Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all its characters belong to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Bloomsbury, and Scholastic respectively. Star Trek is owned by Gene Roddenberry, CBS, and Paramount Pictures. All canon characters, plots, and situations are not owned by me, and I make no profit from this story.

Many thanks to my beta, amazing Insanity-Red, for all the help with this chapter.


~ This chapter is humbly dedicated to the memory of Anton Yelchin ~

(1989-2016)


Chapter 8

Stardate 2258.42 – the Narada

No sooner had Harry finished obliviating Pike than about a dozen heavily-armed Romulans came charging towards them, rifles and disruptors ready to fire. However, thanks to the protective enchantments, the Romulans clearly couldn't see Pike and Harry. Instead of attacking, they stood there, faces contorted in confusion, looking back and forth from the surrounding area to their tricorder-like devices. One of them gesticulated wildly and spoke something in Romulan, but they were all clearly thrown by the discrepancy between their sensors and their own eyes.

Harry knew it was unwise to try to engage this many Romulans who were armed to the teeth. Instead, he grabbed Pike by the arm and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but we've got to Apparate."

They disappeared with a loud crack, leaving even more puzzled Romulans in their wake, and reappeared in the tunnel they had previously occupied on Deck 47.

"How did they find us?" wondered Harry. He looked around, checking to make sure that they were alone, and prepared to set up his protective enchantments around the area again.

"Don't do the protective spells," said Pike quickly. He seemed to be getting more used to Apparition, judging by his less severe reaction. He had his hands on his knees, trying to breathe his way through a bout of dizziness and slight nausea.

"You were right. It's getting somewhat easier to Apparate," he said, straightening up and meeting Harry's eyes. "And to answer your question, they might be tracking your wand. It gives off an energy signature when you use it. Chekov could detect it earlier on the Enterprise, remember?"

"Right, forgot about that. Well, I'll just have to make their job more difficult then," Harry grinned, and then said, "Expecto Patronum!"

Ten identical silvery stags burst out of the tip of his wand and halted right in front of him. After a moment, they all took off in different directions.

"A diversion," Harry explained to Pike. "My Patronuses should emanate the same energy signature. It should confuse the Romulans and buy us more time."

"Very clever, Harry. Well done," said Pike.

"Thanks," beamed Harry. "I suppose we'd better continue with our mission. I'm going to cast a silencing charm on our feet, and we can both fit under the invisibility cloak . . ."

"Won't they be able to track us by this silencing charm and the cloak?"

"I can't guarantee it, but I'm fairly certain that they won't be able to," answered Harry, waving his wand to cast the silencing charm. "This is no ordinary invisibility cloak . . ."

Harry trailed off as he heard footsteps approaching them with incredible speed. He quickly threw the invisibility cloak over himself and Pike. They disappeared just in time – only a moment later, three Romulans rounded the corner and headed straight toward where they were standing.

Ayel, who was heading the group, halted suddenly to take a closer look at the device in his hands. The other two Romulans stopped as well, and turned to look at Ayel questioningly.

"Is there a problem, General?" one of them, by the name of Onel, inquired.

"They have disappeared again," Ayel responded with irritation.

He pressed some buttons on his tricorder, brow furrowing deeper and deeper as he took in the readings. He muttered a few low curses.

"And now they are seemingly in ten different places at the same time on this ship!" he said, now lightly hitting his device in hopes that it was merely malfunctioning – but the readings stayed steady.

"Do you think that there are more of them?" the other Romulan, by the name of Rael, asked.

"I doubt it. If more had boarded the ship at the same time as the human Captain did, we would have known about it by now. They would not hide, only to show up now. They would have joined in damaging our ship long ago. And none in this time possess the technology necessary to board our ship while we are travelling. There must only be two of them, I am certain of it."

"How are they generating this magnetic field in several places at the same time? And how are they disappearing into the thin air?"

"I do not know!" responded Ayel, his anger mounting. "Perhaps they have some sort of portable beaming device –"

"A transporter that produces sound, rather than light?"

"I told you, I do not know!"

"Can we not track them by their heat signature?" asked Onel. "It is different from ours –"

"Do you think I have not already considered it?" exploded Ayel. "The control necessary for fine-tuning that particular sensor was one of the first things that was destroyed by those pathetic humans."

"Maybe we underestimated them," Onel voiced his thoughts out loud, clearly not knowing when to shut up. "Maybe they are not as pathetic as we thought –"

Onel did not get to finish his sentence, as Ayel had thrown his device onto the floor in order to grab him by the throat. Ayel roared and slammed him into the nearest wall.

"Shut your mouth if you wish to keep your tongue!" Ayel shouted.

He relinquished his hold on Onel a moment later, breathing heavily from his outburst. He deliberately calmed himself, saying, "Be grateful Nero was not the one to hear this. You would be dead already."

Ayel then slammed his foot down onto the discarded device, completely shattering it, and turned on his heel to quickly walk away. He narrowly avoided colliding with the cloaked forms of Pike and Harry, who held their breaths for fear of being discovered. Rael and Onel trailed after him.

Harry waited until he couldn't hear them anymore and whispered to Pike, "I guess that answers your question, sir, doesn't it?"

Harry and Pike couldn't understand what had been said between the three Romulans, since the exchange had been entirely in Romulan, but it was clear that Ayel's device had been unable to detect Pike and Harry under the cloak, even with the silencing charm cast on their feet.

"That it does," Pike whispered back, astonished. "And it's Christopher. Or Chris. No need for formalities here, Harry. We are in this together, as equals," he finished with all sincerity.

"A-alright, Chris," said Harry, slightly taken aback. "But even if they can't detect us under the cloak, we should still keep on the move. I know they will be able to track us every time I use my wand, but if we're careful enough, we can continue sabotaging the ship – and hopefully, find the Red Matter. And we might just stay in one piece during the process, given that they have my Patronuses to track as well . . ."

"I trust you, let's do this."

With that, they noiselessly headed out of the tunnel and continued their search for the Red Matter, as well as vital parts of the ship that were vulnerable to explosions, and unsuspecting crew members to incapacitate. Ship-wide announcements in Romulan blasted over the intercom every now and again, presumably informing the crew to be on the lookout for the humans that had yet to be found. The only indication of their whereabouts was the path of destruction they were leaving behind. However, the announcements stopped soon enough, after Harry unknowingly blew up the controls responsible for the intercom system, just as he had done to the body-heat detection array. The Romulans were reduced to speaking through communicators.

Eventually, Pike and Harry arrived at what resembled an engineering deck. Harry promptly sent some Confringos and Reductos at the equipment pointed out to him by Pike, causing an explosion that would make even Seamus Finnigan proud. A moment later, all hell broke loose.

The alarm blared pointlessly in the background as the ship abruptly halted. The Narada came out of warp so quickly that everything was violently tossed around – including people. Pike – who had been standing guard while Harry was destroying the equipment – stood closest to the edge of the deck's platform. When the ship jolted, he was thrown over the edge to land far below on another platform, completely unconscious. Harry flew sideways and crashed into a wall, his head and arm both hit severely, and collapsed onto the floor a moment later, invisibility cloak no longer covering him entirely. He barely managed to move enough to avoid being crushed by a large, metal tube that fell from above – only to have other pieces of debris rain down on him. One piece hit him painfully on the head, and everything went black.


"Captain Nero, the ship's intercom system has been disabled," reported Nero's communications officer.

Nero punched the command chair in anger, as he yelled, "I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!"

By now, he knew that it wasn't Pike who was causing all this damage – no one could do this with a single phaser. The ship had lost power on several decks, as well as its transporter and cloaking abilities. Several sensors were disabled, making it difficult for them to track the intruders. The Narada's tractor beams also were not functional. If they didn't find the humans soon – or at least the human responsible for all this damage – they would run the risk of losing the ship completely, if only temporarily, until the vessel could repair itself. But such repairs would take time – and time was a luxury Nero could not afford any longer.

"Have you located them yet?" demanded Nero.

"Negative, sir," reported another crew member. "We are doing our best to track the energy signatures, but so far all we have found are animal-based holographic projections of some sort in various locations on the ship. I have been attempting to track the path of destruction left behind the humans. If my calculations are correct, they are getting close to the engineering deck."

Panic replacing rage, Nero determinedly turned to leave the Bridge, "I am going after them myself. Inform the crew members looking for our 'guests' to go to engineering, immediately."

"Yes, sir."

Nero never made it to the engineering deck. The sheer size of the ship slowed him considerably. By the time he was almost there, the Narada dropped out of warp, and Nero was tossed headfirst into a terminal. He lost consciousness. When he came to, he was informed that Christopher Pike had been found, unconscious, on the deck below engineering. There was no sign of the other human, except for a strange-looking stick found in the wreckage of the engineering deck.


Stardate 2258.42 - U.S.S. Enterprise

He was gazing unseeingly out of the window on the observation deck, which was currently mercifully empty, his hands clasped behind his back. Thanks to the connection that he had with Amanda and Sarek, he felt, rather than heard them walk through the doors.

"Spock! There you are," spoke Amanda, concerned.

Spock half-turned his body to see his parents – his mother, with worried expression on her face, and his father, who, just like Spock, had both of his hands clasped behind his back, his face devoid of any emotions.

"We've been looking for you ever since we heard that announcement. Nyota sent us a message about what happened," she looked expectantly at her son, waiting for him to say something.

"Speak your mind, Spock," prompted Sarek, when Spock failed to respond, merely continuing his long stare out the window.

"That would be unwise," murmured Spock.

"That which is necessary is never unwise," said Sarek firmly.

"I am as conflicted as I once was as a child," Spock admitted after a slight pause, closing his eyes. "The human and the Vulcan in me battle for dominance – my emotions and my logic. I can never be without one or the other."

"Oh, Spock," Amanda stepped forward, taking her son's hands into hers and turning him to face her. "You are trying to be someone you are not. You are a child of two worlds, and always will be. Embrace it."

"Acknowledge your emotions, don't ignore them," Hermione's words came to his mind.

"I feel anger for the one who took our home away from us and murdered our people," said Spock, raw pain evident in his voice. "An anger I cannot control."

"Then do not try to. Use that anger against him." At Spock's confused look, Amanda continued, "The crew is going after him, and they will need you. You need to do this together. You need each other. It's the only way you will beat him – together."

"In a time like this you need to not ignore your emotions, but acknowledge them, and then channel them into doing something positive, something constructive," Hermione had said earlier.

He had been mistaken to think that throwing himself into commanding the ship and taking it to the Laurentian system was the appropriate outlet for his suppressed emotions. He needed to go in the opposite direction – not away from Nero, but toward him. Toward the one responsible for the genocide of his species.

Spock gazed at his mother for a moment, grateful for her presence here, for her unwavering faith in him, and for her unconditional love towards him. He then nodded and briefly embraced her, before turning to leave.

"Spock," his father's voice stopped him in his tracks. "I know that I have never said this, since it is not customary in our culture. But I am grateful for you."

Spock was somewhat startled by his father's unexpected admission, and turned to look at him. Vulcan children were all vaguely aware that they were precious to their parents, even if only because it was logical to be protective of one's offspring, and because the identity of a parent was partially constructed by their children. However, Sarek's statement was spoken directly, without any logical rhetoric, and almost – almost – with emotion. And therefore, it was different. To hear that his father was grateful for Spock was the same as hearing his mother say, "I love you."

Something snapped inside of Spock and a huge weight fell off his shoulders. He felt lighter and was now full of determination. He took one last look at his parents, nodded, and purposefully strode out of the observation deck. He had a Romulan to hunt down.


"Anything from Pike and Potter?" inquired Kirk, glancing at his communications officer.

"No, sir," responded Uhura, as she approached a small cluster of senior officers gathered around a terminal in an urgent strategy session. "I've been monitoring all channels and frequencies, and there is nothing."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," said Kirk, now turning to Sulu. "Can we catch up to them?"

"Not a chance," answered the helmsman. "We've already wasted enough time going on a detour to the Laurentian system. And even if we didn't, they are travelling a lot faster than us. Like Chekov said earlier, they would have to drop out of warp for us to catch up to them . . ."

At this moment, the excited Russian himself made his way towards the group from where he had been working at one of the tall translucent digital screens at the back of the Bridge, practically bouncing as he went.

"Keptin Kirk! Keptin Kirk! Nero's ship dropped out of varp!" he exclaimed happily.

"Where are they, Chekov?" Kirk's expression changed rapidly from pensive to hopeful.

Chekov pulled up the image on the terminal around which the group was gathered, and declared, "Ze exact coordinates are 47-23-18-34, sir."

"But there's nothing nearby," noted Sulu, looking at the screen in confusion. "It doesn't make sense why they stopped there. They aren't even in the Sol system."

"Unless they didn't do it on purpose," spoke Hermione, coming to join the group. Upon seeing the confused looks directed at her, she responded simply, "Harry."

Relief was evident in her features. Harry was alive!

"You mean he stopped the ship? How?" Kirk asked in astonishment.

"I told you, a lot can be done with these," she answered, pulling out her wand, a small smile gracing her lips. "A few well-placed Reductos, Bombardas, and Confringos would do the trick."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Kirk couldn't help but smile back as he shook his head.

"And whatever the hell are you talking about now?" McCoy asked in exasperation.

"Variations of the Blasting Curse. You know, to cause explosions, blow things up, and reduce them to ashes?"

"Wow! You can do zat viz a simple stick? I mean, vand!" Chekov was in awe.

Hermione just nodded in response.

"You people are scary, you know that?" commented McCoy. "Remind me to never piss you off."

"If Potter can do all that, why didn't he do it sooner?" interjected Sulu.

"I don't know. Maybe he couldn't. I mean, that ship is huge. It might have taken them a while to find the right thing to destroy in order to stop it. Or, something else happened . . ." Hermione trailed off, furrowing her brow, tone slightly worried.

"Well, it doesn't matter, does it?" Kirk said. "He did it now, it's all that matters."

He turned to Scotty, who appeared behind his shoulder, dressed in the red of operations bearing the dual silver rank bands on his sleeves – one thick and one thin, representing Lieutenant Commander – and having sourced a towel from somewhere to dry himself off.

"Mr. Scott, can you get us to warp factor 4? We need to get there ASAP."

"Aye, Captain," replied Scotty confidently. "I can do that. I'll get to work on it right away."

With that Scotty left for the engineering deck, eager to get his hands on the Enterprise's 'ample nacelles.'

"I foresee a complication though," pointed out Sulu. "Their sensors will detect us, and we'll be dead before we can fire a single torpedo at them."

"A direct confrontation is out of question," agreed Kirk. "We need to remain unseen, infiltrate their ship, and get the black hole device along with Pike and Potter."

"How can we remain unseen? There is absolutely nowhere to hide."

"I can help with that," said Hermione confidently.

"How?" asked Kirk.

"Fidelius Charm. It's a very powerful spell that can be used to conceal a secret inside a single person, or a Secret Keeper. It is usually used to protect a location. The structure or object protected by this spell at a specific location is invisible, intangible, unplottable, and soundproof. And no one will be able to find out about it, unless the Secret Keeper voluntarily divulges the information. Pavel, you mentioned some coordinates to specify the location of Nero's ship?"

"Y-yes?" the Russian responded uncertainly.

"If you could give me the coordinates of where you think the Enterprise would be after we . . . erm . . . drop out of warp," it sounded so strange for her to say this, "I could cast the Fidelius Charm on this ship with that location in mind, and as soon as this ship reaches those coordinates, it will become invisible to the enemy in every way."

Silence greeted Hermione's words, as everyone stared at her in awe. She was getting a bit uncomfortable with it, and she started hesitantly, looking at the faces around her, "I mean, I thought it was a good idea, but if you don't think so –"

"No! No, that's a great idea!" exclaimed Kirk. "Mr. Sulu, Mr. Chekov, can you calculate the exact coordinates of where we would make a full stop – still close enough to beam aboard their ship, but not so close that they will have time to attack us, since we will be visible to them until we reach those coordinates."

"Aye Captain!" responded Sulu.

"Aye, Keptin! But zere iz anozer problem. Zey can still track our plazma exhaust, residual anti-protons, and energy distortions geneerated by our ship. Zey might think we haff some kind of cloaking technology – you know, where it iz still possible to bump into ze cloaked structure – and fire in our general vicinity. Will we get hit?" Chekov looked at Hermione expectantly, waiting for answer.

"No," Hermione replied confidently. "Fidelius Charm works in a such way that it not only hides the object from being seen, but it warps the reality to compensate for the object's absence. The object is simply not there. Unless, of course, the location of it is disclosed by the Secret Keeper. It's hard to explain. The laws of physics don't apply to it."

"Indeed," agreed Sulu, impressed, as he and Pavel left to make calculations and run simulations.

"How big of an object can you hide with this . . . um . . . charm?" asked Kirk.

"Well, I have never used it on anything bigger than my parents' new property, which is fairly large . . . But I am confident that I can hide this starship with it. I wouldn't try on something the size of Nero's ship, though. The Enterprise is smaller, right?"

"Many times."

"Then it will work."

Kirk nodded and then asked, "What do you need, so you can get this done?"

"Just my wand, the coordinates, and a Secret Keeper."

"Can you have two?" asked Kirk worriedly, glancing at Sulu and Chekov, who were hard at work at their terminals.

"Um, I'm not sure. To my knowledge, it has never been attempted before. I think that whoever finds those coordinates first should be the Secret Keeper and then tell the other. I mean, he can reveal it to as many people as he wants, he just has to do it voluntarily."

"That's great!" Kirk excitedly rubbed his hands together.

"And I just have to review a few things," said Hermione.

She pulled out her locket and opened it to take out her miniature beaded bag. She enlarged the bag, and non-verbally summoned her copy of the Advanced Book of Spells from its depths.

"Just to make sure," she said, beaming, as she held the book to her heart.

"How did you . . . how did a book that size get into that bag? I mean, I saw you put Potter's clothes in there earlier . . ."

"Undetectable Extension Charm. Very useful. I can store a lot of things in this little bag," she said smiling.

At that moment, a ball of pure white light suddenly burst through the view screen and slowly moved towards the center of the Bridge, where it morphed into a silvery white stag. A few people shrieked in shock.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, dropping the book she was holding in surprise.

The stag, as if hearing her voice, walked towards her and began to speak with Harry's voice, "Hermione, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but we need your help. Nero is on his way to Earth, and after that, he plans to destroy all the other Federation planets. He used something called 'Red Matter' to destroy Vulcan, and Pike and I are currently looking for it in hopes of disabling it before this ship reaches Earth. However, we don't really have a method of getting this information directly, so we're currently wandering around this ship blindly. We'll try and do our best to stop or slow down this ship. I don't know how, but you need to get here, or a lot of people will die." There was a slight pause, and then, "I'm sorry to put you in danger again. I love you." And the stag disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

Tense silence settled on the Bridge. Astonished faces looked to the place where the stag was, then at Hermione, then at each other, trying to figure out if they had finally reached the point where they'd all officially gone mad.

"Just to confirm that I am not going crazy – did everyone else see that stag speaking with Potter's voice?" asked Uhura, dumbfounded, rubbing her eyes.

Several people nodded in confirmation.

"No, Nyota, you are completely sane. That was Harry's Patronus," explained Hermione, bending down to pick up her fallen book.

Kirk beat her to it. He offered her the book, and their fingertips brushed as she took it. A jolt of electricity went through Kirk. He blinked at Hermione in confusion, his thoughts wandering completely off the situation at hand.

"Thank you, James," Hermione said, bringing Kirk back to the Bridge.

"Um, you're welcome," responded Kirk, forcing his thoughts back to the present.

"So, your first name is Nyota?" Kirk addressed Uhura, slightly gleeful at finally having discovered his communications officer's first name.

"Indeed, it is, Captain," confirmed Spock, who had appeared on the Bridge at the same time as the Patronus' manifestation. Everyone had been too busy observing the unusual phenomenon, and had thus failed to notice the Vulcan quietly standing by the doors and taking in this new development.

Shocked stares followed Spock, as he moved fluidly through the Bridge and came to stop in front of Kirk and Hermione.

"Captain, I would like to submit my candidacy for your away team to the Narada."

"No, Spock, I won't allow you to do that."

"Vulcans and Romulans share a common ancestry," Spock said simply, with nothing in his tone indicating that any hostility had ever existed between them. "Our commonality will make it easier for me to access the ship's computer and locate the Red Matter. Also, my mother is human, which makes Earth the only home I have left."

Kirk met Spock's gaze – there was no trace of that anger, which only a while ago had been seething and fermenting underneath Spock's calm exterior like poison, consuming him from the inside. Instead, Spock looked determined, professional, and full of renewed purpose. Kirk understood that Spock felt a personal need to go on the mission, in order to resolve his pent up anger against the one who destroyed his home planet. After all, Kirk was planning to go on the Narada for much the same reasons – for closure, and to bring his father's murderer to justice.

"I'm going as well," declared Hermione.

"No!" Kirk and Spock said at the same time and exchanged startled looks.

"You heard Harry, he needs me there!" Hermione insisted, ignoring the duo's simultaneous response and slightly puzzled looks.

"Hermione, I think that you should stay on the Enterprise. Your assistance may be required here," Spock, the logical one, explained. "If I am to be on the away team, I can fulfill Mr. Potter's request in your stead."

"I understand that, Spock. But you are forgetting one important detail. Assuming that Harry and Captain Pike are both alive and not captured by the time we get there," her voice shook ever so slightly as she said this, "you won't be able to find them without me. Since Harry managed to stop the ship, the next logical step would be to continue searching for the Red Matter quietly, without attracting too much attention to themselves. For Harry that would mean not using his wand, since the sensors can detect it. That would leave one option, which is the use of the cloak of invisibility. It is magical, yes, but it is also one of the Deathly Hallows –"

"Deathly what?" Kirk interrupted incredulously. "That doesn't sound very –"

"Not now, James," Hermione admonished. "As I was saying, it is one of the Deathly Hallows and operates differently from other magical objects, and therefore it should be invisible to their sensors. Harry and I over the last two years have also worked on ways to make the cloak completely undetectable by any magical means. We were successful. But we also built in a fail-safe – a spell of our own invention that allows only a handful of people to track the cloak. I am currently the only one who will be able to find them on that ship."

"Your logic is sound," conceded Spock, nodding and looking between Hermione and Kirk. "And if I am to be looking for the Red Matter, we would need at least one more person to locate and bring back Captain Pike and Mr. Potter."

Kirk sighed, threw up his arms, and said in exasperation, "Fine! Fine, you can go. But I'm coming with you two as well," he declared with the tone of finality.

Spock considered this for a moment, and said, "I would cite Regulation, but I know that you will simply ignore it."

Kirk suppressed a grin, a small smile still escaping his lips, "See? We are getting to know each other," he said, slapping Spock on the shoulder, as he strode past him.

There was work to do – spells to cast, calculations to make, plans to finalize.


"Jim, a word, please?" said McCoy as he approached Kirk, who was working at one of the terminals, reviewing the data and finalizing their plans.

"Go ahead, Bones," responded Jim distractedly, never taking his eyes off the screen as he continued to tap away at it with his deft fingers.

"Are you sure about all of this? I mean, this whole thing is beyond insane."

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of that going on today."

"Yes, but hiding a damn starship with a spell?"

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but we really don't have any other option right now, do we? And I trust her."

"Trust her? Jim! You barely know her!"

"I know, Bones, I know. I can't explain it. I just have this gut feeling that I can trust her."

"I don't know . . . You sure the feeling isn't somewhere below the gut?" asked McCoy, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Kirk finally took his eyes off the terminal to look at his friend, then rolled his eyes at him, "Bones, it's not like that, okay?"

"Sure, it isn't," the doctor didn't sound convinced. "What if this spell doesn't work and Nero blows us all up to the next century?"

"It'll work," Kirk said confidently, looking the doctor straight in the eyes. "She looks like she knows what she's doing, so I'll just trust her on that."

McCoy sighed, "She sure knows how to use that wand of hers, I'll give you that. And she's a very nice person, but this whole magic thing is making my head spin."

"Trust me, Bones, I know what you mean. Half of the stuff she talks about goes right over my head. But I know that she won't do anything to harm or put anyone in danger here. I just know it. If she said she can do it, then I believe her. If you don't trust her, then trust me, okay?"

"It's not that I don't trust her . . . It's just . . . You know me – I tend to be rather skeptical. And magic? It isn't supposed to be real!"

"Yeah, I know. It'll be alright, Bones," said Kirk with a faint smile, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

His gaze suddenly shifted towards the doors of the turbolift, which opened up with a hiss to admit Hermione and Chekov.

The Russian, being the Secret Keeper, went with the witch for the casting of the Fidelius Charm. Seeing that they were back, the task must have been completed. Something didn't feel right, though. Hermione looked rather pale, and Chekov had one arm around her waist as he guided her towards her chair.

Kirk quickly made a beeline for them, McCoy trailing behind him.

"What's wrong?" Kirk asked, concerned.

"Nothing's wrong, James," Hermione responded weakly, as she pulled out a vial of something from her magical bag and took a drink.

"Bullshit. You don't look so good . . ."

"You know, James, it's always so lovely to see you –"said Hermione sarcastically.

"Seriously though, what happened?" interrupted McCoy, who had already pulled out a small bioscanner out of his pocket and was back in 'doctor' mode. "You vitals are way off."

"Nothing happened. Pavel and I have cast the Fidelius Charm – it just took a lot out of me."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Kirk.

"Well, I must have slightly underestimated the size of this ship. You see, there's only so much magic one can use all at the same time. It isn't limitless. You eventually have to rest and recuperate. And casting a Fidelius charm, which is a rather complex spell, on an object this size is like performing a very vigorous workout for a prolonged period of time. I'm just slightly out of energy," explained Hermione.

"There's no way I'm letting you go on that ship –"

"James –"

"No. You stay here to rest and recover," said Kirk with the tone of finality. "Spock and I will find Pike and Potter. Somehow."

"James –"

"No!"

"James Tiberius Kirk!" exploded Hermione, her hair crackling with electricity. "Would you just shut it for a moment and listen?"

Kirk was stunned to silence and Hermione continued, her features softening, "We need to work together, and not argue like this. Without me, it will take you a lot longer to find Harry and Captain Pike. And time is something we don't have an abundance of. This whole mission might fail if you linger there longer than necessary and a lot of people will die. I just took an Invigoration Draught, so I'll be fine. I'll just have to be careful how much magic I use for the time being. That's all. And I am going over to that ship and no one can stop me, because Harry needs me!" finished Hermione defiantly, crossing her arms on her chest.

Kirk gave her a long look, and said softly, sighing in defeat, "You truly are a family."

"Family is not always just blood, James," said Hermione gently.

Kirk nodded. Of course, he knew that. After all, Christopher Pike was like a father to him, despite the fact that he was not even remotely related to Jim.

Thinking about his mentor in danger on Nero's ship brought back Kirk's focus, as he said sternly, "You are very stubborn, you know that?"

"So are you, Captain," responded Hermione, not even missing a beat.

It was the first time that Hermione called him 'Captain.' Kirk had no idea why, but somehow, hearing the title coming from her was different, more special, right. Kirk grinned at her despite himself, and, needing to shake off the odd sudden feelings, turned to leave. They would be in position soon, and he wanted to finalize a few more things. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was starting to really like this witch.


"Main transporter room, we are in position at the exact coordinates," Sulu informed.

"Really? Fine job, Mr. Sulu. Well done," responded Scotty, pleasantly surprised, as the doors of the transporter room hissed open and Kirk, Spock, Uhura, McCoy, and Hermione walked through them.

"How are we Scotty?" asked Kirk.

"Unbelievably, sir, the ship is in position. And we're still alive. I cannae believe I'm saying this, but that spell is working!"

Kirk took over Scotty's communications, paused for a moment, carefully considering what he was about to say, and reopened the channel to the Bridge.

"Mr. Sulu, if things go south, you fire on that ship, even if we are still onboard. And then you haul ass out of here as fast as Engineering can push the engines," Kirk said, glancing at Scotty.

By now, having analyzed what information they were able to gather in those few minutes before the destruction of Vulcan, they knew that the Red Matter was extremely volatile and able to create a black hole, if ignited.

"That's an order."

"Yes, sir."

"Otherwise, we'll contact the Enterprise when we're ready to be beamed back."

"Good luck."

Kirk didn't know what to say in response, so he said nothing, and followed Spock and Uhura to the transporter pad. It took him a few seconds to realize that the two were having what could be described as 'a moment.' They were standing very close to each other, foreheads touching, as they exchanged a whispered conversation between them. Then Uhura reached up and gave Spock a kiss, to which the Vulcan responded. Kirk stared in bewilderment at this open display of affection and then turned to look at Bones and Hermione, who were still standing by the doors and quietly talking about something, while the doctor was running a tricorder over the witch one last time and giving her some of his own injections to boost her energy levels after casting the Fidelius Charm.

McCoy, despite his skepticism regarding magic, seemed to have taken a liking to the witch. She was helping him in the Medbay earlier, and the doctor was very impressed with her skills, intelligence, and with how fast she was picking everything up. Besides, even though he himself would never admit it, Bones was a highly compassionate person, who deeply cared for those entrusted to him. Simply because she was on his ship, he had begun to feel personally responsible for Hermione's well-being as well.

McCoy finally finished with whatever he was doing and stowed away his medical equipment into his medkit.

"As soon as you get back, you are to go straight to the Medbay and stay there until I allow you to leave," instructed McCoy sternly. "And no complaining!"

"Yes, sir!" Hermione smiled, as she mock saluted him.

Then she suddenly gave him a hug, which McCoy hesitantly returned. He clearly didn't expect this, if dumbfounded look on his face was any indication.

"Thank you – for everything," she said earnestly.

"Er . . . You're welcome. Just doing my job, darlin'," replied McCoy, as Hermione pulled away.

He didn't let go of her, however, as he said the next part, looking straight into her eyes, "This ain't good-bye. I'll see you soon."

The witch nodded and walked towards the transporter pad, coming to stand next to Kirk.

"Hey, don't I get one of those?" Kirk spoke, half turning towards her and sounding slightly insulted. Why did Bones get to have a hug and he didn't? "You know, for good luck?"

"You'll get one if we make it back," promised Hermione.

Jim turned to her all the way, his tone serious, and blue eyes penetrating, "Not ifwhen." He might have been trying to convince her of this as much as he was trying to convince himself. "And I will hold you to that," he said with a wink, to which Hermione just rolled her eyes.

Uhura by now was standing next to McCoy, and everyone was ready for beaming.

"Okey-dokey, then," announced Scotty from behind his terminal. "If there's any common sense in the design of the enemy ship, I should be putting you somewhere in the Cargo Bay. Shouldn't be a soul in sight."

"Energize!" ordered Jim, and familiar golden spheres encircled them, as they disappeared.