Daryl followed Harry out of the prison, keeping an eye on the wizard, who was extremely tense, whatever that had happened back there had obviously put Harry on edge, in only a way he'd seen when they were dealing with walkers, in fact if he would say it was worse than when he dealt with walkers. What was with the scar? Why did he have such an adverse reaction to someone looking at it? He had noticed it, during one of their scavenges of a store, when he started using magic it had briefly appeared before disappearing again, it was be some sort of magic making it invisible. It was just a very thin cool lightening bolt scar, barely visible. His back was a hell of a lot worse and he didn't hide them.
Harry visibly relaxed once he was away from the prison and into the trees, feeling calm and at peace surrounded by the trees, the only thing missing from when he'd started learning a few months back was the sound of birds and even tractors and cars, the most common sound had definitely been motorbikes. The cabin the brothers had stayed in wasn't as secluded as one would believe for a rural area of Atlanta Georgia. It had kept them safe once people started coming back, but not for long, as it spread astonishingly fast.
"Damn, something got to this pretty quick," Harry muttered as he bent down to check the trap and incidentally the wild hog caught in it and all chewed up. Cursing in annoyance, the walkers were becoming more and more of a bother the longer this thing lasted. It wasn't enough that they were going around eating everyone that they had to eat the only food supply they had too? Harry removed the disgusting carcass from the trap, and began to set it up again. "Maybe we should come out here twice a day, get rid of all the walkers, might make it easier to actually eat something we've caught. Either that or forgo the traps, they're eating what the traps manage to catch anyway and it might be attracting more of the buggers." Harry strained as he said this, getting the trap back into place, he'd added a spell that activates when the trap is sprung, just because he had to kill those animals to eat, it didn't mean he wanted them suffering, at least not needlessly, the spell put them to sleep painlessly, it was actually a spell he had learned from Hagrid, who used it illegally since his wand had been snapped, but he was always a big softy when it came to animals. He wondered if Hagrid was safe, he was a half giant, which meant his DNA was different, animals weren't affected, maybe the giants and that weren't either. Stupid to hope, he knew, but the thought of all things magic just being eradicated was quite painful to contemplate despite the fact he no longer cared what wizards and witches thought.
Finally the trap was back into position and Harry slowly backed away from it, not wanting it to spring back up and catch him. Although recently it would definitely just be his luck if something like that did happen. They had more all around the prison, and he planned on inspecting them all before going further out.
"Why was she so fixated on your scar?" Daryl asked as they continued their trek around the prison, they passed one but found it undisturbed and moved on. He would have asked earlier if he wasn't perspective but he knew Harry had a temper on him that rivalled both his and Merle's when push came to shove although he was nowhere near as easy to wind up it took a lot for Harry to lose it.
Harry sighed, at least if he told Daryl his opinion wouldn't change, he wouldn't be in awe of him, he was undeniably fascinated with magic but that was indeed as far as his curiosity and awe went. "To my world? It was a symbol, when Voldemort was defeated the first time around they reported in the news that my parents had died but I had survived with nothing to show for the attack other than a lightening bolt scar on my forehead. They even came up with a moniker for me. While they were all celebrating the downfall of the darkest wizard the magical world had ever known.." Harry paused briefly to ready his bow and shoot at a walker to his left, Daryl took care of the one to his right. Both of them looked around to ensure no more would come out of the trees. Remaining silent as they listened for even a slight shuffle. After a few tense moments they began down the other side of the prison.
"What did they call you?" Daryl asked, a small smirk hidden from view as he kept his eyes sharp on his surroundings. He was imagining some really ridiculous names the newspapers liked to come up with.
Harry grimaced, "I might as well tell you, seen as you'd probably get it out of Luna or worse the new woman," he did grumble though, he hated that title. "They called me the 'Boy-Who-Lived' it didn't matter that I had just lost my parents they wanted a beacon, and they used me, a symbol of all that was good and light in the world." his sarcasm was obvious even a deaf man could have heard that. "The same good and light wizards that left a fifteen month old baby on a doorstep all night and just left him to fend for himself for eleven years."
"You blame em?" Daryl questioned, quickly and efficiently removing the racoon from the trap, and affixed it to his belt. He knew what Harry was implying without needing to be told further. He too had been forced to look after himself from a young age, the only time his father remembered him was when he wanted someone to beat the shit out of.
"Considering they had two people constantly watching over me from the shadows? Yeah, damn right I do." Harry said snorting wryly, he was no longer bitter about it, at least not really, he had more important things to worry about these days, like keeping his group alive. Which was why he was taking so many pre-emptive measures, magical or otherwise to ensure success. He wasn't all knowing even with magic, and was as vulnerable as the rest of them, hell even when he was just with the brothers and using some magic, he'd still been caught unawares and almost been bitten, and of course Daryl and Merle had saved his life by dealing with the walkers, he in turn had done the exact same thing. Last time he'd been caught unaware was definitely the Quarry just after saving Jim, not that it mattered in the end, he had stayed with Jenner in the CDC, deciding his own fate rather than facing the walkers and an uncertain future. He didn't think any less of them for their decision, like Jenner they'd given up.
After ten minutes they had every trap around the prison checked, and had a variety of animals hanging from their belts. Racoons, beavers, squirrel's, a fox and another wild hog which thankfully hadn't been eaten by anything. Bit too much to take with them, so they finished their complete cycle around the prison, whistling to Luna who was still out there, digging at the other side of the prison. He waited until she looked up before showing her the animals before sliding them through the gap that hadn't been fully closed. Daryl did the same, dropping off the animals before both of them crossed the road to the prison and into the trees again.
"Why do people here know about the scar?" Daryl pressed.
"Everyone and I mean everyone in the magical world knows about it, quite a bit of the magical population in the USA came from Britain to get away from the war. Whether it was the war we had during the second world war, or the first war with Voldemort, people fled. They kept up with the news out of habit I assume. Everyone my age grew up with my past as a bedtime story, you know, fighting for all that's good, how they got rid of him and the boy-who-lived actually lived, like some sort of fairytale. Everyone knew more about my past than I did when I finally reached Hogwarts. There was a time were I actually liked my scar, I thought it was 'cool' mostly because my aunt hated it, and she constantly made sure it was hidden, not that I understood at the time. Then I learned why I really had it, ever since I was eleven everyone always looks at my forehead when they learn who it is they're talking too." Harry bent down and looked at the tracks. "Over time I realized they weren't seeing me, just the fancy story they'd been told a hero they'd revered all their lives. There isn't a child in the world, my world that doesn't know my name."
"You're famous?" Daryl commented, shooting his arrow through the squirrel which lay limp dead to the world with the arrow through its forehead.
"I never wanted to be," Harry told him, looking up momentarily, his disgust and anger showing in his glowing green eyes, "But can I still be famous if there's hardly anyone left alive?" he questioned, no he'd never wanted to be famous. "I actually considered this my second chance, away from all I knew, anyone that knew me, I was just another nameless face caught up in this and I'll be damned if I let anyone destroy that." not even Mira Black, hopefully the threat of being thrown out (whether he meant it or not or not, which he didn't not really) would be enough to make sure she didn't slip. As she'd said though, she'd grown up in this world knowing about magic and never revealed it.
Daryl nodded, unseen by Harry who had turned back to face ahead before standing up and beginning to move again. It didn't escape his notice that Harry had taken someone in who had the potential to reveal his magic and him in one fell swoop but he did it anyway despite his own wishes. He'd risk everything being revealed to help someone in need, Harry liked to think he'd changed but Daryl didn't think he had at all. He walked quicker to a patch of mud that was disturbed, something had caused the deer to veer off course and in the opposite direction.
"What about you?" Harry asked, still following the trail or rather Daryl since Daryl was already in front of him following the deer trail.
"What 'bout me what?" Daryl questioned, focusing on the prints, they were recent, he would say within two or three hours.
"Nice try," Harry chuckled wryly, Daryl knew damn well what he was talking about. "I'll be more specific if you like, who raised you?" he didn't automatically assume it was Daryl's parents who abused him, how could he? Since it had been his own aunt and uncle who hurt him for years, there was no knowing really and assuming things was just making an ass of yourself.
Daryl pressed his fingers to his lips, cocking his head to the side listening intently.
Harry wanted to tell Daryl where he could put those fingers, but he refrained, getting his mind out of the gutter and back in the game. Raising his bow until it was level, his green eyes shrewdly looking around, making sure his arrow was properly adjusted, he drew the string back and released, it hit the walker still emerging from the trees. He began walking towards the downed walker, when he heard shuffling, walkers were beginning to appear on both sides of them.
"Run!" Harry whispered with urgency, and then they both bolted, running through trees, jumping over fallen trees, stumps, dead animal carcases, one they'd bet they had been tracking. They kept each other within sight at all times, trying to remain quiet while they ran so not to draw any attention to themselves.
Harry flung his bow over his shoulder, unsheathing his hunter dagger that Daryl had gotten him (well stolen for him but that was pretty much the same thing in this world now) and thrust it into the head of the walker advancing on him at the front. "Fuck!" he cursed, when the dagger refused to budge, he hadn't done that for a while, unsheathing his sword he thrust that through the eye of the other walker, before thrusting his hand out and summoning his knife.
The power behind the spell caused the dead walkers head to stay attached to the blade as it returned to its owner. Grimacing in disgust Harry whacked it twice against the tree before he managed to dislodge it. The thwacking of one of Daryl's crossbow came alarmingly close to his head, as he on instinct dodged away, lurching forward away from the danger. He found a walker had crept really close to him. Yanking the arrow out, both of them continued running, trying to get away from the walkers.
Daryl was just glad he had been morbidly focused on the sight of the dagger being summoned with the head of the walker still attached to it otherwise he might not have noticed the walker creeping around the tree just inches from Harry's neck. A few months ago it would have been a gross sight even for him, but a lot had changed in a few months was his thoughts as the skill was dislodged from the blade.
"Is it just me or are they getting really quiet these days?" Harry grumbled as he handed over the arrow, jumping over another tree.
"Slower too," Daryl pointed out, slowing marginally, they were soon to be leaving the woods judging by the houses he could see through the trees.
They ran for an extra three minutes just to put as much distance between them and the walkers as possible. "I think we lost them," Harry said, not even breathing heavily or breaking sweat. You got used to running like that especially amidst an apocalypse where running really was your only option if you wanted to live another day. He had always been a fast runner, he had to be to keep one step ahead of his cousin and his friends. "But you were right, they were a bit slower than normal...do you think it's the winter?"
"Could be, slows everythin' else why not them?" Daryl shrugged, glancing around the trees to make sure they weren't going to be ambushed by more walkers.
"Clear?" Harry questioned quietly, tightening his compound bow so if he had to run away it wouldn't smack into his back each step he took or worse thump every time he jumped over a tree or log.
Daryl nodded, before confirming it with a "Yes," seeing that Harry had his back to him, keeping watch just in case anything came out of nowhere. It was never safe outside these walls, he was constantly on edge, but he liked the quietness and the familiar feeling of hunting it was something he grabbed onto in an ever changing world they found themselves living in.
With the road clear they both began walking again, crossing over Harry's lips twitched when he noticed something in the open garage. It looked as if someone had left in a hurry, either that or it had already been used as scavenging ground. It made no sense though that they would leave that lying there. "Would you look at that," Harry gestured towards the motorbike with his head. It was black with orange flame design painted down the body of the motorbike. The bike itself was low and the handles stuck out quite a bit, like Merle's bike actually now that he thought about it. "Go on, take it, I know you want to. You miss riding Merle's bike, but you're too stubborn to ask." Harry chuckled, as he moved into the house itself. It had belonged to family, and it was them who had cleared out in a hurry, most of the photos had been taken, he could see the difference in the walls, where the photos had once been, it was cleaner compared to the areas of the wall that hadn't had pictures placed in it. There were a few smaller ones spread out, in the mostly empty living room, a family of four, presumably the parents and two kids. One was maybe four or five years old and the other a teenager, he wondered if it was his bike or the fathers, not that he really cared. He'd spent way too much time lingering on those photos.
Unconsciously gripping his hunting knife, he began to search the house, he found quite a bit of food in the kitchen still, why would they leave the food? Yet take the photo albums and everything? Sighing softly, he shook his head and checked everywhere before he proceeded to remove the large white canvas bag he'd taken from the cars he'd searched after finding Sophia and began to put all that was edible into the bag keeping his knife within grabbing distance. He didn't dare open the fridge, those things stank something awful, in fact some you could even see the mould creeping out in some of them.
Once he was done with the kitchen, Harry moved towards the stairs, and began to slowly move up them, listening intently as he went along. One foot up after the other, the kid looked to be around Andre's age, with a bit of luck there might be something for him to play with still in the room or something. Using his foot he opened the first door he came across, the other doors were all closed he observed. It was the bathroom, he found toilet roll something they were short on, he took that and put it in the landing, before going back, searching the cupboards above the sink, disregarding the make up, he took the pack of toothbrushes and thoughtfully used the Gemino spell twice, before putting the three packs of toothbrushes into the bag, along with the half used toothpaste, one exactly like it still in its box and the child's toothpaste although he wasn't sure if the kid would still have his baby teeth! His knowledge on kids was superficial at best. The razors, shavers, shaving cream, deodorant, shower gel, feminine hygiene products, hair ties, soap it all went in as well anything that would be useful to them.
He even took the towels that were folded up neatly, which took up nearly all the room in the bag. Harry groaned just looking at the bath, he could literally actually have a warm bath, he could Aguamenti the water and heat it up, he was very tempted but he didn't, he'd wait until he had a minute alone somewhere to make one. He was sure the image of the prefects bathroom came to mind just to torment him further.
The next room was obviously the parents bedroom, looking in the cupboards he found no walker waiting to try and bite him. It was mostly empty, with only a few items of clothing still in the cupboard and in the drawers. Noticing a box, he opened it, mostly filled with vacuum bags with bedding, some had clothes too, shrugging he dragged it and began to put the rest of the clothes that were lying around into it as well, he was sure someone could get the use of them.
He dragged the box out to the landing beside the bag and toilet roll, or toilet paper as they called it here. He then went to the other bedroom, it was the kids, there were dozens of a child's drawing, even a mould of their feet, also plenty of toys, he obviously couldn't take it all, so he chose wisely on the few items he would. Lego was one of them, a power tool station, crayons, drawing books and a few board games, twister, buckaroo, large children's cards, and he took every single book on the bookshelf. He took the clothes that had been left behind as well, it was just four pairs of trousers, two jeans, two pairs of jogging trousers, and t-shirts and only two sweaters he found in the laundry basket. Some socks and underwear as well. He'd literally just put it in the box in the hallway when Daryl spoke.
"Why don't you take the house as well?" Daryl said, standing at the top of the stairs in disbelief at how much had been accumulated in the short time he'd inspected the motorbike.
"I'd be tempted to take the bed, not the house," Harry pointed out wryly, as he dumped the books in the box. He then took the last bedroom which was in the front of the house while the other bedrooms had been at the back. His nose screwed up and his hand went over his mouth, bloody hell it smelt atrocious in there. There were dozens of flies zooming around under the bed, he could only make out the end of a pizza box. Who put food under their bed and let it get to that state? Shaking his head he nosed around, avoiding under the bed, but finding some decent stuff, around fifty comic books, a few actual books that looked more like they belonged to his school, and his clothes they didn't have any male teenagers in the group but you learnt to wear what you could quickly
Hearing an engine in the distance Harry atomically ducked out of view, before slowly peering out, trying to keep himself hidden, but wanting to see who it could be. He frowned when he noticed it was an army vehicle, but those inside it were not dressed in military gear, they also didn't have the military buzz cut. End of the world or not, he knew those people would always have their hair the way it should, it was instinct for them. There was only four of them Harry observed, they were driving slowly, that just used up gas quicker.
"What the bloody hell are they up to," Harry said shrewdly.
"Same as us, surviving'," Daryl said, but he was watching them closely. It was as if they were looking for people, their next actions confirmed it, as a man with short brown hair stepped out of the vehicle followed by a man wearing glasses. The short brown haired man used a megaphone calling out to 'all survivors' attracting walkers to him, which the two men in the truck disposed of by firing on them. Wasting bullets in the process since they never hit the head first time, one had a bat and eventually used that to beat the thing to a pulp.
To Harry's disbelief a family did appear from somewhere in front of them, with bags full of things, the man spoke to them before they got into the vehicle. He couldn't believe anyone would just blindly trust someone, but hadn't Mira done just that exact thing this morning? Desperation makes for wonderful incentive - especially about things you wouldn't otherwise normally do. The brown haired man had a look on his face as he closed the door. It was one of utter satisfaction, there was just something familiar about that look, but Harry didn't have a chance to think on it as they left.
"I wonder why they didn't search the properties," Harry said, eyes narrowed in contemplation. "I mean if they're taking people in and feeding them...surely they need all the supplies they can get. I know we do, and they were wasting bullets like they had a lot more where they came from. They aren't army...I suppose the army might have asked for help of some kind, its not like they have any chance of recruiting any time soon. Would explain why they won't need supplies as well." he added thoughtfully, shrugging his shoulders, well, it had nothing to do with him, maybe after winter and he headed to DC the others might be better of joining this other group, admittedly if they could find them. By the time he was done with his group they might even be able to teach the idiots a thing or two about shooting a gun. Sophia, a twelve year old had a better aim than the grown adult he'd just observed.
"Lets get the..." Harry started but stopped when he heard the megaphone again, hissing in agitation, he flicked out his wand and cleaned up the room and incidentally the smell. Sighing resignedly he sat down on the floor, they would have to wait until these guys were well away, don't trust anyone, a good saying to have especially these days, he didn't want to risk them being bad guys and bringing bother down upon the prison - especially if they had only a camp and no safe place to stay the prison would seem like a godsend to them. "We might be here for a while," he sighed, plucking out his trunk, he unshrunk it and clicked it to the compartment he wanted and brought out two gold cardboard boxes and flung one to Daryl, a whimsical smile on his face.
"Chocolate frog cards?" Daryl read the words, staring blankly at Harry, these obviously held a lot of meaning for Harry he could tell by the way he'd smiled, Harry rarely did that genuinely.
"It's chocolate, wizarding world chocolate, there's a card inside with it, people like to save them up, there are like two hundred and two chocolate frog cards to collect by my last estimation. Luna completely cleared the shelves of Honeydukes before she came over," Harry explained, he knew Daryl had a sweet tooth. "Don't worry its completely safe, there's nothing dangerous in it." his amusement building as he watched the wrapper being torn and he was blessed with a look of utter astonishment on Daryl's face, he was gobsmacked as the frog leapt from the cardboard box and into the air to land on Daryl's leather jacket, the one with the wings that Harry personally thought was really hot.
"They only have one decent leap in them," Harry said his voice chortled with amusement as he spoke. "It will stay still now you can eat it." with that Harry opened his own, after flipping it around a few times, snatching his frog like the seeker he'd been born to be, and ate it, scoffing at the name he noticed on the card, "Dumbledore, of course I had to get him out of all the names available." he flipped it away before belatedly realizing he really shouldn't leave it lying. He was just about to set it on fire with a simple 'Incendio' but Daryl picked it up, no doubt curious so Harry just shrugged and re-pocketed his wand.
Having heard a small amount of information about Dumbledore, the face he saw on the card was most definitely not what Daryl expected. If he put on a red suit he'd look like Santa clause unaware of the fact he thought pretty much the same as Harry had when he first saw Dumbledore. Knowing what Daryl did about the old man, he didn't experience anything in the way of emotions staring at the twinkling faced wizard.
"Which one did you get? Merlin and Dumbledore are by far the more popular ones, Agrippa and Ptolemy are the extremely rare ones in fact I've heard of them being sold for money - you know always desperate to have the entire collection. A lot of people spent their entire lives collecting them." Harry questioned, peering out the window, listening for any sound but it seemed as if the street was deserted now.
"Harry James Potter," Daryl read.
"Give me that!" Harry lurched forward trying to get the card from Daryl, both of them ended up rolling around the room, Daryl trying to stop Harry from getting it all the while actually amused, and Harry who wanted to get it off him. "I'll bloody burn it in your hands," Harry told him, still trying to get the damn card from Daryl's fingers.
"No you won't," Daryl said sure in that knowledge, Harry would never use magic against him that way, he wasn't that kind of person. He definitely wasn't letting Harry get his hands on the card, he was going to have a lot of fun with it. They continued rolling around the room until their hearing picked up the sound of growls. Which made them both pause, look at each other, before lurching to their feet, the noise and hail of guns had attracted quite a few of them they both observed.
"It's time to hit the trail, is there any gas in the motorbike?"
"Yes, dunno if its enough to get us back," Daryl revealed, mentally making a path they could take with the motorbike.
"Then let's get everything and get the hell out of here, once we're away from here we can get the gas out," Harry said, closing his trunk and shrinking it. Daryl quickly ran down the stairs, Harry noticed he'd taken one of the bags with him. Flicking out his wand, his left hand shoved the toilet paper into the box before he shrunk it, he could right it again before they reached the prison, or just walk and make it seem like they hadn't used the motorbike, whatever worked.
Hearing the bike roaring to life, he jumped down the stairs, taking them two at a time and quickly made it to the garage in record time, jumping on, avoiding slicing his own leg with his sword they were off, zipping passed the walkers that had suddenly started coming into the garage at the sounds of the engine. Harry kicked out at a few so they didn't end up toppling off the bike and before they knew it the street could only be seen at the back of the mirror for a very brief time before they were turning.