Chapter 7: Temple Run
21 BBY, Coruscant
Harry Potter had discovered something deeply disappointing about this new galaxy: it was just as capable of being boring as Earth. Here he was, standing on an alien planet, surrounded by spaceships, in a Temple that trained magical warriors, or Jedi Knights as they were called, and yet he was bored. The thought was ridiculous, but it seemed that bureaucracy was something that even super-advanced civilisations needed to deal with, and he was already growing irritated with it. To be fair, he hadn’t had to deal with bureaucracy a lot in the past few years, and he’d forgotten how annoying the entire thing was.
After all, he was waiting to meet the Jedi Council, which, he assumed, were the people in charge of this place. He normally wouldn’t have bothered, but he was planning on asking them to get access to their library, or at least their repository of knowledge. It was good manners to ask, after all, especially after Anakin had helped him quite a bit by taking him to this planet. As horrifically dystopian as it might be, Harry could very well start his exploration of what this galaxy had to offer.
Space travel had always been something that he had dreamt of doing, but there was always a great barrier that stopped him from doing that, mainly how big space truly was, and how little he knew about what was out there. From the moment that he saw the spaceship crashing atop the planet that he arrived in, Maridun, he knew that he was in for something special. To think he almost left after getting samples of the plant that he planned to gift Daphne, his wife. It had been that weird magical Horcrux that had grabbed his attention, and things spiralled from there.
There was just so much to see, so much to experience, especially this Force. He had tried to pry a bit from Ahsoka, the alien girl who was Anakin’s apprentice, or Padawan (Harry really needed to learn the names of different species before he embarrassed himself). Anyway, the girl’s explanation was sort of lax, bordering more on the philosophical side of things instead of the magical side. Apparently, it was the force that united everything in the galaxy, or something of the like.
He’d have been sceptical about this explanation if it wasn’t disturbingly accurate as to how Anakin telekinetically lifted tanks and robots. The Jedi had used his soul to… tug on something that had been intrinsic to the very fabric of this reality, which, in turn, caused the objects in question to rise in the air. It was completely and utterly fascinating and, most importantly, something fundamentally new, something that Harry was looking forward to researching properly.
But for now, Harry was bored, and according to his wife, his manners began to slip whenever that happened. Besides, there was an entire Temple ready for him to explore. And, if through complete coincidence, he would find himself near the library, then it would only be right for him to take a little peek at things.
And so, Harry, while ensuring that the magic wouldn’t be sensed by channelling a bit of his invisibility cloak to weave the spell, created an illusion of himself that, after a little application of soul magic, would trick anyone into thinking that he was there. It wasn’t exactly the best way to go about this, but to his benefit, he was bored, and the Jedi Council were quite rude, making him wait like this. It was very unprofessional. Besides, he made sure that it warned him if the Jedi Council would be ready for him, so he’d come back quickly enough.
Anyway, just as the illusion of himself was set up properly, Harry activated his invisibility cloak and walked away from Ahsoka and Aayla, as well as the very twitchy guards, into the depths of the temple, everyone literally ignoring his presence.
Just as they were out of sight, Hedwig pecked his head, and he turned to see her giving him an unimpressed look: “Oh, don’t give me that look. I know that they’re nice and everything, but it’s just a look around, and we’ll be back before they know it. Besides, I’m hungry, and we haven’t had anything to eat in a while. I wonder if alien bacon tastes better than Earth bacon.”
And just like that, whatever resistance that Hedwig had towards his antics disappeared, as she hooted in approval and fluffed her chest. His familiar really was a gluttonous creature, huh? Still, she had strangely gotten along with Ahsoka, which was quite unusual for Hedwig. He suppressed the urge to smile at her reaction and instead walked forward, deciding to explore the Temple properly.
After a few minutes of walking around, he came to a very quick realisation: “This place is extremely bland.”
Hedwig hooted in agreement at that. After all, this place felt so impersonal, almost sterile, with large corridors, but so very little character or warmth. Harry walked around in large marble corridors that looked almost empty, with everything being so symmetrical and with barely any decoration.
Of course, the Temple itself was immensely large, given the glimpse he took of it when they landed. So, he sincerely hoped that things were a bit livelier elsewhere. Besides, there had to be students around given the fact that they trained Jedi Knights here, though Harry didn’t know the specifics of that.
He’d get a better idea as to how things worked when he… if he accidentally stumbled on the library. He still wasn’t sure that this wasn’t some kind of space magic cult, so he’d like to figure out how things worked before he accidentally got himself hunted down by giant robots or something; maybe some evil scientist would try to dissect him to gain control of the galaxy. That idea was a bit out there, but a galaxy was a pretty big place, and that would certainly be a hassle to deal with.
Already, Harry knew that he hadn’t exactly gone under the radar, given how Anakin reacted when he used basic object reinforcement. It was confusing, since the man had been obviously reinforcing himself given his physical feats. Well, apparently, that wasn’t normal, and now he had caught the interest of the Jedi Council, which he had a feeling would be troublesome.
Meh, that was something for Future Harry to deal with.
And so, Harry continued looking around, and he may or may not have been humming the Indiana Jones theme song under his breath while he did just that. What? It did fit. He was technically exploring a temple, which was pretty old. Sure, it wasn’t abandoned or in ruins, but that was hardly the point, was it?
Though he carefully made sure to ignore Hedwig’s judging stare, he stopped as he felt something different with his Arcane Hearing. His ability to interpret magic as music had been one of his most useful skills to date, and it was very helpful while exploring new places. And so, the anxious song that he felt nearby contrasted deeply with the controlled and measured tunes that were in this part of the Temple.
Without even thinking about it too much, Harry followed his song and found himself standing in some kind of meditation room, where he saw a young girl visibly struggling to meditate. She looked almost human, were it not for the white tendrils that she had instead of hair.
A part of him wanted to just continue exploring, but he almost felt compelled to speak with the girl. He always had a weakness when it came to sad children, and he saw Hedwig visibly roll her eyes at him and fly away, probably knowing what he was going to do.
He walked forward and spoke up, “Hello there.”
The girl practically jumped in the air at the surprise, “I’m so sorry, master. I know that I shouldn’t have come to the Knights’ meditation chambers, but…”
Harry raised his hand and placated her, “Oh, I’m sure that it’s fine. I am Harry, by the way. What’s your name, little one?”
The girl obviously pouted at being called little, but walked forward, “My name is Katooni, Master Harry.”
Ah, so she thought that he was one of them, a Jedi. Harry decided not to correct her, given that the girl would probably close herself up if she knew that she was near a stranger. And so, he simply returned her pout playfully, “Just Harry is fine, Katooni. Though I have to admit that you have a wonderful name. Now, my dear, do you mind telling me what’s bothering you so much that you felt you had to go all this way just to meditate?”
Katooni hesitated for a moment before answering while looking away, “I wasn’t selected to be part of the Gathering this year.”
Harry had no idea what the Gathering even was, but it certainly sounded important to the girl. And so, he nodded at her, “I suppose that this outcome would make anyone disappointed. Why do you think you weren’t selected?”
The girl bit her lips in contemplation and looked away, obviously not saying anything, but to his Arcane Hearing, he recognised this feeling quite clearly. Inadequacy and doubt were quite common after all, especially for younger people.
Before she could say anything, Harry patted her head gently and spoke up, “You know? When I was your age, I used to think that strong people never doubted themselves. They all just stood there, always completely unmoved by anything around them, like they had all the answers in the world. But do you want to know a secret?”
Katooni leaned in, obviously curious, “No one knows all the answers for anything, and we all make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Like that one time that I wasn’t paying attention and almost fell down the stairs in an abandoned temple. There were so many secret traps that I had to deal with just to get out… I swear I had to spend days removing needles from my body. If anyone had seen me then, he’d have thought that I was an idiot. Well, some would argue that I am, but that’s beside the point.”
The girl giggled at that answer, though she quickly put her hands on her mouth, as if ashamed of mocking someone who was her senior. He gave her a gentle smile: “You are looking at this Gathering as though it is a door that has closed before you.” He shook his head lightly. “But sometimes life simply tells us that our journey is not meant to begin today.”
Harry could practically see the tension leave the girl’s shoulder, though there was some hesitation left. With that done, he decided to go for the kill: “As for me, whenever I feel down, I find that spending some time with a friend always helps.”
As if she were waiting for the cue, Hedwig came flying down and perched itself on the girl’s shoulder. And just like that, whatever hesitation the girl had disappeared as she gasped, “Oh, she’s beautiful.”
Hedwig preened at the compliment, and her eyes closed in pleasure as the girl started to pet her. Despite how much his familiar liked this, Harry knew that he would probably end up getting his familiar a lot of food for the ‘dishonour’ that she suffered through.
Still, after a few minutes, Harry noticed that the girl had noticeably calmed down and almost giggled as Hedwig playfully played with her hands. What he noticed with his Arcane Hearing was much the same, only there remained a bit of the girl’s insecurity in her song. Now, normally, Harry would have thought that it was normal, only there was something trying to rouse it, pushing the girl towards her doubt, and it did not come from within the girl.
It was obviously an external force of some kind, an extremely subtle one, and something about this effect just ruffled his feathers. It had always been there, in the background. He hadn’t noticed it with his Arcane Hearing, given that it felt more like something that was outside the tempo of the Temple, a tiny little sound lost in the calm order of this place. There was obviously something in this place that wasn’t exactly right, and Harry felt compelled to find out what it was.
Seeing as the girl herself was in a much better mood, Harry gave Hedwig a look, and she immediately flew from the girl’s shoulder to his own, earning him a disappointed look from Katooni. He smiled at her and spoke up, “I’m afraid that I need to go, little one. But I suppose I should leave you something to remember Hedwig by.”
Before she could react, Harry reached into his pocket, took out a plushie Hedwig’s size, and put it in the girl’s hands. While doing that, he discreetly pulled a little bit on the foreign influence that was pushing on her insecurities, and it seemingly recoiled at being found out, disappearing completely. Unfortunately for it, that wouldn’t stop Harry from tracking it down in any way.
Katooni grabbed it instinctively, though her eyes were wide at his little trick, “How did you do that?”
“It’s just a little trick I picked up. It’s all wibbly wobbly Force stuff…”
The girl giggled again, tightening her hold on Hedwig’s plushie closely, before putting a pout on her face, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Or does it? Who knows?” He said his smile morphing into a smug smirk, “Farewell, little Katooni.”
“Farewell, Harry. May the Force be with you.”
“And with you as well,” Harry answered before taking Hedwig and leaving the meditation chamber.
The moment he had, the smile fell from his face, as his dislike at children’s emotions being played with like this took place. It seems that there was more to this place than he realised. He focused on following the subtle influence that he had started tracking since he gave the girl the Hedwig plushie, his search for the library being set aside in favour of something he found to be more important.
That hunt led him a bit deeper into the temple, specifically towards an unassuming corridor, at least it would have looked this way. He walked around and noticed the air becoming almost colder near one of the walls. He traced the change up until he found himself staring at a large section of marble.
He muttered, “Sneaky… Very sneaky… Some kind of compulsion too.”
It was magnificent. He hadn’t seen any kind of compulsion like this, tied to the very fabric of the world instead of some kind of spell that overlaid it, as Harry did with his magic. It must have been how these people were using the Force, given its properties.
A peck broke him from his contemplation, and he turned towards Hedwig, who gave him a severe look. Harry rolled his eyes and muttered, “Fine. I’ll get to it.”
Harry then put his hand on a stone on the wall and pushed it forward. Then, almost imperceptibly, a section of marble shifted inward, smoothly without any sound, revealing a narrow staircase.
The moment he entered through the hidden entrance, he felt it… Something wild and untamed, almost feral, something that was fundamentally… dark. Hedwig must have felt it too, given the way her eyes narrowed forward, and Harry muttered, “Well, this just got interesting…”
AN: Well, that’s Harry’s first POV. I had fun writing it, even if I rewrote it a couple of times. As I said before, I’m still getting the hang of writing a Star Wars story, so bear with me if anything feels off.
I debated with myself a lot about how to do this chapter. I ended up settling on this one after a few other versions. I felt like starting with a conversation with the council immediately didn’t really fit. Harry, or at least this version of him, is a whimsical man who cares about seeing new things and exploring new places.
I hoped that going this path, where he sees a hurt child and investigates, would be a good introduction for his character for this story, while showing a bit of his unfamiliarity with the Star Wars universe, which I’m planning to rectify soon. Those of you who know a bit more about the Jedi Temple in Coruscant probably know where I’m going with this, at least I’m hoping so.
I hope that made sense. I’m really hesitant about Harry’s POV chapters since they really didn’t work in the previous volume, and I’m trying not to repeat the same mistake in this story, especially not so early on.
Also, feel free to let me know if you have any things you'd like to see in that story. SW lore is pretty expansive, especially Legends stuff, and there's a lot that I'll probably miss, so I'm counting on you guys :)
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.