Chapter Text
Sirius
"Not good enough."
"Fine. Eighty-Five." A nervous twitch.
"... Eighty Five."
"Then we have deal?" Hope.
A nod.
Five minutes later, what appeared to be a Mandalorian swaggered out of the Tatooine slum bar an assortment of gear on his body in addition to the signature body armor and helmet. Behind him, the nervous but relieved alien of unknown species name scurried away, a backpack of sorts in his hands as if his life depended on it.
The Mandalorian swaggered off, soon joined by a couple of kids, and arrived at a large spaceport landing bay.
The Kids all stared at the ship in the bay. The one on the left, a red head, had no clue about what he was looking at, whilst the one on the right, black haired, looked on in wonder.
The third, between the Mandalorian and the black-haired kid however... she stared in horror.
"This? This hunk of junk cost you how MUCH?"
"Hermione-"
"Don't you Hermione me! A Hundred thousand, Sirius!"
Sirius, his voice filtered by the helmet, weakly tried to point out, "Eighty-five..."
"... But still, that was all our savings!"
Ron and Harry suddenly started coughing, and it was only that Ron also let slip a chuckle, that clued her in on something being... off.
"What?!"
Harry sighed, even as Sirius looked between them all, and only knowing him well let him know the body language was that of someone too scared to make a good point. "You really think he was going to let that much actual money go?"
"... Are you..."
"SHHH!" Sirius suddenly moved, hand going over the girls' mouth. "Ixnay on the unterfeitCay."
He really needed to get the twelve-year old to build up some common sense again.
-
Ron
Sure, he had... no idea what anything was... but knowing there was these Jedi with similar (ish) powers... he'd had the idea of pretending to be a Jedi Paddlin whatsit in order to hide their powers as being that. Also, it meant getting a cool sword of light. And not actually hiding they had powers at all since, the existence of Jedi wasn't a legally bound secret from 'nonsensitives'.
That had been a few years ago. Now, even though he still needed his wand, unlike both Harry and Hermione, he was at least able to fake knowing what the hell everyone was talking about - enough to even parrot back - when it came to things like blasters and forcefields and ... ok, less about the faking when it comes to pod racing, his new non-magical sport.
"But Hermione, they were slaves!" He tried to argue after yet another trip to the desert planet of Tatooine.
"... I'm. Not. Speaking. To. You."
"That Gardulla was going to... you know..."
Harry cut in. "Hermione, its your fault you know... you're the one who even taught Ron what a slave is and what it means."
Hermione fumed in silence.
"Harry stop helping me!"
"I thought you'd be grateful and happy he was helping."
"Ha....ry...."
"I mean, sure... not quite the way we would-"
"Potter. Dead. Kill."
"But still. Freed Slaves!"
Sirius interjected as the group entered the large cockpit of their home in the stars. "I think its more than you embarrassed her, than that you freed some slaves."
"And the destruction."
"And the-" Sirius stopped, and looked at Hermione, he simply passed him to sit in one of the cockpit's seats and start reading... without any translation charms, which the boys all three still needed even nearly three years on. The grown adult in the room turned back to the two young boys, one fourteen as with Hermione, the other still thirteen. "What destruction?"
Then the man noted that - to the lack of surprise of the two boys - and girl - the group of kids had been followed onto the ship by a woman and a young boy, perhaps seven years of age.
"I'm guessing that Sebulba's pod racer didn't spontaneously explode, then. " The woman spoke, voice cracking in concern.
"How did you do it?!" One young Anakin Skywalker asked of the red-head. "I mean..." He glanced at the adult - and the girl - then his mom, but then back and couldn't contain the glee - "We didn't see nuffin about nuffin."
Sirius stared, then looked at Ron, "Wow, teaching him the bro code already, Ron?"
Harry just chuckled as he left his 'bro' to be interrogated, and waved at the two former slaves, one Anakin and one Shmi Skywalker, to follow through the corridor to the habitat spaces of their ship.
"... Harry! HARRY I KNOW THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"
"Ron. Weasley."
Gulp.
"Yes Sirius?"
-
Harry
It's not his fault.
"The droid armies of the Trade Federation are invading Naboo." he'd said.
Hermione had perked up a bit. Apparently, their closet Star Wars fan among them, had figured some things out as she kept an eye on the wider politics of the galaxy - to watch for the rise of something called 'the empire'.
Sirius had no clue what Star Wars was, when he'd done his... thing... to bring them here. Neither had Ron or himself. But Hermione had. And never needed the translation spells to read the more common writing system, even though galactic basic is english, and there's a second, similar, language in common use whose writing resembles english as well.
She'd given them a basic rundown of the three movies she loved, and some of the backstory - what little she knew anyway. But since, until finding Anakin and Shmi Skywalker, they had no idea when they'd arrived in relation to those movies, aside from "pre-empire", Ron had given the words of doom of 'what are the chances-' in regard to being within their life span to those future events.
Simply put, the three of them gave no notice to it until Ron saved and sort-of freed the Skywalkers. Sort of, since he won the pair in a bet that, despite his age at the time, was apparently a valid one.
Hermione had therefore been keeping an even more detailed eye out for certain names, like palpatine.
Naboo had a senator in the galactic republic by that name, and so it had been easy to watch out for what were probably 'main line events'.
For instance, she didn't want to inadvertently screw over the galaxy by preventing a pair of twins from being born, but figured it was inevitable the moment Anakin started to look up to her, because of her 'save slaves' thing.
It's not His fault that Ron saved Anakin, thereby introducing the boy to Hermione's Saving People Thing and her moral stance on things.
It's not even his fault that Shmi spent more time than was... ah... expected... with Sirius, even though they did figure Sirius was missing out on adult company. In terms of 'not kids', rather than the other, though...
It's also not his fault that telling Hermione about the invasion... led to this.
"Come with me if you want to live."
The Queen, handmaidens and other persons stared between him and the mangled, in various ways, droids that had been escorting them to be 'processed'.
He sighed. "Now." He waved a hand, and glad he'd taken Rons suggestion of wearing Jedi robes, levitated the group of droids to one side.
Sure, it told them a lie - that he was a Jedi - but technically, on this run... eh, working with.
Sure enough, on return to their hiding spot for his... ship...
"My Captain is already... ah... stealing your royal yacht, to act as a smoke-screen and distraction." He announced as he led them up the short ramp. They all heard the ship come to life, showing either he was using the force (he wasn't) or someone was already aboard that knew they were boarding. A woman appeared from inside, and waved most of the rescuees to parts of the ship, while the Queen and handmaidens were led by him with their military officer, a guy called Panaka, to a forward viewing room.
"The Blockade will shoot this ship out of the sky." Panaka criticised.
Harry just shook his head. "Anakin," He called, pressing a button for intercom, "Remember the cloaking device."
"Got it!"
Everyone felt strange for a moment, and Harry just grinned at them. "Feels weird when turning it on and off, but it works. Don't ask me how."
"A Cloaking device, on a ship this small?"
Harry just looked for a moment, wondering about that, but also... "Eh, it only looks small. It's... a little bigger than it looks."
"Quite right, my friend." Spoke a voice from the hallway, and the entourage turned to see a Jedi, more professionally presented than Harry's 'I'm young and rushed to get dressed' looks. "Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn at your service, your highness. My Padawan and I were luckily rescued shortly after escaping from the Trade Federation ship by Mr Potter here and his associates."
-
Hermione
Anakin should have been off to learn to be a Jedi, by now... is what she had guessed.
But no. He was now, officially and all, their chief pilot and chief engineer on their ship that none of them would explain the name behind. Golden Snitch. (Really, Ron, Harry?)
Shmi had even married Sirius. Nice wedding. Officiated on Naboo, even.
And whilst Shmi took over as the ships, load master and performed the admin work, so Sirius could stop making so many errors, years ago, Sirius was still the Captain, and Hermione herself was their navigator, weapons officer (because pirates be Arr) and generally thinking ways to improve the ship - both with and without magic...
Ron and Harry had left. Not Anakin.
Apparently, Harry got lucky twice over. Being unable to explain his origin, or... many things, being the one to interact with the Jedi aboard their auxiliary vessel, whilst Anakin made the business of just flying their escape, and after docking it with the Golden Snitch had then disappeared for that ships cockpit to set course for coruscant... well, Qui-Gon misinterpreted way too much and figured out that 'Harry' was a child of prophecy... destined to 'defeat the dark side' and... well... he had survived a killing curse... then Sirius knocked him over the head with that apparently, that's why that dark lord hunted him back on earth...
Well.
Harry accepted (sort of) and off he went to train, even though the council initially thought he was 'too old'. (Apparently being told that their planet train their own 'force sensitives' from the age of eleven and hardly ever have dark lords...)
None of them were willing to mention that Harry wasn't actually a Force User, he'd just learned how to do magic without his wand... specifically... after his wand broke a few years ago and Hermione, already doing little bits of wandless, had insisted he train hard instead of just turning into a 'normal'.
She just Knew he couldn't fall 'to the dark side' because his magic wasn't as much of a 'feedback-loop' trip into darkness as the Force was. Magic could only twist what was already there, or 'not-there', as it were, it couldn't make him loose his morality, not like the force could.
Sirius even confirmed to her, once, that dark magic was only addictive if you have that initial liking for certain things... and there's some pretty big indicators before hand for that stuff, like bullying (so he wont do dark magic) or racism (... not so much, but still a problem he had to get over). Her own need to know was in itself a danger, but not nearly as much as if it was the force she could use, rather than magic.
Harry just didn't have it in him to be a nasty, vengeful person. He'd had nightmares after Hogwarts... and that's not because of being attacked, but because he'd killed... even though the person he'd killed was trying to kill him.
No, of the group of them, Harry was the least likely to potentially fall to the dark side, with or without the actual mechanism of it that these Jedi risk by opening up their minds to use the force.
She did make sure he knew to be wary of Palpatine. She had not a damn clue what the Sith Lord did to turn the republic into the empire.
"Hermione!"
She sighed, as her attention was called once more by a boy who couldn't hide how much of a crush he had on her. And how much it pained her, because she knew a potential future for him, one in which, no really, he fell to the dark side.
Sure, he was eleven now - the age , roughly, they were when they learned magic... but the force, was just different enough that she was second-guessing about teaching him how to use it.
Not the part though to reinforce his morals... that... that needed work, even without knowing his future.
And the smile on her face after their lesson was all because he was a hard worker who liked putting in extra effort into the homework she assigned him, producing essays others would consider 'excessive'. Absolutely.
... He's. Eleven, and she's eighteen. Or something. She never did try to work out the calendar difference...
Her smile had nothing to do with how earnest he was trying to get her favour.
Not at all.
-
Shmi
He stood with Shmi, and between them, a little five year old girl, looking out at the hanger of the Golden Snitch.
Given that the interior was longer than the external ship's overall dimensions, let alone the section it sat within, Shmi was long used to the impossibilities that surrounded her husband. Having a child without a father was an impossibility, and that had happened before she met the man, so she knew to be used to that.
That it was her own son, her first born, that had made the hanger longer without being able to do magic, but did it with the force... was just hilarious.
And Sirius, even as he lived as a sort of honorary Mandalorian... He just really loved that helmet, cleaned it almost religiously, well he made her happy, in a way simply being free didn't.
Sure, her son, now eighteen - and still crushing on the now-twenty-five year old second in command of their ship...
Their lives weren't exactly safe... but it was alot safer than it should be. They didn't just haul cargo, they also accepted jobs like investigation and retreival, Sirius registered as a bona fide Bounty Hunter, though that's only so he could officially collect on bounties. And their ship was too powerful for what it was on the outside, a simple medium-size freighter.
Being able to cram more equipment than physically filling of the ships external volume... and still having huge cargo bays to haul goods...
The ship being able to withstand barrages from several Trade Federation ships had come in handy when going to take on the droid army nine years ago.
Also having the power to spare for several capital-grade heavy turbolaser cannons with external dimensions only a tenth of their actual size before magic, as well as a pair of direct-fire ion cannons mounted underneath the cockpit in the command module... The ship was able to fight at the super-capital level in terms of outward firepower and defensive capability, whilst being too damn maneuverable, nimble like a ship only a few dozen metres in length, not the bit more than a hundred that it originally was... or, seemingly, still is, so what few could hit in true battle, would have no effect. Such is the effect of having multiple, very powerful shield generators tied in with plenty of emitters. And then there was the magic to protect from ion cannons, which could hit and disable fully-shielded ships.
Shmi knew that Sirius didn't like the word 'invulnerable', apparently it engendered the idea that nothing could kill it, and he'd rather err on the side of caution, but they both knew it was a little... or a lot, overboard... But Hermione had once said, about it, 'I'd rather have a ship that could barely withstand a single shot from a planet killer yet never need it, than to need it but not have it.' Curious way of putting it...
Though with the rumblings they'd heard about some members of the republic wishing to leave, and calls from others to keep them by force...
She had, that morning, signed off on yet more 'paperwork', as Sirius and Hermione called it, for sourcing replacement parts to increase the defensive and offensive capabilities of the ship.
Just because magic could 'fix' things, didn't mean it was neither permanent nor perfect. sometimes, factory-condition, which their 'reparo' effectively set some things to, weren't the best condition. And the more often they had to repair a part, the more often they needed to repair the part, until one day it simply won't work without holding the spell on it. Magic wasn't an all-solving panacea, Hermione had also once said.
"Hey."
She looked over, and smiled at her husband. Even eight years on, she still had flutters in her heart when he looked at her like that.
"Ew, Mom, Dad, stop being gross!"
Aand the moment was lost.
"Yew Black-Skywalker!"
As it was lost on her why Sirius smirked every time she called their daughter by the name he chose.
-
Ron
He pulled his pod-racer to a stop in the garage.
"Hey Bovril, the energy binders need a tune up." He started, ignoring the grumbles of his mechanics' name not being 'Bovril'. The guy was new. If he lasted a month, then, then he'd consider learning the guys name.
All of the newbies got called Bovril their first month. Cavonia, in the second for those who stuck around, until he had their name down or they left because it also wasn't their name, or ...
'Bovril' just nodded as he mumbled and got to work checking out the Pod Racer.
Ron just left, a grin on his face as he looked out at the vast expanse of the city in the distance. Wasn't anything like Coruscant, since he lived basically in a small place in the middle of a forest, but it was... home.
It wasn't saving the galaxy, like Harry was probably doing with the Jedi... or dangerous, like running around as a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter always pissing off the hutts like Sirius... or pissing off the hutts because she was cleaning up after Sirius, like Hermione. Well okay, it was dangerous, being a Pod Racer.
If you didn't crash into a mountain or forest or another racer due to slower reaction times, you could still die because they're the ones with the piloting issue crashing into you, or exploding ahead of you causing rock or something to crash into you... And that's not taking sabotage into account, a very real problem in the racing game.
Even outside of race-time.
Okay, he was probably living as dangerously as Sirius... maybe even more than, since he didn't have a overpowered overshielded internally-a-behemoth ship to protect him.
"Still giving the new guy a tough time?"
But he had a great life, a great wife, fame, fortune...
"Nah, they're all told when they join up I'm bad with names, words... a few months before I'll remember it, Mon."
A smile. "I'm sure."
"How's the senate?"
"...Problems. I'm afraid some problems will likely cause your next race on malastare to be cancelled, and I'm going to need to increase our security."
"What, why?" He pulled back from an impromptu hug, in concern.
"I'm aware you personally know Senator Amidala..." his wife started.
"... More assassination attempts?"
His wife nodded. "We're not sure if it's tied to the Trade Federation, or to this seperatist movement, and if it is the latter..."
"You're a target."