"Chapter 7"
A/N: Are we to chapter 7 already? I have to thank every one of you who have stuck with me for so long! You guys are awesome!
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"What does he look like?" Kyp Durron asked. He sat fully alert and nearly eager in his Master's chair, looking at Harry intently. They all were. Even Jaina was silent, and willing to listen to what the Masters were being told—but maybe that was because it had been Ben's idea in the first place. Whatever the reason, Luke was just pleased that she was giving the boy the benefit of the doubt.
"Well…" Harry trailed off, almost surprised by the question. He had never really thought about it before—Sirius was simply Sirius, in his mind. "He's tall, maybe six foot, with long black hair—he likes wearing it long. He has grey eyes and his face… well, his face is thin and has a- a wasted look to it." He paused, trying to recall anything else that might help the Jedi find his godfather faster, and couldn't think of anything except: "He'll probably still think he's on the run from the law, so he may be either hiding or running around as a dog."
"A… dog?" Cighal, the Jedi Council's Master Healer, blinked her round, bulbous eyes, clearly baffled by what Harry meant by a "dog". Seeing her confusion, something mirrored more or less in the eyes of the other Masters, Harry realized that they must not have creatures such as that in this universe. It made him curious to see what kind of animals they did have.
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize—a dog is the name of a type of animal from my world. They can be pets. My godfather can turn into one, see, so you may have to keep your eyes open for that, too."
"What does this creature look like?" Kyle Katarn spoke up from beside Tresina Lobi. Like all the Masters there, he was not, perhaps, completely at ease with the fifteen-year-old, but willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, besides the anger and moodiness that they all felt from Harry, they could not sense any true Darkness about him.
"Well, if he's going around as a dog, you'll see him as four-legged, covered completely with black fur. Dogs all have snouts, but Sirius's dog has a long, thin snout. He'll have a tail, and usually when he runs you'll see his tongue—dogs like to run like that." Harry felt very surreal—who needed the appearance of a dog explained to them? It was then, more than any other moment that it finally hit him that this world was very little like his own, if something he took utterly for granted was utterly foreign for these people.
Mara took pity on him. "Is that all you can tell us?" she asked, just to be sure.
He nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything else—"
"You've told us enough," Luke assured him. He looked at the other Masters. "Now, this will undoubtedly take us some time, but I think if we send out a couple teams each day, continually switching, I think we can search by sections for our missing refugee. And for anyone who finds him—just remember he can do magic, and probably better than Harry did." The Masters all looked at Harry thoughtfully at those words, and he felt himself flush when he realized how much he must have knocked them all around that day.
"Er—I suppose I should apologize for that," he muttered, still very red in the face, and looked down at his feet, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I really didn't mean to do that, I just—"
"Freaked out," Kyp supplied helpfully.
There was a long silence. Then: "Yeah," Harry agreed, still refusing to look up at them. Jaina rolled her eyes with a slight smile, finding his embarrassment amusing—although she really didn't care for him, she had to admit that when it came down to it, Harry was a damn good fighter. Hell, if anything Harry had bragging rights, having taken on the best Jedi Masters there were!
"Well," Kyp smirked, "no harm done, kid. I'm sure that that was a one-time thing, anyway. We'd be ready for you this time."
His words coaxed a smile from the boy, finally, and a real one. "I'd like to see that."
"Hey, I'm sure that if you could get some training in, you could give us a good fight, but for right now—"
"Master Durron," Luke said quietly, raising an eyebrow, "we are not here to be challenging anyone."
"Actually, Skywalker," Mara said, suddenly eyeing Harry thoughtfully, "I think Master Durron just gave us a fantastic idea."
Everyone halted in whatever they were doing and simply stared at Mara—it was a very rare thing indeed that Mara Jade Skywalker spoke of anything Kyp Durron's as a good idea, so now she had just thrown them all. Even Luke was looking at her in amazement. She smirked, knowing how badly she had just confused them, and looked at Harry again, who felt very self-conscious very suddenly.
"Er—what idea is that?" he asked nervously.
Her smile widened. "Training you, of course!"
"What?" several of the Masters demanded at once—even Kyp. But Luke, having caught onto his wife's train of thought, simply grinned.
Mara looked at them all. "Not training him as a Jedi, of course, but we could still instruct him in hand-to-hand combat and such, maybe even teach him to fly a ship. If we end up finding his godfather, he could still be taught his magic, but we'd be teaching him control and finesse."
"He does need to learn control," Kam Solusar agreed slowly. There were nods from every side.
"This one believez you are right," Saba Sebatyne, one of the Barabel Jedi, said. Her deep, gravelly voice caused Harry to jump in surprise, and she hissed softly in amusement. "This one is sorry, Harry Potter. This one did not mean to startle you."
"I-It's okay," he said, and the Jedi could sense him pulling himself together, pushing aside his surprise and even fear to focus on Mara.
"Is that really necessary?" he asked nervously.
Her brow rose in surprise. "You could use it, Harry," she told him. "Besides, you said so yourself that Voldemort is after you in your world. If you ever get back there you should at least have something to throw at him. Training and control will definitely give you an edge."
She had said the magic words when talking about Voldemort—even the most dubious of the Masters knew that Harry needed help to kill the Dark Lord after him, and if their training could do that… Very quickly they all agreed to Mara's idea. Finally, Luke looked at Harry, suddenly quite serious, and Harry knew what was going to happen next.
"So," Luke said quietly. "We have all agreed to your training, Harry. But we have a question for you before we can begin it."
"Yes?" Harry asked, and they couldn't help but notice his eagerness.
"In order to begin we should return your weapon—your… wand—to you. Before we do so, however, we must have your word that you will not use it to escape, and you will not use it against anyone. If you agree to this, you are agreeing that you are still in our care, and we will not take it lightly if you break this promise."
"Yes, sir," the boy replied, and he had no way of knowing that all of the Masters were focusing on him, looking for any trace of a lie in his words—they found none. "I promise I won't do anything of the kind."
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It had been agreed that Harry's godfather would be looked for and Luke had immediately sent out two different teams of a Master and their apprentice, to be switched every half-day with two fresh teams. Then they had finished up with other requests and issues the Order was facing and then they were dismissed. Harry was waiting outside with Ben, who was very pleased that his idea had been approved, and hopeful that this would raise Harry's spirits.
"I just hope this isn't some wild goose-chase," Harry said quietly, not allowing his hope to grow too much. Considering his luck, they'd never find Sirius.
"We'll try our hardest, Harry," Ben said, determined not to allow his companion to sink into melancholy. Harry had better things to do than simply sit around feeling sorry for himself, and Ben certainly was not going to stand for feeling all of that from him the entire time he was at home.
Once back at the Skywalker apartment, Luke sent Ben and Harry off to do some errands—he could sense that Ben would be a good thing for Harry's stating here, and hoped his son would make friends with the wayward boy. Then he turned to Mara.
"All right, my love," he said, "you had another reason to ask for Harry's training. What was it?"
She looked up at him with a mischievous look. "My, my, Skywalker," she said, "you're quite blunt today, aren't you? Yes, I had another reason," she added when he opened his mouth. "You've sensed how unsure of himself Harry is, how unconfident he feels. He doesn't really know who he is right now. I thought maybe his training and being sent out with our Jedi on missions later would help him discover who he is, and give him a confidence-boost. Force knows he can't face that Dark Lord after him like this."
"Hmm." Luke grinned at the face of his wife's argument. "Logical."
"I always am," she replied, putting on a very self-arrogant air as she said it—and then she laughed and they shared a quick kiss. "You were right, Skywalker—he just needs some help. The Force guided him to us for a reason."
"And you didn't say any of this to the Council… why, exactly?"
"I wanted to astound you with my wisdom."
"Mm-hm. I'm sure astounded."
"Watch it, farmboy. I may go full-blown "Jedi Master" on you."
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Something had shifted. She didn't know what, she didn't know how, but something had definitely shifted. The news had reported that Harry Potter was missing, and now there were rumors that You-Know-Who had killed him. It was only a matter of time before the Wizarding world would be attacked by the Death Eaters.
But something had changed. Harry Potter wasn't missing—he was gone. Simply gone. She couldn't sense him like she had before, like she could somehow sense everyone else. No, Harry's presence was just missing from, it seemed, the fabric of the universe itself.
Or at least from this universe.
It was a troubling thought—and one she would keep to herself until she figured some of it out.
A/N: Anyone want to guess who it is I wrote there at the end?
