Great feed back guys, I appreciate the input.

On a side note, got a few reviews saying that this story reminded a few people of different intellectual properties, all similarities are pure coincidental, I hadn't honestly heard of either one of them, but they both sound interesting, and might be something I check out at a later date.

I'll stop stalling now,

Chapter 9: I smell wet dog...

The next morning dawned bright and early. I rolled out of the small bed that Daniel had allowed Hermione and I to share for the night and looked around. The bed was more of a wide cot than anything else, but it was far more comfortable than the floor. Hermione herself had curled up into a ball as soon as I'd climbed out of bed. Ever since I'd found her, she'd clung close to me at night, said I kept the nightmares away. I smiled down at her and pulled a errant strand of hair off her face and gently tucked it behind her ear. I never realized how much I missed her until I found her again.

I dressed quickly and quietly, wanting to give my sleeping friend a few more minutes of rest. Now that it was quiet and peaceful I headed outside onto the little porch. The sun was just coming up. I'd guess it to be around six thirty in the morning, but its hard to tell time without a clock. There was something I wanted to check on before waking Hermione. I sat down in a worn wicker chair and closed my eyes. Allowing myself to slip into a meditative state, I opened my senses and took in the magic of the world.

.A vague projection of the Earth appeared behind my eyes, hazy for a moment before snapping into focus. I haven't the slightest idea of how this projection works exactly, nor do I know why things show up as certain colors, perhaps its my own interpretation that my magic uses to build it? Hard to say, but the sight disturbed me none the less. I could see the literal viens of the Earth, what we called Ley Lines. Many of them showed up as green, and strong looking. But there were thousands that had become a sickly yellow color, and hundreds more that were in the red. I believed that the red lines were close to collapsing, and the yellow would follow after that. It would probably take a thousand years for one color to change to another, but in the lifespan of the planet, that was no time at all.

I looked closer at the image and scowled at what I saw. The Ley line that had fallen not long ago showed as an ugly black, jagged and rough, like a rotting wound. As I looked closer, I could see many more of these dead lines, some of them recent, but many of them looked like they had been that way for a long time. There were hundreds of them, at least as many dead lines as there were red ones. Humanity had doomed the planet, it was just taking a long time for it to happen.

"I wonder how many more have to go before it can't suppot itself any longer?" That thougtht didn't sit well with me. I opened my eyes and allowed the image to fade from sight, just contemplating what I had seen. Listening I noticed the birds chirping, the trees growing healthy and strong. Insects starting to awaken with the sun. Maybe the world could recover? It seemed full of life, even if it was strange compared to how it used to be, maybe the planet would recover.

I walked back inside and gave Hermione a gentle nudge. She shifted in her sleep before opening her eyes and blinking at me owlishly. She opened her mouth to speak but instead let loose a long yawn followed up with a cat like stretch. If this girl only knew what she did to me sometimes...

"Good morning sleepy head. Ready to go track down a rogue werewolf?" She groaned and flopped back down on the bed.

"Not before my morning coffee... damn, I keep forgetting its rarer than mythril these days." I laugh at her grumpy expression.

"More valuable too, in my humble opinion anyway." I picked her shirt up off the floor and chucked it at her. "Come on and get dressed, running around in that skimpy top will give this old man a heart attack."

She wrinkled her nose at me and stuck out her tongue before standing up and giving her bum a little shake for good measure. I tried so very hard not to stare. She laughed at the expression on my face before getting dressed and giving me a tight hug.

"Sorry to be a tease." I just smile down at her.

"No you're not, but its okay. Now come on, grab your shoes, we'll be meeting them shortly." She slipped into a comfortable pair of boots I'd made for her and we were out the door.


We made our way outside the maingate, giving the guardsmen a wave and letting them know we'd be back later. Without the tall wall around us all the time everything felt wilder again, untouched by man for centuries, reclaimed by nature. Hermione and I went over and found a stump to sit on to wait out the Lycans. Hermione pulled out some weird fruit she'd gotten in the village and handed me one.

I look at it and give it a sniff, it smells nice, and looked like lime green pomigranite, but the skin felt more like a peach, soft and slightly fuzzy.

"What is this thing 'Mione?" She laughed and took a bit out of her's, it crunched like an apple.

"The locals call it Yucatta. Apparently it grows on trees around this area. It reminds me of some strange frankenstien fruit. Looks like a pomigranite, feels like a peach, colored like a lime and tastes like a mix between an apple and an orange. I'm sure radiation had something to do with its creation, but its quite delicious."

I shrug and smile, the little lecture was so Hermione. I took a bite and sure enough it was crispy and juicy like an apple, but had a tangy orange hint as well. "Radiation is good for a few things. I'd say this is one of them.

We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, munching on our franken fruit and waiting for the wolves to show. I started to think they'ed changed their minds when I smelled them approaching from the edge of the woods.

Hermione wrinkled her nose at the odor. "Why do I suddenly smell wet dog?"

I laughed. "When I forced your change last night your senses got a bit of a boost. They'll still be stronger if you change, but they're heightened from what the once were. Our friends have arrived, that's what you're smelling."

"So they're close then?" I breathed deeply from my nose.

"I'd say they'll be here within a minute. Lycans have always have a very distinct smell, you'd have picked it up before last night, now you're just picking it up sooner." She nodded and smiled at the thought of having better senses. They do come in handy.

We sat there in silence for a few more moments before the Lykans showed up, walking out of the edge of the nearby forest. Selena was in the lead, looking wild in their animal skin clothes, with smudges of dirt here and there. They were nearly silent as they approached us. There was only one other with her this time, one of the males from last night. He had dark hair and eyes, and a hint of asian ancestry in his features.

Hermione and I rose from our impromto seat and stretched, she always reminded me of a big cat when she did that. Selena was eyeing her, clearly unimpressed with who I'd brought along with me.

"This is the supposed help? You brought me a little girl?" Hermione scowled at her. In one fluid motion, her experience superseeded my the short cut I provided her with last night, She leapt into the air. Shifting into a huge brown she-wolf before pinning Selena to the ground, snarling and baring her teeth. The Lycan was taken aback, and appeared scared for a moment before she composed herself.

"Okay, I'm sorry." Hermione sniffed and stuck her nose up in the air before lightly hopping off the werewolf, marching back to myside doing her best Malfoy impersonation. She shifted back and winked at me before facing them again.

"Are you sure we need their help Harry? She's just a little girl after all." I laugh at the expression on Selena's face, the friend she'd brought looked just as amused.

He stepped forward and stuck out his hand for a shake. "My name's Maverick, its nice to meet you both."

I shook it firmly, and he did the same for Mione. "The name's Harry, if you didn't hear last night, and this is a close friend, Hermione Granger."

"Charmed, I'm sure." Selena had picked herself up out of the dirt by now and was brushing herself off, pulling a twig out of her hair. "And I'm Selena. Sorry again, I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth, I never thought you'd actually be able to change like him."

Hermione shrugged it off, her pride restored. "Its quite alright. And nice to meet you Selena. Now, what are we going to be up to? Got a rougue to track down?"

"Yes... his name is Malaki, and he's been attacking people for months now, he was exhiled from the pack for causing infighting. We'll have to find him and put him down. I suggest we follow his trail from last night. Hopefully he's stayed in the area since we stopped tracking him the other night, he might believe we lost his trail somewhere." I nodded as we all made to move on into the forest.

We found the trail easily enough and made our way back to the clearing where I'd met the Lycans the night before. Hermione crinkled her nose at the foot we'd passed by. The foliage was thick, and the tree tops, strange fan shaped leaves, blocked out most of the sun. causing it to be on the gloomier side in here.

"Reminds me of the Forbidden Forest. All dark and overgrown." I smiled at her and nodded.

"I haven't been up to visit Hogwarts in a very long time, I wonder if anything of it is still standing? Some of the preservation magic on that place was outstanding. Never know what we might find in the library, if its still standing. I wouldn't be surprised if the forest was up to the main gates by now."

I could swear Hermione nearly started drooling over the idea of having that library all to herself, but something told me that castle wasn't there anymore. Not the way it was anyway. As we walked I closed my eyes, allowing my other senses to guide me as I stretched out my magical perception. I was feeling for that Lycan, the traitor to his own kind. I hated traitors, always had since Godric put that dagger in my side several millenia ago. How he had been so close to me for so long without me knowning I never found out. Every few lives he's tried to masqurade as a 'good guy.' The ruse never lasted long but he was charasmatic enough to pull it off for a while.

The world behind my eyes lit up, the ambient magic in the area flaring to life as I stretched out my senses, trying to find this Lycan. I didn't have to look far.

"Move!" Hermione never hesitated, she leapt out of the way immediately, rolling across the forest floor and coming up in a crouch, wand drawn and ready. Our two companions weren't nearly as fast as they should have been. The hulking monster leapt down from one of the massive trees. The bastard had been stalking us from above, somehow able to mask his scent and sound, and landed on top of the two other Lycans.

He was the biggest fucking werewolf I'd ever seen. Standing at over three meters tall, with powerful long limbs, and a broad, scarred snout. He was in the throws of blood lust and lunged forward to bite the head off of Maverick in a single snap. I had no time to think about that, I had to act.

Selena was pinned under him, blood seeping from her mouth and with broken ribs, she'd been caught completely off guard, and was trying to change shape. It was only partly successful. Not that it mattered, this bastard was so much bigger than her the added strength would have made little difference.

Hermione had conjured a clutch of silver arrows and had shot them at the beast, constantly casting more and more. The monster shifted its weight and dodged most of them. A few lodged themselves in its shoulder and side, but it laughed, a blood curdling crackling sound and ignored them. I felt my magic bubble to the surface, infusing my muscles and bones with power. Changing into a wolf would have done me little good, I can't describe how big and powerful this thing was. I ran at the Lycan and slammed my shoulder up under his rib cage, managing to drive one of the arrows in deeper and knock him off Selena in one go. He staggered slightly and swiped at me with a powerful arm, all while dodging Hermione's spells. The attack was too fast for me to move out of the way. So instead I pumped my arms full of so much magic they started to burn and blocked the attack. It hit hard enough to rattle the teeth in my head but I managed to keep my footing and pushed it away. I snarled at the towering monster and launched silvery flames from my palms. The heat was intense, even channeled into a tight beam as I was it still managed to catch a nearby tree on fire with the backlash. The excess curled off and around the beast in whipping flashes of pure magic.

The blast sent him ass over head and he rolled across the ground, smoking and smouldering in several places. Hermione ran over to check on me, and I suspected my arm was cracked from where I blocked that swipe. "Grab Selena and get away from it. I don't know what the fuck that thing is but its not a normal werewolf. That fire should have turned him to ash, he's standing up now. Get Selena and make sure she's still alive, and stay behind me." Hermine looked ready to argue, until she glanced over at the monster. It was standing again, and the wounds inflicted by her arrows and my fire were nearly healed already. It was smiling at us with sharp, bloody teeth, then its jaws unhinged.

"What the fuck?" Hermione didn't have time to scold me for my language, before the werewolf belched fire at us. It wasn't like dragon fire, not a stream, no this was more like a fireball, in a rouch round shape with a tail off the back. I came right at me with incredible speed but I was able to duck. Feeling the mere heat off of the thing singed a few hairs. I glanced at Hermione who turned deathly pale.

"Not possible, werewolves can't cast magic while transformed, the disease prevents it." She shook herself and grabbed Selena, pulling her behind a tree and checking to see if she was still alive. Three more fireballs were sent my way and I cast a powerful shield made of water and ice to stop them. Its mouth was smoking, and a rune that had previously been invisible on its chest now glowed brightly. Whatever that was, it wasn't something this thing could do naturally, it had been enhanced via some sort of ritual.

I curved my shield outwards into a spike, froze it solid and sent it hurling at the beast. It nimbly jumped strait up into the air and disappeared into the tree line. "Hermione, is she alive? Can she be moved?" My curly haired friend was silent for a moment before nodding.

"A few cracked ribs, one of them scraped a lung, but I've managed to stabalize her. Evenverate. Come on Selena, get on your feet!" The spell had woken her up, but she still appeared dazed.

"What was that? Oh Maverick! That bastard killed him!" I didn't get to hear anything else she said as the beast fell right on top of me, slamming me into the ground hard enough to leave a dent. If my muscles and bones hadn't been so infused with my own magic for a power boost, I'd have been ground into hamburger. I coughed as the wind was knocked out of me. How was this bastard hiding like this? Nothing could hide from my senses like that, nothing I'd encountered before. I grit me teeth and with a mighty heave I got my feet under him and kicked with all my strength, enough to get it off me. I jumped to my feet and stumbled feeling dizzy and half sick. Channeling magic into the body like I was could be extremely taxing if one wasn't careful. With a flick and slash of my hands I let loose a torrent of ripping and cutting curses, powerful enough to distort the air as they moved.

The Lycan leapt and pounced out of the way, leaving trees and foliage to take the brunt of my attack. Several trees fell to the onslaught toppling over and crashing around the forest floor. The next few shots I led with and managed to catch it once in the shoulder and again at the elbow, severing the arm.

It stopped its pouncing and looked down at the stump, wiggling it a little as if in fascination of the injury more than anything else. I didn't give it any time to consider it before I sent a barrage of silver spikes, as big as rail road stakes at it. It had tried to move out of the way but with a missing arm it lost some of its mobility. I pinned it to a tree and kept up the heat, not wanting to let the thing heal again. Hermione stepped up next to me and let loose her own barrage of silver arrows and cannon balls. The magic was so intense and bright it blocked the werewolf from sight for a few moments before we finally stopped, panting from the effort.

Selena was leaning against a tree behind us, holding her side and grimacing. When the light faded we got a look at our handy work. It finally looked dead. Spikes and arrows littered its body, one arrow was sticking out of its right eye. Hermione's cannon balls had left deep burns and welts on its body, several of them had broken bones, and it mouthwas crooked, the lower jaw snapped and hanging off to the side.

I rounded on Selena. "What the fuck was that thing? Did you know he could do that!?" She looked as shocked as I did so I calmed down. "Sorry, but damn, that was the last thing I was expecting." I glanced at the wolf again and it hadn't moved. Good.

"I'm sorry about maverick." Hermione sqeezed her shoulder and took a look at my arm, it had started throbbing pretty good now that the adrenaline had slowed down some. I flicked my wrist at the still burning trees and dowsed them with heavy water, suffocating the flames.

"He was young, but knew what he was getting into. At least, he thought he did. I don't know what Malaki did to himself, but he was never like that before, nor was he nearly that big." I nodded and felt a cool tickling sensation in my arm as Hermione healed the crack and moved on to my ribs.

"Thanks Mione, much better."

She smiled at me and caused me to sport my own grin. The same sensation entered my chest, tickling as the bones fused back together. "No problem Harry, I know how accident prone you are, that 's why I learned healing magic in the first place." I just stuck my tongue out at her and wrapped her in a one armed hug. She squeezed back before going over to Selena and seeing about fixing her up a little better as well.

"I don't know what he did to himself. I 'd say some sort of ritual based off the illuminated runes I saw. Some kind of power booster as well. I wonder where he learned it from." I felt a bubble of unease in my stomach, not many people would know about that magic anymore. Just three that I knew of, and two of us were standing right here.

"I'm sorry you had to kill him, I'd hoped there was some chance of rehabilitation, but he looked like he'd embraced the animal completely. I didn't see any sign of a man within him." I nodded at her sad expression and turned back towards the corpse.

My blood ran cold.

It was smiling at us. Thick ropes of blood and saliva dribbled from its mouth. Its chest heaved as it breathed, a deep gurgling sound came from its mouth, like it was half drowning in its own blood, and it was smiling at us. thin black lips pulled back from its rust stained teeth. Slowly the arrow in its eye slid out and dislodged with a wet pop. I stood frozen on the spot as the eye slowly reshaped and healed itself, then it laughed.

Hermione and Selena were stock still, shocked and appalled that the thing still lived. The laugh was heavy, like a barrel filled with rocks and mud being stirred with a stick, a scraping wet sound. It stopped laughing. And Spoke.

"A good effort old one. But not even with the help of your bitch can you hope to stop me. I am Abomination. The right hand of Chaos. My master sees you, and he smiles. He smells your fear, and laughs, he feels your rebellion, and crushes it in his palm, as if you were a bug." The monster began to change then, the hair fell away, the skin pulled tight across the muscle and bones, and the snought receeded and became flat, causing the mouth the grow wide. The pawed feet split open and formed into reptilian toes, and the tail fell away like useless garbage. It pulled itself off of the tree, the silver spikes sliding clean through its body, only leaving scars in their wake. Appearing nothing like the Lycan, or man, that it once was. "He knows you are awake now, and he will see the end of you. This is your last turn, and it will end it darkness." It smiled at us, showing jagged and serrated teeth. "I leave you, to wallow in your own misery." It raised its clawed hand and waved, in a mockingly friendly manner, before simply blinking out of existance, leaving behind a smell of rot and sulphur.

Hermione collasped at me side into a sitting position on the scarred forest floor, shaking like a leaf in a strong breeze. Selena was openly crying. And me? I was furious. "I can't believe it, he can't have done it again. He knows the consequences of this, I can't belive it..." I'm lost in my own thoughts, remembering, remembering the last time He had made such a monster.

"Harry, what was that thing? It wasn't any werewolf, even if it looked like one for a little while. It was just hiding inside it, wasn't it?" I hear her, but for a moment I can't respond, lost in my own thoughts. She reaches out and grips my arms, bringing me out of my horrific nostalgia.

"History remembers that thing, they called in the black death. During the middle ages, He created one of those things, and it decimated over a third of the world's known population. It escaped before I had a chance to kill it. And fled to the Americas. It killed over two billion Native Americans before I managed to find it and hunt it down, it nearly destroyed me in the process. They called it the dark one. Named it the Yawkwawiak. After the destruction it caused... he swore he'd never make another. As twisted and dark as he is, this thing could not be controlled. That he's made another, does not bode well."

"Who is this He you keep talking about?" Selena had dried her eyes and was sitting next to Hermione and me, listening to us talk.

"He's went by many names over the centuries. Godric, Tom, Voldemort. But to my knowledge he only has one true name. Abaddon."

Well then, this chapter wasn't as long as I was planning on it being, but I think this was a good place to stop. Through you guys for a loop huh? Thought they were going to be hunting down a grumpy werewolf didn't ya? Lol. I hope you all liked it and will leave a review letting me know what you think.

Next chapter we'll get an explanation as to what that thing was exactly. And why Tom said he'd never make another. As A side note, I looked at an old story I'd written under a different pen name titled A Different War. Even though the story hadn't been updated in several years, people are still reviewing the damn thing, I wanted your all's opinion as to whether I should rewrite it? Update it and fix some errors about it that bug me. If you guys say no, and only want me to work on this I will. So its up to the readers I suppose. Its a Harry Potter crossover, and is under the pen name Lukan Marvolo, which was indeed me. Let me know what you guys think. Until next time,

-Harkon.