Chapter 8: Chapter 8 - New Masters And Newer Apprentices
Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 8 – New Masters And Newer Apprentices
As soon as they were back in the atrium, Harry and Hermione both leaned against the wall beside the lift and breathed huge sighs of relief, they had got their foot in the door and were both now Padawan Learners.
"I don't think I have ever been so glad to get out of a room before," remarked Aayla, also breathing a sigh of relief.
"I told you did I not that everything that must happen will happen, fate was laid out before you and you accept it," smiled Qui-Gon.
A thoughtful look crossed her face before she turned to the master accusingly.
"You knew that was going to happen didn't you, you knew I would end up taking Harry as my padawan."
"I saw nothing of the sort," he replied calmly. "I merely guessed a possible outcome. Hermione, if you wait here your new master should be down soon. Do not worry about making a good first impression, Master Trebor has never taken a padawan before so you will both be learning together, all I will say is do not try to be someone or something you are not or say something just because you think he wants to hear it. He is one of our best mediators and it's very difficult to hide things from him or to deceive him."
"Thank you Master Qui-Gon," she bowed, though she was now more nervous than she was before.
"If you will excuse us Obi-Wan and I need to see if the service droids have managed to make a mess of our quarters. May the Force be with you."
As they walked down the corridor and got out of hearing range, Qui-Gon smiled to himself and said to his apprentice.
"I believe as Secura is now Harry master that that means that you are doing meals for the next week Obi-Wan."
"Yes Master," grumbled Obi-Wan, he hated it when he made bets with his master, he almost always lost.
As they left Aayla turned to Harry.
"I never actually asked you Harry if you are happy with me being your master?"
"I could not think of anyone I would rather be trained by Aa- Master Secura."
"Aayla is fine while we are alone or with friends Harry, just add a master to it when we are in public." She then turned to their other friend. "Will you be ok waiting here Hermione? I need to get Harry settled into my rooms and get him kitted out as a padawan."
"If my master will only be a few minutes I should be ok Knight Secura," she replied.
"In that case we shall see you later, please offer your master an invitation for the two of you to join us for dinner."
"I will Knight Secura...May the Force be with you," she guessed while bowing as Aayla put her arm around Harry and led him to a set of steps that led back down into the main building.
Taking him first to the quartermasters she got herself a set of training tools and him his sets of padawan robes before leading him back to their rooms. On the way she explained how he could wear more customised attire if he wished, though it was generally frowned upon to where something that did not at least resemble Jedi robes in some way. When he questioned her about her own attire, she explained how certain species were permitted to wear their native species attire at the temple, though not many species did it. When he then enquired if he was permitted to do that she had to think for a minute and reply that it depended entirely on what he wore, as he was from a new planet the situation had never been discussed before and as not even half a dozen of them had been to Earth they could argue that whatever he chose was native attire but it was her decision unless a member of the High Council decided to overrule her and determined that whatever the attire was wasn't appropriate.
After they had descended into the maze of rooms that made up the ziggurat of the temple and arrived at her quarters she keyed him into them to allow him to come and go as he pleased before going inside and giving him the brief guided tour.
"As Jedi we are not supposed to live extravagantly so our accommodations are basic."
The suite door opened into a sitting room complete with a couple of chairs and two sofas surrounding a coffee table. From the back left hand side of this room (which was only just big enough for someone to walk normally around the outsides of aforementioned furniture) was a miniature hall only about two meters long that led to the kitchen/dining room, the two doors on the left of the short hall were at the corners of two bedrooms, Aayla's room was the first door that ran parallel to the sitting room and the previously unoccupied padawans room was the second that was angled the other way so it ran alongside the kitchen that the hall led to, on the opposite side to the two doors that led to the bedrooms was the door to the bathroom which completed the remarkable short tour. The rooms were painted white and had no exterior light as they were at the centre of the temple ziggurat but were well lit by lights in the ceiling. The overall design did not meet the traditional and grand design of the wide high hallways with grand pillars and cavernous spaces that the more public rest of the building portrayed, though the rooms appeared much more modern while still being comfortable. The rooms were not exactly spartan but did not contain more than a very few items that were not functional, including a few books on a bookshelf in Aayla's room, a couple of data pads on the table, a long mirror which had been mounted on the wall in the sitting room which helped to make the room look bigger and a few little mementos from missions and Aayla's home worlds culture.
"It's not much but its home," she smiled, throwing herself down along the length of one of the sofas, very relieved that the service droids tidied the place up after she left, she never was one to keep a tidy house.
"It's much bigger than the space I got to stay in when I was with my aunt and uncle."
Looking at her apartment as if he were joking, Aayla decided to ask about that later as right now she had a much bigger concern. Could she actually scrape together a meal for four without unintentionally poisoning all of them?
Despite what she had said to Aayla, Hermione was actually very nervous over quite a few things. Would she be a good enough student, would she be an embarrassment to her master on the Council, would she keep comparing his appearance to the dinosaur species parasaurolophus every time she looked at his head crest?
It was about ten minutes later that the lift doors opened and some of the Council started wandering out slowly.
Hermione bolted upright, almost upsetting the table in front of her in the process, as soon as they opened to reveal the various masters, all moving out at different paces, a few regarded her and either bowed, nodded or smiled as they passed.
"Do well here I think you will Padawan Granger," stated Yaddle as the small green master passed. "Watch your progress with interest I shall."
"Thank you Master," she bowed before the small woman moved off.
One of the last people out of the lift was her Master be after saying goodbye to Master Koth came to stand in front of her.
"Ready to embark on a great adventure my young padawan?"
"I think so Master," she answered, bowing her head, rather unsure of herself which was quite a new feeling for Hermione.
"There is no need to be so tense Hermione, I do not bite."
"Yes Master, sorry Master, I'm just rather nervous. I've never been the sole pupil of a teacher before and I'm not quite sure how to act or react. I've always had dozens of others to judge my performance against, now I just have Harry who has had the same training as me, but you being a master means I should progress faster than he does. It's very unusual for me to feel out of my depth when it comes to learning and I think for the first time in years I really am Master."
"I feel the same way Hermione, I have only recently been promoted to the High Council and I have never had an apprentice before so this will be a new experience for both of us, but I promise you this, just because I am a master and on the High Council that does not mean I will be a more demanding teacher than Secura or that more will be expected of you. Being a master is not always a matter of skill and power. Some such as myself are there because of their mediation abilities, others like Master Rancisis because of their strategic thinking, still more like Master Yaddle because they have trained many padawans and have skill in unusual areas of the Force and lastly others because they are considered extremely wise like Master Dooku. Let us go and get you equipped for your new life and go and get to know each other a bit."
"Oh, Knight Secura wanted me to invite us both over for dinner this evening Master," Hermione recalled.
"Knowing what I have heard about Secura's cooking that could proof for quite an interesting meal."
After collecting everything they would need they proceeded back to their apartment. Being a master and a member of the High Council meant that Coleman had a set of quarters at the base of the High Council Tower immediately above the atrium. It had all the same rooms as a standard Jedi's set of rooms except the front door led into a softly lit hexagonal office complete with just a pair of mediation stools (more were stored in the walls if they were required) where the master could receive those Jedi that needed to talk to him. The rest of the suit led off of this room through another door, though the rest was a very similar layout to those of standard Jedi quarters they were also slightly bigger and the rooms were all also hexagonal. Unlike Aayla's quarters that were quite untouched and more like a base than a home, Coleman's quarters, thought not his office were considerably fuller and much more of a dwelling. The walls of his rooms were covered in star charts, shelves containing books, cultural items from a variety of species and what looked like summaries of several important political persons.
"My quarters tend to be a bit more full than that of many other Jedi, I probably have more items on my walls than could strictly be called necessary to do my job but they do help when I have the occasional laps in memory as regards an upcoming mission etc."
He seated himself in one of the sofas in the main part of the suite and gestured for her to sit in the other.
"Now to get to know each other a bit, and as I know more about you than you do about me I think it is only fair that you be allowed to learn more first. Do you have any pressing questions?"
"I um...I have an unusual request if I may Master?" she asked nervously.
"You can call me Coleman when we are not in public Hermione, we only need to be formal when there are others about. What is your request?" he asked leaning forward expectantly which did not seem to be helping the girl at all.
"Well Master," she continued, more out of habit of always being respectful to her teachers than because she did not feel comfortable enough around him yet. "And please don't take offense at this, but I have never seem a member of your species before, in fact the only non-human I had met before today was Knight Secura and if you will forgive me for saying so, she has a much more human like appearance than you do, so my request Master is, if you don't mind...Would you...Would you object if I were to just spend a few minutes looking at you?"
Coleman had to splutter to keep his bark of laughter down, yes this would definitely prove to be an interesting apprenticeship.
"I would not ask Master," Hermione added quickly feeling the need to explain herself further, "But my natural curiosity just makes me want to stare at you and I am hoping that if I stare at you now I will not be so tempted to be so rude by doing so later."
"You are more than welcome to spend a few minutes staring at me," he nodded. "You are also more than welcome to touch me if you do not believe I am real," he added placing his hands palm up in the middle of the coffee table, which she cautiously took in her own.
This was definitely the most unusual experience of her life decided Hermione, she was sitting here in front of an alien who she would be living with for probably at least the next decade.
Cautiously reaching out she took his out stretched hands, feeling the smooth texture of the skin which at first she thought must have been scaly like the dinosaurs his species resembled, but instead it was smooth like the skin of a frog on the underside of his hands and more like the more textured skin of a toad on the back, just not as moist. He was built slightly larger than the average human, that with the addition of his head crest gave him a rough height of a little over two meters. Each of his hands had only three larger digits instead of the human five and most unusually his head which was designed very differently to hers had a huge crest rising from the tip of the nose well over the top of the head. She noticed that his eyes were set in such a way as they had a much wider field of vision, probably almost two hundred and seventy degrees if not more, and because of the large crest down the middle of his face if he closed one eye unlike if she did it he would probably be only able to see anything on one side of his face. The large crest itself she guessed probably fulfilled some sort of mating function, like making the males more attractive to females or allowing for loud vocalisations.
"Thank you Master, hopefully I will not stare so much now, if I think I need to again I will let you know. Would you be able to tell me more about yourself now please?"
"Of course, my name is Master Coleman Trebor, I am a Verk from the planet Sembla, we are an amphibious species so I can breathe on land or in the water. Because of my species nature I like to have long baths every few days to rehydrate my skin and to give you fair warning you should not disturb me during these unless it's important as it one of the few things that can make me quite annoyed. I am a Jedi Consular which means I much rather prefer to use my Jedi abilities for peaceful negotiation rather than violent altercation, though I am quite good with a lightsaber when I need to be. I am fairly well known throughout the Order and the Republic as a good mediator and negotiator which has brought me some unwanted fame which the Council seems to like as it reflects well on the Order. Because of the good publicity and because I am the sort of Jedi that the Council wants the Republic to think that we are all like I am often sent as a spokesperson whenever the Jedi need to speak with the media, I am also quite often sent to diplomatic functions and dinners that you will now be joining me at, in these occasions we will be as ambassadors to the Order. Do you have any other immediate questions because if not I would like to start discussing what we will do for your training."
"Yes Master," she nodded already beginning to feel much more relaxed around her master than she had when they first met.
"First of all you might want to go and get changed into your padawan robes, the rest of your belongings should be being sent here from the ship, technically you should not really keep any of them but the Council appreciates that as you have left your planet much later in your life than most Jedi do that it is harder to separate yourself from your possessions. We also have the advantage in that as you are one of only two people to have come to the Republic from your planet and are mostly likely to be the only ones for a hundred years or more that most of your possessions could be considered rare artefacts so we can justify keeping some of them as unique examples."
"I did ah...'appropriate' a large amount of books, tomes and texts with me when I came Master, if you don't object I was hoping to use them around mine and Harry's Jedi training to allow us to continue our Magical education."
"I have no objection, in fact I would encourage it and would like to read some of those books for myself in case it is possible for other Jedi to learn your 'magic'. Yours is a type of Force control that we are not familiar with and it will prove most enlightening. Once we have finished reading them we can put them in the Archives, the librarians will be very happy to receive a large quantity of new material without having to retrieve it themselves and as it is yourself who will have brought them aforementioned knowledge you will be the only one other than the Librarians and the Masters that are allowed to remove the original source of that knowledge without written permission. Now go and get changed while I contact Knight Secura and confirm that we will be there later."
"Yes Master," she nodded, jumping to her feet and going off into her new room to get changed.
Like the rest of the apartment it was functional with a set of draws, a meditation stool, a cupboard, a few reference books, a computer terminal and a comfortable bunk. It might not have been as grand as Hogwarts but it would do fine, at least she had her own room rather than having to share with four others.
A few minutes later after changing into her new robes that were a lot easier to move in that her Hogwarts ones, she exited her room to see her Master sitting and waiting for her looking with interest at her trunk that had obviously been delivered while she was changing.
"Your luggage has arrived Hermione," he explained. "If you do not object we should probably go through it to see what you no longer need."
"Yes Master," she nodded, somewhat reluctant to lose any of her possessions. As she sat down Coleman realised something and stopped her. "I almost forgot, we need to sort out your hair."
"My hair?" she asked nervously, running her hand down its length.
"Yes, come over here and kneel in front of me."
Cautiously doing so she felt him begin to start doing something with her hair, especially those strands immediately behind her right ear, he seemed to be having a little difficulty, possibly due to his larger digits or the fact that he had no hair of his own so he had no experience with hair but after a few minutes he finished and allowed her to get up and look at her reflection in a hand mirror he held up for her. She now had a small braid starting just behind her right ear that descended past her shoulder before being tied off.
"You now have a padawan's braid; you need to leave that in your hair and let it grow until you become a knight at which time it will be cut off."
"Thank you Master," she nodded.
"Later we will have to cut the rest off I'm afraid," he sighed running his hand over her mane of hair.
"Cut it!" she asked shocked, moving her hands up to hold her precious hair, this was something she had not been told about. "Why does it need cutting Master?"
"Padawans traditionally have short cut hair as well as the braid, hence the need to cut it short. I thought Master Qui-Gon would have told you that."
"But I..." she began, but was unable to think of a good argument against it, before looking down quite sadly at the realisation that she would not be able to keep her beloved mane.
"I'll tell you what Hermione," he said sympathetically. "We can wait until tomorrow to get it cut down, and it will not be as bad as you think, not all padawans have their hair cut down as much as Padawan Kenobi, we would leave yours slightly longer than that."
"Thank you Master," she nodded, accepting that tonight would be the last night that she had the mane of hair she had spent years growing.
"Come on," he smiled. "Let us go and have dinner with your friend."
"How is it coming along Harry?"
"Just boiling now, I'm going to turn the heat down so it does not boil away into nothing."
"Did you get the chance to finish cutting the salad?"
"It's on the table already."
"I've just got out the glasses and the plates, did you get the chance to-"
"Ten minutes ago, they are already on the table as are the seasonings and the starters."
Aayla froze in her panic to get things ready and looked at her young apprentice, he was currently standing in front of the hob with two large saucepans full of food in front of him, one he was stirring and the other he was carefully spooning into four bowls that he had lined up on the counter without spilling a drop.
"Are you usually this good at cooking?" she asked confused.
"I like to think so;" he continued whilst rearranging the pans and placing a small amount of seasoning atop each bowl. "I used to have to cook all the time for my relatives so I got quite good at cooking and cooking multiple things at once."
He wasn't kidding, she was almost a nervous wreck at not having the meal ready for when their guests arrived, what had she been thinking inviting Hermione and Master Coleman for dinner, and he she just realised had not only done most of the cooking but he also had done several of the things that she had said she was going to do for the meal as well.
"I get the feeling Harry, that we are going to change the usual arrangement for master apprentice duties. We are supposed to share and alternate cooking and some cleaning but I will make you a deal. If you do most of the cooking, I will do the clearing up afterwards?"
"Deal," replied Harry. "That's the part of cooking that I hate the most, trying to scrap charred food off of the bottom of pans."
"So do I, but I hate cooking and I'm a terrible cook, so it's a lose/lose situation for me, at least I cannot poison the washing up."
Just then the door chime went indicating that their guests had arrived. Aayla allowed them in just as Harry finished poring the drinks ready for them.
"I thought you had a reputation for being a rather awkward cook Secura?" asked Coleman as he saw the immaculately presented table of food. "This looks anything but disorganised."
"Well you have Harry to thank for that," she smiled as she gestured for them to sit and physically had to pull Harry away from the kitchen that he was already beginning to tidy. "Well I was rushing around in a blind panic he had everything organised."
"Really," the master asked surprised, "Where did you learn to cook with our foods Harry?"
"On the Radiant VI Master Trebor," he replied sitting himself opposite Hermione and sending her a happy smile. "I asked a couple of the crew if I could help with the cooking when I wasn't studying. Thought it might come in handy when one of the crew told me that my new masters cooking could be a bit of a disaster, though I obviously did not know that Knight Secura would be my master then."
Aayla paused halfway through the bite of food she was about to take and turned to glare at her new apprentice. While the others tried to refrain from snickering.
"I hope the food is alright, I didn't really get the chance to practice that much before we got here."
"It's good Padawan Potter," confirmed Coleman in between bites.
"Master Trebor, as you are my best friends master you might as well call me Harry, as I imagine we are going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next few years."
"As you wish Harry," returned the Vurk. "As long as you call me Coleman rather than Trebor, it's not fair when a naming courtesy only goes one way."
"As you wish Master Coleman," he smiled.
"The same goes for me Hermione," added Aayla, receiving a confirmation from Hermione.
They spent several minutes briefly discussing various types of food and what bits of training the padawans had already received before the conversation moved back around to what they master apprentice couples would do next.
"Well as I was telling Hermione before we left our apartment, the first thing Harry needs is his padawans braid and a padawan's hair cut."
"You mean like Obi-Wan has Master Coleman?"
"Exactly Harry."
"That might prove awkward," Harry thought aloud, thinking back to the last time he had a haircut back at the Dursleys.
"I know Hermione's not looking forward to it," her master smiled sympathetically as the girl again looked slightly sorrowful at the thought of losing her hair.
"That's not what I meant Master Coleman. I've had trouble with hair cuts before."
"How so?" asked Aayla, thinking the worst that could happen is that cut be uneven or that you could miss the hair and get an ear, but like Vurks as a hairless species Twi'leks had little knowledge of hair related issues.
Just as Harry went to answer a slightly cunning thought occurred to him as a way to save his friends hair which he could not honestly imagine her without.
"If you don't mind Master I won't tell you now, if we cut my hair tonight and what I think will happen by tomorrow morning happens then it will demonstrate why cutting Hermione's hair would be quite pointless."
Both the adult Jedi exchanged a confused look before shrugging it and deciding to see what the young padawan thought was going to happen.
Hermione was equally confused as to what her friend had in mind, she had had many hair cuts in the past and could not really imagine what could go wrong, though now she came to think of it she could not recall Harry ever getting a haircut at Hogwarts, but she knew she could not ask about it with their masters around.
"What will be the first stages of our training Master?" she asked, changing the subject as Harry went to get the main course from the hob where it had been keeping warm.
"Well, unlike Secura I have not seen your skill and knowledge levels in the various subjects, so tomorrow I will test your knowledge and abilities to see at what stage of learning you are currently at."
"As neither of you have been through the initiate program," continued Aayla. "You won't be attending classes with the rest of the padawans yet especially as we have to get you both familiar with the Temple and sort out two key things that will be essential to your training."
"What are those Master Aayla?" asked Hermione.
"Firstly we need to set up the bond that connects master to apprentice."
"It's a bond that allows us to communicate telepathically as well as to feel emotions and if invited to do so look into each other's minds."
Both the apprentices looked slightly unnerved by the thought.
"Do not worry you two," grinned Aayla. "We are not going to be reading your thoughts or poking through your memories. Most of the time the bond is little more than an emotional bridge that allows us to feel some of what you feel and to locate you if necessary and vice versa. We are not able to read your memories or thoughts unless you allow us to."
"But in order to keep us and any other Force user out we need to immediately after that start organising your mental defences and the organisation of your memories." At their confused looks he continued. "Basically instead of just having your memories as random clumps inside the darkness of your mind, you create a mental landscape to store your memories in."
"What do you mean by mental landscape Master?" asked Hermione.
"Well for example, my mind is organised using this temple as a template with memories of classes sorted into the relevant classrooms, private memories being assigned to one secret location and secret Jedi Council information being hidden somewhere else, and if someone were to try to enter my mind by force, once they had got passed my initial barriers they would then have to get passed the internal defences I have installed and then find the memories they wanted and then get passed the next level of defences."
"Mine are arranged in two stages," continued Aayla. "The first is a partial map of part of my home planet that I have visited. Once you get to the right location and open the right door you then get transported to the Jedi Temple I then order my memories from there."
"Basically it's all designed so that anyone trying to get into your mind has as hard a time of it as possible and also to allow your mind to be better structured. At the moment for example if I were to penetrate either of your minds, once I got passed the natural defences I would have free reign of all your memories."
"Does sorting them this way mean that I would have to move around the temple in my mind in order to remember things Master?" asked Hermione.
"Not at all Hermione, that would be most awkward. No, as its your mind and its all your creation, the rules of the landscape you create will not apply to you unless you choose them to, the best way I can explain it is that as its your mind you already know where everything is so the subconscious part of your mind automatically and instantly takes you to where you need to be to see a memory. So from my point of view I can access memories exactly as I could before and as you can now."
"Two advantage are that one; when you know there is something you just can't remember, unlike now when you would have to think really hard and you might still not get it, once your mind is ordered you will be able to actually physically walk through your mind and look for it if you have to. And two; if you have any memories you would rather not think about at all or you would rather forget, you can lock them or the feelings and emotions associated with them away in such a way that you only have a vague recollection of them or so that you can remember the event but not the bad feelings associated with it unless you go into your mind and unlock the door to whatever it is you were trying not to think about."
Everyone sent a glance at Harry as undesirable memories were mentioned and they all saw him inwardly flinch, hopefully after tomorrow his mind would be a much nicer place to be.
At the end of the evening Coleman and Hermione departed for their own quarters after Harry again requested that Hermione's hair not be cut until after whatever it was that he thought was going to happen to his hair happened.
After they left the pair cleaned up the mess from dinner, despite Aayla's insistence that she should be doing this as Harry did most of the cooking.
After this was done Harry had Aayla cut his hair into the traditional padawan style and helped him make a short braid behind his ear, which was a new experience for both of them.
Tomorrow all four of them would properly start their new lives.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Has anyone else noticed how my author's notes are not so much notes as author's essays.
AUTHOR'S ESSAY: I must say I loved reading the reviews for the last chapter; I always get excited when reading them as I love it when you all pick up subtle little things I have put in or have noticed a particular way that I have done something or even better when you accurately predict what I am going to do next. Some of the reviews I have read left me grinning from ear to ear when someone mentioned something that I had considered and am already planning to write this plot around and that no one else seems to have considered yet. I won't tell you what it is as it will give away far too much of the coming plot. Enjoy.
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