Phoenix Hawk Chapter 8
Disclaimer: same as before. Any errors in archaeological conduct are my own! Warning for cursing (not spells!) See the bottom for AN News!
Harry surveyed the dig site. It was laid out in a precise grid pattern, with short stakes sticking out of the ground, labeled with either letters or numbers to make it easier to track where artifacts were pulled out. Off to one side is a tent, one flap tied back to make it easy for the archaeologists to enter and exit when their hands are full. Harry will investigate this tent last.
He sees shake tables along the edges of the pit, as well as the piles of "clean" dirt* acting as wind breaks. "This all there is?", he asks his friend. She nods, confirming his information. He walks the whole site, scanning the place with his Sight active. Hermione stands by a shake table, and watches him amble off.
"What are you doing?", she finally asks as he approached her place again.
"Checking for ambient magic, anything out of the ordinary," he muttered, then turns to head for the artifacts tent. She walked after him, to make sure nothing got disturbed while he was poking around.
"Holy crap!", he grunts, from the entrance of the tent. He backs up, hands coming up to cover his eyes, and Hermione can see tears dripping down his cheeks.
"Harry, what's wrong?", Hermione feared for her friend, but did not touch him. During the war, he had a tendency to lash out at what he couldn't see.
"Powerful, bright," Harry mutters incompletely, rubbing his eyes to clear the glare spots from his Aura Sight. He turned his back on the tent to give himself a moment to disconnect. He rubs his eyes harder, drawing out more tears. Hermione offered a handkerchief to him, and he smiles, declining.
"I'm all right. Just, not expecting that level of power." Harry straightens up, blinking away the last of the tears. He focuses on a distant cloud in the sky, centering himself.
"Power?", Hermione wonders. The team hadn't registered anything unusual.
"Hm," Harry makes a noncommittal noise.
"None of the artifacts have tested out as being particularly powerful, Harry. What do you mean?", Hermione wanted to know.
"It would only register if you have Sight, Hermione," Harry said, turning to go back into the tent. He pushed aside the canvas again, and ducks inside. Hermione followed, her curiosity at full bore.
Inside the tent are several tables and a few chairs. Each table is scattered with the business of archaeologists. Baggies with small bits of ancient refuse and broken bits of old lives, pens and notebooks mixed in amongst the other tools: the hammers, chisels, fine paintbrushes, cans of condensed air, and other fine tools. One table, against the opposite wall, held large, plastic bins that was the final storage for all the pieces.
"Explain all this please?", Harry asked as he prowled the interior, looking like a caged panther to Hermione.
"This is where we process all the finds. Clean them up as best we can," she started.
"Using Muggle methods?" Harry interrupted, lips curled in something of a smile as he baited her.
"More efficient, don't interrupt,"she huffed. He smiled and waved at her to continue. "Cataloging is important, and we can expand on that from our field notes every day," she finished.
"Then all the pieces are left here? Not secured in some fashion?", Harry was at the storage bins, looking at the numbered bags in one of them.
"Yes, we've not needed anything more secure. Why Harry? Why are you here?", she wanted to know.
"Elliott didn't tell you? Perhaps later, after I've done my initial set up," Harry said, promising nothing.
"Still aggravating, I see. Working in secrets," Hermione spit, getting angry. 'Typical behavior from him', she thought to herself.
Harry turned on her, emerald fire in his eyes. "Hermione, how long has it been?", he asked, his voice velvety steel. Something skittered across Hermione's senses just then, too quick for her to identify it.
"I think, five years?", she whispered, that something restraining a more emotive response from her.
"Don't you think that some things will change? But the more important things will stay the same? If I "work in secrets", there must be a reason for it, yes?", Harry asked her, keeping her pinned with his stare. She couldn't even squirm.
"This isn't the war anymore, Harry," she tried to explain, but that seemed to make him even more upset.
"Hermione!" he exclaimed, a lance of power in the word that had her straightening to attention. "Of all people, I am WELL aware of this. You have no idea how happy I am that that damned war is well and truly over. You also have a school girl's memories of who I was, so I will forgive you this, this time." And he stalked out of the tent, brushing past her into the open.
It was only then that she realized what she'd been feeling in tent, was the fluctuating coils of Harry's power. It simultaneously gave her goosebumps from excitement, and shivers from fear. There was so much she didn't know and she was determined to figure out the new, mysterious Mr. Potter that had wandered back into her life.
AN - "Clean dirt" - piles of shifted dirt left after the crew has checked for artifacts. Called "clean" here for the purposes of denoting that it's already been shifted.
AN #2:Announcement time! First, I'm sorry this is late. I know it's only Monday, and I'm not that late. However, I have preferred to get my stories out every weekend. That didn't happen this time. I have caught whatever ick is crawling around, thanks to my devoted husband *glares in his general direction*. That slowed me down considerably, for all that I'm medicated, and am still plugging away. I also got an editing request and that also made editing my work that much more thorough. And I'm running 3 stories at once, so everything got slow. No real excuse except being sick, and taking on a bit more work than I'm used to.
Also, I've put up notes in my profiles (on FFN and AO3) where you can find me elsewhere if you want to get story background, or just come harass me. I write posts under filter, on Dreamwidth and Livejournal, so you won't be getting crap you don't want to see. Each journal has a 'sticky' that lists those filters, with the comments screened. You just have to leave me a comment saying "I'm from 'whatever fiction site', and I want to be on your fanfic filter!" and I'll let you in. You'll get to see where I ramble about my storylines, whine about the characters, and mumble about new stories. I also have a Facebook, under this handle (only thing that stayed the same, as the journals are older).
I might be going to an every other week posting schedule. A couple of new stories are trying to crowd their way out of my gray matter, and well, I need some time to write them, and keep up with the others. I don't want to release more, but I also feel like one or more of the 3 I've got going on are winding down. I would also like a couple weeks RIGHT NOW to get ahead of myself a bit more. So bear with me. I know where my stories are going, and the well is not drying up on any of them. I refuse to let a story just die and not get finished. (I also don't like those 'chapters' that aren't anything other than an author's note, which this is quickly becoming, lol!) So if I don't post for a couple weeks, please don't freak out, just, PM me or something – I have some health issues I have to wrangle (aside from this cold), and some other real life stuff I want to mess with. Cripes this is a long author's note. But I think that's everything. See you when I see you!