I do not own Harry Potter nor World of Darkness
Borealis top deck, Atlantic Ocean, 10th January 1994 (Monday)
"All passengers, this is the captain speaking. We are finally within sight of the isle of Greenland. We apologize for the delay, but the current storm is making navigation pretty difficult. As the wind has reached a speed of 187 kilometers per hour, we request the passengers to follow the crew's instructions and stay inside. Thank you for your cooperation."
The captain put down the intercom and frowned. He had been sailing for most of his life, and he had encountered a storm of this magnitude only once before.
"Weather's pretty shit, ain't it, cap?" asked one of the sailors, closing the door behind him as he entered.
"You can say that. How are the passengers holding up?"
"Throwing up, mostly. Can't blame them, really."
The captain nodded, his sight focused once more on the waters. That was supposed to be a safe area, but with a storm of this caliber he couldn't risk lowering his guard. His eyes glazed over the far shores of Greenland, then the massive waves and finally made a quick scan of the various navigation instruments, before doing a double take.
"Jared, you see this?" he asked, pointing at one of them.
A young sailor approached the captain, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the screen.
"What is that? Some kind of plane?"
"Way too small. You'll need to get out and see for yourself."
"In the middle of this storm?! Why?"
"Because I'm the captain. When you get seniority, you'll be able to delegate. Now get your ass out there and tell me what you see."
Grumbling, Jared walked over to the door and, after taking a deep breath, walked outside. His world dropped into a whirlwind of ice and snow, droplets of hail and freezing seawater slamming against his body while the wind and the waves tried to push him off board. He grasped at the railing, trying his best to keep his footing steady. Slowly, he dragged himself across the edge of the ship and looked starboard. He squinted at the shapes, trying to find the anomaly the captain showed him. The sea was a mess, but nothing too out of the ordinary for a storm. The sky… Wait, what were those shapes? They looked like… people on brooms? What was this, a fucking B movie?
A green lightning bolt struck the side of the boat, barely missing him.
"Fuck!" he shouted, his feet losing traction as he slid on his ass, accelerating towards the front of the ship.
Colored lightning struck all around him, the attacker's aim completely thrown off by the storm.
"Captain! We got Thor and Zeus chugging lightning out here!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, hoping his voice would carry over the howling wind.
He grabbed onto the railing, finally halting his slide and blew into his emergency whistle as hard as he could, the loud shrill cut short as he got stuck by red lightning and his whistle flew out of his mouth into the water.
"Thor's sweaty balls, what the.."
"Reducto!"
The wizard smirked at the explosion, the metal hull of the ship bending and twisting under the power of his spell and the lifeless body of the muggle falling into the water. His moment of victory was almost cut off by a gust of powerful wind that almost ripped him the grip from his broom.
"We gotta land on the ship!" he shouted, his voice swallowed by the thick layer of clothes and the howling wind before it could reach his companions. Not that it mattered, they would soon join him once they saw what he was about to do.
He brought his broom closer to the ship, a hand reaching to the frozen railing. An evil glint on his face, he grabbed the handle of the door to the captain's cabin and pulled it open, wand lowered and ready to…
BANG
BANG
BANG
The captain raised his smoking revolver, looking at the bleeding wizard now gasping for air on the floor, blood spilling out of multiple wounds on his chest. He snorted in contempt. Just a regular human? What a waste of precious Rokea-killing silver bullets. He put his precious revolver away, pulling out a glock.
"Gentlemen, it seems like we are being hijacked by wannabe pirates. I hope you all brought your pieces."
"Aye, captain." echoed the rest of the crew, cocking their own collection of weapons.
"Well, boys, save your special bullets for the sharkmen. We won't be need.."
"Incendio!"
A wave of flames engulfed the cabin, causing the captain to drop down on the floor. He opened fire through the open door, chasing away the source of the flames. He saw something flying in front of the window and the ring of machine gun firing, shattering his window but hitting the flying object.
He tossed his hat away: better to lose it than waste time trying to extinguish the flames.
"Forget what I said. Shoot them with everything you got!"
More gunshots exploded around him, and multicolored lightning struck back through the broken window screen. Alarms started to ring, flashing lights on the consoles told him he needed to take back control of the ship before they crashed into something.
He raised his pistol, shooting at anything that moved out in the storm, before glancing at the command screen. He fired a few extra bullets, before ducking back and reaching for the telephone.
"Smith! What the hell is going on with the engines!?"
He heard shots being fired on the other end.
"Fucking Gandalf wannabe set them on fire! We can't get to the fire extinguishers. They killed Samantha!"
The captain cursed, shooting a few rounds into one of the flying fuckers and causing him to lose his grip and fall into the stormy waters.
"Smith! Engines at full power!"
"Captain! they won't hold! If they explode we're going to sink!"
"Not if I can beach us first! Full power! Now!"
A jet of flames struck the captain's hand, causing him to drop the half melted phone, screaming in pain.
"Captain!" shouted one of the sailors, emptying his entire magazine at the source of the flames.
"Jackson! Steer the ship towards Agdleruussakasit!"
"But captain! We will…"
"Better than sinking! Do it!"
The captain got up, pistol firing to give Jackson cover. The sailor dashed to his side, taking over the ship's controls.
"Keep it steady until destination. Don't slow down until you see the dock, you got it?!" he shouted, barely dodging a green lightning sailing over his head before shooting back at the witch.
The captain turned around, pistol pointed at the next wizard before he was hit by a blast of fire straight to his face.
Agdleruussakasit, Greenland, 11th January 1994 (Tuesday)
"So, Miss Tonks… what do you make of this?" asked Francesco.
Tonks frowned. The Borealis had crashed through their docks almost at top speed, beaching itself and wounding twenty five passengers in the process. As soon as they spotted the corpses of the crew and the assailing wizards, she had been called to give her opinion on the subject. Which unfortunately for her, was way out of her depth as a simple Auror in training.
"They were definitely wizards, but… I don't think I can give you more than that. Sorry."
Francesco nodded, not even trying to hide his disappointment.
"Thank you, Miss Tonks. You can return to your research."
"But the captain…"
"Captain Marlin will survive. He has third degree burns over his face, but he will make it. We can interrogate him once he's recovered. You can go now."
Tonks nodded. She was feeling useless. She had joined the Auror program to help people, to make sure things like this never happened. And when mister Francesco asked her if she could do something to help identify the perpetrators, the first piece of actual Auror work she had done in months, she could do nothing. She should have been on the Borealis. If she had been there, things could have been better. She could have saved people. Instead, here she was reading DNA analysis and toxicology reports on fucking urine samples! She wanted to scream.
"Mr. Francesco?" she asked, halfway out the door.
"Yes?"
"I'd like to board the next trip of the Borealis as additional security personnel."
The man stared at her for a few, interminably long seconds. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the man spoke.
"Talk to Mr. Brown for an assessment. If you pass his test, you'll board the Borealis as a security officer together with the new team I'm going to hire for that very purpose."
Tonks smiled.
"Thank you, mister."
Professor Lupin's office, Hogwarts, 13th January 1994 (Thursday)
As Professor Trelawney predicted, Ron had been allowed to join the Ancient Runes class, although the boy was swamped with months of back work to catch up with the rest of the class. Harry's Firebolt had been taken by Professor Hooch with almost religious worship and she had assured Harry that she would return his broom in perfect conditions. Classes had resumed and Harry had finally been told that Professor Lupin was ready to teach him the Patronus Charm.
"So… - Professor Lupin had taken out his own wand, and indicated that Harry should do the same. - The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry. Well beyond ordinary Wizarding Level."
"How does it work?" said Harry nervously.
"Well, when it works correctly, It conjures up a Patronus, which is a kind of anti- dementor… a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon… hope, happiness, the desire to survive… but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can't hurt it."
Harry nodded. The basic concept wasn't too difficult to grasp. After all, if Fae could manipulate raw emotions as Glamour to create sentient constructs, he saw no reason a wizard couldn't do the same. Maybe his time spent in Fae Studies would help him out here?
"What does a Patronus look like?" said Harry curiously.
"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it."
"And how do you conjure it?"
"With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory."
Harry cast his mind about for a happy memory. Many of his memories in Park Royal were good. His first meeting with Edwin and Samuel, the time they spent together playing 'Kill Wolf'... Finally, he settled on the night when he had first beaten 'Kill Wolf". They had spent the whole afternoon playing and by the time they had won, curfew was already in place. They had slept huddled together, trying to fight the cold of a february night, but they were happy.
"Right," he said, trying to recall as exactly as possible the wonderful sensation of accomplishment in his stomach.
"The incantation is this… - Lupin cleared his throat. - Expecto patronum!"
"Expecto patronum. - Harry repeated under his breath, - expecto patronum."
"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?"
"Oh… yeah…" said Harry, quickly forcing his thoughts back to that night. "Expecto patrono… no, patronum. Sorry, expecto patronum, expecto patronum."
A wisp of silvery gas suddenly whooshed out of the end of his wand.
"Did you see that?"
"Very good," said Lupin, smiling.
Harry pointed his wand at the empty space
"Expecto Patronum!"
Another whisper of silver shot out of his wand, coalescing into a vortex of light before simply disappearing into nothingness.
"You might want to select another memory to concentrate on... That one doesn't seem to have been strong enough..."
Maybe something more recent? His last birthday with Samuel?
"Ready?"
"Ready," said Harry; trying hard to fill his head with happy thoughts about his friends playing and eating together.
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry yelled.
The silver whisps barely sputtered before disappearing into nothingness.
Harry looked disappointed at the performance, and looked up at Professor Lupin.
"Perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced... I shouldn't have suggested putting you through this..."
"No! - said Harry. - I'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is... Hang on..."
He racked his brains. A really, really happy memory... one that he could turn into a good, strong Patronus… The moment when he'd first found out about Pentex, and would be leaving the Dursleys forever! He was but a child, but he hated living with them. If that wasn't a happy memory... Concentrating very hard on how he had felt when he'd realized he'd be leaving Privet Drive, Harry got to his feet and faced the packing case once more.
"Ready? - said Lupin, who looked as though he was doing this against his better judgment. - Concentrating hard? All right… go!"
"Expecto Patronum!"
This time, the silvery whisp formed into a ball of light and kept its form. It shot away from Harry, as if it was flying around to explore the room… and then a huge, silver shadow came bursting out of the sphere, hovering in front of him, and though Harry's legs felt like water, he was still on his feet.
"Excellent! - Lupin said, striding over to where Harry sat. - Excellent, Harry! That was definitely a start!"
"Can we have another go? Just one more go?"
"Not now. - said Lupin firmly. - You've had enough for one night."
He handed Harry a large bar of Honeydukes' best chocolate.
"Eat the lot, or Professor Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?"
Harry nodded, taking a bite out of his chocolate. "See you next week, professor."
Notes
Welcome to the Borealis, Pentex's werewolf transport vessel, manned by expert Rokea hunters! (Rokea are were-sharks. If you're picturing Street Sharks you're... pretty spot on). The ensuing gunfight took a pretty heavy toll on both sides, Fenrir's hit wizard squad had the element of surprise, but they were SEVERELY hampered by the storm. They will try again, but next time the Borealis will be ready.
Tonks officially joins Pentex. As a sub-contractor, but from now on she will be on Francesco's payroll.
Harry trains with the Patronus charm, but this time he's going to have a much harder time casting it. Is it his different outlook on life? Is it the fact he's a Drone? Is it Wyrm taint? Up to you.
I hope you're enjoying the Greenland B-plot. I had a blast writing it, but it won't change the trajectory of the main story for quite a long while. I barey started writing the section where the various B-plots converge and it's... tough. Fulfilling, but tough. I hope the payoff will be worth the wait.
Stay tuned