Welcome back to another chapter of Bad Moon Rising, in which Harry, Sirius, and Atalanta go out for a day in Muggle London and have a blast before running into someone Harry never thought he would ever see again.
On with the show.
Harry Potter.
It had been two weeks since Harry's birthday, and in that time Harry had successfully avoided any and all conversations about Daphne and Dora with Ron and Hermione, though neither of them knew about Dora or what was happening between her and Harry, although to be fair, neither did Harry. So, in true Harry Potter fashion whenever he was faced with something awkward that he didn't want to talk about, he avoided it. He would never be in the same room with Dora for more than five minutes and he never went near her or looked her in the eyes; it seemed that Dora knew what he was doing and did the same with him, avoiding each other at all cost. The only people who seemed to notice were Sirius and Remus, the two would share a look whenever Dora would make an excuse to leave the room or skip a rare dinner they all sat down for.
Hermione and the Weasley clan kids were all invited to stay at Grimmauld Place for the rest of the summer if they wanted, and after Fred and George heard Sirius and Remus using their Marauder's nicknames, all said yes, though Mrs. Weasley would stop by once a day to either cook breakfast or dinner for everyone while being a lot nicer to Atalanta. Having Ginny and the Twins in the know made it a lot easier to talk casually about what was happening on the islands as well, with the big talking point being what was the Celtic God going to do about Voldemort, and to Harry's knowledge, there was nothing they could do about Voldemort. He had told them as much, the gods couldn't interfere due to some divine cosmic reason on how they couldn't interfere with mortal events, Harry didn't say anything about the prophecy or his role in it, not even to Hermione and Ron; Dumbledore had asked him to keep it a secret from everyone until either Voldemort revealed himself or the Prophecy was made public knowledge.
But Harry did have fun recounting his hunts and stories to the other Weasleys who hadn't heard the stories, and the events of the Tri-Wizard Championship to Atalanta, though he did skip over the events of the last task. Atalanta loved listening to Harry's fight with Fleur seeing that they never announced it over the Wizard Wireless Network when the Hunt was listening in, Harry told her the story in as vivid detail as he could recall, from their chase through the snow, to him buying time till the full moon was high in the sky, to trapping Fleur with Rowan wood, and the fight that happened after. But Atalanta's favorite stories were about anything to do with Zoë and Scáthach, and Harry had recounted the many times he saw Zoë and his Teacher fight and how Zoë was bounced around like a rubber ball by Scáthach; While Atalanta may respect Zoë as the lieutenant of the Hunt, it didn't mean they liked each other all that much.
And the best thing about it all? Harry finally had someone to spare against. All his pent-up energy and want to do something could be spent fighting Atalanta, which to everyone who hadn't seen the two siblings going at it in a friendly spare was shocked at just how fast both he and Atalanta moved. Ginny and the Twins were floored at the speed at with they moved, claiming the only time they could see something that wasn't a blur was when one of them landed a hit, Lupin was able to follow a little bit better than anyone else thanks to his own enhanced senses thanks to being a werewolf, but even then he still couldn't follow them fully.
It was in between spares that Harry had taken off his shirt which was soaked through with sweat that everyone but Ron and Atalanta had gotten a surprise sight of the scars that ran up Harry's arm and across his chest. Harry had honestly forgotten about them, but to almost everyone else it was a horrific sight to see the thick thorn-like scars on Harry's body. Lupin and Sirius shared a worried look, while the twin's eyes widen along with Ginny's who also was blushing head to toe, Ron looked at them with a grimace having seen them before, and Hermione gasped coming to her mouth asking a million, and one questions that Harry waved off and telling her that it was the price of the Gáe Bolg, and telling her he didn't use the curse all that much do to the inherent danger of unleashing it; however, he didn't tell her about when he first used it in the land of shadows that it had almost killed him.
Atalanta had taken one look at them and smiled, "Nice," she had said, and it was no wonder why; Atalanta herself was a walking patchwork of scars she had gotten from past hunts; the bite mark on her shoulder and the claw rakes down her back were the newest from Lupin himself, not that Atalanta held it against the man. A fact seen when Harry walked in on the two sharing a drink and talking about tips and advice Lupin would give to a new werewolf to help them cope with the pain of the transformations and what potions he'd advise to use for them. But it wasn't all peaceful in Grimmauld Place, as one night during an order meeting Atalanta ended up storming out of the meeting early due to a "Disagreement" with the Headmaster(Not that Harry would ever see the man.)
Atalanta never talked about the meetings mostly because Harry never asked, though that didn't stop the others from badgering her about them, Atalanta calmly rebuked any attempt to get information about them out of her by telling everyone "That the meetings were on a need to know basis, and they didn't need to know," but that night Atalanta was in the mood to vent about the frustration she had with the Headmaster and his approach to the war because Atalanta had offered her skills as a hunter to remove some of Voldemort's support and followers from the board; Permanently.
"It's not like it would be hard either, a list of names, a map with locations of their houses, that's all I would need and the dark dumbass would have to find new supporters because all the others would be dead! At the very least, he'd lose some of his politically powerful allies," Atalanta had said with an aggravated sigh as she crawled into bed with Harry to snuggle up for the night, "and the most annoying thing is that his reasoning for not doing it was solid and logical and hard to fucking argue against," she muttered while pulling Harry against her.
Dumbledore's reasoning came in two folds, first: He didn't want to give Voldemort more ways to lure people to his side because he would easily spin the death of his followers as some muggle had found out about them and decided to start taking out prominent pure-blood families even if it wasn't true, and secondly: even if the mothers and fathers were dead Voldemort would then turn his sights to the children of his followers, and that was something Dumbledore didn't want to happen at any point in time.
Which, to be fair, were some good points.
Then on a Tuesday morning, Sirius had told Harry to get dressed for a day out in muggle London with him and Atalanta. Sirius had asked Mrs. Weasley to come help watch over the house and her kids for a few hours with Remus as the three went out to enjoy the day as a family. She had some objections to the plan saying that it was dangerous, but Sirius had told her that they wouldn't be going anywhere near the magical side of London and that he wanted to enjoy some time alone with Harry before he went off to Hogwarts for the rest of the year, and Atalanta was coming to play bodyguard for Harry along with him. Mrs. Weasley didn't like it, but she accepted it after extracting a promise to be back before dinner; Sirius had just laughed and said "Yes, Mother," cheekily causing Mrs. Weasley to send a pair of stinging hexes at him with a playful smile before they left.
The day was fun for Harry, it was like he had left his worries about the war to come and his anxiety about what the Dé Danann were doing behind as they spent the day out and about. The trio's first stop was a movie theater, as Sirius talked about the few times that he had seen muggle movies with Harry's parents, the Star Wars films were among the only ones he knew but how Sirius had talked about them, they were the greatest movies ever made. They ended up seeing the Pocahontas movie before sneaking into the new Batman Forever movie, by the end of the Pocahontas movie Atalanta had a weird angry look on her face, and when Harry asked why all she said was, "Just remind me to never show Sophie that movie, she'd go ballistic," and left it at that.
Batman Forever was both Atalanta's and Sirius' favorite movie, Harry found it to be pretty bad but was saved by the guy who played the Riddler, the man was hilarious whenever he was on screen. Sirius liked the comedy and gadgets that Batman had used and went on a small rant on how to reproduce them magically, Harry could see Sirius' eyes shine as the gears of his mind began to turn with a smile on his face that promised nothing but trouble in the future. Atalanta liked the action and fight scenes, as unrealistic as they were, they were fun to watch.
They had stopped to get lunch in a nearby pub with Sirius and Harry ordering two hamburgers with fries and Atalanta getting a whole pizza to herself with a large pitcher of beer that she and Sirius split as Harry sipped on his coke. As they sat and ate, Sirius and Atalanta talked, cracking jokes about one another, Sirius calling Atalanta "Kitty-Cat," and Atalanta shooting back with "Dog-breath," both of them smiling when the other said the nicknames. Harry watched on with a confused face while munching on his fries, something was going on between the two of them, but for the life of him; he couldn't figure out what.
After eating, they headed out to a nearby park, Sirius constantly checking his pocket watch and hurrying them up; neither Atalanta nor Harry knew why until they got to the park. There was an archery competition with free entry to any who wanted to try out, which brought a sly smile to both of the sibling's faces before running over to sign up as Sirius snuck off for a bit before returning with a set of bows and two quivers of arrows for them. The competition only had twenty competitors from schools in the area, and while Atalanta and Harry had a set of just plain wooden bows, most of the other kids had some high-tech-looking metal ones, all but one kid who was wearing a Robin Hood costume with a plain wooden recurve bow. The competition lasted for four hours with Sirius in the stands cheering both Harry and Atalanta, screaming out "That's my godson!" every time Harry hit a bullseye, which caused the Demigod to blush; he never had anyone cheer him on during something as silly as this, taking pride in how good he was at something, it was-It was nice.
If it wasn't for the fact that Harry and Atalanta had entered the archery competition, Harry was pretty sure the Robin Hood guy would have won. Robin Hood was good, like, really good, but Harry had beaten him by a good fifteen points, winning second place with Atalanta in first by never missing a bullseye, much to the shock of everyone but Harry and Sirius. Atalanta was given a large gold trophy and a hundred pounds for winning while Harry won a smaller silver trophy and fifty pounds. Robin Hood, who won third place, got a small bronze trophy with twenty pounds until Atalanta walked up to him and handed him the Hundred pounds with a smile telling Robin Hood that if it wasn't for Her and her little brother, he would have swept the whole thing.
The boy tried to refuse it at first, but Atalanta wouldn't hear it and forced the pounds in his hands before telling him that she was keeping the trophy and that was good enough for her.
They took Harry's winnings and went to an arcade after the competition, splitting the winnings and turning them into tokens to play the random selection of arcade cabinets and games. Atalanta spent most of hers on skeet ball breaking most of the high scores and getting a boatload of tickets, as Harry did the same with a ball-throwing game in which you had to knock clowns to win, Sirius had immediately hit the Pac-Man game. He didn't win any tickets but he had a smile the whole time as he would chase down the ghosts to eat them, cursing at them the whole time. When they had finally run out of tokens both Harry and Atalanta had turned in their tickets for an absolutely massive Lion stuffed animal as big as Harry was, which got a smile out of Atalanta and a laugh out of Sirius when he saw it.
As the sun sank lower in the sky, they started to make their way home with smiles on their faces with the trophies and oversized stuffed lion shrunk down in Atalanta's and Harry's pockets. Sirius wanted to stop by the Tesco to pick up a few things for the house before heading back.
But as always, nothing good could ever last for Harry, and if he knew how his happy day was going to end, he would have opted to stay home with his friends.
Number 12 Grimmauld Place.
Remus and Molly sat in the parlor sipping away at a very nice Earl Gray, discussing the ins and outs of dark creatures and how to deal with them, Molly was surprisingly knowledgeable about them and other household magical pests. Before marrying Arthur and settling down with a family she had wanted to be an Auror and achieved shockingly high marks on her NEWTs to do just that, but after Bill was born, she couldn't imagine putting her new family through late nights and the worries that she may never return home from work and settled into the life of a housewife; and she has never regretted it.
She spoke with pride about each of her children, even the twins no matter what trouble they caused when left on their own for too long, she even spoke of Harry as if he was one of her own and admitted she hopes Ginny would grow the nerve to ask Harry out in hopes to have the boy as a son she already saw him as. Remus had smiled at that, feeling that both Lily and James would approve of, and were happy that someone like Molly Weasley was looking after Harry in their absence.
It was then, that the floo flared to life, ushering in Nymphadora Tonks with a yell, "SIRIUS! HARRY!" The panic and terror were thick in her voice as she charges across the room, almost tripping three times before getting to the stairs and screaming once more, "HARRY! PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE HERE!? SIRIUS!?" She yells before Remus and Molly come around the corner with wands drawn, Hermione appears at the top of the stairs with Ron looking down, confused and alert with their wands out.
All it took was a look into Nymphadora's eyes, burning a bright pink, for Remus to know something had happened, "Nymphadora, what is it?" he asks before Nymphadora's head snaps to him.
"Where's Harry?!" she almost screams at him, "And Sirius, I've already talked to my dad, please tell me Harry is here," she says, her voice quivering in panic before looking between Molly and Remus.
"Nymphadora, Darling, breath," Molly says as she steps around Remus, "Harry, Sirius, and Atalanta aren't here, they went out into London to spend the day together," She says wrapping her arm around Nymphadora and trying to pull her back into the sitting room for a sit-down, but the auror shakes her arm off.
"Fuck!" Nymphadora curses before running her hands through her rapidly changing hair as she begins to pace, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! We need to call them back, now, we need to call Dumbledore right after if he doesn't already know, Fuck!" Nymphadora begins to babble.
"Dora, take a few breaths," Remus says softly, before walking over to her and stopping her from pacing, "We need you calm and in control to tell us what's wrong," He says as Ron and Hermione make their way onto the ground floor as Nymphadora presses her face into her hands and takes a few deep breaths, calling on her training under Mad-Eye.
"The Ministry has issued an arrest warrant for Harry," Dora says, letting out a shuddering breath before removing her face from her hands.
"And we were expecting that, this is not as bad-" Remus tries to say, reassuring the panicking auror that this was a part of the plan, but Nymphadora cuts him off as Hermione gasps and Ron's eyes narrow looking between the three adults in the room.
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, REMUS!?" Tonks shouts, pushing the man's hands away, "They issued the warrant as dead or alive, and they sent Dawlish to lead the squad of Aurors that we know are in Malfoy's pocket and they're also sending in two Dementors to help subdue Harry," She says as the Remus pales with a wide eye look.
"Oh, dear," Remus whispers to the shocked people around him before quickly turning and casting a Patronus, he had to work fast and contact the Headmaster in hopes to stop the bloodbath that was to come.
A Tesco in London, eight blocks from Grimmauld Place, Harry Potter.
Harry was standing in the candy isle with a furrowed brow and a bit of a scowl on his lips as he looked at the assortment of Muggle Treats, he was never one to have a sweet tooth, other than a bit of chocolate and treacle tart now and then, he likes savory things more to be completely honest, he had grown up not eating a lot of sweets and wasn't the biggest fan of them. Sirius sent him off to grab anything that had caught his eye he was grabbing a few things that the house needed with so many people calling it home for the next few weeks as Atalanta went off to poke through the selection of alcohol they had here.
Harry's thoughts bounced between thinking Zoë may have had a point when she called Atalanta a "bit of a lush" whenever the lioness came up in conversation and wondering if the Tesco carried any Honey Roasted Peanuts when he felt someone brush past him to grab a bag of Mini Mars Bars with a gruff "Excuse me,". Harry had taken a step to the side before automatically saying "You're fine," as politely as he could, but the next word the voice spoke froze the blood in his veins.
"Boy," was said with such loathing and contempt it froze Harry where he stood before he slowly turned his head to the man standing next to him, and Harry felt his heart begin to rapidly beat in terror, his lungs refused to breathe as his pupils dilate when he looked into the rapidly changing color of the moustachio face of Vernon Dursley.
Harry's jaw quivers as words choked in his throat before he takes a step back from the man, but much like over the years Harry had lived with him, Uncle Vernon wasn't about to let Harry escape, Harry flinches as Uncle Vernon grabs him by the collar of his jacket and hauls Harry back to come face to face with the man who had starved, beaten, and locked him away for ten long years of his life.
"Where the hell do you think you're going, Boy?" Uncle Vernon says menacingly as he looms over Harry, his face turning red as he glared down at his nephew, "Do you have any idea what trouble you brought down on me and your aunt after you left?" he says in a rage-filled whisper as he begins to shake Harry, "Inquiries by the Department of Education, the police digging into our lives, I had to hire a team of those damn conman lawyers just to fight them off, and lost my job at Grunnings because of you!" He snaps at Harry, shaking him again.
"N-n-no, l-let m-m-me g-go," Harry says as he grabs onto Vernon's hands, trying to pry them off of him, hoping to get away, to run away.
"How many times did I tell you, boy? Huh, answer me, how many times did I tell you not to tell a soul!" Uncle Vernon hissed into his face, shaking him more.
"I-I-I di-didn't, I didn't tell any-" Harry tries to say as he struggled in Vernon's grasp, any thought of calling upon the hunt driven from his mind by the pure terror he felt for the man shaking him like a rag doll before he was smacked sharply across the face.
"Don't you lie to me you little shit, who did you tell!?" Uncle Vernon snaps at him, keeping his voice down in public as Harry's struggles knock over a candy stand making it crash to the floor, "Tell me now, or it's the cupboard for you with no food for a week," he growls out right into Harry's face.
One of the most hated words in Harry's vocabulary was the word "Cupboard" It was the single worst thing one could say to the boy who lived, the word would and did cause fire to shoot from his gut to his mind causing him to see red, so when the man who had spent ten long years tormenting him for nothing more than who and what he was said that fucking word, something inside Harry snapped, and with his anger came the Hunt.
"I didn't tell anyone!" Harry roared, his face twisting in a red rage, "So get your fucking hands-" Harry yells, before hooking one of Vernon's thumbs and bending it in the opposite direction before lashing out with his foot to kick the inside of Vernon's knee, bring the towering man down to Harry's height,"-OFF OF ME!" He roars into the surprised face of Vernon Dursley before cocking back his fist and slamming into the cheek of his uncle in a picture-perfect right hook, just as Atalanta had taught him.
Vernon falls backward into the wall of candy, it might not have been a punch with Harry's full weight behind it, but with the Hunt, it was more than enough to send Vernon flat on his back.
Harry stands there in shock with his arm extended as he looks down at Uncle Vernon, who was quickly picking himself back up, he had just struck his Uncle. He had fought back in a moment of pure, red-hot rage, he had done the biggest Taboo of number 4 Privet Drive other than asking questions, Harry had fought back.
Vernon gets back to his feet, wobbling as he did so, before wiping his mouth to see a trail of blood across his hand before rounding on Harry who was still standing in shock at what he did, "You little shit!" Vernon curses at Harry who jumps at the sound of his voice and the purple in Vernon's face before taking a step back.
"Stop, don't, don't fucking touch me!" Harry growls as he backs away from his Uncle right before Vernon reaches out and grabs Harry by his collar again before raising a closed hand to knock Harry's head off his shoulders, Harry forces his body to react, ready to dodge the hit before planting his feet and taking a real swing at the older man, another voice stops Vernon cold.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing to him?" Sirius says with a growl as he pushes past the gathering crowd looking on and whispering about the commotion that Vernon and Harry were causing. The heat and anger in Harry's godfather's voice were palpable as he stormed up and separated the two of them by shoving Vernon back before turning to Harry, worry in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" Sirius asks as he puts his hands slowly and carefully on Harry's shoulders, looking into his eyes with a bit of trepidation.
But before Harry could speak a word, Uncle Vernon speaks up, "I caught this little hooligan trying to steal," Vernon says sharply, pointing at Harry while shaking his finger at the boy and his face going through several shades of purple as Harry begins to shake again, "When I confronted him about it, he struck me! I want the police called! I want this boy arrested for assault!" he roars while glaring at Harry.
"Come off it," Sirius fires back as he turns to look at Vernon with a scowl, "Harry isn't a thief, and if he was one-" He tries to say, but Harry cuts him off as he yells back at Vernon.
"Fuck you!" Harry snaps at him, his anger, so white hot, so burning, so familiar to him as the Hunt whispered in his mind that prey was in front of him, to Hunt his Uncle down, to show him just how it felt to be scared and alone like in the Cup-orphanage-board, "You're lying," Harry snaps with such vitriol it caused Sirius to turn to him in surprise, "That's all you've ever done, Lie, you lied all the time about me, to me, you lied about my mom and dad, you lied about how they died, you lied about me when all you did was hurt me! Starve me! Hate me for no good reason! Fuck. You, Uncle Vernon! How about I stuff your lard ass in a fucking Cupboard with no food for a week and see how you like it! you piece of shit!" Harry yells back at his Uncle whose face twists with fury and anger as Harry's hand moves towards his jacket pocket, itching to have Serpent-Hunter in his hand as the Hunt prowled in the back of his mind, whispering to him to take bloody retribution on the man who had caused him so much pain in his life, that scared him so deeply.
"Vernon," Sirius whispers, as he slowly turns his head to look at the man who was now looking at him, "Dursley?" Sirius asks in a hiss, his own anger building at the man in front of him.
"Oh," Vernon says, his face sliding into disgust as he looks at Sirius, "You're one of them, a Fre-" was as far as he gets before Sirius lashes out with a punch that connects with Vernon's nose, sending the man reeling back with a bloody nose.
"You motherfucker, stay the fuck away from my godson," Sirius says in rage before he goes to snap out his wand and curses the lard fucker who had hurt Harry, but no sooner did he try was he stopped as some grabbed his wrist, before grabbing a charging Harry by his jacket and hauling him back.
"Sirius, Harry, stop! Not in public!" Atalanta says as she drags Harry backwards from Vernon before forcing him into Sirius' arms, "We need to leave, Now!" she commands after taking one look into the yellow-golden eyes of her little brother, and before Sirius could say a thing Atalanta cuts him off, "Now Sirius, we need to get Harry out of here before he goes too deep," she snaps at the older looking man as she struggles to hold Harry back.
Sirius takes one look at Harry before cursing under his breath, Zoë had explained the dangers of the Hunt to him six months ago when they had come to stay for the holidays, and he quickly wrapped his arms around Harry's waist before dragging him out of the store in a struggle.
"I'll have your heads for this!" Vernon screams, holding his bloody nose, "You, the boy, and this whore, do you understand me- crunch," Vernon began to scream lowering his hand from his nose just enough for when Atatlanta spun on her heel, it gives her a clear shot, and while Sirius had bloodied Vernon's nose, Atalanta broke it; knocking Vernon to the ground. Atalanta steps on Vernon's throat, cutting off his moan of pain as she glares down at the man.
"You ever come near my little brother again, I will gut you like a fresh kill, do I make myself clear?" Atalanta asks in a whisper, as she feels Vernon's Adam's apple bob as he swallows before taking her foot off his throat and delivering a swift kick to his ribs, breaking three of them, and sending the man sliding down the grocery aisle before turning around and barking at the gapping mundanes to make a hole and rushing out of the store.
It takes Atalanta three minutes longer than she would have liked to find Harry and Sirius again, tucked away in the back of an alley across the street from the Tesco, Harry was sitting down and rocking back and forth while clutching his head in his hand with his jaw gritting so tight, Atalanta wouldn't be surprised if he had cracked a few teeth. Sirius was kneeling in front of him talking to him in a panicked whisper, trying to get Harry to calm down, to come back from the Hunt, but wasn't doing a very good job of it by the looks of things.
"Why haven't you teleported back home yet," Atalanta asks as she jogs up to them, they had to get Harry away from the public, away from all the smells and sounds, and back into a familiar place with familiar smells and voices to pull him back from the Hunt.
"I can't when he's like this, if he doesn't hold on tight enough or let's go halfway through I'll splinch him," Sirius tells her in a stressed voice, "I'm trying to get him to calm down but I can't, it's like he can't hear me," he says, panicking himself.
"That's because he's having a panic attack," Atalanta says before kneeling to look Harry in the face, his eyes were screwed shut and his breathing ragged as he was fighting off the influence of the Hunt, "Harry," Atalanta says softly as she places her hands on Harry's that clutched his head, "Harry, I need to listen to me, I need you to hear me, I know it's hard but you have to fight it off, you need to push it out so Sirius can take you back home and I'll be back as soon as I can, okay, can you do that? Can you hear me?" Atalanta asks softly, trying to get Harry to do anything other than rock back and forth.
Harry could hear Atalanta, but it was like an echo coming from down one of the empty corridors of Hogwarts, and she was wrong. Harry knew when he was having a panic attack, he knew that coiling fear and anxiety in his guts that made his head spin and his breath come out short, no, this wasn't a panic attack; this was raw anger. Harry wanted nothing more than to give in to the Hunt, to go back into the store and kill Uncle Vernon, to pay him back for all the years he had spent locked in the cupboard, for all the missed meals, for every lash of the belt he didn't deserve. The only thing that stopped him was the thought of how utterly unsatisfying it would be to just kill him; he needed to hunt him, to make him fear it, to make him know every moment and minute Harry had spent living in that fear; and that thought, that thought scared Harry.
He wasn't like that, he knew he wasn't like that. He had never sought revenge against anyone, he never wanted to hurt anyone as badly as he did now; he wasn't like Vernon or Voldemort, he wasn't a bully, he wasn't.
But the Hunt kept playing memories in his head like a movie rail, every slamming of the cupboard door, every smack, every harsh word and growl of his empty stomach, all to feed his anger and rage at Vernon; to make him go back and hunt him. The yelling came next, Vernon and Petunia both screaming at him in the halls of Privet Drive, and they just wouldn't shut the fuck up! Harry begins to shiver at the cold feeling washing over him, the cold detached feeling of not being in his body, like everything was falling away as Harry tries to close off the tap.
"...Bloody fuck, what-..."
"-Did I tell you, boy!? What did-"
"Harry!...get up…you have to get-"
"Up! Up freak! I won't-"
"Touch him!"
"Expecto- Expecto- Fuck! Atalanta-"
"Grab Harry and run, it's him, Lily, Run!"
A putrid smell crawls into Harry's nose, a smell he knew for he had hunted two monsters that smelled the same just a few weeks ago, Harry's eyes snapped open showing the yellow-gold of the Hunt that has fully slipped into his mind as the scent of his prey was thick in the air. He saw Sirius struggling to get to his feet as the black cloak of a Dementor loomed over him, reaching out for the man who had given Harry a home and a family that loved him, he sees another gripping Atalanta's arm and face as she weakly struggled in its grasp.
And a Beast of the Hunt awakened with a roar.
Atalanta
She could taste it, blood and guts on her tongue that was of the greatest flavor; she had never tried ambrosia, but she was sure that this was its flavor.
She could feel it, her claws digging into the soft flesh of the half-blood she had stalked for miles, the hot blood running down her jowls as she tore into her prey; ever hungry for her next meal.
She could hear it, the screams of the children she had eaten as her time as a beast of the hunt, a hunt-mad monster of ravenous hunger that she was answering growl as she bit into the soft throat of the child to stop its screams so she could eat in peace.
And all of it turned her stomach, to be reminded of what she had spent the better part of her life as. The Lioness that was equal to the Nemean lion in its ferocity and hunger for the blood of half-bloods, and Atalanta Hated it; she hated these floating fucking blankets that came crawling from the shadows, bringing with them the haunting memories of her past life and cold that seeped into her very bones that weakened her and brought her low.
She hated Dementors, but what broke her heart wasn't the memories she was forced to relive, she could deal with that, no, what broke her heart was the roar of her little brother finally being pushed too far too fast, just like what had happened in the forbidden forest over a year ago.
Atalanta watches as the Dementor that was pulling her closer and closer to its mouth freezes just before Harry slams into it with a roar, "Formorian!" he screamed before Atalanta was knocked to the ground as Harry rams the Dementor into the opposite wall by its head, the overgrown blanket hit the wall with such force it sent cracks up the stone wall. Harry already had his spear in hand as he pulled it back, he cries out the name of a curse and the aura that burst from the spear blanketed the alleyway; the End had come, carried by a Hunter to the Dementors that dared touch those he cared about.
"Gáe!" Harry screams as Atalanta shakes the memories of the lioness she was from her head to reach through the fog of her mind to tap into the Hunt, "Bolg!" Harry yells, invoking a curse older than even Atalanta before driving his spear into the heart of the demon.
Atalanta smells the fresh blood as the spectral thorns twist, intertwine, and rip through Harry's arm as the Dementor dies screaming. "Harry! Stop!" Atalanta yells, pushing herself up as Harry rips the Dementor from his spear, nearly splitting it in two before pulling his spear out of the wall and turning to the second one who was frozen, in what Atalanta assumed to be, fear. Harry cocks the body of the dead Dementor back as its body starts to rip itself apart from the inside out with silver thorns and throws it at the one by Sirius, who was now passed out on the ground shivering, striking it.
As Atalanta lunges at Harry to stop him from hurting himself and going any deeper into the Hunt, the other Dementor, in fear for its life, tries to turn and flee. That was the last mistake that it ever did, Harry jumps on top of a nearby dumpster, Atalanta missing him by inches as he moved faster than her before using the wall to kick off of to get to his fleeing prey and landing a snap kick with a sickening crunch that sends the Dementor crashing to the ground. The twisting thorns return as Harry raises his spear and once more calls out for the Curse of Dún Scaith.
"Gáe Bolg!" Harry cries out before throwing his spear, as it leaves his hand, Atalanta watches as the thorns rip themselves out of his arm before the spear goes sailing through the air and pierces the heart of the Dementor with pinpoint accuracy and nailing it to the ground as the creature screamed in its death throes.
As Harry falls back to earth, Atalanta charges before leaping through the air and tackling Harry to the ground, they roll and wrestle before finally, Atalanta was able to wrap her arms and legs around the struggling Hunt-mad boy just as six cracks sounded throughout the alley.
"Harry Potter you ar-Holy Fuck!" one of the red-robed wizards says before spotting the two dead Dementors and screaming. A few of the other wizards look on with fear and green faces at the destroyed corpses of the Dementors as they begin to melt into foam and muck.
Harry continues to struggle in Atalanta's grasp, thrashing and roaring, trying to get loose so he could continue his hunt as the Aurors look on with shock at the two siblings. "Don't just stand there gawking!" Atalanta yells at them, shocking the men out of it as she holds back Harry from getting up, "Fucking Stun. Him! I don't know how long I can hold him for!" She yells, hoping and praying that what she had theorized about Harry was correct and he could come back from the Hunt's jaws.
The Aurors didn't need to be told twice as they raised their wands and a wall of scarlet light encompassed Atalanta's vision, and she knew no more.
While hundreds of miles away, in an ancient castle, two blood-red eyes snap open in fear and rage.
Chapter done!
If you think that Harry was immune to going absolutely ape shit, you are wrong. The Hunt is far more insidious than that, it will find a foothold and it will try and take over.
And much like the dark side of the force, darker emotions are key to letting it in, fear, hatred, pain, and anger.
And anger is Harry's fatal flaw.
Dementors are lesser Fomorians, and I will hear no argument about it.
Vernon fucked around, and quickly found out as Harry is taking small steps to overcome his abuse, such a shame it came at such a shitty time.
Now the question is; should Scáthach show up before Harry gets to Hogwarts, or should I wait till Harry gets to Hogwarts?
Hmmm.
Kingsaxcul, Out!