Black Magic By Moonlight (Harry Potter/Anita Blake Crossover)

Chapter 33 - The Right Way

It had been two days and neither Richard nor Harry had woken up yet. Neither one had given any indication that they were about to open their eyes either. According to the regular doctor and the Wizarding healer there was nothing physically wrong with either lycanthrope anymore, but something was preventing them returning to the land of the living.

Amazingly Richard's secret was still safe; the cops had completely bought into the story of the burn on his chest healing because of the explosion of magic which had so thoroughly won them the battle and healed Draco, and the Ulfric had done nothing else to indicate he was anything but human.

Zerbrowski had mentioned the silver chains more than once, but Anita had reiterated her story of Harry's power infusing Richard and pointed out that all four sets of chains had been silver. She thought that her friend had accepted that it was over zealous lunatics that had used silver-plated chains rather than steel ones, but she knew she was going to have to keep an eye on the situation.

Anita had been at Richard's side as much as possible, leaving only to feed the ardeur, sleep and answer questions to keep the police at bay. She and Jean-Claude had tried to wake him using the marks, but neither of them could feel much from their third at all. It was still as if something was blocking them from each other even though the barrier had let Harry's power through from the other way.

She had rarely been alone with her unconscious lover as her people and various of Richard's wolves came in and out. Nathaniel had been with her a few minutes previously, but had gone to see how Draco and Harry were doing as well. That was why when the door opened and she saw the lilac eyed wereleopard she was somewhat surprised.

"Nathaniel?" she asked, standing slowly.

Her pomme de sang appeared worried, but sure of what he was doing and when he moved out of the doorway into the room, Anita was in for an even bigger surprise: Harry was following Nathaniel. The kid's eyes were open and wide, but the way he looked at her, Anita was completely sure she was not being seen, or at least not comprehended. From Harry's left arm there trailed a plastic tube; the regular doctors had insisted that an IV was necessary, even though the Wizarding healer had offered other methods, and it looked as if the kid had simply walked off without noticing he was attached to anything. The eeriest thing was the fact that his wide green eyes were just slightly ringed with red.

"Don't touch him," Nathaniel said as he kept carefully out of Harry's way, "I tried; it hurt."

That explained the excited little light in the back of her pomme de sang's eyes; pain did funny things to Nathaniel. She was distracted for a moment when Draco, Lupin and Jason all appeared in the doorway. Not one of them was trying to stop Harry, which made her pause where she had been ready to test out Nathaniel's warning. She found certain impulses hard to resist, and protecting Richard was one of them, but if no one else was willing to dive in then she could hold off as well.

"Harry," Anita said, knowing that it was probably useless, but hoping that with her influence he might respond.

As it was, even as she exerted her power to call the leopard part of the young wizard, it felt as if it was just bouncing off. Harry gave no indication that he had heard her, or was even aware of her presence as he just stood a few feet into the room. There were barely any indications that Harry was alive; the wizard's breathing was so shallow that you had to really look to see it. What made Anita's skin crawl was the fact that Harry's eyes just stared; so far the young man hadn't blinked once.

It was almost as if time had decided to stand still for a while and then Harry moved. Once he began to walk there was no hesitation in the wizard's step and Harry was beside the bed in a very short space of time. Anita had no chance to decide if she had made a mistake not trying to stop Harry, because before she could do anything the wizard had reached out one hand, dragged the sheet covering Richard back so that it gathered at the werewolf's waist, and ripped off the token bandage on the brand.