Chapter Text
Harry kicked and kicked and kicked until his foot came free of whatever creature was currently on the other side of the rusty, brown plant covered, bars which had grabbed at him with blood covered claws.
"Need a hand?" the innocent looking blond, blue-eyes kid asked breathlessly.
"Don't get too close to the bars," Harry grunted in warning as he forced himself to his feet before surveying his surroundings. What he found, to put it simply, was not good.
"Potter! What have you done now?!" whispered in the back of Harry's mind in the voice of an irascible potions master and spy.
"Jumped right into the hidden dragon nest, Professor Snape," Harry answered the mental scolding voice with a soft mutter to himself. He was dressed in an outfit he had designed himself after realizing that even when he wasn't trying any element of danger or quirk of magic involved in just about any situation would be attracted to him. As a result when he had been asked down to the Department of Mysteries for a consult he had slipped into his "unwanted adventure outfit".
A Black dragonhide vest with many pockets enchanted to be both much bigger on the inside and to be bed-rock stable regardless of what direction the outside of said pockets were facing covered Harry's torso. A mokeskin pouch was at his waist on a nice green dragonhide belt. His shirt was a red acromantula silk button up mostly enchanted for comfort but also with a few enchantments aimed at protecting him as if it were armor instead of silk. His pants were black leather taken from a Ukrainian Ironbelly, the same as his boots. The black leather bracers along his forearms doubled as knife and wand sheaths adorned with a dark green Celtic knot motif.
"Hey! Can someone tell me what frack is going on here?" Harry demanded, loud enough to halt the fight in front of him mid-motion.
The room was roughly carved out of some kind of tan colored rock that reminded Harry strongly of some kind of sandstone. The occupants reminded him just as strongly of a Knockturn alley pub with less than savory clientele, minus the alcohol and accompanying stains.
"Hang on, I'll tell him," the blond announced to the suddenly silent room staring at the pair of them. "Mostly its a bar brawl without the bar and more unintended and intended religious insults to various people. I think I heard a few people insult parentage or threaten some form of blackmail at some point."
"Then what the bleedin' hell dragged me across realities or at least to another planet?" Harry scowled ferociously in his best pissed off warrior expression.
The sudden body slam from the blond kid was enough to crush the wind from his lungs as he fought to breath. The equally sudden thunk of some kind of axe combined with a hoarse bellow of rage from behind him told Harry that there had to have been someone in the alcove off to the side of the metal bars which he had trustingly turned his back on. His magic told him that he now owed the kid a life debt. Swearing the green-eyed wizard let go of his magic, slamming everyone except the blond kid, backwards away from him only to pin them each to the walls. Harry mentally groaned. If his magic was already weaving around the kid and acting to protect both of them instead of just him then the life debt was well and truly in place. On top of that it was clearly done without needing the normal extra anchoring and confirmation time between the separate magics of witches and wizards.
"Jedi!" was heard muttering from more than one alien mouth. Harry pushed the kid off of him swearing.
"What the bloody hell is a jed-eye and why would I be one?" Harry demanded huffily of the room as a whole. "As far as I know that word has nothing to do with magic."
"You don't know what a Jedi is?" the blond kid asked slowly.
"Not a damn clue kid," Harry scowled. "Like I said before as far as I know I'm not even in the same reality much less on the same planet as I was five minutes ago and I would have liked to get back as quickly as possible, thank you very much. Instead you went and saved my life and now my magic has acknowledged the blasted life debt. Pick out your friends so I can let them down and lets go. I'll figure out how to get back after my magic agrees that the life debt is paid."
"Hey Luke! A little help?" a scruffy looking guy in a vest pinned next to a giant walking carpet of fur called out. The brown fur carpet creature roared something that sounded like agreement to Harry's ears, making him snort in amusement.
"Your friends?" Harry asked with dark amusement.
"Uh, yeah?" Luke said sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his head nervously.
"Fine," Harry sighed, mentally tugging a bit at his magic to let the pair down. "Lets go."
The group of four left quickly with Harry giving them a good five minutes head start before letting go of the simple wandless sticking charm and releasing the rest of those left behind.
"So what's your name blondie?" Harry asked conversationally as they slipped out of whatever underground building they had been in into the hot dry street of a desert town of some sort.
"Luke Skywalker, this is Han Solo and Chewbacca, Chewie for short. We need to get to the space port and back on the Falcon," Luke explained shortly, scanning the crowd around them casually.
"Well Luke Skywalker, you just got yourself a magic bodyguard," Harry joked dryly.
"Good, Luke needs more than just me Chewie and Leia watching his farm boy backside with how much he gets into trouble," Han snarked.
"Sound like someone we know?" Snape's voice snarked in the back of Harry's mind making him pause mid-step before continuing to walk.
"Professor Snape?" Harry hissed under his breath.
"In the spirit Potter," Snape's spirit? snarked right back. "Ask Skywalker what a force ghost is and when he answers tell him that Kenobi is bothering me."
"Um, what is a force ghost? Is it anything like a normal ghost?" Harry asked tentatively. "And why would a Kenobi be bothering one?"
"Something that needs more privacy than we've got," Han snapped harshly as he hustled them along the street while various nearby people and aliens started taking a but too much of an interest in them.
"Down!" Snape hissed. Harry took that as a good idea even as instinct took over and had him diving into Skywalker, dropping the pair of them to the floor and out of the way of the blaster bolts.
"Awe hell!" Han cursed, drawing his own blaster and covering for the pair of them as they scrambled to their feet.
"Did that end the life debt? 'Cuz that's pretty much what I did for you," Luke wheezed as he drew his own blaster and got back to his feet.
"No," came Harry's long suffering response. "Magic doesn't always accept it like that and even if it did we'd probably have been bound as warrior brothers or something since both times qualify as combat. Keep moving!"
They hustled for the, by now, obvious space port and Harry had no problems following them to the Millennium Falcon.
"I still say its creepy how much this place reminds me of Mos Eisley!" Luke hissed at Han as they slipped into the docking bay and dashed up the loading ramp before Han slapped a control, closing the ramp behind them.
"Nah, there are a few differences," Han waved off the complaint with a fond smirk as they all settled in, hiding on the ship for a bit, confident that they didn't need a quick exit from the planet just yet.
"So, where are we, what's going on, and how much trouble does my new charge usually get into that I'll have to guard his back from?" Harry asked in a mix of seriousness and light hearted amusement.
"What do you know about the rebellion and the empire?" Luke asked cautiously.
"Not a damned thing!" Harry said cheerfully. "Where I come from we don't really have space travel at all and its clear that even if we happen to be in the same universe or reality as my home world we certainly aren't on the same planet. I've fought in a war before if that's what you're asking."
"I'll go see if we can download a history text or something from the port authority and then we can use it to rip apart the public face of everything so that he'll understand the reality," Han sighed resignedly as he headed for the cockpit. "He might be your new bodyguard but he's got no idea what's going on or what to protect you from. A few trips smuggling stuff should help get him up to speed and we can use the credits with the information we get for the rebellion at the same time."
Chewie roared agreement and grumbled something about how they were picking up naive powerful cubs far too often for his liking but that it was better than letting the empire have them.
Several weeks of study, picking apart history texts, and of smuggler training by Han and Chewie brought Harry enough up to speed that Luke got some breathing room from his new protective friend. Admittedly, said breathing room was mostly on the Falcon since they hadn't returned to the most recent rebel base just yet but it was a start. Harry also went out of his way to be less of a duty bound bodyguard and more of a friend, which was greatly appreciated by all involved.
"So do you need someone to spar with?" Harry asked in curiosity one day as he watched Luke work with his lightsaber and a remote.
"That would be nice but I don't know how to make it safe for sparring," Luke admitted somewhat sheepishly as he lowered his saber, turning it off for safety reasons.
"So? We can use sticks or something instead. It will give us both practice and I can probably enchant something to mimic your light sword at least well enough for safe practice if I put my mind to it. Besides, you should learn the basics of other styles and weapons in case you don't have a sword," Harry pointed out calmly. "I can mock up or conjure some basic weapons for us to experiment with as we practice. Its not like we want to be weapon experts just skilled enough to stay alive in a pinch."
"Green-eyes has a point," Han said thoughtfully from the doorway into the mostly empty cargo hold where Luke was practicing.
Chewie roared a warning just as they were jerked out of hyperspace by an Imperial Interdictor class ship set up as part of a blockade.
"Chewie!" Han yelped as he bolted for the cockpit. Both younger men headed after him waiting to be either told to man the turrets or to play passenger if they got boarded.
"Aw hell!" Han cursed before they even got to the cockpit on his heels.
"Playing innocent transport or cornered sithspawn?" Luke called questioningly as the pair paused at the doorway to keep out of the way of the working pair.
"Unless we can hide it better than my compartments we need to dump the extra cargo and hope that the legal stuff is fine. I've got no way of stopping these Imps from boarding us," Han moaned even as he fought the Falcon's controls to keep from simply dropping like a stone into the artificial gravity well generated by the Interdictor.
"What if I could, I don't know, turn them into something else for a little bit?" Harry offered hesitantly. They had seen part of his magic in a few fights but he had never explained it and all that he could do because of it.
"Will you be able to turn it back?" Han asked warily, finally stabilizing the ship into a more reasonable flight path.
"Probably but then again if I just shrink it I can hide it in one of my pockets without changing anything but the size," Harry admitted. "I'm just not sure we can grab it all fast enough. If I change it to something else then we don't have to move it, I just have to see it and cast the spell."
"Can you just change the outside packaging?" Luke asked quickly.
"Sure. Its not an all or nothing deal. You might loose a little of the product because I was never that skilled but not too much. If you want me doing it again another day though I'll need more practice," Harry said with a blink of surprise. "I also need an example so that I know what changes I'm making."
"Here, change the packaging to old ration packs and then shrink it and put it in your pockets," Luke suggested, hastily handing him a ration pack as an example.
"You want them looking like mini ration packs or the outside box to look like a ration pack so that it looks mostly normal when I shrink it?" Harry questioned.
"Either, we just need to keep the cargo in our hands rather than theirs," Han told him, scowling at his console and the readouts showing the imperial ships.
"Okay but I'm turning Luke's hair black and his eyes grey as a precaution. Don't think I didn't notice how careful you guys have been about not letting him be ID'd by the Imperials," Harry said pointedly before doing just that and then turning his wand on the illegal cargo. He didn't bother changing anything except the size and cast a feather weight charm before slipping the illegal cargo, cases stuck together with a sticking charm, into his mokeskin pouch. Said pouch which was always on his waist, was keyed to his blood, and had a very strong notice-me-not on it.
"Special cargo secure," Luke called out as he watched Harry's actions with absolute fascination. His ability to see it without issue puzzled Harry but since Luke never mentioned it beyond a glance noting its presence he didn't comment on it. As far as Harry could tell Luke just thought it was a normal belt pouch of some kind, something that was a relief for the young wizard. He trusted them but he also hadn't known them longer than six months yet.
"Just in time kids," Han sighed as they all heard the com set go off at the same time something latched on to the hull.
"Unidentified freighter you are being halted for a random check for smugglers and pirates on the authority of Admiral Kin for the security of the Empire," the com crackled in announcement.
"Yeah, I heard your boys latching on. Just give me a second to get to the hatch so you guys don't have cut through my hull will ya?" Han snarked back over the unsecured and completely open com. Matching actions to words he got up and headed straight for the only air lock with a green pressure light.
A group of storm troopers and an overseeing officer were waiting on the other side of the air lock. Once Han unsealed the Falcon's side they shoved rudely past him and started their search, herding everyone into the passenger lounge with the expected protests.
"You know if your boys hadn't started throwing their weight around I could have told you that we've got a legit cargo in the holds, assuming laws or something haven't changed on us since our last trip out this way," Han complained as Chewie roared his own agreement.
"Sir, we have reports of at least one empty smuggler compartment," one of the storm troopers guarding them reported, having been told over his helmet radio of the find.
"Of course there are smuggler compartments. I won the ship off of a smuggler in a game of high stakes Sabbac," Han retorted. "I run legit cargo and sometimes use the smuggler parts to store my booze, some extra small valuable cargo, or one of the kids uses 'em to stick their latest junk project they don't want me spacing since it got in the way again. We don't have anything like that this trip unless its something those two did. They're still learning the trade."
"Hey, those droids and droid parts aren't junk!" Luke chimed in on cue. "I'm also not a bad pilot."
"I prefer to turn them into a nest of blankets to hide inside with a reader when my senses go haywire," Harry shrugged unrepentantly. He actually was known to make little nests around the ship from extra blankets when he couldn't stand the lack of alone time for whatever reason.
"The last time I let you fly you nearly slammed the Falcon into a rock," Han scowled at the younger pair forbiddingly. "Until you can fly without scaring the pants off one of us acting as co-pilot you aren't flying my ship."
The family-like bickering turned out to be the perfect distraction as the ship was searched and the Imperials found nothing but the legal cargo aside from Han's secret expensive whiskey stash.
"Alright, the only thing you forfeit is a couple of bottles of alcohol and we'll ignore the ship modifications which should frankly be illegal across the Empire rather than in only a few systems," the officer drawled.
"How much of my stash am I gonna loose?" Han grumbled, genuinely put out over the loss of his whisky. "And the shipyard had no issue with the changes, according to the smuggler. They thought it was a bit odd but most of the smuggler's and my own runs are on the outer rim. You gotta be able to fight back when the pirates show up out there and we didn't really need an observation deck so the smuggler's swapping it for a gun well worked out fine."
"Three bottles, we'll let you keep the open one," the officer answered with a smirk and a nod of acceptance over Han's explanation of the obvious modifications like the weapons turrets. The rest of the boarding party left without issue, carrying the three designated bottles and leaving only the officer aboard alongside the crew of the Falcon. "Your grey-eyed friend might want to see about something a bit better than a simple color change. I was studying the wanted holos just before being called to deal with the inspection. That station Skywalker blew up was a monstrosity but the crew was just following orders and their families might not see it that way."
"My name isn't Skywalker," Luke said very firmly.
"I don't care what your name is and I know just from looking that your eyes and hair aren't dyed. I'm just pointing out why someone might mistake you for Skywalker. If you don't want to pay for cosmetic surgery or something it wouldn't be hard to create a scar on your face or something to set you apart from that rebel pilot," the officer snorted. "I have kids too and I can recognize a smuggler when I see one. He seems to be looking out for the pair of you so I won't pry. A word of advice? Don't go running spice or work for the Hutts, you'll live longer."
"Thanks, I hadn't gotten to that lesson yet," Han drawled even as his hand drifted to where his blaster normally sat. They had been caught flat footed since they had expected to be in hyperspace for another two days before having to drop into normal space.
"The lightsaber mock up should be better hidden though, even if those Hero with No Fear holos were popular and are probably still floating around," the officer tossed over his shoulder as he walked back out the hatch and into the boarding shuttle.
Nothing more was said until they were back in hyperspace.
"That, was too damn close," Harry said flatly. "Next time his eyes are going to be green and we can play siblings."
"You're telling me. We're just lucky you could hide the special cargo and that the officer thought it was cute to mock up a Jedi lightsaber from an old holo series or the clone war news holos," Han shuddered. He really thought they were dead that time.
"We should probably keep it shrunk and in Harry's pocket until its time to let people off load it for delivery," Luke suggested. "I don't like how practiced that lighting search was."
Chewie roared his agreement as Han nodded.
"Alright but no one knows about Green-eyes' abilities if we can help it. He just paid for his passage ten fold and more," Han said firmly. No one argued.
"We should head back to the alliance after we get paid anyway," Luke added. "If we pick up a cargo of things the alliance always needs there might be less fuss with accepting Harry as my bodyguard."
"Alright but his magic is still kept under wraps. We tell Leia and nobody else and only in hyperspace on the Falcon," Han said stubbornly. "His stunt just now is something people would kill for and more. We can claim we vetted him on this little trip and its not like the base is going to stay there much longer anyway so security shouldn't be much of an issue."
Nothing more on the matter was said as they arrived, off loaded and then bought a cargo that the rebels would be happy to accept before heading off for the closest rebel base with a few extra jumps tossed in for good measure.