AN: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling and Mass Effect is owned by Bioware (and others probably). Read the books or play the games if you haven't already.
So we're moving Harry right along. There will be an implied leap of time again in this chapter, but not much. We're finally moving right along. Some have asked the time frames that we're talking in the ME universe so let me give you the years that our relevant. This story started off in 2180. Harry finished school some time in 2182. The opening of ME1 happens in 2183.
I appreciate the reviews and comments. I'm not going to lie when I say I didn't expect this story to be received so well. Thank you all for taking the time to write.
CH 8
Harry sat in the open air cafe near Whitehall tower sipping on his coffee. He smiled, thinking back to a time when he wouldn't touch the stuff. Now it seemed a necessary evil. It was a pleasant day in July and Harry felt like being outside for his work. He decided he could be a shut in all during his leave for his "special project" or he could at least "blow the stink off him" as Michael had put it. He was quietly listening to "All Along the Watchtower" while looking at satellite images of Scotland.
"I don't know, Jim. Is there some kind of way out of here?"
Harry started quietly laughing to himself.
"What's so funny son?"
Harry looked up to see Michael in his uniform walk up and pull out a chair from the table. He motioned to the waitress who left and returned with some coffee. He must have been a regular at this cafe for the motion to convey that much.
"Nothing you'd be interested in. How was the beat today?" Harry said before taking a sip of his coffee.
"Quiet and boring as it should be with Kent on the job." the older man said smugly.
"It's probably because there's an alliance soldier with a Phalanx strapped to his hip sitting in this cafe that is keeping the monsters at bay." Harry replied with a grin.
"Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that, son. One day you'll be as tough as old Kent here and you'll have to hear it from some punk about how his crap doesn't stink and how he can out drink a krogan."
"And the punk will have to listen to how things aren't as good as they used to be." Harry then hunched over and continued with a dry creaky voice "When I was your age kids used to have to have an omni-tool and a cell phone and we walked to the skycar pad uphill, both ways, in the snow."
"This conversation makes me sure glad I agreed to let you come visit." Michael replied dryly.
"You're glad and you know it." Harry replied haughtily.
"Well, yeah… anyways what's on the agenda for today?"
"I'm taking another Skycar out to Scotland."
"That's been like, what...four times this week? What are you looking for if you don't mind me asking?"
"My past…" Harry said, trailing off and growing quiet.
"Oh!" Michael said, growing sheepish. "Well… if you find it and need me to put a bullet in it, you let me know."
Harry grinned before replying "I think we established yesterday that I'm more qualified to put a bullet in things."
"Well that was yesterday. We still get rounds two and three later on."
"You just want more time to practice." Harry mumbled under his breath.
"You hush before I put a bullet in your leg." Michael growled.
Harry was flying due north from London in a Skycar he rented for the day. He wasn't sure of the model since they all looked the same to him and he certainly was NOT going to try and poke around under the hood. It was red and that was all that mattered to him. He had figured out where Kings Cross station was after a couple of days spent in the archives in the London Library. Kings Cross was now a fancy shopping center as trains became useless once mass accelerator drives were created. He was now zipping along at high speeds, seeing open grassland dotted with little villages. He chuckled to himself when he realized that he and Ron had made this same trip before their second year in his the flying car they had stolen from Mr. Weasely.
"I hope I land in a tree with a career in boxing this time."
Thinking of his friend brought back a stab of grief as it always did. Harry still missed them greatly, but it wasn't as painful as it used to be. He could now think back on his more enjoyable times without losing himself to brooding. He had his new friends here to thank for that now. Carl would always be oblivious to Harry's brooding and go on talking about grand things, Kasumi would pull him out of his funk with her sharp wit or theft of his linens, Dr. Sanders would offer matronly advice and push him further, and Kent would offer calm reassurance.
Despite his newfound friends, he had a duty to his friends in his time. That was why he was making his journey today. Like so many times this week, Harry was trying to find Hogwarts. He had returned dug around in the ministry for the first week of his leave. He had not turned up anything useful. Oh, there were loads of artifacts still down there, but he had no clue what some of them did or if they could help him. He looked over the books again and found nothing new that he could use for his goal that he hadn't already taken. Harry did grab a few potions texts and a copy of Hogwarts: A History for nostalgia's sake. Harry had started to grow frustrated in his search when he looked at the book in his hand and realized it.
"Hogwarts!"
Harry had recovered satellite photos of several regions he suspected Hogwarts of being in. He could not find an area that matched his memory. He then figured the place must have been unplottable as many magical sites were. He had taken several trips up to several regions before finally settling all of his hopes on this one. He flew for about an hour at high speed before slowing down in the suspected region. Harry spent the next hour seeing nothing that stood out to him. The sun was getting lower in the sky and Harry was about to give up when he saw it. Off in the distance the sun glinted a bit off the reflection of water. Harry turned his skycar in that direction when he saw Black Lake come into view. His heart leaped a bit in his chest.
To be safe, Harry decided to park the Skycar outside of where he thought Hogwarts to be.
"Still not sure if magic will make it act up or not and I can't fix the damn thing if it does."
Harry flew low and thought he saw structures in the distance. He landed in a clearing in what must have been the Forbidden Forest. Once he was out of the Skycar he remembered what used to live in these woods. He removed his M-5 from his belt and continued on with it in his hand. Soon, the trees cleared and Harry drew closer to what must have been Hogsmeade. As he neared, he saw that the buildings had obviously been burnt and there were several broken windows. He peered inside what must have been Honeydukes and saw charred wood and fallen roof timbers. Several of the other buildings around him had much the same look. The site of the Three Broomsticks was nothing but a few burnt posts that managed to remain erect.
Grimly, Harry continued on up the path to Hogwarts. He neared the gates and found the rusted remains of what must have been the gates laying in the dirt. Stepping over them he walked on. He noticed that the grounds had grown wild and he heard animals moving about in the grass. Harry brought his gun up a bit in case any of Aragog's children decided to pay a visit. He walked for a while longer and hadn't seen the towers or great door yet. He was feeling the old pit in his stomach again and was attempting to calm himself. He debated capping his emotions off completely, but that made casting hard. He might need his magic in case something went wrong.
Finally he saw it, but it was not what he had hoped for. Instead of the tall, magnificent towers of his old home, Harry saw a pile of ruin. There seemed to be no stone left on another its destruction was so complete. Harry stood there dazed for several moments. He had hoped he would find the answers he needed here. That he could finally do his DUTY and save his friends! Harry fell to his knees in the grass and pounded the ground in fury.
"No!" he screamed. "It's just not fair! Why did everyone else have to die but me!?"
Finally looking back up he allowed his eyes to scan around. His eyes caught sight of a black shape silhouetted by the sun. Heart hoping in vain, he moved closer to see what it was. Standing in front of him was a statue of a skull eating a serpent. There was no inscription or date. Harry didn't need either to know exactly what it was trying to say.
"They won." Was all Harry could say. All of his hopes of getting back were riding on this place. Hogwarts would have surely had the answers, but it was gone now. The Death Eaters had so fully beaten them, that there was hardly any sign of the once magnificent school.
"Those monsters!" Harry screamed.
In rage he thrust his left hand out and launched a curse at it, fueled with all of the anger and sadness he had filling him. The statue erupted into chunks of metal and flew back, littering the ground. Now it too looked like Hogwarts.
Harry sat on the ground and lay on his back. He looked up into the sky, crying softly to himself.
"Because of me. Because of me. They all died because of me. Because of me…" His murmuring continued past the setting sun.
Harry woke in the night to the sound of a soft crooning and a feeling of peace and contentment over him. Harry opened his eyes and felt for his gun. It was next to him and he brought it up. Activating the light on his omni-tool he scanned the beam around, looking for the source of the music. The light cast upon a familiar site and his heart leapt. Perched atop one of the rocks that once made up Hogwarts was a magnificent red bird.
"Fawkes!"
Harry rushed over to the old bird that had once been a faithful companion to his old headmaster.
"Fawkes, you have no idea how glad I am to see you!"
The bird chirped at Harry and snapped its beak at Harry's hand.
"What do you want?" Harry asked quizzically.
The bird snapped at his hand again and Harry extended it towards the scarlet bird. Suddenly, Fawkes lunged out and bit Harry's finger.
"Ow, what the heck was that for?"
Harry saw that the bird had a bit of his blood on his beak and Fawkes snapped at his hand again.
"No, you're going to bite me again."
Harry saw that the bird looked indignantly at him and snapped again. Harry noticed this time the bird had tears in its eye. Harry tentatively extended the injured hand and Fawkes lowered his head over it. Dropping a single tear onto the cut, it healed instantly. Harry quickly felt the presence of another being in the back of his mind.
"Did you just bond with me?"
The bird chirped brightly at this. Harry didn't know to be joyous or concerned.
"Fawkes, this is great, but I live among muggles now. How will I explain you to anyone?"
Fawkes cocked his head at Harry and seemed to ponder this for a moment. Then Fawkes flapped his wings and flew up to Harry to perch on his shoulder.
"I don't think this will make people less suspicious, Fawkes." Harry said sarcastically.
The bird pecked him on the head.
"Ow, sorry."
Harry then felt Fawkes heat up on Harry's shoulder and start to smolder. Before Harry could say anything, Fawkes disappeared into flame. Harry couldn't see his new companion anywhere, but could feel his presence still in his mind. It felt like a reassuring warmth of a friend you knew was next to you.
There was nothing left for Harry here, he knew that. What he had called his home was gone and he would not find the answers he needed here. He did feel that he was meant to be here for this reason and was glad he came, despite the pain he had felt earlier. He apparated back to the skycar. He was glad he learned a few things the Alliance didn't know like this as it made him harder to hunt should his skills be learned of by the wrong crowd. He climbed into the skycar with thoughts filled with mixed emotions. He had not found anything that helped him return, but he had found a friend. He also knew, however strange his companion was, that he wasn't alone in this galaxy now.
"At least magic didn't abandon everything."
Harry returned in the middle of the night to Michael's place and opened the door. Harry walked into the entryway and past the photos of a younger dark skinned man, a younger Michael surely, and a beautiful young woman, his late wife. Harry wondered why Michael never talked about her. Harry was quietly making his way to the couch he was crashing on for his visit. Michael was waiting up for him in the living room, sitting in his armchair.
"Out late tonight." Michael said flatly.
"Yeah." Harry replied.
There was a pause before Michael asked. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"I found an old friend."
"Good." he said with finality. "And Harry."
"Yeah?"
"Call me next time you stay out late without letting me know."
Harry smiled and started pulling his shirt off to sleep.
"Alright, dad! Jeez!" he said laughingly.
"Whoa, son! Did this friend of yours convince you to get a tattoo?"
"Huh?"
Harry went to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. On his back, spreading from shoulder to shoulder was what appeared to be a bright red tattoo of a phoenix in flight.
The next day Harry was back at the cafe waiting on Michael to finish up his route. He was drinking the usual coffee and reading a copy of Rudyard Kipling's works that his lit professor gave him as a parting gift. He looked up when he noticed a shadow cross his book. He noticed a dark skinned man in Alliance Naval Dress. Harry immediately set his coffee aside and stood at attention.
"Sir!" he belted out.
"At ease soldier."
Harry relaxed, but he remained standing. He wasn't sure what he needed to do as he was on leave and yet brass had someone here addressing him.
"Can I offer you anything, sir?" Harry asked.
"Just your time soldier." the older man replied. "I'm Captain Anderson and I am putting together a special crew."
