Hogwarts, April 30, 1998

Harry, Annika, and the others of the Ministry Six (as he discovered they were now called) headed off to show the grounds to Annika, while Captain Janeway and Chakotay got quick lessons in the wizarding world of the late 20th century from the Headmaster and Professor Snape.

Outside, they headed toward the Delta Flyer. "Please, do not touch anything on board this vehicle, because I'm the only one who knows how to fly it out of the group of us." He paused. "Well, maybe Herm . . . Annika could, but she's the only other one."

Annika stepped aboard first, and Harry said "Damn! Watching that never stops being enjoyable!" He grinned at Hermione, and was amused to note that she was biting her lower lip and also attempting to tear through her blouse through specifically applied blood pressure. "Those must hurt," he whispered in her ear. "I think Annika and I would like to help you with that problem later."

Hermione actually lost her footing for a moment, falling back against Harry. "Please don't tease me, Harry," she said softly, and he could hear her holding back tears.

He stopped, turning her around. He motioned the others aboard, and then said softly, "Hermione, the only teasing I want to do to you right now involves ending with a screaming orgasm. We'll explain more on board the Delta Flyer, but suffice it to say that if Annika or I say that we'd like to help you with that problem you're having with the fit of your blouse, we are not making fun of you." He grinned. "Now, care to enter the ship ahead of me, that I might enjoy the way your hips sway as you climb aboard?"

She blinked rapidly at him, and he could see that tears were even closer. "You really . . . you think I'm sexy?"

"Might sound like a silly response, but ask Annika exactly how I feel about you. Let's board so that she can tell you why she'd know."

Hermione climbed aboard the Delta Flyer with a smile, especially when she heard Harry's "Damn, even better than I programmed!" murmured behind her.

Once aboard, Harry tapped a few keys, getting a "System lock down in effect, authorisation Potter One" from the Flyer

"Good. Now there's no worries about accidentally hitting the wrong button. How about we catch up on what's happened since I've been gone?"

"Well, you've obviously been to the future," Hermione said, "based purely on the technology. I find it interesting that the ship still works within Hogwarts field, if you will, what with all the wards and such."

"Yes, well, as I said in there, the Time Turner explosion, if you want to call it that, shot me into the future. It was eventually realised that I would be coming back, as I did right now. Two separate photos exist from this time that showed us the earliest time that it could happen. One showed me this age, standing right outside this vehicle, right here on the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch. The other is taken in space, with the Voyager and two other ships. I think one of them was the Delta Flyer, but that was hard to tell. The other was an unknown ship of the Federation."

"What is this Federation?" Neville asked.

"The United Federation of Planets," Harry said with a smile. "I could give you a Binns worthy description, but I prefer you all awake. Suffice it to say that it's a fairly democratic organisation of many worlds. Many worlds have humans on them – some of them due to colonising, but many due to someone seeding the galaxy – but there are Vulcans and Caitians and Edosians and even the Hamalki."

"You love it up there, don't you?" Ginny asked a little sadly. "I can hear a tone in your voice that I've never heard before. You've been looking for a home, and you finally found one."

"No, not yet I haven't," he said with a shrug. "Looking for it, though. But everything I have up there, I earned. I'm a Lieutenant, and I wasn't given that position because I'm the BWL. I got it because I fought for it and passed the tests needed to qualify."

"You're making it on your own merits," Ron said. "I've been learning that myself. There are questions I want to ask, but you'd have no idea, I'm sure."

Harry grinned. "Well, I can tell you of two families that will have descendants into the 24th century. When I arrived, I was met by someone who can trace his family back to Bill and Fleur. Apparently that red hair is impossible to keep down, even if you add some Veela genes to it."

"What was the other family?" Hermione asked.

"When I was on New Londinium, I was taken in by a wonderful family named the McTaverts. Turns out that Dudley got married and had a magical daughter, and threw both mother and child out of the house. The McTaverts descended from them. I was told that I could consider myself family there even before we discovered the connection to the Dursleys."

Neville snorted. "From what little I've heard of the Dursleys – and from, the year you disappeared – that sounds like the perfect revenge on them. Knowing that they'll have children that will claim you as family? Priceless."

"I'm hoping to get permission at some point to take you guys up in the Flyer, because I'll bet you'll never see anything as amazing as Earth from space." He closed his eyes and smiled, a suspicious wetness at the corners of his eyes. "Especially when you get stranded seventy years from it."

He opened his eyes. "I made a mistake, but it's the best one I've ever made in my life. We used the power of the Voyager to fuel my Apparation, and I was thinking of Hogwarts and Hermione at the time. I hadn't known that Apparation had a temporal component, to be honest, and I'd really rather not let that get out, because I'm afraid that Voldie might learn it and use that to really screw things around."

"Well, we're here, so that can't happen," Ginny said with a grin.

"I wish that were true," Harry said. "We had a couple things happen over the last seven years on Voyager that make me think that someone fixed a couple nasty scenarios. We'll never know, but the evidence points that way. And my time on Enterprise had a couple things like that, too. So it's not a guarantee that he couldn't screw with us really badly."

His communicator chirped. "Harry? Where are you?" Janeway's smoky voice asked.

"I'm in the Flyer. I wanted to be able to talk to my friends in a somewhat secure location."

"Understood. We're on our way back out, and I think we'll be taking a few guests to the Voyager to work through our plan for the next few months."

"Months, Captain?"

"Do you think I intend to lose one of my best crewmen? You have to be here until at least August, so I'd say months, since this is still April."

"As you say, Captain," he replied with a smile. "If we're going to be here that long, maybe I should take my N.E.W.T.s, since everyone knows you can't get a good job without them." Her earthy chuckle was his response before the communication ended.

"That voice is a deadly weapon," Annika said softly. "But you can't exactly tell your captain that listening to her speak makes you want to tear her clothes off, can you?" She laughed a little

"Bisexual?" Ginny asked. "Or Harry-sexual, like our Hermione here?"

"Ginny!" was the outraged and angry Hermione response.

"What?" Ginny said. "How long did you dance around me before you finally admitted that you wanted to see me naked? Can we wait those months for you to finally admit that Harry's is the only broomstick you want to ride? Can he wait those months?"

"He's got a girlfriend already!" Hermione cried.

Annika's reply was soft, but heard clearly by everyone. "So we make it a threesome. I know I want to strip you naked, and given who I started life as, I can guarantee you that Harry does too."

"Who you started life as?" Neville asked.

Annika grinned. "This body is that of a young girl named Annika Hansen, who was . . . well, that's a story for another time. The consciousness running this body, though, is of a young holographic lifeform named Hermione Jane Granger." Their eyes were all wide. "Yeah. Harry recreated all of us in the future, but I was the only one to wake up and realise it, for some reason."

"Other than the fact that Hermione is as smart as she is sexy?" Ginny asked with a smile.

"Pretty much," Harry said with no sign of laughter. Hermione's eyes went wide at that. "Seriously. Think about it. I wrote a program to allow me to hang out with the people I remembered from school. One of the programs was so smart that it gained real sentience."

"But . . ."

"I embarrassed myself asking you out," Neville said. "That's when you admitted that Harry was the only man who interested you that way. You cried for hurting me, as I recall."

"Well, I thought you were going to hate me," she said with a smile.

"Instead, he became her shield," Ron said. "Ginny suggested that they pretend to date until he found someone else, and then they could stage an amicable break-up."

"Did give me the excuse to out-pureblood Malfoy and break his nose," Neville said with a laugh.

"Give, give!" Harry said with a laugh, but the story was stopped before it started by a knocking on the shuttle, followed by the door opening. "Chakotay or the Captain," he said. "Right now, we're the only four, Annika included, who can open this when it's closed."

"Astonishing," came the voice of the Headmaster as the door continued to open. "And this . . . box . . . can fly through outer space?"

"Hey there, sir, don't be calling this beautiful ship a 'box'. The Delta Flyer is a thing of beauty, designed by people who love to fly." His tone was an amused chiding one.

"My apologies, Lieutenant," Dumbledore said with a small chuckle. "You do excellent work."

"I'd love to take credit, but pernicious honesty demands that I admit that Tom Paris did the greatest of the design work on this ship. I just suggested things here and there. I still wish we'd gotten the fins," he grumbled good-naturedly.

Janeway was chuckling as well, and Chakotay said, "Who was it who pushed to allow him to do the design work?"

"But it was the Captain who agreed that Tom would be best for the job," Harry protested. He turned to the others, but was met by looks of amusement, except from Hermione. Her heart was in her eyes, and it was clear that she was happy and in love.

"You haven't changed," she sniffed. "You have no idea how happy that makes me. You're still the man that I fell in love with after a certain troll incident."

"It's been twenty years for him, Hermione," Annika said. "You should have seen how he treated me when he thought I was just mimicking you."

"Not one of my shining moments," Harry replied unhappily. He looked to his Hogwarts friends. "Think fifth year, only more so. That's how much of an arse I was. Just ask them if you don't believe me."

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," Chakotay said. "A great deal had piled up on you and you finally caved under the pressure."

"Enough," Janeway said gently. "We need to have a conversation about how things will proceed. We can continue to meet here, or we can reconvene with those necessary aboard Voyager. It's rather unusual to allow pre-warp societies into space, but it has been done before, and since none of you seem to be having problems with the possibility, I would suggest Voyager. There is less of a chance of discovery there."

"Agreed," Dumbledore said. "May I gather some of the people I think most need to be brought up to speed?" Janeway nodded.

As the group exited the shuttle, Harry heard a barking sound he hadn't heard in years, and looked skyward. A snowy owl was swooping down toward him. "Hedwig!" he cried out, the joy clear to everyone. She swooped in and landed on his outstretched arm, and he pulled her close. "I'd hug you if I could, girl. You have no idea how much I've missed you these past twenty years." His voice was thick with emotion.

"Hedwig!" called a voice from further down the path. "Where the hell did you get to, girl?"

"She's over here, Sirius," Harry called out.

The silence was audible, paradoxically enough. It was followed shortly by the sound of someone running faster than was safe. A clean and shaved Sirius Black came into view and caught sight of whose arm Hedwig sat upon. He sat down heavily. "Albus? I haven't lost it, have I?" he asked, his eyes never leaving Harry's face and his voice thick with emotion. "I really see Hedwig sitting on Harry's arm?"

Harry walked over and held out a hand. "That you do, Sirius," he answered for the Headmaster. "I took the long way back by necessity, but I'm here."

Sirius pulled himself up and yanked Harry into a hug. Hedwig flew to Hermione just as Sirius regained his feet.

"Where the hell have you been?" he asked, nearly sobbing with joy.

"Well, when the Headmaster gets the crew he wants together, I'd imagine you'll find out. I promise to tell you what I can.

"That's how come I look older than I should," Harry said. "I'm really even older."

"If someone simply told me this, I wouldn't believe it," Remus said. "But I'm looking out a window at the dark side of the Moon, after having you fly a group of us through outer space. If that doesn't prove it, then nothing will."

"Our mission now, as I see it," Janeway said, "is to help Harry defeat this Voldemort person. He sounds a bit difficult to fight, however. He has returned from the dead?"

"I'm surprised you're not complaining, Mr Tuvok," Tom Paris said. "Coming back from the dead and all?"

"I do not know if your studies tell you of the Vulcan studies into the katra, Mister Paris. The best human descriptor would be the soul. Vulcans try to be on Vulcan when they feel their deaths approaching, that their katra may join with the others at Mount Seleya. There is a ritual called fal-tor-pan, only performed once in recorded history, that can rejoin the katra with the body. To hear of a human version merely gives me an extra data point. There is no reason for me to be surprised."

"He has to have some sort of soul anchor, though," Annika said. "There is no other choice. He was completely disembodied in 1981, and was still around to be given a new body in 1995."

"That would be entirely logical," Tuvok replied.

Hermione was biting her lower lip. "It may sound very silly, but . . . can we rescue some of the items from the museums? Especially with your technology? I mean, there's the Bodleian, the Oxford Science History, the Ashmolean . . ."

"We can at least look into the possibility," Janeway said quite seriously. "It would be quite a feather in Voyager's cap to be able to return to the future and Earth, helping to recover data that was lost so many years ago."

"What about Voldemort?" Sirius asked. "I know that you guys have a lot of ability – as Remus said, we're in outer space, able to look down on the Moon. But can you even help us at all with our problem?"

"I think we can, Mr Black," Janeway said. "After all, as Lieutenant Potter pointed out so efficiently a few hours ago, the equipment we use can apparently be used around your magical areas, as was proven when he stunned Mr Snape. When tuned correctly, our weaponry can channel or power some of your magical abilities. Mr Potter accidentally brought us here through what he called Apparation powered by this ship's engines." She looked to Harry. "Apparation is the correct term, if I remember correctly?"

"Yes Captain. That tuning is actually how I woke Mr Snape up, in fact. My phaser is tuned to my magical signature, so I cast an Ennervate through it. More precisely, I let the battery of the phaser do the actual work, rather than expending my own magical energy."

"There you have it. I suspect that once we know more, we will be able to help you more with the soul anchor and other such problems you're having. Now, I see that Miss Granger has a number of questions that she'd like to ask, so I suppose that we can adjourn this meeting for more informal conversations while Harry brings her up to speed."

Hermione looked at Janeway. "It's comments like that which tell me that Annika is me. You all know me so terribly well, but I know none of you."

"Actually," Tom said, "a few of us would like to find out how accurate his depiction of you was. I'll admit that I don't see the halo, but – if my wife will forgive the comment – he certainly was accurate in regard to how pretty you are."

"Nice save, Tom," B'Elanna said. "You were planning on commenting a bit more . . . coarsely, weren't you?"

"Starfleet couches aren't that comfy, love," he replied with a smile.

She grinned back and then ignored him. "B'Elanna Torres," she said, holding out her hand to Hermione and then the others. "Half human, half Klingon, before any of you ask."

"Only I'd be that rude," Ron said with a laugh. "Emotional depth of a teaspoon, doncha know?" He shook her hand.

"You're up to at least a demitasse cup," Hermione said with a smile. "The way that Harry's smiling in regards to this tells me that he considers you his friends?"

"We hope we are," Tom said.

"The people I trust implicitly are in this room," Harry replied. "Every Starfleet person – and Maquis, to be honest, even though, well, never mind – and all of the Hogwarts people."

By unspoken yet common consent, the meeting broke into smaller groups. Remus and Sirius headed for the transparent aluminum window to gaze down at the Moon. Harry could hear Sirius murmuring something about it, and making a joke about why Remus wasn't turning, since the Moon was right there. That made Harry decide to look into the issue when he made it back to the 24th century, since there really wasn't going to be time to examine it in the 20th before all hell broke loose.

As he stood there with the two Hermiones and the Paris family (Tom, B'Elanna, and incipient child), Albus Dumbledore approached. "It is a pity that Severus could not come. There was much information that would be quite helpful."

"Perhaps, but the less he knows about all of these things, the less damage he can do if it turns out that his turning coat on Voldemort is all a setup. I do not trust the man, and never will."

"Can you not forgive?" Dumbledore asked.

"Why? He's shown no desire to forgive my father for the stupid things he did to him in Hogwarts. He transferred his anger at my father to me, in some effort to get revenge on a dead man." Harry sighed. "Think back to the meeting in your office. He continued to make snide comments about me and my intelligence, as well as my competence to do just about anything. Somehow, in your mind, this means that he can do this, and if I just forgive him hard enough, he'll see the error of his ways. Guess what, Headmaster? Years of studies show that if there is no punishment for a misdeed, those who committed them see no reason to change, and often end up on the wrong side of the law. You can forgive him for being directly involved with the murder of my parents all you want, but it means nothing. He has to show me that he wants to change before I'm willing to offer absolution."

"Severus was not at Godric's Hollow, Harry, so he was not directly involved."

"Really?" the blonde Hermione asked. "So how did Voldemort know to attack the Potters?"

Dumbledore scowled, but didn't respond. Instead, he asked, "Why the hostility toward me now, Harry? You seemed happy to see me earlier."

It was Harry's turn to scowl. "I think I'm more annoyed than hostile. I still consider you a good man, and your legend definitely lives on into the 24th century, since some of the people who trained me and helped me with the prophecy swore using your name. My favorite was 'Dumbledore's socks!', to be honest with you." He smiled. "But I spent so long wondering what I had done wrong my last year at Hogwarts, wondering why you wouldn't speak to me. I went into therapy for it, and when I realized what it must have been, it drove me to be the best I could be at my chosen fields. I would never let anyone down again, the way I let you down over the death of Cedric Diggory."

Dumbledore actually took a step back. "Wait - you thought that I … you thought that I held that boy's death against you?"

"Well, we went together, and I wasn't good enough to save stopped speaking to me pretty much the moment after Barty Crouch Junior was captured. I know that I was only a fourth year at the time, but I was still holding my own against adults, so I should have been able to do something. I've made peace with that failure, and it drove me to do better."

Blonde Hermione turned to face him. "Suddenly, I understand why you acted the way you did for so long. You thought that -" She stopped for a moment, clearly trying to hold her emotions in. When she spoke again, her voice was thick. "You thought you had failed to protect me, so when Seven absorbed me, you saw another failure."

"Still doesn't excuse me supplying the picture for the definition of the word 'arsehole'," he said with a shrug. He turned back to face Dumbledore who had a stricken look on his face.

"You have thought for these past twenty-odd years that I blamed you for poor Mr Diggory's death?" he asked, his voice tinged with horror. "Nothing could be farther from the truth than that, Harry!" he said, voice cracking with emotion. "Had I but realized what you thought … oh, Merlin, what a hash I seem to have made of things." He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, anguish clear on his face. Tears started to leak from his eyes.

He opened them and looked at Harry. "I have never blamed you for Cedric's death, Harry. My choosing not to speak to you was because I feared that he had a link to your mind, and that he would use it to attempt to enter mine, thereby giving him access to far too much information that must remain secret. If he could see our plans, he could build counters to them." Shaking his head, he finished with, "Had I but taken the time to simply have Minerva or someone tell you why I felt I could not speak with you … you have spent more than half your life believing that I blamed you for something that you were blameless in. Can you ever forgive me?"

Harry smiled softly. "Did you do it maliciously? Don't answer that, because your body language tells me the answer. You did it for the best of reasons, and show regret at what you did to me. I can forgive you easily, sir." He walked forward and took the taller man into his arms and hugged him. "That slate is wiped clean, sir."

"You are an amazing young man, Harry," Dumbledore finally said. "I am proud to have known you."

The brunette Hermione cleared her throat. "Sir? You've just shown why Harry won't forgive Severus Snape yet," she said softly. "He shows no regrets, other than that Lily Potter is no longer amongst the living." Dumbledore paused at that, and then nodded somberly before excusing himself to join Remus and Sirius, who had been watching the conversation with interest. Harry suspected they'd talk to him at some point about his incorrect assumption regarding Cedric.

Brunette Hermione soon found herself alone with Harry and blonde Hermione. "So," she said, cursing her suddenly dry mouth and shaky voice.

"We need somewhere private to talk," Harry said. "I need to see what we might be able to do between the three of us."

"I vote for getting naked and sweaty with the sexy brunette pinned between us," the blonde said. Hermione felt that thrumming start between her thighs once more.

"I like the idea," Harry said, making her eyes widen once more, "but that's kinda her decision."

"When and where?" Hermione asked. "If I have the chance to fulfill this dream, I'm taking it."

"Captain?" Harry asked, looking over his shoulder.

"You have my permission, Harry. I expect we won't see you for a while?" she finished with her own smile.

"If I have anything to say about it, you'll be right," Harry said.

"Dismissed," Janeway said with a laugh. As they left, Hermione could hear her saying, "It's amazing how much he loves her -"

The blonde Hermione led the two back to the quarters she shared with Harry, and Hermione could tell she was grinning as Harry said, "Is that not one of the sexiest arses in the universe?"

"It is quite impressive," Hermione replied. Suddenly she squeaked, "Harry!"

"I'd apologize, but I've wanted to fondle your arse for about twenty years now, Hermione, so my apology would be a lie."

She led them inside. Immediately she turned. "I'm bisexual and extremely turned on by you, Hermione. I know that Harry would like nothing more than to rip off your clothes and fuck you into the decking, but he's too polite to say that to you. Hell, he wouldn't even use my image as a sexual release when I was still just a holodeck program."

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

"Respect," he said simply. "I didn't know if the real you would want me doing that."

She blinked at him for a moment, and then answered his question in a manner that surprised even her. She grabbed her blouse and ripped it open, displaying the white lace bra beneath. "I only wish I'd been braless today." She undid her skirt without ripping the zipper, letting it fall to the floor as well, displaying simple cotton knickers.

"Harry, I am a lesbian – except for you. You are the only male I have ever had a sexual reaction to. It startled me to be riding behind you on Buckbeak – when we saved Sirius – and feeling my body reacting to you. If you had turned around and kissed me when we landed, then I likely would have responded with a hand shoved down your trousers. If only once before I die, I want to lay on my back and feel the only man who has ever turned me on inside me."

"Not in the library, bent over a particularly racy tome?" he asked with a smile, quickly moving to catch her as her knees gave out.

"Don't do that to me," she moaned.

"Why not? It gave me an excuse to take you into my arms." He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, which was all that she needed, returning the kiss with an interest that startled Harry, from what she could tell. She lost herself in the kiss, so much so that she was actually slightly surprised when she recovered from the blissful feeling to discover that Annika had apparently successfully divested her of her clothing and had pressed her own nude body against hers.

She shivered, not in fear, but in anticipation.

She blushed furiously later at the ovation the three of them received for proving that silencing charms don't do a perfect job.