I don't own Harry Potter or Star Wars. After all, my username isn't "George Lucas" or "J. K. Rowling", so...

An excerpt from "The Shadow of Earth", a book written by Margaret Hatcher:

"For thousands of years, Earth had been sheltered by an unknown force. We had been protected from all the wars and problems from the rest of the galaxy. People like Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, George Washington, and Adolf Hitler had all appeared and disappeared. But they didn't have any effect on what happened in the outside galaxy. We were isolated from them, and they were isolated from us.

This defense came to an end in the year 2015. But nobody knows how this happened. What was this force that kept us safe? Who brought the force down? To this day, theories are still thrown around about Earth, about the force, about the Terran Humans.

Maybe this force was The Force. But why would it protect some backwater like Earth? They hadn't even managed regular space travel - only some isolated space missions. The only things that we know are the solid facts that we've established from investigation. Even those are being placed under scrutiny as we speak. Everything began when..."

Far away from Coruscant, the capital of the Galactic Republic, a pilot was steering his spaceship through another patrol of his assigned area. Today was a normal day, just like any other day. He had been working in this sector for years, and nothing extraordinary happened.

There was this one time where some dung had drifted through space and landed on his spacecraft. He had completely freaked out and landed on the nearest Republican planet, of course. What if it was toxic waste? What if it was... ugh, he wasn't going there.

The man's eyes drifted around the empty lanes. Things were being unusually quiet. He leaned forward - he didn't want to get trapped in an ambush. It wouldn't look good on his report. Not to mention that the Republic had more important things to care about than just a small pilot in some small sector of the Republic. He might perish here if he didn't pay attention.

He surveyed everything he could see. In the left side of his vision, there was... nothing.

In the right side of his vision, there was... nothing.

In the center of his vision, there was... also nothing.

This was strange. This was definitely weird. Ardal Meaney leaned forward. If he missed something, it could spell the end of his life - or worse, the end of his career. Slowly, something flickered to the right of the spacecraft.

Ardal gasped, quickly rotating the spacecraft to face the potential threat. Slowly, something came into view. Something big - very big.

"Whoa," the man said, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. "Is this seriously a whole new solar system that the Galactic Republic hasn't discovered yet?"

No answer. Sometimes, the unknown man forgot that he was the only person in his aircraft.

"Permission to investigate this system?" Ardal Meaney asked again, pressing down on his transmitter.

There was a quick response. "Yes."

Ardal nudged the spacecraft forward. As he neared the system, he noticed a small ball. It was too small to be a planet, but it wasn't a small as an asteroid. It didn't seem to have an atmosphere or anything, so he skipped it.

Next in line was a blue gas giant. Life couldn't possibly live here, so Ardal zoomed past it - and another blue gas giant came into view. He passed it quickly, spotting a large gas giant with huge rings.

Ardal was getting pretty annoyed with this solar system. All it had was big balls of gas - ooh, that one looked pretty big though. He flew closer to it.

And it had a nice big ball of ice as a moon! Ardal found that interesting, but before he could move closer, he noticed a blue and green planet further away. This one was more likely to hold life, Ardal realized. He had explored many systems on his own, and he knew this from personal experience.

This moon of the big planet might have life on it, but it was so frozen that no humans could possibly live on it. But this other planet... it didn't look as frozen. Perhaps this one might have human or humanoid life on it.

Ardal flew closer - but before he could get any closer, an asteroid slammed into the place where his spacecraft has just been a second ago.

"Permission to investigate further?"

"No."

Ardal sighed. "I will wait for further instructions," he said to the transmitter, backing up a little. He didn't want to die from an asteroid right after he had made an amazing discovery.

"An unidentified flying object is currently hovering close to Jupiter. It is too small to be a newly discovered moon of Jupiter, but it is too big to merely be a comet or asteroid- "

BEEP. Harry pushed down on the button to switch channels. He was getting a little tired of BBC, anyways. "Gosh, I've had enough of these conspiracy theorists. I swear, all of this media is just trying to get more viewers. Oh come on, not Al Jazeera too!"

"Satellite signals pointed at this new unidentified flying object-"

BEEP. Al Jazeera just went away, only to be replaced with CBS.

"-is interplanetary space travel actually possible? We brought in President-"

BEEP. Bye bye, CBS! All of these media companies were probably getting together to flesh out a new program to make bigger profits. After all, the pictures they were showing looked pretty photoshopped.

"-a fleet of vehicles has joined the first-"

What? This part was unfamiliar to Harry. Normally, when conspiracy theorists came up with a claim like this, they didn't talk about multiple UFO's.

Still, it was probably a conspiracy theory again - just a theory.

Bye bye, ABC! BEEP.

"-traveling at high speed, seeking to make contact with Earth-"

BEEP. Okay, maybe this was a valid concern. Harry sighed. Perhaps he had been too disbelieving. So what? He didn't have enough time for all of this. This was supposed to be his vacation!

"Hey, Harry," his wife Ginny said, coming into the living room. The two of them had left magical Britain behind, bringing only their closest friends with them. This was James' first year at Hogwarts, and Harry had left Albus and Lily with Andromeda Tonks.

They had decided to travel around the world for a year. They had devoted the first two months of the year to America, so they had bought some muggle cars in Boston. So far, they had been on a huge road trip across America, and they had just stopped in Texas for the week.

Harry had rented out a muggle home in Houston, Texas just for the purpose of staying there for a week. He had been forced to pay for the whole month, but honestly, it didn't even make a dent in his fortunes. Harry certainly didn't mind. "What's happening?" Ginny continued.

"Some strange space thing," Harry said. "I'm certain that it's just all part of a big conspiracy. It's just as crazy as the idea of Donald Trump announcing his candidacy for the presidency."

Ginny laughed nervously. "Stop it, Harry. Just imagining Trump trying to run for the presidency is worrying me. Seriously, though, are you sure it's just a conspiracy? Minister Shacklebolt told us to head to NASA when we arrived in Texas - I don't think this is just a-"

Even when it was his vacation, Harry couldn't escape work. He was the head of the Aurors back in Britain, but Kingsley had authorized a vacation. On one condition (there were always conditions) - Harry would visit NASA in January.

"Coincidences," Harry said, dearly wishing that this was all just one big joke. "Coincidences." Luckily for Harry, he hadn't visited the Hall of Prophecy.

Wilhuff Tarkin sighed. He was merely a captain of a minor fleet of two or three ships (they were so minor that even Tarkin forgot the names of the other spaceships), but strange circumstances had forced him to abandon his mission in a different planetary system.

"Captain Tarkin? There is a strange situation in a minor sector. A new solar system has been discovered to be hidden under our radar. This is interesting for the Supreme Chancellor, not to mention that a planet and a moon have both been discovered with water. There is a possible chance of human inhabitation. The planet in question is the third planet from their star."

"Okay. Mission accepted," Tarkin said to the transmitter. "Fly us closer to this place," Tarkin said to his subordinates. The woman saluted and ran to the controls, steering the spacecraft closer.

WHAM! An asteroid flew into the place where his spaceship had been just a second ago. Tarkin gritted his teeth - this was a clever defense for the inhabitants of this solar system, but they couldn't stop the Republic from finding them, no matter which tricks they used.

He had been the closest high-ranking officer in the navy, so he was quickly dispatched to the area - it made him wonder what "high-ranking" meant. He only had two or three ships under his command, after all.

BAM! Another asteroid flew at the ship - and another - and another - and another. WHAM! BAM! WHAM! BAM! WHAM! BAM!

Tarkin sighed. "Get us closer to the planet in question."

WHAM! BAM! Wham! Bam! Wham. Bam.

Eventually, the sound of asteroids receded from Tarkin's ears - just in time for the alarms to go off.

"Sir, it appears that a comet is now on our trail!"

Tarkin sighed. These people really didn't want the Republic to find them. Still, the Supreme Chancellor would definitely be very interested in this technology. It could perhaps be used to stop terrorists and slave raiders from devastating whole planets.

As the comet was blown into bits, Tarkin finally looked outside of his spacecraft. They had just passed by a small red planet and were approaching a slightly larger blue and green planet.

This new planet definitely looked interesting, Tarkin mused. Before he got closer to danger, though, he wanted to perhaps learn some vital intelligence. Maybe these people spoke Basic. Maybe they were actually rebels. Hm... That would certainly explain their isolation.

"Intercept some messages," Tarkin ordered. "We want to gather some intelligence on them before we approach."

Using radio wave interceptors, he was able to listen in on some key conversations.

"Joe... I'm breaking up with you!"

"What? But Mary-!"

"No buts!"

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused!"

"What?"

"I don't need to hear your excuses!"

It was a horribly mangled dialect of Galactic Basic. It sounded nothing like what Tarkin had learned back at home. While Tarkin couldn't understand this, he was certain that it was a leader speaking. Who else could sound so authoritarian?

Actually, Tarkin felt like he could decipher part of it. Somebody called Jo was talking to a Mair-yee. If what he thought was right, they were talking about relationship issues.

But Mair-yee sounded so strong! Tarkin decided that Mair-yee was probably talking about a scandalous relationship between two mayors. Yes, that was hopefully it. Tarkin didn't want to imagine otherwise.

More importantly, some of the radio signals Tarkin found came from this place next to this gulf in the middle of a continent. His words were very descriptive.

In actuality, though he didn't know it yet, he was looking at Houston, Texas.

He knew that this was exactly where he was headed. "Land in this specific spot," he commanded. "This is where the leader of this planet is."

"This planet likely has human life," Tarkin said to the transmitter. "I hear some mangled dialect of Galactic Basic through radio wave transmissions."

"Good. Proceed." Tarkin didn't know it, but the Supreme Chancellor himself had taken an interest in the mission. Palpatine was listening in, and Palpatine had been the one to order Tarkin to go ahead.

"The unidentified flying object is now coming towards Earth, and reports from astronomers say that they believe it is an advanced spacecraft. Citizens are strongly urged to remain at home-"

BEEP. Harry turned the radio off. Nobody wanted to hear morbid predictions.

"So," Harry said, grinning. "Let's get this tour started." He opened the door to the building and stepped in, gesturing for Ginny, Ron, and Hermione to follow him.

"Are you sure we're allowed here?" Hermione asked nervously.

"I'm sure it's fine," Ron said.

"It's-"

"Emergency, emergency!" A man shouted, running down the hall.

"What is it this time?" Ginny asked.

"You know," Harry said. "The media seems to put a lot of effort into making this seem real."

Hermione sighed. "That's because it might be real."

"Oh really?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, really."

"If it's real, then we should be able to see it, right?"

"What? We can just look at their pictures of the UFO, right?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "The media could have easily fabricated those."

"Mate, you might be taking this Rita Skeeter-hate a little too far," Ron said.

"Nah," Harry said. "We should try looking at the UFO ourselves."

Hermione grinned. Now she understood what Harry wanted to do. "You know, there's always been something I've wanted to try..."

Ron groaned. "What have you not tried yet? I can't even count the things you've tried - the potion that gives people the ability to speak English, the new rune you discovered-"

"-I've always wanted to try space travel," Hermione said. "I think we could definitely do it. It makes perfect sense. If we put anti-Gravity charms, fireproof charms, speeding charms, bubblehead charms, and everything required, we could have gone to the Moon in ancient times!"

Ginny grinned. "Great idea, Hermione!"

Ron sighed. "I'm on it, Hermione. If someone in that UFO is coming down to meet us, we might as well go up to meet them too! We'll just transfigure something into a cardboard box and use Wingardium Leviosah."

"Leviosa, not Leviosah," Hermione said, grinning.

"I know," Ron grinned. "I did it on purpose."

The quartet ducked into a nearby restroom, transfiguring a stall into a large box.

One wave of a wand later, and the box had wheels.

Another wave, and the box had wings.

Another wave, and it had four chairs inside.

Another wave, and the four of them were outside on the launching grounds with the 'spacecraft'. They would be the first wizards to make it into space - and from a legitimate launching place as well!

Hermione jumped into the large box first. Harry, Ron, and Ginny followed her inside.

"Three," Ginny said.

"Two," Ron said.

"BLASTOFF!" Hermione said.

"HEY, YOU SKIPPED ME!" Harry shouted in mock anger.

"What can I say?" Hermione asked. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

She said it with such great power that the box began lifting off - a force that was helped by the anti-Gravity charms they had placed on the space-worthy ship.

"Wait a second, come back down!" A man in a suit shouted. Evidently, he hadn't noticed the box - maybe because of the Muggle-repelling charms they had placed on the box.

"It's working, Hermione! I can feel myself going upppppppppppppppppppppppppp-"

"Of course," she said, preening at the praise.

Ron grinned. "Of course it would - it's Hermione!"

Harry could feel the air getting a little warmer, maybe they were finally leaving the atmosphere of Earth-

THUD.

Author's Note: Thanks so much for the support! By the way, reviews definitely do make me feel better :D

northwind132 - Thanks for the praise! The new update is right around the corner.

stars90 - Thanks! I'm interested in the future of the story for the same reason :D

Carlthompson, thunder18 - I really appreciate it! The next update is right around the corner.

humo146 - MHM, THAT'S RIGHT!