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 6: School Daze

After Harry returned to Iowa, he sat down to tell Winona and Peter all about his trip. He told them about the records he had found of Weasley descendants boarding ships bound for new colony worlds, and about Remembrance Park and the memorial plaque placed by the Order of the Phoenix.

He also told them about Jackson Dursley, the old librarian who was his cousin Dudley's five-times great-grandson.

Winona was ecstatic, and not a little smug, to hear that Harry had managed to make friendly contact with a family member. She insisted on contacting the old man, and after several enjoyable conversations, she invited him to the Kirk farm for Christmas.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Jackson passed away peacefully in his sleep early in November of 2267, at the age of 94. At the invitation of Jackson's eldest granddaughter, to whom Jackson had related stories of meeting their long-lost relative, Harry, Winona and Peter went to England to attend the funeral. They got to meet several of Harry's other relatives there. They accepted Harry as a cousin, of sorts, and made it a point to keep in touch.

Apparently, in the intervening two hundred and fifty years plus years since Harry had been in the twentieth century, the Dursley clan had changed from a collection of overweight, bigoted bullies into a true family, who accepted each other regardless of who they were or where they were from. It warmed Harry's heart to know that somehow Dudley had changed and had, in Harry's eyes, redeemed himself.

During his correspondence with the Dursleys, he discovered that none of Jack's living descendants resided in England anymore. Jackson and his two children had been the last ones to live their lives there. Jackson's only sister, along with one of their first cousins, were also known to have moved abroad several decades before, marrying and raising their families outside of England. In each case, the grandchildren attributed their decision to emigrate to a general dissatisfaction with the nation of their birth and a desire to find somewhere better, somewhere "more comfortable", to live.

Harry remembered his own reaction to arriving in England the first time; the strong sense of uneasiness and the desire to leave as soon as possible. As soon as he had left England at the end of his first trip, those feelings had faded. They returned, just as strong as before, the moment he materialized in London again for Jackson's funeral. He discussed this phenomenon with the Dursleys, and they each reported that they felt a similar discomfort, but in the end they chalked it up to the general emotional distress
inherent in a funeral of a family member. ' Harry, on the other hand, felt the coincidence was suspicious..

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Harry's poor humor after losing Jackson, plus still having more questions than answers about the wizarding world, was noticed by his friends not long after he returned to school. In particular, Harry's first friend at Highland High, Kim, was concerned about him and decided that she was going to do something about it.

Harry was in the school library working on a trigonometry problem when Kim sat down across from him.

"Hey, Gramps, what's up?" she asked.

"Oh, hi Kim. Just doing a spot of homework. You know how Mr. Stotts can be," replied Harry. His voice was flat, almost emotionless.

Kim reached out and took the fountain pen from Harry's fingers, interrupting the work he was doing.

"That's not what I meant. Harry, what's wrong? You've been down since fall break." The concern in her voice was echoed in her expression.

Harry looked straight into her eyes. "It's nothing, Kim. I'm just feeling…I don't know. It's silly." He looked back at his homework, but didn't make the effort to retrieve the pen.

"Harry, after Biology is done, I'm driving you home and we're going to talk. Please let me help ok?" As she said this she clasped his hand gently.

Harry looked at her hand holding his but did nothing to remove it and just nodded.

They sat there in the library for the rest of the class period, holding hands. Just before the bell rang to send them to the final class of the day, Biology, Kim let go of his hand and helped him gather up he books and papers. As they walked out of the library, she took hold of his hand again and they walked to class with their hands joined.

No one said anything about the two of them walking hand in hand to their last class, but several of the kids and teachers that they passed in the hallways did notice that something had changed between Harry and Kim.

Harry just enjoyed the feeling of her warm hand in his as they walked to class. He knew that when they got back to the farm, she wasn't going to drop the subject of what was bothering him until he let it out.

When class ended, the two of them walked to Kim's car. She was kind enough to offer Peter a lift back to the farm, too, which the younger boy gladly accepted. The conversation was light and consisted mostly of what everyone's plans were for the weekend, as this was Friday afternoon. Kim had to work at the grocery store where she was a cashier, while Harry and Peter had work to do on some of the autofeeding equipment in the livestock barn.

Peter knew something was up between the two older teens; once they arrived at the Kirk farm, he hopped out and told them he would let Nana know that they were going to be in Harry's workshop.

Kim was amazed at the work that Harry had done on the antique Corvette. It had been completely disassembled and the drivetrain was back in the frame. The bodywork had been hammered out and was ready to be reattached to the car when the time came.

Kim moved some of the tools out of the way on the workbench and hopped up on it.

"Harry, please sit down and tell me what's been bothering you. I want to help if I can."

Harry sat down heavily on one of the workbench chairs. "Kim, you know when I'm from and how I got to be here. Most of that's no secret. Parts of it are secret and I can't say anything about those pieces; I swore an oath on it and there is no way I'm going to break it. I'll try and tell you everything I can but…" Harry just looked at the floor, not wanting to meet her gaze.

As much as Harry might have wanted to let her in on the wizarding world, he still didn't know if the Statute of Secrecy was in place or not. In addition, he'd made a promise to Starfleet that he would never let his knowledge of the Guardian's planet out without their permission. If the wrong people found out about it, the consequences could be unthinkable.

"That's okay, Harry. I'm not going to push on those parts. But I want to know what happened during break and why you're so down." She reached out and lifted Harry's chin so she could look him in the eyes.

Slowly Kim coaxed the story out of Harry. A year ago, he had woken up in an unfamiliar place, found out what year it was, and learned that there was no way to send him back to his time despite all the Federation's high tech equipment. He'd learned that almost everything and everyone he'd ever known had been destroyed in a senseless war just a few decades later.. He didn't know what happened to his friends from the twentieth century, not even whether they had survived. The final straw had been finding Jackson Dursley, a relative (even if a distant one), a connection to that distant past, only to lose him again too soon when he passed away.

As they talked, the two teens had moved out of the workshop, and had been walking around the farmyard. By the time that Harry reached the end of his story, his voice was cracking with emotion and Kim was holding Harry close.

She guided Harry over to the ancient oak tree behind the house and they sat down still holding each other. Harry, having finally voiced his fears and insecurities, leaned into Kim's shoulder and occasionally shuddered with small sobs for all he had lost, though there were no tears.

It was getting pretty cold out when they realized how late it was. They headed into the house, Kim muttering, "My parents are so going to kill me," under her breath the whole way.

Winona had set out hot chocolate for the two teens; Peter was nowhere to be seen.

"Kim, I called your parents and let them know you were here. I told them I'd let them know when you leave. You probably should get home soon though, weather report says it's gonna snow tonight," said Winona. She moved out of the kitchen, a wistful look gracing her features, leaving the two teens alone..

After a few minutes of just sitting at the table and looking at each other, Kim got up and moved to the sink. She put the mug down then turned to Harry. "I need to get home now. Will you come by the store when I get off work?" she asked shyly.

Harry blushed lightly "Yeah, sure. Do you want to go to the cinema tomorrow night?"

Kim came over to Harry as he stood. The two of them looked into each others eyes, dark brown meeting emerald green. Without any hesitation, they gently kissed each other for the first time.

Unlike first kisses in books and movies, which were described with exploding passions and longings without end, this was far gentler. As the kiss broke, they felt simple contentment with each other, and they both knew that they satisfied a need that neither had known that they had.

"I'll take that as a yes?" said Harry, the happiness in his voice evident.

Kim burst out laughing at that quip. After a moment she settled down with a huge grin on her face. "Of course, silly, I can't wait. I've got to get home. I'll see you tomorrow."
She kissed Harry one more time and left the kitchen to go home.

Harry watched her leave all the while thinking WOW! That's not Cho. No way! What a kiss. Merlin, I really fancy Kim. I am not going to screw this up.

Harry walked into the living room where Winona was sitting, his smile brighter and wider than she had ever seen it before.

Winona just looked up at Harry from her seat on the couch. "So you and Kim are an item now? Just don't hurt her, Harry. I'll go call her parents to let them know she's on her way home. You get up to bed now."

Harry headed up the stairs to his room, the smile still on his face. Just as he was sitting down on the bed, Peter stuck his head into the room and started to sing “Harry and Kimmy, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Harry grabbed a pillow and flung it at Peter's capering form. "Oh, shut it, you!"

Peter easily dodged the pillow and laughed on the way back to his room.

Harry lay back on his bed. Life was good.


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By Monday, the news was all around the school. While Harry and Kim hadn't said anything about becoming a couple, everyone knew it and her girlfriends dragged her off during lunch to get all the details. In the meantime, Harry's male friends were congratulating him and saying it was about time.

One of the football players, Steve, took offense at the idea of a pretty girl like Kim getting together with the new kid when she wouldn't give him the time of day, and decided to take out his frustrations on Harry. He stormed over to the table where Harry and his friends were joking around and grabbed Harry by the shoulder, spinning him around.

"Bloody Hell! What's this!" Harry exclaimed, shrugged off the boy's hand and stood up.

Harry's friend Tom, a frightfully smart boy with a rapier sharp wit and taste for twentieth century rock music and films, looked at Steve before responding. "Hmmm… overdeveloped musculature suitable for hunter gatherer societies, low occipital brow ridge, small braincase for body mass, I'd say Neanderthal man, Gramps."

The lunchroom, which had gone quiet when Steve grabbed Harry, burst out in laughter at Tom's crack.

The laughter enraged Steve who yelled out, "YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER! KIM'S MINE" With this, he swung a meaty fist at Harry.

What no one aside from Peter knew was that Harry had been studying the Klingon manual that had been with his Bat'le'th. Harry had taken to it like a duck to water and had quickly gotten fairly proficient at the hand-to-hand parts of the training outlined in the book. He had also discovered that many of the motions described were similar to Shaolin style martial arts and had gotten several books on that as well.

Harry ducked under the punch and let loose with a palm strike to the bigger boy's ribs. Unbeknownst to everyone, including himself, Harry had managed to channel some of his magic into the strike as well. The end result was that Steve hit the ground like he was pole-axed, with three broken ribs.

Harry stalked over to the downed boy his eyes seemed to be backlit with barely restrained fury. "P'TAH! Kimberly Mertins is not a piece of meat that you can barter baubles over! She is a human being that is a wonderful person and not A PIECE OF PROPERTY!"

Harry stormed off to one of the tables and sat down, trying to regain control of himself.

The school principal, Mr. Sharpe, and Kim had seen Steve start the fight and Harry end it, and both came over to talk to Harry.

"Harry, sweetie, are you ok?" asked Kim with a concerned voice.

Mr. Sharpe gently touched Harry on the shoulder. "Mr. Potter, come to the office with me? Don't worry, I saw what happened and you're not in trouble. Miss Mertins, would you gather up Mr. Potter's possessions and come to the office as well?"

After spending time in his office helping Harry calm down, Mr. Sharpe informed the two that Steve was going to be suspended for a week and removed from the football team for the remainder of the year as punishment for his behavior. He also let the two of them leave school early and had Kim take Harry home.

By the end of the school day, it was an established fact: Harry and Kim were together. If you didn't want your life to become a living hell administered by every girl in school, you learned not to mess with Harry, and if you valued your life you did not do anything to hurt Kim, as you might not live to regret it.

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Winter passed and spring came. As much as Harry might have wanted to go to Scotland during spring break, it was planting time and he stayed at the farm helping out. Kim spent her time there at the Kirk farm, helping Winona around the house and preparing drinks and snacks for the farm hands and the boys when she wasn't working or at home.

Harry and Kim's grades didn't suffer despite all the time that they spent together. If anything, they seemed to improve over time. By the end of the year, while neither could claim to be the top of their class, there were very high in class standing. Both had after-school activities that they went to; Harry had enrolled in martial arts classes at the local rec center, while Kim had arranged to take piano lessons while he was in class.

Winona had decided that when school got out in late May, it would be a good time to take a week's vacation. She wanted to help Harry with his quest for answers to the mystery of the wizarding world. To that end, she suggested that they try to see if they could get to Hogwarts and find out what happened there.

Kim was a little put out by the Kirk family going to Scotland, but once she learned that her parents were taking the family to Yellowstone at the same time, it wasn't all that bad. At first, Kim had wanted Harry to go with her family and meet her older brother who owned and operated his own star freighter. But after discussing it with Harry, she understood that this was a bit of family bonding time and they were going to try and find the remains of his old boarding school so he could put his past to rest. Harry promised that if he went back there again, he would bring her and show her around the ruins.

The moment Harry and the Kirks materialized in the London transporter station, Harry was once again hit with the same uneasy feeling and desire to get his business completed that he'd felt on both previous visits. He thought to himself, Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times it's on purpose.

After they had moved away from the platform and into a restaurant to wait for the transport window to Edinburgh, Harry explained what he was feeling and how this was the third time it had occurred. He also mentioned what had happened when he actively cast a spell on his first trip.

Winona thought about this information before responding. "Do you think that this is some sort of conscious effort to keep you away from England on the part of wizards?"

"Honestly, Nana, I doubt it. Jack's grandkids told me they felt something similar for their entire lives, and left England as soon as they could. Whenever they came to visit, they said the feeling returned. If it's a conscious effort, I'd think that whoever is doing it would concentrate on just me, not my family. Which brings up another point: Jack lived here his whole life, as did his kids. It's the grandkids that all left and only they said that they had this uncomfortable feeling while in England. They also mentioned that Jack had had a sister who moved to Australia back in the early part of the century, and some cousins who moved to Florida."

Peter, who had been eating a plate of bangers and mash looked at Harry and Winona.
"Maybe they were wizards, like you, Harry. Based on what you're saying it sounds like one of those wards things you told us about, but targeted at witches and wizards, not non-magical people."

Harry and Winona both looked at Peter, who had gone back to eating.

Winona exclaimed, "Peter that's brilliant!" Harry sat back, stunned, his thoughts focusing on one thing: Why would someone cast a ward that drives wizards away from England?

Upon arriving in the Edinburgh transporter station, Harry immediately noticed that the uneasy feeling had gotten much stronger and he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. The desire to leave had also increased but he could ignore it with some effort. All in all Harry wondered if this was how 'Mad Eye' Moody had felt about everything. If so, it was no wonder that the man got paranoid.

Heading north on a shuttle to Inverness, Harry didn't notice the feelings growing perceptibly stronger, but he dwelled on the question of what could be so important to require a wizard repelling ward like this.

After staying in Inverness for the evening, the trio obtained a Land Rover and drove the couple of hours it took to get to Balmore. After stopping by the local grocery store and getting several days worth of supplies, they were fueling the vehicle when they got their first hint that something might be amiss in the area around Hogwarts.

Harry was looking at a local map of the area when one of the locals looked over his shoulder and saw where Harry had a finger tapping the paper. "Don't know why one would want to go near Loch Black, lad Can't stand ta be near th' place, m'self."

"Aye. Place is 'aunted iffen yer was ta ask me," piped up another man. "Weird goings on up there."

Harry just looked at the two men for a second and went back out to the car without responding. He was thinking that is sounded like muggle repelling charms, but what if something else was going on up at Hogwarts?

They finally drove up an unmarked and disused track to the eastern end of the loch. According to the map that they had, there should be an overlook at the east end that should allow them to see Hogwarts, which stood on a finger of land jutting into the loch about five miles away.

They found the bottom of the overlook and parked the car. Harry climbed up the hill with Peter and Winona following behind. They felt that Harry should have the first look at his school.

Harry reached to top of the overlook and found it to be heavily overgrown, the plants blocking the view. He decided to move through the brush and see if he could make out the school from a slightly different position. Harry had gone forward maybe ten feet when he struck a barrier and was violently thrown backwards. He hit the ground hard, feeling like someone had grabbed the very core of his being and tossed him away. He could have sworn that he heard the voice of Albus Dumbledore echoing in his ears, saying "If you value your life, be somewhere else!"

Winona and Peter heard the commotion and ran up the hill to where Harry lay, still breathing hard.

"HARRY! Are you okay? What happened?" exclaimed Winona as she reached Harry.

"Har, you alright?" asked Peter at the same time.

"Bloody Hell, did anyone get the number of that lorry?" groaned Harry. He sat up and checked himself out for a minute before speaking. "Yeah, I'm okay. There's one nasty ward up there." He pointed down the path he had created through the brush.

"Ok, I need to find the border of that ward so we don't trip it again. Don't worry Nana, I'll be very careful."

Harry stood up and looked up the rough path. He could see where the broken plants stopped and he figured that's about were the ward boundary was.

He inched down the path with his hands out in front of him until he started feeling a tingling sensation on the palms of his hands. He stopped moving and realized that this was most likely the very edges of the ward. As he stood there, the uneasy feelings, the feeling of being watched and desire to leave began to increase drastically. He stepped away and moved back to Winona and Peter. As he did so, the intensity of the feelings dropped back down to where they had been this entire trip.

"Yeah, there's a nasty ward in place, not really harmful as far as I know, but I'm no curse breaker. If it's all the same, I'd rather not try to find out if it's more vicious the harder you try to penetrate it or not."

The Trio set up camp at the base of the overlook and decided to work on the mystery of the wards that were in place. In the course of their musings, Peter decided to try and go through them. He was able to, but he only went in a few feet further than Harry had managed before he came running back.

Winona scolded Peter for trying this, but it did answer the question of what type of ward it was. It obviously wasn't a Muggle repelling ward that had gone bad. Besides, the wards around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade from Harry's time had only extended out maybe two miles from the edge of the castle grounds, just enough to keep muggles away from the town and castle. This ward, and the one that seemed to be blanketing Great Britain, appeared to be targeted specifically at witches and wizards.

This also raised the question of the Dursley grandkids. Were they witches and wizards, or squibs? If they were witches and wizards, why didn't they get any training in their abilities? If they were squibs, they shouldn't have been able to feel the odd feelings as strongly as Harry did. From what Harry understood of squibs, they did have a magical core, but it was not strong enough to actually give them the ability to perform magic. Their cores were only strong enough to allow for a longer life and the use of some potions and artifacts, but that was about it. Even then, the core strength varied for squib to squib, in the same way it did for wizards and witches. The warning ward (as he had taken to calling it) should not have affected them or if it did, nowhere near the strength of reaction that was described.

Peter added that as soon as he crossed the ward boundary, the air seemed colder, damper and he could almost feel the menace in the air. The whole experience seemed…evil somehow, that's why he came running back; what he felt had set him on edge.

This description threw Harry for a loop, but it matched up with the warnings the men at the fueling station had given him. Wizards, apparently, were physically prevented from entering, but Muggles were encouraged to stay away by more subtle means, so as not to arouse suspicions.

"I take it this wasn't something you were expecting to find?" Winona asked.

"Not at all. It's like they managed to trap something in there, and had to turn the wards in on themselves to keep it contained. Pete's description sounds a bit like dementors; they used to guard the wizard prison, but I remember people were worried they would join Voldemort. There were hundreds of them, so maybe they were imprisoned here so they couldn't get loose without wizards around to control them. Or maybe it was Voldemort himself, though he'd be long dead of old age by now if that were the case."

"Maybe someone summoned a demon!" Peter crowed, sounding almost eager.

Harry shook his head. "You've read too many comic books, Pete. I don't think that's something wizards can do." He paused for a moment, thinking back on his admittedly very spotty knowledge of wizarding capabilities. "Though I suppose, if it were possible, Voldemort would have been the type to do it."

"So what do you want to do now, Harry? Do you want to try to find a way in, past the wards?"

Harry didn't have to think about it for long. "No, let's leave it alone. I heard something that sounded like my old headmaster's voice when the ward bounced me out. If he had something to do with this, then he probably had a good reason. Whatever is in there, it's definitely not something I could handle alone, so I don't want to take any chances on messing up and letting it out."

Harry took a deep breath, looking around the familiar Scottish countryside. "Maybe someday I'll find some answers about what happened, but for now I think I have to just set it aside and move on with my life. If I was somehow given the chance to go back to the twentieth century, back to Hogwarts...I'm not sure I'd want to take it. I'm starting to like it here.

"Let's go home, Nana."