Title: Defender's Path
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Phantom Menace for Star Wars. New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are all ignored. At least the first three or four Harry Potter Books, there will be some changes.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Don't own em, if I did, I would be worth millions.
Summary: When an accident occurs with a potions experiment, Harry and Hermione wake up in a strange place, but that is not all that is different. Set in Seventh Year, Cross with Star Wars.
" " denotes speech, ' ' denotes thought.
AN: There is no correlation between the HP Verse Timeline and the SW Verse Timeline. Time does move faster in SW than HP but each storyline is told semi independently. The placement in the story had no significant meaning.
Harry ran down the cramped, dim lit hallway of the massive space station. His sixteen year old body was a lean as it had been at the same age back at Hogwarts, but now it had slightly more muscle mass and he was stronger, thanks to six years of Lightsaber training. The glowing blade of his Lightsaber flicked and the energy bolt was reflected back at the battledroid who had fired it. As the droid collapsed, three more rounded the corner blacking him off from the elevator. Running as fast as he could, Harry sped towards the momentarily confused battledroids. With a Force Push, he cleared the way to the elevator, then he slid crossing the flanking corridors and into the elevator, avoiding the volley of blaster fire.
As the elevator began to ascend, Harry deactivated the blade on his Lightsaber, hanging it from his belt, and fix up the fall of his Jedi robe. He calmly walked out of the elevator when the doors opened into a large reception area. He knew there would be no trouble here. The personal bodyguards of the six factions attending this negotiation were all present and none trusted the others enough to try anything. He crossed the reception area and quietly slipped into the actual conference. This negotiation was so important that three Jedi had been sent to mediate, two of them from the Jedi Council. Master Mace Windu was present, of course, otherwise Harry would not be here. The second Council member was Master Adi Gallia, with Hermione standing behind her. The third Jedi was a Knight, skilled with negotiation, that Harry had never met and his Padawn was currently absent. Harry waited till Master Windu was not occupied then leaned in to whisper in his Master's ear.
"Master, it is as we suspected. It's the Technor Union. Cargo Bays 3 and 4." Harry said.
"Deal with it. Take Padawn Granger." Mace said.
"Yes Master." Harry replied.
Standing up, Harry caught Hermione's eye then flicked his eyes to the door. She nodded slightly and they both slipped out of the room. None of the delegates took notice of this as, due to Master Windu and Harry's suspicions, the Padawn had been slipping in and out of the meeting since the beginning, three days ago. Some of it had been to search for evidence and some to make the Padawn into background features for this moment.
When the pair reached the closest cargo bay, number 4, they slipped quietly into the room and shed their robes. The first indication that something was wrong to the occupants of the cargo bay was with a quick succession of 'Snap-hisses', universally known as the sound of a Lightsaber.
"By the order of the Jedi Council, you are all under arrest. You are all to drop your weapons immediately, all droids are to deactivate." Harry called out to the stunned room.
"Do you really expect that to work?" Hermione asked sceptically, flexing her grip on her two blue bladed Lightsabers.
"Nope." Harry said, shifting his stance slightly and holding his green bladed, double ended Lightsaber like a Quarterstaff.
"Get them." Shouted one of the semi metal encased life forms of the Technor Union.
"Typical." Hermione said, twirling her twin blades to deflect several incoming blaster bolts.
Harry just shook his head and grinned slightly as he sliced through a droid with one end of his blade while deflecting a bolt with the other, slowly moving away from Hermione in order to give themselves more room to fight.
Ron knelt down and put the binoculars up to his eyes. He was obscured from the camp below by the foliage. Lowering the binoculars, he took hold of the German made G3 assault rifle and thumbed the talk button on his throat mike.
"Confirmed Death Eater camp. Twenty Plus. Requesting orders." He whispered, rattling off a set of coordinates.
"Return to camp." The order came over the earpiece.
"Rodger." Ron responded.
With hand gestures, Ron commanded his SAS patrol to return to their camp. His jungle camouflage uniform, face paint and hair darkener helped him blend in with the trees, helped by his rigorous SAS training.
Over fourteen months had passed since his two best friends had disappeared. Dumbledore had said that they had gone into hiding, but Ron never believed it. He would have known. Barely a month after Harry and Hermione had disappeared, Lord Voldermort had announced his presence to the world, by a very public attack on the Muggle Football grand final. After two days of Manchester United and Leads fans blaming each other, the Muggles had finally figured out that something else was going on.
A massive joint announcement by the British Prime Minister and Susan Bones, the Minister Of Magic, had ended the long secrecy of the Magical World. As the magical and Muggle worlds came together, the Ministry of Magic called for Witch and Wizard volunteers to help protect the cities and join with the Muggle Militaries to aid in combating Lord Voldermort's forces. Ron, having been on the Fast Track Auror Program with Harry and Hermione, had been one of the first to volunteer, and had been placed for training with the SAS, one of the best Special Forces units in the world.
As with the defence programs and the general populus, at first the SAS Major he had been assigned to had been sceptical and thus had only used him for mystical information, but as time had passed, and battles fought, Ron had become accepted as part of the unit, and now ranked Corporal. He had also had to adapt to the SAS as much as they had to him. Thanks to his Muggle crazy father, Ron was more accepting of Muggle technology than many Wizards.
Early in the fighting, the Death Eaters had sorely underestimated the potential of the Muggle Militaries and had learnt the hard way that bullets killed just as effectively, if not more so than the Killing Curse. In under a year of full cooperation many cities were beginning to become much better protected than they had been, using booth Muggle and Magical means of defence. Even Hogwarts' defences had been bolstered by Muggle weaponry. As the early pitched battles died down, everyone settled in for a long and bloody war.
The patrol's arrival back at camp broke Ron out of his musing. As the patrol split up, Ron headed for the command tent.
"Report Corporal." The Major said.
"A Death Eater camp here, sir. About twenty hostiles. Just tents, no indication of immediate plans to move or that they had been observed. No defensive structures or spells set up." Ron reported.
"Thank you, Corporal. Dismissed." The Major said.
As Ron turned to leave, the tent flap opened and a messenger ran in. After a second, he recognised her as one of Patel sisters from Hogwarts. With a smile and a nod he left the tent, knowing from her eyes that she would seek him out before she left. Their year from Hogwarts had been spread all over Brittan, several of them were dead. Just to talk, or to comfort each other, either way it would not mean anything. Not love, not friendship, not now. There was a war on, and no one was young anymore.
The almost constant rap of wood on wood echoed through the courtyard, interspersed with the occasional crack of wood on flesh. Harry, Hermione and Anakin walked out into the practice yard. As with his friends, Anakin's body had hardened over the last six years. He was more muscular than either Harry or Hermione. Hermione looked more like a dancer while Harry's lean frame implied speed and endurance. Each dressed in their Jedi uniforms, sans Robes, they proceeded to the racks where they retrieved wooden replica of their lightsabers.
"Heard there was a problem on that negotiation last month." Anakin said as they approached a vacant area of the yard.
"Technor Union tried to kill most of the other delegates." Hermione said, testing the balance of her training swords.
"Same old, same old." Harry said, launching an attack at Anakin's gut.
Anakin blocked the attack then jumped over the swing of one of Hermione's blades as her other one tried to bite into Harry's gut.
"How was your mission?" Harry asked, slipping away from Anakin's downward attack, blocking it with one end of his training staff, by stepping behind Hermione and blocking her defensive, backhand upswing with the other end.
"The usual. Show up, get shot at, talk, get shot at, leave." Anakin replied, having swung around for a head shot at Hermione, which she blocked, kicked Harry in the gut and then jumped backwards and away to avoid the swing of Hermione's other blade.
Harry recovered from the kick to the gut and approached the fray, whirling his staff, just as Anakin approached from the other direction. Hermione saw them coming and began weaving her two training blades around her body, creating a speeding barrier of wood that was very difficult to penetrate. Anakin's attack at her seemingly undefended back was diverted by a blur of wood that almost disarmed him.
As the sparing match continued, a crowd of Padawn and Jedi Knights gathered to watch the display. When the session finished almost an hour later, all three had several bruises where the practice blades had met skin.
"Much improved, you all have."
"Thank you, Master Yoda." Hermione said as they all bowed.
"Good work, keep up. Yes?" Yoda said before leaving the training yard.
TBC…