Chapter 54: Recruiting and getting ready for a conference
"Harry," Hermione says holding up the jar," I'd like to introduce you to Rita Skeeter, the bimbo that tried to get you into that broom cupboard."
"Nice of you to join us Ms. Skeeter," Harry says with a grin," What should we do with her my Queen?"
"I'm not sure my King," Hermione says with a smirk at the now shaking Rita," I'll think of something."
She deposits the jar into her bag and the couple continues their walk up to the castle from the Black Lake. Harry and Hermione enter the Great Hall for lunch and as they sit at the Phoenix house table Harry's watch pings to let him know a call is incoming.
He lifts it up to look at it and hits the button to access the mirror phone and says," Hunter."
Agent Hamilton's face shows on the screen," the conference has been set up for March second. There will be diplomats from Russia and America, along with one from China and the Middle East. These four were voted in by the United Nations committee and approved by the whole assembly to speak for Planet Earth. The smaller nations will abide by whatever arrangements will be made as long as they can get the help they need for their countries."
"Very well," Harry says," Tell them we will pick them up from La Guardia Airport at the private terminal. We will be in our shuttle, which is more suitable for landing at an airport. It is about the same length as a seven thirty seven airliner and our call sign will be The Little Phoenix. They can expect us at two in the afternoon due to the five hour time differential between New York and London."
"Message received and understood," Hamilton replies," Good luck with your mission."
"Thank you," Harry answers back," Hunter out."
"Looks like we should contact who we want to go for the magical world," Hermione says.
"I thought we would take Mr. Delacour if you want," Harry says," We could represent England while he represents the International Confederation of Wizards."
"That sounds like a viable plan," Hermione says," Though everything we are doing is for the non-magical world in general, the ICW should know what is going on."
"This will affect them as well Hermione," Harry explains," We will eventually have to elect someone to represent the magical people of Earth in the world government when it gets organized. You and I have much broader responsibilities, so we will have to stay out of the day to day workings of the new government. We have to be available to handle galactic problems as they crop up, like meeting new peoples. I'm sure the Vulcans aren't the only non-humans nearby."
"I agree with you on that one Harry," Hermione says," You think Rita would like a new job?"
"What do you have in mind," Harry asks?
"Let's go to our quarters," Hermione says as she wipes her mouth with a napkin.
Harry does the same and the couple stands and leaves the Great Hall for their suite. Upon arrival Hermione brings the jar out of her bag and places it on the table. She sits at the table and lowers her face to be eye level with the beetle inside.
"Did you hear what we were discussing while we ate lunch?" She asks, "fly up to the top of the jar if you did."
The beetle flies to the top of the jar and then settles back on the bottom.
"Very good Rita," Hermione says," Harry and I are a bit upset at what you did to Hagrid. I'm going to let you out of the jar so you can talk to us and explain why you thought you had to do that. You will not be able to escape, so don't even try."
Hermione takes the lid off and the beetle flies up and transforms back into Rita Skeeter. She looks flustered and scared.
"I'm sorry your majesties," she says with a curtsy and then stands there shaking with nerves," I'm a gossip columnist and no one would talk to me at the ball. I overheard Hagrid and Madame Maxime talking and I just did what I always do. I wrote up an article about two half giants in love. I didn't even know Hagrid was one until he asked Madame Maxime about her heritage. She reacted offended about it and I thought it was a newsworthy item to print. The editor of the Prophet pays me to find stuff like this because he says it sells papers. He doesn't care how much I embellish my articles and even encourages me to make them even juicier to the gossip mongers that read the paper. All he cares about is making money for the paper. I think he gets a cut or something of the profits. I wish he would let me go after the after the truly news worthy stories as I have always wanted to be an investigative reporter and report on real issues instead of gossip. He doesn't know about my animagus form. I haven't told him as I'm afraid he would report me as I am unregistered. I thought being an animagus would allow me to investigate the stories I wanted without getting caught, but I'm afraid I'm too good at what I do for him to let me do what I really want to do. I …."
Hermione holds up her hand to get her to stop rambling.
"Okay Rita. I get where you are coming from," She says," you can relax; we are not going to report you to the DMLE. Harry and I actually have a proposal for you and your animagus form could come in handy in the future if you agree to our proposal."
Rita relaxes and the shaking calms down a little as she hears she is not in trouble.
"What can I do for your majesties," she asks?
"How much of our conversation did you hear and how much did you understand," Harry asks?
"I heard something about a conference and then something about a world government," she says," I know what a conference is and that you are going to ask Mr. Delacour, the French ambassador to England, to attend along with those people from other countries. The conference sounds very important. Are you going to take over the world?"
"No we are not going to take over the world," Harry says," We are starting the building blocks for a world government and before we can say any more we will need a witches oath from you that you will keep our secrets. What we need is a press secretary that can get press releases out to the non-magical as well as the magical newspapers around the world. There may be some times where your animagus form will come in handy to help us investigate complaints about issues that are being kept behind closed doors that could be a danger to the world as a whole. You would make the perfect spy once you are trained up a bit on how the non-magical world works. The spying part would only be related to your job. We aren't going to make you go into any place that is too dangerous for you. We would do that ourselves. Are you interested?"
"Would this be a full time position with a salary?" She asks," I'm just asking as I have to eat too."
"Yes it will be a full time position," Hermione says," You may not have a lot to do right away but we will keep you busy enough."
"There is one last question," Harry says.
"What would that be sire," she asks?
"Are you claustrophobic?" Harry asks," I assume you are not afraid of heights since you fly around in your animagus form."
"No sir, I'm not claustrophobic," Rita says," why do you ask? I am very interested in your proposal."
"This is where we need the witch's oath," Hermione says and hands her a parchment with the oath on it.
Rita reads the oath over and sees nothing unusual. It is basically a non-disclosure statement that she would keep the Potter's secrets and follow their orders. She gives her oath and Harry hands her an employment contract that causes her to raise her eyebrows as she reads it over, finding out what her salary will be. She signs it happily and hands it back to Harry.
"What are your first orders; sire," she asks?
"The first thing we want you to do is come with us and apologize to Hagrid for what you said in your article," Hermione says to her," the second is we want you to get a new wardrobe appropriate to your new status as our press secretary. You have to look well dressed for the non-magical world and please get some more conservative robes for the magical world. My mother will be able to help you with the non-magical dress as she is a doctor and very well off. She understands the current fashions and will love any excuse to go shopping."
Harry hands her a watch, ring and pin which she looks over, noticing the Phoenix logo on each.
"The watch has a communications mirror in it so we can keep in touch," Harry says," Put the ring on your right hand ring finger and the pin in the lapel of your business dress attire. Welcome to the Knights of the Round Table and the House of the Phoenix."
"I hope you don't mind being around non-magical technology, because that will be your life from now on," Hermione informs her," You will have a foot in both communities and also the galactic community as well."
"What does that mean," Rita asks," What's a galactic community?"
"You studied Astronomy at Hogwarts right," Harry asks?
"Yes, but it wasn't one of my best subjects," Rita says," I barely got an acceptable."
"Okay," Hermione says in her lecture mode," Since you got an acceptable, that means you at least understand the planets, right?"
Rita nods her understanding.
"All of those stars you see at night are part of the Milky Way galaxy," Hermione explains as she conjures a three dimensional representation of the galaxy," The planet we are on is about half way between the core and the outer rim of our galaxy."
She causes the image to shrink down to the solar system.
"The conference we were talking about is in a base on the Moon with an alien race called Vulcans," Harry says," We will be flying there after picking up the diplomats in our shuttle, which is parked in the Chamber of Secrets. The Vulcans home world is sixteen light years from here and we have the means to go there and visit them. They are going to help us build a large space station for constructing new ships to explore the galaxy with and to mine our solar system for the materials we will need to build the ships. There are probably other races of beings out there in our galaxy we haven't met yet. That is what we mean by galactic community. Hermione and I have DNA from another galaxy along with DNA from our parents here on Earth and that is the reason for a lot of the things we can do."
"Merlin," Rita whispers," You two are the Elders I have been hearing so much about. I knew you were King and Queen and that's why I was scared to death when you caught me earlier. I got too over confident that I could get back in the castle by hitching a ride on your robes."
"I wouldn't have caught you at all except I could feel your magic when I touched you to remove you from Harry's robes," Hermione explains," Anyone else would have just swatted you away. Now that you have given your oath and signed the contract to be our press secretary you will have quarters in the castle and will travel a lot with us. You, Rita, will become a household name in short order."
"I don't deserve this," she says with her head hanging," I've been such a horrible person with all of the stories I made up about people. Why are you doing this for me?"
"We have been considering you for a while now because of your writing skills," Harry says," We know you know how to write an article for a newspaper. You know how to put flair in your writing to make your articles interesting to read. We want you to use those skills to help us write up proposals for improvements to our planet and help us integrate the magical world with the non-magical world. We are already integrating magic into non-magical items through the use of runes that will run off the ambient magic in the world. There are lots of thing going on that will keep you very busy and happy for the rest of your life as a news reporter."
"Thank you your majesties," Rita says," Let's get started by making things right with Hagrid and Madame Maxime."
"It's Harry and Hermione," Harry says," When we are in private or with friends, call us by our names. When we are in the general public for business purposes; use our titles of Mr. and Mrs. Potter. When in formal diplomatic settings we are Mr. Harry and Mrs. Hermione Pendragon. You will know what to say depending on the situation. I'm sure your experience in government reporting will help you there. We are going to see Hagrid and he is a friend so you can address us as Harry and Hermione around him and Olympe."
"Oh no," Rita says," I will have to earn their friendship first and it will start with me asking forgiveness."
"You are learning," Hermione says," let's go see Hagrid. He has been holed up in his hut and won't come out."
"I think I can fix that if you will give me a Royal Order to make the Prophet print a truthful article about them to clear the air," Rita says.
"Let us review the article and if we approve, you will get your order," Hermione says.
The trio walks out of the castle and down the hill to Hagrid's hut where Harry knocks on the door.
"Hagrid," he yells," we know you are in there. Open up so we can talk to you."
They hear some shuffling around and a dog barking and the door opens a bit. It is obvious he has been drinking by his bloodshot eyes and unkempt hair.
"Harry, Hermione," he says in surprise, then spots Skeeter," Whad do you wan? Haven't you dun nuff damage a'ready?"
"I want to apologize for what I wrote about you and see if we can fix it," Rita says as she step up.
"How do you plan ta do tha," Hagrid asks?
"I no longer work for the Daily Prophet," she says," I work for Harry and Hermione now. They want me to be their press secretary. If you want, I can write an article about the real you so the people will know you aren't a bad person. I didn't know you were a half giant until the ball and everyone knows giants are mean and dangerous. We need to let everyone know you and Ms. Maxime are not dangerous and that you are nice people to be around. I will even let you and she read it before it is printed to get your approval. I need to do this for me as well as I need to prove I can write a good article and not the tripe I have been forced to write by the editor of the Prophet."
We will make sure it gets printed Hagrid," Hermione says," We know you are not a bad person and we will even make sure you get your mastery in Care of Magical Creatures so you can get your job back."
"Okay, come on in," Hagrid says," I'll make some tea."
The trio enter Hagrid's hut and he gives her his life story to set the record straight on what type of person he truly is. Madame Maxime joins them and tells her story as well.
"Thank you for your stories," Rita says as she shakes their hands," I will make sure they get printed so the people will know that you are an exceptional witch and wizard. These stories will prove not all giants and their kin are bad people."
The stories should prove your innocence in the Chamber incident Hagrid," Hermione says," you should be able to test for your mastery in Care of Magical Creatures soon and then you can take up teaching the class again."
"Thank ye Hermione," Hagrid says," I miss teaching the children."
"It won't be long Hagrid," Harry says as they leave his hut for the trip back to the castle.
"I better get that article written right away if we are going to the moon next week," Rita says as she hurries off to her new quarters to get started.
"She sure is enthusiastic," Hermione says to Harry," I think we made the right choice."
"With her charismatic personality and her nose for a story, I think she will do wonders for us as our press secretary," Harry agrees," She will be able to put a positive twist on any story we want to write about any new products we want to introduce to the mundane world and will help us break the news about our new interstellar neighbors."
"I can hardly wait," Hermione says," After our time in the Leggit galaxy, I can't wait till we establish our own little community in this galaxy. I'm sure the Vulcans have run across a few other species on other worlds we haven't met yet. Maybe they would be willing to share their knowledge, at least with you and me."
"I hope so Hermione," Harry says," I wouldn't mind doing a little exploring on our own this summer to see what's out there in our galaxy."
Hermione snuggles into Harry more as they walk back to their suite for the evening.
ooOOoo
The next morning Harry and Hermione approach Fleur at Ravenclaw table.
"Good morning Fleur," Hermione greets her," May we sit next to you?"
"Oui," she says as she stands up to greet the Potters," I very much enjoyed my trip in your space ship and thank you very much for allowing me to go."
"You're welcome Fleur," Harry says as they sit down to have breakfast with her.
"We wanted to ask you if you could contact your father for us and see if you might want to join us for another mission," Hermione says," And we also wanted to ask you what your plans are after you graduate this year."
"I'm not sure what I will do when I graduate yet. I was thinking of getting into the diplomatic corps so I could follow in my father's footsteps and I can easily contact him for you," she says," What do you want me to say to him?"
"We would like your father to represent the magical community at the conference coming up," Harry says.
"Harry and I would like to hire you to be a part of our team," Hermione says," You would be technically working for Potter Industries, but you would really be our personal secretary; or assistant if you prefer. You would be like an executive assistant and go between us and the various businesses and governments of the world. We talked to Madame Maxime and she says you are her top student this year, so we know you are smart and with your personality, I don't think you will have any trouble doing the job."
"I will contact my father right away and your offer sounds inviting," She says," I will talk it over with him and I would love to meet the Vulcans again."
"We were hoping you would agree," Harry says," this will give you a chance to interact with other diplomats from the non-magical world and get some practical experience. Hermione and I have almost fifty years as Jedi Consular, so we will be there to help you if you need it."
"I had forgotten you said you had spent fifty years in another galaxy," she says thinking out loud," I will accept your offer after school is out for the year."
"Excellent," Harry says," we will provide you a place to stay and a good salary. If he accepts, please tell your father to be ready by the morning of the second. If he will floo here, it will save time and he should bring needs for a week's stay on the moon. The gravity inside the base will be a normal one gee, so everyone will be comfortable."
ooOOoo
On the evening of March first, Mr. Delacour floos to Hogwarts for the trip to the moon. After talking to his daughter about the Potter's offer and that he would be allowed to go as a delegate, he is anxious to meet the new neighbors. The morning of the second Mr. Delacour and his daughter Fleur sit at the Phoenix table having breakfast with the Potters when Albus walks up to him.
"Good morning Henri," Albus says.
"Good morning Albus," Henri replies as he stands up to shake his hand," I'm looking forward to this trip with my daughter. I'm actually going to the moon. Fleur has told me about her trip around the solar system and the trip to Vulcan. I can't wait to meet them."
"That is why I am here," Albus says," as the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, I am authorizing you to be our representative for the magical world. If the opportunity comes up, please feel free to see what you can negotiate for us from the Vulcans. You may invite them to visit Hogwarts and any of the other schools if you like. I feel the schools could benefit from the knowledge of other worldly races and cultures. Harry tells me they have an Elder on their High Council that has magic and carries a staff similar to theirs. That means magic is a part of their world, the same as it is ours."
Harry and Hermione stand up as well.
"That's true grandpa," Hermione says," they have magic like us. They are a race that uses logic to keep their emotions in check, but they are still a very well cultured people with music and philosophy as well as their high technological base. The Vulcans have been in space for over a thousand years and became interested in us when we started launching rockets and satellites. They abandoned the moon base when we landed on the moon in nineteen sixty nine as they didn't want to take a chance on contaminating our culture by being discovered by us. With the cold war going strong in the sixties, it wouldn't have been a good idea to get the attention of a paranoid world. Now, with Harry and I here and the things we have done, the general populous has come to accept that there are other worlds out there with people on them like us."
"If everyone is ready," Harry says," we can descend into the Chamber of Secrets to board the shuttle and we will get started. We have to Pick up our parents and stop at LaGuardia to pick up the UN delegates before traveling to the moon."
Harry and Hermione both give Grandpa Albus a hug and then lead the Delacours to the bathroom on the second floor. Harry hisses at the sinks to open and then hisses again to command the stairs to appear. The group descends into the chamber and passes through to the cave where the Little Phoenix is parked. After boarding the shuttle Harry and Hermione take the command chairs up front and power up the ship. They lift her up a meter or so to retract the landing struts and fly down the tunnel to exit from the old cave that Aragog used to live in. The centaurs wave as they pass and then after a short stop in London while cloaked to pick up the Grangers, the shuttle takes to the sky for the trip to New York.
Professor Moody slept through the whole thing as he had been up all night brewing more polyjuice potion for his disguise. Harry and Hermione were very aware of this as they had made sure his supplies were low to keep him in the dark about their activities and the students weren't talking to him about them either. Whenever he tried to get information to pass on to his master, the students just covered for the pair saying they were just average students that were boyfriend and girlfriend. Except for their immunity to the Imperious curse, they have given no reason for him to believe otherwise.
At the LaGuardia Airport private terminal a large crowd has gathered in anticipation of seeing the Elder's shuttle. The four delegates have their duffels ready and are waiting in the terminal building. As the clock strikes two in the afternoon the crowds hear from the speakers that were set up for the purpose.
"LaGuardia Tower," A female voice comes out," This is the Little Phoenix requesting permission to land. We are coming in on a vector of ninety degrees from north to keep out of your normal traffic pattern. We will land at the private terminal on the west end of the airport."
"We have you on radar and your approach is clear of traffic. Permission granted to land on the tarmac by the Marine terminal." The air traffic controller responds.
"Roger tower," she says," I have a visual on the designated landing zone. Touchdown in five."
Everyone looks up at the high pitched sound of the shuttle descending from high altitude very rapidly. The shuttle seems to break at the last minute and comes to a hover over her landing spot and settles gently on the ground. Everyone is in awe of the maroon shuttle with a white Phoenix painted on the main ring drive, which has a soft blue glow to it as it settles down. The pitch of the engines reduce to a low whine as a ramp lowers from the side of the ship facing the terminal building and two beings in maroon robes with aqua colored symbols along the edges walk down the ramp hand in hand. The group of delegates walks out of the terminal building to greet them with cameras flashing from reporters and the crowd. The beings bow to the delegates and lower their hoods to reveal their faces.
"They're just children," is heard from the crowd in astonishment.
Harry and Hermione walk up to the podium that was set up so they could give a statement to the press.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the press," Hermione starts out," and to all of the viewers who are watching on your television sets. My husband and I are the Elders of the Universe and we may look like children, but we are in actuality in our mid-sixties in Earth years. Even though we were born here, we age differently than Earth humans. I'm sure you noticed the large red ship that arrived here some weeks ago. The ship is from a race of beings called Vulcans. They are the same ones that are in some of our entertainment venues just as Harry and I are also of the Jedi Consular order, complete with light sabers. As you may may know, most legends and fairy tales have some basis in fact. They are usually passed down through the generations from elder to younger, getting wilder and more exaggerated as time passes, so no one remembers what actually happened to start the legend. The Star wars movies are based on events that happened in the Leggit Galaxy a thousand years ago. The actual history is not nearly as exciting as the movies, but that is the way of the entertainment industry. Nobody would pay to see a movie without the good guys having to struggle to beat the bad guys. They are good at dramatizing stories and legends for entertainment purposes and even then, it is a good way to let everyone know about the legend of the war that took place so long ago. The heroes were real people that loved and lived as we do. As for the Vulcans and the Star Trek universe, we don't know if there are any Klingons or Romulans as we haven't met any yet. What we do know is there are Vulcans and we are going to negotiate with them to build a large space station in orbit and start trade relations with them. We hope to bring some of their technology to Earth so we can feed the hungry and help end the petty struggles brought on by terrorists. We have already started a colony on another world and hope to start more in the near future. Soon, you will see things like hovering wheel chairs for the paraplegic, floating stretchers for paramedics to use and similar technologies that have many uses around the world. With the meeting on the moon, we will take the first step into a larger universe."
"Show us your light saber," someone yells.
Harry and Hermione look at each other and smile.
"We will give a short demo and then we need to get going," Harry says.
Harry and Hermione walk out into an open area and pull out their light sabers and ignite them. With a snap-hiss the green beams of light extend from the handles and the couple takes positions for a short sparing match. Faster than the eye could follow the pair start swinging their sabers at each other and when their beams hit each other they make the snapping and electrical discharge sounds that became famous in the movies. After a few minutes of this they stop and bow to each other.
"Just to show you these are real and not a glass rod that glows, we will give you one more demo," Hermione says to the crowd.
She walks over to one of those concrete pillars with steel tubes around them to keep cars from driving into a building and with her saber slices right through it as if it were paper. She leaves it laying there to let people examine it so they would know the truth.
She turns to the delegates and says," Gentlemen, if you would board the shuttle, we have a meeting to get to."
The four delegates from the UN council follow the Elders into the shuttle and get settled in for the ride. The ramp retracts into the shuttle and the engines wind up to the high pitch noise that they make inside an atmosphere.
"LaGuardia tower," Hermione says," The Little Phoenix is ready to depart."
"Roger little Phoenix, you are clear for departure on the same heading as your approach. Have a good flight."
"Roger tower," she says," departing now."
The engines increase in pitch as the ship rises vertically and rockets into the sky, soon to be lost to all but radar as it ascends to the moon.