Grabbing his trunk Harry scowled fiercely, a sweep of the arm sent a half dozen books tumbling into his trunk and the boy-who-lived gathered the rest of his possessions in a moment. Dragging the heavy trunk out the door and down the steps he was confronted by his uncle, Vernon Dursley.
"You Stupid boy! Fix Marge up right now!" hissed the older man angrily. Harry just brushed past him, his wand visible in his hand as if daring his Uncle to make a move. "If you walk out that door Boy, you won't be coming back. Ever." Barked the red faced man as his temper snapped, grabbing the boy by his shoulder and swinging him around to peer into his face.
Harry snarled, "Get off me!" a small burst of unconscious magic ensuring that his words became reality. Vernon stumbled back and Harry immediately ran out the front door, before he even reached the street the door slammed behind him and the distinctive sound of a lock clicking into place was heard. Glancing backwards Harry distantly saw his Aunt Marge floating steadily away into the sky, narrowing his eyes at the hag he muttered under his breath. "I want to go Far, Far away from here."
A sudden bang and a flash of light swept over him, in front of Harry, parked carefully on the side of the road was a field of stars, moving nebulae and galaxies easily visible, walking closer as if in a daze Harry glanced at a gas giant he could swear was just a few hundred thousand miles away. Looking to the side he realized the field of stars was in a shape of a bus…walking towards what he thought was the front the young boy was shocked when a section of the vista bent in on itself and then folded back out of the way revealing a bus interior. The conductor, an elderly man looked calmly at Harry and spoke "Welcome to the Starbus, Transportation for the wizard who is going to go." Harry nodded and dragged his trunk on board, looking around he saw leather couches – each empty but looking well worn.
"It'll be four…" The conductor paused and looked over at the wall, where small illegible writing covered a piece of paper tacked to the wall. "Galleons and three Sickles." Harry nodded and gave the man the money from a pouch he pulled out of his pocket. Nodding the conductor gestured Harry to a seat and then watched a large black dog climb on the bus. "I'll charge your account I think." Said the conductor to the dog with a grim smile. Harry stared until the Conductor pulled on a rope near the door, closing it and then his world dissolved in a flash of light and an echoing bang.
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Harry Potter Belongs to J.K. Rowling. Battlestar Galactica belongs to Ronald D. Moore
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Blinking his eyes Harry looked around, around him the world was a bright, bright place. A few more blinks caused most of the spots to vanish from his eyes and Harry looked around and saw a very familiar looking alley. 'Where are all the people?' Was Harry's sole thought as he stood up unsteadily. Grabbing his trunk reflexively he walks forward and taps a brick on the wall with his wand, nothing happens and Harry looked confusedly at the wall before turning around and moving out of the alley into a larger street.
A small piece of paper blew away.
Gasping he stumbled backwards, barely missing the corpse he had stumbled over the top of. Gasping for breath he finally realises that the body was decades old, bleached bones and tattered cloth barely covering the skeleton underneath. His face pale, Harry considered the corpse. It was definitely old, there was no flesh left and the cloth robe was barely holding together and broken apart in a few places.
Swallowing Harry walked around the skeleton and made sure he trunk would not disturb it. Looking up he saw rubble strewn lightly across the street and an occasional skeleton lying around. Gaping Harry walked forward and looked for any familiar shop, realising that this wasn't actually Diagon Alley he sighed in relief. "This must be a place destroyed in the last reign of Voldemort." He murmured to himself. Looking for something, anything to tell where he was Harry found an old newspaper, barely legible writing on the front declaring it to be the Caprica Lexicon opening it up he sighs in relief as the preservation charms while having failed on the outside still maintain the paper as best possible. His relief turns to anxiety as a charm is illustrated with large font labelling it as 'Radiation Poisoning Prevention/Detection Charm' Panicking he stops reading it further, instead watching the animated wand movements and incantation play across the paper, immediately casting it he finds a softly glowing white octagon appear on his wrist.
Looking carefully at it he notices the two hands, both pointing towards a white 'Safe' section to the left the watch is divided into a colour-scale from yellow to red with labels at the side declaring Low Radiation in the yellow and High Radiation in the red zone, the final quarter of the watch is also graded from Yellow to Red, with the inscription 'Spell Failure Imminent.'
Picking up the paper he opens it up back on the spell page and reads.
'With the Cylon rebellion the witch and wizards of the age must remember their radiation poisoning protection charms. The nuclear devastation caused by Cylon attacks against the twelve colonies mean that many area's once safe are no longer so indeed,….'
Harry's mind went blank. Nuclear devastation? He knew what it was of course, but he had never heard of nuclear weapons being used on civilization since the end of the Second World War. And who were the Cylon's anyway? How did they kill all the wizards in this alley so quickly they died on the spot without the buildings being so horribly damaged?
Shaking his head to clear his mind Harry looked at his new 'watch' and decided that the lack of radiation must and the bleached skeletons meant that the bomb must have happened at least a couple of decades ago, so he was likely safe… but if he was the only wizard alive he was going to need to appropriate some supplies. Taking a tight grip on his drawn wand Harry dropped the newspaper, not bothering to read any more. Looking at the closest shop front, Harry spotted trunks and headed in that direction. He had never felt comfortable about taking enough money out of his vault to buy a weightless trunk but he could just take one from the long dead owners here.
Inside the shop he found that the trunk he had spotted seemed to be one of a kind, all the other luggage was instead backpacks or smaller bags attached to belts. Examining one of the better preserved looking ones he noticed several flaps which could be opened, opening one he found a massive space inside, nodding to himself he checked another and found exactly what he expected, a second space, with different coloured sides.
Going outside he dragged his trunk into the store and dropped it inside the first flap, the weight of the trunk vanished and the backpack became light again. Harry grinned a little and tossed the backpack onto his shoulder and walked out of the store without checking the rest of the stock. Outside he looked for names of stores and finding nothing especially indicative of stock Harry merely walked into the next shop.
Inside was a poster on the wall, showing a wizard being stared at by some non-magical people, 'Forgot your maddin clothes? Try Fortunisca's Transforming Robes! From Magical to Maddin in half a second!' Looking back up at the picture he noticed the wizard was now dressed in a strange looking outfit that resembled the muggle clothes. Harry thought quickly, muggles had always been more widespread than Wizards, so it was quite likely they had survived where the Wizard's had not. That firmly in mind he wandered around the store until he found a sign 'Fortunisca's Transforming Robes: just a Tap away from fitting in!' and quickly grabbed one, tapping it with his wand to watch it change before grabbing as much of the rack as he could and throwing it in the second flap of his backpack. With those, and a half dozen robes of what appeared to be the normal fashion Harry left the second shop and wandered outside again.
A muffled thumping sound reached Harry's ears before he took three steps out the door. Pausing he looked around frantically, worried that the owner's had miraculously survived and were coming to arrest him. A moment's thought cleared him of that delusion as he noticed that the repeated sound had quite a metallic clanking to it. Walking towards the sound Harry reached the end of the alley, a blank wall lay in front of him. Frowning Harry concentrated on what he wanted and tapped the wall. A small hole appeared and the boy-who-lived peered through.
Two large man shaped suits of armor stood a few metres away, they were both facing away from him and after a moment Harry realized that several portions of the armour just wasn't big enough for a normal person. The fingers were far too long, the waist far too narrow and the hips just the wrong shape for a man to fit inside.
The armoured suits moved.
Clank
They had turned to face the wall simultaneously and Harry watched with bated breath as they approached the wall slowly, looking up at the helmet area he saw a single solitary red eye sweep from side to side. A noise to the side caused both suits to turn their head to the side, revealing a portion of its neck, a thinner metal piece that was quite obviously its entire neck.
'They're not enchanted armour… they're robots!' thought Harry with wide eyes. The two robot's arms transformed from long slender fingers into something that resembled a gun and pointed them towards the sound. One of the machines walked forward as the other stood back, Harry mentally cursed and tapped his wand to the wall to widen the hole to see through, outside the machine warily pushed a large square bin to the side, it squeaked as it rolled on small wheels. Behind the bin was a shivering small animal that Harry couldn't quite identify.
A red glowing dot appeared in front of the wall, Harry stumbled back in surprise. One of the machines had snuck close to the wall and was peering at him. Catching his foot Harry almost didn't react when the sharp fingers of the machine stabbed through the wall, showering him with plaster and broken wood. Scowling the green eyed boy muttered "Petrifucus Totallis" and pointed at the metal hand. A white light emerged and hit before the incantation was even complete. The robot froze in place immediately and Harry relaxed for a moment in relief before the hand and the machine were torn away by the second robot and an arm with a suspicious looking barrel poked barely out of the wall. Harry flinched and flicked his wand, mentally incanting the shielding charm.
Bullet's ricocheted off his shield, the loud noise almost making Harry drop it from the surprise. Knowing what the transformed arm did now Harry ducked and dropped his shield for a moment before tapping the ground in front of him, causing a large spike of stone to come up and pierce through the wall, a loud screech of metal echoed from the other side. Harry carefully made his way forward towards the wall, moving far to one side he tapped the wall and enlarged the hole before recasting his shield charm.
It was the only reason he survived.
A vicious blow impacted his shield and tossed him to the side, landing roughly on the ground Harry rolled to his feet and cast a banishing charm at the machine. It flew through the air in a long graceful arc that allowed Harry to notice the missing arm before it shattered on a wall of a large concrete building over twenty metres away.
The second machine lay frozen on the ground, its singular red glowing eye focussed directly on him. As Harry moved cautiously towards it he looked around, noticing the advanced architecture of the buildings and the fact there was no-one around, the street was definitely a few months abandoned, but the wear on the building's didn't look anything as bad as what it had been like in the alley.
Looking carefully at the machine Harry flicked his wand first at the remains of the first machine and then towards the stunned second. "Incarcerous" Unlike the normal spell, this used the materials nearby to create the bindings. Glancing at the robot bound by chains made from the second machine Harry cancelled the petrifaction spell. As expected the robot struggled, but in vain. "Can you talk?" asked Harry calmly. The robot didn't stop moving and Harry frowned at it. With a flick of his wand the chains moved up and down to reveal a space around the robots chest, tapping it with his wand he watched the metal pull back revealing merely internal machinery.
"Damn." Cursed Harry, he had been hoping for anything that could help him, and machinery beyond his understanding wasn't it. "Reducto!" snapped the boy irritably as he walked away, the robot's head and chest being cut almost in half by the spell.
After checking his backpack wasn't damaged Harry quickly cast a repairing charm on the wall, hiding the alley within. It was time to definitely find some answers… and some food too, he was pretty hungry.
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Teal Thanatos presents a Harry Potter & Battlestar Galactica 2003 fanfiction
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The Cylon, a model numbered Six crouched down, her face stern as she looked at the remains of the Centurion. Lightly running her fingers over the gaping gash that split the torso almost in half she frowned, she had no idea on what could cause this sort of damage, it was unlike any weapon the Cylon's or Colonials had ever seen.
"It's like God reached down and cleaved it apart." Spoke a voice to her left. Rolling her eyes the Six stood up and glanced over at the other model, commonly referred as a Brother Cavil due to its favoured name and position in the Colonies and the Cylon societies. "Although, we all know that God wouldn't bother with a mere Centurion, so that leaves someone lesser, but with godlike powers."
The model six scowled. Unlike the Brother Cavil models the Sixes were fanatically devoted to God. "The incision was not godlike. An explosive bullet causes similar damage."
"Of course." The Brother Cavil said with an accommodating tone. "But an explosive round would also leave residue… and it would require several to impact in a vertical line simultaneously." The male Cylon model smiled underneath his broad hat as if he had revealed a universal truth, in a way he had.
"So, a weapon the Cylon's don't know about then." The Six commented. "The lack of residue means an energy weapon of some sort."
"But the lack of burns negates that theory." Murmured the Cavil.
"So a non-direct energy weapon then." The six said with a scowl. She was well aware that there was no melted metal and what that implied.
"Or of course, something could have reached out and ripped the torso open." Spoke the Cavil with undeniable cheer. "Like the hand of god perhaps."
"Unlikely, the physical strength required makes that impossible for anything but one of the Tribunes or Tesserarius and the safeguards for our Heavy Centurion project makes their use in this impossible." The Six spoke in all but a snarl.
The Cavil nodded, that was indeed true. The basic Centurions weren't capable of ripping each other apart, they simply weren't strong enough. The heavier Tribunes and other support Centurions were larger, stronger and broadcast their intentions over the wireless to ensure no friendly casualties. It would take more than a dozen infiltration models working together to order one of the Tribunes to perform an act like this and not have the order detected, even though the massive amount of wireless traffic would stand out like a beacon to anyone who looked. Needless to say, there had been no unusually large amounts of wireless traffic in the weeks beforehand.
"One of the Hybrids has just confirmed that there are no support-Centurions on the planet, nor has there been since the invasion." The Six said after a moment of silence. That was very understandable, Caprica was still suffering from insurgency from surviving populace and the Cylon's did not want to risk revealing the heavier Cylon infantry to the Colonials should any of the population escape and meet the escaping Battlestar Galactica.
A mental command to an approaching Centurion tasked it with recording the site and removing the remains for further study. The two Cylon's looked at each other and left towards a waiting Heavy Raider.
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Harry Potter And The Works Of God
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Harry peered around the corner. He had long since cast a disillusionment charm on himself to hide from the robots, he had passed several of them, each time freezing in place while they stared towards him and eventually left him alone. The travelling had been tense, but at least he had a supply of food from a ransacked shop.
It was odd. The technology in some places was incredibly advanced in comparison to home, it was almost undeniable that he was either in the future or on a different planet. Yet the language he read was understandable, although it looked a little odd. A sudden thought flew into Harry's mind and he stopped in the middle of the street. Dashing over to the side he entered a small café and hid in the kitchen before removing his disillusionment charm.
As he felt the warmth from the removal he pulled his backpack out and opened the first flap, leaning into the backpack his entire torso vanished as he opened the trunk inside. Pulling out one of his books he opened it with trepidation, inside the words looked unfamiliar. As if they were ones he hadn't read ever before. But after a moment understanding swept across him and he could read them clearly. Shuddering Harry stood up and glanced at a safety notice on the wall. The effect occurred again, first the incomprehension as he realized that was not a language he knew, the sudden wave of understanding and the ability to read the words as they were his own language.
Two kilometres away, in a small alley, pushed up against a brick wall that would not open lay a piece of paper. 'The twenty three services of the Starbus.' It was titled, and it listed things that would help a traveller understand their destination.\
Harry shivered. He realised he was under the effects of a spell, something to change his perception and this realization forced him to consider the possibility that he was in a trap made by one of Voldemort's Deatheaters, or even Voldemort himself. Forcing the panic to the back of his mind Harry took a few deep breaths and thought of what could make sure that was not the case. He doubted they'd let him find anything new to defend himself so the boy-who-lived closed his trunk and then the backpack as he withdrew. Standing up he swung the backpack over his shoulder and started jogging back the way he came.
If this wasn't a trick of Voldemort, he'd be able to get back to the alley and then ransack the library. From that Harry would be able to take a couple of defence books and learn a spell on the spot… if the spell worked, he figured that this wouldn't be the result of a wizarding plot against him, and if not? Well… he'd simply have to find a way to break free.
It took less than a half dozen steps out the door before he realized he had forgotten something.
Two women, physically identical from the Malfoy-blond hair to the colour of their eyes stood staring at him, they were dressed conservatively with light coloured outfits and were surrounded by four of the robots. "Get him." One of them barked and two of the robots strode forward while the other two's arms transformed and took covering positions. Harry grabbed his wand tightly and backed away for a step before turning and running, casting a shielding charm over his back to protect his escape. As he ran around the corner into an alley he tapped himself on the head to recast the disillusionment charm. Finding a quick hiding place he sat there as the first two robots came around the corner.
One of them stopped to search the roadway while the other sprinted towards the far end of the alley and looked around, seeing nothing it took a guard position at the end of the alley and Harry mentally cursed. The two identical women walked into view confidently, one of their robots guarding the entrance while the other started helping the first robot search through the trash and junk in the well littered alley.
Thinking quickly Harry slunk behind a garbage bin and tapped the wall, transfiguring a hole into it large enough to climb through, luckily for him on the other side there was an empty room. Crawling into it he closed the hole behind him to a mere few centimetres wide.
"He was definitely a human boy." One of the two said.
"Yes, and there's no way he survived the bombardment by himself." Declared the second with a nod.
"I think your underestimating the humans," spoke the first a little reluctantly. Harry though it sounded a little like he imagined the senior Malfoy would if he had seen an atomic bomb.
"Possibly, But we should send more Centurions here to make sure, and increase the patrols in the inhabited area downtown."
The first nodded. "Agreed."
Harry made a mental note of that location 'Downtown' it sounded like a place he'd be able to get more information. Or at least see if there was something there. Closing the hole with a tap of his wand just after the robots gave up on searching the alley Harry opened the door of the small room he was in and entered a corridor. Sneaking along it he soon found a rear exit and continued his journey back without seeing a single robot.
At the blank wall to the Alley Harry leaned for a moment to catch his breath. The exercise wasn't so bad, it was only a few kilometres after all, but the magic he had been casting and the fact he was pretty sure he'd been awake for at least sixteen hours (and it still wasn't past midday here!) had accumulated a little bit of weariness.
Glancing at the wall he saw something that he hadn't noticed on his way out, to the side was graffiti of a door, hoping it was what he thought, Harry walked over and pressed against it as he forced all doubt from his mind. Luckily for the boy's nose the magic powering the door was still active and he vanished from sight and into the alley. On the far side Harry grinned and walked cautiously through the alley, wary for surprises.
Reaching a bookshop he glanced around before heading in, inside the books were mostly in good condition, a few here and there had succumbed to age but they appeared to be mostly cheaper books and not too useful. Opening the fourth flap of his backpack Harry set it down near the door and stood back, waving his wand he commanded in a firm voice. "Pack!"
One of each book flew off the bookshelf and towards Harry, they darted around his body like a dancing troupe and moved into his backpack neatly. Grinning to himself in triumph Harry closed the three-quarters full pack and slung it over his shoulder. Moving further into the store he grabbed a book from each shelf that showed no disturbances in the dust, figuring that they most likely had protection spells against theft or summoning. Finding at the back an undisturbed shelf full of large books Harry finally discovered what he was looking for. A book on offensive spells.
Pulling one down he flicked it open to the first title page. 'The Mysteriously Accurate Guide of Magical and Maddin Warfare.' Flipping to the index he read the first few chapter titles. 'Magical Defences and how to breach them' 'Maddin defences and how to fool them.' As Harry glanced down the list he finally found the heading he was looking for. 'A few spells of Destruction..' Flipping through the book until he came to the relevant page Harry was rewarded with 'Relaxo Rus Ruris' a spell to severe objects and turn them into something similar to quicksand. The book described it as an easier task than transfiguring the ground as it didn't change everything and it also did not require any magic to hold in place. It also warned against using it on Maddin buildings as a single charm on a lower floor could cause the entire structure to collapse due to weakened supports. The countercharm was 'Adstringo Rus Ruris' and simply tightened the bonds of the materials back to their former state… it also stated that the countercharm could be used to strengthen materials beyond their normal capability by placing a strengthened lattice throughout the object, although it left an easily identifiable pattern.
Standing up Harry memorized the animated instruction, a jab with a counter-clockwise twist for the charm and the same with a clockwise twist for the counter-charm. Finishing his tour of the bookstore he grabbed another half dozen books that hadn't made it into his packing spell before leaving. Outside he glanced up at the sky and estimated the time to be mid-afternoon. Biting his lip softly Harry debated trying the spell to make sure it worked. Looking around there was a few skeletons around and Harry jabbed his wand and gave it a little twist towards the ground beneath one as he concentrated on the ground. 'Relaxo Rus Ruris' murmured the boy. Nothing happened for a moment but then the skeleton slowly sank about half a foot into the stones before stopping.
'Adstringo Rus Ruris' Harry muttered with the appropriate movement before walking to examine the corpse.
He leaned close and examined the ground around the partially sunk skeleton. The stones were separated into small cubes about a half centimetre wide, leaning down to where his nose was almost pressed against the stone Harry could spot tiny lines across the area of the spell, it was easier to see the results when he looked closer to the skeleton. It's light weight had been enough to cause the cubes to settle down and sink the bones partly. The lighter finger bones appeared not to have sunk at all where the heavier pelvis, spine and skull seemed to be almost completely submerged in the solid rock.
Prying a loose stone out of the ground Harry examined it and noted the lines crossing it were across its entire structure. Walking backwards a dozen paces he aimed and cast the spell again, with much more power behind it, the skeleton didn't seem to sink much further and so he tossed the rock he was holding and watched it vanish. Frowning Harry transfigured a pole from a nearby storefront and pushed it into the ground. It sunk nearly two metres before hitting solid ground. Biting his lip he cast the countercharm and tried to pull out the pole. It held fast as he sunk into thought.
He was almost assuredly not in an illusion of Voldemort's. He had learnt a new spell literally on his first try, it had been easy, almost too easy for him to cast. And the spell itself had seemed a little... too muggle for Harry's comfort. It was like someone like an Engineer had created the spell, rather than someone who worked with magic and merely made the spell to make the effects rather than making the effects a result of the spell.
It hinted at a way of spell making that was never used in Hogwarts, not that Harry had seen anyway. It was also something that most Wizards that Harry knew would never even consider.
Harry Potter was far away from home, in a ruined city that held robots, clones and little else but mysteries waiting to be found.
