Chapter Thirty: Deciding Destiny

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

A/N: Chap 29 review responses are in my forums as normal. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Thirty: Deciding Destiny

The rebel shuttle was not large at all—there were no state rooms, and the cramped fresher unit was in constant use from the fifteen people on the ship. There was a confused and worried-looking Divini, the pouting Skywalker twins, Harry himself, and the eleven youngest members of Harry's old crew.

After the first rush of remembrances were done with, they settled in for the ten-hour trip back to Adega. Not long into the voyage, Madam Malkin reverted to her old, stooped form. She looked down to her drooped chest with a wistful sigh. "Oh well."

Harry, too, reverted to form. Fortunately he was sitting when he did so, since he still didn't have feeling in his feet yet. Old Malkin noticed his discomfort. "What's wrong, lad? Other than your little lover's quarrel?"

The others around the ship chuckled, which made Leia look even angrier. Confined spaces were a bad place to hold onto a grudge.

"Re-membership charm," he said. "Both legs and my arm."

While Maria knew, to the others that was a surprise. "Merlin's saggy balls, man, what happened?" Booker demanded.

"Darth Vader," Harry said. "He's like Voldemort, Delesteros and Grindelwald distilled into black armour with a laser sword. He killed Kenobi."

"Because of you!" Leia blurted.

"I don't think so," Harry answered coolly.

"You told him about us!" Leia continued, unable to keep it inside any longer. She stood, flushed with anger and teary-eyed. "You risked our lives and let him kill Obi-Wan, for what, Harry? Why? What did Obi-Wan possible do to you?"

"He condemned you for being a witch," Harry said coldly.

Leia blinked, while around the ship other witches turned and stared, dumb-founded. "Obi-Wan knew exactly what we were going to find on Adega," Harry continued. "He and Yoda both knew. Remember what I told you? Adega was where my kind was created, Leia. I spoke to the spirit of Hekate herself."

Harry noticed but did not comment on the startled expressions and the way some of the Brazilians crossed themselves. He continued. "Kenobi condemned my entire race as Dark Siders. And because you are now like us, because those crystals forced you to develop a magical core, he condemned you too. He and Yoda both. The Jedi started the Hundred Years Darkness! They slaughtered the Adegan Jedi because they thought our very existence was evil."

"What's this about, Harry?" Maria asked.

"Our past," he said, without looking away from Leia. "But that's not why I told Vader, Leia. Vader already hated Obi-Wan—don't you remember what he said on the Death Star, about expecting to die by Vader's hand? When Vader pulled me out of that cave he could have done a lot more than just cut off my legs and arm. He wanted me alive because I was the Emperor's prize. Thrawn confirmed it before—the Emperor wants to capture and study me. But you…to Vader, you, Luke and Obi-Wan were just three more dead Jedi. Don't you understand? He was about to take Luke's head off, until I told him. I didn't risk your lives, I saved you. And goddamn it I will not apologize for that!"

He didn't mean for his rant to escalate into shouting, but as often happened once he started he found he could not stop until all the frustration was out. When at last he fell quiet, the only sound was the hum of the engines. Harry panted as if he'd run a marathon.

"So what now?" Leia asked, her face still set in her stubborn mode.

"Now, you and Luke have to decide what the Jedi stand for," Harry said. "But right now, I'm tired, and my feet hurt, and…never mind. Just never mind."

He got up, and clutching the seats to provide some balance, managed to stumble to the back where he could lay down on the back bench seating.

Maria, though, flicked her wand at Leia and whistled. "You do have a core now," she said, feeling the results of the spell directly. "What the hell happened to you on that planet?"

"I'm not sure myself," Leia said. "Excuse me."

She stepped past the commander and two other of Harry's people and continued to the back of the shuttle. "You're pouting," she said.

"You should talk, little miss pouty-pants."

Leia stared, incredulously. "Really? That's your response?"

"Always worked on my daughter," he said, looking straight up at the roof of the shuttle. "She would be eighteen today."

Shaken by how empty he sounded, Leia sat on the edge of the bench near his knees. "What you said about Obi-Wan and Yoda…"

"I'm sure Yoda started it," Harry said. "He was on the Jedi High Council for centuries, he would know the history. I told you the Adegans did some bad things, but the Jedi committed genocide in response. And Yoda fully supported that decision, even though he is sheltering with the descendants of those very same Jedi he condemns."

Harry noted her shiver. "On the star destroyer, Vader just came and stared at me," she said, and neither needed to say who she meant. "He didn't say a word, didn't try to torture me for information or anything. He just stared at me."

"Leia," Harry said. "I know this is hard. I'm sorry that we didn't have a chance to talk it over first. But you have to know I never would have said anything if I didn't think your life was on the line. I do love you, very much. And though it pains me to say it, I like Luke too. I'll understand if it was too much for you, but I just can't be sorry for doing it…"

He had to stop when she leaned over and kissed him. "Nerfherder," she muttered.

"Midget."

With a sigh and an exasperated shake of her head, Leia lifted his feet, sat down, and then placed them back on her lap. Without hesitation, she took off his conjured boots and began massaging his feet. With the contact came Force energy, and despite himself the touch was so soothing he was asleep in minutes.

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

The assault shuttle was right where they left it on Adega. The Empire would never have been able to find it, but nonetheless Harry gave a sigh of relief upon spotting it. They brought the shuttle down next to the Fidelius-charmed assault shuttle, which everyone could now see thanks to a slip of conjured parchment that read, "Harry Potter flies the Assault Shuttle Escape Velocity."

The first time Maria saw the ward stones, she fell to her knees and exclaimed, "Ai meu Jesus Cristinho!" she gasped. "Potter, what the hell are these things?"

"The first ward stones ever made," Harry said softly. "A thousand years before the Mesopotamians built their first ziggurats, two thousand years before the Egyptians built their pyramids, the Jedi of this world faced extinction from their fellow Jedi for delving into the Force. I had a vision, Maria. I saw the first Veela to ever live—she was born on this world, where those mountains are now. I saw the first centaurs and giants, created by early Jedi here. And when they created these stones, the Force protected them by creating a buffer in their bodies to handle the power. So the first true witches and wizards were created. Some went to fight the Jedi who destroyed this world and were twisted by the war into Sith, but the rest fled. They fled to Earth and founded Atlantis. This is our history, Maria. You and I—our ancestors came from this world. And these wards are our inheritance."

"You were right to come back," the commander said, eyes still wide from the sheer power the wards gave off. "Yeah, about that…I should have a charmed mirror in the shuttle. Take it with you, that way we can have an open line of communication."

"Good idea." She darted back into the assault shuttle.

After the commander was gone, Leia said, "Harry, our lightsaber crystals, could you…?"

Harry nodded and Apparated to the mouth of the cave. Two summoning charms retrieved the bags of crystals, and two more charms summoned the crystals Luke and Leia had both found for themselves. Vader never bothered to collect them, and why would he?

By the time he Apparated back to the Assault shuttle, Maria was already walking back to her own shuttle. Harry looked at Luke and Leia. Luke schooled his expression, but Leia looked pensive. "You can go either way," he told the two. "But I think it would be wise to return with me to Avalon. Yoda probably felt Obi-Wan die, but I'm sure he'll want to reinforce to you, Luke, how evil your sister is now that she has a magical core."

"Harry, please stop," Leia said.

Luke, though, shook his head. "None of you are evil, Harry. Well, mostly not. But I agree; we should head back to Avalon. You'll have to fly, though. I'm good, but not good enough to get us there one handed."

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

Once again, it was a simple matter of coasting without power into the Avalon system, past the blockade of ships that remained on station. They hit the atmosphere and powered back up, but by that time it was too late for the Empire to do anything.

In the shuttle were Harry and the Skywalker twins. Divini returned to the Alliance with Maria and the others. Leia sat in the co-pilot's seat, while Luke sat where his sister ordinarily would behind her. The moment they entered the Fidelius charm, both twins stiffened. "Something happened," Luke said.

With that ominous warning, Harry was expecting fires burning. Instead, he found a colony shrouded in a thick blanket of snow, with a few obvious exceptions where someone used snow-clearing charms. There were also wisps of smoke rising up from several of the homes, giving the colony an Old World look to it. It didn't look foreboding at all.

He brought the assault shuttle down in its usual spot between Yoda's impromptu academy and the main colony. To his surprise, Luke and Leia were already moving before they even finished the landing cycle. He followed behind at a more sedentary pace, given his recent healing.

The air felt crisply cold, but also clean. He knew the wisps of smoke were from charmed flames that could make a single log last for days. It was not quite endless fire, but it made wood-burning fireplaces much more efficient, which in times past meant quite a lot. The setting was so cosy Harry had to fight back a sudden spike of anguish that Ginny wasn't there beside him, holding his hand. Or, more like, throwing snowballs at him.

Shaking off the melancholy, he continued into Yoda's hut and saw the problem.

The troll was dead.

Seeing the empty bed came as a shock. He was fully prepared to give Yoda a piece of his mind, but now, with the absence of the Jedi Master, Harry found himself suddenly at a loss.

Yoda's youngest Padawans, Carrie and Peter, were both sitting at the foot of his pallet. Carrie wept silently as she leaned on Peter's shoulder. Tim Jacobs stood nearby, watching as Luke knelt down beside the pallet. Seeing Harry, the young squib made his way over and said, "Sir, can we talk outside?"

Harry nodded and the two stepped back out into the brisk cold. When they were alone, Tim said, "Sir, did you and Master Yoda have a fight before you left?"

Knowing what the young man was getting at, Harry sighed. "What was he telling you?"

"That we have to be on guard. That magicals were tainted by the Dark Side of the Force and that we would have to be strong to resist. It came out of nowhere. But, well…none of us were treated well, being squibs and all. I'm afraid Peter was eating up every word."

"Yoda had a theory about where we came from; he received confirmation of that theory just as Master Kenobi died, so he was probably a little shaken. But no, we're not tainted by the dark side. We're just people, and sometimes people just plain suck. Having magic does not change that for most. Dark magic doesn't make people evil—evil people just like using dark magic."

Tim thought about it a moment before nodding. "I see what you mean, and I think I agree. I'll keep an eye out on Peter."

"What about Carrie?"

Tim shrugged. "She usually follows Peter's lead."

"Come on."

Back inside, Leia was speaking gently to the distraught Carrie, holding the girl in her arms while Luke spoke quietly to Peter. Harry conjured a chair and regarded the five Jedi closely. "Tim, Peter, Carrie, I think for tonight you should stay with me in my house. Luke, you and Leia are also of course welcome to stay. I'll contact Councillor Delacour regarding some meals."

"This is the Jedi Compound," Peter said with just the hint of challenge. "This is where we belong."

"You are also children of this colony," Harry said, a hint of his Dad voice rising in answer. "That means it is our job to protect you. I don't know what Yoda might have thought, but when we allowed him to train you, that did not mean we were giving you away."

"You didn't care about us, we're just squibs!"

Harry noticed the way Carrie pulled away from Leia to be closer to Peter. "You saved her, didn't you?"

The question caught the young man by surprise. "What do you mean?"

Harry nodded toward the young girl. "You saved Carrie. You've protected her since Armageddon. You aren't a squib, Peter. You're a hero. You put her needs above your own, just like Tim there put your needs above his. Just like Carrie stands by you, to support and help you. Magicals aren't perfect, and there isn't one person in this colony that didn't lose at least someone. You lost your parents, siblings, maybe. I lost my wife, my sons, and my little girl. But you survived. Maybe not happier, but stronger. You're stronger than you were—you have the Force now. You'll never be 'just' anything. You're Peter Whitehall, Jedi Padawan, a child of Avalon. And I want you to spend the night at my house because no child, Jedi or wizard, should have to spend the night in a home that has seen death."

In the end, they all trekked back to Harry's house. It did not surprise him at all to find Fleur waiting for him with Rosmerta. "He passed away this morning and simply faded away," Fleur noted sadly as she looked at the three dejected Padawans. "We were going to bring them a meal, but it is better this way, no?"

Harry was never more grateful to Fleur than he was that night as she played hostess for him and the young Jedi. She laughed and smiled, using her natural beauty and allure to, if not lift their spirits, at least lessen their gloom. And when they were done, Harry told them all of his vision from Adega, including the creation of magical sentient creatures.

They listened, enraptured, as they learned the true history of witches and wizards on Earth. It was Fleur who broke the silence when he was done. "For many years, Veela were hunted and killed. The Veela covens always hated wizards for doing it, but when you looked back at how the Veela lived, it was difficult to judge either. The Veela did what they did to live, and the wizards did what they did to protect themselves from the Veela. But eventually we learned co-existence. We lived in peace with the wizards. We married them, and loved them." She looked at Luke. "Our races were enemies thousands of years ago, but this does not mean we must continue to be so. We have changed, all of us."

Harry didn't even realize he was holding his breath until he had to take one. It did not surprise him, though. He knew that with Obi-Wan's death and Leia's new magical core, Luke truly was the future of the Jedi Order. His ideas and biases could build or destroy relations between the Jedi and magical race for eons to come.

"You drained the Force entirely from Adega, Harry," Luke said. "You killed that world."

"It was already a dead world," Harry answered. "Besides, it wasn't really me. It was the wards my ancestors created. Despite all that, it was the Jedi who killed the planet. Now, those ward stones might very well be the key to saving Avalon."

"Maybe. Obi-Wan felt that magic was a dark side because it drained the Force for its power. He used the wards here as proof of that."

Fleur scoffed. "Wards do not drain magic of the area. They redirect it, like a river. When my husband tapped into the planet's Ley Lines, he did not just pull. The ward stones create a magical valve that draws the power through the runes, which shape it in the desired way, before returning the magic to the lines. If wards truly drained magic, then Earth would have been drained of all magic centuries ago."

"Obi-Wan was wise in the Force," Harry said. "But when it came to magic he was an idiot. We're not Dark Siders, Luke. But I will tell you right now—we will not permit enemies to live among us, not after what happened to our world. The Jedi are in a real sense our brothers. Tim, Carrie and Peter are proof that we have similar beginnings. If you come back to us as brethren, we will welcome you. But if you truly believe what Obi-Wan and Yoda thought at the end, then you will need to leave."

"I'm not sure what to believe, Harry," Luke said. "But I do owe it to you to be sure. I would like to meditate on the matter."

"Yeah, okay," Harry said. "I can respect that."

They broke up for the night. Harry went to his room and waited with a sense of nervousness until Leia came and stood in his doorway. She saw him waiting and stepped in, before closing the door behind her. "Harry…"

"I love you," he said before she could say anything else. "That hasn't changed."

She reached up, and very deliberately undid her tattered clothes and let them fall to the floor. The sight of her pulled a shuddering breath from Harry's lips. "You are so beautiful," he whispered as she came to him. "So beautiful."

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

Lady Sofia hobbled about on her cane, supported by her granddaughter and a dozen overlapping warming charms, as she studied the three glowing ward crystals. "They are keyed to you and your princess," she noted to Harry, with Leia by his side.

"How can you tell?" Leia asked.

"At my age, you can almost taste magic," the old witch said. The Fidelius charm experience did not just bring the former headmistress to the brink of death, it also changed her outlook on a great many things. Gone was the self-assured arrogance that drove Rosmerta to the edge of an Unforgiveable. What remained was a witch with half the power, but with a much more open mind. "Meu Deus, the power of these things. I've never seen the like. If you pooled all the power that saved all the schools back on Earth, they would still only be a fraction of the power these crystals contain."

"Could we use them to protect Avalon?" Harry asked.

"Undoubtedly," Lady Sofia said. "But to do what? Raise a barrier? Yes, it would be unbreakable, but it would not cover the whole planet. These Imperial beasts could destroy the world out from under our feet. Summon monsters to defeat them? Yes, but could we control what we summoned? No, we would need any magic channelled through these stones to be simple—both in intent and execution. Until we understand them better, anything else could be horribly dangerous."

Rosmerta, who had joined them along with Jorge De Villa, shrugged. "What about a straightforward displacement spell?"

Harry blinked as the idea hit him like a brick. Lady Sofia nodded. "Yes, something like that might work. If we limited the displacement to perhaps one or two thousand feet or so, we could conceivably cover hundreds of millions of kilometres in a single wave, since the magical dynamics of displacement are so basic."

"I don't understand what that means," Leia said.

"Imagine every crewman on a five-hundred foot wide ship suddenly transported two kilometres to the left," Harry said.

Of course, Leia understood immediately as her eyes widened. "That would be murder."

"That would be almost two hundred empty ships," Harry countered. "Empty ships the Alliance could use."

He could tell Leia was conflicted by the idea. However, Jorge DaVille said, "My friends, there is a solution for that as well. Could we not just add an intent matrix to the wave? Most active ward schemes have intent-driven outcomes, after all."

"What would that mean?" Leia asked.

Lady Sofia, who had come to a stop with a distant look of concentration, nodded. "Yes. Yes, that could work. Again, we would want it to be simple. A "Do No Harm" intent matrix. The wave would spare anyone who would be unwilling to take a life or to attack the colony, while anyone who would be willing to attack, or even to follow an order to do so, would be displaced."

Leia's jaw dropped. "You could do something like that?"

"No, meu Princessa. You would. You and your man." Lady Sofia nodded to Harry. "You are now both the keepers of these wards. You are both the Masters of Death."

Harry noted how Leia shivered at the title. "You know it's just a superstitious title. You didn't receive a wand, cloak or resurrection stone. You just received the shards directly."

"So…what would we do?" Leia asked.

"You let us handle the Arithmancy," Lady Sofia said. "We will create the framework of the magic, and then you will follow the spell we give you."

"In the meantime," Harry said, "I have a mirror call to make."

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

Vernan looked different in the mirror. Partially it was because his face was closer than Harry had ever seen. For instance, he had a mole beside his nose that Harry could never see in the holograms.

"General Potter," he said coolly. "You were ordered to return to the fleet with Commander Skywalker and Councillor Organa. Is there a reason you're not here?"

"Maria didn't tell you?"

"She told me you simply refused."

"There you go," Harry said with a tight grin. "Vernan, for a second, pull the stick out of your ass and listen carefully. During our trip to Adega I managed to obtain very powerful magical artefacts that the Avalon government believes can be used to eliminate the blockade entirely, while preserving the ships themselves."

One bushy brow rose almost into Vernan's hairline. "Repeat that?"

"You heard me. We can use these artefacts to actually remove the crews from the ships themselves. At Councillor Organa's behest we'll be adding a component to the weapon to only target those individuals actually capable of doing harm, but at the end of the day that will leave almost the entire blockade fleet drifting and empty. If an Alliance task force were sitting in space outside the system, it would be a great opportunity to double your fleet strength."

Harry could see the man's thoughts burning new trails of possibility. "Is this a weapon you could apply anywhere?"

"No, I don't think so," Harry said. In truth, he wasn't willing to remove the ward crystals from Avalon, and the Wizenmeet would undoubtedly agree. "It can only be used in defence of Avalon. And the ships technically would belong to the Avalon government by right of salvage and conquest. On the other hand, we would be more than willing to lease the ships out to the Alliance for very reasonable terms."

Vernan's eyes narrowed. "Lease?"

"My first responsibility is to my people, Vernan," Harry said without a hint of shame. "It's a rebel Alliance, after all, not a unified government. I must do what I can to protect and advance Avalon's needs. The lease agreement would be very advantageous, no worries there, but we would expect some type of compensation. Talk it over with the High Council. Oh, and one other question for you."

"What?"

"Is Rahm Kota still alive?"

The name seemed to surprise Vernan. "He's formally retired from active duty, following the death of his last Padawan," Vernan said. "Why?"

"We need an old, wise Jedi. We don't have any, but I understand Kota at least is old. That might be enough."

Vernan snorted. "I'll pass on the word and see what he says. The Alliance High Council may want to talk to your government about the terms of the lease."

"I am Mage General of Avalon," Harry said without false pride. "I've been charged by our Wizenmeet Government with her protection and welfare. I have full authority to negotiate any terms. And Leia will be helping me."

"Leia is a Councillor of the Alliance, General."

"She's one of us now too, General, as well as being a Jedi Knight. Don't worry; she'll be the perfect voice to keep us all honest. Let me know what they say."

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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.