"Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
The entire way back to his hotel, Harry cursed himself for an idiot.
The fact that he'd revealed his identity to a man that was openly considering capitulating to Voldemort, and could thus reveal the connection between him and Hermes Black to the wanker, was infuriatingly idiotic. Once again, his impulsiveness had gotten the better of him, and the odds of it not biting him in the arse were slim as things stood now. He needed to get out of town, perhaps head to his next destination.
He stopped in the middle of the hotel lobby, ignoring the looks of the people around him as he clenched his fists and glared down at the carpet. No. He wasn't going to let them run him out of town. This was his gods bedamned vacation, and he was not going to let them ruin it for him. If they wanted a fight, they were damn well going to get one.
Mind made up, Harry made his way to his room and quickly picked up his newest spellbooks and opened The Battle Mage's Compendium to the first spell it had. He had only idly flipped through the book before, having (perhaps somewhat naively) thought that the events at Flamel's shop would be a one time thing. He really should have known better. First off, Cassandra had recommended it to him for a reason, which he had been foolish to dismiss considering her abilities as a seer. If she said he would need a book on combat magic, he had to assume that meant that he'd actually end up needing to use the knowledge it contained at some point, so it would be best to start learning it all as quickly as possible.
Secondly… well, he was Harry Potter. The mere idea that things would go according to plan for him was outright laughable. He really should have applied himself to all the books he'd gotten from Cassandra and Flamel more. Well, he was going to correct that oversight now.
Sitting down with some coffee from the room's coffee maker and some music from his phone playing on the room's bluetooth speakers, he quickly began studying the first spell in the book, which emulated the effect of a bullet fired from a rifle, sound included if one desired it, which was useful when one wanted to hide a magical fight from muggle awareness. Not to mention the fact that most purebloods had no clue just how lethal a well aimed bullet could be.
Next time he ran into Tom's lackeys, he'd have more than some repurposed healing spells under his belt.
Ron wasn't sure what this was a punishment for, but he was sure he'd done something to bring this down on his head.
Bill had just brought his mystery girlfriend to the Burrow for dinner in order to introduce her to the family, and things had just gone downhill from there with the revelation that his paramour was Fleur Delacour.
Specifically for him was the fact that he could literally feel his brain start to fog up whenever she was near, which was why he was avoiding her as much as he could without seeming too rude. He did not want to blurt out something stupid in front of his mum, of all people.
More generally, however, was the fact that Molly Weasley was absolutely not enthused with the revelation as to who her son was dating. One would think she would be excited that her son had found a gorgeous woman to be with, but as soon as Fleur started talking any happiness she may have felt was popped like a balloon.
Fleur was just too blunt and opinionated to mesh well with the Weasley matriarch. What made it worse was that she didn't seem to be aware of the effect her words were having when she spoke. It made Ron want to bang his head against the table whenever it happened, even through the obsessive haze.
It didn't help that Ginny was not happy either, taking to calling Fleur 'Phlegm' behind her back.
Fred and George had stopped by for the reveal, and were giving their elder brother some good natured ribbing about his luck and playfully wondering why she hadn't been scared off by Bill yet.
At the moment Fleur was talking about the trip she'd taken with her family to some place called the 'Lover', or something like that, when she was asked about them. Honestly, Ron was mainly just trying to keep his head down. At least, he was till he heard something that made it snap up and around so quickly he actually felt pain from it.
"...and eet waz such a nice surprize to see 'Arry there." She was saying as she picked up another forkful of mashed potatoes. "Gabrielle waz happy to zee him, and 'e looked more relaxed zan I would have expected. 'is French was superb, az well."
"Wait." Ron said, only realizing he was the one who had spoken after a moment. "You ran into Harry in France?"
Fleur blinked, appearing to be surprised by the reaction she was getting, glancing around to find everybody staring at her intently. "Oui. 'E was touring ze Louvre. We explored eet together after zat."
There was a moment of stillness before everybody burst. Ron's dad immediately got up and made his way to the Floo in order to call Dumbledore, everybody else started pelting Fleur with questions, and the confused French witch tried to figure out what was going on and why this was such a big deal.
As Ron tried to get a word in edgewise through the noise his family was making, he wondered how exactly Harry was going to explain this to Hermione.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Hermione's voice screeched through the speaker of Harry's phone, making him pull it away with a curse, almost throwing it in reaction.
It was the end of the day and night was falling on Rome. After studying four extremely useful spells and practicing them as best he could in a very breakable hotel room, along with a delicious dinner provided by room service, Harry decided to get his check-in call done before he went to bed. He had not expected to nearly be deafened within the first five seconds.
"Bloody hell, Mione!" Harry exclaimed, sticking his pinky in his abused ear to check for damage. "What was that for!? They probably heard you all the way on the moon!"
"You lied to me." Hermione said in a voice that he was well acquainted with, though rarely as the target. It was the voice she used when she was inches away from flinging curses. "You were in Paris, not anywhere you hinted at."
It took Harry a moment to figure out what brought this on, and once he did he huffed a laugh. "I see Bill introduced Fleur to the in-laws."
"That's all you have to say?" Hermione asked, still sounding monumentally pissed, with a little hurt added in. "You blatantly lied to me and that's your response?"
"When exactly did I lie to you, Mione?" He asked, curiosity in his voice.
"You told me you were heading to an English speaking country, and doing so by plane." Hermione growled.
"Nooo…" He said slowly, a smile curling on his lips. "I said I was nervous about flying the muggle way, not that I was going to do so right that instant. And I'm pretty sure there are flights from London to Paris. And I said I'd be going somewhere I could speak the language."
"You don't speak French." Hermione stated flatly.
"Comment est-ce que je le parle exactement maintenant, alors?" Harry asked with a grin, amused now.
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line before Hermione spoke again. "Since when-?"
"I am a man of many talents, Miss Granger." Harry said in his best James Bond impression, still grinning. "Suffice to say, I didn't lie to you. I just… misled you with the truth."
"Are you still in Paris, then?" Hermione asked with a huff, obviously not pleased that he was right, and that he'd gotten one over on her in that way. It was an affront to her status of smartest member of the trio.
"No." He said, not feeling the need to lie. "Lots of trains to various parts of Europe from there. Lots I want to see."
There was another moment of silence before Hermione sighed. "You aren't going to give me any more than that, are you?"
"Not a chance." Harry said with a snort. "I'm not dumb enough to give you any further hints now that you're going to be picking apart my every word from now on. Suffice to say I've been mostly enjoying my time in my current location, though there have been a couple of hiccups. Nothing too serious, though. Usual holiday mishaps." There was no way he was going to give even the slightest impression that he'd been involved in anything more dangerous than some minor food poisoning. Hermione was worried enough already as it was.
"Fine." Hermione said, and he could practically see her pout at being denied. "The Order know not to focus just on certain countries now, so they'll be finding you soon enough, I'm sure."
"Petulance is not an attractive look on you, Mione." Harry said with a chuckle. "I guarantee that even if the Order finds me, they won't be able to catch me. I'm not heading back till I'm good and ready."
"We'll see, Harry." Hermione said with a sniff.
"Bye, Hermione." He said, chuckling as he hung up.
Still, he'd have to be even more on the lookout now, and he couldn't do stupidly impulsive things like the reveal to the Greengrass/Davis group earlier. It would only take one slip up to end up having to fight off either the Order or the Death Eaters. Or knowing his luck, both at the same time.
Groaning, Harry set his phone aside and finished his drink before going to bed, making plans for the next day's activities.
The Semita Mirum, Rome's magical district, was located behind an old wall near Fontana delle Rane. The wall should have led into one of the nearby buildings, but by this point Harry was really ceasing to be surprised by the weird places magicals hid their homes and shops.
Unlike Diagon Alley and Rue Merveilleux, the Semita Mirum was mostly built in the old Roman style, looking like one of the ruins he had already visited brought to life.
According to the guidebook Harry'd bought from Cassandra, the Semita Mirum had been around since the BC area, though at the time it had been a normal part of Rome. When the local magicals decided to go into hiding, however, they 'politely encouraged' the locals to leave before hiding the entire area with more spells and wards than even the gods could likely handle. Since then they had mostly kept the architecture out of some odd sort of elitism, though he could see more recent construction here and there. Though in this case 'recent' meant from approximately the seventeenth century.
Harry tried to keep his curious observations from becoming too obvious as he walked through the area, the somewhat clashing oddness of the ancient architecture housing more modern stores like a quidditch supply retailer or odds and ends shop just adding to the place's ambiance.
The apothecary and potion shop, which he'd decided to investigate in case they had anything that might be of use going forward, did indeed have several interesting concoctions, and Harry spent more than he probably should have on them.
He spent quite a bit of time in one of the two bookstores in the district, searching for anything interesting. Unlike the other store, this bookstore was a very expensive one, holding antique and rare books. Of course, that meant the costs were equally high, but he'd already decided back when he first left Britain that he wasn't going to worry too much about money. Considering what was waiting for him, he didn't see much point. Besides which, if he spent every single knut in his vault on a book that ended up helping him and his friends get through the war alive, he'd consider it cheaply bought.
In the end he bought Hermione a thick tome without a title but which he found upon opening to be a book on ancient numerology. Not his thing, but considering how much the girl liked the Arithmancy class at Hogwarts he figured she might like it if only for its historical significance.
For Ron he bought a small manual on military strategies who's author was Scipio Africanus. Harry wasn't entirely sure that Ron would appreciate the historical significance of the manual (honestly, he wouldn't either if it weren't for the fact that he was Googling the names of the authors of the books he was looking at just in case), but Ron had a good, strategic mind when he wanted to apply it. Sure, chess may not be the kind of marker for such things that some people thought it was (he'd heard Hermione rant about it after Ron beat her one too many times) but it was still a trait he wanted to nurture.
He found a very old Italian book on herbology that he decided to get for Neville. The boy had followed him into the jaws of death on that foolish mission to the Ministry, which considering some of the ways he'd been treated even by Harry and Ron was a not insignificant display of their friendship, so Harry wasn't going to hesitate to get him, Luna and Ginny whatever he could during this trip.
Speaking of the girls, he got Luna what amounted to an ancient encyclopedia of magical entities, some of which Harry wasn't entirely sure actually existed. Seemed right up her alley. And for Ginny he found a small book of relatively harmless yet unpleasant spells with which to terrorize her brothers.
He planned to send them to their recipients shortly before heading to his next destination, to keep the Order from tracking the origin before he was gone. If he had his way they would always be a step behind him.
Of course, how his friends would be able to read the books, seeing as they were either in Italian or Latin, was something he'd have to figure out later.
Leaving the shop with his puse quite a bit lighter, and knowing he'd need to grab some more money soon, Harry began making his way towards a nearby quidditch store when something caught his eye. He immediately began cursing silently but with feeling as he changed course.
Tracey stared out the window of the bus she was riding on, Daphne seated beside her with their families scattered about the other open seats. Rome was beautiful as always, but she wasn't really taking any of it in, her thoughts elsewhere.
"Can't stop thinking about it?" Daphne asked from beside her, voice somewhat subdued.
Tracey turned to her best friend. She hesitated for a moment. "I…"
"I. Have. No. Future."
"No, not really." She finished a bit lamely.
The blonde nodded seriously in understanding. "It was rather memorable." She let out a breath. "Honestly, even after everything that's gone on since the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, it's not easy to really grasp what it means for Potter that You-Know-Who is back and on the warpath again. I… I can't fault the way he feels right now." She finished, more subdued than when she started.
Tracey let her head fall back, a gusty sigh of her own escaping her. "Just being a muggleborn in Hogwarts is terrifying enough right now. Being Harry Potter? I'd have probably had a breakdown by now." Then she turned to look at Daphne again. "And yet…"
"You… will KNOW I. Was. Here."
The brunette felt her cheeks color a bit. "He's not going down without a fight."
Daphne nodded in agreement, and Tracey wasn't surprised to see she was a bit flushed as well. They'd always had the same taste in men. And women, for that matter.
"I know it's made dad feel a bit… ashamed…" Daphne said, glancing over at where her father was speaking with Tracey's. "He's still terrified, mainly for Astoria and I, but-" Anything else she was going to say was interrupted when an enormous bang and crunching of metal announced something slamming into the side of the bus, causing it to skid before tipping over onto its side, the passengers screaming in fear and shock.
Tracey felt herself land on the window, Daphne toppling over on top of her with a cry. After a moment it was over, and the only noise making it past the ringing in her ears was the cries of scared and injured people.
Had a truck hit the bus when they were passing the intersection? It must have been speeding quite a bit, in that case.
That guess was proven wrong as Tracey was trying to push Daphne off of ther, the blonde trying to remove herself as well. With the screech of metal tearing the roof of the bus was peeled away like a sardine can, revealing at least five people in dark robes and skull masks.
"Shit." Tracey hissed as she froze, a cold sweat breaking out on her brow. The Death Eaters had her and her family dead to rights, and after the way things had gone the day before she didn't think they were in the mood to be what passed for diplomatic with them.
She felt Daphne grab her hand, her fingers shaking, and Tracey squeezed back.
The lead Death Eater looked around the bus as two of his compatriots began sending curses into the crowd gathering outside, making the people panic and try to get away from the attacks, especially when they injured bystanders and damaged buildings. Tracey heard one of them laugh, apparently enjoying themselves, which made something sick twist in her gut.
The Death Eater in charge finally seemed to catch sight of Tracey and Daphne before he turned to look at Darius. "This is the consequence for defying the Dark Lord." The voice of the wizard from the Vatican Museums said from behind the mask as he aimed his wand at Daphne. "Avada-".
Tracey reacted on instinct, throwing her arms around Daphne, trying to shield her with her body, but before she could move far a bolt of turquoise light suddenly appeared from out of view and struck the Death Eater's side, sending him tumbling with a pained cry and the sound of multiple breaking bones.
One of the other Death Eaters began to turn in the direction of the attack, but suddenly let out a high pitched scream of pain as a spike of asphalt suddenly shot out of the ground and pierced their leg, making them fall, the motion causing the spike to tear a ragged hole in their calf, which just made them scream louder, reaching down to grab at their leg, wand and magic completely forgotten in favor of blind, pain driven panic.
After a few moments to stare in shock Tracey scrambled to her feet as the Death Eaters turned their attention towards whoever was attacking them, pulling Daphne up after her. Her heart was racing like a frightened rabbit's, but Tracey managed to keep enough of a hold of herself to avoid doing something stupid.
Still, she was a Slytherin, not a bloody Gryffindor. This was not her wheelhouse!
"We need to get out." Daphne hissed, apparently regaining her own wits as well, and Tracey nodded in agreement. She looked around the bus, seeing mostly cuts and bruises, maybe a broken bone or two, but thankfully it didn't look more serious than that. She thanked any gods that might be watching that there hadn't been any children on the bus when it was attacked. Then she began to move toward the front of the bus, the opposite direction from the fighting currently going on.
Several of the other passengers had apparently either caught on or had the same idea and began doing the same, many helping the others that were either still in shock or not up to quick movement.
When they reached the front they found the driver and a couple of passengers breaking the windshield in order to make an exit, which had thankfully made relatively decent progress, and once another man and woman added to the efforts there was an opening for people to escape from.
Tracey and Daphne quickly got out and made way for the frightened muggles to run away, some limping or having to be helped out. Tracey wanted to join them, but first she needed to wait for her family, and she wanted to see who had saved them.
Glancing at Daphne she saw that the blonde was thinking the same thing, so the two peeked around the bus to look at the ongoing fight.
Another of the Death Eaters had gone down since they last looked, leaving four still in the fight against their single opponent, and Tracey really didn't have any right to be surprised at who she saw launching spells at the Death Eaters at a blistering pace.
Potter.
His emerald eyes were hard and focused, his wand and body dancing as he attacked, dodged, blocked, and countered, his teeth bared in a savage not-smile of defiance and fury as a rivulet of blood trailed down the side of his face.
Tracey felt her heart hammer, and wasn't entirely sure it was all fear and adrenaline now.
Even as she watched one of the Death Eaters shouted something she couldn't catch, their wand slashing upward, and a ribbon of carmine energy flew at Potter, who began to dodge but didn't quite make it, crimson blood spraying from a wound on his left shoulder rather than his head.
And yet the boy didn't even seem to notice the likely severe injury beyond his eyes narrowing as he flicked his wand up, the Death Eater suddenly being lifted into the air by their ankle with a startled cry before Potter canceled the spell and let the dark wizard fall on their head, knocking them out and leaving three facing him.
The remaining Death Eaters didn't seem to take kindly to that, and as one each launched different spells in a spread that Potter would find it difficult to avoid.
So he didn't.
With an uttered word and another flick of his wand, a thick wall of asphalt rose in front of him, the spells smashing into the barrier, cracking it but not getting through. A moment later there was a deafening blast and the wall exploded towards the Death Eaters, shrapnel catching the unprepared dark wizards at high speed, making them go down, probably in a bad way.
For a moment the street went silent, the short but intense battle over, and then Astoria's voice rang out. "Holy shit…" The girl said a touch more vulgarly than she'd normally dare in front of her mother.
Tracey started, realizing that her and Daphne's families had joined them in watching the fight sometime during the confrontation and she'd been so focused on Potter that she hadn't noticed.
When Potter made his way to the downed Death Eaters and began casting spells on them Tracey slowly stepped around the bus and began to approach, only to freeze when Potter's wand snapped up to aim at her. She swallowed with no small amount of nervousness as she waited to see if he'd recognize her in time to avoid cursing her, and let out a sigh when he relaxed and brought his wand down. "Davis." He said with a nod.
"P-Black." She said back, only barely remembering to call him by his alias in time, though his eyes still narrowed at her in displeasure. "What are you doing?"
Potter turned back to his work. "Healing these pricks enough that they won't die of their injuries." He said as he cast a spell at the leader of the group, bones audibly setting themselves as the Death Eater jerked in pain despite being unconscious, only relaxing when Potter hit him with a stunning spell. Then he began to make his way to the nearest injured civilian, absently aiming his wand at his injured shoulder, the bleeding (which hadn't been as severe as Tracey expected, indicating she'd perhaps misjudged how bad the wound had been) lightening, though not stopping completely. Then he began to wave his wand at the injured woman he'd reached, healing her injuries with an ease that left Tracey very much surprised. She'd never expected him to be such a competent healer, yet there he was, putting the bleeding and barely breathing woman to rights.
Daphne, who had been right behind Tracey the entire time, finally spoke as he finished with the woman and made his way to the next nearest casualty. "Thank you." She said with feeling.
"Yeah, we owe you." Tracey said just as earnestly, mind momentarily going to the moment she thought she was going to die before she savagely pushed it back. She could have a breakdown later.
"Indeed we do." Darius Greengrass said as he and the rest of the two families approached. "This is the second time you've come to our aid, Mister Black. Though I am curious as to what led to your coming to our rescue this time."
Potter glanced at the Lord Greengrass coolly, obviously still remembering the previous day's confrontation. Then he moved to the next injured person, his actions quick and focused, and Tracey was struck by just how calm he seemed to be as he helped seriously injured people after such an intense battle. Just how used was Potter to such situations that this was his reaction?
"I noticed the idiots gathering in the Semita Mirum, which isn't all that far away, and followed them, because I knew they couldn't be up to anything good." He said as he finished with the preteen girl he was tending to, making sure she was knocked out like he was the others to spare her some pain and trauma. "I apologize for not stopping them before they attacked, but in my defence, I didn't expect them to be so brazen. Although perhaps I should have. Voldemort's lackeys are rarely the subte type."
Darius nodded in understanding. "In that case I once again thank you, and the good fortune that had you come across them when you did."
Before anything more could be said multiple cracks of apparition rang out, prompting Potter, Darius and Tracey's father to turn around, Potter bringing his wand up, the other two men drawing theirs as the mothers gathered the children and drew their own wands.
"This is the Aurors!" A somewhat rotund yet serious looking man declared as he and five other witches and wizards in red robes approached, wands drawn and aimed at the group. "Wands down, now!"
As the group did so Potter let out a disgruntled sigh. "About bloody time…"
Tracey glanced at him and nodded. She couldn't agree more.
It's finished! MUAHAHAHA! And before the end of the month! MUAHAHAHA!x2.
I'm getting tired of having to give excuses for how long it takes me to update, but in this case a combination of illness, work issues, and old fashioned laziness kept this from coming out within the first week of August like I wanted. Still, it's out now, and that's what matters.
In any case, we got some nice action this chapter, and some more seeds for the future.
Before people start complaining that I made Harry too badass too quickly, I want to point out a couple of things. First, the fight was from Tracey's point of view. She wasn't privy to Harry's thoughts and feelings during that entire event. Secondly, I do have reasons for certain things that happened during the fight which will be explained in the next chapter once we go back to Harry's point of view. And thirdly, even if I'm taking a different route along the way, this is still a Make A Wish inspired story. The legend of Mr. Black has to start somewhere. Though you'll likely be surprised where I end up taking that by the time this fic is finished.
Alright, I don't think there's anything more that needs to be said, so as always, let's get to my customary reminders:
The first is that you can have a say in what I write when you donate to my Pat A Ron. Every dollar donated equals a vote in my monthly poll, and now I've made it so that the votes for the things that don't win in a given month roll over into the next, which is why some fics that haven't gotten much love for a while have been updated recently. So if you want to donate and see your favorite stories of mine updated more often, go to Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. The current poll closes on September 4th. Hope to see you all vote!
The next two reminders are more important to me, however. First is that my best friend has a Pat A Ron for their original fiction. Donate any amount you want and get access to some objectively excellent writing (far better than mine, if I'm being completely honest). Their first story, which is a supernatural steampunk detective thriller that I very much enjoy called 'The Curious Investigations of Mister Jonathan Scott', is currently at 18 chapters, the first of which is free, so you can see what his style is like. So if you like, say, The Dresden Files, but want it more steampunk, this is for you. And they've now started another story that will be updated while they build up more Jonathan Scott chapters, this one being a cyberpunk (the genre, not the game) story called 'Tales of Luminous City', the first chapter of which is now also free. And they're working on a third story, this one a space opera (at least from the prologue I've read. Might be wrong). You can find their stuff by searching for Grimm Tales in Pat A Ron. Unfortunately their updates might be a bit delayed seeing as their computer suddenly went kaput, making them lose all their stuff.
I would appreciate it a lot if you could help them out, as unlike me they've had employment trouble due to some disabilities, which this pandemic hasn't helped. Even a dollar to read what they've currently done would be a huge help at this point, cause they're in real need. Hell, if you were thinking of donating to me, give it to them instead. I would honestly appreciate it a lot more.
Second, my sister has also begun a Pat A Ron. She recently got her Bachelor's in Digital Animation. She's trying to make her own series to post on Youtube, but needs money, so she's making art and plans on accepting commissions. She primarily does tokusatsu themed fanart (Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, etc.), and she plans to let people have a say in what she makes, much like I do. That's at Pat A Ron dotcom /linduarte. (Oh no, now you know my last name! The horror!)
Please keep in mind though that we've been made aware of a bug with the site that
makes it seem like you can't donate less than $5. If you don't want to donate that much, to any of us, just put a zero before the number you want to donate, such as 03. That should get you going.
As always, thank you for the support despite the delays and issues I've been having. I promise I'm doing my best to improve. Hopefully we'll see each other again soon.