12: CONSEQUENCES
It was the afternoon of December 15th. Harry and Frank were cuddled in one of the comfortable chairs in the trunk's common room, watching as Dobby and Winky hung Christmas decorations. Frank and the rest of Deadly Harvest had just wrapped up touring for the year the previous evening, in Honolulu, and so had no interest in doing anything significant. The band had decided to press on with their tour, considering that those dates were on the other side of the world, and hopefully out of the reach of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. So far, that had remained true.
In a chair opposite, Travis and Caspian rested together, content to relax on what was a quiet Saturday afternoon. A crib had been set up directly beside the chair, in which slept Caspian's nephew, whom he had named Rilian(1). The intervening weeks had seen Travis and Caspian grow close, much to the chagrin of a certain lion.
"Checkmate," came Ron's triumphant voice from the corner of the room. He and Edmund had been engaged in an epic chess game that had lasted most of the morning.
"Aaaaaahhh!" Edmund exclaimed. "Just ONCE! Just once…"
"You should know by now mate, he's impossible." Harry grinned.
"Chess… never could get into that," said Frank. "I don't have the patience for it."
"It's all about strategy and so on," said Ron, as he reset the board with a gesture from his wand.
"Yeah, no doubt about that, Ron," said Harry. He thought for a moment. "Guys, I think I will probably bring the Invincible home right after the holidays."
"Are we ready for that?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"There will be a number of Narnians who will follow," said Edmund.
"I know that. And I will make the offer again. Anyone who wants to join us and leave Narnia will be welcome. Aslan is just a big pain in the ass, sticking his oversized nose where it doesn't belong." Just then, Mr. Tumnus appeared on the teleport pad, looking very concerned.
"Harry?"
"What's wrong?"
"Something peculiar is happening with the map," answered the faun.
Less than a minute later, Harry was in the Invincible's control room, observing the map with Mr. Tumnus and Deric. The
North-western edge appeared to be flickering in and out of focus.
"What is it, Harry?" asked Deric, noting the concerned expression.
"When… when Hogwarts was destroyed… the Marauders Map did the same thing. Deric… go back into the trunk, and get the others. Everyone else, we go to action stations!" Harry directed. As Deric apparated away, an SAU member un-clipped his radio.
"Code nine Invincible, repeat, code nine Invincible, report to action stations." Harry also un-clipped his radio.
"Engineering, control."
"ENGINEERING, GO AHEAD."
"I need as much steam as you can muster, Owen," said Harry. "We may have to make an emergency jump."
"COPY THAT. WHAT'S HAPPENING, SIR?"
"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling about something that's happening with the map," answered Harry. He glanced over at the navigation controls, quickly noting the Invincible still sat about 20 meters above the water. In the intervening weeks, the ship had not moved from her position just off the beach at Cair Paravel.
"Harry? What's going on?" asked Travis, as he and Caspian stepped into the control room.
"We're evacuating," answered Harry, making a snap decision.
"We'll need more wands than this, then," said Travis, and he disapparated away.
"Evacuating? What for?" asked Caspian.
"Look at the map," said Harry, indicating the odd behaviour.
"What would cause that?"
"Destruction of what it represents," answered Harry darkly.
"You mean… Narnia is being… destroyed?!" asked Caspian, alarmed.
"I mean exactly that, at least that's what I can guess. You have seen the map I have of Hogwarts?" Caspian nodded. "When the school was destroyed in my future, my map did the same thing. As though the magic it represented was no longer present."
"But, why?"
"I don't know, Caspian. Right now, we need to get back down on the beach and let everyone else know."
"Will you offer sanctuary to Aslan?" asked Mr. Tumnus.
"As much as I shouldn't, I will," answered Harry. "It's the right thing to do."
"Will we have the room, sir?" asked the SAU member.
"Enough, although it will be a little tight. We can deal with the numbers here."
As they returned to the beach, Harry could not help but notice that the sky was taking on a red appearance, even though it was mid-afternoon. He could feel the air around him seem to crackle slightly, much like the approach of a thunderstorm. Very similar, in fact, to how the Invincible charged her weapon. He hoped and prayed to Merlin his guesses were wrong, but the strange behaviour of the atmosphere seemed to give his theory credit. Worse off, just perhaps, their actions of a few weeks earlier might have contributed.
"Harry? What's going on?" asked Peter, stepping out of the tent.
"The stuff of nightmares," answered Harry, gesturing to the sky. Peter drew a gasp, seeing the ugly sky.
"What is it?"
"We're evacuating. I don't know exactly what this means, but it's nothing good, my instincts assure me of that."
"We… will… are you sure there will be… enough room?"
"It'll be fine, for the time being. I need your help gathering people and bringing them aboard."
"I understand."
"Where's Aslan?"
"Curious, I haven't seen him since last night, Harry."
"And your sisters?"
"Harry?" asked Susan, appearing beside her brother.
"Lucy's inside," said Peter. "How long do we have?"
"I don't know. Could be hours, could be days."
"Harry, WHAT is going on?"
"The end of the world, Su," answered Peter. Susan let out a gasp, covering her mouth in shock. She vanished into the tent.
Within a half hour, groups of people and beast folk were being teleported aboard the Invincible by way of the post on the beach. Harry had already removed the teleport pad from the bunker on the beach, moving it to the control room aboard the Invincible. It was something he had planned to do for some time, and only now was forced to deal with it.
At 3:37 PM exactly, the ground shook violently while several loud bangs echoed across the land. It made many of those gathered on the beach drop to the ground in fear. The shaking lasted for nearly 30 seconds.
In the control room, a large chunk of the map vanished from the table.
"Harry…" Mr. Tumnus gestured to the map.
"Bollocks!" He picked up the radio on the table. "Ground?"
"HARRY?" The radio crackled. "JESUS, THE GROUND JUST SHOOK."
"Hurry it up if you can, we're running out of time."
"YOU'RE TELLIN' ME," came Travis' voice. "YOU SHOULD SEE THE SKY, MAN."
"Sir." The technician gestured to one of the monitors giving a camera view from the flying bridge. The sky was by this point an angry red, with streaks of lightning crackling across it. Even the clouds had a red tinge to them(2).
"ONLY A FEW MORE GROUPS TO GO, HARRY," came Dale's voice.
"Wrap it up," said Harry. "Engineering?"
"ENGINEERING, GO AHEAD."
"How's our steam?"
"A FULL HEAD, SIR, WAITING ON YOUR ORDER."
"Stand by."
"COPY." Just then, Caspian, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy entered the control room. "You're all aboard, good."
"Only a few more to go," said Edmund.
"So Dale said; is everyone settling in?" asked Harry.
"As best they can. We've gathered the centaurs in the entry hall, since they're too tall to navigate the corridors," said Peter.
"Harry, will having this many people on your ship make it unsafe?" asked Susan.
"No. She's able to adjust her weight, no matter what kind of load. And Peter, get someone to port key the centaurs into the hangar. They'll be more comfortable there, I think."
"We have been placing people there as well," said Susan.
"That's great…"
"Harry…" Mr. Tumnus gestured to the map again, where another chunk had vanished.
"It truly is the end of Narnia, then?" asked Lucy sadly.
"I have no doubts about that now," answered Harry darkly. Just then, Travis and Deric appeared.
"That's it, that's the last of them," Deric announced.
"Good. Prepare to jump the ship."
"Do what?" asked Travis.
"Making ready to jump the ship, aye sir." The programmer at the communications terminal started entering instructions into it. He then spoke into the radio. "Con, rig the ship to jump!" Harry, meanwhile, took a seat at yet another console, labeled 'JUMP COMPUTER'. This one had not been touched up to this point. The others quickly gathered around. Harry took the key from around his neck and inserted it in a lock identical to that on the weaponry terminal. The screen instantly lit up with information.
"Now. I'm only interested in one item on this screen…" He scanned the various indicators on the screen, quickly spotting the item he needed. A simple button labeled 'reverse destination'. He touched the screen, and the information changed. "Destination has been entered into the computer."
"Con, all stations radio readiness for jump." The technician at communications spoke into his radio.
"CON, WEAPS, READY FOR JUMP."
"CON, HANGAR, READY FOR JUMP."
"CON, ORDINANCE, READY FOR JUMP."
"CON, ENGINEERING, READY FOR JUMP. POWER PLANT AT MAXIMUM OUTPUT, CONDITIONS FOR JUMP HAVE BEEN MET, OVER."
"Make us invisible," Harry directed.
"Aye sir," said yet another technician, who had taken position at the defense systems computer.
"Why?" asked Peter.
"Because when we arrive back in my world, we'll be over Little Hangleton, where Voldemort has his headquarters. It will be bad enough with the noise we will make when we appear."
"Right." Peter understood at once.
"You mean, similar to the loud noise we heard when you first arrived in Narnia," said Lucy.
"Yeah, exactly. Not too much we can do, considering the size of the ship. Something this big can't teleport without making that kind of noise."
"Ship has been cloaked, sir."
"Great." Harry pressed another button on the screen, labelled 'INITIATE TELEPORT'. "30 seconds to jump."
"Con, 30 seconds to jump, mark," the technician at communications repeated.
"Will it hurt?" asked Lucy.
"No, Lucy," answered Harry. "It's a little uncomfortable; feels like when you side-apparate."
28 seconds later, the entire ship started to shake as a roar seemed to come from every direction, amplifying rapidly.
"Harry! The map…" Mr. Tumnus began, but could not finish. For everyone on the Invincible, there came a very uncomfortable feeling, like they were being squeezed through a rubber tube. A few were very familiar with the feeling, while most were completely in the dark.
oOo
At exactly 8:40 PM local time, there was a tremendous flash of white light only a few miles from the village of Little Hangleton, England. It was accompanied by a massive CRACK, loud enough to shatter windows for several miles in all directions. That included a certain manor, which was hidden by a Fidelius Charm.
oOo
"Con, all stations report," the technician at communications spoke into his radio.
"CON, ENGINEERING, ALL CLEAR."
"CON, WEAPS, ALL CLEAR."
"CON, ORDINANCE, ALL CLEAR."
"CON, HANGAR, ALL CLEAR, ALTHOUGH A FEW OF OUR VISITORS LOOK A LITTLE SHAKEN UP."
"Well, did it work?" asked Peter.
"Yeah, I think so," answered Harry, glancing at the screen.
"That's an affirmative, sir," said another technician. "We've got synchronization with GPS." He had moved to the table where the map had been. He pressed a series of buttons that had appeared on the glass, and it now displayed a digital map of earth, indicating Invincible's position.
"GPS?" asked Mr. Tumnus.
"Global Positioning System," answered Travis. "I'm guessing the computers can talk to the satellites."
"Yeah," answered the technician. "Even though the world had been wrecked, the satellites still worked."
"Probably best to move the Invincible back to Ontario for now," said Harry, getting up. He quickly drew a line on the map, saying "Navigate!" The map blinked green once.
"What will we do with our refugees?" asked another technician. "There is no way we can keep them all aboard for any length of time."
"I know that," said Harry, as he adjusted the engine telegraph, "and I'm open to suggestions."
"Harry, what about your Room of Requirement? Can it not be set up to house a large group of people?"
"In theory, but that could only be a temporary solution. Not to mention the cost involved. Does anyone have an idea of exactly how many people we're dealing with?"
"My estimates are about five thousand, sir," said the SAU member.
"Great. Okay, the room of requirement can probably work for now."
oOo
After configuring the Room of Requirement to deal with the refugees, the group again retreated to the library to discuss options. They had certainly tossed around the idea of bringing a number of people with them when they left Narnia, but this was above and beyond that. Nearly 5000 people and beast-folk had been displaced suddenly by the destruction of Narnia. Worse off, Harry had a sinking feeling the firing of Invincible's primary weapon may have contributed to that afternoon's apocalyptic result.
"Harry, that's the last of them," Deric announced, as he stepped into the dining room. The group was then having dinner.
"Great. They are being fed and looked after?"
"Dobby has pulled in a bunch of house elves, from where I don't know, but yes, our guests are being well looked after. That's gonna take a bite out of your vault, Harry."
"Not really worried about it, especially if I somehow caused this."
"No," said Travis darkly. "I bet that useless cat did it." Harry only nodded. He hadn't thought much about that. Indeed, Aslan had not been seen since the previous evening.
"You won't be able to keep them here for long, Harry," said Albus.
"I know. If anyone has any suggestions…"
"I can talk to Angela, see what she might suggest," Deric offered. Harry nodded again.
"No reason not to. If the Canadian ministry can help, great." He sat, staring at the half-empty plate in front of him. The simple question that ran through his mind: what now?
AUTHOR NOTES: (this is something I tend not to do much anymore, I don't think you as the reader need your hand held, right?) Thanks a bunch to ReflectionsOfReality, for giving me a few ideas here, and indeed, pointing out there could be severe consequences for Harry's magic intermixing with that of Narnia, and so on. So here we are, with perhaps an extreme case of that.
(1)In canon, this was the name of Caspian's first son. I felt it appropriate to use it here.
(2)If you've played TES Oblivion, you will know exactly of the sky I have just described here.