CHAPTER FIVE: Number 3422 Knox Place
"Where are we going?" Barry asked Harry as he led the others down a long and narrowed passageway between what looks to be two abandoned buildings.
"Somewhere safe," Harry replied, "we need to sit down and really talk but we can't do that with those people chasing you guys,"
"Umbrella scum," Barry muttered under his breath with such intensity and violence, it almost made Harry shudder to hear it. Despite all that has happened to him because of Voldemort, Harry has never really festered a real hatred towards him like how Barry, Rule and Rebecca hates this Umbrella, whatever it is. Since his sixth year, Harry just became even less emotional and more unattached to those around him. Sure, he's become further driven to stop Voldemort in his second rise for power but only because it's up to him or so the prophecy says.
After the war is over and if Harry's still alive, who knows? Maybe he'll continue his Auror work or he'll take up a teaching position at Hogwarts. Glancing to his right, Harry noticed Ron walking blindly next to him. By the look on his face, Ron is very deep in thought but Harry couldn't begin to guess what about. Barry and Rule walked silently and stoically behind Harry and behind them, Hermione and Rebecca was chatting happily away. Seeing this made Harry very curious about what it is they're talking about but right now, Harry needs to lead them to safety.
"Whatever you did back there really worked wonders," Rebecca said to Hermione, referring to her bandaged shoulder. Hermione smiled happily.
"I should hope so. I've been studying to become a nurse since before I graduated from school,"
"What made you want to be a nurse?" Rebecca inquired. Hermione sighed before speaking.
"Well, a lot of it has to do with Harry,"
"Harry? What's happened to Harry?" Rule heard Rebecca's whispered question and discreetly turned his face towards them to better hear Hermione's answer. He had realized back when Umbrella's men were chasing them down that this Harry is not your everyday-average wizard. Not that he has any real knowledge of who is an average wizard or not but if he compared Harry to Ron and Hermione and even Portia, Harry seems almost light-years ahead of them.
"Well, Harry isn't like me or Ron. He's essential…" Hermione broke off and stared at Harry's back and Rebecca did the same after following Hermione's gaze. Rebecca had felt an attraction towards Harry right from the start. She didn't know how else to explain besides the fact that his potent-ness is very seductive. The way he talked, walked, and moved… he did it all with an awesome show of strength not only physically but also mentally.
Rebecca shook her head as if to empty her mind of her useless ramblings before turning back to Hermione who, for some reason, had a strange gleam in her eye when she looked at Rebecca.
"What?" Rebecca asked. Hermione only smiled.
"You like him, don't you?"
"Who?" But Rebecca knew who Hermione was talking about and by the look on Hermione's face, Rebecca wasn't fooling her either. "Well, it's hard not to like him. Who can resist his James Bond accent?" Rebecca said; an attempt at a joke but it came out flat.
"OK, enough about me. Tell me what you were going to say about Harry. What is he essential for?"
"It's best that he tells you," Hermione replied after a long moment in which Rebecca's curiosity increase tenfold. Rebecca groaned a bit angrily. Rule shared her sentiments. He wanted to learn more about Harry, more so now since Hermione's vagueness.
"We're here," Harry announced suddenly. Barry, Rule and Rebecca looked around at their surroundings but only saw two rundown, shabby houses and what looks to be a junkyard. Broken glass and garbage are littered all over the sidewalks and street and a group of homeless people are huddling together at the street corner for warmth.
"This is it?" Barry said in disbelief. He didn't know what to expect but this was obviously not it.
"This place doesn't look safe," Rebecca ventured. Ron smiled at them like one would smile at a child.
"Here," Ron said, thrusting a piece of parchment toward Rebecca's hand. "Read quickly and memorize." Rule and Barry leaned over Rebecca's shoulders to read the message as well. The narrow handwriting was a bitty messy to read but nothing the three couldn't handle. It said:
"What's the Order of the---?" Barry began.
"Shush, not here!" Ron whispered. "Wait till we're inside!" He pulled the parchment out of Rebecca's hand and set fire to it with his wand tip. As the message curled into flames and floated to the ground at her feet, Rule looked at the two houses again. One house is 3421 and the other is 3423.
"But where's ---?" He started but was cut off the way Barry was.
"Just think of what you've just memorized," Hermione advised. Doing exactly that, the three ex-S.T.A.R.S. members started to repeat the message in their minds and when suddenly a beautiful, oak door emerged out of nowhere between the two houses, followed swiftly by shiny walls and spotless windows.
It was as though an extra house had inflated, pushing those on wither side out of its way. Rebecca gaped at it. The house seemed out of place, as if it didn't belong between the two old and ugly houses. The house itself was beautiful, the kind you'd want your family to grow up in.
"Come on," Harry said, motioning them towards the door. They followed him through the door and once every stepped over the threshold, the door slammed shut behind them.
"I was worried that it wouldn't work," Hermione said as she removed her coat and placed it on the coat rack. "You three are, after all, muggles."
"What just happened there?" Barry grumbled. Ron took the liberty of answering as he placed his own coat on the coat rack.
"The house is charmed by a Fidelius charm. It's an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it," Ron explained. Ron gestured for the others to remove their coats and hand them over to him before he continued.
"As long as the Secret-Keeper refuses to speak, the Umbrella people you hate could search all over this street where you're staying for years and never find you, not even if they had their noses pressed against the sitting room window, staring right at you,"
"Mmm," Rebecca murmured, "how convenient,"
"Harry? Ron? Hermione? Is that you?" Someone called out from inside the house. Ron groaned right before a woman with shockingly red hair, same as Ron's, entered the hallway. She's a short, plump and kind-faced woman, Rebecca saw right away. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand, like the ones Harry and Ron waves around, sticking out of the front pocket. Her red hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and she stood there with her hands on her hips.
"Ah, I see you've brought company," Molly Weasley said as she eyed over the three strangers. She then turned to Ron.
"What? You haven't seen your mother for days and you don't greet her properly?" She scolded.
"Mum!"
"Mum?" Barry repeated. Rule placed his hand over his mouth as if to cover a cough but all knew he was trying to hold back a strangled laugh.
"By Merlin's beard!" Mrs. Weasley cried out when she spotted the bandage over Rebecca's shoulder. "Why, you're hurt! What's happened? Come over here, child. I'll make some tea for you," Not knowing what else to do, Rebecca followed Mrs. Weasley into the next room, leaving a very embarrassed Ron with two teasing people.
"Mum?" Rule said to Ron. Ron turned even redder, if that was possible, before saying.
"Shut up,"
"Just leave him alone," Hermione admonished them, which for some reason made the two men laugh harder. It was hard for Harry to keep a straight face too so before Ron blew his top off, Harry spoke up.
"Let us all go to the sitting room. There we'll talk."
Everyone followed Harry into the cozy sitting room. The fireplace was lit, casting moving shadows around the room. Rule and Barry moved over to the couch pushed against the wall. Harry took his seat in the arm chair near the fireplace while Hermione and Ron sat in the loveseat opposite from him.
They stayed like that for a while until Mrs. Weasley and Rebecca entered the room, carrying a tray of scones.
"Refreshments, anyone?" Mrs. Weasley offered. After a few murmured thank you's, Mrs. Weasley left and Rebecca took her seat between Rule and Barry.
"OK," Harry began, "who is Umbrella?"
"First tell us about you," Rule demanded. "I've gotten the impression that you're important," Harry sighed.
"Well, it's not a secret so I'll tell you everything in a nutshell.
"A prophesy was made in which it said that only one has the ability to destroy the Dark Lord Voldemort, one of the most powerful wizards in our world. Voldemort reasoned that this 'chosen one' is me.
"He killed my parents to get to me when I was a year old but before he killed my mother, he offered to spare her life if she'd just get out of the way. She didn't. She sacrificed her life for mine and because of that love, an ancient protection spell stopped Voldemort from killing me.
"He used the killing curse but because of the ancient magic, it rebounded and hit Voldemort. Since then, I've became The-Boy-Who-Lived and the one to rid the world of Voldemort. No one has ever survived the killing curse but I did and I've pretty much made history that day.
"I grew up with my mother's family. They're muggles and hate anything not normal so they hated me. They knew that I was a wizard but kept it from me. Anyway, I found out what happened to my parents and who I really am on my eleventh birthday.
"I started attending Hogwarts, a school for Witchcraft and Wizardry and started becoming even more famous.
"In my first year, I became the youngest person in a century to join a House Quidditch team. I've also managed to save the Sorcerer's Stone, an elixir of life, from Voldemort with the help of Ron and Hermione.
"Wait!" Rebecca stopped him before he could continue.
"What?" Ron said. Hermione and Harry looked at Rebecca questioningly.
"It's you!" Rebecca almost laughed hysterically. "I knew I recognized your names!"
"Our names?" Hermione repeated. "How would you know our names? You're muggles,"
"I know but there's a book that's out in the 'muggle' world," Rebecca exclaimed.
"That's right!" Barry said suddenly, a look of enlightenment shaping his facial features. "My kids are begging me to buy them a copy of that book,"
"The book is called 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' and it's by J.K. Rowling."
"Harry's famous in the muggle world too?" Ron asked shocked.
"It looks like it," Rule confirmed.
"But Harry Potter is a work of fiction in our world," Ron and Hermione sat there shocked whereas Harry just started laughing almost hysterically.
"What's so funny?" Rule asked. Harry only shook his head before speaking.
"My aunt and uncle… I wish I'd have been there to see the expressions on their faces."
"I can't believe a writer would write Harry's life and sell it for his own profit." Hermione said angrily.
"We should have thought of that," Ron said. Hermione hit him on his knee.
"My favorite characters are your brothers, Ron," Rebecca said.
"My brothers?"
"They're hilarious," she laughed.
"OK, enough about that. Since you already know about Harry, I guess you can tell us about Umbrella," Hermione said. Barry sighed before answering Hermione.
"It's a medical company formally known as Umbrella Incorporated. It's a huge multi-billion dollar company with bases all over the world."
"A medical company?" Hermione repeated. Rebecca nodded.
"They have brilliant scientists from all over on staff. They've made incredible strides in finding cures for cancer and all kinds of other diseases."
"That doesn't make them evil," Ron said. Rule chuckled.
"It's their cover. What they're really working on is making bio-weapons." Rule said.
"Bio-weapons?" Harry reiterated.
"Bio-weapons… they're humans but only stronger and smarter. Like a robot." Barry explained.
"The thing is; their virus kills those who is infected but manages to reanimate the body so it comes back alive. Like a zombie."
"Zombie?"
"Inferi" Hermione said to Ron who suddenly understood what Rebecca meant by zombies.
"Inferi?" Rule asked.
"They're like zombies but they came back from the dead through magic, not through science." Harry explained
"You've had experience?" Barry asked him. Harry only shrugged.
"I've dealt with them but never managed to hurt or kill them when they got close,"
"It's the head. You need to decapitate them." Rule said.
"That wouldn't work," Hermione told Rule, "this is magic, not science." She said in a sort of condescending way. Before an argument could start out, Rebecca started to speak.
"But not only does the virus makes zombies, they make mutants. It's rather hard to explain but Claire is somewhat of an artist and she's drawn pictures of the monsters."
"Claire?" Harry said.
"She's another survivor. You'll meet the gang later, I guess." Rule responded.
"How did you become involve with Umbrella?" Hermione asked.
"Rebecca and her team were sent in to investigate the Arklay mountains."
"That's right!" Ron said. "You're the Alphas and the Bravos." All three nodded.
"They've called you crazy," Hermione murmured sadly. Rebecca sighed.
"We've tried to bring back evidence ever since but never manage to grab a hold of anything concrete." Barry said and a long moment of silence ensued before Harry stood up.
"Then I guess we'll just have to help you get that evidence,"
"What?" Rule asked incredulously.
"You heard me," Harry said, "We can use our magic to reveal the truth."
"But how?" Rebecca asked. Hermione smiled wickedly.
"There's a number of ways,"