So I'm just a little bit obsessed with Left 4 Dead at the moment, so I thought to myself 'why not cross it over with Harry Potter?' Thus this fanfiction was born.
Disclaimer –Alas, I do not own anything you see and recognise. No profit is intended.
Warnings – Violence, gore, character deaths (these will be quite major, but only in the first chapter), I will be adding in a little bit of slash as well (EllisxHarry) but this will be very minor because I imagine when fighting zombies you wouldn't have much time for a relationship, so it could be looked at as a very close friendship.
Also, for the workings of this story, the Harry Potter dates have been moved forward to fit it in with the Left 4 Dead timeline, but nothing major has come of this.
L4D
It had supposed to have been a relaxing break for Harry Potter and his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who had finally graduated after their seven years at Hogwarts. Hermione had suggested they take a long holiday and the two boys had been quick to agree as Harry had never been abroad before, and Ron had only gone a few times; once to Egypt and the rest to Romania to see his brother Charlie. After a long discussion they decided on America. Hermione had learnt how to drive while at Hogwarts, a feat that only she could manage along with all their schoolwork, but it meant that they were able to rent a car while they were there. The plan was to fly over to Los Angeles and make their way across the Southern states, ending in Savannah, Georgia, as Hermione had cousins who lived there. They had decided to take a plane rather than portkey over, as they had decided to go as muggle as they could, their wands only with them as a precautionary measure.
Harry had defeated Voldemort in his seventh year and the Death Eaters most loyal to him had been killed, while the lower ranking ones were either in Azkaban or under house arrest, so the teenagers were not really expecting any trouble. Or so they thought until they reached Georgia.
It had been hard not to hear about the illness that was ravaging the Eastern states. It was on the radio, in the newspapers and on the tongues of everybody they came across. They said it was a strain of Flu; Green Flu they were calling it. It had started somewhere in Pennsylvania and had spread rapidly from there. They were advising people not to travel to those areas unless absolutely necessary, but said that there were doctors working on cures and preventative medicine and they hoped to have it contained in no time at all. It seemed to have just started after they arrived and a just over a week later they couldn't escape it.
Harry and his friends had nothing to be worried about of course; wizards and witches were immune to the majority of muggle illnesses and the ones they could get were ones their magic didn't bother in defending them against, such as the common cold. If it was serious, their magic would kick in almost instantly, although wizarding illnesses were a different story altogether. The fact this flu was infecting muggles however, meant the Gryffindors felt quite safe considering muggles could not get magical diseases. It was a different story for the locals they were meeting on their travels however. A lot of the small towns they had passed through were almost dead, with people barricading themselves indoors, while the bigger towns and cities seemed to have a mixture of people who acted like nothing was happening, while others were clearly in a mode of panic, gossiping to anybody who would listen about their worries. Clearly the attempt to convince the public it was a simple illness that would be over in no time was not working.
Another week and a bit later on, and the hysteria had gotten even worse, as the illness was now spreading to other states. Although nothing official had been stated, Pennsylvania was now pretty much a no-go zone. The panic was starting to get to Hermione slightly and she suggested they skip out on some of the places they had planned to visit and instead go straight to her cousins in Georgia. The boys could tell she was worried about them so they thought it better to agree with her. It would take them a while to get there, but it made Hermione happier to make sure they were okay.
By the time they reached Savannah, it had been three weeks since the Green Flu had made an appearance, and as they got closer to the area most affected by it, they could see how badly people had reacted. Cars had been abandoned on roads, windows and doors had been boarded up and there was an awful lot of fires burning.
Hermione pulled up outside a house and turned off the engine. It was a nice enough house and it looked to be in a pleasant area, but the streets were too quiet for Harry's liking.
"You two stay here okay?" Hermione said, the first words any of them had said in a while. Hermione's nerves had gotten to them all. "I'll make sure they're in or see if they need anything." The boys nodded in agreement, both too tired to make much more of an effort to move. It was an action Harry would forever regret.
Ron was fanning himself lazily and Harry looking over into the distance at a helicopter flying away from a large building Harry recognised from earlier, a hotel called The Vannah, when they heard the scream. Both boys were suddenly alert and jumped out but it was too late. Hermione was on the porch of her cousin's house, lying very still, with blood staining her mangled body. She was clearly dead, but what shocked them most was the creature stood above her. It looked like an animated corpse, worse than the inferi. It had a blue hooded top on, making it look almost human, but it had incredibly sharp looking teeth and nails, stained with blood. It growled as it spotted them, and moved to pounce at them when Harry's instincts kicked in and he grabbed his wand and sent a fire spell at the creature, ducking and pulling Ron down with him as the fireball went over their heads, crashing into the car and then becoming still. Ron rushed forward to Hermione's side, staring at her, expression blank, but Harry could see the pain he was suffering. This wasn't the time for mourning though. They had to leave before anything else like the creature came again. He grabbed Ron by the shoulders and attempted to pull him up; not an easy feat considering Ron was a lot bigger than him.
"Come on Ron. We need to leave. Now! Please Ron" he begged the red head, but the boy made no sign of moving.
"Ron, please. There could be more of those things out here. We need to get to safety. Please Ron, I can't lose you as well" Harry said, choking back a sob as he admitted to himself the truth about Hermione. Luckily it seemed to have an effect on Ron, who looked at him, and nodded, tears brimming slightly in his eyes and he stood, and walked back to the car with Harry. Once they were in with the door shut, Ron banged his hands on the dashboard, head bowed low, and screamed.
"Why didn't we do anything Harry?" he whispered lowly. "Merlin, I should have escorted her or something, searched the area. It should have been me!" he growled, burying his head in his hands. Harry laid his head on his friend's shoulder, and wrapped his arm around his shaking form, allowing his own tears to cascade into Ron's shirt, not sure what he could say that would comfort the boy, or without getting too choked up himself.
They sat like that for a while, before Ron shook Harry off him, and determinedly took the wheel.
"We're going to get out of here Harry. For Hermione. And then I'm going to come back with proper supplies and make sure if any of those things are still standing, they won't be for much longer."
Harry didn't doubt Ron for a second as he started the engine and headed for The Vannah hotel. Clearly he had already formed a plan in his mind. Normally Harry was the one for drastic action, but he knew Ron had to do this to attempt to fill the hole Hermione's death had left. Harry on the other hand, simply felt like once again part of him had broken and in his eyes he was now past fixing, so instead he allowed Ron to take control while he allowed himself to cry for his fallen friends.
L4D
Ron and Harry drove in silence for the entire journey. Ron had such a look on his face that Harry daren't say anything to him so he spent the drive looking out the car window. Ron was driving pretty fast, but Harry still managed to see that there were a number of inhumane looking people wandering around the streets, although none as creepy as the one which killed Hermione. The car was going at too high a speed for the creatures to do anything to them in the vehicle, but Harry didn't doubt they would come after them on foot.
Ron eventually pulled up outside The Vannah; the hotel Harry had been looking at earlier.
"I saw some helicopters leaving here earlier, so I guessed maybe they're still evacuating" Ron shrugged quietly, glancing around the area before he got out of the car. Harry did the same; better to be safe than sorry. They ran up the fire escape ladder they found on the side of the building up to the roof, although after waiting around for quite a while and seeing no sign of helicopters in the sky, they were quick to come to the conclusion that nothing was coming for them.
"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked, tilting his head up at the sky. His answer was an axe being shoved into his hands.
"We are going to find another escape centre and on the way we are going to kill as many of these monsters as we can" Ron almost growled, eyes glazing over in anger.
They took one finally look at the sky, before Ron decided to kick upon the door leading into the hotel, axe at the ready, and Harry made a mental note to stay behind Ron. He wouldn't like to get into the way of that axe.
Ron made no move in making a move, his grief almost becoming like adrenaline for him, although he did stop for a moment when he opened a door into a hallway to see it crawling with the creatures. After not even a moment's hesitation, Ron moved forward, swinging the axe wildly into the bodies of the beings. Harry soon joined in, although not as enthusiastically as Ron. When they found themselves getting overwhelmed, they would send out a fire spell with their wand to clear their path, but they boys both found it a lot more satisfying to kill the creatures themselves. They had nearly made it to an open lift, when Harry found himself being grabbed by what looked like a huge tongue, and being pulled back towards the one that owned it and he was unable to move his arms at all.
"Ron!" Harry called, desperate, but Ron was one step ahead of him and sliced right through the thing's head, causing it to die and the tongue to loosen around Harry.
"What the hell?" Harry cried incredulously, but Ron simply pulled him forward into the lift, pressing the button to take them to the ground floor. When they got there it was filled with fire and smoke. Harry cast a lumos spell so they could see their way a bit better, but it was still difficult to make their way through, especially when they were constantly on their guard.
They somehow managed to make it through, running simply on pure determination mixed with fear, and they eventually found themselves in a room with a barred door, which looked like it had been a haven for other people. There was graffiti on the walls of the room, which was a mixture of messages to loved ones, and obscure pieces such as 'not a flu' or referencing to a God. In this room they managed to find a health kit, which they decided was better to take with them; their healing spells were not that great.
They silently agreed to waste no time, and went out the other end. This time they were out in the open; the entrance to the hotel, and there were even more creatures than before. A lot of them seemed to be the same old types; creepy but not overly so, and nothing special about them, but others seemed to be able to do things to cause as much damage as possible. They met another tongued creature along the way, once again going for Harry, and Ron nearly got pounced on one that looked like the one Hermione had fatally encountered, but unfortunately for that creature, that was the one Ron was most looking forward to killing. They also had a burning green liquid spat at them by a very vile looking creature that ran away from them when they tried to kill her.
"I reckon she would have been a Slytherin" Harry joked feebly, but Ron didn't react at all. He was clearly very pained by Hermione's death and was reacting badly to it. He had always suspected something was going on between the two of them, but nothing had ever been confirmed and it was too late for them now anyway.
As they neared a gun shop, they heard a loud explosion coming from the other side of the store. Ron looked at Harry with a look to say 'Let's go that way'.
Once inside the shop, they knew if they wanted a gun they were definitely not spoilt for choice. Harry chose not to take one; he had never used one before and found it safer to stick to using the items he knew how to use. Ron on the other hand decided the more weapons the better, and chose one that fired bullets fast.
They made their way out of the store and towards some burning debris they guessed was from the explosion they heard earlier. They noticed a number of tents around, albeit empty, but they looked official.
"Maybe there's some escape thing going on around here somewhere?" Harry mused, looking around the area. Ron simply grunted in response. Harry's eyes landed on a large building in front of them; a shopping mall. Ron seemed to follow his sight, and they mutually agreed that was the place to go. They soon spotted a door similar to the one they saw earlier and both breathed a sigh of relief.
Before they could reach the door however, a sound of crying caught Harry's attention.
"Hey Ron. Somebody else is out here." Harry whispered, almost as if he daren't suggest the possibility of other's being alive, but Ron just shrugged and headed towards the door, but the crying sound was getting louder.
"No, Ron. We can't leave her. She's crying; for all we know it could be a little girl or something" Harry argued, running towards the sound of the crying. He could hear Ron behind him, but he couldn't keep Ron happy while leaving a girl behind. It wouldn't be right. He soon stopped as he saw a lone figure, head in it's hands, sobbing loudly. Before Harry could say anything to the girl, he found himself being crashed into a wall by a large armed creature, causing him to drop his wand. Ron immediately started firing at the creature, killing it, but also gaining the attention of the girl. She turned around screaming, eyes glowing red. Ron shot at her, but she lunged at him, ripping him to pieces. Harry scrambled for his wand but he couldn't find it amongst the debris, but by now it was too late. Harry stood still, eyes shut, expecting the woman to go for him, but she simply ran off screaming all the way.
Harry ran to Ron, crouching over his still form, choking back a sob at the sight of what remained. It was all his fault. He had killed his two best friends through stupidity, just as he had done with Cedric and Sirius. He screamed and threw Ron's gun away from him in anger. Fate was not on his side, and it happened to hit a car, setting off the alarm.
Almost instantly a huge crowd of creatures appeared on the horizon, heading towards the sound. He was as good as dead, and he deserved it. But then he remembered what Ron had wanted. He had wanted them to escape. He owed him that at least, especially after Ron died to save him. Plus their parents deserved to know what had happened to them. Then they could lock him up in Azkaban or St Mungos for all he cared. But he had to live first. He took off, running as fast as he could, no time for fighting. He reached the door, only to find it locked. He banged furiously on it.
"Please, please, unlock the door" he begged, almost screaming. "Please!" he cried, panic setting over him, collapsing against the door. Just as he almost gave up hope, the door opened, and he fell in to the room, and onto a warm body, and once again, he was safe for a moment.
L4D
That was actually quite fun to write xD I hope you enjoyed it as well. ^_^
Sorry to kill off Ron and Hermione so rapidly, but they aren't important for this story xD
