Disclaimers: I do not own any of the HP characters and am not making any money from this plot.

Harry Potter And The Hunt

Chapter 1

Saw Tooth

It was still misty as Harry knelt in the still dampness of the tall grasses wet from the morning's dew. "He was here," he mused as he peered across the small mountain lake. "I can still feel him. Now, which way?" He rubbed his chin as he looked ahead. Just to his left was the snow capped Saw Tooth; a triple peak formation high in the Blue Mountains. To his right lay the rolling foot hills of the Blues that continued on for miles occasionally cresting into smaller peaks. The lake before him rippled as the wind blew across its placid surface. It was getting colder.

For three years now, he had been tracking him. So close and yet never near enough. Always just ahead of him, it was as if his prey was taunting him, daring him to continue. He thought back as he bitterly remembered what had been done to him, what had been taken away from him. He would not rest until he caught him. He swore this oath to himself everyday and he meant to fulfill it no matter what it cost him as he had paid the price over and over again.

He stood up and closed his eyes as he extended a hand as if to feel for a direction in which to follow. He had found it. Faint though it was he had found it. Opening his eyes, he traced down his arm to where his finger was pointing- Saw Tooth. Fifteen miles away as the crow flies, but he knew it would be much further than that, much further and he was tired.

He clutched his cloak tighter about him as a stiff chill wind suddenly gusted through. "It will be cold again tonight," he thought to himself as he stared off to the distance. He did not like the cold. He shivered as a freezing finger of wind found its way through an opening in his cloak. The mist was being blown away from the lake.

As his eye's swept the sky, clouds as dark as night and full of rain were rolling in with the wind. It was like that in these mountains. The weather was unpredictable. He still had a few more hours before the rain would fall. "Time enough" he thought aloud. Time enough to find shelter and wait out the storm that he knew was coming.

He looked around and found what he sought, a path that would skirt the lake. He hoisted his rucksack to his shoulders and began to walk.

A shrill skree sounded.

He stopped in his tracks as he looked for its source. He smiled to himself as he found it. She was there and coming toward him. He would wait for her. She was his eyes and ears in the sky. Nothing escaped her unless she allowed it. He would wait for her, here.

The tiny speck that appeared in the dismal sky above the lake soared gracefully. Even in the intermittent gusts of wind, she seemed oblivious to its buffering effects. He stood there waiting patiently as she began her slow spiraling descent toward him. He grinned at her as she neared, holding out an arm for her to land on.

There you are," he said softly as she landed lightly onto his arm. "Have a nice hunt?"

Hedwig nipped his finger affectionately and cooed her assent to him. Harry Potter had been her owner and trusted friend for ten years now. She had watched over him as he grew into manhood and had been his confidant when no one would listen, pained for him when he was hurt. She knew that she would never leave Harry, would never abandon him.

Hagrid had chosen well those many years ago when he first walked into Eelops Owl Emporium. She knew there was something special about Hagrid when he first spied her in her cage. An instant knowledge about how he cared for creatures enveloped her and she wanted to go with him immediately. When Hagrid gave her to Harry, she knew then where she belonged and she would never leave him. Harry was hers.

"We need to find shelter," Harry said aloud. "The rain will be coming soon and it will be cold again tonight." Harry heard a soft hoot in his ear and a claw pressed into his shoulder. "Where?' he asked.

Hedwig hooted once again and pointed North across the lake with her beak.

"I don't see it." He said plaintively. Hedwig hooted twice again and then he saw what she was pointing at a small hillock with tree tops just barely visible over the rise. A small hollow inset into the hill side that would shelter from the wind and the trees would shelter from the rain. Harry smiled at her and said his thanks.

The path that Harry had seen was an old and worn animal trail that went around the lake. He was glad to be able to walk for once on a trail that was flat and firm beneath his already aching feet. It had been a tough two weeks climbing ridge line after ridge line, trekking where no paths were to be found and he was thankful for this brief respite. It had only taken him thirty minutes to reach the hollow that Hedwig had pointed out.

He glanced up to the sky once more. The rain would be sooner than he expected and it looked as if he would have to wait out this storm as well. "Was the weather against him too?" he thought to himself. Harry shrugged off the thought just as Hedwig left his shoulder to perch in a nearby tree.

She looked at him dolefully as he hefted his rucksack from his shoulders once more to prepare his camp. Hedwig hooted at him softly to get his attention and then hooted once more.

"Again?" he asked. She hooted three more times to Harry.

Harry looked about him and then replied "Okay then but don't be to long. It looks like it will be a bad one."

Hedwig hooted her reply and took off quickly.

He did not know when it had happened or how it had happened, but he knew what Hedwig was saying. He thought back to his years at Privet Drive with his Aunt and Uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. He had always known even then what Hedwig was saying though he had only heard the hoots and the shrill skree, but now there were words in what she was saying. He knew that he could talk to snakes, speaking in Parsel Tongue and he knew that he had inherited that skill from when Lord Voldemort had unsuccessfully tried to kill him so long ago.

Talking to Hedwig was something that he had done everyday since Hagrid had given her to him as a birthday present just before his first term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Then one day not too many years ago he suddenly realized that he had always been able to talk to her and her to him, and he understood what she was saying. He shrugged off the thought as he unloaded his rucksack and prepared to make his camp.

It took only a few minutes for Harry to set up his small tent and to forage for dry wood to make his campfire when the rain began to fall. "Perfect timing," he thought to him self as he sat hunched over his would be campfire. He thought for a few moments and then looked at the pile of small branches and twigs bunched into the small hole that he had dug for his fire and said "Incendio." The wood burst into flame immediately.

He was startled by a muffled thudding sound just beside him at the same time he heard the familiar whooshing sound of Hedwig's wings which eased his wariness. Hedwig had dropped a nice plump rabbit onto the ground next to him and hooted her admonishments that he needed to eat. He could not remember when he had last had a good hot meal and was thankful that Hedwig was looking out for him again. Harry would eat well today.

As Harry was finishing the last of the rabbit he realized that Hedwig had not joined him. He looked to the tree where she sat and held the last of the meat to her and said "here I'm full. You have the rest."

Hedwig looked at him balefully and hooted her reply.

Roughly translated, Harry heard her say "Not after you just ruined a perfectly fat rabbit, besides I already ate thank you." Harry smiled at her and laughed. She liked her meat a bit on the rare side. He chewed silently on the piece that he had offered her as his thoughts began to drift. He was alone. It had to be that way. He had told himself this nearly everyday since he left his home at #12 Grimmauld Place the day after he graduated from Hogwarts. It seemed like a life time ago but only three years had past since that day.

Night began to fall as the rain continued to steadily pour. Hedwig had done well to spy out this hollow as Harry remained dry and protected from the elements. He sat in silence watching the shadows dance with the flickering flames of the small campfire. All was quiet around him except for the noise of the storm which was somehow subdued by the hillocks that surrounded and formed the small hollow and the stand of fir in which he was safely nestled. The crackling of his small fire permeated the soothing silence and its warmth engulfed him giving Harry a sense of security that he had not felt in a long while. He liked it here.

Harry allowed the peacefulness of his shelter, the campfire, and the naturalness of the storm to carry him away, back to a very similar night nine years ago when Hagrid knocked that stupid door off it's hinges. He was scared straight out of his skin, not to mention just how the Dursley's must have felt, seeing Hagrid's ominous size framed in that doorway searching him out. He wished with all his might to be able to go back to that time when everything was so simple and easy. To relive the amusement, the amazement, and the wonderment that he had felt when that brick wall behind the Leaky Cauldron unfolded itself to reveal Diagon Alley to him for the first time. It was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

"It will be that way again," Hedwig hooted softly to herself as she watched Harry turn and climb into his tent. "It will be that way again." Hedwig blinked into the night to rid herself of moisture that had built itself up in her huge round yellow eyes. "Owls don't cry." She admonished herself. Hedwig turned away from Harry's tent to stand guard for the night. "He will sleep well tonight." She promised herself and silently to him.