Chapter 31 – There And Back Again

Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die

Chapter 31 – There And Back Again

"Hermione I'm sure you don't want to wear a hole in the deck plating that you had the droids polish especially for this trip."

"Sorry Master," she replied, moving a meter to the left onto a fresh bit of deck plating before continuing.

Rolling his eyes Coleman continued.

"Also if you keep picking at that uniform it will become frayed and start to unravel."

"I have another Master," she answered, showing no other sign that she had actually heard.

"If it wasn't because of nerves I would be laughing at this," remarked Aayla, from her sitting position with her legs up on the table in front of her and Coleman in the seats on the main deck area of the Raven.

"It's just as well for you that you aren't," remarked Coleman, with a hint of seriousness in his voice.

"You know I would not make fun of your padawan's nerves Master Coleman, but you have to admit that it is quite an amusing sight."

"Oh agreed," he nodded. "She's currently in that focused state when she hears what you say but does not actually listen to the words. She usually gets like this just before something academically important like a test or a meeting with someone very learned."

"Well that's what's about to happen isn't it," she replied. "She's going to meet all her old teachers again, not to mention their friends and family."

"From what she has told me her family it the least of her worries, they trusted her to be herself and to just get on with it. It's the former two groups that she's nervous about, not to mention a certain librarian. And you are in no condition to mock anyway."

"What do you mean?" she asked incredulously. "I'm not nervous."

"Really? Then what have you been curling and uncurling you lekku every couple of minutes for the last fifteen?"

"I..." she began before deciding against it.

"You might be able to disguise your feelings from most of us, but since I have got to know you over the last few years that we have been training our padawans, I have come to notice your nervous habits...That is one of your more obvious ones."

"But...I..." she stuttered, sitting up and swinging her legs off of the seat. "How did I never noticed that?..Or any of the Jedi instructors?"

"You only do it when you are trying to look really casual and you're nervous, you never do it when you are on missions and playing the role of in control jedi knight...So what's making you nervous?"

"It's...it's just...I'm worried about Harry, he almost seems too calm about going back to Earth, I was expecting him to get more nervous or worried the closer we got like Hermione has over the last few weeks, but he hasn't. We know he's very good at repressing his emotions and we know how bad that is for him."

"He's stronger than you think he is Aayla, it's understandable for him to be nervous about going back and he's probably trying to look calmer than he actually is so that you and Hermione don't worry about him. He's just as good at reading you as I am. You know how he hates to have to rely on anyone. You will know if he really needs help or support, until then leave him be."

#We're on final approach to Earth,# came Harry's voice through the intercom. #Will everyone please take their seats.#

Hermione was up the steps faster than it took the other two to even get to their feet, by the time they arrived in the cockpit Harry and Hermione were both standing and staring out of the Raven's cockpit window in awe at the blue, green and white marble that filled their vision.

"I've seen many planets from this angle, and they were all stunning," said Harry slowly. "But I don't think any of them were this beautiful."

"That's the one thing I regretted when we left," added Hermione, "Not seeing the Earth from space."

Aayla, Coleman and Windu exchanged a knowing look, there was nothing quite like seeing your home planet from this angle...nothing at all.

"Is that Earth Master?" asked Alema, as she came up behind them.

"Yes Alema; that was our home."

"It's very beautiful Master."

"It is...Just wait until you see what Hogwarts looks like."

"Descending through the outer atmosphere, heat shield temperature increasing as expected."

"Heavy storm clouds over the landing area, but not enough to cause us any landing problems."

"Have the two of you thought about working on a way to make the heat shielding more effective?" asked Coleman. "It might cut down on maintenance costs."

"We did look at something like that a little while ago Master," replied Hermione as Harry was flying. "We were trying to work out a way of getting the shields to charge themselves from the heat caused by the atmospheric friction but all it resulted in was one very burnt out shield generator and a very annoyed hanger crew when the fire suppression systems were set off. Unfortunately we couldn't get it to charge and project a shield at the same time, it just overwhelmed the system, we were looking into doing something similar with a rune generated shield rather than using a shield generator but it's not high on our to-do-list at the moment."

"Passed ten thousand feet..." narrated Master Windu., "Five thousand feet, slowing descent. Two thousand...one thousand, five hundred."

"Deploying landing struts," contributed Harry. "Landing position plotted in."

"Confirmed, two hundred feet, landing point in sight.

"Deactivating artificial gravity, lowering atmospheric shields."

"Ten feet, five feet, touchdown, engines off."

"Powering down inertial dampeners and main power systems, extending lightning rod," concluded Harry. "We're back."

"In Merlin's name!" exclaimed Hermione from behind Harry, causing him and the others in the cockpit to look at her then follow her line of sight outside of the ship.

Before them was Hogwarts, but it wasn't quite the Hogwarts they remembered; through the dark clouds and pouring rain that covered the area they could see what could only be described as the ruins of Hogwarts. Several towers and walls had tumbled, the walls were broken and dotted with impact marks, scorch marks dotted the lawn which once has been wonderfully green but was now half mud wallow half bomb site.

"I'm guessing that's not what Hogwarts is supposed to look like?" asked Master Windu.

"No Master," Harry replied, his mind being shaken to its very core by the sight of the building he used to consider home being reduced to a broken ruin.

"What happened?" asked Hermione, her voice barely functioning as she articulated the words, tears streaming down her cheeks as her mind went to all the same places as Harry's; What had happened? Where were their friends? Were they still alive? Were they the only ones left?

"I suggest we proceed with extreme caution," recommended Coleman, unclipping his lightsaber from his belt.

"Agreed," nodded Windu, standing and leading the others towards the entry ramp, Hermione had to be pulled away from the sight outside the cockpit window by Alema.

As they left the cockpit Harry touched a series of controls near the door, as soon as they were all down the ramp and clear of the ship, the elder jedi were surprised when they heard the activation of the ships shield, causing them to turn to the ship then to its two designers.

"Security system," Harry explained emotionlessly, not looking away from the sight of Hogwarts. "The R2 droids on board will monitor anyone or anything that comes near the ship and if they deem their actions are going to be a threat to the ship they will deploy the auto-guns against them."

"How do we get back on board?" asked Coleman.

"There is a lever in the cockpit that needs to be thrown using the Force or anyone who is authorised to fly the ship can call the ship and order the droids to stand the defences down using an authorised Jedi clearance code."

"Good idea," replied Aayla as she idly swung her deactivated lightsaber around in her hand, ready for any trouble, trying to project an image of being calm while she was now very worried about her padawan whose mental shields were down so firmly that even she was having trouble reading him. The last time he had been like this was after they had come upon the room that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had been staying in on a mission when they returned from doing reconnaissance of a dangerous gangsters compound only to discover the room that the others had been staying in had been ransacked with lightsaber burns on the walls and blood on the floor. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had been fine but the suggestion was all it took. Harry was known to be less rational and more impulsive in this state which almost always led him into danger.

"Padawans," asked Windu. "Any suggestions?"

"We need to have a look at the castle Master," Harry replied, still in the same monotone voice which all the others, even Hermione in her more shocked state picked up on. "It might reveal what happened here and how long ago."

"Lead the way," Windu gestured moving to stand just beside Harry, the others falling into place behind them. "Raise you hoods, we don't want to be identified until we know what's going on here."

They moved up to the castle and moved through what remained of the main doors which now lay on the ground, their great bolts and locking bars lying broken and twisted around them.

"I suggest we make our way to the Great Hall," recommended Hermione. Aayla spared her a glance, under her hood he could see her eyes were still wet from tears and the trails down her cheeks were very evident but she was suppressing her feelings with a stare of strong resolve that clearly said that she was going to find out what happened no matter how long it took. It was unnervingly close to the look on Harry's face. "If that does not work we can try the Headmaster's Office and the dormitories."

They set of in the direction of the hall, noticing how the walls were covered in dust, spell impact marks and occasionally even blood. When they reached the hall they had to jump their way over a mound of debris and found that the ceiling had almost completely collapsed. Gone was the magical ceiling, what they were seeing above them was the real sky that was raining down upon them. The open ceiling left exposing the ruins of the hall to the elements which had covered the floor with pools of water which plopped and splashed as the rain fell around them. There were also pieces of broken trees and climbers from the forest, some of which had taken route amongst the rubble and the remains of longer burnt out fires that now left nothing but wet ash.

"Tell me I am dreaming and that this is something out of one of my nightmares," asked Harry.

"It's an apocalypse," added Hermione. "Armageddon, Ragnorak, the end of the Wizarding World."

"Calm yourself," interrupted Coleman, laying a hand upon her shoulder. "I'm sure there will-"

He stopped as he detected something on the edge of his senses, the others jedi senses were right behind him and they slowly began raising their weapons to ready positions.

"We are being watched," remarked Windu quietly, informing Alema of what was going on, causing her to subtly unclip the safety on her blasters.

They waited for a moment until a flash of movement caught Harry's eye and he launched a spell from his rapidly deployed wand at it.

"Padawan wait!" warned Aayla, but she was cut off as a return spell landed at their feet, followed immediately by others.

"Take cover!" order Windu as five lightsabers were activated and blasters were fired as more spells landed around them from several directions. They all ducked behind various bits of wreckage except for Harry who refused to move from the place where he had climbed which was standing atop of one of the toppled piles of rubble a few feet high which of course immediately made him the easiest target.

"Padawan get down here now!" Aayla shouted as spells started landing around him and his lightsabers started whirling around him.

"Sorry Master," he replied, ignoring the instruction and walking towards the source of the first shot which was a pile of rubble that was on the raised area that incorporated the remains of the head table. "This was my home and I refuse to cower from anyone until I find out what happened here."

The others watched in shock, deflecting the odd spells that came too close.

"Master!" shouted Alema, as she jumped from her hiding place and chased after him, firing a blaster from both hands at the various sources of attack from the multiple holes in the walls and the piles of rubble.

"Cover them!" ordered Windu, causing the others to move after them as well, drawing more fire from the pair.

Whoever it was behind the pile of rubble obviously realised they were being advanced upon and doubled their attacks, there seemed to be three distinct casters behind that pile but they were no match for the skill of a jedi aided by a ranger, even when the other enemies aimed at their backs before the other jedi joined in their defence, Harry's skills with a blade easily deflected or dodged the shots until the hooded enemies behind the rubble stood up and started a firing retreating as he approached them.

Not once did Harry take a break in his stride as he moved up and over the pile of rubble, Alema at his back and the other jedi moving after them.

When the first enemy's back hit the wall one of them drew a blade and charged at him, he casually side stepped, wacked the back of the hand with his lightsaber hilt causing the blade to drop before Force throwing them into the nearest wall where they lay stunned. The second came at him but Alema swung around him in a manoeuvre they had long practiced with an impressively high kick hit that hit them square in the face, knocking them sideways before engaging them in hand to hand combat. The last one desperately raised a shield in front of them whilst drawing a knife in their other hand and throwing it at him, he casually side stepped and swung his blade through it, cutting it in half before using the Force to lift the attacker off the ground and throwing her (judging by the sound of the grunt upon impact) to the wall beside her comrade, before descending on her with his blade.

"Tell me what happened here!" he demanded to the hood.

"Padawan!" came a stern call from behind him which he pointedly ignored.

The figure who had been struggling against him stopped as soon as he spoke before looking up at him strangely, only her eyes were visible under the hood and over the material that had been wrapped around her lower face to disguise her identity.

"Ha...Harry?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wasn't going to post this yet as I wanted to get the whole explanation as to what happened bit into one chapter, but that was before I realised that after being able to write this chapter very easily (unlike some of the previous ones) I was already up to 18,000 words and I hadn't even finished yet, as such I decided to give you this smaller chapter and leave you on tender hooks for a bit longer as to what has been going on, enjoy.

Suggestions for what you think has happened are still welcome, some of them have been great and quite accurate so far.

So you are aware I am on annual leave after this week for two weeks; which will either mean I get lots and lots done or absolutely nothing done on this story so I apologise if it's the latter.