A Hint of What Was
In a Distant Past, on Earth…
Ron and Hermoine were just sitting down to dinner in the Burrows when they heard a voice call out from the living room. With a frown shared between them, the rose and marched into the room. Hopefully George hadn’t created another international debacle, Hermoine thought in amusement. I don’t think our treaty with the USA can handle it. Even if I agree they need to loosen up.
Once they were in the room they could see Kingsley face in the glowing green flames. His distraught countenance did not bode well. Ron’s frown deepen as he took Hermoine’s hand. Hopefully no one was in trouble. Ron glanced at the family clock. All hands were in safe areas. Even if he didn’t understand why George’s and Harry’s hands were stuck on traveling. Now that he thought about it… They had been on traveling for a few days. Absently he wondered what was the last time he had actually spoken with his best friend. Hadn’t Harry mentioned something about a medical procedure?
“Blimey mate.” Ron said, “Did something go wonky with Harry’s procedure?”
Kingsley shook his head and asked, “Are Arthur and Molly here?”
“No.” Hermione answered with concern. “They headed over to Shell Cottage to baby-sit Victoria.”
Kingsley nodded then responded. “I need you both to come to the ministry. Use the atrium floo. I’ll contact Arthur and Molly next.”
Kingsley then disappeared from the fireplace. Its green fire vanishing immediately with his departure. Ron and Hermoine shared a worry looked and quickly grabbed their cloaks. With once last glance at family clock, Ron tossed in the floo powder, called out Ministry Atrium then vanished into the green flames. Hermoine was quick to follow.
Once Ron stepped out of the floo he sidestepped away from the grate to clear it for Hermoine’s entrance. She arrived and quickly joined him off to the side. With a muttered spell, Hermoine quickly cleaned their robes free of ash. They both took in the wild scrambling of the ministry staff and the constant bursting flames of flames from the grate. It looked like a mad house. Panic began to creep up on the two. They quickly rushed into the lifts. Ron belatedly realized they had jumped in the a shaken Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.
He tried to ignore the feeling of trepidation crawling up his stomach. If the Malfoys were here had something really bad gone on? Ron barely offered them a glance as they all hoped off the lift near the minister’s office. With grim countenance the four of them entered Kingsley’s office. Kingsley nodded demurely towards them then waved his hand towards the open seating. It was then Hermoine was able to clear her mind enough from the onsetting panic to realize the near entirety of the Weasley family (missing George and Harry), Madam Zabini, Lady and Lord Krum, and Adromeda Tonks were already seated.
Her stomach dropped as her legs gave out. Ron was quick to catch her and helped her sit. He could see out of the corner of his eye, Malfoy Sr. doing similar actions with his wife. Ron forced back bile trying to crawl up his throat. He knew Harry and they had grown apart but Harry was still his best friend. He couldn’t loose him, let alone another brother. It’d destroy their family. Kingsley tried, and failed, to smile reassuringly at everyone. Ron winced at his attempt.
“I know you all must be thanking to worse at this moment.” Kingsley began, “But it is not as grim as we first believed. We have discovered that Harry and his compatriots have been kidnapped from the medical facility where Teddy was undergoing the cure for lycanthropy.”
The room erupted in noise. From screaming accusations to sobbing. Molly was even wailing in denial while Arthur tried futilely to calm her. Kingsley held up his hand to silence them all. When that didn’t work, he pulled out his wand. With a shouted Silencio, the room was quiet once more.
Kingsley glared at the assembled group. “Once you all calm down I will remove the spell.” He stated, “Now as I was about to say. Though we are unsure of their current location, we were able to get quite a bit of information from the doctors and healers that were in attendance at the kidnapping. Momentarily Auror McLaggen will be in to give his report.”
As if summoned a knock sounded at the door. A still silenced Lucius rose and opened the door. Kingsley motioned the uncertain looking Cormac McLaggen into the room. He quickly entered and circled around the large group to take his place just behind the ministers left shoulder. Cormac shuffled the papers in his arm and glanced at Kingsley. Kingsley nodded to him.
“At approximately 11:52AM yesterday morning Harry Potter, George Weasley, Viktor Krum, Draconis Malfoy, and Edward Remus Lupin were taken by a witch identified as Juliet Romero.” Cormac began, “Approximately fifty-two minutes priorthe lycanthropy cure had been administrated to Edward Remus Lupin, and as per designed Lupin, Potter, and the others were placed into muggle cryogenic sleep.”
Ron’e eyes went the size of saucer pans. He couldn’t believe it. Harry had really trapped himself in sleep for ten years?! He thought in shock. How could he just do that and not let us know? With a flick of his eyes about the room, Ron came to the startling conclusion that only he and Hermoine were the only ones not in the know. Ron glared at Cormac and Kingsley.
Cormac gulped at the dark glare directed at him and continued a bit more briskly. “It was reported shortly after the party in question was placed into the cryogenic chambers, Romero attacked the facility. She stunned or petrified nineteen of the twenty-three staff members. One muggle doctor on staff was able to hide in the room where the cryogenic tubes are store. He observed the attack and supplement kidnapping.”
Cormac paused for breath. Kingsley summoned a glass and with a quick Agumenti, it was filled with water. He then handed it to Cormac. Cormac smiled appreciatively as he took the glass. He then downed the water and handed the glass back. Cormac once more shuffled his papers.
“He informed the attending Aurors that Romero was equipped with a large bed truck that was designed for transporting cryogenic tubes. She removed all the occupied tubes as well as an unoccupied tube.” Cormac continued. “Unfortunately we lost tract of her after that. We attempted to track her via muggle vehicle registration but we believe she mostly likely glamoured the vehicle prior to the kidnapping.”
Kingsley nodded to Cormac in dismissal. The young Auror quickly vacated the office seemingly overly eager to escape. Kingsley then canceled his Silencio. He raised his hand before anyone could begin to speak.
“What Cormac was not informed, or anyone else for that mater, was Romero was seen turning the dail of the pod.” Kingsley announced. “The witness believed she turned it somewhere around two thousand years. We have speculated she may intend to place her self in sleep as well. Though we are uncertain of her reasons, we have found viable information that suggest she is quite obsessed with Harry and may intend to use his associates to blackmail him into a relationship.”
“But what about the rest of us?” Hermione questioned, “He couldn’t let this woman just use a few members of his family to control him. He’d get us to help obviously.”
“Normally that might be so,” Kingsley responded. “If it wasn’t for the fact once a tube is set it cannot be undone or opened sooner. It would kill the occupants.”
Everyone gasped in shook. “Are you telling me our poor boys will be all alone when they wake two thousand years from now?!” Molly shrieked then burst into tears.
Arthur wrapped his arms around his hysterical wife. “They won’t be alone.” Arthur said firmly. “They’ll have each other. And if that woman thinks she can control any of our boys… She had another thing coming.”
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Kinda wanted to just leave it there…
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In a distant location, still on Earth…
Juliet grinned as she carefully unloaded her beloved and his family. After all she couldn’t damage them or her sweet Harry would be vexed with her. She moved each into an even line and grinned. She strutted up and down the line after the last was placed. All occupied tubes were frosted over making it impossible to see who was in them but she knew that last occupied tube in line held her darling. After all it was the first she has loaded and the last she had placed.
Next Juliet unloaded mutliple crates with her wand. The crates were all full of various things. Some had food and water under preservation charms while others had clothing and such. Three crates were even filled with gems and gold bars. They would need money later after they awoke. She was quick to double check the preservation charms and then began to cast anti-theft charms. She didn’t want anything to go missing while they slept. She also placed the strongest proximity wards and spells she knew. She didn’t want anyone finding them and stealing her beloved. After she finished arranging all their supplies she walk back over to the tubes.
Juliet smiled at the ten tubes. It had been so simple to move her darling and his family. She hadn’t even needed to use lethal force surprisingly. Then again most of the staff in the medical facility had been pathetic muggles with a few spattering of over-confident magicals. They were worth nothing compared to her beloved. She had been a bit surprised by the amount of tubes in his group though. She had only heard of four people that were planning on being frozen with Harry and his godson.
Not that it mattered, a spare bargaining chip or two was fine with her. Juliet smiled at her own tube, it had taken a bit of bribing to get the doctor to modify hers to not link time based with the others. Not that he would remember, after she had Obliviated the man. Juliet turned the dial to one thousand nine hundred years. A few years before Harry woke would give her plenty of time to set them up in a good life. After she was done she’d just slip back in and sleep until they woke.
Juliet grinned one last time before she transfigured her clothing into the same scrubs as the others. She laid in her tube and closed the door. Quickly the tranquilizers took effect. She was asleep in moments…
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1,990 Years Later, on Earth…
Juliet woke groggily. She stared at the glass front of her tube for a long moment. Finally she pushed open her tube and stepped out. The ground at her feet was covered in a thick layer of dust. Juliet frown and pulled out her wand. With a quick flick, the dust was gone but Juliet felt a wave of exhaustion hit her. She had to grab her tube to keep from falling to the ground. She felt beyond exhausted and her magic was not filling up like it should. With a slight shock, she realized she couldn’t feel any ambient magic.
What could possibly cause the ambient magic to be blocked. She wondered. I will need to look about before I even think of what to do to set us up.
Juliet then slowly made her way over to the crates with clothing. She was pleased to note nothing looked disturbed and appeared to still have the stasis charm in place. She manually opened the crate and pulled free some muggle clothing. After changing, she resealed the crate a checked to make sure the spells still stood. They were all still functioning but she could feel then drain on her core. She debated linking them to her beloved and his family but decided against it. Better to have her drained to a squib then risk even slight damage to her darling.
Juliet slowly made her way to the only exit in the building. She hit the button to open the garage door. As it slowly opened it revealed an amazing sight. Build up around her small storage building were massive constructs towering over her. They appeared to easily be a hundred times the size of the largest sky scrappers she had seen in the muggle world. Juliet couldn’t help but feel a bit humbled but the amazing sight. She finally shook herself free of her awe then stepped over the ward line and into the new world around her.
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10 Years Later, on Earth…
Juliet smiled as she backed her hoover truck into the storage building. She hopped out of the truck and began to load all the crates into the truck. It had been a very productive decade for her. She had had to use her magic liberally at first to adapt into the changed world but it had been well worth it, even if she could rarely visit her sleeping beloved. Now armed with a doctorate in computer science, she was on the short list to be sent to one of the newly developed galactic colonies. She had already received her docking papers and the permission to bring her personal possessions, though the government was unaware of just what she was bringing.
Juliet finished loading up the crates then began to load up the tubes. With a down right wicked smirk she caressed Harry’s tube then closed the truck up. After a short drive she arrived at the space shuttle launch pad. There she cast a mild temporary notice-me-not charm on her tubes. The staff loaded all the crates while she carefully loaded the tubes without their notice. She was quick to stash her tubes among the passengers that would remain in stasis through out the journey. After everything was loaded, Juliet boarded the shuttle. It was half an hour later they launched skywards. A short stop at the orbiting space shuttle had Juliet and her possessions transferring onto their temporary space ship home.
Juliet smiled with glee as she was lead back to her own tube. Juliet was quick to sleep once more… unaware that almost have her tubes were transferred onto a secondary ship, or a sever case of turbulence due to a faulty engine (which was quickly repaired at the station) cause a crew member to turn the dial on one of Harry’s companions tube adding a large amount of time to their dwindling timer.
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Some Years Later, In orbit or Pern
Juliet woke with a start to an infuriated face directly outside of her tube. She was quickly hauled out of it by a few fellow crew members. Peter “Red” Hanrahan* was glaring at her with such anger Juliet actually felt afraid of the muggle.
“Please tell me why our cameras detected you loading unauthorized personnel onto the ship in archaic cryogenic stations.” He snarled. “What were you thinking? Let me guess you weren’t.”
“I.. I can ex… explain.” Juliet stuttered.
“I’m glad.” Red snipped. “Because you’ll be explaining to the commanders and lead of our colony, as soon as their ship arrives with the other tubes you sneaked on board.” Red motioned for then to take Juliet away. “You’re brig bound until they’re here.”
Juliet waited until she was escorted near the storage hold before spells began to fly. It didn’t take her long to knock out the three men with her. Unlike Red, they didn’t scare her. She bolted down the hallway and into the docking bay. She climbed into a small shuttle and prepped it for launch. Once that was done she hit it with a notice-me-not spell. Feeling utterly exhausted but knowing she was very limited on time, Juliet sneaked into the passenger hold and shrunk the six tubes she knew held some of her beloved’s family. She could only hope Harry was among them.
It was no wonder her duplicity was discovered. Now that she thought about it, the older tubes did look so different from the ones used currently. A quick glamour would have prevented her plan from going arse over teakettle. With a growl of frustration, Juliet sneaked back into the storage hold and shrunk as many of her trunks she could before utter exhaustion hit her. She was barely able to return to the waiting ship. Unloading the items, un-shrinking them, launching the ship, and setting its course took all her remaining energy.
Juliet lost consciousness. Unfortunately for her, she had drained her core beyond its capacity. Juliet Romero would never wake again.
TBC...
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*This is an actual character from Dragonriders of Pern. He was aboard the Yokohama ship and an early colonist of Pern.