A middle-aged woman wearing large glasses sat in (what was undoubtedly Albus Dumbledore's) office sobbing and sniffing; her shawls draping haphazardly off her shoulders, damp with tears.
Dumbledore's office was spectacular. Every inch of the high, stone walls was covered either with some incredible magical object or a portrait containing previous Headteachers of Hogwarts. The ceiling reached far above her head and large stained glass windows dominated the space behind the great oak desk.
The door creaked opened behind the sobbing woman and Dumbledore entered the room. He drifted over to the desk and sat down, his face calm.
"D-dumbledore," the woman squeaked.
"Sybill, I have arranged for your sleeping quarters to be arranged and your luggage to be unpacked," he replied calmly.
"No no, Dumbledore. I don't want to be a bother."
"You are no bother Sybill. I wish for you to remain here at Hogwarts. I also do not wish for Professor Umbridge to get the satisfaction of removing one of my teachers," he said with a smile.
Sybill, however did not smile. Her eyes were wide and glazed, her mouth moved slowly but no sound came out except a rush of air. Then she spoke in a harsh voice:
"As the seventh month dies… the mark doth join these powers… no one can live without the other…as the bond grows ever stronger…"
Harry woke with a jolt, his scar burning, in a cold sweat. What the hell was that about? Harry got on his feet unsteadily. He was shaking and his head was pounding.
"Computer, what's the time?" he asked, panting.
"The current time is 1500 hours 52 minutes," replied the cool, female voice.
He leant against a wall to steady himself while he hastily got dressed and exited the quarters. Oh God, I've got that Quidditch thing in a minute. Harry quickened his pace. He was heading to the Mess Hall. He wanted something to eat and drink first - he was starving. He stumbled through the corridors, his vision slightly blurred, muttering sorry as he dodged people and frequently bumping right into them. He stepped through the doors…
"Harry!" shouted someone from the back of the room.
Harry spotted Tom Paris and head off towards him.
"You up for the holodeck at 1600? Are you OK? You look kinda ill, maybe you should see the Doctor," he said.
"No, I'm fine, just a bit tired," Harry replied whilst rubbing his temples.
Harry had a bowl of tomato soup, which was unpleasantly sweet. He looked up in-between mouthfuls and glanced at what Tom Paris was reading.
"It's a letter from my dad. He's a Starfleet admiral back on Earth," he explained.
"I thought you were years from home?"
"Yeah but we've established two-way communication with Earth and they can also send a certain amount of data each month in a DataStream. It's been a while since I've heard from him."
Harry glanced around the room. It seemed other members of the crew had also received letters from home. Harry Kim stood in the corner smiling at the padd held in his hand. Harry sighed deeply and turned back to his soup. He swirled his spoon around and discovered a lump of skin floating around. There goes my appetite…
"You ready for Quidditch Harry?" Tom asked eagerly.
"Yeah, sure."
Kathryn awoke propped against a cold, stone wall; her chest aching and her knee throbbing. She looked around to find herself in a small box room with a force field in place instead on the opposing wall. She looked around to see B'Elanna unconscious beside her and Seven and Tuvok in conversation in a corner. They hadn't realised Kathryn had awoken. She stood up unsteadily and walked towards them, quickly glancing outside the room past the force field. There was no-one present, only a large computer console and (possibly a weapons') locker.
She walked over to Seven and Tuvok and asked, "Care to fill me in?"
"Captain. We were unaware you had regained consciousness," Seven replied
"Have you seen our captor or captors?"
"Yes," it was Tuvok who spoke this time, "we have been…acquainted…"
Seven took a deep breath and looked away.
Kathryn raised her eyebrows at Tuvok and he went on.
"They are the Vaadwaur."
Kathryn felt her eyebrows go even higher as if they might disappear into her hair as her face changed into an expression of disbelief. The Voyager crew had encountered the Vaadwaur in stasis in an underground chamber about a year ago, when they set down on a planet while hiding from the Turei. Voyager had been pulled into a subspace corridor, which they claimed belonged to them and the Turei were unwilling to let Voyager use the corridors and insisted that they remove all sensor data from their database. The Vaadwaur had been in stasis for around 900 years and their limited amount of ships and their weapons were outdated. They asked Voyager for help in escaping the Turei who had by now arranged several ships around the planet. Instead of being helped by Voyager, Gaul and several others agreed that they should seize Voyager as their ships were outdated. The last time Kathryn had seen them was retreating into the subspace corridors.
B'Elanna drew a quick breath from behind the others as she took her and away from the wound on her cheek. She stood up and looked at them.
"What's going on?" she questioned.
Before Kathryn could reply someone entered the room. It was Gaul.
"Captain Janeway. I thought we might have the pleasure of meeting once again," he said sarcastically, a smirk appearing on his face.
Gaul was obviously the Vaadwaur's leader now that Gedrin had been killed.
"Yes, the pleasure is all yours I assure you," Kathryn retorted.
The smirk faded from his face as he gestured for two others to come into the room. They stood either side of the console, gripping what looked like phasers or some kind of similar weapon. Gaul stepped forward.
"Do you care to explain what exactly is going on?" Kathryn asked aggressively.
"Well we've gathered some very useful data from your ship's database. It won't be long now."
"You're still interested in getting hold of Voyager?"
"Very, yes."
"Chakotay won't give up without a fight."
"We've come a long way, Captain. Do not underestimate our power," he said, as he paced the room.
"So have we," Kathryn said, her face and tome of voice growing angrier. "And what do you plan on doing with us?"
Gaul seemed to get satisfaction out of seeing Kathryn this angry.
"We plan to do what we should have done last time we met. We'll put you and your crew in bio-stasis…see whether anyone is kind enough to wake you after 900 years," he said with a grin.
Kathryn glared at him with a disgusted look on her face and turned back to her colleagues as Gaul departed from the room. The two guards however, stayed.
"Captain, our only hope is to contact Voyager," Tuvok whispered.
"Well they've taken our com-badges," Kathryn said, looking at her chest, "not that they'd be much use anyway. Nothing can get through that atmosphere."
"Except…maybe a tachyon beam. If we could get to the flyer I think we could modify it enough to send out a low frequency beam straght to Voyager. Hopefully Chakotay would take it as a cry for help."
Kathryn looked at Seven of Nine who nodded.
"Ingenious plan. The only problem is; how do you get out of here?" a voice said from behind them. The guard on the left smiled at them and left the room.
TBC…