Chapter 4 'The camp'

October 25th, 2010. The camp outside Atlanta. General POV

"Disoriented." Rick said. "I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion, all those things but disoriented comes closest." It had been a few hours since the group arrived at the camp and Rick reunited with his family. They were talking around a small campfire.

"Words can be scarce sometimes. Sometimes they fall short." Said Dale putting down his cup.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life, put somewhere else. For a time I thought I was trapped in some kind of coma dream, something I might never wake up from, ever." Rick said, hugging his son and wife.

"Mom said you died." Carl said looking up at his dad.

"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it."

"When things started to get really bad, they told me in the hospital that they would evacuate every patient to Atlanta, and it never happened." Said Lori.

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta failed. By the look of things there, it never was an option to begin with." Said Harley poking the fire with a stick she had removed from it. "And from what Rick told us from the hospital, it got overrun."

The rest of the night was rather boring, if it wasn't for Ed, the husband of one Carol Peletier, throwing a log into a second fire and making the flames go up. Granted, the situation was handled moments later by Shane. Merle had already gone to sleep but Harley thought he would have told Shane to do the same as Ed did, in a more colourful vocab.

The next morning once Rick had thanked carol for ironing his uniform, we see Harley go into the RV and come out a few seconds later.

"Hey Rick." She said with the bag of guns in her hands. "I forgot to give this to you yesterday."

Almost every man there looked at her and the bag, although only Rick approached. Morales, Dale and Jim were dealing with Dale's RV, it was having problems and they were discussing stripping the truck they had used to get out of Atlanta for parts. Glenn on the other hand was trying to keep up when he remembered about Harleys bag and her plan to raid the store they were in.

"Guys, give me a moment, we might not need to strip it completely." He said taking off towards the others.

Rick and Harley were talking about the guns, when Shane arrived from collecting water. He saw the guns and approached them a bit after talking to some people. Unfortunately, he wasn't halfway there when carl and Sophia screamed for help.

This prompted everyone in the group to run to them, the group encountered a walker eating a deer with crossbow bolts in it, the group started beating on it until Dale nearly decapitated it while it was on the ground.

"it's the first one we've had up here. They've never come this far up the mountain." He said, looking at the unmoving walker.

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what" Jim said.

Harley took out her crossbow, blue sparks included, and shot it in the head. "Sorry, I like nearly headless Nick better than nearly headless walker." She said, noticing some people staring at her and her crossbow. "What?"

The group got ready once more when they heard branches being moved around but relaxed and lowered their weapons once they saw Darryl Dixon, Merle's little brother, coming out of some bushes.

"Son of a bitch…" He said when he saw the deer. "That's my deer!" He continued while kicking the walker and cursing for a few moments.

He had tracked that deer for miles and now, because of a walker his hunt wad proved a bit more unsuccessful, sure, he had over a dozen squirrels, but that deer would have been perfect.

"Well, I do have some venison jerky in a smokebox back in my RV, I could check if its ready to eat if you want some. Though I make no promises, it's only been 20 days since I put it in there" Harley said, making Darryl finally take notice of the woman with a crossbow on her hands and a quiver filled with bolts on her hip.

"Cool crossbow…" He said noticing her accent. "You're a brit?"

"Not important in the middle of this mess, now I don't know about you, but I don't want to be out here in the middle of the trees for more time than needed." She said flicking out her wand. "Shame about the deer though, fresh meat would have been good."

"Now you want to see a magic trick?" She said while casting a vanishing charm and a cleaning charm at the walker and deer, letting the bolts hit the ground completely clean.

A few moments of confusion later and Harley knowing there would be questions later by some people, the group returned to their chores. The reactions were diverse to say the least, Darryl seemed like he ignored the obvious magic, Lori seemed wary of Harley now, the kids were amazed by the magic and scared by the walker, Shane didn't know what he had seen but he glared at Harley until he got back to the camp, almost like he was trying to figure something out.

Darryl called out to his brother who answered in the same tone moments before joining him in the cleaning and skinning process. Harley could see how the group didn't like the brothers too much, she hadn't seen much of them, but she knew they came off as redneck assholes to the rest of them.

Meanwhile, Shane got to Harley Rick and Glenn were. "What's all this?" he asked.

"I cleaned out the cage back in the station before we left." Rick answered. "Six shotguns, 2 high-powered rifles and over a dozen handguns." He finished

"Ammo?" Shane asked again.

"700 rounds, sorted"

"Well…" Harley said remembering something, making both men pause. "Actually, I just remembered I have some more guns in a trunk back in my RV, I got them a few towns back and haven't really used any of the ammunition I got. Also, we have as much ammunition as you want. I do have magic and I got really good at transmutation back in school. I just need a few of each to duplicate it…"

"Could you do the same with the guns?" asked Rick before she could finish.

"Yes, but its best if I don't. Things made with magic tend to be a bit more fragile than the originals, in a bullet it doesn't matter because it is disposable but a gun, not so much; I can't guarantee the quality of the materials if I make guns in bulk. If anything, I would put some self-maintenance, anti-theft and maybe even a marksmanship or accuracy charms on them."

"I've been meaning to ask about that. Magic is real?" Shane asked her.

"Well, yes. If you mean you don't believe that's how I made my crossbow appear and how the deer and walker disappeared."

"No, I didn't mean that, I meant how did we never know? Is it something you can teach?" Shane asked.

"No way man it's something you're born with, you either have magic or you don't" Glenn answered. "Both of my parents and my sisters have magic, but I was born without it."

"And the reason you didn't know? Well, we have our own laws and communities. One of those laws was secrecy. No matter the country, we could not do magic in front of muggles and the magic we could do was only after came of age." Harley paused. "Anyway, I only found out about the statute of secrecy being revoked yesterday, if it hadn't you wouldn't know about it."

"Muggles?" Rick asked.

"People like you and Shane, with no magic or no magic family, people like me that have magic parents but no magic are called squibs." Glenn answered.

They continued talking for a while, and after Harley gave them most of the guns and at least half the ammo she had, Shane gave Rick a few bullets for his Python and after Harley proved she could duplicate the bullets he gave her 2 of every bullet they had that she already didn't so she could make more ammo.

This included mostly bullets for revolvers and a few different shotgun shells, both buckshot and slugs. .

Glenn suggested they use the conjured ammo instead of the ammo they had, as it would be best to save the original, more reliable ammo for when Harley wasn't there to make more. A few minutes later, Glenn retrieved the few parts and tools they had recovered in Atlanta, but it only served to annoy himself, as he didn't find the things Jim needed for Dale's RV.

They didn't need to strip the truck either, Harley, seeing the damage of the van, casted a reparo into the RV and told them it would be good for a bit, but the damage was too much for the repair to last, so she told them she would try to get some more parts when they do a supply run into the city.

In the quarry a few hours later, the women were washing clothes, questioning how they had ended up with those jobs and talking about things they missed, washing machines and coffee makers were mentioned when Harley got down to the shore.

"I miss my vibrator" Andrea said getting amused reactions from the others.

"Me too." Said carol drawing a few laughs.

"That is not what I expected to hear when I came down here." Said Harley looking at her. "Do any of you know if there are fish out here?"

Before she could get an answer, Ed, frustrated with the women's laughter, came down to the water asking what was so funny. This was the start of a small conflict that could have ended quickly if he hadn't been an ass. It sparked Harley's inner marauder when Ed tried to make Carol go with him. The moment he hit her was when everything turned to shit.

Shane had been close by when he heard the altercation and was making his way to them but stopped on his tracks when he saw Harley's hair turn a deep shade of red before slapping Ed with the back of her hand.

Confusion was evident in the man's face, he was bleeding on the ground after being slapped by a woman. However, he didn't even get to stand up when he saw her crouch beside him with a bloodied clawed hand in front of his eyes and heard. "Try some shit like that again and I won't stop with a slap."

"Damnit. Look at the mess you just made." Harley stood up letting her hair go back to her usual black before going to the water and washing her hand.

"Sorry about that. I don't like abusive people." She avoided the eyes of everyone else and ignored the looks they were giving her before putting a small glass bottle on the ground where he was.

"Drink that, it will take away the pain. And wash your face, you don't want an infection." She said, inspecting the wound she caused in case he needed stitches.

Harley made her way back to the camp where the Rick was handing out some of the guns out, he tried giving her one of the rifles, but she declined, stating she kept a few for her and Luna.

She told him she had kept a couple 'FN Five-seven USG' (with extended magazines, one with a tactical light and one with a laser sight), a 'Smith & Wesson Model 586', a 'Mossberg 590 A1' shotgun (with a tactical light) and a few rifles, a 'Remington 700' that was better known as a 'M24 SWS', and one 'CheyTac intervention M200'.

She also kept one 'Accuracy International Arctic Warfare' with an extended magazine, but she wasn't sure if she was keeping it for herself or giving it to someone else.

Luna kept a 'Glock 19', another 'Smith & Wesson Model 586',a 'Franchi SPAS-12', and one 'Browning Automatic Rifle Safari' (the same model Rick almost gave Harley).

She had already enchanted the guns and rifles she had, and she wanted to enchant one of her mokeskin pouches as an ammo-dedicated pouch to conjure new ammo for whatever gun she had. If this experiment succeeded, she would then try to make pouches with normal skin, replicate the enchantments and give them out to some the group.

She still didn't like using guns, too noisy for her, but kept them because while the crossbows she had were magical, and for all that magic could do, they still had to be loaded. That and bullets are less affected by wind when compared to arrows and bolts.

When she mentioned how she had enchanted her guns, she offered to enchant the weapons of the group later that day with the self-maintenance and accuracy charms at least, Rick accepted, seeing the advantage of not worrying about the maintenance but refused the accuracy charms for some guns, as he did want to set up a shooting range for the group to practice in.

The 4 rifles she had enchanted but didn't mention to him or even take out of the trunk after enchanting them, were the really powerful ones that she knew she didn't have enough ammo to begin with. She knew they were powerful because of the sheer weight of them and the fact that the bullets were bigger than any other bullet she had, '.50 BMG' was written on every box she had found, and she only had 6 of them, normally this wouldn't be an issue but the types were different and she didn't have the specs for any of them not even the single plain unpainted bullet she found, this was the reason why she hadn't tried to replicate them yet.

Andrea and Amy were fishing in the quarry, talking about their father and how he had taught them to fish. Realizing he had taught them different knots based on their needs.

Dale was watching them from the top of his RV, looking through his binoculars. Moments later he saw Jim, furiously digging holes into the ground.

He approached Jim, who refused to listen to him, Jim was digging what appeared to be graves, ignoring Dale as he tried offering water or telling him to take a break.

The sisters got back to the group with several fish tied up in bundles.

"Ladies, because of you my children will eat tonight, thank you." Said Morales, taking the bundle Andrea gave him.

"Thank Dale, it's his canoe and gear." She replied to him.

"Where did you two learned to do that?" asked Lori while Carl was amazed and poking the fish.

"Our dad" Amy replied.

"Damn, I should have gone with you." Harley said.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl asked her.

Carl got himself a positive answer, with neither Rick nor Lori arguing about it

"Fly rods or casting rods?" Harley asked.

"Fly rods, why?" Andrea answered.

"No nothing, I got to try that someday, I use a casting rod." She said, muttering something along the likes of. "Collapsible and kind of magical rod but still a casting rod."

"What's the difference?" Carl asked.

Amy proceeded to show carl one of Dale's rods and Harley summoned one of her rods, forgetting she hadn't fully explained about magic to anyone but Shane and Rick.

"See the difference? The reels and lines are different, the lures you use with them and the way you fish with them are also different." She said to Carl, while he looked at the rods.

"What was that?" asked Sophia.

"You mean the sparks?" asked Harley, Sophia nodded to her making Harley sigh. "That was magic."

"Cool."

"You remember how I got my crossbow out? Well, me and Luna are witches." Harley told her, barely noticing the look in Lori's eyes.

"You don't look like a witch." Said Sophia.

"Really, and what are witches supposed to look like?" asked Luna who walked into the group.

"Pointy hats and a flying broom?" Sophia said.

"Yeah well…" Harley was about to say something but got interrupted by Andrea.

"Hey Dale, when was the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Said Andrea to Dale, who had returned and was now walking around looking worried.

"I uh… I don't want to alarm anybody but, we may have a bit of a problem." He said to the group, pointing to the nearby hill.

Some of the group went to the hill to talk to Jim, this didn't really end well, Jim was digging without paying much attention to anyone. Shane ended up cuffing him and bringing him back to camp where he finally cooled down.

He apologised to the kids who were close by after Shane gave him some water and Harley started treating his sun burns.

"Jim, you know why you were digging? Can you say?" asked Dale.

"I had a reason, don't remember" he answered. "Something I dreamt last night."

"Alright." Shane got up with the bucket of water. "Who wants to help me clean some fish?"

"Sweet, come on Sophia" said Carl getting up to follow Shane.

"Stay with Carol." said Lori.

"Hold up, I'm coming too, I want to set up a smoker on top of the fire to keep some fish for dinner." Harley said getting up. "Oh, before I forget, don't take those poultices off, I'll check on them in a few hours."

Dale went with everyone else but Lori, who approached Jim and stared when he said. "You keep your boy close, you don't ever let him out of your side."

Morales was building up the fire pit's wall to allow for the fire to be more hidden and added some space for Harley's bushcraft smoker in a 'secondary' fire pit (it basically was an expansion of the original fire pit).

They were finishing up the setup, with Morales telling Lori all about the fire wall when Luna approached her.

"Lia…" She said, getting the full attention of Harley "… I got a very bad feeling."

'Oh shit.' Thought Harley, who knew Luna only called her 'Lia' in private, she knew this had to be important, so she got up and pulled Luna to the RV.

"What is it?" She asked after closing the door.

"I don't know, I got a bad feeling earlier today and I didn't get a thing from divination." Luna answered.

"You want me and Athena to scout out the woods tonight?"

"I don't know." Luna said. "I'm not sure if it's a good idea to stay here, so close to the city."

"Alright, let's start packing up then…" Harley said hugging her friend who looked almost as worried as she did when they reunited on their seventh year at Hogwarts. "I'm gonna go check if the space for the horses is done, just in case we need to get out of here fast."

Once Harley checked the stable and they finished packing everything they had out of place (potions, supplies, weapons, etc.) they got out of the RV and Luna headed for the horses once again, she had been caring for them and making some potions safe for muggles to consume without hindering their effectivity too much.

Harley got back to the smoker and finished putting green branches and fresh leaves around it so it trapped as much smoke as it could. She was joined by Shane, Carol and the kids who had the fish clean and ready to cook.

"Hey Harley." Said Sophia approaching her.

"Hey guys, how was the fish cleaning?"

"It was good." Carl answered.

"You two want to put some of those to smoke?" Harley asked, grabbing the fish from Shane and getting nods from the kids.

They ended up putting half of the fish to smoke for the night and Shane was about to start an actual fire in the larger portion of the pit, to start cooking the rest, before he got interrupted. This happened once almost everyone was back from their chores.

"Wait… don't start a second fire, now that the secret is out why don't we take advantage of it?"

"What do you mean Harley?" Amy asked.

"Well, I didn't think of this until now but…" She paused. "I may have a way to make every fish in a more… homey way."

Harley could see the look of disbelief on some faces, Lori having the most obvious one, she sighed before calling out. "Feesy, Feely could you come up here please?" Moments later two pops sounded and everyone else stared at the elves.

"Do you need anything miss?" Feesy asked.

"Yes, would you be so kind as to cook these and bring them to everyone here?" Harley asked. "Also, bring me and Luna a couple butterbeers some normal beer and maybe some pop for the kids."

Feesy and Feely took the fish and disappeared back to the RV, with Feely returning moments later with 2 coolers, in one of them there were some beers and in the other one some cans of soda. Once she put those on a nearby rock and handed Harley the butterbeers Feely disappeared again.

"What was that?" asked Lori.

"That was a couple of house-elves." Glenn answered before Harley could.

"Oh come on, elves are not real." Lori responded.

"That's obvious, 'Elves' are the kind of elves you muggles have in your books or movies. 'House-elves' however, are real and they are great at their jobs." Harley said. "Actually, since most of the camp is here, it's the perfect time for me to answer questions."

Harley looked around the group and sighed. "Look, by now it's no secret that I have magic, but I'm sure many of you have questions about it." She paused to look around. "It's obvious you two do." She said, looking to the children of the group.

Unfortunately, before anyone had the time to take a sip from their drinks or ask about anything, the scream from a survivor who was alone in his tent brought everyone's attention to the large number of walkers that entered the camp.

"Oh for Merlin's sake." Harley said summoning her twin swords.