Reunion
6 months later
Harry was strolling in the lesser populated and more expensive part of the city. His pockets were jingling and he was wearing cream coloured pants and a red shirt with the first two buttons open. The first impression he made on people was that of a cocky spoilt kid with too much money on his person but that was far from what the truth was. Harry had toiled and gambled his way to a fortune he could call his own. He shuddered to think what would have happened to him if he wasn't aiding by mind reading magic.
The district he was currently residing in had narrow lanes and well maintained houses on either side. It was mostly devoid of greenery but it had an aura of cleanliness and freedom around it. All the houses were constructed with concrete, not wood, and every house he passed spoke volumes about the character of the person living in it. What Harry loved most about his neighbourhood was that no one with the mentality of the Dursley's or individuals like them would even think about staying in such a disorganized locality.
"Been busy Potter?" Mrs Lowe asked as he walked past her house.
"Only at nights," Harry replied chuckling. Mrs. Lowe was one of the few who had a small garden in the space between the house and the road ahead. Harry loved to watch her wear her large pointy straw hat and work diligently on planting flowers and caring for her garden. Her husband owned a passenger transportation ship and he often made trips to close by planets and made a lot of money out of it. He brought his wife different saplings and seeds every time he came back. Watching her made him feel good about himself and he regularly helped her buy supplies for her garden.
He waved goodbye and carried on towards his own house which was a few houses down from Mrs Lowe's. He had been fortunate to be in the Maidenhead when he heard a garment merchant drowning in whisky bemoan the loss of his business to a rival and how he had to sell most of his property to keep his provide for his family. Harry didn't waste any time nor did he bother consoling the man and soon he was the owner of a property that could be called prime.
It was a simple rectangular house with an unusually slanted roof with just one floor. As soon as you entered there was a living room, complete with an entertainment unit and sofa set, to the left and an open kitchen to the right. There was a narrow slab extending out of the wall that marked the beginning of the kitchen and this granite slab also served as a dining table for two. There was a small corridor directly opposite the entrance and there were two doors opposite each other. Both were bedrooms but Harry only used the master bedroom which had a queen-sized bed with thick mattresses and maroon curtains covering the windows. The bathroom attached to the master bedroom had a Jacuzzi in the centre along with the basic amenities.
It was the Jacuzzi that made Harry close his eyes and fill the merchant's pockets with whatever amount he asked for.
Harry sighed heavily and sat crossed-legged on the amazingly soft couch that he had won in Sacaren's bar - which was what the place was called - and turned on his screen. The screen was a modified cortex terminal, which in addition to showing Alliance news, also showed soap operas and cartoons that used to be famous on Earth. Engineers, who were not part of the Alliance, broadcasted these shows for a fee and they were the ones who sold the screen. It was exclusively available on the black market.
It had been after a month into his life on Beaumonde; he had had the fortunate meeting with the garment merchant and left the roof of Madam Fang with nothing but love and contempt for the old woman. She had been sad to see Harry go but she did congratulate him for losing his virginity to a beautiful thief. As it turned out, the girl with no name had not only robbed him but she had also emptied the cash register in several bars with the finesse of an expert. After hearing that, Harry forgave the girl with no name and was proud that she was his first. One night he casually brought up the topic about such girls with his new gambling buddies and he found out that there were quite a few young adults who run away from the comfort of their homes to escape the suffocating rule of the Alliance. They were the rare few who actually thought freedom was a right everyone was entitled to. Most of them didn't last in the harsh environment of the border and rim planets and were usually found and shipped back home. But then there were the rare few who managed to survive and thrive with their own skills and talents.
He had worked with the factory for another week and then quit the job to begin his life as a professional gambler. Within a month, he had a whole sack packed with credits, platinum, gold, silver and dollars. That was the sack he had emptied to buy the house from the garment merchant and he had just enough left to sustain him for a few weeks. Of course Harry didn't bother saving it and used all that money to buy into the high stake games that were run in the underground. He had made so much money in a couple of days that he wasn't allowed to come in on weekends since that was the time the owners of these fine establishments made their profits. Since that time Harry had to be careful about how much he won and how often he won. He made sure to lose some games so that the other gamblers didn't get suspicious and end up putting a bounty on his head.
Harry made it a point to gamble when his money was dwindling and after the end of the second month he didn't have to bother and only went to have a bit of fun. Of course the gambling happened only at night and during the day he kept himself busy by looking for any information about Earth that wasn't in the Alliance databooks. He looked everywhere including the other cities on the planet for relics from 'Earth that was' and any kind of book or sign that was remotely linked to magic. So far he had been unsuccessful.
Four months into his new life the Alliance had gotten interested in his talent in gambling and they sent a representative to ask him to join them in a tournament they organized but Harry had politely declined. He had no idea how they found out about him and the fact that they had made him very uncomfortable. He had heard enough about the operations of the Alliance in the underworld and he didn't like most of what they had to say about them. But to his annoyance they had persisted in calling him and it wasn't before long he began to get subtle threats from them. It was then he knew that they didn't want him to participate in anything; they wanted to know how he did it and whether there was anything special about him. So far they hadn't done anything unsavoury much to his relief.
Magic was a whole different kind of pain for Harry. Six months he had stayed on the planet and in those six months he had diligently attempted to use magic without his wand and he had failed every time he tried. He tried to apparate but he just spun around and fell down. He needed the focus his wand provided to be capable of apparition but he had hoped that summoning and banishing would work if he tried hard enough but nothing had happened. His frustrations had reached a level at one point when he broke every piece of breakable item in his house save the really expensive ones. After that episode he had calmed down and decided not to dwell on what he couldn't do but what he could and he worked on taking his occlumency to heights that hadn't been taught to him by Snape and Dumbledore.
He was about to doze off when his personal communicator began to beep. It was another invention by the engineers of the black market that was as good as a cortex terminal but the Alliance could not eavesdrop on the conversations. Harry needed such a device after the Alliance's interest in him.
"Good evening Harry."
"A good evening to you Potter."
Two identical annoying voices spoke through the communicator.
"Fanty and Mingo," Harry said dryly. "Do you both have to speak at the same time?"
"It's Mingo and Fanty."
"What do you want Mingo?"
"Hold on, it's Fanty now."
"Stop trying to be clever and get to the point!"
Sniggers crackled through the com and Harry was ready to disconnect the call.
"Say something worthwhile or I'm cutting the call," Harry said exasperatedly.
"I'm sorry to say that tonight's game will have to be postponed."
"What! Why? I was looking forward to tonight. It's been a while since I've joined in on a high stake game!"
"We've got some business to take care of and unfortunately our associates are late."
Harry snorted. "Is that what you call it?" He shook his head, amused at them calling their criminal activities business. "On another note, did you have any luck locating the items I want?"
"Sorry precious. Books from 'Earth that was' are very rare you know."
"Don't call me that."
The twins laughed. "But that's what you are to us Harry. You're our precious little gold mine and with you investing in some of our legal businesses, profits have soared higher than ever."
"Well I still don't like it," Harry groused. "Call me if there's any change in plan," he said and disconnected the call. It might have been rude, but being rude was the only way to end a conversation with the twins. They had the capacity to go on forever with their wisecracks and twin jokes.
Pests they might be but their network of contacts was enormous and they could do what he could without having to read minds. They were the twin kings of the underbelly of Beaumonde and had held that title for a very long time. They too, a long time ago, had been approached by the Alliance and when Harry told them about his predicament they had told him not to worry and to just ignore them. Unless he broke their laws where Alliance presence was heavy they could do nothing to him and when he asked what those laws were they said the list was too long to bother with. In other words break the law and don't get caught was the advice.
Apart from being acquainted with Fanty and Mingo, friends were really hard to come by. Actually there were none. People liked to keep to themselves and the only way for a person to find a group of friends was to join up with a crew. But Harry didn't want that, he had no wish to mix with those kinds of people. Apart from that all the general population did was earn enough to survive and if you had a family, to keep them happy. This is how life was on the border planets and the only city on Beaumonde where there was more life and enjoyment was the capital city, New Dunsmuir.
Under the advice of the twins, he had spent five wonderful days in the company of a lovely companion who went by the name of Shirley in New Dunsmuir where she had exposed him to the high society of the verse. He attended balls where he was expected to behave with high standards - he found that to be a complete drag, though the dancing was fun. He went to wine tasting events where both he and his companion got fairly tipsy before heading back to the hotel he was living in and experiencing what chocolate syrup on a naked body tasted like. They sunbathed on the white sand beaches of New Dunsmuir and made love under the giant rocks where there couples often came to take walks and children enjoyed to climb.
"Making love on the beach is unlike anything you'll ever experience," she had whispered softly in his ear. "Add the thrill of getting caught and the fear of being watched and you'll experience something magical." She was right. It was unbelievable and how desperately Harry had wanted to show her what magic was but he hadn't his wand with him. He had refrained from reading her mind since he wanted everything to be a surprise.
The food was another thing that blew his mind. There was nothing that was not available and everything felt like heaven to the tongue. She also took the time to teach him how to look for quality in clothes instead of cost and also arranged for custom clothing through renowned tailors in the city.
Harry learnt many things during those five days which ranged from etiquettes to base pleasure. It was like a dream and he wanted to stay in New Dunsmuir forever but he realized that staying in such a city would change him from a decent person to a self conceited person who thought him above everyone else who could not afford such a lifestyle. He saw a lot of that in the citizens of New Dunsmuir. He knew the time he spent with Shirley was not real and after five days of extravagant living, he decided to go back to the grubby city of luck: Aubaine.
He had to part with three thousand credits at the end and half of that was the cost of having Shirley's company. After that Harry had to visit the gambling dens for a week straight to make up for the massive drain.
Tonight, since there was no game to be played, Harry visited a new stall he had found by the docks. The man served the best shou mian he had ever had in the city. Coupled with that, the toppings the cook created was simply mind blowing. Harry loved to waste time by watching the space ships land with a bowl of shou mian cradled in his hand. Every time he saw a ship take off or land, it filled him with an unexplainable wonder and he would forget time when he was at the docks. The noise was loud enough to drown away his own thoughts and it was a strange method Harry used to gain a little peace of mind. Of course these were the times he didn't use occlumency to gain peace of mind!
He was relishing the flavour of the sauce when he saw something he didn't expect.
"Kaylee?" he whispered incredulously.
He quickly gobbled up his meal and hurried over to the very recognizable ship and woman.
"Hey Kaylee!" he shouted excitedly.
"Harry!" she squealed and enveloped him in a hug. "How have you been and wow!" she exclaimed, running her hands through his clothes and feeling the material. "Those are some great clothes!"
Harry grinned. "Life's been good. What about you guys? More smuggling going on?"
Kaylee's mood plummeted. "Yeah," she grumbled.
Harry frowned. He was expecting a different reaction. "What's wrong?"
"Let's go to the engine room, I'm too depressed."
Harry frown-smiled at her mood swing but followed her nonetheless.
"So?" he asked sitting on the warm floor and Kaylee sat opposite him drawing her knees to her chest.
"Simon and River are leaving."
"They're leaving? Why?"
"We had a job recently and the captain took River along with him."
"Why?" Harry asked curiously. River was mentally unstable and taking her along for a job didn't make a sense.
Kaylee hesitated for a moment. "Well that's not the point," she said finally. "The point is that Simon got mad and then they were attacked by Reavers and then Simon got even madder and now they're leaving the ship!" She said all this in one breath and was almost breathing fire at the end of it.
"So I take it you like Simon huh?" he said, suppressing his laughter. She was just too easy to read.
"What! No I don't," she denied.
Harry raised his eyebrows.
"Alright fine," she said raising her hands, "I like him and now he's going to leave."
"Then tell him not to leave. If he likes you as well then he wouldn't want to leave would he?"
"Captain wants him gone," she said glumly.
"Then tell the captain you want him to stay."
"I did!" she said angrily. "And he gave me some gorram crap about duties and responsibilities and locking for feelings away and no relationships… argh! I don't want to talk about."
"Feh fa pi goh," she muttered under her breath.
Harry snorted. "Did you just call Mal a baboon's ass crack?"
Kaylee smiled and muttered. "Yes I did. Anyway, what have you been up to?" she asked. "You seem to be loaded now."
Harry smiled secretively. "I discovered I have a hidden talent."
"Like what?"
"Gambling," he answered happily. "I've made enough money to last me for months easily."
"You're gambling?" Kaylee said disapprovingly.
"Don't worry, I don't lose and if I do lose its on purpose."
"Harry," began Kaylee but Harry stopped her. "Don't worry," he said in earnest. "What I do is not based on luck but on the method."
Kaylee frowned before her eyes widened in realization, "You're cheating!"
"Does it matter?"
"What if you get caught? They'll kill you!"
"I won't get caught," he replied confidently. "And I have friends in high places too."
Kaylee looked at him, exasperated and began to severely scold him but her voice was drowned over the sudden din that erupted in the cargo hold. People were rushing in and they could hear Mal shouting orders.
"Looks like the captains back," Kaylee said dryly.
They left the engine room and were walking to the cargo bay when the ship began to vibrate and Harry felt it lifting off.
"What in the hell!" he shouted, alarmed and ran down with Kaylee right behind him. "Whoa, hold up you guys, let me off!"
But it was too late. There had been no warning, nothing. They had rushed in, Wash had started her up and they had taken off. Mal didn't even order Kaylee to keep an eye on the engines and just ordered Wash to leave the planet immediately.
"Potter?" Mal said in confusion. "What the hell are you doing on my boat?" He was holding River in his arms with Jayne a few steps behind him and Simon was hovering around trying to take River away from Mal.
"Why did you take off!" he asked angrily, "Turn the ship around and drop me back!"
"Too late for that," Mal said walking up the stairs. "We'll decide what to do with you later but now we have more pressing issues at hand. Jayne, get the handcuffs."
Harry watched in disbelief as they took River and locked her in the storeroom after putting handcuffs on her.
Mal then went to the com and asked everybody to come down to the galley. He turned around and found Harry standing an inch away from him.
"I don't know what is going on here captain," Harry spat, "But why couldn't you just go back and drop me? It would have taken you all but five minutes!"
Mal sighed. "We didn't have five minutes," he said.
Harry was outraged and downright furious but before he could spew expletives Mal had grabbed Simon's shirt and slammed him on the table.
"Eight months you had your sister on my boat and it never occurred to you to mention that she could go from crazy to a killer woman without provocation?!"
"I didn't know," Simon retorted loudly and shoved Mal away.
"Well you certainly knew how to put her to sleep doc," Mal snarled.
Simon took a deep breath and calmed himself pushing the worry and anger he was feeling to the back of his mind. "The people who helped me rescue River taught me a safe word just in case something happened."
"If I say the words..."
"Don't say it!" yelped Jayne jumping out of his chair.
"It only works on River, Jayne," Zoe said rolling her eyes and despite the seriousness of the situation Harry found himself caught up in, he smiled.
"I still can't believe she took you out Jayne," Wash sniggered.
"She took out the whole bar, Wash," Mal said solemnly.
Harry's eyes widened. Did he just hear that correct? What bar were they talking about?
"What do you mean she took out a whole bar captain," Kaylee asked, her eyes wide open with worry.
Mal sighed. "We were passing along the goods to Fanty and Mingo."
"You were dealing with Fanty and Mingo?" Harry interrupted.
"Yes," he replied sounding a bit annoyed with those two miscreants.
"So that's why they cancelled," he muttered under his breath and turned his attention back to Mal.
"Anyway, we were making the deal when River came in and without any provocation she began to beat the gorram crap out of everyone in the bar!"
"What?!"
"And let me tell you I've never seen anyone fight they way she did," Jayne said. "Every move, every kick, every punch was executed with unbelievable precision. She's been trained to fight." Jayne paused and looked at everyone solemnly. "She's been trained to kill."
There was silence in the room.
"May I see her?" Simon asked hesitantly.
Mal glared at him before nodding. "Code's 5534," he said and Simon nodded his thanks. Mal then turned towards Zoe and said, "I think we need to talk to Mr. Universe."
"What about me?" Harry shouted furiously. "I still want to go back! I have a life in Aubaine! You can't just rip me away from my home because River went psycho! This is not my problem!"
"I'm sorry about this but for now you're going to have to stay here," Mal apologized sincerely but firmly. "Until we know more about this situation we're not going to make Port at Beaumonde."
Harry scowled and went to sit on the couch angrily. He wasn't angry at them but at the situation he suddenly found himself in. He was on their ship and he didn't have any clothes with him again!
Since the engine was running fine, Kaylee decided to join Harry on the couch. Mal, Wash and Zoe went up to the bridge to debate over their next move. They didn't know whether they Alliance was going to come after them and they needed to decide where to take refuge. Jayne gave a short nod to Harry and went back to his bunk. He had no interest in anything to do with River or Simon.
Kaylee plonked herself beside Harry and in her usual cheerful manner she asked him, "So what else is new with you? Have you lost your virginity yet? Any woman you want to boast about?" she teased.
Harry laughed, not embarrassed at all by the question.
"Oh!" Kaylee said delightedly. "You ain't a virgin no more!"
"That's right," he said dryly. "She took came onto me, had her wicked ways with me and then stole all my money."
Kaylee's mouth dropped open, "Are you kidding me!" she asked in a fit of giggles.
"I kid you not," Harry joked. "I had gotten a good raise from the factory I was working at and I decided to spend the money on my first drink."
"And then you got drunk, she came onto to you, you took her to your bed and she took off with you money!" Kaylee summarized for him and started laughing again. "Oh this is priceless!" she gasped.
"Well to be fair, she was smoking hot and she also cleared the cash registers of several pubs in town. She was a professional and she was my first," he added proudly.
"Meaning there were more?" Kaylee asked raising her eyebrows. "My, my, you seem to have turned into a regular Casanova!"
Harry flushed but he thought he better correct Kaylee assumption. "After I made insane amounts of money by gambling, a couple of friends of mine recommended I go to New Dunsmuir in the company of a companion."
"Oooo..."
"No need for that," Harry said, smiling fondly at the memories. "Those five days I spent with her were the five best days of my entire life."
"I'll bet," she agreed. "Inara has some beautiful stories about the time she spends with her clients."
"The things she taught me…." Harry didn't finish what he was going to say but Kaylee wanted to hear it.
"Sex?" she prompted brightly.
"Among other things," Harry said.
"Huh, so you learnt some new moves."
Harry smiled mischievously. "I learnt things that will make your toes curl," he said softly and suggestively. "And if you weren't so taken with Simon, I'd show them to you."
Kaylee's eyes widened and she started to laugh but she was blushing too. "You couldn't handle me, Harry," she boasted, enjoying this talk that she was having with Harry. "Men have begged me to stop on many an occasion!"
"Are you sure that applies to me?" he asked, putting his hand on her knee. He was desperately trying not to laugh and give away this interesting game that was brewing between them and Kaylee turned towards him with a seductive edge. "I'm quite certain it will be you doing the begging if it were me," he said, feeling his heart skip when she narrowed her eyes at him.
Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by Mal, who clattered down from the bridge and the pair quickly put some respectable distance between them.
"Kaylee, what are you doing here?" he scolded. "Aren't you supposed to be in the engine room making sure everything's alright?"
"Everything is fine captain," she said.
"Well check again anyway," he said. "We'll be landing at Haven in about eight hours."
"What's in Haven?" Harry asked, trying not to laugh while Kaylee colourfully insulted Mal.
"Our dear old friend, Shepherd Book."
Mal said that and disappeared down to the cargo bay and Kaylee and Harry grinned at each other.
"We'll flirt some other time," she laughed and disappeared down to the engine room.
Harry gave a sigh of relief and leaned into the sofa. He knew she would have won that game if it had continued any longer. "Maybe it's not a bad thing being back here after all," he said to himself, grinning.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"It was nice to see the preacher again," Harry thought. Everyone apart from Simon and River were gathered around a blazing pile of wood enjoying the warmth it provided amidst the cold night. Kaylee was lost in her thoughts as she laid on her stomach and idly poked at the fire with a stick; Wash and Zoe were in each other's arms and Wash was gently humming a romantic song to his wife; and Jayne was strumming the strings of a guitar, entertaining the children around him.
"It is a beautiful night," Harry thought with a relaxed smile, leaning against one of the rocks around them. He could make out the outlines of Mal and Shepherd in the distance and he could hear faint traces of their voices carried by the wind.
He lay back with a sigh and remembered the last time he had a camp fire was with Hermione and Ron in the Forest of Dean back on the 'Earth that was'. He missed them sometimes but he no longer felt any guilt or depression at the thought of his old friends. He no longer felt that ache he had felt in the beginning when he thought about his failure at defeating Voldemort. Humans were still around and their numbers had grown to vast proportions. Magic had seemed to vanish but Harry didn't feel like it was a great loss. That world had brought along more trouble than it was worth. Of course that didn't stop him from wanting to know what had happened. He still craved to know the truth behind their disappearance.
It was some time later that Book and Mal returned and Kaylee had already fallen asleep. Zoe and Wash had long gone back to the ship and Jayne was struggling to get out of the mass of children that had fallen asleep around him.
"Let's head back?" Mal asked Jayne and Harry as he gently woke Kaylee.
"I'll like to stay out for a little while longer," Harry said.
Mal nodded and everybody slowly went back to their respective houses until it was just Harry and Book out there.
"So how have you been Harry?" asked the priest.
"Your money was very useful to me Shepherd and it was prosperity I found on Beaumonde," he said, remembering the preacher's words to him before he had left.
"I'm glad," he said smiling. "Did you manage that by an honest day's work or ..." He left the statement unfinished.
"Both," Harry replied honestly. "An honest day's work is hard to find in any city on that planet."
"Does whatever you're doing to earn your bread feel right?"
Harry thought for a while and then answered, "Yes, yes it does."
Book patted Harry on the shoulder and smiled. "I'm glad," he said simply and walked back to his house. An hour later Harry finally went back to the ship and lay on his old bed before finally falling asleep ten minutes later.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The next morning when Harry woke, Mal was getting the ship ready to leave.
"Where are you heading?" Harry asked.
"We're going to pick Inara," Mal said. "She's in a spot of trouble and needs my manly help."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Where is she?"
"New Melbourne. You can come if you want or you could stay here until we get back," Mal said. "It will take us at least a day or two to reach back here."
"I'll stay here," Harry said. "I want to explore this planet a bit."
"Your choice," Mal said. "We're leaving in fifteen so you should head out now."
Harry nodded and quickly headed to the engine room and said bye to Kaylee before leaving the ship. He stood next to Book as the ship took off.
"You know, you never told me how you ended up back with Mal," Book asked once the ship was no longer within sight.
"I saw Kaylee and went over to say hi," Harry began with a small smile. "We were catching up in the engine room and before I knew it the ship had taken off and I was stuck with them."
"Seriously?" Book asked in disbelief.
"Seriously," Harry replied. "Simon told me why you left," he added. "Do you feel like you made the right choice?"
"I did," said Book. "I know I'm doing some good in this place and the folk here need all the hope they can get."
Harry dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a sack of coins and handed it to the preacher.
Shepherd weighed the pouch in his hand and looked at Harry with his mouth half open. "Harry, there must be at least a 100 credits in this!"
"Repayment for your fifty and a little extra for your advice," he said. His eyes were shining with gratitude because he knew that without that start the preacher had given him, he would have been in a much worse state on an unforgiving planet.
Book nodded hesitantly and didn't argue. He knew the gesture was important and the boy would not take no for an answer. He also figured that if he carried a hundred credits as pocket change, his bank must be overflowing.
The Shepherd then took his leave as he had people to go and talk to leaving Harry to his own devices.
Harry winced as a gust of hot wind blew sand into his face and he wrapped the shawl around him tighter. Haven was even hotter than Greenhorn.
Having nothing but time on his hands he decided to trek up one of the hillocks. He just wanted to see what the view would be like. After packing some sandwiches, courtesy of the woman, and a bottle of water he set off. It took him a few hours and a lot of effort to navigate through the rocky surface but he finally reached the top.
It was even more depressing than he thought it would be. Apart from the few trees around him, there was nothing but red dirt and humongous rocks everywhere. He could see a number of mining fields in the distance and his heart clenched at the thought of those miners. These people were digging just in the hope of finding something that could make their lives on the surface worthwhile and by the looks of things they weren't very successful at that. They had a few farms that were capable of producing cereal and a couple of rivers that ran down from the hills up north but apart from that, there was nothing.
He understood why a person like Book wanted to live on this planet. The people here survived on the charity of people like Mal and they had no one else to look to for help. Book's presence gave them the strength to carry on.
Harry felt it would be better to rename the planet to Drought planet instead of Haven. The planet may be a refuge for those running from the Alliance but it was far from being the shelter they hoped for.
When Harry returned it was almost evening and the miners directed him to a small shack to bunk in. Once more before they went to bed they had their dinner around a fire. Harry looked into one of the men's minds and realized that this was a daily ritual for them. After a hard day's work they would gather around a fire and enjoy each other's company before going to bed. It was quite heart warming to know, thought Harry.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The next day Harry went about meeting random people and began to ask them if they knew anything about books or artefacts from the 'Earth that was' but to his disappointment they knew nothing and he honestly hadn't expected them to know anything either. They had their hands full trying to survive after all.
His musings were interrupted when he spotted a ship coming into the atmosphere above them.
"Hey Father, there's a ship coming in!" shouted one of the boys. "I think its Serenity!"
Harry felt his guts twist when he saw the ship. He felt something terrible was about to happen. As it came closer everyone realized that it wasn't the ship they were expecting but a ship that was familiar to them all. It was an Alliance gunnery ship loaded with machine guns and armed soldiers.
"Take cover!" some screamed just as heavy gun fire began to erupt all around them.
Harry ran with his hands over his head as bullets whizzed around him and he dived behind a pile of cement. His heart was beating wildly and innocent people were being mercilessly cut down right in front of his eyes.
"Shepherd!" Harry screamed. "Don't we have any weapons?!"
"In a storeroom near the shaft entrance!" Book yelled back as he tried to escort a group of children to safety. Harry immediately made a dash for the shaft but he cried out and fell to the ground when a bullet grazed his leg. Even the graze burnt terribly but Harry got up with tears in his eyes and continued to run to the storeroom with single minded purpose.
"Hey, come with me!" Harry shouted at one of the men running away and together they sprinted to the weapons cache. Harry tucked a pistol into his belt and slung a rifle over his shoulders. The man, with trembling hands, chose a shotgun.
An explosion rocked the ground and terror filled Harry's eyes when he saw one of the steel structures crash into the ground. The Shepherd had gone with the children in that direction, he thought with dread.
His attention snapped back to the enemy as the Alliance craft landed and he counted at least 10 soldiers coming out with their sophisticated weapons at the ready.
"Okay," muttered Harry taking a deep breath. "Okay, we're going to head to that water tank over there," Harry said. When he didn't get any response he turned around and saw the man had closed his eyes tight and was shaking madly.
"Hey buddy!" Harry hissed and slapped him hard. "If we don't do something they're going to kill us so pull yourself together!"
He just nodded in fright.
"Once we reach the water tank I want you to stay there and cover me while I go closer to them alright?"
"Why'd do you want to get closer to them? Shouldn't we be running? And why are they attacking us in the first place!" he said hysterically.
"I don't know!" Harry hissed. "But do you want to help your friends or not!"
The man nodded.
"Good, then let's go."
The aircraft took off and began to make another pass around the area and Harry, along with the miner ran to the water tank before they could be seen. Once they reached Harry silently gestured at the man to cover him and he hurried closer to the armed men and hid behind a boulder watching them as they unleashed another round of heavy gunfire at anything that moved.
He was dirty, he had tears and mud smeared on his face, his right leg was dripping with blood but he refused to let the fear dominate him. He channelled that fear and changed it to fury. He signalled the man to keep an eye on him and then he closed his eyes and whispered "Legilimens."
Because he didn't have a wand anymore, Harry had focused lots of his time in furthering his capabilities in mind magic and had successfully gone beyond what a normal wizard would be capable of. What once required eye contact to execute, he could now do without it. He had taken legilimency to the next level and all he needed to do was focus on his target.
His mental probe spread, like a water snake swimming, looking for his target until he found it and slipped into the soldier's mind. Then with a focused will and magical power he took control over the man's moments.
Outwardly the man simply froze and closed his eyes. His team stopped and looked at him in confusion.
"4031?"
And then soldier tagged 4031 opened his eyes but it wasn't 4031 who was looking through them, it was Harry. The soldier then turned his weapon on his fellow soldiers and opened fire.
"What the hell are you doing?!" they screamed as Harry put as many bullets as possible into the Alliance soldiers before one of the soldiers pulled out a pistol and blew a hole in his head.
Harry's head snapped back violently and he cried out loud clutching his head in agony. It actually felt like he had been shot in the head but fortunately he was very much alive. Blinking through the tears of pain he noted with satisfaction that only two soldiers were left standing and the rest were dead or on death's doors.
Pushing the pain aside he beckoned the man he came with over but as the man ran towards him the aircraft flew directly above him and Harry could only watch in horror as the man was ripped apart with machine gun fire.
"No!" Harry screamed and blinded by anger he pulled out his pistol and fired at the craft. What should have been an insignificant shot turned out to be a massive explosion and to Harry's joy he realized Book had somehow made it to the antiaircraft cannon and was blasting away at the aircraft for all he was worth.
The remaining two soldiers saw him and opened fire immediately. Harry wasn't going to let that happen and with an animalistic roar he jumped out from behind the boulder and fired madly at them.
"Die you gorram bastards," he screamed and watched with satisfaction as blood sprayed out from their backs as they fell to the ground. He mercilessly pumped more bullets into the ones that were still moving and for a moment he thought it was over.
The whistling sound of a bomb being dropped made him look up and his dread pooling in his gut he realized it was heading straight towards him. He attempted to run away but it was too late.
The bomb impacted the ground some feet away from him and exploded; hurling his fleeing body into the air.
Harry's world went dark before he even hit the ground.
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