Another chapter out, and I hope you will be pleased about it. Not much action in it, but there is a rather interesting scene near the end. I apologize in advance for any disturbing mental images it might cause. The story will start to greatly deviate from cannon from this point, and while I will use parts from book six in it, the concept of Horcruxes and book seven will not be a part of this story. Oh, and when I was reviewing the last chapter, I noticed an error that had slipped past me. The sniper bullets the Phoenix Army uses are made of a metal called paranok, not kershin.
Chapter 13
When Harry came to, he found himself on a sofa in a slightly darkened room. As he straightened up, he saw Sophia sitting together with Hermione, Ron and Ginny, while the boy Sophia claimed was his son was sitting in his mother's lap.
"Welcome back, Daroth." Sophia grinned lightly.
"How long was I out?" Harry asked with a sigh. Sophia would never let him live this incident down.
"About five minutes or so. I was just getting introduced to your friends here. I daresay you didn't leave a good impression on James." She grinned lightly, and it was mirrored on the child's face as well.
"How come you didn't know about him if he's that old?" Ron asked.
"Lantrisi infants mature very fast, Ron. James is not even a year old." Harry replied back, causing the two humans to splutter in shock. James added a rather cheeky grin at their wide-eyed stares.
"So, other than the obvious surprise, how are things back on Hashera?" Harry asked, speaking out loud for the benefit of their human companions.
"Busy. My role with the Order has shifted to an administrative position now that I have James, but other than that, things are pretty much the same." Sophia replied shortly.
"What did your father say when you told him about James?" Harry grinned as she grimaced slightly.
"He was not happy about my decision, but you know him, the moment he saw him, he turned to mush." Sophia grinned lightly.
"Grandpa is the greatest. He gives the best presents." James grinned and enthusiastically pulled out a short dagger from his belt.
"This is an Order wraith dagger." Harry inspected the blade carefully. "I'd say he's spoiling you, but that's what grandparents are supposed to do."
"Harry, it doesn't bother you that he has something like that in the first place?" Ginny asked nervously.
"Blades are a common gift for young Lantrisi. Your mom has been teaching you how to use it?" Harry ruffled his son's hair as he nodded wildly.
"Well, why don't I take you back to the castle? I have a few things that the Chapter Immaterial might find interesting, and I'm sure we'll find something you'd like as well." Said Chapter was the section of the Order of Death that dealt with magic, and they were quickly gaining notoriety amongst the enemies of the Collective.
"I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear that. They're still moaning about your departure, you know." Sophia grinned as they walked towards Hogwarts.
"Sir, thank Merlin you're here. We have a problem." Harry was stopped by a frantic man almost the moment they walked inside the castle.
"What happened?" Harry recognized the man as a member of the Phoenix Army, and his concern grew rapidly.
"Voldemort made a move an hour ago. A remote Muggle village was hit. We responded in seconds, but this time, they were ready for us. We lost one man, and two others were wounded in just fifteen seconds. I ordered a retreat to prevent further losses. Regrettably, we were unable to save the village. When a second team went to look for survivors, they found only rubble." The man said with a solemn tone as he led them to the hospital wing.
The acrid smell of burnt flesh hit the four Lantrisi the moment they walked inside the room. Two men were lying on beds, heavily bandaged and moaning in pain.
As Harry listened to a more detailed report, he also took notice of the wounds on the corpse of the killed soldier.
"These look like plasma burns." Sophia commented as she too examined the wounds.
"It's the most likely cause. Did the Death Eaters have weapons other than wands?" He turned to the soldiers.
"It all happened so fast, but yes, they did have something that looked like a rifle. They were shooting glowing green balls all over the place." The squad CO replied with a shiver.
"Damn, that certainly complicates things. Hermione, please take James to my room. Gather the Army commanders and the Order, tell them we need an emergency meeting." Harry snapped, and five minutes later, he was in HQ together with Sophia.
"We heard about the latest attack. Why didn't the Army stop them?" Shacklebolt asked once everyone was gathered.
"Things just got a lot worse for us. Somehow, Voldemort got his hands on plasma weapons. Considering the level of technology of this world, these weapons could only have come from an extraterrestrial source, which means, Voldemort has managed to contact an alien civilization, and they're supplying him with weapons." Harry said grimly.
"What? What can we do about this?" Dumbledore, like everyone else was feeling quite grim.
"I'll be able to produce armor that will protect our soldiers against plasma blasts, but that is just a reactive measurement. We need to cut off their supply line if we want to succeed. Sophia, normally I wouldn't ask, but I'll need a ship here if I want to win this war." Harry turned to his girlfriend.
"I know how important this is to you. Tell you what. I have a Girant class battleship that's scheduled for decommissioning in six months. I'll have it fixed up a bit and send it over." Sophia gave him a soft grin.
"You're the best, love. You'd best head back. I'll feel much better once James is back on Hashera." Harry gave her a pleading look.
"Alright. I'll go back as soon as I pick him up from your school. Expect the ship to arrive in a day or two." She sighed.
"So, who's James?" Sirius asked, shooting his godson a suspicious look.
"My son, of course." Everyone gaped like a fish at that unexpected bit of news. "Yeah, I was completely blindsided as well. Enough about that. Let's get back to the business at hand."
"What can you tell us about these weapons Voldemort has?" Dumbledore asked.
"From a Lantrisi point of view, plasma weapons are practically relics. Basically, they fire a ball of gas that's been heated to hundreds of thousands of degrees. The armor I plan to put into use will protect you, but it's not a perfect defense. Once the ship arrives, I'll be able to determine how they're getting them, and also, how they're recharging them." Harry replied.
"I can tell you that." Everyone turned to Snape as he spoke up.
"I was summoned after the attack, and I saw a large machine they were using to recharge the rifles. It's very heavily guarded though. The Dark Lord is not taking any chances with this one." Snape continued.
"Can you show us the memory?" Harry asked and placed a pensieve on the table. Snape quickly had the memory inside it, and a translucent image of a large room rose up above the pensieve.
"Looks like some sort of a fusion reactor. Interesting. Whoever is giving him this equipment is either dumping old equipment on him, or they're not that advanced themselves." Harry commented.
"What makes you say that?" Moody couldn't make heads or tails from looking at the machine, and wondered what it was Harry was seeing.
"I've studied similar designs in the historical archives. Hell, I could probably build something better with modern Muggle technology." Harry scoffed.
"So, you don't use something like this?" Sirius asked.
"A fusion reactor doesn't produce enough power for my equipment. Sure, Lantrisi technology is very advanced, but it also needs a lot of power. Well, we'll see how advanced Voldemort's friends are once we've seized their ship." Harry grinned.
Fortunately for Harry, his position with the Phoenix Army was known with to the top circles of the Ministry, and since the Headmaster was the leader of the Order, he could leave Hogwarts at any time.
"These formulas don't make any sense. We'll just be wasting perfectly good metal." Harry repressed the urge to break the man's neck for the fifth time in the last hour alone. The foundry's chief engineer was stubbornly refusing to accept Harry's formulas.
'If he's this annoying about simple plasma plating, what will he say about the modern Lantrisi alloys?' Harry smirked inwardly.
He had pulled a few ties with the Ministry, along with a little use of his own hacking skills, and got an appointment with a metal foundry to produce the metal he needed to armor his army.
"I didn't ask for a comment on my formulas, Mr. Grant. What I want to know is, can your foundry produce the alloy with the instructions I've provided?" Harry sighed.
"We can try. The methods are a bit strange, after all." The man finally conceded, and three hours later, an inch thick square foot of plasma plating emerged from the cooling station.
"This is perfect, Mr. Grant. My firm would be delighted to place the rest of our order with your fine company." Harry grinned widely at the man who was still staring at the metal sheet in shock.
"How? The formulas didn't make any sense at all." He whispered.
"I don't know myself. I just know that the processing method works. When can we expect the rest of my order?" Harry shrugged.
"Oh, right. We'll have the rest complete in one week." Grant managed to snap out of his shock.
"Excellent. Pleasure doing business with you." Harry grinned and after a few more minutes of small talk, returned to Hogwarts.
"Harry, did you hear? Katie Bell was taken to St. Mungo's. I heard it was because she had some sort of a cursed necklace with her." Neville informed him of the latest gossip once he had settled in the common room for the day.
"She's alright?" Harry asked with concern.
"The Healers said she'll be fine, but it will take time." Neville replied.
This unexpected event was put on the backseat for Harry with the arrival of the spaceship he requested.
"I'd be happy to give you all a tour, but first, Hermione and I will have to make sure all the intruder traps have been deactivated. A lot of them are not tied to the control AI, and we'll have to go through them one at a time." Harry explained.
"Is it safe?" Sirius asked nervously.
"For us, yes. Don't worry, the procedure is quite simple, there's just a lot of traps to go through. The Girant class may not be the biggest ship we have, but it is one of the bigger types." Harry grinned and used the comm. system in his watch to displace himself and Hermione to the ship.
"It looks incredible." Hermione whispered as she took in the displacer station. The smooth, dark silver mitrahil plating covering the walls, coupled with the perfectly straight lines of the room gave an unmistakable testament to its inhuman origins.
"Alright, we'll do this deck by deck. You start at the top deck and work your way down, and I'll start from the bottom. If you have any trouble, contact me or Ixius." Ixius was the ship's central AI and while he didn't control all the traps, he still knew where they all were.
"If I never see another trap, it will be too soon. And who the hell had the bright idea to write 'Die, Human, Die' on all the gas canisters?" Hermione grumbled as she and Harry stopped at the ship's mess hall for a little pick me up.
"It's a common joke in the navy. It spread around and the canisters are actually manufactured with that engraved on them." Harry laughed.
"Some joke. Ixius, another Nova Blast." Hermione shouted, as a tall glass of clear liquid with fruit slices in it appeared.
"How can you even stand to drink it with fruit in it?" Harry commented as he took a long drag of his own, clear drink.
"Tastes too bitter without it. And I'll have you know…" She paused to poke him in the chest. She finally managed it after her third try. "…there's nothing wrong with being fruity… liking fruity drinks."
"I think you had a little too much. Come on, it's time to go back." Harry sighed. He really shouldn't have let her drink at all, but since she had completed her basic training, she was considered an adult, and if she wanted to try a drink, she had every right to it.
The sight that greeted the adults awaiting their return in Dumbledore's office was not what they were expecting. When they appeared, Hermione was leaning heavily on Harry, and was in the process of singing some sort of song. It was also the first time any of them had heard the Lantrisi language. The words were sharp, vicious, and everyone could feel a certain forcefulness behind every word.
That was when Hermione burped loudly and giggled, and everyone could feel a strong scent of something emanating from the girl. Fortunately for the humans, the toxins that were used in the drink broke down rather quickly when exposed to air.
"Is she… drunk?" McGonagall exclaimed in shock as Hermione returned to her song.
"She got a bit carried away, I'm afraid. She's still too young to metabolize the amount she had quickly. She'll be alright in a couple of hours." Harry's voice had a tone of amusement in his voice.
"Yep, be right as snow I will." She exclaimed loudly and staggered away from Harry and almost bumped into McGonagall.
"Proffssr, I want to tell ya… yer da best." Hermione almost shouted, and before anyone could react, grabbed McGonagall and locked lips with her.
"I can't believe I did that." Hermione groaned as she sat holding her head in Harry's room. "And I can't believe you didn't stop me."
"How could I? I was too busy rolling on the floor with laughter. I mean, the look on McGonagall's face was priceless. I think you even gave her some tongue." Harry still had a million watt grin on his face.
"I'll never be able to look her in the face again. Why did you let me drink in the first place?" She grumbled.
"You're an adult now, and you're responsible for your own actions, as well as your own mistakes. Now, while I really enjoyed the unexpected entertainment you provided, it's time to get back to business." Harry's grin vanished in the blink of an eye.
"I'll gather up some members of the Army and the Order and we'll hunt down Voldemort's supplier. For you, I have another task. I picked up several sets of welding equipment from the ship. I want you to take them and show the armor makers for the army how to use it to process the plasma plating." Harry pulled out several sets of goggles and what looked like large guns with long barrels.
"Got it. I'll get on it as soon as the room stops spinning and my head stops pounding." She groaned.
"The hangover will pass in a couple of hours. Catch you later." Harry grinned again and walked out of the room. He was most eager for this mission. After all, it had been a while since he had been on the hunt.