Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Star Trek, I just write for fun

Now Beta'd thanks to bub23453


Chapter 1: New Guardians

B'Elanna Torres was on her way to her quarters, which were just down the corridor from Sick Bay, when the doors opened and two terrified looking children ran out of the room and straight into her.

As they both fell back on to the floor she looked down, somewhat surprised at them. They were both human girls. One had slightly wavy long black hair, the deepest emerald eyes anyone could ever own, a button nose and at this moment tears falling down their faces.

The other girl had wild bushy brown hair (that would have suited a Klingon child better Torres thought wryly), brown eyes that seemed to draw you in, a slight pointed nose, and matching tears.
It was then she heard a voice berating the Doctor that surprised the hell out of her. Both because of whose it was, and at the words he was saying. Q was defending these children. But at this moment she couldn't help herself, she knelt down and gently picked them up off the floor in one arm each, making shushing sounds whilst rocking back and forth on her heels.

"What do you think you're playing at? You started poking at their arms with all these instruments, and THEN, without telling them what was happening, you suck the blood out their arms and tell them to stop fussing?! The Hell? Who programmed your bedside manner? Oh that's right… They didn't! Now, I'm going to track those two down and try to calm them down!" Q was shouting.

B'Elanna decided to help him out. Smiling at the thought that she was voluntarily helping Q, she walked in.

"Don't worry, they found me when we bounced off each other in the corridor." She said.

She noticed the two seemed overly frightened of the Doctor, so decided on a course of action that would certainly earn her a shouting at next time she activated him.

"Computer, Deactivate EMH." She called. The Doctor looked towards her with an expression of shock as he started speaking.

"Now wait a min-" He was cut off as he deactivated.

The moment he disappeared she felt the two children relax, and had to smile a little as she saw them reach for each other.

Looking at Q she raised an eyebrow, before commenting. "Want to tell me what's going on? I doubt you'd be in here with children without the Captain's knowledge."

Q looked at her with an odd expression (at least for him). He seemed to be measuring if she could be trusted.

"O.K, I'll tell you, but later. These two still need their medical, but I'm not sure how to manage that now."

"It's O.K, I know what we'll do. Torres to Seven of Nine." She finished calling the one time borg.

-o.O.O.o-

Seven of Nine was going over her latest plans to upgrade the Astrometrics lab when Torres's com signal patched in.
"Seven here." She spoke after tapping her own com badge.

"Seven; could you come to Sick Bay please? I need your help with something and it can't wait."

Even though no one was there to see it, Seven's eyebrow raised a bit in surprise.

"Indeed. I am on my way. Seven out." She finished tapping her com badge once again.

As she made her way to Sick Bay, she once again had the odd thought about what B'Elanna would be like in a romantic involvement.

Shaking her head to clear these thoughts she stepped into the Turbolift. "Sick Bay" She called out and felt the micro change as the lift started moving.

When the doors opened again she was just down the corridor from Sick Bay and made her way in.

The sight that greeted her would be one of the few times she would ever show true shock on her features. There, sitting on the Bio-bed, were Torres and Q. Both had a little girl in their arms and were currently trying to cheer them up.

It was obvious that they had been crying recently.

"Lieutenant, how can I help?" She asked.

-o.O.O.o-

As she finished calling for Seven, she looked at Q again. "Explain."

Showing a maturity that she did not expect from the trickster he returned with. "If you want me to tell you, I'll do that after the kids have been checked over and we have a bit of privacy. Or I can put the knowledge directly in your mind."

Weighing up her options she chose the latter. Nodding at Her choice Q placed a finger to her temple and transferred the knowledge.

Once done her eyes widened and she held the two children closer.

"Never again!" She whispered. There was no way she'd let them go without friendship or care again. And what the one girl, Harmony had coped with up to now sickened her, No child should have to deal with that.

"I'll take care of them while they're here." She whispered, knowing that Q would hear her.

It was then that both children whimpered slightly. Looking down she asked. "What's the matter?"

It was Harmony who spoke. "Scary room, scary man."

B'Elanna gently lifted Hermione over to Q, who happily took her and settled her comfortably so she could still see B'Elanna and Harmony while B'Elanna spoke.

"That Scary Man was the Doctor. I'm sorry if he upset you, he didn't mean it, he just doesn't realise he should have told you what was about to happen." She said quietly to them both.

"Personally I think he's like that because he forgot what having hair was like." She stage whispered.

It was to the children's giggles that they heard Seven of Nine's voice asking how to help.

B'Elanna looked towards Seven, once again getting a slight fluttering feel in the pit of her stomach.

"Ah, Seven. The Doctor was doing a routine check-up on these two," She said indicating the girls. "And he thought it a good Idea to scare them while doing it. I tell you, I've never heard anyone receive a dressing down like Q here gave!"

"Really?" Seven commented while walking over to the trolley and placing everything required for the exam on it.

"That must have been a unique experience for you." She carried on, nodding towards Q as she brought the trolley over.

B'Elanna noticed Q's flummoxed expression and couldn't wait for the next data-burst to the Alpha Quadrant, this picture was going straight to Picard.

It was only a moment later that she felt Harmony tighten her grip as Seven brought one of the scanning instruments closer.

"Harmony," She said quietly. "It's OK, it takes pictures of under our skin so we can see our bones. Look."

She held out her free arm and saw Harmony watching as Seven angled the screen of the scanner towards her to see when it went over Torres's arm.

"Can we take a picture of your skeleton now?" She asked quietly as not to scare the poor girl.

Harmony nodded and let herself be laid down so Seven could scan her, but she refused to let go of Torres's hand, and as the scanner went near her face she flinched badly.

As soon as the scan was done Torres gathered Harmony up in her arms and slowly walked about Sick Bay calming the girl. 'It's a good thing it's the 24th Century! If I got my hands on her relatives, a Bat'Leth would taste blood!' She thought with venom, while keeping her features schooled as not to scare either child.

She indicated that Seven and Q should finish Hermione's physical first while she worked on calming Harmony.

It was a good 10 minutes later when they indicated that they were ready, by now Harmony had considerably calmed and Torres whispered in her ear.

"You ok to finish? Look Hermione's all done and she's ok." She pointed out to Harmony.

Harmony peeked out from where she had buried her little face in Torres's shoulder to see Hermione smiling at her, seeing this she nodded slightly, and whispered.

"Hold Harmony's hand?" Seeing the depth of the plea in her eyes Torres could no more say no than she could voluntarily jump in a plasma fire.

"No worries. I'll hold your hand all the way through."

She could have sworn she just saw Seven smile at the maternal way she was acting.

Walking over to the bed she set Harmony down next to Hermione and gently took her little hand in her own.

With both her reassurance along with Q's and Hermione's, Harmony was able to complete her check-up with minimal panic attacks.

"Ok you two, I bet you've had long days and are tired." She said checking the time. She was glad she wasn't on duty again until tomorrow afternoon.

Seeing both girls nod she thought about her options. She had two sofas in her quarters she could put the kids on tonight.

She would get bigger quarters assigned in the next couple of days. There was no way she was going to let anyone else take these kids.

Looking up she saw Q smile at her.

"I think they're in good hands." He then looked down to the two girls.

"I've got to go away for a bit, but I'll come back in a month and see you Ok? I promise."

Hermione nodded but Harmony started crying. It was heart-breaking to watch the little girl falling to pieces and Q just didn't know what to do.

Torres just placed her in his arms and watched as she clung to him.

"Promise you visit!" They could hear her ask.

Q looked down at Harmony and his answer put the biggest smile on her face. "I promise, I will ALWAYS come back when I say I will." He finished before passing her back to Torres.

-o.O.O.o-

Seven looked on as Q calmed the girl down before passing her to B'Elanna and disappearing with a flash.

When she looked back to the bed she saw the other girl Hermione, holding her arms out wanting to be carried like Harmony too.

With a purely internal sigh she picked the girl up and settled her on her hip.

"Ok, let's get you two settled for the night. I haven't got any extra beds in my quarters at the moment so will you two be ok on the sofas?"

Seven's hearing, being Borg enhanced, heard Harmony's next question and she nearly dropped Hermione in her shock as she followed Torres out of Sick Bay.

"Harmony not sleep in cupboard anymore?" for a moment Seven thought whoever had subjected this sweet girl to that, and everything else her medical scans picked up deserved to be assimilated. Without the emotion suppressors.

"No Harmony, you'll never have to sleep in a cupboard again." B'Elanna told her as they passed Tom Paris in the corridor, gaping slightly at how motherly B'Elanna was being.

As they entered B'Elanna's quarters, Seven gently set a now very sleepy Hermione on one of the sofas before turning towards the cupboard, where she knew from her many visits the spare sheets and pillows were. Grabbing hold of the padd on top she fired a quick report to the Captain that B'Elanna had taken charge of the children.

Looking over to see how B'Elanna was doing she noticed Harmony had yet to let her go.

Raising her eyebrow slightly she sighed, and got enough sheets out for both sofas before making them up as beds.

Hermione had simply stood to one side as she did this swaying on her feet slightly as she held on to the side of the sofa. The moment Seven finished she climbed up on to it and pretty much instantly fell asleep.

Turning to the other sofa she could see B'Elanna had sat back on it and was gently rocking Harmony to sleep as if she was much younger. She couldn't help but see the tear slip out of B'Elanna's eye.

As Harmony had already fallen asleep she watched as she carefully stood up to allow Seven to set the sheets and pillows before laying the girl back down. When B'Elanna started to silently cry again, Seven did the only thing she could think of at this point and guided B'Elanna to her bedroom, pulling her into her arms and holding her close, so that she could offer her comfort for whatever had caused this.

Carefully sitting on the edge of the bed while holding on to the half Klingon she sat and listened as B'Elanna spoke. She described how Q had found Harmony, and the state she was in, how much pain the girls relatives had piled on to her, never showing even a modicum of care.

"No . . No Ch . . Child . . should have . . . to Live . . . tha. . . that. . .Life!" B'Elanna managed to get out around her sobs.

Seven herself had started to cry, for her it was the first time since she had been assimilated that she did. She felt the emotion inhibitor that she had toned down shut off, and for the first time in a long time Seven felt like Annika Hansen again.

Gently she lay back on the bed pulling B'Elanna with her, determined to offer as much comfort to the woman as possible.

It was in this embrace that sleep claimed them both.

-o.O.O.o-

B'Elanna awoke to a tugging sensation on her arm, with a weight across her midsection.

Opening her eyes groggily she made out the bushy brown hair of Hermione.

"Wha'" She asked eloquently. "Harmony's having bad dreams, an' I can't wake her." She heard Hermione say.

Nodding she understood she went to get up only to realise she was spooned against someone.

Looking down she recognised the silver-clad arm and exo-skeleton covered hand as that of Seven of Nine's.

Carefully, so as not to disturb the Sleeping Borg ('Now there's a contradiction' she thought), she slipped from under her arm and made her way into the living room to see Harmony thrashing about on the sofa with Hermione desperately shaking her shoulder. Deciding that there was only one way to deal with this she quickly went to the replicator and ordered a glass of cold water.

Moving back to the sofa, she pulled Hermione away before splashing Harmony's face with a bit of the water.

Harmony woke up with a start and looked around before starting to cry.

Putting the rest of the water on the table she gathered the upset girl in her arms and sat down gently cradling her, watching with a tiny smile as Hermione climbed up on to the sofa behind Harmony and started to rub her back.

"Want to talk about it?" B'Elanna asked quietly.

Hearing Harmony's whimper of terror tore at her heart.

"It ... It was my uncle. He kept hitting me with the belt. The nice man was there, trying to stop him but he couldn't."

B'Elanna managed to contain her rage, but swore next time Voyager had one of its crazy time jump episodes to the Late 20th Century she would be paying these people a visit.

"It's ok Harmony, Your uncle can't hurt you anymore, he can never hurt you again." She said quietly to the trembling girl. She smiled as she saw Hermione quickly run into the bathroom before coming back with a damp cloth.

She held Harmony steady as Hermione did her best to help wipe her face.

"Harmony, would it help if I got the man in charge of the security here check the place? Prove to you your uncle isn't here."

"What about aunt? Or Dudley? Them too?" Hearing the fear in Harmony's voice, B'Elanna was forced to hold the tears back. Before she could answer though, Seven knelt down in front of them.

-o.O.O.o-

Seven awoke to the bed cooling and heard quiet voices coming from where the children should have been sleeping.

Managing to contain her surprise as Hermione ran past to the bathroom, she heard the tap turn before the little girl ran back through holding a damp cloth.

Deciding to see what was going on, she stepped into the doorway. Making sure she wasn't seen, she listened as B'Elanna helped Harmony deal with the after effects of what had been a very bad nightmare.

Seeing B'Elanna struggling with her emotions Seven stepped forward and knelt down in front of them to answer the question. In part she too wanted to reassure Harmony, but also she knew right now, if B'Elanna tried to speak Harmony would know she was trying to hold in anger and tears, and with the child's past they couldn't risk her realising this.

"Harmony, tomorrow I'll take you with me, B'Elanna and Hermione too. We'll show you fully where you're living now, and we'll prove to you that none of your relatives are here ok? How's that for a promise?" she finished, her voice a lot softer than she usually spoke.

Harmony nodded while still trying to bury her way into B'Elanna. Smiling at the sight Seven got up and sat next to them and held her arms out towards Hermione. She didn't need a second invite it seemed and readily climbed onto Sevens lap before wriggling to face Harmony.

Reaching out Hermione took Harmony's hand and held it. "No matter what I'm stayin here with you.
You're my first, best, and nicest friend." The little smile that played about Harmony's lips was the most adorable thing Seven thought she could recall seeing. But then again her frame of reference was out, with her only just being able to fully feel emotions again.

They sat up just holding on to the kids, who fell back to sleep. Seven indicated with her head that they should put the kids in the bed, as they would have been getting up themselves in half an hour anyway.

B'Elanna nodded and gently carried Harmony through to the bedroom as Seven followed.

After laying the children down, they returned to the seating area but before Seven could say anything B'Elanna turned, tears threatening to fall again.

Wanting nothing more than to help her, Seven wrapped an arm around the shorter woman's shoulders and guided her to a sofa. She got B'Elanna to sit down, and waited for the tears to break and overwhelm the half-Klingon again.

It didn't take long, and when they broke B'Elanna collapsed into Sevens side.

Holding her tight to offer her comfort, Seven also thought it might be an idea to get the Captain.

Looking at the time and knowing she would already be on her second coffee now, she was glad that they'd sat on the end of the sofa.

Using the padd next to them, she sent a quick message to the Captain asking her to come to Torres's quarters as soon as possible and just let herself in, it was important.

Less than five minutes later, Janeway walked in to see B'Elanna crying on Seven. Her expression, showing whatever she expected this wasn't it, quickly morphing to concern as she made her way over.

-o.O.O.o-

Janeway was sitting in her ready room, looking out towards the stars as they flew by, wondering what they could expect from their latest additions to the population of Voyager.

Shaking her head slightly she thought that in some respects Q must have been mad, but in others was grateful he had got those children out of their situations before it was too late.

Heavens knew how she was going to justify it when they got back.

*Blip-blip* 'Strange' she thought, as she made her way over to her terminal wondering what was going on. She tapped the centre button to see she had received a message from Seven of Nine.

Captain.

Please come to Lieutenant Torres's quarters as soon as possible. Do not bother with the door chime, it is important.

Seven

Knowing Seven wouldn't send a message like this for no reason, Janeway left her ready room and headed straight for the Turbo Lift.

Upon getting into the Turbo Lift, she started to think about what could be wrong? Could she and Torres have found a way to speed up their journey? Were the children playing up and they needed an authority figure? No if that was necessary they'd have called on Tuvok.

Stepping out the Turbo Lift she walked along the corridor wondering what it was.

When she stepped through the doors the sight that met her threw her for a loop. There was B'Elanna Torres one of the strongest people she knew, completely broken, crying into Seven's side, with Seven of Nine's arms wrapped protectively around her.

Quickly getting over the shock she knew she needed to help but first needed to calm her Chief Engineer down.

Stepping forward until she was in front of them she gently crouched down on the floor, before placing a hand on Torres's back and talking quietly.

"B'Elanna, what's wrong?" Torres's free arm flailed for a moment until Seven caught her hand and held it, gently rubbing her thumb in circles over the back of it. Janeway noticed this and looked at Seven.

She noticed that her eyes somehow seemed more expressive, her face not so stern. Putting that thought away for now she turned back to Torres.

"B'Elanna?"

Torres turned to Janeway and slowly started stuttering out the problem she was having around her tears. Q had shown her everything that Harmony had had to suffer through her short life.
From the day she lost her parents to the day Q rescued her. "I. . . I need to help her. But I c . . .can . . . can't believe that someone . . .b. . .beat. . .her!" before the tears ran afresh. That was when Janeway understood.

Torres wasn't handling the truth of Harmony's past very well.

Getting up and settling on the sofa she spoke softly.

"B'Elanna, look at me." She waited until her teary eyes were looking into her own strong ones.

"That is in the past. We're here for her now. You, Seven, Hermione and everyone else on Voyager. Ok, don't dwell on her past, but don't forget it. Help her be strong, show her that things will get better. I promise you, if you help her properly, things will get better. Just show her you care for now. Work on the rest later." Torres nodded her thanks as Janeway stood up.

"Mind if I look in on them? She asked.

Torres smiled a little and pointed to the bedroom, but before she had made two steps Seven spoke up, with a soft quality to her voice. "Just don't wake them. Harmony had a very bad nightmare last night. That's what brought this on."

Janeway nodded as she made her way to the bedroom.

Stepping in the doorway she was met with the most adorable sight. They had moved in the night and now the two were laying close together, arms wrapped around each other. Even in their sleep it seemed Hermione was trying to comfort Harmony. Slipping over to where the Holo-camera was on the shelf she took a quick shot.

This photo would be on her desk for a while.

Stepping back out she walked back to the two of them and showed them the picture, however she nearly dropped the camera at seeing Seven smile. She would definitely need to talk to her alone soon.

Deciding now was the best time to leave she made her way out. Taking one last look, she smiled at the two officers. B'Elanna was still curled up next to Seven, drawing comfort from her. Shaking her head as she made her way back to the bridge she wondered how long it would be before they noticed their mutual attraction.

Stepping into the Turbo Lift she gave the command, "Bridge" and the doors closed.


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