Andrea and Amy crept slowly and carefully past Harry's little sleeping nook, which was always right next to the living room window. No matter what house he was in, they'd thought it was because of the couch being there in the last place, but he was in the exact same place today again. It didn't seem like a safe place to lie if they were honest with themselves, if a walker pressed itself against the window it would be on top of Harry within seconds. It probably explained why Daryl was in the corner his crossbow ready for any trouble. They wandered into the kitchen, which was completely bare except the stuff they'd brought in from the van.
The back door was open, Anubis and Sophia were outside, Carol was half cooking half keeping an eye on her daughter despite the fact Dale was also keeping an eye out from the foldable chair just at the bottom of the steps.
"Do you regret coming?" Andrea asked Dale, staring at the elder of the group; she knew he had only come because of them, her and Amy. Giving a grateful smile for the coffee she was passed over, Dale already had one. "Thank you, Carol," she added, she hadn't had coffee in a while, she was sure Jacqui would have loved it.
"You know I don't," Dale gave her that look; he liked to give so often. Harry's leaderships couldn't be called into question, he did what was in the best of the group whether he or anyone else approved or not. He also made sure things were calm, let them know what he was planning and such; they were never walking blindly into a situation. Even he grudgingly admitted that having a purpose, heading somewhere made him feel a lot better than just driving the RV wherever he was guided too. Shane and Rick had tried their best, and he believed Rick could do well enough to guide the group. He just refused to leave Andrea and Amy; they were like daughters to him. Only time would tell whether he had done the right thing.
"I'm glad," Andrea said she would have hated herself for forcing this on Dale. It wasn't a secret that he wasn't on good terms with Harry before all this happened. He'd wanted to save Randall, a man who had raped children, she still didn't understand why he was so desperate...well that wasn't true, and he felt if they started killing people to survive they'd lose their humanity. Harry was right though; people had already lost their humanity and were doing whatever the hell they wanted now. If they wanted to survive they were going to have to do whatever it took.
"It doesn't mean I don't hope the others are alright," Dale added, a frown marring his forehead, especially with Lori pregnant.
"They will be, you heard Rick, they'll find somewhere," Amy said, it was his wife that was pregnant so he would be determined to find somewhere.
"To be honest, I'm glad the group split," Andrea sighed, the coffee absolutely hit the spot. "There was far too much tension, these past few days despite the hard work, it's been really calm, it hasn't been like that for a long time," the first few days they'd come to the quarry and settled had probably been the easiest, nobody had known each other, there was plenty food and water. Then after that they had to deal with Lori telling them what to do, delegating tasks out of the blue while she didn't do much herself.
Despite themselves they couldn't help but reluctantly agree for various different reasons.
"It happens when there are so many different personalities in one group," Harry stated, causing them all to jump in fright at his sudden appearance causing him to smirk wryly. "The catalyst in the entire thing going to hell was Rick arriving, although I am curious about one thing, while Shane admittedly wasn't the best leader, why did you all glue yourself to Rick? I have my own reasons for trusting Rick more than Shane but I do wonder about yours." moving around everyone and into the back garden, his green eyes taking in everything surrounding him.
"That's easy, he would have left my sister to the walkers, he didn't even attempt to help," Amy replied immediately.
"It's to my understanding that nobody knew where Glenn and the others had gone," Harry sat himself on the grass his gaze pensive. "Having everyone rushing to Atlanta would have been suicide."
"You went for Merle," Amy said determinedly.
"Yes, yes I did, but I also knew where I was going, I had gotten all information I needed from Glenn, Rick and T-Dog," Harry pointed out.
"Would you have left group to the walkers?" Amy asked, already knowing the answer. She knew he wouldn't, he'd gone all the way to Atlanta to get Merle. He'd risked going through all those walkers for one member of the group, she had no doubt he would have gone for the others too.
"As I said in the past the group that went would never have gone together if I had been in charge of delegating," Harry replied seriously, "Although I hate to say it but we all know you would have gotten trapped whether Merle had been there or not. Rick was making enough noise to bring all the walkers from all around Atlanta but it's easier to blame someone you don't like. It was just seriously bad timing, or as he would see it good timing since he did find his family." and they had gotten completely off top.
"That was like serendipity, I mean of all the people in the world, it was our group, who took him back to our camp...to his wife and son," Amy said a smile on her face.
"I prefer to call it sheer dumb luck," Harry smirked, thinking of all the times he'd been lucky. He had to remind himself that Amy was just a teenager...of course she would think something like that.
"Coffee?" Carol offered, the cup extended.
"No thanks," Harry said shaking his head, he didn't drink tea or coffee, never had actually. "Hey you," he murmured petting at Anubis who had rushed up to his side and shoved his head through Harry's arm and body, and squeezed himself beside his owner his tail beating against the grass.
"When are we leaving?" Andrea asked, as Carol began to hand out the plates, the rest of the group joining them for breakfast.
"Straight after breakfast," Harry answered, a yawn leaving his lips just after speaking. "We'll check it out again just to be on the safe side, and then find a place that's safe for us to get out and that hides the vehicles. I don't really want to advertise we are there, not until we've gotten it secure and firmly in our control." Daryl ate standing up against one of the poles spread out around the garden and Merle sat against the wooden fence making quick work of his breakfast.
"You think someone might try and take over?" Carol asked, understanding what he meant.
"Welcome to the human race," Harry said wryly, "Someone always wants something because someone else has it." it was ten times worse now that there was nothing to stop them getting their way. Eating his breakfast, more beans with pieces of hot dog cut up into it. It wasn't bad actually, who would have thought he missed toast? Oh well, there was no point to wishing for anything, it was just stupid especially now.
"You alright?" Harry asked Luna who finally joined them, taking a coffee and plate from Carol.
"Yeah, just tired," Luna smiled regardless; she'd been the one to take the last watch last night. "I'm not sure how you do it," she added through a yawn. If she didn't know any better Luna would have thought he was consuming Pepper-up potions.
"Tonight you're off duty then, get a proper sleep," Harry stated, "Hopefully you'll actually have a bed to sleep in." the others all thought he put Merle, Daryl and Luna on watch with him because they were the best fighters, and they were half true, alright mostly right, but the thought of trusting them completely when they couldn't shoot was terrifying to him. He was used to being surrounded by people who could take care of themselves, he'd taught them after all.
"Only if it's safe," Luna argued, only eating once Harry had nodded his agreement.
"Have you eaten yet, Sophia?" Harry queried as the young girl sat next to him and began petting at Anubis too.
"I have," she nodded, giving him a beaming smile.
"Good," Harry replied, with that he stood up and began to grab each plate and cup that had been used for breakfast and took them inside. The plates were paper and quickly disposed off in the empty bin, the cups were put into the box; hopefully they'd find somewhere to clean them properly - without using their bottled water which would go pretty quickly if they had to use it to clean cookery stuff. He absently packed up the portable stove and everything else that was lying around. Picking it up Harry exited the house and put it back in the blue van. He could sense someone following him at a slow pace.
"Luna said only three wizards could use that spell, is it true?" Daryl asked, leaning against the side of the van.
"Actually she's wrong," Harry replied, unsurprised by Daryl's appearance, "I think it was more along the lines of four or five if you count me." trying to get the subject off him. Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Tom Riddle aka Voldemort, Hermione probably could have as well. "That's only the people back home, America understandably has a bigger population when it comes to those in Britain." if it was anything like Hogwarts then the students from Durmstrang, Beauxbaton, Ilvermorny, Mahoutokoro, Uagadou, Castelobruxo, would be safe, behind extremely complex wards, those were the only magical schools he knew the names of but there were eleven in existence all over the world. "There are eleven schools spread out all over the world, or maybe I should say was?" Harry didn't like the thought of everyone magic being dead, it was just a really horrid thought, but the people he cared most about was alive, so that's what he really cared about at the moment. Thank Merlin he hadn't gone for Hermione and Luna to take them to safety, otherwise they would have been with him from the beginning - hell he hated the fact Luna was out here in danger with him. He would have given anything for her to be within the safety of Hogwarts wards again.
Daryl opened his mouth to ask another question before abruptly snapping it shut as the others all piled out the house. Dale bringing the chair he had set up earlier with him folded under his arm.
"Don't get too comfortable, it's a very short drive to the prison, try and refrain from using your guns if you can, I really don't want to have to deal with walkers only for another herd to come at us." Harry stated just loud enough for everyone to hear him. With that everyone began to climb into the vehicles, Harry ushered Anubis into the RV giving his a head a rub before he closed the door and made his way over to Daryl's truck, within a few moments they were on the move.
"You have questions..." Harry said glancing briefly at Daryl, before looking away, not invading his privacy by reading his mind, he only did that if he had to. He didn't need to be a mind reader to see there was something on Daryl's mind, and considering his earlier questions it was obviously about magic. He hoped he hadn't ruined his friendship with the brothers, especially Daryl, who he liked more than he should. He really hoped he hadn't made them leery of him; it was the last thing he wanted.
"Why is every wizard and witch different?" Daryl asked pensively.
"I'm assuming you mean magically as in our powers?" Harry deduced what Daryl actually meant; a grunt was the only reply he got.
"You like to think of the hard questions don't you?" Harry said, propping his legs up on the dash board. "There's speculation as to why some people are more powerful than others. The four most powerful wizards in the magical world were half-bloods, giving credence to the theory." grabbing his bag he absently took two chocolate bars out and handed one to Daryl, he'd noticed he liked chocolate a lot.
"There's a few status' in the magical world, pureblood's are those who have generations of wizards on both side of their families going way back the purer the line the more smug some of them are about their lineage, they like to refer to themselves as elites although not many of them are left." Harry started explaining, unaware of the fact he was basically having the same conversation with Daryl that Luna had just yesterday with Merle. "Then there are the half-bloods, like me, I had two magical parents but my mum was a Muggle-born, the only magical child in a normal family. Half-blood also refers to a child of a magical parent and a non-magical parent. There's no denying that we're more powerful with the infusion of new blood," plopping a bit of his Hershey bar into his mouth, he chewed on it waiting on Daryl asking anything else.
"What do you mean ain't any left?" Daryl then asked driving around the corner the prison came into view.
"My godfather was one of the elite purebloods although he didn't support half their crazy beliefs, his family used to marry their own cousins; in fact Sirius' parents were cousins. Marrying your own family caused...well there's no other way to say it, madness. They were crazy, some powerful but crazy. They were also infertile, which in a few cases was actually a really good thing. Marrying in your own family also caused the decline in magic, children with magical parents were being born without magic of their own, they were disinherited, they were abandoned, it was considered the biggest shame to have a squib, which is what they were coined back in the day. That's why the elite pureblood society was declining." He had absolutely no problem describing it due to the fact he'd learned it all himself throughout his Hogwarts education, he knew how to explain it to those who had no clue about magic in general.
"Why the hell they marryin' their own family?" Daryl asked perturbed, a grimace on his face.
"Hmm," Harry had to think on that one for a few seconds, especially how to say it in a way Daryl could possibly understand. "Our world was backwards, they had no understanding of DNA or anything, and they were literally stuck in the olden days. Put most wizards in front of you and they won't know how to work a computer, drive a car, or understand any entertainment devices. They still used wind up graphophones, quills and ink, old fashioned and extremely outdated clothes, they didn't have electricity, and they had oil lamps hanging from every room. Back to the point, they had no idea that marrying in your own family was causing their problems, they just wanted to preserve their bloodline, keep it strong and pure, and they believed it would keep their magic strong - instead the opposite happened."
Daryl snorted, "You can't drive,"
"I had no reason to, I Apparate everywhere," Harry shrugged dismissively.
"You don't know how to use electronics either," Daryl rebutted.
Harry frowned, but answered nonetheless, ignoring that everyone was waiting on them getting out. "I know the basic of what they do from watching my cousin, he had every single new computer in existence and broke them just as fast."
"What about you?" Daryl asked, as Harry went for the handle to open the door.
Harry turned back to Daryl, his face impassive, "My aunt and uncle grudged every breath I took, I never once received anything from them in lieu of a present during birthdays or Christmases...in fact in the sixteen years I was under their roof they never once bought me anything," with that he got out the car his moves controlled and relaxed giving none of his inner turmoil away. He grabbed his bag, closed the door and then claimed his compound bow from the truck bed. Cursing himself for opening his mouth, but he knew that out of all the people the Dixons probably understood him. Although it was obvious out of all the things the boys had been through, hunger wasn't one of them. Especially Daryl who was all muscle, cursing inwardly, Harry cleared his mind stopping himself dwelling on Daryl Dixon who would be forever out of his reach.
"About time," Merle grumbled in complaint.
"Now now Merelina, stop complaining," Harry teased, with a large shit eating grin on his face at the indignant look that overcame Merle's face at the new nickname.
"What did you just call me?" he managed to get out, utterly red in the face as everyone tried to muffle their laughter, Daryl was definitely laughing the loudest - not used to anyone getting one over his brother.
"What's wrong? Don't you like your new nickname?" Harry asked with exaggerated innocence.
"Are you sure nobody is in there? The area looks too clean, there's no walkers," Andrea observed the prison her amusement still obvious though it was shaded with worry, presumably at the thought of the prison being inhabited.
"The gates are open," Carol pointed out, gesturing towards where the gates were indeed open.
"Yes, they are," Harry mused thoughtfully, "Nobody would be insane enough to claim the place as theirs and leave the gates open...logically that doesn't make sense, but to be on the safe side...would you have a look around Daryl?" they had to keep up pretence, they all knew nobody could possibly be in there, not only were the gates open, a lot of walkers had been in there. There could be more at the back of the building so he was damn well going to be careful. He had waited until the last possible second before using the spell so that as many of them could be taken out as possible. His Apparation had been loud enough to get their attention. With that Daryl, Harry and Merle began inspecting around the prison feeling like idiots having to pretend but doing it nonetheless.
"The watch tower is a perfect spot to keep watch and it's not out in the open," Harry said thoughtfully, gazing at the prison thoughtfully actually seeing it properly for the first time. "I wonder how quickly it fell, if it went quick, there will be plenty of supplies, food, medicine."
"And an armoury," Daryl added, "There ain't any way to get the trucks in right now,"
"Not until it's secure, but I don't like the thought of leaving all our supplies out here," Harry nodded in agreement, it was absolutely everything they had minus his trunk but he couldn't just bring it all out without revealing magic. "I suppose we will have to get outside secured before it gets dark and hopefully a cell block too..."
"That's a lot of ground to cover," Luna commented as she and the others rejoined Harry and the Dixons, but she knew they could do it.
"It is," Harry nodded briefly, "Alright, me and Daryl are going to head in secure the perimeter, we really need to get everything in and secure it so nothing else can get in like more walkers, otherwise it's like shovelling snow when it's still snowing. Once we have made sure it is we'll get those gates open and bring the vehicles in. Then will we head in and find a cell block for the night."
"Shouldn't more than two of you go?" Andrea asked looking worried for them.
"Probably, but we can't risk the supplies, if you two want to work on getting them in while we secure the area then that's fine, just make sure at least two people are on watch for walkers." Harry suggested to Merle and Luna. "I've got a funny feeling there will be walkers at the other side. With all the noise they'll be drawn to all of us so just be careful."
With that Harry readied himself, checking for his knifes, guns and he also had his bow strapped to his back.
"You'll need something to cut the fence," Dale said, turning to retrieve his tool kit.
"I'll go," Andrea volunteered running towards the RV much quicker than Dale would have.
Harry glanced upwards; cutting into the fence would leave weaknesses he didn't like that, especially knowing people would be able to see it. What was the point to securing somewhere when they were just driving weaknesses into it? Making a decision he took the pliers from Andrea and put them in his pocket only to surprise everyone by actually climbing up the fence, pausing only to cut the barbed wire at the top, and climb over. Once he had scaled half way down he just let himself drop, catching himself on his feet, arms out to stop himself toppling over.
"I ain't doin' that," Daryl complained from the other side of the fence, he wasn't even sure how he had managed it.
"You can move the RV over, climb on the RV and get the rest of the way down?" Harry said before moving over to the gate beside the guard tower. Unsurprisingly no matter how much he pushed and shoved it just wouldn't move, peering at the bottom, trying to determine if there was something stopping it but there just wasn't anything there.
"The fence is electrical," Daryl grunted, as he joined Harry a smug smirk on his face, he had successfully gotten over.
"No way to override it?" Harry asked perplexed.
"Not without electricity," Daryl frowned. "Or breakin' it,"
"Hmm," Harry shrewdly looked it over, "Guess its back to the original plan."
"Or not, there's a crank over there," Daryl pointed it out, moving over he grunted as he used all his strength to get it to go down. As soon as it hit that point the gates Harry was leaning against jerked at his weight opening up. Together the both of them got the gate open fully as the others jumped into the vehicles and drove into the first gate of the prison. Then they drew it back, and as soon as they were closed, Daryl once again used the crank to secure the prison.
It was only the first gate; they had another to go before they had everyone up to the prison.
One thing at time.