Advent '10 - December 9th
December 9th - 16 days to go
Damos groaned and shifted in place, rolling over until he was lying on his back.
He sighed as the breeze caressed the scales on his belly. That felt so good!
He froze.
Wait a minute…
With a jerk his eyes snapped open and he awkwardly twisted in place, staggering to his feet. All four of them.
Shock made him lose control and he let out a puff of hot grey smoke.
What the Hell?
He stared around him. It was dark so he couldn't see very much but from what he could make out by the faint light of the stars and new moon he was in a wide open space surrounded by mountains.
Obviously not in Germany then.
Did he accidentally go back in time?
He tried to remember but his head felt fuzzy. Sitting he tried to clear his mind.
He had been in the bar. He had been having a bad day and had gone to get a drink. There had been that amazing smell…
The smell attached to the man. With green hair and eyes.
Oh Fuck!
That was the guy! Green! Why had he not thought of that sooner?
The smell…
The guy was wearing something to attract them then? Damos distinctly remembered having to warn off practically all the other dominants in the bar…
Darion!
The fucker! He certainly remembered him now. They both got turned into their damned animal form when they had drunk that water.
There were brief flashes of memory. Him crashing after that scent. Needing to have it. Running with the were's.
And trying to rip Darion's throat out.
Oh God, they had taken out half the buildings in the human shopping district.
Then there were humans that waved sticks. Red light. Flashes of talking, being moved, lifted, then silence.
Then he woke up here, in his dragon form. And he still had no idea where he was!
Good thing he could move through the Rytis.
Whatever the guy had slipped him seemed to be wearing off as he could feel his power returning to his control. He concentrated, and it was still harder than it should have been, and twisted his form back into human.
He had the feeling it would have been almost impossible to do if his base form wasn't human originally. At least until whatever the guy had slipped them had worked its way out of his system.
Ah well, too bad for Darion!
He was left sitting completely starkers in the middle of a field.
It was then he noticed the other dragons.
His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. There were dragons? Here? Just sleeping?
Was it some sort of dragon gathering ground?
Had the little humans not know about were-dragons and just dragged him to be with others of his 'supposed' kind?
He saw Darion still sleeping a way aways. Bloodlust ripped through him, muted in a way that had him suspecting the drug that he had been slipped.
Even still it was strong enough that he had the urge to change back and rip his unsuspecting cousin's throat out.
Then he saw a female dragon obviously taking an interest in Darion, twining her body around his slumbering form.
Ha! Deal with that fucker!
A self satisfied smile on his face he focused on the Rytis and manipulated it to his needs. He needed a shower, and then he needed to find Savitar and update him on the situation.
Harry had led Fred and George to just outside the were-bar, making sure they were completely out of sight. Before they had left Harry had made Fred cast the scent replacing charm on all of them again.
He needed the time to set up stage two.
After that he was all for letting the were's know exactly who was pranking them.
They were making a quick getaway after all.
Fred and George were carrying the ward stones that they had been working on all afternoon. Imbuing them with the spells they used on the anti-gravity hats that they sold.
The ward stones would anchor the spells so that a specific area would be affected rather than just an object.
It was a matter of genius.
Harry was just glad that he had two such geniuses travelling with him - allowing him to realise his dreams.
The plan was then simple. Set up the stones. Activate them. Then when the were's were floundering around in mid air burst through the door and cast as many repellent charms on everything they could see.
The evolving chaos would be, not to be punny, magical, with people and furniture flying every which way as they repelled from the other whenever they came into close contact.
Harry almost started cackling when he thought about it.
But now was not the time for evil laughter!
Instead he turned to Fred and George who had just been standing and staring at him as he went off in his little dream world.
"Okay," he said, mentally shaking himself. "We each take three stones and make sure they're set out in the places I mapped out."
"Aye aye!" Fred and George saluted him with grins and separated the flat, grey stones that were each the size of Harry's head.
Harry staggered a little under the weight. Damn things were heavy, and if it wasn't for the chance that he could break the woven spells he would have cast a featherweight charm on them.
Instead he gritted his teeth and straightened his spine.
"Meet back here when we're done." He wheezed out, feeling very jealous of Fred and George as they didn't seem to be at all affected by the weight in their arms. Damn Beater muscles.
Harry inwardly cursed his puny upper body strength. Didn't take much strength to catch a flying golf ball. The only muscles that got a work out in Quiddich were his legs and hand.
The twins nodded at him and hurried off, seamlessly blending in with the shadows as they moved into position.
Harry huffed as he staggered into his own first position, gratefully dropping the stone into place and kicking it once for good measure.
Stupid stone.
The weight was slightly more manageable now and Harry got the second stone into position fairly easily.
It was the third stone that had him running into problems.
He had made sure that he had assigned himself this position as it was the one closest to the back door. There was greater chance of getting caught and, as much as he loved the twins, sneakiness was not always their forte.
To be honest it wasn't his either, but he had some Slytherin in him. That had to count for something right?
"What are you doing?"
Harry's heart jumped and he spun around, clutching at his chest.
There was a man standing in the back door, leaning against the door jamb and smoking a cigarette. The smoke curling lazily up into the night air.
"Um…" Harry said intelligently.
The man raised his eyebrow and put the cigarette to his lips, dragging deeply. Harry watched, captivated, as the embers lit up the taller man's eyes and made them flair gold for a second.
"Because it looks to me like you were up to something."
"No I wasn't." Harry said quickly.
The man grinned and took another drag. "You need to work on your lying." He said in amusement.
"Why does everyone say that!" Harry whined, and then caught himself. "I mean, no I don't. Because I'm not lying."
The man sauntered forward until he was chest to chest with Harry - who had to tilt his head back to keep eye contact.
"Challenging." The man murmured, smokey breath washing over Harry's face and making his stomach tighten. "I like."
Harry swallowed harshly. "Yeah?" he asked, a little breathlessly.
The man leaned down until their noses bumped against each others and Harry swore that he could feel the barest brush of lips against his own as the man whispered "Yeah."
Against his will Harry's toes curled in his boots and he straightened up.
The man, catching this subconscious reaction, grinned ferally at him.
"Name's John."
"John." Harry repeated dazedly.
"If you ever want a good time just let me know."
John took a step back, dropped his cigarette and stamped on it to put it out.
"Wait!" Harry called after him.
John turned from his place in the doorway to look back at the shorter man. "Yeah?" he asked.
"Why are you just letting me get away with this?" Harry asked, rolling his eyes at his mental stupidity. The man had been letting him go! Why did he have to question it?
Stupid Gryffindor curiosity.
John hummed to himself in thought and then turned his gaze back onto Harry with a quirky smile that had Harry's blood heating up.
"From what I can gather, you're not doing this maliciously."
It wasn't a question but Harry shook his head nonetheless.
The were shrugged. "Most of the others have rods stuck up their arses which have their own rods. A little humour in their life might not be amiss.
"A pranking never hurt anyone and a little humility beaten into them will do them the world of good."
He winked at Harry, "Besides, that frog thing was hilarious. I'm hoping that you've planned something awesome for us…?" He trailed off until Harry nodded at him. "Good." He said smiling, "Then I can brag to the other were's that we got the better prank."
"So you're not going to say that you saw me out here?"
John took a moment to look around exaggeratedly. "Saw anyone? I don't know what you're talking about. I was just having a smoke on my break."
Harry grinned and held up a hand in goodbye as John smirked at him and went back inside.
Sighing happily, though he wasn't quite sure why Harry pushed the last stone into position and watched as it glowed blue for a second, meaning that Fred and George had already placed their stones and this one had completed the circle.
There were yells from behind the closed door and warm laughter that sounded suspiciously like John.
Harry was about to make his way back to the meeting point when he stopped and raised his head, blinking slightly.
"What frog thing?" He asked himself in confusion.
There was no reply and Harry shrugged it off, quickly jogging back to Fred and George who were practically bouncing in place.
"Can we go now?" They asked in excitement.
Harry grinned, feeling the adrenaline warming his blood. "Follow me."
He cast a finite on himself, so that the were's would be able to smell him, and rushed towards the door with his wand drawn.
The guards standing at the entrance were looking in through the door with their mouths open; watching as every were, table and chair were floating in mid air.
People were frantically flailing about, trying to propel themselves towards something sturdy and bolted to the floor, like the bar itself, or trying to grab onto the nearest person to give some sort of stability.
Harry sent two spells at the guards' unprotected backs that propelled them into the room and midair, yelling as they floated across the room, turning upside down.
Harry grinned as he burst into the doorframe, very carefully making sure that he didn't cross the threshold.
"Hi ho Silver, away!" He called out, gaining the attention of all the were's as he pointed his wand at two people who had managed to get themselves to float towards one another.
They repellent spell struck them both dead on and, for a moment, the were's paused as if they expected some sort of calamity from the sky.
When nothing happened straightaway they turned angry eyes that promised death onto Harry.
At least until the two intended weres finally bumped into each other…and rocketed in different directions across the room.
"That was awesome!" Fred cried, as he stood next to Harry.
"But look." George said, motioning towards the other were's who were staring dumbstruck, "They want to be in on the fun too!"
With that Harry and the twins started casting non stop at everything. Even the walls, floor and ceiling were covered in repellent charms.
This was rather unfortunate for those who had been clinging to the bar, as they were launched across the room. Some of them made it to the other side. Others hit their fellow were's who were then launched in opposite directions.
"It's like some kind of messed up, awesome, people pinball air hockey mix." Harry said in awe as he watched people, tables, chairs and bottles ricochet around the room, gaining momentum.
"Good job, Harry!" Fred said, clapping him on the back.
Unfortunately, Harry wasn't expecting this and it caused him to take a step forward.
He had a second in which the words 'Oh shit' crossed his mind before he was propelled upwards into the ceiling where he then bounced into a table, pinging back into a passing chair and being launched, screaming, into the far wall.
"Oops," Fred said, dropping his hand.
George shrugged at his brother. "Well, we always did test the pranks on ourselves first." He said reasonably.
They grinned evilly at each other, pulled out their wands and cast a repellant charm on Harry so he didn't have to rely on the ones coating everything else. It was a lot harder than it looked but George got him as he screamed by. Then they turned to each other, bowed, cast the charm and with loud 'Woops!' jumped into the room, making sure to bounce into as many people as possible.
"Fred!" Harry yelled as he passed by the red-head, upside down.
"Aren't you having fun Harry?" Fred yelled back, trying to be heard over the screams that the were's were making.
Harry groaned as he hit another were and bounced back across the room, this time bypassing George.
"This is kinda awesome!" He called out, hitting the wall and sailing down to the floor.
"You're telling me."
Harry twisted around in mid air in a daring feat of flexibility to see John sailing past him, grinning.
"John!" He called out happily, twisting again so his feet hit the wall and he propelled himself into John's returning trajectory. "Better prank?" He called out.
Harry and John collided mid air, John wrapping his arms around Harry's waist. "Better prank." He confirmed lowly, in Harry's ear, in the bare second they had before they were both wrenched in opposite directions.
Harry sailed past Alex next, who took a sniff of the air as they passed one another and looked at him in shock. "You!" He exclaimed as he flew across the room.
Harry shrugged and looked sheepish for a moment. "Sorry about that!" He called out after Alex's quickly disappearing form.
Harry spun and let out a laugh. This was way better than flying. He'd have to set up a room in his house to be like this.
He bounced past Fred. "As much as I'm enjoying this, I think we should leave!" He called out as Fred punched his arm out at a bottle, sending it careening across the room.
"I think you're right, Harry." George said as he soared by, upside down, and swinging his arms like bludger bats at the nearest chairs, watching as they skittered into unsuspecting weres.
"Apparate?" Harry asked.
"Apparate." The twins nodded.
Despite the agreement, they found it much harder to apparate away when they couldn't turn properly and were pinging off things left and right.
Eventually they managed it and they left the weres to play in their bar with three loud cracks.
They appeared in the room five feet from the ground.
Away from the anti-gravity field they had set up they quickly fell. The twins landing on heavily on Harry.
Clambering to their feet they checked that they hadn't left anything behind - which would have been awkward and fairly devastating to their getaway plans.
Whilst Fred gathered their stuff, Harry cast sticking charms to himself once again and accio'd his puffskeins to him. Ash, again, managing to stick himself on Harry's forehead.
George gathered the pair of Nifflers and stuck them to Harry's back, then held out the portkey for Harry and Fred to grab a hold.
With one last grin at each other they disappeared from the room.