Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dragon Food

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

A/N: Chap 27 review responses are in my forum. I also have asked for feed back if readers believe this story's rating should be increased to M. Please see the forum post for details.

Thanks for reading.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dragon Food

There is no theory of evolution...just a list of creatures Kyle Katarn lets live.

When Kyle Katarn stepped into the room where they were holding Bellatrix Lestrange, he noticed immediately that everything had been stripped from the room. There were no articles of furniture, nor any fixtures of any kind. The light came from a pair of floating blue belle flames, since there were neither windows nor closets.

During the interrogation with Andromeda Tonks, Bellatrix's restraints had been removed. She now lay on her side in the far corner of her room, twisting her hair and muttering in a constant stream of non-sensible sound.

She did not bother looking up from her hair as Kyle sat down cross-legged in the middle of the room. His knees creaked ominously as he settled down and he felt his feet immediately start to go numb from bad circulation, but that was easily remedied as he sank deeply into a Jedi meditation.

When Bellatrix finally attacked him, screaming like a banshee, he was so thoroughly one with the Force that he was able to stop her mid-step without moving. Bellatrix screamed and raged, kicking and punching, as he gripped her with his power and forced her into a sitting position two feet away.

Toward the end of his life, Luke Skywalker had so mastered the Force that he could sculpt even the most powerful Force user's mind to see and hear whatever he wanted. His action against Jacen Solo in the civil war was ample evidence of his power. Kyle was never as powerful as Luke, but while Luke was the most determined man Kyle had ever met, Luke himself admitted Kyle was the most stubborn.

And so it was not with an abundance of skill or power that Kyle attacked Bellatrix Lestrange's mind, it was an overwhelming amount of sheer stubborn will. And what he saw in her broken, twisted mind sickened him. For a moment he wished he had arrived on Earth decades earlier, so that he could deliver the Black Sisters from their hell just as he delivered Harry from his. For as bad as Harry had it, the Sisters Black had it a thousand times worse.

If Cygnus and Druella Black had not already died, Kyle would have killed them both for what they did in creating the monster that was Bellatrix Lestrange. He fought back tears as he was forced to relive Bellatrix's memories of sacrificing her very soul to protect her younger siblings.

He then saw how Voldemort recruited her and made her such a fanatically loyal follower. He did not torture her, nor harm her. He made her husband and his brother stop treating her the same way her father did. He stopped the daily abuse that was enacted against her when she was still in her late teens, and for that small kindness, she gave him everything she was.

No wonder she didn't care about her husband as anything more than her property.

Once he had the shape and motivations of her broken mind, he began the more arduous task. He could not reshape it. There was no repairing the damage done by a lifetime of abuse. Instead, he began to plant a memory and a motivation within it.

In Bellatrix's mind, she saw her beloved master standing in front of her, still beautiful as he was when he first recruited her. He had such luscious black hair, and those dark eyes caressed her soul, just as he caressed her face. Whenever he touched her, she shuddered with ecstasy. He never did any more than touch or caress her and nothing more than that was ever needed.

Fetch me the cup, my dearest Bella, the false memory whispered in her mind. Do whatever you have to do to bring me my cup. Take the Muggle hostage. He has your wand. Use it to make him help you!

Kyle caused the memory to play through her mind again and again, reinforcing her motivation until it dominated her mind. She snatched at something in the air, convinced it was her wand, and suddenly lunged forward. This time, Kyle made no effort to stop her as she swung around with her small arm around his neck.

"Let me out, or I'll curse you!" she hissed.

"Okay, fine," Kyle said calmly.

He stood, and because he had a head and a half on her, she had no choice but to let go of her neck and stand two feet behind. She held out her hand as if it had a wand. "Open the door!" she screamed. "Do it now!"

Kyle wordlessly opened the door and stepped into a room filled with the team of aurors and hitwizards he had come to know and respect over the past weeks. Their number made Bellatrix's eyes bulge. "Nobody move or I'll curse him!" she screamed wildly.

They all stared at her empty hand in confusion.

"She has a wand pointed at me," Kyle said with a meaningful look around him. "Let's be calm about this."

"You're going to help me!" Bellatrix said, screaming still. "You're going to help me get something, and if you don't, I'll curse you!"

"If you go out, you'll need something to drink," Amelia said with the same purposeful calm as Kyle. She slowly stepped to the kitchen and removed a flask of polyjuice potion already mixed with hair. "Take this."

"Don't give him anything!" Bellatrix screeched.

"If I go out like this, they'll arrest us both," Kyle said. "But with this, I can help you."

He pushed the Force through the suggestion, and though Bellatrix may have been naturally immune to the Imperius curse, she had no defense against the Force. "Then take it, you fool!" she cried.

Kyle accepted the flask, and then led the trembling, muttering Bellatrix from the house. As they walked through, Tonks took a step too close. Bellatrix spun and screamed, "Avada Kedavra."

Kyle took the opportunity to quietly summon Bellatrix's real wand to his hand where he slipped it into his jacket. In the meantime, his respect for the young auror went up a great deal when Tonks threw herself bodily back into the arms of a confused Gawain Robards and pretended to be dead.

"The same for anyone else who moves!" Bellatrix screamed with her phantom wand. She grabbed Kyle's jacket and pushed him out of the house and beyond the wards. He spun to face her, in the process passing her wand to her now that she no longer presented a threat to the others.

"I'll help you," he said. He sipped the polyjuice potion and felt his features changing. Bellatrix, not even noticing the switch from a phantom wand to her real one, simply grabbed him and apparated them directly to Diagon Alley.

Kyle thanked the Force they arrived near the bank. And though it was an incredibly irresponsible thing to do, at that moment he was also thankful that the Ministry had covered up the Azkaban breakout. Otherwise, people would be running in fear.

As it was, Kyle walked with forced calm, his face blank, while Bellatrix walked behind him with her wand to his back up the steps of the bank. The goblin guards watched intently but did nothing to impede them. They continued down the open customer service area toward one of the many elevated desks that allowed the otherwise diminutive goblins to look down on the wizards.

It was a testament to just how little the goblins cared about wizards in general that they made her and Kyle wait in line like any other customer. The other witches and wizards looked nervously at the obviously disturbed woman. More than a few began whispering, obviously recognizing her. The curse of a small community, Kyle thought.

Once word began to spread, those in front of them melted away, fleeing the bank for the lives, until at last she pushed Kyle forward. "I demand access to my vault," she hissed.

"Identification," the goblin said without bothering to look up from his ledger.

Pushing Kyle to the side, Bellatrix touched her wand to the ledger book the little creature was writing in. When she stepped back, the goblin finally looked up at her. "My condolences on the death of your husband, Madam Lastrange," he said without a hint of emotion. "You, of course, have inherited everything. Clawrend will show you to your vault."

A goblin that did not come up to even Bellatrix's waist stepped forward from beside the elevated desk, clad in miniature trousers, a silk shirt and crimson vest. "This way," the creature said in a deep, basso voice completely at odds with its size.

Kyle followed the goblin placidly with Bellatrix's wand pointed at his back the whole time. It amazed him how little the goblins seemed to care. Then again, from what he'd read if all wizards rose up and committed suicide, the creatures would dance on their bodies.

The ride in the cart was unpleasant to say the least. For Kyle it was not so much the motion he objected to as the fact he wasn't directing it. Still, he did look around in interest at the impossibly large caverns under the bank that housed the goblin cities. In many ways, it reminded him of the subterranean cities of the Selonians in the Correllian System. He had no doubt, however, that the Goblins were employing their own unique magic to expand the space to accommodate their own population centers.

Soon they left the huge, open cavern behind and the odd mine cart rolled into a darker, danker tunnel that screamed of age. The vault doors he saw were each set inside large courtyards, and within each courtyard, he saw a dragon, five in all. The creatures were several times larger than what Harry faced in his first task, but looked pale and tired. It was to the third such courtyard that they stopped.

As they climbed out, Kyle saw that rather than just one vault, the courtyard held ten separate vaults, all within range of the giant creature's mouth. It raised its head and turned white, blind eyes to them, only to moan and shy away in pain when the goblin began shaking a loud, sharp rattle.

"Up, up!" Bellatrix ordered, motioning with her wand. Kyle did as instructed, watching curiously as the goblin continued to shake the rattle. It was obvious that the dragon had been thoroughly conditioned.

Once to the vault, Bellatrix tapped her wand to the locks. The magic somehow recognized her and began to open, lock after lock with loud, metallic clangs. Finally, the door opened to reveal an expanded space brimming with literal tons of gold, both in the form of coins and ingots, jewelry and weaponry. The sheer wealth, even in galactic terms, was stunning. Kyle couldn't help but wonder how much of it was actually hers and how much she was safeguarding for her master.

She swept her wand in front of her, speaking in the rapid-fire pseudo-Latin the magicals used for their spell-casting, until the air shimmered. Without further production, she wove her way through the piles of gold and artifacts until she disappeared in back. Moments later, she returned with an ornately carved cup decorated with badgers. In the Force, Kyle could feel a daunting, numbing darkness emanating from the artifact.

As she cradled it in her arms like a newborn baby, Kyle felt something else in the Force too. It felt almost like a distant breeze; a whisper audible only in the mind. Bellatrix continued to walk toward him but her eyes became unfocused and distant. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Kyle realized that the horcrux within the cup was overriding his suggestive implant in Bellatrix's brain. Before she left the threshold of the vault, she came to a stop and stared at Kyle. "You!" She hissed suddenly as she finally broke free of Kyle's implanted suggestion. "You foul, Muggle liar!"

She raised her wand, a curse on her lips. Kyle, remembering the promise he made to this madwoman's sister, left his weapons in their enchanted pockets and instead used the Force to rip the wand from her hand even as she screamed the killing curse. Without her focus, her magic had no way of expressing itself and so nothing happened.

Kyle caught the wand and snapped it. She stumbled as if he'd struck her, eyes bulging and mouth agape. For a moment she did not look like a madwoman, but rather a vulnerable, young woman of exquisite beauty and potential. Then she screamed—a gut-wrenching, horrified, raging scream that rang through the courtyard and momentarily startled the goblin with the clanker.

The dragon, held back by a lifetime of abuse and conditioning, reacted like any wild animal would against its torturer. It snapped its long snout forward and with a single gulp ate the goblin whole. The diminutive creature did not even make a sound as it died.

Although, even if it had, Kyle would not have heard it over Bellatrix's screams. The dragon might have been conditioned to flee from clankers but screaming only irritated. The great monster rose on its hind legs, stretching its 40-meter length until its automobile-sized head rose above the railing. It could not see, Kyle could tell that just from its whitened eyes, but the creature could smell and hear.

Still Bellatrix stood screaming, clutching the cup to her breasts. "Lestrange, shut up or you're going to die!" Kyle tried to shout over her screaming. He reached out in the Force to pull her to safety but at the same time he felt a surge of imminent danger. Without any other choice, Kyle dove away from the front of the vault just as the angered, confused dragon unleashed a belly-full of the hottest fire Kyle had ever seen in nature.

The dragon-fire spewed out like napalm from a flame thrower, following the stream of magical accelerants the monster produced in its oversized body. Kyle, stumbling back to his feet, stared as the flame struck the still-screaming Bellatrix head on. It reminded him of his days as a stormtrooper cadet, when during an exercise one of the other cadets got too close to a turbolaser cannon. The blast of energy vaporized his body so quick that boots remained on the ground with charred bone sticking out.

So it was with the dragon-fire. It struck the broken woman directly in the center of her body where she held the cup, and he could see the heat of the magical fire vaporizing skin, muscle and bone. Her scream was lost in the roar of the dragon's anger and flame.

Suddenly the horcrux within the cup, assaulted by forces not even its magic could protect it from, exploded violently. A wall of concussive force hit Kyle like a hammer and sent him flying over the rail down into the courtyard. He had only moments to use the Force in an attempt to gain some control before he slammed hard in the ground. He actually heard his knee snap before he felt the pain of it but knew he did not have time to sit. With a grunt at the pain he picked himself up and continued to limp away from the dragon, but there was no need.

A heavy thump made him look over his shoulder, and as he did he realized the danger was passed. The dragon's shattered head lay a few feet away from him. The magical explosion had blasted its mandible off completely and pulverized its brain. Over it, dark, foul smoke billowed out from the still open vault of Bellatrix Lestrange.

Somehow, he wasn't surprised when two carts of angry, armed goblins arrived. They spilled out with spears and machine guns to quickly secure the courtyard. One of them, dressed in a pin-stripe suit that made him look as if Master Yoda were going to a tuxedo formal, stepped to where Kyle had let himself sink to the ground.

"What have you done here, human?"

Kyle made a vague motion to the vault. "Bellatrix Lestrange took me captive and made me help her get something from her vault. The moment she had it, she started screaming and it made the dragon go crazy. It ate your goblin and then blasted her with fire. Whatever she held, it blew up."

Kyle could only imagine what the goblin saw—he knew his face and clothes showed evidence of the explosion because he could feel it, almost on every inch of his body. With an imperious motion made humorous by his short stature, the goblin leader sent several of his heavily armed goblins running up the stairs to the Lestrange vault. One of them returned moments later with a black, pointed witch's shoe and a broken, blackened cup.

The goblin leader took what remained of the cup and studied it closely. Kyle wondered just what the goblins could sense of magic—could this creature tell the evil that was once housed in it?

Evidently, he could. "This was a dark artifact," he declared. "Filled with the blackest wizard magic."

"Well, Lestrange wasn't exactly the good witch of the North now, was she?" Kyle said dryly.

"Nor are you any mere wizard, Kyle Katarn," the Goblin said.

Evidently Goblins could sense more than wizards knew. "I'll tell you what," Kyle finally said. "We can make a deal. I won't tell Voldemort that a goblin dragon killed his favorite lieutenant and destroyed one of his most valued artifacts if you don't tell him I was here. Sound like a plan?"

Around the elder goblin, the little warriors hissed and muttered at each other in Gobbledygook. "Why don't I just kill you and blame it all on you?"

Kyle snorted, and then with the Force levitated himself back to his feet despite his knee. The goblins backed away and then backed away almost to the body of the dragon when they saw the Force lighting playing about his hands. "Not even Voldemort could kill me," Kyle said calmly as he looked at the creatures. "You could try. You might even succeed. But many of you will die in the process. But this way—Lestrange's vault stands open. You have the means to recoup your losses for the damage done so long as her next of kin gets the rest. More importantly, all of you get to live."

"So confident, are you?" the goblin blustered.

In that instant, looking at the goblin elder, Kyle realized the creature was desperately looking for a way to back out while maintaining both its pride and position within the Goblin ranks. Honor dictated it had to act, but he knew it did not want to because he was afraid. With an outthrust of his arm and a rush of Force energy, Kyle gave him the path he was looking for.

The entire, twenty-ton dragon floated off the ground at the direction of his out-thrust hand until it levitated directly over the gaping, stunned goblins. "I'm that confident," Kyle said. "I am Kyle Katarn, General, Jedi Master and Warrior. While I would prefer that we part peacefully, know that if you provoke me, I will destroy not just you, but the whole of your clan using weapons you cannot even imagine. So choose, honored opponent. A pointless death followed by the destruction of your clan, or a profitable peace and life."

The elder made a show of bearing sharp, tiny canines and growling. "You leave me little choice, Kyle Katarn. We will accept your terms."

With a nod, Kyle let the dragon sink back to the ground where he lifted it. It took all his effort not to collapse in exhaustion. "You are wise, honored elder," he said with a nod, forcing as much respect into his inflection as his exhausted state allowed.

"And you would be wise to leave this bank and not return," the elder said threateningly.

It was a part of the performance, Kyle knew. He gave the creature one more nod and walked back to his original cart. He could feel his knee grinding dangerously as he went, but he could not show any weakness or the goblins would have no choice but to attack. He climbed in, and without looking back let the enchanted cart fly carry back to the surface.

No goblins blocked his way as he climbed out. He was still in polyjuice. The whole adventure had only taken forty minutes, if even that much. Though he did not recognize her because of her own disguise, he could sense Amelia Bones's Force presence looking at him from behind a young woman's face in the far corner of the bank.

He continued walking, straight-backed, until he reached her. Without hesitation, her borrowed face smiled sadly at him as she took his hand. They walked out of the bank like that, hand-in-hand.

~~Katarn~~

~~Katarn~~

Andromeda Tonks said nothing as Kyle spoke. Her face remained blank and her body perfectly still as the two sat in the kitchen of the hideaway. He spoke quietly and calmly, making no effort to gloss over his role in what happened to her sister. When he was done, she removed her wand and still without speaking healed his broken knee before leaving the house.

The rest of their team watched her go in silence. After the door closed behind her and they heard her pop of disapparation, Tonks said, "Boss?"

"Go," Amelia said with a gentle nod. "She needs you."

Tonks followed.

In the aftermath, the rest of the team slowly gathered around the table where Kyle sat. Amelia sat in Andromeda's seat, facing him. "Only one left—Nagini."

"Aye, that won't be a problem at all, will it?" Myra Pilliwick said as she leaned back in back in the seat. "Just kill the Dark Lord's ruddy snake. Easy peasey."

Kyle nodded thoughtfully, but never looked away from Amelia's square look. He knew what she was thinking as if she were speaking it aloud.

Soon.

~~Katarn~~

~~Katarn~~

Harry stood near the main door of Hogwarts, arms crossed, as a pair of aurors escorted Severus Snape from Hogwarts.

He was surrounded by every student of Hogwarts outside of Slytherin, and every single one of them was clapping, cheering and even shouting at the hated Professor as he was escorted out. Harry, though, said nothing and watched.

Snape walked with a straight back, his expression one of bored disdain. He slowed only when he saw Harry. The disdain morphed into a sneer. "Come to see me off, Potter? Rest assured, this is not the last you'll see of me." He almost spat the first letter of Harry's name.

Forcing himself to remain calm, Harry merely nodded. "I know, Mr. Snape. We will see each other again."

For the briefest flicker, Harry saw a smidgeon of doubt in the other man's face. But the aurors had waited long enough and continued the long walk to the ward line. He continued to walk with his back straight, as if the mass of students were cheering for him, rather than for his arrest. He maintained the proud posture all the way across the causeway until they reached the wardline and disappeared.

Harry caught a glimpse of Hermione standing by her roommates and several other girls and nodded, but he had an appointment to keep. Another lesson with the headmaster. He made his way through the castle quickly, eager to learn more from the hand-written book the headmaster had given him.

When he reached the old wizard's office, he found Dumbledore waiting patiently while rubbing his conjured arm. "Ahh, Mr. Potter. Watching Severus's departure?"

"You don't sound too concerned."

Dumbledore frowned. "I will not lie and say he was a good man once upon a time. And yet, your dear mother once saw something good within him, else they would not have been such close friends when they came to Hogwarts."

Harry raised a brow. "My mother was a friend of his?"

"Very few people are born evil, Harry," Dumbledore said gently. "In fact, I can only think of one person who could be described as a bad seed. Now, before we begin, given our recent discussion of trust, I realized this morning I was remiss in returning some stolen property to you."

"What do you mean?"

Dumbledore reached into his desk and removed a wad of clothing. Based on his run-ins with Malfoy, he recognized it immediately. "An invisibility cloak?"

"Yes. While I can't share the particulars of how, since I do not know them myself, Mr. Malfoy managed to obtain your father's old Invisibility Cloak from my office and used it against you. Since then, I have kept it safe, but forgot to return it until now."

"I have my own means of turning invisible."

"Ah, yes. Would you mind showing me?"

Harry did so, touching his lightsaber to merge in the Force with the stygium crystal within.

"Homonem Revelo."

Dumbledore's jinx was gentle compared to what Harry experienced in the Department of Mysteries, but he was still ripped from his protections. "How do you do that?"

"The revealing spell is dependent on one's power and determination," Dumbledore said. "Your technique, while inventive, has its drawback. That cloak does not. But even should you choose not to use it, I know for a fact your father wanted you to have it when you came here."

"Why?"

"Well, knowing James he likely hoped you would use it to sneak into the girl's quidditch locker rooms," Dumbledore said with a mad twinkle in his eyes. "While Lily was a wonderful influence on him, he was always a tad incorrigible. Regardless, it is an invaluable gift. Speaking of, are you wearing the ring I gave you?"

Frowning, Harry felt at the ring he had obligingly put around his neck. "Yes."

Dumbledore beamed. "Excellent. Now, what shall we study today?"