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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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2020-11-05
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Vacation

Summary:

Trouble manages to find Harry even when he's on vacation.

Work Text:

Originally Posted 10/08/2009

Harry walked down the dark streets of St. Louis. He was frustrated, tension creeping up his back. He didn't know why he was here in the first place - oh right, Hermione and Ron thought he should get and see the world before he settled down, maybe became an Auror but this doing nothing/vacation stuff just didn't sit right with him.

Now this was more like it, Harry thought as adrenaline rushed through him at the sharp cracking sound. *A wizard? A car backfiring maybe?* Harry looked around and noticed that those on the streets at this time of night only exchanged wide-eyed looks and hurried on their way. Harry frowned, that's what he didn't like about humanity - If it wasn't them, who cared?

Harry's steps took him in the direction he thought the sound had come from changing direction when the sound came again only this time it was accompanied by a stifled cry. His steps quickened, taking to the mouth of a nearby alley.

The sight before him made him pause for only a brief second. A man, a Muggle if his guess was right, held a gun on a young man who was collapsed on the ground, blood staining his hands.

"Change!" The armed man shouted at the youth.

"I can't." The boy whimpered.

The man gave a growl, aiming his weapon. "You will."

Harry's wand leapt to his hand without thought as he saw the man's fingers tighten on the gun. "Stupefy!"

The man collapsed, startling the boy, who looked up at Harry with wide purple eyes. *Merlin, they are purple.*

"Hey now. It's alright." Harry kept his voice calm even as he raged inside. The boy wasn't as young as Harry had thought. A little younger than Harry himself, though the eyes reminded Harry of his own during his time with the Dursleys and later when the threat of Voldemort hung over his head. "Come on; let's get you to the hospital."

The youth's eyes went even wider if that was possible as his head shook desperately. "Can't. No hospital."

Harry nodded. He knew that feeling as well. "Alright. Let's get you up and we'll take you somewhere to get those bullets out." Harry reached down, grabbing the boy's arm and knew at once just why he was so adamant about not going to the hospital. The boy was a were. A cat of some kind, Harry's magic told him. "Right, werecat then." Harry muttered quietly though not as quiet as he hoped—the boy flinched in his grasp. "Hey. None of that. You'll hurt yourself more. Is there a clinic or somewhere I can take you to that won't mind or ask too many questions?"

"You, you don't mind?"

Harry gave the boy, *must ask his name*, a gentle smile. "Not a bit. Now we need to get those out before you heal around them."

The boy shook his head. "They won't heal for a bit. He used low silver content, just enough to keep the wounds open and irritate them enough to get me to shift."

Harry's brow furrowed. "Why would he do that?" It didn't make any sense, shifted the boy would be much more dangerous—unless that was what the man had been going for ... kill him while he's animal so you don't have to look the human in the eye and get the bragging rights for taking down a were fully shifted.

"He's a black market hunter. Were pelts fetch a pretty penny so he uses bullets to get them to shift and then he skins them."

It seemed the boy had not only kept Harry distracted but also himself as well as he came to an abrupt halt outside a tiny clinic.

"You can leave me here. I'll be fine."

"You've lost a lot of blood. I'd feel more comfortable knowing you'll make it inside and are able to get treated."

+++

An hour later Nathaniel was patched up and resting comfortably with Harry in a chair beside the bed.

After that, everything went a bit hazy. A man, gorgeous but gorgeous in the way young Tom Riddle had been, had burst into the room demanding all sorts of things while somehow managing to throw accusations and innuendo at the same time.

A woman who made Harry wish faintly for Bellatrix followed shortly after and before Harry knew it there was pain and blood and a dead wereleopard and a pretty beat up werewolf bitch lying at his feet.

+++

It took a few weeks to get everything settled in his mind, not to mention with the pard. With the death of Gabriel at his hands, he'd inherited the man's broken pard.

Looking at them as they watched him with hope and wariness in their broken eyes Harry wouldn't have it any other way. They needed someone to look after them and Harry ... well, Harry needed someone to care for and now he had six wereleopards in his care.

Somehow, he didn't think this is what Hermione and Ron had had in mind when they said vacation.

Fin