Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 45 – Home Is Where The Heart Is
The next twenty four hours were like a blur for most involved; as soon as those from the Ministry had returned Coleman ordered Aayla, Alema and Harry to the Healers and to get some rest as it was very evident that they were all suffering in one way or another from the after effects of their battle.
Coleman helped take charge of the situation and after ensuring that everyone got medical attention he set about making sure all the prisoners were secure and safe; Wormtail had already been carted off with so many enchantments around him it was a miracle that he could still breathe. As for the rest the DOM had produced massive amounts of a truth drug and between those and magical oaths they had managed to ascertain the guilt and or innocence of most of those involved. For the most part the judges, which comprised of a group containing Coleman, Croaker, Kingsley and a couple of others, were lenient letting most of the reservists and Ministry personnel go as they were not willing participants in the events that had transpired or had only committed minor crimes. The group knew that if they were too harsh there would no one in the Ministry to help them rebuild Wizarding Britain which in some ways would be worse than it was before.
There were of course a large number for whom this could not be said but only those Inquisitors or those who were to be the ring leaders were handed over to the acromantulas, the rest were packed off to Azkaban which had been retaken by the Unspeakables shortly after the fall of the Ministry.
When the number of casualties were totalled the numbers were shockingly high especially amongst the spiders of the forest but considering the numbers against them it was no real surprise. The most known of the dead were Mace Windu and Fleur Weasley.
The latter, Coleman learned, had apparently died jumping in front of a curse aimed at the new Dark Lord, which had been a surprise to everyone when they learned of the revelation of his identity, after he had been defeated by Harry by one of his followers. The inquisitor who threw the curse was bleeding heavily at the time thanks to being stabbed by the Sword of Gryffindor, Coleman was not going to ask how that got there, and whether because of her injuries or her fury at being deceived by this 'Wormtail' her aim was off so the curse would have struck Harry had the Weasley girl not jumped in the way.
This had obviously affected Harry badly and despite others telling him that she would have died happy having fulfilled her debt to him this did not console him at all or her distraught husband and family when they learned of it. Coleman knew there was something else that had affected the padawan but now was not the time to speak of it.
The most awkward conversation Coleman had was when he was forced to ask about what had happened to Mace. He was told of how the Headmistress, by some miracle, had managed to save Hermione's life from Inquisitors but had not been able to summon help quickly enough to save Master Windu.
The Healers later magically examined his body and discovered he had suffered a massive brain haemorrhage most likely caused by the ship crashing, though later Coleman privately asked the Healers whether it was the impact of the ship hitting the ground or the deploying of the defences around the pilots chair striking Mace in the head which has caused the bleed. For the rest of his days Coleman was never quite sure if he was happy or not that the answer to that question was 'inconclusive' and was most definite that he was not going to share his thoughts on the subject with either the padawans or the High Council, if the former two ever learned of it they would be devastated by the revelation that it was possible that they were indirectly responsible for Windu's death.
Coleman found it quite humbling that one of the greatest jedi of their generation, instead of dying of a blaster bolt in a fierce battle, or fighting a dark Force user was felled by nothing more ordinary than a simple bleed in the brain caused by a bump to the head, but he was forced to push such thoughts aside though in order to get on with the job at hand, it would be quite a long time until the Raven was flight worthy again, if it ever was, so the group would have remain on the planet for the time being.
Harry was hiding; he had been hiding ever since he and his Master had been released by the Healers. He knew she wanted to talk to him as he kept feeling her presence against his firmly shut mental shields and he knew she had walked passed him about five times. He was hidden inside an invisible room which Dobby had told him about called the 'Come And Go Room', which by some miracle still worked despite the damage to the rest of the school, she was unable to find him for the face to face that they needed to have that he desperately wanted to avoid.
Harry knew he was pushing his luck; he knew that she knew that he was hiding from her and by now she knew that he was somehow hidden behind the unremarkable wall that there was apparently no door for and seemed intent on waiting him out. He could only forestall the inevitable for so long.
As he came the conclusion the door to the room appeared in the stone of the wall that separated them. A few moments later the door opened.
Aayla opened the door with more than a little trepidation, she and her Padawan had not spoken more than a couple of words since the events at the Ministry and there was one very difficult conversation that they definitely needed to have before the Council became aware of it.
The inside of the room was basically just a ten square meet stone box with a window in the far wall to provide light, there was no furniture or ornamentation of any kind other than her Padawan who was sitting with his back against the wall, one leg bent so that his foot was flat on the floor with the knee at around neck height and the other at the same angle but lying against the floor. It was the perfect sort of dark no frills room that leaves you nothing to do but think.
"Harry," she greeted.
"Master," he returned just as flatly. "I guess we need to talk."
"Yes," she replied, seating herself beside him in a similar position, she had never been overly good at the 'Mastering' and now she was about to have possibly the most difficult conversation that any master and padawan can ever have. If she were not locking down her emotions she would have been shaking, they had had the conversation before about him never going dark when he had had that conversation with Senator Palpatine about the Sith and he had been the one to reassure her about it, now she had to confront him with it.
There was a minutes silence in which neither of them said anything, neither really knowing how to broach the subject.
"Harry, you know what it was you did to Wormtail don't you?"
"I defeated him using Sith Lightning Master," he replied.
"You know the Council need to know?"
"Yes Master," he replied blandly.
"They will want to investigate, they will ask you questions about it."
"I know Master."
"They co- They could-"
"Master," he interrupted, "I know. They will ask me about it, they will make a decision on it and if they don't like what they discover I could be punished in some way or I could be kicked out of the Order, that doesn't concern me."
"Wha...Harry it should!" she said firmly, "This is your future we're talking about, what would you do if you were forced to leave the Order?"
"Get a job as a bodyguard," he shrugged. "I certainly have the skills for it."
"I'm serious Harry," she admonished.
"So am I Master," he said slightly louder, interrupting the sentence that was to come. "The thing that is worrying me right now is that I wasn't trying to do it so I don't control it…and that fact that I broke my word."
"Broke your word?" she asked confused.
"When we last has a talk like this on the way to Naboo I swore to you that I had no intention of turning into a Grey Jedi, a Dark Jedi or a Sith. I've been asking myself whether what I did was justified and if I had the chance to relive the moment and the opportunity to do it over would I do the same….I keep coming up with the answer yes."
The next few weeks sped past for the jedi. For the most part only Coleman was visible to those outside of Hogwarts, the others either kept to themselves or shunned the limelight that resulted from the revelation of Wormtail's survival, his subsequent defeat and the restoration of the Ministry to its former allegiance. Kingsley Shacklebolt was formerly sworn in as Acting Minister of Magic after only a couple of days and began immediately to rebuild the Ministry to what it was and started undoing all the former Ministers changes.
The mass funerals for the dead were conducted the following day, the only exception being Mace who was to be transported back to Coruscant in stasis. A new graveyard was set up on the boarders of the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade for all the deceased, just one more creepy area around Hogwarts several people commented. The day was emotionally draining for all, not just because of the mourning but a lot of wizards and witches were flooding back into the UK and the reunions helped in some small ways to make the day a little less sombre. When Ambassador Chang arrived to see his daughter there had been an unbelievable amount of tears at her condition but many of them were of extreme pride especially when the following day after the funerals the celebration party was held at Hogwarts. The Minister had layered the praise on the former students to such a level that as well as leaving every relatives eyes streaming with tears of pride, all the revolutions ringleaders as well as all those involved in the horcrux hunt received the Order of Merlin First Class and by the day after when the news hit all the international papers it was announced by the Chinese Magical Government, which was as separate from its Muggle counterpart as the British one was, that the Ambassador's daughter would be receiving their highest civilian award for her part in restoring freedom to the people and for her part in the battle. Apparently when the Chinese magical public had heard the story in their papers Cho had been elevated into instant celebrity status amongst her people and she got multiple interview and photo shoot requests before the end of the week, much to her shock.
The jedi were also highly praised as were Harry and Hermione the former of whom, after both were officially pardoned, received the Order of Merlin First Class while the latter and the other Jedi and Alema received the Second Class much to Hermione's embarrassment and pride. Several people noted that Harry was strangely quiet and withdrawn at the award ceremony and the celebrations most put it down to exhaustion, only Aayla really knew the reason and what it could mean.
As soon as the celebrations, which went on for about two days and included dinners, parties, a rapidly organised concert and any number of other events, had finally concluded the restoration of Hogwarts began, apparently Hogwarts did not need an awful lot of help from its residence as rock walls started to slowly repair themselves around them, it would take a few weeks to repair all the damage but soon Hogwarts would be back to its former self along with the addition of a certain stone statue of two of Hogwarts defenders which now stood with pride at the centre of the courtyard in front of a stone monument listing the names of all those who died facing the now defeated evil.
As well as the castle being restored some of the former staff that had survived and had been imprisoned were released so that they could return including Flitwick, Sprout, Pince and Pomfrey and although Cho immediately stepped down from her position as Headmistress the restored Headmaster Flitwick immediately re-promoted her to the position of Deputy Headmistress and Head of Ravenclaw House, Padma was likewise given the formal job of Duelling Master, while Daphne retained her leadership of Slytherin House and was given the position of Potions Master which got a few raised eyebrows from those that did not know how clever she really was.
All this time Harry had kept a low profile and when he deemed to show himself, or rather showed himself to prevent questions being asked, he kept quiet and looked thoughtful and spent much of his time in the newly restocked Library, much to Madam Pince's delight, or around the remains of the Raven. He and Hermione had determined that the ship would not fly again without major assistance from the Republic and would require extensive work even then.
The Aayla and Coleman were not really worried about this as they knew that sooner or later a rescue party would be sent to investigate what had happened if they did not report in and although the vast majority of the ship was not usable they managed to get a transponder rigged with a simple repeating message of coordinates so that the Republic knew where to land when they arrived.
It was almost three months later that a confused Hermione was standing, her leg injuries having long since healed, to one side of the Hogwarts lawn as a large freighter started descending towards them. For a brief moment she wondered who on Earth it was as it was not standard jedi transport and it was only when she felt the presence of a number of jedi that she was sure that the ship contained their rescue party.
As she walked towards the landing ship she briefly reflected on their time back on Earth, there was a brief moment when she debated staying and not returning to the Republic now that she and the others had been pardoned but it was nothing more than a passing thought as she knew the Republic was where she belonged. Things were much better now than they were when they landed, there was once again peace and although some people, like Ginny, still disliked them, though she seemed happier now all the fighting was over, things were looking up. The only thing that was really bothering her was Harry, he had been extremely evasive of late since they came back from the Ministry. She had asked him what had happened and after getting over her shock at Wormtail's return had been told how Harry had managed to use the Force to overpower him before Lestrange killed him, thankfully there did not seem to be any horcruxes this time around but she got the distinct feeling she had only been given the cliff notes and there was something she was not being told. She had asked Aayla but she had asked her not to discuss it with Harry, at that point she knew something had happened but now she could not talk about it, she just hoped that whatever it was that her friend would be back to his old self soon.
When the boarding ramp touched the ground she was surprised to see the Grand Master himself leading the precession of jedi down the ramp.
"Master Yoda!" she bowed
"Padawan Granger; pleased to see you I am."
"Likewise Master, we were beginning to wonder if we had been forgotten about?" she asked jokingly but subtly questioning the long wait.
"Apologise I do," grinned the old jedi. "Foresaw I did that after the battle trouble with your ship you would have, brought a ship large enough to transport it we did. Unfortunate it was that great speed it did not have."
"Thank you Master, I must admit that we were worried about leaving what remains of it behind as it won't fly again without a lot of replacement parts including a new primary hull. Master if I may I ask if you knew you would not be in time for the battle, why did you bring so many jedi?"
"Miss the battle so brought less guardians I did. Medical supplies, expertise and healers mostly they are. Coming are other so wait for more answers I suggest."
She turned to see the other jedi, Headmaster Flitwick and Deputy Headmistress Chang walking towards them across the lawn.
Yoda had not been exaggerating when he said he had brought healers and supplies; of the force of thirty jedi that had accompanied him only about ten were dedicated fighters the rest had either multiple specialities or had expertise that leant towards disaster relief or medical crises'. The medical expertise of the jedi healers on board were very advanced and were even able to heal some of the problems that even magic could not, Cho was in tears of joy when the healers explained to her that it was possible to replace her damaged eyes with a natural looking bionic pair which should work just the same if not better than the originals.
It was not long after the ship arrived that the deal with the acromantulas was explained to Master Yoda and the following day the transport set off with Harry and a couple of the other jedi as escort as well as a packed cargo hold full of several hundred spiders ready for delivery to the furthest reaches of the planet to fulfil their end of the deal. The Prime had been overjoyed when he learned that the larger ship could transport far more of his kind than the Raven could and that he had originally planned and when it returned almost a week later after making contact with as many other acromantula colonies as they could and transporting hundreds if not thousands of them from each continent to every other acromantula inhabited continent it was full to bursting with over five hundred acromantulas of varying size including a great many young adult acromantulas giving the Prime a very large selection of females with which to start the next generation of spiders and when Harry and the others left them at the boarders of the forest several of them were already doing what could only be described as acromantula flirting which is almost impossible to describe to someone who has not witnessed it themselves.
By the time the ship had returned the remains of the Raven had been transported out of the forest and was laid out on the grounds. The ship was well and truly wrecked; the engines had been torn off, there were dozens of massive holes in the sides of the ship, the main spar from which the rest of the ships ribs were built around was snapped in three, the primary hull was dented beyond repair and there was barely one operational system left working on board. Despite this Harry and Hermione had already been working out which bits of the ship were salvageable and which bits would need replacing and had already been pulling bits of the ships apart and getting the local witches and wizards to assist them in their casting, by the time the rest of the jedi were ready to help them levitate the remains onto the ship they had over half a ships worth of repaired and enchanted hull plates ready to be fitted to the Raven 2.0 if the Council allowed the project to continue.
The force of jedi stayed on Earth for almost three weeks, helping heal, rebuild and anything else their talents could be put too. During that time Harry was approached by a representative of Gringotts regarding his parents and Sirius's estates, both of which apparently were left to him. Knowing that he was not intending to stay on Earth and being not sure if he would ever actually return he decided to give everything away. The vast Black estate in its entirety was given to the Weasley family as a whole to be divided up between them, having lost so many of the clan in the war from his best friend Ron Weasley to the now late Fleur Weasley (née Delacour) he decided that it was the least he could do. And the more modest Potter estate, as it was more personnel to him despite the fact that he had never had anything to do with it before, he decided to give to Neville and (by extension) the future Daphne Longbottom with the condition to both families that if they found any personal items belonging to either his parents or Sirius they would be put aside for him for if and when he ever decided to return to Earth.
Both families had initially tried to say no but he managed to talk them both around eventually though both had agreed that if he should ever come back he could instantly reclaim both estates if he wished, he knew he never would but it made them feel better about it.
Also before they left there were several rushed weddings that needed attending, Neville and Daphne wasted no time in tying the knot and several other pairs did likewise. Luna and Ginny probably would have done so if Wizarding Law covered such things but after a Muggleborn, who was more open to such things than most of the Purebloods, commented that the Muggle world was moving in that direction they guessed that as soon as it was properly legalised it would not be long before the pair had a Muggle civil partnership arranged.
The amount of things that went on while they were on Earth were so many and varied that it took hours for the young jedi to recite them all though both Harry and Hermione made a point of going over their magical learning with the original Hogwarts staff and both worked on their wandless skills and apparation in their few minutes of spare time.
Finally it came to the time when they determined that they would have to leave but before they did there was one thing that Harry had to do first:
It was a dimly lit room that Harry with some trepidation opened the door to the morning they were due to leave, the room was padded on all sides including and contained only four things of note; a heavily padded mattress, a toilet (which was also padded as much as possible), Penelope Weasley (née Clearwater) reading a book and the woman who was sitting in one corner of the room with slowly colour shifting hair.
Penelope got up and walked over to him and leaned in close so she could talk quietly.
"It's good to see you again Harry."
"Likewise Penelope, congratulations on the marriage to Percy, I know they're a bit late but…"
"Thanks Harry," she smiled. "Percy actually had an invitation written out for you just in case you came back in time, but I gather that it's just as well you didn't come back then, you might not have known how to defeat Pettigrew if you had."
Harry, Aayla and Alema had not told anyone about the Sith Lightning being a bad thing, by some miracle Hermione and Coleman had not found out yet because that would cause another awkward confession.
"How is she?" he asked changing the subject and looking over at the woman quietly sitting opened eyes in the corner.
"It's a good day," sighed Penelope. "There's been no uncontrolled magic today. I understand you never met her before you left?"
"Unfortunately not…but I think we would have done quite soon had we not left when we did," he replied. "It's one of the reasons I felt the need to come and see her before we left again. The other being that I suspect had we not left that I would have been the one searching for the horcruxes instead and it might have been me sitting there rather than her."
"I had heard you were leaving again, I don't suppose I could talk you out of it, I know the Weasley's were devastated when they heard."
"They have already tried several times," he remarked. "And beside not all of them were devastated."
"Ginny will come around, it might just take a while, but she's already much better than she was. The biggest problem she's going to have is the other Weasley's accepting Luna as her public lover; Purebloods are a bit funny about that sort of thing, even Purebloods like the Weasley's, it's the sort of thing which is only done in private but not in public. Having had a Half-blood's upbringing I am not bothered by such things."
"Hopefully Minister Shacklebolt might look at addressing that," he replied before looking over at Nymphadora.
"I'll leave you alone for a few minutes," she smiled sadly before heading towards the door.
As she left Harry walked over to the sitting woman who he could just hear mumbling under her breath, half the words incomprehensible.
Kneeling down beside her he could see that she was staring straight forward but her eyes were empty.
"Hi Tonks, I heard that's what you prefer to be called. We never met before now, my names Harry Potter."
"Potter…Harry Potter," she muttered audibly as her hair flashing quicker for a brief second.
"Yes Tonks, I…I wanted to tell you that Pete- That Voldemort's been defeated, the horcruxes had all been destroyed, he's gone. I know that could never make up for what you have lost but I wanted you to know that your efforts were not in vain."
She gave no sign that she had understood.
"A friend of mine from a long way away is going to stay and try to help you, she's very experienced and will hopefully be able to bring you back to us."
Again no change.
Sighing reluctantly he stood and walked towards the door. As he left the jedi healer who had come with him nodded and entered as he left. Hopefully if he ever did return to Earth Tonks would be back closer to the woman she used to be.
On the lawn of Hogwarts the transport was readied for take-off surrounded by a large crowd of onlookers. Almost everyone who was leaving was already on the ship, a few of the jedi, like the one helping Tonks, had elected to stay and help until a second ship could be sent to retrieve them, the only remaining people were Harry and Hermione who were at the bottom of the ramp saying their goodbyes. There seemed to be a never ending line of people wanting to see them off. The Weasley's had been one of the hardest groups to say goodbye to, despite their training on controlling their emotions tears were shed by both the young jedi and even Ginny consented to nodding, however briefly, at the pair. The very last three people in line were the no longer visually challenged Cho, who they could tell had not yet got used to her new eyes as she was constantly scanning her surroundings with wide eyes, Padma and the recently married Neville with a very young phoenix sitting upon his shoulder.
"You could stay you know," the former said tearfully.
"We could," replied Hermione, "But we can't."
"We need to finish our training," added Harry.
"You could come back when you are finished," Padma suggested. It was an argument they had already heard a dozen times.
"We could but Earth is no longer out home," Harry replied.
"We never really realised it until we got back here and started thinking about when we would be returning to the Temple," explained Hermione.
"You could come back for holidays?" Cho suggested.
"Possibly," replied Harry, "But Earth is a very long way from Coruscant, it's not so easy to set things aside for the weeks it takes to get here and back, but you never know."
"Goodbye Harry," Padma replied hugging him tightly before reluctantly separating swapping with Cho and joining Hermione in a longer hug. "Goodbye Hermione."
"We'll miss you Cho, Padma," cried Hermione.
They then shared and even longer three way hug with Neville.
"We'll miss you guys," he sobbed.
It took the trio pairs another minute under the gaze of the hundreds who were gathered before they willingly parted and the pair made their way up the ramp to the ship where their Masters were standing with Master Yoda and some of the other jedi. The group kept their eyes on those outside until the ramp raised into their view and then watched Hogwarts until the ramp closed completely.
The young jedi both sighed as their childhood home vanished from sight; possibly for the last time the emotions rolling off them did not go unnoticed by the older jedi.
"At a young age especially not easy it is detachment from ones emotions. The balance of the Force restored to your home world you have, in knowing that take comfort."
"Yes Master," they both replied, though the Grand Master knew neither really paying head to his words and tapped the comlink on his wrist.
"Captain, home take us please."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Got there in the end guys, hope that wraps up all the plot threads on Earth.
Let me know what you would like to happen to our young jedi next and what you think will happen when Harry has to face the Council and who will take Windu's place.