A/N: and here i am again with another chapter with the help form HowInMadeHowie. Thank you for the work and also telling me when something would not fit the setting at all.
Thanks to you readers once again for liking this story so far. Have fun and be safe
The next day, Harry said goodbye to Luna and her father as they left the castle in the early morning. When Luna asked where John was, Harry told her that he had to leave because he had some family business to take care of. Luna looked at him with a suspicious glance and looked if her father was close enough to listen. But Mr. Lovegood was far enough away talking with Michael and Yen, so Luna asked Harry quietly if John was up in the stars where he came from. He was once more surprised, but Harry knew that Luna sometimes just felt the world around her differently, being a seer and all. He just nodded and quietly told her to keep it a secret, as Callie could not tell him what to say because she was also on her way up to the Infinity.
John was sitting on a fallen log in the clearing next to the FOB in the valley next to Kear Mohen, waiting for his pickup. In the secure case next to his leg were the matrix for Harry's AI, which he was ordered to bring back to the Infinity together with Cortana to prepare for something, but he was assured that he would receive his AI back before the black op would start. He also knew that Callie should be finished about the same time, so Harry would not have to wait long before he would also be reunited with her. He received a ping on his helmet that Callie wanted to talk with him about this situation they had found themselves in, but John could not tell her why the Infinity would need both for that time he was also there. The only explanation he could think of was that they wanted to update or upgrade their processors or main matrixes for something. Maybe Captain Lasky had even got through the higher ups that Callie also needed unrestricted access to the UNSC network for the foreseeable future, but John cannot guarantee that this was possible.
"But why couldn't Harry come with us, Chief? Is he still not cleared even after he had shown that he can keep secrets as well as his friends? As a young child, it would be only natural that he would make a mistake that would result in him revealing our secret and with all the training you gave him, the possibility for that to happen is marginally slim." Callie was now projecting herself in his helmet's HUD, pouting like Cortana when something did not turn out the way she wanted to. John chuckled at the similarities from the two AIs when he noticed a sound above him and looked up. When he saw nothing, he told Cortana to scan for heat signatures when he received an encrypted message that told him to prepare to board the Pelican that was inbound to his position.
"Ah, that explains why you could not see it John, it must be a variant with active camouflage. But we should tell the R&D division that the engines can still be heard from afar, even if you can hear better than a normal human. That is a design flaw as a dog could also hear it and alert someone who is looking for us. I will file the report and send it to them, so please just follow the instructions." Cortana was working on the report when the Pelican landed in front of John and opened its hatch to allow him to board the ship.
When he stood inside the troop bay, he noticed that the seats looked more comfortable than the last time he was in one back in the war. It was obvious that peace did wonders to improve the comfort in the ships, but after a closer look John saw that all the padding could be removed in a short time. When the compartment to the front of the ship opened and the pilot came into the compartment to check if everything was alright, he froze in place when his eyes fell on the Master Chief.
John saw that he had to be a new pilot in the military, who only heard about him in stories and now stood in front of the legend. Somehow John could feel how Harry felt when the wizard's had a similar reaction to him, but just like Harry, he did not let it affect him in any way and asked the pilot if they were ready to go as he wanted to begin his mission as soon as possible. Getting himself out of his stupor, the pilot nodded and looked outside to see if there was someone else to transport to the flagship of this fleet. Seeing no one in the vicinity from the landing zone, the pilot walked back to the cockpit and started the Pelican back up after he made sure that the Master Chief was sitting secure in one of the seats bolted to the sidewall and opened the throttle so the Pelican lifted off.
He reactivated the camouflage before they were higher than the trees to hide the dropship from curious eyes just in case there were some people here. According to the FOB, sometimes there were some mountain climbers around here enjoying the view and asking themselves if the castle was really inhabited. Thankfully all the warning signs and the road up to the castle discouraged any stragglers to try and walk up to the castle before they turned back around.
When the pilot had made sure that they were high enough, he flipped the switch to change from the hovering mode to the flying mode and climbed to the sky with great speed. John was still sitting in the back, feeling how the inertia shifted around him and soon he felt how his weight did not affect him as much anymore as it did on Earth as they had left Earth's atmosphere, at least before the gravity generator was activated. He really hated those zero-gravity situations as he could not use his full ability in an emergency without risking spinning out of control and drifting through space. As long he was in his armor, he was still safe he knew that much. But during the war, one of his brothers was catapulted into space by a needler, which was shot by a Jackal and hit his thrusters from the jetpack he had worn, causing him to fly away uncontrollable. As they had to leave the space battle in space soon after they had finished destroying all the navigational data, John had to come to terms that his brother was a lost cause.
Cortana knew who he meant in his thoughts, as she was also present at that time on board the Pillar of Autumn, an old warship. But the old girl did survive the battle of Reach, just to serve as a makeshift bomb when they had to destroy the Halo Installation 04 to keep the Flood from escaping it. After all those years, she was still afraid that that parasitic life form was still somewhere out there, but no scanners ever had found any more since the battle for the Ark. She still shivered about this fight against the remnants of the Covenant and the Flood infested Covenant station High Charity arrived just above it to take control of the Ark. She somehow was happy that their plan worked when they had fired an unfinished Halo array that the Ark had constructed by itself when Installation 04 was destroyed and put an end to the Flood on it, but she would have liked it more when the other Halo installations had not some Flood specimen for experiments stored with the risk to release them once again, just like it happened on Installation 05 because of a failed containment protocol.
Callie noticed how sad Cortana looked in the digital space those two shared when they came out of the atmosphere of Earth and checked all the vital signs from the occupants, maybe something was not right with John. She bumped into a firewall, telling her that she was not authorized to see those vitals and reports from John's past. Callie recognized the digital fingerprint from Cortana, so she left it be like it was. There had to be a reason why she could not see the correct numbers, but at least Callie saw that he was healthy.
Callie then looked at another message that was in her inbox, something that made her smile a bit. It seems that Captain Lasky had succeeded in compelling the High Command that Harry would be cleared to come to the Infinity when he was finished with his own mission down on Earth. Callie knew what that entailed, as the basilisk was still under the castle and Harry would need all the preparation he could make, and a visit to the Infinity now would only distract him from it. She also saw that Harry could test out the Sabre when he would arrive, so she was sure that Captain Mitchell, callsign Maverik, had also pulled some strings to make that happen, but that was a rather small thing when you would think that the UNSC did allow a child from another planet board their flagship of the fleet.
John looked up at his visor's HUD when he saw that Cortana was looking a bit distraught. Thinking back on what could have caused Cortana to behave like that, he found nothing except the thought on how he remembered the battle over Reach, and then it hit him. She remembered all the battles since then, even when she had told him to leave her back on High Charity to make sure that the Flood would not take control of the Covenant station. Something she failed on, but in the end, everything came out when they landed on this world through the portal that pulled them here. John wished he could think of something to say to calm his partner down, but he remained silent as the Pelican reached its destination.
They soon were flying to the dark side of the moon, where the ships from the UNSC were hidden from this Earth's telescopes and even were escorted by some Sabres towards the landing bay in the Infinity.
As they landed on the deck, John was told that he should bring his AI to the R&D department and then report to the captain with the rest of the Red team. John nodded and climbed on board of a Warthog, which was used to travel in this giant ship in a speedy fashion.
Back on Earth, Doctor Halsey sat at her computer as the message from Callie and Cortana arrived. She smiled when she saw that they arrived safely on the Infinity and that Callie would give her all the details about her upgrades when she was returned. Catherine was curious how they would implement those hard light projectors in the main matrix and the armor that was in development for Harry, but that new armor still needed a few more years to complete so Harry would not be hindered using his magic in a fight. According to her studies on the runes in this world, they could even advance the other Spartans Armor if the Project GUNGNIR would be a success.
Out in the grounds, Harry stood in front of an obstacle course wearing the armor he received this morning after the Lovegood's said their goodbyes and the Commander helped him into it, as it was complicated when you would do it for the first time. He could feel the weight from the metal composite in his body and thought that he would need a bit of time to get used to it. He could not jump as high as he was used to even when he used more strength than he would have usually used.
"Why don't you use your magic to enhance your body? That would solve so many problems you have now." Palmer stood next to him and instructed him to use the armor to his best ability, but at this question Harry turned towards her with an angry look in his eyes.
"Commander, just for your information, I am still 12 years old. Even if I could control my magic so precisely to strengthen my body without a wand, I would not know how I should do that. We did not have the class about human transfiguration yet, so trying now would only be risking my health. No, I would rather try it the old-fashioned way and train with it. Now if you would please watch the time when I start, I would be delighted." Harry did not know why he did not respect her as much as John or the other Spartans, but something about this woman rubbed him the wrong way. He was thinking that this could also be a test on how good he could see through people, and she was only acting like she was such a snob. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, he finished his warmups and walked over to the start of the easiest obstacle course and did begin to run through it. When he climbed up the rope, he could feel how much heavier he was with the armor, but at the same time he did not feel more exhausted while doing it.
When he ran over the finish line, he wanted to ask Callie for the time when he remembered that she was with John right now. A bit gloomy because he missed her already, he turned to the commander with an expectant look. Showing him the stopwatch with the time on it, Palmer told him where he lost the most time in this run. But as Harry was still getting used to the armor, she decided that it was now time for some combat training. As they stood in front of each other, both with a wooden sword in their hands, Harry soon saw what it meant to be in a real fight. Palmer did not hold back at all; she exploited every small mistake he made with brutal efficiency. Geralt would do that too, but he would stop as soon as Harry would be pushed to the ground, but Palmer was swinging her sword towards him, so he had to roll out of the way before he stood back up. "That is the spirit boy, an enemy will not stop until one of you is dead. Neither would an enemy not wait for you to get back up, so we will train as long as it is needed for you to not fall on your back regardless how hard he can hit you. And just for your reference, if the Master Chief really had used his full strength against you a lot, all I would find right now would be a bloody mess." As she told Harry this, he could swear that her tone sounded like she was disappointed in him and the others, like John, would just stay here because they were weak. To protect them.
Palmer was getting annoyed at the weak little child she should be training while the Master Chief was on another mission. She was a good soldier and followed orders, but she could not understand what was so special about this boy. He refused to listen to her and made no improvement whatsoever since they had started this morning. According to her information he should be a fast learner, but until now she did not see it. She then was surprised when she heard him laugh, telling her that he would not know how the armor would react if he had started at full tilt from the beginning.
"Now please excuse me Commander, but I had not used this power often so if you land on your behind or have to take some steps back, remember that you asked for it." Harry changed his fighting stance with the wooden sword, holding it with both hands on its pommel right next to his head while pointing its tip directly towards the Commander. She was now intrigued, as she could see that this stance did not offer many openings to attack, but she did regardless.
Harry blocked her overhead swing, letting her wooden blade glide it from his own to his side and checked her side with his full weight, just to crouch down afterwards and swiping her leg to make her stumble a bit before he used his momentum to stand back up and just stops his sword some millimeters from her neck. He could see the surprise in her eyes, as she had obviously underestimated him. They both then heard someone laughing, as this person walked down to them and then stopped just some steps away from them.
"Well lady, your oh so strong Master Chief was also on the ground because he thought that he could beat us easily enough without even trying. But us Witcher's seemed to be much faster than you with your fancy armor as well. We have much more experience fighting even bigger monsters then you would be equal to, so how about you apologize to our young one and try harder next time? Or do you want to see firsthand how a Witcher spars?" Harry turned towards the voice, greeting the other Witcher that was frequently in this castle together with his wife, when they needed some time to heal.
"Hey Lambert, how was your hunt for that vampire?" Harry put his wooden sword away after helping the Commander back on her feet as best as he could. Lambert just shrugged his shoulders, saying that it was not a strong vampire that was terrorizing that small village he was from. Just some low Ekimma that was easily dispatched by his sword and the magic from his wife, who now also came down to the courtyard and stopped right next to Lambert.
Keira Metz was like Yen and Triss, a sorceress. So, she looked much younger than she was in real life, but when you looked at her gray/white hair from behind you could be forgiven for calling her an old lady, even if her posture was still that of a young woman. It was not the first time Harry met her, but they were gone for some time on this contract. After they had introduced themselves to the Commander, Palmer asked Lambert if he now would show her how Witcher's are meant to spar. Lambert just shrugged his shoulders and told Harry that he should take his sword again and train against him.
Harry stood before Lambert in the same stance he did before with Palmer, just as Lambert took the same stance. Palmer thought that this had to be the normal fighting style for those Witcher's when Harry and Lambert lunged at each other, clashing their swords and almost immediately both did the same thing that Harry had done to Palmer before. Ending in a flourish of swings, both Witcher's stood opposite from each other. Palmer had to admit, this speed was something that not every Spartan could keep up in close quarter combat. But after analyzing the movements, she saw some flaws the young boy still made that she could exploit in the training to show him that he still had much to learn.
Back up in space, John was now walking without his armor towards the office of the captain and his officers, meeting the rest of the Red team on his way. After they had opened the door, all the Spartan II's saluted the people inside and the last one closed the door behind him. Captain Lasky returned the salute and told them to relax. He then switched on the giant display behind him and stood before it, looking at the people before him. "Let's begin the briefing Spartans. Your mission is strictly information gathering without being seen by anyone inside the British magical ministry. For this, you will be equipped with the newest stealth technology that we have to offer. Now for the target we want you to acquire, inside the building you will infiltrate are rooms our agents don't have access to, and we just can't get one in. According to ONI, to get hired by the Department of Mysteries you will be checked almost as thoroughly as we do check our officers, so many agents had to return quickly before being caught and put behind bars for falsifying official documents. But what we could find out until now, they do not see anything invisible, being it human or robot but it is too deep underground so we cannot use a remote-controlled robot to make it easier for us. Your contact inside the Ministry will be this woman." Lasky pushed a button on his remote control to show the Spartans the picture of the secretary for the Minister, Mrs. Smith. "She will wait until you are ready to install all the cameras needed inside the Department of Mysteries, as we need them wired up to make sure we have the best possible signal to our ship. She will show you around the Ministry while you pose as a foreign delegation to see how they worked. If the possibility happens that you also will meet the Minister himself, make sure that you can bug his office so we will be informed on what is going on inside his office. She will have the receiver for the bug itself so she can relay what will be discussed inside the office, but she has no reference to where she should place the bug. Every time she enters the office, Minister Fudge sits on his desk, sometimes even in the company of Lucius Malfoy, another target we need to get more information about. So, if you can put a bug in his clothes without him noticing and then giving us the frequency from this device, that would accelerate our plan to get him behind bars sooner. The agent we have on him cannot be around him 24/7, so that would take some pressure from his shoulders. Any questions?" Captain Laskey turned around to look at the Spartans who, except for John, only wanted to know when the operation would begin.
"Captain, I must ask that you return the AI Callie that I had transported up here back to Doctor Halsey, as she wants to see what your scientists came up with. Also, while we are on this mission, I understand that one of us must leave his armor behind, and as I could be recognized from someone who finished school in the last 10 years and working at the ministry, I suggest that myself and Douglas-042 will equip the stealth armor and follow the other two who play the foreign delegation and placing the devices we have already at hand in key areas. As for the backstory, I would suggest that they came from my home country in case someone asks them if they know me, giving their height. This way, we could evade suspicion and look at the rooms that need those cameras and how many of those we would need. After we made all the calculations, Cortana can send you the required numbers on surveillance equipment. If that is all, we will prepare to descend to earth in a dropship and begin this mission as soon as possible." John stood firm just as he was trained to do and refrained from giving too much information, in case not everyone here would know that he meant Callie being returned to Harry. Captain Lasky nodded and said to John that he will see that it will be done.
When Christmas arrived on Earth Harry walked down to the main hall of the castle feeling a bit sore from all the training he did with Palmer. She had shown some useful techniques he could do with a battle knife in case a sword was too long to fight effectively. Luckily for him the sword was quick in changing shape when Harry needed it, so he could change from mid-range to close range in a second. He also felt more powerful from the kind of strength training the commander made him do; using other equipment he was used to until now. He would have to ask John if they could make a real gym inside of Hogwarts so he could continue this training regime. But before that could happen, John had to return from his mission, which according to Doctor Halsey took way longer than they had expected. She could not tell Harry for what John and his comrades needed all this time, as she was ordered to keep it secret until John would return after finishing the job, to make sure that there was no leak on this mission.
Harry hoped that Callie would soon return back to him, he missed her remarks on what happened inside this castle or the letters he received from Hermione and Daphne, even if he did not know why he missed his friends besides from the talks he had with them that made him laugh. In her last letter, Daphne had told him that they were in southern France and hoped that they would go in the summer next time, as the view they had was magnificent; based on the pictures she had sent to him with the letter. She even had one that showed her together with Tracey with the sea in the background and as it was usual with magical pictures, they moved inside it and waved at him.
Hermione on the other hand sent in her letters some questions about their homework, asking him if he had the same conclusion and if it would be possible to write even more. But when she was not studying, not even reading a book, she had watched some Christmas movie with her parents and was happy that she could spend some time with them as she had missed them over the term with all that had happened in Hogwarts. But she was glad that there were no more attacks, as Ron had written her in a letter it was quiet in the castle. Harry asks himself why Ron did not write to him, as Ron could use a school owl to send him letters so the old Errol could rest up as much he would need.
Together with those letters he also received the Christmas gifts from the girls and Harry had placed them under the tree, which Lambert had placed in the main hall. Harry could wait until this evening to open them, as he thought that there would be more gifts for them to open today.
As Harry sat down at the table, he heard a tired hoot from the window and looked up. Seeing the old owl next to a worried Hedwig and Sarina, who had a small mouse in her beak to present the old owl. Harry was thinking how he could help the Weasleys and decided right then that he would send Hedwig with a letter to the Eeylops in Diagon Alley with an order for a new owl that should be sent to the Weasley family as a Christmas gift. Taking the parcel from the old owl, he thanked him and told it that it should take a breakup where the others were and heard another thankful hoot from him. Harry then walked over to his desk to grab some writing supplies and penned the letter with the wishes for the store and gave Hedwig the letter and explained to her what he wanted her to do, just so she would not misunderstand his intention. Hedwig, the smart owl she was, nibbled his finger affectionately and took flight towards London. Harry smiled at his good deed that he had done today when he heard Ciri calling him over to the table.
The rest of the day they trained until dark together with a glaive, as Harry had changed Gryffindor's sword into one and saw that it had some benefits to fight in midrange in comparison to a javelin, which he could throw and was more of a weapon right between mid and long range, where he would use his pistol before he would use a rifle. The problem right now was that Harry did not know how big the Chamber of Secrets was, so they had decided that he should concentrate right in that range his glaive and pistol provided so he would not be bitten by that basilisk. A small incident while wearing the armor had shown them that he was protected, but a direct hit with one of its fangs would make short work destroying the armor plates and then he would not have any protection left form another bite.
Palmer now had to admit that Harry was a very quick learner and proved why the Master Chief invested so much time into his training, as he could now keep up with her when she used her armor at 50%. That this was much more than a normal human should be capable of, she now was fully involved into preparing him for the fight ahead.
When the evening finally arrived, Harry saw that there were more gifts, just as he had thought it would happen. Soon he was in front of all those parcels with his name on it, hoping that he had not forgotten a friend himself. He took the one from Hermione first, as he was sure that it was a book for him to read. To his surprise, it was one he could use in the future, as the title for the book was Advanced Dueling Techniques and Quick Counters; it described all the dueling techniques in great detail. He would ask Professor Flitwick if that really worked what he had read about the shield charm being cast on the arm of the caster and could be used this way like a real shield back in the Middle Ages.
Daphne's gift was something she must have found in France, as it would not be out of place in a gift shop in a tourist place. He looked at the small armband, he saw that it had some small items attached to it that all had something to do with Quidditch. On a card attached to it, she wrote that they had visited a professional game and she was sure that Harry would have liked it too.
His other friends had sent him some sweets to snack on or in case of Fred and George some prank items to use in the future on, and he would quote them when he would use it, to make the life of his favorite Slytherin rival a bit more interesting. Placing them back on the pile with the other gifts, he saw that Lambert sat there with a new hat from his wife, while Keira had a beautiful new necklace around her neck.
Harry then got the gifts from his foster family, as he opened the parcel from Yen and Geralt, according to the card on it. It was a small leather pouch that he could carry on his belt under the school robes and store his writing supplies in, but there was also a small compartment in it where he could place his sword in the switchblade form, so it would be always nearby in case he would need it in an emergency.
Another gift was another surprise for him, as it contained the main matrix for Callie as well as some small device that could only be from Doctor Halsey and also fitted well in the pouch he got from Yen and Geralt. "Ah, I see that you have come to our gift Harry. As you like the James Bond movies so much, I decided to make a small device that will become useful. It is a small pen that you could also use as a listening device when you turn the clip around and then remove the microphone. In the same compartment of this pen is the receiver you can place in your ear; the range is almost a whole mile in case you would need it for that distance. I hope you will use it wisely." Catherine smiled at Harry with a happy smile, when Callie activated her own projector and showed herself to Harry in other colors then just blue. Some of the upgrades she had gotten seemed to include a better projector for her avatar and smiled at Harry, when she also changed her own height and was now as big as Harry was.
"Hello Harry, hope you like my changes. Cortana can do the same when she and John return, so when we are in private, we can talk as normal as two people can, meaning that we can talk at the same eye level." Callie smiled at him and the others in the hall, as the festivities came to a close. The other upgrade Callie had received, while she was on the Infinity, she decided to show it only if it was necessary as it used almost all the energy her matrix could store in a day.
The rest from the winter break were used to train Harry in the different fighting styles with the sword or the javelin, while the Commander focused on the shooting range and hand to hand combat. Harry now was almost as good at shooting with his left hand as he was with his right hand, so he could use the sword and the pistol at the same time if necessary. When he arrived in King's Cross, he looked for his friends, as Commander Palmer left together with Triss, so she could take a picture of the grounds for herself.
"Honestly, why she will not believe me and my holographic map is beyond me, maybe she has something against AI that came from Halsey? I mean, she works just fine with the AI on board the Infinity." Callie ranted on, and as Harry finally got the clearance to visit the Infinity, she could also tell Harry about all the things that would await him next summer.
"HARRY, OVER HERE!" Hermione called her friend over to where she stood, as she had already secured a compartment with the others. Harry did run over to his friends with his bag thrown over his shoulder and was preparing himself for the next term in Hogwarts.