Vana'diel Potter
A Fanfic by Viral Inque Author's Note: This is a Harry Potter fic set in FFXI's world of Vana'diel. It was inspired by my own character in FFXI, who's name happens to be Fleurdelacour, though I'm not sure why I chose the name. Stop by and say hi if you see me wandering around the streets of San d'Oria. Just a couple of more days and I'll be back online. I'm dying to get back, but I'll continue writing this fic about the origins of my character to pass the time until then. Let me know what you think, good or bad. Enjoy.

Chapter II: Trial by Fire

Soon after they started heading back down the dirt path, the sky began to darken as night loomed overhead. Harry thought back to the ramshackle barn he had seen at the bottom of the hill they had started from. They agreed they had to find somewhere to spend the night and that would be the best place for it. They accidentally passed by the barn as the darkness grew around them and they had to double back until they found it.

The barn was in worse shape then it had seemed from a distance. They eyed the roof suspiciously, but it seemed that it would hold. From a hole in one side of the barn they could see more tall grass growing inside through gaps in the floor. They squeezed through the hole carefully and found a clearing in the center of the barn under an exposed part of the roof.

"We should get a fire going," Harry said thoughtfully.

"I suppose," Fleur answered glumly. Through the dim, Harry saw Fleur lift her wand. "Lumos," she whispered, annunciating the word carefully. Her wand let off a faint light from its tip, hardly enough to illuminate her face. She looked at it with displeasure.

Harry tried to do the same. His wand let off a similar pale light that wasn't nearly as strong as it should be. He shook his wand until the light went out and tried it again, with the same result. Fleur squinted at Harry questioningly. Harry shrugged his shoulders and lowered his wand close to the ground, looking for some dry wood to start a fire with. After some time, Fleur sighed and did the same.

Soon they had enough twigs and branches for the fire. Harry arranged them all carefully into a pile and pointed his wand at it. "Incendio," he cried, and several birds roosting in the rafters above them took flight. A sad little flame spit out of the tip of his wand, no bigger then a match light. It flickered for a second, then went out.

"Our magic isn't working right," Harry mumbled pensively.

"I got zat impression," Fleur responded sardonically. She walked over and pointed her wand at the pile. She nodded at Harry and he did the same.

"Incendio," they both said at the same time. Identical, match light flames shot out of their wands. They landed in the pile of twigs and leaves and danced miserable, threatening to go out. Before they could, Harry and Fleur repeated the charm, then again, until a slow fire started. They sat down and watched it carefully until it seemed strong enough.

"What are we going to do?" Fleur asked gloomily, poking at the fire with a stick.

"I don't know," Harry said, watching the fire spark and flash through a haze of smoke, "I supposed we'll try that road again in the morning. In the opposite direction of whatever that thing was we ran into. Once we find someone, we'll have some idea of where we are or something."

"I 'ate zis," Fleur snapped, now stabbing at the fire, sending cinders floating up into the air, "Why do I 'ave to be stuck 'ere? And what did I do to deserve this?"

"I'm sorry," Harry muttered, not sure what he was supposed to say. If he had to be stuck here, he wished it could've it have been with Ron or Hermoine, or even Neville.

"I didn't mean it like zat," Fleur moaned, tossing the stick into the fire, "It's just frustrating, is all. Don't you understand zat zis is worse zen we thought? Our magic doesn't work right 'ere. Zis is someplace very far from 'ome, I zink."

"I see," Harry thought, and he realized the truth in Fleur's words. They were somewhere where magic was different then it was at home, which meant they were probably nowhere near home. That sat in silence for some time and Harry thought this over. The sound of his stomach grumbling brought him back to his senses.

"'Ere," Fleur said as she fumbled in her robes. She produced what looked like a miniature cauldron cake from one of the pockets and passed it to Harry from around the fire. "I took it from ze cafeteria in case I wanted a snack before dinner, but I'm not very 'ungry."

"Thanks," Harry said graciously as he took the cake, feeling slightly embarrassed by his stomach. The cake tasted delicious, but soon it was gone and he found his stomach was still less then satisfied. He pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs, to stifle any further protests.

Another long silence followed as the minutes, then hours, crawled by. After a while, partly due to his discomfort at the deadened conversation, Harry got up and searched for some more branches and kindling to fuel the fire before it decided to go out. When he had enough to not only keep the fire going, but to burn the place down if so chose, he went back and sat down.

"I'm sorry I'm not better company," Fleur said after a pause, sensing Harry's discomfort, "I'm not big on ze small talk."

"It's alright," Harry responded sincerely, "I don't want you to feel like you have to talk to me."

"It's not zat I don't want to, I zink" Fleur said thoughtfully, "But you are unusual compared to ze others. I'm used to most guys getting all weird when zey are around me. I guess that doesn't bother me too much. I am used to it anyway. But I don't know what to zink when someone doesn't act zat way."

"Because you're part Veela, right?" Harry asked curiously, "Do you wonder if that person just doesn't like you if they aren't taken in by that side of you?"

"Yes," Fleur said, watching the fire kick out more flames as Harry threw a few more twigs on it, "And yes, something like zat. Please understand zat I don't mean to enchant people. The easiest way to explain it is to say zat it just 'appens. I can try to turn it off, but it takes a lot of effort. So it is unusual for someone to fight it without 'elp."

"Really, I never knew that," Harry mused, "I did notice that I had to hit pretty hard Ron before he'd snapped out of it once he got into you."

"Oi, you're friend Ron," Fleur exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air dramatically, "'E is a good example. But 'e is, no offense, a little creepier than most."

Harry laughed out loud as he pictured how Ron would get loopy when Fleur walked by. "Well, that makes a little more sense now," he said when he got his composure, "Well, if it makes you feel better, I have nothing against you, Fleur. I have a lot of respect for you, too, after the Triwizard Tournament and everything."

"Really? I didn't zink I did zat well," Fleur remarked, almost shyly.

"Sure," Harry replied, surprised that it was possible for someone like Fleur to feel insecure. He was pleased, however, to find out he had been wrong about Fleur in some regards. She had seemed so distant in the past, so out of reach, but talking to her now, she seemed just like any other kid their age.

"Thank you, 'Arry," Fleur smiled, and Harry became captivated by her, not because she was part Veela, but just because. She covered her mouth as a yawn escaped, "It must be late. Do you zink it'd be okay for us to get a little sleep?"

"I'm not that tired, really," Harry said, "You get some rest. I'll keep watch, just in case."

"Are you sure?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Harry answered, waving her question away.

Fleur examined the area around her critically, then decided on one spot that looked the least unpleasant. Without thinking, Harry took off his robes, making sure he had his wand with him. He folded his robes, and then again and again, until they made a makeshift pillow. He tried to pass it to Fleur without a word. She looked at it, taken aback slightly, then kindly refused it. Harry insisted and Fleur took the pillow with a smile.

Once she was finally settled, it wasn't long before she was fast asleep. Harry found himself watching Fleur sleep, studying the rhythmic pace of her soft breathing. He felt he was being rude by doing this, so he tried to find something else to concentrate on. From time to time, he'd check on the fire, amusing himself with the way the flames danced around for him when he poked at them.

The time seemed to come to a crawl around him again, and he kept thinking that the sun should be coming up soon, but the sky above him remained dark. Harry searched the pockets of his jeans as his stomach started to rumble again, looking unsuccessfully for any long lost sweets from Honeydukes or even from last Halloween. He sighed and Fleur stirred soundlessly in her sleep.

Harry's head had sleepily come to rest on his knee when he thought he heard a sound from directly behind him. He whipped around instantly, his wand already in his hand and raised in the direction of the noise, for all the god it would have done him. When after a while, nothing happened, Harry shook his head dreamily and poked at the fire some more to stay occupied.

After a while, Harry's head once again got heavy as sleep tried to take over. No sooner had his eyes closed, that he heard another sound behind him. He was sure he'd heard it this time, and he was on his feet in a flash.

He tried to stand perfectly still, listening carefully for any sound coming from the area. He moved his head around slowly from left to right, like a lighthouse beacon, looking for any signs of movement. When he neither heard nor saw anything, he took a step forward and repeated the process. He inched his way closer, step by step, to where the sound had originated from. Soon, he was just outside of the hole they had come in from. Suddenly, as he took one more step forward, there was a sudden rush of movement to his left right near his foot.

Something had jumped into the air, trying to get away from Harry when he had drawn too close. "Lumos," he whispered, waving his wand frantically when the dim light appeared, searching the area in front of him for what had jumped. Then he saw it, cowering slyly behind a nearby rock. It was a harmless rabbit, or so Harry thought. When the light focused on it, it jumped from behind the rock.

It turned out the creature only had a passing resemblance to a rabbit. First, it was more like the size of a potbelly pig. It had long ears like a rabbit, but these were oversized and had thick bristles sticking out at all angles. It had two large teeth that looked like the ones on the thing they had run into on the road early. It bared these and hissed at Harry threateningly.

That was all Harry needed to hear. "Expelliarmus," Harry hissed, pointing his wand at the creature. A light red light shot from his wand, then died and landed in front of the rabbit-thing's feet. It feinted a charge then hissed at Harry again. Harry took a step back uneasily.

"Expelliarmus," he cried, saying it louder. His voice echoed through the night. The light soared in an arc through the air and landed on the top of the creature's head. There was an instant reaction, but not the one Harry expected. The creature started jumping around madly, making strange squealing noises. Harry had to back up against the wall of the barn just to keep from getting hit by the thing as it bounced around. Suddenly, it stopped and fell to the ground, motionless.

Harry took an uneasy step forward. He lit the tip of his wand once more and lifted it into the air to let some light into the area. The rabbit-thing not only looked dead, but it was smoldering and melting. A rotten smell wafted into the air. Soon, there was nothing left to the thing but a pile of slime. There seemed to be something glimmering among the remains.

Sure now that the thing had to be dead, he walked up to it and bent down to get a closer look. He had to cover his nose and mouth to suppress the odor. There was definitely something there, covered in the remains of the creature. Harry swallowed hard and tried to pick up the thing shining on the ground. The slime was slippery and clammy and he had trouble getting a hold of the object. Finally, he wrapped his hand around it and plucked it out.

He had to turn away as the smell of the slime on his hands got close to his nose. He rolled the object, and his hand, in the grass until they were both more or less clean. The odor was still horrible, but lessened enough so that Harry could hold up the object at eye level to get a better look at it. He angled his wand from one side to the next, like an antenna, until he could see the object clearly.

Harry's brow furrowed in confusion as he looked at a clear, copper colored crystal. He flipped it around in his hand, but couldn't make much sense of it. There was no rational reason this would have been inside of anything that had once been alive. Harry considered tossing it, but decided it was better to keep it just in case. They knew nothing about this place, and anything they could get their hands on would give them more information then they could get without it. He rubbed the crystal in the grass some more to get the stink off it, then put it in a pocket of his jeans.

He stuck his head through the hole in the wall. Surprisingly, Fleur was still sleeping quietly inside. He illuminated the barn with his wand held high and examined the room. There was a large sliding door on the wall opposite the one Harry looked through. Harry walked around the barn to the other side, eyeing the area around him nervously. There was a chain and a oversized padlock on the door. That meant the hole in the wall they had come through was the only way in or out of the barn short of the hard to reach chasm of missing roof.

Harry walked back towards the hole in the wall. He thought he heard something again, but couldn't find anything. When he got back, he stuck his head into the barn to check on Fleur and to examine the room again. Fleur was sleeping quietly and the room seemed perfectly still. He double checked on the latter before he slumped down on the ground in front of the hole going into the barn, letting out a long sigh on the way down.

Unfortunately, this meant he was within smelling distance of what was left of the rabbit-thing. But he was getting tired in spite of all the activity, and he was afraid he might fall asleep. If nothing could get inside, then there should be nothing for him to worry about. If he did fall asleep, he'd do it sitting up and the slightest noise would surely wake him.

Satisfied with his plan, despite the fact that the air was considerable colder away from the fire, Harry relaxed a little and watched the evening sky glittering with a million stars. He tried to see if he could find any familiar constellations, in an effort to confirm he was still in the same dimension. He could only laugh when he didn't see any, not even the two, easy to spot dippers.

The night sky had lightened to a pastel blue by the time Harry yawned one last time and fell asleep with his head resting on his knee.