Advent '10 - December 5th
December 5th - 20 days to go
When they had got back to the hotel George had immediately shoved Harry into the shower. Harry immediately shoved George out and locked the door.
When Harry was clean he wrapped a towel around his waist and went back into the bedroom to see that Fred had arrived and was having a quiet conversation with George.
Grabbing the clothes that George had set out for him he strode back into the bathroom to get changed, with only a little grumbling that he could dress himself.
That is until he got to the trousers. Which wouldn't fit over his boxers no matter how hard he tried - they were stuck with some anti-resizing charm of some kind.
Scowling Harry banged on the inside of the bathroom door, unwilling to go back out into the bedroom like this.
"George! The trousers don't fit!"
"Nonsense!" George's voice came through muffled thanks to the door. "They're your size!"
Harry looked down at his legs. "I'm telling you they don't fit!"
"You have to wear them commando!" Fred's voice joined in.
Harry's mouth fell open. "What!"
"Let me in!" George called through, "I'll get them on!"
"Piss off!" Harry scowled and grabbed his wand, throwing up another ward over the door.
He slid out of the black trousers and looked between them and his mirror. He sighed. "This feels so wrong." He told his reflection, taking off his boxers and pulling on his trousers. They fit perfectly and didn't leave much to the imagination.
Blushing, Harry quickly slung on a dark grey dress shirt - leaving it untucked to give him a modicum of dignity. Over which went a slivery dress robe which he left open.
When he finally stepped out the bathroom, Fred and George both wolf whistled at him.
"Looking good, Harry." George said as Fred made his way past them into the bathroom. "There's just one thing…"
Harry didn't even have time to protest before George whipped his wand out and had cast a couple of spells at him.
He let out a startled yelp when his shirt tucked itself in and his hair ruffled in the wind.
"What did you do?" Harry asked, trying to untuck the shirt. It didn't work.
"Now you look presentable."
"I looked presentable before!" Harry exclaimed, "And why am I wearing trousers this tight?"
"Because, Harry," Fred said, stepping out of the bathroom in a towel.
"You're the distraction." George said before he slammed the bathroom door shut behind him.
Harry stared blankly for a moment before turning to Fred, who had dropped his towel. He quickly spun back around. "Distraction? What do you mean, distraction?"
Fred's answer to his question was to snicker.
Harry and the twin's were huddled together in the alley halfway down the street from the entrance to the were-run bar.
"How am I the distraction again?" Harry asked.
"By looking like that!" Fred grinned, "You just go in there and every eye will be on you."
"I really don't think every man and woman in there will be so attracted by me that they will be completely distracted."
"That's what this is for!" George said, taking a bottle out of his pocket and uncorking it.
Harry just opened his mouth to ask what it was, when George flung the contents on him. Harry choked and coughed.
"It's an animal attractor potion. There were two available." Fred said. "One for eating and one for mating."
"Though we're not exactly sure why someone'd need either." George cut in.
"Well, except for us. Now."
"True." George agreed.
"I think I swallowed some of it." Harry said with a grimace.
Fred and George eyed him in alarm and then turned to look at each other.
"Wonder what will happen."
"So which potion did you use?" Harry asked.
"The mating one." George said.
"I thought I had the mating one?" Fred said hesitantly, pulling out an identical bottle.
"No," George said, "I…" he looked down at the bottle in his hand and then at Fred. "Huh. Now I don't know."
Fred shrugged. "One way to make sure."
Harry was just about to ask 'what' again when Fred uncorked his bottle and chucked the contents in Harry's face. Harry coughed and spluttered again as he managed to swallow some of the liquid again.
"Great." He said, wiping his face down, "so they'll either want to eat me, or mate with me. Nice."
George shrugged. "They might do both."
"At the same time." Fred added.
Harry grimaced.
"Right," George said, "The plan is for you to go in. Distract them. And then we'll join you later. Just get them to drink some of the water if you can."
"You're going to leave me alone with them?" Harry practically yelled.
"We'll be coming back for you!" Fred argued.
"Yeah, never leave a man behind." George agreed.
"You're literally throwing me to the wolves!"
"Pssh." George brushed him off.
"There are other were creatures too."
"Yeah, it's more like the wolves, panthers, hawks, dragons, bears, et cetera, et cetera, so on and so forth."
Harry just stared at them with his mouth open.
"Go!" They both shooed him towards the door by shoving him out the mouth of the alley.
Harry really wanted to curse them both until they were red smears on the ground but as soon as he stumbled onto the street the two guards that were standing by the door turned to stare at him intensely.
Harry shivered and edged nervously towards them. The closer he got the clearer he could see that they were tensed so hard that they were practically vibrating.
They wanted to pounce on him, but if it was to rip his throat out or do something else to him, he wasn't sure.
He awkwardly smiled at them as he stood in front of them trying to remind himself that he was supposed to be the distraction.
"Hi?" He offered weakly, mentally smacking himself.
The two guards closed in on either side until he was boxed in between the two. He shivered again as they each inhaled deeply.
"Well hello, little one." The one on his left growled at him with a feral grin.
"What's a delicious morsel like yourself doing way out here on a night like this?" The second one asked, leaning down closer and almost brushing his nose along Harry's jaw.
Harry squeaked. Did they want to eat him or what?
"Such pretty noises you make."
"Don't you know to be scared of the dark?"
"Or what prowls it."
The two guards smirked at each other and Harry used it as the distraction it was and wiggle out between the two of them. As Harry brushed up against them he figured that they definitely didn't want to eat him.
"Um, sorry. Just wanted a drink." He said, fumbling for the doorknob behind him and keeping an eye on the two hulking men who were stalking closer to him.
"See ya!" He called as he opened the door and fell into the room.
There was silence.
Harry slowly looked around. Every man and woman's eyes were fixated on him with an unholy intensity. Some of the larger men and a few of the women stood up, their chairs scraping across the floor.
Harry spun around to try and escape but was cut off by the two guards who had followed him into the bar and had pushed and locked the door behind them.
"Fred, George, I am going to kill you." Harry muttered to himself.
Damos Kattalakis wasn't having a good few days.
Firstly, the Laminas in Paris had been completely destroyed by a plague of frogs and no-one could tell him who did it.
Members of his patria who had been there had been mentally scarred and kept mumbling something about green.
Well yeah, frogs are green. He got that. It didn't help him narrow it down any and as Drakos Regis he was expected by the other Arcadian were-dragons to find out who had destroyed a neutral place and kill him.
Or her. You know, not to be sexist or anything.
If he didn't, and none of the other Regis' could, then they would have to contact Savitar.
And nobody wanted that.
What he had desperately needed after a day of fruitless searching was a drink, but the other Laminas in France had been shut down until the culprits had been caught. And skinned. He had had to skip across to here to get anything remotely alcoholic served in a safe place - he didn't care what there Spanish were's said, that pink drink was not alcohol.
To make a bad day entirely worse, Darion was here having a drink as well. Damos glared at him from across the room. If it wasn't a Laminas then he wouldn't pass up this opportunity to rip his cousin's throat out and bathe in his blood.
So that's why he was here, sitting in the Berlin Laminas, alternatively wallowing in his misery and trying to kill Darion with his gaze.
Or at least he was when the most delicious scent walked through the door.
He rose with a dozen or so other were-hunters as a young man stumbled into the room, with pants that were practically painted on and bright, helpless looking eyes.
He licked his lips. Prey.
The only odd thing about him was the fact that he had bright green hair, the same colour as his eyes.
A thought niggled at the back of his mind but he brushed it away.
He had to have him. Taste him. Touch him.
He growled at the other dominants who had stood up and strode up to the little beauty where he was about to be accosted Darion.
Filth!
He grabbed the little beauty's shoulder and span him into his embrace, at the same time snapping his teeth at any other were-hunter who was getting too close.
They growled at him but he ignored it and dragged the smaller male back towards the bar.
"Mine!" He hissed out between gritted teeth.
Holy shit, Harry was terrified.
He was trapped up against the chest of a really tall guy who had just come up from behind, grabbed him and dragged across the room like he had won a conquest.
And yeah, it was a really nice chest…but that wasn't the point!
Guess he knew which potion was working then.
"Can I get you anything?"
The voice was smokey and ran along his skin like warm satin. Harry shivered and arched into it. The man who was still pinning him to his body chuckled and Harry felt it vibrate through his entire being, his lips dropping open.
Nervously he licked them and noticed with wide eyes that the man was now focused intently on his mouth.
"I-" he croaked out when he was spun out of the man's grip and into another pair of very well muscular arms.
"Darion." The first man hissed out.
"Damos." The man who had a grip on Harry said smugly, his hands sliding down Harry's spine and getting a bit too friendly with his body for Harry's liking.
"Get your filthy hands off him, murderer."
Darion growled, baring his teeth. "Why don't you make me?"
"I'll show you what I can do alright."
"Er, could you let me go now?" Harry cut in.
"Be quiet, whelp." Darion growled at him.
Something in Harry snapped. He had been forced into this position, man-handled, groped, wasn't quite sure if the were's in this place wanted to eat him or not and had been called little.
And now this guy was calling him whelp! Like a child!
He had had enough!
Harry could feel the magic building in his blood. It seemed that the others could as well as they all turned to stare at him in a mix of confusion and awe.
"Did you just call me whelp?" Harry spat out, his eyes flashing with caged power.
Darion and Damos both took and involuntary step back.
"I think," Harry said slowly, raising his arms, "that everybody needs to cool off."
With that the waters taps exploded, spraying water up into the air where it hung suspended until Harry brought his arms down and it rushed past him, drenching everyone surrounding him.
After a minute the water tapered off as the tanks emptied, leaving Harry panting and standing in the middle of a wet, dripping mass of bodies.
It was then that Fred and George burst in through the front door. Took one look at the scene and paled.
"Harry," Fred started.
"Please tell us that you did not just get the whole bar to drink the water."
"Well," Harry breathed deep, trying to catch his breath, "I got them all wet. I'm sure most of them swallowed a good amount of it too. It was kind of everywhere."
"Not."
"Good."
Harry frowned and stumbled over to them, a little alarmed at how exhausted he was. He had used more magic than he had realised.
"Why not?" He asked, leaning against George.
"We slipped almost two dozen doses of the Animagus revealing potion into the water supply."
"So?" Harry asked perplexed. "None of them are animagus'."
"No," Fred said, as the sound of ripping cloth drew their eyes to the pile of shifting bodies. "They're all were's."
Their eyes widened as each and every person shifted into their animal form, clothes ripping off their bodies as they twisted and changed shape; pushing against each other and taking up the space in the room, the tables and chairs splintering as their bodies grew bigger within seconds.
"Holy crap." Harry whispered. "Are those dragons?"
As one, all of the animals' eyes turned to look at Harry.
"Ah, guys?" he asked, slowly backing away with Fred and George.
"Yeah?" They asked.
"What does this mean about the potions you threw on me?"
There was a tense silence and then the herd of animals let out chilling cries and stampeded towards them.
Harry was not ashamed to admit that he screamed long and hard as he and the twins turned and booked it.
He kept screaming even as the front of the bar exploded out behind him and two dragons lumbered out, snapping at each other as they each tried to reach Harry first.
"WHAT DO WE DO?" He screamed at the twins
"RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"
They scrambled out of the side street, hands over head to avoid the dive bombing hawks, and straight into one of the main muggle shopping districts.
There was a moment's confusion as the muggles turned to stare at the three young men being chased by a flock of birds. At least until the bears and big cats burst out of the street mouth, roaring and sprinting after them.
Then the dragons disintegrated the bricks as they tore at each other, crashing into the opposite buildings and turning most of them to rubble.
It was pure and utter screaming chaos. The only good thing that Harry could tell about the mass crowd of panicking people was that they were distracting the hoard of were-animals that were chasing him.
"WE NEED TO LEAVE!" He shouted out, trying to be heard over the screaming populace.
"I'VE GOT THE PORTKEY!" Fred shouted back, dodging a swipe that a were-lion aimed at him, and veering across the crowds until he was sprinting besides Harry and George. In his hand was a short piece of rope. "QUICK, GRAB ON!"
Desperately, Harry grabbed onto the rope and kept running, he could feel the growling snarls hot on his heels.
"ACTIVATE!" George screamed at the portkey as he too grabbed hold of it.
There was a sudden lurch and Harry was hooked forwards, screaming, just as something took a snapping bite out of his robe.
All three of them kept screaming as they landed in a pile in the middle of a marble foyer.
They scrambled up from one another, screaming and shaking themselves down. When they realised that none of them were injured the screams tapered off into hysterical laughter.
"Oh God!" Harry choked out, "I thought I was going to die!"
Fred was laughing too hard to answer but George pointed at the huge bite mark missing from the back of Harry's robe.
"You almost did!"
They all dissolved into laughter once again.
It was ten minutes later that they finally calmed down and realised that the entire ministry of whatever country they were in now was staring at them behind a row of Auror's with their wands out.
Harry smiled, panting. "Sorry about that!" he called out, brushing his sweaty hair back from where it was sticking from his forehead.
He held back a wince as the Auror's took one look at his scar and dropped their wands with smiles and shrugs. The crowd behind them looked torn between leaving and wanting to get closer to the boy-who-lived but was too afraid that his crazy was catching.
Fred fished out his wand and quickly cast another translation spell on the three of them.
Harry could make out the 'Harry Potter!' and 'Crazy English' almost immediately.
Instead he turned back to Fred and George. "Where are we?"
"Italy." Fred offered.
"I've got to say," George added. That was a slightly better entrance than we had in Germany."
Harry grimaced and shifted uncomfortably. "What do we do now? All of our stuff is in Germany still and I want a shower, clean clothes and to sleep. And not in that order."
"Not to worry," Fred grinned, patting his pockets, "I've got all our stuff right here. Thought we might not have time to go back to the hotel before we had to skip the country."
Harry narrowed his eyes, "Did you plan that?"
Fred and George slung their arms across Harry's shoulders.
"Of course we didn't."
"Well, something like that."
"But you seem to attract trouble."
Harry snorted at the understatement. "So, portkey and then hotel?"
"Sounds good to us!" The twins chirruped.