The Deepest Depths
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters, it all belong to J.K. Rowling.
The Deepest Depths - Chapter 3: The Huntress
Beta by Sekhmet49
05/08/2012
The big day had finally arrived. He had packed the night before; his trunk, fully loaded, had then been shrunken, before being placed in his new backpack. He checked several times to make sure he had all that was needed. Now, it was time for him to say his good-byes.
Heading down the stairs, wondering what his friends would say if they saw him now, heading off on this adventure. Hermione would surely be jealous at the idea that he would be travelling and learning exotic magic, Ron would be envious of him getting more gold and loot. That was one of the worst points about being Ron's friend; he suffered from the green-eye monster of jealously. Sometimes, he just wanted to scream at him; Ron always seemed to forget that his fame came at price of his family, but for all Ron's faults, the guy was still his best friend.
Striding into kitchen, he saw his relatives sitting around the table enjoying their breakfast. Coughing lightly to attract their attention, he stated, "I'll be leaving in a couple of minutes, if everything goes as planned I won't be back until the last week of summer, so I hope you have a nice summer break."
"Good, hopefully you'll impress them, so they will recruit you for next summer!" Vernon said with some glee, his fat features forming into a smile.
Taking that as his cue to leave, he went to retrieve his backpack he had left beside the door, deciding to pick some food on the way to the bank, since it was a better option than eating with the Dursleys
Unlocking the front door to leave, he suddenly heard a 'pop' from behind him, triggering him to spin around and his wand shooting into his grip, only to see that it was just Dobby.
Replacing his wand back into his holster, "Hi Dobby, what can I do for you?" he greeted, smiling at the odd elf.
"Please Harry Potter sir, please take Dobby with you," the bouncing elf begged.
"Take you with me? I thought you wouldn't be interested in leaving Hogwarts," he questioned, trying to think over what he knew of house elves.
"Yes, Harry Potter sir, Dobby will be your personal elf," he exclaimed excitedly.
Seeing no harm in it, since Dobby liked to clean and cook, and he'd rather avoid such tasks, and the elf could be helpful in future, he agreed, "Sure what do I need to do?"
"Nothing sir, the process has already started!" the elf stated before popping away.
Opening the front door to finally leave for the summer, he looked back over his shoulder one final time to see that Dobby had already started cleaning the place. He just hoped the elf would not been seen by his relatives, nor would Dobby attract the attention of the ministry this time. It occur to him that Dobby could be very useful on the trip as well, it would save him from having to do any cooking or cleaning, which was a good thing in end.
He headed down the road a bit before summoning the Knight bus, which appeared a couple of minutes later, before he bought a one way ticket to Diagon Alley. Eventually, he arrived at the Alley; only after being thrown around the bus... they really needed to add seat belts!
Stepping into the bar, he looked at the grandfather clock in the corridor and saw that he had plenty of time before meeting Richard at Gringotts bank. Deciding to get something to eat, since he had plenty of time, he strolled over to the bar to order something, there recognizing Tom's familiar face.
He ate his meal rather quickly, since he fancied a bit of shopping to see if there was anything of interest. Since in all his other trips to the Alley he had always been with others, or to perform a specific task, he had never been able to just roam the place. It was nice to be able to look around the place, looking in odd shops for bits and pieces of interest. Especially since Molly was usually constantly looking over his shoulder. So he could never just browse the wares; the witch had the bad habit of always interrupting him, or pulling him away from an interesting book.
However, he did attract some looks, since he was in long shorts, hiking boots and a t-shirt, so hardly following the wizard unspoken dress code of always wearing robes on top of everything. Frankly, it was too hot to wear such things.
In one of the shops he perused, he ended up buying a plain silver ring, charmed to detect most potions and poisons, such as love potions, since he could see girls possibly spiking his food with it, like Molly joked about with Arthur, because of his fame. He, however, knew that he wouldn't have to worry much about most poisons, since he had been exposed to Basilisk venom; hence had built an immunity and resistance. Sure the ring cost a quite bit, but he deemed it worthwhile.
During this self appointed shopping trip, he stopped by one of the many book stores, imitated Hermione and bought a dozen books. More than half were on curses, jinks and hexes. But, he also picked up some on Magical beasts, Charms, Runes and Transfiguration, as he figured that he properly would have some time to kill. Plus, since he could use his magic this summer he might as well make the most of it! And all this was possible by the permit the headmaster had signed.
He also picked up one on the Magical government and laws, since it was becoming more and more apparent that he would need to know about it in the future.
However the shop didn't have any specialist books, and since he still had some time, he chose to check out some of the shops down one of the darker alley ways. Walking there, he asked a couple of local merchants if they knew any book stores. The owner of an exotic pet shop told him where to find such a place, though only after he helped to handle a venomous snake or two.
He was half tempted to buy a runespoon, but decided otherwise as for one, he didn't know how to care for it, and it would cause uproar if he brought it to Hogwarts. So he decided to leave buying a magical snake until after he finished Hogwarts.
Before long he reached a book store, called Rare Finds, Rare Secrets. Looking inside it was clearly the place that dealt with some of the more colourful tomes. After a while he found a couple of books of interest, one being on how to achieve the Animagus transformation, and the other one was on Parseltoungue.
He also picked up a couple of more Greyish books on combat curses and hexes, since it seemed stupid of him to limit himself to learning just the magics approved by the Ministry. Sure he wasn't buying anything on Dark Arts, but he did pick up an advance potion book, and a book on mind arts, which he thought sounded useful.
All four books cost him a fair bit of gold, but he deemed it a worthwhile investment. If they turned out to be useless he wouldn't shop there again. He deciding to head over to the bank, on the way he saw couple year mates, and had a quick chat, just to pass the time since he was still early.
Entering the bank, he walked over to one of the teller's desk and waited for the Goblin to acknowledge him.
"What do you want human?" The goblin asked.
"I'm part of Richards's party, he said I should ask a goblin for directions to the meeting room," he stated.
The goblin hit a table bell, only for another goblin to appear, and said "Please escort Mr Potter to Meeting room 7."
He was the first one to arrive, which he kind of expected as he was half an hour early. Making himself comfortable for the wait, he pulled out one of the books he just bought. It was entitled Secrets of a Parseltoungue Sorcerer – by I.P. Quickly scanning through the book, he find out it was part of a collection of 5 tomes, and that it was indeed very old.
He was so involved in the book that he didn't even realize someone had entered and was watching him read.
"What're you reading?" She questioned smoothly, but with a demanding presence, causing him to look up in surprise, only to see a rather attractive blonde sitting in front of him wearing similar gear to his own; but in a pair of short shorts compared to his knee length pair, showing off a rather nice pair of legs. Finally, he met her eyes, which he seemed to fail to describe. They were measuring him up almost as if judging if he was a future dinner. If he should use one word to describe the blond, predator would be the right one.
"A parseltoungue spell book," he answered seeing little point in lying since the lines were easy recognisable, especially since he would probably be living near the young women for the next couple of months so there was little point in hiding the fact.
"So the rumours are true, the great Harry Potter is indeed a Parseltoungue, I bet that was a surprise," she stated sarcastically.
"Since you know my name, how about you share yours?" He challenged, feeling rather bold.
"Cara."
"Then, nice to meet you, I think," he replied, bringing a smirk to her face.
"I'm guessing you're Richard's Apprentice then, but I have to admit you're a bit younger than I expected," once again, examining him, looking him over, like he was piece of meat.
"Maybe. So, what do you then?" he asked.
"I'm both a shield and a tracker," she stated proudly with a grin, which kind of reminded him of Sirius, just a bit more wolfish. Then it suddenly clicked, he did a quick scan of her, looking for any signs of silver. Seeing no silver, except for the choker centre piece made out of metallic silver, now it all made sense, she was a werewolf!
"You worked it out, haven't you?" She challenged.
"What do you mean?" he played dumb. After all, it wouldn't do to go around accusing someone of being a werewolf.
"I can hear you heart, don't tell me you're one of those who see werewolves as pest to be removed or enslaved!" She shot back.
"No, I happen to know someone who is a werewolf, and I had a close encounter with him after his Wolfsbane was tainted. I also have a friend who is a dog animagus, so I can spot the signs and the subtle differences. Plus your own aura, your whole persona, beneath that sexy, playful exterior, is screaming predator," he explained, wondering why he was feeling so bold and confident as of late.
"Well, that's nice surprise since it means I won't have to hide it, so is it my legs or my chest?" she quizzed in a predatory fashion.
He ignored the question and decided to move the chat onto safer grounds. "No comment. So, how did you get into this career?" He asked, trying not to blush at the previous statement.
"No comment, unless you answer my question," she smirked, enjoying teasing him.
"Out of the two options, legs, so now how did you become a shield and a tracker," he probed wondering how an attractive young woman got into this career path.
"You didn't answer the question." She shot back, not liking his answer.
"Yes I did, you said legs or chest, you never said, it could be something else" he explained, trying not to blush, "So are you going to answer the question, or do I have to assume that your word is not true?!" he shot back.
Her eyes narrowed for a second, before answering, "There're not many employers who are willing to hire a werewolf, I was fortunate to have a family friend, who happen to be a shield brother and in the employment of goblins, so they recruited me.
My Lycanthropy brings me big advantages in tracking and fighting, what most wizards and witches don't practice. It made me a natural for hunting prey through jungles, where other wizards would fail, and my senses are also helpful for keeping watch."
"Yeah, I'd imagine that Goblins are particular in that regards, as long as you do your job well, they don't care one way or another," he mused, wondering if Remus ever tried to get a job here.
"I see you two are getting along nicely," said Richard, entering the room, looking around, "We got a change of plans I fear we're going out ahead of the rest of the team, to get everything set up for them, unless you want to wait..." he trailed off.
"What caused the change of plans?" Cara asked.
"It appears the rumour mill has been working again, and somehow a rumour has spread of a werewolf team member, and that has caused some ruffled feathers, with a couple of people. Also someone started a rumour that this was a dry trip causing several people to drop out." He stated, "But Michael wants to push ahead anyway, I quote his words more gold for us."
"Don't worry he knows Richard, he pegged me in less than five minutes" Cara said gesturing to Harry. Richard looked at him again, like he was re-examining him, and asked, "What gave her away?"
"A friend of mine is a werewolf, and it was covered this year at Hogwarts, so the signs were easy to spot, her whole stance when you look beneath the surface screams predator, and there is no trace of silver on her, hence confirming it. And now that I think about it her fingerless gloves should also be a giveaway, otherwise holding silver coins would be painful," he explained.
"Well that's impressive, most people can't tell with Cara here," he stated. He then asked him seriously, "You have no problem with her being a werewolf? You will be living close to her for the next couple of months, and probably see her in her alternative form."
"No I don't, as long as Cara takes her Wolfsbane, and is responsible then I have no issue, as long as you don't judge me for reading about Parseltoungue spells here, because I'd rather not hide the fact or pretend otherwise," he said gesturing to his book.
"Good, besides Cara is very good in duelling and probably could teach you loads. I suggest you do any last minute checks, we'll be taking an international port-key over to Rhodes in the next couple of minutes," Richard informed, before leaving them to collect the port-key.
Therefore, Harry put his book away and checked over everything once again.
"Gather around, please, Harry hold onto the rope." Richard instructed, before putting on his own backpack like the rest, and took hold of rope and activated the portkey with the sentence
"Team7-Rhodes bank" causing it to activate.
Rhodes
The three were walking down the foreign streets, taking in the sights and sounds. Despite the different language, Harry could understand every word thanks to his charmed necklace.
So now, they were making their way down to the docks to find their ship and their home for the next couple of months.
It didn't take them long to find theirs. While the rest of the dock was filled with small fishing boats and merchant ships, theirs was the only yacht in port. It also had the Gringotts bank logo on its wooden hull, making it hard to miss. The logo also acted as a warning that any act of thievery or any attack would be a declaration of war against Gringotts bank.
"Wait here, I need to shut down the lockdown." Richard stated in a no-nonsense tone before putting a ring of his finger.
"Why the ring?" Harry asked.
"This is a goblin vessel, its wards are deadly, and it only allows those wearing rings like these to board her. Otherwise you would probably be dead before you set foot on it." Cara explained before putting her pack down on the peer, before continuing "What Ric is doing, is turning off the security feature so we can board, so he should take a couple of minutes to shutting off the security wards."
Sitting down, he decided to let Hedwig out, so carefully opening his bag, he pulled out Hedwig's cage, to see his owl was still asleep from the couple of sleeping treats he had bought from the pet shop. Bit like travel sickness pills really. It took a while for her to fully wake up; eventually she was her playful self.
"You brought your owl?" Cara questioned.
"Could hardly leave her behind could I? Besides I don't trust my relatives to care for her," he said, while gently stroking her feathers.
Cara came over and tried to stroke Hedwig however, the owl immediately hisses, before going in for a bite. "Fuck!" She exclaimed before sucking on the cut, "Nasty bird you got there."
"Hedwig has always been picky, it'll take time before she'll trust you," he said, defending his friend.
"Come on you two, enough chatting, we need to unpack, and prepare for the rest of the crew." Richard called, leaning over the ship's railings.
End of chapter
