Nadia appeared in a flash of deep blue light in the middle of the great hall the next morning during breakfast. She looked around as everyone gaped at her.

The headmaster stood, and as if nothing abnormal happened, said, "Welcome Nadia. You are just in time for breakfast. Would you care to join us?"

"I'd be delighted to."

From somewhere near the Gryffindor table you could hear, "You can't apparate at Hogwarts." Laughter followed.

The many who stared at Nadia were more than a bit troubled, but this faded as space was made at the Slytherin table beside where Lafiel and Daphne were sitting and talking.

Lafiel greeted Nadia morning before a plate appeared complete with eggs, bacon, pancakes, sausage sausage and orange juice.

Nadia said quietly but politely, "I do not eat meat." Her breakfast plate was instantly replaced with oatmeal and a variety of berries. She eagerly picked up the spoon and tried it, smiling at the taste. "I'll have to come here more often."

Daphne said, "You are always welcome, isn't she?" She said this even as she met every other member of the table's eyes. They quickly agreed. Many asked about how she arrived, but she just smiled and eat some more oatmeal.

Several even gave frankly admiring looks in her direction, but then anyone who could ignore wards like they were nothing was definitely of interest. Several were also looking at her chest or rather slightly below where the dim outline of the blue water could be seen under her sweater.

When they were done, the Headmaster stood up and spoke. "A few of you are going on a field trip today for which I will be supervising."

Many cries of, "Why can't we go?" were heard.

The headmaster replied, "Nadia is providing the transportation we are taking today, though perhaps in the future we will have more people go on these field trips."

"Where are you going?" many asked.

The headmaster looked at Nadia and Lafiel who shrugged. Lafiel stood and said, "There will never be a better time. We will go get Nadia's mirror from the workshop."

The headmaster nodded. He said, "Our friend Nadia is taking us into outer space today to begin to mine a very large asteroid."

"What for?", "Asteroid", and various expressions of confusion were expressed.

The headmaster turned to Hermione who stood with Harry by her side and Luna walking up to them. Harry and Luna laid a hand gently on Hermione's shoulder.

Hermione held out her hands even as the a three dimensional image of a space suit suit formed standing on a barren rock. This floated up above them where it could be clearly seen from the entire hall.

Hermione spoke. "The non magical world has named this asteroid Sixteen Psyche. It is about a fifth the size of England and located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. We are going there today."

As she said this she slowly zoomed the image out until the generic space suit was completely invisible then kept going until the rock was framed in the asteroid field. As they were doing this Daphne and Lafiel brought in the large mirror connected to the one on the Nautilus and used magic to affix it behind and above where the teachers sat. The mirror was blank.

As Hermione let her link fade and the image fade with it she said, "It seems you will get to view much of our trip. The counterpart of that mirror is on Nadia's ship, that is if Nadia permits it."

Nadia stood. "I will discuss it with Captain Nemo. Most likely we will simply provide a view outside the ship."

They all seemed excited when Minerva stood. "It seemed that this expedition is going to prevent getting anything done today. Sinestra, I trust you can help lead the discussion today?"

"I would rather be with them," she said dryly.

After the laughter subsided she said, "Sure, why not. Everyone who is in any of my classes. There will be an assignment. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I'll think of something. I expect you to pay attention."

Team Blue, now with Nadia formed a circle with the Headmaster, Fleur, Victor, Samantha, Poppy and Garnok in human form in the middle. They joined hands.

Nadia said, "Just keep your magic neutral and let me control it. I will bring us through the wards and into the Nautilus."

They vanished in a swirl of blue and white light.

Five minutes later the mirror in Hogwarts lit up showing an image of under the ocean out in front of them before it started to remove.

Sinestra said, "I have no idea. Let's keep watching."

Team blue headed down to the engine room. Everyone else went to the bridge. Captain Nemo gave Poppy a smile and directed everyone to find a seat. Fleur and Victor took their old seats. Nemo was piloting.

He said, "The route is fairly simple. We have managed to get our stealth shielding up to spec so rather than blasting out as fast as possible we are going to take about an hour to exit the atmosphere, since that is about as fast as the stealth shielding can keep up with. The team in the engine room will have to provide power during that period, but it should not be a problem."

Nadia sat with the others around the central engine.

Luna said softly, "Batteries again," which caused many of the others to laugh.

Nadia replied, "We have made some progress on figuring out a path to recreate the missing fusion engine, so that may help, and that is a far safer technology than antimatter, though I can't imagine we would manage very fast speeds with it. It isn't nearly as powerful."

Daphne said, "When we get time, we should talk. I think we can come up with some kind of not too restrictive Oath to Lafiel and from Lafiel to the rest of us that will cover Lafiel so she doesn't get in trouble, and cover us, just to be safe. I don't think any Oath to an Empress we never met will be necessary."

Nadia said, "That would ease our concerns."

Hermione added, "I'd prefer that as well. Don't get me wrong. I like Lafiel, but I do not know everyone else. I have no reason to distrust anything she has said, but her experience is limited. I'd rather judge for myself."

Lafiel said, "I understand. It is also probably best to delay anti matter in any event. We could help with velocity changes if your engine could keep things going. It would be years of testing before I'd feel comfortable about bringing an anti-matter engine we create onto a planet."

Harry said, "So we are going to be using it, yet might not be safe?"

Lafiel replied, "At the first sign of an unstable anti-matter engine we would jettison the entire engine and get out of the way. The risk can be managed, just not on a planet."

Harry nodded.

Nadia said, "The bridge just asked us to bring things up to running levels. I've tinkered with your design a bit and a certain amount of storage is there now, but I've not fully initialized the new element, since its maximum storage is based on the magic that is used to prime it. It is not as handy as a fusion engine, but it should help. I'm going to ask the blue water to make the information on my changes available everyone when we link. Once we have consensus we can either charge the new element or if someone sees a problem dismantle it."

They placed their hands on the engine and felt the link form as the knowledge of the rather changes Nadia and her dad had made started filtering into their minds. It was quite clever. It was based on an earlier version of the storage in Blue Water. There was a flaw at high power levels. Understood and mitigated. Solvable was the thought. "How?" inquired the part that was Nadia with great curiosity.

Symbols appeared, changing from the modern form to the ancient one and back again. Equations appeared, were combined and simplified. Displays showing multi dimensional geometry appeared, showing uneven patterns then even patterns. Dissonance became order.

A new pattern emerged using a combination of old and new runic styles. Balance. Check again. Balance Confirmed. Stability Confirmed. Classified. This design is classified, not to be released without great need. "Shall we make the changes?" came from several. "Agreed. This doesn't solve the power problem, but does allow, I can't believe I'm saying this, nearly infinite storage." "Not infinite, additional capacity takes additional energy to balance. Estimated practical capacity is nearly seventy times previous estimates. Easily military grade." "Shall we create it?" "Risk low. Soul magic not present. Pure magical science. Ethical checks passed. Let's make it."

Their combined power quickly rewrote the internal matrix modifying not just Nadia's changes but their own. "Blue Water, verify engine updates against design and purpose. State differences."

"The design for the magical energy storage unit is confirmed. Implementation is confirmed. Estimated life span is unlimited. Recommendation against charge beyond the practical capacity. Magical analysis may not provide correct results beyond that point. No further recommendations. Design is confirmed." Their link dropped as they removed their hands and stretched.

Nadia said, "We'll, we are ready to charge it, if no one wants to take a break?"

Luna, "Let's go!"

Daphne said, "Agreed."

The others quickly agreed.

Nadia said, "There is a request from the bridge for our status. I let them know it will be a little more, and that the reactor should not be used for power until we give further word."

Daphne said, "I can't believe we just did that; played with magic as if it was our toy to manipulate as we wished."

Nadia said, "There is nothing dark in what we did. The Blue Water's are, if anything, worse. Mine is the only one left. It contains a bit of my own soul. They do use a touch of soul magic to stabilize their energy storage matrix. Had we had this design, we would not have done that. I don't know what to say. I'd change it, but I don't think it can be done safely."

Hermione gave the dark skinned girl a hug. "Don't worry, we will figure it out together."

They all agreed, even as they resumed the link and spent the next hour totally exhausting themselves and only managed to half fill the tank such as it was.

Captain Nemo read the updates from the engine room as well as the energy reserve they now had on tap and that they were ready to go. He said, "Madam Pomfrey, will you and Samantha head to the engine room. It seems our team did quite a bit more than they needed to. I'm hoping you can check them over before we set out.

"Again?" exclaimed Poppy. "Don't they know when to stop?"

"Apparently not."

The headmaster looked like he wanted to go to, as did Garnok who said, "It has got to be crowded enough in there. Samantha..."

She anticipated his question and said, "I'll call you if I need you."

He nodded.

After they left the captain said, "I'm surprised we didn't feel what they were doing. That was well done work if these energy readings are correct, and all without any significant spillage."

Garnok asked, "What do they indicate?"

"It looks like they just drained most of their readily available magic into the core, which should not have been possible. Nadia had worked on the design to do this. I helped her with it. It would not have held this, yet I sense no instability or danger. I'm still not engaging the engines until we get confirmation."

Garnok paled. "Magical storage of that level requires, or required something on the order of Hogwarts."

Albus said, "The muggles have had the ability to pack more destructive power than that into about that size for some time. At least this can do more than just destroy."

Garnok said, "There is that I suppose, but with that much power channeled into say a ward breaker and focused into one strike..."

"No ward in existence could stop it, not even Hogwarts with the siege wards active could stop it. The ward breaker would also explode, and I'd not want to be the one to activate it either, but it would work."

Fleur asked, "I wonder if only that group could even charge it? It would be more dangerous if any group could."

The captain said, "There would be leakage and losses if a non synced group attempted it. That may limit the maximum more than anything. Combining power like that usually doesn't work nearly that well. I still don't understand how that group has figured out how to sync as casually as they do."

Garnok said, "None of us have a clue. My guess is that Lafiel was somehow the catalyst that began it, but they don't need her to link anymore. If anything Nadia was a second key. The future and the past came together as one."

"Any the final key," Fleur asked?

Garnok replied, "As it turns out I suppose there are three keys. The past, the present, and the future. Three is a magical number after all."

Samantha started scanning the first half while Poppy did the rest.

Poppy commented first, "I'd take away all of your wands for this foolishness, but I suppose you didn't use any. Can you at least tell me your going to take a break now?"

Harry grinned at her. "We plan on it."

"You. Before you came to our school I had a boring job."

Harry blushed furiously.

Samantha said, "I'm diagnosing what I'd normally prescribe a couple days rest Knowing them they will recover quicker."

"That just makes it worse. That they keep doing this insanity without any lasting harm makes it hard to yell at them!"

"We're fine," chimed in Luna.

Poppy glared at the small blue haired young woman.

Samantha then turned to their updated magical engine and started to cast a spell but thought better of it, putting her wand away.

Lafiel said, "The design is good. I know you'd normally like to check, but we did and Nadia did."

Samantha nodded. She turned to Poppy. "I recommend we clear the ship for launch. They need to remain here just in case, and I'll remain as well, but I don't see a reason to delay further our launch."

Poppy walked towards the column containing the engine, almost but not quite touching it. "And this is safe?" Her words appeared skeptical.

"Based on their skills it should be. It is not triggering any concern in my magic, and that much bottled magic should by rights have my hair on end, but can't you sense it."

Poppy said, "There is nothing. No expectation. No purpose. It just is. True neutral magic."

Hermione asked, "What do you mean?"

Poppy said, "Go ahead and tell them they can get started."

Samantha did so, even as the engine started to feel faintly warmer.

Poppy said, "Perhaps it is lesson time then. A healer must be neutral is not an expression. His or her magic must be free of feelings, either for good or for harm when it enters another persons body, otherwise it may fight them. The magic here if controlled could be used for healing, or really any purpose. It is one of the reasons I was intending to approach Daphne to see if she was interested in learning. Of you all, she has mastered her emotions the best, though I suppose Lafiel is about the same."

Daphne said, "I'd be honored. I'm currently fairly busy, but as soon as I get time I would love to."

Each of the others expressed an interest as well.

Lafiel asked, "Luna, would you mind focusing on healing? We can probably learn through you later?"

"Nope. It should be fun."

"Fun she says," muttered Poppy. "Just for that, you get to treat all the firsties with sniffles."

Luna smiled. "On second thought," Poppy started to say. Luna pouted and Poppy grinned.

They could feel the sub beginning to pick up speed.

In Hogwarts the ship finally began to move, then to move quickly and before long this submarine shot out of the water at a nearly ninety degree angle and continued accelerating into the sky, great clouds of super heated steam shooting out behind it.

"How is that flying?" asked Minerva.

"It's not smoke," someone said.

Severus said, "I think it is steam."

"Steam not look like that," muttered Minerva.

"Very very hot steam, moving very very fast," said Severus dryly.

"That seems impossible," added Minerva.

"Evidently not," added Filius. Then a bit later he added, "I wonder if they are using magic to reduce the weight of the vehicle."

Septima said, "The better question is if they are using a mirror, then how are we seeing the entire thing, whatever it is."

"Magic" was the common consensus.

On the bridge of the Nautilus after they got underway Albus asked, "Does it look like we have enough not to require to do this again?"

The captain replied, "For this trip probably. Nadia and I've been keeping things going before this, but exiting a planet is never easy."

"Could we take our turn then?" the old Headmaster asked.

"Nadia just made the basic operational parameters available to the Nautilus via her Blue Water. It looks like the amount of magic a single person can add depends on how much is already there. The storage they figured out clearly helps more than what Nadia and I implemented, but we could not leave the Earth with just our magic. I don't think any non linked group could do that."

"And they are the only group that can link to that extent," finished the headmaster.

"The scary thing," the captain said, "is their was no indication from my readings that they filled the reserve or were even that close."

Garnok's eyes popped at that, but he said nothing for several minutes. "It might have been easier had we created several smaller engines."

"True," agreed the captain, "But given that we need to outfit space for either a fusion engine or an anti matter one, plus possibly space time generators, I don't know where we would find the space to do so."

Garnok replied, "A valid point. I definitely would not add an expanded space into that mess. It is scary enough. Still, perhaps we could do something small in our cabins and give the larger engine a break at times."

"That could work," agreed the captain. "We certainly don't need anything approaching launch levels of power idling in the ocean. Reserving that for when it is needed would make way more sense, and would be more efficient than trying to fill that probably."

Garnok pulled out an enchanted book containing his notes. "I'll need notes about how they did this, or at least the original design, but I can work on a smaller version. We should be able to get at least one ready this trip."

The captain said, "I'll have the information available on the computer in your quarters. I'd rather you stick with the work we did before, and not whatever Nadia and the others made. That smells like trouble. I think is best if there is only one for now."

"Agreed."

Back in Hogwarts they saw the moment the sky flared red around the craft gave way to black as they reached the edge of space. Then they saw space clearer than anyone had seen it before.

A few minutes later the view on the mirror faded leaving what appeared to be an ordinary mirror again, but something else changed. They saw, instead of the sky outside on the ceiling, they saw the view from the mirror, save in glorious three dimensional detail.

Minerva asked quietly, "Filius, did you do that?"

"No, and the headmaster isn't here. You would have felt it. Surely you felt something?" he replied.

"I did. Fondness. Hope. Sadness."

"She is waking then?" he replied.

"After so long. We had nearly given up. I know she went silent shortly before Tom graduated. Albus should be here."

Filius replied, "I rather doubt he would agree right now," as his eyes tracked the submarine turned starship.

"Perhaps not, or perhaps he would wish to be both places."

Filius mused, "You know this is, or was, a two way mirror. I wonder if we could ask a few questions?"

"Like what? Maybe if I ask and keep it short?"

"How fast are they going and when will they get there?" He suggested.

Minerva focused her intent and asked directly towards the image of the spacecraft, "How fast are you going, and when will you get there?"

Blue numbers appeared below the craft showing their current velocity to be twenty four million miles per hour with an ETA beside it of four hours thirty four minutes. The velocity then increased to twenty five million miles per hour.

"I have no idea how fast that is," admitted Minerva.

"Me either. Maybe we could build a broom that did a few hundred miles per hour. That is like eighty thousand times faster."

Severus added, "And to think it is not some pure-blood elite that did it. I should have gone. I didn't see a need for my help, but dang I should have gone."

"Me too," came from Filius and Minerva.

"At least it will be magic blood that did it first, even if this may not be the first trip for that ship. I thought we were dead when we first broke out of the ice from so far down. I didn't remotely think we would make it, but now they go so much further and faster."

Elsewhere in the world at the leading magical schools the mirror connections established, soon relaying the images all over the world, even as a summary of what was happening was written on the bottom half of the mirror.

At Gringotts Ragnok was awoken to news that Filius mirror was transmitting images. It seemed he had laid it on the table in front of him and it was showing the Hogwarts ceiling. Ragnok ordered the mirror carried to a conference room where it could be displayed on a larger mirror, even as he personally called for the rest of his council to attend him there.

Once they got there Ragnok said, "I assume everyone is up to speed on Garnok's latest report."

They all nodded, though he suspected no one would dare do otherwise when he spoke like that. He was interrupted from starting the meeting when a junior guard rushed in then, remembering protocol stood silent, waiting to be addressed.

Ragnok asked, "What is the news?"

"We have reports. All the schools they delivered mirrors to are seeing this."

"Is that all?" he asked more calmly than he felt.

"Yes my lord. It is all they have had time..."

"Enough. Increase surveillance. Also contact the gnomes and ask them to get a representative here. Tell them it is important."

After the guard left he said, "Well?" to the room.

One hesitant senior manager said, "The fortune we are going to make processing this metal is obviously good, but now that the entire magical world knows about it, I am uncertain how they will react."

The manager to his right said, "I assume you mean the British Ministry and its particular brand of stupidity, but other wizarding governments must also be considered."

Ragnok asked, "Can we send this mirror call to the ICW?"

Another responded, "Yes, we have the connection available."

"Do it."

"We are sending now."

"We don't have a similar connection to the gnomes correct?"

They agreed that they did not. He said, "Start building two more of the full sized sets. The first can go to the gnomes. The second to the ICW. No charge."

Another guard came in. "Sir a member of the ICW and the Gnome representative to Gringotts is here."

"That was quick."

"It wasn't our message. That hasn't had time."

"It doesn't matter. Send them in."

Ragnok personally stood to greet the gnome representative as well as the ICW representative. They were the usual Gringotts representatives. The important ones would come later. Nevertheless he brought them up to speed leaving out many details but they got the basic sense of it quickly.

"So," the ICW representative mused, "you have the potential for a very interesting source of metal, likely leading to a large amount of income and a very clever group of humans that continue to do things that destabilize our world."

"To be fair, everyone is likely to make a great deal of money, at least if we can prevent any stupidity from breaking out."

The ICW representative replied, "I would have appreciated more notice."

"I was under the impression that they were going to do this in secret, not blast it all over every magical school in the world," said Ragnok grumpily.

"I'm sure that would have improved your profits," noted the Gnome representative.

"Sure, but we were planning on reaching out to you soon in any event. I am hoping you could bring the dwarves to the table as well. Between the three of our groups and a rather interesting source of material..." He trailed off.

The ICW representative mused, "You could also simply make an apology to the dwarves for reclaiming the sword. Just because you built half of it, does not give you the right to take it."

Ragnok held up his hands, pretending to be helpless.

The gnome representative snorted. "The day you get goblins to agree that the weapons they make and sell aren't actually still theirs when the customer dies is well I'm sure I won't live to see it. Thankfully Gnome made weapons are superior."

"Hardly," quipped Ragnok.

"Dwarven," on the other hand mentioned the ICW representative.

Ragnok scowled. He then said, "How about we all agree to keep our books open on this work? We all make a lot of money and life goes on?"

The ICW representative said, "I can agree in principle. I think we can manage our way around most of the wizarding governments. With this much material there will be pressure to liquidate parts of it in different parts of the muggle world, but you would do that anyway, just to boost profits.

The real problem might be the British Ministry. What is your plan? Thankfully Fudge is gone but his replacement is not much better."

Ragnok sighed. "I have ideas yes, but no formal plan. Greengrass, Potter, Black, Lovegood, Longbottom, Bones, Abbot, possibly Malfoy. The basic plan was for the students at Hogwarts to work with their parents or if necessary take up their positions in the Wizengamot and block the minister."

"Are the numbers there?" asked the ICW representative.

"Yes. It isn't as good as I'd have liked, but thanks to the removal of most of the dark lords followers the numbers are there, in principle. There is also a lot of money involved, so this could fail."

"Get Mr. Potter to do his part. With a bit of coaching he should get it done, particularly if Albus does his part."

Ragnok nodded.

"Where are they placing the ore?" asked the gnomish representative.

"We have an island, more or less in the middle of the Atlantic."

The ICW representative snorted. "You have a portkey staging area, likely to help transport questionable good and to avoid tariffs."

Ragnok smiled a fierce smile, not remotely apologizing.

The Gnomish representative, "I would like to be there to see and understand the material, but I expect I someone else will be appointed for this task."

Ragnok said, "You know where the portkey office is. I'll authorize it either way."

The gnomish representative nodded his thanks.

Ragnok could not fully suppress a smile when ten minutes later the Dwarvish representative showed up. Sometimes it paid to be king.

The craft landed on the asteroid a few hours later. Nadia released dozens of small spider like devices that began etching modern day runes in the surface of the asteroid spanning an area of almost a mile. In Hogwarts and around the world they began to hear the bridge chatter.

Nadia said, "The bots are cutting runes to hide our location. The runes are currently just to hide a square mile of the asteroid. We can extend it later. Teams will be sent out to begin charging the wards in a few minutes. It will take a few hours to charge all the wards so that our activity is hidden fully from muggle observation devices. Once the bots are done with the initial ward cutting they will start placing a mining ward scheme, which use an older style of runes. There is no need to lift the material. We simply need to magically separate it. Once that is done a ward assisted portkey scheme will be introduced and then the first chunk will be transported via the old style bulk material port keys. I am asked to tell you that the port keys used would be fatal for living beings. We hope to figure out something to be able to come back here easier, but have not figured anything out yet. If you have any ideas let us know, but the distances are beyond anything we have considered transmitting matter over before."

Nadia's voice went quiet as the spiders began their work. Minutes later everyone other than Team Blue exited the Nautilus and began charging the runes. They each wore space suits.

Harry's voice was heard over the mirror or fake sky, depending on where you were. "Hey Hogwarts and all over. I hear this is quite popular. Many of us are hanging out in the Nautilus and resting. Madam Pomfrey was a bit mad at us for overdoing it getting here. She threatened to add more beds to the infirmary for the rest of us. Fortunately I've had my own bed there for years."

Many of the students in Hogwarts and all over the world laughed.

Harry continued, "But, since we are sitting here, well, do you have any questions?"

Chaos ensued. A question from Fleur's friend Aimee bubbled to the top of the list Harry was looking at. Harry read, "Aimee from Beauxbatons asks, 'Where did you get that ship?'"

Harry looked at Nadia in inquiry.

Nadia's voice came over the mirrors and from the Hogwarts ceiling. She said, "Harry and his friends were sent to where Atlantis lay frozen. To you Atlantis is a legend. To me, it was my home. Myself and my father are the last of the Atlantian people. We were in an enchanted sleep to save our lives, much like your drought of the living death creates, only much more so. The artifact you used for your Tri-Wizard tournament, the goblet of fire was an ancient Atlantian binder. Some centuries ago, when I still could influence the world a little, I managed to send my familiar Fawkes and a slightly modified goblet outside of Atlantis. It was programmed to bring people here, if it judged they could possibly be strong enough to free us. I'm unsure how the later changes done by wizards to the goblet affected its purpose, and I know Fawkes kept the company of others for a time, but thankfully they were able to finish their task and here I, my father, and our ship are here."

Fawkes sang softly in the background.

Hermione said, "You should have seen it. I can still hardly believe the months we spent in Atlantis before we found a way to leave. Sadly breaking out from so far below the ice destroyed the city, but we have a lot of notes and documentation, and most importantly, Nadia and her father are alive."

Daphne said, "We could probably show them."

Harry said, "Pomfrey is going to kill us."

Luna singsonged, "She is currently outside."

Lafiel smiled, even as she subtly moved towards the mirror. Team blue assembled and Nadia led them, not through the Atlantis they saw, but the Atlantis she remembered. It was an Atlantis with bustling people, cherry markets, flying vehicles flitting to and from and casual displays of magic, including children playing with a runic game that created elaborate patterns when they jumped around the playground.

The view on the Hogwarts ceiling ended with the simulation zooming in on a visibly younger Nadia holding hands with her father. What appeared to be her brother was holding her father's other hand. Fawkes landed in front of Nadia and chirped up at her. She smiled and let go of her father's hand before hugging the phoenix to her.

Nadia's voice said, "My brother didn't make it. So many didn't make it. There was so much loss. I won't lie and blame it on others. We, the Atlantians, made many mistakes. I am just glad that some remnant of our civilization survived in you. Yes you, and not just the so called pure of blood. The Nautilus came here on the strength of the group that is stuck inside now. Pure magic fed the matrix that brought us here, and it was a magical matrix, a rune or ward scheme if you like, that was created not just by myself, but by muggle born, half blood, and pure blood together. It is magic plus muggle knowledge and more that we hope will bring us not just here, but so much further. Lafiel, do you want to add anything?"

Lafiel took control of the link and started speaking. "What I'm going to show you is what I hope we can do in the future, at least with those that are interested. In my family their exists a technology for traveling much faster than we did today. We did this by traveling through an alternate type of space we call planar space. In planar space a ship must be protected by what we refer to as a space time bubble. Without the protection of a space time bubble isolating the space inside from the planar universe the ship would be destroyed. The scene I will show you is from a trip when I was younger where my mother was captain of a ship returning with my father, my brother and myself to our home at Lakfakalle."

The screen showed a mixed bridge crew of Abh and Landers, that looked much like everyone else looked. They watched in rapt attention as Lafiel's memory was projected on the screen, showing the moment the military cruiser they were in first projected the space time bubble, to the moment they entered the Sord shifting into the gray of the planar universe. Lafiel's voice added, "I'm going to skip over the eight hours of planar space travel. It would have taken hundreds of years to cover that same distance in normal space."

The view shifted again showing them exiting a different sord. Thirty minutes later the view of the great Abh space station Lakfakalle was visible, looking like nothing less than a great green crystal growing in space as ships swarmed around it. Their ship quickly got closer to the great space station before slowing down and docking. They got out and walked to the great hall where the Empress took audiences and waited patiently. They saw a continued mix of Abh and regular humans. They were admitted to see the Empress a few minutes later. The view faded.

"That is where I hope to return. Those that wish it, may possibly come with me when I make the attempt."

The words, "What's the catch?" filtered in and were brought to the top of her display.

"I cannot speak for the Empress, but as I am her granddaughter, I can make reasonable guesses as to what her demands will be. For those who wish a world of their own, we can likely provide one, though it may take time. Habitable worlds are rare. We generally do not meddle in how worlds run their affairs, though we do not permit the development of space warfare capacity outside of the star forces. Each world must have a recruiting station so they too can send members to the Star Forces. In that way they are a part of defending their world and so many others. It is not a requirement for anyone to become a member of the Star Forces, but the option must be available. I, myself, am a member, though only a cadet."

"For those that wish to take an active roll in the Star Forces, you will be welcomed and trained. For those that wish to live on other Abh controlled worlds, there should be no problems, save that there may be delays until our law enforcement could handle possible crimes by those with magic. For those that wish jobs in law enforcement, they will likely be waiting. There is much potential for the future, but not all is simple. The other great power in the universe has a hatred for us that resembles some of the prejudice I have seen against muggle born magicals. I cannot be sure how they would treat magical humans, but it is likely they would hate you too, since you are different from them."

She continued, "Magicals are very rare among Abh, but we did find a few. I was the strongest we found before I was in the magical accident that brought me here. Lakfakalle is my home and I intend to return there, to see my family and my people. It will likely be years before we can even make the attempt, so there is no hurry, but I vow to do all can to support those who choose to come with me on that day. The choice is yours. The material we mine today is just to begin to gain the resources to make the trip back, but it is more than that. There are problems left to solve, magic yet to figure out. I hope many are with us on this journey."

The whispers and the words started. The very idea of not needing to hide, of a world of their very own was very appealing, of being able not just to see the stars, but to walk them like giants. Part of the dream of Atlantis had been reborn. Even the idea of being under a new ruler did not concern them overly much, not if the Empress's granddaughter was as obviously magical as she was.

The portkey of the first several tons of ore went perfectly. The next was double in size and also went well, though Albus quickly suggested they limit it to that size. The work continued until Albus called it a day.

Samantha came up with a variation on the portkey ward array they were using to reduce the work that could be charged by others, allowing Albus to simply prime the portkey. Samantha and Garnok volunteered to create the incomplete portkeys as well, but Albus insisted he could handle it, and didn't want people to get into a bad habit.

They instead began to work with the others to try to think of a direct route back to Earth. Their attempt to create an array that connected with a banishing box at Gringotts resulted in the death of several conjured bunnies.

They were currently working on an ancient portal form, which was part of Garnok's oldest notes. Garnok's notes were incomplete, but it turned out the blue water had a complete record they could work from. Unfortunately, while they were pretty sure it would connect and it would work, a human could not survive the ten minute trip and they were fairly sure a space suit would not be enough to protect them.

A miniature space time bubble generator might work, but Lafiel could not allow the technology to be handled so carelessly. Their best bet was something like the living hull on her prototype craft. If they could make suits out of something like that, then maybe a person would be protected. They had no idea on how to do so.

The idea of keeping the person inside an expanded space was mentioned and vetoed very quickly. No expanded spaces would survive such a trip.

Babajide Akingbade was not happy to have to take an emergency international portkey to Gringotts in the UK. Mostly it was the part of the international portkey. He hated the damn things. He also hated chaos, which perhaps was why he was the leading candidate to replace Albus Dumbledore as head of the ICW when he finally retired.

He remembered watching the mirror display in the ICW conference room which purported to show a group out from Hogwarts in a rocket ship heading to some asteroid in the outer regions of the solar system. He was just getting watching it when the messenger arrived with his orders. He was to head out and relieve the Goblin representative. He had immediately asked where Albus Dumbledore was, only for the messenger to point to the spacecraft on the screen. When he asked for clarification on his orders all he got was do your job. That helped. It really did.

After recovering his bearings at the Goblin portkey arrival point. A goblin guard was standing by ready to escort him into the meeting in progress. He always liked that about the goblins. No wasted time. No smalltalk.

When he arrived there were clear notes ready for him to read that he read as quickly as he could. This was anything but day to day stuff, so he remained silent and let the others talk as he was brought up to speed. He made it in time for Lafiel's final words. When he was sent he had thought there would be some big decision to make, and there was, but not one that could be made here.

When the talk around the table quieted. He said simply, "Under my authority as second in command of the ICW I hereby order everyone here and everyone on that rocket to present themselves to the ICW within two weeks."

Albus could order them there sooner he knew, but his own authority was limited. Two weeks should be enough time in any event.

Ragnok asked, "Will the ICW block people from leaving should they choose to do so?"

He blinked, having not really thought about it, but when it came to it the decision would be based in their founding charter. He responded, "The ICW was created to protect and advocate for the rights of wizards and sentient magical species. We will continue to do so, wherever there is need."

Ragnok grinned. He said, "We will be there, as I'm sure the others will as well." Around the table they all agreed. Another guard came in and held at attention. Ragnok said, "Report."

"Sir, approximately one hundred tons of ore are now available in our staging area."

"Good. Continue reporting. We will continue this meeting at least until we get the initial mineral assay from the island."

"That was under way when I came. I will return to the island and wait for it."

"Good work."

They were interrupted ten minutes later with the mineral assay. Babajide whistled when he heard the summary finish. There was no guarantee all the ore would be this good, but then there was no guarantee some of it wouldn't be better either. He said, "Don't get greedy."

Ragnok grinned fiercely.

"Is there anything else that I should know about so as to not be surprised again?" asked the senior ICW representative.

Ragnok said, "I would like the next part off the record. You need to know it and you will want a private session at the ICW to discuss it, but it should not be made public knowledge at least not yet."

"Very well. Until I say otherwise the information discussed next is under seal of the ICW, not to be revealed by the parties here unless countermanded by the head of the ICW or the full council."

Ragnok spoke, "Viscountess Abriel Paryunu Lafiel is from probably a long time in our future. She came back in time by accident, not knowing that what she did touched on magic, not knowing magic. Think about that."

"So either magic is still a secret in the future or "

"It is gone, nearly extinct only to live again in that young woman and a few others." finished Ragnok. "We think it is the later. Albus Dumbledore confirmed a prophecy given by an unknown seer, though one with the blood of seers in her veins. He repeated it."

"The loop is closed. What is must be. The arc of time may save remnants of the children of Atlantis. The child of hope shall return to a time of pain. Magic's light is the light of hope. It must not fade..."

"He also told me that the Earth will eventually destroy itself, probably in the foolishness of muggles. I don't know details. He was hesitant on telling me even this, because of the mess that is time travel, but with a true prophecy..."

Babajide said, "We will have to verify it, but expect our full cooperation if this turns out to be true. Now, what else?"

"I do not know this for a fact, but my guesses are usually good. That ship is a relic of Atlantis. I rather suspect they are going to try building others. If they are going to take any number of us to the future, they are going to need to. That means probably a lot of material and supplies from the muggle world, and probably scientists and engineers as well. There is an incalculable amount of work if I'm right."

"You can't travel forward in time," muttered Babajide.

Ragnok said, "Do you think that will stop them?"

"I'm going to return to the ICW and give my report. If there is nothing else?"

"I commissioned a pair of the big communication mirrors for the ICW. They should be done in a day or two. There is a gnomish set as well that may be done sooner. If you could send someone back to collect them?"

Babajide turned to his junior representative. "Take care of it." He nodded.

The Dwarven representative looked with expectation at Ragnok, who smiled innocently.

After holding that smile for half a minute Ragnok said, "We will create a set for the Dwarves as well of course. The runes are not particularly interesting. The method is. Perhaps everyone would like to see it in progress before leaving?"

They journeyed down to near the Goblin city and found a large almost empty room and in the room they found a near duplicate of the workshop at Hogwarts, complete with an x-y router busy milling the runes into a silver mirror blank.

"Such a simple idea," muttered Babajide. "This is straight up muggle technology with no magic correct?"

Ragnok nodded. "It is. We can give you a parts lists for what we bought. We just copied what the Hogwarts group put together. Some of the parts were tricky to find, but I'm assured that there are many equivalent replacements. I do not know about such things, but there are Goblins learning as we speak."

They nodded, accepting a copy of the parts list as they left as well as the simplified operating manual they had written so far.

Babajide flipped through it before leaving. A lot of English with Goblin notes. The key part seemed to be, "Get the layout files from Team Blue," whatever those were. The whole Team Blue thing confused him. Was the blue hair thing some kind of disease? He would have to ask. He remembered it being noted in a report somewhere. He would have to find that and reread it.

Next stop was the ICW meeting haul, that was after another interminable cursed international portkey. Then he suspected the entire council would be sent out to manage this, well crises wasn't the word, but it needed managed. He would have to personally make sure Albus was managing the mess that was Wizarding Britain. A part of him searched for a way to finally clean up that mess that was the British Ministry. Things improved with the death of, "All those horribly wronged members of society that had been unjustly sentenced," but things had not improved that much.

They had half expected the muggles to destroy the planet, what with their insane weapons that could destroy cities, but to know they may have an end date scared the crap out of him, even if it appeared it wouldn't be anytime soon. Now they had to deal with the paradox of time travel. It was as well they discovered this late. Had they discovered the young woman early on, they may have sentenced her to death to preserve the time stream, and in doing so they might have doomed themselves. He shivered when he thought of that prophecy.

If that was a true prophecy. It had the ring of one he supposed, but if that was true, it would not be alone. There would be others sooner or later. If those that had passed were sounding the horn, then it was important that they listen.

When he got back he found out the existence of four other prophecies that taken together confirmed it all. He cursed fluently in his native language and then started issuing orders.

First up was to bring them up to parity with muggle science, which seemed an impossible task. The directive was given and countersigned by the rest of the ICW to survey all muggleborn parents to quietly determine their skills. Someone else would be responsible for figuring out how to mask the request to make them sound harmless. He amended the request to first rate them for their suitability for classified projects. A priority may be given for those that already worked with the magical world or perhaps who had muggle security clearances. Basically, he summarized, "They were not allowed to interview anyone they thought might leak wizarding world state secrets." He further gave permission to obliviate the interviews from the muggle minds, but specified the use of caution and judgment. They could hardly ask for help from people they had mind wiped.

He wrote a note to himself to personally interview the person they put in charge. They needed the technical skills if they could find them, but they did not need this bursting into the muggle world. The ICW had the world's largest group of Obliviators for a reason. He made another note to see about expanding their ranks. Their were bound to be screw ups. He had nothing against muggles, but the task before them was impossible enough without adding more headaches.

Yet another order was given out to meet with the ICW research division. Time travel into the distant future was not a well studied field. He himself had voted to cut funding for it. They lost far too many valuable researchers to failures as it was. He now regretted his choice. Obtaining a memory from that girl about her trip back and every detail she did know was moved up to the absolutely vital list.

It was probably accidental magic so some form, combined with some other massively unlucky chain of events, but what if it wasn't? The girl had mentioned the manipulation of time and space, even if it was just referring to a protective barrier. No, it wasn't for the manipulation of time and space. It was to prevent it. This artificial barrier allowed them to live and thrive in a space where the time winds would ordinarily rip a person to shreds. Did they not know what they made? Impossible, surely. But they were not magical, at least not much before this new muggleborn of change. Would they even sense the flow of time? Few could, but from them they had developed the time turners of today that shielded a person from the time winds with the aid of fairy magic.

He met with their research division and after swearing them to magical secrecy explained his thoughts. They agreed with him and asked for their funding to be reinstated. He agreed to work on it, provided they promised not to experiment until they understood everything that was understandable. He needed living experts not dead ones, or worse, ones burned out of existence. He was about to leave when they pointed out one of their successes, well successes of a sort.

He walked down with them into the storage area where they uncovered the twin portals twenty two feet in diameter, along with several dragonhide outfits that looked to be airtight, with thick enchanted glass for helmets.

He remembered this project. The portals worked. They would work from one end of the planet to the other. Having to suit up in the dragon hide to be safe made them nearly useless, even if the actual transit was far nicer than the cursed international portkeys. Heck, he had actually voted for more money for the group in the hope they could eliminate the need for the suits, but was outvoted.

The portals were hopelessly expensive requiring months of rune work from top ranked runemasters, that they had just seen done with a muggle device to create to a far higher standard. Damn them for their lack of insight. How could they have missed this?

He asked, "Will they work to that asteroid?"

They shrugged. "Distance didn't appear to be limitation. This already has the provision to have seven wizards charge the system at either end." He shrugged. "We could try it?"

"Not with people."

"Of course not. It seems we must once again pick up animals from the muggles they are going to put down."

He looked at them in confusion.

The other answered, "Dogs or cats usually. We have some other suits. We send one through. Someone on the other end checks them out and sends them back."

"Will the device survive one of the portkeys used to bring in the ore?"

"Almost certainly not. Weakening raw material is one thing. Weakening this is another. I wouldn't even consider using it, no matter the test results if you exposed it to that."

He laughed. It felt good to listen to others who despised portkeys. He opened his bag and brought out the parts list for the x-y router and the manual. He then left them a copy of the memory of the one in operation. He ended with, "I want you to build what they built, or perhaps a bigger one that can create these. Figure it out, request what resources you need. I'll get it approved."

"This is what made those mirrors I've heard about?"

"Yes."

"We will get it done. You believe this is a higher priority than time travel?"

Babajide said, "Probably not, but it is a more immediate one, and by establishing our ability to build runes like this, well who knows what it will gain us."

"That is true, and given that we made this in nine parts, we probably don't even need a bigger device to cut them. I think this sample may work though. You just need to get it there."

Babajide said, "I've already arranged for them to address the ICW. Perhaps a trip after that. I'll try to get it done and get at least one of you on the trip if I can manage it."

They nodded.