Phoenix Hawk Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Make no doubt about it, I do not own Harry Potter and related entities. All that belongs to Madam Rowling. I just own this odd little plot and the original characters. Please don't sue because I like sandboxes, though I need a beach to make a sand Hogwarts.

Hermione found Harry in his camp later that day, carving symbols into a variety of different stones arrayed before him on a portable camp desk. Several stones were blacker than night, absorbing all the light like tiny black holes captured in a readily manipulated package. Others were average, and boring looking stones, easily carved and set aside, almost forgotten. The black ones took care to work, and it is this that she sees Harry working as she approached the camp.

A House Elf, wearing an odd combination of Japanese kosode, and an English t-shirt, met her at the ward line, an invisible barrier that raised the fine hairs on her arms and neck in silent warning. Identity confirmed, she was waved into the camp proper. The sensation of rampant energy on the other side of the wards was heightened, and confusing.

"Master Harrys is busy with rocks. Yous waits," the elf told her. Hermione bristled indignantly. So much for the vaunted fairness of one Harry Potter! She grumbled to herself, 'No better than a slave owner!'

"Cast no stones, Ms. Granger, where you have no true understanding," floated his voice. His mouth didn't move. She watched his careful strokes with a small tool, drawing slow lines over the surface of the mystery stone.

"Harry Potter! You will explain, now!" she screeched.

"Miss will be silent while Master Harrys works the Nuumi stone," the elf snapped its fingers, dropping a sphere of silence over Hermione. The woman became enraged, and began screaming under the influence of the spell. Harry kept on carving, unable to stop.

Fifteen minutes later, Hermione was still carrying on in silence, and Harry was done.

"Whew, finally," he said, setting the black stone in line amongst the row of rocks on top of the desk, and putting the carving tools away.

"Master, yous visitor is being uglies still," his elf spoke up from beside the fire.

"Oh, Hermione", he stated, remembering she was there, "Yuku, dispel the silence please," Harry requested. Yuku bowed, and snapped her fingers again. Hermione was ranting at this point and it took her a few moments to realize the silence had left her. Harry clapped twice, stopping her and drawing her attention with the sharp sound.

"Hermione, for once, sit down and shut up," he commanded, the fingers of his right hand twitching in an unrecognizable pattern that generated a charm. This charm produced a wooden chair that flew over the fire and came to rest beside Hermione, a clear demand for her to obey.

She slunk over, and sat gingerly on the edge of the slatted seat, as if it would disappear any second. He glowered for a long moment, then turned to look at Yuku. "Drinks please, Yuku. Ice tea for me, and Hermione, what would you like?" he requested.

"Water, please," she quietly requested, afraid. The elf nodded, and popped away. Harry scrubbed a hand through his raven black, collar length locks, and down over his eyes, closing the lids over bright emerald orbs to dig forefinger and thumb into the corners next to his nose. He took a couple of deep breaths, centering himself, tamping down on his volatile temper. Yuku returned with the beverages, handing Harry his and floating a glass of water to Hermione.

"Has anyone ever told you no, Hermione?" Harry asked coldly, after drinking half of his tea.

"What?", she asked in return, taken by surprise.

"Did I stutter? Have you ever been told no? Denied anything? And I don't mean dessert for failing to take the trash out," he said, words completely comprised of sarcasm.

"Well, no. I've always succeeded at getting what I wanted," Hermione stated, with a touch of pride.

"And that's the problem," he returned baldly, "Do you have what I need?" She nodded, pulling a folder from her ignored satchel. Yuku walked over and collected it from her.

"Thank you Ms. Granger, that will be all," Harry dismissed her, turned his back, and went into the tent, leaving Hermione to stare after him in shocked confusion. Yuku stayed with her, waiting patiently until she was ready to leave.

Inside the tent, Harry threw the folder to the table in the middle of the living room. "Dammit!" he growled. The other elves with him cast quick looks in his direction, checking to see if he was in control, or not. And if not, what they needed to do to 'batten down the hatches' as it were.

"Everything is fine," he visibly pulled himself together, "I'll be in my bedroom, meditating." He disappeared behind a curtain depicting owls in flight. The elves went back to their duties.

Hermione eventually returned the glass to Yuku, thanked her and went back to her own tent in the archaeologists' camp. Instead of finishing the interrupted letter her mother, she pulled out her little used diary and a pen, and wrote an entry. It detailed her overall frustration of the moment with a certain green-eyed wizard, a tone she knew echoed as far back as their first year in Hogwarts. Thirty minutes later, she scratched out a quick note to Headmistress McGonagall, and put it with the outgoing mail bag. She had to settle for remaining confused and ignorant. And she hated it.

Well after dinner had been served amongst the scientists, and they relaxed around their own campfire, Harry was out setting up the protective wards he liked for an outdoor area. The odd, black rocks were the cornerstones of the schema, leaving the plain stones as the visible barrier markers. Once those were set, he spent a couple of hours on guard duty in his animagus form. For the first time since the team had arrived, they were visited by a flock of owls. Elliott was pleased, he hoped that the incursion of mice in the packing material would drop with the presence of the predators.

AN: AUGH! While they weren't supposed to immediately hop in the sack together, I didn't want them to FIGHT either! Dang it! Blasted characters! *glares* Honestly. This chapter was a bear to write, hence taking a month to get it up here. I hope the next one doesn't take as long!