Sorry for the delay - between a visit to the grandkids who live in another state, and getting back to work, I forgot to post this chapter. Hoping to get onto a more regular schedule. (With luck, every Friday. No promises, though.)

Starfleet Academy

"You've all had a chance to get used to the controls," the instructor said. "Today's the first time you get to sit in a simulator and try flying a shuttle. The experience will be everything that a real shuttle flight would be, except that it will be significantly harder to get yourself killed. A crash in a real shuttle will tend to kill or cripple you. A crash in these ends the simulation."

Harry slid into his own simulator and smiled. "I've wanted to fly again," he murmured.

"Well, here's your chance," the instructor said into his machine. "Take off when ready."

He did the proper checklist - hull sealed, engines good, and all the rest - and then looked at his flight plan. Smiling, he powered up the shuttle and was airborne. I'm scared of when they give us a hard one, he thought as he 'landed' his simulator. After going through the proper shut down sequence, he exited the simulation, to discover he was the last of his class to exit.

"Damn, it must have been an interesting crash if it took this long to pull you from the simulator," one of his classmates quipped. "Waiting for the smoke to clear?"

Harry was confused. "That was an easy flight. I've done tougher. Why would I have crashed?"

"Bullshit!" another one cried out. "Everyone crashed!"

"Except, it appears, for Cadet Potter," the instructor said, exiting the control room. "Perfect flight, in fact. I'd ask if you had flown one of these before, but this shuttle design is available only to Starfleet, and I know something of your history."

As class was let out, the instructor called to Harry. "Mr Potter? A moment, please." Harry stepped to attention before the instructor, saluting. "At ease. I want you to follow me. A few of our other teachers at Starfleet want to see your abilities, so we're dropping you into another simulation. We'll beam onto a holodeck simulation, and go from there. It will seem as if we have beamed into Starbase 1."

"Yes sir. When do we leave?"

"Right now, if you don't have another class to go to." Harry nodded that he was free. "Excellent. Commander Whitefern to Starfleet Academy - begin simulation."

The two appeared on the platform of what Harry knew the Starbase looked like. "Good simulation, sir. I love holodeck technology."

"It is fun, isn't it?" Whitefern answered with a grin. "Shall we head for a shuttle?" A few minutes later had Harry seated in the pilot's seat of a Starfleet speed shuttle. "You'll find your flight plan in the computer already."

Harry did the checklist once more and then checked the flight plan. "Interesting" he murmured. "Checking my reflexes, I guess." He perused it one more time to commit it to memory before he tapped the comm panel. "Shuttle Gagarin-SB1 to Starbase 1, permission to launch."

"Permission granted, Gagarin. Enjoy your flight."

"Thank you. Launching now. Gagarin out." The shuttle gently lifted and he slid toward the shuttle doors, since opening the giant door that allowed starships to enter and exit was simply ridiculous. Once in open space and en route to where he could enter warp, he looked to Commander Whitefern. "Permission to ask a question, sir?"

"Ask away, and don't worry about asking during this flight. If you've got something to say, then say it."

"Thank you, sir. Is real space as beautiful as this simulation makes it seem? Does . . . when I look down on Earth for real for the first time, am I going to feel as awe-filled as I do right now?"

"Son, I can honestly say that the feeling of awe has never gone away for me, and I've been in Starfleet since I was sixteen."

"Good, because I can't say that I'd be happy with looking at that and thinking 'Ho hum', y'know? Uh, sir?"

"I know exactly what you mean."

Harry looked down at his panels. "Might want to hold on, sir. If this flight plan is correct, then we're in for a bumpy ride." With that, he punched the controls, and they shot into warp for a few seconds, coming out above Jupiter. "Merlin's balls," Harry breathed. "It's amazing." He shook his head and scowled, not noticing the Commander's amused smile at his epithet.

Harry's flight was amazing for both of them. He rocketed around moons in a tight pattern, once avoiding one of the gigantic lightning bolts that jumps from planet to inner moons. He exploded up from the gravity well of the gigantic body and shot toward the asteroid belt. He entered it at speed, noting the Commander's slightly worried look, but the flight plan called for a specific speed. He was to fly through the entire width at the highest speed he could manage. At the speeds he was travelling, the likelihood of collision was much higher than usual, but he avoided the heavenly bodies as if they weren't there.

Shooting out the other side, he brought the ship to a stop, as the flight plan called for. "How did I do, Commander?"

Commander Whitefern's eyebrows were near his hairline. "I've only ever seen one other person fly that well, Cadet, and he wasn't a first year student when he did it. I think we'll check on a few other things, but you're likely getting a free pass from most of the flying classes. Bring us home."

"Yes sir." Harry tapped a few buttons and opened the comm link. "Shuttle Gagarin-SB1 to Starbase, requesting permission to approach and land."

"Come on in, Gagarin. Good flying, by the way."

"Thank you. Gagarin out." He brought the ship into warp and back out again, some distance away from the base.

"Interesting. Most students try to reappear as close to Starbase 1 as they can, but you came out of warp some four hundred thousand kilometres away. Why is that?"

"Begging your pardon, sir, but it's kinda dumb to come out of warp that close if you don't have a clear picture of exactly what's nearby. If I knew for a fact that the area was completely clear, I could probably have dropped us right on their doorstep."

Once they had landed, the Commander turned to him. "That is one of the smoothest landings I've ever felt, son. I didn't realise we'd landed until I heard you shutting the ship down."

"I look forward to flying one of these shuttles for real."

Commander Whitefern grinned at him. "Care to end the simulation?"

"Computer, end program." Nothing happened. "Uh, sir? I don' think I have proper permissions to end the program."

"What error message did the computer give you?"

"None, sir."

"Think about it, son. Follow me while you think." Harry followed while he thought about what the Commander had said. I should have gotten an error message, something like 'You do not have authorisation to end this program' or something like that. That means -

Harry realised what that meant as he entered the room where several other Starfleet personnel sat. They rose to their feet and started clapping. "How'd it feel to fly a shuttle for the first time?" Admiral Jaaymeson asked.

"Amazing, even if I didn't know I was doing it."

"He's the best flier I've seen since Paris went through here. Probably in Admiral Sulu's league," Whitefern said.

"High praise indeed!" He looked to Harry. "Sulu was the only navigator ever to perform what he called a 'Bootlegger's Reverse' in a starship. I've got no idea what a bootlegger was, but that is one of the most amazing moves I've ever seen - and I can only see it in recordings, because anyone who tried it since then ended up damaging their ship."

"Does the current design of the ships allow for such a thing?" Harry asked. "It could be that the technology was better suited for it during his time. And if I may, sir, what is a 'Bootlegger's Reverse' manoeuvre?"

"You basically spin the ship on its axis and return in the direction you came. The thing is, you're still accelerating when you do it. None of this stopping and spin - you stress the hull like mad to do it."

"Sounds similar to a Wronski Feint," he mused. At the amused looks he got from the teachers in the room, he explained. "It was largely used to plough a fellow Seeker into the turf. You'd head down at the ground at top speed and pull up at the last possible second. My feet tended to brush the grass, to be honest."

"Given that I could probably have touched one of those asteroids we manoeuvred around, I can believe it," Whitefern said with a laugh.

Enterprise

Ensign Potter touched the chime to the Counsellor's quarters. "Come in, Ensign," came the melodic voice of Deanna Troi.

"Well, I'm here," he said with a small smile. "I'll admit that I'm not used to talking about my feelings with anyone."

"If it works for you - which it seems to have so far," she said, "then it's not really a problem. I've noticed that you've spent a lot of time on the holodeck with a program you named Hogwarts? Is that part of how you do stress relief?"

He blushed slightly. "I built it so that I could see my friends again. I know I return to my original time at some point - Admiral Jaaymeson told me so shortly after I arrived - but I don't know when I'll return. There's some ugly crap showing up just after I disappeared, and it spilled into the non-magical world. I don't expect that any of my closest friends will be alive when I return."

"Why not? They must be fairly well skilled. The six of you took on a dozen well trained adults."

"I expect that was more that they were startled and the fact that the Death Eaters are used to people just rolling over and dying while screaming for mercy from the inhuman dogs who don't know the meaning of the word."

"My usual response here would be something inane like 'You don't sound happy with them,' but that much is obvious. What makes these . . . 'Death Eaters' be like this?"

"Ever study the period I'm from? The period before me, actually, called the Second World War. Adolf Hitler and his policies and beliefs? Same sort of idiots. If you weren't a 'pureblood' wizard, then you weren't really worthy of living. My friend Hermione was called a 'Mudblood' by the son of one of the 'scions' of the wizarding world."

Deanna winced. "I don't have to have grown up in your wizarding world to hear that as an insult. 'Dirty blood.'"

"The funny thing is, they were being run by a man - well, thing, after that ritual - who was exactly the type of person that they were sent out to kill. His mother had a relationship with a non-magical man, who left as soon as he discovered that she was a witch. Don't know the full story, so I won't judge a dead man."

"Let's get back to your friends. You mentioned a 'Hermione' by name, and just now you blushed slightly."

He thought for a moment. "Maybe it would be easier if we went to a holodeck and I showed you my friends as I saw them. You'd probably glean more about my thoughts from seeing that than you would from simply hearing me talk about them."

"Agreed. Computer, what is the nearest available holodeck?"

"The nearest available holodeck is Holodeck 6."

"Mark it as in use by the ships' Counsellor, and prepare to run program -" She turned and faced Harry.

"- Hogwarts 1."

"- Hogwarts 1." When the computer acknowledged her, she gave full attention to Harry again. "Why that specific one?"

"It's easiest to get you introduced to everyone, to be honest. It's the parts of the school that I know - and that's a lot of it - and it contains the people that I know, and some who look like their counterparts, but I've no idea of their personalities." He grimaced. "And a couple I'm sure that I made worse than they really are."

"Perhaps not. You seem honest about your leanings regarding these people, so the computer has likely lessened their worst tendencies that you had originally programmed in, which would likely bring them greater in line with who they truly are."

"Possibly. One thing, though - they'll see us as being their age." She simply nodded.

The doors to Holodeck 6 opened to show a beautiful sunny day. "Begin program," Harry said once the doors had closed.

"Harry!" Ron called, running toward him with Hermione and Ginny in hot pursuit. "Where've you been?"

"Dumbledore gave me permission to go into Hogsmeade to meet a student who's thinking of coming here. Guys, meet Deanna Troi. Miss Troi, meet Ron Weasley, a huge Quidditch fan and Keeper on the Gryffindor team. His sister Ginny, the cute redhead of the two, plays Seeker for now, and isn't as much as a nut about the game as Ron is. The brunette who's nearly vibrating into another dimension waiting for the chance to ask you questions about where you went to school is Hermione Granger."

"Computer, freeze program," Deanna said. "A possible student? What's Quidditch?"

"Actually, if you mention that you went to Salem Academy and don't know Quidditch or care about Quodpot, Ron will largely leave you alone about it. As for Hermione? Just tell her that Salem really follows the same kind of curriculum that Hogwarts offers."

"Begin program."

They spent a pleasant amount of time in the Holodeck getting to know the holo-versions of his friends. When they left and returned to her office, she smiled. "How long have you been in love with Hermione Granger?"

He looked more than a little startled. "I wasn't aware that . . . then again, she's the one that I find that I'll miss most about the past. What made you say that, though?"

"I was watching how her avatar reacted to how close to you I was hanging. You didn't consciously program her to glare at other girls who get close to you?"

"Definitely not consciously." He shook his head. "Definitely wishful thinking, though. She's with Ron, if they finally got past their odd method of flirting."

She looked at him for a long moment. "I'll understand if you choose not to answer, but . . . have you ever made any programs that were of a more . . . intimate nature?"

He laughed even as he blushed. "Actually, yeah. But would you believe that I couldn't go through with it? I couldn't run those programs, because - it's not like they'd ever know - but I can't get past the thought that it would disrespect the lady in question."

Deanna had a soft smile. "Might this lady have had bushy brown hair?"

He grinned. "I refuse to answer on the grounds that it's probably pretty damned obvious." She laughed in response, but frowned as she felt his mood change. "It doesn't matter anyway. She and her family were killed - no bodies ever found - after an explosion that rocked Oxford. She lived in Oxford."

"No bodies were found? Maybe she survived and slid permanently into your wizarding world before the wall between them fell permanently."

"I doubt it. Hers was one of far too many where they said 'no bodies found'. The blast apparently vaporised a good part of Oxford, completely annihilating the campus of the university. Thousands died. It's not like the Enterprise jumped back in time to save their lives. When I learned that about Hermione, I mourned her and moved on."

"Yet you've had no girlfriends."

"Given my physical age, who am I going to date? Most of the people my age are cadets at the Academy. I'm mentally about twenty-six, even if the body is about twenty or twenty-one."

"To be honest, you don't let people get too close to you."

"Because I lose friends. My first friends are lost in time, and any of the friends I made at the Academy are scattered throughout the fleet by now. When am I going to see them again? Best to stay lonely. I've spent the majority of my life that way, so I'm used to it."

"A very lonely life."

"If I'm going back to the twentieth century to deal with Voldemort, then also likely to be a short one." At her raised eyebrow, he continued. "I have every intention of living a long life. I am not going to throw my life away recklessly. However, I suspect it will be short." He smiled wryly. "Another reason for not getting overly involved with girls. I don't want to leave behind someone with more of a reason to mourn than others have."

She shook her head. "You are probably the most optimistic fatalist I have ever met."

"Helps when you know something of your future. I'll be returning to my original time someday. Best not get too connected here or make too many friends to leave behind."

"Too late," she replied with a smile.