Harry Potter and the Starship Enterprise

A/N: Warning--DH spoilers.

Upon hearing back from Remus that the Order meeting was all set up and that they were waiting for her, Christine owled back that she was on her way and would be there shortly. They made sure to put Silencing Charms on the door and ceiling so no sound would leak from the room to the young people prematurely.

It was mainly the older members who disliked the idea of Polyjuicing, but Christine argued, "Better that than risking the boys and girls themselves. Now we've got to decide who's going to take their places and get hair from each of them. There'll be a trick to it, of course, without letting on to them what we're up to, but as I said, better that than risking their lives any more than absolutely necessary."

In the end it was decided that Remus, Tonks, Fred and George, and Bill and Fleur would be the ones to Polyjuice themselves into Harry and his closest friends. Remus and Tonks would be Harry and Ginny, Fred and George would be Ron and Neville, and Bill and Fleur would be Hermione and Luna. It might be uncomfortable for Bill to play a female, even temporarily, but it was determined that it was best for (almost) everyone chosen to play someone of their own gender.

Christine wanted to be one of the chosen ones, but it was decided that she needed to be available to go with Spock when the time came to look for Sirius on the alternate Halka ... so she reluctantly backed off and made plans for when she saw Sirius again. Especially since she had heard the truth of what happened when James and Lily had been killed and the way she had treated Sirius, she was sure she could never apologise to him enough. She could only hope he could find it in his heart to forgive her.

Technically, since Tonks was a Metamorphmagus, someone who could change their appearance at will, she didn't really need to Polyjuice, so they would only need to worry about getting hair from Harry, Ron, Neville, Hermione and Luna. Christine decided to be the one to get the hair from the girls, while Remus got the hair from the boys. It was while they were all down at breakfast that Christine and Remus decided to check their combs and brushes and go from there. (They Apparated to Luna's and Neville's homes for theirs.)

Over the next several weeks, the young people prepared to return to school, as well as to go aboard the Enterprise at the proper time. Christine felt guilty at not telling Harry everything that Spock had told her in that regard, but knew she had to keep him and his friends as safe as possible, if only because of their necessity to the wizarding world. With their tempers, she could only hope that they would eventually forgive her for keeping them in the dark.

This time, when it came time to get the teenagers onto the train, Christine went along with the Weasleys and bade goodbye to Harry and his friends, hugging him and Ginny and wishing the others good luck. Just the same, all were aware of what was going to happen as soon as the train was out of sight of the station, and all those on the Enterprise were standing by to beam up the Hogwarts students, then another transporter platform the transformed replacements would be standing by to go down and take their places.

Even though they had been told to expect the kind of sensation they would feel when they were beaming up to the ship, the students all got funny looks on their faces when it happened. Even when they got safely aboard ship and found Kirk and company waiting to greet them, it was for-tunate that they were too involved in looking around at the ship, marveling at the futuristic décor and the colourful Starfleet uniforms, not to mention the various skin and hair colours of the crew.

It wasn't until an hour later and the students, invited to the rec room for a meal, were tucking in that Harry thought to ask where Remus and the others were. All they were told was that they were on Order business and no one would elaborate on just what kind of business. Harry didn't argue, although he was sure he knew (or at least suspected) just what kind of business. For this reason, he fully intended to have some choice words with those most concerned as to why they had kept them in the dark until they had been unable to stop them.

"I'm sure they'll tell you how things went when they get back, Harry," Christine explained. "Meanwhile, please don't be too upset with them--or me. We were just trying to keep you and your friends safe."

Harry gave his godmother a sharp look, his eyes blazing green as Lily's always had when she was angry, then his face softened. "I still wish you'd seen fit to tell us what you were up to."

"Maybe once you're all officially in the Order. Until then, we reserve the right to keep secrets from you all if we deem that doing so is in your best interests."

"You know I'll be seventeen soon," he reminded her. "You won't be able to keep anything from me--or any of us, for that matter--once we're in the Order."

Christine knew he and the others probably wouldn't be inducted until after the Final Battle and Voldemort had been vanquished, so she wasn't too worried about the current mission. It was any subsequent missions that she was concerned about--and it wouldn't surprise her if Harry insisted on accompanying her and Spock to look for Sirius. Not that she could blame him for wanting to, but she didn't think he would be allowed to go.

Technically, only Starfleet officers could go on official landing or search parties. Of course, Kirk might bend rules enough in this case so Harry could go. It was a good thing that the subject hadn't come up yet; otherwise it was likely that she would never hear the end of it from him--or any of them, for that matter. Meanwhile, they had more important matters to concern themselves with.

Christine knew how long it usually took the Hogwarts Express to get to Hogsmeade Station, so they made sure to have enough Polyjuice to last them until the arrival there. As it turned out, Sunning Spells were the means used on everyone aboard, especially affecting the ones who had replaced Harry and company. The progress of the train was monitored until it reached the station. A squad of Aurors from the Order was standing by there, along with a few of the Enterprise Security contingent in plain clothes and carrying concealed weapons, to check the status of everything and everyone aboard upon arrival.

It wasn't until surface contact had been made by a still-disguised Remus that it was deemed safe to bring the students down and get them to the school in the regular way. Even at that, there would still be the same squad guarding them at the school until it had been determined that the Dark forces had been fooled. How long they would remain so was the question, so they had to remain vigilant until they knew one way or the other.

Again, Christine hugged Harry and Ginny when it came time to beam them down to the station to pick up their school trunks, imploring each of them to contact her once they were settled in and attending classes again. She knew nothing was likely to happen to them or their friends once they were in Hagrid's hands, because not too many were foolish enough to attack even a half-giant. Just looking at him would be intimidating enough for most people.

Of course, the Death Eaters and Voldemort weren't most people. Even at that, there were too many protective spells and wards on Hogwarts to make it feasible for Dark forces to attack them, at least not at present, so with the Aurors and Security contingent guarding them, they were as safe as those most concerned could make them. It was decided to leave a small contingent of Security personnel there to assist the Aurors for the foreseeable future (and only the Security personnel involved were told the true nature of their mission), admonishing them to keep them informed of everything that went on while they were on duty because they had to get back to their regular missions.

It was several weeks later, during the first Hogsmeade weekend, that Christine met with Harry and his friends in the Three Broomsticks and told them of their plans to go back to the area where they had been virtually zapped into the Mirror universe. Harry admonished her to tell him when they planned to go and that he wanted to accompany the search party if at all possible.

Christine assured him she would look into the possibility but couldn't make any guarantees, especially owing to the uncertainty of both school rules and schedules and Starfleet regulations regarding away missions. Only Ginny wasn't of age yet, so if they wanted to go, it was technically all but impossible to stop them from going.

Even Starfleet had a requirement as to age, basically the same as the wizarding world, and Harry was now seventeen, as was Ron, and Hermione had just turned eighteen, her birthday being in September. Ginny was sixteen, as was Luna, but Neville was seventeen, so he could technically ask to go if he so wished. However, it was easiest if the least amount of people went on the party--and the minimum amount was two on a mission like this. Of course, Harry would never forgive her if she didn't include him on this one, so in that event, there would be three--herself, Harry and Spock.

Christine was pleased to learn that they had learned of the location of two of the Horcruxes and had even managed to destroy one of them because it had been in the Room of Requirement--the Ravenclaw diadem which had been lost for centuries. They'd even discovered the identity of R.A.B., who turned out to be Sirius's brother Regulus. He had become disenchanted when he was expected to kill Kreacher and wouldn't do it; instead, he had figured it so he was killed instead, saving the elf by throwing himself in front of the Dark Lord's wand when he cast the Avada Kedavra.

The fake locket left in place of the original Horcrux was now in Kreacher's possession; Harry had given it to him and the formerly nasty elf was now almost as slavishly devoted to him as Dobby had been. Harry had a pretty good idea where the real locket Horcrux was but couldn't do anything about it until the next school vacation at the earliest. He didn't want to try to do anything during the weekend because he had no idea how long it would take and didn't want to interfere any more in his schooling than absolutely necessary--if only to keep everyone off his back about it. Just the same, he knew, at least intellectually, that a good education was important, which was the main thing keeping him in school. Dumbledore had left him an old Snitch, the first one he had ever caught, and the Sword of Gryffindor, at least technically.

Unfortunately the Minister of Magic, Scrimgeour, wouldn't let him have it, and they had rowed over it before the man had left in an angry huff. Of course, this was before it was learned that the Sword in the case in the Head's office was a fake and it was unknown where the real one was. For that reason, it was unlikely that it would be found before it was truly needed. Hermione had found in the Hogwarts: A History" book that the Sword was rumoured to be able to destroy Horcruxes. Too bad they couldn't know where it was now; it would be a lot easier to destroy the Horcruxes as they found them if they had the Sword in their possession.

It was also learned from Christine that Dumbledore's hand had been blackened and injured when he had destroyed the ring Horcrux. It had turned out to be cursed and he had used the real Sword to do so, but it had aggravated the poison in the potion he had been forced to drink in the Horcrux cave. Upon examining her grandfather, Christine had found that that same poison was slowly killing him. She eventually surmised that it was shortly after her diagnosis that he had planned his death and for it to do some good by having Snape kill him because they knew that Draco would be unable to do it--that Voldemort had, in fact, expected him to fail all along.

There was far more that Harry and company would learn, but for the moment they had other things which concerned them more. Hermione was still doing research as to possible locations for the Horcruxes and believed that another, possibly Hufflepuff's cup, would likely be located in the Gringotts vault of Voldemort's most devoted follower, Bellatrix Lestrange. But as mentioned before, Harry would be unable to check out these things until he had some free time away from school.

And even then, that would depend on when the Enterprise and her crew intended to head for where Christine and Spock believed that Sirius might be. He had told her he wanted to be there if at all possible, but sometimes fate conspired against a person, and considering the kind of life he had had, Harry had to expect such a thing to muck things up for him. But he could live with it if their theory turned out to be right and Sirius was actually alive in a parallel universe and they were able to bring him back to be reunited with him and his other loved ones. For the time being, he had best knuckle down and get his current homework done.