A/N: IM ALIVE!

GAH. My computer broke, got new one...Writer's block. Finals. Er...Discouragement? Oh, I'm also a beta now...I had no idea it was so time consuming so Thank you LadyKeyes. Mer glob, you're awesome. I PROMISE NEVER TO RUSH YOU AGAIN.

Anyhow...

Thank you for reviews! (well...like 2 people reviewed, but not the point)

Hope you enjoy this (VERY...1 month?) late chapter & have merry Christmas & new-years or whatever you feel like celebrating.

Love you guys

-lauralydney :p

Chapter 21

"Remind me again why I'm doing this?"

"You chose dare, Harry," Linda whispered back.

"But I want to live!"

"Quit talking and do it!"Mike hissed and all but sang the next line. "Or would you rather run naked through camp?"

"I hate all of you,"Harry said.

"You love us," Darren chuckled.

They were right. Harry had willingly gotten himself in this situation only about two hours after the soccer game. They'd grown tired of tree climbing and exploring the woods.

Any other camp activities at this hour were family events only. Their fun only started around the evening when the families left and the teen campers stayed. Until then, Linda had come up with the horrid idea of truth or dare.

Of course, not wishing to lie to the muggles about any possible wizarding activity related questions, Harry chose dare. .Stupid.

The first couple ones had been easy, but now he'd really been put to the test.

When the muggles realized Harry would pick and do every dare each time—mostly due to his reckless Gryffindor instinct—Mike and Darren (mostly Mike) decided it would be fun to watch Harry launch water balloons at random passers-byers.

It was all fun and games until Amber's group passed by. It wasn't Amber he was worried about. After the whole pink tent thing, Harry didn't mind chucking water balloons at her.

But the group was composed of...well...scary looking, athletic muggles.

If they caught Harry, he couldn't really defend himself with magic. Chucking water balloons at Dudley was one thing. Sure, he was stronger, but Harry had always been faster. These muggles, however, were jocks—bigjocks.

The merciful muggles had given Harry another choice (running naked through camp) which he wasn't really going to take into consideration.

"Here they come!"

'On second thought running naked through camp can't be that bad,'Harry thought.

Just as he was about to back out, the muggles' conversation reached his ears.

"I heard Draco dumped you," Ajah said.

"No, we just sort of drif—hey!"Amber said. One of the taller jocks had grabbed her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"About time," he said. "Now you're going to the dance with me, baby,"

"You wis—!"

Amber was interrupted by the splashing sound of a water balloon hitting the jocks face.

The childish muggle weapon drenched his entire hair, face, and shirt.

The group gasped in shock. A couple of the other jocks began to laugh quietly. Ajah simply gawked at the scene. Amber was the first to catch the wizard's head sticking out of the bush, soon bursting out into fits of laughter along with Harry's friends.

"Why you filthy—"

"RUN!" Amber shouted, sprinting towards the forest.

Harry was a bit surprised at the cheerleader's actions of ditching her group, but the fuming jock who'd already begun chasing after him gave him no time to ponder them.

In mere seconds the two were off, dashing through the trees and underwood. Linda, Mike, Darren, Ron, stayed hidden. However, it didn't take long for them to have to make a run too.

While their hiding spot might've been good, by the sound of the screaming cheerleaders, they must've not been able to resist the urge to pellet them with the remaining balloons.

The more Harry ran, the more he noticed that he had no clue where the hell he was running to. The forest was a repetitive cycle of similar looking trees and Amber's swishing black hair meters away from him.

He ran until he no longer heard footsteps behind him. Unlucky for him, he didn't hear anyfootsteps behind him anymore.

They'd lost his friend's as well as the jock.

"Am-ber," Harry panted. "We lost him."

She stopped running, not looking nearly as tired as he was.

Amber shrugged and walked towards Harry. "Herny gives up easily. Any specific reason you hit him with a water balloon?"

"Dare," Harry managed.

To Harry's confusion, her smile faded. "Either way, thanks," Amber said, sitting next to Harry who'd all but collapsed on a nearby tree stump. "I'd been meaning to get away from them. Ajah is okay, but the guys are annoying."

About a minute of silence passed while Harry regained enough strength to answer.

"I wouldn't call her 'okay'," Harry said, recalling the way she'd brought up Amber and Draco's breakup.

Amber sighed. "Well, she's as close to 'okay' as it gets. Unless I count you, Ron, and Hermione."

Harry gaped at her, taken aback by her last comment.

She blushed a bit at his reaction. "Don't get me wrong, I still think you're a jerk for turning me into your human servant," she laughed. "But I don't think you're that bad."

"Not bad?" Harry questioned her. Ever since the last D.A meeting Harry had acknowledged that Amber no longer feared him. The way she had stood up to him to get her way was something the old Amber wouldn't have done. Still, he was surprised by the almost-complement.

He sighed, unsure if he was more worried that the fear was gone or relieved that he didn't have to pretend to be evil anymore.

A playfully menacing grin crossed Harry's face. "I could turn you into a toad right now, you know."

"But you won't," Amber sang.

"How'd you figure it out?"

Amber drummed her fingers on the tree stump. "I had my suspicions for a while now," she said. "I knew for sure you weren't evil in the D.A meeting. You'd have to be a real selfless person to want to protect so many."

She paused and thought for a second. "I still haven't figured out what you're protecting them from."

"Um...the witch hunters?"

She shook her head. "I know that. But there's something else. Something you haven't told me"

Harry bit his lip and nodded.

"Well spit it out then," Amber urged.

Harry ran a stressed hand through his hair. All the fun morning activities forgotten as he was reminded of the return of You-Know-Who.

"Voldemort," Harry admitted. The confused look on her face was an obvious signal that he should continue. "He's basically what you'd call the wizard version of Hitler, a complete and utter monster. Most wizards think he's dead—he was—but now he's back."

Amber's eyes widened. This had been the most Harry had ever revealed to her about the wizarding world. It didn't matter, her pleading gaze begging him to continue.

"His plan is to destroy all muggles and muggle-borns and create a pureblood world. A world without...well, you."

Amber had a funny look on her face. A tinge of worry was there, but she looked more confused than scared, something Harry found irksome.

"Right. Sure. So, I'm not an expert in the wizarding world government," Amber said. "But isn't there some type of authority figure? One that, well, isn't a 15 year old boy?"

"As I said," Harry went on. "No one believes he's really alive. He is, I saw him return—can we not talk about this?"

Amber raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

Well, for one he didn't want her to know Voldemort was specifically out to kill him. That and the fact that the more they talked about him, the more the blowing wind and slightly darkening sky made him uneasy.

"It's best you don't know," Harry advised. "Come one, it's getting cold here. Let's go back to the campsite."

He stood up, but Amber didn't move. Harry looked back in her directions. Her face was twisted up, hard in thought. It reminded Harry of himself in computer lab. One thing was for sure; Harry never expected what she said next.

"Voldemort is after you, isn't he?" Amber said. Even though she was looking at Harry, her voice was hollow, as if asking herself. "You said you saw him return...no one—not even the government—believes that he's back.

"He must know that you know. That's why Voldemort is after you, right Harry?"

The blood in his veins felt cold at Amber's chilling discovery. While the reasons weren't completely correct, the fact that she had figured it out in less than a few minutes left him open-mouthed.

Harry laughed drily. "Hey, look at you! Never thought you had a brain in that pretty little head."

He could see Amber's lips begin to move in reply and held up a hand. "Look. Don't worry about it, okay? I'll be fine," he reassured her.

Extending a hand to the doubtful looking Amber, they headed back to camp.

Neither Harry nor Amber knew how long they'd been missing. Linda and Hermione's welcoming, worry-filled scowls let Harry know it had probably been a lot longer than he'd thought.

Mike snickered when he saw Amber emerge from behind Harry. The families had already left camp. Harry arrived back just in time for the real fun to begin. However, the teen found he wasn't in the mood to take part in anything. The more he thought about it, the more it struck him how doomed his life really was.

There really appeared to be no time for fun at all. The reminder of Voldemort's return had been quite constant until today. Caught up in the excitement of the day had given him a brief period of liberty from the tormenting reminder, but the mere mention of it moments ago tore apart that false sense of freedom.

Deathly, icy breaths of a Dementor could be felt breathing down his neck. That was the best way to describe his situation as he stared into the joyful eyes of his friends. If he didn't get his head in the game, they would pay the price.

"Harry? You okay?" Amber asked.

The rest of his friends had were already a couple meters ahead. "You zoned out," Amber said. Her eyes studied him. The young wizard knew she was aware that he wasn't 'okay'.

"You go on without me," Harry told her.

Amber looked hesitantly at the group in front of her, no doubt in his mind that she probably hadn't treated them very well throughout the years.

He didn't stop to think about it too much and left her at the hands of fate.

Harry hopped his friends wouldn't be too mad when they noticed he was no longer walking alongside them. The guilt could come later, right now he needed to do the one thing that could ensure their safety for the night—find Cole.

The more he walked through the endless trails and camping spots of camp, the increasing doubt that the witch hunter was here became more of a reality. Harry's feet became sore after the first hour of searching the trails.

Anger at the boy had also begun to build up. Harry had thought before that having Cole on their side would be a benefit, but the mere thought of having to talk to the boy responsible for all his misery since he stepped into Walker High was infuriating. How could he convince him they weren't evil when all he wanted to do was punch that muggle senseless?

Not that he had any idea how to convince him either.

It was dark by the time Harry gave up. He sat bellow a large tree near the entrance of the woods. The night wasn't very cold, but the light breeze—at least that's what he told himself—caused him to shiver slightly as he gazed up at the stars.

Unwilling to admit that sole mention of Voldemort's return was what had him shaking, Harry thought about Cole's whereabouts.

Maybe it wasn't so bad that he couldn't find him tonight. It was a clear sign that Cole wasn't at camp. Harry and his friends could relax for tonight.

'Yes, just relax for no—'

An un welcome rustling of leaves reached Harry's ears. His fluttering eyes where shot open.

'It could be an animal,' Harry thought.

Footsteps moved closer as did Harry's hand, reaching to towards his wand.

"Don't move, wizard," said a raspy voice behind Harry.

'Not an animal. Not an animal.'

For a decisive second that contained an eternity, Harry sprung out from behind the tree to face the threat. Unsure of how many or how armed they would be, the wizard fired directly without a moment's hesitation.

"Stupefy!"

Harry's eyes had barely adjusted to the dark forest around him when the sound of a large man hitting the ground was heard. If the man hadn't been sure if Harry was a wizard even after he got hit, he had to be after the lighting charm Harry did to scan his surroundings.

What caught Harry off guard the most was the man. One man.

After seeing the ominous seriousness the witch hunters had about capturing them, he wouldn't have doubted the probability of them bringing a whole army to take him down.

Carefully walking over to the body, Harry examined the man. He looked oddly familiar, but Harry couldn't quite place it—long gray hair, thick eyebrows, bushy beard. Even as he slept the man's features resembled an angry goblin. He definitely hadn't seen that creep before.

Still, there was an increasing Déjà vu sensation the longer he eyed the man.

He grunted and stirred, the effects of the curse beginning to wear off.

A rifle lay beside the man, Harry barely having noticed it—the man's face perplexing similarity had distracted him from the threat. Harry retrieved it to make sure there would be no inconveniences while he held him here for questioning.

Right now was his chance to get all the information he needed from a captured witch hunter himself. Harry thought back to the time he threatened Amber in order for her to keep her mouth shut and not expose them. Sure he could pull off that in order to get information from the man, Harry waited.

After about a minute of Harry's heart beating in his throat, the man awoke.

His wand didn't move from the man's chest as the muggle got to his feet.

"Who are you, what do you want?!" Harry demanded. His voice trembled, giving away his fear.

The man ignored Harry's question, a startled look on his face. Harry grinned, glad the man was afraid.

The smirk quickly left his face when he realized the man's expression was not due to him.

"My glasses!" said the man, rapidly dropping to the ground in search for them.

During that minute of waiting for the man to awaken, the young teen had expected various reactions when the aged muggle found himself at wand point, this was not one of them.

Harry looked at the ground. "Er...they're beside the tree."

He lifted his face from the ground, rushing over to grab them.

"Oooofff! That was a close one! Must've dropped 'em after that lovely greetin ye gave me there, young lad."

Harry was about to open his mouth to repeat his question, but the man held up a hand. "The name's Calder. Calder Quinn—

"Quinn?" Harry gasped, realizing who the man had reminded him of. Now it was clearer than before. Those pale blue eyes sent a fiery rage in his gut.

The man laughed at his reaction. "Familiar with the name, eh? I'm sure ye would be after breaking into the family house and all. Course, I'm sure yer not to fond of my family, wizard—oh put the bloody wand down already, I'm not here to fight the likes of you."

Harry scoffed. "A witch hunter not here to fight a wizard? Right. And I'm a dentist who gives out candy."

Calder shook his head impatiently. "I'm not a bloody witch hunter! If I were, yer head would've been on a platter by now."

Harry raised an eyebrow but kept his wand up. Why should he trust this man? He was related to the leader the of the W.S.S. Heck, with his age, he was probably the founder.

Seeing Harry's skeptic expression the man reached in his pocket.

"You know, when yer up against a threat, it pays to be prepared." The man pulled out a smaller gun from inside his jacket.

Harry's lips began to move to utter another curse before the man held up another dismissive hand. "however, I did say I wasn't her to fight, didn't I?"

He threw the gun at Harry's feet.

Harry scanned the man with curiosity. With his foot, Harry kicked the gun behind him. "Take off your jacket," he told him.

The man sighed, amused. "Smart for your age, aren't ye, Potter?"

He did as Harry instructed and tossed the coat towards him. The loud impact confirmed Harry's suspicions of him having more weapons. That surprised him even less than the fact that the man knew his name.

Once he was clear, Harry lowered his wand. "What do you want?" Harry asked.

"Just to talk," Calder said.

"Talk?" Harry spat. "You're related to the Quinns! I've no reason to trust your words."

Even as he denied the request, Harry was still quite curious at what the man had to say. Questions about the W.S.S and Cole's past popped into his head. Cole.

This may be his only chance to get his answers on that unsettling teen. If there was anyone who knew anything about him, it was that man. With those vital pieces of information he may have, he could twist it in order to get Cole on their side.

Thinking better of it, there was a big chance the only words escaping his lips would be lies. It could all be a trap? What if more witch hunters were waiting to prance on him at any second?

Unsure of why he decided to trust the man, Harry nodded.

The man smiled slightly, his sad blue eye shimmering behind his glasses reminded Harry of Dumbledore—possibly the reason why he'd allowed himself to trust him.

Then again, where had trust ever gotten him anyway?

A/N:

Yeah...i know...short chapter.

Please review! Review = faster updates.

Peace out!

P.S: If anyone is interested in a Harry potter / 2015 Disney descendants crossover, I just published a story like that on Fanfiction.net and will proceed to pubish it here too ('Son Of Lucius'...yes...its about Draco)l

Why am I telling you? Well... er...not very popular crossover so it has no views or reviews XD ah life.