SlenderGnome proudly presents: Harry Granger and the Werewolf Apocalypse! This is a recursive fanfic - it's based on PoS - and so one should read that if they want this to make sense. Now, welcome to the Dystopian World of 2011, where Werewolf Packs, under the leadership of The Dark Lord Pettigrew and his Dastardly Lieutenants, roam the world, and the Statute of Secrecy is in tatters. Mage and Muggle alike come together in common cause to defend against these Evil Beasts.
"Harry." Lily called out from across the expansive yard. "Come on out quietly – there is no need to make this difficult."
Harry considered the situation to have escalated well beyond the point of being 'Difficult'. His early antagonism to his mother had all but abated, and had since been replaced by a soft fondness, if not true familial love. She had, after all, gone to great lengths for him in the aftermath of the incident, and after several years of living together in France they had grown rather close.
Lily was dressed in heavy, ill-fitting camouflage armour, which looked much to big for her – it was seemingly sized for something much larger than her. Her hair had degenerated from the straight, silky fire to a bird's nest of dirty, greasy hair with the occasional twig or bit of leaf, since last they met. Harry steeled himself, solidifying himself within his occlumency barriers. He had to remind himself that no, that wasn't his mother, hadn't been his mother for a long time, and his mother had long since been replaced.
That knowledge, or the knowledge of any of the other deficiencies in his mothers character before she… changed didn't make what he had to due any easier.
"No!" Harry called out from where he was. "I won't. I'll never. There are kids inside this building – kid's I've a duty to protect. I won't let you hurt them, or anyone else."
"Harry." The monster wearing his mother's skin admonished. "You need to stop this. Come back to mummy – let us be a family again. Join us, and together, we'll be whole. We'll go back to what life was like before…"
"Lies." Harry responded. "All Lies. We won't be a family. Lily Evans is dead. I've buried what I could of her, and mourned the rest."
"Such a shame." Lily shook her head. "I suppose we'll see if you change your mind once you've been… persuaded." She looked up to the sky, toward the horizon. "Moonsign is almost upon us, Harry. This is your last chance."
"Never!" Harry called out defiantly. He opened up with his legilimency and took in the environment.
There were an awful lot of werewolves hiding in the trees.
The building beneath him was some manor, though he couldn't quite tell when or who it was from. What he did know is that it had been fortified over the years, and inside there were a lot of people counting on him. He looked to his side – there, Hermione and Theo were fiddling with some gun salvaged from the Second World War, doing some last minute modifications to it. Neville stood beside them, his wand out and ready.
Harry released a breath he didn't know he had been holding.
The red haired abomination out on the yard pulled something out of her vest and raised it to her lips.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Harry called out. The spell zipped across the distance between them. With a flash, Lily's wand whirled in front of her and batted it into the ground. She waggled her wand at him like it was a finger she was using to scold a disobedient child.
"Naughty, Naughty boy, Harry." She admonished. "Though your mummy is proud of you."
She downed the potion and gave a contented sigh. A glint of the moon peaked out through the trees, as it rose up over the horizon. The area was filled with a horrid, cacophonous sound of too many werewolves transforming at once. Growls, grunts, and screams of pain and fear filled the courtyard.
"BOMBARDA!"Harry whipped his wand back at her. All around him, his fellow defenders opened up with their most powerful spells. The muggle artillery Hermione had insisted they muck about with barked out a sharp report, and an explosion bloomed in the center of a pack of werewolves.
Lily was unaffected by the explosion. "Nice Try, H'rry." She grunted out. Like a bolt of lightning she crossed the yard, her lupine traits carrying her towards him.
Harry breathed carefully, and centered himself. "SSSSSECTUMSSSSSEMPRA!" He incanted. His wand vibrated in his hands with the recoil, and a blade of magic shot out at her. It tore deep gashes in the armor that now fit her rather well.
"Hurr Hurr Hurr." She barked out a laugh, and then, like a bullet out of a rifle leapt up towards him, almost 40 feet vertical!"
THUMP-THUMP
Harry dilated the moment he realized what was happening. The werewolf was approaching him quickly. He considered his options – she clearly wore the amulet that protected werewolves against Sectumsempra, and even enhanced with Parseltongue it failed to penetrate her armor.
THUMP-THUMP
She was closer now, near the top of her arc. If they weren't so bloody destructive and antisocial, he'd almost be impressed with the raw athleticism of werewolves. He could maybe try something with a Depulso, but she was likely also warded against that, and it would only be delaying the inevitable, not ending it.
There were a bevy of combat spells that might be able to do something – piercing hexes, the entrail-expelling curse, Fulminata, Ventus, or Incendio with the Maxima modifier, maybe even rapid fire chain of Auguamenti-Glacius-Depulso, but nothing that would be even remotely successful.
THUMP-THUMP
She was nearly at the edge of the roof now, it was really only a matter of moments – a half a minute in subjective time – before she was right on top of him. He didn't want to do it, but he'd probably have to. He was running out of options. He pointed his wand at her and focused – as long as she was in the air she was stuck on a trajectory – she wouldn't be able to dodge.
He quickly ran through the kinematic calculations – how fast she was going, her position, her lateral velocity, how fast his spell would travel. Without dilation and the boon to mental acuity granted by occlumency, such physics problems in the middle of a fight would be a waste of time and almost a guarantee of death, but luckily, he had the good fortune of having developed such abilities, and so he knew almost exactly where to aim.
THUMP-THUMP
Now, all that was needed was a suitable memory – unbidden, from the depths of his Occlumency palace, that night, with that swine James Potter came to the fore. Hatred suffused his body, mind, and soul, and he released the dilation to cast the spell he had only had cause to cast twice before.
"AVADA KEDAVRA."
Harry woke with a start. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes and took several deep breaths. The tent around him was dark, though it was not the oppressive dark of midnight on the night of the new moon, nor the cold darkness of the full moon. It was just light enough that he knew the sun was working its way towards the horizon and would join them in about an hour or so.
"You alright Harry?" Hermione asked from beside him as she roused.
"Yeah." Harry replied. Hermione shifted in bed and rubbed his arm slowly. "I'm alright. Or I will be."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really."
"Okay." Hermione nodded, her bushy hair rippling over Harry. "What time is it?"
Harry summoned his wany and cast a quick Tempus charm. "Six-Thirty Local."
"Are you going to be able get back to sleep?"
"I don't think so."
"Then let's get up and make breakfast."
Harry stifled a laugh at that. His wife was many things, but capable in the kitchen she was not. His wife did, however, sock him in the shoulder for his unsaid comment.
They piled out of bed, and with a deliberateness to her actions Hermione made up the bed. It would be easiest to wave a wand and let magic do it, but Hermione talked of liking the tactile sensation of putting everything into position just right.
Everyone had their little pleasures in life, and it would be a sin to deprive them of them, especially now, when so few of the big pleasures remained.
The kitchen lights came on with a muttered command and Harry set to work chopping potatoes, carving thin slices of bacon off of the wild hog ham they had bagged and preserved a while back, and bringing them all together into a wonderful breakfast. Hermione went outside to talk with Theo, who had been up since the wee hours of the morning patrolling around the camp. They did string up wards when they set this up a few weeks ago, but it wouldn't do to get complacent and suffer for it.
After half an hour of busied preparations in the kitchen, breakfast was ready. Harry snapped his wand out and put the food under preservation charms. Awoken by the sizzling of bacon and the accompanying scent that drifted into their rooms, the rest of his merry band made there way from the clutches of Morpheus and gathered outside for their morning Wu-Xi-Do practice.
Theo, as always, lead them in their practice of the Eastern art he had become relatively proficient in. Once they finished with their morning calisthenics, they feasted on the sumptuous meal Harry had prepared for them.
There breakfast was rather rudely interrupted by a clanging noise coming from the storage room.
"Is that?" Amy raised an eyebrow.
"That would be a communication mirror." Harry nodded. He pointed his wand towards the room and, without a word, summoned it. It flew out across the tent and landed in his hand, and with a gesture he activated it.
"Hello. Harry Granger Here."
"Oh good." The dour face of Severus Snape had aged a good bit since they had last conversed, so many years ago. The sallow lines of his face had developed a few wrinkles here and there, and his greasy black hair was streaked with grey. "I was worried there for a moment I'd picked up the mirror to your former father."
"What can I help you with today, Severus? It's been a while since we've communicated."
"Obviously, Granger. I swear, you've picked up your wife's irritating capacity to state the obvious." He sneered at him through the mirror. "Hogwarts is under attack – a swarm of dementors is assaulting the wards as we speak. We could use the assistance of… professionals to resolve this issue."
Neville frowned. "Hogwarts… Hogwarts is quite some distance from where we currently are, Professor. And deep in Pettigrew's territory."
"It is headmaster now." Snape corrected him. "And quite frankly, I don't care. I want you here as quickly as you can make it – We're retreating to the Slytherin common room, and we'll try to make a stand there. Frankly, there is nowhere we can run, and we can't hold them off forever. How long will it take for you to get here?"
They all looked to Amy who closed her eyes and did some mental calculations. "Five hours. Maybe six. Four and a half if we push it."
"We can hold out that long, for certain." Snape frowned. "But I wouldn't count on much longer than that. The dementors are past the first layer of wards put up against them."
"We'll be there as soon as we can, Severus." Harry stated firmly.
Snape just nodded and terminated the mirror collection.
Harry immediately started barking out orders to his motley crew, unwilling to waste a moment when this many lives were at stake.
"Amy, spool up the chopper. Get us ready to go and put together a flight path to Hogwarts that avoids… unpleasantness." Amy nodded, and with a wave of her hand summoned the ignition keys from the wall.
"Right on it."
"Hermione, go secure everything in the library and then clear up the ward line."
"On my way, love."
"Neville, secure your room and the armory. Theo, secure your room and the training room. Luna, lock down the storage closet, and then stand watch."
They affirmed their orders and rushed to complete their assigned tasks. Harry, for his part, packed up the remains of breakfast and the kitchen with a few sharp, precise movements of his wand. The, he battened down everything in his and Hermione's room.
They regrouped a few moments later outside the tent, where after a quick head count, they collapsed the tent and folded it up. The surplus military helicopter they had started up at this point, and waves of wind buffeted around them. Hermione returned from the ward line at a brisk run, and they all piled into the helicopter.
It wasn't just any helicopter, though. In the chaos that pervaded the globe in the aftermath of the Statute failing, and… related incidents, many nations placed up massive trackers on apparition – Pettigrew, and his ilk were particularly prolific in their endeavors, having blanketed all of the territory under their control (And much territory that wasn't) in such wards. Helicopters, of the sort they were riding now, had been adopted en masse by the mixed magical-muggle militias and militaries that cropped up to defend against the werewolf hordes prowling around. They were more accommodating for muggles than brooms and could mount some muggle heavy weapons to them. And, as it happened, many of the systemic issues plaguing military systems could be solved with a bit of wizardry. Harry and his crew had managed to find a run-down helicopter in the Siberian wilderness while on the run from a… particularly persistent group of werewolves. They had enchanted it, and it served as a more or less adequate transport for their purposes.
The helicopter flew low above the ground. Scotland was Pettigrew's territory, after all, and it just wouldn't do for them to get ideas and try to shoot them down before the could get to Hogwarts. The dreary Scottish countryside drifted past them, occasionally being occluded by the low banks of fogs and clouds. It was peaceful, the only noises being the low whine of the engine, the whispering of the wing across the helicopter, and the steady thum-thum-thum of the blades as they chopped through the air.
"What wonderful weather." Neville commented idly, his voice crackling through the speakers.
"It's Scotland." Amy responded as she flicked a switch that did something within the depths of the helicopter. Harry absentmindedly thumbed his wand. His wife was buried in notes on a bench at the rear of the cabin, flipping through a book and occasionally making a correction to the reams of paper she had surround herself with.
"We're coming up on Hogwarts now." Amy continued.
"We've got dementors on the scopes." Luna commented, turning from the brass telescope that stuck out of the side of the helicopter. "Alright boys, you're up."
Theo gave a quick roll of his neck and produced his wand from his clothes. He nodded at Harry. "I feel like we are missing something." He commented.
"What is it?" Hermione asked.
"Wagner blasting from some speakers." He smirked.
"So help me, I'm going to resurrect Blaise so I can kill him for the muggle movies he showed you." Hermione hissed. With a wave of her wand, all of her notes and books folded up neatly and deposited themselves into a banker's box which scooted itself underneath the seat, and two clips latched it in.
Amy banked the helicopter, and just like that the castle appeared in its full splendorous glory through the door. Half a dozen dementors immediately turned and flew towards them.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Five voices called out in unison. A snake, rabbit, and bear slithered, bounced, and bounded out to the nearest dementor, which dissipated in a burst of silvery color. Following them, a hare and otter held station around the helicopter, darting at any dementors which tried to approach them.
"Follow me!" Neville jumped the ten meters from the deck of the helicopter to the Hogwarts grounds, waving his wand around him at the dementors. Harry and Theo rolled their eyes and jumped out after him.
Gryffindors.
They raced up the ground to the front entrance, the cold, heavy feeling getting stronger the closer they got to castle. Back behind them, the beating noise of the helicopter's blades grew louder and higher pitched as it lifted back off the ground and turned away.
"Slytherin Dungeon first, right?" Neville asked.
"Of course. We'd better hurry – it's not looking great so far."
They bounded through the halls of the school that they hadn't visited for so many years. Luckily, everything was still mostly the same layout as when they had last walked its venerable halls, so they found their way to the slytherin common room with only a few wrong turns.
All they had to do, really, was follow the dementors.
Amigo, Fiver, and Elby certainly had their work cut out for them. For every turn, every hall, there seemed to be a few more dementors scattered about.
"This is almost like, what, Scandinavia '04?" Neville quipped.
"Please." Theo rolled his eyes. "There were thousands of dementors coming across the North sea in '04. This is a cakewalk."
"Can we please not make light of the soul-sucking demons?" Harry asked as another dementor was extinguished in a flash of silver.
"But, we just did." Neville responded. "It's not like we have anything to fear from them – really the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
"Gryffindors." Theo sneered without malice. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Just another day at the office." Neville shrugged.
"Shut up. You've never even been to an office."
They reached the common room without much difficulty - the dementors rather quickly got the message and scattered.
Standing at the forefront, clearly exhausted, was a disheveled Severus Snape.
"Headmaster." Harry nodded.
"Harry." Snape returned the gesture. "I thank you for your assistance. We would not have made it without you."
Harry glanced behind Snape; arrayed out behind him were two dozen ashen-faced wizards and witches laying on the ground in exhaustion. Several younger students were peaking out from the halls into the Slytherin dormitories.
"It wasn't a problem. Anything for an old friend."
Snape nodded. "And if you don't mind my asking – how is Lily? I haven't heard from her in ages."
The three faces in front of him told him all that he needed to know. "I see. I won't press you further on that. Now – hurry, the wards tell me there are still Dementors in the school. Meet me in the headmaster's office when you are done."
The Headmaster's Office
"Thank you again, for the assistance."
"Don't mention it." Harry replied. "We're happy to help."
Snape nodded. "Be that as it may, I still appreciate it, as does everyone in this school, and all of their families."
He waved his wand, and several crystal glasses floated over to where the seven of them were gathered. With another flick of his wand, they uniformly filled with amber firewhiskey. He glanced out of the windows at the helicopter parked on the grass; a few brave students milled about the muggle flying contraption. "I suppose that helicopter has been enchanted?"
"Of course." Amy answered. "We've replaced some of the components with transfigured alternatives that don't degrade in the presence of magic, the electronics have all been ripped out and replaced with enchantments, and there has been a number of other defensive, offensive, and quality of life enchantments added to it."
"And I suppose The Group had some hand in those alterations?" Snape pushed.
Hermione nodded. "It certainly wouldn't have been easy with Sue and Anthony's help."
Snape nodded at that. "They do quality work, certainly."
Harry could see the gears turning in his head. "What do you want?"
Snape actually grinned at them, which took them all off guard. "What do I want… What do I want…"
He turned to them – is eyes full of that same iron and determination they always had been, that raw ambition so prized by Salazar and cultivated by seven years in the Slytherin Dorms.
"I've been working on a project for almost fifteen years now – one I unknowingly started while you still went by Potter, and Neville by Longbottom. One that has consumed almost every drop of free time since the Azkabal stopped searching for... what they were searching for. One that I am dreadfully close to a breakthrough on." His eyes gleamed. "One I would appreciate your help with finishing."
"What is it?" Neville asked.
"I think I'm on the edge of a breakthrough in curing lycanthropy, and I need your help."
