Chapter Sixteen – Kiss

Harry arrived in his garage/spaceport and immediately went into his makeshift office where he had a desk, a couple of chairs, and a sofa. He pulled Lisera out of the bag, laid the doll on the sofa, and cancelled the transfiguration spell. The doll quickly changed back into Lisera who looked up into Harry's eyes.

"Welcome to Earth, or rather my home on Earth. Let me help you up," he said reaching his hand down for her.

She grabbed his hand and stood up with his assistance. She began looking around. Then turned back to Harry.

"You were right, Harry. It didn't hurt and I didn't even know anything was going on so thanks for keeping me safe."

"My pleasure. I want you to make yourself at home. I'll see that a room is setup for you in the manor. Follow me." He led her out of the office and into the large spaceport area. "As I'm sure you can tell this is where the space station will be. Technically, this was my garage but I expanded it greatly to handle a spaceport."

"I can't wait to get started!"

"I think today we'll get everything out of the bags and expanded back to normal size first. Then, after that, we can get ourselves settled in, I can show you around the place, and you can meet my house elves."

"Elves?"

"Yes, in the magical world, house elves are a symbiotic species that love to work and serve. They have done this for the magical world for centuries. Though there are some who treat them poorly, it's a horrible tragedy to do that. They are submissive and long to serve. They are also very powerful and can do amazing things with their magic."

"Wow, when can I meet them?"

"Actually, let me introduce you to my head house elf, Todge. He will need to be made aware of your presence and one of them will need to setup a room for you. Todge?"

Pop!

A small but well-dressed house elf appeared next to Harry.

"Master Harry has returned! How can Todge be of service?"

"Hello, Todge. It's good to be back. I added a few days to my return instead of showing up again right after I left. It makes it a little easier on me since I was actually gone a few weeks."

"Todge understands, Master Harry, and is happy you were not gone any longer. All the elves miss Master Harry when he is away from home."

"Thank you Todge. Now, I would like to introduce you to a good friend of mine that I brought back with me. Her name is Lisera and she will be staying here with us. Lisera this is Todge and he is the head house elf here at Potter Manor."

"I didn't understand a single word you guys were saying, Harry."

"Sorry, Lisera, I slipped back into my native tongue. I forgot you wouldn't understand it. Give me just a second."

"Todge, Lisera does not speak our language so I need to look up a translation spell for her until she can learn it. Hang on a second, will ya?"

"Yes, Master. Todge will wait."

Harry pulled out his datapad and looked up translation spells. He found one that enabled a person to understand and speak English. He turned back to Lisera.

"This should help."

Harry waved his hand and cast the spell on her.

"Can you understand me now, Lisera?"

"Yes, are you sure we aren't speaking Basic?"

"No, we are definitely speaking English. You will need to learn the language so you won't need me to cast that Translation Spell on you all the time. Everyone here speaks it, at least in this country."

"Okay, now what were you saying before?"

"Lisera, this is Todge who is the head house elf here at Potter Manor. Todge this is my good friend Lisera."

"It's very nice to meet you Todge."

"Todge is very pleased to meet Miss Lisera. Can Todge take your things to your room?"

Lisera looked a bit confused but Harry pulled her bag off his belt and handed it to Todge.

"Here you go, Todge. These are all of her clothes. Please place her in a bedroom somewhere close to the Master Suite. Lisera and I will be working closely together on a big project and she may need me for a while until she adjusts to living here."

"Todge will have Letty take care of Miss Lisera. Master Harry should not have to take care of Miss Lisera should she need something. Letty will be pleased to have someone to look after."

"Good idea, Todge. We'll have Letty take care of her. I'm sure Lisera will enjoy her company." Harry turned back to Lisera. "Letty is another one of the house elves. She and Todge are married. Their son, Benny, is our chef and he's quite good. You'll see. There are two more, Grady and Pipsy, who are also married. Grady is also Letty's brother."

"So five house elves?"

"Yes, Miss Lisera. We have plenty of house elves to take care of everyone. Welcome to Potter Place!"

"Thank you, Todge. I'm very grateful to be here."

"Todge will take your things to Letty and have her prepare your room for you. Is there anything else Master requires of Todge?"

"Yes, Todge. When Letty is done with Lisera's room, I would like all the house elves to join us here. I have some additional friends to introduce to all of you."

"Will they need rooms as well, Master Harry?"

"No, Todge. They do not require rooms. They're droids and will stay here in the garage and work."

"Yes, Master. Todge will bring the others."

"Thank—"

Pop!

"—you."

"He's very efficient, isn't he?" asked Lisera.

"Yes, very. They all are. Alright it's time to unload all the droids and get them powered up. When I unshrink them, can you power them up for me?"

"Yes sir, boss."

"None of that. I'm still just Harry."

"Whatever you say, Harry," she said slowly with a saucy wink.

"Oh boy, what have I done now?"

Lisera smiled as Harry started pulling a droid out of the bag one at a time and cancelling the Shrinking Charm. Lisera went behind him and powered each one of them up. After a few minutes, they had 31 droids looking around the space for something to do.

"Hang on guys! I still have to unload all the equipment and get it back to normal size. I just wanted you up and running before I did that," he said in Basic. "However, all of you, like OP, will need to learn English so you can communicate properly on this planet. I realize all of you droids have likely already picked it up. That's good because Lisera will need to speak it a lot to get used to it and you will need to understand her."

"I will be happy to help Lisera, Harry," replied OP.

"Excellent, OP. With your help she'll be proficient in no time at all."

"Thank you, OP," said Lisera.

"Harry, Lisera already speaks good English."

"That's just a Translation Spell, OP. She will need to learn on her own."

"Okay, Harry. I will help her."

"I can always count on you, OP. All right, let's see what we have here."

Harry pulled out the bag with the crates of space station parts and placed all the tiny containers on the floor toward the larger end of the garage. He then unshrunk them all and watched as they each grew to enormous size. With a wave of his hand, they all opened up and showed their contents.

"Now, before we unload any of this, I want us to plan how this station will be laid out. This will mainly be up to Lisera. She will be in charge of building it. You droids, will be helping her with whatever she needs. If there is a need for any heavy lifting then you can call on me. If for some reason I'm not around then one of the house elves can help with that."

As if on cue, the house elves popped in and just stared at all the droids. They remembered Harry talking about them but to see them in person was much more interesting.

"Ah, hello everyone!" said Harry to his house elves.

"Hello, Master Harry," they all said together with a bow.

"First of all, all of you, except Todge, need to meet Lisera. Lisera, this is Letty, Benny, Grady, and Pipsy."

"It's so nice to meet you all," she replied.

They all bowed then Letty stepped forward.

"Miss Lisera, Letty will be ever so pleased to take care of all your needs. Just call Letty and Letty will be there anytime."

"Thank you, Letty. That's very nice of you."

"Next, you need to meet the droids. I'm just going to introduce you to OP3C. OP will then introduce you to all the others. You can ask them any questions you may have."

The elves went off with OP to get to know all the droids. Harry looked over at Lisera and she was already working on her datapad, mapping out the station with all the parts. Harry smiled then started floating all the parts out of the containers and setting them on the floor. When a container was empty, Harry shrunk it and stored it away for future use.

The droids had finished meeting the elves, who had returned to the manor, so they began inspecting the parts and moving some around so they were grouped together in proper sections. If the part was too big for them to lift, then OP or the other protocol droid, LB2F, would ask Harry for help. He then would float the large part to where they indicated.

When he wasn't helping them, he was placing all his other items where he needed them, including everything he collected. He placed the four ships at the farthest end of the station so they would be out of the way. He then expanded them back to normal size. The largest one, the Corvette, was placed on the very end.

With all the ships and crates extended back to normal size he was beginning to wonder if he was going to have to expand his garage more.

"Lisera?"

"Yes," she answered not looking up from her datapad.

"Can you take a break?"

She stopped and looked up at Harry.

"I said we were going to get settled in first but we both jumped in and got busy, didn't we? What say we cut it off here and head into the house? I'm hungry so let's get a bite to eat then I can show you the rest of it. You can work on that design later, or tomorrow even. There's nothing that says we have to do it all at once."

"Okay, I'm hungry too. I was almost done anyway. We should be able to start putting it together tomorrow."

"Sounds good. I have a few errands to run tomorrow but I should be back before too long. Why don't you let the droids know what else you want them to do while I put up these last few items? I guess they can take a break when they finish."

"I'll take care of it. Meet you back here?"

"Sure."

Harry went back to the office he'd created and called Todge. He told Todge that he and Lisera were ready to eat so Todge hurried off to let Benny know. Harry then unloaded the last few items he had on his person. When he arrived back at the spot he last saw Lisera, she was walking up.

"The droids have done a great job organizing everything," she said. "We should make a lot of headway tomorrow."

"Excellent! Shall we eat, Miss?" he asked holding out his elbow.

"Why certainly, good sir. I'm famished," she said slipping her arm through his.

"You should like this then. Benny will take great care of us."

Harry pointed out a few items and rooms in the manor as they passed through to the dining room. They found the table loaded down with a host of delicious food. Lisera was not used to some of the dishes so she asked what they were. However, they smelled wonderful and she was certainly willing to give them a try.

True to Harry's word, they were both very satisfied when they finished eating all the delicious food.

Harry took Lisera on a tour of his manor and ended at her bedroom door, which was just a short walk down from Harry's master bedroom. Before she let Harry go to his room, she stopped him.

"Yes?"

"Aren't you forgetting something Harry?"

"What?" he asked confused.

"Didn't you promise me a big kiss after we arrived here? I still haven't received it," she said with a straight face.

Harry stared at her for a second.

"Are you sure you can handle it? I don't want you to feint or anything when I lay one on you," he asked with fake concern.

"I'm willing to risk it if you are," she said with a smile.

"You asked for it," he replied.

Harry stepped forward and pulled Lisera close up against his body with his left arm wrapped around her lower back. As their lips came closer together, he reached up and lightly fisted her hair in his right hand, pulling her face toward his gently.

They then closed the short distance remaining and kissed passionately until air was absolutely necessary. They pulled their lips apart and rested their foreheads on each other as they caught their breath. Both their eyes were still closed. They stayed that way for several seconds.

Suddenly Harry stood up straight and let her go. He took a step back away from her.

"I hope that met with your approval, Lisera," he said quickly.

Lisera just nodded, still in a daze, as Harry turned and walked to his room. She couldn't figure out what just happened. She thought that kiss was the real thing. It certainly had her convinced. She was hoping that Harry was attracted to her, but maybe he wasn't.

She slowly walked into her room and shut the door, still wondering about it.

When she looked around, she was impressed with the accommodations. Her bedroom was large with a super comfortable bed, her own private bathroom, massive walk-in closet, and a balcony that looked out over the lands.

All the clothes she bought on Coruscant barely made a dent in her closet. Letty had already hung them up and placed all her other items, plus her unmentionables, in some drawers that were located in the closet as well.

She had wondered if she was making the right decision going with Harry but she knew beneath all the flirting and joking around that she had really fallen for him. Now, all this he had provided for her, plus the kiss that was incredible, but then the weird parting that made no sense. She was very confused. She hoped she made the right choice.

It only took her another 15 minutes to finish her design after she finally shifted her mind away from Harry. She was definitely ready to start tomorrow now. She wanted to do a great job for Harry and have him be pleased with her. She would make sure she did her best. If he only wanted to be her boss and friend then she would be the best employee and friend she could be.

Harry completely missed the dazed look on Lisera's face after he finished kissing her. He was positive he went too far so he left as fast as he could out of embarrassment. They always flirted and joked around with each other because they were good friends, he thought.

There was no reason to go so far and kiss her like that, but how could he not call her bluff? She brought it back up so he had to stand his ground. Right?

He was just wondering why that kiss felt so… so… perfect.

He found Lisera extremely attractive and could even see being in a relationship with her. But she wouldn't want something like that from him…. Would she?

oOo

The next day, Lisera and the droids went to work putting all the parts together. Harry left to go on his errand.

He was dressed in wizarding attire this time when he arrived in Diagon Alley. He made his way over to Ollivander's wand shop and entered. No one else was in there so he waited for Ollivander to appear.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, so glad to see you back. I trust you were able to procure some new woods and cores, as you mentioned?"

"Yes, I might have a few," he said with a smile. "Is there a good place to do this? I will need quite a bit of room to show you everything. Some pieces are rather large. The Krayt Dragon alone was at least 60 meters."

"60 meters?" Ollivander asked in awe.

"Yes, he was quite large. I have everything shrunk and in stasis. Unless you would rather I just give them to you like they are and you can expand them yourself when you're ready?"

"No, I will need you to name everything so I can label it properly. It would be best if we do this together."

"Very well. Let's start with the woods first, shall we? We can leave the cores until last."

"Yes," Ollivander said excitedly.

Harry began pulling out all the trees and plants that could be used for wand wood. He already had most of it labeled in English. Ollivander was getting more and more excited with each one he pulled out of his bag. Soon he had them all laid out on the table provided.

"These are all the woods, Mr. Ollivander. As you can see, I have most of them labeled. We can label the ones I missed. I remember what they all are. Of course, they are currently shrunk and will need to be expanded."

"My, my, my, Mr. Potter. You have outdone yourself. I can feel the potential from each one of these woods," he said as he ran his hand over them.

"Just so you know, I gathered two of each kind and kept one of each for myself. I hope to plant them in a greenhouse at home. I just need to find someone good with plants to help me."

"You should go to Hogwarts and talk to Professor Sprout. I'm sure she can help," he responded as he continued to look at the woods. "What exactly is this one? It's not a full tree but maybe part of a branch?"

"That, sir, is just a small piece of a branch from a giant tree that's called a Wroshyr tree. They're on the planet Kashyyyk and they stand well over 1000 meters tall. The natives on the planet are called Wookiees and live in houses built in the tops of the trees. The lower levels are way too dangerous because of the vicious beasts that roam them."

"Amazing."

They continued on talking about each piece and then moved on to the cores. Ollivander had to expand his back room to handle the Krayt Dragon and Anakkona. He could not believe the size of those two beasts. And here he was amazed at the size of the rancors.

Harry saved the snake and the dragon until last. He knew he would get a good reaction out of Ollivander when he pulled them out and expanded them. He was not disappointed.

He asked Harry to give him a week to get it all organized and in the proper form, then he wanted Harry to come back and see if they could match up a wood and core that will work for him. Harry told him he would see him in a week and left.

From there he teleported to Hogwarts to visit with Dumbledore and see Professor Sprout. Hagrid met him at the gates and let him in. He even walked Harry up to the front doors chatting with him before leaving him alone to go back to his duties. School was in session when Harry arrived and many of the students stared at him as he entered the school and made his way to the headmaster's office.

He filled the headmaster in on what he had planned for a new greenhouse, and his need to speak with Professor Sprout. Since classes were in session, they drank some tea and waited until class was almost over before Albus walked Harry to the greenhouses to talk to Professor Sprout and get her help.

They happened to arrive at the class of sixth years that was combined for all the houses. They were noticed when they arrived. After all, the headmaster rarely showed up at classes and Harry was not known at all by them. The professor stopped her lesson and turned to the newcomers.

"Can I help you with something Headmaster?"

"So sorry Pomona, we arrived a little early. Mr. Potter needs your assistance. We didn't mean to intrude though. Please finish your lesson and we will just wait."

She nodded at the headmaster and turned back to the class. She only had a few more things to say so she wrapped it up and assigned them homework. The mention of Mr. Potter did not help her students' attention spans anyway, so she quit a little early.

Before she could walk over and talk to the headmaster and Mr. Potter, her students were questioning him non-stop.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" asked a tall redheaded boy in Gryffindor robes.

"Yes, I am. And you are?"

"Ron Weasley."

"Nice to meet you, Ron."

"But you're older than us. You should be our age," asked a strawberry blonde girl with Hufflepuff robes. Then she caught herself. "Sorry, I'm Susan. Susan Bones."

"Technically yes, Susan, but I'm a little different from you guys. It's perfectly natural for me. I'm sure I would have enjoyed getting to know all of you had I attended here and not gone away."

"Where did you go?" asked a brown, bushy haired girl, another Gryffindor. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way."

"I'm afraid that's a very long story, Hermione, and I really don't have the time today to answer your question."

Harry then noticed a bleached blonde male sneering at him. He was about to ask him what his problem was when a shy looking blonde haired boy spoke up next but not to Harry. He spoke to the professor.

"Professor, I have a question about my extra-curricular work I'm doing but I can wait until you finish with Mr. Potter."

"Thanks, Mr. Longbottom. I'll be with you shortly then." She then turned to the rest of the class. "That will be all. Mr. Potter I'm sure is a busy man so be on your way. Don't be late for your next class. Go on now."

The students slowly moved out and left the classroom giving Harry sideways glancing as they did. Neville walked over to the far corner and waited so he wouldn't intrude.

"How can I help you, Mr. Potter?"

"Harry, Professor, please."

"In that case, you may call me Pomona."

"Thank you, Pomona. I have a bit of work that needs to be done by someone of your expertise. I know so little about plants it would not be good for me to attempt the work. I plan to build a new greenhouse on my property for some very special plants. These plants will be unknown to pretty much everyone. I was hoping to get some help from someone knowledgeable like you so they have a chance of growing and not dying."

"That sounds very exciting, Harry. The problem is I'm extremely busy with classes and my own greenhouses here. My time is limited. However, I do know someone who could probably help you out, at least on the weekends."

"That sounds promising."

"Neville, can you come here please?"

Neville walked over to join the group.

"Harry Potter, I would like you to meet Neville Longbottom. He is by far my best student and will likely replace me here at Hogwarts when I get ready to retire. I am positive he could help you. However, I do request that I get to accompany him at least once so I can see these plants of yours."

Harry stuck out his hand and they shook.

"Nice to meet you Neville. Call me Harry."

"Y-You too, H-Harry."

"You're a student though, right? How are you going to be able to get away on the weekends?"

"Mr. Longbottom would need special permission" answered Albus, "but since this will be an educational experience I'm sure I, as Headmaster, could be persuaded to allow him the opportunity. And, if Pomona will accompany him on his first weekend to see these new plants, I'm sure she can vouch for the safety of her student."

"What do you say, Neville?" asked Harry as he turned back to the boy. "Do you think you would be willing to help me out? I'd be happy to pay you for your services."

"These are new plants no one has seen before?"

"That's correct."

"When do I start?"

The adults chuckled at his excitement.

"Hopefully soon. I will send you and the professor here an owl when I have my greenhouse in place. You can plan on the first available weekend after that. I'll then provide you with instructions to my house, etc. so we can get started. I should have the greenhouse in just a day or two."

"Great!" replied Pomona. "I'm excited too, Neville."

The nervousness on Neville's face had been replaced with a big smile.