(#) BenRG 2009-05-03
A very nice new chapter. For all that I suspect this will be Hermione and Luna's only direct part in the story, it is still a major one. You caught their personalities and natures well, especially Luna's mischievous need to use her 'Looney' reputation to excuse her acting just how she wants to.
Re.: Luna's prophecy. Like all true Seers, Luna's writing if full of metaphor but it is easy to get a fundamental idea of what she is saying:
1) The Bumblebee's Sting - Somehow, Dumbledore trapped Voldemort in Hogwarts;
2) The Helopaths... pins - The Order found and destroyed all but three of the Horacruxes - Likely Nagini, the Diadem (as Voldemort's control of Hogwarts made accessing the RoR impossible) and Harry's scar are the survivors. Identifying the scar's true nature may be a critical aspect of the story. Maybe a Vulcan may meld with Harry and find the foreign mind residing within his scar.
3) The Serpent's Son is Voldemort (the heir of the house of the serpent - Slytherin). I'm looking forward to working out how Lily's protection works in this;
4) The Arena - The final battle will occur in Hogwarts. Luna has given Harry the access proceedure for getting inside the trap.
The rest await future revelations. I've got a feeling that 'her' was Harry's girlfriend, Kim. Does this mean that she will find her own way into the fleet - Black and Maroon, of course, represents the post-2272 uniform seen in ST2-TWoK onwards. However, Luna's counsel to Hui suggests that she may have a future with Harry of some kind.
The Hornswoggler... Kirk has often been described by Gene Roddenberry as 'Horation HORNblower in space'. That is one possible identification. Another is that it may be Spock - his Vulcan psychic abilities may be a critical tool in the Horacrux hunt.
The 'fanged one' might be Remus - That the Last Maurader helped prepare both the trap and a way for Harry to find his way in might give him a bit more confidence in its survivability (Dumbledore never seemed too bothered about that).
You know, I think I'm going to enjoy finding out how much I've got right. There is clearly a lot to find out.
Of course, there is no need to go to any juvenille heroics to finish this.
"Transporter Room Three to Bridge."
Harry touched the intercom panel on his left armrest. "Go ahead Transporter Room."
"Captain, the last... artifact has been beamed up and molecularly dispersed as you ordered."
Harry nodded. "Good job, Chief." He turned to the Dauntless's chief of security. "Lt. M'ktiy, lock phasers on target and fire."
The Caitan female nodded, her gold eyes narrowed with glee. Twin spears of golden light flashed from under the Dauntless's saucer and hit the target, the castle once known as Hogwarts. Inside, Thomas Marvello Riddle didn't even have enough time to realise that he wasn't immortal after all before he was reduced to his component atoms.
However, I think that Harry might want to take Hogwarts intact. After all, he has a magical civilisation to rebuild.
BenRG's Rating: 8/10
Author's response
I'm glad that you liked it. As much as I'd like to use your little scene at the end, It's not going to happen quite that way but it is a damn good idea. Your ideas as to what Luna revealed are pretty close, but lets just put it this way, what I have in mind to do would be considered torture in most civilised societies. Not to Harry or anyone with him, but to Voldemort and any DE's that Harry may run across. If Lucius or Draco new what I had in mind, they would run screaming.
Now your guess about the Hornswaggler, is good but not correct. I will say this much It is a character that was seen on screen and had speaking lines in one of the star trek original series episodes and also showed their face in this story.
Harry will be telling Jim Kirk the truth eventually, but not right away. If you think about it, a cadet calling on a Captain of a ship of the line for a meeting or the Chief of Starfleet Operations for the same isn't going to happen. It would be the other way around with usually the cadet in question's next stop being either the Academy wedding chapel at Phaser point or to the deepest darkest prison cell that can be found.
Black and Maroon is a definite prediction on the uniform Change from the Bland Grey for ST:TMP to ST:TWOK. That one I'll fully admit and if someone couldn't get a that one, then all the others will be serious surprises.