotts had been aborted by Sidewinder. But Harry wanted to get his feet wet as a Supervillain. So when everyone else went off to the Great Hall for dinner, Harry stepped into his Shadow Cloak and stepped back out of it in London. Knowing that the Magical authorities would object to another attempt at looting Gringotts, but wouldn’t care if he knocked off a muggle bank, Harry walked the streets looking for a likely prospect. He was dressed in his Rattler costume with his Shadow Cloak expanded to cover it. But the tail still drooped carelessly to stick out from under the bottom of it. People gave his strange looks as he walked the streets. A slightly pudgy red-haired man in his early 20’s coming from the other direction openly gaped at him as they passed each other. Harry glared at the man and resumed his walk. Neither of them noticed the face of a teen-aged girl with brown hair and eyes emerge from a wall to gaze at them for a moment before receding back into the wall.
Eventually, The Rattler found a likely looking bank. He discreetly walked past it a couple of times to check it out before seeking a nearby alley. Once he was out of sight, he reached into his Shadow Cloak and pulled out one of the Punisher’s 38 revolvers. After checking to make sure it was loaded, the Rattler apparated into the bank.
POP!
Bang!
Bang!
As soon as he appeared he shot out the security cameras. The Rattler then, used the Shadow Cloak to put the gun back where he’d gotten it before the Punisher missed it. (He didn’t want the Punisher seeking him out) When the Rattler pulled his hand back out of the Shadow Cloak, instead of a gun, he now held Nemesis’ sword. The Taskmaster had told him about the obscure Canadian superheroine who wielded a molecule-thin sword that could cut through nearly anything. The Rattler stepped over to the vault and sliced through the deadbolts before also cutting through the hinges. Sticking the sword back into the Shadow Cloak to return to its’ owner, the Rattler grabbed the door of the vault and lifted it out of its’ frame.
“I don’t think you should be doing that. . .” said a girlish voice.
“Ugh!” grunted the Rattler as he threw the vault door at where the sound of the voice had come from. The vault door was near the limit of how much weight he could perform this feat with, and the fact that it was so much bigger than him, just made it more difficult. At he hurled it, he turned to see the vault door go sailing through a teen-age girl who was only slightly taller than him. She was wearing an all blue costume with a mask and had permed brown hair. But the biggest clue to the identity of this teen superheroine was the face that the vault door had passed through her like a ghost before crashing through the glass door of the bank.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The alarm began ringing!
“Now that wasn’t very nice,” admonished Shadowcat as she made a flying kick that connected with his jaw.
“Sorry I didn’t expect the X-Men to try to stop my bank robbery,” replied the Rattler as his tail swipe passed right through her.
“Oh, I’m not with the X-Men any more, I’m in Excaliber, now,” explained Shadowcat as she punched him in the solar plexus. “I can’t help noticing that you’re dressed as a snake. Are you trying to get into the Serpent Society?”
“I am in the Serpent Society!” growled the Rattler, as he leaped at her and once again passed through her like she was a ghost.
Now that he had some distance from her, the Rattler began quickly moving around the room while pulling explosive throwing diamonds, billiard balls and pumpkin bombs out of his Shadow Cloak to hurl at her. But the effects of all of them passed right through her. And even when he tried to use objects in the bank like the counters as a barrier, she kept passing through them and coming at him. Finally, the Rattler had to acknowledge to himself that she was not going to let him get anything from this heist. He apparated back to the alley with a:
POP!
As soon as he appeared, the Rattler felt a great weight come down upon him.
“Halt evildoer! In the name of the law!” shouted a pudgy man dressed as giant frog with springs on his feet.
“Who the heck are you?” asked the Rattler as he swept the hero’s feet out from under him with his tail.
His opponent turned his fall into a roll that had him back on his feet and leaping into the air.
Sproing!
“I and the Fabulous Frog- Man!” proclaimed the green-clad hero as he bounced off a wall to make a flying leap at the Rattler.
Sproing!
The Rattler ducked and Frog-Man sail over his head.
“Didn’t a see you in New York fighting the Toad?” asked the Rattler as he pulled throwing diamonds out of his Shadow Cloak and hurled them at Frog-Man. “What are you doing in London?”
“I was on vacation, when I spotted you going down the street, kid,” replied Frog-Man as he leaped over the missiles and tried to hop on the Rattler again.
“Just my luck, I try to knock over a British bank and run into a couple of Americans on my first try,” groused the Rattler as he dodged Frog-Man’s hop.
“What do you mean a cou-“ begain Frog-Man as Shadowcat emerged from the wall behind him and passed through him, disrupting the electrical systems of his Frog-Man suit as she did so.
Zzzzzzzzzz!
Sproing! Sproing! Sproing!
Frog-Man began hopping around erratically out of control in random directions.
“Ooops!” said Shadowcat, before turning her attention to the Rattler.
She resumed the fight they’d begun in the bank, where she kept hitting him, but every time he’d try to hit back, his fist, tail, leg or weapon would pass right through her. But the fight came to an abrupt end when Frog-Man accidently slammed into the back of the Rattler’s head.
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Harry was not surprised to wake up in a jail cell. While he had been out, they’d taken his costume and Shadow Cloak. Leaning against the bars, Harry check to see there was only one guard in the hall. With a spin, Harry apparated out of his cell with a:
Pop!
Appearing behind him, Harry used his tail to sweep the guard’s feet out from under him and quickly knocked him out with a kick to the head.
“Wow! How did you do that?” asked the teen-aged boy in the cell next to Harry.
Harry held a finger to his lips in a shushing motion as he retrieved the keys from the guard’s belt. Thanking the British for having such an antique jail, rather than a modern one with electronic locks, Harry looked at the keys trying to figure out which one would open the door leading out from the jail. He was about to try one when the door’s lock clicked! As the door opened, Harry saw Headmaster Dumbledore standing on the otherside with his wand pointed at the door.
“Ah! There you are, Harry! I’ve been looking for you all night!” said Dumbledore, cheerfully with a twinkle in his eye. “You really shouldn’t be leaving school like this without permission. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take 20 points from Slytherin for this. Now let’s get you back to Hogwarts.”
“HEY!” protested Harry, as Dumbledore tapped him on top of the head and he felt a cold sensation running down his head.
“Relax Harry, it’s just a little disillusionment charm,” assured Dumbledore, before turning to the gaping teen-aged muggle in the cell in front of them. “Obliviate!”
“I’m not leaving until I’ve gotten back my costume and Cloak,” said Harry and he tossed the keys into the cell of the boy whom Dumbledore had just obliviated.
“I’ve good them right here,” replied Dumbledore, pulling a shrunken version of his costume and cloak out of his pocket. “I was quite surprised that you didn’t bring your wand with you.”
“I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble with the Ministry for using magic out of school,” replied Harry.
“But you thought nothing of getting in trouble with the muggle authorities?” queried Dumbledore.
Harry just shrugged as Dumbledore grabbed his arm and apparated the two of them to Hogsmead.
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After walking with the Headmaster back to the school, Harry found that they had arrived slightly early for Breakfast. Harry wandered over to the Slytherin table and sat across from Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom were shoveling down food like it was going to become scarce. Harry had just helped his plate to some bangers and eggs when he spotted the red hair of Ron Weasley walking into the Great hall followed by the ghostly form of Hermione Granger.
“Honestly Ron, if you’d only been a little nicer to me, I wouldn’t have been killed by that troll!” screeched the ghost of Hermione.
“I’m sorry! How many times do I have to say it before you stop haunting me?” whined Ron.
“Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy with a simple apology,” screeched the ghost of Hermione. “If you thought I was a nightmare before, you just try slacking off now. I’m going haunt you and make sure you do your school work until you graduate from Hogwarts!”
Cringing, Ron sat and the table and began helping his plate.
“And slow down! You don’t have to eat so fast!” admonished the ghost of Hermione.
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“I’m sorry Lucius but I can’t sponsor your bill to make muggle acts illegal,” replied Rufus Scrimgeour. “I can understand how you feel about what happened to you son, but that was an isolated incident. I already forced Moody into retirement. Isn’t that enough?”
“And what happens when the Potter kid kills again?” demanded Lucius Malfoy.
“He’s at Hogwarts now, learning magic,” replied Scrimgeour. “I’m sure that next time he kills, he’ll use magic, and that will give me an excuse to arrest him.”
Growling in frustration, Lucius Malfoy stomped off.
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“T- t-t-today well be c- c- c- covering the d- d- d- different type of d- d- d- demons: q- q- q- quiphothic, g- g- g- goetic and ab- ab- ab-abramaelin,” stuttered Professor Quirrel with a frightened look.
Harry rubbed his forehead cringing.
“Harry, you really should go see Madame Pomfrey about your headaches!” whispered Daphane Greengrass.
“What am I going to tell her? Quirrels studdering gives me a headache!” whispered Harry. “I hate this class!”
“Shhhhhh!” shushed the ghost of Hermione.
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“Thank you for seeing me son Baron Mordo,” said Lucius Malfoy. “Can you offer me any hope?”
“I’m afraid with that diamond piercing his heart, if we remove the stasis, he’ll die,” replied Baron Mordo. “However, we could replace the heart with a mystical gem of sufficient size. There are several possibilities. . . .”
“What about the Bloodstone? I’ve heard that the muggle, Ulysses Bloodstone lived for 10,000 years?” suggested Lucius Malfoy.
“The Bloodstone would have been an excellent candidate,” replied Baron Mordo, as he reached in to his pocket pulled out and enlarged an ancient tome. “How about this one?”
“NO! I refuse to make my son become the next Red Raja!” growled Lucius Malfoy.
“Probably for the best,” agreed Baron Mordo, as he turned pages in the book. “We could use Dr. Spectrum’s gem, but it’s rumored to be intelligent and could over whelm the boy’s personality. How about this one?”
Lucius Malfoy gazed and the page he was pointing to and broke into a grin.
“Yes, this will do most nicely!” said Lucius Malfoy. “I’ll hire some goblins to retrieve it from the ruins of the temple in Siam.”
Notes
I came up with the scales as a replacement for the sorting hat before it occurred to me that I’d seen a Witch weighed with a scale in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Frog-Man (Eugene Patilio) is a minor comedic superhero created by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Kerry Gammill for Marvel Comics
Eugene Patillo was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Vincent Patillo, the minor Daredevil supervillain Leap-Frog. After several defeats by Daredevil, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, which eventually landed him in jail, Vincent had decided to retire and go straight.
His son, Eugene, donned his father's costume as Fabulous Frog-Man in an attempt to be a crime-fighter to clear his father's name. However, his crime-fighting career became essentially a joke. His two major enemy villains are the White Rabbit, a villainess inspired by the Alice in Wonderland character, and the Walrus, a dimwitted character who essentially had the proportionate abilities of a walrus (tough skin and super-strength, though well below Spider-Man's class).
Frog-Man had a tendency to capture villains simply by dumb luck. Eugene's inability to fully pilot his automated Frog-Man costume caused him to wildly bounce around, scoring sure wins against villains by crashing into them. This questionable method of fighting supervillains accounts for his luck in dealing with the Yellow Claw and Speed Demon.
Katherine "Kitty" Pryde is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980) and was created by writer-artist John Byrne.
A mutant, Pryde possesses a "phasing" ability that essentially allows her and objects or people with which she is in contact to become intangible. This power also disrupts any electrical field she passes through, and lets her simulate levitation. At the time of her membership, under the codename Shadowcat, Pryde was the youngest person invited to join the team of mutant superheroes the X-Men. Pryde also used the names Sprite and Ariel briefly.
During her early years, she is portrayed as a "kid sister" to many older members of the X-Men, filling the role of literary foil to the more established characters. In the years since her introduction, she has aged and matured, and has become a main character on her own.
Kitty Pryde was portrayed by actress Ellen Page in the 2006 superhero film, X-Men: The Last Stand.
Uncanny X-Men artist John Byrne said he named Kitty Pryde after a classmate he met in art school in Calgary in 1973, telling her he liked her name and receiving permission to use it for his first original comics character. Also, Byrne had drawn the character to slightly resemble an adolescent Sigourney Weaver. The fictional Kitty Pryde first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980), by writer Chris Claremont and artist Byrne, as a highly intelligent, 13-year-old girl. Claremont said several elements of the character's personality were derived from those of the daughter of Claremont's and Byrne's acquaintance Louise Simonson, Julie. Claremont and Byrne made the new character a full-fledged X-Man in issue #139, where she was codenamed "Sprite". She was the main character in the issues #141-142, the Days of Future Past storyline, where she is possessed by her older self, who time travels into the past to prevent the mass extermination of mutants. The six-issue miniseries Kitty Pryde and Wolverine (1984–1985), written by Claremont, was a coming-of-age storyline in which she matures from a girl to a young woman and receives the new name "Shadowcat".
The fictional Kitty Pryde also had a profound effect on the real-life Kitty Pryde: the latter became so overwhelmed by attention from Shadowcat fans after the publication of the X-Men comics that she abbreviated her name to K.D. Pryde to avoid association with her fictional counterpart. She has since stated that she has mixed feelings about her fame, saying that she values Byrne's comics for their entertainment and artistic value, but wishes that more people could appreciate her as more than just Shadowcat's namesake.
Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde was born in Deerfield, Illinois to Carmen and Theresa Pryde. Of Jewish descent, her paternal grandfather, Samuel Prydeman, was held in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Kitty started to have headaches at age thirteen, headaches which signaled the emergence of her mutant powers. She was approached by both the X-Men's Charles Xavier and the Hellfire Club's White Queen, Emma Frost, both of whom hoped to recruit her for their respective causes. Kitty was unnerved by Frost, observing that the White Queen had looked at her as if she were "something good to eat." She got along better with Xavier and the three X-Men who escorted him to his meeting with her and her parents, becoming fast friends with Ororo Munroe. Ororo told Kitty who she really was and about the X-Men, which made the teenager even more enthusiastic about attending Xavier's school.
Their conversation was cut short, however, when they (along with Wolverine and Colossus) were attacked by armored mercenaries in the employ of Frost and the Hellfire Club. The X-Men defeated their assailants, but were subdued by the White Queen's telepathic powers immediately after. In the confusion, Kitty had become separated from the X-Men and therefore was not captured along with them. She managed to contact Cyclops, Phoenix, and Nightcrawler. With the help of Dazzler and Pryde, those X-Men rescued their teammates and Xavier (who had also been captured) from the Hellfire Club.
The White Queen appeared to perish in the battle, which meant she was no longer competing with Xavier for the approval of Kitty's parents. Unfortunately, Kitty's parents hadn't heard from her in more than a day, because during that time she was first being pursued by the Hellfire Club's men and then working with the X-Men to save their friends. All they knew was that Kitty had left with Xavier's "students" to get a soda, there had been reports that the soda shop had been blown up, and that Kitty had been missing since. Understandably, they were angry at Xavier when he finally returned with Kitty in tow. At first, it seemed like there was no chance of Kitty being allowed to attend the school and join the X-Men. Phoenix then decided to use her considerable telepathic power to erase the memories of Kitty's parents and plant false ones, resulting in a complete shift in their attitude towards Xavier. Questions concerning the morality of tampering with minds in such a fashion aside, Kitty was then allowed to enroll at Xavier's school with her parents' blessing. She was the youngest person to join the X-Men up to that point.
Joining the X-Men
Shadowcat as member of Excalibur with Lockheed and Widget. Art by Alan Davis
Kitty joined the X-Men, and assumed the costumed identity of Sprite. Early in her career as an X-Man, Kitty's adult self from an alternate future took possession of her body in the present to help X-Men thwart the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Kitty then single-handedly defeated a N'Garai demon. Kitty also briefly attended the White Queen's Massachusetts Academy.
During her teen years, Kitty fostered a number of close relationships with others at the school and in the X-Men. She developed a crush on Colossus and became close friends with his little sister Illyana Rasputin. Initially uneasy around Nightcrawler and other mutants with physical deformities, Kitty finally overcame her fears and became close friends with him. Kitty also befriended Lockheed, a highly intelligent alien resembling a dragon, who followed her home after a mission in outer space. Lockheed is extremely loyal to Kitty, and the two of them share a psychic bond. Wolverine became something of a mentor to Kitty despite his usually gruff personality. Storm came to view Kitty as the daughter she never had.
Kitty was later assigned to the New Mutants, a team of younger mutants established in the absence of the X-Men while they were in outer space. Kitty convinced Professor Xavier to allow her to remain a full member of the X-Men on the basis of her high intelligence, maturity, and the fact that she was already a fully-trained member of the team. Kitty was later abducted by the Morlocks and nearly forced to wed Caliban. She was then abducted by the White Queen, but rescued by the New Mutants.
During this time, Kitty began to "date" Colossus, but this did not last long. Colossus developed feelings for an alien woman named Zsaji whom he met on the Beyonder's planet in the first Secret Wars. Colossus' feelings toward Zsaji were primarily a side effect of her own unique healing abilities, which she had used on him after he became injured. Regardless, Colossus' feelings were real and he returned to Earth consumed with grief after Zsaji's death. He admitted to Kitty that he loved Zsaji, which hurt her deeply and ended the budding romantic relationship. Kitty had made good friends with a local boy from Salem Central named Doug Ramsey around this time, but her feelings for him never went as deep as his for her, and they never actually dated, though they remained close, even more so after Doug's status as a mutant was revealed and he joined the New Mutants under the codename Cypher. They remained friends until his death some time later.
Ogun
During the 1985 Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries, Kitty is possessed by a demon, the ninja Ogun. Ogun psychically bestows upon Kitty a virtual lifetime of martial arts training. Kitty was brainwashed by Ogun into becoming a ninja assassin, and was sent to attack Wolverine. Kitty is able to resist Ogun's influence with Wolverine's help and the two form a strong teacher/student bond. Kitty returns to the X-Men, no longer the innocent girl they once knew, and officially adopts the codename Shadowcat.
Morlock Massacre
Kitty was badly injured by Harpoon's energy spear during the Mutant Massacre story arc, in the massacre of the Morlocks, with the result that she lost control of her power and was stuck in an intangible state and could not regain her solidity. She was rushed to Muir Island along with other surviving casualties of the Massacre to be tended to by Moira MacTaggert. MacTaggert was able to keep Kitty's condition from deteriorating to the point where she completely lost physical substance and ceased to exist, but wasn't able to do any more to help her. At this time, Kitty's natural state was to be intangible. Where she once had to make a conscious effort to phase, she could now only maintain her solidity through an act of conscious will. She was saved by Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, but not without trouble. The X-Men had gone to Richards for aid, but he had initially refused because he was not sure he would be able to help (Reed was in a struggle with the rest of the Fantastic Four about their origins. They thought that Reed deliberately caused their accident which turned them into the Fantastic Four, thus making him very uncertain about his personal motives and abilities). Having nowhere else to go, the X-Men turned to Richards' enemy Doctor Doom. This created a moral dilemma for both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Both teams fought each other because the Fantastic Four were trying to stop the treatment while the X-Men were determined to save Kitty's life. In the end, both the personal crisis of the Fantastic Four and the life of Shadowcat were saved. It was Franklin Richards, with the help of Lockheed, who brought both teams to their senses. Kitty has since recovered from this state and now has full control over her power again.
Excalibur
Kitty Pryde as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D
Among the others injured and brought to Muir Isle were Colossus and Nightcrawler, although Colossus left the United Kingdom shortly after being released from MacTaggert's care to join the rest of the X-Men on their mission to battle the Adversary. The X-Men sacrificed their lives to defeat the Adversary, and the battle was televised and broadcast across the world. The X-Men were resurrected later, unknown to the world at large, but chose to keep a low profile and perpetuate the belief that they were still dead. This strategy was enforced to more effectively fight their enemies. This meant avoiding contact with friends and family, including Kitty. Thinking the X-Men were dead, Kitty and Nightcrawler joined Rachel Summers, Captain Britain, and Meggan to form the Britain-based team Excalibur.[21] For a brief time, Kitty studied at St. Searle's school for girls in Britain.[22] During her time with Excalibur, Kitty developed a crush on Professor Alistaire Stuart which went unreciprocated since Alistaire was attracted to Rachel.
Powers and abilities
Kitty is a mutant with the ability to pass through solid matter by altering the vibratory rates of her atoms: passing her atoms through the spaces between the atoms of the object through which she is moving. In this way she and the object through which she is passing can temporarily merge without interacting, and each is unharmed when Shadowcat has finished passing through the object. This process is called phasing, and it renders her almost completely intangible to physical touch. Shadowcat passes through objects at the same speed at which she is moving before she "enters" them. Since she is unable to breathe while "inside" an object, she can only continuously phase through solid objects (as when she travels underground) as long as she can hold her breath.(Though disagreements were made about ex. she has phased miles within a object)
Using her power began as an optional ability, but for a period (over ten years of published comics, approximately two years in-continuity) Kitty existed in a naturally "phased" state, and had to consciously choose to become solid. However, she has now returned to her original form; i.e. she is now naturally solid and must choose when to use her power. While phasing, she does not physically walk on surfaces, but rather interacts with the molecules of air above them, allowing her to ascend and descend, allowing her to seemingly walk on air. While phased, she is immune to most physical attacks, and has inconsistent showings of some resistance to telepathy. The density of some materials (such as adamantium) can prove deleterious to her phasing, causing her to be severely disoriented or experience pain if she tries to pass through them. Some energy attacks also prove problematic for Kitty. For example, an energy blast fired by Harpoon, a member of the Marauders caused her to lose her ability to become fully tangible for months. Magic and magical beings also prove to be an enigma in regards to Kitty's phasing, as proven in a battle with a N'Garai demon that showed it could cause harm to Kitty even while in her phased state--the demon's claws left no visible marks, but caused Kitty severe pain as they passed through her intangible body.
The use of her abilities also interferes with any electrical systems (including, in some stories, the bio-electric systems of the human body), as she passes through by disrupting the flow of electrons from atom to atom.
Kitty can also extend her powers to phase other people and objects. Currently, she is able to phase at least a half a dozen other people (or objects of similar mass) with her, so long as they establish and maintain physical contact with her. She can extend her phasing effect to her own clothing or any other object with mass up to that of a small truck, as long as she remains in contact with it. She has threatened to leave people phased into a wall and used her power offensively to harm the Technarch Magus and Danger. Kitty's powers seem to have increased over the years. During an X-Treme X-Men story arc where she is kidnapped by Reverend William Stryker, she phases out of sync with the earth's rotation to move from one place in the world (only east or west) to another seemingly instantaneously. At the climax of Astonishing X-Men, Kitty phases a ten mile long "bullet" composed of super-dense alien metals through the entire planet earth. This is her greatest phasing feat to date and may have cost Kitty her life.
She has trained herself to go automatically, by reflex, into a phasing state at any indication of danger, such as a loud noise like a gunshot, in order to protect herself.
Kitty also shares a sort of mental or empathic connection with Lockheed (her pet dragon); both she and the alien dragon can 'sense' each other's presence at times.
Besides her mutant powers, Kitty is a genius in the field of applied technology and computer science. Shadowcat is highly talented in the design and use of computer hardware. She is a skilled pilot of piston and jet engine aircraft, and a competent pilot of certain advanced interstellar vehicles. She has previously shown a unique ability to wield the Soulsword and also be harmed by it. Since her possession by Ogun, she has been consistently shown to be an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, having since been trained in the arts of aikido, karate, ninjutsu, and Krav Maga. She possesses moderate expertise of the martial arts of the Japanese ninja and samurai. She is a professional level dancer in both ballet and modern dance. She speaks fluent English, Japanese, Russian, and the royal and standard languages of the alien Shi'ar, and has moderate expertise in Gaelic, Hebrew, and German.
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