AN: The cookies' handout and review replies are at the end of the chapter. I recommend to read the chapter first, 'cause otherwise the surprise is spoiled.
Chapter 4: Restraints
Harry had never felt so free in his life. There was no body weighing him down and all his troubles and dark thoughts seemed to have been blown away. He had never thought that being carefree was so much fun. There was no guilt plaguing him, no duties burdening his mind and soul. He was simply exhilarated and joyous.
On the wings of air he travelled long away from Hogwarts grounds. His consciousness blanketed a vast space of land. He felt the sea gulf within himself, heard the screams of gulls, smelled the polluted air of the cities, breathed in the rich scents of the forests and the sharp freshness of the mountains. The Isles were his domain.
Harry felt he could travel the world within hours and come back, but as of yet he just stayed. Watched and felt. Existed.
Zallerion transported himself to Melroys and climbed the stairs up to the highest tower of the city. He stood resting his elbows on the silvery gray parapet and watched the stars.
The elf couldn't help but feel a bit worried about the young wizard. He knew that Harry needed to complete the transformation but at the same time he was frustrated that his charge went somewhere, where he couldn't follow. How was he supposed to guard the boy in these circumstances?
He would give the fledgling sylph the time to spread his wings. He would call him back at the dawn.
Something tugged at his mind and interrupted his blissful observation of the Cornwall rocky coastline, where he had concentrated his consciousness. And he was just about to see the most wonderful dawn lighting up the dark blue scenery. If Harry had a body he would have frowned. As it was his displeasure at the disturbance was expressed in the picking up of the wind and its chaotic movement. Some people in the village nearby were frightened out of their sleep by the violent gusts of wind that attacked the sturdy frames of their houses.
The sylph chose to ignore the call. And remained where he was.
A minute passed but the presence still wouldn't go away. So he slapped it away…
Only for it to stubbornly come back. Harry fought back, but the fiend wouldn't budge and slowly but steadily drew the sylph to itself.
Furious, Harry stopped fighting and now headed to the source of annoyance out of his free will.
Zallerion was sweating bullets. He didn't take into account the willfulness of sylphs. Somehow, he thought that he would call Harry back and he would just obey. No. Such. Luck.
Suddenly the strain he had put on the bond disappeared and the backlash he got almost caused him to blackout.
Just few seconds passed and the serenity of the Lost City was shattered by the violent swirling tornado, which just came into being out of nowhere.
'Uh-oh' was the only thing that went through the wide-eyed elrue's mind. Perhaps, organizing the welcoming party at the top of the highest tower was not the best idea.
Harry recognized the cause of his displeasure now. He saw the apprehensive expression on Zallerion's face and his anger melted away. But he still felt that he deserved some vengeance.
The sylph let his mild tornado dissipate and instead in a particularly strong gust of wind headed towards the elf.
Zallerion was knocked down on his back as soon as he relaxed after having seen the natural disaster disappear. The hit was pretty hard and his eyes saw stars.
"Now that wasn't very nice of you to call me back in such a way," a voice growled straight into his sensitive ear causing it to twitch. "Couldn't wait for just a few minutes, could you? And I so wanted to see that dawn…"
The elf just then realized that it was a very material body that was holding him down. His hands pried the offender away, grabbing at the smooth skin of bare shoulders. When he finally regained his eye-sight, he looked up and slipped into a mild trance seeing an ethereal vision.
There, straddling his thighs, sat the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Harry had not changed much from the last time he saw him, but some details made it obvious that he was different. The still pale skill shone with the inner light but lost its translucency; the eyes regained their beautiful emerald color and shone with such joy and happiness that Zallerion had never seen before on the face of this teen. His hair remained the same and floated a bit in the wind, forming halo. Pale pink lips were formed in the most adorable pout.
Considering, that the sylph wore only one piece of clothing – that of the light green toga, and the position they were in, Zallerion felt more than a little disturbed. He decided to sit up and increase the distance between them before his disturbance grew into hard arousal. The elrue were not asexual beings, after all.
Harry, though, noticed the hasty retreat and grew worried. He looked himself over, trying to decipher what scared his favorite and only elf off.
Noticing the strange look in his friend's eyes, Harry interpreted it as wariness and came to his own conclusions. He almost flew to the elrue and felt him over, trying to find the damage he had done.
"Zalle'? Are you alright? I am sorry I didn't want to hurt you! Please, forgive me! I don't know my own strength yet…"
Zallerion groaned finding his arms full of the repentant sylph.
Harry reacted to the groan predictably by jumping away, though, not far, and tracing his hand over the elf's ribcage, his brows in a frown of concern.
"Where does it hurt?.."
Zallerion didn't want the teen to frown. So, he gave up and drew him back into the embrace, running his right hand through the silky strands of hair.
"Harry-Harry-Harry… You are truly very young and clueless, aren't you?" he commented with fondness.
The confused emerald eyes narrowed on his swamp ones.
"What do you mean?"
Zallerion answered with leaning down and kissing the sylph softly on the lips. Almost immediately he drew back and explained verbally.
"You are unbelievingly beautiful."
Harry was touching his lips in perplexity.
"So what?"
Had Zallerion being a less controlled being, he would have palmed his face in exasperation. Instead he collected his thoughts and answered in all honesty.
"So… You better wear glamour in public, unless you want to be assaulted and ravished by both female and male population on a daily basis. And wear more clothes than that…" he looked at the toga with the contempt he didn't really feel.
Harry followed his gaze and frowned.
"What's wrong with that! I don't want to wear anymore constricting clothes," the sylph huffed. "It's already hard enough to adjust to this heavy body!"
"It's indecent."
Harry glared. "Whatever, was it what you were trying to imply with your previous actions?"
Zallerion wouldn't lose his temper.
"I wasn't implying, I just did what I wanted to."
The sylph once again closed the distance, his chin defiantly lifted up.
"What was it that you wanted? To cowardly run away from me?"
"Are you provoking me?" Zallerion asked, his sparkling dangerously.
A mischievous smile lit up Harry's face and he danced away out of the elf's reach.
"Maybe… Isn't it fun, elrue?" he sing-songed tauntingly.
"I'll get you for that, you sylph!"
"Ah… So that's what I am! Finally, you decided to share this bit of information with me. And here I thought I was some kind of air elemental…"
"Sylph is an air elemental, ignorant child."
"Who are you calling a child, Zalle'? You know very well I am not one."
"You're right, of course," the elrue conceded. He knew of the harsh life that the Boy-Who-Lived led. "And as loath as I am to interrupt this flirting session, you have to go back to Hogwarts…"
Harry grimaced, but even this facial expression couldn't ruin his allure.
"Don't wanna…" Harry sat down crossing his legs and thought. He sighed and said more seriously. "I am not sure I'll be able to play my part. I haven't exactly had time to come to terms with what's going on… But… I must…" the sylph's body started trembling and the wind picked up, forming into semi-visible whips that were circling the figure lazily ready to lash out at the moment's notice.
"NO!" the sylph cried out with a mad glint in the eyes, their color fading to lime-green. "I DON'T owe anything to anybody! I have NO obligations! I must do NOTHING!.. But…" At this point in his speech Harry was clawing at the floor and shaking his head furiously.
Zallerion knew better than to approach this unleashed force of nature. He began to understand that Harry now had to fight his newly acquired creature half down and all the inhuman instincts and conceptions that went along with it.
In a few minutes the wind settled down. Harry stood up with the worn and resigned look around himself and silently neared the pile of clothes that the elrue brought with him. The sylph carelessly shrugged off the toga, causing the elrue to gulp but he was unable to turn away from the sight of the slim and toned body. 'Please don't bend down, please don't…" prayed Zallerion, who already felt more than a little hot.
But of course, Harry did bend down, though, his long mass of hair covered the most intriguing parts from view, saving Zallerion from the absolute loss of control. The elf closed his eyes and tried to regain his composure.
It was hard. It was unbelievingly difficult to cope with all the foreign feelings and thoughts. Even though they were part of himself, they were still new. For example, his attitude towards the reaction his new body caused in the elf. Before the transformation he would have been embarrassed and even scared. Now he was simply amused and maybe a little flattered as though someone had just complimented him on a new pair of new trousers or a shirt.
Harry had never been concerned about his appearance, but still had some preconceptions of decency. Now his body felt like some clothes that he could take off any time, which he actually could do... It wasn't truly a part of himself, just something odd and irrelevant. Unwanted and unnecessary.
His thirst for freedom was also overwhelming, but Harry tried to convince his new half that he still had some restraints; some bonds that he wanted to adhere to. Like murdering his parents' killer, like supporting and spending time with his friends, like being with Zalle'…
Harry started and realized that he really did flirt with the elf. That was unlike himself. His heartbeat picked up. And he was enjoying it. Of course, he hadn't done anything outrageous… yet, but still it was not very honorable considering his relationship with Ginny. But try as he might, the sylph couldn't feel any guilt.
The teen looked at the wand in his hands. Was he still able to perform wizard magic? It was time to find that out. He pictured a nice-looking tiger lily in his mind and lazily waved his wand.
"Orhideus!"
Hm-m… The top of the tower now resembled the orange-colored jungle. Less power next time then.
Mumbled curses in some unfamiliar language jerked Harry out of his stupefied contemplation of the surroundings. It seemed the elrue wasn't lucky enough to escape the fate of becoming part of this wondrous garden. He was now with limited success trying to untangle himself from the mass of lilies that somehow had acquired clinging vines. Some other time Harry would be rolling down on the ground and laughing unstoppably at seeing the picture, but at the moment he was much more concerned about his magic and let just a small smirk to grace his features.
So his spell was not only amplified but also mutated…
The next ten minutes Harry spent experimenting with the same spell but with different plants and power levels, skillfully ignoring the pleading cries from Zallerion to stop ruining his city.
Finally, the sylph-wizard came to conclusion that he could produce the best and most controlled results without the wand and nonverbally. By simply wiggling his fingers. Or waggling his eyebrows for that matter. Whatever tickled his fancy.
Harry smirked a bit maliciously. Oh, Voldemort was going to get it. A hundred-fold. And with something other than an innocent florist spell. Perhaps, being in a body of a wizard wasn't so bad after all. His sylph part wholeheartedly agreed – it was fun.
Glamouring himself with ease, Harry searched out Zallerion with his eyes.
The elrue stood not far from him surrounded by some sphere-shield and stoically waited for Harry to finish. He had already given up on saving the tower.
Harry looked around and smiled sheepishly, shooting an apologetic glance to the elf. Perhaps, he did go a bit overboard. But he was so excited!..
The sylph neared the tall man.
"Zalle'… Take me back to Hogwarts, please…"
The shield melted away and the elrue embraced the now clothed sylph gently, teleporting both back to where they started.
The left behind toga was soon consumed by a carnivorous chamomile that wasn't too picky on the menu and soon moved on to devouring its equally mutated plant peers.
AN: Review Replies:
Supersaiyangirl, you were one of the closest to guess the creature! And even technically right if not fully informative. Thank you for not losing interest. Now lots of information will become clear, so I'm interested if the story still remains intriguing to you.
Erynia, chapter with the answers arrived. I don't know if all of them are answered here. So, if anything is unclear, don't hesitate to ask.
Sesshy'sSannah, thank you! And yes, you are almost right – he is an air elemental, otherwise known as sylph, as you can see from this chapter. I am sorry I forgot to explain why the potion was effective, though I wanted to write that out. I'll try to find a moment to explain it in the later chapters. So far, I can say that the potion was different because it was a bit too effective. Harry/Dobby pairing (*mad giggle*)… I don't really know how this idea came to my twisted mind. Still, I liked it and decided to try it out. =)
SiriusBlackIsGod, thank you for the positive reply. Here is another update. ;)
Lo Lo, thank you! Why a nerd? Nothing wrong with knowing something others don't, though, sometimes it gets a bit lonely. I mean none of my friends can share my bordering on obsession interest in fantasy, HP, fantastic anime, and so on and so forth. =) Nymph or a cloud nymph? Not a bad guess. But not exactly true.
fraewyn, m-m… No, it's not a crossover. It's all as original as it can be in a fanfic. Though, I am curious what you were reminded of.
LGM, thanks! Sprite? Well, I guess it could be equaled somehow to a sylph, so ya get a cookie. ;)
COOKIES' HANDOUT!
My dear readers, I feel strangely accomplished that none of you guessed the creature 100% even though many of you came close.
I want also to comment that even though the creature in the story is a sylph many of the characteristics that describe them can be a bit twisted and interpreted differently than in classics. Basically just my imagination and my view on sylphs at work.
I rated LGM and Supersaiyangirl as the WINNERS. You get the metaphorical cookie! Have a good appetite! But, as it is only the moral satisfaction that you get, I suggest another type of prize.
LGM and Supersaiyangirl, if you want, you can write me a challenge for an HP fanfic, and I'll try to write a one-shot, three-shot or something like that on the given terms for each of you. You can ask for a crossover but only if it is that with the universe of either Naruto, Bleach, or Yu Yu Hakusho. Oh, and I won't write a double-triple crossover. But anything else goes. Looking forward to your answer. =)