Chapter 36;

Luna and I had a full house wing, as did Xenophilius. Each of the two wings were above the roof of the main house, and was a full apartment, with a rapid link to a central area of the main house. All of us used the main house for its kitchen, dining room, and family room, and hung out together there. Each of us had our own offices in our own house wing. My office and Luna's office were adjoining so we could work together.

We setup our apartment and got back to work. We saw that the non-magical governments of NATO wanted to extend NATO to Eastern Europe. This was not going to help our goal of ending regional tension in the non-magical world. We called a meeting with Starfleet US, Germany, Russia, and Kazakhstan, since each had affiliated nations in that area, or as part of NATO. We pressured them to accept a compromise where they would all become part of NATO, including Russia, Serbia, and every other nation that wanted to join. NATO itself would change its focus to prevent terrorism and disputes, and no longer be an alliance against Russia.

At the same time, we resolved an issue with the ex-Soviet republics, providing strong protections for those people who speak Russian or identify themselves as Russians. These protections would be provided by NATO and not by Russia. The same principle was extended to all ethnic minority regions of Europe, where borders once changed, but the people didn't, and applied especially, but not limited to, Albanians, Hungarians, Poles, Serbians, and the two main groups in Northern Ireland.

The changes in NATO were popular in the US, and let it decrease its military budget. Some of that savings was redirected towards space development. It was discussed that while it would be desirable for Starfleet US to push the US towards more interest in space, it was realized that every intervention, will at some point, become known to non-magicals. Therefore, interventions were now mostly to keep the peace, help economic development, and provide assistance.

In late April my mother asked us, "Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

After looking at Luna, who nodded at me, I answered, "We were going to wait until 3 months, but you seemed to have figured it out. We are expecting a baby girl around December 5th."

Luna went to Starfleet Medical. It was a facility that used the best of both magical and technological methods. Each Starfleet center had a branch, but the more difficult cases could be sent to the main branch at Starfleet Headquarters.

During the remainder of the year 1999, we expanded the staff of Section 31, with more Starfleet personnel reporting to us, and more ready to act on our behalf if needed. We were focusing on any potential conflicts between regions, or any future resentments towards magicals from non-magicals.

On December 4th it was time, and we went to Starfleet Medical. They did a very good job there, and we got to meet Renée, who we had been waiting 7 years to meet.

We were trying to figure out our new work schedules. While there were three grandparents living with us, we still felt it important for Luna to be with Renée most of the time for a while. Starfleet Headquarters had a good day care facility and also a good school for all ages under 11, in addition to Starfleet Junior Academy for about 11 to 18, although we weren't using these at this time.

We talked to Dumbledore, who was actually our boss in Section 31. After a lot of talk about Renée and talking to her over video, we asked how we should handle work arrangements. Dumbledore told us, "For the persona you need to project, you are accountable to no-one. Everyone else should be thankful that you deign to fix their timeline. If you think that, it will help you project the correct response to these thoughts.

The important thing is to every so often make a significant fix to the timeline that can be made very visible to the rest of Starfleet. What you should never do is explain time off, or where you are, or why. Some might ask how you are handling combining parenthood and work, and, if you feel the need to respond, you can cheerfully describe your mobile warded workspace, fully connected to all resources you need. You can also, and again, only if you feel the need to, appreciatively say how nice it is that your father and Tom's parents are looking after Renée."

Dumbledore gave a pretty elaborate gift for Renée; a magical moving solar system, with the moons of each planet included. Xenophilius made animated magical creatures for her to play with.

Both Xenophilius and Luna sang to Renée a lot. My parents spoke only French with Renée, and sang French songs to her. They wanted her to be fully fluent in French by growing up with them talking with her in French.

We had a lot of visitors to the house, but we didn't go out much. I went on any trips that were needed for Section 31. For New Years 2000, we stayed in, but were on alert for Y2K problems, as many other essential workers were. When we saw New Zealand and then Australia doing well after their midnight, we relaxed and assumed, correctly, that the later time zones would be fine.

Our goal for Starfleet was to keep developing technology, and then some time later, maybe 2030's emerge to our area of the galaxy as a civilization that can handle itself and deal with others as peers, not those in need of assistance or those who attract predators. Our personal role in Section 31, however, cannot just be to remain quiet for periods of years. Dumbledore showed us that we have to keep showing our relevance. He also made it clear that the accomplishments do not even need to be real, but tactically it is difficult to pull that falsehood off, so for all intents and purposes we needed accomplishments.

The first major event of 2000 that got our attention was a world-wide computer virus launched from the Philippines. The Philippines was affiliated with Starfleet Bolivia, after rejecting almost every other choice. However, the computer virus was not really something that Section 31 had much of a role in. There was no disagreement on how to handle it. Starfleet US and Starfleet Kazakhstan worked together on developing technical methods to reduce the impact and spread of computer viruses, both magical and non-magical. Starfleet Bolivia, rather brutally, went after the perpetrators of the virus, and made sure that everyone in the world knew that they wouldn't want to follow in their last footsteps.

The next event in 2000 was a major Solar storm in July. Starfleet China took the lead in developing a shield for Earth that would not only prevent damage from stronger storms, such as the one that occurred 1859, but also be a part of the planetary defense network to shield against beam weapons. Again, not much role for Section 31, since everyone agreed on what needed to be done.

Finally, we found something to intervene with. Peru was affiliated with Starfleet Japan, due to President Fujumori's Japanese background and his pressure on the magical ministry, convincing them that there would be better cooperation between the non-magical government and the magical ministry this way. There was a change in government in Peru, and the new government wanted to switch to Starfleet Bolivia, when they were told about the magical world. They said, that they didn't see any visible economic development due to their affiliation with Japan, but they did see Starfleet Bolivia helping their neighbors who were struggling with basic development, not being at the shiny high tech level of Japan. The magical ministry of Peru agreed and, after asking Starfleet Bolivia, asked Starfleet Headquarters to switch them to Bolivia.

We put together a procedure for national magical ministries to switch affiliations. We dealt with ways to transfer financial assets and obligations, ongoing research, magical infrastructure, non-magical trade agreements made or influenced by the Starfleet Directorate. We, following Dumbledore's advice, made a big deal out of how were were preventing resentments from a magical ministry towards a Starfleet directorate, and between directorates, and how each would consider all the details fairly done.

In September 2000, I was thinking, that it was exactly a year from now, but too much has changed, so not likely to be repeated. Still, it needs to be checked into. I asked Xenophilius to help me retrieve my own memories, something he's learned to do to be able to try to get obscure information from people willing to help. For instance, someone saw something in the forest, but wasn't sure what it was, and it is in an area that might have a legendary magical creature.

With me now remembering the names made public at the time, I contacted Starfleet Egypt and told them the names and what they did in another timeline. I also, brought the information to all of Starfleet, and asked for them to look into a way to prevent aircraft and spacecraft from being taken over by threat or force and then used as a weapon by crashing into targets. Since there is no need to limit the precautions to that exact threat of the other timeline, there is also the challenge of preventing electronic hacking of navigation, mental attacks on operators, and the most difficult to solve, legitimate operators of the equipment who go rogue.

Dumbledore made sure proper credit was given. We also agreed that a release of a limited vision of the aircraft flying into the twin towers and their later collapse would help get the point home. We agreed to limit the vision to close up views, since there were already differences in what other buildings were in the area, between the timelines.

During a meeting that both Luna and I were at, a little after Renée's first birthday, we got a message that she performed her first accidental magic. We rushed home just after the meeting ended, and watched the memories, and had a little family celebration. Renée operated the Solar System model that Dumbledore gave her. It was operated with magic intent, to zoom in and out of places of interest, have it move with time sped up, etc.

For magical parents, a child's first magic is far more important than their first words or steps or any other developmental accomplishment. Until that first accidental magic occurs, it is not known if they will be able to do magic.

As New Year 2001 approached, our parents convinced us to go away together, just the two of us. Luna serenely said, "I agree. The following year I won't want to be traveling much at the New Year." while squeezing my hand. My mother nodded in understanding.

We went to two New Years Eve parties, one in Kazakhstan, and then another 13 hours later in the magical district of San Francisco. In Akmola we met with our friends, The Longbottoms, the Potters, Fred and George Weasley, George's fiance who was originally from Hungary, and a few others friends who we weren't as close with. Also Vadim Morozov and his wife stopped by.

Morozov told us, "We make more room on spaceship for you now. Never will be need for spaceship, but now we can carry 1200 in stasis, and hide from most technologies."

Neville brought a salad he made with his zero-g garden. I said, "I wouldn't mind ship rations like this." Harry Potter asked, "How do you eat it in zero-g?

Neville answered, "I happened to also bring a sample of that. It has binding agents and is easy to eat with a spoon, but still has crispness." We all liked it after getting over the strange texture.

Luna asked them, "Do you still drink butterbeer or maybe firewhiskey?"

Fred answered, "We've shared that with our new friends, but they've gotten us to drink vodka. Some of them don't trust you unless you drink with them."

George quipped, "That is as good an excuse as any."

After midnight we rushed to San Francisco and went to another party with some of our Starfleet Headquarters colleagues. Oddly it was a New Years Eve party that I would have pictured happening in 1950's non-magical New York City.