Chapter 10
Harry landed about 20 meters away from where he felt Max's pull and found himself in some sort of entry way. Looking around he found that he was surrounded by solid concrete walls, the sound of the howling storm seemed to be a lot more muted than when he had been at the Diner.
Then he heard him.
"Your iris... That dilation like a shutter... the pictures you're taking of me now. Too bad you pissed away your gift. You could have won the contest, but you destroyed your own beautiful photograph. What a waste. Sorry. I burned all your stuff, I got a bit carried away."
Just then the lights flickered and Harry heard the thunder from outside. He cautiously made his way towards the open passageway and looked in, he saw Max tied up and Jefferson, filling a syringe with something.
"Whoa! Did you see the crazy storm outside? Like I said... something weird... There's that fear... Oh Max... It's an honour working with you on these final sessions. I hope these images will be appreciated for what they truly capture. The loss... of youth."
Harry couldn't take any more and rushed into the room, his wand flying to his hand.
"Stupify!" he watched as the spell connected with the man and saw him drop like a sack of potatoes. "Honestly, does he ever shut up?" he said as he shook his head and made his way over to Max.
"Harry!" Max cried out in relief. "Thank God, I thought, I was worried you didn't hear me..."
"Hey, I told you I'd be here. I never go back on my word." Harry began untying her bonds when they heard a rather loud 'thunk', turning they saw David Madsen rush into the bunker; his eyes, scanning for threats, while he secured everything with his gun.
His eyes zeroed in on a bound Max, an unconscious Jefferson and a hovering Harry, the wizard could see his mind trying to connect the dots.
"Get away from her, right now!" he yelled, levelling his gun at Harry.
"Whoa, hey, calm down, I just got here, okay? I knocked out Jefferson."
"David, it's true, Jefferson was the one who kidnapped me. Harry saved my life." Max called out.
Harry watched as the man lowered his weapon and slowly made his way over to the two of them.
"Max, are you okay?"
"Yeah, Harry came just in time."
David nodded while undoing Max's binds before turning to face Harry.
"Looks like this is the second time you've saved someone this week, sorry for being a hardass outside the Academy."
Harry waved off the apology and helped Max stand up.
"Max, what about Chloe? Is she, okay?"
There was a pause as Harry watched Max, thinking of what to tell the man in front of her before she sighed.
"David... Chloe is... she's dead..."
The man who Harry had no other dealings with other than a few heated words outside of the Blackwell front doors, completely broke down. Harry could feel it, the pain and suffering the man experienced all at once. His heart was completely shattered. The two spoke about what had happened before Jefferson killed Chloe.
It happened in a flash, the man took his gun from his holster, pointed it at Jefferson and pulled the trigger, landing a slug right into the ex-teacher's skull.
"Max, Harry... I'm sorry you had to see that. What a mess... What have I done? All that time wasted... I... Chloe... I'm sorry... Joyce... I failed you... My family..."
Max placed a comforting hand on David's shoulder. "You didn't fail. You did your best."
"Max, Harry I... you should go outside. You've seen enough of this room."
"David, thank you for coming to save me."
With that, there was nothing more the pair could do or say to ease the man's pain as such they headed towards the table where Jefferson had a few pictures of Max he had taken earlier, there they found keys to his car, as well as Chloe's bullet necklace, which Max picked up and placed in her pocket.
As they headed to the garage, Harry asked Max what the current plan was.
"I need to find Warren, he has a picture of Chloe and I from last night at the Vortex Club party. If I can get my hands on that picture I can go back and warn Chloe. Then we can avoid the junkyard and she'll be safe."
"Max, listen to me, time is too fragile right now, if you keep gong back like this... you could destroy everything."
Max was already on the phone speaking to Warren. Harry threw his hands up in frustration. One she was done she ended the call and turned to Harry.
"Would you prefer Chloe stay dead?!"
"No, but I'd like the rest of humanity to remain alive!"
"I'm sorry, Harry, but I have to do this... I have to save Chloe." she said as she entered the car and started the engine.
Before Harry could say anything else the sound of several pops sounded around the area. Fuck, they'd tracked him. He got into the car and slammed the door.
"What are yo-"
"Drive! Go! Now!" Harry yelled over her. "Listen I'll explain on the way but you've got to go, now!"
Max put the car in gear and pulled out of the garage into the storm and headed towards the Two Whales Diner.
Once they had made it on the highway, Harry visibly relaxed and addressed Max when she asked what the problem was.
"So, not only is there a tornado coming towards the town, but now we have to deal with magical cops after us?!"
"Yeah, and because they're magical means that they'll be able to follow us when you do your time thing."
"Well, then I guess it's just another thing on the list that we have to deal with." she said as she took out her phone and noticed a notification on it. Frowning, Max opened her voicemail and played the message.
"Max, it's... it's Nathan. I... I just wanted to say... I'm sorry. I didn't wanna hurt Kate, or Rachel... I didn't wanna hurt anybody. Everybody... used me!" Nathan paused at this point and the two teenagers heard a very distinctive sob from the other end of the call. "Mr Jefferson... he's coming for me now. All this shit will be over soon. Watch out, Max... He wants to hurt you next. I'm sorry."
"Jesus, everything's so fucked... What the hell are we supposed to do about any of this?" Harry muttered once everything Nathan had said sunk in.
"I- I feel kinda bad about, Nathan now..." Max said in a small voice as she gently avoided an obstacle in the road.
Harry didn't respond but chose to rather try and figure out a plan of action. He raised his head, a frown on his face before calling out.
"Kreacher!"
"Master Harry calls Kreacher?" Harry turned in his seat and saw the elf standing in the back seat, looking rather perturbed. Ignoring Max's yelp of surprise Harry went on.
"Yes, Kreacher, can you get me Mr Johnson and bring him here?"
With a nod, the Elf popped away.
"You've really got to warn me, if you're going to do something like that." Max said with a slight glare.
Kreacher popped back in the car with a confused and slightly bruised looking Johnson.
"Potter! Oh thank God. I thought you were dead." Johnson said while running his hands through his hair.
"Johnson, what's going on? Why am I being hunted?"
"It's not just you, they're after Miss Caulfield as well."
"Wait, why?!" Max asked with a frown while she drove.
"Are you seriously asking that? I told you, I could only buy you 24 hours, once the Madam President found out what I'd done, she threw me in a cell, ordered a bunch of Hit-Wizards and Unspeakables after you two."
"Fuck..." Harry swore quietly.
"Wait, I don't know what those are, are they like, what did you call them; Aurors?"
"Unspeakables are... they're the scientists of the Magical Communities, experimenting with various forms of magic and undiscovered methods to enhance it. Hit-Wizards are... well I mean, Hit-Man, Hit-Wizard... not that hard to figure out." Harry explained with a tired sigh. He then turned to Johnson with a small frown.
"What happened to you?"
"Well, you can imagine how unhappy they were when they found out that I hadn't apprehended you, for my own goals; said I had turned my back on the morals of the Ministry. So, I see you aren't anywhere close to ending this..." Johnson said as he looked outside at the massive storm clouds.
"We're trying, but it isn't exactly easy when they're trying to take us down, especially now with wizards who could follow us to any point in time."
"We could y'know... take them out of the picture..." Johnson suggested with a small shrug.
Harry paused for a moment. "What do their numbers look like?"
"About 10 Hit-Wizards and 4 Unspeakables."
"I can't even believe you're entertaining this! You're going to get yourselves killed! We just need to find Warren, then we'll take it from there!" Max yelled over the two, she sighed as she saw the upcoming road was blocked and put the car in park before turning to Harry and Johnson and calling them with her.
Johnson and Harry shared a look, before stepping out of the car and into the howling winds and stinging rain. They moved along the road, making their way towards The Two Whales Diner. On their way there, they helped people who were either trapped under fallen debris, they helped a man trapped in a burning building before helping Alyssa down from a semi-destroyed building. Finally they made their to the Diner and entered through the back entrance, Harry spared a glance to where the homeless woman had been but didn't see her there. He hoped she had seen the weather and got out of town before everything went south.
Once they entered the Diner, Max went towards some of the patrons, while Harry and Johnson stood back, it didn't take long before Harry was approached though.
"Dude, what the fuck is going on? These weird dudes came in saying the needed to speak to you, like real deep government type of dudes. Easily give Men In Black a run for their money. Anyway, someone told them they could find you in the bathroom, but like you weren't there, even though I know I know I saw you go in there. So, what the fuck is going on?!"
Harry sighed, not really wanting to go into everything, but he didn't need to as Max came up to them and grabbed Warren by the arm.
"Warren, we've got to talk, I know you're curious about Harry, but this takes priority!" she said in a tone that made Warren abandon his pursuit of Harry's secrets and wander what Max could want.
The two wizards took a breath and made their way over to a booth as the two American teens discussed whatever it was they were discussing.
"This entire thing is so fucked..." Johnson said with a sigh.
Harry nodded his head in agreement. "Can you imagine how I feel? I've been dealing with this shit since Tuesday."
Johnson gave a humourless chuckle. "I don't envy your luck, Potter."
"No one ever does..."
Just then Harry felt movement in his breast pocket. Frowning, he reached into his pocket and was surprised when he pulled out the fae.
"Potter, what is that?" Johnson asked with a small frown.
"Fae, it's the same one responsible for Max's abilities."
"Remarkable..." Johnson said in a small voice.
"Just what did Rachel, want me to do with you?" Harry asked out loud. He got his answer when the very same fae fluttered off his finger into the air where it hovered for a moment, it then spun to face him and Johnson. But before either of the guys could comment there was a massive blast of magic which engulfed everything around Harry.
He blinked and looked around, it took a moment for his brain to comprehend what was happening, before he realised that everything was silent. He couldn't hear the terrified people in the Diner nor could he hear the howling winds.
"What the hell?" he muttered before turning back to the Fae and damn near falling off his seat.
"Hello, Harry Potter, I suspect you weren't expecting to see me."
"Well, no one really expects to see the dead, Rachel." Harry responded with a frown.
A semi-transparent, blued hued Rachel Amber- Aboril, hovered right where the Fae had been fluttering and she looked at Harry with nothing more than a grin on her pretty face.