Chapter Seven: Window of Opportunity
Wednesday, 30th June 1999.
Hermione sat on the floor, her knees curled up against her chest and held in place by her arms as she stared out the floor to ceiling window at the blazing lights of the Strip. It had not taken long to gather the supplies they needed but the trip, from the Porta Mundas hidden in the decaying Temple of the Red Queen in the ruins of Palenque all the way up to Las Vegas, had taken days.
She smiled fondly out the window as she considered that the Royal suite of the Excalibur Hotel was what Dobby considered to be a quiet hotel to lay low in. Down below, hundreds of people still moved about the shining city of sin as her friends slept and she worried.
"Hermione?" A soft voice came from behind her, indicating that perhaps not all her friends were asleep.
"You should get some sleep, Harry. You've got a big day tomorrow."
He sat beside her, mirroring her position and looking out the window as well. "As do you."
Hermione gave a slight sigh as she looked out over the tops of the bright gaudy hotels opposite, out into the desert beyond the city. "I only need to make it over there. You and Luna still have to make it another six hundred miles east, and then back again."
"You're worried, aren't you." He asked, neither one turning from the view.
"Of course I am, Harry. What we're doing tomorrow could get any one of us killed. I'm terrified."
Hermione noted the sound of Harry moving, but did not look away from the window until she felt Harry's arm fall around her shoulder. "I am too. I always have been. Do you think I was thrilled to do the stuff we had to deal with in school? I was eleven when I looked into the eyes of the man who murdered my mother in front of me for the first time since that night."
"Harry…"
"No, it's ok. I understand how you're feeling. You've always worried for all of us, too. It's in your nature to be a little bit protective of us foolish boys. I know we needed it sometimes. Ron and I dragged you into a lot of trouble."
"I went willingly into all of it. And started my own fair share of it. The DA was my idea, if you recall." She replied as she snuggled deeper into his grip.
"I remember. And I don't tell you enough how much I appreciate all you have done, and continue to do, for me. Don't think I haven't noticed how you've put your life on hold for my silly adventures again."
"But I…" Harry silenced her by placing his hand over her mouth and drawing her slightly miffed gaze.
"Let me finish, please. You finished all your classes. Graduated with top marks. And yet you're here, in Las Vegas of all places, by my side as I plan to do something foolish. You could be rampaging your way through the Ministry right now trying to get Dobby and Winky the rights they deserve, but you're here with me, again."
She gently removed the hand blocking her mouth. "It is my life, Harry Potter. I am free to choose to spend it however I may. I happen to choose that spending it with my best friends is the best use of my time right now."
"I know, and I cannot put into words how much I appreciate that. I need to show you how much you mean to me more often." He gently swept several stray strands of hair away from her face with his now free hand and Hermione felt her skin tingle as his fingers left their light trail.
"Be careful tomorrow, Harry." She asked, locking her eyes on his own and trying to will for him to understand all that she meant. "I'm not ready to live a life without you in it. Especially not over something like this."
His eyes were unreadable, and that bothered her more than she could put into words. The two of them had always had this way of sharing without words, and right now she was giving it her all and getting no sign in return.
Harry leant forward and Hermione's breath caught as he did. His lips pressed ever so softly to her forehead and lingered for several tense moments. "I promise. No unnecessary risks."
She tracked his face as he pulled slowly away and pulled her body closer to his own once more. "Thank you, Harry."
"You're welcome, Hermione," he whispered as they returned to staring out the window, tucked tightly into one another's arms. Eventually drifting off into a far less uneasy sleep than she'd achieved earlier.
ϟ
Thursday, 1st July 1999.
Harry tucked the cloak tightly about his form, using several sticking charms in strategic places to ensure it did not come open or lift up as he moved. The layered silencing charms helped to prevent any sound from his movement, but he had to prepare every step in the bushy treed area with a charm and make sure he stepped on those exact spots to keep his approach from being heard.
He heard the light sound of phoenix song in his ears, the agreed-upon signal that meant Luna was in position. He sent a response and waited for the pre-arranged count of fifteen.
As he reached the final number, he apparated away, intentionally making his departure as loud as possible to further draw the attention of the nearby guards at the entryway to allow Luna to retreat unnoticed if they managed to trace the path of her spell.
Unfortunately, his arrival was just as loud. He quickly silenced the room and pulled back into a nearby corner, waiting for several quiet minutes before he was sure no one was coming to investigate the sound. He cast his eyes about the room and noted all the walls were covered by several towering rectangular items covered in lights. He assumed these were the housings of the computer they were looking for and he used his wand to levitate the remote hacker that Merlin had provided above them on the ceiling.
A quick charm had it stuck in place and another rendered it invisible to the naked eye, hopefully enough to keep it from being located by the staff if they investigated the room. One final spell triggered the device's activation button and Harry moved to the door, quietly opening it and removing the silencing spell he had cast.
The hallway outside was as spartan as any Harry had seen, made entirely of bare concrete and covered in metal conduits and boxes. He closed his eyes and focused his memory on the layout Merlin had added to the mirror device to allow them all to retain as much of its structure as possible.
With his next destination firmly in mind, Harry snuck from the room and closed the door behind him. It was slow going as several times he had to wedge himself hard against the wall as people in dark green uniforms rushed past him, carrying large packs and weapons. At one point, he pressed himself into a corner as a blaring siren filled the corridors and Harry prepared himself to leave without completing his task, believing himself to have been discovered. But the alarm stopped without his detection, and he began moving towards his goal once more.
Carefully, he moved into the raised room just outside the one they had identified to contain the Astria Porta and Harry's breath caught for a moment at the sight before him. Through the large window, he could see the Porta, standing proud in the back of the room beyond, a metal ramp leading up to where the event horizon would normally form. Staff tittered about the base and ramp as Harry found himself appreciating the majesty of the device before him. While the mirror device allowed him to understand the design and operation of the device, seeing it for the first time was a whole other matter.
The ring stood tall, twenty-odd feet in diameter, its mottled grey surface almost shimmering under the harsh fluorescent lighting of the base. The nine pointed chevrons sat at equal points around the device and despite all seeming identical, he noted they had managed to mount it the right way up, though he wondered if that had come from trial and error. The recessed inner ring stood out with its segmented disc, each of the thirty-nine constellations embossed on its surface just waiting to open the door to new worlds and experiences.
He shook himself free of the stupor when a soldier brushed past, nearly connecting with him as he rushed up the metal stairs to his right. Harry took in the room he was actually inside for the first time, noting a pair of stairways leading up and a second opening to the far side with a few steps that likely led to the large opening he could see in the room beyond.
This room too featured walls covered in towering computer equipment and several technicians worked away at a bank of monitors, facing the large window. Harry considered his options and thought that taking out a few of the terminals should be adequate to slow them down for the day they required to finish their work.
He prepared himself by the large glass panel covered in white lines in the far back right of the room and waited as the technicians continued their tasks, seemingly unaware of his presence as one placed their hand on a scanner at the desk, and Harry's eye was once more drawn to the Porta as a set of metal plates closed in over the aperture. He smirked to himself and with a carefully aimed shot, he fired a reductor curse at the palm scanner as the technician moved to speak into the microphone to his left.
It blew apart and the technician beside it jumped away with a shout. The other technicians in the room stood and glanced about as he prepared a second spell, aimed at the bank of computers in the far corner, where no one was currently standing. The reductor curse flew out and struck the computer, shattering its outer covering and sending a shower of sparks flying.
"Reetou!" One of the technicians yelled and a moment later a green-clad soldier rushed into the room from the nearest entrance and a tall dark-skinned man with a golden emblem on his head appeared in the other.
Harry ducked down and rolled under the straight stairway to his left as the soldiers held up two unusual weapons that gave off a strange metallic humming. They slowly swept them over the room, one high and one low, and Harry held as still as possible, wand at the ready just in case.
The soldier looked confused as he swept back over the room for the third time, and the man with the gold sign spoke, his voice deep. "Are you certain? I detect nothing."
"There was a blast from the map screen there. It looked like a reetou energy blast. And look at the power regulation computer." The second technician indicated the destroyed towers in the far corner.
"Teal'c?" An authoritative yet questioning voice came from above Harry and he looked up through the grating of the metal steps to see a slightly rotund man who reminded him a little of Slughorn, though without the facial or head hair, looking down on the room.
"I am unsure, General Hammond. Something has damaged the computers, but the TERs have located nothing."
"Do a sweep. Get Captain Carter down here to inspect the computers. I want us back up and running as soon as possible. Sergeant, can we open that Iris?"
"No sir, we'll need to replace the palm scanner first."
"Make that your top priority. If we have a team come in hot right now, we can't let them in."
"Yes, general."
Harry remained still as the people in the room burst into activity and he saw his opportunity. With a difficult turn, given his position laying on his side on the concrete floor, Harry apparated away, trying his best to be as silent as possible this time.
He reappeared above the surface once more and saw Luna standing there waiting. He released the spells holding the cloak to his form and Luna's eyes found him immediately.
"Harry, how did it go? You've been gone almost forty minutes."
"We're good to go. They've mounted some sort of blocking device to the aperture of the Astria Porta. They closed it and I damaged the device that controls it. They should be out of action for a while. Let's get out of here."
"Agreed," she replied and pulled Harry's Firebolt from within the bag in her hand. Within moments, they were airborne once more, wrapped in the cloak and shooting off west, back towards Nevada.
ϟ
Neville was impressed with Hermione's spellwork, even more so than he had been during their time in Hogwarts. Even when he pressed his ear hard up against the enormous crate containing the Astria Porta, he could not hear a whisper of noise. She had made very short work of the cover plate as well, a single spell bowing it outwards immediately with no difficulty.
"I'm worried." Her voice came from behind him and Neville stood once more.
"Don't be, Hermione. Harry's good, and that cloak is nigh unbeatable. I swear he can manipulate it at will since the end of the war."
Hermione looked like she wanted to say something in response to that, but held herself back. "Remind Harry and I to talk to you both about that. I think you deserve to know the full truth."
"The truth?" He asked.
"For later. Look, they should be back by now. We've been here five hours now. There is another patrol due in four minutes."
Neville stepped over to his fretting friend and gently held her shoulders, forcing her to face him. "Trust them. I do."
"It's not a matter of trus…" Hermione's comment was cut short as a pair of people cracked into being in the hangar beside them, smirking widely.
"Howdy." Harry smiled and Neville felt the knot of worry he'd been hiding in his own gut release as Hermione launched at the two and pulled them into a firm hug.
"I'm glad to see them too, but we've got incoming. Over here, and get the cloak ready." Neville whispered, checking the time and realizing they had less than two minutes before the next patrol came through.
He guided the three others to a set of boxes he had checked earlier that morning and tucked them all into the centre. Harry tossed the cloak over them all as the door at the far side of the hangar opened and a trio of armed men in green and brown fatigues walked inside. He could see they were talking amongst themselves as they moved, but their words did not carry to their hiding place. The trio paused by the centre crate and the closest one tapped the top with the butt of his gun as the one to his left pushed the lid from the side, Hermione's sticking charm keeping it in place easily.
The three nodded and did a quick circuit of the room, as they had the four previous times, before heading out a second door, far closer to their currently concealed position, the door closing loudly as they left. Neville kept his hand on Harry's shoulder for a ten count before pulling it away and Harry pulled the cloak off them all.
"How did it go? Are you both alright?" Hermione immediately launched into a barrage of questions and began checking Luna for holes.
"I am fine, Hermione. The illusion worked perfectly. They seemed most confused by its presence."
"What did you use?" Harry asked.
She replied with a simple smirk. "A crumple-horned snorkack."
"And you?" Neville asked Harry.
"Device is in place, shouldn't be visible for years with the power I put into that spell. And their gate is down for now. They've got some sort of metal shield over it they called an iris, and when they closed it, I damaged the system that allows them to open it. They won't be dialling out for a while."
"Were you seen?" Hermione asked, looking uncertain.
"Seen, no." Hermione's expression went from worried to panicked but Harry wrapped her in a hug fast. "Don't worry, they seem to think I was some form of invisible alien infiltrator. They're currently sweeping the base looking for it."
He pulled back and Neville felt slightly intrusive as he tried not to watch the pair. He wondered when it would finally dawn on the two of them that there was a fire waiting to happen there, just begging for a spark.
Hermione nodded and Harry held the cloak out to her. "Your turn."
Her eyes jumped from one face to the next before she nodded again and took the cloak. "I won't be long."
"We'll be here."
Hermione vanished under the cloak and a moment later, Neville felt the air beside him silently shift, impressing him once more at Hermione's fine control of magic. He'd never managed to apparate so silently before.
"So, what have we found so far?" Luna asked as they sat in the concealed little alcove.
"Oddly, a lot of Egyptian artifacts. The bulk of the naquadah traces are stored in another section of the base, but when we went to have a look, it was beyond heavily guarded. We figured it wasn't worth the risk, at least not without the cloak."
"And the dial?" Harry asked, laying on the floor and closing his eyes.
"This thing," Neville replied, holding up the small white handheld device Merlin had provided with a colourful screen, "says it's about three quarters done. We can be out of here before dinner at this rate. Only had two missed dials so far."
"I think that might have been the other base using theirs. That might have been what the alarm was."
"ALARM!" Hermione growled, reappearing outside the boxes and staring daggers at Harry.
"I said I was fine. I think an alarm goes off in the base anytime they use the Astria Porta. I hid in an out of the way corner while it went off and no one came by searching for me. Relax, Hermione. It's over."
"I will relax, Harry Potter, when we are safe back at home."
Luna stood and rolled over the box between her and Hermione, taking the brunette by the arm and guiding her over to the crates on the far side of the hangar.
"Better you than me. Can't believe I asked her to the ball all those years ago." Neville chuckled.
"Huh?" Harry replied, glancing up at him from the floor.
Neville shook his head at his clueless friend and found a more comfortable position himself. "Never mind, you'll figure it out eventually."
Harry looked back at him confused for a few moments before he closed his eyes and relaxed once more. Neville was quite content to let the two girls cool off before going and looking for them again. He and Harry had to disillusion themselves when the next patrol arrived an hour and a half later, but once they had passed, Harry became worried.
"Where do you think they are?" he asked, jumping over the boxes and walking into the centre of the hangar, sweeping his eyes over the room hoping to find them standing in the corner talking.
"They had the cloak," Neville replied, joining Harry by the Porta's crate, "maybe they went to do a little exploring of their own."
"I'm worried. What if they got caught." Hary fixed his worried gaze on Neville, and he did his best not to laugh at the sight.
"You look exactly the same as Hermione has all morning. Let's not panic just yet, ok?" Neville added, glancing down as the device in his hand beeped twice. "Dials are done. Faster than expected. Levitate the lid so I can remove the dialer?"
Harry looked around concerned once more before he nodded and drew his wand. With two swirls, the lid was hovering above the crate and Neville reached into the straw holding the device in the middle of the large box. He felt around the underside of the large ring and quickly found the dialer, pulling it free and ducking out of the way.
"Lower it down, we won't bother sticking it for now. Hermione can reverse the plate again and we're good to go."
As he finished the sentence, the girls appeared beside them, once again looking frazzled. Hermione looked at the open crate and the dialer in Neville's hand, and with a wave of her wand, the metal in the centre groaned once and settled into its former shape. "We need to leave."
Harry quickly let the lid close over the giant crate and they all replaced the small nails into its upper side, securing it once more as it had been when Neville and Hermione had arrived.
"Come on, quickly."
"What's the rush?" Harry asked, stepping over to her.
"We may have been detected," Luna replied simply as she held Hermione's arm tightly.
"Harry," Hermione warned in a tone that had Neville grab Luna's hand quickly, "power the jump. Now!"
Harry sighed and put his arms around Hermione, his eyes closed as all three felt his magic push outwards. Neville felt Hermione pull it into herself and with a loud crack, they vanished from the hangar only moments before a dozen heavily armed troops rushed inside.
ϟ
Hermione let out the breath she had been holding as the four appeared back in their hotel room. She tossed the cloak aside and moved over to the window, staring out over the desert in the direction of the now surely alerted base they had just left.
"Stupid," she mumbled to herself, startled as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked, looking at her with concern.
"I'm fine. I can't believe I did that."
"Did what?"
"She touched the ship," Luna explained, lounging on one of the many couches in the large open living space.
"Ship?" Neville asked.
"Nothing like anything we use on earth right now. There was next to no fuselage, and the wings swept down and forward. There was a similar-looking model nearby, but I am fairly sure that it was spare parts rather than a second model under construction."
"Pretty much the whole thing was made of naquadah," Hermione added, "so we're almost certain it's an alien ship they're retrofitting, rather than one they made themselves. Still looked a long way from finished too."
"So, you did go look at the high-security building?" Neville asked again.
"Yes," Hermione answered. "I needed a moment and Luna suggested we'd have better luck with the cloak. We're lucky we had it. We appeared in a warehouse full of alien technology on racks all the way to the ceiling. But the room was filled with laser sensors. If we weren't wearing the cloak, we'd have absolutely set off an alarm. Even though I still don't understand how that thing can do that when it's still physically in the path of the laser."
"Why is so much of the stuff they're studying Egyptian?" Luna queried as Harry pulled Hermione into a comforting hug once more and she let her body relax.
"I don't know," the boy replied, his voice rumbling through his chest as Hermione laid her head on it. "Maybe with the information from the dial, Merlin can shed some light on it for us. If both scanners pull some records as well, that might help out."
"We should go," Hermione mumbled, still feeling slightly shaken after having a squad of troops rush into the hangar she'd been standing in, weapons raised. Her heart had raced and time seemed to slow as Luna had launched at her midsection and pulled them both away, while Hermione had been frozen in place, terrified.
"We can't yet." Harry offered, his hands rubbing her back softly. "We're booked for two more days. If we check out now, less than an hour after the base was raided, they might be able to tie it to us. That's why we had Dobby book a longer stay."
"I'm going to go take a nice bath. Wash off the sweat and grime." Luna stated, standing once more. She walked over to the window where Harry and Hermione were standing and extended her hand to Hermione. "Care to join me? I'll do your hair."
The wee blonde smiled and Hermione considered the offer. A wash would feel good and help clear her mind and rinse away the residual uncomfortable feelings from their being spotted, but she was very content to remain in Harry's arms.
Harry made the choice for her as he pulled away, the comfort retreating with him as he smiled and gently nudged her in Luna's direction. "Go on, you deserve a nice long soak. Neville and I will go be seen downstairs, help establish an alibi."
She sighed and nodded as Harry walked away and gestured for Neville to follow him out. Hermione felt Luna's arm around her shoulders as the girl guided them both to the enormous bathroom and its large sunken tub. The room was nearly as impressive as the prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts, though without the obvious magical extras. Luna soon had a steaming hot bath run, adding in her own magical bubbles and scents, and she turned to look at Hermione.
"C'mon, you're a big girl now Hermione. Don't tell me I need to help you undress as well." Hermione rolled her eyes at the other girl before she pulled her wand and vanished the clothing, not wanting it as a reminder of what had just happened. Now completely naked, she stepped into the hot water and felt its soothing effect nearly immediately.
She sank down into the calming water and let the warmth slowly penetrate her form, unknotting muscles that had refused to accept they were safe and away, and had remained tense, ready to spring and get away.
The water sloshed around her as Luna sat opposite her, more than a meter away in the giant tub. "Oh yes. That is much better. Nothing beats a good soak after a day in the woods."
"You're right." Hermione acknowledged, letting herself sink beneath the water and soaking her messy hair into the heated liquid. She took a deep breath as she broke the surface once more and wiped away the grime that had gathered on her face. "I did need this."
"You worry for him so much," Luna stated, as she draped her hair over her shoulder and began scooping water up and flowing it over the blonde strands.
"Sometimes he needs me to." Hermione sighed in reply. "Wasn't seen, but he bloody well was detected. On the lower floors of a top-secret US military base. And he just brushes it off like it was nothing."
Luna swept around the tub and came to sit on the same section as Hermione. Her hands came up and began to rub the hot water into Hermione's shoulders and the elder girl couldn't contain the pleasurable groan at the relief it sent into her form. "Harry can be reckless, but I don't believe he did anything the rest of us wouldn't have done. Sabotage was a requirement of his task."
"Yes, but I'll bet he did it in an obvious way. He could have done something subtle."
"It sounded to me like he took advantage of a very wise opportunity. The staff in the mountain sealed their gate for us."
Hermione grumbled as the fingers on her shoulders worked out the renewed tension the discussion had brought into the muscles. "I know. It's just…" she trailed off.
She worried about Harry even more these days, especially after she and Ron had gone their separate ways after their extremely short-lived attempt at dating. An attempt that had lasted a grand total of two rather awkward dates before both had accepted they were not that kind of friend to the other. It hadn't helped that the other boy had drawn away from her somewhat since, though at least they weren't at each other's throats so much anymore.
Luna began humming gently in time with her motions allowing Hermione to stew on her thoughts, shifting her hands to Hermione's hair and carding her fingers through the matted mess, slowly parting it out and working the water into its length.
Hermione closed her eyes and let her mind wander to Harry. She knew exactly why his recklessness bothered her. But the last time she tried to love a friend it nearly broke that friendship. She tried to follow the train of thought further, but the softly humming blonde slowly worked her body into a trance with her fingers. Hermione sighed, her slackened muscles nearly allowing her to slip back under the water entirely.
"Lay flat so I can wash this properly," Luna said, sliding Hermione's partially floating body out into the middle of the giant tub and spreading her hair into the bubbly water.
"You'll need my shampoo if you want to tame that monster." Hermione hummed, her body far more relaxed after Luna's treatment than when they returned to the room.
"Mother had rather unruly hair too. She developed many spells for dealing with it. These pink bubbles will clean it thoroughly enough for us to do something with it later."
Hermione felt her cares drifting out of her body and into the fluid holding her delicately at its top. Consciousness followed them out soon after and she let herself fall into sleep's embrace, trusting Luna to keep her safe.
ϟ
Sunday, 4th July 1999.
Harry pressed his face against the warm glass, his own glasses sitting askew on his face as he stared out the window, the solid weight of Luna's sleeping form against his chest no more than a minor nuisance when he needed to shift his weight. They'd been on the bus several hours as it spirited them even further away from Nevada and their mission.
They were currently on the final leg of their downward journey, having departed Mexico City that morning. The beautiful countryside whizzed by at speed and without the normal aid of his glasses, Harry was sure he was missing most of it, though he was fairly certain the blurry mountain passes they were now working through meant they had passed once more into Veracruz. The towering snow-capped peak to their left had to be Pico de Orizaba, but his mind was occupied elsewhere.
He flicked his eyes across the aisle and noted the pair of brown ones looking his way in return. Something Hermione had been doing for a large portion of their journey, and yet when they arrived at their lodgings both the previous nights, she had disappeared into her room immediately, preventing him from asking what was bothering her. And it was beginning to bother him.
Was she still mad at him for taking advantage of the opportunity in the mountain? Was she considering one of the many other foolish things he'd done over the years they had been friends? Her face was inscrutable to him and it was driving him mad not knowing what she was thinking. He once more tried to pull his mind in another direction, but he found it returning to the staring brunette over and over. He silently vowed to himself that he would bring it up with her once they arrived home, not wishing to make a scene before they managed to make it out of the country.
As it was, they would likely have a harder time using the rings to return to Britain than they'd had arriving. The tomb containing the platform was a relatively recent find, having only been uncovered five years prior. As such people were still discouraged from access. Coming out had been easy, going in without detection would be far harder.
He sighed and leaned away from the intense stare he could still feel on his shoulders and tried to copy Luna and get a little extra sleep. Hopefully, it would help get him back on the right time for their return and give him a little peace given he couldn't pin down his observer right now.
ϟ
Monday, 5th July 1999.
The sound of the rings launching from the floor and materializing their cargo from halfway around the world filled the cavern, four figures left behind as they once more returned to the floor, sealing away under their metal lid. The four stepped out of the circle and Luna triggered the device once more, bringing the tent and all their supplies back from Fundamenta where they left it to ensure they didn't accidentally send their tent to Mexico.
Hermione stepped away from the group and walked over to the plinth where the hologram of Merlin was standing watching them all.
"Hello." She greeted, landing heavily on the couch in front of the steps as the hologram nodded in reply to her greeting.
"Good morning. I detect your mission was successful. Data has been downloading from both locations for days now. Though there is some rather intense security on both cores. I am having to be very careful in extracting the data without the intrusion being detected."
"We were," Harry replied, taking a place at the other end of the couch, Hermione's eye flicking to him for a moment. "What's new here?"
"I took the time while you were away to go over the records left in the Fundamenta database. All of the data cores have defrosted and the full story begins to emerge now. They left the galaxy millions of years ago due to the plague we identified, but the reason for their return was a formidable enemy in the Pegasus galaxy they could see no way of defeating. The war looked ready to continue indefinitely, so they sunk the city to the bottom of the ocean of Lantea and returned here through the Astria Porta.
"However, they returned not to Antarctica as expected, but to Egypt, where they found a civilization of humans enslaved by a 'supreme being' and his reptilian army. The being called itself Ra and despite his human form, they discovered he was a parasite living in the body of a human boy. He had found Earth recently and his technology, most of it repurposed ancient Alteran designs, could extend the life of his new host far longer than his former one."
"What did they do?" Harry enquired.
Merlin's eyes drifted to him and his face became solemn. "They did nothing. Non-interference had become their highest goal after Pegasus, though the records are devoid of the reasons why. Clearly, something happened there that they wished to forget. They did find the former host, a creature they had not yet come to know, but that my records note to be an ancient Asgard. It was odd that there was no brain activity in the form, yet it clearly still lived, though in a very bad state. Unable to do anything themselves, they placed the body in stasis in the Horn of Africa."
"What's an Asgard? That's Norse mythology." Hermione asked.
Merlin looked slightly taken aback. "The Asgard are a race my kind met after their return to this galaxy. But we'll come to that in a moment. Deciding they could not live under the dominion of Ra, but unwilling to force his retreat or interfere in his rule, most of the Lanteans chose to leave. It appears this Ra did not seem to guard the Astria Porta heavily at this time and they were able to get away cleanly. Those who remained cast to the seven winds and settled small locations that would be their homes as they worked on shedding their physical form."
"And Merlin came here?" Neville asked as he too sat.
"Moros, he was at the time, but yes, almost. He found a cave in a primitive area of Britain and he built a shrine of peace within, carving it from the stone himself."
"He built this place by hand?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Not this place. It is further east, in an area you now call London. Far underground. Within the cave, he used his technological know-how to build an altar and several rectangular focusing terraces leading down to it. On the altar in the centre, he constructed an archway through which he could communicate with his far-flung fellows. It was in that space that he achieved his ascension."
Hermione looked up at the stunned face of Luna hanging over the back of the couch just above her, before checking to see that both her male friends were equally as shocked.
"This… archway," Harry asked, cautiously. "What would happen if one were to step through it?"
Merlin looked confused at the question before the face took on the usual state that indicated the computer was prioritizing a search for data over the interface's natural movements. "I have no record indicating what would happen. Merely a general schematic of the device. It contains a weak wormhole within its bounds that allows two-way communication, but there is not sufficient data to determine if a physical being could survive a journey through it. The wormhole was initiated from this end though, so it is plausible."
Neville, Luna and Hermione all turned to look at Harry, sitting quietly at the far end of the couch. His face was shooting between many different emotions. Clearly, he was deeply affected by the idea that Sirius was not dead but simply lost out in the wilds of the galaxy somewhere.
Hermione stood and moved to the other end of the couch, gently sitting next to her friend. She delicately touched his shoulder and Harry turned to face her, his eyes clouding with suppressed tears. "Harry?"
He stared into her eyes for a moment before looking down and away, seemingly embarrassed to be so open to her at this moment. "I don't want to hope and be denied. But..."
"I know," she replied, pulling him into a firm embrace. "I understand now in a way I didn't before. We'll look into it for you, I promise."
He nodded gently against her chest as he struggled to keep the pain from leaking out. It bothered her that he still tried to be the strong leader for them all when there was no need to, but that was her Harry.
"I seem to have said something wrong." Merlin deduced.
"Not wrong, just potentially life-changing," Luna explained, sitting between Hermione and where Neville had shuffled to the other end of the couch. "Continue, please."
"If you're certain. The notes from after their departure are sparse, and oddly spaced. However, it is clear that a small resurgence of Alteran civilization did briefly occur. They met three other advanced humanoid races in their travels. The Nox, a race that holds the natural world in the highest regard. The Furlings, a species who technologically almost rivalled themselves in some areas, but who seemed to be diminishing in some odd manner they refused to discuss. And the Asgard, also a greatly advanced civilization.
"They came together out of a desire to learn and share, and the last of the Lanteans found peace in their newest allies. Over several millennia they worked together, even establishing a meeting place amongst the stars which they called Consortium. But sometime about five thousand years ago the Alliance drifted apart and the remaining Lanteans died out or achieved ascension. There is no record of a surviving element continuing on in this galaxy after that."
The four sat rather stunned at the information. Not only was it plausible that Harry's godfather was stuck somewhere out in space, but the race they had been studying had finally met its end after millions and millions of years of history.
"I think…" Harry began, softly, "maybe we should take a few days. I need time to digest that."
The others glanced at him and nodded. "Agreed," Hermione added, nuzzling tighter against him.
"That seems prudent. It will allow me time to further analyse both the records and the new data. Though if the human's clavis replacement is anywhere near as complex as the clavis itself, it may take months to sort through properly.
Hermione nodded to the hologram and stood, pulling Harry up as well. "C'mon, Harry. Let's get you home for now."
Harry didn't resist as she led him away from the others and into the tent. He stood silently in the living room as Hermione gathered a few things from her room and returned, tucking her arm around his and disapparating them both back to Grimmauld Place, all thoughts of talking washed away by the incredible news.