Any objection to Ash's high-handedness flew from Harry's mind the moment he got his first look at the Realm. It literally stunned him. Not because it was beautiful, or so different from his own world, though it was both of these things. But because of the sheer amount of people. His mind couldn't seem to process what he was seeing fast enough before something or someone new caught his eye. There were what he could only assume were Demons, since they had the same marble-affect wings as Ash and he did. But there were other creatures he had no name for, or any idea of what they could possibly be. A very tall man with black skin and red eyes strode down the street, and everyone who saw him immediately gave him a wide berth. A girl with neon green hair and...well, he guessed that was supposed to be a dress, but there was so little to it he blushed to the roots of his hair and quickly turned away. Two stocky men walked by with solid grey wings. A young boy darted through the crowd, his eyes and hair both the color of a sunset sky.

Turning his gaze to the buildings didn't help much either. They seemed to have no rhyme or reason as far as the architecture went. They were mostly made out of many different kinds and colors of stone, most with graceful curves, though quite a few had carvings and other embellishments. Some were tall, some short, one or two had turrets like in a fairy tale. Impossibly thin spires that could only have been built and kept in place by magic. As he looked back at Ash, he saw she was laughing at him! One hand clutched around her tummy and the other trying to cover the giggles that were falling from her mouth. He immediately scowled at her, wings snapping up and out without any thought on his part. She had done this on purpose, not given him any word of warning and now she was laughing at him?!

"I'm s-sorry Harry! But you should have seen the look on your face!" She took a deep breath and seemed to pull herself back together. "This as you can tell, is the Realm. It's my home, and will be yours at least until you get better control of your powers, and start finding your mate or mates. Most prefer to live here, though there are a few that like the mortal realm."

Wait, mate? Harry didn't remember hearing Ash talk about this before.

"What do you mean mate? I'm only 16, I don't think I'm ready for anything like that!"

"All Demons have mates Harry, but we're not like Veela or some other races. We choose our own, and tend to have anywhere from one to twenty or thirty. It depends on the Demon. We also don't have set submissive and dominant partners, usually that's decided by each Demon for themselves. You might end up with all dominant mates, all submissives, or some mix of both. But that can wait. Demons are immortal, so you can decide to settle down whenever. I myself haven't found anyone yet who could keep my interest for more than a week or so."

As if his life hadn't been turned upside down enough already, now he was going to have to add a mate or mates to the list of weird things happening to him. Harry just shook his head silently, he wasn't going to deal with that right now. Before he had time to worry about the comment about being immortal, Ash started speaking again.

"You can tell what type of Demon you're looking at by the color of their wings. Air Demons have some shade of blue as the dominant color, with white. Fire are a charcoal base with red. Water are shades of blue and green. Earth are brown with gold. Storm are black and white, Shadow are black and purple. But there are also Djinn, Fae, Succubi, Incubi, Goblins, and Gargoyles who live here. As well as a few other species, but mostly those stick to themselves. Djinn are all tall, and have varying skin colors with no wings. You don't want to piss them off, they get more powerful the older they are and looks can be deceiving. Remember, most of us are immortal. Not every race is, but if you go by that rule of thumb you will have less chances of offending anyone."

Trying desperately to memorize all the information Ash was suddenly deciding to give him, Harry wondered about the other people he had already seen who didn't fit into the current descriptions.

"What about the ones with solid grey wings? And the ones with bright colored hair and no wings? What are they?"

"Solid grey are usually the Gargoyles. They're the best stone-shapers in the Realm, most of the buildings were designed by them. Bright colored hair belong to two different races. The Fae usually have eyes that match their hair, and they always look younger than they are. Succubi and Incubi are easy to pick out as they wear very little, and will most likely end up propositioning you at some point if they get the chance." She laughed as Harry blushed again. "We should probably move out of the way of traffic a little if you have more questions before we start moving on."

Ash turned and started heading towards a low wall, just the right height to sit on. As Harry started to follow her, he ran into something quite solid, almost falling back onto his butt on the ground but a strong hand shot out and grabbed him by the arm steadying him. He looked up to apologize but the words died unspoken. Three Demons stood in front of him, the center most one had dark purple hair done in intricate braids on each side of his head. A quick glance told Harry that this was a Shadow Demon. The brunette on his right was an Earth Demon, and the one on the left with long black hair, was a Storm Demon. All three of them had the intricate braids on the sides of their heads. He wondered if it meant anything, or if they just liked the style. It was then that he realized he hadn't said a word and was just staring!

"I-I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going closely enough. I-"

"Easy little one, no harm done. Are you wandering about by yourself?" The Shadow Demon released Harry's arm now that his feet were steady beneath him again. Harry's wings had flattened down on his back and he had hunched in a little on himself without conscious thought, expecting to be yelled at or worse. But the other man's voice was kind, if a little more gravely than he had expected. The Earth and Storm Demons were studying him curiously, but didn't look like they were planning on speaking.

"No. I was following my Guide but got a little distracted. I only just arrived in the Realm." Harry's posture straightened up a bit now that it seemed like he wouldn't be in trouble after all. That was certainly the last thing he needed, to make enemies in the first moments after entering the Realm!

"You're looming again Gideon, poor thing's going to get a crick in his neck from having to look up at you." The Earth Demon elbowed the Shadow Demon - Gideon? - and then looked back down at Harry. "I'm Herne, that's Gideon, and the silent fellow is Laric. What's your name? And where is your Guide?"

All three Demons were quite tall it was true, at least six feet if not taller, and it did help Harry's neck a bit when Gideon took a step back, even if Gideon was shooting Herne a dirty look in the process.

"I'm Harry. Ash was heading over towards the wall over there..." As he pointed in the direction, the crowd parted a little and they could see Ash seated on the wall and grinning in their direction. When she realized they were looking at her, she raised an arm and waved energetically at all four of them.

"Air Guiding Fire? Sounds like you're going to be in for a fun ride Harry. Air tend to be a little on the flighty side and are fairly easy to distract." Gideon seemed to be amused by the thought, but the one who hadn't spoken yet - Laric? - suddenly reached out and touched Gideon on the shoulder. His voice was low and soft, but rich as though he might spend time singing.

"Gid, we're going to be late for the match if we don't leave soon."

"Damn! All right, let's walk Harry back to his Guide and then we'll be on our way. It was a pleasure meeting you Harry." As he spoke, Gideon laid a hand on Harry's shoulder and steered him expertly through the crowd. They were out and standing in front of Ash faster than Harry had thought possible.

"Keep a better eye on him milady, it's too easy to be overwhelmed on the first view of the Realm." And with that, the three Demons slid back into the crowd and were quickly gone from sight.

"Well! Courting already Harry? And three Warriors? You do move fast!" Ash snickered and hopped down from the wall before Harry could do more than splutter indignantly. "That's what those braids they were wearing mean, by the way. All Warriors wear their hair that way, keeps it from getting in their eyes, and keeps it out of the hands of their enemies. Come on, there's somewhere I want to show you, it'll be fun!"

She grabbed Harry by the hand and started dragging him off down the street. Harry could only wonder what context 'fun' would take this time. She finally stopped in front of a two-story building. It was fairly plain outside compared to some of the ones he had glimpsed so far. The inside however was anything but plain. Thick carpet was everywhere underfoot, and tapestries hung from the walls. Sculptures were scattered around the wide-open space and tucked into nooks in the walls. Harry quickly stopped looking at them once he realized they were all depicting various sexual acts, and with varying genders and numbers of people!

He was getting a sinking feeling about where Ash had brought him, and he really hoped he was wrong, but couldn't figure out what else this place would be used for. And then they were finally all the way inside and there were men and women on couches, as well as wandering around in pairs and groups. And most of them had very very little in the way of clothing on. Harry knew he was red as a beet and didn't know where to look, he finally decided to stare at the floor as that seemed safest for the moment. Ash finally stopped in front of another woman, blessedly clothed, and started up a quickly spoken conversation with her. Harry wasn't really listening, but caught things like "new student", "first time in the Realm", and "introduce you".

"Ash! You dragged him in here without any warning didn't you? Honestly I don't know what to do with you sometimes. The poor boy is going to run off screaming any minute now."

"But Pepper, I wanted you to meet him!" Ash was very nearly whining, and that wasn't something he had heard her do before. It made Harry actually raise his eyes and look at the two. Ash was talking to a woman with pale blue hair and grey eyes, no wings in sight. He frowned thoughtfully trying to figure out what she might be. Not a Demon or Gargoyle, and her eyes didn't match so most likely not Fae...

"Harry is it? I'm Pepper, Ash is a good friend of mine, though sometimes I want to smack her. I'm sure you've gotten that urge a time or two as well."

The woman laughed and it was rich and velvety, it shot straight through Harry and made him blush again. Ah... Succubus then...that would make sense here...

"Nice to meet you Pepper."

"As long as you're here, you should meet my new boy. I just bought him about an hour ago and I must say, he's quite the pretty one. Fionn! Front and center please."

A shape slid out from behind the pillar he had been hiding behind, coming to stand directly in front of Pepper with his head bowed and eyes on the floor. He was quite pretty. White-blonde hair that fell to just above the tops of his shoulders, a section swept across his forehead to fall into his right eye and shadow it. His eyes were golden, body willowy like a dancers, and he had a golden and black butterfly tattooed on his left shoulder blade. His skin was a warm sun-kissed golden as well, all over from what Harry could see, considering Fionn wasn't wearing more than a very small pair of shorts and a collar around his neck. Something twisted inside him as he looked at the other male, he wasn't sure what it was, but it felt wrong to see the Fae standing there like that.

"Oh he's pretty! Where ever did you find him?" Ash was circling Fionn and looking quite impressed.

"A Djinn actually walked in here with him, said he had been training him but had grown bored and decided to sell him instead. Supposedly he is untouched, but even if that isn't true, he's gorgeous enough to more than make back what I paid for him."

Harry felt his temper flaring, how could they talk about Fionn like he wasn't even standing there? Was slavery such a normal thing in the Realm? Fionn had yet to speak a word, or even raise his eyes up from the floor. He just stood there as though he had totally given up, and it made Harry want to rage and destroy something. He supposed it was his "saving people thing" as his friends had always called it, but he couldn't just stand there and do nothing. And it wasn't like he didn't seem to have heaps of money, Sirius alone had been horribly rich, not including whatever his parent's had left him...

"Pepper. I'll give you twice what you paid if you sell him to me."

Dead silence greeted his words, and he glanced over at them to see both Ash and Pepper just staring at him in shock. He raised his chin stubbornly, he might not be able to save every slave in the Realm, but this one was right here, and he could help him, he just knew he could.

"I'm not sure that's so good an idea Harry, I mean I was joking earlier when I said you could start collecting mates and all. You haven't gotten any training yet, you don't even know how things work in the Realm yet and-"

"I don't care." He held out his Gringotts card to Pepper. "The Goblins said it would work here as well as in the mortal realm. I can afford it, and I want to buy him."

Pepper darted a look towards Ash and then shrugged, taking the card. "If you insist. On your head be it." She walked over to the wall a few feet from where they had been standing and slid the card into a small slit in the wall. A screen flashed into being and she entered a few things before a beep was heard and the card popped back out. Returning the card to Harry she made a shooing motion at them all.

"All yours. Have fun. I'm going to have to go explain to a few people why they need to request someone else now though, so run along before someone notices and tries to intercept you."

Harry slowly reached out and touched Fionn on the arm, Fionn promptly flinched and hunched in on himself a little. Harry's eyes hardened slightly and he promised himself that he would fix this. His life with the Dursley's hadn't been what he would call 'fun', even by Ash's standards, but they had never actually beaten him. That didn't look like it was the case for Fionn, who still hadn't spoken a word, or even seemed like he was aware of what was happening. First things first, he decided, that collar had to come off. It appeared to be made of solid metal with no catches he could see, and Pepper hadn't given them a key before leaving. He didn't even think about it, just raised his hands and set one on either side of the collar. Almost instantly the collar started to melt and soon it was falling off, all without burning Fionn or Harry. He was a little surprised, but decided to just go with it for now.

"Ash, can you take us somewhere we can get him some real clothes? I don't want to walk under the circumstances."