HARRY POTTER WLoF REWRITE PART 3 CHAP 12

"Remind me." Nico grunted as he glanced down the figure that was climbing right beneath him. "Why the hell are we doing this again?"

"For the greater good." Moria replied easily, earning a look. "Plus if we fail the mission we don't get paid."

"Really effing wish we could apparate in."

"We'd probably die in a blaze of spells and bullets. Plus we aren't exactly in a good spot to let go…" She grunted as she pulled herself up another ledge. "And apparate are we?"

"No I suppose not."

"Now would you mind to keep climbing? This isn't exactly a nice view." She complained. Nico grinned and then began to wave his butt which was inches from her face. Moria was not amused.

A yelp was heard several seconds later and Nico seemed to fly over the edge of the wall to the hideout, rubbing his bottom. Moria climbed up a few moments later, clutching her wand in one of her hands as she hoisted herself up.

"That hurt!"

"It was supposed to hurt your twit!"

"Why'd you do that?"

"One can only be climbing up a cliff with you shaking your arse in their face for so long, Nico."

"You have no sense of humor."

"Of course I do." She replied. "I just don't see the point to laugh for that joke. In a sexist world, isn't it supposed to be the man looking at the woman's arse?" She asked with sarcasm. He snorted.

"You have no ass."

---

"We made it!"

"About time." Basilio hissed out in a whisper, he then blinked as Nico came into the light, hunched over like a wounded puppy, sporting a handprint across his face. Moria barely acknowledge the boys, going to Rosetta and Florentia.

"What happened to you?" Giacintro asked.

"What did you do? Break another girl's heart on the way up here?" Basilio added.

"Oh shut up. It's not my fault that Moria is sensitive about the size of her ass."

"…You should be lucky that she didn't drop you OFF the cliff, you moron." Basilio replied dryly.

"The woman is crazy enough to go on a defective broom over the ocean to rescue a girl, and you insult her?" Giacintro asked. Both men now looked at him shocked.

"Did you actually defend her?"

"Pinch me Bas, I'm dreaming."

"Oh shut up." He grumbled. "I'm just stating that if she's crazy enough to do that, then you should count yourself lucky she didn't kill you."

"You three done gossiping?" Moria called out. The men looked up and then hurried after their teammates. They took positions around the door. They looked at Giacintro and nodded. He nodded in return and stood in front of the door, before kicking it open. They rushed, wands aimed.

But nothing but cages stood.

"GOD DAMMIT!" Nico growled out. "They got away again!"

Moria looked around and frowned. This was indeed getting old. Every time they got close to whoever was in charge of all the smuggling it seemed that nothing they did stopped or slowed them down. They needed a new strategy.

But what?

---

"Feel de push and pull of de water around you. Feel de energy that flows aroun' yeh." Oggie instructed as Max stood in the middle of a small river, her feet bare. Water splashed around her ankles as she moved back and forth, practicing the steps and techniques that Oggie had showed her previously. She had to be strong and stern while at the same time lax and gentle. A difficult combination, but to Oggie's delight she was getting there. Her arms rotated slowly, flowing from side to side in a delicate dance, she slid on her stance. Suddenly she lost her balance and fell backward with a splash. Oggie quickly pulled the water logged girl out, settling her onto the bank.

"Spirits are like de water."

"…wet?" She ask as she shook her dripping hair out of her eyes. He chuckled.

"No. Flowing. De flow with time and nature." He replied. She was silent, contemplative, before sliding back into the river. She continued with her movements, and he watched as her stance changed slightly. No longer was it awkward and jerky as she fought to keep the balance in the river. It seemed that she had finally gotten the hang of it, and oddly enough the water had seemed to accept her.

A few moments later he realized why as the water around her began to slowly lift and a form began to materialize. He blinked.

A sludge creature formed, dragging dark layers of silt, and dying plants, reeking to high heaven as it grew to be larger than Oggie. The Bugul Noz watched it cautiously, waiting to see if it was a friendly or not. Vines prepared to snag Max in case it attacked. It looked at Max curiously as she continued her movements. When she finally stopped and opened her eyes, she gasped as the spirit stared at her, taking a step back and falling backwards into the river. This time, however, it wasn't Oggie that retrieved her, instead it was the sludge, muddy hand of the spirit who slowly dragged her out, bringing her to eye level, though Max was upside down at this point, and mentally thanking herself for wearing shorts under her jumper. They stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity.

Then they both began to glow.

"Pain…hurt…"

Max felt a headache grow as the intrusive voice entered the back of her mind, chanting those words. At first fear filtered as she wondered if he was intending to hurt her. However as he kept repeating and not actually bringing any harm to her, she began to note the pain in the voice echoing through her skull. She looked around and saw, to her horror, what looked like a thorn in the side of it. It let her down, but the voice kept echoing in her head, growing louder as she tenderly searched the wound.

"Oggie! There's something in its side." She called out. She heard a loud splash and turned to see Oggie by her side, observing it. Then vines wrapped tightly around it and he walked back up the bank.

"Maxwi, you pull at de base." He ordered and she nodded, though she wasn't sure how much good she could do. She barely had any footing in the river, but she would try.

Gripping the thick vine, she pulled back hard, nearly slipping. The rocks cut into her feet, but she ignored it as the vine grew taut. She could hear other voices now, chanting 'Pull! Pull!' and glanced back to see, to her surprise, flitty images around Oggie, pulling at the vines.

"Forest spirits." She realized, before returning back to the pulling. For the longest time it seemed nothing would yield. Max's feet had started to bleed, and her wet wrinkled hands were beginning to burn and tear. Then the thorn slid out slightly, and with the constant tugs, it began to give. It took her a few minutes to see that it wasn't a large thorn.

"It's a…bicycle?" She questioned, before returning to her pulling. And it was like a tidal wave. After a bike came more and more junk of the human race filtered out and more vines pulled them out of the river: An old bike, a few tires, bottles, glass, cans, discarded toys that were slowly molting, plastic bags and bottle rings, and so much more.

Then an explosion of water smashed into her and the occupants on the river bank, and Max finally lost her footing. With a short scream she smashed into the water, and the sudden excess of liquid caused the current to grow. She was going to be washed away, had not a tentacle like tale wrapped around her midsection and lifted her up. She coughed violently, exhuming the large contents of water that had been drowning her. She dragged in a shaky breath and looked up and was face to face, not at the sludge monster that had been there…but a spirit…at least she HOPED it was a spirit. Thankfully Oggie cleared up her confusion.

"River spirit." She heard Oggie say in awe.

It was, apparently, an extremely old river spirit that dwelled in any river of the world. He had countless wrinkles on his face, white-colored eyebrows and thinning amounts of facial hair, his body began to form out of the river's water in a shape she could compare to that of long, scaled, serpentine creature's form, with multiple wiry avian legs.

"Ttttthhhhhhaaaannnnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkkkk yyyyyyyooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu…" The river spirit hissed as he slowly placed the soaked Max down onto solid ground. He then flew towards her and through her. She gasped loudly, feeling as though the wind was knocked out of her as the spirit finished rushing through her. She gripped her chest and looked over her shoulder to see the river spirit dive back into the water without as much as a splash. She then looked at Oggie, her face covered with awe. He was smiling kindly.

"You habe made your firs' ally of de spirits." He said patting her head. She blinked and then smiled, before glancing at what now weighed into her hands. A rainbow colored rock, that, as she moved it around, she realized was a clear stone, that reflected its' colors into the palm of her hand.

"Id is a gifd for you." He explained. She looked at the stone and nodded, but decided not to test it out.

There was always later.

Remus looked rather startled when she returned to the house, dripping wet.

"What happened?" He asked as he placed a drying spell over her, coupled with a quick succession of warming spells. She smiled brightly.

"I just made a friend, that's all."

---

It was several weeks later since that day, and Max, as usual, was secretive of what she did in the forest. At this point, Moria and Remus had stopped asking. She was like Sirius in that aspect. She wouldn't breathe a word unless it was important. It was late at night, a day before Moria knew that she and her group were being sent on a mission. She wasn't really looking forward to it.

"You sure you can handle those three?" Moria asked as she watched the three children, glued to the TV watch. It was getting close to their bedtime and she could clearly see Harry was on the verge of passing out.

"Yes, I can handle the three of them. It's you I'm worried about."

"I'll be fine."

"Moria, you're going into a nest of smugglers, and those who buy from those smugglers. You're posing as a buyers wife!"

"Gia will protect me. He may be an arse, but he at least has the kindness to actually make sure no other jerk will try something on me. And thankfully he looks like someone that would buy smuggled goods."

"Still…"

"I don't want to this mission that much either. But I don't have a choice." She replied, ending the argument. He sighed.

"Just be careful."

"I always am. Trouble just seems to follow me." She replied.

"That's not reassuring, you know that?"

"Sorry." She replied as her mouth twitched into a smile for a brief moment and then glanced at the kids. Max was now the only one awake, though she was virtually gone. "Let's get the kids to bed." She murmured and went over, helping Max up, who yawned and rubbed her eyes. Harry was dead to the world and Moria was forced to pick him up, something the six year old had lately been against. He didn't even bother to protest, just sleepily wrapped his arms around her neck. Remus chuckled, though Geoffrey was no better.

"See you in a few minutes." She teased as they separated. Remus going up one set of stairs as Moria walked down the hall. Max walked sluggishly to her bed and promptly flopped onto the covers. Moria smiled, before she settled Harry on his bed. He shifted, and blinked wearily, sleep heavy in his eyes.

"I'm just putting you into your bed, Harry. Go back to sleep." She said softly, tucking him in. He burrowed into the covers.

"…night…Mum…"

Her hands froze on the covers as she stared at his face in shock and surprise, trying to figure out if she had just imagined him saying that, that maybe in his sleep filled mind, he had said her name and it just sounded like Mum. But her name didn't remotely rhyme with that word. She regained her composure and shook her head, exhaling shakily. She kissed his forehead and finished tucking the sleeping boy in. After tucking in Max she quietly, yet quickly left the room, her heart beating hard in her chest, throbbing.

Whether it was in pain or elation, she wasn't sure. Remus didn't look up when she came down the stairs.

"Harry called me Mum."

He looked up to that as she flopped into a nearby chair.

"…did you not want him to?"

"I don't know!" She hissed out. "I mean, Lily's his mother and everything, she's the one he should be calling Mum, not me. But…"

"But you're raising him. It's natural I guess."

"I'm not even sure if he did that just because he was half asleep and confused me as Lily or something."

"You do realize you and Lily look nothing alike."

"…is that an insult or a compliment?"

"Neither. It's an observation." Remus replied. "Look, it could very well be he just didn't really think about it because he was half asleep. Things can happen."

"But what if it's not?" She asked softly.

"Then that's up to you." He replied with a shrug. "Harry knows you aren't his mother, Moria. You and I have made sure that Max, Harry, and Geoffrey know about the parents that aren't here for them."

"Excluding Geoffrey's father."

"Yes, excluding Geoffrey's father." Remus stated.

"…does he know? That you aren't…"

"He knows. Not in graphic detail, mind you, but I had to tell him why I was just his guardian, not his father."

"You're more of a father to him than whoever his actual father is." She replied and Remus smiled.

"But in the case of Harry, think it over…even though he knows you're not his blood mother…he probably sees you as his…second mother. And there's nothing wrong with that." He replied. She was silent, and stared at the table.

---

"Stop frowning, and bear with it."

"You're not the one wearing a dress." Moria muttered under her breath as she squirmed. "I can't breathe in this."

"It's a DRESS."

"It's a torture device." She hissed back as the entered the crowd of bustling people. "And if you don't shut up, I will make you regret it later on."

He snorted under his breath and she gripped his arm a bit too tight for his liking as he dragged her to the edge. "Now we have to just sit and observe."

"We have to look for…Fermi, the supposed head smuggler…and…."

"Abate. From what Nico said, he buys from Fermi and then sells them to black markets."

"Why couldn't Nico go to this? This was his main study and he excelled in shit like this." She muttered under her breath, pushing a medium strand of hair behind her ear.

"He said that he knew Abate when he was younger…be easier to be recognized." Giacintro replied with a shrug. "Look just sit there and act pretty. Then everything should be smooth sailing."

She gave a pretty smile and pushed her hair back, and he noticed her middle finger was the only one prevalent.

"Classy." He grumbled under his breath and she offered a cool look, which was quickly masked as several men came up to Giacintro and her. It was rather impressive how quickly she could change emotions, he would admit as he began to converse with people who just introduced themselves to him. While he mentioned Moria, they, thankfully only gave her a quick glance over. They didn't need things to get complicated.

How she was giving the haughty, bored look was beyond him. He remembered she had mentioned that she was going to have to pull out the "Narcissa personality" before this mission. Whoever Narcissa was, he supposed that they knew each other well enough for her to do this. Finally they were allowed to go to the room that they had been unfortunately forced to share for a little bit. He cracked his back.

"So, what are we supposed to do now?"

"I don't know, think of something."

"Well Darling, you should make sure there aren't any bugs in this place." She said, looking at him. He rolled his eyes, but nodded nonetheless. After several searches and spell casts, nothing came up.

"So you got to talk to several of the well to do smugglers." She replied, pulling off the set of fake earrings, rubbing the lobe.

"Yeah."

"None of them were the two we're looking for." She replied.

"Correct."

"So what now?"

"We stay until we find them."

"So, Darling." She drawled sarcastically. "What are we doing right now?"

"Figure it out." He replied and she glared.

"This is supposed to be a tag team."

"Use your imagination. Women are good at that aren't they?"

She glared at him angrily, before an idea sparked and as he turned there he missed the evil glint in her eyes. As he began to change, he heard sudden thumping, as though wood hitting against the wall.

And then groaning.

He turned to see Moria kicking the backboard against the wall. She cupped her hand over next to her mouth. "Oh yes….Yeeesssss…" She called out. His face turned a bright red at the realization of what she was doing. "Oh yes, JUST like that!"

"What are you doing?" He hissed out. She looked at him with an amused glare.

"Using my imagination." She mumbled before returning to what she was doing. "Yyyyeeesssssssss…" She annunciated and he looked about ready to rip her head off, his own head a bright red, but he turned away and stormed away. Finally after a little while her voice died down and she walked to where he was sitting.

"You are so shy." She commented with a smirk.

"You're so blasphemous."

"Why is it blasphemous? Technically speaking, we're married in this mission." She responded shortly.

"I MEANT to go to bed."

"We did technically go to bed." She teased.

"Ugh!" He groaned and got up to leave the room.

"Wait." Moria called out and went to him, casting a warming spell over him. He looked at her in confusion as she unbuttoned several of his buttons on his shirt and then messed up his hair. "There. Now you can go ahead and storm outside." She whispered.

"What the hell are you doing? Trying to give me heat stroke?" He asked, pulling at his shirt opening, sweat beginning to slide down his neck. She gave him a look.

"You just went through a round of sex, you moron. Unless you are unlike the rest of the population of males, I would assume you have sweat and messed up hair and decided not to button your shirt entirely so you could go have a damn smoke. Honestly, was what Rosetta saying about you being a womanizer true?"

"I just never went through this after!" He hissed out. She looked amused.

"Blimey….you don't know what you're missing." She replied and he glared at her.

"Oh and you're such an expert."

"I'll have you know my husband and I were quite capable of having sex. If that wasn't the case, I'd be lacking in one child." She replied, before turning and going to her bag to grab papers. He grumbled and then stepped out. The neighbor of them was as well. He gave Giacintro a grin and a thumbs-up.

Silently he wondered if he could Avada Kedavra himself as he strode out of the hotel to go get a smoke.