FicWad

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Star Trek. For that matter, I don't own much of anything except a lot of debt. If I could claim the two series and all their spin-offs, I would. So please don't sic the law demons on me ok?


Chapter 11: Academy Days

Over the next few weeks Harry had to set his thoughts of the wizarding world aside as he buckled down in his studies. The Academy staff informed the plebes that those who were not performing well enough academically would be restricted to campus during the winter break. Harry had no intention of spending the two week break stuck on campus doing all sorts of busy work. If he wasn't on restriction, Harry wanted to go back to Iowa to spend Christmas and New Year's at the farm. He was also hoping to see Kim if possible, but he knew from her letters that she had taken a part time job at one of the Media outlets selling advertising. The holidays were their busiest time and she was apparently doing very well.

At the end of November Harry felt that this GPA was going to be high enough to allow him to go back to Iowa for the break. The plebes were also informed that all of them had to join a sports team of some type in the coming semester. A listing of the various teams and sports available had been posted and most of his squad had gravitated towards team sports such as rugby or lacrosse, but Harry and Hui didn't. Hui had apparently been a very competitive bike rider before coming to the Academy and tried out and secured a spot on the varsity bike racing team.

Harry, on the other hand, had his interest piqued when he read the description of the modern pentathlon. Of the five events, Harry knew he was very good at two and fairly good at two others. While the last event, swimming, wasn't his strong suit, he had finally been able to take swimming lessons during his high school years in Riverside. And it was the only one of the five events he had previous experience with in a competitive setting. Of course, I had some help from the gillyweed last time. Shaking his head ruefully at the memory, Harry decided to try out for the varsity pentathlon squad.

On the day of the tryouts, Harry's squad came to the athletic stadium with Harry to support him in his bid. Harry figured that even if he didn't qualify for the full pentathlon, he could get onto the team for one of his two best individual events.

The twenty-third century Starfleet version of the modern pentathlon was slightly changed from the version in the twentieth century Olympic Games, though four of the five events were still generally the same. Replacing the original equestrian portion of the competition was a flight skills event, using standardized VTOL aircraft. This was a demonstration of flying skills, not how well you could trick out an aircraft. Unlike his years on the Quidditch team, where he'd usually had the superior broom, in this event Harry had to rely on skill alone.

The second event was shooting, with phasers instead of the original pistols. All contestants had to hit stationary as well as moving targets.

The third event was fencing. Until recently, this had been a one-on-one matchup between two live opponents, but the Federation had recently worked out an agreement with a group of androids from a place called Mudd's World, and several were there as fencing opponents/evaluators in addition to performing other duties that had been agreed upon. They were almost immune to injury, which allowed the competitors to use more dangerous weapons and combat styles.

The fourth event was a 200 meter swim, which was immediately followed by the final event, a 3 kilometer run. The combined scores of all events determined a cadet's placement and whether or not they made the team.

Harry's squad all sat in the bleachers to watch. Just before it was time for Harry to step onto the field, his roommate Ces'ka Rus'san pulled him aside and let him know that, no matter what, the whole squad was rooting for him. Apparently the betting between squads in the various companies was pretty fierce.

"Okay, Russ, what's riding on my getting on the team?" asked Harry. He was curious to know how fierce the betting between squads was getting.

Rus'san's antennae twisted about, almost as if to see if there was anyone listening. He rubbed his chin for a moment and said, "So far, a week's latrine and cleanup duty and, last I checked, 10 bars of gold pressed latinum. Potter, even Stendec placed a bet that you're going to get on the team."

Harry blinked. Their Vulcan squad-mate was pretty picky about what he allowed himself to gamble on. "He did? Well shit, I'm going to have to get on the team now. Stendec doesn't bet on anything unless he calculated the odds are in his favor." There was a whistle from the field, and Harry's name was called. "Okay, it looks like I'm up. See you at the finish line." With a jaunty British army salute, Harry moved to the staging area for the flight event.

Hui called after him, "WITH YOUR SHIELD OR ON IT POTTER! I HATE CLEANING TOILETS!"

Harry spun around and sketched out a bow to his squad; they burst out in laughter at the sight.

The Valkyrie class stunt plane, the designated vessel type for this event, had already been put through all preflight checks, so Harry simply climbed in and started it up. Once the gauges had reached the proper readings, he took off like a bat out of hell and sped into the obstacle course.

On the ground, the judges were surprised at the speed and precision of Harry's flight. In the stands, everyone was in awe of the skill that Harry was demonstrating. No one had any idea he was this good.

In the cockpit, Harry was thoroughly enjoying this event. In preparation, he had spent as much time as he could get in the simulator to get a feel of the aircraft. The simulator, however, was no substitute for the real thing. As soon as he took off, Harry felt like he was on his Firebolt once again. The little aircraft responded to his touch almost like it was grafted directly to his brain. Howling with joy, he finished the last maneuver and landed the plane on its pad in record time.

Harry unstrapped himself and tossed his crash helmet to one of the ground crew. As his feet touched the ground, Harry was heard to mutter, "Damn, I forgot how much fun that is."

Harry headed over to the shooting range. As he did so, the Academy flight master, who had been observing, moved to the judges table and asked for Harry's name. He explained that he wanted Harry to try out for the flight demonstration team the moment he was eligible.

The range master handed Harry a charged phaser and said to him as he was about to start his run, "Good luck, kid. You'll do fine"

Harry nodded and began the course.

About halfway though the set, the rangemaster commented to one of the range safety officers, "Kid's got one of the best eyes I've seen for energy weapons. Damn near beat Chekov's record first time he picked up a phaser."

Harry overheard the comment and smiled while thinking, If they only knew how close a phaser is to a wand.

He paid the price for his inattention on the next set of targets when he only scored a pair of sevens instead of the tens he'd had on earlier ones.

Shortly after finishing the phaser range, Harry was called over to the fencing portion of the course. He knew that as soon as he finished this piece he had the back-to-back swim and run so he decided to try and conserve as much energy as he could for the last pieces of the course.

Over the centuries the modern pentathlon had been modified as new races and technologies had come into play. The fencing portion had originally been with Epée style swords, but as the years had gone by, this rule had been changed so the contestants could use whatever style of blade they wanted. Since this change everything from Kukri fighting knives to Claymores had been used. Several years previously, a Vulcan by the name of Xon had even used a Lirpa in this portion. However no one had expected Harry to use a Klingon Bat'le'th.

When he pulled the blade from its case, an exclamation of shock came from the observers. One of Harry's squad, Cadet Melendres, exclaimed "Madre de Dios. ¿Donde hizo el consigue eso? "

Rus'san glanced at Melendres then responded "I have no idea what you just said, but I do know that those aren't just given out. You all know Potter doesn't like playing up his accomplishments, but this…" Rus'san just shrugged.

Alexander 17, one of the Mudd's World androids, quickly evaluated Harry's blade and said, "Interesting choice. Do not worry about injuring me, and I will do my best to not harm you; just score points. You may begin when ready, Mr. Potter."

Harry nodded at Alexander and attacked. In short order he had scored two points of the necessary three to win, but those were the only two that he was able to. The android had a massive database of fighting styles at his disposal. He was able to quickly analyze Harry's movements and devise a counter, quickly turning the tables and scoring points on Harry.

As soon as Alexander had scored his third point, he bowed and said, "Mr. Potter, you are a gifted amateur. I suggest that you do all that you can to improve. There are formal fencing classes and a martial arts instructor who will be available for you to utilize starting next semester. You have the potential to be a truly great swordsman. It is now time for you to continue on your course. Good day."

Harry nodded and placed the sword back in its case. He then took off for the swimming piece of the course.

The last two events were anticlimactic. He did well in both, but as he expected there were others who were faster.

Harry moved to the Judges' table and received his scores. In total he had just barely scored enough to make the team, his high scores in the first two events making up for his less stellar run and swim times. He would be competing for the remainder of the Academic year. Until the season was over there would be a daily practice, one event per day, with intramural competition on every other Saturday. If he worked hard and improved immensely, Harry might have a shot at the Olympic Games after his junior year, but that was a ways off.

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When Christmas break rolled around Harry was able to go home to Riverside. Arriving back at the Kirk family farm, he felt the stress from his studies and the pentathlon competitions come off his shoulders, if only for a little while. He spent that first day just sitting back and relaxing around the farm, doing some chores but not really concentrating on any specific thing. Looking back, Harry realized he would have laughed if an older version of himself had come through time and told a nine year old Harry, slaving away in Petunia's garden, that he would be willingly doing chores on a farm to relax when he was nineteen.

The day after he came home, Harry called Kim at her place in Iowa City. The call lasted several hours, but by the end of the call, they had realized that while they still cared deeply for each other, they had drifted apart in the past several months. They mutually agreed to not try and see each other, as they wanted to remember all the good times and not take a chance of doing something that would destroy what they still had. Even so, they had each gotten the other Christmas presents. Shortly after they had finished the call Harry got into the 'vette and took Kim's present to her parents and picked up his gift from them, with no plans to open it until Christmas morning.

Christmas it self was enjoyable and all the gifts were well received. As much as he still missed Kim, Harry did not attempt to go and visit her. He spent an hour or so looking out the front window of the living room at the road down the slight hill the house sat on just reflecting on how much things had changed in his life. At one point, he could have sworn that he saw Kim drive past in a new vehicle and he a hard time restraining himself from casting an Accio Kim when he saw the car pass by. However he respected her wishes and did not attempt to see if it was her going past.

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Two days after Christmas, Harry, Winona and Peter sat down to tackle the issue of Luna's prophecies. Harry had made copies of his transcription to make notes on and go over. After reading through the transcripts, Winona asked, "So Harry, what have you figured out so far?"

Harry sat quietly for a moment before responding. "Well, I'm going to take this in two parts. First is going to be the bit before the jackalope comment then the rest of the predictions. The Bumblebee is Dumbledore. I remember Hermione pointing out that that's what the name meant, so it's no mystery. Quetzalcoatl and the serpent's son are also pretty obvious. They both have to be references to Voldemort. Remember, he claims to be Salazar Slytherin's direct descendant and Slytherin's personal symbol was the snake. The heliopath nests--"

"What the heck are heliopaths?" Peter asked.

"Luna once described them as spirits of fire, that gallop around burning everything they touch, or something like that. That has to be her reference to the nukes going off, which was about ten years before this letter was written. I think that means the pins are, well, they would be the Horcruxes, the things that were 'pinning' Voldemort to this world. It's the rest of this that's confusing. The childhood protection that Luna's referring to might be the blood wards that were around the Dursleys' house. If a witch or wizard was out to do me harm, they couldn't get near me. But I have no idea that's what she means by 'remembering' them. And as for the plaque, and the Bumblebee's wings? I have no clue."

Winona looked at the initial piece about Dumbledore. "Bumblebee's sting. Hmmmm...well, a bee dies when it stings something. Based on this description about the sting clipping wings, Dumbledore may have done something that weakened or trapped Voldemort, but maybe the effort killed him. Dumbledore was in charge of Hogwarts, right?"

"Yeah, he had been the headmaster for decades when I was a student there. Umbridge forced him out during my last year there, and I don't know if he ever got his job back."

Winona nodded. "If he was in charge for that long, I'll bet he knew the place better than anyone else alive at the time."

Peter spoke up after a bit of thought. "Harry, I remember you telling us about Hogwarts, back when we were in Scotland, telling us about how there were wards to keep enemies of the castle out. I'm betting that even if he was ousted, Dumbledore still knew how to manipulate and control those wards. Do you remember if those wards around the school needed to be recharged or something?"

Harry tried to remember what he had heard over his years at Hogwarts about the wards. "I think so. I'd heard mentions of ward work being done over the summers. Realignments and maybe some boosting of the strength, depending on what sort of threats may have been believed to be against the place. I don't really remember anything about the wards having to be recharged, per se."

Winona asked, "How old was Dumbledore when your accident occurred?"

"I don't know exactly. He was well over a hundred from what I understood, but one of the test proctors for my OWLs had been Dumbledore's teacher when he was in school, so Dumbledore probably still had quite a few years left in him. Why?" asked Harry

"You did say that wizards and witches lived longer due to their magic. A non magical person's lifespan doesn't usually go beyond about a hundred or so. Dumbledore would have been pushing two hundred years old when London was attacked in 2060, assuming that's when this ward thing happened. That's pretty old, but maybe not impossible for a wizard. What I'm thinking is that somehow Dumbledore used his magic to realign the wards around Hogwarts, maybe turned them inside out or something to trap Voldemort there, at the cost of his life. If Dumbledore did do something along these lines at such an advanced age, the effort probably killed him immediately or at best a short time later because of the lack of magic to sustain him."

Harry nodded in agreement. Considering what he knew of what had happened and how magic worked, it made sense that Dumbledore would have sacrificed his life and magic to trap Voldemort at Hogwarts like that. It may have seemed like his only choice, with Harry not there to fulfill the prophecy.

"Well, since we seemed to have solved that piece for the moment, I'm wondering about this 'fanged one' that helped. Luna says it's someone you trust. Anyone that you remember that might have been around when she wrote this?" asked Peter curiously.

Harry thought about everyone he knew and trusted from the twentieth century. "There are only two people that might fit that description. Remus Lupin and Bill Weasley. Remus was a werewolf, and Luna's description would be a pretty good match for him when he was having his 'furry little problem'. Bill, on the other hand, is a bit more of a stretch but still a good candidate. He was Ron and Ginny's oldest brother and a curse breaker for Gringotts. He did a lot of breaking into old tombs and what not. When I met him, he had an earring made of a fang from some animal.

"I don't know if Remus would have been still alive after seventy-five years, when Luna wrote her letter. He'd have been over a hundred years old by that time, and those transformations took a lot out of him every time they happened. I'm sure he was around to help Hermione with the password protections on her letters, but beyond that, I just don't know. Bill didn't have any curses or injuries that I know of that might have shortened his life, but with Voldemort taking so much control in Britain, I don't know what anyone's life expectancy was. Bill was a pureblood, though, so that might have given him a bit of protection. If nothing happened to him in the meantime, he could easily have been around in the 2070's. Come to think of it, since the 'fanged one' was mentioned in conjunction with the blood wards around the Dursleys, he might be a better candidate. Doesn't really matter, I'd trust either one of them."

"So either Bill or Remus rigged a way for you to get to this 'arena' and fight Voldemort. Most likely the 'arena' is Hogwarts, since it appears that he's trapped there," said Winona, putting the pieces together as they appeared to fit.

"That's the long and the short of it. But I still have no idea about a plaque or the bumblebees' wings and how they might tie into the wards that were around the Dursleys. I know that the house is long gone, as is anything that might have been there to anchor the wards," said Harry, frustrated about getting so far but still missing key pieces.

"Harry, honey, let's work on the rest of this and see what we can come up with, okay?" said Winona realizing that they had come to a dead end for now.

"Alright," Harry sighed, then moved on. "I think that we can forget the comment about the Jackalopes; that seems more of a case of Luna being Luna and not making predictions. What about this black and maroon? Some sort of clothing choice is obvious, but in regards to what?"

"I don't think that it's everyday wear so to speak. She may have been referring to a uniform, or suit colors. Heck, Luna may have been referring to the color scheme for a wedding party. One thing that I find interesting here is that she tends to imply these predictions are with your friend-- oh, what is her name... that's right, Whee -- throughout the letter. It's possible that Luna was also saying that you two were going to be together in some way," said Winona, fairly sure of here interpretation.

Peter looked up from his transcript of the letter. "Did you ever figure out what your friend meant by the 'hornswaggler'?" he asked Harry.

Harry chuckled. "Nope. It sounds like another one of Luna's mythical creatures. She was always going on about nargles and crumple-horned snorkacks and such."

Peter shook his head. "'Horned' and 'swagger'...sounds like an Andorian, or a Klingon maybe."

Harry thought about that. The antenae or the brow ridges could both have led Luna to call them 'horned', and both groups had a tendency to arrogance. "Well, if Luna saw either one of those races in a vision, she wouldn't have known what to call it. Hell, maybe all those creatures she used to talk about are things she saw in visions that she didn't know the right name for. So, Andorian, or Klingon? My squad leader is Andorian, so that's very possible right there...though I already pretty much trust him, so why would Luna need to warn me? And if it was an Andorian, I'd expect Luna's name for them to mention the color blue."

"So maybe it is a Klingon," Peter agreed. "You do have that Klingon sword, and some Klingon clan out there ready to 'fight at your side' or some such crap."

"Maybe. Hopefully I can figure it out when the time comes. Now, I'm not sure who this woman that Luna was referring to is, it could be anyone that I may know right now, or someone that I'm going to meet in the future. But whoever it is, they are going to do something with my best interests in mind, but something I may not appreciate at first." Sitting back and tapping his chin for a moment, Harry continued. "I don't think that it's something to really worry about right now. I'm just going to have to think before reacting to things people do. The last bit is meant for Hui, so whatever Luna was referring to isn't really my business."

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Returning to the academy after New Years, Harry truly cracked the books in a way that would have made Hermione both proud and jealous of him. He was doing this not because of anything or anyone in particular, but it finally dawned on him that he could be his own man with no pressures of being the Boy-Who-Lived, better than Dudley, the expectations of an entire culture waiting for you to save it. Hui's advice from the weekend they had spent together and Hermione's admonishment to live his life had finally clicked, and he found himself enjoying the Academy regardless of what was sent his way. Harry lost himself in the intricacies of interstellar navigation theory, simple gardening around the quad, training till he dropped with martial arts instructors for the Pentathlon team meets, cheering his squad mates on in their athletic endeavors, and experiencing the joys of seeing new creatures in his exozoology class. He'd already studied a couple of creatures that he'd first seen described in The Quibbler back in the twentieth century, much to his amusement. All in all, Harry had finally found himself and was content.

Earning another pass with Hui in early March was fun for both of them. During that semester, due to their differing specialties, they only shared two classes with each other: exozoology and shuttle operations. They helped each other out with the weak points that they had in these two classes, complementing each other and quickly becoming extremely close friends. They valued each other's advice and opinions and, as it turned out, enjoyed exploring the city and surrounding environs.

On Sunday morning, as they had before, Hui and Harry both went to her grandfather's bar for breakfast. While enjoying breakfast, Harry noticed a Starfleet officer in the corner quietly eating breakfast and reading a newspadd.

"Hui, do you recognize that guy in the corner? I can't get a good look at him, but he looks familiar."

"It's Lt. Sharpe. I wonder what he's doing here? I mean aside from eating, you nitwit." Hui responded to the comment she could see forming on Harry's lips.

"Think we should go over and say Hi?" asked Harry. He was curious as to how their exozoology instructor had found the bar.

"Naaaah… Let him eat in peace. If he wants to say hello, he will. But let's not bug him," responded Hui.

The two of them returned to their food and discussed what they might want to do that day. Neither one was paying attention to what the other patrons were doing and were a bit surprised when Lt. Sharpe came up to their table.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Johansson, don't get up, but it's nice to see you two out enjoying the day," their instructor greeted them.

"Yes, sir," they replied. Hui asked, "So, how do you like my grandfather's bar, sir?"

"Mickey's your grandfather? He's always been good a good host. I can remember coming here with my parents from Vancouver on business. Good memories. Anyway, enjoy your day."

Lt. Sharpe left the bar and left the two of them to their meal.

Harry looked at Hui. "Do you think…"

"Almost certainly, Harry, or he wouldn't have found the place. But let's not bother him about it. If he wants to let us know, he will."

"Fine with me. Now what were you saying about this used bookshop you found down in Mountain View? Do you really…" said Harry as they moved out the door and out for their day.