"This is boring," Blaise hissed.
Harry laughed quietly and elbowed Blaise in the ribs. "You won't be bored if we find Greyback tonight."
"No, then I'll be bored and angry," Blaise drawled. "And once he's dead then I'll be bored and avenged."
Harry grinned a little. He'd been nervous to trade Juliana ("Harry, my Meraviglia, if you do not call me by my given name then my feelings will be terribly hurt") for Blaise, but he was glad for it now.
He'd taken Neville's opportunity for revenge away from him by killing Bellatrix himself, it was only fair that Blaise got to help kill Greyback.
And he was certain it would be tonight.
Juliana had gotten them a potion to track him, and she was sending them coordinates every few minutes through Blaise's enchanted coin that Hermione made for the gang last term.
Since Harry was pretty sure Juliana was just sitting in the dining room at Invisibility Way sending updates on occasion and waiting to see if they needed her help, he didn't know why she didn't just come with them.
He'd asked Blaise, but Blaise just rolled his eyes and muttered about his mum being meddlesome and didn't really answer, so Harry dropped it.
He didn't mind hunting Greyback with just Blaise. Truthfully, Harry was just eager to mark this name off his list and move on because Greyback was proving to be much more of a pain in the ass to find than the Minister would be.
Greyback was moving fast, but so were they, and he'd have to stop eventually. As the coordinates got closer and closer together, Harry could see they were moving in a straight line toward a destination, and they opted to travel on foot beneath Harry's cloak instead of announcing themselves with constant apparation. It was a little slower, but a hell of a lot stealthier.
Even if Blaise was bored of walking through the trees in a little forested part of Scotland.
Harry abruptly pulled Blaise to a halt when the trees were beginning to thin and he could hear the loud cracks that indicated Greyback was being joined by others.
Blaise held up four fingers and Harry clenched his jaw while he nodded.
Son of a bitch.
Five against two weren't the best odds, and Harry could hardly send for backup without giving away their location.
Personally, Harry wouldn't mind giving it a go, but he had to think about Blaise too. And while Blaise was nearly as good at offensive spells as Harry was, he was shit at defense and Harry didn't like to waste his time with defense. They might be best mates, but they weren't a good pair for a duel.
Harry poked Blaise then tapped beside his eyes and then pointed forward, indicating that they needed to see what was happening. Blaise stayed by his side as they moved on silent feet toward the clearing that Greyback had to be at.
"Our Lord said to kill them, not play with them," someone sneered from ahead of them, hidden just behind a single row of trees. "Why is the wolf here?"
Blaise pinched Harry's hand as a raspy voice spoke up.
"He said he wants 'em to hurt," a deep and guttural voice said, Greyback probably, based on Blaise's pinch. "He offered 'em a spot and they said no, so he wants 'em hurt before they die."
"Enough," a third voice snapped. "Let's get this over with."
Harry could have screamed when five cracks resounding through the trees meant that he'd just lost his opening. "God damnit," he hissed. "Blaise, new coordinates."
Blaise's face was hard with the same irritation Harry felt when he pulled the coin from his pocket and tapped it with his wand. "Who do you think they're after?" he asked Harry while they waited for the new location.
"Don't know, don't care," Harry quipped. They were too far away from Invisibility Way for it to be any of his people and even the Burrow was too far away.
Blaise gave Harry a peculiar look while he played with the enchanted galleon. "Do you really not care?" he asked. "Fenrir is known to bite and turn children, like he did to Lupin."
Harry sent a pointed look up at the moon- it was only a half moon, so Greyback couldn't turn anyone even if he wanted to tonight.
Blaise glanced up as well then raised a brow at Harry. "He does occasionally bite just to kill, or consume," he said as he moved his shoulder where Greyback had bitten him for just that purpose.
Harry shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Suppose it's a good thing I don't know any children then, isn't it?" Harry spoke in a careless drawl, keeping the ever present pain over the only child he knew or cared about hidden even from Blaise.
He probably would like his niece, if she'd hurry up and be born before he died. He had worried that he wouldn't get to meet her, but Hermione was due in less than three months and they still didn't know how to get the goblet from the Lestrange vault and they had no idea where the Ravenclaw tiara thing was. So, hopefully, Harry would get to at least see her and find out her name before he died.
"Got it," Blaise said, jerking Harry from his silent musings. He handed Harry the galleon and Harry nodded at the fresh message engraved on it:
56.70052 N, 3.72111 W. Good luck, loves.
Harry grinned at the message before memorizing the string of numbers. He gave Blaise a solemn look, "If Fred dies before August, I'm going to propose to your mum."
Harry grabbed Blaise's hand and apparated them to the new location before he could even finish laughing.
Harry wasn't sure why he thought Juliana wouldn't send them the exact fuckin coordinates for where Greyback was, but apparating in the same position as someone else was a painful experience he wasn't keen on ever reliving.
And, as he appeared in the center of a full out attack, it was all he could do to grab Blaise's arm and yank him backwards on a leg that definitely felt splinched before getting hit with a green spell.
Harry had maybe a half second to take in the scene they appeared on as he put his weight on Blaise and the others in the room took note of the appearance of a person they couldn't see.
Two death eaters on their feet plus Greyback.
Harry ducked his head down to assess and heal his leg and spotted two bodies on the floor. No, three… Harry could see a puddle of blood that surrounded an unmoving body.
"Come out, come out," Greyback cackled. He aimed a black spell at the exact location where Harry and Blaise were standing and they barely had time to duck before it split the spot where their heads had been and sent books flying.
Harry ducked beneath the cloak, leaving Blaise covered, and began playing distraction while Blaise hopefully started dropping the ones who were still standing.
"Potter!" Greyback's wand jerked at the last moment and his green spell was aimed at the ceiling while Harry could hear him audibly grind his teeth.
Aah.
Harry smiled as he sent a slew of stunners across the room, aiming away from the bookcase that Blaise was hopefully still in front of.
He forgot, but Timmy didn't want Harry dead, did he? He wanted him captured and brought to his side. Which meant they were aiming to stun while Harry could be free to kill.
"Potter," Harry repeated with a mocking lilt to his tone. He ducked from a spell and smirked when it looked like Blaise caught one of the death eaters by surprise from behind.
Harry backed from the kitchen, drawing Greyback towards him. He felt a twinge in his head when the other death eater pulled his sleeve up and had to send a quick stunned for his masked face before he had the chance to do something stupid like summon Timmy.
Three on two, with one of Harry's two hidden, was nothing.
Having Timmy join the fight would be a bloody disaster.
"Been looking for you," Harry said as he danced out of the path of Greyback's spells. Greyback wasn't very creative, as he was growling and sending the same spell over and over, but he was fast.
Sometimes, just sometimes, Harry thought that getting bitten would be a good trade off for the increased speed and strength that werewolves had. Sev would probably brew him Wolfsbane anyway, and if he didn't, Luna certainly would.
If he didn't have to die soon, it would be an idea to toy with anyway.
"Have you, love?" Greyback asked with a leering smile. He dodged Harry's stunner and sent one back of his own.
It was annoying, fighting with only stunners and disarming spells, but Harry wasn't going to kill him when Blaise was so close to getting his revenge.
"Yup," Harry backed up into what seemed to be a sitting room and snicked his knife into his hand. "You hurt my friend, didn't you?"
Greyback laughed, "And you're here to kill me now?"
"Nope." Harry threw the knife at Greyback, hitting his shoulder instead of his chest, and followed it with a quick stunner.
Blaise ripped the cloak off his face when Greyback hit the carpeted floor with a heavy thud. "That would be me," he smiled down in Greyback's face. "Let's just…" He reached down and yanked the wand from Greyback's hand and twirled it mockingly. "You won't need this, will you, poppet?" he sneered, looking and sounding more like himself than he had in months.
Harry laughed and Blaise looked up to smirk at him. "Do you want his wand to kill the others?" he asked casually.
Harry eyed the wand distastefully. "No," he said. "I'll take care of them, keep him stunned, yeah?"
Blaise nodded so Harry moved back toward the room they'd originally appeared in and looked around with his brows raised high. He counted the bodies on the floor…
"Oi!" Harry yelled over his shoulder at Blaise. "Did you kill any of them?"
"No. I only stunned them."
Harry nodded and checked over the bodies. Two dead death eaters, two stunned death eaters, one person that it looked as if had been tortured quite badly based on the blood and gashes covering their body.
"Whoever this is, they killed two of them," Harry called through to Blaise.
"No idea who it is?" Blaise asked.
Harry squinted at the body that he didn't want to touch, as drenched in blood as it was. "No, they're pretty fucked up. It isn't a kid though," he added, since apparently Blaise had worried about it. He winced as the gashes across the persons chest looked like they'd been painful. Maybe Harry apparating had been luck for this person, since it seemed like they'd rushed to kill them after his arrival.
Harry pulled the masks off the death eaters and felt a wave of relief that none of them were Rabastan Lestrange, who could not die until Harry got into his vault.
He did feel a rush of fury like nothing else to see the witch that arrested him and moved him straight to Azkaban lying on the floor with wide eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"You're fucking joking!" Harry howled. He pulled his leg back and kicked the witch as hard as he could, despite the fact that she was already dead.
"What's wrong?" Blaise asked, a nervous thrum in his tone.
Harry kicked her one last time, for good measure, and then took his anger out on killing the two stunned death eaters.
Avada Kedavra was too quick and painless, but Harry was saving his cruel creativity for Greyback.
"Nothing now," Harry spat when he rejoined Blaise in the other room. "They're all dead. Do you want to kill him here?"
Blaise shook his head and moved over so Harry could follow his gaze up through the small skylight in the center of the ceiling.
"Do you know how to take down the dark mark?" Blaise asked him.
Harry shrugged. "No, but I could put up a brill lightning bolt instead."
Blaise huffed and gave Harry a fond look. "You would make an excellent Dark Lord."
"I know." Harry eyed Greyback with absolute disgust and hatred. "Let's move him before aurors show up then, yeah?"
Blaise tucked Greyback's wand in his pocket and took a step over closer to the wolf. "I'm not touching him," he said. Harry figured he was trying to sound haughty and casual, but his dark skin had a bit of a green sheen to it with sweat building up on his forehead.
"Course not," Harry agreed, politely ignoring Blaise's panic or whatever it was. Harry bent down and grabbed Greyback's arm and then grabbed Blaise's outstretched hand and apparated them to the first place he could think of.
Spinner's End.
It was empty, private, and the perfect place to let Blaise get his revenge.
Greyback began stirring as soon as they landed so Harry stunned him again, just to give Blaise time to decide what he wanted to do.
"If you laugh, I will hex you," Blaise warned Harry, apropos of nothing.
Harry quirked a brow at him and held his hands up innocently. "I've got no fuckin idea what you're talking about."
Blaise looked down at Greyback's unconscious body and crinkled his nose in disgust. "I've never killed anyone before," he said roughly. He pulled his leg back and kicked the wolf in the side as hard as he could. "I don't know what to do."
Harry bit his tongue so hard to keep himself from laughing. He even ducked his head so Blaise couldn't see his look of absolute amusement.
"It's not funny, Potter," Blaise snapped, guessing at what Harry's silently shaking shoulders meant. "I just want it to hurt like hell and I want him dead. Are you going to help me or are you going to be a prat?"
"Oh, I'm going to be a prat," Harry said once he'd controlled his silent laughter and lifted his head back up. He smirked at Blaise and snicked his dagger he'd stolen from Pettigrew from its holster into his hand. He held it up as he twirled it between his fingers. "I vote we peel his fuckin skin off and let him bleed out on the floor," Harry said brightly. "But this is your revenge, and that's rather messy, isn't it? So you could just crucio him until he goes mad."
Blaise pulled his wand out and narrowed his golden colored eyes at Greyback. "Hmm…" Blaise tapped his wand on his thigh while he thought about it for a minute. He looked over at Harry and the first true smirk that Harry had seen on his face in months bloomed slowly but surely. "Why not both?" he drawled. "I could curse while you cut?"
"Brill," Harry said simply. "A team effort then?"
Blaise nodded and silently waved his wand, moving Greyback to the wall before flicking his wand and sticking him there. "A team effort," he agreed.
Harry's smile turned sharp and cruel as he stepped over to Greyback and made sure he was stuck there tightly. "Can you ward the area against apparation?" Harry asked Blaise as he summoned Greyback's wand from Blaise's pocket and snapped it in three pieces.
Harry felt the magic beneath his feet as Blaise did just that.
And then Harry put his hand on Greyback's neck.
"Wake up," he hissed, an order and a spell all in one. As soon as the wolf's eyes began to flutter, Harry made sure his face was the only one he could see for a moment.
"Hey," Harry grinned mockingly. "Are you ready to die?"
He wasn't good at the whole 'villainous monologues' that Lockhart and Timmy had proven to be adept at. Harry also wasn't usually good at teamwork either, but a few hours later Harry was strutting out of Spinner's End with his head held high while what was left of Greyback's body was left to rot on the floor.
Idly, he wondered if he should just burn the place down. He had planned on giving it back to Sev, but now he thought maybe he should just give Sev a new house or something.
Spinner's End was disgusting. There was probably no spell in the world to remove Greyback's blood from the hardwood floors nor could Harry repair where his claw marks dug straight to the foundation when he'd scratched and flailed during the worst of it.
"You're mad," Blaise whispered. His face was a little grey, but his eyes were bright and he wasn't sweating anymore. "You actually peeled his skin off."
He did.
It had been disgusting and worth every second as Greyback screamed in absolute agony.
It had also been a lot of work and Harry probably wouldn't bother again in the future. Juliana might know spells that did it anyway.
Harry glanced over at Blaise and squinted at him. "That was the plan, yeah?"
Blaise looked down at himself and held his hands out in front of him.
Harry wasn't sure what he was looking for, since Harry ensured neither of them got any of Greyback's blood on them.
"I just…" Blaise shook his head and took a deep breath while he looked up to the half moon. "I thought I would feel better," he said softly, his cool facade gone for the moment. "I thought I would be less angry, less disgusted with myself, but I'm not."
Harry didn't really have anything reassuring or optimistic to say, so he just told him something Sev once said to Harry. "Some people find scars interesting and dangerous," Harry said in a decisive way that didn't give Blaise the option to argue. "Fuck a few scars, you're Blaise Zabini."
Blaise looked from the moon to Harry and the side of his lips curled up in a small smile. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Blaise looked mildly more cheerful and Harry swore to himself that he would pretend until the day he died that both of those were quotes he came up with even if the first came from Sev and the second from Susan.
"Wanna go back and check that cottage out?" Harry asked Blaise. "Or we can go home and play cards."
Blaise threw his arm around Harry's shoulder and shrugged. "Why not both?" he smirked.
And since that sounded like a plan to Harry, he threw his arm around Blaise's waist and popped them back to the cottage they'd found Greyback at.
Harry investigated the little cottage for a few minutes, idly walking around and looking around in interest while Blaise followed him. He'd been focused on Greyback earlier and didn't get a chance to look around. And since the aurors hadn't arrived yet, nothing was stopping him now. He didn't go back to the kitchen yet, not keen on seeing the massacre that had happened again, but he investigated until he felt certain that only one person had lived in the cottage.
"This seems familiar…" Blaise mused quietly as they passed through the sitting room.
It did seem familiar. Harry couldn't put his finger on it, but the decor and overall aesthetic of the room felt familiar somehow.
Harry's skin was prickling with uneasiness as he finally went toward the kitchen where they had originally found the group of death eaters at.
Aside from the bodies of the four dead death eaters, two from Harry and two from whoever their victim was, there was only one other body—
Harry couldn't begin to guess their age, or even their gender, as bloodied and broken as they were. He didn't know what compelled him to do it, but Harry knelt down beside the body and rolled them on their back.
Clean their face, Harry commanded his magic with a desperate urge to see the face of the person that took down two death eaters single-handedly in a five-on-one fight.
He didn't think they would have won, in the end, but Harry knew they put up one hell of a fight which was impressive, and they deserved at least one person to recognize their effort.
Blaise hissed out a shocked breath as Harry's magic cleared away the blood on the person's face and hair. "Oh, fuck us," he whispered.
Harry felt his pulse racing and a tightening in his throat as he quickly got to his feet and stumbled away from the person.
Blaise caught Harry around the waist as he turned and began dry heaving in the sink across the kitchen from the body.
Harry couldn't even think and he felt suddenly ill enough to pass out, which wasn't something he felt very often, if ever. "Is it…?"
"Yes," Blaise whispered, his own voice rough with shock. "I can't imagine why…"
Harry shook his head and accepted the wet rag that Blaise conjured to wipe his face off with. He inhaled and exhaled slowly a few times, pushing down the shaking feeling of wrongness and trying to focus on what needed done.
He wasn't going to leave their body here and he sure as hell wasn't going to let them be found with the Dark Mark above their roof.
Fuck that.
Timmy would pay for this one day, but he didn't get to fucking brag in the meantime.
"Can you send Sev a message?" Harry asked Blaise as he mentally plotted. "Tell him where we are? I think we're going to need him to help figure out what to do."
Blaise waited until Harry straightened up and moved over to the simple and clean two person dining table and sank down in a chair before he waved his wand at his side.
"Expecto Patronum."
"What the fuck is that?" Harry asked thickly, eyeing Blaise's patronus curiously as he struggled to find the name of the animal his friend conjured.
Blaise smirked at him over his shoulder. "A flamingo, Potter. I had never seen one before, but Granger assured me that it is the symbol of passion and flirtation," he winked.
Despite the horror of the situation Harry found himself in, he let out a bark of laughter at Blaise's surprisingly fitting patronus. "It's supposed to be fucking pink, isn't it?" Harry asked him. He'd never seen a flamingo in person, but he'd seen photos in a pamphlet for the zoo before.
"And?" Blaise quirked a brow as his silver patronus stood there on one leg. "I like pink."
"It's…" Harry squinted at Blaise. "It's a girl color, isn't it?"
Blaise scoffed, "Since colors don't have identities or genitalia, I think the color pink is neither female nor male."
Harry held his hands up in a placating gesture. "'Kay," he said. "I didn't meant to insult your definitely masculine and manly flamingo, mate."
"You're just jealous," Blaise sniffed. "My flamingo is elegant and your devil is a glorified rat."
"My ghost devil could kick your pink bird's arse any day of the week," Harry said.
Blaise looked pleased at Harry's reaction and wiggled his brows at him before he turned back to face the weird animal. "Go to Severus Snape, tell him we're at 92 Knockfarrie Road, Pitlochry, Scotland. Come quickly."
Harry watched the flamingo disappear and felt his stomach sink as his eyes were drawn back to the body.
Even with their face clean, their body was still wrecked.
Harry was glad now that he'd put the effort into peeling Greyback's skin off with the knife. He wished he could go back in time and do it again now.
"Oh." Blaise knelt down beside Harry and grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. "Potter, you're crying."
"Am I?" Harry asked numbly, his eyes stuck on the open ones staring sightless back at him.
"Yes." Blaise shifted over so that his head and torso blocked Harry's line of sight. "Don't do that." He reached up with his empty hand and swiped a tear off Harry's cheek. "We didn't do this."
Harry shook his head and tried to look over Blaise's shoulder.
They didn't do it.
This death wasn't on Harry's shoulders.
So why did he feel so utterly miserable now?
*****
Dear Blaise,
First off, thank you.
Thank you for being the first member of the gang.
Thank you for letting me stay with you the summer after first year. You might not know this, or maybe you do, but I didn't have anywhere to go that summer. If I hadn't stayed with you and your mum then I probably would have wound up at the Leaky Cauldron again. So, thanks.
And thank you for having the first celebration of my birthday I've ever had.
Thank you for watching my back even when I specially specifically tell you I don't need it.
Thank you for that time you asked Pansy if her makeup was fucked up or if her face just looked that ugly.
Secondly, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry for your scars.
I'm sorry I wasn't there quick enough.
I'm sorry that I think your mum is the hottest woman I've ever seen in my life.
I'm leaving you the knife that I stole from Pettigrew and used on Greyback. You should carry it with you because you're shit at defensive spells.
I'll miss you.
Hug your mum for me.
All my love,
-Harry
*****