Phoenix Hawk Chapter 9
Disclaimer – same as before! Do not own, please don't sue because I have an overactive imagination!
AN – any issues with archaeology are my own. Wow, it's been nearly a month since I posted an update here. Sorry folks, but I had to wrestle with my Muse and twist a few more chapters out. We're switching to an every other week schedule on top of it.
Harry took out his wand as he left the tent; no longer the one of holly and phoenix feather, nor the dread Elder Wand, but a newer one of oak and dragon heartstring, specially made by Ollivander shortly after the war. He marched back out to the dig site, and standing by the pit, began casting a series of spells. Hermione stood under the open tent flap, watching her old friend begin to spell cast. Yet more questions crowded into her mind, as his aura flared into the visible spectrum with the power he put into whatever spells he cast on the site.
After fifteen minutes, Harry was finished and he looked at her. "I'm apparating back to camp to talk to Elliott. You are welcome to join us for that discussion. It may answer some of your questions," and he suited actions to words, disappearing with no obvious sound. She goggled at that, knowing it was nearly impossible to achieve silent apparition, before summoning her own magic to follow immediately after him.
A pair of black eyes kept watch until the pair disappeared from sight, before Kat Crosby stepped out of the nearby bushes and headed for the artifact tent. She tried to gain entrance, and discovered it was warded shut, an invisible barrier keeping her out. "Dammit," she snarled, kicking a few loose rocks. She turned to go back to camp, not ready to try unraveling the spells Potter had cast.
She was watched from another clump of bushes by a pair of brown eyes. But that person just faded into the shadows to go back to camp. They both had much to think about.
Harry and Hermione reappeared in the common area and headed for Elliott's tent. Harry triggered the wizarding version of a knock at the door to let Elliott know they were waiting for him. Elliott pulled aside the canvas and welcomed them inside a fairly comfortable, wizard tent sitting room. Harry took a plush, brown leather armchair to sit on, while Hermione perched on the edge of the green, paisley couch.
"Tea anyone?", Elliott asked as he went past the pair and into the kitchen area.. He waved his wand at the stove, turning on the burner beneath the kettle.
"Yes, please," Hermione accepted. Harry declined. Elliott offered him another beverage, but was again denied.
"Mr. Romo," Harry began.
"Elliott, please," the archaeologist insisted, clattering about the kitchen with a tea service.
"Then call me Harry, all right? Do you mind if I cast some privacy spells around the sitting room? It's standard procedure when we arrive to brief our contract holders," Harry asked. Some Belfry agents would cast first, and explain later, but it was preferred by management to ask first. A courtesy Harry liked.
"I suppose? Is it that dangerous?", Elliott was surprised. Hermione kept silent, not knowing what Harry was up to, though she was frustrated by the damned secrecy!
"It is more keeping things need to know. Thank you," Harry explained, then waited until Elliott settled on the other end of the couch with the tea service before casting Imperturbable spells, and even a Silencio on the tent doorflaps.
"All right. The dig site has an initial layer of protective spells on it. I will be adding ward stones tomorrow. Belfry sent me because of my abilities outside of security work," Hermione's innate curiosity was peaked as Harry talked, "I will just say that I have the Sight, and was able to determine a few things about your people and about some of the items you've already dug up. As well as a few other talents I prefer to keep to myself for now."
"The Sight? You're not a Seer," Elliott said, plainly confused.
"Mage Sight, Elliott. He can see auras, at least," Hermione explained. Harry nodded.
"Two members of your expedition are under the influence of potions, mind magics, or both. It is out of my purview to do anything about them, right now," he said, "The contract made with Belfry specifically states that I'm to leave them alone, if found, unless they interfere with my job here."
Elliott nods, "That makes sense. I can assume the two in question aren't us?" Harry smiled in confirmation.
Hermione asked, "Who is it?"
"In the interest of privacy, I can't tell you. I'm sorry." She huffed, he grinned. "I would like the files you have on all the members of this expedition, as well as a detailed list of the objects you've already found," he explained.
"What will you do with this information?", Hermione wanted to know.
"Make sure nothing's gone missing," he avoided the idea of theft, but Hermione went there anyway.
"No one on this team is a thief, Harry Potter!" she hissed like an angry cat.
"Simmer down, Hermione," Harry placated, "I was hired, through Belfry Securities," he emphasized that last pair of words, "to come and protect you, this site and any objects found. Your bosses at the Smithsonian think something has either happened, or will happen, or I wouldn't be here!", he practically shouted the last bit. She was always good at jumping to conclusions, and now seemed to be bolting for whether it was the right, or wrong one. He rubbed his face, clearly frustrated. "Maybe I shouldn't have included you in this Hermione, but I tried to think that not much of you had changed in the last 5 years," he said quietly.
"Look who's talking!", sarcasm did not become her.
"You know nothing about me, and this is neither the time nor place!", he thundered, angry now. She snapped back into the depths of the couch at his show of temper. It was at once familiar, and terrifying. There had been an odd pulse of power on the heels of his words.
"Forgive me, Elliott," Harry turned to the other man, dismissing Hermione for the time being.
"Quite all right," was the shaky response. Harry sighed, he'd slipped a little with his power in his heated response to Hermione. But she was so easily able to slip under his skin sometimes, it was enough to make him scream! Hermione just sat in stunned silence, though not of the magical sense.
'When did he get so powerful?' she wondered to herself. At the end of the war, she had only seen him for a few weeks before he disappeared. That had pissed Ginny off something fierce, making her act the banshee for awhile in melodramatic, bruised pride. No one had heard from Harry for at least six months, when he popped up at George's store one afternoon. All of the Weasleys had been surprised, and only three of them had been put out by his disappearance enough to create a scene that day. She shook her head, she'd learn nothing if she kept on antagonizing the man.
"That's all I have at the moment. I need to see about securing the perimeter of the base camp before I do anything else," Harry said, standing.
He took down the privacy spells with a warning to them both. "Please do not talk about anything regarding the others. If anyone asks, I'm here to guard the two sites, and your findings. I will be availing myself of your camp supplies as needed, but offer to supplement everything. I also have House Elves that will act as my assistants, but they will not help you with your work unless they've cleared it with me." He finished speaking, giving Hermione a look as though he expected her to challenge him on House Elf rights. She pointedly ignored him, allowing Harry to take his leave, with Elliott promising the lists in an hour.
Elliott turned to Hermione. "You two have a lot of history between you, don't you?", he asked. He thought he cared about her, for all her overbearing ways, and had tried on several occasions to 'chat her up', but out in the field, she was all business. And the few times they'd shared downtime together, she was constantly looking for information to enhance the digs, not making for a good atmosphere for romance.
She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yes. And clearly we haven't moved past our school age impressions of each other," she sounded depressed by that thought. They had grown up, hadn't they? She thought she had, and Harry? Well, certain things were the same, but so much more was vastly out of the character she remembered. No longer was he the shy, retiring boy who hated attention.
Elliott reached over to clasp her hands in his, relishing the feel of shared callouses, and her warmth. "If you are meant to regain your friendship, you will," he told her softly.
She smiled, "Thank you, Elliott. Do you want me to take those lists to him?"
"If you don't mind?", he didn't want to pressure her into spending time with Harry Potter, but neither would he deny her the opportunity to reconnect.
"It's no problem. Let's give him the master list on the recovered items. Better that than trying to figure out all our individual recording styles," she suggested.
And they took that next hour to pull employment files, and neaten up the master list of the dig site before Hermione took the whole lot out to find Harry.