Disclaimer: Never had and never will own the intellectual property found within. Merely penned for mine and others amusement.

As a little note, I've stopped using line breaks, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Instead, if a time skip of a scene change happens, it will just be numbered from now on.

Cheers, hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 11: Take A Moment To Breath

Pain, agony flowing through my veins...

My hand is on fire...

Screaming, "We have to Stabilize him! He's loosing to much blood!"

Darkness. Dreams. More Darkness...

I'm Swimming in it, my head is a fog, I don't know where I am, I don't know who I am. All I can remember before the darkness is a single thought. 'To much to soon, overload, forcing open the pathways.' Whatever that means. What's my name? I've had so many...

Hannibal, Janos, Orion, Alexander, Slytherin. So many more it makes my head pound in fury. But one name swims to the surface, one name that I latch onto, and hold on as if it were a piece of drift wood, in an insane storm hell bent on sweeping away who I am. My name is Harry.

Slowly, as I cling to that name, the darkness fades. It lightens to a gray, before settling on an off white color. I can feel things again, my body is pounding and angry, but its not like it was before, something feels off from before, clearer perhaps? There's less pain now, but more power, stronger. My hand itches fiercely, and I try to reach out to scratch it and nearly succeed. How long was I floating in darkness? So much time might have been lost, and I have so very much to do...

Bits and pieces of the last few hours of my waking life start to return to me. Abomination, and a village lying in ruins. Channeling primordial magic through my veins until they throbbed and nearly burst... Hmm, that would explain the pain then.

I reach out with my magic, trepidation fills me. I'm afraid for a moment that I might have burnt myself out. That would be a tragedy. I don't know what good I could do without access to my magic. I sigh in relief as I feel it settling within me easily. Although the pathways I channel it through still feel a bit raw, they're there, and almost completely healed now. And they feel larger. Perhaps in over doing it I've 'stretched' them out somehow? I've always heard magic is like a muscle, and I gave it one hell of a work out the last time I used it.

Something else comes to my attention, I'm starving. I wonder when the last time it was that I ate? Can I get out of this fog I find myself in? I'm standing in a wide white expanse, something about it tingles with a sense of familiarity, like Deja vu wrapped in nostalgia, just out of reach. I looked down at my hands and frown. The left arm stops at the wrist, where my hand should have been, was a ghost. I could still move the fingers, but it was like the spirit of my hand was there, but there was no flesh there for it to control. I could pass my other hand completely through it and didn't feel a thing. The stump was still a mess. I looked red and swollen, like it had just gotten over a bad infection, but at least it was closed over and I wasn't bleeding anymore.

I could see something off in the distance, but it was difficult to make out. Almost looked like a canvas or tarp stretched out in front of me, with a hint of blue around one edge of it. I closed my eyes and concentrated. I could hear things now, birds chirping, and a creaking sound, like wagon wheels. When I opened my eyes the canvas was much closer now, and the blue looked like a patch of sky. It was disorienting, since it was in front of me and not above me. I blinked and It grew closer still. I could barely see the white expanse anymore. This scene took up nearly my whole vision. If I tried to turn my head it followed me and shifted quickly, nearly making my nauseous with motion sickness. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes one last time.

When I opened them, my hearing rushed back. What was muffled and confusing a moment ago swam into focus now. The strange scene made much more sense now. I was lying on my back, staring up at the canvas roof of a wagon, the edge of blue had been a patch of sky that was peeking through. I groaned, feeling weak and wobbly, but I was starving, and thirsty. Whoever was driving the wagon hadn't noticed that I was awake yet so I took stock of my situation first. I felt my magic pooling in me and was pleased to discover I hadn't imagined what I felt earlier. It still felt raw, but stronger than it had before. I believe I could now channel the old magics for much longer than I had before I lost consciousness. My hand itched and burned furiously and I lifted up my left arm to take a look at it. The crude blood blade I'd forged was gone, probably faded away as I passed out. The stump itself was wrapped tightly in a fresh bandage. My arm felt strangely light without a hand there. Maybe I'd attach a club to the end of it, to bash my enemies in the head with.

I sat up slowly, and grabbed a canteen of water sitting on the floor of the wagon next to me. I drank slowly, but greedily. Having the water in me made me feel much better. Now if I could just get some food in me I'd be good as new. I stood up on shaky legs and yawned. The noise caught the attention of the driver. Hermione shot out from the front of the wagon and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of me standing there, a grin on my face and a hand on my hip. "Did anybody catch the name of the dragon that stepped on me? I have a very big bone to pick."

Mione said nothing, she just launched herself at me with tears in her eyes and sobbed into my chest. She pulled back and slapped me in the face before pulling me close again. I guess I deserved it after everything I put her through. "Never do that to me again Harry! I'd thought I'd last you so many times!" I just hold her tight.

"It would take more than that to get rid of me Mione, I'm not leaving you. I swear it." She held on tight for several more minutes before pulling back slowly and smiled at me, relief warring with worry in her eyes. She motioned for me to sit back down so she could take a good look at me. She undid the bandage at my wrist and frowned at how swollen and red the stump was. "Doesn't look to bad to me, it would have healed better if it was a clean cut, tearing it off kinda aggravated everything though."

She looked at me like I was crazy. "How can you be so calm? You lost a hand Harry! They don't grow back you know!"

I just laughed. "You're right, they don't grow back, but I can fix it. After I get something to eat in me. How are the rest of my injuries? I feel sore, my face especially, but not bad everything considering. How long was I out for anyway?" Based on the tenderness of my wrist I was guessing a few days, tops.

"You've been unconscious for three weeks Harry. I was starting to think you weren't going to come out of it. You're wrist aggravated your other injuries, compounding the issue and giving everything a hard time healing. You just got over a major infection. We were lucky that we didn't have to amputate more of your arm." I smiled, she always tries to take such good care of me.

"I guess three weeks isn't to bad after all that." She handed my a mirror and I got a good look at myself. Flecks of gray have settled in my hair, a side effect of channeling to much primordial magic to soon. A new scar, shaped almost like a crescent moon, rests under my right eye, another one runs from my left temple to half way down my cheek. It could have been much worse.

"The extra scars add to my roguish good looks, don't you think Mione?" I grin as she slaps me again, not nearly as hard this time.

"Honestly Harry, how do you take injuries like that in stride?" She quirks and eyebrow at me and glances at my wrist again.

"Easy, I've had far worse in the past, and even though I get a new body, my memories remain. I've walked around looking waay uglier than I am now Mione, trust me." This didn't seem to do much to reassure her. Oh well, She'd get it with time. "Um, Hermione, not that I mind you rushing back here to check on me, but who's steering this thing?"

"Oh, after what happened to the village, most everyone that was left alive fled. They ran for the woods or the hills. We stayed for around a week, to see if anyone would return, but no one did. Daniel decided to come with us. This is his wagon. We left around two weeks ago and have been steadily heading north. Without you awake, neither of us really had any idea of where to go. We've just been hoping that you woke up, and you did." She gave me a watery smile and hugged me again, stretching up to give me a kiss on my cheek. I smiled warmly down at her.

"I'm not going anywhere Hermione. Sorry I worried you so badly, but I've been through much worse. Lets go check on Daniel and then I want something to eat." The two of us made our way up to the front of the wagon and stepped through the flap to set on the bench next to Daniel. He did a double take at me and grinned.

"Good to see you up and about! Hermione has nearly driving me mad with how worried she's been." the brunette frowned and smacked him on the back of the head, he just laughed at her. "We're about two days ride from a small town where we can set up for a bit. Hermione here didn't want to pick any real direction with you being out, so we've just been meandering north. Hungry?"

"Starved, got anything to munch on mate?" Daniel nodded and pulled on the reigns to get the two large bison, one of them lacking any fur but otherwise healthy, to stop for a moment as he dug through a bag. The three of us hopped down off the wagon and Daniel stretched theatrically, working the kinks out of his neck. He pulled a smaller bag out of his satchel and opened it to reveal some leafy greens and a big hunk of jerky. My mouth watered. A wiggled the fingers on my remaining hand and a table appeared with three chairs. My magic felt good in my hands, no pain, just a pleasant tingly sensation I'd come to expect using it, and the itching I'd been experiencing had ebbed away a bit at the use. This reassured me that everything was okay with my magic.

Daniel held up his hand to stall me and pulled out with old wand from a crude holster on his wrist. "allow me, Hermione has managed to show me a few things, when she wasn't coddling you." He smiled at me, trying to keep the mood light. With a few muttered words of Latin, three simple plates appeared with silverware to match. He then used another spell to heat the meat before dividing it up and floating it off onto the plates.

I raised my arms and made a clapping motion, even though I only had one hand. "This is the sound of one hand clapping."

Hermione laughed despite herself and even Daniel chuckled, though the comment went over his head. The three of us sat down and tucked in to our simple meal. I was mostly silent while eating, I was starving and it was delicious, even though I had no clue what kind of animal it came from. We joked a little, and told a story or two, trying to keep the mood light. They both seemed legitimately happy I was awake, and that warmed me up more than the food could.

After about half and hour, we'd finished and just sat there digesting. I stretched and stood up, letting a yawn escape me. "Hermione, did you manage to grab my bag before heading out?" She nodded and went into the wagon to get it. I smiled as she sat it down before me. The old leather was burnt and scorched in places, and it had a dozen repaired rips and tears, but it was nice to have it back. "Mione, you've seen this spell in action before, even though I plan on modifying it a bit." I searched through my magically expanded bag one handed and pulled out a bar of metal and several old bowie knives. I see that light go off behind her eyes as she remembers what's going on. I turn to Daniel. "This is rather complicated magic, so take a good look at what I do, It would be hard for you to reproduce, since I don't use a wand for casting, but pay attention, you'll probably learn a thing or two."

He just nodded and hunched forward in his chair as I sat back down and spread the items out before me. With a few hand motions I'd liquified the metal and began shaping it. With the twirling of my fingers and some jabbing and poking motions, my creation began to take shape, I formed skeletal fingers out of the metal, and applied the hinged joints at all the right places. The bones for the hand came next, making twenty seven in all. After that I had a shining metallic skeletal hand. After that I fashioned the rest of the scrap metal into spring like constructs to work as ligaments and tendons. The finished product was quite wicked looking if I do say so myself. After the initial construction, I applied dozens of tiny runes, engraving them directly into the metal. The runes would allow me to control the metal hand as if it were my own, and give me a tactile sense of touch with it. Hopefully this would stop the crazy itching burn that kept insisting my hand was there. As a final touch I hollowed out some path ways to make it easier to channel magic through the thing, and carved an impervious and indestructible rune into it, making sure it wouldn't rust of get damaged.

I glanced at Hermione and Daniel, their mouths were hanging open. "Now comes the tricky part." I carefully unwrapped the cloth over my stump and inspected in critically. The tissue was red and swollen, but had closed over. This wouldn't do. I cast a powerful numbing charm on my arm and carefully opened up the wound, stemming the blood flow to a trickle as I did so. The sensation made the itching in my phantom hand more noticeable, but it didn't hurt. I floated over the cool replacement skeleton hand and set it right over the wound. With some muttered Latin and Greek, the hand slid into place and fused at the wrist so completely not even a seem could be seen. Metal merely blended into flesh. I released the numbing spell and winced at the sudden sharp pain I felt but it quickly faded. I held up my new hand, pleased that the itching had stopped and it merely felt tender now. I flexed my new metallic fingers, and rotated the wrist, making sure everything felt good and moved naturally. I picked up one of Daniel's conjured forks and spun it between my gleaming fingers. Hermione actually laughed a little, looking for a moment like that eleven year old girl I'd met so long ago, magic was still magical.

As one final test, I used my new hand to cause the fork to float in the air above my palm, nothing wonky, everything looked good. "magic is awesome, am I right?" I grinned at them and placed the fork back on the table. It felt good to be 'whole' again.

"Harry, you've got to show me how you did that." I laughed and gave Hermione a hug before standing. My two companions stretched a little before standing. Daniel managed to banish both his silverware and my table.

"So there's a town up ahead? Let's head there, see if we can get any information." The other two nodded, eager to have something to do again and we stepped back into the wagon, to get on the road again.

2.

Our two days in the wagon passed rather quickly, after being asleep for so long I was eager to get out and stretch my legs a bit, but if there's one thing I've learned over the years it's patience. I used the time to my advantage and fashioned a rather cool looking glove out of the raptor hide I had. It slid over my metal hand easily and kept itself in place with no problems. I used the rest of it to make three vests, one for each of us. The leather underneath was relatively soft. Tt was form fitting and quite snug, so we could all wear it under our clothes. Hermione and I did stop for a bit to have a bit of a mock duel. They were as durable as I'd hoped.

All things considered, I was glad when we got off the wagon. The town we arrived at was breathtaking compared to most places these days. Apparently it was one of the first places to be established after the world calmed down a little. The sky was clear and most of the buildings were made of stone or brick, it even had cobble stone streets, a far cry from concrete, but still much nicer than slugging through the mud. I spied a tall tower in the distance and smiled at the positively ancient bell that sat at the top. As if welcoming us, it rang out, loud and clear and beautiful.

I tried to keep my mind away form darker things, in the three weeks I'd been asleep, Hermione and Daniel hadn't received any news about the monster that had torn up the town, maybe it couldn't swim? I could only hope. My metal hand itched slightly as I thought about it before I pushed it back into a little corner of my mind.

Hermione came up beside me. "Its beautiful, almost looks like a normal town from back home." I'd noticed that Hermione referred to the time she came from as 'back home' whenever she spoke of it. Perhaps she found it easier to think of it as a different place, instead of a different time? I decided not to pry and took her hand in my own. And gave it a gentle squeeze, I got a smile out of her. Daniel pulled his wagon up to a hitch and parked it. I waved my hand at the thing after he jumped down and watched as it shrunk to the size of a match box. Hermione cast a charm on the animals, they'd could roam free, but as soon as we wanted them they'd wonder back to our side to be hitched up.

Daniel shook his head with a smile on his face as I handed him his wagon. "I'll never get used to this magic thing will I?"

I laughed, "I doubt it, I've been using if a very long time, and the stuff still manages to surprise me sometimes." The three of us shared a laugh and headed off into the town to do a bit of exploring. The shops were clean and brightly lit, some of them even had honest to god glass in there windows. We stepped into a tavern and took a seat at the bar. The counter top was wood, worn smooth from years of rough hands sliding across its top. Most places in the world didn't take much in the way of many anymore. The most common way of getting something you wanted was to trade for it. I pulled out a hunk of metal from my bag and sat it down on the counter. The barman, A big fat fellow with a large mustache and balding head, had wide eyes when he saw it. A piece of metal that large would fetch us three rooms for a month and all the meals we wanted. Having metal in its raw form was a rarity these days. We wouldn't be staying but for a night maybe, what I really wanted was information. Such a generous offer would guarantee me about anything I wanted.

"All we want is a hot meal and some information my good man, think you can help us with that?" The barman just nodded dumbly and I motioned for him to grab it off the table. He did so and immediately dropped it down in his pocket. He seemed surprised at its weight as well. Good. "My friends and I have heard tale of a fella around these parts, might be this very town in fact, I'm not sure. He goes by the name Tom, and I've been told he performs miracles."

The barman's eyes narrowed. "Aye, I've know him. He came hear not to long ago, few months back I spect.. My daughter was born with the crimp. Never could walk well without help. He said he'd heal her, no strings or nothin.' I didn't rightly believe him, until he went and did it." I Could see his eyes moisten a little, but didn't comment. I just wanted to know what happened next. "She was very beautiful, and then she stood up out of that chair, her legs straight and tidy, like they'd never been before... My girl could walk after that, aye, she could run."

He sighed and filled up a couple of mugs with something cold and frothy before handing them to us. I smelled it and was pleasantly surprised to find a hint a cinnamon. It was alcoholic, but just barely. Fine by me, I liked to keep my whits about me. "After that he just made to move on. He'd given my daughter an invitation to go with him, but she wanted to stay with me, finally able to help out like she'd always wanted to. Tom didn't seem to take that very kindly. After he left, less than a week went by before she started to be pained again. Her legs already started to twist back up, and she could walk, but now she hobbled. After getting a taste of normal, she was distraught, nearly bedridden with grief. Then a letter came."

He swallowed and cleared his throat. "It said if she wanted to get well again, she was to stand up and follow after Tom immediately. If she didn't, the crimp would spread to the rest of her limbs, and she'd be dead before the end of the year. She denied if for a few more days, until her fingers started to twist up too, then she packed a bag, and by the time she stepped out the door she was nearly normal again. It was the damned strangest thing I'd ever seen. Scared the life out of me." He poured himself a drink, something far stronger than what he'd gotten us. "I'm glad my girl is strong and healed, but I didn't like that creep of a bastard. I'm afraid what he'll make her do, as payment. I've tried finding her, but she's never around him. He's got damned bodyguards around him all the time as he goes around performing his 'miracles.' You'll find a hundred other people in town that has a story near the same as mine. He used to come by every few weeks."

This was the most amount of information I'd gotten in months. I nearly jumped up and dashed out of the room right then and there, but Hermione grabbed my arm and stayed me. "Does he have a lot of people following him around? A lot of believers?" It was a good question. I wish I'd thought of it.

"Aye miss. He's even taught some of them to do the same damned tricks he does. How It works is beyond me, but it does. I'd say a few hundred people come out and practically worship him every day."

Daniel spoke next. "Where is he? Does he still come to this town often?"

The barman shook his head. "No, used to, but now people come to him with their problems. He lives in a smaller village, bout twenty five kilos north of here. Not very far for a horse, long as the thing isn't a mutie." He wrinkled his nose at that and walked away from us to fill up someone else's drink.

I sat back at the bar. Stunned. The bastard had been gathering followers. I still had to wonder how he managed to control the Abomination. That bothered me. But there was little I could do about it. When he came back we thanked him for the information and ordered something to eat. He made sure it was fixed exactly how we wanted it. Its tasted wonderful, but I'd lost most of my appetite by this point. I was hungry to get to him, and see what I was really dealing with.

3.

I tossed and turned most of that night, I just couldn't sleep. The three of us had stayed at the tavern, renting two rooms. Hermione still didn't want to try to sleep alone, not after everything she'd been through. I wasn't complaining. I managed to drift off sometime early that morning, but didn't get more than a few hours rest. I was just to agitated. As soon as everyone was up in the morning I had us dressed and out the door.

We walked the length of the town, trying to enjoy the sights and find a subtle place to set up the wagon. We nearly walked a mile when nature started popping up again. The cobblestone street just tapered out back into a dirt road. I was anxious, impatient. I took the wagon from Daniel and tossed it onto the ground, reversing the shrinking spell I'd placed on it earlier. The animals wondered out of the underbrush from our right. Apparently the spell had let them know I wanted to get moving and I wasted no time getting them hitched up. Daniel cast a longing look back at the small city we'd come through and passed by in such a hurry. I caught the look on his face and I stopped short.

I was being rather selfish. This man had lost his home less than a month ago, and here he was, helping two practical strangers on a dangerous mission to kill a monster, or several. I clapped my hand on his shoulder and got him to look at me. "I'm sorry, I won't hold it against you if you'd like to stay, this doesn't have to be your fight. I'm just anxious, I want to find out what we're dealing with."

He smiled at me. "That bastard sicked his pet demon on my town, my life, and destroyed it. That's all the reason I need to help you. It would just been nice to settle for a little bit before moving on, but I understand. I'd want to get on with it too."

Hermione wrapped her arms around me from behind. "Why don't we go do some recon? After we've been there it'll be easy to apparate back to this place. We can see what we're up against, and then come back here and come up with a plan. I know you want him dead Harry, after everything I want him dead too. But you just got back on your feet." She came around in front of me and frowned up at me with worry. "What if you have to channel more of that old magic and it kills you? Or puts you in a coma that you don't wake up from this time.?" Like usual, she was right. Of course she was. I sighed and smiled down at her.

"Okay Mione, we'll do it your way. We still gotta get there first, but lets just go and see what we're dealing with. Then we'll come back and get ready to take hell to his door step." She smiled up and me and reached up and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips.

"Thank you Harry." I grinned back at her, feeling rather goofy. Man, if this is what I got, I need to start listening to her more often.

"No problem at all, now lets load up, we got some recon to do." I actually felt a fucking spring in my step as we got on the wagon, maybe life was looking up?

We traveled through open fields for a while, a few hours went by in small talk and battle plans, Hermione barely let go of my hand the entire time. Every once and a while our eyes would lock and a smile bloomed across her face. I still couldn't believe she'd done it. Was it the stress of living like this everyday? Pushing her closer to me? Or had she always had feelings for me? I don't know the answer to that, but I'm not complaining. We'd find time to talk about it after we got a look at what He was up to.

The sun was just starting to set as we reached the edge of a forest. It was thick, and old, the trees tall and looming, blocking off what meager light we had left. I thought about stopping, but the others weren't objecting, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to push on for an hour of two. The path was a little overgrown, but it had enough travel on it so that we could still see it. The place reminded me of a magical forest. I didn't think it was one, since I didn't believe a ley line was nearby and they usually only popped up near one of them.

The deeper in the forest we went the thicker the woods became, I started to get a bad feeling when something happened that had my danger sense on high alert. The animals had stopped. No more birds, no insects, nothing. Complete silence. Daniel's animals started acting skittish, shuffling and stopping, not wanting to go any deeper. They'd started pulling on their harnesses, trying to turn us around and not getting anywhere. Daniel was trying to calm them down when I heard it. Hermione and I looked at each other slowly and then back out into the gloom. A deep guttural groaning sound was coming from the forest. The same sound a group of Inferi make, right before they attack.

To be continued.

Hope you guys enjoyed that. I know, not much action happening this chapter, but I set it up pretty good for next. Let me know what you think, until next time.

Harkon.