Walking Dead Wizard
Chapter 20
"Need a hand?" Harry asked Hershel as he walked towards him, standing at the other side of the fence he was currently trying to strengthen. Harry honestly didn't see the point, if a horde of walkers came by the fence wouldn't stand a chance. The animals on the property were enticing enough for the walkers without adding a dozen or so people into the mix. His eyes zooming around the area, noticing that Shane and Rick were talking over by the barn, Dale was on duty sitting on top of the RV and everyone else was scattered into the wind doing their chores, he could see Sophia and Carl as always next to Carol who was on clothes duty right now.
"I'm perfectly capable of doing this myself," Hershel said his tone filled with passive aggression.
"Been getting annoyed again?" Harry stated staring down at the veterinarian.
Unsurprisingly Hershel didn't reply, at least not right away, he continued his work, but Harry could see he was feeling slightly sheepish. "You aren't over here to try and convince me to let everyone stay too?" he asked after hammering a nail into the wood. He took a rest, staring up at Harry, he knew he shouldn't be taking it out on the young man but he was at his wits end, especially with the others knowing about the barn and Rick's inability to control his own people.
"No," Harry answered immediately to the surprise of Hershel by the widening of his eyes. "You have an absolutely gorgeous home; it's something I think I would have liked if the world hadn't ended. Unfortunately it has, and wishes do no good here, you survive or you die that's the way the world works, it has always been that way I guess, but now it's on a larger scale. As secure as you're trying to make this place, even with these, you do understand it won't last don't you? The people in the barn it's different, they're restrained in a way, but what these people have become they usually move in packs, in hordes and they're dangerous that way." using the term 'people' to get Hershel to open up a little.
"You think of them as people?" Hershel commented surprised, his blue eyes hiding none of his feelings.
Harry stared at him intently for a few moments, picking his choice of words wisely, "My best friend, Ron, was one of the first few people bitten, he was a police officer, junior mind, but he was called out and bitten. I had no idea at the time, his family simply bandaged the wound and let him sleep, his mum keeping an eye on him from time to time. That's when they noticed the fever, they did everything they could to bring it down, but in the end it wasn't enough, he died, came back and disappeared." Harry revealed he had no doubt that's exactly what happened, he had gotten to Hogwarts though but he had no idea how. "I was the one to find him, it was during the early days but we knew not to let them touch us, I panicked, hit him in the chest, but he kept coming, I had no idea how he was still coming, but we tussled…and well I hit his head, and he dropped to the ground gone for good this time. I had to do the same to another friend of mine."
"How could you do it?" Hershel asked aghast.
"It wasn't easy," Harry said softly, it could never be easy to kill a friend whether they were dead or not. Although the next words through his mouth were complete lies and Harry hated himself for it. He rarely lied but he couldn't explain to Hershel that he knew his friend wasn't his friend anymore. "But after what happened in the CDC I let go of some of the guilt that had been eating away at me. They had experimented on someone who had been bitten, they die, and then the brain stem allows reanimation. So you see, even if I hadn't done what I did, my best friend would never come back, even if there was a cure…"
"I don't believe that," Hershel told him firmly.
"I know," Harry replied, pity and understanding mingling, "It's never easy to accept the death of a loved one, especially if they are in essence still around." with that he wandered away from Hershel, he had done what he could, it was now up to the old man to come to terms - if he could. Hershel was much like Dale, both had ideas on how the world worked, but had no real understanding on how bad the world and the humans could be. He didn't know whether he admired them hanging on to their ideals or be frustrated with it. Admittedly Dale's eyes had been opened up to Shane's dubious nature, but he felt everyone on whole was kind and good. He had nobody but himself to blame for reading their thoughts, but he had to - had to know if they were a threat or not.
By the time he stepped by his tent Luna was already up and pouring water into the empty water bowl for the dog, who he still hadn't named yet. The collar didn't have a name attached to it, but the Muggles these days had ways of tracking their dogs now without putting names and numbers on dog tags, a chip was inserted into the dogs as means to find out who they belong to, it was an ingenious idea. Leaning down, he scratched the dogs head smiling a little, before doing a scan on it to see how the leg was, as expected it was healed, so he began to remove the bandages.
"What time is it?" Luna asked yawning tiredly, gazing at Harry expectantly.
"Around ten o'clock, everyone usually gets up at six or thereabouts, do the chores and everything around the farm." Harry explained, "You needed to sleep though, so I told everyone to keep the noise down." he shouldn't have been surprised that she could sleep, but he wasn't. He just sort of wished he could sleep like that, he knew sooner or later it would happen, he was beyond exhausted and his body would need some adequate rest and very soon. She'd even slept through Shane being deliberately loud just to annoy the hell out of him.
"So I have to help?" Luna asked, warily, not due to the fact she couldn't do anything, but more along the lines of having never done it without magic.
"They have horses; you should be able to tend to them if you ask? Feeding them cleaning out the stalls things like that," Harry suggested, grabbing his clothes, he knew Luna could deal with that since she was a big animal lover and had been brought up more comfortable around animals than people.
"That I can do," Luna agreed, it was going to be odd not being able to use magic, she'd gone her whole life being open about it.
"Luna…if it gets too much, just tell me alright?" Harry said quietly, he understood her well enough to know what was going on in that smart brain of hers.
"How do you do it, Harry?" Luna asked the prospect alone was odd and quite frankly scary for her.
"It's easy for me, Lu, I went most of my life without knowing what I was," Harry shrugged, "Now I'm going to get dressed, do the same, I'll introduce you to the others." grabbing his clothes he exited the tent and zipped it back up so she had some sort of privacy while he went to the back of the tent and quickly changed himself out of view of the others.
"So is there anyone I need to watch out for in particular?" Luna asked as she stepped out of the tent.
"Bloody hell," Harry muttered quickly unhooking her cloak and bunching it up and flinging it back inside the tent. "They never wear anything like that; put the cooling charm on your top the next time - no cloaks." Luna was in a pair of denim shorts and a white tank top and a pair of comfortable boots - good everything else was fine. Glancing around quickly he then asked her, "Do I even want to know where your wand is?"
"Expandable pockets," Luna explained shrugging her shoulders, she wasn't going anywhere without it.
"Good," Harry sighed in relief, "As for whom to avoid, Shane's a pain in the ass, he doesn't give a hell about anyone and would and has done - not that they know - sacrificed someone to save his own life. He's the bald man usually dressed in black, he's nowhere to be seen though. Lori is another person you'll want to avoid, Merle and Daryl call her queen bitch, that should give you enough of a reason as to why she's not particularly likable. She'd never pulled her weight; she prefers having others do everything for her so if she asks you to do anything tell her no. She's over there long brown hair, she has a son Carl."
"Hey, Harry!" Amy said giving him a wave and a grin.
"Hello, Amy, this is Luna, Luna this is Amy, and her older sister Andrea, and beside both of them is Beth, the daughter of the owner of the farm." Harry said quickly making the introductions.
"Hey," they all chorused together.
"I saved you something to eat, if you're hungry?" Carol said as she exited the RV smiling in welcome to Luna.
"I'm famished," Luna said, "I'm Luna, it's nice to meet you," she said holding out her hand.
"Carol and this is my daughter Sophia," Carol explained as Sophia barrelled out of the RV. "The food is on the table, help yourself,"
"Thank you," Luna said without a shy step she moved into the RV to get the food she'd been offered.
"What's been happening?" Harry asked, as he took a seat, yawning tiredly behind his hand.
"Nothing much, just the group using Glenn as bait," Maggie suddenly joined the conversation, sitting herself down beside them as if she did it every day, bitterness coating her voice.
"What, what?" Harry sat up straighter, as the others all sank into their seats, except Beth and Luna who were watching what was going on with curiosity. What the hell did she mean by they'd used Glenn as bait?
"Exactly? Who does that?" Maggie said with frustration thinking Harry was agreeing with her.
"What exactly happened?" Harry sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.
"We found a walker in the well," it was Andrea who explained, with a serious expression on her face. "We wanted to get it out without contaminating the water,"
"It was already contaminated," Harry snorted at their thinking, "And who exactly was there?"
"Shane, Dale, T-Dog, Glenn, myself and Maggie," Andrea answered. "We thought if we got it out it….well it doesn't matter," she shook her head, "The walker split in two, the well's useless now."
"Where does the Glenn bait come in?" Harry demanded, he wanted answers.
"They sent him down the well like a giant bit of bait," Maggie explained.
Harry groaned, "Let me get this straight, you sent the second most valued member of the group down to a well to get a walker? When it isn't even the only water supply you have in a useless attempt at getting a walker that had been submerged for however long a time out? And Shane in all his wisdom let it happen?"
"Second most valued member?" Amy asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"See, I'm not the only one that sees Glenn as a leader," Maggie asserted.
"Like it or not there's a hierarchy system in place - or there should be, it's designed to keep things running smoothly…not that this group has that, it's broken." Harry explained to her as he sat forward. "Now think of tribes, tribes have a hierarchy system, those that are to be protected at all costs, the hunters, the healers and the protectors, Glenn might not hunt per se, but he has been running on supply runs from the start, providing you all with food, and you need food to stay alive, its one of the most important resources, that and water. He fits in as a second most valued member, at least in my mind,"
After a few moments of silence Harry turned to Maggie, "While Glenn is a good man, he is not leader material, not yet, I've never once heard him say no to anyone, and a leader must assert himself."
"It's like you were built to survive this world," Beth said after a few moments of silence.
"Nobody is brought in the world like that, Beth. It's what life throws at you that causes it, you're all still thinking like you used to, but it has to stop - the stupid ideas, the fighting amongst ourselves, the need to prove yourself, it's not about impressing other people, its about survival, nobody is going to care what target you hit, how many times you hit it, it doesn't make you special, it makes you capable, and we need capable." Harry replied, staring at particular people as he spoke. "It lets you survive just one more day before the next trial."
"But we're safe here," Andrea insisted, "Well mostly safe," she added after glancing at the barn the desire to kill them all was obvious in every line of her face.
"That's where you're wrong, you must always assume you're in danger so you don't end up surprised or killed." Harry stated sharply. "Especially out in an open place like this, I mean come on, don't you see the damage a horde could do to this place? Do you honestly think we could take on a group of them the size we saw in the highway?"
Andrea stared at Harry, worry churning in her gut, what if he was right?
Before anyone could say anything, Shane was marching towards the group, the bag of guns they had slung over his shoulder, his face filled with fire and determination. Before he even got there, he was handing the guns out to everyone, including Carl; Harry had to dig his nails into his palms seeing that. He wasn't quite sure why, did he see what was going to happen as a slaughter? No, so why would he be angry about it? It baffled even him; he did put it down to protectiveness.
"Harry, what's going on?" Luna questioned, tensing up completely, having to refrain from grabbing her wand which was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do.
"The shit's about to hit the fan," he told her, passing over one of the guns, having no worry that she'd be a lousy shot. She might not hit where it was needed but she'd be pretty accurate. You had to be when you use a wand, it's why he'd been so good quickly. Hopefully Luna would be the same, but he wasn't going to leave her unprotected. He just hoped Shane wasn't going to do what Harry thought he was.
"I thought we couldn't carry?" T-Dog questioned, as he took the gun he was being offered by Shane.
Harry observed that they were all taking the guns, all confused, Merlin help him they were complete idiots. He was concentrating on his task that he didn't hear Shane's reply, but they all headed towards the barn. Daryl and Merle he observed were at the back of the group, keeping away from it but not completely standing down from a fight - not that he'd expect them to.
"Stop this! My dad will make you leave! Tonight!" Maggie exclaimed trying to prevent what was happening.
"Maggie, get your sister into the house, go," Harry warned her, it was people they knew, people they loved they didn't deserve to see what was going to happen. Unfortunately it seemed as if everyone was just crawling out of the woodwork much to his annoyance, Rick, Hershel and a boy he didn't know the name off were guiding two bloody walkers on dog catchers poles. Harry groaned this was just getting way out of hand, so much so that Harry decided to hang back.
"Harry why are you staying with these people?" Luna asked, watching the man she knew to be Shane beginning to go off on a tirade against another man. Her eyes widening further when he began to shoot at the walker that the person he was arguing with was holding onto. The old man fell the ground, watching the walker looking as if his entire world was being torn asunder, listening to the yelling and screaming and unable to do a damn thing. Then Shane was breaking down the barn, ripping the locks to shreds with a pick axe. "They're dangerous, Death Eater dangerous." she added as if it made a difference and it did.
"Apparently," Harry said watching them all waste ammunition they shouldn't have needed to waste in the first place. He was honestly surprised they'd survived this long with actions like this. Once the adrenaline began to fade and the walkers were killed, it looked as if the others came down off their high and realized what they'd done, what Shane had forced them to do. Beth lurched forward with a cry, waving Rick off and trying to get to either her mother or brother Harry suspected, when it began to move, Harry had his gun out and firing off a round directly into its brain worried that it had infected her.
Harry wandered over to Rick; "You know you might just be the biggest hypocrite I've ever encountered, and I've met my share of people who are hypocritical." he scoffed seeing the confused look on Rick's face. "If it had been anyone, and I mean anyone other than Shane you would have knocked him the fuck out or threatened him with a gun to the face, you can't deny it you've done it multiple times. You are no leader, you concede to your wives demands despite the fact it might not be for the good of the group, you let that arsehole away with whatever the fuck he likes because you're under the impression he saved your wife and kid. You know I kept thinking to myself you'd make a good leader, now and again I see bits of what could be there…but now? I'm tired and I'm through…I'm so done. Every fucking walker for miles will have heard those gunshots! If you've got any sense you'll pack the hell up and get the hell out of here before it happens."
With his piece said he walked away, he needed to get away before his magic showed and it was close to the surface, ready to strike out he was so furious. Luna followed him, not wanting to be near anyone in the group right now, she couldn't have picked a worse time to show up and she'd only seen the bad - not that there was a lot of good to go around.
"You alrigh'?" Daryl said after finally finding the two of them an hour later. They were quite a bit out away from the others, not that he blamed them, he'd watched the drama unfold, the others being all respectful and wanting a burial after killing the walkers in the barn, and as Harry said, Rick just bowed to Lori's demands and let it happen. Truthfully though Rick looked shaken, very badly shaken by what Harry had said. Slouching down near the fire he quickly found wood that was the right length to turn into arrows, and immediately began to whittle them to the right shape.
"Nah, I'm pissed off," Harry muttered.
"You're not sleeping right," Luna pointed out absently as she poked at the flames with a large stick, enjoying the warmth of it. "How many hours do you get each night?"
"Hours? I wish," Harry scoffed, "I can't sleep, I haven't had a decent night of sleep since the CDC, and at least there we knew we weren't going to be attacked in our sleep by hungry walkers. And a bloody tent isn't going to offer much protection against them."
"Why haven't you put up wards?" Luna whispered quietly, just in case anyone was nearby.
"I…there's only one I can think of, the wellbeing spell, it isn't exactly full proof," Harry replied.
"You should have asked us, Harry," Luna sighed shaking her head, "How do you think Hogwarts is safe? The wards, I have the books in my trunk,"
"It's not like we can put them around the farm, not without anyone realizing something is amiss." Harry stated to cover up his own failing, he hadn't even thought about it. Of course there was a way to keep walkers out completely, otherwise Hogwarts wouldn't be safe, and he felt like a right idiot. His feelings were temporarily written across his face so much so that Luna and Daryl were able to pick up on his feeling of failure and guilt.
"Don't feel bad, it's not like anyone else thought of it either," Luna told him quietly, their entire world was gone; the magical world was practically gone. Only the students within Hogwarts, the teachers and an Auror was all that was left. They only ever thought of fire when faced with the walkers, thinking they were like inferi but they'd been wrong. Giving the walkers enough time to go in for the bite or scratch - not that it mattered since they were all infected. The dog's ears perked up, staring through the night at something.
"Moving to the suburbs?" Lori questioned as she walked swiftly towards them.
The three barely glanced in her direction, it seemed they couldn't even get a bit of peace and quiet coming this far out.
"Listen, Beth is in some sort of catatonic shock, she needs Hershel." Lori explained, glancing at them in expectance.
"We aren't hiding him behind a tree," Luna said actually managing to sound earnest.
Daryl snorted in definite amusement, while Harry hid a grin behind his hand.
"No, I mean I want one of you to go into town and get them real quick," Lori corrected Luna demandingly, but she turned her gaze to Daryl making it clear she wanted him to do it.
Luna didn't even twitch at the look on her face, she had seen much worse, been captive by Death Eaters for months on end, so a glare from Lori wasn't exactly making her quake in her boots.
"Your bitch went window shopping, you want him fetch him yourself," he snapped eventually. His irritation and anger beginning to get the better of him. "I got better things to do."
"What's the matter with you? Why would you be so selfish?" Lori demanded.
Harry winced, that was definitely the wrong thing to say, incredulity thrummed through him at her words though. She did absolute minimum work while the others worked their asses off, and she had the gall to call absolutely anyone selfish. The dog got up on its haunches, but didn't move, just seemed ready to go into ultimate defensive mode.
"Selfish?" he demanded, "listen to me, Olive Oil; I was out there looking for that little girl every single day. I took a bullet and an arrow in the process; don't be telling me about getting my hands dirty!" Daryl yelled, his knife moving with the motions of his arms as he visually displayed his anger as well as showed it. "You want those two idiots, have a nice ride. I'm done looking for people."
Lori had backed away from him, terrified by his outburst; she turned her gaze from Daryl to Harry.
"Don't look at me," Harry warned, "Our lives aren't worth anything even with the guns thrown in," Harry viciously said, throwing her own words back at her, yes he'd heard her that day back at the quarry. She'd said Merle but her thoughts had centred on all of them; they'd never been worth much in her eyes. The dog whined a little, maybe at the tension, before settling back down.
That made Lori leave, quicker than she had came to them. Daryl sat back down as if he hadn't just exploded on her a few seconds prior.
"She said that?" Luna gasped shocked to the core, how could she say anything like that? Especially about Harry! Without him the world would be…still over, but it wasn't the point, Harry had sacrificed and given everything to save people he didn't even know Muggles and Magicals alike. Here he was doing it again, trying to save people only to get spat in the face practically by the very people he was trying so hard to keep alive? If she hated them before…she really loathed them now.
Harry nodded grimly, "You'd be surprised, she doesn't actually like many of the people here, even Andrea, and she thinks women have a single priority, to be a stay at home mother and do the cooking and washing. Andrea's trying to step up and protect people, in her own misguided way, and Lori hates it. The only person she remotely likes other than Shane, Rick and Carl is Carol, and that's only because Carol acts exactly as Lori thinks women should be. That and Carol does everything Lori asks her to, like Glenn, they've got a backbone they just haven't used it yet."
"But people can be both," Luna said confused, Molly Weasley was…no had been a prime example of that, she was one fiercely protective mother that nobody in the magical world would want to piss off, not after she'd taken care of Bellatrix Lestrange after she threatened her daughter. She knew the Weasley's were gone, Harry had informed everyone.
"Yup," Harry agreed, thinking of the very same protective mother who had met a very grisly demise she had most certainly not deserved.
"Would a calming draught help Beth?" Luna asked after over ten minutes of silence, nothing but the crackling of the flames could be heard. Luna realized Harry had changed more; he'd always been quiet when there was no 'adventure' to figure out. This new quietness was disconcerting, but in a castle full of people there had been nowhere to get quiet really. She had to readapt, Harry was already there…maybe it had something to do with walkers being attracted to noise that made everyone more subdued?
"I really don't like using my potions unless I have to," Harry sighed, but Beth was a sweet and innocent girl, he supposed he could spare some for her. "But a quarter vial should be enough, try explaining that to them though." looking down when the dog placed its head on his lap, smiling just slightly he began to soothingly stroke his hands over the pooch, its hair was in desperate need of a clean, he would need to find a way to give it a wash, maybe take him down to where he'd found Daryl, the water was high enough to wash him.
"Herbal remedy to aid in calming? Herbs are herbs even non-magicals know this," Luna said, at least she thought so anyway.
"They can wait a while longer," Harry answered eventually, just wanting to sit in the peace and quiet for a while. He stayed sitting for all of a few seconds before getting up. He was many things but he'd never let anyone suffer. He had told Maggie to get her sister in but she'd refused to listen - perhaps she'd just been unable to with how fast things had done downhill?
I actually wanted Harry to go with Rick to get Hershel LOL but i guess the way it wrote itself didn't comply but I'm really happy with how it turned out! not much Merle just wondering if i should have Merle gone with Rick and Glenn instead...whatcha think? prove his mettle? and how many of you guys actually want the group to split up? if so do you want it a temporary thing and have them get back when Rick realizes how the world is? the prison? Alexandria? or would you prefer they don't split at all? I've always said the group won't survive without Daryl in the series...so i suppose the same could COULD apply in FF...what do you think? R&R Please!