Part Six - Evolution
Rebirth
Time Unknown. A coast.
"I'm close," he groaned.
"Wait!" She increased the pace. "Almost there," she gasped.
The door was knocked hard and Sirius lost his concentration and came with a pleasured groan.
"God dammit!" she cursed as she felt him warm and go soft inside her.
The door was knocked repeatedly again.
The woman leaned against his chest as he lay sprawled over the sofa with an expression of lazy pleasure in his eyes.
"Sirius!" called a young feminine voice from outside with impatience.
"Mind if I get that?" Sirius asked with his trademark grin.
She huffed and got off with annoyance. "Couldn't hold it in for a few more seconds, could you?" she grumbled under her breath and began to gather up her clothes.
Sirius pulled on his pants with a roll of his eyes and opened the dilapidated door that served as an excuse for privacy in the magically enforced sand hut.
It was Daphne.
She looked in and scowled when she saw the back of a woman pulling on a shirt.
"We have guests I think you'll want to meet," she said tightly.
Sirius sighed and raised a finger asking for a minute.
He turned to the woman who was looking at him expectantly and smiled when he handed her a bag lying on the bed in the corner.
"Nice doing business with you," she whispered and left with a swagger, leaving Daphne a fake smile as she went past her.
Sirius opened his mouth to explain but she just raised her hand and shook her head. "I don't want to know," she said darkly.
"So, who are the newcomers?" he asked, changing the topic.
"Come on," she huffed and turned on her heel.
Sirius followed with an eye roll.
It was late in the evening and the air was rapidly cooling as the light gave way to darkness. In the distance, within the grasp of fading light, crooked mounds of hardened sand that served as simple housing could be seen haphazardly spread around with survivors outside wrapped up in blankets starting to light fires.
Daphne spied the skinny woman lazily making way to where most muggles had made camp.
The huts with wizards and witches in them were the big ones that had dozens of smaller ones around it. Magic was needed to survive the harsh environment. Without it death clawed into life mercilessly.
Daphne had taken initiative and encouraged sharing magic from the moment the first muggle strayed to their little camp of two.
Sirius's hut was away from the majority and closer to the sea. Not many dared to brave the proximity of the sea at night. It was where monsters came from to hunt when they got hungry.
In the mornings, there was a mad rush at attempts to fish but the receding sea line deeply impacted their courage of the settlement to venture further away from the strange familiarity they had made with the desert. Not to mention a terrible island lay a few miles off shore and the further the water pulled away, the closer Azkaban got.
"What was in the bag?" Daphne finally asked as they walked towards what they considered the entrance to the settlement. Venture further outside that invisible line and there was probably no return.
"Apples," Sirius replied.
Daphne scoffed. She didn't believe him. "Where did you find apples?"
"A boat wreck a little down the beach. Marla happened to see me salvaging it and we worked out a sweet deal."
"Typical," Daphne muttered under her breath. "The world's coming to an end and all you do is sweet talk desperate woman."
Sirius refrained from retorting. Marla happened to agree with him. The world was doomed. And besides, it wasn't like she wasn't attracted to him. He was better choice for sexual release than most of the folks making camp in the settlement by the sea. Him being a wizard was a handy bonus as well.
Where Sirius had chosen to find freedom in the desert, Daphne had thrown herself into gaining a foothold in Harry's hell and fight back. She could not let the bitter taste of betrayal overwhelm her.
With magic and bitter will, Daphne had herded the survivors who had made it to them and inspired in them the need to survive.
That night, the strong-willed settlement by the sea was formed. A society trapped between an ocean and a desert determined to survive and born from Daphne's will of resistance.
And now, with the arrival of the newcomers, she could finally find hope for progress.
There was a stretch of desert determined to be a safe zone from the threat of spatial distortions. Here, they had constructed an outpost using wreckage from the sea and magic to make it stand. As the days and nights began to blur, so did the population of the settlement. Survivors kept wandering in and a community began to form.
When Arthur Weasley wandered into their settlement, muggles and wizards began to interact more freely, they began to imagine ways to survive and create methods to harvest water, capture schools of fish and build simple homes.
Most had already adjusted to life in a desert with magic to aid them.
As Daphne and Sirius reached the outpost, Sirius's eyes widened. The last person could have he imagined was here. Severus Snape. Accompanying him was a young bushy haired brunette wearing worn out Hogwarts robes.
They were weak and exhausted. The watcher of the outpost had found them and given them water and fish in small potions to regain some of their strength.
"Snape!" gasped Sirius.
Daphne stayed silent. She had talked with them before bringing Sirius. Hogwarts had fallen. Harry was there. That was all there was to be summarised.
Even in a near death situation Snape managed to sneer at Sirius and then ignore him. Instead, he turned to Daphne and scowled. "I thought you said you were bringing help?"
Daphne smiled sweetly. "Sirius will guide you through the culture of this camp and I'll do the same with Hermione." She helped Hermione to her feet. "Come on, Hermione. You just got to understand a few things before finally getting to rest."
Hermione looked at Daphne with wide eyes and then turned to Snape questioningly. They had been through hell since leaving Hogwarts, was it okay to just leave?
"Go," Snape muttered.
Daphne rose an eyebrow at the byplay but Sirius ignored it. Sirius was more surprised to realise that he felt nothing towards Snape. There was no hate. Only apathy.
"See you later kids," Sirius added with a resigned sigh. He might as well get this over with. Hate had no place in the new world.
Daphne, with skill that made Hermione's eye widen, transfigured a portion of the sand beneath them into shimmering carpet and enchanted it to fly.
"Well get on," Daphne said to Hermione. "Firsts things first, we got to get you a change of clothes. I'm shocked you're still in black. Don't you know anything about heat and colours?"
Hermione sat on the enchanted carpet with a sigh. "It's good to see you Daphne," she murmured. There were unshed tears waiting to be spilt.
Daphne looked at Hermione passively as she guided the carpet towards the camp. "Just hold on a bit longer Hermione," she said softly. "It's going to be okay."
The words were filled with optimistic uncertainty.
Place Unknown, Time unknown.
Global communication had become a problem as soon as England was covered by a lightning storm.
Buzz.
"What do you see?"
"It's a sort of lightning storm spanning an unfathomable area. It's definitely expanding."
"Why are your magnetic readings so strange? Is there anything else you see?"
Buzz.
"We think it has something to do with the epicentre. If we keep looking at it, it almost feels like we're looking into an abyss. And we've been checking the magnetic readings all over the planet and if the calculations are correct they seems to be…." Buzz.
They lost contact.
"This is bad."
"Well thanks for stating the obvious. I had imagined the major climate change occurring all over the world was bad enough!"
The head of department sitting tensely behind his desk took a deep sigh and rested his chin on his palms. "We have to identify what it is that is making the magnetometers go haywire. Start looking for patterns in the reading. It felt like our guys up there were talking about a source which suggests there is an abnormality in the Earth. If we find it, maybe we can stop it."
The scientist sighed. "I'll go wake the rest of the team."
Sleep deprivation was becoming a favourite pass time of this team determined to understand the weather change so that they would take appropriate measures to save lives. It was only after the disaster occurred that the world leaders decided to give unlimited funding to scientists who studied global warming was useful.
The world was up against something primal and ancient. Guns and bombs were useless it the face of it.
Hogwarts, Time Unknown.
Harry walked down the halls of Hogwarts with a faint smile. How far he had come in his quest to find the source! He had peeked into its vastness and created the desert. A desert that seemed to exist below his feet and above his head - both having secrets he had yet to unfold.
He felt nostalgia as he returned to the grand library. He felt an emotion in his green that made him feel weak. He let it enter the rest of his colours without resistance and analysed what he felt. He was glad to be home, he realised. He felt protected… safe here. It made him want to lower his guard. He wanted to fight it like he always did but this time he wanted to evolve. It was essential to survive with a rational mind intact.
Footsteps disturbed his thoughts. There was someone walking in the distance. The sounds were leisurely fading away. Harry wondered who it was and changed his path towards the sound.
They were leading to the Gryffindor tower.
He caught up and was surprised to see it was someone who had once left an impression in his memory.
"It's Luna, isn't it?" Her colours were as fascinating as ever. "Hermione mentioned you had my wand?"
Luna turned around, taken aback. She hadn't sensed anyone around her and was briefly surprised to see him in person. She had only ever heard about him and never really met him face to face. Looking at him closely, she noticed how chaotic the Wrackspurts were around him.
"Harry Potter," she murmured. "Have you come here to kill me?" Luna felt like the question needed to be asked.
The white of her crown dipped right down to her red, mixing and changing his perception of them as they rose out again. He could not read her. "I want to know if you have my wand and notebook."
"They're in the astronomy tower," she replied. "Should be in the black storage trunk."
That said, she looked and him expectantly and calmly.
Harry didn't know how to react or what to say next. He had expected resistance as he always faced when he wanted something but this girl offered none and to complicate matters, he couldn't read her at all.
For the first time in his life he felt the need to get to know another human being.
"Can you lead the way?"
Luna smiled at him warmly and nodded.
Harry felt a wave of the bizarre blanket his mind and several questions popped up. What was this girl? Why did it feel like she could read his mind? Was she an awakened being?
As he followed her, he also felt a kind of thrill. Out of the many questions one stood out. Did she see what he saw in magic?
Harry grinned. He had something more to look forward to. Coming back to Hogwarts was the right decision after all!
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Draco Malfoy stumbled in the dark. His clothes were torn and was bleeding from various cuts on his skin. He rested against concrete debris and sighed deeply.
He first lost his throne. Then his power. And now his dignity.
He had barely escaped a group of beggars he had stolen bread from.
Now he was lost in the ruins of a city he once called home. All because of a fucking Potter.
Tears rolled down his cheeks. How desperately he wished this was all a nightmare and when he would wake up, he'd be back in his castle, sipping tea and throwing his family name around, wielding it like a weapon.
Instead he was still trapped in the nightmare, dying of thirst and hunger, and fighting with muggles for scraps of food because he had lost his wand.
He had dropped down to trying to befriend them and join a group to survive, but not a single filthy muggle had been willing to share. Everyone fended for themselves. Only equals formed groups and he was beneath them all. Powerless but unwilling to die.
He had discovered, in himself, the will to survive. Not because he wanted to, but just to prove he was better than Potter. And more importantly he wanted to find Daphne Greengrass and kill her with his bare hands. He knew she was alive. He felt it deep within his self. The deep desire to destroy his enemy.
A faint light in the distance, roused him from his self-pity and thoughts of murder. The cloudy sky allowed no light to shine through. The cold made it impossible to sleep. It was only for a few hours in the early morning when sleep was possible. It was the brief respite in the circle of hell.
His body went still and he crouched low. Who was it? Was it someone he could steal more food from? Did they have any water? Would they share?
He crawled like a cockroach, feeling more cracks open in his skin, as he creeped over broken steel, rocks and sand. There was no wind tonight and that made the cold bearable.
As he neared the light, he noticed five men huddled around a fire, murmuring amongst themselves. He couldn't hear so creeped closer still.
The murmuring stopped and after a heartbeat, a man called out gruffly. "I know you're there. Come out. We're not going to hurt you."
Draco felt hope. Were these friendly men? Were they willing to share?
He slowly stood up, ignoring the tremble in his knees and came closer.
"Good grief," one of them exclaimed. "You look like trounced ponce!"
The others chuckled softly. "Aye," the gruff one grunted. "Lad, you've been through quite the hell storm, haven't you? Want to join and share your story?"
"Why?" Draco croaked. His voice was hoarse for disuse. He had been lost in the desert for days before a distortion in space took him to ruined London. In London, he had met only monsters in the form of men and women. All of them filled with cruelty and a complete lack of morals. No one cared for the other and these were the first men who seemed nice.
It didn't feel right. This was Harry's world. Nothing would be right.
"Leave him be Mad Eye, he's just another one of the survivors not fit to survive. Join us kid, we got some food and if you are interested in a good death we're marching on the Goblins soon. We're out here looking for a suicide squad. Are you interested?"
Draco has been chased out of the main city. He couldn't survive in the harsh atmosphere that dominated the central parts of the city there was no mercy for weakness. He had lost hope and if fate wanted him to die fighting it was better than dying of Hunger. "Do you have enough food," asked Draco.
"If you agree to be part of the Vanguard."
Draco just nodded and then he noticed the graph men face was covered with a hood, holding a wand, loosely pointed at the Fire. He was a wizard. He moved closer and sat down on a patch of sand. He took the offered piece of bread and bit into with gusto.
Mad Eye chuckled. "You look familiar kid. What's your name?"
Draco froze. His father wasn't the most loved man in the past. He was Walpurgis Knight after all. Should he give a fake name? He decided against it. He didn't care anymore. Death was all that awaited.
"Draco Malfoy," he said and managed to inject some defiance into his voice.
"Well I'm be damned," Mad Eye grunted in surprise. "I found your father's rotting head a few days back. Didn't expect to run into the son so soon."
The others chortled. "He still had a look of shock plastered on his ugly mug."
Draco was filled with horror for a moment before it passed away and was replaced with apathy. His father's death was of his own making. May be if he hadn't chosen to grovel at the feet of another, he would still be alive. And as a consequence of that, London was war torn and he was going to be part of a kamikaze squad just so that he could avoid starving to death.
He chuckled.
"You find your old man's death funny Draco?"
"I find you funny," he said with dry humour. "You should be finding and killing Harry Potter instead of Goblins. Kill Potter. Save the World. That's the only thing that should matter. Instead of fighting the Goblins, we need to convince them to ally with us to erase Potter from this world."
There was silence.
Draco realised they weren't aware about Potter's deep connection to this hell.
"He's wearing Hogwarts robes Mad Eye," one of them observed suddenly.
"Draco," Mad Eye said softly. "Tell me everything you know."