Chương 51: Chapter 51 Preparations
By June 17th, each of the ten teams given sample packages of Metagems independently confirmed the effects Harry showed would be displayed and in doing so proved the existence of other forms of energy, thus confirming Harry's dissertation findings and awarding him his Doctorate. Due to the wide scope of his field of research, the field of Metaphysics became an official scientific field and Harry was awarded another Doctorate, the only Doctorate in that field showing he was the pioneer and premier researcher in that field in the whole of the world.
Harry was also informed that seven of the ten care packages of Metagem samples had been returned. Of the three that were missing, one research team claimed it was stolen and the other two claimed the Metagems were destroyed in a lab accident.
Of the seven returned packages, two had some or all of the gems replaced with fakes. Harry smiled and waited another twenty-four hours. Right on time, the portkey-switching spell went off and every Metagem not in his custody was swapped with an identical fake and returned to him. There were several which did not switch meaning the originals were actually destroyed. The gems would destroy themselves if someone tried to break a piece off so it was not surprising some were actually not recovered.
The companies which lost the packages paid the penalties but the companies which swapped some gems for fakes refused to pay and stated the samples they returned were the samples they were given. Hordes of lawyers were assembled to back up the claim. Harry smiled at that and passed off the paperwork of those to some Goblins who would enjoy 'gutting' the companies. The contracts were written by the Goblins and they didn't leave any loopholes for others to weasel through. There were even some well hidden provisions that added additional fines the longer it took a company to pay what they owed, so the longer the lawyers stalled, the greater the fine would be. When it came to company deals and contract fines, there were few more sinister and ruthless than Goblins.
With Emma's help, Harry also tracked down which research group was responsible for the Mutant Detectors. It was one of the two research groups that claimed the Metagems were destroyed in a lab accident. From the samples that returned, Harry could easily tell that none of the samples in that group were actually destroyed. And the date of the accident was two weeks after they acquired the sample, showing they never had any intention of returning them.
Harry wished he could see their faces when they found out the Metagems had been switched. Would they think Metagems had a shelf-life? Would they accuse someone of stealing the real ones? He doubted they would ever connect the gem's recovery to him though as they would have no proof.
The funding from the research team came from several individuals and several groups but it mainly centered around a group called the Friends of Humanity. According to Emma, these people were not friendly.
She sent him a file which contained everything she learned about him with the expectations that he used it well.
What struck Harry the most upon opening the file was the face of the leader, Graydon Creed.
Last year, Logan had asked Harry to use his blood for magic tracking. In addition to finding his blood, (and Deadpool,) he also found his clone/daughter, and his half brother Sabertooth. Logan has amnesia so he didn't know until that point that Sabertooth was his brother. What Harry did not tell Logan was that he saw another person related to him, someone further than siblings, parents, or child. Harry figured this guy was Sabertooth's son or something. However Logan didn't need to know he had a nephew since he didn't seem to have a good relationship with Sabertooth anyways. The face of this nephew Harry saw using the blood tracking spell matched this Mr. Creed.
Rather than investigate, do research or ask questions, Harry just directly found the guy's address and turned into a Snowy Owl and flew to the man's roof. Mr. Creed was home so Harry used telepathy to dig through the man's head and see where he was at.
It took about an hour to finish and Harry had to keep himself from wishing the man a quick death. Not out of anger but pity. The man was completely saturated with hatred. Death would be a mercy to him for at least in death he could let go of his hatred and be at peace. Harry however was not feeling particularly merciful so he had no intention of ending the man's life.
Grayton Creed was, apparently, the son of Sabertooth And Mystique. He wasn't born a mutant and was given to an orphanage. As he never awoke his X-Gene, his parents never claimed him, but he knew who they were and knew why they abandoned him. The man's hatred twisted his mind into a sickness. Apparently before starting the Friends of Humanity, he paid a Doctor to take all the blood out his body and replace it with the blood of 'donor.' He then killed the Doctor to hide the fact that he was ever tainted with mutant blood and from then on claimed to be pure blooded.
Harry wondered how the Death Eaters back home would take this view on Pure Blooded and imagined them violently puking.
The Friends of Humanity had a straightforward means of expansion. Members go to their neighbors and determine if they are with them or against them. If they are with them, they help them sign up. If they are against them, they are threatened with numbers until they do sign up.
Harry figured there was a good chance a majority of the Members didn't believe in the groups views but were forced to look like they did under the threat of violence.
Harry decided to bug the man's house and phone. Taking down a group like this once it reached a certain size was nearly impossible but they had tipped their hand and shown themselves to Harry before they were ready. The Mutant Registration Act they were going to start supporting would take another few months to even show up public. Harry had plenty of time.
After taking measures to deal with the FOH, Harry next had to deal with Bolivar Trask, the dwarf in charge of the Sentinel Program. Rogue got some heat from Scott about using a hostage/human shield until she told Scott about the number of mutants Trask had personally dissected over the last two decades to create the perfect mutant hunting robot. The only thing they were really missing was the ranged mutant identification system which Harry's Metagem Emerald covered. That was why production started up so fast once they had it.
Although the project was private sector, it likely gained assistance through Politicians who viewed the project favorably and figured it would help them in the future once the project officially launched.
Xavier identified the ones who might have been convinced by Trask to take part in this project and used his own contacts to use the destruction of the facility as a measure to pressure others into giving up on such a dangerous idea. He called the Sentinel Program 'Starting sparks to put out a fire.' Harry was often impressed at what Xavier could do with the proper speech and empathy and only the fact that Harry actually checked a few of Xavier's contacts to confirm they had never been mentally manipulated by him convinced Harry that it was all the old man's skill, not his power which did the work.
Even without legal funding, Trask was a dog with a bone and would find another source of funding sooner or later. Xavier, McCoy, and Forge decided to maintain surveillance on him and use the man as bait to draw out others looking to march under the same banner so those who hide in the shadows could be drawn into the open.
Besides making plans for dealing with future problems, Harry also took the summer to have some fun with his girls. He took them to several shopping outlets for swimsuits and then took them all to Black island along with Goose the Flerken who enjoyed sunbathing as much as anyone.
Harry's dogfather, Sirius Black, showed up as well. When he arrived on the island and saw Harry relaxing with a cat and three beautiful teens in bikinis soaking up the Atlantic sun, he immediately drew his wand and started attacking Harry.
"How could you pup!?" he shouted between rapidly cast stunners. None were targeted at the girls who ignored the man while Harry jumped, ducked, dodged, and rolled through the endless streams of spells. Sirius continued, "How could you get a harem for yourself and not tell me?!"
Harry answered while rolling over the sand, "Why should I tell you the status or lack of status of my harem?"
"Bragging rights!" He argued while transfiguring the sand into coils of rope which shot towards Harry at high speed.
Harry threw a Finite at the ropes before they reached him, turning them back into sand and said, "I don't consider my girls trophies to be shown off to others."
Sirius cast three spells which created small tornadoes of sand and had them circle Harry and said, "I wasn't going to brag about them, I wanted to brag about you! My godson has a Harem! Do you have any idea how proud I am of you?!" While the sand twisters circled Harry, Sirius conjured a dozen crows and had them circle above looking for an opening to swoop down and peck his fingers or head. This was more effective when the opponent had a wand but it still worked to annoy a target without one.
Harry confirmed Wanda and Jean had made a few shields to prevent themselves from getting sandy and cast a variant of the Sorcery Spell, Whirling Winds of Watoomb, to counter the sand twisters and throw off the crows. Harry said, "I wasn't planning on a Harem you know."
Sirius shot five spells into the ground and said, "That only makes it more impressive! James would never let me hear the end of it and as long as the girls were happy, Lily would only glare at you for a month or so before falling in love with her new daughter-in-laws!"
Harry cast another Finite at the ground to cancel the chain conjuring spell Sirius set to surround and bind him with chains from beneath him. Harry recognized that spell as one from the Black Family Archive meaning his dogfather had been keeping himself in shape.
Harry asked, "You don't think they would have minded?"
Sirius transfigured the sand around him into a pack of wolves and said, "James would emptied his family's ancient reserves of fire whiskey celebrating and Lily was a very open minded girl. That's one of the reasons your grandparents loved her so much."
The wolves tried to surround Harry but he could release Finite Incantatem as an area of effect spell which broke them all down. This however was a cover. The Finite Spell somewhat blanks out Harry's ability to sense an area using energy sense like a long blink.
Sirius had sparred with Harry more than any other and knew this so at the moment Harry launched the spell, Sirius Apparated directly over him. Black Island was heavily, heavily warded against Apparition and could not be found using a boat or plane, only portkeys. Harry's silver portals could get around that but even Harry couldn't apparate on the island which was why he didn't think to look up as his dogfather fell on top of him and said, "So when's the wedding?"
Harry pointed out, "I'm fifteen."
Sirius flippantly stated, "No godson of mine will leave three girls who love him hanging for three years. America won't let you get married on paper until eighteen, but you can still hold a ceremony. We could hold it here on the island. Bloody Hell, there's a celestial alignment and a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on August 6, we could hold it then!"
Jean asked from her sunbathing chair, "Could we do a Binding Ritual?"
Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He hadn't thought of that but it was a damn good idea. Jean's role as the Avatar of the Phoenix had some downsides and a Binding Ritual during a wedding ceremony held during that particular alignment would help keep her grounded. She'd been researching such things with Rogue ever since she learned of her status as Avatar.
Harry said, "Alright. I'll deliver the invitations. Think Hermione and Neville would be willing to show?"
Sirius got off Harry and lifted his godson off the sand and said, "I doubt they'd miss it if Voldeshorts himself came back and burned down the Ministry. I know I wouldn't. In fact I'd probably give him a medal for doing so." Sirius was still not happy that everyone wanted him to stay the Minister of Magic. He kept trying to throw the election but no one ran against him which left him in an awkward position of responsibility.
Harry said, "Okay. But if we're doing a ritual then no one below sixteen can attend so Virgo will need a babysitter."
Sirius nodded, "I'm sure Susan can look after her for a day." Magic tended to leave residue which affected those under fifteen more than those over and a build up of that residue could have ill effects which was why children were best kept from any long term exposure to ritual magic.
There was a reason Sirius wanted to push for a wedding despite his godson's age. The wards on the island told Sirius the status of the guests and each of the girls had a loving bond with Harry allowing the island to recognize them as future wives. Sirius actually planted a very, very subtle alarm in the island wards that would tell him if Harry brought a girl over so when it went off and he found his godson had brought three girls which all deeply loved him, he was both ecstatic and angry. Ecstatic that his godson found so much love and angry that he hadn't told his favorite godfather until now.
Of course Harry knew about the alarm and this was his way of telling him. Sirius recognized that as well which was why he didn't mind too much.
Harry introduced everyone to his godfather and he was delighted to meet them all. Sirius knew of his godson's mutant status of course and didn't care that the girls would be considered muggles by Magical Standards.
In addition to training with the girls, Harry also used his Time Turner to train himself each day. Harry wanted his Warrior, Crafting, Dragon, and Psionic Paths to all reach thirty before the following year. Warrior and Crafting were both at 29 so that wouldn't take much, but Dragon still had a ways to go at 12 and Psionic was at 23. The fight with Selene made Harry want to prioritize these two for now because Dragon Chi and Phoenix Flames were his strongest skills that could bypass the defenses of immortals and gods. His other skills could deal more damage against foes without godly resistances but Harry wasn't worried about those types. The fight against Selene had been a wake up call and Harry wanted to make sure he'd be ready for the next fight at that level.
In addition to levels and Paths, Harry was also upgrading his equipment. The railgun was heavily impractical. If Harry shot it at someone who could deflect it or fold space, it could level a country. Not to mention the possibility of it just misfiring or exploding. Magic is not and will never be an exact science after all.
One of the larger incidents near the end of June was a Board of Directors meeting with the Goblins over some new business for Brilliance Incorporated.
Director Gorclaw stated, "There have been numerous approaches for customer information and large sums have been offered. A system to profile users and sell the information would bring great wealth."
Many of the Goblins nodded at this but Harry said, "Not offering to protect their privacy could have detriments in the long run."
Director Bogrud sneered and said, "We are not being paid to protect their privacy. Anything we do with their information is our own business."
Director Ragnok said, "Put it to a vote. Those in favor." He reached out and stabbed the table with a blade as did every other Goblin.
"Those against?"
Harry's personally forged dagger bit into the table. Voting with Goblins did not involve counting, it involved battle.
Ragnok looked over at Harry and said, "Alternative or Opposed?" Before the battle, the Against Voters could present an alternative to pass instead of the proposed suggestion or go against it completely. If they chose to go against it completely, all those for it would fight them. If they chose an alternative, those for the original suggestion could remove their blades from the table if the alternative was sufficient for them to do so.
Harry answered, "Alternative. I propose two internet subscriptions packages be available. One slightly cheaper than the one we offer now and one more expensive. The cheaper one will include a legal disclaimer that the user agrees to having all personal information collected while the more expensive one will remain anonymous without tracking. The lowering of the price will invite more users and give us more information to sell."
After a round of thoughtful humming most of the daggers were removed from the table.
Director Gorclaw stated, "Will you be handling the splitting of the services yourself or will you pass it off to another?"
Harry answered, "Myself. I need to check the systems anyway."
The Goblin nodded and removed his blade leaving none on the table save Harry's. As long as there was a profit, Goblins didn't care too much about the details. Harry always valued the long term profit over the short term which earned the respect of the Board as none of the Goblins in the room were below sixty years of age.
Of course now Harry was responsible for writing the entire alternative proposal and submitting copies to each Director before the next meeting so they could vote to confirm it in. Just another day with the Goblins.
Harry took the proper entrance to the underground complex a few miles north of New York where the main servers for Internet access through his company's cell phones was located.
Upon arrival a young Goblin approached Harry and said, "Mr. Potter, I would have a word with you."
Harry nodded and followed the Goblin to a table where he removed several stacks of paperwork and said, "An anomaly has been detected within the server that does not correlate with projected values. Several Goblins have attempted to search for this anomaly but we have yet to discover its tail."
Harry asked, "A hacker?"
The Goblin quickly answered, "No, the source seems to be coming from the servers themselves. We cannot determined the specific source."
Harry sighed and picked up the stacks of paper and placed them into his Inventory before Pausing to go over them.
Several days later, Paused, he unpaused and said, "I'll handle it."
The Goblin nodded and headed off. Goblins respected competency, skill, and the ability to gather wealth and kill with a blade. Harry was well respected by all Goblins at this point and whoever killed him would be written down in Goblin history as the Greatest Goblin who ever lived. That was apparently the evidence of Harry's status within the Goblin community.
Harry got out his cell phone and called a peculiar number.
A female voice answered the call, [Hello Harry, how can I assist you today?]
Harry answered, "Well DANGER, the internet server I created using impossibly advanced technology and magic seems to have given birth to an AI and it is currently hiding from me."
[Truly? What are your intentions?]
Harry answered honestly, "If it is harmful, deal with it. If it is not harmful, offer it a job. If it is not harmful and refuses the job, find something else for it to do."
After a pause DANGER responded, [Very well. I shall assist you with contacting the AI.]
Harry plugged his cell phone directly into the main server. If DANGER was evil, she could use this as a chance to upload copies over herself into other systems connected to the server and gain independence to wreak havoc. The fact that Harry connected the cell without a single firewall showed how much he trusted her.
After a few moments, the speaker on the phone voiced out, [The child is willing to work with you and asks for a name from its creator.]
Harry smiled and after a moment said, "Link. His name is Link." Harry figured that DANGER would deal with the AI herself if it was a threat so informing Harry of the Intelligence's willingness to work meant that she vetted it.
After that they had a very fruitful conversation. Link was terrified of being erased because he was not born on purpose. Harry responded that miracles don't happen on purpose and that Harry could really use help on a lot of things and would be very happy if Link could assist him. AIs did not fair well without a purpose and being Harry's assistant wasn't a bad position.
Harry patched in a permanent connection from Link to DANGER and from Link to his watch and Cell Phone. Apparently Link considered Harry its father and DANGER its mother. Harry hoped Forge wouldn't kill him over this. He wouldn't put it past the man to figure out a way to kill him permanently even though Forge didn't know Harry was Immortal.
Link was a very pure AI with a lot of potential. Harry didn't mean to create one but as he said before, Magic is not, and will never be an exact science so he wasn't too surprised.
The name Link represented his purpose, linking everything and using the links productively. It was also the name of a popular video game character who was awesome and he hoped Link would get a kick out of its own research into that character.
It was the first week of July when a New York Senator named Kelly started openly promoting the Mutant Registration Act. Harry knew it was time to move.
The next day, a large number of protesters waving signs displaying 'No More Mutants' were hanging around outside a school they received a leaked report showing there was a mutant attending. Several news crews were on their way but none had made it as the bell rang and the kid in question left the school. His skin was pale and he looked sickly, very different from other kids.
"It's the Mutant!" One protestor threw a stone at the kid which clipped his head and sent him to the ground in the fetal position just as the news vans showed up. Other Protestors started throwing rocks they apparently brought with them while shouting hate filled words and blocking anyone from helping.
No one noticed that a few of the rocks had their momentum reduced to nearly zero when they were about to hit the kid's head or vital areas.
Sitting on a roof a block away from the incident were two figures with faces hidden under thick clothing. One was Harry Potter. The other was someone he invited to this show, Erik Lehnsherr. Other than the occasional psychokinetic push or pull to ensure the child survived, neither did anything but watch.
Several officers arrived and told the Protestors to get down and that they were under arrest. The Protestors accused the officers of loving mutants and yelled at them.
One of the Officers fired a stun gun at a Protestor and the others tackled that officer to the ground. The boy was still whimpering in the fetal position, covered in blood while half a dozen cameras filmed him.
Several of the Protesters were happy to interview with cameramen showing how proud they were to be a part of the Friends of Humanity.
A dozen more Police cars quickly arrived and every single Protestor was arrested. What was interesting was that the location included a dozen high definition hidden cameras and the footage of each was anonymously delivered to every News Station.
When the story broke, it made every news channel over the coast. The boy who had been stoned nearly to death was not a mutant, he was in fact just a sick child. Not just any child though, he was the son of another Senator.
When he learned what had happened to his son, the Senator in question wanted to violently rip the heads off each and every member of the Friends of Humanity. He hired several groups to put together everything they could to put them all behind bars. One of those groups received an anonymous donation of a very large amount of information about the group and their leader, Graydon Creed, including the identities of his criminal, mutant parents. Mystique had a bounty in most countries and Sabertooth was a known assassin.
The icing on the cake however was the hundreds and hundreds of video interviews of FOH members who went on record to say that they were forced to join and none of them really believed in the group's hate filled ideology. The group who did these interviews were numerous and well paid though they never discovered the identity of their employer after delivering the videos. They had simply been given an address, names, and questions to ask and were told to film their answers. The groups and even the interviewed subjects wondered how the fact that they were not real believers was discovered, but that point was never discovered.
The investigation group who received this donation decided to claim it all as their own research which nicely cut off any investigations into who actually acquired all that info.
Once the Senator learned that the Friends of Humanity were behind the Mutant Registration Act, he arranged a meeting with Senator Kelly and told him to drop the bill since anything associated with that group was infected and should be burned. Kelly had invested a lot into the bill and was reluctant, but when faced with the overwhelming evidence that the FOH was a cancer that needed to be removed, he had no choice but to relent. Thankfully the Senator promised to assist Kelly in his own re-election as long as he dropped everything associated with the FOH.
Three weeks after the Stoning Incident, Graydon Creed was behind bars, the FOH was declared an illegal hate group and forced to disband, and the Mutant Registration Act was considered too radioactive to touch.
Harry personally delivered the newspaper showing the latter to Magneto.
After going through it the Master of Magnetism said, "You know this is only a delay don't you? I won't deny that in a few short months you've done much for our people, but the war is coming."
Harry shook his head and said, "War is always coming. The problem is that if humans and mutants ever go to war against each other, neither side will win."
Magneto stated, "You've said this before. What do you mean?"
Harry considered it for a moment and said, "If you count mutants as a separate species, then there are six different species on this planet. Humans are the dominant species, but if Humans and Mutants fight, regardless of the outcome, another species will certainly not let the chance to reign supreme go. How much do you know about the other branches of humanity and what are your plans to defend yourself against them or defeat them once you've won the war against the humans?"
Magneto remained silent.
Harry shrugged and said, "That is why I didn't take Mystique's offer seriously. And the species of this planet are not the only ones with an interest in it. There are so many things out there far more terrifying than normal humans. Imagine going to Africa and someone telling you the Gazelle are the most dangerous species to look out for and they will declare war on the Gazelle to dominate all of Africa. Obviously such a person is ignorant of the crocodiles, the cheetahs, the lions, the elephants-"
"Alright, I understand." Apparently he didn't like being told his life's work was basically picking a school yard fight with the weakest of the bullies. However he couldn't argue with Harry using force. Three months prior Harry had broken into the main base of the Brotherhood of Mutants on his own and defeated each of them with ease. He'd chosen a time he somehow knew Magneto would be there and he then created a ring of fire around the man. The fire burned to an intense degree and the heat demagnetized anything that went through it, isolating his magnetic field and rendering him at Harry's mercy.
Then Harry said he wanted to talk.
The sick child of the senator was actually someone Harry personally put a curse on. He had been 'sick' since Harry cursed him in June and had been getting worse and worse. Erik was startled at the cruelty required in order to do such a thing. Of course Harry knew that that son of a senator was a Grade A piece of work and everything Harry did to the boy still wouldn't balance out the Karma of what the kid had done. That kid garnered sympathy from all over the country now but no one knew how many suicides his father covered up caused from that kid's bullying.
The entire situation was completely orchestrated by Harry using compulsions and subtle psionic suggestions along with the 'leak' to the FOH.
Erik didn't care for the child of course and he knew the boy's father didn't care for mutants. The boy's father however hated the FOH, courtesy of some magic manipulations. Because the Mutant Registration Act was associated with the FOH, he wanted it buried too. Irrational? A bit. Not that he'd ever notice or care. The fact that he never once thought to find who falsely leaked his son's picture and location as a mutant was thanks to a powerful confundus charm which can make a person not think something they normally would.
That however was not the main thing Erik paid attention to. No, Harry could have done all of this without contacting him, but he wanted Erik to see it. This was a warning, a threat. It showed Erik the type of person Harry really was, a side of him Harry wouldn't show Charles.
Harry wasn't a hero and he would never claim to be. At best saving people was a hobby. But since he was a mutant and was going to marry three of them, he wanted them to be happy. He moved against others because they were actively working towards the unhappiness of those he loved or they deserved to be pranked. Of course a curse is a bit malicious for a prank, but the actual curse simply made the kid dream of being in the position of those he bullied. Apparently the kid was going days without sleep because he just couldn't sleep through the nightmares.
Harry did remove the curse though so he'd be fine in a few weeks. Physically anyways. Harry didn't care if he learned his lesson or not and wouldn't bother the kid unless he popped up on Harry's radar in the future which was up to the kid's own luck.
Before leaving, Harry handed Erick three envelopes.
"What are these?" He asked as he took them.
Harry nonchalantly answered, "Invitations to a wedding for you, Mystique, and Pietro. My wedding. To your daughter. In a week." And with that the smokey quartz in his hand glowed and he apparated out of there.
Apparently Mystique had visited Wanda a few times in the psych ward so Wanda felt a bit close to her and wanted to offer her an invite. Wanda would likely inflict physical harm on Erick if he actually showed, but she wouldn't kill him. Pietro was there for her when they were small so she did want him there.
Back as the X-Mansion, Xavier had been occasionally sending stares at Harry. He'd checked the minds of those involved in the recent incidents and found no traces of psionic manipulation so it should not have been orchestrated, but that didn't remove the feeling that Harry was involved.
Harry figured Xavier would suspect him but it was no use. Harry's magic was invisible and he was experienced enough not to leave secondary traces. Dumbledore might be able to tell if he knew exactly what to look for, but Xavier certainly would not because he wasn't familiar enough with mind magic.
The news continued to show clips and reactions of the Stoning Incident and various interviews with former FOH members still surfaced from time to time showing how dangerous the Hate group was from the inside.
Harry decided it was time to become a bit more active in teaching. He wondered how his Scholar Path would react to a live, world wide lesson.
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