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9:37 pm Alexandria
It was dark out in Alexandria, everyone having just gone to bed.
Well, almost everyone.
The only people awake were Carl and Judith. Carl was having a bit of trouble putting Judith to sleep, and was tired himself.
“It’s time to go to sleep now, Judith,” he whispered. He gently put Judith in her crib when he noticed her nodding off.
He started walking out of her bedroom, but the sound of a loud crack from outside stopped him from going too far.
“That better not be some idiot outside the walls…” Carl’s voice trailed off as he started running down the hall towards the stairs, “Dad!”
Carl heard a shout from somewhere near and cursed to himself silently as he ran downstairs and out the door, clutching his gun in both hands.
~~~~~~~~~~~
11:26 am 12 Grimmauld Place
He had to get away. He couldn’t stay where he was, not without going crazy.
He could see that Ron and Hermoine felt the same, even if they didn’t show it.
It was that reason, and only that reason that Harry sat down one morning at Grimmauld Place, sipping his coffee, and asked Ron and Hermoine if they wanted to leave England for a while.
“I mean, if you guys don’t want to, then you don’t have to, but I’m gonna go whether you come with or not.” Harry mumbled, not looking up from the bottom of his coffee cup. When he finally did look up at them, he could see the uncertainty in their expressions.
“H-Harry, we can’t just leave like that, the Ministry just started the Death Eater trials and they nee-“ Hermoine began.
“I’m tired of being controlled by everybody in the Ministry, I just need to get out of here.” Harry interrupted. He shifted in his seat in defense of the uncomfortable stares Hermoine was sending him and glanced about the room.
“Harry, I understand the need to get away, but we’re needed here. You’re needed here, you need to show them that you’re okay, that you surviv-“
“I’m not okay, Hermoine, and I’m not going to hide behind some false persona that I’ve used for years since I knew that I’m a wizard.” Harry interrupted again.
“Harry, you’ve got to stay at least for another week, or something. You can’t just disappear on the world right after the war,” Hermoine argued.
“Why not? It’s my life, I should be able to leave whenever I want.” Harry retaliated. He didn’t want to see the pitying stares from everyone that saw him, he didn’t want to have his life run by others, and he wanted to live for himself already, and he wanted out of the spotlight for good. When he voiced this to Hermoine, she only gave him a sympathetic look.
“I get that you want to be out of the public’s eye for a while, but people are depending on you to help make amends in the wizarding public. Believe or not we have to help with fixing the castle, and Hogsmeade and-“
“Hermoine, it’s not just for a little while, it’s for good, and whether or not you two come with me,” he pleaded. “And, I reckon they have enough volunteers for the renovations, I just need a very long break from everything.”
“’Moine, we should let him go, he deserves that much.” Ron mumbled. Hermoine tried to say more, but Ron stopped her, “’Moine, let him go, we can stay for another week if you wish,” Ron gestured towards Hermoine, “then we’ll join you wherever you’re going.” He said towards Harry. Hermoine frowned but nodded when Ron continued to stare at her.
“Thanks, mate,” Harry smiled gratefully at Ron.
“No problem,” Ron grinned. After a few minutes in silence, Hermoine spoke up again.
“So, where did you think of going?” she asked, Harry smiled at her.
“I was thinking America.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
9:38 pm Alexandria
Carl ran outside, only to stop short at the sight of some guy just standing in the middle of the street. He had no idea how he got there, he just kind of appeared out of nowhere.
“Hey,” Carl said towards the stranger. He held his gun close to his hip, face down, and crept slowly to the intruder. The stranger was on the ground, panting loudly, as if he was running a long distance.
“God, I hate portkeys…” the stranger heaved, he slowly sat up on his knees and rubbed his eyes. Some feet away were a shabby pair of round glasses that Carl assumed was the reason for the searching hands on the ground.
What are you talking about, Carl wondered to himself; he raised his gun to the stranger’s head, “Get up.” Carl ordered. He wasn’t taking chances with this guy just because he wasn’t a walker. The stranger finally stopped fumbling on the ground as he had found his glasses and slipped them on his nose. “Get up,” Carl repeated when the stranger still didn’t stand. He stood slowly from his kneeling spot and turned around to face Carl, his hands hanging by his sides. Carl raised his gun as the stranger rose, keeping his aim on the man’s head.
It was then that Rick finally made his way to where Carl was standing, Michonne following close behind.
“Carl!” Rick yelled. Carl glanced over his shoulder, and then turned his attention back to the stranger in front of him. “What’s going on? Who is this guy?” Rick asked. As if Carl knew what was going on himself, all Carl knew was that there was a guy that randomly appeared in the middle of the street.
“Who are you?” Carl asked the guy. The stranger lifted his head and smiled at Carl.
“I’m Harry Potter.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
2:09 pm Ministry of Magic
Harry stood next to Hermoine at the Ministry, wondering to no one in particular how in Circe he was going to get a portkey to America.
“Well, we could ask for one, see where that gets us.” Hermoine murmured to him. Harry looked at her, thinking that maybe she was right. But then he thought that people might wonder why the Golden Boy needs a portkey to America when renovations in the Ministry were still happening.
“Or, just you could ask for one so you could search for your parents.” Harry told her. Hermoine gave him a pleading glance that clearly said that that particular topic was not up for discussion.
“How exactly is that going to work when I sent them to Australia, not America?” Hermoine asked, eyeing Harry exasperatedly. Harry gave Hermoine a look of his own in response.
“You could just lie to them, you never did tell anyone besides Ron and I about that anyway.” Harry retorted. He started walking away before Hermoine could answer, leaving her to catch up with him. He wanted to get this over with so he could leave already and people were starting to notice that he was there.
“Or, we could make one ourselves. I’ve been reading about it on my free time, and I think I could do it.” Hermoine said, finally reaching to a point where she didn’t have to run to keep up with him. Harry pretended to look at what people were doing around him, just to look responsible and as if he weren’t going crazy.
“Hermoine?” Harry asked, finally looking at her.
“Yes, Harry?” she answered, smirking at him. She smiled wider as Harry began to chuckle.
“Have I told you how much I love you lately?”
“Mmm, not recently, no.”
“I love you so much that I’m willing to try that.”
“Alright, let’s get on it then.”
And they were off to make a portkey.
~~~~~~~~~~~
9:42 pm Alexandria
Carl stared at Harry, wondering if he should try to bind him somehow. Harry stared back at him with a look of surprise on his face.
“You’re not actually going to use that on me, are you?” Harry asked. Carl raised an eyebrow at his question. He opened his mouth to reply, but his dad answered before Carl could.
“If you give us good enough answers, no.” Harry simply raised his right brow at this. Carl noticed Harry’s hand twitch, as if he was resisting reaching for something.
“What are your questions?” Harry asked slowly. He dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a long stick-like thing. He kept his hand close to his side after that, but his grip on the stick was unrelenting.
“How did you get inside the walls?” Michonne demanded. Harry turned to her and smiled a bit. It was a nice smile, Carl thought. He shook his head. Obviously, Carl needed a lot more sleep than he was getting.
“I used a portkey to get here from England,” Harry responded. Carl’s brow furrowed, what was a portkey? Harry went on before he could voice his question though. “I didn’t know where I would be landing though.”
“What’s a portkey?” Carl finally asked. He really wanted to know what it was and how it worked. Harry pulled what looked like a feather from his other pocket with the hand that wasn’t holding the stick-thing. Carl wasn’t sure why the feather was deemed a portkey-it just looked like a feather to him-but he nodded accepted the answer nonetheless.
“A portkey can transport someone anywhere they wish. It’s actually rather hard to explain without breaking a few laws…..” Harry trailed off, his last sentence so quiet Carl could barely hear him.
“What are you?” Rick asked. Carl looked at Rick, just noticing that his gun was also aimed at Harry’s head.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter if I tell you since the Ministry fell again,” Harry said quietly, then stated louder, “I’m a wizard.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
2:29 pm 12 Grimmauld Place
Harry, Ron and Hermoine were in the kitchen, trying to choose which object would be the least conspicuous among Muggles. Harry thought that maybe it wouldn’t really matter what they used since he was only going to throw it in a rubbish bin when he got to America anyway, but Hermoine thought they should pick the most Muggle thing they could find.
“Hermoine, I really don’t think it matters what we use,” Ron argued, picking up one of the treacle tarts off the platter Kreacher had brought them. He bit into the pastry and moaned happily at the taste.
Harry followed suit in taking one and closed his eyes in ecstasy at the flavor. He hadn’t had decent food in so long since the search for the Horcruxes started last year.
“We need something that the Muggles will leave alone, Ron. Besides, it should be something we can easily carry around.” Hermoine reasoned, rolling her eyes at Ron and Harry’s faces, but smiling fondly at them. She took her fill of treacle tart before going on. “Like a pen, or a shoe.”
“What is a pen?” Ron wondered.
“It’s like a quill, but for Muggles, it’s a bit hard to describe.” Hermoine explained, taking a bite of her dessert.
“Why don’t we just use a quill then?” Harry asked, “It’s not like Muggles will know what a feather with a sharp pointy end is actually used for.”
“That’s not a bad idea, actually,” Hermoine mused; she left the room for few minutes, leaving the boys to eat their food in a content silence. She came back with two quills in hand, probably from her school trunk, Harry thought. “We should be able to use these with no problems.” Hermoine said.
“I wouldn’t think it be a problem to use them…” Harry muttered quietly.
“It says in the book I read that you only need to think of the place you want to go, when you want to go, and the activation word. Then you need to say the incantation,” Hermoine stated. Then she asked, “Harry, do you know where in America you want to go?”
“No idea, I’m not very familiar with the country,” Harry admitted. He didn’t know exactly where he wanted to go, just that he wanted to get out of England for a while. Hermoine gave him a look that said he should know these things before trying to go there, but Harry just shrugged.
“Well, we should do a bit of research on the states at least, and pick the state you want to go to.” Hermoine declared. Ron and Harry groaned at the thought of more reading. Hermoine rolled her eyes and dragged the two stubborn ‘children’ to the library in search of a world atlas.
~~~~~~~~~~~
9:47 pm Alexandria
Carl stood there, gaping at Harry and the two people that had popped inside the walls next to him. There was absolutely no way they were wizards, but then how do you explain the sudden appearance of the other two, when there wasn’t anyone that Carl could see before that moment.
“Harry, you’re safe!” the girl sounded relieved, and a little psychotic to Carl. She had hugged him as soon as she stopped panting from what Carl assumed was another portkey.
“Yeah, except I keep getting whatever they’ve been holding up in my face aimed at me. They haven’t stopped yet,” he heard Harry tell her.
The redhead had yet to say anything, but he was looking a bit green in the face as he was hunched over, panting heavily.
“You’ve never seen a gun before or something?” Carl asked. He knew he was getting way off topic, but he couldn’t really help it when Harry was distracting him like that with his grins…and his eyes…and stop Carl, geez.
“You’re threatening Harry?” the girl gasped. Her face was a mask of shocked anger and Carl unconsciously took a step back.
“It’s not like we can tell if you’re a threat or not,” Rick reasoned. Carl nodded in agreement before training his gun on the girl, as if she was attack him. His dad did always say to be on guard around new people these days. Especially if they just randomly met them out of nowhere.
“Don’t you think we would’ve already attacked you if we were here to do that?” Harry asked, his face a mask of confusion. He took a tentative step forward, but stopped, most likely knowing that he would probably get hurt if he moved too much.
“Harry, it’s probably bad here too. We’ve got to give them a chance to believe that we mean no harm,” the girl said gently, she continued, talking louder to all of us. “I mean that too, we don’t want to hurt anyone, but we will if someone attacks us first. Know then that it is self defense.”
“Who are you two?” Rick demanded to know. Carl nodded again, wanting to know whom the girl hugging Harry was. Geez Carl, you’ve known for all of two seconds, calm down!
“I’m Ron Weasley,” the redhead finally spoke, “and that’s Hermoine Granger, my girlfriend.” Hermoine smiled at Ron fondly before turning back to Rick and Carl, her face slipping back to a frown.
“We won’t try to attack you, I promise,” Hermoine reassured, “We just need somewhere to go, we won’t even get in your way.” She promised. She pulled what looked like a large balled up tarp from a small handbag she was holding.
“What is that?” Carl wondered out loud. He wanted to know how something that big could fit in such a small bag, but then again, people were randomly appearing from thin air.
~~~~~~~~~~~
4:31 pm Gringotts Wizarding Bank
Harry, Ron and Hermoine were at Gringotts to change some Galleons into American Muggle currency, so that Harry could have enough money to maybe rent a hotel room for a possible cheap-ish price. After they did that, they walked outside and immediately froze in their footsteps.
It was chaos outside of Gringotts; people were running, frantically shouting out Avada Kedavra in attempt to kill the people who were eating others.
But, why were people eating other people, Harry wondered, grabbing Hermoine and Ron’s arms tightly, apparating them to just outside of 12 Grimmauld Place, then running inside as fast as they could to escape the horror outside.
“Pack your things now!” Harry shouted. He rushed upstairs to get his trunk, and shoved all the close and useful items he could find into the expanded luggage. He ran back downstairs to the study after shrinking his trunk and stuffing it in his pocket, and found Hermoine waving her wand at an old shoe she found, making another portkey. “Where’s Ron?” Harry asked.
“Upstairs, packing his stuff, and before you ask, I haven’t had time to unpack my things, so it’s already packed,” Hermoine said distractedly, her focus still fixed intently on the shoe, muttering under her breath. Harry smiled at her before running into the kitchen and yelling for Kreacher.
“Master Harry needs something?” Kreacher inquired, glaring at Harry in obvious distaste.
“Kreacher, I need you to pack everything we might need for an extended camping trip, and whatever you have to belongs to you. We’re leaving the country. Permanently.” Harry demanded. “Pack everything you can, as fast as you can.”
“Yes, Master Harry,” Kreacher croaked, disapparating with a pop. Harry ran back into the study, to see if Ron and Hermoine were finished.
“You almost finished with that?” he asked, Hermoine nodded as Harry sat down and began to bounce his leg in anticipation. Ron ran into the study, panting with exertion.
“Are we ready?” he asked, “I want to get out of here already.”
“That makes two of us, mate” Harry said. He just wanted to get out of there and to a safe place. “Kreacher!” he shouted. Kreacher appeared in front of the trio, looking irritated.
“Yes, Master Harry?” he muttered. His brow twitched when he saw Hermoine and Harry glared in warning.
“You are to listen to Ron and Hermoine as well as me, is that understood?” Harry ignored Hermoine’s shriek of objection. When Kreacher didn’t answer at first, Harry sighed in exasperation. “Is that understood?” he asked forcefully.
“Yes, Master Harry,” Kreacher forced out, glowering at Ron and Hermoine.
“You may continue with your orders.” Harry dismissed Kreacher with a wave of his hand and Kreacher disapparated to wherever he was before Harry called him.
“Harry, that wasn’t exactly necessary,” Hermoine complained. Before she could complain further, Harry spoke first.
“You need Kreacher on your side, whether it’s forced or not. We’ll need all the help we can find.” Harry looked at Ron then, noticing his anxious expression. “Ron, you should firecall the Burrow and make sure everyone stays there for a while. We can come back for them once we secure a safe place in Georgia.” Ron’s smile was strained as he walked over to the fireplace and threw a bit of Floo powder into the fire and stuck his head in.
It was a few more minutes before Ron came back to the area, and by then, there was about five more minutes left until Harry’s portkey was to activate and ten for Ron and Hermoine’s. Harry stared at them intently, waiting for the time to speed up a bit.
When it was finally just about forty-five seconds from departure, Harry sighed and hugged both Ron and Hermoine tightly.
“I’ll see you guys in a few minutes,” and with that, Harry portkeyed out of the old Order Headquarters.
~~~~~~~~~~~
9:49 pm Alexandria
After Harry explained that what Hermoine had pulled a tent, a freaking tent, out of that tiny little bag, Carl had given up interrogating the new visitors in favor of standing a bit behind Rick, not wanting to ask anymore questions and trying to avoid looking at Harry longer than he absolutely had to.
“It’s getting pretty dark out here,” Harry commented. He lifted the stick-like thing that Carl now knew was in his hand and said, “Lumos,” Immediately, there was a soft glow coming from his wand that lit Harry’s face. It actually looked like blue candlelight from what Carl could see.
“Um, do you think maybe that we could be directed to flat patch of land?” Hermoine asked, “I’d like to set this tent up, and we’ve had a rather trying day,” she sounded exhausted. By the time she stopped talking, Rick and Michonne had put their weapons away, Carl having done so a few minutes earlier.
“Follow me,” Rick ordered, “We’ll take you to see Deanna, she’s who runs this place.” He explained. “She’ll be the deciding factor in whether or not you guys stay, and just so you’re aware, we don’t trust you, and we probably won’t for a very long time.”
Carl saw Hermoine nod along to all of this and got the sense that she was the one who actually followed rules and got perfect grades in school. Unlike himself.
They finally arrived in front of Deanna’s house and Carl waited on the sidewalk with the newcomers for Rick and Michonne to get Deanna to come outside.
It was about twenty minutes after Deanna finally came outside, and Carl was able to go back to his house for some much needed sleep. He walked past his bedroom to the bathroom to get ready for bed, glad to have an actual routine.
It wasn’t until much later, when he was lying in his bed, that Carl noticed that whenever Harry said something, he looked only at Carl.
~~~~~~~~~~~
8:02 am Alexandria (Some Days Later)
Rick and Morgan were burying the dead body of Pete Anderson deep in the woods outside of Alexandria. They were almost done, when they heard the unmistakable sound of walkers close by. They walked silently towards the sounds that lead to a cliff.
What lay beyond the cliff was a terrifying sight of what must’ve been about a hundred, maybe more, walkers. The only barrier that stopped them from going straight to Alexandria was about five or six semi trucks.
When Rick and Morgan spotted Ron, only feet away from the edge of the cliff, Rick quickly tackled him and brought him back to the safe zone, where they promptly dropped him off at home, then demanded a meeting with the small town’s inhabitants.
About an hour later, everyone was at this meeting, including the three newcomers. Rick explained what he and Morgan saw, and came up with a foolproof plan to get rid of them, which included lots of cars and training the people who remained in Alexandria to fight and defend themselves.
“We need to lead them away before they escape the barriers that were made. They won’t hold up forever,” Rick explained. He noticed the three who had quickly adjusted to the town’s demeanor.
Rick was surprised that they stuck to their word; they never got in the way of anyone, and pretty much just stuck to themselves. He didn’t know how exactly they were taking care of themselves, but they seemed to be doing just fine.
When the guy with the black hair raised his hand and asked how they could help with this, Rick was a little pleased.
“I’ll see if I can think of how you can help, but for now, you three need to learn how to fight the walkers.” Rick answered. The girl seemed a little unsatisfied with what he said, but nodded anyway.
“I wanted to ask another question,” the other one requested. Rick nodded for him to continue. “Do you guys need help with food and that kind of stuff? I think I might be able to help with that.”
“Is that so?” Daryl asked, the black haired guy nodded.
“Kreacher!” he yelled out. Suddenly a small creature with elf-like ears appeared in front of him.
“Yes, Master Harry?” he croaked in a scratchy voice, glaring at everyone in the room. Rick gaped at the small elf.
“Bring me the box of food we have.” Harry demanded. The girl was frowning in disapproval at Harry. Kreacher disappeared, then reappeared with a box about the size of a mini-fridge.
“Anything else for Master Harry, sir?” Kreacher asked.
“No, you’re dismissed.” Harry replied offhandedly. Kreacher disappeared again with an audible pop. Rick glanced around the room, seeing everyone, including Daryl, staring at Harry in astonishment. “All the food we have is in here, and I could always tell Kreacher to get more if we need it. Though, it should last a few more weeks. There’s enough in there to feed a small army of about five hundred.” Harry mused.
“That’s it?” Glenn asked. Rick was confused too.
“Oh, sorry,” Harry apologized, smiling sheepishly. He looked over at the girl and back at Glenn. “There’s an undetectable extension charm on this, so we can fit quite a bit in there.” Harry explained. He looked at Rick, “Did you happen to tell everyone here that we’re wizards?” the girl cleared her throat. “Sorry, Ron and I are wizards, Hermoine is a witch.” He corrected.
“What’s the difference?” Daryl asked.
“Wizards are male and witches are females.” The redhead-Ron-clarified. Rick still didn’t really see a difference that much since they were all able to do magic. “Are we almost done here? I need to contact my family, I haven’t heard from them in a few days.”
“We’ll have another meeting in a few days to inform everyone of what they need to do. Harry, you and your friends need to stay for a few minutes.” Rick ordered.
Harry and company stayed seated at their benches in the church they were using as everyone else filed out, presumably to continue their day.
“What in the world was that?” Ricked questioned when everyone was gone.
“That was a House Elf, he was given to by my godfather after he died when he left everything to me.” Harry explained. “Also, I wasn’t lying when I said that he could get more food if we need it.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.” Rick grumbled.
~~~~~~~~~~~
About Three or Four Weeks Later
The next few weeks were very busy for Harry, as he had promised to do his best with the physical labor of building walls to Rick’s satisfaction, and getting to know Carl on a friendly level.
By then, everyone who knew about the whole magic thing had gotten a little use to it. They were also given a house to stay in, as Carl had seen the small tent and asked that they be given proper living space.
Harry rather thought that it was sweet the way he did that for them. After that thought, Harry promptly shut his mind up and refused to think about how adorable Carl’s smile was when he would show it.
Currently, Harry was on his broom, flying slowly over the construction sights and recording everything he could see with his Quick-Quotes Quill and notepad.
Something about this mission wasn’t sitting right with Harry. He knew that he could do something to try and help keep the actual threat away from the place he had quickly become attached to, but he couldn’t for the life of him think what it was.
Harry flew in the direction he knew to be where the bid herd of walkers was located. When he got there, he gasped a bit at the amount of dead people walking amongst each other. There must’ve been at least what looked like two hundred walkers in that valley. He immediately sent a patronus to Ron and Hermoine, telling them that they had to get here as soon as possible.
“Harry!” Ron shouted from his broom. Hermoine had her arms tightly wrapped around Ron’s middle.
“Quiet,” Harry hissed. He knew that the walkers were attracted to sound, and he wanted to stay as invisible to them as he possibly could. Ron smiled apologetically and stayed as quiet as he could.
Harry pointed to the large group of walkers down in the valley, and Hermoine gasped. Harry heard Ron’s hiss of pain and assumed that Hermoine had her arms around Ron in a tight grip.
“We need to do something about this, now.” Harry started, “We can’t wait for Rick’s plan, we have to do something now.”
“I’d suggest Fiendfyre, but we all know how that ended last time we were around it.” Ron said. Harry looked thoughtfully at him, thinking that they might be able to get it under control long enough for it to work.
“That’s not a bad idea actually,” Hermoine considered. Ron and Harry looked at Hermoine in shock. “What? I can like Ron’s ideas,” she defended.
“Um, okay then, Hermoine, do you think you could be ready with a strong Aguamenti in case things get out of hand?” Harry questioned. He wanted to think that he would have control of it, but he kept thinking about what happened in the Room of Requirement at the final battle, and wanted to make sure nothing like that ever happened again.
Hermoine nodded and said, “Ron, you can help me with that. If we double the efforts of the spell, we should be able to extinguish the fire before it gets out of control.” Ron nodded and flew a little higher above the valley.
“Wait, Harry, aren’t you going to tell Rick about what you’re doing? I think he would get pretty upset if he wasn’t kept informed about this.” Harry sighed at Hermoine’s question, but nodded. He sent another patronus out, telling Rick that we was taking care of the walker herd and to stay away for safety reasons.
“Okay, be ready,” Harry warned. He flew lower towards the valley, raising his wand up and pointing it straight at the ground. He hoped to Merlin that this would work. “Fiendfyre!” he shouted. A burst of flames in the form of a dragon appeared out of the tip of Harry’s wand, flowing towards the growling herd.
Immediately, Harry shot up in the air to avoid the heat of the flames.
After a few minutes of watching every walker burn, Harry ended the spell, and set about helping Ron and Hermoine extinguish the fire.
All three of them shouted, “AGUAMENTI!” and water shot out from their wands to attempt to put the fire out. It was pure luck that it worked out.
Harry whooped in triumph and did a deep dive on his broom. The three of them flew back to Alexandria, completely happy that their plan worked.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Alexandria; Grimes House
Carl was pacing back and forth in the living room, terrified of what might happen to Harry. The glowing light that had appeared in front of him and Rick had spoken to them, and it was clearly Harry’s voice.
The glowing thing had said that he and his friends had found a way to rid the valley of walkers and to not go to where they were located as it be even more dangerous for Rick than it would be for Harry.
Nothing would put Carl at ease as long as Harry was in danger though. Carl had accepted that he liked Harry more than he should. In the time that he had been here, Harry had wormed his way into Carl’s heart and he didn’t want anything bad to happen to Harry, he didn’t think he could handle it.
Carl continued to run his hands through his hair, making it look shaggier than normal, when Harry walked through the door with Rick leading the way. Carl walked up to Harry right then and there and hugged him tightly, afraid that he would go and do something stupid again.
“Why did you do that? You idiot!” Carl was trembling in relief. Harry wrapped his arms around Carl’s shoulders and held him tightly.
“I’m sorry,” Harry murmured, trying to calm the boy in his arms. Carl buried his face in Harry’s neck and they stood there, rocking slightly side-to-side until Carl calmed down. Neither boy noticed when Rick left the room, smiling softly to himself. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that, but something had to be done then, or else the walkers would’ve gotten free before your dad was ready to face them.”
“It doesn’t matter now, you’re here and you’re safe.” Carl firmly stated. He pulled back from the embrace enough to see Harry’s face. They stared at one another, Carl glancing at Harry’s lips a few times before he got the courage to lean forward and place his lips onto Harry’s.
It was a soft kiss, full of promises and something else Carl couldn’t really put his finger on, but it was nice. Harry cupped his hands over Carl’s cheek, brushing his thumbs over the soft skin. They broke apart after a while, leaning their foreheads against the other’s.
“I could get used to this,” Harry whispered smiling. Carl smiled back and leaned in for another kiss.
Yeah, Carl thought, me too.