A/N This is a companion piece to "Harry Potter and the Warrior's Path". If you haven't read that you are going to be so lost! I strongly suggest reading Warrior's Path first.
This will hopefully fill in some of the missing back stories to Warrior's Path. It is an AU Harry Potter story; cannon will be followed when it fits where the Stormchasers are going. I don't own anything but the Stormchasers and I apologize in advance for treading on any ones cultural traditions or beliefs. There will be Native American words sprinkled throughout the series; translations will always be given at least once when the word is used. As the Stormchasers are American, there will be American slang and customs in this tale. I will endeavor make them as self explanatory as possible. If you don't want to see that in a HP story, then do not venture any further. You have been warned.
Something that came up in Warrior's Path, foreign nationals CAN JOIN THE US MILITARY!!! I work with the military and know this for a stone cold fact.
If there is a back-story that you would like to be included here, feel free to pm me and I'll see about spinning one out. It will be an open-ended collection; hopefully we won't run out of ideas.
London, 1957…
Charles Potter slammed his bedroom door. The seventeen year old flung himself across his bed, beating the pillows in frustration. His father just didn't understand.
Charles had just had conversation number fifty-five with his father about what the young man intended to do with the rest of his life. James Potter had found a position for his only son with the local apothecary, which he felt was an excellent one for someone like Charles since the lad was a deft hand at potions, ones that did not require magic that is.
Charles did not agree. Just because he wasn't a wizard like the rest of his family, didn't mean that he was going to settle for being a lowly shop clerk the rest of his life. He knew there had to be more to life than that.
His Uncle Charlus understood him though. Charlus Potter had been instrumental in helping his namesake with private schooling in the muggle world when the boy's father was too ashamed to send a non-magical son to school with the other squibs. Charles had never been able to perform a single feat of magic in his entire life, not even accidental magic that every other young wizard had happen at least once before they started at Hogwarts. Therefore, everyone thought that he was a squib.
However, Charles had talked with others that had no magical talents and he knew he was different. While some of the squibs could only barely feel magic around strong sources, Charles could almost taste it; the flow of magic seemed to be just beyond his reach. He just couldn't figure out how to grasp it.
He could detect magic flowing through and around everything. That was just not good enough for his father James Potter. There had never been a squib in the entire Potter family tree. Why did the first one have to be him?
Charles turned on to his back, staring up at the ceiling. His room was like most young wizards', pictures of his favorite house at Hogwarts, Gryffindor's Quidditch team, scarlet and gold on his bed linens along with posters of muggle submarines and jets too. Charles had spent much time in the muggle world and loved it. His father just didn't understand that he fit in so much better with the Muggles.
"That's it!" Charles said aloud-sitting bolt upright in the middle of the bed. "I'll find a job in the Muggle world and show him just who's a useless squib".
That comment had hurt the worst. Both had been very angry, both refusing to budge an inch in compromise during their entire argument this morning, both saying things that neither had meant. Much like a lot of fathers and sons have done throughout time.
Charles moved quickly packing a backpack. He had sent most of his treasured possessions to his uncle for safe keeping the last time there had been a big blow up between himself and his father. He was packing the rest now. He was not coming back here until he had proven that he was not useless.
Over two years later, Holy Loch, Scotland…
Charles Potter stepped off the bus, tall in his Navy whites. He was among the first of the United States Navy personnel to arrive at the WWII submarine base that was going to become a US Navy submarine base as soon as the governments of the two countries had hammered out all of the details. They were there to lay the groundwork and get it ready for the contractors to begin. He was happy to be back in the UK though; he was surprised that he actually had missed his homeland.
When he had stormed out of his father's home, he had made up his mind to get as far away from the wizarding world as he could. He had gone to the US embassy and asked to join the Navy. His school test scores were excellent so they signed him up. He had discovered a talent for logistics in boot camp and had excelled in that field. Now he really was a squid (what US Marines call their Navy counterparts)not quite a squib but he was far from useless. He had also been training for a Naval Combat Demolition Unit (NCDUS), which was why he was here now. There was ordinance from WWII still in the loch and it all had to be cleared.
A young man that had been sitting beside him on the trip over, Ed Stormchaser stepped off the bus and stood beside him. Both were tall, much too tall to be submariners, but the Navy had other uses for them here. The two had hit it off immediately, quiet Charles enjoying Ed's conversation about everything from girls to who was going to be the best football (American) team this year. Charles had never met someone for the first time and felt such a connection to him or her. It was as if Ed was a long lost brother. Charles shook his head at his flight of fancy, there was something about Stormchaser that Charles could almost feel but not like the magic from wizards. This was something else.
"Brother," Ed said looking around at the rainy countryside, "you said that it was gloomy this time of year, but damn!"
"Don't worry," Charles said with his slow smile, "you might get to see the sun before we leave. But I doubt it."
"I never thought I would see a place where it rained more than North Carolina but I guess I was wrong. Come on let's go report in." Ed picked up his sea bag and both walked to the headquarters building just inside the gate. Charles picked his up and followed the American.
Over the course of the next year, the two men proved themselves an impressive team. They cleared more ordnance than any other two man team did. Charles' magical sense, which had been in overload since he got on the bus the first day, helped because the muggle technology disrupted the ambient magical fields of the area. It made the old weaponry stick out like a sore thumb in the dark waters of the loch. Ed seemed to have an uncanny talent for disarming the old ordnance. The two of them made a great team. Every once in a while however, Charles caught Ed giving him a calculating look. He wasn't sure what that was about but he found that he was coming to care for the happy go lucky American.
The men that made up the group for this clearing operation had become a well-knit working one. They had accomplished their mission and now were being transferred to the Pacific fleet. Charles didn't know when he would be returning to Britain, so he took time to see his family before he left Britain. All except his father as James Potter had never forgiven him for joining the American Navy for god's sake.
His mother met him at his Uncle Charlus' summer cabin in the highlands though. She at least was so proud of how her only child had turned out. So was his Aunt Dorea, Charlus' wife. She secretly disagreed with her own family's pure blood prejudices, mainly because she was very proud of her favorite nephew and had enjoyed meeting his muggle friends. The rest of the Blacks would have disowned her if they had known she was fraternizing with Muggles. However, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them she always told herself.
Later that year…
Ed and Charles along with the other members of their team were shipped out to the Pacific fleet. Like so many of the NCDUS teams, their mission was changing. Going from underwater demolition missions to counter insurgent. There was talk of a name change coming, maybe even a chance for better training for their unit. Nevertheless, as usual, they were expected to do the job before all that could happen.
That is how they found themselves in April 1960, in a firefight in a no name place in Southeast Asia.
"Potter, sound off" came the Master Chief from his position.
"Yoh!" Charles shouted.
"Stormchaser?"
"Yoh!"
"Perkins?"
Nothing. "Perkins?"
"He's down Chief!" came Ed's voice from where he and Charles were crouched trying to avoid following in Perkins' footsteps.
"Damn! Jenkins?" No answer.
"Chief we are it!" Charles bellowed back. More fire from the enemy hit the boulder and the dirt surrounding their hidey-hole.
"Chief? Damn it Chief answer!"
Ed and Charles looked at each other.
"Shit bro, we are in deep here. What do we do now?" Ed was fresh out of ideas, normal ones ideas anyway.
Charles peeked around the boulder they were penned behind, one that was barely protecting them. He quickly jerked back as a chip flew off from the other sniper. How in the bloody hell were they going to get out of this? Somehow, they needed to get out of this cross fire or eventually their enemies were going to be able to maneuver around and pick them off to.
"Well, it looks like the air support isn't going to show, they are probably in Thailand by now since they haven't show up here. We are it. We need to do something about this crossfire. Get rid of it and we can take the other guy." Charles closed his eyes as another round sent rock chips flying at his face. For the first time in a very long time, he wished he was a wizard.
He opened his eyes, then peeked around the edge of the boulder and for some unknown reason even to himself, he raised his hand, palm pointing towards the gun nest above them. He could feel the magic inside of him, could feel it much better than he had ever felt it before.
He centered himself and shouted, "REDUCTO!"
A pulse of red light shot out towards the enemy, contacting the ammo stockpiled by the sniper's feet. Reductos and ammo don't mix very well. The explosion blew the three gunners over the edge of their barricade, in flames and quite dead.
Ed had been moving around to the other side of the boulder and had not seen what Charles was doing. He did however see the bolt of energy contact the gunner's nest. He whipped around to find Charles leaning heavily against the boulder holding his burnt hand.
"I guess they dropped a cigarette in their ammo!" Charles looked up at his friend, wondering how he was going to really explain this when Ed beat him to the punch.
"Son of a Bitch! You didn't tell me you were a wizard! Hold this!"
Ed leaned his rifle against Charles and sent a bolt of power to the gunner's nest on his side, blowing the occupants to hell and gone. Charles looked at his friend with wide opened pain filled eyes. Was he hallucinating? Had Ed just used magic to blow up the other gunner's nest? Wandless just as he had done?
"Here, let me fix that." Ed took Charles' hand in his and passed his other over the raw burnt mark. Charles' eyes got big as the pain along with mark disappeared.
"You're a wizard?" Charles asked quietly.
"Oh yeah, I was going to do about what you did but hopefully not with you seeing it happen." Ed sat heavily against the boulder. "At least now I don't have to obilivate you. Did you go to Hogwarts or some other magic school when you were a kid?"
"Well until just now, I thought I was a squib. That was the first time I have ever been able to cast a spell. Ever Ed. No accidental magic when I was a kid, nothing. I don't know why all of a sudden I could. You have any ideas?"
"Well that explains why you have been ill as a bear with a tooth ache the last month or so. All the stress we have been under on this mission is what did it. My granddad is the expert on this sort of thing, but I know that sometimes a wizard is late blooming into their magic. It happened to one of my cousins. He was about your age when he did accidental magic during a car accident. Saved his life, it did. Granddad said that it was because he was a throw back to the old magic, from way back like before the dawn of time! Mike is a powerful wizard now and I bet you will be too as soon as you learn how to work it."
Charles sat in thoughtful silence, only the birds were beginning to make noises again.
"How do you learn to use magic when you are grown? I thought that it had to be learned when you were a kid, at a school or from your parents."
"Most of the time that is how it is done, but all we have to do is find you a mage that will teach you and you will be right as rain." Ed said smiling. "The nice thing is that with you late bloomers, it is almost like you just have to be reminded about how to do it. And I think I have the fellow in mind that will be perfect, that is if you don't mind learning a magic that is not like what you Brits have been practicing for yonks."
"Well since none of the British wizards could detect my magic at all, I think that something else is definitely in order. Who would want to teach me?"
"I think my Granddad, Joshua Stormchaser would. He likes a challenge", Ed said with an irreverent grin.
One Month Later…
Ed and Charles stepped off the bus in Sylvia, North Carolina. It was a small mountain town and very quiet. It was late and there was only one old pickup sitting outside of the bus station. An older man stepped out of the shadows by the pickup and walked up to the two sailors.
Charles liked what he saw. The man favored Ed except he wasn't built as big as his friend was. However, this man had the same laughing eyes. In addition, the magic rolled off of him like a raging torrent. Charles' magic sense had kicked into overdrive since that fateful mission, now it picked up on all life auras as well, not just the magical ones. It was wearing him out, even though Ed had tried to help him learn how to block it. He wasn't sleeping either. The nightmares were pure hell!
If it hadn't been for his friend, Charles would have had a nervous breakdown weeks ago from sensory overload. Never mind, the accidental magic that he kept doing. As it was, he was barely hanging on.
Even the news that he now had a little brother, named after their father had not been able to rejuvenate him. His mother had been surprised at the late baby, but she had seemed very happy in her letters to her oldest. Maybe now his dad would forgive him for not being the wizard that he had wanted. However, in the state Charles was in, he couldn't believe anything good would come out of it. His father would never change his mind.
Ed and Joshua hugged each other laughing.
"Well, Wah Yaw (wolf) it is good to see you!" Joshua said in a strong voice, which surprised Charles since he now knew that Joshua Stormchaser was Ed's Great Great Great Granddad. Hell's bells, the man was a contemporary of Albus Dumbledore!
"Ay Knee See (Grandfather) you look good to these eyes! I have missed you too ay tee ah sss gay yaw (Old Man). Ay Knee See please let me introduce you to my friend I wrote to you about, Charles Potter." Ed drew his granddad to Charles' side.
"Ay Knee See, this is Charles Potter. Charles this is my grandfather, Joshua Stormchaser, medicine chief of the Aniwodi (Red Paint) Clan. He is going to help you brother. Ay Knee See, Charles is in bad shape so I think we need to get him home so you can patch him up."
"Wah Yaw wrote and told me about your problem. Here sit on this bench; I do believe you need some help now."
Charles was quickly settled on the bench outside of the bus station. Joshua folded the man's hands across his chest and closed the Brit's eyes with his hand. Muttering in what Charles thought was Cherokee from the words that he had heard Ed use; the old man ran his fingers across Charles' forehead, cheeks and jaw line. He could feel wet streaks where the old man's fingers had been. Then the sharp smell of burning feathers assaulted his nose.
"This will help purify your aura. Since your magic blossomed during such a tragic event, it has focused on the dark side of things. We need to get that straighten out before we go one-step further. That is why you are having such a hard time. It is because of what you had to do to protect yourself and Ed, killing those men with your first magic that is the reason your dark energy has come to the forefront. This will fix that. "
Joshua was explaining everything to Charles as they went through the ritual.
"You see all of us have the light and the dark within ourselves; both are needed for proper balance. Our choices determine which will be the leading force in our lives. By your dark force being in the lead so to speak, it in turns attracts more darkness. If not for your innate strength and Ed's help, the darkness would have overtaken you. Never underestimate it."
Next Charles smelt tobacco, not the bitter of European processed but this had an almost sweet smell of summer grass. He could feel the tension and anxiety that plagued him since the firefight easing away. His shoulders relaxed, his hands un-clinched, his breathing deepened and slowed.
Joshua passed the bundle of burning tobacco completely around the man sitting on the bench, over under back and front seven times. With each pass, he could see the young man relax. Ed was relaxing too. The last month had been almost as hard on the American as it had been for Charles. He had been kept busy containing Charles' volatile temper and covering for the accidental magic that the Brit kept leaking. Sometimes Ed thought keeping the Statute of Secrecy was more trouble than it was worth.
"Now we will finish with the dance. Ed you help me, Charles you can open your eyes now."
Charles opened them to see the two men stomping in a circle around him with shell bells keeping time with the rattle the old man was shaking. Both men were chanting in perfect unison. Charles couldn't believe how much better he felt. Ed had not said a lot about what would happen. He said he wanted Charles to make his own mind up about what was going on. After seven revolutions around him, they stopped, neither man out of breath.
"How ya doing brother?"
"Fine. I feel fine. Much better than before. Sir, why do I feel better? "
Charles had never seen magic worked like this before. He had seen wizard healers work but nothing, not ever like this.
"My son, this is the old way. We have been doing this for as long as there have been people here, so a bit before your culture's traditions. Now we need to get you home so that we can do the full deal on you. This is just to tide you over. Much like a band aide. So up you come."
Charles was pulled to his feet by a much stronger than anticipated helping hand from the old man. As he turned to the pickup, he saw his face in the bus station window. He had painted streaks running in rune patterns on his face. That explained the wet feeling.
Needless to say, Charles was in a bit of culture shock. But it would get better. The two sailors had sixty days leave and they intended to spend them right here. This was going to be interesting.
And it was. Charles was exposed to magic the likes of which nobody in Europe had ever seen. He learned to cast spells wandlessly, only the high medicine chiefs used medicine staffs to concentrate their magic. Charles' innate magical sense allowed him to tap into the natural power of the earth itself. This magic was much more elemental than what the rest of his family practiced, that is why they couldn't detect it, and they didn't know what they had been looking at.
Ed was right too, once Charles was able to control his magical core, he was an extremely powerful wizard. Joshua worked intensively with the young Brit, not only on his magic but on also putting him through a crash warrior training too. The two lines of study were complimentary, each strengthening the other. The two months of basket leave that Charles and Ed had saved up flew by. Soon it was just a few days before they had to report to Norfolk.
"Charles," Joshua began, "we owe you a debt."
The men were sitting around the scrubbed wooden table in Joshua's cabin, eating breakfast.
"No sir," Charles quickly said, "I owe you. Without your help I would have self destructed weeks ago."
"Possibly, but it was not a certain thing. However, you saved my grandson's life. That is a much larger debt for us. Ed and I have discussed this with the rest of the clan. We are wondering if you would like to be adopted by our clan. It would mean that you have the entire clan to call on for anything, anywhere. You would belong; you and Ed would be brothers. What do you think?" Joshua thought he knew the answer but he wanted to hear it.
"Sir, I am honored. I would most definitely like to join your clan. Your family has supported and protected me, never mind, understood me so much better than my 'British' family that I would consider it an honor. What do I have to do?"
"I have spoken with Jenny Swiftdeer, our clan mother; she said that we could do the ceremony two nights from now if you could be ready."
"What do I have to do to be ready?"
"You have done most of it already. You have gone on your spirit quest, she is happy that your spirit animal is a bear, she likes bears." Joshua smiled thinking about the pretty clan mother. "You have made things that can be used as gifts, plus Ed has picked more up. You have to give gifts and the quality of your gifts will determine your status in the clan. With all that done, I think that you are very ready. Do you want to go through with it?"
"Ay Knee See, I would be honored to join the Aniwodi (Red Paint) Clan."
Charles knew that this offer was not lightly given. He would get Ed to go with him over to Asheville to help make sure his gifts were of good quality, especially Joshua's. He knew exactly what the old man coveted.
To say that the adoption of Charles Potter into the Aniodi Clan, Stormchaser family was a success would be a serious understatement. He spent every single dime he had in getting the adoption gifts. Especially the brand new hunting rife for Joshua. The gifts assured him a high status within the clan, which he filled with honor and pride.
The two now brothers left for Norfolk to report back in the next day. For the first time in Charles Potter's life, he knew down to the very core of his soul, that he didn't have to prove who he was to anyone. He had come into his own in the misty Smokey mountains, which would the only place he claimed as home for many years.