Harry Potter and the Physical Adept

Chapter 24: A Hunting We Will Go

With Luna's additional training added to his daily menu of tasks, the Hermetic mage barely noticed as April became May, what with his own training, research and development, business considerations and physical fitness regimen taking up so much of his time. It made him wish there were more hours in the day, but there were not.

The monotony of the daily grind was interrupted in the middle of the month.

*beep*

"Whip, Wells! Help! Basilisk! Three-thirty-four! Over!"

It was after dark, so he was in the dorm room he shared with his daughters, and upon hearing the message, the trio shared a look.

*beep*

"Wells, Whip. On our way. Out."

"Gear up, we're going in hot, " said the shadowrunner, crossing to the hook where he had hung his black long coat, pulling it on before slinging his haversack over his shoulder.

With a nod, the Norwegian Ridgeback and her human sister quickly dressed themselves in dark clothes, strapping on holsters and firearms as they finished outfitting themselves.

Then, they were off, slipping out of their dorm room like thieves in the night.

Moving in formation, the trio advanced on their target in a bounding overwatch, rotating their fields of fire to ensure they did not miss any details during their progress to their destination, and it was for this reason that Luna saw it first.

"Contact!" she whispered, and her companions turned in the direction she was facing.

"Damn, that's a big-ass snake," Harry whispered back.

He wasn't wrong.

The snake in question was as tall and wide as a city bus, but probably long enough to rival the morning commuter train into London Waterloo, though its true length was difficult to ascertain, as it was coiled up in front of a classroom door in wait.

"Is that the basilisk?" Luna asked softly, before cooing, "Aww, it's so cute!"

Harry and Liv shared a look; the blonde had… interesting tastes.

"All right, grab cover," the shadowrunner directed, and the first-year Hufflepuffs scurried along the wall, opening classroom doors to provide themselves barriers to hide behind, while he ducked back behind the corner they had just turned and leaned out with his rifle in hand, ready to lay down suppressive fire.

Once Liv and Luna were in position, Harry braced his rifle against his shoulder and took aim, taking a deep breath to steady his hands before he pulled the trigger.

"Grenade out!"

With a loud thump, the underbarrel grenade launcher spat forth its payload in a parabolic arc, detonating with a thunderous roar as it struck the serpent's side. Hissing in pain, it reeled and turned to face the direction the attack had originated from, its glowing yellow eyes scanning the darkened hallway.

"Moving!" the shadowrunner shouted, emerging from around the corner, firing his weapon in quick bursts as he advanced; the attacks seemed to be effective, albeit only causing stinging pain instead of the devastating injuries it would normally inflict on a smaller target, making the basilisk slowly inch backwards.

The dragon leaned out from behind the door she had taken cover behind, the muzzle flash of her weapon lighting up the hallway as it disgorged bullets, and the boy shifted the barrel of his rifle floorwards and broke into a dead sprint, reloading both his grenade launcher and the detachable box magazine as he did so. Dashing past Luna, who had the point position, he yanked the door of the next classroom open and took cover, then quickly leaned out from behind it, squeezing off a burst from his HK33.

"Grenade out!" called the dragon, and from behind the shadowrunner, a 40mm grenade arced overhead, exploding in a burst of shrapnel as it struck the giant snake in the face.

With a shriek of pain, the basilisk reared up and whirled, rapidly slithering away from the door it had been stationed in front of.

It was definitely longer than the morning train into London Waterloo.

"On me," whispered the shadowrunner, and the trio shifted back into formation, moving in the bounding overwatch until they reached their destination.

"Stack up," ordered the boy, sliding his back up against the wall next to the door knob, while his human daughter took the side of the door with the hinges and the dragon dropped to a knee at his other side, her weapon at the ready as she swept the barrel from side to side.

"Breach."

Hearing Harry's words, Luna put her hand on the handle and pulled the door open; quickly, the shadowrunner stepped inside, rifle leveled and ready to fire.

"Harry," said the bushy-haired girl, quickly rising off the floor where she had been sitting with her arms around her knees. "You came..."

"Of course I came," the boy said, as he continued to sweep the room, while Liv and Luna filtered in behind him. Spotting the older girl with long, curly hair, garbed in blue and bronze also present, he stepped towards her, rifle leveled at her face, and immediately, her hands went up. "Who the frag are you?"

"Penny!" said the girl, the words tumbling out of her mouth in a rush. "Penelope Clearwater!"

"I thought you'd be with Su-Jin," Harry said, rifle still trained on the unfamiliar girl.

"She's busy working on a project," Hermione explained. "I needed somebody else for the buddy system to work, and Penelope was already going out, so I thought I'd go with her."

"What are you even doing out so late at night?"

"I needed a few books on runes for a side project of my own, so I was going to the library to get them, and now, here I am."

"You get the books?"

"I ran into the basilisk first."

The shadowrunner considered the situation for a moment. Then, to the older girl, he said, "You didn't see me, we've never met."

"What?" she asked.

"I got this," Hermione said, before stepping between Harry and her fellow Ravenclaw, quickly gesturing with her wand. "Memoria flexibilis."

The tip of the piece of shaped wood in her hand glowed green briefly, and the older girl's eyes glazed over.

"You were going to meet your boyfriend alone when you saw a giant snake and realized you might be in danger," the bushy-haired girl told her housemate. "You ducked into this classroom to hide, by yourself, but now, you think the danger's passed and will feel brave enough in a few minutes to head back to Ravenclaw Tower."

Then, to the Hermetic mage and his daughters, she said, "We should go, before she comes to her senses and sees us again."

The foursome exited the room and crossed to the classroom across the hall.

"We're taking it down tonight," Harry suddenly announced.

"What? Why?" the Ravenclaw asked, surprised.

"I can let a lot of things slide, but you take a shot at one of mine, I'm going to come back with the wrath of a million suns."

"It took a shot at Colin in November, and you did nothing. You finally got something to store the carcass in, didn't you?"

"That's coincidental, and Creevey's just an asset."

"Like Fay and Neville were? Last year, you said they were assets, and now, you're pretty close friends with them."

"Sometimes, assets can become something more."

"What's to say Colin can't?"

"Nothing, but he's not yet."

A beat followed.

"So, what's the plan?"

"Well, it's injured, so it's most likely heading back to a familiar place, like its nest, which means it's probably headed back to the Chamber of Secrets, so that's where we're going."

"But I'm not ready," the Ravenclaw protested.

"Not much of a choice; if we give it time to heal and regroup, it might get more aggressive when it realizes there are more dangerous things out there than just unprepared students.

"C'mon. We should go."

"Wait! I'm not prepared!" Hermione protested again. "I don't have anything for this!"

The shadowrunner reached into his haversack, retrieving a pistol made from plastic polymer, pushing it side-first into the Ravenclaw's stomach. "Take this," he said. "It doesn't have any safety you need to worry about, so just point, squeeze and shoot."

Hermione lifted the pistol, and Harry immediately pushed it to the side to get the barrel pointed away from Luna. "Whoa, there! Don't ever point that thing at anything you don't mean to shoot, and don't ever shoot anything you don't intend to kill," he warned her.

"I'm sorry," Hermione apologized, quickly directing the muzzle of the handgun groundward.

"All right, let's get moving. Rook, cover the rear; Danger, you stay between her and Dia, and I'll take the lead on this."

It took ten minutes and three detours to get down a single floor; despite being after curfew and there being a dangerous paracritter prowling the halls, there were a surprising number of students wandering the halls, now there was no longer a caretaker prowling the grounds in search of students to give detention to.

It could only be the invulnerability of youth.

Arriving at their destination, the four students quickly entered in a hurry; once they were inside, the shadowrunner pressed his walking stick against the door—which opened inwards—and passed Astral power through it, letting go and hitting it twice with the bottom of a closed fist, making sure it barred the door in place.

"What are you doing?"

Whirling, the Hermetic mage nearly shot the bespectacled, pigtailed ghost.

"Oh, hey Myrtle," said the Ravenclaw with a gentle smile. "These are my friends, and we're here to avenge your death."

"Oh," said the ghost.

"Yes," Hermione continued, as she saw the Hufflepuff boy retrieve several bright orange bricks wrapped in clear plastic from his haversack. "Do you remember if anything happened just prior to after your death?" she asked.

"I can't," Myrtle said. "Everything from that night is fuzzy."

"I thought you knew where the entrance was," the shadowrunner said to the Ravenclaw pointedly.

"Well, I know it's in here," the bushy-haired girl argued back.

"A lot of good that does us," Harry growled. "Your legworks leaves something to be desired."

"Let's see you do better, then."

The shadowrunner and the dragon shared a look, then nodded at the same time, quickly crossing to the walls and beginning to tap on them with fists and stamp their feet on the floor.

"What are you doing?" the bushy-haired brunette asked.

"Trying to find something hollow," Liv said, she continued to strike the wall with her knuckles.

"That's some spell you cast," Luna said, as she watched her dad and sister searched the room. "Where'd you learn it?"

"It was something I found in Lockhart's little black book," the Ravenclaw said. "He was developing a new kind of memory-manipulation charm, and I pieced together what he had, then perfected it."

"How did you even test it?" Harry called out in question.

"Don't tell Su-Jin, but I've been trying it on her," Hermione admitted. "Just little things, like changing her memory of what she ate for breakfast, or where she left her pencil case."

"That sounds like something I'd do," Harry said. "As you'd say, 'that's not nice'."

"I'm not proud of it, but I needed somebody to test the spell on, and I wasn't going to try it on a professor. Or you, since it probably just wouldn't work on you," the Ravenclaw said. "Su-Jin was the closest, so I ended up using her as a guinea pig."

"Weren't you worried about wiping out large chunks of her memory?" Luna asked, seemingly unconcerned.

"Well, I…"

"Found something," interrupted the dragon, as she continued to tap the wall around one of the sinks.

Quickly, the shadowrunner joined her in tapping the wall and floor around the sink, then started to unwrap one orange brick while handing the other to the dragon-in-girl's-form.

"What is that?" asked the Ravenclaw.

"Semtex," the shadowrunner answered.

"Come again?"

"Plastique."

"I still don't know what that is."

"Plastic explosives."

Hermione quickly stepped backwards and away from the duo preparing the explosives.

"Where the hell did you get that?" she demanded.

"I've got an arms dealer connect," said the shadowrunner calmly. "This drek's pretty stable, so you don't have to worry about it blowing up by accident."

"Why not just use magic?" Hermione asked.

"Every time I use Hermetic magic, I use energy and get more tired," said the Hermetic mage.

"I don't," the Ravenclaw said, frowning.

"Are you using inside magic, or are you pulling magic from the Astral Plane?" Luna asked.
"Because when I use the magic inside me, I don't get tired at all, but if I'm using Astral power, it wears me out pretty quickly."

"Wait, you taught her the Hermetic arts?" Hermione demanded.

"Dia's my daughter," said the Hermetic mage with a shrug, molding the putty-like orange explosives in a wide, thin ring around the sink in question along with Liv. "She was eventually going to find out, and I wasn't going to not teach her."

"Is that why you like guns and knives?"

"Mundane solutions don't wear me out as much, and most of them don't also require me to use obvious gestures and incantations that would be a dead giveaway."

He said this as he plugged a blasting cap into the plastique, and Liv backed away from the sink, pulling Luna with her into a toilet stall; a moment later, he lit the fuse with a match, then turn and ran for cover, grabbing the Ravenclaw by the sleeve and pulling her into a stall with him.

A loud explosion followed a moment later, though it only slightly shook the bathroom; when the foursome emerged from the toilets, the sink had been replaced by a pile of rubble, which the dragon-in-girl's-form quickly shoveled aside with her bare hands, revealing a pipe large enough to fit a body.

"What… what have you done?" cried the ghost, indignant.

"Opened the way to the Chamber of Secrets," the Hermetic mage said flatly. "I'll take point; Danger, you're right behind me, then Dia, you're next. Rook…"

"I'll bring up the rear, Whip."

"Atta girl," said the shadowrunner, before sitting down at the edge of the pipe, bringing his knees up near his chest and tucking his pistol between his legs.

Then, he shoved off, and into the pipe he went.

It was like what he imagined a waterslide would be like, except dark, foul-smelling and dangerously long.

He came out of the other end and rolled as he hit the stone floor, quickly rising to a knee and sweeping the area with the barrel of his weapon, surveying the immediate area for threats.

A moment later, he was joined by his best friend, then his daughters.

"Area secure," said the dragon-in-girl's form, a moment after she joined them in the tunnel, which was tall enough to stand in, but not much else.

"This looks like some sort of defunct sewage system," Hermione observed.

The foursome considered the darkened tunnel ahead of them; then, glowing off-white orbs formed around the group, filling the gloom with a soft, warm light.

All eyes turned to Liv, who shrugged. "Light," she said, as though that explained everything.

"We should go," Harry said, weapon at the ready. "Bounding overwatch. Danger, stay inside."

Before the Ravenclaw could protest, the trio of Hufflepuffs moved into formation around her; when she didn't move, Liv put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a push, and she found herself being guided down the tunnel as the shadowrunner and his daughters moved down the corridor, continuously rotating around her.

They proceeded down the tunnel for several minutes, alert and ready to engage in a fight, finally coming to a stop before a wall with two intertwined serpents embossed carved on it, with glinting green gemstones set in the eyes.

"This must be the door to the Chamber," observed the Ravenclaw. "But how do we open it?"

"Same way as the bathroom," said the shadowrunner, taking four more bricks of plastique out of his haversack, pushing half of them into the dragon's hands. "Take the right side."

Then, he reached into his pocket and retrieved his friction folder, handing it to his other daughter. "Dia, see if you can get the emeralds loose; they'll probably be worth something."

"You can't just vandalize a historical site!" Hermione protested.

"Fastest way to get in," the Hermetic mage countered, as the dragon set her two charges and then helped him in linking the bricks with lengths of detcord. "Now get back, because if this goes south, we're in a very confined space and we'll all eat a drekload of shrapnel."

The four took cover around the corner, the shadowrunner and the Ravenclaw on one side, and the blonde and the dragon on the other. Then, she leaned around the corner, coughed once and spat a small ball of flames, no larger than a ping pong ball, at the fuse, even as the blonde handed the friction folder back to its owner, who pocketed it.

"Fire in the hole."

The entire tunnel shook violently as the plastic explosives detonated with an ear-splitting, thunderous blast, shaking loose dust and chunks of rock and plaster that fell from the ceiling.

Before the dust even settled, Harry was storming down the corridor, leading with his rifle; Hermione felt Luna's hand on her shoulder, pushing her after him, and the sound of footfall behind her meant Liv was sweeping the rear.

The Chamber was long and badly lit; it took the shadowrunner a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark, and as he looked around, his saw serpent-entwined pillars on either side rise into the gloom to a ceiling so high he could not see it through the dull, green-grey mist. The floor was covered with a shallow film of water, splashing with every step they took into it.

Cautiously, the armed trio advanced into the Chamber in a rotating formation, weapons at the ready; in between them, Hermione kept pace but gawked at the sights all around her, taking in the long-hidden Chamber in awe.

Before they even reached the last pair of pillars in the Chamber, the Hermetic mage could see the outline of a statue looming before the back wall.

The basilisk was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, there was a small girl in scarlet and gold seated between the statue's feet, her flame-colored hair hanging in front of her face as she scribbled in the small book in her hands.

At the sound of footfall and water splashing, the girl looked up, her eyes taking a moment to focus on the foursome in the gloom.

"You're Harry Potter," she said in recognition as her expression took on a look of surprise.

Then, her eyes rolled backwards into her head, closing as she slumped over sideways like somebody had cut the strings on a marionette.

"Cover me," Harry directed.

"Copy," Liv said, dropping to a knee, taking up a stance with her rifle at the ready.

Quickly, the boy crossed to the fallen girl, pressing two fingers to her throat to check for a pulse, finding a heartbeat that started steady, but the beats quickly increased in pace even as its strength diminished.

"That's Ginevra Weasley," Luna observed.

"Whoever she is, she's alive."

"But only just," said a quiet, unfamiliar voice.

A tall, black-hair boy emerged from the shadows behind one of the pillars, his outlines blurred and fractured, his form washed out and translucent.

"The fuck are you?" the dragon snarled.

"Tom Riddle," the specter said calmly.

"Never heard of you," the shadowrunner said tensely, finger tightening on the trigger, tracking the tall boy as he crossed to the fallen girl, where he crouched down and picked up the wand that had fallen from her robes.

"I'm sure you have," said the newcomer, as he turned to the four gun-toting children. "Unfortunately, you being here has forced me to accelerate my plans."

"What plans?" Hermione asked.

"That diary poor little Ginny's been writing in, month after month, telling me of her pitiable worries and woes… it's my diary," said Tom. "She poured her little heart out to me, and even though it was the boring prattle of a prepubescent girl, I was patient; I answered back, I listened, I offered sympathy and kindness.

"Funny how much I had to prod her to get her to write even the smallest thing about you; I would have thought she would be happy to gossip about you, you being famous and all."

"Don't really care," the shadowrunner said, calmly.

"Well, as she poured her soul out to me, that's exactly what I took," Riddle said, a dark smile turning the corner of his lips upwards. "With every little fear and secret she wrote, I took a bit of her soul, until I was strong enough to start possessing her.

"It was through her that I opened the Chamber of Secrets and attacked the mudbloods with the Serpent of Slytherin."

"If that's what you call 'attacked', I've got news for you," the Ravenclaw growled. "We survived."

"That's a pity," said the specter. "Nonetheless, it's time for you to die."

Riddle hissed something, and the mouth the statue swung open; from it emerged the basilisk, which struck the floor with a thud.

"Rook, get Dia and Wells out of here!" ordered the shadowrunner.

"Wilco," said the dragon, before picking up both of the girls, dashing off with them on her shoulders despite the rather vocal protests from the Ravenclaw.

"You're certainly brave," Riddle said, as the Hermetic mage was left alone with the specter and the basilisk. "Foolhardy, but brave."

Riddle hissed something, and the basilisk uncoiled itself in a rapid strike, but the shadowrunner was already on the move, sprinting behind the nearest pillar and putting it between himself and the serpent and the specter.

The King of Serpents was earthbound, so as soon as the Hermetic mage was in the air, he would have the tactical advantage.

"Muto corporem," he incanted in a whisper.

In an instant, his robe and shirt were torn apart as a wave of fatigue washed over him and a pair of black feathered wings sprang forth from his shoulder blades, leaving him clad in only in trousers and boots, his rifle and haversack slung over his shoulders.

His wings beating furiously, the Hermetic mage raced towards the ceiling, firing a grenade from the underbarrel launcher as he did so. Struck by shrapnel, the basilisk hissed but continued to stalk the flying boy; the grenade had about as much of an effect as small arms fire, and while it certainly seemed to sting the king of serpents, it was not enough to deter it now that it had apparently been given direct orders to kill.

Still, the Beast of Slytherin was groundbound, and as long as the shadowrunner remained airborne, they were in a stalemate, the basilisk unable to reach the boy and the Hufflepuff unable to hurt the serpent in any meaningful way with his weapons.

Something needed to change.

With that in mind, he began to draw Astral power into his nerves, shaping it as he visualized a chunk of one of the nearby pillars crumbling into dust, dropping the rest of the pillar onto the head of the basilisk.

He never saw the impact coming, and the whipping tail came out of nowhere, striking Harry from a blindspot with the force of a high speed traffic collision, breaking one of his wings as it curled around a pillar to slam into him, hurling him through the gloom as he suddenly could no longer dictate his aerial movement.

Author's Notes: Even in her panicked state, even when she truncates callsigns, Hermione still remembers proper radio procedure. She's grown a little since her encounter with the troll; now, even as she panics, she manages to keep her wits about her.

Just to clarify, it's not that conventional firearms are actually causing the basilisk any real harm; it'd be like getting a couple splinters, and while they can be painful and uncomfortable, your physical well-being isn't particularly compromised by them, but if you can get away from the source of them, you're going to. A grenade to the face, though, is another matter; concussive force is concussive force.

I always intended for Hermione to follow a bit in Lockhart's footsteps, albeit without being a sexual predator; it's a first step in a slippery slope that will get her more closely aligned with Harry's ethics. Likewise, her discomfort with guns is intentional, as she's not meant to end up as muscle in the vein of Harry or Liv.

As for how she managed to perfect a spell Lockhart was only working on getting to work, Hermione's really good at research and putting things together from notes, plus she's obsessive enough to keep working the puzzle until she solves it. It's also meant to demonstrate that, just like how the Marauders generation had some really gifted and talented wizards and witches, so does Harry's generation, because, in the original series, Harry's entire generation comes off as fairly inept, and I didn't want this Harry to be the only person in this series who comes off as being on the same level as the preceding generation, even if a huge chunk of what he's managed is based on putting his nose to the grindstone and just working the problem until it's solved. I also want to point out that Harry and Hermione aren't going to be the only characters in the generation who come out looking stronger in this series; most of the major characters in this story will get boosted up a bit, though not all boosts will be on the magical side, and not all boosts will be equal.

I generally don't end chapters on cliffhangers, but it seemed appropriate here given the situation. If this was an episode of a TV show, I imagine it'd be right there that they'd cut to commercial, or a "To Be Continued...".

Once again, many, many thanks to my long-suffering editor, Romantically Distant, for all their efforts in reading and proofing my writing. And now you've read this chapter, feel free to leave a review or just PM me, and, with the WARS pandemic still on-going, stay safe.