Chapter Nine: Exodus

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

A/N: Chap 8 review responses are in my forums as normal. Last chapter was a record-breaker for reviews, I can't thank you enough. If you had a question I didn't get to, feel free to post it in the forums. Thank you all for reading and reviewing.

Chapter Nine: Exodus

The Phoenix groaned ominously as she dropped down through the thick, soupy atmosphere of a broken and shattered Earth. The working holographic screens showed a dark, grim surface once they broke through the heavy cloud cover. Even under the clouds, snow fall was so thick it still seemed as if they were flying through a thick fog. Any standing water, lake or ocean, was covered in ice.

"This is confusing," the sensor tech said. "I'm getting life signs, but the ship scanners only show ruins."

"That's because the school is hidden with magic," Harry said with forced calm. "During the worst days of the invasion, not even the Imperials could see the major schools. Set us down a quarter klick away from the life signs."

Navigation followed the instructions from the sensor tech, and the ship slowed as it approached the surface. The sound of the landing gear was like an angry screech. A moment later, the ship came to a halt. "Repulsors holding steady, we're down."

"Captain, keep everyone in the ship."

Talkar merely nodded as Harry left the bridge. It took almost twenty minutes just to reach the airlock leading to the stairs. As poorly equipped as the ship was, he had to conjure his own coat and then charm it against the cold. Even with that protection, the moment the airlock opened it felt as he he'd been punched in the face with a giant block of ice. The cold was so bitter it hurt. He cast two more warming charms around his exposed skin, and then climbed down the steps to the thick, icy snow that covered the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a few steps, Harry gave up, cast a feather-light charm on himself, and jumped up until he walked on the ice-crusted surface of the snow. Ahead, looming as shadows through the heavy, gale-force snow, rose the towers of Hogwarts.

Or tower. Was the astronomy tower even there? Harry looked, but could not find it. He kept walking, and felt the tingling of wards. However, those wards were vastly weakened from his last trip to Hogwarts.

He finally reached the courtyard, only to find the colonnades that surrounded it shattered and reduced to rubble. He walked right by Hermione's old favourite reading spot, but it was gone, like the rest.

The doors, however, were intact, closed and sealed with strong, healthy magic that kept them free from icing. He pounded on the door three times and stepped back, shivering despite the magic he'd wrapped himself. A peep-hole opened at eye level, and an old voice demanded, "Who's there?"

"Harry Potter."

"And I'm Morgana!"

Harry sighed. "Who's the headmaster of the school?"

"I am."

"And who are you?"

"Neville Longbottom."

"Bollocks. Neville's only forty-three. I know—we share a birthday. Where's McGonagall?"

The door opened with a loud groan, and the old wizard revealed himself. Harry stared hard, and as he did so his stomach twisted in a knot. "Merlin," he breathed. He stepped closer. "Merlin, Neville. What the hell happened to you?"

Neville, appearing as old as Dumbledore, peered forward with narrowed eyes. "Cor blimey, it is you, Harry! How can you look so young?"

"How can you look so old?"

Neville grabbed Harry and pulled him into the castle before pushing the door shut. A second later he pointed his wand at Harry's face. "Who are you really?"

"It really is me, Nev. The invaders took me to another world as a slave, but I escaped and maybe found help. I look young because I haven't aged since Voldemort killed me that second time. It's a long story."

Neville, though, blinked. "Luna said it's because you possess the Deathly Hallows."

"Okay, so it's not that long of a story. Now why are you so old?"

Neville's shoulders slumped. "At the end, before the invaders just started to kill everything, Madame Maxime contacted all the magical schools with a way to protect the students. Every school went out and gathered as many people as they could into the wards to protect against the walking machines that were kidnapping people left and right. All the other schools agreed with the idea. So, Professor McGonagall and the rest of us tied our life and magic to the wards. When the true Armageddon started, it was all that saved the school. But…it drained us. Minerva, Pomona, and Filius all died within the first ten minutes. Pomfrey and Pince went next, Draco, Luna and I visibly aged as the wards drained us. All the staff aged a hundred years, and it's not just illusion. I really am a hundred and ten years old, and so is Luna. Draco died just last month."

"What happened to Hannah?"

"Died. She was in Hogsmeade trying to evacuate people to the castle. She died a hero, Harry."

Harry nodded sadly, not for his own loss, but for the pain he saw on his now very old friend. "How many survived?"

"We managed to get over eight thousand in the castle," Neville said. "But quite a few have died since then. A lot of people just willed themselves to die. Come, I'll show you."

The two old friends walked down the cold, blackened halls of the castle, occasionally passing a wizard tent with a light glow coming from within. Finally, they came to the Great Hall, and Harry could only blink in surprise at the vastly expanded space. He was expecting cots with people sleeping, but instead the ceiling glowed with magical sunlight, and it looked almost as if a forest were growing in one corner of the room, while on the other side were pens filled with a variety of magical animals.

"We tried to save as many species as we could," Neville said softly. "Our future is wrapped up in our magical livestock. We have almost a hundred dragon eggs in storage, with hippogriffs and other large magical creatures. But I wonder if it's enough."

"Where are all the people?" Harry asked.

"The dorms and halls all over the castle. But Harry…we're running out of food. After Armageddon, nothing was left to scavenge. Parents are skipping meals so their kids can eat, and there's been talk of slaughtering the animals. We've only survived this long by duplicating the food we have, but duplicated food gradually loses its nutritional value. After we eat the animals, then what?" He looked sadly at a small garden of magical plants. "I don't know how we're going to make it, Harry."

"We're not," Harry said simply. "Earth is dead. Neville, when we flew in I saw a ring from all the debris that got blown into orbit. The planet is covered in clouds and the mean temperature is dropping even as we speak. The invaders destroyed it. I have a ship, a real space ship, right outside. It's big enough that it can hold thousands of people. We need to get everyone we can, every creature we can, and we need to get the hell off this rock."

"Harry? I thought I heard your voice."

Harry did not recognize the speaker behind him, but when he turned he knew it was Luna. She did not look anything like he remembered. Age had robbed her hair of colour and her face of its odd, elfin beauty. It left an astonishingly small, frail figure with a wrinkled face and cataract-covered eyes.

"Hello, Luna."

She shambled slowly toward him before reaching out for a hug, obviously unable to see, she who used to see so much more than the rest of them. He returned the embrace, and suddenly found himself weeping. It came upon him suddenly and without warning, but once it stopped he could not stop it, and the weeping turned into great, powerful sobs. It was as if just Luna's touch was enough to shatter his control.

He was conscious of Neville's hand on his shoulder, but it was Luna who held him. When at last the storm passed, she said, "You've held that in far too long, Harry. It was making you grumpy. I would blame the nargles, but sadly they did not survive. But you've come to save us once again, haven't you?"

Harry nodded mutely.

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

"Harry?"

Harry spun around from his discussion with Neville about how best to transport the animals, and stared in shock at the young man with bright red hair running toward him. "Harry, it really is you!"

Teddy Lupin was far thinner than Harry had ever seen him, with stress lines about his face that weren't there a year ago when he'd graduated from the Auror academy at the top of his class. But it was obviously Harry's godson. The two men embraced tightly, while confused castle dwellers continued to wander into the Great Hall to find out what was happening.

Right behind Teddy, at a slower pace, came a stunningly beautiful girl with long, strawberry blonde hair that hung to the small of her back. Chocolate brown eyes stared out from an elegant, Gallic face. "Uncle Harry," she said with a sad smile.

"Victoire," Harry said, taking his godson's fiancée into his arms. "Are your parents here?"

Victoire Weasley nodded. "Nana died just a few days after you left. So Papa gathered Uncle Charlie and the rest of us and came here."

In fact, as she finished speaking, the remnants of the Weasley family entered. Victoire's siblings, Dominique and Louis, were both thin and gaunt looking. Dominique was twenty, if Harry remembered correctly, while Louis was seventeen. Bill looked almost skeletal, and his gauntness made the scars on his face even worse. Beside him, Charlie looked just as thin. It was obvious the two men had been skimping their own meals to ensure their children had more.

Bill smiled sadly as he arrived. "Harry. I'm so glad you survived."

"Just barely, but I'm here. And I've brought help."

The expanded great hall was filled to capacity at last. Neville stood before them, withered and aged a half century or more beyond his time. "My friends, a miracle has come to us. This is my good friend Harry Potter. Many of you know him. He has saved us before—as a child, as a teen and later as an adult. And now…now he's come to save us again. Harry?"

Thousands of people perked up as one, showing the first signs of life Harry had seen since he arrived. He actually recognized many of the faces, having been a large figure in the wizarding world himself. He met their gazes and occasionally nodded, acknowledging that he knew them. "I am Harry Potter," he said. "If I look young, there is a reason. How many have read the Tales of Beedle the Bard?"

Not surprisingly, most raised their hands.

"Then understand me when I tell you that I am the Master of Death. She's tried to take me three times now. The first time I was an infant, the second time I was a teen, the age I seem today. And the third time was almost a year ago, when invaders came and killed my family, and stole me and tens of thousands more from our world to make slaves of us among the stars."

He told the story in terms of legends, since he knew that's what it would become. He spoke not to inform, but to inspire. If these people were to survive, they had to have hope. By the time he was done, Harry knew there would be no question of them coming with him. Neville took over and started issuing instructions for the transport of the magical animals. As he did so, Harry motioned Teddy over.

"Yeah?"

"Any Aurors survive?"

Teddy looked embarrassed, and his hair turned yellow. "Not many, to be honest. That first hit in London took most out, and a lot more joined you in fighting and died. The only reason I didn't was because Vic's dad insisted I stay with them, and then come to Hogwarts."

"And I'm glad he did, Teddy. You're all the family I have left."

Teddy smiled and shrugged. That's what Harry always admired about his godson—he was smart enough not to have to fill silences with nonsensical words.

Harry glance back around the crowd. "I'm going to need you, Teddy. Ask around, see if you can find anyone with Auror or Hit Wizard experience. Right now everyone is in shock, but we need to have some organization and authority established for when people get fed, and then get bored."

Teddy, having been trained as an Auror, knew exactly what Harry meant. "Okay, I already have an idea of a few. Uncle Charlie is as tough as nails, training or not."

"Good. Second thing is I'm going to need a crew. Look for anyone who might be interested. The Invaders had a way to transfer information almost like a Pensieve memory swap."

"Okay, Harry."

With marching orders established, the remnants of the magical United Kingdom gathered all their belongings in trunks and small push carts. Animals were put in magical stasis and stored in special crates with stable shrinking charms that would keep the creatures safe. The elves gathered what food they had left and took it to the main doors.

Opening the doors reminded Harry of just how far gone the world was. The ice had gathered above the edge of the shattered courtyard colonnades, almost to the second floor of the castle itself. The bitter cold just made things worse. He realized there was no way he could get everyone to the ship like this. With a glance over his shoulder at the gathering crowds, Harry raised his bare hand and summoned the full brunt of his magic like he had rarely done before.

The ice before him melted, and the water rose up on either side in joining arcs before it refroze. He walked forward, melting and shaping the ice further and further, forming a tunnel in the ice large enough for ten people to walk side-by-side. He continued melting and shaping the ice through the thick snow, astonished at one point that it was so high, until he finally reached the landing strut of the ship.

As he climbed the stairs, he continued his elemental transfiguration, shaping a virtual mountain of ice up along the landing strut on either side, until he created walls that held out the worse of the bitter wind. When that was done, he Apparated right through Hogwarts' weakened wards, appearing next to Neville with a loud pop.

"You're not supposed to Apparate in Hogwarts," Neville chided him with a sad smile.

"Of course not. It's ready, have people start going."

Harry watched with pride as Teddy and Victoire led the first group into the tunnels, already assuming positions of authority under Harry's aegis. It was necessary, he knew, and he was grateful to Teddy for that reason as well as his being family. Even with leaders, though, it took the nearly eight thousand survivors almost an hour and a half to board the ship. Without the tunnel in the ice, Harry suspected they all would have died.

The last two were Neville and Luna, who remained at Harry's side to watch the last of their people board the ship. He turned to his friends, saddened at the aging, and said, "Are you ready?"

"Harry, we aren't going," Luna said, is if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Harry blinked in surprise. "Of course you're going! You're my friends."

"Harry, we're not going," Neville said sadly. "Don't you remember what we said? Our magic is tied into the wards of Hogwarts. Just like with the elves who did the same thing. We can never leave."

It surprised him that what he felt most was not sadness, but betrayal. His last living friends were leaving him too? That sense of betrayal evaporated, though, Luna hugged him again. "You know what my only regret is, Harry?"

"What?" he asked hoarsely.

"That I did not seduce you after Slughorn's Christmas party. I wanted to. I was sure I could—even though we went only as friends I'm fairly certain I could have lured you to a broom closet. A shame, really. But I know for a fact that Ginny fully appreciated you. She loved you as much as you loved her, Harry. Please never doubt that."

She smiled blindly at him before turning to walk into the darkened, lifeless castle. Neville remained a long time, staring at Harry. Finally, the Master of Death cleared his throat. "I don't think I ever said this before, Nev. And I'm sorry I didn't. But you are the bravest man I have ever known."

"Yeah, I know," Neville said with a tired smile. "Now go on. If Luna's randy, I might get one more shag in before the wards fail and the ice crushes us. With my prostate, I have to do what I can when I can."

It hurt to know Harry could laugh and cry at the same time.

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

The Atlantic Ocean was gone, or if not gone, it was so buried under ice the water was no longer visible. However, from the sheer amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, Talkar said most likely the oceans were vaporized by the orbital bombardment. A Base Delta Zero order was essentially the glassing of a planet's surface to render it wholly uninhabitable. Individual captains had authority to determine the degree of destruction—some cracked planets in half. Other's just killed everything. Regardless, the only reason there were any survivors at all was because of magic.

He learned during the brief flight that the efforts to save the Muggle population failed. Those wizards who tried fighting with the Muggles were killed by the vastly superior technology of the invaders. It was enough to overcome even the Master of Death, so Harry was not surprised that no other wizards did as well. He was Mage General to the ICW for a reason, and he'd long gone beyond the false modesty of his youth. He was old enough to know his own skills and power.

The true depth of the devastation was most visible in the shattered American coastline. The bombardment had been so intense that it re-shaped the edge of the continent itself. Not only did the Imperials destroy America's largest cities, it erased them from the surface of the planet entirely. All that was left of the eastern side of the Mississippi were great, molten lakes that continued to send vapour into the air, temporarily holding back the ever-encroaching ice even a year later.

Once past the Mississippi, the melted surface of the devastated world had solidified into long, endless plains of black rock already collecting snow. The great Rocky Mountains were relatively intact, with glaciers reaching out from their valleys into the plains below.

The South Western Institute of Magic, when they reached it, was built into the side of a sheer sandstone cliff on one wall of a canyon in south western Colorado. The Phoenix was too large to fit safely into the canyon and so landed just above it on the rock rim. Fortunately most of the weight of the massive vessel was borne by repuslors, otherwise the weight of the ship would have cracked the canyon walls.

Harry and Bill Weasley left the ship and immediately had to cast bubblehead charms to breathe, the air was so noxious. The two men made their way to the edge of the canyon, surprised that this area appeared to have survived direct bombardment.

"Probably because there's no one here," Bill said. "This was a smaller school, and was hundreds of miles from the nearest town. I did an Anasazi dig here ten years back."

The two men made their way down the narrow sandstone path. Harry recognized runes carved into the stone that should have acted like protective rails, but the magic of the runes had run out. With a glance at his former brother in law, Harry began to recharge them. Bill, weakened from hunger, did not offer to do the same, nor did Harry expect him to.

The school itself was made completely of mud bricks covered in plaster, and it looked much like a large, resplendent Anasazi fortress, with occasional wood beams marking the different levels of the structure. Once they arrived in the cavern that held the school proper, they found they no longer needed the bubble-head charms.

"Hallo!" Harry cried out, using a sonorous charm.

The main wooden doors of the base of the adobe structure opened, and a gaunt teen with black skin and violet eyes walked warily out with a scarf over his mouth and a wand in hand. He eyed the two men as enemies. "Who're you?" he asked.

"I'm Harry Potter." Then, because he was speaking to a tired, undernourished and terrified teenager, he added, "With the International Confederation of Wizards. This is my associate Bill Weasley. Where is the staff of the school?"

"Dead," the boy said. "They tied themselves into the ward scheme and died to protect the school from the firestorm."

Harry nodded, not surprise. "I'm sorry to hear that. Were you Head Boy?"

A nod. "Jeffrey Turner."

"Well, Mr Turner, what's the status of your school?"

"We're hungry, and scared," Jeffrey said. "We had started session when the firestorm started. We haven't heard from our families since then, and all the staff is gone. The prefects have tried to keep control, but we're running out of food and the elves say they can't find any more."

"That's because there isn't," Harry said. "Jeffrey, the planet has been destroyed. This school, Hogwarts, Brazil's school and one in Australia are all that is left on the whole planet. We have a space ship from the invaders, and we're evacuating. We need you to go in and get your students ready to move."

Jeffrey looked ready to faint, and in the back of his mind Harry realized he'd just told this boy that his family was dead. "Jeffrey, you're going to have a lot of scared kids in there. We'll come with you, but for now I'm deputizing you as an ICW enforcer to help me. I know you're scared, but you've got to be strong. Can you be strong for me, Jeffrey?"

"Yeah," the teen said thickly.

"Then let's go get the others."

There were no adults at all. Harry suspected that most magical families fled to either Salem or Miskatonic, since those were the largest schools in North America. But remembering the volcanic flats that were all that remained of the East Coast, Harry knew not even wards tied into living magical cores could have survived that concentrated onslaught. Most likely central Europe suffered similar punishment, which would be why Durmstrang and Beauxbatons did not survive.

Being students, the nine hundred terrified teens were able to pack up all their things in their school trunks and walk up the nearly safe path to the ship, with a few carrying carts filled with the meagre provisions the elves could scrounge. The elves themselves had also tied themselves to the school, and were already showing signs of dying.

"We have heard of you, Harry Potter, friend of Dobby," the head elf said when Harry inquired after them. "We would come with you to watch over the younglings, but we cannot. This is a good place to rest, we think. Remember us."

"We will," Harry said sadly.

The real surprise was the Brazilian Institute of Magic. When their ship arrived, it was met by a full cadre of broom-riding wizards firing blasting charms. Fortunately, even the weakened ray shielding was more than a match for the magic. If they had thought to transfigure the hull, it could have been much more damaging.

Brazil's school of magic was the largest in the world, with a student population of five thousand. It accepted students from all over South and Central America and parts of Africa and the Orient as well. While Hogwarts had fame as oldest schools of magic, and the birth place of Merlin, Brazil's institute was considered by many to be the best.

Harry was truly surprised to see the school grounds almost untouched, even down to a Quidditch and Quodpot pitch. Grass still grew and magical animals fluttered back and forth for the one square mile that the school occupied. When the schools' wards ended, burned desolation took over.

They brought the Phoenix down just short of the ward lines. Borrowing a broom from one of the American students, Harry flew out of the airlock. The air was cool without being cold, but like in Colorado, was so noxious to breathe he had to cast a bubblehead charm on himself.

Seeing their enemy riding a broom, the Brazilian wizards weren't as quick to attack this time as they flew up to him. "Who are you?" they asked in several languages before cycling to English.

"Harry Potter, from England," he called back.

"Have you turned traitor and sided with the enemy then, Harry Potter?!" one of the wizards, whose face was obscured by protection charms and a helmet shouted.

"No, I killed them, aided their enemies, stole their technology and returned to save whom I can," Harry said. "Take me to your headmistress or whoever's in charge, and I'll explain it all."

Harry learned that the Brazilian institute was built over an ancient ruin that had accumulated so much blood magic through hundreds of years of human sacrifice that the founders of the school incorporated blood wards into the school's defences. It made the school impenetrable to anything that might harm its students, and the wards were powerful enough to even withstand an orbital bombardment from the Imperial Navy.

Six hours later, seven thousand students, faculty, and refugees began boarding the ship carrying everything of value they could from the school. With only the front landing entrance, it took a long time, but the Brazilians also had far more food stores on hand than either the Hogwarts or American students.

The Australia College of Magic was a disappointment to Harry when they reached it. It was again bereft of all adults, since like the American school its wards would not have been strong enough without the staff and faculty sacrificing themselves. It was a smaller school, with only a thousand students starting as young as eight to as old as eighteen.

However, like Brazil, it had functioning greenhouses and charmed, protected pastures which allowed them to save many magical flora and fauna which otherwise would have perished.

In the end, the ship left with almost eighteen thousand refugees spread out in wizarding tents across the large loading bay of the ship. Looking at them from an upper deck, Harry felt the Mon Calamari, Tarkal, walk up beside him. "So many," he said, surprised in a detached way. "How many people were on your world before the attack, Colonel Potter?"

"Over seven billion," Harry said hollowly.

Tarkal blinked his huge eyes twice before looking down. "So few," he whispered, understanding perhaps for the first time the true horror Harry felt looking down at the remnants of his people. "First Alderaan, and now this."

"Other way around, I'm afraid," Harry said. "They did this well before Alderaan. Come, captain, we need to figure out where we're going next."

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Author's Note: Once again I just wish to stress just how much I appreciate Teufel1987, JR and Miles for beta reading yet another of my stories. As always, they make everything better.