Daryl still tended to keep to the background, not really talking to anyone for the most part. He would ask questions if something really interested or confused him but for the most part he was content to just hunt and watch everyone around him.
The Dixons had been at the quarry for a week when Harry asked the younger brother to hunt with him.
He was surprised to be asked. The magicals seem to be content just using the supplies they had, which he and his brother were included at every meal as long as they were in camp, and eating whatever meat Daryl brought back.
Harry explained in response to the raised eyebrow that he wanted to learn to track and hunt. He'd only been a couple of times himself and it was a skill that would be vital in this new world.
Daryl thought it over for a minute before nodding.
He was surprised himself how little the wizards and witches annoyed him. Usually he couldn't stand being around so many other people but for the first time in his life it didn't really bother him so much. Sure, there were times where he had to get out or just go to his tent and be alone because he'd, as he had heard Hermione say one day, 'peopled' enough. But for the most part this group was easy to get along with.
They didn't look down on him or Merle. They answered any questions and explained things when asked though they didn't assume that the brothers didn't understand. Unless it was blatantly magical and something they would have no reason to understand. Even then, usually unless the brothers asked the wizarding folk just assumed they got the gist of it or didn't care to understand deeper, not that they couldn't keep up. And that made all the difference in Daryl's, and Merle's, attitude with them.
Though if the archer was being honest, he preferred Harry's company to most of the others. He was quiet, just like him. He didn't usually feel the need to fill the air with chatter. And having grown up in both worlds, he explained things easier than some of the others when asked.
Plus, Harry wasn't hard to look at, which was something Daryl had squashed viciously. Thoughts like that had been in his mind since the first day when they'd met the group. Those brilliantly green eyes almost glowing with what Daryl now knew was raw power and not just the way the sun was shining. Daryl had thought they looked like actual jewels and then promptly wanted to kick his ass for such a sappy thought.
Shrugging out of his inner monologue, Daryl grunted for Harry to get his shit together and meet him outside.
Harry met him in under five minutes, his usual weapons in place and a compound bow and quiver of arrows strapped to his back. "Let's go." Harry said, just loud enough to be heard before taking off into the woods with Daryl not far behind.
After they'd walked for several moments and could no longer see the camp Harry stopped and pulled his bow from his back and adjusted the string before looking over at Daryl. "If it's alright with you, this hunt will be a little different."
"How's that?" he asked, looking back at the wizard curiously. "This isn't a hunt to kill, capture only."
"Capture?" Daryl said, looking at Harry as if he'd lost his mind.
"Capture." said Harry with a nod. "We currently have enough food that we don't need to kill to eat but one day in the future we will. And between humans culling the wildlife and the walkers killing everything that moves animals will become just as extinct as humans. So we need to preserve what we can."
At that, he paused and pulled a shrunken trunk from his pocket and showed it to Daryl. "This is a biome trunk, shrunken for ease of carrying obviously. Inside it is a habitat similar to this one for any and all of the animals we can find. We put them in here, where it's a perfectly preserved habitat with plenty of room for them, and let them do as they will until we need them for food later on."
Daryl was, yet again, surprised by this newest revelation of what magic was capable of. He had a way to basically make a hunting ground or a zoo in a box that looked no bigger than a ring box.
"Just puts off running out." Daryl said gruffly, trying not to show how impressed he was.
Harry shook his head and went on. "Not if we have plenty of them in there in the first place, both males and females. We literally leave the wild animals alone and only feed those that need feeding. Let them breed as they will, or maybe help those along that are starting to thin a little too much."
"Handy. You sure it'll work though?" Daryl asked, eyeing the small box.
"Positive. We have several of these already in use, eight in total I think. For both plants and animals. We keep the magical animals separate from the mundane. We even have a whole herd of unicorns in the magical animal trunk. Luna saved as many as she could from the Forbidden Forest that surrounds our school before we left England." Harry said, tucking the trunk into his pocket.
"Unicorns?" Daryl asked incredulously.
"Unicorns." nodded Harry. "I can try to show you when we get back but they're notoriously picky about who they allow near them. They're not overly fond of males." he shrugged and looked around as though he could spot an animal from where they stood before continuing. "We do have a heard of thestrals too though and they'll let anyone touch them, though not everyone can see them."
"What's thestrals and why can't everyone see them?" asked Daryl quietly as he set off in a direction, keeping an eye out for anything that moved.
"Winged, horse-like creatures. They're black with leathery skin and look almost skeletal. They can only be seen by people who've seen death. They're invisible to everyone else." Harry explained in a hushed voice as they moved through the woods.
Daryl stopped and looked over his shoulder meeting Harry's eyes in a rare moment. "And how many of you can see them?"
"All of us but Tori." Harry answered simply though he didn't elaborate and Daryl didn't expect him to.
They continued on their hunt making use of the necklaces from then on. Any time one of them caught sight of an animal of any kind, they'd alert the other. Harry would then shoot a gentle sleeping spell at them and levitate them over before pulling out the trunk and putting them inside.
This went on for hours. They paused for lunch at Harry's insistence saying that he would be questioned by Draco the second he set foot back into camp and didn't want to deal with the hissy fit he would throw if Harry hadn't at least snacked on something.
Now that they'd settled, the healer would accept no excuses for any one of them missing meals. He said that it put more strain than necessary on their bodies, especially since they had plentiful supplies.
"You and Draco seem close." Daryl commented before he could stop himself.
"We are." Harry said with a nod. "Though we weren't always. We actually hated each other for the first few years of school. Constantly fighting. He was what you'd call my arch-rival." he explained, leaning back against a tree.
"That's a jump." the other man said, wondering how that happened.
"Yeah. we believed the lies and misconceptions about our respective upbringings. He was a bit of a prat, though he still is sometimes to be honest." Harry said with a snort, getting another from the man next to him. "Draco was basically brainwashed into some pretty horrible beliefs by his even more horrible parents. Then the war started and Draco saw the truth about things." Harry paused as if weighing his words before continuing. "His father was the Dark Lord's right hand."
Daryl blinked at that piece of information. Bill, the oldest of all of the magical people, had explained a brief summary of the war the day before so he and Merle knew who the Dark Lord was.
Harry, seeing his subtle reaction, nodded. "So Draco defected. Started passing information on the Dark's movements and essentially became a spy at barely fifteen. He and I had made peace, sort of a truce the year before during fourth year, unbeknownst to anyone but 'Mione and, of course, Luna. Can't hide anything from Luna. Then the next year he was giving information as best he could. He, along with another man, a former professor of ours who'd been made the Headmaster of the school, spied until shortly before the final battle when he was given an order that he just couldn't bring himself to follow, even to keep his cover and save his own life. He was ordered to torture an 11 year old and refused. He was forced to go into hiding when it came to light that he wasn't as firmly on the Dark side as they assumed."
Daryl was shocked to learn that piece of information. Who tortured children?! Though from the things he was picking up, their war had been worse than a normal non-magical war. Children were targeted, attacked, and tortured. That was something that was just wrong to Daryl. He knew from Merle that the military tried to keep casualties and harm to innocent bystanders, especially children, to a minimum.
Harry let what he'd told the quiet man ruminate for a moment before he spoke again. "Draco proved his loyalty and in doing so became one of my closest friends. Once we made peace and grew to know and then trust each other he's been one of my staunchest supporters, defending me on all sides, even from myself if the situation calls for it. Earn his loyalty and he's fiercely protective, he does credit to his namesake. Vicious as a bloody dragon, that man is. He's my brother in everything but blood."
With that both men settled into silence. Not uncomfortable, just thoughtful and watchful in equal measures. There was a little part of Daryl that was glad there wasn't anything going on between Harry and Draco but he refused to look any further into the reason why.
Once their food and drinks were finished off, everything was packed away and the two men were back at it. Daryl started looping back around to camp by a different route once the light started fading from the day. Several more animals were added to the collection leaving them with a decent number of squirrels, rabbits, even a fox.
They'd also gotten extremely lucky in that they'd come across a herd of deer just before they started turning back towards the camp and Harry, with a speed that amazed Daryl, fired off several sleeping spells non-verbally in rapid succession. Two bucks, three does, and a couple of fawns were carefully levitated into the trunk and released.
Daryl had to admit that hunting with Harry was a pleasant experience. He didn't feel the need to fill the air with chatter, he was quick and quiet, and was quick to pick up on what Daryl was doing.
It was a novel experience to have someone trusting him and following his lead. Normally people assumed that he was just some dumb redneck and didn't bother with listening to what he had to say. Harry didn't seem to be like that.
They had used the necklaces throughout the day to communicate and Daryl was ever so appreciative that small-talk had not been on the agenda. Just about everything, apart from the conversation over lunch, had been about the task at hand.
Harry asked good questions, not second guessing but in an obvious effort to learn and understand a new skill. The younger Dixon could appreciate that. It actually made him a little proud that he could teach this obviously well educated and exceedingly powerful man something.
Harry didn't treat him like he was less than or that what he had to say was unimportant or suspect. The few questions that the other man had asked were understandable for people just getting to know each other but somehow not all that invasive.
Daryl thought Harry was perceptive enough to know that pushing or being overly nosey wouldn't win him any favors.
Harry had simply asked where he'd learned all of this stuff, commenting that it was extremely useful to have skills like this. When Daryl said he'd learned some from Merle and some from trial and error the Brit had simply nodded his head as if that made all the sense in the world and carried on looking around for game.
It was baffling to Daryl. Most people were pushy and intrusive and wanted to know the ins and outs and all the juicy bits of a person's past. Harry, as well as the rest of the magical people, seemed to understand that the past is best left where it is and not to prod at it. Something both Dixons were actually extremely grateful for.
Once the two men returned to camp, Harry handed the trunk of newly acquired wild animals over into Neville's care. After hearing what all they'd managed to collect Luna was thrilled and insisted she go into the trunk immediately to get a look at the animals.
Merle, who'd been in the training rooms most of the day helping Katie and Alicia with their aim with both knives and guns, hadn't believed that they had animals in trunks.
Harry laughed and invited both brothers to come with them to look at the animals. This was met with a mix of disbelief, derision, and anticipation.
That was how Harry, Luna, Neville, Hannah, Merle, and Daryl ended up going from trunk to trunk letting the brothers see their veritable menagerie. Convincing them that they wouldn't fall and climbing in and out of the trunks was perfectly safe and that no, they wouldn't suffocate, had taken a moment but eventually they huffed and climbed in after the others.
The trunk full of cattle had been a surprise that neither of the Dixons had been expecting. "That's a lot of steak." commented Merle as they were climbing back out. He'd actually touched a couple of the cows to check if they were real.
"Yes, well, the point is to have enough animals to repopulate them for our settlement so that we never run out." Neville explained. "We acquired them from several different places all over the country, differentiated by the colored spots on their flanks. That's to avoid inbreeding issues. That way we can breed them and have meat for a long time to come. And to prevent complete extinction."
"Smart." said Merle with a nod. He was impressed in spite of himself with these people. They were analytical, prepared, and thinking ahead for what would be needed to survive long-term and even thrive. It was reassuring that they'd picked the right people to join.
The next trunk was magical creatures and Luna was thoroughly amused by the look on the Dixons faces when they caught sight of the unicorns peeking out of the woods.
"Those…." Merle started before trailing off in shock.
"Unicorns." supplied Luna with a grin. "The most pure creature in existence. To kill one is a crime against nature."
Daryl and Merle simply watched in awe as they watched the beautiful creature step fully into the open. They'd never seen something so unreal. For all of the magic they'd witnessed over the last several days, nothing could top this in their minds.
They were startled when another creature stepped into the clearing, it was like a feathered horse with the head of an eagle. Both of them automatically twithed towards their weapons and immediately understood why they'd been made to leave them outside of the trunk.
Harry stepped forward and bowed to the creature and after a moment it bowed back. Once the man had stepped up to the beast he looked over his shoulder at them as he ran a hand along it's neck. "This is a hippogriff." he explained. "They're highly intelligent and even more prideful. You never want to insult one of these creatures, they will react violently and it could end up being the last thing you do."
"Noted." said Daryl before his brother could say anything worse.
"Don't believe Harry? Ask Draco. One attacked him in third year when he insulted it. He's lucky Buckbeak only clawed up his arm." Neville told them, wanting to make sure both understood that these weren't creatures to trifle with.
The small group didn't spend much longer in the trunk before moving on. Next the brothers were shown the greenhouse trunks and the one that had been specifically set up for rice. It was like a water world, very little dry land and rice patties taking up almost the whole space. It was their newest creation, something Neville and Hannah, with the help of Draco and Fleur, had spent the day setting up.
They'd been talking about dinner and Dean had made a comment about missing Chinese take-out his mum used to get and the idea of growing rice had been thrown out. And in true Wizarding fashion, the idea had been run with and in short order they were setting to work on making the idea into reality.
Another had been set up exclusively for coffee beans and different types of tea. This one was down to Hermione's insistence.
"Good thinking, mate." Harry said once things had been explained. "This will be a great help later on. It'll make food go farther and feed more people. We'll be able to produce and store a lot."
"It was Dean and Hermione's ideas respectively, the rest of us just made it happen." Neville said, not trying to be modest but letting Harry know Dean was the brains behind this one.
"I'll be sure to let them know too, but still you guys did great." Harry said as they left the trunk and headed back into the den. True to word, he called out his appreciation to the two masterminds.
"I've got dinner cooking, I found a recipe in one of those cookbooks for chili and I thought I'd try it." called out Draco.
"Draco Malfoy, lowering himself to cook for us mere mortals?!" called out George in overly exaggerated shock, falling backwards against his twin.
This drew good-natured laughs from all around.
"Oh, do shut up." Draco drawled, taking on that superior tone he'd learned from his father. This only served to bring about another round of laughter.
"Thanks for handling dinner Draco." Harry said as he made himself comfortable. Once settled he let out a whistle to get everyone's attention. "We have plans for tomorrow to discuss."
"What's on the agenda, oh fearless leader?" Fred asked in a mock grim tone.
"Do I need to revoke your pranking privileges?" asked Harry with one brow raised threateningly at the twins.
This produced gasps of horror from the two red-heads in question and amused laughter from everyone else. Even the Dixons were amused having grown to understand that the twins were mischief personified.
"You wouldn't dare!" exclaimed George.
"Wouldn't I?" drawled Harry in a perfect impersonation of Snape.
"Oh, he definitely would." Hermione said from where she was sorting through notes. "Remember the time Ronald pissed him off and he cursed him that every time he tried to eat anything other than salads he saw spiders for two weeks?"
The Weasleys in attendance all forcibly shoved the memory of their missing family members aside and laughed at the memory.
"Yeah, that was a good one." Fred said, pride clear in his voice. "That was the day we knew our little Harry was all grown up." Before George added, "We've never been so proud. Our little brother surpassed us that day."
"That's because you forgot he's the son and godson of the Marauders." Luna pointed out, tossing a transfigured miniature stag at the twins.
"Yes, we all know that when he wants to, our Harry can be just as creative as the twins and twice as vicious. Never mind more sneaky than any Slytherin." threw out Seamus.
"Oi!" came the call from the man in question as well as the two snakes in attendance.
"Getting back on topic!" Harry said sternly, though they could all see he was amused. "We need to do a few more raids over the course of the next few days."
"I thought we were done until the fall when we did the American magical districts." said Neville in confusion.
"We are. This has nothing to do with magic. We need to go collect petrol. We have a bit that we've stored from the lots where we got the RVs and vans but we're definitely going to need more, especially later on when we're having to use more of the vehicles as we gain more muggles into our number." Harry explained. "You call it gasoline or fuel I believe."
"How much do you have?" Merle asked curiously. "And where did you store it?" That was the more urgent question in his mind, gas could go bad like anything else. It did have a decent shelf life but it did expire, contrary to what most people thought.
"We have several full canisters, a couple dozen or so. That sound right to you?" Harry said, checking with Percy who was in charge of supply inventory.
"Let me check." Percy said, shifting through the log books he kept, one for each trunk, except for the plants, potions, WWW, library, and enchanting trunks, those were the responsibility of Neville, Draco, the twins, Hermione, and Bill and Blaise respectively as those were their area of expertise. Finding the correct ledger for trunk number twenty-one, auto maintenance, he scoured for the answer. "We have twenty 5 gallon canisters, ten 2 gallon canisters, and a dozen one gallon canisters that are full. And one five gallon canister that is half full."
"We've kept them all under stasis charms, Merle. We assumed the fluids would need preserving." offered Harry, answering the man's other question.
"That's good, gas does expire." Merle said with a nod. "Now what's the breakdown on how much of each kind you have?"
"Each kind?" asked Percy, checking his books again to see if there was anything that differentiated them.
"Yeah, each kind. How many of each do you have?" Merle asked, starting to think that these magicals didn't actually know all that much about non-magical things.
"There are different kinds?" asked Draco, looking up from where he was reading one of the potions journals from the Black estate. "As in… more than one?"
Merle couldn't help but look at the blonde like he was an idiot. Looking around, he saw the confusion on most of the faces in the tent and his idea that magicals were ignorant of the muggle world were all but confirmed. "Yeah, there's more than one. Regular, super, premium, and diesel." he explained, seeing that the confusion in the room only grew he went on. "Some cars can only run on certain types of gas. That RV out there can only run on diesel."
"Oh." said Draco with a nod, taking in this new information.
"So you didn't know that there were several different types of gas?" Merle asked, getting a unanimous shaking of heads from all of the wizards and witches. "Let me guess, you put everything in the same canisters didn't you?"
"That would be a yes." Harry said, wincing slightly realizing his mistake.
"I thought a couple of you were raised in the muddle world or whatever you call it." pointed out Daryl.
"We were; Hermione, Dean, Seamus, and I all were until we were eleven." Harry answered.
"Then how did you not know?" asked Daryl.
"Because by the time we were old enough to pay attention to things like that, and need to know them, we were of age or close enough and there was a war on. More important things going on and all that. And then after the war we all lived solely in the wizarding world. It wasn't necessary. We have magical forms of transportation that are much quicker so we didn't need autos." Harry explained.
"None of you know how to drive, do you?" asked Daryl.
"No, the only ones who've actually done it are the twins and that was an illegal flying car so… doesn't really count." Harry said.
"Oi! You flew that car too, Harry!" Fred pointed out.
"No, that was Ron, I just rode in the passenger seat." he answered back and a certain level of tension settled in the tent at the mention of Ron's name.
Merle, ever the irreverent loudmouth, picked up on the tension and discounted it, continuing on incredulously. "Flying car?"
"Who's Ron?" asked Daryl about the same time.
"Ron is our youngest brother, he was in Harry's year." explained Percy succinctly, saying nothing more on the matter. Even Percy, who'd said some pretty bad things about Harry in the war out of fear, had sided with Harry when the fallout between the Potter Lord and the Weasley family had happened. Really, it had only been Ron, Ginny, and their mother who'd been the problem, their dad just went along with whatever their mum said or did. All of the older brothers had backed Harry and subsequently had become estranged from their parents and youngest siblings.
"An old Ford Anglia." Bill pushed on, ignoring Percy's acknowledgement of their youngest brother. "Our dad enchanted it not intending to actually fly it, just wanting to see if he could make it work. Well, the twins stole it to get Harry from his relatives," the word for Harry's muggle family was sneered with as much venom as they'd ever heard Bill use. It made the Dixons curious but they knew enough to not ask, at least not at the moment. "He hadn't been responding to Ron's letters and he and the twins got worried, mostly the twins apparently, and they flew that thing all the way from our home in Ottery St. Catchpole to Harry's in Surrey in the middle of the night. Pulled the bars off of his window and… liberated him. Brought him back to the house in it."
"Then!" Picked up the twins,
"The entrance to the platform for the train to school was closed on them. They were the last ones to come through and they couldn't get on to the platform so Harry and Ron, in their brilliance, decided to fly dad's car to school." Fred began.
"They drove that thing in broad daylight from central London all the way to the northern mountains of Scotland. An eight hour trip, mind you. Crashed the thing right into the Whomping Willow." continued George.
"The Whomping Willow is a massive willow tree that if you get too close it hits you with it's branches. Named because it whomps you a good one. Those two idiots crashed the damn car into the thing and almost got themselves beat to death by the damn tree." finished Fred.
"That was the first of two encounters with that stupid tree and I can assure you, interactions with it are painful." Harry agreed.
"Anyway." said Merle, digesting what they'd just told him while trying to get back to business at hand. "There are different types of gas. You're not supposed to mix them. Three of them can still be used if you mixed them. Regular, super, and premium. But if you mixed diesel in then it's totally ruined."
"Would you be able to tell?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, there's a way to check. Diesel burns differently than normal gas. I can check through them. But any that are a mix of diesel and non-diesel will have to be scrapped. Can't be used for anything because it'll mess up the engines to mix them like that." Merle said.
"Do you know much about cars?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, I've worked off and on as a mechanic for years, same as Daryl." said Merle. "He's better out in the woods than under the hood of a car though."
"Would you be willing to take responsibility for all things vehicular and mechanical?" asked Harry. "It's obvious that we don't know what the hell we're doing when it comes to that and definitely need someone with that knowledge to be in charge of it."
Merle scratched his chin as he thought for a moment. He was surprised to be asked this after barely a week. Nobody had ever trusted him with anything, really. So to be asked to take charge of something that would be fairly important in the long run was shocking. Though it was just one more instance that proved to him the magicals were worth sticking with.
"Yeah, I can do that." he said finally with a nod.
"Percy, can you pull the mechanics trunk as well as a spare seven compartment trunk to sort out and store all of the fluids in? I think keeping them separate in the future would be a good idea. Hand them and the ledgers over to Merle for keeping track of things." Harry asked.
"Alright." Percy said with a nod. He got up to fetch the trunks before pausing and turning to the Dixon brothers. "Do you want to leave the trunks here for storage or take them to your own tent to store?"
"You have access to the wards and can come and go here as you please so it's up to you. Whichever is easiest for you." Harry said with an encouraging nod. "The trunks and their contents will be your responsibility to keep track of, manage inventory lists and such."
"If you'd like, I can continue handling the inventory for you. I'm the one who keeps track of everything, down to the last fork, so it's really no trouble. Though I will admit, the record keeping for that specific trunk is minimal at best because I have no idea what most of those tools and parts are called." the studious Weasley offered his aid.
Merle raised an eyebrow, wondering just what all they had in stock. "I'll leave 'em here, just give me the books and I'll keep track." he said getting a nod from the man before he handed over the ledger he'd been looking through for the petrol information.
"I'll get you another for the fluids trunk. One moment. If you want to come with me, I'll show you the storage room." Percy said, heading into the back fo the tent. Merle was quick to follow him.
"While they're at that, we need to get the gas situation sorted. We have to learn to drive before anyone else shows up, at least a few of us." Harry said, returning to business. An idea came to mind and he turned to Daryl. "Would you and Merle be willing to teach us? Or at least some of us, I doubt we can get all of the adults up to par in such a short time."
Daryl hated being put on the spot like this but he understood the need for it. He thought it over for a moment before nodding. "Shouldn't be a problem." Daryl said with a nod. "Though we'll have to start with my truck. Putting any of you behind the wheel of that big beast would be a bad idea 'til you learn the basics."
This caused Harry to nod his agreement. "Yes, that was a genuine concern. I honestly wasn't sure how we'd manage driving that thing but Luna insisted that we needed it."
The tent lapsed back into silence for several long moments before Merle and Percy returned to the main area.
"From what I saw you guys got a huge amount of stuff, most of it useful. But there are some things we're really short on." Merle said, retaking his seat.
"Make a list of what's most needful and we'll do several parts runs." Harry said getting a nod. "Did you test the gas?"
"Yeah, over half of it is garbage. Percy did something to get rid of it." Merle answered.
"Banishing charm." called out the man in question from where he was bent over his books,
"Yeah, that. And cleaned the inside of the jugs so they're safe to use. He also pulled all of the empty cans from one of the trunks and put them in one of those infinite bags you got." Merle continued.
"Bottomless." corrected Percy again, getting a dirty look from Percy.
"Don't mind him." Harry said, hiding his amused smile behind the drink he'd just summoned to himself. It didn't help where Daryl was concerned, he still saw it and was a little amused himself. It wasn't often he'd seen Harry smile since they'd met the man. "He's always been like that. Truly cannot help himself. Mione's always been just as bad, though she mellowed a little. Still bloody annoying though." The last bit was muttered so only the Dixons heard.
"He gets really bad when he's focusing on something and it's just a knee-jerk reaction. In school the twins would wait until he was deeply into his homework and start saying things wrong on purpose so he would do that. They'd keep going and getting more and more ridiculous with their mispronunciations and wrong words until they were able to break his focus and shock him. It was their exam preparation ritual. When Percy graduated, Hermione inherited that little tradition." explained Harry with a small laugh, fond exasperation clear on his face.
Merle was appeased a little bit by this information. Though he still wasn't a fan of being corrected, at least he now knew that it wasn't malicious or because he was looked down on. It was more of a Percy problem than a Merle problem and that was fine with the older man.
"We need a lot more gas. A whole lot. We lost a lot of it with that mixing shit. If I had to guess, ya'll put kerosene in it as well and that's just dangerous." Merle said, returning to the talk of supplies.
"Do we have enough cans to get us through or will we need to transfigure more?" asked Harry.
"We have a decent number of cans but for long-term like you're talking we'll definitely need more unless we go with other options." Merle answered.
"What other options?" asked Harry curiously.
"Ya'll have explained how you got most of this stuff so I know you're not opposed to theft so that helps. You could get tankers, huge trucks that carry the gas from refineries to the gas stations and such. He said you have other cars that are shrank down and stored, you could do that with the tankers." He watched and was pleased to see Harry taking him seriously and considering it. "There's also the option to get some storage tanks. They'll have them in refinery yards and such, they're usually buried underground at gas stations to hold the gas but some are above ground. If we can get a hold of several of those, it would make a huge difference. Or several tankers. Or a combination of the two." Merle finished.
"Would we be able to get the gas we need if we go straight to refinery yards?" asked Harry.
"Definitely. Gas will eventually be a thing of the past because we don't have a way to get oil or refine more from oil but what's in those yards would last us years."
"Let's do that then." said Harry with a nod. "Glad to have someone who actually knows about this stuff." he finished sincerely.
Turning to Luna he asked the question that everyone paused to hear the answer to. "How much longer until others show up and until it's time to hit the magical districts?"
"A week, roughly, it's hard to time precisely at the moment, until others show up. Three until it's time to hit the districts." she answered.
"That'll be fun trying to do that with muggles around us everywhere." grouched Seamus.
"Hey." said the Dixons in unison.
"Not you two, you don't count." the Irishman said with a roll of his eyes. "You lot know about us and magic. You're included in the 'us' part of that." he finished, his tone blatantly stating that they were a bit thick and this fact was completely obvious.
That took both brothers back. They both bristled at the tone but the fact that they'd been included in the 'us' of an 'us vs. them' scenario was totally foreign to them. It was usually the two of them against everyone else. They'd never had people who trusted them, looked out for them, and expected them to do the same. It was a strange feeling to realize that they weren't just interlopers anymore and had been completely accepted in with these strange people with even stranger abilities and customs. It was touching even if neither brother would never admit it even if a gun was held to their head.
"Well alright then." said Merle finally, clearing his throat.
After a moment, Harry let out a whistle just loud enough to get everyone's attention. "Sorry, guys. You're going to hate me but needs must. Dean, Seamus, Mione, and Bill, head into the city and go to a library. It's dark now and they should be closed. Use the computers and find all the refineries in this country you can. I want to get as much as possible done before the impending arrival. Something tells me this won't go as smooth as the last one."
"It won't." agreed Luna. "It will be an absolute disaster to begin with. Nothing we can do about that, just keep headache relievers for us and aspirin for the Dixons handy and plentiful."
"Fantastic." Harry deadpanned.
"Think Draco at his worst before he pulled his head out of his arse, combined with Lockart's ineptness and posturing. Oh! And Veron's blustering and laziness." Luna continued.
This made Harry let out a long-suffering sigh, the baleful look he gave his sister amused the brothers as much as the description and the indignant shriek from Draco.
"Can I shoot them?" he asked almost pleadingly.
"No." she answered.
"But if they're that bad they'll need shooting." he pointed out.
"Yes, but you can't shoot them." Luna said, taking on a tone that spoke of this not being the first time they'd had a similar conversation. "If he pushes you too far feel free to punch him though." she offered as one would give a consolation prize or peace treaty.
"Fine." said Harry with a sulk, getting snorts from both of the brothers. They'd never seen the stoic and reliable man who exuded control and power pout like a child. It was an amusing sight.
"Anyway. Recon tonight. Sleep in the morning. No training tomorrow, we need a day off and the night is going to be hard enough." Harry began, sitting up and once more the leader he had been groomed to be shone through. "We should split into two teams to get the most done. Daryl, do you know about gas and the like as well? Merle said you had car knowledge too."
"Yeah, I know a bit." the younger Dixon said.
"Alright, then. Two teams. One led by Merle, the other Daryl since they'll know what we need and how to get it. We'll take the list and split it in half getting as much as we can. Daryl, Merle, we'll do the magic part, you two just tell us what to do and we'll follow your instructions out there."
Again, the two brothers were stumped that they were being given charge over these powerful people. They weren't just being included but being relied upon and trusted to lead them. It was a little daunting really but neither was the type to run from a challenge.
"We'll handle assigning teams tomorrow, While the recon team are gone," at this, hearing the clear dismissal, the ones assigned to the city were quick to leave what they were doing and apparate away, heading to the same library they'd used before. "The rest of us have projects that need seeing to."
"Fleur, as the only one of us that knows fashion or how to make clothes, I have a project for you. I need you to recreate our battle robes for Daryl and Merle. Blaise, I need you to handle the rune work for them."
This got splutters from the Dixons and nods from the other two. Harry went on without acknowledging them for the moment, assigning his people to various projects that would help them in the future.
The Dixons were even given a project. They were assigned to the maps, looking them over and searching for a permanent place to settle once things were all said and done. Harry asked them to make a list of options and the pros and cons of each one.
When Merle asked why he was leaving that to them, Harry simply said that he and the other witches and wizards weren't American and therefore didn't really know what would be available. He wanted them to make a list and explain what each had to offer so they could sit down and discuss the options as a group.
This made sense to the two rednecks and they appreciated that Harry was willing to explain his reasoning for things. He didn't just bark out orders for no reason. Everything he asked of his people was for a reason. They'd noticed he always delegated tasks based on knowledge or skill, not because he wanted to make everyone else do the work. Harry worked just as hard as everyone in camp. Though to be fair, they'd been so well prepared it wasn't too much work.
And thus, the next four days were spent much like the weeks preceding the muggles' arrival. They spent four nights gathering as much fuel as they could directly from refineries. They'd gotten lucky and found several tankers and storage tanks. They were promptly filled, shrank, and stored.
Once Merle felt that they had a sufficient supply of fuel to last them quite a while he proposed hitting several auto parts stores and tire shops. He pointed out that they had some good parts but not enough to last long term.
So, in what was becoming less and less shocking for the Dixons, their thoughts and opinions were taken into account and, when found to have merit, were acted upon.
That's how Merle ended up the caretaker of a trunk packed to the brim with all of the parts and tools he could possibly need for vehicle maintenance. They'd also managed to shrink several of the large pieces of garage equipment, like the lift that Merle said was used to hold up cars while they were being worked on.
Though their daytime activities were much less smooth going than the scavenging. Two impatient and less than civilized muggles trying to teach eighteen adult witches and wizards to drive was absolutely no one's idea of fun. Though the twins were highly amused at the result of the last driving lessons.
"Damnit!" yelled Merle as he was once again slung forward when Oliver slammed on the breaks suddenly. "Don't do that you dumbass! EASE on the breaks!"
"Sorry." the Irishman said sheepishly. This wasn't the first time he'd been admonished for the same thing.
"Out! Get out! We're done for the day." Merle bitched as he reached over, put the truck in park himself and turned the truck off, grabbing the keys so the idiot next to him wasn't tempted to try again.
"How the hell can someone so good in the air be so freaking hopeless in a car!?" he ranted as he climbed out of the truck. Pointing at Oliver through the windshield as he headed to the tent. "You're banned from being behind the wheel. Never. Agan!"
Barging into the tent again in a foul mood, he stormed over to where Harry was sitting with Daryl discussing something. As Merle got close he realized they were talking about who would be best to learn to drive the RV.
"None of you!" Merle all but snarled as he geared up to another rant. "I'll drive the damn thing! None of you are even remotely safe behind the wheel. You'll kill us all. The only ones even remotely capable to just drive the truck are you, Dean, Hermione, Bill, and Seamus. And I'm afraid he'll randomly explode the damn thing's engine with his crazy ability to set fire to EVERYTHING!"
Harry winced. "Oliver that bad, huh?"
"He's a fucking menace behind the wheel! He almost slammed me through the windshield more times than I can count! He kept taking his hands off the wheel. And somehow, I don't know how, nearly hit almost every single tree between here and the main road. At one point, he let go of the wheel and started trying to use magic on the damn thing!"
"Oh." said Harry, grimacing. "Yeah, that's bad."
"Fuck yes it's bad!" yelled Merle, not caring that everyone was seeing him lose his shit. "He's not allowed to even think about driving again! If we have to move from here and can't just use your magic, I'll drive the RV. You, Dean, or Hermione can drive the van. We'll just throw my bike in the bed of Daryl's truck. No one but me is going to be driving that RV. Ever. I don't trust any of you with it."
"Fair enough." said Harry with a nod.
"I'm done for the day, I can't handle any more of this shit today. Oliver was the last, the only ones left to teach were the twins and Daryl, that's on you. I'll strangle someone." and with that Merle stormed off and made for his own tent. He needed a fix and needed it bad.
Harry looked after the eldest Dixon for a moment until he saw Oliver slink into the tent. before turning back to Daryl. "Well, at least he didn't actually stab the guy."
Daryl couldn't stop the snort that came at that comment. It was a fair statement. Merle tended to react with violence at the best of times.
"Oliver." Harry called out, getting the red-raced man's attention. "Best steer clear of Merle for a bit. He looked ready to throw fists."
Oliver simply nodded and dropped into a chair.
Harry sat in the main area late one night, alone for once. They had finished the most recent rounds of theft and thus everyone was getting back to a normal sleep cycle. But sleep just wouldn't come to him. There was too much on his mind and he couldn't seem to still his thoughts enough to relax.
Daryl had finally asked about the empty portrait frame on the wall above the mantel. A simple, and even understandable, question had frozen every magical within hearing distance.
They all knew what it was. Even those who'd come via later portkeys knew. They'd asked Luna instead though.
Harry had then needed to explain magical portraits and how they worked. It had been a hard conversation. He'd explained that they were created by a magical artist and then imbued with the subject's magic and their essence. Their memories were contained within the painting as well, their consciousness.
When Daryl had asked why that one was empty Harry had explained that it's subject was still alive. That magical portraits only activated upon the death of their subject. It was a special and extremely regulated branch of soul magic. It wasn't so much storing a soul as creating a copy or shadow of one. With all of the knowledge, memories, and personality intact.
He'd explained that this one in particular belonged to the current headmistress of their old school, who'd been the transfiguration professor who had taught all those of them that had attended Hogwarts.
Harry had explained that she was a dear friend now, one of the few people in the world, dead or alive, that he trusted with his life.
The magicals had then proceeded to reminisce and tell stories about their former professor. Daryl's favorite had been when she'd brought all of the statues and suits of armor to life during the Final Battle to defend the school. If that wasn't a badass move he didn't know what was.
Daryl couldn't relate to feeling that trust or bond with an adult when he was a kid but he could see that each and every magical adult in the tent was saddened at the thought of Professor McGonagall possibly dying.
When Daryl had asked why she didn't come with them Harry told him he'd tried to convince her but she'd been determined to make a stand at the school. Stay to protect the students if any showed up.
He promised that he'd left a portkey, one of their ways of transportation, with her and another professor. He said he'd even sent another back for the Hogwarts mediwitch, which had been explained by Dean as their version of a school nurse. Just in case she didn't, or couldn't, come with one of the other two.
Daryl found himself hoping the teacher showed up. It couldn't hurt to have someone who knew so much magic and had lived through two magical wars. He wouldn't admit it but part of his hope for the woman to survive was simply because of the hurt it would do to the group, Harry in particular.
Apparently Harry's parents had been close with the woman and she'd always had a soft spot for the last Potter. The youngest Dixon had been told by Luna later that if Lily and James Potter hadn't been killed, he'd have grown up calling her Aunt Minnie. So Harry would definitely take it the hardest if she didn't survive and meet up with them.
Not that any of them would take that lightly.
That's how Daryl found Harry, sitting there in front of a dying fire staring at an empty portrait lost in thought.
He took a seat in the comfortable armchair across from where the British man sat and waited for several long moments before finally breaking the silence. "You're not sleeping."
"You're not either." replied Harry, surprising Daryl a little. He'd almost thought Harry was too lost to his thoughts and memories to even notice his presence.
"Yeah." was all Daryl said in response.
"I worry about what's coming in the next few days." Harry finally stated after a bit of silence.
"The new group comin' to the quarry?" Daryl asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"Yeah." agreed Harry. "We came here for a reason, Daryl." he began, trying to put his concerns into words. "Now, you've noticed and come to understand that some of us are better at certain types of magic. Blaise and Bill are experts with runes and wards. Neville is a prodigy with herbology. Draco is a potions master as well as he and Hannah being healers, our version of doctors. Hermione is prodigious for her ability to create new spells and research is where she really shines. Seamus is… well Seamus."
This got a small snort from Daryl who'd seen firsthand the Irishman's ability to make things near him combust. He'd been thoroughly amused when they'd told the story of McGonagall instructing Neville to explode the bridge and take Seamus with him due to his 'special proclivity for pyrotechnics'.
"Exactly. Well Luna is just as special but in other ways. You know we look to her, follow her guidance. I'm sure you've figured out by now, even if it hasn't been directly said, but she knows things."
This got a nod of agreement from Daryl. He had indeed noticed this.
"Our world has seers." stated Harry simply.
"What? Like psychics?" asked Daryl dubiously.
"Yes and no. Magical seers are in a class of their own. True seers are rare, even in our world. But when they do have the gift, they're more reliable than even your own eyes at times. Luna is a seer from a long line of seers, on both sides of her family. Her mother, Pandora, was a seer, though nowhere near Luna's ability. Even among seers, Luna is special." Harry began to explain.
"Most seers have little to no control over what they see and when they see it. Images and visions come to them randomly. They speak in prophecies and those are usually vague as hell and, in my personal experience, the source of more pain and destruction than you can imagine. Most are actually self-fulfilling."
Here, he paused, his mind racing over the two prophecies he'd dealt with in his life. One made before he was born and the other made directly to him in his third year.
"Most seers don't even remember speaking a true prophecy. The words flow through them and they are nothing more than a conduit for foresight. I've seen it firsthand. Our divination teacher was a seer but she was an extremely weak one. She made two prophecies, both surrounding me. The first was before I was born and is a story for another time. The other was given directly to me in our third year and was self-fulfilling. She didn't even remember doing it or what she said after. She was in a trance and had no control over herself. She taught reading tea leaves and crystal balls and it was all hokum as far as most of us here are concerned. It was the only class Hermione ever stormed out of and the only teacher she ever disrespected to their face."
This made Daryl have to fight an amused smirk. He'd spent enough time with these people to have most of them figured out and Hermione, who was the most studious person he'd ever met in his life, was the last he'd expect to disrespect a teacher or a class.
"Yeah, exactly. But Professor Trelawney was nothing, had no ability, when put next to our Luna. Luna Lovegood is the strongest true seer born in centuries. Few know exactly what she is or how strong her gift is because the Ministry would have been on her to become their own personal crystal ball. The only ones who know the true extent of her abilities are the original eight of us that set out from England. Hermione, Draco, Neville, Blaise, the twins, Luna, and myself. And even then, only Draco and I know certain things because we're the ones that have had to deal with the fallout and help Luna through what she's seen on occasion. We are her shield from the world, she sees and interprets, we act as best we can and do everything in our power to keep the true extent of what she's capable under wraps so she doesn't become a target."
"Makes sense." Daryl said with a nod. "She just more accurate?"
"Not only that. She doesn't just receive or give prophecies. She knows things, always has. People think she just has heightened intuition because of all the seer blood in her family tree. And that is true, her intuition and gut instincts are better than most but that's not just it. She can control her ability in ways that haven't been seen in ages. She can look for things, intentionally search for the future. And not just that. She can see the strands of time themselves. She can see all the paths that people may take and all possible outcomes."
That stunned Daryl. It was extremely powerful but one thought struck him. "That must be hard, seeing so much, so many alternatives."
"It is. And having to weigh what she can and can't say. Saying too much of what she sees can be just as bad if not worse than not saying enough. It's a hard burden to bear but we, especially Draco and I, try to help her carry it as best we can. She will often tell us and we help her parse out what can and cannot be said or done about something. We're her sounding board, when it doesn't directly involve us."
This got another nod from the quieter man.
"Luna Lovegood is special, she doesn't just have a gift, she is a gift. She's been with me through the worst, darkest moments in my life. She's been the light that kept me going in the darkness more times than I can count. She is one of only a handful of people I trust with my life and one of only three that I would trust blindly with no question. She kept me alive during the war, and after, in ways I cannot put into words Daryl. She is my sister in every way that matters barring blood. And blood, in my experience, doesn't mean shit."
This, too, Daryl understood. Their father had taught he and Merle that lesson very well.
"So when Luna comes to me and tells me she sees something and something must be done I listen. I take her words to heart and act as swiftly and, using her knowledge, for the best as much as possible."
Harry paused, his green eyes glowing and Daryl wasn't sure if it was the fire or the power that ran through the other man's veins that made it so.
"We knew the world was going to end six weeks ago, Daryl. Luna saw it. She spent a whole day watching the virus spread and destroy the world. Looking through each of our futures. The possible paths to take for survival. Who we could save and who would die. She checked all of the paths that lead from trying to stop it or lessen the impact. Every different possible attempt by the first eight of us to stop or warn people ended in the deaths of some or all of us with the world falling anyway."
Harry's voice faltered for a moment before he spoke again. "There was nothing we could have saved more, saved others. Every attempt at that time would have been disastrous. So we did what we could. We prepared for ourselves. For our little family that we'd built. We completely bought out all the shops in wizarding Britain to avoid being arrested as that would end up with us in wizarding prison and dying. Then we used magic to steal every single scrap of supplies we could, both there and here."
This last bit Daryl was already aware of, having been told and even helping with the massive thefts in recent days for car parts and gas.
"Over the course of six weeks, I sent out letters of warning and portkeys to people we knew and trusted. Luna had explained that no one would take us seriously or come with us. Which was true, they would have thought we were crazy. But I realized that maybe when the world actually started ending, they'd see things differently and use the portkeys."
"That's how Bill and his family, Percy, Seamus, Dean, Viktor, Hannah, Oliver, Alicia, and Katie. Got here isn't it?" Daryl asked.
"Yes. I created special portkeys that were keyed to a beacon in our tent rather than a specific location just in case we moved the tent by the time they decided to use them." Harry explained.
"Smart." said Daryl with a nod of approval.
"Of the twenty-seven portkeys I sent out in total, only six have been used thus far." Harry said sadly. "We still have hope though, that others will use them."
"I'm sure they will." Daryl said quietly, not sure what else to say, he wasn't good at being comforting.
Harry fell back into his memories for a moment before Daryl asked a question that he was most curious about. "If you coulda gone anywhere with magic, why the hell'd you come here of all places?"
"Luna picked the coordinates. She knew this was where we needed to be. She saw us setting down and finding people. She said our family would grow and we would find the happiness that eluded us all after the war with the people we found here. She saw you and Merle, Daryl." harry explained, meeting the other man's eyes again. "She saw the two of you and several others. Saw that you would need us and we would need you. That even at the end of the world life would continue on and we needed to be here to meet you and Merle and the others that'll join us in the next few days."
Daryl was frozen in shock. Luna had seen him, seen them. These magical people had left their own country, their own world, to find him and his asshole brother and bring them into their family. True, it wasn't just the two of them, but they'd been included in that. Luna, the seer of exceptional power according to Harry, had seen him and his brother and known that they belonged with these people. It was frightening and humbling at the same time. It made Daryl extremely uncomfortable.
"If she saw it, what's got you so unsettled?" he asked to deflect from his own inner struggle.
"Because happiness isn't all she saw, Daryl." Harry said darkly. "Not everyone that will be showing up here in the quarry will be for us. There will be some, among their number that will be horrible and cause problems. It's something we'll have to deal with but I'm not looking forward to it. You heard what Luna said earlier today. There will be at least one that will be horrible and cause more trouble than they're worth."
Daryl nodded, he remembered that conversation and his amusement at the banter and Harry's pouting that he couldn't just stab the bad one and be done with it. It had been adorable, not that Daryl would ever utter that out loud under pain of death.
"Luna, for all of her impressive and downright terrifying knowledge and ability, doesn't always see everything. What she sees is concrete. As sure as we're sitting here speaking now. But there are things she doesn't see. She does have blind spots. And there are times where instead of getting everything, every path, every option, all she gets are bits and pieces. Think of it like the difference between watching an entire movie and flipping through a stack of jumbled pictures and note cards with random bits of information and vague impressions on them. And in those times, no matter how hard she tries, she can't always clarify the picture or bring true order to the information. Something else will have to happen that triggers her ability and add in the missing pieces for her to have the whole movie. Make sense?"
Daryl nodded his understanding.
"This is one of those times. She saw you and Merle in startling clarity. Knew you before we even left England, or even called the meeting to tell the others what was to come. You were clear in her mind and she can focus on you easily."
Again, Daryl was thrown for a loop. That he and his brother would be so clear, set in stone that they belonged with these people. It was hard to wrap his mind around.
Harry continued on, pretending he didn't notice Daryl stiffening. "But these new people, some are clear, some are muddled, others… she told me before she left for bed that we'll have to be cautious because there will be some with darkness in them that will cause a lot of strife, but couldn't give more details. Drama and frustration and anger are heading this way and we'll have to deal with it to get the people that are meant to be with us before we can break away from the rest of them. She doesn't know exactly what's to come with these people but they'll bring trouble with them and that's concerning."
Daryl could understand where Harry had a right to be concerned. He was the leader of these people, he and Merle included apparently, and their safety was his responsibility and there were people that were heading their way that would bring trouble down upon them all.
"We'll handle it. And them." was all the youngest Dixon could find to say.
"That we will." Harry agreed before continuing in a voice so quiet Daryl nearly missed it. "We have no other choice.