Taking a deep breath, Harry braced his legs and pushed. There was a groan, then the pile shifted slightly as the scorched remains of what might have been a bedframe sagged, then fell over with a deafening clang. Turning, he gave a wan smile and a shrug. "Sorry, that was a bit louder than I expected."

Ron snorted, taking a grip on his wand and levitating the mass into the air, leaving the ashes behind on the floor. "I still don't get why you volunteered us to help with this, mate. We could be enjoying a two week break from Auror training, and instead we're helping McGonigal clean up the bloody mess Crabbe left behind.

"Aren't you the slightest bit curious?" Hermione asked, bending over a stack of what might have been books one. "I mean, Fiendfyre isn't used very often, and for good reason, but that means that most wizards don't understand what it can do besides 'burn anything.' "

Harry just smiled to himself, tugging at the melted remains of a set of curtains. With a sudden tinkling noise, they came free, and he found himself looking at, "The mirror of Erised," he murmured out loud. The mirror, able to show one's heart's desire, still stood, though black marks marred the frame and the glass within was warped and heavily cracked. Despite this, the shards of glass were still reflecting something, as Harry could see glimpses of himself, and something blue and white behind him. Glancing over his shoulder to confirm, he waved to the others. "This one's almost still intact!" he called out.

Everyone came over somewhat quickly, and Headmistress McGonigal gently elbowed her way to the front of the small group of volunteers. "Goodness, this is quite a find. I didn't expect there would be anything still intact in here. I'm still surprised that young idiot didn't burn down the entire castle!"

Neville grinned, leaning out from around Hermione. "I wonder if we could fix it? Reparo!" he said, tapping his wand against the mirror. As he watched, the cracks traced back together to three points, vanishing, and the rippled glass slowly smoothed out. Neville looked at his reflection, and behind him in the mirror was the sudden appearance of a dead body.

Gasping in shock, he whirled around, raising his wand defensively. A moment before, he had been standing in the Room of Requirement, along with a good chunk of the former Dumbledore's Army, now current Auror trainees. Now, he was … where the heck was he, anyway? An office of some kind, looking out an open balcony over a half-burned park, two desks with some piece of Muggle technology on them, one chair with a body of a … well, they weren't human, and they had blue-purple blood, that was all he could tell. Electric light strips ran around the perimeter of the ceiling, and a metal sliding door was bent and jammed open about four inches.

Staying low to the ground, Neville moved away from the mirror on the wall over to the balcony, and peeked over. Down below him was a park of some kind, and he was up three stories, maybe four. Bodies were obvious from their absence, though pools and splatters of dark red, blue, and yellow were in abundance. Still, he'd fallen further without harm. The only other option was to try to Apparate, but since he wasn't sure where he was, that probably wasn't the best plan of action. Moving over to one corner of the balcony, he slipped up onto the railing, then silently levitated down to the pathway below.

Only then did he realize that this area wasn't completely flat. He stared off into the distance, where the burning park and pools of scummy water curled gently up. His eyes followed it, all the way up, and he turned around to follow it back down around. Wherever he was, it was some kind of ring-like structure. And through the center of the ring, he could vaguely see stars and bright clouds shining in without the familiar twinkling he was used to.

At random, he started off to his left. A few hundred feet away was the crashed remains of what looked like a wheel-less car. At least, he thought it was a car, but it had been a while since he took Muggle Studies. As he started to step around it, a figure suddenly popped into view. "W-w-welcome to Cit-c-c-citadel St-st-station-n-n-n," it stuttered, even as a Stupify from his wand shot right through the middle of it. "W-we have had no f-f-f-f-fatalities for zero-zero-zero-zero days. For a guide-de of the Presi-si-sidium, simply say 'Tour'."

Neville stared at the glowing, translucent woman for several moments before remembering to breath. Narrowing his eyes, he took a short step closer, examining it in detail. It almost seemed to be three overlapping ghosts – one pink, wearing a sort of body-stocking; one wearing some kind of body armor; and one made up of green lines and circles. "How far am I from Hogwarts?" he asked quietly.

"Loca-ca-tion unknown-n-n-n," it stuttered out. Curious, he thought, seems like it really is three different things, somehow trying to answer at the same time. He tried several other wizardly locations with the same result, then tried asking for London. "The c-c-city of Lon-n-don is app-p-prox-s-s-imately fifty th-th-thousand light years away," it answered.

Neville simply swallowed. Then frowned, as an even better question occurred to him. "Why are you speaking English? Are there more humans around here?"

True to form, the ghosts (or whatever they were) promptly answered. "Citadel Station c-c-c-urrently houses almost two poin-n-nt five million," and almost in mid word, the face and voice of the green lines took over entirely, "PATHETIC CREATURES OF MEAT AND BONE."

By this point, Neville had noticed the little metal disk directly underneath the floating feet of the figures, and gambling that this device was not in fact magical in origin, pointed his wand at it, saying forcefully, "Hexus!" A sort of heat-wave shimmer engulfed the disk, and with a gout of sparks and plume of smoke, the translucent woman flickered and disappeared. Fairly quickly, he backed up to the wall, looking in both directions down the ring, then continued to the left.

Almost right away, there was a sort of courtyard, with benches and shattered displays and more bloodstains. Stairs led up to somewhere from the back, but to his surprise, there were directions written on the wall in English. "Human, Elcor, and Volus embassies?" he muttered to himself. "What the heck are Elcor and Volus?" Lacking any better directions, he crept to the back of the courtyard, avoiding as much of the glass as possible, and went up the stairs.

The doors here had all been jammed open, wide enough for the patrolling guard to pass through. A sickening display, the humanoid creature had bright blue skin, though what its face looked like, or even what its gender was, he couldn't be sure, as from the waist up, so much of it had been replaced with metal pieces of Muggle machinery as to render it unrecognizable. Still, if there was somewhere likely to give him answers, it would probably be the human embassy. Assuming anyone was still alive, that was.

Waiting behind the doorframe, Neville watched it lumber awkwardly out of a room and turn its back to him, starting up the short flight of stairs. As loud as he dared, Neville aimed his wand and said, "Stupify!" The red bolt struck it squarely, showing no effect other than alerting it to his presence. Turning around, it shrugged off two more Stupify curses, adjusted quickly to a Jelly Legs Jinx, and fired what he belatedly recognized as a gun that now utterly replaced the left forearm of the creature. The bullet shot past, leaving a sharp line of pain across one rib and spilling blood down the inside of his shirt.

"Expelliarmus!" he tried in desperation, as it moved to line up another shot, and with a sickening tearing sound, the gun tore free off the forearm of the cyborg, spraying blood as it flew over Neville's head to clatter down the stairs. Realizing it was now devoid of a weapon, the cyborg raised its other hand, and a blue-black glowing ball of energy quickly grew in the palm of its hand. "Bloody hell," he gulped, casting Protego just as the ball of energy shot towards him. It rebounded off his shield, bouncing back and literally squashing the metal-studded head into goo-covered scrap metal.

Gingerly, he stepped over the body, moving down the corridor until he saw the sign for the human embassy. This door wasn't jammed open, it had been melted through, the slag long since cooled on the floor. He stepped inside cautiously, wand ready as he swept the room. The desk here had the Muggle device turned on, judging from the floating orange display between two wand-like protrusions. Moving around the desk, and keeping his wand pointed towards the door, he glanced down. Audio files, he wondered, and tried poking at the glowing display with his fingers. Sure enough, a speaker in the desk began reciting someone's audio diary.

"Councilor Udina here. Something has gone horribly wrong with the station. By all appearances, someone has smuggled in or programmed an actual AI. To make matters worse, they somehow integrated it into not just the Citadel VI program, but also into the very structure of the station. It's gained control of the Keepers now, and the damn bugs have been swarming around the Presidium. They're dragging people away, though I'm not sure where."

Neville frowned, crouching down and sliding open the desk drawers. He hadn't seen any bugs yet, though he'd only been here about five minutes. Though part of him could imagine that the machine-person he just faced might have been a cause. It sounded like one of those horrible Muggle movies Hermione liked to watch, the one with the guy and the two robots making jokes.

"Though I hate to admit it, I wish Commander Shepard was here, not locked up on Earth awaiting trial. I've barricaded the door as best I can. I don't have her hacking skills, so I can't say if this message is going to be heard by anyone else." The voice cut off with the sounds of weapons being fired somewhere nearby, and for a moment Neville scurried for the nearest wall to put at his back. "C-Sec is doing their best to fight back, but there are more Keepers than we ever imagined. If anyone gets this message, send in all the firepower you have. Destroy the Citadel if you have to, just don't let this AI gain control of anything else!"

The recording stopped with a beep, and he moved back to the drawers. There was another gun here, something smaller, which he reluctantly shoved into his belt. There were also numerous plastic and glass-looking devices here, none of which he could make any sense out of. As he slid the drawers closed, the display beeped at him, and he looked up to see the previous information had vanished to be replaced by a simple set of instructions.

"1. Go to the storeroom behind the mercantile district near the embassy.

"2. Look for a box labeled 'Kassa Fabrication' and put one of them on your wrist.

"3. READ THE MANUAL. Then change your communication channel to Mode 27."

He stared at the display, reading it about five times, then it suddenly turned off. Listening carefully, he could hear a bizarre pattering that sounded like a cross between running shoes and a horse. Creeping up to the door, he glanced out, and saw what might have been the 'bugs' the man on the recording was talking about. It was bright green, and looked like a cross between a centaur and an ant. Taking the unfamiliar gun in his left hand, he leaned out with his wand and tried to Stupify it.

When it exploded upon contact with the spell, he jerked back inside, carefully wiping the noxious green goo off his face before returning the gun to his belt. "Well, that escalated quickly," he muttered to himself, then with more practiced quiet, went back down the hall and stairs to the courtyard. There were signs on the railings that overlooked the burnt expanse of park, but most of them had been shattered or pock-marked from bullets. Still, he thought it was further on to his left, so he continued. Across the expanse of parks and pools, he could vaguely see other cyborgs clomping about, but the only bridge between the two sides had been shattered, drooping down into the water below, and while it would be easy to jump down to the torched grass, it would be much harder to get back up.

Some distance down was a large room, the walls covered with posters and advertisements in multiple languages, enough for Neville to be sure he had reached the mercantile district. Or, at least, the start of it – he wasn't sure if it continued on for a block or a mile. Still, there was a small flight of stairs that led up from the back of this store, so he went up, into the darkness of the storeroom. Most of the light strips were dark, so he lit up a ball of light with his wand, flicking it ahead of him to stick to a wall.

There were actually several storerooms back here, all of them closed. Luckily, it only took a few simple Alohomora charms let him in. The second one made him stop, gagging, as something resembling a bright pink jellyfish had been locked inside and died curled up around itself in a corner. The smell from it was horrendous, and after closing the door, resolved to leave that room for last – just in case he could avoid it. Though he expected it would be the room he needed, Murphy's Law did not strike him, and he found the box in the fourth storeroom.

Inside were peculiar devices, clearly designed to be worn on the arm like bracers, and also clearly related to the Muggle technology at work in this place. With some trepidation, he put the "Polaris V" on his arm. With little more than a slight vibration and almost imperceptible hum, a gauntlet of orange light appeared around his arm, and after a moment he realized it was just like the display on the desk. Still, the orders he got said to read the manual first, so he rooted around in the box. No manuals.

Puzzled, Neville moved out into the hallway. His lights had started flicking out, but he decided to let them, on the chance they would alert another one of those cyborgs or the green centaur-bugs. The light gauntlet had vanished, and he carefully squeezed his fingers until it popped up again. Then, carefully looking at each section of the display, he set about experimenting with it.

Paste your document here...