Whomping Willow into Dagobah

WHOMPING WILLOW INTO DAGOBAH:

The war was not going well. Harry Potter squinted in the dying candlelight on his bedside table.
Most students had gone home by now. Even though Ron and Hermione had stayed he felt more alone than he had in his entire life, even at the Dursleys’.They must have forgotten about me, he thought, remembering all the abuse and neglect he had endured. Now that seemed to be ending, as his life was.
So he remained here, steadfast as ever. Hermione’s parents urged her to come back to the muggle world, but she felt a sense of obligation to remain and help.
Ever since Professor Dumbledore had died, the castle’s wards had become progressively weaker. McGonagall had done her best, -they all had, but the world around them had daily become more fragile and paler, more ephemeral. Even Hogwarts had not escaped. The halls had gotten as empty as tombs. Harry had a lump in his throat, remembering that it had once housed students’ chatter and laughter.
Harry set his book down dejectedly. Actually it was a library book borrowed from Hermione ‘to keep his attention,’ as she put it. Since Snape and Draco had run to the other side, (supposedly,) he had been champing at the bit to eradicate them. He had been practicing in the room of requirement various curses and fighting moves. When Dobby had barely escaped a curse, thrown in the heat of an imagined battle, Hermione had stepped in, ordering Harry to ‘cool off.’
“You’re getting as suspicious as Moony.” Harry had stumped off to his room that he used to share with three other boys, Neville, who had gone home when his grandmother had had the warning signs of a heart attack, to care for her. Seamus returned to Ireland already also. Only Ron remained, only he was out at the moment with Professor McGonagall, strengthening the binding power around Hogsmeades. It was only temporary, what they could do. The magic was an unknown kind-it reversed what was mean to preserve, so that nothing could be sustained for very long.

A letter discovered after Dumbledore’s death revealed that Snape-Harry swallowed-was in veracity his father. James had only married his mother out of decency. Snape also had a daughter, a graduate of Durmstrangs that had shown up. Harry had been uneasy but she had introduced herself at Myen Ford, foster daughter of the Ford family. “And this is my brother Spike.”
He looked across to the young sandy-haired man. “Snape didn’t want his daughter, did he?” It was a statement rather than a question.
“Professor Snape, Harry.” Professor McGonagall reminded him. She was looking worn and frazzled, ill at ease. Harry was sure she wasn’t quite sure was she made out of this. Why hadn’t Dumbledore discovered this? He ran a background check on every employee.
“No, Harry,” said Myen diffidently. “It was because I didn’t want him to know. It’s really easy to hide-if you know the right people.”
“She doesn’t look it,” put in Spike. “But she is more powerful than her father is. She is an animagus also and can use wandless magic.” Myen went pink in the cheeks, smiling and not looking at Harry, but off to the side.
“Harry,” she said. “I have a castle in eastern Russia. She waved her arm and a piece of yellowed parchment floated to Harry’s side of the room. “And a key, if you want to check it out.”
Still Harry watched her mistrustingly. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat. “I hope you can provide sufficient proof?”
Spike shook his head, but Myen bit her lip. She clasped a pendant necklace, offering to Harry to see. McGonagall peered over the big desk as the pendant began revolving, revealing a wedding band that shot some miniglitter, settling into a silvery picture of a woman who looked exactly like Myen and Snape. Both were laughing, holding hands, kissing..
“Is that proof enough, Harry?” Myen asked softly. “That is all I have. My deceased mother, Myen, and my father Severus Snape.”
Spike regarded her, his arm draped protectively around he shoulders. He had seen Severus Snape only once and did not like his contemptuous manner. Every time he looked at him with his black eyes like the eyes of a shark he wanted to toss a shocking thunder bolt at him, (as he used to do when he was a boy and someone annoyed him.) This man annoyed him. He was thankful when the meeting to decide Myen’s situation was over. Myen had decided to stay at the Ford’s house in Ireland and Spike and his father were attending in her stead. Harry looked at both of them, waiting for him to answer.
“I’m sorry,” he said bluntly. “Snape killed the headmaster. Why should I go with you? What if it’s a trick?”
Spike leaned forward. “It’s no trick, Harry.” He said with certainty. “You can come along when you’re ready. We know that you want to stay here. That’s why My gave you a map.”
“Dumbledore knew that Snape was my father!” Harry exclaimed. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
Myen shook her head. “It was a sealed envelope. When it was opened, I was to be notified-there were links and lines drawn. It probably identified any member of the Snape family. It is an official document. Dumbledore no doubt was told to wait until you were in your last year.”
“By who?” Professor McGonagall and Harry asked together. Myen shrugged. “Then your surname is Snape,” Harry said to Myen in surprise.
“No,” Myen replied, looking hurt and slightly affronted. “It’s Ford.”
“Our surname. We enrolled her in school,” Spike said, clutching her shoulder. “My parents can’t have any more children. We would have adopted her, but they’re away so often overseas. Myen and my parents bought the castle..we stay there while they are gone.”
“Are they wizards also?“ Harry asked. His eyes were glued to Myen. He looked down to the map, marked in red on the parchment. He wanted to stay, Myen could see that.
“Aye,” said Spike proudly. “We are one of the few purebloods left. Mr.-Snape wanted his daughter. It was she who objected, very strenuously, I might add, and we were more than happy about it-”
Harry’s eyes goggled. MR. Snape? He forced down a giggle but could hide his blushing face and a big wide grin.
The attacks became more frequent until Hagrid disappeared. He vanished, leaving his house to rot and decay.
Harry had spent all day searching through his house and the forest, finally locating Fang. The loyal hound disappeared while trotting alongside him. “This is atypical magic;” Professor McGonagall said when he rushed in, breathless and scared. “It’s almost Voldemort’s but he would prefer something that inflicts physical harm. This is elder magic; Voldemort wouldn’t do something like this. Maybe if Dumbledore was alive..he seemed to know how to keep it at bay.”
He consulted Hermione. Elder magic? He had never heard of it. Surely Hermione had done some reading on it or at least knew where the information was. Together they checked the reserved shelves. No spell in the library even resembled the kind of wasting away everything took.
“Did you forget,” a small voice said. “I am a very powerful wizard. I can do something about this curse.” Myen materialized in front of Harry while he was pacing in his room, Hermione’s book thrown to the ground in frustration. He stopped and faced her. “So what’s going on?” He demanded. “Why did Hagrid disappear? Why is everything decaying? Are you behind it?” Everything burst out of him as Myen recoiled before his verbal assault. Finally she said very softly that no, she wasn’t behind it, but she could deliver someone who would explain all this to him. “Someone who knows elder magic. Someone who has never told anyone about elder magic, -not even me. She will tell now or she will suffer the same fate as all the rest of the magical inhabitants.”
With that pronouncement, Myen indicated beside her. A small, frail, fragile and slightly wrinkled creature appeared. At once she cowered. Of course. It was a house elf.
Every since Professor Dumbledore’s death, the castle’s wards had been weakening. So he was not very surprised to see that she was able to apparate a house elf. At any minute, this castle would turn to ruin and dust, he reminded himself.
Harry’s mind worked quickly. From where do elves get their powers to protect? He looked down at the bowing being before him.
Myen grasped her hands quickly. Her firm grasp was supportive. “This is Eva. Eva, this is Harry Potter.. Tell him what you told me. He is a very powerful wizard. You know the description of their powers.. He needs to know also.” Her tone was kind but urgent.
Eva was nervously bowing to Harry, but now she straightened up, squeaking about elder magic. “It is something that Voldemort’s ancestors used to impel themselves into space. It gets weaker with each generation.” She was speaking clearly, not at all like Dobby. “To escape it, you must propel yourself like Voldemort’s progenitors did. You must have faith in Myen.”
Harry looked up at Myen. “You are related to Voldemort?” She shook her head vehemently. “Harry, no, listen to me. Voldemort’s ancestors were from another nebula, from outside this solar system. They destroyed my mother’s planet.” She subdued her very deeply; her mother’s wasting away and her eventualher inclination to cry as if in pain. It still wounded early death after Snape left her. He had provided plenty of alimony, both in galleons and world currency, but ever since he deserted her, she had atrophied to death. “Snape did not believe her;” she managed to gasp out with as much composure as she could handle. She mastered herself, “Based on what Eva told me-and she has never lied to me, not once-I have the power to move in cosmos. Any planet I select I can go to. The magical world is ending. It is irreversible. There’s nothing that I can do.” Her voice sank to a whisper.
“You can’t counteract it?” Harry knew that she was telling him the truth. Her face was white, and Eva hid behind her cloak, looking terrified.
“It’s out of my hands, my half-brother. My mother was very strong, but she is dead. I am only half extraterrestrial-she and Snape used to call me their little half-breed, before he turned.”
Harry’s tongue felt dry. “What happened?”
Myen hesitated. “I think it must have been the Deatheaters. Their initiation must have done something to his mind.” She stared at Harry thoughtfully. “Don’t judge to harshly, Harry, there is only so much a man can take. And he did do one thing right, -he had us. He brought us together. The letter-he must have put that clause in on purpose, to give you a better life that he could provide.”
Myen’s perceptiveness caught Harry by surprise. He was so short-sighted, so absorbed in other things, he couldn’t see what was right before his eyes.
He narrowed his eyes at her disbelievingly. “You don’t still love him, do you?” It would be hard to think of Snape as a father, but he was, their father. Nothing could invalidate that. She shook her head; “it’s difficult to explain.
I bet, Harry thought. He felt sympathy toward her but even more, a vast rage toward Snape for what he had done to both of them; destroying their lives, through divorce and rape. He had immediately assumed that was what he did-he could not imagine Snape ever feeling love.
He fell to examining the house elf. “Why has no house elf ever told me-or any wizard before of elder magic, then?” He demanded.
“Because house elves have all but forgotten, Harry,” she earnestly told him. “The only reason Eva remembered is because I drew it out of her by accident, by means of legitimacy.”
“What are we going to do Myen?” He dreaded the answer, casting a look over the familiar, everyday surroundings. “Do you have to go?”
“There is a small class M planet that looks exactly like the forbidden forest. I have..connections. Voldemort has hurt many people, and there are others of his species. If you want to go, I can provide a way. We need to destroy this elder magic and its creators.”
“Species? For the first time he realized what Myen was, what Voldemort must be. He realized Myen held their existence. “How will you transport us?” He deliberately chose us. Myen couldn’t leave him alone
after so many people had deserted him. “And what about my friends? We can’t leave them behind.”
“There is a portal in the whomping willow, next to your school-we can flee, and your friends-I can hold it open so we can pass through. For about 40 minutes-the atmosphere has to be similar and Dagobah-Forest is very similar to ours. “ She paused apprehensively, deliberating. Although a totally nonaligned planet, and uninhabited because of the orbit’s natural emplacements, the entire galaxy was embroiled in a war. Would she be making anything better by substituting another war for this one? But they would be in a better placement, strategically speaking to combat Voldemort’s ilk. And she would be a lot closer to her mother’s absent planet. “Please believe me, Harry. This magical world is about to disappear-all your friends, the professors, -some of them have moved here permanently.”
Eva bowed to Harry nervously, disappearing in a wisp of smoke. Harry had the impression that she had done something wrong, but Myen heaved her face into view. “Do you understand? You must get everybody together, tomorrow at the earliest break of day. -Elder magic is happening rapidly. Everyone is disappearing-our world will invert, collapse, -time is urgent-”
He nodded mutely. Hermione wouldn’t be so trusting; she would probably stall, asking her myriad questions while the fading, withering curse tore away real chunks of their world. Myen was offering them a chance to live.
Ron jumped on it readily, sending owls to his family. Charlie came riding on a dragon, circling the tower while they watched. Hermione however, surprised Harry by readily agreeing with him. “I am not surprised. House elves have a deep amount of hidden, forgotten magic in their souls.” Charlie was mute, pacing the floor angrily. Bill had been one of the first to disappear, and now he shared their tower room with Ron.
The Slytherins were not so easy to convince. Muttering darkly about Voldemort saving only pure bloods and that this was an ethnic cleansing, and about Harry being a Parseltongue, they were hard to persuade, and only when McGonagall glanced at them obviously did they subside. It was evident that they distrusted Harry ever since Snape had run with Draco, so much that quite a few more Slytherins remained than the other houses. They were sure Snape would rescue them in the end and were obliviously blind to the vanishing curse that was apparent to everybody else.
Myen entered the decrepit graveyard behind her castle. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to do this, but an unbreakable vow was an unbreakable vow and there was no time to think of anything else. She summoned Snape through the dark mark on his forearm. She could not actually perform any magic on the man, but her mother did make this exception: to employ enchantment if all other courses had failed and he “was in peril of dying.” She waited, knowing that it would take time, settling down on a stone tomb, its surface cool to the touch just like the night air. This was the tomb of the mother of her foster mother. She had chosen this location because she always felt such peace here.
She did not have long to wait. Snape suddenly appeared, and she steeled herself up to offer him the same option she had offered Harry. She addressed him, as Professor-it would be hard to admit that he was her father.
Snape, on the other hand, saw exact duplications of his estranged wife. His breath was momentarily caught by the bittersweet memory. Myen’s face looked the same as her mothers’. He listened intently. “This is outlandish nonsense that’s all it is.” He snapped. Myen shook her head wearily. “Professor, this world is under a curse-we are being ripped apart as we speak. Things are fading out of existence.”
She looked into his eyes and discovered he was gravely regarding her, listening. His eyes held a little bit of recognition that she was startled, even fearful to see. But all he replied was, “Why do you want me along? Why do you want to save me?”
She hesitated, several reasons flooding her mind. Because you’re my father. Because I promised Mother I would see that you were safe. None of them seemed to fit. Finally she spoke up. “Because we need your strong powers, Professor. I’m not sentimental and there is no ulterior motive whatsoever. We need your strength.”
“We.” He murmured. He concentrated on Draco. What his daughter was offering was more life. He seriously doubted she was leading them into a trap, rather, a way of escape. It was Draco’s safety that concerned him most, at any rate, until Narcissa lifted the unbreakable vow from him. They usually were life-long though.
“There are other people then?” He questioned her. “Other beings, yes,” she said. “And you are a very strong wizard. You will be very valuable .”
To whom, he wanted to ask.
There’s no time, he said to himself. What she says is true. The world is disintegrating at an accelerated pace.
Draco needs this, he debated. He is so young.. He also was sure that Myen was not telling the absolute truth when she listed the reasons she was taking him along. He made an instant decision. “We’re prepared to leave. You’re right.” He examined her minutely. He had to admit she carried her mother’s unique powers. How had Durmstrangs been able to train her?
“We?” She looked puzzled. “There’s someone else that you’re taking along? Another wizard?”
And not a woman. Another woman, adding to the injury that you have inflicted on Mother. It would be an offense to me as well. He half-smiled; as if he knew what she was thinking. “A student of mine. Yes, a pureblood wizard. Draco Malfoy. I made a vow to his mother to protect him.”
She was astonished. Draco Malfoy, the Deatheater, was still with Snape? But she was forgetting Snape was a Deatheater as well. She hadn’t bargained on this.
Let him bring him along. She hadn’t been reading the Daily Prophet, but she had heard, mostly from Harry, but a few other people as well, what the grim circumstance were.
Other wizards, however, were formulating their own theories, of how Snape was pulled into an “unpleasant situation,” by the Death eaters and that he did not want to, but rather needed to for one reason or another.
All that I know is that he is a very powerful wizard. She told herself this again and again, and remembered the promise she made to her mother. But he was going to Dagobah; the place where she selected as the receiving planet. She knew she could only save a few wizards, and was oddly comforted by the fact that her father was among them.
Does he know anything about elder magic? From the way he listened to her, probably he knew something, at any rate, more than Professor McGonagall did. She was suspicious at first, though when she thought about it, it made sense to her. Makes more sense than anything else, she told herself grimly. She tried questioning Eva again about elder magic and found that she had recited some elder lore through closer review. She was in a trance when she learned it, and Myen doubted she knew any of it.
Dagobah was a cloudy blue jewel set on the edge of the known galaxies. Its outer ionosphere, the exosphere, was filled with ionium, a radioactive element that made landing ships onto the Dagobian surface very impractical. Myen knew that Dagobah was part of Ylesia when the planet exploded.
But it was habitable and it was necessary. She could keep the portal open for 30 minutes because the Andrinom scientists who discovered and perfected atmospheric configuration-or the ability to move between two atmospheric similar planets the total of atmosphere-in this case 300,000 miles. But first she had to let her father through alone with Draco Malfoy.
Her father. Snape! But other people would be waiting, rebel forces, expecting help and Snape and even Draco, both were wizards.

The creeping, unclean curse had taken human beings. Hagrid, Rosemerta, Hogsmeades inhabitants. She sent her house elf with them. Eva was relieved and grateful, but she was distressed about parting from Myen.
“I’ll be along short, Eva.” She told the small creature kindly. “Your job right now is to protect my father. There are others waiting as well.”
After Myen had opened the portal for Snape and Draco, after a thoroughly suspicious and formal goodbye, and after she had promised for the umpteenth time that she would return, and their were people expecting them, who would help them-she went to Hogwart’s. The threstal on which she was riding was pale white, glowing in the moonlight. She slid to the ground, looking around warily. Harry joined her in a minute. “Now,” he whispered. “Professor McGonagall made an announcement-we don’t have many people remaining. Most don’t even have confidence in you; they’re just doing this to save their own hides.”
“I really do not care,” Myen shot back. “As long as they’re wizards.”
“Oh, everybody is,” Harry’s brow furrowed. “Except for Filch-he’s a squib.”
“No magical powers, huh.”
“And a very sour personality,” They both laughed, then Myen sobered up. “Harry, get everyone together in the morning. It’s almost morning now. All the house elves should go. I sent my own through earlier-she was frightened, Harry. “
Together with Professor McGonagall they raised the village of Hogsmeade, while a few of the students were coming down for breakfast. Soon their was an commotion in the front hall, with everyone demanding to know what was going to happen, though Harry did try to assemble them in orderly fashion.
“Half of them want to leave now, Myen,” Harry said over the noise. Hermione and Ron raced down the stairs, jostling the other students in the process. Myen looked back soberly.
“The house elves have breakfast on the tables. We’ve got to leave by 7:00.” She went on the lawn. The threstal was still there in what used to be Hagrid’s hut, unhurriedly eating his meal, a hare Myen miraculously produced. She nuzzled up to her, whispering in her ear. It took off, gliding on the morning wind over the forest.
It looked like everything was going to go on schedule. But while Harry was having a hasty breakfast, McGonagall came in, slowly sat down, leaned over and whispered “a child disappeared last night. Faded right in her bed. Her mother is distraught.”
“We can’t wait.” Harry pushed his half-eaten plate out of the way. Myen would understand-she’d have to. Why had she waited so long? Professor McGonagall had made the announcement, yet she seemed to be hesitating, even persisting that they eat breakfast. His stomach felt like it couldn’t accept any food; he looked around for Myen and insisted they leave.
Dagobah was steaming and misty as they emerged from the tree interior. Myen had managed to open up a portal for 30 minutes-she was sure that the ten minutes that had elapsed in which Snape and Draco had passed through calculated against the total prefiguration of the similar portals. She wasn’t looking forward to the unavoidable time when Harry discovered Snape and Draco were there. But the news about the little girl’s purging had shaken her.
A sentry jumped up, apparently asleep at his station. “Myen Ford? We’ve been expecting you. I am to escort you to our base.”
They followed him, some looking around them curiously. It certainly seemed like the Forbidden Forest. Some girls actually giggled, and Myen smiled to hear their laughter. It might bring everybody’s spirits up. She looked at the bereaved mother, still silently sobbing on her husband’s shoulder. She had to get everybody out after Harry had told her. They came to a clearing in which a small sea of tents had been pitched.
“How did you land?” Inquired Myen, Harry beside her.
“We found a way to repel the radioactive particles in orbit,” the sentry replied. Myen was puzzled. “How?’ Ordinary radioactive elements she could comprehend, they had been doing that for centuries, but the highly hazardous atoms in Dagobah’s orbit had long since been recognized as impassable.
He hesitated. “I don’t know-the captain should though.”
“Captain?”
“Captain Antilles.” They were approaching a large tent, with a gleaming tie fighter beside it.
Captain Wedge Antilles was a scarred, withered husk of a man. After his near-death encounter with death, his X-Wing fighter had partially exploded, sending him into the next solar system. A friendly tractor beam had rescued him, and he had woken up in a bacta bath, oxygen flooding his system via several tubes in every orifice of his body. Now an invisible oxygen mask was in place, although he rarely needed it now. The wiry sentry entered, followed by Myen and Harry. The rest stood outside, Professor McGonagall tending to the few students that were left with the other staff.
Myen stood unsurely. She knew him. Although the tie fighter outside reminded her of the battle with the Death Star, she ran over in her mind who was involved, and could not place him.
Unless, this very slim possibility..
“Wedge? Wedge Antilles?!” She grasped his claw-like hand in half-remembered recognition. “They said you catapulted in space-how?” He laughed weakly, a manic glint still in his eyes. They were redrimmed from lack of sleep. “Myen-you are a sight for sore eyes-and they say you rescued-” it was then she noticed other sentries. Of course, several sentries would alert the camp.
“Only a handful of people. They are wizards-they need homes.”
Harry stepped forward and introduced himself. “We are extremely grateful to be alive. Without Myen we would have died. Wedge turned to appraise him. “You are.. a wizard?”
Harry reddened as he inspected him. “If the others are like you, we will win this war yet.”
Harry looked across at his half-sister mutely. “Myen didn’t describe your-difficulties with your war. Could you tell me about it?” Truth was, there was a lot of things she neglected to say. There was no time for it-
Wedge launched into his own personal narrative of what the war had done-to him and people like him, innocent citizens. Myen listened also wide-eyed at most places. She was amazed that he was still alive. When he related how Bulerians rescued him, she gasped. Buler was in the solar systems next to her mother’s and was a largely rural world, too distant from the Imperial war to be considered a military threat. It was a rural, agriculturian world and she was surprised that they had any technology, let alone ships.
‘Oh yes,” Wedge answered. “They had developed scientifically after your mother left.” Wedge knew about her mother’s frequent vacations on Buler. Miracles will never cease, she told herself. When he came to the part where his ship spiralled off in the Death Star battle, he beckoned her-
“Yoda raised your ship. He disappeared after he cleaned it. I think what he did tired him; I
Her wide grin of delight was clear to everyone in that tent. The Vapor crashed on Dagobah’s fertile lake, Oxon, after a violent chase against imperial stormtroopers, and the microbiotic aquatic plankton of Oxon would absorb the radiation, Yoda said.But Wedge cleared his throat. “After your people are settled, the officers and soldiers are meeting every morning to calculate our eventual attack on Besadii. The Imperial forces are concentrated there. They give Besadii finances for their resources.”
“So Besadii finally fell to them, huh?” Wedge hesitated. “They did not take control of Besadii, they supply each other. Besaddii is in a prime location for defensive backing of the Empire; they have developed armaments that destroy whole life forms. We need to destroy that arsenal.”

x x c v

A hundred men and women were conversing, cooking, laughing, and even combating each other for practice. Harry craned his head to search this interesting array. There were various ranks of uniforms and pirate gear as the multitude of wizards looked around. Myen was relating to McGonagall what Wedge had been saying inside the tent, (she had been listening next to the tent door anyway, keeping the student from wandering away.) They were excited about the bustle of the vendors and the being-filling streets. Almost exactly like a city, there were aliens all around from every world, buying and selling, bartering for what they needed. Then Harry thought he saw..
robes. Only for an instant but they were black. And a silver-blonde young man accompanied them.
His intake of breath and stunned expression Myen could not ignore. She helplessly grinned an injudicious grin that could not have been at a worse moment. Harry went on the trail of the black, swirling robes.
“Where does he think he’s going?” Hermione stared, fright growing in her face. “He needs to stick with us.”
“He’s fine,” Myen said curtly. “Let’s get all these people settled and then worry about him. After all, he’s a grown man.”