Whatever he expected when the earthling offered a way to fix him, it went out of the window the moment he saw the light emerge from the odd stick in the male´s hand. His optics went wide, but when he tried to scan the light, it already moved and within seconds touched his chest. That moment he felt something explode in his chest and the space around him seemed to disappear.
Galvatron came to himself he was no longer buried underground. Instead, he found himself in the middle of some strange dunes, with dark clouds looming above. It looked nothing like his home planet, as there was no metal present, only mountains and mountains of sand. Besides the clouds on Cybertron were never so dark, as they rarer grouped together to such a size. Not sure whether he was dead or he was transported somewhere else, he looked at his body… only to stare as each of his injuries repaired themselves in front of his optics. The bent metal straightened itself, the broken parts snapped together and the burned parts looked like new.
The mech couldn´t believe what he was seeing. It just didn´t seem real to him.
He thought back to what the earthling said to him, about how his method might either fix him or kill him. I must be dead then, he thought to himself. There was no other possible explanation.
With that in mind, he decided to explore the dunes, which became easier the more his body fixed itself until it was fully healed. The moment the last injury disappeared, he found out his alt-mode was fully functional so he transformed and flew over the dunes.
He had no idea how long was flying, as he tried to find if there was anything else than sand. At the same time, part of him was wondering what kind of otherworld was this. Not that there was any religious belief in life after death on Cybertron, but this was a very confusing place to be at, even for someone who had no expectations.
The mech was thrown of his musing when he heard a piercing screech. It sounded like a cross between a primal cry and a hiss. A few seconds allowed him to identify the direction, it was coming from, and change his flight trajectory towards the source of the noise. He flew as fast as he could until he reached his destination.
The sight that appeared in front of him made him halt in the air, trying to decide if he was hallucinating or not – he arrived at a rock formation that resembled some kind of ruins. And in the ruins, there was an odd creature with a white, smooth body and glowing red eyes. It had no arms or legs, only a sleek head and a long body and moved around by slithering on its stomach. By sheer size, it was big enough to wrap itself around him, although the mech doubted it would last against him in a fight. It was also apparent that the creature was the source of the noise he heard.
The creature didn´t seem to notice him, too engaged in chasing its target, which turned out to be a familiar figure for the mech.
Harry Potter, the earthling, was running around the ruins, trying to evade his attacker´s movements. At the same time, he was returning fire, using that strange stick of his to fire some sort of energy attack at the creature.
The Cybertronian wasn´t able to observe more, as the white creature suddenly struck Harry, throwing him against the nearest stone surface. The earthling landed hard on his back, his weapon falling from his hand. And the attacking being used this opportunity to move closer and get ready to strike again.
Not that Galvatron let it do so.
He transformed and the moment he landed; he readied his fusion canon. "HARRY, DODGE!"
The earthling clearly heard him, because he dove to the side, narrowly missing being crushed by the white creature´s attack. The mech then wasted no time firing at the distracted creature and when the moment the energy blast made contact with the being, it exploded, vaporizing the creature´s head. The white body fell to the ground, where it slowly dissolved and disappear under the sand. Dark clouds that loomed over the dunes disappeared too, and the mech watched with amazement how from underneath the sands, greenery emerged and spread all around him.
"Well done, warrior. Cherish and protect the youth well…"
The deep voice cut off the mech´s amazement and he found himself back underground.
"Galvatron? Are you… alright?" the concerned question caused Galvatron to blink in surprise, then look down at his companion.
"Harry?"
The squishy earthling gave him a tired smile. "Glad to see you´re alive. How are your injuries? Healed or are there still some left?"
The Cybertronian paused as he scanned his body, then his optics went wide at the result. "They are… completely healed. Every single one of them." He looked at the other. "Thank you. You saved my life."
"You´re welcome," Harry said with a relieved sigh.
"What was…" Galvatron couldn´t finish his question, because the human´s legs choose that moment to give under him, causing him to fall to his knees.
"Harry! Are you hurt?"
"No, just tired. Healing you apparently took more of me than I expected," answered Harry honestly, supporting himself by his hands. "I suppose finding a way out will be too difficult for me…"
The mech frowned at this, before scanning the earthling. His systems picked up some sort of energy coming from the human´s core, but there wasn´t much for a proper analysis. Next, he turned his attention to their surroundings. They were too deep underground, for the mech to transform and blast their way out of the cave. That left only one option, and luckily for him, that particular part of his system was fully functional again, just like the rest.
Now to make sure the human travels with him…
With a strong pull, he was able to break through the rocks and free his hand. The surprised human had little time to react before the freed appendage grabbed him and pulled him close to the other´s chest.
"Galvatron, what are you doing?!" yelped Harry, clutching tight to the metallic fingers.
"Getting us out. Now, hold tight," murmured the mech in concentration. In his mind, he cleared the coordinates, before activating the teleportation program. He felt the familiar energy run through his body, through every atom and with an audible crack, they appeared aboveground. But because of how long it had been since the last activation of the program, Galvatron had to quickly move his free arm and legs, to prevent a graceless fall and possibly crushing the fragile being in his grasp.
"What the-you can Apparate?" questioned Harry in disbelief.
"Is it what you on Earth call teleporting?" asked the mech with a small smirk.
The human nodded, astonished at being out of the previous situation. He snapped out of it when the mech started talking again. "Do you know any place where we could talk and get explanations?"
"Um, I think the tent would be the best bet for that… although I´m not sure how you would fit in," admitted the raven-haired teen.
"We shall see. Where is this tent?"
As Harry instructed him, from his position on the mech´s shoulder, as they made their way towards where the teen originally came from. At the same time, the human couldn´t help but marvel at the sheer size of his companion – he easily towered over the treetops, giving the human a clear view of what was around them.
Finally, he couldn´t help but ask. "Are the others from your race as big as you?"
"Some. And some are way bigger than me, or way smaller than you," replied the alien.
"Really? Your planet must be an interesting place then…"
The mech looked at him. "It might be, for someone who isn´t from here. For us it is normal."
"I guess you´re right. Is it similar, or different from this planet?"
"Different. Very little from my planet is made of organic materials… less than ten per cent, if I remember correctly. Compared to this planet, mine is like a sphere made eternally of metal."
"Wow… guess that explains how can you be a being made of metal, if your planet is like that," mused the human.
"Indeed. And judging by what I see from this planet, it explains why your body is organic," Galvatron returned the comment with a small smirk.
"True," Harry chuckled at this. Then he spotted something. "We´re here."
The mech looked in that direction and raised an optic ridge. "This is it?"
Looking at the little construct with those thin walls, the Cybertronian could see what Harry meant by his previous comment about the size issues. It was barely tall enough for the earthling to stand in, let alone for someone like him… although as he scanned the construct, he picked up an odd type of energy. It was very similar to the one he picked from the human, but with a different wave frequency.
I will have to examine it further from inside, thought the mech.
He carefully put the human down, and mindful of what happened before, he made sure the other would be able to stay on his legs. Once he was confident that the human wouldn´t collapse, he transformed into his alt mode, earning an impressed whistle from the other. If he still had lips, he would have smirked. Activating another program, it took only moments before his holomatter avatar.
If the young wizard had been shockingly impressed by the flying vehicle did the mech turned into, it was nothing compared to when a human-like being shimmered into existence. It was clearly a man, a dark-skinned one with a militaristic haircut. He was muscular in build and a good head taller than the teen himself. He was dressed in a dark leather outfit that left little for the human´s imagination.
A blush crept on the human´s face as he caught himself staring at the other. He quickly looked away, fighting back weakness creeping into his legs. "So I think we should probably head inside, it will be more comfortable to talk-Huh?" The green eyes human blinked as he realized he was no longer standing, but instead carried in the other´s arms in a bridal style.
"…I can walk on my own," said the human finally, but still wrapping his arms around the other´s neck for stability.
"At the moment not, you´re too exhausted and I could tell you would collapse again," said Galvatron, his wine-coloured eyes carrying an amused spark.
Seeing that the wizard scowled. "Well, pardon, but this is the price for saving your ass. So don´t you dare to laugh at me."
The mech inclined his head "My apologies. Shall we?"
With a huff, the young raven nodded and leaned into his carrier. The mech walked to the tent and leaning down, he entered, then stopped when he realized the inside was way bigger than the outer shell showed. In fact, the inside looked like a…
"A storage dimension?" Galvatron inquired.
"Not quite," replied the human with a small smirk, before motioning towards the free bed. "Put me there, please."
His companion complied, before bringing himself a chair and taking a seat across the earthling. "Now, I believe we have some things to talk about, don´t you think?"
"We do… although I have no idea where should I start," admitted the wizard.
"How about explaining how were you able to fix me and what is the odd energy my sensors picked from you?" Galvatron suggested.
The teen hummed in thought, before nodding. "Okay, so the odd energy you picked from me? It is called magic and the first thing you need to know is that not all humans possess it, I think only one in thousand people actually has it. Those who have it are called witches if they are women, and wizards, if they are men like me. With magic, we´re able to do different things, based on our intent, like when I healed you. But to do that, we need a focus, like this," he pulled out his wand and showed it to his companion. "It is called a wand and each is specially made for each wizard or witch because there are no magical cores that read the same as another."
"May I?" After receiving a nod, the mech took the wand in his servos and scanned it. "I can feel a weak trace of similar magic as is coming from you. Is it because this is your focus?"
"Yes. Although my magic is currently drained, so I´m not sure what other things are your scanners telling you…"
"Outside of confirming the drain, I can tell this tent was not affected by your magic."
"You mean, it wasn´t charmed by my magic," corrected him the wizard. "That´s the correct way to describe if something is affected by magic, at least in a positive way. The other words are cursed, if the magic has a negative effect or intent, and transfigured if the magic is used to change an object or a being´s form… and consistency."
"I see. Are there any limits to how much magic can influence something?"
"That depends on the wizard´s strength, creativity and the amount of magic needed to accomplish the feat. Some things barely affect us, others might drain us beyond belief."
"Like when you healed me," constated Galvatron with a thoughtful look on his face. Then he remembered something and looked at his companion: "You said the technique from before didn´t agree with electronics. Does it mean that magic and technology react badly to each other?"
The wizard grimaced at this. "That… is hard to explain. You see, according to what others told me, magic is supposed to fire the electronics. I honestly don´t know why, as I have no personal experience with it. But there might be some doubt to that, considering our people have no trouble using things like radio and one even charmed his car. So I don´t know exactly what is the story behind this warning about magic and technology."
"So you had no idea if it is true, yet you still warned me that this magic of yours could kill me."
"Hey! It was literally a shot into the dark! I had no way of knowing what would happen, you deserved a fair warning about this possibility!" Harry protested. "Besides I still don´t know if that spell fixed you without any ill effect because you are a living machine, or if it was because the ill effect on technology is bullshit."
The mech took it into consideration. "You might be right about this… And what happened right after that spell of your hit me…"
"You mean the odd desert and the big snake?"
Galvatron nodded.
"Yeah, honestly, I have no idea what was that supposed to mean… although I know what, or rather, who the snake was," the last part Harry muttered underneath his breath, but his companion caught it.
"Care to elaborate?"
Realizing that he was caught, the raven-haired teen gave a sheepish look, then his gaze fell down to his lap. "There is a wizard, a powerful one, who used to terrorize the country because of a set of disgusting beliefs. He killed my parents before he lost his power as he tried to kill me. A few years ago he became active again. And I share… or at least I had shared some form of a connection."
"What sort of connection?" inquired the Cybertronian, not liking the sound of things.
"I honestly don´t know. But I sometimes got glimpses of what the wizard was doing, his memories, emotion and…" Harry trailed off, unsure if he wanted to voice that particular part.
"Harry?"
The wizard looked at him, before taking a deep breath and spilling: "He could cause me pain by his presence and one time he even took over my mind."
"What?"
The question came out as a growl and looking at the other´s expression, the wizard could clearly see he didn´t like the sound of things.
"I… Sorry, I mean I had the connection, but you probably destroyed it with the white snake. I mean I can´t feel it anymore…"
"That doesn´t matter," the mech interrupted him, "What matters to me is that there is somebody out there capable of torturing or otherwise harming you from distance. Somebody that tried to kill you before and now probably would try again, correct?"
The wizard nodded.
"Why are you out here then? Alone at that. Shouldn´t you go hide somewhere safe?"
"I can´t, the last place was compromised and the man´s followers took over the government, so technically nowhere is safe."
"That doesn´t explain why are you alone. Shouldn´t your allies or at least friends be here with you?" The mech pressed on.
At the mentioning of his friends, Harry couldn´t help but wince and look back down. He mumbled something under his breath, too quiet for the mech to hear.
"What was that?"
"We had a fight, okay?!" snapped Harry, before wincing at his own tone and looking down. "I mean… we had a bad confrontation with the man´s followers… we were all exhausted and things… escalated. We shouted at each other and it all ended up with them… with them… well…"
"With them abandoning you," Galvatron finished instead of him.
Harry just nodded with a sigh, running a hand through his hair.
The Cybertronian was silent. In his mind, he went over the situation the human was in. He thought about what he learned, either from his own observations and from what his companion told him. He didn´t need to be a genius to know that things were pretty bad for the young human. The whole situation was a mess and it clearly took its price on Harry, the boy looked tired. Even more so, after healing him, the mech reminded himself. So technically the Cybertronian was now responsible for the boy. There was also the fact that he literally owned his life to the teen and he wasn´t the type to back away from a life debt. Let abandon the teen in a situation like this.
"Tell me more about this wizard and his followers."
"What?" Harry asked, taken aback by the sudden request.
"Tell me more about your enemy. I might be able to help," Galvatron stated.
The wizard gave him a confused look. "But… why? This conflict has nothing to do with you…"
"It has now since you saved my life. I owe you this."
"No, you don´t. I didn´t save you to claim such a debt. I mean it was the right thing to do…"
"And I´ll help you for the same reason. No arguments," the mech finished in a no-nonsense tone.
Harry looked at him, before sighing again. "There is no way to convince you, huh?"
The other just shrugged. "Once I make up my mind, it is hard to argue with me."
"I can see that," the teen gave a weak chuckle. "Alright. The wizard´s name is Voldemort and he is…"
