Magneto will be slightly OC, as will Mystique. Mostly because they're now in a place where they're not automatically hated for being mutants. So far I have Magneto, Mystique and Sabertooth here, though he appears later.


Magneto thought he had been through enough to have seen it all. From the evils of the Nazi camps to the intolerance of humanity...he had seen levels of human deprivation that it made him despair of ever seeing any good come out of it.

So when he was hit with something and woke up on an actual steam powered train run by coal or some other fuel, in a body that looked disturbingly like his own when he was roughly eleven or twelve, in the company of other children eleven or twelve, he wondered what exactly had hit him this time.

He fully planned to sleep this off like a really bad hangover and hope the world fixed itself when he woke up. Otherwise he was going to demand some answers, and not in a friendly way.

So while he was on the weirdest drug-induced trip (or he hoped that was what was going on) he had ever been on in his life, he decided to find out where he was.

Apparently he was on a train to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry (which made him wonder if Steven Strange had been here before) and he was a first year along with the two boys in his compartment.

Ron Weasley seemed extremely rude while Harry Potter displayed all the same signs he usually saw in mutants from abusive homes. Homes that didn't appreciate their gifts and did everything in their power to curb them.

Ignoring the brunette with the wild mane, he had to wonder exactly what the hell had hit him. At least he was able to ignore Ron by pretending to sleep, though the looks Harry shot him said clearly that he wasn't fooling the bespectacled boy.

About the only good thing out of this strangeness was the ever present connection to his mutation over metal.

Though as he confirmed it was still there (and it hadn't been active when he actually was a prepubescent boy) was a new power he didn't recognize. It seemed to be wrapped around his mutation and when he mentally poked at it, he would swear it seemed to actually purr.

Now officially freaked out and really hoping this was some bizarre dream, the mutant called Magneto (who was using his birth name Erik Lenscherr since very few even knew it) hoped he only woke up before this got too ridiculous.


He didn't know what the appeal of the Victorian age was for these wizards, and he hoped to never find out. All he knew was that his power was limited because these idiots were more behind than anyone else.

What he did know rather irritated him.

He was now roughly eleven and a half by his guess, a 'wizard' (which meant that humanity had a whole new reason to hate his existence, since the Church had never been reasonable at all about mutants), and for some bizarre reason he was in an alternate universe where his entire life story (or close enough) was amusement for the masses.

He was not pleased. At all.

He didn't know why someone thought it amusing to write up a story of the X-Men or made him the villain, but if he ever met this Stan Lee he was going to have words with him. And he didn't think the man would enjoy meeting him.

Erik had been sorted into 'Slytherin' despite the fact he wasn't actually evil, just amoral when it came to humans. He would have ended up in Ravenclaw, but the hat had openly admitted he would likely eat the idiots alive or have them eating out of his hand within a week. He knew what real cunning and ambition was.

The thing was he couldn't get that kid Harry out of his head. Something about him made him think of his fellow mutants, and he noticed a lot of things a trained psychiatrist would have caught in a heartbeat within five minutes of meeting the boy.

So, in the spirit of gaining a potentially powerful ally that was actually loyal to him, Erik slowly breached into Harry's little circle of friends. And by little, he meant subtly pushing Ronald Weasley out of his way.

Ron was a complete idiot, who was only every obsessed with three things at one time. Food, chess and Quidditch, and not necessarily in that order.

Harry seemed to be openly thrilled to spend any amount of time far from Ron, as Erik tended to enjoy the older books that were in the deeper parts of the library, and Ron was a very lazy child who clearly hated reading even when he had to.

Harry, in the spirit of all children who had faced bullies, found refuge in the library.


"I don't get what this whole Slytherin versus Gryffindor debate is about. I mean, you don't seem evil," said Harry.

"It's a stereotype thing. Like how the Irish are all drunks or how all muggles are neanderthals," said Erik patiently. Harry was intelligent, if a bit skittish and not entirely comfortable with physical contact and very unfamiliar with genuine praise.

And as someone who had given sanctuary to countless abused teens (if Charles didn't get to them first) he knew the trick was to build up confidence slowly and to not put too much pressure on them. And if he found something the boy was good at, then he had to encourage him to take it as far as he could.

So when he found out Harry was an extraordinary flier, he made a note to get a computer that worked with magic that came with a flight simulator. Having someone able to fly a helicopter or plane was useful, seeing as so few bothered with it.

"How come you don't believe that tripe?"

"I've been around long enough to realize it's pointless to hate someone for something as petty as race, religion, bloodline or 'House'," said Erik dryly.

Honestly, there were better reasons to hate someone. Though in the case of Charles and his merry band of idiots it was less that he hated them and more that they had a longstanding rivalry.

"So any idea how to write two feet on the properties of boomslang skin?"

Erik was about to answer him when he saw her.

Red hair the color of blood, sharp eyes that missed nothing and the gait of a cat stalking it's prey, and the way her companion kept shifting her hair color.

He'd recognize that face anywhere.

Realizing she was being watch, the girl turned and sneered him, obviously not recognizing his face. He made sure she saw his hand...and the three round metal balls that were slowly rotating on top of it, out of view of Harry, while he answered the boy's question.

Seeing her eyes widened perceptively, he had the metal spheres do a little dance, before smashing an ink well of a pure blood Slytherin who had irritated him earlier that week. He made sure the sphere was imbedded in one of the bookshelves so the trail of ink wouldn't lead back to him.

The girl stared at him for a moment, before she started to 'age' him mentally and recognition hit.

Apparently he wasn't the only one to wake up in this strange world...and it made him wonder if Charles was going to show up at some point.

She left the library, though it was clear she was going to confront him later just to confirm it really was him.


The first thing he said when he saw her again, alone and with no witnesses, was "Mystique."

"Magneto. So you're here as well. What family were you born into?"

"None. I woke up on the train with no recollection of how I got there or why I'm...eleven...again. Who was the girl?"

"My twin sister Nymphadora, though if you're stupid enough to call her by her first name to her face she's liable to hex you. If you really don't have any family, I can try to see if my...mother...will let you stay with us."

Mystique really wasn't used to having family that saw her gift for what it was...a blessing, not a curse to be hated. Then again, she was shocked that these 'magicals' had a similar gift that could be inherited.

Not to mention that her twins sister had the same gift.

Most of what she learned she got from Mystique, who's name here was Adhara, though she preferred her original name Raven, or her mutant name.

"So what name do you go by in this world?"

"Erik Lenscherr. As I said before, I woke up on the train with no memory of how or why I was there," said Erik.

Raven blinked.

"So...you went by your old name?"

He nodded.

"Well at least things won't be boring anymore."

"For you maybe. I'm forced to recreate the Brotherhood in Slytherin, which is full of incompetent, childish idiots."

Raven winced.

"Like Draco Malfoy?"

"You know him?"

"He's my cousin on my mother's side. So's Potter, through his paternal grandmother. There's a rampant issue of inbreeding in this place, and it's not uncommon for people to marry their second or third cousins. Thankfully my parents don't believe in most of that nonsense and the one time someone tried to draw up a marriage contract I nearly snapped the fool's neck," said Raven.

To be fair, the fact people would want to marry her because of her gift hadn't occurred to her until then. Since then she made it very clear that she would decide who she would marry and damn the consequences to how people felt about it. She was openly amused at how proud her mother was to that declaration and the fact she beat the snot out of the arrogant idiot without magic.

Ironically that only made her more popular with her aunt Narcissa, who loved her attitude and even taught her most of the dark magic she knew.

Even if, as a consequence she spent far too much time with her cousin Draco and that ass Lucius. Narcissa fully planned to make Raven the Black Heir, provided she could trick Sirius into it since he was made head of the House of Black. As it was, Raven was the only member of her family that was allowed to call herself a Black, despite not distancing herself from her 'traitor' mother or cousin.

"Interesting. Perhaps we can reconnect Harry to his father's family."

"How exactly did you get an in with the 'boy-who-lived' so quickly?"

She knew Magneto was charismatic to a point, but this was fast even for him.

"He is more in line with the children we take in from abusive families who hate them for their gift than the spoiled and pampered child everyone seems to believe he is. All he wanted was someone who acknowledges his fame but doesn't expect anything of him and won't pressure him unduly like that fool Weasley. Or remind him of the fact his parents were killed protecting him."

Raven hummed in her throat. That sounded like the Magneto she knew.

"Odds are my mother will take him in, and if possible you as well, unless you suddenly get a family as well. And before I forget, ask one of your house mates if they know anything about Occulmency. It's the art they've developed to deter mind readers like Dumbledore and Snape."

Erik grimaced at the idea of dealing with more mind readers, but glad she had given him an idea of where to find a way to block it without his infamous helmet. He made a note to ask Draco if he knew anyone who taught the art.

The two went separate ways, but not before Raven started to draft a long, rather concise letter to her mother about absconding with Potter and possibly offering a place to stay for another.

When it came to battle plans, she tended to follow his lead because of the two of them only his powers were useful in combat. Spying was her forte, but she mostly relied on her martial arts skills in a fight.

It was good to have him back again. And have someone she could actually talk to without dealing with questions she didn't want to answer.


Harry was surprised when, a week later he was confronted by a pair of shapeshifters in a corridor and an amused Erik.

"What's this about?"

"How would you like to never go back to Surrey?" asked Erik.

Harry's nervousness disappeared in an instant.

"Who do you want hexed or pranked within an inch of their life?"

The red haired girl snorted in approval.

"Our mother is your second cousin, and she was surprised when I asked if we couldn't abduct you from the train station during the holidays rather than leave you in a house that clearly doesn't want you. Oh, and she agreed to let you stay with us until you graduate," she said to Erik.

Harry looked decidedly happier about the prospect of living far, far away from the Dursleys.

"Just in case, could you give us your mundane address? That way we'd have a general idea of where to go if we can't abduct you from the train station," said the other girl.

Harry wrote it down on a piece of parchment, and the bubblegum pink haired girl made sure to stick in someplace she wouldn't loose it.

For the most part school was boring, once you got over the fact it was magical.

Erik fully planned to see exactly how intelligent Harry actually was by dragging him into muggle summer classes. He didn't need them, aside from a few history books, but Harry would if he wanted to survive. Raven already took classes, mostly as a cover and a way to kill time during the summers.

Now he just had to convince Snape to give him Occulmency lessons. With how much he dealt with mind readers, it would be nice to block the bastards out for once, even if he now knew whenever one was trying to sneak into his head within seconds.

He had already busted Dumbledore twice, but outside of demanding who it was (and noting the distinct wince) he had yet to call the old man out on it.