Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 6 – The Start of Something New
The next morning at Azkaban the guards at the main doors and those at the dock regained consciousness. Sensing something was wrong, especially as they could not sense the normal foreboding and misery that they felt when near the prison they determined to go inside for an inspection. What they found shocked them, not only did all the doors to the inside of the building have large circular holes in them, but when they got inside instead of a feeling of dread and the wale's and screams of the inmates, they actually heard some laughing in joy and others sounding louder and more active than they had in years.
Not only that but they had to search virtually the whole prison, some of which seemed to have gained battle damage, before they were able to find any dementors and those they did find were huddled on the upper most and lower most floors and were cowering in corners and for the first time since they had been assigned to the island, the guards felt they now knew what a terrified looking dementor looked like.
When conducted a search of the whole prison and found hundreds of dementors robes scattered about and the evidence of a fight of some kind. This would have been fine on its own until they found an empty cell.
Harry Potter was missing, how in Merlin's name were they going to explain this to their superiors.
Amelia Bones knew that the morning was going to be bad when she got up, for the last week she had been at war with Fudge over the conviction of Harry Potter, how dare he hold a trial before she had even had the chance to investigate the scene, talk to witnesses, see memories and the other things her department was charged with. It only got worse when Dumbledore started poking his nose through her door everyday demanding to know what was going to be done about his favourite student being imprisoned, but it only got worse when she got to her office and was told what had happened at the prison she was responsible for the previous night.
What followed was a frantic morning of reassignments as she quickly had to redraft hundreds of aurors to the prison to guard those held within. She may have despised everything the dementors were but three thing they did have in their favour was that people were so terrified of them they were more resistant to committing serious crimes, they did not need paying freeing up valuable funds and most importantly they freed up hundreds of desperately needed aurors that would otherwise have to guard the place.
It only got worse when she was told of the missing inmate and in a way she was relieved about who it was as it meant at least the investigation over the incident at the graveyard did not now need to be done for a while. She did not think Mr Potter would do what he was accused of but it did mean she now had to commit even more aurors to hunting for him.
Oh yes, this was the start of a very bad week.
When Albus Dumbledore was told the next morning of the disappearance of one of his students and of their extraterrestrial visitors he was not overly shocked, but he hardly had the chance to think about what he would have to tell the student's parents when a house elf handed him a letter which instantly opened and started broadcasting its emotional message to the entire hall.
"Professor Dumbledore, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but I am hereby leaving Hogwarts, probably forever. I did not wish to do this but the actions of the corrupt Ministry we have, have forced my hand. When you receive this message I will probably no longer be in the solar system. You have no need to tell my parents that I am gone as I went and said goodbye to them before leaving. I don't know if you expected me to leave, knowing you you may have, but what I am guessing you did not know is that on our way off the planet, our Republic friends and myself broke into Azkaban and rescued Harry."
Dumbledore's eyes flashed in shock as he heard this and the quiet mutterings of the rest of the hall almost became a flood of noise, but not so loud as to prevent the rest of the emotional message being heard.
"We all know that Voldemort returned on the night of the final task of the tournament and we all know that Harry with the aid of myself, Ron, Sirius and our Jedi friends was able to not only defeat him but capture all the Death Eaters there as well but at the tragic cost of four lives. As a result of Minister Fudge's, paranoia, corruption and stupid bigheadedness he was convicted of invented crimes and the Death Eaters we captured were considered the victims without any of us, Harry and myself included being called to give evidence. All I can hope is that our departure will make people reconsider the state of corruption within the Ministry and hopefully things will change. Harry and I need to leave so that we can heal and we can't do that here, especially as now I am actually guilty of a crime. Professor Dumbledore we all know Voldemort does not like to stay dead so I am charging you with making sure he does this time, we don't want a second attempt at him coming back. Goodbye professor and goodbye to all our friends; Ginny, Neville and the rest of you at Hogwarts. Hopefully we might see you again someday. Goodbye everyone and sorry Madam Pince, I have borrowed quite a large portion of the library but I am sure you will be able to replace it, I know the school is quite well funded, but I need to continue our magical education and this was the only way I could think of doing it, I did not take too many rare tombs and I know Hogwarts can afford to restock the library. This is Hermione Granger saying goodbye and farewell."
Other than the rapid gossiping of the rest of the students, the only noise was the rapid footfalls as the librarian sprinting out of the hall at top speed and up to her beloved library. A minute later a very loud scream was heard as the lady in question discovered what her library looked like when you took away ninety percent of the books, followed by a dull thud as she passed out.
"Sirius!"
"Ron!"
"Come with me now Potter or the mutt gets it.
"I think old Padfoot's had it this time."
"Kill the spare."
Harry awoke with a jolt, sitting bolt upright before the splitting pain in his head made him lean back quickly onto what appeared to be a soft, bug-less bed in a greyish white metal room with red highlights.
Highly confused about his surroundings he sat up, much more slowly this time, and saw his trunk by the far wall, an open closet with some of his clothes hung up in it and his wand by the side of his bed.
Still not quite understanding where he was, his ponderings were interrupted when the door slid open to reveal a man that appeared to be made out of metal.
"Good morning sir. How are you feeling today?"
"Err, good thank you, just a bit confused. Err what are you?"
"I am a 2-1B surgical droid produced by Industrial Automation on the planet Nubia. I am designed to help aid in the recovery of biological beings such as yourself."
"Oh," Harry nodded, not quiet understanding what he had been told but figuring that the 'droid' was probably safe. "Can you tell me where I am?"
"You are on the Republic Consular Class space cruiser Radiant VI on its return journey to Coruscant. I am afraid I do not know our exact coordinated, for that information I would recommend asking a member of the crew."
"Ok," he nodded attempting to stand but falling against the wall.
"Be careful sir, you are suffering from a serious energy drain, you have been unconscious for several days. I recommend no strenuous activity and plenty of nutrients. If you are heading out to have something to eat I will recommend taking some of these with your food," he said, extending a metal arm and dropping a pair of rubber like pills into his hand.
"Thank you."
"You are welcome sir. If you experience any symptoms other than a lack of energy please come and see me," he replied before turning and walking out of the room.
Harry slowly went through the cupboard and took out some fresh clothes and slipped into them slowly before making his way over to the door and figured out how to open it before making his way out and down a flight of stairs where he wondered around for a couple of minutes before coming to a large room where Hermione was sitting at a large table surrounded by a mountain of books while she ran her hand over some sort of pad in her hands.
As he entered the room she looked up and saw him before gasping his name, dropped the pad and ran around the table to sweep him into a tight hug.
"Oh Harry, I'm so glad you're ok, we were beginning to worry, you were unconscious for days, we were beginning to wonder if you were going to wake up at all, but your all ok now and thanks to you so are we."
"Hermione, can you slow down a bit, I'm a bit confused. The last thing I remember is being in Azkaban after being convicted of killi..."
His voice trailed off as the last couple of weeks all came crashing back to him, his knees gave out from under him and he slumped to the floor, Hermione going with him wrapped her arms tighter around him which he mirrored as they each provided the comfort that the other needed after the horrific events of the last task and what had followed.
"They're both gone," he gasped.
"I know," she replied, equally emotionally. "But we are alive and we still have each other and the Jedi as well. We can make it though this...together."
It took several more minutes for the tears to stop and for them to be able to pull away from each other a bit.
"Thank you Hermione," he sniffed, wiping the residual water out of his eyes before she slowly raised them both to their feet and guided him around the table to the chair next to the one she had been sitting in.
"So...We are err... on a space ship apparently. How did I get from Azkaban to here?"
"We rescued you," she said pushing the pile of books that she had put in front of his chair out of the way so he could lean on the table and they could talk easier. "I formulated a plan to break into Azkaban and get you out and I convinced the Jedi to help me."
"You did what!" he exclaimed.
"Well we couldn't leave you in there could we, not after what just happened."
"Yes, but...Breaking into Azkaban. I mean you're the one that didn't like us breaking school rules about staying out late and then you go and break into the worst place in our world!"
"I needed you Harry!" she replied slightly louder than she had been speaking before. "I...I could not lose both you and Ron in the same week. I...I couldn't live with myself if I had to keep on living my life while you were rotting in that place."
There was silence for a minute as they both looked down at the table in front of them before Harry finally uttered two wonderful words.
"Thank you."
Looking back at each other they both had teary eyes again.
"Thank you Hermione, I...I don't know how much longer I could have survived that place if you hadn't rescued me."
"We were part of the 'Gryffindor Trio' Harry, saving people is what we do," she grinned, causing them both to laugh slightly.
"So err...How did you do it?"
"It wasn't as hard as you would think," she admitted. "The reason it sounds so bad is because no one had ever tried it before."
"But you can't cast a patronus, can you?"
"No, but an incendio spell works quite well at deterring them for a bit as do lightsabers it turns out. The worst bit of it was the feelings that the dementors raise in you, that and their sheer weight of numbers is what nearly killed us, but you saved us at the last moment."
"I did?" he asked sceptically.
"You did Harry," she confirmed. "You cast the most powerful patronus I have ever heard of and you didn't even use your wand. It was so powerful it atomised almost all the dementors in the fortress. You should have heard it Harry, as we were leaving the prisoners were cheering and jumping with joy that the creatures were almost all gone."
"I remember...I remember hearing you asking for help," he said slowly. "I knew I had to help you."
"And you did Harry," she beamed. "Much more than you can imagine, we were almost defeated at that point. We were all seconds away from being kissed, when you performed the spell it was so powerful the crew saw the light from the ship. We had to move really quickly to get you out of there after that in case any wizards lived along the coast and saw it."
"So where are we know again?"
"We are on the Republic space cruiser the Radiant VI and we are on our way back to Coruscant, the capitol planet of the Republic, I'll be a few months until we get there, we are quite far out in what the Jedi call the 'Outer Rim', basically the edge of the Galaxy. Which gives us plenty of time to do research and study before we get there."
"Hang on, hang on!" he interrupted. "I just realised, if we are on our way back to the Republic then why are you onboard, surely you should be going back to your parents and studying for next year at Hogwarts."
Her excited expression changed into one of slight sadness.
"I could not stay at Hogwarts Harry, not without you and Ron, and with Ron gone I knew I had to come with you, besides my parents know and don't mind that I have come. It's all fine."
"Yes but, what are we going to do?"
"Hopefully you will be trained as Jedi Knights," came a male voice from the doorway.
"Master Jinn," he greeted.
"Harry," he smiled. "Assuming that is what you want to do."
"Yes," Harry nodded. "Yes, I mean it's basically what I have been doing for the last four years so I might as well keep doing it."
"Good," nodded Qui-Gon moving around the table towards him. "What about you Hermione, would you still like to become a Jedi too?"
"Yes, I've always been there when Harry got himself into these situations and I cannot honestly imagine my life without them, so if I am allowed to I want to try."
"Good," smiled Qui-Gon. "Then follow me, it's time for your first lesson. If you do get into the Order you will be several years behind so we need to get as much information into you as we can on the way, come on."
Over the case of the next few months almost every moment they were awake they were learning from either one of the Jedi or a member of the crew, whether it be one of the three types of Force control; sense, alter or control, to basic galactic history, to the makeup of the Jedi Order, to how to write basic, right up to space flight which caused quite a disturbance when Hermione demonstrated that she had has much skill in piloting a ship as she did when flying a broom by doing a manoeuvre too quickly that it temporarily overcame the artificial gravity which caused quite a stir when a rather annoyed looked Aayla and Obi-Wan had arrived in the cockpit in their night attire looking more than a little put out at being thrown out of their beds in the middle of their few hours kip.
As well as all these things they also went on to start exercising so as to increase their stamina and flexibility, although this was quite difficult on an enclosed ship, before starting to learn the basics of lightsaber use, for which they borrowed a pair of lightsabers set as low as physically possible from the other Jedi. Harry started picking this up very fast and soon had to start being taught separately by Qui-Gon, as he had more experience teaching padawans than Aayla who continued to train Hermione while Obi-Wan acted as sparring partner for both and demonstration dummy when one was needed. It soon became evident where each of their talents lay; Harry was better at actual sparring than he was at the traditional Forms which he considered to be a bit unrealistic in a fight as no one would be likely to use these rigid movements in an actual fight, it only became clear to him once they started using Form I training drones and helmets with blast shields to obscure vision. After several painful blaster hits he soon began to see how the rigid guard moves were important not only at knowing how to defend oneself, but as well as a basis for the other Forms and as a way of training without the aid of a partner.
Other than his lightsaber skills Harry was by far the better pilot, at least according to the ships actual pilot and captain, the others all thought he was a menace as he threw the ship around space at lethal speeds and had Hermione, Aayla and Obi-Wan making sure that the escape pods were all fully working and fully supplied as they expected to need one at any moment.
Hermione on the other hand was having a bit of trouble with over thinking things in lightsaber fights as well as Force skills, it took her almost three times as long as Harry to be able to sense anything through the Force, though she caught up when they moved onto basic Force movements. Her specialities were the more academically orientated subjects like history, navigation, technology and learning how to write in basic which she was picking up at a phenomenal rate. Her skills in these areas expanded so quickly that it got to the point where one of the service astromech droids on board developed a fault and one of the crew was sent to investigating what was causing it, when Hermione went down to join him she came up with the solution before he did and was even able to fix it herself.
By far the most important thing the two underwent was meditation five times a day, they had just been through Korriban and back and the Jedi knew that one of the bigger problem getting them into the temple would be the hate in Harry that they had seen, though completely understandable given the circumstances, and the sorrow in both of them. The two elder Jedi forced the pair to talk about what happened, to think about it, to analyse it and to realise that there was nothing that they could do. More importantly though, they had to let go of what happened or they would be consumed by their feelings and they would definitely not be allowed into the Order.
Neither of them liked these lessons at all, and not only because they both found sitting still for extended periods difficult and boring, but because neither really want to speak about it to anyone, even each other. Thankfully the elder Jedi were most persistent and manage to force a lot of it out of them to the point where they did not shut down the second the graveyard, Ron or Sirius were mentioned, it was not a conclusion by any means, but it was a start.
By the time the ship had reached the galactic centre and had entered the system, both had caught up remarkably well, Hermione could write fluently in basic and Harry could do so passably, they both had a good starting knowledge of history, Republic structure, the Jedi Order and the laws of the Republic. Now was the time to see if it was all worth it as the pair were staring open mouthed at the hundreds of ships orbiting Coruscant and at the almost entirely metal planet as they approached the Jedi Temple.
AUTHORS NOTE: Lots of reviews to reply to this time, I apologise if I don't make a comment on your reviews, I know several of your are speculating where this is going to go and I don't know most of that myself yet so I can't really answer some of those questions, but make as many suggestions on what you would like to see as you would like as I may well include things that are described, feel free to suggest missions for them if you think they will be Jedi or what they will do if they don't make it to be padawans.
I do like the way some of you have said thinks like 'Voldemort's going to end up in space with them, that's going to be really interesting' while others have said 'Oh, don't let Voldemort into space, let him be dealt with on Earth so it's a new start', well unfortunately I cannot appease both parties there so sorry for those of you who did not want Voldemort to go with them but that's how it's going at the moment.
About Harry being thrown in prison so easily, well it happened to Sirius, he wasn't given a fair trial either and it nearly happened to Harry when the dementors attacked him and Dudley before Dumbledore got him off and at those times it was just the Ministry being against Harry, if you had all those powerful Death Eater families leaning on Fudge and Fudge equally panicked about anyone saying that Voldemort was back, how much threatening and bribing do you think would be needed to get that quick a conviction, he could justify it by saying 'we could not risk such a dangerous mass murder be roaming freely amongst the nations children'.
No I have never read a fic called Knowledge is Power, but I do not recall anywhere in cannon where it is said that dementors cannot be killed or cannot be harmed, to the best of my memory the only person who really mentions them is Remus Lupin. We know the Patronus Charm will repel them and drive them away if strong enough but I needed another way of affecting them and Hermione being Hermione and loving research probably delved deep into the back of the library searching for anything and everything she could on the creatures, who's to say she did not discover something that Remus Lupin did not know, like the fact that they can be affected (not killed) by fire, plus that allowed the lightsabers to be useful as weapons against them.
Yoda will definitely be in the story, he is in fact in the next chapter.
Yes, they picked up Harry's wand from the graveyard, I think I made a passing comment about it during Hermione's mission briefing for the rescue.
Flashbacks to Azkaban from Harry's point of view, there surely won't be much to write about here, I mean he's stuck in a cell, getting minimal food shoved through a cat flap (probably) with dementors floating by his door, that's about all there was too it until the rescue surely, I'm not quite sure what else I could say.
Yes, Harry is still a Horcrux though I do not intend to have a long Horcrux hunt, or any for that matter done 'on screen' as it were, plus Hermione has charged Dumbledore with preventing Voldemort's third rising and he knows about the horcuxes so that is probably what he will do to prevent it, even if he does now know where Voldemort is at the moment.
No comment on how Voldemort will interact with Palpatine or Yoda etc, but by all means make suggestions, I always enjoy reading them and sometimes they help shape the stories plot for the better, feel free to make suggestions, comments, criticisms or complements on anything.