Title: Defender's Path
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Phantom Menace for Star Wars. New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are all ignored. At least the first three or four Harry Potter Books, there will be some changes.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Don't own em, if I did, I would be worth millions.
Summary: When an accident occurs with a potions experiment, Harry and Hermione wake up in a strange place, but that is not all that is different. Set in Seventh Year, Cross with Star Wars.
" " denotes speech, ' ' denotes thought.
Harry and Hermione moved confidently around the bench in the deserted potions lab. They were both dressed casually, in jeans and slightly loose shirts, their formal Hogwarts dress robes resting in a corner for the graduation ceremony slated to commence in about four hours. While they had passed their NEWTs, Hermione having the highest scores since Dumbledore, and were graduating they had wanted to finish the extra, advanced potions project they had been working on for the last three years. They had gone from a basic concept to an almost perfected technique for a completely new potion, something that very few Witches or Wizards had achieved, most new potions being refinements of old ones, and the few who had succeeded were considered Potion Grand Masters.
"We're still missing something." Harry mused.
"We need a catalyst, something that will begin the process on contact but will not continue the reaction once the target is achieved." Hermione agreed.
The array of ingredients before them was impressive, but all were commonly available, even in the Muggle world. Their objective was to create a simple, mass producible potion that can quickly heal a wound of almost any type. As Harry and Hermione were going over their notes as to any possible clashes for the potion.
"Well, we can't use Monkshood, as it would clash with the Willowbark." Hermione noted.
As they discussed the dilemma, they failed to notice Crookshanks slink into the room. He made his way to the bench they had been working at and jumped up, at the worst possible place. Several bottles of ingredients clattered on the bench, causing Crookshanks to jump down and run out of the room, but the damage had been done. Some of the knocked bottles simply broke on the bench, spilling their contents, while others fell sideways, creating a chain reaction of breaking bottles. When the first crash occurred, Harry and Hermione turned to the bench, just in time for the uncontrolled reaction of the wildly mixing ingredients to envelop them in what seemed like, but wasn't, an explosion. The actual explosion happened a second later and completely destroyed the bench. Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore were the first to arrive on the scene to find a bench destroyed and potion ingredients all over the place, with Harry and Hermione's dress robes untouched in the corner.
Over the next few weeks there were several rumours that The Boy Who Lived and the most promising witch in a Century had died, however Professor Dumbledore managed to convince most of the Wizarding World that they had gone into hiding to protect themselves while training to eliminate the Dark Lord Voldermort. Word spread quickly to the Dark Lord of both Harry Potter's supposed death and Dumbledore's proclamation. More than a few Death Eaters were punished or killed in the following months for failure to either confirm Harry's death or to find him.
Conscious returned slowly, revealing a large room that vaguely resembled a Muggle hospital. At a groan, Harry turned his head, which felt like it was in a vice, and saw Hermione lying beside him. The walls were a whitish metal that seemed to scream 'sterile' and they were laid out in comfortable beds. Around the walls were several cabinets bearing the universal sign for health that had no obvious way of opening. In one corner was a large tank filled with a pale blue liquid. The doors at one end of the room slid open with a mechanical hiss and revealed three young children around the age of ten. All three were dressed in sandy coloured clothing, consisting of slacks, a long sleaved shirt and a vest. All three had short hair, even though one was female, and two of them had a thin braid of hair at their right temple, the third, a boy, did not have the braid. The sight of the three newcomers registered something that he had seen but not noticed before and, with a quick check of his own body, he came to a quick decision. He was insane. It was the only logical conclusion, unless both Hermione and he had somehow regressed about eight years to the age of ten.
"Mione?" he said, his voice having also reverted to that of a boy.
Next to him, Hermione stirred on her bed then awoke. She looked around for a second then noticed Harry, then she quickly looked over herself.
"Harry?" she asked.
"Yep, crazy as it seems, it's me Mione."
"Must have been the potion spill." She muttered.
The three children approached the almost adult Witch and Wizard trapped in children's bodies.
"Hi, my name's Anakin Skywalker. How you doing?" the boy without the braid said.
"Confused and about a five alarm hangover." Harry said.
"Harry, don't be obtuse." Hermione scolded.
"Oh come on Mione. Last week we got top scores on our NEWTs, now look at us." Harry responded.
"What are newts? I've never heard of them before. Name's Jasmine Bores by the way." The girl said.
"My name's Hermione Granger, this is Harry Potter." Hermione introduced.
"I'm Marcus Wiseman. We just came to check on you. Masters Windu and Yoda were talking about you." The second boy said.
Harry and Hermione shared a quick glance that conveyed more than the others could possibly imagine.
"Who are Masters Windu and Yoda, and how did we get here?" Harry asked.
"Masters Windu and Yoda are leaders on the Jedi Council." Jasmine explained.
"How you got here is, unusual. Most of the Jedi Council, including Masters Windu and Yoda, were returning with my master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and me from the peace celebration and funeral of Master Qui-Gon Jinn. As we approached the steps of the Jedi Temple, there was a flash of light and you two appeared out of thin air." Anakin said.
"That's weird." Marcus commented.
"For us, not so much." Hermione said under her breath.
A muted series of bell tolls sounded through the room, while loud enough to hear, the walls were designed to subdue the sound enough not to wake a sleeping patient.
"Sorry, but we have got to go. Hope to see you around some time." Jasmine said as the visitors left.
"Well this is going to be fun." Harry said sarcastically about a minute after the door closed.
"Harry, did you sense something familiar in those three?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah." Harry replied after a minutes thought. "I don't know how to describe it. A kind of warmth. You have it too, Mione, and you never did before."
"I thought as much. Interesting." Hermione said before rolling over and falling asleep.
Harry joined her in slumber a few seconds later.
Harry brushed his hand though his hair. Even after about three weeks, he still was not used to the short cut hairstyle that was a requirement of Padawn Learners. It looked especially unusual on Hermione. They followed their Masters onto the Lightsaber training field. Harry had been apprenticed to Master Mace Windu, noted as one of the best swordsman in the Jedi Order after Master Yoda, while Hermione had Master Adi Gallia, an exotic, dark skinned woman who sat on the Council. When they had been presented in front of the Council there had been much controversy, but the major argument against their training, their age, had been countered by the exemption made for Anakin Skywalker. Masters Windu and Gallia started the pair running though a set of basic exercises with wooden training sabers.
Harry and Hermione began to run through the exercises, as discrete exercises at first but after about an hour, they began to string the different moves together. Each had set a steady pace throughout their exercise, only going slightly faster by the end of the two hours than at the beginning. Just as Master Windu was about to call them to a stop, Hermione finished followed by Harry about five seconds later.
"I'm impressed. Most Padawn go too fast at the start of practice and are labouring by the end. You both did very well, I can see you becoming great with a Lightsaber." Mace said.
"Thank you, Master." Harry said.
"I agree." Adi added. "Your actions show a maturity well beyond your years."
Hermione blushed.
"Only about eight years." Harry said under his breath.
"Come. It is time for your meditation sessions." Master Gallia said.
TBC…