Author's Responses at the end:

Chapter Nineteen: Saving Deanna Riker

"Got secret."

Harry smiled down at his first-born daughter. She was only eighteen months old, but already she was speaking in complete sentences. Very short sentences, but technically complete.

"Tell me," Harry said as he lifted his little angel onto his lap. Nearby, Luna and Ginny were studying for their NEWTS while Charles and Antony, Hermione and Daphne's first born sons, played on the carpet. Or more accurately, Antony tried to play with his building blocks while Charles reached out a chubby fist and toppled it with a giggle.

"Stop it!" Antony would say, but never with any heat. He thought it was funny to see how high he could build the tower before his half-brother would knock it down. The baby was already giggling in anticipation.

Harry's attention was diverted back to his only daughter as she smiled brilliantly at him. So far Celina had six teeth. She would proudly exclaim that she had "sit steeth!" while holding up four fingers.

She leaned into his ear, giggling already for her joke. The anticipation was almost two much for the toddler, but she still managed to get her tiny lips to his ears, before she said, "Gagagababa balalalaieieieielwalala." She then collapsed in his arms in giggles.

"Tricked me again!" Harry declared. He punished her by blowing raspberries on her plump toddler tummy.

* * *

The Malleus had anti-apparition wards.

Harry was powerful enough to redirect his apparition to a safe spot on the boundary of the wards, though he could not stop his surprise. How could they have wards of any kind when there weren't wizards to cast them?

He cast a low-level detection charm, and the results were confusing. The charm revealed a very clearly delineated shield, but did not show any of the required runes to power it. In fact, the lattice of the wards looked almost like a technological shield, such as Starfleet used around its ships. He had studied some of the math behind those shields in his class.

It only took a moment for him to understand. The Malleus somehow adapted their shields to the frequency of his magic, just as Dr. Picard was able to detect their power. Anaphasic energy, she called it.

He placed a hand against the shield and felt a physical barrier. Not only would apparition not be possible, but it appeared walking was out of the question as well. Unless…

Harry never really studied Arithmancy or Ancient Runes in Hogwarts. Three of his wives did—Hermione, Luna and Daphne were all arithmancers and runes mistresses as their studies progressed. They were, as he told them very often, quite a bit smarter than he was. But none of them allowed him to be complacent, especially not with the world in the state it was. So Harry used what he knew from the memories he shared with Rowena Ravenclaw as a starting point, and began his own advanced studies in the subjects. Arithmancy literally was the art of controlling power through math. Only in this future world did he truly appreciate how universal those principals were. An arithmetic formula was not so very different from warp field dynamics.

He began casting arithmetic formulas over the shield itself, while he took a moment to carve two runes into the old pavement of the ground. In moments, an oval shape roughly his height began to shimmer in the shield, surrounded by a glowing red ribbon made of up tiny numbers.

Once the portal was shored up, Harry stepped through without a problem, and turned to face the warehouse. It was late, the sun had set hours ago, and the City of Light cast its glory into the night sky. Only Space Dock itself could be seen, since the stars could not compete.

Harry knew that somewhere in that warehouse was Doctor Deanna Riker, beloved wife of Admiral Riker, friend to his own newest spouse Naomi, and a genuinely good person who did not deserve what the Malleus was doing to her. He was going to get her out.

He had enough blood on his hands.

* * *

Luna and Celina walked to the quidditch pitch together. Though they were considered the "intellectual house," the Ravenclaws declared that Celina was their good luck charm ever since they beat Slytherin the first time Luna took the first true, sole heir of Ravenclaw to a match. Since then, barring illness, Celina went to every match, usually with her mother and father. However, Harry was still in Geneva meeting with the ICW regarding the threat posed to the world by Khan.

Hermione was teaching class, while of course Daphne and Susan were back in the family tower watching the other kids and conserving strength as they were both pregnant again.

Celina did not like to be carried by anyone other than her father, so Luna simply walked slowly to accommodate the toddler's slower steps. The young mother found herself staring down at this incredible gift and wondered how truly different her life had become.

When she arrived, Luna was friendless and despised at worst, and simply misunderstood at best. But then she met Harry—her wonderful, precious Harry—and everything in her life changed. From being despised and picked on for her first four years, to being revered her last three, Luna Lovegood's life was nothing like what she expected.

It was a million times better, and that summation of all that was good in her life walked by her side now, holding her hand and looking up at her with brilliant cerulean eyes. "Almost there, Mama?" the little girl asked in her high, piping voice.

"Almost there, Sweetie," Luna said. Indeed, the shadow of the pitch loomed in front of them.

Suddenly Celina stopped walked. She looked up at her mommy with a confused expression on her face. "Mama, sometin' bite. Ouchie."

Luna's world faded away, distilling down to a single moment and a single spot on her daughter's neck where she saw a black dart protruding, and a black line creeping out from it under her daughter's otherwise perfect skin.

Then a voice. "Master Khan warned you, witch."

Luna looked up, unable to speak. There was a man before her wearing a turban, with a muggle suit. He wore a thick beard, but he stood taller than anyone on the grounds, with a huge, muscular frame.

"Mama" Celina whimpered, before her hand slipped out of Luna's and the little girl folded onto the ground.

Luna could not move. Her wand remained tucked behind her ear as she collapsed to the ground with her only child. "What did you do?"

"A message to Harry Potter," the turbaned man said. "The Great Khan's affairs are for the Great Khan alone."

Suddenly Harry was there with an almost explosive pop. The school wards must have alerted him. Perhaps it was Hogwarts herself reaching out to Geneva to tell him that the heir of Ravenclaw was in trouble. But there he was, his eyes absorbing everything. He saw his only daughter on the ground, unmoving save for the hands of her mother cradling her. He saw Luna's expression of horror and grief.

He saw the smug expression of the muggle intruder who thanks to a charmed necklace had somehow snuck onto Hogwarts grounds.

"And now you know the price of interfering with the Great Khan," the man said to him.

Harry was shaking now as he understood. He could feel it—or worse yet—he could not feel the life and magic of his daughter. He knew with chilling certainty that she was dead. That the poison in the dart could have killed a dozen people, much less one precious eighteen month old child.

The muggle was putting a tube to his lips, and Harry knew another dart was within it. A dart not for him, but for Luna. He heard people shouting in the distance as they realized something was wrong, but he didn't care. He raised a hand and screamed his rage.

The muggle dropped the tube and himself began screaming. At first, those around could not tell what was happening, until they saw the blood on the ground where his feet had been liquefied. Students and staff alike watched in horror as the assassin slowly, painfully died. His body dissolved, and from the way he screamed until his throat would allow him to scream no more, they knew he suffered like no muggle ever suffered under Voldemort.

* * *

There were at least fifty people in the building.

They appeared as pillars of blue under the revealing spell, while the rest of the warehouse appeared as a pale white backdrop. It was almost like infrared, only in this case the spell cast its version in the ultraviolet. Nonetheless, he could see the disposition of the men and how they were guarding his target.

He knew from the pendant, which itself was the transfigured scrying window, that Deanna was held in a pod of some kind. He would not have been surprised if the pod had capabilities that could harm her. These people seemed to have at least a rudimentary understanding of what he could do; it would make sense to take precautions.

He seriously considered summoning the pod right there and then, but the fear of it being rigged with explosives stopped him. Even if it wasn't rigged with a bomb, it was definitely possible that it could have other mechanisms to harm her.

So, it was going to be an infiltration. He had done it before.

* * *

Harry apparated silently and ducked behind a fuel truck. The summer evening had an unexpected chill—Saudi Arabia was a land of extremes, and the huge variances in temperature between the day and night was confusing Harry's internal thermometer.

In front of him he could see them—a squadron of the Great Khan's aircraft. Sukhoi S-37 fighters, Harry had learned. Experimental officially, but unofficially Khan controlled Russia with an iron fist, just as he did all of India. If not for the genetically enhanced tyrants of China and Africa, Khan might very well have controlled much of the world.

These particular fighters were carrying tactical nuclear warheads. They were scheduled to take off in the morning to strike at Geneva.

They were specifically going to target the International Confederation of Wizards.

"That them, then?" Neville whispered. Harry nodded and looked back at Neville, and behind him Ron. Both were his age, and neither showed any trace of the baby fat that had plagued them through school. They were men, both having undergone Auror and ICW peace keeper training. It was March 1999, three weeks since Celina died.

Harry knew other of his colleagues were spread around the air strip.

"Here come the pilots," Neville noticed.

Harry disillusioned himself and stepped out onto the tarmac as the six pilots emerged from the hangar. Air crews swarmed around the fighters, but Harry ignored them. He placed a marker charm on one pilot, and then saw five other similar charms appear on the others as his fellows selected their target.

As each pilot approached their fighter, the air seemed to whisper "Imperio". The pilots faltered for just the merest fraction of an instant before they continued toward their planes.

An hour later, two tactical nuclear weapons struck on Khan's Riyad forward command base, while the remaining four fighters were shot down. Because of the western front of his war, the forward command base had several hundred thousand soldiers ready for deployment along the Ethiopian front.

The first blow in Harry Potter's war against Khan had been struck.

* * *

Harry recognized the vehicle as an air car of some type, but beyond that he couldn't have named it, nor did he need to. He just needed something of sufficient size for his distraction. He flicked his wand and made the incantation, and where the air car once sat now stood an African elephant bull. Harry intended the beast to be angry when he cast the spell, and his transfigured beast met his criteria nicely.

He ran around to the back of the warehouse as the elephant charged the front with an angry trumpeting. Since the whole point of the distraction was not to be noticed, rather than blasting his way through the walls Harry once again created a runic portal to pass through the wall unnoticed.

However, he was in fact noticed immediately and immediately found himself rolling away from a barrage of green disruptor fire. He responded with three quick Avada Kedavras. Three soldiers fell dead to the ground without making any further sound.

Harry's perspective on the killing curse had changed over the years of war he had gone through in a previous life. While unforgivable in a civilian setting, the killing curse was the most efficient curse available to him during combat. It killed the enemy with a minimum expenditure of magical energy and ensured they would not be revived a moment later to once again endanger your life.

Harry emerged from behind a pillar in an attempt to see Deanna's pod. The moment he came into view he saw a ring of soldiers, and in their midst a single man in a white lab coat.

"Ahh, Mr. Potter," the man in white said. "You've made it. And quite the entrance. When we shot that elephant, we discovered a moment later we were shooting our own transportation. A remarkable illusion. However, the time for magic is over. Please lower your wand."

"And why would I do that?" Harry asked.

The man smiled without warmth or humor. "Doctor's Riker's pod is being deprived of oxygen even as we speak. The process started the moment you attempted to teleport through our shields, shields which operate with the same frequency as that in which anaphasic energy exists. You see, Mr. Potter, you are not the first of your kind we have been able to obtain for study. There have been several who have emerged over the centuries. They make fascinating subjects while alive, and even more fascinating subjects on the vivisection table. Now, lower your wand. Failure to do so, or any attempt to stop us, and she will die."

"Why are you doing this?" Harry demanded.

"Why, God told us so, of course," the white-clothed man said. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

"You mistranslated it, you ass. The people who wrote that were magical themselves. It actually says not to allow dark witches to live. You're violating the word of God."

"Sophistry," the white-clothed man said with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Rest assured, Mr. Potter, that we are quite safe from your spells. An anaphasic shield is in place not a foot in front of you. And as additional security, we have a cobalt device in the base of this building that could easily level all of Paris if necessary, so long as we can be sure you die. You are, after all, the most evil being to ever live."

"You should know I've joined the Federation," Harry said. "Wizard kind is now a protected species."

"We are not the Federation," the man said. "Drop the wand, now.'

Harry threw his hands up in disgust. A wand came flying down on the floor in front of them and hit with a wooden tinkle. "Let Doctor Riker go. I surrender.'

"I don't think so," the man said. "We will let Doctor Riker go when you are dead. Until then, she is our insurance. Kill him now."

Harry's eyes widened a moment. He seemed to blink for a moment as if trying to apparate, but of course he could not. Dozens of green Romulan-style disruptor beams slammed into his body, then through his body. He made a strangled scream before his body disappeared.

"That was oddly anticlimactic after so long," the white coat said. "Perhaps too much so. Do a full spectrum scan, specifically for anaphasic energy signatures."

The wand and body on the floor disappeared. Then the floor disappeared in an explosion of cement that sent the armed men and the one white-coat flying through the air. Stunned soldiers started to climb up, only to fall to the floor before a flash of green much brighter than those of disrupter blasts.

* * *

Karachi was the first and only time that Harry and the Order of the Phoenix found themselves fighting an actual battle. Three months of guerilla-style strikes had proven incredibly effective, but to truly strike the blow that would open the door to Khan's warded stronghold, they had to neutralize the wizards of Karachi.

One of the largest cities in the world, Karachi also boasted a large magical community that had been one of Hastriastus' most loyal areas. The wizards continued to provide support to Khan in the form of wards and even a Fidelius Charm over the tyrant's personal fortress.

In order to get through that ward, Harry had to find the Secret Keeper, and as far as they knew, that person was the Nazim of the magical community himself.

Thus on that day in June 1999, a month before his nineteenth birthday, Harry and the Order of the phoenix fought a mixed muggle and magical force of several tens of thousands.

The Pakistanis never had a chance.

That was the first time Harry truly understood his own power. Always before, even in the battle with Voldemort, Harry never had reason or need to completely let loose. But facing so many, targeted by a hail of bullets and curses, Harry unleashed the full depths of his power. His shields blocked everything. Those spells he could not block with magic he blocked with the screaming forms of Pakistani soldiers or other wizards. His companions concentrated on the muggles, disapparating around in constant shifts to prevent themselves from being targeted. The Pakistani wizards continually tried to raise anti-apparition wards, and Harry continued to tear them down.

At one point he thought to himself that it wasn't even remotely fair. He stood in the center of a wide boulevard, surrounded by shattered, burning buildings and shielding curse and hex fire from over a hundred other wizards—wizards whose faces betrayed the fear they felt. How could this one boy be so strong?

Harry delved deep into the war sorcery of his ancestors, and called down the elements. The wizards died by the hundreds while Harry's companions handled the muggles. The repercussions of that day would resound world-wide. Governments from Beijing to Washington stared at the reports with both shock and horror. A force of two hundred wizards destroyed a whole division of soldiers, supported by several hundred local wizards, in the course of a single day.

But when the day ended and the secret keeper cast the killing curse on himself rather than allowing Harry to rip it from his mind, all Harry felt was frustration and rage. He felt Luna join him, while Ron, Neville and the others did a last sweep of the area to make sure it was clear of enemy wizards.

Luna took his hand, and he felt something odd. He looked down and saw with a sense of shock that his hand was covered in blood, and so was hers. "Are we doing the right thing, Harry?" she asked.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But I won't let him kill any more children. Ever again."

Luna's face hardened. "Agreed."

* * *

Harry stood alone in the middle of the warehouse. Around him were bodies of dead Malleus soldiers. In front of him, wide-eyed with terror, sat the lab coat man. "You've consigned yourself to hell for this, Potter!" the man said. "The self-destruct has activated. All of Paris is going to die."

Harry raised his wand. "Accio bomb!"

The floor heaved as the warhead burst up from the ground under the warehouse. The man in white stared at it in horror.

With a flick of his wand, Harry transfigured the bomb into a rock. "Are you going to release Doctor Riker?"

"She's already dead," the man said.

Harry didn't even bother to articulate the stunner that knocked white coat out. He turned and blasted the opening mechanism of the pod. The crack in the seal started whistling loudly as air escaped into the vacuum. When the whistling stopped, Harry banished the door and stepped forward to catch the pale doctor. Blood was running from her eyes, nose and ears from the vacuum.

He placed a hand on her chest and willed her heart to start beating. It did so and she took a deep, ragged breath. He left her on the ground and walked back to white coat. "Enervate," he said.

White Coat sat up with wide eyes. "Demon!" he screamed.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," Harry said. "Legillimens!"

He found himself plunging into the man's well ordered mind and saw many of the cases he had referred to. There had been random muggleborns who in moments of duress displayed magic. The Malleus was always ready with the ancient magical scrolls and picked the terrified muggleborns up immediately, where they would be studied until they died, and then they were studied more.

That's how they determined the frequency of their anti-apparition shields. But they had never had a trained wizard before, and so truly had no idea what they were doing. The only thing that was clear, however, was their willingness to die in order to kill him.

But this was it. Though they had resources, they kept their numbers low to protect themselves and their anonymity. White coat was the last.

"Bill?" He looked away from white coat and saw Deanna struggling into a sitting position.

He looked back down at the pale, sweating white coat. "I know what to do," Harry finally said. He summoned all the bodies and shrank them, then shrank all the equipment in the warehouse until the only thing at its normal size was the transfigured rock and the scientist.

He pointed his wand at the man and started summoning his magic.

"Bill…Harry," Deanna said, "don't do this to yourself. To the ones you love."

"He will always be a threat to us, Deanna," Harry said.

"If you kill him, his blood will always be on your hands."

* * *

The town was called Khardon in the interior of India. It was another of Khan's strongholds, but this time the tyrant placed his garrison in the middle of the town. The civilians threw themselves at the "Son of Kali" as they called Harry.

They died, like all the others. Like the soldiers who flung bullets and missiles and the wizards who flung their spells. They all died, and in the aftermath, Harry walked down the boulevard of a shattered town.

He saw Luna off to the side of the street, while others of the Order continued to search the town for any clues that might lead to Khan's Fidelius-hidden palace. So far, it didn't look any better than all the other strongholds they destroyed.

He felt a stab of pain through his bond, coupled with anguish and guilt. He ran toward Luna, knowing for certain that something was terribly wrong. When he found her, her face was mottled with tears.

She was holding a little girl. The child's face was beautiful and pure, her black hair loose down her back. From the waist up she was beautiful and perfect. But from the waist down—it had been a blasting curse. The curse blew off one of the little girl's legs entirely, and mangled the other beyond recognition.

The shock killed her.

Luna looked up at him, her face warped by pain. "I can't do this anymore," she whispered. "We've killed so many people, Harry. But Celina still isn't here. I still can't hold her."

Harry knelt down beside his wife and looked at the little girl. There was a very good chance that he was the one who had killed her.

He had killed an innocent, and most likely her entire family.

A wave of fatigue swept over him. It was more than just physical exhaustion—it was a fatigue of his very soul. He was so tired he could no longer even grieve. He fell back on his rear and simply sat that beside his wife.

"I can't do it either," he whispered. He felt his breath catch in his throat as his own grief welled up. "I don't know what to do."

Luna took his hand. "We go home to Hogwarts," Luna whispered. "And we leave this death behind us."

Harry was aware of others of his party coming up behind him. Since the war began they had lost two British aurors and an American. Otherwise they suffered no casualties despite killing millions. But even though every encounter was a victory, he could see exhaustion in the faces. Exhaustion and horror.

"We can't do it anymore," Harry told them all. "But I can't decide on my own. It needs to be a vote."

"There's no need for a vote, mate," Ron Weasley said. His face was drawn with exhaustion. "It's time to go home."

Harry looked at every face; he knew them all by name. For the last few months they had lived as a single unit. They were the family in place of those he left in England, and he saw in their eyes that they were done.

"It's time to go home," Harry said at last.

* * *

"He's never going to stop," Harry told Deanna. "He's going to keep coming after us until one of us is dead. And I won't let him ever kill those I love. I can't."

Deanna shakily got to her legs. She wiped some of the blood from her face with the back of her hands. She stepped toward him. "Harry, I can feel the anguish in you. I can't say I know what happened that brought your memories back, but I can tell you that this is a new world for you. A new life. Please, Harry, don't start it off with cold blooded murder."

"It's not murder," Harry said, "its justice."

"Not anymore," Deanna said. "This is a new world for you, Harry. Don't let the opportunity pass you by. Please."

"He hurt you."

"And he will be punished," she said. "By the authority of the Federation. Harry, I can feel that you don't want to do this. You think you have to, but you don't. Please don't."

Harry lowered his wand. "I won't let him hurt my family, ever."

"I know," Deanna said. "Let's go, Harry. I'm sure Naomi is waiting for you."

Harry nodded and the two started toward the door.

"He's not going to let us go," Harry predicted.

"Harry?" Deanna asked.

"He won't let us go while he lives."

"Potterrrrr!" White Coat screamed.

The wizard pushed Deanna to the side while raising his wand. The disrupter blasts struck against his wandless shield. Harry responded not with the green of a killing curse, but the red light of transfiguration.

Deanna blinked, shocked. "Harry…"

"The man was an ass, and now he'll live the rest of his life as one."

And, true to his word, the only standing creature in the room was an ass.

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Author's Responses/Comments

Well, all I can say is wow. The last chapter again said a personal active chapter review record for me. This story has achieved far more reviews than I ever thought it would, and I cannot thank you all enough for the comments and support.

So, we'll get right down to it: Questions and Answers

Q: I've got to say that when you wrote that Green committed genocide against one species did you forget about ;

A: Remember the perspective of the character thinking about genocide. Those characters did not know about the other aspects of the magical world, and Harry for his part was a bit...well, he was understandably self-absorbed.

Q: Is this going to be a long story like..say 30-40 chapters? or less?

A: It is going to be less. In fact, after this chapter I believe we only have four chapters left. I originally stated the story had twenty-four chapters, but I consolidated two of those chapters, so it will end on Chap 23.

Q: I do have have a question did all the magical creatures die during the war and are you going to cover where they went.

A: Yes, I cover that very specifically.

Q: I am curious though, will Hogwarts be rebuilt?...

A: That will be directly addressed in the last four chapters. Promise.

Q: Any chance the Chamber of Secrets survived?

A: Sadly, no. But there is hope.

Q: With the active role of Beverly Picard, I say Wes belongs in here even more.

A: Yeah, I'll admit that was one thing I did regret--I really should have worked Wesley in somehow. It's just...damn I hated his character. I wanted to just beat him up.

Q: Wendeline the Weird was a witch...

A: Oops.

Thank you all again for reading and reviewing. Several questions were actually answered in this chapter so I didn't respond. Just four more chapters to go!