Disclaimed!

A Well in the DeadLand

By Marz

Chapter 1: The Things that Walk Among Us

He couldn't speak. For an entire minute he couldn't make a single sound. Remus Lupin reached toward the pocked of his coat where he kept his wand. A sharp poke in the chest reminded him that is was already in his hand. He understood why the Dursleys were upset.

The Order had been excessively careful with the watch they set around 4 Privet Drive, and no one had seen Harry leave the house in over a week. When he'd come to the door, with Tonks and Moody as back up, he'd expected to find Harry locked up in his room by his less then loving relatives. In a bizarre turn Petunia Dursley, Harry's aunt, seemed relieved to see them on her porch.

"You're taking him with you," she half asked, half demanded.

She stepped aside and pointed up the stairs. As Remus passed he glanced into the living room, and saw it was cluttered with clothes and sleeping bags. Apparently the Dursleys had abandoned the upper floor of their house. They went up to Harry's small room. Remus knocked, and when there was no answer he pushed the door open. But he could not make himself enter.

The walls were covered in Runes and writing. Most of it was drawn on in ink, but some had been carved into the paint. A pentagram was burned into the wooden floor, and more forbidding symbols scrawled across the ceiling. The wardrobe lay on its side. The mattress was shredded and partially blocked the doorway. Harry was sitting on the bare box springs of his bed. His face was pinched and anxious. Remus eyes were drawn to the runes splashed across the wall directly behind the teenager. The black ink over lapped another figure, carved into the paint. Remus squinted and realized the carving depicted the arch, from the Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries, the place where Sirius Black had died.

A sick sad feeling passed through Remus. They shouldn't have left Harry alone, not after what happened to his godfather. They shouldn't have left him alone with his grief. Remus shook off the shock that had kept him froze.

"Harry, what's wrong?" he asked as gently as he could.

"I don't feel well," Harry answered just above a whisper.

Remus stepped forward, but was stopped by a painfully strong grip on his upper arm.

"That's not Potter," Moody's voice growled in his ear.

The boy on the bed looked up at them and smiled.

"Who is it Alastor?" Remus asked, his eyes never leaving the boy.

Though he couldn't see Moody, he was certain the retired Auror's enchanted eye was looking right through him.

"It's just an illusion," Moody growled.

The boy stood up then, and the bed springs didn't creak. Remus relaxed a bit. An incorporeal magical projection couldn't affect the physical plane. It was one of the basics from charms class. But then who wrote on the walls? Remus thought, and more importantly…

"Where's Harry?" Remus asked the illusion, as it came towards him with rocking, jerky steps.

"Why do you want to know?" it asked, imitating Harry's voice exactly.

It stretched its hand out toward Remus as if it were going to touch his face. Though he trusted Moody's assessment of the danger it presented, he couldn't help but step back out of reach. Moody grunted as Remus bumped into him. The thing kept coming.

"Don't you like me anymore Remus?" it asked.

Its fingers were getting ever closer. Remus started and bit back a shout as Moody's hand came down on his shoulder. He tried to push Remus back into the room so he could get through the door.

"It can't hurt you. It's not really," Moody grunted.

"You should listen to him," the fake Harry said. "He's really very smart."

Its fingers were almost touching Remus chin, and unthinkingly he tried to push it away. His hand passed right through the illusion. It was all he could do not to scream.

He'd expected a cold feeling, like the time he'd accidentally walked through a ghost. Instead a familiar agony raced up his arm and into his chest. He fell to his knees, cradling what used to be his hand. It's not possible, he thought desperately. His eyes darted to the window, where the sun shined cheerfully in, and the full moon was not to be found.

"It's very possible," the fake Harry said.

It stood over him with its hand hovering just above his forehead. Moody blasted it with a stunning curse, but it passed right through and scorched the wall. Tonks was yelling something. She squeezed passed Moody and tried to shove the fake Harry away, but passed through it as well, and fell sprawling on the shredded mattress.

"I won't. I can't," Remus gasped, as he tried to force the clawed paw to change back into his hand.

"Sorry Loopy," the fake Harry said almost affectionately. "You don't have a choice."

Its hand came down. It passed through his forehead, and stopped in the center of his chest.

Instinctively Tonks' hands went to her ears, trying to block out the inhuman sounds pouring from Remus Lupin's mouth. She barely rolled out of the way in time. The writhing half-transformed werewolf's claws flailed about, catching her robes. She scrambled back just quick enough to save her skin.

The fake Harry stood calmly in the Remus back, its feet and ankles hidden from view. Moody fried another curse at it, and uselessly scorched another wall.

"That was some great advice Mad-eye," the fake Harry said, grinning so hard it looked as if its face were about to split. "What have you got for Nymphadora?"

It floated towards Tonks. Her feet had become tangled in the torn hem of her robes and she struggled to free them. Moody threw another stunner which passed through it. Tonks flung herself out of the way just in time to avoid the glaring red light.

"Knock it off!" she howled.

"Yes Mad-eye, knock it off. You wouldn't want to accidentally kill your friends," the fake Harry said to Tonks, almost conversationally. "He wants to kill his friends on purpose. You wouldn't believe how much he thinks about murdering people. Why during breakfast alone he thought of how best to kill Remus Lupin, the Weasley twins, and Mundungus Fletcher. He did have some vague moral argument that he would only do it in self defense, but he was planning a pretty elaborate set up."

Moody looked ready to throw another curse.

"Don't think you're left out Nymphadora," the fake Harry said. "He thinks about you too, though usually only in the shower."

Tonks ducked as Moody's next curse blew out the window.

"Damn it Alastor! I'm going to take that thing away from you!" she shouted, brushing bits of glass out of her hair.

Tonks raised her wand and cast a containment spell over Remus. A glowing blue net pinned him to the floor. She got to her feet and pointed at the fake Harry with her finger instead of her wand.

"I don't know what sort of trouble you're trying to start but you won't get very far with it. Either tell us were Harry is or clear off so we can clean up this mess. I've not got time to waste on mirages with delusions of granger."

The fake Harry rose off the floor and floated towards her. "You're almost no fun at all, you know that?" He stared at her hard. "Why there's almost nothing…except for your fifth year at school. You went into the prefect's bathroom with Eric Montague and…"

"That's enough out of you!" bellowed Tonks.

"Oh but I was just getting to the good part. She was impersonating Eric's girlfriend at the time. The face was easy enough to copy, but she went so far as to pilfer some of the girl's perfume. He never it figured out, even when…" The fake Harry trailed off, suddenly looking thoughtful. "I've got something more important to attend to, but I'll be seeing you soon." It settled back to the floor, and turned towards the door. It walked right through Remus, who howled, and through the containment spell, which faded away like smoke. He continued on through the opposite wall, and did not look back, even as the werewolf got to its feet.

"Oh bloody hell," said Tonks.

Moody nodded in agreement.