It's All Just Temporary with a Bit of Necromancy

Chapter 14: Lucky Them

Breathe. Concentrate. Step. Breathe. Concentrate. Breathe. Concentrate. Hold. Hold. Breathe. Step. Switch. Breathe. Concentrate. Pull. Breathe. Pull.

A twig snapped and Harry twitched and almost lost his balance. Shaking his head of the distraction, he went back to focusing. He stared at the bushes before him. All in various states of decay. He was practicing controlling the speed of pulling Life and cutting off so that he didn't pull all of it at once. He hoped that he might be able to just take years off of a person's Life versus taking the entire thing as a sort of warning system.

He could see the faint shimmer of each Life in the bushes, it was still hard to see but as the journals and guides said, it was becoming easier. And his hold on his magic, while still hard to control and maintain, was easier to reach and call forth. He was currently standing barefoot in just some blue harem pants without a shirt on. The harem pants reminded him of the Aladdin movie he had watched in muggle school, a movie he had related to being of a similar color, and he had convinced Tobi to get him some. They were lightweight and breathable which was needed in the current heat. Harry had started with a robe, shirt, and shoes but the heat of the sun had made it unbearable and so he had tossed his outer robes and shirt. And he had hoped that by taking off his shoes it might help connect him to the bushes' Life easier.

Sweat trickled from his scalp and raced down his bareback and chest but he held firm in his concentration. Breathe. The heady rush was just on the outer edge of his thought but he knew that as much as he wanted to he couldn't let it overpower his thoughts. Allowing the detachment was as much as he allowed himself to indulge. He was holding a pose from the guide books, balancing on one foot with his hands out in front of him as though calling the Life to his palms. Breathe. Step. He stepped his foot down and now held a more balanced warrior-esque pose with his hands clenched into fists. He opened his left palm and pulled on the Life from the bush to his left. Breathe. He clenched his left hand into a fist to stop the pull of Life and then opened his right and pulled the Life of the bush to his right. Fist clenched, pull stopped. Breathe. Opening both fists he pulled on the Life of the bushes on his right, left and the one right in front of him. Breathe. Breathe. Concentrate. Pulling Life from three sources in different locations was harder to hold and control. Can't pull too quickly. Breathe. Hold. Breathe.

Another twig and a gasp. Harry lost his control and all three bushes died in an instant. Growling, Harry spun on his heel to face the intruder. His fists clenched held out like a punch. The icy fire eager to take out any who dared disrupt his focus. Eyes narrowed, a cold smirk played across his lips as he took in the petrified faces of his Slytherin classmates through the detached haze that the icy fire provided. Slowly he straightened his posture, dropping his fist to his side; the high dissolved, the detachment withered, and his call on his magic faded.

Draco Malfoy stood a few feet from him looking far too pale to be healthy and behind him cowered Pansy Parkinson and Tracey Davis. Poking out from behind the untouched bushes on the right were the heads of Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise Zabini, while on the left which held his robes and shirt hid Daphne Greengrass and Theo Nott.

"Potter-Sir-Lord?" Malfoy croaked out, gripping the hem of his shirt tightly.

"I won't stop you from calling me Lord," Harry teased, his smirk growing more mischievous, he was panting slightly from the exertion of calling Life but his running and dueling were helping him regain his breath quicker. "But Potter works fine." Malfoy swallowed and nodded, seeming to gain a bit more color to his cheeks. "We playing hide and seek or something?" Harry asked, glancing at the others still ducking behind the shrubbery. Shamefaced the others stood up from behind the bushes and came forward to stand next to Malfoy.