Beta'ed by: Mad about the Boro
Chapter 13
Harry watched from the shadows as the big Alpha male Dragon slept at the mouth of the cave.
This was not the first time he saw him, but it was the first time he really stopped and took a good look at him. He must have been eighty foot long, from tip of the nose to the spike on his tail. He was as big as a house, and his claws were a good five foot long. He had killed some pretty big beasts in his life, but he was sure this was the biggest thing he ever saw.
He took a second to pray to the Mother Goddess, before he activated the rune stones under each of the mother dragons.
Instantly wards sprang up, covering the mother dragons in a silencing ward. Switching the ward stones for the eggs had been as easy as casting a switching spell. Now, all he had to do was the actual killing.
He slid the black crystal sword from it's scabbard and cringed when the blade made contact with the wood on the inside edge of the scabbard. He was never too fond of this sword, it was very blade heavy, but it did the best cutting through the dragon hide he used to test his collection on. It was only now, when he was hovering above the huge dragon's head in the shadows of the cave ceiling, that he remembered the blade he made for his judgment. He should have took that one instead of this sword. It would have definitely got the job done, but it was too late now.
He placed his light saber hilt in his teeth and took the black sword with both hands. If this didn't work, he would only have a split second to light his saber and plunge it into the beast.
He counted down from three and came out of the shadows. He fell ten feet from the cave ceiling and used the momentum of the fall, and all of his weight, to drive the blade straight down into the dragons skull, embedding it to the hilt.
In a flash, he let go of the sword and grabbed his saber, holding it at the ready just in case the dragon was still alive, but he didn't need it. The huge beast flinched once and his eyes opened, before they rolled back in it skull.
Harry pulled the sword out of the dragon and jumped back into the shadows. He held his breath and waited for anything to happen, but nothing did. The sleeping mothers stayed asleep, unaware of their alpha's death.
Harry let out his breath and ghosted up to the first mother. With the Alpha dead, the mothers were easy targets. At half the size, and with thinner hides, he was able to kill them all without them even waking up. When the last one was felled, he took the next two hours rendering the ten dragons down.
As the sun was coming up over the black forest, Harry was loading the last few crates on into an expanded trunk.
Charlie was sitting down to his morning coffee when he heard a knock at his cabin door. Harry greeted him tiredly.
"You look like hell. Are you ready for the hunt tonight?" He asked as he handed him a cup of black coffee.
"It's done. This crate has all thirty dragon eggs under stasis charm." He said, placing a shrunken crate on the table.
"How did you… but there's not a scratch on you. How did you manage to kill ten dragons?" Charlie asked in awe.
"I did it swiftly, while they slept. Just because we needed the hides, doesn't mean we had to make them suffer. I tried to kill them as quickly and as painlessly as I could. I respect almost every creature, but I hold dragons in the highest regard. The hides taken from these majestic beasts will protect all of my Jedi Sentinels, and the meat will feed the school for a long time. I plan on displaying most the bones in the castle as well as the lobby of the ministry. I'm going to turn the claws into knives and swords. The rest is going to be given to Severus for potions ingredients. Nothing is going to be wasted. I'm even going to give the brains to the goblins as it's a very prized delicacy to them and it will earn Andy some good will with the bank." Harry said, draining his cup.
"I'm glad to hear you say that. I hate dragon hunters, but I really hate dragon hunters that kill Welsh Greens and just take the head as a trophy. It's such a waste." Charlie said.
"I hear you." Harry agreed, starting to feel the drain of his early morning hunt. "I need to get back to the castle. I'll see you around Charlie." He said, shaking his hand before vanishing.
Luminara rolled out of bed a little after seven. She got dressed and let Leanna get situated on her shoulder before she left the bedroom.
She checked on her daughter and found her asleep, still holding little Rose. She didn't know what they were going to do with the girl, but she had a feeling she was going to be coming with them back to their universe.
She made her way downstairs and to her disappointment, the kitchen was empty. She was about to call out for Harry when she spotted him sleeping on the couch, still dressed in his clothes.
"Harry, dear. I think you should head up to bed." She said softly.
Harry's eyes blinked open. "Wha?… Oh yeah. I'll go do that." He said, staggering to his feet.
"Maybe take a shower first, if you can stand long enough. You smell like blood and sulfur." She said, wrinkling her nose.
"Really? I guess when your covered in it, you kind of get used to the smell." He said, dragging his feet as he made his way to the stairs. "Oh, before I forget. Can you sort these crates out? Potions ingredients go to Severus and the rest, aside from the black crates, goes to Minerva. She'll know what to do with it. I made a list of everything inside the crates, so they can figure it out. I'm going to go take a nap. I'll be down in a few hours." He said, before walking up the stairs.
"Let's see what we have?" She said, expanding the trunk. Inside was about a hundred crates. "This is going to take some time Leanna." She said, pulling the list off the inside of the trunk lid.
In a different part of the castle, Amelia was reading the report Severus slipped under her door. It was not good for the Dursleys.
The test results from the sample of the black vomit he took last night was enough to get them jail time. If they would have waited just a few more hours before getting the girl, she would have died. As it was, she still could relapse if she was not watched closely for the next year. She would need costly treatments for the damage done to her system, and her core needed to be monitored for any signs of damage.
The report was bad, and the fact that they knew about magic and did nothing was worse. It was one thing to not know at all, but to willingly leave the girl alone to die, when you knew she was suffering from a curable magical virus, was going to get them real jail time.
Then there was the legality of Harry getting custody of her.
Technically he, Harry Potter, nephew of the Dursley family and cousin to Rose, was dead. Which means she would go to Dudley, her twenty-two year old muggle brother, and a criminal out on parole for assault and battery.
She was tempted to just let Harry take the girl and charge them with a missing person case, but she couldn't bend the rules like that. Plus, the girl was going to have to stay here in this universe for at least a year so they could keep an eye on her health.
This was a nightmare, she was lucky she knew the Minister for Magic, because this was going to take a few letters from the Minister's desk for this all to work out.
"It's that bad, love?" Sirius asked, coming out the bathroom dressed in his teaching robes.
"Worse. How would you feel about Lily having a sister?" She asked.
"I'm okay with it as long as you are, and Harry is." He said, dropping into the chair next to her.
"I knew there was a reason I married you." She said, kissing him.
"So, Rose is going to be staying with us?" He asked.
"I think it's the best option. Her health needs to be monitored by Severus for at least a year, and it will be easier if she was in the castle. Plus, Lily would have someone to play with, and later the two of them will have each other when they take lessons at the Temple." She said, smiling.
"The Temple? Really? What happened to Lily having the same education you had?" He asked.
"I saw Harry work with the Cadets. It was sad. I want my little girl to be strong enough to take on anyone and live. I want her to be strong, like Harry's daughter. She's a nice, smart girl, and she could probably kill every one of my Aurors. I want that for Lily. No matter what she chooses to do with her life when she gets older. If she wants to be a teacher like her daddy, then she'll be a teacher. If she wants to be an Auror, then she'll be an Auror. But she'll have that training too. I want to know that, no matter what happens to us, she'll be okay." She said, getting misty eyed.
"Wow, Harry really did a number on you, didn't he?" Sirius said, holding her.
"He didn't do a damn thing beside remind me how bad things can get. We live in a dangerous world Sirius. Everyone is armed with a stick that can kill, and no matter how good things are now, the undertone of blood purity is still there. I'm an Auror, Sirius, and we're both in the Order. If we go to war again, one or both of us could end up dead. I want my daughter to be trained. I'm also going to put together a team and we're going to spend a few weeks at the Temple too. I want a first response strike team." She told him.
"I see your point. I agree with you a hundred percent." He said, looking haunted. "I guess we all forgot how bad the last war was. Probably because we weren't on the front lines, Harry was, but I remember the first war."
Little Lily walked out of her room, rubbing her eyes. "Mum, do you think I can play with Asajj's cat again today?" She asked, crawling into her mother's lap.
"I don't know sweetie. You're going to have to ask Asajj. I'm sure she'll be spending some time here today." She said, kissing her on the forehead.
"I like Saber, he's a nice cat. He's not mean like Mrs. Norris. Mum, can I get a cat like Saber?" She asked, looking hopeful.
"We'll see. For now, let's get you dressed, then Mummy has to go to work." She said, laughing.
Petunia listened at the door to her daughter's room. She didn't hear her daughter making noise. When she didn't hear anything she got a sick feeling in her chest. She didn't love the little freak, but she didn't want her to die either.
She wanted to take her to the doctors, she was even willing to take her to the freak doctors, but her husband had forbidden her from doing so. He said freaks didn't die from colds and to just let her ride it out.
She opened the door and looked in, expecting to see a dead body. Instead she saw a roll of parchment. She screamed for Vernon.
"What?" He yelled, coming to see what all the fuss was about.
"She's gone and there's a note." She said, shaking.
"Good. Maybe the freaks took her. She was a mistake to begin with and now we don't have to feed her, or look after her." He said, grabbing the note. "Freaks can't even use a piece of A4..." He muttered as he broke the seal. "What!" he said, his eyes getting bigger.
"What?" She asked, fearing the worst.
"Some freak named Potter says he has her, and he says he's coming back to have words with us." He said, mockingly. "Just let him come, I'll show him." He said, handing her the note and walking out of the room.
She looked at the note and all the colour drain from her face when she saw the name Harry Potter. She knew that was Lily's boy, and she knew what the freaks were capable of doing to them. They needed to run now!
"Vernon, we need to run away right now! You have no idea what these freaks can do to us. They can kill us with just a few words! I've heard Lily talk about it!" She screeched.
"Relax pet, they can't do a damn thing to us." He said, getting his things together for work.
As he was walking to the front door, someone rang the bell. He opened the door and saw two men and a woman dressed in red robes.
"Freaks! You think you can threaten us, well you have another thing coming!" He yelled turning purple. Tonks, having heard the whole story from her aunt this morning, took one look at the fat muggle yelling at her and decided he was going to resist arrest and she was going to like it.
"Travers, feel free to treat this one like a hostile." She said, before turning to Vernon. "Vernon and Petunia Dursley, you are both under arrest for child endangerment and attempted murder of a minor witch." She said.
That's when things turned bad. Vernon roared and lunged for Tonks. She sidestepped him. Travers grabbed his right arm as he flew past her, and used his own weight to put him down on the walk way.
Petunia screamed and lunged at Ross who drew his wand and stunned her, but the power of the spell was way over powered, because of the adrenalin rushing through his body, so the spell launched her through the air and into a wall, breaking a few bones.
Vernon, having seen his wife get blown up, rolled over and punched Travers in the face, knocking the big Auror out cold. Tonks, by this point knew she had lost all control of the situation, drew her wand, stunned Vernon and activated her emergency ring.
In seconds, ten Aurors popped to the scene of the call, including Amelia. She took one look at the house and the three people on the floor, before she started barking orders.
"Jones, Breton, Green, and Chen, I want the scene warded and the neighbours wiped. Davis, Finnigan, and Greengrass, take the muggles to the Ministry and get them looked at."
She turned to Tonks. "Report Auror!"
Tonks flinched. Her aunt was pissed. This was not going to be good.
"We executed the arrest warrant for the two. The man, Vernon lunged at me. I side stepped him and he fell. The woman attacked Ross and he hit her with a stunner. Vernon punched Travers, knocking him out, so I put him down with a stunner and called for backup, sir!" She said, standing at attention.
"Good job, Auror. Let's get this cleaned up and get back to the office." Amelia said, shocking Tonks to her core.
"Good job, sir?"
"Yes Auror, you followed procedure, and called for backup when Travers was downed." She said, patting her on the arm. By nine o'clock, nothing was out of place and the neighborhood was quiet and peaceful.
Harry was called in to her office and she explained the situation to him about Rose and her condition. The trial was set for five o'clock that same day, in a muggle court, thanks to a few calls made by Andy, and by the end of the day the Dursleys were sentenced to ten years in a Muggle prison. Rose was now a Black by name and Amelia was given custody.
When they got back to the castle, they found Asajj, Rose, Lily, and Saber laying on the floor in Lily's room, playing with dolls.
"Rose, sweetie. I have to tell you some things." Amelia said.
"What's going on?" She asked, coming to stand by Amelia.
"We arrested your parents today for hurting you." She said calmly, trying to judge her reaction.
"Okay. Does this mean I don't have to go back to them?" Rose asked.
"No sweetie, you don't. You're going to stay here in the Castle with us. I'm your guardian now. That means I'm going to take care of you. How do you feel about that?" She asked.
Rose thought about it for a minute, before shrugging. "I like it here and Lily is fun to play with. Is Asajj and Saber going to be staying here too?" She asked.
"For another day, and then they have to go back home. They don't live here, sweetie. They just came for a visit." She said, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Okay. Can I spend the night with Asajj and Lily and Saber in Asajj's room? She said she wanted to show us how to play a game." Rose said, bouncing on her heels.
"Okay sweetie, just don't stay up too late." Amelia said smiling.
"Okay Aunt Amelia." She said, before she ran back to the group "We can stay in your room tonight Asajj!" She said excitedly, before she plopped down next to Lily and picked up Saber.
"Great. That's just great." Asajj said, shooting daggers at Amelia. Amelia smiled back and waved.
"Wow, just, wow. I thought there would be tears or yelling, or something. It was like you told her she was getting cake instead of pie for afters." Harry said, scratching his head.
"What do you expect, Harry? She's six and she was being abused at home. Now she gets a little sister, and she gets to live in a magical castle. I'd bet half my pay check that we're getting a damn cat, now. Do you think Sirius can say no to two little girls giving him the puppy eyes." Amelia said, with a laugh.
"You're right. I'm just glad you're willing to take her in Amelia. I want you to know you're not going to do it all on your own. She's my blood and I made sure she never needs anything. This key is to a trust vault in her name. It has a little over three million Galleons. It's hers when she turns sixteen, but until then, I want you to use it to take care of her. It's a goblin no risk investment trust, so it will keep making money. As for the cat, I think I can make something like Saber. If Obi can make a cat, then I'm sure I can too. When we come back, I'll have one for the girls." He said.
"Harry… thanks." She said, taking the key.
"No need for that. The gold was just sitting in my vault collecting dust. I set up a few other vaults for the school and Andy to use. With the dragon brains I gave to the goblin tribes, I scored a lot of good will with the bank." Harry said, relaxing back into his seat.
Amelia looked at how tired Harry was and she summoned a bottle of fire whiskey off the shelf. "You were supposed to relax during this trip, and instead you spent most of the time at the Ministry. Now you're going back to the front lines tomorrow. I feel bad, Harry." She said, pouring him a few fingers of whiskey, and put him to sit at the dining room table.
"Think nothing of it, Amelia. I loved working with your Aurors. It made me miss teaching at the Temple. I don't know how much time I'm going to have before I'm called to another universe to help someone, but I hope to have the Shadow school up and running before I leave." He said, taking a drink. "Until then, I'm going to take the next twenty-four hours off. No hero stuff. No saving lives. No fighting or killing. Just good food, good booze, sleep, and maybe, if I'm lucky, I can get the wife alone for a bit of fun." Harry said, smiling.
Just as he was about to take another drink, he felt his pendent vibrate. "NO!" Harry said, clinching his teeth.
"What?" Amelia asked.
"My communicator." He said pulling out the big gold and yellow pendent. He pushed the center and Obi's face floated out. "This had better be good, because I was just saying I planned on doing nothing for the rest of the day." Harry said, as Asajj approached him to see who was calling.
"Well, we have a line on Dooku. He's back on Druckenwell. I just had the pleasure of killing his last follower. I've got the whole fleet headed to Druckenwell right now. We're about fourteen hours out, right now. That's what, seven hours from now, your time? I'd wrap it up if I was you, because I'm not leading an assault this big by myself! Siri would kill me if she found out I lead the attack on Dooku." He said, only half joking.
"Right. I'll round up the group and come back in about twelve hours, your time. Until then, keep heading to Druckenwell and have the troops prep for a hot zone landing. I'm not taking any chances this time. I want his head." Harry said coldly.
"Copy Harry. See you in a bit." Obi said, cutting the connection.
"Asajj, tell your mother to get everything ready to go. We leave in six hours. I need to go tell Andy the trip is off, I'm not taking her and Ted into a hot war zone." Harry said, getting up from the table. "Thank you, Amelia, for everything. We'll try to get back soon, but I don't know what this is going to do to the time table of this war. We might be looking at an end date, if I can get him alive." He said, walking to the two girls.
"Rose, sweetie, we might need to leave sooner than we thought. Some bad men are loose and we have to go stop them. We'll make another trip to the Castle in a few weeks to see you." He said, kneeling down to her level.
"Okay, Uncle Harry." She said sadly, as she held Saber tightly to her chest.
"You really like Saber, don't you sweetie?" He asked.
"I do, he's a good cat." She said, petting the black cat on the head.
"What's your favorite colour, sweetie?" Harry asked.
"I like green." She said, with a big smile.
"I like green too. It's a good colour." He said, scratching Saber on the head; as he did, he read the charms that made Saber. It was all simple spells really, but it was the way they were combined that made the enchantment work so well.
Asajj came out of the shadows, holding a big green lightsaber crystal in one hand and she was floating two big dark gray bricks of metal in the other. "Is this what you needed?" She asked.
"Yes, those will do nicely." He said, floating the lightsaber crystal in front of him it glowed, then it flashed, and split into four pieces. Three small pieces and a saber sized piece.
He plucked the bigger piece out of the air and put it in his pocket. He took two of the smaller pieces and set them on the table. He pulled out two gold republic 100 credit pieces from his coat and floated them next to the last green crystal.
"If you will hold the heat shield up, please?" He asked, and Asajj surrounded the three objects in a bubble.
Harry waved his hand and the gold pieces melted and formed into a pendent on a thin chain, with the crystal in the center. It glowed and flashed and the bubble vanished.
Harry grabbed the pendent and the green crystal glowed.
"Rose, I want you to wear the pendent, always. It will let me know if you're hurt, it will also let you call me, no matter where I am. Just try not to call if it's not very important. I spend a lot of time catching bad guys, and I can't always take a call in the middle of a fight." Harry said, putting the pendent on Rose.
"Now, let's see if I'm better than my younger brother." He muttered, as he floated the two green crystals and the two big bars in the air. "Bubble, please." He requested, concentrating on the image in his head.
With his left hand pointed at the objects and his right hand clenched, the metal glowed red, then yellow, and finally white hot. The heat coming of the two bricks was so hot, they could feel it, even through the bubble. The two white bricks fused together and shifted into a cat about the size of a tiger. The eyes opened and the two green crystals glowed bright.
Harry opened his hand and the metal cat started to cool. As it shifted colours back to dark gray, they saw it was covered in runes.
"Drop the bubble." Harry instructed, as he lowered the big cat to the ground.
Harrys hand glowed white and he touched the cat on the head. The cat flashed and shifted into a cute fluffy black kitten, with green glowing eyes. Saber hopped out of Rose's arms and walked up to the new cat. He sniffed the new cat, and said new cat batted Saber away from his face. Saber rubbed his nose and looked affronted.
"Father, I do believe you put I little bit too much of your personality in this new cat." Asajj said, picking up Saber and rubbing his nose.
"I did not, he's just not a push over." Harry said, picking up the new cat and handing him to Rose. "This little guy needs a name, sweetie. What do you think?" He asked.
Rose looked at the kitten who looked bored, but happy to be petted. She smiled and scratched his little head. "I think I'll call you Harry, after my uncle." She said.
The cat looked at Harry and Harry looked back. They shared a shrug and Asajj laughed. Both Harry's scowled.
"Everyone's a comedian. Come on, let's get going. I need a nap if I'm going to fight a Sith. Rose, Lily, I have to go. I'll see you two in a few weeks. Be good for your Mummy and make sure to give Daddy a headache." He said, patting the two on the head with a smile.
"Bye, Uncle Harry!" The two girls called out as they played with Harry the cat.
"Amelia, it's been fun. I'll check on your problem cases when we come back in a few weeks, if you want." He said, kissing her on the cheek.
"See you soon, Harry. Don't be a stranger." She returned, hugging him.
Harry and Asajj made it back to the TAB to find the elder Tonks' sitting in the living room, with their bags packed. "What's going on here?" He asked.
"We're ready to go. Luminara told us the time table was shifted up by one day, so we packed and came over as soon as we could." Andy said.
"Right, well I hate to be the guy to say so, but you're not coming back with us this time. We are headed into a hot war zone when we step through the Gateway. After the battle is over and we take Druckenwell, then we will come back and take you with us." Harry said.
"I don't think so, mister." Andy said. "You're not vanishing on me again. I'm coming with you."
"Mum, I can't let you travel into a hot zone." Harry said, tiredly.
"Harry, we are going." Andy said, crossing her arms.
"Mum…"
"No, Harry we are going. What's the difference? We were going to walk into a war zone before. Why is this different?" She asked.
"Before there was a possibility of seeing combat. This is a full scale invasion of an enemy stronghold. The dark force's war machine. We are talking about every available Jedi attacking the ship building world of the Sith." He said, feeling the drain of everything he did in the last twenty-four hours.
"Harry, I've watched you walk through that Gateway once before, and I thought I'd never see you again. I'm not going to watch you do it again. Now, you can let us come with you, or I can guilt my granddaughter into sneaking us through when you're not looking." Andy said, pulling Asajj to her side.
"Gran, I'm with Dad on this one. It's going to be very dangerous." Asajj said, looking at her new favourite family member.
"And you will protect us, my dear. You stay on the ship, right? Then we will stay close to you. If things go bad, we will be with Asajj. She will protect us and get us to safety." Andy said, wrapping Asajj in a hug.
"She has a point father. Besides, I could use the company. I also want to show off the Dragon." Asajj said, smirking.
"I don't like this at all, but I can't stop it. You stay five feet from Asajj at all times. You all stay on the ship. The ship stays invisible. The Dragon does not lead the battle. You stay back and use the Dragon as a command center and a trauma center." Harry ordered.
"Yes Father." Asajj said, snapping off a salute.
"I'm not only talking to you, kid. If she tells you to do something, I want you to do it. She's an experienced commander and she has every one of my instincts. Now. I'm going to go take a nap. I want you, and your mother to do the same. We are going to be stepping through the Gateway into a battle. I want us all to take a few hours to rest. It might be a while before we rest again. Druckenwell is not going to go down easy, and with the limited resources he has, he knows we're coming; so Dooku is probably preparing for us. The air battle alone is going to take hours to break." Harry said.
"I understand Father. I will rest after I brief them on ship protocol." Asajj said, nodding.
"Good girl. I'll be upstairs if anyone needs me." Harry said, as he walked away.
When he got to the master bedroom, the lights were off, and the only light in the room came from a few candles. Luminara was standing in front of the bed in a thin silk robe.
"I think we need to spend some time, alone." She said, letting the robe fall off her shoulder revealing her naked body to the candle light. "We go back home in a few hours, and we might not get the chance for a while." She said, copying his words downstairs. "Let me help you relax, Master Shadow." She said suggestively, holding out her right hand.
Harry walked to her and as he went he dropped his gear.
Downstairs, Asajj stopped talking in mid sentence. "Ugh. That's not resting you know." She complained, shaking her head. "I tell you, they act like love sick fools some times."
"They love each other, dear. When you find someone to love, then you will know." Andy said, smiling.
"Whatever." She said, blushing.
"Oooooh. There is someone, who?" Andy asked.
"No one, Gram." She said, turning bright purple.
"Leave the girl alone, Andy. She's clearly uncomfortable." Ted said, looking up from his book. "Don't let her bully you, dear. If you let it happen this time, she'll think she can run your life forever." Ted warned, smirking.
"No one asked you." She said, batting him in the arm. "Now, we were talking about…" Andy said, letting the question hang in the air.
"His name is Van Habria. He's human." She confessed, rolling her eyes.
"And he works as a Jedi?" Andy asked, pulling Asajj to sit on the couch next to her.
"He's a Slicer. They're like support staff. Van is the head mechanic on the Black Dragon. My ship." She elaborated, fidgeting with skirt.
"A man that's good with his hands." Andy said suggestively.
"Gram!" Asajj protested.
"What? It's probably true. He keeps the ship running, doesn't he?" Andy said laughing. "So what does this Van look like?" She asked.
"He's tall, and strong. Big, in a well built way, you know?" Asajj said, looking deep in thought. "Long black hair, deep blue eyes, a good square jaw. He always has this perfect five o'clock shadow, like he uses magic to keep it just right. And he has this smile…" She said, lost.
"Oh sweetie, does Harry know you're in love with this guy?" Andy asked.
"No. I've been hiding my thoughts. I don't know what my father would do to Van, if he knew." She said laughing.
"He'd scare the life out of the boy. Does he feel the same way you do?" Andy asked, holding the girl closer.
"I don't know. I mean, he's always looking at me, and smiling when he gives his ship briefings. And I've caught him checking me out before. You know how guys look? I think it's cute." Asajj said.
"Why are you two not, you know… you're both young. You should be going at it like those two upstairs." Andy said.
"Gram! Really. I'm Commander of the fleet, and he's my head engineer. It's not right for anything to happen between us." She said, shaking her head.
"Bull. It happens all the time. On my staff alone, I know of three inter-office relationships. Two of them between a superior and a underling. People work together and spend time together and, after a while, they fall for each other. You're seventeen going on forty, and every bit of your father's daughter. I see so much of Harry in you, it's sad. The boy never lived his life for himself. He spent every waking hour fighting for someone else. Living to serve the greater good. It's a noble idea, but you have to live for yourself too, you know. If you don't have a life, then why bother living?" Andy said.
Luminara ghosted out of the shadows in a black robe. "She's right, you know. I had no idea you were feeling this way about someone. You should have come to me. I would have told you the same thing." She said, dropping on to the couch on the other side of Asajj.
"You were listening to our conversation while you were with father? Gross." She said, looking green.
"Please, your father was so tired, he passed out after some heavy petting. The man runs himself into the ground, until I make him rest." Luminara said, shaking her head. "Besides, I always keep an eye on the connection. Now that we're bonded, I never have to wonder how you are. I know. Now, how are we going to get you a date with this Van Habria? Also, if you marry, he will take the Potter name, it carries a hell of a lot more weight than Habria does." Luminara said teasingly.
"Mother! You're talking about marriage and I haven't even been alone with him for more than a meeting. I don't even know if he likes me in that way." She complained, blushing again.
"Of course he does, sweetie. He's a male, and he has eyes. All men want you. Your tall, beautiful, and you move like a predator. You're like sex on two leg. Add to that the way Talia dressed you and you cause the men on your ship to walk funny, dear." Luminara said.
"Really?" Asajj asked, looking shocked.
"You don't know that? You don't know what you do to men at all, do you? Every eye follows you when you walk into a room. You spent so much time with Harry, that you picked up his aura. His magnetism. You both excite and scare everyone you meet." Luminara said.
"I do?" She asked.
"Oh sweetie, you spent so much time with Harry that I never got to teach you how to be a girl. You are your father's little killing machine. But you're also my daughter, and the first thing we're doing after this war, is take you and your aunts out on the town so we can teach you how to be a girl." Luminara said, holding her hand.
"Father would have a stroke." Asajj said.
"You let me deal with your father. You can't make it to your eighteenth birthday without kissing a boy." Luminara said. They heard a crash upstairs and the three women laughed. "That's my cue to go talk your father off a ledge. Don't you worry about a thing." Luminara said, vanishing from the room.
"Well, there you go." Andy said, laughing.
"Nothing wrong with the girl staying celibate for life. Lord knows I wish Dora would have." Ted muttered.
This set the two off again.
Four and a half hours later, the group was waiting to leave.
Harry was saying good bye to Minerva and Perenelle; and Asajj was playing with Rose and Lily.
Luminara, Andy, and Ted were talking to Tonks, who was going to stay behind and help Amelia run the Ministry for the two weeks Andy would be gone.
At six hours after the call, exactly, the Gateway glowed.
"Right, I'll go first, if I came back or if the Gateway closes, don't follow me. If nothing happens in a few seconds, then Luminara guide Andy through and Asajj help Ted make the trip. Remember to walk normally. Don't run or stop walking. I'll see you on the other side." Harry said, before stepping through.
Ten seconds later, Luminara and Andy walked through and ten seconds after that Asajj helped Ted through. When they crossed the Gateway, it stopped glowing.
Minerva shrank it, and set it aside.