Walking Dead Wizard

Chapter 17

Harry groaned when he returned to consciousness, he felt as though he had just literally fallen asleep. Flinging his arm over his eyes, he sighed softly, he really missed being able to sleep a full night. He didn't know if it was his magic being constantly aware that caused his insomnia or if it was paranoia of the constant threat of walkers that prevented him sleeping. He didn't trust anyone on watch unless it was Daryl or Merle and maybe Rick but there was more chance of Rick using a gun than Daryl and Merle so push came to shove it would be those two. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly sat up, stretching himself out, his back cracking in satisfaction having been in that cramped position for a good few hours. He was still dressed in the clothes he'd been wearing before all this shit went down, so he smelt bloody awful, sliding off his makeshift bed, he put his trunk to the other side of the tent and returned it to its correct size. Noticing a blue glow indicating that the book he was using with Hermione had been written in. She probably got the information from the scientist, Edwin Jenner and wanted to tell him what he already knew.

He would reply after he got dressed, the stench coming off him was unbelievably bad. Glancing to make sure the tent was still zipped, he nodded to himself before he quickly got undressed, even his underwear stank something foul. Once he was undressed he used his magic to clean himself up, shivering as his magic brushed over him. He grabbed some clean clothes, underwear, a pair of black cargo pants, and a white vest. Brushed and put his hair back up so it was out of the way, one walker had gotten too close and actually yanked his hair, since then he always put it up after lengthening it just enough so that it could go into a ponytail. Shoving his soiled clothes outside the tent, only after getting all his stuff from the pockets, they definitely needed to be washed he doubted the cleaning spell would work well.

Staring at his guns in the belted holsters, he flung them into the trunk, he wasn't fussed either way. Guns could get you killed; you were better off using a knife of some kind, sword or dagger. Then he remembered they were going training, grumbling he grabbed it back out and tied it around his stomach before changing compartments to find a knife and gun for Sophia to use as well as Carol. After a few moments contemplating the messily but immensely packed trunk, he pulled out one knife and two guns, as far as he was aware Carol should still have the knife he gave her at the quarry unless she'd dropped it during the chaos? It was possible, so he picked up an additional one just to be on the safe side. Putting them aside on his bed, he sighed softly before changing compartments once again; grabbing the book he and Hermione had been using to communicate.

'I received the email from Doctor Jenner, Harry we need to talk'

'Harry something happened, one of the wards at Hogwarts was weakened, one of us had to go out and fix it - the wards would and shut right down stopping them getting back in - Harry it was Luna that went, I'm so sorry. She's making her way towards you, she needs your coordinates.'

'HARRY PLEASE REPLY!'

'Merlin, Harry please be okay!'

"FUCK! Stupid, stupid, stupid idiot, if anything happens to you I'll bloody kill you!" Harry hissed at the book as he read the words written there, his heart pounding in fear and worry. She was supposed to be safe! They were all supposed to be safe! How could they have let her leave? Harry groaned in despair, unable to believe this was happening.

Hearing sounds at the tent he whirled around to see Daryl standing at the flap knife in hand looking worried. "You alrigh'?"

"No," Harry hissed, slamming the book closed, he shrunk his trunk dived for his bag and got everything prepared. "I need to leave." he wasn't leaving Luna out there on her own, it had been three days by the date Hermione put down. Three days she'd been out there on her own. "Point me Luna Lovegood," Harry said the words, waiting in horrified silence, Harry could have laughed in relief when he felt the wand twitching in the direction she was in. She was alive, at least for now, he had no idea what her condition was like.

"Why?" Daryl asked backing out slowly when Harry moved towards him and the front of the tent.

Merle looked up from where he was skinning the squirrels and rabbits he found during a hunt. His blue eyes squinting as he tried to see properly but not quite succeeding due to the suns glare. He could hear what was going on well enough though.

"I don't have time to explain," Harry said, already moving to leave the farm.

"Then make time," Merle said, "What's going on?"

Harry sighed, "Someone I know is out there on their own, she was supposed to be safe." here Harry gritted his teeth in seething silent fury. "She had to fix something and it locked her out, she can't get back in so she decided in all her wisdom to come looking for me three days ago."

"How?" Merle asked cautiously, "Does she know where you are? Is she going to the CDC?"

"Tracking charm," Harry admitted after looking around.

"That how you found Sophia?" Merle enquired slightly off topic.

"No, tracking charm only allows magic to trace magic," Harry revealed, getting more and more anxious the longer he spoke.

"If it works like a GPS then shouldn't you stay in the one area so she can get to you quicker? If you start bouncing from one place to the other she'll be going back and forth, you don't even know where she is, she could be a few miles from here." Daryl said, urging Harry to reconsider. The way Harry froze on the spot he must have been quite accurate in his guess.

"You've seen it out there!" Harry shook his head, "She's on her own, and I can't just leave her to fend for herself."

"Seems like she's doing just fine, it's been three days you said yourself, and she has her magic," Merle's voice went low as he admitted that. He watched Harry calculatingly; he had never seen him show so much anger or care over someone. Never looked as though he missed anyone, but considering what he said, that she was in a safe place perhaps he felt he hadn't needed to worry?

Harry hunched over, it felt so wrong even considering leaving her to come to him, what if something happened and she never got here? He would forever blame himself, but he also had no idea how she was doing it. There were many ways magical people used to transport themselves from one place to another. Damn the world really had gone to shit and the brothers were making all the sense in the world. She was strong, she could look after herself, he'd seen her use magic firsthand, saw how quick she was, hell she'd cast a patronus during the D.A meetings, one of the first few and she was younger too. Trying to reassure himself wasn't helping any at all.

"What age is she?" Merle asked, still sitting with his calculating look all the while skinning the squirrel's.

"Twenty," Harry eventually said, relaxing slightly, staring out at the fields, half expecting her to turn up, but knowing it wouldn't be that easy. He would teach Carol and Sophia then he would head out, send her a patronus message and wait for one to return, only then would he relax. Harry used the palm of his hand to rub at his forehead in agitation, his mind flashing to the herds of walkers he'd seen, in Atlanta, on the road, the close calls they'd had and he'd had people with him.

Merle was surprised, the way he was going on he half expected this girl to be the same age as Sophia. "If she's anything like you, you ain't got anything to worry about."

Harry breathed out, alright; he had a plan he was going to stick to it. He was going to train Sophia and Carol then later he would leave the others so he could send Luna a message. He reluctantly nodded his head, before going back to his tent, flinging his bag in the corner and grabbing the swords and guns for the others. Sliding them into his cargo pants, once again grateful for the many pockets especially considering it was too hot to wear jumpers and he couldn't very well hide his wand up his sleeve without others seeing or feeling it. "Come on, let's go get some breakfast, especially you," he said specifically for Daryl, he really shouldn't be up and about, but the spells must have helped him a hell of a lot.

"Alrigh'," Daryl agreed, he would make sure Harry didn't sneak off, but he knew Harry wouldn't do that; he would do whatever he wanted and would tell them as much. He took his time walking towards the group, his side still a little sensitive but it was much better than he expected it to be, spells or no spells. "Who is she?" he asked when they were half way, finally summoning up the courage. Daryl wasn't sure he actually wanted to know - Harry obviously cared a lot about her.

"Luna? She's been my best friend since she was fourteen and I was fifteen, been through a lot together, she understood me in a way my other friends cant 'cept Neville…though it wasn't through any fault of their own." Harry replied quietly, his eyes shadowed.

"How's that?" Daryl asked, seen as they were still quite a bit away from the group.

"Loss," Harry replied tensely, "Luna lost her mum, Pandora, when she was young, died in front of her, she was nine years old. It affected her long into her teenage years; she found it hard to let anyone in, acted distant and odd to those around her making them wary of her. They thought she was nuts, in other words, took my other best friend Hermione a while to warm up to her because she thought she was stupid. Although everyone feels stupid next to Mione," Harry said wryly, but that just might save the human race if a cure could be found. "Anyway my other friends, except Neville have never had anything bad happen to them, I suppose you could say they were really innocent, and had such a childish outlook on life."

"Like them," Daryl pointed out to the group; he hadn't met anyone undamaged until that group came to the quarry with the obvious exception being school which he had never finished.

"Most of them, yes," Harry nodded his agreement, despite the fact the world was now literally crawling with dead people they still thought everything was going to be okay, thought they could stay on this farm forever and wait it out. They hoped, might not be a bad thing to do in this new world, but Harry had given up on hoping for anything a long time ago. "Take the seat," Harry told Daryl giving him a pointed look, he didn't want any arguing.

"Morning," Carol said, smiling from where she was cooking scrambled egg and bacon for everyone. Everyone else was there as well, Andrea, Shane, T-Dog, Glenn who looked extremely nervous, Dale, Amy, Rick, Lori and Carl.

"Good morning, Sophia still sleeping?" Harry asked, very surprised to see her without her daughter.

"She's gone to get her get well card for Carl, she insisted on making one this morning," Carol told him quietly, with an amused look on her face one could only get when dealing with children.

"He's a fighter," Harry said, passing one of the plates Carol handed him to Daryl then the other to Merle who was sitting a bit away on a tree stump. He still wasn't comfortable with the group and liked to stay on the edge of it. Daryl wasn't so obvious about it; either that or he was warming up to the group. Sophia could still care about people even if she had to lose some of that in a bid to survive this new world.

Carol nodded in agreement as she began to cook more food presumably for herself and Sophia since everyone else was currently eating.

"Foods good, I'm guessing it's from the farm?" Harry asked nobody in particular.

"It is," Carol was the first to reply as the others just nodded their heads, too busy eating their breakfast with gusto, and who could blame them? After days on the road hardly eating anything, this was a godsend. You got used to it though, eating decent at the quarry then not on the way to the CDC then eating well for two meals then fleeing the CDC and then not eating to being in a farm and actually getting fresh eggs. Too bad he couldn't stow away one of those chickens in his trunk, would have been great to have fresh eggs every day.

"Uh guys?" Glenn spoke up, decidedly uncomfortable, "There's walkers in the barn." he blurted out as if he couldn't contain it anymore.

Everyone stared at Glenn blankly, half expecting him to laugh and say it was a joke. Only Harry realized that he wasn't kidding first, since he could sense the truth of his words. Harry was just in the process of swallowing his last bite when Shane bolted closely followed by everyone except Carol who ran towards the tents - to get to her daughter.

Harry didn't need to go closer, he could hear the moaning, which got fiercer when Shane in all his wisdom decided to actually look inside the barn and entice the walkers within at the prospect of fresh meat. Shane jerked away suddenly when fingers threaded through the cracks in the barn door. "What the fuck is going on here?" Harry said mostly to himself, gazing at the barn as if he just couldn't comprehend why someone would do such a thing. "Why would anyone keep a barn full of walkers? Right next to your family?"

"You cannot tell me you're alright with this?" Shane demanded walking towards Rick rage pouring off every move he made; he was becoming even more and more unhinged as the days went past. He'd been gone for the last few days, so he had no idea what had happened to cause this psychotic state he was in right now.

"No, I'm not," Rick snapped back, his eyes never leaving the barn. Harry was right he was a loose cannon, a threat to their lives and there was nothing that could be done. He wouldn't give up on his best friend, his brother; he just hoped that somehow the Shane he knew would come back. "But we're guests here; this isn't our land."

"We can't just walk away," Andrea insisted, interrupting Shane and Rick argued about leaving or staying. "They are a threat to us, and a threat to the family." She didn't want anything to happen to Amy, she refused, and they were a stones throw away from their camp. These people obviously didn't see the walkers as a threat, someone had to do something before someone got hurt and ultimately killed.

"Part of them must know that," Harry pointed out, "They just don't want to admit it, I'm going to guess someone in the family was turned?"

"Two," Glenn replied, "Hershel's wife Annette and her son Shawn,"

"We can't just go-" Rick was still arguing with Shane.

"Why, Rick?" Shane demanded, spinning around to face his friends again. "Why?"

"Just let me talk to Hershel, let me figure it out." Rick argued, not telling Shane why.

"Man, what the hell are you going to figure out?" Shane spat pacing like a bull.

"His wife and stepson are in there, he believes they are sick, that they can be cured," Dale admitted entering the conversation.

"You knew about this?" Shane spat angrily rounding on the older guy.

"Yesterday, I spoke to Hershel," Dale said grimly, not backing down from Shane.

"And you didn't say anything?!" Shane shouted.

"Glenn wanted to be the one to say anything," Dale explained, "I thought we would last another night, we did."

The doors to the barn were pushed out again as all the yelling drew the walkers toward them and urging them to press against the doors to try and escape - to get to the food that awaited them. Harry watched Lori wrap Carl behind her back, Carol was doing the same thing with Sophia; the others stepped away from the doors to put themselves at a safer distance, to discourage the walkers from them.

"Shit," Harry muttered, rubbing his tired eyes, could this be why he was having trouble getting to sleep? His proximity to walkers? That his magic was flaring to warn and protect him from a threat?

"Got that right," Merle spoke for the first time, too interested in watching everyone's reactions. He knew all hell would break loose soon, and there ain't a thing anyone could do to stop it.

"He's gonna do something stupid," Harry stated watching Shane in the distance.

Both Dixon's grunted in agreement.

"What do you really think of all this?" Harry said glancing one last time at the barn, before looking around and unobtrusively casting a spell around the barn so if anything got out he'd know.

Silence was his answer; the Dixons didn't know what the hell to think about it.

Harry nodded resignedly, he didn't either. "We need to keep an eye on the barn, one of us at all times, and there are kids in this camp and women who would stand around in fear while they were bitten rather than defend themselves. Let's not forget the Greene's who seem to think Walkers make good company." he was unable to suppress his sarcasm at that last statement. "It's quite secure, but there's at least a dozen walkers in there, if they press against it hard enough…" he didn't need to say what the hell would happen; it would be like the Quarry all over again.

"First things first, a gun is not a toy, you never aim it at anyone unless you mean business, yes?" Harry said kneeling before Sophia as Rick and Shane dealt with the others. They were placing wine bottles all along the fence for the others to aim at. "And if I ever find you playing with it I will take it away." glancing briefly at Carol but she seemed relieved at what he was saying. "I can see you aren't comfortable with it, and that's okay, you will be with time, it's not loaded get a feel of it." he said to her with a reassuring smile. "You too." he added to Carol.

"You aim like this Sophia," Harry said adjusting her grip, "See these?" gesturing towards the lines through the middle of the gun, "You look through those to your target, your target is the top wooden fence." he wasn't putting bottles up, he would rather they hit a specific target so he could see how good their aim was. It would also help Sophia and Carol learn their aim a lot faster.

"I'm doing it too, Harry, see!" Carl said grinning widely, watching what Harry was saying closely and actually copying them since his dad wasn't there.

"So you are, well done," Harry said seriously, "Now press the trigger, Sophia, Carol, it isn't loaded I promise, just get a feel of it." Harry watched them making sure their stance was correct and they were aiming properly. Nodding now and again, noticing Carl watching them with a look on his face Harry thought could be sadness at being excluded or did he want to be the one to teach Sophia? Did he want the praise? Did Carl want to learn from him? He wasn't sure, too many variables. He didn't read the kids mind; he wouldn't risk it a child's mind was extremely delicate thing.

"Pass it over, no, put the safety on first, always do that especially when you aren't about to use it," Harry told her, accepting it after she'd done it, sliding the full magazine into the gun, keeping the safety on he handed it back over. Crouching down beside her, he began talking to her, telling her what she was best to do. He never once took over the aim of the gun, this had to be her, and she had to learn these things on her own. "Close everything else out, you focus on the middle of that wood, imagine it as your target, take your time and only when you're ready pull the trigger." she pulled, the bullet skimmed the top of the fence.

"Well done, amazing first shot, Sophia, try again, and remember what I told you." Harry informed her, standing up he showed Carol how to aim as well, "Remember, survivor, mother protector," there was no worse wrath than a mother protecting her child, giving her shoulder a squeeze he stood back.

"Can you help me, too, Harry?" Carl asked, his tone quiet, glancing sideways away from Harry; Harry looked back and saw Rick busy with Andrea and Shane.

"Of course," Harry said, and with that he did as he had with Sophia and guided Carl into how to hold the gun, where to aim, how to aim and to close everything else out and just focus on the task at hand. He didn't stop when Rick was behind him, what he did though was keep a good eye on both kids, especially with the safety of Sophia's gun - accidents happen but he'd be damned if they did on his watch.

After one training session for over one hour they were able to hit the targets with decent accuracy. It was different with a moving target and he made sure to explain that to both kids, so they knew not to try anything if they happened upon walkers, like the ones in the barn. If anything was to happen they would run to their parents immediately until they got further training. "Once you've been trained it's up to your mum if she wants you walking around with a gun so it's up to her once you're done whether you get to keep it." Harry took the gun as he spoke, intending on storing it away.

"You walk around with those guns, but I've never seen you use them," Shane said now next to Rick, arms crossed looking down at him with a holier than thou attitude.

Harry never removed his gaze from Shane's as he removed one of his guns from his holster, flicking off the safety and pointed it back towards the target area they'd been using and firing of three rounds without looking. In a neat row of three, sat three bullet holes, right in the middle of where he had been trying to get the kids to focus on. "Satisfied?" Harry said putting it back, after reengaging the safety.

Rick laughed, deeply impressed, patting Shane's shoulder in commiseration. He doubted either he or Shane would have been able to do that if he was honest.

"That was awesome Harry!" Amy said wide eyed, a dismayed Andrea next to her, she'd been the one receiving all the attention just a few moments prior after all.

"It's nothing," Harry shrugged, he hadn't done it to be impressive, he'd just wanted to show Shane he wasn't all that. "Ready to head back? Have lunch and then get started again?"

"Started again?" Carol asked, surprised.

"Not with guns, I'm going to teach her how to hold her knife, where to hit; you know how dangerous guns are when it comes to walkers. They are better off learning how to use knifes, just to be on the safe side." Harry said giving her a smile, "But if you would prefer she didn't then I have no problem just teaching her how to use the gun…" he trailed off; Sophia was her daughter after all.

"No, no, it's fine," Carol said quickly, she really liked that someone was going to such great lengths to ensure her child survived this nightmare they were in. He was doing more for her than her own father ever had.

"Can I learn too?" Carl perked up, moving from his mother's side, ignoring the fact most of the others were now getting into the cars to head back to the farm.

"Only if your parents agree," Harry said, messing up his hair with a grin, "Go on, let's get back to the farm," the gun shots would have attracted all he walkers to the area, so he didn't want to remain there for too long.

Shane glared at Harry from where he sat in the car, hating the fact Carl seemed so impressed and willing to learn from Harry, it was him he had looked up to before Rick came back, him who had taught him knots and things he needed to survive. Now it was all about Rick and Harry, he was being pushed aside, he didn't like it one bit.

I honestly had no idea how Harry should have reacted, this Harry anyway, about the Walkers in the barn, he has no particular interest in staying at the farm because he knows it will be overrun eventually. I sort of went blank when it came to that bit, so i didn't spend a lot of time on it! I hope you're happy with the outcome anyway! will Harry be able to get through to Hershel about the walkers or will he remain stubborn until all hell breaks loose? can you imagine Harry's reaction to someone like Randall? the threat he would pose to Carl and Sophia? to the women in camp...would he be able to stand aside and let Rick deal with it or will he take it on himself to do what needs done? or do you not like the thought of him actually agreeing with Shane? Will he wait till a decision has been made? oh and I hope you're enjoying this version of merle! R&R please