A/N: Posting days are Fridays or Saturdays, with the possibility of posting more if I'm ahead. Had to rewrite 90% of the story unfortunately as I ended up with an OP!Harry which is just bad for the Walking Dead Universe without changing a whole bunch of things. Still looking for a beta, have a good day!

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The walk down the stairwell was quiet, except for the distant moans of the dead from behind the doors they passed on the way down. Beth had continued to help Harry down the stairs, and they both had been passed by the majority of the group, except for the man with the wild eyes, who was bringing up the rear. Beth was occasionally glancing over at him, questions clearly on the tip of her tongue, but Harry was glad for the restraint; he didn't think that he could manage to speak with the pain in his chest and the thoughts racing through his mind.

As they reached the bottom of the stairwell the man reached out and gently grabbed Beth's shoulder, stopping them both.

"Beth, I need a minute with him." He said, letting go of Beth and gently guiding Harry over to a chair at the bottom of the stairwell. "Need to figure out what to do with him." Beth frowned briefly before nodding, and she walked forward to join the rest of the group.

The man sighed and sat back on his heels, now eye level with Harry, and ran his hands across his face. "Right, time for some questions; my name is Rick. Harry, right?"

Harry grimaced, holding his side, as he looked into Rick's face. "Yeah, that's me. How do you know?" Harry felt a twinge of anxiety course through him. He couldn't know… could he?

Rick groaned and fell back, slamming onto the ground as he splayed his legs between them. "Missing persons report. Just before all this..." He said, gesturing around them, "started, I was a Sheriff's Deputy. Was working outside Lexington when a report came across my desk for a missing juvenile, filled by two of his friends. Sounding familiar?"

Harry let a wave of relief pass through him before nodding, doing his best to make sure that it didn't show on his face. Apparently he hadn't done a great job, as Rick looked at him rather suspiciously, before waving him on to continue.

"Right before all this started, I was taking a road-trip with my friends across the States. We were a couple of weeks in when we got to Louisville and we stopped for a couple of nights, to relax, recharge, you know?" Harry said, looking up the stairwell briefly before turning back to Rick. "Anyway, my friends were dating so I figured I'd give them a couple of days together to… well, have some time together." Harry said, looking away from Rick to his hands. "I had to take care of some personal business there anyway." Harry failed to mention that the personal business was his monthly meeting with Gringotts to discuss the state of his finances, but he imagined that saying 'I had to go to Lexington to meet with some goblins' would be met with some degree of hostility.

Rick nodded and waved for him to continue, starting Harry. He hadn't realized he was quiet for as long as he had been. "Anyway, I arrived in Lexington, checked into the hotel, and then went searching for food. I woke up in the hospital nearly a week later. The doctors said that I was hit by a bus that had driven onto the sidewalk. Apparently the driver had a heart attack. A day or so later I was able to send a message to my friends, letting them know I was alright." Harry shut his eyes, trying to push aside the memories of them visiting the hospital.

Hermione had been less than pleased and every hug she had delivered came with a hard smack. Ron had just shook his head in exasperation before making himself comfortable on the couch and swiping the sandwich from Harry's plate. "They found me and stayed with me for another couple of days until I was released. I'm guessing the missing person's report was filed while I was out." Harry finished with a shrug, before looking over at Rick. "How on earth did you remember that report? It can't be that they're exceptionally rare or anything, right?"

Rick shook his head. "No, not rare unfortunately. The report came across my desk right before I got shot. It was one of the last normal memories I have. Plus, well, I have a son and Harry was a name my wife and I were considering for him, so it stuck with me."

"You were shot?"

"A couple of weeks before this all happened I got shot, ended up in a coma for at least a month. When I went down, the world was messed up, but otherwise normal. Now though…" he trailed off, looking at the door the rest of the group had walked through. "Well, you know what it's like now. How'd you end up here? I would have thought you'd have gone home after the accident."

Harry nodded. "That was the plan. We had bought plane tickets and everything, before I had my last checkup with the hospital and they told me that it'd be best to wait another week or so to finish healing up. I sent my friends ahead, told them I'd be fine. They had jobs to get to, and I didn't, so it didn't make any sense for them to wait around with me. If you were asleep, I guess you don't know it, but one of the first major outbreaks in Lexington was at the airport. I was supposed to catch my plane to Maryland the next day. A real kick in the teeth, you know?" Harry sighed, scuffing the ground with his boots.

"Anyway, I ended up not making my flight, and managed to send and receive a last message to my friends before it all collapsed. There was starting to be similar incidents in downtown London, but they were preparing. I know they're all right."

Rick nodded. "I'm sure they are. So since then, did you join up with a group or something? How'd you end up in Atlanta?"

"I joined up with the evacuation, figured that it'd be safest to just go with everyone else. Well, that didn't end so great, so I ended up in a group for a while with a group that was taking care of some old folks actually. They were some great guys."

"The Vatos?"

Harry laughed. "Yeah, I was with them for… nearly three months I think. Great group of guys. Guillermo was a good leader. But, some meds went missing and because I was the only 'new guy,' I was blamed. Guillermo didn't think it was me, but he had to do something, or the others might have questioned his leadership." He finished with a gentle sigh. "I don't blame the guy. They had lost too many guys from a raid, and confidence in him was shaky at best. The Vatos were calling for blood, but mine would do in a pinch." He said with a rueful smile, before suddenly frowning. "Wait, how do you know about the Vatos?"

Rick shook his head. "A long story. Were you there when they got a bag of guns?"

Harry thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I was on a supply run. I came back and they told this story of… wait, that was you guys?"

Rick nodded, a smile flitting across his face. "Small world."

Harry nodded in response. "So I can't imagine you separated me from your group to ask me about my past. Goodness knows that they'll all be curious about that as well."

"I have a couple of questions I want to ask before I even consider the possibility of you coming along. Now, you helped us out of a situation that was going south faster than I can wrap my head around, and for that I'm grateful. But to be blunt, that means little; as far as I know you were just trying to save your own hide."

Rick and Harry both started as the door opened, a figure stood in the doorway bathed in the light of day. An asian man stepped in, not much taller than Harry. "What's the holdup? We need to move." He said, glancing over at Harry briefly. "Glenn by the way."

"I need to ask him some questions before we get moving." Rick explained, looking up the stairwell from where they had come.

"I'll make this brief. How many walkers have you killed?" Rick asked, glancing back down to Harry.

"Can someone check my pack for me? Front pocket, should be a leather journal." He turned his back to Glenn, jostling his pack. "I'm Harry, charmed."

Glenn opened up the pocket and slipped the journal out, passing it to Harry. "Thanks. Let's see…" He said, opening the journal to the halfway mark, his fingers trembling slightly. "Ah, here we go. Three hundred and fourteen." He said, slamming the journal shut and handing it back to Glenn.

They both looked at him, expressions unreadable, before Glenn finally spoke up. "You kept count in your journal?"

"Well, I did my best anyway. Took down their names if I could search them, and if I couldn't gave them the standard John and Jane Smith. That way if things… calmed down, and people came looking, I could tell them for certain."

"Oh. That's way better than I was thinking." Glenn said, clearly having thought Harry was some demented man keeping track of his score.

Rick nodded at this, and as Glenn fiddled with Harry's bag, spoke once more. "How many people have you killed?"

Harry frowned at this, before glancing at his shoes. "Somewhere between fifteen and twenty." He had considered adding the ones from before this all began, but if they asked for an explanation of them he couldn't imagine how he'd explain it. He looked between Glenn and Rick and noticed the twin looks of unease that passed across their faces. He couldn't blame them; that was a rather high number, especially considering how few people were walking about who were still in their right mind.

"Why?"

Harry shrugged, looking at Rick. "They were going after people who couldn't defend themselves. I stopped them. I tried to… warn them off, but they didn't listen. They never listen."

Rick and Glenn looked at one another before nodding towards the door. Rick turned back to Harry as Glenn walked out, calling out to gather the folk beyond it to a group. "I'm going to go discuss it with them. I guess I never really asked; do you want to join up with us? If you don't we'll part ways, no harm done."

Harry just nodded. "Rick, I've been alone for the most part since the Vatos. I was friendly with a couple of groups in the area, but for the most part kept to myself. I'm starting to think maybe being on my own isn't a good thing. If your group says no that's fine, I'm not about to hold it against you, and I'll still help you guys get out of the city if you'd like. If I do go with you guys though, I will have to stop by my place and grab a couple of things. I'm not sure how long i've been here, but I'm sure no one found my home. I'll make some noise if I hear any other doors open though." He said, gesturing up towards the top floor.

Rick nodded once, and pushed open the door, stepping into the light of day, leaving Harry in the darkness.

Harry groaned once before flipping his bag so it rested on his lap, and opened the protected compartment to grab the bottle of Skele-Gro he had. There wasn't much left, but there was enough to help him get past the worst of it; his chest would be sore, but it wouldn't hurt to breathe anymore.

He drank greedily from the bottle before sliding it back into his bag, taking stock of it's contents. One photo album, one broken wand, a handful of empty potion bottles, and Hermione's small clutch from the Hunt. Harry sighed and closed the compartment, wishing that he had thought to grab one of the enchanted packs from his vault before they had left for their trip.

He could hear the muffled voices from the group beyond the door, but he did his best to not listen in. This wasn't a discussion he wanted to hear the details of, even if he could feel himself getting hopeful at the prospect of joining up with them. They seemed like a decent sort of folk, perhaps a touch rough around the edges. Harry could forgive them though, as before the dead began walking they lead rather normal lives. They probably didn't have Basilisks, Dark Lords, and Dark Wizards to fight. Harry hated to think it, but this sort of chaos was where he thrived; where he felt at home. The sudden warmth that spread through his chest stopped his musing as he felt his ribs begin to knit themselves together. This was going to be painful.

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Rick stepped through the door to the gathered group with a sigh. That kid was a conundrum. He was personable enough, and Rick didn't feel that he was dangerous to him or his, but something about how Dawn had let them go still made the hairs of his neck stand on end. He shook his head and walked forward, nodding to Maggie as he stopped, her arms wrapped around Beth.

"Look, the deal up there was going south. Someone stepped in and got us all out, and he's sitting on the other side of that door right now. He's dangerous, but not to us I don't think. Not sure really what to make of him. I know that we have a habit of picking up strays…" He said, glancing over at Noah, who grinned briefly. "But this one needs to be a group decision. He says that he would have no qualms helping us get out of the city and letting us be on our merry way, and I believe him. I honestly think that he expects us to turn him away."

Carol frowned as Rick spoke. "Most of us haven't met him though. How're we supposed to make any sort of decision?"

"Look, this is a bad time to be having this sort of discussion, no matter what. Who knows how long this truce with the hospital folk is gonna last, and the kid is hurt, but seems like he's handling it as well as he can. I'm not asking you all to make the decision now, we can do that later. Think of it like a trial run; do you trust my judgement enough to let him come along with us for now," he emphasized, looking at the group at large. "Until we hit the edge of the city and get away from here?"

Daryl shrugged and nodded. "He seemed harmless enough. Suit's a bit goofy though."

Maggie looked sharply over to Daryl, before turning back to Rick, a slight grin on her face. "He's in a suit?"

Rick smiled, nodding briefly. "Full thing. Looks like he's heading to the opera or something. Hang on a second." He said, an idea forming. "Beth, Noah, did you guys ever run across him?"

They both shook their heads, but Noah looked rather confused. "I've been there over a year and I've never seen the guy. I've been in that room he came from more times than I can count, and I never saw anything that suggested he was in there. I have no idea where he came from. I don't even know when he got there, let alone who worked on him."

They all frowned at this; a mysterious stranger who seemingly appeared from thin air wasn't a good thing when everything was good, let alone nowadays.

"Regardless, if anyone has any objections say them now, otherwise he'll come with us to the edge of the city at the least. He'd like to stop by his house before we head out to pick things up."

"Think it's a trap?" Sasha asked, eyeing the door critically.

"No. It feels weird to say, but I don't think this kid is lying to us. I trust him for some reason. He didn't seem overly eager to get back, so I'm not really worried about it."

Carl, who had been helping Carol with Judith, turned over to his father. "Wait, you trust him?"

Rick just shrugged. He knew it was crazy, he hadn't known the kid for more than an hour, but something in his gut was telling him this kid was only good news. "A little, and I can't really explain why. His story holds up pretty decently; he was with the Vatos for a couple of months, but apparently was on a supply run when we ran into them."

Sasha scoffed at his. "Awfully convenient."

Rick just shrugged again. "A little, but I hadn't mentioned them, and he knew the leader's name, knew what they were protecting. Sasha, are you saying you don't want him coming with us? Because if so we'll leave, he's gone."

Sasha frowned at the door before shaking her head slowly. "I'm not saying that, no. If you trust him that's good enough, but I hope you know what you're getting us into."

Rick laughed at this, causing a grin to appear on her face. "Like I ever do. Right, I'll go grab him."

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Harry shielded his eyes as the door opened and Rick stepped through. "Come on kid, rise and shine."

Harry sighed and pulled himself off from the floor. The worst was over, he knew. The warmth was still there, but the sharpness of the pain was gone, leaving only a dull throb, leagues ahead of what is was just minutes prior. "Right. So what's the verdict?"

"For now you're coming with us if you'd like. We're going to have a much more in-depth discussion when we hit the city edge, but we'll get you set up with a vehicle or something if we decide to split."

Harry nodded at this; it was a reasonable course of action, with the loaming presence of Dawn and her crew around. "Sounds good. We have time to stop by my place, or no?"

"Is it on the way out of the city? We're heading to Virginia."

"Should be, if you're taking the 85 out. I'm in the big circle building just off the highway. The ramp is blocked up though, I doubt vehicles would make it."

"Is anything important there, or is it just supplies?"

Harry frowned at this, trying to remember. "Just supplies. I have my photos and stuff with me, but I don't have any food or water. If we're sticking to 85 though I might have a supply stash on the way we could stop by. Not a lot, it's meant for just me to hunker in for a while, but there should be enough for at least a meal or two, depending on the size of your group."

Rick nodded at this. "Yeah, we're taking it as far as we can. How far out is it?"

"Dunno. Just look for the sign for the 'Echo' something or other. I stashed it in a shed just off the highway. Was never really one to mark miles, seemed pointless, especially now. I'd say it'd be approaching night when we get there though."

They stepped through the door into the light, the full group now watching as Harry hobbled out. He was suddenly nervous once more, and by the slight grin that Daryl had, it was rather apparent. "Uh, hello." He said, waving weakly.

"Deja Vu." said a woman Harry recognized from before, the one with the sword. She gave him a slight grin and a nod.

"Right, let's get moving. We're not stopping by Harry's, we're going to head out of town to one of his outposts. There enough room to fit all of us?" He asked turning to Harry. Harry's eyes were fixed on Judith, his mouth slightly agape.

"What? Oh, yes. There's a house there that's boarded up near it. I broke into it one night and stayed there. It's pretty isolated, we shouldn't have any issues." He said, his eyes not moving from Judith, who was regarding Harry with curiosity. "Uh, that's a baby."

Rick nodded and smacked his shoulder. "Yup, that's mine. Judith."

"Right, ok. I just need to check something real quick before we get going. Where's the nearest car?" He asked, glancing at the group at large. "One that was here before you guys got here, that is."

They all looked at him rather confusedly, before Glenn gestured with his hand to one sitting in a corner of the lot they were standing in. Harry made his way over to the car, giving a sharp whistle as he approached. To everyone's great surprise a head suddenly popped up, and it gave a quiet whine in response.

"Is that a…"

Harry gave out a quiet cheer of delight as he rushed forward, opening the door, only to get bowled over by the small furry dog. Everyone reached for their weapons before the sound of laughter reached their ears, and the whining sound only increased in volume and frequency.

"Hey girl." He said, wrapping his arms around her, holding her close to his chest. After a moment he slid her off his chest and sat up, only to have her clamber into his lap and settle in. "Everyone, this is Molly. She's my basset hound. Molly, everyone." The dog situated in his lap gave a quiet bark in response, seemingly unwilling to let him get up. "Anyone got any water or food she can have? There's plenty where we're going so i'd replace it in an hour or two."

"Yeah, I think we could give her something. Can we do it on the way though?" Harry nodded at this and reluctantly gently pushed Molly off him again, and she sneezed at him in response. He frowned at her briefly, before breaking into a grin.

"We're heading to Echo girl, remember Echo?" The group looked on in a mixture of awe and incredulity as the dog looked up at him and shook her head once, ears flopping about, before turning towards the exit gate and walking forward. She stopped suddenly and watched the left side carefully, before turning her head to make sure Harry was watching and began walking to the gate, her eyes fixed on the side.

"Walkers on the left side then." He said, getting off the ground and unstrapping his knife. "Let's go get some vehicles I guess."

The group watched him walk by, before Daryl shrugged and caught up with him. The sudden groan and slicing sound of Harry's knife broke them from their reverie, and the twang of Daryl's crossbow made them all begin to move.

Carl leaned close to his dad as they made their way towards the gate, still trying to process what they had just seen. "Is it just me or did that dog understand what he was saying?"

Rick just laughed at the oddness of the situation before nodding. "In a world of the dead walking about, the oddest thing i'm going to see today is a happy dog, and I think I'm okay with that."