Allison jumped when the ball of flame appeared out of nowhere, floating almost lazily over Harry's palm. Little tendrils of flame shot out from it, almost like bursts shooting out of a dying sun. Harry held the flame for a moment more, before pulling his magic back, making the purple light flicker and die. He smirked when he looked at Allison and Lydia, noticing the looks of shock and awe, and even slight fear on Lydia's part. Harry certainly had to give Allison some credit. Most people would certainly be fearful of what he had just done.
"Now, as much as I would just love to stay here and chat, I don't think a public restroom is the best place to talk about such sensitive topics" Harry said, earning some nods from the girls, as well as Scott. He gave Scott a critical look, noticing that he was still wearing the shredded and blood stained shirt from just moments earlier. "You need a new shirt. Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it Harry" Scott answered, wrapping an arm around Harry's shoulders. "Could you do me a favour though? Can you go home and get me a new one? It would be very much appreciated."
"I suppose I could" Harry said, raising his hand to his chin, stroking it in thought. "I do have to go and get my stuff for the trip, shouldn't I?"
"Wait, you're staying?" Scott asked, a broad, sunny smile suddenly on his face. "When did you get home?"
"Yes, I'm staying Scott" Harry replied, mirth filling his voice at his brothers reaction. "And I got home just last night. Mum was the only one home, and she filled out the forms to get me enrolled. I may have over slept, just a little. She did warn me that I had to go to the Meet, didn't she?" Harry drew off a little, the last bit more to himself than the rest of them. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, before looking over at his brother. "And don't worry, Scott. I'm not leaving again, certainly not like last time."
Scott hugged Harry in response to what he had said, and Harry simply wrapped his arms around his brother, burying his face in the crook of his neck, breathing in Scott's scent deeply. He smelled of home.
Scott pulled away, not caring that he had tears in the corners of his eyes, before giving Harry what he liked to call his kicked puppy look. Harry caved almost instantly.
"Fine, I'll get you a new shirt" Harry said playfully, pulling Scott into another hug. "Merlin I missed you."
"You're not the only one, Harry" was Scott's reply when he pulled away yet again.
"Okay. Stay here, and don't move. I'll be back in a minute."
Harry took a step back from Scott, before spinning on his heel, picturing his attic bedroom back home. He felt a pulling sensation, before he felt like he was being sucked through a tube no bigger than a straw, before he felt his feet hit solid ground. Stumbling slightly, he turned to find himself in his bedroom.
He hurried over to his desk, grabbing his messenger back as he did so. He quickly stuffed copies of the signed forms his mother had given him the night before, slipping the current book he was reading in as well. He grabbed a spare pair of jeans, underwear and a couple of shirts, before looking around his room again. He grabbed his leather jacket at the last minute, before spinning on his heel again, picturing the road side restroom as he did so.
He landed with a stumble, yet again, but righted himself quickly. He looked up, to see Scott animatedly explaining everything he could about magic to Allison and Lydia, despite the fact that he didn't have any himself. It had been one of their mother's goals that, even though Scott was a squib, he was to know everything that he could about the world he came from.
He cleared his throat slightly, surprised that none of them had looked over at the noise his appearance had undoubtedly caused. Scott smiled at him yet again, but frowned slightly when he noticed that Harry only held one of his own shirts. "That's not my shirt, Harry."
"I know" was Harry's frank reply, throwing over the red shirt almost carelessly.
"You gonna tell me why you got me one of your shirts?" Scott asked, though his voice was laced with humour as he threw the garment over his head. He already knew the answer, the smug bastard.
"You know full well I never got over my scent marking stage, Scott" Harry replied, and couldn't help but smile when Scott's smile just got broader. "That's why you're wearing one of mine now. Good thing it still fits, though. You're a bit bigger than when I last saw you."
"Why thank you, Harry" Scott replied, the smile still stretching his face in half.
"I wasn't complimenting you. I was just stating that you looked fat. We all know that I'm the better looking of the two of us."
While Allison and Lydia stared at the twins after Harry's almost backhanded remark, the two almost forgotten, Scott and Harry burst into fits of laughter. This was surely what Harry had missed while he was gone. He had missed his brother.
"Shall we get going?" Harry asked, a smile still on his face as he motioned to the door to the restroom. As they all nodded, he threw his jacket over his shoulders, despite the heat, flinging his bag over his neck afterwards.
It wasn't until they were outside, in the glaring sunlight, that Harry realised he didn't need his jacket due to the heat. He was about to take the thing off, when the sounds of fighting reached his ears. Seeing as he and Scott had heard the fight before the girls, they were the first to turn in the direction of the group of students crowding around the base of a tree. Some of the students seemed to be urging those in the centre into a fight, while others stood and watched, merely for the fun of it.
Before either of his three companions could react, Harry was dashing over to the crowd, pushing his way through the students to look into the middle. There, at the base of the tree, were two boys. They were both blonde, but one, the one on his knees, had his hair cut short, cropped close to his skull. He was getting his face bashed in by the other blonde, who had longer, curlier blonde hair. This one was, oddly enough, of a smaller stature to the one on his knees.
By the time Harry had analysed all of this, Scott, Allison and Lydia had made it to his side. Before they could speak, Harry had rushed forward yet again, this time tackling the curly blonde haired boy to the ground, midway through his next punch. He kicked up a fight, trying to land a punch on Harry, the two of them rolling around in the dirt as they did so. Finally, the blonde gained the upper hand, rolling so that he was positioned over Harry. He raised his fist, obviously about to punch him. However, he faltered upon seeing Harry's face.
"Scott?" the boy asked, a look of complete shock on his face as he asked. "Is that you?"
"Sorry, but you've got the wrong twin" was Harry's reply, before Scott's voice broke through the blondes shock.
"ISAAC."
The blonde, Isaac, whipped his head to the side, a look of utter shock painting his face as he did so. He quickly whipped his head back and forth, before scrambling back from Harry as quickly as he could. While he continued to lay on the ground, he breathed in the scents of those around him as everyone stared at him curiously, when he noticed something strange.
The boy, Isaac, was a werewolf. Harry was sure of it, the air right where Isaac had been smelt distinctly of wolf. He breathed in deeper, trying to pick up even more of the scents around him, shocked to find more wolves amongst the students. Of course, there was Scott's distinctive scent, which Harry had memorised, and Isaac's newer one. The other blonde that Isaac had been wailing on was also a wolf as well. He scrambled to his feet, spinning around wildly, not caring what the other students thought of him, before pinning the final scent. A dark skinned boy glared at him over the heads of the other students, as if what he had done had been an offense. He, too, smelled very much like a werewolf.
Harry ignored the eyes of the other students, striding over to where Scott and Isaac were standing, huddled together with Stiles, Allison and Lydia. Scott and Isaac looked up at him with his arrival, the former with a smile, and the latter with apprehension.
"I'm sorry about that. I have a bad habit of shooting first and asking questions later." He offered his right hand in greeting. "I'm Harry. Harry McCall. Scott's twin brother, in case he hasn't told you."
Isaac took his hand, almost carefully, as if waiting for Harry to do something violent towards him. When he didn't, Isaac took a deep breath, nodded his head and said "I'm Isaac. Isaac Lahey. It's a pleasure to meet you. And… apology accepted. I can understand where you're coming from, watching me beat the shit out of Ethan." He smiles here, and goes to say something else, before his mouth clamps shut with an audible click.
"What's going on here? What the hell happened to you McCall?"
The voice cut through everyone's musings as their teacher came up to them. From what Harry could tell by looking at him, based on Scott's rather vivid descriptions of him, he could tell this was Coach Finstock.
"Beg pardon" Harry asked, realising that the last question was directed towards him. "I think you've got the wrong McCall."
"What do you mean I've got the wrong McCall, McCall? There's only been one McCall?" the coach yelled at Harry, loud enough that his ears began ringing.
"He's right, coach. That's not who you think it is" Scott said, moving through the group of friends to stand next to Harry. Coach looked between the two of them, stunned at what he was seeing.
"Did you somehow get cloned, McCall?" Coach asked, drawing the attention of the rest of the class. "Or am I missing something here?"
"Coach, this is my brother, Harry" Scott said as an answer. "My twin brother, in case you didn't notice."
Coach looked over the two of them, nodding as he did so, before a glare crossed his face. "Why haven't I seen you before? With moves like those, you should be on the Lacrosse team?"
"I went to boarding school, coach" Harry answered calmly. "In Scotland. I wanted to be closer to my brother, so I dropped out." He rifled through his bag, which Stiles had so nicely handed to him, before pulling out some forms. "I didn't get home until last night, but mum had these filled out and at the school office yesterday morning. She told me that I would need a copy of these to prove who I am. She also told me about the Meet, but I slept in and just missed the bus when I got to school." Scott let out a snort of amusement at the lie, but shut up when Harry shot him a glare. "I got to school just as the bus pulled out. Lydia and Allison-" here, Harry motioned to the two girls who had been in the restroom with them "-were kind enough to offer me a lift when they found out I needed to go as well. And for your information, I was the captain of the Lacrosse team at my previous school."
Scott frowned at his obvious, to him, lie, as the coach looked over the forms, nodding as he did so. He looked between the two brothers, a puzzled look on his face as he did so. "Okay, get on the bus. The two of you are going to be the death of me."
Harry nodded, before turning around and going over to the boy who was being beaten by Isaac. He knelt down in front of him, peering into his eyes as he did so. He held his hand out, offering it to the boy.
"Hi there" he said, a cheery grin on his face. "Pleasure to meet you. In case you weren't paying attention, I'm Harry. Harry McCall."
The blonde eyed him for a moment, almost quizzically, before grasping his hand in a firm shake. Harry stood up, the boys hand still grasped in his, pulling him up as well. "Ethan. Ethan Carver, at your service" the blonde, Ethan, said in reply, albeit slowly. "Thanks for the help. You didn't have to do anything."
"Don't worry about it, Ethan. I just wanted to help, and I didn't want to help Isaac" Harry smiled brightly in reply, noticing another boy, this one with dark hair and tanned skin walking up to him. He offered his hand to the boy in greeting.
The boy grasped his hand as well, shaking it firmly as he did so. "My names Danny. Thanks for helping. I didn't mean to freeze up like I did. Thanks for that."
"No worries. I'm always willing to help someone in need" Harry said, before waving a goodbye, turning back to Scott and the others. He nodded his head, and they began moving towards the bus, Scott in the lead.
Scott led the group of five to the back of the bus, Isaac having been told he was to sit up the front for "supervision". Once the four of them had gotten comfortable, Lydia turned on Harry, looking him directly in the eyes, a critical look to the girls face. Harry would never admit it, but he had never been more unnerved in his whole life. Okay, maybe he was exaggerating. She couldn't be like McGonagall. Lydia squinted her eyes at him, intensifying her glare somewhat. He gulped, amending his last thought. She was most definitely like McGonagall.
"So" she began, drawing the word out, as if knowing that he was nervous around her. "Why have we never seen you before? Surely you must have gone to school with us at some point? And why was it only you that went to boarding school and not Scott?"
Harry contemplated her questions, looking at Scott with a raised eyebrow. He merely shrugged. "Just tell her, Harry. She won't stop bugging you if you don't. And besides, she already knows about me being a werewolf, she might as well know what else you are."
Harry shrugged himself, wondering what the harm would be if he told her. "I'll start with the last one, because it is the easiest." He clicked his fingers together, a tiny purple flame appearing above his thumb, before he snapped his fingers again, the flame disappearing. "The boarding school I went to, Hogwarts, is only for those who can do magic. Scott wasn't born with it, so he wasn't accepted into school."
"That's…somewhat understandable" Allison said, a small frown on her face. "But that would have to suck, wouldn't it? That Harry gets born with magic, and you don't?" She aimed the last question at Scott, who shrugs.
"I try my best not to worry about it" he says in reply. "There was a point where I wanted nothing to do with Harry I was so jealous because of it. I think we were nine at the time. But mum explained to me what had happened between her and her sister when mum found out that she had magic, and didn't want the same to happen to Harry and me. Though, I will say that the promise of being a werewolf helped to stem the jealousy a bit."
"A bit? It wasn't the magic you were jealous about, it was me being a werewolf. Once I promised I would turn you, your jealousy disappeared like it was never there" Harry butt in, a smile on his face. "You were more concerned about being able to play on the Lacrosse team than being able to turn animals into water goblets."
Scott chuckled lightly at this, remembering the events properly now that Harry had spoken. "Yeah, your right. The magic was never a problem for me. I always wanted to be a werewolf more than a wizard."
"Wait, what do you mean Harry offered to bite you? How old were you? When were you bitten, I mean?" Lydia asked, curiosity filling her voice, as she aimed the last question at Harry.
"I think we were… nine? No, ten. It wasn't long before I got my Hogwarts letter when I offered him the bite" Harry said in reply, and continued speaking when Lydia looked like she was going to ask something else. "And no, I wasn't bitten either. How I became a werewolf is none of your concern. And I offered to give Scott the bite because of his asthma. I always saw how he suffered during the attacks, and was left out of things at school because of it, that I wanted to help. Though mum made me promise not to bite him until we were seventeen. Lot of good that did. I was so busy in England I wasn't here for our birthday, and later found out he was bitten by a rogue werewolf not long after our sixteenth."
Stiles spoke up here, slight shock written all over his face. "Hold up a second. If you were going to be bitten by Harry, why were you so worried about being a werewolf in the first place?"
"Because, Stiles, I was worried that Harry wouldn't let me into his pack, seeing as he didn't bite me" Scott said, a sheepish smile on his face. "And besides, I may have been bitten by Peter, but I had always seen Harry as my alpha, no one else."
"And that's how it's going to stay" Harry murmured, as the bus began to lurch forward, his eyes briefly flashing a crimson red as it did so.
"So, Harry, why did you decide to leave your school to come here?" Lydia asked, out of the blue not long after, with a curious gleam to her eye that made Harry slightly suspicious.
"Well, its simple, isn't it?" Harry asked, a perplexed look on his face. "It's a magical school. I won't be able to get a job in the non-magical world without a non-magical education." He shrugged his shoulders here, as if it were of no consequence. "Besides, I also wanted to be able to spend time with my brother. Seemed to me to be an easy enough decision, wouldn't you think? Being able to spend your last couple of years in school with one of your closest relatives."
"What was school like, at a magical school?" Allison asked, barely disguised curiosity burning in her eyes as she did so. "It can't have been very much like a non-magical school, would it?"
Harry thought about the question for a bit, before answering her, based on his experience. He talked and rambled about the majestic, ancient castle that made up the school, with all of its secret passages, moving rooms and staircases, the lake it sat next too, alongside the forest through which he had spent many a full moon running through with wild abandon. He talked about classes, potions being held in the gloomy dungeons, Astronomy being held at night on top of an open roofed tower, Divination held in the smoky confines of the North Tower. He spoke of the many secrets that the castle held, including the Chamber of Secrets and the Room of Requirement. He spoke of his years at the school, how wondrous it had been to be able to experience what his parents had experienced, making the first trip on the train, and then over the lake on the boats. Allison, Lydia and Stiles were enraptured as he talked about Halloween and Christmas, with the decorations of live bats and everlasting icicles, of huge carved pumpkins and twelve, large decorated Christmas trees lining the back of the Great Hall. He talked about his adventures, with Ron and Hermione, and how he had faced Voldemort a number of times, in front of the mirror, in the Chamber, after the tournament. How he had helped catch Peter Pettigrew after he had escaped from Azkaban, and how he had broken into the Ministry of Magic in his fifth year. The three listeners watched on, gasping at all the right places, while Scott smiled on, having heard all of this before, marvelling in how Harry managed to grab everyone's attention. It was when Harry got to the events of the last twelve months that Scott started to pay more attention to what his brother was talking about.
Scott, too, sat enraptured, and horrified, at what he heard. Of the attack on Bill and Fleur's wedding, and how Harry, Ron and Hermione had only just managed to escape. Of how they managed to break into the ministry (again) and then escape and go on the run just before they had been caught. He listened to how they had hunted through the memories that Dumbledore had given them, for any sign of a clue to just figure out where the next horcrux was hidden, and in some cases what it may have been. He listened to how Ron had had his outburst while under the influence of the Horcruxes dark magic, of how Ron had redeemed himself when he went on to destroy it. Of the attack on them while at the Lovegood's, and how they had been captured and smuggled to the Malfoy's, where they had gone on to escape, at the cost of a dear friend. How, after resting with Bill and Fleur for a fortnight, they had managed to, successfully, break into Gringotts and steal another Horcrux, and then managed to break out on the back of a dragon.
And then the final battle, of the many lives lost on both sides. Allison and Lydia were in tears, and Scott very close himself, when Harry recounted Hermione's death.
Harry himself was in tears recounting how, in a fit of desperation, the Death Eaters had turned their wands on those students in the younger years who had stayed behind to help in whatever way they could. Of how, with no remorse, they had slaughtered children as they ran away screaming. And how Hermione, in a fit of righteous fury, had stepped in front of the Death Eaters and faced them down in combat. Harry explained that it had taken twelve Death Eaters to take her down, and of those twelve, only three had survived the massacre. Scott, being the kind hearted brother he was pulled Harry into a hug, as he continued on with the story.
He went on to explain how Voldemort had finally been killed, after destroying the accidental Horcrux that had rested in Harry for sixteen years, and after Neville had killed Nagini, and how Voldemort had finally succumbed to the cold embrace of death.
Harry finally stopped, tear tracks marking his cheeks, which he hastily rubbed away. A silence filled the space between the five of them, all in slightly darker moods than they had been before when they had first gotten on the bus. And then Scott spoke up.
"If that battle happened in May, where have you been? Mum and I have been wondering where you've been since you disappeared last year. What happened?"
"I-Ron and I needed some time to get over what happened" Harry said in response. "I called mum not long after the battle, told her that I was okay, that Ron and I would be going on a road trip of sorts and that I wasn't sure when I would be home. Since then, we have been trekking through the States, coming to terms with what has happened." He gave a hollow laugh here, pulling himself away from Scott, scrubbing at his eyes as he did so. "Fat load of good that did."
"What happened to Uncle Remmy? I remember he disappeared around the time of the battle, now that I think about it" Scott asked suddenly into the silence.
"He's alive" Harry said, a slightly happier tone filling his voice. "He's, uh, he's in mourning, though. Tonks… she didn't make it, unfortunately. But did you hear the good news?"
"How is there good news in this?" Stiles asked incredulously, a look of shock covering his face.
"I'm a Godfather" Harry said with a smile to Scott, and it was one of the brightest smiles Harry had had since the battle. "Tonks gave birth to little Teddy just days before she died in the battle. They wanted me to be his Godfather. And I accepted. Hang on, I think I have a photo."
He then went and fished his phone out of his pocket, pulling up the photos on his phone, a bringing up one of a rosy cheeked Teddy, giggling madly, with his hair a vibrant shade of electric blue. He then passed his phone around to the others in the group, and received the expected compliments that came with showing off baby pictures.
"He's a Metamorphmagus, and a powerful one at that" Harry said, when someone asked why Teddy had blue hair at such a young age. "It means he is able to change his appearance at will. Remus said he would be coming home soon, once he has everything sorted out in Britain. He'll be bringing Teddy along with him."
They fell into silence for a while, digesting what Harry had just told them about his life at Hogwarts, and what had happened to his friends. Everyone pretended that Harry was getting something out of his eye, rather than wiping away the tears.
"So, what have you guys been doing lately? I haven't heard about anything since Peter" Harry asked, once he had regained his composure, directing the conversation away from him. He glanced out of the window, and noticed the sky was darker than it had been earlier, the sun sitting closer to the horizon. "Looks like we might be stopping soon, by the way."
"Well, where to begin?" Scott began in answer to Harry's question. "The last I talked to you, Derek had killed Peter, became an Alpha, and I was now actually a part of your pack, correct?"
"Yep, that sounds about right" Harry said, eyes closed as he did some slight meditation as Scott talked. Behind his closed eyelids, he could see the bonds that formed his pack, the bright gold that made up Scott right next to him, the dim blue that made up Ron, the fiery red that made up his mother and the sea green that made up his father, the latter three dimmer due to the distance. "That was about eight months ago, around Christmas. Hermione, Ron and I were in the Forest of Dean, and the bond with you flared to life when Peter died."
"Yeah, well a lot has happened since then" Scott said in a low voice. "Derek started giving people the bite, trying to form a pack. He bit Isaac and Boyd over there, and a girl, Erica. He even bit Jackson, but that's where the problems started."
"The problems started how?" Harry asked, his attention perked up. If he had ears like a dog, they would have been standing at attention. Scott smiled at the mental image.
"Yeah, instead of turning into a werewolf, Jackson turned into a Kanima."
"A Kanima? I've never heard of one" Harry exclaimed.
"Exactly, I doubt you would have" Scott said. "Stiles and I scoured through every book you had in your room for any reference to them. The closest we came was a dracken, and the only similarity was that they both turned into a giant fricking lizard of some kind. When we found out what it was, it also made sense why we couldn't find out what it was. It was a South American legend, a myth even to wizards, so there was no reference to it in any kind of bestiary that we would have had. The only way we found out what it was because of Derek. He said that it was uncommon, but if a human was bitten, and they had some kind of emotional trauma in their past, they would become a Kanima until it was sorted out. He only knew about it because it was a legend passed down between families of born werewolves.
"Now, the problems began when the killings started. The Kanima started killing various people, we had no idea how they were connected, aside from the fact that they were all in the same graduating class. What was it the bestiary said? Something about the wolf and Kanima being similar?"
"Like the wolf, the Kanima is a social creature but where the wolf seeks a pack the Kanima seeks a master" Lydia stepped in, taking the reins of the story. "We found out that someone was controlling the Kanima, using it as 'a weapon of vengeance, to carry out the bidding of its master', or something like that. One of the victims was Isaac's dad, and we didn't know how he was connected, until we found out who was controlling the Kanima."
Allison stepped in here, saying "It was one of the students in our year, Matt Daehler. He almost drowned when he was younger while at a party for the swim team, who Isaac's dad was the coach of. Isaac's dad apparently got pissed off at Matt for not being able to swim, and told him not to tell anyone. The swim team, who were at the party, were all drunk and laughing at him, and once he gained control of the Kanima, he started killing them all off. He also started stalking me at one point, before the confrontation at the Sheriff's department."
"This was when mum found out about me being a werewolf" Scott continued off from where Allison had ended. "Mum got called into the station, for whatever reason, I can't remember, and Matt took her as a hostage to draw me in. I went in, confronted him, and Stiles, Derek and Allison followed me. Stiles and Derek got paralysed by the Kanima, while Matt went on the typical James Bond villain spiel, talking about his plans. He then shot me, in front of mum, and I wolfed out in front of her. She freaked at that, but more out of shock than fear. She's seen you do it more times than I can even count. Anyway, Matt got killed by Gerard, Allison's grandfather, who then took control of the Kanima."
"And then came the glorious plan of yours, Scotty" Stiles jumped in, continuing the story. "Gerard was a hunter, through and through, and would have killed Scott without another glance. However, Scott managed to worm his way into Gerard's good graces. When it came time to confront Gerard about the Kanima, Scott had, unknowingly to anyone else, tampered with the pills Gerard had to take almost constantly. Gerard had returned to Beacon Hills after his daughter, Kate, was killed. He came here for revenge, but really wanted the bite of an Alpha, so that he could cure his cancer. However, Scott managed to slip mountain ash into Gerard's pills, with Deaton's help, and then forced Derek to bite him. Because of the mountain ash, his body rejected the bite, but he still lived."
"Wait, you managed to force a rival Alpha to bite another person? How the fuck did you do that?" Harry almost yelled at the group. "Actually, on second thought, I don't want to know, I just don't want you to use it on me. Are we clear?"
He growled a little at the end of it, but refused to even use his Alpha voice on his brother. Scott merely nodded in response, but he had a smile on his face as he did so.
"That's everything up until the Summer Holidays" Scott said, instead of replying to Harry's question. "Since the end of summer, there has been a Darach running around killing people, along with an Alpha Pack thrown into the mix."
"Did you say an Alpha Pack?" Harry asked, suddenly nervous. "That can't be good?"
"What do you know about them, Harry?" Scott asked curiously.
"You know what, I would very much rather mum and dad being here if we were to get into this conversation, so let's not" Harry said rather hurriedly. And as if to change the conversation, he said "Oh look, it seems like were stopping."
And Harry was right, they were stopping. Right outside a roadside motel, by the name of the Motel Glen Capri.