Chapter 4
Harry ran, feet flying over roots and dried pine needles. He dodged trees, his outer consciousness working overtime to direct him. He was panting, his stomach cramping after eating so much food, and a giant, meat-eating deer was careening after him.
"Find a hole! Find a safe hole!" Sy alternated looking behind and to the front.
Harry pushed her into his shirt as he side stepped a fallen log. He didn't want to lose her in all this. He chanced a glance behind, and thought that maybe it was all useless anyway.
The deer was freaking huge. A hole? Sy could hide in a hole, maybe, but no. Harry kept his eyes up. He'd have to climb. It was the only thought in his head. He had to find a tree to climb, and fast.
Harry ran, passing fir after fir that was too large and too ungainly to attempt. Around him buzzed a small entourage of the faster insects. He'd drawn them together unconsciously, reactively in a bid to gather his resources against a greater foe.
There! A young tree, with a branch around chest level. A larger tree grew beside it, within leaping distance.
Harry scampered up, scraping his arms and knees in his haste, and pulled himself up to his feet. There was a larger branch about a meter away, on the taller tree. The distance was do-able if it had been on flat ground, and if Harry was able to take a run up. In the air, on flimsy slippery branches, with the threat of being gorged by a crazy deer? With that sort of motivation, anything was possible.
Harry took a deep breath, tensed, and threw himself across the gap.
"Cow balls! We are not birds!"
Harry landed one foot, slipped, landed on his stomach with the breath knocked out of him, and wrapped his entire body around the branch so he didn't fall off. He didn't take any time to recover. They were still within reach of the deer's antlers at this height. He had to climb.
The next branch up was within reach but just barely. Harry jumped, wrapped both hands around it and kicked off the trunk of the tree to hang, sloth-like on the branch.
He was just in time. Harry looked down, tightened his grip as the deer rammed full force into the base of the trunk.
"We are not birds!" Sy said again, her voice a shrill tinny in his ears.
"That's for sure, we're going to go splat if I let go!"
The deer backed off, shaking its head. The antlers scored the trunk of the tree, digging deep gorges. It was like the claw marks from a bear or a lion. Harry took the opportunity to swing himself around so he was sitting upright. He made sure Sy was still in place and grabbed hold as the deer charged in again for another ram.
"Which is why I suggested a hole!"
"Damn it, Sy!"
The deer rammed the tree once more. Harry bit his tongue as he was nearly knocked off.
He peaked down, heart hammering, hands nearly numb and arms aching at gripping the bark. The deer circled, snorting and Harry swore it stared straight at him.
Harry tore his gaze away. "Hold on Sy, I have to take us higher."
He glanced down, made sure the deer wasn't readying up for another go, and jumped, caught hold of a branch higher up and pulled himself onto it in one smooth motion.
Higher up, he could see through the foliage a huge expanse of greenery around him. It was a real, dense forest he was in. He couldn't even see the gazebo anymore, but he didn't know if it was because he had run too far, or because of that mysterious property of the forest.
A glint of light caught his attention in the distance. Harry squinted, but didn't quite make out the cause. It must be metal. Or glass, perhaps. Potential shelter from the deer, if he could make it.
A tremor ran through the tree and Harry yelped when he saw the deer had risen onto its back legs, and trying to use its weight to push the tree over. It slammed its front hooves down, and Harry heard a crack go through the wood.
"Not higher, please. Higher is further to fall."
Another slam. Another crack. It extended into a groan as the trunk threatened to give way.
Harry felt his stomach drop at the sound. He sought around. Something, anything to help. There were pine cones at the tips of the branches, but they were light, flimsy things. Maybe if he dislodged a branch, had it drop - but he wasn't strong enough. Wasn't nearly strong enough.
He could feel bugs living in the tree. Grubs, larvae. He still had his flying insects. Harry took stock.
Could he distract the deer? Then made a run for it? He might have to if it kept assaulting the fir. It wasn't a good plan. Dread, at the thought of the slim chance of survival, welled up.
"Sy. Maybe you should let go of me," he said.
A sharp pain pierced through his neck.
"Ah! You bit me?!"
Sy withdrew, her fangs sliding out of his skin. Harry clasped a hand to the wound, applying pressure and patted down his clothes. He felt Sy's tail and pulled her forcibly off him.
She coiled around his arm, tight. "And I'll bite you again if it helps you snap out of it."
"This isn't the time, Sy! I'm on a bloody tree, about to get eaten by that monster of a deer. I don't need you biting me as well!"
"Yes. And I'm on a tree, with the same deer. I don't need you spouting crazy ideas at me."
Harry stared at her, teeth bared in a scowl. The deer crashed into the tree again, sending a shock all the way up the branches.
"Fine," he bit out. "If you want to be an idiot, then I won't stop you." Harry withdrew his hand, seeing blood.
The pain was sharp. He could feel his blood pulsing, heady, alive. It helped with the fear, sending hot bursts of adrenaline through his veins.
Harry gathered his insects. The flying ones, the non-flying ones. They pooled in a giant lump, writhing bodies, searching antennae, bulbous eyes.
He pulled handfuls off, let them crawl along his arms, over his chest, down his shirt. His skin itched, and he fought off a shudder of repulsion, trying not to think of the many tiny bodies he'd inadvertently crush with his movements. He took with him as much as he could.
When the deer rose for another strike, Harry let a handful drop. He aimed for the head, but the insects impacted on the deer's flank. A good majority sloughed off, but the surprise made the deer pause, and Harry was more accurate with his second throw.
It landed clean. He forced the insects to crawl, to bite, to sting. Gnaw at the eyes, search of the ear canal, clog the nose and sour the mouth. The deer shook its head, a baying sound of alarm, and pushed its head into the rough bark of the tree, trying to dislodge them.
Harry hurled another handful, which splattered on the antlers. More bugs to join in the tormenting. The deer screamed, this time in pain, and backed off, hooves stamping impotently.
Harry searched for the structure in the woods, spotted the reflection again and took note of the general direction. He wasn't sure what it was, or whether it would present a greater source of danger than the deer, but somehow, his scraped together plan of hurling bugs at the thing was working, and he'd bought himself some time.
The bugs were still biting, clawing. More were dying by the second, but it didn't matter. He could feel the damage done to the deer's eyes. Harry dropped to a lower branch, then to the ground. His legs buckled, nearly sending him to his knees, but he caught himself with his hands and started into a sprint.
Almost immediately, the deer left the range of his power. The bugs would stop. He could only hope the deer was injured enough to cut its losses. Go away, he thought. Go away and heal. I'm not worth the effort of the chase. I'm smarter than your usual prey. Go away and heal.
The snort of rage behind him dispelled any notions of that idea. Harry picked up the pace until any normal person would be tripping over roots and their own feet. He didn't though. He could feel the lay of the land in front of him, knew with seconds of pre-warning where he should step. Harry had never been so thankful for the strange way his minds worked as he was now, running helter-skelter through the forest from an enraged carnivorous deer.
Still, even with that advantage, he was just a ten year old boy. He only had two legs. The deer was catching up.
But going by the crashing and the snorts of rage, he had blinded it, or just about. Harry kept on. He knew he was making a lot of noise and he probably smelled like fear incarnate, but he couldn't risk staying still and hoping the deer pass him by.
Instead, he picked up some of the noisier insects. Cicadas, crickets, even flies in great numbers, and rose a great cacophony. The noise was intense, drowning out something Sy hissed, and Harry hoped it would disorient his pursuer more than himself.
In-between the trees ahead, he spotted the same gleam of light he saw from the treetop. Harry, out of breath, skidded around a trunk as the structure came into view.
He had been right in thinking of metal and glass. A giant metal frame formed a dome. Hexagons of glass tiled together, reaching from the ground to enclose an area the size of a house. Inside, vague and distorted, were plants of every size imaginable. A greenhouse.
Harry sprinted for the door. It was made of glass and a simple fly mesh. He tried it. Locked.
Harry swore, kicked at the glass, then again at the handle. He didn't even dent it.
"Quickly, it's coming!" Sy said.
Harry spun around. Surely enough, the deer was close. It had caught its antlers in the trunk of a tree, but within moments, it would tear itself free and come upon him. Harry spread his noise makers around the deer. Go for one of the decoys first, he thought. He fumbled with the door know behind him. Open. It had to open. He had nowhere else to go.
Then, impossibly, the door gave way behind him. The knob had turned, and Harry, leaning desperately into it, tumbled onto his arse as he fell in. He scrambled up, not daring to question his luck, and slammed the door shut. It clicked as it locked itself.
Harry waited, silent, only his breaths filling the expanse of the room, and listened. The deer was still outside. Could he hear it's huffing? Was it readying up for a charge? The glass was corrugated, turning the outside world into a jumble of colours and textures.
Minutes passed, and nothing moved but for his breath and his heart.
"You should sit. Sit before you fall," Sy's voice came. It sounded as weak as his knees.
He did as she suggested, sinking to the ground, and braced himself with shaking arms.
"Oh god," he whispered, looking down at his hands. "Oh god. I could have died."
Sy hissed, a menacing sound. Harry wasn't sure if it was in protectiveness or rebuke.
"I could have died," he repeated. The words rang hollow. They were merely sounds. He couldn't stop his shaking.
Nausea welled up in his stomach and Harry threw himself to the side as he heaved up the remains of his breakfast. Acid burnt his throat, and his stomach ached with the effort.
When he was done, he caught his breath and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He pushed himself up, using the wall of the greenhouse to support himself, and searched for some fresh water to rinse his mouth.
Harry's eyes widened as he took in the interior of the greenhouse. Arranged in neat rows, separated by benches and tables, on which stacked books and pots and instruments of all nature, were plants that shouldn't exist.
Not plants that looked strange, though there were plenty which did. No. On one row, a spined, flowering bush was on fire. The fire was green. On another row, a vines held aloft on hatched fencing creeped from one end to the other like a centipede. Another plant, situated by itself, featured rings and rings of teeth around a gaping maw.
"Sy."
"No. You're not crazy."
"How did you know what I was going to ask?" Harry said, voice weak.
"I guess I just do."
Harry licked his lips. He spotted a clear container with water, but now he wasn't sure if he wanted to drink from it. In a greenhouse with monster plants, in a forest with monster deer, who knows what would happen.
Maybe he would grow two heads. Or spout wings. Or breathe fire when he burped. Harry chuckled at the thought. The chuckle became a full blown laugh.
He sat down, back to the entrance, looked upon the impossible plants, and laughed.
Sy rose to look in his eyes.
"Perhaps I spoke too soon," she said.
Harry's reply was to laugh even harder. He held onto his sides as a tear ran down his cheek.
"I'm serious. You should stop that or you'll convince me otherwise." She bobbed Harry's nose with her own. "Don't make me bite you again."
Harry hiccupped. "Oh let me have this. Today has been too insane to not become a little insane myself."
Sy bared her fangs. "I will not. I will not have a friend who is muddled up in the mind."
"By Sy! Didn't you already realise? I'm already muddled up in there. I'm as muddled up as they get." Harry sat up, eyes wide. "Who's to say this hasn't all been a hallucination? Maybe I dreamed everything up. Ate a bad mushroom and have been having visions all this time? Maybe you don't even exist!"
Sy struck.
"Ow! Hey! I said no biting!"
"Do I exist now, Harry?"
"Sy! I was only joking. You can't keep biting me like this!"
"Stop being such a baby. It's only a scratch."
Harry rubbed his arm. She was right. She hadn't even pierced skin, not like the bite on his neck. Still, it had done what she wanted to do. The mood was gone. The hysterical laughter bubbled away.
"Well," Harry said, after a while. He looked around. "What do you suppose we do now?"
"I know what you're not to do. We are not birds, however much you seem to think otherwise. Climbing was a fool's venture. You could have gone with the bugs and run like I told you to."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Well I'll make sure to take your preferences into consideration next time I get chased down by a giant deer."
"You're not going back out there."
Harry sighed. "No. That really would be crazy. I don't know what we can do in here though. We'll need to go find food and water some time. Unless you think I should try one of these freaky plants?"
Sy looked down the rows of plants. She took them all in, slowly. "For the time being, I think you should rest."
"For the time being, I agree." Harry let himself sag against the greenhouse wall. He took out Neville's blanket from his back pack, raised an eyebrow when he found it still warm, and shrugged it around his shoulders.
He made a little pouch for Sy, who curled up against his chest. With another look to make sure none of the plants were going to uproot themselves and attack him, Harry let his eyes shimmer closed.
He kept watch with his outer consciousness as he fell into an exhausted sleep.
AN: Ha! I could have had him accidentally apparate away from the deer, but that wouldn't have been very exciting, would it? And I figure the Longbottoms must have a greenhouse of some sort with how good Neville is at herbology in canon. The forest too. Space expanding charms, or a dimensional pocket. Or something.
Anyway, we'll see more Neville in the next chap. Harry's not going to be pleased.
Thanks for reading and keeping up with the story. It's been fun writing so far! Comments are always appreciated.
L. Thatcher
