"Look, if you could just give me a chance to prove myself-"

"Prove what?" Lynora the harpy stared cutting death at Harry in the main lobby of the inn. A place of polished wood and wide space, compared to the outside.

"That I'm not some dark mage. I'm different."

"What an interesting little distinction. The human mages who come here are just human mages to us; there's no 'dark' or otherwise. A human is a human - and a human brings trauma and death into our lives whenever they come here."

"Surely not everyone," Harry argued. "I know there are others - people who get lost, non-magic humans - and I know that a lot of non-humans around these parts have helped them. Sheltered them, seen them safely on their way back out."

"Only because your non-magic variants are too helpless and weak to do anything to hurt us! But your mages...and if they could all be mages, they would. And we'd all pay for it!"

"I don't believe that. I mean, I'm right here, aren't I? And I'm not trying to hurt you - or anybody. I'm just...trying to get to know you."

"You're trying to get to know me?"

"Yes."

"The better to kill me? Isolate me? Abduct me, maybe?"

"What? No, I- okay, I'm going to go back to my tent now. I'm leaving."

"Good! If you come back, at least come back as a paying customer for the day!"

Harry steadfastly ignored her as he exited the inn.

Harry did work up the nerve to come back to the inn, after a few hours at his tent.

He decided he just had to avoid Lynora and he'd be fine.

Things would be fine.

Harry walked back inside, crossing the main lobby to enter into the bar area. A dimmer place, with tables and chairs and an actual bar counter and everything.

There were a good dozen people scattered about, mingling. All of them not human.

Harry sat at the counter and greeted the bartender (a beautiful woman of blue skin and dark flowing hair, with misty eyes and luscious lips of black; Harry thought she might have been a banshee, but he didn't ask), getting himself a glass of cold ice water. He gave her a sickle for it - horribly overpriced, he thought, but again, didn't say aloud - and was left with his own thoughts.

He listened to the chatterings around him, sweeping his gaze around the dim place in curiosity.

Then, someone else took an interest in him.

It was a...not human, all right.

They- moved across the floor toward him, and halted right behind his seat.

Harry turned to look down on them, feeling a bit anxious.

"Err- hello," he said politely to the...gelatinous, shifting mass of purple...goo, was the only word Harry could think of. And it didn't seem nice. Not one to say out loud, surely to offend!

The purple goo rippled and sucked in on itself, rising up and changing shape. Morphing into...a very slender visage of a human woman. Eyes that quivered and moved, a mouth of hard, dark purple teeth, and a tongue inside that flanged. She was nude, and Harry could see...well, she was detailed, for sure. Nipples, genitals, it was all there, if crude and lacking compared to an actual human body. Like a barebones image someone had decided to try to draw who wasn't quite...talented enough for all the finer lines and aspects. Not to mention she lacked any hair atop her head: she was completely bald, smooth and shiny purple, see-through skull.

"Hello," the gelatinous woman replied. She crossed her legs, her thighs rippling, and set her hands in her lap. She had long nails - hard, darker purple, like her teeth. Not transparent at all. Solid.

"My name's Harry."

"Mine's Jen."

"Jen?"

"Yes."

"It's a nice name!"

"Thanks."

"Erm, sorry if this sounds really rude, but...what exactly are you?"

"She's a slime!" a high voice called out, disparaging.

Harry turned to see who had spoken, but he couldn't pin it down. He did see a small gathering of fairies on a tabletop, though, where he thought it might have come from.

Jen turned, too, frowning. "The term is 'Ghaunadan,' thank you very much. I thought we didn't permit race-based insults here!" she added to the bartender. The possible-but-unconfirmed banshee.

The absolutely beautiful bartender set a glass down and set her misty eyes on the table of fairies. "Any more remarks like that and you'll be laid out on the floor and tossed out on your ass for the night. You understand me?"

One of the fairies looked flustered. "Y-yes...sorry! I didn't think before I spoke!"

Jen turned her back to the rest of the bar, looking bothered still.

The bartender waved a hand and slid an empty glass over to her. "This one is free."

Jen picked it up, smiling slightly. "Thanks." Then she opened her mouth wide, stretching out her cheeks and expanding her lips, practically unhinging her jaw like a serpent, and she pushed the glass into her mouth! She closed her lips around it. Harry stared; he could see her tongue swirling around in there, could see a bubbling and then heard a faint hissing noise. The glass was dissolving inside her mouth, until it left nothing behind. Jen shuddered, let out a contented noise, and patted her lips with satisfaction. Then she turned to Harry like nothing had happened.

"So how did a human mage find himself all the way out here?" she asked him casually.

Harry mentally kicked himself out of his reverie, and he gave a shrug and turned to look down at the bar counter. "Erm- well- I just...sort of found myself here. I Apparated, you know, and...I ended up here. I didn't really care where I went or anything. I was just...seeing where I went. The mystery, the unknown..."

"Huh. You're a curious person."

"Yeah. For sure."

"An adventurous one."

"I've been told, yeah," Harry laughed. "And it hasn't often been a compliment."

"Well, I meant it as one," Jen said firmly, flashing him a smile. Her eyes on him. "I'm an adventurer myself. I found myself here a week ago, but I came from elsewhere. I've been traveling the country for months. Years, really, in a way; I've never had a set place to call home - not longer than a couple of weeks. My kind rarely does that: we like to wander."

"Oh. That's neat. It sounds exciting."

"It is. You're always meeting new and interesting people, getting to see landmarks and investigate new territory...it's exciting. I enjoy my life. How about you?"

Harry started at her final words. "I, erm...my life is okay, I guess. Better than it's been before. I've been staying with friends for a year, but I just...just left them to go on this whole journey of mine."

"Was that hard for you? I know you humans love to stay in one place. Like the arachne."

"Uh, so far I'd say it hasn't been too hard," Harry said honestly, smiling a little. "It's been...interesting. Exciting. Mostly it's been the people I've met that have really...made it difficult."

"Oh?"

"You wouldn't happen to know a local fairy named Rebutia Rainybush, would you?"

Jen raised her eyebrows. She shrugged. "No. From the sounds of it, I'm better off for it?"

"Oh yeah. Way better off."

Jen laughed, and it was a nice laugh.

"Well I should go. I'll be in the area for another day or two, so we might see each other again," Jen said. "It was nice to meet you, Harry. Humans are interesting to talk to." She set her hand on his arm, her smile growing.

Harry glanced at her hand there. The sensation was...wet but not dripping, and it was warm. Like a warm bathtub of water. Except it was solid but had a slight give to it and... Harry really hadn't ever felt anything like it before. He hadn't met anyone like her before. He smiled too, his cheeks hot. "Nice meeting you, too, Jen. I'll be around for a few days more as well, so...chances are we see each other again, yeah. I think- erm- that'd be nice."

"Very nice." Jen's hand slid down his arm slowly as she stepped away. Then she turned and strode for the exit. As she did, her whole form vibrated and sort of...fell apart. She lost her figure, her human shape, becoming a waist-high...blob again, with small tendrils and tentacles sticking out of her, and a smooth underside to her that let her glide smoothly across the floor. Like a ghost.

Harry watched her go, raising his eyebrows before turning back to his drink.

She was as fascinating to him as he was to her.

Harry drank his water alone, getting another one after he was finished.

"Hey!" a sharp voice called out to him.

Harry turned to find Lynora standing across the bar. "Yeah?"

"You're out of here in another half hour," she told him, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry said politely as he could. But he really didn't think it was that late in the evening - and closing time, according to the sign in the lobby, wasn't until a few hours later! He wasn't willing to argue, though.

She gave a simple nod and strode away, her beaked head held high.

Harry sat alone for several minutes more, until suddenly there was a scraping and clacking noise, and a feather brushed against Harry.

"Do you mind if I sit here with you?" a voice said.

Harry turned to see another harpy there. She had black feathers with a mix of purple ones that formed a rather pretty pattern. He hadn't seen her enter, but he also hadn't seen her in the bar. Had she come from one of the rooms, then? At any rate... Harry shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Thank you."

The bartender got the harpy a drink. Or, a wide bowl of liquid that floated in front of her. The harpy dipped her beak into it, then tilted her head far back as she drank it up.

"We're not all like Lynora, you know," the harpy spoke to Harry suddenly, shifting her wings and swiping at her beak with the back of one. "She's just had bad personal experiences with human mages before, and it's stayed with her." She paused, leaning in to whisper on, "I heard her eggs were stolen - used in a dark magical ritual. It was years ago, but...no one ever gets over the loss of their child. And she lost all of hers in one fell swoop."

"That's horrible," Harry whispered.

She nodded, clicking her beak. "I know. I can't even imagine it - I've never had children. She's not angry at humans: she's terrified of them. And she just thinks if she can fend them all off she can prevent what happened from happening again."

Harry nodded back, looking into his drink. He took another sip. "I'm Harry, by the way."

"Harry?"

"Harry Potter."

"I guess I should be honored or something like that?" the harpy said, humor in her voice.

Harry blushed. "Not really, no. I've never liked...drawing attention to myself."

"Well that changes things. My name is Aellianne."

"Nice to meet you."

"You too."

"So, err, are you staying here at the inn, or...?" Harry started lightly.

"Oh, no, no - I live close by," Aellianne said genially. She gave her beak another dip into her bowl, another long swallow. Then, she tilted her head back again and raised a wing high. "Up there is where my home is."

"Right," Harry said. Of course. Of course a harpy would live in a tree. That made perfect sense. "Is it- nice? Your home?"

"Well I might be biased, but I think it's one of the most beautiful places in this forest. It lets me see the whole forest...the horizon, in any direction. Anything I like. And with a harpy's eyesight, I can see pretty far."

Harry sipped his water, nodding. "I like being up in the air, too. I fly broomsticks. I was on a Quidditch team."

"Mmm. That sport you human mages are all so fascinated with. I can see why, but - don't pluck my feathers over it - it can't compare to any of ours," Aellianne responded, in a clear teasing tone. "Then again, I might just be biased again."

Harry grinned, showing her he wasn't offended. "I feel like I'm fairly biased as well, so it's no problem."

"Maybe I could turn you over to the other wing..."

"Huh?"

"Sorry - harpy phrase - what I mean is, if you'd like to see a game, or see where I live in general, I could take you up there. At nights it's...truly beautiful. It really is. Where I live. I don't mean to be too forward, but I'd be happy to have you in my home for a night. It wouldn't be an issue."

Harry considered her. He knew Lynora was bound to kick him out soon, and he also knew he probably was tempting fate by staying in his tent again - on ground level. Forest floor. And if this woman was offering... "Sure. I- I'd love to see your home."

Aellianne waved a wing; there was a small spark of blue electricity, and the bowl drifted down onto the counter. "Well then, how about we go now?"

"Erm...I'll just need to- go and get my things real quick. I need to Apparate over to my campsite. Pack things up."

"I'll go with you - I'd be glad to help you."

Harry nodded, rising from the bar and draining the last of his drink. "Okay. Well...errr...could I- hold your wing a moment?"

"Well, if you have to..." Aellianne laughed, offering her left wing out.

Harry gingerly grasped at the top of her wing, feeling along the light, flexible bone running the length of the appendage. He breathed, he focused, and he Disapparated, pulling her along with him.

They reappeared in front of his tent, and Harry immediately waved his wand and began moving and vanishing things about. Getting everything inside into his trunk, and then taking the trunk out so he could pack the tent itself down, and then stow that in the trunk. He shrunk it down and stuffed it in his pocket before he turned to Aellianne.

"So, I guess it's your turn to lead the way," he told her, smiling.

"Something I'm happy to do," she replied. "But we're going to need to do this a little differently than how you Apparated with me. It's going to take the same level of trust, more or less, but...but you said you like being in the air..."

"Yeah, I do," Harry said cautiously.

"Good, good. Then here's how we should do this: you're going to get on my back, hold on tight to my neck, and I'm going to fly us up to my home."

Harry stared at her, a spike of nervousness in him. But he told himself he flew brooms all the time, and that he had even flown on a dragon before. Hitching a ride with a harpy wasn't too different. And besides...where was his sense of adventure again?

"Okay," he agreed. "That works for me. If that's- the way to do it. Yeah. I trust you."

"Good. So then..." Aellianne turned around, putting her back to him. She spread her wings wide, exposing her full black and purple pattern. It looked like a circle with a...almost like an eye or something. Harry's eyes traveled down her backside-

He shook his head and moved forward without thinking. He got up behind her and reached around the back of her neck, careful and gentle. He held himself very apart from her body.

"Come now, you're going to need a firmer grip than that if you don't want to plummet to an early death," Aellianne cooed. "We harpies may be lighter than most, but we're not made out of twigs. Hold on like your life depends on it, and make sure you're snug back there."

Snug was the problem, Harry thought, mortified with himself. Maybe he could just hope she wouldn't notice? Or comment. Or understand. She was an avian, after all, not a mammal. So maybe...he could just... Harry readjusted his grip, stepping in further and touching her soft feathered backside. His bulging crotch touched her warm arse.

"There you go," she spoke lightly. "Now we're ready to fly. I'll go slow for you - and if you fall, I can try to catch you with my magic."

"Thanks..." Harry said, his anxiety temporarily returning to turn the tide against his embarrassment.

"Let's do a countdown. Liftoff in three...two...one!"

Harry grasped the woman tighter as a light pulsed and she jerked under him as she was started rising up sharply from the ground. He almost lost his grip completely, but he held on, and then she was pulling Harry with her up into the air. Effortless and easy. And Harry, for his part, himself, felt weightless, strangely. Lighter. Was she using some kind of magic to make it easier on both of them?

Aellianne lifted him up, up, higher into the trees. On past normal trees, and up into open air, to his confusion. She spun and soared higher and higher...until Harry saw a strange patch of shimmering colors on the air. The air itself was rippling. Aellianne made right for it, and in a minute they were passing through it. After they did, suddenly everything changed.

The normal sized trees below all suddenly parted, bending and warping away, boulders sliding apart and bushes rolling like tumbleweeds. The forest itself stretched and fell apart, giving way for something new. Or something hidden in it. A massive tree stood above all the rest, several dozen times taller and wider than the rest. No, a hundred times! It was...Harry still wasn't sure it was real.

The branches were as wide as four roads, long enough to fit a row of three dozen houses on them. There were hanging lights that glowed all over the tree, vines that hung and plants that gyrated and pulsated. Magical flora. There were platforms and bridges and ramps all across the tree's branches, connecting them all, smaller to larger, long to shorter, higher or lower.

Aellianne took him toward a shorter branch, thick with giant leaves and flower bundles. He could just see a platform sticking out under it all, lit by glowing torches of blue flames.

She soared forward and touched down on the platform's edge. She wobbled, then righted herself with a small chuckle. Harry let her go quickly, stepping away and looking around himself in wonder.

"This is..." Harry breathed. "Wow..."

"This," Aellianne chuckled, raising a wing to aim straight forward. "is my home."

Harry examined the building before him. Well, it was more like a hut, really. Bare bones and domed, a little window, a door of carved wood. Set back up against the tree's massive trunk at the back of the platform. "It's brilliant. All of this is. This whole forest- the tree is enchanted. Protected. Hidden away?"

"Yup. We're the largest congregation of my kind in this part of the country. Your Ministry has never been keen on your non-magic humans learning about us, so they worked to give us a place we could all be ourselves at together. And when the seasons change, we fly south to stay at another place like this one. Where our brothers and sisters welcome us. As we welcome them here when it's their time to move. Not just to the tree, but into our homes. It's a good way to get to know new people - a little exchange of stories and cultures." Aellianne chuckled, eyeing her home. "It's about that time, in fact..."

"Well, if you're welcoming me here like this, I've got stories I could tell you if you wanted to hear them," Harry offered.

"Oh, I'd love to," Aellianne said softly. "Come, let's get you settled in. I'll give you the tour - only one we have is the short one."

Harry spent hours into the night with Aellianne.

They talked and talked, and laughed, and jested, and she fed him a meal - rabbit meat and a tangy drink she said came from magical fruits higher up on the tree.

Harpies didn't do beds, apparently. There was a small side room where a mat was spread out on the floor, a chandelier on the ceiling to warm and light the room, but they didn't do beds. Or blankets. They had feathers - there wasn't any need for that.

So Harry took out one of his for the night.

Aellianne also told him that harpies didn't do the whole "sleeping apart" thing. They tended to huddle up and sleep together.

Harry was a bit discomforted at the idea, but he told her he was ultimately fine with it.

So, they slept together.

Her, laying on her side on the mat, a wing under her for extra cushioning, and the other laid across her exposed flank.

Harry lay down with her, his back to her - still making sure not to touch her.

She seemed to take issue with that, though; she ended up scooting in, pressing right to him and raising a wing to cover him with. Like an extra blanket.

"Err...thanks," Harry murmured out to her in the dark. He'd never been wrapped up in someone's wing before. But it was...nice enough, he thought. Her feathers were really good at keeping warm. She was, in general, just really warm as she was pressing to him and...

"You're welcome," she replied warmly in his ear. Harry though her beak almost...nipped at him, but...

Surely just imagination. Or a slip up on her part. A little mistake of a motion.

"You know, Harry, I may not be a human myself, but I know when a human is feeling very attracted to someone else."

Harry froze, blushing in the dark. Glad for the dark. "W-what?"

"The truth is that I've been attracted to you - since back at the inn. Why do you think I was flirting with you the whole time?"

"Erm...you were- flirting with me this whole time?"

A soft chuckle in his ear. A low kind of trilling noise, a purely avian thing. "Oh, yes. I was. You didn't realize...?"

"I was- err- okay, no, I didn't," Harry admitted.

"Well now you know. The question is, what do we want to do about it? Me, about mine, and you about yours. You pressed to me, I'm pressing to you - do we want to press to each other together and make it a thing? It doesn't have to be, but...you can think about it. It is just you and me, together, in my little room..."

Harry did think about it. He took a minute, his heart beating fast and his mind racing. "I- well- I've never been with a...harpy before. I wouldn't know how to..."

"Oh, don't get so worked up about it. I've heard it's not too different, even across species. You have one of those flesh rods, and I have an opening specially made for it. It doesn't seem too complicated."

"Complicated," Harry repeated, murmuring the word. "I wouldn't...want to make this all complicated for you, Aellianne. I'm just a guest in your house, I mean, we met at an inn a few hours ago and...I wouldn't want to just..."

"I chose to sit with you. I chose to talk to you. I chose to bring you to my home. That makes you my guest. It doesn't have to be complicated at all. But if you're uncomfortable, then we won't do anything."

"N-no, I- I'm happy you- picked me, I mean that you...I'd be- happier to- be with you that way. I mean, just- just for a night. Just tonight. Yeah..."

"Just tonight, then. All right. And in the morning we'll pretend nothing happened between us, if you'd be more comfortable that way."

"Y-yeah. That would be...appreciated."

"All right." Aellianne moved suddenly, removing her wing from him and sitting herself up. She flexed her wing, and the chandelier burned brighter again. She stretched high with both wings, and made a long, high noise that went up and down, like holding a song note. "I've never understood why you wear clothing, but at least you're not wearing much of it here."

Harry sat up too, setting the blanket aside. He flushed at her observation of his lone boxers on his person. He nodded and shrugged at her, nervous now again. "It's sort of like feathers for us, I guess."

"I guess - I never thought of it like that," Aellianne said pleasantly.

Her glinting eyes dropped down from Harry's face. Her wing arms were spread wide, shifting under the torch light.

Harry stared at her in turn, fully examining her. Closely now. In this bright candle light.

Their eyes met again, and they held each other's gaze. It was a silence and a constant that neither wanted to break just yet. Or, maybe they were waiting for the other one to break it first...

"Okay," Harry said quietly. "Why don't you- errr- show me how you do this sort of thing? Get us...errr, started, I suppose?"

His word was like the signal for a broom race: Aellianne shot forward in a glide, a magical glide and tackled him, her feet resting on his shoulders, her weight taking him to the mat.

She spread her knees and leaned forward further, pressing a pink slit among feathers to his mouth.

Harry was a bit dazed, wondering how he'd found himself on his back in this position with her. He reached up for her legs, stroking and holding her thighs, roaming over her feathers. Soft and wonderful.

Her harpy vagina grew wet quickly, and it drizzled onto his lips. He licked instinctively. It was sweet. Like orange juice. He licked more, grasping her legs tighter.

She made these various trills and shrieks as he licked away at her, as he parted her with his tongue and concentrated on her. She gave him tips, advice, and he followed it as best he could for her. She didn't have a clitoris - but she did have these little bumps along her labia - or the approximate, he supposed - that when he ran his tongue over them and flicked at them, she made a high series of trills that seemed...like good news. When Harry had his tongue inside her, he found more bumps on the interior, ringing it almost. He ran his tongue around them in that ring, circling, and she thrashed and humped against his face violently. Excitably.

Harry felt like he was making really great progress with her, when suddenly she hopped back off him and lay down on him to grind herself to his crotch, along his bulging boxers. He sat up and grabbed for his wand to vanish his underwear, then he hugged her as he took his dick in hand and began to rub the head against those bumps on her labia, moving from left to right. She oozed liquids, and he slid up into her, making her squawk outright. She wrapped her big black wing arms around him, enveloping him in warmth and softness and darkness.

He clung to her and fucked up into her, hard and breathy, burying his face in her breasts and sucking her tits, hearing her trills and squawks overhead. He sped up as she started to bounce on him, till she was shaking and her tunnel was gripping him. He fucked hard and started cumming in her harpy vagina (or equivalent). She fell back on the mat and pulled Harry down with her, letting her wings fall away.

Harry blinked at the light, exhausted and bleary. He lay on her, his head on her chest as his cum oozed onto her thighs. Her left wing suddenly shed its feathers and narrowed, becoming a long, talon-clawed limb. She touched his head and began stroking his hair on her chest. They lay together for minutes on end, just like that.

Then, Harry raised his head and gazed into her face. Her eyes. On impulse, he leaned in and pressed his lips to her beak.

Aellianne laughed breathily, shaking her head at him. "Harpies don't kiss. I've seen glimpses of other people at it before, but...it's not for us. Not for me. But, thank you for giving me my first. What you could do for me, though, is give my beak a little massage. Start near the tip and go right up to my eyes. Be gentle, especially with the end, and it'll give me a lot of pleasure..."

Harry nodded, concentrating as he raised a hand. He touched her beak near the end of it. He stroked his fingers up its length, to right between her eyes, then back down it. He ran his fingers over the sides, then the underside.

Aellianne closed her eyes and made a deep cooing noise. "Ahhh, there it is. That's...that's what we like. That's what you need to be doing...Give a little scratch, now...careful..."

Harry smiled at her, emboldened, and gave a little scratch as she asked.

She made another noise and pressed her beak down into his hand. "Oh yeah, more of that please, Harry..."

Harry obliged her.

"Mmmm...you're well on your way to becoming the desire of harpy women everywhere," Aellianne moaned out. "Try pinching your fingers and doing both the sides at once for me."

Harry did, and he loved every sound she made, and every way her body shivered anew.

And he loved it when she wrapped her thin, clawed arms around him and hugged him to her again, and when she expressed in turn that she had loved every minute of her time with him - and that she was impressed he had caught on so quickly.