The next two chapters will probably be the only ones in the next few months as I need to work on my university graduation until summer. As my curriculum is running out in September I need to be finished until then or risk falling into the new curriculum. Which means that I have to finish until Summer or add four more years to it. So, please don't be angry with me. I hope that I can find some time to write in my spare free time, but I just wanted to give you heads up. Just in case.
But, I'll be looking foward to your reviews on the story.
„No! "Petunia shook her head crossing her hands. "Harry will most certainly NOT stay in a dorm of her school."
"I understand your hesitation." Harry's benefactor nodded empathically taking a step closer to Petunia. "But there is so much more that she needs to learn, and the long daily commute takes valuable time away from her studies. Additionally, to that she currently only focuses on training her mind. To built up resistance against future stress, she also has to be physically fit."
"I cannot allow her to stay at the dorm." Petunia stubbornly refuted. "She is not yet old enough."
"She would be well cared for. I can assure you that." The baroness tried again, but Uncle Vernon cut in explaining their stance.
"We certainly do not doubt that you think that she would be well cared for, but you don't know every single person working in that institute. For our sanity we need to see her every day. And if I have to drive out there late in the evening to pick her up, then so be it."
"I also don't see why you want to put even more classes on her schedule." Petunia nodded agreeing with her husband. She paused sighing heavily for a moment to glance at her niece. "For heavens sake. She's still a child. She also needs time for herself."
"I've spoken to her teachers and they assured me that she's capable of handling a few more classes." The tall lady explained. "If it would put you at ease, I suggest a trial period to see if she can adjust to an even stricter schedule. If not, then we'll drop it." Harry couldn't put a finger on it, but somehow, she doubted that this would only be a trial period.
"But she'll stay with us." Vernon grunted gruffly.
"As you wish." She relented but Harry suspected that this woman simply wouldn't let go of that matter as she struck her as someone who always got what she wanted. There was some dangerous glint in her eyes that didn't sit that well with Harry. But she was glad that she had tricked her parents into signing some papers that allowed the Dursley's to make important decisions like this one. Had she not done that, the last conversation could have been derailed very easily.
That conversation had taken place over a month ago, yet Harry couldn't get it out of her head. She was currently lying on the comfy sofa in the living room with her head in her aunt's lap and her feet on her cousin's upper legs. Uncle Vernon was sitting in the armchair next to them commenting the absurdness of the film they were watching. She was exhausted, her muscles felt heavy and she had trouble moving them without them protesting. Petunia was absentmindedly brushing over Harry's bird nest of a hair while watching some science-fiction movie about some men and apes. Harry relished in the ministrations of her aunt and enjoyed to just relax without needing to do anything. Her new schedule had almost become unbearably stuffed and she wasn't able to spend as much time with her two cheeky friends as she was used to. No time for shenanigans. Additionally, to that her benefactor had decided that she needed to have more sports lessons where she repeated countless physical routines over and over again and ballet lessons. It was mindlessly boring, but the Baroness had only chided her for her lack of enthusiasm and told her that in time she should recognizing the benefit. What that woman's goal was, she didn't know, but decided that she would not test her patience as the continuation of her education rested in her hands alone. Another thing that didn't sit well with Harry.
Snape hadn't particularly happy about her re-scheduling their lessons, but after a lengthy explanation he had reluctantly changed them to Sundays. She just hoped that she would learn to manage all this one day. With that last thought she finally gave into her exhaustion and drifted into sleep.
"Now, please update me on your process." Thrawn ordered Harry as she sat down opposite his desk.
"Well, Agent Kallus took me to the major sights of their artistic expressions, which I documented and forwarded to you. The excursion did take us longer as we were close to Bridger's house and I assumed that you might want to have some pictures of it as well. After all it was a hideout for this rebel group for a short time and the graffiti could be used as examples on communication between the so-called Phoenix Group and the locals."
Thrawn nodded without commenting, his fingertips clasped together, and Harry continued: "Agent Kallus has forwarded reports about them to our attention. I've scanned over a few reports roughly until the time Grand Moff Tarkin decided to get involved, but I've not yet been able to study them in detail, but I noticed that there are several reports that were retracted by Imperial High Command and are not available to my rank. "
"I see. You informed me that you were working on the reports after arrival back on the chimera." Thrawn stated. "How far are you with those?"
Harry bit her lower lip in embarrassment: "Not as far as I would have liked, Sir…." Thrawn frowned with the barest hint of disapproval. Her heartbeat accelerated. It seemed that he had expected more of her. "But, due to the sheer amount of the reports I decided to create this first." She took one of her data cards and handed it over to him.
He put it into the data reader and a hologram of Lothal appeared before them. On the hologram several spots in different colours could be seen.
The Chiss put his right hand on his chin and leaned back. "Interesting." Was all he said evenly his face remaining impassive.
"It's a geographical map depicting the places the empire had encounters with some members of the ghost crew."
"The different colours are time codes, are they not" Thrawn mused and Harry nodded.
"Indeed, they are." Harry answered. "I figured that it would be interesting to see if they favoured certain areas during certain times and it also helped me to familiarize myself with the geography of the planet."
"Fascinating." Thrawn said with a touch of approval in his voice. "Their activity on this planet seems to be centred around the three major cities: Capital City, Kothal and Jalath."
"Well, as far as we know, but I have not been able to complete all the encounters on the hologram." She answered. "There might be much more areas that are as of yet not aware of. These cities are the three biggest settlements on the northern hemisphere, far away from each other and the geography in between them could have given the Rebels more than enough cover. Especially the mountainous area, which is highly dangerous to fly over and through due to the temperature differences and the spontaneous wind hoes. And as the empire's presence is also primarily concentrated on the northern hemisphere, the rebels might have used this to their advantage."
Thrawn's lips curled in a slight smile of approval as he locked his mesmerizing red eyes with her. "My preliminary study agrees with yours."
Now it was Harry to frown. It seemed that the work of her last few hours had been redundant. Her shoulders slumped. Perhaps she should have conferred with Thrawn better. Apparently, her disappointment was visible on her face.
"There is no need to be disappointed, Lieutenant" Thrawn said in a calming tone. "It was a good place to start. Please finish the map later." So, this was a test? Another one?
"Yes, Sir. Thank you." Harry answered being not entirely able to keep her annoyance out of her tone and she was quite certain that he would be able to hear it. But he seemed to choose to ignore it.
Well as he seemed in such an agreeable mood, Harry could not resist trying to find out how far she could go.
"Should I include the retracted reports as well?" she asked trying to sound casual. "They are also centred around another, rather specific geographical area. An area which now features heavy imperial presence. But the operation is not connected to any other imperial garrison on the planet."
"A separate operation." Thrawn mused. "Governor Pryce hasn't mentioned anything about that."
"I was wondering if I could get access to those retracted files to complete the map and to further study the rebels." She asked innocently. "Or if I should simply slice for them. From what I've seen their codes are a bit more challenging at first glance, but it might be possible to…"
"You will do no such thing." Thrawn interrupted her calmly, but there was a clear threat in his voice that dropped a few degrees. "These files are were retracted for a reason."
"One of the reasons being the murder of Minister Maketh Tua by the empire?" Harry let go of any pretence. Lets' see how he reacts to that. After all she had cracked one of those files.
His eyes narrowed glittering darkly freezing her in place, but Harry fought hard not to break his intense gaze.
"While I do not necessarily agree with Lord Vader's methods, I must remind you that these files are classified for a reason. Therefore, I hereby order you to not slice for any data files without my explicit permission for now."
"Understood." Harry gulped and contemplated if she should push him further. "But then how should complete the map?"
His gaze remained hard. "You earlier revealed that you already have the coordinates of the rebel encounters of these reports. That should suffice for now."
She nodded until another thought struck her. Thrawn had ordered her to dig for evidence from Batonn that could be used against Arynda Pryce, yet he forbade her to slice for these retracted documents. Well, this was a loophole that he seemed to have forgotten? Or had he? Perhaps he had just laid another trap for her and she was about to jump it. But on the other hand, how should she find out if this was a carefully laid trap.
"Now, I want you to give me your impression on this." Thrawn told her casually changing the topic keying his holoprojector. "I believe you sent only a small fracture of the recorded graffiti to me."
A part of the retaining wall painting appeared before them.
Harry fiddled with more data cards and put them on his desk. "Yes, unfortunately the data volume was too much to send. Which is why I sent only a fraction, Sir."
"In the future, I expect you to bring such data cards straight to my office and not just present me with a pre-selection. Trying to evade me will not serve you well." His glowing red eyes glittered darkly. An edge of danger was starting to work its way back into his normally civilized tone. He really must love to study artwork. Harry gulped breathing out evenly and nodded in understanding.
"Understood, Sir." She nodded. "I wasn't evading you." Liar! "Bringing the data cards to your office was exactly what I tried to do, but as you were neither in your office in the imperial complex nor on the Chimera, I assumed that you were in an important meeting with either Governor Pryce or Admiral Constantine and I didn't dare to use the comm to interrupt."
'Sir?' she spoke into the comm in the Antechamber of his office.
'Yes.' His cultivated voice answered.
'Sir, where are you?' she asked again.
'I beg your pardon' Thrawn sounded irritated.
'I have an immense amount of new artwork waiting to be analysed'. She answered in sing-song tone into the comm.
… Silence from his side of the comm…
Then all of a sudden, she could hear:
Sounds of racing boots on the floor and an eager Thrawn diving hastily around the corner hungrily outstretching his large blue hands towards her mountain of data-cards.
"Give them to me. My precious."
The silly thought struck Harry and she quickly had to hide her giggle behind a cough and her gloved hand. Sometimes her fantasy just ran rampant before she could stop it.
Well, she had been trying to evade everybody. Not just Thrawn. He had ordered her to keep minimum contact with Longbottom and the other Terran troupers, but he had no idea how tenacious they were. They had often just popped up somewhere near her. It had been too accidental so that she had feared that they were using their wands somehow. To prevent them from being found out she had tried to establish the possibility of minimal "accidental" contact at the recreation training deck. But unfortunately, they had not been able to contact her beyond a few hushed words.
Thrawn studied her intently. Damn she seemed to be an open book to him.
"I see." Thrawn stated evenly. "I believe your last thought was some form of personal joke on my expense." He said calmly without any hint of accusation raising an eyebrow challengingly. It was just a statement.
Harry bit her lips and snorted but did not answer him or she knew that she would lose the fight and burst out laughing and then how should she explain that thought to him.
The next few hours in Thrawn's office dragged on as they were discussing the initial data, they had on the Rebel cell and her commanding officer also informed her that the requested data packs had arrived from Lothal, Mandalore and Ryloth, which had been rather extensive and would take some time to process entirely. Thrawn ordered her to study them diligently in the next few days. Of course, Thrawn already had a head start towards her. His species seemed to require less sleep. That had to be a reason how he managed to get so much done in such a short time.
If anything, good came out of her entire dilemma of being the Chiss' aide, it would be the possibility to study other cultures of the galaxy in such depth. Not much people in the Navy or the empire would ever learn that much about the other species or their cultures. They had to spend their entire service stuck with their unhealthy prejudices against non-humans. And she planned to find out about other species as much as possible.
Getting information about Kanan Jarrus' life in the Jedi Order was nearly impossible as the imperial palace didn't want anything to get out about the Orders daily lives. The data pack on Lasan and its art was also less than impressive.
"Well, unfortunately there wasn't much to be found on Lasan or Lasanian art" Harry told Thrawn bitterly with clenched teeth.
"The empire wasn't as diligent in collecting it as they were in murdering an entire species."
Thrawn regarded her calmly leaning back in his chair. It almost seemed that he had expected her to try to challenge him again.
"You need to learn to emotionally distance yourself from things that have happened. It does not help dwelling on things that have already come to pass and whose outcome you can't change any more." He lectured her calmly.
"That's where you are wrong." Harry countered angrily. She hated when he was like this. It meant that she had to be extra careful because he loved dominating a discussion.
"Aquellos que no pueden recordar el pasado están condenados a repetirlo" she cited. Thrawn's right eyebrow shot up clearly deducing that she was using a language from her planet. Could he detect that it was not her first language? She wouldn't put it past him.
"It means 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'. I've seen it often enough in one form or the other on my planet. The empire has committed one genocide before without any repercussions. They will do this again. It is only a matter of time. T-7 ion disruptor rifles were used to wipe them out. Not just the men, or the lasat from the Honour guard, which could have posed the most danger, but women and children as well. So many lives lost. Innocent little children being slaughtered, their future taken away in the most brutal way possible. An entire civilization wiped out just because they were humanoid, not human and happened to have their planet far away from the fashionable centre of the galaxy. It's even worse that they will probably completely be forgotten within the next generation. With hardly any evidence that they ever existed."
She gestured towards the hovering statue of a proud Lasat fiercely wielding a ceremonial lance. A few of Thrawn's artefacts started to create a vibrating sound and Harry took a deep breath to ease the tension and let go of her anger. The vibrations stopped instantly.
Thrawn seemed entirely unfazed by her rant and curiously stepped towards the clone wars helmet which had been one artefact.
"You misunderstand." He answered her evenly clasping his hands behind his back. "I advised you to learn to emotionally distance yourself. That does not mean that you should ignore these things. But you must be able to rationally process information. To study it."
"I am studying it." Harry ground out. "But how do you expect me to not get emotional knowing about the atrocities that have been committed against them? It makes me furious and mournful at the same time. If I'm this angry being a foreigner studying this mesmerizing culture, can you even imagine what the Lasat of the Phoenix Squadron Garazeb Orrellios must be feeling every time he encounters imperial enemies? Considering what he has gone through, he goes surprisingly easy on the troopers. If I were him, I'd go on a rampage."
"You believe that he goes easy on our troopers?" Thrawn questioned her. "How so?"
Harry fought back her rising ire by taking several deep breaths while explaining it to him. "Well, he's wearing a Bo-rifle from the honour guard. That means he must have been on Lasan when the atrocities happened. He's a survivor. Yet, most troopers who had faced him are still alive. A few broken bones, spines or rips, fractured skulls have been results of these encounters, but they are alive. He mostly knocked them out even though he could have killed them all in retaliation because they most likely remind him of the worst day of his life."
"You are correct, yet you missed one very important aspect." Thrawn clarified locking eyes with hers again.
Harry frowned thinking hard what the Chiss could have meant, then it hit her. "He still follows the Code of the honour guard?" She assumed that there had to be some code for this guard. After all its name was honour guard and had consisted of the elite warriors of the Lasat.
"Indeed. He is a product of his culture and follows it's code to a fault." Thrawn acknowledged. "More so in the company of his ghost crew members. As you can see. When you step back from your emotions, you can achieve better results. Giving into your emotions takes energy away from you that you could use more productively."
"I've heard that one before." Harry told him. "It didn't work then. It most likely won't work now."
"You were able to control your emotions when you saved Crewman Panaka's life." Thrawn reminded her coolly turning towards her.
"That was different!" Harry objected crossing her arms protectively in front of her chest.
"How so?" Thrawn stepped closer to her raising his eyebrow in curiosity.
"I wasn't turning off my emotions. I'm not a cold-hearted ba… ahm…fish. I…" Harry stopped searching for words on how to explain it properly. Thrawn took another few strong steps closer to her. She clenched her teeth. Too close. Harry had observed that he always invaded her space when he wanted to make a point.
"Alright, What I did was basically delaying my emotional response to what I was experiencing. I mentally dammed up any emotions until Baila was out of danger. Once realizing that the critical point had passed and that she would make it, I let go of that block and allowed myself to experience those held back emotions, fears and endless possibilities of what could have happened had I failed at once."
"Ah yes." Thrawn commented. "That moment of emotional upheaval was clearly visible in your stance. That is something we can work on."
"Excuse me?" Now it was on Harry to be confused. What the hell was her commander talking about now?
"Your emotional outbursts on board of my destroyer seem to get more frequently lately." Thrawn remarked taking another step closer to her, while Harry turned her head towards the floor. "I'd like to know the reason for that." You're the genius. Why don't you figure it out?
She had made sure that her necklace was masking her presence, but she had no desire to use her invented inhibitor on herself to stop her magic from slipping.
"Your gift is remarkable, yet uncontrolled it can be a severe liability." Thrawn was now standing directly next to her chair invading her personal space entirely and she looked up to meet his eyes.
"You are holding my wand hostage, Sir." She answered him fighting hard not to break eye contact with those scary red eyes. "In order to control, … my gift… as you call it, I need it. The wand makes sure that I do not use too much of my own power."
There was the hint of a smile on Thrawn's blue-skinned face. "You are perfectly capable to use your gift without your wand. But you are using it as a front in order to avoid learning on how to truly control your emotions."
"No, I don't." Harry rebuked feeling her ire rise again. "The wand is a conduit. Normally, their function is to make wiz… ahm. people… like me able to use their power at all. Mine, however, works differently. It makes sure that I do not use too much force during the usage of my power."
"Fascinating." Thrawn remarked turning away from her slowly rounding his desk to get back to his seat. Harry took a silent breath of relief when he stepped away from her.
"However, I suspect that this is not entirely accurate."
"What do you mean?" Harry ask fiddling with the right upper edge of her datapad. She wanted to get out of here. Her day had been a long one and the safety of her quarters was calling her. And she certainly didn't want to talk about her emotions with Thrawn. She just needed to find her center again, just as the widow had taught her so many years ago. Something she had not adhered to in the last three years.
"According to my research it was not uncommon using some sort of tool to help Force sensitive children to focus. They were told that this tool would be imperative to master their gift. What they, however, were not told is that it wasn't this tool curbing their powers. It was them learning how to use it and how to control their powers."
"Most people like me are unable to do magic at all without a wand." Harry rebuked. "And since when does the empire allow unrestricted access to the Jedi Archives? Or their former teaching methods?" Harry questioned him stubbornly trying to hide how much Thrawn's theory actually affected her. She shivered. Could Thrawn be right? Perhaps Ollivander had lied to her? He certainly had acted strangely towards her. But then why? No. She decided that for once the Chiss could be wrong.
"The Jedi Archives are not the only source of information on how to deal with Force sensitives." Thrawn answered her ominously with the hint of amusement.
"Well, don't let the emperor find out about that." Harry replied dryly.
Now the hint turned into a partial smile of amusement as Thrawn inclined his head. "Lt. Commander Vanto advised something quite similar."
"I'm sure he has. His 'disappearance'" she used air quotes with both her middle- and index fingers, while Thrawn observed her. "is the topic in the rumour mill."
"I'm aware." Thrawn assured her calmly. "But we are digressing. I want you to practice your 'delayed emotional response' when studying the data. Additionally, I need you to exercise it when you are out on the field. You proved yourself capable to do this in pressing situations. Now it is time to extend this skill."
"That will be difficult." She remarked taking a deep breath.
"You are not one to shirk away from difficulties." Thrawn pointed out pointing towards one hidden compartment Harry new contained her notebooks and most likely her wand. "Your notebooks indicate that you rather adore challenges."
Harry froze. He should have had studied her scribblings and drawings in her notebooks enough by now to give them back to her. "I do like intellectual challenges." Harry answered. "I've had more than enough emotional trials to master. I could live without them for a change."
"Hm." Trawn said mustering her. "Then I suggest that you are working step by step to get your emotions under control."
"As I said. That's not as easy as you believe. I'm not just fighting with my own emotions. But when I'm out there then I also can sense pretty much all the other sensations from other people I'm walking by. To block them out is rather exhausting and sometimes those emotions influence mine." Harry tried to explain but she couldn't really put her senses in words. She winced realizing what she had just revealed to him without thinking. Shit! Thrawn was right. She needed to get her emotions in check or he would goat her into revealing more about her to him.
Judging from Thrawn's smug facial expression that had exactly been his intention. Again, she had fallen right into his trap. "Alright, you've proven your point, Sir." She grudgingly admitted with a slight growl. "I'll try to do my best to curb my emotions."
He inclined his head. "I will observe your progress with interest." He clasped his hands behind his back again and turned towards the large artwork depicting the two lizards on both sides. After a moment of contemplation, he turned back towards her and said. "I'm curious. How do you perceive my emotions?"
"You have emotions, Sir?" Harry said sarcastically before she could stop herself. She grimaced when Thrawn was now coming closer to her again with an unreadable expression on her face. His red eyes narrowed slightly. Of course, he had emotions, but she barely registered them when she concentrated. Only small flickers between a very orderly and structured mind that seemingly shifted in a strange orderly manor. There was a calmness around him that was almost southing compared to the loud sensations rushing towards her when she was with other humans. It was the only thing she could like about Thrawn. The calmness of his mind. But it also made him hard to read.
"Please, answer the question." Thrawn ordered velvetly stopping next to her chair again. His voice had dropped a few degrees again. Harry's neck hair straightened. Danger! She had gone too far again. Why couldn't she keep her mouth shut. She concentrated hard, but it was quite useless. He was an opaque mystery to her. She couldn't sense much, except a small flicker of something that she could perhaps interpret as slight irritation with her, surrounded by curiosity?
"It's different sensing you, Sir." She shrugged her shoulders. "I can barely sense anything, except a small hint of annoyance with me perhaps. Not sure why that's different with you. Perhaps because you from a different species, but on the other hand I had no problems sensing other aliens on Lothal. Or you are very good at building mental defences."
She mentally mused that she could try to reach out with her mind, touching his with hers but shied away from that. Connecting with someone's mind was even more dangerous and amoral than reading someone's diary. Legilimency worked similarly, but required a spell and direct eye contact. On the other hand, he had her notebooks and her diary. So, it would only be fair. No, she mentally shook her head. If she tried that and he could somehow sense her then she would be in even worse trouble than she was now.
"Fascinating." Thrawn remarked with the hint of a grin lurking at one edge of his lip. "Do you have experienced something similar with other species?"
Harry shook her head. "Haven't met enough to give a definite answer to that. Only those I've encountered on Lothal and you." She crossed her arms again. "And why are we talking about me? We were discussing the Rebels from this sector." She deflected and tried to change the subject.
"Naturally." Thrawn said nonplussed. "But there are further Rebel cells that are of immense interest to me."
"Because you don't want the cluster of different Rebel cells to band together as a would pose a more imminent threat to the empire?" Harry enquired.
"Yes, but I do not believe that this particular Rebel cell, I'm talking about is known to the others." Thrawn divulged calmly sitting back down on his chair, without letting her out of his sight. "These Rebels have never been able to leave their planet on their own volition." He continued freezing her in place with his stare. Harry gulped as it slowly dawned on her that he could mean her own planet.
"You mean Earth?" Her voice broke once, and she cleared her throat. "I mean Terra?" What happened now?! Why did he bring this up? Had they done something? Her heart clenched in worry. Had the empire caused more chaos and destruction on her already extremely vulnerable planet? Had they destroyed and killed more innocents while she had been away?
"Have they done something?" She enquired with a stronger voice than she felt pleading Thrawn to answer her with her eyes. He did not answer for some time as the seconds trickled by. Yet Harry did not dare to break his gaze.
"No." Thrawn interrupted the silence. "No, the interesting thing is what they did not do."
Harry frowned. Ok. What is he going on about now? "What do you mean, Sir?"
"The empire expected a far higher rate of enlistment after your transmission." Thrawn informed her. "Especially, after finding out that you were a person with some more influence than the average citizen before the empire came." Harry had to fight her growing elated grin that would have revealed how proud she was of her people. They detected it!
Harry shrugged. "A person's influence can change within an instant. Just like that." She snapped one of her fingers. "Especially, with my planet's former obsession using social media. I was just riding the wave as long as it lasted."
Thrawn's eyes narrowed. "I told you once that you are a bad liar." His voice had turned hard. "The digital chatter on your planet's information network suggests that you weren't 'just riding a wave as long it lasted'. Our data analysts stationed on your planet could find evidence that you dabbled in economics, science, art and even politics for a rather extended period. Together with your two friends you've made quite a few formerly influential enemies."
"That tends to happen when a younger generation has no intention to follow the established rulebook." Harry answered bitterly staring angrily back at Thrawn. "So, if you want to accuse me of being rebellious, then go ahead Sir. I've been called worse and I wouldn't even deny it. My entire generation was constantly shamed and belittled by the elder generations for wanting to change our planet for the better."
Thrawn studied her putting his fingertips together. "Your rebellious tendencies are not in question here. They are an already well-established trait. A habit that is not easily broken. While wanting the best for ones people is something to strive for, you've done your planet a great disservice of warning them to enlist."
Harry felt the colour drain from her face as cold sweat was rushing down her back. The lights began to flicker. How the hell had he detected her message?
"How do you know that?" she asked with shaking voice taking a few hasty deep breaths to calm her down.
"While I may not know the exact phrasing of your message yet, your sign code using your eyes was blatantly obvious. Adding that knowledge to the very low enlistment rate it is easily deduced what you have told them." Thrawn lectured her calmly. Then his voice became frostier. "I warned you that there would be consequences if you'd ever defied me."
She couldn't breathe. What would he do to her now? She had doomed her family, the Dursleys for something as unimportant as her vanity.
"Please, Sir. Leave my family alone. Please leave the Dursleys alone. They've already gone through so much." She pleaded with him, but his face remained hard. "They should not suffer for something that I did. I only wanted to protect my people from becoming cannon fodder."
Thrawn ignored her pleading and continued his musing calmly. "I find it interesting that you are calling the Dursleys your family and not the Potters. You're last name is Potter after all."
"Oh, you want to take my brother?!" Harry bargained with tight voice. "You can have him alright. He won't last a second in the empire and I won't shed a single tear for him or anyone else of the Potters."
Are you crazy! If his magic is detected, then he could be trained by the inquisitors! No, he wouldn't survive that training. He survived Voldemort! Yes, but only because I did most of the work for them.
Her mental discussion became heated. I'm mental. "But you wouldn't be able to find him. Or anyone from the Magical Community."
"They have a way of masking their location?" Thrawn enquired still ignoring her plead from earlier.
"Yes." Harry nodded.
"Did you mask the location of your institutions the same way using Magical means?" he questioned her staring locking her eyes with his.
The dark-haired woman nodded again. "Yes, I did."
"Then I want you to give us the exact locations of your schools and institutions." Thrawn ordered. "as a sign of goodwill to regain my trust."
Alright. That had to be what he was after. He had purposely backed her into this corner.
"Sir, I can't." she confessed.
"The curriculum of your institutions suggest that they could train future rebels this very moment." Thrawn insinuated narrowing his eyes.
"No, they are not trained in handling offensive weapons." Harry defended them. "Yes, they have martial arts training additionally to normal subjects, but this is defensive hand to hand combat and I literally can't tell you where the schools are." She explained pleadingly. "My kids are not a threat to the empire."
"How unfortunate." Thrawn commented calmly reaching for the console. Probably to give orders to arrest the Dursleys. She could not let that happen. She quickly reacted and pushed his seat away from it by summoning her gift. Suddenly Thrawn was pushed back into his seat away from the console. His face portrayed his surprise.
"The schools are under a Fidelius Charm and I made sure that I'm not the secret keeper of that charm. So, while I may know the locations and would tell them to you, nobody would be able to remember it. The charm is designed to keep locations secret from enemies. Only the secret keeper can divulge the locations." She quickly explained hoping to appease him.
And it seemed to work. He leaned back into his seat, put one of his hands on his chin and locked his glowing red eyes with her again. "And who exactly is this secret keeper?"
Harry sighed in defeat. "Somebody the empire probably won't be able to find. Her name is Luna Lovegood."
Hope that I could do Thrawn justice. Let me know what you think. The next chapter deals with how things are progressing on Earth. For those not interested in the side plot. There is no Thrawn in the next chapter.