Decided to move this to Odd Ends.
So this is what happens when the world of Harry Potter is taken over by zombies.
Rise of the Inferi
Chapter One:
What Statute of Secrecy?
Harry was standing in the dungeon of 12 Grimmauld Place staring at a disfigured corpse as it struggled against its manacles, surrounded by the most mismatched bunch of wizards, witches and muggles. Starting with Dudley – who for some reason had a shotgun that belonged to his father that his father had bought after those 'damn freaks' bent the one he possessed in his encounter with Hagrid, next to him was Piers Polkiss – Dudley's best mate who was hefting a machete, next was Remus Lupin – Harry's third year defence teach and so far the only one to survive the position with his life or mind, next was Tonks – apparently Sirius's cousin who refused to let anyone utter her first name, Sirius himself who technically was a criminal on the run but that didn't matter anymore with the collapse of the Ministry, then was Hermione – Harry's surviving best friend who was being comforted and comforting Ginny Weasley, the Twins – Fred and George Weasley – where next looking sullen. Mr and Ms Dan and Emma Granger – Hermione's parents – were next, looking disgustedly at the animated corpse, Kreature – the Black Family Elf, was apparently floating around the house, muttering obscenities. Harry thought back to the unusual circumstances that led to his arrival at this rather dark looking house.
o0o0o0o
Harry was strolling down a narrow lane behind some houses a few blocks over from Privet Drive after a few hours nap under a tree in a hidden away corner of a local park, thinking about the strange things he'd heard on the TV. None of them looked like Death Eater attacks and they seemed to be happening worldwide – surely Voldemort hadn't spread that far in such a short time? Harry didn't know what it was but settled on it not being related to Voldemort and instead being some freak occurrence.
As he neared the end of the lane he ran into three people – one was his cousin Dudley, another was Piers Polkiss who for some reason was carrying a bloodied machete, inbetween them was a rather brutalised figure that Harry couldn't recognise through all the blood.
"Shit!" said the bulking figure of Dudley who surprisingly way jumped back nimbly as Harry drew his wand.
"What the Hell happened to you?" said Harry cautiously as he narrowed his eyes, pointing his wand in Piers and Dudley's direction.
"Keep that thing out of my face, Harry," he replied. "We've got bigger problems; keep an eye out for them, we've got to get to the house."
"Yea," said Piers for the first time, waving his bloodied machete around. "Fucking zombies everywhere, they really fucked Malcolm up."
"Zombies?" asked Harry as he raised a solitary eyebrow.
"Come on Harry!" exclaimed Dudley. "You have all that weird shit happen to you and – and magic! You're not going to argue with me that it's impossible are you? We need to get to the house and barricade ourselves in!"
"You realise how much trouble I'll get in if you keep spouting that off?" said Harry urgently. "Something called the Statute of Secrecy? Ring a bell, Dudley?"
"Like that's going to matter, Harry. The government is gone, people are dying, Hell – Malcolm probably won't make it and that's before you think about zombie rules."
"Zombie rules?"
"Like what sort of zombies were dealing with," answer Piers. "Pretty sure these are the 'you get bitten and you become one' zombies but we're not sure, if Malcolm turns we'll know."
"Ugh, fine," said Harry and he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm pinning any breaches of the Statute on you, you know that, Dudley?"
"Don't think there will be anyone around to pin it on me, Harry."
"Whatever, let's get home, I can't believe I'm going along with this."
o0o0o0o
To Harry's surprise it only took one block to find the proof he needed, finding Mongolia Crescent filled with pale, rotten and disfigured 'zombies' who were wandering around aimlessly.
"Uh huh," said Harry and he drew to a halt.
"Told you," replied Dudley simply.
"We gotta go around them quietly; Malcolm ended up like this because he thought he could take on a few with his machete. Your street is just at the end of this one."
"Is he even still alive?" asked Harry.
"I dunno, he neck was so messed up I couldn't find a pulse."
"You know there's a pulse on your wrist, right Dud?" said Harry with a roll of his eyes.
"Oh yea," he responded before fumbling with Malcolm's wrist. "Not sure I'm doing it right, I can't feel anything."
"Ugh, let's work it out when he get to the house. We need to keep moving and stay quiet."
The group made their way down the street; cutting across perfectly manicured lawns which were green despite the heat and water restrictions and occasionally ducking behind cars and hedgerows to avoid the shuffling undead. As they neared the end of the street and Privet drive the street and houselights suddenly cut out.
"Well, maybe it is a bit bigger than we thought," muttered Harry.
"Big?" asked Piers with no more than a whisper. "Of course it's big! There's been strange reports all week; strange sightings, strange deaths."
"Uh, guys," said Dudley. "More zombies just poured into the street; I think the lights were attracting them."
Their observation of the street was interrupted by a throaty gurgling noise behind them. Turning they saw a pale woman, missing an arm at the shoulder and covered in cuts climb out of the large dining room window of the house behind them.
"Shit," mutter piers as he dropped the mass that was Malcolm unceremoniously to the ground as the 'zombie' started moving at a decent pace towards them.
Piers lifted the machete and swung hard, twisting his body and striking the woman in the neck; partially decapitating her before she fell back onto the ground, as her mouth and pale, opaque eyes still animated.
"Brutal," said Dudley with some awe. "It's like we're in one of those horror flicks."
"Seriously?" asked Harry with a small amount of disgust.
"Hey, I get to fuck zombies up, I might as well enjoy it," he shot back.
Shaking his head, Harry grabbed Malcolm's free arm and hefted it over his shoulder, motioning to move down the street.
o0o0o0o
Their first sight of No. 4 Privet Drive didn't give the three a positive outlook. A number of the windows were smashed and blood could be seen on the jagged edges of the glass as the sunlight began to fade.
Their entry through the smashed front door made it worse. Though no sign of any bodies it was clar no one survived from the large amount of blood and small piece of flesh on every surface in both the kitchen and lounge room.
"What are we going to do?" asked Piers to his former Gang's leader as he dropped what Harry was now sure was a corpse near the umbrella stand.
Dudley was very pale and looked like he was going into shock. He may have been seen as dumb but he knew a lost cause when he saw one. Unless someone else was in his house when it was attack, his parents were most likely dead. Seeing Dudley's nonresponse, Harry gave a suggestion.
"Get every bit of food and water we can upstairs, and then smash the stairs, keeping our undead friends downstairs. I'll then get us a message out; I have some friends who can help us."
"How do you intend to do that?" asked Piers. "The powers out and so are probably the phone lines."
"Don't you worry about it," replied Harry.
Dudley, seemingly having snapped out of his shock, made his way upstairs, and not towards the kitchen to gather food. Slightly worried, Harry followed after reordering Piers to start grabbing the essentials and moving them upstairs.
Entering his Aunt and Uncles bedroom, Harry found Dudley fishing something out from under his parent's bed – what appeared to be a shotgun.
"Uhh, Dudley?" he asked.
"After that incident with that giant man, dad went and bought this, and taught me to use it in case and more of your freaks turned up and threatened us. I doubt this is what he meant but I'm sure he'd have no problem with what I'm doing," he replied, carefully loading in some bright red shotgun shells into the underside of the gun.
"Right, well, be careful, and make it quick, the quicker everything's upstairs the safer we'll be," he said to which Dudley nodded.
Harry made his way downstairs to the kitchen, wand in hand before seeing a slightly confused Piers trying to figure out how he'll be carrying all of his looted food upstairs.
"Ugh," said Harry, pinching the bridge of his nose not for the first time that night. "Garbage bags; second draw on the right of the fridge, Piers. Fill them up and use them to carry everything upstairs."
He nodded and did exactly that to which Harry followed before making their way into the entrance hall with their bagged food.
"Aww, sweet, Big D, where did you get that?" asked Piers with awe, directed at the shotgun.
"It's my dad's; a semi, only a five rounder through, better than nothing I suppose. Only got two boxes of shells, so I gotta use it sparingly," he said with a slight frown.
"Defiantly sparingly, and as a last resort, the sound might attract their attention," added Harry to which Dudley nodded in a surprisingly thoughtful manner.
They spent the next few minutes up and down the stairs grabbing anything they thought they would need for an extended stay. Piers had the bright idea plugging up the bath then filling it with water so they wouldn't die of thirst. Dudley, armed with his shotgun, went out the back of the house and raided the shed for some melee weapons; though Harry had doubts on the effectiveness of a hedge shears on a zombie and vetoed the use of the chainsaw (why did Uncle Vernon have one anyway? He didn't have any trees to cut down), the sledgehammer might make a half decent weapon though.
"So, how we going to smash the stairs?" asked Piers. "Using the hammer would be a pain, but I guess we'll have too."
"Well, I think this is a life or death situation, I can probably get away with it," said Harry with a slight smile as he drew his wand. "Reducto!"
A small portion of the stairs exploded as Dudley jumped back and Piers yelped.
"What the bloody Hell was that?" exclaimed Piers.
"You want to explain to your friend, Bid D?" asked Harry with a slight amount of mock.
"Not really, how do you think I would anyway?" he replied nervously.
"Well, let me finish this up," said Harry with a roll of his eyes before blasting the stairs into bits with a few more Reducto's.
o0o0o0o
"That's ridiculous," said Piers as they sat in Harry's room. Harry then got started on his letter for help.
To anyone who can help,
Aunt and Uncle presumed dead and seem to have been killed by inferi zombie things. Cousin, his friend and I are holed up in our house on the top floor. We've barricaded the entrances and smashed the stairs. No underage magic warnings so far.
Harry
Happy with the letter he rolled it up and tied it to Hedwig's foot.
"Stay safe girl, take it to someone who can help and is closest."
"Weird," muttered Piers as the owl disappeared into the night.
"Has Malcolm turned yet?" asked Harry morbidly.
"Not last time I checked," replied Dudley.
"Might want too again, we need to know, got to understand what we're fighting. I'll dig through my DADA textbooks," he said noticing the mystified look on Dudley and Piers faces. "Defence Against the Dark Arts; they sort've look like inferi, dead corpses animated by a dark wizard. But they don't turn people into more of them."
Dudley left the room, shotgun in hand to check.
"We were right!" he called out. "He's moving again – oh, look, he's getting up, he's defiantly one of them."
"Don't shoot him, Dudley," replied Harry as he walked out the door towards the top of the stairs where Dudley was.
"I know," he replied. "I'm not stupid, don't have much ammo. There are probably better ways to kill a single zombie."
"That's not what I meant actually. I need to find out which spells I can use on them," said Harry, noticing that Dudley still flinches at the mention of magic.
"Oh," he simply replied.
"It's going to be a problem, for obvious reason they don't teach lethal spells to us in school, just non-lethal. I'm not sure they will work, pretty sure inferi need to be destroyed pretty thoroughly to die" he said with a slight frown, curiously watching Dudley's former friends shuffle around, trying to climb up the pulverised stairs.
"I'm still convinced they're zombies," said the voice of Piers, behind them. "And I won't say no to seeing some more magic."
"Right… let's see…" said Harry as he thought of what spells he could use. "I think I'll start with the stunning spell, could try the Reductor Curse, Cutting Curse, Body Bind… Hmm… I could try the Killing Curse…"
"Killing Curse?" asked Dudley nervously.
"Yea, an unforgivable, use on another human being is an instant life sentence in prison. Not sure if inferi count as people."
"Try it anyway," said Piers with the same amount of awe he gave Dudley's shotgun and the whole Zombie Apocalypse.
"I'll think about it," responded Harry. "Oh – I remember now, fire! That's what you're supposed to use on inferi! I might burn down the house though."
"Zombies are way cooler," snuck in Piers.
"Right, whatever," he replied. "Here is goes I guess; Stupefy!"
The jet of red light did nothing to shuffling Malcolm.
"What was that supposed to do?" asked Dudley.
"Knock you out, a stunner," replied Harry. "Uhh, let's see. Diffindo!"
A bloodless gash appeared across Malcolm's face and down one arm.
"I guess if I cast it really powerfully I might be able to cut off arms of maybe even his head."
"Maybe," mutter Piers.
"Petrificus Totalus!" said Harry to no effect. "I guess it only works on living things."
"What was it supposed to do?"
"It pretty much freezes you in place," he replied. "Another, let's see… Reducto!"
The blue jet of light struck Malcolm in the shoulder causing bits of flesh and bone to fly everywhere and knock him over. As he got up again and try to climb up the remains of the stairs the three of them saw that the arm attached to the damaged shoulder now hung loosely.
"I think you found your weapon," said Piers with his usual violence and death induced awe. "Try the killing one now."
Scowling, Harry decided to give it a go.
"Avada Kedavra!" he said with a flash of green light.
As the green ghost image on his eyes faded he could see Malcolm still shuffling around.
"Guess not; I won't bother with the other unforgivables. If the Killing Curse doesn't work then I doubt the Torture Curse and the Imperious Curse work."
"Torture Curse? Cool…"
"No, Piers, I can assure you it is not," said Harry pinching the bridge of his nose again. "It hurts like Hell and leaves you with shakes and twitches for hours."
Before Piers could ask how he would know, Harry jumped to the sound of multiple cracks.
"That was apparation," said Harry to Dudley and Piers, waving off any questions as to what apparition was. "Get to the window and keep a lookout, don't shoot anyone though."
Harry, followed by Piers who was carrying his Machete again – not that it would be of any use at a range, and Dudley with his shotgun moved surprisingly cautiously towards the window and peered out. None of them could make out anything besides shuffling zombies/inferi.
"How many cracks did you hear?" asked Harry with a whisper.
"Three, maybe four," replied Dudley.
"Yea, about the same," confirmed Piers. "So what were they? Apperaty whats-it?"
"Apparition; it's like wizarding teleportation."
"So there are three, maybe four wizards out there? They your friends?" asked Piers.
"Yes, don't know if their friends though."
The peace and quiet was broken by the sound of spell casting, cracks and flashes of blue and purple light. In the dark they could make out the sight of limbs and organs flying through the air and landing with a thump.
"What number is it, Tonks?" said a male voice in the night.
"No. 4, it's just up here," replied a feminine voice.
"Good, I want to get back to Headquarters quickly."
"Don't we all, Padfoot," said another male voice.
"I'm pretty sure I know some of these people, but they might be imposters. Don't shoot them Dudley unless I say so," to which Dudley nodded.
Slowly the three figures made their way towards the house, wands out, covering 360 degrees.
"Mundungus was supposed to be on watch," said the figure Harry was sure was Sirius, before he called out 'Reducto!' and reduced the head of the nearest zombie/inferi to bits.
The two wizards and single witch continued their way towards the house, finally setting foot in the driveway.
"We better not be too late."
"Don't worry, Padfoot –"
Harry chose this moment to cut off who he thought was Lupin.
"Hold it!" he said loudly and clearly. "Don't move!"
"That you Harry?" asked the one who sounded like Sirius.
"Depends," replied Harry. "Who taught me the Patronus Charm and what form does it take?"
"I, Remus Lupin, taught you it, and it takes the form of a Stag, the same as your fathers Animagus form," said the closest figure.
Harry relaxed at the answer given.
"Watch out, there's one in the entrance hall."
"You left it there, Pup?" asked Sirius.
"It can't get upstairs and I was using it to test which curses were effective against them."
As Sirius stood their thoughtfully, Harry, Dudley and Piers made their way back to the top of the demolished stairs to find Lupin hitting Malcolm with some sort of blasting curse, putting him down for good.
"Ah, I see what you did," said Lupin, noticing the stairs. "Your handiwork, Harry?"
"Yea," he replied. "I take it you got my letter?"
"Letter?"
"No we didn't, Pup," said Sirius as he came through the front door. "When did you send it?"
"About 45 minutes ago or so…"
"Never got it. We came to pick you up when we lost contact with a few Order members and Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore?" exclaimed Harry.
"Yea, lost contact with him. Either he's a long way away, like on another continent or he's dead, only way he wouldn't be able to respond, or if he's lost his wand," stated Lupin sadly.
"Damn," said Harry. "Any idea what's going on?"
"Yea, it's a long story. Here is not the place, we need to get moving," said Lupin. "Who are your friends?"
"Oh yea," said Harry. "Uhh – my cousin Dudley and his friend Piers Polkiss."
Dudley and Piers simply gave Sirius and Lupin a nod, before Lupin gave his own introductions.
"Well, I'm Remus Lupin, that –" he said, giving a wave of his hand in Sirius's direction, "is Sirius Black, and outside is Nymphadora Tonks."
"Oi, I heard that!" came a sound from outside before a person with purple hair appeared at the door. "It's just Tonks, nobody calls me Nymphadora unless you're my mother, I'll curse you if you do."
"So, is it Dudley Dursley?" asked Remus to which Dudley nodded. "Are your parents up there?"
"No, haven't seen them since this morning," said Dudley sadly.
"We'll, they might be around, holed up somewhere," said Lupin as optimistically as possible.
"No, I'm pretty sure they're gone. There was a lot of blood in here when we arrived," frowned Dudley. "You taking us with you?"
"It wasn't that plan, we expected your parents to resist any attempts to protect them. I guess if they're gone that won't be an issue," to which Dudley and Piers nodded, having seen what an underage wizard was capable of.
"Alright then, if you're coming with us then grab your stuff. You got any food? We only have a few days' worth at headquarters and will need to resupply in the next few days," said Tonks.
"We've got some, but it's not much, maybe a weeks' worth for just us," answered Harry.
"Better than nothing, grab it quickly and anything else you need, we need to fight out way out to the edge of the wards then we'll side along apparate you to HQ," said Tonks.
Nodding the three teens went back to the bedrooms and started dumping any clothes they could find into bags, followed by their food stash. Outside they could hear the occasional spell cast, dealing with any zombies/inferi that were attracted to the noise they had made.
"Just a second, I can put lightening charms on them," which Harry did before applying the same to his school trunk, still packed from school.
"Got everything? Chuck it down, I'll catch, then climb down," said Sirius.
Piers went down first so Dudley could hand his shotgun to him, then Dudley went down, followed by Harry.
"Everyone ready? Wands out… uh – guns and large knives too," added Remus at the sight of Dudley cocking the semi-auto for dramatic effect.
"You just enjoy that, don't you, Bid D?" said Piers as Dudley picked up the shell he had ejected and loaded it back into the shotgun.
"Yea," he said with a smile. "Let's roll."
Stepping into the cool night air the six made their way back up the street to the point where Sirius, Lupin and Tonks and apperated in.
"Mum?"
Everyone turned to Dudley, seeing him with his shotgun raised at a figure in the shadows. To the sound an attention the figure stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the half-moon where everyone could see her; Petunia Dursley, sister of Lily Potter, bloodied and torn to shreds by her zombie attacker.
"Dudley," said Tonks cautiously. "We need to go, now."
Shaking slightly, Dudley squeeze the trigger and put down what was once his mother, ears ringing and in slight shock at what he had done.
"It's what she would have wanted, she would never have wanted to be like that," he said shakily.
Nodding once, Tonks took his hand and apperated out with a small crack.
o0o0o0o
The six reappeared in a small park across from some grimy houses somewhere in London, quickly having a small piece of parchment thrust in front of them by Lupin.
The Headquarters of the Order of Phoenix can be found at 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Normally we'd burn that after reading but that's our only copy and the secret keeper is missing, presumed dead," he said.
"Fidelus Charm?" asked Harry
"Yes, we'll discuss more inside," he replied. "Come on, stay sharp."
They followed Lupin, Sirius and Tonks across the street, wands, shotgun and machete out – though Piers felt slightly useless next to the wand users and shotgun wielding Dudley, stopping in front of where No. 12 should have been.
"Think about the note," said Tonks. As they did so, a building suddenly appeared where they were sure was not one a few seconds ago, let alone a space for one.
Sirius went up and opened the door as Lupin pushed them inside and Tonks covered the six o'clock position. Entering the gloomiest house he had ever been in, Harry looked around. The house made him think it belonged to the darkest of dark wizards.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, which we repurposed as the Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, or what's left of it anyway," replied Sirius sadly.
"Left of it?" asked Piers.
"Yes, left of it," answered Tonks. "Two thirds of our numbers are missing, presumed dead, including our leader and second-in-command."
"What was this Order supposed to do?" asked Harry.
"Fight Voldemort," replied Lupin. "Formed during the first war by Dumbledore, we were reactivated last month when you saw him return as Fudge wasn't going to do anything while Lucius was filling his bowler hat with gold."
"Doesn't matter now, these strange inferi have wiped everyone out," said Sirius.
"It's now a game of survival," continued Tonks.
"What are we going to do?" asked Dudley.
"That, is one of the thing we will discuss, everyone whose left of the order that we know of and a few more are here downstairs," said Lupin, whop ushered everyone except Sirius and Harry downstairs.
"Harry," said Sirius, to which Harry instantly knew what was about to be said; someone, a good friend, was dead. "Ron and Molly didn't make it, Arthur is missing."
Harry swallowed hard and nodded suddenly feeling very cold, he would grieve later, out of eyeshot once the task at hand was over. He had done it only a month prior, he could do it now and now he could follow Sirius down into the dungeon bellow the building.
o0o0o0o
Harry was engulfed by a hug from a red eyed crying Hermione which he returned. Over her shoulder he nodded to Ginny, Fred and George who were looking very sullen.
After introductions, Harry took a place next to Sirius against the wall as Lupin placed a very old and faded book entitled 'Secretis Necromantiae' on the pedestal positioned next to the manacled inferi.
"Well, I guess we can begin," said Lupin. "I've been trying to figure out the origin of these inferi –"
"Zombies," muttered Piers.
"Yes; zombies, inferi – whatever they are," he continued. "I've managed to get a hold of this book on necromancy from the black library, trying to confirm that these things are magical in origin. From my test I can positively identify that these things are magical and their base construct is that of inferi."
"So not zombies then?" said Piers, causing Lupin to pinch the bridge of his nose, the first of many.
"If you let me finish," he continued. "Their base magic is that of inferi, but there clearly is something else. Normal inferi are simply corpses being used as puppets by a necromancer, these however 'infect' living people, like a disease, like zombies found in a classic muggle zombie film."
"Who created them?" asked Hermione's father; Dan Granger.
"No idea," state Lupin simply. "If I had one of the original inferi-zombies I might be able to get a wand signature to match it too but that would require the wand signature of the caster on record."
"We'd be better off working out who has the motive and ability to do this rather than trying to trace a single wand," suggested Tonks.
"Are you suggesting someone?" asked Lupin.
"Voldemort?"
"Has the ability, but I can't see him doing this. Killing purebloods and wiping out the Ministry kills off his support base. If it was just muggles I'd agree it's most likely Voldemort, but it's not," stated Sirius.
"How are normal inferi made?" asked Hermione, speaking up for the first time that night.
Lupin sighed and flipped through the book on Necromancy.
"It's simply a spell cast on a fresh or preserved corpse which would be under the control of the maker, similar to how someone controls another under the Imperius Curse. This book suggests soaking the corpse in a special potion to preserve the bodies before enchanting and to improve resilience afterwards, though it's not necessary"
"Radically different to what we have here, any idea how it was done?" asked Tonks
"A guess, thought I lack the ability to investigate it properly," he responded before sighing. "I'd say they modified the original spell; making it so it mutates the corpse, making its bodily fluid highly poisonous, followed by cursing the body with the same spells. So you get bitten, it poisons you, you die, then the curse reanimates you and the cycle begins anew."
A few sarcastic mutterings from the Twins, Ginny, Sirius, and Piers of 'wonderful' broke the silence.
"We ruled out Voldemort because he wouldn't want to wipe out everyone," said Ginny. "What if it wasn't his intention for them to go after everyone? What if he lost control of them?"
No one said a word.