Chapter 16 What The Hell Is That?
Okay, so, I was going to rewrite, but I only defined whose pov it was. There are a few scenes that I added, so there is that. Just little ones, like Harry teaching the kids, and Remus talking to the WD crew. Those that are there, anyway.
If you don't read AN's then you won't read this either. So, never mind.
I don't know about you, but the weather in the southern part of USA scares the hell out of me. I live here now, but I'm not from here. Most would say, 'why don't you move?'. Well, because the rest of the south is hospitable. I like it here, just not the scary weather.
According to my research, England gets mild tornadoes. Only a few that are damaging. I could be wrong and feel free to correct me if I am, but that's what my research says.
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During those two weeks many things happened. Most of the families moved to the CDC, half of the Vatos went out on their own, saying they'd come back with news, and Rick came back.
It had been ten days after he disappeared that he showed up. He was skinnier than he had been when he left, and his narrow face was gaunter now. It looked like the weight of the world was sitting squarely on his shoulders.
Lori upon seeing him, ran to his arms. He gave her a half-hearted hug. Like it wasn't something he wanted to do. She didn't seem to notice.
"Where have you been?" she asked, leaning back to take a good look at him.
"The station," he answered, sighing heavily.
"With Shane? Where is he?" she inquired, seeing how tired he was, she led him to the nearest seat, which happened to be a log around a fire pit.
"He left. In the middle of the night. We had a fight, and he decided to go on his own. Bastard took all the supplies with him and left me with one revolver," he said, sighing again.
"How did you survive?" she asked in awe.
"Ran into the Vatos, they were leaving, but they gave me a ride to the bottom of the hill," was his tired answer.
"Good, good," she said, hugging him tight. For all she wasn't the nicest person, this was her husband. "We don't stay here at night. They have all the families at the CDC. But they are working us hard during the day," she said, hoping he would make them stop.
"What do you mean, working you hard? Is Carl okay?" the man asked, suddenly more alert.
"I have to pull weeds most days, and Carl is made to learn how to run and hide," she answered in a tone that said it was just too much.
"Didn't they say that was the price to pay to stay?" the confused man asked, relaxing now that he knew she was just griping.
"Yes, but," was all she got out when Sirius joined them.
"Rick," the leader said, sitting next to him. "Lori," he added, nodding to her.
"Sirius," the newly returned man said, tilting his hat, which he still wore. His uniform was rumpled and cut in many places.
"I see you've returned," the dogman stated with an inquiring tone.
"Yeah, you were right. Shane wasn't going to be on the side of angels," Rick said, leaning into his wife.
"Why don't you find somewhere to crashed. We can let you off work today. Not you, Lori, you still need to get those weeds pulled. Your man can sleep without you," Sirius said as kindly as he could, but firmly.
"But," she started only to be interrupted by Rick.
"Sounds good," he said, patting her on the knee, getting up and going to the tent he had spent one night in.
"There'll be clothes if you ask," Sirius called after him, reminding him of the house elves.
"Thanks, man," the tired man replied, closing the flap. He moved to the cot there and crashed.
"You drove him off," Lori accused Sirius.
"No, I gave him an out," was his reply as he got up and gave her a pointed look.
She huffed and went back to the greenhouse.
Sirius decided not to get any more involved and went to look for Remus. They were still charming all the vehicles.
Hphphp
A few days later, it had been a calm day. They were all doing what they were needing to do, when all of a sudden, the sky darkened. "The hell?" Sirius said, looking down the hill and seeing the whole city under a dark cloud. Rain started pouring down. "Is this rain warm?" he asked in astonishment.
"Yeah, but I'm not worried about that," Daryl told him, looking up and seeing the danger that most southerners would see.
"What do you mean?" the leader asked, turning to the normally quiet man.
"This is tropical, I can tell. Which means tornadoes," was the succinct reply, as rain drenched everything and everyone not under shelter. Even then some things were getting soaked. The rain was just that heavy.
"So?" was the confused question as they started running to a dry place.
"Don't you get tornadoes where you're from?" the redneck asked as they ran into the office.
"Yeah, but I'm thinking ours are different than yours," Sirius replied, wiping the rain off his face.
"Is there a tornado shelter here?" Daryl asked instead.
"Not that I know of," was the answer.
"Will the wards keep out weather?" he inquired, hopefully.
"No, we're not God," Sirius reiterated.
"Then you better start carting everyone to the CDC," Daryl suggested, hefting his ever-present crossbow. "The weather here can get really bad. I mean flatten tall buildings bad. Without the Weather Service, we'll never know if it's just a storm or hiding much more. We're going to need a shelter here, soon enough."
"Well, damn. How am I going to get everyone to shelter?" Sirius asked, thinking maybe a large portkey, or many portkeys. He ran to find the rest of the magicals. Thunder crashed right over him, and lightning struck close by. He threw himself to the side, like that would help. It had just startled him so bad.
"Sirius, what's up?" Harry asked, coming up to his spooked godfather. His hair was flattened to his head, and his clothes were soaked. He was carrying an umbrella, but it didn't seem to be helping.
"We need to get everyone to the meal tent," Sirius said, sticking his wand in the air and sending out a loud noise to get everyone's attention. It sounded like and air horn, but louder.
Everyone started pouring out of wherever they had been. Those from this area knew what that meant and were looking around as if to spot the tornado. They didn't see one but were wary.
"Everyone to the meal tent," Sirius called out, making 'get moving' motions with his arms.
Most started running right away, though the magicals came to Sirius. "What do you need, man?" one asked.
"We need to get everyone to the CDC. Daryl says this could get bad," the leader answered moving towards the tent, which appeared to have everyone in it. "Is everyone here?" he called out.
"No, a few of the kids aren't here," one woman said. "They were doing hide-and-run, and now they are missing," she added, clutching one child to her side.
"Harry, who is missing?" Sirius asked, knowing that his godson was in charge of that 'game'.
"Carl and Sophia," he named two of the older kids. "Your noise must have scared them. They might have gotten turned around. They tend to hide in the woods."
"My son," Lori called out, holding on to a crying Carol.
"Daryl, do you mind helping me look?" Sirius asked the only woodsman there.
"Nay," the redneck commented.
"I'll help too," Rick said, coming up to Sirius.
"Fine," the man said, turning to the wizards. "Get them out of here," he ordered, more concerned about the kids.
"Got it," a few said, and started making portkeys.
"I'm staying," Harry said, moving to join the rescue team.
"Why?" Sirius wanted to know.
"They know me," was the answer.
"Fine, but you listen to Daryl and me," Sirius said, nodding to Daryl, like Harry might have forgotten who the man was.
"Sure, no problem. These two tend to hide in the woods, like I said, we should start there," the teen said, heading to the entrance.
The four-man team headed out and started at the beginning of the woods and tried yelling over the wind, which had kicked up badly. Tents were flapping everywhere, and the screen doors on the RVs were slamming about. Paper and other debris was flying all over the place. Branches were swaying dangerously close to the rescuers. Trees were tilting like they would snap. Some smaller branches broke and added to the flying rubble impeding their hunt.
Sirius put his voice on a Sonorus to be heard over the wind. "Carl, Sophia," his voice boomed through the trees. "Come this way," he added, thinking he might not hear their reply.
They edged their way through the trees, looking in every nook and cranny. One of the many dogs started barking. The quartet moved in that direction. More dogs started barking, mostly in the same area. So they broke out in a run.
When they got to the clearing where ten dogs surrounded a fallen tree. There under the tree was the small figure of Carl. Sophia was holding the boy's hand and crying. She was saying something, but they couldn't hear what.
"Carl," Rick called out, running to his son.
"Shite," Sirius said, moving to stop the man from moving the tree.
"What the hell, Sirius," Rick said, when the man had pulled him away from his trying to get his son out.
"Look," Sirius said, pointing to a tree that was leaning on the roots of the downed one. "I have to move that one first, or we're all going to be pinned," he explained, lifting his wand and casting a lightening spell, making the tree feather weight. He then moved it over to the side. He then cast the same spell on the fallen one and Rick pulled Carl out from under it.
"Carl, are you okay?" Rick asked his son, not letting him up until he knew that he wasn't seriously injured.
"I'm fine. Nothing really hurts, but my ankle. It was trapped and I think I broke it," the boy said, bravely, though tears were running down his face.
"We need to go," Daryl said, looking at the sky.
"Right," was all Rick said, as he picked up his son and carried him on his back, being careful of the ankle.
The six started running back to camp, when Harry stopped. "Why are we going back to camp? Sirius can make a portkey," he asked, confused.
"I got caught up in the moment," the dogman said sheepishly. He then picked up a branch and made it into a portkey. They all disappeared, right before another tree fell.
Carl was taken to the healers and was fine with the wave of a wand and a potion.
It was a tense night as the winds howled outside and lightning lit up the sky. They couldn't see much from the CDC, but there were some windows on the upper floors. Many watched the storm in all it's glory.
"I hope the animals are okay," Sophia said, thinking that the animals were still at the camp.
"The house elves brought them here awhile ago, with all our supplies," Harry said, glad that the elves had thought of that.
"Really, where are they?" the girl asked, looking around like they would appear around the corner.
"The whole ground floor is full of them," he said, knowingly.
"Oh, is that why we're not allowed down there?" she inquired, a tilt of her head.
"Yeah, they're spooked, so it's safer for the elves to tend to them," the teen explained. He looked out at the storm and wondered if England had ever seen the like. "Do you get storms like this often?" he asked the girl.
"Every summer we get something. Sometimes bad, sometimes not," she said with a shrug, like this was normal.
"You were very brave in the woods," Harry offered with a smile.
"I was terrified," she denied.
"Yet you stayed," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder, as they watched out the window.
"He's my friend," she said as if that explained it, which it did.
They just watched the storm until it was time to go to bed. Most didn't sleep that night, too worried about what the camp would look like in the morning. Well, those not from this area that is.
Sirius got so concerned that he wanted to go and check on it. He talked Daryl into coming with him, letting him know they would Apparate out if it was bad. Daryl agreed and they popped to the campsite. It looked okay, and everything was just a bit tossed around. No lasting damage. Sirius was looking towards the highway, away from the woods, and spotted a large churning cloud.
"What the hell is that?" he exclaimed, pointing to the twister.
"That is the beginning of a tornado. It hasn't hit the ground yet, but it might. It looks like it's going to head to the city," Daryl said, watching Mother Nature do her thing.
"Will they be safe?" Sirius asked, now worried about the CDC.
"Should be. Hard to tell with tornadoes. They head one direction and change course without warning. They can flatten all the houses on the block or just one," the redneck explained, still admiring the tornado that was forming.
The two watched as the cloud got bigger and bigger, from their vantage point on the hill. It got so large and was picking up everything in its path. Cars, trucks, signs, barriers. Anything on the highway was fair game.
"We'd best get back" Daryl said, putting his hand on the man's shoulder.
Sirius was too entranced to react for a moment. This was the scariest, most marvelous thing he had ever seen. Such power, such grace. It was like a living thing come to life just to cause destruction.
"Sirius," the redneck said, shaking the shoulder he was holding.
"Right, okay, yeah, we'll go," the dogman said, and putting words to motion they left, leaving the twister to do its thing.
The next morning Sirius, Rick, Daryl, Remus, Kingsley, and Mac went to check out the campground. It was a mess, but not nearly as bad as the highway. There was a path of destruction all along that road. The road itself was fine, but everything around areas of it was torn apart. Trees were felled, cars were scattered, lines were down. It was a hot mess.
"Do you get these storms often?" Remus wanted to know.
Both Rick and Daryl nodded, and Rick said, "At least once every few months for the thunderstorms. Hurricane season brings the tornadoes."
"Hurricane season, you have a season for hurricanes?" Kingsley asked in disbelief.
"Yup, from June to November," was the answer, almost smugly.
"You have to watchout for these storms for five months out of the year?" Remus was just as disbelieving as Kingsley.
"Yup," Daryl stated.
"Okay, okay, how often do the tornadoes come?" Sirius asked, as if to defuse the situation.
"Now that's hard to tell, we can go years without one, only to have a slew of them in a month. You can't predict Mother Nature," Rick answered for him.
"Well, you picked a fine spot," Remus said to Sirius.
"Hey, I didn't pick it. The goblins did," the dogman barked back.
"Seriously, can we protect against the wind?" Kingsley asked, knowing the answer was probably no.
"No, but we can make a better shelter," Sirius stated waving to Daryl. "He told me underground is best. Away from the woods.
"Sounds like a plan," Remus said, and they got to planning.