Prey and Predator
When he saw the face of the newcomer everyone was talking about, he recognised the monster and painful daggers of vengeful emotions struck deep in his heart.
It was him. The demon who had torn his life apart.
The boy was always quiet. He was an orphan who had spent some rough years in the system. Adoptive families kept returning him like a disappointing commodity within the first few weeks.
Then the apocalypse came, and he was thrilled to be the only survivor in the orphanage until the food ran out, and then, he was forced to confront his worst nightmares as a harsh reality about his past and future became an agonizing truth of his existence.
Until his path led to the settlement.
There he had managed to hold on to the fringe end of the camp, the border between the ones who lived and the ones who died. Here, he learnt of the monster who brought the apocalypse and his hate deepened.
The same monster had killed his parents.
The teenager watched his path and unconsciously his fingers curled around the knife sheathed on his belt.
It was nightfall when Harry left the Research Centre. He headed down to the beach and walked the path of ripples in the sand in search of a remote spot where he could feel undisturbed.
He remained alert for distortions but felt none as his stroll neared the hour. It was a little while later he spotted a faint image of what looked like a rocky cliff hanging over a rough part of the ocean.
Perfect, he thought and teleported to the edge.
He could still teleport within the desert. Just not out of it.
He sat down cross-legged and with the cold salted wind whipping through his hair he looked up at the bright night sky. He conjured black robes and drew a rune to keep him warm into the fabric of the cloth.
The catacomb enchantment was rooted in the manifested runes of confusion, space and travel. But he was not confused and the image of his destination was clear in his mind. And yet he was prevented from travelling. Was there a rune he was missing? A catacomb always had a way out.
He reached for the void and looked deeper into the sky. Was he missing something or was it staring right at him in the face and he was unable to perceive it?
Harry leaned back and lay on his back. There were billions of streaks of light hurtling through the sky, over endless horizons. No colour dominated and no rune that stood out. Everything was interlinked on a level that was far beyond his capabilities.
This was the curse he had conjured from the depths of a cruel void. It was a place he could not go back to. He was no longer that person.
What he was now he was yet to understand. And the only way to understand was to keep moving forward.
The wall that now stood in his way was his own part of his curse, fuelled with the infinite power of an unending universe.
Could he undo just a little bit of it to travel to the Eye of the Sahara? He was sure of finding answers to the most historical question of all. How did it begin? If he knew how it began, he'd know how it had to end.
His journey had taken him further than he could have ever imagined and now it demanded him to find the first magical singularity.
Harry closed his eyes and let his subconscious mind take over. Atlantis. His knowledge of the myth was brought to the surface and he drifted to sleep.
What would it take to reach there?
And the end of all the thoughts and ideas there was only one truth. He needed more Power.
He was still powerless in the face of beings from different parts of the universe.
And the source was a power that fuelled the consciousness of a multiverse.
In his dreams, he began to imagine meeting other beings that were his equal and becoming part of a survival game on a much grander landscape.
The smile on his face stayed for the duration of his short nap.
When Harry awoke the sky was cloudy and his surroundings pitch black.
He teleported back to the edge of the camp and was welcomed with the warmth of hundreds of campfires by the beach.
It looked like there was some celebration of sorts.
Harry decided to steer clear and headed back to the Research Centre. If he needed more power, he needed to return to the experiment in the Enchanted Forest.
But before he left, he wanted more information about Atlantis. He could not enter the desert engine unprepared. The last time he went through, he had reached Avalon and almost died in the Badlands.
He desired to find the source that led him there. Now he desired to go back to the beginning to bring about an end.
His instinct told him it was probably not a good idea to enter the engine with a paradoxical mindset.
Harry ignored the watchful eyes as he passed through the settlement towards the Research Centre.
And in his preoccupied state of mind, he didn't notice the malevolent eyes latching onto his movement.
The teenager was sitting a distance away from the celebrations with dark thoughts clouding his emotions.
He was thinking of a plan when he saw the monster appear near the edge of the camp.
He didn't think twice and didn't care if he failed.
The knife was pulled from its sheath and he began to sneak up on his prey.
Harry felt a sharp itch on the back of his neck and his instincts kicked in with an explosion of adrenaline.
He jerked his neck right and felt a piercing pain skim his shoulder blade.
The Void moved with purpose and pinned the body down with unrestrained fury.
The attacker had barely realised he had failed when he felt himself fall on his back and the force of an elephant's foot began to crush him into the desert.
His scream was unable to leave his lungs under the intense pressure.
His eyes began to bulge under the suffocating magic.
Harry looked for identity in his attacker's face and astonishment shook him to his core making him release the binding magic.
The boy had lost an immense amount of weight since Harry had last seen him.
The connection to his past reared the rage in his void and the astonishment turned in a malevolent smile that made Dudley Dursley feel a terrible creep of terror from deep within his heart.
Yet his own rage was strong enough to scramble to his feet in an effort to stab Harry again.
The Void wrapped around him like a cocoon and Dudley felt his body rise into the air, unable to move.
The rage remained in his eyes even when Harry brought him close and began to chuckle.
"You know," Harry hissed softly. "I never imagined I would run into you. But now that I see you…" Harry's smile stretched from ear to ear. "I remember how disappointed I was that you weren't that night."
Dudley was trying to say something. It was evident with the look in his eyes.
Harry allowed him to speak and Dudley immediately spat in his face.
Harry snapped.
The Void began to tighten around Dudley.
When he began to scream, all Harry saw was Dudley Dursley being crushed to a pulp.
Silence reigned with a series of snaps and squelch.
Harry felt warm blood splattered over his face and he released the crushed and mangled remains of his cousin.
The adrenaline began to leave his system and his rage that had learned how to calm down over time took him back to a rational state of mind that was confronted with a delicate situation.
He turned around to face the terrified eyes behind him.
Harry saw Sirius and Jenna in the crowd. Sirius was emotionless and Jenna had her mouth covered to stop her urge to scream.
A ripple of regret shimmered in the Void and Harry wondered why.
"Son, I think it's time you left."
It was the Doc who summoned the courage to speak.
Harry took a deep breath. When it was time to move on, it was time to move forward.
"Thanks for saving my life Doc," he said. The cloud of confusion over navigating through the desert evaporated and his next destination materialised clearly in the Void. Harry closed his eyes and reached out with the Void for the invisible curtain of the catacomb to displace him from one space to another.
A bone-chilling draft seared his skin and Harry adjusted to the change from mud huts to the ruins of devastated skyscrapers.
Harry grinned and began to slowly walk through the skulking humans crowding the streets, lighting fires below large pieces of concrete debris.
Hogwarts had been his preferred destination, but he felt like there was something important to find in the ruins of London. With his discovery of life in the Settlement and its evolution, he was curious to know what had become of the magical and non-magical. What was the true nature of London?
Nothing spoke more clearly than emotions under the threat of imminent death.
Harry had already put Dudley's murder behind him, the fleeting emotions of rediscovering himself after escaping the jaws of death began to dissolve and he felt the predator in his growl in hunger.
As it turned out, all that he needed to get out of his funk and remember who he was, was a satisfying kill.
He conjured a black cloak with a hood to hide the smile he couldn't keep away from his lips and pulled the hood over his head as began to look out for signs of magic.
If there was anything he would keep from the experience of the Settlement, it was the wisdom to keep his face hidden when around people. Atlantis as a final destination. And to let the predator out to play once in a while to clear his head.