Flying Without A Broom
Teething Problems
By Ruskbyte
Chapter Eight
- Teething Problems -
Nymphadora Tonks was dreaming. Or at least, she fervently hoped she was. That would be the best, easiest and sanest explanation of how she had found herself in this predicament.
It was very noisy, wherever they were. Island Sauna? Something like that, Tonks had been a smidgeon distracted at the time, not surprising all things considered. Harry had somehow managed to accomplish something even Dumbledore could not and had Apparated them both halfway around the world. And he wasn't even tired afterwards. Quite the contrary actually, as he was currently bouncing around like an overly excitable three-year old.
The forest was a lush and vivid green that Tonks had never before encountered. It was so alive, more so than the forests back in merry old England were. The sounds of this jungle, it seemed too crowded to be considered a forest, were loud, insistent and all encompassing. There must have been whole flocks of birds hiding in the bushes, judging by the volume of bird song, though what the hell they could find to sing about at a moment like this, Tonks could not even begin to comprehend.
"At least things are getting better," commented Harry, not sounding the least bit out of breath, nor looking even the slightest bit tired by the furious pace they were running at.
"Better? Better?! Better?!?! How is this better?!" Tonks shot back incredulously, trying to keep her breathing regular as she and Harry belted between the thick knots of trees, bushes and other green stuff.
"Well, we aren't being chased by those Compy things any more, right?"
"THAT'S BECAUSE THEY WERE GUTTED BY THE PACK OF VELOCIRAPTORS!!!"
Tonks quickly glanced over her shoulder, only long enough to catch a glimpse of their pursuers, before turning her attention back to the treacherous terrain. There wasn't time to get a proper count, but she had seen several of the sleek predators darting to and fro, following behind them.
She had loved dinosaurs as a child, pestering her parents to take her to see the grand fossilized skeletons that stood in the entrance to the Natural History Museum. That childhood fascination had dimmed somewhat over the years, particularly after she first saw a dragon, but she still sometimes returned to marvel at the splendour that these beast must have existed in. Why, there had been a wonderful documentary on them, screened by the BBC during the summer, which Tonks had watched avidly on her father's telly.
Which is why she could identify the pack of velociraptors for what they were. How this particular breed of dinosaur could be running around in the twentieth century was beyond her. Not to mention all the other dinosaurs. That, however, was the least of Tonks' worries at the moment. Right now, top of her list, was getting off this island alive and in one piece. Which was proving damnably difficult for the young Auror.
She couldn't Apparate herself and Harry to safety, for the simple reason that she had only the vaguest idea of where they were. Getting from A to B was impossible when you didn't have a clue where A was to begin with. Besides which, they were on an island in the middle of the ocean, who knew how far from anywhere she knew in England. If she did try and Apparate them, chances where they would appear with a pop above the water and Tonks wasn't too sure Harry would be able to swim properly, intoxicated as he was.
Looking forward, through the dense foliage, Tonks spotted what could be salvation. There, not too far away, was a particularly tall tree that they might be able to climb up. The raptors were obviously very intelligent, for non-Magical creatures, but she doubted they could chase after them up a tree trunk. The only problem was getting there without being brought down by their pursuers. Fortunately the raptors seemed to be toying with them at the moment, otherwise she and Harry would likely been eaten.
"This way!" she shouted, changing direction so that she was angling towards the small clearing where the tree was located. She waved for Harry to follow her and called, "This way, Harry! This way!"
"All right, all right," Harry said, vanishing from sight. He immediately reappeared right in front of her, not missing a stride in his relaxed run. "No need to shout, Niks."
Biting her tongue to prevent a scathing comment, Tonks pumped her legs for all she was worth. They burst from between the densely clustered trees in short order, Tonks almost crashing into Harry as he skidded to an abrupt halt right before the tree.
Unfortunately, the raptors were right on their heels and emerged into the clearing before either of them had a chance to begin climbing. Fortunately the half dozen dinosaurs did not immediately charge them, instead choosing to slowly stalk towards the panting witch and her charge. Tonks turned to face the approaching pack, wand held at the ready.
"Stay behind me, Harry," she ordered.
"Okay," agreed Harry, taking an exaggerated step so that he was positioned behind her. A moment later, much to Tonks' chagrin, he commented, "Y'know, Niks, you have a nice bum."
"Harry!"
A screeching hiss from one of the raptors, still a dozen or so yards away, startled Tonks. of its own accord her wand jerked in that direction and a corona of blue and violet light erupted from its tip.
"Visrate!"
The spell, a nasty one that by rights should have killed the raptor it struck, knocked the beast off its feet. It fell in a sprawl, but recovered with alarming quickness, angrily scrabbling back up.
Seeing that their pack mate was not seriously injured, the raptors began to circle them, spreading out. Tonks cursed under her breath, seeing that she would not be able to take them all out if they attacked at one. Aurors were trained to develop some of the fastest reflexes in the wizarding world, but even then they could not face down six simultaneous attacks coming at them from three sides.
"Bloody hell!" she spat, sweeping her wand from one side to the other. The raptors, clearly understanding that the ten inches of oak she held was a weapon of some sort, paused briefly but soon resumed their advance. Swallowing hard Tonks called to Harry, who she hoped was still behind her. "Harry, start climbing the tree. Go as high as you can. I'll hold them off as long as I can."
Which wouldn't be very long, she mentally observed as one of the raptors bared its jaws wide and squawked at her. She aimed the wand in its direction, only to have a raptor on the other side of the diminishing half-circle do the same.
"Much rather stay here with you, Niks," replied Harry, startling her with his closeness. He was almost pressed against her back, his breath whispering in her ear, his... she almost dropped her wand in surprise as his hands clamped down on her rear and gave a provocative squeeze. "Have I mentioned you have a nice bum?"
Her distraction at being groped was what the raptors had been waiting for. With a triumphant hiss the nearest raptor, five yards to their right, crouched low and sprung at them, claws outstretched and gleaming in the sunlight. Tonks tried to fire a hex at it, but there wasn't time.
"No!"
Already cringing in anticipation for the raptor's impact, Tonks got the surprise of her life as the snarling dinosaur disappeared in an explosion of feathers. A bewildered looking turkey landed with an unceremonious thump at her feet. This time, she did drop her wand, which landed on the turkey's head and elicited a startled cluck.
"Gobble, gobble, gobble," sounded Harry, leaning against her and peering over her shoulder at the dinosaur-turned-fowl. His hands slipped off her buttocks and circled around her waist. "Lunch is served, Madam Niks."
"Wha?"
That was about as articulate as Tonks could manage at the moment.
The turkey, quite understandably, was panicking. For some reason it seemed to think Tonks was the cause of its problems and had set about trying to peck her to death. That might have worked had it been attacking something other than her dragon hide boots, skilfully disguised as a pair of sneakers.
The five remaining raptors, on the other hand, had frozen in place. They were standing so perfectly still you could almost believe that they had been hit with a full body bind. It took a few moments before they seemed to shake themselves free of the shock that had temporarily paralyzed them. Their heads twisted and turned from side to side as they exchanged glances, probably trying to determine their next course of action.
Tonks, who was beginning to get annoyed with the turkey, quickly scooped up her wand and prepared to strike before the startled beasts could regroup. She was pleasantly surprised, however, when the raptors seemed to take one look at her and then took off like bats out of hell.
"We - we scared them off?" she asked, disbelievingly, as they disappeared into the forest.
"Not us," Harry corrected in an odd tone of voice. He released his hold on her waist and stepped in front of her, turning to look up and over her shoulder. In something that sounded like awe, he said, "Something bigger and meaner."
A sudden feeling of dread running up her spine, increasing in strength as she noted that even the turkey had grown silent for some reason, Tonks turned around. The sight before her was enough to turn her knees to jelly and leave her legs with the consistency of limp spaghetti.
She tried to speak, to vocalise her thoughts, but was less than successful. This probably had something to do with the fact that her brain was suffering from shock induced catatonia.
"It's... it's... it's... it's... it's..."
"It's a Tyrannosaurus Rex!" exclaimed Harry, sounding delighted, like a little boy for whom Christmas had just come early and in conjunction with his birthday as well.
Even after Harry's shout, it took Tonks several seconds before it really sank in. Yes, there, not five metres away, peering at them from around the tree she had intended for them to climb, was the co-called king of the dinosaurs. She had always thought dragons were big, but this thing would have given even a Hungarian Horntail a run for its money. Even without wings and fiery breath. Her mind, which was still not up and running properly, abruptly unstuck and backtracked a bit. Peering at them?
Tonks looked up, and up, and up, in dismay. The Tyrannosaurus' gaze was fixed upon Harry and her, its eyeballs as big as her head. "Oh shit, it's looking at us."
"Don't move!" Harry told her, freezing in place, "It can't see us if we don't move!"
Unfortunately, Harry was shouting out this piece of advice at the top of his lungs, which no doubt negated any possible security they might have gained by staying still
"Quiet," she hissed, also arresting all motion as the T-Rex continued to eyeball them.
"What?" asked Harry, not shouting, but still rather loud.
"Be quiet," she whispered.
"Why?"
Tonks turned and glared at him, snapping loudly, "Because it can hear you!"
Her impending argument with Harry was cut off at the knees as the T-Rex gave a deafening bellow, a pitch so deep it caused her very bones to tremble.
Harry, completely unfazed by this bone-rattling roar, stared up at the T-Rex and observed, "My, what big teeth you have."
The earth shook as the T-Rex took two lumbering steps forward, clearly intent on having a Harry snack. Tonks, who was not about to let that happen, whipped her wand around and fired off a Stunning Charm at its snout.
"Stupefy!"
The bolt of red magic hit its target exactly where she intended it to. Unfortunately it did produce the results she had been hoping for. The T-Rex took several thunderous steps back, shaking its massive head back and forth, as if it were being bothered by a swarm of flies or something similarly insignificant.
"Nice shot," commented Harry, throwing a companionably arm over her shoulder.
"Thanks," Tonks accepted, shrugging his arm off.
The T-Rex expressed its displeasure at being cursed by taking a menacing step forward and roaring even louder than before.
Harry watched with fascination and noted, "I think you pissed it off."
"I think you're right."
By now the T-Rex had finished its display of annoyance and had focused its baleful eyes upon the two very, very tiny humans standing in front of it. It growled, a deep rumble that was almost as unnerving as its roar, and bared its gleaming teeth in a display that put Tonks in mind of a set of steak knives.
She swallowed and began to back away, grabbing Harry by the hand. "I think we should start running now,"
Harry looked at her, disappointment etched on his face, and whined, "D'we have to?"
Tonks barely spared him an incredulous glare before turning tail and running, Harry dragging along behind her, as though the devil were on her heels. All things considered, she would have preferred that be true, rather than face off against a fully-grown monstrosity that even Hagrid would have had trouble considering cute.
The T-Rex, seeing its prey dwindling into the distance, set off in pursuit. Tonks, through some morbid fascination, glanced backwards just in time to see it stomp the turkey into the ground as it began lumbering after them. Fortunately the forest was thick enough that the trees slowed the T-Rex down, otherwise its ground-eating strides would have allowed it to catch them in less than a minute.
"I think we have a problem coming up," Harry suddenly said after a minute of frantic running.
"What?" Tonks asked incredulously, too terrified of the T-Rex to be bothered with the stitch in her side all this running had given her. "Another one? Worse than this?"
Harry pointed forward, directing Tonks' attention to the fact that the forest would soon be coming to an end, opening onto a level field that would offer no obstacles to slow the T-Rex behind them.
"Bloody hell!" she moaned. She glanced at Harry, who was running effortlessly by her side, and ordered, "Harry, I really think it's time for us to leave!"
"Y'do?"
"Now, Harry!"
"But we haven't played with the--"
"Harry!" she interrupted angrily, "Apparate us out of here! Now!"
Harry sighed unhappily, but relented. He reached out and grabbed her hand, just as they crossed over the verge of the forest edge. The T-Rex, sensing that its victory was imminent, doubled its pace and burst through the tree line, spraying broken branches in all directions. Three swift, long strides brought it level with its prey and it reared its head up in preparation to chomp down.
It was understandably disappointed when Tonks and Harry disappeared with a pop.
"Gods, that was close."
"Nah," Harry dismissed Tonks' relief with a negligent wave, "Missed us by inches!"
Tonks, who was sure she had felt the T-Rex's breath on her neck just before they had Apparated, was less than convinced. She was bent over as she tried to regain her breath. She only hoped that Harry had brought them to someplace not populated by a plethora of supposedly extinct lizards that either wanted to kill and eat them, or just plain kill them.
"Close," she repeated with certainty. Feeling somewhat recovered she looked up and around, asking, "Where are we now?"
"Hollywood!" exclaimed Harry, clapping his hands happily.
Tonks looked at him dumbly. She had to think for several seconds before it sank in, once again feeling as if the floor had been pulled out from under her. "Los Angeles?"
"We get to see the stars!" Harry enthused, nodding his head up and down to the point where he was little more than a black topped blur. "Without telescopes!"
"Joy," Tonks muttered, completely without enthusiasm.
Los Angeles might not have been as exotically deadly as Sonar Island, or whatever it was called, but she was already starting to worry what mischief Harry could get them into. Dinosaurs might be dangerous in their own right, but they were not nearly as perilous as a trip into a foreign city filled to the brim with lunatic Muggles.
Her wildly active imagination, which was currently working overtime, was effectively derailed when Harry kissed her. As before, the kiss was filled with passion, desire and lust. Harry crushed her to him, both hands reaching round and squeezing her rump as he explored her mouth with avid enthusiasm.
"Come on, Niks," Harry said with that devil-may-care grin after breaking the kiss. "I wanna see stars!"
He gave her rear a parting squeeze before running off in search of stars to ogle. Tonks, feeling somewhat dazed, stared after him, not quite comprehending what had just happened.
She shook her head and muttered, "I'm already seeing stars."
Glancing around she abruptly realized that she had, yet again, lost sight of Harry. Where the boy got the energy to run around like this was a mystery. Then the fact that Harry had just disappeared into a Muggle city, without an escort, and still tanked full of Aquila, sank in.
"This would be really funny," she sighed, "if it weren't happening to me."
TBC...