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Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit

Harry Potter/Stranger Things

“AVADA KEDAVRA!” Harry yelled, his voice distorted in an unhealthy mix of Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort and his own. Dumbledore began to cast a spell to deflect the curse, however, Harry concentrated momentarily wrestling control from Voldemort. He concentrated, he felt himself being squeezed through a tube…his destination in front of the curse, it’d get rid of Tom and he’d be able to see Sirius again!

Dumbledore’s eyes widened and his spell faltered, there was a boom like thunder as Harry apparated! That truly was a feat, he reappeared in front of the killing curse! The Ancient Wizard's heart froze as the Boy died, his eyes glazed over. He focused as smoke billowed forth from the Boy-Who-Lived body as Tom reappeared panting, shaking and utterly perplexed. Dumbledore tightened the grip on his wand and the battle with the two current titans of Light and Dark collided.

Harry found himself standing over his own body. “Harry Potter…” A voice called. 

Harry turned to find “Mum?” Lily Potter standing there. She smiled softly.

“I'm sorry, but, no…”

“Then you're Death.” Lily grinned before wrapping Harry in a hug.

“My clever, clever, baby boy. I am Death…” Death sprung away. “I am so sorry…I can be like that.”

Harry looked at Death curiously “Why did you…appear to me in the guise of my mum?”

“I’m not the Grim Reaper, I am the friend that everyone meets once their time has expires. Some prefer the Grim Reaper Form, some call me a Horse, others something out of a horror novel but for you…I figured appearing as your mother would be of closure to you. I must say you’re taking this rather well.”

“Is it bad to say its the concept of dying rather than death that scares me more?”

Death grinned at him “That makes you a Peverelle…You were meant to meet me, in two years from now and then you fight Tom again. Then it’s either he or you wins and you get your long-deserved happy ever after.”

“That’s then and this is now…what will happen to me? I’m dead, you’re death and I don’t think you’d be happy with returning me to life.”

“I could and I should, you’re marked by prophecy but because you don’t know the prophecy you can still escape it. Whatever happens, I still get what I came for. You, Harry James Potter, are a very unexpected plus for my original target. So I can offer you a choice. I bring you back to life and you go on the rest of your years until we meet again or I can… transport you and your godfather to a different location…you’ll still have your gifts but you’ll be able to be ‘Just Harry’. I’ve heard about that…immortals like to gossip.”

Harry raised an eyebrow “Because I don't know the prophecy, I am not tied to it…thus you're offering me a new place to live. I'll have magic. What about funds?”

“Everything will be sorted out. Everything bar finding friends, romance that is. Your Godfather is extremely apprehensive about this.”

“I'd want him to join me.”

(Sirius)

Sirius looked at Death/James Potter “You forgive Me? I'm sorry…but…I failed you.”

James scoffed “You made one bad call. You couldn't have known that Hagrid would show up and demand that Harry be taken to Petunia and Vernon. Dumbledore didn’t know who cast the Fidelus Charm, as he didn’t want to know; he suspected but didn’t know. The fact you were there for him when he needed you was more than enough. Speaking as James, not as the Bringer of the Next Adventurer, Padfoot…take the deal.”

Sirius nodded “I accept.”

Sirius felt the world spin and his eyes widened as Harry stood beside him “HARRY!” He yelled before pulling his Godson into a hug, Harry stiffened as his Godfather hugged him before he relaxed slightly. “How did…”

“Tom…Voldemort…possessed me. I teleported in front of the killing curse and woke up here.”

“Voldemort had turned your Godson into a Phylactery, or Horcrux. Your Godson was not part of my target but rather an interesting addition. Have you both made your choice?”

Sirius looked at Death and nodded “We're going to take your offer.” Death smiled at the duo, before they found themselves fading away. Harry grabbed his Godfathers hand and as they left, they saw a pair of black wings appear and a crying whimpering baby being picked up.

(Hawkins, Indiana, September 3rd, 1986)

Harry sat bolt upright in his bed. Sweat poured down his body, he rolled out of bed at glared at his red lit alarm clock. It was too damn fucking early for him. He sighed and got up and headed towards the bathroom, he didn’t bother turning on the light as the early morning light illuminated the bathroom, he held out his hand and his shampoo bottle jumped to his hand.

The water was blissfully cold, he stiffened momentarily as the cold water covered him. It quickly began to warm up and soon enough Harry finished his morning ritual, got dressed in jeans and a flannel short-sleeved shirt. “Morning kid.”

“Morning, Sirius.” 

“The dream again?”

Harry nodded “Yup—this time with the memory of my death.”

Sirius winced “I’ll make breakfast. Don’t forget you’ve got school this morning and a driving test after school.”

Harry nodded “If I passed…you’d be buying me my first car.”

“Correction, giving you your first car.”

Harry snorted, upon waking up in Hawkins, Sirius had found himself working as a mechanic and car wheeler and dealer. Harry helped out whenever he could, he was currently working at Benny’s Burgers. He’d bribed Benny with a homemade burger and fries…admittedly it wasn’t as hot as he’d hoped it would be but Benny had immediately hired him to help out on Fridays through the Weekend. “Didn’t Benny want a new car from you?”

Sirius nodded as he fiddled with the stove and began to cook “Yeah…A new pickup, why?”

“When I pass my test today, I’ll run it over to him after school when I start my shift. I will need you to pick me up.”

“Sure thing. Let me know your car by the end of the day.” That was a lie, due to the small fleet of cars that Sirius had on their property…a remote detached, three-bedroom house with a basement, Garage and three acres of land. One acre closest to the garage doubles as the car dealership and repair shop, the other two acres hadn’t had anything planned as of yet.

Harry  climbed into the car and fell asleep, he only woke up to his Godfather reaching over to the glove box “Fuck. Harry.”

“Keep your hands away from the sharpie. I’m the new kid, the last thing I need is my man-child Godfather giving me new school suicide before I even have the chance to do it myself.” Sirius chuckled, ruffled Harry’s hair before handing him $50. 

“I know you brought lunch, take that as well. Never hurts to be prepared.” Harry snorted.

Sirius and Harry had woken up in the house, two days ago. There aliases were the same, Sirius Black and Harry Potter. However, Sirius had been known as Sirius Evans, Lily Potter nee Evans half-brother on their mother's side. He had another relative Petunia Dursley nee Evans only she was Lily’s full sister and Sirius’s other half-sister. Sirius had left the Evans Household after being unable to deal with Petunia’s bullshit. He’d remained in contact with Lily throughout their lives until Lily and James had been murdered when Harry was one year old. Sirius had raised Harry and after Harry had been expelled for self-defence from his School, Sirius had decided to take them away from England and set themselves up in Hawkins, Indiana.

Harry effortlessly shut out the whispers and gossip as he approached the front desk “Can I help you?”

“I’m Harry Potter, I’ve just transferred…” The receptionist's eyes widened.

“Ah yes…the new Student. Mr. Munson!” Harry turned to find a teen, with wild bushy brown hair, a manic look in his eye and clad in a shirt emblazoned ‘Hellfire Club’. “So you’re the new naive outsider that has wandered into the hellscape that is Hawkins High.”

“At least according to the sign when I got my lift this morning.” Harry replied drily getting a snort from Munson.

“A dry wit…and slow my beating heart, are you British?”

“Yup. If we’re being specific Welsh.” 

“The Nation with a fricking dragon on it! That’s awesome, why here?”

Harry sighed “School fight. Four on One, guess who the One was.”

Munson’s eyes widened “My friend, I think you’re going to fit in okay here…Sorry, I’m, Eddie Munson.”

“Harry Potter.”

“Pleasure to meet you, now come my friend let us find your locker.” Harry found his locker easily enough, and absentmindedly fiddled with his locker. 

“Yo! Munson, whose the new meat.” 

Eddie sighed “Harry, you ready to, meet, one of the morons of Hawkins High, Jason Carver.”

Harry turned and he had to fight roll his eyes, standing in front of him was another Draco Malfoy in appearance. “Hi, I’m Jason. Sorry about the ‘new meat’ reference.”

“Harry…somewhat accepted. I’ve been called worse, it’s a hazing thing, I’m guessing?”

Jason snorted “Yeah. Kinda. Look it’s better coming from me than the Football team.”

Harry paused “Football…oh yeah, the armoured pricks and high flying tackles.” Jason coughed and his friends snorted “I’m a Welshman…what you call Football offends me…that is Rugby. What I know as Football…”

“Soccer… two teams of eleven kicking a ball. Harry, I think you’re going to fit in around here…although why are you hanging out with Munson?”

“He’s my guide for the foreseeable future…so…whatever problems you have with him, please let them go for now.” Jason nodded. “That’s cool, just a fair warning if people see you hanging around with him they’re going to label you a ‘freak’ and such like.”

Harry’s eyes hardened at the term before a cold smile crossed his face “Thanks for the warning.” Jason gulped, the cold smile and hardened glare sent chills up his spine. There was something not right with that grin, especially on one so young. Jason and his friends left, Harry slammed his locker with enough force that it dented the door.

“That’s some serious strength you’ve got there.”

Harry blushed slightly “Er…thanks I guess. I’ve got History?”

Eddie grinned “They’ve given you my schedule. Now to the passages, declarations and dribbles of times long gone and freshly gone.”

The morning session of schooling was uneventful although Harry was getting sick to death after two periods of feeling like a zoo exhibition. At break, he met up with Jason…it turned out Eddie and Jason shared the same lessons and sat at completely different parts of the classroom. Jason had led Harry into the gymnasium and pulled out a basket ball…Harry grinned as Jason bounced it too him. Harry looked at the floor “Halfway point…14 metres to the circle right?”

Jason nodded “I’ll bet you a buck that you can’t get it in.”

Harry grinned “You’ll have to wait as I don’t have a buck on me.”

“You don’t have a buck?”

“Left my wallet at home. Godfather gave me $50.”

Jason’s eyes widened “Fair. Right Harry…show me what you’ve got.”

Harry bounced the ball three times, jumped, and launched it. Jason watched with a knowing grin on his face, only for it to change to disbelief as the ball hit the screen, rolled around the rim of the net, and fell in. Harry grinned sheepishly, “Yeah, I did that.”

Jason shook his head and then high-fived Harry “You fancy going for a tryout?”

Harry paused “When? I'm…really busy. I have a job at Benny’s and on Weekends I'm helping my Godfather out with his shop.”

Jason nodded “Benny's a good man. Harry, just realise that I'm very determined to get what I want and what I want I normally get.”

Harry snorted “You sound very much like someone I went to School with.”

Jason stared “Anyway Harry what makes you, you?”

Harry paused “I'm very much interested in the…weirder things, the bits and pieces that can’t be explained; either by design or simply because we’ve not reached that level of technology. I’m also a bit of an amateur musician.”

Jason nodded “You realise that Hawkins is a…rather prolific Christian town? Will we be seeing you and your Guardian at church?”

Harry let out a piercing sigh “My views on God and rather the Church are not ones to be discussed at a first meeting. For the sake of brevity I’m sorting out my shit, logic and reasons for faith or seemingly lack of it.”

Chrissy, who’d been introduced to Harry but had remained silent spoke up “I’ll pray for you, I’m here if you want to talk.”

Harry grinned slightly “I appreciate it, Christine…” Chrissy stared at him “How did you know my birth name?”

“Your bloke calls you Chrissy, it narrows the avenue of names down exponentially to Christina or Christine…there are a few others but because of how this town…feels anything other than those two names would be too esoteric or out-of-this-world. What do you prefer?”

Chrissy looked at him “Chrissy, please, Harry.”

Harry nodded “Anyway…I appreciate it but please don’t. I know you're going to say something about ‘my soul is forfeit’, I'm willing to take that chance.”

“Harry let's go…you've already broken the idiot well enough.” Eddie stated “I do want to pick your brains about music.”

The rest of the day it seemed to crawl by. As Harry finished for the day and descended the stairs, Sirius arrived in a dark blue Chevy 1979 Z/28 Camaro. Harry grinned it was either this or the Impala as his car of choice. “You alright kiddo?”

Harry sighed “New school sucks. I've got my test today right?”

Sirius nodded and they were already going. They drove to the test centre where a young woman in jeans and white shirt with a clipboard was waiting for them “Mr. Potter?”

“That's me.” The Instructor nodded and the test began.

(Jason)

Jason Carver sat at the kitchen table studying as his father Rupert Carver sat reading the evening paper. “Father?”

“Hmm?”

“There's a new transfer at School.”

“Hmm.” This was normal.

“We got to speaking about certain topics.”

Rupert put his paper down and he looked at his son “I'm guessing he said something that unsettled you.”

“He told me and Chrissy…”

“Chrissy and I, Jason, speak as the academic young man that you are.” Rupert cut in.

Jason sighed “He told Chrissy and I that he'd ‘take his chances’ when Chrissy suggested that he confesses to God about what is troubling him.”

Rupert nodded “Every man is His Own Sovereign, The Book spells that out to us…and we shall and will accept that. Not everyone has the opportunity, luxury or fortune to be raised as you have been. It could be that this New Student, might have found himself dealt a bad hand at life; so Jason…it is important to realise and accept that you might see someone needing to be saved or helped, but, they might not…yet. My advice is be friendly and cordial with him only engage him on ‘safe’ topics like education. If interests come up it might do you some good to try and read some of the books or areas that interest him.”

“He did mention ‘weirder things, the bits and pieces that can’t be explained’ that interested him.”

Rupert nodded “Theology, Magic, Paranormal and Quantum Science…it sounds like. Your new classmate does sound like an interesting individual. I do like a bit of good conversation about Theology now and then. Why do you think I have my meetings once a week.”

Jason’s eyes widened “I thought that was your cards night.”

“It’s not just cards night, it’s where men can be men and we can talk in relative confidentiality about topics that cannot be easily brought up in and around a more civilised setting.”

Jason sat dumbstruck, his temper rising…he quashed it. He could see what his father wanted but to do it…that was going to be immensely difficult.

(Steve Harrington)

The new kid seemed interesting. Steve noted, that he hadn’t had the chance to introduce himself just yet, he figured after meeting three high-intensity people in Chrissy Cunningham, Jason Carver and Eddie Munson. His parents were away again, so it was apparent that he was fending for himself.

“Earth to Harrington.”

Steve turned to find Tommy calling to him with Carol giggling “Yeah?”

“Don’t tell me your brain cells are activating.”

“Just thinking…about the New Kid.”

“Don’t tell me that you’re a fa…” Tommy began only to find Steve glaring at him.

“I’m not. He’s new, and interesting…why the hell would a Brit come to the backend of nowhere Indiana? Hence I’m thinking about him, it’s a puzzle that’s all…then there’s this weird feeling around him.”

“Yeah, love.” Carol murmured.

Steve snorted “It’s not… no one understands…I think…something big is gonna happen in Hawkins and the New Kid, might know more about what’s about to happen and how to stop it.”

“Steve…you’re being weird…well…weirder than normal.”

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit

Vanishing and Discovery

Two Months had passed and honestly, for Harry and Sirius, they were the most peaceful two months of their lives. Harry had found Hawkins High a drag with the student drama and politicking tiresome, what he was learning was rather interesting. He had passed his driver's test and was granted his provisional licence which meant as long as he had a Senior with him, he was able to drive anywhere he wanted. Eddie had manoeuvred his way into the position of Harry’s ‘best mate’ somehow, seeing as he had his own driver's licence, a sense of humour that even Sirius enjoyed was his often companion.

They were in a shop known as the ‘Dusty Tome’, a second book store that catered for the more ‘supernaturally inclined’ of which Harry most certainly was. Eddie was always interested in this sort of thing, if only for more ideas on how to improve his D&D Club experience. Dungeons and Dragons, Harry found, was a lot of fun…surrounded by people whom many were called ‘the weirdos’ of Hawkins High. He really enjoyed playing high fictionalised version of himself as a ‘spellcaster’ human. Eddie was not blind to Harry’s character, dialect and the way he portrayed his character as a Master of the Arcane.

Currently the Hellfire Club were sitting in Harry and Sirius’s House. Harry had opened up his house to them and the rest had come by with snacks, drinks and helped tidy up. “My fellow Hellclub Members…I open up to thou my sanctum for our game on the condition you help me tidy it up afterwards.” Harry had declared one session just before they began to game, Eddie and the rest readily agreed. Heck they even suggested once a month a full on two day weekend at Harry’s.

Harry's character had just been introduced to the party, the party had been dealing with a trio of giant beavers. Harry had introduced himself to the party by using a spell known as fireball.

“The Giant Beavers, despite their enhanced sensory organs and with a speed that beggars disbelief their gigantic forms…they fail to dodge the incoming spell.” Eddie declared maniacally “Godric…roll your damage.”

Harry assembled his 8 6-sided dice and rolled. 5 6's and 2 1's and a lonesome 3 landed in the tray. “Erm…35?” Harry stated.

“A small orb of emerald green flames rockets from Godrics wand. It arcs through the air and lands perfectly, when it explodes into a beautiful emerald explosion of heat, fire and the sweet scorched smell of Giant Beaver meat permeates your senses. The combat is over.” Eddie declared, throwing his arms open wide.

“Oh Questers of Hell…the Authority upon high declares temporary suspension of play, for food is ready.” Sirius called out. Contrary to popular belief Sirius could cook well! Between the duo, they used Saturday evenings to drink their way through a fair bit of beer and prep for Sunday Lunch together. They’d agreed that their Sunday Roast would occur between 12-13pm, that way they could graze through the rest of the days. Sirius would make a conscious effort to get a burger and fries with Harry whilst he was at work at Benny’s so the two could actually talk. Benny and Sirius had become close, whilst not best friends it wasn’t uncommon for Benny to have a drink or two with Sirius. Benny enjoyed Harry working for him and decided that Harry would work for him Monday, Wednesday and Friday for twelve hours a week. Harry had a quiet demeanour and evidently knew his way around the kitchen and had begun to turn Benny’s ‘breaking even’ eatery into a ‘tidy profit’ eatery. Especially when Harry had turned up one day with a container of fresh beef, peppers, onions, celery and potatoes and proceeded to make fresh burgers and fries for that shift. 

The Roast Lunch consisted of two chickens, roasted potatoes, carrots, suede and a gravy. “Harry, you’re going to spoil us…you’ve let us use your place to play our game and now this?” Eddie stated.

Harry shrugged “You guys welcomed me in to your group, and Eddie…you chose to hang out with me.”

Sirius snorted “It doesn’t help from what Benny’s said that you’re making him more money steadily and you’ve opened up his business to other high schoolers.” Harry shrugged “I like what I do. I’d rather have a tool box of skills rather than a finite one.”

Jeff grinned “My ma will kill me if I didn’t ask you to come over one night to cook.”

“You invite me over, I’ll cook. No idea I’ll do it well but I’ll give it ago.” Lunch was eaten and the game carried on until 20:00. Well…it had technically finished at 18:30 but noone got out until 20:00 as Hellfire Club packed away the game, cleaned the table, vacuumed and tidied the dishes. Harry grabbed his keys and proceeded to drive a few of his friends home. He wasn’t feeling tired, it wasn’t unusual for him to go a day or so without sleep, after dropping Eddie off outside his trailer he turned and headed towards Benny’s restaurant.

“Harry.” Benny called.

“Benny.”

“You’re not supposed to be working today.”

“Couldn’t sleep. Figured I’d come by and help.”

“It’s only about three hours work.”

“It’ll pay for petrol.”

“Petrol?”

“Gas…British thing.”

Benny grinned Harry was a good kid, hell of salesman. Harry pulled on an apron and headed out the front when he saw her.  

Harry headed over to the table “You finished?” The Girl looked up.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Harry right?”

Harry paused “Yeah…I'm sorry, I know your face…but…”

“I'm Julie. We've got a group project together for Biology…” Harry nodded, he remembered her now…not unpopular, but definitely not popular. Harry then caught a look at her face, one of her eyes seemed to receding after swelling.

“I'll get some coffee and we can talk?” Julie stiffened.

Benny arrived with the coffee “What happened?” Harry asked quietly, keeping his hands visible and around his cup.

“I slipped.”

Harry raised an eyebrow “Okay. When? Surely there's a funny story about slipping over and landing on your face?”

“There's nothing funny about slipping over, it's humiliating!” Julie snapped.

“Julie, it's a cultural thing. To me watching or hearing about someone slipping is quite funny.”

Julie's brown eyes locked onto Harry’s “What about you? I saw that scar on your arm.”

She pointed at the Basilisk bite wound “I got bit…Some temporary teacher brought some interesting pets to my school and one took a bite out of me…I ripped the snake out of my arm, then the Teacher attacked me. Teacher was dealt with.”

“That one?” This was the one where Pettigrew had stabbed him.

“Stabbed…my parents betrayer stabbed me in the arm, after dragging me to my parents' murderer.”

Julie and Benny’s eyes widened “I need to…” Benny began.

“Don't… it's all dealt with. Those involved are locked up. The rest…aren’t worth the time.” Harry stated.

Benny wanted to protest but the hard look from his employee screamed at him ‘drop it’. Despite having served, Benny knew when a situation couldn’t be improved upon. “My dad.” Julie stated.

Harry looked at her, the hard gleam in his eyes fading, the harsh gleam becoming one of concern “Why?”

“He was drunk.”

“Julie…he’s always drunk.”

“I…got a B on a test instead of an A.” Julie admitted, “Then I came here.”

Harry laid his hand on the table, Julie tentatively placed her hand on his “Julie…you deserve more, you deserve better. Tomorrow, fancy…er…hanging out here, yeah I’ll be working but…”

Julie giggled at him “Harry…are you asking me out?” The giggle became laughter as Harry stared at her dumbfounded, it became a full belly laugh when Harry meekly nodded.

“If you introduce me to your esoteric friend circle.”

Harry grinned “You might get some flack for being a beautiful woman joining a group that has a rather ‘on the nose name’ considering how faithful this town is.”

“This is coming from a guy, who sleeps and snores in Latin. When questioned you reply in fluent Latin.”

Harry shrugged “Languages come easily to me. I’m fluent in Latin, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Welsh. Latin is the basis of the first four languages so it’s a matter of conjugation and listening…You should have seen my pen-pals face when she called me a ‘little boy’ and I replied ‘Buy me dinner and you’ll find out’.” Julie almost choked on her coffee.

“I’m not going to be able to take you anywhere am I?” She replied.

Harry paused “You can…just…expect some fireworks.” Benny sighed before gesturing to Harry to get back to work. Harry finished cleaning down the tables and the grill, before offering to give Julie a ride back to her house. They pulled up, the door opened and swaying in the doorway was a man who Harry could only guess was Julie’s father, he was about 5’9, Medium build on the heavier side if his beer gut had anything to say about him. 

Julie at Harry “Thanks for the ride.”

Harry smiled thinly “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll survive.” Julie replied before wincing as she saw her boyfriend’s? Date’s? Jaw tighten, he opened the glove compartment and pulled out a notebook, ripped out a page and scribbled three numbers on it.

“First one is for my Godfathers shop, tell him Harry told you to call, Second is the generic homephone, Third is mine. Use mine at any hour or contact Benny. I WILL come and get you. I know it’s only what twenty paces from here to your front door, allow me to walk you in.”

Julie eyed him “You’re trying something.”

“Of course I am.”

“You do know we have more firearms than people?”

“I’m going to be textbook polite.”

“Before or after you’ve beaten up one of the linemen of the Football Team?”

“That was miscommunication.” Harry climbed out of his car, and opened Julie’s side. Julie smiled and headed towards the stairs onto the porch.

“Whosh yer friend?” Her Father slurred.

“My Boyfriend.”

“Hish name?”

“Harry, dad.”

“The worker at Ben’s? It’s not far a walk.”

“It’s late. He offered me a ride.”

Her dad nodded and turned to Harry who was waiting at the bottom of the porch “You can go.”

Harry grinned “I will do…once she enters your house.” Julie moved passed her father and entered the house, Harry nodded to her father and swiftly left. His gut was tight and forming an uncomfortable knot; something was going to hit this town and he had a feeling it’d be soon.

He jumped into his car, turned and headed away. Harry didn’t sleep that night.

(Next morning)

November 6th dawned, dark and cold. Harry descended the stairs to find Sirius talking to the police. It was Officers Powell and Callahan “Hey kid.” Powell said attracting Harry’s attention to him.

“Officer.” Harry replied dryly as he made himself a pot of coffee. “Kid.” Powell began.

“What Officer?” Harry countered paying more attention to the brewing coffee.

“Officer Powell, my Godson does not react well to be called ‘Kid’. You addressing him like that will only further warrant more retorts in this manner.” Sirius explained, hoping to keep the situation from escalating.

“Sorry Mr. Potter, I’m Officer Calving Powell.” Powell began.

“Accepted, Officer Powell, what’s going on? Want a drink? You and your colleague both?” Harry replied.

“Shouldn’t you be at School, Mr. Potter the other Officer asked.”

Harry looked at Callahan with a raised eyebrow “The Cops are banging on mine and my Godfathers house before I head to school needing to ask us some questions about something, I’m probably going have to go out on a limb and inquire about my whereabouts yesterday and I’m probably going to have to repeat myself several times due to mental inhibitions of one or both members of said Police Team. So for the sake of brevity about me going to school, I’m writing this day off so Officers I’m all yours.”

Powell snorted “I’m not sure whether to take offence about our ‘mental inhibitions’ or laugh. Mr. Potter, please, try not to insult us or it might cause you to end up in hot water. That’s not a threat, it’s merely advisement.”

Harry nodded “Apologies…again Officer Powell, coffee?”

“Black. No milk, no sugar. Phil?”

“Milky, please.” Harry obliged and made two more mugs of coffee, Sirius shot him a look.

“Make your own Dogfather.” Sirius nodded. Harry took an armchair in the living room and curled himself up in it, Callahan and Powell took the sofa and Sirius leant against the wall.

Powell pulled out a small cassette recording case, placed it on the table and pressed record “This is a primary investigation taking place between Officers Calvin Powell and Phillip Callahan, we are at Blacks Automechanics and Trades our questionnees are Mr Sirius Black and his Godson Mr Harry Potter. Can I please ask if you consent to this and please say your full name and ‘I consent to this manner of recording’.”

“I, Hadrian, Harry James Potter, consent to this.”

“I, Sirius Orion Black III, consent to this.”

Powell nodded “Mr. Potter, what were you doing yesterday evening between the hours of 18:30 and 22:00?”

Harry paused “I had several friends spending the night from Saturday until 19:00 here. We were playing games since 12:00 on Saturday until 18:30ish give or take fifteen minutes. We cleaned up the table, and washed the dishes from a roasted chicken and that too us to roughly 19:00, then myself and Arthur Munchies, big guy rather heavyset normally wears a leather jacket 363 days of the year; we ran everyone home. I came back here around 20:05, and I headed down to Benny’s, I work there and decided I couldn’t unwind so I headed to his to help out. I was there until nearly 23:00, then I ran a classmate home, I didn’t get in until probably just after Midnight and I’ve been awake all night. Why what’s going on?”

“For the record, Mr. Potter…what game were you playing?” Callahan asked.

“Is that question really necessary, Officer?” Sirius asked.

“It…might be pertinent to our investigations. Oh and we’re going to need the names of all the people that were at your house.” Powell said, as he looked around the room. “You do have an interesting collection of books, Mr. Potter.”

Harry grinned “I like to read, and the game I’m playing requires a certain…authenticity to truly make it feel alive if that makes sense? I play a little game called Dungeons and Dragons, I am well aware that it is fantasy and well…mostly impossible for it happen in the real world.”

Powell nodded “So most of these books would be broadly based on ‘Supernatural’?”

“Who doesn’t at least say at some point ‘I’d love to find Bigfoot?’. There’s also a fair bit on Quantum Theory, Mechanics and Science…amongst other things. Officers, whats going on?”

“Will Byers has gone missing. We were asking because we were tracking the potential routes he could have gone home, one was by your house.” Callahan stated. The Officers looked at the two men, Harry had gone pale and Sirius looked concerned.

“Fuck…Jonathan’s probably going absolutely stir crazy.”

“Jonathan…Byers?” Callahan asked, his response warranted an audible facepalm.

“He does, Phil…Mr. Potter, I see what you mean about your intelligence comment. Mr. Byers, Jonathan was the one that informed us.”

“Any other questions?”

“None that we can think of…” Harry nodded “Well, since I’m not going to school won’t be able to focus right now I’m heading over to Benny’s.”

(Benny’s)

Harry made it to Benny’s in good time “Aren’t you meant to be in school?” Benny asked.

“Police called…kept me longer than I anticipated. I don’t need the hassle, fuss and quite frankly the swarm of locusts that are the gossipers looking for a story.”

Benny snorted “I can get behind that. I’m Hawkins through and through, born here, lived here, save for my fifteen years in Service, I came back.”

Harry nodded “I get that.” He was distracted by a rustling in the back, Harry’s eyes widened…there was a small child, maybe ten or eleven at most. Their eyes were a haunted brown and the fact they were wearing a hospital gown caused Harry’s stomach to curdle, Harry closed his eyes as he felt his adrenaline kicking in. Benny’s eyes widened as the pen he was holding launched itself into Harry’s hand, the kids eyes widened as well.

“Harry…what was that?”

“Are you like me?”

Harry looked at them both and then at the pen in his hands “When I get angry enough or upset small things like that can happen…I’ve already dented a locker by slamming it shut.” He turned to the child “What do you mean like you?”

“I can do things like that.”

Harry couldn’t believe this was happening “Benny…please tell me you’ve not told anyone about this?”

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Stranger Shit

Of meetings and injections (of the lead kind)

Eleven laid out her story, how she’d been abducted from her mother and brought too a lab. She explained how she’d been living in a lab, in the woods. Harry looked at Benny “Lab in the woods?”

“That sounds like a Department of Energy Lab. They acquired Hawkins National Lab in the 60's. It was a big to do, more jobs for the town. However, they only hired a few from the town including Wayne Munson, citing ‘not what was required’. Then they walled it off and started hiring discharged Soldiers…some of my buddies work in Hawkins.” Benny explained.

Harry nodded and he watched as Eleven froze. He looked out the window as 4x4s began to pull into the diner. “Eleven head out through the backdoor. Harry, head into the kitchen.”

Harry nodded taking the petrified girl with him. He entered the kitchen, he allowed himself to relax. He reached out with his powers and the sounds of switches turning echoed around him. He was in business, he flicked his hand and the partially filled trashbags jumped into his hands, the Girl watched with wide eyes “I can’t do that!”

Harry grinned “I’ve always known I was different…I worked on it in secret. With training, practice and study you can do far more than mere party tricks like pushing, pulling and lifting things smaller than your mass…With careful study and understanding the world can be your toy…now, I’m going to open the door and put the trash out, as I do so you need to run.”

The Girl nodded “I’m scared.”

“As am I. I know people are going to find you, they’re going to do their damnest to keep you safe. Don’t come to look for me, I won’t come to look for you…the chances are…”

“I’ll see you again.” The Girl replied, she didn’t know why but this adult…he felt like Henry, before everything, Henry was safety, reassuring, and patient much like him.

She waited, the door opened and following in his footsteps she joined him outside, she watched the massive bin open, the bags entered and the lid slammed down. She was off pelting away. She didn’t look back, she couldn’t look back, she daredn’t look back. She’d escaped the Lab, she’d been found and the kindness of strangers and New Henry and Mr. Benny, now she was leaving them in danger.

Harry shut the door to the Burgers Joint and began prepping for the Lunch Rush, normally the first through the door would be Jim Hopper; the Chief of Hawkins PD, then Old Men Frank and Tim; Benny’s oldest clients. Benny stuck his head in “Harry…”

“Yes, Sir?”

“The Suits want you out front. They have some questions for us.”

Harry sighed as he looked at the assembled vegetables and chopping board “Tell them I’m coming.” He grabbed the supplies and headed out. There were twelve in total, the majority of them were men…heavily built or at least health enthusiasts; handguns in holsters clearly on display. Only one had his hand on his pistol, new guy or new to Hawkins, unaware of his surroundings. Harry thought as he set up behind the counter.

“Boy, have a seat.” One of the Men ordered.

“No thanks Suit, I’m on the clock…Department of the Government or not, the cruel hand of time waits for no one.” Harry replied not looking at him, focusing more on slicing the tomatoes. He heard the sound of the holster being unclipped and metal against leather.

“Sit down.”

“Mr. Hernandez, he’s not a threat. We only need to ask him some questions, which he can do while working.” Harry’s hair on the back of his neck stood on end. This was the shot caller.

Meanwhile sitting in front of the leader of this group, Benny managed to keep a straight face. Harry never acted well to threats and bully’s, he would be polite and stubborn at the exact same time. Hernandez holstered his firearm stalked off, Harry kept working on his peppers and a chair pushed back, the sound of heels on the diner floor flooded his hearing.

“Excuse me?”

Harry looked up, a woman with blonde hair, blue eyes a lightish blue, with a broach at her throat on a blue undershirt in black looked back it him. Her face gave away a fair bit, she was stressed if the bags under her eyes were a give away. The crows feet around her eyes gave the indication that she was normally quick to smile and laugh. “Can I help you, Mrs. ???”

“Frazier, Connie Frazier, Social Security. I was hoping you could tell me what you’d recommend for breakfast or at least brunch?”

Harry nodded “Depends on what you’re looking for, for a brunch I can whip up a Sausage, Bacon, Egg, Lettuce and Tomato burger with a side of fries and pot of coffee. Social Security? I’d like to see some identification.”

Frazier nodded and handed over an expensive leather wallet, it did confirm who she was. “You’re a suspicious one, young man.”

“When Social Security walks through my door with eight men, the smallest of whom is a contender for a heavy-weight boxing champion, I wouldn’t call myself suspicious but more cautious. Sorry Mrs Frazier.” Harry replied calmly. “I’m sorry, I’m Hadrian, Hadrian Potter.” It was a small lie, but one that wouldn’t hurt completely.

“Mr. Potter, we received a call about a young girl.” 

Harry cocked his head “A young girl? Not a young boy?”

Frazier looked at him with concern “Definitely a young girl, what’s this about a young boy going missing?” Harry and Benny’s eyes widened…they knew something, they weren’t Social Services! They were someone else.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Harry replied calmly.

Frazier looked at Benny’s Employee, his shrewd and sharp. She began to backtrack over the information that she’d given him and her eyes widened. Maybe it was time for a bit of disclosure, she hated having to kill teenagers.

Unfortunately Hernandez had other ideas “Have you seen the girl, Potter? Tell us the truth and you get to live to see tomorrow.” He pulled his gun and went to aim it at Harry, it wouldn’t move! Harry didn’t even look at Hernandez “Frazier, who do you really work for?” Gone was his British and slight American accent, this was toneless almost like silk.

“The Department of Energy.” The silk was so warm, so comfortable, she wanted to lose herself in its soft undertones; it sounded so much like her late husbands when they’d been courting.

“Why would such an illustrious department need such a strong retinue? Or even a retinue?”

“We are searching for an asset, a young child, very small, buzzcut hair, brown eyes last seen wearing a hospitable gown.” Suddenly the silky tone was gone, Fraziers’ eyes widened. The Teen smirked.

Benny was moving, he crossed the gap quicker than the guards thought was going to be possible. With one punch he dropped the first man, he turned into the second, lifted him and slammed him backfirst into the floor before pulling out the man's Bren Ten handgun. He dropped one more, only for Frazier to turn and shoot him. Benny slumped into his chair a bullet hole in his head.

Harry snapped, and rage flooded his body. He focused on Hernandez, he felt his nose explode, and he felt Hernandez’s mind buckle and break under his onslaught. He took cover, he felt himself lose consciousness only to find himself gazing at the remaining agents. What they did next was simple and easy, the six remaining agents were dealt with…fortunately for Harry after he removed himself from Hernandez they were alive.

He slumped behind the bar, completely stunned. He was out of it he didn’t hear another car turn up in outside the restaurant. He didn’t react when one of the agents peered over the bar and took aim at him, he didn’t react when four gunshots tore through the eerie silence dropping his last attacker. “Jesus Christ.” He heard, there were grunts of exertion and two heavy feet landed on the other side of the bar.

“Potter…Potter.” Harry snapped to it and jumped back from the speaker, it was Hopper!

“Christ! I thought everyone was dead. Are you alright? What happened? Take it easy, it’s alright. Well it’s not alright, but, I need you to help me understand what happened.” Hopper stated, Harry smiled at the deep gruff tone that brooked no compromise.

“Chief…I really could do with a fucking hug…and…a beer. I know Benny keeps…”

“He keeps a few cold ones in the back, in the fridge. I’ll get them.” Hopper stated before helping Harry to his feet and pulled him into a hug, Harry grunted as Hopper held him tightly. Hopper released him and came back with two beers.

“You’re only getting one kid. Technically you’re a minor, shouldn’t you be in School?”

Harry sighed and sipped the cold beverage “Callahan and Powell came this morning, they were grilling me on the disappearance of William Byers, they thought I might have seen him. I hadn’t, the conversation had be rattled so I figured I’d come to Benny’s early and pass the day here.”

Hopper nodded “Then what happened?”

Harry took another swig “When I arrived, there was a girl here.”

“Not a boy?”

Harry shuddered “Definitely a girl. A hungry, panicked little girl. She reminded me of how I was treated before I moved here. That’s beside the point. The point is I knew abuse when I saw it. Benny informed me that he’d called social security, I gave her some food then those three cars out the front arrived. The sheer amount of personnel arriving did not scream social security protocol, then there was the fact all of them were armed with pistols and revolvers and not the ones typically owned by civilians or police…these were more military…I think.”

Hopper looked at the dead and dying “Definitely military.”

“Their leader, Connie Frazier said she was with Social Security, I didn’t believe that. So I began a conversation with her, after being threatened at gunpoint by this idiot.” Hopper looked down at the downed form of Hernandez.

“She said they were here for a young girl, who’d disappeared, I asked for clarification that it was a young girl, not a young boy. She was taken completely by surprise at that. I realised that they hadn’t known, she tried to get some information about Will Byers…that was when I realised that she wasn’t Social Security.”

Hopper smirked “Smart play, a little impulsive. Then what happened?”

Harry paused slightly “This is the part that sounds like a comic book, the best thing I can do is try and show you a few things.” Hopper nodded, Harry laid his hands, palms up on the table.

“Feel free to check my hands, arms for any sort of wires, gel, concealed flints.” Hopper did so.

“I can’t feel or see anything…what’s the point to this?”

Harry smiled “Obtestor flamma!” Hoppers eyes widened as green flames erupted into existence on Harry’s hands. Harry closed them and extinguished them.

“That was freaky…what are you calling it?”

“The best way to describe it would be ‘magic’ or ‘pyrokinesis’, I can do more than just create and manipulate fire. There are many mental gifts that I can use, I don’t like them but I can use them. I’m a dab hand at hypotism…so I hypnotised her whilst chopping lettuce and found out they were part of the Department of Energy. I ended that, they then tried to kill us…Benny dealt with three before he was murdered. I possessed this one, destroying his mind and used him as my tool to kill and wound the others. I missed one, the one you got.”

Hopper nodded “What I’ll report is you killed this guy in self defence and with Benny’s on the job teaching…the pair of you dispatched your assailants, self-defence but Benny died in the altercation.”

Harry stared at him “You’re not arresting me?”

“Kid, this is the clearest case of self-defence…weird shit aside. We are going to have to clean this up first. To make it fit our story.” Hopper, directed Harry in cleaning up the crime scene, Hopper then drove off to come back again…then there was an unexpected complication.

(Julie)

Today had been dull. Mostly, the school was gossiping about the disappearance of the Byers's kid, Creepy Jonathan's brother. Jonathan was a nice guy, definitely a brooder and more content looking behind the lens of his camera than participating with people. Jonathan and Her were close, not that close but close enough for the Elder Byer brother to confide in her and Nancy Wheeler.

Nancy Wheeler, Julie rolled her eyes, was a brainiac and completely naive when it came to dating hierarchy at the school. Julie wasn’t one to judge, she didn’t mind Nancy; the elder Wheeler could stand to soften up a bit. She was however with the so called Steve ‘The King’ Harrington. If Wheeler knew Harringtons reputation then she would have ditched immediately.

Harry hadn’t turned up to school, it wasn’t unknown for him to be late for first lesson, but he hadn’t shown up. Geography was after History and he didn’t show up. She was getting her books when she bumped into Jason Carver, someone who Harry hung around with. “Carver!”

“Powells…what is it?”

Julie bit her lip before jumping to the question “Have you seen Harry?”

Carver paused “Not seen him at all. I can put the word out to find out where he is?”

“Please. I needed, need, to talk to him.”

Jason grinned “I’m guessing to thank him for yesterday…Julie…I live two doors from you, one down on the opposite side of the street. I saw you and him arrive at yours. Did he…”

Julie nodded “He tried to ask me out. ‘Do you wanna hang out with me tomorrow?’”

Jason chuckled “I owe him $5, I didn’t believe he was that bad about asking girls out.”

True to his word, Jason had spoke to the Hawkins Tigers who began asking everyone in the school if they’d seen the new student. Julie got a resounding ‘no’ and ‘not seen him’ along with a few ‘Are you alright?’ at lunch. She was sitting on her own, not out of desire but choice she hated being the centre of attention. She was distracted by a slight cough, she looked up to find Jonathan and Nancy standing in front of her “It’s a free country. What is it? Jonathan, how are you holding up?”

Nancy looked at her “Aren’t you being a little selfish?”

Julie looked at her “Selfish?”

“Asking about Harry, when Will is missing. For all we know Harry could have abducted him.”

Jonathan snorted at that “Nancy, Harry’s not that kind of guy.”

“That we can all agree.” Another voice said, they looked up to find Eddie Munson coming to join them.

“Harry’s an interesting guy. He’s a good guy, a very good guy. Julie…from what I know, this is from his mouth…He’s taken the day. He apologised to me for dragging me into the path of the cops.”

Julie bit the inside of her lip, involuntarily spitting out her apple she had been eating “The cops!” She exclaimed. That got the attention of everyone in the lunch hall. “What for? He didn’t do it.”

Eddie cackled “The cops were door-knocking around all the paths young Master Byers might have taken to get home and Harry and his Godfather happened to be in the area. Harry told them everything that he knew and then proceeded to call the rest of Hellfire to apologise and to let them know what was going on. We were planning to see him up at Benny’s after school to help catch him up.”

“I was heading their as well. I’d planned to ask him if I could meet his ‘esoteric friend group’.”

Eddie’s jaw dropped “He did mention the flack you might get?”

“He did. I said that’s my price.”

“Well Miss. Powells, my chariot is at your disposal. After school, Hellfire shall quest to find him and for our reward discounted Benny’s!”

Jonathan grinned at that “I’m holding up pretty badly. Mom’s going nuts already, said something about ‘talking through the lights’.”

“Whats happening here? The creeps, loners and Nancy Wheeler holding court off to the side!” Steve boomed as he jumped onto the table.

Julie sighed and Eddie groaned, Jonathan shot Steve an ugly look “Come on Nance, let’s get out of here.”

Nancy smiled weakly at them “I’ll see you guys later on.”

The rest of the day crawled by and soon enough Julie joined Eddie in his car and they headed up to Benny’s Burgers. As they rushed towards the restaurant, they found Harry just finishing up speaking with the police, specifically the Chief. Julie rolled down the window to hear the Chief say “Thanks for the help.”

Julie got out of the car and as Harry made his way towards her, she pulled him into a hug “What happened?”

“Assault, Murder and Self-Defence. I’m okay, shaken up like a martini but okay. Unfortunately…”

“No.” Julie was aghast with horror. Something wasn’t adding up. 

“Chief?”

“Yeah?”

“Is Harry…”

“He can talk about it but not give details. It’s an ongoing investigation.”

“What about the Byers kid? Can we help?”

The Chief sighed like an enraged bull “Fine.”

Harry turned to the Hellfire Club, keeping Julie close to him “Everyone this is Julie. Julie you’ve met Eddie, big guy is Arthur, Doug, Jeff and Gareth. Eddie, Gareth, Jeff and Arthur make up the band Corroded Coffin.”

Eddie had to interject “Harry is also a member…” Julie turned to him.

“I have a number of interests and being able to run on four hours sleep a night…a lot of time on my hands.”

“That can’t be healthy.”

“Nothing is healthy. You only have one life so live it to the extreme.” Harry replied looking exhausted.

Eddie cocked his head “Harry, we’re going to need to talk…all of us.”

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Stranger Shit

Coming Clean…ish

Sirius knew something was up. He knew that Harry knew that, He knew that something was off. With the pair of them, he wasn’t surprised when Hellfire Club and a cute girl locked like a limpet around Harry’s arm trooped into the house. “Harry, what’s going on?”

Harry sighed “Sirius…is the basement ready?”

Sirius raised his eyebrow “How did you know about my Mancave?”

“Our Mancave, now, is it operational or not?” Harry snapped.

“Harry…” The girl said warningly.

“Don’t worry about it, Miss, Harry seldom gets this snippy with me without good reason. Harry, it is…for the most part, I’m just waiting on a few more of the last few pieces.” The girl looked at him and smiled.

“I’m Julie, Julie Powells.” Sirius grinned at her “Harry, I don’t care how you and your Godfather act when I’m not around, please…treat him with a bit of respect.”

Harry nodded “Sorry about that, look, can we all head to the basement where I can safely talk about everything that’s happened? It’s been one hell of a day and it’s not even six in the evening?”

Sirius chuckled and led them into the kitchen, he opened a door in the wall which opened inwards revealing a flight of stairs. Hellfire Club with Julie descended the stairs, and downstairs made their jaws drop. The basement was just huge! Huge leather sofas were against the walls, a low and long dark elm coffee table between them with two leather armchairs in front of the chairs was a space meant for television of some sort, there were also three fridges and in one part space for music practice. “Drinks are in the fridge and let's get comfortable,” Sirius suggested, Harry all but collapsed into a chair at the bottom of the table “so my Godson can tell us everything.”

Harry smiled, it was genuine but didn’t settle right with him. Julie, held her hand out and he took it “Harry, I’m worried. I’ve seen you in all emotional states that you’ve cared to reveal but I’ve never seen you so rattled, upset and angry.”

Harry nodded, he held out his other hand “Obtestor flamma!” He declared and emerald flames erupted into existence for the second time that day. The Hellfire Club jumped backwards although Eddie jumped forwards, his eyes wide and a smile threatened to take his face off; he was ecstatic! He knew Harry had been hiding something from him, how he played Godric the Gryffin Lord; Harry’s Blademaster Spellcaster it was as if Harry had been reaching into something that he had been previously!

Julie’s eyes widened, she was shocked! Harry had demonstrated on a few occasions little bits of ‘close up magic’ commonly used in stage-magic shows, the way the flame reacted it was almost as if it was genuine flames aside from the perfectly symmetrical orb of fire that Harry was holding. “I’ve not lied that much about who I am. My name is Harry James Potter, which is the name, I am most familiar with and the one I react to the most. I did live in Great Britain, I was born in Wales, on July 31st. However, I was not born in 1968 like most of you. I was born in 1981. Where I had lived, I was a Wizard…very much like Merlin. However, I died, and then I woke up here. The details of my other life, of my first fifteen years is a tale for another time. Here, I found very early on that I had ‘abilities’, earlier today as we all know William ‘Will’ Byers went missing. The Police department had come by to ask me if I’d seen him. So I skipped school and went to Benny’s. Benny was looking after a girl, who’d been treated horribly. He’d contacted Social Security when…twelve people showed up.”

Julie’s eyes widened as did Hellfire “Social Security never come that heavily manned! It’s normally one or two, generally two.”

Harry nodded “We had a dialogue, they tried to get information…I received information then they tried to kill us.”

“Hang on, Harry, what about the kid?” Sirius asked.

Harry sighed “I smelt trouble, as much trouble that was brewing…I took the trash and girl out of Benny’s and told her to run. I know…that was stupid, reckless and irresponsible but my gut tells me I’ll be running into her again. She escaped once from these people, I have every feeling that with a little bit of assistance from the kindness of strangers she could do it again.”

Sirius growled, catching all of the teens off guard. Eddie knew Harry called his ‘Godfather’ the ‘Dogfather’ sometimes, to hear the older man snarl like a hound was something else. “You’re a Mage too?”

Sirius nodded “I am and I was. Harry and I have the same abilities, mine are much more refined…age, experience etc. Sorry, Harry…you were saying, they were going to kill you.”

Harry nodded “Benny and I dealt with the majority of them. Benny got killed by one after killing or at least incapacitating two or three of them. I got the rest.”

“How?” Arthur asked.

Harry sighed “Mine and my Godfathers abilities effect reality, it’s entirely plausible and possible that we can affect mental faculties and that’s all I can say. People with these abilities…we can do a great many things, much like in Dungeons and Dragons. Please, that’s all I wish to say.”

Julie and Eddie got the hint, Julie had read a few comics of the ‘X-Men’ and had been transfixed and very scared of the possibilities that Xavier and Jean Grey could do to the minds of others. Harry’s ambiguous statement about what he could do with his abilities told them what he had done. Julie wanted to run, she wanted to leave the basement and go to her father and tell him what had happened. She knew that Harry would let her, his Godfather as well…but how could she? Her father wasn’t one for comics, science fiction or fantasy really; he was grounded in reality! He’d served in the Military and made a decent living when he’d been demobbed. He was head of the Hawkins Veterans Association for Heaven's sake! He’d completely understand and chalk it up to a fluke that Harry had managed to survive the scenario.

Gareth broke the silence “So…what’s the plan?” Everyone looked at him.

“We know that Byers has vanished. We also have two genuine down-to-earth Mages. I say we try and find him oh and the Girl.”

“Gareth…D&D is one thing, this is real life. Every nerve in my body is telling me to go, find and save Will…it really is, but we do not where he is, how he got there or if he’s even alive?” Arthur stated. “I’m just saying! If a missing person hasn’t been found within 48 Hours, it starts becoming a real consideration that he’s dead. I’m not being a dick about it.”

Julie sighed, then an idea hit her “Eddie…”

“Yes?”

“In Dungeons and Dragons…you play in a fictional world? I know it’s more than that but for simplicities sake.”

“Correct, Harry… you wanted to bring her to Hellfire? I accept. Sorry, go on Powells.”

“Are there…other realms inside the realm?”

Eddie’s eyes widened “Harry? Have you got…”

Harry smirked “Julie…you’re fucking amazing. To the books!” Eddie could only cackle.

Julie’s eyes widened at the bookshelves in the corner of the living room, it was a substantial collection. She deduced that they were ordered in topic and then by author. There were books of history, geography, astronomy, quantum sciences and engineering but the vast majority seemed to revolve around theology, religious texts and the supernatural along with a not so small collection of Dungeons and Dragons books and magazines. “Please be careful. Some of these were hard to come by.” Harry stated as he pulled the Dungeons and Dragons books out, before grabbing a few engineering, quantum engineering and a theology book off the shelves.

“Harry, what are you looking for?” Julie asked she grabbed one of the engineering books.

“In the very weird possibility that we actually have something akin to a ‘multiverse’ in real life…we’re going to need to devise a way to punch into this new dimension.”

Gareth cocked his head “Wouldn’t that require a tonne of power?”

“It would…how much, I’m trying to figure out because surprisingly enough there are factors that we would need to consider that we wouldn’t previously have considered.”

Eddie, who’d been browsing a book pertaining to monsters for the outer realms looked over “Wouldn’t gravity be one of those things? Also…I think I’ve got something.”

Sirius nodded “Gravity, yes, we’re also going to be considering the orbital rotation, and geographic rotation, we also have account for wind speed, weather fronts and drag and thrust. We will be focusing a huge amount of power into a very small point and then ripping open time and space.”

“Unless…we find anything naturally occurring and no…I do not want any of you to come with me into this dimension. I don’t particularly want to go myself. So…let me make this crystal clear, this is a purely theoretical exercise.”

The Hellfire Club looked at Harry eyes wide “You’re not even remotely interested in the possible outcome that Earth has a multiverse?”

“I am…just not all to enthusiastic about having to make war on its natural denizens. The cons outweigh the pros in this case, if we want to do anything then we should assist in the search party and slowly, subtly gather materials to defend what is ours.”

Jeff cocked his head “Are you suggesting guns and things?”

“They are options. We’re in America and as Julie has rightfully told me ‘More guns than people’. I have the space, I have the supervision…so it wouldn’t be too hard for me to ask around for some seasoned gun owners to give us some lessons in gun safety.”

Their discussions about the disappearance stopped when a clock chimed 18:00 “Alright, Adventurers and Miss Powell…as your Dungeon Master and an equally concerned Adventurer myself, I say…let’s shelve this for tonight and we induct Miss Powell into Hellfire Club!” Eddie declared. Harry smirked as Julie paled slightly, she grabbed his hand.

“Godric!” Eddie called

“Yes, DM!”

“Bring forth the items of sanctioning.”

Julie reluctantly let go of Harry as he all but hurled himself out of the living and up the stairs; the curses he let out made her blush and Hellfire to grin. Harry clattered backdown with a box and two folders, he held his hand out and the D&D Books launched through the air and into his. Inside the box was a tray lined with fabric, in fact the tray looked like a picture frame and from the folder came three sheets of paper and a lot of dice. “You…you…bunch of assholes! I thought the worst.”

Harry grinned “I’m sorry, but, they did this to me as well. I guess…I wanted to pull the prank on you. Yes we’re weird, yes we’re goofy, yes we’re the rejects of the School but no matter all of our ominous messages and ‘in jokes’ nothing we do is meant to be harm you. It’s all fun and games.”

Eddie nodded “Harry is just as bad if not worse than us. When he runs a game…” Eddie let out piercing whistle “It doesn’t feel like a game if that makes sense?”

Julie nodded “The power of immersion, of something played so well, with feeling you can’t help but just let go and enjoy? It feels like a film has taken a book and turned it word-by-word into detail?”

Harry blushed “I do try, it helps…it really helps when you have friends and players who aren’t just picking up the ball from the Dungeon Master, Eddie and I, but taking it from us and running with it. Eddie likes props, monologues and his thesaurus to build a scene. For me…I like to try and make you think, feel, see, and believe you’re your character. Now…shall we?”

(The Party)

Dustin Henderson, Michael ‘Mike’ Wheeler and Lucas Sinclair were in shock, they’d snuck out into the woods and had run across a girl, in a hospital gown in the pouring rain. They’d been out looking for their friend and when the rain descended.

“What's your name?” Mike asked. The girl didn't respond.

“Great, the freaks a mute.” Lucas snarled.

“LUCAS!” Snapped Mike. Lucas had the decency to blush at the scolding, he was panicking, first Will disappeared and then this mute Girl appeared.

“How are we sure that she’s not a Russian Spy.”

“She isn’t! She can’t be!” 

“That’s one of like the dumbest things I’ve ever heard Lucas! Seriously, you guys…she’s possibly escaped from somewhere!” Dustin rasped in enthusiasm “You guys, she might know where Will is!”

“Will…Byers?” She asked.

The boys turned to look at her, Dustin and Mike laughed at Lucas causing the young child flush slightly with embarrassment “Yeah, Will, he’s our best friend…have you seen him?”

“Will Byers…lost…but Friend said people would find me.”

The caused the teens to pause “A friend?” Mike questioned. He was curious as to what she was talking about. Mike and Dustin looked at each other “Remember that new guy? Turns up like out of the blue?” Dustin said.

“Not really…I mean no. Unless we’re thinking about someone in Nancy’s class.” Lucas replied, they were cut off by the door to the cellar opening. His widened.

“Shit! Mike!”

Mike had grabbed the scared girl and bundled her under the table as Nancy opened the cellar “MIKE!”

“YEAH!” Mike yelled back “WHAT! KNOCK FIRST!” He followed up with. Nancy wanted to yell back “Mom wants you for something…and who was that?” Her eyes widened “Did you…” She made to descend the stairs only to find her brother blocking the way, she was going to rush down before their mother to make her way to the stop of the stairs.

“Michael! Dinner is ready!” She paused “Lucas, Dustin…I want you to call your mothers, I’ll up two more chairs.”

Lucas and Dustin shouted thanks, before slowly heading towards the stairs. Nancy looked at the three of them “Just what’s been going on with you three, today?”

Dustin made himself look adorable, but to Nancy…it made him look like a kicked puppy “You know what fine.”

“Hey, Nancy.”

“What Dustin?”

“Just out of curiosity, who is the new guy in your class?”

“Harry Potter, why?” Nancy asked out of curiosity.

Dustin shrugged “Seemed interesting that’s all.”

Nancy smiled at that “He’s an interesting guy.” 

“So you like him?” Nancy blushed, before scowling at Dustin. She wanted to give him a clip round the ear; she’d babysat him, Lucas and Mike before, sure they were annoying children but they were secretly like brothers to her.

“I’m with Steve.”

Karen Wheeler entered to chivvy the boys to the table. Conversation was non-existent, the boys weren’t exactly conversationalists and seemed to play with their food. They were dismissed and they headed back to the basement. “We need a plan, I think Harry’s the guy who can help!” Dustin exclaimed.

Mike looked at Dustin “Just how can this guy help? What about this girl? Can any of them find Will?”

Dustin shrugged “We don’t know unless we ask him.”

“Like he’s going to believe us?”

“Harry…green eyes, black hair?” 

Lucas’s eyes widened “I know of him, he works at Benny’s! Mom and Dad had meal their one night, said this kid was working there. Parents said he was nice enough, rather quick witted never pressed them for anything. He waited on them which was odd.”

Mike and Dustin were reeling. The Girl smiled sadly, Benny helped. Harry did as well. Harry told me to run, said…people were going to find me.”

Mike beamed at her as did the bickering boys “We did. We’re going to keep you safe. You’re our friend, friends don’t lie to each other.” The trio really hoped that was true.

(Department of Energy)

“Someone saw her, Doctor Brenner.” The speaker was a man in his late 30’s.

Another man garbed in a finer suit and a white coat with silver hair nodded “Judging by that, Connie and her Team were unable to bring her back?”

“Yes, Doctor Brenner, by the time we got there Local Police were surveying the crime scene. We took over, of course and we can tell you that another was involved. Incredibly powerful.”

“Stronger than the Girl?” Brenner asked curiously.

“From how it seems…he did something to Connie, then did the same thing to Hernandez…only it was different.”

“How so?”

“When I scanned Connie and Hernandez’s brain and in their scans, I found elements of another brain. More in Herandez and less in Connie’s…considering what I saw Eight, Ten and Thirteen do…then it’s possible he could be stronger than Eleven…He’s closer to One if I’m…”

Brenner’s face hardened at that “That is concerning. It is imperative that we find Eleven and this Unknown. What does the scene appear to be?”

“It looks like an armed robbery only it went wrong. However, I suspect that is a cover-up.” The reporter replied. He swiftly continued “I suspect that Connie and her team tried to gather information, the Unknown clocked on, Hernandez got jumpy and the informants-tobe fought back and won. If Eleven was there then she had left before the fight or observed the fight and remained hidden.” 

“Increase our lookouts. Let me know immediately if there is any sighting.”

(Hellfire Club)

They all stayed over that night, Julie slept on a cot Harry put up in his room. “Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks…for tonight. Look…this is completely weird and not how I wanted our first date to go. Honestly, it felt like…” Julie trailed off.

Harry grinned and chuckled “Something out of movie or book? Where’d we…go from here, if, I have a chance.”

“Harry, I’d love to. It’s just a lot to take in, then there’s my dad; oh god…how can I tell him?”

“Julie…I’ve got a measure of him…tell him to confront me. He wants answers or do something? I’ll handle it, he reminds me of my Uncle. I handled him, I can handle your dad.” The pair fell into an uneasy silence and an uneasier sleep.

The next morning things got extremely complicated.

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit 

Blunders, Blabber Mouths and Bad Decisions 

It was a bitterly cold November, it had been a day since Will had disappeared and 18 hours since the incident up at Benny's. Harry found himself waking up on the floor, there was an additional pressure on his chest. Julie was snuggling into him. He reluctantly broke away from her and headed to the shower.

Julie opened her eyes, she looked around the room. It was very clearly someone's bedroom, she looked down at the boxers and t-shirt she was wearing…she remembered her chat with Harry. “Morning.” She gasped and pulled the downed blankets around her tightly.

Mo-M-Morning.” She stammered, Harry was clad in jeans and nothing else.

“Sorry…I didn’t think you’d be up.”

“I wasn’t until I…felt you move.” Harry smiled at that and Julie blushed, she then paled.

“My clothes?”

“Still in the wash. They’re not going to be ready until the end of today. I can lend you a change or I can run you back…” 

“I’ll take your offer of your clothes. Although…”

Harry took her hand “I’ll worry about your dad.”

“He’s a good man…just…overly protective.”

“And violent…he hit you!”

Julie kissed him on the cheek “Nothing is going to beat him up more than that. Believe me. Now…have you got a spare towel?”

Harry nodded “Table in the Hallway. Opposite the bathroom.”

Sirius had cooked breakfast for the three of them “Sorry, Julie about your clothing.”

“I’ll keep them here.” Julie replied, wearing a pair of Harry’s jeans and tee and flannel shirt combo “School might make some noise.”

Harry shrugged “School talk is always toxic. Just ignore it, and, if need be…keep it plausible.”

Julie nodded “What’s the plausibility?”

“You hung out with me after you found me at Benny’s. You stayed the night. The washing machine stopped working halfway through spin cycle so your clothes are stuck…Or…got caught in a prank gone wrong.”

“A prank? I’ll take the spent-the-night option.” Julie replied before eyeing her plate.

“Mr. Black…Sirius…what’s this?” 

“That’s Black Pudding. Blood, Fat and Oats.” Sirius replied as he cut open a perfectly fried egg. Julie nodded and tentatively cut into the strange breakfast sausage, her eyes widened.

“That’s weird… taste-wise, a little metallic? but so good.”

Harry grinned, he couldn’t help it “There’s always more if you want it.” Julie looked at Harry’s small mountain of food.

Harry shrugged “Having weird abilities and to use them effectively and long durations means heftier meals…doesn’t help that my natural metabolism is the equivalent to that of a hummingbird.”

“Didn’t Mr. Clark say that they had to eat up to three times their mass in a day?”

Sirius nodded “It runs in his family. I lived with his father for three years after I got kicked out of my family. I’ve never seen that much food served ever! Or as much eaten. Then again Aunt Dorea and Uncle Charlus were always of the opinion well-fed kids were content kids.”

Harry grinned “Our families are weird, very weird, at some parts Sirius’s resembles a plank.”

“Or a well-maintained bush.” Sirius added. Julie blushed at that and Harry blanched at that, Sirius hastily apologised. Julie swiftly changed the subject, and gradual chatter ensued before Harry swore: They might well be late for school! She stood up, grabbing her bag from Harry’s hand as well as donning her coat as Harry pulled on a long leather coat.

Julie piled into Harry’s car and they roared off to School. Julie put in a tape from the glove box into the player and the car was filled with the sound of The Clash.

“I didn't take you for a Clash fan.” Julie stated, Harry would have stalled if he hadn't paused at a red light, behind Jonathan Byers coincidentally.

“I'm a Brit…The Clash were fucking fire.” Harry replied as they made their way to school. “Ah good old Hawkins High…never before have I experienced…oh who the fuck am I kidding…Hogwarts was worse.”se.” He thought to himself as the wind buffeted into him, his coat with two of the four buttons closed swirled around him like a cape. There was a scent of decay on the wind, manure and pesticide as well, he could hear the giggling of some of his peers and he could feel their eyes on him.

Julie wanted to hide, she could see her peers giggling and looking at her “Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“I…feel very much in the spotlight.”

“Just don’t lose your religion in the process. All I can say is grit your teeth and bear with it. You and I know what happened and that’s all that needs to be said and done. Now, shall we get to class?”

Julie giggled “I never thought you’d want to be the first in.”

“I don’t. I just want to be in the relative warmth.” They headed into school.

Eddie found them first “Morning.”

“Morning.” Julie replied, Harry gave Eddie his patented look of ‘I’m already sick of this shit’. The Dungeon Master cackled, and they quickly took their seats. Steve Harrington dropped over to Harry accompanied by his stooges.

“Potter.”

“Harrington and the Stooges Two…what can I do for you on this shitty morning?”

“Wow, you kiss your mother with that mouth.” The male stooge sniped.

“The only mother I’d kiss with this mouth would have been your mother, considering your one half of her…I’d hate to meet the other half. Look stooges…can you go and give each other a quickie whilst I have…something of a conversation?”

“Tommy, Carol…back off. You were going to grill him about Benny’s.” Steve interjected.

“We need to know…it must have been so frightening.” Carol simpered, rather pathetically in Harry's opinion.

“You really don't. Frightening…a little. Now, Harrington…”

Steve grinned sheepishly “Please call me Steve. I wanted to ask if you wanted to attend a party I'm throwing.? It’s a low-key event.”

“Whose going?” Harry asked curiously.

“Tommy, Carol, Nancy, Barabara and hopefully you. You can bring Julie.”

Harry laughed at that “There’s no Julie and I…yet.” Steve winced.

“What happened, perhaps the King can help?”

Harry laughed “Julie and I were going to be hanging out at Benny’s…yesterday…well it's kind of hard to go on a date after what happened.”

Steve, whilst not dumb, was smart enough to equate Harry had not only been present but been a participant in the ‘armed robbery’. Steve examined Harry and could observe a hardness in his eyes.

Meanwhile, with Julie, she desperately wanted to hide! Carol had cornered her with her slathering, snivelling and seriously nosey. Julie could read their agenda, she was a mid-ranking looker and had managed to score one of the hottest guys in the school! Julie looked at Harry, sure he didn’t look like roadkill in terms of appearance, he had an accent…that was cool and a bad-boy attitude. Julie scoffed, that ‘bad-boy’ attitude wasn’t ‘bad-boy’ it was more of a, as her father would say ‘play stupid games, win stupid prizes’ attitude. He should be handing out with Carver, Harrington and the like, yet he hung around with Eddie Munson.

“So, Powells, what’s he like?” Simpered Claudette Elding, a brunette with periwinkle blue eyes.

“A gent, quite literally, I met him at Benny’s as we’d planned. Only what was going to be a date turned into a hang-out.” Julie retorted.

That dumbfounded the girls “Then why are you clearly wearing his clothes?”

“I slept at his.” That caused shrieks and giggles “Nothing happened. I slept in his room and he slept on the sofa, now, the washing machine faltered during my laundry wash…He offered to drop me off at home, before running me into school or…I could borrow his clothes. I took the most logical option. I borrowed a spare outfit.”

“You’re denying something happened, Powells.” Carol snapped raising her voice.

Harry and Steve looked over, Harry stood up and rolled his neck. The popping and cracking cartilage sounded akin to gunshots “Ladies, back up, back off, nothing happened. There was only one thing that I wanted to happen and it did not happen, Julie stayed over. I slept on the sofa. The only, and I mean, only thing that happened was she stayed in my room last night. I’m a Brit, I do not deal in innuendo and double-speak so all of you insinuating something other than sleeping happened then sorry to disappoint, I slept on the downstairs sofa and woke up on the floor and Julie got by the by far best night sleep on an actual mattress. That’s the truth, we hung out and she stayed over and the washing machine screwed up.”

Any further discussions were cut off as the bell rang and their teacher arrived. It wasn’t until lunch that Harry was accosted by three 6th Graders. The first one of note was black, his hair kept short “Aren’t you the Sinclairs eldest?”

The kid looked at Harry startled “You…you know me?”

“Of you. Your fathers a good guy, with style as well.”

Lucas stared at him “My old man has style?”

“He does…” Harry turned to the other two.

“You…I don’t know, but, you smell like bloody trouble.” Harry said pointing at the chunky 6th Grader, who smiled widely at him.

“Someone who recognises greatness! Why do you call me trouble?”

Harry sighed “Of course…the troublemaker is a dense brick and that leaves Nancy Wheelers pint-size brother. Mike or another name beginning with M.”

“Yeah that’s me. Why couldn’t my sister be after you instead of that douche Steve Harrington.”

Harry snorted “Harringtons not that bad. Bit of a fading bulb, but his hearts are in the right place.” That caused the 6th Graders to grin. “So why are you three midgets pestering me?”

“Our friend Will has disappeared and a girl…” Mike blurted, Harry grabbed the teen and covered his mouth.

“HARRY!” Julie exclaimed.

Harry fixed her with a look, before he removed his hand from Mike’s mouth “Don’t…say…anything…do you understand me?” Mike nodded, Harry turned to the other two Sixth Graders who nodded frantically.

“I can’t help you…I’m sorry. As for a girl, what girl? I’ve not met her.”

“Dude, she said…” Lucas began only to find Harry’s full attention turned on him.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about. Don’t come near me or chase after me punks…you get that?” Harry growled, out of the corner of his eye he saw Steve and Nancy heading towards him.

“Wheeler, Harrington.” 

Nancy was fuming “What was that about? Potter?” She snapped, her books shifted from between her arms to under her left.

“Go ahead… I gotta make this look convincing,” Harry whispered. Nancy’s hand connected solidly with his cheek, snapping his head to one side with a slap that reverberated through the corridor. Thankfully, the corridor was deserted. Nancy, Steve, Julie, and Eddie piled Harry into an empty classroom. 

“Explain.” Nancy demanded.

“Your runt of a brother, has nearly caused irreparable damage to something I’m working on…his little coterie of friends are hiding something or someone and for some reason had the bright idea to confront me about it in the middle of the school day.” Harry hissed.

“What have they found?” Steve asked.

Harry looked at Steve and smiled thinly “I’m not going to answer that. I can’t answer that. It’s pertaining to an ongoing Police Investigation. Even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t tell you because the people behind this have no compulsion in killing teens and decent hard working folk who were only working with the best of intentions.”

Eddie looked at Harry closely “This is about the Lost Princess Gambit isn’t it? Another group of Adventurers are coming at it from an obscure and naive angle, the quest they’ve undertaken is one they’re underlevelled and underprepared for?”

“Yup.”

“I demand to know…” Nancy began, only for Harry to close the distance and maintain eye contact with her. Nancy was unaccustomed to being threatened and someone holding their own against her.

“You’ll die, your parents will die, your brother will die, your little sister will either die or be taken into foster care. I do not say this or do this to scare you, this is an unmitigable fact.”

“Yet how does this tie into the younger Byers missing?” Steve asked, he could tell Harry knew more than he was letting on.

“A lot, Steve, a sheer fucking lot. However you two, lovebirds, I am a scientist with a lot of respect for the scientific process and method.”

“You need evidence and data. You have a hypothesis or a working theory about what’s going on but need proof.” Nancy stated.

“Quantum Science and Fantasy Worlds only gets you so far.”

Nancy and Steve looked at Harry in astonishment “Quantum Science?”

Harry nodded “The only evidence I know of is…matter cannot be destroyed…the very molecules of a human cannot be destroyed but we can be dispersed and shifted…transported and transmuted for the lack of better words but to do such a thing requires a fuck tonne of power, even with no knowledge whatsoever on what’s going on we’re talking above the amount of energy used in a nuclear bomb.”

Nancy and Steve blanched “What about this discovery?”

Harry smiled thinly “Just…let me know if you see anything odd. I couldn’t tell you what odd is, but, I’m creating this as I go…lot’s cable vans in an area than is needed; lot’s of people dressed in black trying to be inconspicuous anything.”

His friends snorted at that “How are we going to contact you, if you know, we do see something?”

“I have a phone.” Harry deadpanned before giving them his number.

(The Party)

“Damn it Mike!” Dustin exclaimed.

“What’d I do?” Mike retorted causing Lucas to sigh in exasperation.

“You went and practically admitted that you knew Eleven…We don’t know if he even knew Eleven.”

“But he did! Didn’t you hear what he said? Or even what he did?”

“Yeah, he stopped you…oh that son of a bitch. He knows Eleven or at least had met Eleven and didn’t want to know anymore. She said ‘He said people would find me’, Harry is that ‘He’. You heard about the fight at Benny’s?”

“It was an armed robbery dipshit.”

“Was it though? Lucas? Harry works at Benny’s, then an armed robbery occurs at Benny’s with Benny dead and Harry the only survivor. Guys…remember what Mr. Clark said about ‘joining the dots and thinking logically?’”

Lucas and Mike turned to Dustin “Alright…what’s your theory.”

Dustin sighed “Harry turns up out of nowhere straight from Britain. No big deal, unless you wonder why he chose Hawkins of all places to come to? He needs to lie low and the best place would be the middle of nowhere. We’ve seen him all over the place up until the night of Will disappears and he’s not in school. So what do we know about disappearing kids?”

“The police would ask everyone on the most direct paths of travel that the vanish kid would take. Harry lives on possibly the most direct route to Wills house. So the police would talk to him.” Mike replied.

“He didn’t turn up to school that day.”

Lucas’s eyes lit up “He probably went to Benny’s and spent the day there.”

Dustin grinned, his friends were sharp when they weren’t acting like morons. “Hypothetically, Eleven was in Benny’s when Harry arrived. Benny talked to Social Security. However, Social Security don’t arrive but the people who had Eleven did.”

“How come Harry’s not dead?” Lucas questioned.

“Harry and Benny fought them. Two against however many, on the duo’s hometurf…it’s a long shot but possible. Then we ran into Eleven in the woods when we went looking for Will.” Dustin countered

“Harry told her to run. We ran into her and we hid her. Now we’ve confronted Harry, he knows that we know about Eleven. He shut us down because he doesn’t want to know any more about her not because he doesn’t want to but because he’ll be working on finding Will behind the scenes.” Mike exclaimed. “We have El…we can ask her about Harry and maybe find Will.”

(Harry et al.)

Steve looked at Harry “Harry, this, this is, is like seriously messed up…like it feels like you’re not giving us all the information. This feels like a bad spy film. You’re telling us to keep an eye on odd things but no context. I don’t Mike or his friends but I need to help.”

“You need to help because its the right thing to do? Or because it's going to get you brownie points with Nancy Wheeler?” Harry replied caustically.

Steve’s affable nature vanished “My family has resources…it’s the right thing to do, getting brownie points with Nance? Bonus.”

Eddie smirked “I think you owe me money, Harry.” He crowed.

Harry sighed “It…appears…I severely misjudged you.”

Steve snorted “Because I’m ‘King’ Steve and I act like an utter asshole that I must be a completely insensitive prick? You’re not wrong. I can be an asshole and be insensitive however can you honestly say that you’re not an asshole and insensitive Harry?”

“Nope.”

Nancy sighed “Alright…Harry…you appear to possess a far greater understanding on what’s going on. What can you tell us? Right now, I don't care how outlandish Will is part of the furniture at ours.”

Harry deflated “Will the answer of ‘Come to mine if you want to know the truth?’ Suffice.”

“Grudgingly.”

(Jonathan)

Mom was going spare. He loved her, he really did but this! All the lights plugged in and on! She had said ‘she'd heard Will’ and the phone had fried.

Harry had been a godsend. The guy let him talk and didn’t interrupt. The fact Will disappeared and Harry just seemed to take it in his stride; like it just didn’t bother him. The fact whole town was going insane about it and yet Harry appeared weirdly nonchalant about it.

Jonathan sighed, Harry had given him an open pass. The eldest Byers son hadn’t taken the new guy up on it. Perhaps it was time to.

(Hawkins)

“We’ve got some leads, sir.” 

Brenner looked up “Leads on the girl?”

“Maybe. We’ve been picking up a lot of chatter at the High School; some kid has disappeared and some chatter that might pertain to the missing experiment.”

“Where?”

“One is a Brit…that’s about as far as I can tell. We’re combing the Hawkins area for any British Aliens.”

Brenner nodded “Any luck on finding our lone survivor from the Restaurant?”

“Still looking. They appear to be in the wind.”

Brenner nodded “Keep an eye out. It’s important that we keep this both the girl and the side-effects under wraps.”

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit 

Meltdowns 

“Potter!” Harry turned, his keys in hand. The school day had finally ended, the only remotely interesting thing of note had been the Chief turning up and saying that a Search Party was going to be formed and those aged Seventeen and Up were invited to join up. Harry couldn’t help but snort as the Chief verbally shut up Troy Walsh about ‘searching for a reject should be extra credit’. 

“You got something to add about that remark Potter?” Hopper growled.

“No, Chief, I was laughing at your remark ‘if stupidity and human indecency were crimes I’d be putting you in max-security for even breathing’.”

“You don’t find any of this amusing?”

“Benny’s sir.” Hopper dropped the subject.

It was Jonathan “Yeah, Jonathan?” The Eldest Byer looked awful, rather, more disgusting than usual. His hair was longer, knotting slightly in a few places and greasier, and his clothes were looking worse for ware as well. 

“Can we talk? As in I need to ask you more than…” He trailed off to find Carver and three of the Hawkins Tigers heading towards them.

“Potter, can we talk?” Jason asked.

Harry turned to him “I’m in the middle of something, but, sure, what is it Jason? What is so important that you’re ambushing me in the school parking lot?” He growled, he was getting seriously wound up…he just wanted to be at home already.

“There’s team training…” Harry’s blood boiled, the small gathering of teens observed Harry’s face go from pale to chalky white, the capillaries in his eyes burst to cause them to go bloodshot and veins burst into existence around his temples. Harry turned his gaze onto Jason, the blonde-haired basketball enthusiast, froze how could he not; everyone who knew Harry or rather associated would be a better choice, outside of the freaks and geeks in ‘Hellfire Club’ found him a little strange and more than a little bit reserved. Now they realised why, Harry could go from a good-looking almost ‘American Dream Student’, smart, respectful, athletic, boy-next-door and shirt-off-his-back type person to someone almost ethereal, with eyes that could seemingly pin you to the spot or that could just be the tightly controlled temper that he wielded.

“Seriously? You, basketball obsessed, quintessential jock all for being King Dick of Fucking-Tedious-Promenade or something that will become the highest moment of your inconspicuous, mundane textbook white-picket-fence life, are telling me that a missing kid and an armed robbery turned to murder and manslaughter are less important than your 15 highly decorated PE Game? Of course, it is. Jason, I’ve told you once that I’d think about it, if I told you a second time it was because I’m not a fan of how you’re trying to pressure me into joining the Tigers…I’m more of a lion guy myself. This is the third time, it’s No-fucking-vember and my balls are freezing into one ugly ass ice cube and you’re interjecting into a far more serious matter. In summary, Jason Carver, take your basketball obsession and leave me the fuck alone and out of it.” Harry snapped, each word sounding like a gunshot.

“Jason…leave it.” Patrick murmured, he looked at Harry “You’re still up for a ‘fuck around’ as you’d call it? When things have died down?”

Harry nodded “Sure, Patrick, guys…things have been fucked up recently and I’ve…not been coping with it.”

Chance shot Harry a piercing look “The armed robbery and the Byers kid, his, little brother going missing…I get that…you drive past Benny’s don’t you to go to school?”

Harry nodded, he’d underestimated Chance apparently “You’re also out near Hawkins National Woods?”

Harry looked at him “The what now?”

“The creepy ass forest, some call it Mirkwood…some Brit Author called some forests like it in one of his books. Cops probably visited you then you went to Benny’s and stayed there and were probably present for the armed robbery and murder.”

“You’re also forgetting the participation in turning it into manslaughter.”

The Basketball Players stepped away from him “We’ll see you later, yeah?”

Harry turned to a pasty-white Jonathan “Now…what did you want to ask me?”

Jonathan sighed “I know this is completely mad but I need to check your place…I know, I know, you’re not the sort of person to hide another person like this…however, I have a feeling that for the right price and motivation you could do something like this for a gag. It’s illogical right.”

Harry snorted “It’s illogical but it puts you at ease, I get it. Anything else?”

“My mom…she’s…insistent that she heard Will through the phone, but the phone was burned out.” Harry froze…

“Did you say through the phone…” Jonathan looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow. Harry looked thoughtful, although, Jonathan liked to think he could read people; considering he was a lone wolf perpetually on the outside; considered a maverick, misanthrope and creep by the school and ‘weird but a good kid’ by the adults in town, especially by the local movie theatre where he worked selling tickets and snacks.

“Meet me at mine.” Harry instructed as climbed into his car. He peeled out of the parking lot only to find Steve getting into his car.

“Steve!” Harry yelled rolling down the window.

“Yeah!”

“I’ll be over! When’s it happening?”

“Friday…would have been today but what with the other thing…” Steve replied before looking at Harry’s car.

“Dude…is that…brand new?”

Harry nodded “Save for the miles my Godfather put on it to get it back for me. Anyway, I’ll see you Friday or Tonight.”

“Any advice?” Steve asked.

“Be quicker than the people you’re with…I’ve got a very bad feeling about this.” Harry replied before driving off with Jonathan on his wheels.

“He’s one strange dude.” Tommy stated. Steve rolled his eyes.

“Be quicker than the people you’re with? What sort of advice is that?” Carol stated, Tommy and Steve looked at one another in confusions; Carol was of farming stock, how was she this dumb when it came to wildlife.

“In relation to Wild Boars and Bears, we live near the woods…it wouldn’t surprise me if we had some bears hiding out there.” Steve admitted.

(Harry and Jonathan)

The boys were in the basement with Sirius, Jonathan had taken the party trick from Sirius instantly chilling three glasses in stride. “So…you, and the Hellfire Club have begun investigating into my brothers disappearance and you have a tentative theory that we have an alternate reality.”

Harry nodded “Yeah…we’ve got no evidence until…now.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened “You’ve got no evidence? Why not?”

Harry smiled thinly “Poking around things we don’t understand is how people, like, Will, get killed.” Harry didn’t react as Jonathan got into his face, rage clearly observable within the elder Byers eyes.

“Angry at the truth? Or are you angry at the fact, that, this is the most rational thing to do? Or maybe you wish that you could have prevented this and it had been anyone else but your brother?” Jonathan slowly backed away, still simmering with rage.

“Now I know how others feel…” He muttered. Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion. “I’m normally overly cynical…I never realised how bad I could be until you’ve done it to me…although I think, I swear, you were mocking me.”

Harry snorted “I would mock you…if I thought you deserved a decent and thorough mocking. You don’t, you’re just an unfortunate fucker at ground zero of unprecedented bullshit that no one either can or wants to understand. What’s happened has completely shattered the fragile family dynamic that you’ve got going on…I know. This isn’t my first rodeo, this one is probably worse than mine. Anyway…where did your brother go missing?”

“Out…in Mirkwood.”

Harry groaned and stood up “I’m going to find an ordinance survey map…I have a feeling I’m going to need it.”

As they climbed the stairs, they found Julie, Nancy and Steve in the living room “If this is a war council, then it’s the worst war council I’ve ever convened.”

Steve and Nancy jumped, Julie however turned and placed her hands on her hips “Do I want to know what you were doing with Jonathan Byers?”

Jonathan grinned “Hot and steamy sex.” He deadpanned, causing Nancy and Julie to blush. Steve stared at them his eyes wide and Harry couldn’t help but snort. “He tickled my prostate.” Harry was on the floor shaking with laughter. Sirius could be heard from the kitchen with someone else.

Julie looked at the duo “I deserved that one.”

“Finally making process on the Case of the Missing William Byers.” Harry explained.

“I was going to need a map.”

Steve nodded “We’ve got one, we were trying to figure out where we were going to be joining the Chief and the search party later today.”

Jonathan made his way over and placed an ‘X’ on a road just off Cornwallis and Kerley “That’s Mirkwood.” He explained.

Harry looked at it “Hawkins Science Lab is in the middle of those woods, you’d probably traverse that road and somewhere would be a turn-off to allow you up to the front gates.”

“My place is here.” Steve said grabbing a red pen and circling it, Jonathan circled his own place. 

Nancy looked at Harry who was beginning to shake “Harry?”

“We’ve got a prospective triangle…with three points, a triangle…you can hypothetically find the centre of the problem. With those three points, centered around Mirkwood Road; we can…”

“Inform the police and let them take over. This isn’t anything for kids to be meddling in.” Harry turned, to find himself staring at one Mr. Powells, Julie’s father.

“Look…I…wanted to apologise.” Mr. Powells began “When we first met, I was out of line. It had been a bad day, a very bad day.”

Harry nodded “Apology…mostly accepted. I get it bad days happen, but, how you deal with them shows the sort of person you are.” It was a sharp jab, one that caused Julie’s father to wince.

“Point has been made. Now what are you investigating?”

Harry sighed “The case of Will Byers, plus with the ‘supposed’ armed robbery at Benny’s…”

Arthur Powells looked at Harry “You were there, weren’t you?”

Harry smirked “Yup. It was no armed robbery.”

Arthur nodded “I thought not, an armed robbery at Benny Hammonds? That place…”

“Nearly always has a local in at all hours of the day and robbing a food joint? There’s no money in it.”

“Then what happened?” Arthur asked.

“A ten person hit squad from Department of Energy masquerading as ‘Social Services’. It got messy, I managed to deal with two in the kitchen. Got one with a knife and put the face of another in the deep-fat fryer. I took their firearms and Benny and I managed to deal with most of them, Hopper got the last one.”

Arthur’s eyes widened and then narrowed, it fitted what he’d put together…there were Detectives and Deputies that had served, the story fit. Not completely, not neatly, but it fitted well enough together for him to leave it be. Arthur looked over the map “The ‘X’ is where Master Byers went missing officially? These two places?”

“Mine and Jonathans homes…they might well be potential targets, we’re next to Mirkwood.” Arthur snorted at the name.

“Benny’s Burgers is here.” Arthur nodded placing another ‘X’ and “This is where we are right now.”

Harry grinned thinly “Not quite a triangle, but…we have enough places to warrant caution.”

Arthur nodded “I heard my daughter muttering something about ‘Quantum’ and ‘Harry has an idea’, I am an Engineer…so what are you suggesting?”

Harry sighed “Hypothetically…how much energy and what sort of device would one require if they were trying to erm…fold space-time? I.E. Faster Than Light Travel or Teleportation? I know it sounds stupid, but, currently, I’m applying Occam's Razor to this and trying to crunch numbers and the results are just as out-of-this-world as I’m even suggesting it.”

Arthur chuckled “Once you’ve eliminated all that is impossible, then whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Mr. Potter, does that frighten you?”

Harry looked at the man “Not in how you’d expect. I think having a multiverse attached to our humble planet is amazing! However, experimental technology and trying to breach into other ‘worlds’ or ‘dimensions’ or even ‘realities’ I’m struggling to come up with other words here without fully understanding what we’re doing fuelled by other people with other agendas…that’s what I’m scared of. I’m furious that it’s happening in my backyard and a kid…a fucking kid, who was just cycling home from playing fantasy games with his friends has been sucked into this and people are playing coy with what they know. As much as I respect the Chief, he’s doing the best that he can but he’s a man so staunchly rooted in reality he can’t possibly fathom something this outlandish; in fact the only people who seem to be even thinking in the same lines as we are…happen to be Nancy’s kids brothers age and his menagerie of muppets who couldn’t keep a secret.”

Everyone watched as Harry melted down “Kiddo it sounds like your balancing books and plates whilst trying to catch lightning.” Sirius drawled.

“Now being ordered to bottle thunder.”

Julie moved forwards, her hands slowly grabbing Harry’s; she detached her left hand to place it on the back of Harry’s neck “Harry, look at me, it’s me. It’s Julie. I need you to breathe for me, just listen to my voice.” With that she began to sing “Crazy, but thats just how it goes. Millions of people, living as foes. Maybe, it’s not too late…to learn how to love an forget how to hate.”

“Mental wounds not healing…life’s a bitter shame. I’m going off the rails on a crazy train.” Harry replied as he found himself gazing into Julie’s eyes. He went to open his mouth but Julie cut him off “Yes…yes I will. First, Mister Second-time-on-the-carousel, what are the next two immediate steps of our evidence gathering?”

Harry let out a breath “We go in this search party and we scour Mirkwood. Jonathan…you’re not going to be invited due to you being emotionally attached to this; I’m going to need you to come in behind us. I’ll tag anything of interest with a lightning bolt, the premise being ‘so we don’t have more Will Byers’. Then on Friday, Steve is throwing a bash at his house and hopefully, Julie and I will be able to unwind slightly. Jonathan…when you’re developing your pictures you inform me if you see something odd.”

Arthur grinned “What happens if you encounter something odd?”

Harry grinned “Why do what the crew of the Nostromo do…fight the damn thing.”

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit 

Of Searches and Finding

Harry checked that his radio was working, that he had his concealed licence, and that he had a handgun and a knife. Although the weapons were technically illegal, he wasn't too perturbed. Arthur had given him and Julie a three-hour intensive gun safety and usage tour, similar to what he'd been given when he'd served. 

Julie grimaced as she loaded up Harry's spare backpack with all sorts. It turned out Sirius was a man who prepped for all eventualities, as when he opened the shed, Harry’s jaw dropped. Survivalist Gear for days and for all occasions. “I didn't know what we were going to need or how much, so I bought a lot.”

“Sirius, there are two mentalities; merely prepared and not prepared enough. You, my friend, are way to prepared.” Arthur stated, “I don't have half of this in my house…and I thought I was prepared.”

“Prepared for what? I find it hard to believe I could be prepped for something like this.” Harry murmured, getting a playful swat on the shoulder. Sirius turned to his Godson and rolled his eyes.

“So says the amateur private detective and troublemaker.” The shit-eating grin gave away the fact he was teasing. Harry let out a sigh through his nose and helped himself to some flares, rope and a few extra magazines.

“I like a mystery…we’re ready, and now…to investigate and contaminate a crime-scene,” Harry stated as he took the backpack Julie had made, Jonathan, Nancy and Steve had made their escape a little while ago, politely rejecting the offer of borrowing some of Sirius’s collection of firearms. Arthur had gone to grab his supplies and that he’d meet them at the designated rendezvous point set by the Police.

The Police’s “Every Move You Make” played through Harry’s speaker as he drove towards the road through Mirkwood. “Harry, can I ask you something? I mean, I know I just did,” Julie asked, breaking the tense silence with an easily interpretable song. 

“Sure.”

“How did the Crew of the Nostramo win?”

“Vented the Xenomorph into space…admittedly at great cost to the crew. Julie…we don’t know what we’re dealing with. Referring to Horror Films as a strategy is not my smartest move; we still don’t know anything. It was just me trying to keep the mood positive.”

Julie giggled “Let's focus on collecting evidence.” Harry nodded, he kept his eyes on the road as they hurtled down the main road, before finding the turn off and parked with minimal disturbance. There were more cars than he’d been expecting or even anticipating; Callahan, Daniels, Powell and Hopper were surprised when a small convoy of cars appeared as members of Hawkins High and Students arrived. Harry pulled in behind Professor Clarke’s car, he turned to Julie before grabbing her hand and squeezing it before he grabbed the bag and they exited; his ordinance survey map in a rucksack pocket.

Two police cars and Hoppers' 4x4 were positioned in a triangle with the Police trying to organise search parties. “Potter.” Hopper called spying the Brit and sole survivor of the firefight that resulted in Benny dying.

“Chief, Officers.” Hopper quirked a smile as he watched Potter interact with Callahan and Powell; he saw the resentment and the desire to mock in the teen's eyes but he replied with clipped and curt professionalism. 

“You wanted to see me, Chief?”

“We’re forming search parties…help yourself…” Hopper began when he noticed the rucksack and the map in the side pocket “too a map? I’ve got one chief. I have done my preliminary guesswork…if you want to compare notes?”

“Do you think you know better than the police?” Someone blurted out.

“No. I’ve got a working theory, that…if the Police agree might well give us a bearing and reduce potential time wasted.” Harry replied, pulling out his map of Hawkins and placing it on the car, Hopper’s eyes widened…it was rough and amateurish work but he’d give it to the kid, he had an uncanny ability for police procedure.

“What’s with the ‘X’s’ and in different colours?” Mr. Chris Cooper asked curiously.

“Triangulation Theory, logical and reasonable deductions about where the Younger Byers kid may have vanished. So instead of us having wonder around Mirkwood like mindless sheep, if I can work out a logistical area then we might save Mr. Byers.” Harry replied curtly, he looked up from the map to find himself looking at some of his class mates, noticeably the Basketball Team and Hellfire Club…in fact most of the gathered search party were looking at him.

Harry looked at Hopper “Please tell me you’ve got a microphone.” Hopper chuckled at the resentment in the young mans tone but complied.

“Everyone, thanks for coming, I need everyone to form into small groups.” Hopper barked, the crowd began to comply and as Hopper carried on giving his instructions people began to listen. Soon enough the search began, Harry grabbed his map and with Hellfire on his heels, they rushed down the ditch and began their investigation.

“Is there any reason why we took off last?” Eddie asked curiously.

Harry smirked and opened his backpack, revealing torches, some flares and the assembled survivalist gear including a set of radios “We’ve got the toys that’ll land us in some serious trouble. We’re going to split into pairs, cover more ground. I know the majority of you have a penknife or swiss-army knife on you; then if you find anything odd mark it.”

The sound of twigs breaking and heavy footfalls caused them to turn, as Hopper found them. “Okay, kids, what’s going on? You’ve made far little progress and are astongishly over-prepared.”

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose “I have a theory about Will Byers. You leading the search party around here, merely furthered my plan. I think Hawkins National Laboratory have done something and in the aftermath…Byers has disappeared.”

“You also mentioned a girl…a little girl appearing, just before the shootout.” Hopper cajoled.

Harry sighed “They’re connected…somehow…” He got up. “Hopper, Julie…with me. The rest of you…partner up, keep the radios on ‘3’.”

“And if we’re attacked by something?” Jeff asked as he partnered up with Gareth.

“Run, run as fast as you can. Screaming is also preferable. Screaming and running is much better.” Harry replied dryly.

“Erm, Harry…there’s only five of us.” Arthur stated “Seven…if you include yourself and Julie…Someone’s going to have to go solo.”

“I’ll do it.” Harry stated.

Hopper looked at him “You’re certain?”

“I’ve got a fair few tricks, some tools and a proclivity for pyrotechnics.” Harry replied calmly, getting nods from the group.

As the group began to split up, a blood-curdling scream tore through the night.

(Nancy, Steve and Jonathan)

The trio were running late, they’d had to deal with a frantic mother (Jonathan) and Nancy and Steve had, had to prepare several pizzas and all but lock Mike and the two Gremlins in the basement. “Harry’s going to be fucking angry.” Nancy blurted as Steve drove the pair of them at a breakneck pace towards Mirkwood.

“Nance, Nance, Nance, Harry’s going to be more angry if we don’t stop Byers Elder from being fucking stupid. Besides, he’s promised to come to the bash I’m throwing. I have to ask, have I got anything to be worried about from him?”

Nancy scoffed, she liked Steve…she really did but he was utterly dense. Jonathan and Her oscilliated in similar orbits because of their younger siblings “Nothing to worry about really…Jonathan, he’s a nice enough person…Harry likes him and gets along with him.”

“Harry…he’s hiding more than we know. He doesn’t make sense Nance.” Steve stated.

Nancy sighed and exhaled through pursed lips, before she spied Jonathan’s car “We’ve…” Steve sword briefly before he hit the brakes, and with the smell of burned rubber permeating the inside of the vehicle, they scrambled out to join Jonathan.

“Sorry we’re late.”

“No worries. They’ve not set off yet.” The three waited and watched the mass of people descend into the woods.

“Would you like to amend that Byers?” Steve mocked.

“They’ve just set off…right then.” Jonathan reached into the car to pull out a radio, turned it on and slid it into his pocket.

“That’s it! We’re just going to sit here and wait for a call that may or may not come?” Steve exclaimed, before turning and headed down the bank following the trail of the search party. Nancy looked at Jonathan, sighed, and took off after him. Jonathan sighed and took off after the pair of them. 

Through sheer dumb luck, they managed to not get caught, although when Nancy accidentally snapped a dry, subsequently extremely brittle branch behind a fat young man in a leather jacket, causing him to turn wildly and three torches to pass over her location. Jonathan had ducked behind a tree to avoid detection.

Steve bypassed them by just moving at speed. He looked over his shoulder to find Nancy and Jonathan feebly walking through the darkness.

Nancy and Jonathan caught up. “Steve! What are you doing?” Nancy hissed. They had stopped moving. Harry's group was now firmly behind them. Steve turned to face them, “Please tell me you saw that…Harry and his crew don’t…”

“Harry has a plan. Or rather had a plan…and the great Steve Harrington decided that he knows best.” Jonathan snarked, before pulling out the radio. “Before you ran off, I was waiting for a message from Harry to say that it’d be safe for me to join up with Harry’s crew and…”

Nancy’s eyes widened, “You do realise that this could be construed as contaminating a crime scene?”

“How could it…I didn’t know there would be a search party out here.”

“You could have guessed?” Steve contributed weakly.

“Guessing is not the same as knowing Harrington…” Anything else that could have been said was cut off as a low warbling trill penetrated the lower extent of their hearing. The trio turned to find a slimy, thin arm ending in a three-fingered, elongated thumb slowly reaching out of the dark. Stumbling out of the bushes, was a tall slender creature; its weedy wicked arm attached to a skinny and wiry body; the feet were nearly identical to the feet, however, the head was bulbous and angular; it looked like a curled-up rose.

The Rose-like head unfurled, revealing a spiralled maw of teeth, and the screech tore through the woods. None of the trio standing less than a meter from it moved. Nancy found her mouth covered by both Steve and Jonathan. Blood drained from their faces, and in Steve’s case, his jeans began to darken. Jonathan looked at the thing with utter horror. It shrieked, causing Jonathan to push Nancy out of the way.

(Hellfire and Hopper)

“What the hell was that?” Hopper asked, his hand drifting to his sidearm. “Harry?”

Harry’s eyes had narrowed, and blood was pumping in his ears; he could feel the kick of adrenaline rushing through his body. “I don’t know…” He turned to Hellfire who was pulling out small knives and in Eddie’s case grabbing a stick. Harry checked his own firearm, only to find Hopper holding his hand out for it. Harry tenderly pulled his out and Julie did the same thing before holding them; grip first to the Chief of Police. 

“I had better not see the pair of you with these ever again until the pair of you are 21. Capiche?” Hopper growled as he checked Harry’s pistol before reluctantly handing it back, with Julie it was slightly more grudging.

“Hopper, my, dad taught us. Given us six hours worth of training so far.” Julie replied before Hopper put a finger to his lips.

“I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know how, who, where and when you got this stuff but I'm trusting you with it. Now follow my lead.” Hopper growled.

Harry grabbed his radio

H: Jonathan…

There was no reply.

“Harry please tell me…” Hopper began.

“Ask no questions, tell no lies. Jonathan and I were already going to investigate Mirkwood; you…merely accelerated what I planned.”

“At the risk of compromising a crime-scene!”

“Don’t talk to me about compromising a crime scene.” The words “You’ve already done it before with me.” Went unsaid. Hopper growled from the back of his throat. Guns were drawn, and they moved towards the screeching. Hopper arrived as the gnarled, clawed and weedy arm lashed out to grab Nancy, only for it to stop!

Harry strode forward, gun holstered, left arm raised, and left hand open with fingers taught, almost as if he were forcing the creature's hand back. Everyone watched as he flicked his fingers, and the creature was launched backwards, crashing into trees and branches. Squeals, screams, and shrieks reverberated around Mirkwood. Harry winced, if the shrieks hadn’t alerted the rest of the search party then that would have! He needed to move quickly. Hopper was already moving, he drew his Derringer and as he closed the distance, it was gone! 

“Son of a bitch!” He exclaimed, as Harry, Jonathan and Steve headed over to where Hopper was; there was distinct evidence that the creature had landed there but yet it was gone.

“Potter…what the fuck was that?” Steve demanded.

“That took Will…Now…there were some assholes who decided to jumpscare us. Capiche?”

Hopper nodded “Aye.”

“Chief! Chief! You alright? We heard screams?” Officer Powell shouted as he clattered over to them, his derringer pistol in his hand causing the assembled teens to try and move around him.

“Some punks decided to be cute.”

(???)
That hurt! It was not accustomed to pain! That two-legged meat would make a lovely snack! Especially with the fact the little two-legs had disappeared! In here! Where he ruled!

The big two-legs would pay. 

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit 8

A long overdue party

The scouring of Mirkwood yielded the results Harry knew it would: nothing. However, while the search for itself was unsuccessful, Hopper had become something of a more than willing listener. The Vietnam Vet, having witnessed the supernatural firsthand, was now on board with Harry's quite frankly ridiculous theory. He still wasn't happy with Harry or Julie for bringing illegal firearms with them; however, seeing what he had seen, he’d settled for writing the teens up with official warnings and left a very strong warning that if he saw them, he’d be thoroughly investigating for revolvers, long guns were acceptable.

Harry and Julie had been grounded; rather, they weren’t allowed to meet up after school, nor were they permitted to join the Hellfire Club for a day. Funnily enough, they would be allowed out to hang out at Steve Harrington's for his party. It was Thursday; Harry had managed to catch Steve at lunch “Harrington!”

Steve looked up “Harry, what brings you to the…well, the world of ‘cool kids’?” Harry playfully rolled his eyes and smoothly sat down opposite the older teen, pulling out a sandwich in foil.

“What the fuck is that?” Steve asked, pointing at the foil.

“Aluminium foil, a standard insulator… or are you asking about the sandwich?” Harry replied, raising an eyebrow.

“The sammie,” Steve replied, snorting at Harry’s blank expression. “The two slices of bread with crap between them. What’s in it?”

Harry grinned, unrolling the sandwich and looking at it. “Tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, bacon, sausages and blood sausage, hot sauce and mustard.” Steve stared at him dumbly.

“Please tell me you’re joking about blood sausage.”

“He’s not. It’s delicious,” Julie stated as she joined them, pulling out a carton of chocolate milk. “Half for this.” 

Harry stared at her. “You’re ripping me off… make it two and it’s a deal.”

“I’ve got BBQ chips…”

“You know I do better ones,” Harry replied flatly, reaching into his bag and pulling out a second sandwich, only to find Julie taking the open one for her own.

Steve howled with laughter. “You got played.”

Harry shrugged and pulled out the other sandwich. “I made two. I know Julie.” He also retrieved his bottle of chocolate milk. “As you can see, I came prepared. Anyway, Steve, what’s happening about food and drinks?”

Steve looked at him “I was going to ring through some Pizzas and as for drinks…if you knew anyone that could acquire…”

“Slip me a list, I’ll get it done. I have a few favours I can call in.” Harry replied, honestly, he was going to ask his Godfather to pick up the beer, “Although you’re going to have to be the middle man.”

Steve nodded “You work fast.”

Harry snorted, “Fast is kinda what I do. It’s what kept me alive…that and a proficiency for utilitarian violence.”

Tommy and Carol looked at Harry strangely, whilst Julie paled slightly “Util what now?” Tommy asked dumbly.

“Utilitarian violence. The use of seemingly normal items and able to use them effectively in a violent situation. Although do not get it confused with Utilitarianism, which means violence being implemented for the greater good of society. An example would be…take your dinner tray.” Harry explained, pointing to it whilst really tempted to use Tommy as an example.

Tommy nodded “Yeah…I don’t…”

“I could smash your face into it, obscuring your vision with what passes for Spaghetti and those dreary ass green beans, that cornbread looks like it’s been gangbanged by older and dryer cornbread and not in a fun way, peach slices! The only decent part of that meal and it’s covered in syrup…honestly I’d be doing your stomach a favour. So anyway, massive mess concoction on your face, potentially broken nose and definitely a concussion from bouncing your skull off the tray; then I could grab the tray and use it to just beat heaven and hell out of you and should it break…broken plastic stabs real good…just saying. Although with the dinner trays they make fantastic frisbees.” 

The crowd moved away; even Jason Carver, who was normally obtuse, looked slightly unwell at such an inventive style of violence. It reminded him of that Horror Film Trilogy, with the Hockey Mask Killer. He turned and quickly left the dining hall. Harry calmly ate his meal, exchanging small talk with Steve, Nancy, Tommy, and Carol. Details were shared, numbers were exchanged, and they separated. Tommy and Carol began to realise that Harry only tolerated them because they were associated with Steve. Julie slipped her hand into Harry’s as they left the cafeteria.

“You’re feeling tense.” Julie stated.

“I know, Julie, I know. Look, look, I…you know what, fuck it, after the party on Friday…wanna go on a date?”

Julie nodded, “Sure, let’s go to the movies. I’ll pick.”

The rest of the day passed slowly. Harry spent that afternoon and evening watching TV or playing his guitar. Sirius had bought him an acoustic and informed him, “If you can play an acoustic, when you get an electric…it's second nature…in theory.”

Truth be told, Harry enjoyed playing the guitar. He'd followed the self-help guides, only to begin playing by ear. Mr. Tones had been impressed by his development and revised his lessons for Harry; gone were the lessons on chords and sequences, which were replaced by sheets of music that Harry was interested in. Eddie had been a massive influence on him, as had Julie. Harry knew his tastes favoured towards Punk, Rock and to what was becoming known as Heavy Metal or Metal. Tones, found that whilst the music Harry liked was not to his tastes, he could see that Harry had a lot to say and it was jarring. “Harry…have you ever wanted to make a career in music?”

Harry looked at him curiously, fingers slipping momentarily out of position on an acoustic bridge of ‘Paranoid’ “Not really. Why?”

Tones stared at him, dark brown locking onto emerald green “Have you thought about what you want to do?”

Harry sighed “I have money, investments, property…and titles…so economics could and would be a viable path. Honestly I don’t rightly know. I just wanted to be seen as me, and be seen as normal, not as a…” he trailed off.

“A Trust-Fund Baby? An Ivory Prince?”

Harry nodded “Everyone see’s that but not what I lost.”

Tones nodded “Harry, we’ve been working together for three months; and I have found you to be nothing short of a kind, polite and genuine nice kid. I’m sorry for what you’ve lost, no-one should have to go through that; as for ‘being normal’, I’m going to be blunt. You just can’t, you can’t help being the child of wealthy people…what you can do…what you do with that is what will set you apart from them.”

Harry looked at him with eyes wide and heart racing “But in using that…”

Tones snorted “Are you going to coast through life? Use your money to sort out your problems?”

“No…although maybe get myself a new place to live, pay for college, probably pay for Julie or help her through College…”

“That’s not being selfish, that’s being generous, that’s just being a good person, although…it can be seen as boasting or gloating. It’s alright and good to have nice things, just…be careful with them.”

Harry nodded, “I’d never really thought about that. I do want to make what my family made increase… tradition. I was also thinking about wanting to work as well… as for what…” He shrugged, “I don’t know. Might make some music on the side, maybe even fix cars or cook…”

Tones nodded, “Your food was exceptional. I didn’t eat at Benny’s as often as others, but the food was decent, then it changed just after Benny took you on.”

Harry grinned, “Benny was a good man. No angles, no edges. What I wanted in a boss… So, I do have skills… skills to make some sort of living.”

Arthur Josef Tones looked at his student and nodded, “Just keep it in mind, I'll leave you my card and my friend's studio.” Harry nodded. After Tones left, Harry looked at the card.

“You'd go far.” Sirius stated. 

“You think?”

“I know, Pup. I know. I love you Harry, I wasn't there when you needed me. I should have been more decisive back at the Veil; I didn't expect or anticipate you coming so soon after me. However, we've got a second chance…I want you to enjoy life before it's too late. Be whoever you want to be, and I'll support you.”

Harry grinned before he headed towards the couch. He had a mountain of movies to watch, there were drinks in the mancave and he was well grounded “I’m heading down to the mancave.”

“I’ll order in some Pizzas.” Sirius called, there plans were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. They stopped when it rang. Harry and Sirius froze, the older man moved towards one of the windows, outside he could see a slender man in a grey suit, crisp white shirt, and blood red tie escorted by three men in black suits standing outside their door. There was a convoy of a car and two black vans all with men in black suits and white shirts or in all black scurrying around the property; with another man with greying silver hair, grey waistcoat and similar tie with his hand over his face.

“Harry, there’s two moving around the back…” Sirius hissed, he wasn’t liking this and neither was his Godson. Harry sighed, he jerked his head to the back door and pointed at him.

“Mr. Black? Mr. Potter, my name is Doctor Martin Brenner, I'm from the Department Of Energy; may I come in?”

Harry looked out the window to see a well-built and armed man heading round to the back door. “Martin Brenner, you are to call off all of your disposables, including the dumb prick trying to head around the back door.” Harry retorted as his Godfather slowly began to move.

“Standard…” Came an unknown voice, probably one of the Suits.

“Well fuck off then and be prepared for a bloodbath.” Harry replied tersley, he didn’t have the time for this. He didn’t even need this.

“You wouldn't…” Came a seriously perturbed Brenner, he'd come with a plan to subtly convince these two to consent for some tests just so he could unravel what actually happened to Connie and the Others.

Harry turned to Sirius. “Make sure the back is secured. He came with the intent to intimidate and coerce us.” Sirius nodded, he grabbed a rifle and positioned himself in front of the backdoor, he placed the rifle on the table and waited.

Harry approached the door and opened it slowly, feeling it nearly give way as a suit slammed against it. The man’s hand, adorned with an expensive watch, forced its way into the house. Harry opened the door wider; then grabbed the arm, twisted it, and deliberately slammed the door onto it. There was a sharp crack as the bone snapped, and the man reached for his sidearm, only for Brenner to smoothly interject. “I must apologise for the enthusiasm of my subordinate, he…wants to ensure that…”

“He can go fuck himself. I don’t trust you, and I know you sure as hell don’t trust me. You’re unwilling to speak on the porch, and I don’t want your minions poking around in my house; regardless of DOE or not, you’re trespassing and one of you have attempted breaking and entering of and occupied home. So, Doctor…either you come in alone or you don’t come in at all.”

Brenner sighed, “I’ll contact you at a later point in time. Hopefully, cooler heads shall prevail.” He inwardly sighed, the requests, whilst vulgarly placed, had been fair, in fact more than fair. He was more than happy to comply with the Ex-Pats' request for him to enter their premises on his own. He did not expect or anticipate any sort of unfair play on their behalf, certainly some resistance, and he’d need to divulge some of the specifics of his job to them. However, he’d be able to ask two or three rather pointed questions of his own. He was fairly certain he knew the answers, but ‘trust but verify’ was an often-quoted phrase in his line of work.

“He shut the door in your face, told you to piss off and snapped one of the crews arms when he tried to force entry?” Owens stated, in the form of a question.

“He did. How did…”

Owens snorted as he looked at his colleague, for all of his colleagues' and superiors' skills and intellect, he interacted badly with those not on his intellectual level. Samuel Michael Owens wasn’t technically Martin Brenner's subordinate but rather his ‘feather smoother’, he handled the family interactions allowing for Martin to focus on his projects; unfortunately Martin was far to recalcitrant in handing over the specifics of his research for fear of sabotage and funding cuts. “I asked around, I made friends at the hospital and with a few of the locals; no-one aside from one, Mr. Jason Carver, has a bad word to say about him. A polite, well mannered young man, just trying to carve a way into the world of work; although extremely suspicious of outsiders and rather insulated in his communications.”

“Insulated?”

“He deals in facts, logistics, Martin, he does not speculate on things that he doesn’t know. In fact if you had confronted him right now, I suspect he would tell you to ‘get out’.”

“I suspect he knows where Eleven is.”

“I would agree with you. Unless you were willing to cooperate, which you don’t like to do, then it’s extremely unlikely that he’ll even cooperate with you. What I think, Martin, he, Potter, knows where Eleven is or at least has made solid contact with her; he then sent her away when you arranged for Connie and her Bruisers to deal with the Benny Restaurant. Potter was present, he helped Benny kill our men; then made it look like an armed robbery gone horrendously wrong. Potter is looking for someone else…”

“The Boy, Byers…” Martin began.

Sams's eyes narrowed “Martin, there are times when I want to knock your teeth down your throat, of course! William ‘Will’ Byers went missing thanks to whatever the hell happened in the lab! Potter’s more interested in looking for him and at one point we could have approached him from a position of equals and used that to gain more insight into him as a side-effect. Now, you’ve gone with your own bruisers, they disregarded your orders…I heard him. That kid ain’t afraid, I know he’s scared of something but from you, me, our employees…he’s definitely not scared of us; what we can do…maybe, but as flesh and blood…definitely not.”

“So what do we do?”

Sam snorted “You leave them alone, focus on the rest of the town. I’ll bring them to the table…my way.”

Martin nodded “Do it.”

Sirius and Harry waited with bated breath; eventually, the DOE personnel left. They headed downstairs into the mancave, before another rapping was heard on the door. Sirius got up and went to the door, he looked through the peephole “Who is it?”

“It’s Chief Jim Hopper, Mr. Black. You repaired the Crankshaft and Drivetrain three weeks back. You also charged me well under the market value. Recently, I gave you and your Godson a verbal warning about the recklessness of allowing a minor to run around with a revolver.” Sirius opened the door to allow the Chief in. Hopper strode in, and hung his hat up on the coat rack “I need to speak with your Godson. Where is he?”

“Down in the basement mancave, I needed to have a word with him as well. Fancy a beer?”

Hopper nodded “I need to check his car.”

Harry had been setting up the mancave and paused when he heard Hopper’s calm but brusque tone: “My keys are in the kitchen, Chief, my cars on the drive…help yourself.”

Hopper turned to Sirius “Is he…” Hopper asked slowly not quite believing what he’d heard.

“You saved his life, risked your job in the process. He also broke the law, he doesn’t trust adults that much, the fact you’ve helped him out and humoured him despite not quite understanding what’s happening you’ve assisted him. Ergo, he trusts you.”

Hopper nodded and proceeded to check Harry’s car. It was clean, well, clean of firearms in any case but there were a few cans of unopened soda in the backseat and in the trunk was an emergency tyre kit and a baseball bat, a ball, a couple of gloves and a few nails and a hammer. Hopper grabbed the box of nails and hammer with gloves; he trusted the kid for the most part but the nails and hammer…that needed to be chased up about. It could be a simple case of Potter forgot to bring them in but there was every chance there was something more nebulous than that.

Hopper left the car as he found it and headed back in “Found these.”

Sirius nodded “Ah…my fault. I used the car for a few errands, Harry would’ve been using it but I told him he’s not going out tonight, no secret rendezvous with Julie or hanging out with Hellfire.”

Hopper grunted “He keeping to it?”

“So far. He’s had Tones over, as he couldn’t go out.”

“Arthur?” Sirius nodded, Hopper filed away a note to check in with Arthur later on that day.

Harry stuck his head out of the cellar “Hey Chief.”

“Kid…I need to talk with you.”

Harry nodded “Come on down.”

Hopper’s eyes widened at the mancave “This certainly beats my cabin in the woods.”

“Best place to keep the infernal and celestial summonings. Keep it in the basement. I’m joking, Chief. Anyways…what can I do for you?”

Hopper looked at the table and he immediately spied the map “You’ve worked something out, you saw that thing…I saw that thing. Your buddies saw you throw that thing with a gesture of your hand; I’ve seen you conjure up flames. I’ll admit this is hard to admit, but I need something, anything, to make this make sense. Will Byers is missing, there’s a little girl who escaped from somewhere…I thought the girl and Byers were the same person but I’ve found evidence to suggest otherwise, and the only factor I’ve found tying everything together is you.”

Harry paled “Is this the part where you arrest me?”

“It’s looking like that unless you can prove to me without a shadow of doubt that you’ve got nothing to do with any of this.” Hopper explained that he really hoped Harry didn’t have anything to do with this horrible thing; Hopper did not think he could have misread the Teen so badly if he was. Judging by how unearthly grey and shaky he had become with the open statement, it was reassuring that Harry understood the gravity of the situation despite his brevity about it.

“Chief, I have a working theory…unfortunately, that working theory is providing more and more to be like ‘Occam’s Razor’.”

“Something so outlandish, but the facts are demonstrating that it can be nothing but the truth.”

Harry nodded “Where shall we begin? Do you want me to start? Or do you want to share what you’ve discovered and I can fill in the blanks around your investigation?”

Hopper smirked and chuckled, “You've got some balls on you Potter.” 

Harry grinned at that “I mean, I am a bloke…okay, enough with the flippancy.” Hopper grunted in approval.

Hopper knew that Will Byers had vanished, cutting through Mirkwood, that it had happened near the DOE Facility in the Hawkins National Lab, and the Creature appeared near the Hawkins Lab. Then he presented a tag, which was an identification tag. Harry’s eyes narrowed as he examined the tag.

“I've seen her. The morning after Will vanished, Powells and Callahan came to see us. Callahan accused me of being involved, and I doubted his abilities as a Law Enforcement Officer…then I left for Benny’s.”

Hopper’s eyes widened! He repressed his anger and frustration towards Harry. It was a cold, calculated guess, yet it clarified much about Harry's evasive behaviour. “Where is she?”

Harry sighed, “One of the punks.”

Hopper’s eyes narrowed. “They're involved! Do the parents know?”

Harry scoffed, “Of course not. They're the ‘the government has its reasons’ type, ready to hand the girl back to the DOE.”

“I wouldn't go that far…considering I recall Karen Wheeler, formerly Barnes, from school and the time I caught Mr. Barnes for being drunk and disorderly. Typical suburban family, but Barnes is a decent man… a bit slow, though,” Hopper remarked.

Harry smiled. “Now the DOE is scrutinising me because for some reason, they believe I had a role in the self-defence homicide at Benny’s.” Harry smiled drolly at that “I wonder fucking why, any way they came in, I tried to reason but they refused to budge so I broke somebody’s arm.”

Hopper sighed “You’re going to get yourself in trouble…assaulting a Civil Servant? That’s not small town justice.”

Harry smirked “They were breaking and entering, they were alive when they entered and alive when they left as opposed to dead…that’s self-defence and self-restraint.”

“Fine line. I’d drop it mainly because you’ve got dirt on me not that you’d use it.”

Harry grinned “Would never do it not unless we absolutely had to but by then we’re probably dead.”

Hopper had been grinning along with Harry stopped “You think it’d come to that?”

“More than likely,” Harry replied, “my own private history…and my godfather’s…”

Hopper snorted. “You can share that over drinks…as we calculate our next move.”

Harry nodded. “My next move is damage control. I’m at a get-together with Steve; he’s not daft, certainly not the brightest, however he’s going to be a problem.”

“Do what you need to do. Although if you help me out with Joyce Byers, I won’t…”

Harry sighed. “No need to threaten me anymore. I need to unwind; I…just want to try and be a normal teen.”

Hopper nodded “Harry, I might have mentioned that you’d be good police, but you’d be great.”

The three men hung out, Hopper had drained his beer and shot off, only to return with a crate of beer and dressed in jeans and a shirt. “Harry and I are going to get Joyce on side. Harry's got to get Harrington onside. What we really need is a way in.”

Harry pursed his lips “And I'd rather not have a direct confrontation.”

It was nearer 2 am when Harry went to bed. Friday, school day, dragged slowly by. Harry had managed to sneak Julie off Campus at lunch for them to have a quiet moment together. “Sneaking off campus? How’d you do that so easily?”

“Drive calmly, be calm and most importantly, act like you belong,” Harry replied as he picked at their shared cheesy-bacon-chilli fries. Julie snorted.

“You know, learning how to sneak about is not what I had anticipated. What’d the Chief want? Harry, you only ever tell me this sort of stuff when you’re distracted and not many people can distract you that well or easily.”

Harry smiled at her “He’s on board. He’s seen the evidence, we’ve played our hands and we agree.” Julie’s eyes widened.

“You’re both coming around the curtain?”

“No. We’re still behind the curtain, Hopper and I are about to talk to Mrs Byers and bring her up to date with the investigation. I’m also quite possibly going to be punching someone out.”

Julie sighed “You seem to be making it your mission to be hitting someone.”

“It’s not, I am just public enemy number one for weird stuff occurring. I was thinking, Julie…I was going to be heading to Europe over the Summer…did you…want to come with?”

Julie’s eyes widened; she’d always wanted to travel! “Won’t that be like…”

“It’s going to be pricey, it’s on me. Besides, I heard that Blondie, Joanne Jett and Suzie Quatro were playing across Europe along with Metallica and Iron Maiden…we wouldn’t be in many places for long. Still, we could easily sightsee and anything we don’t see we can always go back to.”

Julie looked at him and shook her head “I’d love to…I…”

Harry smiled at her. “I’m sorry if that’s too big, it’s… I really wanted to see a few of those artists, and I knew you liked Blondie and Joan Jett… it’s…”

“Let’s do it! Four weeks in Europe, attend multiple gigs… hell yeah, that sounds so cool. I’ll want to pay you back, though.”

“Find a gig that’s happening not too far from here, get two tickets, and I’ll be happy. Julie, I have more money than I have friends… I want to enjoy life with my friends, if… it comes across differently… I…”  

“I get it. You have money; you want to use it. What you’re casually inviting me to is an either-or situation. I can either go on this trip of a lifetime or go to university.”

Harry nodded. “I get that. It’s why I’m asking you if you wanted to go with me. All I’ve really done is pay for the concert tickets, and my Godfather is picking up the plane tickets; all of the hotel, hostel, or even the accommodation we’re going to sort out as we go.”

Julie grinned as she wolfed down her burger. “Nowhere near as good as yours, by the way,” she commented around the burger.

Harry finished his, and they headed back to school. They were released, and they headed to Julie’s, where her father grinned at the duo. “Be safe,” was all he said when Julie descended the stairs with a backpack of clothing; her father also slid them three crates of beer. “Dad…”

“You’re going to a party; every teen does. Just make sure you’re both safe.”

Sirius reiterated the same thing as he, too, placed some drinks in the car. “I gave a few to your friend Harrington…Harry, Julie…be safe, I mean it. I'm more than willing to help in case of accidents, but a child is a game changer.”

Julie and Harry fled Harry’s house with a grinning Sirius. They arrived shortly after Nancy and Barbara arrived. Barbara Holland was a tall, gangly girl with a heavier build than most, and cute brown eyes hidden behind glasses. “Ladies.”

Nancy turned and Barbara blushed, yelped and jumped as Harry surprised her “Harry! I thought you were ‘too cool’ for Harrington.”

“Harrington's a good guy. I’ve got no problems having drinks and socialising with him. I enjoy my status as a ‘wild card’ too damn much.” The quartet headed towards the Harrington house, Harry was surprised at how fancy it was. Three floors, massive windows and a fucking pool in the backyard! Harry and Sirius had talked about getting one installed, but decided the idea of being self-sufficient was far more appealing. 

Steve answered the door, “Hey, hey, hey…I wasn’t expecting you all so soon.”

Harry grinned as he walked in “Thanks for inviting us.”

Tommy nodded from where he was sitting on the sofa, Carol laid across the sofa, her head in Tommy’s lap. Harry headed over to the record collection and began rifling through them “Harry, my dad would kill me, if you broke any of his vinyl.”

Harry snorted “Music is to be shared and enjoyed.” He pulled out a vinyl record and smirked “Your old man has some taste.” He tenderly opened the vinyl player, lifted the needle and slid the vinyl on. 

“Something from home, we’re starting this off with the Only Ones.” Harry announced and the record began to play.

“I thought you were metal only?” Tommy stated.

“I’m British, Tommy, anything that came out of Britain, in my opinion, is gold. I like metal mainly because it’s the easiest way to express how I feel. Although I am willing to throw hands on who the greatest Unholy Trinity.”

Tommy held his hands up “No, no, no…not going there.”

Harry grinned, and the party got going. It was nothing like the House parties Harry had been in at Hogwarts. It was just teens, lounging by the pool, drinking, singing and slurring through songs only to be interjected with the occasional spiking a can and attempting to neck it. Harry lounged back on his chair with Julie resting her feet across his. “Steve, when are your folks meant to get back?”

“Er sometime Sunday, why? It’s Friday?”

Julie smiled drunkenly “I’m hammered, and I can’t drive.”

Harry snorted “You’re going to be scraping me off the floor, walls and roof of my car if I have to drive. Basically…”

“I’ve got some spare rooms for you to crash in.” Steve said he was surprised at how organised and articulate Harry sounded, despite having drunk five or six cans of beer.

“Awesome. I’ll help clean up in the morning. What about you Babs?”

Barbara looked at Harry “What about me?”

“How are you getting home?”

Babs paused “Erm…I was going…”

“How many have you had?” Harry asked.

“Three.”

“You’re not going anywhere near your car…in fact I’ll run you back in the morning.”

“I told my parents I was staying at Nancy’s, Nancy said she was staying at hers.”

Harry nodded, before pausing…something felt off. His eyes drifted around the perimeter of Steve’s backyard. Something wasn’t right. Julie and Steve watched as Harry trailed off, this was unnerving, it was only just past eleven the night was still young, yet, Harry was moving like a trained veteran. “What's going on?”

“Someone's watching us.” Harry replied.

Tommy and Carol stared at him “What do we do?”

“Just be alert. I'm going to head to my car.” Harry replied.

“No.” Tommy stated.

Harry turned to look at him “If there’s something out there, observing us…we carry on as normal. We cannot attract there attention. Can’t we call the Police?”

“Call the Police, as a drunken teenager saying ‘someone is watching us’... Christ, Tommy, use your head.” Steve stated, he had an inkling of who or rather what, was watching them. “No, the best thing we can do is stay here tonight. I doubt they’re gonna try anything.”

Harry turned around to head inside with most people following save for Barbara “You coming Barb?” Nancy called out.

“In a moment, I just want a moment by myself.” Barbara stated.

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit 9

For Flying Fuckering Fuckery Sake part 1

The birds needed to die! The sunlight needed to die! The sheets needed to come off! He felt far too hot, way too hot. Harry groaned as he woke up, a layer of visible sweat rolling off him. He looked down. There was a bare arm, a bare shoulder. He knew those arms, and he turned over to see Julie, as naked as the day she was born, next to him. She was beautiful! “Morning you.” Harry rasped, his throat dryer than the Sahara. Hungover bloodshot brown eyes opened, Julie moved back the sweat-soaked bed sheets rolling down to her legs “Hey, yourself.” She rasped before she rolled out of bed and hurried towards the ensuite rooms, Harry was right after her, he managed to pull her hair clammy matted blonde hair back with his left hand and with his right ran a hand down her back as she began to deposit last nights food and drink down the toilet. She looked grey, her eyes running with tears “I look like a mess.” She sobbed as she wrapped herself around him.

“You’re hungover, probably, the first time you’ve done heavy drinking. You’re not a mess, you’re beautiful.” He replied, holding her by the waist and below her shoulders. Julie took a moment to gather her bearings and their current state of dress. She went to try and break away, but Harry held her tight “Julie, Julie, Julie, I can promise you nothing happened. Besides our first time, I have something special for it. It involves a hotel, dinner and a concert…you’re hungover, the first step is to have a shower.” They showered together to save water, they dressed. Julie grinned as Harry shivered as he pulled on his sweat-coated clothes “Breakfast?” Julie nodded “Whatever you eat for a hangover, also, you’re handling it rather well.”

“Not my first. Won’t be my last.” Harry replied as he descended the stairs. In their underwear were Tommy and his Girl, Harry couldn't be arsed to remember the name. Steve and Nancy weren't down yet. 

“How the fuck are you not hungover?” Tommy demanded, Harry chuckled. “Fuck you that's how mate. Has anyone seen Nancy, Steve and Barbara?”

“Er not Barbara…I last saw her sitting outside on her own, after you had your ‘somethings out there’. Really good prank by the way.” Harry stiffened. “I suggest we turn this house upside down and pray I was having a joke with you.”

Anything else died on Harry's lips as Nancy and Steve descended the stairs. “Harry, have you seen Barb?” Nancy asked immediately, fixing Harry with a look. Harry turned to fix the Eldest Wheeler sibling with an arctic glare “No. In fact I have just asked the exact same question. Has anyone checked if her car is present?”

Nancy, Julie and Steve watched with fascination and then growing horror. “Harry, this isn't funny. Where is my friend?” Nancy stated. Harry found his temper rising “Is she? Was she really your friend? She certainly believed she was yours, but was it the same for you?” Nancy flushed red with anger “How…”

“Dare I? You could have easily told your parents the truth, I did. Guess what Wheeler, my Godfather helped me out. As did Julie’s father. If you didn’t have a ride, you could have found my number. Honestly, Wheeler, this is on you. Never insinuate that I would willingly risk someone's life for a joke, your pride and dignity…yes. Everyone needs a good scare every now and then. Now, first things first…you four…” Harry said point at Steve, Nancy, Tommy and Carol “are going to turn this house upside and down and clean up the House. Julie and I are going to check on Barbara’s car and run damage control.”

“Noone’s going to believe, not with Mrs Byers going off the deep end.” Tommy sneered. Harry smiled, “You leave Mrs Byers to me. The rest of you, find Barbara.”

“If we don’t or can’t?” Carol asked, she’d heard rumours and the aftermath of Harry losing his temper; this wasn’t the time to play the vapid airhead. Harry scoffed “Then we’re going to find out just how good you are at sticking to the facts.”

“What are you going to say?” Carol asked.

“At Harringtons, there was a party. Barbara said she wanted to remain outside, woke up and she was gone. My two theories she either called a taxi to Nancy’s house and walked from there home or she was abducted. Her alibi was she was at Wheeler’s, and Wheeler said hers was the opposite.” Harry replied nonchalantly.

Julie and Steve were watching Harry, Steve realised that Harry thought that there was a link between Barbara’s disappearance and Will. “You think however Byers disappeared was the same with Barbara?”

“Outlandish theory, but Occam’s Razor is quickly becoming my bread and butter.” Harry replied softly.

“Harry, you need to hold this together.” Julie murmured, nudging him towards the front door “We need to check where Barabara’s car is.”

“Harry…” Steve called.

“Yeah?”

“Good luck. Please keep me in the loop, I wasn’t close to Holland; but she is Nancy’s friend.”

“Harrington now is not the time to be trying to sucker up to Wheeler even more.” Tommy drawled, he’d watched as Harry began to slide towards hostility, he remembered Friday lunchtime and Potter’s description of beating him in with a dinner tray. They weren’t close but Tommy knew a confrontation when he could see it.

Harry and Julie left the Harrington residence and headed towards his car, when they saw the three electrical vans “Keep moving.” Harry whispered, handing Julie his keys “You know how to drive under pressure?”

“Not at all. You drive. What do I need to do?”

“Get in, seatbelt, grip the door and clench your abs. I’m going to be putting you straight into 0.8 to 0.85 worth of G when we get going. It’s going to be loud, fast and smell like burning rubber.” Julie gulped, she got in the car “It’s to do with vans isn’t it?”

“Yep.” Harry replied turning the engine, he dropped into reverse shot backwards, throwing on the handbreak spinning tightly around in a J-turn before seamlessly shifting into first and thundering away; he checked his mirror, the vans were in hot pursuit or as close to hot pursuit as they could. 

Seeing as they were being doggedly followed, Harry smirked. “Julie, wanna come see Jonathan?”

“Why not. What's the plan with these idiots?”

Harry smirked, “If they follow…well, accidents can happen.”

The cars that were following them had strict orders to observe from a distance, their target had done just that. They had been unnerved at just how quickly their presence had been discovered, they left the teens when it was clear that they weren’t heading back to either of their registered addresses. The second part of their orders had been to bring them to the lab for questioning. “Matthew…” Simon began.

“Yeah? Simon.” Matthew replied, Simon was a very apt partner. They’d never disobeyed or even questioned orders, the car was bugged so this was serious. “You think that, hypothetically that this course of action is morally and or ethically unsound?”

“Orders are orders, you and I know this. In a purely highly hypothetical situation, I do agree with you, although I have to ask…what are you going to do about it?”

Simon sighed “I’ll talk to the ones in charge and say I am requesting more surveillance jobs. I am not willing to blow our cover trying to bring an asset as powerful or dangerous as the one that Dr. Brenner has discovered.”

Matthew nodded “I understand. Don’t you pussy out on me right now.”

“I won’t.”

(Byers house)

Joyce shot out the door with Jonathan on her heels as they heard a car pull up. Jonathan grinned to himself when he saw the Dark Blue Camaro of Harry roll up. Joyce looked dejected she’d been hoping it had been Hopper coming back with some news. “Come for a laugh at crazy Joyce Byers have you?”

“Mrs Byers, Jonathan.” Harry replied “For the record no. I’ve not come to have a laugh, I’ve come to have a look. Jonathan informed me that you’ve said that you ‘heard Will speak through the phone’ and is ‘communicating via lights’?”

Joyce looked at her son with horror “You told him!”

Harry sighed, he rolled up his shirt sleeve “Lumos!” He commanded, and his arm lit up like a torch. “Nox.” The light was gone “Your youngest's disappearance is about as regular as I am. Hopper trusts me, he’s asked me to come to talk you about it and if necessary assist you. I have ideas about where Will is, if I can gain evidence, I can start to apply pressure on the culprits responsible. I have an idea of the head honchos behind it.”

Joyce looked at him with wide eyes “What’s the plan to get them to talk?”

“It involves lots of screaming and a very bloody nose.” Harry replied dryly “And this one.” A pointed finger at Julie, “To keep me on a very short leash.” Julie grinned before elbowing Harry in the kidney “No belly rubs.” Joyce’s mouth twitched into a smile at the playful interaction. Joyce watched them akin to hawks as they entered. Harry heard the sound of hammering of nails on wood, the hammerer was a man in his late forties or early fifties clad in jeans, vest and blue shirt “My dad.” Jonathan murmured. “Lonnie.” Unfortunately, Lonnie heard his name and turned.

“Can I help you two?”

“We were testing a theory, got invited, you have a problem with that?” Harry replied calmly, although Julie noticed how Harry was subtly moving his body. “To cover me and cause maximum carnage to Mr. Byers.” She realised. “Why do you need to keep causing my wife additional harm?” Lonnie growled.

“More harm? Additional harm?” Harry growled “Most of it is probably because of you…where were you? Where were you when this shit occurred? In fact where were you before all of this? A kid, your youngest, has gone missing. I’m here because I happen to believe your wife…”

“Ex-wife.” Jonathan chimed in, Harry flicked a thumbs up at him “your ex-wife about the fact she heard Will Byers on the phone and was communicating with him through the lights.”

Lonnie snorted “Then where is he? If you believe my ex? Then if you claim to know where he is then go and get him.” Harry crossed the room, locking eye contact with Lonnie who began to back up against the wall.

“Look at you, cowering away from someone willing to make a stand. You do not order me about Lonnie. In fact I think it’d be a mighty fine…” At that moment the light in the living room began to glow. 

“Will! This is Harry. Dim the bulb twice for yes, once for no. Do you understand?” The bulb dimmed twice. Harry grinned toothily. Julie had found a piece of paper.

“Are you at home?” Two dims.

“Are you safe?” One dim.

“Are you hurt?” Two dims.

“Are you being hounded by something with a flower head, and elongated limbs?” Two dims.

Joyce, Lonnie, Julie and Jonathan watched the lights “Is there a cross over point near by?” Julie called. No response. Then the wall started to convulse, everyone watched as the letters ‘R’, ‘U’, ‘N’ were hit in quick succession as the wall convulsed as something ran right at it. Harry, shoved Julie and Jonathan towards the front door as Lonnie grabbed Joyce by the arm and they ran.

“Harry!” Julie shouted in fright. She couldn’t help it, her boyfriend…gestured at the bulging, wall and the creature promptly vanished. Jonathan sighed, scooped her up and began tearing his way down the corridor followed by his parents. They managed to exit the house as Harry dive through one of the open windows, bouncing off his arms, ribs and hip before rolling awkwardly onto his feet. 

“What the fuck was that.” Joyce asked as Harry checked himself over.

“That…acrobatics and dexterity training, the thing in the wall? We’ve met before, I kicked its ass then. I just kicked it now. It’ll come back for more.” Harry replied dryly.

“How did you do that?” Lonnie asked, his eyes glinting at an unexpected advantage to make some money.

“None of your business. You might have the cards, but, it’s a minor loss as opposed to my own advantages with you being consumed by greed to get me to do your dirty work.” Harry replied smirking, Lonnie flushed with rage.

Jonathan was observing like Christmas came early. He did not regret befriending Harry. He had his pictures that needed to develop.

Joyce looked at Harry, tears in her eyes “You believe me?”

“We both do. We have confirmation that our theory that we now know where Will is. Hopefully we'll have some pictures coming through giving us something to focus on.” Harry explained. Joyce found herself pulling Harry into a rib breaking hug “Please, please, bring him home.”

Chapter Text

Of Wizards and Far Stranger Shit 10

For Flying Fuckering Fuckery Sake Part 2

Some days made Harry want to smile, laugh, and some made him want to lose his mind. Today turned into one of them - Babs' parents had filed a missing persons report. Everything came crashing down for them at Hawkins when Hopper, Powell, and Callahan walked in. Harry and Julie were in the library working on a Modern History essay about the technological advancements of the late 20th century. "Harry...how can you be so sure about this?” Julie asked.

Harry smirked. “You think technologies are kicking off? Watch this space.” Julie looked at her boyfriend. "I'll bet you $10 that this doesn't work.”

"I'll raise you $10 that not only will this work, but it's going to take the world by storm.” The duo stopped their discussion as they heard the heavy footsteps of Callahan and Powell. “Harry Potter, Julie Powells? The pair of you need to come with us," Callahan instructed.

Harry looked at the black officer. “What’s this about?”

Callahan looked at him strangely. “You mean you don’t know?” Harry watched the duo. “I can guess, but that leaves me open. So...what don’t I know?” Callahan snorted. “Sure you don't."

Harry looked at the duo. “Am I being arrested?” He looked at Julie. “Are we being arrested?” He pressed again. The officers looked at each other. “Kids, the pair of you don't want to go down this route?”

Julie scowled at them. “Since you're not telling us what we're being questioned about, detained, or even stopped for...we're going to leave because what you're doing is a violation of our rights.” Harry looked at her and back at the officers. “Don't look at me! I do whatever she says. I'd just hit you with the closest object and run like hell. So, if you're not going to tell us, we're going to leave.”

“The Hollands have filed a missing persons report," Callahan stated, watching the duo. His eyes widened, and there was a definite lack of surprise on their faces - more expectancy...why hadn't he seen it before? Potter seemed to carry himself as if he knew everything was going on, even when he wasn't meant to! “They've filed a missing persons report, and I'm no poker player; the pair of you aren't surprised in the least. So unless you can give me a damn good alibi, I'm going to be arresting the pair of you for the abduction of Barbara Holland.”

Julie's eyes widened, and Harry let out a sigh. "Alright...it looks like we're doing it this way.” They were taken to an empty classroom, where Tommy, Carol, Steve, and Nancy were waiting outside. Hopper was standing next to them. Harry nodded to the chief, who nodded back. “Callahan, Powells, I'll take those two; I have a few other threads I need to wrap up..."

“They're our two..."

“They're kids, Powell...not murderers.”

“They're not even remotely surprised about the missing persons report.” Hopper chuckled darkly as he stared at Harry and Julie before turning back to his friend. “And you're detaining Potter and Powells based on a lack of reaction? I'll admit it's a little shifty, and more than little thin, but in Potter's case…for all intents and purposes, he's relatively new in town. He keeps to himself, only really hanging out with whoever came in through Benny's. Then there was his humiliation of the Hawkins Tigers Basketball Team.” Hopper looked at Harry “Yeah, I heard about that.” Harry shrugged, “I was cold, my bollocks felt like they were falling off.”

Powell nodded, “Still Powells though?”

Hopper shrugged, “I guess I'll find out from the pair of them.” He grumbled before beckoning them to follow him; he led them out of the room and into the next classroom. He placed a chair under the door handle “Sit.”

Harry and Julie did so “What the fuck happened? Potter, you were meant to get Harrington onside.”

“I have. Steve “King” Harrington, is on side…for the most part. I’ve allowed him to use his secondary brain, used to hook up with Nancy “Dumbass” Wheeler and realise that he's helping her, and I find William “Bill” Byers, Missing Shit #1, as Missing Shit #1 happens to be very close to her kid brother. More or less simple, unfortunately, Harringtons got two brain-dead weasels hanging around with him; Tommy H and Carol Perkins.”

Hopper nodded “I know them, true, not the smartest or the sharpest tools in the box, harsh to call them brain-dead. Anyother spectacular fuck ups?”

“Barbara ‘Barb’ or ‘Bab’ Holland, she was present with Nancy and their designated driver. They did the classic misdirect, Nancy saying she’s staying at the Hollands and vice versa, very much duck out of water.” Hopper nodded. Harry continued “I’m not going to confirm or deny whatever happens when teenagers gather together, you can guess, I can guess. It’s about three am, we’re outside by the pool listening to me singing Crazy Train when I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Something’s watching us. Everyone realises it, however, Barbara decides to remain outside. I should have tried to bring her in, she wants to go home, noone aside from her is fit to drive. She’s gone by the time everyone wakes up and there’s three electrical cable vans loitering outside. Tommy, Carol, Steve and Nancy begin to epically lose their shit about Barbara Holland dissapearing. I told Nancy ‘it’s her own damn fault for bringing her to the party’.”

Hopper let it out a chuckle “You probably give them the ‘we’re gonna find out how good you are at using the facts and sticking to a narrative’. Then what? Hollands gone, did you two even decide to alert us? Alert me?”

“Honestly, Chief, outside of the bursting need for a piss and having to prevent myself from unscrewing Lonnie Byers head and shitting or pissing down his neck I wasn’t thinking. I drove Julie to mine and told her ‘You can stay or you can go’. She ended up lounging with me that entire weekend.”

Julie cleared her throat “Harry, Chief, I tried to contact the Hollands; Marsha babysat me a fair few times growing up and Malcolm is a regular at Dads’ VA meetings.” She looked at Harry “I…couldn’t cope with the idea that Babs just upped and vanished from them.”

“I don’t blame you, neither does the Chief. You have your reasons. I’ll back you up.”

“You’d lie?” Hopper asked.

Harry shrugged “If it came to it and more. Honestly, it’s going to be amusing to see how Wheeler gets her way out of this one, and this mess isn’t even one of my own!” Julie shook her head in exasperation; “And too think of the food joints in town, I walk into yours.”

“You have taste. Good ones in terms of food, bad ones in terms of boyfriend, Julie. Although, your man has a good heart…a big heart, just attached to a hairbrained motor and dances with adrenaline.”

“At least Chief, Julie knows who I am. I, despite my myriad of faults, my many faults, will make my position with Julie absolutely clear. I know what I want, Julie wants what she does, and so far…we're connecting.”

Hopper nodded “Thanks for cooperating with the Hawkins Police Department. Now get lost, you have classes to attend to.” Harry opened the door for Julie “Potter, I’ll come by later today to find out more about the Byers.”

“Sure thing.”

Harry spent that day dodging everyone. He spent his lunch eating in the Photography Room with Jonathan, splitting his lunch with him. “Have a good party? At Harringtons?”

“I thought something was watching us, Jonathan. Not someone. I'm not judging you, I just wanna know why? I know it's not because of me.” Harry replied idly “I know we don't normally hide down here, why down here?”

Jonathan sighed “You know nothing about cameras and film development. I need the darkness and the red light for the pictures to appear.” He beckoned Harry to look, as Jonathan moved the unseen picture around, it slowly began to materialise. 

The image showed Harry, can in hand ushering everyone inside. “I'm not seeing anything…apart from exceptional photography.” Jonathan sighed “Look towards the edge of the shot.” Harry did so, trusting Jonathan when he saw something just out of frame…it looked like a long stick.

Jonathan unclipped some of his other photos, with the last one of Nancy looking out of the window and Barbara by the pool. “There!” He exclaimed pointing at it, Harry paled. Standing not far from Barbara, completely visible in the lens of a camera, invisible to Barbara was the Monster.

“Is that it.” Jonathan asked “The thing that took my brother?” Harry looked at it and looked at Jonathan “Not 100% certain, however, it showed up during our search of Mirkwood and appeared at yours trying to come through the wall…Those events on their own…”

“I don't need the patronising scientific stuff right now. I just want some clear answers. Harry! You told me that you'd not lie to me, I think you're lying or at least obfuscating me.” Jonathan seldom carried himself to his full height, now he definitely towered over him. Harry held his hands out in surrender “No shit…more than likely. It's not confirmation, in this case look at the facts, look at what you know. Cross examine it with everything what does it say?”

“I think it is.” Jonathan admitted.

Harry smirked “I know where it came from, we have this evidence. Our next steps are alert Nancy, Stephen, I know…he's a fucking blowhard, bit of a prick but he's a good guy. You've gotta separate Steve Harrington from ‘King’ Steve.”

They were distracted by the door opening and Julie slid into the room “I was wondering where you were. I wasn’t anticipating you having sex with Jonathan.” Julie equipped, grinning at the duo as they blushed.

“I'm sorry, Julie for experimenting behind closed doors.” Harry murmured. “Harry does manage to tickle my prostate in very stimulating ways.” Jonathan stated, attracting the girls attention.

Julie stared at her boyfriend and then at Jonathan. She took a moment to realise that their bodies were shaking. “You were playing me!” Harry and Jonathan could only let out snorts of laughter “Julie, we play that joke on everyone.” She nodded as she saw the photographs; her eyes widened. 

“Aside from how stalkerish these pics could be seen as, but they're really…oh God. Is that…is that it?” She asked, pointing at the Monster. “It appears to be.” She turned on Harry, tears welling in her eyes, “You FOUGHT THAT! In the WOODS!”

Harry nodded “It’s uglier in person. It’s a single-target ambush predator; it relies on stealth and blistering speed to overwhelm its prey. Preferably, those who are on their own, it does not comprehend people who are anticipating trouble and can work in a team.”

“Or someone crazy enough to distract it from its intended target.” Julie muttered bitterly, she looked Harry in the eye “Can you promise you’re not going to deliberately confront this thing or anything similar to it?”

“I’ll do nothing to willingly or intentionally put myself in harms way, it’s become rather nice…not being the centre of the mess. Unfortunately I have a ‘saving people thing’.” Harry pulled Julie to him “Listen to me, once we graduate and you get accepted into college, my bags will be packed and we’ll fly.”

“Where do we go?”

Harry shrugged “Don’t know. Massachusetts? Illinois? Oregon?”

“Why Oregon?”

“Gotta keep Portland weird.” Julie snorted at that “Only you, Harry, only you could say something like that and it makes perfect sense.”

Jonathan cleared his throat at his two friends “Guys, to, totally, kill the mood…what’s the plan?”

“Those photos need to make it off campus.” Harry said addressing Jonathan, who nodded “Give me the ones with our friendly neighbourhood monster on…this plan is likely going to get one of us in a punchup or all of us. Julie, you’re going to need to come off the bench with this.”

“Is it involving that grody bitch, Carol?” Julie growled. Harry raised an eyebrow “She's been like this ever since I knew her. A vapid, shallow leech. What are you planning?”

“It'd be a shame if Wheeler realises that Harrington only wanted her for a quick lay. I intend for Jonathan to attract their attention, Harrington to fuck up and start something. Jonathan goes to handle Harrington, Tommy gets involved; I hit Tommy. Nancy does her thing, Carol goes for either me or Tommy and you…”

Julie nodded, “I hit her.” She sighed, and she looked at her boyfriend and friend, “The things I do for the pair of you.” Harry and Jonathan shrugged before Jonathan spoke, “You’ve been looking for a legitimate reason to do this for a while…I’m the outsider, I read people…the three of us; You, me and Carol have been in the same class for years.”

Julie looked at two of them “We’re seriously going to be doing this?” She questioned, seeing the boys nod, she sighed and took control “Jonathan, give me all of the pics…Steve and Tommy are going to think that the pair of you are going to have these…” She said, pointing to the pictures in the room, “They won’t suspect me. Jonathan, you’re going to need one of them. Harry, I love you…I really do…you need to be going hands-free.”

The day passes slowly, eventually after two hours of briskly covering American Military Action during World War II. It was fairly interesting, but in Harry’s personal opinion, rather dry. The lesson ended, and their course of action went into effect; Harry wouldn’t call it a plan as a plan relied on circumstances and routine…this wasn’t.

Steve, Tommy, Carol and Nancy were clustered around Harry and Steve’s car “Potter…what did you tell them?” Tommy grumbled as Harry walked over to them, passing his keys to Julie. “Why nothing above and beyond what we know happened.”

“You told them we were drinking!” Carol shrieked.

“We’re teenagers, we broke no laws. Anyway we are being investigated for something far, far, worse.” Harry replied “The Officers have and had been us so they know all too well what we’re like.” Harry snapped, he had Steve’s and Tommy’s attention; and Jonathan stumbled through the conversation.

Steve grabbed Jonathan, and saw the camera and picture. The picture was that of Nancy in Steve’s bedroom window “You want to explain, you little pervert? Taking pictures of my girl?” Jonathan had the decency to look abashed, he hadn’t anytime to formulate a response as Steve grabbed the camera, smashed it against his car; before he stomped on it and then shoved Jonathan. Nancy’s words came out weak and pitiful as she whined at him to stop. 

Jonathan stumbled backwards, seeing as he didn’t fall over, Steve went to push him; only for Jonathan to shove the pretentious asshole of a student back. Steve went down heavily, Tommy who’d been squaring off against Harry berating him for throwing the rest of them under the proverbial bus turned to jump on Jonathan.

“Not letting you do that, Tommy.” Harry stated as he grabbed Tommy by his jacket; Tommy spun hands rapidly forming fists to hit Harry across the face, Harry stopped him with a swift shot to the ribs! Tommy bent double as the impact drove the wind from his lungs; there had been a distinctive cracking sound. “Potter fucking broke my ribs!” Carol shrieked and went for Harry, her manicured and pedicured nails. Julie grabbed Carol’s left wrist, squeezed and twisted it sharply; not sharp enough to snap the wrist but sharp enough to stop her.

“Don’t, bitch.” Julie whispered in her ear “You’ll only get in the way.”

“Harrington! Potter! Byers! Hayes! Break it up!” Harry and Tommy were pulled apart from another as were Jonathan and Steve; the intervening teens were Greg, Billy, Stu, Arthur and James, all members of the School Football Team. “What the fuck, happened?” James demanded looking at the four of them. 

Jason looked at Harry “Harry what the fuck is this about?”

Harry sighed “I was at a party with this lot save Jonathan. Jonathan inadvertently caught the wrong people at the wrong moment during an evening photography shoot. Steve saw the pictures, trashed the camera, the picture and tried to rearrange Jonathan's fairly decent looks. Jonathan's tougher than he looks, Tommy got scared that his friend or host looked like he was going to get his ass beat and tried to get the jump…I stopped him. Carol tried to go for me, Julie has her under control. I think that's everything and I think Wheeler is about to realise just how much of an idiot her boyfriend is.”

Jason nodded “Alright. Powells, let her go. Potter, you and her get out of here…”

“You're dead Potter.” Tommy sneered.

“Pick a time, pick a place and bring a second.” Harry replied, technically he controlled all the shots when it came to duelling and fighting but it would be interesting to see if Tommy was as dumb as he looked.