Chapter 6: Far, Far from Home

Harry woke some time later, and once more it took him a few moments to remember where he was. As before, it seemed he was the last one to wake up. Yawning, he took some time to wake up properly and prepare for the day.

...Was it day? It was getting hard to tell anymore.

He ate a quick, quiet meal by himself in the living area, hardly tasting his ration pack as he did. Everything that had happened yesterday kept flashing through his head. Ron and Hermione getting injured, that odd aperture Han used to heal them, those containers they'd picked up, the fight in the warehouse...

"W-wait, we can work this-"

He paused mid-chew, a shiver running through him. The way Han had done it, without hesitation...Harry wasn't sure if-

Harry's hands not pressing the triggers as the ship flew into his targeting circle. The Falcon shaking as the ship shook under fire.

Harry swallowed his food, taking a shaky breath. Crumpling up the empty ration pack, he threw it away and headed in the direction of the front holds. As he did, he noticed that the lights seemed to be off, and he heard a soft, melodical noise coming from within. Intrigued, he slowly approached, peering through the window of the hatch that separated the front hold from the main hold and living area. His eyebrows raised.

Luna was sitting on a shipping container, smiling contentedly. One of the cages had been opened, and he could see a large, dragonfly-like creature sprawled out, with its head resting on Luna's feet. The creature's body was glowing in several places, but none more brightly than the odd, feather-like protrusions on its tail; this illumination was the only source of light in the room. The noise from within seemed to shift slightly as Luna tilted her head gently from side to side, yet her mouth wasn't moving. "Is she humming?" he muttered to himself.

"I think they both are."

He felt his heart leap into his throat, whirling around and plunging a hand into his robes to get his wand...before realizing he was staring at Han and Chewbacca, the latter of which was giving a throaty laugh. "Don't sneak up on people like that!" he hissed, removing his hand from his robes and folding his arms as he glared at Han.

Han scoffed. "Look who's talkin'," he said, nodding towards the room.

Harry felt his face heat up. "That wasn't...I just heard some sort of music, and I wanted to know what it was."

Chewbacca growled, speaking several words that Harry did his utmost to pick out, but the only two he caught were ((minute)) and ((ship)). Seeing Harry's puzzled look, Han elaborated. "Chewie says she's been in there for about twenty minutes, but don't worry, she hasn't let any of the bugs loose on the ship."

"There were only three, weren't there?" asked Harry, looking at Han. The man nodded. "I thought you said we would have a lot of boxes from that stop."

Han nodded, frowning. "I was hoping Tekles would kick another job my way that paid a bit better. Now that there's five more people eating up the food, we need more credits flowing in."

Harry felt his face flush again, this time with guilt. "We're...we haven't, you know...you're not running out of food, are you?"

Chewbacca looked at Han, and he looked back, some silent conversation passing between them. A few moments later, Han rolled his eyes. "No, we're not running out of food," he admitted. "Not yet, anyway. But after we get our bugs delivered and drop off a package near Klatooine, we're going to be self-employed for a month or two, so we'll need to be on the lookout for some work we can pick up in the meantime. Don't suppose you know anybody?"

"Well, there was a man on the planet we met you that said we could help on his farm..."

Han let out a snort of laughter. "A literal blue milk run? I'll pass. Besides, going back to Tatooine isn't really a great idea for laying low; it's where my current employer lives. I guess we could head Coreward; rich spacers there always need expensive stuff transported. Hell, maybe we can drop by a few Core worlds, see if we can't get you kids home after all."

Harry's heart leapt with excitement. Could this really be it? Could they be headed home after their current job was over? "The others would love to hear that." He blinked. "...Speaking of, where are they?"

"Hermione's workin' on that project Chewie set up for her. The other two are runnin' simulations on the turrets."

The thought of the turrets made his skin crawl, but he kept himself steady. "You're not expecting another fight, are you?"

"Expecting? No. But if we do get pulled into one I want every advantage we can get. Chewie and I are damn good pilots, so if we can stay in the cockpit while the turrets are manned, our chances of survival go from 'maybe' to 'probably'."

"Couldn't you teach one of us how to pilot, and then you two could-" he began, but Han cut him off.

"The Falcon works best with both a pilot and copilot, and as great a pilot as Chewie is, it's much easier to manage all the combat systems in a fight with two people. Not to mention that the turret's too cramped for Chewie to use fully, and there's no way I'm letting you fly my ship when you haven't flown anything before."

"I have so!" snapped Harry. A split-second later, his eyes went wide as he realized his mistake and he hurriedly added "Well...on our home planet I have." He said it in a rush, knowing full well how suspicious it would seem.

If Han had his suspicions, however, he didn't voice them. Instead, he asked "And whatever it was that you flew, did it go off-world?"

"...No."

"Then there you go. You want to fly this ship, then start on something like a speeder bike. Hell, once we get to Sakiya you can rent one if you really want some practice flying."

While he wasn't quite sure what a speeder bike was, the idea of flying did sound extremely tempting. "I might do that."

"Sounds like a plan." Han smirked. "For now, though, let's stop making so much noise near the doors while Luna's spending time with our cargo."

"But you're the one that-!" Harry started, then clenched his eyes and took a steadying breath. "Fine." They retreated from the doors, making their way back to the living area.

Harry spent a good few minutes practicing his understanding of Chewbacca's language with the Wookiee in question (it was called Shriwook, though in his mind he kept thinking of it as Wookiee). Han sat at the engineering station, an amused smirk on his lips as Harry tried his best to learn. It was hard to tell if he was making any real progress; often times he would think he had the right phrase, but a subtle change in the inflection had somehow changed the whole thing. Still, Chewbacca was patient with him; in fact, he rather seemed to enjoy the language lessons.

Some time later, Ron and Neville arrived in the living area. Both were blinking their eyes rapidly, and Neville's looked slightly red. "You two okay?" asked Harry.

Ron nodded, squinting his eyes for a moment before reopening them. "Yeah, we're fine. All those blinking lights gets to you after a bit."

"How'd you do?" said Han, swiveling his chair and looking between them.

He grinned at Neville, who looked slightly sheepish. "He beat me by two, including the big one at the end. Overall I'd say we did okay."

Han looked at something at his station. "Yeah, not bad. Only died four times."

"Four?!" Harry spluttered, earning a chuckle from Chewbacca.

"Yeah, four," responded Han, leaning back in his chair. "But since I threw over a hundred ships at them, I'd say it's not bad."

"A hundred and eight," Ron corrected.

Han rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. Harry, when Chewie's done with you, you'll be taking a turn in the turret for a simulation."

Harry winced. Chewbacca growled something at Han, but he seemed to ignore it. "I'd rather not," Harry said, as calmly as he could manage.

Again, Chewbacca growled at Han, and again the man ignored it. "I'll be taking the other one; need to keep my own skills sharp." He didn't seem to be acknowledging Harry's statement, either. "I would send Luna to the second turret, but she's more help where she is. We've got another day before we reach Saki, and I'm not having our cargo get stir-crazy and injuring themselves; the job is very specific that they're all supposed to be unharmed on delivery." Chewie growled a third time at Han; this time he acknowledged it, looking as Chewie grunted something at him. Harry caught the words ((easy)), ((boy)), and ((ship)), but the rest was difficult to tell. Han sighed. "Look, it's not as crazy as last time. We'll start slow and work up from there. But since I'm not gonna be able to drop you guys off if some pirate blows us all up, I gotta make sure we can keep this ship safe." He stood up from his station. "I'll double-check the simulation. You keep practicing here, and when you're done I'll be waiting." Then he strode off in the direction of the gunwell.

Harry glanced at Ron and Neville. He could see them looking back at him, waiting. But didn't see any dread in their faces; not like he felt in the pit of his stomach. Harry wasn't sure they really understood what it was like using that thing in a battle, knowing that all it took was the press of those two buttons to end a person's life.

You shouldn't dismiss them so quickly; they've stared death in the face before, said a small voice in his head. They did it on your command, and they'd do it again. He felt his stomach squirm nastily. That wasn't wrong, exactly, but...they'd had no intention of killing the Death Eaters. All they'd wanted to do was rescue Sirius. They hadn't needed to-

But what if you had?, he heard the same voice say. What if there was no other choice? What if it was you or them?

He heard Han's voice echo in his head. "It's us or them." Was that truly the only option? An image flashed in his head; he saw a small explosion on a ship start a chain reaction. Only this time, rather than the pirate ship, he saw the Falcon shuddering and shaking, until it was ripped apart in a fireball. His blood ran cold. No. He couldn't...wouldn't let his friends die. But to have to kill those that attacked...was that right?

And to be forced back into that turret, before he even knew what the right answer was. He hated that Han wouldn't listen. And...if he was honest with himself, he supposed he also hated that Han had a point. He had to actually do something if he wanted to protect them all.

"Harry?" asked Ron worriedly.

He shook himself out of his reverie. "Sorry. I'm fine." Ron didn't seem especially convinced, but Harry turned to Chewie before he could insist on the matter. "By the way, where's Hermione? I know she's working on her project, but where's she doing that?"

Chewie gave a small chuckle, and this time Harry caught far more of the words than he was expecting. ((If you want...know where...so much...can listen. Learn.))

"If I want to know so much, I can listen and learn?" Harry repeated back, guessing the rest of the words he'd missed.

His instructor blinked at him, and then let out a loud bark of a laugh, clapping him on the shoulder. The force almost sent him facefirst into the table, but Neville caught him before he went too far. ((Good! Very good! With more...can...me.))

This time, unfortunately, Harry didn't hear most of the words, partly because he still hadn't grasped the language, and partly because he'd just been reminded of both Sirius and Hagrid at the same time, and the result had made him especially homesick. "Sorry. Didn't catch most of that one."

Chewie shrugged, but he didn't seem particularly disappointed. He spoke once more, and this time Harry listened intently, both to know what Hermione was doing, and to keep his mind off of those that were so very far away. Neville and Ron joined in on his lesson, and for a while, they passed the time by trying to translate the phrases they heard.

All too soon, however, Chewie made a "stop" motion with his hand, and made a distinct growl while making the motion again. No doubt that particular growl was Shriwook for ((stop)). Harry imitated the growl and held his own hand up to mirror Chewbacca, looking at him for confirmation. Chewie nodded, chuckling a little, and then clapped him on the shoulder again. This time, however, was far more measured; no doubt it was meant to reassure him before he went to the turret. It didn't quite manage doing so, but he appreciated the gesture all the same. He gave Chewie a small smile, then trudged off to the gunwell.

He arrived shortly, feeling his heart beginning to beat rather rapidly. "Top one," Han's voice called out from the bottom of the ladder.

"R-right," he called back. He took a breath, screwed up his courage, and climbed. Every rung seemed to somehow take both ages and no time at all, and before he even realized it he'd already made it to the top.

The turret itself was mostly unchanged since the last time he'd been in it, though curiously, this time the glass seemed completely black; he couldn't see the actual cannon at all. In addition, he noticed several wires going from the seat to the floor were disconnected, looped and tied to the side of the console in front of the seat. Sighing, he sat in the seat, strapping in and grabbing the headset hanging from its hook. "Okay," he said, resisting the urge to grit his teeth. "I'm here."

"Gotcha." Now that there wasn't the mess of a battle going on around them, he could actually hear Han with both ears; the singular headphone of the headset in his right ear broadcast the voice to Harry as if Han was sitting right beside him, and with his left ear he heard Han's voice echoing from the distance of the bottom turret. The difference was mildly jarring, and it amused him enough that for a moment he even forgot his nervousness. "Now, when the simulation is going, the turret is set up to deactivate automatically. Not to mention most combat systems shut off automatically while in hyperspace. But since these cannons aren't exactly stock, I've unplugged the connector cables, just to be on the safe side. So don't worry about anything going off by accident; just keep focused on the targeting screen."

"If we're in hyperspace, why are the windows dark?" Harry asked, looking at them curiously. "Shouldn't I be seeing that odd blue tunnel?"

"Standard ship procedure," Han responded immediately. "Transparisteel gets blacked out after five minutes in hyperspace, and doesn't come back on until the ship prepares to leave hyperspace. Leaves just enough time for the pilot and crew to make sure everything's working as intended." He rattled off the words so quickly and without emotion that it was as if he were reading out of a textbook. How curious. "They say you can go crazy staring out at hyperspace too long. Never heard of it happening to anyone specific, myself, but I'd rather not deal with any problems at all while we're going at lightspeed, thanks."

"I'll say," Harry muttered.

"Now then, I'm starting the simulator. Get ready at the controls; not that you'll ever beat my high score, but you know. Make an effort."

Harry snorted, and some of the tension left him. It's only specks on a screen, he told himself as the monitor activated in the same way it had last time. Just specks on a screen. He moved the controls, and the seat swung in that direction, just as it had last time. This time, though, he was expecting it, and he shifted in his seat so that the motion didn't affect his line of sight. There was a target right at the edge of his screen that he could get. Just a speck on a screen. He moved the controls again, and the center of his screen slid right up to the target. He could do this. He could-

There was a loud *Bleep!*, and the target disappeared. "Too slow, junior," he heard Han say. "First point goes to me."

Harry set his jaw. Fine. I'll play your stupid game. He swung the controls to another target, lined it up as best he could, and pulled the triggers.

And missed.

He tried to re-center on the target, and fired again. And missed again. And again. As he was lining up the fourth time, the target flickered out with another loud *Bleep!*. Han's voice cut in again. "That's two, kid. You fall asleep up there?"

Harry growled slightly, moving to aim at another one. He once again missed his first shot, but the second one hit. He rolled his eyes. "A point for me," he intoned dully.

He'd barely finished speaking before more targets began to appear, and two blinked out almost instantly. "That's four to one. Maybe I should fire with my feet, give you some tiny hope of catching up."

Harry bristled at the tone. This was hard enough, and Han had to be difficult on top of that. "Sure, why don't you," he snapped into the headset.

There was a brief silence over the headset, and then Han spoke. "Fine, don't take the handicap. Oh, and would you stop laser-focusing on one target? We've died twice already. If you miss, aim at the closest target you're pointing at instead of the one on the opposite side of the screen."

Harry scowled, looking back at his targeting system. Died twice, hm? He gave a heavy sigh, firing once more. He missed his target yet again, but this time he took Han's advice. He barely had to move his reticle before another target flew right into it; rather than going after the missed target, Harry fired at the one that had wandered into his sights. The target disappeared, and Harry allowed himself a smile. "Two."

"Congratulations! You've destroyed two. I'm sure the other seven dozen are gonna just call it a day and go home now. But just in case I'm wrong, how about we keep firing while we keep score?"

"Well, if we must," Harry muttered, wishing he could refute the point but knowing he couldn't. He kept moving in his chair, and soon he took out another. And another.

Harry threw himself into their ridiculous game, hoping that if he could beat Han's score then perhaps the man would stop pestering him. As the simulation went on, however, he found himself worrying...less. They really were just specks on a screen; little triangles that would appear, zip to and fro, and then disappear, from either his action or Han's. A real battle would be different, as he full well knew, but here it wasn't nearly as bad.

In fact...as their total count climbed into the twenties, and then the thirties, Harry surprised himself as he managed to tie with Han. "Ha! Eighteen. Tie!" he called out, grinning. Then he realized that he was grinning. And that he hadn't felt a resigned sort of satisfaction in getting his score; it felt...good.

"Well whaddya know?" came Han's voice in his ear, and it could have just been a trick of Harry's giddiness, but the man's voice seemed like it was completely free of sarcasm. "Not bad, kid. But don't quit yet!"

More targets began to flood into the monitor, and Harry shook himself off, resuming their contest. He shouldn't feel happy, not when this simulation was training for a scenario where he'd have to destroy another ship, or even more. And yet...

"Had enough yet?" Han asked around the time they'd taken out fifty between the two of them.

"You wish," Harry shot back. It was just to keep Han from being so smug, of course. Not to mention he was curious about comparing his score with Ron's and Neville's. There was nothing wrong with that.

The numbers flew by. Sixty, then seventy, then eighty and ninety...then they passed one hundred. Not long after they'd passed the one hundred mark, only one target remained. But this one was so large that it took up practically the entirety of the targeting monitor. "Just pour it on!" Han said to Harry. "Hit it with everything and we'll see who gets it first!"

So this was the end of the simulation? The idea of it made him relieved; he was starting to get a bit sore from all of the swinging around the chair was doing. And yet, oddly, he also felt a bit sad, as if it was ending too soon. Trying not to think about it too much, he centered his circle on the giant target, holding both thumb triggers down as each of his shots made the arrow flicker. Ten shots...twenty shots...thirty shots...just what was this target supposed to be, anyway? Finally, just as he was wondering if the target would ever be destroyed or if this was some prank Han was pulling on him, the target blinked out completely. The words "SIMULATION END" flashed on-screen.

"Well, well, you managed to get the special target. Only because I softened it up for ya."

Harry chuckled. "Sour grapes much, Han?"

"Grapes?" the man said in a bewildered tone. "What do grapes have to do with- ah, whatever. I beat you by twelve anyway." The screen flickered off and Harry removed his straps, setting the headset back on its hook and climbing back down. Han was waiting for him next to the ladder. "See? That wasn't so bad."

"I beg to differ," Harry said, folding his arms. "I had to hear you in my ear."

Han laughed. "Well, you distracted me too. Usually my score's way higher than that. Maybe next time you can get serious earlier so I don't have to nag you a hundred times first." He stretched his arms out, and Harry heard the joints pop slightly. "Tell you what, go see if Luna's done singing lullabies and then grab a ration pack. I'm gonna check on things in the cockpit, and then I'll get our last wayward crew member so we can eat lunch." He walked off in the direction of the cockpit.

It was a good enough plan, and Harry was starting to feel hungry, so he did as asked. Or at least, he made an attempt to, but Luna was already in the dining area before he could go through it on the way to the cargo holds. She seemed to be doing her best to engage Chewbacca in conversation. "Hello Harry," she said in her typically dreamy tone.

"Hi Luna. Where'd Neville and Ron go?"

"Ron went to check on Hermione, and Neville went to the toi..." She cleared her throat. "Refresher. Would you like a seat?" Harry nodded, walking into the room proper. "We were just talking about you."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Good things, I hope."

She nodded. "I was telling him about how we all met on the train, and we'd just gotten to the part where Neville's plant sprayed us with sap. You looked absolutely miserable; holding a toad in one hand and spitting a mouthful of sap onto the train floor."

How exactly this story was a "good thing", Harry hadn't the faintest idea, but he'd given up trying to make sense of Luna. He sat down on the bench seat, with Chewie between them, hoping desperately she'd left out the parts where they were witches and wizards. "I was miserable. That stuff smelled awful, and it got everywhere."

"And then Cho walked in," she supplied.

He frowned. "Yeah, I suppose she did." Had that really happened less than a year ago? He'd liked Cho so much, and then...and then last year had happened. It was strange to think about, how easily things had changed.

She looked at him, blinked, and then continued. "Anyway, Chewbacca was telling me that you and Han were training in the simulator."

Huh...that was a bit abrupt. Shrugging, he said "We were, yes. I got the big target at the end, but he beat me by twelve, apparently."

Chewie made a noise of surprise, and said something in a low enough tone that Harry couldn't really make it out. Luna, however, seemed as if she could. Her dreamy smile widened a bit, and she looked at Harry as if she knew something. "...what?" he asked.

"Chewbacca says that's not like him at all."

"Oh?" he said, looking at Chewie. "Is something wrong?"

Chewie shook his head, and unless Harry was mistaken (and he could be, it was hard to read Chewie sometimes), Chewie had a very knowing look as well. He spoke louder this time, and Harry caught some of it. ((He usually...above...not since...four launcher.))

"He usually gets more?" Harry tried. Chewie nodded. "He hasn't...something...since four launcher?"

Chewie grumbled the last two words more clearly. "Four cannon?" Harry asked.

"Quad cannon," Luna corrected him. "But what hasn't he done since the quad cannons?"

Chewbacca mimed shooting, then pointed down.

This time Harry was sure what the Wookiee was saying. "He hasn't scored that low since then." Chewie nodded. "Han said he was having an off-day. Something about me distracting him."

Chewie chuckled, shaking his head. This time, however, he did not elaborate. Harry looked quizzically at Luna, but she looked back with a matching expression. They were soon joined by everyone else; Hermione had several grease stains on her robes and several of her hairs looked somewhat singed at the end, but she seemed perfectly cheerful. Ron had an oddly-shaped pitcher full of water, and Neville was carrying several cups. Everyone crowded in around the table, and Han dropped a few ration packs onto it before pulling up a nearby cargo crate to sit on. They all opened their ration packs and dug in.

Harry coughed slightly as he did so. He'd been so hungry that he placed an entire forkful of his food into his mouth without first looking at what flavor the ration pack said it was supposed to be. As it turned out, "too-much-vegetable", according to the color stripe and his protesting taste buds.

"So, here we are again," said Solo, taking a bite of his "bland" ration pack. "Not much to do but shoot the breeze. Let's start with something simple. How'd you all meet up?"

Chewbacca gave a snort of laughter, and then growled rapidly at Han. Harry felt his confidence in mastering Shriwook wane; if that was fluent speech, he was years away from the basics. Once he was finished, Han gave his own snort of laughter. "You all got on a train and a plant vomited on you?"

"That was sap," muttered Neville, whose face flushed slightly.

Han chuckled. "Alright, alright. Where were you even going?"

"School," said Ron through a mouthful of his food (his elbow was over the pack, so Harry couldn't tell what flavor).

"You all went to school but they didn't even teach you about star systems?"

"They did!" said Hermione defensively. Her food, to Harry's amusement, was gone already. "But we were never expecting to leave the planet at all. So it wasn't...well...I mean to say..."

"It wasn't as important," finished Ron, sparing Hermione the agony of criticising a branch of education.

Han raised an eyebrow, looking at him. "And what was important?"

"Surviving," he replied in a bland tone.

Han looked around at Harry and his friends, curiosity plain on his face. To move the conversation away from the five of them, Harry asked "Well, what about you? How did you and Chewie meet?"

He saw Han's eyes meet Chewie's, and just like earlier he clearly saw that a silent conversation was going on. Han's poker face was in prime form, and Chewbacca, who usually expressed his emotions enough for Harry to get a basic idea, had gone completely stonefaced. Unfortunately, there were no clues as to what that conversation entailed, and when Han spoke, it was in a voice of casual calm so convincing that it almost fooled Harry; and he knew Han was hiding things. "Bumped into each other a while back, and we helped each other out of a few jams. Now he watches my back and I watch his. Not too complicated, really."

Harry was half-tempted to try wheedling the answer out anyway, but given his current track record his odds probably weren't very good. Deciding to come back to it later, he tried a different tack. "What about this ship? How'd you get it?"

At that, Han's poker face dropped entirely, and a smug grin flickered across his face. "Won it."

Ron started coughing, and Neville began thumping him on the back. "'Won it'?!" exclaimed Hermione.

"Won it," Han repeated. "In the best game of sabacc that was ever played. Now that's a helluva story."

They all stared at him, waiting. Finally, Neville spoke up. "Are...are you going to tell us that story?" he asked hesitantly.

"No."

Harry and the others, even Chewbacca, began to protest.

Han laughed, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "All right, all right. Just trying to rile you up a bit. So let's see..." A thoughtful look crossed his face. "I guess it all started when my last ship blew up."

"It WHAT?!" exclaimed Hermione, as Ron started coughing through his final mouthful of food.

Chewie shook his head and growled something at Han that, once more, was too quick and fluent for Harry to catch. "Ah, true enough," agreed Han, "it was actually a bit before that. So I was helping an old buddy of mine learn to fly..."

He launched into the tale, starting with "falling in love at first sight" with the Falcon, and how even when he'd gotten a ship of his own, his mind had kept thinking about that ship that had enthralled him. As he told his story, his ever-present smirk slowly changed into a look of fondness. It was somewhat surprising, and yet as the story continued Harry found himself captivated by it. It reminded him in a way of how he'd pined after his Firebolt. He wondered, absently, if Han could appreciate flying a broom as much as flying a starship. Perhaps when he dropped them off?

"...So after the Battle of Smuggler's Moon, Chewie and I weren't doing great. No ship of our own, and you can't smuggle for long with a borrowed ship, which meant no work, and we didn't have much in terms of credits. But we weren't giving up that easily. And it was then that Lando, that friend of mine, told me about an opportunity that could turn things around: the Cloud City Sabacc Tournament."

"That's the card game you showed us," said Luna dreamily. "The ones with the lovely pictures."

Han nodded. "That's the one. I managed to put up the buy-in fee, and-"

"But wait," Ron interrupted, frowning. "You said you weren't doing great. How did you afford a fee?"

Han grinned at him. "I put in a krayt dragon pearl. I know you've probably heard about them on Tattooine, but seeing one in person is something else. They reflect light in all kinds of unique ways, and each one is unique, even from the same dragon."

"'Dragon'?!" Harry blurted out, startled. "You know about those?"

Han raised an eyebrow. "Well...yeah, anybody who spends enough time on Tattooine knows about them."

"...Really? Anybody?"

Han shrugged. "Why bother keeping them a secret? People, and Tusken Raiders too, get killed by them all the time when they get foolish enough to try to take one on to get at the pearls. You ask me, the krayts are pretty much idiot control; those pearls are a credit jackpot, but fighting a dragon's no easy thing."

"You got that right..." Harry muttered to himself. To think, that dragons could be referred to so casually by someone who clearly wasn't a wizard. But what kind of dragons could survive in a desert?

Han gave him a funny look, but continued his story. "Well, the pearl I had was a little on the small side, but it was still big enough I couldn't touch my fingers to my palm if I closed my hand around it. Cloudy white, flecked with green; I'd never forget that one. Anyway, it was enough to get me into the game. And let me tell you, I was on fire during that tournament. Over a hundred people in that tournament, and I flew right to the final five, like I was meant to be there."

"How long was the tournament?" Neville wondered, leaning forward and resting his head on his hands.

"Four days. And lemme tell you, some of those gamblers refused to bomb out until the bitter end. It happens sometimes at the big games; credits start to run out, and then they start throwing in other stuff just to stay in the game. Bespin's people didn't let it get as far as gambling someone's home, but some places it can get pretty nasty."

A look of understanding came over Hermione's face. "So when you say they throw in other things, are some of those things ships?"

"Hang on, hang on, I'm gettin' there!" grumbled Han, but he didn't seem upset. On the contrary, the interest his audience was showing seemed to make him even more keen to tell his tale. "So I get to the final game. It's me, Lando, and three other players; a Bothan, a Rodian, and a Chadra-Fan. I think Lando had one of his lady...ahem... 'friends'," Han made air quotes, "hanging off him for a while there." He chuckled. "Unlucky for him."

"How so?" asked Ron.

"What, you don't think a gorgeous woman cozied up to you might distract you a little bit?" the man asked pointedly. He smirked as Ron's ears went red. "But even with that, Lando wasn't giving up easy. Our opponents bombed out, folded, what have you, until it was just the two of us left." He was smiling widely now. "It went back and forth quite a bit; I'm good, don't get me wrong, but Lando gambles as a profession. So we get to the last round, and we both get hands that we think are our ticket to victory. We bet everything we have, but Lando's a bit shorter than I am on credits. But he's not worried. Around this time, he was running a used starship lot on Nar Shaddaa, so he puts down a data-card. 'My marker', he says. 'Good for any ship on my lot.' And that was when I made my move."

"'Your move'?" Harry repeated, not quite following.

Han grinned, and his joyful countenance was marred slightly by a look of intense smugness. "Lando didn't fly his own ship to the tournament. He took a luxury liner; said it had something to do with making his bluffing more effective. So his personal ship, the Millennium Falcon, was back where he'd left it. On his ship lot."

And then, Harry understood. "You didn't..." he said, not sure if he was more disapproving or more impressed.

"I did. For one heart-stopping moment, I thought I'd screwed up; I saw a flicker from one of his cards, and it looked like an Idiot's Array. So we lay our cards down and...he tried, but he was missing the last card he needed. And I had Perfect Sabacc." A dreamy look almost as strong as Luna's came over his face. "I won it all. The credits, and a ship. Our ship," he said, nodding to Chewie.

"So your friend just let you take his ship?" asked Hermione, and unlike Harry, she had decided that she was completely disapproving.

"Lando may be a smuggler and a scoundrel, but he doesn't go back on his word." The dreamy look had left his face, and a flicker of regret crossed it. "...He wasn't too happy about it, though."

"Where did you go first?" asked Ron.

Chewbacca growled something softly, but this time Harry caught it. It was one word: ((Home)). "You went to your home planet?" Harry asked to confirm. "What happened there?"

Han stood up suddenly, and to Harry's shock his good mood seemed to have evaporated. "I'm gonna double-check our flight plan," Han mumbled, heading off in the direction of the cockpit. Bewildered, Harry looked at Chewie for an explanation, but the Wookiee shook his head. Instead, he too got up from the table, striding off toward the rear of the ship.

Ron looked at where Han had gone, then at where Chewbacca had gone, and then at the rest of them. "Just what was that about?"

By the time they'd got the table cleaned up, Han still hadn't returned. Chewie, however, walked back into the living area, carrying a large object shaped roughly like a street bollard, except about half the size and dotted haphazardly with buttons, switches, and dials, and unless he was mistaken, there was something that looked like a camera lens set into the top. He set the object down next to the navigation station and motioned them over.

A look of eagerness came over Hermione's face. "Really? It's ready?! Then that means..." Chewie nodded, and Hermione beamed as if she'd just gotten back her usual perfect homework. The Wookiee began flipping several of the switches on the object, and a few at the navigation system.

Harry watched curiously, expecting the large object to do something spectacular. With a final button press, Chewie looked back at the object. Then he tilted his head, blinking slowly. He looked back and forth between the object and the navigation station, and then let out a growl of frustration. "What?" asked Harry. "What is it?" Chewie stomped over to a section of the main hold, shoving aside several crates and rummaging in what looked like a pile of spare parts. He set aside several odd objects; one that looked like a metal rod with copper prongs at the end, another that looked like a stick with wires trailing out of it, a small ball that was studded with odd glassy nodes...Finally, he seemed to find what he was looking for. He brought a large black cable back to the navigation station, hooking up one end to it and the other end to the large object. Chewie pressed the button again.

This time, there was an incredibly peculiar sound that came from the station; almost like a person hammering a typewriter key once every second. The camera lens-lookalike on the object lit up bright blue, and began clicking rapidly. Ron flinched, and Harry knew why, because he felt the same; it sounded far too much like how Aragog and his kin had clicked their pincers while speaking. Fortunately, it was over after about a minute; the sounds ceased, and the light went out of the lens instantly. Chewie gave a satisfied grunt and unplugged both ends of the cable, flinging it back over into the pile he'd taken it from. He patted Hermione on the shoulder and growled something at her that sounded vaguely encouraging, then picked the object up and carried it back in the direction of the stateroom.

"I'll need some time to look over it," said Hermione softly, and Harry thought she might be trying to keep her voice from echoing. "Meet up with me in about..." She thought for a moment, looking at her watch. "Two hours."

"That long?" asked Neville, looking worried.

"That short," she corrected. "Their star charts probably have different names for all the planets and constellations we do. If we're going to tell Han where to take us, we need to make sure that it's actually Earth." She then frowned suddenly, as if she'd just thought of a complication.

"What is it?" asked Ron.

"...Hm? Oh. It's...probably nothing. Just ready to go home."

Harry nodded. "Too true. All right, we'll give you some time."

"Chewie said good luck," said Luna with a smile.

Hermione looked at her, and to Harry's amazement she smiled back. "Thanks." She went off in the direction of the stateroom as Chewbacca returned.

With not much else to do but wait, they decided to play some more cards with Chewie, using ration packs to simulate their wagers again. Harry didn't even mind that he "bombed out" spectacularly after a mere two rounds; they were going to be going home soon enough, so he wasn't feeling too fussed about much of anything, really. A tiny part of him actually felt a bit sad that they'd be saying goodbye to Han and Chewie, after they'd done so much to help him and his fellow witches and wizards. Perhaps there might be a way to give them some kind of gift as thanks. He amused himself with the thought of giving Han a broomstick, even though he knew they'd get in too much trouble to actually do it.

Before long, their two hours had passed. Chewie bade them ((goodbye)) and went off in the direction of the cockpit. Harry suddenly realized that Han still hadn't returned from there. Frowning slightly, Harry tried to brush it off. Han was tough; whatever it was, he would pull through, and it wasn't like he'd tell them if something was bothering him anyway. And yet...but Chewie would be far better at talking with him, surely. Harry doubted very much that Han would even admit anything was bothering him if Harry were the one to ask. Shaking his head, Harry went with the others back to the stateroom.

Hermione was there, looking over the odd cylindrical object and fussing with some of the switches and levers. She hardly seemed to notice them coming in; a look of deep thought was on her face, and she didn't seem to be all that pleased. Harry cleared his throat and she jumped slightly. "O-oh! You're here!" she stammered. "Has it been..." She looked at her watch. "Oh. I suppose it has."

"You okay?" asked Ron.

She nodded. "Yes. Yes, fine, thanks."

"Okay, we're all here," said Harry, looking around at the other four. "What've you found, Hermione?"

She, as Harry had expected, began talking rather fast. "So, as you know, the device that Chewbacca has had me working on used to be a holographic projector of some kind. But like I told you, I made it into a map. He showed me how to connect it to a storage device, and then he added a power cell to it, and then when he plugged it into the ship's computer, well you saw that part-"

"Hermione?"

She started. "Right, sorry. Perhaps it's best if I show you." Hermione tapped a few buttons on the keyboard of the device. The bit that looked like a camera lens suddenly lit up, and something sprang into existence in the middle of all of them, nearly filling up the whole room. Harry stumbled backwards at the sudden motion, but stopped once he saw what it was.

"Whoa…"

It was a galaxy, spinning slowly but steadily before them. There were stars, stars without number all arrayed around its gently spinning disc. At the centre was a brilliantly-glowing spherical cloud; without thinking, he reached his hand out to touch it, but it moved right through, as if the galaxy were a particularly bright ghost.

"It's beautiful…" said Neville and Luna at the same time, staring at it in awe.

Harry looked over to Ron. He was absolutely captivated by the sight of the galaxy; Harry noticed, with faint amusement, that his mouth was hanging open.

Even Hermione, whom Harry was sure had seen this moving model several times, wore a small smile on her face. Harry's gaze drifted back to the galaxy, and for a time, he was quite captivated by it. However, the reason for the spectacle tickled the back of Harry's mind, and with reluctance he spoke. "It's amazing, Hermione, but…what were you going to show us?"

Ron shook himself. "Er-yes! Right! What…what Harry said."

"This map has as much navigational information as it could get from the ship." She fiddled with several buttons and switches, and a blinking red light appeared near the edge of the galaxy. "That's roughly where we are. Well, technically it's Sakiya, but we'll be there soon enough, so it's close enough for this demonstration. Tatooine, the planet we first arrived on, is here." She manipulated the device some more, and a blinking green dot appeared quite some distance from the red one. "I can't know how fast hyperspace is without more study, but I'd say they're at least several dozen lightyears apart. Yet we've made the trip in less than a month. Which means that not only can this ship travel faster than the speed of light, it can travel several times faster than light."

"…Well, that's good then," said Ron, with the air of trying to bring the conversation back to familiar ground. "We can get home that much quicker."

Hermione sighed. "I wish it were that simple. Doesn't it strike you as odd that, in less than a month, we'll have been to four worlds that we can set foot on safely without choking or burning up or drowning in dangerous chemicals? Don't you think we'd have heard about places like that from the British National Space Centre?"

"So maybe their telescopes weren't very good," Ron said dismissively. "Just find where Earth is on that map and we can have Han drop us off."

Hermione shook her head, and Harry saw an oddly defeated look come over her. "I can't say for sure, but this solar system is the closest I can find to Earth as it is in our galaxy." She turned several knobs, and the image zoomed in on a section of space. There was a large, yellow star, and what looked like eight little spheres orbiting it, several of which had specks that Harry assumed were their moons. Odd symbols sat under the section as if it were a legend or key of some kind, but Harry couldn't read them; at best guess he thought he saw a few Roman numerals, but it wasn't certain.

Harry frowned as he noticed a bigger issue. "There's one missing. Where's Pluto?"

"Yeah," muttered Neville. "It's not here…hey, where's the Moon? The third planet doesn't have a moon."

Hermione gave a great sigh. "Therein lies the problem."

"What?" Ron asked, but shook his head. "It's got to be broken. Take it to Chewie."

"It's not broken, Ron. I know it seems strange-"

"Strange nothing, it's broken. Get-"

"Ron, listen to me! It's not broken! Can't you see what's going on?"

"Yeah, and it's that you need to check that thing over before-"

"I HAVE checked it! Three times now! AND EARTH ISN'T THERE!"

Ron recoiled slightly, startled. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and then opened it once more. However, it merely hung open, much like it had done when he'd seen the galaxy.

"You said 'our galaxy'." They all turned to look at Luna, who was in turn looking at Hermione, her head cocked to one side. "Earlier, you said you found the system most like our own 'in our galaxy'. So…what galaxy is this?"

Harry gave Hermione a questioning gaze. She bit her lip. "I…I don't know." She tapped a few buttons, and the image zoomed back out to the full model of the galaxy. "None of these stars fit any of the constellations we would recognize."

"…Not to argue, but what's the big deal?" Harry said, looking the map over. "If we're in the wrong galaxy, we'll just have Han take us to the right one. You said this ship travels faster than light, right?"

Hermione gave a very hollow laugh indeed. "Harry, do you have any idea how many galaxies there are in the universe?"

Her stare was bad enough, but then Luna was giving him a pitying gaze too. "Er…a lot?"

"Yes, 'a lot'. It's hard to tell how many exactly, but…it's probably somewhere in the billions."

Harry felt his heart sink so quickly it almost took him to the floor. Billions? Not simply thousands, or millions, but billions of galaxies?

"Even with as fast as this ship can go, there's a lot of empty space between galaxies. It could take us a hundred years to get to the neighboring galaxy…and that's if we're lucky and the Milky Way is just one galaxy over. We could be anywhere."

Anywhere? But…but that just…it just couldn't… "How?" he managed to ask. "How did we get this far away?"

"Rookwood said he tried to Apparate when we hit that cabinet of Time Turners," Luna supplied helpfully.

Hermione looked at her for a moment, and then pinched the bridge of her nose as she took a deep breath. "…And how, precisely, would that have landed us here?"

She shrugged. "Ask Rookwood. He was the one who worked for the Department of Mysteries."

Hermione gave a long-suffering sigh. "…Sure. Why don't we just add that one onto the list, then?"

They were all quiet for a time, and Harry looked around at the galaxy model. It was devastating to know that their goal had suddenly gotten so much farther away after something they'd thought was the solution, and he doubted that merely finding Rookwood would suddenly solve their problem either. And yet...a small, traitorous part of him actually felt happy at the news, knowing that they would keep jumping between the stars and seeing more incredible worlds. He shook it off, guilt bubbling up as he did. To keep his mind off of it, he asked "What are we going to tell Han and Chewie?"

She looked at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"We got here somehow, so there has to be a way to get back. Maybe they might know something."

Hermione shook her head. "Harry, we came here from the Department of Mysteries. You really think they'd know how to get us back? And even if they did," she added, holding a hand up as he went to respond, "they're Muggles. We can't tell them about magic, or Hogwarts, or anything like-"

"We're in another galaxy, Hermione!" Ron snapped back. "The Statute of Secrecy doesn't mean a damn thing here! We need to get back, and we need to get back now."

"But would those two even know anything about getting us back?" asked Neville. "Would they even believe us? I mean...what if the five of us are the only ones that can use magic?"

"Six," said Luna absently.

"Six?" Neville's face set into a thoughtful expression. "Right, Rookwood. You said we could try asking him."

"But we left him behind!" exclaimed Hermione. "They were arresting him and everything! How are we supposed to get to him again?"

"We get Han to take us back there and we break him out," Ron said, his face stony with determination.

"And how are we supposed to do that?! We can't use magic as much as we could on Earth! Even with all five of us, we'd be exhausted after a handful of spells each, and even if we managed to get to him, we'd have to get him back out again. And even if we could, why would he help us?"

"He needs to get back home too," Neville supplied.

"But if he knows how to get back, why would he tell us?"

"We could..." began Ron. He gulped, but pressed on. "We could...you know...get him to tell us."

Hermione's eyes went wide. "Ron...you're not saying..."

He shifted guiltily, looking away. Harry could see that Ron looked slightly ashamed of what he suggested. "We're not going back there," Harry said, and they turned to look at him. "Not yet, anyway. Even if we could get him out of...wherever he is, I don't think Han and Chewie would agree to taking us there."

Ron looked at Harry. "But Rookwood might-"

"He might," agreed Harry. "But we can't make Han and Chewie fly us anywhere they don't want to. And we definitely can't get them to help us stage a prison break. This is a smuggling ship; if it gets involved in something like that, Han would be in trouble. He'd never forgive us if he had to get a different ship because of us."

"We could get a ship," suggested Luna brightly.

Harry nodded at her. "Right. We need a ship of our own. And supplies, and time to figure out how to do the opposite of...whatever it was that got us here. Rookwood himself isn't enough. We need..." He sighed. "A lot of things. None that we have right now. But we need to start soon; we can't keep eating Han's food forever."

"...So what do we tell them?" asked Neville.

Harry didn't respond for several moments. It was true that Han had come to their aid, and that he and Chewie were teaching the group certain skills. If they were going to have any hope of lasting very long in this strange galaxy, they'd need to keep learning as much as possible. Should they tell the two smugglers about magic? Even if they didn't believe him and his friends, the skills might come in handy. But...what if Han knew about Rookwood coming after them? Or what if, and his stomach turned at the thought, the people in charge of this galaxy decided that they wanted to keep all six wizards and witches as lab subjects? What if there was some sort of large reward for turning them in? Would Han and Chewie turn that chance down? He hoped so, but...what if they got desperate?

Harry sighed. "We don't...tell them anything. Not yet. Not until we can trust them completely. ...If we can trust them completely. Until then, let's just keep working with them and try to make enough money for us to strike out on our own." With that he strode over to the cylinder, looking it over. Several more unfamiliar symbols adorned it. "...And before too long, we need to learn how to read in this galaxy."

CHAPTER END

Well, now. It's been a while, hasn't it? I won't go on for too long here, but long story short, work hasn't left me much time to write the last few years. Still, I'll write when I can and get it to you when it's ready! As always, whatever you thought about the chapter, feel free to let me know by way of review!

Stay safe out there!