PRIME DIRECTIVE: Space may be the final frontier, but I'll never get there by any monies derived from this as Harry Potter and all properties of such are owned by the Dark Lady JKR. All content, characters related to Star Trek are owned by Paramount Pictures, Inc....except maybe some of that stuff that ended up being used in Starfleet Battles which is owned by the Amarillo Design Bureau who used much of their content via the Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph Schnaubelt and published by Ballantine Books.

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – GRAVITY – PART THREE

(Episode: Very AU version of ST:VOY Gravitywith elements of HP: TDH)

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PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "To die, to sleep - To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub. For in this sleep of death what dreams may come?" (Hamlet) – William Shakespeare – English playwright, poet, and actor, and bane of English students ever since. – 1564 – 1616

LAST UPDATED ON: 03-21-2021

Harry opened his eyes . What had had been the darkest black was now brilliant white. He quickly shut them again and counted to ten. He opened them again, groaned and counted to ten again, this time in Gobbledygook. (He'd learned a smattering of it from a book Hermione had brought along with everything else in Seventh Year. He had to do something besides just stare at the dark during guard duty around the tent back when Hermione, he and Ron were on the run.)

He opened his eyes again and finally swore, "Bloody hell! You've GOT to be fucking kidding me!"

Grumbling, Harry got to his feet. He noticed that he was again in his late 20's or 30's and once again naked. His body did seem a bit different. Maybe this is how he should have looked if he'd aged normally?

Harry looked around the white expanse of blankness. He didn't bother with thinking of clothes. Any nudity taboo he once had had got burned out of him during the Eugenics War. He'd showered, bathed and changed far too often in mixed company to care these days.

He picked a direction and started walking. Harry wondered what would manifest this time. He was far beyond Kings Cross station for so many reasons. Of course, Harry realized that this could quite possibly be his eternal torment. Damned to this white nothingness forever.

Yet even as Harry thought this, a ghostly setting formed around him. Even after all these years, Harry knew it was the third corridor on the first floor of Hogwarts. It was the main way Gryffindors got to the main hall. He found himself clothed in school robes with Gryffindor colors. He sighed at that. It had been around 380 years since he needed to wear a school uniform. At the very least he should be wearing his old auror robes. He was mollified that the robes had his Quidditch Captain badge attached.

Soon enough, Harry found himself in front of the huge, ornate doors of the Great Hall. Harry paused and smiled. It was better than the dungeons. If eternal damnation was his fate, endless potions classes with Snape probably would count as Hell in most of his friend's opinions. Then again, it would give him endless opportunities to blow up cauldrons and mess with the Slytherins.

He pushed the door open to find the Great Hall mostly empty. Harry looked up and saw the Scottish night sky, speckled with stars and a waxing, gibbous moon. Movement caught his eye and Harry was mildly surprised to see Dumbledore playing chess with Voldemort on a small table before the podium in front of the teacher's table.

As Harry walked towards them, he noticed that each of the House tables had a scattering of people. He quickly realized that all of them were those who had died during the Battle of Hogwarts. At the teacher's table, instead of professors, sat his parents, Sirius, Remus & Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody and oddly enough Cedric Diggory who sat in Dumbledore's gold throne-like chair.

As he came up to the table his mentor and his nemesis played at, Harry noticed that while all the people in the room looked at him, they went back to watching the two wizards play. Harry looked down and saw that while Dumbledore had taken far more of Voldemort's pieces, he was losing. Typical. Voldemort had no trouble throwing away his pawns to achieve his ends and Dumbledore relied too much on subtlety for his own good in the face of the danger of simply being rolled over by his foe.

He watched them play a few moves before asking, "So…do I play winner?"

Voldemort looked up with a sneer on his reptilian face, "You've already given up. Why should you be rewarded for being weak?"

A few of the watchers muttered between themselves and a few were nodding their heads at Voldemort's words.

Harry just chuckled, "Coming from you, I could see how you'd think that. So afraid of death you ensured you could never truly live." He turned to Dumbledore, "And you? I'm sure you're probably going to sigh and tell me how disappointed you are in me."

Harry was surprised that Dumbledore sighed and did just that, "You are a disappointment, Harry. I thought I had taught you better, that Hogwarts had taught you better. I spent so much of my life fighting dark wizards. Wizards whose hands were forever stained with blood. I raised you up to keep up that fight after I died and yet you become worse than either Grindelwald or Voldemort ever dreamed of being."

Before Harry could heatedly respond to that, Voldemort burst out laughing, "Worse than Gellert or I? That is what you think? Death hasn't cured you of your delusions old man. What Potter did was show his power. He showed them his superiority!" Voldemort looked up at Harry even as he moved a rook to take one of Dumbledore's bishops. "Grindelwald shook our world and showed what we always could have done. I had planned to follow in his footsteps before my plans ended…poorly. But you? You went farther than either of us did. But you threw away the chance! You sent our people into exile when you could have led them to glory! To power over the Muggles at last."

Harry shrugged, "For a wizard undone by prophecy, I think you also haven't learned anything in death. I sent our people away to save them because they were fated to die if they stayed. I wasn't going to take the chance of losing them all and certainly wasn't going to turn them into an army trying to prove the seers wrong."

Harry turned to Dumbledore, "Yes, I killed a lot of people. Yet I was following what I thought was right over what was easy. Sound like familiar advice, Headmaster? Looking back, though, I have to wonder. Is that the only choice? Right over Easy?"

Harry crossed his arms and an angry look flitted across his face, "If there is one thing I've learned is what is right is highly subjective. I did a lot of things I felt were right but does that make it so? No, I think there is choosing the easy path and then there is the choice of which hard choice you're willing to make. You could have taken the fight to the Dark before it got to war. You certainly saw the signs before Tom here was out of Hogwarts. But no, you felt it was right to take a path of reconciliation, of peace in our time and turning the other cheek." Harry gestured to all the shades watching, 'Look at the victims of that thinking."

Dumbledore looked up at Harry over the rims of his half-moon glasses, 'You say I should have struck the first blow? Drawn the first blood? How could that ever be right?"

Harry sighed, "Because, Albus, regardless of how the Magical world seemed to work, life is not black and white but shades of grey. Sadly, what is often thought as being the right choice is simply whatever choice the victor made. Voldemort is right about that. In the end, power is often the only real currency that matters. Those with power usually dictate what is considered right."

Voldemort looked smug at this…as much as a wizard without a nose, hair or eyebrows could look smug that is.

Harry waggled his finger at Voldemort, "Don't get excited, Tom." He turned back to Dumbledore, "Because there was always a difference between you and Gellert or Tom here. You and most everyone else were willing to get along. They might not like each other, but they could agree to disagree and live out their lives without trying to exterminate the other. Not so for the other side of the coin. Grindelwald's Knights of Walpurgis or Voldemort's Death Eaters were the epitome of our way or death. In the grand scheme of things, killing those who refuse to cooperate leaves those that can alive at the end of the day. You let your earlier failings rule you till the end, Albus. Power shared and respected does not need to slide into abuse. But then again, you sharing was as likely as Voldemort loving."

Before either wizard could respond, Harry made a chopping motion, "But enough of the metaphysical bollocks. Why am I here? I lived, I died, I lived again and now I've died again and this time I want my 'next great adventure' you nattered on about, Dumbledore. You say I have done worse things in my life? Well one of them is I've outgrown all of this," Harry said a with wave to encompass the room. "This was only seven years of my life. I fulfilled my prophecy. I fought in my war; I died in my war. I saved the Magical world from its prophesied extinction and then fought in a war which made the Grindelwald's look like a skirmish before I left Earth behind. I've already lived through two centuries of purgatory. I've even killed an entire planet. 'Great things; terrible, yet great' as the late Ollivander told me when I took up the brother to Voldemort's wand. So, from my perspective, I'm just not all that impressed with this stroll down memory lane. Let's get to the point shall we?"

Voldemort hissed in annoyance as Dumbledore took one of his pawns and threatened his queen. He made a quick move before once again looking up with a sneer, "You outgrowing this is the point! You've turned your back on a heritage that even now you could take up, make to flourish again and shake the universe in the process."

Harry frowned, "I'm not taking up anything, Voldy. I'm dead. Full Stop. I'm just looking for the train."

Dumbledore sighed, "That is not exactly true, my boy as…"

"I am NOT your boy, you pretentious wanker! I'm older than both of you put together. Don't patronize me!" Harry hissed out angrily. This caused the watching shades to begin muttering again amongst themselves. Even those at the head table looked shocked at his vehemence.

Dumbledore stared at him in annoyance before his face softened and he nodded, "My apologies. As I was saying, you are not dead yet."

Harry threw up his hands, "Fucking hell! Am I just 'mostly dead' then? For Merlin's sake! The stories have people having to beat Death in a game to get out of dying. Do I have to win a fucking tournament before I get to die?"

"You are the last wizard of Earth, Harry Potter. For you to go to your death is not an insignificant act," Dumbledore said in a cool, tone Harry remembered the wizard reserving for the likes of Lucius Malfoy.

Voldemort nodded, "Your death is our final death. No one to tell our stories. No one to remember what was. Extinct from the universe."

Harry leaned closer to Voldemort, "I don't care."

Both wizards blinked at this, "What?" they even said in unison.

Harry repeated it louder, "I. Don't. Care. Everything dies. Being unique doesn't give one a pass. Species go extinct all the time so why do you think we Magicals should be special? I'm surprised at you, Albus. From Tom here, I can understand it. His very name means running away from death. But you? Weren't you the one all about not fearing death? But I can see we're going in circles here so, what the hell? Let's see what you're selling. Maybe I'll finally get my train-ride if I hear you out." He turned to Voldemort, "Make your pitch."

Voldemort moved a knight and took one of Dumbledore's pawns, "Check." The dark wizard turned back to Harry. "You admit power is what counts. Do not let our power go out of the universe! You can return, take up the magic. Rebuild and finally put the Magical world among the great people of the galaxy. There is magic everywhere and in your blood is the means to harness it."

Harry laughed, "What do you know of the galaxy, Tom? We were just starting the next phase of Mars probes and the Orbital Lunar base by the time you died."

Voldemort smirked, "The dead know many things. I know that you're probably already thinking what can one magical do? But you're a magical who has the Deathly Hallows. You're a magical who has access to amazing technology. Imagine what you could do with maturation chambers? Also, even though the magic is gone, are the genes? How many latent Magicals are out there? Tame this planets magic and then you have the keys to do it elsewhere. You told the Wildman woman you didn't have a chance to build. You have the tools to build an empire such has never been seen if you just seize the moment!"

Before Harry could respond to this, Voldemort's smirk turned into an evil smile, "And if the Borg can break into Fluidic Space, could the barriers between our universe and the Fae be that much different? You could return our people, with all they took with them, and bring them back to where they belong."

Harry snorted, "Only by ripping them from the home they've created for themselves over the last two centuries and throw them into a universe completely outside their experience. Most Magicals couldn't wrap their head around airplanes back in the day and you think they'll be happy in a galaxy filled with star spanning empires?"

Voldemort hissed, "Their acceptance is not the point. You have the power and if you free them, those that resist can be dealt with and the rest will be stronger for it."

Harry rolled his eyes, 'Thank you Tom Nietzsche Riddle." He turned to Dumbledore, "You got anything better than this retread of Magic is Might?"

Dumbledore didn't answer till he made his move to get himself out of check. "As much as it pains me, I believe Tom is right in the particulars but not in the details. Our people live in exile. Perhaps comfortable exile but the realm of the Fae is not their true home. We have a long history, filled with a rich tapestry of accomplishment in magic. It shouldn't not languish in refugee camps, no matter how much they might seem otherwise since they arrived."

Harry looked around to see how this was received and most of the shades were nodding, even his parents. "So, for the greater good, I should start using questionable methods to build up a power base so as to rescue the people I already rescued? I don't care what the dead supposedly know, Voldemort is blatantly advocating creating a new race that will come out of machines. They won't have parents. Am I supposed to raise them with nanny-droids? Or work to cloak myself in legend so that Muggle followers will cheerfully raise the children that Voldemort wants to oppress them with?"

Dumbledore gave him a flat look, "What will you do if your fleet cannot save you? You will have to do such questionable things in order create a viable population big enough to hope to escape some day? You will, as they say, have to play God. You have the power to do it and a moral obligation to your fellows as well. In doing this, you will no longer be the last wizard."

Harry laughed bitterly, "First off, I'm mostly dead and I plan to make it all dead. I'm not going to be helping anyone. It will be a tragedy if they aren't rescued. Do you think it matters? The universe doesn't care any more than a storm cares that it sank a ship or washed some animals out to sea to die alone. Why should the lives of a few matter enough for me to go back and help them? Because in helping them, by your own plan means I'm going to have to do questionable things. It's like all you see is me saving them and they surviving as the only outcome that is right. It's not."

From the teacher's table, Cedric spoke up, "How can you say that Harry? You agonized over my death for years. Are you so cold now, so unfeeling, that you've given up your humanity and refuse to help?"

Dumbledore nodded sagely at this while Voldemort seem to be trying not to roll his eyes at the Hufflepuff's plea.

Harry was silent before he shook his head, "I agonized, Cedric, because I was young. I felt responsible. Now? I'm no longer young and from my perspective, my culpability in your death is not what I used to think it was. You did the Hufflepuff thing and sharing your victory set up a chain of events that led to me being able to come back after I let Voldemort kill me. Great, that means I lived to save our people. It also meant I lived to kill a lotof others. And Cedric? Yes, on one level I do care about Tuvok, Tom and the rest. But it's not a turf-war between wizards on one island on just one planet anymore. One could argue that if you took the so-called easy way and got sent to Voldemort, well who knows what would have happened? I can tell you that I think things would have turned out differently but also similar enough in the end. Voldemort would have been put down, probably by Neville and I would be dead since Voldemort would have used your blood to regain his body instead of mine. There wouldn't be any coming back after my scar had been destroyed. Would someone else have saved the Magical world from the war? Maybe."

Harry paused a moment as Voldemort made his next move, "I can tell you something that wouldn't have happened though. 3.7 billion Devore and a host of others wouldn't have died. You can't put that into perspective because our world was so small and insular."

Harry slowly turned in a circle, making eye contact with as many of the shades as he could, "Take a good look, folks. I am, without a doubt, the biggest killer Earth has ever known. I challenge you to count up all the dead in all of the wars from the beginning of history to when I left Earth and I'd bet you I still killed with one spell more people than that total. It took nuclear war after I left to push the death toll past what I did in a day."

He turned back to Cedric, "Of course I mourn those I couldn't save. I've always tried to do what I thought was right. The results, however, show that what I felt was right got a lot of people killed in the process. Which brings us back to whether it was right or was it merely I was the last one standing that makes it right from my perspective?"

Cedric looked troubled, "You didn't mean for that to happen Harry."

Harry laughed, "It doesn't matter, does it? Let's go back to Voldemort here. Power is his currency. Magic is Might was the slogan for a lot of people before he fell. I wiped out an entire planet and even if I did it by accident, it means I have the power to do it intentionally."

Voldemort slapped his knee loudly, "Exactly! You have this enormous power! Take it up and use it! Use it to crush all before you!"

Harry shook his head, "Ah Tom, you never seemed to cotton to the fact there is always someone stronger than you. You think that since I can torch a planet that I'm some unstoppable force? Let me tell you, there are a lot of forces out there that either surpass mine or could easily roll right over me. Species 8472 could have snuffed our fleet out with a touch of a few buttons and there wasn't a damned thing I, even with the Deathly Hallows, could have done about it. What I did to the Devore worked because we weren't overwhelmed. Merlin! We only got out of there alive because enemies of theirs all jumped them together and they were a bigger threat than we were."

Harry looked at Dumbledore, "You feel I should return, rekindle what was lost. Go bring our people back like a modern Moses. All that does is potentially set up a more horrifying possibility. You see, it won't take long before someone, somewhere, with the knowledge of what happened on Galaron III gets assimilated. Then the Borg will know of my power. And if there is one thing that will draw the Borg, like a moth to a flame, is power."

Dumbledore didn't look impressed, "You resisted assimilation."

Harry barked out a laugh, "So? I did so because they didn't know what they had in me. To them I just was another failed assimilation. It does happen on occasion for various reasons. Now? Oh, now they know I exist. I got away with a lot on that Cube because I was careful and didn't do anything to attract the full attention of the Collective. You can bet the Borg Queen has since then looked at all the data and easily saw through my deceptions. Yes, you plunk a few drones down and I can resist being assimilated. Yet if they capture me, restrain and then drug me, how long can I resist against the full power of the Borg? Countless civilization's science and technology at their mental fingertips to work on the problem. It's a risk I don't want to take because if I can torch a planet, I don't want to have drones running around being able to do the same."

"Bah! Drones are still just Muggles!" Voldemort said with disgust.

"True," Harry conceded, "But even just one Potter Drone could do a lot of damage. You can't talk up my power and then dismiss it, Tom. Quit moving the goal posts. Besides, if they do assimilate me, then they know of the possibility of squibs among the humans of the galaxy. You talk of using maturation chambers? It wouldn't take that much time for the Borg to force a lot of generations into play which then could start creating Muggleborns again. Not only that, it would also mean they would stop at nothing to assimilate the humans of the Federation. You talk of the Magical world going extinct with my death? My assimilation would ensure that for of all the people of Earth, wherever they live now."

Harry turned to Dumbledore, "You say I should save those I sent away? You said that since the Borg breached into Fluidic Space that I might someday be able to do the same into the Fairy Realm. Well that just shows the Borg could do the same and they have a head start on me given they already did it in regard to Fluidic Space." Harry waggled his finger at Voldemort, "They would try, you know, because if they could only have magical drones by assimilating Magicals, then that would be the only place they could get them for sure if they couldn't create Muggleborn. I've seen far too many sentients assimilated. I certainly don't want to be the one who caused all of the Magicals to go through that to say nothing of the Fae."

Dumbledore finally made another move and shook his head, "I cannot see why you are so adamant to die."

Harry rolled his eyes, "That's because I don't think you're really Dumbledore. For all his flaws, he would at least have understood that nothing is forever. That his friend Nicholas Flamel had a shot at immortality and gave it up just shy of over half of a millennium." He looked around, "To me, this is all just another trick to get me to do what someone else wants me to do."

"I assure you, my…Harry, that I am indeed Albus Dumbledore. Whether or not you believe that may not matter because what I'm trying to tell you is what is important," Dumbledore said as he stroked his beard, waiting for Voldemort to make his next move.

"He's right, you know, Harry," said Lily Potter from the staff table. "You speak of the danger of the Borg. Aren't they a risk to all life? Isn't that a threat no reasonable person, certainly not a Gryffindor, should turn away from?"

Harry was silent for a moment before he began to laugh, "I knew there was going to be a guilt trip thrown in somewhere. I guess it had to be you given Hermione isn't here. Let me tell you all something. There will ALWAYS be some wrong to right. Some evil to put down. Some villains who must be stopped. Even if I returned to the curse of immortality the Hallows bring me, it still doesn't mean I have to live that immortal life running around being some wannabe superhero! I didn't sign up to be the Forever Mage! I never aspired to be the Eternal Hero."

James Potter shook his head, "But it was what you were born to be, son."

Harry made a chopping motion, "No! I was raised to believe my life had little value. Then, when I got to Hogwarts, I was conditioned to believe I was the hero and here, even in the afterlife, I keep getting tagged to do it! There are literally trillions of sentients in just this galaxy alone! A huge pool of potential saviors and heroes to step up and do what's right. I did my time when I fulfilled my prophecy and all the crap that I had to live through to get there. I further went and saved our people from the death camps and eventual incineration through nuclear war. I think that is plenty heroism for any one person. Now I want my eternal rest or at the very fucking least I'd like some Valkyries to come save me from all this so I can spend my afterlife having some fun for a change! I've certainly killed enough people to earn a place in Valhalla!"

Voldemort paused half-way through moving his piece, "So you reject power?"

Dumbledore sighed, "You reject life and the safety of those living it?"

Lily Potter asked, "You are giving up on our sacrifice to save you?"

Harry interrupted when it looked like Sirius Black was about to speak, "No! I'm not doing any of that! Bollocks to all this philosophical crap! I died. Just like everyone in this room did! I just want to be normal for a change and do what every living being must do eventually. Every day after Voldemort tried to kill me as a baby was a gift in a sense. Every day after letting him kill me even more so, regardless of what tragedies occurred since then. I've cheated Death twice. I do not want to chance doing it again. I'm probably on Death's shit-list enough as it is."

Suddenly Voldemort up-ended the table, throwing chess pieces everywhere, "Now you've done it!'

Everything around Harry started to fade away. As he faded out, Dumbledore sighed, "I should have guessed without Ms. Granger around, you'd make the wrong choice."

The faux Hogwarts disappeared back to white expanse of nothing but this time it seemed brighter and to the point of being blinding. Harry senses began to overload. "Bollocks; I really was sort of hoping for some Valkyries," Harry muttered before he lost consciousness.

OoOoO

A raven cawed and was answered by the hoots of morning doves. From somewhere, water was cascading over rocks. There was a smell which at once smelt of decay and rot along with fecundity and purpose. Like the loam on a jungle floor, teeming with life as well as the rotting shells of the dead.

Two women stood around a rock on which laid the shell of an old man. One woman was clad in shadow and starlight while the other was shimmering with a glow like light reflected off the dew on morning grass.

"Ah, my poor champion. You were right in thinking that this all was but a test. Yet you didn't realize the choice you made, the correct choice, would lead you back to what you so resoundingly rejected and not the rest you crave," the Dark Sister said.

The Light Sister chuckled, "Did you really think he was going to be tempted and return? Certainly, we hoped that he'd reject the seductive call to return for the wrong reasons and not be strong enough to fulfil his destiny."

"Not really but the push for life is strong as you well know, sister," She said lightly as she began work on the old man, her hands glowing with a purplish hue.

"That is true yet your champion understood we are all born to die. Even I, for a time, will sleep in your embrace before the Change, dear sister," the Light Sister said as she kissed the man's brow, leaving a faint, glowing outline of an ankh which then faded away.

"Just as I did not exist until your first birth, dear sister. Still, most who run from my embrace do so because they are afraid of what they cannot know. My champion got a glimpse behind the curtain. I was confident he wouldn't shy away from it when the time came," The Dark Sister said as she traced the faint sigil of the Deathly Hallows on the man's chest, causing it to brighten before fading back to being barely seen. "Besides, even as I send him back into your realm, he will return soon enough as things are measured."

The Light Sister sighed, "So much on his shoulders. Such terrible burden of purpose."

"He was raised up to stop an abomination that perverts you and makes a mockery of me. Out of all the weaving of our Sisters, it was he who our Brother chose to be my champion. I should have not been surprised, him being of the Peverell blood after all. " the Dark Sister said as she kissed the back of each hand, leaving a purplish symbol of a scythe on one and a scarab on the other. Like the ankh, they faded away.

The Light Sister put both hands on the right side of the man's body, "Together then?"

"Together," the Dark Sister said as she did the same on the left side.

A hum filled the surrounding area as power flowed into the old man's body. This power rapidly began to transform the wizened form of an old man into a vibrant and healthy young man.

When their task was done, the Dark Sister sighed, "You do realize you are acting much like his mentor did? Feeding him hints that may lead him to act on the very things he just spoke against?"

The Light Sister shrugged, "He is as much my champion as he is yours. I see no reason not to nudge him towards an outcome he may balk at but will be for the greater good." She smiled at those words, "Fortunate for us, we can see what that good needs to be."

The Dark Sister laughed, "Even if our Brother seems to be constantly in motion, ever changing what He tells us of what is to be."

"As it should be. What a boring existence it would be if everything were written out at the beginning? Every Change is a chance to see it turn out differently. If the mortals could not make all of their individual choices which work to create what is, what would be the point of it all?"

The Dark Sister also shrugged, "True, although in the end their actions always lead them to me." She leaned down and whispered into the now younger man's ear, "Wake up, my champion. Your fated destiny lies before you. My sister and I will wait and watch to see if you shall make the right choice and save the universe from the abomination. My Brother has seen you triumph as He has seen you fail. Which it shall be is up to you. You have never failed me, Harry Potter, and so go and do what must be done."

OoOoO

"Fucking hell," Harry rasped out as he realized he was awake and back in the cave. While it was completely dark, the smell gave it away.

His throat was sore so he pulled out his canteen and took a swig, grateful there was still enough to soothe his throat. He thought of an old movie where the character was trapped reliving the same day, no matter how often he tried to die and end it all. Luna had loved that film although Hermione had always said it was more for the groundhog than anything else.

Yet even as Harry started to think of some way he could ensure that he wouldn't have a body to come back to, he realized his body wasn't aching anymore. Without thinking, he murmured, "Lumos!"

The shock that this spell worked was quickly overshadowed by Harry finding his body was once again as young as it had been before he had started to age. He tried to conjure a mirror and one instantly appeared. Sure enough, he was in his mid-thirties. But just like in that faux afterlife, he looked a bit different. Again Harry wondered if this is what he would have grown to look like if he'd grown up healthy with his actual parents or maybe Sirius?

He dispelled the mirror and concentrated on his magic. He could now feel the pulse of magic that he'd originally hadn't gotten a hint of till right before he died…or whatever it was he kept doing without actually dying. (Had he shown up in the white expanse and manifested some giant crib when he'd been 15 months old and hit with the Killing Curse the first time? Not something one would remember.)

Harry sighed and focused on the matter at hand. Regardless of what had happened on the other side (real or in his head), he had been sent back. He was alive again and as much as he had wanted it to be the end, there was a big difference between dying naturally and killing oneself. For all that he had talked tough about not caring about the others, Harry knew they did need him.

He looked around and then began doing diagnostic spells. As Harry had earlier suspected, there was water farther down. Enough to suit their needs till they could work on other options to say nothing of him being able to conjure it.

This area was important for him due to the presence of the magic. Harry felt a convergence which reminded him of Hogwarts which he knew had been built over where four different ley lines had intersected. Harry wasn't sure where his magic was coming from, but if he was drawing his magic from this planet now, then better for him to be close to a vergence like this one.

Harry smiled grimly. At least moving the ships wouldn't drain him like it had before. He was pretty sure moving the Vaartig had been the straw that had broken the camel's back. Now, he could move it, the Trell and the Flyer without too much trouble. Which was good because the Arrakeen campsite lack room to expand. He'd noticed before he'd gone into the cave how this area not only had a better ridgeline to blunt sandstorms; it had a more open basin devoid of all the boulders and other crap which made getting around so hard back in the Landing area.

He sighed, best make his way back to camp. An idea suddenly hit him and he grinned to himself before starting to weave various spells.

XxXxX

THE TRELL, ARRAKEEN, TARTARUS, SECTOR 366, DELTA QUADRANT – 2 MONTHS, 29 DAYS AFTER THE CRASH

"You did not find the extra equipment suspicious, Mr. Paris?" Tuvok asked.

Tom threw up his hands, "Of course I should have been! But I was busy! You were the one riding my ass about getting a better handle on storm prediction. So forgive me for being preoccupied in keeping us alive and not quizzing a dying guy on his itinerary!"

Maria laid a hand over Tom's and gave it a squeeze. Around the table of the dining area, the other fleet members looked grim.

Before Tuvok could reply, Zim's voice came from the speaker next to the viewscreen which had once been used to show various entertainment programs when the ship had been in service. "I do not feel it matters given Harry was very much dying. While I no longer have much in the way of any counselor type stub-routines, it is apparent to me that Harry wished to die alone. I think for all that he had already done for us that Harry could be forgiven taking the supplies he did with him on his last days."

Treana scowled, "It's not about the supplies, Zim! If he wanted to die alone, great! It's just some of us might have wanted to say some things to him before he died."

Samantha shook her head, looking sad, "I think that right there may be the biggest reason he left as he did."

With a pop of air, Harry appeared next to where the cooler was, "Or he was being his typical moody self and didn't care too much how everyone else thought." His previous digital, desert camo pattern along with almost else he wore, was now a uniform white.

Everyone except Tuvok leapt to their feet with various cries with "Harry!" being the most common.

Tom went over and punched Harry in the arm, "You're late! You said you'd be back in three hours!"

Harry grinned, "There is a clichéd joke about wizards and being late in there, but I'm not going to make it."

"You have undergone a radical, rejuvenation, Mr. Potter," Tuvok said calmly. "May I ask how it came about."

Harry tugged at his white clothes, "I'm not exactly sure, Tuvok. Yet I think I was sent back. I really wanted to move on but I guess I was right and that the Powers That Be aren't done messing with me. Still, I feel great! Even better than when I was just Harry the Grey."

Tom, Treana and Samantha all groaned at this. Maria looked at Tom with a questioning look to which Tom made a face. "I'll tell you later," he muttered to her softly.

"Yes, later, because while I was out dying, I found a source of water we need. And a better place to camp," Harry said. "So now that I've got my mojo back, I think after we move camp, we can really start planning for how the next ten years will play out."

Tuvok's eyebrow rose, "In the past, you've seemed reluctant to do so. What has changed?"

Harry shrugged, "Back in the fleet, I felt I was intruding on your story. Symbolism is important in the Magical world. It's why I was against naming the Equinox even though it is common to change the name of a ship when it's refitted into a new role. Names matter. But like I said, so does the story. History is filled with re-occurring themes and we magical know there is power in such thing. In magical history and in mundane legend, it's the role of the wizard to be the guide and helper. Not to be the hero."

Tom grunted at this, "You know, that makes a twisted sort of sense. Not much of an adventure if you just wave your wand and make it all easy for us."

Tuvok frowned, "Even with Mr. Potter's magic, surviving on Tartarus will not be easy."

Harry nodded, "Exactly. Still, I think I was also being my old self and keeping everyone at a distance and making excuses to justify it. But archetypal themes aside, I can't just sit on the sidelines. If I can't die correctly, I really need to start living properly or I'm doing little more than existing as my old nemesis did before I did away with him. Given how the next ten years are going to be rough, no matter what, I can't afford to be just an interested observer."

Tom laughed, "I don't know if we should be relieved or worried."

Harry grinned. A grin those who knew the Weasley Twins would have known to be wary of. "You're just going to have to see, now won't you?"

XxXxX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Another short chapter. I guess I could have put the two together but I think symbolically it was better to keep them separate. Also, I'm betting most of you were expecting a Q chapter! Psych!

Shout-Out: This chapter references a fic that had a pretty decent impact on me writing it: The Forever Mage by Darth Marrs. (ID: 1229909) Go check it out; you'll be glad you did. That and pretty much all of his stuff.

Get Your Ass to Mars: The Star Trek timeline is a mess. In the ST: TOS Space Seed, we learn the Eugenic Wars ended in 1996. So around that time, Earth would have to have the tech for the DY-100 sleeper ships. Yet in ST: VOY One Small Step, we see tech more in line with what we have today if a bit more advanced in 2032. As this was the Ares IV mission and taking into account the 21-month time frame to get there, it implies that humanity was sending manned mission to Mars in the Tweens. This would thus imply that we'd been sending more robust probes and the like a lot earlier than in our actual timeline. In context of Star Trek canon, the fact that there were incidents with aliens (ST:TOS Assignment: Earth and ST:DS9 Little Green Men) along with Voyager's time in the past in ST: VOY Future's End I & II, makes it seem more reasonable to me that the Earth governments would be more inclined to get serious about space travel.

Frankly, I see if the US had tagged space to be militarily important and thus used just 1-2% of a typical year's DoD budget going back to the 80's, it's very doable. Also, one can see the DY-100's being something capable of being built before the end of the WW III screws everything up. It's why I have the Eugenics Wars combining into what then would become WW III.

Death Toll: I honestly think this is correct. A billion is a vast number. We throw the word around a lot but it is actually very difficult to actually grasp how truly large the number actually is. Humans have existed in modern form for such a short time and with populations being as low as they were until recently, I don't think that prior to a general nuclear war, that the 3.7 billion count could be topped.