Harry Potter and the Starship Enterprise

It was roughly ten o'clock before she heard another knock on her door and Harry's voice. "Christine, can I come in?"

She opened the door, somehow not surprised to find that he had brought his friends with him-- including Ginny--pretending not to notice that she and Harry were holding hands, while Ron and Hermione had their arms around each other. "Have you gone to the Department of Mysteries yet?"

"I'm afraid so. Sorry I couldn't wait for you, but I left quite early and didn't want to disturb any of you."

"May we know what you found out, at least?" Harry asked, the four young people seating themselves at the foot of Christine's bed as she got back onto it and sat cross-legged, facing them.

Once she had told them, Harry asked, "Have you contacted your friend Spock with the information?"

"Yes. He has it, and says he'll let me know what he finds out."

"How long do you think it'll be before you hear back?" Hermione put in.

"No idea. Depends on how long it takes him to decipher it."

"What about the plan to get us to school safely?" Ron asked, Ginny's eyes asking the same question even as each of their hands found their partner's again and held tightly to them for strength.

"Spock says he's discussed it with our friends and colleagues aboard ship and they're willing to help us. Can't give you a lot of details yet, of course, but I can say that it involves our transporter mechanism, whose operation is somewhat similar to the Apparition we generally do when we need to get somewhere quickly that's quite far away."

"Would we be ... transported aboard your ship?" Harry couldn't help asking.

"Temporarily, then held in the Transporter Room until your school train reaches its destination, then transported back to the train to pick up your school trunks and go to the school. The Order has already arranged for designated members to maintain a protective vigil around the school once you arrive until we can determine whether or not the Dark forces have realised that none of you were aboard." There was a silence almost thick enough to cut by the time Christine finished and she gave Harry a questioning look. "You have decided to return to school, haven't you?"

"Yes," Harry returned quietly, although Christine could tell he was still reluctant. All he same, he had obviously realised that she was right in insisting that he and his friends finish their education, but at the same time they would be able to research things ... things to help them win over Dark forces ... but most importantly, things that could be found only at the school.

"Good. Glad to hear it. Meanwhile, have you got anything else you want to discuss with me?" Christine asked. "Remember, Harry, you said you would tell your friends about what we discussed that day at Diagon Alley and let me know what you decided."

"Oh, yeah, we did," the young wizard replied. "Just got a bit ... distracted. Let's get to it." With that, their discussion began.

It was some hours later before everything Christine had learned and the plans being made for the students' protection so far had been made known to Harry and company. He made sure to tell her before they parted that he wanted to hear about any new developments as to protective measures that Spock and company were taking to get him and his classmates back to school safely. Christine assured him she would, and after hugs between Harry, Ginny and Christine, the four young people left.

She showered and prepared for bed, but just as she was ready to go to bed, the owl she and Spock used for communications purposes flew in through her open window in an upper floor of the Burrow, which was now being used for Order Headquarters. She was too tired to do more than skim it, but the gist of it was that Spock had managed to figure out the unusual readings gleaned from the unusual veil.

It had been difficult even for him, but that he had figured a way for them to get into the parallel universe in the vicinity of Halka and look for Sirius. Naturally a lot of what he said was scientific jargon that was far over even her head, but she gathered that it had something to do with "the relationship between antimatter and the space-time continuum," whatever that meant.

She'd have to figure a way to describe the latest communication to Harry and his friends, especially this part, but the part about what Spock and company intended to do to help them wouldn't be nearly as difficult. She knew that the train's function was set up so that it could automatically function, albeit temporarily, even if its engineers were incapacitated. Just long enough to get it to its intended destination--in this case, Hogsmeade Station.

Regarding the attack on the Hogwarts Express, they had learned that Voldemort and company intended to use something that didn't affect the mechanics of the train, just the people. Knowing what the Dark Lord was capable of, even after years away from the wizarding world because of her correspondence with her late grandfather, she didn't want to imagine what that might be. She also wouldn't put it past the Dark forces to change their plans and attack the train sooner than the Order knew, so they had to be ready to move and act at virtually any time. Christine also intended to suggest that some Order members Polyjuice into certain members of the Hogwarts student body just long enough to fool the Dark forces into thinking they had gotten Harry and his classmates while in reality they would be safely aboard the Enterprise.

She was sure that Harry and his friends wouldn't like that idea but they wouldn't tell them their plans until after they were aboard ship. He, and they, were risking enough as it was and they couldn't afford anything happening to them before the proper time. For the time being, she needed to get some sleep, then upon awakening, contact Remus and have him get everyone in the Order together to make some new plans and have further discussions. After that, she would owl Spock and tell him about them so he and the others could act in order to properly accommodate them.