Chapter 23:

It was September 1st, 1995, and I was starting my 5th year at Hogwarts. On the train, those of us who were friends with Hermione were playing with our enhanced communications mirrors. It could not only do live video calls, as the original canon one did, but also leave video messages when a call wasn't answered, and send instant text messages. A keyboard would appear in part of the mirror when called for. It was also designed to interface with the still in development, Kazakh-PC Magic 1. That would resemble the non-magical PC's.

Hermione was telling us that the interface between the magical and non-magical internets was being held up by the ICW standards committee, to make sure that knowledge of magic cannot find its way to anyone not cleared to know about it.

I asked her, "Is it like the .magic domain or something like that?"

Hermione answered, "No, we cannot even share the same data channels. Non-magical intelligence would soon find the anomaly. The original magic mirrors already have a good bandwidth. So, we have our own magical physical and data link layers. Then, we can use the same transport layer, and all the layers above it, as the non-magical world does. So, the same type of internet, but completely separate."

Fred and George Weasley showed some of their joke products, but deflected with jokes any discussion about what they actually did for Starfleet.

At the welcoming feast, Remus Lupin was still the Defense Against Dark Arts instructor, and surprisingly Griselda Marchbanks was still the Professor of Advanced Studies. A new face was there, an old man with many scars, but not as many as Mad-eye Moody. He was introduced by Dumbledore, "Please welcome Bryne Moyle. He will teach the mandatory class, Wizarding Army Training for all 6th and 7th years. He will not be staying in the castle, but will be here every Saturday between 9am and 12 noon for this class."

Bryne Moyle spoke, "There are new threats on the horizon, and the Ministry has decreed that every witch and wizard who has passed their OWL's shall be ready to do their duty for their country. The class will mostly be practice. I expect everyone in my class will have read chapter 1 of the book they were issued by the first class which will be on Saturday 9th of September."

In October, we met with Dumbledore, he filled us in on what was happening at the ICW. "Japan's demand was accepted, which means that similar ones from China, India, a coalition of European ministries led by Germany, a coalition of African ministries headquartered in Dakar Senegal, Russia, California in the US, and Kazakhstan. Each are getting, or have, their own Starfleet directorate, and the approval to integrate magic into their non-magical economies. For now, it is without revealing magic beyond a small number of people.

Other magical ministries can participate under the guidance of one of the directorates. Most of East Asia has affiliated itself with the California directorate, not the Japanese. The Indochina ministry has affiliated itself with Khazakhstan, Indonesia and Burma are so far independent. Thailand is leaning toward the US. Some of East Africa has affiliated with India, a few with Kazakhstan.

I have taken to heart what you asked for during the summer. There should be a way to regularize your roles of channeling your information about Star Trek to help guide developments. I'm trying to find a way where mutual oaths would be given, enough from you to prove that you are given accurate information. I'm also looking into having this Section 31 have an actual budget, not just a charter, so both of you could be part of it without needing an additional career."

Later when Luna and I talked, I commented, "This phase is going too easily. I'm wary."

Luna replied serenely, "We still could be wiped out in a world war of non-magicals against wizard-kind."

I said, "Getting the results of what happens right, might be very difficult. It is the gaining influence that seems too easy."

She replied, "It is a superpower of Dumbledore. When we can convince him, he can convince others."

I added, "The other fanfictions involving future or canon knowledge, tended to ignore this. The main character would generally be trying to fight Voldemort, at the same time as trying to prevent Dumbledore from interfering in their plans."

Luna asked, "What were they trying to prevent?"

I answered, "Many believed that Dumbledore engineered events so he could lead Wizarding Britain in a post-Voldemort era. That he expected Harry Potter to die, and even tried to make sure that happened.

He arranged things so that the Ginny, Ron, and Molly Weasley would end of with the Potter fortune. He also had been preventing Harry Potter from accessing the main Potter assets, and even might have been taking wealth, and priceless objects from him, without him knowing about it. Some go further and say that not only did he know that Sirius was innocent, but that he helped arrange the deaths of the Potters."

Luna added, "So they considered that there were two dark lords to fight."

I added, "Yes, and usually relied on the Goblins to provide a third force to counter the other two."

Luna asked, "So why did you choose to rely on Dumbledore?"

I answered, "I gave him a reason for him to be wary of me. I asked him what he thought Q would do if my role in this story stopped being interesting.

Then, most of the bad Dumbledore fan theories involve him being after the greater good, with more hubris than evil intent. He would sacrifice allies, true, but generally with some notion of it being for the greater good."

Luna added, "Some say he would sacrifice allies to give enemies a second chance."

I continued, "He might be a little messed in the head due to his history involving Grindelwald, and also what happened to his sister Ariana.

In any case, his national and international influence makes him an invaluable resource. I took the approach of listing many of these fan theories to him, implicitly saying that I was watching how he responded to information I gave him, but then did not try to press him on admitting or denying any of the fan theories. As far as I was concerned is if he and I could work together, it didn't matter how bad or not, he was in the past."

Luna added, "Don't forget that with the removal of Voldemort, he might be the most powerful Wizard on the planet."

I agreed, "Which might keep some from violently opposing him. Also, the direction things are taking with magical and non-magical relations, is almost exactly what he himself advocated as a youth. We are kind of on the same page, and we ourselves are willing to be ruthless when needed."

Luna added, "In the Original series, when asked if his father, Sarek, could have committed a murder, Spock said, "Vulcans do not approve of violence." but then when asked if that meant that Sarek couldn't have done it, he clarified, "I'm merely saying it would be illogical to kill without reason." Then asked what if he had a reason, Spock said, "If there were a reason, he is quite capable of killing, logically and efficiently." So, even following Vulcan logic, if we can prevent a world war, we can use ruthless means to do so."

I said, "But we are not following the philosophy of the ends justify the means."

Luna answered, "Agreed. Doing so, winds up having the means become the ends. What we are advocating is much more limited, where if we can prevent great harm, we use our abilities to do so. However, we are mindful of our means, and use the least harmful ones that can resolve the situation."

I added, "If we actually do succeed, and do create Section 31, and someday are ready to pass leadership of it to younger generations, we must make sure that there is an ironclad set of guidelines to how Section 31 will operate."

We heard from Harry Potter who heard from Andromeda Tonks, that there have been some interesting developments within the Slytherin House. Caddius Warrington, who in canon was a member of the Inquisitorial Squad this year, was instead giving impassioned speeches in favor of the British Wizarding Army to his fellow members of Slytherin.

As winter break approached, Dumbledore asked Luna and I to accompany him on a trip to San Francisco. My parents and Luna's father were coming. Xenophilius said that he would only see things that were not secrets so he could publish about anything he saw. He also wanted to track down a legend in a former gold mining area. And he wanted to investigate if the Miwok medicine men were responsible for persistent fogs delaying Spanish discovery of the Golden Gate by over a century. My parents were looking forward to touring the wineries in the region near San Francisco.

We arrived at a MACUSA international portkey arrivals area. Starfleet did not get its own arrival area that bypassed MACUSA. We were asked several questions, and were reminded of some MACUSA laws. Then we portkeyed to Starfleet Headquarters located under the Presidio in San Francisco. I supposed when they can be public, they'll expand to southernmost Marin county and above ground in the Presidio.

Our parents went on a public tour of the facility, while Dumbledore, me, and Luna, went to a meeting room. It was a high-tech meeting room. Lighting was from solid panels. There was a wall sized viewscreen. You could see the PC running it, which was a Gateway Destination 2000. It looked pretty advanced for 1995.

At the meeting, there were the 8 regional directors of R&D, and Peter Quahog the overall head of Starfleet. The American regional director of R&D, Ace Castillo, was also the acting head of Starfleet Academy. Various operational directorates were left unfilled, until there would be more operations in space. Albus Dumbledore was the head of Section 31.

We all agreed to oaths. Luna, I, and Dumbledore pledged that what we were going to say was true to the extent we knew. The others, that the source of what we said were not to be repeated to anyone, meaning that they would disclose that Luna and I were the source of information. They also agree that what we said was only to be disclosed to limited numbers of Starfleet personnel with high levels of clearances.

Luna presented first, which probably surprised most of the people in the room. "Tom Picard and I have been given unique information about possible future timelines, and about the present day disposition of some extraterrestrial civilizations, and some information about what future technologies are possible.

There are different future timelines we are aware of, but each has the near elimination of Wizard-kind, and huge losses by non-magicals, before a much later future where humanity successfully takes its place among the stars."

I continued, using the subtle enhancements of my voice to add bass notes, "The organization to enforce Section 31 of the charter will push the timeline onto better outcomes. ANY means, I repeat ANY, will be used to prevent disasters to Wizard-kind or non-magicals of Earth. We will together deal with the challenges that other advanced space societies will bring."

Luna continued more serenely, "The disasters in the known timelines were caused by leaders of enhanced nations fighting against each other, then the non-magical humans destroying those that they saw as being born with superior abilities, with all the weapons at their disposal."

I continued, "The timelines are not identical to what exists now, but close enough to have the same outcomes. Therefore, we cannot allow any fighting between wizard-run nations. We also need to be wary of any treatment of non-magicals that could lead to revolts against magicals. Any questions, so far?"

Ace Castillo asked, "Were you behind the operation that removed the Death Eaters and Voldemort in Britain?"

I answered, "Yes. We provided the information that derailed the timeline that would have led to Wizarding war within Britain that would have lasted for years and caused many deaths. The operation itself was a group effort with many people involved."

The Russian director asked, "We are now to believe that you have all the answers?"

Luna answered, "For some things. Or more accurately, knowledge of certain futures, and other unique information."

Dumbledore added, "In the fight against Voldemort, Mr Picard and Miss Lovegood had information that noone else even suspected, but which turned out to be exactly correct. I also have knowledge of where this information comes from, which we cannot reveal at this time. That knowledge is unique to them and gives them extraordinary insights, including of extraterrestrials."

Starfleet head Peter Quahog spoke, "This is a getting to know each other meeting. We will switch to the reception room. We will have later sessions to go over specific technologies and information about extraterrestrials."

Director Vadim Morozov came up to us and said, "I knew there was more to the two of you than you let on. I was going to offer you two jobs. Now it turns out I work for you."

Luna answered, "We all work for Earth."

Peter Quahog spoke to Dumbledore, "I can see why you were so insistent in looking into proof of extraterrestrials."

Dumbledore replied, "If you hadn't found what you did, I had some ideas to reveal the extraterrestrials that even now are watching us. However, we were constrained to not reveal to them that we knew about them, until we as a planet are strong enough to dissuade our various space neighbors from attacking Earth. Some are friendly, some are aggressive when they perceive a threat, some are predatory. The ones watching us have specific triggers that would lead to open contact."