Harry was sitting across from River as she fidgeted. Simon looked at the oddity that was how Harry locking eyes with his sister was all it took to make her sedate enough to do more tests. "Now, I'm going to start pushing you back, it's going to be a lot more gentle than when I shoved you out, so get used to that feeling, it will help you block out the extra thoughts," Harry said to the girl who was transfixed with his own gaze.

River shivered and shuddered, like someone was running a piece of ice along her spine. "It… it feels weird," River whined, clearly uncomfortable with the sensation.

"Alright you're out now, but we need you to test on someone who can't keep you out like I can, you'll have to do it yourself," Harry nodded as he grabbed a piece of paper and drew an image of a castle. "Alright now Simon take a look at this and then think about it, don't say it. Then look her in the eyes."

Simon played along with the game that Harry was playing with his sister. "Alright River, now draw what Simon is thinking about." Offering her another scrape and the pencil.

River took the piece of paper and quickly redrew the castle that Harry had shown Simon. The doctor rolled his eyes. "Fancy magic trick, but I still need cultures."

"One more," Harry shushed the man. "Alright River, you could hear his thoughts, this time just like when I pushed you out, push out the other thoughts."

River screwed up her features before nodding her head. This time Harry drew a cerberus and showed it to Simon. Letting River draw, she hesitated and after a few seconds put down the pencil. "I can't… I don't hear it."

"That's progress," Harry smiled.

"Oh a dog with three heads," River finally said after she let down her guard.

"And we're back to square one, well like one and a half. At least she can keep out the other thoughts, but she has to actively do it," Harry sighed because it was like the opposite with her. It made him actually regret not taking his lessons on Occlumency Snape had given him as seriously, because now he was suddenly the one trying to teach it. Harry pulled off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.

"At the very least you distracted her long enough that I could get some more samples to test, so thanks for playing with her," Simon said while urging Harry out of the room.

It was somewhat frustrating to not be taken seriously, but unless he wanted to reveal that he was magical to them, which wasn't something he was even considering, he relented that Simon's trust in science and medicine would dictate his beliefs. But it wasn't something Harry dwelled on for very long before running into the captain who sent him to help Book secure the fences so the cattle didn't run away.

On the surface of the planet, Harry was tightening some rope as he heard Book explain that his title as shepherd was mostly figurative. "Damn shame we can't keep one of them, imagine the steak, ooh and the potatoes," Wash moaned at the thought of good food. "Harry can you make some steak and potatoes for dinner?"

"If we had some then maybe I could, but you'd have to convince the captain to negotiate some meat from the buyers," Harry grunted as he pulled on the bindings. "Can't all be used for dairy."

"I'll just be glad to have them off the ship," Zoe basked in the sun. "If we smuggle livestock again, we should do it with something smaller and less smelly."

"Oh like those black-market beagles," her husband chimed in with a suggested product.

Zoe hopped off the fence and patted Harry on the back, "Alright kid, you can head on into town now for the supply run, we got everything here settled up for the trade."

Figuring this was her polite way to make sure he wasn't around in case the shooting started Harry headed off towards the town to make the purchases to restock the ship, lest they turn to cannibalism. Seemingly the captain had the same, if probably little more blunt talk with Simon about him and his sister not being around as the two fell into step with him. Harry looked down. "You got cow crap on your shoe."

Simon pursed his lips. "I didn't notice," he sourly stated back to the ship's cook.

Approaching the general store he could hear the idle chatter of Kaylee and Inara. "He's cute, don't you just wanna take a bite out of him?" Kaylee commented.

Inara blushed before noticing Harry walk in, along with two others that normally didn't leave the confines of Serenity, "Careful now."

Wanting to take his time perusing the things for sale he glanced around the shelves as Simon tried to keep River from going around and touching everything. "Huh," Harry muttered as he picked up a plate in front of him, it looked like one of those old Japanese paintings. "This looks pretty neat."

Simon came over with River after getting her away from the post-holer, "Jiangyin prairie paradise. Good god. They're asking money for this crap?"

Harry just shrugged and put the plate down, missing the smile faltering from Kaylee's face, but she tried to keep up the positivity and converse with Simon, "It's nice to see you two out, a good chance so you can have some fun."

"Fun?" Simon turned and smiled before taking a can from River. "Oh yeah I consider this fun. It's fun, being forced to the ass-end of the galaxy. To get to live on a luh-suh wreck. And to eat molded protein. And to be bullied around by our boo-tai jung tzhang duh of a captain. It's so much fun."

This time Harry didn't fail to notice how hurt Kaylee was, Serenity was her baby, she loved that ship, and he knew just how sensitive she could be. "Hey now, Simon, that's uncalled for. I get you're mad about everything. Believe me, I understand how shite a situation can be in life. But you don't need to take it out on Kaylee."

"I- well, I didn't mean," Simon cringed at how his bluntness had insulted one of the few crew members that was nice to him.

"No you did," Kaylee huffed as tears stung her eyes. "You don't think much of this life, then you can't think much of the people who choose it."

Rather than wait for a response, Kaylee pushed past the doctor back out onto the streets to return to the comfort of the engine room. "You screwed up," Inara informed Simon as she followed after Kaylee in the hopes to lift her spirits.

Simon looked to Harry who only offered him a shrug. "Well what am I supposed to do, lie about how much I'm enjoying it?"

"Of course not," Harry scoffed. "But you should try to find some silver lining. Can't be all bad living on the ship, we're not trying to do you or your sister any harm, more than can be said for a lot of other places out here."

Harry moved to gather up the sundries. "Oh and for the record. None of the food I've served has been moldy, thank you very much."

Simon let out a groan because he'd really bungled this mess if even Harry was getting openly annoyed with him. Then he noticed his sister had gone missing. "River?" looking around the store, finding that he couldn't see her anywhere. "I can't find River."

Harry looked around before noticing out the window River crossing the street. "She's outside."

Simon let out a sigh of relief and exited. "Dang it," he hissed as suddenly the building right next to the alley River ducked into had sheriff's coming out and headed straight for the general store. Keeping his head down he let out a quiet morning officers to the men who passed him by.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you are incapable of being inconspicuous?" Harry said in disbelief that for a man hellbent on avoiding authority that he would somehow make himself look like the guiltiest man on the planet.

Heading back to the ship with the foodstuffs, Harry suddenly heard the sound of gunshots from over the ridge. Putting some pep in his step Harry crested the hill to see a shootout between the sheriffs that he saw earlier and some other fools. "Keep your head down kid," Zoe shouted at him from near a tree. She was taking shots with a rifle to suppress someone. Harry hadn't exactly determined if the captain had or had not run afoul of the law.

Soon as it started, the shooting stopped and Harry was left holding a box of food as the sheriffs arrested the men Harry assumed to be the buyers. "Oh crap," Harry muttered as he could see that everyone was getting up off the dirt, except for Book. "Book's shot!" Harry shouted as he hurried over to the preacher.

The captain got to him first and looked at the bullet hole that was just above his heart. "Stretcher," Mal said to Harry who hurried himself into the ship, now that the shooting had stopped Inara and Kaylee were coming out.

"Help me with the stretcher, Book's been hit," Harry said as he bounded up to the med bay for the board.

He came back down and helped them roll him onto the backboard. Carrying him in he could see Kaylee start to get really upset about the shape of the preacher. Once in the medbay, Zoe started to cut his shirt open while Mal dug through the drawers. "He ain't breathin'," Kaylee hiccuped and Harry's eyes widened.

He slowly started to reach for his pocket where he kept his wand when Book suddenly lurched and sucked in air.

"Wash, Harry, no use standing around," Mal said, taking command. "Go back to town and find that jing tzahng mei yong duh doctor we keep around."

It was a fruitless search. Harry went back over to Wash on the atv. "Talked with the shopkeeper in the general store, he said that if we can't find our friend and that if he was really a doctor, then he got snatched by people that live in the hills who might have a use for him. Didn't give me directions to where they are, but…"

Wash let out a curse. "But we need a doctor. Book needs a doctor."

Running his hand through hair Harry sighed. "Alright look, go back to the ship, tell the captain we can't find Simon or River without time to search, time that we don't have. Maybe, maybe there's an alliance vessel nearby they'd have a medic on board right? More than we got right now."

"What are you going to do?" Wash asked while mounting the atv.

"Gonna go find Simon and River, either get them back or… Merlin willing they want to stay here, but Book needs medical help now. You can come back for us," Harry urged as he started to look around the hills. Once he saw Serenity take off into the sky Harry headed onto the outskirts of town and pulled out his wand.

"Point me, Simon Tam," Harry said as his wand spun around before facing a direction.

Following the trail for a few hours Harry arrived at a small village in the mountains. He could see various people milling about the center. "Can't get caught up in this place, doubt they take kindly to outsiders they don't bring in themselves." tapping the top of his head with his wand he felt the sensation of an egg being cracked over his head. Silencing his footsteps he crept through the town while looking in through the windows until he found Simon in one of the buildings. Removing his disillusionment charm he entered the building quietly. "Simon," Harry whispered over to the man who looked up in surprise to see Harry standing by the back door.

"Harry? What did they dump you here too?" Simon asked the young man because he figured that captain was finally getting rid of him and his sister, so it was a surprise to see that Mal would willingly leave behind his cook.

"What no, we had to go, Book got shot and we couldn't find you, they had to take off to hopefully find medical help elsewhere, but they'll come back for us," Harry reassured the doctor.

"Where was he shot?" Simon inquired because where the bullet entered would really determine the severity of the issue.

Harry pointed to just above his heart. And Simon nodded. "Yeah he'd only have a few hours," Simon admitted while knowing that by now if Book hadn't received surgery he'd be dead. And that made him feel guilty because he'd thought such awful things about the crew when really he should have been with them when he was needed most.

"Yeah so I stayed behind to track you and your sister down and bring you back," Harry said before ducking out of sight as the matron returned to the building.

Now that his sister had been brought up Simon realized that he hadn't seen River in a while.

Harry waited for a chance for River and Simon to be able to slip out but events conspired against him as suddenly River was being accused of being a witch after speaking of what happened to a little girl that resulted in her being mute.

The townsfolk once they decided that River was a blasphemer tossed Simon into a guarded room while they built the pyre to burn her on. Harry just belted out a silenced stream of curses because this rescue mission was going so horribly, just like all the other times he tried to be heroic.

Simon was sitting on the bed plotting some way to break out and save his sister when he heard two strange sounds followed by thumps. The door was thrown open and Harry was standing in the doorway. "Grab your shit and start going back to town, now," Harry ordered while making sure the way was still clear.

"I can't leave River," Simon protested that he would ever entertain the notion of leaving his sister behind.

"I can't get her and keep you safe at the same time," Harry said, even if he could but that would risk exposing himself to not just the Tams but the entire village that might try to warn the Alliance of his existence. "So you start getting on that path, I promise I will get River back."

Simon wanted to protest but he wasn't a fighter, Harry however was an oddball who was a teenager but could track him and his sister down and handle a sword, so the doctor wasn't sure just what else Harry was capable of. "You promise?" Simon asked.

"If you don't get going, you're going to wake up on Serenity with no memories of what happened today," Harry warned as he pointed in the direction he needed Simon to go.

The doctor exited the room to see the two guards that had been posted were lying on the ground, still alive but they weren't moving. As if Harry had hit them with a paralytic.

Once outside he was confused as a bank of fog started to roll in, he was pretty sure that it was much too warm for this type of weather but it was conveniently giving him a good cover to escape the town.

Harry finished his nebulus charm and then started running towards the pyre, the damp mist would ensure the wood wouldn't light but that didn't preclude them throwing rocks at her. "Confundus," Harry said as he started tagging random people with the confusion charm, their sudden change in behavior provided the perfect distraction for him to get to the stake they had tied River too.

Harry whispered a diffindo to sever the ropes and he pulled River along behind him. Pointing his wand to the sky. "Periculum," casting the firework spell that he'd learned for the third task of the damned tournament.

Once they had made it out of the boundaries of the village Harry flicked his wand for one final spell to ensure they didn't chase them back down. "Repello Muggletum," Harry said knowing that as the townsfolk went to chase after them once the fog and confusion cleared they'd be stopped from doing so by the charm he put up.

Thankfully his burst of red sparks in the sky was enough for the Serenity to see as Harry, Simon and River were soon bathed in the ship's floodlights. "We are so glad to see you," Harry said as the trio boarded the ship in time to take off into the atmo again.

"Course we weren't going to leave you behind," Kaylee smiled at Harry. She thought he was really brave to go and rescue the doctor and his sister. She would have been quite upset if Harry didn't come back with the others.

"Mind yourself that you don't make a habit of it, otherwise we might be getting to thinking you're making a permanent change of residence," Mal warned the doc as he brought his sister in.

"But you still came back for us?" Simon questioned.

Exhaling heavily, Mal rubbed his nose. "Can't go leaving my cook behind, got too used to meals being edible round here, plus you're my crew, even if this luh-suh wreck isn't to your liking. So why we still talking about it? Harry, get to the kitchen, we're starving, Alliance didn't provide us with any snacks."

"Got it captain," Harry waved off the man as he went up to the kitchen.

He could just feel someone watching him from the side. "What is it River?" he turned to the strange girl who looked at him oddly.

"You are the one who is who they seek," River surmised because she saw things in the fog. It wasn't a clear picture but the cook was an odd man. "The red eyes see you, hands of blue search for you."

"It would be for the best if you forgot all about that," Harry suggested as he mixed the pot on the stove. He heard the girl start to walk away and he hung his head. "What the fuck happened to you Tom?"