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Chapter 2. Reaction

Stepping out of the spherical time machine, Harry stopped short when he found himself in the middle of a field of ecstasy. It was like walking into Hogwarts… but more so.

"Something wrong, Harry?" Mysa asked when she followed him from the Timesphere.

"You're a magic user, right?" Harry asked.

"A minor talent," she agreed.

"There is so much magic here, is it always like this?" he asked.

"I'm not sure what you mean," the White Witch said hesitantly.

Harry looked around the large room the two of them were in, and extended his arms. "It's like being in Hogwarts, but so much more. Just so much magic, I can almost taste it."

"Harry?" Imra asked from the door way, "are you coming? I need to get your basic Interlac lesson laid down."

"Yeah," Harry nodding as he headed for the door, trying to concentrate through the haze of perfection he felt. "Lessons. Why not?"

Mysa remained where she was, while wondering what it was the Legend of Magic was feeling where she felt nothing.

This, she decided, bore study.

--== LEGION ==--

Harry followed the blond into a dimly lit room.

"This is where I will teach you to speak Interlac," Imra said quietly.

"It will be," Querl interrupted. "But not now. First we need to deal with your medical problems, Harry Potter."

"What medical problems?" Harry asked.

"You are a walking disease factory," the green man explained. "A disease factory that is susceptible to every modern human disease in existence. It's nothing personal Potter, all living things are disease factories."

"Excuse me?" Harry demanded.

"The green man waved a device around Harry's body while continuing to explain. "You are a thousand years out of sync with the local herd immunity. That means that minor diseases that would cause an average human minor discomfort could quite possibly kill you, and you are carrying a full load of the common pathogens of your time, none of which are causing you any discomfort, but any of which might be toxic to the general population."

Harry followed the green man into the next room while trying to understand what he was being told.

"Disrobe, and stand on the foot pads on the floor," Brainiac 5 directed, pointing to the place Harry was to stand. "Then follow the directions of the computer. Decontamination of your dermis will take approximately 7 minutes."

"Is this really necessary?" Harry asked.

"Consider that the average generational period of the flora in your gut is 20 minutes," the green man sighed. "That means in the 1,018 years that have passed there has been just short of 28 million generations in the modern human's gut flora. What is now digesting food in your average human likely has only the slightest relationship to that which is in your own digestive system."

Harry blinked at him and the green man sighed. "Yes, it is necessary. Stand on the marks and follow the computer's directions."

--== LEGION ==--

"Is this really necessary? You've never done this for any of our previous visitors," Imra noted when Querl joined her at the monitoring console.

"The bulk of our previous visitors from the past have been Kryptonian, Kryptonian hybrids, and Daxamites," He noted. "I couldn't begin to go about decontaminating them. Potter, however, is human. Better safe than sorry."

"What is that?" Imra asked nodding toward a beige cube the size of a man's fist that appeared on the console next to Querl's right hand.

"A prototype default Legion uniform," the green man explained.

"With everything that has been going on, you found time to make a uniform?"

"Life can't be all work," Querl sniffed. "Besides we need to get him out of those animal skins he's wearing."

"Brainy," Imra laughed, "you're terrible."

--== LEGION ==--

"Well," Harry said when Brainiac 5 reentered the room, "that was refreshingly invasive. I think your machine needs to buy me dinner."

"An allusion toward sex?" the green man asked.

"A bad one," Harry agreed.

"Well done, my sides are splitting with laughter," Querl said dryly. "Here."

Harry examined the beige cube he had been handed. "What is this?"

"Clothing. Place it against the center of your chest and press on it with approximately one Newton of force."

"What?" Harry asked.

"Push it into your chest," Querl sighed.

Harry did as he was directed, while wondering just how much force was in a 'Newton'. The cube seemed to compress for a moment before it jellified and spread over his body, forming a full body suit, complete with integrated boots and gloves.

"Okay," Harry nodded, "That was seriously cool."

"The current appearance is the default setting," Querl explained. "To change the appearance, simply concentrate on what you would like it to look like and your Flight Ring will interface with the nanites in the smartfabric to make the changes."

Wondering what nanites might be, Harry lifted his right hand and made a fist, watching the fabric move with him. Interesting, but odd. "Is there supposed to be this much dust coming from it?"

"What?" Querl asked as he turned his attention from his instrumentation back to Harry. His eyes widened and the green man produced a small device from a pouch on his belt and moved it over Harry's body.

"The nanites," he breathed, "they're… burning out."

Large patches of the body suit began to flake away. "I'm guessing this isn't going right?" Harry asked.

"It is not," Querl agreed, scooping a sample of the dying smartfabric still clinging to Harry's body into a small container, and then knelt to do the same with the material that was laying on the floor. "Back into the shower to remove the residue, then get dressed in your old clothing, Imra will be waiting to facilitate your language upgrade while I find out what happened with the nanites."

"Lovely," Harry said, shaking his head as he steeled himself for another 'date' with the decontamination shower.

--== LEGION ==--

Harry lay on what was quite possibly the most comfortable couch he had ever encountered with Imra seated behind him, her long fingers pressing on either side of his face when he suddenly realized he was thinking in another language.

~ Yes, you are, ~ Imra's voice said in his head in that same language. ~ Don't worry Harry, I'm being careful to avoid your memories, your secrets remain your own. ~

"Good to know," he said. "I've encountered people who could see into other people's minds before, but your method is different."

~ Concentrate on the experience with those people, please? ~

Harry did so, recalling Snape's hammering at his mind, Voldemort's intrusions, and the multiple instances in Dumbledore's presence that Harry suspected the old man had touched his memories.

~ Whatever they were doing appears to be an aspect of magic, ~ Imra noted.

"And what you're doing is not?" Harry asked as a whole new vocabulary suddenly appeared in his mind.

~ I am from the planet Titan, a world orbiting Saturn. ~

"Yeah?" Harry asked, no longer in English.

~ We were originally an Earth Colony established one hundred and seventy six years after we picked you up. Later we became an independent world. My ancestors, starting with the first generation born under the domes started exhibiting a high level of telepathy. With each generation it became stronger, until verbal speech all but died out among us. ~

"Really?" Harry asked, intrigued by the idea of a culture that didn't speak.

~ I never learned to speak until I was 16 standard years old, ~ Imra said, laughter clear in her thoughts. ~ That was the day we formed the Legion. ~

With new concepts and experiences entered his mind, Harry found himself desperate to find one thing to concentrate on so that he didn't drown in the information flood. "Tell me about it."

~ It's not much of a story, really. ~ Imra laughed. ~ I was travelling to Earth on an in system liner to start a job as a translator for R J Brande. Interlac is supposed to be a single common language, but with thousands of worlds and hundreds of species, local idiosyncrasieshave crept in over the centuries. Mr. Brande was on the flight, returning from a tour of his properties and was conducting interviews to save time. I 'overheard' plans for kidnapping Mr. Brande, and moved to stop it. Rokk was also on the flight, along with Garth Ranzz who you haven't met yet. The three of us prevented the kidnapping. ~

"So, the three of you are mindreaders?"

~ No, just me, ~ Imra admitted. ~ Rokk is from Braal, a world where the people can control magnetism, and Garth is from Winath, a farming world where a freak accident gave Garth, his twin sister and their older brother electrical powers. Between the three of us, we defeated the criminals who had over powered Mr. Brande's security people. ~

"Huh," Harry grunted when a particularly large amount of information… history this time, suddenly appeared in his memory. "So, that's when you got together?"

~ Well, not at first, ~ Imra admitted. ~ But that was when I realized how uncomfortable my not speaking aloud made people, so I set about learning how. Enunciation was harder than I expected. A few days later, Mr. Brande came to us with a plan. He wanted us to emulate the famous heroes of the past like Superboy. ~

"Superman," Harry corrected.

~ Yes, we know that now, but the legends had become so mangled that everyone believed he started his career as a hero at 12 rather than 28. So we were to emulate his example and bring hope to the people… ~

"So, even after that, you still believed the half-baked stories about me?" Harry grinned.

Something cold pressed against Harry's neck and hissed. Harry slapped his left hand over the location and sat up in shock.

"What the hell?"

"Brainiac 5," Imra scolded verbally, "What did you do?"

"After seeing how the clothing nanites reacted to Potter's body, I ran sims on how the medical nanites would react. Short version, they would not," Querl answered. "That left biological immunization as the only viable option. Also, it should fix your eyes."

"A bit of a warning would be nice," Harry spat, still rubbing the injection site, and blinking at the clarity of the world now that he had taken off his glasses.

The green man took hold of Harry's arm and pressed another device against it. This one hissed as well, but unlike the other it immediately began to smoke. Harry's eyebrows rose to his hairline and he immediately slapped the device out of Querl's hand.

"Never take my blood," Harry shouted. "Not only is it rude, it's borderline suicidal."

Querl was kneeling down and had another device humming over the smoking slag that had been his Auto-syringe. He looked over the readings before looking up at Harry incredulously. "Your blood is the most caustic material I've ever encountered. How is it you're alive?"

"I was bitten by a basilisk when I was 12 years old," Harry explained. "A phoenix cried into the wound, saving my life."

"Basilisks and phoenix?" Querl sniffed. "You're entitled to your secrets, Potter, there is no reason for you to lie to me."

The wizard grinned widely, "just to be clear, you came to me because of my ability to be magic, but you know I'm lying to you when I tell you about magical creatures? Okay, fine. The truth is, my blood is the most caustic substance you've ever encountered because of all the garlic I eat."

"Garlic?" Querl

"I love me some Italian food," Harry nodded.

"Fine," the green man said throwing his hands into the air. "Imaginary creatures are real. I had the fabrication system produce a standard uniform for you."

"What's wrong with my own clothing?" Harry asked.

"What was wrong with the clothing of people from a thousand years before your time?" Querl asked logically. "Get dressed and we'll introduce you to everyone."

--== LEGION ==--

"Hi, Harry," Luornu Durgo said as Harry followed Imra out into the large room where the Legionnaires were congregating.

"Hello, Lournu," Harry responded taking a seat across from the girl. "So, what do you do?"

She looked at him curiously, so Harry continued. "Brainiac 5 is a living computer, Imra is a mind reader, Rokk is a living magnet, Mysa uses magic, and some guy named Garth is a living source of electricity. This Legion of yours is a collection of people with talents, so what is yours?"

The brunette smiled, and then appeared to concentrate for a moment. Suddenly, there were three of her sitting on the sofa.

"Whoa!" Harry said, sitting up straight. "That's cool."

"It has its moments," the Lournu in the middle said with a grin.

"So, do you share your mind with three bodies? That must be confusing."

"Oh, no, quite the opposite, actually," the Luornu on the left said with a grin. "Each of my selves are individuals. That's what got us ostracized on Cargg."

"I don't understand," Harry admitted.

"The people of Cargg can all split into three individual bodies, but culturally, synchronicity is valued over all other things. All of the bodies are expected to be the same, physically, intellectually, and emotionally. Some of us… aren't."

"And you were abused for being different?" Harry asked, starting to feel a certain kinship with the girl… girls?

"More than a bit," the Lournu on the right nodded. "We escaped from the asylum and stowed away on one of Mr. Brande's ships. When we were caught, rather than being handed back to the Cargg government, he gave us a job. When he formed the Legion, We were the first volunteer after Imra, Rokk and Garth."

"I can identify with being abused for being different," Harry nodded.

"Really?" Center Lournu asked. "They did that on old Terra?"

"Where is he?" A new voice drew the attention of everyone in the room. Harry turned his attention to the new speaker, a redheaded man looking about the room until he locked eyes with Harry.

"You!" the redhead shouted. "What the hell are you still doing here?"

"Garth, no!" Imra added her own voice to the discussion.

"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded, rising to his feet.

"You were brought here to deal with Mordru, not make eyes at Lournu," the redhead sneered. "Get your fossilized ass out there and do your fucking job."

Harry blinked at that. His anger spiked when he realized that this wally from the future was trying to treat him exactly the same way the vast bulk of the Magical world had.

"My job?" he demanded, not noticing that he had shifted back to speaking English in his anger. "You fucking fuckers came to me, asked me to come to deal with a problem that wasn't mine. None of this is my responsibility; none of this is 'my job'."

Garth never said a word, but electricity started arcing over his body. This display of power made Harry even angrier.

"You know what?" He continued, still in English. "Fuck You."

The assembled remains of the once mighty Legion of Superheroes could only gape when the man from the past vanished.

"Damn you, Garth," Rokk spat. "He was our only way of fighting Mordru, you couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you?"

"Mysa," a now single Lournu spoke up, "can you follow him? Can you find him?"

"He couldn't do what he just did," the White Witch gasped, still staring at the place Harry Potter had vanished from. "No one can do that. He disapparated. That's a lost skill; no one has the power to do it any more, not for centuries."

"So, you can't follow him?" Querl pressed.

"I don't think anyone could," she admitted, "not even Mordru."

"Well, that's something, I suppose," Rokk sighed before turning back to Garth. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"They've got Alya," the redhead said slumping onto one of the chairs. "She's been assimilated, and is leading a squad searching for people with powers. Do you know what it's like to face off against your own sister like that? Then I found out you got someone to fight Mordru, and he was just sitting here, doing nothing."

"I just taught him Interlac less than half an hour ago," Imra sighed. "We didn't even have a plan yet. Brainy still doesn't have a plan yet, and he's always got plans. I love you Garth, but I swear if you ever treat someone like that again, I will wipe your mind back to infancy and start over."

"If you taught him Interlac, what was that he was babbling?"

"You got him upset to the point that he no longer concentrated on his words, Garth," Imra explained. "He defaulted back to his milktongue. Let's just say he wasn't being complimentary."

--== LEGION ==--

Harry appeared in front of the gates of Hogwarts at twilight.

That was odd, he thought, so much for the three D's. He had only wanted to be away from the electrical loonie. He had disapparated with no destination in mind, and while he had certainly been determined, he had most certainly not been deliberate.

Still, Hogwarts was as good a place as any. After a quick check showed that he hadn't managed to splinch himself in his uncontrolled disapparation, Harry approached the gates, hoping to signal someone inside.

Only to have the gates open to him.

No sign of anyone, the gates just opened. That wasn't ominous at all. Still, lacking anywhere else to go, Harry started up the path that led to the castle.

It was the quiet that got to him. In all the times he had been to Hogwarts, it had never been quiet. There was always something going on. The laughter and chaos of students, the sounds of the lake, animal calls from the Forbidden Forest. Today, however, there was nothing. Following the path, the castle came into view, causing Harry to stop and swallow noisily. The lights weren't on. Harry had never seen the school darkened like that, not even in the aftermath of the battle of Hogwarts when so much of the old place had been destroyed.

Suddenly the reality of what Mysa had told him came crashing home. Was he really the only wizard left on Earth?

Harry swallowed and closed his eyes to banish that thought. After finding his center, he opened his eyes and pressed on, trying not to think about the fact that he had no idea how he was going to get into the castle.

It turned out that he hadn't needed to worry. Just like the gates, the doors opened on their own as he climbed the stairs. Still, there was no evidence of anyone being in residence. The Entry hall, what he could see of it anyway, seemingly unchanged from the last time he saw it.

Harry located his holly and phoenix feather wand in the grey uniform's right thigh pocket and cast Lumos, the first magic he had used since arriving in the future.

And was almost blinded by the flare that erupted from the tip of his wand. A quick "Nox" extinguished the Lumos. Harry settled down to sit on the stone steps in front of the open door, blinking in an attempt to clear his vision.

The problem, he decided, must be the level of magic that he had been swimming in since he came out of the time machine. If witches and wizards weren't using it, would the world's magic… overflow? Were all of his spells going to be so absurdly over powered?

No, he decided. Something to worry about later. Harry turned to peer into the darkness of the castle's entry hall. He couldn't use Lumos, at least not until he managed to learn to crank down the intensity, and heading into the darkness of the castle without some method of seeing where he was going seemed ill advised.

After thinking for a moment, he rose from the steps, and returned to the grounds, searching in the darkening twilight for anything the right size. He came upon a rock, perhaps the size of his fist. Swishing his wand about Harry transfigured the rock into a cup with a long handle emerging from the bottom. Into the cup, he cast Hermione's favorite light source, the Bluebell flames.

The blue flames flared, far brighter than they normally would be, but not with the painful intensity of his Lumos. Holding his new lamp like the torch it appeared to be, he entered the castle he knew so well.

--== LEGION ==--

Searching the castle was more than a little bit depressing. All the rooms were still furnished, and quite a bit of it appeared to be the same pieces he had known and used. The walls were still adorned with portraits and tapestries, but they were all inert, with no sign of life or movement.

Harry had travelled to all four dormitories, none showing any sign habitation in years. The door to the Room of Requirements refused to appear, no matter how many times he walked past it, or how much he needed it to appear.

Every other door opened without his having to touch it when he approached, even doors that had always been locked before. The kitchen was empty, the Great Hall deserted, all of the classrooms vacant, and the library completely empty of books.

This was a common feature of his wanderings. No book, no charts, no preserved specimen, though the furniture was, for the most part still there.

Harry's wanderings finally brought him to the Headmaster's office. Like every other door he had encountered since entering the grounds the door opened at his approach with the stone gargoyle moving aside. Unlike the other stairs in the castle, the magical escalator leading to the office started moving as soon as he stepped on it.

His paranoia peaked at this. Harry slide the Holly and Phoenix feather wand back into the thigh pocket it had come from and pulled the Elder wand from the thigh pocket on his left leg. If this was some sort of trap, he was going to try to give as good as he got.

The stairs stopped moving and the door to the Headmaster's office opened, light from the interior of the room shining out in stark contrast to the darkness of the rest of the castle.

"Come in," a voice called from inside the office. "I was wondering if you were ever going to visit me."

No, not ominous at all, Harry reflected, extinguishing the bluebell flames and setting his transfigured torch down on the landing.

--== LEGION ==--

Harry entered the Headmaster's office hesitantly, keeping the Elder wand pointed downward, but ready to raise it if needed.

Unlike the rest of the castle, this one room was so very different than the version he remembered. Only the desk was familiar. The various silver charms that had Dumbledore had always had around the room were gone, and walls were bare, the books and headmaster portraits were nowhere to be seen, except for a single portrait.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," the man in the frame said. "Allow me to introduce myself. Augustus Lamont, the final Headmaster of this wonderful pile of stones."

"Hello," Harry nodded, his eyes sweeping the room, trying to take in all the changes.

"You offer a bit of a puzzle," the portrait said. "While being the first visitor in almost four hundred years, your path through the castle indicates that you have been here before. Might I ask your name?"

"Harry Potter."

The painted man's eyes widened, "Are you really? THE Harry Potter? Well, what do you know, the House Elves were right. Are you here to wreck bloody vengeance?"

Harry blinked at the absurdity of the question before shaking his head. "I'm here to deal with a new Dark Lord," Harry admitted. "At least I will be if I'm convinced the people who brought me here aren't as bad as this Mordru fellow."

"Mordru?" Lamont asked. "Never heard of him, but like I said, no one has visited in four hundred years, I'm not really up on current affairs. What brings you to Hogwarts?"

"Coming here was more accident than anything else," Harry admitted. "I got angry with my… associates and just wanted out of their presence. I guess you could say that it was my second unintentional disapparation. Forgive my curiosity, but all the other portraits in the school were dormant, how is it you are still active?"

"You'll notice the gems in each corner of my frame? They are charmed to pull magic from the ley lines that power the castle's wards. I developed the technique at the end of my life and never had a chance to extend its use to the other portraits," the man shrugged. "I was terrified of dying and leaving nothing behind. A century after the exodus, I was the last Wizard on Earth."

"I've heard bits and pieces about how the Witches and Wizards left Earth for somewhere out there," Harry said gesturing toward the sky. "Could you tell me about it?"

"Hmm," the man in the painting mused, regarding Harry suspiciously. "Are you sure you're not here to wreck bloody revenge?"

"What would I possibly want vengeance for?" Harry asked reasonably. "The wizards I fought have all been dead for a thousand years."

"Perfectly logical," Lamont nodded, "but the Elves were so certain. Oh, very well, the problem was, you see, magic itself was dying."

"How could magic be dying?" Harry asked.

"Well, not dying, per se," Lamont shrugged, "more like it was… spreading thin. By the time I had become the Headmaster Hogwarts had record attendance, we had more than four thousand students in classes. Globally, the magical population reached an estimated 250 million. It was theorized that the planet had a set amount of magic, and that each user got a slice, so to speak. As the pie was sliced thinner and thinner, more magic intensive spells became impossible to do. You mentioned disapparation, for example, it was a lost art in my childhood, with the last successful attempt being made a generation prior to my birth. We found other, less efficient, but less magic intensive methods of travel, but the knowledge that something so… effective was lost to us was a hard potion to swallow."

Harry frowned while considering what he had been told, "I'm not sure that makes sense. I mean, there were times when I ended up needing to cast until I exhausted myself, but the magic was still readily available to others. Unless this theory has an explanation for how an individual's magic would be so completely tied to his slice of the pie to the exclusion of all others, I don't think it adds up."

The painted man paused for a moment and reached for a painted flagon of some steaming drink, and took a long pull. "You make a good point," he nodded. "One that I had never considered before. There were other theories for what was happening, of course, the too many people for the available magic being only one. There were even crackpot claims, like those who said that it was a natural progression of magic, since previous generations were always more powerful than the current, and one particularly absurd claim that the Earth was somehow sentient and had judged the wizards to be unworthy of magic."

Lamont rubbed his painted eyes in thought for a moment then continued, "A Muggleborn who had left the magical enclave he had grown up in for the larger universe returned with tales of a new world the Muggles had found in their exploration of the galaxy. They called it Zerox, and he told tales of just how much magic that world held. Inside of a generation almost every Wizard and Witch on Earth had left for this new promised land, one free of Muggles by treaty and contract, and one that promised almost unlimited power."

"That sounds like something most of the witches and wizards I've known would long for," Harry said sadly.

"Zerox wasn't without its problems," Lamont nodded. "For the longest time the new residents could only access the tiniest bit of magic, despite their being able to feel it everywhere. Then children born there surpassed their parents, and the next generation theirs, suggesting that there was something about the planet that most people had to adjust too. Then, there was the problem with wands."

"Wands?"

"Yes, it seemed that the wood of Zerox wouldn't work in a wand, and there were no magical creatures for the cores," Lamont explained. "For a while, there was a bit of trade between the few of us who remained and Zerox for wand making materials, then they discovered some method of using the local materials, and that cut the last tie they had to old Earth."

"Are you glad you stayed?" Harry asked.

"I was, I am," the painted man nodded. "My ambition had always been to be the Hogwarts Headmaster, and I had achieved it. When everyone was leaving, I found I couldn't leave the only thing I had ever wanted, so I stayed, and so did a few thousand others, mostly ancient survivors like me. Slowly we died out, with me being the last of us on Earth."

"But what about the Muggleborn?" Harry asked. "What prevented them from continuing to appear after the exodus?"

"The leading theory is that the cause of the spontaneous emergence of Muggleborn magic users came from the mass of magic users around them," Lamont explained. "When the Wizards and Witches left, there was no longer the trigger that caused the Muggleborn to emerge. Without the mass of magic users, the Muggleborn that had left for the larger world stopped having magical children."

"I haven't spoken this much in at least a century," Lamont grinned, taking another pull from his flagon. "Would you mind explaining your apparent youth?"

"Time travel," Harry explained simply.

"But that cannot be," Lamont insisted. "All research into temporal displacement is very clear in that one can only move backwards in time."

"I've been told that," Harry nodded, recalling all the reasons Hermione said he couldn't go. "But no one told the Muggles, so they managed it with their technology." A small grin formed on his face as Harry continued. "It might well be correct that I couldn't move forward in time, but I circumvented that restriction by hitching a ride with someone who had travelled back in time when they returned to their 'present'.

The man in the painting's mouth worked with no sound coming out for several seconds. "You know, that reasoning never occurred to me. So, what do you think of the world now? How has it changed since my day?"

"No idea," Harry admitted. "So far, I've seen a few rooms in a building and Hogwarts, then you have to factor in that I also have no idea what the world was like when you were alive."

"Ah," Lamont nodded. "Excellent points, both.

"Okay," Harry said nodding slowly. "You've explained the Exodus, now what was that about the House Elves?"

"History is vague on the topic, but from what I've been able to uncover, not long after you disappeared, an elf who worked at Hogwarts as an employee rather than a slave began to tell stories of your adventures and how someday you would return to free them all and avenge the way they had been treated. Quite a religion grew from it. By the time I was a boy, all elf work would stop at 2pm every Wednesday for an hour so that elves everywhere could congregate at #12 Grimauld Place in London for services. No one knows why they chose that place, but every Wednesday, the every elf in the world would show up and pray."

Harry felt his blood go cold. "#12 Grimauld Place?" He asked wondering when the horrible house had been rebuilt. "What were they praying for?"

"For your return, mostly," Lamont explained. "The services were frequently studied by Wizards. The Elves didn't care if their services were observed, but if anyone attempted to break up the services… Let's just say that no one ever tried twice."

"Did the elves leave for space with the Witches and Wizards, or are they still here?"

"They didn't go to Zerox, no," Lamont shook his head. "The leaders among the Elves declared their fellows free, due to the agreement of servitude lasting until the end of the Earth. They claimed that since Wizards were leaving the Earth, the agreement was void. By this time, your average wizard could not hope to win against an elf given how depleted their magic was, so the Wizarding population left for their new home alone. The Goblins dug their caverns deeper and abandoned the surface completely. The Centaurs had already left the Earth a century before. The elves just disappeared. Not all of them, of course. Three elder elves remained at Hogwarts to care for the place because, like me, they had devoted their lives to the Castle. By the time I was dying, it was just me and Toppie, she cared for me in my final days, and then waited with me until I woke in my frame before going her own way."

"I… see," Harry said, the enormity of the history lesson washing over him. Everything he had ever known was utterly gone… Other than the castle itself.

"Can you satisfy an old man's curiosity on another topic?" Lamont asked, almost pleading.

"I'll try," Harry responded.

"The stories told of you said that you followed the master strategist Roonil Wazlib on his adventures," Lamont's eyes shown in the room's light, "can you tell me about him and his exploits? Did he come with you? Do you think he might sign my copy of his Chocolate Frog Card?"

With all his might, Harry resisted the urge to facepalm.

--== LEGION ==--

Harry and Hogwarts' final Headmaster talked into the night, until the stress of the day finally had Harry falling asleep due to exhaustion. Lamont sent him on his way, inviting him to spend the night in his old dormitory.

Harry accepted the offer, and promising to return as soon as he could before leaving the Headmaster's office for the Gryffindor Dormitory.

The door opened as he approached, Harry entered the Gryffindor common room for the second time that day and contemplated climbing the stairs to his old dorm before changing his mind, and clearing the dust from the common room with a cleaning charm.

Harry lay on one of the sofas and extinguished his bluebell flames, plunging himself into deep darkness.

Sleep came quickly.

--== LEGION ==--

Harry woke to hunger. Headmaster Lamont had apologized for not being able to offer food the night before, but Harry's time with his loving family as well as the horcrux hunt that had turned into an endless camping trip had ensured that mere hunger was not an obstacle to his life.

Oddly, despite having no lights outside the Headmaster's office, the castle's plumbing still worked. Harry luxuriated in the hot water of the shower before cleaning his clothing with a charm and dressing for his day.

He paused at the castle's door wondering if he should stop and speak with the portrait. The painted man obviously hungered for interaction, and Harry suspected that if he were to go to the Headmaster's Office, he would be unlikely to escape.

Stepping out into the sunlight, he decided that he would return when he could, but for now, he needed to know what, if anything, this future time had to fight for.

He needed to see the world. Or at least part of it.

If he was going to disapparate, purposefully anyway, he needed to know where he was going. Outside of Hogwarts that left few possibilities, the Dursley home and #12 Grimauld Place primary among them.

But after a thousand years, would those places even be recognizable? He looked at his right hand where the Legion Flight Ring rested. Perhaps an approach from above was suggested.

With a thought he lifted from the ground, shooting upward at speeds his Firebolt would have had trouble matching.

Ring based flight was amazing. The experience proved to Harry that he had never truly flown before. In an instance he felt like his eleven year old self had on his first flight, but without the restrictions that holding a broom between his legs had always required. Somehow, his altitude, direction and speed of flight was projected into his eyes, not interfering with his vision, but noticeable none the less.

He pushed upwards until he reached an altitude of a thousand meters, then concentrating on Privet Drive, disappeared.

--== LEGION ==--

Only to reappear high above the middle of a massive motorway, with towering buildings on either side. The buildings extended upwards into the clouds and as far as he could see the length of the motorway. Evidently Little Whinging had changed a bit in the last thousand years.

Odd that the motorway was so… empty. Twelve lanes stretching to the horizon in both directions and not a single vehicle on any of them.

Harry had almost decided to go higher to see just how tall these buildings were, when he noticed a pair of young children in one of the many windows of the nearest of the towering structures. The two young boys were waving wildly at him. Harry pulled himself into a hover and waved back.

A woman appeared behind the children, their mother, perhaps. The woman's eyes went wide in fear upon seeing him, and moved the children away from the window.

She was frightened of him? The shock of that realization slowed his reaction when a banisher hit him from the side.

--== LEGION ==--

The spell that hit him certainly hurt, but it still seemed to be somewhat weak in comparison with those he had felt before. Gathering himself, he rotated in the air to face the pair of witches on broomsticks approaching him at a moderate speed.

"I hit him," the redhead in the lead said. "I know I hit him, how is he still flying?"

"Maybe you missed," her brunette partner suggested.

"No," Harry corrected her, "She hit me. I was hit by better banishing charms when I was 12, but she hit me. The question is, what am I going to do to you two for casting offensive magic at me?"

The pair both raised their wands to cast, but slowly, as if they were unsure what they should do.

"Incarcerous!" Harry cast, beating them to the punch. Thick ropes from the Elder wand bound the pair together, far thicker than any he had created before, so much thicker that the brooms they were riding could no longer support their combined weights.

Following them as they slowly lost altitude, Harry swooped in closer to snatch the wands from their hands, before landing to await their slow descent.

"You're a wizard," the redhead said after the mass of ropes from Harry's overpowered Incarcerous pulled her to the ground.

"I am," Harry admitted, still examining the wands he had taken from them. They weren't made of wood. Rather the material used appeared to be some sort of plastic.

"But why would you do this to us?" the brunette asked.

"I was minding my own business, wondering why the locals were all terrified of me, and you attacked me without warning or provocation," Harry pointed out, "and you're asking why I responded?"

A foul look was all the response Harry got from the pair.

"Fine," he sighed. "You're going to take me to your leader."

"We'd die first!" the brunette declared.

"Alright then," Harry laughed. "It looks like the locals are coming out to see what's going on. I'll leave you to it then."

"You're going to leave us tied up, at the mercies of these animals?" the redhead asked plaintively.

"That's the plan," Harry nodded, whipping one of the plastic wands about and getting a single shower of golden sparks before the wand core burned out, causing the wand to slag.

The brunette's eyes widened in horror. "My wand!" she shrieked, "you destroyed it."

"Pitiful little thing," Harry remarked, looking at the burned out wand before tossing it over his shoulder. "A hint for your wand makers. Wood. Wood is good, plastic not so much."

"That wand has been in my family for centuries!"

"Well, I guess the lesson is don't pick fights with people you can't beat," Harry pointed out as he extracted the witches' broomsticks from the knot of ropes and began examining them. Again, plastic. Weird. He laid one of the broomsticks on the ground and upon standing up again, held his hand over the odd device and said "Up."

The satisfying smack of the plastic broom against his hand immediately followed.

"No one damages a Potter Family wand!" the redhead sneered. "Our cousin will destroy you for this insult."

Harry's attention shifted from the broom to the two young women. "Say that again."

"Our cousin will destroy…" the brunette shrieked through her tears.

"Not that," Harry interrupted, "what family did you say?"

"We're Potters," the redhead said, "not that the name would mean anything to someone like you."

"You might be surprised," Harry said. "I want to talk to your cousin; he's your leader, right?"

--== LEGION ==--

"Incarcerous," Harry cast at the wizard who stood behind the door that opened to the redhead's touch. "Keep moving," he said to his two captives as they stepped over the man struggling in his bindings.

A witch and two wizards fell to Petrificus Totalus spells. The fourth person in the room, a witch cast a stunner at Harry, who batted the spell aside and returned one of his own, dropping the woman to the floor.

"Is that everyone?" Harry asked his two prisoners.

The brunette glared at him, but her redheaded relative shook her head. "Marcus is probably in his office," she said nodding toward the closed door. "He takes Muggle women in there… to question them."

"Does he now?" Harry asked. "Would you two hold hands for a moment?"

The pair of witches exchanged a confused look before taking each other's hand. Harry applied a sticking charm to them, and then attached both of their free hands to the wall.

"You two hang out okay?" Harry said before turning to face the doorway that slid open to allow an orange curse to pass through. Harry batted the curse away with the Elder wand. A large man holding a struggling woman as a shield appeared in the doorway.

"Who are you?" the newcomer demanded.

"I'm the lad who's going to end you," Harry explained helpfully.

"Marcus, he made us bring him here," the redhead pleaded.

"I'll be dealing with you later, Modesty," Marcus sneered. "How is it that Earth has a Wizard?"

"Born here," Harry responded, wondering if he should be hamming it up with Tom Riddle style boasts and pretention. He noticed that the woman's mouth was working with no sound coming out, suggesting that she had been silenced. He also made note of her torn clothing and her panicked expression. "And I suppose you're another 'Potter'?"

"Marcus Lyndon Potter," the wizard responded, "33rd in a direct male line from Harry Potter himself."

"Yeah, sure you are, and a bit of a rapist as well, I see," Harry noted.

"You're powerful," Marcus pointed out, "I could clearly see that in the monitoring charms, but you're nothing compared to our Lord Mordru."

"Yeah, yeah," Harry sighed. "I've heard that before about another wally with delusions of godhood. Let the woman go and we'll discuss this like adults."

"DIE!"

Harry sidestepped the curse he didn't recognize before responding with a piercing hex. The shaft of magic shot from the Elder wand to the man's left eye, exploding out the back of his head. Rushing forward, Harry caught the woman before Marcus' dead weight could pull her down with him. Her eyes wide and panicked, Harry murmured the sleeping charm and she slumped in his arms.

Harry lowered Marcus' victim onto the table near the wall after casting cushioning charms on its surface. He then turned to face the magic users in the room.

"Well, I've killed the rapist," he said quietly meeting each of their eyes, "what should I do with you lot?"

The redhead- Modesty if Harry recalled correctly - opened her mouth but harry interrupted her with a wave of his hand.

"Before we get to that I'd like to ask your boss a few questions." Harry said as he pulled a ring from his pocket and twirled it a few times in his hand.

Any idle thoughts the captives had of resistance fled.

--== LEGION ==--

Harry reappeared at the spot he had disappeared from the day before to find alarms blaring, lights flashing and the collection of heroes who were known as the Legion focusing their powers at him. No one was actually using their powers… yet, but the potential for pain was only a fraction of a second away.

"I'm back," he announced redundantly. "Everyone calm down. Who is in charge here, anyway?"

"It's him," Imra confirmed. "Everyone stand down. Brainiac 5 is our current leader, Harry."

"Where the hell did you go?" Garth Ranzz demanded.

Harry turned to stare at the redhead. "I'm not talking to you. I've had a bad enough day without having to deal with someone like you. Fuck off."

"What did you do, Harry?" Lournu asked.

"I gave the Wizards on Earth 24 hours to get the hell off the planet," Harry sighed, his anger fading. "I had to explain the facts of life to the contingent in London, but they know I'm serious and that they don't have the ability to fight me."

"How did you convince them to leave?" Brainiac 5 asked.

"I immobilized the entire London coven, found their leader in the middle of a rape, and killed him when he wouldn't surrender. Evidently he was supposedly able of fighting any five of them at once and the way I finished him frightened the rest of them enough to be willing to face that Mordru bloke."

Silence filled the room. "You killed him?" Imra asked.

"Yes," Harry admitted. "He was using his victim as a shield and trying to kill me. He really didn't give me much of a choice."

"This is unfortunate," Braniac 5 said. "The Science Police will have to be notified."

"They have been," Harry said. "The London Police were doing the best they could while staying out of sight of the wizards. While they were deliriously happy that I had chased the London coven out of the city, they weren't terribly happy to allow me to leave after they found out I was a magic user, but the rape victim told them what happened and convinced them that I was one of the good guys."

"You killed someone," Garth pointed out. "You can never be in the Legion."

"Oh, no," Harry said sarcastically. "I can't join a club I've never wanted to join. How will I go on? Fuck you, again."

"Harry Potter," Querl said quietly, "Are you willing to work with us?"

"As long as it's with you and not for you, I'm fine with it," Harry said. "I saw what my fellow magic users were doing in London and I was told about what they've done in the rest of the world. And they're doing it in my name. They honestly believe they are my direct descendants."

"All of them?" Mysa asked.

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "They were promised Earth as a place that the Potter family would rule for Mordru. All 270 of the Wizards on Earth claim to be Potters. I've frightened them enough to run home."

"Aren't they more frightened by what Mordru will do to them when they return to Zerox?" Imra asked.

"No. Evidently Mordru has a strict rule regarding the treatment of witches and wizards. They expect to have their magic bound for some amount of time, or at worst to be transfigured into some kind of animal as punishment for their failure here," Harry explained. "My killing and interrogation of the leader of the London coven shook them to their cores. They honestly never believed that they might be treated in such a manner. You lot evidently fight very civilized wars."

"I thought you said you killed the leader in a fight, now you're admitting to interrogating him first." Garth crowed. "I'm taking you in!"

"The interrogation was postmortem." Harry said flatly.

The assembled Legionnaires began an uncomfortable silence while considering his words. After several minutes Harry broke the silence.

"So, you're the leader Brainiac, what's our next move?"

"With the fall of EarthGov, we are currently and extra-governmental militia. I never expected you to vanquish the magic users on Earth in a single day. We will have to consider our next move carefully while Earth reestablishes its government."

"What's to reestablish?" Harry asked. "The London coven told me that they hadn't killed anyone. I'm fairly sure they didn't lie to me."

"The entire leadership of EarthGov, were changed to salt statues!" the large man named Gim Allon said. "Including the President of Earth… My mother."

"Statues?" Harry asked. "Could I get a look at them?"

--== LEGION ==--

"Hmm," Harry hummed looking closely at the 'statue' of a man showing obvious horror.

"What?" Mysa asked. "I've already tried to reverse the spell, and failed. Do you think you can?"

"Don't know," Harry acknowledged, waving his wand over the 'statue' in a diagnostic charm and checking the indications with a confused expression. "That can't be right."

"What can't be right?" Querl demanded.

"This looks like the Inanimatus Conjurus Spell," Harry explained.

"We don't know what that means, Harry," Imra said gently.

"It's a fifth year transfiguration spell. I've never seen it used on people, but that's what it looks like."

"Fifth year?" Gim asked.

"Fifth year of school at Hogwarts, when we were 15," Harry said absently, doing another diagnostic. "Oh, come on."

"What?" Gim asked.

"Which of these people is the least important?" Harry asked.

"What kind of horrible question is that?" Mysa asked indignantly.

"They are all considered dead now," Harry pointed out. "I think I know how to reverse the spell, but I might be wrong. Being wrong might mean that they all remain statues, and it might mean that the one I test on will explode in a spectacular and definitely fatal manner. Which of these dead people would be the least missed if he were to remain dead?"

"That one," Gim stepped forward pointing at the tall woman statue.

"Gim, that's your mother," Mysa gasped.

"My mother would always risk herself before others," the big man said quietly. "She would never forgive me if she were revived after risking someone else. Do your voo doo on her."

Harry nodded, and jabbed his wand at the transfigured woman. "Finite Incantatem."

Nothing happened for a full second, then the statue of salt became a flesh and blood woman who drew a desperate ragged breathe before starting to collapse.

"Mom!" Gim shouted as he rushed forward to catch her.

Marte Allon blinked several times as if unable to believe what she was seeing. "Gim?" she asked. "What happened?"

--== LEGION ==--

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