Chapter Twenty-Three of 'Wondrous Lands and Oceans'- Going Home
Chapter Twenty-Two.
Title: Wondrous Lands and Oceans (23/about 30)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairings: Harry/Draco, Ron/Hermione, George/Angelina, Bill/Fleur, others possible.
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, angst, bloody animal death, bonding.
Summary: The emigration to the wild magic world of Hurricane is complete, but not the settling-in process. Harry and Draco struggle to solidify both their own bond and their bonds with their family and allies-while setting out on journeys of exploration that prove there is more to Hurricane than storms.
Author’s Notes: This is a sequel to Reap the Hurricane; that one should be read first. This story will probably be somewhere between twenty and thirty chapters long.
Chapter One.
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Twenty-Three--Going Home
The first sight of the camp made Draco swallow. There were still people moving down there, guards on the hills and people shifting back and forth in between the houses, and he had been half-afraid they would come in to find it deserted, abandoned, or destroyed.
But they were going back with news that most of those people wouldn't want to hear, either, and he wondered what the reaction would be when they landed.
Harry didn't seem to have any of the same doubts. He strained forwards against the bonds of his own winds as though he wished he could tear away from them and fly even faster, without magic. And he pulled against the bond with Draco in his mind, too, impatiently pushing joy at Draco when Draco tried to flinch away from it.
What do you think will happen? Harry finally snapped. That they'll hate us for leaving? That they'll hate us for telling them that someone else lives on Hurricane? That they simply won't believe us?
Any and all of that, Draco said simply. I would think they'd reject each and every piece of news we're bringing, except that we had Weasley and Granger with us this time, and they trust them more.
Harry scowled in his direction, and then flung them at the earth hard enough that Draco gasped and his ears felt as if they were going to tear away from his head. Harry almost immediately gentled the wind and sighed at him. I'm sorry, Draco. I shouldn't punish you for your fear. I feel some of the same thing.
Only some?
I have you with me.
Draco wished he could be sure--as he couldn't, even with the bond--whether the "you" meant him, or both him and Harry's friends. Before he could think to ask, though, they were landing, near that day's sentry, who turned out to be Andromeda. She had Teddy with her, running and talking with himself, and sometimes with a stuffed dog, on the grass near her side.
Teddy turned around, saw them, and began to run. Draco saw Andromeda put out a hand as if to restrain him, but in the end, she grimaced and dropped it back to her side. Draco nodded austerely to her, wishing he could tell her "good choice" aloud without her misinterpreting it. Andromeda scowled back at him.
Then Teddy sprang into Harry's arms, and Harry twirled him around and bowed his head over Teddy's, murmuring something to him that Draco could only have made out with the help of the bond.
He didn't try. It was right that Harry put Teddy first in some ways, because, after all, he had helped raise Teddy, and had decided to come to Hurricane in the first place to give Teddy a better future. He hadn't come for Draco, or his friends. Everyone was equally an outsider when it came to Harry and his relationship with Teddy.
And also, Bodiless might have been preying on your emotions even then, trying to influence you to be jealous.
Draco nodded. I know that our bonds with you are different, that we'll both be different things to you. I'm learning to live with that.
Harry beamed at him, and then Teddy began to squirm and kick. Harry set him down. Teddy promptly ran the distance between him and Draco, his arms open as though he had no doubt of Draco's welcome.
Draco blinked and picked him up. Teddy immediately held up the stuffed dog and said, "Grandma gave me this. What's his name?"
"I don't know," Draco said, and turned the dog over. It was made of wool on the outside, soft and white and scratchy, and had a long tail that would wag with a simple enchantment. Andromeda could do something other than grieve for her family, then. Draco made sure not to look at her while that particular uncharitable thought passed through his brain. "What did you name him?"
"Best," said Teddy in satisfaction. "Because he's my best friend."
Draco hugged Teddy, and set him down. "Why don't you show me how you and Best play?" he suggested, and Teddy immediately began to run in a circle, trotting Best beside him and barking sometimes, talking others. Draco sat back to watch him, only observing from the corner of his eye as Weasley and Granger went up to talk to Andromeda.
Whatever they were telling her, it seemed she took it better from them than she might have from Draco, or maybe even Harry. She flinched and bowed her head, but then nodded. Draco could see the shape of her lips when she lifted her head and looked down at the camp. "It's important for them to know."
"It is," Granger said, and she and Weasley followed Andromeda down the hill.
Harry was watching Draco and Teddy. Draco let Teddy show him how he played with Best for a few more minutes before he stepped forwards and picked him up again. "Why don't we go down, and you can show me how you play with Best in the camp?" he asked.
"Hide and seek!" Teddy wriggled hard enough that Draco put him down again, and he raced off, tripping over his shoes now and then. Harry was smiling.
"He needs new shoes," he murmured. "Someone besides me is going to have to Transfigure them, though. All I can really do is shave off pieces of leather with my winds. Or polish them, maybe."
"See what you lost by giving up wand magic?" Draco kept his voice light and teasing as they followed Teddy down the hill. "I hope no one else does. We're already at enough of a disadvantage when it comes to living on Hurricane, without everyone abandoning their tame magic for wild magic."
"I made a choice that I can't take back," Harry said quietly. "And some of them got made for me." But his hand reached out and clasped Draco's hard enough that Draco gasped a little. "Thank you."
Draco didn't ask for what. The whole point was that neither of them could, probably, define what they were saying thanks for. He walked down the hill behind Harry, and his stomach and his head both rang with satisfaction.
*
"If we had a Pensieve, things would be better."
That was about the third time Bill had said something like that. Harry glared at him. "No," he said. "If you had come with us, things would be better, or if we could explain it clearly enough to satisfy all your doubts, then things would be better. But don't pretend that you would suddenly believe everything if you saw it in a Pensieve. You wouldn't."
Bill flushed, but rose to his feet. Again they were sitting in a circle in the center of the camp, and again everyone--except Ginny, this time--seemed as if they were reluctant to accept the majority of what Harry and Draco had said. Ron and Hermione's voices hadn't helped as much as Harry had thought they would.
"You're telling us that these riders, with their beasts, exist, and just happen to have come up with a way to resist Bodiless," Bill began. "Which called all of you, and then you won free because of the bond that you have with Malfoy. It's a wild story."
"It's a different world. It would be a wild story on Earth, but why are you acting as though what happened on Earth restricts what can happen on Hurricane?" Harry leaned forwards. "Why?"
Bill hesitated, and looked at Fleur. Fleur, seated with Victoire on her lap, gave Bill an even look, and then turned to Harry.
"Bill still fears 'is own predatory nature," she said. "'E thinks that without constant supervision, 'e will give in and become a werewolf. And now you tell us of something that may call 'im. 'E is terrified."
"That is not the reason," Bill snapped, flushing.
"Your objections are getting tiresome." Draco lounged back on the grass next to Harry, playing with Teddy now and then. "This makes sense of some of the things that have puzzled us on Hurricane, like why the mummidade always go around in at least pairs. And it's not any less believable than our stories about the sea. Or are you going to disbelieve your own brother and sister now?"
"I saw some things near the sea even more incredible than what they saw, Bill," Ginny added, leaning forwards with a small grin. "Why do you believe me and not them? They have more witnesses, even."
Bill glared at her this time, and again Fleur interpreted, her head bowed and a small smile on her face as she began to braid stands of Victoire's hair together. "You are 'is sister, and you brought news of more food, not potentially uncomfortable news."
Bill turned around to face her. "I haven't been as hostile to them as I used to be, Flower," he whispered. "You know I haven't."
Flower? Draco commented in Harry's head. And he thinks this is some sort of clever nickname?
Harry brushed Draco's words away like a fly, just grateful that he hadn't said them aloud, and murmured, "We're telling the truth, Bill. If we'd brought more Veritaserum with us, then maybe we could convince you of that. Or Pensieves, yeah. But ultimately, you have to choose between what will allow us to survive on Hurricane--like believing the rest of us--or ignoring and doubting everything and holding us back. I thought you'd already made that choice, but maybe I was wrong."
Bill glared at him, and Harry thought he heard a growl rumbling in his chest. Harry looked back, unimpressed. He was stronger now than Bill could ever dream of being, unless Bill also developed wild magic that was equal to Harry's in intensity. A few werewolf traits didn't bother him.
He would still have to develop a bond to someone equally strong to be your true peer.
Harry let the corner of his mouth curl in response to Draco's announcement, and didn't move his eyes from Bill's face.
"You don't know how hard this is for me," Bill whispered. "Urges towards raw meat all the time, wondering how the moons of this world are going to affect me, feeling my scars throb at night."
"Those are all worrying things, and I can see why they occupy your mind," Harry said, immediately, quietly, as compassionately as he could. "But I don't see how that leads back to doubting us every time we say something."
Bill sat down and folded his arms in front of him as though he assumed acting childish would get him out of explaining. When Harry, and Draco, and Ron, and Hermione, and Ginny, all stared at him, he seemed to realize it wouldn't. He huffed, considered his feet, and began.
"I didn't think the scars had any effect on me until I came here. A few dreams, mostly nightmares about Greyback scratching me. But then we got here, and I was hungry all the time. I was afraid I was transforming into a werewolf, and the only thing that would stop it was enough meat. There wasn't any. I started thinking I'd been stupid to agree to come along, and no matter how bad things got in the wizarding world, they couldn't be as bad as they were here.
"Then you accepted him." Bill nodded at Draco, whose emotions coming down the bond became smoother and cooler than usual. "You accepted him more than me. You weren't constantly accusing him of acting like an idiot and destroying the camp."
"Because he wasn't telling me outright that I was an idiot, too, and that the most important thing I could do was bring back meat for him," Harry said shortly.
Bill stared at him. "I told you why I did that, how afraid I was."
"Yes, but I didn't know you were afraid at the time." Harry met his eyes. "Now that I know, I can forgive you for a lot of what happened then." And now that you're sitting down and talking like a rational being instead of just raging about it, I can believe you more easily, too, he thought, and felt Draco hum in agreement. "Instead, you just seemed committed to blaming everyone for your hunger."
"He was the one responsible for getting me scratched!" Bill's voice soared as he pointed one finger straight at Draco. "And you accepted him!"
Harry grimaced. "Because we need everyone to survive here. It became something else later, but it wasn't more than that at the time. What should I have done? Kicked him out to appease you? That would have made you feel a little better, maybe, but it wouldn't have done anything about the hunger. Or the way that you're doubting Ron and Hermione as well as me and Draco."
Draco leaned forwards and put a hand on Harry's shoulder, saying without words that he wasn't going anywhere. Harry squeezed his hand, but didn't take his eyes from Bill.
Bill struggled in silence for a moment, then said, "But you kicked Primrose out. Why not him?"
"We couldn't really afford her loss," Harry said. "We were bloody lucky that Ginny found the ocean after that, and that Primrose taught us about the rabbits before she left. I let her go because she wanted to, and she wasn't comfortable around us, or the bird. I'm not going to kick people out because they make others uncomfortable."
Bill stared at Draco. "I don't know if I can forgive him even now."
"You don't have to forgive me," Draco said, so mildly that he looked mature, in contrast to the ravening way Bill looked. And don't I know it, he told Harry. "You just have to work with me, and be polite to me, and stop bringing up your scratches at every opportunity. We all have lots to suffer from. Our memories of the war." For a moment, so small that Harry doubted most people would notice it, he glanced at Andromeda. "Our fear and worry about the wild magic." A glance at Ron. "Our pasts." This time, he looked at Harry. "You're the only one who's been letting it override him so much that he used his panic to hurt other people and consistently disbelieve them."
"I told you why I was afraid!"
"And now eez the time to stop." Fleur took her husband's arm and leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes a moment. "Now eez the time to be looking at the future and seeing what we can do. Not blaming ozzers, Bill, no matter 'ow tempting it is."
Bill looked at her in adoration that Harry didn't think was feigned. He wondered idly for a moment if that was the way he looked at Draco from the outside.
Not nearly that soppy, Draco disagreed, and twisted around so that his chin rested on Harry's shoulder in place of his hand.
Bill swallowed loudly. "Are you going to help me?" he whispered to Fleur, and bent his head over Victoire's hair.
"I will." Fleur kissed his hair, and that was the point where Harry had to look away, although he told himself to remember that he and Draco probably made other people just as uncomfortable, kissing each other the way they did in public.
We are much better to look at.
Harry bit his lip to avoid laughing, and nodded. "Good," he said. "So that's settled." He turned his back on Bill and looked around at the other Weasleys. "What do you think? Should we move north? Try to go back to the riders and communicate with them? Develop our wild magic and our bonds as fast as possible?"
"No," said Andromeda. "None of that. We should stay the way we are, and not let this world overpower or change us."
Harry reminded himself not to sigh or roll his eyes. He did think Andromeda had got over her mindless opposition to Draco and the way she was afraid he might change her relationships with Teddy and Harry. Harry nodded at her. "But do you think we can stop wanting and wishing? Because the wild magic develops when we do that. Just ask Ron." Ron grimaced at Harry, but he'd already had to show several times that he could destroy wild magic near him, so it wasn't like this was letting out a secret. "And then resisting Bodiless becomes a concern."
"I do not think it a concern." Andromeda half-shrugged. "It cannot reach us here. We need only never go north."
"What happens when our children do, someday?" Draco's voice was easy, but there was an emphasis on our that Harry thought he was the only one to understand, remembering the mummid ritual. He touched the bond and plucked it like a harpstring, but Draco was looking at Andromeda, and didn't acknowledge him. "What happens when they develop wild magic powerful enough to attract Bodiless's attention? Or when someone unbonded simply vanishes one night, and we never learn what happened to them?"
Andromeda stood up. Teddy glanced at her curiously for a minute, and then went back to playing with some of his little fish-creatures in the bowls of water. His sight was developing fast, Harry thought, and wondered if they should have told Ron and Hermione about Teddy's wild magic.
"Hurricane will strip us of everything we are, if we let it," Andromeda said, her voice thin but passionate. "Everything that makes us human. And we will say that it should, and sit still for it! Well, I will not. I want no wild magic. I will stay here, in the first place we chose to be human, and build human houses, and eat human food. Nothing else."
Draco caught Harry's eyes, and shook his head minutely. Harry nodded grimly back, then said in the bond, so that Andromeda couldn't see them and take exception to what they were doing, Well, we should have known that she wasn't going to give up tamely, I suppose.
"Are you going to cut off your hands if you develop wild magic in them, then?" Draco asked aloud. "Or your eyes, if it enhances your sight?" Harry knew that he only kept his hands from straying towards Teddy with an effort, and shuddered a little. Harry was suddenly glad that they'd told no one else about Teddy's wild magic. "Weasley here didn't want any, but it showed up. Intense desire to avoid it is still desire."
"I will use my wand," Andromeda said, with dignity that Harry had to admit was immense. "I will use the magic I was born with, not the magic that something else tries to infect me with."
"If we stay here, then we can't stay motionless," Draco said. "I just don't understand how you think you're going to avoid Hurricane changing you."
"By refusal." Andromeda held out her wand. "And if nothing else will suffice, we might still return through the gate to the wizarding world. There are only a limited number of passes possible through it, but it seems as though some people want to remain here anyway." She caught glance after glance, and Harry thought she was as good at mind-reading at the moment as Harry and Draco were, in her own limited way. "Can any of you who don't have the wild magic say that you're happy here?"
"The wizarding world was worse," Molly murmured, but she didn't sound convinced.
"The wizarding world didn't turn us into werewolves, or make us into monsters," Andromeda said, and her voice cracked down the middle with her passion. "You might be willing to take the chance by staying here. I am not." And she picked up Teddy, turned, and walked towards her house.
Harry stood up and walked over to catch up with her. Andromeda didn't turn to face him, but a muscle ticked in her face, and she nodded a little.
"I know what I said," she said quietly. "And I know that you have to stay here, that your wild magic probably won't let you leave."
Would it let Teddy go through the gate? Harry wondered, and felt the hiss of Draco's anger in the back of his mind. Probably not, and she's breaking up Teddy's life and destroying everything we've achieved because of her fear. That last thought might have been his or Draco's.
"I don't understand why you changed your mind," Harry chose to say instead. "Why would you want to go back to Earth when you know that the majority of us won't go with you, and when nothing has changed except some new information?"
Andromeda stopped dead and turned to stare at him, holding Teddy close to her. Teddy made a protest, but it was so sleepy Andromeda might not have heard it. She looked at Harry, and looked, and looked.
"You bring us word of an enemy that can devour us, magic that will infect us no matter what we do, and another species that the world truly belongs to," Andromeda said quietly, shaking her head. "And you have the gall to tell me that nothing has changed."
"If the wild magic is going to infect you anyway, then you shouldn't care about escaping." Draco came to a halt on the other side of Andromeda, and Harry felt the bond between them churning with plans to snatch Teddy. He gave Draco a quick snarl. That would be the worst thing they could do right now. "You can't escape. You'll develop it whether you want it or not, so you might as well accept it as inevitable."
"We all die," Andromeda said. "And yet we struggle against the inevitable. Well, I've chosen my struggle."
"You'll hurt Teddy," Harry said, deciding there was nothing else they could do. Draco made a quick negative motion, but didn't actually try to shut him up, something he could have done easily. "He already has wild magic. He can see the fish and other creatures in the water better than any of us. If you're right about us not being able to go back through the gate now that we've adapted to Hurricane, the same prohibition would apply to him."
Andromeda bowed her head. Then she lifted it, and although she had gone paler, said, "I will try anyway. He deserves to grow up in a place that isn't as wild and desperate and dangerous as this, without enemies calling from the north."
"The Ministry chose to exile a huge portion of its population, and those people were willing to go." Draco took a step forwards. "We were willing to go. You think that the wizarding world would be any less dangerous for him? The child of a Metamorphmagus and a known werewolf? They would reject him, too."
"He should have a choice." Andromeda's arms tightened around Teddy like a vice. "He should live in the world his parents died to defend."
Draco opened his mouth, but Harry caught his eye and shook his head. Andromeda was getting upset enough now not to care about the way she might hurt Teddy physically. They would have to retreat now and come back later.
"I hope you can reconsider and see that this isn't an infection, and isn't a disease," Harry told her, trying to ignore the hostile way she stared at him. "I hope you'll see that the best thing for everyone is to stay here." And he turned and walked away with Draco close behind him, leaving Andromeda to carry Teddy out of sight.
*
Draco had had his doubts about Harry's course of action, but they weren't fulfilled until the next morning, when Andromeda didn't come out of the house for her share of guard duty, and peering in revealed she was gone.
And Teddy with her.
Chapter Twenty-Four.
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