GOT: Harry Stark

The next day, the gate of the tunnel beneath the Wall opened with a metallic sound.

A row of torches had been placed to improve visibility.

Under the watchful eyes of many men of the Night's Watch, the Free Folk formed a line as they waited for their turn.

On the other side of the tunnel.

Harry was sitting behind a large table with a man of the Night's Watch on one side and Val on the other.

A stack of papers had been prepared beforehand. Under the gaze of many people, the first person reached the table.

After he gave his name and age, the man of the Watch wrote them down while Harry read his surface thoughts in an instant before letting him pass.

Dozens, hundreds, and finally thousands of people passed through during the first day. The men of the Watch took turns when they grew tired of writing.

Harry had used Legilimency so many times that he felt as though his head was going to burst. His vision was also somewhat blurry. When he asked, he learned that eight thousand people had passed through that day.

They all set up camp a kilometer from Castle Black and, without Harry knowing it, were delighted with the weather, the freezing breeze almost feeling warm to them.

Of course, not everything had gone smoothly. Among these people, a hundred were not as peaceful as they claimed.

There was some commotion when he stopped the first person, but after explaining that they would only serve as guards at the Wall, things calmed down, although the same could not be said for those he had stopped.

These men did not seem happy, and neither did the men of the Night's Watch, but Harry did not care and told the Free Folk that they could go back if they did not like it.

Everyone fell silent, but Harry could easily see the defiance in their eyes. At that moment, he simply did not have the energy to deal with them.

The next day, the rest of the people managed to pass through, and Harry found another fifty troublesome individuals.

Harry spoke with them one by one in a room and 'convinced' them to serve well at the Wall. They all had families, and although Harry did not like using their families as leverage, he still told them that their families would receive better treatment if they defended the Wall.

In the end, the wildlings were still human. It was not difficult for Harry to implant a couple of compulsions in them to make sure they behaved.

He could not help but sigh at the end of the day, feeling like Dumbledore, a first-rate manipulator with a compulsion always up his sleeve.

Shaking his head, he returned exhausted to his room and found Val lying down in a pretty blue dress. She was holding a book; Harry had been teaching her to read, and her progress had been quite good.

Val looked at him and smiled before setting the book aside and patting the bed beside her a couple of times.

Harry smiled before removing his cloak and leather outfit, leaving only his simple linen clothes underneath.

At Val's insistence, Harry lay against her, resting his head on her soft chest.

"I saw you rubbing your forehead quite a bit. Does your head hurt?" Val asked as she massaged Harry's temples.

"I feel like it's going to burst. I can barely see," Harry said, letting out a tired sigh.

A comfortable silence settled between them. Harry remained resting against Val's soft chest while her fingers massaged his scalp.

A pleasant tingling sensation ran through his entire head as he let out a soft sigh of pleasure.

His arms wrapped around her waist as he settled more comfortably against Val.

"You know... if I want to, I can see people's surface thoughts. That's how I detected some of the troublesome people," Harry said as he closed his eyes.

For some reason, he could not help telling her. Maybe it was because he remembered the way she had looked at him when he stopped those people, or simply because he needed to talk about it with someone.

"Ohh, have you seen mine?" Val asked curiously without stopping her massage.

"Of course. The first time we met, I needed to know more about you," Harry said, admitting it.

"Is that why you didn't rape me? You saw that I was a good girl?" Val said with a mischievous smile.

Harry could not help letting out a small laugh despite his headache.

"I saw that you were a bad girl. You thought several times about how to free yourself and cut my throat in different ways," Harry said as his hand rubbed the soft skin at her waist.

"Do you still do it?" Val asked curiously, unsure how to feel. It was amazing, perhaps even frightening.

Even so, she often said exactly what she thought anyway, so she was not sure how much it should really bother her.

"I don't do it with people close to me," Harry said firmly.

His words brought a faint smile to her face. She did not need to hear anything else.

"I see," Val said as she hugged him.

....

The next day.

Harry got out of bed and started getting dressed. As he did, he looked at Val, who was brushing her tangled hair.

"Trouble?" Harry said as he put on his boots.

"Tell me, isn't there a magical brush that can untangle hair with a single stroke?" Val said as she struggled to work the brush through her hair.

"I can make one," Harry said with a smile.

"Really?" Val said, stopping and turning to look at him.

"That's right, but it would only be temporary. Making it permanent requires quite a lot of magic," Harry said, standing up and walking over to stand behind her.

Their eyes met through the mirror as Harry extended his hand toward her.

Val smiled before handing it to him.

Taking the brush, he let the magic flow gently. With a single stroke, the blonde strands became completely untangled, leaving her hair soft and neat.

"And the problem?" Val asked, touching her hair in confusion.

"Imagine magic is like a fog that covers everything. When you use magic, you consume part of the fog around you and leave an empty space. Over time, the surrounding fog fills it again, but if you want to keep using magic before that happens, you'd have to move somewhere else."

Val hummed, understanding his explanation, but that only left her with more questions.

"And the problem is that magic is too scarce to do something as powerful as a permanent enchantment," Harry said, running his fingers through her silky hair.

"I see," Val said with a nod, smiling at him through the mirror.

"Time to go," Harry said, kissing her head before going to get his cloak.

Harry left the room with Val and went to find Jeor. The three of them took some horses and rode to the camp to speak with Dalla.

Not wanting to have thousands of people sitting idle, he decided to make them earn their food.

Along the Wall there were nineteen castles, but due to the decline of the Night's Watch, only three remained active: one at each end and Castle Black in the center as the main stronghold.

With the possible threat ahead, he planned to have all the idle Free Folk clear away debris and seal every possible passage.

Coincidentally, they knew those passages better than anyone.

Leaving Dalla and Jeor to talk and coordinate, Harry crossed the Wall on Ater with Val.

It took them a couple of hours to reach the large camp. Harry stopped a good distance away, observing some guards.

"I suppose going in openly isn't a very good idea," Harry said, looking at Val.

"Ater stands out quite a bit. They might give us trouble if they discover us; they might even try to kill us if the situation is as we suspect," Val said with a nod.

"Then let's make sure they don't discover us," Harry said with a slight smile before looking at her.

Val looked at Harry in confusion before feeling a cool breeze wash over her. When she realized what had happened, Harry was gone, and in his place stood a child with a fur coat and long hair.

"I wonder if this is what you looked like as a child," Harry said, looking at her with interest.

Val tilted her head before looking at her hands. They looked small, but when she moved them, she could feel that they had not actually changed.

"It's only an illusion. Come on, it won't last too long," Harry said, taking her hand before walking toward the camp.

"Can you only make us look younger, or can you turn into anyone?" Val asked curiously.

"I can make it look like I've transformed into anything, but it doesn't change our real bodies. Look at our footprints," Harry said without looking back.

Val lowered her gaze, and sure enough, Harry's large footprints did not match those of a child.

The two of them barely drew any attention. The few guards only gave them a glance before ignoring them.

"This is great," Val said with an excited look.

"Don't get any bad ideas," Harry said, giving her a speechless look.

The two walked to Mance's tent and saw two guards watching the entrance.

Even looking like children, they clearly could not just walk inside.

"Don't worry, I know them. Just end the spell and they'll let us through," Val said, noticing Harry's calculating look.

"Sure," Harry said with a nod.

The two guards immediately looked at them when they got close enough. Before they could say anything, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when they saw two children transform into adults right in front of them.

"Hey, you two idiots," Val said with a smirk.

"Val!" they both said at the same time as they stood up. Their hands instinctively went to their weapons as they looked at them suspiciously.

"You should've seen your faces," Val said with a laugh.

"Didn't you cross the Wall to become some kneeler's whore?" one of the men said with a snort once he realized it really was her.

"So that's what they're saying," Val said with an amused look.

Suddenly, the tent flap opened and Mance peeked out.

"Come in," Mance said quickly as his gaze swept over the area.

Val gestured at the guards before taking Harry's hand and pulling him inside.

"No one stopped you on the way here?" Mance asked as soon as they entered.

"No, don't worry. Harry used magic to change our appearance," Val said, shaking her head.

Harry looked at Mance, noticing his tired expression. It seemed he had been having a rough few days.

"Lots of trouble?" Harry said, looking at him.

"There's been a lot of chaos in the camp. The rumors speak of betrayal or collusion with the Night's Watch, and the fact that I was once one of them doesn't help me in that regard," Mance said with a sigh.

"People have been disappearing, and even more have died. If they keep pushing, a war over the leadership could begin," Mance said with a sad smile.

"No wonder there were so few people outside," Val said with a serious look.

"Everyone is afraid. Several women and children have disappeared; most likely some tribe is taking advantage of the chaos," Mance said with a grim look.

The tent fell silent as Mance and Val looked at Harry.

Harry returned their gaze in silence as he thought about what to do. Even so, he knew he was overthinking it.

He knew exactly what he needed to do.

"I'll take care of it."

"Just tell me who's causing this," Harry said in a grave voice.

Mance quickly brought over a map of the camp.

"There are five people who are the most troublesome and are probably the ones causing all this chaos. They're leaders of five rather problematic tribes," Mance said.

"Probably?" Harry said, looking at him.

"They're the ones who benefit the most from the chaos and who would gain the most from my death," Mance said honestly.

Harry looked at Mance in silence before gesturing for him to continue.

"Their tents are at these points in the camp," Mance said, pointing to five locations.

"These tribes are a headache, mostly raiders and murderers. They don't just raid the south; many other tribes have also been attacked by them. But as I told you, with the Others there aren't many options," Mance said, shaking his head.

Harry did not respond and simply looked at the points on the map. It was not the first time he had secretly killed someone, but the feeling of doing it based on someone else's directions and judgment bothered him deeply.

"I'll be back," Harry said with a nod as he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself before leaving the tent.

Mance's eyes widened in surprise before he turned to look at Val, who was also slightly surprised.

"He didn't seem very happy," Mance said, turning to look at Val.

"He didn't," Val said with a slight nod.

Harry walked in silence, observing his surroundings. The place truly seemed much less lively than it had a few months ago.

Frowning, he walked toward the area where his first target was. It almost seemed like a camp within the camp; small barricades surrounded the place, and a large tent similar to Mance's stood in the middle.

As Harry passed among the people of that tribe without any of them detecting him, his nose wrinkled at the smell of the camp. Even the freezing breeze couldn't get rid of it.

In the middle of that camp, he finally understood why so many people were prejudiced against those who lived beyond the Wall.

Moving toward the center of the camp, he saw quite a few people eating. It was then that his attention shifted toward a man cutting meat, and his gaze froze when he realized what it was.

What appeared to be a human arm being sliced into pieces.

His stomach immediately churned at the thought of what everyone was eating. Not wanting to remain in that place any longer, he quickened his pace toward the main tent.

The tent was closed, so after quickly looking around, he opened the flap and entered.

Before he could take a detailed look around, a wave of heat struck his face while a faint smell of blood reached his nose.

His gaze immediately turned toward the source. A corpse. It appeared to be a girl; her face was pale and dried blood stained her body.

Harry could not help closing his eyes as he let out a sigh.

If he had arrived a day earlier, perhaps this would not have happened?

His target was also there, his back turned to Harry as he faced the girl's body and sharpened a dagger.

It did not take a genius to guess what had happened there.

Magic rippled softly, creating a barrier around the tent that prevented any sound from escaping.

Harry looked at the man's back and extended a finger as a small red light appeared at its tip.

The man, who had been calmly cleaning his dagger, suddenly twisted and fell to the ground as a very familiar scream of agony echoed through the tent.

It did not sound like something a human throat should be capable of producing.

Harry simply watched coldly as the man writhed in pain. Back then, few things had pleased him as much as using Crucio on those Death Eaters who enjoyed torturing others.

Giving them a taste of their own medicine.

A quick death would have been letting them off too easily.

The man writhed for around a minute before he stopped moving. Not because he had died, but because his brain had been fried by the pain.

Now he was nothing more than a living corpse.

Giving the girl on the bed one last look, Harry left the tent with a sigh.

He visited five tents in total. Not all of them were as bad as the first, but even so, most belonged to brutal tribes without a trace of civilization.

In several of the camps, he found corpses that clearly did not belong to their tribes, confirming that they were taking advantage of the chaos to return to their old ways.

Those kinds of people were definitely not going to set foot on his lands.

Harry walked back to Mance's tent. The flap moved without any wind, causing both guards to look at it in confusion.

"It's done," Harry said, looking at Mance.

Val immediately perked up when she heard him, rising from the chair she had been lounging in.

"Thank you," Mance said sincerely.

"Listen, there are tribes that really aren't going to cross the Wall," Harry said, looking at him seriously.

"I know, but leaving thousands of—"

"It doesn't matter. I'm sure you know what kind of things I saw in those camps. Are you naive enough to think they won't stab you in the back?" Harry said, looking at him coldly.

"I'm not, but we're talking about tens of thousands of people who would be left at the mercy of the Others, tens of thousands of wights that will attack us in the future," Mance said with a frown.

"Then we'll fight. The Wall isn't there for decoration," Harry said seriously.

Silence filled the tent as the two looked at each other.

Finally, Mance simply sighed.

"You're the boss," Mance said, leaving it at that.

Val watched the two of them curiously, noticing the tension between them.

She could tell that Harry was upset, which was unusual for him.

"And what about the giants?" Val asked, trying to change the subject.

"Have you communicated with them?" Harry asked, looking at Mance.

"The giants speak the Old Tongue, and although I speak it quite well too, sometimes there are certain problems communicating with them," Mance said honestly.

"I had started communicating with them, but that was when another tribe arrived."

"This tribe is led by a giant named Mag the Mighty. His use of the Old Tongue is a little more sophisticated, so I was able to communicate with him more easily."

"He didn't seem very happy when he learned that you wanted them to obey you," Mance said with an awkward smile.

"That was to be expected. Giants are stubborn and tend to be very territorial," Val said with a slight smile. She remembered seeing a group of them hunting once.

"I see. Then let's go talk to them, but first, how about we eat something?" Harry said, looking at Mance.

"Sure, I'll have them bring you something to eat," Mance said with a nod, although in reality he wanted to find out if anything had changed in the camp.

Val watched Mance leave before smiling and approaching Harry.

"Everything all right?" Val asked, raising her eyebrows as she looked at him.

"It's nothing. I just used a lot of magic," Harry said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head against her abdomen.

"You mean the magic in the air? Or the magic you store in your body?" Val said as her hands played with Harry's hair.

"The magic in the air and a little from my body," Harry said with a chuckle before raising his hand.

The mist swirled around before forming a number.

1.2

"Wow, you really did use almost all of it, but it doesn't seem like that's the only thing," Val said softly.

"It's fine. I just saw something pretty fucked up," Harry said casually with his eyes closed.

His Occlumency had buried the memory of the dead girl on the bed deep in the back of his mind.

"I see," Val said, unsure of what to say. She gently moved him back before sitting on his lap and embracing him, trying to comfort him.

Harry wrapped his arms around her waist, and the two remained in comfortable silence until someone arrived with their food.

----

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