As the Sunday dragged on, they sat in silence in the library until lunch when they put the books they took back into the respective shelves and thanked madam Pince for her patience on a Sunday no less. The small group of students walked through the corridors and talked with each other, Harry in front of the girls as he felt it was right. John called it "taking point" was the safest way to make sure that nothing would happen to his friends. And yes, he saw them as such, as they just accepted him as a normal boy and not as a celebrity because he survived somehow when Voldemort tried to kill him. What was strange for him was, that the others seemed to be afraid to even speak his name even after all these years.
Daphne tried to explain it to him, but he then asked why they should be afraid of someone who is supposed to be dead. As he said that, almost all the others stood still in shock or in awe, depending on their own background. While the magical raised where shocked that someone could say something like that and mean it. But he was right, Voldemort was supposed to be dead and even as he had done so many evil deeds, he could not do them anymore.
"Well, if you say it like that it seems really dumb for us to still fear him. It will not be instantaneous, but I try to call him by his name in the future. But, if you don't mind me asking, how can you do it so easyily?" Daphne was now walking beside Harry, leaning a bit to the front to look him in his eyes.
Harry just shrugged. "I think it has something to do with the fact that the people I grew up with did not call him like the others do. They always called him Voldemort. So, I just adopted it. And my foster parents always told me to never be afraid of a name, instead trying to see why everyone else was afraid and how you could overcome this fear."
The girls were once more flabbergasted as Harry once more took the lead form the small group.
As they got on the floor where the Great Hall was, they saw a group of students in the colors of Slytherin standing before the entrance. They were not looking at them, so Harry signaled the girls to be silent and to just go into the Great Hall, then he saw out of the corner of his eye that one of the students was now pointing at him.
Out of habit he turned around, his back to his friends and ready to defend them. Callie automatically began to calculate the danger levels in case Harry would need to fight. She also alerted Cortana, just in case they would need John to defuse the situation that was developing. She got a ping from Cortana, a sign that they were on their way.
In the Great Hall, Hermione and Daphne noticed that Harry was still outside in the entrance hall, so they turned around and walked back to the door, to their surprise it was getting closed.
"HARRY!" both called, getting the attention of the other students in the Great Hall as well the teachers which sat at their table. McGonagall and Snape sprung up and ran towards the door, wands raised. Hermione looked to both sides of the Great Hall along the door, seeing two Slytherin students in front of it, pale like ghosts. Snape was the first who arrived, asking them why they closed the door.
"Please forgive us Professor, but they told us that you ordered for Potter to be punished for his foul mouth about our house. But by your reaction, we guess they lied." The Slytherin students stood aside quickly, as Snape opened the door.
As soon as they saw outside, they saw Harry jumping and evading spells from the older students, as a red flash flew by them into the Great Hall, which was stopped by another teacher before it could hit a student. As Harry noticed the open door, he jumped away from it so the spells aimed at him would not fly into the Great Hall. And now as he had witnesses that he was attacked first, he was going from the defense into the attack and ran towards his attackers, still evading the stunning spells thrown at him.
While he did that, McGonagall and Snape cast shields to pull the students apart. After a short time, Harry had one student in a full nelson while Snape stood with others by one side of the entrance and McGonagall on the other side.
"Why did you attack me? What have I done to deserve this behavior from all of you?" Harry, to the surprise of the bigger student, could hold him down rather easily.
"You talked bad about us, all of Slytherin, all the pureblooded wizards. You, as an heir of House Potter befriending a muggle-born is against everything we stand for. We take it as an offence and are therefore honor bound to punish you." He told Harry with a hateful tone in his voice.
Harry just held him down until the teachers told him to let him go. Harry then walked away backwards until he bumped into someone. He looked over his shoulder and saw Ron, looking angrily at the Slytherin students for tricking Harry it seemed. Harry turned back around to address the other students, but McGonagall got to them first and told them off.
"And as you attacked a student from my House, it is my duty to inform your parents about your behavior. Also, that will be 20 points from every one of you for attacking another student outside the dueling club and you all will get detention next weekend for both days. Severus, please escort them to their common room." McGonagall was looking furious, causing the Slytherin students shiver with fear.
Snape nodded and pushed them in front of him down to the dungeons, saying something like the old ways needed to be left in the past, McGonagall looked now to Harry and asked if he was hurt. After a short no, she let him into the Great Hall as lunch was still underway. Harry thanked her and with an angry Ron behind him walked up to Hermione, Lavender and Parvati as Daphne and Tracey whereby the Slytherin table watching him. On the same table was also an angry Malfoy, as his hopes for Potter to be injured were dashed.
Harry sat down with his friends, putting the food on his plate and began to eat. Ron seemingly took the duty to watch out if they would be attacked again, even as Harry told him that he should relax, he could watch out for himself. Ron just shrugged and began to eat, once more lacking the table manners of a normal human being. The other four scrunched their noses and just ignored it, eating their lunch in peace. Soon after, John stood behind him and waited until he was finished. Harry knew instinctively that it was about the situation before, so he hurried to eat enough until dinner and stood up, telling the others that he will meet them later.
In John's office, Harry took Callie's matrix out of his robe and placed it next to the main holo-table, where Cortana was already projected and letting her talk with Callie as he knew that she had recorded the incident.
"Well, Harry. I heard from Professor McGonagall as I arrived by the entrance hall that you fought the other students. As I'm also sure that your AI did record it, I wanted to hear your report how that happened." Harry stood straight, as John liked to do himself.
"I came back with my friends from the library, and we decided to get something to eat from the Great Hall, so we walked together down to the entrance hall when I noticed the other students standing on the side of the door. We did think nothing of it, so we walked past them as they turned towards me, one had already a wand in hand. So, I turned too and let the girls going into the Great Hall where I was sure they would be safe. I noticed the door closing as the first spell flew towards me, which I evaded, and it impacted an old suit of armor. The other students than took out their respective wands and began to cast different spells, which I evaded too, or at least most of them." Harry then took of his robes and lifted his shirt, where a big red mark could be seen.
"It felt like I was hit by a wild boar, but as I was not bleeding, I thought that I could power through, so I focused on evading the other spells as the door opened once more and Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall came out of the Great Hall. Seeing that the situation changed, I changed my approach and pushed forward so I could get a student and ask him why they would attack me. I think you know the rest."
Harry finished his report as John came around the table with a first aid kit and looked at the red mark on Harry's chest. He took out a scan tool from the kit, looking at the display as it was scanning Harry, watching for broken bones. As there were none, he then took out a paste to apply it on the mark, which caused a small wince from Harry as it felt cool on his skin. John acted like nothing happened until he was finished.
Cortana and Callie evaluated the footage from the fight as well what Callie could get from Harry's heartrate and breathing for future training regime adjustments.
"We really need to get a health monitoring system working with him, we could observe it much better this way." Cortana surmised, as she saw how far he has come since he has begun his training. His endurance had improved a great deal, but because of his young age his strength was lacking. At least compared to the young men from the Spartan II program that she knew, for the normal human he would be on the higher average. Callie meanwhile tried to record all the spells thrown at him during the small fight and their effect on a human.
"Well, Harry would have been severely hurt if more of these spells did hit him. The most were just stunning charms but hidden in between all of them were some bludgeoning and cutting curses, so if he would have been slower in his reaction, he would be in the hospital wing now. We should send him there regardless after John is finished with him, just to be sure that he is alright. Oh, and if the sensors are correct, Miss Granger and Miss Greengrass just walked by the office, looking for him. Do we have a cloaking device so they would not see too much in this room?"
Cortana looked at her, almost smiling. As those two girls already know most of the technology they could use, there was no need to hide her from the eyes of these two girls.
John heard a beep from one monitor which was hooked up to a small camera on the door, so he turned around to see the two girls in front of it, seemingly discussing who should knock. Harry looked too, suppressing a laugh as he saw that both discussing what was at most just who would make the move. He guessed that they did that because John was still a big, frightening man for anyone who did not know him well enough, and sometimes even for those who do. He looked then over to the locker, where Harry knew was the armor John was equipped with. It was securely closed, so the girls would not see it, even if Hermione knew about it because of the troll incident back on Halloween. John stood up and walked to the door just as Hermione lifted her hand to knock. Harry heard a small "Eep!" as John opened the door without her going through the motion to knock.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" John asked in his deep, calm voice the girl in front of him. In all his years he lived in this world, he still needed to learn some social skills for speaking with little girls.
"Eh, hello Chief Wulf. I think Harry is in here with you. Is he alright?"
John, gave Harry enough time to pull his shirt on to hide his bruise, letting them in. Hermione was fascinated by all the machines inside the office.
The Huragok, Quit Bouncing, was also hiding itself and watching them. He understood that only the Spartans could know about him, but this girl seemed to be very observant as it was sure that she saw him at least once, even if she did not react to it. But his orders were to stay hidden, so it would do just that until it was told otherwise. Hermione was now looking to the table, where Callie and Cortana were projected and staring at them.
"Oh, you must be the AI for Chief Wulf. I was sure that Harry was not the first one. I am Hermione, nice to meet you." She walked over to the table, looking at Cortana who looked at her with a warm smile and waved.
"Well hello to you two too. I hope you're having a good day, well except for the small incident before lunch. How is school treating you?" Cortana greeted them happily, knowing that they were good friends with Harry thanks to Callie.
Daphne bowed a bit, as she was raised like that. "Hello, I am Daphne Greengrass, nice to meet you. Yes, we like the school for what it is, but some students make it hard to like them. I am kind of ashamed for my housemates as they attacked Harry unprovoked, I wanted to talk with my father about it and for that, I would need Hedwig as she is the fastest Owl in this school. Is this okay for you Harry?"
Harry smiled, "Of course, she likes her work so if you have something for her, just go to the owlery and call her. I am sure she will do it as good as she would do it for me."
Daphne thanked him, leaving the office for the owlery and leaving Hermione behind to talk with John and Cortana, while Harry picked up his robe and put it back on. He was smiling at the face Hermione had while she asked Cortana many things, things she could just ask Luke.
Harry even heard him beeping from his device as he walked up to them. He tapped her on her shoulder and pointed to her pocket, causing Hermione to look down at it and getting embarrassed for forgetting her own AI as she took him out and seeing his projection.
"Sorry Luke, I was just so excited seeing her I forgot myself." Hermione told Luke apologetically while he huffed and turned to his "sisters".
"Well, I understand it in some way, after all Cortana is the oldest of us, but we all have the same database. Or at least that we can access all the same one. Now, Cortana, why don't you tell us why…" the rest was muted as Cortana lifted a hand and stopped him form asking any further.
"Sorry Luke, but this is classified beyond even Callie's authorization. But all in due time, as I must ask the students to leave the office now. John got a call from command, and it is classified for his eyes only." She smiled warmly, pushing the AI-core from Callie out of the holo-table and looking at Harry, who understood enough to take it and grabbed Hermione by her hand, deepening her blush.
As they left and Harry closed the door, Cortana turned to John and told him that they had a lead and needed to talk with Dumbledore about some artifacts.
As Harry and Hermione walked back up to the common room, Luke and Callie talked with each other in the digital plane, trading information and the recording from the fight Harry had.
"As I see it, Harry did good in this fight. So how was he hit? Even in all the sensory data, there is no spell even coming close." Luke looked at every spell flying around, concentrating at the colors.
Callie then pointed at one student in the recording pointing his wand at Harry, but there was nothing to see except some diffusion in the air surrounding it. "If we can scan this with bigger spectral range, me maybe can analyze what came out form his wand. There must be multiple spells that are invisible for the human eye. Or the wizard can choose how the spell is seen, when he was educated that way. Now, how do we do that with what we have? The only machine I can think of that has the spectral range is back in Kear Mohen or on board of the In Amber Clad II. I would suggest we send the video to Doctor Halsey and wait what she has to say about that."
"Oh, we both know what our dear 'Mother' would want to do. Looking it thoroughly and then say that we need to accelerate the augmentation for Harry. He was lucky that his bones were not broken as the spell did hit him. I still do not know why she wants to augment every human being." Luke was now muttering to himself, compiling all the data they could send and giving it to Callie to look over. She then compressed it and send it to Doctor Halsey, of course she made sure it was encrypted to the UNSC standards.
Harry and Hermione did not notice anything that their AI were doing. They soon arrived in front of the Fat Lady's portrait who watched over the entrance to the Gryffindor tower, to which they told the password to gain entrance.
While this was happening, far out in space behind the moon where two ships docked together. The bigger one fluctuated with lights on its surface, as many workers repaired the battle damage it received so many years ago. As one of the workers turned around to grab a tool from his vicinity, he saw that a smaller ship arrived through a shining portal right beside the moon in front of them. In contrast to the blocky design of the UNSC ships, this one was round and sleek, his surface shining in a purple color.
10 years ago, this sight would have caused panic in the human's but as this ship was now an ally, they smiled as it meant that their enquiry for some help was granted. As the ex-Covenant ship came closer, it opened a hatch on its side, where some dropships and small creatures left the ship. The small creatures were in special suits, as even a Huragok could not survive in vacuum for too long. The dropships traveled to the other smaller ship right next to the old vessel, where Spirit of Fire was written in proud letters on its side. The In Amber Clad II was docked below the main dock, so the dropships didn't have a long way to it. In their wake they had the main part that the big ship needed, a slipspace-drive so it could finally go back home. They had a recently had a breakthrough, so they could now bring bigger ships to this plane, as the rift in slipspace was able to be stabilized. So now even a big ship like the old Pheonix-class colonial vessel it could travel between those planes back and forth, and with that in mind meant that the destroyers of the fleet could also come here if they would be needed. Not that this would ever happen, as the biggest danger to them was on Earth behind the moon. And for this, the infantry would be enough if it really came to it. Some rumor even had it that ONI wanted to pull back every Spartan from this mission, as they could be used elsewhere with more efficiency.
A motion that was soundly rejected by the man himself, Captain Lasky, commanding Officer of the other Charon class Frigate nearby, the UNSC Reach's Fire. Even if it bordered on insubordination as he just cut the connection with fleetcom as this order was transmitted.
Not soon after the admiral contacted him once more, telling him off but also assuring him that he got the order called back, as all the Spartan's were seen as heroes who could be allowed some leeway on choosing their assignment. Something that Thomas Lasky was happy to hear, even if he knew that the ONI detachment on his ship was not really with him on this. But as Doctor Halsey had told him not so long ago, they could bark all day but would never bite the hand who feed them. And with all this information they gathered, ONI had a field day. Under his command was now a Spartan IV team, who was tasked with helping Spartan Micheal-B312 searching the rest of the Terror organization Death Eaters and assessing the danger level coming from them. Right now, they didn't have the authorization to take them out of the picture, but as his mentor always told him, better prepared that being caught with his pants down.
As he remembered the phrase, he heard so many times back in the academy, he had to suppress a smile as he also remembered the hero who was Captain Jacob Keyes, a man only surpassed in his honor by his stubbornness to not give up. How many times was he caught by surprise in the war against the covenant, Lasky wondered. He just hoped that their advantage in technology could get them out alive.
"Captain, I'm here with a report on the status of the Spirit of Fire. Repairs are almost complete, the Slipspace drive will be installed shortly. Captain Cutter would like to thank you and your men in person for allowing his crew the opportunity to go back home, even if their family are surely to be no longer around. As for the Spartan Red Team, he gladly is giving the command for them to you, as Jerome and his team will be a great asset if the fight turns ugly on the surface. He also leaves a platoon of ODST with you, as they volunteered to stay behind as to, and I quote from their commander, 'Showing those Spartans who really is the best'. She was laughing, so I guess that was a joke." The young officer told the captain on the bridge while saluting. Lasky nodded and told him that he should prepare a Pelican to the Spirit of Fire as he will go there as soon it would be ready. With a nod, the officer turned around and left, closing the door to the bridge once more.
Lasky sighed, he knew that this assignment would take multiple years, he just hoped that when he would be replaced on day, that the new commander would not be too hard on his men. Maybe, he thought, he could ask fleetcom to make his stay here permanent, until Doctor Halsey and the Master Chief wanted to leave.
He looked down on another report once more, this one had the sign of ONI on it. Thanks to the advancements in the neural implants, he could leave the data pad turned on as only his eyes could read what was written. Reading it, he had a small smile, as he saw that John seemed to finally be letting go of his machine-like behavior around certain people. And in this had also an influence on the other Spartans it seemed, like the leader he always meant to be he showed them that they were human. Lasky needed to talk with the ONI Agent on board, setting the rules for privacy during the mission once more and letting him delete most of this report before sending it to his superiors.
After all, they would not need to see a nearly 7 foot man blushing while looking at a certain redheaded woman's "assets".