Geneticus

CHAPTER FIVE: STORIES

Only twenty minutes had passed before the students began arriving for their dinner. Once again, Mulder endured the curious stares as the young witches and wizards wondered who the stranger amongst them was. Deciding it was better not to try and act like he belonged, Mulder stood and waited by the door for Harry to return.

Several adults entered from the opposite door, directly behind what Harry had said was the professor's table. He recognized the perpetually scowling form of Professor Snape enter and move off to the left. The rest of the professors were unknown to Mulder. Most were elaborately dressed in fancy robes and hats, and they looked quite regal heading up a room full of students.

"Mr. Mulder!" He turned around to find the source of his name, and spied Harry standing amongst a small group of students. Mulder recognized two of Harry's friends from Snape's class.

"Hello Harry," he said with a smile.

"Mr. Mulder, these are my good friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger."

The group exchanged nice-to-meetchas, then Harry pointed towards the table he'd identified earlier. "Let's sit down and eat, shall we?"

Mulder received more curious looks as he walked past the hungry students already assembled. For a moment he thought he was seeing double as he passed a pair of redheaded twins who were scarfing down their food.

Mulder sat down next to Harry, while Ron and Hermione rounded the end of the table to sit across from them. Plates and bowls of food magically appeared in front of them. Knowing he was supposed to be a wizard in the eyes of the students, Mulder held in his surprise.

"So, Mr. Mulder, what do you think of Hogwarts so far?" asked the girl.

"It's nothing like I expected, Hermione, to be honest. Granted, I really didn't know what to expect, but it sure wasn't this."

"But is that a good thing?" Ron asked around a mouthful of chicken.

With a smile, Mulder nodded. "I think it is, Ron." He grabbed a chicken leg of his own and bit into it carefully, relaxing once he realized it was just regular chicken.

For a while they chewed in silence, and Mulder just observed the comings and goings of the students. Out of the corner of his eye he saw yet another flash of red hair coming towards him, and his heart skipped a beat just for a second before he realized this girl was much too young to be Scully.

"Hello!" she said, sitting down on Harry's other side. "Harry, aren't you going to be hearing..." She paused mid-sentence as she spied Mulder. "Oh! Hello there, sir."

"Ginny, this is Mr. Mulder. He's visiting Hogwarts for a while. Mr. Mulder, this is Ginny Weasley."

Mulder smiled, told Ginny it was very nice to meet her, and held in a chuckle as Ginny blushed slightly.

"Wait...Weasley? So, there's a reason for the unnatural abundance of red-haired students at this table?"

Ron laughed. "You might say that. Ginny's my sister, and Fred and George are my brothers. They're twins. There are three more of us, but Bill, Charlie and Percy have all graduated."

Mulder's eyes widened. "You have older brothers named Bill and Charlie? How funny..." At the students' confused looks, Mulder added, "My, uh, my partner has two older brothers named Bill and Charlie. Red hair runs in her family as well."

The kids chatted for a while, and Mulder listened as they discussed something called a Triwizard Tournament that Harry was apparently involved in. He wanted to ask for more details, but wasn't sure if it was something that an American wizard should know about. He decided to keep quiet.

"Harry," said Hermione during a lapse in conversation, "why don't we take Mr. Mulder out to Hagrid's hut? It will be easier to talk there, I'm sure."

"Hagrid lives close by?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, just across the grounds near the forest. Let's go over after dinner, shall we?"

The group agreed, and quickly finished their food.

* * *

The walk across the grounds was quick and refreshing. Mulder took his time, taking in the beautiful scenery around the school. In the lake he could see two large tentacles stretching above the water; Hermione quickly explained it was simply the giant squid out for a bit of sunbathing.

A few dozen yards ahead of them was a stone hut, small enough to be dwarfed by the castle, but still large enough that Mulder knew only Hagrid could call it a "hut." Beyond the building was an ominous-looking forest; inside the tree line it was quite dark, despite the bright sunlight of the early summer evening.

From around the side of the hut Hagrid appeared, herding a few animals into a pen. The creatures were small and black, sniffing at the ground as though they were searching for something.

"Nifflers," said Harry, noticing Mulder's curiosity. "They find gold and treasure for you."

Ron looked away, as though, Mulder thought, trying to avoid becoming involved in the conversation.

"'Ello there!" Hagrid said as he spotted his visitors. "Ah, Muldah, I see yeh've met somma the biggest troublemakehs in the Fourth Year..."

"Thanks for the ringing endorsement, Hagrid," Ron said. He was grinning again, an expression that suited his face much better than the studied avoidance of a few moments ago.

"What can I do fer yeh four? Care for some tea?"

"We just wanted to come out here so we could talk to Mr. Mulder without worrying about who's listening," Hermione explained.

"Well, yer welcome ter go inside. I've got some chores ter attend the 'fore it gets dark, but Fang'll watch out fer yeh."

Fang turned out to be a large, black boarhound with large eyes that seemed much too sweet for his intimidating form. The dog turned his head briefly to acknowledge the visitors, then snuggled back down into his chair.

They arranged themselves in the hut, which was surprisingly cramped inside compared to the size of the building.

"All right," said Hermione, getting right down to business, "just why exactly are you here, Mr. Mulder?"

"As I said before, it's because of my son." He paused, then sighed. "The story is not so simple, and I'm really not sure where to begin."

"You have a son. How about telling us about his mum?" Ron suggested.

A fond smile stole across Mulder's lips. "An excellent choice. Scully and I used to work together in the FBI, that's--"

"The what?" Ron asked.

"Federal Bureau of Investigation. It's a government organization. Basically we're police, but we do higher priority cases that involve more than one state. Do you know Scotland Yard?" Harry and Hermione nodded, but Ron was still clueless.

"Enforcers, Ron," said Hermione.

"He nodded. "Right then."

Mulder continued. "So, about ten years ago I was assigned a new partner, Dana Scully. She was a pathologist -- cuts up dead bodies to determine cause of death -- and very scientific. I was more open-minded to 'extreme possibilities' and our superiors had hoped her logic would reign me in, bring me back to Earth, if you will.

"But really, her science ended up validating my theories in the end. And between saving each other's lives and such, we fell in love."

Hermione sighed. "How romantic!"

"I guess you could call it that, "Mulder chuckled. "And looking back I guess it was, but it certainly didn't feel that way at the time."

Again Mulder paused as he tried to think of the best way to explain the next part of his story.

"Before I can tell you the next part, I have to ask you all a question: do you believe we are alone in the universe?"

It was obvious none of the kids expected that particular question. Ron's face showed complete surprise, and Hermione looked skeptical, but Harry was slowly nodding, and said, "Five years ago, I might have said yes very quickly without even thinking about it. But ever since I found out that wizards and magic are real, I have to think that anything's possible. And aliens seem much more likely than magic..."

Mulder looked at the other two. "What about you? Don't be afraid to be honest."

Ron hemmed and hawed, and finally came up with, "I don't know."

Mulder nodded. "That's fine. Hermione?"

"My gut instinct says yes, we are alone...but I'm guessing you have some information to the contrary, or you wouldn't have brought it up."

"I appreciate your honesty. I for one do believe in the existence of extraterrestrials, for a few reasons. But the most important one is..." One final moment of hesitation and he let it out: "Last year I was abducted. Taken for three months, then returned and left for dead. Scully and the people working to find me thought I was dead and buried me for another three months. Eventually they figured out that I wasn't quite dead yet and exhumed me. And here I am."

He could tell by the looks on the kids' faces that they didn't quite believe him.

"Anyway, that's not the important part. What's important is that about two months ago, I woke up in a hospital to discover that Scully was seven months pregnant. She wasn't supposed to be able to have children the natural way, and our attempts at in vitro -- fertilizing outside the body then implanting those eggs back into the uterus -- those attempts failed. So seeing her pregnant was a shock."

It occurred to Mulder that he might be speaking above the students' comprehension levels. "Are you three following me?"

The all nodded, though Ron and Harry seemed a little unsure of themselves.

"Well, long story short," said Mulder with a grin, "our son was born a few days ago under dangerous conditions, and we're afraid he's still in danger. Headmaster Dumbledore has said that he can protect William."

Harry smiled. "If anyone can protect him, Dumbledore can."

"Definitely," Hermione agreed.

"Glad to hear it. So I'm just here checking things out, seeing if what Dumbledore had written to us about was true. I must admit, while I believed in some psychic powers in various individuals, I never suspected there was a whole other world filled with witches and wizards right under my nose."

"Well, of course that's the idea," Hermione pointed out. "I was Muggle-born, and had no idea I was a witch until I got my Hogwarts letter nearly five years ago."

"So you just left the, uh, Muggle World behind? What about your friends at school? Do they know what you are?"

Hermione just shrugged. "I didn't really have any friends before I came here. My classmates thought I was weird and they teased me. It was a relief to finally be around other kids like me."

Mulder thought about her confession, and how he'd hate for his son to have a similar one if he wasn't raised under Dumbledore's protection. All too well, Mulder know what it was liked to be teased as a child -- even as an adult. The thought of not taking steps to spare his son from a similar fate made his heart ache.

"But even here you're still mocked by Malfoy and his goons," Ron reminded her.

She huffed impatiently. "I don't care what that close-minded, slick-haired snake thinks. He's not worth my time or energy."

Harry elaborated for Mulder's sake. "The Malfoys are an old wizarding family that prides itself on being pureblood and not mixing with Muggles. They think Muggle-borns like Hermione are second-class. Draco is in our year, in Slytherin."

"Slytherin?"

"I guess it's our turn to fill you in. Hermione, You're a walking, talking copy of 'Hogwarts, A History', why don't you explain things?"

Hermione glared at him, then at Ron who was chuckling, then finally sighed and began to speak.

"Over a thousand years ago, the four greatest wizards of the time joined together to form the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There are four houses in the school, each of which is named for a founder: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. When a new student comes to Hogwarts, they are first sorted into one of the houses. It's based on qualities you have; each founder liked different things in their students. Gryffindor liked bravery, Hufflepuff liked loyalty, Ravenclaw liked intelligence, and Slytherin liked resourcefulness.

"We're all in Gryffindor. The head of our house is Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher. Malfoy's in Slytherin, and Snape, the Potions master, is in charge of that house. The Gryffindors and the Slytherins don't get along, really. Our Quidditch games are brutal, and Snape is amazingly unfair to us."

"Neville Longbottom's in Gryffindor, isn't he?" Mulder asked, though he suspected he knew the answer.

"Yes," said Ron. "Snape's always picking on poor Neville. What you saw today was nothing. Actually rather kind, because Snape picked my salamander instead."

"He was so upset that you'd done it right!" Harry laughed. "Oh well. Good to know we can still hold our own with him sometimes."

Hermione yawned, and Harry pushed back his sleeve to reveal a bare wrist. "I keep forgetting...what time is it?"

Mulder looked his own watch, which thankfully wasn't affected by the amount of magic in the air. "It's about seven-thirty."

"Goodness! I should get back to the common room and start on that parchment for Arithmancy. Plus I'm sure you two need to finish reading up for Charms tomorrow," she added with a pointed stare at Ron and Harry.

The boys reluctantly agreed, and so the group called it a night. They left the hut, and while the kids headed back towards the castle, Mulder poked around, looking for Hagrid.

He found the giant man standing just outside a paddock, staring down the length of the forest at what appeared to be an enormous carriage.

"Hagrid?"

Hagrid jumped a bit, but he didn't turn to face his visitor. "We're not all bad, really. Tha's the nice thing about yeh, Muldah, yeh don' know what yer supposed ter think about me. If only others could look beyond those things..."

Mulder didn't say anything; he really had no idea what Hagrid was talking about, but from the choked sound in his voice, it was obviously something upsetting. After another moment Hagrid turned and Mulder could see that Hagrid's eyes were gleaming and there were some tear tracks on his ruddy cheeks.

"Sorry 'bout tha'. Wha' can I help yeh with?"

"I was just hoping you could point me towards town. The kids have gone back up to the castle, and I think I'd like to spend some time just relaxing in my room. It's been quite a day," said Mulder.

"I bet. Just follow me, I'll lead yeh righ'."

With one last longing glance towards the carriage, Hagrid began to walk towards Hogsmeade.

END CHAPTER FIVE