Harry Potter: Humanity Lost

Author's Note: Yeah, it's taken me a while to update. I've been getting paid to do some freelance stuff, and also working on a few original story ideas. Doesn't leave me much time for fan fiction. That being said, I'm going to try and get into the habit of updating at least this story on a more regular basis. So here's a new chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!" Arisia was holding on to Harry, the both of them surrounded by the bright neon light emitted by her Green Lantern ring. They were flying through the vacuum of space at a breakneck speed that Harry hadn't noticed when Mr. Jordon had been carrying him. Now he felt a lot more like he was falling.

The stars that had seemed so wonderful were now swirling lines of light that filled his vision, adding to the already throbbing headache pounding at the back of his skull. Several times he'd considered trying some sort of magical spell to ease his discomfort, but each time he decided against it, not knowing how his magic would interact with the power of the Green Lantern ring.

"We're almost there!" shouted Dean, coming close to Harry and Arisia. "Why don't I take him for a bit?"

Arisia glanced over, and after a moment nodded. This was a maneuver they'd already done several times, to ease the strain on both Dean and Arisia of carrying a person through space all the way back to the planet earth. Slowing down to a stop, Dean positioned himself directly below the pair. Then, making Harry's stomach drop completely out of his body, the green light faded and he was floating in the chill of space for several seconds before Dean swooped up, wrapping one arm around Harry's waist.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Harry nodded, although he certainly didn't feel like it. If it were enough that he was barreling through space with what felt to him like no protection at all, he was still trying to figure out why that weird little elf had been trying to keep him from getting back to earth.

It didn't make any sense at all. He'd said he was trying to protect him, but what could possibly have been safe about stranding Harry on an asteroid in what was quite literally the middle of nowhere?

These thoughts consumed him as they entered the solar system that the earth was located in. Harry was overcome by a feeling of relief when Dean pointed out a small yellow star and informed him that what he was looking at was his very own sun.

They circled around Pluto, coming dangerously close to Jupiter as they made their way toward the inner planets. They were forced to slow down as they came up on the asteroid belt in order to avoid slamming into any of the giant, rocky satellites. And then, with the sun hanging bright and beautiful in the darkness of space, Harry finally saw the blue and white marble that was his home.

"We're here!" said Arisia. "Wow! It's a lot smaller than I expected!"

"It's not so bad. At least the food is pretty good," said Dean.

The green light protected them as they descended through the earth's atmosphere. But to Harry's dismay he realized that neither Dean nor Arisia knew exactly where on the planet they were supposed to be headed, and even Harry couldn't tell where on earth they were landing when they finally touched down in what appeared to be a vast desert.

Harry toppled over as his feet touched ground, and despite the sudden influx of heat as the light disappeared he lay down flat on his back, arms and legs sprawled out, as he looked up into the bright blue sky.

"I am so glad to be back," he said. He was still staring upwards as Dean leaned down over him, giving him a quizzical look.

"This does not look like the Academy," he said.

"No," said Harry, not really caring. "No it doesn't."

He continued to lay there for several minutes, taking long deep breaths of the hot, dry air. He heard Arisia settle herself down beside him.

"So how do we get there?" she asked.

"It would be a lot easier if I knew where we were," said Harry. Reluctantly, he pulled himself up into a seated position, elbows resting on his knees. "Are we even in the United States?" he asked. "There's like a billion deserts we could be in."

"Well, we could fly out this way and…"

"No," said Harry firmly. "No flying. At least, not for a little while. Why don't we try walking?" he asked.

Dean and Arisia glanced at each other, probably annoyed or something thought Harry, but just at that moment he didn't really care. He wanted land beneath his feet, at least until his stomach settled and his headache started to go away.

At long last he pulled himself up to his feet, turning his backpack around so he could unzip it and get a good look at the things inside. To his relief he found the communicators he and his friends had made the year before buried halfway between his birthday cards and the last remains of the snacks they'd sent him.

He yanked it out. "There's got to be some sort of GPS on this thing," he muttered, and no sooner than he said it the screen flashed to life and he was looking at a model map of the world. A bright yellow light was pulsing on the screen to indicate where Harry was standing. He squinted, then reeled back in surprise.

"The Sahara?" he said. "The Sahara desert?"

"Are we close to Smallville?" said Dean, cocking his head to the side.

Harry laughed. "No, not even close," he said. "Hold on, I've got to make a call."

He pressed a couple of buttons on the communicator, and heard a faint ringing sound. A moment later Hermione's voice flooded into the air. A feeling of surprising joy overcame Harry – it was the first time he had spoken to his friend since they had parted that summer.

"Harry? Is that you?" she asked, a note of panic in her voice.

"Yes, it's me. Listen, we have a problem…"

"Where are you?" she asked, her voice raising in pitch. "Mr. Jordon arrived at the school just a few minutes ago to say that something happened. Everybody thinks you've been lost in space or something. They've sent Superman to find you!"

"I'm back on Earth. Dean and Arisia and I found our way here. But we need a lift back to Smallville. They should be able to track me down with the coordinates from the communicator."

"You're on earth?" said Hermione, and then over the communicator he heard her heave a giant sigh of relief. "Thank goodness! Yes, yeah, the GPS. I'll go get the headmaster. Oh, I'm so glad you're all right!" she said. There was a faint click and her voice disappeared.

"They're coming for us. I guess we just have to wait here," said Harry. He sat back down on a rock, and after a moment both Dean and Arisia followed suit.

Almost two hours passed. The trio tried to keep up a conversation for the first half of their wait, but as the sun crawled higher and higher into the sky it became too much of an effort to keep a conversation going. Harry conjured up a small stream and they each took turns drinking. For a little while Dean and Arisia tried to keep their camp cool by creating a shell to protect them from the heat, but the trip from deep in space had drained them of much of their power.

Finally, the faint buzz of an airplane made them all look up into the sky. A small metal craft was zooming towards them, and as Harry watched it came to a quiet landing on the sand nearby. The door opened and Oliver and Diana Queen jumped out, in their Green Arrow and Black Canary costumes.

"Harry!" Mrs. Queen shouted, waving a gloved palm.

He jumped up, waving back. Slipping a little as he ran through the sand, he finally found himself being led up the stairs and into the airplane with Dean and Arisia close behind him. The air conditioning inside felt like the best thing ever made, and he sank into one of the comfortable chairs with relish.

"So what exactly happened?" asked Mrs. Queen as Mr. Queen started the plane and they took off flying into the air.

"I…don't exactly know," said Harry, and he launched into his story about the elf. The expression on Mrs. Queen's face went from concerned, to surprised, to deeply troubled as he went through the tale. Finally she just nodded.

"We'll have to discuss this further," she said, ringing her hands together. "Obviously somebody didn't want you getting back to the school. But why they would say it's for your protection…well, that I don't know," she added.

Harry didn't say much else as they flew back to Smallville. He was thinking of another flight that had taken place almost exactly a year before, when he'd stolen his uncle's police cruiser and met Hermione as they both ran away towards something better than the lives they were leading at home. Now the Academy was home, at least to Harry.

He was looking forward to sleeping in what he'd come to think of as his own bed. He didn't even think he'd mind hearing Ron snoring away on the other side of the room. It had been too lonely in his bedchamber back on Oa without his friend there.

And then there was Neville, who he knew had spent the entire summer working with Batman in Gotham City. And Luna, who had been studying magic with her aunt and Harry's teacher, the great and wonderful Zatanna.

When they finally started to descend through the clouds, he looked outside the window with a sigh of relief. There was the school and there, just across the meadows and trees, was the rest of Smallville. The plane landed just outside the Academy and Harry stumbled his way outside, almost immediately finding himself wrapped up tightly in Hermione's arms.

"Harry!" she squeaked before realizing that she was holding onto him and pulling away, blushing slightly.

"Hey, man!" said Ron, moving forward to clap Harry on the shoulder. "You almost missed dinner! Mum and dad are taking us downtown for a special treat. Extra special, you know, since you're not dead and all."

"Ron!" said Hermione, glaring at him. But Harry grinned. This was the sort of thing he'd been missing.

"Sounds great!" he said. And with that he followed his friend towards the slightly battered but well cared for car that Artie was leaning against.

"Glad to hear you made it back safe. Tell me, how's summer in the Sahara?" he asked as he yanked the door open for Harry.

"Uhm…hot," Harry said, sending Artie into a fit of laughter before he jumped in, followed by his friends.

They made their way down into the town. Harry found himself forced to recount his story once again, to a disbelieving Ron and a Hermione who stared at him with wide, troubled eyes.

"This isn't good!" she said.

"Maybe it's just some dumb prank," said Harry. "I mean, there are people out there who might think something like this is funny."

"People like Draco Malfoy, you mean?" said Ron, rolling his eyes. Harry nodded, although he was only half-convinced that a dimwit like his archenemy would be able to think up something so clever. But he had to admit that whoever had done it had access to magical things, and that limited the people who could have been behind what happened to a select few.

"What about Constantine?" Hermione whispered.

"Are you still on about that?" said Harry. "He proved his innocence last year. Sort of," he amended, because it wasn't necessarily true that Constantine had been completely innocent in the search for the Philosopher's Stone. He just hadn't been completely guilty, either.

"Whoever it was had to be pretty powerful," said Hermione.

Harry shrugged. At the moment it wasn't the first thing on his mind. He was far more interested in the wide stretch of restaurants that were now appearing on either side of the road. Artie pulled into the lot outside an old-fashioned steak house and parked the car. They all got out, and when Harry walked through the front door he heard a sudden outcry as the rest of the Weasley clan spotted him.

"There you are!" said Mrs. Weasley, beaming. "I thought you might need this, dear," she said, handing him a small bottle full of green goo as he approached the table.

"What…" started Harry, before realizing that it was a remedy for sunburn. He hadn't even noticed his current condition, but as he glanced down he realized that he was lobster red from the tops of his shoulders and down to his fingertips.

"Harry!" shouted Ginny, jumping up and upsetting a glass of water as he started to sit down.

Unseen by the waiters, Fred slowed down time and stopped the glass from topping over. "Did you have a good time?" he said, putting emphasis on the word time.

"Best time of his life, I'll bet!" said George, winking.

"Ignore them, they've become even bigger idiots than usual over the summer," said Ron, rolling his eyes once again.

Harry grinned. Although he loved school, one of his favorite parts about being back in Smallville was getting to spend time with the wonderful, eccentric Weasley family. They were all metahumans with different types of abilities. Artie, Ron's dad, was a technopath with a special talent for building and repairing machinery. Batman had hired Artie to work on the Batmobile several times in the past.

Mrs. Weasley was an empath. She always seemed to know just the right thing to say, or just the right gift to give. Harry knew she must have sensed how burnt he was going to be when he arrived, and he was grateful for the medicine she'd given him – his skin was already starting to sting.

Ron's oldest brothers weren't with the family anymore – they'd already gone off to work for the Justice League in the real world. Percy was the oldest of the Weasley sons currently living in the house, and frankly Harry thought he was kind of a bore. His special ability, if you could call it that, was kind of like Hermione's – he was able to find any information, anywhere, at the drop of a hat. He was kind of like the human version of Google.

Fred and George had, in Harry's mind, the coolest ability out of anybody else in the family. Fred could slow down time, while George could speed time up. Together they were fond of using their abilities to prank the rest of their family, as well as the school. Ron, of course, had been born with the ability to live in and control water, a lot like Aquaman was able to.

Ginny, the youngest member of the Weasley family and the only daughter, had an appropriately frantic power. She was a speedster, and even when she was forced to slow down she seemed to move, speak, and think at twice the speed of anybody else around her. He sometimes found it hard to keep up with her, but Harry liked Ginny.

"What is that, pizza?" she said quickly, leaning over as the server sat down a large pepperoni, sausage, and onion right in front of Harry. "Can I have a slice?"

"No way, get your own," said Ron.

"Sure," said Harry as he picked up his first slice. Ginny grinned, and before he'd even gotten a chance to take a bite of his pizza Ginny had grabbed a slice and gobbled it down.

"Manners!" said Mrs. Weasley, looking out at the rest of the restaurant to see if anybody else had noticed her daughter's breach of etiquette.

"Sorry," she mumbled, smiling sheepishly.

Harry laughed, chewing thoughtfully on his pizza. He fell silent, as he usually did, listening to the rest of the Weasleys discuss everything that had been happening over the summer while he was away. On his left side, Hermione was doing the same as she nibbled at the edge of a garlic breadstick.

"So," he said, while most of the clan was involved in a discussion over baseball. "Did you tell your parents?" he asked.

Hermione blanched. "Uhm…well, you see," she said.

Harry sighed. "You didn't?"

Sheepishly, Hermione shook her head. "No. Well, you see…I was going to, but then there was this symposium my mom and dad went to and they left me at home, and by the time they got back we were taking a trip to Switzerland and…"

"Next summer," warned Harry, grinning at her. Hermione fixed her gaze on him, then started grinning herself.

"Next summer," she promised.

They were in the middle of dinner when all of a sudden Harry realized that the entire Weasley family had gone quiet. He paused over his spaghetti and meatballs, glancing up and turning slightly to see who it was making the family go quiet. A tall man in a expensive suit, flanked by more men in expensive suits and wearing sunglasses, was standing there.

He was a menacing figure. Somewhat older, but it was difficult to tell because his hair had been shaved completely off. He was smiling slightly at the group, and as he watched them his gaze fell over towards Harry.

"Ah, Mr. Potter," he said. "I was hoping I might find you here. Lex Luthor, pleased to meet you," he said, extending his hand out to Harry's.

"Uhm…nice to meet you," said Harry.

"I did some business with your parents," he said quickly, smiling. "I was hoping you'd consent to letting Luthorcorp take over some of the business holdings of your company from Wayne Enterprises…I would love to get to know you better, your parents and I were such dear friends…"

"His parents did everything they could to keep their company from doing business with yours," said Artie suddenly. "Or don't you think anybody remembers the news from thirteen years ago?"

Luthor frowned, turning suddenly to glare at him. "I don't remember asking for your opinion," he said. He paused for a moment, then shrugged and waved his hand at his lackeys, turning on his heels and leaving the restaurant.

"What was that all about?" said Harry.

Artie and Mrs. Weasley exchanged looks. Finally it was Artie who spoke up. "Lex Luthor has had trouble with the law. A lot of trouble with the law," he said. "Right now, he's in the clear, but even when he's not having legal trouble there's a lot of people who don't trust his company. A lot of people think he manufactures weapons. He offered your mother a lot of money once, to hand over part of her company to him. She refused because she knew how dangerous some of the technology she'd developed could be in the wrong hands."

"So what?" said Harry. "Now he's going to be after me?"

"Maybe," said Artie. "Just keep an eye out, and if you see him hanging around don't be afraid to go get one of the teachers. Or Mr. Kent," he added, waving his fork at Harry.

The rest of their dinner was subdued, with Artie and his wife glancing at Harry in concern and Ron and Hermione both glancing nervously his way. Already, it seemed, the school year was off to a rocky start. Weird space elves were apparently trying to keep him out of Smallville and a convicted had just hit him up with a business proposal over dinner. And the first day of class hadn't even started yet.

Finally, Artie paid the bill – (which Harry realized was something of a big deal, considering how poor the family was) and they all marched out of the restaurant. Here was where they were going to say their goodbyes, Harry realized. All the kids were going up to the school and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would be heading back home.

Taking Ginny in her arms, Mrs. Weasley squeezed her tightly. "I'll be fine, mum," she said. "I've got the boys to watch over me," she added, glancing back at the twins with a devilish grin.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she said with a sniff, and finally she released her daughter and started hugging each of her sons in turn. Harry took a step back from this display. As much as he enjoyed spending time with the Weasley family, this was the sort of thing that was hardest for him to deal with.

He didn't have parents to hug him goodbye as they sent him off to school. As she watched him Harry could see that Hermione was thinking the same thing – even her parents had been there to say goodbye, even though they thought she was going to someplace…well, not in Kansas.

Mrs. Weasley finished hugging the various members of the family, and surprising Harry she turned to him after she released Ron.

"You take care of yourself, too, young man," she said, reaching forward and taking him in her arms. "I don't want to hear about you getting into any kind of mischief this year. Keep your head down and your grades up, all right?"

"Right, Mrs. Weasley," he said, and with a final squeeze she let go of him.

"Time to go, everyone. Off to the school," he said.

"I'll race you there!" said Ginny with a devilish grin.

"Wait!" started Mrs. Weasley, but it was too late. The speedster had sped off.

"We'll go after her, mom!" shouted Fred. Then, in a flash and with a strange feeling of timedistortion overwhelming them for a moment, the twins were off too. Ron rolled his eyes.

"That girl," said Mrs. Weasley, although she didn't look too angry. "I'm off to the house. I do hope all of you come and see me whenever you get a break," she said with a smile. Then she got into her car, and Ron, Hermione and Harry bundled themselves into the backseat of Artie's car, with Percy taking the passenger seat up front next to his father.

"Do you think she'll be all right?" said Harry.

"Oh, Ginny? Yeah, she's gone racing through Smallville loads of times," said Ron.

"She ought to be more careful, though," said Hermione. "Especially with people like Lex Luthor running around!"

Ron shrugged, pulling a packet of gummy bears from the pocket of his jeans. Absently, Harry plucked a handful from the bag and chewed on them as they made their way up the road and towards the concrete towers of the Justice Academy.