Disclaimer – As always, this is fanfiction. Neither Harry Potter nor Battlestar Galactica belong to me.
The Next Lord of Kobol
Chapter 13 - Freedom Isn't Always that Free
(Eight Years Eleven Months and Twelve days before the fall of the 12 Colonies)
"So," Maggie addressed the boy across the table from her. "How does it feel to be a real human being?"
She watched Harry looking at his Ident card, inspecting it carefully, before he replied, "Like I've just popped into a whole new world."
Maggie didn't quite understand what he said, but that was the thing with Harry. They were on their first date that wasn't a picnic on the grounds of the mental hospital or involved the use of her grid box to virtually go somewhere. It took considerable wrangling on her part to get permission from her mother to take Harry out to celebrate getting his paperwork.
Her mom loaned Maggie the car, since she was more than a little uncomfortable with the idea of Harry riding on Maggie's motorcycle. As a bonus, she'd even coughed up a handful of cubits and told the two of them to enjoy themselves.
She hardly ever gave me any money for my dates with other boys, Maggie mused. Then again, she's got a soft spot for Harry.
"What's with the frown?" she asked, returning her attention to the young man across the table. "Dates with me are supposed to be fun."
"Sorry," he apologized and put his Ident card back into his pocket. "I was just thinking about something your mom told me."
She took a sip of her drink before saying, "What's that?"
"Now that I am part of the system, she's going to have to ... pay the ... not the right word ... justify my cost. I might end up being kicked out."
Harry still fumbled his way through conversations. She could tell how much that frustrated him.
"Don't worry about it. Mom is good at taking care of people. She'll handle it. I got you a present," she said, changing the subject.
He smiled and said, "You didn't have to."
"Here. It's not much," she said offering him a small box from her handbag.
He took it and opened the gift, holding the medallion and chain up for inspection.
"I recognize Athena on the one side," Harry said. "Who is the other goddess?"
"Tyche," she answered. "Wisdom and Good Fortune in one package."
"I need all the luck I can get. Probably the wisdom too," Harry said chuckling. "It's very nice. Thank you. Should I put it on now?"
She nodded and noted the oddness of Harry Potter. His comment about needing luck and the look in his green eyes made him seem so worldly, but by the end of his statement he was back to being clueless ... almost adorably so.
Of course Mom isn't the only one with a soft spot for him, she thought, teasing herself. She did like him and it forced Maggie into restraining herself during their grid dates. She made it a point not to let him get beyond heavy petting. Normally, she'd have gone much further.
They weren't at a fancy restaurant by any stretch of the imagination and Harry managed to navigate the menu easily enough. Though, she noted that he picked a dish that had a picture next to it, making her wonder how his reading skills were really coming along. She almost asked, but knew there was no nice way to do that without upsetting him. In a way, it was embarrassing and humbling in a way. If she worked only half as hard as he did, she'd have finished top of her class and would have had more scholarship money.
"What do you want to do after this?" Harry asked.
"We'll figure something out," she said. "There's an E-Center just down the street."
"Sounds good. I don't think I've ever been to one," he replied. "Are they fun?"
Maggie nodded. Entertainment Centers were fun, probably a little on the younger side for her taste, but she promised her mother that she wouldn't take him to anything more than he could handle tonight and it should appeal to Harry. Plus, the odds were that anyone who might know her from Delphi Union wouldn't be caught dead in an E-Center.
Stop thinking like that! It's not like I'm ashamed to be seen in public with Harry.
Perhaps Tyche heard her thoughts and frowned, because at that precise moment the hostess led a familiar figure to the next table. Rachel Talbot had been the butt of many jokes since their little spat ended with her being tossed into a fountain and becoming a minor sensation on the grid. The chat forum commenters from Virgon, referred to her by many names, but the most popular was CapriSlut.
They hadn't exactly made up either.
"Oh great," Rachel said to her male friend. "This evening just got worse."
"Nice to see you too, Talbot. Since we're already here and have ordered, you can always ask for a different table." The man was several years older than her, thin, and had short black hair.
Maggie saw Harry's arched eyebrow and wondered if he would remember the gridclip.
"Frak you, Marge! I'll sit wherever the frak I please."
"Suit yourself," Maggie answered, and made a point of ignoring the girl and turned her attention back to Harry.
The boy gave her an inquisitive look and said, "Marge?"
"People at school called me that," she replied as he made a distasteful face. "What?"
"That name doesn't suit you," he said, making her wonder why he had an aversion to that name.
"Margret makes me sound like an old woman and only my family and you call me Maggie."
"Okay," the boy responded.
"I can tell you a few other names we called her," Rachel Talbot offered from the next table.
Maggie took a calming breath and looked at the prissy blonde and her date. The guy appeared as happy with the direction the evening was going about as much as she was. "Seriously, Rachel? We're out of school now and supposedly adults. Try acting like it."
Rachel opened her mouth to reply and flushed red with anger, but her date interrupted saying, "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Felix Gaeta, Rachel's second cousin. I'm in town for a genetics conference as part of my studies. You're obviously Marge, and you are?"
"Harry Potter," her date replied, and took his hand.
"Nice to meet you," Felix answered.
Maggie was impressed by the way Felix jumped in and took control of an awkward situation. "Genetics? Sounds like an interesting field."
"It is, building blocks of life and all that," he replied with a casual smile.
"Felix attends the prestigious Ryden Institute," Rachel added trying to save face and look important. Maggie didn't think it did either.
"For at least another semester, I hope," Felix said and shrugged. "Unfortunately, I'll probably have to enlist if I want to afford a doctorate. Post grad studies aren't for the faint of heart or the shallow of pocket. There's a military extension program that I'll be able to use. I know Rachel is going into nursing, what are you two planning to study?"
"Aerospace Engineering," Maggie answered, and became uncomfortable when Felix turned to Harry.
"I'm undecided. Leaning toward Business Management," Harry said without batting an eye.
Maggie released the breath she'd been holding and looked at her date. He gave her a tiny smile and asked Felix some questions about the military.
(_*_)
"You were so calm in there," Maggie said as they left the restaurant. She seemed rather surprised.
Harry shrugged. It had been nice to speak with Felix. He didn't know Harry from anyone, didn't assume he was mentally handicapped, and seemed like an easygoing kind of guy. Rachel, on the other hand, reminded him of a female Draco Malfoy. Still, no one was tossed out of the restaurant and everyone managed to mostly enjoy the meal. "So do you want me to start calling you Marge?"
"Not when you say it like that," she said.
What a relief! After Vernon's hideous sister, I don't think I could ever date a Marge, he thought. "Maggie it is then!"
He hadn't been lying about the Business Management part. His first chamala harvest would be ready in two weeks and he'd done a decent amount of research on how to process it and then sell it.
I guess I could have said Agricultural Engineering, he mused.
"So are you ready for your first trip to an E-Center? Or at least the first one you remember."
"Sure. I guess we'll be able to have about five more dates before you break up with me," he said with a smirk.
She gave him a roll of her eyes and said, "Harry, don't be clingy. We can still go on grid dates and see each other in the V-world, but I really need to focus on my studies once school gets started. Since mom is giving me a new gridbox, you can have my old one. You might even find that I'm holding you back. Now, what did we promise?"
"To keep things casual," he said in a monotone voice, before grinning at her.
"That's right!" she said and grabbed his hand. "Now let's go have some fun."
She was right and Harry knew it. It was bad timing for the two of them to start liking each other and his relationships with girls was the stuff of legends … really bad legends. He liked Maggie. Quite frankly, he liked how frisky she became in the virtual world and was hopeful that it would happen in the real world at some point. She had confidence and knew what she was doing. He did not. Also, he felt bad that he couldn't share his magic with her. There were a couple of instances when he almost did, but cursed himself for being a fool.
Oh, by the way, I'm actually from Earth, the thirteenth tribe really exists and another thing, I can cast magic spells.
Even a charlatan like his Divination instructor could predict how well that would go over.
(_*_)
Several days later, Harry knocked on Mrs. Edmondson's door.
"Come in, Harry."
He entered and saw her there with the elderly man from the front desk, Mr. Kelso and another man, who looked to be in his mid-forties that Harry did not recognize.
Nancy gestured to the seat in front of her desk and he had a momentary feeling like the times he'd been called into the office by the Gryffindor head of house.
"Harry, this is Trevor Kelso – Alan's nephew." The man offered his hand and Harry shook it before sitting down and Nancy continued. "He runs a rec center on the other side of the city."
"Nice to meet you, sir," Harry said, uncertain of where this was headed. A rec center sounded fun. Maybe they'd allow him to go there and take classes, swim, or something.
"Do you remember when I was telling you that when you get your Ident card and the rest of your paperwork, that there might be some problems?"
"Yes," he answered cautiously.
"I hate when I'm right," she said with a sad smile. "Unfortunately, the health board has reviewed your case and reclassified you for Outpatient Assistance. They approved a few things, speech therapy, job training skills, and a few other things, but you won't be allowed to stay at the facility anymore."
"Oh," he replied, letting it sink in. "That's not good."
"It was less than I was hoping for," she affirmed and gestured to the younger man in the room. "You'll have to leave in ten days. However, we've made a few arrangements, and thankfully, Mr. Kelso is looking for a night watchman at his business."
"I can't much more than the minimum," Trevor took over and leaned down on Nancy's desk. He was a little overweight, and had a salt and pepper beard. "But, I've got a small camper at the center you can use as an apartment and Ms. Edmondson and my uncle both vouch for your character, so I'm willing to give it a try if you are. They say you're good with landscaping. Might get you to give the place a little facelift while you're at it."
Harry mulled it over and thought, It's not bad. I'd be working nights and would have my days free. I'd be earning some additional cubits.
"I'd like that, sir," he said aloud. "Do you have problems at the recreation center?"
"Recreation Center?" the man said. "I think you misunderstood me. It's not an E-Center, kid. I run a reclamation center. But yeah, there's been a series of things going missing and nothing showed up on the vid monitors."
Harry realized his mistake. This was a job at a junkyard. If it was the place he was thinking of, he might be responsible for some of those missing goods, when he needed material to make his hidden greenhouse. It was ironic that he might have created his own job. Though he would have preferred a place with a swimming pool.
"Sorry, my words are still not so good. I meant to say reclamation and it came out wrong."
The businessman looked skeptical. "Are you sure you're up for the job? I don't want to come in and catch you sleeping. That's not what I'll be paying you for."
"Don't worry sir," he said. "Do I work every night?"
"You'll have half of the festival days off. I can get one of the guys to cover for you."
Four nights off a month. It's more than the Dursley's gave me, plus I get paid.
"I'll do it," he said. "Thank you."
They shook hands and just like that Harry was employed. He knew enough warding now that he should be able to set up a series of perimeter wards around the junkyard that'd make things easy. He'd miss Amanda's Open Arms, but the bedchecks and supervision were getting old. There was an additional bonus of teasing Maggie that she's seeing a guy with a job now and watch her make fun of him.
(_*_)
Mr. Kelso's camper was smaller than his room at Amanda's Open Arms. It also managed to include a tiny kitchenette inside. Even so, from Harry's perspective, the available space beat the old cupboard under the stairs and it wasn't like he actually had to sleep there when he had a perfectly good bed and hammock at his secret greenhouse.
It'll do, Harry thought. As long as I make it look like I'm sleeping here and all that rot.
The reclamation center was a junkyard. Basic trash and biodegradable waste went somewhere else where it was incinerated for power. Pretty much everything else came here, from wrecked ground vehicles, furniture and appliances, to things Harry couldn't be certain what they might be used for. One of the guys who worked there during the daytime kept telling him that there was an old fighter jet frame buried under one of the larger piles of junk.
People would come by and look for something that they could strip components out of to fix something they owned. Harry had never been to a junkyard back on Earth and was fascinated by how industrious people could be. Vernon Dursley never made an effort to fix a bloody thing. The only thing his uncle was capable of was complaining about how much he had to pay repairmen.
Harry would tag along with the customers and the other employees and help out where he could. He asked questions and most of the time the people would explain what they were doing. It was a much more practical "hands on" education than had been offered at Hogwarts. A man named Brandon showed him how to strip down a broken portable generator and how the warped driveshaft prevented it from working correctly. The man left with the engine section.
That night when Harry was doing his walk around the grounds, he used his wand and straightened out the damaged piece of metal. Next, he did an animation charm, making the shaft turn. The needle on the output meter wavered as Harry strengthened the spell, causing the shaft to spin faster. It took two more adjustments before the needle was in the green area of the meter. Mr. Kelso instructed him to walk the grounds at least twice during his shift and the rest of the time, he could watch the security monitors from the main office. On the second pass, two hours later the shaft was still spinning, with the needle in the green band and he canceled the spell.
He started going through a mental checklist.
I have a way to generate power.
I can make my own water.
Food? Still an issue. I'll need a ship that can support a greenhouse or plenty of storage space. Hufflepuff's cup can make some nutritional potions, but that's not going to cut it as a long term solution.
Ship? Yeah, still need one of those and I need to learn how to fly it. Simulators are good, but if it were that easy everyone would be doing it.
Sadly, Harry wasn't allowed to use the gridbox Maggie had given him during his shift, but he could practice his reading. Even though he was probably the reason the owner was worried about things disappearing, Harry planned to set up some perimeter wards just in case there was more to it. Before he went on shift, he dashed off a quick message to Maggie and asked her how it felt to date a working man.
Sitting at the counter, he was a bit more melancholy about his situation as the boredom started to set in.
The chosen one – the would-be hero of the wizarding world is a night watchman at a junkyard and trying to master reading. Rita Skeeter would have a frakkin field day with this! I can only imagine what her headlines would say.
(_*_)
It's actually happening! I'm never going to live in Delphi ever again! Thank the Gods!
Her boyfriend, in the seat next to her, watched the countryside passing by as the Maglev zipped across the countryside. "You're really excited. Aren't you?"
"Pretty much," Maggie answered. "I'm just ready for the next phase of my life to start. Thanks for coming on the train with me."
"I'm just glad your mom could switch the ticket since she couldn't go. As far as I know, I've never been to Caprica City. I took a couple of tours of some of the sights on the grid, but I'm looking forward to seeing them in person."
She offered him a smile and hoped it conveyed that she wasn't cutting all of her ties with this place. "The grid connection between here and Cap City is wicked fast, so we'll probably see each other just as much until school starts."
Harry smiled, but Maggie knew the boy was a tactile sort and preferred the real world.
"I was thinking about switching my avatar to look more like me," she said trying to give him something to buoy his mood. He didn't seem to be too upset. Sometimes, Harry was exceptionally difficult to read.
"Thanks," he replied and took his eyes off the view away from the window to face her. "You don't have to, I know how you feel about grid safety."
"Well, it's only when we are with each other," she answered and put her hand on his knee. He set his hand on top of hers. Harry never made the first move, but he was quick to respond to whatever signals she sent. Tilting his head, he rested it on her shoulder as she brought up the pyramid game on the screen.
"Do you think you ever played pyramid, Harry?"
"Maybe, Maggie. I am not sure. I might have, but I'm still sorting out the rules. Probably wouldn't be that good at it."
"I played a few years ago, before everyone else got way taller than me. I was quick and nimble. Real tough to stop when I was on a breakaway."
"It would have been fun to watch you play," Harry said. "You like to win."
"I'll dig around and see where I stashed my highlight videos. I know mom probably has them archived somewhere. If I'd gotten either of the twins' height, I might have had a shot at the University or even the professional level."
(_*)
Caprica City was as large and imposing in person as it was during the grid tours Harry had taken of it. He saw the berths of the spaceport, filled with freighters and liners. Trams flitted about like insects pollinating flowers moving cargo and people to and from the spaceships. It was a hub of activity that made any of the pictures Harry had seen on the Dursley's telly of Heathrow look dreadfully silly.
I wonder if I can Apparate from Delphi to here in one hop or will I need to break the trip into two or more jumps. Dumbledore could go from Scotland to London with ease, but he was a legend. I've never had to do more than fifty kilometers in a single jump. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Maggie was practically bouncing in her seat by this point in the trip. He recalled the same looks on the faces of his classmates as the Hogwart's Express rolled into Hogsmeade during the first time he'd rode the train. Year two had started with the flying car. Dementors after that. Death Eaters in the fourth year. Finally, he'd been on trial before the start of the fifth year. Just enjoying the grandeur of a simple train ride had been difficult to ask under those circumstances. His mind wandered back to Athena's warnings about the cylons. She was certain that he'd meet them at some point and wondered if the Twelve Colonies were ready for the war to start again.
Harry certainly wasn't. All he could do right now was memorize how to Apparate to the house belonging to Maggie's well off uncle and be ready to get her out of the biggest target outside of the military bases on the planet if the toasters showed.
Even though his time as a resident at the care facility had ended, Harry felt that he was beginning to miss those days where there were few expectations placed on him. In the eyes of this world, he was an adult without an education and very limited job prospects. This society placed a high value on their universities. If Harry ever wanted to get anywhere near that spaceport, he'd need to start pushing himself hard or be swept aside by a cold and uncaring system.
No one else was would be forcing him to excel. Nancy and even Maggie to some extent were pleasantly surprised when he could string an entire conversation together. Watching one of the transports rise and begin an ascent to the stars, Harry felt a twinge of urgency and doubt.
"Something wrong?" Maggie asked, obviously picking up on his sudden mood change.
"Just thinking," he answered.
"About what?"
"The day I can fly to the stars," he said.
"It's pretty out there," she added. "The time I went to Areilon was my first trip and I must've stared out the portholes for the entire journey. The other time was when we moved to Caprica. I wasn't nearly as excited. But don't worry Harry, you'll make it out there someday."
He smiled at her reassurance. She was saying it to be nice and it reminded him of how Dudley would talk about whatever career he was interested in while Petunia gave him the same kind of encouragement.
Clearing his mind and running through an Occlumency exercises, Harry brushed aside the resentment welling inside of him. The logical and composed part of his mind knew he was just being insecure that Maggie was leaving him behind. He was a tie to Delphi – a city she absolutely loathed. The breakup was inevitable.
Still, it's like Sirius once said, "Don't think about how long the broom ride is going to last. Just enjoy the ride for as long as you can."
The memory of his godfather helped push him out of that funk. Smiling at the young woman he was with right now he said, "Welcome to Cap City, Maggie Edmondson. What do you want to do first?"
Author's note – So yeah, two and a half year hiatus. How's everyone been? Me? I've been writing and publishing novels and doing rather well at it. Look up Jim Bernheimer on Amazon and show me a little love there if you are so inclined. You might enjoy some of my original stories, such as the D-List Supervillain series. I have even branched out and become a small press publishing other people's novels as well.
I have to do final edits on Chapter 14, but it is already essentially written and I've just started on Chapter 15. So why come back after all this time? The story still resides in the back of my head and sometimes it interferes with my ability to work on my current ideas, so I figured I should just get it down and put it out. It's easier that way.
