Chapter 11

"No magic?" Jack asked. "But you've still got your power."

"No, I mean the sun." Harry said. "The sun doesn't contain any form of magic that I can pick up on."

"Well." Jack said after pondering the statement for a bit. "Maybe the magic didn't happen till later?"

"Well, whatever it is, I'll not be getting anything from this star." Harry said.

"Fortunately you brought the battery, right?" Jack asked.

Harry instantly felt relief, as he remembered the battery. With it, even if the entire universe had no magic, he'd be set for life. Hell, he could likely build another couple of rings and send them back using just that. Gaining some colour again, Harry sighed, closing his eyes. "Thank you." he said, as he took a moment to let the panic subside.

"You forgot the battery, didn't you?" Jack asked, a note of humour in his voice, at the relief in Harry's.

"Well, it's not something I'm used to needing, okay?" Harry said, as his higher processes started kicking back in and he continued his systems check. He'd feel better with the battery connected up to the MGA, so that he could recharge, but he should have enough power to at least get them a safe distance from the star, once the systems were up and running.

It took him just under two hours to have all the systems online again and Jack took the flight controls, so that Harry could man and operate the RDA, or Refracted Detection Array. He'd not needed to man that post in a long time, not since the inception of the StellarNet, considering it kept track of all movement and had replaced the need for the RDA. Now, however, there was no StellarNet. There was no magic to tap into and use. Hell, Harry could cast a detection spell at their closest star and simply pick up a ball of exothermic reactions. Just science. No magic.

Fortunately the RDS was still installed and set up, otherwise Harry would need to do things manually again, as he had once needed to. The RDS didn't just work on light, after all, so there would always be a need to keep it, just in case. It could be used in a variety of settings, including detecting heat, a large spectrum of imperceptible light and quite a few other forms of energy.

Jack took them back to the planet, where Harry's off-world lab had been, and activated suspension over the surface again. The trip wasn't a long one, and forced Jack to remember that Harry had been advanced before he had created the StellarNet.

Once they were parked and secure, they left their seats and went to the dining area, where Harry retrieved a few drinks for them, fortunately still cold, since the magic had just run out, but hadn't been out for a very long time. The pantry, stocked with enough food to last them for years, was similarly just depowered and Harry had powered that directly after he'd finished incorporating the Asgard Battery into the MGA and his power started recovering.

"So, what's the next step?" Jack asked, sitting down and taking a sip from his beer. Harry had stocked his favourite, so he wasn't going to complain.

"Well, first off, I need to figure out what happened to Magic." Harry said, pulling out the crystal Pandora had given him. "I'm thinking this will give us answers." he added.

Jack sat forward and looked at the crystal in Harry's hand. "I haven't seen that kind before." he noted, as he looked at what looked like blue veins running through the diamond structure.

"I haven't made anything like this before, but I think I know what it's supposed to do." Harry said, as he summoned a projector closer and put the disk in. When he was all set, he placed his hand on the disc and allowed the magic contained in the crystal to communicate with him.

An illusion of Harry appeared before them, in full 3D. Frankly, it looked like another Harry had joined them. "Hi guys." it said. "You have just got to love the way time-travel works sometimes… what did you call it, Jack? When you were always meant to do it?"

"Daniel called it predestination." Jack said, not really thinking about it, even though he thought it was a recording.

"That's right." the Illusion said. "Predestination. That Daniel is sometimes so damn eloquent. I get why you give him a hard time, though. He needs to lighten up."

"You can say that again." Jack said.

"I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, Jack." the illusion said, as he reached out and slapped Jack on the shoulder. "But thanks for coming with us. It really means a lot."

Jack nearly jumped out of his skin. He'd seen Harry make solid illusions before, but this was meant to be a recorded message. "What the hell?!"

"Oh, that was me." Harry said. "The disc isn't a recording, the way I am used to making them. This is more like a program, with both information and a personality, created by a ritual I only recently became familiar with."

"But, how?" Jack asked.

"I'm currently giving... Harry, the information he'll need to sort all this mess out." illusion Harry said.

Harry pointed at his head with his free hand. "It's like the learning crystals, with a dedicated space for a personality."

"I'm not capable of becoming more than I am currently." the Illusion said. "Harry didn't want to risk me being used repetitively and never knowing anything more than repeating this conversation."

"How many times have you done this?" Harry asked, hoping he hadn't been through this before and punished the poor near-self-aware consciousness to repeating his one role in life in perpetuity.

"This is my first time." The illusion said. "You really should have more faith in yourself."

"So, we make it back?" Jack asked.

"I don't know." the illusion said. "I only know about myself, not any that came before me, but then it's not something I am meant to know."

"I don't understand." Jack said. "Harry must end up giving the… you… to Mrs Lovegood, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"I do." Harry said, as the information finished downloading into his mind and started expanding as he thought about it. He noticed something extra copying into his mind and isolated it, before inspecting it.

"You don't mind do you?" the illusion asked. "I know I wouldn't."

"I'm assuming this will allow you to become more?" Harry asked. The illusion nodded, seeming hopeful. "Fine then, but I still get to use the clone for my work and we move you to the clone permanently as soon as you're capable."

"Sure thing, boss." the illusion said. "Just, let me know and I can keep an eye on our real body, while you are off working on whatever."

The door to the dining area opened and the clone walked in, as the illusion vanished. "Having a body is much easier than using your power to manifest." the clone said.

"Harry?" Jack asked, not having followed everything.

"Apparently I decided to create an artificial personality for the clone and used the crystal as a way to deliver my creation to myself." Harry said. "It's actually something I've been meaning to do. Apparently I make time on this trip."

"I can help make a new me, if you want?" the clone said.

"No, I think I'd like to try it myself." Harry said. "Knowing I can do something and actually doing it isn't the same thing."

"I thought you'd feel that way." the clone said.

"Um." Jack said. "So, what do we call you?" he asked the new arrival.

"I don't know." the clone said. "Number One?" he offered.

"Too impersonal." Harry said. "I'm imagining a barcode on your forehead and white skin, with a name like that."

"Party?" Jack offered.

"Party?" the clone asked.

"Part of Harry. Party." Jack said.

"No offence, but while I may exist in Harry's mind as a partial control mechanism for the clone, I don't like that identifier." the clone said.

"It's better than Number One." Jack mumbled.

"Being first is good." the Clone said. "I'd be proud to be Number One. Number One Black."

"Do you have magic?" Jack asked, wondering about that. He knew the clone didn't have magic, but from the sounds of it, he had access to Harry's magic.

"Not really. Harry can choose to allow me to have access to his power, but I would just be a surrogate for the casting through his control mechanism." the clone said.

"But the illusion…" Jack trained off.

"That was partially the projector and partially my own power." Harry said. "I tend to empower my illusions to become physical by default these days. You never know when it will be useful."

"I can imagine." Jack said. It was an age-old perspective. Rather have something and not need it, than the other way around. An illusion with presence can partially stop bullets, carry items and render quick assistance if the illusion caused an accident, as tended to happen when Harry scared people by making himself appear in more than one location.

"So, One?" the clone asked hopefully.

"Fine." Harry said. Let the partial personality choose his own name. Maybe he'd feel like changing it again later.

"One Black." The clone said, happily.

"Welcome to the team One." Harry said, indicating a chair. "Let's talk magical expansion."

It seemed that the galaxy was severely lacking in the department of magic. There would be no travelling via StellarNet, because such a thing was not achievable without magic. The information copied into Harry's mind, however, gave him a rough draft of a plan. He'd be seeding magic into the Milky Way Galaxy.

When he explained it to Jack, he frowned. "Hold on, you're telling me you're the source of all magic in the universe?" he asked incredulously. "If you decided to fly into the sun and die, magic would never exist?"

"Well, no." Harry said. "I'd never do that, and I love magic too much not to help it get started."

"This would be one of those immutable things." the now named clone, One, said. "I wouldn't exist, if magic didn't, so magic will exist, so that I can."

"I always hated the chicken and egg conundrum." Jack said, rubbing at his temples.

"Chicken and Egg?" One asked.

"Don't you know this one?" Jack asked, slightly shocked.

"He doesn't know a lot, Jack." Harry said. "He's only got a limited amount of information, along with certain things I'll choose to put in him, when I make him."

"Oh." Jack said, feeling slightly sad for the faux-life. "Well, it's the question about which came first, the chicken or the egg. Without the chicken, an egg couldn't be laid. Without the egg, a chicken couldn't be born, to lay the egg, and so forth."

"Is there a rooster?" One asked, curiously.

Jack's mouth moved for a moment, before his frown returned. "You know what, there would have to be one, wouldn't there?" he admitted, somehow feeling better by that thought. "You know what, One? I think I'm going to like you." Jack decided.

"Thank you, Jack. I think I already like you." One said back.

OOO

The next two weeks were spent in research and experimentation. Harry knew what he needed to do, and what he hoped to achieve. One turned out to be a rather useful sounding board, for the knowledge he was created with. Jack didn't really have much to do, so Harry gave him access to the entertainment centre of the ship, with all of his collected movies and series and an entire database of books, all of which he had copied from his originals, to keep on the Sphere, for long distance voyages. He'd added a stand-alone magical server too, courtesy of Doctor Pike, so that anyone who came with him could copy and have access to their own data, which was useful, as Harry had started depending on the Comm for the connected computing capabilities.

He even gave Jack access to a room he'd modified to emulate a beach, with an ocean and sun and water to swim in. It wasn't a room of requirement, but the closed system didn't waste a drop of magical power, taking everything it conjured back into itself when the room was disabled. It worked a lot like the Paintball Dungeon, really. Harry wished he could claim he invented that system, but he'd not had a hand in it at all. One of the magical researchers in Harmony had come up with that bit of nifty innovation. That didn't stop Harry from copying from it, though. Jack used that room to fish. Harry even set it up so that he would get random nibbles, and a catch or two, even if he couldn't remove his catch from the room.

When Harry felt he was ready, he brought up the status of the project as he did most evenings. Both he and Jack were starting to feel cooped up, so they tended to chat, just to feel some human connection.

"So, if my calculations are correct, we should be able to seed magic into the sun, by delivering a payload of magic into a sunspot on the surface, near the northern pole of the star, shortly after the polarities change at the end of the solar cycle." Harry said.

"And when's that?" Jack asked.

"We don't know yet." One said. "We have the data from two-hundred million years from now, but the sun was different back then. Is different then?" he asked. From their perspective the future was in their past, after all.

"We'll need to observe for a few years, to monitor and learn its cycle." Harry confirmed, ignoring the rhetorical question.

"Years?" Jack asked.

"We'll be in stasis during the observational period." Harry said.

"You will." One said.

"Staying awake?" Jack asked.

"Someone will need to monitor, to ensure everything stays up and running." One confirmed. "A hundred years is a bit much to leave everything to chance."

"Hundred years?" Jack asked.

"I'll be setting it up so that One can power and depower any systems. He already knows everything he'll need to monitor." Harry said.

"Won't the clone die?" Jack asked.

"The clone would." One confirmed. "I'll be connected directly to the systems, from the disk, while you two go into stasis."

"Sorry about that." Harry said.

"No, it's better this way." One said. "Right now, I've not developed enough to miss anything while I perform my duties for a century. Someone needs to ensure you two wake up, after all. The magical diffusion rate makes trusting an automated system just a bit too risky."

It turned out that the reason the systems were all drained, when they arrived, was because the magic was being drawn into space, even while they were still in transit through time. Harry had no way to confirm it accurately, at the moment, but he suspected it had started draining them about one hundred years prior to finishing their trip. Thus the hundred year nap, to confirm the solar cycle of this star.

Harry had explained it to Jack, like a vacuum. A perfect vacuum of power was drawing the magic from the ship at a rate never seen before. It was actually quite interesting and Harry had spent a bit of time taking readings and documenting his findings for later research. Then he'd used his magical recharging block, reversed, in a ward, to limit the amount of energy which was escaping the ship. There was still a loss, but it was now much slower.

"If you get bored, there's also books and other entertainment." Jack said.

"I don't have enough space for a lot of expansion.��� One said.

"But you could read and make a list of things that interest you to re-read later." Harry pointed out.

One shrugged. At the moment, he had no real interests, besides the duties he was created for. He was more interested in finishing those tasks, rather than self-improvement. He'd get to that when he had time. "I'll do that, when I am capable of appreciating it." One said.

Harry had wondered how One would react to that. He was glad that he seemed more focussed on the mission, since that was more important. "Good man." he said. It was kind of strange that he was thinking about One as a person, when the clone was being operated by a portion of his own mind, which was both himself and not. Apparently he'd had the forethought to 'program' the personality to be goal-oriented, much like himself.

"Now you're just bragging." One joked, having followed that train of thought.

"I'll sleep much better knowing you're no longer in my head." Harry said.

"Well, I'll be out of there before you're put in stasis." One pointed out.

"But I'll not be sleeping, will I?" Harry asked. One nodded his head in acceptance.

"It's still strange to watch you having conversations like that." Jack said. "You do realise you're talking to yourself and answering, right?"

"This must seem like a bit of craziness to you." Harry chuckled.

"Only when I think about it logically." Jack said.

"And we all know you hate to do that." One joked.

"You get me." Jack said, indicating between One and himself.

One smiled at that. Jack didn't usually treat him as a partial life-form, but he liked being… liked.

They finished their meal, discussing what was to follow and Harry double- and triple-checked everything, before initiating the connection to the crystal and, for the lack of a better word, uploaded the intelligence that had been residing in his mind for the last few weeks. It had started changing, and took longer to upload, that it had taken to download.

The thing about the diamond construct, was that One couldn't adapt or change, not like the Unity crystal could, anyway, but Harry realised that he hadn't brought any of that along, which explained why he'd decided to create the new storage medium, on top of being able to create a 3D representation. Unlike his previous version, which was made to emulate muggle television and cinema, this one was capable of interacting with a person with very little change to the basic functionality. The only caveat was that Harry had needed to allow it to use his power to interact with the world, since there weren't conventional input devices, for the artificial life to hear or see them. That had also been why it had been able to touch Jack, when it was still only an illusion.

When One was on the diamond again, it's structure solidifying again, once Harry was finished, he connected it into the projection system again, which now had normal input devices, for both audio and video. He wasn't limited with seeing like a human, though, having a complete view of the bridge, with access to all the monitoring crystals around the ship.

One projected himself out of the system and appeared to be sitting at the security terminal, which was where he'd be monitoring all the systems needing to be watched during his long vigil. Harry confirmed that One could access everything he needed and confirmed one last time that he knew his primary objectives, which One confirmed easily. Harry had explained that to Jack as the most important test. Once One was back on the diamond, he'd not be changing his priorities. While he had a certain limited amount of 'changeable' memory, it was mostly going to be used for keeping track of important information, before One would input that information into the security logs. It basically functioned like short-term memory for the artificial life form.

When they were set and ready, Harry and Jack were beamed into stasis, manually set for release and with an emergency override that One could trigger, or which would expel them should something happen to the ship or they somehow lose power. Better to be ejected while there's still some power, than be expelled into space after the power completely failed and the ship had exploded.

OOO

It felt like a moment to them, like being beamed between two locations, before they were standing before a calmly smiling One, who didn't seem like he'd moved from his position since they were beamed away.

"How did it go?" Harry asked, as he walked to the security terminal and started looking at the elapsed time and reading through the logs. He should have taught One how to compile the data. It was all in recorded log format. He'd need to go through this information for hours before he could safely extrapolate any usable data. "One?" Harry asked, when the artificial life-form didn't respond. He looked around, to see One looking at him in question. "I asked how it went?" Harry asked again.

One pointed at his ear and shook his head, before pointing at the projector. Harry frowned and walked to the projector, before running a scan over the device. "Will you look at that? Rusted. Poor guy must have been deaf for quite some time now." Harry focussed on the metal construct he had made for the improvised microphone, which quickly fixed that problem. "How's that?" Harry asked, looking at One again.

"I am very glad I was unable to become bored." One said. "I can only imagine that fifty years of complete silence in a ship with a marvellous movie and music collection would drive a normal human insane with frustration."

"Or just plain insane." Jack agreed. "That had to suck." he commiserated.

"It was not that bad." One said. "I did end up reading through a whole lot of books and created a reference database, which can be used for quickly searching through the magical topics you have available in the library." he said proudly. He'd thought of that himself and thought it might be useful at some point. Perhaps even one-day, when Harry gave him the ability to learn again, he'd be able to take advantage of the system and actually know if what he'd made could be useful to himself, to find his own interests.

"Nice!" Harry congratulated. Why hadn't he thought of that? Hopefully Pike could use the reference database with her own search algorithms, which was just a word search at this point. A reference database could be infinitely more useful, if it's set up correctly. "I'll look into that later." he promised. "In the meanwhile, did you get the proper solar cycle down?" Harry asked.

"I believe I did, Harry." One said. "Here, let me show you." he said, as the system Harry had open before changed to show a proper calendar, with previously gathered data and an estimation based on previous observations. "As you can see, I needed to end your stasis early, by about two years, since the next cycle will only begin five years after your originally scheduled release from stasis.

"Furthermore, I have documented the most likely locations for the delivery of your payload, based on the sunspots previously observed. The positive pole will still be your most likely delivery point, based on the reaction of the tests run during the test period." One finished.

"That's fantastic news, One!" Harry congratulated. "How long do we have?" he asked.

"I have awoken you a week early, just in-case you needed more time to create your delivery mechanism." One said. "Unfortunately, I only possess a small amount of information on how you will achieve that, so I was unable to work on anything like that, while I was going over the rest of your data."

"That's fine." Harry said. "I have that in hand already."

"What are you going to do?" Jack asked.

"Raw magical power injection, with, possibly, a slight bit of transfiguration, to start the process." Harry said.

"You're going to change the sun with transfiguration?" Jack asked.

"The star is producing a slight bit more light and heat than it should, considering the data we have on stars of its size." One said. "If Harry changes the sun's output to generate even a slight bit of magic, converting the standard solar energy to magical, the process will become self-sustaining."

"The first star will be simple really." Harry took up the narrative. "I can deliver a rune-enscribed object to the sun, which converts power and maintains its shape, just after the magical injection. The energy will still be present and sustain the conversion object, which will start producing the magical energy this galaxy lacks."

"Okay, so you're going to make a magic catalyst." Jack said. "Something that's not really part of the process, but makes it possible. What about the other stars?"

"That's the problem." Harry said. "I'll need to power this sun first and wait for its light to travel to the next star, before I can do the same thing for the next star."

"But, you can't do this for billions of stars, Harry." Jack objected. "It's more than any one person can do in many lifetimes."

"That won't be necessary." One said. "Harry just needs to seed the one, wait a hundred-thousand years for this star's light and power to travel the entire galaxy and then he starts a magic seeding project at the same time as his other project, using one to spread the other."

Harry nodded along, it had been his idea after all. Even though he hadn't told the artificial life form, he had likely picked it up when One was living in his head. "So, first we seed this sun, then we take another nap."

"This stasis thing is getting old." Jack said.

"Oh, come off it." Harry said. "You don't even feel it."

Jack looked obstinate, but dropped the subject.

Harry did end up spending a week producing the second part of his project. Making the sun magical would be simple in comparison. Creating a galaxy-spanning higher dimension would take time and power. Fortunately, he had both. The fact that he could set how that dimension functioned was just a bonus. He knew enough to create what he knew about the dimension he'd heard about and setup the one he was making in a similar fashion, with some extra features of course.

His initial tests had found that the ascended dimension was already there, even if it seemed different, but at this time it should be unoccupied, so it made sense. He'd not know until he checked, but he would only do that once he was ready to implement and separate the new one from the original. He knew for a fact that the Ancients only came to the Milky Way galaxy after this point in time, so he should have free reign.

By the time the week was up, Harry was ready and he, One and Jack were all at their positions, ready for their part. It turned out that Harry must have also decided to make One, to ensure that he had the right amount of help, when the time came for application of this project.

"Everybody ready?" Harry asked, again.

"I'm ready." Jack said. He was in charge of monitoring the magical monitor, which would tell them the moment the conditions were ready for them to start. That, and the levels of magic. Once he saw the sun was starting to radiate the magic it was being injected with, he was to trigger the transport of the rune-device Harry had inscribed with the conversion functions. It was also the anchor for the dimensional layer he was creating and one extra feature he had added almost as an afterthought.

"I'm also ready." One said. Being in charge of the injection system, his job was to go through the variations of magical input Harry had prepared, while Harry aimed the laser beam, through which he would be sending the magical energy into the sunspots, where the magnetic interference would allow for the best entry point into the star's inner workings, which would then, hopefully, start the spread of artificially induced magical conversion.

"How many times are you going to ask?" Jack asked.

"I'm just nervous." Harry said. No matter how precise he was being, he was still messing with the inner workings of a sun.

"You have nothing to be nervous about, Harry." One said. "We have checked your plans over many times. We will be proceeding, so worrying has no positive effects on the probability of success."

"What he said." Jack agreed. "Worrying won't help. Stop it."

"Yeah, yeah." Harry said, still looking at the sun's southern pole, which would become the northern pole when they started the operation, through the targeting system Harry had Jack test, back after he had just invented it. It was only a few minutes later that Harry repeated the question again and Jack sighed, but answered positively again.

In the end the solar cycle had come to an end a whole day later than projected. Unfortunately, for the best chances of success, they would need to enact the plan as soon as the poles switched, which happened at the end of the solar cycle, which was why they were not in the best of moods when the feedback they were waiting for, finally came in.

Jack confirmed what he was seeing instantly and Harry quickly found the biggest, most prominent sunspot he could, and started firing a constant beam with his laser. The beam started on the most likely magical input, which was just pure, unshaped magical power. When that failed to get the results they were looking for, One changed the input to the second most likely option, out of many, which was a beam only slightly modified by unspecified transfiguration magic. This part used Pandora's research.

The power of change, after all, was what they were looking for. With Harry's intent on what he was trying to achieve, engraved into the mechanism that changed the magical energy, and the feed directly from the Asgard Battery, this change seemed to do the trick.

"Oh, that definitely did something." Jack said, as his monitor started showing the results he was told to look for. It wasn't a lot, but it was definitely there.

"How much?" Harry asked.

"About ten percent of the way there." Jack said.

"That is worrying." One said.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Do it." Harry said, looking at One.

"Upping output." One nodded and slid a bar up.

"What's going on, Harry?" Jack asked.

"If we don't increase those numbers, it won't be capable of sustaining the change on its own." Harry said. "The problem is, the battery has been draining slowly over the last hundred years, keeping all the systems up and running. Even with the ward, there was more drain than we predicted."

"We're running out of power?" Jack asked. Then realisation hit him. "We're not able to go back without getting this right, are we?" he asked.

"I'm afraid not." Harry confirmed. "Sorry I didn't tell you."

"Why didn't you?" Jack asked.

"We can't ever come back to this time again." Harry said. "If we don't succeed, right now, we will need to jettison the battery into the sun to jump-start the process, which, as you know-"

"Will kill us." Jack said, in realisation. He now understood why Harry had been so nervous, where before he had told them that he could simply send them back. "Why not take us back, before we started this?"

"Going back, after coming here, might have had consequences I wasn't prepared to face." Harry admitted. "We could return, only to realise that we'd doomed the galaxy to the Goa'uld by failing. Magic changed enough things that I can't honestly predict the consequences. I could simply cease to be and we'll never have that chance again. I couldn't risk it."

"And you weren't going to tell me this?" Jack asked.

"No, but Harry did set aside enough power to suspend you and send you back to Earth to awaken at the correct time." One said. "He would not force this on you."

"I'm sorry Jack, for not telling you." Harry said. There was a moment's silence, before he asked, "Any chance the levels are rising appreciably?"

Jack's eye twitched. "Now I understand why you had so many people keeping an eye on you." he mumbled, before he looked at the monitor again. Fortunately it seemed that the levels were rising as they should. "Looks like we're getting there. It's still rising."

"How long?" One asked. He knew what levels they were at.

"Ten more seconds." Jack estimated.

"It's going to be close." One said, but he also nodded at Harry.

Harry sighed a sigh of relief. He had not been happy about the revelation, but he was glad that he'd left the girls behind, knowing what he might have to do to ensure that everything happened as it should. He waited and kept his laser's focus on the exact centre of the sunspot, until Jack pressed a button and there was a surge as the device was transported into the star's molten core.

The device looked a lot like a mirror chamber, since that's basically what it was. Harry had taken a bit of the spare Naquadah- Carbon- Trinium alloy and melded it to the large Blue Diamond he had brought with him. The diamond would have two main functions. First, it would act like the anchor for the dimensional layer, much like the batteries, which was connected to it through its own 'subspace' connection. Subspace wasn't the right word, since the 'pocket' he was creating functioned on an entirely different principle. 'Superspace' would be more accurate, since it would end up layering over the entire galaxy and reach just a bit beyond it, depending on the power of the stars powering it.

Secondly, the diamond would store a very specific kind of information, which Harry had recently become aware of. Temporal information. Like a time-turner, there would be instances, based on hourly intervals, which would be accessible to him, and only him, since it was blood-bound to himself. He didn't intend on using it, but he couldn't help wanting to try making his own version of a time-turner. The primary purpose of this version, would be to observe the past, through a connection Harry would have to establish in the future, when they got back home. He'd set it up to function like a window and nothing else. The temptation would be too great for some people, otherwise.

This was all possible, solely because they were creating a magical star, which could feed all the processes he'd set up. Chances were that the device would be destroyed over the millions of years to come, especially considering the expanded state of the star in their own time. It didn't stop Harry from wanting to try, though.

"Did it work?" Jack asked, as he watched the graphic in front of himself dip, at the same time as the laser stopped firing, One having stopped the feed. Once the device was delivered, it didn't matter if they kept on sending power. It had either worked and the star's magical output became self-sufficient, or it hadn't and Harry would need to resort to the alternative, in which case, the more power the battery contained, the better.

"We'll need to wait and see." Harry said. "It could take a couple of minutes before the sun's light becomes magical enough to work like it should."

"If the device made it through entry, in-tact." One said. It wasn't a happy thought, but it was prudent to consider all the possibilities.

"I did give it quite a charge before-hand." Harry said, as he disengaged his zoomed-in view of the sunspot and climbed out of the gunners' chair. "It should remain in-tact for about ten more minutes, before the magic sustaining it runs out from the extra drain… If it didn't work, that is."

Jack understood what that meant and he focussed entirely on the display, looking for any indication that the star was starting to produce magical light. The minutes dragged on, and Jack had seen a few blips of something happening on the display, but mostly it remained a declining line, having dropped below the optimal level he'd needed to wait for, the moment the laser had been disengaged.

It was almost ten minutes later, when something changed. Harry sighed in relief and Jack looked up, not having spotted any change on the monitor. "What?" he asked.

"I can sense the star again." Harry said, relief flooding his system as he sat down on the captain's seat. "Fuck me, that was tense!" he exclaimed loudly.

Jack said nothing, but continued to watch for a change. Sure enough, twenty seconds later there was a slight increase, followed shortly by a steady increase, until the bar had grown all the way back to and past the optimal level. "Looks like you were successful in making a magic star." Jack said, a smile breaking out on his face. Whatever happened next, they'd be okay. Harry could charge the battery back up and they would be able to go home, using whatever method would work best.

Harry said nothing and Jack looked over, only to see that Harry had closed his eyes in relief and had promptly fallen asleep.

"I believe that Harry has fallen asleep." One said, from where he was still connected to the system, rather than in the clone.

"Not a bad idea." Jack said. "I didn't sleep well before we started this mess, and we've been up for way too long."

"Would you please press the flashing button indicated on the display by the co-pilot's position?" One asked. He didn't have access to everything, after all. Jack walked over and pressed the nondescript button, taking the co-pilot's seat. Harry's chair slowly started to move, the legs lifting and the back slowly lowering, until the captain's seat was in a reclined position.

"Is that as comfortable as it looks?" Jack asked jealously. A chair could work, but a recliner would be heaven.

"As I understand it, the reclined position was created for sleep at the station." One said. "It has noise-cancelling and comfort charms, but those will switch off the moment anything of import happens."

"Is there another one of those?" Jack asked. Another button lit up, right next to the one he had pressed. "One, have I told you lately that I like you?" Jack asked, as he pressed the button and sat back. The chair's slow reclining movement and comfort charms lulled him to sleep in seconds. He never did hear One's positive response, but, by then, the silencing charms had kicked in.

OOO

They weren't done of course. Harry needed to work on a magic seeding program and they needed to wait one-hundred thousand years, for the light to reach every star in the galaxy. Jack kept them company for a month, before he opted to go into stasis, asking to be awoken before they did anything of import.

Harry didn't mind, since it was mostly just technical rune-work. He'd be establishing a new StellarNet, so that he could travel to other stars again. This time, however, he'd only have one star's light to travel by, before he could see the effect of magic on the next one. Once he had that information he could start on the next phase. He quickly went into stasis, once he knew the ship was finally not losing magic anymore and the battery was actually recharging from the exposure to the star.

Two years passed in this fashion, where Harry would awaken and travel to the next star to be touched by the magic from 'Alpha Origin', the first star seeded with magic. What he found, on every occasion, was that the next star to be contacted, was already being converted and had started producing and sending out magic.

Having taken the time to research the phenomena, Harry had found that it was, once again, his intent that had shaped the magic of Alpha Origin. Basically, his magic knew what he wanted, and had already started on the action he intended for the rest of the galaxy, connecting stars and spreading the influence of magic at the same time as it channelled a small amount of magic into powering the ever-growing dimensional layer.

At every stop, Harry went about testing everything he needed to, until he came to the conclusion that he didn't need to follow it around anymore. He just needed to trust magic. Hell, for all he knew, magic wanted this as much as he did. Magic was alive after all. Who's to say it didn't have a will to live?

Having decided to give magic a chance to do its thing, Harry returned the ship to Alpha Origin and went into stasis for the next hundred-thousand years, with One keeping an eye, as usual. He didn't even mind, being able to keep an eye on the ever-growing StellarNet, as more and more stars joined the system automatically. Harry had even given him the ability to look through the connections, to see if he could find any life that they hadn't encountered before.

After all, it was entirely possible that there had been life that had not survived their own influence on their planets, much like humans were destroying Earth, or how the Tollans' neighbouring planet had destroyed themselves and nearly destroyed them in the process. It seemed that on the grand scale, the learning curb was steep, and not everyone reached their potential, because they didn't know better, or they didn't learn their lessons properly.

When Harry came out of stasis again, hopefully for the second-last time, it was to see a full galaxy displayed before himself in an illusionary display. It was beautiful. Knowing that every star that he saw had magic, was part of the StellarNet, was supporting the Superspace and was connected to each other, and through each other to him, was awe-inspiring. He had never dreamed that he could do anything on this scale.

Sure, he'd talked about it like it was something small, but if it hadn't been for the research he'd had Pandora do for him into magical theory and how magics interacted with each other, so that he could test the most likely magics he needed to bombard the star with, to get the results they needed, they could very well have died and cost the galaxy everything. Unfortunately for him, he'd been drawn into this action by what he now suspected was Magic itself.

"Well, two can play at that game." Harry had said to himself. "If I need to come here to help you live, Magic, you can do me a favour and allow me to make a new dimension, connected to you, while keeping those bastards from ever finding the people who matter to me." After all, if the Ascended could do anything, go anywhere, it would be entirely possible for them to find Harry's little secret in Alpha Origin and through it, all they'd need to stop Harry from ever coming into existence.

Harry knew they had a non-interference policy, but by doing nothing, they had chosen to also support the other side. Not doing something is also an action, after all. A choice, to deliberately not affect things for the good of all. The logic there, led to only one conclusion: The ascended would fuck him over, to protect the status quo and he intended to fuck them first.

Going back to Alpha Origin, Harry parked the Sphere close to the star and focussed on it, using its own light to give him access to a device he really hoped was still there. Sure enough, it was still there, merrily converting immense amounts of energy into magic and pouring it into the sun, which carried it out, into the universe.

Being careful about it, and not opening himself to it, Harry started imparting ideas into the device. He'd never tried to be so direct with large-scale magics before. He knew he was basically repeating his exercise in learning wandless magic, using his will to make something happen, but something told him that his mission wasn't done yet and that he still had a ways to go.

He sat there concentrating on the magic he was using, focussing on the dimension he had created and working his will into it. Making it separate itself, keeping itself from the awareness of the other dimension it was currently sharing a space with, Harry slowly started separating, lifting it in the metaphysical sense of the word. It wasn't so much a physical act, as it was an intellectual one. It didn't take willpower to achieve, so much as he was the only will in the place. It had nothing else to exist for, other than to do what Harry wanted it to, at that moment.

That was about the time Harry realised that he was no longer on the ship. "I ascended, didn't I?" he asked the empty blank expanse, which was an entire galaxy's worth of undefined, white space, and also something much more vast. Harry could feel the potential of this place. It was connected to so much, and at the same time, it kept itself separate, simply because he had willed it. This was his space. He could do with it as he wished, as was the original goal of the system Pike had created. At the same time, he also knew that he had other plans for it. For the time being, however, he needed to return to his ship, to his friend, who was still in stasis.

He had no sooner thought it, than he knew exactly how to return, while keeping a metaphysical foot in the door to his own dimension. The Superspace was a power-drenched expanse of possibility, powered for thousands of years by most of the stars in the galaxy. A galaxy which had fundamentally changed for Harry. He suddenly felt even more disgust at the Ancients and other ascended. With the power to travel at the speed of thought, and with the potential of an entire dimension like this, why not teach with what you could see, what you could experience. Was it too big a responsibility? Where they worried that people would start to rely on them, rather than trying for themselves?

Harry could understand the will to learn, so he didn't mind that they didn't hand out answers and lending their power around every corner, but why not at least give people warnings? 'Hey, you're about to do something stupid and destroy your race. Don't do that.' How difficult would that be? No direct interference. Just a friendly word of warning.

"Fuck them." Harry said, as he settled back down into his own, comfortable, mortal body, which he was glad to discover hadn't physically left, like he'd been told happened with normal ascension. He'd have access, but he didn't think he'd enjoy it, with how empty it was, even as his magic told him there were universal answers in that space. Things magic had witnessed and remembered. Like a particularly fun-loving puppy, all it wanted to do, was fetch the answers and deliver them to someone, who would play with it.

Harry didn't care for the information and power. After all, he didn't need immortality. He could achieve that in a few ways already, if he wanted to. Sure, he'd probably end up wanting more time, one day, but until then, he'd stick to normal security measures. He ignored the thought in the back of his head that told him he was already immortal. The Superspace would not allow him to die. It would simply pull him in and he'd then be able to come back, good as new. Metaphysical to physical with a single thought.

"Stop that!" Harry commanded his subconscious. It was distracting to know he was somehow communing with Superspace, with Magic, which was happily giving him answers. It was disappointing to know that there was something out in the universe, and inside his own head, which was trying to spoil the joy of discovery for him. "I'll ask for answers when I want them." Harry said. There was nothing, but Harry narrowed his eyes at nothing, looking internally for some sort of impulse that wanted to search for and provide instant gratification. Nothing. "Good." he said, as he turned back to the monitor and started planning again, resolving to keep the latest change in his life to himself.

If Magic had a face, it would be smiling. Harry Black may be saying one thing, but in his heart it knew Harry loved it. It would be ready to play again, when Harry was ready.

In another level of the universe, an Entity was becoming frustrated at its chosen, for insisting on doing things the slow way.

OOO

Jack had gone into stasis in the morning, thinking it would be easier to adjust to 'new', if he was still fresh and ready for the day. What he saw when he came out, was a widely smiling Harry. "I want to go back to bed.�� Jack said. "I don't like that look. It's like the look you get when you tell me about moon-cutting lasers and soul-sucking demons."

"I don't do that to you too often, do I?" Harry asked.

"Only about three to four times a year, since I've met you." Jack said. He frowned. "How long have we known each other?"

"A couple of years now, or a few hundred million, depending on how you look at it." Harry said. "It doesn't really matter, does it?"

"I'm thinking it's around three years now?" Jack offered.

Harry sighed and thought back, before nodding. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Why does it matter?"

"Well, I was thinking." Jack started. "Since we've known each other for a while now, and, since we're friends-"

"You want a lightsaber, don't you?" Harry said, bluntly.

"I really do!" Jack confirmed, enthusiastically.

Harry rolled his eyes, but reached into a pocket and pulled out a lightsaber, tossing it to Jack, who caught it handily. "You know the rules. No mundane people find out and you don't put it on the purple blade unless you know what you're doing."

Jack looked between the silver cylinder and Harry, twice. "You had this made for me?" he asked.

"No." Harry said. "I made it for you, myself. I'm the only one on Harmony that even knows how. I was going to give it to you on a special occasion, but now works, I suppose."

Jack was now smiling from ear to ear. "Okay, I think I'm ready for whatever crazy you have for me next." he said, putting the precious item in a pocket of his cargo pants. "What's happening?"

"Nothing." Harry said. "You asked me to get you out of stasis for the next big thing, right?" Jack nodded. "Well, it turns out stuff was sorted after Alpha Origin was seeded."

"Alpha Origin?" Jack asked.

"The first star." Harry explained. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you I named it. It's been a few years."

Jack's smile disappeared. "Years?" he asked, quietly. There was an edge in his voice.

"Oh, right." Harry said, as he pointed off to the side and his real body became visible, in a chamber Harry had placed it in. "When we got magic to work, I set it up so I wouldn't age. I spent the last two years inspecting the stars and checking that my primary mission was a success, so I started using this construct. It's like Samantha's body. Not real, but lifelike enough to perform all the necessary functions, while my real body is in my version of an Asgard stasis chamber. My mind and magic is awake, but my body is in near-complete stasis."

"Two years?" Jack asked. "You kept me in stasis for two years?"

"Well, yes." Harry said. "You asked that we wake you up when something happened."

"We?" Jack asked, being distracted, despite himself. "Where's One?" he asked then.

"Oh, he's still in the system." Harry said. "The clone is also in stasis, since I don't want it to age either."

"Good morning, Jack." an illusionary image of Harry popped up and said. "I didn't want to bother Harry with my presence in his head while he worked, so I decided to stay in the system. Harry promised me a real body when we get home, though. I'm looking forward to it."

"Hi One." Jack said. "He's not been doing crazy stuff and blowing up stars or anything has he?"

"Well, he did set up a new battery with materials he gathered." One said. "It makes sense that he uses the opportunity. After all, he doesn't plan on coming back again."

"Nothing that could affect our time, I mean." Jack said.

"Well… Nothing that should affect it negatively." One said, sounding a bit unsure.

Jack sighed and shook his head. Harry spoke up, though. "He's being silly. I've done what we were supposed to do, created what we need to drop off and set up a few battery charging stations in safe locations, all connected to one very large battery through some of my Anchored Subspace Windows. They will all shut down and destroy themselves once the battery stops keeping charge or it stops taking in more power, or when I go pick it up, should that happen before it's full or incapable of sustaining its charge."

"Just… when are we going home?" Jack asked, deciding to drop the subject. Harry had done what he set out to do and it seemed like everything was going to work out.

"I just need to make one stop and recruit a certain researcher to start on gathering some data I'll need when I come back and then we can go home." Harry said.

"Mrs Lovegood?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Harry said, with a smile. "She did us a massive favour."

"I'm thinking she didn't do it for free." Jack said.

"That's right." Harry said. "Damn, I forgot to ask her what I paid her."

"She'll tell you." Jack said. "Something tells me that that woman won't be surprised to see you." Harry nodded at that, not really knowing why, but thinking Jack had the right of it. "So, how are we going back? Stasis again?" Jack asked.

"Not this time." Harry said, smirking and pointing out of the ship, to a familiar set of rings. "Going forward won't be nearly as bad as coming back. The problem with coming back was the lack of magic at our arrival point. Going forward, we shouldn't have that problem."

OOO

Harry had been right. The trip back was a quick and easy move, feeling akin to apparating four times in quick succession. Going forward was accompanied by the inverse of what had happened before. Rather than getting dark like last time, everything seemed to become infinitely brighter. Fortunately, it wasn't like looking into a sun. As their bodies slipped through the fourth dimension, the light passed through them, not touching them as they became energy for the duration of the transport. Jack even felt a feeling of correctness in opposition to the feeling he had felt last time, when they were going against nature.

Harry had made his calculations and the ship had kept decent track of time, showing that the ship had spent one-hundred thousand, one-hundred and two years, and a few months, in real time, with Harry and Jack in stasis for most of that time. It was necessary to keep track, since Harry needed to transport them back to the correct time.

When they re-appeared above Earth, it was to see the planet they had left behind.

Harry didn't know exactly when he had contracted Pandora to do the research, but he knew she had been at it for a few years by the time Luna went to school with them, so he had chosen a time shortly after her fifth birthday and went down to Earth, with all his stealth capabilities activated. Finding the woman had been simple. She was standing outside the Lovegood house, looking up at the sky and seemed to be waiting.

That did kind of surprise Harry, since he had always thought a bit of her mystery had come from her having met him in the past.

He had Jack stay on the ship and programmed the beaming technology to deposit him and beam him up again after his meeting and went down to the woman.

"You know, you look a lot like your daughter when she grows up." Harry said, having appeared silently behind her.

"One could argue that she looks like me." Pandora said calmly, as she turned around. "Huh, a Potter. I thought it would be a Black."

"I am Harry Black." Harry said. "Sirius adopted me." he added, before having a thought and thinking it over. Sirius was just a year out of prison at this point in the time-line. "Actually, that hasn't happened yet. Give it a few years."

"Ah, I see. That makes sense." Pandora said. "Are you the one that sends her back?" she asked, shocking Harry yet again.

"Actually, I think she did that on her own, dragging me along as a side-effect." Harry admitted. "I only just figured out how to do what I did."

Pandora shook her head and smiled at him. "You are obviously not married to my Luna, yet. If you were, you'd know better."

"This the mysterious family magic, again?" Harry asked, before shaking his head and lifting a hand. "Sorry, I know I shouldn't ask. I'll find out in a few months. The girls are all probably planning the big day at this moment… or will be planning it when I go back. I just told them that I'm ready before I left, to distract them from the mission I was about to undertake."

"Girls?" Pandora asked.

Harry didn't know what to think. This woman knew some things and didn't know others. He couldn't wait to find out about that, but would have to be patient. "Yeah I have quite a few girls all wanting to claim me. Luna is probably all of our favourite. She's just special that way."

"I know what you mean." Pandora said, smiling a motherly smile, before sobering. "So, what is this thing I'll need to do, to help you?" she asked then, turning serious.

"We're not going to chat first?" Harry asked.

"I like to find things out for myself. Being given all the answers is not why I became a researcher, you know." Pandora asked him, with a raised eyebrow, suspecting that he knew what she was talking about.

"I knew I liked you for a reason." Harry said, smiling back at her. "First off, what do you need for this? As I understand it, you work on this for quite a few years."

"Oh, you'll pay me back for this when you go back." Pandora said. "I have it under good authority that I have almost everything I need to do this research and give you what you need when I deliver it to you." she said, holding a hand out to Harry, who deposited the diamond storage disk he had created along with a projector and a small booklet that would give her the information on how to store the information on the disk. "And now I have everything." she finished. "See you soon. From your perspective, anyway."

Harry was embraced by the woman in a familiar hug, like she'd been doing it for ages, before she turned around and walked back to the house, where Harry heard a young girl giggling after a crash that sounded like a tower of books had fallen over.

"Tell me to read the message after I arrive, and to take a battery." he called after her. She just lifted a hand and waved behind her as she entered the house.

Shaking his head, Harry pressed a finger to his ear. "Beam me up, Jack." he said, before he disappeared in a flash of blue light.

"That woman scares me." Jack said, when Harry appeared. He'd been listening.

"Oh, she's fun." Harry said. "I'm still bloody curious about how she knows what she knows, though."

Jack didn't know if he wanted to be given those answers. "Okay." was all he said, before changing the subject. "So, we're going home?" he asked.

"I was thinking one more stop first." Harry said, as he sat down in his seat and transported them back to Alpha Origin, where the rings were still waiting. Having confirmed that they were when they needed to be, he transported the rings into storage, before he activated the ship-wide stasis one more time, their second last stop. When they appeared again, Jack looked at the calendar and paled. "Harry, what are you doing?" he asked, a kind of anger and something Harry couldn't identify colouring his words.

"I'm going to try and pay you back for your help." Harry said.

"Harry, don't fuck with me! I know what happened this day. I can't ever forget it! I asked about changing it, but Sam told me that doing it would change everything." Jack said angrily. "It can't be done!"

"Shows what she knows." Harry said. "Here's a little secret for you Jack. I've already changed the past, so I know it's possible."

"You what!?" Jack asked. Sam had told him that changing the past would cause incalculable damage to causality. She'd even explained it to him. He knew Sam was not stupid either. Slowly he calmed himself, before taking a deep breath. "Harry, please explain to me what we're about to do." he asked, trying very hard to sound reasonable, even as a tinge of hope slipped into his mind. Hope that could make or break a man.

"I'll need to see what you remember, to do this right." Harry warned. "It's not going to be pleasant for you."

Jack didn't hesitate. "Do it." he said instantly, knowing that Harry would need to enter his mind. He didn't know why, but he'd do it for the sake of the possibility Harry was presenting him.

Harry entered Jack's mind with the barest of effort, the day Jack's son had died in an accident related to him playing with Jack's loaded gun, coming forward as Jack recalled it with perfect clarity. A parent could never forget the day their child died.

It was with very little effort and a bit of information from Jack, that Harry had found the correct moment to abduct Jack's son, replace him with a Naquadah-body copy and connected him to a stasis and remote system, all without his knowledge, to do as he would have. Harry had Jack wait in the room where his son was in the stasis chamber, and sound-proofed it, so that he wouldn't have to hear the gunshot, as he watched to ensure everything happened as it should. The Naquadah body was a perfect copy, being able to be damaged, just like a normal human body. Everything unfolded as it had before. Jack and his wife had rushed into the house to find that their son had accidentally killed himself and the look on Jack's face made Harry turn away. He had blamed himself. The boy had known he was doing something he shouldn't but he was angry, and as with many things in life, the youth didn't think of the consequences of his actions, before making what would have been his final mistake.

Returning to the room, Harry saw that Jack had released the boy and was holding him as he cried. The boy must have woken up the moment the connection was gone, much like what had happened to Harry when his clone was kidnapped. Leaving them to their moment, Harry went back to the pilot's seat and activated the ship's stasis, taking them back to the present, all without Jack or his son ever even noticing.

OOO

"Where have you been!?" Hermione exclaimed as Harry walked back into Black Mansion. "We weren't able to call you all day!"

"I was on a mission." Harry said, as he smiled and walked up to her, embracing her. The other girls were all with her, but she was the closest one. It had been a while since he saw them last, after all. He hadn't spent the entirely of the time Jack was in stasis awake either. "I missed you all so much!" he stated as he spun Hermione around and went to hug the next girl.

"You weren't just gone for the day, were you?" Pansy asked shrewdly. Harry's statement had her wondering exactly what he had been up to. Wasn't one of Harry's projects to look into making time move more slowly, or seem to do that? It was something called time-dilation. Had he figured it out?

"Time, as it turns out, is relative." Harry said.

"Depends on who you are." Luna said easily, as she hugged Harry, too. She had a good idea what he had been up to, but wouldn't spoil his surprises.

"Oh, Harry, we've been planning up a storm!" Parvati exclaimed as Harry hugged her. She didn't care what he had been up to, as long as he came back safe. Well, that wasn't completely true, but she realised that he couldn't tell them everything, not if he wanted to be able to surprise them. She suspected he'd spent time on his 'creating a dimension' project. "We are going to need a very big venue. You have more friends and family to invite than anyone alive!"

"Apparently the royal family have requested an invite?��� Padma added. They'd all heard about that from Remus, who had obviously informed the Prime Minister about the fact that the nuptials were finally being discussed. The citizens of Harmony were already buzzing with excitement, as the famous leaders of their fair city, no longer small enough to be considered a town, finally took the next step. Even though a date had not been set, it had been decided that the wedding would take place in Harmony, where the weather could be counted on to do exactly as planned.

"So long as they don't expect special treatment." Harry joked. "Everyone in Harmony is equal, after all."

"Only you sink zat way, Darling." Fleur said, as she took her moment in his arms, switching to the more prominent accent, as she glued herself to his body. "Ze rest of 'Armony feels zat you are more akin to royalty yourself."

"Please don't encourage that." Harry stage-whispered playfully, as he hugged her back. "How would I ever go get an ice-cream in town, or go grab a drink with the boys, if they keep on trying to roll out the red carpet, every time I try to?"

"You'll just have to be a different kind of royalty." Susan said, after she all but yanked Harry from Fleur, to get her own attention.

Harry was noticing that the girls were all trying to be very close to him, all at once. That might become an issue, if they all decided he needs to be spoiled for deciding it was time to move on to wedding plans. He'd not had a difficult time to be with them all before, since they all had enough control to keep to a schedule. One only they really ever understood.

"Okay ladies, I can see there's about to be a problem." Harry said, chuckling at the heated looks, all directed at him. "Give me a moment, while I try something." he said, pulling himself from Susan's strong arms. She was the strongest of the group, besides Harry himself, but then, he cheated. Susan, like any of the wolves, could likely arm-wrestle a world champion and win, so he didn't have much of a choice.

He took a step back and focussed his mind on drawing just a slight bit of power from Superspace, to help him focus his mind on the task at hand.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, just as Harry realised that something had changed in his personal dimension. The power gathered in the white space had expanded, much further than he had expected and a trickle of power was still an avalanche to normal people. Hermione was staring at his, now glowing, form.

"Oops." Harry said with a wry grin. "Let me dial that back a bit." he said as he did just that. Even while trying to ignore the knowledge trying to flood him, he suddenly understood that the power he had felt before had increased due to hundreds of millions of years of gathering power from the billions of stars sending a trickle of power constantly into the realm, to maintain it. That and it was bigger than he had planned. He'd need to look into that later, though. Right at that moment, he had a host of girls he wanted to give personal attention to.

Refocussing his mind on the task, he created seven copies of himself and sent his will and attention, through Superspace and into those bodies. It was unreal to realise that he could focus more attention through any and all of them than he was normally capable of in just his own body. Not wanting to artificially increase his own mental powers that way, Harry dialled it even further back until he could tell he was at just about the same level of mental prowess, in each of the copies, as he would be on his own.

The girls were all looking at Harry as he suddenly manifested, in a display of pure magical and mental prowess, seven solid illusions of himself, who then proceeded to start giving them all individual attention. Hermione, probably the person who would normally object and start asking questions, decided to accept the situation and went with it… for the time being, at least. Something had definitely happened. Something had changed, but it didn't seem to be an encumbrance.

Several hours later, the group of girls were all laying in their personal Harry's arms, spread around his bedroom on various conjured beds.

"Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, Hermione?" Harry asked, knowing what was coming.

"How did you do that?" she asked. The other girls were paying attention, but not complaining, having never been treated to such personal attention, for so long, before.

"I picked up a new skillset during the last mission." Harry said, honestly.

"Do I need to start begging?" Hermione asked, a bit more playfully than he was used to.

"Oh, I'd love to see that, but this information is definitely going to stay in the family, so you'll have to wait for the wedding night, I'm afraid." Harry said, smiling down at her.

"Unless Lady Lovegood wants to start telling me her family secrets now?" another Harry, the one laying with said Lovegood, asked.

"Not until our wedding night, I'm afraid." Luna copied his words, a mysterious smile on her face. Something in that smile told Harry that she might have an idea of what had happened most recently.

"You know, don't you?" Harry asked her, softly.

"I have an idea." Luna's smile only grew.

"That's not fair!" Susan exclaimed as she hit her Harry in the chest with a flat hand.

"Ow!" her Harry exclaimed, before all the extra Harry's disappeared, leaving only the Harry in his own bed with Hermione. "That was uncalled for."

"Hey!" most of the girls glared at Harry. "Get back here!" Pansy exclaimed.

"I'm not making more of myself for all of you to abuse!" Harry objected, as he slipped from his bed, leaving Hermione to pout. "Besides, I'm getting hungry. You girls may have missed it, but I seem to have used a lot of stamina this evening and I've not had dinner."

True enough, Harry had barely mentioned food, before his stomach growled at him, followed by one or two others. It seemed Harry was not alone in his hunger.

"Fine, but once we're done, I want to cuddle." Parvati said emphatically. It had been wonderful not to have to give up her cuddle time. She'd used a large portion of her time, while the more insatiable of the girls took more time in physical exertions, to cuddle her Harry. She'd found it interesting that he'd seemingly dozed off with her, while the others were obviously, and loudly, still busy. She'd even heard his heart-rate having calmed down. Whatever trick Harry had discovered, she was just as curious about it as the other girls.

There was a loud agreement as the other girls started getting themselves ready to leave their bed and to possibly see people. They'd not be able to hide the glow or the smiles, but they could at least try to present themselves as if they hadn't just had their individual worlds rocked.

When they made it to the den, it was to find Sirius, Remus, Bill and Professor Flitwick in a serious game of poker, with the de-aged Madam Pomfrey sitting with a green card-dealer's visor, playing the role of the house dealer, Daniels standing behind the bar, playing barman, as he watched all the others cheat their hearts out, and Desiré sitting by the bar as Daniels explained how they were cheating. Sirius and Bill even had cigars in their mouths, unlit at the moment, for the sake of the wolves, and not to get scolded by Madam Pomfrey. They'd be allowed to smoke them outside, not that Sirius would ever admit that Madam Pomfrey told him what he could do in his own house. He refused the magics that changed the smell for other people. It was part of the experience.

Remus and Daniels looked up at the same time, having heard the group coming down, but Sirius was the first one to his feet. He had tossed his cards down, face up, an obvious sign that he was losing, before he rushed at Harry to embrace the young man. "Harry!" he exclaimed as he hugged him exuberantly. "I hear I've got a bachelor's party to plan!" he enthused.

"Who said you'd be best man?" Harry asked, but with a smile on his face.

"Of course I'm best man." Sirius scoffed, not even considering the idea that Harry might choose someone else. "Now, we need to talk venue, guest lists and entertainment." he continued as he tried to steer Harry away from the rest of the people in the room.

"I'm letting the girls make the wedding arrangements. I've been told I'm no good at those kinds of things." Harry denied, knowing what Sirius meant, but acting innocent, just to rile him up.

"I wouldn't mind having them there, as long as they tip the strippers too." Sirius said, not missing a beat, or being fooled in the slightest.

"I don't know that you want us there, then." Fleur said easily, indicating herself and the other girls. "We'll likely get more attention than you."

"On second thought, this is going to be a men's only event." Sirius said. "Sorry girls, I just don't think it sends the right message if you come along." He turned to Harry then. "So, do you have a list for me?" he asked.

"My best man will receive a guest list for the bachelor's party, just as soon as my brides have told me which of their relatives to include." Harry answered, still avoiding naming Sirius. He would obviously choose Sirius, along with Remus, but he'd not tell the man that, just yet. He could have eight brides, so why not two best men? Remus would make for a wonderful Master of Ceremonies, but Sirius would bring the fun, and keep it clean, only as long as he had supervision.

"Here, here!" Flitwick enthused, smiling at the young man for his wise choice of words.

"For now, though, I'm famished." Harry said. "We missed dinner, while I was updating the girls on one of my projects this evening."

"Oh?" Remus asked, interestedly.

"Oh, he updated us." Luna said. "For hours."

That statement was followed by blushes and smiles from all Harry's girls. Sirius noted the blushes and wiped a fake tear from his eye. "You make me so proud." he said to Harry.

"Down Padfoot." Remus said. "What project?" he asked, changing the subject again. He'd also noted Harry's absence and didn't like it. Thus, the impromptu poker session, so he could be close-by when Harry started telling people about where he'd been. He'd been very good at keeping his more wolfish impulses under control for the last few months, but that didn't mean he'd turned into a different person. He still cared and he was still curious. Bill had also been contacted, to try and find where Harry's comm was, but Bill had informed them that it was unreachable, either by design or due to something else they didn't want to think about. That, admittedly, didn't help Remus's mood either.

"Family secret." Harry said, easily.

"I'm family." Sirius said.

"Let me rephrase that." Harry said. "Future family secret. Sorry Sirius, this is one of those things, like when I was four."

Sirius's jovial face vanished instantly, being replaced by the parental figure. The other people in the room who knew Harry's real story, were also paying strict attention. Bill, who hadn't ever been told the whole story, along with Daniels and Desiré, looked worried at the effect Harry's words had on the other adults. "Do we need privacy?" Sirius asked, all business.

"I'm not ready to discuss this one, Sirius. Sorry." Harry said. "All you need to know, is that it was handled and things went almost exactly as planned."

"Why?!" Hermione demanded. "Why do you have to build it up? You're going to make it so that I can't sleep!"

"I'll just tire you out, again." Harry said with a wink at her.

"Harry!" Madam Pomfrey and Hermione exclaimed at the same time. "Bedroom talk is left in the bedroom in this house!" Madam Pomfrey continued.

"Yes, Ma'am." Harry said, winking at her, with a bit of humour on his face again. That seemed to help the others relax. If Harry could joke about it, it was likely handled. The world might have almost ended, with what Harry tended to get up to, but at least he'd also saved it again, for all they knew.

"I'll drop it for now, but please tell me you had backup, at least?" Remus persisted. He needed to be sure Harry wasn't doing things without at least the barest of protections.

"I had backup." Harry said.

"Colonel O'Neill went with Harry." Daphne said. She had noted the absence of anything on Harry's schedule that day, but they had been told of the unnamed mission and that Jack was going with him.

Remus realised, then, that he should have probably asked, but he hadn't wanted to worry the girls. He seemed to relax at that, and nodded in thanks to Daphne, just as Dobby appeared and hugged Harry's leg. "Master Harry is back and safe!" he exclaimed.

'Fuck! Not again!' Harry thought. Dobby had been present when Pandora handed him the information and had a habit of making his life more difficult in his eagerness to be protective. Harry didn't know how much Dobby knew, thanks to the security magics Pandora had cast, but he knew enough to make Harry's life more difficult by saying the wrong thing again. He definitely knew more than he should, since he'd cooked up enough food to feed them for years and stored it in the Sphere before they left.

"Don't talk about it in front of all these people." Harry's projected voice whispered in Dobby's left ear.

Dobby's body stiffened before he took a step back and nodded as subtly as he could, which meant everyone saw him, since all eyes were on him. "Dobby will bring dinner for Master Harry and the missuses." he announced, before he disappeared. Not ten seconds later food started appearing, floating next to Harry and his girls.

The by-play hadn't helped the worry that had been going through the people who considered Harry family, but Sirius was determined not to let it ruin the mood. Obviously Harry was fine, even though Sirius felt he missed out on another adventure. He and Remus made eye-contact and they both knew that they'd be bringing this up again, as soon as they caught Harry alone. Until then, there was no use in worrying.

"Shots!" Sirius exclaimed and Daniels nodded, starting to pour out rows of shots. He felt like he needed one himself. He didn't like not knowing what Harry had been up to and Poppy had insinuated, in her own way, that she knew some things that she couldn't talk about. He'd be keeping an eye out for when Remus and Sirius cornered him. He felt he had a right and would try and convince them to include him. He wouldn't insist, but he thought he'd earned it. He cared for Harry like family too, after all.

As the youngest people in the room set to eating their dinners, the poker game picked up again and the radio was switched on, to help fix the mood. The combination of that, Sirius being caught cheating, again, and the flow of alcohol, soon had the mood improve. When Harry joined the game, while a copy of him stayed with the girls in conversation about what they had planned for the wedding, the mood started picking up. Everyone just assumed it was the clone, since Harry had been seen recently, walking with the clone and doing two things at the same time with him.

Some people were interested in how he was having multiple conversations at once, but nobody asked after it, just assuming that he had done something amazing again and that he'd claim family magic again. Desiré had looked at the 'clone' in confusion for a moment after it had appeared, but whatever thought had entered her mind seemed to disappear after a few moments and she turned back to Daniels to ask after a reference Professor Flitwick had made about something magical.

The evening ended a couple of hours later, shortly after Poppy and Daniels said their goodbyes, wanting to get back home. Desiré excused herself to go back to her own room, so that she could rest her body, which had normal human needs, while she went back to the Monastery to do what ascended beings did in their spare time. She could freshen up the body using her power, but had read the room and knew that the evening was drawing to an end.

Sirius kept on bringing up the best man issue, and Harry ended up telling Remus that he wanted him to be MC, but he said nothing to anyone about who would be best man. Bill had gone home shortly after Sirius had plied him with a punishment drink, for having been caught cheating. Sirius didn't mind those, considering he got caught on purpose, to receive similar. Professor Flitwick was the last one to go, having trounced the younger players in both skill and sneaky little charms to help him cheat unnoticed.

All in all it had been a fun little evening, which had reminded Harry of the reasons why he had chosen to remain who he was and where he was. The lure of ultimate power and understanding that only an ascended being could hope to grasp, didn't hold a candle to that.

That evening he slept well. All seven of him had a girl in their arms, one of which had twins. A small part of his mind knew that he didn't need to sleep anymore, that he could just have another instance working somewhere on whatever fancied him, but he decided to enjoy he little things. Just because he could, didn't mean that he should.