Chapter 3
February 1997
It's been seven months since I've been at the Academy. I officially became a doctor today. It only took me a month longer than I originally planned, but that's okay. Now I can fully concentrate only on the two fields that I have chosen and occasionally go to the internships that I will need as a doctor. Today I became Dr. Harry J. Potter and I couldn't be happier because I did. I have fulfilled one of my dreams.
Don't let the name fool you. In the end I had to admit my true identity because sooner or later it would be found out. Although the commanding officers and professors understood why I applied under a pseudonym, they would not tolerate for long the fact that Henry Evans was just a fictitious name under which I published my articles, and thanks to this pseudonym, the federation could verify that it was really me and not someone I pretend to be. Although I received a punishment for logging in under a false identity, but because I confessed myself and in general quickly, my punishment was only mild. Not that I mind helping in the kitchen for a month.
Even Pavel was happy for me. That is, as far as my success is concerned.
I have to admit that he grew on me. He will be sixteen in two months. He keeps making fun of the fact that he's finally going to be my age, and I quite like his optimism. I have never seen such an energetic person as him. That is, after he became an energetic person, when he found out that there are people around him who like him the way he is and that he really doesn't have to control any aspect of his personality that describes him.
I understand that he has given up hope for his parents, he doesn't even bother to check his mail for anything from them anymore and just concentrates on his studies. I believe that if I didn't pull him out. He would sit with his head in books forever. I could do that too, but I know better than that it's not healthy. Sometimes he doesn't like it, but it's hard for him to get used to the fact that there are people who would like to see him. At least once a week or on the weekend.
I realize that I do not miss the Earth. I get some messages from wizarding people at the Academy about the situation here and there, but I don't care as much as I should. It doesn't scare me. I just chose my own path and I'm going that way. I don't miss the world that tried to make me a weapon and a martyr. Sometimes I hear that wizarding Britain still hasn't given up on my search, but no one has brought up the information that I'm here. All the magical people here know my name and my story and after I shared some of the events of my life they became...overprotective. Even the morous Slide showed himself to be a compassionate person and stated that no one deserved this. Especially not a child. It was really nice that no one tried to turn me in to the authorities. And I'm actually glad for that.
My aunt and uncle keep replying to my "reports". They moved to America, where Uncle Vernon received a second and final job offer, which he accepted without hesitation. They live in New York. And they are doing well. Dudley has "recovered" and stopped bullying the younger kids, signed up for a boxing club and is a top student, having already won three first place medals.
Aunt Petunia started designing apartments and houses. Or rather, they are learning. She said it was something she always wanted to do, but her hatred of my mother blinded her, and she gave up on her dream because she couldn't get over her. There's more to that statement I'm sure, but I wasn't going to like her what the real reason was for not doing what she wanted. Maybe, but really just maybe, I would learn the true story of her life by the time they left me on their doorstep.
Which was also irresponsible by the way.
I actually understood her. I'm not saying I condone it, but I understood it. Maybe one day he will be able to overcome his jealousy and hatred and maybe one day he will tell me about my mother. I don't expect it to be right away, but I am very interested in the story of my mother. I would like to know what she was like. Even though she was just a monster in my aunt's eyes, I'm pretty sure it wasn't always that way.
I haven't heard of Hermione. Well...I've only heard of her once and that was before my aunt and uncle moved to America. Then she probably lost contact with them, I don't know what happened. But since Hermione isn't family, she couldn't get a communicator through which I could communicate with her. Maybe one day I'll find it and give it to her myself, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high just yet. Maybe he doesn't even want to see me, who knows, I'm not entirely sure. After all, she brings mail here from Earth once a month, and my aunt could easily give her an address to send a letter to. But I didn't get any from Hermione. So maybe he doesn't even want to communicate.
For now, I just want to focus on life and studying here at the Academy. I really enjoy it and it's something I wouldn't want to give up at any cost. I can't even imagine that I should leave behind my dream and... Pavel.
He really grew on me...just...more than I would have liked myself to. I don't know if it's bad or good, I don't even know if I should think about it or not... maybe I'll let it go and see where it goes, I definitely don't want to scare him by saying that I should tell Pavel that I'm seeing him other than as a friend. Actually, I'm not sure about that myself. Apart from Cho, I've never been in a romantic situation, although Cho was more ... I don't even know how to describe it.
It's frustrating the more I think about it.
Seven months. It had taken Harry so long to get his MD and he really couldn't be happier. This gave him much more time for his simulations while preparing to be a helmsman and he could easily devote himself to his engineering practice, a PhD in engineering helped him a lot. It was similar in many ways and it took him two months to notice.
True, steering a ship was not at all like flying on a broomstick, but he was able to accept this challenge easily and together with Pavel, they became the best in their class so far. Both were promised service on the USS Enterprise, currently under construction, if they continued their good work. Admiral Marcus was pleased with their results in seven months.
But both had the opportunity to work on the Enterprise in ways other than as helmsmen. Not everyone dared to choose two majors that they wanted to do. In Harry's case, three, but medicine was something his professors agreed with because they too saw the damage that could happen if Harry didn't complete his education.
This made him the youngest doctor in the history of the Federation. Not that the title was of any use to him, but he was certainly happy about it. It wasn't something he wanted to achieve, but that didn't mean he wasn't proud of himself. It's something he did himself. It's something he remembers and people praise him because it was his diligence that got him to where he is now. And he was even more proud of it. He knew that his classmates helped him during his studies, but who in his class did not have any help.
In seven months he learned to appreciate himself and his achievements. Thanks to Pavlo, he also learned several of the Federation's most widely spoken languages. Having a memory like his was useful after all, because he learned a lot more of them than he originally wanted to and continued to do so because it was something he enjoyed. He didn't study it. He just saw it, heard it and remembered it.
According to him, it was completely useless to learn foreign languages, but when he looked at it from the other side, it had a certain advantage. He didn't have to rely on the translator provided to everyone aboard the USS. These electronics were often to fail in popularity.
Together with Pavel, they also took several self-defense courses. It was something that certainly wouldn't hurt if they were forced to defend themselves somehow. Years of playing Quidditch helped Harry, so it paid off after all, Pavel struggled a bit with it, but he was slowly getting into shape. It was just another thing they had in common, and it happened to be useful.
However, their classmates underestimated them from the beginning. They did not receive a good response that there is one fifteen-year-old and one sixteen-year-old in their class. They were the youngest students at the Academy, and people really underestimated them, which was quickly disproved. By the end of the calendar year, no one in their class had any doubts about the capacity of their minds and how much they could take in and how they could deal with it without ever asking anyone for help. Eventually, they were able to make friends both inside and outside of their class. They got used to the strange looks they got from the older students and had long since stopped noticing it. They had people around them who knew who they really were and what their abilities were, but that didn't mean they would share their life stories. It was too early for that.
Sure, Harry could say the same about Paul, but what Harry never admitted was that his magic told him he could trust him and not have to fear anything, least of all betrayal from the younger boy. That's why at the beginning he told him what happened to him in life and in return he got the same treatment.
Harry just didn't really know what had changed in his thinking about Paul. One moment he took him as his best friend and the next... he looked at him with completely different eyes.
In Harry's words, it was someone who knew almost everything about him in seven months, from the time he gets up for school, his eating habits, his bad habits, his favorite book, the time he writes to his aunts and uncles, to the time he goes sleep and how quickly he could fall asleep and why he had nightmares some nights and how to calm Harry down if he had one. Harry knew that Pavel knew everything about him.
Harry knew everything about Paul as well as he knew about him. He knew everything about him including what kind of music he liked to listen to and was surprised that it wasn't anything from Russia, that when he was angry or frustrated his language would switch between English and Russian and the angrier he got, the more Russian he spoke.
It was Pavel who made Harry learn Russian, because he wanted to understand him, but mainly to calm him from the rage that consumed him, although not that often. It was really hard to make the cheerful boy angry, and Harry knew very well what strings to play to make him angry. But angry Pavel was not someone anyone wanted to experience because he was scary. Absolutely terrifying. Even Harry was afraid of him at his first outburst. He did flinch a bit when a book that was in the wrong place at the wrong time flew across their room. So Harry wasn't really trying to annoy his roommate in any way. No not really. He likes his new life very much, thank you very much.
But it wasn't about that.
Or was it?
It was just at the beginning of March when Harry and Pavel were moved to a higher year. Neither of them expected it, but their professors were right that later they got bored in the lower class because they easily learned what was needed and started learning the next year's material that seemed easy. In the end it was easy.
Only no one noticed that they had been bored in their class for two months, not just a fortnight.
They didn't have to catch up as much in their second year. The preparation was easy, the material was understandable, and even when students and professors offered help, they didn't take it. Not that they didn't want to, but they just didn't have to.
And their life at the Academy continued. They continued to exceed all the expectations of all the professors and continued to prove that it is not a good idea to underestimate them. In some cases, however, they did not try to refute that they are better than those who underestimate them. Sometimes it was good if they maintained the image of weak students who should not be in the Academy because of their age. They made no bones about it. They didn't expect everyone to like them. They knew it was just envy because of what the two of them had accomplished, they just didn't tell anyone that they had accomplished it together. One wouldn't leave without the other. They would defend each other from anyone who would try to harm them either physically or mentally. They were there for each other when they were constricted by nightmares or bad dreams.
They were there for each other and never doubted that life would be much more difficult without the other.
And maybe that was exactly the moment when Harry began to see Pavel with different eyes. The moment he understood that they are there for each other in every possible and impossible situation under any circumstances.
Whether it was the moment or not Harry was sure that one day they would confide. He couldn't hold his feelings in for long, and he knew it. Sooner or later, Pavel will find out, and it will either turn out well, or there will be a huge disaster.