Sorry this is late. No excuses, just got caught up in other things.
Arthur's Responses at the end:
Chapter Seventeen: Living History
Admiral Julian Bashir walked into his office in the middle of the night, tired but also buzzing with nervous energy.
During the height of the Dominion War, Bashir became an unwitting pawn to Section 31, a shadow organization that purportedly fought the enemies of the Federation that Starfleet could not or would not fight. In a way, they actually did help win it by producing a pathogen that almost killed the Dominion's changeling founders. But that act was so completely alien to the ethics and morals of the Federation that Bashir felt dirty just knowing about it.
His and Captain Sisko's later attempts to expose Section 31 all failed, which proved in Bashir's mind at least that Section 31 truly did have very powerful connections. Still, their one victory was the death of Luthor Sloan, the director of the organization.
He had not thought about them again in the years that followed, until tonight.
He took a seat and waited. It was not a long wait as a moment later green light flashed in the room and two figures appeared. Once was a man in his early thirties with sandy blond hair, high cheekbones and startling blue eyes. The second figure was a very, very familiar face. "Admiral Stonkin?"
The head of Starfleet Intelligence, Admiral Stonkin was a Tellarite, and even among her own people was considered something less than attractive. Her porcine snout was larger and hairier than normal for her people, and she stood easily as wide as two of Bashir.
She was also acutely intelligent and had a political acumen second to none. "I am not here, Doctor," she said. "The sensor log in this room has been deactivated. My own security will attest that I am in my office as we speak."
Bashir, not without his own acumen, merely nodded. "Very well. I take it this is about Deanna?"
"Doctor Riker was simply looking in the wrong place," the younger man said.
"You are Luthor Sloan's son," Bashir stated.
"And you killed him. Now that we've cleared that up, let's get back to business. Doctor Riker was abducted because she stumbled across the records of Harry Potter."
"And Harry Potter was the young man on the…"
"Broomstick, yes," Sloan said.
"And why would someone want to abduct Deanna for that?"
"Best guess," Sloan said, "would be information control. In fact, if not for the very well publicized fiasco this evening, I would suggest that Dr. Riker is dead. However, now that the information has been made public, there is no point in trying to control it. Instead, they will probably hold her in the hopes of winning a concession."
"Who are we talking about?" Bashir demanded.
"A piece of living history," Stonkin said. "What do you know about the history leading up to World War III?"
* * *
"Shortly after I defeated Voldemort, there was another very powerful dark wizard who came to power in India, named Hastriastus," Harry said. The ladies had pulled up seats around him, as did Jean Luc and Beverly. "He was working hand in hand with Khan, just like Grendelwald worked hand in hand with Hitler. He helped Khan subdue or enlist the air of India's magical community."
"I'm sorry," Jean Luc said, "you just made some very, very provocative statements. You are telling us that a wizard was behind Hitler and Khan?"
"Not that…er…you know, this is really uncomfortable." Harry glared at the casts on his arms. The cellulose melted away to expose his completely healed arms.
"Mr. Potter…" the physician started, only to stop when the leg casts melted away as well. Harry stood and looked around.
"Accio Elder Wand!"
His wand came flying around a corner a second later, followed by a startled tech. "Something just flew out of….oh."
"Very good, thank you," Jean Luc said. He turned back around to see the young man spinning his wand and literally transforming his hospital gown into pants, a plain shirt, and a black robe of some kind.
"That's better," Harry said as he climbed back onto the hospital bed.
"Could we ever do something like that?" Diana whispered in awe.
"Oh, yeah," Harry assured her. "I learned clothes transfiguration in fourth year. Comes in really handy on laundry day or if anyone ever swipes your clothes at a swimming hole."
If not for the astounding display, Jean Luc would have been very impatient.
"Okay, sorry 'bout that. So, Grendelwald and Hastriastus. So, the thing is that there was an international set of statutes separating the magical world from the non-magical, or Muggle, world. But occasionally things happened in the Muggle world that were so big the implications bled over into the magical world. World War II was a good example. German and French magical families suffered during the first war, and when Hitler rose to power right before the second, the dark wizard Grendelwald used the opportunity to gather support. Like Hitler he wanted to 'purify' the magical community by wiping out all the Muggleborns."
"What are those?" Beverly asked.
Harry took Diana's hand. "These five lovely ladies are Muggleborns. Magical children of non-magical children. Although in actually Diana could be considered second-generation, since Mrs. Boxing is actually squib."
"Green used that word," Naomi said.
"That's the opposite of a Muggleborn," Harry explained. "Someone born to magical parents who themselves can't do magic. So here comes Grendelwald on the heels of Hitler. He secretly starts pulling Hitler's strings and is the reason Hitler attacked Russia, even though it was a stupid move and probably spelled the end of the Third Reich."
"Why would he do that to an ally?" Jean Luc asked.
"To kill Hitler, of course. Grendelwald was a Dark Wizard, entranced by the blackest of magics. He wanted a planet of wizards, with the only living muggles as slaves. But my friend Dumbledore defeated him in 1945, after the Muggle War in Germany was over but the wizarding war was still going strong. Hastriastus was similar, except I don't think he ever thought to betray Khan. Khan was egotistical and maniacal, but he was so much smarter than Hitler ever was and a very powerful leader. I think Hastriastus admired him, and used his magical forces to terrify Khan's enemies. So International Confederation of Wizards called me."
"How old were you?"
"Eighteen," Harry said. "But I was still the most powerful wizard in the world, so age didn't really matter. I had magical memories from the four founders themselves, and could perform magic few if anyone else could match. So here I am, eighteen, with a handful of British, American and German aurors, and we remove Hastriastus."
"We?" Naomi asked.
"Well, the aurors helped a little. Hastriastus had an army of about five hundred wizards, so they had something to occupy them while I took care of Hastriastus and his inner circle. Maybe eighty or so wizards. Khan noticed. And I think it scared him. He came to England personally to speak to me. He essentially told me to stay out of his way. He talked about how genetically superior he was even to wizards, and that if I tried to stop his conquest I would be crushed."
Harry looked down. "I was young and stupid. I didn't understand that the gods have bad aim, and occasionally miss the target of their ire. I went to the ICW and argued that we should take affirmative action to end the Eugenics Wars. That the war was starting to have a negative impact on the whole world. Khan heard about it from Hastriastus' few surviving people. He sent an assassin. Celena was only seventeen months old. She liked to pretend she had a secret and then just whisper noise in my ear. She was so beautiful."
Jean Luc could see the young man could not speak any more.
* * *
"And the whole world knew about this secret society?" Bashir said, stunned.
"The leadership of most nations knew," Sloan confirmed. "They were an entire shadow nation, operating side-by-side with the regular world. They had their own laws and culture and existed on every continent, in almost every country. However, they strictly adhered to their non-interference and the rest of the world did not consider them a threat, until Harry Potter."
"We're talking about an teenage boy," Bashir said.
"We're talking about the most powerful wizard to ever live," Sloan corrected. "And he has lived before. We don't understand the details, but evidently he has been resurrected from death before. Suffice it to say that though his body is young, his soul is not."
"Harry Potter started World War III," Stonkin said in her abrupt manner so typical of Tellarites.
* * *
"Harry," Naomi said softly. She gently caressed his cheek, and he leaned into the touch. "What did you do?"
"I went mad," Harry admitted. He looked at Jean Luc. "I have read about you, and about the Romulan you dealt with, Nero He lost his world and went mad in his grief. He had power in his ship and killed whole fleets in his quest for vengeance. Before that, he was just a miner."
"That's right," Picard said. "I lost a very dear friend when Ambassador Spock was pulled into the wormhole. And yet we saved all the neighboring systems."
"Imagine Nero's rage, coupled with my power," Harry said. "I went dark, I think. I can't even remember how much. And worst yet, the ones I depended on the most—my wives—were just as angry as I was. Luna came with me, plus Hermione and Daphne. Susan and Ginny stayed to take care of the other kids. We were joined by a few friends from the war against Voldemort and a few of the internationals I worked with against Hastriastus, and we attacked Khan's army. About a hundred of us, against the ten million men of his empire."
* * *
"It was the first time in modern warfare," Sloan said, "that saw modern military units go up against a magical force in an all out war. The results were terrifying."
"What do you mean?" Bashir said.
"During the final three months of Khan's reign," Stonkin said, "how many men did he have in his army?"
"Some obscene number," Bashir said. "Close to three million?"
"That's right," Stonkin said. "Before Potter and his small band attacked, he had ten million."
"Ten mil…." Bashir blinked. "And you're seriously trying to tell me that a hundred people somehow killed seven million?"
"I've seen the reports," Stonkin said. "From Khan's augmented military leadership. The best of his followers, who themselves were genetically augmented for strength and intelligence. They reported that the earth would open and swallow whole divisions. That the sky would rain spears of ice. That planes would literally be pulled down out of the air as if swatted like a bug. One report states that a fighter plane was actually pulled out of the air, swung around as if by a giant wire, and slammed into the fuel depot of the base where it took off from."
"There were reports of men killing each other," Sloan continued. "Of men seeing ghosts. Of actual dragons landing in the middle of a formation and spewing fire around them all. Khan kept all the reports confidential, of course, since he didn't want his many enemies to know how many men he was losing. But he was losing them at a stunning rate."
* * *
"And then one day I found Luna in one of the little villages where Khan's supporters fought the hardest. We had used concussive blasting spells to knock them out. When we entered, I saw Luna on her knees. When I walked to her, I saw what she was looking at. It was a little girl, maybe two or three years old. She was dead. And I'm pretty sure we're the ones who killed her."
Harry took a deep, shaky breath. "We stopped. Luna said she couldn't do it any more, and I couldn't either. None of us could. It was as if a red haze lifted and we truly appreciated just how many people we had killed. Millions. But it was too late. Khan was so weak he couldn't maintain his empire, and not much after that he fled the planet. The wars that followed led to the formation of the Eastern Coalition, which led to World War III. Our attack on Khan started toppling the dominos, until the last one fell back on us."
* * *
"Of course, World War III actually lasted almost thirty years," Sloan said. "It wasn't just one long running battle. It had lulls. It had periods of arms accumulation. But it also had elements never before seen, such as Colonel Green's Peacekeepers, which arose out of the eco-terrorist organization Greenpeace. For the first time, non-aligned powers had nuclear weapons. And those weapons started to fall."
"Green assumed a dictatorship over England and much of Europe," Stonkin continued. "From there he directed many of the later nuclear strikes that culminated with the end of the war. We have learned from his personal papers that he actually played both sides—the Western Alliance and the Eastern Coalition—and helped them target each other. In all the cases where he was involved, the target city had a large population of wizards."
* * *
"I didn't realize that Green was my brother-in-law until late in the war," Harry admitted. "But it doesn't really surprise me. Among the dark-aligned Pureblood families, squibs were a point of embarrassment. It wasn't unheard of for them to be euthanized. The Greengrass family was dark aligned. My marriage to Daphne was through the bond, but she was a thoroughly dark witch. And by dark I don't mean evil. But they did practice animal sacrifice and worshipped gods and goddesses that Christians would consider to be evil."
"So Green was actually evicted from the magical community?" Jean Luc said, enthralled with Harry's story.
"He was. He went to America. The first time I met him, he was the head of the militant arm of Greenpeace."
Jean Luc's face lit up. "Green's Peacekeepers."
"They were officially eco-terrorists," Harry said, "but I found it interesting how his targets all tended to be magical. Boston was the first American city destroyed in the war, and was the center of the American magical community. We were about ten years into the war when Hermione noticed the pattern. We all started scrambling to save what we could. There was just so much to do. So much already lost. Somehow Green managed to get census scrolls for each country. I don't know how, but using those scrolls he could identify each magical child as they were born. With Muggleborns, he would simply send a team in and have the child and the parents killed. With Magical families he had a harder time because by then the magical families were actively trying to hide."
Harry looked out the window of the hospital room. "It went on like that for twenty years. We tried to save the new muggleborn families, and Green tried to kill them. For every one child we saved, he killed five. When he uncovered a magical family, he bombed it. When he uncovered a magical community, he nuked it. That's what happened to London at the end. Either by treason or luck, he discovered exactly where the British magical government was. He discovered where Hogwarts was. He discovered where my family was."
* * *
"Green had tactical information on every magical community on Earth. History paints him as a madman, with random and inexplicable nuclear strikes against targets even within the borders of his own territory. But each strike was calculated. Even massed together, magicals could not defend against nuclear weapons, and so the whole population started decline," Sloan said.
* * *
"The ICW could no longer deny that they were being targeted. So I put out the word for them to come to Hogwarts. It was hard for them to travel, and dangerous. Still, five thousand of them made it." Harry's voice cracked. "My wives stayed out working to save our world while I gathered the witches and wizards left under my protection at Hogwarts. Mostly children sent by their parents in the hopes they would be safe. Green launched his last missile at me, and with the power of the castle wards and my own talent, I shielded the valley."
Picard coughed. "You're telling me you blocked a nuclear war head?"
Harry nodded. "But it wasn't enough. Green won the war. He found my wives. Found them, and murdered them."
* * *
"Green had five satellites and one aerial drone pointed at Hogwarts when Potter had his 'accident'," Sloan said. "Whatever else could be said about the man, Green was brilliant. He had shown that Potter had the power to block the most lethal weapons humanity possessed at the time, while possessing sufficient destructive power to inflict the same amount of damage on his enemies. Green then sent the word out to the remnant governments that survived the war with that imagery and reports of what Potter did to Khan. He couched his request in rhetoric about purging the impure for the public, but the surviving world leaders knew what he was doing. The world governments started a massive witch hunt like right out of the dark ages. It took two years, but without their governments or community centers, and with everyone in the world literally hunting them, eventually most if not all magicals were caught and shipped to Green for processing in England."
"Green's concentration camps," Bashir whispered. "You mean…"
"He was committing genocide of an entire race," Sloan confirmed. "The world went along willingly until it was done, then looked up, realized it had blood on its hands, and vilified Green for his viciousness. But Green wasn't done."
* * *
"The rest is just supposition," Harry said, "but Hermione did have a plan. It's a well known fact that magical children sometimes are born to non-magical parents. Usually these children display magic at an early age. However, this is because the world was permeated by magic. With his scrolls, Green could have hunted down and killed these children in infancy. But eventually, the last active magical beings would pass from the world. Those who came after, even if they had magical cores, would never have that exposure, and so their magic would lie dormant."
* * *
"Green feared a resurgence in the future," Sloan said. "Which brings us to what has happened. Before his death, Green commissioned an international organization he called the Malleus Malificarum, after an ancient text reputed to be useful for witch hunters during the Dark Ages. This organization was charged with keeping Green's intelligence files, and with ensuring that there would never be a resurgence of magic. But ultimately their goal was to guard against the eventual rebirth of Harry Potter."
Suddenly things started clicking into place. "I understand that Section 31 predates the Starfleet Charter."
Sloan nodded. "We were the ones who put Article 14, Section 31 into the charter," he admitted. "And we can trace our roots directly to the Malleus. Last night, when half of our active agents went missing, we realized the Malleus was still active. Section 31 has been seriously compromised, and it was for this reason that I went to Admiral Stonkin."
"Why are you telling me this?" Bashir said. "Why not Admiral Riker? Or better yet, Fleet Admiral Strein?"
"Because we have you listed as a potential asset," Sloan said. "And the Malleus knows that. You have access to Doctor Riker's records, you have seen Harry Potter personally, and you could get the names of those he has associated with. I am telling you because you and your family are at risk."
Bashir started to stand when Stonkin raised hand. "We have your home under surveillance. We also have the shield modulator that will prevent beam-outs. I will provide it to Riker's group through regular channels. In the meantime, you should get word to Potter and his associates that he is at risk."
"And what about Deanna?"
"We'll just have to wait and see," Sloan admitted. "I'm sorry, but so far we haven't been able to locate her yet."
"Remember, this conversation was confidential," Stonkin said. "I was not here and will officially deny any involvement.'
"Very well," Bashir said. He did not have a chance to speak any further when the two of them disappeared in a beam of green light.
* * *
"So what happens now?" Diana asked.
"I find out what Hermione had planned," Harry said. "I need that book, Susan. I think it may have a glamour on it. And I need to start teaching you magic. At least basic stunners and shields so you can protect yourselves. You should all be very, very powerful."
"Why is that?" Susan asked.
"We strengthen each other," Harry said. He suddenly blushed. "And, well, when our bonds are…er…consummated, you'll get even more powerful."
"So you're just all going to get together and have a love fest?" Beverly asked. "Is that what you did before?"
Now Harry was burning red. "Well, yeah, sometimes. Usually we worked on a schedule though."
"Worked?" Katherine asked archly.
"As good a word as any," Harry said. "I…I won't really get tired when I'm with you. It's something I learned the first time around. I can love you as much or as little as you need. It's wired into my magical core. If you want us all to be together, we can do that. If you want to be on a schedule, we can do that. Just know that…you'll probably get pregnant pretty fast."
"He's not joking," Naomi said.
Jean Luc stared. "You're pregnant?"
Naomi nodded mutely. "Just a couple of days, but yeah, I'm pregnant. And I was on full hormone treatment. It shouldn't have happened."
"We had pretty effective birth control spells," Harry said. "One hundred percent effective. Didn't work on me until after each wife had our first child. After that they worked. The whole point of my having some of the powers I do is to ensure that I continue the Founder's lines. So if you aren't ready for that," he looked at each of his ladies, "then we need to wait."
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Author's Notes: Well, thank you all for your reviews and feedback. I am running a little behind on real life issues so I'll skip my normal listing of reviews and instead just again say thank you all.
Questions/Comments (title changed as requested ;)
Q: I agree with another reviewer that time travel is the most logical choice....
A: I respect the opinion but simply put that is not the story I wrote. Besides, his changing his personal history would profoundly change ST canon history, and ST canon shows that there are entities whose sole existence is to police and maintain the sanctity of history. In their eyes, Captain Kirk was a criminal. But, regardless of rationale, that is simply not the story I wrote.
Q: By the way - the whale? That's from Douglas Adams not Pratchett. Still funny though.
On that same note: "You're going to catch a lot of stick for confusing Douglas Adams (one 'D'. note!) with Terry Pratchett."
And deservedly so. I'm still flabbergasted that I did that. That said, my beta JuniorMintJulep is a Star Trek expert and has never read Pratchett or Adams, so the blame falls solely on me.
A: Sadly enough--I had Adams originally, got confused and changed it to Pratchett. However, with your input and the input of half the reviewers (slaps head in shame) I went back and fixed it. Thank you.
Q: I did look up the Malleus reference. Did Green hook up with witch hunters?
A: Good checking. This chapter confirmed that very thing. Although he didn't hook up with witch hunters so much as became one himself, and took the name for the organization which he created.
Q: Tolotos German review---
A: I don't speak German, so I hope it is a nice review and not a message telling me to go kill myself with a butter knife and can of deodorant.
Q: Is he a vampire??
A: No, but that's an interesting guess. Blood wine is widely drunk throughout the Federation because of Klingon interaction.
Q: all i ask it that Kirk does not somehow apear and start screaming out Kahn.
A: Just because you said that, the Nexus will make an appearance and he'll come out screaming, "HAAAAARRRRRRYYYYY!" Er, or not. No Kirk, promise.
Q: but did Colonel Green actually commit Genocide or was that just in your fanfiction?
A: His group was responsible for 37 million deaths, and after the war he used the rational of saving the human genome from radiation-caused mutation to slaughter hundreds of thousands of radiation-sickened humans after the war itself. My take is pretty close to ST canon in that regard. the ST series Enterprise, in the first and last season that was any good, had a really good show about a follower of Green's philosophy trying to run aliens off Earth. If you watch any ST Enterprise at all, skip to the last season, which is the one the B and B twins did not have a chance to ruin.
Thank you all for the reviews and comments, especially the deserved whipping over the Pratchett/Adams confusion. I hope you continue to enjoy!