Molly Hayes and the Sorcerer's Stone (Julian, Molly)

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Molly does a little late night exploring of her new home and is caught by a grounded telekinetic with disordered sleeping. Hot chocolate ensues.


So, Molly was pretty sure that she lived at Hogwarts now.

It was the only explanation she could think of. The mansion was HUGE and they taught you how to use your mutant powers (which were just like magical powers anyway). And they wore leather, which must've been an American Hogwarts thing. She wondered who the American Dark Wizard Guy was.

They wouldn't let her explore so she waited until she was sure everybody was asleep. She couldn't sleep anyway. How could you? It was begging to be checked out. So when the place got dark and she didn't hear anybody talking or moving around, Molly opened the door to her room and crept out into the hallway, peering back and forth to make sure no one was around.

Satisfied, she tip-toed a ways and felt pretty good until the floor creaked and she jumped, plastering herself against the wall. When it was clear no one was coming she went back to sneaking around, slowly moving down the stairs all quiet-like. Like a ninja. Or a cat. A ninja-cat.

The first level had the coolest stuff so she headed there. Maybe she could find like a broom or something.

Julian had been up anyway, heavy issues had been weighing on his mind dealing with Nico and a possible return to Los Angeles in the spring. In order to unburden his ladened mind, the young scion walked barefooted in a pair of pajama pants, a wife beater and a black robe toward the kitchen. It was hot chocolate time. Before he turned the corner to the stairs, he heard the creak of a floor board and wrote it off as his own. When he finally did turn, he noticed a small, pajama clad girl with a strange hat...it had ears and tassels, creeping toward the stairs. Using his abilities, Julian crept up behind her and cleared his throat.

Molly had just put her foot on the top step when she heard a sound...like her daddy when he was in 'stealth mode.'

Caught in an up-to-no-good stance, she froze and slooowly turned around, peering up at the guy. She flashed him an innocent grin, waving.

"Hi."

Nothing sneaky here, no sir.

Julian couldn't help but smile at the girl who was, by and far, the youngest girl he'd seen at the mansion. "You must be the new girl I heard about, right? Molly Hayme was it?"

He smiled so that was good, right?

"Molly Hayes...like things are fuzzy," Molly said. Hayes and haze. She tilted her head.

"Your eyes were glowing."

Julian nodded, "They do that sometimes when I'm using my powers." He looked down the darkened stairs, if you didn't know where you were going, the low light conditions could be dangerous. With a couple quick steps to the right he turned the lights up slightly.

"So, Molly Hayes, like things are fuzzy, where are you off to?"

Molly peered at him suspiciously.

"Are you going to tell on me?" she asked, arching her eyebrows. She just wanted to see if she could find something cool. It was very hard to find cool things when she could not go anywhere.

"Why would I tell on you? Are you supposed to be in bed or something?" Julian peered back, equally suspicious.

Molly made a face. He was old but not old like the teachers old. That was good. She looked around again before stepping forward, her voice dropped to a whisper.

"I'm not supposed to explore without an adult," she said.

Julian nearly burst out laughing, covering his mouth to contain himself. After regaining his composure, "Come on kid, I'll make you some hot chocolate."

Molly blinked, peering at him again when he started laughing.

"What?" she said.

Then he said the super American Hogwarts Magic Word (tm): chocolate. Mom never let her have sugar after 4:00pm. She didn't know why.

"OKAY!" she said, eyes wide, beaming.

She started to charge down the stairs when she realized she forgot where she was going and paused. giving as much patience as a 12 year old girl could give him. She started to fidget.

Julian sauntered down the thickly carpeted stairs, catching up with her and heading toward the kitchen. Given her outburst at getting cocoa, Julian resolved to use the sugar free recipe that Karolina had taught him, and which he'd improved on over time. "So, what's up with your hat...are you a cat or something?"

Molly had to let him lead a little cause she didn't know where it was, but once they started getting there she remembered a little better this time.

She looked up at her hat, the act of doing so making her cross her eyes a bit on the way looking back down.

"It's a fox!"

"I like hats. I collect them. I have 39," she said. And then she went quiet, pulling at her fox ears with a frown.

"Well...I used to."

Julian considered lifting her up onto one of the stools like he had for his little brother in years gone by, but decided against it. He didn't need a stranger danger moment. "Used to?" he inquired, getting things ready to make the delicious concoction. "Oh, what do you like in your cocoa?"

Molly hunched her shoulders and looked down, nudging at one of the barstool legs with her shoe.

"Ummm...marshmallows....and whipped cream?" she asked hopefully. Since he asked two questions she didn't know which one to answer first so the yummier one won out.

"Have you ever had hazelnut syrup in it? I love the stuff in mine. But we definitely have your marshmallows and whipped cream." He set to making her treat, "You were saying you used to have thirty-eight hats."

"Hazelnut? Isn't that coffee? Mom told me I shouldn't have coffee. She said it drives her crazy," she said. That was the only time she'd heard of hazelnut before.

She picked up the salt and pepper shakers and they began to do a waltz.

"Thirty nine," she said.

"Actually, it's just a flavoring, pretty tasty when mixed...it's horrid on its own." He turned on the stove and began to slowly heat the milk. "You were saying, thirty nine hats?"

"Ohhh," Molly said, nodding. That made sense. She scrunched her nose as she debated. "Can I have a drink of yours first and then try it if I like it?"

Hunching her shoulders, Molly put the pepper shaker down and nudged the barstool leg with her toe.

"Mom and daddy burned down our house," she said quietly.

Julian stopped what he was doing and turned around, wooden spoon in hand, "Seriously?"

Molly nodded as she put down the salt shaker as well and then rested her chin on the counter, staring at the two shakers in front of her.

"They only let me take two hats," she said mournfully, frowning.

With a shrug, Julian turned back to the heated liquid, making a mental note to get Dori's help in finding some fun hats for the kid. "Yeah, you can try mine before I make yours." He tapped the spoon off on the pot and covered it, breaking the chocolate up into bits and getting out the cocoa powder. "So what are your powers?"

Molly smiled, then pushed back the salt and pepper shakers like a curtain to peer at him.

"I can lift heavy stuff," she said. Like Supergirl. Too bad Supergirl was taken as a codename.

"You too, huh? How do you go about that?" he dumped the chocolate into the bubbling liquid. "Telekinesis?"

Molly squinted. "But...isn't that a disease?" she said curiously.

It had an -esis on there and her parents used a lot of doctor-talk and sounded like that and she didn't think you could use a disease to move things.

"Uh..." Julian was dumbfounded, unsure on how to answer for a moment until he slapped the lid on. "No, actually, I'm a telekinetic myself. I move things with my brain." He reached out and casually made the salt and pepper shakers float a foot into the air and start to swirl around, focusing his energy and concentration on them. "See?"

Molly's eyes widened and a broad smile crossed her face. Stunned, she started to lean back in her chair but forgot there wasn't actually a back and started to topple out of it.

"Whoa!" Julian gently gave her a light push back into a sitting position. "Careful, Molly...oh, I'm Julian, by the way. Julian Keller." He set the shakers down and started to get the remaining ingredients into order.

Molly jumped, then made a face before laughing. "Dude, that was awesome!" she said.

She extended her hand.

"Nice to meet you!" she said, then looked down at her hand expectantly before glancing back up to him.

Julian wiped off his hand on a dish towel and shook her hand, "You're pretty polite." A sudden realization came to him, "Wait, you have a west coast accent- where are you from?"

Molly shook his hand, carefully, then rested her chin back on the counter. She was getting sleepy but she wasn't going to say anything because he'd probably tell her to go to bed and she wasn't ready yet.

"Los Angeles," she said. She missed it. His accent sounded familiar too but she hadn't really noticed. Maybe because she was used to it.

"And then there were four!" Julian said with a chuckle. "Doreen, Nico and I are all from there too. I lived in Beverly Hills though, you?"

Molly's eyes widened. "Really? Me too!" she said. She sat back again, but was aware this time and had no further mishaps.

"Whoa...that's freaky."

Julian raised an eyebrow, "So did Dori and Nico...freaky indeed."

He began to pour the first cup, adding an ounce of the hazelnut syrup before adding marshmallows and whipped cream. Sliding the mug over to Molly, Julian leaned forward and smiled, "Give it a try."

Molly watched him work from her perch on the counter, her feet bobbing back and forth on the bar stool. When he finished she lifted her head and peered down at the creamy steamy concoction and carefully took a sip. Silence fell for a moment or two as a look of contemplation crossed her face.

With a chuckle he turned back around and began to fix another cup. "If you don't like it, that's fine. I won't hold it against you."

Molly quickly shook her head and handed him back his cup. "No! I like it!" she said.

"It tastes like a liquid candy bar."

She pretty much loved anything chocolate. And with sugar. She tried to eat some spoonfuls of sugar once though like the song but that didn't go over very well. That was the day she got very grounded and they had to call someone to fix the garage door.

"Oh, good, because I was bluffing," Julian took a sip from the cup he just poured. "Mmm, perfect. I would have held it against you for the rest of your stay with us," he winked to show he was only joking. "So you have a hat collection, or will soon again- you're from Beverly Hills and you can lift really heavy things." Julian considered her for a moment, "You'll fit in fine here."

Molly nodded sagely. "My daddy bluffs a lot so I could tell," she said as she waited for her cup, picking up a pair of salad tongs while she waited for her cup. She opened and closed the tongs, making dinosaur noises.

"I threw a truck at a guy. He was a jerk. And he looked like a robot...y'know, like Lex Luthor in a robot suit from that show? I wanted to call myself Supergirl cause you gotta have a codename when you're a superhero but that was already taken so I dunno what I'm going to call myself yet."

It had to be something cool. Then they could make her a cartoon and a doll. But would she have to have Superfriends too?

She then paused, tilting her head. "Do hazelnuts come from people named Hazel?" she said, curling her nose.

"Because that would be disgusting."

Julian chuckled, "That's your cup by the way. And no, they come from hazel trees...I think."

He took another sip, thinking, "Supergirl? I mean, I get wanting to be a superhero and you and Dori will get along like wildfire and dried grass, but why Supergirl?"

"Oh," Molly said, clearly relieved. Taking back the cup she drew in a long sip, leaving a whip cream mustache.

"Because I'm super! And I'm a girl and she lifts heavy things too. And she gets to wear a cape. Because you gotta wear a cape when you fight crime. Batman does it, see. And Superman. And Wonder Woman sometimes I guess when she gets cold cause she wears a bathing suit all the time in her invisible jet."

Molly had clearly thought a lot about her future career between then and now.

"Who's Dori?"

The question of how to best answer that question brought a scoff to Julian's lips. The boy set down his drink and considered for a moment. "Doreen Green is my best friend. She moved here from Beverly Hills a while back and you'll know when you see her. She has a squirrel tail and her best friend is a squirrel named Monkey Joe- smart little bassss...um...varmint." He paused, but only for a moment, "She works at the comic book store in town and is a total nerd."

It seemed bubbly happy times Molly had suddenly taken a hit as her eyes quickly widened as she looked down at her cup, frowning deeply.

"Oh," she said quietly with a bit of reluctance creeping into her voice as she tightly clutched her mug.

Confused, Julian cocked his head to the side, "What's wrong?"

Molly pulled her mug closer to her, almost looking like she was cuddling it had it not been a beverage.

"I'm afraid of squirrels," she said softly.

"Ah," Julian suppressed his urge to fall to the floor laughing. "Why are you afraid of them? Supergirl isn't."

Noticing the look, Molly made a face, a mad face, and folded her arms, refusing to look at him and instead focused on the ceiling.

"I'm not gonna tell you now."

Julian smiled, "My friend Callie- you'd have liked her, she had pink skin and talked to plants- she was Dori's roommate when she got here. Callie was freaked out by Monkey Joe, but over time...she got over it. I'm not saying you need to get over it or you suck, I'm saying...I think they'll grow on you."

Molly frowned, shaking her head rather insistently.

"But...but...they're really mean, though. They pretend they're nice and then they bite you," she said, holding out her hand to reveal a scar on one of her fingers than ran the length of her finger like a ring.

"Molly, Monkey Joe is the smartest, kindest squirrel I've ever met...and he would never, never bite you. Because if he did, Dori would ground him and I'd cut off his limitless supply of Snickers." Julian honestly never expected to be defending the rodent, but he had grown on him over the years. "And Dori is going to be your best friend if you like super-heroes...she wants to be one too."

Molly took another sip of her hot chocolate, biting her lip.

"Maybe he's pretending until you take away his candy and then he'll go crazy and bite your nose off when you sleep!" she said, hunching down in her chair, eyes wide at the thought.

She shook her head. Squirrels were very, very bad.

"Tell you what," he leaned forward on the counter. "I'll be with you when you meet Dori and Monkey Joe. And if Monkey Joe tries anything funny," he lifted the salt shaker into the air and constructed a lightly visible bubble around it. "Sound okay?"

Molly frowned. "But what if he can't breathe? He'd evil but he should be able to breathe," she said. She put her cup down, twitching her nose a bit like Samantha from Bewitched in thought.

"Okay. As long as he can breathe," she said finally.

"Deal," Julian held out his hand to the child.

Molly peered down at his hand, then shook it.

"Kapeesh."