Interlude: Unmodified Spell
Forest: Unknown Location
The light of the sun could barely reach through the canopy of green above them. A modest group, six female, the rest male, trudged through the thick shrubbery at the back-end of spring.
The rains had slowed, their pathway cleared. This sprawling forest being home to many a creature, insect, animal and plant alike. Their goal was noble: to find their lost friend, one whom had vanished three years ago, with the end of the Dark Lord. The disappearance was sudden, without warning. And the reaction was swift.
But to no avail. The hidden one was not found, not seen, not heard from. Owls couldn't find them, spells couldn't locate them. It was as if they'd vanished off the face of the earth.
Until one day. One day three weeks ago. Ginerva Weasely found a spell locked away in a tome of Dark Rituals. A soul binding ritual, one that could link together like souls. Without effort, she performed this ritual, her absorbed memories of Tom Riddle providing many a great help. She was unconscious for a week after.
But during that week, she was given a feeling. A general direction of where to go. The link was weak, for it was unwilling, and her target stronger than she. But it was enough. She called the others, all whom were closest to her target, all whom missed and cherished his existence. And finally, they departed.
The journey was long and difficult. Their direction had to constantly shift, as to maintain the proper heading. But finally they reached the location where the feeling was strongest. This unusual forest, similar to the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts grounds, but not them. It was here, they knew they had found who they were looking for.
TURN BACK.
A message, written in messy red, slathered on the front of a tree. Beneath it, a rotting corpse. Flies surrounding it, buzzing away as they picked what they could off. A red-haired woman made to Vanish the corpse, but was stopped by the eldest man there. Albus Dumbledore had a bad feeling.
"Let us not disturb that which has been placed here. We don't know if it will alert our target."
Slowly, the woman nodded, Minerva McGonagall placing her wand back in her pocket. They pressed forward.
DO
NOT
ENTER
Another corpse, this one not as fresh. Riddled with cuts, missing an arm and a leg. The head was crushed, a giant hole in its skull. A haggard looking man knelt down next to the corpse, noting the wounds, and the marks in the ground next to it.
"Claw marks. Bite wounds too. Some sort of dog…a wolf maybe, did this."
"Were, Remmy?"
"No. The padding seems too even. Most Werewolves tend to try to be bi-pedal as often as possible. This was definitely a normal wolf, or at least, a standard style one. But…"
"What's wrong Remus?" Dumbledore asked, the group paused in their movements.
"This line here. It's too…narrow. Some of the grass is even cut. If the wolf dragged the body here, or if it was an animagus we were dealing with, the grass would just be flat, not…severed." The man shook his head.
"Something is definitely off here."
"No shit." A brunette blurted out. The blonde next to her placed her hand on the first girl's shoulder.
"Calm down Hermione. We're closer than we ever have been before, we'll find him."
"I know…I know…it's just…" Hermione trailed off, looking at the message.
"…that's blood…"
The group worked their way deeper into the forest, led by Ginny's feeling. They passed by another tree, this one with multiple bodies hanging from the branches, causing the youngest male to turn and vomit.
The bodies were hung by their own intestines, necks turned in inhuman ways, arms and legs missing, bones on the ground where the forest creatures picked away all meat.
U
WILL
DIE
"…are you sure about this Albus?" A tall black man asked the eldest. "if he's this unstable-
"Kingsley haven't you paid attention at all?" Hermione growled out. The elders turned to the girl.
"These are all bodies of idiots like us who came searching for something. Whoever did this, whether it was him or not, they left warnings. We, they, all chose to ignore those warnings. Whoever it is, is doing no more than keeping their territory safe. Animal, Human, Half-breed, it doesn't matter."
The man stared at the girl, noting the fire returning to her eyes.
"Yes…you're right."
"Uhh…guys?"
Everyone turned to a nervous looking Ginny.
"…it's gone." She said in a small voice.
More of them.
Everywhere.
A group.
But what…what is this? They smell familiar.
No. only some do.
They ignored the warnings.
They defiled the land with their human stench.
But…what about those who are known?
Capture them.
Yes. Kill the unknowns, capture the familiar.
This is our turf. This is our land. This is our home. We will not let these disgusting two-legs come to slay us further.
The Hunter will slay those who are unknown to him, and catch those who are. We will leave everything to him, as we have before. May your fangs find their mark.
He watched them.
A sleek shadow moving from tree to tree, hidden by the sounds of the forest, unnoticed by any, not even the werewolf. His body low to the ground, his breathing measured, he was the perfect shadow.
Some of the human-folk were familiar to him. He knew their manes, he knew their scents. Others were strangers. Regardless of their orientation, the Pack would not allow the strangers to leave. Only those who were known to him.
He was the Hunter. He was their Protector.
Most would turn around. Some would see the signs the werewolf did, and press forward in curiosity. Few who did, would stop at the last warning.
And those who did not…they met their ends.
He had his reasons, he had his desires, his dreams, they were all shattered. He was tired of humanity, tired of the world. He missed his human friends…but he could not be around them.
It was really only supposed to be a vacation…but "laws" "rules" and people hunting him kept it from being such. So he fled, and he hid. And now…those he left behind, to regain his mind, have found him.
But he has an obligation to his Pack. The unknowns must be removed. The others…
He'd deal with them, when the time came.
"Gone, what do you mean gone?" Hermione exploded.
"I don't know! Just, one moment the feeling's there, and strong, and then suddenly it just…vanished!"
"SHH!" Remus hushed them, whipping out his wand. Being a werewolf had a few 'perks'. One of which being enhanced senses. He'd heard a rustling in the leaves. One that wasn't caused by wind.
"Everyone be on your guard, we're not alone."
They pulled the wooden sticks that they used to fling their spells, their only means of defense. Ginny's hand became alight with blue flame, ready to strike.
Kingsley tapped the shoulder of one of the Aurors brought with them for an escort, motioning silently for him to investigate the northern bush. The man stepped forward, silently, his feet making no noise on the ground…when suddenly a black blur appeared from the east, crashing into him, throwing him into the western shrubbery. Gasps and cries of shock the moment the blur landed, mouths slammed shut as his screams of fear and agony rung through the forest, before they silenced suddenly, leaving them only with the sound of the wind.
"Oh god…" Kingsley whispered. He resolved not to send anyone further.
"Alastor…do you see anything?" Albus whispered to the head-Auror.
"Not a damn thing…" He motioned for another to circle around to the western bush. The Auror sent to do so was suddenly blown backward by an invisible force, before the same black blur ripped through the air, and seemed to phase through his torso. A few lances of light shot from wands, but were too slow to catch it before it vanished into the bushes. The man was split in two, body not only completely separated horizontally, but head lopped off as well.
"Shit!" Moody cursed. Two of their escort of four were down. He was hesitant to send out the third. The bushes around them shivered, but not a single wind was blowing.
They were afraid. It was too fast for them to react to.
Luna's eyes narrowed. She stared at the body that had just been sliced apart. Her eyes widened as she realized the cuts were clean.
"Luna, can you-
"Already on it."
She focused her sight. Albus and Kingsley glancing back, one knowing, one uncertain. Both noted how her eyes seemed to push away their original misty grey color, favoring a violet rimmed blue. She turned her head rapidly, looking for any sources of sudden black. As she turned around, facing behind the group she gasped.
"GET DOWN!"
They all dropped to the ground, all save one. The one of the escorts, a relative new recruit, was crashed into by the blur. Hermione shot to her feet as the black blur took shape. It slammed a claw into the chest of the Auror, the man's body appearing to suddenly shred itself from within. The beast was about to flee when Hermione fired off a stunner.
"HARRY STOP!" She yelled.
The sound, and the light, caused the creature to jump away, whirling around and staring at the group, growling. They all rose, staring at the beast that had just killed three of their number.
It resembled a wolf. However its body was too skinny. Its legs were thin, almost bony. It had no fur, only what appeared to be sleek, black substance, almost looking like armor. The 'armor' flared out behind its head, like a lion's mane. Two curved horns stuck out of the beast's head, framing its face like hard, pointed bangs. Its snout was narrow, but long, teeth bared in an angry snarl. The tail was thin, until the end, where what looked like a curved blade was seen, flicking away.
But the most distinguishing thing, were its eyes.
Its eyes were bright silver, shimmering, very familiarly.
The final escort got it into his mind to try to stun the creature. A burst of red light, but the beast had dodged to the left. In seconds it flickered, blurring forward. A quick banisher stopped the wolf-like creature from killing the Auror, but it recovered in the air, landing on all fours.
"Harry stop this! We're your friends!" Ron yelled out.
The beast simply growled.
"We have to stun him." Albus noted.
Unfortunately for him, the creature heard what was whispered. It opened its maw, as a glowing pale blue light appeared between its jaws.
"MOVE!" Moody yelled out. The group scattered just in time as a flare of light ripped through the air, slamming into the tree behind them, coating it in a heavy layer of ice, spreading along the ground slightly.
A fizzing noise and a yell of agony got their attention. The beast was standing before the final Auror, horns glowing, streams of blue-white ripping from its tips into the man's body. The beast wrenched its head to the side, the bolts of electricity pulling the man along, before the connection was severed, the man crashing into the frozen tree, toppling it, as it fell on top of his dead form.
The group turned back around, Albus, Alastor, Tonks and Kingsley with spells at the tips of their wands, when the beast raised its snout and howled. The long, deep, powerful sound echoed through their skulls, their bodies dropping to their knees, before their minds shut down.
A groaning was heard. Slowly, Albus Dumbledore sat up, body weary, head swimming. A series of echoes accompanied him, the others began to rise. A growl, and a series of barks startled them all. They turned to see a single grey furred wolf, snarling and barking at them. Next to it, a massive wall of shadows appeared, before forming into the black beast they dealt with earlier. It nudged the side of the grey wolf with its head, avoiding impaling it on its horns.
The grey one's growls weakened, and it backed away slowly, before turning and fleeing deeper into the forest. The group noted that their legs were all bound together by thick rope. Suddenly, the beast began to change shape. It stood on its hind legs, the tail slowly sinking into its rear. Forelegs became arms, both arms and hind legs bulked out, the 'armor' revealing itself to be very thick fur, which shrunk and thinned out into black hair, quickly covered by dirty, muddy jeans with multiple tears in them.
The horns sunk in, the snout crunched inward, becoming a human nose, and mouth, spiky mane shrinking into a long bush of black. A dirty brown coat over faded off-white shirt, the man before them looked as to be the epitome of "bum".
But there were two things, that gave them no doubt as to who it was they were dealing with. The first, was the feeling in Ginny's heart. The magic of the bonding ritual was responding with its other half.
The second, was his emerald green eyes.
For what felt like hours, neither side spoke. Harry Potter had spent years off the map, hidden from anyone's knowledge, for all intents and purposes considered dead, to the world.
He simply sighed, and spoke in a gruff sounding voice, as if he'd not used it for a long while.
"…so what found me?"
"Harry, my boy-
Dumbledore was cut off. "A spell. A ritual, actually, soul to soul. Based off of you saving my life…based off of the Life Debt I owed you." Ginny cut in. Harry nodded towards her direction.
"Help?"
"No. I did it on my own. They didn't know until after I woke up. I couldn't…see you…but I could feel you. Until you became that…thing."
"…good job…I guess."
"Mate…what the hell happened to you?"
"Time. People. Tired of it all. Left to vacation…couldn't have it. Hid."
Luna, Hermione and Ginny were actively noting his short sentences with simple words. Hermione was the first to call him out on it.
"Is something wrong with your throat, Harry?"
He shook his head, growling a little. "Human talk…not often. Mind remembers. Body doesn't."
Albus wanted to ask his questions but after getting his arm clawed at in an irritated manner by Minerva, he thought against it.
"How long have you been…that thing?" Hermione continued.
"Years. Shift human once two moons."
"Once…two moons?" Tonks muttered.
"Two moons…two lunar cycles? You mean two months?" Remus asked. His knowledge of the wolf-mind shining through. Harry nodded. "Why so little?"
"Harder to hide human. Easier to hide wolf. Magic, spirit, different as wolf." He sat down, but made no motion to untie them.
"So you hid as a wolf? When did you become an animagus?"
"week after leave. Magic overload. Flushed out by shift."
A spike was indeed detected a week after he vanished, but then it seemed as if all vanished into a void.
"Why here, Harry?" Ginny pressed. "Why didn't you come back after your…vacation?"
"no want. Duty here."
"Duty?"
"Pack. Werewolves. Lost minds. Lost leader. Full wolves now. Needed help. Needed guard. I'm guard."
Remus' eyes widened. "There's a pack of werewolves hidden here?" Albus was similarly shocked. He had no idea. Harry nodded.
"Find me. Alpha attack. I kill. Make me Alpha. Make me Hunter. I keep safe from human, from outside."
"That explains the bodies." Moody muttered. Harry nodded again.
"No listen warning. I kill. Use body, blood, as stronger warning. Most leave. Some come. I kill those that come, leave those that turn."
"Why did you kill those men, Potter. They were with us. You left us alive, so why not them?" Kingsley ground out. Harry glared, eyes glimmering.
"You familiar. They not. Pack demand all die. I demand live. Compromise. Kill the unknown, leave the known. You all ignore warning. Friend or not, you all deserve death. I keep you alive. Thank, not scorn." He spat.
"But you're a bloody-
"He has a point." Sirius said, cutting Minerva off. Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"It's like Hermione said. We're the idiots who decided to disregard the warnings just because we were hoping to find him. Well we did. But our wishes got four people killed in the process. Were we wrong? Technically no. but we weren't right for it. We were uninformed, we didn't know, but we were given signs to leave, warnings, to turn around. We ignored them."
"Sirius is right…scarily enough." Middle finger from the last Black, chuckle from the Lupin. "Regardless of what we want or think, or what he was before Harry's spent the last few years living as a wolf. They are his Pack, his family. This is his home. We ignored the fences, we ignored the locks, and pushed in. Four people died because we invaded someone else's home, the same way you'd expect for it to happen with humans. Those Aurors were unknown to him, or any of them. We're unknown to them, but known to him. We were allowed to live because we are also technically part of his pack. They, weren't. it was our fault for bringing them along, and they paid the price of the minister's insistence."
Harry snorted. "Fudge still Alpha?"
Lupin gave a humorless grin. "Unfortunately. The People thought that since he was minister when you defeated the Dark Lord, he must have done something right."
Harry shook his head. "Idiot humans. No better than sheep."
A short bark rung from behind Harry. A wolf with dark black fur slid out of the shadows, padding over to him. It glared at the group, before Harry held out a hand. It sniffed it, before rubbing its snout into his palm.
"Peace, Terra. They friend."
The wolf stepped away, before shuddering. Before their eyes, it transformed into a tall, tanned woman with an athletic figure. She wore nothing, but her black hair covered up her rather ample chest fairly well. She stared down at Harry.
"Others?"
"Memory."
"Good. What of them?"
"…" She frowned, putting her hands on her hips.
"You leaving."
Harry shrugged.
"Ass."
He laughed.
"Not a donkey."
"Still an ass."
"Sometimes." She gave him a feral grin.
"We lose our Hunter on same Moon we gain. Who Alpha now? Who keep pack safe?"
"Why not you?"
She blinked. Stepping back in surprise.
"Me? Terra no alpha. Terra-
"Terra only one other than Nightfang who can shift."
"Terra female. Female not-
"Terra still human. Terra hold human form, hold human knowledge, hold human self. Terra, female, stronger than other males. They no hold human form. They lose human mind. You keep."
She stared at him, golden eyes boring into his green. She dropped to her knees, before clutching him and sobbing.
"Terra feel Frozen-flame's touch on Harry. Terra not make move…dammit Harry…"
"Sorry…er…'Frozen-flame'?"
"Fire-girl right of werewolf."
He turned to Ginny, who flushed slightly, but held his gaze.
"She mark Harry. Mark of souls. She his forever."
"Spell. Fake mark."
Terra shook her head. "Still real. Magic and spirit same. Even if you not hers, she yours. Nobody else's. But you too noble. Alpha to the end. Terra learn how you think. Harry go. Harry miss human world. Human life. But Harry never forget. Wolf first. Human second."
He nodded.
"Harry do last favor?"
"Not rutting in open space Terra."
She smacked the back of his head.
"Not that, stupid. Make spell. Help Terra protect pack."
Harry nodded again. It was a simple request.
"Come as Harry. Leave as Nightfang."
He nodded again. "I gather pack. Free friends? Meet at shack."
She nodded. He dropped to all fours, being covered in shadow again, before returning to the black wolf that looked like a demon. He shuddered, shaking his entire body, before swiping his claw through the air and vanishing.
Terra sighed. "Stupid Harry. Too noble for own good." She turned to the group. "Terra free humans. Humans follow Terra. Meet Harry at shack." She held out her hand, and the group felt an odd feeling wash over them. Before their eyes, the ground seemed to rise up in spikes, shredding the ropes.
The group looked at her, Hermione voicing the question on their minds as she rose.
"Who are you? How can you do that?"
"Terra is Terra. Terra Earth elemental. If has do with Earth, Terra manipulate. Terra Harry's…friend. Almost-mate. Frozen-Flame mark Harry. Terra sense, can't mate. Terra sad, but Harry…strong. Harry different. Harry save pack, keep pack alive, keep pack safe. Harry keep Terra safe. Terra lost humanity. Harry gave back. Terra owe Harry life."
Remus, always wanting to know more of his brethren, asked his own question.
"How long has this pack been here?"
"Forest pack home for ten years. Harry first human find pack, leader attack unknown wolf. Harry kill Alpha, be made Alpha. Harry hunter, protector of pack."
"And the others…just accepted this?"
Terra stopped. She turned to Remus, staring hard into his eyes.
"Pack lose human minds. Alone, unfed, uncared. Mind become wolf. Body match. Harry Alpha, pack respect Harry's power. Harry keep remaining pack from death. Harry keep Terra part human. Pack sad if Harry go, but most know Harry still human."
Remus nodded, understanding.
Harry would return to humanity, to civilization.
But he would never forget the bonds he made.
A/N: Been forever ne? Been kinda…stuck. I know where I'm going, and this…this will just help.
This…is a thing. It's up to you whether you wanna apply this to what happens during the story or not.
and dont bitch about how the wolf-speak sounded in human form. unfortunately the only thing i could think of was "cave-speak".
SilverIceBlueEyes: sorry it took so long. Flames usually don't get to me but it pisses me off when people can't comprehend the concept of "fan fiction" and the imperfection it naturally is. But that's not here nor there. And yes, I have read those, but that was…a long time before this came in my head.
Believe me when I say next thing I post for this story you'll…get a hint as to what I'm planning with Hermione. Hermione is…interested…in Harry, romantically, but this will probably end up a Harry/Luna, if not a Harry/Luna/Ginny, to be honest. I'm happy you like how Tom turned out. I basically tried to imagine that if you draw out his darker mindset, he'd be a snarky, sarcastic but still overall decent bloke. Plus being trapped in the mind of a girl, who has you completely at her whim, broke him a bit, combined with the knowledge he'll disappear soon.
The timeline at the beginning was more of a response to specific people bitching about everything being different from canon, which you'd kinda EXPECT in a bloody fanfiction but whatever. Some people just don't know how to use their brains. But I'm glad you found it helpful. I guess for something as convoluted in plot like Harry Potter you might need one, ne?
Fan: I can't say I'd go that far, though the praise is nice. Don't worry, I won't stop writing, but updates will most likely be slow due to my brain just NOT wanting to cooperate.
Icey91: thanks, hope it stayed decent.
Msedward: yeah, I hope it does too.
