The three of them dug into their sandwich, Mira more appreciative of it than either Daryl or Harry, but that wasn't truly surprising since they were eating food from Hogwarts, admittedly not as often as they wished but they were still getting some home cooked meals to enjoy with spices and the likes, something that was sorely lacking most days in the food the group prepared for meals. As he ate, Harry opened his trunk, the sound of the locking mechanism seemed very loud, causing all of them to freeze, flicking out his and Harry cast a silencing charm over the room, making a serious mental note to himself to remove it before anyone left the room, if he was away and someone got hurt then they'd be a sitting duck and unable call out to anyone.
"My goodness!" Mira gasped as she caught sight of the food Harry had in his trunk, it was the equivalent of over five frozen food stores, she could be wrong there might be more but that would require going into the trunk, not something she would do it was freezing in there. The sight of all the food made her want to drool over it. Chips, bacon, chicken, turkeys there was everything you'd find in a shop. That was just the frozen section; she wasn't sure whether she wanted to see what was in the other compartments. "You know you could get away with bringing some of that back with us," Mira commented, eyeing the chicken with a zealot's passion. "Just tell everyone you found a freezer attached to a generator."
Harry glanced at her amused, "After all this time?" he replied, snorting at the thought, his people weren't stupid.
"Just say you found someone dead, you assume they'd been using the generator to survive, instead of wasting it you brought it with you." Mira fired off, on a roll now, she wanted something different to eat, and since chicken hadn't been on the menu since the apocalypse started well...who could blame her for wanting that chicken.
"I'm not comfortable about lying to them further," Harry informed her seriously, "The more lies I tell the more betrayal they will feel when the truth comes out and I am not stupid enough to believe they'll never find out. If you want to take some stuff, you found it, you explain I'll do nothing but back you up."
"Why haven't you told the Non-Maj's? It's not as though the ICW can have you arrested for telling someone," Mira queried, watching Harry use magic to float the food from the cupboard and into his trunk. That certainly would shave a long, long time off their quest. She quickly began to remove bags of chicken breasts, chicken drumsticks, bacon, three loaves of frozen bread, chips, roast beef, turkey drummers, turkey burgers, roast potatoes and last but no means least the largest pack of sausages she could find. She began looking around for anything that could hold them when Harry handed over his usual sack he had for picking up food - the very same one he'd found on the highway while waiting on someone coming for Sophia.
Harry began talking as she put everything way, handing over a bottle of oil and some gravy granules from his trunk as well. "It's not fear of being arrested, it's fear that they will fear me enough to leave." it was odd hearing Muggles referred to as Non-Maj's it was probably the name the American magical society had come up with for Muggles and Harry did idly wonder who named them first. Seeing the confused look on Daryl's face he elaborated for him, "The ICW is the international confederation of wizards, they were the ones that separated both the magical world and the non-magical world to keep us safe."
Daryl nodded just once to show that he understood.
"They will see this as a good thing, an answer to their problems," Mira protested, she was positive that's the way it would go. Pulling the string back so the bag was closed, she dreaded picking it up since that load was bound to be rather heavy but she didn't mind taking it. They were going to have a hell of a feast tonight, part of her protested at taking the credit for it but she had Harry's permission.
"Something else to avoid then," Harry snorted, "I will not become their beacon, their clutch, they need to keep learning how to survive and having them believe I can keep them safe because I have magic will just end in tragedy. No, they can't become complacent, I never really thought of it that way before..." his brow furrowing before he shuddered a little at the thought of them becoming reliant on him in such a way. Turning back to his task at hand, the food was becoming lesser which meant it would be done soon. He must have had a lot of food. "Was this Hamish a horder?"
"He has a lot of things, yes, half of which he never used," Mira admitted, nodding thoughtfully.
"Thought so," Harry replied wryly, this was good, it would mean he had a lot of potion ingredients the more the better. "There's plenty left if you want more, we're going to be here a while and until we get to Fort Benning it won't be brought out again." he informed Daryl. Daryl could eat more than even Dudley if he put his mind to it, he wasn't sure where it all went but he definitely could.
"What's Fort Benning?" Mira asked, "Not THE Fort Benning?" she looked between Daryl and Harry, Daryl had moved to get something else to eat and Harry was opening another cupboard.
"Yes, that Fort Benning we've been clearing out of walkers for a while now," Harry informed her, clicking his trunk causing another section to open up; this time it was the chilled section. He said nothing when Mira reached in and took a bottle of water, since he decided to take one out for himself and Daryl, the one he'd had earlier was absolutely foul.
"Why? I had no idea you had planned on moving," Mira said impressed, he had never once given the impression he was going elsewhere.
"While the prison is safe, it doesn't have the defences I've put on Fort Benning, we'd be safe from people and walkers." Harry explained, drinking some water before putting it aside and murmuring the spell under his breath again watching as the food began to move into the chilled/preserved section. Milk, cheese, bread, gammon, fruit, vegetables, butter, chocolate spread, peanut butter, marmalade, cartons of pumpkin juice, orange juice and juice that was definitely from the Muggle world. They didn't call it juice here though; no it was soda he believed. He paid no attention to the rest as it went in.
By the time Daryl finished his second ham and cheese sandwich the kitchen was empty, Harry flicked his wand removing the silencing spell, after warning them to keep it quiet since he was removing it. With that Harry began to search the floor and doors looking for any sign of an entrance into a potions lab, since most people had it underground. He found the door at the side of the pantry, beside more food mostly tins and a lot of utensils once again murmuring the spell not even glancing back to see if the stuff was going into his trunk instead he went down the steps into the potions lab.
"Lumos!" Harry cast, standing on the last step watching the room flare with light, flicking his wand causing the light to bob around near the ceiling. Harry immediately made his way over to the back of the potions lab, where there a dozen plants (which prefer darkness, if Hamish had put little sunlight's on them, they would still be there. Magic didn't just fade because the person died, not always at any rate). He wasn't familiar with a few of them, but he definitely intended on taking them with him, Severus would definitely be able to tell him what it was with a single leaf. There were ten standard potions, three bronze, two silver and one gold one. He must have done really well, Harry was beginning to realize, a gold cauldron, gold stirrers even gold knives for cutting up ingredients. A marble mortar and pestle, there were a lot in here that indicated that he had made a fortune brewing potions. In some ways he was lucky, he had passed on before anything happened, he hadn't died in agony with walkers eating him, hadn't died wondering what was going to become of the world.
Shaking off his thoughts, he summoned his trunk which surely should be finished packing everything, now this he would need to do by hand. He wasn't going to risk anything being broken, opening the first compartment he pulled out one of his unused trunks, before returning it to its normal size and clicked it until he got to the sixth compartment and began to put the cauldrons in first, they were heaviest and could potentially break something. He put them in rows together before watering the plants and putting them in each of the cauldrons which would keep them steady, once that was done he put it on compartment five and began to put everything else in, keeping them in their boxes, some plastic some wooden.
"Will you tell me more about my...my family?" Mira asked as she began to help him put everything into the trunk.
"You want to know about the Blacks?" Harry asked, gazing at her questioningly.
"My father didn't like to talk about it," Mira explained quietly, understandable really she couldn't imagine what he had been through as a teenager.
"No, I don't suppose he would," Harry said with sympathy, "I don't know a whole lot about the Black family mind, but what I do know isn't good. My Godfather and his brother were the sanest of the bunch. The inbreeding did a number on them; Sirius' parents were cousins for Merlin's sake. We are related, though, me and you through marriage three generations back, Dorea Black married a Potter, Dorea and Marius were brother and sister." what he did know was Marius must have been really old when he had Mira if she was his daughter.
Mira was startled by that, she knew nothing about her family, only through her mum's side.
"The last generation of Black's were Narcissa, Bellatrix, Andromeda, Sirius and Regulus, Regulus died when he was eighteen years old I think, he joined the Death Eaters, but tried to do the right thing, wanting Voldemort destroyed. He was dragged down into the water by Inferi, real inferi not walkers." Harry added absently as he looked around the now empty room, between both of them they had gotten in down in double time. "Sirius was sentenced to Azkaban for crimes he didn't commit but escaped and was never proven innocent until he was dead, he died when I was fifteen years old without an heir of his own...naming me his heir in his will." Harry dragged the trunk over to the door and opened it, grinning when he was proven right - potions, the other one he'd bet were filled with ingredients.
"The three females were all married, Narcissa Black married Lucius Malfoy, and they had one son, Draco Malfoy. Andromeda was disowned because she fell in love and married a Muggle-born called Ted Tonks they had one child Nymphadora Tonks, she was a Metamorphamagus, something that is well known in the Black line. She hated her first name and always went by Tonks, she married Remus Lupin and the pair of them died when I was seventeen fighting in the war leaving behind their newborn son, Teddy Lupin. Teddy and Andromeda died after the war at the hands of Death Eaters who evaded justice. Bellatrix married Rodolphus Lestrange, they didn't have an heir, and Bellatrix was killed by Molly Weasley during the battle." Harry gave Mira a complete overview without going into too many details as he plucked each potion and slid them into a slot with quick efficiency.
"So only you and I are left with Black blood?" Mira questioned.
"Narcissa and Draco are still alive, I wasn't close to them per se, the Malfoy's were Death Eaters, and they turned at the end of the war when they realized they were losing badly." Harry snorted derisively. "They got to walk away without even being arrested, the justice system in Magical Britain was pathetic and I don't miss it." he was primarily thinking of Narcissa and Lucius, Draco had been brainwashed to think the way he had from the moment of his birth. What he did miss was sleep most days, although last night had been agreeably the best nights sleep he'd ever had. She didn't half ask a lot of questions, at least he knew how to get here now so if he had to return he wouldn't have to bring her with him. He didn't mean it in a bad way, but she was always full of questions and honestly? Harry didn't really want to discuss things from his past; at least she was no longer trying to find out about him and his life constantly. "Draco is at Hogwarts right now working with Hermione and Sev."
"There are no writing on these potions, what if you end up giving someone something dangerous?" Mira asked, as she slotted the last one into place.
"I know my potions, if there are any I am unsure of I have a Potions Master back home I can discuss things with," Harry informed her, and not to forget actually hand it over, that box of Hermione's was a work of art. How she managed to do that, make maps, mirrors and try to look for a cure to whatever this disease was he didn't know.
"Who?" Mira asked with genuine enthusiasm, wondering if she knew who it was. The earlier use of Sev had completely slipped her by.
Harry chuckled as he dragged the trunk out, heading for the other door, "You'll know him, at least you should, he is the youngest Potions Master in the world." opening the door he sighed softly in relief, that was a lot of potion ingredients, this would keep him going for a long time.
"Severus Snape? You know him?" Mira choked out shocked.
"Of course, he's a teacher at Hogwarts, the school I attended for seven years," Harry answered, grinning in amusement, wondering what Severus would make of her. The constant questions would make him annoyed and he'd quickly make sure she came disillusioned of him...or it might go the other way and he might actually get into heated debates with her regarding potions one never knew how Severus would react.
Unlike the potions each of these jars had their names clearly written across the bottom with a label. With blessed quietness both of them quickly had the last of the potions lab cleared out and into the trunk. Quickly being a relative term, since neither of them knew just how much time had passed, Harry hadn't once looked at the time to check either. It didn't matter how much time went by, Harry needed everything available to him so he could ensure the safety of those he cared about. He was just glad Daryl and Merle didn't react badly to potions! Since he knew the pair of them was bound to get into some sort of trouble sooner or later.
"Whoa," Harry murmured leaning his palm against the doorjamb, his eyes closed, feeling the wards around the prison his heart pounding. There was someone unknown being brought in; right along with Luna and Merle, he hadn't been aware that they had gone out. They were injured, he had no idea how much, and wouldn't until he got back. He had the entire potions supply so he had to get back.
"Let's go!" Harry said levitating his trunks, letting Mira go in front of him they both made a beeline back up the stairs and back into the kitchen, Daryl was nowhere downstairs, "Gather everything we can use down here, or anything you want in particular. I'll go and get Daryl, be fast we must return to the prison." with that not answering her questions he bolted up the stairs, being quiet about it, more out of instinct than a desire to be silent.
Up the stairs, was blocked with trunks, it seemed as though Daryl had been busy, peering in curiously noticing that it was books, the wizard must have been quite the reader. He did notice as he climbed over them that there was a chess set peeking out one of the boxes that hadn't been closed yet. His lips twitched, a wistful sigh leaving his lips, he did miss magic a lot. Not using it per se just everything else, being openly allowed to use it, and every day items like chess.
"Hey, have you got everywhere up here done?" Harry asked entering the room, noticing the penetrating look Daryl was giving him he added, "I had to put the potions and the ingredients away by hand, it's far too risky using magic, potions and spells don't work too well together."
"Is it true?" Daryl asked staring at Harry intently.
Harry blinked bewildered, "I would need to know what you're asking before I can say whether it is or not," he pointed out, noticing that Daryl had a book in his hands, and a tight grip on it if the white knuckles he had were any indication.
"That wizards can get pregnant?" Daryl said, pushing the book into Harry's hand.
Harry laughed just imagining the thoughts that had been going through Daryl's head since he found it, "Yes, it's true," he informed Daryl amused, "It takes potions and spells for it to happen, that and its extremely rare, wizards could take that potion and use those spells their entire life and still not get pregnant, it has a very small success rate. Most same sex partners usually just get a female to carry the baby, or get a donation of sperm if its witches, there's a potion that gives babies three parents. It requires blood or semen. Its original intention was to help witches who were barren or a wizard who was infertile have a family...using eggs from a witch...most probably a sister or cousin or sperm from a brother or cousin sometimes even father."
Daryl relaxed at that pronouncement, visibly.
"Worried?" Harry chuckled, the fact he relaxed gave away more of Daryl's thoughts than anything else could have. One he obviously wanted to be the one giving rather than receiving pleasure. If he had intended on being the one to receive pleasure than give it he wouldn't have been so worried. At least that was his assumption, maybe he just didn't want kids, but then again who did in this damn apocalyptic world? Sure if nobody did the human race would die off, but it would be a very small selection that did choose to have one. Without protection though...let's just say there would be a lot of accidental/unwelcome pregnancies.
Unbeknown to Harry he was going to get a glimpse of how wrong he was regarding the assumption that Daryl didn't want children in the very near future.
Daryl grunted and shook his head, denying it completely.
"Let's get everything else and head back, Merle and Luna are hurt and have brought someone to the prison," Harry said, his amusement gone as he remembered why he'd come up here in the first place. Exiting the library putting the book amongst the stuff Daryl had found. Rapidly using the same spell 'Diminuendo' making the trunks and boxes shrink down to the size of matchboxes. Once that was done he went into the other rooms checking cupboards to see if there were any clothes they could use. The old man seemed to like his Muggle stuff so there may well be muggle clothes in here that Dale could use. Grabbing the clothes deciding to just take the whole lot, except the cloaks. The other room in the flat was empty, the only other room up here was the bathroom, which he did take the shaving foam and the shaving blade, it was one of those old fashioned barber ones, but needs a must.
Unsurprisingly Daryl was waiting impatiently at the top of the stairs, crossbow over his back; he wanted to get back to see his brother.
"Don't worry, it's nothing fatal, I would be able to tell," Harry said seriously, "Hell I would have left everything here and just Apparated with you both if that were the case, Luna is like a sister to me." he reminded Daryl softly. He glanced at Daryl's hands just to make sure he had the boxes and found he did indeed, without preamble both of them quickly made their way down the stairs.
It seemed that Mira wanted to take quite a lot as well, he observed as they wandered into the kitchen. Flicking out his wand automatically Harry began to shrink everything else down too, except the board that Daryl was touching curiously. "It's a Gobstones set, a magical version of um...marbles, when a player loses points it spits out putrid liquid at them. It's mostly kids that play it, not many teenagers or adults do, there was a club at school for it, not sure how many attended though I was into Quidditch...a flying game that combines basketball and football. He has a gold set, I remember wanting to buy these when I first saw them when I was eleven, without even knowing what they did."
"You definitely miss the magical world," Mira commented, hearing the wistfulness.
"No, actually I don't, I miss how simple life was, when I was eleven, or at least for the few months it was." Harry corrected her, "Unfortunately having a normal year at Hogwarts was too much to ask for, and I was put into life or death situations each year. Now tell me Mira Black would you miss attempts on your life repeatedly?" Harry gave her a pointed look, he did not need her trying to tell him what he thought or felt.
"I wouldn't have gone to Hogwarts if I was magical, the closest school to here is Ilvermorny, and if anything happened my dad would have pulled me out." Mira replied vehemently. Given what Harry had implied about his life, she didn't bother saying she was 'surprised' he had been kept in Hogwarts. No doubt his family had either not been informed or they didn't care and had hoped he'd die in the magical world. It still horrified her to think about what Harry had potentially gone through.
"I don't suppose you know anyone in Ilvermorny?" Harry questioned as he finally shrank down the Gobstones board and finally dealt with his two trunks and putting them in his pocket.
"No, I don't why?" Mira queried, standing beside Harry bracing herself for the journey, the bag of mostly frozen goods weighing down her left shoulder. Apparation wasn't all that jarring to be honest, his magic was mesmerising, the feel of it was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. He was powerful, extremely so, but he had defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort as a baby and when he was seventeen so he had to be at least equal in magical powers if he had hoped to defeat him. Just like Dumbledore had been able to match Grindelwald in power and defeat him. It was comforting, almost the same comfort she had derived from her father when he was alive. Perhaps that's why she was drawn to him.
"Doesn't matter," Harry said shaking his head, right now he wanted to return to the prison. Grasping each of their shoulders, he Apparated to his usual spot near the prison and in the woods to prevent them from being observed Apparating by anyone in the prison. Daryl's bow unlatched, catching a Walker in the head, causing all of them to begin cautiously looking around, Harry unsheathed his dagger and flung it with accuracy catching another walker in the forehead.
Mira dropped the food and swiftly fired off a round catching it in the head, breathing shakily, those things truly terrified her. Grasping her knife as well, she strengthened her spine and flung her knife at the walkers head, and to her immense sense of pride and satisfaction she got it imbedded in the head, not the middle but she was just pleased she hadn't missed, all those training exercises had worked. How she hated them she thought as she approached the dead walker cautiously, looking around before removing the knife from its head.
"Well done," Harry commended her, but it wasn't over, a few walkers had gathered at the prison fences in their absence. "Avoid using bullets," he added absently, especially given the fact she could clearly aim well. Not that she got a chance to use any or her knife for that matter as Harry and Daryl loaded up their bows and shot in rapid succession, in no mood to play around they had a single minded desire to make sure the others were alright. Harry grabbed two walker bodies, by the arm and dragged them behind the trees, he would deal with them properly later, although he wasn't quite sure why he bothered, the fact the area was walker free was just as a big give away that there were people in the area just as a bunch of dead walkers were. Probably the determination to have the walkers obliterated, or what came his way, burying them was dangerous, if this virus goes away on its own or had an anti-dote then they had to do all in their power to make sure it couldn't come back again.
By the time they had gotten to the gates Chloe, Big Tiny and Axel were opening the second gate for them to get in, surprised to see them. Not that Harry blamed them; he never usually came back so soon, it was usually getting dark when Harry and whomever he was with came back. "Merle's been shot, Luna's a little roughed up but she'll be fine, they brought in a woman, she's in bad shape." Big Tiny informed them seriously, his voice was as always soft and quiet, and for such a big man it continued to surprise them.
"Where's he been shot?" Harry asked as he began to jog to the prison, Big Tiny was able to keep up without a problem, as Axel and Chloe along with Mira closed the gates letting Harry and Daryl get to their loved ones.
"Shoulder," Big Tiny said, "They're in the hospital wing," using the term Harry normally did to refer to the room where everything remotely medical was set up.
"Do you know if they were followed?" Harry asked his tone grim.
"I don't know," Big Tiny admitted, "We've been keeping an eye out though." it's how they had known Harry, Daryl and Mira were back.
"Don't stay out here keeping an eye, stay inside, and keep yourself hidden," Harry demanded, just about to open the door when Daryl did and the three of them made their way in, Big Tiny stayed at the door so the others could get in, no doubt planning on informing them what Harry had said.
Harry knew the prison very well, almost as well as the palm of his hand so he was able to swiftly make his way through the corridors to the hospital wing they had set up. They had actually cut the metal on the bunk beds to make single beds for the sick bay as the Americans called it. The room had four beds inside, putting in more would make it difficult to move around, but thankfully until now they had never had a need for it. The door was open and nearly everyone was packed into the room trying to get information.
"QUIET!" Harry called out in annoyance as he slid inside. "All of you who aren't injured leave!"
"Do you need warm water?" Carol asked, deeply concerned.
"Bring up a few bowls of water, that would be greatly appreciated," Harry nodded, giving the rest who were still standing there, "I'm sure all of you wouldn't want your ailments known to others, either myself or Daryl will come down to inform you all of what's happened as soon as I've done all I can for them."
"I'll go and get the water," Carol said decisively, making her way out of the room, and with that everyone piled out after her, giving the room one more concerned glance.
"Let me see," Harry said already removing his jacket and rolling up his sleeves, sterilising his hands with a spell. Also removing the clothes that Merle had on so he wouldn't end up hurt further. Judging by the amount of blood the bullet had gone quite far in, not that it would be a concern, with a few spells and a potion he would be fine. Glancing at Luna, noticing that her throat was red, which made his nostrils flare someone, had tried to choke her. "What happened?"
The door opened emitting Carol again; she must have already had water boiled probably for tea. She brought four deep bowls with water boiled in them; she wheeled them over to them.
"Thank you, Carol," Harry said in gratitude, smiling at her.
"Do you need anything else?" Carol asked.
"No, at least not right now," Harry informed her, dipping his finger into one of the bowls and found it was hot but not enough to burn anyone.
"Then I'm going to help Mira cook the food she just brought in...just shout if you need me." Carol said before making her way out of the room, pausing when Harry began speaking again.
"Don't let Sophia take Anubis or Hela out front, if the dogs need take them out back and only after you've checked the area," Harry added sternly.
"Of course," Carol replied sounding somewhat depressed before she closed the door.
Harry went over to the unknown woman she seemed completely out of it but to be on the safe side he murmured a sleeping spell to prevent her from wakening up. As soon as he did she relaxed a little more going into a deeper sleep, that dealt with he removed his trunk and brought it to its correct size before grabbing a cloth from the tray Carol brought in and dunked it a few times in the water. "This will hurt," he told Merle, casting a numbing charm, which wouldn't help completely.
Merle who was sitting on the bed, stiffened before his hands grasped a hold of the metal of the bed and nodded to let the wizard know he was ready. "Accio bullet," he cast, Merle grunted and gritted his teeth as the bullet reversed trajectory and Harry caught it in his hand before placing it in the bowl and pressed the hot cloth against the wound.
"Daryl pass me the jar with the blue salve in it, it's at the left hand side," Harry murmured, keeping the cloth tightly pressed against the wound. Daryl got the jar out of the trunk, screwed it open and laid on the bed, Harry scooped up a dollop of the salve, removed the cloth and used a spell to lessen the flow of blood and smeared the salve onto the wound, watching as it repaired the damage done by the bullet. "Do you feel the tingling?"
Merle grunted and nodded.
"Good it's working," Harry said relieved, "If anything feels off tell me right away don't be stubborn about it," he informed Merle seriously. Moving away he opened the drawers with the bandages and grabbed everything he'd need then returned. Pressing a pad onto the wound, before wrapping the bandages around his upper chest and over his shoulder to make it secure. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"
"Just a few bruises," Merle told him dismissively, he'd been through worse.
Harry plucked a vial of blood replenisher and a small empty vial and poured half the contents into it before handing it over. "This will replace the blood you've lost, and stop you feeling dizzy." considering how much Merle was swaying he'd say he'd lost a lot of blood and was definitely dizzy. "Stay there for a few minutes."
"Luna, are you alright?" Harry asked her, she was standing behind Merle on the opposite side of the bed.
"I'm fine, honestly don't worry about me," Luna answered soothingly, trying to calm Harry down. She knew how worried he got when anyone that wasn't him was injured.
"What happened?" Harry queried, now that Merle was seen to he moved over to the woman, casting a diagnosis charm over her to find out the extent of her injuries since she couldn't tell him.
"We went out hunting, using the car, just to see what we could find since we were a little bored, I saw her running into the woods barely dressed with three men on her tail, and I immediately went to help. They must have had the area surrounded because there were more than three of them. The woman took down three of them on her own before she was overwhelmed, I was grabbed by two of the men, Merle shot one before he ended up shot himself, he took the rest of them down and I dealt with the other guy."
Harry nodded absently as he began to read the results of the scan, the past two years worth appeared on the paper. She'd had a child before the apocalypse started he idly and sympathetically noticed. When he got to the more recent injuries he paled drastically, swallowing thickly as he closed his eyes in disgust. He had seen a lot in the world, prejudice, seen people murdered, been forced to murder but this? It was sick, it was disgusting, and not even Voldemort and the Death Eaters had gone this far during their raids.
"Harry?" Luna called out in concern, making her way around the bed to find out what was going on.
"Accio antibiotic cream," Harry murmured, not even looking at the others, making himself busy, sterilising the wound before putting the cream around her wrist, her wrists were infected. Luna took the results from the end of the bed and gasped, her undressed state made sense now, it was the thought...it was so horrific. He quickly and efficiently did the same thing to both wrists, ankles and her neck. Giving her a small amount of potion to prevent infection as well, since it worked like actual antibiotics she wouldn't need anything else. There was nothing he could do for the beatings she'd suffered. There was plenty of medication she could take, muggle medication when she was awake.
With great reluctance he removed the handcuffs from the trunk, shrunk it and placed it in his pocket, these cuffs were the ones that had been used to keep Merle imprisoned on the roof and placed them on her bandaged wrist and attached the other end to the metal bed. It didn't matter what she had been through, he had to keep his people safe and who knows what state she would wake up in? The spell would keep her out of it until tomorrow afternoon; he would deal with everything then. He didn't listen as Luna explained what was going on to the Dixons.
Harry retrieved ibuprofen and pain killers from the cabinet and water from his trunk and placed them on the table next to the woman's bed in easy reach for when she woke up. She would probably be better off with woman, men would probably make her feel defensive (and possibly scared) but only he was capable of reading minds, he had to make sure she wasn't a danger to his people. She'd been raped repeatedly for days, he didn't know how to deal with things like this, he wasn't sure anyone else would either. He hoped the bastard (or bastards) that had did the deed had died by Merle's gun, although in retrospect that would probably be letting him/them off too easily but better than alive to do it to anyone else. He added another spell so he would know when she woke up - if; if she happened to wake before the spell was due to wear off.
"Luna would you get some clothes for her so she can put something on when she wakes up?" Harry asked her, throwing a fluffy quilt over her to keep her warmer. "You don't have to do it right now, she won't wake until tomorrow." he gave her one last look of sympathy, guilt churning in his stomach at the fact he was cuffing her, confining her to a bed, especially after what she'd been through. Luna would have a better idea on what would fit the woman than she did. Sliding the key to the cuffs into his pocket, he left her to get some rest.
Harry made his way to the cafeteria, knowing without needing to guess that was where the group were, probably drinking coffee and tea as they waited. He knew them well enough now, plus the cafeteria doubled up as a meeting hall whenever they needed to have group meetings or when there were big decisions to make like the decision on whether someone or more than one someone was accepted in the group or not, but there was no mistaken that Harry had the last say. He had never steered them wrong, couldn't steer them wrong in fact not with his abilities.
He was proven correct of course, nearly everyone was sitting around the dinner table, with a few noticeable exceptions, and Mira, Carol and Amy were busy in the kitchen area. Everyone looked up when he entered; all of them had deeply concerned looks on their faces. They'd been quite shocked when Sophia had came rushing in to tell her mother that Merle and Luna was outside with someone and hurt, bleeding. Everyone had rushed outside, the men and Andrea bolting for the gates in a rush to open them. Quite shocked by the woman's unclothed state, Amy had rushed inside for the first available thing that would cover her 'modesty' a white sheet, which they'd promptly wrapped around her. Big Tiny had taken Sophia, Anubis, Hela, Andre, Luke and Patrick into the prison so they didn't need to see it.
He noticed that the kids were playing in the corner of the room, Sophia with Andre and Patrick with Luke happy colouring in and building with Lego's. The dogs were beside them, laying there quite happy to be absently petted. Hela more so since she was getting used to human contact again, and absolutely adored Sophia and rarely left her side.
Harry wasn't at the least bit surprised when Merle made his way in, slower than normal without his usual cocky swagger but nonetheless refusing to show weakness as he took a seat, Luna sat next to him quietly concerned but relieved to know that he would fully recover - within the next twenty-four hours - potions were just amazing like that.
"How are you both feeling?" Dale asked Merle mostly, genuinely concerned about the man, which said a lot about how the group had changed since the split.
"He's going to be fine, I have a few scratches, nothing to worry about," Luna said with a small smile, quickly saying something before Merle no doubt said something extremely sarcastic.
"How is she?" Carol asked as she clattered around, the others had all thought the worst, despite the fact they didn't want to.
"Sleeping at the moment, but when she does wake up...its best that men stay away from her until she recovers," Harry informed them grimly, causing everyone to flinch at the confirmation they had been dreading. "She's asleep at the moment, I've cuffed her to the bed," seeing the indignant looks on the women's faces he hurried along his tone even more serious, "We do not know what state she will be in when she wakes, I would rather not run the risk of her hurting any of us, I did not make this decision lightly but I will not allow harm to come to us," slightly vexed at the judgement but understanding it since he as judging himself for doing it.
"What happened though?" Andrea half demanded, but without any real strength behind it.
"We can only speculate at this point, what we do know is that the woman evidently got away from her captors, Luna saw her and went to her aid, not realizing they were outnumbered. Fortunately for us Merle is an expert marksman and was able to kill them even wounded before anything else happened." he said proudly, and he was proud of Merle, he had proven himself well and truly capable of protecting Luna and that was all he wanted for the woman he loved as a sister.
"How close were they?" Oscar asked, a worried frown on his face as he glanced at the kids, Sophia in particular then Amy despite the fact she wasn't in anyone's definition of a kid. Then again neither was that woman up in their sick bay, the world was getting even more dangerous.
"Too close," Luna said her voice dark as she remembered what one of the men had whispered to the other. Merle didn't know what had been said, too busy laying waste to them, the thought horrified her to the core. She was glad they were dead and she wanted more than ever to get everyone to Fort Benning and live there, away from the disgusting group of rapists that for all they knew had no set home and just went around the area constantly. She wouldn't tell Merle or Harry, they'd go nuts and potentially get themselves killed. It was over now anyways, there was no point to rehashing it, and she'd been through worse than being grabbed or had someone talk about her like she wasn't even there.
Harry gritted his teeth, green eyes flashing furiously; the need to go and kill those fuckers was strong.
Merle and Daryl both had the exact same reactions.
"Should one of us go and sit with her?" Andrea asked, "If she wakes I'll come right to get you."
"Do whatever you want, just try not to make noise, she needs rest." Harry sighed, "Dinner will probably be ready in a few hours and there's a lot to go around." in other words don't miss it, which she understood since she nodded solemnly, making her way out.
"Luna why don't you and Merle go get some rest for a few hours, me or Daryl will let you know when the foods ready, even if you don't sleep your body needs some down time, your body has suffered from quite a shock." Harry stated he wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Here," Carol said, giving him a coffee, with a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, before passing one on to Daryl without touching him of course, everyone knew the Dixons didn't like to be touched with one obvious exception...maybe even two.
"Want a smoke?" Harry suggested, already on the move, going to the back of the prison rather than the front, he just wanted some peace and quiet from absolutely everyone. Daryl wasn't one for talking overly much and always seemed to know when Harry just wanted silent company. Unsurprisingly as soon as he began moving both Daryl and Anubis began following him, then Hela did too.