"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
~ Leo Tolstoy
Chapter 56 ~ Interlude
"What do you mean he knows?"
Neville had been the first to snap out of it. Amidst the quiet chaos of the beach, Neville had been the first one to snap the hell out of it, fixating upon the problems they could actually fix. Not Professor Gai, not Luna, not Regulus, not Tonks, not Ron, not him.
It had been Neville.
Harry hadn't known what to say; Hogwarts hadn't exactly had a course on etiquette for telling your comrades-in-arms that you were carrying around a piece, a piece of the very bastard you were all trying to kill, inside your head, and that sometimes – just sometimes – it liked to talk to him.
He was a horcrux, and he was probably going to die because of it.
Seeing Bill's body, blood and fluids slowly beginning to drain onto the surrounding sand, Harry had the cold comfort of realizing that when it happened he'd at least be in good company. Bill, Sirius, Cedric, Seamus, his mum and dad…
"Harry."
Harry's attention refocused, chest pounding. Luna now stood there, dripping wet and soaked from the swim. Her long blonde hair hung loosely around her pale face, near translucent eyes blinking at him sadly.
Neville's eyes were far less somber and more focused. "Harry," he repeated, "what did you mean? Did you see Death Eaters again?" The wizard turned to look out over the sea trapping them on the island, searching the rapidly darkening sky as if expecting to see the same brooms from this morning.
There were none.
Instead the sky was deeply tinted with red, night rapidly falling. They had less than an hour, probably half that, before sundown.
And despite the wand clenched tightly in Neville's hand, Harry knew that the wooden sticks were utterly useless.
The line of his mouth grew tight, taut. Harry grimaced, tugging his eyes off Luna to look at Neville. "No," he grunted. "Same as last year though…" he trailed off.
Harry had never gone into detail with Neville about just how he'd known Voldemort was at the Department of Mysteries, but the wizard had trusted him anyway. And now…
Now Neville's jaw set into a firm, grim line, the wizard nodding. "Okay," he said, throat rising and falling in a stiff swallow. "Okay," he repeated, looking around the beach. "We need to get somewhere that he-they can't easily see us. We have to hunker down until daylight." The wizard's brown eyes squinted at the sky, ominously adding, "It's gonna be dark soon."
"Yeah," Harry repeated, barely hearing him. He was looking past Neville, his gaze landing on where Dean had stopped moving, Kaylens on the ground, the wizard tapping the side of her face repeatedly. She wasn't moving. "It'll be dark…"
His mouth had gone unnaturally dry. He could hear Neville talking to him, but didn't comprehend what he was actually saying. Something about getting a better defensible position? Kaylens though…she still wasn't moving, and he didn't want to think about what that might mean.
Harry wasn't a stranger to her collapses after using magic. It didn't always mean she was in bad shape. Not always.
He clung to that. He clung to that thought desperately. His head was overwhelmed with the situation: Fred and Tonks kneeling alongside Bill's dead form; Ron rooted to the same spot, not having moved, parts of his body slowly changing into a werewolf with the stress; the fact that they were all now trapped on this island without magic.
Harry's feet remained cemented in the sand, unable to move as he stared at Kally. His Kally. Not Dean's, not anyone else's, but his. She'd used magic twice in less than twenty minutes, but she was okay. She had to be okay.
It felt like his invisibility cloak had gone rogue and decided to try and strangle him for so many years of misuse.
Dean Thomas looked up sharply, as if sensing the scrutiny. Harry lifted both eyebrows – it was all he could manage - his heart thudding hard within his chest as he waited-
Dean nodded, giving a weak looking thumb's up.
It was like the air had been suddenly shoved back into a vacuum, Harry suddenly able to breathe again.
Kally was okay.
It was like a fog he hadn't realized was there lifted, Harry suddenly able to focus.
The scene around them was grisly, broken items from Dean and Kally's packs beginning to wash up on the shoreline, pale legs sticking out from behind where Fred and Tonks knelt. Dumbledore wasn't there, and it took Harry a second to realize that.
It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare they couldn't linger in. They had to move.
"Harry?"
His gaze jerked back to Luna, his head pounding hard. "Yeah?" His voice came out gruffer than intended, and he missed the slightly irritated look Neville donned as Harry clearly listened to Luna, but ignored him.
"What should we do if Death Eaters come?" she serenely asked, as if she wasn't asking about their impending deaths.
Harry's heart skipped in his chest. The Death Eaters…. it'd be dark soon, and with no wands less than half of them would be able to see a damn thing.
They'd be completely and utterly screwed.
Moody might have told him that they'd take care of any that showed up, but there was only one boat and two sides of the island to cover.
The boat couldn't be on both sides at the same time.
It didn't take a genius to figure out the odds of that.
For a brief, terrifying moment Harry wondered if there was an easier way for the Death Eaters to get onto the island. Did they have brooms that could work? Ones that could somehow get across the water, even though the ones Dumbledore and Regulus had tried couldn't?
Then again, Voldemort was a paranoid bastard. Harry doubted he'd have trusted anyone but himself with access to the island, and he'd be just as bound by the non-magical boundaries as the rest of them.
Harry just had to bank on that.
"Harry," Luna repeated gently, the Gryffindor Seeker finding both her and Neville looking at him expectantly.
It was like they expected him to know what to do.
Harry cursed beneath his breath, turning, his stony gaze raking up and down the beachfront, eyes narrowing against the cooling breeze as he sought out any type of dune, shelter, something that might conceal them from view.
He found it not a hundred meters away: an outcropping of rocks next to the largest sand dune he'd seen on this cursed island yet. "There," he grunted, pointing. "That'll block some of the wind tonight. Might even keep us hidden from view if they show up, if we're lucky."
Everything in him wanted to go, to leave, to find that damn horcrux so they could get the hell off this island.
He also wasn't dumb. He knew the island was undoubtedly littered with traps, even the sand pulsating with dark magic. Seeking out a piece of Voldemort's soul in the dark, when they couldn't do magic and when over half of them couldn't see, would be disastrous.
Neville was already nodding, grabbing and squeezing Luna's upper arm. "Good by me," he declared, already marching towards where Professor Gai still sat on the sand by Bill's head, the DADA Professor looking stunned and so, so much younger than he was. His dorm mate dropped down alongside him, placing a hand on his shoulder, speaking to him and snapping the adult out of it.
Luna simply tilted her head curiously, blonde hair sweeping over her shoulder like a waterfall. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you always know what Voldemort is thinking?"
Had the question come from anyone but Luna he might have been stunned. But he wasn't, because it was such a typically Luna question – so direct and to the point and without any form of social etiquette – that he nearly laughed.
He didn't even thinking about lying to her; not for a second. "Every so often," he managed, "Riddle likes to try to use legilimency to break into my head. I can…tell what he's seen." He tugged his gaze from hers, finding Regulus Black staring at them both, a look of serious contemplation on his face. "He wasn't happy to see we were here already…"
If Luna had intended to respond he never heard it, because Black beat her to it. "How is it," he questioned from twenty paces away, "that he could use legilimency on you from so far away, ward?"
Harry eyed him stonily. "You tell me?" he threw back. "We're not exactly on a close, first name, going out to get matching wrist tattoos basis."
Black seethed a breath through his nose, looking like he'd rather like to throttle him. "So he knows we're here then. Grand. Do try to not let him see what we're up to in the future, ward. It unduly complicates everything."
"Oh yeah," Harry drawled right back, "I'll keep it in mind. Ya know, because it's such a fun experience for me to let him in." By the end of his sentence his words were practically biting, Regulus opening his mouth-
"Tom was aware of our presence the moment we unlocked the gates."
The voice cut through the twilight like a welcomed search party. Harry's head jerked towards the sound, Dumbledore having appeared over one of the many dunes.
The sight that met Harry caused his gut to clench.
The Headmaster stood there, having already stripped out of his wetsuit into his Muggle attire beneath, looking far dryer than the rest of them. Drying charms, Harry realized, remembering that Dumbledore could do wandless magic. What floored him though was the bloodied mess that was one of his arms, the entire right arm looking somewhat mangled, a piece of cloth wrapped tightly around it in a makeshift tourniquet.
He looked pale, almost ashen, yet there he stood. His ancient blue eyes surveyed the scene before him, hesitating for only a moment upon Bill, an overwhelming sadness shadowing his visage for but a second before it moved on.
It stopped on where Kaylens and Thomas were, Harry's gaze finally, finally following, afraid of what he'd find.
"Mr. Thomas," Dumbledore said softly, "Kalliandra, is she-"
Dean's hand was on his girlfriend's chest, the wizard looking up with a steely glint in his gaze. "She's alive," he relayed, dark gaze moving from Dumbledore to him. The undisguised relief that flooded Harry was obviously recognized, Dean adding, "I think…I think she's just sleeping. I don't think she's drawn like that for awhile."
Ron's head had jerked around, a look of dawning comprehension crossing his best mate's face. He looked first at where Kalliandra lay with Dean, then back towards him. "She…so what she did for Bill…that could have killed her?"
He sounded stunned, surprised. Even Fred Weasley looked up, confliction upon ever centimeter of his face. Tonks' face remained bowed over Bill, her blue-green hair artfully falling to shadow her heart-shaped visage.
"There is a reason," Regulus drawled quietly, addressing Ron, the typical bite to his tone somehow absent, "that Reaches do not live to suffer the ailments of old age, Weasley."
Ron simply stood there, left arm fully covered in hair as he processed that. Something in his face suddenly grew harder, his jaw moving through several different expressions varying in degree from mourning to fury.
In the next instant he'd tossed a rock he'd been holding down into the sand, a grimace crossing his face. "Dean…you're sure she's-"
Dean nodded. "Yeah, she's good, Ron." He tapped her head like she were a sleeping dog, his voice sounding choked. "She'll be a bit pissy when she wakes up, but she's good."
Harry continued to stare. He knew better. He knew that overdrawing could fry her red blood cells, preventing her body from being able to circulate oxygen correctly. She could still suffocate while she lay there and still die. It all depended upon how much she had overdrawn, and how quickly the unicorn blood in her could work to fix her.
The sudden realization terrified him, threatening to strangle him.
And here, stranded where they were…there was nothing he could do for her.
Fred Weasley fortunately distracted him. "Kally-kins," he managed numbly, using the nickname those on the Dublin team had given her. Staring, he croaked, "Hey Thomas…that's my zombie apocalypse partner. Would hate to-" his voice broke, Fred trying again. "Would hate to have to drop some canary bites in your morning porridge if you didn't take care of her."
Dean's dark gaze held the Weasley twin's firmly, an out of place snort arising. "Not going anywhere, Fred."
Harry didn't miss how Dean's hand kept a firm grasp on hers, two of his fingers conveniently on her pulse point, as if to reassure himself that she was still there.
If anyone knew as much about her condition as he did, it'd be Dean. A cold, shrinking realization slithered through, Harry as he realized that, amongst everyone there, that Dean would be the best to take care of her outside of him or Regulus.
Tonks looked up from Bill's body, looking around with bloodshot eyes for the first time.
As soon as her gaze landed on Dumbledore she made a strangled, angry sound. "What happened to your arm?" She was already squeezing Bill's shoulder, rising shakily to her feet, walking towards him, her wand out and casting spells to no avail.
The Auror swore angrily, dragging a bloody hand through her hair, the witch with her tiny stature somehow staring down the only wizard that Voldemort had ever feared.
"Ah this," Dumbledore said calmly, as if just remembering he had a bloodied, mangled appendage. "The shark and I…we had a minor disagreement over Dedalus…"
Tonks' lips parted soundlessly, staring at him. "You- you went back for him." She sounded shocked.
"Indeed, Nymphadora. We are not in the habit of leaving our friends…behind."
And suddenly, just like that, the strongest wizard Harry had ever known sat abruptly down in the sand, looking as if the strength had left him.
Tonks wasted no time in shouting at Regulus to get his 'lazy arse' up there, Harry staring numbly as Dumbledore paled, affording them both an incredibly weak smile.
Once more Harry found himself just standing there, not knowing what to do. "I-what happened to Diggles?" he managed, not sure who he was asking. He was just looking at Dumbledore, disoriented by what he was seeing.
Dumbledore wasn't allowed to be injured; he wasn't allowed to die. The past year though….it had shown him that the wizard was definitely human.
Harry didn't like that – he didn't like it at all.
"A shark," Luna whispered from besides him. "One got him when we were swimming on the calm side."
Neville shook his head almost angrily, grunting as he supported half of Professor Gai's weight. "The bastards weren't normal sharks, Harry. They targeted us. Went right for us." Professor Gai made a sound of agreement, and it was only then that Harry realized that Tres' foot was deformed, obviously broken.
The wizard had ignored his own pain, channeling everything he'd had into trying to help Bill.
Harry could only stare. "What do you mean sharks?" There was an important plural there, and it had something coiling icily in his gut.
"I mean," Neville grunted, "there was more than one."
Harry's mouth went dry. If there was more than one shark on their side, then that meant…
His gaze darted back out to the waters, wanting to know how many were still out there on this side.
It was like being in a war zone, surrounded by casualties, the illusion of peace just that: an illusion.
From up on the dune he could hear Regulus and Tonks arguing, discussing how best to treat the Headmaster. Tonks was snapping that 'if they left the makeshift tourniquet on him that he'd surely lose his arm,' Regulus snarling back 'if they removed it the wizard would surely bleed out, but not to worry because she could at least keep the arm in that bloody case!'
Fred remained by Bill's body, Dean by Kaylens, Ron…
Ron had oddly moved alongside Dean, helping him hoist her up to carry her limp form to their new location, and Harry…
Harry scanned the beach, terror creeping through him as a chilling realization seized him.
With Dumbledore injured and Kaylens unconscious, he was the only one who could do wandless magic. Protecting them until dawn….
It would be on him.
Nausea seized him, it taking everything he had to avoid vomiting right then and there. Then his eyes fell upon where Fred sat, collapsed on the beach all alone besides their dead brother…
It was like a switch had flipped on in his head. Harry's fingers twitched, something sparking….
No more.
No one else was dying. No one.
Harry choked down the sea air, walking to kneel alongside Bill, dropping a hand on Fred's shoulder. For a second he stared. It was all he could do. Bill's face, unlike Ginny's, was oddly devoid of freckles, but the hair, the pale skin….that was the same.
"We should move him," Harry croaked. "Get him away from the tide."
Fred Weasley grabbed onto Harry's arm, clasping forearms tightly for a moment, before sniffing loudly. Then he slowly, gingerly stood up.
Together they moved him, placing him farther up shore amongst the rocks, in a place where the rising tide could not reach. The last thing they wanted was for his body to be swept out to sea when they left at first light.
Harry began giving orders, asking those who could still move to gather rocks to create a seat for Dumbledore to lean against and a prop for Professor Gai's leg. He'd demanded Regulus to tell him what they needed to set Tres' leg, the wizard having just finished arguing with Tonks, the tourniquet staying firmly in place on Dumbledore's arm, and he'd then set Ron and Neville the task of looking nearby for driftwood, before complete and total darkness set in.
Harry was still processing what leaving the tourniquet on Dumbledore would mean: the Headmaster would lose his arm when they returned.
The Headmaster had just given him a weary smile when he'd caught his concerned look. "I always did find having two of these to be rather excessive, Harry," he told, the gentle, pained smile showing all hundred plus years of the wizard's age.
The thought…it was horrifying.
Regulus didn't help matters, snorting and growling, "Evolution saw fit to give you two old man, so stop your complaining."
"Yeah Albus," Tonks chimed in, the injected cheer into her voice noticeably forced. "Mad Eye gets around okay."
"Oh good," Regulus drawled, "you can both form some sort of a club."
Tonks and Harry's jaws both dropped, staring at the wizard.
"Did you-Reggie did you just make a joke?" Tonks demanded, stunned.
"Miracles," Dumbledore stated calmly, "happy everyday Nymphadora."
Harry did not miss the haughty, angered sniff the Potions' Master turned Muggle Doctor-Healer gave off. Just like he didn't miss the casual attentiveness he gave to Dumbledore's state.
Harry turned his attention elsewhere, arrangements for the long night ahead being made, the group…settling in.
Fred and Ron had wanted to go hunt down the horcrux now, and Harry had found himself an unlikely voice of reason, pointing out that if they tried that now, without any form of light, it'd be suicide.
Fred had pointed out that sitting and waiting for Voldemort and his cronies to show up made them just as likely to get slaughtered.
He wasn't wrong.
There were no good choices.
Harry made the call – stay and wait it out, and to his surprise they all respected it.
Even Black.
Eventually, far in the distance they'd seen the fishing trawler they'd all come on wink out of existence.
Kingsley, Mad Eye, Mr. Weasley, Remus and Fleur had obviously re-cast the multitude of concealment and disillusionment charms back upon the rusted-out vessel, in hopes of not attracting the attention of Death Eaters whilst those on shore did what they had to do.
It struck Harry that Mr. Weasley and Fleur were on board, having no suspicion that his son and her boyfriend lay dead, his body slowly growing cold on the very beach they now both looked at.
He took an impromptu count of the wandless magic users and what they could do: Dumbledore and him were it. Tonks, Black and surprisingly Neville could perform a few spells, but for the most part they'd be useless against anything Voldemort would throw at them, with the exception of a weak – very weak – shield charm on Tonks' end. And then there was Kaylens…
Her type of magic was obviously wandless.
Her type of magic could obviously kill her.
Harry knew damn well that he hadn't wanted her here with them. He also knew that if she hadn't been here with them that Bill wouldn't be the only one on their side of the island to have wound up dead.
That shark may have gotten them all.
It was over an hour before they were fully organized, Harry crouching down by Kaylens for only a brief second, his grip finding her side, squeezing as another warming charm poured out of it onto her. The fact that she was laying against Dean's chest only marginally bothered him.
He could have lost her that night.
He hadn't.
She was still alive, still breathing, and despite himself he actually trusted Thomas to watch her. If anything changed…he'd notice.
It still didn't rid him of the lingering fear that her blood cells would give out, but the longer she remained alright, the better her chances. For now…
Harry traced his fingers across her chin, letting them linger for a brief second, ignoring Dean's awkward grumble of, "Er….this is getting weird, mate," before he stood, abandoning her with the Death Eater so he could join Ron in keeping watch.
They were the only two that were still on their feet that could see in the dark. Dumbledore needed sleep, and Kaylens was already out.
They had jobs to do, Harry nodding stiffly at his friend, the two taking up opposite posts on either side of their impromptu camp, ordering the others to sleep while they could. With the exception of Regulus, who had flat out told him where to shove it as he had patients to tend to, the others all actually listened.
Harry could only hope that they'd all still be alive come morning.
The first thing she was aware of was the sound.
A steady, rhythmic sound could be heard, like water lapping at a shoreline.
The second sound she was aware of was a strange thunk-thunking.
Shivering, Kally quietly groaned, feeling like she'd been slammed into the Room of Requirement's wall – again - by one of McGonagall's blasting hexes.
"Welcome back."
Kally's eyes cracked open, blinking tiredly. She was laying on the sand and something that was both hard and soft, like a person, breathed behind her. It took her a second to realize that it was Dean, the wizard's slight snoring making it evident that he was not the one who had been talking.
He was, however, the one holding her.
Ron sat casually directly next to them, facing the opposite direction, cloaked in the thick, deep shadows. His head peered over the sand dune that Dean was currently reclined against, the sandbank concealing them from the beach's shoreline.
Weasley looked tense, the fingers of one hand already turned into a werewolf's claw, the slightly reflective glint in his eyes reminding her of Remus.
Werewolves, like most animals, had a reflective layer on the back of their retina that allowed them to see in the dark. Ron clearly had inherited it through his bite, and now was using it to keep lookout.
"You warm enough, Kaylens?"
Kally nodded affirmation. Dean's arms were looped carelessly around her torso, one of his legs thrown over her own, his body heat more than enough to keep most of the night's chill out of the air.
It was like being tangled up with a warming blanket on an overnight campout.
Then it struck her…it was already night. How long had she been out? The last thing she remembered was Regulus saying Bill's heart had restarted, black spots in her vision, a piece of skull coming off-
Bill.
She sucked in a horrified breath, her lips parting, meaning to ask-
"Bill's dead."
Ron had anticipated the question before it even fell from her lips.
She sucked in a breath, her eyes clenching painfully closed. "I'm-I'm so sorry, Ron."
For a moment there was no sound, only another thunk-thunking from down the shoreline, her eyes flew open, but the mound blocked her view. "What's that nois-"
"Flashlights," Ron responded automatically, voice flat, dead. He squinted, as if straining to see that far. "Looks like those supplies 'Mione made you and Dean pack finally are washing up." Another thunk was heard, the sound now recognizable as that of a metal flashlight thudding against the rocks with each passing wave.
Anything that washed ashore would be waterlogged and useless.
Her golden gaze raked across the area they hid within, it looking like a hastily made camp. The area looked like a hollowed-out area amidst the dunes, tall grassy sections swaying in the gentle breeze, rocky outcroppings sticking out of the sand in strange, random places. All the others were sleeping, with the exception of Dumbledore and Harry.
Harry.
"He's patrolling," Ron stated levelly, anticipating that question too. "Anyone who can see in the dark has been taking turns, so it's him and Dumbledore now." He nodded down the beach, snorting dryly, "Neville went with them, actually. Lot of good that'll do when the wizard can't see very well or do magic. He wandered off after Harry holding a rock. Even Black found it funny."
It was shocking, how utterly reliant everyone there was on magic. Kally swallowed. "At least he's not alone," she murmured, stomach twisting slightly. Harry was alright, his scar hadn't taken him over again.
She couldn't help but ask.
"Ron, his scar…"
His blue gaze slid to hers, it utterly unreadable. Weasley was always brazen, entirely dominated by his emotions, so to see him donning an indecipherable mask was unnerving.
"So…he did have a problem with that." It was not a question.
Wetting her lips, she quietly breathed, "Yeah, he got almost…violent."
Weasley stared for another second, maybe two, then grimaced roughly, shaking his head and turning away in disgust. "Yeah…figured when he said Voldemort knew," he echoed. His jaw line had grown stiff, every muscle in him looking tense. "Wizard always did have a sodding way of getting overtaken by him."
"It's not his fault-"
"Course not," Ron immediately cut her off, scowling. "It's all about him, isn't it? Voldemort. He doesn't care who the hell he kills or hurts and never has, long as he gets rid of all your kind." Shooting her a sidelong glance, he bitterly added, "No offense."
Heart racing slightly faster, she managed a nod in the salt-scented air. "None taken." Muggleborns, Muggles…they were all the same to Voldemort. And anyone who got in his way was fair game.
She nearly shuddered, the sand digging against her legs uncomfortably. "Ron…if you're not patrolling, then why are you here?" She inclined her head carefully towards where the others slept.
"Told ya," he grunted, "we're taking turns, because apparently," making air quotes with two fingers and one claw, "we need intermittent breaks or our attentiveness lowers." He rolled his eyes. "Or some shite like that, so says Tonks." It was very clear what Weasley thought of that.
He hadn't answered her question, Kally curiously studying him. "So…so why aren't you sleeping then?"
The wizard just shot her a look, inclining his head towards the sleeping Dean. It took her a second…
Her lips parted in silent understanding. "Ah, Harry. He got worried didn't he?"
"Congratulations," Weasley drawled, "you win a prize." He shook his head. "For someone who spends a good amount of time knocked the hell out, you have a remarkably strange ability to distract him, Kaylens. But-" for a second he looked thoughtful, and in the dark Kally could have sworn she saw his teeth almost grinding.
The look he was giving her was intense enough for her to stay absolutely silent.
"Not to make this weird or anything, but…it wasn't just Harry." The admission was surprising, Ron sounding like he regretted this already. He looked away, picking at the sand almost irately. "Thought someone needed to watch over your arse while you slept, and given Dean there passed out himself…"
Kally closed her eyes, the vague soreness in her limbs reminding her of just why Harry had been worried. Magic…it could destroy her red blood cells, suffocating her while she still drew breath if she overdid it. "So…" she murmured, "Harry told you what could happen to me then?"
"Yup."
Kally hissed a breath. She hadn't told anyone about her condition – only Harry, Dean and the older Order members were aware – but she supposed the others, the ones that knew she was a Reach, could probably have guessed at some of it.
Her passing out after using magic wasn't exactly a shocking thing to those she'd trained with. She just hadn't told them she could die from it.
"So, how much exactly did he-"
"Enough," he cut her off, sounding off. His gaze remained pointedly away from her in the dark, a red fringe of hair plastered over his brow, the rest of his hair sticking out at strange angles. Sand and blood and salt water could do that to hair.
It struck her that Weasley looked upset, almost ashamed. It sent her mouth dry, Kally finding breathing suddenly hard.
"I'm okay," she softly told him. Spying the skeptical look that swiveled her way, she added, "Honest. I am. When I'm not I wake up and feel like I've been hit by a train or… a small Volvo or something. I'm just a little sore, not anything bad right now." That was mostly true. McGongall's training had helped, and for some strange, inexplicable reason she wanted to reassure him. "So you can sleep," she added more earnestly, "if you want."
Weasley didn't answer her. He just looked at her for a moment, an extremely odd expression tainting his face.
Kally didn't know what else to say, so she fell silent, her fingers tracing unconsciously along Dean's inner forearm, running over the Dark Mark. He made a sleepy, contented sound, his other arm winding ever-tighter around her waist. Saying nothing, she just melted against him, enjoying the feel that Dean was there, alive, sitting protectively with her.
Turning slightly, ignoring his sleepy protest, her ear fell flat against his chest.
She could hear the steady, regular rhythm of his heartbeat, Kally relaxing.
Ron remained quiet for a long, long while after that. There was no sound but the breaking waves, steady and rhythmic, the intermittent thunk-thunking of supplies washing on shore, and the regular breathing of Dean. There were no birds, no boats, nothing.
The complete and utter silence beyond that was eerie.
"I reckon I was wrong about you."
Ron's stiff, resigned voice broke through the night, Kally's eyes flickering back open. She managed a half curious, "Oh?" in his direction.
Ron just sat there, knees drawn to his chest, arms casually looped around them, staring out into the blackness. "Yeah," he said, as if more to himself than to her. "That thing you did back there, for…for Bill," he half-choked on the word, "Dean and Harry said that could have killed you, but you just kept trying." His gaze shifted to her, brow deeply furrowed, wrinkled. "That true?"
In his sleep Dean's fingers curled around her arm, Kally still relishing the feel of him being alive and capable of moving at all. "Yeah," she confirmed softly, voice quiet to avoid waking him.
Another length of silence passed, before it was broken with a loud snort. "You know, I never got it – what Harry saw in you." That blue gaze turned back towards the sea, looking over the top of the dune and out at it, his fingers stretching out and curling in on his kneecap thoughtfully. "Think I get it now, Kaylens. What you did with that shark, to buy us time to get Bill back to shore, and then trying to save him..." He shook his head, as if not believing his own words. "Hell…you do belong in Gryffindor."
Ron looked like he had swallowed something sour, her lips twitching weakly. "Thanks? I suppose…." They'd had a truce, one where they'd got on alright, but not exactly been on friendly terms. And yet…
Here he was, sitting by her, apparently standing guard.
Ron just grimaced deeper. "Thank you…for trying." He didn't move, he made no indication of what he was talking about, but he didn't have to. Bill.
Kally just closed her eyes once more, exhaustion sweeping over her. "No one," she murmured, "gets left behind, Ron. It's practically the Order's motto."
A derisive snort resounded through the night, Kally hearing Dean's heartbeat against her ear. Every so often the wizard twitched in his sleep.
"You know," Ron revealed bitterly, "I really didn't want to like you." He picked up a small pebble, looking at it as if it had personally offended him, before again dropping it onto the sand. "Figured you'd screw over my friend, somehow. But you won't will you?" Her eyes tiredly cracked, peering at his scrutinizing expression. "You'd get yourself killed before that, if today's anything to judge by."
"Unfortunately," she sighed wearily, "yeah."
He just looked at her seriously, shaking his head. "Yeah? Well don't. Harry's does enough suicidal things as it is. Reckon losing you would make that a hell of a lot worse."
Kally breathed unsteadily, shifting slightly on the sand, her palm pressing down against the cool granules as she sat up a little, but Weasley wasn't done.
"Know you both told us the highlights," he ground, "of what happened when we were all separated after Hogsmeade last fall, but…hell, what the hell happened to make him realize that you weren't Slytherin then?"
Despite herself her lips curved ever-so-slightly. "I might," she murmured, emphasizing the word, "have attacked a werewolf with a flaming stick," her lisp twitched, "when it was trying to impolitely drown him in a pile of mud."
For a second there was nothing.
Then Ron sputtered on a choked laugh. "So long as you're not about to go attacking all werewolves, you and I…we're good."
"With all the time I used to spend with Remus," she conveyed, "you ought to know my thoughts on werewolves, Ron." A sudden exhaustion begin to crawl through her like a toxin, eyes falling shut. The slight energy sitting up had required had apparently been too much for her. "Though…I make no promises about not making chew toy comments if you're pissing me off."
Another snort broke the air, and she could practically visualize him shaking his head. "You're something else, Kaylens."
"Likewise, Weasley."
A cool breeze blew gently past, it mostly blockaded by the sand dune and rocks, Kally shivering in Dean's arms. Her friend's grip on her unconsciously tightened, pulling her back against him as if he were an eight year old and she were some type of oversized stuffed animal that had tried to escape.
Voldemort himself had tainted this honestly, but right then, next to Ron and in Dean's arms, she wasn't afraid. Instead her breathing slowed, Kally aware that she had spent her energy reserves earlier, unicorn blood helping to regenerate them swifter than anyone else could, but still…
Still she found herself drifting to sleep, slowly.
"Hey Kaylens, you awake?"
She cracked one irritated eye at him. "Am," she yawned, "now."
He had the good grace to look sheepish for a second. "Sorry, didn't mean-"
"It's okay," she assured softly, gaze flickering over him curiously. "What is it?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "When we get out of here…" he started, sounded like he was already thinking better of it, "after everything…life's short, ya know? Thinking of asking Hermione out."
Kally blinked, sleep suddenly a minor concern. "Come again?"
He shot her a look. "I'm thinking," he annunciated slowly, "of asking 'Mione out. And since you're a chick…." Weasley shifted on the sand, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "How's that work? I mean…do I need to get her flowers, or can I just ya know, snog and ask? I mean…I don't want to get hexed."
For a second Kally just stared.
Then she broke out into a slight laugh.
Ron frowned. "I'm being serious."
She just laughed harder, Dean stirring and slowly waking up, both of his hands growing suddenly tight upon her in alarm. "What….wait-Kal?"
She was positively giggling, an annoyed breath suddenly blown against the top of her hair. The tension she'd felt through Dean's musculature suddenly abated, his voice sounding almost irritated. "Ron, why's Kal laughing?"
Kally laughed even harder, Dean now shooting Ron a tired, questioning look.
Ron just glared. "She's bloody evil."
Harry crouched low in the sand to avoid being seen, a patch of tall grass swaying in the cold breeze in front of his nose. He'd taken up post a hundred paces South of their impromptu camp, and so far he hadn't seen a damn thing. All he saw was an endless stretching of rolling sand dunes and deceptively gentle whitecaps breaking against the beach.
Voldemort was nowhere in sight. He couldn't even feel him inside his own head. Breathing hard, heavy through his nostrils, his grip flexed emptily along his side. He'd never realized how damn badly he wanted his wand until this little outing. Not being able to use it…he felt damn near naked.
He wasn't alone; despite his blood loss Dumbledore had decided to relieve Ron, pointing diplomatically out that he could see in the dark, could use wandless magic, and felt 'quite well' and 'healed fast.'
The mangled remnants of what had once been his right arm had told a different story.
Either way Black had actually let him, mumbling the whole time about 'asinine old men with hero complexes.' Harry had at least convinced Neville to go stand watch with the Headmaster, just in case he decided to do one of those annoying things that people suffering from severe blood loss were prone to – like passing out.
They'd taken the North end of camp, which left Harry here, alone.
A sound behind him sent every alarm in his head off, Harry jerking around, a piece of rotting wood wandlessly summoned and brandished at the intruder, the wizard nearly lunging-
He barely stopped in time.
Luna Lovegood stood there in the dark, her hair like beams of shining moonlight, smiling bemusedly. "Why hello, Harry," she said calmly, her pale eyes flickering to the sharp stick. "Would you like to fence?"
Harry made a sputtering, almost angry sound.
Luna seemed to not notice that she'd nearly been run through the mid-section by organic flotsam. She merely looked around, as if she could somehow magically see, before padding over to another piece of wood and picking it up.
Harry dimly noticed that her feet were bare, her toes painted in a polish that glowed a dim green in the dark.
She turned around, holding up what looked suspiciously like a broken off piece of oak. "Will this do?"
He half choked. "Luna," he croaked, "I nearly-"
"But you didn't," she offered a serene, unbearably understanding smile, taking a step closer across the sand. "You'd never hurt me, Harry. I think it's silly for me to worry about something like that if I startle you, don't you?"
The piece of wood fell out of his grasp, thudding dully against the sand. "Luna, what are you doing here?" He paused, adding, "And how can you see?"
She frowned artfully. "My eyes adjusted, Harry. My rod cells admittedly did take a few hours, but that's okay. From what daddy says that's perfectly normal."
Harry just stared. "Rod cells?".
"You know, the photoreceptors that let you see in low light? They can't see color but," pausing, she tucked her hair behind her ear, "they really are quite good at blacks and whites and grays I think, don't you?"
Conversations with Luna had the unique ability to make him think he'd gone insane. Perhaps all the Crucio-rounds he'd taken had landed him in St. Mungo's Janus Thickery Ward, and all the recent events were just a nightmare he was having on repeat whilst sharing a room with Neville's parents.
"Luna…" he started.
"Your rod cells work much better than mine though. So the dark doesn't bother you anymore, does it, Harry?"
It took him a second, but he managed to blink.
She afforded him a wane smile, it so similar to Kaylens that it was almost frightening. "The dark," she said calmly, "it won't bother you tonight."
Harry just stood there, staring. Luna knew he could see in the dark. Of course she did; she'd been in the Forbidden Forest with them and had seen him navigate without light before.
He wasn't certain he wanted to talk about Fawkes and the phoenix mutating him into a bond mate though. Instead his gaze nervously raked the landscape behind her, catching sight of the glowing green again. "Your toes," he managed, extremely coherently, "are glowing."
Then he turned to look back the other way, scanning the opposite direction, heart thundering. It was the middle of the night. They were only half-way there, and making it to morning meant nothing.
Luna needed to be sleeping, yet she remained, her translucent orbs studying him carefully. "You seem tense."
"Can't imagine why," he dryly replied. "It's not like people have died and we're on Voldemort's hit list or anything." He felt sick just thinking about it. Bill and Diggles were dead. He didn't even know how Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to react, let alone Ginny.
He hadn't been able to help either of them.
Now he was just on edge, waiting for the next attack.
A slight, wispy smile touched Luna's lips, the Ravenclaw stepping forward and reaching for him, soft fingers slipping into his and squeezing his hand, as if reading his thoughts. Her fingers were like ice, frozen from the water they'd swam through and the night that had descended after.
"It's okay, Harry," she said softly. "You can't save them all."
His jade gaze jerked up. His mouth opened and closed like a fish, no sound coming out.
If possible Luna smiled a little more, her fingers interlacing with his a bit tighter. "You saved me, if it helps you any, Harry. You're doing a good job."
Somehow, hearing her say that, when she'd once lain so close to death herself right in front of him…
It helped. It did.
Luna held his eyes for a moment longer, finally starting to move away, slowly extricating her fingers from between his-
Harry's hand tightened hard upon hers, not letting her go and pulling her back. "Luna," he muttered, a quiet plea for her to wait. His gaze clenched shut for a moment, Luna making no sound, no protest. Instead she calmly remained there, Harry concentrating hard.
It was harder when Kaylens wasn't there. It was always harder when she wasn't right there.
Slowly, surely a warming charm seeped out of his hand and into Luna's, traveling up her arm, to her torso, Harry opening his eyes in time to see an agreeable looking shiver sweeping her. Within the shadows he could see goosebumps rising over her neck, Harry biting down hard on his tongue, stepping forward, closer, dropping his free hand against the pale, exposed flesh there. Her still damp hair tickled the back of his hand, but he was already concentrating once more.
Under his breath he uttered the charm a final time, the magic sweeping out of him and into her, Luna looking far less cold now.
Harry lingered for only a second, a strange sensation steeling him. Luna…she had an inexplicable way of calming him. He'd contributed nothing, offered nothing to most of their conversations, yet she always quietly reminded him that not everyone near him always wound up dead.
"Thanks," he managed, dropping his hands away from her, releasing her fingers.
The witch just smiled serenely at him. "Actually," she told, "I think I'm the one who should be thanking you, Harry. But maybe another time."
He opened his mouth, coherently stating, "What?"
"You know, when you're not standing watch?"
"Oh." Watch. He turned his attention back to just that, seeing nothing. It was still dark, still utterly quiet. Which reminded him…
He shot a look back towards her. "Why'd you come out here?" he asked.
"Oh that," she said. "Ron said it was your turn to sleep. You should probably go meet him though, since Dean keeps falling asleep and he didn't want to wander off until you got back."
Harry stared, before actually snorting. "No thanks, I'm good."
Blue eyes narrowed. "You do need sleep, Harry."
"Another time."
Luna Lovegood actually looked irritated. "Harry Potter, if you don't sleep you're no good to anyone. So you will sleep, if I have to hex you myself."
At that Harry actually blinked, shooting her a skeptical look. "Oh yeah?" he drawled. "And how, pray tell, do you plan to do that."
Without preamble Luna's nose wrinkled, the girl tugging something out of the back of her pants and jabbing his abruptly in the upper arm.
The stinging sensation was abrupt and painful, Harry fairly certain that he actually yelped. "Luna what the hell?!"
"I found a conch," she said simply, "with a dead jellyfish in it." Smiling, she added, "Not a dangerous one mind you, but enough to sting you into deciding to take a break."
Harry was fairly certain his upper arm was burning, but all he could do was utterly gape at the witch standing before him. "That's…that's downright Slytherin."
"Yes, I know," she replied unapologetically, snaring her fingers around his non-injured arm. She wasted no time in starting to pull him back towards camp, his injured arm going curiously numb. "You really shouldn't be so prejudice against Slytherin House, Harry. There's a lot we could learn from them."
Harry choked, finally going with her willingly. "You realize I can't feel my arm now, right?"
"Don't be such a first year, Harry. It'll wear off in a bit."
Harry Potter could do nothing but gawk, utterly shocked that he'd just been bested by a small, blonde Ravenclaw that had, until this point, seemed deceptively innocent. And despite himself, despite the fact that his fingers were tingling painfully from the jellyfish, he couldn't help but smirk.
He rather admired this version of Luna.
Luna Lovegood smiled in the dark, rather enjoying this version of herself too.
Something brushed against her skin, the sensation gentle, tingling.
Wrinkling her nose she made a tired sound, sleepily burrowing her face down into the crook of Dean's shoulder, trying desperately to avoid moving.
Something else touched her hair, this time giving it a pointed tweak.
Kally made a disgruntled sound, the muffled snort clueing her tired brain in on what was actually happening. Peering up, eyes lidded in a tired glare, she fully expected to see Weasley screwing with her.
Only Ron was gone. Instead Harry sat, not a meter and a half away, the ghost of a smirk touching his jaw-line.
Harry.
A slow, sleepy smile touched her lips. "Harry," she whispered, eyes fluttering open. He was there. He was safe. Amidst everything else that had happened, her mind seized upon that undeniably important fact.
Harry afforded her a strained grimace, his back leaning against the same sand dune Dean and her slept on. Kally's eyes fully opened, raking over him with such worry that she felt her stomach twisting, but…
He looked fine. His left leg was stretched out in front of him, his right bent up at the knee, the wizard looking for all the world like a languid cat relaxing.
"Hey Kally."
Kally wet her lips, the intensity of his malachite gaze almost startling. Slowly she extricated herself from Dean's arms, being careful to not wake him. "Harry," she whispered again, palm pressing against the sand as she gingerly sat up, still looking him over, "I thought you were patrolling?"
Potter just raised an eyebrow, it disappearing beneath his unruly hair slung across his brow. "Was," he told, voice equally lowered, "then Luna rather enthusiastically banished me for this thing called a break." His fingers gave another flick on empty air, a tendril of her still damp hair wandlessly tweaked.
Kally shot him an unimpressed look, swatting at her hair and almost wincing. Her muscles were sore. Not sore enough to make moving difficult, but just enough for her to actually notice. "Prat," she muttered.
"Harpy."
Her lips parted, aghast, a half-amused, half-exhausted sigh escaping. "Harpy?"
Potter gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Figured I'd skip right to the end of our usual argument and get right to the finishing blow, before your voice gets raised enough to wake the sleeping wonder."
Despite everything a small smile toyed at her lips, Kally's eyes sliding through the deep night to where Dean grunted unhappily, his arms crossing over his chest as he attempted to hug himself in her absence. "You know," she mused softly, "I'm surprised nothing dour was done to him, given you were here while he was defenseless."
"Hrm…can't imagine where you'd ever get such an idea," he postured innocently. Harry drummed his fingers on his kneecap, his other arm hanging oddly loose by his side. "Really Kally, it's almost like you think we don't get along."
Kally shot him a tired, suspicious glare. "Harry…did you do anything to him?"
Potter just smirked. "Thought crossed my mind," he said flippantly. "Pity, some good looking non-witch convinced me to call a truce with him earlier today." His fingers gave another careless flick, her hair now rustled into a tangled mess on top of her head. "Wouldn't know where I could find her, would ya?" he questioned innocently, his malachite gaze firmly upon her. "Fancying a snog and waiting just will not do."
Combing her hair out of her eyes with her fingers, she shot him an annoyed look through them. "You're impossible."
"Aim to please, love."
Now it was her turn to incline an eyebrow. "Love?"
He grinned, looking frighteningly like Tonks for a moment. "Trying something."
Given their present situation, given where they were, Harry seemed in a strange mood. The nervousness of why sent her heart fluttering fast. "Well," she whispered, suppressing her unease and drumming her fingers in the pebbly sand, "at least it's better than harpy."
Harry outright snorted. "See? Knew you'd like it. Now, are you planning to come over here or do I have to risk actually touching Dean to reclaim you?"
Kally still sat between Dean's outstretched, long legs, a wane smile touching her lips. "Since when have you been so confident?"
A shadow passed through his eyes, it gone as swiftly as it'd come. "Since I was too tired," he told, "to care if I was putting my foot in my mouth."
"You mean you're normally not trying to?" Honestly, he exceled at doing the exact opposite. Shaking her head, seizing upon this normalcy if it kept the shadow she'd glimpsed at bay, she murmured, "Really Potter, if that was your goal you usually fail. What's that grade they give for that? Terrible, or was it Dreadful?"
"Troll, actually," he countered, a smirk ghosting across his jaw line. A second later he'd reclined back against the sand dune, folding only one arm behind his head. "And give a wizard some credit…might not exactly be glib around you, but I at least make an attempt."
Despite herself she bit down upon her lower lip, suppressing a smile.
Potter merely dropped his gaze closed, looking oddly relaxed as he drawled, "Seriously Kally, had to watch another man cuddle you for the last half hour. Have a heart."
Kally clamped down upon her lower lip even harder to avoid smiling. "You impossible man," she grumbled, partly awed at him. Of all the horrors he'd so recently seen…yet here he was, looking unbelievably relaxed, asking her to join him.
She really wanted to join him.
Pressing her hands into the sand she gingerly stood up, wincing as her legs, shoulders, everything screamed quietly. She only realized that Potter had seen it, his gaze now cracked, when she spotted the look he was giving her.
Harry was already sitting up, his brow creasing deeply. "Kaylens," he questioned, forest-colored gaze already sweeping across her form, "are you-"
"Yeah." She offered a tentative smile in the dark, knowing he'd see. Reaching him in only a few steps, the sand squishing between her toes and cool beneath her feet, she sat down alongside him.
Harry grunted skeptically.
"I'm just sore," she quietly reassured, folding her legs beneath her.
"Ron said," he dubiously muttered, sounding put-out, "you were okay." The blithe tilt to his tone of before had disappeared.
"It's not bad," Kally reiterated. "Honest."
The tall grass alongside them swayed in a cold breeze. It looked like he wanted to argue, to say something, but instead he just stiffly nodded. "Okay. So…it's not as bad as usual?"
As usual…
Harry had seen her in terrible states before; it was little wonder he was worried.
"I promise," came her quiet assurance in the night, "that I'm okay, Harry."
Behind round, wire-framed glasses unapologetic viridian watched her, Potter saying nothing. He uttered not one word. He was not a meter away from her, not even, yet the intensity of his expression…
Kally gnawed on her lower lip, a lock of hair falling from behind her ear to veil her eyes. "Funny as it sounds," she told gently, "electricity is much easier to control than…" trailing off, wetting her lips, she managed, "than the other kind." She hadn't wanted to finish that sentence.
She didn't like thinking about the fact that she was engineered to kill things, living things, all because of a cruel twist of genetics. Life energy. Kally could sense it, feel it, snuff it out and yet…
She had no idea how to even begin to describe it.
Touching it, reaching for it felt so, so unbearably wrong.
Harry's jaw had grown stiff, throat rising and falling in a rough swallow. Finally he leaned forward, his left hand reaching for her, falling to rest against her calf. Rough, callused fingers began tracing across her skin, his expression thoughtful.
Kally drew in a slow breath, not missing how his right arm still hung limply, oddly at his side. Swallowing, trying to not let his thumb's movement over her bared flesh steal her thoughts, she quietly questioned, "Harry, what's wrong with your arm?"
The movement of his fingers stilled. "What arm?" The feigned nonchalance did not fool her.
She tilted her heard in silent exasperation, pointedly looking at his arm. "The one," she said only slightly dangerously, "that may or may not still be attached to you, depending on how you answer the question."
Harry snorted, glancing over at it as if it were a particularly irritating gnat. "Oh, that."
She eyed him, bewildered. "Yes, that."
"Luna. Told you she got somewhat…enthusiastic about forcing me to take a break." His fingers squeezed upon her calf, his touch…Merlin. She tried to focus on what he was actually saying. His hand was already sliding down to her ankle, stopping at her bare heel, his fingers rubbing the sand from her skin. "Apparently non-compliance with her wishes," he casually told, "warrants getting stung by a jellyfish."
That got her attention.
Her half-lidded, relaxed eyes cracked open in a concerned glare. "Where," she hissed, "did she get a jellyfish?"
Harry met her gaze levelly, tone dead serious. "She found a dead one in a seashell."
Kally took a moment to process that, before letting out a swift breath. "Only you, Harry, could get stung on land by a creature of the sea."
"Tell me about it," he griped as if he'd been terribly wronged. "Now if only I could find a non-witch to kiss and make it better my night'd be complete." His fingers had started moving along her bare skin once more, wrapping firmly around one of her feet, as if he were considering pulling her across the sand.
"I think," she murmured teasingly, "the toxins got to your brain."
"Mmm," he agreed, "could be on my last leg then. All the more reason."
"You," she intoned, "are incorrigible."
His tone was filled with plenty of guile. "Guilty."
Despite herself she smiled, her eyes running over his form, taking him in fully for the first time since she'd awoken. Even coated in sand, with his dark, riotous hair sticking out at every possible angle, he still was unbelievably distracting.
Harry's sly gaze glinted behind the glasses Moody had given him. "So?"
She shook herself. "So what?"
"Know of any non-witches subscribing to the kiss and make it better philosophy? Seriously Kaylens, been a rough run. Even the Ravenclaws are attacking."
She gave his leg a half-hearted kick, using the foot not clutched in his hand. Harry winced and shot her a mock pained look. "Is your arm okay, Harry?" She flat out ignored the wounded look he was giving her, her eyes daring him to dance around the question again.
He didn't. Instead he just smirked slightly, grousing something under his breath about violent women. "It's fine. Takes about an hour to wear off. So figure I've got…twenty minutes?" Pausing, he added, "Allegedly."
Kally just shook her head slowly, amazed. "So you got bested by Luna."
Potter grunted affirmation.
"You know," she said quietly, "I'm thinking that I rather like Luna. Maybe her and I need to talk some-"
A strong hand seized her foot, abruptly yanking her across the sand to him, Harry's face directly in front of hers and growling. "Kaylens," he muttered lowly, "you are not convincing Lunato gain up on me."
The cool sea air pressed around her, Harry's form warm amidst the surroundings. "Whyever not?" she whispered innocently.
"Because she doesn't," he half growled, "need encouraged."
"Mmm," she murmured, "and what about you?"
Potter's head lowered near hers, his breathing loud amidst the penetrating silence. "I'd think," he muttered lowly, "that'd be obvious."
Her breathy whisper traced across his skin. "It's not."
"Ah, then perhaps," mouth lingering near hers, "I should show you. Unless of course…you'd rather not."
Kally was no longer certain what they were even talking about, but she didn't give him a chance to assume anything. Instead she was shifting, knees driving into the sand as she slid to straddle his legs, in his lap, her fingers rising, sliding through his utterly untamable, dark hair.
Her fingers clenched within it, her breaths coming quickly as she refused to claim his lips. She could feel his breathing, the way his mouth parted to take deeper breaths as she got closer. Everything in her still hurt, but not badly, not terribly. It was bearable.
"Hrm…" he muttered, "maybe you do have a heart." The feel of Potter's working appendage wrapping around her back, seizing her in an unbreakable hold as he pulled her against his hips, stilled her breath in a way nothing else could.
Harry's breathing had grown unsteady, her own echoing it. His entire form stiffened, growing taut beneath her, the minerally scent of saltwater clinging to him, filling her senses. Potter's fingers flexed hard against her spine, her heart pumping faster, it all she could do to keep her eyes from fluttering shut. "Harry…"
He was here, with her, acting so sodding flippant that it was maddening.
Bill and Diggles were dead. They were alive, and Harry…
Harry seemed to be blocking all of it out.
A roughened voice traced against her lips. "Kaylens…" he muttered back, nose shunting against hers.
The wizard moved, as if to claim her lips, Kally sucking in a breath and maneuvering her lips away. "Potter…" pausing, eyes flickering open, locking onto him, she whispered, "I need to know if you're okay?"
From alongside them Dean snorted in his sleep, sliding over sideways into the sand. Neither spared him a glance, Harry's expression so intense it sent tremors coursing through her.
"Harry," she pled again, "with Voldemort, and Bill…."
He shifted, fist suddenly in her hair, his forearm laying flat against her spine as he trapped her to him. "No," he growled, "I'm not okay, Kal. But-" He swallowed roughly, jaw clenching, fingers tightening in a way that tugged at her scalp. "But I will be." And with that…
His mouth pressed to hers. It was slow at first, needing. Teeth bit at her lower lip, tugging it between his own, a sound she didn't recognize escaping her as his mouth abruptly released hers, his fingers abruptly forcing her head to the side so he could find her neck.
He wasn't alright, and he'd sodding told her.
Kalliandra's pulse beat wildly, her head tilting back, permitting Harry access, allowing him anything. She remained there, perched on Potter's lap, practically panting as he nibbled, suckled at her pulse points, lips dragging down to her collarbone. "Harry," she breathed, desperate, needing him to stop.
He didn't.
Instead he growled, mouth coming back up to hers, an electrical static, a tingling crawling across her skin. The two of them together….
Harry was electric. There was no other sodding word for it. Never, not once had she ever been able to exercise a modicum of self-control in his presence, and it certainly wasn't starting now. Not with him there, with her, so unbearably close with that familiar tingling traveling, tracing across her skin, coursing through her body.
She felt his bad, numbed arm twitch slightly, as if trying to move, Kally shifting on his lap, feeling a now familiar part of Harry's body growing, pressing harder against her-
Kally made a needing, half-moaning sound, only barely stopping herself from rocking her hips against his. Somehow he understood, Harry's own groan quiet, measured as they both suddenly stopped, just leaning bonelessly upon one another, breathing heavily.
"It's just…just Dean-" she breathed.
Against her lips she felt a slow, subtle smirk. "Just Dean?" he breathed back. "Not the looming threat of Death Eaters interrupting?"
She nudged her nose against his, lips brushing against his warm ones. "Well that," she murmured, "and Dean…he might kill you."
He snorted. "I could take him."
"Still…"
A low rumble shook Potter's chest. "Hate to break it to you, Kaylens, but judging from some of his dorm room comments, reckon he already knows."
Kally almost missed the implication. Dean knew. Breathing shakily, still feeling parts of Harry pressing so, so close through their clothing, she shook her head against his. "Well," she gasped, Harry having moved to press needingly against her for a brief moment, "at least Hermione didn't figure it out."
Harry snorted so loudly that Dean twitched in his sleep, his good hand finding her ass. "Smartest witch of her age, Kally. If she hasn't, then clearly we're not doing something right."
A breathless laugh escaped her, Harry silencing her. This time his mouth moved far slower, as if he were painstakingly, purposefully preventing himself from getting lost. Slowly his arm wrapped ever-tighter around her, the wizard leaning backwards, taking her with him as he thudded against the dune with a quiet groan.
Kally slid off him, the wizard tugging her against his side, his head burying within her hair. "You have no idea," he moaned against her, "how badly I've wanted to do that for the last half hour…"
She swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. "Think," she murmured, "I might."
For a long, long moment Harry simply held her close. Then… "I'm having a really hard time," he disclosed, "reconciling that you're here, doing these sodding things with me."
Her fingers slid across Harry's chest, sand blowing across them, the granules kicked up by a cool breeze blowing across the dunes. "Private things," came her quiet inquiry, "or Order things?"
"Both."
Kally wasn't certain what to say to that, so she said nothing. Instead she relaxed, the feel of him tightly clutching her doing more to still any fear than anything else.
"About that shark, Kally."
She peered up at him, a sheepish smile touching her lips. "I was wondering when I'd get scolded again for that."
He just shot her a look, it only enticing her to smile more. "Probably," he told flatly, "every day for the next year."
"Ah…so it'd be silly to ask if there was a chance of you letting that go?"
The derisive sound he made answered that.
It didn't stop his head from leaning against the top of hers, his hand tangling in her hair as he let out a long, resigned breath. Kally could practically hear his heartbeat, closing her eyes, shifting against his chest to listen.
The steady, rhythmic thumping was loud, hard, fast.
It made hers respond in kind.
Harry tensed imperceptively, his fingers slowly sliding through her long locks, the wizard's indrawn breath seeming as if he were about to say something; only he didn't. Together they lay there, sprawled out within the dune, Kally remaining silent as she waited.
She knew better than to interrupt him when he was thinking, her fingertips playing across his chest, only stopping when his jellyfish-stung arm finally rose, that hand clasping firmly around her own to still it.
"I think," he grunted, "I owe you an apology." It sounded like the words were causing him some difficulty, his head dropping back to lean against the sand dune. The wizard stared straight up at the night sky, managing, "I didn't want you here, Kaylens. You know that." Voice suddenly tight, he dryly bit, "Didn't think you could help in this…situation."
Kally felt his hands unconsciously tighten upon her, right as that familiar, unpleasant feeling welled within her. It was the feeling of being useless in his eyes. Harry held her to him, firmly, as if half-afraid she'd flee before he could finish.
The next words sounded croaked, like they were being forced through a grinder.
"I was wrong, Kaylens."
That unpleasant feeling suddenly stilled, Kally's eyes flickering up to his.
She found that Harry was already looking down at her, heavy, thoughtful lines creasing his brow. Slowly his fingers squeezed her hand, releasing it, moving beneath her chin. "What you did with that shark, Kaylens. You hadn't done that, more than two of us would have died. And that…" He grimaced, thumb tracing her jaw. "I hate you doing things that could get you killed."
Harry's fingers applied gentle pressure, tilting her chin up to better regard her, Kally's lips wetting as his mere touch did maddening things to her stomach. He looked at her like he'd never seen her before.
Maybe he hadn't.
Kally tried desperately to control her breathing. "I…thank you, Harry."
A frown immediately crossed his features. "For what?"
A small smile crossed hers, her hand reaching up to find his face. "For finally giving in."
He made a pained sound. "Told you," he groused, "I'm never going to like it."
"Yes well…welcome to my world," she placated. "You know, the one where the insane person you're snogging tends to do brash, stupid things as a matter of sport."
Harry groaned quietly. "Should have known you'd use that against me."
"Of course," she murmured, her hand sliding along his unshaven stubble, finally finding his lips, her fingers running over them, tracing them. Harry's eyes closed, the wizard looking like he was about to burst from something, before-
"I love you." The hard part of his throat rose and fell in a distinct, visible swallow. "I really," he ground, the words damn near primal, "love you." His grip grew tight on her.
Kally's heart flipped. Those words…she'd never tire of hearing them. "Feelings mutual," she managed in a bare whisper. Harry's eyes remained firmly closed, the wizard looking almost pained at the admission, as if again stating it meant losing her could suddenly be real.
She understood so, so acutely. Thinking on that though…it wouldn't help. She wanted to get a smile out of him, her lips twitching, tone turning mischievous. "It's so mutual," she murmured again, "at least….eighty percent of the time."
Harry's gaze flew open, the intensity of it suddenly shifting, pain in it, followed by swift amusement. "Eighty?" Never had the word eighty sounded so dangerous.
"Mmmhmm," she confirmed.
The hands upon her tightened, tensing. "Eighty?"
"It's the number," she kindly told, "after seventy nine."
Harry growled, pulling her closer. "Wicked woman."
Kally wasn't certain what happened next – it was too fast - but she found herself suddenly flipped, pressed hard against the sand, Harry leaning over her, the wizard looking at her – just looking.
"Harry?" Her whisper practically trembled. A coil of excitement, and of something else, squirmed within her.
With Potter she never knew what he was going to do, and Merlin help her if she didn't want more of it.
His gaze bored down into hers, his jaw locked as if thinking extremely hard about something. Never had she ever crossed paths with anyone who could rival the same intensity he had. It was enough to rob the breath from her; it was enough to still any protest. The silence stretched, only the shifting sands in the breeze and sounds of the sea present to break it.
Potter took a breath so deep she was shocked it hadn't awoken Dean, his voice cutting through the night.
"When we get back…we'll talk with Black." It was not a question, his voice undeniably serious.
Her lips parted in silent query, Harry already cutting her quietly off. "Potions," he explained lowly. "You're good at them. Damn good."
Despite herself, she found herself nodding warily, sand mixing with her hair, Harry's fingers flexing deep into the white granules alongside her head. She truly, honestly had no idea what that had to do with literally anything, but-
"You wanted to do biomedical research, right?"
Suddenly she understood. Eyes flickering over his firm face, the sky remained an inky black above him. She'd shared that with him, shared a part of herself she'd never told anyone at Hogwarts. She'd never told anyone in this world, the one she was now a part of. She may have disclosed it that very day, but the fact that he'd even remembered with everything going on…
Kally's stomach twisted, only able to managed a pathetic nod.
Harry was far more collected, as always. He swallowed, telling, "St. Mungo's. Think I remember Hermione mentioning they have people who just specialize in the potions there, and research." Quirking a brow, he wryly added, "Thought you might find that interesting, and since Black's the only pseudo-Healer we know…"
Around them, a dozen meters off, other Order members slept. Yet here Potter was, practically on top of her on the sand, Dean not a meter away from where they lay, talking to her about job prospects.
Kally eyed him with a faint, bemused smile as realization slid through her. "You're trying to keep me around…" she breathed, an unbelievably amazing feeling filling her.
He just stared down, not so much as blinking. "Told you," he grated, "keeping you on land is my new life goal." A strained, humorless grimace tugged at his features. "Especially after today."
The curve of her lips vanished, understanding coursing through her. Today…
Today they'd all nearly died. Today Bill and Diggles had. Today she'd nearly drowned after quite literally taking out a shark.
Today Harry Potter had been scared.
The air was nearly driven from her. "Okay…" she whispered, looking at him as if she'd never seen him before. "When we get back, we'll talk to him."
The relief in his eyes was practically palpable, but his face remained a stony mask. "Good. We'll just…" His right hand lifted, slowly brushing errant strands of hair out of her face. "We'll just tell Mungos you're a squib or something. Squibs can do potions."
Kally was shivering, not from the cold, but from the merest feel of his fingertips along her flesh. "Yeah," she agreed, only somewhat coherently, "plausible enough."
Harry smirked, his hand growing still upon her, tweaking her ear. "What's the matter, Kaylens? Distracted?"
Eyes narrowing, she slowly shook her head in amusement, sliding her leg up alongside his. "Never….and since when do you have any concept of job prospects?" He wasn't exactly the most enthusiastic student outside of DADA.
"Since Hermione forced Ron and I to look at a career book for an entire weekend while you were trapped down in Snape's lab," he drawled, not missing a beat.
Kally couldn't help it: she laughed.
"It wasn't," he growled, "funny. She made us take an aptitude quiz."
She laughed harder, covering her mouth with one hand in an attempt to muffle the sound.
Potter just shot her another one of his patented looks of irritation, and a moment later found her being roughly pulled up against him, the wizard outright growling at her.
Then his two working arms drug needingly around her, and there, on that dune, surrounded by death and sleeping Order members, Potter kissed her.
He kissed her like he was thanking her.
Heart pounding furiously, unable to calm it, Kally let him.
She loved him.
It was a long while before they wound up, once again, laying back against the dune, Kally tucked up against his side, the two slowly drifting off to sleep. The realization that Potter wanted her, longer than she'd ever realized, sent something warm swelling within her.
And so they slept, until the lights over the water began.
It was bright enough to rouse everyone. They all awoke with a start, the wizards and witches reaching for their useless wands out of sheer habit. Kally's hand was already seized firmly within the confines of Harry, the two running towards the waterline, halting as their feet struck the icy surf, the foam rolling around their bare feet.
Across the water the flashing lights of spell fire could be seen, the glow reflecting against the writhing, black sea as if the very ocean itself had become a mirror.
The Death Eaters had arrived, and they were attacking the boat.
One-by-one they all grouped together, standing on the beach, watching in silence as vicious, multi-colored lights launched in every direction.
It was like watching a fireworks spectacle, only eerily silent.
Eventually the disillusionment charms on the fishing trawler disappeared, the eerie outline of the hull visible with each flashing light. The silhouettes of the mast and deckhouse were like dark, black shadows within the night.
And so it was that they all watched the mast breaking, falling...
It happened as if in slow motion; the boat began to list, tilting unnaturally…
"My God," Tres stated, "they're driving them inland."
The invisible barrier between the calm sea and the wrecking, crashing waves suddenly blazed a brilliant blue, the fishing trawler crossing through it.
Besides them Tonks made a strangled sound, lunging forward, only for Regulus to bodily seize her.
The trawler tilted, disappearing beneath the waves within moments, Tonks shouting at Regulus, fighting him, the sound heartbreaking.
The sky was suddenly ablaze with a whole new type of aberrant light.
A green, glowing skull blazed against the inky blackness, a writhing snake slithering through its empty eye sockets, darting in and out of its gaping mouth, the serpent's eyes gleaming triumphantly. In the light cast from it small figures could be seen darting back and forth upon brooms, over a dozen…
Then they disappeared, flying back out across the still part of the ocean, not coming towards them.
Terror infiltrated her veins, a single thought flying through her mind, Tonks shouting the same name: Remus.
Author's Note Take 2: So a couple of things for the geeky folks out there (since I like to add little science tidbits in here, even if I do intentionally stretch them beyond the bounds of reality for the purpose of magical fanfiction) here's some fun facts on this….
1. There are non-deadly jellyfish and yes, dead animals can still 'sting you.' It's why you have to be careful when dissecting venomous things in labs. Having volunteered in both a marine biology lab and a herpetarium (thing snakes, frogs, etc.) I can say they can definitely still get you if you're not careful.
2. For the curious, cone photoreceptors are what allow you to see colors and rod photoreceptors allow you to perceive things in low light conditions. Cones are fairly worthless in the dark.
3. Your eyes, despite what most people think (including some of the characters in this chapter because lets be real, I couldn't make them all totally smart on all things right?), can adjust to the dark. You have your first stage of adjustment in just a few minutes, followed by a deeper stage of seeing in 30 to 50 minutes. You wind up with your maximum adjustment to darkness after a few hours, however if you see any form of light (cell phone, headlamp, flashlight, etc.) you are starting all over at square one. It's why, when you are camping, you should use a red light setting on your headlamp (as that will activate the cone photoreceptors and not the rod photoreceptors, so you won't lose all your night vision adjustment by getting blinded with it).
Now onto review replies!
Anime – You utterly crack me up! A sadist am I? I actually had another penname way back with a friend of mine…twosadists…so I suppose that is accurate. And it's not terrible at all to wish that Bill didn't get the axe, but I make few promises for the safety of anyone else (other than the one I PMed you). I'm actually kind of proud that the action parts have you going 'I can't read it until there's more than one chapter!' I find it highly amusing and am glad that it has that effect, I think? Haha Thank you so much as always for the review though and the well wishes on our restoration project. It went swimmingly!
Rachelhanke – Okay WOW your reviews blew me away, as always! Thank you so much for them! I know I replied to yours by PM at least, but again…I have never laughed as hard whilst reading a review as I did while reading your last one. I am fairly certain people at work (who saw me reading it on lunch) now think I'm insane. Be proud!
Mister Bonbadil – Thank you! I always found it slightly maddening that fanfiction, regular fiction, TV, movies, etc. just go 'oh the person's dead….' and that's that. It's called CPR people! It can actually work (sometimes, depending on the situation and how close they are to advanced life support and care but I'll avoid that tangent)! So yeah, that's always been a pet peeve of mine so I try to actually have people take action in this fanfiction. These people, students included, are all soldiers so naturally would have had some, even minor, training in first aid and CPR at least, so why not have them use it? As for if this is the part of the story where a lot of people die, I consider character deaths like toppings…they are oh so excellent to use, but must be used sparingly, so there definitely will be deaths going on, but I'll try to restrain my urge to just wipe out everyone. ;)
TheReadingOtter – Thank you for letting me know that HPFF was back up. I appreciate it! Can't wait for the full functionality there to be restored so I can update the revised chapters (they aren't posted on here yet but shall be soon) there along with the new ones posted on here.
