Two Worlds Collide

"I was wondering when we'd get a break from this" William Adama sighed as he sat in his quarters and looked over reports from his XO and long term friend, Saul Tigh.

"I could always ask the Cylons for a 48 hour pass" Tigh replied with faint amusement.

"You better wipe that smile off your face before I bust you down to crewman"

"You realise that you'd have to make the LSO your Executive?"

"On second thoughts…" and the two men laughed. Adama was about to say something else when the alarms sounded off and his intercom phone started buzzing. "Adama – Sit Rep"

"Sir, we've just had something bright blue appear on the port hanger deck. We don't know what happened, but according to the Chief it just appeared in a flash of light" one the Galactica's officers spoke from the Combat Information Centre – known as the CIC.

"Get the Marines down there on the double and start evacuating the area. I'm on my way with the XO" and he hung up and looked at Tigh. "Well, old friend, looks like we got our break – Chief just called in a large blue something appearing on the deck"

"Is he at the engine room hooch again?" Tigh asked with a sigh lacing his words.

"Why…? You jealous?" Adama chuckled as he headed out.

#

"I see what you mean" Adama said as he looked at the bright blue ball that was hovering over the deck.

"It just appeared in a flash of bright light, Commander" Chief Tyrol said. "I don't know if this is Cylon technology or what… Figured I'd get my people out of here and call for help"

"You did good, Chief" Tigh said. "Radiation readings? Chemical leaks?" he asked. The XO might be somebody that drank a lot, sometimes even on duty, but he knew his stuff and was by the book on this occasion.

"None… All we can tell is that its hovering, but we don't know how. There are no engines we can see, no anti gravity plating we can make out – hell, Colonel, it looks and reads as nothing more dangerous than a rubber bouncy toy"

"Have you tried communicating with it?" Adama asked, starting to walk around the thing and looking all over it.

"We've tried everything, Commander, up to and including a brief version of the Chicken Dance Of Caprica… Nothing seems to work, though it did seem to rotate when Private Dickerson moved"

"Private Dickerson!" Tigh shouted and a tall, blonde Marine came over and saluted. "What did you do to make this thing rotate to look at you"

"I was adjusting my body armour and my chest…" the woman blushed, "Well, Sirs, it jiggled"

"This is something I thought I'd never order, but stand in front of the thing and jiggle your chest" Adama tried to keep a straight face.

"Aye" and the embarrassed Marine did just that. The blue ball rotated to look at her better and then tilted up and down as if looking at her breasts. Nobody spoke a word at the completely bizarreness taking place until a crack appeared in the surface of the object and a doorway seemed to form. The part inside the 'doorway' seemed to vanish and a figure came out with shaking legs. Tall, thin, pale and with long black hair, the figure seemed exhausted as it put a hand up to steady itself. Adama and Tigh instantly got flashbacks to moments during the war when they had seen exhausted ground forces getting out of troop transports – was this person in a war of some kind?

"Are… Are you real?" asked the person. Adama would have said he was human, but his recent experience with the Cylons taught him otherwise.

"Very much so. You are aboard the Battlestar Galactica"

"That sounds impressive… I don't know what it means, but it sounds bloody impressive. Excuse me for asking so shortly after meeting, but could I trouble you for a Doctor?" and the man dropped to the deck after passing out. The blue ball sealed itself up and then moved to squeeze itself inside one of the unused Viper repair bays – Adama got the idea it was programmed to move to any kind of storage area when not in use.

"Bill?" it was Tigh.

"Saul, get Cottle down here on the double with a team to treat him"

"Want me to have the Doc run a test on him?"

"No"

"He could be a human toaster"

"He's not… Remember the loss of Columbia? Remember the storming of the Galidor? He has the same look as one of the survivors" Adama looked at Tigh who simply nodded and hurried over to get a team down. "Chief, resume work here, but don't go near that thing until this guy wakes up or something else happens"

"Aye, Commander"

#

Hours later, Adama was called by Cottle down to Sickbay to talk about the mystery person.

"His name is Harry Potter" the Doctor said, "We found his name on a piece of card tucked into a wallet. Didn't find much else apart from some old rolls of paper with an unknown language on it, some glass bottles with something on that the lab is working on and shaped piece of wood. That last one is odd"

"Define odd"

"When I took it off him, it felt as if I'd just been very lightly shocked"

"Stun gun?"

"Its an odd one if it is… Anyway, my medical report of him. He's very much underfed, he's has three dozen broken bones – and those are broken in multiple places! I've also got signs of torture, poisons… Frankly, Commander, I'm not sure how he's even alive"

"Will he get through?"

"Can't say for sure, but all the signs seem to point to the fact he might well do" Cottle shrugged. "He won't be answering any questions for at least three days from now"

"Very well… Doc, what did you do with his things?"

"Most of them are sat in a security locker in my office, but I sent the paper things to communications in case they were some sort of code" and Cottle looked around as if afraid of what he would say next. "Commander… Bill… The x-rays not only show his current broken bones, but also evidence of broken bones from around the age of three upwards. Whatever this Harry Potter is, he's been through a hell of a lot. If its okay with you, I'd like to move him to VIP quarters because being in an environment like this where he could confuse it with a prison could kill him"

"Its that serious?" Adama frowned. Cottle had called him by the short version of his first name and he only ever did that was he was being deadly serious.

"What I would do there is only what I'm doing here… I'll move him during the night watch" the Doctor assured Adama.

"Very well… I'm posting a Marine to the hatchway here and to go with him when you move him. He's no Cylon, but I can't take the chance that whatever he escaped from is going to be looking for him"

"Fair enough. Oh, Commander, there is something else… Before we operated on him, he came round for a few moments and asked how many others managed to get out with him. Now I'm not entirely sure what he meant, but I think he didn't mean from that funny little ship" Cottle lit a cigarette before continuing. "I'm a big fan of old fashioned sci-fi and this sounds like one of those stories – you know the ones where the hero is pulled from another dimension?"

"I think that is exactly what it means, Doctor" and the two men turned to stare in amazement as the man groaned in discomfort as he sat up in the bed. "Did anybody make it with me? Hermione? Luna? Daphne? Pansy?"

"I'm sorry, but nobody got out of whatever it was that you arrived in after you did" Adama moved over. "I'm Commander Adama"

"I think I remember you… I'm Harry James Potter. Are you certain nobody else got out after me?"

"No…"

"Damn"

"Look, can you tell me something about yourself please?" Adama asked. "Where have you come from? What are you doing here?"

"I come from a planet known as Earth. As for what I am doing here, well that is a tough one. My friends and I were fighting a war against a terrorist that had infiltrated our government and had taken over the country – killing those that stood in his way"

"You seem fairly sure you are not on Earth" Adama felt a little excited at the name of the planet this Harry Potter came from – perhaps the Gods really existed and had sent him to guide them.

"I can sense things… I have magic still, but I can't feel the background levels of magic around me"

"Magic?" asked Cottle.

"I am known as a Wizard" Harry sighed. "Female magicians are known as Witches. Anyway, this terrorist and his group had finally cornered us and we had to use all of our magic to take us to another dimension where we could make sure the war never happened"

"I take it something went wrong"

"There must have been some magical backlash… If Hermione and Luna were here, those two would have had it worked out by now"

"You seem to be taking their loss very well, considering" Adama exchanged a look with Cottle.

"If they were here, I would be able to sense them" Harry shook his head slowly. "Commander, if all else were to fail, then we were going to destroy the area around us to stop evil once and for all. I am not just the last of my group, I am the last of the magical race"

"You blew up your own planet?" Adama's jaw actually dropped at that one.

"That was the plan, Commander. There were a few people hiding in the hills and mountains, but freedom to starve and die is no freedom at all"

"You sound a military man"

"Close enough – after school was closed down, I joined the Aurors which are kind of magical police and special forces in one. I'm only twenty, but war is good for promotions"

"I know that very well" and Harry looked at Adama.

"Yes, you do…" he replied sadly. "Well I feel tired all of a sudden, but I will try to answer your questions later. Oh, by the way" he added as he lay back down in the bed and closed his eyes, "The black guy over there is a robot" and he dozed off.

"MARINES!" Adama yelled.

#

Harry quickly became the talk of the ship and the fleet once Adama allowed him to move around the Galactica with an escort. After finding out that the so called Cylon Detector was rigged to give false readings, Gaius Baltar was arrested and thrown into the Brig pending charges whilst everybody on Galactica was screened for real. Despite his previous cheerfulness, Harry seemed to most of the crew to be depressed as he spent most of his time either in his cabin or sat in a chair staring at the blue ball that he had arrived in. Nobody dared to speak to him until a young crewman walked over with engine oil and grease on her nose and cheeks and sporting tied back red hair.

"Sir?" she ventured and Harry looked at her questionably.

"Am I in your way?"

"No… I just wanted to know why you come down here and stare at this… thing"

"Because it reminds me of what I have achieved and what I lost" Harry replied sadly. "Anyway, shouldn't you be getting back to work? I doubt that Chief fella will want to see you slacking off"

"Actually, he sent me over here to try and get you to talk"

"Then I think we can assume your mission was a success" Harry replied bitterly. "Your feet tired?"

"Been on shift since 0800 and its 1400 now" the woman shrugged.

"Have a chair then" and Harry absently conjured a chair out of thin air for her. "No, I am not a god… Just somebody with extra abilities" he said with a mixture of both resignation and despair. He'd been careful with how and what he showed off his magic with to the Colonials, but he knew there would be a time when he would have to show off the wide range of abilities he had to offer them. With nowhere else to go, Adama had offered him a place in the fleet and the chance to stay on the Galactica itself which Harry had gratefully accepted. "Say, what's your name?"

"Aviation Engine Crewman Rebecca Hartley"

"Double score on Scrabble" Harry muttered. "Well, you might as well start with the questions everybody else is asking"

"Such as…?"

"All the sorts of questions you ask of a damned exhibit. People want to know so much about me, but they don't know about me and my life. I have been taken from a place I can never return to… I will never see my family, my friends, little Doris with the gimpy leg…" Harry shrugged and sighed. "Tell me about you, Rebecca – I can call you that, right?"

"Sure… Well, I'm 23 years old, I come from Caprica City and went to the best schools around. My parents were rich and paid for the very best schools, the best tutors, the best clothes… I was expected to enter politics and become a trophy wife for a cause I had never heard of"

"Your parents would have loved to meet Dumbledore" Harry snorted. "So what made you join the navy then?"

"I used to read story after story of the great and heroic deeds of the Colonial Forces during the Cylon war. I wanted to join up, but my parents wouldn't let me do it – so I waited until I had finished my studies and tried to join the Academy. My parents found out and put the word out that I was mentally unstable so a lot of the recruiting stations turned me down or called my parents to take me home. Anyway, I took a flight out to Leonis and signed up as an enlisted person and ended up here" and Harry was silent for a long time before he replied.

"My parents were killed by a terrorist hell bent on destroying everything. I survived the attack and was hidden away for years. When I turned eleven, I was introduced to the magical world of my planet and learnt magic at one of the oldest schools in the world. I thought I would finally fit in there, but every school year alternated between being loved or being hated and the teachers did nothing or very little about it. None of us were surprised when the Ministry, our government, fell and we tried our best to fight it but most people were too lazy or just didn't believe how bad things really were. My friends and I starved for days or even weeks as we did what we could, but it was too late. We had one last great plan to end it all by going back in time to stop the war from ever happening, but it looks as if I was the only one that made it through. I was expecting to go back fifteen years, but I ended up here. Like I said to your Commander, I have to face being the last of my kind"

"I was going to say I am sorry, but I don't think that would cut it" Rebecca said.

"It wouldn't" said a voice from behind them, "But it's the best we can do. Crewman, I'd like a word with our guest here"

"Aye, Sir" she stood and saluted Adama before going back to work.

"That's the most you have talked about your past" Adama said as he sat in the newly vacated seat.

"Well… It's not something you will have a lot of reference for, is it?" Harry shook his head. "I like that girl – she seems kind of nice and has sort of the same background as me. Anyway, I feel you didn't pop by to stop and chat"

"Hmpf… You'd be right. I was wondering if you would join us as a crewmember on the Galactica" but, to Adama's surprise, Harry shook his head.

"It's a good offer, Commander, but I can't do it"

"Why?"

"I might be the last of my kind alive, at least from my prospective, but the oaths I swore still hold true. I can't suddenly give it all up and defect to a foreign power" Harry glanced at Adama. "I am sure as a military man, you'd understand oaths must be kept and tradition maintained. The Ministry might have fallen and I might be the last of my kind, Commander, but so long as I remain alive, my country has not yet fallen"

"Were you an officer in your military?" Adama questioned. He was beginning to understand what made Harry be what he was, understand that he was scared from what had happened and understood very well that he still held many secrets.

"We didn't have a military as such, but I joined the Aurors which were a kind of special forces police squad. War is good for promotion and I quickly rose up through the ranks to become Division Commander. Because of that, and something I am not willing to talk about just yet, I went through the bloodiest of battles and saw the deaths of thousands up close. In the end, it came down to a dozen of us being chased back to our old school to do our ritual. The others were supposed to follow me, but either the spell ended or they sacrificed themselves to stop the Death Eaters getting through"

"Death Eaters?"

"Magical persons of pure evil. To gain entry to their ranks, you have to do unspeakable things to the weak and defenceless. At the end of the first war, many claimed they had been placed under mind control charms and worked their way into the deepest parts of the government – when it came time for the second war, they struck hard"

"I see… Mr Potter, I will come to the point then. I do not mind feeding and housing you on the Galactica, but there must be something that you can do for us in return. What can you do exactly with this magic of yours?"

"I can fly, cook, clean, make, repair, heal, kill… You name it, I can do it" he smirked. "I'm the magical swiss army knife"

"I think I understand the context of that one" Adama chuckled. As the two talked, there was an explosion and fire ripped through the far end of the hanger bay. Alarms suddenly started to scream as people yelled out warnings and yelled in terror and pain. Harry's expression clouded before he jumped up and, in an instant, appeared where the fire was and cast huge jets of water at the fire which died down a little. Within a few moments, crewmembers had found fire extinguishers and helped Harry to battle the blaze that was threatening a large pile of ammunition sat nearby.

"Where is Rebecca?" Harry asked one of the people dressed in orange overalls standing next to him.

"I don't know… She was working on the other side of the deck where the fire is worst" came the hurried reply. A chill came over Harry and he conjured a shield and, to the astonishment of people, walked through the flames to find her. It took a few minutes, but he found Rebecca's body on the floor near a hatchway that bore the label 'EXTERIOR HATCHWAY – CAUTION' in slightly faded letters. He could see she was massively injured with burns all over her body and blood seeping out of her eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Harry was amazed when a scan of her revealed she was still alive, so he gathered her up in his arms and walked back out through the flames to where medical teams were treating the wounded. Putting her on a stretcher, he pushed his magic into partly healing the most serious injuries before almost fainting from using so much power. A weak gesture had him lean in close as Rebecca tried to whisper something before passing out. Harry told the medics what he thought was wrong, what he had done and Adama's firm command had them rush her straight to the Sickbay.

"Will she make it?" he asked.

"I don't know… I can heal people, but never had to do it on so many injuries at the same time" Harry replied shakily. "She said to tell you she saw a suicide bomber cause the explosion and that she jettisoned the nuclear warheads off the ship"

"That would explain the burst blood vessels" Adama sighed and looked around at the damage. "Can you help us deal with this?"

"Yes, but I'm tired both physically and magically. Give me a few hours sleep and I'll help you" Harry sighed and rubbed his head with his hands. "I have a price though"

"You want to be paid?" Adama's voice was incredulous.

"You are letting me stay on your ship, so that's payment enough… No, I have a different sort of price" Harry looked over where Rebecca had been taken through to the corridor and the Sickbay beyond. "That girl was cheated out of being an Officer in your military because people thought they knew better than her own self… My price for helping you is that she makes Officer"

"Is that all?" Adama asked.

"That and porn"

"Porn?" Adama's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Yeah, I haven't had a good wank for months" and Harry left the shocked Commander to return to his quarters and rest.

A/N:

As always, I am never good at putting words down as a first chapter, so I'll just leave it here as it is for now…