The ascent of the Chimera was a silent, breathtaking spectacle. On the first magical screen, the world saw Ariana's face, a mask of serene concentration, her hands moving gracefully over the glowing crystal controls. On the second, they saw what she saw: the familiar grounds of Hogwarts shrinking away with astonishing speed, the Great Lake becoming a mere puddle of ink, the Forbidden Forest a patch of dark velvet.
The reactions from the crowd below were a symphony of human emotion.
In the stands, Molly Weasley had her arm wrapped tightly around Ginny, both of them watching with wide, tear-filled eyes. "Oh, Arthur, look at her," Molly whispered to her husband. "She's really doing it. That brave, brilliant girl." Ginny, her old jealousy long since burned away and replaced by a fierce, protective admiration, simply stared, her heart swelling with a pride she felt for a sister she'd never had.
Sirius Black and Remus Lupin stood side-by-side, their old marauder's bravado replaced by a profound, paternal awe. "Look at her, Moony," Sirius said, his voice thick with emotion. "James and Lily would have loved this. The sheer, beautiful, mad audacity of it all." Remus just nodded, a slow, wondrous smile on his face, thinking of the quiet, determined girl who had given him back the moon.
Cedric Diggory, standing with his father, watched with the unadulterated respect. He had faced a dragon and a maze, but this… this was a different kind of courage altogether. It was the courage not just to face a challenge, but to invent an entirely new one.
In another section of the stands, a pale, quiet Draco Malfoy watched, his face a complex mixture of emotions. The sneering boy was gone, replaced by a young man who had been forced to reassess his entire worldview. He saw the girl he had once mocked as a "Dumbledore pretender" casually leaving the planet. He looked at his father's situation, Lucius, whose public disgrace had been orchestrated by this same girl, and he felt not anger, but a dawning, terrifying understanding of what true power looked like. It wasn't about bloodlines or wealth; it was about a mind that could reshape reality itself.
On the main platform, the professors were transfixed. Minerva McGonagall, usually so stern, had her hand pressed to her lips, her eyes shining with a fierce, maternal pride that she would never admit to. Snape stood like a statue carved from obsidian, his face an unreadable mask, but his dark eyes were fixed on the screen, a flicker of something—not just respect, but sheer, intellectual astonishment—in their depths. She had broken rules he had never even conceived of. This was power far surpassing any dark lord in the history of the magical world.
And Albus Dumbledore, his beard shimmering in the light of the screens, simply watched, a single, happy tear tracing a path down his cheek. He was witnessing the birth of a new age, a future he had helped to foster but would perhaps never fully be a part of. He was watching his student, his granddaughter, his successor in spirit, become a legend.
The most intense emotions, however, were at the control console. Mr. and Mrs. Granger held each other, their minds struggling to reconcile the little girl they'd welcomed into their home with the celestial explorer on the screen. Lord and Lady Greengrass stood beside them, their pure-blood poise unshakeable, but their eyes shining with a pride that was as fierce as any Gryffindor's. Their daughter was not just a participant; she was a co-founder of this new era.
Daphne's face was a mask of cool, professional focus, her eyes darting between the telemetry runes and the screen, her voice calm and clear as she called out orbital data. But her heart was soaring alongside the ship, a silent partner on the impossible journey.
And Hermione… Hermione was the mission's anchor. Her eyes never left the screens, her mind processing every piece of data, every flicker of energy. But her connection was deeper. Every time Ariana's calm face appeared on the screen, a look of profound, absolute love and trust shone on Hermione's. She was not just watching her partner; she was a part of her, a mind linked across the void.
On the main screen, the view shifted. The blue of the atmosphere bled away into the perfect, star-dusted black of space. And then, the Earth appeared.
A collective gasp, a sound of hundreds of people seeing their world for the first time, swept through the stadium. The muggle-born were explaining the concepts to the pure-bloods and half-bloods who were watching this for the first time. Even the purebloods were not at all shying from understanding the concepts from the muggle-born, such was the power of this achievement. It was a perfect, brilliant jewel of blue, white, and green, hanging in an infinite, silent night. It was beautiful. It was fragile. It was home.
"Atmospheric exit complete," Ariana's voice echoed, calm and clear. "All systems are nominal. The
Chimera is stable. Proceeding on lunar trajectory."
Fleur Delacour, watching from a special delegate's box, turned to her sister Gabrielle. "You see, chérie," she whispered, her voice full of awe. "That is what true magic looks like."
The journey continued for hours, non-stop. The public watching on, having snacks as well, for the journey was long. The second screen showed them the stark, beautiful, and terrifying reality of space. They saw the sun, a blazing, untamed inferno. They saw the distant, cold light of the stars. And then, it began to grow larger in the viewscreen. A familiar, pockmarked, and utterly alien world.
The moon.
"Initiating lunar orbit insertion," Ariana's voice reported.
The world watched, breathless, as the Chimera gracefully, silently, flawlessly, executed a perfect orbital burn and settled into a stable, low orbit around the moon. The screen now showed the grey, desolate landscape passing beneath them—vast craters, silent mountains, and seas of ancient dust.
"Orbit is stable," Ariana confirmed. "Preparing for landing sequence. Destination: Sea of Tranquility."
The ship tilted, its propulsion runes now glowing with a soft, precise energy as it began its descent. The ground rushed up to meet them. For a tense, heart-stopping minute, the entire wizarding world held its breath.
Then, with a final, gentle pulse of power, the Chimera touched down. There was no jolt, no crash. Just a soft, silent settling.
A moment of absolute silence.
Then, Ariana's voice, filled not with triumph, but with a quiet, profound sense of arrival, echoed across the world.
"Mission Control, this is Chimera I," she said. "The lunar surface is now a door away."