Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
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The Leaky Cauldron
Part IV: Tree full of loot
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"So why are we coming out here again? I thought we were leaving." Harry's breaths came out puffs; the hill behind Remus' house was taller than it appeared and the encrusted snow on the ground quickly depleted his stamina.
"We aren't prepared yet." The man in front of him called over his shoulder. He paced robustly through the snow plowing something of a walkway with his body. Harry was slightly jealous at his physical ability before remembering the odd quirk Remus had. Harry promised himself that he was not jealous of a man that could change his form at will.
"Really? Can't we just call a cab? A bus?" He huffed out picking up the pace.
"Nope the knight bus is under watch of the Death Eaters."
A bunch of grim reapers liked to stake out the public transport system. "Okay. A cab, then?"
"I really don't want to involve too many muggles in this Harry. I'm still not sure what to do with your friend." Remus stated as he stopped in front of a scenic looking tree at the top of the hill. It could have been planted only for photo shoots and in the crisp afternoon frost was evaporating off its branches in the sunlight.
"Hey!" Harry spoke up in defense, "George has always stuck with me! He's an honorable guy. Besides – he's probably interested as hell."
He did see a guy become a wolfman close up in a bathroom after all.
Remus sighed.
"It's not that Harry. It will be extremely dangerous for him. Muggles are no longer treated very well by our kind. New world order and all." He said bitterly; Harry's brow furrowed at the tone.
He searched for the words to adequately form a good question – when he opened his mouth he was only able to question the obvious.
"Bad guys?"
Remus eyed him blankly before turning to inspect the bark of the tree.
"Very bad guys – wizards to be exact. They kill people for fun. Everyone is afraid; and the only people they'd think twice about killing are pure bloods."
Harry put his arms around his back as he wrapped his mind around that. It seemed strange to him that such a small population, or what he assumed would be a small population, would work against each other and effectively destroy their numbers. It was amazing that fighting seemed to be happening underneath the relative peace normal people had been enjoying for half a century.
"Pure?"
"Full blooded wizard lines with no crosses between muggles – er, non-magical people."
"Are there many pure blooded wizards keeping you all in check?"
"No. But they have the greatest evil to walk on their side."
That doesn't sound good.
"Ah. So why am I necessary again?" Harry said. He held his breath, he had a suspicion that everything would soon be pinned on him and he would need to save the world. It was a dream really, he had had over the years; just like anyone else who grew up with a large dose of fantasizing and video games.
"Harry, you've defeated the Dark Lord once before and well we – that is, everyone who is standing up to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were hoping you could do it again."
The werewolf lifted a piece of bark like a switch and the side of the tree began to rumble.
Damn it. Was his first reaction.
"Wow." Harry said nonplussed. No extra lives. No save points. No pretty girl at the end.
He was probably going to die.
"When did I pull that win? I don't remember doing that, or defeating anything I would call a Dark Lord. I did punch a kid in the face once on accident though." Harry stated before mumbling at the end.
"You weren't out of your toddler years yet. Your parents died that night." Remus said as if that helped answer anything.
Layers of wood appeared to be pealing back from the tree.
"Hm. Remus? If a toddler could beat him, why haven't any of you?"
"There is something keeping him tied to this world; our past leader of the Order knew that. We think he began to take steps to deal with those somethings. Dumbledore died in the spring of 1990 in Albania. We haven't been the same since. The fall of Hogwarts a few years ago made it that much harder." Remus said with no emotion in his voice.
The tree stopped warping revealing a stone platform at its base. Glowing blue lines on the inside of the cored out tree pulsed with light and life.
Whoa. It's like Narnia.
"It's how we lost you, you know." The werewolf whispered as he leaned onto the open side of the tree as if weary with the harshness of the world.
"I wasn't lost!" Harry's shout echoed in the silence. A bird darted through the clear blue sky and Harry's vehement denial. The Dursleys should have been his family. They should have loved him.
Remus opened his eyes and to Harry they seemed wetter than before.
"To us you were. Dumbledore had you somewhere safe and secure – but he disappeared the spring before what would have been your first year at Hogwarts. Only two others knew of where you were: one oath-bound from naming it or going there, the other dealing with a sudden change to Headmistress and partial leader for the order."
"She thought it best to keep you there – dark powers were on the rise." He whispered. Almost to quiet for Harry to hear. The snow on the ground muffled all sounds; they seemed encased in a bubble untouched by the world.
"So rather than knocking on my door, you stalked me to a café?" Harry asked after heating his hands, the normal way by rubbing them together quickly. If they stood out here much longer he'd have to light a small fire. It was quite chilly.
"No. Hagrid was sent to an internment camp for being an abomination when the world flipped over later that year. He is believed dead. McGonagall spent one year as headmistress before the coo happened and she was murdered in her office while protecting a student."
"So… bad times from then to the present?" Harry asked, sure this was the case.
Remus chuckled bitterly. "A few years back we learned that if things get bad, they will always get worse."
He walked into the tree and stood on the stone platform that dipped a bit when he stepped onto it.
" But – every once in a while you find something of, a silver lining." Remus' smile was full of teeth.
The werewolf motioned for Harry to stand next to him. Harry hesitated and then shrugged. It was already too late – he was heading down the rabbit whole one way or another. He only hopped the last act didn't end with his death.
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The platform lowered deep into the hill into what must have been a supernatural preparedness bunker. The walls gave off more of that strange blue glow illuminating strange gadgetry alongside boxes of bottled water and jarred food that seemed to move.
Remus silently moved through the items amassed to the door of what looked like a shack in the middle of a glowing cave. Harry found it hard to keep up when things seemed to move out of the corners of his eyes. He shivered when a glass jar filled with blinking eyes followed his movement.
The werewolf stiffly opened the door and took a deep breath.
Walking into the shack Harry was able to tell one thing from the look on Lupin's face and he wasn't sure if it was one he liked. Everyone has a side they never show and the fierce yellowness, almost savage shine lying in Remus' eyes made him wonder if Lupin was ever only himself or if the wolf lurked just beneath the surface savage and hungry for war.
Chills ran up Harry's spine as he looked around the room.
It was a room stocked from head to two with weapons sharpened and ready to deal massive trauma. It was a room filled with the prerequisites to medieval war.
Either Remus was prepared for everything or he was planning on moonlighting as a vigilante in the near future; Harry was standing in the middle of a bunker that could easily be confused with the Bat cave, if Batman was a hunter and killer of evil. With a closet full of various battle ready swords.
Some of the blades hanging from the wall looked wicked sharp; and the worn leather handles stained darker in some areas suggested some moderate uses.
"Here." A scabbard weighing a couple pounds filled with steel was lightly tossed toward him and he almost dropped it.
He had never touched one in real life, and while he might have fantasized being somebody's hero and savior, Harry wouldn't have even known what to do with one other than wave it around in a circle like a lunatic.
"Uh Remus? That's a sword. I don't think I can just carry one around the streets of London and the residential areas of Surrey." Dudley would piss his pants, for sure.
"You are going to need something to protect yourself or than just a wand." The werewolf said as he inspected a series of swords that seemed almost as long as he was tall.
Remus held a sword aloft in the light and Harry snickered a bit; in the light Remus' pale tan shirt looked green in the blue luminescent light. Amusedly, Harry wondered if an annoying fairy counterpart would show up soon; it seemed as if after having magic seriously confirmed it seemed to spring from the woodwork in an absurd number.
Nodding in satisfaction with the sword that was over four feet long the taller man sheathed it in a scabbard connected to two straps and grabbed a dusty bag from the floor.
Ears hanging on strings were grabbed off the walls along with dried herbs and stuffed in to the bag.
I don't want to know why he has chopped of ears on the wall.
Remus pulled open a drawer and leaned over it, exposing the lightly glowing neck band while muttering and pawing through its contents.
Harry itched to ask him what the band meant. He wanted to know if it was a wizard thing and Harry should find his own appropriately glowing item to wear – or if it was a werewolf thing. And had some religious connotation involving the moon.
"…And here." Harry was startled out of his thoughts when a stick was thrust in his face.
"Say lumos while envisioning it glowing. An easy spell. Of course, this wand wasn't matched to you, but something is better than nothing even if it matches you so bad you end up with capricious spells."
"Okay." Harry focused intently on the end of the wand and gave it a flick to feel the slight weight of power that it seemed to hold.
"Well? Give it a go."
"Lumos." A faint light appeared at the end, not even as good as he could do normally. Harry was disappointed in the wand. It didn't seem to augment his natural abilities at all.
"Not what I would have hoped for, but at least it's something."
Remus turned his back and resumed stuffing items into the bag; Harry was surprised it hadn't burst yet.
He lit up the tip of his finger just for fun and was bemused to find it much brighter than the wand, like a light visible through clear water rather than murky with low battery power.
"That's better, keep practicing."
Harry looked over at the preoccupied werewolf and shrugged. The wand was quickly pocketed – Harry was pretty sure he wasn't going to need it, and the sword –
"If you gave me a wand, then why do I need a sword? I'm not really built for it you know, and I am apparently a wizard, so I shouldn't let monsters get close to me."
Remus gave him a hard look and Harry backed up a foot breath held in until the man's wild eyes lost their supernatural glow.
"It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. The blade edge is silver." Remus said. He removed the massive blade he had left on the table and angled it in the light.
Harry pushed his glasses up higher on his nose and squinted at the edge of the blade. There was some sort of dullness in the metal at the edges. Remus quickly returned the blade to its home and Harry realized that he seemed to be keeping clear of the sharp edges, only handling them with handkerchief covered hand.
Weaknesses made popular by movies weren't as false as he had originally assumed.
He kept his mouth closed when Remus swung the scabbard over his shoulder like an errant child and turned back to the door, face filled with grim determination.
Harry wondered at the damage it could cause if a werewolf was prepping to use it against its own kind.
Remus caught him staring and said in all seriousness, "Sometimes even school teachers are forced to go to war, and I will fight for my freedom."
Harry knew then that there would be no return his typical ordinary days.
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TBC