A Note: Yes, I admit, I was totaly stuck. But behold! A new hero stepped into my writing-live in the form of DriftWood1965 who rightfully scolded me that I was abondoning my ways of humor and parody by overcomplicating things. But I had the next 4 chapters already written at this point, with even more almost non-funny parts in them, I appologize profoundly to all of my almost 200 readers who followed me into this mess, I promise to do better.

~o~

Chapter 14 - Day of Chaos

Every two minutes an Elf was appearing next to the Potter Oak. A large group of spectators was surrounding the old tree, leaving a path for the poor mistreated creatures to the fiereplace of the Potter Manor. Hundreds of Goblins, Dwarfs, a Centaur and every pupil of Hogwarts were gathered and applauding to every newly arriving Elf. They had build

Just half an hour ago Harry and Luna had come out of the Fireplace, directly from their Spaceship that was traveling the asteroid belt, installing new magical embassies in the strangest places - wherever people were living - offering magical goods and shelter for magical gifted children. The travel through the floo network had become so heavy that the moon had now a floo arrival hall much larger than the former Ministry of Magic. The people came and watched the fall of the shield of earth through the magical windows of the enormous caves that Harry and the Elves had excavated. They were watching from their waiting spaceships in a high earth orbit, there were large groups waiting in the spaceward stations of the elevators and almost every TV channel was reporting the event to even the farest place inhabited.

Tens of thousands of spaceships were waiting in orbit, most of them reformed Moon Ice Catchers, their wildly mixed crews had hopes of grabbing some unclaimed parts of land. All in all the atmosphere was a mixture of a party and gold rush. All planets and larger governmental organizations had already negotiated claims of territories. Harry had been surprised when most of them had laid claims to the arctic regions until Fluffy had pointed out that sweetwater was one of the major needs of the inner planets.

It had taken the effort of almost every available robot AI and tattoo-warded space wizard to negotiate with the many independent groups of earth and space inhabitants to clarify the millions of land claims over the span of the past month. Every group had tried to grab as much land as possible in contracts, but at least the magical groups with the exception of the Goblins were still too limited in their world views to figure out how large earth really was. In the end almost all of former Europe was to be reserved for the various magical races. Many regions were declared nature or magical conservation zones, but there were still many blank spaces in the cities that the land grabbers were planning to claim by right of the first inhabitants. Some people were hoping to get their old homes back that they had left behind when they migrated to space, but the majority just wanted to visit their old relatives and breathe real air on earth again. Harry and the others had explained to the born spacers the smells of nature down on earth which were in sharp contrast to the almost odorless air in the colonies and stations, but Harry still was convinced that most of them were in for a bad surprise.

In front of the oak, Luna bonded to the Elves and pointed them to the moon cave that had been reserved just for the living quarters of the Elf population. They all took the oath, sometimes after some explaining from other elves, sometimes with the help of Fenchurch translating. Since every new bond took a little magic from Luna, Harry was permanently at her side, refueling her withering magic core.

.

In the last minute of the shield collapse it had become rather chaotic, almost 300 elves had appeared wherever they had found a place. The pop sound of their apparations had become a loud staccato that turned into a low rumble in the air and under the feets of the spectators, culminating in a gut wrenching blast of air by the hundreds of the suddenly appearing tiny figures that flew around like puppets in an explosion.

For everyone else who was not distracted by a hive of confused elves that tried to make sense of why they were suddenly sitting in an old oak tree, the shield collapse felt like someone had lifted an invisible, heavy weight from their heads. It could be felt all around the earth, even in the many waiting spaceships as far as up to the moon.

And with that, the universe descended down on earth and upon the surprised wizards. Billions of beings on earth felt as if a foggy veil was lifted from their brains when the shield collapsed. They looked up into the sky to discover the beautiful sight of masses of spaceships descending down on earth in thousands of fiery streaks.

All Radios and TV Stations, mobile devices, the wizarding wireless and even talking mirrors began to relay the same message. Wherever there was no device nearby leaflets appeared in the air informing every intelligent being on earth that the earth was to be reunited with their relatives in space, that magic was real, that there were many more than only one or two intelligent races on earth, that an intergalactic war had been declared and that there was no need to panic since earth had been declared a protected heritage site and everything was just absolute fantastical shiny. Never before had a collective planet gone from dumb to confused to panic in a shorter time.

Of course the wizards had neglected the many hiding and protection spells for their many mansions, castles or whole villages. They all appeared out of thin air, places and buildings popped into existence for the non magic population and even a couple of colorful Quidditch World Cup stadiums could suddenly be seen even from space.

At the end of the combined magical and conventional message Harry was cited. "A word to the non-magic population from Harry Potter, the one wizard who made this change possible, the one man who - together with his magic and non magic friends - unbound the whole planet from this burden of secrecy that surrounded magic until now." After which Harry's pre recored message was played. "Hello, my name is Harry Potter and I am a wizard. The magic world that was hidden by this secrecy had a lot of bad things in it and was dying and it caused a lot of grief and loss. The secrecy deserved to be unveiled and the magic world deserved to be brought out into the open, because that was the only chance to save the good things that are in it. Wizards and magical creatures are in general not too different from regular people. They can achieve wonderful things with magic like the non-magics can achieve with the help of technology and I am convinced that both sides will stare at the achievements of the other side with eyes full of wonder and astonishment - at least that's what I did when I went to the moon for the first time. Please welcome the wizards and magic and the many different magic beings that you are now able to perceive just like the wizard should welcome you into their world. A word of warning has to go to the wizards who have lived in hiding and stagnation for too long now. The muggle world has changed and evolved beyond your wildest dreams and capabilities of magic. Don't use your magic against anyone or even near any of the electronics. Don't play with any kind of mind tricks, you would tickle a dragon that could eradicate you all in a blink of an eye - literally.

The same warning goes to anyone magic or non-magic, don't use this time of change for powerplays before you understand the rules, this is the time to learn and adapt. If you fuck this chance up, the future will not even remeber your name. Magic is fantastic and dangerous at the same time, just like science. Magical beings can be just as intelligent, wise or have feelings, some of them are even friendly. I suggest you read up on the other world before you venture into it." After that Harry's voice got an even harsher tone when he continued.

"One more thing, Dwarfs, Goblins, Gnomes, Giants and especially the fay and faerie and the elven court - yes I know that you can hear and understand me! This is your single chance for peace and prosperity beyond belief. Imagine what we can achieve together, now that you have seen what we were about to destroy when we worked against each other. The magic world and with it, every single one of you is on the brink of extinction. At the same time you are given the largest chance for a future that is far, far more fantastic than anything before!

It is not only earth or the solar system that I am talking about. I was brought back into the world to counter an alien civilisation that had successfully merged technology and magic - the strange imperial starlord that left earth so hastily a couple of days ago. We have learned already from the ship we collected from them. There is a galaxy thriving with live and fantastic technology, billions of worlds to discover and even more species to learn about. And they seem not to bee overly friendly in average.

There is knowledge and wealth and peace and adventure but danger as well out there in this newly discovered galaxy that is surrounding us. There are ways to travel the universe you can - so far - only dream about. And if we grow together and stand united there is no enemy that we have to fear. Especially not when the AIs and one sole wizard can kick their buts so gravely."

~.~

The long sleep

Enough books have been written about the reopening of earth. We explicitly recommend 'One of Those Days' because although being a dark, sarcastic Day-of-Reckoning novel, it depicts the struggles and confusion of the first 24 hours of this day in hundreds of accurate but still humoristic, noteworthy, short stories. Now at New Moon Harpers for 20$€. Not only that it is a good read, but it was as well the first 'reopening' book published only 24 hours and ten minutes after the event.

Let us be brief:

The muggles have a tearful reunification with their relatives from space, the spacers discover that earth smells like a broken space toilet and that gravity is a bitch.

The wizards learn a vital lesson to not underestimate some Goblins with magic hardened helmets, angrily wielding axes - and the Goblins learn that their axes should have better been magic proofed as well. But even a rubber axe can hurt badly when applied repetitively and with enough vigor.

On the same page the wizards have to learn that an informed muggle will laser shoot any stick that is pointed in his direction faster than you can say "imperio". A large number of exploded wands, rubber axes and a lot of shouting later, the wizards have a lot of explaining to do to the humans, the Goblins, the Spacefarers and all the many other sentient species of earth which come out of hiding one after the other.

Harry and the AIs are having armloads of work to prevent an all out Armageddon. Not only on earth but in space as well once the AIs have been revealed as the sneaky machinators they are.

It was a long day, a night and a very exhausting morning without any sleep. In the afternoon Harry, Luna and Alabastor were sitting on the benches in front of Potter manor enjoying the slowly ebbing down of the excitement and the rays of the sun giving the Potter Manor and the park in front of it a golden glow. Important people of all kind of governments had been running in and out of it all night and shouting a lot, nobody trusted anybody but they all instinctively recognized that the two major players in this event, the shady Harry Potter character and those dreadful Artificial Intelligence abominations were holding all the cards in their hands. Not only this but they were selling billions of card sets at the same time. They were holding so many cards in their united hands that concerns came up that this metaphor would not really express the amount of how deeply cardless the otherwise so important planetary and other celestial entities governments felt.

"All in all it could have gone worse …" Alabastor was sitting next to Harry and Luna and Winky. "And thank you Winky for disarming all the idiots who thought that this would be like the Wild West again. Where did you put all the weapons by the way?"

"All thems are safely tucked away in Winkys new Moony Manor." They could hear that the elf was very proud. Harry felt Luna sagging next to him.

"Winky, are you a free elf now?" Her voice had regained the dreamy tone that Harry dreaded. It sounded like she was drifting into sleep.

"Winky always was free elf since coming back, Harry Potter was not taking bond of posession but of friendship. Winky needed long to understand and forgive Harry Potter his tricky." Winky took Lunas and Harry's hands.

"Winky will give you my friendship as free elf now and Winky now understand Missy Potters' plan to free elves. No other elf knows and all are now bonded to you Missy Lovely, except of Winky." Tears were forming in the eyes of the elf.

"Winky is sorry for Harry but Winky will have to bond to Missy Lovely to make plan work. Missy Lovey, Winky is your elf, will you take Winky?" Luna sagged into Harry's lap and let her long legs sink to the bench. Her eyes were beginning to cloud over and Harry could feel her magic draining his core through their bond.

"Harry, this is it. Just some more years, remember. Don't screw this up because I really love you, always have and ever will." Luna picked her head up and took Harrys hand away from Winky, the magic drain from Harry stopped.

"Winky, I Luna Faith Lovegood take you as my bonded elf to serve me and all other elves bonded to me and their bond between them. And by right of the primary I declare all possible lingering bonds herby naught. So mote it be." The golden glow of the bond engulfed Luna and Winky for some seconds.

"Uff, that was that, thank you Winky. Alabastor, can you bring the stasispod over fast? I want that memory when I come back. Winky, give us a minute." Winky nodded and plopped away. Alabastor was already speeding into the house to get the stasispod that would send Luna into a death like state only to be reconstructed but never to be awoken again.

Harry looked into Lunas eyes. "Luna this is the hardest thing in a lifetime of hardships. Promise me that this will end well and I will wait as long as it takes." He kissed her on her lips.

"You better give me this when I come back," Luna gave Harry a strand of her memories from her head, which he caught with his wand. With a shuddering thud Alabastor and Sirius landed next to them, setting up the stasispod. Harry levitated Luna into it and laid her down carefully. She looked already half dead.

"See you much later love." Harry could hear her voice in his head.

The stasis engine kicked in and froze Luna Faith Lovegood in the soft glow of the stasis enforcement field. For Harry to never talk to her again.

~..~

Escape to the belt

"OK Harry. In a minute our spaceship will be here and take us away. We need to hurry and move her, or any secret service of the solar system will try to get a hold of her body to get a leverage on you and us. I advise we keep our heads low and concentrate on our mission to hide Luna where they cannot find us that easily. And be fast before the next planetary commission shows up and demand that we hand over Africa to them." Alabastor ushered them some meters back. They could see the fiery streak of a spaceship comming down on them at a very high velocity.

The imperial frigate came to a sudden stop half a meter above the ground with a nauseating roar. The ramp slammed down with millimeter precision in front of them when Alabastor already ushered them up the ramp.

"Winky? Want to join us?" Harry asked into the air, but the little Elf did not show up.

"Harry, we have been discovered, how about a Fidelius in the next twenty seconds because it will cause severe political ruckus if they find out that you are in a ship leaving earth! Some idiot descendant of a former oligarch from Mongolia has already declared a vendetta on you and fired a missile from the other side of earth because we declared his assumed inherited kingdom a Yeti preservation. As soon as you enter a spaceship they are not declaring a war in their stupid eyes but are just commiting an act of piracy when they attack us." Alabastor explained, but Harry had already descended into a meditative state. Alabastor could still feel traces of the magic wash over him although he was protected by his enchanted, transfigured Spacetrooper armor.

"What's the name of the stupid git?" Harry asked.

"He was born named Bernard Olufsen, his mother had swedish roots, but since a month he calls himself Ghenghis Dshinkhan the second. Harry what are you planning?" Alabastor had noticed that his friend had not left his meditative position.

"Setting an example. And sending him his missile back." A smile showed on Harry's face when Alabastor felt a second wave of magic washing over his protective shell.

"Don't kill him! It would create more friction than it's worth!"

"Nahh, that wouldn't teach him a lesson. I have just fideliused his arsehole from him. When the missile will find him it will explode too early but it will emit a field that will cause severe ass itching for weeks."

"Harry Potter, you are an evil man. This is humiliating and demonstrating the capabilities of magic without causing death or destruction. I will take care that every investigative journalist is getting the story and a constant update of his whereabouts." Alabastor rubbed his hands gleefully. "And you could add a compulsion that everyone will want to invite him for dinner and make him always hungry? But on the other side he might not survive a week of severe constipation…"

Harry shook his head, but showed no other sign of concern about the vengeful streak his robot friend revealed lately. His hand was still resting on Lunas pod.

"And now we have a lot of sciencing to do my dear Robin. While I direct our batmobile to our secret lair on a nondiscloed location, the stasispod will copy Lunas DNA structure and incubate the cloning cultures. Furthermore we will have to lay the foundations of a new, true science of magic and you will be my magic rabbit I can experiment with." Alabastor was apparently in a very good mood, ignoring Harrys misery. Harry on the other hand stood next to Lunas Stasispod and looked quite forlorn.

Sirius who had so far not said much suddenly produced a bottle of Firewhiskey from the backpack. "And this is exactly the mood our wise and long dead forefathers have invented alcoholic beverages for! I wish I could drink together with you Harry, but at least I can tell you funny stories about your parents which will make you sad and happy at the same time, exactly what Firewhiskey does to you because you like it when you drink it but you know about the suffering later. There is no way out of your misery and I know that you will miss her every day until she is back, but you and I both know that it is just another mountain to climb and she is waiting on the other side. Easy as that." He raised the bottle tentatively.

"Easy as that", Harry repeated with a heavy sight. "Gosh, did Alabastor really snatch the pilot seat from me?"

"Nothing you can do against it. Besides of giving him hindsight justification?" Sirius raised the bottle even higher.

The ship shuddered a little when it entered hyperspace but it left it almost a second later already.

"Whoops!" Harry shook his head.

"Everything ok down there?" Alabastors voice came over the speakers. "We have arrived on Sedna, which is our outmost settlement, farthest away you can get from civilization currently. We have parked our shiny magical resistant imperial stardestoyer in orbit so that we can conduct some experiments without being disturbed."

"I have just lost the magic connection to the wizengammot. I believe there are some happy wizards right now down on earth, who just got their magic back. It felt like the connection just snapped, maybe I can have a day without overpowering my magic reservoir now?"

"Yes!" Alabastor shouted in the cockpit. "As a first scientific result we can note down that magic has a not exponential fade off factor like for example radiation has, but it is more - very flat - linear fading with distance. Almost all stations nearer than this one here, could register an increase in measurable electrical inconsistencies in their power systems when Harry claimed the magic in the Ministry or whenever he had one of his magic burnouts on the moon. We put up a mathematical model of the statistics of the registered inconsistencies and couldn't believe that the formula was really so simple. That's a clear 1:0 for science baby!"

Harry and Sirius looked at each other. "This will be a very long stay I guess, give me that bottle." To Albastor he said "Wouldn't it be more truthful to say it's a "1" versus "a lot" for magic? Up to now science has had its dry statistical arse kicked every time some scientist stepped on a magic doormat."

Drinking Firewhiskey in a zero gravity environment revealed itself as much more enjoyable because burping fiery fountains of the magic drink made you very much like a human rocket. Harry was really glad he did not have to go to bed, he just fell asleep, drifting through the immense alien spaceship in zero gravity. A lonely, small figure, protected by his dragon armor, bouncing slowly against the various air vents on his erratic course through the empty gangways and halls of the humming starship.

The only thing that disturbed this epic metaphor of the lonelyness of the most powerful wizard that ever graced the solar system with his presence, were the erratic outburst of burning fire-whiskey flatulences, leaving dark scorchmarks here and there on the white walls of the otherwise aseptic clean interior.

Oh, and the nerve wracking snoring that nearly exorcised the resident ghost until he locked himself in the nuclear reactor chamber.

~oo~

Authors comment: Too short you say? But I did put all those words in it!