Disclaimer Not Mine! J.K Rowling owns this
Chapter 11: The Chase and the Return
They followed Hedwig as she led them to the opening where the waterfall was. They all landed safely, with Firebug and the two phoenixes waiting for them.
"Hedwig, Guber and Gold, I want a perimeter sweep of everything in the skies and trees. Use your eyes and sense of smell. Jade, Fawkes, stick close, if I know Allan, and I do, he'll try some sort of sneak attack that I won't particularly like. If there's any wind changes, flame us out of there. Firebug, you stay with Ginny and me. You by far are the best tracker, pick up a scent and we'll follow it. Everyone, stick close and keep senses at full. Allan is clever and is a master tracker. He's done a lot of guerrilla warfare in the past so he knows when to come out and how to corner his prey. He's also had days to set up traps for us, so watch your backs," Harry commanded to his group, looking like a general ready to go to war.
You really know how to make a lady all hot and bothered there, Harry, thought a mischievous Ginny. She found this General side of Harry very alluring.
Later, we got business to take care of; he thought back to her. He gave her a kiss on the temple.
The animals followed Harry's orders as Harry and Ginny let their skilled bodies walk carefully through the forest. With the blood oath they had taken in the chamber, some of their senses were now heightened and they had an increase of strength, speed and agility. Harry didn't even need his glasses anymore, he just kept them on to keep everybody on their toes. They were truly like hunters in the wild. They just had to stay one-step ahead or else they would be the prey.
They let the wolf lead them through twists and turns as he kept sniffing the ground. The fairies around watched them carefully, Harry and Ginny even suspected some of them smiling knowingly. In any case, they let their senses guide them. With their companions leading the way and their eyes wide with new vision, the dark green richness of the forest didn't bother them.
Then all of a sudden they heard a loud noise. TWANG. Startled with the noise they just heard, Harry and Ginny ducked down as an arrow whizzed over their heads. They weren't the target though. A notch on the tree was pierced and a cloud of gas rose from several balls below. It covered the area where the wolf was, and Firebug started to sneeze. He whimpered slightly and both humans knew that their best tracker was effectively neutralized thanks to the arrow. They told Firebug to wait it out and then proceeded to do the tracking on their own, with the two phoenixes and owl watching their back.
Minutes had passed since Firebug's senses were neutralized, when out of the blue, distressed screeches and a hoot echoed around them. Harry and Ginny instantly looked up to see two golden griffins and a snowy-white owl glide through the trees. One of the griffins, Gubernatis, seemed to waver before crashing into the ground. Gold-sight licked his head and Hedwig hooted worriedly. Ginny, with her new sight, looked into the injured griffin's mind. She saw that his wing had been transfigured to be as heavy as lead, effectively cancelling him from the field.
They kept Gold-sight and Firebug there to watch him as they proceeded with their journey to find Allan, now even more conscious than before of their surroundings.
Using the brush as cover, they slowly trekked eastward. They were only lead by their instincts but it seemed to be the right way to go. They heard another sound and Harry pushed himself and Ginny forcefully to the ground. A huge wooden structure had come whooshing by, ready to smash their bodies against the rock to their left. Ginny looked worried but kept her eyes steeled to the objective, while Harry just quietly swore at their predicament.
Allan seemed to be taking this very seriously. Especially since he cancelled three of their party easily. Harry needed to level the playing field. He told the phoenixes and Hedwig to rise as fast as they could and told Ginny to duck as he used his wind powers. With a massive gale force of wind, Harry attempted to spring traps around them. He also felt to see if their was a human blocking his wind.
They heard twangs, whooshes, and thuds galore and smiled as they heard someone trip from the traps. Harry could feel the presence of a winged human, fifty meters south from their position. Ginny, sensing what Harry had felt, mentally told the phoenixes to flame to those coordinates. The birds complied with the order and flamed to an open field. The sun surrounding the field was brighter since they landed from the depths of the jungle. Once their eyes adjusted, they just saw a clearing with only them and their animals staring at each other. The grass was high, close to mid shin level, and a breeze swept into them. Just then, Ginny felt a sudden urge to look up. With the sun barring down, they could make out a man with wings swooping swiftly from the sky.
Allan had his right hand held to the handle of his sheathed katana. Dive-bombing the teenagers, he was a few seconds from cutting them apart. With only a split second to think, Ginny grabbed Harry and using the shadow created by Allan, shifted them to the east edge of the trees surrounding the clearing.
Allan watched this and slowed down his decent. He let loose a hail of fireballs at the duo, knowing precisely where they would appear. Harry stepped up and sent forth a wave of water with a sweep of his arm to extinguish the fireballs, as Ginny extended her staff to Allan's position. Allan jumped and flew back to avoid the staff hitting his chest.
Allan landed softly and looked at them as they stepped into the clearing again. Ginny had her staff and wand at the ready and Harry was summoning the sword of Gryffindor as he raised his wand.
"This only ends when you touch me kiddos, but it doesn't stop if I touch you," Allan smiled at them and proceeded to apparate. A second later he appeared at their side and let the earth below them quickly rise. The earth below them now had two circular pedestals that were about twenty feet high. Harry grabbed Ginny's hand as she was about to topple over and guided them both softly to the ground. To stop the attack that would happen, Ginny quickly threw up her fire shield and melted the throwing knives aimed at them.
What is he playing at, Harry! That's lethal force, she thought panicking.
It isn't a test if you don't mean it. He always says that, he wants us on our toes. Remember all we have to do is touch him, with a hit or our magic. The problem is, there's no one faster and quicker than Allan is, not even you dear, especially in that form. We have to trap him.
Alright, I got an idea. Keep our connection open. We need to do this together and we need to anticipate each other's moves. Ginny stated this with resolve as she put her hands to the ground and constructed four earth slabs. Once she was done with that, she took position and started firing every jinx and hex she knew, moving back and forth between each opening. This was a distraction as Harry was now able to start concentrating on the slabs and started to freeze them.
Allan was too occupied with dodging the hail of hexes from Ginny to notice what Harry was doing. What Allan was doing was creeping closer and closer to Ginny so the time between spells would decrease.
Ginny, wanting to give Harry more time, was about to engage Allan into combat with her staff, but Harry stopped her before she could.
Don't do that. No matter how good you are with melee combat, and you are good, Allan is one hundred times better. He'll get you down in 2 seconds easily, and we need as much time as possible.
So instead, she fired hexes hoping that he wouldn't take flight too soon.
With his katana drawn, Allan finally started to come crashing down on them. Harry finally finished the earth slabs and levitated them to be above him and Ginny. Using a strong bludgeoning charm on the earth slabs, Harry created hundreds of different sharp shards. He then banished these shards to the diving Allan. Allan had to stop his free fall and conjured his own wall of fire to melt the shards of earth and turned them to useless mud.
With the momentum of the banishing charm, the mud splattered on Allan. Watery mud now mixed in with his clothing. Ginny raised Harry off the ground with a column of earth and Harry charged up his lighting powers. Shielding himself from the fire by creating a vortex of wind around him, he leaned closer to Allan and touched him with his right hand. Using the water as the conduit and the mountain of earth as his grounder, he touched Allan and a very shocked Allan started to fall. Harry didn't expect this to happen. Using his wind, he wanted to slow down the fall.
However, he didn't need to do that. Allan just turned in mid air and spread his wings softly, as he gently landed to the ground. He smiled at the couple and looked impressed and satisfied.
"You did well. Both of you used each other's strengths and the strengths of others. Even when debilitated you found different ways of doing things. Then when it came to the fight, you both acted as a team to secure the objective. Don't worry Harry, your lighting attack was actually really strong, it would've knocked a fully grown hippogriff on its back. It's just that since I control the elements, they don't really affect me as much as most. Next time we do this I won't go as easy on you guys." Harry and Ginny knew it to be true too. Allan could have wiped the floor with them. They were lucky he was holding back.
"Okay then, let us all head back now. Jade and Fawkes, will you flame these two to White Haven so we can be ready for our departure?" Allan asked as he winked out of existence, using flame.
Harry and Ginny tiredly grabbed onto the tail feathers of Jade and Fawks and were transported out to join Allan. They both felt too tired to move. They were considerably strong, but using that many elements and magic at the same time was new to them. Allan assured them that they would eventually learn how to strengthen there core and not waste so much energy. Clearly annoyed, they just gave him a pointed stare.
"Now all the animals will be allowed to come with us, but I think two griffins would be a little much in Grimmauld Place. I suggest you tell Gold-Sight and Guber here to go to the Forbidden Forest and settle them there. We can take the phoenixes and the wolf with us. I think Hedwig would like to have them around with her instead of listening to Pigwidgeon's incessant hooting and Crookshanks know-it-all attitude." Hedwig hooted in affirmative.
The teenagers nodded, not bothering to object. They were just too tired to do anything and gathered their things. Allan looked at them and gave them a nod. "Any questions before we leave?"
"Yeah, what are these tattoos on our hands?" Ginny asked.
"You're the animal god's avatars. The right hand holds the weapon and the left hand holds the shield. This just shows how much you two are perfect for each other. The dragon and tiger were always the aggressive side of the four, while the tortoise and phoenix always protected individuals. I don't quite know how this will help with your search for the horcruxes but I believe with that brilliant friend of yours you should be able to understand it. Oh and tell Hermione and Ron everything that happened here, I give you permission. They'll also need to be able to access their cores. Since they don't share pieces of souls with each other they won't have access to the number of elements you do, but they'll at least have one they can use. They'll need the protection to be able to get through obstacles," said Allan as he pulled out the familiar coin.
Without any other questions, they touched the coin and were transported back to England, ready to face the family.
&
Appearing at the steps of the large mansion, Ginny and Harry sought each other's hands. Harry didn't really go through this before because of the circumstances of his arrival, and Ginny was nervous. They both mused over how much they had changed. They had seen and done so much, but yet there was still so much left to be done. Would the family accept this? Would they let them live their lives as they needed to?
With a nudge from Firebug and a hoot from Hedwig, they proceeded to the door as Allan eyed his surroundings warily. Harry and Ginny stepped through the threshold of number 12 Grimmauld Place and waited as a number of people surrounded them.
First to approach them was Remus Lupin. He smiled broadly and then cast his eye on the wolf. Firebug started growling and grunting towards Remus. Remus walked up to him and scratched his head in a friendly manner. Firebug then began to pant his appraisal eagerly of the man, as he sat on his haunches and started beating his tail to the floor.
"That's a good boy," Remus said before looking up at Harry and Ginny. "Had a good time with Allan over here? From what Tonks told me, you two should be experts at martial arts by now, while also having the worst sense of humor ever."
"Bah, she's one to talk. Woman only makes people laugh by falling, which happens alarmingly often. I on the other hand have wit and sarcastic replies that will make any man, woman, or child's head turn with gales full of laughter," Allan said as he held his head out in a noble fashion.
BANG, was all anybody heard as an apple was thrown to the middle of Allan's head. "Wit my arse! More like pit, as in you are the pits, you humourless sod!" Shouted Nymphadora Tonks.
"I missed you too, Dor-Dor," Allan said as he rubbed his head. This nickname earned him a slap to the back of the head. To get back at her, he pulled her hair. This unfortunately led to them falling on the ground, tugging on each other's hair and ears until with great force, Remus was able to pull Tonks off of Allan.
"You are one crazy woman, you know that?" Allan said as he dusted himself off while rubbing his left ear.
"Immature prat!" Tonks shouted at him, while preening her pink locks. The two of them glared at each other before laughing aloud. They then hugged each other like two five-year-old siblings.
"They remind me of when Ginny and Ron were four and five. One minute they'd be fighting, then the next they'd be sharing ice cream," Mrs. Weasley stated fondly. "Now Ginny come here and give Mum a hug!" she said, looking relieved that her daughter wasn't in the same shape Harry had been in when he had first returned.
Ginny gave her mother a hug and then passed her over to Harry who received a bone-crushing hug in return. Ginny gave her mother a look of annoyance and waited a few seconds before prying her off of Harry.
Hermione and Ron both bustled downstairs looking red faced. Whether they were red-faced from an argument or a fresh snog, neither Harry nor Ginny could tell. When Hermione spotted them, she came rushing down to give them both a crushing hug. Ron walked up to Harry and gave him a pat on the shoulder, then gave Ginny a hug and kiss on the cheek with an enthusiastic "Welcome Back!" Harry and Ginny both smiled at their best friends and gave them both hearty hugs in return.
All of a sudden a particularly loud growl startled the occupants. It seemed that with all the excitement, no one had noticed Remus and Firebug conversing. Apparently, even though he was in human form, the werewolf in him helped Remus understand wolf language. The two of them were having an interesting conversation about the time Ginny and Harry spent on the island.
"So, Firebug here tells me you're alpha male and female. He said that he would've fought for the right to be alpha with Harry but realized him and Ginny were life mates, so all is forgiven. He's also told me that he kept watch over you two, so no hanky panky went on." Remus gave the teenagers a quizzical eye. Molly looked on with a sigh of relief.
"So how have things been?" Asked Allan.
"Well of course Voldemort is still at large and deatheaters are constantly running around. We believe most of the raids are being conducted with a group of five deatheaters at a time, accompanied with five or more dementors. The giants and trolls haven't arrived into the playing field yet but we expect them soon. Minerva is still trying to fight for Hogwarts to open, but without Dumbledore there's been little support," replied Tonks.
"I have to talk to Minerva as soon as possible. If Ginny permits, I would like her to come to the birthday party tomorrow." Getting a nod from Ginny he continued, "I believe I can convince the board of governors to open the school, but I have to run it with the Headmistress first.
"Hermione, Ron, can you two help Ginny and Harry with their bags? We've had a long trip and I believe they would like to get some rest and tell you about the things they've seen," Allan concluded.
The teenagers quickly went up to their rooms. Ron followed Harry to his room, while Ginny had Hermione follow her. Both of them went into the story of what happened and what they'd be teaching Ron and Hermione about their powers. The two seemed to be disappointed when they found out they couldn't be animagi, but they were delighted that they would learn some new and difficult wandless magic. Ron secretly wanted to try the new magic on Draco, while Hermione just looked like an eager kid in a candy store. She was ready to pounce on Allan as fast as possible with questions.
Four and a half hours later, they heard a mighty shout. "HE CANNOT STAY HERE! I WILL HAVE HIS HEAD IF THIS PERSISTS!" Only one person could bellow like that and Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione made their way to the study where they tracked down the voice.
In that very study they found Draco and Narcissa Malfoy cowering in the corner behind a greasy haired, hooked nosed man. Allan had his katana partially drawn, ready to cleave the man in half with a well-placed swing.
"He killed Dumbledore. How can you people allow Snape to casually walk in here again?" Severus Snape responded to that with a sneer.
"I'm sorry Allan but he came up with evidence that showed he had no choice and that he did it for Dumbledore." Announced Remus, trying to hold Allan by the arms away from Snape. Remus also didn't look too happy that Snape was here, but held his tongue.
"I don't give a flying FUCK, what the old man wanted! To me, he's a traitor that should've died instead of killing him," shouted Allan inching closer to Snape.
"You would love to kill me wouldn't you, Tsai. You would love to use that barbaric blade and touch my skin onto it. It would give you pleasure to act on things you have know idea about. Just like your charge Potter, doing what you think is right no matter the consequences," said Snape in the most hateful voice.
Harry wasn't fooled though. He saw the shake in Severus's wand arm; he knew that Severus would not underestimate the apprentice of Dumbledore when angry. The shock of this was the only thing keeping Harry from pulling out his own wand and hexing the man himself. Finally Harry decided to speak.
"Why is he here? This man needs to be locked in Azkaban or dead, and I would like the latter," Harry said with a malevolent look.
"Harry, please read this as I help calm down Allan," said Tonks as she entered the room, shoving past the teenagers.
Harry opened the folded parchment she gave him.
To the people in the order,
Please do not harm Severus Snape. I could not allow him to be killed, not when he had a mission to fulfill. I accepted my fate when I allowed young Mr. Malfoy to finish his work. Trust me, I did it for the greater good. Please, Harry and Allan especially, I beg you both to think logically and understand what needs to be. I'm depending on you both to do what is right and not what is easy.
Take Care,
Albus Dumbledore
Harry looked at the note and passed it back. "Get that piece of trash out of my sight while we all process this new information. I haven't forgiven Snape, and probably never will, but the letter says I need to trust him, so I guess I will." He directed his next comments to Snape. "If for one second I believe you're double crossing us, you'll wish that Allan had gotten to you first. Allan's blade would at least kill in the first swing, I however am not that merciful," Harry said with a coldness that ebbed from his body's core. Turning to Allan, he said, "Don't worry about it, not yet. He'll answer to his crimes after everything is done, but right now we can't do this. We're not executioners."
"You might not be an executioner, Harry, but I have and will do it again. The greater good is far more important. Be wary, potions master. None of your concoctions will save you from my wrath. I am the archangel with the sword of God himself and I will seek vengeance on the crimes you have commited." Allan re-sheathed his sword and walked calmly out.
Harry followed before he could hear Snape come back with a biting remark. After a few seconds of debating whether to hex or not to hex their former professor, he felt Ginny walking behind him.
Hermione and Ron followed them, wondering how powerful their friends had gotten. They could feel the energy rolling off the three ahead of them and wondered what they could have done to Severus Snape. Hermione and Ron pitied the potions master, but both loved seeing the look of fear flash across his eyes at Allan's wrath. They couldn't enjoy that look in Snape's eyes for long, though. A split second later the ever famous sneer was back on his face.
"We should all rest. Ginny's birthday is tomorrow and it's a big day!" Hermione announced, always being rational. The others nodded their consent. They were ready to get to bed after the exhaustion they were feeling from the previous encounters of the day.
A/N: Thanks again to everybody that Reviews andI doapprecite them. Please continue to review. I also thank my Beta EnchantedGurls, although she can be a little late, she still does great stuff. Anyway till next time
