Harry Potter and the Shadow War

Chapter 3 - Interview

Susan had seen some strange things during her service in Earthforce, but she wasn't sure she'd ever seen anything quite like the scene that greeted her when she walked through the door of Garibaldi's office. Garibaldi sat behind his desk, somehow managing to look relaxed and wary at the same time. Standing before him were four adolescents, two redheads and two brunettes, all wearing black robes with some sort of crest on the front. At the collar of the robes, she could see red and gold striped ties over white collared shirts. She also caught a glimpse of gray sweaters underneath. They looked for all the world like some sort of uniform but not like anything she'd ever seen. They couldn't be military; too impractical. A religious order? A school?

As she surveyed them, Susan realized that the term "kids," as Garibaldi had used it, was somewhat misleading. Although clearly not adults, it looked like one or more of them had to be at or near his full height. The redheaded boy caught Susan's attention first, mainly because he stood at least a head taller than his companions. Even from across the room, Susan could tell that he would tower over her, and she was not a small woman. She estimated that he might even stand eye-to-eye with the captain. His robe hung higher on his legs than those of the others, and his wrists stuck out several inches from his sleeves. His face was liberally freckled, and he had a worn leather bag slung over his shoulder.

Susan turned from him to survey the others. The other boy had black, unkempt hair and striking green eyes behind round glasses. He seemed nervous, but there was a determined look in his eyes that made Susan a little uneasy. Unlike his lanky friend, he was short, scarcely taller than the girls of the group. He was also thin and rather pale. Beside him stood a girl with bushy brown hair, holding a large book. She looked to be nearly 5-and-a-half feet tall, perhaps her full adult height. Finally, Susan took in the shortest member of the group, another redhead, this time a girl. She was hanging back slightly from the others, but she looked the most relaxed, although her eyes were very alert.

"So," Susan said, frankly uncertain how to begin this interview (interrogation hardly seemed the right word for this motley crew). "Do we have names for these four?"

"That and their ages was about all I did get out of them," Garibaldi replied, looking down at the screen in front of him. "The two redheads are brother and sister, Ron and Ginny Weasley, ages 16 and 15, respectively. The boy with the glasses is Harry Potter, 16, and the brown-haired girl is Hermione Granger [he pronounced this first name slowly, as though uncertain he was getting it right], also 16."

"All right," said Susan. "I am Commander Susan Ivanova, second in command here on Babylon 5. I understand you're from Earth?"

The teens looked at each other uncertainly for a moment. Then Harry, the black-haired one, stepped forward. The others seemed to accept him as their de facto leader, and Susan filed that away for future reference.

"We're all from England," he replied to her, politely. "Although we were in Scotland when--before we came here."

Susan's eyes narrowed. He had clearly been about to say something else, but she decided to let it pass for now.

"Some kind of vacation?" she asked them, referring to the reason they were in Scotland.

"No," Harry answered. "We go to a school in Scotland."

"Then the next question is: how did you get here?"

Again, the kids looked uneasily at each other. Harry cleared his throat and tried to answer.

"We don't know."

"You don't know?" Susan repeated in disbelief, raising her eyebrows significantly. How could someone get from Earth to a space station that had seceded from Earthgov and was light years from anything without knowing how he or she got there?

"Er, that is, we know how we got here, but we don't know why we're here," the boy amended. This was hardly enlightening. Susan looked at the other three.

"Would anyone care to clarify this for me?" she asked.

A third time, the four strangers exchanged glances.

"I think we're going to have to tell them," said Harry to the others.

"But what about the Secrecy Act?" asked the tall redhead, Ron.

"Look around you, Ron!" said the brown-haired girl, Hermione, sounding a little exasperated. "I don't think the Ministry has any jurisdiction here."

That sounded political, but Susan didn't have time to reflect on it because the conversation was continuing.

"They probably won't believe us anyway," put in Harry, "but I don't see any choice but to tell the truth and face the consequences."

The two girls nodded agreement. Finally, Ron seemed to give in and shrugged.

"All right," he said. "But you tell it, Hermione. You're the best at this sort of thing, and anything sounds believable when you say it."

The girl seemed to glow a little under this compliment, and Susan looked quickly between the two of them, sensing something there that went a little deeper than could be seen at first glance. She suppressed the small smile that tried to come to her lips at the thought that teenagers were the same everywhere. This relationship also might be an important piece of information to keep handy.

Before Hermione could begin whatever explanation she intended to give, the red-haired girl chimed in for the first time.

"If you please," she said politely, seeming to address both Garibaldi and Susan, "I think we should all sit down. This could take a while."

* * *

An hour later, Susan and Garibaldi stood in Medlab, waiting for the kids to finish with their physicals. Given the nature of the incredible story they had just heard, Susan had also requested a psychological evaluation on each of them. Finally, Susan broke the silence.

"I'm going to call Delenn and see if she'd be willing to host them for a while," she announced.

"Delenn?" Garibaldi repeated. "Why?"

"Well, I have no evidence to merit throwing them in the brig," Susan began. "Besides, that would mean four cells that your people would have to guard, probably without cause, and we can't afford them to be spread that thin. The ambassadorial quarters are large enough to house them all together and have the added bonus of providing some amount of supervision until we decide whether they're a threat. That leaves Delenn, since I'm certainly not going to inflict Londo on them. No one deserves that without at least a fair trial."

Garibaldi laughed his agreement.

"All right," he said. "I'll go with you on this, at least for now. Listen, do you think you can manage without me from here? I haven't heard from Stephen, and I thought I'd look him up."

"Sure," Susan said amiably. Then she contacted Ambassador Delenn in her quarters and briefly explained the favor she was asking. There was only a moment's pause before Delenn agreed and told Susan that she would be sending her aide Lennier to collect the visitors.