Harry Potter and the Boy From Tatooine - Chapter 4 - Star Wars Cantina (Patreon)

Harry watched as two men in robes were surrounded by a small army of  droids before they pulled light swords out of their cloaks and fought  off the droids before running down an extremely utilitarian hallway  which appeared to be made solely of metal … this blurred a little and  the next thing Harry saw was the same two men swimming through the water  before finding an underwater city full of aliens that neither Anakin  nor Harry had seen before … as this image faded it was replaced by the  most gorgeous woman he could have imagined. Unfortunately she to faded  away and the images began speeding by, barely giving Harry time to  recognize what he was seeing. A beautiful green and blue planet with  armies on both sides of a field … a giant battle in space … a world  filled with water, rain, and lightning … full courtyards of identical  soldiers marching into large spaceships … He saw an epic battle with the  light swords on a planet of lava and rocks … he saw love and hope …  death and betrayal … and then everything disappeared and a cloaked  figure was in front of Harry staring at him speculatively from under the  hood, Harry was unsure how long he was being inspected before the  individual threw back his head and released a truly evil laugh and was  surrounded by lightening that seemed to originate from the figures  finger tips.

It was this figure that finally woke Harry from his  dreams, as he sat up quickly and looked around trying to figure out  where he was. His dream quickly starting to fade until Harry was only  left with a few memories of what he had seen.

The first thing he  realized was that he was sore all over, a fact, he realized, that had  not been aided in the slightest by sitting up as quickly as he had. As  Harry looked around he recognized he was in his room, recognizing the  workbench and the partially completed protocol droid.

Pausing to relax, Harry tried to remember exactly how he had gotten here, not remembering going to bed the previous night.

Slowly  images came back to him, his excitement over his first podrace … an  opportunity to sneak into first place … the realization it was a ruse …  and then the crash.

Remembering the crash, Harry let his hands  roam all over his body checking to make sure he was alright. Finding  nothing obvious he let out a slight sigh of relief and lounged back  against the wall, not feeling any desire to leave the bed.

As he  thought back on the race and what he should have done differently, he  heard the door slide open as a familiar presence entered the room.

"Oh Ani, you are awake! Thank the Suns! I brought some broth to sit by you and wait. Did you want this bowl, I'll grab another."

Realizing he was hungry. Harry reluctantly nodded his head. "Thanks mom, how long was I out?"

A  look of pain momentarily crossed her face before she managed to get a  grip on her physical display of her emotions, "You were out for a full  day after that crash."

Harry looked at her in surprise as it  didn't feel like a full day. "Sorry about that, I did not mean for the  race to end up that way. Sebulba had an illegal part …"

"Ani, it does not matter! You are too old to be making excuses!"

Harry starred at his mom, surprised by her angry outburst.

"You  are competing in a sport that is incredibly dangerous, there are no  other humans who are capable of what you do and yet you do it … and then  you make errors in judgement like that … of course Sebulba was going to  do something that bordered on cheating … how many more times are you  going to misjudge an opponent just to barely walk away from a crash …  before you … before you don't."

Harry realized her anger was borne  out of concern and his heart broke as her voice cracked at the end of  her sentence and she started crying.

Ignoring the pain in his body he leaned forward and embraced his mother. "I am so sorry mom, I will not look to race anymore."

She  wiped her eyes as she regained her composure and scoffed, "If only that  was true, however maybe there is a chance, small as it may be, that  Watto will stop using you in races. Everyone who witnessed the crash was  surprised when the medi-droids got to the pod and found you alive, they  all agree it was a miracle you did not die or have any of your limbs  irreparably damaged."

Harry gulped and relooked at all his limbs,  realizing that perhaps the crash was more significant than he had  thought and perhaps he was luckier than he had thought to have 'walked'  away from the crash.

His mother continued, "And … Watto was  furious about you crashing again. Although when the medi-droids found  you alive and said you would be alright, I saw a flicker of happiness on  his expression before he started complaining about the race."

"However, you will likely not be racing for a while at least."

Harry looked up at her, questioningly.

"Watto  was quite upset over the damage that the podracer sustained, at least  three times he voiced concerns aloud that it might not even be worth  bringing the pod back to the shop and might be worth just leaving it  there."

Harry winced, thinking about how unpleasant Watto would be over the damage sustained to the racer.

"On  top of that, it took Watto the better part of yesterday afternoon to  head out into the Dune Sea to find the engine that separated from the  pod and rocketed off the track. It sure felt like he was unhappy with  the idea of you racing."

It was Harry's turn to scoff, "I imagine  that as soon as I am able to walk, he will have me back at work fixing  the podracer. And I don't want to get your hopes up mom, but I can't  imagine it will be too long once the repairs are complete before he will  have me signed up in another race."

The hope which had been  building on his mom's face as she talked, disappeared, "Oh … but Ani …  it's so dangerous … surely Watto must realize you are more important  than just as a podracer."

"I know mom, but it is a lot easier to  find mechanics or shop boys than to find someone who can race a podracer  … and Watto does not even have to pay me for the risks with podracing. I  don't really have a choice."

His mom starred at him, the sadness  evident across her expression, "Well … at least I will be content in the  fact that it will take a while to fix the racer … if it is even  possible. I am pretty confident you will miss the next handful of  events, including the Boonta Eve Classic … ugh that event is truly a  death race."

Harry nodded. He knew that usually there was at least  one or two deaths during each podrace, however the prize money was so  astronomical for the Boonta Eve Classic and not just for the winner but  for each position. As a result of this, it was a lot more competitive  and many racer simply tried to eliminate their competition in order to  increase the likelihood they would receive a reward at the end.

They  were quiet for a little bit, his mom seemed content to just watch him  as he ate his broth, apparently having decided spending time with him  was more important that going to grab another bowl for herself.

Once he finished, she looked at him seriously as she questioned, "How are you feeling?"

Harry  stopped to consider the question. He was honestly surprised he was  feeling as well as he did, especially considering the description of the  crash from his mom.

"I am pretty good, I do have a slight  throbbing in my head, but even as we have been chatting I have noticed  the pain lessening."

His mom smiled, "That's good Ani, the  medi-droids said you likely have a small concussion but after you  finished eating you are free to go to sleep, I just need to check on you  every little while to make sure you are alright."

Harry nodded, "Sounds good, thanks for food. I am probably ready for sleep."

After  his mom got up and tucked into Harry into bed, she paused, standing  over him, "You are ok though right? You were muttering strange things in  your sleep."

Harry looked up at her already feeling sleepy, "Oh? About what?"

"You  were calling for people … Ron and Hermione? I think. Unique names. Are  they new friends, I don't think I have heard you mention them before."

Harry froze before meeting her eyes as he replied, "More like … old friends."

His  mom looked at him, appearing to have a follow up question on the tip of  her tongue, however seeing the sadness on his face and hearing the  sadness in his voice she decided to leave it for another time. "Ok I'll  let you sleep Ani, if there is anything you need. Just call for me."

Harry  managed to fall asleep almost immediately after she turned and headed  out of his room. Much to his relief, it was into a dreamless sleep.

While  he slept, Watto let his mother know that he was allowing him the next  day off to recover but expected Harry to be in the following day to  start repairing the extreme damage that the podracer had sustained.  Harry was quite happy with that arrangement as by lunch the day after he  had woken up he was feeling perfectly fine and certainly not as if he  had been in a podracer crash and had ended up rolling three times the  length of a Togrutan Ritual Field.

Even though his mom had  initially demanded that he take it easy, was not allowed to do anything  too strenuous and was to remain in his room on bed rest, Harry managed  to eventually convince her that he would take it easy and stay in his  room working on the protocol droid. And there he stayed for the  remainder of the afternoon.

The  next day, as soon as he had walked into the shop, Watto greeted him and  as expected immediately tasked him with repairing the podracer. It was  immediately obvious to Harry that the podracer was not in nearly as bad  condition as Watto and his mother feared it to be in, it would certainly  be out of commission until after the Boonta Eve Classic, but likely not  much longer than that.

After Harry had taken a look at the  podracer, diagnosed the damage, and concluded what would need to be  replaced; he approached Watto with a list. Watto had almost everything  on the list except for two things that he would need to track down, as  usual this upset Watto who prided himself on having everything that  anyone could need. However, Watto immediately set Harry to work as he  went to his office and began reaching out to his contacts for the pieces  he did not have.

Harry threw himself into the podracer repairs,  work at the shop, and his projects at home in an effort to escape the  dreams which returned each night with a vengeance before disappearing in  the morning, leaving nothing but fleeting images and a feeling on  oncoming dread.

By the end of the first week after Harry's return,  Watto had found out that there was a tribe of Jawa's approaching Mos  Espa on their sandcrawler who were in possession of one of the pieces  required for the podracer repair. As such, he directed Harry to take the  speeder and get the piece needed and any droids or anything else of  value that he would be able to sell for a profit.

The next day  when Harry headed off to the sandcrawler, that was about thirty minutes  out of the settlement, he took his partially completed protocol droid to  help with negotiations as the protocol droid was currently fluent in  over three million forms of communication, one of which was the language  of the Jawa's, although Anakin hoped to at least double the total  amount of languages the protocol droid knew.

As the negotiation  started, the Jawas had correctly assumed that Harry, like most  sentients, did not understand their language, however they did not  realize that the droid, which as of yet looked unfunctional, was indeed  not only functional but could also understand their language. As such  they had made the mistake of discussing several points about how much  they would actually take for the pieces Harry was interested in, which  was significantly under the asking price of what the Jawas opened the  negotiation with and indeed under the price of which Watto had expected  to pay. Armed with this information provided by his droid, the  negotiations tilted in favor of Harry who realized he would also be able  to purchase a couple pieces for the droid and a couple for the project  he was working on without Watto becoming suspicious about the amount of  money that was spent.

After successfully completing the  negotiation Harry headed back into Mos Espa, stopping only to drop off  the extra pieces he had gotten for himself. As he stored the pieces for  his project under the tarp he smiled to himself as he realized that he  now had everything he needed and all he needed now was time and an  opportunity. Soon everyone would know his name … well at least they  would know the name Anakin Skywalker, and he might finally be able to  get off this planet and start finding out what Fate had in store for  him.

When he arrived back at the shop, Watto was impressed with  the price that Harry had managed to negotiate down to and rewarded him  by giving him the rest of the afternoon off, letting him know that he  expected him there early the next day to show his appreciation for the  time off he was being given.

Realizing he would not be expected at  home soon, Harry headed off in search of Kitster and Wald, who he had  been spending a lot of time with since the crash. For the most part they  enjoyed sneaking into cantinas where they could listen to and talk with  the spacers and pilots who came through Tatooine in search of work.

Harry  personally looked forward to these opportunities as it seemed to be the  most reliable way to get information from off planet, of course  sometimes he heard fantastical and quite frankly ridiculous stories  about the exploits of the Jedi, who sounded like a mysterious order of  space monks who had strange, possibly magical powers. It was the magical  nature of their powers that interested him and set him to wondering  whether they were they just witches and wizards operating under the  cloak of secrecy.

Harry had wanted to discount some of the stories  but there seemed to be such a vast amount of these tales that were  shared about Jedi that they were hard to discount and Anakin had seemed  to believe in them … and then he had overheard a story about their  preferred weapons being laser swords, which caused Harry to remember one  of his dreams. Although that only brought up more questions as Harry  had no idea as to why he had been dreaming about something he had not  heard of.

After getting let out from Watto's shop Harry decided to  wait for his friends in the cantina where they all usually met. After  entering, he noticed their usual booth was open and decided to set down  where he relaxed and listened to a conversation between two pilots at  the next table.

"It's true I tell you!" The first pilot, drunkenly shouted at his companion.

"If that is true, my mother was a Gamorrean." Replied the second.

"Well  that would certainly explain a lot …" laughed the first, as he paused  to finish the drink. "But I am serious, I managed to chart a course and  complete the Kessel Run in 13 parsecs."

"That's a load of bantha  droppings, everyone knows it can't be done in less than 14 parsecs and  even that could only be carried out by a pilot with a death wish … 13  parsecs, what a dream. Come on you drunk let's get another drink."

With that, they headed back off to the bar leaving Harry alone to await the arrival of his friends.

A  couple of days later, as Harry was behind the shop working on the  podracer, he heard a cough and got out from underneath the left engine  to see that Watto was there, nervously clearing his throat and looking  worried.

This immediately concerned Harry, as he had never seen a  look of worry upon Watto's face. Watto's emotions and facial expressions  were pretty much limited to happiness which was usually displayed when  he managed to rip off a customer in a negotiation or resignation when  the negotiation was fair and the customer was not ripped off … or anger  when he found out that Harry had crashed his podracer again and heard  the cost of repairing it.

Seeing he got Harry's attention, Watto hesitantly began speaking, "I have found the last piece. For the podracer."

This  served to further increase Harry's concern, as Watto while was never  particularly thrilled to find out he did not have something he needed,  he was always happy when he managed to find out where he could get it …  especially if he could task Harry with getting it for him.

Harry  looked up from the ground, covered in sand and the lubricating oil he  have been using on the bearings along the engine turbine shaft, "That's  good news … isn't it?"

Watto hesitantly nodded, "It is … but … the individual who has the piece I need wants to meet in a cantina … in Mos Eisley."

Harry immediately began to understand Watto's worry.

While  Harry had very quickly come to realize that Mos Espa was certainly no  fairy-tale kingdom it was generally a fairly well-ordered settlement and  as long as one followed their common sense there was only a slight  chance of being killed for no reason. Mos Eisley however … was a  settlement filled with a significantly more dangerous sort of people,  who more often than not shot first and never stopped ask questions or  think about it.

Harry had overheard more than one spacer joking  that if you entered Mos Eisley you were basically flipping a peggat as  to whether you would return.

"I know you said we need the piece …  however … I was thinking we could always wait until I find the next one.  It is not as if the podracer will be fixed by the Boonta Eve Classic  and the next several races are all small pots anyways, so it does not  matter if we miss one or more of those.

Harry looked at Watto,  slightly touched by the display of concern for his wellbeing, although  he was pretty sure the concern was mostly due to Watto realizing that  Harry was incredibly skilled and it would be incredibly difficult  bordering on impossible to replace him.

"It's alright Watto, I can  get the piece and then we don't have to wait around. I am almost at the  stage where I won't be able to do anything until I have that piece  anyways. Once I get to that point I won't be able to do anything and if  we wait too long I will need to recalibrate everything I have done so  far."

Watto starred at him.

"You better be ok Ani, I don't  want to have to replace you." Harry silently chuckled as Watto confirmed  his suspicion. "Just go in make the deal and head out. You will leave  first thing tomorrow."

"Of course … although maybe don't tell my mother …"

Watto looked at Harry and laughed, "Ok, enough chatting, back to work!"

The  next morning, while having a quick breakfast with his mom he was  slightly evasive as to where he was heading off to grab the piece, not  wanting to lie to his mother or cause her unnecessary worry. As he  finished his breakfast and was about to head out the door to grab the  speeder from the salvage shop, Harry paused and looked towards his room  before running back and grabbing his wand and a holster, which he had  also found within the pouch. While he understood the wisdom behind  Fate's suggestion over keeping a low profile, he decided he should  definitely be prepared when heading into a dangerous scenario like he  was about to.

The ride was thankfully uneventful and as he neared  Mos Eisley's walls his communicator beeped directing him to the Mos  Eisley Cantina as the location of the meeting.

Following the  directions on the communicator, Harry arrived at the cantina without  incident and after disabling the speeder he entered the cantina only to  shudder from sensory overload.

As if the blaring music was not  enough, the emotions he felt from the individuals was overwhelming.  Harry got the sense that nearly everyone within the cantina was  harboring negative intentions and depending on the stimulus any one of  them was capable of acting on them with the slightest provovation.

Looking  around the dimly lit room, Harry searched for the individual described  in the communique. Eventually Harry noticed the tapir like snout,  bulbous eyes, and pea green skin of a young Rodian who looked to be  about his age and headed in that direction.

"Hello, I am Anakin. I believe you have something for me."

The alien looked at him and hissed out, "No names."

Harry nodded, "That's fine, I have your payment here, I just came for the parts."

As  Harry watched the alien, he noticed that he shuffled a little when  Harry mentioned he had the payment and Harry felt his emotions darken.  With a start Harry realized that he had drawn his blaster below the  table.

After initially being shocked that an alien of such a young  age would automatically reach for a blaster and attempt to shoot him  rather than seeing the deal through, Harry started reaching for his  wand. Although, he made no attempt to attack just yet, partially out of  desire to not raise suspicions of anyone who might be looking his way  and partially due to the fact that he felt a bit of doubt emanating from  the alien.

Harry looked right into the bulbous eyes of the Rodian stating, "You do not want to do that."

"What you mean?" the alien replied staring at Harry.

"You  do not want to attack me, that is not the outcome you are looking for."  Harry repeated a little more forcefully with a lot more confidence than  he felt.

"Why not, why I not shoot you and take all the credits  and keep the machine piece. Business deal gone bad, it happen before, it  not impossible that happen again."

Harry froze his mind racing to  think up a response, although the fact that the alien had not fired  already gave him hope for being able to talk his way out of this.

"Because if you don't shoot, we can … build a business relationship out of this deal."

The  Rodian stared at Harry unflinchingly but did not make an effort to  shoot him so Harry continued. "In the future, it is likely that either  Watto or myself will need some more hard to find pieces and if we know  we can trust this relationship to be safe, we will come to you. On top  of this, whoever you work for will not be happy if Watto never does  business with your boss because you shot his slave over a rather small  deal. I imagine that will not work out for you … that is, angering your  boss."

Harry was still working on his ability to be able to read  the racial expressions of Rodians but could tell based on reading his  emotions that the Rodian across the table got really worried when Harry  mentioned the idea of angering his boss.

Realizing there was nothing else he could say right now, Harry kept quiet and allowed the Rodian to think on his words.

"So  what you suggest?" The Rodian eventually replied, evidently deciding  that possibly killing Harry might not work out well for him.

"Well  … I think as a show of good faith I will give you the payment now and  then we can go outside and I will load up the speeder with the part  Watto needed. At which point, I will head back to Mos Espa to tell him  about what a good interaction we had and let him know that I recommend  dealing with you every time he does business in Mos Eisley."

Harry smiled realizing that he got through to the Rodian after seeing the greed in the aliens eyes as he finished the sentence.

However, it still felt like an eternity until he had relaxed his blaster arm and nodded saying, "Good plan."

With  that confirmation, Harry released the breath he had been holding and  handed over the sack containing the agreed upon payment, as the Rodian  reholstered his blaster.

After this, Harry followed him outside  and loaded the piece for the podracer into the speeder, choosing to not  inspect it in front of the Rodian deciding that might seem to be …  insensitive and would likely re-escalate the situation.

Once Harry  had loaded the piece into the speeder, got it secured, and re-enabled  the speeder he turned to the Rodian and nodded, "It was … a pleasure  doing business with you … sorry I didn't catch your name …"

The Rodian took a step back and inspected Harry before replying, " … I said, no names."

With that he turned and effortlessly disappeared into the crowd.

As  Harry navigated the speeder out of Mos Eisley, he released another  breathe he had been holding, happy to have managed to escape the  settlement unscathed.

While he had actually found he had ended up  enjoying the music of the cantina and in some perverse way he actually  enjoyed developing the relationship with the Rodian, wondering for a  second what his future held in store for him, Harry could adamantly say,  that even compared to Knockturn Alley, he had never visited a more  wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Two hours later, as Harry was  approaching the outlying dwellings around Mos Espa he felt … well he was  not sure what he felt, but he was pretty sure he felt great upheaval  approaching and for some reason felt that he would be at the center of  it.

Almost immediately after the feeling began, a sleek silver  spacecraft flew by overhead, heading in the direction of the dunes  outside the city rather than the spaceport.

This in and of itself  was not great cause for concern as it was not uncommon for individuals  who wished to avoid registration with the settlement to often do exactly  the same thing, however Harry could not shake the feeling that the  craft was somehow related to the feeling he had just experienced.

As  Harry lowered his eyes back to the path in front of him, he froze and  almost immediately glanced back up towards the retreating ship in the  distance, recognizing it.

This ship had been in his dreams and he  was positive that this was the exact same ship he had witnessed an image  of as he was flying out of body towards the surface of Tatooine.

A  large part of him wanted to head off in the direction of the ship and  understand the connection between the events that were happening to him,  however he shook his head knowing that there was something significant  happening and knowing that he was likely fated to run into his destiny  no matter what he chose at this point.

He refocused his attention  on the sand in front of him, smoothly avoiding a wrecked speeder that  was partially submerged in a dune. Harry risked a quick glance in the  direction the ship had disappeared, knowing that his life was likely to  experience great disruption quite shortly.

By the time Harry had  made it back to the shop he realized he was starving, having not have  eaten much of his breakfast before heading out and not having been brave  enough to stick around Mos Eisley for a bite after the deal was struck.

As he walked into the shop he was immediately greeted by a slightly surprised Watto.

"Ani! … You live … that's good."

Harry stopped, momentarily surprised by the sound of affection in Watto's voice. "Thanks Watto, just got back."

Watto inspected him closely, "How did the exchange go? No trouble I hope?"

Harry  paused considering his words, "It … was alright … we managed to reach  an agreement to carry on business with the contact and his boss. So if  you need anything from them it should likely be alright … that being  said, I would be perfectly alright if you never sent me there again." As  he finished the sentence his stomach loudly grumbled.

This caused  Watto to laugh, whether because of what he said or because of his  stomach he was unsure, although he was happy Watto chose to show pity on  the sandy haired boy in front of him.

"Go eat boy, and then when  you are done you can get back to repairing my podracer. I will call if I  need help with any customers."

Harry smiled and headed off to grab a little snack before Watto could change his mind.

As  he was finishing his Womprat jerky, he heard voices start in the main  shop. He paused and listened, knowing Watto was likely to call for him  to come and … and as predicted almost immediately he heard Watto yell  back.

"Peedunkel! Naba dee unko!

Harry put down his plate and headed to the front to help Watto.

'Boy what took you …"

However, Harry missed the rest of what Watto said as he starred at the three sentients and one droid who had entered the shop.

Four individuals thst he recognized …

An  older gentlemen with a certain presence around him in worn brown robes,  a gangly amphibious looking alien with a duck bill, yellow eyes perched  on top of stalks at the top of its head, and large flappy ears, a short  conical astromech droid, and … the most beautiful girl he had ever laid  eyes on outside of his dreams, a girl who was likely several years  older than he was now, probably closer to the age he was when he had  been sent to this galaxy.

Harry paused his eyes unable to leave the girl in front of him realizing that his fate was upon him.

Kind Regards,

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Thanks to those of you out to those of you who enjoy my stories, I promise to keep updating the stories as long as you enjoy them, and a special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to leave feedback or reach out to me directly.

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