IT Sleeps

The return of the survivors of the attack on Mr. Black was met by a hall of shocked silence as their a.s.sembled brethren. As the a.s.sorted death munchers closed in on the two surviving strike team members, one of the survivors let out a long shuttering gasp and expired.

The other wheezed loudly, "it . . . ambush, everyone is dead." After that the man's body gave one long shutter before he too joined his teammates in death.

The a.s.sorted death eaters looked at each other in shock, "what are we going to do?" One of the newer members asked.

"You go inform the dark lord of what has happened," one of the more experienced munchers replied, "we'll clean this up."

"Right." The new death eater agreed, wanting to get as far away from the bloodied mess on the ground as he could.

The more experienced death eaters watched the man go with barely concealed smirks, and grins of antic.i.p.ation.

"WHAT?" The Dark Lord bellowed, "CRUCIO."

"Let's get to work," the experienced death eater motioned towards the mess. "Our master won't be happy and seeing this might give him an excuse to show us how unhappy he is about the situation."

The death eaters moved forward and began lifting up the shattered remains.

"What do we have here?" One of them smirked holding up a concussed rat with a b.l.o.o.d.y stub where his tail had been, "looks like the master won't be showing us his displeasure after all."

"Heh," another death eater sneered. "Take him in to see the master, wouldn't want to keep the dark lord waiting after all."

IIIIIIIIII

Peter awoke to the frowning face of his master and nearly wet himself when he realized that his years of running from death may be coming to an end.

"Tell me," the Dark Lord's voice was oddly calm. "Tell me what happened to the men that I sent to kill Black."

"I . . . I heard a terrible shriek and saw a bright light," Peter s.h.i.+vered. "I turned into a rat and I felt a pain in my tail, there was a strange sound and I couldn't see anything after the sound went away I saw two of the newer recruits trying to activate the portkey so I crawled over to them."

"I see," the Dark Lord nodded. "Much as it pains me to say it, death will not be your punishment since I still have some use for you. CRUCIO."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry Master." The rat sobbed, "I'm sorry I failed you."

"You," the dark lord turned away from the rat and towards his last victim. "Have another team readied, tell them to come back successful."

"Yes master," the young death eater sobbed. "I shall do it immediately."

IIIIIIIIII

"Thank you all for coming," the grizzled looking older man looked around the room. "Many of you have heard rumors about a wizard named Black wandering around Europe making life difficult for blood purists and other a.s.sorted bad types."

"Yes sir," one of the men in the crowd nodded. "But what's that have to do with us?"

"Black arrived last night," the older man looked around the room. "And destroyed a Death Eater Hunter Killer team before we even had a chance to set up surveillance."

"How did he do it?"

"We're not sure," the older man admitted with a frown. "The deaths looked like an accident and the bodies were too damaged to make any conclusions."

"So he's still angry about what happened in Germany then?"

"Looks like he's calmed down a bit," the old man held up some pictures that looked like the floor of a slaughterhouse. "As you can see, whatever he did was messy. But unlike most of the deaths in Germany, this one looked like an accident and my counterparts tell me that he likes to make things look like accidents and coincidences . . . based on his past behavior what happened in Germany was not normal."

"Do we have any idea what set him off?"

"I asked," the old man frowned. "And all I was told is that Mr. Black is very old and that something terrible happened that brought up memories of a terrible time."

"What terrible time?" One of the younger officers asked.

"The Germans suspect that Mr. Black may have had a hand in liberating the camps," the old man sighed. "And they think that may have been one of the things that set him off."

Several of the younger law enforcement officers s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably in the silence that followed the Commander's last statement.

"How do you want us to act towards Mr. Black?" One of the officers asked, breaking the silence.

"Keep an eye on him and listen to what he says. I'm told that he likes to give advice to the people following him, do not enter his hotel room uninvited, and be polite." The old man smiled, "I'd like to get him in here for a tour of the place and I don't think he'd agree if we weren't polite."

IIIIIIIIII

Harry spent most of the morning laying in bed and lazing about, after years of waking with the dawn to make breakfast for his 'family' it felt strange to sleep in and spend the day doing nothing until finally, hunger drove him from his bed and towards his suite's telephone to order room service. After his desire for food had been appeased, Harry's eyes darted around the room in search of entertainment. They lingered for a time on the large television in the center of the room before reluctantly moving to his pack and the books within. Hermione would kill him if he spent his entire vacation without doing anything productive, besides it was possible that there could be something within one of the books that would help him live to see his eighteenth birthday . . . snorting at the thought and smiling cynically, Harry pulled out one of the books and began to read.

"Room service," Harry's reading was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"One moment," Harry put his book face down on the table beside his chair and walked towards the door. "Come in."

"Thank you, sir," the hotel's employee looked around the room. "Doing a bit of reading?"

"It's always a good idea to take the time to improve your mind," Harry grinned. "Do you have what I ordered?"

"Right here sir," the man nodded, holding up a tray. "Where do you want me to put it sir?"

"On the table is fine," Harry motioned. "Is there anything else?"

"No sir," the hotel employee shook his head. "Only that the meal and any future meals you chose to have here are compliments of the management."

"Thank you," Harry nodded.

"You are very welcome sir," the man nodded. "So unless you need me for something else?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "I have everything I need."

"Then good day sir."

Harry watched as the man carefully closed the door, the strangeness of the man's actions caused Harry's paranoia to go into overdrive. Eyeing the food with hunger and suspicion, Harry picked up one of the books that he had been reading and began to flip through it until he found the section on poisons.

A wave of his wand and a muttered incantation left Harry feeling a mixture of embarra.s.sment and relief, if he didn't learn to relax then he'd end up like Moody before the summer was up. On the other hand, Moody had lived through several attempts on his life.

"Professor," Harry called into his lighter. "Professor, are you there?"

"No," a female voice answered. "But I am, what do you need Mr. Black?"

"Henchgirl?"

"Yup," the voice giggled. "Can I help you with something?"

"I was wondering if you could develop some sort of item that detects poisons and things," Harry asked quietly. "Might be nice if it did other things too, but something to detect poisons was my first thought."

"Ok," Henchgirl's voice replied. "We'll add something to detect things onto the list, do you need anything else?"

"No," Harry smiled. "Do you?"

"Not at the moment," Henchgirl replied quickly. "But if I think of something, I'll let you know."

"Thank you, goodbye."

"Bye."

That taken care of, Harry sat down and began to eat.

IIIIIIIIII

At the same time, the man who had delivered Mr. Black's food was preparing to make a report of his own.

"This is Black Watch calling HQ," the man whispered into his own Zippo. "I have a report on my first meeting with Mr. Black."

"Report," the voice that replied was devoid of emotion.

"I delivered his food and we talked for a few minutes, he was reading when I arrived and he advised me that research was essential to our line of work."

"Did you see what he was reading?"

"No," the agent replied with regret. "Most of the t.i.tles were in languages that I couldn't understand."

"I see," the voice replied. "Continue."

"After that I left," the man finished. "I think that he may have performed some sort of detection spell while I was in the hall, but I didn't recognize the magical signature."

"That's also understandable, Mr. Black has a habit of using odd, obscure, and Unknown spells." The voice paused, "it's also understandable that Mr. Black recognized you as something other than a hotel employee when you entered his room. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been able to fool him and he keeps his tails until he grows tired of them."

"Got it," the man nodded. "Black Watch signing out."

"HQ signing out."

IIIIIIIIII

Harry spent the remainder of the day reading books and ordering room service. At the end of the day, Harry finally put up his books and went to sleep with plans for the next day dancing in his head.

Harry awoke late the next morning and sprung out of bed, today was the day that he was going to set his plans into motion. Today was the day that he was going to do something so strange and humiliating that none of his friends at Hogwarts could ever know about it.

Marching down to the front desk, Harry handed over his key.

"Checking out sir?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "I'm going out for the day and I suspect that I might end up doing a bit of drinking and I don't want to lose it."

"I understand sir," the clerk nodded. "We'll have it waiting for you when you return."

"Thank you," Harry nodded. "I'll be back later today, tomorrow at the latest."

"Have a good time sir," the hotel desk clerk waited until his guest was out of sight before calling his superiors. It didn't matter that Black knew he was being watched, it would have been impolite to be blatant about it.

IIIIIIIIII

"Good afternoon sir," a pair of men approached Mr. Black. "How are you today?"

"I'm fine," Harry answered politely. "How are you?"

"Fine," the men nodded. "The two of us work for Magical Law Enforcement and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions?"

"Sure," Harry shrugged. "Ask away."

"For starters, do you mind if we ask where you're going today?"

"Salzburg," Harry smiled. "I hear that it's a beautiful city and I'd like to go look at a few things."

"It is," one of the men agreed. "Have you arranged transportation yet?"

"Not yet," Harry smiled. "Is there anything you recommend?"

"Well," one of them smiled. "Would you mind accompanying us? We have to go anyway."

"Sure," Harry smiled. "And thank you."

"No problem," the man nodded to his partner who disappeared with a pop. "My partner will be back with a portkey in just a few minutes."

"Thank you," Harry nodded. "It sure was lucky that you happened to be going to Salzburg too."

"Yeah, lucky." The man grinned, resisting the urge to laugh. "So, did you hear about the group of death eaters that they found on the tracks the other day?"

"No," Harry's eyes widened in concern. "What happened? Was anybody hurt?"

"Only the death eaters." The man marveled at Black's performance, if he didn't know any better he would swear that Black had nothing to do with the incident. "Looks like they ported in and were killed by the train, a rather fortunate . . . accident."

"Yeah," Harry nodded in agreement. "It's a good thing they were taken care of before anybody was hurt, lucky thing they were so careless with their arrival point."

"Yeah," the man agreed. "Lucky."

Any further conversation was cut short by the reappearance of the man's partner.

"I've got the portkey," the man smiled waving an old shoe. "Grab hold so we can be on our way."

"Where to now Mr. Black?" One of the Austrian Law Enforcement Agents asked with a smile.

"Well," Harry paused. "First, there's something I'd like to do in the hills. After that, I'm planning to have a bit of fun."

"Alright," the man nodded. "Let's go."

The three men spent most of the trip out of time in deep conversation about a wide array of topics, from the insurrection in England to the odd way death eaters kept dying in accidents.

"Here we are," one of the Officers smiled. "About the most isolated place you can get to this close to town, the wards keep folks from noticing this place and spoiling the natural beauty."

"Thanks," Harry smiled. "I really appreciate the fact that you two took the time to take me here."

"Not a problem Mr. Black," the second officer replied, "we're happy to provide the company."

"I've gotta go do something," Harry smiled. "I'll be right back."

"Have fun," the Officer smirked.

"I will," Harry replied innocently as he began to walk away.

Harry walked around the nearest hill and found himself in a small draw, and after taking a moment to look around to ensure that he wasn't being followed he cleared his voice and began to sing.

"The hills are alive, and they're eating people," he choked off a laugh. He had wanted to do that since his primary school cla.s.s had watched 'The Sound of Music.' "I just hope they never find out about this." Harry mumbled, his dorm mates would never let him forget it if they learned about it, and who knew what sort of twisted thing Snape would do. No, it was better than this all remained his little secret.

"Did you hear that," one of the hidden officers whispered to the other. "IT might be breaking loose."

"I heard," the other man's voice was grim. "I'd love to know how he knew that IT even exists though."

"Let's get back to the trail," the other whispered back in reply. "I've been told that Mr. Black likes to maintain the illusion that he doesn't notice the way people follow him."

The two men stood and reached the trail only moments before Harry's return.

"Thanks for waiting," Harry smiled. "I just had to get something out of my system."

"No problem," one of the Officers smiled, "though I'm afraid that we'll have to leave your company after we get to town."

"Oh," Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. "Did something come up?"

"Yes," the Officer agreed, "something came up that we need to deal with right away."

"Good luck with that then," Harry smiled.

"Thanks," the Officers nodded. "Let's get back to town."

The three men returned to Salzburg and the two Law Enforcement Officers bid Harry a fond farewell, leaving Harry to plan the remainder of the day's activities alone.

"Excuse me"

Harry turned to look at the two buxom blond backpackers that had just addressed him. "Yes?"

"You wouldn't happen to know where the 'Sound of Music; tour is, would you?"

"I'm afraid not," Harry shook his head. "But it sounds interesting, would you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," the two Swedish backpackers grinned. "Let's go."

It did not take long for Harry and his two companions to find and join the tour and the three of them spent the next several hours visiting the places that the film was filmed in the company of a drunken singing group of fellow backpackers.

They ended the night in a hostel called the Yoho drinking pints of beer and listening to the 'Sound of Music' play on the television. Harry's last memory before everything went black was of doing a layback under the tap while watching a large and rather fat German dance on one of the tables while wearing a pink latex bodysuit and matching tutu.

IIIIIIIIII

"Sir," one of the law Enforcement Officers that had been escorting Mr. Black burst into their superior's office, "the wards holding IT are starting to unravel."

"What?" The old man's eyebrows shot up, "explain."

"We were talking to Mr. Black and he indicated that he wanted to take a stroll in the hills to take care of something," the Officer began. "When we got there, he went off on his own."

"And?"

"We observed him check the wards, then he called out that IT was going to start eating people." The Officer frowned, "we met up with Mr. Black and he claimed that he had gone off to answer the call of nature."

"He likes to play innocent," the old man waved his hand in dismissal. "What happened next?"

"We accompanied Mr. Black back to Salzburg and watched him leave with a pair of attractive young Swedish backpackers." The Officer grinned, "then we alerted everyone we could in Salzburg and went back to the prison."

"Go on," the old man struggled to remain calm.

"It took the specialists three hours to find the weak point in the wards," the officer shook his head in wonder. "It took a team of twelve experts three hours to find something that Mr. Black discovered in thirty seconds. Turns out that someone has been weakening the portions that control the alarms, once those were gone they would have been able to release IT at their leisure."

"I trust every thing's been taken care of?"

"Yes sir, everything been taken care of and there's an investigation to find out how the wards could have been breached."

"Good," the old man nodded. "Though I do wonder how Black knew about IT."

"I did too sir, so I looked at the records." The Officer licked his lips nervously, "as you know there were thirteen survivors from the group that battled and defeated IT."

"And?"

"Twelve of them were recorded by name," the Officer paused. "And the thirteenth . . . the thirteenth was recorded as the unknown wizard in black."

"I see," the old man exhaled, "the Germans said he was old and the Italians said he was even older."

"Sir?"

"The Italians think that he's been around for at least two thousand years," the old man chuckled. "Would explain how he does what he can do."

"I guess it would sir."

AN: Another part down, Harry has a bit more fun in Austria and then it's off to Hungary.

One thousand years ago:

"Thank you for helping us defeat IT," the Wizard addressed the stranger. "Before you go, won't you at least give us your name?"

"Names are unimportant," the wizard in a dark robe replied. "I only did what any would have done if they found themselves in the same situation."

"Then farewell stranger," the Wizard nodded. "Know that you will always be welcome in these lands."

"Thank you . . . friend." The wizard smiled, then jumped on his horse and rode into the sunset. Why oh Why had his parents given him a name like Theodoric the Accident.