Disclaimer: Rights to Babylon 5 are owned by Warner Brothers Television, Babylonian Productions, Inc., the TNT network, and creator/writer/executive producer J. Michael Straczynski. I am making no money from the use of these characters and plotlines. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, and Scholastic.

Author's Note: I'm back! After this, I hope to get back to my "one chapter every two weeks" routine. One reader was for and one against the party, so I compromised and just touched on it. Thanks to Ranger Aurora for pointing out to me that the asterisks I was using to separate scenes or perspectives were getting deleted by the system. I'm using a different mechanism now.

Cultures

Harry was astonished when they stepped into the Zocalo that evening. The place was packed with people of all descriptions, drinking and dancing. Some of the aliens had separated more or less into their cultural groups. Since Harry and Ginny had found themselves with some time on their hands when Ron had been unconscious during their last visit, they had researched some of the more prevalent aliens on the station, and he was able to identify a number of them.

The Minbari were engaging in a stately dance in which they circled one another in a complex pattern without touching. The Narns had mostly gathered into partnerships of two or three and were doing steps that reminded Harry of certain folk dances he'd seen. The few Centauri present were scattered on the outskirts, mostly sitting or standing at the bars and not really part of the celebration. Harry couldn't help but wonder why they didn't feel entitled to share in this victory.

Meanwhile, humans and Drasi mingled with small numbers of aliens Harry couldn't identify, dancing with abandon in a haphazard manner. The exultation of the crowd was contagious, and Harry turned to Ginny before he had a chance to really think about what he was going to do.

"Would you like to dance?" It was a question he'd never truly asked anyone – the opening dance with Parvati at the Yule Ball had been essentially dictated. The brilliant smile that lit up Ginny's face made Harry's knees so weak that he wasn't sure he'd be able to move, let alone dance.

"I'd love to," she responded, taking his hand and leading him into the throng. Amazingly, Harry's legs did work. They wove in and out among the crowd, trying to learn both the dances of Minbar and Narn before simply flowing into the freestyle of their fellow humans. Ginny picked up on the steps surprisingly quickly, and Harry was impressed. By contrast, he felt slow and awkward, but Ginny didn't seem to mind. She pulled him through the figures good-naturedly, laughing when she forgot something.

Harry caught glimpses of Ron's tall frame and distinctive red hair on occasion and assumed Hermione must be with him, but the two couples mostly remained separated. Harry was actually grateful to have some time with Ginny when her brother was not directly overseeing them.

Sometimes, Harry and Ginny would transfer partners as part of the pattern, but they always came back together like it was the most natural thing in the world. Harry didn't think he'd ever felt so happy or carefree, and he wished it would never end.

The next day, as the group was heading toward an appointment they'd made with Lyta, Ron was startled when Hermione suddenly threw herself at an alien with a bandage across his mottled head. The bandage was arranged to hide one of his eyes, but the other glowed a vibrant red. Hermione hugged the alien enthusiastically, while he seemed somewhat bemused, patting her stiffly on the back. Ron knew the feeling.

"G'Kar! I heard you'd left the station," Hermione exclaimed. "No one had heard from you, and I was so worried the Centauri had got you!"

"They did," replied G'Kar in a deep but oddly gentle voice. Hermione gasped and stepped back, apparently finally taking in the full impact of his appearance.

"Oh, my goodness," she breathed. "Your eye!"

"They plucked it out," he admitted, in a tone he might have used discussing the weather (if there were weather in space). Hermione's hand flew to her mouth. "Think nothing of it. An eye is a small price to pay for the liberation of my people."

"Your people…you mean--?"

"It's a long story," G'Kar sighed. "I would like to share it with you some time, but I want Mr. Garibaldi to hear it first. Anyway, Dr. Franklin thinks he can get a prosthetic eye for me. I'll be all right."

"A prosthetic eye?" Hermione was getting that inquisitive tone that could lead to 100 questions about technology in this time period, and Ron thought he'd better interfere.

"Come on, Hermione," he urged, taking her elbow. "He's got somewhere to go, and we have an appointment, too."

"Oh! I'm sorry; I didn't introduce you to my friends." She quickly ran through the names, then made a mysterious gesture in which she placed her fists on her chest and bowed slightly toward G'Kar. He responded in kind, smiling a little.

"I look forward to speaking with you again," he said before moving past them on his own business.

"Should I be jealous?" Ron asked, raising his eyebrows. He watched as Hermione's cheeks tinged a very faint pink.

"That's ridiculous," she denied. "He probably doesn't even find human women attractive. Anyway, he came to visit while you were…in Medlab that time. He's the one who convinced me to tell you how much you meant to me."

"He did?" Ron came to a dead stop, forcing the others to wait for him. "Hang on, maybe I should go back and hug him, too." Although he was only joking, he actually made a quarter turn before Hermione rolled her eyes, grabbed his arm, and began hauling him back down the corridor.

"Now you really are being ridiculous," Ginny put in, tossing her long hair and striding purposefully out in front.

"Stop looking at my sister's bum," Ron admonished, reaching across his body (since Hermione had a hold of the closer hand) to smack Harry on the side of the head, knocking his glasses askew. Ron had noticed how much attention Harry and Ginny had been paying each other the previous evening, and he'd decided to combine the tasks of keeping an eye out for his sister and having a little fun with his best friend. Harry said nothing as he adjusted the spectacles and slunk up to join Ginny.

"Are you going to do that to them forever?" Hermione demanded. Ron tilted his head, carefully considering the question.

"No," he decided. "Only for a few years."

Hermione did not deign to reply to that, and they arrived at Lyta's quarters without further incident. She welcomed them cordially, if a little distantly, and they stepped in. Ron was astounded by what he saw. There was almost no furniture in the room, a simple mattress on the floor serving as the centerpiece, but there were shopping bags scattered everywhere. The tissue paper erupting from the top of each one indicated that these were all new purchases, not yet opened.

"Are you redecorating?" Harry wondered aloud.

"In a manner of speaking," Lyta answered with a sheepish smile. "I'd offer you a chair, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. Besides, I don't get many visitors."

The four teens gave generic murmurs that they didn't mind and settled themselves onto the floor as Lyta sat on the mattress. Once that was done, however, Ron realized that they had not really worked out a strategy for approaching the subjects they wanted to discuss with her.

"So, how can I help you?" Lyta opened the conversation. Ron knew that she could probably pull everything they wanted to say out of their minds, but she was clearly not intending to do that. There must be some etiquette about that. He remembered that she'd asked his permission before reading his mind on their first trip here.

"Well, I'm not quite certain how best to begin, so I suppose I'll just say it," Hermione began. "You and we…that is, you might say we're related."

"Related? I don't understand."

"The Vorlons made us, too." There was a heavy silence after Hermione dropped that piece of information. Lyta stood up and began pacing.

"You're sure of this?" she asked.

"Reasonably sure," Ginny informed her. "It makes sense, when you think about it. We can both do things other humans can't."

"They were trying to create telepaths, but something went wrong," Ron contributed.

"When did this happen?" Lyta demanded.

"More than a thousand years before telepaths showed up," Harry answered.

"Possibly a lot longer, since the school we go to was founded in 975 AD," Hermione added. "Obviously, there were enough wizards and witches in Britain at that time to justify building it." Lyta nodded very slowly a few times.

"A lot of things fit together, now," she admitted. "You may not know this, but part of my last job was to carry the Vorlon ambassador inside me so that he could witness things that were going on without being seen. I absorbed some stray memories and thoughts that could easily be explained by this."

"So naturally, we're curious about telepaths," Hermione resumed. "We were hoping you could tell us about the Psi Corps."

"What do you want to know?" Lyta asked warily, sitting again on a corner of her mattress.

"Oh, just a brief history, what it's about, that kind of thing," said Hermione. "We looked in the station files, but none of it seemed to be official."

"I can believe that." Lyta sighed deeply. "Okay. Psi Corps started as an Earth Government (Earthgov) organization, designed to keep telepaths grouped together. I guess the non-telepaths thought it was safer that way, that they could keep control over what we did."

"I take it that's not quite how it worked out," Harry commented.

"As far as they were concerned, it did," Lyta responded. "In a way, that's the real irony. They think they're controlling us, when by now, it's probably closer to being the other way around. All telepaths are sent to the Corps as soon as their abilities are discovered. These days, most were actually raised there, as I was. The Corps arranges marriages to continually try to get stronger telepaths."

"Sounds a bit too much like the Slytherin pureblood obsession to me," Ron said, feeling an involuntary shudder pass through him as he recalled the Black family tree tapestry from Grimmauld Place, including the places burned out where someone had made an "inappropriate" match. Although his family was pureblood, too, that had been sheer happenstance, and he knew his parents wouldn't have any objections if he wished to marry Hermione, for example.

Ron felt his ears grow warm as that thought fully penetrated through the layers of his mind. What had made that occur to him, of all things? Hermione cast him a curious glance, but he just shook his head and probably grew even redder at being caught. Now was definitely not the time to talk about that.

"I wonder if that's some sort of inevitable result of having been changed by an outside force," Ginny mused thoughtfully.

"Maybe for humans," Lyta shrugged. "The other races handled it differently."

"How so?" Hermione's curiosity was clearly piqued again.

"You'll have to talk to them to get more detail, but Delenn tells me that telepathy in Minbari is celebrated as a gift. Their telepaths mingle freely with the population and are simply treated as anyone else with a talent, like a great musician. I don't know much about Centauri telepaths, but if they're like other Centauri, they probably offer their abilities in return for wealth or increased social status. The Narns have been without telepaths so long, they may not remember how they fit into society."

"Does every human telepath have to join the Psi Corps?" Ron inquired, bringing their topic back on track.

"There are other choices, but none of them are very attractive," Lyta admitted. "Some children manage to hide their abilities, especially if their parents help them cover it up. The Corps catches up with them, eventually, though, and gives them two choices: join the Corps or take drugs that suppress their telepathy. The only other option is to run."

"I wouldn't like to lose my powers just because I didn't want to be part of the wizarding world," Harry remarked.

"From what I've heard, the drugs also have unpleasant side effects," Lyta agreed. "Psi Corps still basically functions as a government agency, but as you've already guessed, they have an agenda of their own. Their people do what the President asks them to, but the Corps is also used secretly as a means of asserting and consolidating the power of telepaths.

"They classify all telepaths that join them, from P1 to P12, and all are given jobs according to their level. I was a P5, which qualified me for things like economic and political negotiations."

"You're talking like you're not one of them anymore," Ginny put in shrewdly.

"I know," Lyta nodded. "I took the third choice. I left the Corps a few years ago, becoming what they call a 'rogue telepath' or a 'blip.' If I were still one of them, I'd always wear black gloves and a badge with their symbol."

"There's something you're not telling us," Hermione announced. "You're different even from other telepaths, aren't you? During the battle, I saw something happen to you. You spoke with a different voice, and your eyes went all black."

Ron was startled at this revelation. He'd been too distracted by the ships attacking them to register any oddities about Lyta. He now recalled the strange voice she'd used, but he supposed he'd just assumed that the Vorlons were speaking through her.

"That's true." Lyta sounded impressed, but also annoyed, at Hermione's perception. "I originally ran to the Vorlons, and they…modified me. It made me better suited to work for them."

The door beeped, interrupting the conversation, and Ron noticed that Lyta actually looked slightly relieved as she authorized it to open. He had the distinct impression that she wasn't a P5 anymore and that she didn't really want to talk about the changes that had been made to her.

Zack Allan stood hesitantly in the doorway for a moment before stepping in and allowing the door to close behind him.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't know you had company." His eyes took in the multitude of bags, but he didn't mention them.

"That's all right, Zack," Lyta said, rising to her feet. Ron and the others followed as though at some unspoken signal. "What can I do for you?"

"Are you familiar with a Psi Cop named Bester?"

Lyta's posture and expression immediately became wary.

"I worked with him for a while when I was still in training," she allowed guardedly. "Why?"

"He's on the station. We don't know what he wants, but he's requested a meeting, and Captain Sheridan was hoping you would come and help out – you know, make sure he's not scanning anyone."

"You do realize that he's a P12, and I'm a P5?"

"Yeah, well, the captain still thinks you can do something against him," Zack shrugged. "We'd be grateful for any help you could give us." Lyta nodded her agreement and moved to follow him out.

"Should we come, too?" Harry asked, stepping forward to be the spokesman of the group as usual.

"I don't know," Zack wavered doubtfully. "The captain didn't say anything about you."

"He didn't know we were here, and I don't think it can hurt for us to come along," offered Hermione. "If he doesn't want us there, we can just leave." Ron cast her a quick glance, knowing that they were walking a thin line at the moment. They needed to know more about telepaths and the Psi Corps, but it could also be dangerous to reveal themselves to one of its agents. They still hadn't had a chance to ask if their own kind of people had been discovered by or even absorbed into Psi Corps at some point.

"Fine with me," Zack agreed, and they all let him lead the way.

Author's Note: I hope this wasn't too disjointed. I kept getting interrupted while doing my last read-through. Bester's up next, and I still have to figure out what his exact role will be in this.

Review responses:

Stephen DOG Milne: I recall there were several of those messages, but I made it work without knowing the specifics.

Samael3: I think the patience and kindness comes with age, at least partially. Well, the techno-mages are actually cyborgs and use advanced technology rather than innate magical ability. It might be interesting to see them interact with true wizards, but I don't know if I'll get around to that.

Rainbow2007: Thanks!

Zeen: I tried to show a little of the celebrating without distracting too much from the story.

Ranger Aurora: Sorry, but I had to set some things up first. I think we'll get to Bester in the next chapter.

Olaf74: Thank you very much! I try to keep up on this in between my other projects.