Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wednesday, 1st September 1999.

Luna beamed back into the Lab, her eyes twinkling as she gazed at the now empty space of the cavern. Almost all the trinkets and valuables had been sorted and beamed into the Gringotts vaults that she and Neville had opened and the space once more resembled the state they had found it five months prior. Merlin had assured them that without the Porta Mundas for access, the Lab would be completely secure from ascended interference.

It amused her greatly that they could come and go from the vaults without the goblins being any the wiser, given their rather frosty attitude towards Hermione and Harry since the war. She chuckled to herself as she turned away from the small pile of remaining chests in the corner and faced the large circular platform that had been their previous best way to travel the globe. She was already so used to beaming about that its wildly advanced design seemed almost primitive to her now.

She stepped up to the tent and with a tap of her fingers on the small device on her left wrist, the rings activated and sent the tent away to Fundamenta, possibly for the last time. "Merlin?"

"Yes, Miss Luna?" The image asked, appearing beside her.

"Ready to go."

The hologram nodded and the two turned to face the Porta Mundas. Intense white light surrounded it as the computer beamed the entire platform out of the Lab and away to storage in the southern facility. A second beam of light filled the space and within seconds, the floor was smooth stone once more.

Luna tapped the small interface on her wrist again and moved to turn away when she noticed an odd notice on the device. The sensors of the caverns were detecting a small solid naquadah device in close proximity to where the rings had been. She turned to face the area and saw nothing but the four small chests that were still in place. Natalie had asked if she could have them as they were perfectly sized for some knick-knacks she had picked up on their vacation as they now called it.

Luna carefully opened each one and was even more surprised that the wooden chests were completely empty. She knelt back and looked at them again and was confused for a moment. When she knelt down, the four had been stacked one on top of the other, but now, three of them stood off to the side while the fourth remained in place.

She focused on it carefully and extended her hands, lifting the lid and immediately she felt relief in her mind as though she had been fighting off some distracting influence. Inside the last wooden chest was a small oddly shaped device. It was about a foot and a half long and was shaped like a trio of rectangles joined together to form a boomerang-like shape, or an elongated hexagon that had a bite taken out of one side, she thought to herself with a smile.

It was tiered with each higher tier being slightly smaller than the one beneath it and the closest side to her, the one where the sides bent towards her, had a full set of Alteran symbols along each of the three tiers from one side right across to the other. On top, there was a rectangular blue crystal that stood out from the device slightly.

Luna lifted the device out of the chest and walked over to the plinth, resting it on the surface and the blue crystal almost seemed to glow from the inside, but no actual light was emitted.

"Mantle interface activated." Merlin's voice echoed through the space and the hologram appeared once again.

"Mantle?" Luna asked curiously.

Merlin indicated the device on the plinth. "Yes, this device is Myrddin's Mantle. It is where he kept his technical journals regarding the project. It is a good thing you interfaced it with the plinth, the power source was running quite low."

"Technical journals. You think that it might contain the schematic we need?"

"Unlikely. The device was used more for Merlin's personal notes on the process. A device such as the Sangraal had never been built before. He retained the general idea of how to achieve what he wanted to accomplish, but he still needed to invent and construct the technology on the lower plane."

"Fair enough. Can you download the logs?"

"No. The Mantle was created for the express purpose of preventing direct access from this dimension."

"This dimension? Meaning what exactly?"

"Myrddin was sure the Others would be suspicious once they realised he had reverted to human form. Even more so if they learned exactly what kind of research he was working on. He built this device using the dimensional shifting technology he learned from Ganos Lal while they were both ascended, to contain his research notes, and constructed this laboratory to contain it so that it would be hidden from their eyes."

"Really? Ascended beings can't view between dimensions?"

"Information on that is limited, but it would seem so. The only output I am getting from the device currently is a request for the password. It's in a low power state awaiting interface."

"And you don't know the password?"

"It has been deleted from my systems, at the same time as the finalised schematics, it seems."

"The ascended interloper?"

"It would seem so."

Luna looked at the device, running her fingers gently over the surface. It felt as solid as any of the other artifacts, but the front side yielded under her fingers easily. "These feel like keys."

"They are, it was how a physical being would interface with the Mantle," Merlin replied standing in place and watching her movements.

"That's the full Alteran alphabet too. So it's a keyboard, if we enter the password…"

Luna let her mind wander over the information they had gathered since first finding the cavern. The tests and the treasures. The outpost and the other settlements. Only a few of them related to Myrddin himself, with most predating his return to human form. She considered the scroll, now tucked away in the new vaults, untouched for months as they had fully memorised it.

"Could it be that simple?" She checked the keys over and located the ones she needed, entering the symbols in order.

Immediately, the device reacted whirring up, the non-existent light in the blue crystal becoming very real and increasing in intensity until a bright white light filled the space around her. Luna closed her eyes as the whirring increased and even through her closed eyelids she could feel the intense white light seeping into her. It passed as quickly as it started and she blinked her eyes several times to clear the spots.

"That was unpleasant. Of course, it would be justitia. What was his obsession with righteousness?" Luna asked, glancing at Merlin.

The image remained still for a moment before speaking. "Given I can no longer detect you on my sensors, I shall assume you have correctly guessed the password. From your side, you should be able to access the Mantle and enable a data connection between it and the laboratory's computer banks."

Luna looked at the hologram for a moment before the crystal in the Mantle flared red and a trapezoidal display spread out from the top, rendering in the air above the crystal. The shimmering orange-red Alteran symbols were arrayed in lines of descending width. She quickly read through the logs, understanding most only due to the Mirror device and the information it had given her, the information being quite advanced, even by their newer standards.

While the technical information was comprehensive, it did not give the actual schematics of the device, appearing to be entirely text-based. The only thing other than Alteran text was an address for the location where he had moved the research after being forced to leave the Earth lab.

"Miss Luna?" Merlin queried, "I cannot interface with the device without your aid. Please run the linking subroutine."

Distracted from her reading, Luna searched the information in her mind and found the knowledge that Merlin was asking of her. She quickly entered the process into the keyboard and the white light once again filled the entire space. Luna felt the shift this time as the light vanished and she opened her eyes once more to find Merlin staring directly at her.

"Well done. I can now download the logs."

"That was a weird experience. The address in the log, Myrddin says he had to move the research off-world, but not a reason as to why. Do you think it had something to do with the ascended beings watching him?"

"I am unsure at present. Once I can analyse the logs, a pattern may become clearer." Merlin replied.

"So then, I guess all we can do for now is wait and see?" Luna sighed.

"Not all we can do. We have made incredible progress, but there is still much to do. Your new friend and Miss Hermione are both hard at work on new magical items back at Fundamenta and Neville has been digging through the database like he's on a mission. Finding the schematic and completing the Sangraal is our immediate goal, but not our only one."

Luna nodded as she considered his words. Before she gathered the four now empty chests and headed off to Antarctica once more.

ϟ

Friday, 3rd September 1999.

Neville looked at his work, or more accurately its absence, with pride. While the original designs for both the device and its manufacturing station were in the depths of the Alteran database, he had successfully modified it to suit their needs perfectly.

He stretched out his hand and felt the hovering orb under his fingers and smiled. He closed his hand around it and felt the resistance of its hover cease as it powered down once more. With a glance at the cylindrical dispenser, he turned back towards the central chamber, following the voices to guide him, soon finding Hermione and Padma in the new magical research department they'd had Merlin create.

"How is it coming in here?" He asked, sitting on one of the many stools along the benches as the two girls turned to face him.

"Very well." Padma grinned, looking like all her Christmases had come at once, a look she had worn for days now since joining their expedition. "We've completed the modifications to the bubblehead charm."

With a wave of her wand, a soft shimmering bubble appeared, barely a millimetre above her body, except over the face where it bulged out slightly. "It provides clean oxygen constantly, and we've tested it against the most common harmful radiation types, but not all. Although our testing was limited to very brief exposure for obvious reasons." Her voice was slightly distorted coming through the thin membrane.

"So you're having fun then?" He asked and the girls looked at each other before nodding profusely.

"These are just about complete too," Hermione explained, directing his eyes to the shoulder bags sitting on the table in the middle of the room. "One for everyone. So Harry can stop stealing my beaded bag."

Neville grinned. "And the chest?"

"We finished that first. It's over in the corner." Padma pointed, dispelling the bubble over her form. "You?"

Neville held up his right hand and he felt the invisible drone lift off his palm, grinning like a loon as the girls looked at him, uncertain. "Everything I'd hoped for and more. Though, to be fair, both forms of technology already existed in the database. I'm calling it a vulta, or vultus for plural. It means 'look'."

Hermione gave him a strange glance. "Ok, can we have a look at it now?"

Neville's smile grew as he tapped two buttons on his wrist device and the air shimmered as the tiny grey ball appeared in the air once more. "Fully able to operate independently. Can dial the Porta and transmit back periodically. Can be remote-controlled from these." He pointed to his wrist device. "And, as you saw, can cloak, becoming completely invisible to both visual detection and sensors."

"Excellent," Padma murmured as she circled the tiny sphere. "Already in the database?"

"Seems they were created shortly before something called the Destiny project. For this exact purpose. All I really did was shrink it a little bit more and incorporate the cloak. I constructed a dispenser outside the conscensa that makes a new one every time someone pulls one out. I also set the computer to create a memory bank specifically for transmissions from them behind the wall the dispenser is built into so that no matter how many we send out, they can communicate back without taxing the main memory system."

"Brilliant. With Luna and Merlin working on the technical logs, we just need Harry and dad to finish their work and we're good to go exploring." Hermione noted loudly.

A loud voice came in through the door from a room Neville knew to be just across and down the hall. "You two had the easy part, give me a break," Harry shouted.

All three in the research lab laughed at the comment. Neville stood and nodded to the girls as he quickly made his way into the other room. This one looked far less magical, with different devices spread all over the many benches as Harry and Richard slaved away over the bench in the centre.

Harry flicked his eyes up to Neville as he entered and gave him a nod. "Nice work, Neville," he added, his eyes flicking to the vulta hovering by his shoulder. "You should send it off to the address Luna found so it can do the recon now. We shouldn't be too much longer."

"Really?" Neville asked, moving over to the table and looking at the items they were building.

"Yes. General designs for the technology as a whole were in the database, but building them has proven a little trickier. We really don't want these blowing up in our faces. They pack quite a punch." Richard explained, holding up the central crystal.

"At least it will give you and Natalie some way to defend yourselves off-world," Harry said.

"I know you lot have magic and all, but you can still use them too."

"Not this one we can't. Crystal?" Harry held out his hand for the thick orange crystal in Richard's hand and the elder man passed it over. "This one will only work for you. That is what has made this so difficult. Each one will be usable only by the one person it's linked to. So no one can disarm us and use them against us."

Harry placed the crystal into the body. It was shaped much like a modern gun, with an ergonomically shaped handle at one end. The main body was a dark grey, almost black, with a long vertically-ovular barrel, into which Harry was fitting the crystal. It sat almost flush with the end once he was finished, only its domed tip extending out, and he held it up to inspect it closely.

The crystal began to give off a dull glow and Harry smiled in triumph. "Done. Give it a try."

He flicked the weapon about and held the handle out to Richard, who took it gingerly. Harry and Neville both watched him excitedly as the man turned and faced the target on the wall a few metres away as the weapon gave a dangerous hum. "Alright, here goes."

He pulled the trigger and the weapon gave off a loud piercing hum as a blue-white bolt shot from the end and hammered into the wall, not only destroying the target but leaving a large charred crater in the wall as well. Richard looked down at the humming weapon in his hand in disbelief.

"Well…" Harry said plainly. "They work. But I think we might need a low power setting too."

Neville stared at the wound in the wall as rushed footsteps sounded, heading for the room. "What on earth was that?" Hermione asked as the girls stepped inside, Natalie joining them as well.

"Er, it works." Harry offered weakly, drawing a raised eyebrow from Natalie.

"Sure looks like it," Padma noted, walking over to inspect the damage. "I hit the wall in the magic lab with a reductor curse yesterday and it barely even scratched this material."

"I'll figure out a power regulator. Give it a stunning setting as well." Harry defended as he took the powerful weapon from Richard. "This design was labelled as being experimental in the database. Hell, the power core is basically a miniature potentia, so it's hardly surprising it can pack a big wallop."

"Any reason you chose the experimental design?" Hermione queried, hovering over the table Harry was working at.

"Well, the other designs seemed rather unfeasible. The easiest were the stun batons, but I don't think we want to be unable to do some real damage if we needed to. The staff design was unwieldy and far too large for scouting purposes. And the other handheld design looked kinda goofy. Plus... I liked this one better."

Hermione rolled her eyes and Neville tried not to laugh at Harry's childish enthusiasm. Harry glanced up at the others gathered about watching him and he frowned. "I'll fix it, relax. Remember, a watched pot never boils."

Harry gave them a cheeky smirk as he began to disassemble the gun and the others shared knowing glances with one another.

Hermione eventually broke the mirthful silence. "Fine, but make it quick. Everything else is just about ready to go."

"Sure, sure," Harry mumbled, once more focused entirely on his task. Hermione shook her head and guided Padma out of the lab, the adult Grangers following suit chatting quietly to one another.

Neville heard a beep and glanced at his remote. There was a flashing message on the screen and when he read it, he smiled. 'Recording complete. Transferred to databank.'

Harry would never live that one down.

ϟ

Tuesday, 14th September 1999.

Harry checked the fit of his belt as the group mulled about in the conscensa, the girls chatting quietly among themselves. He patted the inner pocket of his jacket and confirmed that he had the cloak on him. His wand was tucked into a small pocket inside the edge of his left sleeve that Padma had fitted all their outfits with, allowing him quick access while not taking up the usual amount of physical space required. She had even managed to replicate the nature of a mokeskin pouch so that only the person who placed the wand into the pocket could remove it.

His hand dropped once more to the belt and his fingers brushed over the dark metallic finish of the weapon in his holster, checking that the safety was on after the show several days prior. He'd successfully fitted adjustable power controls and manufactured a unit for each of them.

"You're sure these outfits are necessary?" Richard asked, tugging at his overrobe uncomfortably.

"It's what the vulta showed the residents wearing," Hermione explained, tying her own about her throat. "We want to get in and away unnoticed. Blending in will make that a lot easier than showing up in trainers, jeans and a leather jacket, dad."

The man turned away and grumbled quietly to himself and Harry smiled at his behaviour. It was refreshing that the elder Grangers were as eager to get out there and do something as the rest of them. Rather than sitting back, ignoring their warnings and letting the kids do all the dirty work, as had been his experience in Hogwarts.

"Speaking of," Neville said, dashing to the door and returning before it even had a chance to close, a small grey ball in his hand. "Just in case. Never hurts to have a spare."

Harry noticed that everyone seemed to be fitted and ready and he turned to Luna. "You found this one, dial us up."

Luna smiled at him in return and lifted the remote strapped to the inside of her left wrist. With a few quick presses, the Astria Porta whirred to life, the seven chevrons lighting up once more and with the same white wave of light stretching from the edge of the ring inwards, the wavering blue event horizon formed once more.

"I don't think I'll ever get sick of that," Hermione said and Harry turned and saw Padma standing with her mouth hanging open.

"Right, it's your first time isn't it." The others turned to catch her shaking out of the stunned expression she had been wearing and the Indian girl blushed at being caught out. "Don't worry, it's a walk in the park."

Harry gestured for her to walk through and noticed Richard and Natalie passing through the shimmering surface. He quickly followed suit and the group now found themselves in a meadow that looked like it wouldn't have been out of place back in England. The sun of the planet appeared to be setting in the distance, colouring the sky in a beautiful mix of purples and oranges. Glancing about he noted that even the nearby trees seemed to resemble the native sorts found in their homeland.

"Fascinating," Hermione said, standing by one of the nearest examples.

Harry smiled as he tucked his robe around his waist and wandered close enough to whisper at her as he passed. "Blending in will make things easier."

Hermione spun and gave him a slight glare before she flicked her hood up and followed him as he noted what appeared to be a rarely used path in the grassy meadow, leading away from the Porta. The others soon followed on behind as they kept to the trail for several quiet minutes, though Harry could still hear Hermione's clothes rustling heavily as she swung her gaze back and forth, taking in the familiar yet alien landscape like it was all incredible to her.

As they rounded a small copse of trees, a town surrounded by a thick stone wall became visible in the near distance despite the twilight around them and Harry saw a much more heavily used muddy road leading to the stone bridge that led into the village. The buildings themselves looked medieval in design and Harry took a deep breath as the others bunched up around him. They'd seen the village in the images the vulta had sent back, but seeing it in person was a very different experience.

"That's it. Camelot." Luna explained as they all looked at the structures. Several small fires seemed to spring up as they gazed at the town and Harry glanced at the others.

"Should we head in now?" Natalie asked, softly. "Or wait for night to fall completely?"

"We know the general layout of the village." Padma offered. "And where to find the library. No need to bother the natives."

"That's true. If we go in now, people will see us, but our clothes should help us blend in. We can head for the library and hopefully sneak in while they're all heading in for dinner. Rather than being the odd ones out sneaking past the window after dark." Harry suggested.

The others nodded in agreement and the group began to move forward once more, much more tightly packed than the meandering line they had been in on the way from the Porta. As they crossed the bridge, Harry noticed a few farmers heading for the bridge leading carts drawn by a creature that looked like a cross between a camel and a thestral without the wings. He tried his best not to stare as the group made their way through the large gateway in the exterior wall.

The village bore no resemblance to the Camelot of the stories from Earth, looking a lot more like a walled-in collection of stone and wood buildings than a majestic castle of legend. Two heavy-looking foot-thick wooden doors flanked the opening and there were people in peasant clothing mulling about in the poorly lit muddy courtyard beyond. The wall on the far side of the courtyard supported a few rickety-looking stalls and there were large wooden carts full of varied materials dotted about the area, the nearest full of cabbages. Harry felt the sticky mud of the well-travelled ground squelch beneath his feet as they walked.

It seemed they had timed their arrival well as, while there were quite a few people moving about in the open space, none of them paid the group any serious attention, instead they were heading about their own business in the rapidly darkening evening.

Having seemingly been silently named leader for this portion of their trip, Harry led them to the left, away from the plinth they knew to be to the right that held the village's sword. A part of the protections that Myrddin had placed on his library, that they would prefer not to trigger if they could, given the vicious persistence of this one compared to the Lab's Knight test.

Natalie whispered as they walked towards the alley they knew led to Myrddin's library. "This is like being at a renaissance fair."

Harry couldn't help but grin and he felt Hermione loop her arm into his own as they walked. He turned to her and noticed her eyes flick to his own for a moment before shifting to a pair ahead of them who looked to be dressed in much finer clothes than most they had seen. He understood and pulled her closer, placing his hand over her own and allowing him to put a finger onto his wand in the small groove in his sleeve.

Silently he cast a low powered notice-me-not charm over the group and the two who had been heading for them seemed to redirect, heading instead past them without comment and heading around the corner. Hermione smirked at him softly before snuggling closer, both seemingly content to continue walking in their close proximity rather than separate. Harry was momentarily reminded of their trip through Godric's Hollow on Christmas almost two years before and, despite what happened on that occasion, he couldn't help but smile softly.

They wandered unnoticed through the streets until they finally came upon the corner where they knew the library to be concealed. The shopfronts nearest it were all shuttered and their goods packed away inside for the night. Even fewer people could be seen in the streets around them as firelight flickered from behind several nearby windows. Harry guided Hermione over to the doorway where she pulled her wand and waved it over the door frame as the others gathered up behind.

"Look good?" Padma asked softly.

"Definitely a forcefield on here. To bring it down, we'd need to search the village for the key." Hermione replied, glancing at the others.

"Good thing we don't need to waste time with bringing it down," Harry smirked as he took Natalie's nearby hand and with a slight crack, he apparated them both inside the building.

Several other sharp sounds signalled the others joining them inside as Harry pulled his own wand and lit the tip. Hermione rolled her eyes at him as she wandered past and Natalie patted down her front, seemingly thrown by the sudden transit.

"Sorry, but I promise it's better if you don't see it coming," Harry explained as he walked deeper into the library.

Spiderwebs hung from the many shelves, wall sconces and freestanding candlesticks with aged candles leaning precariously in their sockets, a thick layer of dust coated everything. Most of the tables and shelves were covered in books, though a few mundane trinkets lay here and there as well. Hermione was making her way around the shelves on the right wall while Padma mirrored her actions on the left. Luna had made a beeline straight for the back wall and was quickly vanishing the dust and cobwebs in her way.

"Any ideas where the opening is?" Neville whispered, stepping up beside Harry.

"No, and you don't have to whisper," Harry replied normally. "Madame Pince isn't here to scold us in this library."

"No, but Padma, Luna and Hermione certainly might." The boy whispered again as he smirked and walked deeper into the room.

Harry considered Neville's wisdom for a moment before nodding and moving deeper himself. He cast a bevy of cleaning and vanishing charms over the tables and books, clearing their surfaces as he went. Once they had what they were after they would probably return and scan through the tomes contained here, but tonight they were seeking something very specific.

"Found it," Padma called as she poked her wand into the opening passageway previously hidden behind a set of shelves tucked into what Harry noted was very clearly a doorway, with its obvious arched stone frame.

"I suppose when you lock the door with crazy advanced technology, you don't have to hide your basement quite so carefully." He said as the others quickly moved over to join them by the opening.

The dark tunnel turned immediately to the right and down a flight of stairs that bent further right and out of sight. Hermione immediately stepped within, her wand lighting the way as the others soon followed and found themselves passing under a much larger stone archway into an equally large stone room. As they stepped inside, the lumber in the fireplace on the left-hand wall burst to life, crackling away instantly as if it had been doing so forever.

Several wall sconces placed around the long rectangular room burst to life as well, casting a flickering orange glow over the mostly empty room. The walls were mostly bare except for the torches and a few wall hangings, some in recessed grooves and others hanging openly at the ends of the room. Harry thought the room wouldn't have looked out of place in Hogwarts. The only part that broke the pattern was situated in the exact centre of the space.

On a rectangular stone platform sat a large console, stretching across a large portion of the width of the room. It was made of highly polished red-brown stone with dozens of small square tiles on its outside, covered in Alteran text. The top side was slightly recessed in the centre where a grid of perfectly square, text-covered tiles lay eight wide and three high. In line with the top and bottom row on either end were a pair of raised blocks each with a small patterned button in its centre.

"And that's the moderum," Hermione smirked as she stepped towards it, lighting the upper surface with her wand light.

"It's certainly more impressive in person," Luna said as she circled the platform. "This could be awkward though. We can't step on until we've forced the code in, or the Knight will spawn in the village. But if we're all standing in this open space when the code locks in…"

"Yeah, odds are high there is something in a buffer waiting to come out, just like at Glastonbury. That's why we brought the chest." Hermione noted as she cast her wand over the wall hangings, noting the intricate designs on the fabrics.

"Maybe we should wait upstairs," Neville suggested as Harry approached the moderum.

"Might be a good idea. Do you want to do this, or should I?" Harry asked Hermione.

He knew he would be able to input the code manually, but Hermione had much finer control if they were to do it magically. "I'm not sure."

She sounded slightly nervous and Harry walked over to where she was standing by the large archway leading into the next chamber. "I trust you. But we know the code. If we're quick, we can step on the platform and disable the security system before it shows up. Surely Myrddin didn't have it pop out the moment he used the console."

"You're right. In that case, we'll both do it." She nodded.

"Time to go if you're going," Harry advised as he and Hermione stepped up to the edge of the raised platform.

The five others quickly withdrew to the first archway and waved as they headed back up the stairs. Harry glanced at Hermione before his eyes swept back onto the moderum as Hermione moved to step onto the platform. "Wait, we're backwards here. The code will be wrong."

Hermione stepped back and pointed her wand at the moderum, the light sweeping over the engraved text in the controls. "You're right."

Harry gave her a slight nod as they parted and walked around the platform, careful not to step on it until they were both ready.

Hermione took a deep breath. "Top row; three down, four down, seven halfway. Center row; one down, six halfway, eight down. Bottom row; one halfway, three halfway, five down, eight down."

"I'll take the left, you take the right," Harry said, squeezing her hand for a moment before tucking his wand away in his sleeve, ensuring he had both hands free for the five panels he would need to operate as quickly as he could.

Hermione nodded as she eyed the panels she needed to shift. "Three, two, one."

The pair stepped onto the platform and a bright light began to emit over the moderum from above, illuminating the text on the panels clearly. Harry tried to ignore the change and quickly hit the two panels on the top row, depressing them deeply until they stopped. As he pushed them both in, he noticed other panels rising up above the surface of the interface.

He pushed the thought aside as he moved to the centre row and shoved the first panel all the way down before pulling his hands back towards the closest row and carefully pressing the first and third panels halfway into the interface.

"Done." He and Hermione said in unison, glancing at one another for a moment before Hermione turned and hit the button on the raised block closest to her.

With a bright flash and a whooshing sound, the air around the platform filled for a second before the light vanished and the room was left full of trinkets and artifacts just like the Lab in Glastonbury. Hermione was dumbfounded by the extent of the treasure, but Harry dropped to his knees beside the moderum and tapped seven symbols on the small tiles on the side, ensuring that the security system was disabled while they worked.

A metallic bong sounded through the chamber and the air in front of the second archway shimmered, several footsteps sounding from the stairway behind them as Harry stood once again, seeing a new hologram of Myrddin opposite them. His clothing was quite similar, though of a slightly different colour and design.

Around his neck, there was a large red stone shaped into a perfect sphere. "Greetings, friend. I am Myrddin. The prize you seek, like the pendulum swing, marks the passage of all that is before you."

The message delivered, the hologram faded away as the others stepped fully back into the chamber. "Nice. Another good haul." Luna noted as she joined Harry and Hermione on the platform. She glanced at Hermione expectantly. "Well? Can I have the chest?"

Hermione tore her eyes from the empty space that had held the hologram and nodded, reaching over her shoulder to open the bag resting over it. Luna reached into the expanded space and drew out a trunk at least the size of the ones used for Hogwarts. She smiled at them as she placed it on the floor and flicked open the lid, ready to store all the goodies for their return home.

Chapter Text

Wednesday, 15th September 1999.

Luna stretched eagerly, a kink in her back clicking and letting sweet relief spread through her side. It had taken hours to adequately sort through all the items in the library basement while Hermione and Padma had interfaced the link that would allow them to transfer the moderum's database through the wormhole and back to the Lab. Given the fact ascended beings had interfered once before, they were taking no chances with this attempt, keeping everything where they were sure it would be safe on earth.

Richard was perched in the corner reading one of the many books from upstairs as she clicked the trunk closed. The others except for Harry were upstairs digging through the library as well and she sighed softly at the fact they had all spent the entire night rummaging through both floors. Most of what they had packed away would simply join the other bits and pieces at Gringotts, but some of the items would be taken to Fundamenta for further study.

Right now, however, she was feeling the effects of their long day's work, and Luna was keen to get back home, have a nice meal and a lie-down.

"All packed up here. Are you two done yet?" She asked Padma who glanced at her from over the top of the moderum.

"Almost. Another few minutes at most." The girl replied and Luna smirked to herself.

"Meaning you finished the interface an hour ago and are just studying the design of the internals?" Padma blushed slightly and Luna heard Hermione's head clip the edge of the massive device as she emerged from underneath, also looking a little red in the face and rubbing her head. "Thought so."

Luna tapped the massive chest with her wand and it levitated into the air, hovering along behind her thanks to the enchantments that Padma and Hermione had woven into its structure. It was also featherlight normally, but Luna wasn't keen to test the limits of that particular enchantment while it was full to the brim with cargo.

"Would you be so kind as to give me a hand getting this back upstairs, Richard?" Luna asked as she approached the man, who glanced up from the book, sticking a bookmark about halfway through the wide tome.

"Of course, Luna." He agreed, tucking the book into his own shoulder bag as he stood and walked towards the hovering box.

Luna skipped up the stairs and waved her wand at the trunk, slowly pulling it up the steep stairway as Richard pushed it from behind, aiding her work. With a bit of difficulty, they managed to turn it in the narrow corner of the tunnel and head out into the library where she found Neville in a nearby seat breathing heavily, a book resting on his face.

She walked past silently, rolling her eyes when she heard a sharp snap and turned to see Richard had flicked the spine of the book with his finger and Neville snorted awake, tumbling off the chair in the process.

Harry glanced up at them from his place beside Natalie, who simply tucked a bookmark into her own reading before slowly looking at her husband. "Really, dear. Play nice."

"It's time to go, surely you lot are as tired as the rest of us." He defended with a smirk, glancing at the blinking boy on the floor. "Though, maybe not."

"I'm awake," Neville said, shaking the last remnants of sleep from his body.

"How far do you think we can apparate this thing? We'd look somewhat suspicious, guiding it out of the village between us all." Luna asked, tapping the lid of the chest.

Harry stood and tucked a couple of books into his shoulder bag as he walked over to her. He reached into the inside pocket of his top and pulled out a very familiar cloak, draping it over the hovering box, the edges just shy of scraping the floor. He waggled his eyebrows at her and with a light crack, apparated away with the pair of enchanted items.

"I guess that is our cue?" Hermione mumbled, stepping out of the tunnel, Padma close behind her, and offered Neville a hand back to his feet.

"Looks like." Natalie agreed, taking a few armfuls of books and tucking them into each person's bag. "We can come back later for more."

A rampant beeping sounded on their wrist remotes and they all glanced down to see an urgent message from Harry advising them to hurry.

"Looks like we reactivated the security system correctly," Padma noted as they heard a scream coming from outside.

Luna took Natalie's hand and saw Hermione hold her father's and they quickly turned in place, apparating straight out of the village and onto the wide road they had seen heading off into the distance as they approached the day before. The group hurried along the dirt track until they noticed Harry hidden among the trees near the unused path to the Astria Porta.

"Sounds like the Knight came out before you left." He said as they approached. "At least that will keep everyone away from the library for the time being."

Hermione prodded his arm in disapproval but the group continued on, Neville and Richard gently pushing the large trunk in front of them as they walked briskly along the grassy path. Luna felt her fatigue building now as the Porta came into view and she smiled at the prospect of getting some rest.

Without warning, a wave of shimmering energy that shot out from the nearby trees hit Natalie squarely with the full blast, throwing her several feet off the pathway, landing heavily in the nearby longer grass. Luna was startled out of her stupor as Richard growled and pulled his weapon, quickly firing off a half dozen shots into the treeline.

The group scattered and drew wands and weapons, several of them firing blindly into the trees. Luna let her mind still and tried to allow what natural magic this world might possess to guide her hand. She felt the urge a moment before her wand came up and a powerful shield filled the air in front of her as a second wave of shimmering air blasted against it making a resounding clash of energy. She felt her footing give as she tumbled over from the force and a dark figure in a shiny cloak swept out of the trees near her position.

The boys noticed the movement and began firing on the figure but some sort of golden energy blocked the shots, some bouncing off harmlessly while others rang loudly against the energy field. The figure looked over them and laughed, the thick ichorish sound horrible and evil as it filled her ears.

Luna felt the impact as one of the weapon blasts hit the ground by the shield and kicked up a bunch of debris. She noted that the debris passed right through the golden shield and an idea struck her. She tucked her wand away and pulled the latch on her shoulder bag. Rolling across the grass, she disappeared into the wavy lengths as she crawled about behind the sinister figure. She heard the continuing sound of the boys firing on the figure and with a howl of horrible pain, she saw the golden shimmer give way, the shield falling to the sustained fire.

"You fools. I cannot be killed. Kneel or die!" The figure growled and the boys stopped their firing for a moment.

Luna poked her head above the grass and Harry's eyes flicked to her for a second before he fired off several powerful shots at the figure's arms and legs, most of them finding purchase and shredding the figure's cloak.

Neville and Richard also fired off a few as she snuck closer from behind and as the figure gave another horrible howl, she stood as the others ceased firing. With a quick leap, Luna brought the bag quickly down, the books tumbling out as the opening swallowed the figure whole as wispy black smoke seemed to be trying to escape the ruined cloak. As she and the bag hit the ground with a thud, Luna quickly sealed the opening, cutting off the screaming sound within.

She lay on the ground panting heavily as Hermione rushed past, heading for the spot where Natalie had landed and Padma knelt down by her side. "Are you ok?"

"A bit winded, but I'll be fine. How is Natalie?" Luna replied, ignoring the throbbing in her head and arm.

"She's banged up pretty bad." Hermione's voice came from the grass nearby. "Let's get home now."

"Dialing now," Harry shouted, as he worked the remote on his wrist and the Astria Porta lit up, the wormhole filling its aperture like usual.

Padma helped Luna to her feet and the wee girl kept the sealed bag held out in front of her, somewhat afraid to put it down. She glanced to her right and saw Hermione levitating her mother as Richard stood beside her, holding the unconscious woman's hand. Harry and Neville rushed over to them and Harry helped Hermione aid her parents back through to Fundamenta.

Neville placed his arm under Luna's shoulder and took her weight onto himself. Her wand arm ached painfully as it lay across his back. She didn't feel she truly needed the help but welcomed it nonetheless.

"What about the chest?" Padma asked and Neville paused, reaching into his pocket and throwing something small and grey into the air.

A second one quickly joined it and the two vulta tucked in behind the chest and began to push it forwards, heading for the open wormhole.

"That works." Luna smiled as she hobbled through the Porta with the others' help.

A moment after they had passed through, the event horizon shimmered as an invisible rectangular item passed through, coming to rest as two small spheres lifted out from behind it and whisked through the open door back into the dispenser.

Luna fell to her knees in front of the Porta as it shut off and Neville dropped down to her side, looking at her worriedly. "Luna? Are you alright?"

She smiled at him softly before she swayed in place and with that, her world darkened and she knew no more.

ϟ

Poppy Pomfrey looked about in confusion and wonder as the shining white light dissipated from around her form. She had been in her office, having just stood up after a few hours of personal reading intending to head to lunch when the light had surrounded her.

Now her surroundings had changed completely, from the familiar stone of Hogwarts to a fascinating metal that looked to have been stylistically rusted, only the colouring was off. Being hues of blue and green rather than the expected reds and browns.

"Poppy!" Granger's voice sounded and the woman spun on her heel to see the girl looking quite dishevelled.

"Miss Granger? If you would like my help, I am willing to give it. But this habit of whisking me to and fro without warning…"

Hermione stepped forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her roughly in through the doorway that she hadn't realised the girl had been standing in. This room was made of the same material as the hallway, but inside were a handful of beds, two of which were occupied by still figures. She didn't have to think hard to figure out the purpose of this particular room.

"Please help them." Hermione whimpered and the nurse followed the girl's eye-line to the left figure.

The one on the right was known to her, Miss Lovegood had not returned to Hogwarts for the previous school year to retake her aborted sixth year of study, but the woman on the left she had never seen before. Yet she was familiar in a fashion. A quick glance between the still figure and Hermione, and the look of the man by the woman's bedside clarified the identity. This was Hermione's mother.

"What happened?" She asked, dropping into her professional manner and walking over to the still form on the bed.

"We were attacked." Harry Potter explained, leaning so quietly against the wall near the door she had not noticed him until now. "She was hit by some form of kinetic energy wave. It knocked her flying several feet through the air and she landed hard. The ground was mostly covered in long thick grass, but she has been unresponsive since we got back here."

"How long?"

"An hour and twenty-six minutes." Neville Longbottom added, drawing her eye to the far side of the room.

"Give me a moment." The woman drew her wand and began to cast a number of spells over Hermione's mother. The girl looked rather fraught and it fueled her own desire to help the woman, having seen that face many times on the girl as she sat beside a similarly still Mister Potter.

Most of the responses to her spells were good. The woman was alive, her internal organs were undamaged if a little shaken up, and her automatic responses were there. She was simply out of it consciously. She moved her spells up the body, running more specific tests over the woman's face and head.

"Not good." She muttered to herself and regretted it instantly as she felt Hermione seize up beside her. "She has a nasty concussion, which on its own would simply require rest and time to heal. But there is swelling internally as well. Pressure will build up if it is not relieved."

She felt someone pull Miss Granger from her side and glanced back to see Mister Potter holding her tightly as she sobbed into his chest. "Can you fix that?"

She tilted her head slightly at the lad. "Of course."

Poppy turned the woman's face gently to the side away from her and swept her wand along the flesh of the head, the woman's hair vanishing from the area immediately around the tip, allowing her to clearly see the swollen flesh beneath. She had to remove almost half of the hair covering the area before she could see the full extent of the damage and it also revealed a forming bruise that indicated the point at which the head had met the ground.

Mrs Granger was lucky to be alive, had the impact been a few inches further forward it could have been instantly fatal. Not to mention the possibility of neck and spinal damage. With a precise prod on the now clear skin in front of the bruise, she opened a sliver in the flesh, the magic widening the space and allowing her to see the bone underneath. Given it was by the point of impact, it was where the internal swelling was at its worst.

With a quick glance at the sobbing girl and her father opposite, she tapped the skull gently and a small round hole appeared in the bone. Instantly a flow of fluid began to seep out of the opening and into the space she had cleared. Lifting her wand higher, Poppy conjured a small ceramic shape her friend had detailed for her several years earlier. She quickly placed the device against the hole in the skull bone and tapped it gently twice.

The ceramic twisted into its new shape, fitting within the cavity perfectly and only allowing a small trickle of fluid through the nozzle on its upper side. Poppy vanished the fluid in the pouch formed by the open skin and skull beneath and waved her wand over the skin, watching closely as it came together once more, knitting up around the shunt in the woman's head.

She conjured a small cup under the nozzle of the device and monitored the flow rate, noting that it was within acceptable limits. She gave a sigh of relief as she cast a vanishing enchantment on the tip of the nozzle and an unbreakable charm on the entire piece, to prevent it from being damaged accidentally.

"That will do it. If the pressure builds, this will let it flow out and get back to normal, but will not allow flow if the pressure is within normal range." She looked up to see the nervous Miss Granger still perched in Mister Potter's arms standing beside Mr Granger as he looked at her curiously. "Is something the matter?"

"Not at all… I've just never seen a magical person perform muggle brain surgery before." The man replied.

"Not all of us refuse to interact with our muggle neighbours. I have several friends in your medical field. You'd be surprised how often I have to treat rather serious brain swelling or bruising with this lot rough-housing constantly. Not to mention Quidditch. Have you ever seen what happens to a brain when someone takes a bludger to the back of the head?"

"So that is a shunt?"

"Basically. It will allow things to normalise. I will leave the area clean of hair for the time being, but I am certain Miss Granger can furnish her mother with a satisfactory hair growth tonic later if needed. Now, for Miss Lovegood. What happened to her?"

"She was hit with a similar wave of energy." Padma Patil explained as Poppy stepped over to the other occupied bed, noticing the Indian girl seated beside it for the first time. "But she had a shield in place. She was a little dizzy and she blacked out almost immediately once we got back here."

Poppy nodded as she ran the same tests over Miss Lovegood, beginning at the head this time and noting she too had a slight concussion, though wasn't suffering any swelling. She did, however, have several small fractures down the bones of her right arm as though someone had hit the outstretched limb on the end with a hammer. Whatever this energy wave was, it must have had a lot of power behind it.

She quickly set about treating the concussion, using spells she had long since perfected to reduce the symptoms while preventing the patient from exacerbating the injury when they inevitably got up and started rushing about before she released them.

The bones were far simpler to repair than Mister Potter's incident in his second year where that damned moron had removed them entirely. Within seconds, the bone had knitted back together and she noticed the muscles around the injury slackened at last.

Finally, she waved her wand over the girl's chest, soothing the bruising that had begun to develop around the shoulder and the upper right rib cage. She would be sore for a while, but pain potions and bruise salve would reduce that almost completely.

"Miss Lovegood will be fine with a few days of bed rest. Mrs Granger, however, will need to be monitored." Poppy explained as she walked back to the elder woman's bed. "I am casting several spells over her now to notify me if anything changes. Normally I would portkey us back to Hogwarts so I could observe her condition, but the way those work it would be too dangerous with her current injuries."

"You can stay here as long as you need." Mister Potter offered, "we have plenty of space and we can get you back to Hogwarts at a moment's notice."

Poppy considered the lad for a moment before glancing at the woman on the bed. It would be better to remain in proximity for the next few hours at least. Her condition was stable but could change for the worse quickly.

"I was preparing to have dinner." Poppy noted and Mister Longbottom shot up behind her.

"I'll get something ready. Anything you like?"

"Very well. I will monitor her from here for the time being." She walked over to the doorway where the eager former Gryffindor was standing. "Provided you give me a tour of this incredible place." She finished with a smile that Mister Longbottom eagerly returned.

ϟ

Thursday, 16th September 1999.

Natalie's entire body throbbed painfully as she lurched back to consciousness. Her chest felt like someone had been sitting on it for days and breathing hurt, even the steady thrum of her heart was painful. Her pelvis felt like she had been sitting on a rock for hours but worst of all was the pain in her head. It was the worst sort of headache imaginable, a deep all-over throbbing that pulsed every few moments. Every sound made her wince and as she opened her eyes, the light seemed to sear her retina.

She tried to lift her arm and block the light but it would not move at all. Panic set in as she tried in vain to move any part of her body. She could feel them there, the pain was a clear guide of that, but they would not move as she wanted.

"Natalie… hold still." A strange voice came and a woman she had never seen before towered over her frozen form. "You were hurt and your brain was swelling. We froze you in place, so don't try to move."

"Mum, she's a nurse. Do as she says." Hermione appeared at the other side of her vision and Natalie relaxed slightly.

"Better." Natalie felt a gentle tap by her lips. "You can speak now. How do you feel?"

Natalie swallowed and regretted it immediately as the entire length of her esophagus hurt in the process. "Sore." Her voice was harsh and low and she barely recognised it at all. "What…"

"We were attacked. Blindsided." Hermione interrupted, the girl's hand clutching her own and making the pain in that limb grow, but she relished the contact so said nothing in return. "We've been so worried. You've been out for over a day."

The other woman began waving what she assumed was a wand back and forth over her head and Natalie's eyes flicked back and forth following it, making her dizzy again as her eyes tried to focus on the shifting object.

"Easy, Natalie. You are going to feel disoriented and weak for a few days. You took quite the tumble. I've seen serious Quidditch injuries that were less severe. You will be fine, just relax and let me check your condition."

Natalie sighed and closed her eyes, trying to let the throbbing in her head lessen, the whipping sounds of the wood in the air and the solid reassurance of her daughter's firm grip keeping her from slipping back into the darkness fully.

"The swelling has lessened considerably, but it's still pretty bad. I recommend a few more days of bed rest. The pressure is low enough I could remove the shunt, but I'll leave it in for the next week. Just to be safe."

Natalie opened her eyes again and they hurt like before, but not as badly as they had the first time. "Richard?" Natalie whispered.

"Dad is fine. He went nuts when he saw you go down and blasted the hell out of that thing. Those weapons of Harry's pack a punch." Hermione explained as Natalie felt the bed shift in the girl's direction, indicating she had sat on the edge.

"I'm comfortable heading back for now. Her recovery will progress on its own from here. And I will be needed at Hogwarts sooner or later."

"Here." A young male voice came from the end of the bed and Natalie could not move her head to see who it was. It seemed familiar, but her mind wasn't clear enough to discern its owner's identity. "I made this for you. It will beep if we need you again and you can reply yes or busy. So we don't steal you away from anything important."

The woman over her smirked and stretched her hand down the length of the bed, returning with a small object that she glanced at before tucking into a pocket in her gown. "Very well. Though, if you're going to be getting into dangerous situations like this very often, might I suggest you hire on your own medical professional."

"I'll look into it." The voice said as the woman returned her attention to Natalie.

"I'm going to leave the binding on for today. Hermione can remove it tomorrow. Try and get some more rest. That will help you more than all the potions in the world right now. You'll be back to normal in a few days."

The kind woman smiled and Natalie felt a light wave of relief flow through her. She was going to be ok, Richard and Hermione were both fine. She closed her eyes and focused on the hand holding her own, trying to let the pain fade into the background.

She heard the sound of a beam go off beside her and assumed they had sent the woman back to Hogwarts. As she focused on steadying her breathing, she heard the voice again. "I'm so sorry, Hermione. I got them…"

"Shut up!" Hermione said angrily. "If you try and claim responsibility for this, Harry Potter, I will curse you so badly, we'll need Poppy back." Natalie couldn't help the smile she felt at her daughter's comments. Once a quiet shut-in bookworm, the girl had grown into a ferocious young woman who wasn't afraid to give her friend a piece of her mind.

"I started all of this." Harry tried to argue pitifully.

"You found a cave. Every single one of us has joined you willingly from that point onward."

"But I'm the one who beamed them here."

"Because a search I made found them. I wanted them back. I do not blame you for any of this. Dad doesn't blame you. And I'm certain my mother doesn't blame you. We all blame Anubis."

Natalie was confused by that comment. What did a former Egyptian god have to do with anything?

"Yeah, well. He's not going anywhere for a long time. He's given up trying to escape the box. Merlin has been running scans on him and it's not looking good."

Hermione paused for a moment before she replied, her finger sweeping gently over Natalie's skin. "Do you think it's really him? Really some ancient god?" Her voice sounded slightly awed but also uncertain.

"No. From what Merlin can tell, he's partially ascended. Mostly made up of energy. The thing we were shooting at is a force shield that keeps it contained and allows it to interact with the world around it. The tech he used to attack us was built into it."

"How do you partially ascend?"

"Don't know. Merlin is working on it. He's digging through Myrddin's notes and research. Maybe we'll find something useful in there. We got lucky, this could have been a whole lot worse."

Natalie tried to keep listening as the teens kept chatting to one another, but the throbbing in her mind and Hermione's gentle movements soon lulled her back to sleep and she lost track of the world once more.

ϟ

Friday, 17th September 1999.

"Hey, you're supposed to be resting that head of yours," Luna smirked as she heard Neville, glancing up from the datapad to see him standing in the doorway.

"I am resting." She said, tilting her gaze back down at the information on the pad. "By reading."

"Ravenclaws." Neville joked as she sat beside her. "How are you feeling?"

"Still a little groggy. Nothing to do for a concussion but let it get better. Though the potions do help."

Neville nodded as she glanced at the datapad. "Whatcha lookin' at?"

"The Asgard report on the Goa'uld."

"The goa'uld? Why?"

"I had a thought." She said plainly.

"You have lots of thoughts Luna. Care to tell me what this one might be?"

"Anubis."

Neville stared at her and she tried not to giggle at the face he made. "What about him?"

"He's an ancient Egyptian god. Like Ra."

"So you thought he might be a goa'uld like Ra," Neville stated, catching onto her train of thought.

"Yep." She popped. "The Asgard have a fairly comprehensive history of the goa'uld. Know thy enemy and such. So far most of this has been about Ra and the System Lords from the Second Goa'uld Dynasty. Roughly the past sixteen thousand years. Or a little before they came into direct conflict with the parasites."

"Before they found Earth?"

"Yeah, that was about ten to eleven thousand years ago. Had the Lanteans returned a thousand years earlier, Earth might have been saved from Goa'uld invasion and exploitation entirely."

"I can't imagine maintaining a war with someone for thousands of years. Three was bad enough. And only one of those was really a war."

Luna smiled up at Neville, noticing the hard edge to his face as he considered their time in occupied Hogwarts, as short as hers had been before she was shipped off to Malfoy Manor. "You did good, Neville."

He sighed. " I know. I just wish I had done more."

"Like what? You already stood up for the other students, took their punishments where you could. I've never seen anyone hold up under the treatment you were subjected to by the Carrows. Then you gave the students a place to hole up safely when it all became too much. You killed Nagini and allowed Harry the opening he needed to end the war. Without you, it would still be going on. Just what do you think you could have done that is more than that?"

Neville looked at her slightly incredulously as though he'd never laid out what he had done in his own mind. "I don't know."

"Martyring yourself will not bring your parents back." His eyes flicked to her face immediately. "I'd give almost anything to see my mother again. But I won't do that, because she would be disappointed in me if I did. As much as I miss her, I know she'd be proud of me. As your parents are proud of you, even if they can't say or show it."

Neville nodded quietly.

"Now… shush. I've more reading to do and you might wake Natalie. She needs the rest. But I wouldn't mind you staying. It's nice having my friends visit." Luna smiled at the boy and turned back to her datapad, burying herself in the history of a species whose atrocities made Voldemort look like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

ϟ

Sunday, 19th September 1999.

Harry stared into the bright box before him. It was barely two metres on each side and the shimmering energy running through its walls made it glow ethereally. And yet through all that, the cloud inside still looked beyond dark; and felt evil.

Harry stared at it, and the shade stared right back at him.

They hadn't been able to get a word out of the shade since they'd taken away its force shield outfit, the entity kicking and screaming at them for defiling the mighty Anubis with their touch. Harry was beginning to think he was too far along that ascended path to interact normally with the real world anymore. But Hermione believed he simply refused to address them, the lower insignificant creatures that had beaten him. His pride silenced him as he pretended himself better than them.

She had convinced him that it was not his fault things had gone down as they did, but he refused to leave the thing unattended for long. Fault or no, he still felt responsible for the others' safety.

A shimmer by his side notified Harry that Merlin had appeared. "My sensors are more than capable of monitoring the cage."

"I know," Harry replied, not taking his eyes away from the hovering cloud of menacing intent.

"I'm still not finished analysing the full extent of the data we've downloaded, but I feel confident confirming our current hypothesis. It definitely shares enough similarities to the information in Myrddin's notes. Whatever it may have once been, it has at the very least, partially moved into the ascended plane."

"It is Anubis," Luna commented, walking in behind them.

Harry flicked his eyes to the girl who smiled at him softly, a smile he returned, though far stiffer than her own.

"You can confirm this?" Merlin enquired.

"Confirm, no. But I've gone through the Asgard's history of the Goa'uld top to bottom. Back in the First Goa'uld Dynasty, they all served Apep after he publicly murdered his father Atok. Instead of taking all the spoils and attempting to rule as Atok did, Apep divided the forces of his father among the strongest Goa'uld creating the Underlords. Ra, Nut, Thoth, and eventually Anubis.

"Anubis was clever, he was ambitious and he was without morals of any kind. Over thousands of years, he tricked Thoth into creating the imperfect sarcophagus technology, knocked off and absorbed the forces and regions of several Underlords and their servants, and weaselled his way into being the most favoured of Apep."

Harry watched the shimmering darkness in the box as it seemed to shiver with pride as Luna narrated its former deeds.

"Apep began to go insane after so many years in charge, and Anubis encouraged his use of the sarcophagus, which only served to hasten the Overlord's mental degradation. By this method, he learned most of Apep's secrets, including the locations of advanced weapons he could then turn on the other Underlords. He has always actively sought out advanced or powerful technology and information. Ascension would be irresistible to him."

Luna shuffled closer to the box and Harry stepped up beside her, unwilling to let her be so close to the monstrous cloud alone. "Anubis used the cache of weapons he managed to trick Apep into revealing in order to make his move against the other Underlords. He forcibly removed Apep's symbiote and ate it in front of them, declaring himself Emperor. The Underlords banded together to fight him and over centuries they waged war. When they eventually unseated him, they banished him and took the superweapon he had devised.

"Ra was the most powerful of the Underlords that overthrew Anubis, and he split the weapon into parts, keeping one for himself and dispersing the rest to Osiris, Tiamat, Apophis, Setesh, and Balor. His most trusted allies. A strange term for the Goa'uld, given none of them ever really trust the others or cease their struggle for greater power. Ra decreed a new method of leadership by creating the System Lords from these individuals, as well as Isis and Bastet, and the Second Goa'uld Dynasty began.

"Anubis vanished for another few thousand years before he popped up again, not long after the rebellion of Osiris and Isis, leading a huge army and offering to wipe out the Asgard, whom the Goa'uld had since gone to war with thanks to Ra and Famrir. In exchange, he demanded the absolute loyalty of, and control over, the Goa'uld. As Supreme System Lord, Ra didn't take that well and another war broke out. During this war, many of Ra's so-called allies sided with Anubis and he very nearly won, but in the end, Ra damn near killed him. It was only by a further betrayal that Anubis was saved from Ra's hand, and it is now generally believed that Anubis was murdered."

"Clearly that is not the case," Harry noted.

"Clearly. And Anubis fell out of their history, banished and 'killed' for crimes even the Goa'uld considered unthinkable."

"He is the worst of the worst of the Goa'uld, then?"

"So it would seem. There is a reason he is renowned as the Lord of Death on Earth when he barely had a chance to interact with its people. They feared his name more than the gods that they could see and touch. More even than Sokar, who took over Earth while Ra was fighting Anubis the second time and modelled himself as the literal devil. It appears that somehow in his second exile, Anubis found a way to work towards ascension."

Harry nodded along to her conclusion. "Any ideas why he didn't make it all the way?"

"Perhaps he didn't fail," Hermione noted from the doorway, startling Harry slightly. "Maybe he succeeded."

"But if he succeeded," Luna asked, "why is he like this now?"

"The Others interfered with Moros. If Anubis was as bad as you say, do you think they'd tolerate his presence among them? Maybe they forced him part of the way back."

The cloud shuddered aggressively and hammered against the clear barrier, an intense pulse of energy blasting him back and leaving those watching wincing in pain at the sudden brightness.

"Sore subject?" Harry asked the shade, smirking.

"I'd say that pretty much confirms your theory," Merlin noted. "Which may work in our favour. Though I would advise against discussing such things in its presence."

"Agreed." Harry and Hermione said in unison.

"I will prepare a detailed report for tomorrow. Natalie should be able to attend by then." Merlin finished, nodding once before disappearing, leaving Harry, Hermione and Luna staring at the undulating cloud of evil in its prison cell.

Chapter Text

Sunday, 19th September 1999.

Natalie woke to find the room no different to normal. The light was there but not overwhelming to her tired eyes. The bed was still comfortable beneath her, no matter the position she found herself in. Her daughter still perched in the chair beside the bed reading from a datapad like she had since the girl had become old enough to hold a book in her own two tiny hands.

She smiled at the sight, happy to see the woman that her daughter had grown into, though still a little sad she had missed so much of that growth. So many missed birthdays, not for want of trying, but due to timing.

That thought sent her mind whirling for a minute as she tried to lock down the errant thought that was bugging her all of a sudden. Her eyes chased the thought about the room as it tried its utmost to remain elusive.

"Mum?" Hermione's voice sounded from beside her and allowed the thought to slip away as her head still throbbed slightly.

"Hello, poppet."

"Really, mum? Poppet?"

"No matter how big you get, you'll always be my little girl, Hermione. And I will call you poppet and pumpkin and sweetie and every other nonsense baby name I can think of until you go red in the face. Yes, just like that." Natalie grinned to herself as her daughter blushed. "What are you reading?"

"It doesn't matter. How are you feeling?"

Natalie just stared at her daughter for several long silent moments until the girl sighed and gave in.

"I'm doing research on Lantean medical technology. So that we don't have to keep running to our former school nurse for help every time we skin a knee. Or…"

Hermione's eyes drifted to the left side of Natalie's face and she smiled at her once more. "Yes, that seems wise. With what I've heard of your adventures with Harry."

Hermione blushed deeper and Natalie knew she was going to give Harry a talking to for outing all their school time adventures to her parents. Why the girl was embarrassed was beyond her understanding. Time and again she'd proven why they were so proud of her. Which finally allowed her mind to catch the errant thought from before.

"It's Sunday. What time is it?" She asked.

Hermione looked slightly confused but checked her remote that had now taken the place of her old watch. "It's a little after six. Why?"

"At least I didn't miss it entirely. Sorry I didn't get you anything."

Hermione began to look even more confused and Natalie sighed. "Please tell me you haven't gotten so lost in your reading you've forgotten your own birthday. I have an excuse." Natalie pointed to the bald side of her head. The once more reddening cheeks gave Natalie the answer she needed. "Hermione."

"Things have been a little busy lately. I'm sure the others forgot too." Hermione's face dropped and she pretended to be reading her datapad again. A habit she'd also had since she was a small child and wanted to avoid a topic.

Silence filled the space between them for several long minutes as Hermione avoided her gaze. Natalie was about to speak when a knock at the door drew the girls' attention. Harry was standing there with a tray of food.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. It's getting late and I thought you might be hungry."

"How thoughtful. Any cake on there?" Natalie asked the boy pointedly as he placed the tray over her legs, hovering in place. His eyes flicked to Hermione for a moment and Natalie smirked.

"Sorry, I didn't have all the necessary ingredients for a cake on hand today. Not many Tescos in Antarctica."

Harry shuffled around to Hermione's side of the hospital bed as Natalie checked the steaming vegetables laid out beside the most perfectly cooked steak she had ever seen. She was so distracted that she almost missed Harry's hand stretching out and dropping a small package into Hermione's lap. The elder Granger grinned at the tiny gesture and turned to her meal to give Hermione a moment of privacy to open it.

"This looks incredible, Harry. Where did you learn how to cook like this?"

Harry looked slightly bashful as his eyes flicked to her daughter, who was once more going red as she tried to hide the package in her lap. "Hermione taught me, on the camping trip from hell. And I've practised a lot in the past year."

"Natural talent then." Natalie winked at Hermione who finally gave in to the embarrassment and stood.

"I'll let you eat." The girl eked out before dashing from the room.

Harry looked like a deer caught in the headlights, now alone with Natalie without the buffer of Hermione or Richard to keep him safe.

"Relax, Harry." She chuckled before settling into her dinner. "I'm glad someone remembered and got her something. I'd have done so myself if I wasn't wrapped up in here."

"I'm so…" Harry started before being immediately cut off by a vertical knife being held aloft in his direction as Natalie swallowed.

"I'm with Hermione on this one, Harry. Do not apologise for the actions of others. You did not attack me. You did not force me to go to that planet. And you certainly didn't drag me along unwillingly to any of this. We've wanted to be more of a part of our daughter's life since Minerva first arrived at our house. If anything, you've given us that chance. Hermione seems committed to this new paradigm and so are we."

"Even after what happened?" Harry asked, sinking into Hermione's chair.

"Especially after what happened. The world is a dangerous place. One can be hit by a bolt of lightning or a car out of nowhere. Why should the galaxy be any different? Living life is what is important. For too long we weren't doing that properly. Going to work, coming home to an empty house, going back and throwing ourselves deeper into work to soothe the missing piece of our world. Now we're going to other planets."

"Sometimes you remind me so much of Hermione." Harry smiled and Natalie gave him a glowing one of her own in return.

"Why thank you, young man. From you, I cannot think of higher praise."

Harry blushed even deeper than Hermione had and Natalie decided to give him a break and focus on her meal instead. The silence was oddly comfortable as she soon finished off the wonderful food, giving Harry a wry grin as she licked the plate clean.

"Thank you, Harry. That was delicious. If you see my daughter, please ask her to pop back before she goes to bed."

Harry took the plate from her and gave a slight nod as he headed for the doorway. He paused for a second, glancing back at her before he seemed to change his mind and kept walking into the hallway. Natalie couldn't help but laugh at the pair and their easily embarrassed natures. Maybe what she was seeing was the wishful thinking of a parent, or simply a wonderful friendship, but she was beginning to think otherwise.

ϟ

Monday, 20th September 1999.

Harry sat at the table, sipping at the drink Luna had handed him a few minutes before with no idea what it was. His mind was uneasy with the presence of the dangerous prisoner they held in captivity. He could feel evil emanating from the cloud that reminded him of the worst of Voldemort and he shuddered at the memories such a thing brought forth in him.

He was distracted from his thoughts by a wide white beam across the table which deposited Hermione standing beside her seated mother. Natalie looked a lot better than she had for the last few days, though Hermione had not yet aided her in regrowing her hair.

Harry noted that the others had all arrived as well during his stupor and with Merlin shimmering into place across from him, they were ready to begin.

"Before we start," Natalie stated, drawing all eyes. "I am fine. And no, I don't want to talk about it."

The woman's eyes flicked to her husband and daughter, who looked down at the contact and Harry grinned slightly.

"Agreed," Luna added, before turning to the hologram seated at the circular table with them, something Harry noted with mirth given the hologram's original creator.

"Very well. I'll get straight to it then." Merlin said. "Your return from Camelot with the entity was a surprise. We have been very fortunate with it so far. Had you not already been researching the Sangraal and by extension ascension with notes from a former ascended being, we would not have the knowledge required to have built its current prison."

"We're lucky Luna thinks outside the box." Harry corrected. "My plan was to keep shooting it until it went away for good."

The others chuckled and Luna blushed slightly. "Indeed. Dropping the portable scanner into the bag and resealing it was also fortuitous thinking, Mister Longbottom. I hate to ponder the damage that thing could do if it got loose in this facility."

"From my research," Luna chimed in, "Anubis has always sought out the most powerful weapons and technology he could find. This place would be his nirvana. Beaming tech, powerful weapons that can easily penetrate shields, and a database full of information on the people who built the Conmeatas…"

"Myrddin's research notes have been the most useful so far. His detailed information on the way ascended beings manifest in this dimension has been key to not only building the box but powering it. The shielding on the Lab in Glastonbury was a start, but the Mantle has been invaluable in maintaining his prison. He has ceased trying to physically force his way out for the time being, but we must remain vigilant.

"I have modified the walls of the larger room to share the traits of the box, just in case," Hermione added and the others glanced at her. "He is not escaping. He has to pay for what he has done." Her eyes flicked to her mother once more and Harry well recalled just how vicious Hermione could be in defence of her friends and family from Hogwarts. Marietta still wouldn't show her face in public even after Hermione removed the curse.

"Agreed." They all concurred.

"To that end, I suggest following our current goals," Merlin explained. "If he is truly a partially ascended being, then the best chance we have at permanently defeating him is the Sangraal."

"Wouldn't triggering the Sangraal here wipe out the ascended Altera as well?" Natalie asked.

"The shielding of the box and room should prevent that. But we have limited options. He is made of energy. We have no current means of directly counteracting a being made of energy besides the containment we're already utilising."

"He cannot be allowed to survive. Not only for what he tried to do to us, but if my research is right, he was banished by the Goa'uld for being excessively evil. The Goa'uld. They do things daily for fun that would have made Voldemort blush. And even they found his actions distasteful." Luna noted.

"And if he has formerly ascended," Richard said, "there is no telling what advanced knowledge he might have. If he gets out, it could doom the entire galaxy. Especially with what he would learn from this base in the process."

"I don't think anyone here disagrees that Anubis must be destroyed?" Neville asked, glancing at the gathered faces and getting a nod from everyone. "Then we keep looking for the device. Where are we on that?"

Merlin shifted slightly and Harry marvelled once more at its design. "The information from the library has been very useful. In the 'quest' for the grail that Myrddin and Arthur went on, they visited three other planets. Taoth Vaclarush, Valos Cor and Verus Gen Bree."

A hologram appeared over the table of a small piece of the galaxy, a bevy of stars dotted about the place. As Merlin spoke, three stars, in particular, lit up.

"What the hell?" Hermione said, glaring at the image. "That cannot be right."

"And yet it is. The position of these three planets in space forms an equilateral triangle." Merlin stated. "And that is not all. If you add Camelot."

The hologram shifted around the lit stars and a fourth grew in brightness as well. Thin lines extended out from the dots and the group gasped at the perfect pyramid now hovering over the table.

"How is that possible?" Natalie asked.

"Something has clearly altered these systems so that no matter the movement of the galaxy, they remain in this perfect formation. I doubt the clavi on these planets have undergone a correlative update since this happened. And finally, checking the database of this outpost, I found one more incredible coincidence."

A final dot was highlighted and Harry was beyond gobsmacked. It lay in the exact centre of the pyramid, equidistant from all the other dots.

"The Altera had the power to do something like this?" Richard asked.

"No. This was beyond even them. Pre-ascension." Merlin stated smugly.

"You think whoever interfered with Myrddin's research did this?" Luna queried.

"I do."

"Without earning the ire of the Others? How is that possible?" Harry growled. "Myrddin's notes are clear on their feelings about messing with the lower planes. Especially interfering with planets with sentient creatures."

"The how is far beyond my programming. I was not built to calculate such things. Perhaps with sufficient time, I could ascertain how it was done. But the point isn't how. The point is that the planet in the centre is not only perfectly in the centre of a fixed geometric shape moving through space, but its Porta address is made up of symbols from the three bottom planets' addresses. It is so far beyond coincidence that it must be intentional."

"You think it was left like this on purpose," Hermione noted. "That whoever interfered with Myrddin's research left it as a clue?"

"Correct. One does not alter the natural galactic orbits of five planets to this degree without purpose. Even for an ascended being that is overkill. Things like this are the reason that I have transferred all data on the Sangraal to the Lab's database and have remodelled it to reinforce its ascended-resistant properties. While I calculate this was intended to be a roadmap of sorts, I will not jeopardise the data on that hunch."

Neville looked upset at the oddity. "But if they wanted the weapon destroyed, why leave such a trail behind?"

"Perhaps they came to see the danger, but only after they had interfered." Luna offered. "It would actually explain some of their actions. Deleting information, but leaving the rest of the Lab and its trials intact."

"That is true. If they truly wanted the weapon gone, and were willing to change planetary orbits to achieve it, they could have simply levelled the Tor." Harry stated.

"I'm afraid we may have to cut this short," Merlin noted, as a second hologram, flickering red, joined the first. "We are receiving a visitor."

"A visitor?" Natalie asked.

"Yes. The Astria Porta just activated. I detect one life sign having stepped through and a piece of advanced technology."

Merlin shimmered away and Harry cracked loudly from his place at the table, reappearing instantly in the conscensa, ready to act if needed. Before him was an Asgard standing beside a red and cream pod quite a bit larger than itself. He smiled and allowed his body to relax, having feared the worst given their conversation and the proven powers of the Ascended.

"Welcome to Fundamenta. My name is Harry." He stepped forwards and extended his hand to the tiny grey figure.

It looked up at him oddly, tilting its head from left to right as it observed him. "I am Idun," it replied, its voice far higher than any Harry had so far heard.

"Greetings, Idun. A pleasure to have you here," Harry said, as Idun took his hand.

"Yes," Luna added, from behind Harry. "Penegal mentioned you would be arriving soon. How are you?"

Harry's smile widened at Luna's habit of asking everyone and everything how it was. "I am well. Not to appear rude, but I am unfortunately on a tight timetable. I have come to collect Famrir's cloned body. It could be the key to vital research I am currently overseeing."

"Of course, I assume the pod will assist in some way?"

"Indeed. It is capable of portable short-term stasis. It will allow me to return with the body without allowing degradation."

Luna nodded and turned to her side indicating the doorway with her outstretched hand. "Lovely. This way."

Luna didn't wait for Idun to move before she headed for the door herself and Idun glanced at Harry before heading off in the same direction, the pod humming gently as it hovered along behind her. Harry easily kept pace with the shorter legs of the alien as they headed through the hallway back into the main chamber.

"So, how are things back in Ida?" He asked idly.

"Not well. The link has been installed, which I am sure you ascertained by our ability to dial your new Gata." Harry looked slightly confused at the word for a moment and Idun must have noticed. "The Stargate? Ah yes, Astria Porta. Thor mentioned you spoke Lantean. It slipped my mind."

"Right, Gata. I like it. Have you found anything useful yet?"

"A few pieces of information that we had obtained from a damaged repository were proven to be incomplete, and the new data has cleared up some old debates. But it is very early in our assessment of the information. The knowledge of the Lanteans was vast before they left this galaxy the first time. It is possible we may never find the information that we seek."

"I'm sorry. We had hoped it would be more useful for you. If you need help with your search, we will be happy to assist more directly."

The trio stopped as they arrived at the stasis pod and Harry glanced between the two Asgard. The one in stasis was far taller than Idun, and while the skin tone matched, its underlying veins and organs were less visible through its more opaque colouring.

"Perhaps we will take you up on that offer. But for the time being, the High Council wishes to do so alone."

"Of course," Luna noted. "Our offer of friendship still stands. If you're ready?"

The blonde glanced at the Asgard as she stepped to the controls for the pod and Idun tapped the two unevenly sized stones on the right-hand side of the pod. The canopy opened and Idun looked up to Luna and nodded.

Luna tapped the controls and the pod began to glow, the ice-like filling pulling back and allowing the tall Asgard within to move, tipping slightly forward before a beam of light surrounded it and transferred it into the pod. Idun checked several of the responses on the pod's surface before tapping the stones again and the three watched as the pod once more covered over the still form.

"Remarkably well preserved, though obviously physically ruined. Ra must have mistreated it severely during his possession. And yet, I had expected far more degradation over such a time frame. I will be sure to check on the stasis technology in my studies. Asgard stasis pods would have aged the body far more than these have."

"I'm glad to hear that." Harry paused as Idun looked at him with her head slightly cocked again. "I mean glad to hear the body is well. Not that your stasis might be…"

He glanced up at Luna for help and the blonde smirked at his discomfort. "Before you leave, there is something I think you would like to see. A being we encountered off-world a few days ago."

"I do not have much time." Idun returned but followed the already moving Luna as she headed toward the brig.

"It will only be a moment. It attacked us as we were leaving the planet known as Camelot. A few of us sustained minor injuries, but it wasn't until we got it back here and were able to run detailed scans that we realised it is a being composed almost entirely of energy." Luna explained as she led them into the room containing the shining cell.

It was only as he turned to allow the pod to pass that Harry noticed it was not with them. He assumed that Idun had instructed it to head for the conscensa.

"Pure energy?"

"See for yourself." Harry turned and indicated the cell where the dark cloud of energy could be seen hovering.

It shifted closer to the walls as Idun approached and she held up a small stone that emitted a scanning beam of energy into the chamber, running up and down the shade inside.

"Most interesting. The signature is quite similar to that of a being in our distant past, known as Ran. And yet, I also detect goa'uld within the makeup as well."

"That was our assessment," Merlin commented, coming from around the far side of the cell. "Our records on Ascension were extensive enough that we could construct a holding cell. If your people have knowledge about such a creature, we would welcome the advice."

Idun stepped out into the corridor, the others following closely as the door sealed behind them. "I can ask, but as you have seen, the High Council is currently divided on whether to aid you further."

"May I ask," Luna began, kneeling to be at head height with the diminutive Asgard, "why are they so reluctant to interact with us? We are asking nothing more than what you have already given."

"And that is the problem. Many on the council are wary of those who offer much but ask for nothing in return."

"You have already provided all that we needed."

Harry spoke up. "And I think you may underestimate just how much aid you provided."

"To my knowledge, all we gave you were some material supplies from Gata we had no use for, a small amount of data on the former Alliance and your own species development and that of the goa'uld, and a rudimentary lesson of Asgard Beaming Technology."

"Exactly. As I'm sure you know, Earth lacks most of the minerals used by the Lanteans. Including those required to build a stable and reliable Astria Porta. Not only did you provide those minerals, but the Asgard beaming technology also has several benefits over our own. The Lantean tech can beam instantly between emitters, and in a contained space can store and then restore large quantities of material in the buffer with minimal power usage.

"But, it cannot transport material from outside its short range. To utilise it here we would need to construct emitters all over the planets' surface, and still, the range would be severely limited. Your version, however, has no limit provided you have advanced enough sensors to pinpoint your target. Also, while our tech can create matter from the buffer, it is slow and meticulous work. Combining the two together has allowed us to manufacture all we needed and more in a very short time. Far faster than we would have been able to had we been stuck with only Lantean technology."

"Fascinating. Is this mixed technology now stored in your database?"

"Yes. Merlin keeps everything up to date."

"I will be sure to advise the Council to look into the combination when I return. Which I must do post haste."

Harry nodded. "Certainly, I'll walk you to the Gata."

Idun glanced at him oddly once more before giving what he assumed to be a smile. "I would welcome that."

Harry looked over to Luna who appeared to be chatting with Merlin a few feet away, but he could see her shoulders moving with laughter as she faced away from him. He ignored her and gestured the way forward for Idun.

"Seems this has been a productive trip for you. Hopefully, we can be of service in other areas in the future. Feel free to contact us over anything."

"You truly offer your friendship freely? I think I am beginning to see what Thor sees in you. His word carries much weight with our people, and you left quite the impression on him."

"He left quite the impression on us as well. You all have. Less than six months ago, we thought we were alone in the universe. Meeting your people has been a revelation to us all. And gives us hope as we set out to achieve our mission and maybe one day bring the Alteran civilisation back to this galaxy properly."

The pair stopped beside the pod containing Famrir and Idun looked at Harry carefully. "Hope. A wise choice. Farewell, Harry Potter. I hope to speak with you again sometime."

"And I you. You're welcome here anytime, Idun."

Idun lifted the small stone she had used to scan Anubis and the Porta activated. Instead of the ring of energy pushing towards the middle as it did when they activated the wormhole, this almost filled like a cup, a flat wave of white starting at the floor and quickly sweeping upwards to the top of the ring, leaving behind the typical event horizon. Harry smiled as he considered the different styles of the four races, and wondered what it looked like when the Nox and Furlings attempted to do so.

With a tap on the smaller of the two stones on the pod, Idun sent it hovering through the portal and nodded to Harry once before she turned and followed it through, the wormhole dissipating and leaving him alone, staring at the empty space where it had been. His mind running over the information he had learned during the most recent interaction with the advanced race.

ϟ

Wednesday, 29th September 1999.

Hermione focused on the diagnostic that Merlin was running on the newly designed global sensor package. The design incorporated the most advanced versions of both the Asgard and Alteran designs they had access to and would allow them to make much more thorough scans of the surface of the planet.

So far the scan had revealed additional detail on all of the tiny traces of naquadah they'd detected on their first scan. Several of the artifacts detected would need to be recovered, purely for safety's sake, given some of them were of truly dangerous Alteran former technologies.

"That's odd," Merlin noted as the scans over the United States continued.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, checking her own display.

"Alien life signs."

"We've detected alien signatures before."

"In the air?" Merlin asked, turning to face her.

Hermione checked the output and noted a trio of signals coming from an airborne source. Some form of plane. "How many total?"

"Over a hundred. Most contained within the mountain. Apart from those aboard the aircraft, I count another thirteen currently spreading out from the SGC. Based on my scans of the mountain in the past, I do not believe this is a visiting party."

"You think they've been infiltrated?" Hermione asked, concerned.

"It's plausible. I'm running the math now." Hermione watched tensely as the computer ran its assessment. "Confirmed. The number of new alien signals perfectly matches the number of unmoving human personnel in these three rooms."

The screen changed to show the mountain at a much closer level of zoom. Hermione noted three highlighted rooms on the twenty-third floor.

"Are those…"

"Apparently suspended from the ceiling. Certainly higher than that many signals should be able to stand without assistance. And there is definitely alien technology and material in the room with them."

"Sound an alarm," Hermione demanded, using her wand to switch her normal clothes for the outfit Luna and her mother had designed for off-world journeys. They were much more tight-fitting than the usual casual attire they wore about Fundamenta, with plenty of hidden pockets for concealing equipment.

A klaxon ran through the normally quiet air of the outpost and within a few minutes, the others had all gathered in the control room with her.

"What's going on?" Her father asked as Hermione stepped up to him and switched his outfit to match.

"It appears an alien species has invaded the SGC. Two of the three airborne signals have gone dark, so I think we can assume a force will come to the base's aid from there. But there are more and more filtering out from the base as well." Merlin explained to the assembled group as they changed and prepared to move out.

"We should remain unseen if possible, but whatever these things are, I get the feeling they aren't friendly," Hermione added.

"Update, the Astria Porta just activated and even more alien signatures are arriving."

"Definitely not a good sign," Harry noted as he checked the weapon at his hip and secured his wand in the pocket at the tip of his left sleeve.

"About time we had something to do again." Natalie hummed happily and Hermione walked over to the woman, noting someone had changed her outfit as well.

"Mum…"

"Don't even think about it. I've been cleared by Poppy. And I'm going stir crazy sitting in that bed. I am coming." The woman stated matter-of-factly as she prepared her own gun and stared back at Hermione.

"Fine," Hermione growled, "but when we get back I'm preparing you a hair tonic."

"No need. I kind of like it." Her mother said, tucking the hair over her right ear and running her fingers over the smooth skin on the left.

Hermione rolled her eyes and huffed as she turned to see Harry and Neville looking at the results on the display. "Looks like a few are in transit out of the city. Probably heading up the chain of command looking to further their invasion." Neville narrated as he worked.

"I'm more worried about these ones. Heavily populated civilian areas." Harry pointed to the two places with the highest concentration. "What do we do with them if we take them down?"

"The desert base," Luna stated without warning, drawing the attention of the group. "It's where most of the alien tech is researched. It would make sense for them to try and gain access. We can stun them and leave them in an unoccupied hangar on the base."

"Good thinking," Richard said and Luna beamed in the man's direction. "We'll need to split up. Harry and Luna can take these mobile ones. You're best on the broom and will be able to catch them easily. Neville and Natalie can take these few. Padma, Hermione and I will take care of this big batch."

"Any objections?" Harry asked, stepping over to Luna as the others split into their smaller groups. "Alright then, be careful."

Hermione glanced at him for a moment as the beam energy filled the air around them and within moments, they were outside once more. She glanced about and noted the thick green trees shielding the bottom of the enormous red rock from view. Her neck craned back as she noted the large formation rising up into the air.

She recalled the name of the park they found themselves in from the display. It was a popular area called the Garden of the Gods. "It is going to be hard to find them here." She whispered to the others, noting they were currently clear of other people.

"We should disillusion ourselves. To be safe." Padma noted as she pulled her wand and tapped her head.

Hermione agreed and silently drew her own wand, tapping her father on the head as he drew his blaster. "Remember, stun if possible. We don't know for sure they're unfriendly. And we really don't want to hit a random person by accident."

Her father nodded as he vanished, only his distorted outline being visible against the environment she could now see through him. Hermione cast the spell once more on herself and felt the uneasy slimy feeling run down her body.

"They shouldn't be far." Padma's voice sounded to Hermione's right.

"True, but stick close together." Hermione headed for the nearby covered area where she heard several voices. She assumed them to be tourists but felt it wise to check regardless. As she weaved between the trees, she noticed several airmen gathered in a circle looking at the ice cream one of them was holding up.

The faces they were making seemed odd to her and she started as she felt a tap on her shoulder. A distorted shimmer stretched over her shoulder and pointed behind the covered seating area and Hermione saw several still figures on the ground there. She tapped the arm in return and drew her weapon as well as her wand, keeping one held tightly in each hand.

"I think that's them. There should be another two nearby." She whispered to the shimmers beside her and noted nods from the shapes.

Padma silently shifted to the right, heading between the trees to set up a better angle to catch the five with the ice cream. Hermione indicated for her father to take her position behind the tree and mirrored Padma's move to the left, twisting through the narrow spaces as she found a good spot slightly above the area, but with a clear line of sight under the roof of the covered seats.

She quickly tapped a countdown into her wrist device and it gave three short vibrations. On the last, Hermione let loose, her left finger rapidly pulling the trigger on her gun as she cast stunner after stunner down into the small crowded space.

The first figure was hit in the face by a shot from her father's direction, dropping to the ground immediately before the two furthest from her position were clipped by fire from Padma. Hermione's aim had been less accurate and her two had begun to duck the onslaught coming at them from outside the pavilion.

An otherworldly scream came from the pair as they drew weapons of their own and began firing randomly into the trees. Hermione let her magic well up within her and cast the most powerful shield she could in the trees between herself and her father, hoping to prevent any stray fire from hitting innocent bystanders. With the shield up she dropped to her knee and put down her gun, aiming tightly down her wand as she lined up one of the two remaining figures.

The stunner launched from her wand and struck the nearest one directly in the chest and it went down immediately. As she turned to draw a bead on the last one, two more jumped into the pavilion from behind, weapons drawn, only to be taken out by her two concealed allies. Hermione took a deep breath and fired another powerful stunner that took care of the final figure, sending him tumbling to the ground as well.

Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she hit three buttons on her remote and a small hologram of the area shimmered above it, indicating the immediate area and showing all seven of the targets they had been searching for were now unmoving in the covered space. Her eyebrows shot up at the efficiency with which they had dispatched the aliens and she holstered her pistol before moving down the slight slope heading for the unmoving figures behind the complex.

Hermione was appalled when she arrived to find four unmoving bodies, a small family with two children all completely motionless. The adults both had obvious wounds on their chest and backs from where they had clearly tried to protect the children, but Hermione was nearly sick as she noted that they had been unsuccessful.

"Easy, Hermione." Her father's voice came as a pair of arms surrounded her and turned her from the grisly sight. "Padma is wrapping up the aliens. You don't need to see that. Come on, sweetie."

Hermione turned into the embrace and let her father guide her away from the bodies, but she knew that she would be seeing that in her nightmares for some time to come.

"Hermione? You alright?" Padma asked, shimmering back into view as the two Grangers arrived in the covered area.

Her father shook his head and Hermione was happy to let that be her reply as well. She stared down at the secured bodies on the floor, and her eyes went wide. Three of them had changed form as they fell and now she could see their alien form in all its natural glory. They were covered from head to toe in what appeared to be a hard carapace-like shell. It varied in different rusty hues of red, blue and purple. The heads were topped with another hard shell but the underside still moved, appearing fleshy.

All of them motionless, though none with any visible sign of harm like the poor family had shown. The worst they had endured was that one had worn the ice cream they had been inspecting when their fire had dropped it in place.

"What is it?"

"I think we can categorise them as officially unfriendly," Richard replied, still not visible to either girl as Hermione was not feeling well after what she had just seen.

"Right," Padma noted, brandishing her wand for a moment before casting another fourteen stunners, two more each to ensure their prisoners did not wake. "Let's see how the others are doing."

Padma entered a few messages on the small remote on her wrist and the three waited silently as white light whisked away the seven aliens and left them alone once more. Several beeps on their remotes indicated replies and Padma read quietly.

"Harry is tracking his last one. Natalie and Neville are done."

Hermione tried to settle her frayed nerves and tapped her father on the head, removing the concealment spell from him and then herself. "The mountain?" Her voice cracked as she asked the question.

Padma brought up her own display and Hermione noticed the numbers seemed to be gathering together in a handful of rooms. "Looks like something is going down."

"They're retreating." Her father noted, "heading for the Astria Porta."

The trio watched silently as several of the signals vanished as they passed through the activated Porta. Suddenly the device shut off but a large number of the invaders were still in the room with it.

"Wow, that is a big power build-up," Padma noted as the image showed a huge energy wave inside the room. A bright flash filled the room and they blinked to protect their eyes. When they looked back, almost all the alien signals were gone. "What was that?"

"If I had to guess? Self destruct."

"Let's go home," Hermione mumbled, done with the horror of their day and wanting to find somewhere quiet to hole up.

She felt her father nod as Padma tapped a few buttons on her remote and they vanished in a field of white. As soon as they were reintegrated, Hermione rushed from the room, her father's voice sounding out behind her. It did not take her long to make it to her room and seal the door. She dropped to the floor inside and tucked into the corner of the room, tears falling as she saw the tiny bodies trapped between the larger adults.

She could not help but picture her parents laying there and her friends on the ground with them. And she felt horrible for diminishing the loss that family had endured by making it about herself.

A gentle knock on the door drew her attention and her eyes flicked to the smooth metal. "Hermione?"

"Go away, Harry. I just want to be alone."

"I know. I thought, maybe we could be alone together."

She glared at the door for a moment before she flicked her wand and the barrier slid aside. Harry's eyes found her as he stepped inside and he knelt beside her, eyes full of worry. "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologising for other people's actions." She growled.

Harry nodded as he took her hands in his own and pulled her slowly to her feet. "I'm working on it. Come here."

She draped herself heavily into his arms and he caught her one-handed as she heard the door slide shut once more. Hermione allowed the tears to fall onto Harry's shoulder as she felt him guiding her slowly across the floor of her room. She felt him pull back without letting her go and a moment later with a swoop of uncertainty, she found herself on her bed, still wrapped tightly in Harry's arms as he tossed the blanket over her shuddering form.

Hermione let everything out and Harry allowed her to, simply being there for her as she came to terms with what she had witnessed.

Chapter Text

Thursday, 30th September 1999.

Harry lay still under the covers, warm and safe in this refuge from the world. His right arm was trapped by the slumbering figure beside him and he couldn't help but drink in their form. The wild hair spread all over the pillow, a stark contrast in its thick brown colour compared to the pale cream of the pillow. The soft familiar features of her face were different without the usual looks of thoughtfulness or stubborn resolve. And yet beautiful all the same.

Having slipped straight into bed, neither of them had cleaned up after the day before. There were a few soft streaks of dirt on her skin and in her hair. And there was a smell that was decidedly Hermione in the air that filled Harry's senses with every breath. More so when he breathed in as she breathed out. He felt at peace, despite his failure the day before.

His mind wandered to the sight of the road before he tore it away and refocused on Hermione. For months he'd felt himself being drawn closer and closer to the woman who was his closest friend. Their time at Hogwarts and during the war had forged an unbreakable bond between them, between all of them. But it was in the time since then that it had grown strongest between the two of them in particular.

He'd found himself often lost in her presence. Her joyous rapture on learning something new and exciting. Her sorrow and now relief over the situation with her family. Her intensity when she set her mind to a task. And he'd been unable to ignore the fact that she was a stunningly beautiful woman any longer.

In school it had been easy, the changes had been subtle and constant. He grew up alongside her and wasn't all that conscious of the change. But now, the difference between the eager girl of his memories and the powerful woman before him was too great to put aside. He didn't know the exact moment things had changed between them, but he was certain that they had.

A soft moan drew his attention back to Hermione's face as her body undulated under the covers beside him. A few moments later, her eyes opened and blinked a handful of times before they seemed to focus on his own in return. Harry felt his heart thudding irregularly in his chest at the shimmering brown colour staring back at him.

"Harry." Hermione croaked softly, before taking a moment to clear her throat.

Her cheeks immediately became lightly dusted in a pink colour Harry was very much coming to love seeing on her features.

"Good morning." He replied, having to clear his own throat as well, which brought a slight smile to both faces.

Silence filled the space between them for a long while, neither aware of just how much time was passing as they lay still, lost in the other's comfortable presence. There was so much that Harry wanted to say, but he didn't understand where to begin.

"Harry…" Hermione whispered lightly, her lips drawing his eye as they moved.

"Hermione?" He replied softly.

"What is…" she paused, and her lower lip suffered between her teeth for a moment as she considered something carefully. "What is this?"

"This is me comforting, and being comforted by, my best friend after seeing some terrible things." The words tumbled out of their own accord and Harry winced at the plain description he had given that didn't come close to how he felt at this moment.

Hermione's lips twitched into a slight smile again as she snuggled closer into his arms. "Yes… It was awful."

"Do… you want to talk about it?" Harry offered, pulling her closer still until her face was pressed once more into his chest. She nodded but did not speak. "I can go first if you like."

Another nod spurred him on. "Luna is really clever. We managed to track them in no time flat, and she managed to hit the first two no problem and we tagged them off to the desert base. But the third seemed twitchy. He started driving erratically, knocking other cars off the motorway, and making him hard to hit." Harry sighed as the view of the day before filled his memories once more, the carnage he had witnessed. "Luna suggested I'd be more maneuverable alone and apparated off the broom, going to help the people in the crashed cars however she could.

"It worked. I caught them up fast and managed to disable the car but it still had enough speed to flip over the barrier into the oncoming lane. And… before I could tag the driver through the window of the upside-down car… it exploded. Big, violent. It knocked me off the broom. And all those people. By the time I was standing again, there was nothing of it left to beam away. I think I have an idea of what the street looked like the first time Padfoot confronted Wormtail. Jagged smoking metal and asphalt were everywhere, and the smell... It was horrible."

Harry felt Hermione's arms pull him tighter and he let himself fall into her grasp instead of his memory. Letting the mangled shapes that used to be cars dissolve away to be replaced by so much bushy brown hair.

"It's not your fault, Harry."

"I know, but I couldn't save those poor people."

"Neither could I," Hermione whispered and Harry noticed her eyes were shut tightly. "It was only a small family. Parents and two children. But those things… they killed them. And they didn't seem to care in the slightest. They were all busy examining an ice cream, while…"

Harry pulled Hermione tighter and an errant thought danced across his mind wondering if it were possible for the pair of them to be any closer at that moment.

"And I can't stop seeing my parents lying in their place. Or you, or Luna or Neville. Or Colin Creevey and the others who…"

Harry knew exactly which others she meant. He saw so many of them in his darker dreams about the end of the war. Innocents taken too soon by the whim of a madman. "That's not your fault."

"I feel like a terrible person. A family destroyed and I keep making it about me."

"That's not what you're doing. You're trying to cope with seeing something horrible. I know what it's like. The things I've seen in Voldemort's head… You aren't alone in trying to rationalise what you've seen. To make it hurt less."

Hermione looked up at him and Harry realised he hadn't actually told her about the handful of moments he'd seen the former Dark Lord project during the hunt. The horrible things he'd done for pleasure during those long months they'd been searching for the means to end him. Moments he still carried even now.

"Please don't be angry. Sometimes I'm just not ready to talk about something."

Hermione inspected his face closely for a moment before she nodded and the pair allowed silence to fill the air between them once more, settling back into their previous snuggled positions. Harry felt himself beginning to nod off again when he heard the quiet response. "Me too."

He blinked his slightly heavy eyes and looked to Hermione once more, who was looking at him with an intensity that had not been present during their previous talk. "What?"

Hermione flicked her eyes down, seeming to take in their positions before she smiled softly and looked back up. "I think I'm ready to talk about this though."

The grogginess faded quickly as Harry felt his heartbeat accelerate once more. "This? You mean… as in this?" His eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them and Hermione smiled and nodded.

"You feel something too. I know you do, Harry. I can see it in your eyes when you look at me."

Harry swallowed heavily before he nodded as well. "Yes, I don't know when, but yes."

"Neither do I. It's been quite a while though, and it keeps getting stronger."

Harry held Hermione tightly and buried his blushing face in her hair once more, allowing her scent to wash over him, to fill his senses completely. "I don't know exactly what I'm feeling for you, but it's more powerful than anything I've felt before."

He felt Hermione smile against his chest. "It took me a while to work it out too. I thought it was relief at first. Then shared experience. But having my parents back again," Hermione paused and Harry knew she was worried saying that would open his own wounds regarding his parents.

"It's ok, Hermione. I'm at peace with it, you don't need to tiptoe around it."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "Since they've been here with us… it's the same feeling, Harry. Well, not exactly the same feeling. With them it's familial... " she pulled back to look into his eyes as she finished, "with you, it is very much not."

Harry gave a heavy sigh as he pressed their foreheads together, his eyes shutting tightly for a moment as he considered the swirling feeling in his stomach and chest. "Yes. I know I care for you so much." Hermione smirked, knowing Harry cared for a lot of people, but he could see that she knew his meaning without him having to clarify out loud. "That, and Natalie is not exactly subtle."

Both of them began to laugh heartily as they recalled the heavy-handed hints the Granger matriarch had made in their combined presence, apparently out to see just how brightly she could make the pair blush. Harry liked Natalie a lot, she reminded him so much of Hermione with her tenacity and heart.

"I don't think I'd ever call my mother subtle, no. Does this... bother you?" Hermione asked after a few moments, and Harry knew she wasn't referring to Mrs Granger now.

"No. It's wonderful, even with all the bad we've been through. I want to explore this, if you do, that is."

Harry suddenly felt frightened that maybe Hermione didn't, but one look at her face quelled the unease. "I very much do. And I'm always here for you, no matter what."

"Even… even if…" Harry's eyes locked to hers questioningly, looking for an answer.

"Yes. Together, always and everything."

The pair came together again, eyes closing as they lost themselves in the simple presence of the other, basking in the warmth, both physical and emotional.

"Together, yes. Always and forever." Harry ended, feeling a hell of a lot lighter after their talk than he had when he'd knocked on the door last night. He hadn't known how much he needed this, both to talk about the day before, and to finally clarify what he thought had been there, building with Hermione for so long now.

He still wasn't sure exactly what it was between them, but they both felt it and wanted to explore it. Harry felt… he wasn't entirely sure. The word happy didn't seem to fit quite right, but whatever it was, it was positive and he was full to the brim with it. He relished in it as he felt Hermione drift off in his arms once more and he soon followed her back into the world of dreams again himself.

ϟ

"That's a lot of damage," Richard noted, staring at the display of the ruined hangar, understating what was before him in that way only dads seem to be able to do.

The framework lay open like broken fingers reaching out of the shattered concrete floor. The metal walls had blasted outwards, showering the nearby buildings with debris, and in some cases, hanging menacingly embedded in the walls of its former neighbours. It looked like a fragmentation mine of enormous size had gone off.

A small crater was visible in the centre of the space, cracks in the concrete lancing out in all directions from the indentation. The couple of trucks that had been against the closest wall had been thrown through the sides of the building and lay cracked and torn, strewn over a large area themselves.

"Thank goodness it was empty," Natalie added, snuggling up tightly to her husband.

"What happened?" Padma asked the hologram as it observed Luna working the controls of the computer.

"High energy explosion. Centralised on the bodies we had deposited there. A similar one occurred in the mountain at the base of the astria porta. The damage was contained there by the construction of the room. Records indicate it was designed to survive such blasts. The hangar was not."

"Why did they explode?" Neville asked, looking in awe at the destruction.

"Uncertain. Shortly before the detonation, the Astria Porta engaged and a large number of the creatures got through. It seems the base staff shut off the connection before they could all escape. Your historical records seem to indicate that suicide is not uncommon as a last resort of captured enemy agents."

Richard shuddered at the thoughts of cyanide pills and the like from human history. This was an extreme version, but it had yielded a similar result. If anything, this was more effective. The explosion had removed almost all traces that the creatures had ever existed. No bodies were left for study. Well, almost no bodies. It seemed the Americans had managed to somehow prevent three from being destroyed.

"Have they started the assessment yet?" Natalie asked.

"They have not. Ours has completed. Thankfully no one was in that particular room when the detonation occurred, so they have not noticed that they were 'missing' a body. The subject is quite unique. Exploring the databases at my disposal, I found a rather unusual trait in the body. In this galaxy, purple blood is the result of hemerythrin in the blood instead of haemoglobin.

"On Earth, it is only found in some marine worms and brachiopods. But none of the databases I have access to has any traces of a land-based species with that physiology that exists within the Avalon galaxy. Nor any non-land-based ones that could possibly have evolved to this degree in the time available."

"So they're extra-galactic," Padma stated.

"It would seem so. I have sent the description to the Asgard, requesting any information they might possess on the species, but they have not yet replied."

"What about…" Padma began to ask, drifting off and Richard knew instantly what she meant but was afraid to ask. She had only seen them as the trio were leaving the site.

"Has the family been found?" Richard finished for her.

Natalie tightened her grip on his waist and they turned to Merlin to await a response. It seemed to be checking against the database for the answer.

The image nodded. "A full autopsy is still scheduled, but so far it is being considered a mugging gone wrong. Apparently, this is a common occurrence in that part of the world?" Merlin finished, questioningly.

"Unfortunately," Natalie replied.

Silence filled the room again as Luna's fingers danced over the controls and the image changed. While the location was different, the result was the same. Carnage spread over a wide area. Twisted metal shards embedded in concrete and asphalt. A much smaller crater at the epicentre. By now, all the bodies had been removed, but clean-up was still ongoing with the destroyed vehicles.

"Should we check on them?" Natalie asked the room at last.

"Best to leave them be," Luna spoke for the first time, and everyone turned to her. "They'll come to us when they're ready. No one can help them better than the other."

The fact she had delivered her little comment without even slowing at her work impressed Richard greatly. Luna was definitely the oddest of his daughter's friends, but he found the girl fascinating in the best way. He noticed the tiny girl's shoulders sag as she looked at the display and he stepped forward, noting tears gathering at the corner of her eyes.

"What's wrong?" He whispered quietly.

Luna hesitated for a moment before she turned to face him. "I should have been there."

"You were." He smiled, reassuring her.

"The last car was getting away from us. I let Harry go alone while I tried to help the people the alien ran off the road."

"See, you were busy helping people. This isn't your fault. By the looks of the hangar and the mountain, that guy was going to explode regardless of what you did."

She gave him a weak smile and Richard stepped forward, pulling her into his arms. Luna seemed to hesitate for a moment before she relaxed into the gesture and he gently rubbed her back. It once more drove home the fact that these were a group of teens and young adults. They may have fought a war, but they were still very new to the world and some of its darker aspects.

Natalie drew the attention of the room away from the two, earning a soft smile from Richard. "Have the SGC accepted the idea that the aliens got there on their own?"

"Their reports do indicate they believe the aliens made it to the desert base on their own and were attempting to recover the alien technology there. One report finds it suspicious they were all in an empty hangar when the explosion occurred, but otherwise, it seems they do not detect our involvement. Mostly, they seem concerned that the other Astria Porta was their target, and are taking steps to better secure it. A new detail is being assigned under one Colonel Maybourne."

"What do we do about preventing this from happening again?" Padma asked firmly.

Richard glanced at the girl. Of the group, he knew the least about the newest addition. She was apparently quite new to the group as a whole and often took a harder stance on a few of the issues they discussed than the other teens did.

Merlin turned to face her as well. "I have dedicated a new console to monitor the mountain's alien population more closely. If any large influx occurs, it will notify me. Or if a small steady stream of visitors occurs."

"And?"

"And what?" Natalie asked.

"What do we do if it detects them? This lot nearly lost the planet to an invading force. From the records I've read they also nearly sucked us all into a black hole as well. Can we really allow them to continue being so reckless?"

"We're no more equipped for this than they are. We may have some fancy technology, but we're still all human too." Neville argued, standing up from his place by the wall. "We can't dictate how they operate. They're a military outpost as well. Everyone in that mountain is trained to kill. What do you want us to do, storm in their wands blazing?"

Padma looked both angry and chastised at once and Richard tried hard not to chuckle at the sight. "I don't know. It was easier before I knew there was so much danger out there. When the worst I had to worry about at night was an upcoming test, nasty potions professors and the shadowy but nebulous idea of Death Eaters that my parents used to whisper about."

Natalie gave her a soft smile. "Welcome to my world circa 1991."

Richard laughed at the memory of their own world expanding for the first time. Though the lady who transformed into a cat hadn't gone into any detail about the possible threats in this new world of magic as they had quickly discovered during their steps into the galaxy at large. His wife's hair was a steady reminder of the dangers that lay just beyond the nearby porta.

"For now, we observe." Hermione's voice came from the doorway and the group turned to see the pair in the opening. "How is the dialer update coming?"

Richard smiled at his daughter as Luna pulled free of his arms and dashed over to the girl, giving her a firm hug before latching onto Harry as well. At times Richard felt like an outsider looking in, being one of only two adults in the group. But it made him so happy to see his daughter had made such good friends.

"Very slowly. I have the database of the Alterans and their designs, but making them fit the interface the humans are operating with is very complex. It cannot even detect more than half of the responses the astria porta can provide when dialling."

"That computer was huge. I don't think we can replace it without them noticing. Maybe we should replace the porta instead. A new model which can better fit their system?" Harry asked.

"It might be possible. But it would take time to prepare as well. There is no instant solution." Merlin paused. "Besides shutting them down altogether."

"Odds are high they would have people off-world right now. If we forcibly shut them down, they'd be stranded." Natalie said. "I don't think we can act without a lot more information."

"So, we do nothing?" Padma grumbled.

"No. We finish our mission. The greatest threat to Earth remains the Ori. We have our next location if everyone feels up to another trip." Harry glanced at the others as he finished and they each nodded. "So, it's settled. Merlin will continue to monitor the mountain, while we prepare. To go to a planet in the centre of a perfect geometric shape travelling through the galaxy. That is still impressive."

ϟ

Saturday, 9th October 1999.

Hermione leant over the bench, staring at the woven fibres through the large magnifying glass as tiny flickers of white energy danced over the surface, leaving minute traces of some of the planet's rarest materials in their wake. The silvery gold surface left behind looked pristine, far more so than if she had done all of it by hand.

She ignored the sound of the door behind her opening and closing, focusing on her work rather than the soft footsteps approaching.

"Hermione?" Padma's soft voice filled her ears, loud after so long of silence.

"I'm fine." She replied, still not turning from her work.

"I know you are. But you've been in here for over a day. What are you working on the suits for?"

"It's necessary."

Padma filled her peripheral vision, now standing so close Hermione could touch her. "What's necessary? Talk to me, please."

Hermione sighed heavily before she turned away from the suit and glanced at the girl beside her. "Protection."

She turned back to her project without another word and continued guiding the beam energy as it laid out the tiny filigrees into the very essence of the suits.

"You're strengthening the suits with more runes? I could have helped with that." Padma groaned.

"Needed the distraction," Hermione mumbled her reply.

"Hermione, stop." Padma grasped her shoulder and waited a moment before she turned Hermione to face her. "This isn't about that family, is it?"

Hermione gently shook her head. "No. Harry helped with that. I know it's not my fault."

"Your mum wasn't your fault either. None of us knew something like Anubis was out there."

Hermione looked up at Padma, stunned that she had so easily divined her intent.

"Please. You are not that much smarter than I am." Padma smirked, referring to the occasional times back in Hogwarts where the two had competed over marks. "I'd be terrified of something happening if my parents were going through the porta with me too. Especially after what happened last time."

Hermione nodded silently, but the tension in her shoulders lessened slightly. "I can't have her hurt like that again. I've seen too much of it…"

"I know. Not fully, obviously, but I get the sentiment." Padma released her and the pair stared at one another for a few silent moments. "Now. Are you going to let me help you finish?"

Hermione blushed slightly but nodded to the far corner of the room. Padma followed the movement with her eyes and noticed the other suits hanging up. She walked over and gave a soft tisking noise as she noticed that all the other suits were already completed.

"Really? That's the last one?" Hermione's blush grew slightly. "Fine. You go and have some dinner, and I will finish this one."

The Indian girl stepped in front of Hermione again and gave her a soft look. Hermione nodded her acquiescence and took a steadying breath. Between the new runes and all the potions they'd been making, she knew that she'd done all she could to make them safer on their coming trip, but it didn't silence the worry entirely.

ϟ

Sunday, 10th October 1999.

The village lay before them, multi-story buildings with steeply pitched roofs and smoking chimneys broke the view of the green hills in the background. Neville was amazed at how similar it was to the village on Camelot, with the only real difference being the lack of a large protective wall around its perimeter.

The group were once more dressed in their protective suits, overlaid with the thicker robes to obscure their true origins. Most of the villagers went about their lives throughout the square quite happily ignoring the strangers.

"Now what?" Richard asked softly as the group stood amidst the activity.

"I'm not totally sure. Myrddin didn't come here that we know of, so we've no real information on what to do next." Luna replied. "It's not like we're just going to find another library with the answer inside."

"Excuse me," Natalie asked aloud to the next villager to pass her by, getting stares from both her companions and several of the villagers, who looked almost surprised by the comment. "Looking for the Sangraal. Any idea where we should look?"

Neville couldn't help but chuckle at the face Hermione was making at her mother's blatant question. The nearest villager, however, stepped closer and replied. "You seek the Sangreal?"

Neville noted the slight variation in the term the woman had used as Natalie nodded in response. "Yes, please."

"Very well. It has been many generations since anyone came looking. If you truly seek it, you must consult the Parchment of Virtues in the village library." She pointed across the square and Neville tried his hardest not to look at Luna's face. "It will prepare you for the journey to come."

Natalie smiled brightly at the woman. "Thank you very much." She turned back to the others and smiled smugly.

"But I should warn you." The woman continued, drawing their collective attention once more. "No one has ever returned from the Quest alive. If you value your lives, you would do well to reconsider."

The group glanced at one another, and Neville noticed Hermione looked rather concerned when she glanced at her mother. "Thank you, again. You have been a big help." Natalie replied once more.

The woman merely shrugged and the villagers' attention returned to their own actions, many having stopped to watch the odd display and now acting as though it had never even happened. Natalie gave the others a quick smile and headed off in the direction the woman had indicated, quickly finding the library as the building with windows blocked by towers of books and scrolls.

Stepping inside, Neville noticed it too was rather dark, as Myrddin's library on Camelot had been, but this showed obvious signs of regular use. It was not covered in the layer of dust that had been present in Myrrdin's library, and the only cobwebs were contained to the corners and under the ceiling beams.

"So…" Harry said. "Any ideas on where we start?"

"Perhaps," a voice came from around one of the shelves, "you could speak with me?"

An elderly man stepped out from behind the shelving, his white thinning hair had receded a long way, and he had a beard that, in Neville's opinion, quite suited his aged face. He wore much nicer robes than the villagers outside, and Neville wondered how often the man left his library.

"My name is Osric, and I am the keeper of the village archives here in Sanguire. How might I be of service?" The man seemed open and welcoming of the intruders in his domain.

The group seemed surprised at the response and it was eventually Padma who replied. "Thank you, Osric. We are looking for the Parchment of Virtues."

"Ah, another band of stalwart heroes come to tempt fate in the hopes of claiming the legendary prize." Osric smiled as he walked over to a wooden ladder and began to climb it. Luna quickly stepped over and supported the shaky device, the man glancing down at her and smiling. "Oh, thank you."

He reached for a long wooden box, not unlike the one Neville kept at home with his father's old broken wand inside. The one he had received his own current wand in. He passed the box to Luna as she descended the ladder once more, looking quite old and infirm, and yet possessed of a fire that so many older people had in his experience. Such as his grandmother.

Reclaiming the box from a smiling Luna, Osric moved over to a large table in the centre of the room. Continuing to speak as he opened the box and laid out the parchment within on the table. "Many have come seeking the Sangreal throughout the ages. None have ever succeeded."

"Have you ever met anyone who has quested for it before?" Hermione asked, stepping over to the table, the others spreading about its edges.

He glanced at her and gave a soft knowing smile. "No. None have come during my lifetime. I know only of the legends. It is located in a cave…" He turned from the table and headed into the back of the archive, talking as he went, "beyond the outlying forest. A journey that is fraught with peril. Ages ago, Morgan Le Fay enchanted the area with a terrible curse."

"Morgan Le Fay?" Natalie asked aloud, about to follow the man into the depths of the archive when he returned with another wooden box.

"Yes, Morgan Le Fay. These were purportedly left behind by Morgan herself, as a guide for knights of noble spirit, since it is said that only the most virtuous will succeed in claiming the Sangreal."

Osric opened the second box and pulled a fabric scroll from within. Neville could almost see through the material of what appeared to be some kind of map. The elderly man unfurled it on the tabletop before he opened the parchment scroll and laid it over the top. The entire scroll was covered in blocks of Alteran text. Hermione stepped up next to him again and began to read the scroll aloud.

"Only those of virtue true may win the prize concealed beyond the reach of the flawed and tainted. The Sangreal shall instead belong to he who speaks the guardian's name." She paused, looking to Osric, confused. "The Guardian's name?"

Osric smiled wryly. "Legend says the Sangreal is protected by the most powerful of magical beasts." The group all glanced at one another. "A dragon."

Neville looked to Harry, noting the sudden movement of his arm towards his left hip. Neville well remembered the last time he'd seen Harry take on one of those legendary creatures. Luna moved to his side and whispered something in his ear, drawing a soft nod from Harry as his eyes seemed to refocus on the room.

"A dragon?" Natalie asked, looking excited at the idea.

"Trust me, mum. Amazing animals, but not something you want to try and get past." Hermione explained, turning back to the scroll. "Prudence, wisdom, charity, kindness, and faith. Let these be your guide on this perilous quest." She sighed softly. "Looks like Morgan went to the same school of obtuseness that Myrddin did."

"I'd say so. They were on Atlantis together." Luna nodded and the others turned to face her. "What?"

"Morgan was Lantean as well?" Richard asked.

Luna shrugged simply. "I'd have to check the records to be certain. But back then she went by the name Ganos Lal. She ascended on a planet aways from Earth shortly after their return. She was a teacher on Atlantis, and she's the one Myrddin learned the beaming and phase-shifting technology from."

"So she was likely the one the Others sent to interfere with Myrddin's work?" Harry queried.

Osric stood there watching the group bemusedly as they discussed ancient figures like old friends. The group soon fell silent as they considered the implications when Osric directed their attention back to the table.

"Morgan Le Fay also left the map." He indicated the fabric cartograph under the scroll, Hermione shifting the parchment aside as they looked carefully at the intricate design. "It shows the village, the nearby hills and the forest leading to the cave. Every now and then a group of youngsters from the village will tempt fate by journeying into these lands. Most who go do not return."

The group looked up from the table, glancing at one another cautiously. Neville quietly took the spare vulta from his pocket and engaged it. Allowing it to invisibly hover above the table, recording the map.

"Prudence, wisdom, charity, kindness and faith," Padma stated, more to herself than the group. "And this path leads us to the cave?"

"Indeed," Osric replied. "You may take your time to remember the map, but I am afraid neither item can be allowed to leave the archive. As I have said, none who venture after the Sangreal have ever returned, and we only have these copies of them."

Osric smiled at them before he turned and headed back towards the shelves he was at when they had arrived, leaving them to memorise the two items.

Chapter Text

Sunday, 10th October 1999.

Hermione looked at the incredible sight laid out before her in stunned silence, the others soon stepping up beside her in the dancing afternoon light filtering through the tree branches above.

"Well, will you look at that?" Her father whistled, impressed.

Before them stood over a hundred people, most arrayed in the direction they had been heading. Their clothing varied, some looking like members of the village they had left an hour before, others looking clearly not native to this world. There was even a single truly alien figure. And all of them appeared to be completely frozen in place, unmoving.

"Odd. The environment seems to be intact and moving. But the people and animals are all frozen." Hermione muttered to herself as she shifted to the left around the figures. "Something that only affects animals? But what?"

She lifted her left arm and began to take readings of the area on her remote. There were very odd results coming in from in front of her, while to the sides and behind, they were completely normal. Whatever was going on, it was contained to the area between them and where the cave lay beneath the now much larger lonely mountain towering over the horizon.

"Thoughts?" Neville asked as Hermione calculated the readings before her.

"Obviously part of the tests," Harry noted, stepping closer and pulling his wand, dragging it heavily through the air.

"Look at that one," Richard muttered stepping past Harry as he stared at the alien several metres ahead, transfixed by its shimmering purple flesh and the tentacles dangling from the backside of its head.

Hermione looked up suddenly, the readings now clear, just in time to see her father take a step too far. "Dad! No!"

Her shout came too late and her father was frozen still, another member of the collection in the trap.

Natalie moved to grab at Richard, but Padma and Luna grabbed hold of her and prevented her from approaching. "Get him out of there!" She yelled at the teens, looking frantic as she tried to get at her frozen husband.

Hermione paused as she felt the terror that her father was lost well up inside. She took several steadying breaths as she examined the readings on her remote, hoping to find a way to free him from its grip. "It's a field of some sort. Extends out on a curve. Could go on forever." Hermione explained, moving back over to stand just behind her father next to Harry. I don't think we can enter without ending up like them."

Harry glanced at her curiously, she could see in his eyes he knew exactly what she was feeling right now. "Morgan?"

"Definitely. The Alterans had time dilation technology before they left Pegasus. But I've no idea how to shut it off. And if there is a way, it's likely contained further within. This thing is huge, thick and circular. It likely goes around the entire mountain. Please, Harry. Help him." She pleaded, the knot in her stomach tightening at the sounds of her mother being held back behind her.

Harry's eyes flicked to Neville, who shrugged. He quickly glanced at the struggling Granger woman behind him before looking back at Hermione and nodding once. With a determined expression, he closed his eyes as he turned back to face the field and with a lightning-quick flick of his right hand, Harry shouted. "Accio Richard Granger."

With a disturbing electronic sucking sound, Richard came free of the field and stumbled backwards into his daughter's arms, Neville helping her to keep from falling over.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Richard roared as he regained his feet.

"Dad! Be more careful. There is supposedly a dragon here somewhere, remember?" Hermione scolded the elder man who looked thoroughly chastised.

"Sorry." He mumbled as Natalie slammed into them both, pulling them into a Granger huddle.

Harry gave Hermione a soft smile over her mother's shoulder and she gave him one in return.

"Summoning charm?" Padma asked. "That's not possible. You can't summon living creatures." She finished matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean? It's always worked for me. Hermione too." He glanced at Hermione who was now coming loose from the pile of Granger arms.

"The books do mention it shouldn't be possible. But you had no trouble summoning Trevor when we were practicing."

She gave Harry a piercing look and he smirked gently, clueing her into why he had chosen to attempt that spell here. "What can I say, it's been on my mind since we realised there might be a dragon about." Harry returned quietly.

"You practiced spells on Trevor?" Neville asked, a slight grin on his face.

Harry turned to the other boy, looking slightly worried. "He hopped into the middle of our practice area over and over. It's like he enjoyed it. Kept coming back for more."

"Honestly, he probably did. I think it's his favourite thing. Likely why he hides all the time." Neville noted.

"I'm sorry, but everything I know says you can't do that!" Padma demanded.

"I think it's a matter of will," Hermione added, guiding her parents back from the field. "If Neville is right, Trevor wanted to be summoned. And Dad was in no condition to resist the spell in that field. But if the creature you try to summon resists, the spell won't work. It doesn't even need to be a strong or conscious resistance."

"Do you lot break the laws of magic often, then?" Padma asked.

Neville and Harry glanced at one another and Hermione noted the smirk on their faces. "Every now and then. Ask Harry about the Dementors at the end of our third year."

She turned back to the field and rechecked her readings, blocking out the sound of the others as she carefully walked back and forth in front of the field. "The field isn't uniform. It fluctuates..." She mumbled to herself, coming to the centre of the area where the field was weakest. "Here. I think it's a maze."

"Great. All the TriWizard greatest hits." Harry mumbled from beside her. "Can you navigate it? I don't think 'point me' will do the trick here."

"Cover me?" She asked softly before she took a step forward into the area of the field. Several shouts sounded behind her and Hermione turned to smile at the others. "Looks good."

Harry's smile was splitting his face as he looked at her and Hermione found the butterflies stirring in her stomach again. They'd not done anything since airing their feelings to one another, but the knowledge that the feelings were present between them tinged all their interactions with a tangible sense of excitement that she quite enjoyed. But right now she needed to focus, so she pushed the feeling aside after a moment and turned back to the field.

"The weak spot continues on. I think we should be good if we all walk single file. I'd advise everyone to use their remote to be safe. You don't have to go far into this thing for it to take effect."

Harry laid a hand on her shoulder and she glanced at him again. He seemed perfectly content to follow her directly as the others assembled behind him, several checking their own wrist remotes. Hermione swallowed heavily, not used to having so many directly relying on her. Normally it was only Harry she had to keep safe. With a deep breath, she set them off into the maze.

It wound back and forth at random, taking the group in amidst the frozen figures. Getting closer looks at the people, she noted that none of them looked afraid, or upset. She figured that from their perspective, time was continuing normally, they had no idea that they'd been trapped for centuries.

Suddenly her remote flickered and Hermione brought them all to a halt. She checked its power source and noted it was fine, but the screen was flickering off and on. "Not good."

"What?" Harry whispered directly into her ear, momentarily distracting her once again.

She shook it off and replied. "The remote is playing up. And I'm pretty sure we're not even halfway through."

"That's not good."

Hermione nodded. A whine from her wrist indicated that the remote had lost its fight against whatever was interfering with the readings. "We can't even backtrack."

"What's the holdup?" Her father asked before a light slap sounded.

"Be patient, you!" Her mother scolded.

"Yes, dear."

Hermione took a moment to steady herself. Her mind analysing the problem. A sudden whooshing sound zipped past her left ear and Hermione turned to see a tiny stone hovering in the air beside her. She turned to look behind her and saw Neville standing up once more with a handful of sticks and stones in his hand.

"What?" He replied. "Morgan left clues guiding people here. And I doubt she expected them to be at this level of technology to get through."

"You are a genius, Neville," Hermione replied, as she watched the stone hover stuck in place in the time dilation field.

Everyone in the group carefully leant down and grabbed handfuls of dirt and debris and began to toss them into the edges of the field, soon creating a visible edge to the pathway they were walking through.

"That makes things a whole lot easier." Harry mused, replacing his hand on Hermione's shoulder.

She glanced back at him and gave his hand a squeeze before she turned back to the pathway. It was now very obvious which way to go, and as she headed forward she occasionally bent down and scattered a new handful of debris to highlight the way forward.

It took almost an hour before she reached a point where no matter how much debris she threw, it all fell immediately to the ground.

"We're through." She sighed, stepping past the inner edge of the field. "Or I should say, inside."

The others gave her a soft squeeze on the shoulder as they passed into the open air and her mother wrapped her in her arms. "My little girl has grown so much."

Hermione blushed at the praise but eagerly returned the hug. Maybe her parents coming with them wasn't all that bad.

ϟ

"That's odd," Luna noted from Richard's side, drawing his eye line. "It looks like the ones in the Tor cave."

"What does?" He asked, following as the tiny girl veered off from the others, who watched as she moved into the low underbrush.

After a moment, the two came across a small wooden chest, sitting alone in the middle of a small round clearing. It looked so enticing, a tiny treasure chest waiting to be found. He quickly knelt beside it but before he could touch the surface a flash came from all around him as a yellow wall of light moved up around the clearing and quickly formed a dome.

"Crap." He muttered, glancing at Luna who rolled her eyes lightly.

"Trap," Padma said, stepping over to the now barely visible field. She picked up a stick and tried to touch it, but the wood passed straight through. "But not a very good one by the look of it. Luna?"

The tiny girl walked over to the space in front of Padma and grasped the end of the stick. Padma pulled but while the stick came free, it shot out of Luna's hand as she met the inside edge of the field and was prevented from moving any further.

Richard ignored them as he leant down and opened the lid on the chest, revealing nothing contained within.

"Or not. Dad!" Hermione yelled, noticing his actions.

"Hermione!" He replied, turning to face his once more aggravated daughter. "It's empty."

"Empty?" Harry asked, moving closer to the field as well. "That's interesting."

"Why?" Luna asked, stepping over to look into the empty chest over Richard's shoulder.

"I don't know. It reminds me of something. What is it?" Harry muttered to himself, falling into his thoughts and wandering aimlessly about the exterior of the clearing as he did.

Richard allowed his body to settle, dropping from his squatting position onto his behind and giving a relieved groan. He was not an unfit man, but they had been walking for the entire morning. In the tiny clearing, there was no cover preventing the noonday sun from bearing down upon him, and his legs were tired from all the walking.

"Well, let me know when you figure it out. I'll just take a quick rest." Richard noted as he laid fully back on the warm ground and closed his eyes, ignoring the groan from his family members with a smirk.

The sun had drifted beyond the treeline by the time Harry jumped into the air and startled them all. Neville nearly upended the small pot of stew he had prepared and Richard was startled awake at the sound.

"That's it. The pots." Harry yelled rushing over to them and not noticing that he too passed right through the field, it flared once more as he became entrapped with them as well. "Oh."

"Welcome." Richard greeted before dropping his head back and closing his eyes once more, now only aware of the position of Harry and Luna by the sounds of their movement.

Harry approached the chest and he heard the lid close and then open again several times. "Only one of the pots had something in it. But that was a test of wisdom, enlightenment and righteousness. What is this a test of?"

"Patience?" Richard quipped as he cracked one eye to see Harry outlined by the afternoon sun.

"Patience wasn't on the parchment," Luna noted as she knelt beside Harry. "Prudence, wisdom, kindness, charity, and faith. Caution or circumspection as to danger or risk. Or the opposite of recklessness that would have seen us trapped in the time field. So prudence was the last test. Which leaves..."

"Charity," Harry said, cutting Luna off.

"What? How is it charitable to lock us in here?" Richard asked, sitting up.

"The traits are what we must possess to pass," Harry smirked at him as he drew his wand and conjured a small pale stone and placed it inside the chest, closing the lid once more.

The three looked about themselves unsure as nothing seemed to happen. "Any other ideas?" Richard quipped again.

Harry looked at him for a moment before turning his eyes to Luna. "Well, I'm not the only one stuck in here." He suggested.

"Hmmm," Luna mused for a moment before she too drew her wand and conjured a small handful of impossibly brightly coloured flowers and set them inside the chest. She and Harry both turned to face Richard.

"Don't look at me. I can't conjure anything, remember."

Luna smiled. "I doubt it needs to be conjured. Do you have anything in your bag you can spare? Unless you want to give up something truly important."

Richard considered for a moment before a question from outside the field distracted him. "Why don't you just apparate out?" Padma asked. "For that matter, why didn't we just apparate past the time field?"

Richard considered the idea and it sounded a lot easier to him.

"Because it wouldn't work," Hermione explained, stepping over to the edge of the clearing. "These are tests of worth, like the cave. Bypassing them would get us closer to our destination, but not closer to our goal."

Padma considered the argument for a moment before she nodded and Richard turned his attention back to his possessions. He didn't want to hand over something of personal significance. He really only had his wedding ring on him, and he was certain Natalie would not approve of leaving that as a tribute to the chest. He reached over his left shoulder, under the loose robe, and felt the edge of the bag his daughter had made for him.

His fingers drifted over the items inside, not entirely sure what most of them were. He grasped one of the small vials at random and pulled it free, the white liquid within glowed slightly as he placed it into the chest and closed the lid. Nothing happened for a long moment before the bright yellow edge of the field appeared above them, rushing down toward the ground and going silent once more.

"Nice." Luna smiled as she stood and cautiously approached where the field had been before passing right through. "So, lunch?"

Harry chuckled as he helped Richard back to his feet and the two men headed over to where Neville was still perched, preparing his stew. "Sounds good to me," Richard said as his stomach growled loudly.

ϟ

Natalie couldn't help but gawk in wonder at the environment as the group quietly passed. Tall slender trees stretched away in all directions, their thick branches heavy with foliage in every shade of green. They reminded her greatly of the forests of southern British Columbia. Even the snow-capped peak that now towered over them matched the massive ranges of that area, though it stood alone rather than as part of a large range.

The air was delightfully warm, so much so that most of them had removed their cloaks and tucked them into their bags. The suits they wore remained quite comfortable, no matter the weather and Natalie was impressed at the handiwork of the younger group.

And yet, despite the incredible beauty around her, something felt off about the sight. As though something important was missing. "Where are all the animals?" She wondered aloud.

"The temporal trap keeps them out," Neville replied simply, and Natalie turned to face him as they walked. "I'd wager it's pretty thick, and we didn't see anyone close to the inner edge when we passed through it. I'll bet that with its ratio of distortion, nothing has had sufficient time to pass all the way through the field."

"Animals are also sensitive to things humans cannot feel. If Lal created the field slowly enough, the animals that lived on the mountain likely felt its approach and moved away. Meaning none left inside the field either. A shame really. It would be a fascinating nature preserve if there were." Luna mused from nearby.

Neville smiled in the girl's direction and Natalie looked at him curiously. "Luna is very interested in magizoology. And I have a feeling, now there is an entire galaxy full of creatures to explore, exozoology as well. I am personally very keen to find out the properties of the flora of these worlds. Any one of these trees might contain the secret to freeing my parents from their suffering."

Natalie noticed how his shoulders fell when he mentioned his parents, and she recalled Hermione mentioning that they were in some form of vegetative state. She stepped closer to the young man and took his hand. "I'm sure you will find the answer. You seem as tenacious as my little girl. All of you are. I suppose that's why we're all here. A lesser man would stay home where it's comfortable. Not explore the stars for a chance to heal his family."

Neville gave her a firm smile in return and nodded. His posture improved once again.

"Now that is not a natural formation." Padma's voice sounded, drawing Neville and Natalie's attention forwards.

They were only just reaching the base of the mountain, Padma was standing over near a collection of stones that appeared to be the result of a landslide looking back at them all. However, as she approached, the stones revealed their secret and a wide opening appeared within the stones. Normally it would have been hidden by the thick foliage covering the area, but they had managed to slip between the plants and stonework.

"Impressive," Hermione noted.

Harry whispered something to her daughter as he passed and the girl smiled and blushed but nodded. Natalie smiled at the sight, happy to see the delight and warmth on her daughter's face. She had thought there may be something between her and the boy she wouldn't stop talking about for years. But ever since the mixup with the aliens, they had clearly been closer than ever.

As Harry stepped inside the cave, he called back up. "There are stairs here, leading down. Lumos."

A bright bluish light seemed to emanate from within and the others moved closer to the opening. Natalie could see Harry several metres down, the tip of his wand giving off the light and casting interesting reflections across the oddly smooth walls.

Neville turned to her and gestured within, pulling his own wand from his sleeve and lighting it. Natalie gave him a wry smirk and followed her daughter who was now close on Harry's heels. The group proceeded into the darkness in silence, the five wands casting more than enough light for them to easily see.

Natalie looked at the walls as they moved and noticed that they had become much rougher than in the entrance. It now truly felt like they were in a cave. The stairs were now long behind them, even the floor of the space was rougher, and she was very glad for the light lest she trip on the uneven surface.

The process was still made all the more difficult as Richard kept stumbling on the rough surface, knocking into her each time he did so. Natalie tried to guide him as they went, but it was as if he wasn't aware the bits of the floor that he was stumbling on were even there.

"Hermione. Something's wrong with your father."

Their daughter immediately stopped and spun to face them, rushing back over. "What is it?"

"He's having trouble walking. It's like he can't see the floor. Even with all of this light."

"Hold him still," Hermione instructed as she rounded the pair and opened his pouch, looking inside for something. "Oh for goodness sake."

"What?" Natalie asked, now feeling rather unnerved.

"It's nothing. We just need to improve the padding on these things. Dad managed to break the vial full of confusing concoction, it's slowly been evaporating and he's been breathing it in. No wonder he's been more reckless than usual. And he donated his vial of wit-sharpening potion in the previous test. Excellent."

Natalie felt Hermione shift her attention to the pouch on her back and looked at her rather bashful husband as he tried to avoid her eye line.

"Here, dad. Drink this." A hand appeared around her husband's other side and the man took the vial, wolfing its contents down. "Evanesco. That should deal with the concoction for now. Anyone else feeling a little off after being too close to dad?"

The others shook their heads and Natalie noticed the look in her husband's eyes was now more akin to its usual brightness. "Welcome back."

"Thanks," he replied, uncertainly. "I feel a lot better."

"Think you can manage to walk now?"

He nodded as Hermione walked back over to Harry and guided him onward down the passage, shaking her head as she moved. Natalie couldn't help but smile at her daughter. She had changed enormously from the bookish wee girl they had first sent off to some mysterious magical school so many years before. Hermione of that time would have panicked and headed to her books to find the answer. Now, she had become a strong woman in her own right.

Harry and Hermione came to a halt in front and the rest bunched up beside them. Before the group was an open chamber, perhaps a few metres across. On the far wall were a pair of passages that branched off in different directions. On the wall between them was an odd sight in the very natural-seeming cavern. A perfectly smooth tablet of reddish-brown stone carved with symbols with which Natalie was now quite familiar.

"Test number three," Hermione stated, glancing at Harry who nodded and moved forward. The group allowed him and Hermione to head for the tablet alone, lest there be another forcefield.

"What's it say?" Padma asked, her voice echoing slightly inside the larger space.

"Choose the way that is just and true." Hermione read aloud.

"This lot do love their riddles," Harry remarked before he suddenly fell silent, tilting his head to the left.

"What do we think it means? It can't just mean the 'right' path. Alteran doesn't have that homonym." Richard queried.

Natalie smiled. Her husband had always been somewhat interested in linguistics and had taken to learning the new language with a will.

"Shhh," Harry said and the group fell silent once more.

"What is it?" Hermione asked and Harry stepped over to look down the left passage.

"Can't you hear that?"

"Snake language?" Hermione joked lightly, drawing Harry's attention from the passage for a moment.

"It sounds like a child," Harry replied and he began to head down the passage.

Hermione gripped his arm and pulled him to a stop. "Tests and traps, Harry. We don't need your saving people thing messing that up."

Harry frowned at the inference. "The way that is just and true. Kindness."

It was Hermione's turn to frown now as she let Harry's arm go and the others watched in silence as the two considered the riddle. "Sorry. He's right. Come on."

Hermione headed off down the left passage and the others followed. Soon they could clearly hear the sniffling sound of a child crying that Harry had initially followed. As she turned a bend in the descending cave, Natalie saw a flash behind a distant pillar of dripping stone.

"There." She said, pointing the way for the others.

The flash returned, but this time she was able to discern form. It was the grubby face of a boy, no more than five or six, hiding behind the massive column of stone. When the boy caught sight of their group, he gasped in fright and fled, dashing further into the darkness.

"Wait!" Natalie called aloud, charging ahead of the others, the light built into the shoulder of her suit the only thing allowing her to see. "We're here to help you."

She dashed ahead, following the footsteps and the cries, heading deeper and deeper into the mountain. But she was determined to find the boy. An unknown force was driving her onwards, despite the knowledge that the area could be full of traps.

A sound of steel grinding on stone came from up ahead and the boy gave a sudden louder shout of surprise.

"Hang on!" Natalie yelled but she was suddenly brought to a halt as a pair of strong familiar arms wrapped around her waist.

"Calm down, Natalie. Be careful." Her husband whispered in her ear, holding her tightly from behind but allowing them both to continue walking forward. The others now bunched up around her as well.

Natalie nodded and the group slowly turned another bend in the cave and saw what had made the sound. A large metal portcullis. It filled the entire width of the tunnel and behind it was a small stone room with only a single crying occupant. Natalie approached slowly and knelt before the shuddering figure.

"It's alright. We'll get you out of there."

She glanced back at the magical members of their group who glanced between themselves. Together, Hermione, Harry and Neville waved their wands and incanted. "Alohomora."

Nothing happened.

"Not locked then. Just really heavy. Aberto." Hermione noted to the others who followed her lead and cast the second enchantment.

"We're doing it wrong," Padma said, stepping forwards and placing her hands firmly on the rusted metal surface. "We can't use shortcuts, remember. And I doubt Lal thought those taking the tests would have magic."

Natalie glanced at the young girl impressed before she shifted from her kneeling position into a squat and got a firm grip on the metal as well. It felt far heavier than it should and she knew it was going to take a lot more than just herself and Padma to move it.

"Everyone, grab hold. This thing is heavy."

Richard slipped between her and the wall and grabbed hold firmly, Hermione and Harry fitting between her and Padma with Neville and Luna taking up a place at the far side. The moment all fourteen hands took hold of the gate it gave way immediately, losing all weight and retreating quickly up into the roof of the tunnel. Natalie looked at it in shock.

"I guess that is why it's never good to go alone." Richard quipped as the metal disappeared into the roof and the slot from which it came shimmered before becoming stone once more.

Natalie refocused her gaze on the boy only for him to smile and shimmer away to nothing as well. "What?" She asked, confused.

"Arthur C Clarke." Hermione shrugged as she stepped into the now empty room. As the others followed her into the room, the rear wall shimmered and vanished, showing the way forwards.

"Stop," Padma stated aloud before anyone moved toward the opening.

"What's wrong?" Natalie asked.

"Two things. It's been hours since lunch. We should rest a moment. And everyone needs to take the wit sharpening potion before we move on."

"Why?" Hermione pondered aloud.

"Again, two reasons. First, the only two remaining tests are wisdom and faith. The potion's effects last a few hours, which given our progress so far should be plenty enough to guide us through the wisdom section. And two, I don't think Natalie is usually that reckless in charging off after strange children in mysterious trapped tunnels. Do you?"

Natalie noticed Hermione looking at her before the woman flushed slightly. "Well, I was standing beside your father when we entered. He was even leaning on me for a bit. It's likely I breathed in some of the potion as well."

"Alright then. Let's set up camp, I guess." Hermione groaned as she reached into her bag and began to pull out supplies.

ϟ

Neville stretched his back as he followed the others through the new opening and into the next system of tunnels. He should have known laying against that particular bit of stone during their meal was a bad idea, but he soon had the kink out of his muscles. He was content to provide backup through this portion, as he knew it would be wisest to have their Ravenclaws front and centre for the wisdom tests.

While his primary motivation for joining the group had been the near-infinite possibility the galaxy and Alteran technology offered for healing his parents, he was most definitely coming to enjoy their little adventures as well. He found himself wondering how things might have been different for him had he gone on more than two of Harry's adventures during their schooling.

His fifth year had wrought an incredible change in him, first by joining the DA and then having the spells explained in a way he could easily grasp, and finally the intense motivation of his parents' attackers being freed. While few would consider their experience at the Department of Mysteries a success, it had steeled Neville in a way he had lacked before that moment. Blooded the hidden warrior contained within and readied him for what was to come.

When push came to shove a little over a year later, he did not hesitate in leading those who remained at Hogwarts. Neville chuckled lightly to himself. That would have probably been the biggest change. Had he joined Harry for more of his adventures, he'd likely have joined them on whatever mission they were doing during that period. Which would have left countless innocents open to the abuses of Snape and the Carrows.

Neville growled under his breath at the memory of those times. Of the first time he felt the cruel fingers of the cruciatus curse on his senses in the Department of Mysteries. And how, compared to the insane touch of Bellatrix Lestrange, the Carrows had been feeble and far easier to endure. It always helped to know he was enduring it to spare another from its touch as well. Every twitch had renewed his resolve to rid his school of the monsters.

"Another dead end?" Harry asked, drawing Neville from his thoughts.

He wondered if the wit-sharpening potion they had all taken had resulted in the sudden fall down memory lane or if he was just feeling a bit nostalgic. "Can't be. Why would the last test lead us to a dead end."

The group glanced around the small space at the end of the tunnel, the walls bathed in the soft blue light from their wands. "There," Luna noted, pointing to the corner of the tunnel and stepping over to it. "Another tablet. Another riddle. I'm struck and cut, shaped and cooled, then bound by rings to release what's stored."

The moment Luna finished reading the riddle aloud, the entire tunnel began to shake around them. Neville nearly lost his footing, reaching out to the wall of the tunnel to steady himself before another figure knocked him bodily against it.

"Bloody hell." Richard groaned as he pulled himself up. "What is this?"

"Part of the test. The answer is Key!" Hermione shouted above the rumbling, but nothing happened in response.

"Nothing's happening!" Padma yelped, sounding rather less confident than she had looked a few moments before.

"Alteran!" Harry yelled.

Luna turned to the tablet and spoke clearly. "Clavia."

The tablet glowed for a moment before the entire wall in which it was embedded shimmered and disappeared. However, the shaking continued, if anything increasing in intensity.

"Great, go. There must be more." Harry grumbled, guiding Luna and Hermione through the new opening and off into its tunnel as fast as they could manage with the shaking.

Neville helped the others through and followed along behind, noticing small fragments of stone dislodging from the ceiling as they ran.

Luna's voice sounded from a few metres in front of them. "I shake the earth with booming thunder, fell forests whole and homes complete! I influence ships, topple kings, sweep down swift yet remain unseen."

"WIND!" Natalie shouted forward.

"Ventio." Luna translated and a slight glow came from behind the tiny girl before another passageway opened up and groaning aloud, Harry headed through into the next path, the shaking growing stronger once again.

Now some larger pieces of stone were coming free from the walls and roof as Neville helped Natalie along the passage, Richard helping to keep a now panicking Padma going as well. It thankfully didn't take them long to find the next tablet, embedded once more in the end of the tunnel.

"Battle-scarred and times of strife, resistant to the most brutal of strikes. I live among men and children alike. I bring them down, oft in the night." Luna readout.

"What?" Hermione asked, sounding slightly fearful herself in the now drastically shaking tunnel under who knew how much earth and mountain that could possibly come down on them at any moment.

Neville noticed Richard looked pensive for a moment before he turned to the tablet and shouted. "Contagia."

Once again the tablet glowed and vanished before them, but this time when the new passage opened, the shaking subsided, bringing an eerie silence in its wake. Natalie glanced at her husband questioningly as he stepped forward and gave the still shaking Padma a firm hug.

He shrugged. "I'm a medical professional. I know a virus when I hear of it."

"Ganos probably thought it amusing, given it was a plague that ran the Alterans out of Avalon the first time," Luna noted quietly.

Neville guided Natalie forwards to where Harry, Luna and Hermione were waiting inside the new passageway, giving Padma a moment alone to gather herself with Richard's help. This was the first he'd seen the Indian girl shaken like this, and he thought she might not want to have such a personal moment witnessed by all.

"I think we can soundly call that one the wisdom test. Unless you think the shaking was the faith part." Neville asked as he too passed into the new space.

"No, I agree. That had to be wisdom." Hermione agreed.

"Which only leaves faith," Harry noted, glancing over his shoulder. "Is it just me or is it…"

He drifted off and began to move further down the passage. Neville noted that beyond the reach of the light from their wands, he could see the next turn. It was lit from behind by something.

"Getting hot in here?" Neville finished as he stepped up alongside Harry and the two boys progressed onwards.

"And a lot brighter," Harry said, glancing at Neville for a moment before they turned the next corner.

The one ahead of them was lit far brighter again by a yellowish light that seemed to have a flicker to it. Neville was not looking forward to seeing what lay beyond the next bend. Keeping pace with Harry, they reached it together and Neville's heart skipped a beat as he saw what lay beyond.

The next space was another larger cave with curved walls that funnelled back inwards to the small tunnel that he assumed led forward. The tunnel was thin, there would not be space for more than one person to pass abreast. But the most striking feature was the wall of flames that filled the tunnel opening from floor to ceiling.

"Yep. That'll do it." Harry said sarcastically.

"Wow," Luna whispered as she joined them.

Neville noticed Harry gave Hermione an odd look, one of the ones where the pair of them were sharing some secret between themselves.

"What?" He asked the pair.

Harry flicked his eyes to Neville and smirked. "It's just, we've seen something like this once before. Well, twice technically."

Neville eyed them both questioningly and Hermione offered a reply. "In our first year, after I…" She flicked her eyes to Neville and blushed slightly. Neville also recalled the evening in question, frozen in place for he knew not how long, staring up at the ceiling of the Gryffindor common room, unable to move anything. "Anyway, the last trap before the final room was a logic puzzle with trapped doors. Both filled with fire and you had to pick the right potion to pass either way."

Neville looked back to the flames and nodded. There were no potions here, only bare rock and fire. The heat was tremendous, and he was very glad for the insulating nature of the suit he wore, though he doubted it would matter for long in this heat.

"Still, we should have a look around. There must be a way to get rid of the flames. And I doubt walking through it with the flame-freezing charm will work after the portcullis." Hermione and Harry split and began to inspect the walls of the small chamber, but Neville and Luna remained in place, staring at the fire.

Neville considered the test. This was a test of faith, but faith in what. The fire certainly seemed real enough, the heat coming off it would cook them through in no time at all. What did he have faith in? His mind flipped from one thing to the next. He had faith in his friends, they had proven themselves time and time again. He had come to have faith in himself. His aborted first attempt at his seventh year had forged it within him. The lonely confused boy with his father's wand had turned into a man who stood before Voldemort himself and said NO. He had faith that he would find a cure for his parents. A way to release them from the prison of their minds and bodies.

But he doubted any of these were the sort of faith an ascended former Lantean looking to protect a secret that could destroy her entire kind would be looking for. As his eyes refocused on the room, Neville realised something had changed. Natalie had arrived beside him, but in a space that had been occupied before. Meaning Luna had moved.

His eyes flicked back to the fire and he saw the tiny figure standing before it. "Luna." He said softly, barely audible over the crackle of the flames.

Luna smiled over her shoulder at him before turning back to the fire and without a word, she danced forward. Neville never even had time to gasp as she vanished entirely into the conflagration, consumed by it. Shock was beginning to settle over him when without warning, the flames disappeared to reveal a smiling Luna standing in the tunnel beyond.

"Faith." She said simply as Natalie dashed forwards and grabbed the girl in a searing hug.

"Don't do that to me ever again. I walk around the corner to find a raging fire and one of you stepping into it. The shock of my life."

Neville was still frozen in place in the entrance when the other two came up behind him. "What's going on?" Richard asked, looking at his wife holding the waify Luna tightly.

"Luna just passed the final test." Harry offered, glancing at Padma who flushed slightly but nodded in return.

"So, what now?"

Hermione was the one who spoke, quoting the parchment once more. "Only those of virtue true may win the prize concealed beyond the reach of the flawed and tainted. The Sangreal shall instead belong to he who speaks the guardian's name. Or in other words, we battle a dragon."

She looked to Harry, whose face steeled as he looked to the tunnel where Luna and Natalie were standing. "Then we should get to it."

Neville sighed as Harry squeezed past the two women in the tunnel and headed deeper. He now understood the drive the other man felt. The desire to put one's self in the path of danger in order to protect others from it. A trait the both of them were going to need to work on if they wanted to keep on living into old age.

Natalie and Luna quickly followed Harry as he moved and the others soon bunched up behind, shuffling quietly down the thin tunnel. It was mostly straight, only veering twice as they passed. Before it opened out into a massive space. The roof was now so far above them that the light from their wands didn't come close to lighting it, and the abyss before them seemed to drop away into the depths of the planet.

A thin finger of stone jutted out from the landing where they stood out over the emptiness to a small circular platform with a pillar of stone standing in its middle and an even taller pillar behind with several coloured shapes on its upper reach. A tiny red glow could be seen coming from the top of the smaller pillar.

"There it is," Padma whispered, seemingly recovered from whatever had bothered her during the wisdom test.

"But where is the Guardian?" Harry mumbled. His eyes darted about the space, searching the shadows for movement. "Watch your eyes. Lumos Maxima."

Intense light burst to life at the tip of Harry's wand, showering the area in a dense glow. A moment after it lit, he flicked the wand upwards and the light followed the path, heading into the air above the pillar, filling the large cavern with light. They could now see the upper reaches of the cavern, far above their heads if they squinted past the powerful orb of light, but the abyss below remained dark and mysterious.

"I guess we don't want to fall down there." Luna offered simply, looking into the unknown depths.

"I can't see it anywhere," Harry noted.

"Maybe it won't come out unless someone goes out there." Natalie offered, pointing at the red glow on the platform.

"Any volunteers?" Richard joked, looking first at the thin finger of rock before his eyes fell into the abyss.

"I'll go," Neville replied, drawing every eye to himself.

Harry looked at him before his eyes flicked to the others, and for the first time, he had an inkling of how Hermione did it. He knew exactly what Harry was thinking. He was wondering how to protect both Neville and the group as a whole once they split up.

"I'm coming with you. Everyone else, back in the tunnel, Hermione at this end."

"What?" Padma asked, flabbergasted.

"Don't argue, please." Harry's voice went from sharp to soft as he spoke. "Hermione and I are the only ones with any experience handling dragons. Please."

Hermione stepped over to the tense man and squeezed his hand tightly. "Harry's right. Mum and dad go first. We'll kneel as close to the entrance as possible, so they can use their guns if needed. Depending on the type of dragon, this could be easy, or really bloody hard."

The others looked like they wanted to argue, but soon they nodded and the elder Grangers led the way back into the tunnel. Only once they were all safely inside, did Harry take his first step out onto the stone bridge, Neville close behind him, trying his hardest to focus on Harry's back and the platform ahead instead of the empty air below. Which was very difficult given the path was only about two feet wide meaning the empty abyss was all too visible around him.

Like most of the tunnel, the surface of the pathway was rough and uneven as well. Neville really hoped they didn't need to come back this way in a hurry. Harry arrived at the platform first and aided Neville as he stepped onto the wider space, relieved to be on a sturdier footing for a moment before his mind made sure to reiterate that there was a dragon nearby.

"You're as true a man as I've ever met." Harry offered, pulling his gun and holding it in his left hand while gripping his wand tightly in his right. "You take it, and I'll provide cover."

Neville nodded, glancing once at the five figures bunched up near the small opening across the cavern, watching them cautiously, all armed and tensed to spring. He turned his eyes back to the plinth. It shot up out of the platform like a jet of water that had been squirted vertically through the surface of the stone and then hardened into stone itself. Ridges circled the pillar as it rose and the top was like a bowl or flower swooping outward past the edges of the pillar, a small indentation in the centre.

And in the indentation, Neville saw the Sangreal for the first time. The Bloodstone was very well named. In the light from Harry's spell, it shimmered and the inside of the stone seemed to shift as though it were truly made from blood.

"It's incredible," Neville murmured softly.

"I don't disagree, Nev. But… dragon!"

Neville glanced at Harry and gave him a wry smile before he reached out, stretching for the stone. And his hand passed straight through it. He tried again, but once more the stone remained intangible to him.

"Bad news. It's a hologram."

Harry moved to speak, but was cut off by a thick growl that reached them from way down in the deep unknown below. The sound was distant, but chilling nonetheless. The dragon was awake.

"Harry?" Hermione yelled across the gap and the two spun to look at the others. They were waving them back over when the sound of wings filled the air.

Just as Neville went to move back for the stone bridge, a dark shape shattered through it, sending rocks in every direction, forcing he and Harry to take cover on the now standalone platform. Yelps from the other side indicated the others had been taken by surprise at the sudden appearance as well.

A now deafening roar filled the cavern and Neville looked up from where he had fallen on the stone to see a terrifying sight like no other. Above them, hovering in the air with thick swooping wing movements was a black dragon. Small by dragon standards, smooth scales covered its body from snout to claw, and unlike the British breeds Neville knew of, it had no front legs, only foreclaws at the mid-joint of its crimson wings, similar to the Horntail Harry had faced years before. Its snout was a thick black beak full of jagged yellow teeth, and beginning at the head, a line of spikes ran down its spine to a tail that looked perfect for clubbing stone.

"Great. Some kind of Vipertooth." Harry groaned, standing as the dragon swivelled in the air to face the platform. Harry drew his weapons but before he could fire, the dragon reared back. "Fuck, PROTEGO!"

A burst of yellow fire shot forth from the dragon's beak, the shape of the opening directing it mostly towards Neville, who had not yet drawn his wand in response. The man rolled closer to Harry and the pillar, feeling a sense of relief as the flames were forced around the platform by Harry's powerful shield.

"Bugger." Hermione's voice came from the far side of the gap again, and Neville looked up to see a large block of stone come down over the front of the tunnel, right where Hermione had been squatting. She had been unable to move backwards due to the others so had rolled forwards onto the landing and was now trapped alone on the landing.

"Harry!" Neville shouted, drawing the other man's attention to Hermione's predicament.

"Shit!" Harry replied, rolling towards Neville as he tucked his gun back into its holster. He stretched out with his now free hand and grasped Neville firmly before he felt a twisting, squeezing sensation. Now he was looking out on the dragon and platform from the landing once more.

Harry, however, continued moving the moment they landed, rolling left and stretching out his hand to the prone figure of Hermione sprawled out on the stone surface. She took the hand and Harry pulled her to her feet as Neville regained his own, the three backing towards the now blocked exit.

"Ok, any ideas?" Neville asked, pulling his own wand and gun.

"Shield!" Hermione yelled as the dragon swung to face them all and reared back again.

The three cast in unison and a large bubble of energy surrounded the landing as a whole, the fire spearing out in all directions once it struck the impenetrable field. The dragon roared in dissatisfaction and swooped down, scratching and clawing at the bubble, still having no effect on the powerful barrier.

"We need to get out of here," Hermione noted, trying to find some way to open the tunnel. They could just barely hear the others yelling and banging on the other side.

"I'd love to, but no. We need that stone." Harry groaned, looking at the platform on the far side of the now shattered former bridge.

"Parchment." Neville offered, lining up a shot at the dragon above and casting a spell that shot up through the shield and exploded against its armoured scales. The dragon roared in anger, but it had no effect beyond increasing the animal's rage. "This is the final test." He said before taking another shot, this time with his powerful gun, with the same non-result.

"The Sangreal shall instead belong to he who speaks the Guardian's name," Hermione noted from memory. "The Guardian obviously being the dragon. But the parchment didn't mention the name."

The pissed-off dragon had apparently seen the futility of trying to scratch its way through the shield that kept it at bay while allowing them to freely attack it in return and had pulled back, twisting in the air as it assessed its options. A calculating look in its eyes as it flew up and with a loop the loop came back down at speed, pulling up at the last moment and channelling all of its momentum into its thick tail as it came into contact with the protections keeping it from its prey.

All three of them shuddered at the intense feeling pushing back at them through their magic. The shield held, but it would not last against renewed attacks of that magnitude.

"The dragon isn't the Guardian." Luna's muffled voice came through the stone behind them.

"What? Oh. Of course." Hermione realised. "The Guardian is the one who set this whole thing up. The Guardian is MORGAN LE FAY!" She yelled the last at the dragon who was swooping down for a second tail attack.

The powerful creature struck the shield again and the three groaned at the pain of trying to maintain its integrity.

"No!" Padma and Luna's voices came from behind once again, but the rest of their words were drowned out by the dragon roaring in anger at being kept from its prey once more.

Neville realised what the girls were trying to say. Morgan Le Fay was not the name of the Guardian. "GANOS LAL!" He shouted as the dragon swooped down for a third attack and without warning, it shrunk suddenly in on itself disappearing with a blink of light.

Hermione looked at him and blushed. "Right. Alteran."

Harry chuckled beside the two and pulled Hermione into a firm hug. Behind them, the stone blocking the tunnel shimmered out of existence and the others rushed forwards, the two girls grabbing Neville and the Grangers rushing to their daughter.

"Well, that was interesting," Richard noted as the group panted from the intense adrenaline running through their systems. "Barely even got to see my first dragon."

The group laughed at the ridiculousness of the statement but it definitely helped to lessen the tension left over after that hopefully final test.

Chapter Text

Monday, 11th October 1999.

Harry felt the blood rushing through his veins, still filled with adrenaline as he held Hermione firmly in his grasp. He had been terrified when Neville had pointed her out alone on the landing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, filling his senses with the smell of her, and it calmed his racing heart somewhat.

"You ok?" She whispered softly, wedged between him and her parents.

Harry simply nodded his reply. He pulled away slightly, unable to fully withdraw as his arms were trapped in a Granger sandwich. "Yeah."

As the others pulled apart, Harry stepped back and turned, and he noted with surprise that the destroyed bridge was once more intact. None of the debris or other damage caused by the dragon remained either. It was as if the test had never even occurred. He stepped over to the bridge, the others falling silent as he moved and he tentatively tested his weight on a section of the bridge he knew had been destroyed.

"Cool." He murmured as he continued out over the void, heading for the platform. The others soon followed behind and within moments, all seven were arrayed around the pillar containing the Bloodstone.

"So…" Neville asked the group. "Do we think it's real this time?"

The others glanced at him before Hermione spoke. "Go ahead, Neville."

Harry, however, was taking a closer look at the larger pillar at the back of the platform. It was an obelisk, also made of the same stone as the cavern and like all other examples he'd seen, appeared to be carved from the very rock itself. Yet the embedded blue crystals made him think that there was more to it than that. And he'd seen examples of Alteran technology hidden inside what appeared to be nothing more than carved rock before.

Harry glanced over his shoulder as Neville reached forward to grasp the small stone, but his hand passed through it again. Immediately Harry moved to pull his wand, but his eyes were drawn back to the obelisk as the crystals lit up and a bright light burst out of the largest crystal, filling his senses entirely.

As it dissipated, the enormous cavern was replaced by a far smaller cave. The moment they arrived, torches in all corners of the room lit with flame revealing stone walls made of the same material, but these were lined by short bookshelves. The floor space about the cave was dotted with small wooden chairs and tables and in one corner was a futon-style bed. The centre of the space was dominated by two massive circular structures, one natural and one not.

The natural formation was an enormous, uneven limestone column several feet thick that filled the space from floor to ceiling. Beside it was a very man-made structure, a squat disc about three feet high, with twelve evenly-spaced rectangular stones around the outer edge peeking above the otherwise perfectly flat top which they were all now standing around.

"That was interesting," Padma said, spinning about to observe the space.

"So is this." Luna and Hermione said together, looking in different directions.

Harry spun to see the two girls standing back to back opposite him, and by virtue of his position, saw what Hermione was looking at first. On the back wall of the room was a stasis chamber built into the rocky wall, and it was occupied.

"That can't be." He whispered as he walked over to the active device. It was difficult to see in, the material filling the chamber had become clouded over time and the natural crystal patterns obscured the image further despite the eerie green-blue backlighting, but after so long chatting to their image in the Lab and Fundamenta, Harry was more than familiar with Myrddin's face.

Beside the chamber on the wall, there was another stone tablet, this one appearing to be made of granite rather than the red marbled stone of the riddles. Hermione read it aloud. "Here lies Myrddin, Archmage of the Round."

"Well," Richard said, "that's a win. Now he can finish the job."

"What about this?" Luna asked, now over by the column.

Harry turned to see what she was indicating and saw a mirror device embedded in the column itself. "They do love mixing fancy and natural. Wait, Luna!"

Luna looked into the mirror before Harry could voice his warning and the device stretched into active mode, extending out towards her. No lights within came on, but a metallic slurping sound behind him quickly drew his attention. The crystalline filling of the stasis chamber began to glow and recede, and Harry quickly stepped forwards to catch the falling body of the ancient Myrddin as it stumbled free.

"Richard. Help." Harry groaned under the deadweight and the elder man rushed over to help, the pair hoisting the dazed figure up by the arms and quickly shuffled him over to the nearby bed. The figure opened its eyes as they laid him down and wearily looked about, trying to speak for a moment before blacking out.

"That's great." Padma moaned as she looked at the still figure.

"Easy," Harry replied. "He's thousands of years old. I'm willing to bet being yanked out of stasis after that long is a shock to the system." He checked for vital signs and noticed shallow breathing and an unsteady heart rate. "Hermione? Anything you brought that might help?"

Hermione looked up uncertainly before she reached over her shoulder and removed the bag. She quickly dug inside and pulled out a handful of potions. "Hold him still. I've not actually done this on a person yet."

Harry and Richard held the already still body in place as Hermione stepped up beside her father and arranged the potions beside Myrddin's head. She tapped each one in turn and the contents vanished, but Harry noticed Myrddin's throat bulged slightly each time and then swallowed weakly.

"That should help. The last one is a weaker alternative to the Draught of Living Death. Should prevent him from expiring before we can get him home. I'm not game to try any proper magic on him until we know what his condition is. I could just as easily kill him while trying to help him."

"So, how do we get home? We don't know where on the planet we are. That beam felt like an Alteran Transport Beam, which we know could go anywhere else there is a receiver." Natalie noted.

Luna gave a soft hum of confirmation. "That would make sense. The notes in the Mantle mentioned that it was from Ganos Lal that Myrddin learned the beaming technology. The phase-shifting tech as well. Stands to reason she would use them in her own tests and efforts to protect the secret."

"I guess we need to have a look around. There is an opening over here." Neville said from the far side of the cave.

"I'll come with you." Harry offered, nodding to Hermione who was once more checking Myrddin's vitals.

Harry quickly joined Neville by the exit. The pair lit their wands anew as they passed into the narrow tunnel. It matched the style of the ones they had been in all afternoon, and Harry assumed it would lead them back into the cavern and then hopefully on to an exit.

"I hope Hermione's potions keep him stable," Neville said as they walked. "Don't like our odds of getting all the way back through this maze then back out of the temporal field onto the village and the porta only to have him expire a few minutes before we get home."

Harry nodded as he considered the dangers. If Myrddin died and he hadn't properly recorded how to build the device, all their efforts to now will have been for nothing. "Maybe once we find the way out, if it'll take too long, we can refreeze him. Better alive in stasis than dead out here. Light up ahead."

He waved his wand in the direction of the curve in the tunnel that showed a dull light reaching in from past its boundary. The two men stepped up their pace, both worried about being on the clock now Myrddin was on normal time once more. As they turned the corner, Harry stopped in place, a mixture of surprise and amazement at what he saw.

What had seemed to be a bend in the tunnel was actually the opening leading out of the cave altogether. In front of them, several rocky tiers lead down from the opening to a flat expanse of land a few dozen metres out from them before it dropped away. At the edge of the cliff was a wide stone dais with stairs on the front that lead up to an astria porta, and through the large opening within, Harry saw a lush forest stretching away beyond the cliff face under a pair of bright moons hung impossibly large in the night sky.

"Well, I guess that settles the debate about whether you can transmit matter as an energy wave through the porta." Neville joked.

"I'll say. The obelisks must be the beam engine. Sucks us up, dials the porta remotely and shoots us through to a receiver on another planet. I'd say this whole little mountain gets transported along. Something tells me that porta isn't connected to the main conmeatas at all."

"Yeah. I'm willing to bet if we skirt this thing, that cliff face runs around it all. If Lal could redirect the natural orbits of whole planets, making a mesa shouldn't be too hard. At least getting Myrddin back home should be easy enough. Provided our remotes work on that guy." Neville nodded at the giant ring dominating the skyline.

"You wanna find out? I'll go see how they're doing inside. And pop out a vulta as well. See what this place looks like. If this planet is unused or uninhabited as we suspect, it could be a handy location to have in our back pocket once we take away its reason for being off the grid."

"Will do," Neville replied, pulling one of the tiny drones from his bag and setting it loose in the sky. He hopped down the rocks as Harry quickly headed back inside. With any luck, they'd be home for bedtime, and with the brain that began this whole mission in hand.

"How is he?" He asked Hermione as he arrived back, noting that the others were gathering up all the odds and ends that they could carry in their bags to take back with them.

"Old. That stasis chamber is borderline useless. It's robust as all hell, but its ratio is way out of whack. He's aged almost a hundred years while inside of it. And he wasn't exactly spry when he went in."

"How bad?"

"We need to get him back to Fundamenta before I can make a proper assessment. And I think we need to call Poppy for help here. I'm still too green to fix this, Harry. We can't lose him."

"I know. I wonder why Lal made the stasis chamber that way. She went to all this trouble to keep him safe and alive… but botched it on the part that actually kept him alive? Doesn't sound right. There has to be a reason."

"How long do you think it will take us to get him all the way back to the porta?" Luna asked, stepping up behind Harry.

"Er, not long actually. The tunnel is only a few dozen or so metres before it opens into free air. We're on another planet by the looks of it. The obelisks are beam engines and there is a porta just outside. Neville is trying to dial home right now."

Hermione looked surprised at the news and her eyes flicked to the walls.

"Yeah, I thought the same thing. I think this entire mountain seems to get beamed up and sent through. We know the tech is powerful enough to do it. Also confirms that beam energy can carry matter through a wormhole."

"So. Home for dinner?" Luna asked brightly.

"Maybe breakfast, according to my watch." Padma retorted as she gathered up more of the books on the shelves scattered about the cave.

"Figure of speech, darling," Natalie whispered as she passed.

"Guys?" Neville's voice echoed into the cave.

"I'll see what's what. You gather everything that's not nailed down. We'll take what we can back home."

"And that?" Hermione queried, nodding at the mirror device which had receded back into the column.

"If you think you can bring it along, sure. If not, we'll see if we can lock down the address for this planet. I have a feeling it might prove useful in the future regardless."

Harry turned and headed back out of the cave, meeting Neville down by the obelisk, the now active porta on the cliff edge casting a glow over the plateau.

"Hey. We were right. Vulta shows this thing is a small chunk of a mountain situated atop a low mesa about a hundred feet high, surrounded by forest as far as it can see for now. Dialled out fine too," Neville paused and glanced at the glowing blue fluctuations in the event horizon, "but I guess you can see that. Merlin can't be here in person, no emitters, but he's analysing the programming of the obelisk before we go anywhere. Which should give us the location of this planet, too."

"That's handy. My plan had been to see just how high those little guys of yours could fly so we could get a detailed image of the stars. Not that there is all that much light pollution on this planet."

Harry glanced skyward and admired the thick covering of stars peeking out from behind the clouds high above. He was brought back to the ground when he heard Merlin's voice coming from the remote on Neville's wrist. "Analysis complete. Address confirmed, along with a dozen other destinations."

"More planets?" Neville asked into his remote.

"Yes. The obelisk is programmed to cycle the structure through them on a regular basis every few hours, completely at random."

"The entire mountain?" Neville whistled impressed as he gazed up at the rock above them. Harry agreed, it was at least four times the height of the already large porta and seemed to be quite long and wide as well.

"Negative. There is an identical structure on each planet. Only live matter is transported between them."

Harry groaned out loud. "What is it?"

Harry glanced at the other man. "Hermione thought the stasis chamber was broken, or just poorly designed. But if that's how it works, Myrddin is being constantly beamed into a buffer and shot through the porta into the next pod. That would account for its horrible inefficiency. It's only a fraction of a second at a time, but every few hours over a thousand years? No wonder his body went into shock. Did you update Merlin on the status of… well, Merlin?"

Neville chuckled, it was a good thing they tended to refer to the program as Merlin and the man as Myrddin. "I did. He's prepared the stasis chamber so we can put him under if necessary. Merlin can scan the body once it's inside and ascertain his long term health. He also feels confident he can access at least some of Myrddin's memories while he's in the pod, so even if he's too far gone to revive, we might be able to get the schematics."

"That's good," Luna noted, dropping down beside them. "Because I had a quick look in the mirror device. They aren't in there. It's an interface only. In fact, there was nothing in its storage banks. Lal cleaned it out."

"Great." Harry sighed. "How's the packing?"

"We're done. Everything of worth at least, the furniture can stay." Richard said, appearing from the cave entrance. "Hermione's bringing Myrddin now."

A few moments after the others cleared the entrance, Harry saw Hermione backing towards them, glancing over her shoulder occasionally as she levitated the still figure of Myrddin through the narrow tunnel. Harry stepped over and held up his arms, Hermione smirking at him as she took advantage and jumped backwards, into his arms. Thankfully she ensured Myrddin's descent was far smoother.

"Home it is?" Padma asked softly, the group all glancing between themselves and when no one disagreed, the Ravenclaw smiled and dashed through the active porta.

Harry gestured for Hermione to go next and tapped a message for Padma to be ready to support Myrddin's body, as they hadn't yet tested how magic performed when passing through an event horizon. The group watched quietly as the best hope for their major goal passed into the blue energy field, the usual watery sucking and sloshing accompanying the sight.

A moment later, Hermione followed him through, wand still raised as she disappeared over the threshold.

"Hey, Neville," Harry called before his classmate stepped through, causing the others to wend around him. "Set the vulta to wander. We're probably going to want a detailed idea of this place soon."

"That's a good idea," Neville replied, tapping the instruction into his remote and the pair heard the tiny sphere shoot off at high speed through the air. "C'mon. Let's get some rest."

Harry nodded in agreement as the two Gryffindors stepped into the astria porta and headed back home after what felt like the longest day they'd had in a very long time.

ϟ

Friday, 15th October 1999.

Natalie hummed softly as she finished sorting their new books into the shelving inside the vault. It had taken them several days to digitise them all first, but now the collection was tucked in beside those from their previous trips. Probably the greatest physical collection of Alteran knowledge on Earth, and perhaps the entire galaxy kept in the bowels of Gringotts with those above none the wiser.

In fact, the group had not set foot in the building above since they opened the vaults, not needing to with their ability to beam in and out at will. The elder Granger looked about the space, this one not containing any of the traditional valuables, only books and small furniture for the time being.

Her life had taken so many turns since Hermione had turned eleven, but seeing the results now, she wouldn't change it for the world. To not only be an active part of her adult daughter's life, but to be exploring the galaxy. It was a dream she'd had as a child, but had been precluded from attempting due to a simple defect in her left eye. No space agency on Earth would accept her, so she had passed on the dream.

And now she had travelled further through the stars than any astronaut on Earth could dream. She smiled to herself at the irony as she gathered her things and entered her destination on the remote. The usual beam of light surrounded her and she reappeared in the English cavern. She looked about in surprise at the changes that had been made since she last visited.

In the centre of the space, there was now an identical platform to the one from the cave on the planet where they had found Myrddin, and the mirror device seemed to have been moved from one of the tunnels to the wall near the platform. The plinth that had held the sword now had the Mantle incorporated into its upper surface.

"Merlin?" She called out, the image soon joining her.

"Yes?"

"Been redecorating?" She asked.

"I have made several alterations as we have come closer to completing our task. While I could simply use the technology at Fundamenta for integration of the device, this cavern is the safest place in the galaxy when it comes to dealing with ascended beings."

"And that?" She asked, pointing at the Mantle.

"Incorporating the Mantle into the main system boosts the effectiveness of the shielding. Were he in better health, I would be keeping my maker here as well. We are too close to risk failure now due to cockiness."

Natalie sighed. "That is true. How is Myrddin? Will you be able to revive him?"

"Not at present. We do not yet have sufficient medical equipment at Fundamenta to properly stabilise him after such a long and constantly broken stasis. That he lives after that at all is a testament to his hardiness. However, his mind is co-operating at present, and I am gathering the designs for the device as we speak."

"You don't feel any sort of kinship with the man? You are made in his image."

"As realistic as Myrddin made me, I am and always will be a program on a computer. I feel a kinship with nothing." Merlin replied, totally devoid of any sign of emotion on this occasion, something she had seen the image replicate before.

"That's a shame. We all like you very much." Natalie commented as she headed to the corner and deposited the few technological items acquired from Myrddin's cave. On this, they definitely agreed with Merlin, this Lab was the safest place to leave anything technologically related to the Sangraal. They did not want to trip at the finish line now.

ϟ

Harry stretched the knot in his shoulder as he stared at the lights shifting over Myrddin's once more frozen mind, Merlin working with the man that started this whole thing to finish the design of the weapon in the virtual buffer. It was taking longer than they had hoped now that they had the original inventor on hand, but his placement in stasis and the need to only store the information in the Lab meant each step was an arduous process to complete.

The complex was quiet as Natalie was off curating their collection. Neville was visiting his parents, probably talking to them about his newest adventures. Luna had gone to visit Dobby and her father on his continuing dig, believing they may have uncovered something important. Hermione and her father were off on a very rare father-daughter day out. While Padma was off catching up with her sister.

Not that Harry minded the silence, it was actually quite nice, it was just a change from his life of late. Usually, he was surrounded by friends or doing something urgent and life-changing. It was nice to have a day where he was resigned to wandering aimlessly for a change.

"HELP!"

Harry groaned deeply as he cursed the universe for listening in on his thoughts.

"HELP!" The female voice came again.

Harry dashed in the direction it was coming from and his blood began to run cold as he realised where he was heading. He rushed in through the open doorway to find two identical figures in the brightly lit room. One lying on the floor, the other sitting above them. The sitting one tossed her head back to scream for aid once more but stopped when she saw Harry.

"Help. Harry, please help her. She just fell over." Parvati yelped.

Harry noticed the shimmering walls of the box were flickering on and off, and there was no shadow inside.

"Where did it go?" He asked, kneeling beside Padma opposite Parvati.

"It's in her. Help her."

Harry took a deep steadying breath and considered their options. If Anubis was inside of Padma, they could not take her out of this room. Above all else, Anubis could not be allowed to escape. But as abrasive as she could be, Harry was already becoming quite fond of their second Ravenclaw.

"Merlin!" Harry yelled, and the image appeared in the air. "Open the box."

"Are you cert…" The image stopped as it seemed to realise that the box was empty. "Oh. Forgive me. I've been priori…"

"Just open the box," Harry growled, moving to slip his arms underneath Padma before he stopped and pulled his wand instead. With a wave, the still girl was hovering in the air and Parvati moved to head towards the doorway.

Harry guided the body into the box and Parvati's jaw dropped. "What are you doing? You need to help her!"

"I am helping her. Please trust me. Can you detect the presence in her?" He asked the computer as he laid Padma down in the middle of the space.

"Yes. I am reactivating the field now." The box once again began to glow, but flickered out a few times. "Error detected. Repairing."

An even brighter glow appeared in the bottom corner closest to them where the beam energy corrected whatever damage Anubis had managed to cause that had weakened the prison in their distraction during the past month. When it dissipated, the field came back on stable once again. Harry let out a breath of relief.

"Harry…" Parvati screeched.

"I know, believe me, I know. We're going to get it out of her, Parvati. But what is in her right now could destroy this entire planet if it gets out of this room." Harry stepped over to the frantic twin, gently taking her upper arms in hand and staring into her eyes. "We'll get her back. I promise. Now, I need you to tell me what happened. I thought Padma was visiting you at your parents' house."

"She did. We had lunch together and got to talking about what we'd been up to. When she wouldn't tell me details I nagged her. When I wouldn't stop, she brought me here somehow. It didn't feel like apparating." Parvati paused, and Harry conjured a pair of chairs, guiding her into one and sitting opposite her. "She showed me around a bit, and I saw this room with the big glowing doors. As soon as we came inside, this dark shadow surged at us and she shoved me aside. It bounced off the open doorway for some reason and then it all rushed into her body. What's going on, Harry."

"It's an ancient being we found. It attacked us, so we subdued it. We're working on a way to destroy it, but we aren't ready yet."

"What about my sister?" Parvati cried.

"We'll find a way to get it out of her. I swear." Harry meant every word.

He already felt guilty that he had been so distracted by the mission and his new status with Hermione that he'd stopped checking on Anubis. Clearly, the former goa'uld had not been idle and had managed to damage the prison cell enough to get into the main section of the room. He was just thankful that Hermione'd had the foresight to protect the entire room with the same energy field.

As though summoned by his thoughts, the door opened to reveal Hermione and Richard, the pair's eyes flicking from Harry and Parvati to the still form of Padma inside the glowing cube.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, kneeling beside her former roommate.

"Anubis broke out of the box. He couldn't get past the field you put over the room, so he possessed Padma. I put her back inside for now, and Merlin fixed the box." Hermione put her hand on Parvati's thigh as the girl began to sob in earnest. "We have to get that thing out of her."

Hermione nodded softly. "I know. We will get it out, Parv. You'll have your sister back in no time."

Parvati nodded and turned to stare at the box, soft sniffles coming from her regularly as the others stepped away and Harry vanished his chair.

"How do we get it out of her?" Richard whispered once they were far enough away from Parvati.

"I have no idea," Harry admitted. He really didn't want to lie to Parvati, and Padma had begun to really grow on him since she joined their team.

A loud crack filled the space and Parvati gave a sudden scream, jumping from her chair and staring at the newest arrival. Luna stood panting hard beside a wobbling Dobby, the elf looking like he was about to expire.

"Dobby," Harry yelled, dashing over to the wee figure as it swayed heavily, before falling backwards. Harry caught him before he collapsed and laid his friend on his lap.

"Harry Potter. Dobby is alright. Dobby is just very tired."

"Sorry. I panicked a little when we got the message and forgot about the beam." Luna apologised as she gave Dobby's sweating forehead a wipe. "I don't think Dobby realised just how far away this place is. The little guy just grabbed my hand and pulled hard on my magic and, boom, here we are."

Harry glanced up at Luna and nodded as Dobby passed out in his arms, exhausted from the effort of carrying two people to the other side of the planet in one go. His eyes drifted to Hermione who was looking between Luna and Dobby thoughtfully.

"What is it?" He asked her.

"I'm not sure. An inkling of something, but I'm not certain what. Something about what Dobby just did, and something about possession."

"You think Dobby can get Anubis out of her? He's way too tired to try that." Harry growled.

"Of course not, Harry. And I would never ask him to do that. But maybe we can do that. We share our magic when apparating all the time to boost our effective range or load. Maybe we can do that in a way that will help Padma."

"You mean you don't know how to help her?" Parvati cried, overhearing the discussion.

Harry glanced at the twin and his face fell at the panic in her eyes. "Not exactly. We've never had to deal with possession before."

"That's not true," Luna said and everyone turned to face her. "You have."

Luna's eyes were fixed on Harry and his mind suddenly recalled a rather painful night he'd been trying not to think about lately. The night he had thought Sirius had died. The night that Voldemort had forced his way into his mind twice.

Every eye was now fixed on Harry. "I don't know. There were extenuating circumstances then, Luna. My mum's protection hurt Voldemort."

"That's not what you told us." Hermione corrected. "You told me that Dumbledore said it was love that pushed him out of you. That someone as sour and hate-filled as Voldemort couldn't stand to be in a body so full of it."

"But I thought that was my mother's love?"

"Dumbledore didn't seem to think so. Remember, he said that he thought that the protection your mother gave you stopped working on Voldemort when he took your blood. That was all you, Harry."

"Ok, fine. But as much as I like Padma, I don't love her. I don't see how that helps us."

"You may not, but she certainly does," Richard noted, indicating the no longer sobbing figure behind them.

"Parvati?" Hermione questioned as the girl glared dangerously at the glowing box nearby.

The girl turned to face them, a steely expression on her face. "Tell me what I need to do." The Gryffindor growled, and Harry saw the resolve in her swollen brown eyes that had once separated the Patil twins into different houses, and would hopefully now bring them back together.

Chapter Text

Saturday, 16th October 1999.

Padma found herself floating in empty darkness, fear gripping at her as her eyes glanced around, trying to find something to latch on to. She took a steadying step and paused at the sound of water underfoot. She glanced down and saw the black floor on which she now stood was covered in a tiny layer of water, but it did not ripple when she moved. There was no visible light nearby, but now she could see her own body, oddly dressed in her old school uniform. The robes shifted about her as she moved her arms and glanced about the emptiness.

She went to speak but was interrupted by an intense shock of pain running through her body and a deep rumbling sound filled the air around her. She cowered in place, feeling the water against her knee as she covered her ears with her hands and trembled under the weight.

As suddenly as it had appeared, the pain vanished and silence retook the emptiness. She slowly stood once again and looked about and this time she noticed something in the distance. Something in the blackness surrounding her was moving. Her breath accelerated along with her heart rate and she searched her pockets for her wand. But it was nowhere to be found. She was alone and she was unarmed.

The shape in the darkness surged forwards and Padma yelled, falling back to the floor, her hands splayed wide behind her. It was still too dark for her to make out any detail on the object, but she could sense that it was moving in some way, and that it was not friendly.

"What are you?" She asked, her voice hollow and weak in the massive dark space.

"I am you now." A deep rumbling replied.

"I am me," Padma yelled back, with more courage than she felt. The idea of courage reminded her of her Gryffindor sister. "What did you do with Parvati?"

The darkness chuckled and Padma winced at the evil sound. It filled the air around her and threatened to overwhelm her. "The weaker one? I had no use for her. You will lead me to freedom."

"Never." Padma returned, panting softly.

"So you may think. Your kind is different. But I shall soon have what I need."

"Who are you?" Padma asked, the voice sounding oddly familiar to her, but unable to trace where she had heard it before.

"I am," the rumbling voice paused for a moment, the sound echoing in her ears menacingly. "Anubis."

As the last word filled the space the dark cloud that had been undulating in place in the air took form and Padma gasped out loud as she was now staring into her own face looking back at her. But it also looked nothing like her at the same time. The eyes were all black pupils, and there was no compassion or love in those eyes. The thing before her was devoid of emotion. An empty shell made of her face.

"I know you." Padma mused, softly to herself as she searched her mind for the connection. The darkness around her pressed in harder and she felt her breath struggling against the weight.

"It matters not." The voice now matched her own, except it was deeper still. "Soon you will be mine, and I will walk out the front door of this marvellous place."

Padma blinked in pain as the darkness was suddenly replaced with the atrium of Fundamenta and many memories rushed painfully into her mind. That was where she knew of Anubis from, he was their prisoner.

"Not anymore. Soon I will be free. And more powerful than ever, thanks to you."

"I will not let you out," Padma growled, rushing to her feet, a sense of strength filling her at the sight of familiar territory.

"You are pitiful. You cannot stop me. I will learn your mind and I will have your body." Anubis smirked and Padma recoiled at the hateful look on her face.

"The others will never let you out."

"The others will do whatever is necessary to save your worthless life. Your kind are always so predictable. Compassionate. Yeck." Anubis spat on the ground as it circled her slowly. inching ever closer with each spiral. "And I do so delight in turning that pathetic emotion into my weapon."

Padma closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing. She might not have her sister's courage, but she had her mind. She had her wit.

"Think you can push me out?" Anubis hissed, and Padma recoiled as she opened her eyes and found her mirror standing right in front of her face, an evil grimace spread over its face. "You humans are pathetic. You don't have the fortitude to take me on, little girl. I am millennia-old, I have tasted the heights of other planes."

Padma smirked in return. "And been cast back down like a dog."

Her mirror darkened and lashed out at her, striking her hard across the face and sending her flying through the room. "Silence."

Padma massaged her face as her cheek throbbed painfully. "Touchy subject?"

"You've no idea what you're speaking of. But, thanks to you and your friends, I do." The image gave a dark laugh and Padma felt her spirit wilt at the look on its face. "Not only will you free me, but you have given me the tool to remove the Others from my way."

Padma looked confused for a moment before it became clear. "No."

"YES! Myrddin's Weapon will be mine, and the fools who thought they could limit me will be gone. I will be free to act once more. And this galaxy will bend to my will. Or I will wipe it clean and start again."

Padma found herself no longer in the comforting halls of Fundamenta, but on another world. Orangey-red sand stretched out in front of her, through the ruins of an ancient city. A rim of structures carved into the circular rock face around her looked abandoned and decrepit. To her left was a platform with an astria porta glowing, but it was the sight to her right that took her breath away.

An enormous mountain stood before her, beautiful and terrible at the same time. It looked unnatural, the tip sticking out further than it rightly should. Through the ages of dirt and debris, there seemed to be some sort of image in the rock face but she couldn't make it out from down here. She noticed movement near the bottom of the mountain and rushed to follow. In an instant, she was inside, and her mirror smiled evilly at her from over the top of a moderum.

The image began to toy with the controls and Padma rushed forward, fighting for control of the device as her counterpart growled at her in return.

"You cannot stop me, child. I am as inevitable as the dawn. I am the twilight of this universe. All shall tremble before me."

Suddenly, Padma felt a surge of energy run through her, bolstering her body. "You are a parasite. One with delusions of greatness."

Anubis struck out at her in anger, but Padma dodged the swipe, further altering the controls of the moderum, doing her best to keep Anubis from completing their task. Several more surges filled Padma and she smiled. With a strength she didn't know she possessed, she leapt over the moderum and tackled Anubis to the ground.

Shock registered for a moment as she realised they were back in the dark place, Anubis laying flat on the watery surface, Padma straddling her own mirrored form. "This is my body and my mind. And you are not welcome in it."

Anubis caught her off-guard and the punch to her face sent Padma reeling. Her ears rang and her whole face throbbed painfully. Never had she felt something so punishing in her life. Anubis stood and towered over her, menacingly.

"Everything in this universe is mine to use as I see fit. But the first thing I'm going to do once I am free…" Anubis advanced on her prone form and Padma struggled to move backwards on the slippery floor. "I'm going to use your own two hands to choke the life out of your precious twin sister. Then you're going to watch as I slaughter your friends and take your technology for myself."

Padma didn't feel strong anymore, whatever had been filling her with energy seemed to have vanished. She felt so frail and scared, alone in the advancing darkness. Powerless to stop the evil force bearing down on her.

"NO!" A shout came from her right and before she could even look to see what it was, a figure tackled Anubis to the ground once more. The new arrival began to pummel the figure and Padma finally realised who it was.

"Parv?"

Her sister turned and looked at her before she jumped to her feet and rushed over. As Parvati pulled her to her feet, she saw the mangled face of her mirror on the floor looking up in shocked horror at the two of them.

"What are you doing here?"

"Getting that thing out of my sister." The pair turned to stare at the prone form and it trembled slightly under their withering gaze.

"This form is mine. I will conquer you both if that is what it takes." Anubis roared as the now disfigured body leapt to its feet and charged at the twins.

Padma glanced uncertainly at Parvati but her sister stood fast and raised her left fist, clutching Padma's hand with her right. Padma mirrored her sister's stance and raised her own fist as well. And when Anubis was close enough, the two girls struck, hitting in unison and knocking the shade out of its stolen form.

A deep rumbling scream of anguish filled the air, but with her sister beside her, Padma was no longer afraid of it. Instead, she turned her will against the scream and with a shout of anger, she pushed as hard as she could. Parvati squeezed her hand and she felt her sister's other hand on her shoulder.

"Do it. Come back to us, Pad."

Padma clenched her fists, one around Parvati's hand and felt the energy surge within her once more. She forced it all forward, hammering the shuddering cloud with every bit of it and suddenly a thunderclap filled her senses.

She jolted up and nearly headbutted her sister who lurched back suddenly. Padma tried to scream, but instead of air, a dark shape forced its way out of her mouth and up into the air. When it was clear of her body, Padma took a deep shuddering breath and fell back onto the floor, her body feeling like she had just run a marathon.

She choked on the air as Parv pulled her into a tight hug, the arms squeezing her body making it harder to try and pull in the fresh air she needed. "Parv…" She squeaked.

"I was so worried about you, Pad."

"Air…" Padma coughed and Parvati pulled back, finally allowing her to pull in several thick breaths of relief.

When at last she felt her heart rate settling, she opened her eyes to look at her sister, but her attention was immediately drawn to the hovering cloud of darkness behind her. Padma recoiled and rushed backwards on her hands and bum until she hit something solid. "Get me away from that thing!" She yelled. And before she could move, a white light encompassed her, depositing her in the medical room of the base.

Parvati was still beside her, but now the others were there as well, all looking drained and exhausted.

"What the bloody hell just happened?" She asked the others as another figure appeared and walked briskly over to her.

"Time for that later." Poppy instructed, pushing her down onto the bed and drawing her wand. "I need to look you over first."

Padma lay still, her sister's hand still firmly clenched in her own as the Hogwarts matron checked her from top to bottom. The others just stood watch as the woman worked and Padma tried to settle her frayed nerves.

Poppy soon pulled away and sighed softly. "Well, you're utterly exhausted, so obviously no magic. That goes for all of you. I don't need to check, I can see it in your stance. And that elf of yours, don't let him cast anything for the next week, he's lucky to be alive after that trick. Otherwise, you seem to be as healthy as one could expect."

"Why are you all exhausted?" Padma asked.

"We fed Parvati our magic so she could use her love for you to shove Anubis out," Hermione explained, looking rather ragged, her hair a chaotic mess. "Harry had a bit of practice doing the latter part a couple of years ago."

Padma turned to her sister and gripped her hand tighter. "Thanks, Parv."

"Anytime." Parvati returned, smiling at her softly. "Just, let's not make a habit of it."

Poppy nodded and moved over to where the Grangers were standing, looking far better than everyone else in the room. "Here."

She handed Natalie a roll of parchment. "What's this?"

"Contact details and references. As much as I like you all, I have a school to handle. I am afraid I cannot be your full-time medical aid."

Natalie unrolled the parchment and noticed the remote Harry had provided the woman with was inside. She nodded in understanding. "Keep this." She returned the remote to Poppy. "Press it anytime you want to visit. You're always welcome."

Padma allowed the conversation to fade away from her thoughts as she laid back on the bed, her head and chest throbbing from the apparent exertion she had subjected them to. And she tried her hardest to push the painful images swirling in her mind away as sleep threatened to take hold once more.

ϟ

Hermione sighed as she snuggled deeper into Harry's shoulder, his arms wrapped around her as they lay in his bed quietly. It had been hours since they had left Parvati and Padma alone and still, the experience wouldn't allow Hermione to relax.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked and Hermione silently cursed his new powers of observation when it came to her.

"I'm afraid, Harry." He did not reply and she knew he sensed she wasn't finished. "My mother and now one of our closest friends have been attacked by Anubis. And he is only one of thousands, perhaps millions of those things in this galaxy."

"You're worried about what will happen if we ever encounter one of the parasites in person," Harry noted and Hermione nodded.

"Thor said one taking an Asgard host would kill it. They'd crush its mind in an instant, but for us? Harry, we're just humans. And my parents… they don't even have magic, we could never repeat what we just did for Padma with them."

"I know. I've been thinking about it too." Harry trailed off and now Hermione was left knowing there was something more in that sentence than he was letting on.

She leant up on her elbows and looked down at him. He looked like he was struggling with an idea that was pressing down on his brow, obscuring his green eyes even without his glasses. "Talk to me, Harry."

"Snape. Well, Occlumency really. It's supposed to harden the mind. But we need to find a way to do it that works with muggles as well. Maybe we can train our minds to resist possession like we can train a muscle with a workout. Build up the strength needed to do what the Asgard can do."

Hermione looked at him slightly stunned for a moment before she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. It wasn't their first kiss. They had shared several since the moment they had finally shared their feelings a couple of weeks before, and the thrill of it still ran through her every time they did it.

"I love it when you get all clever." She said as she pulled back.

Harry smiled at her and blushed slightly. "It balances out all the recklessness, I suppose."

Hermione tucked herself back into place, quickly getting comfortable once more. "Once we can move without aching, I'll have a look through the database, and see if there is any form of Alteran technology that would work that way. I'd rather not use the mirror for such a thing. It would be exhausting standing up long enough to do it."

"Hmmm," Harry mused softly, "maybe the chair. At least it's comfortable." She smiled as Harry drifted off and let her thoughts wander through her options. She'd worry about it when they woke up, for now enjoying her time snuggled up with Harry, which was quickly becoming her favourite way to fall asleep.

ϟ

Wednesday, 27th October 1999.

Neville blinked wearily as the chair ended his session and he heard the sound of several beams indicating the arrival of someone nearby. He rubbed his eyes, his head pounding after the intense workout that he had been doing on the training program Hermione had devised utilising the Alteran's research into memory technology. After the Anubis scenario, the team had all agreed to do at least one session on the course every week.

It had taken Hermione four days to create, but Neville could already feel some of the benefits, even after completing only his third session, some of his former insecurities rearing their heads and driving him to do more than they'd estimated to be necessary. His memory was already improving and he found ideas coming to him quicker. He glanced around the bright room and noticed the others looking at him.

"Morning." He offered as he shuffled forward on the chair.

"Afternoon, actually. You've been in there for hours today." Hermione mused.

"Well, that's good to know then. What's everyone else been up to?" Neville asked, standing up and swaying slightly as his legs got used to being functional once more.

"It's finished," Merlin stated before anyone else could speak.

"Eh?" Richard asked.

"The Sangraal is complete," Merlin replied.

Silence reigned for several long moments, everyone seemed surprised that after all the work to get to this point, the actual manufacture of the device had taken almost no time at all. They had only recovered Myrddin a couple of weeks ago. Neville had assumed that with the process requiring the piecemeal acquisition of the information from Myrddin while in stasis, it would take far longer.

"Wow." Harry finally said, breaking the silence.

"Incredible," Hermione added. "Can we see…" Her sentence was cut off as once more, Merlin beamed them all away mid-sentence.

Neville found himself once more in the Glastonbury Lab, standing around the integration pad Merlin had assembled to build the weapon upon. Except now it was not empty. Now there was a strange amalgamation of crystal and carapace. The lower part of the device looked as if it was made of the same material as the mirror devices, a hard domed chitinous biological material that he assumed housed the technical parts of the weapon, protecting them from harm.

It stood about a foot thick and about two and a half wide. It had eight equally spaced 'limbs' Neville thought was the best description that seemed to grow out of the pale crystalline centre and flow over the shell and down to the surface of the integration pad. He shuddered as he noted how much they looked like something the Xenomorph monsters from that movie Harry and Hermione had shown him might make.

And yet, in stark contrast to this horror show of a base, four beautifully intricate flat clear crystal curves grew up from within the edges of its form. Their surfaces were etched with what appeared to be circuit pathways and each had two semi-circular cutouts, the first a third of the way up on the inside, and the second a third further up on the outside. The four curves almost met near the top, where a small square of space remained open between their ends, capped with more black chitinous material.

Hovering between the ends was a dull red orb, the Bloodstone. It sat completely separate from all other pieces, directly above a cluster of more traditional smokey white crystals, gathered in the concave centre of the device itself. It was both beautiful and terrifying, not only for its design but for what it could theoretically accomplish.

This device, only a few cubic feet in all, could supposedly annihilate higher beings entirely from existence.

"Am I the only one terrified to turn that thing on?" Natalie asked with a shudder.

"It is rather awe-inspiring," Padma noted, sounding almost back to normal after her most recent encounter with Anubis.

"Never even crossed my mind," Harry mumbled, and the others turned to face him. "Nothing, it's just… One hundred and seventy-nine days. If I knew then, standing in this very empty cave in the south of England, that we'd assemble probably the most insanely destructive force on this Earth. It beggars belief."

They all took a moment to consider how they had each joined this quest now that the endgame sat before them.

"So… how exactly do we do this?" Hermione whispered, still clearly audible in the still cave.

"We have to restore Myrddin," Merlin noted, drawing their attention.

"Why?" Luna questioned.

"The schematic was rather simple to acquire. It was forefront in his mind during the stasis. But his plan for execution was deeper. Shielded from my access. I could get at it, but I would likely damage the brain in the process."

"Of course." Harry moaned. "There is always another step."

"Stop it," Hermione whispered and Neville smirked at the pair.

"What do we need to ensure we don't lose him?" Neville questioned the hologram.

"We have the supplies, thanks to your friend Poppy. And the medical equipment is now all complete and operational as well. We're in as good a shape as we can be for his revival." Hopefully, he feels well enough to help us complete our goal. And then… I know not what to do next. My purpose was the creation of this device and its firing against the Ori."

"Don't worry, Merlin. We like you, so stick around." Luna smiled at the image that seemed baffled still by her oddities.

"We're absolutely certain that no ascended being can access this cavern?" Richard asked.

"As we can be without one testing the defences," Merlin replied.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Padma asked impatiently. "Let's go wake us a ten-thousand-year-old Lantean."

ϟ

Myrddin moaned as his body ached and he felt a soft surface come to meet his back once more. Comfort was a distant memory to him now, but it was nice not to be on his feet after so long. He wasn't sure he remained sane after all those miniscule snippets of lucidity that had come and gone over so long a period that he had lost count. Never long enough to do anything but stew on his mission.

He opened his eyes and for a moment he thought he must have finally expired. In his incredibly long life, it had been eons since he had beheld architecture of this sort. It was as though he were back on Atlantis, long since abandoned to the ravages of the Wraith.

His eyes drifted over the machinery that swept up and down his form and he noticed several figures standing about him. It took his aged eyes a while to focus properly but soon they steadied in his vision.

"Welcome back, Myrddin." The wee yellow-haired one spoke, her voice oddly melodious, and her accent tinged with something odd.

"Relax, you've been asleep a very long time." The dark-haired one beside the first added.

It had been such a long time since Myrddin had heard his own language, that the usage surprised him. The accent was almost familiar and yet different. But he felt as though he had also been hearing it for some time now. His mind whirred once more as he analysed the words and realised that these were not native speakers of his language. The highly advanced synapses of his adopted form fired rapidly and they soon made the necessary jumps to fill in syntax, informing him that he was indeed returning to himself once more. Perhaps these were the descendants of those he had interacted with so long ago when he had last visited the Earth.

"Where am I?" he asked softly, his voice scratchy and harsh from so long without use.

"Fundamenta." The dark-haired lad said with a soft smile.

"The plague?"

"Run its course. Any samples are properly contained." The yellow-haired one noted confidently.

"Who are you?"

The dark-haired lad stepped closer. "My name is Harry. This is Hermione, Luna, Hermione's mum and dad Natalie and Richard." His arm swept from one to the next as he spoke, indicating them each in turn as he made his way around to himself once more. "And this is Padma and Neville, and I hope you recognise yourself. Or your creation at least."

Myrddin felt the shock on his face as he saw a replica of it looking back at him. The obvious distortion of a hologram allowed him to settle and identify the image.

"It worked then." He sighed as he laid his head back on the pillow. All that work had paid off, but he had not been able to test it before he had been forced to abandon the planet. "I feared the worst when I left."

"Why did you leave?" Luna asked.

"Later," Padma replied in what he assumed was their native tongue, seeming agitated.

"True, we hope you're feeling well, but you have been in stasis for over a thousand years," Natalie said. "We've picked up your clues and Merlin here has completed the Sangraal. But we don't know how you planned to deploy the device into a galaxy so far away without also affecting the local population."

"The Ori," Myrddin noted, a deep hatred mixed with heavy fear swelling within his heart at the memory. He had almost forgotten why he had begun this journey. "Of course."

Despite the protests of his body, Myrddin sat up and the two lads rushed forward to aid him. He allowed them to shuffle him to the end of the bed and he allowed his weary legs to hang over the edge.

"I trust…" He paused and looked at the hologram for a moment, "Merlin, was it? Has given you the context?"

"He has. Ori and Altera were once one. Altera fled here, then Pegasus. Ori really bad." Richard summarised in a disturbingly concise manner given the timespan involved.

"Indeed. And my former associates' absolute rule of non-interference, as twisted and oft broken as it is, will not allow them to ever act against the Ori in the way required. Though it apparently didn't stop them interfering in my experiments."

"You've no idea." Natalie quipped quietly.

Myrddin nodded at her and closed his eyes, steadying his rushing thoughts. He'd been asleep so long and had so much in his weary mind. "Never enough time," he murmured.

"We can give you time if you need it." Hermione offered.

"No. If the device is complete, we must act. Especially if my body betrays me as badly as I feel it does. I will need the Loquor."

When no one responded, Myrddin opened his eyes and saw confusion. "Sorry, we understand the language, but we don't know all the ins and outs yet," Harry explained. "You need to Speak?"

Myrddin sighed slightly, reprimanding himself for leaving important information out of his repository. He closed his eyes for a moment as he visualised the item before he replied. "The… communication terminal, I believe, would be another way to describe it. It's a small… vase-like blue…" He held his hands about a parnat apart. "It's about this wide. Round, has a slender neck that leads to a pale blue crystal."

"Oh," Luna shouted, drawing Myrddin's attention. She tapped several times on the inside of her wrist and a new hologram appeared in front of Myrddin. "This?"

"Yes." Myrddin let out a rush of relieved breath. "That is the Loquor. It will allow us to send the waveform of the Sangraal through subspace over the enormous distance between Avalon and Origin. There are many more of them in our former home galaxy which will act as receivers and amplifiers. Provided the Ori and their worshippers have not destroyed them all."

"Excellent. It's in the vault. I can go and get it right away." Luna said to the others as with a smile and Myrddin began to assume that she did that a lot. While her words were still somewhat foreign, he understood her tone to mean she knew where to find the device.

"Before we do…" Harry noted, drawing his gaze once more. "We have an uninvited guest who attacked us on our journey to complete the Sangraal. A goa'uld named Anubis who we believe once ascended, at least a part of the way…"

"One cannot ascend part of the way." Myrddin corrected.

"Then he was definitely sent part way back by the Others," Hermione stated.

Myrddin felt the weariness overcoming him again. He had slept for too long. Lal had succeeded well in her interference. "I need rest."

Harry and Neville stepped forward again and dragged him gently back up the bed to his chagrin. "No, we have work to do."

"No. We have work to do. We can gather everything while you rest." Neville instructed. "The mission has waited a thousand years, it can wait another few hours. Gather your strength. Once we have everything, we'll bring you to Anubis. He hasn't moved in days, but we think the Sangraal might be the way to get rid of him permanently as well."

Myrddin wanted to argue, but the strain on his body was too much for now. "Very well." He replied and allowed his body to win the fight, succumbing to sleep once again.

ϟ

Luna looked over the odd device, comparing it to Myrddin's description. A squat shallow dome about two feet wide, made of the same chitinous biomechanical material as most of the truly ancient Alteran technology seemed to be, with a central spire that had several thin pipes leading off it back to the dome. All topped with a majestic-looking pale blue crystal that looked as if it had been chipped from the Aggro Crag of that silly gameshow Hermione had watched a few times. Around the edges of the dome, it was split into sections, each section had a trio of small ovular cutouts.

It was at once the most incredible and most unusual design she had ever seen. And it had been sitting here for months, given no second thought after they had relocated it from the cavern as they had moved into Fundamenta full time. A key piece of the plan that had been in their possession since the beginning.

She considered what their lives might have been like had they activated this device instead of the mirror. It was designed to enable communication back to Origin, a place full of people who worshipped those they sought to destroy. Even her fertile imagination could not fathom the scale of what might have followed such a mistake. Would the Others have done anything to prevent the inevitable spread of the Ori into Avalon? A galaxy with billions of fresh souls to convert to worship.

She shook her head softly to clear the horrible thoughts from it. They had the Sangraal, and Myrddin was awake, though weak. They were mere hours from the completion of a mission that as Harry pointed out, had been months in the undertaking.

After clearing the space around the device, Luna tapped the destination into her remote and she and the Loquor disappeared from the vault under London, travelling once more to Glastonbury. With the Loquor resting on the plinth where she had pulled the sword so many months before, Luna couldn't help but compare its design with that of the Sangraal only a few feet away.

Their similarities were striking, and yet both gave off a completely different power. The Loquor felt passive, a tool to be used to send messages across great distances. Mundane almost, in a similar way to the astria porta. A simple device for a simple purpose. But the Sangraal had a meanness to it. This was definitely a weapon. A means to destroy. And on a scale that the human mind was ill-equipped to consider.

Were there Others in Origin who would be killed by their efforts? Did the plane these Ori inhabited contain other forms of innocent life, like the animals and plants of their own? What would happen to such beings when they triggered the device? Suddenly she felt every bit of the intense dread she had heard in Natalie's voice when they had beheld the Sangraal for the first time.

"Luna?" Harry's voice shocked her out of her thoughts as his hand touched her shoulder.

She gave a soft squeak and turned to face him. "Sorry, Harry. I was lost in thought."

"I know. I wish there were another way to do this too. But if anyone understands the consequences of what we're planning to do, it's a man who spent thousands of years living on that plane. If Myrddin thinks this is the only answer to the threat that the Ori pose, I for one, trust him."

Luna glanced at her friend, a term that still brought a smile to her face after her lonely early years. "And I trust you. That's why I am here."

Harry pulled her into a quick hug and Luna relished the action. The boy who had once been so resistant to touch now gave it so freely instead. "You give the nicest hugs. Don't tell Hermione. Hers are a bit too firm sometimes. But yours are always just right."

The pair stood in a soft silent embrace for several minutes, allowing the presence of the other to quell their fears over what they soon would do. "So," Luna said, breaking the silence, "how are you planning on telling Myrddin that you have an award named after him?"

"Oh, don't you dare, Missy!" Harry warned, and Luna smirked as she felt his arms release the hug and shift to her middle. "I will tickle the life out of you if you tell him that."

Luna squealed with delight as Harry's fingers dug into the flesh below her rib cage and the delightful feeling filled her body as she tried to get away from his expert tickling fingers.

Chapter Text

Thursday, 28th October 1999.

Harry stood resolutely outside the box, staring at the perfectly still cloud of darkness within. Ever since its failed attempt to take control of Padma, Anubis had been perfectly still and silent. They had no way of knowing if it was simply biding its time or if Padma's rescue had harmed it in some way. But with any luck, Harry would never see it again after today.

The others slowly joined him in the room, with the exception of Padma, who refused to step inside the space again. None of them blamed her, she had shared some of the nightmares she'd had since the encounter with him and Harry sympathised with her completely. He wished he could gouge out the memories he'd gleaned from Voldemort throughout the war. Surely the things in Anubis's mind had been far far worse than those.

Neville finally arrived, guiding the aged figure of Myrddin beside him. The Lantean looked a lot better than he first had upon revival, though he still didn't seem to have much interest in standing. Harry smirked to himself at the thought as Neville conjured a chintzy armchair and the Dumbledore look was complete.

Yet again, he was forced to confront the similarities between the two figures. Both had physical similarities, sure. But they had similar personality traits as well. Brilliant and powerful in their own right, yet also willing to sacrifice themselves and others to achieve their final goals. A slight tendency to obscure the truth from those that might help them achieve their goals. And a resolute belief in the righteousness of their aims and actions. The more Harry got to know the real 'Merlin' the more he felt the reputation Dumbledore had earned in his life was appropriate.

Neville handed Myrddin a datapad, and the man began to run scan after scan on the still cloud of energy.

"It is most definitely the energy pattern of an ascended being," Myrddin said, this time in perfect English. Harry assumed the man had learned their language during his session in the chair overnight. "I am glad my research and notes allowed for the creation of such a prison. A being like this could cause untold damage to the lower planes if left unchecked."

"You've no idea," Padma murmured, and Harry gave her a supportive smile, which she lightly returned.

"I've got some idea, young one. I have lived many lifetimes." Myrddin replied. "This prison should also function for our desired purpose today as well. Merlin?"

Harry felt an odd disconnect every time he watched the face of 'Merlin' speak as though in the third person. While he hadn't recognised the figure when first seeing the hologram, the months since had been full of research on the mythical figure, and now it was an odd experience to see that he didn't respond to the name in any way.

"Yes?" The hologram replied.

"Can you modify the structure of Fundamenta to project this field over every surface? I'd rather be sure we don't put all of my former companions at risk. The energy should contain it, but better safe than sorry. At least until the Ori are dealt with."

Merlin nodded and vanished, and soon Harry felt an intense hum running through the floor as the field increased in strength.

"Place the Sangraal inside," Myrddin instructed, and Neville triggered the beam from his remote.

They all watched silently as the weapon formed within the box and still Anubis did not react in any way.

"I thought as much." Myrddin turned to look at Padma, still watching from the hallway. "You have a powerful mind, child. The burst of energy that freed you from your possession seems to have wiped the identity from the being."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the idea, drawing the others' eyes. "Sorry, it's just… Padma gave him the Lockhart treatment."

Only Hermione seemed to understand what he meant, so he waved for Myrddin to continue.

"Centuries of research and struggle, all comes down to this moment," Myrddin said as he entered a command on the datapad.

Inside the box, the Bloodstone began to glow a fiery red and the central crystal cluster glowed blue, a steady thrumming sound almost like an engine began, getting louder and faster. Within seconds, it reached a peak and the Bloodstone became even more intense, a red flash spreading throughout the entire box before the device shut off, both colourful glows vanishing and the sound disappearing immediately.

The dark cloud that was Anubis shuddered for a moment and dissipated almost anticlimactically given the trouble he had given them previously. Vanishing like a mist under the baking sun.

Myrddin gave a deep relieved sigh. "It works."

"You had doubts?" Harry asked, covering for the relief he felt at his own very real ones.

Myrddin smiled at him, the blue eyes feeling very Dumbledore as they assessed him and Harry felt Myrddin could see the very thoughts that he was trying to hide.

"I was never much of a scientist. My job on Atlantis was as High Councilor. I was a politician for most of my first life. But I know that all scientists have doubts, Mister Potter. It is always rewarding to see one's hard work was not for naught. And I have put entire actual human lifespans into my work on this device."

A few more taps on the datapad returned the device to the Lab and the group relaxed. Anubis would be a problem no more, and they had proven the efficacy of the weapon. "Now for the real threat."

"What do you need us to do?" Luna asked, stepping over to Myrddin.

"You have prepared the Loquor?"

"Yes. It's ready and waiting."

"Then there is no reason to delay."

The entire group was surrounded by beam energy and were once more whisked to the cavern beneath one of the most well-known mythological sites in Britain. One which in this case, the stories had remained rather close to being actually accurate to its origins for a change.

Myrddin stood from the chair and walked to the plinth. Smirking at the sight of his Mantle embedded within its upper surface. He quickly entered a long string of commands on the Mantle and the crystal atop the Loquor began to glow, the Bloodstone lighting up in unison.

"The devices are linked. Merlin? Is this cavern adequately shielded as well?" He asked the empty air.

Harry noticed the air shimmer in the same place he had first seen the Merlin hologram as it confirmed the request. What had begun as the simple exploration of a few burial sites he'd found in the Black Library had become an epic intergalactic battle of ascended beings, and now it was about to conclude. The gravity of it hit him all of a sudden and he couldn't breathe for a moment under the weight of the challenge.

"One last task, then. Before I rest." Myrddin noted to himself as he entered another command string on the Mantle and the Sangraal began to glow and thrum once more.

It sounded much louder when it was in the same physical space as they were, and reflected off the rock walls, growing even louder. The weapon charged for a much longer period and the glow of the three sets of crystals grew in intensity until they all had to close their eyes to shield themselves from the bright painful light. A deep whoosh filled the cavern and Harry felt every hair on his body stand on end as the energy pulsed out from the Sangraal and was drawn down the cavern into the Loquor sitting on the plinth.

There was a snap in the energy and suddenly all was quiet and dark once more. Harry glanced at the others and noticed they too seemed lost at what to think in the absence of an obvious result like they'd had with Anubis.

"Did it work?" Richard asked.

Myrddin tapped a few more commands on the Mantle and Harry felt a shift in the air and rock around them. The Lantean turned and focused on a point just in front of the Sangraal, and Harry's eyes followed the line of the ancient man's gaze. The air glowed and wisps of intense white light filled the space before a female form appeared within. Harry was surprised at the similarities the woman shared to Hermione, with her thick dark brown, though far less unruly, hair and lively brown eyes. It was hard to discern detail though, as her white clothing continued to emit a bright light that also seemed to emanate from her very skin.

"Hello, Lal," Myrddin said, unconcerned by the sight before him.

"Congratulations, Moros," Lal said, waving her hand as the Sangraal behind her crumbled into dust and disappeared. "I am to offer you a chance to return, for the service you have granted us."

Myrddin glanced at them all one by one, as if considering the options. "Perhaps, that is for the best."

Before any of them could move, Lal faded back into the wispy form she had arrived in, and moved forward, absorbing Myrddin's body. It brightened for a moment before it lifted up through the ceiling of the Lab and vanished from view. The cavern seemed incredibly dark in its absence and Harry couldn't think of a single thing to say.

A quick glance at the others showed he was not alone in that feeling. While they had become advanced by their own standards, what they had just witnessed was on another level altogether.

"What the hell?" Richard asked aloud, breaking the spell.

"That sucks." Luna pouted, "I had other things I wanted to ask Myrddin. He's just gone."

They all looked in silence once more at the empty air that the former Lanteans had occupied.

"My task is completed," Merlin said, the group turned to see the hologram looking at the empty integration pad.

"I guess that it's time for us to find a new purpose then," Luna said, smiling at the hologram.

"Well, I don't know about you lot, but I sure can't go back to acting like there isn't a whole galaxy out there," Richard noted.

"More than one," Hermione added.

"Maybe we should head home, and consider our options," Harry suggested. "This is the first time since we found this place that we haven't had a galactic threat hanging over our heads."

Padma looked at him darkly. "There is very much still a galactic threat out there. One which the other explorers on this planet seem intent on engaging and upsetting."

"Speaking of the SGC, how is the dialer rewrite coming along?" Luna asked, redirecting the conversation.

"I do not know," Merlin replied. "There are several tasks I left unattended over the past few weeks while focusing on the Sangraal."

"So we've really quite a bit to be getting on with." Natalie smiled, glancing at each of the younger members.

"Please take us home, Merlin," Hermione asked the hologram politely and the cavern filled with the sound of beam energy once more.

ϟ

"Harry." Merlin's voice sounded and he glanced over at the control panel to his room, the voice having come from there.

"What is it, Merlin?"

"I require your permission to run a scan and create a new subroutine."

Harry sighed as he stood up, heading to the door where he found the hologram waiting outside in the hall. "Why would you need my permission to run a scan? Wait, you're scanning us again?"

"No. I have not done so since you voiced your concerns about such actions. Nor have I scanned anyone you or your friends have brought to the facility. Including Miss Padma's sister and the elf Dobby."

"Then what is it you want to scan?" Harry asked, noting the almost petulant way the hologram had stated his compliance.

"Dobby."

"So go ask him. I am not his master, Dobby is a free elf and he makes his own decisions." Harry grumbled at the absurdity of asking him for permission regarding Dobby.

"I have Dobby's permission. But as the head of this facility, you created a lock on my ability to do so when you voiced issues with my scanning subjects without authority."

"The what?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Please clarify."

"In what way am I the head of this facility? It was built millions of years before I was born. And Luna was the first person to interface with it after it was found. I don't want to be in charge of anything."

"It seemed to be the consensus of the others. They all talk of your leadership skills and prowess. You have shown the traits of a leader multiple times and the system extrapolated that you were the leader of the group, despite Hermione's parents being the oldest of you, and Hermione the wisest."

Harry closed his eyes and pinched his nose, trying to fend off the headache this discussion was already building in his mind. After a moment of silence, Harry glanced at Merlin and tapped a meeting request into his remote, passing through the hologram and walking down the hall, headed for the small side room Luna had transformed from a storage room to a small meeting place.

As he walked inside, he noted that Luna was already inside and that the room had changed again since the last time he was in here. What had previously been a simple round table for eight or so, was now far larger and had a big opening in the centre. He glanced at Luna who smiled.

"Do you like it?" She asked as she approached.

"It's nice. Been redecorating much?"

"For a few weeks now. Given we mostly live here now, I felt it could use some homey touches. I had some grander ideas, but they're hard to achieve in the current layout."

Harry smiled wider, Luna had an innate ability to distract him from his concerns. It was one of the things he most appreciated about the girl. She had always been able to keep him from stewing too much, whether by kind word or a boot up the butt when needed.

"That is not a bad idea. I might have to get you to pretty up my quarters. They're a bit bland right now."

"It is on my list." She replied, taking a seat opposite the doorway.

Harry nodded and sat a couple of spaces down, as the others began to filter in and take seats as well. There were almost twenty to choose from now, and it amused Harry to see each one consider which seat to take, and the haphazard way they arrayed themselves about the space. Hermione was the last to enter and she walked over to take the seat next to Harry.

"Sorry to interrupt you all, but I just learned a rather annoying fact. It seems that Merlin took it upon himself to declare me in charge of this place because I was 'leaderish' a few times. Which is just stupid."

"Agreed," Luna noted, "you should be in charge because you're the best at it."

As the others all nodded, Harry leaned forward and banged his head on the table, stopping them all. "I don't want to be in charge of anything. Haven't I made that clear by now? I just want to be Harry Potter, normal bloke."

"Harry," Hermione said, drawing his attention as he turned his head which was still pressed into the table. "You both are, and never will be, a normal bloke. By your very nature, you are an exceptional individual. Everyone seated at this table is. Padma is brilliant, and surprisingly courageous given she was the Ravenclaw twin. Luna thinks outside the box like no one I have ever met. Neville has a heart of gold and has proven that the lost little Gryffindor boy of our first few years has long since grown up. I'm not much for self-aggrandisement, but I too am rather clever, and somewhat voracious in my desire to learn more. And I learned that from the two people sitting right over there."

Hermione paused and rubbed his back for a moment as he slowly sat back up. "And you. You've mastered every bit of powerful magic you've challenged yourself to learn. You have defeated a man most people can't even speak the name of more times than any other person, alive or dead. You are a natural leader when it is needed most, taking charge of situations without even thinking. And ever since you found that cave, you've been outstanding at driving us all forward to our goal.

"You might not want to be, but you are our leader, in most of the ways that count. But most importantly, you're willing to listen to us. You take advice, you share information. I for one have no trouble calling you the leader of this group."

"Why don't we copy the Lanteans?" Luna offered, drawing the attention off of Harry and making him immensely grateful. "Moros was the last High Councilor of Atlantis. Harry can be the first High Councilor of us. A council of seven. Mathematically it's a sound choice as it will mean very little chance of not having a majority on any vote."

Harry was torn on how to feel. A council took some of the stress off his shoulders, but being head of that council kept it there.

"I think that is a wonderful idea, with one adjustment." Natalie offered. "Richard and I will count as only one vote," She smiled at her husband who shrugged simply, "so that the council can retain seven votes and add another member. Come in please."

The others looked to the door in unison as a rather sheepish-looking Dobby entered and stood by Natalie. The woman patted the top of the table, and with a glance at the others, Dobby climbed onto its surface and sat with his legs hanging on the inside edge.

"Dobby should have a seat on the council as well." Natalie finished.

"Dobby doesn't need that. Dobby is more than happy with his family the way it is."

"She's right though, Dobby. You were just as much a part of this discovery as I was. And we all value your input." Harry said, happy to give his friend something like this, he paused for a moment to consider what he was about to say, but decided to bite the bullet and go ahead with it. "I'd be honoured to be Head Councilor if you were a member of the council."

Dobby seemed to be choking up at the trust that he was being given, and simply nodded his consent.

"So that settles it," Hermione noted, happily. "Or should I say, here opens the first meeting of…?"

They all chuckled slightly, all feeling a little of the weight of legitimising what they'd been doing for half a year already. Natalie drew their attention once more as she placed a small box on the table and glanced at Richard who spoke up. "As the first act of the council, I'd like to give this to our small friend. It took a little work to resize it properly, but if he's going to be a member, he's going to need one."

He pushed the small box to Dobby, who opened it one-handed. Inside was a remote, but it was not in bracelet form, like theirs were. Instead, it seemed designed to fit on his shoulder. In fact, Natalie stood and helped the elf fit it into place and it looked rather fetching on his form. The elf simply looked at it, stunned.

"Thank you." He murmured and they all smiled at him.

"I can speak for everyone here when I say you've earned it, Dobby," Harry said. "On that note, the whole reason I called you all in was Merlin requested permission to scan Dobby, who has already given his permission?" Dobby nodded as glanced at the others, seeming a little out of his depth for the moment. "Any objections?"

Everyone shook their heads and smiled at the wee elf. "Alright. Merlin?" The hologram appeared in the centre of the table. "You have authority to scan Dobby at his convenience and he has the authority to rescind that permission at any time."

Merlin nodded. "Understood. I have a few other matters for the council." The hologram said, smiling softly as though the creation of it had been his goal all along. "Unfortunately the first is somewhat urgent. The ice above has melted through far enough that the humans across the ice have detected the heat this facility is generating. A report has been filed in the SGC and an exploratory force is to be dispatched via McMurdo Station."

"What?" Hermione asked. "What can we do?"

"The Lanteans did have cloaking technology, however, they incorporated it into the shielding technology. So in order to mask our presence, we would need to lower the shield."

"And it's still currently holding a few thousand tonnes of ice and snow back." Harry groaned. "Thoughts?"

"My first thought is to create a dedicated cloaking circuit. What moron thought tying stealth and protection together as an either/or proposition was a good idea?" Richard scoffed.

The others nodded before Neville spoke. "Ones who never had to make the distinction, I'd guess. Why don't we move?"

"We can hardly pick the whole building up and roll it down the road." Padma scoffed.

Harry considered it for a moment. "Why not?" Everyone turned to look at him for a minute and he swept his fingers over the table, drawing a command keyboard hologram in place. He tapped away at it and Merlin shifted as a map of the area came up, showing the ice-filled valley in which Fundamenta now sat. "Why can't we move it over here?"

He tapped instructions and the map zoomed in on the nearby Transantarctic Mountain range, particularly the highest peak of the inner ring. "With the beaming technology, we can move the entire structure over here. This spot was good a few million years back, when Antarctica wasn't fully covered in migratory ice flows always shifting outwards from the pole. Staying here is just going to be a permanent massive power drain. If we shift there, we won't need the shield at all."

"Instead of moving the structure as is," Luna countered, looking excited, "why don't we rebuild it from scratch? We can design it as we like, built into the face of the rock itself. And if we make the exterior look like rock and ice, no one will be the wiser to its existence."

"That's brilliant. How long would it take to accomplish?" Natalie asked.

"Calculating. Relocation of the structure as is could be done within a day. Full reconstruction from scratch, approximately a month, depending on the design."

Harry looked at the others and most seemed to feel this was the way to go. "So, we agree we move?" They all nodded. "Alright, when is the exploratory force due?"

"Three hours. The secrecy of their program works in our favour. The nearest troops with the necessary clearance they could send were in Australia."

"And you're just telling us now? Nevermind. Can you move the facility in its entirety over to here," Harry pointed out a flat expanse of rock that was mostly uncovered by ice near the mountains, "before they arrive and engage the cloak?"

Merlin closed his eyes and ran the math before he replied. "No. I would need to create a dedicated powered beaming station, to take up the matter before it could be moved properly. And this much mass will take time to disintegrate and reintegrate. But I can consolidate a large buffer and emitters into the chair platform to contain the structure temporarily and move it over there while the force assesses the area.

"It will be difficult. With the only suitable power source built into the chair platform, I will need to overcharge the beam circuits of the rest of the building while I relocate the chair and potentia. But achievable. Once they find nothing, we can construct the new facility in place into the mountain. With the cloak active, we can complete construction without the nearby station being alerted."

"And here? What about the residual heat signature?" Padma asked.

"One of the reasons this location was chosen was a rich geothermal vent underneath. I can make it look like a burst of heat came from that vent." Merlin replied.

Harry noticed an odd look on the hologram as it delivered this information. "What is it, Merlin?"

The hologram turned to face him and seemed to consider him for a moment before it spoke. "I feel something odd. I believe it to be sorrow, which is strange as I was not programmed to feel proper emotion."

"Sorrow? What for?" Natalie asked softly.

"Fundamenta. This is the oldest structure on this planet. It was built when this continent was still closer to the equator. It has been upgraded several times over its history, but that history in roughly this location extends back many millions of years."

They all sat in shock for a moment. "Wow," Neville said in awe.

"If you've another option we can use, I'm open to suggestions," Harry said. "But from what I understand, the cloak is illusory. It won't stop the team that is coming from getting too close and finding the building."

"There is no better option with the time we have. Relocation is a sound strategy. I just did not expect to feel something about it." Merlin replied.

"We will be using the material that makes this structure to make the new one." Luna offered, smiling. "Fundamenta may be moving and changing, but the atoms that make up this facility will continue on."

Merlin returned the smile. "Of all the humans I have met, you are by far the most unique."

Luna glowed at the compliment. "Thank you."

"Is this the first time you have felt actual emotion, Merlin?" Hermione queried, redirecting the conversation once more.

"It is. I was initially programmed to be able to imitate it, but was not programmed to feel it."

"Myrddin did spend a couple of hours last night using the chair," Richard noted. "He said he wanted to understand the galaxy as it stood right now, while you were assembling all the parts. Maybe he made some changes while he was in there?"

"Seems the most likely assumption," Padma said. "If only we had time to explore it now."

The others were reminded of the approaching force and the ticking clock they were under.

"Well, I guess that means we need to vacate the premises for a while." Neville chuckled. "Back to the real world for a bit of R and R."

"I'm not overly fond of being in the real world over Halloween." Harry groaned and Hermione gave him a soft hug.

"Sounds like it's high time we started changing that for you, Harry." Richard smiled.

Harry realised that he was being invited to spend the holiday with Hermione and her parents, though he guessed they would be doing so at number twelve, given all four of them lived full-time at Fundamenta these days. Harry laughed as he realised he was basically moving house today, in the most sci-fi way he could imagine.

"Sounds good to me," Harry replied, happily.

ϟ

First Lieutenant Elizabeth Riley gazed out the forward viewport of the speeding hovercraft, watching the barren white landscape rush by as they shot through it at speed. You could barely tell that it was verging on 11 pm given the permalight of day covering the area at this time of year.

"Two clicks out, lieutenant." The driver, Staff Sergeant David Thomas informed her.

Riley checked the other bodies in her vehicle at the comment, she was down on manpower, but the one star who had assigned them to this mission had assured her it would be fine. Half her usual recon squad were headed back to Pearl Harbour after the previous day's exercises in the Australian Outback, but the five troops with her had been held for further debriefing on their suitability for inclusion in some top-secret program run out of Colorado Springs.

The general hadn't been specific about what exactly they were expecting to find on this excursion, but the implication had been clear to Riley. This was a babysitting job. A third member of her squad sat in the back of the cabin appearing to be listening to the technobabble coming from the three scientists they were accompanying to the site. Private First Class Simon Grady was still new to the recon team, but his performance was excellent so far. Riley had quickly come to rely on the private for some of the more difficult assignments they'd tackled.

"How are the others?" Riley asked Thomas.

"'Bout thirty metres behind us, same speed. We'll arrive together."

"Good. Any further instructions?"

"Nothing. What are we doing out here, lieutenant?"

Riley sighed as she checked her gear. "Being tested, Thomas. Get us as close as is safe to do so."

Riley stood in the hold and she noted that Grady mirrored her, distracting the scientists they were accompanying from McMurdo to investigate the odd heat signature the research station had detected earlier that morning. She keyed her radio and called for a check-in from the other hovercraft.

"Mawes, ready." Her second-in-command replied.

"Johnson, ready."

"Arthurs, ready."

"The cargo?" Riley asked.

"Chattering away and eager to disembark."

"Keep a close eye and make sure they don't get too close without being secured. I want both boats one hundred metres apart and everyone secured to the running board."

Her hovercraft began to slow and Riley glanced out the front viewport once more, noting the big empty space in the ice ahead of them. There appeared to be steam emitting from the sinkhole, which was a surprise down here. She checked the instruments and noted that it was hovering about minus ten degrees Celsius outside right now. She shuffled in her thick jacket and turned to the door.

As soon as the hovercraft came to a halt, she yanked it open and the scientists all gave a shudder at the sudden burst of cold air and secured their own cold-weather gear that had been opened in the warmer cabin of their transport.

Pressing her gun to her shoulder, Riley jumped down onto the ice, sweeping her eyes across the flat expanse. They weren't expecting any unfriendlies this far south, as McMurdo was by far the closest station to the anomaly, but there was more to be wary of than just people in the harsher places of the world. Though far fewer of them were present in the southern tundra compared to the northern one. There were no enormous white bears out for a snack on this ice at least. Most of Antarctica's predators were swimmers.

"Thomas, rangefinder results?"

The sergeant paused as the device swept over the icy expanse. "Negative. No one but us for miles."

"Alright people," Riley said, dropping her ready stance and noticing Master Gunnery Sergeant Terri Mawes doing the same a hundred metres away. She turned to those inside her hovercraft. "Dismount, strap onto the running board. No one is to go anywhere near that hole unless they're strapped in. Understood?"

The three scientists nodded as Riley clipped her own tether to the bar running about the outer edge of the hovercraft, now sitting facing along the edge of the hole, before Grady jumped out and aided the three scientists down onto the snow.

Large suitcases were passed from inside by Thomas as Riley stepped closer to the anomaly they were here to inspect. It seemed for the most part to be another crevasse formed in the ice, mostly round and she'd estimate about two to three hundred metres across. There was definitely steam emitting from the depths of the sinkhole, but otherwise, it appeared as normal as any other she'd seen.

"Lieutenant?" One of the scientists called, squatting in front of a large open suitcase. "We need to lower this into the hole."

"Grady, assist the Doctor."

"Yes, lieutenant."

Riley silently observed her squad as they helped lower all manner of sensors and equipment into the hole. It was almost an hour before the head of the scientists, one who had been in the other hovercraft came over to her.

"Doctor Michaels. What have we got?"

The woman smiled at her as she checked the laptop in her arms. "Exactly what we thought. A geothermal vent that created a cavern, then built up steam until it popped."

"Popped?" Riley asked.

"Yep, like a zit. See all those chunks of ice out there?" Francine pointed to the large lumps stretching out over the horizon. "Those are chunks that would have been blasted outwards when the pressure became too great."

"A geothermal vent?" Arthurs asked, coming up behind them. "In Antarctica?"

The Doctor smiled and pointed out in the direction they had come from. "You see that tiny peak in the distance? The one that sits right on Ross Island near McMurdo?"

Arthurs turned and nodded. "Yeah."

"That is Mt Erebus, which is an active volcano. There is a persistent phonolitic lava lake near the summit. One of five such lakes on Earth. Antarctica isn't a dead frozen wasteland, corporal. It's very much alive. You never know what you might find down here."

Riley watched the doctor closely, noting the look of delight on her face. She had a feeling this woman was already studying such a site somewhere in this icy expanse.

"How much longer, Doctor? As fascinating as all this is, it's not exactly a lovely evening for a stroll." Riley queried.

"About half an hour to collate all the data. Rivers is testing the bed and trying to find out how deep the vent is. Most of our other tests are finished. Doctors Woods and Osbourne have already climbed back into the hovercraft to do their write-ups."

"You love it down here, don't you?" Riley asked the excited woman, who simply smiled in return.

"One of the most exciting places on Earth," Francine replied, an odd emphasis on the word Earth, and Riley once more got the feeling there was more to the statement and look. "We've pulled things out of this ice you wouldn't believe."

Riley watched her for several more seconds before nodding. The doctor walked back over to the others, her tether scraping along the ground behind her. Riley wondered how they were faring on this test of theirs, and just what it was that they were being tested for. Babysitting excited scientists was fun and all, but she hoped whatever they were looking down the barrel of came with its fair share of excitement by her own standards as well.