Vana'diel Potter
A Fanfic by Viral Inque
Author's Note: Please, oh, please, let there still be someone out there who still cares about what happens to our two heroes. I'm still here plugging away. Enjoy.
Chapter VII: John and Yoko
Harry woke to the sun seeping through the dirty curtains and into his eyes from behind his closed eyelids, followed immediately by a dull throbbing drumming against his forehead. He felt around until he discovered a small knot to the left of his scar. Then he opened his eyes to find himself face to face with Fleur, who was also rubbing her head.
"Your 'ead is like a rock, 'Arry," Fleur moaned, "It's no wonder you're so 'ard to kill."
"You're one to talk," Harry smiled and tapped her on the head playfully, "Morning."
"Good morning, jerk," Fleur cried drolly and punched Harry, hard, in the chest, "Go get us some breakfast."
Harry started to protest, but one look at the crafty smile on Fleur's face told him he was going to get breakfast, one way or another. He got up and stretched sleepily, but before long Fleur's foot was nudging him along gently in the backside.
As Harry made his way downstairs, it was clear it was well past breakfast time. Quite a few people were already mingling and nursing drinks in the inn's living area. The barkeep was slumped lazily in a chair behind the counter, looking out into the room without interest.
"Hi, is it too late to order some breakfast?" Harry asked sleepily.
"Breakfast?" the man snorted, looking at him curiously, "It's five in the afternoon, son. You're too late for lunch."
"Oh," Harry replied dejectedly, quietly surprised by how late it was, "Sorry."
"Hey," the man called to Harry as he started to walk off, "Go ahead and run into the kitchen and grab you and yer friend a little something to eat. Hurry, before someone sees ya."
"Thanks," Harry said cheerfully and quickly slid behind the counter and through the door that led into the kitchen.
The kitchen was unusually clean compared to the rest of the building, which was dank and dreary. One wall of the room was dedicated solely to large wooden casks of wine. In fact, most of the kitchen was used to accommodate drink for customers, but Harry managed to find some bread and cheese and more fruit like the ones they'd had the night before. He peeked out the door to make sure no one was watching, but no one was paying him the least bit of mind.
He thanked the barkeep again and made his way back to the room. Fleur was sitting up in bed, combing through her hair with her fingers. She looked at him and the food he carried curiously.
"I thinking more in ze bacon and eggs direction," she smiled.
"We're lucky we got anything," Harry said, dropping everything onto the bed and sitting down, "It's almost suppertime."
"We should 'ave realized," Fleur shrugged, "It was already morning when we went to sleep. I'm still tired, to tell ze truth."
"I wonder if the sun rises and sets the same way it does back home," Harry said thoughtfully, breaking off a piece of bread.
Fleur reached over and pulled aside the grimy curtain and peered through one of the cleaner corners of the window, "Well, I don't know 'ow long we were asleep, but it looks like ze sun is starting to go down."
"You want to go walking around after we eat?" Harry asked.
"Maybe," Fleur replied, biting into a piece of fruit with a passing resemblance to a peach, "I was zinking we could just stay 'ere, since ze day seems to be gone already. I zink after everything we've been through I kind of feel safe 'ere, like zis bed is a protective little cocoon."
"I was kind of thinking the same thing," Harry said, "Well, minus the cocoon anyway. I mean, San d'Oria's great, but everything else outside has been harsh and dangerous. Here, at least, we know we'll be safe. For now, anyway."
"Agreed," Fleur said, "But don't you zink that we 'aven't been zinking enough about how we're getting home."
"I don't know," Harry replied honestly. He'd tried to think about it, but just hadn't been able to come up with anything. "We're trying, it's just hasn't been easy up until now. It is a unique set of circumstances we're in, after all."
"I suppose," Fleur shrugged, "I guess I just forgot to zink about it and was surprised when I did."
Harry jumped up out of the bed suddenly, making Fleur jump. He walked over to the corner where they had abandoned their filthy robes without a word and began fumbling through his robes. After a moment, he emerged holding the piece of parchment they had gotten from Clerina, the Taru-taru.
"The scroll," Fleur shrieked, bouncing up and down on the bed.
"How can we have forgotten," Harry said, dumbfounded.
"Let's read it, let's read it," Fleur cried, still bouncing on the bed.
"Calm down," Harry said, and walked back to the bed and sat down with his legs crossed opposite Fleur, who clapped her hands happily.
"I can't 'elp it," Fleur said, rocking back and forth giddily, "I feel like I did the day I learned my first charm. It's like becoming a witch all over again."
"That's true," Harry smiled, although he wasn't sure this compared to the feeling he had when he found out he was a wizard, "But we're not even sure this will work."
"Oh, shut up and open the scroll," Fleur said, nearly pushing Harry off the bed.
"Okay. Okay," Harry said, holding one hand out defensively while unwrapping the scroll with the other, "Please don't hurt me. Hey, look, it's written in like five different languages. This one looks a little like Latin, but here, this is the English."
"By ze winds zat lap across ze rambling plains," Fleur read from the scroll, craning her neck so she could see properly, "And ze light shone down by ze sun's rays. It's a rhyme, like the ones ze pagans used long ago. Words of power or something like zat. It's amazing 'ow similar our two worlds are, no?"
"Well, are you ready?" Harry asked.
"Of course," Fleur replied.
"So, take a hold of the scroll," Harry said, pointing at the scroll.
"Oh. Right."
"Now, remember what Clerina said- visualize the spell," Harry added, then began reciting.
By the winds that lap across the rambling plains,
And the light shone down by the sun's rays,
From the water that flows through mountain and man,
To the nourishing earth and purifying sands,
Pass unto me the power to heal and mend,
And place it into these unworthy hands.
After they had finished reading the incantation they both stopped for a moment and waited for something to happen. When nothing did, they recited the incantation again, and again, and then again, until they didn't have to read off the scroll anymore because the verse had already been committed to their memory. They closed their eyes simultaneously, as if the power of the magic in the scroll was guiding them. The words seemed to flow faster from their lips, until it all blended together into one continuous word.
A wind mysteriously rose in the room, swirling and spinning around Harry and Fleur, though they hardly noticed. They had begun to feel something, a tingling in their heads and their chests and their stomachs, a warm fluttery feeling that beat with a life all its own. A pale blue light, not unlike the blue of Fleur's eyes, emanated from them, illuminating the room. They were suddenly filled with a new understanding as the magic seeped into them, and then, everything became instantly still.
Neither of them moved right away. They just sat there, clutching the scroll, their eyes still closed, they breathing coming in long, synchronous waves. Finally, still working in perfect rhythm together, they both opened their eyes and looked dazedly at each other. After a lengthy pause, wide smiles spread across both their faces.
"It worked," Harry whispered, still slightly disoriented by the experience, "I can feel it."
"It's amazing, it's-" Fleur said, then, when she couldn't think of any better word to describe what she wanted to convey, added, "Amazing."
"Try it on me," Harry said excitedly.
"Alright," Fleur said, snapping to attention. Then her demeanor changed, and she looked at Harry curiously. "But wait. 'Ow am I supposed to do it? Clerina had used 'er staff. We don't 'ave one of zose."
Harry thought about this for a moment. "Use your wand," he decided, "It's pretty much the equivalent of a staff, right?"
"Alright," Fleur said, reaching over to the end table where her wand lay. She focused on it for a moment, then pointed it at Harry. She closed her eyes and mumbled the incantation under her breath. When at first nothing happened, Harry could feel his heart sink, but after a moment a brilliant white light formed at the end of Fleur's wand, blinding Harry. Soon, he felt the light swirling around him and then he felt more awake and alert.
"So?" Fleur asked as the spell faded.
"We did it," Harry smiled.
"Do me," Fleur smiled, tossing Harry his wand.
Harry pointed his wand at Fleur, and worked the spell the same way Fleur had done to him. A bright white light emanated from his wand, then began to spread and wrap itself around Fleur. Harry had to squint against the brilliance of the light, so much unlike the dim, weak light that had been coming from their wands since they had gotten there.
"Maybe it's because ze last few days 'ave sucked so much," Fleur said, giggling lightly, "But I can't remember being zis 'appy in a long time."
"You know," Harry said, "I'm starting to think we might actually get out of this."
"Me too," Fleur said, and reached forward and hugged Harry, "Let's go celebrate."
"Sure," Harry said, "What do you want to do?"
"Oh, I don't know," Fleur replied as she bounced off the bed and began spinning around the room like a top, "Let's just go out."
"Alright," Harry said, caught up in Fleur's exuberance, and jumped off the bed after her.
After very little debate they decided to abandon their filthy, and now sort of smelly, robes and go as they were. Unfortunately, it was cold enough that they needed them, so they went back upstairs to retrieve them. After a slightly lengthier debate, they decided to stick with their original plan.
The streets of San d'Oria were as lively as ever as the sun set over the stone walls of the city behind a backdrop of greens and blues and reds. The crowds and noise they created were so great in the residential district was so great that Harry and Fleur had to shout at each other to speak. They hurried out of the area as quickly as they could and into the quieter, if not more open, city proper.
"So, what do we do tomorrow?" Fleur asked when they were finally able to speak and be heard.
"All business tomorrow," Harry said after a moments thought, "We have to start finding out as much as we can about any way we could have gotten here- and how we can get back, of course. And if at all possible, we need to make some more money somehow."
"Right," Fleur agreed, "I zink we should start with all ze magic shops and 'angouts. It's safe to say zat we didn't get 'ere by natural means. And maybe we can work out something we can do to make some money zat's magic related. Zat'd be nice."
"Then it's settled," Harry stated decisively.
"Look at zat- we 'ave a plan," Fleur smiled, "Not bad for two people zat spent the 'ole day in bed."
"It is nice to have a plan," Harry added, "But tonight, we enjoy ourselves."
"Happily."
They walked for hours, seeing more parts of the enormous city and checking out areas they wanted to visit the next day. They felt completely at ease in San d'Oria now, and they waved and said hello and stopped to chat with people. They hadn't considered it at the time, but this afforded them a great opportunity to learn more about their surroundings.
A lot of what they heard didn't make much sense on it's own, but there was also a lot of useful stuff mixed in it. They pieced together that there were four major cities in Vana'diel- San d'Oria, Windurst, Bastok, and Jueno. They learned that the big creatures they had seen mingling around the city were the Galka, and the cat-like women they saw were Mithra. Much of the rest they tucked away in the back of their heads to figure out later, or to use in case they needed a cover or wanted to sound like they actually came from there.
Finally, they found themselves at the city's port and decided to stop there to rest, sitting at the edge of one of the docks. They watched quietly as people fished and worked on their boats and just hung around. Without warning, Fleur wrapped her arm around Harry's and rested her head on his shoulder. Harry noticed, without surprise, that he felt both unperturbed and perfectly comfortable. Without thinking, he decided to bring up something that had been on his mind all day.
"You know what, Fleur?" he said quietly.
"Hmm?"
"I'm glad you're here with me," Harry said, "It's been on my mind all day. I never would have thought it, but after all these days and everything we've been through together, I can't think of anyone I'd rather be stuck in some strange world with."
"Really?" Fleur asked mildly.
"Yeah," Harry continued, "I felt kind of bad at first, not wanting my friends here more. But they're not here, so I'm glad that you are."
"Zat's too bad," Fleur said glumly, "Because I can't wait to get 'ome and away from you."
"What?"
"I'm joking, stupid," Fleur giggled sweetly, "I'm glad you're glad. I feel ze same way."
"Of course you do," Harry said with a smirk, his chin up in the air, "Who wouldn't want to be with a handsome, heroic, guy like me. You're smitten, and who could blame you."
"You'd better quit while you're ahead, 'Arry Potter. You're no good to me if your 'ead gets so big you float away," Fleur snickered and they both burst into laughter.
"In all seriousness," Fleur continued when they finally got control of themselves, "With everything we've 'ad to endure, we could 'ave easily ended up at each other's throats, zen where would we be. It's nice zat we can get along. And it's nice zat we can enjoy zis beautiful, strange, world together."
"It is nice, isn't it?" Harry smiled.
"It is," Fleur smiled back.