On with the story...
Harry exhaled audibly in annoyance as she was leaning with crossed arms and her shoulder against the large window watching the never ending air traffic meandering among the large foreign Coruscanti skyscrapers intently. Officers of different ranks, senatorial aids, protocol droids and mouse droids had been passing her mostly without blinking an eye, some were raising an eyebrow, other's sniffed at her appearance. A group of young adults lead by a navy lieutenant had stopped next to her and she felt something brushing over her. Something familiar, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it. Like a small gust of wind, yet nothing physical.
She checked the chronometer again for the dozenth time. What were they doing inside for over two hours? Perhaps her reports hadn't been as clear as she had believed them to be. Or they wanted to get rid of her and create a sling which she could not escape from? Or this wasn't about her at all and Thrawn had to justify his actions as they did not like his war style.
She listened intently as the lieutenant of the last group explained details of the architecture of this building, lamented that they wouldn't be able to see the grand splendour of the Hall of Justice of the Imperial Navy Judicial Panel as it was currently in session.
"Ah well, we might not see this hall, but we know one person who most likely will." A young male voice said smugly. "Why would the panel bother with a Midshipman, anyway?"
Her eyes widened. He was talking about she could feel her annoyance and resentment growing and slowly turned around mustering him and raising her eyebrow.
He was dressed in what appeared to be a very fashionable garment and robe and smiled arrogantly at her, but it seemed that he liked to indulge into his passion of eating a bit too much as the garment was a bit tight around his belt.
"Curiosity kills the cat." She addressed him mimicking his speech style. "I could tell you, what I'm here for." She paused for effect and took a step closer to him while directly staring into his eyes. "But then I'd have to kill you." She continued lowering her voice darkly and giving him a scary grin.
He gulped and took a step back, while two young women in the back of the group, one with vibrant coloured hair even more vibrant clothing and one with deep brown hair chuckled, clearly having understood that she had teased their colleague. The others fell in amused. She stopped her act and broke into a teasing smile, but it was already too late.
"But, you can't." the teased one protested. "We are apprentice legislators!"
"The pivotal word being 'apprentice'." she rebuked now in a bored tone reminiscent of her former potion's master. "Meaning that you are drilled to fulfil only the benchmarks set by the empire, not what actually …"
"You don't want to finish that sentence, Midhshipman." Vanto's exasperated voice came from the entrance, gesturing to the Lieutenant to move on. They are ready to see you now." Well, as annoying as it was, it was probably a good thing that he had stopped her before she could launch into a tirade against the probably brainwashed 'Baby legislators.' Being in an annoyed mood was never good. It always got her in trouble.
She nodded and moved through the trove of people, who stepped aside. The dark haired young women, which had chuckled earlier smiled at her, which Harry felt compelled to return.
Then the doors closed behind and she was engulfed in deadly silence as she stepped steadily, with her shoulders squared and her head held high next to Vanto who led her along a huge walkway next to a window font. The hall itself was quite enormous. The big Hall of Hogwarts would have fit into it quite a few times, she guessed. With two walkways at the sides and a podium in the middle facing the elevated panel of the Juridical Panel members. To reach the small podium, Thrawn was currently standing on watching their approach, she had to walk the entire length of one walkway to reach the stairs leading down again.
Another try to intimidate. As she currently was descending the steep stairs she swore that she could feel the burning eyes of the panel in her back. She gritted her teeth and swore to herself. They would not be the end of her. She would get out of this. The long walk back in this room to the small rectangular podium in the room was most likely purposeful for intimidation. Yes, she was intimidated, but she would get out of this. She ascended the few stairs of the podium and came to stand in between Thrawn on her right and Vanto on her left.
"Midshipman Harriet Thea Athena Potter." One man on the left side of the Panel addressed her with grave voice. "Do you know why you are here?"
Oh great. The standard question. She stopped herself from rolling her eyes in the nick of time as she squared her shoulders and locked her hands behind her back.
"There are numerous reasons why I could be ordered before this panel, Sir." She answered. "Yet, if I'm not mistaken, it has something to do with Agent Colburn's Coruscanti family raising charges against me a few hours ago?"
"Correct." The man responded. "Your file notes that you are repeatedly refusing to follow simple orders, that you do not heed the chain of command and one of the last entries suggests that you are a severe threat to the order of the empire. So, why should we believe you over Agent Colburn, who has years of imbeccable service under his belt?" That sounded quite familiar. He was probably only reading extracts from her file taken out of context.
Alright here we go. "I have to admit, Sir, that all those accusations do sound rather grave, but I would please ask you to look at the time stamps. When you take a closer look at those, you will see that those cited extracts were written some months ago, by officers, that were consequently arrested for spice abuse." Shit! Agent Colburn lead this investigation! What if those idiots go free because of that.
"As for the last entry." She continued not allowing to show her growing anxiety on the outside. "Agent Colburn saw me as a threat to the empire as I was closing in on his crimes. So, if you check the ID-Number of the last entry, it will reveal his identity."
She saw two of the panel members putting their heads together and debating over something.
"Furthermore," she continued. "We caught Agent Colburn in the act as he was attempting to murder Crewman Baila Panaká, who hails from an influencal family of the emperor's home world Naboo."
"It was not your place to investigate." A female panel member on the right scoffed. "You should have notified…"
"Another ISB officer?" Harry interrupted her indecorously. "Seriously? There was no time to do this. I had a deadline to keep when I detected the suicide cases. At this point of my investigation, I didn't know the Unsub's identity, but I knew that it had to be a high ranking officer, capable to enter any section of the ship. Agent Colburn was the highest ranking ISB officer on board and in my dealings with him I didn't deem him trustworthy enough to inform him. Every lower ranking one would have been forced to answer to him and had been required to notify him. Perfect way of telling a serial killer that he is being investigated." She wasn't quite able to leave the snark out of her voice. "And I did inform higher ranking officers about it."
"Yes, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Lieutenant Commander Vanto were generous enough to detail the need about your little survey earlier." The female silkily told her, "but why should we believe your word when you are lying about something so fundamental like your conscription. After all, you enlisted."
"I did certainly not enlist!" Harry rebuked angrily balling her hands taking a few deep breaths to calm her anger. Only brainwashed fools would enlist!
"My cousin was the one being conscripted, but I went in his stead. The empire requested one able person of each family on my planet to serve the empire as compensation for the lives lost on the Star Destroyers we downed defending our planet. When the conscription officer came knocking down our door, I took his place. Now, it seems that this officer was unsure which relevant form to fill in."
"In other words, you have cheated the empire of an able-bodied male to serve in the grand army of the empire for your own gain."
The female sneered at her and Harry was barely holding it together when she realized. They want me to snap. They want to find a reason to get rid of me. If I snap they might conscript Dudley! I won't let that happen! She took a mental step back and collected her wits. So far only the female had verbally attacked her and tried to discredit her.
She raised her eyes towards the female again but did not fall for her bait and smiled defiantly at them. Time to hit back.
"I did certainly not swindler the empire out of an abled bodied man. My cousin is a gentle soul, not a fighter. He would not have survived the brutal basic training for long. He is a marvellous teacher and martial arts trainer, but when it comes to real combat experience the empire is better off without him. I, on the other hand do have combat experience. You accuse me of joining the empire for my own gain without knowing anything about me, Ma'am. Truth is. I lost everything that I've built with blood, sweat and tears over the years, taking my cousin's place. The only thing I gained was certain knowledge that my family was safe. But that is not why you are attacking me, is it, Ma'am?" she asked calmly and paused for effect. "Tell me, what exactly is your relation to Agent Colburn?"
"I beg your pardon?" the female asked with a raising pitch in her voice. Bingo! You heard me.
As she scrutinized the female closer, she mentally recalled the face of the caught agent in her mind and compared them. Yularen had said that someone from High Command had leaked the information of his arrest to his family. What if someone from the family had been privy to the information beforehand? She shared some physical similarities with him, so there could be some blood relation.
"I will not answer to some 2nd rate Midshipman that believes herself to be above the law." She evaded the question, but Harry had no desire to let her get off the hook that easily.
"I do not believe myself to be above the law. In fact, in my doing so I have adhered to the Imperial Naval Code. May I draw your attention to the lines five and eight?" she suggested.
"What lines?" the female scoffed again, and Harry began to wonder why the other four individuals of the panel did not take part in their conversation.
Harry sighed dramatically and recited: "Line five of the imperial naval code: 'I will use Imperial resources responsibly'. Did I step out of line investigating the suicides of my fellow colleagues? Perhaps. But I believed their needless deaths to be a waste of Imperial resources and throve to prevent them. Chapter three of my report states the underestimated consequences of these suicides. Should I go into more detail? By preventing three other Imperial assets of committing suicide I was able to start some awareness of this widespread problem. If you had time to read my report thoroughly, you will also understand what these problems entail. By solving this persistent problem, you might actually safe important resources." Harry was now addressing the other panel members as she believed that they had to come to a decision together. So, she had to win over the other ones and weaken the female trying to undermine her value.
"Line eight stats:' I will call out those who do not live up to the standards of the Naval Code'. This is line is one of the problematic ones, as it stands in violation with line two:' I will obey my superiors.' What should I do if my direct superior does not adhere to the naval code. Ensign Mayr, was regularly misusing spice and probably other addictive substances. Yet, due to my lower rank I was unable to call him out on it. The only way of showing off his continued incompetence was by insubordination, which incidentally prevented an infiltration of the Chimera, I might add. As, for Agent Colburn, your nephew, I presume." Harry took a deep breath, hoping her gamble would pay off and went on:
"I didn't call him out and it would have taken us much longer to identify him as the murderer, if he hadn't panicked and acted outside of his comfort zone."
"Why do you believe that my colleague is Agent Colburn's aunt." another elderly man from the Panel finally addressed her.
"Well, Sir. She is constantly changing from an objective level of the discussion to an emotional one. This tells me the arrest of her nephew and the consequences for her family are personal. Your colleague also shares subtle facial similarities with the accused. So there seems to be some blood relation. I am aware that she does not share a surname with him, or this panel would already have figured out her relation to the him."
"How dare you …" the female growled but was interrupted by the elderly man seated in the middle of the panel who blinked as his datapad blinked. The head of this panel perhaps?
"New evidence was just provided by Colonel Yularen." He told everyone in the hall. "We need to postpone this session for now."
"That was interesting" Vanto remarked when they stepped out of the hall again to wait for a decision of the panel.
Harry was inclined to shrug but stopped herself from doing that.
"Still, taking Colonel Yularen's advice into consideration to show humility would have been appreciated." He remarked sternly which she automatically replied to while her mind was already elsewhere. How long would this panel discuss the new evidence this time?
"Basic, is not my first language, Sir. So, I do still struggle formulating more polite sentences."
"Krayt Spit." Vanto snorted shaking his head. Thrawn was observing them with interest. "You learned Sy Bisti within a few short weeks and that is grammatically more demanding than Basic. You even speak Basic imitating the Coruscanti accent most of the time. And your report used highly academic Basic structures. You just keep being defiant."
"Her defiance is a well-established habit that she won't be able to give up that easily." Thrawn lectured his aide calmly as if she weren't standing beside them. "It is a habit that she is most familiar with and which I assume dates back to a time before her planet joined the empire. Am I correct?"
How does he know that? Yes, defying her birth family had been an integral part of her live. But how could he know that? Harry felt warmth creep into her face and fought to keep her face passive, but it was scary how the Grand Admiral figured things out.
"Perhaps, Sir." She tried to evade the question.
"Themes of defiance can also be found in throughout her artwork. At least from what I could gather from the notebooks."
Waves of hot and cold shivers were running down her back while she felt the blood drain from her face. I really need my notebooks back! Now! Maybe now was the opportunity to ask for them. The last thing she needed was that the Chiss was getting them translated and by after his last remark, she really believed him capable of doing just that.
"Speaking of which, Sir." She addressed her commander shyly. "Ahm. May I be so bold and ask when I might get my notebooks and my other affects back?"
"So much for not being able to be polite." Vanto remarked smirking and she could sense his amusement.
Those unsettling red eyes stared at her and she wanted to recoil. Perhaps she had shouldn't have asked. "Patience, Midshipman." Thrawn replied ominously. "All in good time."
Once again, she was standing before the stern panel with beating heart. Yet this time on her own. Thrawn and Vanto had been called to a different meeting leaving her alone to wait for the final judgment on her case. When they had left her waiting for another hour she had , at least for a split second, contemplated slipping away, but knew logically that she would not get very far. She was just a Midshipman. Her code cylinder would not get her off this rock and she was in the middle of HQ, which resembled a delicate maze. And she would only make things for her family worse. Additionally, she had no idea how she could get off the planet on her own and back to Earth, which until this day was, as far as she knew, still a restricted area.
Harry tried to read their facial expressions, but it proved more difficult than usual, due to the distance between her and the panel members and they appeared to be experts in keeping their face neutral. But she could sense that Agent Colburn's aunt was still mentally fuming, while two of the other were just extremely bored and wanted this to get over with as their stomachs were growling heavily. The other two, including the chairman, were not happy with their decision. Whatever that decision was. But they all oosed uneasiness. Why did they feel uncomfortable?
"…and it is therefore the decision of this panel that Midshipman Harriet Thea Athena Potter be cleared of all charges of insubordination and conspiracy against ISB Agent Colburn. Dismissed." The chairman drawled while Harry felt hear spirits heighten. At least one good thing that came out of today. Now she would have to find her way back to the shuttle without inciting further wrath by the high and mighty.
Finally, forty-five minutes later she arrived at the landing platform, she knew the lambda-shuttle she had come in, was stationed but was stopped by troopers telling her that she had no business being here. Great. What now? She sighed exhaled angrily as she looked at the two troopers guarding the entrance, while the officer checking the log grinned haughtily at her.
"I must ask you to leave before I call security. There is no Midshipman Potter listed at the ISD Chimera." She sighed and added a little angry growl. What the hell? "
She grabbed her code cylinder and held it out to him. "Here is my code cylinder, that can confirm my status." She pleaded persistently. What the hell was going on here?
"It's a nice trick, but I think you know just as well as I do that your code cylinder won't confirm anything." He laughed sardonically.
She had to get back to the Chimera. Everything she had taken with her from Earth was there, hidden away in her locker. Thrawn still had her wand, ok, well her first wand, but without it she felt that something was missing. And he had her notebooks and her diary, that she desperately hoped would never be translated. She could not get stranded on this all too buzzing planet. Was that the revenge of the Colburn Family? Was the Chimera already deployed and had left her behind? But why had she not received new orders then? Wait. She did have a comm on her. Vanto had told her that she had Thrawn's and his personal comm codes programmed into it. Should she use it? What if she interrupted an important meeting just because she was incapable of getting back to the Chimera. What if this was a test on her resourcefulness? It was so tempting to use magic, right now, but there was surveillance everywhere and she could not risk it. Especially this close to the Imperial Palace.
"There must be some sort of misunderstanding." She took a step back as the two troopers advanced at her. She couldn't make a scene, or she would be back before the panel in no time, but she could also not let them take her.
"Lame Botas" she spat at him using her favourite non-English curse word and side stepped the officer putting her code cylinder in the docking port, but just as he said, it was rejected. She had no authority and no clearance to go back to the shuttle and incidentally the Chimera.
"What in the name of Merlin's most baggy Y-fronts is happening?" she asked unbelieving as she was forcefully drawn away from it.
"Well, security it is." The officer chipped up happily. "It is possible that your stolen code cylinder was already reported stolen and therefore rendered useless. It's over rebel"
Harry blinked a few times as jaw dropped. Did he call her rebel? Normally she would consider this a compliment, but not in her current position. How should rebels be able to infiltrate this complex? Security was probably one of the tightest on the core.
"Don't know where you get your delusions from. I'm not a rebel. I didn't steal anything. That is my code cylinder." She defended herself forcefully, stomping her right foot with the edge of her small heel onto the toes of the officer's right root.
He howled and let go of her. She used this short diversion and spun around him, pitting him between her and the two troopers using him as a human shield. Probably not the best way of showing that she wasn't a rebel, but he had grated on her nerves.
"May I enquire what this little skirmish is about?" a calm, cultured familiar voice enquired and everyone halted their actions. Relieve washed over her as she perceived Thrawn's unique baritone voice.
She squared her shoulders and turned to face him, but the Lieutenant, she had defended herself against was faster before she could collect her wits.
"Grand Admiral, we captured this rebel spy trying to force her way onto the platform, probably to steal one of the Lambda-shuttles, Sir." He answered proudly, clearly satisfied with himself.
Thrawn only regarded him coldly, rose one of his eyebrows and turned towards Harry who had the strong urge to strangle the little prick of an officer.
"She is not a rebel spy" Thrawn answered him.
"I wanted to get back to the Shuttle, Sir, but was refused entry, because according to him," She pointed angrily at the Lieutenant, "I'm not listed as part of the Chimera's crew any longer. He refused to check my code cylinder, so I had to do it myself only to find out that my cylinder is invalid. That's when he accused me of being a rebel and wanted to evict me from the premises."
"But, she has no valid code cylinder and there is no Midshipman under the name Potter listed in the ISD Chimera's log. I've only done my duty, Sir" The unpleasant Lieutenant defended himself pointing at his datapad.
The large Chiss Commander's face remained passive. Vanto behind him was amused and seemed to know something that he felt not necessary to share. The Lieutenant however, to Harry's darker satisfaction was trembling slightly as Thrawn took one strong step towards the man and held out his hand requesting to look.
He tipped something on it with an amused glimmer in his unsettling red eyes and held it back out to him.
"As you can see she did speak the truth. There is a perfectly good reason, why her code cylinder refused to work, yet she is part of the ISD Chimera's crew."
The lieutenant's jaw dropped but did not apologize to her. She frowned. So, she was part of the crew, but has not appeared in the log. Her shoulders slumped. Great. I've been demoted.
"There you are!" Longbottom shouted elated when she stepped towards her locker. He must have waited for her return "We've been worried about you."
"Isn't it time for your shift? Guard duty or whatever?" she asked him rummaging around her locker, stuffing things into her little suitcase.
"Sure." He nodded brushing his blaster, "but I needed to check if you were fine. You looked out of sorts when you left, and the rumour mill is already in full swing. What are you doing?"
She nodded "Sure it is. Anything to make their boring lives more interesting." She murmured sarcastically, but Longbottom gave no indication that he would leave anytime soon.
She sighed. "Longbottom don't let me keep you. Go, to you shift. I'm fine."
He shook his head. "It looks like you're clearing your locker. Were you transferred? Care to tell me what's going on?"
She checked one last time if her locker was completely empty, put her reduced suitcase in the pouch of her overall and slammed the locker.
"I don't know what's going on. Alright. The Navy Judicial Panel cleared me from any wrongdoings, but my code cylinder doesn't work anymore and Thrawn's ordered me to clear my locker, my cot and report to his office afterwards. Now, Neville." She changed to his first name in hopes of pacifying him. "Go to your shift and don't worry about me." He was a true Gryffindor, with light Hufflepuff tendencies. So, she hoped to manipulate him enough to let go. Thankfully, it did.
"Come find me after my shift, alright." He told her putting on his helmet. She cocked her head. He was worried about her. Her younger self would have cheered, but she was unable to forget the bullying they had done to her at her short time at Hogwarts. Well, her retaliation had not been nice either, but she had needed to put them into their place. But she might try being a bit more civil towards him.
She stepped through the double durasteel doors into Thrawn's office after the Trooper on guard had cleared and stopped abruptly, nearly stumbling as her knees had turned to jelly. How many more surprises would she have to endure today?
Her frenzied gaze darted around mentally checking how much he had gathered. It was more than she wanted to. Icy fear was freezing her in place and any remaining air left in her lungs, was knocked out of them by realizing that he was not just analysing parts of her attempts of artwork, but ultimately her. It seemed that the hushed whispers were true that he could look deep into a species psyche by analysing her attempts to do art.
Some paintings hovered in the space around the large Grand Admiral's desk. It was all holographic but still clear enough to discern every nook and cranny of the sculptures and each stroke of her pencil or brush on the drawings. How had he gathered them all? Some of these drawings had been hung in the Dursley's home. Two of the displayed portraits had hung near the front door, at the opposite side of the cupboard under the stairs of Privet Drive? Why had he done this? Why had the Dursley's not mentioned anything about this? There, another painting but this was one was hanging in her company's 'war room', or rather what Tony had called their private coffee and snack room where they had come up with innovative and sometimes rather dangerous inventions. They had locked all those sketches, drafts away from their company using a Fidelius Charm. Her two friends were the only other two with access to this vault. The empire should not get their sticky paws on those.
He must have placed a comm call to the nearest garrison and sent them to investigate her family. Was he trying to intimidate her? Showing her that he had her family under observation, so that she could not step out of line again? What if this person observing her family realized that they had connections to wizarding families? She had to warn Augusta to meet with the Dursley's the muggle way or they could give the Wizarding world away and the last thing she needed was her brother being taken by Inquisitors, the rumoured witch hunters under Lord Vader. He was a brat after all and could most likely turned easily.
"Your attention to detail is rather interesting. Very focused" The Chiss murmured playing with what looked like a rank plaque in his right hand and his other hand on his chin standing in front of …
No! she nearly fainted. Somebody had been in her old room at the Dursley's! She should just have destroyed those little drawings. Blast the therapist suggesting using my creativity to release my destructive feelings! It had taken her month to finish this coal painting of her two families: The Dursleys and the Potters. It didn't take a genius to figure out what it meant.
She gritted her teeth. That was way too personal, and he had no right to analyse her like that. It was as if he was reading her personal diaries. Only he practically held her diaries and notebooks hostage and she wanted them back. Could she obliviate him? He was hard to read and sense. If she tried and failed, then she would have nowhere to run.
"The use of different shades of black, and white stand in stark contrast of the other half of the drawing of bright colours. A very interesting portrait." Thrawn purred and turned around to face her.
Harry grimaced. "This drawing was never meant to be seen by anyone, Sir."
"A Pity, yet understandable." Thrawn nodded, turning off the holoprojector and began circling her "But I do believe that your artistic talent is not the only secret you are desperately trying to hide from the empire."
The dark-haired witch fought to keep standing attention. "I'm afraid, I don't know what you mean, Sir." She answered hesitantly feeling her pulse racing in her throat.
"Oh, I believe you do." The Chiss answered calmly from her side, now back behind his desk as he pulled out her wand.
Don't get used to 2 chapters in 1 day. They were originally 1 chapter, but I figured that it would be a bit too long, so I split it. This is why there is no flashback at the beginning of this one. We are getting closer to SW Rebels.
Love to hear your thoughts in the reviews!