Walking Dead Wizard

Chapter 38

Andrea, Harry, Daryl, Merle and Luna made a quick walk to the guard's office and its surroundings. Harry knew he had to keep Andrea at least feeling useful otherwise she would end up making an enormous mistake, mostly out of feeling useless and irritated by feeling as everyone was protecting her at the expense (potential expense) of their own lives. Harry knew how it felt, so decided to let her come at least just to the guard's office so they could get every nook and cranny checked quicker. Surprisingly Daryl hadn't decided to take off on a hunt yet, but Harry suspected he wouldn't until things had settled down; he probably didn't like the thought of going out there and something happening while he could have prevented it - at least Harry assumed so. He didn't claim to know the Dixons thoroughly, just well enough that he would trust them at his back. He knew the group questioned his sanity, his decision to stick with them, but he wouldn't be surprised if this group, his group, were beginning to understand.

"What are we looking for again?" Andrea asked as she stepped into the office.

"Any kind of map," Harry stated, and with that everyone took a corner of the room and began to search in hopes of finding what Harry wanted.

"These are prison records," Luna said, as she flipped through them in the metal cabinet.

"Definitely no need for them," Harry said wryly, as he searched through the desk drawers. Not that there was much, deodorant, a key for something, chewing gum, half eaten chocolate bar, pictures of someone's wedding day, one of the guards maybe? Someone's records on top of the desk, a flask that smelt disgusting with mould growing around the lip of it. "I'll be taking that," he muttered to himself, making sure the safety was on the gun before putting it at the back of his pants. Constant vigilance, he didn't want to put a bullet in his backside. Harry grimaced, Moody, he wondered what the old fart would have thought of all this, probably would have been at his best surrounded by all this chaos, he'd been a man of action, an Auror after all.

"This is detailed list of each prisoner in the cell blocks," Daryl said, after reading through it, giving it to Harry, it wasn't much use but it was something at the very least.

"An inspection," Harry said, reading the words, "Well that was a waste of time."

Daryl snorted at Harry's words finding amusement in them.

"These are just prison records too," Andrea commented after going through each drawer to be thorough.

"I guess we make one as we go along then if we don't get lucky," Harry replied, he would have felt better with one but it wasn't the end of the world. "Let's check the other rooms and get going I don't want to waste too much time looking."

With that they wandered into different rooms, the rooms weren't gated up, or barred in any way, but they still had metal mesh guards on the windows they observed.

Harry's looked to be some sort of computer room with dozens of machines he didn't want to investigate. He suspected though it was perhaps the open and close for the gates and probably a dozen other things too. He found extremely long white paper that would be perfect to draw any sort of map on. Snatching it up, he began to roll it until it was completely rolled around his hand. Just then he heard smashing, jumping he ran in the direction of the sound, skidding to a halt in the room, to find Merle had smashed the emergency glass and picked out the axe looking proud of himself.

"Going to start going around with the axe Merle?" Harry asked dryly, but Merle just pointed to the wall where another panel of glass was smashed. Blinking Harry wandered over before a smirk bloomed over his face, it was a map of the prison, no wonder he felt so smug. "Alright, I'll let you off this time," Harry admitted causing Merle to give off a big bark of laughter.

"Thanks," Harry said in genuine honesty, before he carefully removed the sharp glass still surrounding it and taking it out without tearing it even once. "One less thing to do," Harry added, relaxing a little. He spread it out on a nearby desk. "So where will the food be stocked, I doubt it's the cafeteria?"

"Pantry in the kitchen," Merle pointed towards it his eyes narrowed and shrewd.

Andrea looked the map over, mentally pin pointing where they were and where they'd been, Harry was right to want a map, this place was huge - much bigger than she'd anticipated, there was even catacombs beneath the prison. It would take all of them weeks if not a month at the most to get everywhere completely cleared. "There's the infirmary, I wonder if it's stocked?"

"Maybe, I guess we'll find out," Harry said optimistically, but wasn't he always? Not that it truly mattered he had a huge selection of Muggle drugs in his trunk. What could he say? There was just no point to leaving it there…they might need it. He might not be able to take the stuff but he'd been at a quarry and there were many who could use it. Although nobody had so far, but he knew there would come a time when they would need it.

"We could use these rooms, they've got quite a bit of sun in them," Luna said looking around seeing the potential.

"As a green house?" Harry knew what she was thinking.

"Yeah, safer than having it outside, people might see it and try to get in for it," Luna commented.

"I don't know, it needs direct sunlight, otherwise they'll just wither and die," Harry mused he hadn't really thought of that himself if he was honest. "It's nothing we need to worry about right now, we have time to think it through." as long as they were getting water for the time being anyway and they were Harry was making sure of that.

"The room isn't big enough to hold everything we brought with us," Andrea pointed out, giving the room a critical look over.

"True, there really isn't room to grow," Luna nodded, and they definitely needed the room.

"Right lets go, we're wasting daylight." Harry said, not really interested in talking about vegetables or whether there was enough room, that wasn't his primary concern right now. With that he rolled up the map and kept both long sheets of paper, they were almost like parchment though.

It didn't take them long at all to reach their cell block again.

"How did it go?" Carol asked as Sophia opened the door, Carol absently patting her daughter on the back in comfort.

"We got a map, it will be helpful." Harry commented as they all wandered back in, half the floor had already been scrubbed and the blood in one cell was completely gone. He noticed all their belongings were up on the rail, keeping the bloody water and bleach from getting on them. They had been really busy since they'd gone; Amy and Dale were still in the second cell, one scrubbing the walls and Dale mopping the floor. "Are you alright, Dale?" Harry questioned the elder man, he looked extremely pale, and not his usual look surely the blood couldn't be having such a profound affect on him? Unless he got faint at the sight of blood? But that couldn't be he had been up close and personal with a lot of gory things since this all started happening.

"I'm fine," he insisted giving Harry a small tense smile.

"Don't overly exert yourself," Harry stated, before turning his attention to the map. His fingers going in a zigzagged line, as if he was trying to memorise where he wanted to go. "Alright, this is where we are going," Harry told them firmly, pointing out each corner until they got to the kitchen, then pointed further up he guessed it would take at least two or three hours to check it all depending on the number of walkers. "What do you think?" asking for their opinion.

The Dixon brothers just nodded their head, fine with the plan.

"Ammo?" Harry questioned, checking his own guns, finding himself low, glancing up at the others in question.

"Four bullets left," Merle said slamming the magazine back into the gun.

"Full mag," Luna said, her lips twitching, she'd learned a lot in the short time she'd been here, especially conversing with Merle or Harry.

"Down to two," Daryl said after putting his crossbow to check his gun, he also absently checked his quiver, which was as to be expected full of arrows, between Harry copying them and his tendency to make them he always had enough.

"I'll be right back," Harry said, before bolting up the stairs, he was actually the only one up there, besides Daryl that was, but he took the 'perch' as he called it, the others all had 'cells/rooms' down on the bottom floor. Opening his trunk, he changed compartments and took out the ammo he'd need, clips and the bullets which were stored in a box. He grabbed his sword and bow as well before making sure his trunk was closed and locked before he jogged back down, placing the bullets on the table with the map he handed them a full magazine each. Before grabbing his gun from his pocket before sliding out his half empty mag and began to slide the bullets into position until that one was full too, the others doing the same as him. He checked the one he'd collected twenty minutes ago and found it full so put it back. Sheathing the blade into his belt, strapping his compound bow to his shoulder and neck, he made sure he had everything he could need, including checking for his wand, it was pure instinct now. "Everyone got their knives?"

"Course we do," Merle grunted, rolling his eyes.

"Well, you know what you say Merle," Harry said, before both Merle and Harry said at the same time, "A blade never runs outta bullets,"

It was Harry's turn to roll his eyes at Merle; he could drive a saint insane. "Alright, let's go." with that Daryl, Merle, Luna and Harry as well as a sneaky Anubis left the cell block.

Sophia watched them go, her face pale as she watched them, she knew it was dangerous what they were doing. She burrowed into her mums side, even Anubis had gone with them, and she had nobody else to seek comfort from. Carol cuddled her daughter close, giving her shoulders a comforting squeeze, "They'll be fine," Carol said vehemently, and she wasn't doing it to comfort her daughter, she knew they would be fine, they worked so well together.

Sophia nodded, before stiffening up, believing what Harry had told her and her mum. With that she picked up her scrubbing brush and began to help her mum clean their room, she got to have the top bunk! She'd never been on twin beds before. It smelt a little iffy, but she didn't mind, they were in a room, a proper room now. And the blood was going away as well. She was glad they'd come here, and couldn't wait until it was safe so she could go out and investigate. She sure as hell wasn't going out those doors until she was told otherwise (unless she was helping) she'd already came so close to being bitten she never wanted to let it happen again.

Andrea who was feeling a little better that she'd actually done something she felt was productive actually began helping them to clean up, which was getting more and more difficult as the water was so disgusting by this point. They had plenty of bleach that got rid of the blood though.

"Those doors are open," Luna said, giving it a nudge to open it more fully, two large balls of magic were following the four of them as they walked, armed to the teeth ready to take down whatever got in their way.

"Just be careful, there might be bloody hundreds of these things down here then," Harry said, warning needlessly since they all knew that, he just felt the need to say it. Once they'd all gotten properly around the corner, they saw the dead bodies, most of them all chewed up. Harry knelt down next to one, not spotting any visible sign of the walker being killed. "Look at its clothes, those aren't prison wear…nor is it how a guard would dress."

"She's female," Luna observed, "Might have been a visitor, its hard to tell what she was wearing, it's ripped to shreds," the material was literally scratched and stretched to bits. It might have been a blue blouse at one point, but it was really hard to tell.

Standing back up, they each inspected a prison cell, making sure there weren't any surprises waiting on them. Luna added another arrow with the red pen. Each of them were empty, figuratively speaking of course, since there were dead bodies littering the ground, both inside the cells and some out. Anubis was avoiding them like they had the plague - it was a good thing he didn't want Anubis eating anything and ending up sick - he really didn't want to put down his familiar.

"Definite sign of walker activity," Harry said as they turned yet another corner, Harry mentally trying to keep up with where exactly he was. He might be good at remembering stuff he didn't have eidetic memory or even close to that so he was already having difficulty trying to remember the exact layout. This walker had the prison jumpsuit on, at least half of it, since his legs were completely stripped to the bone top half untouched.

Each corner they took made them even tenser, they were just waiting on a herd coming at them any second. They had exactly five seconds warning when Anubis began growling his teeth bared, hair raised stretched in defensive pose. They all knew by now what it meant, which gave them time to prepare, Harry grabbed his compound bow and aimed at the ready. Daryl and himself took out two as they slowly all backed away; the corridors were far too small to do much fighting. Another two were put down just as Anubis began growing at another corner.

"I've got it," Luna stated, moving forward, she unsheathed her sword and decapitated two before allowing Merle to have his turn at the same time backing away, giving themselves time to deal with the rest as they were backed away from their intended goal. They didn't notice that they weren't going back the same way they had come but just trying to deal with the load of prison walkers coming at them.

Harry and Daryl had just run passed a corridor when another hoard came at them, splitting Luna and Merle from them. "Take the top!" Harry stated, before grabbing his gun and firing on the walkers, he wasn't taking any chances of them getting split up or worse having Luna hurt because of him. He could hear faint popping sound; it looked as though Merle and Luna had the same idea.

Once the walkers were down, Harry let out a shaky breath, Merlin that had been too close for words. He let out another shaky breath leaning against the wall. "Fucking hell," he muttered, gun still held in his death grip, but they became aware that it was a temporarily reprieve, as Anubis began growing yet again louder than ever before in the direction they'd just came in.

"How many of those fuckers are there?" Merle growled in annoyance, nearing being bitten hadn't sat well with him at all, but it was nothing compared to the feeling that coursed through him when Luna had been trying to fend off a load of them too. He'd never felt protective over anyone other than his baby brother. He didn't even know Luna all that well, yet she was making him feel things he'd never felt before and he didn't like it, yet the thought of treating her cruelly to protect himself from these feelings felt even worse.

"Let's go," Harry told them, they didn't have much ammo, he should have made them bring more, but live and learn…hopefully, he just had to get them back far enough to lock the gates and keep them at arms length until they were dealt with. Just in time as the walkers barrelled round the corner, and they seemed endless in numbers all of them ran, with Anubis in the lead surprisingly.

Two corridors later Anubis skidded to a stop, causing nearly all of them to topple over him, but Harry managed to stop himself in time, and braced himself for the others, the pain was unbearable, as his compound bow dug deeply into his body due to the feel of three people two of them bloody larger than him slamming into him. "We're trapped, find a fucking a door!" Harry barked out, they only found one.

Harry was about to cast an 'Alohomora' on the cuffs, which were cuffed together on the outside of the doors. He didn't pause to think too long, as Merle just kicked the door, causing the handle on the door to give way with an almighty snap. "Anubis, here!" Harry shouted, as they barrelled in, but they weren't quick enough. They had to back away from the door or risk being bitten as they barged in after them.

"Fuck this, back away now," Harry said his stance calm yet strong, unyielding and powerful, everyone noticed he had his wand out, and did indeed back the hell away from Harry, not wanting to be in the vicinity of his magic. Luna grabbed Anubis' collar and dragged him away from Harry, in this state they were better off not being anywhere near. She quickly erected a protection barrier over them.

Merle and Daryl looked at each other, wondering silently what the hell was going on; they'd never seen Luna act quite so strangely before, at least not this way, when magic was concerned. They turned back to Harry, watching him step back five times, and only when the damn walkers were inches from him was his wand swished, his voice determinedly roaring out "Fiendfyre!" with that fire leapt out of the wand, its features definitely that of a snake as it coiled around Harry, before fiercely destroying each and every single walker in the room.

Merle and Daryl quickly came to understand the need for the spell Luna cast, the heat was almost unbearable, the shield was barely holding it back by the look of things, that or Harry had excellent control over it - which they knew he did. Beads of sweat began to build up as the heat never lessened, it soon saturated their chests, necks and faces, until they were almost ready to topple over. Anubis was panting heavily, whining softly, not able to deal with such a heat. Luna smiled sadly; she couldn't cast a cooling charm, not without stopping the shield charm which was definite no-no.

Eventually like the last time, Harry dropped his wand, and the powerful cursed fire began to disperse again. Falling to a knee, Harry breathed heavily, looking just as exhausted and hot as the rest of them. Luna cancelled the spell, used a cooling charm on Anubis and quickly conjured a bowl and poured plenty of cold water into it. Once that was done she got her bottled water out and used a cooling charm on them and passed two to the boys, and wandered over to Harry.

"Here, drink it all," Luna said, using the spell in a small room had its repercussions and that was it. The heat is bad enough without being in a small room, caused everyone to overheat.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Everyone's attention snapped to the voice, five men stood in a row, clutching their burnt hands which presumably had been touching the metal cage seconds before the fire started. All different sizes and all equally stunned not even blinking when Merle, Daryl and Luna raised their guns defensively.

"Well shit," Harry muttered, groaning.

LOL! there you have it the next chapter! Still not sure if I should have Harry deal with them or not, I mean yes he's changed and all, but would he let any of them leave there knowing about his magic? or will they join the dead body pile? Although I do like Oscar :D and bear in mind Harry has been reading the mind of those around him in a bid to keep himself safe - keep the kids safe when it comes to people, even read Dale's mind and they have no idea...just to point out (i received a review about it) so reading minds doesn't give him away - hell Dumbledore and Snape were doing it for years! :D and don't worry about Hermione she won't become a regular appearer unless you'd all like that? R&R please