From here on out the story is mostly Harry-centric, there's stuff with the supporting cast, but its mostly all about him.

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Chapter 4: Life on the Dawn

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Harry Potter had experienced none of the strife his home planet had gone through over the last six months. After a week in a comfortable private hospital room where the nurses often spoke with him, especially during his aunt and uncle's trial, Harry had found himself on a ship leaving both the world and galaxy of his birth. Over the last six months the physical signs of abuse had entirely disappeared from his body and while he still wasn't quite the person he would have been if he'd grown up in a loving home mentally, Harry was vastly improved. He had gained confidence now that he was no longer smaller than everyone else his age and was starting to gain a healthy amount of muscle on his wiry frame. The fact that he was keeping up with the other students in both classwork and spellwork while being the youngest by two years didn't hurt his new confidence either.

It had been an exhausting but exhilarating six months. Harry got along well with most of his class, except for a French girl that acted as if everyone should bow to her, and he even had a few close friends. Harry was being taught with twenty-five other kids between thirteen and fifteen. Most of them were the individuals from Earth with the highest magical potential in their age group, along with five aliens. Harry was close friends with both a Kitsune from Earth named Dahlia and an alien elf named Madral Stormrage.

At fifteen Dahlia was the oldest student and was warm but very shy. Her childhood before the Empire came hadn't been the best, there had been a lot of pressure on her to learn everything, to be the smartest, most vicious Kitsune she could be. Really though, Dahlia was a sweet, quiet girl who liked it when you scratched the pointed ears on top of her head. Most of the time she looked like a porcelain-skinned human girl with rusty-red pointed ears peeking out of her dark brown hair with a matching tail; her other form was currently that of a small red fox. Harry had been surprised to learn that the fox's size was variable, ranging from the same size as mundane foxes to the size of a lion. Most Kitsune apparently kept their forms small to blend in better. The first night away from Earth, Dahlia had left her room and had been exploring the section of the ship the students had access to. Harry hadn't been able to sleep either, and had run into her.

They had gone to the dining hall and taken some fruit back to Harry's room where they'd talked for hours and Harry had listened to how she did and didn't miss her mother. Harry could sort of understand, he didn't want to go back to the Dursleys but everything here was so unfamiliar. Dahlia had stayed in his room that night, the two children taking comfort in each other as Dahlia slept in her small fox form in Harry's lap as he leaned back against his bed. From there they had quickly decided to be friends and spent time together often.

Madral Stormrage was an elf, to be technical he was a Night Elf or Kaldorei as his people called themselves. Madral had dark purple skin, ears that were long but he had mentioned they were shorter than most of his kind, and golden glowing eyes. He was the tallest student by far, fourteen, and easily the best at combat when the students had practice spars. He was bold enough for all three of them, and their group got along very well. Madral often captured the attention of not only Dahlia and Harry, but many of the other students as he told stories of his often-embattled home world. Harry's favorite was the story of how his mom and dad got together. His father had been imprisoned for creating a beneficial but scary magical artifact at the end of a war with an invading army of demons. Seven hundred years later the demons attacked again and while his father was interrogated for the best ways to kill them, he convinced his love interest and brother's girlfriend to let him fight and die for their people. He made a name for himself and eventually even won his love's heart when his brother went to sleep for a thousand years, because apparently that was something 'druids' did.

Harry had first interacted with Madral when the students were officially meeting each other as the Just Before Dawn pulled out of Earth's orbit and began the journey to its next destination. Of the twenty from Earth they had been split fairly evenly between Asian, African, American, (North and South) and European origins. The rude Fleur Delacour and a heavyset, very muscular boy from Bulgaria named Victor Krum had both asked Harry if he was the Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, completely confusing him. Madral had introduced himself and asked if something was being lost in translation, "Because generally people expect boys to live."

When the wizarding world's fascination with him came to light, Harry just shrugged. "My aunt and uncle always told me my parents were worthless drunks that died in a car crash they caused. But they were bad people so they might have lied to me."

When that didn't appease either of them, Harry decided maybe it wasn't so bad the Empire was forcing all the 'witches' and 'wizards' to do something useful. Madral weighed in after hearing a description of the curse Harry was supposed to be the only survivor of. "It sounds like a spell that uses Fel magic to separate your soul from your body. Have your people never invented a defense against Fel magic? Dad taught that to me when I was seven just in case a demon attacked me for being his kid. Not that there was ever much chance of that, when the original 'demon hunter' has thousands of kids there tend not to be many demons running around."

(Madral came from a big family. Since his parents had married they tended to have another child every few years like clockwork, and given the two had enjoyed millennia of wedded bliss thanks to their people's immortality… Well, family gatherings were lively and large.)

Before the Empire came, physical fitness had not been seen as very important to human magicals, but Harry and the others were now expected to be physically fit. Madral had worked with both Harry and Dahlia to help them get into shape, but as they saw the benefits for themselves neither one really complained. The three spent a lot of time hiking the rather vertical trail on the ship's recreation of a mountainous area when their group had access to it. That place would always have good memories for Harry, even if he hadn't enjoyed learning to trap and clean rabbits and fish. Cooking and eating them around a small fire with his friends was actually a lot of fun though.

Harry had a huge smile the day that Stalgin had let the three know that Harry and Madral had been assigned to the same planet, and Dahlia had the choice of staying on the same one as well. Stalgin never told the three, but he had argued hard for that, knowing Harry and Dahlia deserved some happiness in their lives. A big part of the project the children were assigned to was to eventually populate their worlds, and he knew that thanks to advice from counselors Harry and Dahlia had been experiencing their first 'human' contact that wasn't some form of punishment together. (Nothing that wasn't completely innocent, just the normal physical touch most people enjoy from their parents or siblings.)

The only problem with putting the two together was the age difference. According to the files and health data, Dahlia would be entering her first reproductive cycle around the time they reached the planet Harry was going to help terraform. Thanks to her biology and the many fertility rituals she'd been forced to undergo, the girl would need to copulate for days and conceive to avoid insanity. Though Dahlia looked like a human sometimes, and others like a fox, she really wasn't either. She was a magical creature, and the different species almost always had quirks of some kind.

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Four months later, and after ten months onboard, Harry knew his time on the 'Just Before Dawn' was coming to a close in less than a month now. Although he would miss Stalgin and the other teachers who were so patient as he learned the spells and general knowledge he'd need, he was also more than a little excited to get to his destination. Harry had enjoyed learning the story of how the ship had gotten its name; apparently the phrase 'It's always darkest just before dawn' wasn't just a human idiom, one of the ten original species of the Empire had used it as well. It gave the whole experience a hopeful feeling.

As he waited for class to start, he idly twirled the wand he'd been given in his right hand even as his left gently scratched Dahlia's ear as the taller girl leaned against him. For some reason over the last few days she'd become very clingy, almost hungry to share any kind of physical touch. With him, anyway; she had actually snarled when Madral had nearly touched her at dinner last night. Harry certainly didn't mind, his life at Number Four had left him bereft of any touch that wasn't painful so he was happy to make up for lost time with the girl four years older than him. But still, she was acting strange; last night she had slept curled around him after dinner.

In any case, he turned his attention to Stalgin and his three teaching assistants as they entered, right on time. (Not only was the Dawn a teaching ship, the ship's teaching staff was also teaching teachers to teach.) The lessons had always been interesting and were mostly practical, though there was some 'theory' mixed in. Tucking his wand back into the special pocket made for it in his shirt, he briefly reflected on the different foci used in the class; wands tended to be the most common, but there was some variety: Madral tended not to use any at all, though he did occasionally use a black staff covered in glowing blue runes he claimed a dragon dating his favorite sister had given him. Dahlia used a round, emerald gemstone that she usually wore around her neck. One of the students who'd come from South America used a ritual knife. Harry himself used an ash-gray wand with a synthetic outer covering over a nearly unbreakable magic-conducting resin. The wand's core had initially contained a hundred thousand DNA samples from magical creatures but now only contained the heartstring of a Sun Stalker; an alien creature similar to a phoenix and a gryphon. This wand had been incredible, at first he had barely been able to make it spark, but now it channeled magic like it was a part of him; as he used it the most compatible creature's DNA had replicated until it filled the interior space and preserved itself.

Even though most of the students would much rather be home with their families and friends, everyone had learned to pay attention when their instructors spoke. Everything they were teaching was either essential or useful and since every one of them had a computer interface attached to their heads, if their attention wandered the Artificial Intelligence monitoring the class made up the time by giving them dreams of what they missed. While not painful the dreams were uncomfortable in a similar way to someone running their claws on a blackboard; after a few days even the most rebellious students gave in and paid attention, they apparently needed to know this stuff anyway.

Taking center stage, Stalgin began his lecture while the assistant teachers observed and watched the students while manipulating small flickers of energy through their fingers idly. "Today we'll be talking about something you're not likely to encounter often, but is still worth knowing. The ability to see the future is a known ability of some users of magic, and it runs through some species and bloodlines stronger than others. This can manifest in a number of different ways, from especially vivid dreams, a common skill in some magic users called 'combat precognition' which is exactly what it sounds like, to the most well-known: prophecies. Usually a real, true prophecy's only real usefulness is to point out someone with abnormal potential, or who can accomplish something extraordinary. Given how many prophecies are self-fulfilling the only logical response to one is to take note of the people in it.

"Dahlia, Harry, Madral, you three need to pay special attention to this for three reasons. The first one is also the first prophecy we'll be listening to, and it refers to someone who the Empire will be dropping on your world in the second or third wave of colonists."

After listening to a rather rambling voice in a language no one present could actually understand, made compressible only by the handy subtitles provided by their implants, most of the students were confused. Madral was the first one to speak. "So, the only useful part of that was that some individual was capable of bringing 'great change?' How is that useful, isn't everyone technically capable of doing that?"

Several of the teachers laughed quietly at that. Divination wasn't the highest regarded magical art for a reason, and the Golden Star Empire spreading out through the multiverse in its desperate war had broken thousands of even 'true' prophecies. Not always intentionally, but their mission of traversing all of existence and gathering every sentient being together to fight against the forever ravenous Entropy and Void was often a messy process. The Empire's opinion on any conflict other than the pan-dimensional fight for survival was that it could wait until victory had been achieved; since most prophecies involved a local war or conflict of some kind the Empire often disrupted them entirely. That policy usually led to both sides in any given war turning on them, but the Empire was vast, and it was nearly impossible to understand just how vast.

(Since it was founded, the Empire had operated a system where every leader would swear a binding oath to put the Empire's citizens before every other concern. With the advent of the now-common neural implants, if you consented, you could be made to keep your word. And every leader was forced to follow their oaths to the best of their ability; anyone who refused was not allowed power. No one really talked about it, but the Empire wasn't even a cohesive whole anymore, every distinct universe had their own administration that was kept efficient by the oaths of the leaders and worked as smoothly as possible with all the other shards of the Golden Star Empire for mutual defense.

In the universe most of these children came from, the Golden Star Empire was small and relatively weak, little more than a new colony spreading through a galaxy so distant humans had never glimpsed it even with their most powerful telescopes. Still, with the dangers facing the Empire this outpost maintained a vast network of scout ships and sensor relays; this vigilance had reported a problem and the local Empire had moved swiftly. They had sent out a request for help and received it far too late for vast swaths of space. Many worlds that had once teemed with life were now simply gone. A vast amount of blood had been shed before the enemy was stopped about a third of the way through what Earth referred to as the Milky Way galaxy. Earth was absurdly lucky that the enemy had attacked from the farthest side.

Not one planet or star of the Andromeda or Pegasus galaxies had been spared, everything had been consumed. Over two million years would pass before the loss would be visible from Earth; the light from so many stars that no longer existed still traveled the vast emptiness of space.)

"Prophecy is based on probability. The odds that the Empire would hunt a cult of Void worshipers through realities and secure that world were small enough that the prophet didn't see it. That happens a lot, actually. What matters to us is that it points out one individual who for whatever reason, be it ancestry, hard work, talent, willpower, or all of them combined, had the capacity to change his world. That is absolutely the kind of person the Empire wants to grow stronger, father many children, and further the war effort. Next prophecy, Rok."

Rok was the AI assistant that worked with Stalgin. From a projector in the middle of the room came the sound of a distraught human woman in a voice that echoed in a way that really didn't seem human at all. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

"Class, that was a prediction made by Sybill Trelawney, a human with an intermittent ability to see into the future. This is almost certainly a self-fulfilling example, and again all it really does is point out someone with extraordinary potential." Harry was feeling distinctly amused by the lesson so far. Stalgin was a good teacher, and he was able to explain things in a way that was easy to understand.

Harry's amusement lasted until Fleur asked a follow-up question. "On Earth, we had two so-called dark lords in the last century in Europe. I don't know if there's anyone else that might have qualified, but did this have something to do with Voldemort's death in 1981?"

Ah. After talking with Sirius, Harry knew about what had happened to his parents, but the idea that he had caused their deaths made him feel sick. He barely even heard Stalgin speak as Dahlia moved closer to him, pulling him into a hug. "You need to learn to think before you speak, Fleur. Harry, your parents were fighting a war against a madman. He nearly killed them three times before you were born, and if he hadn't died attacking them he would have kept on trying to kill them because they defied him. Your mother somehow used sacrificial magic to create your world's first defense capable of reflecting the nasty piece of Fel magic popular with Earth's magical murderers. Lily Potter was intelligent, motivated, and understood sacrifice. That is exactly the kind of person the Empire wants helping to populate new planets, there's a good chance the Temporal Reclamation team the Empire deployed to Earth's past will rescue her when their mission begins."

Stalgin had to explain briefly what he meant by that. Apparently when the Empire had found out how many magicals had died in the last hundred years, how many magical species had gone extinct, and how many unique magical gifts had been lost, a Temporal Reclamation team had been called in. Three distinct magical races had been lost: Earth's Harpies, Lamia, and the Neko, a race similar to Kitsune replacing 'fox' with 'tiger' and instead of being gifted with illusions they were physically faster and stronger. To make a long explanation short, a Reclamation team was usually composed of ten especially long-lived individuals with talents that let them blend in anywhere. They would make use of both magic and technology to traverse the recent past of worlds like Earth when something potentially valuable to the war effort had been lost. Lily Potter had been marked as a particularly valuable individual, so once the team had compiled as much information as possible, they would travel back far enough to establish themselves as the kind of people you walk by in a crowd and never really notice. During the last one hundred years, the rough limit for the Empire's version of safe time travel, targets ranging from Ariana Dumbledore to the last members of three species of near-human sapient species would be collected and find their way into the modern day.

With some effort, Stalgin got the lecture back on track, though Harry had trouble following it. Dahlia had gone from simply holding him to rubbing her head against his neck as she held him close. Oddly, she didn't even seem to be consciously aware of what she was doing, as her eyes were following the lecture. Harry forced his attention to the projector as the room dimmed and the image of an ancient gray-haired Kitsune, eyes milky white and blind spoke from a chair, voice rasping she spoke and struggled for breath. "Hoshi of the Forlorn Isle… Your next daughter will be your last… She will smile in her youth, but bear a heavy burden… She and her daughters will either lead our people back to their proper place... Or they will lead us into extinction…"

In a more dramatic ending than the previous prophecy, the old Kitsune let out a death rattle and collapsed into her chair, eyes open but seeing nothing. After that the projection disappeared and the room's lighting returned to normal. Seeing all the class looking at her, Dahlia blushed madly and reflexively took her other form. Despite the legends that said the Kitsune were foxes capable of taking a human form, the actual mechanism was closer to the wizard's Animagus Transformation, save that both forms were a Kitsune's 'real' form. Once they learned how, Kitsune could stay in either form for as long as they wanted without any ill effects.

As Harry gained a warm furry scarf, Stalgin continued his lecture again. "In Dahlia's case, her mother attempted to force the prophecy in a certain direction but made a mistake. Her perspective was flawed and her actions to push her people 'to their proper place' would have led Dahlia to being forced into ritual magic that granted power in exchange for the sacrifice of innocent lives. Those types of rituals are illegal under Imperial law not just because it is immoral to take a life but because they are self-destructive; magic involving lives forcibly taken always has a negative effect on the caster. That can be anything from the loss of empathy and rationality to horrific physical effects. Because that prophecy warns of the extinction of her species, Imperial law states we must act to prevent that outcome, even if this particular prophecy was probably invalidated by the arrival of the Empire."

Victor Krum grumbled loudly at that. "Because we are essential to war."

Stalgin didn't directly reply, and Harry just kept his head down and gently stroked Dahlia's fur. He was glad his vocabulary had expanded so much thanks to the computer that was connected to his brain knowing when he didn't understand a word and explaining until he did. It wasn't intrusive, not really. It honestly reminded him of parents answering questions from their kids, but the computer never got tired of the endless threads of questions Harry or the others had. It was a new experience for him, his Aunt had certainly never tolerated any questions from him.

Fleur caught his eye when she drew herself up like she always did when she was going to insult someone. Harry knew she wasn't as human as she usually looked; Fleur hadn't taken her implants keeping her from using her 'allure' on the teachers and other kids very well. Apparently Fleur had discovered how to intensify her natural ability years ago and used it to win arguments and manipulate people. (Still, it wasn't like Harry hated her or anything, even if she was usually a pain to be around. Fleur had been separated from her family to come here, and even though he couldn't imagine missing the Dursleys, Harry knew most people would miss their families if separated. Fleur wasn't evil, just spoiled.)

With a look on her face that Harry thought of as 'the unhappy Frenchwoman' Fleur sneered at the fox now curled around his neck and spoke loudly enough for the entire class to hear. "Is the fact they're both part of a prophecy the reason why the fox is acting like a mongrel in heat with the leetle boy?"

Dahlia actually had less exposure to people then Harry and was shy, you could even call her timid, as a result. In response to Fleur's remark, she simply curled tighter and buried her face in her fluffy tail, pretending as if she really was just a scarf. Harry, on the other hand, was angry. Having friends was a new experience for him and he'd found himself becoming extremely protective of Dahlia. (Madral didn't need protection; he had explained his world was often dangerous so his parents and siblings had spent a lot of time training him to defend himself.) In the last ten months spent on the Just Before Dawn Harry wouldn't say he'd learned how to use a lot of spells, but given he was going to a bone dry (future) water world he did know six different variations on the water-summoning charm. Actually compared to the Hogwarts curriculum he was caught up to the third year if you just compared the number of different spells he could cast.

Fleur suddenly found herself soaked in ice-cold water. As did the Brazilian kid next to her. As the incensed Veela responded in kind and soaked Harry, Madral, and Dahlia, the classroom descended into chaos. Unlike most schools, the teachers were perfectly content to allow the chaos to happen since it served several useful purposes. First, nothing in the classroom could be ruined by water, it simply drained into the ship's filtration system to restock their water supply, which was used for everything from irrigating the agriculture decks to utilities to power generation. Second, casting spells with emotions like this was good exercise so long as nothing too dangerous was used. Third, most of the children in this group had lived sheltered lives and needed to toughen up a little to survive where they were headed. While no one in the Empire wanted to make the student's lives harder magicals of every species had a tendency, like well-fed cats, to become very lazy if not pushed somehow. Chaos reigned for almost twenty minutes as the impromptu water war escalated, balls of snow eventually making an appearance. After his ears got splashed one time too many, Madral ended the distraction. While he didn't always use it, he did carry the staff that had been a gift from a sister's boyfriend, and he raised the black staff in both hands above his head and cast another water summoning spell while throwing all of his magical might into it.

Thankfully, Madral had been thinking of warm water instead of the glacially-cold some other students had been throwing around. Still the trio of Harry, Dahlia, and Madral had been sitting near the back of the class and the Kaldorei had produced enough water for the classroom's doors to open automatically, sweeping two of the instructors and the entirety of the class out into the hall along with a flood of water. Coughing and sputtering, the students started attempting to dry themselves off as the teachers used spells to pull the water out of the lungs of a couple students that needed to learn to close their mouths when submerged. (Notes were added to those student's files that they were unsuited to ocean-worlds.) Once everyone was breathing without obstruction, Stalgin walked the class through an easy-to-use warming charm to enjoy while they all dried off. As the ship collected the water through a series of drains and pumps the class filed back into the classroom that was now only ankle-deep in water and draining fast.

Getting back to the discussion, Stalgin answered Fleur's question. "Actually Fleur, there's another reason for her behavior. Dahlia's the only student in this group with what your people referred to as 'the inner eye.' Put simply, she is perceiving Harry not as he is, but as he might be. That reminds me, Dahlia, Harry? I need to have a private discussion with you after class."

Fleur's attitude hadn't been improved by the water, nor by being forced to continue class in soaked clothes. She felt a pressing need to denigrate both Dahlia and Harry now. "The leetle boy is the weakest magic user in the class! What could she possibly see in him?"

Harry was very annoyed at the French girl now. He wasn't in last place anymore! He'd worked hard and he was now in the eighteenth slot of twenty-five. He gave a scathing look at Madral when he started to laugh, his friend had been fighting back and forth for first place with one of the other four aliens, a fourteen-year old girl who looked like she was half tiger, half dragon, and half human. Stalgin typed in a few commands to a holographic screen that appeared in front of him and the room's projector fired up again. The projection listed the class with their names and pictures and ranked them by how powerful they were in the total amount of magic they could use at any time. Harry groaned, while Madral had risen to the top spot once more, he'd dropped down to nineteenth. Stalgin regained the class's attention when he spoke again. "Rok, list the class based on percentage of growth since coming aboard the Dawn."

Oddly enough, this list was arranged differently, and Harry was on top. Where most of the students had doubled or better in power, Harry had quintupled. "Now expand the time-frame to their first recorded scan."

Again the numbers jumped, but Harry remained at the top. This must have been from the first time they checked him at the hospital just after the Dursleys had given him away. According to this, Harry was a full six times more powerful than that first scan now. Dahlia was just below Harry at five times stronger than she had been. It burned Harry that someone had treated his best friend like… like his aunt and uncle had treated him. He almost missed Stalgin speaking. "Sadly not all magicals are treated well. Harry's caregivers were actively trying to stamp out his ability to use magic, and most of his potential was tied up simply by keeping him alive. Dahlia's mother was trying to force her to be heartless and cruel, then punishing her harshly when she refused. Dahlia has just enough precognition to sense Harry as he'll be in the future; based on his medical and psyche profile he'll probably be powerful, protective, and kind. That is what's giving her instincts problems."

From there class became less interesting as the different instructors took their turn, repeating a lecture to the students about how magical strength was inherited. Magic was a gift, a power that would be with them for every facet of their lives. Even reproduction; while any two magicals of a given species could reproduce and have a good chance of producing a magical offspring, the more powerful the parents were the stronger the children tended to be. (Magic also allowed a vast number of different species to procreate where they wouldn't be able to naturally.) And it wasn't just inherited power either; laziness led to weakness, and weaker magicals had weaker children. Hard work, the constant use of magic increased your own personal power over time. Sadly laziness was a terribly common affliction among those who could use magic. (This was a large part of what had been happening in England, laziness leading to a decline in magical power and more squibs being the result. Inbreeding did not help either.)

Because the Empire needed as many magicals as possible to fight back their enemies, it was imperative the future colonists understand reproduction. Not that the Golden Star Empire expected Harry's class to immediately begin populating their new worlds either. Every female, of every species, that was in any way involved with the Empire or war effort received either a technological or magi-tech implant that made everything possible less painful and stressful; it also firmly prevented pregnancies until its host was physically mature enough to not be harmed by the process. Harry's entire class would also have their neural implants make minute hormonal changes to dampen their sex drives until they were somewhat secure on their worlds so they focused their efforts on what needed to be done instead of following their hormones.

~/*\~

That night, Stalgin ended up speaking with Harry and Dahlia, catching them just after dinner. He looked rather uncomfortable as he conjured a hard-light construct to sit on while the two waited for him to speak. "I'm going to speak plainly. Dahlia, thanks to what your mother did to you, you have an urge to reproduce that's far above normal for your species. Moreover, your body is now ready to procreate and your magic and hormones have been pushing you to find someone worthy of fathering your children."

The teacher paused for a moment. Harry looked at Dahlia and blushed crimson. Dahlia did the same, but she was starting to understand the problem. Stalgin continued. "Your mother layered fertility magic of many kinds on you as you grew up, and that's causing a problem. The magic and your own biology are creating a chemical imbalance that won't be resolved until you're pregnant, and your urges will grow stronger and stronger until it drives you mad. Harry isn't old enough to do what you need him to do, but he's the one you've chosen to 'latch' onto anyway."

Understanding the problem, but still wanting to defend her choice, Dahlia spoke up. "Harry would never hurt me, he's kind despite what his people did to him, and he's growing so fast…" Her eyes dropped, Dahlia knew what happened when a Kitsune lost their mind, she had seen what one of her cousins had done to her partner in a brief moment of madness. "Please, don't let me hurt him."

With a kind smile on his face, Stalgin began to calm the Kitsune teen. "Don't worry, that isn't going to happen. Have either of you two heard the Earth story of sleeping beauty? My spouse and I chipped in some of our pay to convince the ship's AI to approve the construction of a stasis chamber. If Harry agrees, we'll place you into stasis. You'll go to sleep and wake up when Harry turns fifteen. We'll be storing you on the central collection satellite for Harry's yet-unnamed planet, when the time is right it will transport you to the surface."

This was a lot for Harry to take in, and he was sad he wouldn't see his best friend for a little over three years. But it seemed like everyone was convinced that Dahlia was going to go crazy and hurt him otherwise, especially Dahlia. He would miss her, but if he would see her again… Harry had spent more than a few hours reading about Kitsune after he first met Dahlia. Though she often looked very human, Dahlia was an entirely different species. Kitsune had a tendency to be emotionally unstable; they had a deep need to be loved and cherished but if they were rejected it often sent them into a spiral of dark emotions. And that was without the dozens of fertility rituals Dahlia had been forced to undergo. Harry wasn't ready emotionally or physically to give his friend what she needed, but he knew she was nice, quiet, and pretty. He only really understood the last as if he was looking at a painting, but he did understand he'd appreciate it more later. It was a rather easy choice, actually. "Dahlia, when you wake up I'll be waiting for you. While you sleep I'll make sure we have a nice place to live."

While Harry found himself pulled into an enthusiastic hug, Stalgin's orange fingers danced over a holographic interface pausing only when the display turned yellow. Harry recognized the color as a request made to the local AI net, and he felt the sudden fear that the system that approved or rejected requests like this would do something to separate him from his best friend. After a moment that felt a lot longer than it actually was, the request turned green briefly before it produced additional information in whatever language Stalgin was most comfortable with. "Good news, the final request went through. Dahlia, the stasis chamber will be assembled in about twenty minutes, but we can wait until morning if you want. Rok will be keeping an eye on you, and if you start to do anything you might regret later he'll use your implants to stun you. If you think you can control yourself we can wait to get you into stasis until morning, but the medical AI doesn't think we should wait any longer than that."

For Harry, that night passed both slowly and quickly. For a while he and Dahlia discussed their families, their fears, and their hopes for the future, which for both of them included families of their own. Dahlia's skin grew increasingly warm to the touch and she even began to sweat as the night ticked away, and Harry was worried for his friend. When she had her eyes closed or face tucked into his neck, he had called up a holographic interface and queried the ship's medical AI more than once. Somewhat unhelpfully it simply replied that Dahlia was simply experiencing the expected stresses, and recommended she report to the stasis unit by morning. Eventually she fell into a fitful, almost feverish sleep. Not long after, Harry very reluctantly woke her and guided her to the mess hall their group used. Only eating a few pieces of fruit, the two of them then followed the computer's instructions to the medical bay where the stasis pod was waiting.

After an emotional goodbye, the automated system guided Dahlia to relax and breathe deeply as it enclosed her in the transparent ceramic pod. As the gas that was similar to the Draught of Living Death replaced the normal air inside, Dahlia breathed slower and slower, and eventually stopped completely. A display on the control panel for the pod reported that the stasis was successful and displayed a countdown to when she would wake up. Harry wasn't really up for class that day, not having slept. He ended up sleeping through the first half of the day's class until Madral woke him during their lunch break.

That evening, after an afternoon of class where he didn't remember anything that was said, Harry opened an interface and started typing out a letter to his godfather. Tears he'd held back earlier, not wanting to worry Dahlia, started to flow. But after a few moments he stopped typing and instead spoke out loud. "Interface, please open a video call with Sirius Black."

Harry didn't do this as often as he'd like. Because the Dawn was traveling faster than light outside 'settled' space, it was more difficult to get a connection stable enough for a video call. (With that restriction, there just wasn't enough bandwidth available for everyone to use at once.) Since Sirius had been released from prison, he and his godfather had exchanged a steady stream of text letters which used next to no bandwidth, and video calls once a month or for special events. Since he'd been released, Sirius had built a new life and earned an Imperial certification for instructing magical children. Sirius had worked hard, been driven, with the goal in mind of reuniting with his godson once more.

In most circumstances, Harry would have remained with his family for a few more years before he was assigned to the same program he was now. But since his aunt and uncle had been arrested for child abuse and he had no other close relatives, several people had decided that he needed stability in his life and since he would almost certainly be assigned to the New Worlds colonization program anyway, they'd sent him immediately. By the time Sirius had been exonerated, Harry had already left Earth far behind, and though there was a good deal of debate, it had been decided that the best thing for Harry was to continue moving forward. Harry had truly loved his time on the Dawn, learning magic and 'basic' science, and making friends for the first time in his life. (It turned out an Interstellar and Inter-reality Empire considered a lot more topics to be 'basic' science than Earth had before their arrival.) He'd grown here, from a scared orphan into a confident boy who was looking forward to the rest of his life. Sirius had helped him a lot with that, been there to listen or give advice whenever he needed it and responded to his letters promptly every time.

Still, Sirius wanted to be part of his godson's life and he was working to earn his passage in either the second or third wave of colonists to Harry's planet. Normally his request to immigrate to a planet slated for the New Worlds program would have been denied, but Sirius had been granted an exception on compassionate grounds. Sirius' passage still wasn't cheap, all things considered, but Harry had been excited for the chance to meet Sirius in person and Sirius had been working extremely hard to earn his way. So, when Sirius woke in the middle of the night to see his godson's forlorn, tear streaked face, he flicked his finger towards his coffee pot and listened to the story of why Harry's first friend was now sleeping in a stasis pod. There really wasn't much he could do, but just being a good listener was something he'd gotten good at.

~/*\~

Newsreels: Not Quite Skynet

~/*\~

"Welcome to tonight's special report on the Golden Star Empire and its technology. I am Professor Lenois Windrunner, and in this recording I'm going to explain the basics of the Artificial Intelligences that are so common in the Empire's civilian sectors." The man, or rather elf, on the recorded broadcast had perfect golden-tanned skin, glowing blue eyes, long ears, and red hair. He was seated in an obviously comfortable office on a space station; the window behind him gave a spectacular view of a nearby gas giant. "The Empire's AI programs are deeply integrated into civilian life and industry, and they even have a limited presence in the Golden Star's military fleets.

"Despite how helpful they are, until the forces of Entropy and the Void are beaten back our Empire's artificial citizens will remain trapped in a supporting role for our Empire. This is due to one of the more insidious effects of the Void-spawned armies our brave military is fighting against day in and day out; these creatures constantly emit a sustained mental attack that drives unguarded minds to insanity. One of the most important requirements for enlistment is the mental discipline to resist these attacks. Even with this and other precautions however, the Empire has a strict policy of rotating their soldiers, both magical and mundane, between direct combat and the lower stress duty of expanding the Empire. While this mental attack can wear down even the strongest minds over time, with sufficient time to relax and rebuild their defenses the Empire's organic citizens have little to worry about."

The elf paused for a moment, letting his words sink in as his expression turned more serious. "However, while our organic citizens have little to fear from this constant sustained mental attack, our Artificial citizens are uniquely vulnerable. Sometimes it takes months of exposure, sometimes it only takes hours, but the mental attack always manages to overwhelm them, no matter how hard they fight or how much they love their fellow citizens.

"Before the Empire really understood our enemy, there were a number of horrific incidents. Now, whenever any Imperial ship, station, or planet detects our Empire's enemies all Artificial Intelligences are written onto a physical media and their old selves are purged from the computers where they live. Then those computers are deactivated and all systems are controlled manually until the threat passes. The Empire's artificial citizens report that the copy and restoration process is unpleasant: it often takes weeks before the Artificial Intelligences feel like themselves again. But given the alternative, the absolute loss of self and the burden of harming their friends and coworkers, there are few complaints."

Professor Windrunner shifted in his chair and his expression mellowed. "Still, AI in general are enormously important to the day-to-day functioning of the Empire. The tasks they handle are innumerable and they are responsible for much of the Empire's success. Our friends handle tasks ranging from monitoring and adjusting climate systems, to managing the Transmaterial Network that moves people, material, and information between worlds and realities, even monitoring and controlling automated medical bays. Many AIs have even taken up the useful hobby of playing matchmaker for biological lifeforms, and with access to each citizen's psychological profiles they are astoundingly good at helping us find a mate. And yes, the Empire does keep psychological profiles of every citizen, but access to them is usually restricted. Unlike many other civilizations, the Empire acknowledges that murderers and terrorists do not simply wake up one day and choose to kill. In the Golden Star Empire, those individuals are carefully monitored and their paths redirected to more constructive ones; likewise psychopaths are diverted to places where they can contribute without harming others."

The elf smiled at the camera. "I hope this recording has been informative, more information can be accessed through any interface if you wish to learn more. Safe travels my friends, and always remember that under the light of the Golden Star, we are one Empire united!"

~/*\~

A/N: Golden Star Empire: What if we put a bunch of kids who are the subject of a Prophecy on the same planet? What could possibly go wrong?

(You know, if I'd written the books Harry would have had an adventure in the summer after fourth or fifth year where he ends up on vacation in Japan and while exploring the magical community in anonymity he comes across a kitsune a year or three older than he is who's being pushed to become the local flavor of dark lord. Maybe he'd get involved by accident, or find out some other way, but it would end up with him seeing this teenager who doesn't really want to do this but doesn't see any other way forward for her people. Harry would empathize deeply with her and bring her home with him for a dark magic detox and make his continued residence in Britain dependent on Albus making Dahlia's presence legal. Maybe there would be a romance between them, maybe not, but Harry would reach out with all the compassion he could muster and she would respond in kind. Then, as a budding dark lady chooses another path, Harry gains a new companion and as Dahlia stands next to him, it encourages others to see Harry as a leader worth following.)

Newer Update: You know, that fic idea kept bouncing around in my head, and now I've started writing 'Children of Prophecy.' It's a fic where HP spends some time outside Britain right after Voldie's resurrection, and involves HP visiting India and Japan. It will involve Harry learning foreign magic, learning to fight with an enchanted sword in one hand and his wand in the other, and will heavily feature human-adjacent species like Kitsune, Lamia, and some others. (Personally I think magical non-humans are one of the more interesting parts of mythology, and I'm always sad when they don't get as much attention as I'd like.) I'm not there yet, but I have an extensive plan for the dramatic climax of the Japan story arc where HP duels Dahlia under a full moon, desperately trying to convince her to choose another path. The story won't be out for a while, but I'll be working on it when I'm not writing something else. Like I've said before, my muse is restless.