Freak of Nature
I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money off of this work, period.
AN: Well, it's been too long since I last wrote mostly because I've been working 12 to 14 hour days 7 days a week for the last three weeks. Stress does not normally breed the fun and frivolity that it takes to write this story, so today was my first chance to catch up. Anyway, thank you for the reviews and taking time to write to me, and now back to the story. I stopped this chapter shorter than I wanted to, so another one will be forthcoming very soon. Best wishes to all of you and I'm looking forward to getting to Hogwarts just as much as you are.
[parsel]
/creepy crawly critters/
{Primal Beast Language}
Chapter 8: Out of Africa
England is a very popular foreign country to visit because the people there speak some English. ~ Dave Barry (The only Travel Guide you'll ever need)
The morning after "Mutwa's-Magic-School-Of-Hard-Knocks" started out early, not giving Harry a chance to really rest before Mutwa sent him on his run and swim down the river. Without a magical focus by which Harry could practice the skills and spells from the former Black, Harry was forced to focus on his wandless elemental and nature magic granted to him by the spirit of the witchdoctor. Thus began a week of integrating the skills that Harry had learned from the Zulu witchdoctor's spirit. His days were spent in learning the necessary biology of the hunt, the physiology of his body and his physical capabilities, and the science of the elements; again, painful subjects to learn.
Life on the veldt was hard, and the lessons learned usually where enforced by pain. This caused Harry to firmly implant several cause and effect lessons when using his elemental powers. Lessons like:
Don't try to electrocute the pursuing hippos while you are in the water with them; Harry's hair hadn't stopped standing on end for three hours after that one, and Mutwa seemed to enjoy Harry's electricity induced stuttering way too much. Or,
Rhinos and Erumpent don't like you lighting bushes or trees on fire and they are known to stampede in and stomp out the fire, along with any people in their way. Or,
Water spouts the size of tornado's are not the best way to get a drink of water when you are a bit thirsty, though they are a good way to cool down and create an elephant mud wrestling pit; watch out for displaced carnivorous fish. Or,
Earthquakes affect not only the earth around your target, but your own footing as well. Mutwa had been pissed when Harry knocked down his hut, forcing Harry to use his strength and elemental powers to rise up a much larger house and enclosure for Mutwa's future enjoyment. Or,
Wind + Fire = Boom! It also equals to a loss of body hair and the distinct smell of singed nostril hairs that doesn't really wash off all that well. Mutwa was again not happy when Harry had decided to add fuel to the campfire by using the wind as his aid to pick up logs, causing both men to enjoy the itching of their fast healing powers and re-growing hair. The older witchdoctor's response had been to keep Harry running the entire night, in one form or another, across the width of Africa.
This pattern of physical and natural magic exercise filled Harry's days whereas Mutwa filled Harry's nights with the oral legends and knowledge of the veldt and da GoGo. "Ghost stories" around the campfire took on a whole new meaning for Harry as Mutwa gave fast paced explanations on the intricacies of dealing with the spirits of the ancestors and how to walk the shadowed paths of the dead. His days were jam packed with knowledge and enforced skill learning as the older Witchdoctor drilled Harry through what accounted to a weeklong witchdoctor boot camp from hell.
The week seemed to drag on forever for Harry as he was forcefully taught the skills of the pack and the witchdoctor. As July 31st rolled around, totally unnoticed by Harry, and just when Harry thought he might take a weekend break with the baboons by the Marula tree, Mutwa and Harry's hunt was interrupted by a blast of fire and a startled squawk of a phoenix.
July 31st should have been a wonderful day for Albus Dumbledore, a day when his tool, um, he meant his ward returned to the Wizarding world and was sculpted towards the task dictated by fate and the greater good, aka Albus Dumbledore.
The day had started off so well for Albus. Wake up and put on a nice pair of fuzzy socks, have a good BM, eat a lemon drop or two, correspond with Minister Fudge on suggestions for new laws in support of Muggle-rights and the importation of muggle sweets into the wizarding world, enjoy a nice English fry-up with the staff in the Great Hall, and then return to his office to check on the devices monitoring Harry Potter; and that's when his day went to hell.
The beeping device didn't beep, the puffer didn't puff, the silver spinney thing didn't spin, and the life crystal was deader than a very dead thing. Albus Dumbledore's bushy eyebrows reached for the ceiling as his eyes widened in horror, and his lemon drop fell out of his wide open mouth. Quickly turning and running into his back office, Albus literally dived into the nice neat piles of auto-addressed letters to new Hogwarts invitees and their responses, frantically searching the piles for a response or addressed envelope to Harry Potter.
"Parkinson, Patil… No Damnit! Where is Potter?" Dumbledore cursed as he flailed the once neat envelopes around the room. "Ah-ha, Potter! Found it!" Dumbledore shouted with relief, turning to reenter his office; only to be stopped at the threshold when he looked down at the address on the letter.
Mr. Harry James Potter
"Somewhere In The Embrace of Gaia"
Planet Earth
Face ashen and completely flabbergasted by what he read, Albus was both relieved that the boy was still alive yet terrified that he could not track the boy. The self addressing book would have been able to find Harry if he was anywhere in Great Britain or Europe. Struck by a thought, Albus hurdled his desk, with surprising grace for somebody going on closer to 200 than 100 years old, threw the envelope over his shoulder and quickly floo'd to Arabella Figg's house.
As Dumbledore disappeared in a flash of green flames towards Privet Drive, the "addressed" envelope to Mr. Potter flew through the air and bopped Dumbledore's familiar Fawkes on the beak, causing said Phoenix to sneeze and also disappear in a flash of flames; headed off with an envelope to location unknown.
"Arabella! Arabella! Where are you!" Albus said as he stepped out of the floo and onto the tail of one of Ms. Figg's numerous catlike kneazles. Said kneazle screeched and took off across the floor, digging in with its claws to grab enough purchase to pull its tail out from under the full weight of Dumbledore, thus causing a chain reaction that would add to Albus Dumbledore's very bad day.
The tail flew out from under his feet. His feet flew up off the ground propelled by the pull of the ugly kneazle, launching Albus back against the mantle and then towards the floor. Albus's flailing attempts to keep his balance ended up hooking under the body of another kneazle in the room, launching said kneazle screeching into air and then landing with its full weight, legs akimbo and claws fully extended, on Albus Dumbledore's crotch, just as Dumbledore hit the floor.
"woooooOOOOOFFFFF!" The spiky heavy weight of the kneazle hit him in his man-bits and then latched on with its claws with all of its strength, causing Albus's wide eyes to cross and dispersed all of the breath from his lungs. The expulsion of breath launched Albus's upper torso and head shooting off the ground and up towards a sitting position. Albus's gasp for air launched his head up at an amazing speed, just in time for the porcelain container of floo powder that was recently perched on the mantle and dislodged by Albus's blow, to meet his forehead as the container descended towards the ground; knocking Albus back and sending his world spinning.
*PooooF!* The floo powder flew everywhere in a crystalline cloud of microscopic particles and glitter, painting Dumbledore's face white like a clown and forcing his head back under the mantle place and into the slightly burning fire.
Dazed, Dumbledore suddenly realized he was very warm. No, change that, he was really hot. Check that, he was on fire!
"Shit!" Dumbledore yelled as he tried to get out of the fire and into Ms. Figg's house, only to disappear in a flash of green flames.
Five minutes passed before Albus returned to Arabella Figg's house via the floo. Stepping out of the fire was a very different looking, and smelling, Albus Dumbledore. Apparently "shit" was the floo address for the warehouse and delivery spot for "Abe's Magical Manure and Fertilizers." Albus reentered Ms. Figg's house with a singed beard, white face, and covered in dragon feces, a magical fertilizer that apparently resisted scorgifying spells and smelled to high heaven. Albus stomped through Arabella's house and across the street to the Durselys' residence; leaving fleeing animals and children, stunned birds and insects, and brown muddy footprints in his wake.
Stomping across the street and through the overgrown yard and tangled bushes, Albus walked up to the door of the darkened house, assumed his grandfatherly look, knocked, and waited.
He waited, and then he waited some more. "Hmmmm, nobody is home." Albus thought to himself, as he moved off of the porch and in between overgrown and thoroughly dead rosebushes to look in the window of the house.
Peering through the front window of the house, the inside the house was dark as the back windows and doors had plywood nailed up over them and yellow ribbons of tape were stretched around the stairway to the upper floors. What was left of the furniture in the living room of the house was covered in sheets and a thick layer of dust and cobwebs was strewn about the room.
"Hmmm," Albus said to himself as he leaned back from the window and approached the front door again. "Perhaps they are on an extended vacation." He continued, readying his wand to open the front door of the house.
"Hey!" "Hey You, ya bum!" "Get out of here!" A voice issued from Dumbledore's left and from over the neighbor's hedge. There, armed with a rake was a neighbor in a bathrobe and slippers, slightly balding and of a blotchy complexion with bad teeth, "We don't like you freaky no-good types around here with us normal taxpaying people! Get out of here before I call the police on you!" The neighbor yelled at Dumbledore, shaking his rake to accentuate his statement.
"Hmmm, must be some sort of new muggle lingo," Dumbledore thought to himself. Putting on his grandfatherly and commanding air, as well as somebody covered in shit can do so, Dumbledore walked off the porch and towards the shrubbery that separated the property; causing the neighbor to slightly back up as the disturbing old man in the dress approached him. "Pardon me, can you tell me when the Dursley's are expected to get home from their vacation?" Dumbledore asked with a smile and a twinkle of his eyes; the twinkle would have been more effective if his spectacles hadn't been covered in feces.
Disgusted at the site before him, the neighbor responded, "I should have known that you were here for the Dursleys! That scum was carted away by the police when their nephew disappeared." The neighbor stated with a grimace, the contents of his tale startling Dumbledore.
"What? What do you mean carted away by the police? Where did the nephew disappear to?" Dumbledore said with some fervor.
"They claimed that they didn't have a nephew, that they never had a nephew and didn't know what the police were talking about. It was on the news old man; don't you pay attention to anything? What, are you living in medieval times or something; it was the story of the year!" The neighbor stated, "First they get arrested for their involvement at the zoo, then they are mysteriously returned to their house, yet they stopped talking about their delinquent of a nephew and the school can't find the boy. The school finally sent over the truant officer, who found a blood soaked pad in a barred cupboard under the stairs and called the police. None of the scum who used to live there ever admitted to having a nephew, even though the wife had constantly gossiped about the boy and we always saw him working in the yard, on the roof, or cleaning the car; well, we always saw him until they came back from the police the first time." Scoffing to himself, the neighbor continued, "They actually tried to tell the judge that they never had a nephew, even the young whale of a boy who used to terrorize the neighborhood lied and was shipped off to a delinquents home." The neighbor said with a shake of his head, suddenly realizing he was talking to a very stinky old man with a half burned beard who was giving him a scowl. "But that's all you need to know! So get out of here!" The neighbor said with a final shake of his rake and then turned and entered his house, punctuating the end of the conversation by slamming the door.
Albus was completely befuddled, doped, and stupefied over what to do as he stood in the Dursley's yard, stunned by the news. "I've lost the Boy-Who-Lived." He thought to himself, the only sound around him the buzzing of flies that circled him, yet kept a distance due to the dangerous nature of the fumes that issued from Albus's robes. "What am I to do?" Albus thought, stroking his mangled and besmeared beard. Then it came to him in an instant, "The envelope!" Albus shouted out loud, causing the neighbors up and down the street to stop peeking at the crazy man and further hide behind the blinds of their windows.
"Maybe Fawkes can use the envelope to bring me to Mr. Potter." Albus said to himself as he quickly ran back towards, and into, Ms. Figg's house. Albus ran towards the fireplace and reached for where the floo powder would have been. In his rush to return to the office and find the letter with Harry's address, he found himself acting on autopilot and stepped into the burning fire.
"Shit!" Dumbledore said as he was once again lit on fire, only to disappear in a green flash of flames as the floo powder on his face ignited.
Cat's have a natural urge to hunt and kill birds. Small cat's hunt small birds, and large cats hunt large birds. So it was that when Fawkes appeared in front of Harry while Harry was in his Nundu form and deeply focused on hunting, that Harry's urge immediately switched from chasing impala to going after the brightly colored bird in front of him. Human children have the instinct to grab shiny objects, and when that instinct was coupled with the large cat's urge to hunt birds, then the phoenix just became the ultimate chew-toy for Nundu-Harry to pounce on.
"ROOOOAAAAAWWWWRRRR!" Harry released as he sprang into the air at the newly appeared Fawkes.
Fawkes's reply was an inelegant "SQUAAAAAWKK!" as he flashed away in a burst of flames and a fluttering of a few feathers that were molted in fear, just as Harry's claws were about to impact with his body.
Lashing out through the fire with his claws, Harry felt a claw snag something, yet no meaty snack was left behind after the burst of fire cleared.
Landing silently and perfectly, as only a graceful cat can do, Harry turned over his paw and saw an envelope was pierced through the middle by his scimitar sharp claw. Phasing back into his "human" form, Harry's hand grasped the envelope that was stuck on his finger, and turned to where he knew Mutwa was hidden in the grass.
"Mutwa, you expecting any mail?" Harry asked as the Witchdoctor walked out of the tall grass in his human form.
"No boy, dat is for ya to open. GoGo told me to expect it. Read da name." Mutwa answered.
Turning the envelope over, Harry was surprised to see his name on it. Never in his memory could he remember getting a letter from anybody. Quickly transforming one fingernail into a razor sharp claw, he slit the top of the envelope and pulled out the letter:
Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and Equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31st.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
"Well crap." Harry said, "It's due today if I'm supposed to go. You sure I'm supposed to go to this place?" Harry said as he looked up and focused on Mutwa.
"Yes cub, dis is yer goal, dis is yer destiny. Da GoGo told me I would have ta train ya fast, and now ya have to go." Mutwa replied.
"Alright, I'll do it." Harry said as he pulled out the list of required items. "But how am I to respond and where am I to get all of this stuff?" He said, showing the list to Mutwa.
"First we stop for some money, den I take ya to Cape Town. Da goblins can get yer letter ta Hogwarts today and den back to Britian where ya can get yer stuff." Mutwa stated as he started to lead Harry towards the Falls. "Come, follow me" He stated, before turning into his Nundu form and loping away.
Harry in turn embraced the Nundu spirit and turned into his larger form, the envelope and his loincloth going to that place where his clothes went whenever he turned into an animal form. He quickly loped after Mutwa.
The pair of Nundu's charged through the veldt on their way towards the river and the base of the falls; nothing dared to get in the way of the two real "kings of the jungle." Running so fast that the muggle tourists at the top of the falls couldn't see them, the two picked their way down the rocks at incredible speed until their images where lost from view in the mist at the base of the falls.
At the base of the falls, on a little path that led right up to the rocky cliff that the water tumbled over, Mutwa and Harry turned back into their human forms. Shouting over the roar of the water, Mutwa explained, "Dis is a secret boy, shared and passed down by the lost tribe to my father and his father's father. Dis is where we will get yer spending cash until ya can meet wit the goblins and see if ya own any money or properties." Mutwa shouted with a sharp toothed smile. Quickly slicing the palm of his hand with his nail, he waited until the blood pooled in his hand and then slammed his fist into a hole in the rocky cliff.
The earth began to rumble and shift, as a great cracking sound issued over the sound of the falling water. As if immerging on invisible hinges, the entire rocky face seemed to split in half, rock doors 12 feet wide by 20 feet high split and opened from behind the waterfall, totally invisible to those not right next to them due to the amount of water in the air.
Harry was shocked, even though he could see the magic on the hinges as they opened, the artists who had crafted the doors had carved them so that they seamlessly meshed with the walls of the cliff and also hid any of their magic from an outside viewer. There had been no way to tell that anything existed before Mutwa had unlocked the ancient magic that opened the doors.
"Come," Mutwa said as he walked into the darkness that was beyond the doors, disappearing into the mysterious darkness that Harry with his perfect night vision still couldn't see through.
Shaking off his stupor, Harry walked through the doors and into the darkness. After he took two steps into the darkness, it was as if a veil had been lifted or blinders had been taken off of his eyes. The room was simply aglow.
Sparkling, gleaming, glistening, shining, the room was alight by magic, but it was the walls and floors that took Harry's breath away. To Harry's right, the wall was a solid mass of darker platinum veins and brighter silvery streaks, some as wide as he was tall. The ceiling seemed to be one gigantic gold nugget as it's knobbed and polished form seemed to reflect the light down towards the walls, and it was the left wall that got the most of Harry's attention. A silvery and white material lined the wall, but it was what was sticking out of wall that really caught his attention. Gems, Thousands and Millions of Gems stuck out of the wall, some piercing the wall and jutting out like swords as their prismatic glory bounced and reflected the light off of the rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds that magically were all contained in the matter of one wall. The floor he was walking on was an ebony color that was veined with some dark red material, like the veins of a great black dragon. He was simply speechless for a second by the amount of wealth around him. Having come from such a poor lifestyle, he couldn't imagine what it was like to own all of this wealth. Licking his lips to wet his mouth so he could talk, he broke his eyes away from the walls and floor around him to look towards Mutwa and the expanse before him; the tunnel around him seemed to issue into a large cave before him which also sparkled and shown from some magical light.
"Where are we?" Harry said in wide eyed awe.
"Welcome to da mines of Solomon cub." Mutwa said with a smile as he waved his arm at the riches around him. "Ya have gems and mitril on the wall, platinum and silver, ya stand on ebony and adamantium in its natural state, and above us is gold. Dis is a dwarf's dream and a goblin's paradise." Mutwa explained with a gleam in his eye.
Stunned, Harry looked around, "Then why do you live in a mud hut if you have access to all of this?" Harry exclaimed with surprise.
"Ah, der is da lesson boy. Look at my eyes cub and learn dis lesson well as it will be da last for a long time." Mutwa said, capturing all of Harry's attention immediately.
"Dis wealth, dis is not my wealth, dis is not needed ta survive. I do what da GoGo set out for me ta do, and I don't need more den dat." Mutwa explained as he stared down at Harry ,"Dos that would pillage da GoGo, dat would rape da GoGo of all dat is good, of all dat they can gain are worthless, are not natural, are not of da balance." He explained, "Yes, we will use dis because ya have a need, but if ya didn't need then I would never have shown dis to ya. Ya will have a need ta use wealth when ya are with da humans in der "civilization," but don't become like dem, or it will destroy ya too." Mutwa explained, the message burning itself into Harry's mind.
Shaking himself as the message was drilled home; Harry nodded to Mutwa with a determined grin. "Ok, so then how much do I need until I can talk to the Goblins that you mentioned."
"Good." Mutwa said with a smile, " I knew I could trust ya ta learn cub," he said as he plucked a diamond the size of a small child's head from the wall. "Dis should be more dan enough to get ya started and get da goblins to take ya seriously." Mutwa continued, "Dis is why da lost tribe gave da secret to my ancestors, because we know da lesson. Dis is why I now pass on da message ta ya because I've taken ya as my cub."
This last statement struck Harry like a thunderbolt. Looking at Mutwa, Harry was stunned to hear that Mutwa was considering Harry as his replacement in the next generation. Mutwa gazed down at Harry with a hard look, that quickly changed to a short warm and proud smirk, to which Harry replied in kind.
"Thanks Mutwa, I really appreciate you teaching me, and trusting me." Harry said, getting as emotional as the emotionally stunted boy could ever do so.
"No problem cub, da GoGo sent ya to me to be da next in da line of protectors. I'll be around for a while longer, but just as is natural; it will one day be my time to join da ancestors." Mutwa said as he rested his hand on Harry's shoulder for a moment. A touching moment that lasted for a brief instance before the two witchdoctors turned and left the cave together.
Stepping through the dark veil and back into the moisture at the bottom of Victoria's Falls, the giant mine's doors slowly shut, not making even a whisper of sound this time as they closed and sealed shut again.
Turning to Harry, Mutwa shouted over the sound of the falls, "It's ya secret now cub, use it if ya need it, but only take what ya need, dat way da GoGo can use it when she needs in da future." Mutwa completed the explanation. "Now come." Mutwa said, reaching his hand out to Harry as Mutwa side along apparated them away to the wizarding part of Cape Town South Africa.
Meanwhile, back in the Headmaster's office of Hogwarts, Dumbledore was stumbling out of the fire place from his really really horrible, no good, very bad day from hell. Stinking, smeared with brown juices and chunks that colored his robe and beard, singed so that he was missing one eyebrow and a good portion of the left side of his beard and hair, Albus Dumbledore was not the perfect grandfatherly expectation of power that the wizarding world had come to know and trust.
As he stumbled out of the fireplace grumbling under his breath he took a breather for a second, realizing that he should have breathed through his mouth, Albus turned towards the perch of his familiar.
"Fawkes, where is that envelope for Harry Potter that I left in the office earlier today?" Dumbledore asked his familiar, totally oblivious to the fact that his familiar was decidedly molted of feathers and looking not so good. Perhaps if Albus's spectacles hadn't been covered in feces, he would have seen the death glare that Fawkes was giving him at that moment.
"Squaaawk!" Fawkes uttered at Albus in a disgusted tone after the thrown envelope had caused his current state.
"What, what do you mean you lost the envelope?" Albus stated with confusion.
"Squaawk, chirp chrip squaawk!" Fawkes stated, waving his wings up and down with irritation.
"You already took the letter to where Harry was? Why did you do that! This is completely unacceptable. Now I won't be able to find him in time to get him to Hogwarts, and its all your fault Fawkes!" Dumbledore said in a chiding tone, his frustration mistakenly placed on Fawkes's "shoulders" after Albus's very bad day.
This statement was what caused Fawkes to have a momentary lapse in his relationship with Albus Dumbledore. In Fawkes's brain he thought, "Not only does he force me to go deliver a letter, but then he does it right in front of a hunting Nundu! And then he has the nerve to blame me? Squaawk!" With a squawk of an infuriated phoenix, Fawkes leapt from his perch, dive-bombed the tray of Dumbledore's lemon drops off of the desk and into the fire. Continuing his swoop from over the desk, Fawkes rammed into Dumbledore, grabbed a hold of elderly wizard's beard, only to flash the two of them away in an instant.
Immediately appearing again in the office, Fawkes settled down on his perch and stuck his head under his wing for a nice afternoon rest. In the distance a shriek could be heard from the middle of the Hogwarts lake, only to be followed by the sound of a large splash soon thereafter.
At least the impromptu bath would help Dumbledore with the smell problem.
AN: Well there is another chapter. I've started writing the next one so we should see that out soon. I wanted to include the part where Harry goes back to the UK, but this felt like the proper stopping spot. Sorry again for the long time between chapters. Honestly, I was really too busy to write this chapter, but all of your reviews merited/guilted me into getting back into writing for you. So please, if you want those chapters, please keep reviewing and helping me think up what I should do next! Thanks.