Chapter 4 Introductions and Explanations.
Since this is not going to be a well followed story, most crossovers aren't, can you leave a review? Well, that's my experience anyway. I know some get a lot of followings, but I seem to come into the popular ones too late. Story of my life. Anyway, it'll make me inspired to write more.
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The next morning, they all woke up confused and disoriented. The climate inside the tents was controlled, but they could feel a heaviness in the air and see the sweat beading on the tent as it ran down the sides looking like it might have rained the night before, but they knew that it hadn't.
Once they walked out of the tents, they all felt like they gained a few pounds, such was the weather in Georgia in the summer. The trees around them were all bright and green, and you could see that they were heavy with dew. The insects chirped and the birds sang. It was quite peaceful.
"Let's get some breakfast and introduce ourselves," Remus suggested, taking his outer robes off and tossing them back in the tent. He waved his wand and changed his clothes to something much lighter.
"Oh, do mine," Harry said and was echoed by the other kids.
The werewolf ran his wand in front of Harry and changed his shirt and slacks to a t-shirt and shorts. His shoes and socks into sandals.
The rest of the magicals followed his example. They all hoped that they had some type of clothing that they would be able to wear in this type of weather, but knowing that the Wizards would be able to change anything into something more appropriate was a relief.
"Slam," Harry called, hoping the little elf would come and make breakfast for them as they did not want to cook in this heat. He was worried if it was this hot now, what was the rest of the day going to be like. Sure, it was hot in Surry, but this was different.
"Yes, Harry sir?" the elf asked popping in. He didn't look like the weather bothered him at all.
"Can you do breakfast for us? Something light, like eggs with soldiers," the teen requested. He figured an easy breakfast would be better for everybody after the big dinner they had the night before.
"Of course," Slam said, and left to do just that.
They all gathered at a picnic table, one of the many littering the grounds. The sun was bright and was beating down upon them.
"Okay, youngest to oldest, I think," Remus said, pointing at the kids.
"I'm Mike," said the only other boy. He was of African descent and short with a very thin body. "I'm 11 and I've been with the runners a few months. It was Harry that found me," he said, nodding in Harry's direction.
"I'm Peggy, I'm also 11," the taller girl said, sitting up straighter. She was taller with kinky black hair that pressed against her head. "I dress like a boy, because the bosses give me more runs like this. I don't like dresses anyway," she added with a sniff.
"I'm Sue," the last one said, nodding to everyone, "I'm 13, I've been with the runners for 7 years. It was Digger that found me, around the same time as Harry joined us. We've been with the group the longest, bar Digger." She was short for her age very tan and wore her dark hair in a braid.
"I'm Harry," Harry said with a smirk, knowing they all knew that. "Here, I'm just Harry," he reiterated. "I'm 14, like Sue said, I was with the runners until Hagrid came and got me." he had changed the most in the last couple years. He was now taller, beefier and didn't wear glasses. His green eyes shone bright in the morning sun, and he looked more relaxed than he had been all summer.
"What exactly is a runner?" the busty redhead asked, not familiar with the term.
"We deliver stuff. Mostly illegal stuff, but sometimes just regular letters. We don't 'know' what's in our packages, but we can guess," Sue explained, playing with her braid. "We're all street kids. The bosses, who are not on the up and up, give us small packages, and tell us were to go. If we do this, we get paid," she finished off with a shrug.
"We gotta eat," Mike said, he too shrugged. It was a fact of life, sometimes you just had to do things that you didn't want to do.
"This will actually be useful later. They can help us scout out the city. I'm not sure how far this 'virus' will go, but we might need someone fast on their feet to get supplies later," Sirius said thoughtfully. He was thinking of the many things these kids could do that the adults couldn't. They were smaller, faster and can get into places easier than they could.
"You can't mean to get a bunch of kids to do our dirty work," the pink-haired woman said, shocked. She, on the other hand, thought it was appalling to have children do the work that adults should do. They should stay at home and learn, not be out in the streets being in danger.
"Why not?" Peggy said, indignantly. "It's what we're good at," she stated firmly. She didn't understand what the problem was. They've been doing this most of their life.
"But…" Jessi started.
"How about we finish introductions," Remus interrupted. He didn't want to have to listen to them argue about something that would come later. If the kids are good at what they did then, yes, they would be useful in the future. Still, as adults they would make sure that the kids were safe.
"Fine," said Tonks. "I'm Tonks, just Tonks." Her hair cycled many colors, making the kids look on with awe. She, unlike the other adults, was rather short and stature and her hair constantly turned colors to reflect her emotions.
Remus, Sirius and Shack all smirked, knowing her real name. They also knew that if they said it out loud, they would probably be hexed.
"Since we're not doing formal introductions, I'm Sam," said the stalky brunette adult man. "I'm a warder."
"What's a warder?" Mike asked, leaning forward to hear more about magic. He didn't sleep much last night with all the exciting things that he knew he was going to be learning about magic.
"It's like shielding in sci-fi movies." Harry explained, looking at the excited boy.
"Mac, enchanter," was all the blond male said, nodding to the redhead. He, like all the other adults, was also rather tall.
"Jessi," she stated. "I'm the only Muggleborn here, and I'm and electrician." She was a busty redhead, who often was angry at males for staring at her chest. She was one of the muggleborns that had left the magic community for the most part and studied electricity so that she could make a living. The only time she ever went into the magical community was when she needed something for potions. She had been in Knockturn Alley when she heard about the goblins change in physique. She, like Remus, knew the folklore about Armageddon. That's why she was glad she hooked up with these guys.
"That'll be helpful," Harry said knowingly. Tonks and the other kids nodded in agreement. They knew that if things got as bad as they thought it would be then electricity would definitely be needed.
"I'm Kingsley, but you can call me Shack," the tall bald black man said, giving them all a welcoming smile. He wore a gold ring in one of his ears. He was very buff and looked like he could take on anybody.
"I'm Remus, like Harry said last night, I'm a werewolf," Remus said, picking up the teacup that had just appeared on the table. He wore worn clothes that look like they had seen better days. He had scars on his face where he scratched himself on the full moon. But all in all, looked like a kind and gentle man.
"I'm Sirius," Sirius said, grabbing a plate and fork. "Let's eat," he added, starved from the trip last night. He was rather average sized with black hair, goatee and gray eyes.
Introductions over, everyone loaded their plates and started eating. Though the fare was light, there was plenty of it. There was also juice, coffee, and tea. Everybody chose what they wanted to drink, and breakfast went on with little fanfare. After they filled their bellies, they decided to talk some more.
"Tell us what wards are," inquired Peggy. "I mean, I can guess from stories and such, but what exactly do they do?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"In this case," Remus started, settling in for a long explanation, "well… think of it like a multilayered fountain. The ley line is like water, and it's being shunted up the ground via a crystal. It will 'spray', for lack of a better term, in layers. These layers will do different things. The first is a proximity ward."
"What's a proximity ward?" Peggy asked.
"It's a shield that will let us know somebody is near," Remus explained.
"The second," interrupted Sirius, "which is the most important, will keep out the dead. We asked the goblins to make sure to keep out all type of dead beings, including the Inferi and vampires. The wards also included keeping out all magical creatures with vicious tendencies," he explained further. "We asked them to do this the other night and they came here yesterday morning to set it up. After we saw what we did in Surry, we wanted to make sure that the dead would stay out. That ward will also keep out werewolves."
"Yes, thank you, Sirius. The third, which is the second most important, is the ill-intent ward," Remus said, glaring at Sirius. As much as he loved his friend, he really hated it when he interrupted him.
"Wait! That's a thing?" Harry said, his face masked in surprise. "I thought that was only in stories."
"Magic can do almost anything," Jessi said, her face serious. "I was just a shocked as you," she added. "I've lived in the magic world long enough to realize that just about everything in books can be reality. All but food and creating life." It was one of the reasons why she hated leaving the magical world. It was such a fascinating place to be, but the prejudice against muggleborns was just more than she could bear.
"Oh," was all the kids could say to that.
"Anyway," Remus said a bit forcefully. He was still recovering from the full moon and was moody. "Combined with the ill-intent is an altered Fidelius ward. If the person has ill-intent, they will forget this place." The last thing they needed was to fight off idiots. If they were going to make a safe place it had to be safe.
"Explain, please," Sue said, her eyes eager to learn more.
"A Fidelius is a ward that hides where you are. This one doesn't need a Secret Keeper, since it's not really hiding us, just erasing information from the wrong sort," the ex-professor stated, his voice taking on a lecturing tone.
"That's awesome," Mike said, bouncing a bit. He was super excited to hear all this.
"Fourth, is where we will stop those who make it through. It is a health check, if they need healing that's where we will do our best to help. We have an abundance of potions, but none of us are healers. We're hoping that we get more magicals here soon. I'll explain in a minute. If they are healthy, they will be explained the rules here. They can't go any further until they sign a waiver," Sirius said, looking at the other magicals to confirm.
"We have some training, being Aurors, but nothing complicated," Shack said, pointing between him and Tonks.
"You're in charge of that then, until we get a healer," Jessi said, with a definitive nod.
"What kind of waiver?" Tonks asked, hoping they weren't going to make unreasonable demands.
"Just that they'd follow the rules and know that there are enchantments that will prevent violence and unwanted pregnancy," Remus explained.
"Why the last one?" Jessi asked. Not that she thought it was a good idea to have children right now, but to take away that right.
"Do you really want to be raising children in the middle of an apocalypse?" Sirius asked, quite seriously.
"No, I can see that, but isn't that violating their rights?"
"No, if you think about it, we're warning them in advance. If they can't abide by that, they can leave. We're not going to hold anyone against their will. But we can't raise children right now," the weary werewolf said, running his hand down his face.
"As long as it is explained fully," Jessi said.
"That will be the last two wards. The fertility ward will not affect animals. We might need them to populate just to eat later," Sirius said, nodding towards the vast woods. "When we've gotten enough people, magic and otherwise, we're going to build a fence. It'll take ages, even with magic. While magic can do almost anything, it is finite," he explained to the non-magicals.
"We carry magic within us, like a core. So, once it runs low, we have to recharge," Sam said, to clear up the looks on the kids' faces.
"Oh, okay, yeah that makes sense," Mike said, nodding along.
"So that's what we're going to do on the full moon? We're going to be running around outside? What happens if innocent people try and come up to the campground?" Harry asked, kind of concerned about those people.
"That's the plan, at this point in time. Padfoot would be with us, and he'll make sure that we don't hurt any innocence." Remus said, hoping that that would really Harry's fear. "We also have quite a bit of Wolfsbane."
"I guess that makes sense."
"Exactly how many people do you plan on having here?" Jessi asked, not really wanting to put up with a bunch of purebloods.
"Right now, the wards cover about 5 miles in any direction from the center. It had been a pain in the arse for the goblins to get everybody out of the way, but since we're sitting on a natural reserve, it wasn't as hard as we thought it would be. With 5 miles in either direction, that would leave enough room for a lot of people to be safe. At some point in time, we're going to extend the wards. We have more ward stones. We just don't have the magic to put them up right now," Remus said.
"Why a fence?" Harry asked, thinking it would be a waste of time and resources.
"To direct people to the gates. We'll have them up at each direction, one south, one north, and so on," Sirius said, tilting his head why that wasn't obvious.
"Oh, so we're not running everywhere when the wards ping. I get it," the dark-haired teen said with a nod.
"Right, so eventually we'll have more wards," Remus continued. "Our plan is to get as many people under the wards as we can, save what population we can. Hopefully stopping the annihilation of humans. At least here."
"We would have to shunt the ley line and create a whole new one, then set up the stone and then place the wards. We'll need a whole lot more people than we have now, or a really good warder," Sam said, running his hand through his hair. "I'm a warder, and I can do it, but only a bit at a time. If we had more warders, then we can get a few up a year. It's tedious and time consuming."
"Right now, we're at the southern side of the wards," Sirius said, drawing a circle on the table with his wand. He pointed to the part they were at and made little dots to show how big the wards were in comparison. "The center is 4 miles behind us. They extend about a mile out. It covers the entire reserve, part of the highway. There is also a farm or two that covers, but they don't know that. Sometime in the next week, Remus and I will go and explain it to them," he finished, making sure to draw where the forest ended, and the farms began. He then nodded to his friend, who nodded back.
"Why don't you take me or Shack instead?" Jessi said, thinking they were friendlier looking than Remus. "I don't mean to offend you, Remus, but with those scars you might scare the non-magicals. As it is right now, you look like a deranged killer." She smiled, to show she wasn't trying to be mean.
"That's not nice," Harry said, almost laughing, because that was the last thing Remus looked like. "At worst, he looks like a victim."
"Yeah, but most people won't see it that way," she rebutted, the smile on her face gave away that she was just playing. "Seriously, though, you might scare people with those scars, and I don't want to offend you, but that is just a reality."
"No, I understand. At least for once, I'll be scary for my looks and not what I am," Remus said with a self-depreciating chuckle. He knew Jessi didn't mean any offense. She was one of the few people that would actually touch him.
"I would like to go to. With my ever-changing appearance, I would be able to explain magic better than you lot can," Tonks said, shifting her face to many others.
"That would actually be a cool idea," Peggy said, watching Tonks with fascination. "Just by watching her, I would believe in magic sooner."
"Something we'll have to think about," Sirius said, rubbing his goatee. "With the world ending the Statute of Secrecies would be no more, so keeping her secret would not be pertinent." Now that he thought about it, it was actually a really good idea.
"When do you all plan on doing all this?" Harry asked.
"Like I said in a couple days, first we want to make sure to set up everything here for the first stragglers that come in," Sirius said, clapping his hands together, like he was ready to get started.
"Let's go wash up, put on some real clothes, because I'm sure it's going to get hotter later, these transfigurations will not last. Then we'll set up the campground," Remus suggested, standing to do just that.
Slam popped in and cleared the table. Dunk popped up next to him, snapped his fingers and made sure the table was clean. Everybody got up and started heading towards the tent they had slept in the night before.
For the better part of the morning, they set up the RV's, the non-magical tents, and generators for each. Jessi is the one who put up the generators. Most of them were gas, but there were some solar.
They broke for lunch and had a quick meal of sandwiches and juice. And towards the end of the night, they sat together and put together the contract. It was a simple contract, that stated that no violence would happen inside the park and that everybody would pull their weight. The rules were then added, including the one on fertility.
After the contract was put together, everybody went to bed.
The next morning, they decided to see what was going on in Atlanta. They had cleared out a car lot, but only three of them were able to drive. That was Tonks, Remus, and Jessi. So, they split up and headed down the highway.
Right now, everything seemed to be calm, but they wanted to see if anything was going to come back and bite them anytime soon. Not that the city wasn't busy, it was mindboggling to the magicals, but there were no zombies running around.
There were a lot more police on the streets. And there seemed to be a few army men running around. Since they didn't have any American money, they couldn't buy supplies, so they decided to go back to the campground and start sorting the supplies they already had.
Later, after they had eaten, they talked a bit more.
"So how are we gonna do this? How are we gonna make everybody earn their own keep?" Harry asked, picking up a piece of equipment that he saw on the table.
Jessi grabbed it out of his hand and said, "We're just going to make them sort supplies for now. When everything goes to hell, we'll go out and get supplies from the stores." She put the part to a generator back on the table and smacked Mac's hand when he went to pick it up.
He just grinned at her and held up his hands in surrender.
"Isn't that stealing?" Peggy asked. Not that she was against stealing. She was a runner after all.
"Well, we did it in England so I don't see why we shouldn't do it here. However, we're going to wait until everything goes to hell before we even think about doing anything like that here." Remus explained, rubbing his hand down his face. He was very tired.
"Why did you do it so soon in England? Why didn't you wait until we got here and do it?" Mike asked. It had been a long few days for everyone. He, like the rest, was tired.
"I guess we sort of panicked and wanted to make sure that we had everything we needed before it was all gone. We did, however, only take half of everything so that other people could survive. We don't want to be greedy about it and take everything." Sirius explained, yawning loudly.
"Yeah, but why did you make me get the Dursley's stuff?" Harry asked, trying to cover his yawn, and failing terribly.
"Because I just don't like them," Sirius explained with an evil grin.
"I guess that makes sense. I'm not overly fond of them either," the teen said, his grin matching his godfather's.
"So, you said we were going to make everybody sort things out? How are we going to do that? Are we going to explain magic to them from the very beginning?" Sue wanted to know. While she and the others had accepted magic, she knew others would not. There were many prejudices out there.
"They're gonna know about magic the minute they run into the wards, because I can guarantee you there are going to be people who are not going to pass the first three wards." Remus said, his head nodding as he tried to fight to finish the conversation.
"Oh, I guess that makes sense. I mean, if they can't get past an invisible barrier to get in, they're gonna know about magic." Mike said, he finally gave up and laid his head on the table.
"Let's get to bed," Jessi suggested, tugging Peggy's sleeve.
"Yeah, we can figure the rest out tomorrow," Tonks said, grabbing a sleepy Sue.
"See you guys in the morning," Sam said, picking up the light Mike and heading to the tent, with Mac and Shack following.
"Night all," Harry said as he followed his godfathers.
With the chorus of crickets and frogs, the group fell into a deep sleep. Hoping that the peace held on for just a little while longer.
Hphphp
Just a quick one to explain a few things.