In the castle that was located in the middle of the goblin city that was located in the middle of a vast labyrinth that stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction beneath a dusky orange sky that could not possibly be natural, Harry sat on the bed in the room he'd been provided. Upon arriving, he had examined everything in the room at great length while being careful not to touch anything lest he get in trouble for doing so, and was now both bored and tired since there was nothing for him to do here. He briefly wondered if it was safe to get his school things and owl back form Hagrid. He had given them to Hagrid for safekeeping on the day they had gone shopping because he couldn't fit both them and himself inside his cupboard - it would've been extremely unfair to the owl if he tried - and because he was afraid of what the Dursleys would most likely do to his new belongings once they stopped being crazy and started behaving like they normally did.
Despite his apprehension which was rapidly fading into boredom, he knew that this should be a happy day for him since the one thing he had dreamed of and longed for since he was old enough to even vaguely understand the concept had happened to him today, but it wasn't exactly such since it hadn't quite gone as he had expected it to. After years and years of waiting, some previously unknown relative had taken him away from the Dursleys, making real an uncountable number of fantasies he'd had over the years since he'd first understood the concept of family and the possibility that there might be more than the Dursleys out there. The relative in question however, had been the oddly dressed man he'd met at the bank who had whipped him with his riding crop (admittedly, this was after he had insulted the man). Because he was well aware of the fact that the man could and would hit him, he was unsure as to how he was going to deal with the situation, since he didn't know what to expect, nor what was expected of him in return. Would the man be as bad as the Dursleys, or worse? Did the man take him so he could punish him again? Was he going to do all of those awful things to him that Uncle Vernon said men who wore makeup did to boys?
As each thought passed, another thought would wind its way through his troubled mind in an endless procession as his imagination provided worse and worse scenarios. Eventually however, his mind had gone on a tangent somewhere and his thoughts became more distracting in nature, taking his mind off his fate and the possible intentions of his new "relative". After coming full circle and wandering about in lazy spirals, he had ended up once again wondering if since his name had originally been Jareth, was he really Harry? He also wondered why his father called him Prongslet and himself Prongs, since he'd never before heard such a name in reference to his father from anyone who knew him. Who were Wormtail, Padfoot and Moony? was another question he found himself asking now that his mind had found its way far away from his potential fate at the hands of a grandfather he had never known.
With these thoughts and ponderings, his mind turned back to the day he had learned that he was a wizard...
The letter his father had written to him and left in his vault seemed pretty accurate about the bigotry. When people had looked at him in Diagon Alley after he had left Gringotts, it was with something akin to disgust. When they caught sight of the scar though, their expressions changed to shock. It had been only after seeing the scar that the shopkeepers had become polite and helpful. Before they saw it however, they looked at him with distrust and followed him about the store as if they thought he would steal anything he could get his hands on including the things that were nailed down, on fire, or nailed down and on fire which some stores surprisingly enough had for sale. The only exception to this treatment by the shopkeepers had been Ollivander who had been just plain creepy. Then, there was the boy in Madam Malkin's who had been upset over the fact that a "Half-breed" was attending Hogwarts and made his displeasure clear by throwing a fit in the store, like Dudley would if he were refused sweets. Madam Malkin herself had seemed surprised that he was attending the school until she had seen the scar. Hagrid's appearing with the snowy owl and telling him it was his birthday present had picked up his mood considerably.
It was only after he had gotten home where he was greeted with shouting and insults that he had gotten a good look at himself in the mirror above the guest bathroom sink. Even though he hadn't thought that to even be possible, his black hair was even messier than it had been before, and stuck up in just about every direction. His eyebrows now slanted upwards like those of that alien he'd once seen on the telly, and his eyes didn't match. One of his eyes was the same color as it always was, and the other was now a completely different shade. His ears were pointed, and his teeth were much sharper than they used to be. Other than that, his face had pretty much the same shape it always had, his body was still stick thin and rather small, and his knees were still rather knobby.
The next morning, it seemed that Uncle Vernon had decided for the sake of his sanity and his blood pressure to react to Harry's appearance by mostly ignoring it rather than turning purple every time he saw the abnormality in his home as he normally would've done. His only reaction at breakfast was to look over the newspaper at Aunt Petunia and say "The boy needs another haircut, he looks like Spock with a bad hair day." before going back to reading his paper. And, that was that. Over the weeks that followed, Uncle Vernon mostly ignored him, Aunt Petunia was strangely nice to him, and tried to make Vernon and Dudley call him Jareth (which brought up the question in his mind about whether or not he was Harry), and Dudley constantly teased him about his appearance. It remained that way for almost two weeks. Then, his previously unknown relative came and took him away.
Much to his shock because he had been waiting for hours only for nothing to happen and no-one to arrive, his musings on the past were suddenly interrupted by the arrival of the person who had taken him from the Dursleys. His name was also Jareth and he was King of the Goblins, even though he didn't look like one. Not knowing how the man would act towards him, he decided to be polite and not bring up the "Shemale Incident" since that would likely sour the mood at the very least. Considering what the guy was currently wearing, it was still rather hard not to stare. The lavender tights and white open fronted shirt ensemble had been replaced with an outfit that seemed to have been made almost entirely out of tight black leather, and the extremely high collar of the man's coat framed what - in his opinion - had to be one of the worst haircuts ever.
"Why do you look just like in the movie?" Harry asked, and winced because that had not been what he had been planning on asking at all. Judging by the look on the Goblin King's face it was probably the stupidest thing he had ever done. He just hoped he survived the encounter with his backside intact. Uncle Vernon hadn't been one for spankings, likely due to the physical effort involved, and he had considered that a positive aspect of his stay at the Dursleys, seeing as things could've been worse, much worse. This man however held no such compunctions when it came to corporal punishment.
"Because, Jim Henson and George Lucas had gone fishing around in my wardrobe during a self guided tour of the castle while I was fishing some stupid kid out of an oubliette. I wasn't going to dump a bunch of perfectly good and extremely expensive clothes just because of a children's film, no matter how awful it was. Besides, most wizards don't pay attention to muggle things so, there really wouldn't have been a point in doing so." Jareth (the elder) spat "I've always had the hair. It's the curse of keeping it short, and I don't want to grow it out long enough to keep it from sticking out because then it would be down to my waist and too difficult to manage for other reasons. You'll understand soon enough."
"Oh." Harry said extremely relieved that the riding crop hadn't come out. He couldn't think of anything else to say though. He had asked what was obviously bad question and the Goblin King hadn't yelled at him for asking questions like the Dursleys would have or hit him or anything which could be a good sign. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to ask any more questions though, seeing as the man didn't look like he was in a good mood.
"Do you have any more questions?" The Goblin King asked.
Harry didn't know whether or not it was a trap. On the one hand the Goblin King had invited him to ask questions, but on the other, he had gotten upset when he was asked a question. Deciding to play it safe, he shook his head no. The Goblin King got up and began to leave the room. Two words escaped his lips unbidden shortly before the Goblin King reached the door.
"What?" the Goblin King asked, turning back to him.
"Why now?" he asked again, trembling in fear over the potential consequences of his audacity.
"That was the question I had hoped you would never ask." the Goblin King replied, sighing as he turned back and returned to the boy's side.
Edited 9-15-13
