Author's Responses at the end:

Chapter Eight: Night Terrors

Two old friends shared a beer and played darts at the Observation Deck Bar and Grill. It was a tradition that went back in one form or another for over twenty years.

"Kirk was telling me that the Stingrays have a new player at his school," Professor of Engineering Miles O'Brian said. "Said he's the best flier the school has ever seen. You'd think he'd won the season already, he's so happy about it. Still don't understand it myself—the school fields six teams. Anyway, this new flier had the strangest name. Bill Swine? Bill Hoars?"

Dr. Julian Bashir had near perfect recall. He never forgot a name. "Bill Hogs?"

"Yeah, that's! Hey, how'd you know his name? Jahdzia and Ben aren't in high school yet and I know Ezri doesn't follow water polo!"

"He's being treated at Starfleet Medical," Bashir said.

Technically, it was a huge breach in confidentiality for Bashir to say even that much. However, the relationship he shared with Miles was such that he knew his friend would die before repeating a word to anyone. Miles was as close to Bashir's therapist as he could get.

"Really? Kirk thinks a lot of him. He's special needs, but in thermal dynamics, which I can tell you was not an easy class."

"He was found a little over a month ago with amnesia," Julian said. He nailed another bull's-eye. He threw from two meters further out than O'Brian.

"That's interesting." Miles could say so much with so few words. "Wouldn't be related to that unknown energy surge in Scotland, would it?"

"Let me guess," Bashir said, "they asked you to take a look?"

Miles grinned. "The theoretical people were all scratching their heads, so Starfleet asked some of us good-old-fashioned grease monkeys to take a look."

"What did you find?"

"Honestly, it reminds me of Q."

"Really? How so?"

"Well, there was obviously an energy source of some kind. With full scanners Space Dock can even pick up camp fires. This surge was visible from orbit, albeit as little more than a dot of bright light. But what they're not releasing to anyone outside the know is that it wasn't the energy scanners that detected it. Purely visuals."

"Which means?"

"Anything that produces the lumens to be visible from orbit has to have some type of energy reaction. If it was a chemical light source, then the remains of the chemicals should have been evident. There were none. If it was electrical, then we would have picked it up. If it was electromagnetic, nuclear, or anti-matter based, we would have picked it up as well. It produced photons—something interacted with the visual scanners, but it was as if the source of the photons did not exist. And there is only one instance I personally have ever seen where light is produced without heat, energy or chemical reactions."

"The Q," Julian said.

"Just a thought," O'Brian said with a shrug.

"So you think this boy could be a Q?"

"Ever read about Amanda Rogers?"

Bashir had to search his memory a little. "Ahh yes, the Q born to human parents. That occurred on the Enterprise before you came to Deep Space Nine, didn't it? Her parents were Q and took on human form to experience how we live."

Miles nodded. "Maybe this boy was Q and assumed human form. You'd never know."

"Very interesting," Bashir said as he hit another bull's-eye.

That afternoon, after finishing an enjoyable lunch with his friend, Bashir put his afternoon appointments on hold and strode to the psychiatric department. He discovered, however, that Deanna was not alone.

"I'm sorry," he started to say. "I can come back."

"It's all right," Dr. Riker said quickly. "Doctor Bashir, this is Father Clair Mendoza from the San Francisco Catholic Diocese. Father Mendoze, this is our Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Julian Bashir. And you know Dr. Wildman of course."

"And honor to meet you, Doctor Bashir," Father Mendoza said. He offered a strong handshake which Bashir accepted.

"A pleasure," Bashir said. He nodded to Naomi. "What brings you to Starfleet Medical today, Father?"

"Father Mendoze was discussing a parishioner of his named Diana Boxing," Deanna said. "Diana was with Susan Chamberlain in Scotland."

Bashir met Deanna's eyes and did not need to be empathic to understand she wanted him in this meeting. "How very serendipitous. I was actually coming to talk to you about that. May I join you?"

"Please do," Father Mendoza said with easy grace. "I suspect Dr. Riker and Dr. Wildman would have called you anyway, for our church has received a most unusual and disturbing request."

The four of them resumed their seats and Medoza explained. "As you know, the Catholic Church has continued to serve the people of Earth for many centuries. Our role has changed over the years and our reach is not nearly what it once was, even as we fund missions to the stars, but we continue to believe in the power of the Lord and his Son. However, this faith is also tempered with the knowledge of science. There are many rituals that the Church has not seriously considered in centuries. Therefore, the request Ms. Boxing made of us caught us all by surprise. Ms. Boxing has made a formal request for an exorcism for her daughter Diana. She claims last night her daughter was possessed. That objects flew through her room without obvious reason, and that her daughter spoke in someone else's voice. Ms Carey has visited my church for three years, and I have never seen her so upset."

Bashir shared a very long glance at Deanna and then to Naomi. Both women knew more than they were saying. "What is the Church's official response?"

"It is me, asking a friend to help me assist this child. Naomi here has worked with me with several of our parishioner's children and I knew she would at least hear me out. Diana was distraught as much by her mother's distress as by anything. She says she was only having a bad nightmare and has no memory of what her mother describes."

"Does Ms. Boxing have any religious or moral qualms against modern medicine?" Bashir asked carefully.

"She knows that some tests fall outside the normal range of approved treatment for basic needs families. Evidently a friend of hers has been ill and this was on the mother's mind."

"Father, could my colleagues and I have a word?" Bashir asked.

He nodded. Julian and Deanna quickly retreated to her nearby private office with Naomi a step behind. "This is more than a coincidence," Bashir said at once.

"I was about to call you," Deanna confirmed. "Watch this."

She pulled up the recordings of Bill Hogs' nightmares. There were many more after that initial recording, coming from Nancy almost every night now. Julian watched in silence, a thumbnail to his mouth in pensive thought.

"Have we heard anything from the other two girls?" Bashir asked.

"Not yet," Naomi said. "But we will. Bill has repeatedly said that Susan, Diana and the other two are familiar to him. That he feels more comfortable around them than his other friends. It is more than just a casual comfort. He has told me there is something specific in the way they respond to him, and the way he responds to them, that feels different than with anyone else."

Deanna was not looking at Julian, she was studying Naomi. "I think you should tell him, Naomi," she said.

"Tell me what?" Bashir said.

"Another recording," Naomi explained with an embarrassed frown. The image changed from Bill's night terrors to one of a young woman in the throes of a terrible nightmare. A picture flew off the wall and the whole bed rattled. Suddenly the figure sat up with a glow to the eyes that was clearly visible to the recorder. In an altogether eerie voice, the figure said, "Harry will win the war!" Her head snapped back and she fell onto the bed, boneless. A few minutes later she stirred in her bed and sat up normally.

"That's…that's you, Dr. Wildman," Bashir said, stunned.

Naomi was blushing as she nodded. "The only memory I have is of a nightmare. Prior to that I had some very erotic dreams. I started developing feelings for Bill, but honestly thought I could keep them under control. But I started having intense dreams, and then these nightmares started. And…well, it appears that my menstrual cycle has changed just like Susan's. Though we don't know for sure about Diana Boxing, I know that I and Susan Chamberlain are now on the same exact cycle."

Bashir stammered a moment before becoming silent. Finally, he said, "Do you in any way believe these feelings have been manipulated?"

"I don't believe so, Doctor, but at the same time I could not rule out the possibility. Though I am professionally credentialed, I'll be the first to admit I don't have a great deal of personal experience in the romance department. I am young for my station, which is why I generally accept cases for young children, and I led a sheltered childhood. I'm beginning to suspect it was a mistake for me to work with a teen-ager, especially one like Bill."

"Okay, then who is Harry?" Bashir asked.

"A good question," Naomi said. "We don't know."

"Whatever is happening has now affected one of my staff personally," Bashir said. "I'm going to order the Lauterbur to skip its last scheduled stop and return early. In the meantime, Dr. Wildman, I want you to undergo a full physical."

"I suspect my deep-tissue resonance scan will have the same results as Bill's and Susan's," Naomi predicted.

"Be that as it may, we still need to make sure." He led the two women back into the room with the waiting priest. "Father Mendoza, we would like to meet with Diana and her mother as soon as possible. Today if we can. There are some tests we would like to perform. Please assure her mother the tests will be done by Starfleet as part of a larger inquiry and she will not have any expenses."

"I will do so, thank you," Mendoza said. When he was gone, Bashir said, "Contact the parents of the other two. I want those girls in isolated observation until the Lauterbur arrives. In the odd event this is a pathological event, I do not want to take the risk of it spreading."

"If the parents object?"

"Then I'll go to the local Center For Disease Control and declare it a public health risk. At that point the issue will be Federalized and Starfleet can then step in. One way or the other, I want everyone involved in the Scotland incident isolated. Dr. Wildman, I'm sorry, but this will have to include you."

"I know, Doctor," Naomi said. "If nothing else it will give me time to continue my research on his past."

* * *

Mary Caraough was worried. She did not even get a message from Diana. The girl just never showed up on the tram. She sought out Katherine and found her on their bench, looking out over the water.

She was smiling.

"What's up with you?" Mary demanded.

Katherine blinked and looked up at her with a broad smile. "Oh, nothing. How are you?"

"Girl, that smile is not nothing. You look like you just got to make out with Admiral Riker."

"It was nothing, just a silly dream," Katherine said with a flush that ran down below her neck.

Mary said: "You dreamed about Bill, didn't you?"

"He was kissing me," Katherine said with a dreamy smile. "He started at my ankle and just started kissing me up my leg. It felt so good. I've never had a dream like that before."

"I dreamed he was blowing raspberries on my stomach," Mary admitted. "And they turned into kisses the lower he went."

Katherine laughed weakly. "We've both got it bad, don't we?"

"Yeah. Have you seen Diana?"

Katherine frowned. "No, I haven't. And still no word from Susan. She's never missed this much school before, and no calls over the weekend at all."

Then Bill was there. Mary knew even before she saw him. It was like she had some strange compass in her body that flipped over entirely as soon as he drew near. She turned slowly and faced him. She felt her heart beat a little faster and derided herself for it. He was so very obviously interested in Susan, or maybe even Diana. Why would he be interested in the brainy historian?

"Hi!" he said, smiling.

The smile was blinding and made her hand tremble. It wasn't that it looked any more brilliant than any other smile. It wasn't that Bill looked any better than any of the other handsome young men that attended the school. And yet the smile hit her with almost physical force.

My God, she thought to herself, am I in love with this boy?

He sat down between them. "Have either of you heard from Diana? The school attendance roll said she'll be out today."

"No, we haven't," Katherine said.

"First Susan and now Diana." Bill looked first at Katherine, then Mary. "I don't think I could stand it if I lost all four of you."

Mary lost the fight to still the tremble in her hand. Desperate to move, she took his left hand only to see that Katherine had the other. "You won't lose us," Mary said. "Any of us. I just bet Susan and Diana have the Andorian flu or something. They'll probably be back in a day or two."

Bill squeezed their hands and smiled. "I hope you're right. It doesn't feel right, you know, just with half of us."

Us. His hand felt warm, much warmer than any other hand she had ever held. But it was not uncomfortable. Quite the contrary; the warmth of it washed through her in gentle waves that made her feel at once sleepy and exhilarated. "Why do you make me feel this way?" she whispered.

Bill looked at her, surprised. "I…I'm not sure. What do you mean?"

From the other side, Katherine said, "I dreamed about you last night, Bill. So did Mary. We think about you all the time. I know Diana and Susan do to. Why? Why do you make us all feel this way?"

"I don't know," Bill admitted. "But…I hope I'm not hurting any of you. I just…I don't want to be alone. It feels right to have you nearby." He held up their hands, and very deliberately kissed each one. The contact of his lips on their knuckles made both shudder. "I want to be with you. All of you. I just wish I had the words to explain it better."

Mary found herself looking at the tattoo on the hand she held. It was in the shape of a medieval shield with a bird—either an eagle or a raven she couldn't tell—flying over a field of silver and blue. Without understanding what she was doing, and because of the warmth in her hands, she started to bring the back of his hand to her lips.

She felt Bill tense and hold his breath, but he made no effort to stop her.

Unfortunately, someone else did.

"Hello," a deep voice said.

Mary dropped Bill's hand with a startled yelp. Bill and Katherine also looked up. Other students were watching from a safe distance as four Starfleet officers stood with one of the assistant principals and a local police officer.

"Mary Caraough, Katherine Dunningham and Bill Hogs?"

"Yes," Katherine said.

"I'm afraid we need you to come with us." The speaker was a handsome young man in a gold and black Starfleet security uniform.

Katherine shook her head stubbornly. "We're minors and Earth citizens. We don't have to go anywhere with you."

"Katherine!" Mary hissed. "Don't talk back to the people with guns."

"Don't worry about that, Miss Caraough," the leader of the Feddies said. "You're not in any trouble. Mrs. Franks and Officer Sanchez can verify that the school was contacted by your parents giving us permission to pick you up. This is about your friends Susan Chamberlain and Diana Boxing. Will you come with us, please?"

Mentioning their friends seemed to make Katherine and Mary relax a little, but Bill hung back. "What's this about?" he asked. "Where are you taking us?"

"You will be taken to Starfleet Medical," the Starfleet Officer said. "After that, you'll have to talk to one of the doctors there."

Bill shook his head stubbornly. "I don't want to go."

"Young man," Mrs. Franks said, "you are a ward of the Federation. They do have the right to take you. Please, they just want to help you and your friends."

"Starfleet Command, this is Ensign Stathers, subjects are one meter in front of me. Please beam directly to Starfleet."

"No!" Bill said.

"Ensign Stathers, this is Command," responded a voice through the ensign's com badge, "we are unable to get a lock on any of the subjects. Subjects appear to be generating an energy field that is interfering with transport."

"You're kidding," Katherine said. "I took a transporter just a month and a half ago to Scotland!"

Ensign Stathers just shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Officer, I don't suppose you would be willing to give us a ride to Starfleet Medical?"

Officer Sanchez shrugged. Mary noticed the man was grinning. "I've never had the pleasure of having to transport Starfleet on official business. It'll make a fun report."

Stathers shook his head and grinned back sheepishly. "I'm sure it will. Thank you." He turned to the kids. "Miss Dunningham, Miss Caraough, your parents will be meeting us at Medical. Will you come peaceably?"

"Of course we will," Mary said quickly. She turned and saw Bill's expression. Once more she took his hand. "It'll be okay, Bill. We'll be with you."

That seemed to register with Katherine and she too took his hand. Like before, Mary held his left and Katherine held his right. The touch seemed to strengthen him in the way he straightened. "All right," he said at last.

The police vehicle was essentially a hoversled that was spacious enough to carry all of them. They could hear the officer speaking to his station. "That's right, couldn't transport. Yes, I've got footage." He turned around and grinned at Stathers. "Yes, sir. I'll make sure to keep the video safe. Thank you sir."

Stathers turned red. "We're not going to live this down, will we?"

Officer Sanchez laughed. "Not anytime soon, no."

"You know I was in elementary school when Martial Law was declared," Stathers pointed out.

"I wasn't," Sanchez said, still grinning.

Stather's sighed. Mary knew exactly what they were talking about. The declaration of martial law on Earth by the Federation President during the Dominion War was the greatest controversy the Earth Parliament had dealt with in a century. The fact that a local planetary government was essentially rendered powerless with the stroke of a pen was a wake-up call not just for Earth, but for all the core Federation worlds.

The Articles of Federation were amended shortly after, with additional statutes being passed by the Earth Parliament curtailing federal powers over local issues. Local authorities still resented having armed Starfleet personnel patrolling the streets even seventeen years later.

Finally, the police van reached the tram platform in front of Starfleet Medical and they all poured out. Stathers made a point of politely thanking the police officer. Sanchez took the younger man's hand. "Don't worry, kid. You should have seen the roast we did of Riker when he assumed the Sector post here."

"Actually, I think I watched that on the infonet," Stathers said. "I think he had more fun with it than you did."

"Yeah, he's a good man." Sanchez nodded to them and walked back into his van. Stathers motioned for his fellow officers and their wards to continue through the platform. Because of the sheer amount of service that Medical provided to the community, the platform was crowded with the elderly and infirm.

From amidst that crowd, Katherine saw her mother and father.

"Bill," Katherine said, "whatever my mother says, please don't listen."

Commander Marilyn Dunningham marched across the platform like a soldier marching to war. Civilians and innocent bystanders dodged out of her way, while her husband followed behind as if caught in her wake.

"Katherine Anne Dunningham, what have you been doing?" Dunningham said. "The CMO is on the verge of declaring you a biohazard!" She then turned to Bill and her eyes narrowed in rage. "You! What the hell did you do to my daughter in Scotland? What are you doing to Mary?"

"Commander," the Ensign said firmly, "this is not the place."

"I'll pick any place to talk to my daughter I choose, Ensign!" Dunningham snapped.

"Commander, if you do not calm down and accompany us into the building I will be forced to stun you. My orders come directly from Admiral Bashir and have been countersigned by Admiral Riker."

That shut Katherine's mother up, at least for the moment. "Fine," she snapped.

Bill blinked. "I don't think she likes me," Bill whispered loudly.

"I think you're right," Katherine responded likewise.

"I think you're both idiots," Mary said. "I love you both, but you're idiots."

They followed the ensign and Katherine's parents while the three other security officers fell in behind them. They proceeded into the building and went up to the fifth floor. They were met almost immediately by Naomi Wildman.

It was the first time Bill had ever seen her out of uniform. She was wearing a pair of black slacks and a dark green blouse. "Hello, Bill," she said. She nodded to Stathers. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Bill squeezed the two hands he was holding before he let go and followed Naomi into a room just off the hallway. It looked familiar—comfortable with a couch and a chair, a small bathroom and a food replicator. It was just like the room he first woke up in when he arrived.

He turned around and saw that the door behind them had shut, and had a small red gleam from the panel to indicate it was locked. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"You need to sit down, Bill, we have a lot to talk about," Naomi said.

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Author's Responses

I would like to thank the following people for their reviews and comments:

arturus; kb0; pulverizer; Sir Trib The Bold; Obsidius; OrionTheHunter; Isis The Sphinx; Tilius; SomeGuyFawkes; Sharnorasian Empire; Pointer3109; AnimaLynx; Gogolu; JEKrug01; Crys; dajohu; Roosterman71; Bobboky; Debbster21; cruailsama; gaul1; imgonnadie (hope not); Wonderbee31; immortal7; Manus Dei, Matt and Dream's Abyss. I greatly appreciate your comments and inputs.

Now for everyone's leas favorite part: Questions and Answers:

Q: Great chapter as usual. And not to belabor a point that likely several people have mentioned, I wish things moved faster!

A: I will admit I was worried that I might start losing people with Chapter 7. It had to be done, but it stretched the pace out a little slower than I wanted. However, from this point forward things are going to start moving faster.

Q: Im assuming that each of the ladies is having an episode due to the faded remnants of the magic and spirit at hogwarts, but will they start to remember being luna, ginny, etc as a past life? Or start becoming them in certain ways?

A: Can't really give too much away on that, but they will not specifically remember the others.

Q: And the four original girls are connected to Harry's past because they helped bring him to the future?

A: Yep. More on that will come.

Q: There seems to be some confusion where Jennifer's name was switched for Susan

A: I noticed that too. I think it's fixed.

Q: Here are some ideas I had...

A: While I always greatly appreciate comments and feedback, I rarely if ever accept story ideas from reviews, mainly because by the time I start posting, the story is either completely done or so far done that such ideas simply don't fit. That said, if someone finds something completely, absolutely wrong or broken, I'm usually willing to go back and take a look. As for OC/OOC, since the girls are OC, they can't really be OOC. And the remarks on Harry being OOC, I again respectfully disagree. I believe a lot of readers allow their opinion of Harry to be influenced by fanfiction rather than the original material. But then again this is completely subjective and just my opinion, and in no way implies that those who disagree don't have valid points themselves.

Q: From what's been doing on during the girls' dreams, I get the feeling that something very bad happened to Harry's wives, and it probably had something to do with the wars of Star Trek's past.

A: I can't really say too much here, other than to remind those not intimately familiar with ST to go back and read my author's notes.

Well, thanks again to everyone for reading. Hopefully the increase in pace will help.