Hey there! Before you read this, realize that this is basically a new set of character entirely. If you want to read about your favourite figures from the books, this is not for you. However, if you want to read some sci-fi with space wizards that aren't wielding glowing deathsticks around, there you go.
In any case, have fun and a good day to you!
May 2nd 1998
In the Met Office, the meteorological Service of Great Britain, a intern sees extreme weather disturbances over an uninhabited area in Scotland. Simple clouds formed into thunderclouds days after the event and rained down over Scotland, the North Sea and Norway. The rain was said to cause fields to either grow or wither in an unnatural way. Studies have shown great amounts of acids, sulfur and bound noble gases in the water.
August 7th 2003
Satellite pictures showed that the United Kingdom was over five-thousand five-hundred square-kilometers bigger than calculated. Geographers found that some areas were just skipped in old maps. Further investigation and research showed massive unused forests, missing numbers in streets and areas without owners. Geographers who investigated on site claim to have seen old ruins or were fired for forgetting their tasks when reaching the site.
February to December 2005
The platform Youtube gets flooded with videos of people dueling with wands. Experts suspect Special effects studios to be behind the videos, but not a single one claims to be responsible. Leading Hollywood studios even claim that 'the particle and physics simulation necessary for these shots would far exceed anything we are able to do'. When asked, the uploading users claim that the videos were not taken by them and they merely found them on their mobile phones. Titles like 'Samsung showcase video is massive' and 'Incredible Example Video blows my mind' support their claims. The public believes them to be Special effects masterpieces, despite the studios claims.
Meanwhile Secret Services and Intelligence Agencies around the world start investigating the videos.
January 2010
The Directors of the Intelligence Agencies of the G7 meet in Berlin to discuss investigations around 'Evident Supernatural Occurrences'. In attendance were Leading Investigator Eric Connor of Homeland Security, Walter Braun of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, Gerrard Derida of the Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur, Eduard Lurer of the ,Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna Rikuto Moto of the Public Security Investigation Agency, Michael Koller of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as well as Peter Macnair of MI5. Additionally in attendance were Ezekiel Goldberg from Mossad and Yuri Chechenko from the FSB.
Reason for the meeting was the sharing of information between the nations. Similarities and outright identical scans silenced the skeptics and lead to the forming and financing of an international investigation force with the goal of finding the source and target of these supernatural occurrences. Codename Morgana established headquarters in Hamburg, Tokyo and New York and was made of secret service personal, meta-physicists and physicists. Leading the investigations was the German, Major Dr. Theodor Kant.
April to July 2014
During a joint maneuver by the argentinian, brazilian and US-Armies and Navies, Stealth bomber in the stratosphere caught a huge mass of people in the middle of the Patagonian Desert on a livefeed. Footage of the desert went missing shortly after and the maneuver was canceled due to technical difficulties.
Said footage was collected and viewed by Morgana and deemed the first solid evidence for magical life on planet Earth. Later they would find out that they have witnessed the Quidditch World Cup of 2014. Immediately protocols jumped into action and the information was sealed to be viewed by only a few on the planet. Morgana soon found out that the leader of most nations knew about this and were introduced to the idea of parallel nations living within the normal nations.
September 2015
Morgana finds several thousand children every year absent from public education systems and shipped to private schools. After investigation Morgana found that none of those schools existed. Further questioning of the parents revealed the existence of so-called "Muggleborns".
August 2015
Morgana recruits muggleborn witches and wizards as well as squibs. While the Wizards and Witches found themselves in scientific research facilities, the squibs were trained to become 'Magic Aware Soldiers' and were given the financial and political support to form Anti-Magic Task Forces.
With the recruitment of muggleborns, the existence of 'mythologicals' as they were called, was found. Centaurs, Merpeople, Satyr, Veela, Lamia, Giants, Trolls, Goblins and many more were now deemed real.
September 2017
Researches isolated the core principles of magic. From then on out, weaponry against it could be designed and prototyped. However, all attempts failed. Magic couldn't be described with the laws of physics and therefore, producing rules, formulas and laws from experiments got exceedingly difficult.
March 20th 2018
Due to pressure from Morgana and the Nations behind the organization, the Vatican opened its secret libraries. In it, the researches found the mathematical and arithmantical secrets of the Templers, the Inquisition and the ancient Romans. These texts filled the gaps in the theories.
Combined with the knowledge gathered from the muggleborns, the research and engineering teams of Morgana begin to build weapon and defense prototypes.
April 2020
In secret, Morgana presents Anti-Magic defense systems and weaponry, built for the standard soldier. The most important prototype, however was the 'Magic-Force Disruption Device', short 'MaFoDD' that was intended for military as well as civilian use. It was a small trinket made from extremely pure iron, silver and obsidian, charged by a simple twelve Volts battery or similar power sources. The Mafod was only overshadowed by the Vehicle Defense Array that could shield military equipment from everything short of 'Spell-force Ignoring Spell-work' such as the Avada Kedavra.
Soon after the presentation, laws were silently set in place to ensure the installment of Mafod devices in products such as watches, mobile phones and tablets.
So, during thew next ten years the muggle societies of the world were secretly equipped with spellshields.
March 20th, 10am CET, 2030
The leaders of the world call upon their respective counterparts in the magical society to inform them of the upcoming reveal of the magical world. Ministers were given the option to prepare their ministries for these reveals on short notice. Several Ministers of Magic were killed during these conversations for attempting Obliviation spells on the President or chancellor.
Five hours later, the world was informed of the existence of magical societies and species.
The proof of them got delivered by the activation of Anti-Magic arrays around areas such as Diagon Alley, which then got revealed to the non-magical public.
-NO-
„Wizard X23B2113, United Europe, Hogwarts, Charlus James Potter?"
„Yes, sir"
„Alright, get in line, don't make any troubles."
"Yes, sir."
Charlus Potter had never been sure what finishing Hogwarts would mean. He had always heard these awful stories from his great-grandfather and his father. He had heard the stories from the camps, the walls and the soldiers looking down on them, watching every move, every twitch of their hands.
As it turned out, it was much – much worse.
The moment Charlus had been collected in Scotland, he hadn't been allowed to raise his hand higher than his navel. His wand has been taken, his feet had been shackled and they had forced a choker on him that suppressed his magic by a massive amount. He had been placed in a helicopter, bound to his seat and ordered to remain silent.
Hours later they had been unloaded onto an airport, surrounded by incredibly high, white walls. On them, soldiers patrolled with rifles in their hands. There were several, even higher towers with people on them who lay on their belly, looking at them through scopes. Sniper, ready to take out single misbehaving targets. And then, hovering over them like a constant promise of quick death were the drones. Huge, black and metallic aircrafts with high-powered railguns and rocket batteries on them. But that wasn't the most terrifying weapon on them, not by a long shot. More blood freezing, literally, were the cages, filled with dementors hanging on the drones, ready to be released upon the livestock.
Thats what they were, Charlus realized now. All the horror stories were true. They were not wizards and witches, at least not to them. The muggles saw them as livestock. The Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons graduates of 2123 were treated like cattle, nothing more. Cattle that was finally ripe for the slaughter, or in their case, their uses for the muggle nations.
His great-grandfather had warned him about moving out of line, of misbehaving. Cattle didn't misbehave after all. Cattle that misbehaved was put down, like the useless livestock it was. Obedience was what his great-grandfather had recommended. The irony of it wasn't lost on Charlus. Harry James Potter, greatest wizard of the twenty-first century and first and last leader of the rebels against the United Nations asked his grandson to show obedience towards those he had once fought. Broken man, his great-grandfather was. No, Charlus corrected himself, not broken, defeated. Utterly and totally defeated by the muggles.
He was torn away from his thoughts by the whimpers of a girl in front of him. She had blond hair, was rather small for someone of their age and she sobbed uncontrollably. Her entire body trembled with every heavy breath she sucked in and her eyes were fixated onto the ground before her. Charlus wondered what horror story she thought about right about now.
Slowly the queue he stood in moved forward. Far away from the airfield he stood on, there was a small barrack to which it led. From afar he could see the sign naming it 'Mature Wizard and Witch Registration and Occupation Center'. Next to it was the symbol of 'Morgana', the Magic Control Force and, like an insult to every magical in the area, the symbol of the ICW.
Once again he was torn from his pondering, but this time by shouting and shots. Charlus immediately hit the floor, his hands under his chest and his head on the concrete, just as he had learned. The drone above him turned around, its rotors humming dangerously as their engines accelerated. With a loud crack, echoing over the entire airfield, its railguns fired.
Shouts, screams and then, utter silence. No one dared to speak and Charlus caught himself hyperventilating. What had his father taught him? He had to breathe, slowly and controlled, close his mind, focus his thoughts, create his shields. He created his occlumency barriers and suddenly he found himself much calmer. He took heavy breaths to further calm him and waited for anyone to speak.
The radios of the soldiers around them cracked as orders were shout through the ether.
"HQ to Cage Squad, get them back up. Proceed. Chrrrk..." came the distorted voice from the radio.
"STAND UP! BACK IN LINE!" the soldiers shouted, spit flying from their mouths and their rifles pointing at them in a threatening way. Charlus wondered who the idiot was that thought he could escape. He didn't even have a wand, not that it would have helped any.
No, help was too late here with the exception that you could help yourself by simply surviving. A task best accomplished by obedience, not by whatever the guy did that was now scratched from the floor of the airfield. From afar, Charlus could see the crater of the impact. The people around it that still stood, limped and were covered in blood, mostly not their own. In the middle of the crater were some corpses, bleeding together into a puddle. How many individuals they were, Charlus couldn't tell. Railguns didn't penetrate, they annihilated.
Slowly the rows began to move again. Most of the people here knew how to deal with situations like this. When you went to Diagon Alley, you had to register at entry and exit. No more than four hours, with regular, half-hour check-ins at wand-scanners. From the age of ten, the governments of the world knew your magics signature and used them to know when you were, where and whim whom. His grandfather had once told him that the Light of Lumos had been one of the first things he was able to cast and that it had fascinated him. It also broke his heart that it was this spell that the muggles used to identify and control the magicals of the world. No polyjuice and no metamorphing was able to alter your Lights glow, color and pulse. Charlus' Lumos glowed at exactly 5367 Kelvin, had an illumination power equal to 87 Watts Standard-Lightsource and pulsed with 6.28 beats per minute. It was his fingerprint, used to identify him without a doubt. Tool of his enslavement. Charlus, like so many others, hated the Light of Lumos with a passion.
He was torn from his musing by an especially heart wrenching sob from the girl in front of him. She was silently weeping and tried hard to hold back her whimpering. If she let go of a sob, it sounded like it broke free, relieved a pressure. Charlus wanted to help, but he knew well enough that one word would get them beaten up, or worse. If the guard suspected conspiracy for revolt, and they always suspected that, they would simply execute them on the spot.
So Charlus did something his mother did when speaking was too dangerous. He began humming. It was the song of his grandfather, "a Light in Darkness".
"Hmmm-hm-hmmm" he hummed and the words of the song echoed in his thoughts.
When the daaark,
"Hmmm-hm-hmm-hmm-hm-hmmmm- h-hm"
comes rising from the soooul of man,
"Hmm-hm-hmmm-"
and the braaave,
"Hmm-hm-hm-hm-hmm-hmmm"
from vice they never paaart.
"Hm-hmm-hmmm"
One must seeeek
"hm-hmm-h-hm-hmm-hm-hmmm"
the Light that never fails to shine,
"h-hm-hm-hm-hmm-hm-hm-hmmmm"
in the heart of the innocent!
He stopped quickly when a rifles grip connected with his chin and sent him sprawling over the floor. He tasted blood in his mouth and on his tongue he juggled one of his teeth. He didn't spit it out, but let it just drop out of his mouth, onto the floor. Charlus was sure that the guardsman would have seen spitting as an insult.
"Back in line and shut your trap." the guard commanded. He was obviously searching for some reason to punish Charlus even more, but couldn't find one. By the time Charlus was back up the guard moved away with an annoyed huff, but not before making a show of caressing his rifle.
It took a while, Charlus ears rang and the pain was numbing his sense, but he eventually realized that the girl in front of him had stopped weeping in silence. There were still tears falling down her cheeks, wetting the concrete floor underneath her, but the way in which her whole body shivered in repressed sobs had stopped completely. Was it his humming, or the guards actions against it, he didn't know, but it did its job regardless.
Later, when they stood in front of the bureau they sent everyone through, the girl was called up. Just before she vanished behind the door, she turned her head and stole a quick glance at Charlus. Her face was red and puffy from her tears, but even through that he thought she was pretty, absolutely beautiful, in a doll-like way. But then she turned even more, letting him see the right side of her face. A long, ugly scar went through it that blinded her on her right eye and moved through her full lips, down to her chin. The red scar was poorly healed and hideous to look at. Her eye had a milky shadow that blurred the blue of her eyes. With a nod she turned around once more and moved through the doorframe where an agent of Morgana waited for her.
Charlus didn't flinch when he saw the scar. He had seen plenty of them in Hogwarts, but granted, none of them as ugly and obvious as this one. He doubted that it was one of the scars the girls gave themselves. The small ones over the nipples of her breast and just above her privates. Scars that made them just not as good as unharmed girls. There were even spells for that, designed to numb the wound and guarantee scarring. But even then, most girls didn't have the guts to go for big wounds. You still wanted to look good for the eventual wizard that came your way. No, the big, ugly scar on the blonde girls face had a bit more history.
However, Charlus didn't have time to fantasize about it. One of the agents beckoned him into the building and Charlus made sure to follow quickly.
He entered a sterile looking office. Simple, white tiles on the floor, simple white paint on the walls, no pictures, no cupboards any unnecessary furniture, really. Just a metal table, with a metal chair in front of it and a bored looking, suit wearing woman behind it.
"Take a seat." the agent commanded.
Charlus did so and before he even sat down completely, the woman began to speak in a bored, monotonous drone. "fifty-three, sixty-seven – eighty-seven – six point twenty-eight, Charlus James Potter, nineteen years old, born on the 23th of February, 2113, X twenty-three, B two-thousand-thirteen. Qualified in all selected M-level subjects. Subjects being Supernatural and MIT-standard mathematics, physics, chemistry with extra alchemy, charms, transfiguration, euclidean and non-euclidean geometry, biology and plantlore. Successfully finished extra qualification courses are enchanting, New Futhark and basic healing. Known parselmouth and hybrid, dedication homo magi aphrodite. No abilities inherited from homo aphrodite. Is that correct Mr. Potter?"
"Yes, ma'am"
"Great-Grandfather is the known rebel-leader Harry James Potter. Father is Sirius Filius Potter, known for speaking out against governmental degrees and openly supporting extremists, currently detained in Nurmengard. Mother is Palomina Potter, banished from the Danube-delta Veela tribes, known for crimes against the separation of species, under paragraph 5, mixing of homo aphrodite with homo magi. Is that correct?"
"Y- uhm,Yes ma'am"
"How do you stand to the actions of your grandfather and parents?"
Charlus took a deep breath before he answered that one. He had to lie, but he had never been good at it. "I reject the ideals, ideology and values of my grandfather, father and mother."
"I see, " the woman said, her tone never gaining any sort of emotion in it. "You requested for a placement as healer and applied for mastery in potions. Is that correct?"
"Yes ma'am, it is my wish to..."
"The request has been denied." she deadpanned.
"But I..." he started, but her voice cut him off again.
"You are hereby assigned to the Hermes project. Go through the door behind me. Further instructions will be given to you at a later time. Good day."
Charlus was about to explode on her, he already drew breath for his tirade. "Request denied" his goddamn ass! However, the touch of the lethal end of a rifle on his chest made him stop in his tracks and look up to the agent. The man had a tired look in his eyes and shook his head slightly. "Don't make this difficult, buddy. Accept it, move on and live, or start shouting and receive a bullet for your troubles. Your choice."
Charlus took another deep breath. Survive! That was the creed of modern wizards and Charlus wasn't stupid enough to forget it. The dead have no way of fighting back.
So Charlus stood up slowly, his hands in front of his belly where the agent could see them and a glare on his face that he hoped would melt the bones of the woman behind the desk. The mousy-haired, plain paper-pusher that just shat all over his life goals just because his parents... just because of his great-grandfather.
"Very well then." he pressed out and made for a quick retreat through the door behind the desk. The woman was already reading the next folder, not even looking at him. Only the agents gave him a look that could, maybe, be misunderstood for understanding.
The first thing he saw in the next room was another dull looking woman, behind another plain metal table, holding a sheet up to him.
"This is your identification. Don't loose it." she said and dropped the paper in his hands.
"Alright,"
On the paper were his name, " HYBRID homo magi aphrodite" in brackets standing right next to it. It also told that Charlus was assigned to the Hermes Project, whatever that was, and that he was to "depart ASAP". Some additional bar codes and numbers that made no sense to him completed the information on it.
As he walked past the lady he saw the hall in which they had led him. Witches and Wizards stood in line before gates. Some searched for their destination, looking on their sheet and around on the gates repeatedly. Charlus did just the same. He walked past several gates that would bring them back home. Those lucky few would become what he had truly wished to. They would become healers, anti-terror forces, apparators or some even personal servants to some rich muggle.
With the exception of healer, he didn't like any of those options, but at least he would be back in Britain with his family. Now, however, he was confronted with something he had hoped to avoid. He would be sent somewhere and would probably not see Britain or his family again for the better part of a decade. It had been the same for his cousins of the Tonks family. He thought back with a shudder at how Cassiopeia looked when she had returned from wherever she had been. She still didn't talk about it – got rather aggressive when asked, really. He also remembered how his mother and aunt had cried because of the living corpse that had stood on the doorstep three years ago. He had memories of her when he was eleven. She had always been the most fun of his cousins. The person that had come back wasn't Cassiopeia anymore. Cassiopeia had died and instead the Tonks family got a depressed, paranoid alcoholic back that probably wouldn't survive the next five years.
His mother had known of the possibility that he would meet the same fate. She also knew that he was no fighter, unlike his cousins from the other Potter families. Charlus wouldn't join the rebellion, because Charlus couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a human, no matter how much hate he had in his heart. He would have to endure and at least try to keep his sanity.
"Whatever you do, wherever you go, remember that we will always love you, no matter what. Never loose your kindness, Charlus. Never forget to love. Promise me!" Those had been the last words his mother had spoken to him. He had promised her back then. It was such a Veela thing to say, to never forget to love, but it was also so much his mother. He then realized that it would be the last thing he heard from her for a long time. Would she still be alive when he came back? Would he come back at all? Without him, she had nobody. His father was in Nurmengard, probably for the rest of his life. The rest of the family still invited her to festivities, but in the end would keep their distance. The laws on separation of species were brutal. No, without him, she would be alone. Without her, he would be alone.
He wiped the single tear from his cheek in defiance. He would not cry, not in front of all those muggles. He must be strong, brave and tenacious. He had to be a survivor now, and he had to start by remaining strong in the face of an uncertain future. So he kept searching for the Hermes Project gates. After a good half of an hour, he finally found the small gate, with barely a person in front of it. A single, exactly as plain looking muggle stood with a tablet in front of it. Charlus approached him with his head held high and the glare he would reserve for any muggle from now on.
"Name?" the man blurted out.
"Charlus Potter,"
The man tipped some buttons on his tablet, looked over whatever was displayed and then nodded. "There it is... you're on the list. Go through the gate and take a seat." He didn't even notice the venomous expression on Charlus' face. He probably wasn't the first and wouldn't be the last, Charlus thought as he walked past the guy.
The gate led directly into the belly of a military plane of sorts. People were seated alongside the wall, all clad in some sort of black jumper and a rust-red jacket of the same, leather-like material. Before he could move he got something soft thrown at him from the side.
"Open it, dress yourself with it and then throw your old clothes on the pile there." a middle-aged man with already graying hair commanded.
"Where do I go to change?"
"Right where you stand and I can keep an eye on you, wizard." the man barked back.
"Right where..." Charlus hated himself for it, but he blushed furiously in front of the muggle. In the plane were other people and he was out in the open. They would all have a pretty good look.
"Shyness is a luxury you won't be able to afford where you're going. Now get to it."
Buying time, he first opened the package he got. Three jumpers, all black were the first thing he saw. Then came a bunch of undies, all skin-tight, not like his comfortable boxer shorts. They were also made of a weird fabric, between synthetic and wool that was stretchy and felt light. The last of the clothes was the rust-red jacket that had a lot of utility pockets all over it. The rest of the package were two towels, a pair of black boots and a leather belt with a utility bag on it.
Charlus eyed the people in the plane and was surprised that they all looked anywhere else but him. At least I got some decent people with me.
He made it quick. He got rid of his robes with practiced precision, undid his trousers and was fast about changing his underwear. Merlin, how he hated anything that was so tight around his body. He hated being looked up. Did since the girls at Hogwarts had laughed at him after a swim in the lake. He had been a bit pudgy back then. That fat had become muscle, thanks to some serious wake-up calls from his cousins, but his choice of clothes following this embarrassment didn't change. He liked baggy, wide clothing and neither this underwear, not the jumper was any of that. The weird fabric clinched to his body like a second skin.
"Well then, take a seat next to scarface there." the muggle said, pointing towards the left side of the plane where a familiar face sat. Charlus quickly put on his shoes and then walked towards the blonde girl. She just nodded and then averted her eyes. He had thought that it was because he changed clothes, but none of the people around him made eye-contact.
It took the better part of an hour until the remaining three found their way into the plane. Just like with him, the people in the plane gave them as much privacy as possible. Still, the two girls that came blushed scarlet red and the muscular boy looked murderous afterwards.
When the boy took his seat opposite to Charlus, the engines of the plane began to roar. "Passengers are advised to fasten their seatbelts." a metallic voice rang from speakers above their head. A dozen clicks were heard in the plane as the witches and wizards closed the belts around them.
Some muggles grabbed their clothes in a hurry and then left the plane, the graying man followed them without a word. Then, the engines howled up and the plane began to move, first away from the docking bay and then onto the free airfield, right next to the walls that had them imprisoned earlier.
"This is Sungazer three, requesting clearance, over." was heard from the cockpit. Some unintelligible gibberish came back, but it was probably the all-clear. With a "clonk" something released and the plane accelerated with unimaginable force. Charlus was pushed into his seatbelts so hard, he was sure he would get bruises from it. Shortly after, the plane went into flight and began to win height rapidly. Charlus felt his ears closing off nearly immediately.
In merely a few minutes they pushed past the clouds, and still they climbed. It didn't end when Charlus could clearly see the curvature of the Earths surface and it still didn't stop when they reached the point between the blue of the sky and the black of space.
Charlus couldn't believe it but when he felt the weight of his body leave him and merely the seatbelts pushing him back into his seat, he couldn't deny it. He was in space. The blond girl with the scar in her face whimpered as she felt zero gravity and her eyes widened in horror. Charlus thought that the feeling was amazing, but judging from the other wizards and witches, he was alone with that opinion.
"We have reached orbit. Arrival at Terra Orbital in twenty minutes." the metallic voice announced.
Charlus thought the stunned silence in the plane, or spaceship apparently, summed up the situation pretty well. Nobody spoke, nobody even made a sound. Just like Charlus, the people around him went inwards, considering the implications.
He, of course, knew of the vast and advanced space program of the United Nations. Everybody knew of it. Not exactly what it did, where it did it and who was part of it, but everybody knew that the UN had big plans for space. The first five minutes he just tried to wrap his head around the fact that he was now in zero gravity, farther away from home than he could possibly imagine. His second thought, following the first quite nicely, was the fact that even if he would try to join the rebels, he had no way of doing so now. The fact that he didn't even know how to drive a car, let alone fly a machine like this made even the plan of stealing one fail before execution.
At this point, some people cried without thinking about who saw them. Their tears floated around their faces and their whimpers and sobs sounded eerily in the metal hull of the pla- he had to correct his thinking again – the ship. He sat in a spaceship, vacuum and zero degrees Kelvin, a empty space, a cold death cutting him off from home.
The tears didn't sound eerily, they sounded like the guillotine smashing down.
He felt so lightheaded as the faces of his family ran through his mind. I will see no one again. They're gone now, for good.
Nobody would hold the illusion that muggles that went to the troubles of launching them into space would let them back to earth. Charlus was sure, they would die out here, and he shared this thought with many in the plane, judging from their downcast expressions.
Loud metal sounds announced their arrival at the Orbital station. Through the windows he could see the black of the outer hull, and the lights within the station. It was huge, with rotating circles that, so he knew, simulated gravity. It was an amalgamation of spheres, connected by tunnels from which light streamed out into space.
The hissing of the pressure chamber sounded and a last, loud metal sound was heard. Then doors opened and in stepped a woman with a stern, no-nonsense gaze. Her hair was in a tight bun and she wore the same rust-red jacket as the witches and wizards in the plane. However, her jumper was white, as well as her boots.
"Alright people. In your boots are magnets that can be activated with a button on the rim of the sole. Do so now."
Charlus bowed down to his shows, and indeed, he found the small, white button directly above the heel. When he pressed it his feet snapped to the floor and the boots tightened around his feet to keep them in the boots.
"Now open your seatbelt and follow me." she commanded and then immediately turned around and entered the station.
Charlus waited for the people to stand up. It was hard to move, hard to think. It was overwhelming, depressing, despairing to be here and lifting himself from the seat felt like a monumental task, zero gravity or not.
Eventually, when most of the people had cleared the plane, he stood up as well. Charlus made a few uncertain steps across the metal floor. It was weird to move like this. Weight and mass was acting up and Charlus had to keep from smashing his head against the walls. It was difficult but in the end he ended up in the middle of the magicals, in a room made of white walls and technology, with corners covered in foam or rounded.
When the blonde girl left the plane as the last, the pressure chamber closed its doors and the spaceship released the safeties. It floated away from the station with the same grace he knew from documentaries and movies seen during muggle studies. It would have been breathtaking, if it wasn't for the fact that the last connection to home was floating away and activating its boosters to get back to the surface.
It was hard to focus on the voice afterwards, but the woman sounded stern enough for him to pay attention, at least a little.
"Heres the deal, folks. You have been assigned to us, the Hermes Project." The woman started to pace around, obviously knowing how to move in zero gravity. "My name is Doctor Strauss and I am the overseer of this station. I expect no shenanigans, no stupid moves and especially no violence. If I have to administer punishments, they will be severe. This is a space station. One mistake could mean the death of many people. You will only practice magic at designated places, after receiving explicit orders to do so. If the scanners pick up even one stray spell, I swear to god, you'll take a walk straight out of the frontdoor. I hope I'm understood." If anyone had any doubt about her claim, her glare made short work of it. At least in Charlus mind there was no doubt that this woman would stand to her word. "As I am merely the overseer, Doctor Stevens here will fill you in on the details of your assignment. Lunch is in an hour, 12 o'clock Station time. I expect you to be acquainted with your quarters by this point. Until then," She nodded towards the group, pressed the buttons on her shoes and then floated off through the tunnel over their heads.
Left was a short man with a soft smile constantly plastered on his face. He held a tablet and looked much more uncomfortable with moving. His voice was a bit shaky, his eyes looking anywhere but in their eyes. "Greetings, everybody,"
"Doctor Stevens, I suppose," one of the boys said.
"Yes, indeed." came the quick answer. "I'm Doctor Theodore Stevens and will be your coordinator for the next months of preparation for your mission. I am looking forward to good, productive work."
Do you have any idea where we just came form? Good productive work, my ass. "And what will that mission be, Doctor?" Charlus asked. "And why do you need a good dozen magicals for it?"
"Good questions, Mister...?"
"Potter,"
"Mister Potter. Are you by any chance..."
"Related to Harry Potter?" Charlus sighed, barely hiding his exasperation with this question. The Doctor nodded.
"Yes, I am his great-grandchild."
"Oh boy,..." the Doctor whispered, but quickly plastered the soft smile on his face again, making it obvious that it was a constant fake one. "Anyway, your questions. The Hermes project is the pinnacle of the United Nations efforts to further the reach of human civilization. Its task is to establish colonies within and outside of our solar system. Mars being one such example, Kepler being anot..."
"WHAT?!" came the chorus of several people. The blonde next to Charlus fainted without a word, making the impression of sleeping while standing. Charlus would have laughed at the sight, had his brain functioned properly. He was pretty sure that at this point, he would wake up, look up at his mother and apologize for waking her up with a nightmare. The outrage didn't die down as the Doctor seemed to hope. It took a few minutes, but then men with stun-guns entered the room. Even the loudest among the wizards got silent pretty fast. The Doctor also didn't bother with his fake smile anymore.
"You will be split in groups of four, according to your skills. Regrouping will not be allowed. You will work together. Any disruption of the project will be met with severe repercussions. I see that you will not be able to absorb the information you require as of now. We shall continue at a later date. For now you will be led to your quarters. You will share them with your group, so listen up, I won't repeat myself."
He then held the tablet up and tipped a bit on the display before he spoke again. "Team Mars is Tyler Goodman, Stefan Krum, Lia O'Connor, Lisa Lafaiette. Team Titan is Sun Chang, Harry Flint, Harry Moon, Susanna Lanzer." He then swiped a bit on the display. "That was it for the solar system Teams. Now to our real explorers, the ones going to the exoplanets. Team Lucian Prime is Ulrich Mayerhofer, Michelle Monati, Ute Neuer and Hildegard Torstatt. Team Newton Prime is Charlus Potter, Selene Delacour, Maria Blanchet and, how interesting, Kassandra Grindelwald."
Charlus didn't know how to react. It was all clear for him now, and for some reason, shouting and screaming was the last thing on his mind. Emotion in general seemed to have shut down in his brain. Selene Delacour was the great-granddaughter of Gabrielle Delacour, one of the most feared terrorists in the war against the muggles. Maria Blanchet was the daughter of Esteban Blanchet, defender of magicals in the french parliament until he fathered a magical, ending his career and making him top-dog of the rebellion. And for the cherry on top, the one floating next to him, unconscious, the great-great-granddaughter of the most feared Dark Lord there ever was. He was sure that it was no accident that they were together in a group. Home was something he had to cut from his head. He would never see it again. Scratch that, he would never see his home-planet again.
Not knowing what else to do, Charlus did the only thing his body still could do. He fainted.