AN: Got some pushback on the shepard/harry pairing. Can't say I'm not surprised. That pairing is non-negotible, sorry if that offends. I was pondering writing this as a harem fic, I suppose we'll see.
Chapter 12
"Yes ma'am." Harry said after Ash ordered him to scout ahead. He sprinted across a clearing and dove behind a rubble pile before moving out of sight.
"That feels so strange." Ash said. Garrus grinned.
"Ordering around an Admiral?" Garrus said. Ash nodded.
"I know he's inactive, but it still feels... inappropriate." Ash said. Garrus shrugged.
"I know the feeling. Technically speaking when my conscription ended, I was a Lieutenant, we'd both outrank you if we were still active. In my time in the Turian military, I found that rank is easier to buy than it is to earn, and it's clear that you earned yours." Garrus said, raising his rifle and peering through the sights. Ash blushed but said nothing.
"All clear." Harry's voice rang out over their omnitools. Ash and Garrus ran forwards and met Harry as he was slowly approaching a group of skittish looking colonists.
"Admiral! I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us!" the colonial leader, Fai Dan said.
"Retired, it's just Harry." Harry said.
"Aren't you a bit late?" a woman next to him said, she was clearly exhausted.
"I'm sorry. We came as quickly as we could." Harry said, sadly.
"No I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. We're grateful, really. My name is Arcelia Martinez." Areclia said, holding her hand out. Harry shook it.
"Harry Potter. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams is in charge of our squad, and Garrus Vakarian is our Turian friend." Harry said, pointing at Garrus.
"What's the situation?" Ash asked.
"Well after the att- GETH!" Fai Dan said, pointing up above them. Harry looked up and saw several stalkers crawling along the ceiling of the structure.
"Get your people to safety! Harry take out the stalkers, Garrus, work on that Prime!" Ash shouted. Ash exchanged her assault rifle for a shotgun and ran across the area into a group of Geth. Harry couldn't help but admire after he electrocuted the last stalker to death how graceful Ashley was in battle. Every movement she made looked choreographed, and within minutes she was surrounded by a dozen inactive Geth infantry units. His musing was interrupted by a loud crack followed by a nearly deafening explosion. He looked up to see the Prime and three Geth adjacent had been annihilated by Garrus.
"Clear!" Garrus yelled. They regrouped and approached Fai Dan who was issuing orders to several colonists.
"Is it just you three?" Fai Dan asked. Ash shook her head.
"Our commander is leading another squad ahead, we noted a huge concentration of Geth near the Exo Geni building, she is there with a biotic and a technical specialist." Ash said. Harry noticed the colonists were walking around listlessly, accomplishing their tasks almost robotically.
"Mind if I talk to some of these colonists?" Harry asked.
"Of course." Ash said. Harry walked off and approached a woman who was bleeding from her arm.
"Excuse me, ma'am. Can I help you with that?" Harry asked gesturing to her arm.
"Talk to Fai Dan. He is in charge here." the woman said in a monotonous tone. Harry frowned. That rang some alarm bells.
"I will. Just, can I please fix that?" Harry asked pointing at her arm. She shrugged, and he waved his wand, sealing the injury. The woman looked at her arm, astonished.
"What... how did you do that?" The woman asked.
"Magic... Surely you've met one of us before?" Harry asked. The woman pondered for a moment before her eyes glazed over again
"Speak with Fai Dan. He is in charge here." The woman said.
"Of course. Good day." Harry said, walking back towards Ash.
"Chief, I have a bad feeling about this place." Harry said.
"Same. They keep telling us to talk to Fai Dan." Ash said.
"Same here as well. There is a Salarian over there selling some items, but everyone else just keeps saying the same thing." Garrus said.
"I healed a woman's arm, and she acted as though she'd never seen magic before." Harry said.
"Stay alert. Ash to Shepard, can you read me?" Ash said into her omnitool. She got a garbled mixture of static and a few distinguishable signals.
"That's not good. What could interfere with Alliance military grade comms at this distance?" Garrus asked.
"Harry, send her a patronus. Let her know about the situation here and that we can't reach her." Ash said. Harry nodded and summoned Prongs.
"What is that?" Arcelia asked.
"It's a patronus... They show us this in grade school when we study the history of magic... You've never seen one?" Ash asked.
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A few kilometers, Shepard and Tali were systematically dissecting a company of Geth units while Liara sustained a barrier around the three of them with her biotics. Shepard would be sitting down with all of her marines and describing this situation to them, the combination of her long-range firearms and magic, Tali's short range firearms and hacking and Liara's biotics made them basically unassailable by the groups of standard Geth infantry units that were being thrown at them.
"-Shep- can-ead me?." Shepard heard from her omnitool, the voice sounded vaguely like Ash.
"Ash, repeat?" Shepard said. She received only static in response.
"Shit. Are there any left?" Shepard asked.
"I only see three stalkers... there were four." Tali said.
"Above!" Shepard yelled. Before she could raise her rifle, she and tali were shoved violently back by Liara's biotics. They were about to rush to her aid when the stalker stopped mid-air and began floating slowly upwards. It picked up speed until it crashed into a blue ball of biotic energy.
"I can't hold it forever!" Liara shouted. Shepard went to raise her rifle again but it was overheated, so she withdrew her wand, pointed it at the Geth and cast the killing curse. It had been on instinct, if she'd had the time to think it through she'd have used a blasting or cutting curse instead, against the artificial being. To her surprise, however, the stalker went limp and its lights dimmed.
"Huh. I'll ask Harry. Good catch Liara." Shepard said.
"Thanks. Give me a moment, my amp needs to cool down." Liara said, taking a seat on the ground.
"Tali that was amazing, never seen someone hacking with one hand while firing a shotgun in the other at the same time." Shepard said with a grin. Tali shrugged.
"Thanks, Commander." She said, she was unused to such praise. Liara jumped when an ethereal white stag pranced over to them and approached Shepard.
"Janey, the colonists here are acting weird. It's like the administrator here is a cult leader, nobody will talk to us and when I healed one of them she had no idea what magic was. On top of that I think the Geth are interfering with comms. Something's really wrong." Prongs said.
"Agreed. The Geth look like they're set up at the Exo Geni building. There's another group on the way, one of their daughters is somewhere in the building as well. See what you can find out there, we'll meet up when we can." Shepard said, before patting Prongs and thanking him. He took off back to Harry. Moments later, Prongs relayed the message and Harry and Garrus looked to Ash for orders.
"Poke around and see if you can find anything. Try to be quiet about it." Ash said. Before they could separate, they were approached by a colonist.
"Excuse me, you're alliance?" The man said, his voice breaking.
"Yes, sir. Are you alright?" Ash asked. He shook his head.
"Th-there's... I'm..." he said. Harry stepped forward and looked him in the eye.
"There's something you want to tell us." Harry said. The man nodded.
"But something is stopping you." Harry said. The man smiled and nodded enthusiastic.
"Chief, permission to perform legillemency?" Harry asked.
"That's a bit extreme, Harry." Ashley said.
"I recognize mind control when I see it, Chief. He's acting like a lot of the stronger-willed kids at hogwarts when they go through imperious resistance training." Harry said. Ash's eyes widened.
"Do you consent?" Ash asked. The man nodded frantically.
"Do it." Ash said.
"Legillimens." Harry said, pointing the Elder wand at him. He dove through his memories and saw that his thoughts resembled bubbles with blurry images, all of which were being choked by green tendrils of light. Each time he accessed one, he felt a vague sense of pain that didn't belong to him.
"I'm sorry, Ian, I'll make this quick." Harry said mentally as he dove into a specific one. He could hear screaming in the distance as he viewed the memory. It was fragmented but Harry was able to get the gist of it. He exited his mind and before Ash could ask what was wrong Harry stunned him.
"Harry!" Ash yelled.
"He's in agony. There's something on the planet, something that can control our minds. Exo Geni was experimenting it. It was trying to stop him from revealing anything to us. We need to move quickly, it knows we're here." Harry said.
"Understood." Ash said. Harry levitated Ian over to a bench and stretched him out on it. They made their way out of the colony and into what had once been a busy Prothean throughway. There were ugly gouges in the concrete, at the edge of one of the marks Harry noticed the cleanly chiseled edge of what could have been a character in the Prothean language. It was almost as though their writing had been intentionally removed from the facade.
After about a kilometer they started seeing damaged Geth littering the road, telling them that Shepard, Liara and Tali had been there. They heard arguing coming from around a corner and made their way in, only to be stopped by a man pointing a pistol at them.
"Get back!" the man shouted.
"Ethan, Commander Shepard told us there would be more of them!" A distraught woman cried.
"I don't care. We don't need any more knuckle-dragging jarheads in company business!" Ethan shouted. He gripped the pistol tightly and aimed it at Harry as he approached.
"Stay back! I'll shoot!" Ethan said.
"Ethan stop it right now!" the woman shouted.
"Put that down you idiot." Harry said. Ethan fired, and the projectile bounced harmlessly off his shield, embedding into the concrete off to his side.
"You know what's great about retirement?" Harry asked, still walking. Ethan fired several more shots, the last one penetrating his shield and slamming into his shoulder, sending a jet of blood flying behind him. Harry did not slow down. Ethan struggled to replace the heat sink but before he could, the pistol was wrenched roughly out of his hand.
"They can't court martial me for doing this." Harry said, ramming his fist into Ethan's gut. Ethan let out a rather feminine squeak before falling to the ground on all fours. A moment later he vomited, narrowly missing Harry's armored feet.
"Harry!" Ash said, running over to him.
"What?" Harry asked.
"You've been hit!" Ash said.
"No I haven't." Harry said. Ash glared at him and pointed at his shoulder. Harry looked at his shoulder and frowned.
"Oh goddammit." Harry said. He sighed and waved his hand over the injury, wincing as the projectile was pushed out of his shoulder by the rapidly closing flesh.
"Oh God I am so sorry! Are you ok?" the woman asked, rushing over to Harry.
"Yeah, no worries. Silly little pea shooter like that isn't gonna get me down." Harry said with a grin.
"That's an M-6 Carnifex! How are you even still alive?" The woman asked.
"Magic!" Harry said with a dramatic flourish.
"I'm telling Commander Shepard." Ashley said, her arms crossed, grinning.
"Oh god please don't! I'll do anything!" Harry said.