Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. Star Wars is owned by Disney. I am neither a British woman nor an animated mouse. Thus I do not own nor do I claim ownership of either Harry Potter or Star Wars, and I am not profiting in any way through the writing and publication of this story.

Holocron

XVI

Saturday, July 6, 1996

Ron followed his two friends through the twisting, underground tunnels. He'd never been in a cave system before and part of him couldn't help but wonder if there were parts of Gringotts that looked just like this. The goblins had to have started with something, after all.

He had no idea where Harry was leading them as he kept on striding away into the darkness, turning this way and that like he was following an invisible map. His friend assured him that he knew where he was going, that he could feel the kyber crystals in the Force, beckoning to him, guiding him through the Labrynith.

Hermione mentioned feeling something too, but she said it was too light, too faint for her to grasp on to it.

Ron didn't feel a thing. And if Harry didn't have his lightsaber as proof, he would have thought his best mate had finally gone 'round the bend.

But he did have a lightsaber, and he had to have gotten the crystal from somewhere, so Ron kept following him through the caverns. Even if it had been several hours since they'd arrived and they still had yet to stop for something to eat.

Some people just had no sense of priorities.

"We're here," Harry finally said as he came to a stop in a tiny, little chamber that looked just like all the others they'd passed by.

"Great," Ron cheered. "Now, where's these crystals? Or should we maybe stop for a bite to eat first?"

"Do you always have to think with your stomach?" Hermione asked.

"Oi! It's not right to do hard work on an empty stomach! I'm looking out for all of us!"

"We'll eat after you two have your crystals," Harry decided. The young wizard then reached into his backpack and pulled out two lanterns. He flicked some sort of switch on them and they lit up brighter than any lantern Ron had seen before. It was like they had a Lumos charm inside them.

"Those things run off eckeltrickity?" he asked. "My dad would get a kick out of seeing them."

"Yes, Ron," Hermione answered his question, "they're electric lanterns. I'm sure Harry wouldn't mind showing them to your father."

"You can borrow them once we're done. Just don't let him take them apart."

Only then did Ron actually look around the now well-lit chamber. It was rather small, there was barely enough room within it for all three of them. The rocky walls glittered with little mineral deposits, and he had to stoop just a bit so that his head wouldn't bang against the ceiling.

"The kyber crystals are over here," Harry said, pointing to a small patch of tiny white crystals in the corner.

Ron and Hermione both moved over and crouched down to have a better look. They were really small, and Ron could barely make out intricate, swirling patterns that looked like they were carved just under the surface of each gem. He could also feel them now, a slight but steady presence that seemed to hum in the Force.

"How do we choose one?" Hermione asked.

"You don't," Harry answered. "The crystal chooses you."

"Okay, Mr. Ollivander," Ron laughed.

"Don't look at me," Harry replied. "I don't make the rules."

"Yeah, yeah…"

"So what do we do, then?" Hermione impatiently asked.

"Reach out to them in the Force," Harry instructed. "Tell the crystals why you need one. Ask for help. Allow yourself to be chosen by one. Look for one that feels different from the others, one that, well, sings to you in a way that you kind of… harmonize with."

Ron sighed. He'd never been as good as Harry or Hermione at this type of stuff with the Force. Letting go and calmly allowing the Force to invite him and guide him and all that had never come easy to him. He always felt most connected to it when he was doing something. Like when he called on the Force for speed and agility during Quidditch, or when he'd needed extra power during the fight in Hogsmeade. He felt the Life of the Force most clearly when he was feeling most alive, when excitement was pumping through his veins.

Oh well.

He'd make due.

He stretched out his senses into the Force, and he felt Harry and Hermione do the same next to him. He reached out toward the little crystals - he could sense them more clearly now, but they were really faint…

"I can barely feel them," Hermione voiced his exact thought.

"Don't worry," Harry answered, "we'll take as long as needs be."

Right then, Ron thought, let's do this.

OoOoO

OoOoO

Ron sighed in frustration and mentally cursed his present situation. He was tired, cold, and hungry, and he still didn't have a bloody kyber crystal!

They must've been standing in that cramped little cavern for hours. How long did Harry really expect them to keep this up? His legs were sore from standing for so long and he had a cramp in his neck from being hunched over because of the low ceiling.

At least Hermione didn't have a crystal either, so he wasn't the only one not getting this… whatever it was that was supposed to happen.

He turned to glance at the witch beside him. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as she held her right hand out toward the little gems. Her Force-presence felt focused, completely intent on her given task.

He spared one quick glance at Harry behind him. He was leaning against the wall, silently watching them, his face a mask of perfect calm. But Ron could feel the tiny seed of doubt in his best mate, the worry that something wasn't going as it should be.

Ron turned back to the crystals and tried to reach out to them yet again, but they still felt the same. None of them felt any different from the others. They were all the same.

Did it really matter if he was chosen by one particular crystal? He'd always thought that old Ollivander did his thing more to just entertain himself than anything else. Ron had used other wands before, and he'd always managed to get them to work. Sure, the one he'd matched with was always a bit easier to use and gave him the best results, but he'd managed just fine using his older brother's wand for years until he'd finally saved up enough money for his own.

The crystals were probably the same way. Sure, a lightsaber might work a little better for you if you had a crystal that 'chose you,' but it'd probably still work just fine even if it wasn't properly matched. Ron and Hermione had both used Harry's lightsaber after all, and they'd never had any trouble with it.

Hermione suddenly let out a little gasp beside him. He watched as she reached down and plucked a tiny sliver of a crystal off the floor. She cradled it in her hands as if it was the most precious thing in the entire world as she stared at it, completely mesmerized by the thing.

"Well done, Hermione!" Harry cheered.

"It's amazing…" she whispered. "It's like a little piece of me that I'd never realized was missing before…"

Ron turned back to the patch of crystals and reached out again.

A few minutes later, Hermione was still crooning over her crystal and Ron still didn't feel anything different.

Right, he thought. That's enough of this. Let's just pick one and make do.

He reached down and snatched up a little shard. He could feel the Force alive within it, but it still just felt like all the others.

"Good work, Ron!" Harry said.

He smiled back at his friend.

"Pretty cool, ain't it?"

Harry slowly shook his head in amusement.

"Only you could describe this as cool…"

"Yeah, yeah. Now then, let's get something to eat! I'm bloody starving here!"

"Language…" Hermione mumbled in admonishment.

OoOoO

OoOoO

After sneaking past a few tour groups and park rangers, the three Jedi in training emerged back into the light of day. Hermione glanced down at her watch.

"Five-thirty," she said. "We were down there for a little more than eight hours."

"Felt like forever to me," Ron said.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"But it was definitely worth it," she added.

"And much quicker than running all over England," Harry said.

"True."

They walked down the path leading away from the visitor's center and toward the main road.

"So what's the next step, then?" she eventually asked.

"Now you've got to build the rest of the components you need," Harry instructed. "Each lightsaber is completely unique, just like the crystal at its heart. Everything needs to be personally made by the Jedi that is going to use it. I know you've both used mine before, but I can't really explain to you how it feels to hold and wield your own lightsaber. It's like a part of me that I'd never known before, but had always been there…"

Hermione smiled and patted the little case in her pocket that held her kyber crystal.

"I think I know what you mean," she said.

Harry smiled at her.

"Anyways, I'll need to help you build the components. The technology is way beyond the most advanced stuff I've ever seen."

Advanced alien technology… Hermione thought to herself and felt a little thrill of excitement run down her spine. This is going to be so much fun!

"So what's the plan then?"

"I figure the best thing to do is for you two to come over to my house every day so I can help you work. It should only take a couple of weeks."

Hermione grimaced.

"I don't think my parents are going to be happy with that," she said. "I mean, they bought my excuse about spending the day with you to work on a school project, but I don't think they're going to let me spend every day over at a boy's house."

"What if we sneak over at night?" Ron asked. "You should be able to move quietly enough to get out of the house without waking your parents. And if you do, just use a little Force-distraction on them. No harm done and you're in the clear!"

"I don't know…"

"Come on, Hermione. This is important."

Ron was right. It was important. The wizarding world was at war and here she was worried about upsetting her parents.

"Alright fine."

"Works for me," Harry said.

"So how do we get to your place each night?" Ron asked.

"I am not taking the Floo again!" Hermione quickly said. "I felt so sick the last time I used that terrible thing that I swore I'd never do it again!"

"No argument from me, there," Ron added. "Never gave me any trouble before I learned about the Force, but I'm right with you now."

"Knight Bus?" Harry offered. "It got us all here today without a fuss."

"Ehh…" Ron said "Once in a while is fine, but I don't think I can afford it every day…"

"We should just fly," Hermione finally said. "We've each got a perfectly good Nimbus, and the Trace can't detect magic that doesn't use a wand, and it'll be night so it's a lot less likely that we'll be noticed, and it shouldn't take much more than an hour for either of us to get there, less really if we push ourselves…"

"Sounds like a plan, then," Harry said. "You'll have to fly to the park on Magnolia Road, I'll meet you there each night, say around ten, and we'll sneak into the house."

"Better make it eleven," Hermione said. "I'll need to be sure my parents are asleep."

Harry nodded at her.

"Sound good to you, Ron?"

"Yeah. I doubt mum'll notice I'm gone. As long as I'm back before dawn, that is."

"Great! We'll start tomorrow night, then."

Hermione smiled as Harry stuck out his wand and summoned the Knight Bus. She'd never been to Harry's house before, and she found that she was rather looking forward to it.

OoOoO

OoOoO

Tuesday, August 13, 1996

"Okay," Harry said, "now use the Force to seal the casing around the energy channel - just heat the seam a little bit and it should fuse right together…"

He was seated on the edge of his bed while he watched his two friends work at opposite sides of his desk. Hermione was perched on his chair, while Ron was sitting on an old stool that they'd liberated from the shed in the back garden. Both were intently focused on the task before them.

Making the components for the two new lightsabers was taking a lot longer than Harry had thought it would. It had only taken him a little more than two weeks to build everything he needed for his own saber, but then again, he'd had the ready use of the Holocron for technical assistance. Hermione and Ron were relying on Harry's guidance, and he was apparently a rather poor substitute for the ancient Jedi artifact.

He'd thought long and hard about finally introducing his friends to his mysterious 'teacher,' but he'd ultimately decided against it. A large part of him was still worried that if the Holocron found out he was teaching others how to use the Force before he was a Jedi Master, it would refuse the show him anything else. And with Voldemort on the loose, he really couldn't afford that.

"Good," he said once they'd both finished sealing their blade energy channels.

"What next?" Hermione asked.

"Now you just need to shape the lenses. Take the disc and focus the Force on it in a… I guess I'd call it a circular pressure until it curves and feels right."

Their plan for sneaking out each night and coming to Privet Drive had worked almost perfectly. The only problem that they'd run into came on the very first night. It had started in the park.

Harry had been monitoring the presences of Hermione and Ron as they'd been coming toward Little Whinging for the past hour. Now he watched as their brooms slipped over the trees and they gracefully landed in the park.

"About time you made it!" He called out to them.

"Shut it, you," Ron said with a smile.

"Right then, let's go."

But they ran into trouble as they reached the park's gate, trouble in the form of Dudley Dursley and his gang.

"Well, if it isn't the freak," Harry's cousin sneered at him.

Harry rolled his eyes, but he also noticed Dudley's friends swallow nervously and take a few hesitant steps backwards. Piers, Malcom, and Gordon had learned their lessons about messing with Harry years ago. The only one that couldn't seem to figure out that trying to torment the young Jedi never turned out well was Dudley.

The large boy never had been very bright.

"And it looks like he's got some freaky friends with him too!"

"Get out of the way, Dudley," Harry ordered.

"Let's go, Big D," Piers squeaked. "They ain't worth it…"

"Nah, I wanna know who these two are and why they're hanging out with my loser of a cousin."

"Harry is not a loser!" Hermione stated.

"Some spirit in this one, eh, freak?" Dudley asked. "She your girlfriend? Not bad lookin'. Hey, honey, wanna give a real man a try?"

"You're a pig," Hermione responded.

Dudley didn't seem to like that as his face started to turn bright red. But Harry didn't give him a chance to respond and simply used the Force to push him out of the way so they could pass through the gate.

"Holy shit!" Piers cried.

"Did you see that?!" Malcom added.

"Let's get out of here!" Gordon screamed.

The three boys turned and ran.

"Quite a gang you got there, Dud," Harry smirked. "Real bunch of cowards."

"Fuck off, freak!"

"Come on," Harry said to his two friends.

They made for Number Four quickly and quietly, and a little distraction courtesy of the Force had them past Dumbledore's guards and in through the kitchen door. It looked like they would get in scot free until the front door slammed open.

"Dad!" Dudley hollered into the living room. "The freak's sneaking a girl into the house!"

Harry could've sworn he felt the ground shake as his uncle heaved himself out of his chair in front of the television and stomped into the kitchen. His face quickly took on a bright shade of purple when he saw the three teenagers.

"Now see here!" he bellowed. "Boy! We've given you all sorts of leeway in the past, turning a blind eye to you and all your unnaturalness, but this is going too far!"

"What's going on, Vernon?" Aunt Petunia called as she shuffled down the stairs, wrapped in her pink robe. Her face drained of color as she took in the building confrontation.

"This lousy freak of a nephew of yours is sneaking other freaks into the house! No doubt to go about some sort of perversion!"

"Ha!" Dudley laughed.

Harry tried to explain himself.

"Uncle Vernon—"

"No!" he yelled, "I'll not listen to your excuses! I've had enough, I say! This is going too far and I'll not have it in my house! Tell your slut and that red haired freak to get off my property this instant!"

Hermione seemed completely shocked at the words coming out of the fat man's mouth. Petunia appeared frightened and nervous. Dudley smiled gleefully.

Ron looked rather angry.

The red-haired wizard threw his hand forward and Vernon was flung back and slammed against the kitchen wall. His hands flew to his throat as his body started to rise until his feet were hanging just off the ground. He coughed and wriggled and sputtered as he fought to breathe.

"Listen here, Muggle," Ron sneered at him, "We're Harry's friends. We're not freaks. And we're gonna be working on something here for the next few nights whether you like it or not."

"Ron!" Hermione urgently whispered. "Stop it! Let him down!"

But Ron just stood there and watched for another moment as Harry's uncle gasped for breath before finally releasing his hold and Vernon collapsed to the ground.

"That's not gonna be a problem, is it?" he asked.

Vernon quickly shook his head as he drew in great gulps of air between his sputters and coughs.

"Not at all!" Petunia squeaked.

Dudley turned and ran straight out the front door, seeming to have finally learned his lesson.

Once they were all upstairs in the bedroom, Harry turned to face his friend.

"You shouldn't have done that, Ron!" he admonished. "I could've easily taken care of him. A little suggestion would have shut him right up!"

"Yeah, and then we'd likely have to do it over again tomorrow night, right?"

"So what?"

"So what?! Now they'll leave us alone for good! Berks like him only understand one thing – strength. Show him you're strong and he's not. Only way to deal with them. Learned that from Malfoy…"

"But you can't use the Force like that, Ron!" Hermione said.

"Oh come off it, Hermione. He's not hurt. And it was the easiest way to do it. Stop your worrying."

The rest of that first evening was rather tense as they started their work.

But Ron had been right, they hadn't been bothered by the Dursleys since.

Harry shook himself out of his memories as he noticed that Hermione and Ron were both finished with their lenses.

"Now what?" Ron asked.

"That should be it," Harry said. "Let me look it over."

He stood up and stepped over to the desk to peer down at their work. Hermione's components were laid out in neat rows along with her tools and spare parts. Ron's work area was a jumbled mess, but he could see that everything was there.

It was all the same as what Harry had built the year before, but at the same time everything was different too. The parts and pieces were all there, and they would perform the same functions, but what Hermione and Ron had made was unique, each piece as much a product of the one that made it as the technical directions that guided the process.

Harry could tell just by looking at the components that Hermione's lightsaber hilt would be a lot smaller than his own. The casing was slender and it tapered off near the pommel to a rounded point. Part of the casing had a bronze tint to it, and there were a few raised ridges on the side that would serve to help with the grip.

Ron's lightsaber, on the other hand, was a large affair. The tubing had darkened during the fashioning until it was almost black. The hilt would be thick and long, and there was a prominent shroud that jutted out past the emitter on one side.

Harry reached out with the Force and inspected the components that were laid out before him. He could feel his friends' presences in the parts and pieces that they'd built, and he knew with Force-confirmed certainty that they'd done their work well.

They were ready for the final step.

"Now," he said, "take out your kyber crystal and embrace it and all your components together in the Force. Bring them together, you'll understand how to do it once you start, and you'll have assembled your lightsaber."

Hermione seemed to hesitate for just a second, but then her hands were diving into her bag to search for her crystal. Harry smiled. He really hoped that she never lost the excitement she found every time she learned something new about the Force.

Ron rolled his eyes at the girl's antics, and simply pulled his crystal out of his pocket.

"Shall we?" Hermione asked.

"Ladies first," Ron answered.

She nodded and Harry felt her embrace the Force and sink herself into it. Her crystal as well as the many parts and pieces that she had labored over for the past month gently floated up into the air. They swirled around for a few moments before they seemed to gravitate in toward each other.

And then it all just slipped together and a slim, bronze and silver lightsaber flew into Hermione's waiting grasp.

She thumbed the activation switch and there was a sizzling snap-hiss as a bright green energy-blade leapt into existence. Hermione had an ear-to-ear grin splitting her face as she gave it a few twirls, careful of the tight confines of Harry's bedroom. The blade blazed with emerald light as it cut through the air with a familiar electric thrum.

Hermione's gaze met Harry's, and he couldn't help sharing her goofy grin.

"Congratulations, Hermione!"

"This is amazing, isn't it?!"

"Green, huh?" Ron asked. "You a closet Slytherin, Hermione?"

She just rolled her eyes at him, but her grin didn't falter even the tiniest bit.

"I wonder what color mine will be…" he continued.

"Only one way to find out," Hermione said as she deactivated her saber and turned to look at him. "Your turn."

"Right," he said. "Here goes…"

Harry watched as Ron's crystal and components rose off the table and circled around each other. They started to slowly move together, slipping into position.

But then they stopped.

The hilt was just a hair's breadth away from completion when it started to vibrate and shake. Ron furrowed his brows in concentration, trying to bring his hard work to fruition. But it all just slipped apart and fell into a jumble on the table top.

"Huh," Harry grunted.

"What the hell?!" Ron cried.

"Let me take a look at everything again," Harry said, moving to once again inspect all the pieces. He went over it all carefully, but he couldn't find anything that was out of place. He shrugged.

"Try it again."

Once again Ron used the Force to bring his lightsaber components together, and once again it all fell apart at the last moment.

"This is ridiculous!"

"Ron, try releasing your tension into the Force," Hermione offered. "Your frustration might be interfering with it…"

He tried again and again, but each attempt was met with failure.

"This bloody well fucking sucks!"

Harry noted that Hermione knew better than to correct their friend's language at a time like this.

"I spent a whole bloody month building this thing, and it won't even work?! What the fuck?!"

"Okay, you're tired," Harry finally said. "And more than a bit frustrated. And it's getting really late. So why don't you take everything home and try again tomorrow when you're calmer? I bet it's just the stress…"

"Yeah, fine," Ron grumbled. "Bloody fucking lightsaber…"

His friends gathered their things and he walked them to the back door. Ron took off into the night without another word, clearly still upset at his failure.

Hermione turned to Harry before she mounted her broom.

"Thank you, Harry," she said.

"Sure," he replied.

"No, I mean it," she continued. "For everything. You've been the best friend that I could've ever asked for. You've taught me so much. And this," she gestured to the lightsaber hanging on her belt, "it's… I feel like I've finally found a part of me that I didn't even know was missing. I can't thank you enough."

He smiled.

"You're welcome."

Hermione stepped forward and threw her arms around Harry's neck in a tight hug. He was surprised for a moment – it was kind of awkward, he'd never really hugged a whole lot of people in his life, but he cautiously returned the embrace.

Then she shifted, lifting herself up onto her toes, and her lips planted a slow, lingering kiss on his cheek.

"Thanks again, Harry," she whispered into his ear.

And then she was out the door and away into the night.

Harry raised a hand to his face and touched his check.

That was… odd. Hermione had never done anything like that before.

Whatever, he thought. Girls are weird sometimes. She just got a little emotional because she completed her lightsaber and wanted to say 'thank you.'

Harry dismissed the thought as not worth worrying about and headed back to his room for some well-earned rest.

AN: Thoughts?

Now we've got two lightsabers to read about! I thought about giving Hermione a more unique color, like purple or Gryffindor gold, but then I decided to just stick with the classics. And of course Ron had to make a Slytherin joke about her saber being green. I didn't have that in there originally, but he wouldn't leave me alone until I added the line.

Also, after posting chapters 14 and 15, I got a lot of comments asking or talking about either the fact that I should have Harry fight with both his lightsaber and his wand at the same time, or that lightsabers should/shouldn't be able to deflect magic spells. So, I've added two new discussions in my forums about those respective topics. If that interests you, follow the link in my profile to find them.

Thanks for your reviews, and thanks for reading!