Harry Potter The Mutant Obscurus Gamer - Chapter 39

Harry sighed but accepted it. He had some back up plans as well which was why he said he needed a week to prep, but he’d hoped he’d be able to do it the easy way.

However the Ancient One continued, “Rather, you don’t need to borrow it. As you have regained the use of portals, just tell me when you plan on performing the mind training and I’ll come over and use the spell myself.”

“Really?”

“Of course. My main concern is that if young Wanda’s mind enters your own, her body will be left undefended. The chosen vessel of Chthon should not be left empty so easily, even if only for a moment. Although unlikely, it would be prudent to ensure nothing happens so I will be present to cast the spell and ensure nothing occurs.”

Harry let out a breath of relief and said, “Thank you.” He had considered that as well and many of the materials he intended to fetch were for that very purpose, but there was a difference between a week of prep and having the Sorcerer Supreme watch over you. Together they went over the various details and made a plan.

Harry left Kamar-Taj by portal and spent the next two days sightseeing. The Mindscape Copy perk allowed him to perfectly replicate areas into his mind and since he was going to have a guest, he wanted to make sure she would not get bored. Harry spent a few hours as a Snowy Owl with a notice-me-not flying around New York and eventually got a copy of almost the entire city in his mind. He returned to human form and entered many of the places of interest to copy the interior as well and visited every beach in a hundred miles. Thankfully it was only August and the water was cool but not cold.

Harry used a portal to visit several nearby forests and a lot of scenic areas. He made sure to copy the sky next to the beach when the sun rose, which, although not as great as a sun set, was still pretty good.

After that Harry used a portal to return to Tibet and used his fastest flying speed as an owl to fly directly to the mountains and copy them directly into his mind as well. He flew along the hiking routes and tourist sites and spots of interest. Last but not least, Harry used a portkey his Godfather, Sirius Black had handed him and used it to go to Black Island, his Godfather’s vacation island. Sirius wasn’t there which didn’t surprise Harry as the married man was quite busy fixing the Wizarding world. Last Harry heard the man was going to be, against his will, elected Minister of Magic.

After getting a copy of Black Island, Harry used a portal to return to the Institute. Something Harry liked about his new portals was that because he didn’t have to swing his hand around to open one, he could make one even as an owl. Once things had settled down he would take the time to visit every part of the world he could think of so he could copy the nice things into his head and be able to open a portal there when needed.

The next week passed by mostly uneventfully as he followed his new routine except for one encounter. One morning when Harry woke up from his four hours of sleep, Jean telepathically conveyed to him, ‘You actually died?! You said it got better!’

Harry smiled, he wondered how she would react to that one. He thought back, ‘You saw the stuff after that right? It did get better.’

‘Well, I mean yeah but. You died. Usually you don’t come back from that.’

Harry thought back, ‘Didn’t you come back from death a little before that?’

Jean’s shock could be heard through her thoughts, ‘How did you know about that?’

‘A little birdie told me. Keep reading Jean, it’s all there.”

Harry could swear he heard a sigh before she conveyed back, ‘Alright, but I’m skipping the endless video games and TV time. I feel a bit weird reading the personal stuff about your parents so I’ll be skipping that.’

‘That’s fine. Skipping the whole tutorial won’t change my story much.’

‘What? No way. This gamer stuff is actually pretty interesting. Can you really respawn if you die?’

‘Yeah, but other than using it as a tasteless prank, I’d rather not demonstrate that.’

‘What kind of prank would require that?’

Harry sent a visualization of himself having a serious conversation with someone he didn’t like and then exploding in a shower of gore in front of them leaving the poor victim destined to require endless therapy for the rest of their days.

Jean sent back, ‘Yeah, that would be pretty tasteless.’

Jean and Harry continued to chat about various subjects both strange and mundane. Jean finished reading about the tutorial and started into Hogwarts on Friday.

The following Saturday morning, Rogue went looking for Harry and after finding him leaving the kitchen, she grabbed him and gave him a giant hug.

Harry hugged her back of course and when she released he asked, “Not that I mind, but what was that about?”

Rogue smiled back and said, “Cody Robbins. The boy who I.. put into a coma. I found out he woke up!”

Harry smiled back and said, “That’s great. The connection between you two has been severed so there wouldn’t be any lasting effects.”

Rogue nodded and looked down for a moment before gently asking, “Um, were you planning on doing anything today?”

Harry honestly answered, “Well, I was planning on spending a one hundred year long vacation with a girl I met for the first time last weekend so I could help her learn to control her own powers.”

Rogue looked more than a little flabbergasted at that and Harry added in jest, “Why, did you want to join us?”

Rogue froze for just a moment and nodded, “Yes, I wanna go.”

Harry did a double take and asked, “Really? It’s one hundred years you know. She has some issues that can only be resolved with time so I’ll be using magic to accelerate time and put one hundred years of training and experiences in her head to help her out.”

Rogue looked a bit pensive and replied, “Well, I need training too. I’ve already asked most of the X-Men to lend me their powers but using them with each other is gonna take me a long time to master. Can I practice as well if I were to go too?”

Harry considered it and determined that she would in fact be able to use her powers in his mindscape. Time would be slowed but not halted meaning the connections she had to others would not be interrupted. That meant she could also practice the use of her powers.

Harry was not one to go back on his word so he asked for confirmation, “Are you absolutely sure? You won’t be able to quit half-way through you know.”

Rogue nodded with certainty, “I’m sure.”

Harry let out a sigh and said, “Alright, wait in your room and I’ll call for you in two hours.”

Rogue smiled and hugged Harry again before heading into her room. Harry wondered if she knew what she was getting into but figured it would be alright. Although Harry wouldn’t be able to kick her out if she got tired of it, he could freeze her mind until the time ran out so there was no real harm if she wanted to come along. Giving Wanda some female company wouldn’t be a bad thing either since they had a number of things in common.

Harry stopped for a moment and considered inviting Jean, but decided against it. The faster she removed the seals on the Phoenix, the better, and spending one hundred years training with a locked mind would not do her any favors in the long run because she would not be able to unlock her own mind while it was in Harry’s. There were a few variations he could try that might help, but after going over them one by one, Harry determined it still was not to her benefit to be included in this.

Once more, Harry was driven over to the Mental Institute with Xavier and Logan. Harry considered telling Xavier he needed a few minutes alone with Wanda for his plan to work but he could not think of a way to ask that of him without Xavier jumping to the wrong conclusion. Instead he decided to wisely remain silent and explain the details when they got there.

They returned to the small room from before and ten minutes later, Wanda entered. This time the door didn’t melt. When she saw Harry had actually come, she looked like she was going to cry as she couldn’t believe he had actually returned to fulfill his promise. Harry hugged her again which she enjoyed this time and Harry said to Xavier, “This could either take three minutes or up to ten minutes depending on the resistance her powers puts up but I have confidence that when finished, it will become manageable. That being said, it would be better to have a bit of privacy.”

Thankfully Xavier didn’t take it the wrong way and agreed, leaving the pair alone and closing the door. He was probably satisfied by hearing Wanda’s progress. Harry knew of course that spending a week with a loving corgi you didn’t have to feed or clean up after would do wonders for any grumpy person.

Harry created an illusion of Wanda sitting cross legged and Harry sitting behind her with his hands against her back in what looked like some kind of treatment. That was to be used if anyone opened the door’s viewing window and peered through. Harry then transfigured Wanda’s jacket into a red long coat with a t-shirt and jeans beneath it.

To the side, Harry opened a silver portal and walked through. Wanda followed behind into what appeared to be a ritual chamber. Harry then opened another portal which showed Rogue’s room. She looked shocked at the silver doorway but upon seeing Harry on the other side, didn’t hesitate to jump in.

A moment later, the robe wearing, shaved head, Ancient One walked in and said, “Hello friends of Harry, I’m his teacher, and I’ll be helping out with this little project.”

Harry stated, “Thanks again for agreeing to ȧssist. This is Wanda and Rogue. Rogue asked for training as well and will be coming along. That way Wanda will have some female company.”

Rogue introduced herself and Wanda reciprocated. Rogue also asked if she could use Wanda’s powers and Wanda, not really knowing what to say, answered yes and got a light finger touch from Rogue. She figured if Harry was going to train Wanda, then if Rogue could use her powers, she could get training as well.

Harry said, “We don’t have much time, so please sit down in the center and we’ll start.”

The ritual room was perhaps the most magically guarded room in Kamar-Taj and used to both prevent entry and exit. Harry could only create a portal into it because he had a key. Otherwise the room was rather impregnable.

Wanda and Rogue sat down in the middle of the room. Had they actually been performing a ritual, there would have been lines of candles and stuff but all of that was placed at the side so the room looked more like a storage room in a church than it did a place where mortals formed connections to that which was better left untouched.

Harry concentrated his Psionics and connected to both Wanda and Rogue. Rogue accepted the connection and after a moment, Wanda did as well. Rejecting wouldn’t have been difficult, but both knew Harry didn’t have any bad intentions.

This was a variation on the Ancient One’s trick of pushing the astral form out of a body and directly into the Astral Plane. Harry could not do that, but he could drag a person’s astral form into his own mind if he wasn’t blocked. Once he successfully pulled both Rogue and Wanda into his library, he signaled for the Ancient One to cast the spell.

After making several hands signs, the center of the Eye she wore opened and the Time Stone within was revealed. A wave of green light shot out towards Harry and the girls as the spell was cast.

Although the Ancient One had never let Harry use the Eye of Agamotto, he knew what it really was. It was a common misconception that the Eye was a tool that used the Time Stone to manipulate time. It was not. The Time Stone doesn’t need ȧssistance to manipulate time. What the Eye actually did was hide the Stone and limit its power. When the Eye was closed, Harry could not feel the Time energy contained within even if he stood next to it. Even when opened, the Time energy that should have rushed out like an endless sea was reduced to a meager trickle.

Of course it was possible to override those limits and safeties and use the full power of the Time Stone with the Eye, but doing so wouldn’t be any different from broadcasting to the whole of the Universe that there is an Infinity Stone present and invite those who sought them out to come and take them. All magic had a price after all, the use of the Eye was no different.

Wanda and Rogue found themselves in Harry’s library and Harry himself materialized within and said, “Welcome to my head. Please leave all questions until after the tour.”

Harry showed them to a door which opened to reveal a round room that contained many silver portals. These were imitations of Harry’s portals and a set up that others wandering around his head could use to go into the different areas. Harry showed the portals for New York, London, Tibet, Hogwarts, the Tutorial Village, Black Island, and many scenic areas such as grasslands, beaches, forests, and mountains. He took them to New York which looked identical to the real thing and stopped at a coffee shop where Harry ordered tea and asked what the girls wanted. Wanda asked for hot chocolate and Rogue asked for a muffin.

Moments later the waitress came over with their orders and a check and Harry began drinking his tea and said they could start with their questions.

Wanda started, “Is this real?”

Harry smiled and said, “Depends on your definition of real.”

Rogue asked, “Is it like the Matrix?”

Harry considered it and answered, “Somewhere between the Matrix and a video game. The people around us are NPCs. Please treat them as you would real humans.”

Wanda asked, “Why?”

Harry replied, “Habits. We’ll be here for a while and if you treat them as anything other than real people, you may find it difficult to treat actual real people as real people when we leave. Consider it practice.”

Rogue looked at the check that the waitress left and asked, “How will we pay?”

Harry handed both girls a wallet which contained an ID card, Credit Card, and Library Card. Harry’s Library Card could not be taken by someone who would use the information gained from his mind poorly, so he waited to see if both could claim it and was more than a little relieved that they both took it without issue. Had they been unable to take the card, his training sessions would have been far more awkward.

Harry said, “Again, the act of paying is just because we’re going to be here a while and if you spent a hundred years going to a coffee shop without paying, you might forget to pay in real life.”

Wanda was still looking around and having trouble accepting that something so real was literally all in their heads.

Harry got out some folders and passed them out before stating, “Now although we have one hundred years, that doesn’t mean you can do nothing the whole time. Again, if you spend a hundred years doing nothing, you’ll find it hard to get motivated to do something back in the real world. So we are going to keep busy. Here are your schedules.”

Both opened the files and they had what looked similar to a school schedule. Neither felt this was going to be fun.

Harry’s first goal was to help Wanda catch up on her studies and basically teach them both until they had nothing else they wanted to learn. Wanda wasn’t thrilled but Harry basically explained that the entire point of this, in addition to making use of the valuable time, was to keep her mind occupied for so long, she basically forgets to think about how much she hates her father. Wanda accepted such a feat would truly take a long time and decided not to argue with it.

The first thing that Wanda discovered which surprised her was that her powers worked just fine in the mindscape and when she got angry, her powers reacted the same way. Although the people she hurt were not real people and the places she destroyed were not real places, they still looked and felt real. Harry also insisted that the damage done be left as is and when she mastered her power she could use those locations to practice repair magic later. Harry could have fixed it himself of course, but having damage done vanish as if it never happened without her own input was not realistic and Harry didn’t want them to get used to the idea that things they broke would fix themselves later.

The reason Harry had to put so much effort into logic was to ensure that logic was correctly imprinted into Wanda’s head. If a user of Chaos magic could not tell the difference between fantasy and reality, things would go downhill fast. Harry’s answer to this was for them to consider the possibility that everything was fantasy but regardless, treat it as if it were reality. As long as Wanda treated everything like reality, even knowing it could be fantasy, she would not be able to unconsciously trick herself otherwise.

Of course as was the same with reality, Harry was still unaffected by anything Wanda did so he would often remain near her to remind her that she wasn’t dangerous.

At some point Rogue had taken Wanda to the side and they toured New York without Harry and spent many hours performing the dreaded Girl Talk. Harry did not in fact spend every moment monitoring the girls so he would do his own thing when the pair went off on their own. Due to the fact that most malls, stores, and restaurants were either faithfully copied or at least imitated to the point they were functional, the pair would not be deprived of things to enjoy.

Harry’s own project for the next hundred years was something he had been considering since his decision to use gemstones and tech. Harry decided to invent a new branch of science. None of the current branches could properly explain extra dimensional energies and to avoid using the word Magic, Harry had to properly formulate the observable reactions of these energies which could be reproduced by others. Of course, the observability of such energies would require technology which didn’t exist yet. Harry would make it eventually and when he did, people would be able to measure energies from other dimensions and learn how they interact with different fields and materials.

Harry had something of an innate understanding of the energies already, but he needed something that could be taught to others and tested using machines.

Of course, the only materials capable of interacting with these energies naturally would either be rare and esoteric materials like vibranium, or the gemstones Harry’s company would alter using sonic technology. As long as no one else cracked material manipulation using sonic tech, Harry’s company would have the monopoly on the source of all materials needed for what would soon be the world’s most advanced tech.

The reason Harry needed to write out the science though was because he needed the science behind his tech to be understood by others so it could be approved of and sold. It was fine if others knew how his stuff worked and how to make it themselves. Unless they got the key materials from Harry’s companies, they could only twiddle their thumbs. Of course there would be those who tried to buy large amounts of products containing those specialty materials in order to use them to build devices of their own designs, but Harry had his own plans, or should he say, pranks for such people.

In addition to basic and advanced subjects, Harry taught both girls Occlumency. Chaos Magic was close enough to Wizard Magic for Wanda to use it and since Rogue could use both Wanda’s powers or Jean’s powers, she could use them to build up her own Occlumency as well.

Harry also encouraged both to acquire a hobby. Both tried cooking but both decided it didn’t agree with them. Wanda decided to try painting and found she liked it while Rogue took up reading and playing video games much to Harry’s amusement.

When Rogue got bored, she would fight the copies of monsters Harry faced in Battle Meditation or she would fight Death Eaters. It hadn’t taken her long to find Harry’s life story, the one Jean had been reading in his library and after a few weeks she finished the whole set, catching up to Harry’s present.

Harry noticed that once finished, Rogue would often go find the copies of the various foes Harry had defeated such as the monsters from his Battle Meditation or the Death Eaters or that Basilisk. When she was feeling adventurous, she would try facing the Black Dragon and die a noble death against it. She once complained to Harry that she wanted to face Voldemort or the Mandarin, but Harry said that Goose technically killed the former and Harry bȧrėly survived the latter so his mindscape copy didn’t have enough information to reproduce them.

When channeling the powers of others, there were some powers she could channel completely and other powers that she could only use a fraction of. She could use 100% of the Juggernaut’s strength, but she could only teleport a fraction of Kurt’s max distance. She could use Bobby’s power without issue, but Evan’s spikes were uncomfortable to use and less effective compared to when she stole his powers. Scott’s power was ironically rather easy to use, but Logan’s was a bit moody. In order to use Logan’s healing factor, she had to heavily focus on using it which prevented her from multitasking while healing.

Harry determined the difficulty was based on the origin of the power. Scott’s, Bobby’s, and Marko’s powers seemed to all be extradimensional. She was just connecting to the same extradimensional source using them as a reference. Kurt’s teleporting was something Harry suspected was influenced by his bloodline, something Rogue did not share with Kurt. Spike and Wolverine both manifested their powers from their own biology, meaning Rogue’s body had to mimic their cells which was harder than channeling energy. Harry suggested practicing with Mystique’s power as getting used to the feeling of her cells changing should help use the powers of others.

Rogue found that if she shapeshifted into Logan, Kurt, or Evan, using their power was much easier. But she wanted to use her power in her own form so that became her goal for practicing.

With Harry’s help, Rogue also practiced Chaos Magic. Wanda didn’t particularly like her powers, so Rogue helped Harry figure out the properties of it so Harry could create a proper training routine when Wanda finally came around.

Five years after entering the mindscape, Harry called Wanda over and told her, “It’s time to practice the use of your power.”

Wanda frowned at that and asked, “Why now?”

Harry asked, “When was the last time you thought of your father and when was the last time your anger caused an accident?”

Wanda thought about it and realized it had actually been a full year. Occlumency hadn’t been easy to learn, but she had eventually used it to do as Harry said and removed her father’s ability to infuriate her. Harry was right about that, he wasn’t important enough to be allowed to affect her life so much.

Wanda looked at the painting she had been working on and said, “I just want to learn how not to hurt people. The only person I want to use my powers to tear up is my father, but since there is only one of him, I don’t see much of a point in training to use my power in other ways.”

Harry sighed but it wasn’t his decision to make. If someone wanted to live a peaceful life, that was their choice.

Rogue heard about her decision later and took her out for some more Girl Talk. When they returned, Wanda agreed to get trained and do everything she could to become stronger. Harry wasn’t going to ask what they talked about but he was happy she made that choice.

Thanks to trial and error with Rogue, Harry had created what he considered the perfect training regime for Chaos Magic. Much of it he created with his subconscious as his mind contained both the Book of Vishanti and the Darkhold, the later being the premiere text on all things Chaos Magic.

Harry initially wanted to remove Chthon’s signature from Wanda’s magic and have her imprint it with her own. This would completely cut off Wanda’s potential as the perfect vessel for Chthon, but Harry easily found out how impossible this was. It was not just a mark left on her by some remnant of Chthon, it was and actual piece of himself he personally placed in her at the moment of her birth.

Through some testing, Harry determined that Wanda’s mutant power should have been a form of energy manipulation. Chthon had likely seen this as the perfect opportunity and used it to change the energy she could manipulate from normal energy to Chaos Magic.

Because of this, there was no way to change what she could manipulate from Chaos Magic to wizard magic.

However since Plan A wasn’t viable, Harry decided to go with Plan B. If Chthon was going to give her a great talent and potential at manipulating Chaos energy, then why not have her perfect it to the degree she should be able to overpower Chthon himself if she faced him. Of course that didn’t include facing him in his own realm, but outside of that, any version of Chthon she met would not be capable of absolute control over Chaos energy. If Wanda’s control could exceed or at least match whatever avatar of Chthon she encountered in the future, she would not be overwhelmed and would have a fighting chance.

Of course, Harry would never intentionally allow her to confront Chthon, but there was no harm in planning for the worse.

Harry’s lesson plans for Chaos Magic was a step by step introduction on pretty much everything that Chaos Magic could do and an explanation of how it did it. Since most aspects of Chaos magic were identical to Wizard Magic, Harry used that as a base.

According to Harry, Wizard/Chaos Magic was based on probability manipulation and reality overwriting.

For example, the basic Unlocking Charm. There was a set non zero probability that someone would forget to lock a door. The Unlocking Charm set that probability to 100% and overlapped that with reality, thus causing the door to unlock itself in order to correct itself to a state where someone had forgotten to lock it. Without a lock that was enchanted to resist such an effect, the Unlocking Charm could potentially unlock any door that was capable of being unlocked.

The key to using Chaos and Wizard magic was not manually searching for that probability when casting the spell, but allowing your feelings and instincts to guide you to that probability and use that as the target for overlapping reality with.

Once Wanda got the hang of it, she took to Chaos Magic like a fish to water. It only took a few months to catch up to where Rogue had been and after half a year, Wanda was the one teaching Rogue. The reason she was teaching was that Harry insisted on it. He plainly stated that few things allow someone to learn more about something than teaching it to someone else. By figuring out the best way to teach the less talented Rogue how to use Chaos Magic, she was getting a cleaner feel for it herself.

After they had finished with their base schooling, their schedule changed to include daily outside vistas. Hiking trips, days in the city, walks along the beach, or even just making a bonfire in the woods. The girls started to really show how much they were enjoying spending time around Harry and when someone enjoys being around you, it wasn’t hard to enjoy being around them.

Twenty years after the start of their training, Wanda’s skill at Chaos magic officially surpassed Harry’s skill with wizard magic. Wanda was capable of using an Unlocking spell without any excess chaotic energy in the spell. This meant that Wanda could use the spell on an electronic lock without frying it and have it actually open. Even Harry couldn’t do that. Harry’s overall power was of course much higher but his precision lost out to Wanda’s.

Fifty years into the venture, Rogue and Wanda both asked to go on a date with Harry. By now Wanda had also read the books on Harry’s life and they both knew he was in love with Jean, but they also knew they had fallen in love with him as well and knew the feelings were mutual.

Harry was surprised that they stated they would be willing to share Harry with Jean and Rogue stated that she knew for a fact that as long as Jean got enough love, she would be willing to share Harry as well.

Wanda admitted that the only reason she worked hard to master her powers was because Rogue had told her than in the future, Harry would have many powerful enemies trying to control him and would need help to face them. Paying Harry back for everything he’d done for her was her motivation to become stronger.

Harry had no way to argue with that and agreed to take both on some dates. Over the years they grew closer and he fell in love with them both. Though since all three were vɨrġɨns, Harry had no frame of reference in his mind for going further than making out which was fine for the girls. Harry stated he wouldn’t cross that final line until he was sixteen and they had moved out of the mansion

When asked why, Harry stated that Logan would definitely know every time they did it and Harry didn’t feel comfortable with that. Rogue immediately agreed as Logan was basically the surrogate father figure for many of the students and the fact that he would know every time they got busy would kill the mood dead.

Over the course of many years they learned that Harry had many flaws of his own. He had become over reliant on Pausing and because he didn’t Pause this whole time, he would often spend too much time thinking over a trivial issue or would remain indecisive about something which should be a straightforward choice.

Harry had never had an outsider’s perspective look at him for some long and until then had remained unaware of those issues and Harry resolved himself to get better about those issues.

At the end of the one hundred years, the trio found themselves back in the ritual room.

*Ping*

[Scholar Path has risen to Rank 45]

Rogue looked around and asked, “Is it over?”

The Ancient One answered back, “Yes indeed.”

Rogue and Wanda both walked over to the Ancient One and gave a bow before saying together, “Thank you for taking care of Harry.”

She nodded back with a smile and said, “You’re welcome to visit the Sanctum in the future. But now, it’s best you were off.”

The trio nodded and headed off. The portal to Rogue’s room and the Mental Institute were still open so they left and the portals closed.

Wanda took a look around the small room and waved a hand to dispel Harry’s illusion of the pair that had remained. She took a deep breath and then dispelled the transfiguration on her straight jacket which coiled back around her, binding her arms in place. She was fully capable of removing the jacket at any time. She was also fully capable of teleporting using her own version of apparition and no locked door could hold her. Due to all this, she could leave any time she wanted to.

Harry however insisted she take the time to consolidate her own mind and feel out her powers before rushing to use them at the level she could towards the end of the hundred years.

Before opening the door to let Xavier back in, Wanda gave Harry a pleading puppy dog look he had grown so used to over the years and lifted her up to give her a passion filled goodbye kiss. Technically this was his first kiss not in the mental plain and Harry didn’t have any complaints about it.

When Xavier entered and saw the pair, he had to do a double take on Wanda to make sure it was the same girl. Xavier had an innate passive sense of empathy and could feel many layers of emotions off the various people around him. The Wanda in front of him was a completely different person than the woman behind the door five minutes ago.

Harry smiled at his shocked expression and said, “Complete success Professor.”

Wanda nodded and said with a light smile, “He’s right, there won’t be any more uncontrolled outbursts or accidents.”

Xavier smiled at her confidence and said, “I cannot tell you how pleased I am to hear that. As long as that proves true, I can promise that you will only remain here for another month or two for observation before you will be released.”

Wanda nodded and replied, “That’s fine. I’ve got all the time in the world ahead of me so a month or two won’t kill me.”

The guard listening in couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was also having trouble seeing the smiling girl in front of him as the same teen who had nearly set him on fire half a dozen times over the last few months. He would be more shocked later when he received an apology from Wanda for her behavior and a genuine thank you for helping her.. The remaining staff who would receive the same apology would be just as surprised.