Chapter 6: Crescent Moon II
Harry Potter, The Leaky Caldron
The rest of the night passed in a blur of questions, worries, and anxiety for me.
The tall scary girl swings into my room with the grace of a cat, landing in my room wearing only the tights she had been in earlier and a sports bar, and holy fucked was she ripped, her jacket and shirt hid defined muscles and scars built up over what had to be a lifetime of battle. She's holding a black and gold bow which she folds up like a tripod and shrinks into a multi-tool before she tucks it into her waistband.
She still gives me this calculating look, like she's measuring me up to something unknown, before telling me to put the sword away or else be prepared to answer a lot of awkward questions, before she leaves my room. I limp over to my bed, glass from the window still jammed into my foot, leaving a trail of blood behind me.
"Hedwig." I call out to my friend, hoping the worst hasn't happened to her, "please girl, please wake up." I say as I stroke her feathers softly, I feel tears burn at the corners of my eyes, but I refused to cry, Vernon hated when I cried, I hear feet storming up the stairs and I slide the sword under my bed, having no time to close it because I'm fucking useless.
Soon my room is flooded with people in red robes with wands out, one approaches me, a tall dark skinned man asking me questions at a rapid pace, I ignore him as I stroke and try to wake Hedwig up, pleading with her to wake up.
The tall guy grabs my shoulder and turns me to him before asking me point blank if it was Sirius Black, "What? No, it wasn't him! It was some redhead vampire woman." I tell him, and he nods slowly and asks if I'm hurt, at this point I start screaming at him. "I don't care about me! Hedwig is hurt! My owl is hurt, help her!" He flinches back at my yell, looking me in the eye, he had this look of uncertainty and maybe a little fear, as he opens his mouth to say something else someone comes, elbowing him back as a woman with the same red robes as the man, but with a green patch with a wand crossed over a bone.
She gives the taller man a look that makes him back off, before turning her attention to me, "Hello sweetheart, you're worried about your owl, right?" She asks me in a calm voice, I just nod my head and she offers to take a look, asking me what happened to her. I tell her as much as I could as she waves her wand over Hedwig in complicated patterns.
She stops after a moment, she smiles at me and says that Hedwig is going to be fine, she was just stunned and knocked out, just give her a few more minutes and she should wake up. I sigh out in relief as I thank the woman over and over again before she tells me she wants to take a look at my foot, oh right, I was still bleeding.
She casts a few spells on my foot and tells me I have no nerve damage, which is good. She vanishes the glass in my foot and heals the cuts on the bottom of my foot, I thank her as she smiles at me before leaving the room.
The tall dark skin Auror comes back, he apologizes for being rude, which is weird, but whatever. He asks a lot of questions, what happened? I was attacked, who was it? Some redhead vampire, have I ever seen her before? Yes, a few hours ago she was outside of Knockturn Alley, I passed her on my way to Gringotts.
And on and on it went, for about an hour, the only reason it took so long is that ten minutes into it, Hedwig woke up, and ooooh boy was she an angry owl. She'd fluff up and attack anyone within ten feet of me, barking, hooting, and screeching. She is a good owl, so she sits in my lap as they ask me questions from the door. When we get to the quick fight, I pet Hedwig and keep my eyes on the floor, I'm pretty good at lying, so telling them I had a wand instead of a sword isn't very hard to make it sound believable, I won't mention what the scary lady said to me, how she knew who I was just by seeing the sword.
I can almost feel it, laying under the bed, like a weight about to break through the floor, it gets my heart pumping again, I can see the vampire fleeing into the night, down the main alley, I have to look away from the Aurors as I shiver a bit; all it makes me want to do is chase after something already dead when I think of it.
I saw the woman go by the open door a few times during the hour, she was dressed in a green shirt with a cat on it and the same blue and silver hat. Each time she passed she always looked in, and always made eye contact with me, there was something in her eyes every time she did, like the look Hermione has when I say or do something she can't understand like she's stuck on a puzzle she can't quite wrap her head around.
After the Aurors question me, they take a few pictures of the window, the ashes from the hand that burnt up on the floor before cleaning up the room, and tell me I should get some rest, before leaving me alone with Hedwig. After the door closes I feel like a small weight is gone from my back, I dislike being around too many people, I like my quiet, I like my space; though it feels like I never have enough of it.
I put Hedwig on the bed, before dropping to the side of the bed and looking under it, I don't see the sword because it's now just a swiss army knife with the blade out. I reach under the bed and pull it out, and hold it in my hand, it feels like it weighs a ton.
How did it turn into a sword? Did I do it? Hermione once said that wandless and wordless transfiguration was one of the highest levels of magic one can achieve, to take the form of one thing and change it into another with just will and intent alone. I doubt that I did that, he wasn't very good at the magic stuff, so it was probably accidental if anything.
I sigh before folding away the blade and placing it back in his trunk, right back where he had put it last time, but how it got from the bottom of his trunk to on top of the dresser he also has no clue about, did he summoned it? Could that be done? He'll ask Hermione next time he sees her, she'll know. I close the trunk before turning off the lights the Aurors had turned on when they got here, before walking back over to the chair and climbing back into it to go back to sleep, Hedwig flies onto the back of the chair again, and I pat my chest to get her to come down, but she just shakes her head, looking to the window and then the locked door, and back to me. Huh, seems like I have a guardian angel tonight, well, she does have the wings for it. So, I rest my head against the armrest, my wand firmly back in my hand as I fall back to sleep, dreaming of watching a girl with long blond hair hunting a monstrous boar with a gold and black bow.
I woke up to a knocking on my door, I hate to already know who it is and what they want so I've decided that it was far too early to deal with it and was gonna go back to sleep.
"Come on kid, I know you're in there." The lady from last night says, I don't answer, but Hedwig barks at the door, but otherwise doesn't move from her spot. The handle on the door jiggles but the door doesn't open because it's locked, I hear her sigh through the door before she knocks again.
"Come on kiddo, I brought breakfast." She calls through the door, my stomach, grumbles, I hadn't had anything to eat last night before coming back to the inn. "I have waffles and bacon~," she says in a sing-song voice, and my eyes snap open. I look at Hedwig who is now looking at me with a surprised face, "I have no idea how she learned our weaknesses so fast girl." I tell my owl as she hoots in agreement and the girl on the other side of the door laughs.
I groan as I get up from the chair and throw the blanket back onto the bed before moving to the door with my wand firmly in hand, I unlock and open the door to peek through. On the other side, the woman stands with a smile and what looks like a serving platter in her hands. "May I come in?" She asks in a polite tone, I narrow my eyes at her but stand to the side, letting her in. She walks in with the tray, sits it on the desk, and offers me a plate, I take it and sit at the armchair and tuck in as she had pulled out the chair at the desk and sat reverse in it to look at me. We didn't really talk the whole meal, she would look at me as she chewed her food, but she never said a word, I think she was trying to be polite so I did the same but with less looking.
After we were both done eating and feeding Hedwig bacon, she finally spoke up, "So kiddo, we weren't really supposed to meet till around your first week back at school." She admits to me but also confuses me, "Why? Why are we supposed to meet at all?" I ask while looking at her, trying to figure it out.
"Well, …" She begins and taps her hands on the back of the chair, "Like I said last night, my boss wanted me to head to Hogwarts and find you and scout you or something, you see I belong to an…" she hesitates her for a second, "Organization that hunts monsters, you know, things like a basilisk?" She tells me with a crooked grin and a cocked eyebrow, and I'm starting to see why they might have wanted to meet me.
"So when my boss hears this crazy ass story about some 10-year-old kid killing the Queen of Serpents with a sword of all fucking things, you can damn well bet she gonna want to know more about ya, see if you have the chops to join, or at the very least give you some training, ya know?" She says with a smile that I don't trust.
"Im thirteen," I tell her.
She blinks "What?" She asks back in a confused tone of voice. "I only killed it only a few months ago, my birthday passed a few weeks ago. I'm thirteen now, not ten, and it's the King of serpents; not queen," I say as I do my best Hermione impression. She cocks her eyebrow but doesn't smirk this time, "did it have plumage?" She asks, and it's my turn to say what. "Did it have these red feathers on its neck right by its head?" She clarifies and I shake my head no, "Ah, no plumage means it's female, hence Queen." She says with a smirk. I sit in the chair, looking at her with narrowed eyes and I open my mouth to ask how she knows it didn't have plumage and a few of my own questions but she cuts me off.
"See, that's some of the stuff I'll be able to teach you, and a few other things. My boss already talked with your Headmaster about all this, dumbdoor already agreed to it all, thought you could use it." She says with a shrug, all I say back is "his name is Dumbledore."
She blinks a few times before she starts laughing, "oh man, could you imagine the look on his face if I called him Dumbdoor to his face?" She says as she wipes away a tear, I snort a bit, but I'm not laughing. I open my mouth again to ask her about the sword and how she knew it was me, but again she cuts me off, "oh! I haven't even introduced myself, have I? Sorry about that kiddo, names Atalanta." She says with a smile and holds out her hand. I take it and shake it, before saying "Atalanta…?" I finish off with a look of confusion waiting for the rest, she looks confused for a moment, "oh! Right, the last name, umm, I don't have one." She tells me as I let go of her hand and jokingly ask if she was raised by wolves, she laughs a bit with me before blowing my mind with "No, not wolves. Bears." Because looking into her eyes I really don't think she's joking.
"But if you need to have one for me I guess Claydon will do." She says with a shrug, I just nod my head, before I ask "How did you kno-" I start but she cuts me off again, "WELL, kiddo the breakfast was nice, but like I said last night, I was only here for the night. I need to pick up a few things in the Alley and then start heading north, a long hike, ya know?" She says as she turns around and starts toward the door, I start to follow her intent on getting my answers. "But it was nice to meet ya earlier than planned Harry, I do hope we get along at your school, I know I'll be there for at least this year." She says as she starts to open the door, but she found it slammed shut when I run into it with my shoulder.
"No." I tell her, she slowly turns her head and looks down at me with a cold look, "kiddo, you're blocking the door, and I need to go." She tells me in a firm tone of voice.
"You haven't let me ask a single question this whole time, all you've done was bring me breakfast, tell me what you're doing here, that you know me, and something about scouting me, whatever that means," I tell her, "How did you know who I was from just the sword? Why do you have cat ears? Why do you have to hike when you can just take the floo?" I ask rapidly, her face getting harder and harder with each question, her lips become more pressed together, and she doesn't answer anything but she does say "You are blocking the door, Boy. Move it." In such a hard and cold tone, the opposite of the light and teasing one she had been using since we met last night, and when her hand came up, reaching for my shoulder pressed against the door, I flinched.
I don't know what over, be it my own feet, the rug, or the air, but I trip and land on the floor. Atalanta looks down at me, with the same strange look that Hermione gives me now and then, she's silent for a second as I look up at her, I can feel my body shaking, she was gonna hit me I'm sure of it.
"Harry, are you okay?" Atalanta's voice comes out soft, she reaches down to smack me but I crawl back with a shout of "Yes!" She stops, as Hedwig lands on the mantle of the fireplace all puffed up and ready to attack, the strange look never leaving Atalanta's face. "Okay, look I'll just back off, how's that?" She says as she stands back up and takes a step back to the door. "Go," I say, coming out a bit weakly at first, "You said you had to go, so just go." I finish in a stronger voice. She looks at me for a few more seconds before nodding her head and turning back to the door and opening it, "I'll see you at Hogwarts, okay kiddo?" She says in a soft voice as she turns and looks at me, I don't say anything for a few seconds before she sighs and leaves the room, shutting the door behind her.
I jump up and lock the door in every conceivable way I can that the door has, reminding myself that the locks are on my side this time, I can keep her out. I can keep them all out.
I grab the blanket off the bed and go back to my chair, curling up and hiding under it.
I didn't leave my room that day.
Three weeks later.
It's been three weeks since I saw Atalanta leave and in that time it's honestly the best time of my life so far, I get to wake up whenever I want, go to sleep whenever I want, and eat! Doesn't matter how much I order so long as it's between the breakfast and dinner hours Tom, the innkeeper, not the asshole, told me about it, I can order however much I want! Compared to the smaller portions I got at the Dursley's it was like a feast every day!
I got to explore Diagon Alley more than ever before and find all sorts of shops I didn't know that was around, a shop for nick nacks, a joke shop, a shop that enchants things for you, a Quidditch shop that was selling a new broom, the firebolt, I was also a regular at the ice cream shop. The old guy who was running it helped me with my summer work and gave me free ice cream every half hour I spent doing it, a pretty good motivator if you ask me.
I avoided Knockturn Alley for obvious reasons, though every time I passed it I would always stop and look at the entrance, expecting to see something like the vampires hanging out at the front, I know it's a dumb idea but I just couldn't help myself, every time I tried to ignore it I would remember that night and start shaking again and then go back.
I had gotten my Hogwarts letter about two weeks after I arrived at the Leaky Cauldron and got everything I needed that day. The guy at flourish and blotts almost cried in relief when I told him I didn't need the monster book of monsters.
I had a random idea when walking by the enchantment shop one day and brought the swiss army knife for the Runemaster to inspect apparently it was some of the finest craftsmanship he's ever seen and had a whole host of charms on it he couldn't even figure out and offered to buy it off me for a small sum.
I had laid and told him it was in my vault when I first opened it and it was left there by my parents, so I didn't want to sell it, he got this weird look on his face and didn't ask again.
More importantly, I found out what the strange symbols on the handle are, Greek, Ancient Greek. It's not that common to use that style of Runes in magical Britain anymore, he said they were more common in America and the Mediterranean. I went back to flourish and blotts to see if they had anything on ancient Greek, and they did! A whole section devoted to various types of ruins from all over the world, I started to regret my pick in electives but it was too late to change them now I expect.
One old book I found was completely written in ancient Greek, I found I could read it just fine, better the fine, in fact, I didn't get a headache just from reading a few paragraphs but the stuff it was talking about was way above what we learned in school, it talked about ancient rituals and something called esoteric Magic. I got it anyway to show Hermione, she's smart, maybe she could figure out what that stuff was, or help me figure out how I can read ancient Greek.
Speaking of Hermione, I did get around to writing to her the day after Miss Atalanta left, leaving out the vampire attack and Miss Atalanta. I didn't think she would like that and would start asking a lot of questions that I didn't know the answer to. She did write me back the same day, asking if I was alright, if I was hurt, if I was doing okay by myself.
I told her I was fine, honestly don't get why she asked that stuff, I mean I did write to her I'm obviously okay.
But she gets like that sometimes, something would slip out about the Dursley or my home life and she'd get this pitched and upset look on her face and start asking a bunch of questions. I normally ignored her until she stopped. She would say she was sorry for some reason, but hey, got her to stop asking questions, right?
She told me the date she and her parents would be coming to do school shopping, which lined up with the day the Weasleys were going to show up from the letter he got from Ron. Which is nice I guess.
Ron showed up first, knocking on my door in the morning. We hang out, eat breakfast, and play a few rounds of chess. His brothers and sister are here as well Fred and George stop by to say hello, and so does Percy, puffing out his chest with his badge on his everyday robes, he seems a bit disappointed when he leaves, Ron tells me he's the new head boy, that would explain the chest puffing. Ginny says hi to me when I see her, she doesn't turn red and runs away like she used to, so that's nice, I think?
Hermione shows up around lunch and pulls me into a hug, which is still weird, the whole touching thing. I hug her back so she doesn't ask questions like normal, she hugs Ron, so maybe this is normal? I have no idea but I go with it. We spend the day shopping, getting the school supplies that I already got, the man at flourish and blotts does cry this time when we ask for a few copies of the monster book of monsters. We stopped at the pet shop for Scabbers, apparently, he's been sick since Egypt, and Ron wanted to get him checked out. We left after a ball of orange fury attacked Ron, but we got the tonic for Scabbers, the shopkeeper did say he was old for a common rat, which is weird, but I chalk it up to Magic.
Hermione, who had gone to look at owls, had, instead, come out with the orange ball of fury whose name was Crookshanks, this wasn't gonna end well I think but don't say it out loud, but Ron had that covered.
We end the day back at the Leaky Cauldron for dinner, the food is good here but not as good as Ms. Weasley's, we say goodbye to Hermione before she and her parents leave, telling her we'll see her tomorrow on the train. She hugs us one last time, still weird.
It's late at night when I'm on the way back to my room from the bathroom when I hear the argument between Mr. And Mrs. Weasley, it stopped me because I've never heard them argue before, or even heard of them arguing before.
"-a boy, Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley had said in an angry whisper. "I know that Molly, I'm not trying to scare him, I want to warn him so he knows what's coming." Mr. Weasley says right back in a much calmer tone.
"No, absolutely not. He doesn't need the knowledge of a mass murdering psychopath who wants to kill him hanging over his head all year Arthur, the boy already has enough trouble at his home, and you want him to bring that sort of darkness with him to Hogwarts." Mrs. Weasley says with a scoff.
I hear Mr. Weasley sighs, "You don't understand Molly, you've never been to Azkaban. The place is a twisting Labyrinth of corridors, cells, and stairs, a singular hell of grey wet cold misery. A place where all hope and happiness go to die, and that's only the top level. The maximum security cells are at the bottom level, right next to the Dementors hive, the people who are in those cells don't come out the same way they went in if they come back at all." Mr. Wesley explains in a haunted tone of voice, that his wife doesn't say anything is a bit shocking to me, he continues nonetheless.
"Most people that go down there go insane in two years, catatonic in five, and dead within seven. Sirius Black was down there for twelve years, Molly, still awake, still attentive, and able to hold a conversation. He is dangerous, and the last thing the guards reported him saying in his sleep was he's at Hogwarts, he's at Hogwarts." Arthur finishes with another sigh.
They're quiet for a few moments before Mr. Weasley says what sounds like his final words of the night, "After what he did for Ginny, what he did for us, last year I won't let him go to Hogwarts ignorant of the danger that's after him, I'll be telling him before he gets on the train tomorrow Molly, whether you like it or not, Harry needs to know."
I don't hear any more as I move away from the door and back to my room, I crawl into the chair, wand in hand. Hedwig comes to join me, and as I pet her to sleep, I think about the madman I now know is after me.
A man trying to remember, a forest in Scotland.
He wakes up in a forest, having no idea where he's at, Padfoot comes out so often he doesn't know how long he has traveled but he has to be close now, right? Where was he going again? A castle right? But why?
Then he remembers, the rat, his revenge, to stop him, to stop him from…
He doesn't remember, he knows he has to kill the rat to get revenge for something he did, but he doesn't remember what the rat did nor what he's stopping him from doing. All he knows is that he needs to, it's like a bone-deep desire that warms him after the long cold, and he hates the cold after that place in the sea.
Hogwarts! That's what the castle is called, that is where the rat will be, he needs to get there and kill the rat. It's simple, right? Sneak in, grab the rat from the boy, run away and kill it. He gets up from under the tree and starts to walk, he doesn't know how he knows he's going the right way, but he does. He'll get to the train tracks soon and all he has to do is follow them, train tracks, a train, a red steam engine…
"This compartment is free if you want to share it, I'm James. James Potter."
Who? The man doesn't remember anyone by that name, but the memory still comes but is blurred. He can't make out the boy's, James', face. But it feels like a happy memory, one he hadn't had in a long time, maybe before the cold place. It doesn't matter, he has to get to the castle, he has to kill the rat, it's the only thing that matters. He needs to protect, to protect…
Who does he need to protect?
It doesn't matter, castle, rat, revenge, that's all that matters. Nothing else, …right?
Harry Potter, Hogwarts express.
True to his word, Mr. Weasley had pulled him aside before getting on the train and made him promise that no matter what he was told, no matter what he hears, he won't go after Sirius Black. He had promised and he meant it, he wasn't about to chase one of Voldemort's followers because he was coming after him, he was stupid, but not that stupid.
It was getting dark now, the rain that had started not long after leaving Kings Cross was pelting the window. He had told Ron and Hermione about Black as well and had made the same promise to them, both Hermione and Ron had the weird look on their faces when he had told them, and even now as he looked out the window; watching the countryside roll by in the night.
The train started to slow down, which was weird because they couldn't be at Hogsmeade yet, could they? The lights flicker and then go out as they come to a stop, the compartment plunges into grayscale for Harry as he looks around, he hears Ron and Hermione scream in shock at this, and the man on the other side of the compartment begins to move.
The door opens and a boy comes in, Neville, that's his name! He had used it on the knight bus, he should try and remember that. Then Ginny comes in talking about how all the lights are out on the try, asking why we stopped.
"Quiet." A new voice says and I turn to see the sleeping man stand up, lighting his want and making me flinch. He starts to say something, but his voice dies as the room starts getting cold, colder than it should ever be in summer. Frost begins to build up rapidly on the windows before the sound of the compartment door opening for a third time echoes throughout it.
A tall hooded figure is on the other side, I can't see his face but it's hand, its hand is pale white and scabbed all over, I can see bones and muscle underneath what seems to be rotting flesh, I start to shake and shiver like nothing before, I jump at the sound of my cupboard door blaming shut, Uncle Vernon, yelling at me, then someone screaming.
I knew no more.
Notes:
Holy high snakes this was a bitch to pump out, those three weeks Harry was at the Leaky were horrible to think up and I honestly think this is the worst chapter by far.
But we got the first glimpse inside Sirius' head, and it is not a nice place at the moment filled with revenge and half-remembered people, don't worry I do this for a reason for later on.
Harry doesn't people well, and I feel that.
He'll get better, I promise.
For those of you who were worried about Hedwig, let me ask you this: Why would I kill best girl in the series?
Im a cruel person, but not that cruel.
as for why the narrative shifted? because I felt like it.
some chapters will be third person, some will be first, most if not all of first person will be from Harrys point of view because that's who this story is about.
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