Ben wasn't sure how he'd ended up in his current predicament. One moment, he'd been frozen in a block of ice that had appeared out of nowhere, created somehow by a man wearing a beard that looked like it had been growing for as long as Ben had been alive. The old man had touched Ben's head with another of those wooden stick weapons and everything had gone black.

He'd woken up in a rather uncomfortable chair, tightly bound by ropes from head to toe and his lightsaber missing. Someone had transported Ben to a spacious office that reminded him of the old Chancellor's Suite from the days of the Republic. There weren't a lot of visual similarities; the carpet was purple instead of red, and the walls and furniture were made from dark wood rather than smooth metal. But there was a similar sort of atmosphere, that whoever this office belonged to was quite an important person.

If Ben had to guess, it likely belonged to one of the three people on the other side of the desk. One was the same old man who'd managed to capture him. Upon closer inspection, he looked ancient enough to rival Yoda, and was dressed in deep purple robes with golden stars. He was examining Ben's lightsaber. The second was a portly man nervously turning a round green hat of some sort in his hands. He seemed to be arguing with the third person, a woman with a square jaw and close-cropped grey hair.

"I say we should chuck him back through the veil! Send him right back to where he came from!" The portly man was gesturing wildly with his hat now.

"Don't be ridiculous, Cornelius. We can't just toss someone into the veil without a trial. No matter where this man came from, we must follow the proper procedures." The woman snapped. She was dressed in a nightgown of some sort, and her short hair was sticking up in odd places. Clearly, she'd woken up in a hurry and did not seem pleased about it.

Cornelius opened his mouth to argue, but then the older man pocketed Ben's lightsaber and cleared his throat. Immediately, the other two stopped speaking to listen. Once again, Ben was reminded of Yoda.

"I agree with Amelia. We have no idea who this man is, or what he was doing in the Department of Mysteries. We need answers, first and foremost."

Cornelius harrumphed, looking unhappy, while Amelia nodded, pushing herself off from where she'd been leaning on the desk. "Right, it looks like our guest has woken up, I'll fetch us some tea."

If Ben were able to, he would have asked whether it was customary on this world to keep guests tied up. However, the ropes that bound him also covered his mouth, so the only noise he could make was an unintelligible grunt.

Cornelius very nearly dropped his hat upon realizing that Ben had woken up, while the old man merely stared at him with piercing blue eyes. Ben met the stare unflinchingly, but then felt an odd sensation, as though a feather was tickling the inside of his forehead. He blinked, and immediately it went away.

Whatever that had been, Ben had no time to think about it, as Amelia returned shortly thereafter. A tray holding a teapot and four steaming cups floated in front of her, prodded along by yet another one of those wooden sticks that seemed to be commonplace here. As before, he could feel the Force emanating from the rod, but unlike the projectile bolts from before that radiated power, this was far gentler. In fact, it felt exactly how Ben himself would telekinetically lift objects.

Whoever these people were, it was clear that they were immensely powerful with the Force, and for perhaps the first time since he'd stepped through the flaming circle, Ben wondered just why the Force had beckoned him here so strongly. For the past nineteen years, it had kept him on Tatooine, until it was time for him to lead Luke out into the galaxy and begin his training. During those years of isolation, the plan had seemed so clear, the Force's guidance had felt almost unnecessary at times. Now though, he was in this strange place, surrounded by a mysterious group who could use the Force in ways that he'd never imagined possible- and for what?

The Force remained stubbornly silent.

Ben's musings were interrupted by one of the cups bobbing up and down in front of his face. The old man had taken out his stick (Ben noticed that this one looked knobblier and longer than the ones that others used) and was using it to make the cup, which was full of what smelled like a fragrant tea, hover in front of Ben. The rope bindings covering Ben's mouth had fallen away.

"I don't suppose you'd let me hold my own cup?" Ben asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sure that if I tried to run, you'd be able to capture me again without much trouble."

The old man's eyes twinkled, and with a quick flick of the baton in his hand, the ropes around Ben's torso unwound themselves, freeing his arms. The other two, Amelia and Cornelius, didn't look too happy about this, but didn't object, likely since Ben's lower half was still wrapped securely.

"Thank you." Ben smiled and plucked the cup out of the air, taking a sip. It appeared to be identical to the ones that his captors were drinking, and the Force wasn't screaming any warnings at him. The tea was delightful and warm, a welcome sensation after having been frozen in ice.

"You're very welcome." The old man replied as he pocketed his stick. "Now, I do apologize for the abruptness, but we have some questions for you. What is your name?"

"My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, though for the last nineteen years I have gone by the name of Ben." Ben's voice sounded oddly flat to him, devoid of any inflection. He took another sip of the tea.

The old man continued, "Did you tamper with the Goblet of Fire so that it would choose Harry Potter as the fourth champion for the Triwizard Tournament?"

"I don't know what that is, or who Harry Potter is." Ben answered honestly. His voice still sounded flat. For some reason, his answer made the occupants of the room look at him oddly.

"Have you ever willingly served Lord Voldemort?" For some reason, Amelia flinched and Cornelius choked on his tea.

"I do not know who that is."

"Mr. Kenobi," This time, it was Amelia speaking. "How did you get into the Department of Mysteries, and what were you doing there?"

"I don't know what you mean by the Department of Mysteries, but I arrived in this place through a strange portal of fire that opened after I was probably killed by Darth Vader. I was trying to find my way out when I was attacked by your security."

Cornelius and Amelia looked at each other with skeptical glances, while the old man sipped his tea with a calm expression. After a long, tense moment, Cornelius set his bowler hat down on his desk and asked, "Who are you, and where are you from?"

Obi-Wan's sarcastic wit wanted to ask whether this was an interrogation or a job interview, but all that came out of Ben's mouth was, "I am a Jedi Knight of the former Galactic Republic, though I've been in hiding on Tatooine since the Purge."

It was beginning to dawn on Ben that there must have been something in the tea to make him speak so frankly. For all he knew, these people could be… wait what had he been thinking of? A slight frown wrinkled his brow, as concern deepened into alarm. When had his mind filled with such fog?

"-clearly mad, and probably a Muggle if he doesn't know who Harry Potter is!" Cornelius was gesturing with his hat again.

"He's clearly no Muggle, Minister! This man took down eight Aurors with their own spells! It would be foolish to toss him into the streets of London and believe that it wouldn't come back to bite us somehow."

If Ben had been able to speak, he would have asked what a Muggle was. However, he was too busy rallying his admittedly rusty mental shields, and even if he hadn't been, he would have experienced great difficulty responding to anything that wasn't a question directly addressed to him.

Before the argument could get too heated however, the old man cleared his throat, again silencing the other two without a word. "Mr. Kenobi, what do you know about magic?"

"I'm familiar with the magick used by Dathomir's Nightsisters, but it is nothing compared to what I've witnessed in this place." Ben's mouth spoke mechanically, but the rest of him finally mustered the strength to throw off the numbness that had been fogging his mind and dropped the cup of tea onto the carpet.

"Damn it, he threw off the Veritaserum." Amelia swore.

"Indeed. However, I believe this resistance proves without a doubt that our visitor here is clearly not a Muggle, if a little addled." The old man waved his knobbly stick, and the spilled tea and its cup vanished from the floor. Ben boggled.

"Moreover, his speech clearly marks him as a visitor from another country. I believe that his appearance in the Department of Mysteries was truly accidental, perhaps an Intercontinental Apparition gone wrong. We will not get any more answers out of Mr. Kenobi while he is in this state."

While Amelia still looked somewhat skeptical, Cornelius seemed satisfied with that explanation, and he waved a hand. "Well, off to St. Mungo's with him then. I'll call up the Healers to bring him in."

"No need, I'll take him there myself. Seeing as I did freeze him in ice and Stun him, I imagine the Healers will have some questions for me." Another flourish of the old man's baton, and the ropes binding Ben to his chair fell away.

"I don't suppose I get a say in any of this?" Ben finally managed to say with some actual sarcastic inflection to his tone.

"I'm afraid not, but it is for your own good." The old man tapped his empty teacup, and it glowed blue for a moment. He handed it to Ben. "Here, hold this."

Ben looked at the old man suspiciously for a few seconds. Whatever he'd done to the teacup had imbued it with a powerful Force signature, but he sensed no danger, so he accepted the object. "Is something supposed to hap-"

The Force swelled inside the teacup, and Ben's world dissolved into a blur.


A/N: I should note that in this AU, George Lucas either never existed or didn't make the Star Wars movies. Dumbledore or anyone else not recognizing Ben Kenobi is not just from a lack of awareness of Muggle culture and arts.