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 3: The Trouble with Puffskiens
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Three weeks after Harry's arrival in the 23rd century, he learned that in many respects the 23rd century was no different than the 20th. He found out that, despite all of humanity's efforts and advances, schedules always change and no plan ever stays intact. It had been Captain Kirk's intent to finish their patrol and drop Harry off at Starbase 12, but then something had happened at Deneva. Needless to say, the Enterprise was diverted there to investigate.

They had only been in orbit around the planet for a few hours when Dr. McCoy had called down to the Astrometrics lab. Harry had been there working on his geometry with Lt. Leslie, one of the ship's navigators. McCoy had asked Harry to go back to his room immediately, and told him not to leave unless it was a life or death emergency. Harry had asked why, not because he wasn't going, but just so he could let his tutors know where to find him. McCoy quickly explained that they had survivors from Deneva aboard and they were being controlled by some sort of creature. He didn't want to take the chance that something might get loose and attack Harry. Lt. Leslie had escorted Harry straight to his cabin as soon as Dr. McCoy signed off.

Up until then, Harry's time aboard the Enterprise had been going fairly well. Shortly after his arrival, he had undergone a battery of tests to evaluate his 'abilities' as well as his education. His math scores were low, but he chalked that up to not taking Arithmancy while at Hogwarts. Thanks to all the essays he'd written over the past five years, Harry had actually done quite well in English, so that was one subject he didn't need to worry about. He guessed that all the Hogwarts professors marking on his assignments had done a lot of good in that regard, though he still felt that Snape always done it just to be a git.

Astronomy wasn't too bad either. Mr. Sulu, the ship's helmsman, had a doctorate in Astronomy and had offered to tutor Harry in the more modern applications of the subject.

History, however, was causing Harry to tear his hair out, as were chemistry and physics. Hogwarts had left him woefully unprepared for most of the school subjects that he would be taking in this new and different Muggle world.

He still missed his friends back at Hogwarts, and wondered what had happened to most of them. The ship's historian, Lt. McGivers, had spent time with Harry to both tutor him and question him on his life back in the late 20th century. When he'd told her of his fears for his friends, she'd taken the time to try and find out what happened to them.

There was no trace of Ron, Ginny, Neville or Luna anywhere in the ship's databases. That didn't really surprise Harry, since pureblood wizards wouldn't show up in Muggle records. But with the single Muggleborn among his friends, Lt. McGivers had struck paydirt. She was able to find one Muggle photograph, showing an older Hermione in a graduation cap and gown, with three large stripes on each sleeve. The caption on the picture said 'Dr. Hermione Granger, University of Sydney, Class of 2007.'

When Harry asked why they couldn't find anything else about her, Lt. McGivers had explained that when the Eastern Coalition had started World War Three, they had destroyed many of Earth's cities with nuclear weapons in their first strike. Humanity lost so many records, so much history, in those few horrific days. It was a tragedy second only to the millions of lives also lost. Even now, archeologists were finding bits and pieces of lost knowledge, long buried, that changed the way that they looked at humanity's past.

And that was the root of Harry's problem with History. It had nothing to do with how he was being taught; Lt. McGivers was far more engaging than Binns had ever been. The problem was that, for Harry, everything that he had known or had a point of reference to had gone up in a Holocaust of fire and insanity within just a few decades of his departure. Voldemort might have been a madman, but he never tried to completely exterminate an entire branch of humanity like Col. Green did. Voldemort's atrocities were smaller scale -- a Muggleborn here, a blood traitor's family there. Horrible, yes, but a few evil wizards with wands could not have achieved in a hundred years even half the level of destruction that one man...one Muggle...managed in a single day.

When he had been told about that, and realized what it meant, Harry had been violently sick and spent the rest of his day in sickbay.


After four days of being locked up in his cabin Harry was feeling like he was going a bit stir crazy. It was still better than being locked in his room on Privet Drive all summer, but at least there he'd had Hedwig for company.

He was glad when Dr. McCoy finally called down to his room and told him it was okay to come out now. In fact, the Doctor had asked that he spend the next couple of days in Sickbay. When Harry asked why, McCoy explained that they had a young survivor aboard and he might want someone his own age to talk to instead of "us ol' fogies."

Harry came down to sickbay and knocked on the Dr. McCoy's doorframe.

"Sir? Where's the guy you told me about?" Harry politely asked.

Dr. McCoy stood up and walked towards the door "Come on, he's over in the recovery room. He should be waking up in anytime now. Those damn parasites did a number on his neurological system. It looks like everything is going to be okay eventually, but he's going to have problems at first. I'm going to need your help. Mostly as moral support, which I'll tell you about in a bit. But I've also seen the kinds of injuries that you've gone through, so he's going to need support like you did when you were healing up, okay?" During the medical exam that Harry had undergone while evaluating his magic, Dr. McCoy had seen the scars from the injuries that Harry had received over the years.

Harry winced internally; most of the injuries McCoy was talking about had been healed magically, so his 'healing up' had only been a matter of a day or two at most. And for the injuries he'd had before Hogwarts, there had never been any kind of 'support'. "No problem sir. Would it be ok for me to do my schoolwork down here while I'm waiting for him to wake up?" Harry asked. He didn't want to get behind and besides, doing his schoolwork reminded him of what his friends did for him when he was in hospital.

"Nope, it'll be good for both of you. Reminds me of when I was in med school. Always bouncing problems off my classmates and they did the same to me. That reminds me, how's the eyesight doing?" asked McCoy lightheartedly

"Pretty good sir, glad to be rid of the glasses." replied Harry. McCoy had determined that Harry's eyes could be fixed with a course of treatment using Retinax V. The medication series had ended two days ago and Harry was pleased with the results.

Dr. McCoy and Harry stopped in front of one of the semi private alcoves in the recovery area of the sickbay. Lying on one of the biobeds was a young boy. Harry had been expecting someone around his age, but this kid was only about eleven or twelve years of age. Good lord, it's a firstie!

"Harry, this is Peter Kirk. He's twelve. Unfortunately, his parents were killed by the creatures that attacked Deneva. He's also Captain Kirk's nephew. His uncle is busy running the ship so he's not going to have the time to spend with Peter that he should. You think you can help him?" asked Dr. McCoy with a serious look on his face.

Harry just stared at the sleeping boy. Merlin's balls! He's just a kid. He shouldn't have to be burying his mom and dad. I don't know what I could do to... Wait you idiot, he's gonna be just like some of the kids at Hogwarts. He needs you to be the older brother that Captain Kirk can't be. Just like the firsties at school were looking up to you. Okay, most of the firsties; Ginny, Colin and Dennis were exceptions.

"I'll do it." Harry said. The rock solid conviction that he would be there for Peter ringing in his voice.


Several hours later, Peter began to stir. Harry had been working on his studies in foreign language: Gorn. Lt.Uhura had decided to work with him on learning the language, after testing had shown that he had a talent for it. He had been surprised to learn that she spoke six different Earth languages fluently, as well as Tellarite and Andorian. She was always interested in learning another. Harry was very careful not to mention that Gorn was similar to Parseltounge, in the sense that French or Spanish on Earth had been similar to Latin, or Old English similar to modern English. If he concentrated, Harry found that he could understand parts of the Gorn language. While the sounds were very similar to Parseltongue, the sentence structure and wording itself were different. It wasn't hard, just annoying to try and remember the differences between the two.

Peter began to moan and try to move but seemed to be having trouble. It was almost as if he knew what he wanted his body to do, but wasn't sure how to do it. Harry put his hand on the boy's shoulder just to let him know that someone was there. After a moment Peter calmed down and began to wake.

"Easy there. How are you feeling?" asked Harry

"Sore all over. What's going on, and who are you? I don't remember anyone being so young and in Starfleet," replied Peter, the soreness evident in his voice.

Harry chuckled lightly and replied "I'm Harry Potter and I'm not Starfleet. I'm actually 16 and just a passenger like you. As for what's going on, well, you're in the Enterprise's sickbay getting better after getting attacked by some sort of brain sucking thing. I don't really know all the details. I got locked up in my room when you got brought up here."

"Oh. I can remember what happened to my da…dad. I really tried to stop that thing, but the pain.... I passed out I guess. I know one of those things attacked my mom as well. Is she…" Peter asked with a look of hope and somehow loss on his face.

Harry looked down and just shook his head.

Peter closed his eyes and began to cry

Harry leaned over and pulled Peter into a hug and rubbed his back like he imagined his mum would have done. He just let Peter cry on his shoulder and quietly vowed that he was going to do his best to be Peter's 'older brother' regardless of what Jim Kirk or the rest of the Kirk family thought about it.

When Peter settled down to just a few sniffles, Harry let him go and began to speak. "Peter, I won't pretend to know what you're feeling. I lost my mum and dad when I was one, so I don't remember them like you do yours, but I miss them anyway. If you want me to, I'll be here for you. Okay? Now, let me tell you about this strange kid you're going to be rooming with while you're getting better."

Peter looked at Harry with a relieved expression on his face. "You want to put up with me? But you're older and, well… I don't know."

Harry just smiled and said "Yep, I do. Now let me tell you how I got onboard. You see, your uncle and some of the crew found me…"

Dr. Leonard H McCoy, MD, Starfleet Chief Medical Officer, quietly turned around and walked away from the alcove with a smile slowly crossing his face.



Harry was down in sickbay, working on his biology homework this time. Dr. McCoy had asked him to be in sickbay today as the doctor was finishing up his final report to Starfleet Medical about Harry and wanted Harry's personal recommendations appended to the official report. Harry didn't mind that one bit. If his statements helped keep the Muggles from finding out about the Wizarding world, that would be a point in his favor when he got back to Earth and had to face the Wizengamot.

As he continued to work on this biology homework, waiting for Dr. McCoy to call him into his office for personal input, Captain Kirk came into sickbay and went straight into Dr. McCoy's office.

Harry tried to concentrate on his homework but couldn't help overhearing the conversation through the open door.

"Bones, are you sure about those recommendations in your report?" asked the captain in a concerned voice.

"Jim, you know how accurate those psych tests are. There is no way that Harry is ever going to become some madman because of his abilities. If anything, he's more likely to go hunting people like Kodos, Col. Green, or Kahn and bring them to justice. That kid's got one hell of a moral compass. Heck, even if you did catch him doing something that he shouldn't be, I'll bet he would be doing it because it's the right thing to do or he's trying to protect someone," was McCoy's response.

Harry was surprised at the concern in the Captains voice, he wondered if they had run across a wizard or witch in the past who was completely insane. He didn't know, and right now digging around to find out would be bad, very bad.

"Okay Bones, I get the message. It's just….well, you know," said a tired sounding Kirk.

"I understand Jim. I do have some good news about Peter," said an upbeat Dr. McCoy.

"Really, what is it?" the change in Kirk's tone was like night and day.

"I give Peter another week at most and he'll be fully recovered. I'm going to suggest that he get checkups on Earth about every six months just to be safe, but as far as I'm concerned, he's healed up nicely." said Dr. McCoy.

Harry smiled at that. Peter had been Harry's roommate for three weeks now, ever since Peter had woken up after being attacked by the Blastroneurons that killed his parents on Deneva. Peter was very studious and driven to do his best, but at the same time fun-loving and mischievous. All in all, Peter reminded Harry of a cross between Hermione and Ron, with a bit of Dennis Creevy thrown in for sheer youth and enthusiasm. Harry treated him like the little brother that he wished he had. Yes, they got on each others nerves at times, but Harry made sure that Peter knew he was there for him like a brother should be.

Harry went back to the biology problem as Captain Kirk left sickbay heading back to the Bridge. Regardless of how much Harry may have wanted to visit the Bridge, it wasn't allowed. Even though he had passed the evaluation of his magic with flying colors, the possibility of accidental magic was there and Harry had no desire to blow up the ship.

A few Minutes later Dr. McCoy called Harry into his office. He went in and sat down with a curious look on his face.

Dr McCoy noticed Harry's expression and asked "What's on your mind Harry?"

Harry looked down at the floor. "Captain Kirk ran across someone with abilities like mine that harmed him and this ship, didn't he?"

McCoy just shook his head. "So, you heard that did you? Well, Harry, it's not my place to tell what happened, but the Captain's issues with your abilities are not your fault. He knows this, but it's a concern for him. Just remember it's not your fault okay?

Harry looked up at the Doctor. "You're sure?

Bones just smiled and let his southern accent come to the fore and said "Trust your ol' country doctor here. He'll tell when he can. Now, let's get to work on your piece of this here report."




Harry and Peter were down on the Enterprise's recreation deck. The two boys were playing what appeared to be a high tech version of Battleship against a pair of the younger engineers. Several of the crew were looking on and the youngest member, Janice Rand was giving Harry and Peter advice.

"Look, if you move here," she said pointing to a spot on their screen, "you're screened from their heavies that are coming around from there."

Harry continued to study the screen while Peter looked up at the young blond and asked. "But what about their lightweights? They creamed us last time."

Any response that Janice was going to make was interrupted by the lights on the recreation deck switching to red and an abrasive buzzing sound starting. Blaring above the alarm, Captain Kirks voice boomed out "Red Alert! All hands Man your battle stations! This is not a drill."

The crew scattered in all directions, heading to their battle stations. Harry watched the retreating Janice Rand for a moment with a slightly goofy look "Got to love those women's uniforms," he muttered, before grabbing a confused Peter by the arm. "Peter! Something's happening. We've got to get back to our room right now!"

"What's going on, Harry? Any idea?" asked Peter

"You know as much as I do, Pete. Now, let's move it!" responded Harry as he began to pull Peter towards the door. The two teens ran back to their room, knowing full well that at that moment it was the safest place to be.


After a period of time the Red Alert had been canceled and life returned to normal for the two teens. Based on the discussions they overheard, it had been some kind of false alarm, and the captain wasn't happy about it.

Back on the recreation deck, Peter watched as Harry and Mr. Sulu had squared off in the flight simulator again. Initially, Harry had taken to using the simulator because it was as close as he could get to being back on his broom. Sulu had seen Harry playing around with a simulation of a De Havilland Otter, flying over Alaska, and had offered him some tips. They had soon had moved on to other aircraft types.

Peter found it fascinating to watch, as both Harry and Sulu seemed to have an almost instinctual feel for flight physics. While Peter had trouble keeping up, the scientific aspects were attractive to him. In the meantime, Harry and Sulu had gotten it into their heads to see which one was the best flyer of early aircraft. So far, Sulu was winning the contest, having beaten Harry in seven out of the ten matchups. Harry was still improving, though, and there were people betting that someday soon Harry was going to be giving Sulu nothing but draws, or outright winning. Currently, Harry was in, of all things, a Japanese Ki-84 'Frank' and Sulu was piloting an F6F 'Hellcat'. So far it seemed to be a fairly even matchup, though Peter was betting Sulu was going to pull something out of his bag of tricks and Harry would be going down in flames.

Two members of the crew stopped to watch the dogfight on the observation screens and managed to distract Peter with their conversation.

"Yea, damned thing scared the snot out of me when it dropped out of warp right next to the station. They claim that they only want some shore leave. The captain, from what I understand, can't stop them but he was able to limit it to no more than five or ten at a time. I don't remember the exact number right now," said one of them.

The other responded to that with a snort. "Riiight. Shore leave my ass. They're probably here to spy on what's going on, or to do something regarding Sherman's Planet. I don't trust them any further than I can throw them. Come on, lets go see where we are on the roster to go over to the station."

As the two crewmen moved off, Peter was thinking about their conversation and not paying attention to the dogfight. Going over to K-7 would be a change of scenery and might be fun. Who knows what we'd find over there. I'll ask Uncle Jim about letting me and Harry go over there when Harry gets out of the simulator. He's got to say yes. What's the worst that could happen over there? Someone trips and falls down? Someone gets a hangnail? Space stations are safe places.

Lost in his thoughts, he missed the end of the dogfight. Even though Harry lost, Sulu's fighter had gotten plenty chewed up in the process.


Harry and Peter walked into the bar/lounge area of the station. "Pete, I don't see why you wanted to come over here; there's a lot more to do on the Enterprise."

Peter looked at Harry like he had two heads. "Harry, you don't get it, do you? This isn't the Enterprise; it's a change of scenery. I'm sick of being cooped up on that ship. Besides that, who knows what we'll find?"

Harry just rolled his eyes at the younger boy's enthusiasm. "Ok, I'll give you that, but in all honesty, if you've seen one bar you've pretty much seen them all. There might be a trader or two here with something wicked for sale, but I'd rather get back to the ship before your uncle finds out we've left. He'll have our hides if he finds out."

"Uncle Jim won't find out anything, as long as we don't do anything stupid," Peter insisted in manner of all teenage boys who are doing things that they really shouldn't do.

The two boys sat down at a table, and a waitress took their orders. As they were sipping their drinks, Harry looked over at one of the other tables and noticed Mr. Scott, Mr. Chekov and another officer that he didn't recognize trying to ignore a dark-skinned alien who wanted their attention. "Pete, take a glance over your left shoulder and tell me what you see," Harry requested nervously.

"Looks like a drunk Klingon messing with… oh shit, that's not good"

"Let's get back to the ship. I've got a bad feeling about this."

The boys got up and went over to the bar, where they handed their glasses to the bartender. As they moved surreptitiously towards the exit, they started to hear the raised voice of the Klingon officer carrying over the noise.

"...she should be hauled away AS garbage!"

Harry glanced over at Commander Scott, whose face had frozen in a very dangerous-looking smirk. He looked a bit like Snape used to, just before he'd dock a hundred points from Gryffindor. Harry reached out and grabbed Pete's arm, ready to hurry him forward and out of the area, but they hadn't gone two steps before the Klingon who had been harassing Mr. Scott came flying in their direction, propelled by the chief engineer's fist. The Klingon plowed right into the two boys and all three went down in a heap. As they struggled to get up, the entire room exploded into a fight scene right out of an Old West movie.

The Klingon, eager to return to the fray, grew frustrated with the two boys who were impeding his progress. He swung an elbow, landing it on the kneeling Peter's cheek and sending the young boy head first into the side of the bar where he collapsed into unconsciousness. Then he kicked Harry in the chest to free his entangled leg and waded back into the fight, grinning like a maniac.

Harry struggled back to his feet, wanting nothing more than to get Peter and himself off this station and back to the Enterprise before Security showed up. But when he saw Peter, a younger boy he should have been protecting, lying next to the bar out cold, Harry saw red. His anger and helplessness at his situation, his fears for the friends he'd left behind in mortal peril, all rose to the surface and Harry's temper finally snapped. He spun around and found the Klingon that started the whole mess, about go after Mr. Scott.

"OH NO YOU DON"T!" Harry yelled as he dove into the fray, blood thundering in his ears.


Harry and Peter stood at attention at the far end of the line, hoping and praying that Peter's uncle, the Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, James T. Kirk, wouldn't notice them as he went up and down the head end of the line.

"I want to know who started it," Kirk stated with an impatient tone to his voice "I'm waiting."

He stopped in front of an Ensign in engineering red and asked in a no-nonsense tone "Who started the fight?"

"I don't know sir," the Ensign replied, clearly embarrassed at being singled out by the Captain.

"Alright," replied Kirk in a pleasant tone. Harry realized that that guy honestly didn't know who had started the fight, and Kirk seemed to know that as well.

Kirk moved down the line to another officer, this one in a gold shirt. "Chekov. I know you, you started it didn't you?"

"No Sir, I didn't," replied Chekov, the tone of his voice indicating that while he didn't start the fight, he clearly wished that he had.

"Well then, who did?"

"I don't know sir," was Chekov's reply. The smile on Chekov's face told the truth of the matter, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to sell out the person who threw the first punch.

"'I don't know, indeed." The sarcasm dripping off Kirk's reply was almost visible.

"Very well, I want to know who started the fight." The tone in Kirk's voice brooked no arguments. "Mr. Scott, stay here for a moment. The rest of you are confined to quarters until I find out. Dismissed"

The column of crewmen did a right face and proceeded to file out past the Captain and Mr. Scott. As Harry and Peter walked past, a hand grasped each boy's shoulder.

"Don't think I didn't see the two of you at the end of the line," Kirk growled, clearly disappointed at the two of them.

"Busted." The look on Peter's face said that he wished he could find a rock to hide under.

"Listen you two, when I told you that you weren't allowed to go over to K-7, it was because of the Klingons. They have been known to kill people, if they think that person has disgraced their honor somehow." Kirk was serious in tone and manner but there was an undercurrent of worry in his voice.

Both boys looked down at the deck in shame. A small sniffle escaped from Peter as he realized that his Uncle Jim really cared about him. Harry felt like a heel for letting Peter and himself get into a potentially lethal situation.

"Boys, look at me."

Both Harry and Peter looked up at the Captain.

"In a week, a ship will be here to take you back to Earth. We'll be staying that long. In the meantime you'll be confined to your room unless you're working for Mr. Scott. You're going to be his runners and cleanup down in engineering as punishment, do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir!" both boys replied eagerly. They liked hanging around with the younger engineers.

"One more thing," Kirk said with a lighthearted tone to his voice.

"Sir?"

"Peter, I will be telling your grandmother about this stunt."

Peter looked at his uncle in disbelief. "Not Nana!"

"Yep," Kirk said with a smile.

"Damn, I'm so grounded now."

Captain Kirk looked at the two teenagers and sighed.
"Now you two, go to your room until Mr. Scott calls for you," the captain ordered.

The boys took off like the teenagers that they were.

Harry couldn't help but hear, "Scotty, now who started…" before the door closed behind them.



Three days later Harry was down in the shuttlebay. Mr. Scott had assigned him to work with Lt. Sotello in shuttle maintaince. Harry was currently cleaning a piece of a thruster assembly. It was hard work, and while it was a dirty job, Harry was happy to be doing it. He felt it was appropriate for him after letting Peter talk him into going over to K-7 and then getting into a fight with Klingons, of all things.

Harry had taken the time to look up Klingons in the ship's database. What he had found had surprised him. Not much was known about their culture aside they took Honor VERY personally. He had also found out that they were stronger, faster and loved to fight. Harry had decided that if he ever ran across another Klingon, he'd do his best to stay out of their way if at all possible.

Harry was trying to remove a particularly stubborn piece of residue from one of the nozzles when Lt. Sotello called him over.

"Harry, the Captain wants you to come to his office. He wants to talk to you about something," said Sotello.

"Any idea of what it's about, sir?" asked Harry curiously.

"Nope, but you'd better get up to his office. So get moving, I'll finish up here." Sotelleo dismissed Harry with a wave of his hand.

Harry took off at a fast walk to the Captain's office. He didn't know what the Captain wanted, but when the Captain calls, you go. Upon his arrival Harry knocked on the door.

"Enter!" was the response that Harry heard. The door slid open and Harry walked into the office and stopped in front of Captain Kirk's desk.

"You wished to speak with me sir?" asked Harry curiously.

"Yes, Mr. Potter. Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. Please have a seat," replied Kirk

Harry sat down and looked at Kirk, waiting for the Captain to begin.

Kirk regarded Harry for a moment then said "Mr. Potter… Harry, I need to explain a few things to you so you know why I have been standoffish to you."

Harry wondered what brought this on, but listened closely.

"Harry, just over a year ago we had two incidents where humans were given abilities that were very similar to yours; much more advanced but similar nonetheless. The problem was that their gifts drove them mad or caused them to lash out in ways that made them a danger to everyone onboard. In addition to that, an incident occurred just before Guardian spat you out that affected me personally. The memories of those two previous incidents, on top of this last incident… well, I haven't given you a fair chance."

"I can understand that, sir, but why tell me now?" asked Harry. He realized that the Captain was trying to apologize, but was curious as to why now.

"Well, since you got here, I have gotten reports about you that are completely different from what I was expecting from someone with your abilities. Also, I'm grateful to you for being a 'big brother' to Peter, since I couldn't be there for him as much as I'd have liked. Then, there was this last incident on K-7, where you went after the Klingon that provoked the fight. That's one of the bravest things I've heard of. A sixteen year old kid attacking a fully trained Klingon warrior and knocking him out. That's when I finally realized I was wrong about you. You're a good kid, Harry, and when you and Peter leave for Earth in a few days, I'm going to miss both of you. I guess that I'm trying to say… I'm sorry." Kirk said sincerely.

Harry was surprised by the admission and the apology, but still responded with a polite "Thank you sir. I understand."

Kirk stood up from behind the desk and came over to Harry "You and Peter are off restriction for the remaining time you're here. Just don't go over to K-7 until it's time to leave. I'll tell Mr. Scott."

"Yes, sir! Is that all?" replied Harry

"Yes that's… well, there is one last thing." stated Kirk

"Sir?" asked Harry, clearly wondering what the Captain had to say.

"Captain Koloth, the commander of the Klingon cruiser, wanted me to pass a message to you. He said that aboard his ship, your actions spoke of great personal honor and that Ensign Krulack holds no grudge against your house and would be honored to fight with you in the future. I won't pretend to know what that means to a Klingon, but I think that you've made a friend over there."

"Umm…I guess so sir. I have no clue either, but it might be interesting." said Harry. He was a bit surprised by that message. He had no idea what it might mean in the future, but he got the impression that this sort of thing from the Klingons was pretty rare.

Kirk smiled and said "Now go on, get Peter and go get some dinner."


Harry left Captain Kirk's office to go get Peter. He knew that Peter was down in the engineering spaces acting as a runner for Mr. Scott. Instead of taking the turbolift, Harry decided to take one of the ladders down to the proper deck. He did this on occasion when he felt like he had extra energy to burn. After the meeting with the Captain, he felt the need for the exercise.

As Harry reached the landing on the deck above the Engineering deck, he heard a soft cooing sound that was very familiar to him. He stopped and looked in the vent on the landing and was extremely surprised with what he saw.

"Son of a… What the bloody hell is a Puffskien doing here?" he asked out loud.
Harry decided to get the small furry creature out of the vent so it wouldn't get hurt. It took him a few moments but he soon had the purring puffball in his hand.

"Well, little fella, I'm going to need to get some stuff from the botany labs to keep you healthy. But don't worry, I'll take care of you." Harry figured that while a Puffskien isn't Hedwig, it was a magical creature and would remind him of home.


Harry had decided to name the little red Puffskien he'd found Ron, mainly because it liked to eat like his friend. All. The. Time.

For a while, it seemed like there had been Puffskien's everywhere on the ship, but then, one day, they all vanished. Harry had kept his in his quarters, so no one knew he still had it.

Today, though, Harry and his pet were down in sickbay as Dr. McCoy was finishing up the paperwork regarding Harry's educational progress aboard. Harry was going to be leaving for Earth in less than twenty-four hours and this was necessary for his finishing his education on Earth. Dr. McCoy stopped to look at Ron happily munching in its cage.

"Harry, where did you get that tribble?"

"I found it in an air duct a while back. Its name is Ron, because it eats so much."

"You've been feeding it? Why isn't it breeding?" asked a curious McCoy

"You just douse its water with a little mint. Natural birth control for these things. They love it so much that they could actually wipe their own population out if there's too much mint in the area," was Harry's absent minded response.

A surprised Dr. McCoy asked "How do you know that?"

Realizing that he had slipped up a bit, Harry did some fast thinking before he responded.

"Well sir, remember that there was a bunch of genetic engineering going on back when I come from. One of the girls in my classes, her dad was genetic engineer and got hold of some before they were supposed to be released as a designer pet called a Puffskien. Never really happened as far as I know. After a lot of begging from the girls he sent a few up to the school as pets. The instructions that came with them told us to give them some mint if you didn't what them to reproduce."

Dr. McCoy just stopped for a moment and seemed to be thinking. Then he shook his head and changed the subject.

"Okay Harry, you're pretty much caught up. Just keep working on the modules and you will be more than ready for school when you get back to Earth. Now I've got some things to take care of here. Go on back to your cabin and get packed up. Make sure that Peter is fully packed as well. Don't forget to take 'Ron' with you; Scotty wouldn't be happy if you left it here," said McCoy.

Harry picked up Ron and headed back to his room to finish packing. He was heading back to Earth tomorrow and hopefully to a bright future.

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Thanks to meteoricshipyards for the idea about Tribbles and Puffskiens basically being the same critter.