Author's Responses at the end:
Chapter Twenty-Three: Where No Wizard Has Gone Before
Prime Minister Picard's question hung in the air like a sentence of doom. The planet was full, Harry knew that. With the loss of ambient magic that occurred during the genocide of the World War Three, even magically hidden areas lost their wards. There were no more hidden packets of magical land.
And the muggle areas were thoroughly full. Though there was no need to keep arable land for crops, people did so anyway since the taste of natural grown food was always preferable. But in his short time in modern schools Harry knew that there was no room on Earth for a magical world. Not one in which genuinely dangerous creatures such as dragons and basilisks could live.
Harry sunk in on himself as the true impact of the situation hit.
"I don't know," he finally admitted.
Drawn to his sudden despair, his wives gathered around him and he clung to them. "I can't imagine you'd appreciate a drive of dragons flying over San Francisco," he said.
"It might cause some difficulty," Picard said. He picked up a nearby jar. "A basilisk?"
"Sixty-foot snake with the deadliest venom known and can kill with a glance. I had to fight one when I was twelve. Another time I almost died." Harry looked at the end. "About the only magical creatures not here are nundus. Just as well—it would take a hundred wizards to catch even one, and even then I'm not sure we'd want a creature that could wipe out a whole town with its breath just for lunch."
He grabbed a pile of gold. "Never really cared for the money, and now it really doesn't mean all that much."
"I'm sure it could be translated into credits in some fashion," Jean Luc said. "Gold is still a precious metal and has value for its characteristics."
"Like using it to make gold-pressed latinum," Beverly said. "Think about it, Jean Luc. Goblins and Ferengi. They would end up owning the whole Federation."
Rockfoot coughed. "You say that is a bad thing," he said without a trace of humor. Then again, Harry never could tell when a goblin was trying to be funny. They found odd things to be humorous.
"There is nothing to do right now," Harry finally said. "Rockfoot, as senior of the Brethren, would you accompany us to the surface? Earth is now a member of a large interstellar organization that respects all species. Whatever agreement we may make for our magical world, the Brethren also deserve to be recognized as victims of Green."
"The squib who killed your kind?" Rockfoot. He spat—it was a very large globule of phlegm too. "We curse his name. I shall go with you."
Before they left, Harry kept his promise and with the help of his wives healed twelve more children afflicted with the shadow flu. The goblins gave respectful bows as they made their way back to the surface.
By the time they arrived back to the surface the whole area had become a media circus held back by a line of Earth security. Harry was not surprised to see a line of Federation officials as well. Rockfoot appeared stunned. "What is this?"
"The new world, my friend," Harry told the goblin. "And like it or not, it is time for us to join it."
* * *
It took four days, but eventually the Goblins were recognized by the Federation and Earth as a new sentient species and natives of Earth, and were then classified as partner species of Homo Magicus. Once the paperwork was signed, Rockfoot was taken back to his hole. A plain structure had been built around it, giving the goblin guards a sense of security.
The world seemed to twitter with the added, independent verification of Harry Potter's claims. Suddenly, magic was real.
It didn't matter to the young man, though. They returned to their suite in Geneva while Terran bankers arranged meetings with Rockfoot to formalize a medium of exchange. In another week, Harry received notice of his assets in modern credits.
"You're still rich," Diana noted when he showed it to her.
"Thought money didn't mean much."
Diana shrugged. "It does when you don't have any."
Remembering Ginny, he smiled down at her and kissed her until she was pink. Once started, he found he couldn't stop, and before the hour was up the two had made love twice.
Eventually, they moved into Margaret Ginevra Potter Dulheim's house in Scotland. They did this because they felt guilty over continuing to live off of Parliament, and also because the hotel never felt like home to them.
When they arrived at Margaret's house, though, Harry pointed out the runes of safety and comfort that his granddaughter had inscribed around the frame of the front door. "She didn't have a great deal of magic to work with, but she had enough to do those."
They worked, too, and within days the new family felt at ease and comfortable.
It was the following week, a week spent gardening and repairing the house, that the chime announced a visitor. It was Naomi who answered it and she grinned at their visitors. "Doctor Riker! Admiral!"
"Will and Deanna, please," Will said. "You're not on duty right now."
"Okay," Naomi said. "Please come in!"
"You're not showing yet," Deanna noted as they came in.
"I detected it very early," Naomi said as she showed them into the house. "There is a tiny little bump there, but it should be getting more noticeable soon. How are you?"
Riker put a briefcase on the coffee table and smiled. "We're both fine. This is a nice house."
"Well, it officially belongs to Susan through Margaret's will. Turns out Margaret was Harry's granddaughter, can you believe that?"
"Where are the others?"
"I think they're in the garden out back. Would you like some tea?"
By the time tea was prepared the three wandered into the very large back yard and found Harry, Katherine, Mary, Susan and Diana toiling away happily in the garden. Harry was teaching them twentieth-century rock songs while they were teaching him twenty-fourth century popular songs.
All of them paused when they saw their visitors. "Hello!" Harry said brightly. "Would you like to try an alamint leaf?"
"A what?" Deanna asked.
"Alamint—a magical genus of mint. Think of it as a non-addictive stimulant slash muscle relaxant slash mental aid."
"I'll try one," Will said. "I could use all the mental help I can get."
Harry handed over what looked like a normal mint leaf. Will shrugged and put it in his mouth without hesitation, then grinned. "Wow. That was…I could feel it immediately."
"That's magic. I couldn't believe that Margaret maintained a true witch's garden. I bet other than my vaults, there are plants here that don't grow anywhere else in the galaxy. So, what can I do for you?"
"We wanted to visit," Deanna said.
Will grinned. "She wanted to visit. I actually came for a reason." He lifted his soft-sided briefcase onto his lap and opened it up. He removed a thick stack of flattened scrolls. "I believe these are yours. We recovered them from the Malleus headquarters. I remembered what you had said about census scrolls and realized that's what we were looking at."
Harry eagerly accepted the scrolls. One was actually the old Hogwarts scroll. The last name had a birthday of 2140, and a date of death as 2151. He felt a chill on his spine. "The Malleus' last victim in England," he said.
He placed a hand on the name, saddened. Little Chin Hadsworth died over two centuries ago, but still Harry felt sad that the boy died as a child, never knowing why.
The moment his finger touched the scroll, though, a name appeared. Will, Deanna and Naomi all leaned over with interest. "Astele Merrick, DOB 2381." Making her eleven.
Suddenly another name appeared, then another and two more.
"Harry, what's happening?" Naomi asked.
Harry stared at the scroll in wonder. "Ever hear the story of Peter Pan?" he asked. "Do you remember the part where Tinkerbell was dying because children didn't believe any more?"
He reached over and took the American scroll. The last name on that one was 2210. However, the moment he laid his hand on it several names appeared. Most were school age or younger, but several looked as if they were young adults.
"People are beginning to believe in magic again," Harry said. "Latent magical cores are awakening. Even if they aren't around magic, on some level these children know now that magic is real."
This caught Susan, Diana, Katherine and Mary's attention and they left their chores to join the group looking at the scrolls. Harry placed them all out on the table. There were three scrolls for Europe, two for the Americas, two for Africa, three for Asia and just one for Australia. Upon Harry's touch, each scroll added a handful of new names. After all was tallied, there were almost forty names from around the world.
"So what do we do?" Susan asked.
Harry's grin faded a little. "I don't know," he admitted. "It's not like we can bring them all to Hogwarts."
"Does it have to be Hogwarts?" Will asked. "Seems it could be any building at all."
Harry shook his head. "Thing is, I'm just not how relevant magic is. Science has come so far, will their lives really be any better knowing magic? Deanna, you know how bad my knowledge of science was. That wasn't an accident—we didn't teach any of the natural sciences as you know them at Hogwarts. We taught magic because that was how we lived. But I'm not sure magic would be any better."
Katherine lifted her wand and transfigured a leaf of grass into a small mouse, which scurried off. "I was training to be in Starfleet. Now I know magic." She blushed. "A little bit, anyway. Why does it have to be one or the other?" she asked. "Why not teach a combination? Most children now receive basic skills through a neural imprint. How else could we be studying thermal dynamics in high school? You could sponsor a school that has a mixed curriculum of science and magic."
"Actually, for any type of accreditation and funding you would need to have some required subjects," Deanna noted.
"Guess that means we need to take our equivalency tests," Susan said. The others looked at her. "Technically we never finished high school, remember?"
* * *
The discussion went late into the afternoon and continued over a dinner cooked by Harry personally over an open flame grill in back. Vegetables from the garden with cubes of beef and shrimp seasoned and served over a bed of rice pilaf. The only pause in the conversation was when they ate.
The next day the five wives applied to take their high school equivalency tests, which they assured Harry would be no problem, while Harry and Deanna (and eventually Beverly, who came without a moment's hesitation when she heard what Harry and Deanna were doing) began working on a proposal for a new school of magic.
They pulled the required Earth curriculum into a magical curriculum that concentrated on the essential subjects such as transfiguration, charms, arithmancy and ancient runes. Harry doubted the need for defense against the dark arts since there were no wizards who knew the dark arts, and they still lacked sufficient ingredients or creatures to bother with potions or care for magical creatures.
On the Tuesday after they submitted their grant proposal, Harry and Naomi walked the halls of the Edinburgh Public Education Testing Facility while his wives completed their equivalency exams. It was a five hour period, but when they emerged every one of them were grinning.
"I guess that means you did well," Harry said.
The four of them grinned and tackled him in a group hug while Naomi laughed.
The Parliamentary Council on Education asked for a presentation the following week. Harry visited Rockfoot and pulled several early year textbooks out and copied them, then went with his wives and Beverly, who was serving as his sponsor. He demonstrated several pieces of early transfiguration, explained the principals behind the magic and the methodology behind his teaching approach. The books were ones Hermione and his wives helped him prepare after he succeeded Minerva as headmaster ten years after he graduated. The texts were, without exception, clearly written, well diagrammed and written in a much more accessible language.
The council was suitable impressed with his magic expertise, but had issues with his mundane background.
"I won't be teaching that," he said clearly. "I was headmaster for a magical school for many years. Though I look young, I have memories of another life in which I taught and ran a school for nearly two decades. As such, I also know my own limitations. In addition to my duties, I myself will be attending classes in this school system until I can take my own equivalency tests."
"Will your school discriminate against non-magical students?" asked one of the council members.
"That's a difficult question to answer in the way you obviously want answered," Harry said. "If a condition of having a school means having it open to all regardless of magical talent then I suppose we could do that, but how can I teach a magic to a student that is physically incapable of performing magic?"
"Well, that's a problem," the council member said. It was an older man from Cairo. He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "It is a basic tenant for any education institution that it be made available to any willing student, regardless of race, religion or any other identifier by which a student could be subject to discrimination or differential treatment. It sounds to me like you wish to create a school so you can treat a small handful of students differently than the rest."
"So you have no magnate schools?" Harry says. "No special academies that target specific skill sets?"
"Oh, we do," the council member said, "but they are open to anyone who wishes to enroll. They are not allowed to target individual potential students as you are proposing. Publicly funded secondary schools on Earth are not allowed to recruit students, and private schools are not allowed to discriminate against students if they wish to retain accreditation." He managed to sound smug as he spoke and Harry realized that the man would never support anything with magic in the name.
The other council members did not seem to have a solid opinion, but no one appeared to be as for him as the Cairo man was against. Harry considered the council in silence while behind him he could feel his wives stewing in anger. Beverly kept silent and he knew she did so because of politics. The Cairo man was also in Parliament, and was in a political party in opposition to her husband.
"What is your name, sir?" Harry asked.
"I don't see…."
"What is your name, sir."
"Abdullah Yasef."
"Mr. Yasef, is your opposition to this school based on legitimate concern for students, or because the wife of your political enemy is a sponsor?"
"I don't see that it matters one bit," Yasef dismissed. "Regardless of any motivation you may wish to assign, Mr. Potter, my points remain valid. I will not agree to either funds or accreditation for a school that treats one segment of our population different from another. And if you wish to make that spurious argument you used on the Federation to be a different species, then I would suggest you have no business coming to this body at all, since at that point you would be segregating yourself and your 'species' out of the Terran population. You may think you are important, Mr. Potter. You may have even convinced some of my less capable colleagues of believing you are important. But we both know you are not."
Beverly snorted. It was a loud, almost shocking sound. Yasef blushed furiously but otherwise pretended to ignore the sound.
Harry squashed down an immature urged to hex the man. Instead, he merely inclined his head. "Then from one unimportant man to another, I bid you good day and thank you for your time."
He turned and walked out with the others on his heels. "We're just giving up?" Katherine demanded.
"It's political," Beverly said. "I should have realized he would give us trouble. I think, Harry, he would have opposed you regardless of who sponsored you. However, he took more pleasure in it because I was here."
"I know," Harry said. "But it's okay. We'll think of something."
That night he cooked dinner for his wives, Beverly and the Prime Minister, who decided that Margaret's wine cellar was actually one of the best he had ever seen. After all, she had centuries to collect.
"Tell me about Ronin," Harry asked Beverly after the finished a desert of cheesecake.
So Beverly told the story of how she returned to Caldos for her grandmother's funeral, where she encountered the anaphasic life form known as Ronin. He had lived in a candle and co-habited with Howard women since the 1600s.
After learning that Ronin had actually harmed people, Harry nodded absently. "Most likely not just a ghost," he said. "Probably either a poltergeist, or possibly even an incubus. Given that he could harm others but gave you erotic feelings seems to indicate that. Incubi have been known to lock themselves to a magical family line. There's a good bet that your grandmother was a witch."
"She knew enough about herbology," Beverly admitted.
"Indeed, you've always had a knack for finding useful plants," Jean Luc said. He was on his second glass of an excellent port and was feeling quite mellow.
"So, what was Caldos like?" Harry asked. "You lived there for a while, right?"
Beverly nodded. "There was a period of rapid colonization in the early 23rd century that was culture specific. There were colonies founded primarily of Japanese, or Chinese, or Americans attempting to adhere to a specific cultural type. Caldos was one of those worlds. It was terraformed by Scots. Although I wasn't born there, my grandmother was one of the founders. They favored 16th century architecture and even had cornerstones brought from different cities in Scotland for all the buildings."
Harry had a strange, pensive look on his face. "What was the weather like?"
"Caldos was a little colder than Earth norm, but only by a few degrees globally. The colony was in the northern hemisphere on one of three continents. Since it was terraformed it had no native life. The life there is all Earth standard. Sheep, horses, cattle—they have a large flora and fauna set of mostly European animals."
"Harry?" Susan asked, sensing something about Harry's now intense interest.
"How many people are there?" Harry asked softly.
Beverly, realizing where he was going, said, "The colony has perhaps a hundred thousand people. The rest of the world is unpopulated at this time."
"Human?"
"Mostly. There are a small handful of Maturins there who found they enjoyed the culture. They've fit in very nicely. Now, in case you're thinking it, the colony is not completely anachronistic. The school system adheres to Federation norms and it has access to standard subspace info net bands. There are even a few local feeds."
Harry's mind was spinning. "How do they feel about witches and wizards?"
"Mostly witches," Noami said.
The others snickered.
"We wouldn't know if we didn't ask," Beverly said.
Suddenly everyone jumped as Jean Luc hit the table with his fist. "Brilliant!" he said. "Absolutely brilliant!" He was flushed from wine. "A terraformed world with a predominantly northern European root culture with enough space for dragons to fly free." He blinked. "Your wine is most excellent, Harry."
"It's Susan's, really."
"Coming from the owner of Chateau Picard, I'm really flattered," Susan said with a blush.
* * *
Although Caldos was a Federation world, its population was small enough that it actually fell into a representative region of four human colony worlds who elected a member to the Federation Council together. However, they happened to be in luck that the current representative was in fact from Caldos.
Shira O'Malley agreed to meet with Harry and his family almost within hours of the inquiry, and with a grin Harry apparated the whole lot of them (including Beverly) to the Federation Council building in Paris. After going through a thorough security checkpoint, they were escorted through the huge, awe-inspiring structure until they arrived at O'Malley's office.
"Hello there, Mr. Potter," O'Malley said. He noticed she spoke with the hint of a brogue, just like Professor McGonagall in another life. "And Madame Picard, an honor. These must be the famous Potter wives."
Harry introduced each by their new formal names. Katherine, Lady Gryffindor, Diana, Lady Hufflepuff, Mary, Lady Ravenclaw and Susan, Lady Slytherin.
"Interesting names," O'Malley said.
"Godric Gryffindor was a Frank," Harry said as they all sat. "Slytherin was a Basque who left Spain after his wife was killed during war with the Moors. Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw were actually Viking witches who were captured in a major battle in the formation of the United Kingdom. They ended up joining Godric and founding the school of magic I attended."
"They taught history well there."
"Actually, I am their magical heirs. I lived their lives through dreams and memories. I know the history because I relived it."
O'Malley raised a brow. "Well, I admit I was somewhat surprised by your request to meet. Not too many people even know that Caldos exists, and I'm ashamed to admit we like it that way. We're a private people."
"We were once, too," Harry said with a smile. "We you aware that my petition to open a magical school here was declined?"
"No, I wasn't," O'Malley admitted. "I tend not to follow local politics. My term ends next year and I don't plan on coming back. It's a nice place, but a bit crowded for my taste."
"I understand," Harry said. He looked around at his wives before looking back at the representative. "Madam, are you authorized to speak for the colony?"
"I am," O'Malley said. "Why?"
"We want to immigrate there, and establish a magical community."
O'Malley's brows lifted. "Well, as Federation members we can't actually say no. But I'm sensing something more in this request."
"We wouldn't just be introducing a community," Harry said. "We would be introducing a world. Before the last world war, my previous wives managed to preserve much of the magical flora and fauna. I would like to use one of the continents to establish a magical ecosystem."
O'Malley blinked. "Mr. Potter, give me a moment here. What do you mean by magical fauna?"
"Unicorns," Diana said.
"Dragons," Katherine added.
"Basilisks," Susan said.
"Centaurs," Mary said.
"Every mythical creature you've likely ever heard of," Harry said. "Most aren't mythical. They were simply hidden from view for their safety and for the normal people of the time. These are magical creatures—without magic they die. In addition, we would likely bring the surviving goblins that have been in the news lately."
"Aye, those I've heard of," O'Malley said. "Quite the request you're making, Mr. Potter. Why are you asking us, though?"
"Harry thinks that Granny Felisa was a witch," Beverly said.
"I've heard of her, one of the colony founders," O'Malley said. "Right loved she was." She looked back at Harry. "Are these creatures dangerous?"
"Some are, absolutely," Harry said. "And some are actually sentient. The centaurs Hermione saved are as intelligent as humans, perhaps more so. There are merpeople who are sentient. I speak a smattering of mermish but it hurts my throat. For those creatures who are dangerous, I would establish reservations. For those that are not truly dangerous, I would allow them to live free. In fact, that's one of the major reasons I'm interested. That, and Hogwarts was in Scotland. It seems fitting that if I restart the school, it should be in a land transplanted from Scotland."
"You know we make a point of bringing cornerstones from Earth for any new buildings," O'Malley said. "It's tradition."
"And I would bring more than just a cornerstone from Hogwarts," Harry assured her. "I would bring the living heart, the Heart Stone, from the castle. We would also need to establish a magical portal back to Earth since most of our new students would be coming from here."
"A portal?"
"As far as I can tell from what he's shown me," Katherine said, "It's almost like a magical wormhole."
"It could provide instant travel between worlds, for magical and non-magical people," Harry said. "I started working on it from the minute I thought of Caldos."
"So you wizards had portals to other worlds?"
"No," Harry said. "I'm just…I try not to be immodest, but I am very powerful for my kind. I doubt anyone else could create such a portal, but with the minds of my wives and my brute force, it could be done. I actually got the idea after studying your warp field theories."
O'Malley gave a sharp nod. "Well, it's certainly something to consider. Of course you know I can't commit to anything right now, but I'll talk it over with the governor and we'll see what he thinks."
They stood and parted with handshakes. As he was walking out, O'Malley said, "Mr. Potter, have you seen dragons, then?"
"I had to fight one when I was fourteen," Harry said. "Scary beast. But magnificent too. As dangerous as they are, they deserve a right to live."
"Thank you, Mr. Potter. I'll let you know what the governor says."
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Author's Responses:
Q: It's interesting, but why are you stretching out the posting cycle?
A: I'm not stretching the post cycle, I'm on a calendar. Like most, I have a job, young kids, and not a whole hell of a lot of time. So I dedicate a set time each week to post so that I also have time to actually write. Simple as that.
Q: Dell done hope there will be a second story about this when your done with this one ^^
A: If you're interested, I have something about that on my homepage.
Q: Considering all power Harry supposed to have, all the deaths that were caused and all the ways both star trek and Harry potter series have used time travel in the past it just seemed unthinkable Harry Potter would give up on his world, his wives etc and be happy with the new one.
A; There were some other points made, and I thank you for the feedback. I can tell you that this story met the intent I had going into it, and that overall I am pleased with it. That said, I had no illusions that it would please everyone. It was much slower than most of my stories and did not have much action. So, I accept the fact this story didn't meet your expectations, I thank you for your thoughtful criticism, and I thank you for giving it a try.
Q: What's next on your agenda after The Forever Mage?
A: I list up and coming on my profile for any who are interested.
Q: No Wesley or Traveler? GOOD. Glad you're not going in that direction. Those two could only distract from what's going on. Same conversation with Q, Apollo, Trelane, or any of a host of other similar characters.
A: Thank God someone's with me there.
Q: How (or even why) put a phoenix into stasis? Vampires? Naturally near-immortal beings.
A: Can a phoenix survive a nuclear blast? I'm not answering because I don't know myself, and it was because of that risk that they preserved even the sentient and long-lived species. Just to be safe.
Q: wonder how much hidden/expanded land there is that is not accessible to the muggles, entire islands and nations hidden or lost...
A: This was answered in the chapter, but just to clarify that world-wide wards started failing shortly after the war because of the absence not just of wards, but of magic itself. Ambient magic simply faded, and with it all the unplottable, charmed adn hissden land fell with it.
Q: Are you stupid? This is what space expansion charms are for.
A: The first question has been posed before, the debate is still ongoing. The second is a possibility, but one that, as saw in this chapter, will not be necessary.
Q: Is that a reference (Harry's messiah discussion), by the way?
A: Only to JKR's blatant Jesus analogy in Harry. He sacrifices himself for the good of his people only to be reborn.
Q: It strikes me that Beverly and Jean-Luc would make excellent advisors to the Magical World.
A: Beverly will be more than just an adviser, she's going to be a part of the Magical World herself. I rememebred a season one of ST: TNG when she was on the planet and was able to determine usable plants (I referenced it here, in fact) and thought, she would be perfect as a witch with a witch's garden.
Well, thanks again for the reviews and critiques. I know this fic isn't for everyone, so that makes the reviews I do get that much more important. Thank you.
And regarding questions about a sequel--truth is I've been trying to write one almost since I began posting this one. I have four completely separate versions of essentially the same story, and just this last week made a breakthrough. So, I can say that the odds of a third and final story for Harry's journey through time is a definite possibility. For those interested, I posted a preview on my homepage, but it will probably be a bit before I begin posting. It will take Harry into the SW universe, and truly it will have more in common with HP and the Four Founders than it did with Forever Mage. However, it will not be an alternate story, but an actual sequel to both Four Founders and Forever Mage. Hopefully folks will enjoy.
Thank you, and I will see everyone next week.