Disclaimer: I own nothing; Harry Potter and the elements of his universe all belong to J.K.Rowling. Firefly/Serenity and the elements of its universe all belong to Joss Whedon. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR – Just Like We Planned

Serenity shook from the explosion and the people not holding onto anything went tumbling around from a loss of balance.

"Keep those shields up," Mal called into the intercom. His face was tight and determined as he asked his pilot, "River?"

"Primary buffer panel is overheating," River rattled back a status report. "Hydraulics are cutting out. Left side'll be dead real soon."

"Kaylee?" Mal said, keeping his balance by hanging onto the wall by the intercom.

"I'm going," Kaylee called as she hurried back towards the engine room.

Harry was peeking out the window and saw a number of the Reaver ships were all turned around and aiming towards them. "Inara!" Harry insisted. "You're with me! Captain, we'll draw their attention away. Keep those shields up until we're in place." Harry grabbed the Companion's arm and pulled her with him, not even giving Mal a chance to reply.

Loud hollow thumps sounded as pieces of the massive destroyed Reaver ship continued to collide with them. Mal yelled, "Hit the gas, River. We gotta get some of this wreckage off of us."

River yanked on the steering and dove straight down. She was jerking the controls unsuccessfully to the left. "Hang on people." She curved them off towards the right avoiding another cannon shot in their direction, safely navigating despite the increasingly unstable ride.

"Where are we hurting?" Mal asked, after peeking around the corner and seeing Fullerton and Algernon focused on the shields.

"System's buggy," River called out as the ship was beginning to shake. "If you need us to take a left, it'll have to be three rights."

"What are you doing?" Inara called out as Harry sealed her cabin shut.

"We need to get their attention off Serenity and onto us," Harry explained as he hurriedly powered everything up. He turned to her and said, "Grab on to something."

Inara barely had time to process that statement before she realized Harry was disengaging and taking off from Serenity while the Firefly class ship was spiraling at nearly full burn. The tiny shuttle whipped out of control.

Harry called into the intercom, once he'd managed to right the shuttle and send them into a controlled flight. "River, you've got shields up that'll hold long enough. I need you to level out and fly smooth. Got it?"

"You got a plan here, Harry?" Mal's voice called back. "Because it better be good."

"They don't have a lock on you," Harry said as he pulled right in front of Serenity and tried to maintain a constant distance from them. "Except with your halo of wreckage and debris the shields are collecting."

Another blast from a nearby Reaver ship connected with Serenity, sending loud trembling sounds throughout the ship, but the shields held and she continued flying true.

"I'm in place now," Harry explained. "You need to slam on the brakes at same time the wizards drop their shields."

The crew realized that the ripple and haze directly in front of them was Harry flying Inara's shuttle.

"Captain?" River asked.

"Do it," Mal ordered, just before yelling into the intercom. "Drop the shields!"

Harry meanwhile had hopped up right out of the pilot's seat in and said to the wide-eyed Companion, "Take over here, please."

Inara yelped but didn't have much choice in the matter. She was climbing over Harry to reach the chair when she saw the glowing iridescent shield encompassing Serenity disappear as all the wreckage came flying towards them. Inara flinched and looked away, while Harry hurriedly slammed up a similar glowing magical shield for just the shuttle.

The debris was caught in Harry's shield and coated the small shuttle with melted shrapnel.

"Got it!" Harry called into the intercom. "Now don't use your shields again! Get down on Miranda. We'll lead them away, before doubling back towards you."

"Get us outta here, River," Mal called.

River hit the gas again, now clearly being able to see where Inara's little shuttle was, though the size of the shield gave the impression it was far larger than reality. She banked them back down and to the right again, headed straight for the planet of Miranda. "Hang on people, we're entering the atmo."

"Any tails?"

River shook her head. "They're all following Harry and Inara."

Mal nodded uncertain if that was good or not.

"You want us to take the backup shuttle, Mal?" Jayne asked. "I can grab me a wizard."

"And do what? No, don't. They were chasing one ghost and they still are," Mal answered.

"Besides we may need that shuttle," Zoe added when Jayne seemed to frown helplessly.

"River," Mal barked. "Can you still reach Harry?"

"Negative," River answered holding tighter on the controls as they could clearly see smoke pluming from the nose of the ship. "We're on secondary power, and that don't include transmitter boosts."

He leaned into the intercom and pressed the button for the engine room. "Kaylee?"

There was no response. Mal glanced over at Simon. He again called, "Kaylee?"

"Doc," Mal began but didn't have to finish as Simon leapt up from the floor and steadied himself through the halls as he hurried back towards the engine room.

"Chou ma niao," Mal grumbled as Serenity's trembling and shaking increased as they cleared the upper atmosphere. "She holding up River?"

"She's good," River answered as she aimed for the largest city. "But we're coming in pretty hot."

"How hot?" Mal asked holding onto the ceiling, as he walked up closer to them.

The entire front window was overcome with flames before giving way to blackened smoke yielding zero visibility.

"Pretty hot," River answered unnecessarily.

The ground was fast approaching and River was pulling up to slow them down. Most of the smoke had cleared, but that was because the parts burning had run out of fuel. The controls weren't responding properly at all. "Gos se," River swore.

"What now?" Mal asked hanging onto the wall and the back of River's chair.

"Half the landing gear came down," River explained as she tried to steady them. "And now not even that half will go back up."

Mal saw River was aiming for an empty stretch of desert looking land, just outside of the main metropolis. Mal warned into the intercom, "Everyone, hang on!"

River pulled up as hard as she could, while she kept trying to get the landing gear up. At the last second, the working parts came up, preventing them from falling into a barrel roll. The massive transport ship Serenity slammed into the dusty ground, tilting harshly onto its left side. They carved up the empty terrain for a hundred feet before finally skidding to a stop. A collective sigh escaped from everyone on the bridge.

Harry was holding up his shield, while Inara just looked at him in fear. Two more blasts from Reavers slammed into the magical barrier and Harry grit his teeth as he felt the force with which the cannons hit. He turned to Inara, "Now would be a good time to start flying."

That snapped Inara out of her daze and she cranked the throttle up to full. The little shuttle shot off like a bat out of hell. She just wasn't prepared for there to be Reavers in every direction.

"There's nowhere to go!" Inara was panicking as she kept jerking left, right, up, and down.

"You're doing fine," Harry calmed her. He peeked out his window and sensed the magic surrounding Serenity was headed straight towards Miranda.

"Fine? Fine?" Inara yelped. "Where do I go? They're everywhere!"

Harry grunted as another shot hit the shield. "Head away from the planet."

Inara obeyed and turned to realize there were even more Reavers in that direction. She started to fly up and over them, but they were being chased rapidly. "Where now? Harry! Where now?"

Harry sighed at her melodramatics. "Wherever you want. We're buying the others some time."

"Eep!" Inara yelled as a ship seemed to swoop right in front of them. She deftly swerved down and away. She was calming herself and up to the challenge. "Come on, Inara. I can do this."

"Fly around aimlessly?" Harry mocked, happy to see no one had caught on to Serenity's quick exit. "I should hope so."

"Shush, I'm trying to concentrate," Inara complained as she began weaving in and out of the quickly converging Reaver ships. Magnetic pulls were affecting her steering, but she had managed to avoid the majority of the shots fired in their direction.

A loud clank sounded as grappler hooks smashed into the shield only to bounce off ineffectively. Inara tried to act as if she hadn't just yelped and jumped in her seat, but Harry had noticed.

"We're okay," Harry assured her, while seeing if he could divide his concentration from the shield enough to cast another spell. He wasn't feeling especially confident in that, nor could he see incoming attacks from a 360 degree radius.

Inara was chewing on her lip while focusing on avoiding the Reavers. "Why me?"

"We're not gonna die," Harry said rolling his eyes, as he began to sweat from the continuous drain on his magic the shield required.

"We'd better not," Inara snapped. "I meant why did you need me? Mal's the next best pilot behind you and River. Heck, Zoe can probably fly a shuttle better than me too."

Harry shrugged. "You know your own shuttle. You have a vested interest in protecting your stuff. You'd just be taking up space panicking on the bridge right now. And there's no way Mal was going to leave his boat in the middle of this."

Inara had to agree but shrieked as she missed the approach of a large Reaver ship. She and Harry both had to brace themselves as the shuttle crashed straight through the side of the Reaver spacecraft.

Harry's shield buckled and bent closer to edges of the shuttle, but held firm. Unfortunately, it also lodged them in tightly with their nose sticking into the hallway where they'd pierced the hull of the Reaver ship.

Three Reavers came running from inside the ship and were seen pounding on the thin magical shield that both protected them and ensured they were stuck.

Inara began to freak out, but Harry was quick to calm her. "Relax! They won't get through the shield."

"I'm sorry, Harry," Inara began to hysterically apologize. "I didn't even see them and then they-"

"It's okay," Harry assured her, though he visibly winced when he saw the gunfire begin to attack the shield. Bullets were ricocheting back at the Reavers who were barely flinched. "Frankly, I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did."

"What do we do?" Inara asked, in between her repeated failures to free the shuttle from its position.

Harry frowned and tried to look behind them. "Well, I was hoping another ship might yank us out of here but I don't think that's going to happen."

"You can get us out, can't you?" Inara's eyes widened with each word.

"Sure, sure," Harry said. "But… it's going to mean dropping the shield."

"What?" Inara yelped. "They'll slaughter us!" She was frantically pointing at the Reavers crawling all over their front windshield, clawing and trying to get in.

Harry looked at their scarred faces and milky white, crazed eyes. "No, I think they're going to have bigger problems with the giant gaping hole in their ship. It's time for us to get on the offensive. Are you ready, Inara?"

Inara took a deep breath and let it out. "Not yet," she admitted with a wince.

Harry laughed at her and said, "Well get ready, because we're going to be flying with an intermittent shield at best. How much power does this thing have left?"

"If it were fully charged we'd have another hour," Inara said, steadying herself at the controls.

Harry sighed. "I take it we weren't fully charged?"

"Not hardly," Inara admitted, as she wiped her forehead and rubbed her clammy hands together.

"How much you think we got left?" Harry asked wincing as he saw there were a dozen Reavers all climbing on top of each other trying to breach his shield. Some had begun gnawing at it.

"Frankly, I'm surprised we've lasted this long," Inara parroted Harry's earlier words with hopeless cheer.

"Great," Harry admitted. "It might have helped if you'd mentioned that sooner. You ready now?"

"No," Inara admitted turning towards Harry.

"Too bad," Harry replied. He dropped his shield and immediately sent an overpowered banisher straight ahead into the crowd of Reavers and ship they were lodged in. Inara's shuttle came flying backwards free from the Reaver ship. Harry called up another shield as the Reavers were all bodily sucked out from the ship that now featured a massive hull breach, before it caved inwards and collapsed on itself.

Inara grabbed onto the controls and swooped them forward underneath the dead ship. When they came shooting up from the other side Harry dropped the shield again and sent the crumbling pieces of wreckage careening towards the Reaver ships crowded behind them.

Relying on the invisibility for cover, rather than the shield provided Harry with ample opportunities for attack. Unfortunately his spell arsenal was vastly limited by the fact that he couldn't send most of the destructive spells he knew without destroying the shuttle. His ingenuity came through for him as he attempted to summon the backs of hovering Reaver ships, often sending them into unexpected flips. A few banishing charms sent the ships crashing into each other and only twice so far had he even needed to put up a shield as magnetic grapplers got too close for comfort. He just wasn't sure how many of these overpowered summoning and banishing spells he could manage.

Inara was whooping for joy as it seemed the Reavers were now too confused or distracted by being attacked from their own nearby ships to notice the ripple of the disillusioned shuttle.

The small melee and cluster of Reaver ships allowed Inara to circle around completely unnoticed, while Harry kept alternating between summoning charms and banishing charms that twisted the Reavers out of position. There were only a couple left in between the shuttle and Miranda.

"This is kinda fun," Inara said, earning a scowl from Harry. "What?" she asked worriedly.

"I don't know," Harry said back. "But if ever there was a time for things to go south again, you just made it."

Inara opened her mouth to retort but the shuttle seemed to answer for her, powering down completely, leaving only a few battery powered screens still visible. "Oh."

The very last nearby Reaver ship was ironically a Firefly class. It slowly turned towards the spot Harry and Inara were helplessly idling at.

"Harry," Inara reminded fearfully.

"I see them," Harry said, trying to think of the best solution here.

"Harry," Inara repeated getting the feeling they had been located as the ship was beginning to move straight towards them.

"If I cast a shield now they're all gonna see us," Harry said. He hurriedly summoned the lower back of the Reaver ship and sent them tumbling backwards facing the other direction. "Cover your ears, please."

"Why?" Inara asked worriedly.

"Because I'm about to scream," Harry assured her calmly.

Inara jammed her two index fingers into her ears and watched Harry. Harry was focusing on deluding himself knowing it wouldn't work without delusion. He snapped his wand into his hand and kept his eyes closed. He turned in the direction of the planet and roared out, "Accio Miranda!"

With only the vacuum of space separating them, the little shuttle began careening wildly straight towards the planet.

"Ahhh!" Inara began screaming as they were both being thrown about the tiny cabin.

"It worked," Harry said gratefully as he held himself down into the extra seat.

"Anyway you can smooth this ride out, Harry?" Inara yelled at him, as she saw her shelves shaking and all of her possessions getting thrown about.

Harry shook his head. "I don't want to slow us down any if we're going to clear the atmosphere."

"Can't you magic the shuttle working again?" Inara argued.

"Dunno," Harry said.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Inara said looking out the window and seeing the telltale signs of entering the planet's atmosphere.

"Oh sure," Harry mockingly bit out. "I do this all the time."

"You at least got a plan for when we crash into the ground?" Inara snapped as she grabbed a candle holder just before it fell.

"Err… try not to?" Harry said.

"Harry!"

Harry peeked out the window and saw the ground fast approaching. It was way past time for any clever ideas, so he just slammed up the same shield he'd been using before.

To an outside observer it looked like an iridescent blue meteor plowed into the ground. The terrain was relatively soft and massive cloud of dirt and debris exploded from around them as they skidded to a stop leaving a nice fresh one hundred yard crater that was about thirty feet deep.

Harry was grateful he could still see daylight and they hadn't been buried into the ground. Inara had been winded by the sudden stop, but seemed no worse for the wear.

"You alright?" Harry asked her, while she tried to untangle her hair.

"Yeah," Inara agreed. "I'm okay."

"One more bump," Harry assured her as he dropped the shield. The tiny shuttle suddenly fell a couple more feet down and all the dirt around them began to cave in further. Small tick-tack sounds were heard as the last bits of debris finished raining from the sky. "See? We made it to Miranda."

Inara looked around the nearly sideways tilted shuttle and saw all of her things and furniture had been involuntarily rearranged. She looked at Harry and admitted, "I'd be really pissed at you right now, if that hadn't been so much fun."

Harry just chuckled and agreed. Harry stood up and tapped the window where daylight could be seen. "Let's get out of here and make sure we weren't followed."

Inara's eyes widened. "Don't say that! If there ever was a time for that to happen, you probably just did it!"

Harry responded by vanishing the window so they could climb out the top of the shuttle. A small layer of dirt and debris rained down on Inara and fell back into cabin, all over her stuff.

Harry tried not to snicker when he saw Inara's mouth had been open in the right place at the right time and she was spitting to the side and scraping her tongue. He hopped up out of the shuttle and then extended an arm to help her up. The pair climbed their way out of the trench the shuttle had inadvertently just dug. Harry looked around in all directions and saw flat hot desert with a 360 degree horizon.

"Lovely," Inara commented. "You've crashed us into the middle of nowhere."

Harry rolled his eyes, and levitated the shuttle out of the small crater. "If I recall correctly, you were the one sitting in the driver's seat."

"No I was the one being flung about wildly nearest to the driver's seat not the one…" Inara trailed off as she saw Harry was staring up in the sky.

Headed straight for them was a Firefly class ship that was eerily familiar.

"That's not Serenity, is it?" Inara asked.

"Nope," Harry admitted, as he fell to his knees. "It's not. And right now, my magic is pretty exhausted."

"You've got a plan, right?" Inara said as the Reaver ship landed roughly about fifty yards from them.

"I do," Harry admitted as he cut an X across the palm of his hand. "But just to be on the safe side, FAWKES!" He called out loudly into the air.

In a burst of flame the phoenix appeared and began to snicker at the clearly unconventional landing he'd missed out on.

"Keep her safe and keep your distance," Harry suggested and received an affirmative nod from Fawkes in return.

Inara's eyes widened as Fawkes grabbed onto her and flew in the air like a spiraling rocket.

Harry chanted his favorite piece of blood magic and figured now was the time to find out the truth about Miranda. Because if she wasn't a magical planet, then there's no way he could invoke any Mystical Arts and make himself a channel for foreign magic. Harry was briefly thinking about the last time he attempted this a little too close to Hogwarts. His worries were gone in the knowledge that Fawkes was nearby and would take care of them if this didn't work. Or perhaps worked too well.

Inara had her eyes closed as she hated the idea of being high up in the air and dependent on a flaming turkey to keep her from plummeting to a horrifying death. She felt the flight had stalled and they were just hovering in the air. She slowly pulled her hand away as she saw Harry looked as small as an ant way down below her. What bothered her most was she could see a half dozen other little ants all rushing towards him. Before they even got within ten feet, Harry's body disappeared in a blinding white light.

Starting from the point where Harry was, a huge wave of magical energy exploded in all directions. You could see the wave of magic's light go from white to a pinkish color as it kept darkening, getting redder and redder. It passed through all the people, all the objects, all the items and covered more than twice the distance from Harry to the Reaver ship.

Fawkes suddenly realized the now crimson wave was still going and had to hurriedly fly to outrun it. He recognized it was merely a stunning spell, and wouldn't hurt Inara, but he wasn't completely confident the effect it might have on him, and falling from this height would be real bad.

The giant sphere of blood red magic finally faded away into nothing and the stun wave was done. Inara looked down and saw none of the tiny people were moving, though there were scorch marks emanating from Harry's position.

Fawkes flew them straight down to the ground just as Harry was getting himself up.

It was only when they got close enough that Inara and Fawkes both started giggling. Fawkes gently set her down and landed onto the ground. The bird was clearly amused at Harry's appearance and Inara had to agree. The glamour charm on his hair was completely gone, and his peppered grey bird's nest was sticking straight out in all directions. His skin tone was a mixture of pale blotches and a blistered raw red. His eyes were wide open and he basically looked like he'd just been electrocuted. Probably the most obvious change though was that his eyebrows had been completely singed off leaving pale blotches behind.

"Wow!" Harry admitted. "Did you see the size of that wave?" Harry got a distinct impression from Fawkes that the phoenix thought he was an idiot and Harry nodded in agreement.

Inara hurried her way behind Harry, ensuring he was in between her and the unconscious Reavers. "Are they gonna wake up?"

"As close to me as they were," Harry asked scratching the back of his head. "Without an ennervate or two, they might not. Ever."

"I'm okay with that," Inara commented. "Now can we please get away from the insane, cannibalistic monsters?"

Harry dusted himself off unaware of just how poor he looked at the moment. "Yeah, let me collect them." Harry had an excess of magic now and found it eager to respond, a stark contrast from the tiredness he felt moments ago. With only a wave of his hand he'd transfigured the first Reaver into a one-inch tall action figure. He repeated the process with the other seven laid out on the ground. He put them all in his pocket and tried summoning more from inside the ship. Six more came flying out the open cargo bay door, though from the sound of it, at least a couple were banging their heads along the way. Harry shrunk them down and shoved them into the same pocket.

"Man," Harry commented. "I'm feeling really juiced." Harry walked over towards Inara's shuttle, and wiggled his nose back and forth just like Luna used to make him do in public. Immediately, all of Inara's belongings began to repair themselves and jump back into place. He spun his finger around where the window used to be and replaced it with a shiny new one.

"Thanks," Inara commented, highly impressed by the use of magic.

"I'm gonna need to exhaust myself again or I'll really feel pain from that stun wave," Harry explained. He saw Inara just nod and smile as she didn't understand the first thing about the Mystic Arts. "I'll just apparate us to the others, Fawkes."

Fawkes understood and flew over to Harry's shoulder. He put one hand on Inara's shuttle and stuck his other out for Inara. She grabbed his hand, and he concentrated on Serenity, apparating the group, shuttle and all

The momentary peace of having safely landed on the surface of Miranda ended abruptly as River barked out, "Hey wizard boys!"

"Yes, Miss Tam?" Fullerton answered the somewhat rude beckoning.

"You mind taking your little wands and putting out any fires you see?"

"I know this game," Jayne perked up. "When I was little we used to…" Jayne saw a number of displeased looks and resigned his train of thought. "I'll shut up."

"Certainly," Fullerton agreed noticing the smoke and steam rising from the front of the ship. "Algernon, bubblehead charms until we know more."

"I got the fires, you get the people," Algernon replied, cast a bubblehead, and apparated directly outside. He was quickly sending a thick stream of water from his wand, dousing all the small fires first on the ship, and then on the nearby foliage.

Fullerton walked the familiar way around the ship, getting everyone herded together and assigned a perimeter to guard them while they investigated the city and planet for a base to hopefully start warding.

Mal hurried back towards the engine room. He saw Kaylee on the floor, her head propped up by Simon's sweater. "You okay?" Mal asked with worry evident in his voice.

Kaylee nodded with a wry smile.

Simon looked up from his position kneeling over her. "She has a concussion. She needs to rest for at least a day, maybe two."

"I'm fine," Kaylee retorted. "Just a little bump."

"What happened?" Mal asked before Simon could protest.

"It was nothing," Kaylee said slowly shaking her head and looking like she regretted that action. "A wrong step at the wrong time, and I fell, hittin' my head."

"You need to take it easy," Simon argued. "In your condition-"

"My condition?" Kaylee repeated testily. "I'm pregnant, Simon. I don't have a disease."

"Yeah," Mal grinned. "I think Kaylee's doing fine."

"Thank you, Cap'n," Kaylee grinned.

"But you gotta follow the Doc's advice and take it easy," Mal ordered. "If we gotta hurry we got wizards who can magic a patch job, I'm sure. If the Doc agrees, you can manage the repairing, telling folks what to do and how. But I don't want you… irritating your condition none."

Kaylee frowned at imagining her baby was a sexually transmitted disease. She realized what Mal was saying. "How bad is she? Cuz her heart seemed to be pumpin' fine in here."

"She's a little tore up on the outside," Mal said. "She's been worse off though."

"Oh no," Kaylee pouted imagining her other baby, Serenity, hurting. "Where?"

"Well, the primary buffer panel for one."

"Again?" Kaylee yelped.

"Easy!" Simon scolded.

"Among other things, yeah," Mal answered and could see Simon's look. Mal finished by saying, "You don't even gotta leave the ship, if you don't wanna. Let's let the wizards do their wizard thing. You take it easy." Mal turned to Simon and asked, "You need help getting her to your room?"

"I can walk you know," Kaylee grumbled as she tried to stand up. She stumbled for a moment but steadied herself by leaning against the wall. "See?"

Simon nodded. "We'll be fine." He walked over to her and let her sling her body weight onto his shoulder. "Let us know when Harry and Inara are back."

"Harry and Inara!" Kaylee yelped. "What happened to them? Where'd they go?"

"Gos se," Simon grumbled as he hadn't meant to worry her. He and Kaylee slowly walked towards their cabin as he tried to convince her not to worry because Harry was involved. It was pretty fruitless considering he didn't believe it himself.

Mal hurried to the back of the ship and walked out right behind the little goblin Digdug with the phoenix perched happily on its head. He noticed everyone else had bubbles around their heads that looked more like upside-down fishbowls than magic. "What's going on?"

"Captain," Fullerton said spinning around. He quickly snapped his wand at him and a fishbowl appeared around his head too.

"What are you doing?" Mal said as his hands smacked into the walls of the bubble and he realized his head was trapped. The situation didn't cause Mal to hyperventilate or worry over the lack of oxygen, but it sure made his nose itch like crazy.

"Bubblehead charm," Fullerton explained. "Until we're certain the Pax is out of the oxygen, we figure it's better to err on the side of caution."

"Err… you know about two and a half years ago we were here and didn't get sick," Mal explained. "You think someone's turned it back on, since then?"

"No," Fullerton explained. "But it could be simply the levels have dropped to the point you'd need longer term exposure than the half hour or so you had."

"Okay. That's great and all, but how do I scratch my nose?" Mal commented curling his upper lip into his nose.

Fullerton looked at him oddly, "Perhaps with your finger?"

Mal stuck his hand straight through the bubble and was able to rub his itchy nose. "I couldn't do that a second ago."

"Were you trying to scratch your nose?" Fullerton commented. "Or destroy the bubble? Because it shouldn't prevent you from anything other than ensuring clean air to breathe, even submerged in water."

Mal was knocking on the bubble with his fist a few times before he suddenly smacked himself in the forehead. "Okay I get it. Never mind. Why's everyone looking over there?"

"We saw a ship in that direction," Fullerton answered looking in that direction.

"Harry and Inara?"

"No it was not their shuttle," Fullerton commented. Fawkes disappeared in a burst of fire and Fullerton grinned happily. "They'll be fine. Digdug? Any luck?"

Digdug smiled dangerously showing enough teeth to make Mal wince. "There's something here. It's not the same as Earth, but there is definitely something."

"Excellent," Fullerton agreed.

"Hold on," Mal said. "How do you know Harry and Inara are fine, if that wasn't their shuttle?"

"I suspect that ship may have been chasing Harry and Inara."

"What?" Mal snapped.

Fullerton held a hand to stop the Captain. "Fawkes just disappeared either to assist Harry or more likely because he was called."

"Then they need help," Mal insisted telling River to get the backup shuttle and come pick them up.

"I think you may be underestimating both Mr. Potter and the power of a phoenix," Fullerton said before turning his head at the giant red bubble. The light shining off it was blinding and everyone was flinching to cover their eyes. "Oh my…"

"Great Merlin!" A man called out.

"Headmaster," an older witch with thick horn-rimmed glasses asked. "Does that mean what I think it does?"

"I believe so," Fullerton nodded and smiled.

Digdug clapped his hands together forcefully and the air all around them seemed to vibrate. He suddenly became aware of all the nearby gold as his goblin spell was successful. He slowly looked up towards Fullerton and the Captain. "It is," Digdug said with complete certainty. "It felt different because she's new to all this." Digdug turned and ran back into Serenity, no doubt headed to inform his father.

"I don't have time for this," Mal said and turned to Fullerton. "You're coming with me to check that blast out."

"Don't bother, Captain," River said, powering down the backup shuttle she'd just pulled up next to them.

Mal was going to ask her why when he saw her looking behind him. Mal spun around and identified Harry and Inara had appeared at some point bringing her shuttle with him.

"Harry! Inara! You guys, alright?" Mal said before taking notice of Harry's appearance. "Actually, Harry, don't answer that. Inara, are you alright?"

Inara snickered as Harry's eyebrow-less forehead furrowed. "Yes, I'm fine," she answered. "Do I need to bowl around my head?"

"Oh sorry," Harry realized everyone else was using bubblehead charms. He snapped his fingers and small bubble appeared around Inara's head too. He repeated the process on himself.

Inara sniffed in the air twice. "Is that cinnamon… and citrus?"

Harry nodded. "If you don't add a slight odor, then all you'll smell will be your own breath after a few minutes."

"But cinnamon and citrus?" Inara said confused at the odd combination.

"I couldn't decide which, both kinda came out," Harry admitted with a shrug. "I could've gone for Jayne's gym shorts if you'd rather."

Inara realized the orangey-cinnamon smell could be a lot worse and just shook her head.

"We lost power and contact with you," Harry commented. "I see your landing was only slightly better than ours. Everyone okay?"

"Kaylee bumped her head," Mal explained. "But we're okay. What the hell happened up there, Harry?"

"They couldn't see us," Harry assured him. "But they could sense us… sort of. I think it was actually the languid quiet that made our presence stand out so much more. If we just tried to blow past them, they may not have ever registered our existence."

Mal sighed but was grateful it hadn't been worse.

"If I may interrupt," Fullerton jumped in. "I think we have a lot of people here eager to do the jobs assigned to them."

"Yeah," Mal nodded. "Take Zoe and Jayne and check out those compressors. I'll be happier knowing we don't gotta wear bubbles on our head."

Zoe came out the large cargo bay door and pulled the skiff up next to Fullerton, while Jayne hopped in having gone back for Vera. Zoe was biting her lip at the sight of Harry. "New haircut?"

"You're gonna ruin all my fun, aren't you, Zoe?" Mal said with a hidden grin.

"No, sir," Zoe replied ignoring Harry who just now noticed how grey his hair was. "Just picking up Fullerton for a little air-check and Pax-hunting."

Mal nodded. "Keep your line open the whole way. I want to be able to hear the three of you."

Fullerton got on and the trio shot off in the direction of the nearest air regulation station.

The remaining crew members spun around and saw a crowd of goblins all start to come out the back of the ship.

Each goblin jerked their head in surprise at the sight of Harry, their reluctant Master. It was a semi-constant stream of snorts and brief nods as they all tried to remain respectful.

River saw Harry was tapping his hairless eyebrow area and commented. "You look good, Harry."

Ripruck broke off from the single file line of goblins exiting the ship and headed towards the city. He barely even blinked at Harry's appearance as the wizard in question was trying to flatten his hair and coming up against stiff resistance.

"Harry," Ripruck greeted. "I trust you are feeling well?"

Harry nodded unconsciously and asked, "Digdug found what you were looking for?"

Ripruck nodded affirmatively. "He did. He said it wasn't responsive until you broke the ice and said 'Hi' first."

Harry grinned and looked really scary with a flattened patch of hair on the top of his head. "Yeah, you could say that. Speaking of, is there anything I can do to help? I kinda need to burn off all this foreign magic and then crash or it's gonna hurt. And I don't really want it to hurt."

Ripruck frowned and said, "The managers are simply going to inventory what there is on this planet, what works, and what doesn't. It will probably be hours before we begin any major ward casting." Ripruck saw Harry sigh in dejection and suggested, "Perhaps you can magic yourself new eyebrows?"

Harry grumbled. "Does it show that much?"

"Not really," Ripruck answered. "Your skin is already so discolored that you barely notice the lack of eyebrows."

Harry conjured a mirror, no longer caring if it made him look vain. His eyes bugged out at the sight of his current appearance.

"Wait!" River called out just as Harry was going to cast spells at himself. "Go see Kaylee. She was worried about you and Inara. And your appearance is one of those things she'll like seeing more than hearing about."

Harry rolled his eyes but figured Kaylee would appreciate.

"And Simon would never forgive me," River added with a proud grin, having already recognized the signs of reluctant acceptance on Harry's face.

Harry nodded and turned back towards the ship. He weaved his way around some unabashedly snickering goblins and went towards Simon and Kaylee's cabin.

"River," Mal added. "You got a camera, don't you?"

"On it Captain," River agreed and hurried back towards her own cabin, deciding the video footage on Harry's communicator may not be enough.

Mal looked over at Inara as the only other crew member, while they were surrounded by wizards patrolling the perimeter and goblins seen dragging things in the distance. "You guys have a close call?"

Inara thought back to her myriad of near-death experiences in the last half hour. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"You were actually worried?" Kaylee's voice could be heard yelling in disbelief. "Have you been taking stupid pills?"

Simon looked humbled and shy, feeling foolish yet inordinately happy.

"Oh I'm sorry, honey," Kaylee consoled him, realizing how harsh she had sounded. "Of course I'll marry you. Nothing could make me happier."

Harry wasn't sure whether he should intrude on their private moment, or scold Simon for asking at such a horribly unromantic time.

Simon smiled at her and was fighting back his own tears. "I know this isn't the best time, but finding you unconscious… I just… I didn't want to wait any longer."

"It was the perfect time," Kaylee assured him. "I'm serious, Simon. Nothing could make me happier at this moment."

Harry stuck his head in the door and knocked. "I'm sure it won't, but you mind if I give it a try?"

"Harry," Simon groaned without yet turning around. "Do you really have to…" Simon stopped completely unprepared to see the goofy silvery cowlick and wild hair pointing in all directions. The red blotches and pale singed strips of flesh where Harry's eyebrows used to be left Simon speechless. His face slowly split into a bright smile.

"Congratulations," Harry said earnestly. "Though really, Simon, you couldn't wait for a romantic dinner at least?"

"He was worried I was gonna say no," Kaylee said shaking her bandaged head in disbelief.

"That does sound silly," Harry replied with a grin.

"You told me she'd say no!" Simon protested.

Harry shrugged. "How'd it feel when she said yes?"

Simon clicked his jaw, shutting his mouth in understanding. It had felt truly wonderful when she said yes and still did. Something he may have missed out on, if he'd been more certain of her answer. His thoughts were interrupted by Kaylee's bubbly giggling.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Kaylee asked between smiles. "You here for my fiancé to check you out?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm fine. River and the Captain thought I should let you know me and Inara got back just fine. And they also felt my appearance was something you needed to see for yourselves as apparently words are insufficient."

"We'll have to name our baby River or Mal now," Simon said with complete sincerity. "No engagement gift could ever compare."

"Stop it," Kaylee said smacking him on the arm. Her eye was once again drawn the new addition to her ring finger. She seemed to drift off and was just lost looking right at it.

"She seems to like the ring you chose," Harry commented.

Simon nodded, glancing at Kaylee. He extricated himself from her hold and let her lie down to get some rest. She was still staring at the ring, but her breathing sounded a bit like snoring. Simon walked up to Harry and confided, "The other reason I asked now was in case she said no, I'd act like I never asked and it was just the drugs I've given her that induced a hallucination."

Harry grinned and gave Simon's shoulder a friendly squeeze. "That's possibly the most pathetic fear of rejection I've ever heard of. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Simon agreed happily, still excited that she said yes and not paying all that much attention to Harry.

"You're an idiot," Harry added warmly for the ecstatic young man.

"Yup," Simon agreed. "A very lucky one."

"Harry!" Kaylee called out, waking from her daze. "We're getting married!"

"I heard," Harry agreed wondering just how many drugs Simon had given her.

"What'd you get us?"

Harry quirked his mouth, and was patting down his pockets trying to think of something to conjure. His hand hit the lumps in his pocket and pulled out a small plastic figurine. "An action figure?"

"Ooh! Let me see your boy dolls!"

Harry handed her the transfigured Reaver.

"It's a Reaver," she commented warily looking at the freaky little thing.

"Yes it is," Harry agreed heartily.

Harry handed one for Simon to inspect, while Kaylee was sniffing hers. She stuck it in her mouth and bit gently on its head.

"What are you doing?" Simon asked in disgust. "That's been in his pocket."

Harry snickered and added, "And it's a Reaver too."

"What do you mean?" Simon asked uncertainly, while Kaylee was using hers to scratch inside her ear.

"I mean it is a Reaver," Harry said. "You remember how I turned both of you into beads?"

Simon's mind made the connection as he flung the plastic Reaver in his hand across the room and shuddered in disgust. Kaylee looked up uncertainly as she was tugging her toy's legs apart. "Hmm?"

Zoe, Jayne, and Fullerton came back to report that there were no noticeable traces of Pax in the air and probably hadn't been for close to fifteen years. The canisters that were still hooked up had been drained dry a long time ago and never replaced. So they brought back all the sealed and full canisters of the drug G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate.

The goblins had set-up a large area for a graveyard and future memorial where they were going to dispose of the bodies. Records were kept of all potentially identifiable aspects of the victims, but they simply didn't have the resources or abilities to treat them all individually with the respect they deserved. Nor did the goblins care in the slightest.

But the goblins were excellent at what they did. All the most useful buildings had been structurally reinforced and cleaned. Most of the area was protected by a series of goblin built and maintained wards. Those furthest out were for identification and monitoring of welcome and unwelcome guests. Moving inward the strength and strictness of the wards progressively increased.

The tallest and nicest office building was informally made their base of operations. It was warded with the heaviest goblin wards possible, excepting of the basement. The basement was open to portkeys and apparition, but was protected by a Fidelius charm. Harry was the secret keeper and it was here that the vanishing cabinets were given a permanent home. This ensured quick easy secure and controlled access. Even those not in on the secret could be taken to the cabinets and transported, all the while their minds were in a fog until they reached their destination.

The building down the end of the street and set a little off was claimed by the goblins themselves. And they began digging deeper and deeper setting up vaults for a future branch of Gringotts. It actually took a specific direct order from Harry to get the goblins to not call the bank Potters. Harry argued with them that now they no longer were as dependent on the vault on Earth, they shouldn't be pushing him for an heir. As it stood now, with his death it would mean the end of the line of Potters and they'd be free. Harry was quickly corrected that even upon his death they'd still remain Potters for all eternity, and that it was in the family's best interests for him to have a great many children. Harry never brought the subject up again.

One street over from the base of operations was a large hospital. It had been quickly warded with a mix of wizard magic and goblin protections. A witch named Juliet was a bonafide Enchantress and she had set up the west hallways on the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth floors to all have a nearly unlimited number of rooms easily called into existence as needed. Though on the fifth and sixth floors the rooms were designed as much like cells to keep the patients as they were rooms for healing and recovery.

The fifth floor was busiest one. It contained the lab where Fullerton was experimenting with the Pax they'd recovered. It contained a cushioned portkey room that stunned every arrival. And it was where the fourteen Reavers Harry had caught were all being kept sedated for testing and treatment.

The Reavers were surprisingly far easier to deal with than expected. The Imperius Curse kept them docile, body binds kept them from moving, and Legilimency scans discovered very jarring muddy thoughts that were easily distinguishable from each patient's pre-Reaver memories. Obliviating the Reavers of those starkly different memories would be a long process considering the sheer volume, but it was a viable possibility. Some of the lesser trained Legilimens were unable to deal with the frightening and horrifying thoughts of Reavers, leaving the job for those with stronger stomachs. They were able to locate the names of the patients and left the rest of the mental intrusions for later.

Fullerton announced the Pax was working, but they were still refining the volume to locate a more precise dosage. He was also varying the way it was administered to see if many small doses over a longer period of time might speed recovery, or rather shocking the system with a single full dose worked more effectively. The first Reaver to show calm lucidity and an ability to maintain conversations was named Lenny.

After about an hour of questions where Lenny felt alternately like a complete idiot or a vicious monster, he quite forcefully took a vow of silence.

Lenny was given some peace and quiet then, while they worked on developing a better series of questions and tests.

Sadly, Lenny's vow of silence didn't last once he began to regain his memory.

It was unanimously agreed that there couldn't be too much security, so all exits on both the fifth and sixth floors were protected with Fidelius charms as well. That way, a worst case scenario wouldn't be able to leave the floor. Well, at least not through the windows or doors. The fifth floor was designated Reaver receiving. Cases deemed safe enough were moved to keep the fifth floor open for simply incoming and initial treatment. Lenny was the first of the original fourteen who got moved to the fourth floor. The third floor was for those deemed safe, where they hoped future Reavers could return for check-ups and those nearing their discharge dates could even get visitors. The first two floors were set to act like a mix of wizarding hospital and a muggle one, because simply wizarding medicine was centuries out of date compared to modern non-magical healing.

The sixth floor was to be for patients that may be beyond help. Fullerton wasn't moving any of the patients to the sixth floor unless he absolutely had to.

Simon, when he wasn't fretting over Kaylee, was actually quite helpful with his far more current knowledge of medicine as well as the tools he had at his disposal.

Zoe, Jayne, and Jane took the skiff out many times, essentially scavenging for fuel and supplies they could use, while determining which housing structures would be the best for the wizards, and hopefully former Reavers, to move into.

Harry had contacted Duncan and kept increasing the amount of supplies. Duncan agreed knowing Harry was good for it, but told him he needed some better answers if he was dumping this much cargo onto a small empty ship, not built for transport, nor was it even piloted by anybody. Harry offered him full disclosure and that they'd work out a nice fat deal on the up and up, but not until Harry had a better idea of what they really needed.

Kaylee was obediently taking things easy just like the doctor ordered. She only personally dug into repairing Serenity when the non-magical wizards were doing it all wrong and not listening to her directions correctly. For the most part though, she sipped fruity non-alcoholic beverages and bossed sweaty men around. Simon made sure he went way overboard on the public displays of affection every time he was with her while she was working. It had been particularly fortuitous that there was a second Firefly they were able to scavenge the best working parts from to get Serenity back into tiptop shape.

With a little elbow grease, and a few parts that took Frank about an hour to go pick up, Kaylee even got the second ship up and running. They had to contain the radioactive core though before anyone worked on it. Even still, Simon gave her a Geiger counter and tried to convince her it was a new wave necklace.

The first ship of the hunt had been born. Kaylee was given the honor of naming it. She decided to call it Destiny. Harry said she wasn't allowed to name anymore ships and Simon took careful note, deciding he really needed to talk about baby names as soon as possible.

But now, they had the beginnings of a fleet for future Reaver hunters. Destiny's maiden voyage was upon them and they were all armed with heavy duty tranquilizers, knockout gas grenades, and gas masks that slid into place at a moment's notice.

River was piloting. Jayne was perfectly content to be the Captain, if only in title, while Harry was in charge of everybody. Zoe was with them and rounding out the rest of the crew of Destiny were four wizards all capable of silent quick-snap stunners.

The group was prepped and ready as they broke through the atmosphere looking around for Reaver ships. Seeing the skies were clear, River set them to idle a little ways, hiding under disillusionment, since it appeared none of the Reavers were focused enough to be distracted by muggle aversion charms.

Harry took the backup shuttle and set up the over-sized power sapping net, adding disillusionment over all visible pieces of it. He reattached the shuttle with Destiny and walked back up to the bridge.

"We're all set," Harry happily announced. "River, take us to 'em."

River nodded and engaged at a mild slow burn, not wanting to seem too obvious. By the time they spotted a Reaver ship on radar, everyone's adrenaline was pumping.

"Oh boy," River commented, when she saw that they had been spotted by the Reavers before she had managed any spotting of her own. "I think it's time for a hasty retreat."

She turned them around and headed back towards their invisible net. "We got three catching up quick," she stated, as Destiny's engine was going full burn.

"Three shouldn't be a problem," Harry answered with a grin. "Up, up, up, River!"

River pulled up suddenly and hit the brakes.

"We're past the net," Harry said. "Take us down a bit… little more… there."

"Guys?" Harry said to the other four wizards. "Drop the disillusionment."

They sent finites in four directions and Destiny flickered into view. The three Reaver ships were flying in tight formation headed right for them.

"Don't cast a shield before me," Harry ordered keeping his eyes on the approaching Reaver ships. Harry held his hand up, waiting as the Reavers came straight at them. He saw the flash of fire and instantly his magic snapped into a shimmering blue shield, that the other four quickly added their strength.

Knowing her cue, River hit the gas and dove straight down. The three Reaver ships all went straight through the net and came out the other side powerless rocks floating away in space.

"Keep an eye out for any others, River," Harry ordered. "Gentlemen, now is the time for you to get those shared power summoning spells working." It took a bit of instruction, while River idly kept pace, but eventually the Reaver ships were stopped.

Harry hopped in the shuttle with Zoe, and they worked their around, pumping knockout gas into the three motionless Reaver ships. They went back to Destiny, and River latched onto the first ship. They gave the knockout gas another fifteen minutes, before they unsealed the airlocks and prepared to board the first ship. Guns, grenades, and gas masks were all ready and in place.

"Alright folks," Harry said, spinning open the airlock on the Reaver ship, as he turned to the rest of the crew. "It's time to get to work."