Rating: Mature
Languages: English, Na'vi
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
2nd Genre: Romance
Character A: Harry J. Potter
Character B: Tsu'tey
Summary: When they went to sleep, they hoped of a better future. But with Gaia insane and Magic as dead as his friends, Harry has no reason to stay. Escape and exist was all he had in mind when he stowed away on a ship to Pandora. Not another war. Slash.
WARNING: Slash, Character Death, AU, OCs, Dark Themes.
Last time:
Harry finally managed to tear his eyes away went he felt a soft pressure on his forehead, the blue woman in the red and yellow beads having just pressed a kiss to his forehead before unfolding to her full height. He looked up at her and for a moment she could feel her heart break for him, he seemed so young and yet he stood as a Warrior, as an adult years before his time, she placed her hands on his cheeks, using her thumbs to catch and wipe away his tears.
"Little Brother," she told him, "You are welcome in the eyes of Eywa and her People."
And Now:
Despite his refusal to remain with them, Harry still found himself being forced to stay for the evening meal.
A little girl, two feet taller than he was, had attached herself to his side introducing him to everyone and everything, her name was Neytiri, she was apparently the daughter of the woman from earlier, the one who accepted him. He learned more names than he thought he would be able to remember and discovered that the woman he got an eyeful from earlier was her elder sister Sylwanin, one of the Warriors, and the brat who scraped him with that poisoned arrow was called Tsu'tey. They were students in Grace's school which was how they could speak English.
Neytiri pointed at almost everything, telling him the words for them, he learned a fair bit just listening to her chattering away in her strangely thick accent, her fingers fluttering in their queer jointless way. She led him through the tree with all the enthusiasm of a small child and Harry trotted after her, half smiling in that bemused way boys often did when their girlfriends started going off on one and they didn't understand a damn thing they were saying.
Harry let her, they sat beside one another for the evening meal, Neytiri chattering a mile a minute making grand gestures and occasionally slipping back into Na'vi when she couldn't find an English word to accurately describe what she was trying to tell him. It was obvious that this frustrated her but she brushed it aside quickly enough as she explained to him the songs that were being sung throughout the hall. It was nice to be around people again, even if they were all so large in comparison to him, he smiled slightly as the children all clustered around him, poking and prodding at the Sky Person in their midst. Neytiri had already begun to play with his hair and for some reason the rest of the children had followed suit, they were all chattering to one another, laughing and giggling while he sat in the middle of them in long suffering silence, trying to eat his food and ignore the chortling of the adults around them watching.
He could only twitch slightly in annoyance as the girls giggled and added yellow and pink feathers to his now braided and beaded mane.
The food was good at least. He was definitely going to figure out how to make this stuff. It tasted way better than the bread he'd made, not as sweet though. He had ignored the glaring from Tsu'tey the whole night, though it was getting rather old if Harry were completely honest. Old to the point where he had almost offered to put the brat over his knee and smack his backside until he couldn't sit down straight – it was usually an affective threat for when little Teddy was getting out of hand, once he was old enough to understand what a spanking was (and being the son of a Marauder he learned fairly quickly).
Somehow, and Harry blamed Neytiri's puppy-dog eyes for this, Mo'at managed to convince him to join them for the night, so that it would be safer for him to travel back to his home with the morning lights. He had attempted to refuse but Neytiri had already taken hold of his hand and begun to pull him towards their family hammock – he didn't have a choice when it came to the not-so-little girl. She had him wrapped around her long little finger and she knew it, her parents knew it, her sister knew it if the elder woman's giggling was any indication.
So that was how Harry ended up sleeping in a Hammock with four very big blue aliens, Neytiri having pulled him between herself and her mother so he was trapped in the middle of them with no means of escape without waking Sylwanin or Eytukan. She would have so been a Slytherin had she been a Witch.
The next morning saw him having to fend off the children who tried to get him to stay and eventually losing his temper with Tsu'tey and childishly kicking him in the shins – the Warrior had given him such a bemused look that Harry had flushed instinctively out of embarrassment even as he glared up at him and told him to stop acting like a child (and yes, he was well aware of the hypocrisy in that statement considering how he'd just kicked the other man in the shins). It had provided the children with a great amount of amusement so all the Na'vi did was snarl at him and stomp off to his Horse.
It almost took a crowbar to pry Neytiri from him when he finally decided to leave, as it was, he had to run like a mad-man and escape her before she 'let' him leave – she said she let him, Harry wouldn't disabuse her of the notion the next time he saw her because a little girl's pride was a dangerous thing and she was much bigger than him.
Having one of the Na'vi warriors attempting to follow him was... annoying.
He just ignored it though, concentrated on getting home and dealing with Zeus and Hera, he thought about grabbing something to eat on his way back before realising that those damn Muggles had taken his knife – he would have to see if he could make a new one or trade with the Omaticaya for one of those short swords. He kept going regardless, more than anything, he just wanted to make sure his wyvern were safe and alright.
He eventually realised that his Na'vi follower had fallen behind by the time he reached the top of the pathway to the Flying Mountains, perhaps this was a route that was considered structurally unsound by them? They were a lot bigger and heavier if his early morning encounter with suffocation courtesy of Neytiri – she was a snuggler – was any indication. He shrugged, not his problem he decided, launching himself onto the dangling vines and hauling ass up into one of the water caves leading to the root connectors.
In all honest, no, Tsu'tey had not fallen behind, he had mounted his Ikran and watched from afar as the Sky Demon moved through their Sacred Place and up the Iknimiya with an ease that even the most experienced of warriors lacked. He sneered angrily at such familiarity.
Not long after he vanished into the Mountain, he saw him again walking leisurely across the roots that connected each of the mountains together, thankfully he was not heading towards the Ikran Rookeries but instead to a smaller Mountain that overlooked...
The blood drained from Tsu'tey's face out of sheer fury.
His Ikran squawked and crowed uncomfortably and banked away from the Sky Demon, against Tsu'tey's will. The Na'vi hunter growled and tried to urge the creature back, the Demon needed to die! But still, his Mount refused, crooning in distress as he folded his wings and swooped onto a near-by mountain, shivering as he landed and lashing his tail. Clearly not wishing to take to the skies again and Tsu'tey was beyond himself, first that Demon desecrates their Scared Lands, pollutes the Well of Souls, bewitches his family and his woman and now causes even his own Partner to turn against him.
He jumped from the Beast's back and growled at him, the Ikran croaked apologetically but made no move to indicate he would take to the skies, so Tsu'tey left him. Gripped his bow tight and took to the Iknimaya with vengeance on his mind.
Were Eywa capable of sighing, she would have done so. Really, Neytiri was correct when she mused over how Tsu'tey's anger often blinded him to what he was actually seeing, and so he no longer Saw. It was not wholly his fault though, memories of his mother and father, her death and the way his father raised him before his own sang through her mind and she understood her Child. His love for her and fanatical hatred of all that could harm her – hence his hatred of the Sky People whom he saw no difference between pink skin.
Perhaps her new Little Life could teach him to See and to Hear?
Even when he had not been able to, his memories showed her that he always heeded the Mother when he heard her, he protected all of her Life, even that of the Muggles. Such a brave little Warrior. Too young to fight as he had. And too kind to kill as he had been forced to.
Yes, it would be good for the young Hunter to See things from a different perspective.
Eywa began to plot and, crawling onto the cliff edge of his home, Harry felt a chill of foreboding run down his spine.
Zeus had been frantic with excitement when Harry reappeared. The Wyvern had launched himself across the clearing and bowled him over with piercing shrieks of delight, those horn tendrils sweeping over his body as he nuzzled and snapped at his hair and trousers looking for injuries and taking in his scent.
All too soon the creature was flicking his tail around and pushing Harry towards Hera for her own inspection, she was much more thorough from her spot in the nest, crooning as she wrapped her tail around the little Sky Person she had not imagined she would ever miss. Zeus ruffled his wings and coiled his neck about his Mate's and intertwined his tail around Harry as well, making the Wizard feel a little squished but also incredibly happy.
They weren't people, but they were family.
He curled against their tails, winding his arms around their interlocked tails and sighed happily, his eyes closing and a smile playing on his lips as the pair began to sing to one another. He was home, this was home.
Bow hanging limply in his fingers, Tsu'tey's face twisted furiously but... he just couldn't bring himself to fire.
He turned and he stormed off. At least now he knew why the Sky Person had not wished to stay with The People. He had family here.
Harry did indeed flub making his knife – spectacularly so.
In the end, he admitted defeat and took several scales from the Bitch Fish, a few other little things and a basket of the banana fruits and a few of the bread seeds he had foraged before getting a lift down to the Omaticaya's Hometree to see if he could trade for a new one. It was a little embarrassing to suddenly have a hullabaloo kick off around him when he showed the scales to Neytiri when she came bounding over asking why he was here and how he got there as Zeus had already flown up into the upper reaches of the tree by this point.
Apparently Bitch!Fish were something of an impressive catch – very impressive if the way the Warriors had suddenly begun to eye him with a whole lot more respect and interest. They had even hissed and made guttural sounds of anger and disgust when Neytiri explained that the Sky People had stolen his knife and he needed a new one, hence why he was here, to trade for one.
A mature Na'vi stepped forward, her clothing was decorated with beads and leather, she wore a lot of brown and yellow tones and walked with metal charms strewn through her hair. She gestured to his arm guards and spoke, her fingers flicking gracefully enunciating her words. Judging by how everyone listened and nodded, casting their own curious and admiring glances to his wrist guards, she was well respected and knew what she was talking about.
"Zuleika says she will make you a knife, if, in exchange, you make her one of those," Neytiri translated, her golden eyes alight with excitement as she pointed to his wrist guards. Harry looked down at them, the overlapping plates of armoured fish scales that he'd had to grind against a rock until he reached the desired size and shape and then looked at the woman who watched him patiently.
"Tell her, I agree, but I will need to measure her hands so that I can adjust them specifically for her. It should take a week to make," he told the young Na'vi Princess who nodded enthusiastically, happy that the Great Mother had given her a little brother in Spirit even if not in blood. She had accepted the task her mother had given her to protect and guide their little brother until he understood the ways of The People, she was sad that he couldn't remain but she remembered his dreams, the dreams sent by Eywa, and understood the reasons for his distance. How many years had it been since he last stood amidst his people and laughed and smiled? She had seen the memories of his Mate, his woman he was going to Court, they were a good match. But now she was dead and he was alone. She couldn't imagine how difficult and lonely his life must be.
Zuleika nodded and smiled at him, she was a stunningly beautiful woman when she did, she gestured to him to follow and, after gathering up his scales, he trotted curiously after the Amazonian woman. He had always been a midget but he knew he was going to get a crick in his neck if he carried on hanging around the Omaticaya.
They moved down a small passage between rocks to an enclosed area, a very warm enclosed area that smelt of burning things and hot metal. A forge.
Green eyes widened as he observed Zuleika's crude forge, made out of stone and tended carefully, he could see that she had placed everything just so as to not disturb or harm the environment around her. A large number of tools were placed on shelves made out of stiff woven palm-leaves, some were metal, most were stone. The Na'vi woman gestured for him and Neytiri to sit down, Neytiri crouching cheerfully on the ground, her long legs curled beneath her, while Harry hopped up, sitting on a large rock so he would at least he somewhat eyelevel with the older woman.
She spoke, gesturing to the forge and then to Harry, making slashing movements with her closed fingers.
"She says that she will make your knife here, out of the Mother's Bone," explained Neytiri, nodding to a basket full of metal ore, still slightly wet from where Zuleika had harvested it from the riverbeds. Little did Harry know those rocks were the very reason the humans had come to Pandora, Unobainium. "Like you must make the- " she gestured wordlessly to his wrist guards, frustration twisting her face due to her lack of knowledge, " –for her, she must make the knife for you. She says it will take a week, she will give you the knife when you give her the- "
"Wrist guards," Harry supplied with a small smile. He nodded, "Sounds fair. Could you ask her to hold her hands out so I can measure them?" he asked, Neytiri nodded and spoke, gesturing.
Harry caught a few words and filed them away along with their meanings.
Zuleika smiled warmly and stretched her hands out. Harry examined them, pressing his smaller fingers between the bones he could feel in her skin, she had lovely hands, rough though with hard work. Easily the same size as his head, this would take more scales than he had but no matter, he would hunt another one. Taking one of the scales from his basket he began to lay them one after the other against her arm, checking how they overlapped and 'hmm'ing under his breath. Neytiri and Zuleika watched with rapt attention as he used a small stick of charcoal to mark the scales where he intended to file them and bore holes for the leather straps.
Smiling slightly, Harry began to pack the scales away, being careful not to allow the charcoal to smudge.
"All done. You'll want them for both arms, right?" he asked, glancing to Neytiri for a translation.
Zuleika looked a little perturbed for a moment before shaking her head and holding up just the one finger and speaking, Neytiri nodded before turning to Harry to explain, "She wears her right arm with pride. It is proof of Pa'li Makto – Horse rider," the young girl explained, gesturing to the leather bracer that Zuleika was already wearing. Harry nodded thoughtfully.
"Just the one then," he agreed, which was good because he only had enough scales for one. It looked like he wouldn't have to risk life and limb for a while just to bring down another Bitch!Fish.
Zuleika smiled and began to examine him so she could make a suitable knife.
He was successful in his endeavours to get a knife but no one seemed willing to trade anything for his bananas, they kept telling him he should keep them and Neytiri was no help because she couldn't find the right words to explain why they wouldn't accept them. In the end he just guessed that they must either be considered to taste awful or be poisonous to the Na'vi.
He could only sigh, bid Neytiri goodbye and make his way to the forest where he intended to catch some meat before heading home, Zeus would follow in his own time – he had afterall never explored this area of the jungle as far as Harry was aware. The young Wizard hummed under his breath, old songs from Earth, songs he was fairly sure had long been forgotten in the past century, he wondered what kind of music was being played on earth now, did they even have music? He couldn't remember any music coming from the clubs – though to be honest they were not the places people went to for music.
He put it out of his mind before his emotions got the better of him and he started thinking on things that he shouldn't if he wished to remain dry eyed and sane.
He stopped and sighed, "Would you knock it off?" he asked loudly, "Anyone else would get the wrong idea about your following me, y'know." The wizard turned around and looked directly up and slightly to the left, his eyes locking with a suspicious shadow in the fork of a tree.
Harry watched silently, not moving his eyes in the slightest as the silence stretched on and eventually, finally, the shadow moved forward and into the light, revealing the bratty Hunter – Tsu'tey.
The two stood in a stare-off for a few more minutes before Harry's natural impatience and hot headedness kicked in, he made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat as he adjusted the strap of his basket-carrier. "Why are you following me?" he asked sharply, glaring up at the hunter who seemed to bristle slightly at his hostile tone.
"You said no to Tsahik's offer of Home," he told the Wizard, sounding indignant.
Harry nodded, wondering where this was going, "Yes. It was not safe."
"Then why do you come here? You should go away," the teenager hissed, baring fangs at him as his tail lashed in agitation.
The Wizard's eyebrow rose, "Isn't that what I'm doing right now?" he asked flatly.
Tsu'tey sneered, "Forever," he snapped as if it were obvious. And it was, Harry just enjoyed winding him up.
"Can't. Zuleika is making me a knife," he pointed out, fighting back a smirk as he turned away, dismissing the Hunter as he began to walk off.
"If it is not safe then why do you return?"
Harry sighed, wondering how to explain this to someone who was obviously mentally deficient, he stopped and turned slightly, looking over his shoulder to the eight-foot being who had just jumped to the forest floor, practically towering over him even at their current distance. Harry wasn't impressed.
"I can survive alone, yes. But it makes things... difficult. The People know more than I do, I learn, I trade, I get what I need. But I stay away. If the Sky People discover me... realise what I am... they would destroy The People to kill me," he explained his voice wavering only very slightly as memories of the Purges flared in his mind's eye.
Tsu'tey made a cutting gesture with his hand, baring his teeth at the Wizard in a parody of a snarl and a smile, arrogance oozed from him the human noted almost absently. He remembered a time when he too was arrogant like that, so certain that the Muggles wouldn't, couldn't, hurt the Magical World, not when they could disappear so effectively, not when they could raise the very oceans and boil the air around them. But they hadn't accounted for the Muggles' technology, for how ruthless and efficient they were when combating what they all considered to be a common threat, there were no safe havens, there were no hiding places, there were no allies. Us against Them. Unrelenting, all out, fight to the death war. No prisoners. No holds barred. That arrogance had cost them everything.
"We will fight and we will win," he told the Not Sky Person so firmly that it made him bristle visible.
Tsu'tey watched scornfully as the Outsider looked away from him, his eyes going far away, "We thought so too. That arrogance will get you killed, Tsu'tey. Do not underestimate them. They've wiped my People out entirely."
"Then they should have fought harder," he snapped, unsympathetically.
Harry whipped around to glare at him, "We fought with everything we had and more! We could not win!"
"Then you were weak and it would have happened anyway."
The next thing Tsu'tey knew he was being bowled over by ninety pounds of pissed off Wizard. They hit the ground hard, skidding a few feet with the force of Harry's tackle. The Na'vi twisted himself and his weight trying to get some distance between them to pull his knife but the human didn't allow it, planting both knees into his stomach and grabbing at his arms as he tried to roll away Harry ended up forcing all the air out of his body as he landed on top of the Hunter, his head lunging forward to crack against Tsu'tey's nose as his head arched up reflexively as all the air wooshed from his lungs.
The force of the blow flung the Na'vi's head back against the earth and it was quickly followed up by several sharp hooks from the Wizard who was just raining blows down on anything he could reach. All the while, Harry was screaming at him.
"You have no idea what those THINGS are capable of! You think Bows and Arrows will be able to do a damn thing to the creatures that destroyed a Planet!
"How were the children supposed to fight! How were they supposed to fight when they were being strangled in their sleep, drowned by their own parents, how were the babies supposed to fight when they were having their necks broken!
"How were we supposed to defend ourselves when nothing worked! We turned the very air around them to poison and they didn't stop! We burned the skies and they didn't stop!" he shouted, memories of the bodies, the fights, the horrors flashing vividly behind his eyes. He wrapped his hands around Tsu'tey's neck, tear rimmed eyes glaring murder down at that horrified Warrior.
"Don't you FUCKING DARE SAY THAT WE HAD IT COMING YOU ARROGANT BRAT!" he roared, squeezing hard.
The fist that struck the side of his head flung him aside like a rag doll, his world spun and blackened at the edges as his body hit the ground and bounced, rolling gracelessly a few feet before he twisted and skidded on his hands and knees. Shaking his head like he had water in his ears as he glared at the Warrior who scrambled to his feet and hissed at him, his expression hard to read as it looked torn between fear, wariness, alarm, anger and a hundred other different things – it didn't take a genius to notice the flicker of shame and guilt but Harry was too far gone on anger to even recognise it when he saw it.
"They wiped us off the face of the Planet." Tsu'tey stared at the Not Human, his throat burned and his face and chest ached with the force of the blows from earlier, he was different now than earlier, feral and angry, filled with so much pain and hate it... it frightened the Na'vi. "There's NO ONE LEFT!" he screamed leaving the Warrior feeling sick to his stomach as all the fight just seemed to leave the tiny pink form in front of him. He slumped, his head bowed as tears struck the ground in front of him.
"No one left. No one alive." Green eyes looked up and the Na'vi tensed in alarm as the Not Sky Person lunged forward again, feet tearing the earth behind him.
"THERE'S NO ONE LEFT!"
He was fast, Tsu'tey bit back a curse as the Wizard twisted in mid lunge as he jumped side, following him, his face twisted in pain and anger as the Na'vi lashed out – trying to ward him off. Neither of them hit home though as a shriek pierced the air and a shadow barrelled between them, hissing and snarling.
It took Tsu'tey a split second to realise it was an Ikran, the brown Ikran he had seen the Not Sky Person fly on earlier, it was hissing and snarling at him, using its body to block the Not Sky Person. Trying to... protect him!
Harry snarled trying to wriggle free and rip that brat's head from his shoulders (alone-all-alone) and crush it like an egg (no-one-left). How dare he, how fucking dare he! They were all dead. All dead. They were all dead all alone all dead oh god they were all dead he was alone alone alone alone alone always alone alone!
Harry's legs gave out, he couldn't breathe, his lungs were frozen.
The words just kept echoing in his head as Zeus coiled protectively around him, hissing and spitting at the Na'vi. He couldn't... he couldn't he had to... had to...
"Z-zeus," he croaked, latching onto the Wyvern's neck. His friend didn't even need him to say it, didn't need words, they never did, never had. He hissed threateningly at the Blue Skin before twisting and launching himself into the skies, powerful wings baring him and his Human back to their nest, back to their home. He flew faster than he had ever flown before in his life.
His Human was breaking, breaking, breaking. The cracks had been growing and healing and fracturing again and again and again, he had shattered now. So many pieces, like crushed glass, shattered mirrors, sharp and beautiful with memories and emotions that cut oh-so very deeply.
Harry's heart bled as everything finally came crashing down.
Chapter Fin...
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