A short walk, for Harry, but an informative one, the Fortress appeared to be something found on a primitive world, not one with as much technology as they had seen in other places. Harry could see no source of light or heat, other than torches. Replacing his helmet, to scan the place a bit, he found the whole castle was a non point source of the strange energy reading. Harry had more questions than ever, for one, how did they know the name he had on Earth before he was rescued, did these people know me? If so, why had they not stopped the abuse? What is Witchcraft and Wizardry? Computer just returned as local folklore.
Argus was thinking as well, he had seen many strange human and even alien cultures in his 90+ years as a Space Marine, but nothing quite like this, this mixture of technology and primitive, he wondered if they simply found a cult of people who preferred to live in a long ago style. But the lack of any source of light, or any sort of technology made little sense.
After being offered a seat, Harry offered his Commander the better seat, right in front of the desk, but he deferred. Surprised at being given the lead on this contact, Harry waited until his commander and host were seated and sat down, placing his rifle across his legs, as was habit.
'Harry Potter, is that your name?', asked Dumbledore.
'That is a name I have not heard in almost 10 years, yes, that is my name, at least it was at one point, the Brothers have no use for last names, as we leave our old life behind us when we transform'. Harry replied, curious as to how this man knew his name, but still a bit leery of outright asking.
'Where have you been? It has been 9 years since you were last heard from, one day you just disappeared, your Uncle was shot with a muggle gun, and you were just gone', Albus was just about bursting to learn where Harry had been, but at the same time, wondering what kind of wizards, these 'Dark Angels' were, the name did not sound very Light, no indeed, it sounded very Dark.
'Well, Captain Argus might be able to explain that a bit better than I can, as I do not remember any of it, I would ask him.', Harry shot a small smirk to his CO, figured that it might be the only time he ever got to turn the tables on the Senior Marine.
Dumbledore eyed the Captain warily, 'Would you mind relating what you know Captain Argus?'
The Captain paused for a moment and decided to at least tell part of the story, 'I came to this planet to see if a passage from one of our Text from before the Fall, held truth, it lead me to Brother Harry, he was young, not even half grown, and even small for that. He was near death, an infection, and many broken bones and bruises. I did shoot a man with my side arm, when he attempted to strike me with some yellow and green cloth covered stick[an umbrella, without knowing its purpose, or seeing it in use, its just a cloth covered stick]. I heard Harry in some form storage compartment under the only stairs in the house, I retrieved him and took him back to my ship for medical attention.'
Silence ruled while both men seemed to absorb this information, after a minute, Argus spoke, 'Did you know Harry before I recruited him?'
'I was his Magical Guardian, if that is what you mean, yes, I knew him since he was born.' Replied Dumbledore. Then he seemed to have caught the bit about the Passage from the Text. 'What text are you referring to? There have been many many books written about Harry since he was just a year and a half old.
'A text owned by our chapter, one of thousands, that are from before the time of the Fall. It spoke of Harry here, while not by name, by location, gender and rough age. It said only that he was to be a great warrior, killing 'the greatest Dark Lord in History' here on Earth, and that he would kill the final Chaos Lord at some point in his life. Oh it also spoke of his scar, something that I could have removed, but chose not to, somehow it just felt that it should stay as a part of him, a trophy of a war he would not even remember perhaps', Argus, shifted slightly, leaning towards Dumbledore a slight sneer on his face, 'What would you know of his treatment if you were his Guardian, from what I gathered when I recruited him, it was the man I shot, and maybe others that beat him, he later confirmed that his 'Uncle Vernon' would beat him, for no or imagined reasons.' Who would treat a youngling that way, esp one fated to be such a great warrior.?
The sneer and confidence, as well as the man's handling of what was obviously a weapon, took Dumbledore aback for a second, this man could be very dangerous, Albus figured. 'Harry was with his family, and they would not have done such things.'
A slammed door behind Harry startled him, and he almost fired an energy round at the source, but caught himself before firing. A tall gray haired female, not as old as the Dumbledore, but not in prime fighting age either. 'Albus, I told you those were the worst sort of muggles when you left him there, did you not even check on him?'
'Then why did he need rescuing from them? And by an outsider as well, I am wondering, you said something to the effect that you came to this planet? Do you not mean mean island? England is a small island on a large world.' The yet unnamed woman looked to Captain Argus for an answer.
Dumbledore looked abash, glad for a moments respite to get himself under control, and realized he had missed that part of the Captain's statement.
'I am afraid madam, I do not live on any planet, I live on 'The Tower of Angels'. A great Fortress-monastery deep in space, we took, about 6 of your weeks, to arrive here from where the Rock[nickname for 'The Tower of Angels'] The small ship we arrived in, we have dozens in the hangers of the small Cruiser we arrived in. From what I have seen of your island, our ship is about the same size as your island.'
A slight pause while he figured out what format to ask his next question, while rarely used, diplomacy is a part of every Space Marine's training as is common formal means of address, which vary slightly from culture to culture, but have a surprising common thread where the females are, you never treat them with disrespect..
'I am sorry madam, but might I inquire as to who you are?', Harry quickly stated when his mentor paused to try figure out how to broach the subject. Being young and freshly blooded does have its advantages, your generally more impatient and get to the point quicker.
' Harry, I am Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress of this school, and a friend of your parents before they were killed. I held you as a baby, when you were less than a day old.'
Harry decided to ask the question most on his mind, 'Why did you leave me in that storage space, why did you let that man beat me, and starve me?'
McGonagall looked very ashamed and her face turned to alert status red, 'I trusted Dumbledore, when he said you were fine and that we should not interfere with your childhood, so before today, I did not know you were mistreated'.
'Well, this is a school right?', Harry said quickly, sensing the shame the woman was feeling, and knowing that it was not her fault, but his own 'Magical Guardian's'. Harry then switched tracks, and asked, 'Do you know anything about 'Greatest Dark Lord in History' that our text speak of? It appears that I am supposed to kill him. Could you teach me about that?'
McGonagall, simply broke down and cried, here sat the Boy-who-lived, totally ignorant of his parents' fate, and asking about the Dark Lord, like it was just another homework assignment. He was too young, even if he was larger than anyone she knew who did not have giant blood in them.
'Yes, Harry we know all about him, but you are too young to face him, you must stay with us and learn how to use your gifts, it will take a few years to get you trained, but then you will be ready to face him.' Dumbledore inserted, seeing a way to regain control of Harry, and keep him away from this man who is most likely a Dark wizard of some form.
Meanwhile, Captain Argus, was using his own powers on Dumbledore, while he might not have magical powers like Harry and the others in this castle, he did have powers of his own, gifted to him by the Emperor himself, and reading minds, even well protected and organized ones, was child's play to him. He could read the deception in the old man, the greed for power, wait, what? Harry must die to kill this Dark Lord? Ahh some form of magic/energy in Harry's scar, binds the Dark Lord to this plane of existence and he cannot move on, and has already once regained a body after 'dying'. That should be easy enough to take care of, just remove the scar and the energy source behind it.
Captain Argus, sighed and stood up. 'I can allow Brother Harry to train, but only for a few weeks, you WILL give him the knowledge he needs to defeat this 'Dark Lord' and you will allow him free movement of the castle and he can return to the ship at any time.'
Albus thought that a simple confundus spell on the Captain would simplify matters, and make any agreement to the training of Harry to his benefit. The Elder Wand under the desk, sent the invisible spell, and the Captain paused, but shook his head clear, and asked, 'Well, what is your answer?'. Now Dumbledore was worried.'But he is too young to Face Voldemort, he must be trained at least 5 or maybe 7 years, just for the normal schooling we all take.'
Argus smiled, 'I think you will find that we have ways of learning things that would take years in a short matter of days'. He turned to McGonagall, am I correct that as Deputy Headmistress you can arrange for proper teachers for Brother Harry?'.
'I would be honored, I know a student here who would most likely be willing to help Harry outside of class. Will he be staying here in the school at night or will he return to your ship?'
Dumbledore felt the situation slipping from his control, 'Who did you have in mind Minerva?', Ms. McGonagall turned to Dumbledore, 'Not one of your flock, I was considering Miss Granger, she is about the same age as Harry, and is the top student in the school and Head Girl, so she has a private common room she can use to tutor him.'
Not to be outdone, Dumbledore summoned his command voice and added, 'That is fine, but she is to be helped by Miss Weasley.'
McGonagall did not like the idea, but it was a minor point, as Miss Granger would be able to curtail any shenanigans that Miss Weasley might get up to. 'If that is acceptable to you Captain, I think we can arrange for some books to get him started. I could introduce you to the staff at dinner this evening and arrange for you to meet with Miss Granger afterwords.'
Harry gave Dumbledore a look, not liking that the man had added someone to the Deputies suggestion, he had a feeling that the addition had little to do with education, and a lot to do with his own agenda. 'Excuse me a moment, Sir and Ma'am, I wish to converse with my superior office a moment.' Harry turned on his throat mic and subvocalized in Terra, what the Captain thought of the issue at hand and if he approved of this plan.
Captain Argus, subvocalized back, that he seen nothing wrong with the plan, as is, but warned Harry of what he had seen in the Headmaster's mind, about him needing to die. And that he was sure the Apothecary could remove the scar and its energy source, without harm to him. Also mentioning that a brief thought had passed thru Dumbledore's mind that this Dark Lord had also made a number of other items that did the same thing and that the would have to be hunted down. More information on this was needed.
'Then we are agreed, Master Captain and Brother Scout?', Dumbledore asked.
'We are agreed', Captain Argus stated.
Harry looks over at Dumbledore, unsure of the man, but states:
'We are agreed, the Dark Lord must die'.
