Chapter 6

She had really done it. It was so exciting. Tomorrow she would start at her new school, even though she would be one of the youngest to attend the classes. And although her aunt had still reservations about her, she could live with it. Her cousin had stared verily at her ,when they had first met, but as the day had progressed he and she had been able to help him understand the math homework, he had slowly warmed up to her he had even shared one of his much coveted sweets with her which she had gladly taken and she had even spotted a smile hush over her aunt's face and she was eager to help her. But as her cousin seemed slightly overweight she felt that she needed to help him somehow get back to his proper weight otherwise he would have problem with his health in the future. But it would certainly be difficult and she was just getting to know her aunt's family and her aunt could take it personally if she mentioned it to her and Harriet did not want to get on this family's bad side. On the other hand Petunia had told her that she would need to help her in the household and she would bring her to school.

What would the new school be like? Would she finally be able to make friends? The headmaster who had phoned her aunt's house had told her that there were two other children, just as gifted as her and she was excited to meet them. And from taking a glance at her timetable she knew that she would spend most of her day at school and only come home to the Dursley's in the evenings.

But her aunt had even surprised her with her own room, which she had furnished specifically for her. She had her own comfy bed, with a really fluffy pillow and a blanket, shelves waiting to be filled with books, a desk situated in front of the window, a small chair with wheels and a wardrobe. She had been so moved that she had startled her aunt, when Harriet had broken into tears of gratitude and hugged her tightly repeating the words "thank you" over and over again. Her aunt had already done more for her than her parents, who had reluctantly bought her school supplies and moaned that she was taking valuable money away from her brother. After some hesitation she had even received a hug back. It had felt so good and she was more than willing to help her aunt for what she had already done for her.

As the weeks had progressed, first of all proven her father wrong that she did indeed belong in this school and she had been particularly happy for the first time after Voldemort's attack. She had luckily or rather by accident been able to persuade her aunt and uncle to let her cousin train in a sports club at least three times a week. Well, actually she had watched Karate Kid with them on the telly and when Dudley had moaned that he would never be able to do this she had "casually" mentioned, that all he needed to do was train and eat healthy and he would accomplish it. He had then pestered his parents until they had finally relented and even though uncle Vernon complained about the new diet his wife forced on him, Dudley really started to lose weight and became stronger, fitter and even his grades went up. But the best thing was that this family had willingly taken her into their home during her time at school and also seemed to care about her. At least her aunt always asked how she was feeling. How her mother could be related to this kind woman was beyond her, but she was glad that she was.

Lying on the cold hard metal bench in the cell she had been thrown into after her arrest, she slowly became aware of her surroundings again. It seemed that she had indeed fallen asleep with her now numb right arm serving as a pillow. But what had woken her now? Why? Her dream had just been pleasant and she had so longed to be with her family right now. What time was it anyway? She had lost track of time completely and hoped that no matter what she still would be able to safe her family from punishment for what she did. But she had defended herself. But unfortunately the imperial navy would not see it that way. Her cousin was to good hearted to stand the rigorous training of the empire for long. That's why she had decided to leave her life behind to protect him and his family. She owed it to them. She should be terrified right now, but for some reason she was calm. Or she was still half asleep. But for some reason she could not let her mind wander away from her family and the absence of her other crewman, who usually worked the shift before her. He had gradually looked worse over this month. But why? Had he been replaced or had something worse happened?

"Glad you're awake. Midshipman. Took you long enough." she heard an annoyed voice from the door and jumped into a seating position. She didn't want to give this ISB officer any ideas as there were still more men in the navy than women.

"So, what happens now, Sir? she enquired. "Shooting squad or cantina duty?" She had no qualms about her further chances.

The agent grinned amused:"You really don't have the best opinion about our empire, do you?" How should I have. We could confirm your statement about what has happened and you are free to return to your duties."

"Just like that." she could not believe it and raised her eyebrow this had to be a trap.

"You are lucky, Midshipman. You stumbled directly into the end of our investigation of this particular officer's shared office."

"Meaning that you had it under surveillance and could check the recordings." she deduced and the ISB officer nodded.

"Correct, but I will still keep an eye on your behaviour, Midshipman. This is Grand Admiral Thrawn's Destroyer. He is one of the best strategists this empire has to offer and everyone serving on this ship has to meet his high standards. Even the ones serving at the bottom line. Is that understood?" he asked and Harry nodded while standing up. "Yes, Sir."

Thrawn was sitting in his office going over the reports of this day's arrests. He had ordered this particular investigation after several officers had slacked off in their duties and had shown clear signs of spice use, even though they had tried to hide it. Some better than others. More personnel had not performed to the best of their duties and the young woman caught up in today's arrests had daily challenged them. According to the surveillance, she had been the only harassed individual, that had not given in and had even defied them in more than once sense. He reread the statement that she had given after her arrest and played the holovid of the hidden recording device in that office and it matched her statement to the slightest detail. It seemed that she really did have a good memory.

But that was not the only mysterious thing he had noted. He had observed that she had arrived with short hair most of the time, but sometimes she had stumbled on the bridge appearing to have short hair when in reality it had been long. Whenever she had her hair long it had shimmered as if there was some distortion in the air and he had lost sight of the long hair again for a few seconds. Whatever trick she was using to let it appear short it worked on humans, but as a Chiss he had a naturally a wider spectrum of sight, which also went into the infrared and allowed him to see things that others were incapable of seeing. Did she use some kind of cloaking technology the empire was not aware of or was it something else?

He had also noted that she had cracked one of the captain's coded messages in her boredom on her first shift and it had silently amused him and he had decided to keep a sharper eye on her as she seemed to be one of the more intelligent humans. s Her records in the Academy had been stellar and he had even been transferred to a better academy which went further than basic training, but she had still been with other conscripts. At further investigation he had found out that Director Krennic, who was known to poach talented scientists for his project, had approached her after she had successfully completed a science project, but lucky for him she had declined. He only wondered why Krennic had not forced her to come with him as only very few scientists had the luxury of declining that offer. Some of those were already "stardust" as this self absorbed director had the tendency to silently kill his scientists after successfully completing their projects in order to keep the secrecy of his main one by making the kills look like accidents.

Thrawn had yet to receive her file on what her profession(s) were before she was pressed into the empire's service as the empire had been slow to analyse the knowledge of her planet, which they deemed primitive. But he expected her to have interests in various fields as it was mirrored in her academy's results. She came from one of the "newly" discovered planet in the unknown regions, which was now known for being the planet that had downed an entire fleet of Destroyers with their primitive weapons. Their biggest weakness however had been the lack of unity. Yes, there had been some unions, who had worked together and others who had opposed each other, but their lack of unity had ultimately led to the victory of two more imperial fleets. Sadly his, had not been one of them or there would have been less bloodshed. There was a recently added note of an ISB officer, that she sometimes displayed strong subversive tendencies and that the regular brainwashing, forced recruits were submitted to, had not worked at all on her. It seemed that she had a strong mind or was very stubborn or maybe both. He pondered that he would not be surprised, if she had been part of her planets defence force.

But he would have to be more careful with the High Command, because thirty-seven spice addicted officers had been flashed out in these investigations on his personal destroyer alone and some of those must have had this addiction before they were transferred to his fleet. The common thread that all those officers had in common, were their family ties to powerful Coruscanti families. It seemed that some in High Command had sent those failed officers to his fleet in order to avoid dealing with them. But he would sent them straight back for court martial. In their varied stages of their spice addiction they had created dangerous havoc in his fleet. Even the suicide rate among the lower ranks had risen significantly because of them. In order to have his fleet function properly he needed the best people and those thirty-seven officers needed to be replaced. Governor Price had warned him that High Command may not be able to fault his expertise, but they would certainly not make it easy for him. Especially, Tarkin was one of those, who could not stand nonhumans, but he would never openly admit it and he had not been able to fault him personally. Assigning incompetent spice addicted officers to his fleet could have potentially led to a scenario where the High Command would finally be able to fault him.

The door to his office hissed open and his trusted aide Vanto stepped in carrying his data pad in one hand and a small stack of something that appeared to be books in the other hand.

"Agent Colburn just released Midshipman Potter." he informed him "And the surveillance in her cell actually indicated that she slept through her entire imprisonment" his tone had taken an amused note.

"Her locker is kept neat and tidy with few personal items, a few caffeinated sweets and mini-bottles, which after examination contain some sort of potion to boost alertness but contains no addictive substances a small toy, which has the form of a small brown primitive version of a suitcase, a small apothecary, which indicates that she must have had medical training at some point and these book, which might interest you. He put the small stack on his superior's desk, who carefully laid them next to each other examining the binding. Each of the bindings had different patterns and ornaments and Vanto could see that Thrawn was in his favourite element again. He picked one of the books up and opened it carefully browsing through it, noting smaller additional sheets or pictures within them. He (Vanto) had not been able to read the text in this one as it was a foreign script, the script from her home planet perhaps, but he had admired the diligent handwriting, especially as she had no lines to write on as the paper was just blank and as some of the signs appeared different than the fluid text he assumed that it could be some sort of diary. While carefully leafing through the Midshipman's book, he stopped at a double page with five bars consisting of five fine lines which had the same sign consisting of one loop and several swirls at the beginning of each bar. There were dots on the fine lines. Some were filled with the colour others empty. Some were connected others not. It looked rather complicated to him, but Thrawn's glowing eyes lit up excitingly.

"Interesting. Very interesting." he noted in his distinctive accent and Vanto did not want to disturb the Chiss, but he had one more thing to show to him before his superior would get lost in analysing the notebooks.

He grabbed the ornamented wooden stick the ISB had taken from the Midshipman and put it next to the books. The Chiss glowing eyes turned his attention back to Vanto and his eyes narrowed looking at the stick.

"What is this?" he enquired curiously reaching out to it with both of his hands.

"We don't know, but it was in Midshipman's left sleeve when she was searched and she didn't like to be parted from it. It was the actually the only time she appeared almost hysterical. It is made of some kind of wood, but it seems that there is something organic inside it."

"Curious." Thrawn murmured carefully taking the long conical stick with the right hand on the thicker side and the blunt point in the palm of his hand. It was about forty imperial centimetres long, polished and ornamented with woodcarving resembling a slinging plant originating from the thicker side. Although it appeared to be quite delicate stick, Thrawn had observed that it felt heavier than it should.

Petunia gripped her tea cup tightly as she angrily sat opposite her estranged sister. Apparently she just had found out about Harriet missing and acted as if she actually cared about her daughter. But she knew better. She had not cared about her daughter all those years. Why would she give a damn about her now? The wizarding world had decided to shut itself off the normal world? Why was she not surprised? This world had brought her niece nothing but pain and anger and there had been a few close calls where she had feared for Harry's life. Not only because she fought the evil bastard that had destroyed her life with her family, but also because of her waves of depression caused by her family situation and the lack of love she had never received but wanted desperately. She, as her aunt had tried to give her as much love as possible, but she was her aunt and not her mother.

"You actually want Harry to come back to the magical world after everything she has suffered there?" Petunia asked again more sharply this time.

Her red headed sister nodded. "Yes, her absence has been noted by some and wizards have been ordered to decide either on the wizarding world or the muggle one. Should she decide on staying here, then she must hand in her wand and her magical core is blocked, which will result in an inability to do magic and she won't be able to get in contact with us anymore.

"I hate to break it to you, but any contact between your family (Petunia mockingly stressed the word family) has been toxic for her."

"Well, she was the one making Alexander's life a living hell. Perhaps she shouldn't have been such a bully." Lily murmured and was interrupted by a furious Petunia and very angrily Dudley.

"She's the bully? You dare call her a bully, when your family and friends have truly made her life a living hell?" Petunia spat slamming her fist angrily on the table.

"You don't know a thing about your own daughter!" She was no panting in anger and wanted to slam her haughty sister all that she had done to Harriet into the face, but she knew that the ginger would never understand.

"Anyway, As I was saying." Lily continued. "There will be visits from ministry's officials and handlers for her protection as she won't be able to do magic anymore. From what I've heard she would be brought under Draco Malfoy's protection. He kindly has offered to be hers."

Petunia hissed and startled her sister:"Do not EVER speak the name of that young man in this house again. His actions cut her deeper than yours ever could. He will NEVER enter this house as long as I live." Dudley, sitting next to her nodded in agreement.

She had to give it to her sister as she finally did look a bit worried and a bit curious at that, but only for a second.

"And besides. In case you haven't noticed. Harry isn't here, and we didn't have any contact with her since the Empire took her. We don't know if she is even alive. Some of our neighbours have received notices about the demise of their conscripted child. And.." she was interrupted by the ringing of the door bell.

Dudley went to open the door with shuffling steps and came back with an elderly grey haired, tall, thin and bony woman with a red handbag.

"Augusta" Lilly greeted her but her voice indicated hesitation and wonder.

"Lily" the woman nodded in greeting and turned towards Petunia. "I apologize for intruding, Mrs. Dursley. My name is Augusta Longbottom and my grandson Neville, who was conscripted by the empire, serves on the same Star Destroyer as your niece and I figured that you might want to hear news about her."

"Yes!" Petunia whispered heavy with emotion. "Please. Is she alright? May I offer you some tea?"

"What branch is she in?" Dudley enquired.

Augusta smiled calmly at the Dursley's accepting a steaming cup of tea. "Neville discovered that they are both serving on the same destroyer two days ago, but she wasn't happy to see him."

"Was he a friend of Alexander?" Dudley asked throwing his aunt a dirty look. "He was." Augusta confirmed nodding.

"Neville is serving in the imperial army as a stormtrooper. Harriet, however is in the imperial navy and apparently a real danger magnet. He knows that she is the only conscript who has received a promotion to Midshipman by the Grand Admiral after correcting her ensign's mistake. He hasn't seen that incident himself, but one of the other troopers on guard duty on the bridge has seen it and told Neville."

"She is serving on the bridge of a Star Destroyer?" Petunia asked awed.

"Not only that, but on the bridge of Grand Admiral Thrawn's personal Star Destroyer called the Chimera. He is the only non-human officer in the entire navy and apparently a real genius in military strategy."

"Is that good or bad for her?" Dudley enquired hesitantly.

"Well, that depends." Augusta answered. "As a tactical genius the likelihood of his fleet getting destroyed are rather slim, but on the other hand she should not stand out. And I think we all know that she is bound to stand out."

"That's unfortunately true." Petunia and Dudly nodded while Lily looked at them rather confused.

"But apparently that's exactly what she did, because she managed to get onto the radar of the commanding officers and even spent the duration of her shift in a cell, but was later released without any charges to resume her duty."

"Oh, God." Petunia choked out clearly afraid for her niece.

"Don't worry." Augusta soothingly put her hand on Petunias. "She is fine. He talked to her shortly before she returned to her next shift.".

"How are you able to get in contact with Neville?" Lily seemed to have finally found her voice.

"Simple. Neville and I both have one of those mirrors where we can communicate." Augusta puffed her chest proudly.

"But, how are you able to stay in contact with your grandson?" Petunia wondered.

"Well, through the joys of magic." Augusta told her. "People might believe that he is just incredibly vain, but luckily for us it can't be traced by the imps."

"I still don't understand." Petunia told her.

"Oh, please. They have two-way mirrors where they can communicate by just stating the name of the person having the other mirror." Lily stated in a bored manner. "Not many people still have those as they can easily be destroyed."

"At least I care about the state of my family." Augusta hissed. "You didn't even know that your daughter was gone!"

"How should I have known!" the red-head defended herself. "She left the Wizarding World after Voldemort's final demise and never returned."

"Perhaps you should find out the reason for that then." Augusta scolded the red-head knowingly.

Ensign Mayr was gone. He had been arrested and was locked in a cell awaiting court martial for spice abuse. She felt so alive and for the first time in a month well rested. Her time locked in that cell had done her good. In the meantime, another Ensign had taken over his position and Harry felt that she could actually work with the new one. But she was still a bit scared as she had discovered that her locker had been searched and three of her notebooks were missing: Her scrapbook, her diary and her notebook where she noted everything down that came into her mind and had helped her at home at work. In two of these books she had photos and pictures of her loved ones, which she desperately wanted back and worst of all. Her wand had been taken off her before she had been locked in the cell. What if they figured out what it actually was? She didn't want to meet an inquisitor, who if rumours were true could sniff out magically gifted. Technically she didn't need it as she was able to do wandless magic since her early days at Hogwarts, but the soothing weight of the wand had always felt reassuring. When they had enquired what this was she had spun it to be her good luck charm, making it look as if it was a "religious" item, but what if Thrawn would figure it out? She hoped not. The data flow was too slow again and she sped it up for probably the third time this shift, but it was nothing challenging, and she hoped that she still would get the data pad with that wild space language back. It would at least challenge her. She heard a short "ping" and did a double take as the message in her personal feed came that she now had access to all imperial learning courses. Not just the language courses. Her jaw dropped. Someone just had given her permission to study without any restrictions. Seemed as if she would spend more time in the data rooms learning. She could not contain her happy toothy grin.

Guess she now had enough material and would not get bored anymore. She wanted to check out the Mandalorian language as it was spoken in a large part of the galaxy and could prove useful in the future. As she had not gone to ensigns Mayr's office, she now actually would have time for herself. Maybe she could survive this. Probably not, but she dared to hope.