Readers! I am starting to get into the rhythm of writing, so I will be going back to older chapters to rewrite and fix stuff! Thank you for sticking with me so far, and if you do go back a reread the older chapters, you will find more continuity and plot holes being fixed.
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Chapter 7 : Questions upon Questions
"We gotta get him out of the street! Ron, open that gate and clear the backyard!"
Harry cast an Incarcerous that whipped around the top of his leg, which stemmed the bleeding, but the chunk of his leg was still missing, he then cast a bandaging charm. Seamus at this point was loudly yowling in pain. Harry turned around and watched two inferi fly some 20 feet away as Ron banished them out of his way. Ron unlocked the gate with a quick spell and banished the gate open, before cautiously walking into the backyard.
Harry heard someone 'shushing' a moment ago, and what he assumed was a little girl towards the backyard of the house, but he had to help Seamus first. He hoped they, whoever they were, were friendly and not easily frightened.
Harry wandlessly levitated Seamus with his off-hand, while he sent a Sectumsempra to the head of an approaching inferi with his wand in the other, severing the head in two. He started backing up towards the gate, efficiently dispatching anything that was in killing range. Ron ran back towards the street, then called out that the backyard was clear, stumbling a little at the cold lethality of the spells Harry was using.
Harry transferred Seamus to a grim Ron and closed the gate. He magically locked and reinforced it with the spell Duri so it would withstand a couple thousand pounds of weight pushing on it. A simple Finite or explosion would knock it down, but he didn't need to worry about that right now. Seeing more than a dozen inferi shambling towards the gate, he knew it needed to be guarded.
"Ron, guard the gate while I tend to Seamus." Harry ordered Ron while taking Seamus back.
He brought him next to the house's pool and laid him down. He vanished the bandages on his thigh, earning him a pained groan in response. The Portkey splinch didn't cut away his femoral artery thankfully, just a chunk of his thigh muscle. Not too serious, but he couldn't do anything miraculous without the missing chunk unfortunately.
"I'm gonna stun you, you don't want to be awake for this." Harry told Seamus.
"Wha-" Was all Seamus got out before he got a stunner point blank in the chest.
He was unsurprised that he was able to talk due to the adrenaline slightly numbing the pain. He cast a calming charm on him to slow his heart rate, reducing the rate of his bleeding. He took a quick look around the yard to make sure they were safe, seeing that the guests weren't going to make an appearance he continued healing Seamus.
Casting a diagnostic charm, a piece of papyrus shot out of his wand and into the air. He snatched it while it was falling and took a once-over. Thankfully the list wasn't long.
The Latin inscribed on it translated to; Serious unless cured fast. Left Leg. Mild Shock. Infectious.
Infectious? When did he contract an illness? From the looks of it, he doesn't have any outward symptoms. 'Means Ron and I probably have it too, we better find a medi-wizard soon.'
He cast an Aguamenti jet over his wound to clear out debris and the blood pooling, to get a good look at the damage. It looked like a surgeon precisely and purposefully cut out around twenty five percent of his thigh muscles. He didn't even want to know what a worse accident would have caused. Thankfully the wound wasn't wide enough to not make it easy to 'stitch' it. He cleaned it one more time, before squeezing the wound together, and casting a permanent sticking charm to close it until they can find a medi-wizard. He cast a simple bandaging charm and another calming charm for good measure. That was the extent of his healing knowledge without using potions.
He was trained for anti-terror and clandestine missions after all, not healing.
Standing up, he pointed his wand at Seamus and vanished the rope, before casting,
"Ennervate."
Seamus' eyes shot open, before scrunching in pain. With the brunt of adrenaline gone, the pain was almost indescribable. Worst pain he felt in a long time.
"Sorry mate, you didn't want to be awake for the cleaning and treating." Harry told him apologetically with a small smile.
"First my wand, now my leg." Was all Seamus could say, ignoring the apology.
Harry helped Seamus up, asking him to put weight on his leg to check his mobility; His eyes closed in pain told him he didn't have much.
Harry clapped him on the back before they looked towards the gate. Ron just finished casting a spell, lopping the head off of an inferi before turning around and falling to his hands and knees far away from the gate, before he started retching.
And they could see why.
On the other side of the gate was around 15 corpses piled against it, in the act of trying to climb over it. Ranging from their heads cut off to what he assumed was blunt force trauma to the brain. And the smell was putrid.
Seamus looked away after taking it in, not wanting to see the carnage. He'd never seen anything like it.
Harry took a hard look at it. He's seen stuff like this before. Fresh looking people compared to the decayed corpse of an actual inferi was much different though.
Harry noticed a child that was trying to climb over the pile of bodies and over the gate. He understood why Ron couldn't do it. He walked over to the gate and wordlessly cast a Perforo, putting the child at peace.
Ron felt the presence of someone behind him. He knew it was Harry. He shakily took a few breaths,
"They just kept coming… You told me to guard the gate. So I guarded it. They were trying to climb over and they wouldn't stop."
"I know, you did what you had to."
"Did I? Are we even sure that they're dead? I m-mean how are we supposed to know if they are truly dead? You didn't feel magic on them, it could be a muggle thing!"
"We both know that's not true. We both saw the diagnostic charm that Seamus cast, a note didn't pop out. They're dead. Not even magic can bring someone back to life."
A few seconds passed, with Ron slightly calming down.
"Not even magic can bring someone back to life." Ron tasted the words. He stood up and looked at Harry, avoiding the direction of the gate, and continued.
"There's a kid-"
"I already took care of it."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"And Seamus?" Ron meekly peeked past Harry to look at Seamus. He was currently sitting, facing away from the gate while absently rubbing his left leg.
"He'll be fine, we need to find a medi-wizard for potions. The pain will be the worst part for him. And he probably will not be able to walk with full strength for a long time, but he'll live." Harry replied.
"Oh, and another thing." Harry pulled out his wand and cast a diagnostic charm. A note puffed out the end and into Ron's hand.
"Infectious?" Ron muttered, looking at the note, confused.
Harry walked over to Seamus motioning for Ron to follow. Seamus noticed them, and took Harry's hand, helping him up.
"Cast a diagnostic charm on me." Harry said, handing his wand to Seamus. For a brief moment he felt naked before shaking the feeling off.
Again, a note puffed out of the wand, and Seamus grabbed it, and read it.
"Infectious?" Seamus read, confused.
"That confirms it. All three of us are infected. I don't feel any worse for wear, so I assume it has something to do with what's happened today." Harry replied at the unasked question.
Ron went a little wide eyed,
"Are we going to turn into one of those things?" He asked a little panickedly.
"Maybe, maybe not. It remains to be seen, but for the time being, we're fine." Harry reassured Ron, before taking his wand back from Seamus.
"Homenum Revelio" Harry intoned. Seamus and Ron looked confused, before seeing Harry's wand vibrate five times. Ron pulled out his wand, before Harry grabbed his arm, and shook his head towards him. Ron lowered it, but didn't put his wand away. They were being watched, and his senses were already heightened.
"You can come out, we mean no harm." Harry called out to no one in particular.
A few seconds passed before an African-American man who looked to be about in his late thirties, covered in blood, came limping out from behind the porch.
"I'm not going to cause any problems." He said, a little shaken. What did he see?
"That your blood?" Ron asked. Already knowing the answer.
The man paused,
"Ah, no. There was a… thing, in the house. It attacked me. You can check for yourself."
"Really, we're not going to hurt you. We believe you." Seamus said sympathetically.
"Forgive me, I don't really trust what's going on right now. I'm a bit… On edge, as you can probably guess."
"What did you see?" Harry asked, looking him in the eyes.
"Enough."
"And? Would you believe it if I told you what you saw was real?" Harry asked, after doing a surface scan of his thoughts. He saw him waving his wand over Seamus' leg and conjuring bandages.
"What? Magic? Maybe. I didn't think I'd be seeing monsters today either." The man paused a little mirthful, before asking,
"Are they connected?" He asked a little slowly.
"...We're not sure yet, but from what we can gather, it's not related to magic." Harry answered honestly. And the man believed him.
The man finally walked a little bit closer to them.
"Where'd you come from? I heard a strange noise coming from the street, and saw you three."
"We teleported." Harry said simply, with a smirk on his face.
"Right." Lee laughed a bit, before noticing their faces. They were serious.
"No shit… Where'd you uh, 'teleport' from? The UK?" He asked with shock evident on his face.
"We came from Savannah." Ron answered, no longer on edge. Seems the danger has passed for the time being.
"You're from Savannah?" A small, baseball hat covered head popped out from the treehouse window looking elated.
