Chapter - 1 : Wrath

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A man-sized thundercloud hung in the centre of the Granger's living room. The viciously boiling mass of dark grey heavily contrasted the calm and soft pastel colours of the couch cushions and the sizzling arcs of electricity left angry burn marks on a nearby painting of what had previously been a very peaceful nature scene.

Like a vacuum cleaner in a doll's house, the cloud was sucking the very air out of the room. Many a bauble or trinket went flying, to be swallowed by the obviously magical construct.

Harry felt his hair and clothes being rustled by the wind and he cradled little Teddy as close to his chest as possible, shielding him with his body. Desperately he wished he could take the both of them out of the room, but the door through which the elder Grangers had managed to flee was on the opposite side. He didn't dare cross with everything but the furniture flying around.

The noise was incredible: all the sounds of an indoor thunderstorm, edged with an unnatural high-pitched whine, like a swarm of Cornish Pixies ice-skating across a chalkboard.

It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and with his free hand he grabbed hold of an oak bookcase, his grip so tight that the wood groaned under his touch.

A standing floor lamp tilted precariously, fell with a crash and was dragged across the floor until it picked up speed and lifted off completely. For a moment the cord drew taut and the lamp remained suspended in the air, tethered like a kite, until it detached from the wall socket with a snap and disappeared inside the cloud.

Wide-eyed, Harry watched it all happen. Whatever the thing was, once it got hold of something there was no retrieving it.

"Harry!" Emma Granger screamed from the open doorway where her husband had dragged her out into the hall, "What the hell is that thing?"

"I don't know!" he yelled back, frustrated. "I've never seen anything like it!"

The cloud broiled. On the other side of the room a large plant that had been on the verge of toppling over suddenly straightened again, though the leaves still looked on the verge of abandoning the stem. The bookcase Harry was holding on to, however, started vomiting books, the volumes hitting Harry in the head and shoulders.

He could feel the bruises forming and instinctively hunched his shoulders. Instead of relying on his single arm to anchor him in place, he braced both legs and tried to flatten himself as much as possible.

"Fuck," he muttered, when he was forced to sway to the side to avoid a paperback novel hitting him in the face.

With his elbow he hastily shifted some books aside until Teddy could be awkwardly shelved in between dentistry journals and a dictionary, the space closed off by Harry's stomach. This freed his second hand to grip onto the bookcase as well.

The suction was incredibly powerful and Harry was only just able to keep himself in place. He didn't dare try for his wand, as either it would go flying before he got a good hold of it, or he would himself without two hands to keep him where he was. With his luck, probably both.

"Get out of there!" Emma screamed again, panicked.

"How?" he yelled back sarcastically, but with a hint of fear. Like that hadn't occurred to him before.

The cloud broiled again and the far side of the room calmed down even more, enough for Emma to peek around the doorpost. Harry was not so lucky and his thighs were impacted by heavy, leather-bound volumes of an encyclopedia that suddenly went flying.

The pain paled next to his worry when he could feel invisible tendrils start to play with the flapping edges of his shirt. Twice now talking had made the thing pour on the power.

He resolved not to make another sound.

Stroking, almost caressing, the tendrils went up and down his back, butt and legs, sending ice-cold shivers up his spine, until one came in contact with the bare flesh of his ankle. Like a snake, the tendril swiftly coiled around it and drew taut.

Time stopped for a moment as the universe seemed to hold its breath and Harry's eyes went impossibly wide.

The tendril yanked harshly.

With a yell, Harry lost his balance and only his awkward grip on two shelves kept him from tumbling over. It did, however, expose the shelf Teddy was hidden on. The toddler slid across the shelf before his feet came to a stop against a protruding journal, barely keeping him in place. His big blue eyes looked uncertain and his hair was slowly shifting between black and mustard yellow. Clearly, he was enjoying the slide and playing hide and seek, but found the noise and mess off-putting.

The toddler kicked his tiny feet, dislodging the journal he rested against even more.

Fear coiled in Harry's gut and he desperately shook his head, mouthing, "No, no, no!" over and over as he silently urged Teddy not to do that again. He tried to edge closer and hide the little tyke from whatever was happening behind him, but the tendril around his ankle would not let go and kept yanking and dragging his leg until he had to keep his weight completely on the other. Desperately he searched for something, anything to help him, to hold Teddy, to kill the whatever-it-was-

Teddy cooed, gurgled and happily kicked with all the force his sixteen-month old legs could manage.

The journal gave way.

A shot of adrenaline caused his heartbeat to spike and Harry lunged for the boy – consequences be damned.

He caught him in mid-air and immediately dropped to the floor, landing on his side with Teddy cradled protectively in his arms. Without anything to hold on to, however, they were pulled with increasing speed toward the thundercloud.

The skin of his arms burned from being dragged by his feet across the carpet and his eyes wildly darted around, looking for purchase, something to hold on to. Most of him, however, was focussed on the toddler in his arms and he involuntarily squeezed the boy even tighter. He didn't know what was happening, but he needed to keep his godson safe. Nothing was more important than that.

Now that it got a hold of Harry it seemed the cloud had lost interest in destroying the rest of the room. From the corner of his eye he saw both Emma and Dan cautiously peeking around the doorpost, looking horrified.

It gave him an idea.

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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)

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