Walking Dead Wizard
Chapter 5
"Where did you get these?" Carol asked in surprise, as one of the guns was handed to her, it wasn't as heavy as she had expected it to be. She glanced at Harry but he was busy giving them out, but she held out hope that he would answer, he'd never outright ignore someone, and at least it hadn't been her experience with Harry anyway. He wasn't much of a talker, when he did talk it was mostly with the kids or the Dixon brothers.
"This is a toy for children," Andrea stated irritated beyond belief, she was sick of the men being so goddamned condescending she wanted to learn. She was pointing it at Harry as she spoke, causing his green eyes to gleam angrily, as he shoved it to the ground.
"They're pellet guns, and they have quite the bloody kick and can tear through skin no problem," Harry told her firmly, still glaring. "You're meant to be smart, so you should know that these guns have killed children in the past by being 'played' with."
"Oh," Andrea murmured losing her annoyance in the face of Harry's anger.
Across the quarry Daryl amble back from checking the traps, his gaze automatically looking around for Harry and Merle. He could see his brothers feet from here so he was obviously still in his tent, he was going to be pissed for the next few days, he knew Harry had taken Merle's stash and hidden it. It seemed it wasn't only Merle that was in a mood, he mused as he watched Harry. He knew him well, his stance screamed pissed off, like he got with Merle when he went too far sometimes.
"Now they're also used for hunting small game, and are used in target practice, to teach people how to shoot properly." Harry stated sharply, "If you go in guns blazing you'll only end up hurting someone so it's best to use these until you get accustomed to it."
"These ones you get off seventy rounds with the cartridge, ten per clip, the gun is plastic but the inside is metal," Harry continued on, tampering down on his anger, he was tired, he'd had hardly any sleep last night so he was very short tempered. "It will give you the practice you desperately need and nobody else is doing it, but if you don't want to do it, then go."
"This is great, I want to do it," Carol insisted, a small tense smile on her face. She didn't like tense situations and would always try to diffuse them if she could without drawing too much attention to herself. She wondered where Harry had gotten them, and if he had planned on helping them all along. Jacqui patted her arm in a soothing agreeable manner.
"Alright, the tins over there, you have three each, try and knock them off," Harry told them, "Get into a line, and if you want to go to retrieve your tins to put them back up, shout 'Stop' and everyone will give you time to do it. Alright go ahead, shoot!" Harry moved to the side, green eyes intently on them, as they took aim and shot off the rounds, none of the tins were touched, some aims were worse than others. They'd get better though, it was the whole point in teaching them. They would need to defend themselves and the others if they had a hope in hell in surviving.
After watching them for a few minutes he sighed softly before he commanded them to stop. "Alright, obviously that wasn't the way to go," he informed them, getting close to Amy, he aimed her gun more accurately, after reloading the gun "Stare down the barrel of the gun, keep it level, your aim will improve with practise allowing you to shoot with practiced ease, and hit your target dead on but until then you must learn calmly, slowly."
Amy shifted slightly, her cheeks tinged pink at his proximity, but she did as he suggested, staring intently before she pulled the trigger. Giving a great whoop of delight when she actually knocked the tin from its perched place on the stone rocks. "I did it!" she squealed in delight, turning to Harry and hugging him a great beaming smile on her face.
"You did, well done," Harry said patting her back slightly surprised by the rather…sudden display of affection. "Do that every time, and you'll be good in no time at all."
Daryl watched the entire scene, his eyes narrowed, jealousy shimmering through him so suddenly that it took him by surprise. It caused him to freeze, it wasn't the first time it had happened, but it was the first time it had been so strong. He had to stop himself from putting an arrow in the blondes head; his hands twitched to do just that before he stood up, crossbow in hand and disappeared into the trees unable to truly understand his own feelings. All he knew was he had to get away from the camp.
Three additional shots were fired off, each one hitting the tins; it seemed Andrea didn't like her sister being the centre of attention. Quite pathetic considering she was twice her age, at least, both girls were similar, long blonde locks, similar build, hell he'd assumed they were mother and daughter when he first saw them. He completely ignored her, watching them all put more circular clips into the gun and loading them. Smiling just a little as he saw them all doing just as he'd instructed Amy, they were listening and determined this was good.
"Alright, enough of the guns for today," Harry whistled, holding the bag out for them to put them in an hour later, "You're all really good, but we can't always use guns, as you know sound draws them, you must become proficient with knifes as well,"
"Knives?" Carol queried as the women silently and curiously followed Harry, he took them to the other side of camp, well away from the tents and into the line of trees that each had a large circular dot painted on them.
"Yep, well…daggers really, there's a good saying, daggers or swords can't run out of bullets, keep you safer," Harry said, "Now each tree has a red circle, most people are at least five foot, so I've marked the trees at that height. Of course the tree isn't going to move, so it will be easier for you to hit it, it wont be so easy when you come across a group, same for shooting I'm not even sure how to give you moving target practice when you do get the hang of it." he admitted wryly, shaking his head. Not without revealing his magic.
"Where are you from Harry?" Amy asked, everyone was curious about it, accepting the dagger she had been given.
"I was born in England, united Kingdom," he replied, knowing there was a New England here somewhere in the USA. "Spent my life between London and Scotland,"
"I've always wanted to go abroad," Carol admitted a wistful tone in her voice.
"Least you weren't abroad when this whole thing went down," Harry replied offhandedly, "Although I don't think it matters with the whole world ending, nowhere is home right now." might never be again was certainly thought by them all.
"I am so sorry I didn't…" Carol looked horrified.
"Don't be," Harry replied giving her a rare smile, he missed Hogwarts but he'd missed it long before the world had gone to shit.
"But your family…" Carol trailed off still looking upset.
"I ain't got no family," Harry replied, damn he was sounding more and more like them every day, glancing around camp quickly, doing a head count. "Tree each, everyone else is accounted for so there won't be any accidents. I'm sure you all know how to use it, throw the pointy bit." he heard Merle laughing in amusement, obviously overhearing him.
"You should rest some more," Harry said giving Merle a concerned look.
"Don't you concern yourself with ol' Merle," the elder Dixon said, scoffing a little, "Take more than being cuffed to a roof to kill me." uncomfortable with the concerned look the boy was giving him. They'd known him for two months and he had never revealed his history, and they'd never bothered to ask - having no intention of sharing their own, but it surprised him that Harry didn't have a family, he just seemed like he should have.
Harry snorted, ruefully shaking his head, Merle was nuts honestly, and Harry wouldn't have him any other way.
"You're holding the knife all wrong, sugar," Merle grumbled out, his large frame making the women and Harry quite incidentally, look even smaller in comparison.
Harry just cocked his head to the side when they all looked at Merle grimacing before glancing at him, "I would listen to him if I were you, he could probably throw a knife at a squirrel and hit it dead on by the time he was five. There ain't anyone better to learn from, except maybe Daryl but who do you think taught Daryl quite a bit about what he knew?" fed up at the looks the brothers constantly got, yes they were abrasive but bloody hell, there was no need to be all defensive - he'd said worse things to him and he didn't take it to heart. Maybe they just needed more time to get used to them?
"I taught my little brother everything he knew," Merle corrected him, his tone a mixture of pride and protectiveness, only Harry got that though, the others thought he just sounded smug.
"Like this?" Amy asked, holding it differently, seeking their approval, the dagger was beautiful, handle was crafted with mother of pearl, extremely sharp and deadly, she felt safer already just holding it in her hand. She was younger; she was able to bounce back quicker than the other women, able to let the words roll off her back.
Merle grunted before moving over to her, ignoring how tense Andrea got, he didn't think of Amy like that thank you very much, she was a good kid, no doubt, but she was just that, a kid. Although if the world hadn't ended he would have taken her home to entice his brother, not that it had worked in the past. He corrected her stance and moved the dagger into a proper position roughly but not painfully, using her arm, moving it back and forth to demonstrate without saying a word then he moved away. He did smirk at Andrea as he passed when he noticed Amy got it right in the centre of the tree. "Ain't anything to worry about sugar tits,"
Harry's lips twitched, Merlin Merle could wind up a bloody saint.
An hour later the girls tried to return the daggers but Harry put his hand up, shaking his head, tossing each of them a sheath for their daggers that had clips on them so they could be attached to their clothes or preferably a belt. "Keep them, never go anywhere without them; you never know when you might need them." Harry informed them seriously, "You should have gotten weapons before this, for yourselves." he glanced at them pointedly, but they'd just relied on Shane.
After that the girls were in wind, doing whatever the hell they wanted to. Merle had gone back to his tent ten minutes after wandering over. Yawning tiredly, he dragged his feet back over to their little camp, grabbing water from his tent before slouching down in one of the seats, only to yawn again, he was so bloody tired and it had only gone midday if he was lucky. He hated the afternoon, it got unbearably hot, and he just wasn't used to it.
"You need to keep hydrated," Harry murmured quietly, throwing over the bottle.
Predictably Merle grunted but drank from the bottle but something caught his attention, his blue eyes narrowed.
Harry glanced over as well, only to see Ed slap Carol in front of the others. It seemed as though his threats hadn't worked as well as he would have liked. Merle gave a ferocious growl, before he was up out of his seat and running towards the scene, Harry blinked when he saw Merle actually lashing out at Ed. What the hell was that all about? He'd never shown a care before about what happened to Carol, feeling slightly bewildered he jumped up himself, his earlier tiredness forgotten as he ran towards the fight.
He got there in time to herd Carol away from the fight, she was screaming and pleading for Merle to stop still clutching her face. "Get her into her tent, calm her down before Sophia sees her like this," Harry demanded of Andrea, "Go on."
"Let's go Carol," Jacqui said, as both she and Andrea got her away from the scene of her husband being beaten to a pulp. Amy as always followed closely behind her sister, glancing back curiously every now and again.
Unsurprisingly Rick and Shane barrelled into the scene, "Don't," Harry told them sternly, "You know he can take all three of you on,"
"You can't let him keep…" Rick gestured towards Merle who was still beating the now barely conscious Ed.
"Merle, Merle you can stop now," Harry shouted, not once approaching the highly strung man. "I know you're just giving him a taste of his own medicine, hell I've wanted to do it since we got here, but you can't kill him. We don't have the medicine to heal him either if anything gets infected or if you've broken bones." he would never share his potions with this son of a bitch, personally he didn't care if he lived or died, he absolutely loathed child abusers.
"Taste of his own medicine?" Rick murmured quietly. Noticing that Merle had stopped, he just stood panting dangerously over the man, his blue eyes gleaming darkly.
"You've not been here long enough, he's a wife beater and a child abuser, I warned him myself not to lay a hand on Carol or Sophia, and if Merle hadn't done it I would have done it myself." Harry informed him bluntly and truthfully. "You better get him to his tent," inside he was cheering, they had no medical supplies, nothing that would ease this son of a bitches pain, he truly was going to suffer, and he was feeling everything he'd put his wife and daughter through over the years. It annoyed him how she bloody cried for him; he certainly wouldn't have done it if the situation had been reversed.
Shane and Rick managed to lift Ed between them, Shane scowling darkly, muttering under his breath, Rick hissing back apparently able to hear him.
Harry gazed at Merle's back still reeling in surprise; he knew Merle wasn't as bad as he liked to make out, but this? Nah, it was definitely not something he'd expected to happen. Did he like Carol? Or was he just against beating a woman? They stayed stood there, just gazing out at nothing, Merle lost in horrible memories and Harry? Harry just wanted to be there for the Dixons, he owed them his life, he liked them a lot and he protected those he liked with his life if need be. They were the only ones in this godforsaken earth that his secret that alone spoke volumes.
There we go! now Merle it seems can keep his mouth shut when he wants to lol and be respectful :P I'm not sure yet what he thinks of the Guvnor whether he honestly feels indebted to him or not but so far he's been nothing but respectful to him (even doing his dirty work! tut tut bad boy) sooo hopefully I can have it happen where he calms down in the group without it being OOC for him :D seems to me he'd do anything for his brother even if he's a shitbag that keeps bringing him down! As I've said before it's probably going to be a slow burn between Daryl and Harry...the question is will Merle survive to see it? will it truly take Daryl being alone to accept all sides of him? to truly change? Will it be Jim and Amy who dies and stick to canon or will it be someone else? I'm tempted to mix it up :D people wont expect it ;) and sorry...guess I never saw a good place for a flashback... I hate those damn things, maybe I should have started before it all went to hell...do you think I should? write a few chapters before it all started then post them all? what do you think? R&R please