Chapter Thirty-Five: Meridian
A/N: From now on, having officially moved to their new capital, the Aetherial will be using Alteran as their default and official language.
To avoid abusing your eyes with bold letters all the time, I will only use that identifier when they are speaking it around others who don't understand it. But if the group are talking amongst themselves, you can assume it is Alteran being translated to English for your ease of reading.
This also means we will start getting the English terms for most things as well. Mostly because I'm tired of writing Porta instead of Stargate.
Saturday, 3rd June 2000.
Harry stretched the muscles in his shoulder, unused to sharing a bed with someone, as he passed through the passenger entrance to the cavernous hangar they now had tucked beneath the surface of the city. He couldn't help but admire Luna and Parvati's incredible design.
The hangar itself was about a hundred metres long, and yet it did not interfere with the support or layout of the towers above it. Only about forty metres across, it was still large enough for several navi to fit. The seven currently integrated vessels sat evenly spaced in their bays, allowing them to use the more powerful computers of the city to inspect and run diagnostics. It also allowed the city's power grid to recharge their internal systems when they did not have their own dedicated potentia aboard, as a few did not. Those were intended only for local usage, ferrying them around the city or its immediate surroundings.
The two girls had designed the large space to have walls that resembled a hidden cave, with uneven rocky surfaces much like those back in Glastonbury. But the other structural portions were of the sleekest Lantean design architecture. Smooth pastel support beams contrasted wonderfully against the darker rock wall as they rose up along its surface, woven intimately and seamlessly together before reaching across the roof itself.
While the hangar did not need the structural support, Harry certainly thought it added a flair to the design that made it worth the effort to integrate the different pieces together.
A noise from the second navi in from the right drew Harry's attention away from the beautiful space and he finally noticed that Neville was steadily loading equipment into the back of the small craft. It seemed his friend was very eager to use their new location to begin his own research on the plant life around their new home.
"Morning, Nev." He said, approaching the man.
"Morning, Harry," Neville replied, a broad grin on his face as he gathered the last few items, levitating them into the sides of the navi. This particular one had been outfitted internally to have only the front cabin chairs. The rear compartment was designed to hold hundreds of sample containers and even had a small lab of its own on the right-hand side.
Neville's own flying research station, Harry mused to himself as he climbed aboard. While Neville was more than capable of flying the vessel himself, it had been agreed that, for the moment, no one was to travel away from the city alone.
Even though Verda had shown the most promise as a new homeworld for the Aetherial, there was still a great deal about its plant and animal life that they did not know. And it would be foolish to wander the wild regions unaccompanied.
"So." Neville started, closing the hatch and walking forward to join Harry at the controls. Pausing for a moment to tuck a few of the cases he was bringing along properly into their racks. "I hear you finally asked the question."
Harry smiled as he brought the navi to life while Neville plonked into the seat opposite him. "Yeah. Soon as we got to the apartment."
Neville reached over and slapped Harry supportively on the shoulder before he leaned back in his chair. "Good for you. For both of you. It's been a long time coming if you ask me."
"Could have told me earlier. Some mate you are." Harry joked back as the craft lifted off, the diagnostic panel retreating into the floor out of the way as they slowly approached the wide external passage leading out into the open air beside the newly formed mountain. "Leave me to fumble about figuring things out for myself for the past year."
"Eh, I knew you two would figure things out eventually." Neville finished with a soft sigh. "Kind of glad I don't need to worry about anything like that for the moment. Gran is mad insistent that I find a girl and get to continuing the family line. But she's just of that generation I guess. I'm in no hurry."
Harry could feel Neville's eyes turn to him and he knew that he was flushing in response to the gaze. "No. That's the kind of information we don't go about sharing." Harry said, defending his relationship state. "Besides, we haven't done anything of the sort."
"Fair enough. Just would have thought you two would be all over one another, given how long it took to figure it out."
"It's a bit hard to figure out at times. I've realized that nothing much has really changed between us. We were already pretty much living together. And we have always been a bit more physical than purely platonic friends might be. It makes it hard to know when new things are ok. But we talk about it a lot and we're both happy just taking our time and letting things happen as they will." Harry replied, still flushed red at the discussion.
He didn't often talk to Neville about such things. And doing so with Ron just felt awkward given his former infatuation with Hermione. Just about any other topic was fine, but their relationship seemed impossible for Harry to bring up with the redhead. It just felt wrong, as though he was rubbing his success in Ron's face or something. Even if he knew that Ron felt otherwise.
"Anyway, how'd you go with the old ship in the rock?" Harry asked, trying to divert Neville's attention as he slowly swept the navi around the city, enjoying a look at his new official home before he headed out over the forest.
Neville gave a soft chuckle at the redirect but Harry knew he would leave the other subject well alone for now. "Good. The vulta have mapped the entire inner structure, ducting and all. They're still scanning some of the equipment, making detailed schematics of it all. Still haven't managed to get the wireless access connections working, but Merlin seemed to think he was close to cracking it. Be fascinating to see what that ship has stored in its data bank though."
Harry nodded thoughtfully. If they were correct in their assessment that this was the exact ship that the Altera had used to depart Origin, it would have millennia of sensor data from that journey at the very least. Not to mention the million-year-old data on their own home galaxy as well. It would be interesting to see concrete proof of what the Milky Way once looked like.
"Yeah. It's all pretty exciting and new."
"You're telling me." Neville mused, falling into his own thoughts as they flew. "Certainly not what I had imagined doing after Hogwarts way back in our first year. But I suppose that it fits you. Always off on some adventure or other."
"Leave off. It was not my fault." Harry replied cheekily, the two boys laughing at it all.
Thoughts of his old adventures at the school swam in his mind and he considered how different, yet similar what they were doing now was. In some ways, they were just as in the dark as back then. But he had a lot of people with him for this adventure. Ones who had proven time and again that they were just as eager as he was to explore this new facet of reality. And Harry thought that life like this was pretty good in his opinion.
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Hermione looked out the window of the multi-level library at the navi slowly orbiting the city before it extended the drive pods and shot off into the distance. Her mind drifted back to that morning, lying in bed with Harry in her arms looking out in the same direction as the sun slowly rose to the east, bathing the inside of their new bedroom with its light. Though the incredible material of their windows had taken the sting out of the dawn's first light.
"Verda to Hermione," Padma said, tapping her gently on the shoulder.
"Sorry, what?" She asked, turning to face the other girl.
"Good morning?" Padma asked with a smirk.
"Yes, but not in the way you are thinking."
"Is that so? Luna said she saw you coming from Harry's place."
"I did. He asked me to move in with him, so it's our place really." Hermione replied, turning to face the shelving that they now had to manually fill with the copies of all the books that Merlin had made from Aether. "It was quite nice waking up in our home together."
Hermione tried to conceal the blush she knew she was wearing. "You don't need to be embarrassed, Hermione. If anyone deserves a little happiness in their lives, it is the pair of you. I'm glad things are working out for you."
"Thank you," Hermione replied, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself. "But, without Merlin running the show around here, this is going to take us a lot longer to do. Shall we get started?"
"That is true. Do you want to work together, or should we split things up?" Padma asked, waving Luna over as the other girl joined them on the uppermost level of the much-expanded library.
"Morning," Hermione said to Luna as she joined them while she considered what would be most efficient.
"Good morning," Luna replied and the wide smirk on the girl's face made Hermione's mind up immediately.
"We should split up and start in different areas. That way we aren't tripping over one another while shelving." She said firmly.
"And it means no one is around to tease you about moving in with Harry," Padma said cheekily.
Hermione gave her a friendly glare but did not reply, instead turning from the now giggling pair and heading to the far side of the currently empty shelves. "Get to work you two."
Hermione pulled her wand and waved it at the nearest box, the top folding open neatly along its fold before several books floated up out of the interior. Hermione was glad for her nerdier habits which had encouraged her to query Madam Pince on the school library's filing system and how she managed so many books. The spells the woman had taught her had served her well during her Hogwarts years, but would also make this task far less daunting.
Two deft flicks had the books moving into the shelving in the correct positions and soon she fell into a rhythm that soothed her mind and left her feeling quite relaxed. It wasn't until she felt a pair of arms encircling her from behind that she snapped out of her self-induced daze and noticed Harry was holding her in the afternoon sunlight.
"Hello." She said softly as he kissed her gently on the patch of skin just below her ear.
She moaned happily at his touch and leant back into his body. "Hello. The girls told me you've been ignoring them all day."
"Not true, I just chose not to be subjected to teasing for choosing to be happy." She replied, rolling in his arms as the last of the books she was controlling slotted into place. "How was your day?"
"It was good. Neville found several new species of plant in this region that he'd not seen on the other continent. He's looking at their particular traits in the herbology lab now. He seems fairly excited about a few of them."
"Did you ever imagine anything like this being your life?" Hermione asked, looking into his eyes with a wide smile.
"Never. I honestly didn't give the future a whole lot of thought until everything was over, and even then. Nothing like this. I'm happy, Hermione. I'd be happier if someone else was High Councilor, but what can you do?" He finished with a cheeky grin and Hermione leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips.
"I can do that." She smiled.
"Mmm, yes you can. Anytime you like. No regrets?" He asked, pulling back.
"None. I've never felt better than I did waking up this morning. That mattress is sublime." She replied, with a wide smile, gently biting the tip of her tongue between her teeth.
"You!" Harry said, squeezing her tighter. "It was wonderful. I'm glad that you're happy."
"Of course, we built me a room too, and I may find a reason to use it from time to time. But no, Harry. I am very happy living with you, officially."
"Alright then," Harry said, tightening his grip around her midsection and hefting her up, heading towards the exit with her in his arms. For a moment, she struggled before she wrapped her legs and arms tighter around him and let Harry carry her away. "You missed lunch, so I'm not taking no for an answer, we're about to have dinner and you aren't skipping meals again now Merlin isn't around to beam you out of the library."
"Spoilsport," Hermione said, laying her chin on his shoulder as he entered the transport cabinet.
"Your health is of paramount importance to me, my dear," Harry said, playing the joke up as Hermione slipped from his arms back to the floor as one of them required at least one arm to operate the transporter.
"That's good to know, dear." She replied, kissing his cheek as Harry whisked them both away across the city.
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Wednesday, 7th June 2000.
Luna smiled brightly as she watched the three small slugs oozing their way over the branches of the small tree that she had placed inside the pen. For no reason she could yet ascertain, the creatures would occasionally give a burst of speed, much like Hagrid's former skrewts. But these also periodically went from their standard grey colouration to giving off flashes of colour.
The closer together the slugs came, the more frequent the pulses became, so she was leaning towards it being some form of communication, but had been unable to nail down the how or the why just yet.
Interestingly enough, whenever the creatures gave off a flash of colour, Nyx would shudder across the room as well. While the tiny creature's training had gone well, and Luna was certain she would not attack any of her collection without cause, she found the reaction fascinating.
The thrumming in the back of her mind let her know that Isis was coming to appreciate the viewing experience too. She had given up the mental attacks completely at this stage, though Luna kept a portion of her mind constantly on the lookout for a surprise attack. It seemed that the symbiote was slowly coming to realize just how trapped it was and beginning to cooperate, if only for self-preservation purposes. Especially once she had come to realize she could not force her way free of Luna's body to search out another host. She was truly a prisoner within her host, as Luna would have been had Isis had her way.
Luna smiled to herself with the hope that if they could reform one, there may be a slim glimmer of hope for the species as a whole. Currently, the Aetherial were officially at war with the Goa'uld, even though the other species was presently unaware of their existence. However, these Tok'ra that Idun had told them about might prove to be the future of that species if they could get in touch with them and become allies as well.
They had located a planet in the SGC database listed as a Tok'ra world, but no matter where they looked, the Tok'ra were nowhere to be found. For now, they seemed to be well hidden.
Another trio of flashes drew her eye back to the branches as the three slugs all gave sudden bursts and separated by quite a significant distance given their sizes. Luna noted the activity and set her monitoring software to be aware of and record all such instances during their temporary captivity.
She did not plan to keep any of her creatures for too long, hoping to minimize the impact she had on their native behaviours. But she would be lying if she said she wasn't absolutely fascinated by the already significant biodiversity they had encountered on their new homeworld.
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Thursday, 8th June 2000.
Neville closed his eyes and simply listened to the birdsong travelling enticingly through the air, drifting to him on the morning's light breeze as it washed up the mountainside. He was gradually working his way down the slopes of the mountain, adding further sections of plant life to the currently bare sides of their home. Some of his recent finds were perfect for the craggy surfaces.
But already several species of bird had made themselves at home in the small patches he'd finished and they brought a life to the mountain that he hadn't hoped to see for months yet.
As he opened his eyes, Neville tilted his head back and gazed up into the sky. The things he'd been involved with in the past year thrilled and shocked him in equal measure. For the longest time, he had considered himself a failure. Someone who would never live up to the incredible standards set by his wonderful parents or even his closest friends.
The stories he would hear of them from his gran were always so fascinating, and he was still sure he would somehow find a way to bring them back to him properly. But his early experiences at Hogwarts left him feeling weak and inferior. His eyes drifted to the tower he knew Hermione to currently be monitoring the retrograde moon's progress in. She had been a big help in boosting his confidence in himself.
And then the DA happened, and Bellatrix broke out of prison. Suddenly he had all the motivation in the world and Neville had given it his all. Harry had told him a few times that he was incredibly proud of Neville's performance in the DA. Especially once they all learned that he was using a mostly unmatched wand.
While the pieces of his father's now broken wand remained in pride of place in a frame with his mother's over the mantle at his gran's home, Neville adored his cherry wand. He rolled it in his fingers as he considered how much it had aided him on their journey so far. And how much more he knew that he would be doing with it as he brought new life to their city.
As he was reminiscing, a sudden burst of white light spread rapidly across the sky high above the expanse between the mountain and the distant forest. Fear gripped Neville for a moment at the suddenness of it before he turned in on himself and apparated to the control room he had glanced at earlier.
"What is it?" He asked Hermione as he rushed to a nearby terminal.
"I'm not sure yet. It seems to be… wait… No." She replied, staring at the screen before her as her face changed from curiosity to frustration. "Dad!"
A few additional presses on her panel had a second hologram popping up to the right of the first one and Neville saw Richard Granger standing there smiling at them both.
"Hi, pumpkin." He said cheerily.
"Dad, can you warn everyone next time before you start integrating something in the atmosphere above our home? I was about to power the weapons system." Hermione scolded the man.
Richard looked suddenly off balance at the way Hermione was reacting and Neville had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at his expression now that the fear of attack had lessened. When he really thought about it, he was ashamed he'd come to the wrong conclusion so quickly. While Merlin wasn't running the systems for them anymore, they still had a large amount of automation. And the city would detect an approaching force long before it could appear in the atmosphere above the city.
"What are you even building? That integration field looks to be almost a mile long." Hermione finished, putting her hands on her hips and staring at her father.
"It's the ship we were all talking about building." He said slowly, obviously taken aback at Hermione's reaction. "Merlin sent the schematics for the designs he had curated and I finished going through them this morning. I figured we might as well start building it, now that the system isn't using the primary beam engine for the city anymore. And the system needs to make the field a bit bigger than the final design to keep it airborne properly during integration."
"Which one did you choose?" Neville asked, hoping that maybe he could divert some of Hermione's anger at the surprise away from her father if he could explain it adequately enough.
The man glanced at his daughter for a moment before turning to face Neville, most of the excitement gone from his face. "It's a big cruiser. Lots of firepower. Near unbeatable layered shields. Especially after I tweaked the design a little bit. I think you'll like it."
"Seriously, Dad. What could we possibly need a ship that size for?"
"What?" He replied, trying to look innocent. "We know the Goa'uld have ships the size of mountains. We can't show up in tiny little puddle jumpers and expect to be taken seriously."
"It's not about being seen to be strong either. That just welcomes challenge. Subtlety has its uses." Hermione was becoming quite agitated and Neville worried that if her father was actually in the room, he may have been at risk.
"True, but we will be alone in any fight. We need to be able to stand firm against any enemy. And we need to ensure we aren't underestimating that lot anymore. Trust me, this thing will more than handle anything the goa'uld could hope to throw at it." Richard said with a smug smile as Neville noticed Harry step out of the nearby transport cabinet, freezing in place as he saw the Granger standoff before him.
"What's going on?" He asked curiously, looking between his girlfriend and her father.
"Richard found a cruiser design and has begun integrating it above the city," Neville said, hoping to provide the info before Hermione could get angrier.
"That's what that is?" Harry asked, walking over to Hermione and pulling her to his side. "I suppose we did all agree that we needed one. Good thinking. Though warning us before suddenly spawning something in the air would probably be best."
Neville saw Hermione's face and once more had to turn away so he didn't become her next target with his barely controlled laughter.
"Right. Will do." Richard said, obviously glad for the intervention. "I'll remember that and I have to go and do… something."
The sound of the hologram dissipating filled the room for a moment before Neville heard the very low growling sound coming from where he knew the other two were now standing.
"Hermione," Harry said softly. "Stay calm."
"He's supposed to be the adult. To think before acting." She said, her hands hovering over her forehead trying to give physical shape to her frustration at her father's sometimes childish antics.
"Alright, but I do my fair share of acting without thinking. He's not the only one. And we've all been excited about something and rushed off to do it."
Neville began to feel slightly uncomfortable being witness to the scene and tried to secretly shift around to the transport cabinet, hoping to escape the room undetected.
Hermione grumbled something that Neville couldn't make out as he was reaching the cabinet and the doors slid open, drawing the attention of both the figures in the room directly to him. Neville paused under their gazes for a second, Hermione still looking angry and Harry looking surprised that he was even there.
Without a word, Neville jumped into the cabinet and hit a random point on the screen before his feet even landed on the floor, the doors sealing him off from the others and the situation that he hoped Harry managed to contain. As much as he may have once had a crush on the fiery Granger girl, he was very glad that Harry was the one who had ended up with her. He liked his life a little less intense than that.
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Tuesday, 13th June 2000.
Dobby sat on the small chair looking out over the new world that he now called home. He had already spent a considerable amount of time just staring out of the many windows of his own personal room atop the central tower of the city a couple of floors above Harry's own rooms. As such, he too shared the totally unobstructed view the entire way around his rooms, being the very peak of that tower, though he had made sure his flat was a lot smaller than Harry's. An elf of his size had no need for such a large living space.
It still floored him that the others had put so much faith in him. What had started as a desire to be near Harry after all the boy had done for him in return had become an epic adventure in its own right.
He could still recall the gradual change each day as Harry, Hermione and Luna had slowly unearthed the truth of their discovery, and soon they were off among the stars on a grand mission. Dobby had longed to join them for it, but he had committed to Mr Xeno to be available should he require assistance before Harry had asked if Dobby wanted to help him find the small tombs that had begun their current journey.
And that help had led to a discovery that fundamentally altered his own place in the universe. It still surprised him that the once-mistreated slave of the Malfoy family was actually a descendant of a long-gone race of incredible power.
The thought of it unsettled his stomach once again and Dobby rolled off the chair, heading for the kitchen where he'd placed the small vials that Hermione had provided him. For some reason, being on this planet seemed to be making him quite queasy, and the potions helped to ease the discomfort.
While he was still more than capable of casting magic, just like the others, it didn't seem as stable when he did it here. Winky had shown the same difficulties when she had visited the new city, and chose not to remain for very long for the time being.
It seemed that something about the magical energy of this world was quite different to that of Earth, and as the elves connected to magic in a different way to humans, it was taking him far longer to adapt than his friends. And yet, he had not felt such discomfort when he had visited the mesa the group had first discovered on the far side of the planet.
Dobby took a deep breath as the potion cleared the nausea, allowing him to rest. He hobbled slowly over to his small bed and waved his hand at the controls that darkened the windows of his bedroom. As he settled into the soft bed, he wondered how long it would take for his body to adapt to these new conditions, but he was committed to sticking it out. He would not lightly abandon his family after they had all endured so much.
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Thursday, 15th June 2000.
Hermione growled at the screen as it failed to properly identify the signal that the sensors had detected. She'd been working on it for the better part of two days but something about the waveform she'd found beneath the area the city had been constructed on was refusing to be quantified. She was absolutely sure that this field was responsible for causing Dobby's sickness, as scans of the mesa had shown no trace of one like it nearby, and the elves had never become sick when visiting that small outpost.
"Why won't you work!?" She yelled at the screen as a figure behind her laughed softly.
Hermione spun on her heel to see Luna and Padma standing there watching her. "What?" she growled.
"You know, for someone as intelligent as we all know you to be," Luna said, walking forwards and laying a thick book on Hermione's console, "you often forget to look in the obvious place."
"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, trying to get a better look at the ancient tome Luna had brought with her as Padma settled at the next terminal over and began entering commands at quite the rate.
"We already know that there is a magical field on this planet, much like there is on Earth, so we thought to look through some older magical textbooks we brought with us."
"What makes you think the field is magical?" Hermione asked, frustrated now.
"Because this says that it is," Padma said, entering her command string which altered the resolution on Hermione's scan.
Immediately the waveform disappeared to be replaced by the odd hazy effect that magic usually had when scanned with their sensor suite when correctly calibrated for it. Otherwise, it would refuse to be quantified, if it was detectable at all. "How did you do that? I've already tried running those filters and it didn't work."
"And that's the obvious bit that you missed," Padma said with a satisfied smirk, one she always wore when she was a step ahead of her former academic rival. However, upon noticing Hermione's glare, the other girl quickly continued. "Earth has been inhabited by magical beings for millennia. Magical creatures, possibly even longer again."
Luna continued the explanation. "From my work so far, I've not found any such species on Verda. Nyx can sense magic, but she cannot wield it. Not yet at least, she is remarkably adaptive."
"Yes, and…?" Hermione asked.
"And," Padma took up once more, "humans on Earth have been messing with the magical field it emits for as long as we've been keeping written history."
Luna finally flicked the book open to a marked page and Hermione leaned over to read the title. "Ley lines? You think ley lines are making Dobby sick?"
Luna nodded. "It would explain the deep feeling I had when I was meditating on the magic of Verda. And if we're correct about their true lineage, house-elves are likely to be far more sensitive to magical energy than we are. It would make sense that if there is a massive untamed ley line running under the city, it would make him feel off at the very least. Properly sick is the more likely outcome, and matches what we're seeing now."
"Great. So you're saying Dobby would have to leave to get away from it then."
Hermione slumped back into her chair defeated.
"Not necessarily," Luna replied, flicking a few pages further in the book. "Ancient humans often did powerful rituals to harness, alter or redirect ley lines. The Founders of Hogwarts are rumoured to have diverted two major ones into the foundations of the school in order to charge the area. Making it ideal for learning magic."
"But there are loads of House-elves at Hogwarts," Hermione argued.
"And most have lived there, or in other such similar places, all their lives," Padma explained. "They've adapted to life on Earth in proximity to human magicals. And we congregate around ley lines. Whenever they do, they tend to manipulate them how they see fit. It's very rare to find a magical town or village that isn't built on or near a large line. But this one here," she indicated the signal on Hermione's terminal, "it's dense, powerful and totally unrefined. Raw as magic can be. Dobby can't handle all that energy in its openly naked form."
"And you think we can fix that?"
"It took a few days before the symptoms really set in," Luna noted. "If Dobby pops to the Mesa for a bit, or even back to Earth for the time being, we should be able to prepare and execute one of these rituals to stabilize and incorporate the ley line into Aedis properly. Thus preventing Dobby and the rest of the elves from becoming sick." she finished as if it had been obvious from the beginning.
"Dobby can do that." A soft voice came from the doorway and the three girls swung to see him leaning against the door frame.
"Dobby. Are you alright?" Hermione asked, rushing over just as the elf stumbled, She caught him easily and her mind was sent right back to the day they had escaped from Malfoy Manor. Harry crouched on the beach, cradling Dobby's bleeding form. The dark curse of that wicked blade eating through his poor little arm so quickly.
"Dobby," Luna said, kneeling beside them and running her hand over the pale elf's forehead.
"Dobby will be alright. But I don't think Dobby can get there on his own right now."
Hermione turned to Padma. "Get Harry, tell him to meet me in the hangar. We'll take you Dobby."
The elf smiled at her weakly before Hermione stood and dashed to the nearby transport cabinet. A quick tap on the screen found her and Dobby in the underground hangar. One could easily forget it was so located, given the amount of light that washed through it, illuminating the seven ships currently tucked into their bays. From her position, Hermione could see that one of them was lit from within and a moment later she saw Harry standing in the cockpit powering the ship up.
"Come on Dobby, let's get you away for a bit. I'm sorry it took us so long to work it out."
"Dobby told you, he is happy wherever his family is." The elf said as she stood and rushed over to the navi, climbing aboard.
"Ready?" Harry asked as Hermione sat opposite him at the controls, holding Dobby's slight form in her arms.
"Go."
Harry wasted no time in pulling the ship up and shooting off the mark. Even with the inertial compensation, she felt the force of the turn as he angled for the wide exterior opening. Within seconds they were firing up into the atmosphere, skirting the large field her father had formed. She could feel the energy coming off the bright white cloud as they took a wide circling arc away from the city and headed out over the mountains, heading south. Hermione could tell Harry was asking the small ship for all that it had as they shot over the landscape.
"Oh, wow," Dobby said, sitting up in Hermione's arms and bringing a relieved chuckle to her lips. "That is better."
"Really?" Harry asked, looking over at the wee figure.
Hermione could see it in Dobby's features, he already looked more alert and he did not seem to be in pain anymore.
The elf took a few deep steadying breaths and nodded. "Yes. Dobby feels much better already."
"Why did you stay in your room if you were feeling so bad?" Hermione asked as Dobby started moving with purpose once more. "You could have just popped back to Aether for a bit."
"Dobby is part of yous. And you are Dobby's family. We agreed this would be our home."
"Dobby, you don't need to stay anywhere that makes you feel ill. We can find somewhere else."
"No." The elf said forcefully. "Aedis is your home. And Dobby likes it there, it just feels weird now."
"You can be as stubborn as Luna, you know that?" Harry said as they passed the beach that was the farthest south coast of their home continent. The vast ocean before them separating their new home from the place where they had discovered Myrddin. "You have a say in all we do, you don't have to just go along with what the rest of us want."
"I know," Dobby said, dropping his usual intentional use of the third person. "But I wanted to be with you all. I missed much while helping Mr Xeno. You had adventures without me."
"There will be plenty more adventures, Dobby. Whether we are ready for them or not. And we're sorry. This is the first real indication we've had that some planets might not be fully suitable for all forms of life." Hermione said.
Dobby simply smiled at her before he looked out the front of the rapidly moving ship. "Dobby wishes he could fly one of these." He said, changing the subject.
"So do we, Dobby. Carson said he is looking into it. Unfortunately, the gene that allows us to do so is a human gene, and he's never had to work on a physiology such as yours before.
"Dobby knows," Dobby said, his eyes flitting about the cabin with delight, looking far better than he had in weeks. "Dobby already has a few friends who want to work with the Doctor when he is ready."
"They're up for taking experimental gene therapy?" Hermione asked, shocked at the idea.
"They trust Dobby, and Dobby trusts you. You trust Beckett, so Dobby trusts Beckett." The elf said simply, leaning forwards over the control panel and looking down at the rushing water passing below them.
"Well, it will be a while before he has anything ready. It took months to cure Cyla, and she was much more similar to us than the house elves are." Harry noted as the continent that held their destination approached.
The trio sat in comfortable silence for several long minutes as Harry raised the ship up, in order to clear the higher terrain and within half an hour they were arriving at the large stone mesa that housed their only other structure on Verda so far. One that none of them had thought they'd be needing again so soon.
Hermione was incredibly grateful that Neville and the Patil Twins had already reconfigured the internal structure to be much more comfortable for long-term visits. At least it would be comfortable for Dobby to rest while they fixed the problem.
ϟ
Saturday, 17th June 2000.
Padma sat at the desk, her leg bouncing nervously as she watched the three older magicals debating the math once again.
"Well?" She asked impatiently. One of her friends was hurting and this process was taking too long. She may not have known Dobby as long as the others, but she still cared about his well-being.
"If this ley line is as big as you claim…" Professor Vector said.
"It is, I have measured it personally with every possible form of measuring device."
"Where on Earth did you find an untapped ley line this big?" Professor McGonagall asked again.
Padma rolled her eyes. "I've told you. It's not on Earth. It's on Verda." She could see that none of the three believed her claims and she had grown beyond impatient at this point. "You know what, come with me."
She stood and walked to the corner, the three professors following along. The only one who seemed to remotely believe her was her former head of house, who watched her closely as she entered the required commands into her remote. All four of them were quickly whisked away to Aether where Merlin stood waiting beside the already active stargate.
"Welcome back." The hologram said and the three teachers turned to face the voice before being struck dumb.
"Hey, Merlin. Sorry, but just passing through." Padma said as she pushed the two women in the direction of the event horizon, the two seeming to come back to themselves as they were shoved through it. She turned back to do the same with Flitwick, but he just walked past her, a curious smile on his face. She gave a rough sigh before she stepped through herself.
As she popped out, she noticed only two of the three teachers were present. "Where is Vector?"
McGonagall seemed frozen in place, staring at the massive structure around her, however, Flitwick seemed present enough. "She stepped back in. Is that bad?"
Padma's face fell instantly. "She what?"
"She passed back into that puddle. Wanted to see the other side again, I believe."
"No, no, no, no. That's not good." Padma waved at the stargate and the event horizon disappeared. She rapidly tapped a series of commands into her remote. "Step to the side, this could be rough."
The two professors stepped over by the running stream, McGonagall still speechlessly staring around while Flitwick was watching his former student closely. Padma double-checked the readout and there was indeed a pattern sitting in the buffer of the stargate. She made a quick mental note to bring up this seriously bad system at the next council meeting.
She noted the pattern was still perfectly whole and she immediately commanded the stargate to reintegrate the pattern. A bright silvery event horizon that was a lot less opaque than normal filled the space without the unstable vortex, as was the norm for them. Padma and the teachers both had to cover their eyes at the intensity before a figure suddenly appeared out of the shimmering surface and the event horizon dispersed once more.
Padma walked up to the teacher who was now looking around confused. "Don't do that again. Ok? You'll die."
The three professors were now looking at her as if she had grown another head as she had delivered the line so casually. Padma closed her eyes in frustration, her head beginning to throb as it did when a migraine was approaching. "Look, just follow me, alright."
She quickly led them out of the courtyard, all three looking about in wonder as the rapidly moving purple moon shifted overhead in the wrong direction. Padma guided them swiftly into the primary magical laboratory section. Hermione and Luna glanced up at their entry and Padma just waved them off for the moment, far too impatient right now to deal with more questions. She rapidly entered the required control string into the console and the holographic display showed the planet, the ley line and the three moons orbiting around it.
"See for yourselves," Padma said, pointing at the console.
Flitwick walked forwards and glanced at the screen. "Are we supposed to be able to read that?"
"What? Right. Forgot." Padma said, tapping a few more commands and translating the screen from Alteran into English. "There."
She stepped back and allowed the three to digest the summary shown on the screen as Luna crept up beside her. "They didn't believe you?"
"They were being stubborn. I grew impatient. And Vector stepped into the incoming side of the wormhole. We need to fix that."
Luna glanced at their former Arithmancy teacher, noting that she was fortunately in one piece. "Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. We could copy the system for entering from the rear of the event horizon. Just have it reintegrate you out the other side to avoid impacting incoming matter."
"What are you two talking about?" McGonagall asked, looking at them flabbergasted.
"Professor, it's a very long story," Hermione explained from her place at the far terminal. "We'll explain it all later, but for now, we're on another planet in the fourth quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy, approximately eleven thousand light-years from Earth. And that ley line makes any house-elf that stays near it for more than a few days very sick. We need to fix it."
All three of the adults were now staring blankly at Hermione instead and Padma felt her migraine getting even worse as she realized this was going to be a very long day.