Of Hexes and Sleepwalking

Harry and Hermione arrived at the Burrow together, eager to see their best friend.

"Hello, dears," Mrs. Weasley said, greeting them with hugs. "Ron's in the den. Poor thing, hasn't been feeling too well lately. Maybe your being here will cheer him up a bit. Would you like some tea?"

"Yes please," they said in unison.

"Wonder what's wrong with Ron? Did he say anything to you in any of his letters?" Harry asked the girl beside him as Mrs. Weasley bustled around the kitchen.

"Not a thing," Hermione said, shaking her head.

Harry shrugged and pushed open the door to the living room. They found Ron on the couch, dozing fitfully, dark circles under his eyes and very pale.

Hermione gently shook his arm and he woke with a start. "Wha-- Oh! You're here," he said happily, throwing the blanket off himself. His friends noticed that he had also lost a considerable amount of weight since they last saw him at King's Cross.

"Ron," Hermione stared at him, eyes full of concern. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Tea!" Mrs. Weasley announced brightly, banging through the door with a tray in her hands. "I've got to pop in over at Grimmauld Place for a few hours," she told them, setting her burden down on the coffee table. "Will you three be alright here, by yourselves?"

"Where's Ginny?" Harry asked, glancing around the room as if expecting her to appear out of thin air.

"She's staying with Luna Lovegood for a while, but she'll be back in a few days," Mrs. Weasley replied, trying to conceal her pleasure at Harry's interest in her daughter.

Ron watched his mother through heavily lidded eyes until she threw on a cloak and disappeared in the fireplace. "O.K., I've got to tell you something," he said, getting up and pacing around the room.

"Ron, what is it?" Hermione asked, her brows furrowed.

"I think someone is hexing me," he stated, glancing back and forth between his two best friends.

"What? Are you sure?" Harry asked, who immediately suspected Malfoy's hand.

"I don't know how else to explain it," Ron said seriously, running his hands through his flaming hair. "I go to sleep, then wake up in the middle of the night. I can see someone in my room, two people actually, with a really bright light behind them. I try to move, grab my wand and jinx them or something, but I'm frozen. Then, the next thing I know, it's dawn, and I wake up in my front yard," he finished, throwing his hands up.

"Maybe you're sleepwalking, and the people and bright light are just part of a dream," Hermione suggested.

"Yeah, I thought about that. Accio potion!" Ron cried, pointing his wand at the stairs. Seconds later, a bottle half full of bright purple liquid zoomed into his hands. "A few days after it started, I Flooed over to Diagon Alley when Mum and Dad were out and got this," he said, handing the bottle to Harry. "The clerk said it was the strongest anti-sombulance potion they had, but I'm still waking up in the front yard."

"Maybe you are being hexed then," Harry said, frowning down at the bottle. "Hermione?"

"I don't know..." she said skeptically, taking the bottle from Harry. "Are you sure you're taking the correct dosage of this?" she asked Ron.

"Dead positive," he stated.

"Hermione and I will hide under my Invisibility cloak tonight, and bust whoever it is," Harry said with a determined air.

"But if someone is hexing him, breaking into his room every night, they might not show up if we're in there," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I think this calls for a bit of investigative surveillance."

"How?" Ron asked, mystified.

"I'll owl my mum and dad and ask to borrow their video recorder for a few days. We'll hide it in you're room to see what happens, if you're sleepwalking or--"

"I'm not sleepwalking!" Ron cried in frustration.

"--or if someone is breaking in. Why didn't you put locking spells on your door and window?"

"I thought about that, but when I wake up in the yard without my wand, how the hell am I supposed to get back in to my room, eh?"

"Good point," Hermione said fairly.

"I still think we should use the cloak," Harry grumbled.

"No, I think the camera is the best way to go. It has to be wizards or witches doing this, right?" Hermione said, looking at the two boys. "They may be checking for Invisibility cloaks or spells. If they're smart, they'll be checking for alarm charms, too. They wouldn't think to look for a Muggle cam corder."

Ron and Harry finally agreed, and Hermione borrowed Hedwig to write to her parents, telling them to send the camera back with the owl. A few hours later, Hedwig swooped back in with the device.

"Bloody hell!" Ron breathed when Hermione took the video camera out of the bag. "Dad's going to have a field day with that. How does it work?"

"You look through this end, hit the record button and film whatever you want. This little screen here flips out, see, and you can watch what you recorded," Hermione explained, showing Ron the short video she had shot of his bemused face.

The three friends whiled away the next hour until Ron's parents got home. While Mrs. Weasley cooked dinner, They watched in amusement as Mr. Weasley experimented with the camera.

"Ingenious!" he said, holding it upside down. "It's almost like a wizarding picture!"

They ate a pleasant dinner and had a few games of chess while Mr. Weasley filmed them, then it was off to bed.

"Cheers, then," Ron said, downing a swig of his potion. "It doesn't work, but it does put me to sleep."

Hermione set up the camera on top of Ron's wardrobe, throwing a shirt over it to cover everything but the lens. "It's an eight hour tape," she said, checking her watch "so if whatever's going on happens by seven o'clock in the morning, we'll catch it on film."

They said their goodnights, Ron crawling into his bed, Harry heading off to Fred and George's old room and Hermione to Percy's. Two of them slept well and deeply that night, more deep than usual, in fact, unaware that their friend was no longer in the house.

* * * * *

Hermione had set her alarm clock for five thirty a.m. and jumped when it went off. She pulled her hair out of her face and threw on a dressing gown to go wake Harry up. He groaned and protested, but finally got up and followed her to Ron's room.

Hermione knocked softly on the door, then a bit louder when she got no response. "Ah, just open it. It's not like Ron sleeps in the buff," Harry said, pushing the door open.

"Oh, my. He's not here," Hermione whispered, worried.

"C'mon," Harry said, grabbing her arm. "Let's go check the yard."

They ran down the zigzagging stairs as quietly as they could. When they stepped out onto the dewy ground, the first thing they saw was Ron lying face down in the dirt, fast asleep.

"Should we wake him?" Hermione asked, biting her lip.

"Of course we should wake him," Harry said, raising an eyebrow at her. "What did you want to do? Leave him here?"

"Of course not!" Hermione said indignantly.

"Ah, come off it, Percy. I didn't steal your stupid prefect's badge," Ron grumbled, making Harry and Hermione jump.

"Er... Ron?" Harry said, kneeling on the ground and poking his friend in the ribs.

"Sod off, Percy," was the response he got.

"Er, I'm Harry, not Percy."

"What about Harry? Oh! Harry! What are you doing here?" Ron asked, rolling over and blinking at the rising sun.

"I'm staying here for the rest of the summer, remember?"

"What? Here? Outside? Oh, you must be camping. Sounds fun."

Harry looked over at Hermione and nearly burst out laughing at her stricken expression. "Don't worry," he reassured her, "he's always like this when he first wakes up. Deep sleeper, you know. He just needs some coffee."

So Hermione dashed ahead into the house to brew a pot while Harry hauled Ron up and dragged him in to the kitchen.

After almost half and hour, Ron was speaking coherently. "'Ave ya looked a' the tape ye'?" he asked them through a yawn. "Am I bein' 'exed er wha'?"

"We thought it best to wait for you to wake up, mate," Harry said, grinning over the rim of his mug. "You're the star, after all."

"Well get the bloody camera so I can see what the hell's been going on," Ron said, banging down his cup. "It's been driving me batty for weeks!"

"Let's go up to your room and watch it," Hermione said, looking at her watch. "Your mum and dad will be up soon."

Ron nodded and stood, and Harry and Hermione followed him to his small bedroom at the very top of the house. The boys plopped down on the bed while Hermione retrieved the camera from the wardrobe and fiddled with the buttons.

"It'll take a minute to rewind," she explained to Ron.

"What's rewind?"

"Huh? Oh, never mind." Hermione shook her head.

The whirring noise stopped and Hermione sat down between her two friends, holding the camera up so they all had a clear view of the little screen.

"Ready?" she asked Ron.

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Now or never."

Hermione pushed the play button. They watched for a few minutes as nothing more exciting happened than Ron's tossing and turning.

"I'll just fastfoward it a bit, shall I?" Hermione asked, boredom creeping in to her voice.

Ron was about to ask what that meant when Harry said, "Sure, go ahead. Stop if you see anything move."

Hermione nodded and pressed the small black button. Several more minutes crept by, in which Ron kicked his blankets to the floor and rolled over some more.

"Wait! Stop!" Harry cried. "What's that?"

Hermione let go of the fastfoward button and the camera resumed its normal speed. A blue-ish light was beginning to creep under Ron's bedroom door, filling the room with an eery glow. Slowly, the light swept upwards and hit Ron's face. His eyes flew open, an expression of terror written on his features.

They saw him struggle to move, but his motions were constricted, as if he were tightly bound by invisible ropes. The door opened slowly and Ron's struggle grew. His eyes snapped to his bedside table where his wand lay. His face was furious and desperate, willing the wand to come to him so he could free himself, but it didn't even twitch.

Hermione screamed and dropped the camera as she caught sight of the two beings that entered the bedroom. Fortunately, the recorder fell on the pile of blankets Ron had kicked off in the middle of the night, and Harry dove to retrieve it.

"My gods!" he breathed. "I'd never believe it if I wasn't seeing it!"

"What? What is it?" Ron asked frantically, eyes darting between Hermione's horrified expression and Harry kneeling on the floor, staring open mouthed at the miniature screen.

"Of all the things," Harry whispered, shaking his head. His fingers found the rewind button and took the tape back to the point where the beings had entered the room. "Here," he said, holding the camera towards Ron. "See if this rings any bells."

Ron took the camera and watched in shock. Hermione turned away and squeezed her eyes shut. "Oh, tell me when it's over!" she moaned.

Ron saw the two figures, about four and a half feet tall, pale, gray skin, flat faces dominated by big glossy black eyes, wearing what looked like black hospital scrubs, walk casually over to his bed, unconcerned with his struggles. One, the taller of the two, turned to its companion and made a series of odd clicking noises. It's partner responded with a soft hum.

The shorter one stepped forward and produced a small silver disk. It placed the device in the middle of Ron's chest and pressed down. Ron's eyes fluttered shut and he was still.

A third being walked into the room and conversed briefly with the other two. It sounded like many people at once sharply cracking their knuckles. After a few moments, one of the original two waved its hand over the disk lying on Ron's chest. It glowed green for a few seconds, then his body levitated off the bed and followed his kidnappers out of the room. The third one stayed for a while, poking around and looking in the wardrobe and Ron's school trunk. It took a spell book and a maroon shirt, then it, too, exited.

The rest of the tape was just Ron's empty bedroom.

"What was that?" Ron asked, handing the camera back to Harry so he could shut it off.

Harry glanced over at Ron's trunk. "Have you bought your school books for this year?"

"No," Ron answered, looking confused. "I wanted to wait until you two were here, so we could go to Diagon Alley together."

Harry jumped up and closed the short distance between himself and the trunk. He threw it open and peered inside. "Ah ha! Your Transfiguration book is missing."

"It is? That thing was damned expensive!" Ron said, irritated.

Harry waved his hand impatiently. "Have you noticed anything else missing?"

Ron's face screwed up in concentration. "Yeah, actually. A bag of owl treats disappeared a few days ago, but I thought maybe Ginny's cat had gotten them. Then an entire pot of Floo powder went missing. Boy, was Mum angry. And some of Dad's plug collection."

"Is that all you two are thinking about?" Hermione shrilled glaring at them. "What's bloody missing? Ron's being abducted by aliens every night, and you're thinking about what's gone from the house?"

What're aliens?" Ron asked, frowning at Hermione.

Hermione gaped at him, mouth opening and closing, but no sound coming out.

"People, well, beings from another planet," Harry explained, coming back to the bed and placing a comforting arm around Hermione's shoulders. "Muggles talk about them all the time. You see stories in tabloids about humans being kidnapped and experimented on by aliens, taken into space and other worlds, women having half-alien children." Hermione whimpered and Harry tightened his grip on her. "I never believed it until now. Hell, I didn't think magic was real until I got to Hogwarts, so this isn't too much of a shock."

"Oh," Ron said, shrugging his shoulders. "If they wanted something, all they had to do was ask. Dad would have told them all about Muggles."

"Ron!" Hermione screeched. "I can't believe you! Don't you realize what's been happening to you?"

"I'm being abducted by, er, what was it?"

"Aliens," Harry supplied.

"Right, aliens. And they're stealing stuff from my house. Mind you, they're welcome to all the maroon clothing they can handle," he finished with a grimace.

Hermione sputtered. "I-- wha-- Ron! You-- oh, bullocks!"

"You know what's weird, though?" Harry mused, ignoring Hermione's outburst. "Usually when you hear about alien abductions, it's only once, maybe twice in the space of a few years. How long has this been going on?"

"Since right after term ended. The second day I was home," Ron answered.

"Hmm... That's strange. It happens every night?"

"Every night for the past month or so, yeah," Ron said, interested in what Harry was saying.

"I wonder why..."

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione yelled, exasperated. At the blank expressions from the boys, she rolled her eyes and said, "They must be doing some sort of genetic experimentation, right?"

"Yeah," Harry said, shrugging. "That's what all those people used to claim. Why would they be interested in Ron though? Aside from the fact that he's human, I mean."

Hermione made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. "Oh! Wake up! Muggles and Wizards must be different on a genetic level. Really, they'd have to be, for Wizards to be able to do the things they do. They must have taken Ron at random, run the usual battery of tests on him, and noticed something off kilter. So they keep coming back for him, trying to figure out what's different."

"Makes sense," Harry said, nodding along.

"Yeah, I guess. But why the hell do they keep stealing my stuff?" Ron asked.

"They probably run tests on that, too." Hermions snorted in wry amusement. "Wonder what they thought of the Transfiguration book and Floo powder?"

"Huh. What we need to think about is how to stop them from taking Ron," Harry said, getting up and pacing around the tiny room.

"Urgh! Isn't that what I've been trying to tell you two?" Hermione growled.

"We'll have to use Ron as bait, of course," Harry mumbled to himself, ignoring Hermione's outburst.

"Thanks for that, mate," Ron said, quirking his eyebrows.

"Sorry, but it has to be done. We need more than just me and Hermione, though. But who would be nuts enough to hide under an Invisibility cloak half the night waiting for aliens to show up and abduct someone...?"

The three friends made a mental checklist of everyone they knew, discarding all of them until Ron grinned and said. "I think I know just the people we need."

* * * * *

Under the cover of going to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies, Harry, Ron and Hermione Flooed to Diagon Alley. The first place they went upon arriving was number ninty-three, Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes.

"Oi you three!" Fred shouted, bounding out from behind the black counter when they entered the shoppe. "What brings you guys and doll to Diagon Alley on this lovely day?"

"Actually, we wanted a word with you and George," Ron said, glancing around at the dozen or so customers. "In private," he added.

"Alright," Fred said, looking curious. "Oi, Lee! Run the gambit for me, will ya?" he shot over to his friend, Lee Jordan, who was explaining to a very shocked young man how the Too Friendly Greeting Cards worked. Lee smiled and waved at the trio while nodding to Fred.

"C'mon," Fred said, leading them to a black door. "George's in the basement, working the kinks out of a new product. Top secret, of course."

"So's this," Ron said, following his brother down a long flight of stairs. "What we show you stays between us."

"Why Ronnikins!" George greeted, throwing a cloth over a large blue box as they approached his table. "What're you doing here?"

"Something devious, I hope," Fred said as he sat down by his twin.

"Ah ha! What're you three up to?" George asked, rubbing his hands together and looking at them expectantly.

"And how may we be of service in your wicked plans?" Fred continued, and evil grin spreading across his face.

"Show them, Hermione," Harry said, pulling out a chair.

Hermione nodded and withdrew the video recorder out of her bag. "Here," she said, placing the camera on the table in front of the twins and flipping the screen out. "Watch."

Their expressions changed in unison from polite curiosity, to shock, to wonder, then back to curiosity.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Fred whispered.

"I second that," George agreed.

Ron explained about his nighttime experiences and waking up in the front yard. He told them about the anti-sombulance potion, then about Hermione's plan and what his two friends had enlightened him on.

"You've got to be joking," George said, his mouth hanging open when Ron finished. "Those are--"

"People from another planet?" Fred filled in.

"Like, Mars or something?" George continued.

"Probably not Mars," Hermione said seriously, shaking her head. "If there was life on Mars, the NASA space probes would have detected it by now."

"Yeah, maybe," Harry said. "But it could also be a government cover-up. They wouldn't want us knowing that we have neighbors who come and kidnap people in the middle of the night, now would they?"

"What the hell are you two talking about," Fred asked, mystified.

"Just Muggle stuff," Hermione answered, shrugging it off.

"Oh. So, what do we have to do with this," George asked.

"Well," Hermione started tentatively, looking at her two friends for support. "We, or atleast, I, think that Ron may be the first wizard they've ever came across, which is why they've been taking him every night."

"Wait," Fred interrupted, holding his hand up. "Why didn't you tell us about this before, Ron? Someone could have been hexing you."

Hermione huffed about his apparent lack of concern with the aliens and Ron said, "I didn't know if I was being hexed or was sleepwalking or what. I didn't want to tell anyone, incase it was just a really vivid dream or something. And you know you'd never let me live it down if it was," He finished, glaring at the twins.

"True," George said. "So now what? We know you're not being hexed. What are we supposed to do?"

"Well, we've got to make the aliens stop taking Ron, for a start," Hermione said acidly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Honestly! Am I the only one who cares about this?"

"Of course not!" George and Fred cried indignantly.

"I was thinking we'd hide under my Invisibility cloak in Ron's room tonight, wait for them to show up, stun 'em and try to get the message across that if they take Ron again, we'll hex them right back to where they came from," Harry said, eyes glowing in anticipation of a good fight.

"Sounds good to us," the twins said together, grinning.

"But we have our own Invisibility cloaks now," Fred added.

"So we won't have to use yours," George said.

They sat in the basement, making their plans, eager to carry them out. After an hour had passed, Harry, Ron and Hermione left to collect their school things, then go back to the Burrow and wait.

* * * * *

It was a bit past midnight when the fire in the living room burned green and Fred and George appeared. They stumbled out of the fireplace, dusting off soot and looking excited.

"Got your cloaks?" Harry asked, brandishing his.

"Yep," Fred said, holding up a bag.

"Never leave home without them," George joked.

"Right then. We should get going," Ron said, who was already in his pajamas.

They crept up the stairs so as not to disturb Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Ron started to open the door to his bedroom when Hermione reached out and stilled his hand. "Wait. We should get under the cloaks before we go in. They could be watching the room to see when you go to sleep."

The four boys nodded. Fred and George threw on their cloaks and Harry pulled Hermione under his. "O.K., go ahead," Harry said, nodding to Ron even though Ron couldn't see him.

Ron swallowed and pushed open his door. He waited until he felt the invisible people pass him, then shut it and went to lay on his bed. He tossed and turned for almost half and hour before sitting up and saying, "Damnit! I can't get to sleep with the four of you lurking around my room."

"Oh bloody hell," George's voice came drifting out of the corner by the wardrobe. His cloak parted briefly to reveal his wand and a blue jet of light shot out, hitting Ron in the back. He slumped over on the bed, snoring.

"Nice one," Harry whispered, trying not to laugh.

A few hours passed, with nothing happening. Hermione started to worry that they had seen them, or heard them, and weren't coming. Fred and George were just about ready to revive Ron and tell him off for pulling such a time-consuming prank when the blue glow started to filter under the door.

Harry felt Hermione clutch his arm and heard Fred and George gasp. He extracted his wand from his pocket and held it at the ready, when he had a sudden thought.

"Don't let the light hit you," he whispered harshly, pulling Hermione back against the wall with him and hearing the soft thud from across the room that told him Fred and George had done the same.

The door creaked open and the two beings strode into the room. Harry couldn't tell if they were the same two or not. They walked over to Ron's bed, cocking their heads at him. He wasn't awake and struggling as usual. The started clicking to eachother; Harry thought they sounded worried.

The shorter of the pair went forward, bending down over Ron. It ran a long, three-fingered hand over his face and blinked its black eyes. It straightened and produced the disk that it had used to levitate Ron out of his room the night before. Harry decided that it was time for action.

He whipped the cloak off, leaving Hermione concealed and shouted, "Stupefy!"at the being standing back. Fred and George took this as a cue and threw their Invisibility cloaks off as well.

"Accio -- thingy!" Fred cried, pointing his wand at the silver disk.

"Petrificus Totalus," George yelled at the other being, who was stunned at having the device suddenly ripped from its hands.

"Hermione, go and wake Ron up. We've got 'em."

Hermione came out from under the cloak, face white and eyes wide. "Are you sure," she asked horsely, staring down at the two alien figures.

"Yeah." Harry said, nudging the one he had stunned. "This one's out cold and the other's petrified."

Hermione nodded and dashed over to Ron. "Ennervate!"

"Oi!" Ron cried when he opened his eyes. "What're you doing out from under the cloak, Mione? What if the aliens see you?"

"You're a couple of hours behind, baby brother," George said, smirking.

"Eh? Oh!" Ron gasped as he rolled over and glanced down at the floor. "What happened?"

"Stunned and petrified," Harry repeated. "Shall we--"

"Stupefy!" Fred shouted, as the third being made its way into the room.

"Oh, damn. I forgot about that one," Harry said. "Sorry."

"Not a problem," Fred stated, stowing his wand inside his robe. "What were you saying, Harry, before we were so rudely interrupted?"

"I was going to ask if we should revive and question them."

"Are you crazy?" Hermione shrieked. "You actually want to wake them up?"

"I do," Ron said, getting out of bed.

"Yeah," George agreed. "I want to know what the hell they think they're doing, messing with a Weasley."

"So we're agreed, then?" Harry asked glancing around the room.

"And what makes you think they'll understand us? Or that we'll understand them?" Hermione persisted.

"I dunno," Ron said, shrugging. "And frankly, I don't care. Let's give it a shot, shall we?"

He grabbed his wand and nodded to Harry. The-Boy-Who-Lived murmured an incantation and thick white ropes appeared around their three captives and bound them. Ron, Fred and George moved to stand in front of a being. Fred and Ron whispered "Ennervate", as George said "Finite Incantatum".

The aliens stirred, looking at their surroundings with big, glossy eyes. Hermione whimpered and shrank back into a corner. The biggest of the three made a strangled sort of noise, then cleared its throat and tried again.

"What is the meaning of this?" it asked. Everyone, Hermione most of all, was stunned. It sounded as if it were speaking from the opposite end of a long tunnel, it's voice oddly hollow and metallic.

Harry recovered first. He cleared his throat and stepped forward. "You've been abducting one of my best friends, and we'd like to know why," he said, addressing the one who had spoken.

"We take many humans each night. Who is the subject in question?" the biggest one asked.

"That'd be me," Ron said, raising his hand. "I'm Ron."

The trio of aliens looked at eachother and conversed quickly in their strange clicking language. After a few moments and low hums from the other two, the tallest one, which Harry pegged as the leader, spoke again. "We have been taking you, trying to figure out why you were different from the rest of our test subjects. What is the difference between a Ron and a human?"

Fred sniggered and George said, "Oh boy, will that ever take a lot of explaining!"

Ron made a rude gesture at his brothers and said, "I am a human. Ron is just my name."

The aliens clicked amongst themselves again while the others waited, shifting nervously.

"We understand the concept of names," the leader said. "Our race used them in the aeons before the Enlightenment."

"Right, well, I'm Harry, then," the boy said. "The girl over there is Hermione. Those two are Fred and George," he said, gesturing at the twins, who smiled and waved. "And obviously, you already know Ron."

"We are the Explorers," the leader said. The other two briefly bowed their heads and hummed. "That is the only word in your language close to the definitions of our own tongue. We discovered your race several centuries ago. We thought that we were the only ones, alone in the Void," The leader said. His companions clicked sadly. "Our predecessors approached a great human leader, but we were shunned, unwelcome on your planet. We were forced to begin our studies in secret, abducting humans and transporting them to our space stations on the outer reaches of your solar system. We hoped that we might find a some genetic link, that perhaps we came from the same origins, but until recently, no human atomic pattern remotely matched ours. Not until we found Ron."

Hermione snorted from her corner. "Didn't I tell you?"

"Oi! Ron's part alien! We should have known," Fred cried with glee as George giggled.

"Of course he's not!" Hermione said icily, moving out of the shadow. "He's different from Muggles because he's a wizard."

"What are Muggles and Wizards?" the leader asked with excited curiosity.

"Muggles are non-magic people, and wizards are, well, magic people," Harry told them.

The aliens clicked to eachother again, confused. "Please elaborate." the leader asked, looking at Harry.

"Er... let's see," Harry murmured. "Ah, I know. Wingardium Leviosa," he muttered pointing his wand at Ron.

"Hey!" Ron cried indignantly. "Unfair!"

"That's magic," Harry told the aliens. "Only witches and wizards can do it; Muggles can't. We're all human, just a bit different. Hermione here said that the difference was probably on a genetic level,and that was why you're so interested in Ron."

"That's all well and good, Harry, but can I come down now?" Ron asked from his position near the ceiling.

"Oh, sorry," Harry muttered the counter charm and Ron floated back down, straightening his pajamas.

"You mentioned Witches. What are Witches?" the leader asked.

"Hermione is a witch. Witches are girls, females, who can do magic, and wizards are guys, males, who can."

The leader clicked to his companions, and the shortest of the three hummed. The leader nodded and the smallest alien looked to Harry and said, "I am what humans would call a 'doctor'. I am responsible for all the collecting, organizing and interpreting data from test subjects in this zone."

Again, the group of humans were taken aback. This being had a distinctly feminine voice. "Am I to understand that Witches, Wizards and Muggles are not separate races, yet genetically different?" it/she asked.

"We don't really know if there's a genetic difference or not," Hermione said, moving to stand by Harry. She seemed to be comforted by the hitherto unknown feminine presence. "I just assumed that was the reason. Logic dictates that Muggles and magic peoples must be different somehow, on some level, for us, witches and wizards I mean, to do things Muggles can't."

The doctor blinked its eyes and cocked its head at Hermione, studying her thoughtfully. "That would be a correct assumption. From the tests and scans I have run on this... Ron..., it seems as if Witches and Wizards share a link with our race, albeit a very loose, distant connection. Whereas we have harnessed the elements into technological control, it seems as if magic-bearing humans have done the same thing, only through physical and spiritual manipulation."

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. She closed her mouth and frowned, looking confused.

"Take levitation, for example," the doctor said, seeing Hermione's expression. "The device that the red-haired human holds in his hand defies gravity. It creates a force field around the wearer, suspending them in mid-air. Technological control. However, Harry, who I assume is a Wizard," the doctor glanced at Harry, who nodded in confirmation, "also defied gravity, but without the use of a machine. Physical and/or spiritual manipulation."

Harry cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "I think we can untie them now," He said, glancing around at his friends.

"Yeah, go ahead. We can take them on a tour of the house, show them how witches and wizards live," Ron said, looking excited.

"You're not frightened of us?" the doctor asked in surprise.

"Frightened?" Fred snorted.

"Seriously. We make scarier things than you every day, lady!" George added impudently.

Harry laughed and glanced at Hermione. "Mione? Are you O.K. with this?"

She looked at Harry, chewing on her lower lip, then back at the doctor. Harry could tell his friend was just itching to have an in-depth conversation with an intellectual from another planet. "Sure. Go ahead."

Harry pointed his wand towards the extra terrestrial trio and said the counter charm to undo the bindings. The three stood up, straightening their clothing and looking around.

The being of medium height breathed what sounded like a sigh of relief and said, "Crap! For a while there, I thought you were going to kill us!"

"No, mate!" Ron said, shocked. "We're not Death Eaters!"

"Oh! What are Death Eaters? You didn't mention those," the doctor said excitedly.

"Long story," Harry said, grinning. "But we'll explain everything to you." He stowed his wand in the back pocket of his jeans. "Just as long as you promise not to abduct any more humans," he added, quirking an eyebrow at the leader.

"I can't speak for the teams in other sections," the leader said to Harry, "but I can promise you that we ourselves will not."

"Yeah," the third being interjected. "We wouldn't be abducting humans at all if you guys hadn't freaked out in the first place."

"Well, that was then, this is now," Harry said. "Truce? You don't abduct any more of our people, and we don't ambush any more of yours?" he asked, holding out a hand towards the leader.

The leader held his hand out, and Harry moved forward to shake it. "Truce," he repeated.

So with that, the Golden Trio and the Kings of Terror took the Explorers on a tour of the Burrow, showing them various wizarding devices and spells. Fred and George got the brilliant idea to take them to their joke shoppe, as a way of explaining Floo powder.

The third alien nearly went into seizures of happiness upon entering Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. "I'm a market researcher. That's why I was taking stuff from your house," he told Ron with an apologetic look. "To see if there was any human technology we wanted to duplicate for use on our home planet. This place is a veritable gold mine of new and catchy products!"

* * * * *

The next morning, the aliens were introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and the situation explained. Molly, being her natural, mothering self, hovered over them, asking if they were hungry or thirsty or cold.

"I don't know about these space station places," she said, dishing out scrambled eggs and bacon to her guests, "but I imagine the food isn't very good. You're all so thin!"

"Tell me, have you figured out how this 'telmavision' Muggles use works," Aurthur asked the market researcher, who was sitting next to Ron.

"Told ya he was obsessed with Muggles," Ron whispered, grinning at his new friend.

Hermione came down the stairs with a thick book in her hands. She sat down at the table, face flushed from running. "I found it, Mrs. Weasley!"

"Oh, good, dear. Have some breakfast," Molly said, putting a plate of buttered toast in front of Hermione.

"Foun' wha'?" Ron asked, his mouth full of sausage.

"A Book of Names. It get's rather confusing, not having anything to call you," Hermione said, turning to the doctor, with whom she had immediately hit it off.

The aliens spent the rest of the morning flipping through the book Hermione had found. The leader settled on Alarik, the doctor chose Reseda and the market researcher went for Kansbar.

Later that morning, Arthur and Molly Flooed to Grimmauld Place for an Order meeting, promising to bring the visitors to the attention of Dumbledore.

"Who knows, " Harry said to Alarik, "maybe you can help me figure out a way to defeat Voldemort with resorting to murder."

Harry, Ron and Hermione spent the next several hours recounting the events of Voldemort's rise to power, the death of Harry's parents, the Dark Lord's resurrection two years earlier, and the prophecy.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came back, bringing Dumbledore, Snape and Lupin with them. After extended questioning on both sides, Dumbledore arranged a meeting between the Wizengamot and representatives from the Explorers, to make a treaty that no more Muggles would be abducted and in return, the aliens would have the full cooperation of the Ministry of Magic. Together they would learn eachother's worlds, and continue to study, now with the help of magic, the biological connection between wizards and the alien race.

* * * * *

(One year later)

Harry pressed his nose up against the glass, watching the small asteroid falling away. He could barely make out the metallic hatch set in the surface that led to a small room hewn from the stone of the asteroid itself. "You're sure it will hold?" he asked Alarik, who was standing beside him.

"Positive," the alien said. "Even if it does not, and he breaks through to the surface, where will he go?"

Harry laughed coldly. "That's true. Not even he can Apparate that far."

"Come," Alarik said, laying a hand on Harry's arm. "It's time for the jump. We've got to go to the anti-compression chamber."

Harry nodded and tore himself away from the window. He followed his friend down the narrow corridor of the small transport ship. Alarik pressed a long, thin finger into a blue panel by the door at the end of the hall, and the door open with a quite whooshing sound.

The-Boy-Who-Lived took a seat next to Professor Dumbledore. The anti-compression chamber made Harry slightly nauseous. The alien, gel-like seats that conformed to his body and held him in place during a hyper jump made him uncomfortable; he felt as if the chairs were alive and breathing. Dumbledore, on the other hand, looked positively delighted.

"Wonderful!" he said, shifting his weight and smiling as the chair moved with him. "I must have one of these put in my office!"

Harry made an indistinct noise in the back of his throat and tried to stay as still as possible.

Soon, the small crew of wizards and Explorers were settled in and Alarik gave the go-ahead to the two pilots stationed in the center of the circular room.

Harry closed his eyes and swallowed. He knew that if it were not for the chair cushioning him and holding him in place, his body would be splattered against the metal ceiling. A rushing noise filled his ears, and immense pressure bore down upon him. He knew he was safe in the alien craft, but still kept his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

Several minutes later, the rushing and pressure stopped, and Harry peeked out through squinted eyes. This was the part he hated the most. He was almost home, on the outskirts of Earth's solar system, but the journey had shoved him so far back into his seat that only the tips of his fingers and the very end of his nose were left outside the green goo.

He waited patiently for Alarik to release him from his seat with a soft thock from the green substance when he managed to pull himself the rest of the way out.

"How far away did you say that was, again?" Harry asked him, making sure no lingering bits of his chair were attached to his robes.

Alarik chuckled softly, a habit he had picked up from living among humans for a year and said, "I believe Reseda and Hermione calculated that at the rate of current human space travel, it would take... what was it? Four thousand, eight hundred and fourty-seven years to go from Earth to that particular asteroid."

Harry grinned at Alarik, shaking his head. "Leave it to those two to come up with a figure like that."

"There's also the added, ah, security, of the collision," the alien added, glancing sideways at Harry.

"Uh, what collision?" Harry asked warily.

Alarik gave the closest thing to a smirk his flat mouth could muster and said, "According to some calculations I made myself, in private of course, the asteroid will be crashing into a small planet know for its rather violent volcanic activity."

"What?" Harry whispered, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. "You didn't!"

"I did. Even if he survives his isolation, he'll go... what is the phrase? He'll go out with a bang."

"Yep. That's the phrase, all right! I knew Dumbledore did the right thing, letting you chose Voldemort's prison." Harry said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "How long does he have?"

"Precisely?" Alarik asked. Harry nodded. "Two years, three months and fourteen days."

"C'mon Harry!" Ron shouted from the doorway. "We're nearly back."

"I'll be there in a minute," Harry told him, waving at his friend to go ahead without him.

"Thanks, Alarik," Harry said, shaking the alien's hand. "I really owe you one. You've been so much help. Voldemort's gone for good, and I didn't have to become a murderer. You don't know how much that means to me."

Alarik shrugged and led Harry to the shuttle that would take the group back down to Earth while the pilots returned to dock at the space stations orbiting Pluto. "Don't worry about it, my friend," he said opening the shuttle's hatch. "Consider it eighteen years worth of birthday presents."