Disclaimer: Outside of the story line and a couple characters, I own nothing.
Chapter Seven:
Harry blinked again, this time thinking slightly more logically than 'shit, we're going to die.'
Harry absently flicked his wand at Umbridge's desk, putting it out. He turned to Umbridge, a steely glint in his eyes.
"Now why on earth would the minister do something like that?" Harry spoke slowly, pulling out a knife and examining the edge, as if to make sure it was sharp.
Umbridge gulped, realizing the knife was an obvious threat.
"Well, technically, I suppose he didn't. If he had listened to me, however, he would have."
Harry quirked an eyebrow.
"I advised him to, but he didn't listen to me, oh no. He just wanted you to be brought him in for questioning. So I gave the order instead."
Harry savagely flicked his wand in her direction and a few tens of millions of volts flew from his wand and into Umbridge.
Adali didn't so much as blink at the display of sadism.
"You've been wanting to do that for a while, huh."
"Yes."
"We've got to find a way out of here before the dementors catch up with us." Harry growled.
They ran out of the office, leaving Umbridge to twitch and groan on the floor. They then burst through the main doors, intent on getting to the shuttle, whereupon, they would fly to the Ministry and explain the whole thing.
They sprinted up the ramp, unaware they were being followed. When they had the ramp closed they activated the cloak and took off. Only then did they hear the clunk of something wooden on the floor behind them. Harry flicked the autopilot hover on and pulled his lightsaber and wand out, and burst into the cabin of the shuttle. Mad-Eye Moody sat on a bench in the back, looking very impressed.
"I must say lad, this is a fine piece of machinery, although the way you took care of Umbridge was much more impressive. I haven't seen that particular curse in many a year."
Harry had gone from battle ready to sheet white in less than five seconds. Moody, paranoid Ex-Auror extraordinaire had seen him electrocute Umbridge.
"Relax. I honestly would have liked to see a bit more pain on her part, but I suppose that can be forgiven. I won't turn you in; although I think you should read this and show it to your… partner." The last word was said with a leer that unnerved Harry in the implications it contained. Moody handed Harry a scrap of parchment with the words "The Order of the Phoenix can be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place."
"Right. I'll get right on that. Provided, of course, that you tell me how many hours of teaching me you had last year."
Moody grinned. "Smart, I didn't actually teach you last year."
Harry spun on his heel and made his way back into the cockpit.
Adali had her rifle trained on the door, and Harry knew she would open fire at the first sign of trouble, so he knocked three times.
"Adali, it's me. Moody's in the back and followed us from the castle. We probably need to find out what the hell he's doing here, but for now-"
Adali opened the door and yanked Harry in by his collar
Moody, watching all this from behind, chuckled.
The speech resumed from behind the door. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Moody wants you to have a look at this."
Adali yanked the parchment from his hands, read it and threw it on the ground, before turning to Harry.
"Well, that's just peachy, now what am I supposed to do with that information?"
"I assume one would ask the delivery man. Oh Moody?" Harry called out to Moody in a sing-song voice.
Moody growled, clearly annoyed. "Potter, if you would get your sorry rear end out here, than I might tell you what you're supposed to do, and why I want to do it."
Harry opened the door and turned to Moody.
"So, what are we supposed to do, and why should we do it?"
"Go there, of course. I can steer you there, assuming, of course, you want to avoid having your souls removed by a dementor." Moody grunted. "Of course, you could have suicidal tendencies, so if you want to die, let me off somewhere so I don't have to die."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Hardly, sir. You'll be up in the cockpit, guiding Adali to… Grimmauld place, was it?"
Moddy nodded and moved up to the cockpit. Harry was strapping himself into the back turret when the ship abruptly jerked to the left.
"What in the name of all things holy happened to you?"
Harry winced. Looks like he had forgotten to warn Adali about Moody's appearance. Whoops.
Moody's grumble was unintelligible from the turret, but whatever he said killed any and all noises from the cockpit.
Harry peered out of the turret, looking for any signs of trouble. One the bad things about this design was that there were no turrets on the sides, top or bottom. Should an enemy approach from any of those places, they'd be quite capable of shredding the shuttle into pieces. As such, Harry spent a nervous forty minutes staring at the radar in a paranoid fervor.
When they finally touched down on the ground, he let out an audible breath. His relief didn't last long, as he suddenly realized that they could've landed in the middle of the street for all he knew. And while the cloak was capable of bending light, it was most certainly not capable of bending physical things around it.
Harry dashed up to the cockpit, wrenching the door open, only to discover that Adali had had the common sense to avoid setting down in the street. Instead of putting it there, she had landed on top of the house. Harry prayed that the house was structurally stable before punching a panel on the wall. The boarding ramp descended, leaving Harry staring at the roof.
There was no door, no way to get into the house. Harry frowned at the roof as if it had insulted him. He drew his lightsaber and cut a smoking hole in the aforementioned roof. Harry stared down at the floor of the attic underneath him. Perhaps cutting a hole in the roof wasn't the best of ideas, as the hippogriff in the attic seemed to take personal offense at the roof over its head being chopped open.
"Hmmg. Oh well." Harry looked over his shoulder at the shuttle, expecting to see Adali and Moody walking down. He was not disappointed. Adali was leading, while Moody was salivating over a thermal detonator, as if imagining the damage it could do. Which, incidentally, was quite a bit.
Harry used the force to depress a button on the shuttle, raising the ramp.
He dropped through the hole in the roof, making sure to quickly bow to Buckbeak as he did so. Harry edged to the side, allowing room for both Adali and Moody to drop through.
Adali did so, immediately recognizing a hippogriff from Harry's description, and bowing. She stood still for several seconds, waiting for Buckbeak to bow. He did, after a certain amount of time. Adali moved to the left, imperceptibly sighing in relief.
Moddy dropped down, his wooden leg making a loud thunking noise on the wooden floor. Harry eyed Moody's leg.
'I bet he'd be a proper old Auror with that leg of his fixed. He'd probably be interested in getting that leg replaced with something more functional.'
Moody ushered them out of the room, shutting the attic door behind them so Buckbeak couldn't get out and into the halls. Harry vaguely hear shrieks coming from downstairs.
"SCUM! FILTHY HALF-BREEDS AND MUDBLOODS BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS! GET OUT, OUT I SAID! MAY YOU ALL BURN IN HE-"
She was cut off partway through her tirade, although it sounded like she was just repeating herself, over and over again. There was one more voice that Harry was very happy to hear from downstairs.
"SHUT UP, YOU STUPID USLESS HAG!"
Harry was very happy to hear the voice of his godfather from down below, but was puzzled as to who the yelling, bigoted female was from downstairs.
Moody leads the way downstairs, his wooden leg thunking on the way down. Of course, considering the yelling going on downstairs, there wasn't much way anyone could hear it, but for a man of stealth the noise was inexcusable.
Harry made a mental note to talk to Moody later; an ally could be useful. They made their way down the stairs.
They reached the bottom without incident, to find an empty hallway. They tiptoed their way down the hallway, except for Moody, who cast a silencing spell on his leg, and opened the door at the end.
The kitchen, for that was what it was, was full of people. As such, when Moody opened the door, it took a little while for the room to quiet down. This time was shortened when Moody removed his wand and made two loud bangs to attract their attention. As all eyes swiveled toward them, Harry suddenly realized he was going to be greeted… enthusiastically.
He had just enough time to register that Dumbledore was not there before Molly Weasley jumped up and grabbed him in a bone crushing hug. Or, rather, tried to.
Harry used the force to keep the Weasley matriarch at bay, while jumping backwards.
"Nothing against you, Mrs. Weasley, but I really dislike physical contact."
Mrs. Weasley didn't really know how to respond to that.
"Oh, um, okay Harry…"
Harry drew up a char for both himself and Adali. Wandlessly, to boot. He figured, so long as he was telling them everything, he might as well show off a bit too.
Harry almost giggled at the sight of Hermionie's face. Undoubtedly, she was attempting to recall a single episode of wandless magic from one of her books. There were some, but not since the era when earth was first colonized had wandless magic, also known as the manipulation of the force, been used widely.
They sat down.
"Hermionie, don't bother trying to think of a time when wandless magic was used. You won't find one. This planet hasn't had widespread wandless magic used for several thousand years."
Hermionie blinked.
"Well then, if that's true, where did you suddenly get the ability?"
"Off the planet."
Hermionie's eyebrows contracted in thought.
"But modern technology hasn't progressed to the point of being able to get out of the solar system yet, and to add to that, there's been no proof that life even exists outside of this planet."
Harry groaned.
"Hermione. The galaxy is huge, correct. Now, the sheer number of systems says that the probability is there that many, many planets would develop life."
Hermione stared at the tabletop, obviously deep in thought.
"It might also interest you, I mean, so long as I'm coming clean, that Earth is not the birthplace of humanity. Nor is my friend over there human." Adali dropped her illusion.
The people around the table gasped and began chattering quickly.
Harry growled. They ignored him.
"Shut up." Again, the people ignored him.
"Shut up!" He said, somewhat louder. By this time, that chatter had grown to become what could be defined as a din.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Surprisingly, the people managed to ignore even that, so Harry cut the table in half with his lightsaber.
That got their attention.
Hermione made a quiet inquiry, "Harry, what exactly did you use to cut the table in half, and was it really necessary to do so?"
Harry chuckled, this was typical Hermione. "That, Hermione, was a lightsaber. And seeing as how you all didn't shut up when I told you to, I would say that yes, it was absolutely necessary to cut the table in half."
"Huh."
Harry shut off his lightsaber.
"Does anyone else have any stupid questions that will lead to unregulated conversation, and thus to even more property damage?"
Silence was the answer.
"Good. Now, as I was saying, I got this out of this solar system. You will want to read the Daily Prophet to get the whole thing. I hope they got it right."
Harry watched as an owl swooped down the chimney bearing a copy of the Prophet. Remus dumbly gave the owl a sickle and took the paper.
He unfolded the paper. As he read the article, his face gradually got paler.
Harry had not read the article yet, so when the paper had finished being passed around the increasingly pale inhabitants of the room, he took it.
Toady, a earth-shaking revelation shook the wizarding world. We are not alone in the universe. In fact, Earth is not the birthplace of humanity.
Today, several months after the disappearance of our own Harry Potter, he and a companion appeared in the Ministry of Magic to duel the newly resurrected Lord you-know-who to a standstill.
After Potter and his partner, who we later found out was named Adali Niamara, had stalled he-who-must-not-be-named long enough for Aurors to arrive, Potter collapsed from multiple injuries, including broken ribs.
Once Potter had been transported to St. Mungos, his partner, who had been knocked out early on in the duel, agreed to give us some information on where Mr. Potter had been for the past several months. Amazingly enough, what we got was not at all what we expected.
Ms. Niamara proceeded to tell us some very selective information about where Mr. Potter had been since he disappeared several months ago.
As it turns out, Mr. Potter had been taken over the summer to a secret training facility on a planet known as Coruscant. He was trained in what we would call Wandless Magic, although the people there call it 'The Force.' He apparently managed the training in a couple weeks. After that, Mr. Potter was sent off on clandestine military missions. It would appear that we have stumbled upon this Republic at a bad time, as it is embroiled in a Civil War.
We have yet to gather much more information about the war, though we know that the battle is between former military personnel and those who support democracy. However, information about both sides must be gathered before we make a decision.
Technology in the Republic is muggle, though it is far more advanced than the technology of the muggles of this planet. Travel over several lightyears (the speed of light is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second, so one can imagine the vast distances that it would take for light to take years to reach) can be accomplished in minutes. Weaponry and data storage have also advanced, although Ms. Niamara refused to show us any of the technology. She advised us to keep an eye on the muggle organization known as the United Nations, and said that it was likely that a great deal would be revealed there.
Harry blinked. It was remarkably well written, for a Prophet article, and was also remarkably free of bias. He vaguely wondered if Adali had threatened the reporters, and then decided that he didn't care.
"Huh." He carelessly tossed the paper on the table.
"Well, that about explains it. I don't really have too much to add, although I have to say, I want to know how you managed to get the vultures at the Prophet to report things as they were for once in their putrid lives."
Adali gave him a 'butter wouldn't melt in her mouth' look, and asked,
"Why Harry, I didn't do anything, you know that."
Harry snorted, Adali trying to look innocent was like a rancor trying to act like it wouldn't eat you first chance it got.
"Of course you didn't do anything. Even if you did, I doubt I would ever find out about it, so I'll just let it go."
By which Harry meant that there was about as much chance of getting him to let go of that one as of unwrapping a kracken's tentacles from around a submarine.
Harry and Adali left those in the kitchen to stew for a while, and decided to go look around the house.
They were talking about different ways to off Tarkin when Harry brushed against a pair of curtains. It was too late by the time he realized they hid the portrait of the screaming woman.
She burst out screaming, something about muggle filth and freaks. Harry fired a blaster shot into the canvas, about two inches from her head. The woman instantly quieted.
"If you don't want me to continue to do that, you'll shut up, and you'll stay that way until I tell you otherwise. Understood?"
The woman nodded. Harry moved on, but Adali remained behind for a second.
"Plus, If you don't, I can kill you with my mind."
The woman fainted dead away.
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Sorry about the delay, finals came up, and then I went on vacation, sans computer. That was no fun. Well, the vacation was, but not the lack of a computer. Some of you may recognize Adali's quip to Mrs. Black as coming from Firefly. River, to be specific. Of course, if you knew it came from Firefly, you probably know enough to remember who said it. Nerd.
Thought I'd end the chapter on a comedic note, because next chapter, Ye Olde Voldemort does something really stupid.
-Probably No One You Know