Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 30 – An Unexpected Journey
"What's his condition?" the voice of Master Windu asked.
"He has responded well to our healing. He has no serious injuries thankfully other than his scar of course but I do not think that will cause any problems, he was very lucky."
"That's as good a description of Harry as I have ever heard," chuckled Qui-Gon.
"Then how do you explain the fact that he has been unconscious for so long?" demanded Aayla.
"He has no serious physical injuries, but he is physically and mentally exhausted. From what we have been told he used up an awful lot of power dealing with that Sith."
"He is also awake," spoke Harry for the first time, creeping his eyes open before wincing at the bright light in the room. Rolling very lethargically onto his side so he was not looking directly at the light source he opened his eyes again and looked into the faces of those talking about him.
Standing around him in what he guessed were the Halls of Healing were Aayla, Master Windu, Hermione, Obi-Wan, Master Qui-Gon, Alema and a couple of healers.
"Err hi Masters...Hermione, Obi-Wan, Alema," he said uncertainly to the assembled crowd. "I'm guessing I'm not on Dagobah anymore."
"Very astute Padawan," remarked Windu as the Healers started scanning him with the Force and one of them removed some sort of crystal from the head of his bed. "Padawan Granger and Explorer Ani brought you back here after you collapsed on Dagobah and she was unable to revive you."
"How is your shoulder?" Harry asked, directing his gaze towards his best friend.
"Almost healed, I let Alema pilot her fighter back here with the Raven slaved to its controls so I could spend most of the journey in a Healing Trance to fix it, give it a few more days and it will be fine." she explained.
"What did the Healer mean 'other than his scar'?" he asked curiously, to which his younger visitors shifted uncomfortably before Aayla slowly lifted up a mirror from beside his bed and gave it to him. Looking into the reflective surface he was quite surprised to see that his scar had got larger. It had grown several millimetres thicker at the centre so it was now about half a centimetre wide at its widest, tapering off towards the ends, but it has also grown in length with the top end just disappearing into his hair line while the lower point had expanded through his eye socket and finished about a centimetre below his eye. Even stranger though was that his left eye where the scar crossed it had gone from being a normal green to being a much brighter, an almost electric green. The scar itself was quite pink, evidence of the recent damage to the skin but the light scabbing over it was already coming away indicating that his body has already healed its bleeding head.
"We think it happened either when the Sith came out of you or when you came in contact with it over the course of the battle," explained the nearest healer.
"Well..." he said slightly stunned by his new look, not replying to the woman. "At least that explains the huge pain coming from my scar and the blood that was in my eye when the visions cleared. I don't suppose there is any chance of reverting it back to how it was...Or even removing it all together?"
"The Healers looked into that," explained Master Windu. "Like when you first arrived here the concentration of Force energy around that part of your skull will likely result in any grafted skin developing scars in the same way after a period of time. You could of course wear some form of concealment and a contact lens but I think it would be more trouble than it's worth to maintain it from day to day."
Harry sighed and put down the mirror, yet more scarring as a result of Voldemort's interfering with his life.
Not giving him a chance to dwell on his new bigger scar, Hermione resumed where Master Windu had left off regarding their return to Coruscant. "After diagnosing that you were stable I called Alema and together we transported you back to the base on our speeders before telling Bai- I mean Senator Antillies," she corrected with a quick glance at the Master of the Order, "That he needed to temporarily evacuate the planet and leave the system until we could confirm that no remnant of Voldemort remained on the planet to inhabit or possess anyone or anything else."
"Most of the scientists and researchers were not very impressed considering all that had happened," contributed Alema. "Thankfully his Highness was able to convince them to leave."
"Why would you think he was not completely destroyed?" asked Qui-Gon, changing the subject.
"You know Harry defeated him when he was one," replied Hermione to which several of them nodded. "Well for some reason that we have never been sure about he was not totally destroyed and remained as a...Well, without a better term to use I suppose a 'Force Ghost' until he was able to first co-inhabit one of our professors bodies and then later create a new body for himself as we witnessed in the graveyard before Harry defeated him again. It was logical to assume that the same thing had happened on Dagobah as happened when Harry was one and what apparently happened in the Graveyard too in that Voldemort had only lost his body but is still alive."
"He was only able to enter Quirrell's body as a voluntary guest," Harry reminded.
"True, but now he is in a place where the Dark Side is much stronger and he knows everything about the Force that you do. He might be very weak right now but he will be able to regain the power he had."
"I thought I purged the Dark Side from the cave when I defeated him?" asked Harry confused.
"So did I, but we flew over the cave just before we left and I could feel the Dark Side energies were already more powerful than they had been when we had left. It seems you only temporarily neutralised them rather than completely purging them. The energies were still very weak but they were beginning to build up again, hence the reason I contacted the Temple and asked the High Council to get Dagobah quarantined until we could be sure that there was no trace of Voldemort left there."
"A wise suggestion," commented Qui-Gon.
"Agreed," nodded Windu. "Thankfully Supreme Chancellor Valorum, required very little convincing after we showed him the recording of Padawan Granger's debriefing and summary of the situation."
"If I may ask Masters, why would my Mistress's report be so influential to the Chancellor?" asked Alema.
"The Chancellor has a lot of respect for Padawan Granger's abilities," explained Master Windu. "After her hugely successful mission with her Master on Alaris Prime he kept a keen eye on her training and progression in the Order."
"He always made it a habit of talking to me directly at any engagements my Master and I attend," explained Hermione, he cheeks glowing from the Master of the Order's praise. "Asking about my training and how I was, both when he was a Senator and then later when he got elected to be the Supreme Chancellor. Despite the fact that he's the most powerful man in the galaxy he does seem to genuinely seem to care about individuals."
"He probably does," replied Master Windu. "Unlike some of his predecessors he makes a point of trying to do the right thing when he can and often asks myself or other High Council members for advice on various subjects, it's just a shame he does not have a larger backing in the Senate."
"Just remember what your Master says about politicians Hermione," added Qui-Gon with a sly grin.
"They only want to get close to you so they can stab you in the back," she quoted, "Yes I remember."
"I think we have gone a little off topic," stated Aayla.
"Sorry Knight Secura, where was I?...Oh yes, the good news is that hopefully there will not be any way for Voldemort to torment Harry now. As Harry now knows about how Voldemort remained hidden within him all these years he can now engineer his mental defences against it reoccurring."
"What about my scar?" Harry asked. "Will he still be able to affect that?"
"Not knowing enough about how your link with him works Harry I cannot really answer that, but in his current state I would think it's unlikely."
"What about the Dark Side Cave?"
"We are content to let that remain," explained Windu, "There are other such placed in the galaxy such as the former Sith fortress on Almas where Dark Side energies are strong. As long as we monitor them and make sure that they are left undisturbed we are content to let them remain, they are also good places for cautious research into the Dark Side. However the spirit of a powerful Sith that knows how to remain hidden, to survive beyond death and how to inhabit the bodies of others is very dangerous and is something we cannot tolerate and must deal with."
"How do you propose to do that Master Windu?" asked Alema.
"We would usually send Jedi Shadows to eliminate the threat, but as we know this Sith has survived death before and as he has an arsenal of dangerous spells that only those in this room have any experience with, we feel that it would be best to go back to his point of origin and investigate why this is the case before working out how to eliminate him."
As he said the words Harry's and Hermione's heads snapped around.
"You mean...to Earth Master?" asked Aayla.
"Correct Knight Secura, I will be leading the expedition myself, but as I am unfamiliar with planet you, your padawan, Master Coleman, Padawan Granger and with the leave of her Ranger General, Explorer Ani will be leaving for the planet of your apprentice's birth in twenty four hours time."
"Master," asked Hermione. "May we take the Raven, it would be a good opportunity to test it over a longer flight and thanks to the modifications it is considerably faster than the average Jedi transport?"
"I am already having the ship refuelled and provisioned as we speak," replied the Master. "It will give me a chance to see how easy that ship of yours is to fly for someone who has never flown it before. I shall see you this time tomorrow."
Taking his leave the others turned back to Harry.
"How do you feel?" asked Obi-Wan.
"Pretty much as the Healers described me, exhausted. Thankfully the trip back to Earth should give me some time to recover in a Healing Trance."
"I'm just wish we were coming with you," sighed Obi-Wan
"The Council probably feels that seven jedi for a research mission might be slightly excessive padawan," pointed out Qui-Gon. "Though I am surprised that Master Windu has decided to lead the expedition himself."
"It's probably because of the uncertain political situation that will great us," explained Aayla, Harry and Hermione were still a bit too stunned that they were going back to Earth to reply to much at the moment. "We did break into a government run prison and free a convicted felon remember, however stupid the verdict was. We are all likely classified as fugitives by the Ministry of Magic and having two senior jedi with us may give us a bit more bargaining power should the worst happen."
"True."
"It might also be a wise idea to return the library that Hermione...borrowed when we left."
"A good idea Obi-Wan," commented Qui-Gon. "All the texts would have been digitally copied so there would be no major loss to the Archives."
"The Librarians aren't going to like it," replied Aayla. "I will speak to Master Windu about speaking to the Council of First Knowledge as even Hermione who gave them the texts will not be able to permanently remove that source texts without their approval."
"I would also suggest we return the Sword of Gryffindor," recommended Hermione, coming out of her stunned state for a few more seconds. "I know it was a gift in return for Aayla's but we did rather force the Headmaster into it. If nothing else it should make sure that Professor Dumbledore is on our side."
"Dumbledore," Harry said slowly, "Now that's a name I have not thought about in a long time."
"It's going to be very strange going back," agreed Hermione, before adding with a smile. "Assuming we don't all get incarcerated on the spot."
"We won't let that happen Mistress," said Alema firmly, absentmindedly running her hand over her blaster.
"Well," interrupted Qui-Gon. "Obi-Wan and I had better leave you to prepare for your trip. I wish you all luck. May the Force be with you."
Alema and Hermione also left to go and start getting their bits together and to get the relevant permissions from the Antarian Rangers, leaving just Harry and Aayla in the room.
"How is it that as soon as I let you out of might sight, even on a simple investigate and protect mission you manage to find a dangerous enemy to almost kill you?"
"Just lucky I guess," he replied, not turning to look at her.
"Are you alright Harry?" she asked seriously, perching on his bed and turning his face towards her.
"I should be Master," he replied uncertainly. "It's going to be strange going back but I am over Ron's and Sirius's deaths...The hardest thing will be seeing my friends again after so long. Hermione and I technically abandoned them when we left, I know it was our choice but we never even stopped to say goodbye. It's going to be odd for everyone. I know Hermione is thinking it too, she's just trying not to let it show."
"If they are true friends they will forgive you Harry. You had every right to leave, especially as you were a wanted fugitive." she replied, before adding with a grin, "Although technically Hermione had the choice, we really abducted you."
"True," he replied with a slight smile. "But I could have always asked you to go back."
"Yes you could...But there would have been little point, Hermione and I would not have let you."
"Also true," he smiled. "I'll be ok when we get back once the initial reunions are done...The other annoying thing is that the prophecy that I thought had come true before we left is technically still in effect...I knew I could not be that lucky."
"How do you mean?"
"Well...when we were on our way here from Earth, I thought that the power to defeat Voldemort was anger of fury or something like that which gave me the power to kill him on Earth and although I had gone temporarily dark, I thought that meant that it was over for me and I could do what I wanted. When you took me from Azkaban I thought this was my chance to really live...now it looks like the prophecy has still been hanging over my head waiting to pounce for the last five years and unless we work out a way to defeat him on Earth it will likely be the same for many years to come."
Pulling herself up next to Harry, Aayla put her arm around him and pulled him into her.
"It will be ok Harry, we know he's still out there now and you have the entire order to back us up should we need it. We will not allow him to come back to haunt you a fifth time...and for all we know the power that 'Voldemort knows not' could very well be the hum of ten thousand Jedi lightsabers waiting to burn his eyebrows off. No one gets away with terrorising my Padawan...I'm the only one allowed to do that."
Harry felt quiet helpless, by the time he had got back to his and Aayla's apartments that evening (with the assistance of his Nimbus lightsaber that he used as a walking stick) his stuff had already been packed (with the exception of one set of clothes) by Hermione and his Master and transported to the ship.
Apparently Hermione had already started doing the pre-flight checks on the Raven even though there was over fifteen hours before they were leaving. He suspected she just wanted to make sure the ship was presentable for Master Windu; generally the ship was a bit of a building site, upgrades partially installed, replacement components lining the corridors and a horrific mess of cabling and removed hull and deck plating. They had had other members of the Council onboard before off course, but only for short flights not for an actually mission and certainly not one on which the Master of the Order who had only seen their progress reports and a couple of their demonstrations thus far would be commanding.
Harry had also not been allowed to do any sort of housework and was told by his Master very firmly that he could either relax, work on his class assignments, sleep, go into a Healing Trance to speed up his recovery, meditate to make sure he was in a good mental state or to spend his time completing the rebuilding and restructuring of his mental defences so that they were back in full working order after Voldemort's remodelling.
He decided that he had better sort out his Occlumency shields first and he spent a good hour repairing all the damage that was done before making a very thorough search of his mind for any other intruders. He then took the time to build in alert systems so that any time any of his defences were tripped he would be notified before adding additional layers of protection to ensure that it would be nigh on impossible to enter his mind without a very powerful attack or an awful lot of time on his hands. By the time he had finished he had created more worlds within his mind to completely confuse intruders, even Aayla would have difficulty getting through his mind now.
In order to get into his mind now, after penetrating his outer shields an intruder would have to get into the temple via the Radiant VI which instead of being obviously displayed on the landing pad which was part of the Temple citadel was now stored in one of the four Hangers under the Temple's towers amongst several other of the same design of ships, each of which would send intruders to various places on Coruscant which he had now expanded to include a lot more of the planet (as he had seen a lot more of it in his last five years). After getting in an intruder could access the Temple and Hogwarts as before if they could get passed the several dozen jedi protectors he constructed, but as an added complication he had added another Hogwarts inside the first which could only be accessed by catching a golden snitch which was loose on the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch. He had moved all the top secret, precious, dangerous and hurtful memories as well as his thoughts into this Hogwarts which had similar protections to the first except it was now also guarded by a few dragons, moving suits of armour and a couple of basilisks patrolling the corridors. All these added features meant that unless there was a lot of time available to the attacker the only way into his mind was going to be a brute force attack of great strength to literally smash apart the layers of defences.
By the time he had finished this it was late evening and he decided to try and get some sleep so he could assist Hermione with the ship first thing in the morning. It took him less time than he thought to get to sleep, he obviously spent some time thinking over what would happen when he got back to Earth, what his friends would be like, how they would great them, if that idiot Fudge who got him locked up was still in power. He thought he should be worried about returning, there were a lot of bad memories associated with Earth that he had not thought about in a long time that he did not want dragged back up but somehow he knew that everything would be alright when they got there.
As he walked up the ramp of the Raven the following morning he was quite shocked by the complete change in appearance of the ship; gone where the dirty walls of a well used second hand ship, replaced with shinning white deck plating and bulkheads, there was no sign of all the various components that were usually strewn about the corridors and judging from the large pile of rubbish and old parts outside the ship Hermione had been awake and working on the ship half the night.
"Did you sleep at all in the last twenty four hours?" he asked genuinely curious as a pair of astromech droids rushed passed at speeds he did not know they could achieve.
"I got a few hours," Hermione replied, not taking her head out of the hole in the floor where it was apparently focusing on fitting a new power regulator to the deflector shields. "I wanted to make sure the ship was ready for the trip."
"What you mean is that you didn't want Master Windu or those on Earth to see the state the ship is usually in," he replied.
"I just gave it a quick tidy up."
"Hmmm...Speaking of quick, did you by any chance tweak the motor speeds of the droids, the worried sounds they make when they wiz passed is quite unnerving."
"I just wanted them to be faster polishing the decks."
"Well they're that alright," he replied. "Just as well their wheels are not made of rubber or we would have skid marks all over the place."
"I shall ignore that," came the muffled reply followed by a satisfying click before she pulled herself out and refitted the deck plate. "There, got it. All ready to go."
"I'm glad to hear it," came the voice of Master Windu as he ascended the ramp into the ship. "Though despite what you may believe Padawan Granger, the Master of the Order is perfectly capable of flying in ships which aren't so highly polished that you can use the deck plates as mirrors."
Hermione ducked her head in embarrassment before mumbling something about wanting to make a good impression as her Master and Aayla joined them on board the ship, the former putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder as he passed.
"As we are now all assembled I suggest we prepare to depart," instructed Master Windu turning back to the two padawans. "If neither of you object I would like to take the ship out myself. Adi, Plo and Saesee have been going on about this ship's abilities since you started working on it and I have been looking for an opportunity to test them myself."
Neither of the padawans offered any resistance as he made his way up to the cockpit.
As the others moved their luggage up to the sleeping quarters, Harry following after him and took the co-pilots seat next to Master Windu who was currently examining the modifications to the pilots chair to incorporate the modified broom influenced flight controls. It was usually a case that there were lose cables and open panels surrounding the seat but these had been tucked away or covered over by some rapidly fitted plates that Hermione had obviously cut and attached last night. The chair was now significantly different to its neighbour. In most larger ships the pilots seat was just a seat as there was room around them to mount all the controls in the consoles, but this one had been almost completely refitted with a larger chair which was effectively a bucket seat. The chair had arms that had an array of buttons and switches to quickly control various systems on board the ship.
"We tried to design it so that the entire ship could be controlled by one person from that chair without having to reach over the various consoles to make for faster reactions."
Master Windu nodded as he cautiously sat into the seat only to flinch when a five point harness automatically deployed around him and secured him in place. After trying to move forward without releasing the harness he turned to his co-pilot.
"Harry, how am I supposed to reach the controls when the seat is holding me flat to it?"
"Press both the blue buttons with 'CC' written on them by your hands quickly at the same time."
Looking down at the two buttons on the two arms in question the Master did as instructed and was surprised when a 'W' shaped control column like those on Earth passenger planes rose out of the deck and fixed itself in place in front of him as the seat moved forward so he could reach that and the main control console.
"You have to press both at once as we did not want the buttons to be accidentally pressed and the column to un-deploy in an emergency situation."
"Good thinking," the Master replied before reaching towards the column only to flinch back with a gasp as he was shocked as he touched it.
"Oh, sorry Master, I forgot that I needed to key you into the security system before you can fly the ship, only Hermione, myself and the other Masters you mentioned can currently use the pilots controls."
Leaning forward and placing his hands on a palm scanner on the control console Harry pressed a few buttons before gesturing for the Master to place his hand where Harry's had just been while he entered the acceptance code. As soon as the process was finished Windu tried touching the control column again and was reassured to find that he did not get shocked.
"We thought adding the extra security was a good idea considering the advancements we have made to this ship."
"Please don't forget that it's turned on next time," remarked the Master as he examined all the controls so that he was ready to pilot the ship. "Why the column rather than a stick control or just the consoles?"
"We found that it's easier to react faster with a control column or joystick, but a joystick is only really good for a small ship with a limited number of controls, the bigger the ship the more controls you need at your fingertips, hence the column with controls on it to allow you to do as much as possible without taking your hands away from the column or the chair. It is possible to fly the ship without the column but several of the ships abilities including the magical attitude controls require the column to function. Also we discovered that for the controls that use magic like the broom style charms the more Force sensitive you are the easier it is to get more out of the ship, Hermione believes it relates to the amount of natural feedback that Magic or the Force gives the charms."
"Is there anything else I need to know before I pilot us out of the hanger? I would hate to find that the controls are many times more sensitive than I think they are and crash."
"Taxiing us out should be easier now," remarked Hermione as she entered the cockpit with the others behind her, just missing Harry's wince at the mentioned of the ship and the word crash. "I installed the new repulsorlifts last night so there is no need to try and fly out of the hanger the traditional way. You should only need to turn them on and use the new directional repulsors to push us towards the doors and then switch to the standard take off mechanism."
"Don't Consular-class cruisers have repulsorlifts built into them?" asked Coleman.
"Yes Master, but those are high powered and less well balanced repulsorlifts designed just for descent to landing and taking off so that the ship does not pollute the atmosphere by having to use its ion engines whilst in the atmosphere, they and not designed to be left on at low power as an alternative to landing struts for when the ship is landed and mostly completely powered down."
"Then why put repulsorlifts on a ship with landing struts in the first place, surely they are not necessary?"
"Harry wanted to add them so that we would not require a landing pad or a solid surface to put the ship down and so we could use it to move more surreptitiously over a planet's surface. Also in a situation like this where we are at the back of a hanger and need to move out of it before taking off. I thought Harry was joking when he initially suggested it but they would have been useful on Dagobah as we would not have had to shrink the ship."
"Shrink the ship!" exclaimed Aayla.
"It was the only way to get all the ships on the ground, we will have to see if there is a way to do it easier next time, it took me over an hour to return it to its original size afterwards when we needed to return, without Harry's power and help to assist it was an extremely difficult process."
"Could you not have used a...'finite' I think you call it?" asked Coleman.
"It would not have been a good idea for the ship to re-grow as quickly as that would have made it do, it might have ended up ripping itself apart if some parts expanded faster than others. Also I didn't dare risk it as many of the spells on the ship might have stopped working, preventing the ship from working all together or possibly even reacted together violently and exploding."
"Exploding!" exclaimed Aayla as the other two Masters also stopped and turned to look at Hermione.
"It was unlikely but remotely possible that if the expanding ship temporarily distorted the properties of the spells and they came into contact with each other unknown things would have happened, hence the reason I was forced to expand the ship slowly. The new repulsorlift controls are on the left arm of the seat Master Windu, I'd recommend using the normal flight controls and the new hovering repulsorlifts to get us out of the hanger then switch to the enhanced ones on the control column and the main landing and takeoff repulsorlifts after that to get us into orbit."
"Understood," he nodded, moving the control column to the side and activating the repulsorlifts. There was a brief wobble as the ship was lifted just off the ground, one of the struts scrapping slightly as it was lifted slower than the others.
"Repulsorlifts power regulation stable; we're in a balanced orientation," explained Hermione from one of the other stations. "I'd recommend leaving the struts down and the repulsors on minimum levitating strength for the time being just in case there are issues with them as they are untested, that way if we drop it will only be an inch or so."
"Understood," nodded Master Windu, tapping the controls and directing the ship to float slowly forward using the directional repulsors to direct them along the main taxiway passed the other ships the Order used, a couple of engineers paused in their work to watch the unusual sight of a cruiser with landing struts floating passed.
As they floated out into the blazing sunlight Master Windu powered up the repulsors fully and the ship rose another five meters off the ground. Returning the control column to the position in front of him and moving his hand to the throttle he slammed it forward and pulled back sharply on the controls.
This resulted in everyone who was not sitting in a chair being flung back towards the rear of the cockpit as the ship took off almost vertically.
"Hit the enhanced inertial dampers...the dampers!" called Hermione as she tried to excavate herself from underneath her Master, Aayla and Alema who were being flattened against her.
Using the Force Harry activated the control from his position flattened into the co-pilot seat, immediately the g-forces in the cabin greatly reduced and everyone was able to move again.
"I think I have spotted a flaw in your ships design," stated Windu. "If the dampers don't automatically adjust when the speed is increased you are going to end up with a lot of very annoyed passengers."
"We did not have the chance to tie the two enhanced systems together," explained Harry as the others rubbed the parts of themselves which had brawn the force of the impact. "We were also trying to think of a way to make it into a security system in the unlikely event that the ship was hijacked or if one of us was coerced into flying it, but that's something for later."
"We are trying to get it so that the g-forces would not affect those in the middle of the ship in the sleeping quarters and the main deck area as much as us on the bridge as that's where the dampening field originates from so it's strongest there, we hope to tweak it so that people can still move around the ship with ease while the pilots benefit from the gravitational feedback," added Hermione.
"Interesting concept," replied Coleman as Windu started throwing the ship through a series of tight manoeuvres that caused the others to lean in order to maintain their balance despite the dampening field.
"Good responses to the controls," remarked the Master as be pulled the ship through a tight corkscrew, "It handles almost like a bomber."
"We're hoping to improve on that," explained Harry. "Give us a bit of time and we might be able to work out a way to get it to respond like a fighter."
"Something to look into later," Windu commented, "The hyperdrive is programmed, time to start our mission."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry that was a bit of a filler chapter, it started a lot smaller than that but then lots of technical bits got added by accident.
Back to Earth time, hope that answers the questions of those who keep asking when they will be going back and if Voldemort was really dead etc.
Does anyone want to suggest anything that's happened to the various people on Earth or want to suggest what the welcome committee will be like for them, will Fudge still be in power, will everyone still be alive, will they be welcomed with open arms or a firing squad. I already have some ideas but they have completely changes once already so suggestions are more than welcome.