Some grubs, not canon Fury Road, and some primitive magic
-Maddened-
The red head was back.
Harry was still asleep by the time they reached the canyon. The girls had not stopped their glances at him but they at least kept to themselves. The red head with the blood on her lips would flash outside when he would glance and at times she would appear five inches from his face. Just on the other side of the door, pale hands gripping the window edge. Her eyes glassy and so green that he felt like they would swallow them up.
The next hour had been tense.
Immortal Joe was on top of them. In the chaos they took over Immortal Joes vehicle, shot others and were shot at, and the last of the Vulvani died.
At the moment Furiosa was on the receiving end of a blood transfusion with himself and Max was starting to become light headed. Harry was still asleep in the back seat with Toast and Capable sitting on either side of him. Capable was carding her hands through the kid's hair and a surge of something bubbled in his chest. Harry had been in and out of consciousness. He turned his head away and watched as Furiosa started twitching back to life.
Max knew they would make it through this. Capable had been teary over the war boy and everyone still seemed to hurt over going back to the Citidel without Splendid, or Angharad, whichever her name was. War was war however short it was.
"Thank you, Max."
Furiosa had woken more fully and was looking at him with bleary eyes. Max grunted before pulling out the tube from their arms and bandaging them up. As much as he had invested in these woman, he still had to take care of himself and Harry.
He finished the knot on her make shift bandage and then applied the same technique on his own arm before shrugging back on his bulky jacket. They were almost back to the Citadel and he wanted to sleep. Sooner rather than later. Maybe even find his car, he couldn't remember if it had exploded or not.
Fragile shifted gears on the large truck as they came back onto the open road that lead from each clan territory. The girl had gotten a hang of driving very quickly, Max was impressed. Toast clambered her way up front, practically sitting on the driver and Max nodded at the girl before crawling back. Harry was still leaning against Capable's shoulder.
Max got himself comfortable in the back seat and grabbed the boy's shoulders to see if he could get him awake. He did not want to get to the Citadel with dead weight on him. The back of the cab was barley spacious enough for them in Immortal Joes vehicle, it would've been too small for all them but their numbers had died down since the turn around. It was good enough for now.
"He has been in and out again. I didn't want to bother him," Capable explained. Her hands kept knotting and unknotting strips of the white cloth that she had as clothing. "Didn't want to bother you either, with Furiosa."
Max grunted in understanding before grabbing his canteen and pouring it over Harrys head. It didn't take long for the younger man to start groaning. "Oi, stop it!" Harry muttered, tan hands swatting at the canteen.
Green eyes blinked up at him before Harry got himself upright. "What's it? What's going on?"
"Going to the Citadel."
"Oh really? It took me long enough to find your arse! This blasted desert! Hey where is your beard? Who are they?"
The questions were rapid fire and Fragile, Toast, and Dag giggled from their spot up front.
Introductions were made thoroughly now that Harry was coherent and Dag then, of course, hit it off with the kid. During all the chatter Furiosa made eye contact and Max was sure that she approved of Harry.
It didn't take long for them to arrive. Max had watched Harry and Dag talk about her seeds and Toast jumped in a time or two with suggestions on growing. As they approached the hordes of people at the Citadel Max started gathering his things. He was about to grab Harry but paused. He was still having an animated conversation and looked to be enjoying himself.
Should he drag Harry back out to the desert? He planned on grabbing one of Furiosa's vehicles and heading back out to a safe house. Would it be better to leave the kid? Sure there was magic and Max had decided to help him a bit. At first because of the red headed woman and now because the kid was growing on him- growing on him a lot.
Green eyes looked at him and a small smile was directed at him. Max couldn't help a twitch of his lips.
"So Max, they shaved you clean. Are you going to grow it back or keep it?" Harry asked.
Max rolled his eyes and brought his hands to his chin, feeling the rough stubble that had grown in. He didn't want to leave the kid behind. Who knew what would happen with Furiosa possibly taking over the Citadel.
"Don't know." Was the response he gave. He would probably keep it off. It was too hot to have it grow back.
Harrys smiled widened a bit before his attention was directed back to Furiosa who was just parking on a lift. People were surrounding the vehicle and Max wrenched open the door, kicking off one of the scoundrels trying to climb on.
A short speech was given and Max took Harrys arm and took him into the crowd.
"We will be back," he reassured when he saw Harrys concerned look. Max was definitely going to keep an eye on the boy. Furiosa would have a lot on her plate with the girls and the rest of the clan.
The lift was risen and Immortal Joes body was on display for all the War boys and others inside the monolith. Furiosa would do good to these people.
"Come on." They made their way through the crowd, giving one last wave to Furiosa.
The crowd was making their way towards the Citadel so it took a bit to jostle their way out.
"Hey Max, do you think we could go get my bike?" Harry asked loudly, trying to be heard over the yelling and muttering.
Max thought about the canyon and cliffs, thought about the scavengers and sighed. The trip back was going to be a pain.
-Maddened-
Harry was sad to see the girls go. They were sweet and excited for the future, something Harry could relate to. He had been excited for post Voldemort life. He still was, if he could future out how to get home.
A bit of him was bitter that there was no easy way to get back, that no one could help him. At the same time, he also felt a peace to know he had people here. Wherever here was. He still wasn't sure. Maybe Blazes earliest theory was right, dimensional travel.
As they left the crowds Max turned to go around to the back side of the Citadel monolith. There were no people back here but there was a great view of more wasteland.
"Dig." Max grunted at him, motioning towards a random patch of sand at the foot of the Citadel.
Harry glanced over, slightly annoyed before digging with his hands. Max kept walking, leaving him alone.
The man was slightly infuriating with his short sentences but he was quite the looker with beard gone. Max was obviously well muscled and fit, well as fit as one could be living off desert cuisine. Harry gave a small smile to Max when the man made his way back over to start helping.
It didn't take much longer for them to come across a tarp with a large bike underneath. It had a bloody side car too. It was decked out in skulls and bones, quite tacky.
"Furiosa's gift," was the only explanation given as they set it up. They threw Harrys bag in the side car and both sat on the bike itself.
The sun was setting now and it would cool down a bit. Still no one had made their way behind the Citadel but the cheering and roaring water meant there was still celebrating going on.
Soon purple painted the sky as well as thousands of stars peering down at them. Max rode the bike away from the Citadel into an area Harry hadn't been to before. His arms were gripped around the rogue's waist and his head buried in the dusty leather.
He knew magic, it was an extension of himself. He could feel it around him but he couldn't feel it in the air. He wasn't a sorcerer or a warlock, just a simple wizard who knew how to fight. He didn't know how to get back. He hadn't the first idea. He was still stuck. He wouldn't get back.
If Max noticed Harry clinging to his back a little more tightly he did not say anything.
Things were still ok. He was ok.
-Maddened-
It was a full night's ride before Max pulled over at a ravine. The ravine was another small stopping place for him, it was as long as the Citadel was high. Not easy to find but easy to run over the lip and fall to your death.
The sun was just rising and Harry had moved himself to the side car to get some sleep. They were both exhausted still after the previous day but Max was uncertain he would last much longer.
Stepping off the bike, Max quickly grabbed the tan tarp and covered the bike and helped Harry out of his seat. Sleep needed to come sooner.
"I can drive. Hey, Max stop." Harry complained when Max was digging through the bag he had been carrying. The rogue gave a small dismissive wave at that.
There was a small bed roll, a miracle that it made it through everything. Max motioned for the younger man to follow and they both made there was to the ravines lip where a cave entrance was just to their right. The stone was grey and black in the ravine, the color contrast was great compared to the red sand and blue skies outside.
"How do you know all these places?"
Grunting Max helped Harry down before they laid back against the cool rock.
When they awoke it was the afternoon and Max felt like he could sleep another couple hour's but Harry was tracing something into the ground. Max raised himself up and looked over at the dirt sketch. A triangle encompassing a circle with a line dissecting it through the middle.
Max grunted a motioned to the picture. Harry looked down at him from his perch on a large rock and smiled. "Oh this? It's a symbol of death where I am from. Death seems to follow me most of the time but hopefully I can leave it behind soon enough." There was a tone of sadness and wistfulness in what he said.
Sitting up more, Max tried to get a better look at Harrys face. "I see death at times."
Green eyes looked at him curiously, "Oh?"
"You have a red headed woman following us. Green eyes like yours."
That caught the other off guard. "Wait, long red hair? My mum?"
Max shrugged. Like hell he knew anything like that but Harry was probably right.
"And you say you see dead people often?"
A nod from him and another considering look from Harry.
"Family?"
Max looked to the corner of the room where the boy with brown hair was, Glory.
"Always."
-Maddened-
It took two days to get around the mountains to an abandoned pass. Harry had driven for a bit after he felt recuperated enough but he was feeling a bit down after realizing again that he probably was stuck in desert land. At least he had Max.
Max was a subject Harry tried not to think too deeply about. The man was attractive in a rugged way. Someone he would've been wary of back home but was his confident here. At times Harry found himself staring at the man's lips, his eyes, and even his broad shoulders.
The wizard thought he was very much set with his sexuality. He had a thing with Cho, ended up horribly and then Ginny but Harry wasn't so sure it would've worked out. The girl dated Dean of all people so technically she was off limits, them being friends. Hermione would probably disagree.
Harry let his head hang between his knees. He was crouched on the west side of the mountains, alone, waiting for Max to get back. The man had just left that morning with the bike and side car without so much a by your leave. Max was insufferable. Insufferably attractive and independent.
Taking out the Elder wand, Harry started to twirl it letting the sand beneath him levitate into the air. Swirling the wand to his right he let the sand thicken into a long whip that had an end that would snap when it turned. Grains of sand followed the wand and then more followed the grains before it.
In the corner of his eyes there was a movement. Sand shifted underneath booted feet. A slow breath was heard as if preparing for something.
Harry whipped his wand to his right and sand followed the wands movement and his whip wrapped around the half hidden figure hidden behind a jutted rock some ten or more feet away.
There was a scream and curse, definitely not Max, and Harry rolled to the side as bullets connected into the sand he was just inhabiting. He stood quickly and cast a barrier in front of him with his own wand that appeared from his sleeve and yanked on his sand whip, a large rugged man stumbled into the open while another bullet connected to his barrier.
"Piss off," Harry hissed as he petrified his prisoner and then cast a disarming spell into the cliff above him. After the first missed Harry ducked and cast another and a red beam hit the shooter and they fell from their precarious roost. The man screamed for seconds before his body impacted on the hard ground.
Harry felt sweat dripping down his face and adrenaline running through his body. It was automatic, he ran to the fallen attacker and bound them with ropes from his wand and summoned the stalker from his spot in the sun as well as the fallen rifle.
The sand was turning a darker red as the sun was starting to set. Harry wondered briefly when Max would be back and if the man knew these rugged men. Possibly also rogues themselves.
He stripped them of two of knives, rope, some dried mystery substance that was probably food, and a damp bag that held a couple hand full of grubs. Harry careful set down the knives at his feet and completely opened up the pouch and watched as cream colored stubby grubs wiggled around. As he watched them there was a few he noticed that had bright blue stripes along their bellies.
Blue grubs? Bean-Grieve grubs? What were they doing in the middle of the desert? These grubs he had used on multiple occasions in different healing elixirs.
Quickly he closed the bag and tightened the drawstring, tucking them in his inner pocket of his jacket. Harry walked over to the two men and waited for them to awaken.
The larger man, the stalker. Was probably blond underneath the grime with wide shoulders and thick torso. The shooter was darker looking with a wild mess of dark hair and goggles tangled in its strands. He was dyeing possibly if his ragged breathing and bloody lips meant anything. They obviously were working together and maybe even for someone. Both wore beards, close cropped, and wore matching dark jackets.
Harry felt a little sorry for them but this world was pretty bad.
The blond came to in another minute.
"What-?" The man's eyes opened blearily and he quickly straightened at the site of Harry crouching in front of him.
"Good evening. What do you want?" Harry probably should've started with something easier but the magical grubs needed some answers.
The man looked over at his unconscious companion, tied up with heavy cords, and then back at Harry. "We dunno what it's. You's suppose to meet witha boss."
The wizard cocked his head to the side and tried to find intent in the other mind. He completely failed at Occulmency but after being able to invade someone's mind once he found he can get the read on people a bit easier.
Truth.
"And who is it that you work for?"
The man shrugged he seemed a little frightened of being tied up but seemed more concerned for his companion. The blond kept glancing to the shooter.
"We's only met 'em once. In passen', needs services an' da like once in a while."
"Your name?" Harry asked.
"Call me Chris, they do."
He then asked about the grubs.
"'Nother service. Given it to da boss. Dunno why he wants maggots."
"Who gave you the maggots?"
The man's lips tightened at that and he looked at his companion. "Can't say."
Harry sighed and struck the back of the man's head with the back of the rifle.
After petrifying the two again, so they wouldn't get the jump on him, he settled back in a nearby hallow to wait for Max. He would figure out the grubs in the morning.
-Maddened-
"I need three." Max pointed at the dried meat sacks. They were small portions but the protein would do him good after being a blood bag, twice. Harry seemed to be doing fine so he wasn't too worried about protein, mainly something starchy and filling.
Villages were uncommon out here. The clans ruling the larger areas and smaller groups owning the passes and other easy routes. If a village cropped up it was because there was a family that had a trade and helped with the exchange of goods between the rogues, clans, and other parties. This village was made up of steel structures that were barely held together with rope and tarp. It was nestled between two small cliffs, if they should even be called cliffs, in the middle of a large expanse of dunes. There was also a well that served limited water and maybe a couple dozen worth of individuals that lived there permanently.
Max sighed as he left with an abundance of four bags of dried meat and another of the starchy mush that didn't really have a name. It would go bad in a day. He sold a gun for this. A bit much but the meat was good meat from the clans. It was more than enough for now.
The sun was lowering and haggling had taken a bit of time, it was time to leave. Max was almost out of the village when he saw someone burning rodent bones in a fire not too far from the path. They were muttering and waving their hands over the burning bones.
The person was young with white blonde hair and misty eyes. Max was almost past her when the girl looked up and smiled.
Max blinked and scowled at the girl, she just laughed and blew out the small flame in one breath.
"What?" he asked cautiously.
The girl motioned him to continue forward before fleeing her spot, her light feet carrying her back into the village.
"What?"
-Maddened-
Max made it back before sunrise. The sun was turning from its darker blue to a beautiful pink. The cliffs were more red then during the day and he could barely see Harry even with how close he was. He was surprisingly unworried during his whole trek out and was taken aback when he found Harry sleeping not too far from a bundle of bodies laid out on the sand. Max wandered over to the two unconscious men and dismissed them quickly, Harry could take care of himself.
Harry was propped up against a large boulder dead asleep still and Max went to sit next to him, careful not to make too much noise. When Harry slept he didn't move around much at all. His body still and his breaths even with no snoring. The rogue let one of his hands reach out and smooth down the crease between Harrys brows. Even if his companion was a still sleeper didn't mean he didn't dream.
His rough fingers didn't leave Harrys face. The skin was soft and light. When the breeze pushed past them he could feel the soft locks brush against the back of his hand. Max let himself indulge himself for another minute, dragging his fingers down past high cheek bones and cupping the strong jaw line in his hand. The beard that was slowly beginning to form was also surprisingly soft to the touch.
A groan came from the two men and Max let his hand fall away before turning. The taller of the two was waking up slowly and a flash of a figure next to him came to existence. The person was tall and dark with coarse hair matted into thick locks. Gold eyes stared at him, crying blood. "To him." The image flickered and then stared at Harry and repeated the same line again. "To him." Then disappeared.
Riddles. Fuck he was sick of them.
Max rose fully and strode over to the prisoners and gave them each a good kick to wake them up.
"Up!" He barked.
He wasn't too worried about Harry; he would probably wake soon anyways.
Max gave a harsh kick to each of the men and grabbed a gun from his belt.
The blond jerked completely awake with a yell. It was hard to make out the man's features but Max could tell he wasn't from any clan. Dark eyes widened in panic. A quick swing and Max's arm wrapped around the man's neck, holding him in a head lock. "Why are you here?" Max growled out.
The man chocked and gasped. "Whadda on abou'? Kno' nuthin'!"
Max gave the man a good shake and pressed the barrel of the gun into the matted hair.
"Oi Max!" Harry was at his side.
Max looked over the green eyes were hard but worried. "Who?"
Harry rolled his eyes and motioned towards the man still choking. "That's Chris, him and his friend came after me. Still need to figure out where to go from there… but look at this!" The boy was pulling out a small sack from his jacket and inside were dirty grubs with bright blue veins. "These are magic," Harry whispered. "They had them with 'em. Said they were going to take me to someone. I need to find out what magic is out here." Harrys smile was wide and his eyes alight with excitement. "I might be able to go home."
Max felt his heart constrict for a moment.
"The other one is dead. Pretty sure," Harry finished saying casually. Max heart felt as if his heart crept up into his throat. He couldn't speak.
Harry is leaving.
"Max!"
Max jumped at the noise and he let go of the wheezing man below him. He felt nauseous for a moment as he oriented himself and looked into wide green eyes. Skinny hands were holding onto the front of his jacket and Max grabbed for Harrys shoulders to orient himself better. A moment of weakness.
He let go of the boy as if scalded and took a few staggered steps away. He did not get attached. He did not get attached.
Max coughed and looked took the side, Harry was standing next to the prisoners looking confused and hurt. He forgot how small his companion was.
"We will figure it out and go," he muttered.
Max disposed of the body and gathered their 'slightly' alive prisoner. Harry trailed behind him giving him side eyed glances that he wasn't sure how to interpret.
-Maddened-
The trip was comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Harry was on watch, which meant he was on the back of the bike and Chris was passed out in the side carriage. Max was driving and had been driving for hours and Harry was starting to go numb and his arms sagging as he tried to keep a good hold around Max's waist.
They were headed to Blazes' to find any information and Harry was excited for that. He had a few seeds from Dag in his pocket and he knew that Blaze did not have these specific ones.
It was two day's travel to arrive at the familiar cliff face and the familiar tube of old lava rock underneath feet of sand stone. Chris was a jabbering mess at this point but Harry was pretty sure he could get the man sane again. Possibly.
The deep red of the rock came as a reprieve from the blinding red and dusty yellow from above. Max seemed to relax now that they were out of the sun as well.
The lava tube didn't go too deep into the surface, there were some pockets of air ways that let fresh air, sand, and light into the shelter. Harry had missed this place. It had been maybe fourteen or fifteen days since he had been here and he briefly wondered if Max ever missed having a home. Having someplace to return to.
When they arrived Harry slid off the bike with a groan and rubbed his lower back and his bum to get feeling back into his lower body. He would worry about Chris later; he wasn't worried about him running away. It was difficult enough to navigate the tunnels.
Max gave a grunt when he swung his leg over and Harry watched as the man relinquished his coat and outer shirt. His mouth went dry at the skin shown. Harry hadn't seen this much of Max before and he turned away with a slight cough. The man didn't just feel fit but he looked fit too.
"Alright?" Max asked.
Harry blushed as he caught himself looking at the rogue's lips, shoulders, arms, and everything. This was uncomfortable and Harry was ready for a bath and some sleep. He gave Max a shrug and walked off to find Blaze in his quarters. He scrubbed his hands over his face. He needed to focus on what was important. The bloody grubs and getting home.
-Maddened-
A/N:
Chapter upload by popular demand