Terrorize the Village. Dooku
The High Council of the Jedi were in another endless meeting. Yan Dooku felt more with every passing day that the council would not change. Why should he spend his life on a council if nothing ever changed? Why couldn’t his fellow Jedi see the dangers of being under the control of the Republic?
He’d thought of resigning from the High Council and returning to active duty, perhaps in the Outer Rim.
A thought struck him for the first time: maybe I should leave the Jedi completely.
Before that thought could sink in, a piercingly bright light formed in the center of the Council’s chamber. It grew from a pinprick to a swirling ball of light, like a mini star. The Masters on the High Council all moved to their feet. A few took up defensive stances. But not all. Yoda stood with his head cocked to the side, ears pointed up.
Shielding his eyes from the light, Dooku focused on the waves of Force energy swirling around. He’d never felt the Force be so active or intense.
The Force calmed as the light faded. Dooku looked up and saw the fading light held a small being. A youngling. He’d never been good at gauging the age of children, but he’d have to guess somewhere around five years of age for a humanoid.
The light floated directly for Dooku. Without thought, he put his arms out. And then the youngling was in his arms, pressed against his chest. He looked down into twinkling eyes that were focused directly on him. Those eyes didn’t seem like a child’s.
“Greetings, youngling.” What else was he supposed to say?
After staring for several seconds, unblinking, the youngling put her head on his shoulder, yawned, and fell asleep.
Dooku returned to his seat and gently sat without disturbing the child.
Yoda cackled.
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Dooku didn’t like children. They were loud, lacked emotional control, and were illogical. He had trained several padawans, but wished he could have waited to take them on until after the worst of puberty ravaged their immature psyches, or until their brains were more developed. The only good thing about training young teenagers was they hadn’t yet acquired too many poor habits regarding saber forms.
But the Force didn’t care.
This child of the light was sleeping on his shoulder and was not to be disturbed. Anytime he tried to set the youngling down or hand off the child to someone who knew how to deal with children, some sort of Force shield would form around them.
Dooku sighed.
Yoda cackled some more.
“Keep the youngling’s origin a secret, we must. Draw undue attention to the situation, we must not.”
All of the High Council members agreed.
Master Che hovered, trying to take blood samples to learn more of the youngling, but it was not to be.
Master Koon finally shooed her away. Sifo-Dyas and Mace watched from a distance – both looking as if a migraine from hell were descending.
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Hari Potter meditated so deeply that she ended up back in the In-Between. It was a very clean King’s Cross station. The station was empty. She explored and eventually sat on a bench. It was peaceful. And then everything changed.
Hari didn’t know how it had happened, but she became a child in an unfamiliar place. A very unfamiliar place. The cars flew. The magical beings didn’t use wands. There were so many beings that didn’t look like anything she’d met – definitely not human, goblin, centaur, house elf, mermaid, or vampire.
And they had weird swords that glowed. And apparently cut through anything and everything.
Hari didn’t want to be a child again. Being a child absolutely sucked. Every time an adult had control over her life, bad things happened. Just as she had reached adulthood and all of the freedom and control it entailed, she was shunted away to a different place to relive a childhood with strangers.
No. It simply would not do.
Hari made a decision: she would wreak as much havoc as possible. She would make every adult’s hair turn gray or fall out.
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The adults kept trying to put her in what they called “The Creche”. It was awful. It was filled with babies and young children. Babies were loud and young children had always been awful to her. Nope. It would not do.
Hari took every available chance to escape and wander the Jedi Temple.
Magic flowed so freely here. She found it easy to apparate, make herself invisible, or summon items without a wand. Every breath of air seemed to hold more magic than she’d experienced in her life. It was wonderful.
It did not, however, make up for being a child again.
But there were perks.
Jedi Master Yan Dooku was one of Hari’s favorite people to pester. After sneaking away from the creche at night, she would apparate into Yan’s apartment and sleep on his couch or in his spare room.
The first time she snuck in, he noticed her presence, commed her crechemaster, and tried to get her to go back to the creche with those awful, wailing babies. No thank you. She formed a shield around herself so he couldn’t pick her up and went to sleep.
After several fruitless attempts on different nights, Dooku gave in. Hari didn’t feel too badly, especially after she found a plushie by the pillow of ‘her’ bed after one month.
Jedi Master Mace Windu was another project of hers. Hari’s goal was to sneak up on Mace and scare the crap out of him. It was difficult, but very rewarding. She had to stalk him for several days to find out where he lived, slept, ate, and worked.
She thought it would be easy, but Jedi were sneaky. Sneakier than Marauders. Her first attempt was an embarrassment. Hari waited silently outside of his apartment and jumped out at him as soon as the door opened. Mace caught her with no surprise, lifted an unimpressed eyebrow, and continued walking without missing a stride. Later, she realized her mistake. She had masked her sound, but not her thoughts. It wasn’t fair that sneaky Jedi could hear her giggling in her mind, like the equivalent of a toddler laughing loudly while playing hide and seek. How embarrassing.
But she didn’t give up. Hari thought being in a crowded area would hide her mental presence, so she tried to surprise Mace in the cafeteria. Making herself invisible and soundless, she crept up on him. She even held some basic Occlumency shields while she pounced. He shifted slightly to the side, grabbed her as if it were planned, and plopped her on his lap. She dropped her invisibility and sighed. He raised an eyebrow and fed her some horrid protein smoothie that the crechemaster insisted was healthy. Urgh.
Failure is the first step toward success. After a while, Hari decided to try out some of her Master of Death abilities to see if that would finally trick a sneaky Jedi. Instead of a Disillusionment charm, Hari used the Invisibility Cloak, which would appear whenever she needed it. She wrapped it tightly around herself and then floated in the air above where Mace was practicing some katas. She waited until Mace looked completely peaceful and then dropped herself on his back. He jumped about six feet in the air and let out a screech. It was a very small, very tiny screech. But it was there.
Mace realized what was happening; before his feet hit the ground, he had recovered his aplomb, maneuvered her from his back to his chest, cradled the back of her head, and made sure they landed softly.
He took a few long, deep breaths, and then sighed. Hari wrapped her arms around his neck and smooched his cheek before cuddling into his neck. He sighed again.
“Well done, little one,” he murmured. Mace had a glint in his eyes. He walked through the temple, carrying her. After a few minutes, she recognized the route to some of the Masters’ apartments.
He rang the doorbell of a very familiar apartment.
Dooku opened the door.
Mace held Hari out to him, and she clutched onto Dooku’s neck before he fully realized his arms were once again filled with a young child.
“Your padawan is terrorizing the village,” said Mace.
“She is a youngling. She is not my --” Dooku’s protest was cut off.
Mace smirked, flicked his hand, and the door slid shut with rather more force than usual.
Dooku sighed.