Chapter Text
"Ron, Harry!"
Her voice drowned with the masses' shouting and she was bodily pushed back by the running. Ron had managed to squeeze past the panicked witches and wizards to keep up with Hermione but Harry wasn't able to reach his friends.
"Harry, meet us at the Burrow!" Ron shouted as a thick, green branch shot past Harry's view and dragged a few witches and wizards who were unfortunate enough to stand in its way along its motion. No, he corrected himself; witches, wizards and muggles.
Harry's mind ran and searched for all possibilities, as to why muggles would be in Wizarding London, in bloody Diagon Alley. His body moved on its own then, when another branch was about to collide with him, he barely jumped into an empty alleyway.
"What the fuck?!" Came from behind him, "where am I?"
From the clothing the man wore, clearly a muggle. Putting the pieces together, Harry quickly concluded; The Wizarding World is falling apart, these plants must be the reason and some muggles, in a state of panic, found themselves in Wizarding London. There was no time for explanation, so Harry just up and dragged the man along with him. “Sir, we have to go! Leave the questions for later!”
Not long after the words rolled from his tongue, another thick branch slithered into the alleyway, creeping all over the tall walls of the buildings. The man screamed into Harry’s ear, picking his feet up and running for his life in a panic. Harry had tried to apparate away but his magic was acting weird. So he picked up his feet as well and ran, knowing that there was more going on that he could imagine. Before he could think about it however, he had to find a safe place.
“Over here, hurry!”, a voice shouted and Harry reacted, sprinting towards it. Before he knew, he collided with a bunch of books and tumbled onto the ground. He lifted his face and checked his surroundings, meeting the gazes of witches, wizards and muggles alike. He had stormed into an old book store, one he had never entered before. The only lightsource were some candles that lit sparsely, although Harry was sure it was around noon. When he looked behind himself, he could see green branches had snaked onto the surface of the building, blocking off all the sunlight from outside and leaving them in the dark.
“Harry Potter…”, an elderly witch spoke in relief. The witches and wizards seem to ease up but the muggles were just looking at each other warily, which was understandable. Somehow the spells which had kept muggles away from the wizarding world broke and now muggles and wizards are being mixed together in the eye of crisis.
Harry couldn’t keep up with the sudden praise his name comes along with. “Stop, please,” he interrupted the wizarding people, “I don’t know what’s going on,”
“And neither do we, boy,” The man who spoke scowled at him, the way people do when they can easily blame others for a mistake they can’t help. Harry just reconsidered his decision on saving them all.
“Sir, I am sure that the ministry is already working on fixing the issue,” Harry tried to reassure the wizard but he just scoffed and turned towards the wall of branches.
A flicker of anger appeared inside of Harry but diminished with the placed hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the person. The man he met in the alley just moments ago smiled at him.
“Thanks for picking me up back there, kid,” he simply said. His hand squeezed Harry, thankful and strong, making Harry feel like the kid he was addressed as by the man. Suddenly so small and not the beacon of hope anymore, he felt a weight drop off his shoulders with the man removing his hand. The man averted his eyes to look at the crowd, which eyed the only kid in this room for guidance – very ridiculous in a muggle's eyes. “People,” He started, “we have to stick together. Let’s assess what we know and what happened before we all joined each other here. My name is Edward, nice to meet you,”
Harry felt the authority coming from this muggle man and he wondered if he could just be like that when he grows up. “Harry Potter, nice to meet you,”
A week went by after Harry separated from his friends. The muggle man named Edward took leadership in their group of 10 people, 5 muggles and 5 wizarding folks. At first the bunch of witches and wizards were reluctant in following Edward’s leadership, unlike Harry, who was delighted having the responsibility shifted towards a real adult. But after three days of no news from the ministry, they decided to wander out in search of answers. And food.
Harry, being the youngest in their group, was unnecessarily protected by the muggles, as they felt the urge to. Which was weird at the beginning but he indulged in it soon. Because his mind kept drifting off to his friends, his family, Hogwarts. He wondered if the others were alright and if they managed to get to the Burrow – if they were waiting for him still.
With magic acting strange, he couldn’t apparate and neither could any of the other wizarding folk in their group. It was still here, magic. And the muggles were in awe finding out about “real magic”. But it wasn’t how it used to be and it had never felt this weakened. Strangely, Harry felt disappointed that he couldn’t show the muggles his full magical potential.
“Hey kid, you good?”
Edward grasped his shoulder again, putting a strong and reliable pressure on it. His smile reminded Harry of Arthur Weasley, which ached his heart thinking about the man. He shook off the thought of Weasley and smiled at Edward with a pained face. “I am just worried about my friends, they told me that they’d wait for me at- at my friends’ house. But seeing as the world looks, I don’t know if…”
Just as Harry explained, Edward’s mouth turned to a frown and they both gazed at their surrounding area. The whole world seemed to have been overtaken by mother nature and it was bizarre. Seeing a daisy flower being double his size, grass as tall as cars and let’s not mention the trees. Buildings were swallowed in blankets of roots and grass and were hardly recognizable.
“Harry, kid,” Edward sounded pained, “You have to be ready to face them, if they are no longer… You know we can’t be sure of their survival,”
He was right, of course. Since they stepped outside, they had encountered large numbers of bodies, seemingly mauled and ripped apart. It looked almost as bad as the war.
“If only I was there,”
“Don’t say that, champ. You’d be dead and so would I. And you’re just a kid, what can you even do? Even as a magician.”
“Wizard,” Harry corrected.
Edward chuckled. “You know I still have to wrap my head around this. You know you can’t change the outcome, now that it happened already. And maybe it would have ended worse than our situation, you can’t know and can’t fix everything on your own. You have to listen to me, I am an adult with teenage kids waiting for me at home,”
Harry felt mortified. He hadn’t thought about what or who the others might have lost. But when he looked up to meet Edward’s face, the older man held an empathic smile.
“We have to stick together now, especially in these confusing times.” Edward reached out and squeezed Harry’s shoulder, reassuringly and strong.
“They look like skeletons somehow, less skelet-y,”
Sarah was the second youngest in their group and took it upon herself to be all around Harry, asking him all kinds of stuff about the wizarding world. Sometimes she doesn’t act like the 23 year old she was supposed to be but made it clear that she can be much more useful than the elderly wizarding folk, who really just whined and complained all the time. Sarah pushed the binoculars into Harry’s chest, and pointed at the direction she just spied on.
The vast sea of greenery with larger dots of colors laid upon them and somewhere between red and orange dots lingered a figure. Harry shifted his glasses, then put the binoculars against them to see what Sarah meant.
It looked like a skeleton for sure but only because a person who starved would be reduced into such a state. Harry noticed a white skull shaped thing dangling from the skeletal chest as it moved toward them. “It’s not a magical creature, not one that I know of,”
“This smells dangerous,”
Harry hummed and continued observing the… thing. The gras parted with its dark body pushing against it and Harry caught a glimpse of its arms; wooden skeleton arms and fingers dangled there, attached to the thin body. Harry kept staring, trying to think of all the creatures he knew and what it could be – if it was dangerous or not.
“Harry,” Sarah whispered.
“One second, Sarah,” His eyes glued on the thing's head, trying to see its face. It was thin looking, malnourished. Hollow cheeks and sunken in eyes. So human and inhuman at the same time. He felt Sarah nudge him.
“Harry!”
“What?!” He ripped his gaze from the far away body to look at Sarah. To his surprise she never faced him but only pointed in the same direction he was looking at anyways. He turned and immediately grasped the situation.
“Fuck, how are there this many?” Harry picked himself up and tugged Sarah along, back to their group. Harry couldn’t figure out what they were exactly, at least he doesn't remember. But seeing as they came in herds and looked much stranger than Thestrals gave him a shudder. He also hadn’t expected there to be THIS many following behind one, as if it was some sort of ring leader.
The two of them followed the trail they left behind in the parted grass, back to a house they found two days ago. Harry counted all days he’s been separated from Hermione and Ron, knowing that two months and 2 days have gone by since he last saw them.
Only the roof was visible and not buried under the large amount of grass and/or roots. Harry leant down, casting Alohomora and the roof window opened for them to enter into a room full of boxes and other old stuff. Magic was still acting weird but Harry made progress in regaining his powers. Although it still proved useless against the unruly vegetation, almost like how his hair behaved. Sarah followed him inside and shut the window closed.
The house they shamelessly occupied had been the best thing that happened in these two months. It had enough for 10 people, although they had to share beds or sleep on the couch or on rugs, it was better than sleeping on hard wood or cold pavement – not that there was any pavement left outside.
Descending from the stairs, he pushed open the door to the kitchen. Behind it he was greeted by Edward, Raphaela and Claude. Raphaela and Claude were both witch and wizard, around the same age as Edward and very happy to help, unlike two elderly pairs of witch and wizard, who were probably complaining about everything they can at this exact moment.
“Hey Champ, hey Sarah. What’s up with the scowl?” Edward looked concerned.
“We don’t know,” Sarah began explaining. Harry recently noticed her hand gestures she does while explaining something. It strangely reminded him very much of Hermione. “There were tons of human looking skeletons outside, in whole packs. I call them Skeletals.”
“Skeletals?” Harry asked inanely, he was ignored.
“Does this description sound familiar to you?” Sarah moved to grab a chair, looking at Raphaela and Claude but they both shook their heads. Claude put his finger to his lips, looking like he was thinking about it thoroughly. Raphaela furrowed her brows and whispered to herself.
“Skeletons… Skeletons… Skeletons? No, I don’t know any skeleton creatures that look humane…” Harry leant against the wall as he watched the others brainstorming. Harry was no expert with magical creatures, he barely knew the ones that got introduced to him at Hogwarts. The many creatures Raphaela and Claude suggested sounded so unfamiliar to him.
"I would have thought the Saviour would know anything, being all wrapped up with the Dark Lord and all." Raphaela gave Claude a look after he commented.
Edward and Sarah looked puzzled. "The Saviour?"
Then, before anyone could answer the question, a thump echoed in the hallways outside the kitchen, gaining the attention of the whole kitchen. Edward blinked and was on his heels immediately. “Must be Mason and Barry,”
“Wait,” Harry grabbed onto Edward's shirt. The older man just gave a puzzled look, as well as the rest in the room. “ Call it a gut feeling but I don’t think it’s a good idea to check it out.”
“Don’t be silly, Champ,” Edward swiftly peeled off his hand from his shirt and smiled at Harry, like he’d always done in the past two months. A smile he so loved because it reminded him of his father, like he smiled at him as a baby in these many pictures. It reminded him of Sirius, when he finally reunited with Harry in third year and later, before he died. It reminded him of Remus, who was so proud of his patronus spell and happy to see him all grown. And Harry knew, if he let Edward go, it would mean another person was to be gone from his life.
Because the dread hadn’t disappeared with the reassuring smile, like it always did. His hair stood up and it was just something he couldn't explain in words – Hero complex? Savior thing? Gut feeling and knowing when bad things happened and that's how he survived the war? But he did want to trust Edward and his deduction, he did a great job at that anyways. If Edward, an adult man, doesn't feel like something is off, he would trust him.
Harry still followed behind the man, wanting to prove his senses wrong, wanting to trust Edward and believe nothing was wrong when his gut feeling so clearly screamed at him to stop, stop this instant.
Another thumping, clearly coming from upstairs, where Harry and Sarah had entered before.
The suspense was unbelievable – at least for Harry. Step after step, getting closer to the origin of the sound was nerve wracking. Edward was the first to enter the room. He gasped and ran towards the tilted window, working it to open. Harry followed suit and soon the window turned upwards. The two muggles, Mason and Barry, came into view, bloody but still breathing.
There was so much blood on their chests, Harry almost felt nauseous but pulled himself together, pushing the thoughts about a certain blond far away. Barry gasped and shuddered as he was being transferred into Raphaela and Claude’s care – the two had followed Edward as well.
When Edward reached for Mason, a bony hand got him instead. The pungent smell of rot filled the room and Harry’s stomach turned. Sarah gagged and tears gathered at her eyes while Edward looked horrified and shook his hand violently, to no avail. “Get OFF me! Ugh, you stink!”
Claude was dragging Barry out into the hallway, clearly distressed, while Raphaela pulled her wand. A jinx hit the bony hand perfectly but there was no reaction, Edward kept tugging and shaking.
Harry shot a jinx as well, hoping for a reaction. But just like Raphaela’s, it resulted in nothing. Now Harry rattled his mind for another solution not related to magic, fighting his urge to gag and vomit. He faced a bony, rotten face staring right at him, furiously snarling and trying to pull Edward out. Harry, without thinking, grabbed hold onto the edge of the open window, maneuvered around the unconscious Mason and lifted his leg, then kicked the skeletals right in the chest, where the dangling skull hung poking out of its chest. Successfully, the skeletals’ grip slipped and it rolled backwards into the hard root ground.
“Fuck, I am bleeding from it!”
Harry turned to see but felt his hand on the window frame being pulled up – a wooden bone hand took hold of him. He struggled and tugged his arm back, feeling his muscle strain and fighting for his life. Mason had been removed apparently because when he thrashed and kicked around, he didn’t feel the impact of another human body underneath his feet. Instead, he felt arms wrap around his legs, pulling him down and he knew it must have been Edward. Forcefully, he was pulled down by another pair of arms. The combined strength brought him down with an impact on the ground and a bony body landing on him.
“Harry!”
He groaned when the bony body was removed from his and he blinked. The rotten smell grew stronger and Harry could only guess what was happening right now.
Edward body slammed the skeletal onto the ground and had it pinned down, Sarah held her head and groaned next to him, also on the ground. He just barely registered three other bony creatures stomping inside the house, making their way to the hallway. Screams followed and noises of struggle.
Harry just barely got to his feet but staggered towards Edward anyways, holding his throbbing head. The creature hissed, struggled, bit and scratched around under Edwards grip. The older was yelling something but Harry didn’t register. He only picked up the first thing in this room full of random stuff; an old, dented metal bat.
No thoughts came across him when he swung the bat down into the creature's head. a sickening crunch panged in his ears but he didn’t stop. He lunged another blow, hearing another crack together with the sound of wet sludge. And when it didn’t move anymore, laying limp, Harry swung again, feeling especially furious.
He only stopped at three swings because the dented bat completely broke apart and flung its other half across the room. Edward exhaled loudly, shaking and staring up at Harry. The skeletal was still pinned down with Edwards whole body but its head was smashed, sickly green liquid spreading under it into a pool. He realized the skull shaped thing dangling from the creature’s chest was a leaf or a flower of some sort. Harry stared at the greenish clumps of wrinkled slobs underneath the shattered bone. He never saw such a green brain before.
Skeletal body made of wood with skin and rotten flesh hanging onto it. One single skull shaped leaf hanging, wrinkling into itself, dying.
Harry perked up to check for more, he remembers the window being open and a whole flock waiting in line to get a destroyed bat mashed into their faces. But when he looked up to the window he saw Sarah next to it, on her knees and sobbing. Her hands tightly holding the window handle. Above her, the skeletals peeked inside, staring but making no attempt to break in for unknown reasons.
“We… we have to leave. We have to run, come on!” Edward broke them both out of it, Sarah staggering to her feet. Harry offered Edward a hand. The older took it gratefully and Harry noticed many bitemarks and scratches on Edwards arm. He flinched away when he noticed a piece of muscle missing from that arm. That thing must have put up a real hard fight, he thought.
A muttered healing spell helped the scratch marks but the bite and the missing flesh was still very visible. Harry received a thankful squeeze on his shoulder from the older.
“It’s silent.” Harry said. Silence was not good. Edward nodded, understanding it immediately. Sarah let go of the handle, her eyes unmoved from the staring rot outside.
Evidence of struggle was all over the hallway and Harry felt chills run down his spine. The dread intensified when sobbing was audible from downstairs. Nobody moved. Edward rubbed on his wounds, hissing at the touch and Harry wondered if it was some kind of wake up call for him. Because right after, the man started to move down the stairs with the two younger ones following.
The struggle must have followed downstairs as well, showing in the flipped furniture and distributed objects on the ground. Banging came from behind the door to the kitchen. Two skeletals were slumped over one another but the sight was wastly ignored by the group of people hunched together in a circle. Raphaela was sobbing, holding a hand over her mouth to be quiet. Edward, Sarah and Harry peeked over their shoulders to assess the situation: Barry, Mason, Claude and Yessica, the elderly witch, were laid down on the ground, unmoving. Edward squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away. Sarah started sobbing as she fell on her knees, hugging Raphaela.
And Harry felt numb, being so familiar with such a scene. Flashbacks to after the war, when they collected the dead bodies of friend and foe alike. He thought of Remus laying dead on the ground just like this. It pained his heart but tears never spilled.
Harry gulped and whispered. “We have to go,” He received the looks from every person alive in this room. It didn’t bother him. “We have to go, as soon as possible,”
“Harry is right… we have to go,” The gazes on Harry moved to Edward then.
“I think we should wait until night time before we move,” Harry added. “Seeing as they are… plants?”
Edward looked right at Harry and nodded. In the next hour they prepared to leave, although reluctant. When the moon arrived and the group of six people left, never to return.
That same night Edward collapsed, having caught a bad fever.
Harry stared down at Edward's pale face, knowing he might die today or the next. A day after Edward collapsed, a muggle couple took the group with them to their hideout. It’s been three days since they arrived. Usually Harry would feel delighted for having his own king size bed – the couple managed to claim a manor they swore hadn't been here before and Harry knew it must had been a wizard or witches home before the chaos erupted. But seeing as Edward was dying, he just couldn't bring himself to feel anything but numb.
“Harry…”
“I am not killing you, Ed,”
“Stop making a fuss, I’ll just end up giving everyone the skull if I die by it,”
Harry remembered the couple sharing their knowledge. About Edward dying and eventually becoming one of the skeletals himself once the fever takes him down. It’s not fast and it’s not pretty. After Edward dies, a skull shaped leaf will sprout from his chest. If someone would cut his body open after the sprout appeared, pollen would puff out of his body, infecting any inhaler with the disease and giving them the same fever. And if left alone, the skull plant will slowly replace the bones inside the body with wood.
He thinks about the skull he smashed, back when they just discovered the first skeletal. It wasn’t wooden but the rest of the body was.
“Harry,”
“Shut up, old man, I don’t want to hear it.”
“You’re a menace- ugh!” Edward winced and Harry shot up from his chair, wide eyed. Edward chuckled softly at that. “You act tough but you’re a softie, you know? I was a teenager myself – even had my own, so I’d know.”
“Edward…”
“You’re crying Harry,”
“You're dying. And I don’t cry, not anymore,”
“Do you have to be so edgy? Like you've been through a war,” Edward chuckled again but he fell silent when he noticed Harry’s hard face. "By your look, I… guess it was a wizarding thing?”
“You wouldn’t believe that mental story.”
“Kid,” Edward coughed before he continued. “Tell me, I will listen to you,”
He hesitated at first. Would it be worth telling a muggle about a wizarding war? A war that ended just so recently but feels so far away now? When he thought the trauma was finally over, a new world crisis came in and he felt responsible? Thinking about it made it worse. Yes, there was a whole apocalypse happening around him and apparently some new species of magical beasts roam the earth now, spreading skull leaves and sickness. But the whole situation helped him repress thinking about the war.
Harry noticed Edward's benign gaze, waiting for him to just say something. And something he said.
Harry exploded, like a dam breaking and letting the water flood out, words fell from his tongue as he told Edward his experience with war, his very own role as the hero who slayed the evil Dark Lord, just about a few months ago, how he was manipulated and how he won the war but lost so much while fighting for it. Edward was attentive, twitching and scowling at some details Harry revealed. To a muggle, this whole story must sound unhinged, crazy and absolutely mental. And still, Harry couldn't stop spilling.
At the end of it they remained silent. Harry wasn’t sure if a muggle would be able to comprehend anything at all.
“Harry, Champ,” Edward reached out with shaking hands and grabbed Harry’s. He squeezed it, like he always would, reassuring. But not so strong anymore. “That's fucked up. But you survived that damned war, you fought a goddamn magician racist with no nose, a man who planned your downfall before you were even born. Whatever you did, whatever you are going to do,” He smiled, Harry frowned deeply. “I am so proud of you…"
Hearing that made Harry sob. But he didn’t say anything.
“Don't cry, Champ... You're such a great kid. I think you would've gotten along with Jesse and Sean – my kids."
“Edward…”
“Yeah, Champ?”
Harry remained silent for a while, swallowing down his sobs.
“I’ll miss you.”
Edward smiled at him, squeezing his hand again. Reassuring.
—
Harry casted a Lumos and stared down the dark aisle of canned goods. Today must’ve been his lucky day; finding a good can of pea’s was pretty rare nowadays. As quietly as possible, he slid the can into his backpack when suddenly there is a noise coming from behind the counter. To be more exact, it came from the door behind it.
He squinted his eyes as he stared at the door. He knew she shouldn’t, it was never safe anymore. He doubted that it was an active skeletal, they don’t thrive in the dark. And even if it was one, Harry could handle it. He had handled everything on his own ever since Sarah died two years ago.
He shifted his feet, moving soundlessly and avoiding the junk all over the floor. Once at the door, he listened, trying to pick up some more noise. Disappointingly there was no sound anymore. Now he was curious, maybe he was starting to hear voices. It’s been months since he actually heard another person’s voice, the last one being that of the guy who tried to rob his supplies. These always end up so bloody.
Slowly he turned the doorknob, his wand steadily in his other hand. His hand remained on the turned knob, waiting for a reaction. Nothing.
It still didn’t stop him from kicking the door open with great force; the power of surprise was not to be underestimated.
In a split second he barely avoided a curse flying at his face. So he had to handle a witch or a wizard, he thought. He straightened his posture and shot a silent Expelliarmus at the opponent, which to their credit, they dodged fairly well, even if it was just running behind a shelf. The room was much larger than he imagined it to be. A spacious storage room, great for running around and getting lost in. He still followed the opponent's footsteps, which echoed throughout the room.
They made no attempt to slow down though. Harry noticed their body turning and wand moving in their hand, ready to fire another spell.
“Flipen-”
But Harry was quicker, already shifting his feet and slamming the other person with his full body to the ground. A pained wince came from the man and Harry managed to get hold of both wrists to pin them down above the other man’s head as he straddled his chest.
Even in the dark, he could see the glimmer of platinum blond hair. The man under him panted and wriggled in an attempt to free himself. Harry only squeezed the slim wrists he held, making the man groan. Under different circumstances he would have found this hot.
“Stop moving unless you want it to hurt,” Harry said calmly. He noticed the man under him gasp and relax.
"Potter," The other man said. Suddenly Harry recognized the voice, images of his long gone childhood erupted from his memory. Of course, these platinum blonde strands still looked amazing, even if the apocalypse was happening. And of course, Draco Malfoy makes the sexiest noises when a guy pins him down to the ground.
"Malfoy," Harry finally said, "long time no see."
Malfoy shifted beneath him, trying to get his wrists free again. "Since the shitshow went down, yeah," Harry just grinned at him. It was amusing seeing a ferret squirm. Delight didn’t last long though.
“Let him go, will you?” A child’s voice spoke behind him and Harry turned, facing two kids holding a knife and a gun at Harry. “He is our guardian.”
“...Seline, Michael, say hello to Harry Potter, Savior of the fallen wizarding world.”