Bad To The Bounty

Abby Ebon

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Disclaimer; no own Hellboy or Harry Potter, no speak English…si...ah, damn-it, I wrote this in English, didn't I?…fudge-it, still, Abby does not own or claim the rights there of this work of fan fiction.

Note; this is part one of a to be two part Hellboy/Harry story – the pairing, also, is Hellboy/Harry, thus, this is slash – thus, Abby muses on wizard and demon, uhm, "sexing physiology" … meaning; how they have hot wizard on demon (or will that be hot demon on wizard…?) sex…

Beta: wolf-shinigami, (as of 10/19/09) who has done a fantastic job of fixing up some of the more disjointed sentences that were here.

Beta: vairetwilight, (as of 12/23/09) who helped a lot with the tenses and finishing up my thoughts that I hadn't realized I'd left unfinished.

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Bounty On Your Head

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"You know, this is possibly the worst idea you've ever had." His words were mumbled out of the side of his mouth, the other side was occupied by a dimly lit cigar. He dwarfed the man-wizard that sat next to him, settled on the bench (built by a half giant, Harry had told him, though the bit of stone and burnt wood in front of it that had been a house wasn't worth much of a look) side-by-side, as they watched a structure. It towered high above them, touching the clear summer sky.

Or pretended to watch it, he wasn't sure.

"What do you care?" Those were grim words, spoken with a sneer. It hurt, a little, but Hellboy didn't begrudge Harry for them. After what the wizard had been through, a little bitterness was to be expected. A leather covered hand tightened on the bench rail. Sometimes, Hellboy could remember better times – when they both had a place to belong, keepers to turn to when times were rough, places to go to when they might die – when Harry was a hero, and if Hellboy wasn't a hero – he had at least been doing the sort of work that kept people in the dark about the real nightmare. It had been enough.

"You're my friend, one of the few." Hellboy grumbled, flicking his red his tail in aggravation. He could remember the first time he met Harry; he'd gotten too late to a scene of some paranormal happening. A house had been in ruins – burning. There had been blood, and there had been bodies.

Harry had been all of one year old, wide eyed and grinning up at him unafraid. It was something Hellboy had been fascinated by –the lack of fear – the utter trust in Harry. He couldn't wrap around in his mind, he had been frightened, for a while, afraid he'd break that trust – that instinctual bond. Hellboy hadn't known about Harry being a wizard – not then. Still, someone had. Someone had tried to murder him. Hellboy had vowed, upon finding out, that he would protect Harry.

He'd done that. He'd protected Harry, until he turned eleven. Then they – his own kind, wizards and witches alike – had wanted him back. They wanted to teach him their magic – with wand waving and words. Harry had seen that as an opportunity. He had feared the intense feelings that brought about the accidental – uncontrolled – happenings.

Hellboy knew now that he should have fought, he should have protested – argued, haggled, even doing some damned research about the different magic schools and the magical world in general might have helped – might have changed things. He hadn't.

He had watched Harry leave – had accepted it, it had hurt… but he had thought it would only be for a little while. That it wouldn't change Harry too much. That if going away and learning things might help control the incidents – well, good for Harry. Harry had wanted to go. Hellboy had stepped aside.

He should have followed – should have gone with Harry, watched over him – something – anything. He had not. So he had to suffer the consequences. Harry came back in the summer – two, three months of normal, and then he'd leave - again. Every time he came back, Harry was stranger, more and more distant. Wary.

Then he came back one summer, and was a stranger, or as good as. There was no bond – no trust – between them. Maybe they were comrades. Maybe Harry still remembered him with fondness. That was all there was though. There was no ease between them; they grated at each other like old clock clogs – rusted, disjointed. Hellboy wanted that fixed. He was determined that he'd stay by Harry until they trusted one another again. They had that bond once, they'd have it again. Hellboy could not– would not – believe it was lost forever.

"Doesn't mean much, won't mean shit - if they break my wand, they could you know – could make me forget you, everything. I don't know how much they took, or changed, or used, or threw away – I was a tool, a pawn in their war. I'm something –someone - else now. I don't know what, or who. Think they planned this part too? How does that make you feel?" His words were disjointed and broken. He was quoting someone, mocking them – and Hellboy didn't know who, or from when. Harry wouldn't say.

"Don't say that. You mean more to them – to me, then that." Those were gruff, but true words. Hellboy just didn't know how to tell Harry what he meant to him. He'd always thought Harry would know. He was wrong. Now he was stuck. He did not have the words to tell Harry, but that didn't mean he didn't have the feelings and the ties. It was instinctual. Something that couldn't be questioned, or explained – it just was. Only…only Harry didn't know it; didn't acknowledge it.

That hurt.

Hellboy knew he had to fix this. Somehow, someway; He would fix it.

"Yeah? That's nice of you to think. I'm no fool, Hellboy – if I don't make a public stand, some sort of scandal they can't take away or smudge over, well, I'm as good as a puppet to them, connect the dots..." Hellboy grunted and tried not to think about what Harry was telling him. If he did, he'd lose his temper. H would grind his teeth together. He would growl. He would try – and fail – to fight this choice that Harry faced. It was primitive. They had to give wizards and witches pause – a reason not to follow Harry. A reason to be wary – and cautious...

A reason to wonder, when the lights were dim and they lay in the dark, and muse on the nightmares that held sway over their hero. If they could welcome back a monster.

"We can take you away from here." Hellboy knew it was a gritty offer. Liz had pointed out to him – to a wizard or witch, distance meant shit. They could fly. They could move in and out of reality, hopping about from place to place – popping into existence before something could be done to give them pause. They would accept nothing less then direct assault; a straight forward no-mistaking it, attack. That was Abe's warning. They wouldn't just give over Harry's freedom. Not after the training.

They perceived him to be a hero – a sacrifice for the greater good from the very moment his mother and father had been murdered. Harry had learned that. He'd also learned there was no escape – first, there had been the Dark Lord and the warning that neither could live while the other survived. Then, after being trained and sculpted, he'd leant they wouldn't just let him walk away. He'd be watched, manipulated, even drawn back to them – because he was the hero. He hadn't finished his duty – not in their eyes.

So, that left Harry a choice – a grim one, a bitter prospect – become the villain. It was the only thing left to him, the only key to gaining some bit of freedom from their sway.

"Protect me? You should know better. They would follow; they wouldn't let up the search until I was safely tucked away with them, once again. I've given up doing this their way. I'm doing it mine. You don't have to approve. You don't have to follow me. I owe you that much. " Harry shifted beside him, slowly getting to his feet. He took a step away from the bench, away from him, from the forest at their backs that had been their sanctuary. It felt like an impassable distance, an abyss with no bridge. Hellboy felt cold – a touch of loneliness and the deep chilling anger that they had so twisted Harry that he'd think he would be let to do everything so damnably alone.

"Like that, is it?" Hellboy grumbled a faint growl tagged at the end of his words.

Harry looked back at him. There was fear (not of him, Hellboy, but of what Harry would have to soon face) – stubborn determination (for Harry would go through with this, would do it even if Hellboy was against it) – and something that was like pleading in his eyes. Harry did not want to stand alone, even when he had to break ties with a world that had welcomed him. Smothered him, polished him – hardened him.

"Yeah…" Harry said nothing else of his plan. He wasn't asking for help. He certainly wouldn't beg for it.

"Think you're going off like a hot shot, a real wild card? Think you can do that…all by yourself, do you?" It was to damn bad that Harry wouldn't trust him enough to ask for that help. He was getting it anyway. Hellboy stood up, and Harry was dwarfed by him – though it didn't stop the little wizard from glaring up at him, from standing his ground though they both knew if Hellboy was determined enough he could drag Harry out of this country without so much as a "by your leave". Hellboy wouldn't do that.

Maybe Harry knew it – trusted in it. If so, there was his hope.

Hellboy wouldn't turn away.

"Maybe I can, in the end…it is only a building." Harry didn't wear a villains robe – or a wizard cloak - or a hero's cape, but if he did, it might have fluttered in the breeze at that moment. Hellboy huffed, his breath coming out of him in a rush. He found he was amused.

"That's all you've got to say, then?" This time, there was no answer from Harry – he only shrugged the question off – his shoulders squared and his chin up, determined and set in his ways. Hellboy was reminded of Harry as a boy. It was a bit of the wizard showing through in him. Or was the boy in Harry showing through the wizard-hero? Hellboy wasn't sure, even as he matched Harry step for step along the path that climbed to the structure. Harry glanced to him – once – but it was enough to signal a new beginning. Their trust would mend.

"You didn't think we'd let you two do this on your lonesome, did you?" Hellboy grinned when he saw Liz, who stood with her hands on her hips. Harry looked sheepish, but he met her gaze solidly. She couldn't seem to stop grinning. Hellboy found it to be contagious.

"Indeed, I think that would be…most unwise." Abe murmured with a slow blink over his glassy black eyes. Not even Harry could hide his slight grin with those words. Liz flicked her fingers, wiggling the burning blue digits in a gesture that some would have taken to mean for them to join her.

They did.

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Hogwarts Rampaged!

An Article by Rita Skeeter

Details are sketchy over what happened earlier this morning, but the results are clear – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, beloved to many readers of the Daily Prophet, has been reduced to rubble. There will be no returning it to order in time for the traditional start of Hogwarts. An insider at the Ministry of Magic reports that the only wards that alerted Aurors to this catastrophe were delayed. It isn't clear how this might have been done.

In the wake of this disaster, questions stir – was this the work of Death Eaters in retaliation to the death of You-Know-Who? Was this attack preformed by the Dark Lord from beyond the grave? Or is this some other sinister statement brutally brought about by a rising Dark entity?

Curiously, the Ministry of Magic wasn't able to explain the magical signature of the Boy-Who-Lived lingering in the aftershocks of the magical attack upon Hogwarts. Harry Potter has yet to be found – this reporter wonders if Harry is not dead, or in hiding. A lingering question echoes in our hearts with the suddenness of this assault…

Is anywhere or anyone safe?

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Note; this is part one of a to be two part story – the pairing, also, is Hellboy/Harry, thus, this is slash – thus, Abby muses on wizard and demon, uhm, "sexing physiology"… meaning; how they have hot wizard on demon (or will that be hot demon on wizard…?) sex…incase your wondering, yes, Liz, Abe, Hellboy, and Harry just trashed Hogwarts - this is, if you need a refrence in movie-verse for Hellboy, after the end of movie-two. Yes, Liz is pregnant - yes with twins, yes, they are Hellboy's - and yes, this is Harry/Hellboy pairing. M'kay, the rest will have to wait till the next chapter.