A/N- For the seven of you who were into this story...sorry! Real life and all that. If you need a recap...just read the chapters before this one. This story isn't that long, yet. Please review!
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, and the idea for the red bubble is blatantly stolen from Nonjon's Browncoat, Greeneyes...which you should read. And if you have a title suggestions, go for it. I obviously suck at chapter titles.
Planning
When did you decide to leave the magical world?
I didn't really decide to.
What do you mean?
Well, I don't know that much about how you do things in England, but in Russia most families will disown you for being non-magical. Mine didn't, though.
Did they treat you badly?
No, nothing like that. It was just a feeling of disappointment. More mine than theirs. I couldn't live there, watching my family doing magic and seeing their expressions when I complained about it.
Is that why you left?
I suppose so. Like I said, I never really made a decision to leave. I knew I had to do something with my life, and I was always good at building things. It was something only I could do. Even with magic, there was no one I knew who had the ability to create something useful that was lasting and permanent.
Did you ever attempt to purchase a wand?
No. My family wasn't rich, and wands in Russia are expensive. How much are they in England?
Between ten and twenty galleons. I know in Russia, some wands are closer to one-hundred, right?
You were lucky if you found one that cheap. And they were never good quality, either. I remember thinking that when my younger brother bought his first wand. I thought to myself, 'I could make something better than that.' I actually considered going into wand-making, but..."
No one wanted to buy a wand made by a squib?
No one would even consider it.
When was the last time you had any contact with the magical world?
About twenty years ago. My father died and I went to his funeral. My mother died a few years before that. None of the rest of my family seemed all that interested in their sister who couldn't do magic, so I never tried to contact them again. I was just starting my cosmonaut training at that point, and after so many years doing construction and salvage in Siberia, I was just tired of it.
You didn't meet any witches or wizards for twenty years?
I'm sure I did. I saw things that said 'magic' to me, but never pointed it out to my co-workers or anyone else. I didn't want them to think I was strange, and people without magic never notice those kinds of things, anyway, right?
Usually. If they do, they often rationalize it to themselves as something more plausible.
Once the selection process for the First Hundred started, I did my best to shut that part of my brain down. We couldn't have anyone think we were too different or not compatible with the others.
But you're here now.
That's true.
Would you be interested in learning about magic? Maybe we could research how it could supplement your construction. Certain charms could lower the risk of decompression to almost nothing. I could 'discover' a special glass compound that would be basically unbreakable. Our first habitat could be something you've only dreamed about. A work of art.
I'll have to think about it.
Harry and Desmond had made it to Underhill in just under five hours, but were forced to wait just over the horizon until after midnight to avoid detection. Desmond did his best to keep Harry calm. The hair on his arms seemed to stand on end as Harry worked himself up, and Desmond imagined himself stuck inside a power substation. They spent almost an hour watching as the sun set. The darkness after the sky finally changed from deep violet to black was complete. The few lights of Underhill were not visible over the shortened horizon. Desmond thought he saw Deimos at one point, but couldn't be sure and his neck was getting sore from looking up through the several centimeter thick shoulder level window, which dampened the slight illumination of the stars
Several more messages from Hiroko and finally Hermione had tempered Harry's worry, which had been steadily increasing as the night dragged on. Desmond had quickly piloted their rover into the farm's garage where he and Harry had been met by Iwao, the half-Swedish, half-Japanese systems engineer who was, for all intents and purposes, working as Hiroko's assistant. He led them to a small shed in the prefabricated greenhouse that sat on the edge of the circle of habitat trailers that were the current make up of Underhill.
Eventually, after Harry had gotten to the point where Desmond was afraid he would have to try and physically restrain the wizard from bursting into the hospital trailer, a quiet, familiar scratching on the door of the closet caused both men to still. Hiroko slipped in through the door, quietly closing it behind her. A corner of her mouth turned up as she glanced at Desmond, but then she turned her attention to Harry. Hiroko tilted her head to the side as she observed the wizard. Harry stared back at her for a moment and just as he was about to ask after Hermione, Hiroko spoke.
"Hermione is fine. Her concussion was not serious. Two others were injured at the same time, and Vlad Taneev is keeping them overnight for observation. You cannot see her. She will come here to you, probably tomorrow morning, unless she is unexpectedly delayed."
"Thank you," said Harry. The frustration and tension drained out of him. Even with the reassuring but short message from Hermione earlier that night as they had waited in the rover he had been worried.
"Who are the others?" asked Desmond.
"Nadia Chernyshevski and Frank Chalmers. It's curious. Hermione quickly surmised that their injuries occurred at roughly the same time that you began experimenting with your magic."
"Harry here fell down, too. I was watching, 'Roko. I ain't never seen anything like it in my life. A huge red bubble, bigger and bigger, til it popped and scattered up into the sky. It must've been some sort of magic Harry here had never seen before. Knocked him on his ass. It was quite a sight."
Harry shrugged and looked down, slightly uncomfortable with the ambiguous praise. "I don't know what exactly happened. The spell worked. No magic I did affected our walkers or the rover."
"Harry, do you think you could cast a spell?" requested Hiroko. Desmond seemed to understand immediately and grinned crookedly.
"Here?" asked Harry.
"Yes." She looked around for a moment before her eyes settled on her wristpad computer with a mysterious glint. She quickly released the clasp and placed it on the ground between the three of them.
"I don't want to ruin it," said Harry.
"You don't have to worry about that. I can replace it quite easily, but I might not need to if what I predict is correct."
Harry's eyes widened as he suddenly grasped the possible repercussions of the spell he had cast that morning. With a practiced ease born of many years in the Aurors, Harry produced his wand and cast a quick levitation charm on the wristpad before Hiroko or Desmond could take more than a breath. The small computer rose in the air until it was at the same height as Hiroko's face. Harry floated it over to her.
"Amazing," whispered Hiroko to herself with a tiny smile. She hesitantly grasped it out of the air and, with a glance, determined it was still working without any side-effects from the magic.
"It's still working?" asked Harry incredulously. Hiroko nodded and handed the wristpad to Harry without speaking. He checked it out briefly, confirming the fact that the computer was still functional before handing it back to Hiroko and sighing.
"I need to talk to Hermione."
The next morning came quickly. Harry was woken by his friend and fellow hidden colonist muttering to himself as he peered at his AI on an adjacent cot, jabbing at it with his index finger every few seconds. Harry stretched and rubbed his face, feeling the lighter gravity as he sat up on his cot.
"What time is it?"
"Just after seven," replied Desmond, glancing at him briefly before turning his attention back to the AI.
Harry swung his legs over the edge of the cot and rooted through his pack for one of the nutrient bars that Hermione and Hiroko continually supplied them with, regardless of their wishes. He unwrapped it and held it in his left hand. With his right, he aimed his wand and transfigured the bar into a perfectly ripened banana. Desmond glanced over just in time to see the banana form and smiled.
"Can you magic me one of those, Harry?" he asked, his AI forgotten for the moment.
"Sure, have this one," said Harry. He handed Desmond the banana and transfigured a second bar.
The two friends ate in near silence for several minutes, with only an occasional excited exclamation from Desmond regarding the magic used to create their breakfast. Just as Harry was about to vanish the peels, a rapid tapping on the door of their shed, followed by the door handle being jiggled in an attempt to open it, triggered a flurry of action from the two hidden colonists. The lights of the windowless shed were extinguished by Desmond, who cleared off their cots which were immediately shrunk and banished behind a stack of plastic crates.
In less than five seconds, Desmond and Harry had managed to hide or erase any signs of their existence, as well as pull Harry's invisibility cloak over themselves. They held their breath as the door opened. Through it, the two glimpsed the interior of the geodesic dome that housed the farm. A bright pink glow from the Martian dawn illuminated the interior of the shed and the person who entered was lit from behind, with the face covered in shadow. Harry instantly recognized the posture and shape of Hermione as she stepped fully inside.
"Shut the door, Hermione," he whispered, still under the cloak. She started slightly and then did as requested. Harry pulled off the cloak and rolled it up, placing it in his pocket. With a quick flick of his wrist, a glowing light radiated from the tip of his wand, causing all three to blink until their eyes adjusted.
"Harry! The spell worked this far?" she asked, already fairly certain of the answer after talking with an enigmatic Hiroko to find out where the stowaways were hiding after she was discharged from the clinic.
"I guess so," he said, turning the shed's light back on and extinguishing his wand. "It knocked me out when I cast it, and Desmond said a spherical wave of red energy moved outward before dissipating."
"Did you see how far it went?" she asked the Trinidadian.
Desmond shook his head. "It was big, though."
"How big?"
"Real big. I thought maybe you could see it from Underhill. It was the color of the sky, so maybe it went unnoticed."
Harry nodded in agreement. "Non-magical people seem to see what they expect to see. It's how our world has stayed relatively hidden all this time."
"Did you feel anything?" asked Hermione, still searching for as much data as she could. "A push, a feeling inside of you?"
"What kind of feeling?" asked Desmond.
"Anything unusual. A sense of euphoria? Impending doom? Any strong emotions that suddenly affected you?"
Desmond shook his head. "The only emotion I can describe to you was awe. It was an amazing thing, seeing magic like that. Then fear for Harry, here. When I saw him lying on the ground like a dead man, it scared the hell out of me. I've grown fond of the fool."
Hermione smiled at Harry's abashed expression and gripped his arm affectionately. "I was worried about the two of you, too." A hazy vision of Ron's face and the feeling of wonderment that seemed to manifest itself every time Harry had done something incredible percolated through her mind. A flash of memory, Harry casting his patronus against the dementors during their third year. A young boy jumping on a troll's back. Her dead best friend appearing like a ghost in the midst of the final battle and standing up to Voldemort, taunting him and begging him to show remorse before once again performing an impossible feat.
"Hermione?" said Harry, looking worriedly at his best friend.
"Did you know Ron used to have nightmares about the Chamber of Secrets?"
Harry stared at her. The two of them rarely spoke about any of the Weasleys, especially their deceased spouses. And almost never to each other. The emotional wounds were still too fresh. Desmond had heard a bit about the youngest Weasley siblings from the two of them in one-on-one conversations, but had never seen Harry or Hermione speak about them in each other's presence.
"I knew Ginny did, but Ron and I didn't really talk much about it."
Hermione nodded. "He always said you could do the impossible. The night of your wedding, we talked about it. He said the reason he believed in you through everything was the knowledge that he knew you would never lose. He said you didn't know how to." Moisture filled her eyes and she sniffed once and blinked several times until she regained control.
Harry swallowed and said nothing. Desmond waited, slightly uncomfortable, in silence.
"Well," Hermione continued. "I think you may have done it again. I can't be sure, of course, without doing a bit of research," Harry snorted. "But it's entirely possible that you've altered the state of magic on the entire planet."
Harry stared at her. He was about to argue when a cackling laugh startled both of them as Desmond slapped Harry on the back, his dreadlocks snapping back and forth as he shook his head.
"That makes as much sense as anything! If anyone can do it, you can. I don't know magic, but I know you, Harry!"
Harry scowled at him and then turned unhappily to his oldest friend. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about?"
"Think about it, Harry. We've come to Mars, a planet that is, for all intents and purposes, dead. No biosphere that we can detect, an atmosphere that is almost completely frozen out and arid to the point that we can barely detect any hint of moisture in the rocks or regolith. The lithosphere is solid and unmoving, with no detectable tectonic movement since the Tharsis Bulge formed almost four billion years ago. We don't know much about the origins of magic, but it seems to be wielded only by life, at least on Earth. It makes sense that, until we arrived the 'magisphere', for lack of a better term, was static."
"So, you think that Harry here has kick started the magic on Mars?" said Desmond.
"I think so. He was the first person to cast any magic on the planet. From my studies, I've learned that the true masters of magic, dark, light and everything in-between, relied on intent and power more than anything."
"So, because Harry's a very powerful wizard and intended to allow the use of electronics in conjunction with magic when he cast the first spell on Mars, the magic of the planet is going to allow it everywhere?"
Hermione nodded excitedly. "Yes! At least I think so. That's the only explanation that makes sense to me right now. Think about it. We're almost thirty kilometers away from where you cast the spell, Harry. If magic seems to have no affect on the computers or other electronic devices in Underhill, why would it be any different in Hellas Basin, or Valles Marineris?"
"Maybe there's a limit," argued Desmond. "Perhaps there is a radius, beyond which Harry's spell is ineffective or the magic of it just didn't reach."
Hermione shook her head. "Magic acts more like energy than anything else we can compare it to. If the spell was able to affect us here at Underhill, there's no reason it would stop here or anywhere else on the planet."
"Energy has a limit. Over time and distance it dissipates. I don't imagine magic is all that different."
"But what would stop it? You were over the horizon, well over it, and yet I can cast a spell with little worry for the electronics surrounding us," said Hermione. "Is something going to block the spells path?"
Desmond shrugged, still not completely convinced, but enthusiastic enough about Hermione's theory to let things play out until it could be proven one way or the other.
Harry, who had been silent as his two friends debated and fleshed out their theory, finally spoke.
"How can we find out? We can't just take a rover and drive around the planet, casting spells on stolen computers and hoping they don't malfunction."
"Why not?" said Hermione. "The rover is already charmed to work around magic. This is the only way we can learn what we need to know."
"I think we've been Shanghaied," said an amused Desmond. Harry only stared at her.
"You said wanted to see the planet," said Hermione, a little uncertainly as she realized she was assuming they'd be happy to help her with her magical research.
"It's better than living in a closet," agreed Desmond with a glance at Harry.
Harry blew his breath out through his teeth. "When do we leave?"