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Chapter 1. Recruitment

The door irised open, allowing a single young man entry. He raised his right arm and willed a sphere of silver energy to form around his hand. He concentrated before causing the sphere to pulse flooding the entire building with the silver energy.

Rokk Krinn waited for a heartbeat before turning back to the door. "Clear."

"Wasting my time," a second, smaller, man shouldered his way past the first. "Mordru could never find this facility."

"He found the last two Brainy," Imra Ardeen pointed out before finding one of the large room's many chairs to collapse on. She spread the fingers of each hand and placed them on either side of her forehead and her eyes glowed for a moment. "No one within my range noticed us arriving or Rokk's Magnetic Survey."

The facility's main display bloomed in the middle of the room, with several smaller holographic displays manifesting in the air on either side.

"The other facilities were publicly known," the young man said as he began his searches. "This one is not; I set it up originally as a place to get away from all of you when you get annoying, which happens with distressing regularity."

"Leave Brainy alone, Imra" Luornu Durgo laughed as she slid into the seat next to her friend. "Putting up with us stupid people must be a pain."

"None of you…" the green skinned man born Querl Dox sighed, "are stupid. You are all undisciplined, unfocused, lazy, and lack precision, but none of you are stupid."

"We love you too, Brainy," Luornu responded. "What is the current situation?"

"EarthGov has surrendered," Querl answered, shaking his head. "Not really surprising, considering the President and her entire staff were changed to statues of salt and the Admiralty were killed to a man by controlled staffers."

"And your evaluation?" Rokk asked, having sealed the building's entrances once the last of their depleted membership had entered.

"We have lost," Querl answered simply, his hands blurring at the controls of the building's computer systems. "I am running sims as we speak, with 64,302 complete, and in each of them, save one, each of us will die or be assimilated into Mordru's forces within three hundred hours."

"And that one where we don't die or get assimilated?" Imra asked.

"In simulation 39,128 we fight Mordru with magic," the 12th level intellect said. "As improbable and distasteful as that might be."

"Brainiac 5," Mysa Nal interrupted, "I am not capable of the levels of magic that fighting Mordru directly would require."

"No, you are not," Querl Dox agreed. A holographic display appeared before each of the Legionnaires. "The fractured histories of human magic all appear to claim that previous generations of Homo Magus were vastly more powerful than those of the current generation."

"We stand on the shoulders of giants," Mysa agreed. "But how does that help us?"

"I propose we recruit a historic magic user to help us," he explained. "One of the many whose exploits dwarf those of Mordru."

"Brainy, I thought you said time travel was too dangerous for us to risk any longer?" Nura Nal asked.

"I was correct to shut down our temporal exploits, Dreamer," Querl said in an emotionless tone that his fellows recognized as indicating the majority of his attention was focused on the simulations he was running. "However, exceptions must be made for the survival of Science and our way of life. It is regrettable, but we need to fight magic with magic. To do that we need a legendary user of magic."

Silence filled the room for several seconds as that news sank in.

"Who do you want to recruit, Brainy?" Luornu asked. "Gandalf?"

"Gandalf is a fictional character, Triad," Querl sighed. "While it might be possible to travel through dimensions to find an actual Gandalf, it is far easier to simply go back in time. With the resources available to me, I can assemble a functional, if limited, Temporal Transfer device." A new screen manifested before the green man's eyes. "Integrating my own cybernetic interface into the device will allow for a group of no more than five Legionnaires to travel into the past and retrieve our volunteer. My sims suggest I will be able to sustain a maximum targeting range of 1024 Terran years with an accuracy of plus or minus .02 percent."

In the back of the room, Gim Allon's face took on an expression of confusion. "Plus or minus .02 percent?" He asked. "What does that mean?"

"Seventy five days," Imra answered calling up her own display. "That era is flush with magic users, Brainy. Who is your proposed target?"

"Seventy four point eight days, and I don't know," the 12th level intellect admitted. "I haven't done an evaluation yet. We also have to consider what damage we could do to the timeline. Given the imprecision of my temporal targeting, the candidate must not play a part in any major historical events within five years of leaving that primitive era.

"Okay Brainy, you keep working on your time machine, I'll cross reference the historical records for magic users and their place in history within your targeting window." Imra said. "Zatanna is out, she was deeply involved in the Justice League during that period. Zatara, Mandrake and Raven were all dead within Brainy's targeting window. Dr Fate was officially inactive but consistently busy. Black Alice had not yet manifested her powers. John Constantine was in hell, and Johnny Thunder was in a nursing facility due to his host's advanced age."

"Any other magic user from that time period?" Luornu asked.

"Within Brainy's defined search parameters only one name comes up," Imra answered.

"Who is it?" Querl asked.

"Someone named 'Harry Potter'," the Blond explained. "He has no historical references after…"

"August 5th, 1998," Mysa Nal answered.

Other than Brainiac, every eye in the room focused on the young woman known to the Galaxy as the White Witch.

"Among the sorcerers of Zerox, Harry Potter's name is spoken in whispers," Mysa explained. "His power was unparalleled; he stopped an assassination attempt by the Dark Lord Walmart, his era's version of Mordru, when he was less than two years old. As he grew, so did his power. In his third year of education in magic, he banished an entire horde of demons; in his fourth, he bested challengers decades his senior in a contest of champions; after he left school, he faced off against the resurrected Dark Lord and his Dread Associates, aided only by the fabled Master Strategist Roonil Wazlib, and their faithful cook and quartermaster, Hermione Granger."

Across the room Querl Dox looked up in shock, before shaking his head and returning to his work. Cook and quartermaster? It could not possibly be the same woman.

"Harry Potter was a giant of a man," Mysa continued, "the last wielder of the Death Stick wand, a kind soul, unless you were his enemy, and a lover of women without parallel. He is said to be a direct ancestor of the bulk of all the magic users in the galaxy. One of the mysteries of magic is why he was never heard from again after August 5th, 1998."

"Including us, Sister?" Nura asked.

"Yes," the young woman known as the White Witch acknowledged. "It is his genetics that is believed to have granted our family the gift of precognition, and my own more… arcane abilities."

Saturn Girl turned to look at Brainiac 5. The green skinned man considered for a moment before nodding. "That would be within the window I expect to arrive in the 20th Century."

Dox manipulated a few more controls before continuing. "The late 20th Century only had the most rudimentary of digital architecture. Finding Potter among the untagged masses will be difficult to say the least. Having either Dreamer or the White Witch along in the search will aid in having a reference for the genetic scans. Still, we have a starting point;" He concentrated for a moment before causing a drawing of a tall muscular man wearing glasses to appear before each of the Legionaires. "Legend says he made his home in the English county of Surrey. Potter appears to have been camera shy. This is the only image of him that survives, an image created of Potter not long after his disappearance. As was common for heroes of that era, Potter's best friend was a writer for a major Newspaper of the time, one Rita Skitter. If I can target the era properly, we should arrive in between the time when he defeated his 'Dark Lord'… preferably shortly before he disappeared."

"Which would make him, approximately 18 years old? Well," Imra said to her assembled team, "I guess we know who we will be trying to recruit."

"Yeah," Triad breathed, her eyes never moving from the image. "We need to get us some of that."

"The hard part," Dox cautioned, "will be finding him."

--== LEGION ==--

"Have you made any plans yet?" Dennis Granger asked.

"Not really," Harry Potter admitted. "I need to find a job to pay you back for your generosity, and I need to find my way in the world."

Dennis looked at the distracted young man who shared his kitchen table. Since discovering the boy was homeless since he and his wife had returned from their year long vacation in Australia, he had insisted his daughter's friend stay with them.

What he hadn't expected was that in the two weeks since they have returned home, his daughter would all but disappear.

"You don't owe us anything, Harry," Dennis said gently. "You've ruled out returning to the Magical society then?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded sullenly. "At first it was 'Well done, Harry', 'We always knew you could do it, Harry', and 'Please let me thank you, Harry'. Then it became 'If only you'd been a bit quicker off the mark, Harry', and 'I'm sure you did your best, Harry'. Then when we returned from Australia, it had become 'you're nothing but a glory hound, Potter', 'Why did you let my daddy die, Harry?', and 'What were you waiting for, Potter?'."

The young man ran his hands through his hair before continuing. "Gringotts has confiscated all of my money, the house I inherited was destroyed by the Death Eaters, and I just can't deal with the people any longer. Even the new Minister of Magic only wants to use me. There is nothing in the Magical world for me any longer. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I promise I'll be out of your house as soon as I can."

"Harry," Dennis said quietly, "it's because of you Hermione is alive. As far as Margret and I are concerned, you have a place here as long as you live."

Harry nodded dully, and rose from the table to do the dishes. Dennis finished his tea and stood up as well. He needed to get to the surgery.

--== LEGION ==--

The park near the Granger family home was a nice one. Carefully manicured walking paths meandered between stands of trees and the warm summer weather had the playground equipment fully occupied by young children.

With every chore he could find at the Granger house done and unable to stand daytime television, Harry attempted to find solace in the anonymity the Muggle world offered in wandering the paths for an hour before settling down on one of the many park benches. The rest of the afternoon turned out to be exceptionally odd, even by Harry's standards.

First there had been a blond girl with very large blue eyes who had walked by him three times holding some sort of box the size of a pack of cigarettes. She would look at the box, then at him, then at the box again, with a clear expression of confusion on her face.

Then there had been a brunette girl who walked past him a few dozen times. This one didn't have the box, but she was clearly staring at him. The last time she came by, she stopped in front of him and said "Hallow Ha-wee", before blushing and rushing away.

Harry was left to wonder about her odd pronunciations for several moments before a dark haired young man approached. "Ah am Rock," he said in the same odd accent as the brunette. "We fight now, yah?"

"Get away from me you lunatic," Harry snapped.

This response seemed to surprise the stranger, but he walked away without another word, his head hanging low.

That was enough oddness for one day, Harry decided. He moved to stand up when a woman's voice interrupted him.

"I apologize for that, Harry Potter."

Harry turned to find the blond girl with the large blue eyes sitting next to him on the bench. Internally, he wondered how she had gotten so close without his noticing. "Have we met?" He asked.

"No, never before today," she answered. "And in answer to the question you're asking yourself, I sat down while you were focused on Rokk, who I'm afraid has read far too much historical fiction about this era and believes that a team up must start with a fight."

"Team up?" Harry asked, wondering just what it was about him that attracted these crazies everywhere he went.

"I'm hardly crazy, Harry," the girl laughed. "And I also must apologize for Luornu and Rokk's pronunciation. I only taught them English an hour ago, and I didn't have time to drill them on diction. Hopefully, I'll do a better job when I teach you Interlac."

"Yeah," Harry said, standing up. "Look, I don't know what kind of weirdness you've got going here, but I'm full up with my own problems."

"You are Harry James Potter, born July 31st 1980," the young woman said calmly. "As the 7th month died, one might say."

Harry blinked at the woman owlishly.

"Not clear enough?" she asked. "Your only living relatives are Vernon and Petunia Dursley, who are horrible people, by the way, and your cousin Dudley, who, despite having a mind like a sewer, is honestly trying to be a better person, and suggested that I might find you with your friend Hermione Granger rather than in Little Whinging. We had been looking for you for three days by that point. If not for Dudley, we likely would never have found you."

"Who are you?" Harry demanded.

"Imra Ardeen," she said, with a small bow of her head, "at your service."

"At my service," Harry laughed. "Like I believe that."

"You're awfully young to be so cynical, Harry."

"You call it cynicism, I call it bitter experience," Harry disagreed. "What do you want?"

"I would like you to come with me and be the hero you've always been," she said. There was something about her eyes that told Harry that she believed everything she said.

Which he found kind of sad.

"If there are any heroes in the world," Harry said as he stood up, "I'm not one of them."

He apparated away before the blond could respond.

--== LEGION ==--

"Ooh," Hermione said looking up from her soup, "this is so good, Mum."

"Don't look at me," Margaret Granger said with a smile. "I arrived just before you did. I suspect your father has discovered a new take out restaurant."

"Nope," Dennis shook his head. "My contribution to tonight's meal is carrying the bowls in from the kitchen and tasting everything. This is all Harry."

"It's just soup," Harry said with a blush.

"And just a Lancashire hotpot in the oven," Dennis snarked.

"So this is what you produce when you have decent ingredients?" Hermione sighed. "We should have gone to the greengrocers more often."

"That's what I said at the time, if you'll recall," Harry responded. "I really can't imagine Lucius or Greyback hanging out at a greengrocer. So, how are the Weasleys?"

"Better," Hermione admitted. "Molly spends all her time cooking so that she doesn't think about Fred. George has reopened their shop and is going through the motions, though truth be told his heart isn't in it. Ginny is furious with you for not letting her apologize."

"Of course she is," Harry sighed.

"She truly feels bad about asking why you didn't finish it before Fred was killed," Hermione continued, still trying to bring about reconciliation between her two friends.

"I'm sure she does," Harry said as he collected the soup bowls and exited to the kitchen for the next course.

"Hermione," Margret said quietly. "You need to stop, that silly girl burned her bridges with Harry, and no amount of you interfering is going to change that."

"I know," she sighed. "It's just everything was going so well, we were going to be together forever, and she just had to hit him with that during an argument."

"Sometimes, it's best to stay out of these sorts of things, Toots," Dennis said, softening the suggestion by using her childhood nickname. "Harry is a proud young man, if you keep trying to push him back together with Ginny, you may lose your friend."

--== LEGION ==--

"I'm too full to read," Hermione said, setting her book aside. "I keep dozing off. That means you have to talk to me to help me stay awake."

"Now you know how Ron feels," Harry snarked, "all the time."

"So funny," Hermione deadpanned with an eye roll, ignoring her father's smothered laughter. "So, you asked about my day, how about yours?"

"Fairly average," Harry admitted, "Gave the house a clean, did a load of whites, spiffed up the garden and ran into some lunatics in the park."

"I wish you'd stop cleaning up around here," Margaret interjected. "It's given these two unreasonable expectations."

"Lunatics in the park?" Hermione asked extending her refusal to recognize what passed for her father's sense of humor to her mother as well.

"Yeah," Harry nodded, putting his own book aside. "A guy who wanted to fight me as a prelude to a team up and a couple of girls, one who barely spoke English and one of whom knew who I was, hinted that she knew about the prophecy, and who wanted me to come with her to 'be the hero I've always been'."

Harry shrugged. "You know, just the normal kind of lunatics I attract."

"Luna should never have published that article," Hermione mused. "If she hadn't every delusional in the world wouldn't be quoting the prophecy at you."

"Better everyone knows than we propagate Dumbledore's endless series of secrets," Harry disagreed.

Whatever Hermione's response was going to be was lost when a plume of smoke suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.

Without thought the two magic users rose from their seats, drew their wands and moved to defend the elder Grangers, Harry in front of Margaret, and Hermione in front of her father.

The smoke cleared to reveal a young woman, with white hair, skin so white as to appear chalkish, and red eyes. She looked about the room before spotting Harry standing in defense of Hermione's mother and knelt on the floor.

"Help us Harry Potter," she said in heavily accented English, "You're our only hope."

--== LEGION ==--

The room was silent for a beat before all three Grangers and Harry broke into laughter.

"You could do worse than misquoting Star Wars, young lady," Margret said with a wide smile, until she got a better look at the young woman. "What have you done to your eyes?"

"Star Wars?" The stranger asked as she rose from the floor in a smooth, effortless motion, her spotless white gown flowing about her body. "I know that this era was a time of multiple incursions into Earth Space, but I am not familiar with the conflict you are referring to." She reached both hands to her face, and delicately traced the antennae like structures that rose from the outside of each of her eyes. "These developed during my studies of magic, it is far from unusual for an adept of my discipline to manifest such structures."

Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance, each confirming that they had never heard of such body modifications before.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Harry demanded.

"My name is Mysa Nal, and I am here to plead with you to join our cause for freedom," she answered. "May I summon my companions so that we might make our case?"

"Is it too much to hope that they would knock on the front door?" Hermione asked.

The young woman took on an expression of embarrassment as she began the motions for her wandless casting. "That would be… difficult."

A doorway appeared in the middle of the room and a figure stepped through. Harry recognized the lunatic from the park who had wanted to fight. He was followed by the brunette, then the blond with the large blue eyes.

And then a green man entered the room. The Grangers gathered behind Harry upon seeing the green man. No longer were they dealing with Harry's normal sort of loonies, a green man had to be something else.

--== LEGION ==--

The five visitors and Harry joined the Grangers in their dining room. Crowded around the table it appeared that no one knew how to start their discussion until Harry, staring at the one visitor whose flesh didn't match any human hue, broke the silence.

"You're green," He pointed out intelligently.

"I am," the green man responded. "I congratulate you on your firm grasp of the obvious. I am Querl Dox of Colu, a rim planet on the approach to the Magellanic Clouds."

"You're from another planet?" Hermione asked.

"Well, as it was pointed out," Brainiac 5 responded with a rare grin, "I am green."

"None of us are Terrans," Rokk Krin interrupted, his English far better than Harry's first exposure to him a few hours before, though still thickly accented. "I'm from Braal, Imra is from Titan, Mysa is from Zerox, and Luornu is from Cargg. We're here to beg Harry Potter to join us in the defense of freedom. Trillions of lives are at risk."

"Trillions?" Hermione echoed. "The entire population of the planet is just under 6 billion. Where are the extra people coming from?"

"We," Mysa said, gesturing to herself and her companions, "are representatives of the United Planets, a galaxy wide community of inhabited worlds."

"And we are from 1000 years in your future," Imra interjected. "A great threat…"

"A Dark Lord," the White Witch interrupted.

"Yes, a Dark Lord, known as Mordru has all but conquered the entire United Planets sphere of influence," the blond continued.

"To be clear," Harry interrupted, "you want me to go with you a thousand years in the future, to save people who aren't born yet by fighting a wizard powerful enough to defeat a galaxy wide civilization?"

The green man tore his eyes away from Hermione before responding, "That would be a correct evaluation."

"With all respect Harry is due," Hermione said, "there are dozens of other magic users in the world better prepared for such a mission."

"No," Mysa disagreed. "Harry Potter is a legend. The tales of your power are told any time Sorcerers gather. You banished thousands of demons, you won a contest against competitors with decades more training than you, you defeated history's most powerful Dark Lord before you finished school, and you are the last known wielder of the Death Stick wand."

"I what?" Harry gasped.

"I think Harry's legend ended up a tiny bit inflated," Hermione suggested.

"You think?" Dennis laughed. "How did you find him here, anyway?"

Querl nodded. "As the historical records were spotty at best, we tried to use what we thought… at the time, was reliable information."

"What information was that?" Hermione asked.

Mysa spoke up. "In our time, a bulk of the magical beings in the galaxy claim to be directly descended from Harry Potter."

As one, the Granger family turned to look at Harry.

"That would be a neat trick," Harry laughed. "I've had two girlfriends, one that cried on me and one who blames me for her brother's death. Neither of them took me to their beds."

"We know this now," the White Witch responded, looking slightly sad.

Imra looked away, embarrassed. "Tracking the DNA of whom we thought was Harry Potter, we found a low-level criminal called… Mundungus Fletcher."

"Of course you did," Harry muttered.

The red eyed woman continued without looking at Harry. "We discovered that Fletcher used a potion to take on your appearance, stared into a mirror as he took another to … boost production, and then proceeded to…"

"Please don’t finish," Harry grumbled, wondering just why the universe hated him so much. Shaking his head in an ineffectual attempt to clear that image from his mind and sighed. "All of that aside, I'm really not sure that any of this is my problem."

"But…" Luornu sputtered, "the people… They're dying."

"People whose, from my perspective, great grand parents aren't even born yet," Harry pointed out. "From your perspective every single person I know has been dead for centuries. What are your plans for saving them?"

The people from the purported future had no answer for that.

"My point exactly," Harry continued. "If saving the people I know isn't a priority for you, why would saving the people you know be a priority for me?"

The five time travelers sat in silence, none of them could think of a way to respond.

"Besides," Harry continued, "If you've got Time Travel, why are you bothering with me? Why not just hop back to when your Mordru fellow is a 10 year old and kill him?"

"Time isn't a construct to be manipulated at will," Dox replied. "Events that have happened, will happen, regardless of what individuals may do. Mordru rose to power, that happened. If we were to go back to his childhood and attempt to end his life, we would fail, or someone else would become Mordru. Since none of the Legion's members are sufficiently magically powerful to fight him, we needed a magic user capable of fighting Mordru, who doesn't have a historical record to prevent his leaving his own era."

"So, I don't have a future?" Harry asked with a grin. "Why aren't I surprised?"

"Harry!" Hermione scolded. "Of course you have a future. "What kind of time are we talking about here?" Hermione asked. "If Harry and I were to agree to this, how long would we be gone?"

"No!" Querl Dox shouted shooting to his feet. "You cannot come!"

The Grangers regarded the young man with surprise. His normally expressionless face shifted to a look of embarrassment.

"I apologize," he said, retaking his seat. "Miss Granger cannot accompany us to the 31st century. Our Time Machine can only transport 6 people, the five of us and our volunteer."

"And when would Harry return?" Hermione pressed.

"We don't know," Imra admitted. "The fuel for our transport is limited, and we don't know the status of the industrial systems to create more. All of your thoughts are so very clear, perhaps it is time for a little honesty."

"Saturn Girl! No!" Querl attempted to stop her.

"Yes, Brainy," she said quietly. "Harry Potter needs to know the truth."

"Harry," she said, turning toward him. "Because of the limitations of how traveling through time works, we have to return to our own time in 22 hours. We have cut everything so close because we had not anticipated the difficulty involved in finding you. The primary reason for us seeking you out, for coming to you to help us is that on top of tales of your exploits, however exaggerated they may be, you completely vanish from the historical record tomorrow, August 5th, 1998."

"So, you take this historical footnote about me as a sign that I would join you in this adventure?" Harry asked.

"Well," she hesitated, "yes."

"Perhaps it would be best if we discussed this as a family," Dennis said. "You have given us your deadline, let us talk about it."

--== LEGION ==--

The next morning, Harry watched as Hermione vanished into apparation.

"She couldn't wait, could she?" Dennis commented over his steaming mug. "She'll always be running off to the magic users, won't she?"

"She's going to get Ron," Harry explained. "She knows me too well, so she wants Ron to back her up when telling me that I'm being stupid."

"You've decided then?" Margaret asked.

"I laid in bed thinking about it all night," Harry admitted. "And I absolutely do not want to go. It's not my problem, it's crazy that these future people thought to come and snatch someone from the past to fight their battles for them based on nothing more than nonsensical legends."

"In fairness, wouldn't you have reached out to Merlin or Godric Gryffindor to help you fight Voldemort if you could have?" Margaret asked.

"That would be completely…" Harry paused in his protest, before sighing. "Yeah, I guess that would be pretty much the same thing. But I'm no Godric Gryffindor."

"There's that legend thing again," Dennis suggested. "Perhaps Godric Gryffindor was no Harry Potter."

"Yeah, right," Harry shook his head. "But they said people were dying. Even if they're people I don't know, how can I ignore that if I can do something about it? Sure, they won't appreciate it, and no matter what I do, I'll be second guessed by people who have done nothing, but I'm not sure I could live with myself if I didn't at least try."

"I wonder which of them she will talk into staying behind so she can go with you." Dennis asked with a dark expression.

"Hermione is not coming," Harry said. Upon seeing the lack of belief in the faces of his best friend's parents, he again shook his head. "Didn't you see the way the green lad kept staring at her?"

"I did think that was a bit presumptuous of him," Dennis nodded.

"That wasn't a 'wow, check out the hot girl' leer," Harry disagreed. "That was an 'I don't believe I'm in the same room as a legend' stare. I saw that a lot the first couple of years at Hogwarts. Then, if you take into account the way he protested when she simply suggested coming along? Our Hermione has some important things in her future. Greenie knows or suspects that it's a one way trip, and Hermione is far too important to history for her to come along, while I'm just a wand waver who has no meaning to history after today."

"No meaning to history beyond your legend," Margret corrected gently.

"Yeah, beyond a collection of lies, exaggerations, and Dung Fletcher's DNA," Harry agreed.

--== LEGION ==--

"Only you, Harry," Ron laughed after the explanation was finished.

"It's not funny, Ron," Hermione scolded.

"It's a little funny," Harry admitted. "Not so much for me, but I could see myself laughing long and hard if it happened to someone else."

"The problem being that it never happens to someone else," Ron noted. "So, Hermione got me to come over to try and talk you out of going with the future people. Any chance of that working?"

"Not really," Harry admitted. "People are dying."

"People you don't know and who aren't born yet," Ron pointed out.

"Has me knowing them ever made any difference?"

"Nope," Ron nodded. "Sorry Hermione, he's going, and I envy him a bit. Fighting Space Wizards in the future sounds like a lot more fun than degnoming the garden… right up to the point that I remember how terrified I was through all the fighting and that I've got a girlfriend that sort of tolerates me now."

"That's what you call 'talking him out of it'?" Hermione huffed.

"No, that's what I call understanding Harry," Ron grinned. "And you understand him as well, if not better, than I do. After all, you're the one who first noticed his 'saving people thing'. What you wanted was for me to argue with him, for the three of us to get into a fight. That would either guilt him into not going, thereby making sure Harry felt guilty about the future people not being saved for the rest of his life, or he would go with the future people knowing we were angry with him and he'd feel guilty about disappointing us for the rest of his life."

"When did you get so smart?" she growled.

"When I got a smart girlfriend," Ron admitted. "Look, this whole 'going to the future to fight Space Wizards' thing that Harry is going to do terrifies us all. And we're going to deal with our fear the way we always do. Harry is going to deal with the fear by doing what he thinks is best, like he always does, you're going to deal with the fear by worrying about Harry, like you always do, and I'm going to deal with the fear by being hungry and whining about it, which is totally unique to this situation, and surprising to you both."

"I don't believe you," Hermione huffed again. "Either of you."

"But you love us," her boyfriend snarked. "Your mum got anything good in the kitchen? Hungry, Harry?"

"We've got leftovers," Harry admitted. "I guess I could eat."

"Leftovers?" Ron asked, following Harry into the Grangers' kitchen. "What are 'leftovers'?"

While Harry attempted to explain the concept of having food 'left over' after a meal was finished, Hermione remained in the sitting room for several moments wondering if she should be hugging both her boys or screaming at them. Her stomach growled as if offering a third option. She rose from the sofa to join her friends.

--== LEGION ==--

Ron's eyes widened as the doorway appeared from nowhere to allow the people from the future to simply walk into the Grangers' sitting room.

"Better than a Portkey, I'd wager," he said.

The new voice attracted the attention of the newcomers. "Oh, my," Mysa Nal gushed. "It's you! I don't believe it! It's really you."

Ron blinked in surprise, across the room, Harry and the Grangers stood in silent amazement.

"Have we met?" Ron asked.

"Oh, no," the White Witch gushed, "I just can't believe I'm meeting you. Your legend as a master strategist has survived to our time. The children of Zerox are raised on your legends."

"Really?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Oh, so really," the red eyed woman continued. "The legends of Roonil Wazlib are told wherever magic users gather… And I get to meet you! I never expected that."

"Roonil?" Harry and Hermione repeated while her father shook in silent laughter.

"Ah… Yes," the Querl coughed. "We have to leave soon, Harry Potter. Have you made your decision yet?"

"I have," Harry admitted, pushing the entire idea of 'Roonil' to the back of his mind. "I want nothing to do with your war; I know that whatever I do, win or lose, no one will appreciate it, and everyone will criticize my actions after the fact, totally ignoring that they did nothing to help."

The people from the future seemed to deflate at hearing that.

Not allowing anyone to protest, Harry continued, "that being said, I don't know if I could live with myself if I know I don’t do what I can to help. I've figured out that you think this is a one way trip; you only came to me because history shows I have no future. My condition for coming with you is that when it's all over, you do everything you can to return me to my own time."

"Agreed," Rokk Krinn said, stepping forward. "That would be the least we could do for you," a wry grin crossed his features, "assuming we survive."

The young man reached into his pocket and withdrew a small box which he offered to Harry. "Since you're coming with us, you'll need this."

Harry accepted the box and found it contained a golden ring with a letter 'L' on its face, along with a starburst. "A ring?"

"A Legion Flight Ring," Brainiac 5 corrected. "It will size itself to you once you put it on, and will automatically log you into our systems once we return to our time. It is a communication device, provides emergency life support, and will allow you to fly at hypersonic speeds."

Harry placed the golden ring upon the ring finger of his right hand. "You're trying to tell me that this little ring will allow me to fly?" Harry scoffed.

"Look down," the green man said with one of his rare smiles.

The citizens of the 20th century gasped when they realized that Harry was levitating several inches off the floor.

"Interesting," Rokk nodded. "You must be a natural flier. It normally takes a new legionnaire several hours to make their first flight.

"It's time to go," Brainiac 5 said.

"Yeah," Harry nodded, willing his feet back onto the floor and reaching out to pull Ron to his feet and whispered in his ear. "Take care of her, or I'll kick your arse."

"You'd best come back, wanker," Ron murmured in his ear. "If you don't, I'll name one of my kids 'Albus Severus'."

"Hermione," Harry said when she rushed into his arms. "You're going to make Roonil all jealous."

The brunette glanced over to her still laughing father, "I don't think my Dad is ever going to let that go. You had best come back!"

Margaret Granger pulled Harry into a hug, while Dennis shook his hand. "Stay safe," she implored.

Harry then moved to join the time travelers in the center of the room. "I’m ready."

The doorway opened when Mysa gestured.

"Just a moment," Querl said before approaching Hermione. He hesitated before starting, "Miss Granger, it is a tradition among Coluans of similar ages to exchange an embrace prior to taking a journey. Might I impose on you?"

The young woman was clearly confused, but stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the green man.

The hug lasted long enough that Ron stepped forward, "Oy, Greenie!"

"Hush Ron," Hermione said as she stepped back from the alien.

"Thank you, Miss Granger," Brainiac 5 said as he turned away and lead the way through the doorway.

--== LEGION ==--

Outside the Timesphere the universe swirled and twisted. The effect was both terrifying and mesmerizing. It wasn't really surprising that the view had captured the whole attention of the only person on board who had never seen it before.

"What was up with the 'Coluan tradition' you made up from whole cloth?" Imra asked in Interlac on the off chance that Harry Potter was paying attention.

"I was wondering as well," Luornu agreed.

Querl sighed and allowed a portion of his consciousness to stray from piloting the Timesphere. "A fair question. As you know, the Brainiac line is not known for allowing emotions into their lives."

"Really?" Luornu snarked. "I hadn't noticed."

"My mother, Brainiac 4, is cold and unfeeling. Her devotion to maintaining the primary arrays of the Databases of Colu is unquestioned. She feels my reaching out to other species for companionship is a defect. She herself was a disappointment to her father, Brainiac 3, who ceased functioning three centuries before I was conceived due to her excitability. Emotion has been slowly creeping into the line. This is considered a defect to be patched by my elders; I on the other hand consider it to be an asset, as long as I maintain control."

"Interesting, but it does not explain why you hugged the woman," Imra noted.

"In 2019, Brainiac, the original from Krypton, will attack the Earth and be defeated by the Justice League. The resulting body was turned over to several terran research facilities. It will be unpopulated by the Brainiac intelligence, of course, but there will still be… residue. A team working at Cern in Switzerland will receive the actual 'mind husk' of the Brainiac body, and in 2022 a researcher named Hermione Granger will successfully move the 12th level processing ability into biology through some unknown method."

"The same woman?" Luornu asked.

"Indeed. Somehow, and this is another unknown, this process made its way to Colu where it was applied to my senior ancestor Vril Dox, Brainiac 2."

"That would mean…" Imra said, her eyes going wide.

"I have witnessed familial relationships between several of our teammates and their parents, knowing that the sort of… closeness they have will always be denied to me. I never expected Hermione Granger to be associated with Harry Potter when we came to recruit him. Hermione Granger is, for all intents and purposes, my great great grandmother. Without her I would not exist. I… had to hug her to say goodbye."

"That," Luornu said, "quite possibly the saddest thing I've ever heard."

"I must admit that I find the concept that she might have utilized something as chaotic as magic to bring about my line to be oddly disturbing." Querl said as he returned his full attention to piloting the Timesphere.

--== LEGION ==--

 

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