Harry sighed, released the magical vision and glanced at Daryl who was staring at him. "I'm fine. It's nothing."
Daryl continued to stare at him then shrugged and took off, walking over the fence. Harry stood there for a minute before following, occasionally glancing at the barn.
They both walked back to camp then Harry glanced over at the house and the group before striding back over to his tent. He could feel people's gazes on him and he wanted to go over to the barn to investigate but not with people watching his every move. Daryl moved to go over to his tent, sitting down to clean his crossbow.
Harry was glad that at least he wouldn't have to worry about Daryl. The other man had seemed to take 'it' all in stride, seeing him shift from a panther back to human. And all the other stuff too. He would have guessed that Daryl had seen some of this business before everything went to shit but then again, with the dead rising, it wouldn't be too hard to believe in other things, he supposed.
As he stood by his tent, he looked over to where the group was still talking. He could hear Glenn volunteering to go on a run to a pharmacy, just in case they needed anything in the future, and Maggie deciding to go with him. Harry smiled a little but sighed when he caught Shane's glare toward him. He could see Rick and Lori talking a little ways from the group and Andrea and Carol were standing next to each other, setting up a fire pit in the center of the tents.
Harry reached into his tent and drew a certain cloak from his pack, stepping inside his tent before drawing it over himself. He stepped out of his tent and started to walk toward the barn, idly drawing on his magical sight again. Luckily, using the sight didn't use too much energy. It was only if he actively used the magic associated with the hallows that he would tire out so much quicker.
He scanned the group and stopped by the farm house. There were two white lights where Lori was. Harry's eyes widened. He knew what that meant. Lori was pregnant.
He sighed and shook off the vision. She undoubtedly would not appreciate him going up to her and telling her she was pregnant. So he continued on to the barn, already hearing some muted hisses as he stopped before the barn door.
He shuddered when the smell of death hit his nose. There were quite obviously walkers in there. Harry idly rocked back on the heels of his feet, tilting his head a little. The door to the barn was locked with a padlock which... He didn't exactly know what that meant but it was locked. And he figured that if there were just cows in there, it wouldn't be locked. Which meant that these walkers were here on purpose. Someone knew about them.
Harry strode around the barn and climbed up the side of it, shuffling through the roof. He shucked the invisibility cloak in the corner and crawled over to the edge of the floor. The walkers were down there, milling about kind of aimlessly. There were a few women walkers and a couple of men, all bloody and disgusting.
They didn't even react to him at all. Though they did glance up at him, as if wanting to know what the noise had been but that was it. They turned away and continued to lumber about. Harry sighed and crawled back to the roof, leaning against the wooden wall. Another piece of proof that he was different than other people. If he had been anyone else, the walkers would have started to get excited in their own way, growling and moaning louder.
Harry glanced in the direction of the farm house then back down to the walkers. He didn't exactly want to kill of them now. If someone... He sighed again and drew the elder wand and cast ward markers in the corners of the barn and murmured a few words. A purple shimmering light field hummed to life around the walkers in the barn, closing the walkers into the barn. Hopefully, that would hold them for right now.
He groaned, took one last glance at the walkers and pulled on his cloak again and shuffled out of the barn, jumping lightly to the ground. He had a letter to write.
He drew over a short log to sit on and munched on one of his last apples. Carol was putting up a string line for laundry and was washing some clothes. Andrea was sitting on the picnic table, rifling through their gun bag. Harry had heard something about Hershel not wanting guns on his property and he supposed he understood that. Though having the walkers in the barn made him a little queasy. If the Greene family didn't have guns then how would they defend themselves if the barn door gave way? The walkers had to have been there even before their group came to stay.
He strode into his tent and shut the cloth door, zipping it shut, then stood over his trunk. He opened it to the potion's compartment and looked around, searching for a few potions in particular. Back before the world ended and back before Ginny and he had divorced, he had kept potions around to...
"Ah, there." Harry pulled out three potions and glanced at the labels. They were potions that Ginny had taken to ease her morning sickness when she was pregnant with the three kids. Harry sighed and put them back in their places before closing that portion of his trunk and opening the portion that Hermione and he had used to pass letters. He drew out a fresh piece of parchment and a quill then backed out of his tent, sitting back on the log.
Harry glanced past the few tents to where most of the group had migrated. Shane, Glenn, Dale, T-Dog and Maggie were standing around one of the wells. Harry had already seen the lone grey light in that particular well and he figured that the guys were trying to pull the walker out. He would have offered to help but he didn't exactly want to be around Shane right now.
He looked over to where Daryl was sitting by his tent. The other man seemed to be kind of an outcast too, preferring to keep away from the main group. Harry shrugged a little, watching the group pull out Glenn a few minutes later and then pull out a really pale walker next. T-Dog killed the walker as soon as it was up and out and Harry could see everyone breath a sigh of relief.
Maggie walked over to where she had tied two horses and untied them, lead them over to the gate. She looked back over at the group of tents then over to the well, where Glenn was. Harry watched as the two caught each other's gaze then Glenn shuffled over, backpack slung over his shoulder. Maggie waved over to the house, where Hershel and Beth were and then helped Glenn to mount the horse.
Harry returned Glenn's wave, glanced at the group, pulled his holly wand out and cast a monitoring charm on the two. He willed it to be invisible and felt the instant the spell took.
Daryl glanced over to the tent next to his and raised an eyebrow. Harry was lying on his stomach on the ground, scribbling away at a piece of parchment? He stood up and wandered over to stand in front of Harry, who either knew he was there or was completely engrossed in what he was writing. Daryl watched for a few minutes, eyes roving over Harry and stopping on the little bit of skin that was showing on his back.
"You ain't got some paper?"
Harry jumped, sitting up and glaring at Daryl. "Thanks for that."
Daryl snorted. "Thought you would have known I was here."
"I'm not all knowing," Harry retorted but he smiled at Daryl. "I did know. I was just trying to get you to smile."
Daryl stared at him, blinked once or twice. He could feel his cheeks redden a little so he turned to look over at where Shane was glaring at them from the cars.
"Who're you writing to?"
Harry peered up at him then glanced at the letter. "Hopefully, my friend."
"There ain't any postal service anymore."
Harry grinned. "I don't need the postal service."
Daryl shrugged. "You don't use owls, do you?"
"We used to," Harry muttered, smiling fondly at a memory then laughed at Daryl's expression. "I'm not kidding. We did use owls."
"Alright."
"And now I wait," Harry spoke, putting the parchment into the section of his trunk and closing it. He watched until the light glow that meant it had gotten delivered then glanced at Daryl. The other man was cleaning his crossbow and going through his quiver of arrows one by one, probably checking to see if they were all in working order.
"You really think your friends are alive?" Daryl asked, keeping his gaze on his bow.
"They might be," Harry said, looking over to where Rick and Lori were on the porch of the house. "My best friend is widely considered to be the wisest witch her age. Or... she said she was going to go to Australia to see if her parents were still alive."
Daryl shrugged then stood up, picking up his crossbow. "Gonna go hunt. You wanna come?"
Harry glanced up at Daryl, who was staring in the direction of the cars. "Uhhh... sure? I can't hunt though."
"You're quiet enough," Daryl said, slinging the quiver of arrows over his shoulder too.
"Habit, I suppose," Harry replied, standing up and pulling his sword out of his tent and slinging it over his shoulder.
Daryl stared at him, nodded slightly and took off.
As soon as they reached the edge of the forest area beyond the farm, Harry glanced back at it. His eyes widened when he saw Shane staring at the two of them. Shane was also standing right in front of Harry's tent, like he had come up to either talk to him or interrogate him.
Harry turned to stare at Daryl, who was waiting for him under one of the trees, and raised an eyebrow. Daryl sighed, cheeks pinking up a little before gesturing for Harry to follow.
Harry trailed off after Daryl, picking his way through the tree trunks and the bushes. He couldn't sense any walkers anymore, not after taking out two a few minutes ago. After realizing that Daryl had invited him on his hunt to get him away from Shane, protecting him, Harry had taken to studying the other man.
Daryl looked like he had lived and breathed this kind of life even before the world went to shit. He knew how to hunt, how to track, how to stay quiet when he was doing those things. Harry was certain that Daryl had his crossbow before too. And coupled with the way that Daryl stayed out of the main group of people, setting up his tent far enough away from the house but close enough to it and his motorcycle certainly meant something.
Harry had also seen a tiny hint of a tattoo on Daryl's shoulder yesterday, under the vest that the other man had picked up a day after leaving Atlanta. Though he didn't know what it was in the shape of. He was just... a little curious about what it was. And a little curious about the scar that he had seen, the one that seemed a little old and a little like something from a belt...
After watching Daryl shoot down a squirrel, Harry ran a hand through his hair and scanned the surrounding woods. "You're quiet too."
"Yeah? What's your point?" Daryl asked, already stalking off.
"Were you the one that padded the handcuffs back in the CDC?" Harry asked quietly, taking off after Daryl again.
"Why'd you think it was me?" Daryl questioned, raising his voice. And from what Harry could see from behind him, Daryl had tensed up. Shoulders hunching and back stiffening up. "Quit prying."
Harry sighed. "I'm not trying to pry. Just... if you did, thank you."
They came back around to the farm in the late afternoon, with only two squirrels. Though Daryl had seen a buck earlier in the afternoon but a walker had scared it off. Harry had stared at the buck for a few minutes, a little sad and wistful for the days before the world ended.
"Harry!"
He stopped before his tent and turned to see Sophia run up to him. "Hey, Sophia. What's up?"
"Carl wants to see you," Sophia said, peering over to Daryl where he was skinning the two squirrels.
"He's awake?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but Hershel said he had to go back to sleep in a few minutes," Sophia replied. "So come on!"
Harry smiled a little hesitantly but followed Sophia, taking her hand when she reached out to him. As they walked closer to the house, he could feel Lori's gaze on him. Shane had been back over by their tents so he wouldn't be in the house with him. Carol and Lori were sitting around the campfire, putting together dinner. He could see Andrea on top of the RV, watching the surrounding farm land.
They walked through the house, hearing people talk quietly in the other rooms. Maggie was staring out of one of the windows over to where their tents were. She did look... Harry didn't know when the two of them had gotten back to the farm but she definitely had a look about her that meant something had happened between her and Glenn.
"Come on!" Sophia repeated, tugging him into Carl's room.
"I'm coming," Harry replied, laughing quietly then he stopped when he saw that Rick was in the room. The former police officer was talking to Carl and he looked up when Harry and Sophia came in. Harry peered over at Carl, who had Rick's hat on, and smiled. It was a little big on the kid but it looked like Carl didn't care.
"Sophia..." Harry whispered quietly. "Let's go back outside."
"No, no, it's okay," Rick said, standing up and coming over to stop in front of Harry and Sophia. "You're welcome in here."
"So you didn't send Daryl to kick me out then," Harry started, looking Rick over. The other man looked exhausted, still a little pale.
Rick winced and shook his head. "No, I certainly didn't. I'm sorry if we gave you that idea."
"Eh, it's no big deal. I've had worse from other people before this," Harry replied.
Rick raised an eyebrow. "Anything I should know about?"
"No, it's all irrelevant now," Harry answered, watching as Rick leaned against the doorway. "Sophia said Carl wanted me for something?"
"He said something about wanting to know if dragons were real," Rick answered, grinning a little.
"You told him about me?"
"I did. That okay with you?"
Harry nodded. "If I'm sticking around, you all should know about me."
"Your dad said you wanted to know if dragons were real?" Harry asked, sitting down in one of the chairs next to the bed. Sophia and Carl were lying on the bed, tucked under the covers together.
Carl's eyes lit up and he tried to sit up. "Yeah. Are they?"
Harry chuckled and leaned back into his seat. "If I'm to tell you a story, you have to stay lying on the bed, okay?"
Sophia's eyes widened. "Dragons are real?"
"You've met one?" Carl asked, smiling.
"I've met a couple," Harry replied, fluffing the pillows up behind Carl. "Right, stay there."
"I know," Carl said. "That's what mom said."
"Well... the first dragon I met. Hmm, here," Harry started, drawing his wand and murmuring a spell. A translucent, small green dragon flew from his wand, alighting on the bed. It beat its wings and roared quietly, stared at Carl and Sophia.
"Whoa!" Carl whispered, reaching out a tentative hand. "Is it safe?"
"Yeah, it's not going to hurt you two," Harry answered, watching both Carl and Sophia as their hands slid through the illusion. They were both smiling widely, eyes bright with excitement. "Okay, on with the story. I met my second dragon in the middle of my fourth school year..."
"Lori, I know that you're still a little skeptical about Harry," Dale remarked, standing in the living room of the farmhouse.
"I'm just not too sure of him," Lori replied, sighing and pulling some hair back. "I don't know if I trust him with the kids."
"I do," Rick said, coming up to them and pulling Lori into a hug. "Go take a look in the bedroom."
Lori and Dale exchanged looks then crept over to the doorway. Dale started to smile at the sight. Lori's eyes widened. There was a small green, glowing, dragon zooming around the room and it stopped right on Sophia's lap. Sophia giggled, eyes bright.
"...Now the keepers didn't know the dragon was a lady," Harry was saying. Lori watched as he frowned and rubbed his chin. "No one knew or could tell the difference except Charlie."
"Your friend?" Carl asked.
"Yeah. The dragon was right protective of her eggs," Harry replied, smiling a little. Though as Rick came up to the doorway too, he could see that the other man's smile didn't make it to his eyes. "This is why... if you meet a mama dragon, run in the other direction, okay?"
"Okay," Carl whispered.
Sophia nodded.
AN: If any of you are interested in a Rick/Harry story, I've just posted the first chapter of 'Weight of the World'.