A/N: Ravenclaw, Prefect, Star Trek Crossover, Gabrielle Delacour, Space. W/C: 2243
Please note that I do not speak French and have avoided it in most cases. I've also put the meaning of what's going on in English and only used French in some dialogue. I had a friend, who speaks French fluently, help me, as well as using Google translate, despite the issues there.
Star Trek bits are based on the new ones with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.
Space. That great plane of astral beings. Perhaps it wasn't a plane. Gabrielle liked to imagine it was more akin to a bucket or a sponge, where everybody's wishes went until they were answered. She had heard that even Muggles wished on stars, and she thought it was a lovely idea.
With Fleur away at school and still several years until she had anything so interesting to do as study magic, Gabrielle spent many of her nights on her patio with the golden telescope she'd been given for Christmas one year. It was an incredible device and she had spent more time than she could remember peering through it. Sometimes, when she was looking really closely, she saw things that she was sure nobody else did. She was sure because nobody else ever said anything, and wouldn't they say something if they'd seen flashing lights in the sky? Of course, she never said anything either, but that was beside the point.
On this particular night, Gabrielle had waited two whole hours after her parents had tucked her in, waiting until she was absolutely sure they wouldn't hear her opening the double doors onto her bedroom patio and stepping out into the night. Examining the stars through her telescope, she smiled to herself when a flash of blue light caught her attention.
She supposed it made sense. She was a gifted child and people gave her things all the time. Her memory was littered with compliments and her bedroom littered with toys and books and things, and she supposed that if space wanted to give her a gift, it wasn't so strange. She was, however, a bit surprised to discover that space was apparently giving her a Muggle as a gift.
Gabrielle had seen cars before, and thought they were a bit terrifying simply because they were so loud. This car was very different though. It descended from space and flew through the air to alight in the grass below her patio, and it was very quiet. She'd never seen cars fly before, or seen one go anywhere without making some horrible noise. As it landed, she stepped away from her telescope and towards the railing. It wasn't very far down to the nearest grassy hill in her family's yard, and she and Fleur had often climbed the tangled vines up and down the side of the house to cross the distance. This seemed like a reasonable plan, so that was precisely what Gabrielle did then.
When she reached the grass at the bottom and turned around, she discovered that the doors on the side of the car were open and two men were walking towards her. They were wearing black pants and very tight shirts, one yellow and one blue. One man had brown hair, and he was looking around with an expression that made her think he was probably pretty excited to be visiting. Gabrielle thought that made a lot of sense. The other man had black hair and his face was very hard, and he looked like her mom sometimes did when she was trying to discipline her but thought that whatever she'd done wrong was actually rather funny. Except this man didn't look like he really knew what funny meant, and he seemed like the kind of person who would laugh at the wrong sorts of things. He also had pointy ears, like a goblin, but he was tall and looked like a regular person. This confused her so she thought it would be best to just ask.
"Êtes-vous une personne normale?" she said as she approached, putting her thoughts to words.
The man with the black hair arched one eyebrow at her. She thought. His eyebrows were impossibly narrow and already rather arched, so it was hard to tell.
"It seems that we have landed on some part of your home planet that does not speak your home language," he said to the brown-haired man. "I don't suppose you speak...that language?"
The man with the brown hair had shifted his gaze and was looking at Gabrielle with some discomfort. "I don't… it sounds like. Maybe French?"
"Oui!" Gabrielle laughed, finding the whole thing rather amusing. "I speak English, too." She was aware that her English was heavily accented, but she thought that should probably be fine, and her hopes were confirmed when the brown-haired man smiled.
"Ah, there we go! See, Spock, you just gotta ask them questions." The black-haired man, Spock, did not lower his eyebrow and Gabrielle wondered if he was also trying to recall when the brown-haired man had asked her a question. "What's your name, little girl?"
"Gabrielle," she replied. "What is your name, Monsieur?"
The man smiled again and Gabrielle decided that her initial assessment of him as someone who was excited to be visiting was correct.
"My name is Jim," he said carefully. "This is Spock."
Spock nodded sharply, acknowledging the introduction.
"You are from another planet?" Gabrielle asked, remembering Spock's first comment to Jim. She still hadn't gotten her first question answered, but it seemed rude to ask what species Spock was when he was clearly so disgruntled with the situation anyway.
Jim's face lit up at this inquiry and Spock looked even more grave.
"Have you not heard of the Starfleet or the United Federation of Planets?" Spock asked sharply. His dark eyes seemed to search Gabrielle's face for a moment before he broke his gaze and looked around them.
"I know what planets are," she replied, irritated.
Jim seemed to be responding slower than Spock was, but he too looked around now.
"What year is it?" he asked himself, turning all the way around to survey their situation.
"Can I ride in your car?" Gabrielle asked, coloring at her boldness. It was late and she wasn't willing to admit she was tired, but she was sure there was an edge taken off by lack of sleep. "I know the stars and I would like to visit them."
Spock and Jim both turned to look at her again.
"You know the stars?" Spock said. He had a way of speaking that made her think he was raising an eyebrow with his voice, even if his actual eyebrows stayed mostly where they belonged.
Jim seemed very excited all of a sudden. His knees bent and his mouth opened and his arms flew up in the air. He cheered a bit and then clapped Spock on the shoulder. "Telescope, Spock, she knows the stars! She can get us home."
Gabrielle thought this was a rather large leap of assumptions considering she didn't know where they lived, and Spock seemed to agree. He turned towards his friend, a movement that looked more like gliding than anything a regular human would do, and spoke in a low voice.
"Need I remind you that you are the captain of the Enterprise?" he said. "And that this is... ?" he peeked at Gabrielle out of the corner of his eye.
"Nineteen ninety-five," she replied, hoping to be helpful. Perhaps she'd get to ride in their car if she was helpful. Her information did seem to shock Jim, although Spock was more reserved in his surprise.
"This is nineteen ninety-five," the pointy-eared man continued. "I suspect that relying on the knowledge of intergalactic travel from an earthling of minimal age is unlikely to produce the most effective results."
Jim stuck out his lower lip, an expression which Gabrielle thought was rather impertinent. "But look at her, Spock. She wants to ride in the car!"
There was something almost teasing about Jim's tone and Gabrielle suddenly wondered if it wouldn't have been better to remain her room and not come down at all. She knew she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, but this had seemed a good enough reason to do so. Now she questioned that decision.
"That's alright," Gabrielle said, glancing at her wrist the way she'd seen grownups do when they wanted to make an excuse about the time. "It's getting late and I should get to bed. Feel free to use the telescope!" She turned and dashed back towards the vines before either man could say anything.
Running footsteps in the grass behind her told her it wasn't words the men would be using to convince her to stay and in a moment they were directly behind her. She felt a sharp pinch in her neck and the world went black.
When she opened her eyes, she saw stars. Not in the way cartoon characters do, but the way she might expect people flying in cars through space to do. She supposed that was exactly what was happening because she saw Jim and Spock sitting at the front where drivers would be.
"Are you Muggles?" she murmured, blinking as she sat up. "No…." As her head cleared, she thought distinctly how stupid that was. "No, you're flying. What are you?"
Apparently it was Jim who was driving- or at least Gabrielle hoped so- because Spock turned to look at her as she woke up. He didn't seem to know how to smile, so she took his neutral expression as positive.
"What are you?" he asked, apparently wondering at her choice of words.
Gabrielle decided this was not the time to give too much information away, although she wasn't sure if that was just the thought of her mother's reprimandation keeping her quiet. She also thought that where she was was more important than who. Crawling across a large metal floor- and realizing that it was much larger than any car she'd seen before- she peered out the window at the stars she'd noticed as she'd first opened her eyes.
"You're in space," Spock said, noticing her attention. His voice was softer than it had been before and when Gabrielle looked at him over her shoulder she realized his eyes were softer, too.
"Space?" she asked. "Is that where the stars live?"
Jim laughed and Spock's eyes sparkled.
"Yes it is," Spock said.
Gabrielle was thoughtful for a moment. "Is this where you live? Are you a star?"
Spock laughed once, sharply, a sound that apparently surprised Jim because he turned his head to examine his friend.
"Spock doesn't know it," Jim said. "But he's sort of a star."
Spock's eyebrows came together, but the rest of his face didn't betray any confusion. "Stars are fixed luminous points, burning gaseous materials, etc., how am I-?"
Jim put a hand up to interrupt him. "You're really really bright," he said emphatically.
Gabrielle knew enough about English to know he was making a joke, and the fact that Spock just stared in return made her laugh. She was drowsy still and as the stars passed the window of the car, she found herself falling asleep.
"You didn't have to do this," Jim murmured under his breath. "She would've been fine."
"She wanted to see the stars," Spock said. "Might as well let her see space while she's at it."
Jim was quiet for a moment and if he said anything after that, Gabrielle missed it. Her eyes closed and her head tipped against the window as she dozed. When she opened them again, she was in her room.
"Maman!" she cried out for her mother, sitting up too quickly and wavering as blood rushed to her head. "J'ai vu les étoiles!" I saw the stars! The idea was brimming in her mind as she recalled her adventure.
Her mother came in after a moment, a look of concern on her face replaced quickly with a smile as she saw that Gabrielle was fine.
"Funny dreams again?" her mother asked, taking a seat beside Gabrielle on her bed and brushing her hair out of her face. "I'll have to tell your father not to tell stories like he has been. If he keeps making up all these tales, you're going to be filled with all sorts of odd dreams."
Gabrielle frowned and struggled to remember the stories her father had been telling the night before, as they'd sat together before bed. Then she colored. "But I saw them… I went in the car in space."
Gabrielle's mother smiled. "I'm sure you did, darling, it sounds like quite the adventure! Come now. Get ready for breakfast, alright?"
Her mother got up and left the room and Gabrielle didn't reply. It had all felt so real… how could she dream of something like space when she didn't know anything about it? What was a Spock? She never had found out.
Resigned to accept her mother's story, Gabrielle crawled out of bed and began getting ready for the day, taking a moment to glance outside before she dressed. Her shiny golden telescope glistened in the morning sun, but she couldn't help noticing it was facing the wrong way. As she stepped forward to examine it, she noticed a large flat spot in the grass below. Almost as if something large had landed there quite recently.
Smiling to herself, Gabrielle got dressed with renewed vigor. Perhaps there was more to dreams- and to space- than her mother thought.