Drachen sollen fliegen A Harry Potter/Star Trek: The Next Generation Fanfiction
Chapter Four: A Different World
I sat still for a while, my head buried in my hands. No one said anything; they all seemed to want to give me some time to come to terms with what I had just heard.
An odd swishing noise brought me back from my reverie. I looked up and saw that a door had just opened, allowing two men to enter. The door slid close behind them even though none of them did anything to close it.
Doors closing – and maybe opening – on their own accord? Then again, I guessed everything was possible on a starship were they could make a glass of water appear out of thin air and where people came from planets ages away from Earth.
Much more impressive were the two men that had just come in. They did not have Worf's impressive built and height, but they were none the less fascinating. I noticed both of them wore yellow uniforms. One of them was slightly shorter, sturdily built, and black. He looked quite normal, save for a strange metal band that covered his eyes.
It was the other one who really caught my eyes.
He was taller than his companion, and his body was slender. His dark hair was combed back neatly from his face, and his skin…well, I knew I was pale, but that guy beat me to it. His skin was as white as freshly fallen snow, and his eyes were a strange golden color. Never before had I seen eyes like this.
Captain Picard turned. "Ah, Geordi, Data!" he greeted the duo. "What have you been able to find?"
The pale man gave his captain something that looked like a flat piece of metal. But whatever this thing was, it obviously must have been telling the captain something, as he gazed upon it quite intently, his eyes moving from side to side s if he was reading something.
Finally, he looked up. "Very well." Then he addressed me. "It seems, Mr. Malfoy, that you came here from an alternate universe rather than the past of this one."
"That is correct, sir." The pale man piped up. He had a soft voice, and I noticed the eagerness in it as he launched into a speech that left me completely clueless. I had already lost it when they had said alternate universe, and I did not understand anything that the man now explained to his captain. The only thing I could gather was that they had been investigating how I could have ended up on their ship, most likely using some of their obscure technology. As for the rest? Well, I had ended up in an another universe, and one that was 300 years ahead of my own. How the hell was I supposed to know what subspace rifts and sensor readings were?
Was ending up in a different universe that was 300 years in the future better than ending up in the future of my own? The bald captain had sounded slightly relieved when he had learned this, but I was not sure. Being in the future of my own world would mean that at least I knew something about the past of this ship. But a completely different universe? It could mean that this world had nothing in common with my own, that it was completely…well, different from anything I knew.
At least I know that Earth also exists in this one, I thought wryly. So that's at least something our worlds have in common.
After what seemed like ages, Captain Picard finally held up one hand to silence his companion. "Thank you, Mr. Data."
Ah. So the pale man was called Data, which meant that his dark-skinned companion was most likely Geordi. But that thought slipped from my head as the captain turned his attention on me again. "Well, Mr. Malfoy, I believe you were just going to demonstrate your magic."
"Magic?" Data and Geordi cried out in unison.
"Yes." Captain Picard calmly said. "Mr. Malfoy has informed us that he is a wizard." His voice was carefully neutral, and I was glad that he did not make it sound like I was completely nuts. Even so, the one called Geordi obviously thought I was. It showed so clearly on his face that I could see it even though his eyes were covered. I tried to ignore it as I trained my wand on the glass. Now… what should I do?
"Captain…" Worf protested again, but Picard interrupted him.
"I'm quite sure Mr. Malfoy does not intend to harm us." The captain said.
"No, of course not!" I quickly assured them. Yes, I knew spells that could cause some real damage, but I would not use them now. After all, I was in a strange place I did not understand, and those people had been quite nice to me so far. They had saved my life, for Merlin's sake! Well, they thought I was insane, but that was quite understandable, since that was how most Muggles would react if they were told about real magic. Anyway, as long as they did nothing to harm me, there was no point in attacking them.
Besides, if their technology was so far advanced, I guessed they also had advanced weaponry, and I truly had no desire to find out just how far advanced they were.
So I had to use a harmless spell, which excluded blowing that glass up. I settled on trying something simple first, because I was so confused by everything that had happened that I was not sure if I could manage a difficult spell.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" I finally said, pointing my wand at the glass, hoping that the spell would work. What if advanced technology messed with magic the way magic did with technology? I would not be able to prove my words. They would think I was delusional!
I had not needed to worry though; the glass lifted cleanly of the bed and floated in mid-air. I smirked as I heard the collective gasps of the Enterprise crew. Worf and Data rushed to my side. Holding out beeping, flashing things that looked like a slightly different version of the instrument the doctor had used earlier to examine me.
"It seems that he is using some kind of energy to neutralize the effect of gravity!" Data exclaimed, amazement clearly evident in his voice. "Though I cannot say how exactly this is possible. The energy itself seems to interfere with the tricorder functions."
So those weird things are called tricorders, eh? I thought, smiling. Pleased by their surprise and encouraged that the spell had worked, I decided to show them some more magic: I enlarged the glass to twice its original size, and then turned the water into ice, all the while enjoying their complete astonishment. Finally, there was something that I did understand but they knew nothing of! After spending all the time wondering about this starship and its workings, it was a welcome change.
Feeling particularly daring, I decided to do something really difficult, something that would really impress them. With one final flourish of my wand, I turned the glass into a black cat.
"Oh my god…" Dr. Crusher muttered. Everyone stared as the cat settled down to clean herself, then then hissed and jumped of the bed as Data brought his tricorder close to her.
"Amazing." He said. "Judging by those readings, this is nothing more than a completely ordinary cat!"
He looked at me, and I looked back, locking gazes with those golden eyes for the first time.
My heart skipped several beats. Those inhuman golden eyes were slightly uncanny, but they were very gentle. Wide with amazement and filled with never-ending wonder, they almost reminded me of a child. And yet, despite all the innocence these eyes held, there was also something else: the sense of an intelligence so keen and sharp that it almost sent a shiver down my back…
"This is so cool!" Geordi cried out, and the moment was gone. I looked around to find that Geordi was kneeling on the floor some distance away, stroking the cat.
"Indeed, Mr. LaForge." The captain said. "Is this how you came here, by magic?"
I gulped. "I'm not sure…" As I tried to recall the last few hours (or rather the last ones I consciously remembered), images of blood and destruction seeped back into my mind. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the memories of the battle, focusing on the last few moments before I passed out instead.
"The last thing I remembered is going into the Room of Requirements at Hogwarts, then the lights went out. Maybe the Room brought me here or something…" I wondered aloud.
"Hogwarts? That's a funny name. What's Hogwarts?" Geordi asked, and I suddenly realized that everyone inside the room was staring at me.
"Uh, Hogwarts is a wizarding school." I explained. By now, I was starting to feel uncomfortable with all the attention I was getting. Normally, I loved being at the center of everyone's attention, and I certainly had basked in their amazement and wonder when I was showing them my spells, so much that I had not stopped to think about the situation: After all, I was performing magic in front of Muggles!
"Look, I probably should not be telling you this. There is a law called the State of Secrecy that forbids wizards to tell Muggles about the magical world."
The captain smiled. "Ah. We have something similar. Or Prime Directive prevents us from sharing any information on our technology with cultures that have not yet attained warp capability."
Warp capability? What on Earth…or wherever we are now…is that now? I wondered, before writing it off as another aspect of their inexplicable technology and focusing on the things I actually understood.
"Does this mean you're not going to explain to me how all of this…" I made a wide, sweeping gesture that included the entire starship, "works?"
The captain's smile grew. "I possibly should not. But maybe we could make an arrangement…"
For once, I knew what he was getting at. "I'll tell you about your world and you'll tell me about yours."
Picard nodded. "Exactly."
"Well, I suppose that's agreeable." Who knows if they even had a Ministry of Magic or a State of Secrecy in this world? Well, the fact that the people on this starship knew nothing about magic would indicate that wizards in this world were also required to keep their magic a secret…or it could mean that there were no wizards in this universe at all.
Ah, damn it, I really had to find out more about this strange place I found myself in. If those people wanted information on my world in exchange for information on their own, I really had no other choice.
"As I already told you, Hogwarts is a school for magic. It's a boarding school, and wizarding children go there when they're eleven years old. There, they are taught about Potions and Charms and other magical stuff. As for the Room of Requirements, it is a special room in Hogwarts. It is not always there, it only appears when someone needs it. And it always changes according to the wishes of that person."
Their confused stares were so funny that I almost laughed out loud, but I held it back. After all, I could imagine just how much at a loss they felt now. To them, magic had to be as strange and foreign as their spaceship was for me.
Wow, killing Voldemort and going over to the Light side really must have messed with my brain. Since when was I, Draco Malfoy, so nice and understanding? Then again, it's not every day that you get yourself blasted into another universe, so acting a little out of character would be quite forgivable, right?
"Look." I said, casting around for an example. "Imagine you're walking past the Room when you really need, uh, a bathroom?" Geez. That was some great example, but it would have to do for now.
"I assume that, given that the Room really changes to accommodate the needs of the person walking past it, it would change into a bathroom?" Data asked.
"That's the idea." I agreed. This Data seemed to catch on pretty quickly. All that stuff about subspace rifts and temporal distortion had sounded pretty complicated, too, so I guessed he was the genius of the group.
"Cool." Geordi repeated. He was still stroking the cat.
"And this 'Room of Requirements' brought you here?" Picard demanded to know.
"I guess so, yes. I mean, I passed out after I went into the Room, so I'm not quite sure, but I can't think of any other way I might have gotten here."
"You were injured pretty badly when you arrived." Dr. Crusher took over. "Do you have any idea how that happened?"
Again, I swallowed, trying to suppress the worst memories from the battle. "There was battle. Lord Voldemort – the evil wizard I was talking about earlier – tried to take over the school, and his Death Eaters fought with those who opposed him. I was hit by flying debris during the fight, but I made it into the Room, wishing for a place where I'd be safe." I looked the doctor in the eye. "I suppose it was you who fixed me?"
"That's my job." Her smile was radiant, and I could not help but smile back. Even I could see that she was that kind of person who always cared about others, who loved to help other people. Being a healer was a good choice for her.
"Thank you." I said, and her smile grew in return.
"This Lord Voldemort." Worf spoke up. "Where is he now?"
And inhuman scream, the flash of a blade, and blood, blood splattering everywhere…
"He…he was killed during the battle." I did not want to tell them that it had been me who killed Voldemort. I did not want to talk about it, not before I myself had had time to really take in what I had done, so I hurried on before they could ask for any details on how Voldemort had perished. "But his followers would not stop fighting. The battle was still in progress when I…well, left."
Now that I thought about it, I did not even know the outcome of the battle. Which side had won? And had my parents survived? How was I supposed to find out when I was stuck here, on a starship in another world and 300 years in the future?
The captain's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "This Room of Requirements…can anyone get in?"
"Uhm, I guess so. Unless there's already someone inside the Room who doesn't want anyone else to be able to get in. Then the Room closes itself off."
The captain and his Security Officer exchanged a look, worry etched clearly on their faces. I wondered why…and then it dawned on me.
They were worried that other people might get here through the Room, maybe even Death Eaters, and naturally, they did not want a gang of evil wizards wreaking havoc on their ship (Who in his or her right mind could want that?)
"But not everyone in the school knows it exists." I tried to reassure them. Small comfort. It certainly would not matter if some frightened first year would suddenly turn up here – although if itwas someone like Longbottom had been until he had become Potter's heroic defender, he might blow up the ship by accident. But no, the people they really needed to worry about, the Death Eaters, knew the Room of Requirements pretty well…thanks to me using the Room to let them into Hogwarts barely a year ago. I felt a stab of shame at that thought and hurried on: "If it helps you, I've never heard of the Room doing something like that before. Sending people to other worlds, I mean. Or any other place, come to think of it. I didn't even know that was possible."
"Still, I recommend to enhance security until we have further investigated this matter." Worf suggested.
"Make it so." Picard ordered, and Worf left – not without one last suspicious glance at me. Huh, what did he think I would do? Kill him? Change him into a huge fluffy pink bunny? Turn his hair green?
Suddenly, there was a voice that seemed to come from nowhere. "Riker to Picard."
What in the name of Slytherin is going on now? No matter how much I tried, I could not make out where that voice had come from.
The Captain tapped the strange badge they all wore. "Picard here."
The disembodied voice continued. "You have an incoming message from Starfleet Command."
Eh? Had they some way of speaking to people that were not in the same place? Wizards could do that, too, but they had to use their patronuses, and I could not see one of them now. And since those people had no idea of magic, I doubted that they could even make one. It had to be another one of their technological devices again. Yeah, that must be it – I suddenly remembered that Muggles in my universe had something like that, too; they called them cells, for some stupid reason.
Great, one thing that I managed to figure out. That leaves maybe 1701 things that I don't get about this starship stuff…and what's Starfleet Command, anyways?
Picard confirmed my suspicion by answering the voice: "I'll take it in my ready room. I'm on my way, Number One. Picard out." His technologically aided conversation finished, the captain turned to me. "Mr. Malfoy, I'll have quarters assigned to you. And I will arrange for someone to show you the ship."
"I could do that, sir!" Data volunteered.
"Me, too." Geordi joined him. I sighed inwardly. Judging by their eagerness, the were probably waiting for a chance to grill me for information about magic…
"No, Geordi, you don't." Dr. Crusher cut in. "You are long overdue for a checkup, and now that you're already up here, I won't let you leave just now."
Geordi moaned in protest but still went to the next bed and sat down on it. The Captain nodded at Data. "Very well, Mr. Data. Mr. Draco Malfoy, this is Lieutenant Commander Data, my Second Officer. And this…" he pointed to Geordi, "is Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge, he is Enterprise's Chief Engineer."
"Hello." I said. Geordi replied with a wave of his hand and a cheerful "Hi!", while Data inclined his head and said. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
Whoa. Could it be that this guy was a tad bit stiff? My dad would have loved him, he had always insisted on how important manners were. Especially when dealing with people you wanted to impress, and especially if they were important people you wanted to win over – like the Minister of Magic, perhaps. Of course, his idea of manners did not involve mudbloods and Muggles. And, well, come to think of it, torturing people could not really be considered to be very polite. I was sure that Data would never do something like that. Not with this gentleness I had seen in his eyes…
Picard turned to head for the door. "I leave you to Mr. Data now." He said. He had almost reached the door when he suddenly stopped.
"One last question, Mr. Malfoy." He said. "In that battle taking place in your school – did you fight for Lord Voldemort or against him?"
I hesitated. I did not want to elaborate on that. To do so, I would have had to tell him the entire story of my life to make him understand. My father being a Death Eater. My upbringing to believe that wizards – and especially purebloods – were far superior to Muggles. My own burning ambition to become a Death Eater myself, just to make myself important, and how my dreams of pureblood supremacy and glory had turned into a nightmare after I finally had received the Dark Mark. I had been rather clueless when I entered the battle, not really knowing which side to take, not even knowing if I really wanted to fight. I had made on last feeble attempt to corner Potter, but more because it was what was expected of me than because I really wanted to do it. And then this one fateful moment had come. I had killed Lord Voldemort, and so, I had chosen my side.
But I did not feel to explain all of this to this man who had no idea about the wizarding world and its battles. Especially not now when I was so utterly confused, not only because I had ended up in an universe so radically different from the one I knew, but also because my life had taken a turn I had never expected. By killing Voldemort, I had also inevitably destroyed the life I knew. Beliefs I had held onto were starting to crumble; views were going to be challenged.
But not now. Now, I needed to find out how to survive in this new universe. When I had found a safe place and time alone, I could start rethinking my life.
But the captain wanted an answer now. And so I gave one.
"Against." I said. It was not the entire truth, but I did not feel like it was a lie either. After all, had I not ended the Dark Lord's life?
Picard seemed satisfied with my answer. He just nodded and left. The door swished shut behind him.
=/\=
Whoa, that was a rather long chapter. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure how soon I can add a new chapter since I'm going on a vacation and I don't know if I can access the www from there.
To all those who reviewed this story, or added it to their Alert or Favorite lists: thank you, thank you for reading this and putting up with me and my insane mind.