Chapter 3 : Talks of the past and forging the future
His spoon made a soft high-pitched sound as he put it back down on the saucer and took the cup to his mouth. His eyes wandered for a second as he took a sip of the tea. The room was sparsely decorated but held a lived-in atmosphere. Against the walls, a couple old shelves holding books and knick knacks were separated by the now empty glass case in which he'd seen the Quidditch cup the previous years. A heavy wooden desk, covered by a red and gold tablecloth, with neatly ordered tomes, graded assignments and a photo frame on top of it completed the room.
His attention came back to his professor sitting across from him, McGonagall was putting aside the tea-pot with a swish of her wand as her spoon was stirring by itself in the cup.
"I hope that you have settled back in well." She asked, as she put away her wand.
"Yes. It's always great to come back."
Though he hadn't seen the Gryffindor dormitory for half a year, the castle was as close to a home he ever had.
"And we are always glad to see the students return." A small smile played on her lips. "Though I fear I did not ask you to come so we could engage in small talk."
What, really? He would have never guessed. After all, it was a perfectly normal thing for Harry to be called in her office by his head of house.
...This early in the year at least.
"I must say, I am a little concerned about your recent results. You decided against repeating a year to retake your O.W.L.s and to continue your education in a single discipline. Did you abandon your ambition of joining the aurors?"
"Pretty much." He shrugged. "The Ministry isn't really my biggest fan right now so I doubt they'd hire me even if I had the grades. I don't really know what I'll do after graduation yet, but it's not like I'm the only one in this situation."
Far from it in fact.
Over the summer, the members of the DA had received their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s results. For the vast majority of them, Harry included, the results were quite terrible, ranging from Dreadful to rarer Acceptables. The odd exceptions were the all around great grades in the Defence Against the Dark Arts examination. And Hermione still passed a majority of her subjects of course.
Though it had led to a few uncomfortable talks with some parents, almost every one of them had lost interest in school work. They couldn't even think of losing the peace and wonders they'd found in the Requirements in order to subject themselves to two more years of intensive cramming.
After a few animated evening talks over the stones, they had reached a consensus. They couldn't just up and leave Hogwarts and lose both a chance for a minimal magical education and the only access they had to the ship. They would all choose one or two classes they could pretend to sit into, in accordance to their O.W.L.s results, and continue working on the ship during the rest of the week. Katie, Cho and Marietta, their remaining upperclassmen, even followed that example and dropped out of most of their classes.
Their remaining classes were a various mix of either classes that could prove useful on the ship and others they liked so much that they just wanted to continue taking them. Harry and most of the combat group had made the rather drastic choice of dropping every class except Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Many would spend a part of their new found free time to do things they had put aside or never tried before. Seamus had installed another easel next to Luna's on the observation deck and Lavender had talked about creating an entire clothing line. Some even took the opportunity to pick up subjects that were not taught at Hogwarts, like Susan and Dean with healing.
They did have quite a few people so interested in learning as much as possible about the ship that they would work on it day and night if they could. Hermione, Lee and Terry had started devouring books after books of muggle science, trying to catch up and go beyond what they had missed during their magical education.
Between magic, science, foreign languages, arts, fashion and the all around experimentations, the ship had become like a second school for them. It was a fun place to learn whatever you wanted at your own pace and a good way to take your mind off how things were going back home. Though they could all have done without Ernie's rather disastrous attempts to learn how to play the bagpipes.
"Yes. It saddens me that the Ministry's interference and the current situation have had such an impact on our students. No matter what career you decide to pursue, remember that my door is always open if you need to talk about it."
She shook her head slightly before taking another sip. He'd never really considered just how different that normal these last few years had been for the staff. Sure, it's how he'd always knew Hogwarts and the magical world but things must have been quite different without murderous lunatics, ministry interference and ancient tournaments.
"Still, I wanted to talk to you about Quidditch. While I can understand that you might not want the responsibilities coming with the captain position, I was most surprised to learn that you choose to not be a part of the team this year."
"Sorry about that professor. It's just... There are too many things I need to do this year. I just don't have the time for Quidditch practice this year. Even more so if I had to organise everything."
Quidditch had been a big part of his life those last few years, but he just had so many things to do now... He couldn't take part in those intensive training sessions at the crack of dawn when he had equally tiring combat exercises and a mountain of reports that never seemed to get smaller. He truly felt sorry for letting McGonagall down, though. She had been the one who gave him the opportunity to play and, most importantly, fly , as soon as his first year.
"Quite a shame, really. Not only does Griffindor lose a very gifted seeker, but I know that you love the game just as much as your father did." McGonagall said with a nostalgic sigh. "I offered the badge you declined to Miss Bell and while I know that she is more than capable for the position... Without any other member of the team returning, we will be hard pressed to win the cup this year."
"I wouldn't worry too much about it. Katie has been playing as long as I have and will be a great captain. And with Ron and Ginny helping her, they have the making of a good team." Harry said as memories of the tryouts came back to him. He'd gone with Hermione and Luna to cheer on Ron and Ginny.
Ginny had been awesome and Katie would have struggled to find a better chaser. Unfortunately, her skillful demonstration had not helped to calm Ron's nerves. Despite their best efforts to reassure him, he'd been a nervous wreck when he entered the field. He ended up fumbling with the quaffle a few times and almost didn't make the team. He did manage to pull through in the end but it was a close thing.
"If you do not mind me asking Mr. Potter, what could possibly take so much of your time when you only attend a single class?"
"I know how it looks, but we-I'm quite busy working on my own projects."
Great save Harry. Got any more fumbles planned today?
In hope she would just ignore his mistake, he quickly continued.
"I know you don't want me to fight with everyone out here, but Voldemort won't stop because he can't get to me. I can't just stand around and study while other people are dying to protect us."
At least not when he had access to things that could turn the war around.
"I promise it's safe. Just... research and stuff like that. Nothing dangerous."
And it was true... For now. But she didn't need to know that.
McGonagall watched him intently for a moment before putting her empty cup down.
"I may be old, mister potter, but I am not senile quite yet. I know that many of your comrades are following you in whatever it is you are doing in secret. I want to make sure you will make sure they are safe and don't do anything that would put them in the middle of this war."
Shite. How much did she know? Play dumb Harry.
"Me? Why do you think they'll listen to me, professor?" He asked in his most innocent voice.
This only seemed to irritate her however, as she stared down at him like one would a misbehaving kitten.
"You are not quite as subtle as you'd like to think. The glances in your direction, the way they listen when you talk, how they move to protect you if they think a fight will break out in the hallways... If it was only young Ronald, I would be one thing, but all of them Harry? They look up to you as their leader. They follow your lead without question and I do not want to see them harmed because of foolhardy ambitions."
Ok, maybe that had been a bit too dumb.
"I'll do what I can, professor. But there might come a time when we don't have a choice."
Her sigh as she finally broke her gaze had nothing nostalgic this time. Harry had a feeling of deja vu as she seemed to deflate a little, letting the weight of her age get to her for the first time since he knew her.
"I once taught an entire generation of brilliant young minds, only to see them be shaped and killed in a war they shouldn't have been involved in. I hoped I would not have to live to see it happen again. I know you went through much during your stay here and I am sorry we could not prevent any of it or the current situation of our world. But you are still a child and should cherish these peaceful moments before being thrust into the pain and misery of a war that will do nothing but leave scars that will follow you your whole life."
Her expression softened and a soft smile made its way back to her lips. With a tap of her wand, the kettle floated around to fill their cups once again.
"Take it from an old woman who spent most of her life watching children come and go in this dusty castle. These innocent times of fun and mischief with friends are too precious to be cast aside to deal with the adults' mistakes. A splash of milk?"
Definitively a deja vu.
Two weeks after his afternoon tea with his head of house, Harry was rubbing his neck while trying to decipher a security report. All this looking down was starting to give him neck cramps. Apparently, Malfoy had been spotted several times snooping around the seventh floor, looking for something. While he has no idea how he had learned of it, there was little doubt he had been searching for the room. Fortunately, the protections they had put around the hallway seem to have done the trick and they had yet to be discovered.
Who can find a door when the entire hallway is missing?
His musings were interrupted when someone nudged him in the sides. Tearing his eyes off the slate, he looked to his right to find Ron and Hermione, leaning against the railing of the observation deck and looking at him.
"Mate, can't you take a break for two minutes and appreciate the moment?"
"Ron's right. It's not every day you inaugurate a space station after all!"
On the other side of the force field, the impressive sight of the new Neptune station, completed at last. The entire crew had gathered on the various observation decks in small groups to see it light up for the first time.
The imposing structure was larger than the Requirement itself. Composed of two great arms shaped as opposing half circles joined in the middle by a blocky central node. Across the arms, rectangular shapes crossed the station vertically. Overall, the station had a sleek and alien feel to it, not too different from the ship itself.
"Alright, alright." Putting away his slate, Harry brought up his communication stone to his mouth. "Lee, you there?"
The response came quickly, but not from the second in command of his engineering corps.
"Yeah, he's here alright."
"Well, that really depends on your definition of 'here'. I'm pretty sure Lee's in his own personal paradise right now."
"Aaaahw, Would you just look at him? I hadn't seen him this happy since we got him that pyjama for his tarentula last year."
The twins had accompanied Lee to see to the finishing touches on the station before bringing it online, and Harry already regretted allowing their dispatch.
"Could we focus please? We have almost thirty people to impress here. How are things on your side?"
"Pretty boring for now."
"We hooked up the main generators and Lee's trying to turn them on. Once he's done we can start conjuring some air and make sure we don't have a leak somewhere."
"We've been practising some figures in zero-g in the meanwhile. Hey Fred, watch thi-Outch!"
They never got to hear the end, as Lee's mad cackle came out of the stone before going into full blown evil laughter territory.
"It's ALIVE! Muahahaha!"
Suddenly, the station in front of them came to life, its force field "windows" flaring up as the various lights on the hull lit up. After months of construction that saw the ship stuck in the planet's orbit, the Neptune Station had been completed.
Its mining operations had been designed to be fully automated and it will serve as a storage and refueling platform for the ship, freeing them from the tedious days of replenishing their stocks themselves. Embedded in the central node of the station was what Engineering had taken to call an "Industrial grade conjurator". Coupled with the numerous conjuring beams arrays built-in all along the length of the station's arms, the station would be able to take on much larger work than the Requirement's smaller model. It would also be much more robust and they'd never have to worry about the overheating problem that delayed the construction of the station again.
It will also serve as the first official D.S.F. base, a permanent presence in the solar system and a link to Earth through Hogwarts. Terry had theorised that the room of Requirement would not be able to open a door to the ship if they were to leave the system as the magical power needed to cross such distances would be beyond anything ever seen on Earth. Hogwarts is a magical hotspot at the junction of multiple ley lines, but even that is but a fraction of the power they would need.
Though the name of the station was still up to debate amongst the crew, Harry was sure they would vote on something good.
The three of them couldn't tear their eyes off the sight in front of them.
"So this is it, huum? We're really doing this." Ron said, more for himself than really asking for an answer.
"Yep... We're doing this."
"It's only the beginning. We still have a lot of work to make it habitable and start the automated production of external storage facilities. Then we'll be able to-"
"Hermione? Just enjoy the moment please." Ron asked as he put a hand on her shoulder.
Fixated as he was with the station, Harry never saw her soft smile as she took Ron's hand into her own.
"To the commissioning of Platform 8 3/4! Cheers!"
The loud rock music was drowned for a moment as the entire crew plus Clarissa Edgecomb raised their drinks and cheered. All around them, confetti and streamers were flying all around in the dim light as Weasley cold-fireworks spinned and burst overhead, lighting the room intermittently. On both sides of the room, long tables with way too many feet were crumbling under the weight of all the different dishes. Several crew members, led by Laender and Lee, had gone out on a shopping spree, bringing back all sorts of food and drinks, both muggle and magical, to fill the conjurator's databanks. Seeing Ginny's face when she tried her first cup of soda had been priceless.
All around Harry, people were talking, dancing and laughing. Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Cho flew high above on their hoverboards in an impressive aerial ballet mixed in with some daring stunts. Padma and Parvati were gushing around Lavender, trying to see every angle of the dress robe she made for the occasion. A few people were gathered around Seamus as he tried to replicate a muggle fire-breathing trick. Michael and Terry were cheering on Ernie as he tried to drink a small cask of firewhisky bottoms up. Fred and George were running away from an enraged Ginny with purple hair sticking out in every direction like a poisonous puffish.
It was pure chaos around him.
And it was perfect.
This kind of party really was more his style compared to the boring and stuffy "little gatherings" of Slughorn. The man still tried to get him to join them every other week, but the one he attended aboard the express had quickly disillusioned him. Everyone gathered in small groups, talking in whispers or trying to curry favours form the teacher and each-other while doing their best to either ignore him or to be seen sending scornful looks his way. Since then, he'd ignored every invitation the man had sent out and did his best to avoid him. They were barely a month in the semester and he already regretted helping Dumbledore recruit the man.
That's not to say everyone was going wild tonight.
Neville and Susan sat on the side, lost in a discussion about their plans for the medical section of the new greenhouses. Dean and Luna had pulled out big pots of paints from somewhere and were in the process of painting some sort of mural on the far wall while a few onlookers gave them ideas or even joined in. He could see Luna lost in her thoughts for a while as she gazed at the wall, before spreading and mixing a good dose of various colours on her butterfly palette until she obtained a bright turquoise. She then completely disregarded the large paint brushes and began to paint the wall using the palette itself.
Zacharias sat on a sofa with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands while next to him, Ron tried his hardest not to laugh. Earlier, he had heard the Hufflepuff suggest that they bring house-elves on the station to cook and do the laundry for them while Hermione was nearby. From where he watched, her drunken rant on elf exploitation and how the ship's technology would deprive them of their work anyway was beginning to resemble a university lecture and he half expected her to pull a blackboard out of somewhere.
Abandoned by her daughter who went to congratulate Cho after her performance, Clarissa Edgecombe drank by her lonesome in a corner, seemingly lost as the only real adult at the party. He supposed now was as good a time as any to get to know her. She was a part of the DSF after all, even if she wasn't part of Requirement's crew. Ruffling his hairs to get some of the confetti off it, Harry grabbed a bottle of butterbeer from a passing flying plate and made his way to her.
"Can I sit down?"
Clarissa raised her head to look at him, surprise evident on her face. She opened and closed her mouth a couple times, unsure of what to say, before she gave him a small nod. Harry fell heavily on the bean bag next to hers. They sat awkwardly for a moment as Harry tried to find a good position while Clarissa looked at him nervously, seemingly unsure of how to act around him.
"Soooo... How are you doing?"
"I... Good. I guess I'm just a bit overwhelmed."
All around them, people were dancing and partying as if there would be no tomorrow. And he couldn't blame them. News of disappearances, attacks on muggle civilians, and even dementors roaming the country had become a daily occurrence. None of which they could do something about for now. So they danced and drank to forget, even for one night.
"I can see why. But we all need to let loose from time to time."
"It's not that it's... Everything!" She exclaimed while making wide gestures encompassing the entire room. "I was still processing the fact that you had a real spaceship , and now I'm attending a teenage party on a space-station that looks like it came out of a sci-fi show. One that you didn't find, but built from the ground up."
"That we have. You're part of this too."
"And I'm thankful for the opportunity. It's just... A lot to take in."
"I understand the feeling. I was barely getting used to magic myself when we discovered all of this"
Just when he thought he finally understood magic, he discovered something that completely shattered his vision of the world with something that millions of people considered perfectly normal and part of their everyday life. And now, they had a spaceship with a galaxy's worth of knowledge and mysteries on top of that. It was a lot to take in.
Clarissa seemed to finally relax a little as she sat back, sinking in her bean bag as she took a sip of her wine.
"When I'm working in the shop, things are so quiet. It's easy to forget how crazy this whole thing is."
"Actually, I've been meaning to ask, how are things with the shop? Do you manage on your own?"
"It's going well. We even made some sales in the last month. I'm mostly spending my time talking with curious passersby or people looking for a job. If they seem interested, I take their information and resume and send them to Hannah. Though we have been getting more people coming in lately. I think the word that we're recruiting is going around."
"Hopefully we'll find someone to help you out soon."
"Well at least we're not lacking volunteers, sir"
Harry grimaced slightly at the word. He was sixteen for Merlin's sake.
"Call me Harry please. It feels weird to have someone older than me calling me that."
After that, Harry spent a good while just sitting there, talking about nothing and everything with Clarissa as the party went on around them.
On a dark and empty deck of Requirement, one of the consoles lit up on its own as the ship's main computer launched a subroutine that had not been used in a very, very long time. After a few minutes, the light died out and the deck was once again plunged in darkness, leaving no trace of any activity. Deep in the ship's database, however, the presence of an energy spike lost somewhere in the rocky mountains of the United States had been logged automatically.
"Cargo coming through! Sorry!"
Harry stuck to the wall to let the massive 'hoverplate' loaded with all sorts of glass tanks and gardening supplies Anthony was pushing through the corridor. He'd seen his fair share of the new iteration of Hermione's latest modification of her hoverboard design around the station in the last couple weeks. Wider, with a larger energy source and able to carry far more weight, those plates had been used by many of the crew to move around their equipment as they appropriated some of the empty rooms for themselves.
While they had touched up some parts of the station's blueprint, mainly by necessity of replacing the generators with something they could actually fuel, the design had been left as is. Beyond the main control room and a few others which they had reserved specifically for one department or another, a vast majority of them were unused and up for the taking.
With the exception of the twins who predictably decided to share one, each of their engineers now had an office where they could work on their personal projects in peace. They also had a giant room repurposed as a common laboratory where they could work on their more hazardous or larger projects.
Another of the large rooms had been turned into a damn jungle by Neville and Anthony. Forget greenhouses, they had several floors for different ecosystems in the same room. They had also taken over a smaller room to grow rare plants that only flourished in complete darkness or something like that. He shuddered at the memory of the devil's snare crawling its way around his ankle when he visited the room and took note to ask Neville to be careful with what he brought on board.
Ron had a field day when Seamus introduced him to some of his comic books and particular episodes of Star Trek. When he came around for his first combat training session on the station, Harry had expected the room to be filled with training dummies, a dueling platform, maybe even an arena. Instead, he discovered a recreation of Diagon Alley being blown up by Ginny's spells as Luna brought up the pavement in front of her to form a shield. Since then, Ron had used the conjurator's capabilities to build as many different battlegrounds he could think of, be they a muggle street during a storm, the Ministry's atrium or Hogwarts hallways, before disintegrating them into raw materials at the end of the sessions. But no matter the decor, the slight shimmer of a shield could be seen covering the walls, protecting the rest of the station from the destruction taking place in the room.
On the more relaxing side of things, Luna had taken one look at an observation deck and decided that she quite enjoyed the view of Neptune and its moons. The next day, they found the room covered with sitting pillows, bean bags, several telescopes and an easel. It didn't take long for the rest of the crew to join in, hanging hammocks and paintings on the walls and installing a great screen on the wall. A refrigerator they had managed to hook up to the station's power grid was filled to the brim with snacks, butterbeers, sodas and other drinks.
It quickly became the most popular hanging spot for the crew, where they could relax and catch up with each other, replacing the smaller one they had on the ship. They would all meet there at least once a week to watch a movie or one of the combat team's mock battles.
It was this room that Harry entered that morning, to find it already filled with a dozen people. On the screen, Fred was riding on his bright red hoverboard and hit a bludger, sending it toward Cho who was speeding toward the flying goal-rings. She crouched on her board and barrelled to the left, throwing the quaffle through the hoop as she dodged the iron ball. Cheers erupted in the room before the bludger hit the hoop, sending it spiraling into space. One of the players summoned back the quaffle while two others went to retrieve the missing goal as the spectators groaned at the interruption.
On the side, Lee and Terry were leaning over blueprints for those same hoops spread across a table. Taking some notes after watching the play, they started talking animatedly about maneuvering thrusters and power source and Harry quickly tuned them out. He'd read about it soon enough.
Instead, he took a bottle from the fridge and went to join the others on a sofa. For the first time in a while, he could quite honestly say that life was good.
If only it could stay that way...