37. No choice
The court was lavish with all manner of jewelry and art that blended with the forest around them. The man and woman sat regally on their high chairs and they looked down on everyone else. With a beauty above humanity, the woman smiled with false happiness. It was an ugly and foreign thing that tried too hard to emulate beauty. Harsh and cold, the man didn't even bother with the imitation.
Their crowns were overly ornate. On the male's there was a shining green orb that sprinkled green rays due to the light.
Harry could only swallow thickly as he looked at his hopeless state. He could reach neither of his magical focuses. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir and ma'am. May I ask who you are?"
"We are the king and queen of the fairies. You have not earned the right to our names, boy." The king sounded impatient to say the least. Cold eyes ran over Harry's form and he turned away in boredom.
"Now let's not be too unwelcoming. The boy has enough sense to pay respects to his betters. It is much better than the last few beings we've had here. But they learned their place soon enough." The queen laughed into her hands as though she was recalling some joyous event. "You were brought here so we may see what manner of being you were. It has become a bit of curiosity for me."
That confused the boy. "I'm a human wizard in training. I'm sure I'm not the first or last you'll see."
This brought laughter to the queen's lips. It was an unsavory and bizarre occurrence. The noise was diamonds grinding against marble. Harry cringed in recoil.
"You? A human? That's preposterous. Our kingdom is well protected. A human would be severely weakened in our domain if they could even navigate to it. Seeing how you are in good health, it's simple to deduce that you're don't have a drop of humanity in your blood. So I ask, what are you?" The queen questioned more assertively.
This caused Harry to pause. He was certain he was human. Both of his parents were and surely he had to be. Right?
"You are trying our patience. We have better things to do then deal with your presence. Answer the question and you may find yourself unharmed", the king stated. Power radiated from his voice as eyes of red bore into Harry's green ones.
His glare was subsided by the queen's voice, "Husband, I believe the boy speaks the truth. He truly ignorant enough to call himself a human. It tickles me so. Boy, you may have been born human, but you a very much not so now. Your power was known to us nearly a year ago."
A year ago, that was when he was dealing with the Chamber of Secrets. But he doubted that the Chamber had changed his being, else Ron and Ginny would've had the same issues.
"Wife. The boy doesn't even know what he is or how he came to such a station. He is useless", the king asserted. When his wife merely smiled and nodded he continued, "I suppose I shall clean up." Gold energy formed in the man's hands. It grew dense and magic spewed wildly from it.
Harry grew big eyed as he renewed his struggles against the restraints. They merely grew tighter and cut more into his skin. All around the fairies giggled as though witnessing some great joke.
The king shot the ball at Harry's direction. Everything slowed down for Harry as the orb came closer. As it nearly collided into him, his sight was blocked out by fur. With an explosion, the dog's form slammed into the ground, a weak whine escaping its throat. The odor of burnt flesh filled the area.
Harry gasped as the dog's form changed. The dog had been Sirius Black of all things. All sorts of thoughts ran through the last Potter's mind.
"That explains the dog's pain. It was one of those humans. Shapers are quite rare among the wizard kind, correct? I think we'll have some fun with him", the queen mentioned easily, as though her husband hadn't burned a man alive.
Her blatant disregard angered Harry. Even if it was Sirius Black, she truly saw herself as something beyond reproach.
As the king prepared another attack, a mighty hoot rang in the sky. Like a blade, a mass of white feathers cut through the air. Hedgwig of all things had come to the rescue. She flew by the king's throne and clawed at his face, causing the man to flinch.
As the owl flew back to Harry, she had the green orb in one of her talons. Dropping the orb in front of him, she ripped the roots and vines with her claws.
Free from the restraints, he pocketed the orb and glared at those around him. Pulling out his spell book, he chanted, "The Beast is not something one can hunt and kill! Let the truth be known… if there is a beast it is only us! (Rejection of Order)."
Madness seeped through the eyes of all the fairy subjects. They cried out as one and began attacking everything and everyone. Some even dared to set their sights on the king and queen.
Harry wasn't quite finished. Retrieving his wand, he used the water conjuring spell and created a giant sphere of water. He got the Thestral, pulled up Sirius, and rode into the sphere and used a spell "It is not down on any map; true places rarely are (Aqua Conveyance)."
As chaos erupted on the royal fairy court, Harry and company disappeared in the collapsing form of the water sphere.