I know, I know, it's been way too long.
But here's the next chapter! Hope you all forgive me for taking forever on this one.
Life didn't let me go back into writing as I hoped for but I hope you'll like this one and what I've done with it.
I wish you all the best and I'll see you in the next one.
Chapter 10
High in the air, flying over the mountains, high above treetops of the few scattered trees that had randomly sprouted ages ago on the barren cliffs, calm was slowly lifting as our resident avatar was getting antsy. It started with him tapping his foot, slowly it became the leg and then came the pacing.
Appa's saddle is not the biggest space in the world which is why it quickly became annoying for the other passengers.
"Would you sit down?" Sokka said, "If we hit a tree or a bump, you'll go flying off. What's bugging you anyway?"
Aang kept pacing, looking worriedly around at nothing.
"It's what Avatar Roku said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives."
"Well, let's see. You pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you a hundred and twelve years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer." Sokka said in an attempt to be humorous. Except it wasn't and his comment earned him a whack to the back of the head by our other resident airbender.
"I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole. What am I gonna do?" Aang said with even more worry in his voice.
"First of all, you need to relax." Hari told him.
"I can't, I don't have time to relax!" Aang answered in one breath.
This made Hari grab Aang's staff, stand up and push the staff into Aang's hands.
"What?" Was all Aang got to say before Hari flicked at him, sending a quick and precise bust of air that pushed Aang out of the saddle.
Aang, holding his staff in both hands, looked weirdly at him before he realized his predicament and started to fall, screaming along the way.
Katara and Sokka were looking worried at Hari, who sat down again like nothing happened. Katara made to stand up but was stopped by Hari.
"Relax Katara, Sit down and give him a minute." He said.
She did as she was told and it didn't take long before Aang was flying beside them. He didn't land in the saddle immediately but stayed in the air, did a couple of loops around Appa, making Momo join him in the sky.
After a couple of minutes he landed in the saddle looking much more relaxed.
"Feeling better?" Hari asked him.
"Yes. Thank you." Aang said as he did a small bow as thanks. Hari held up a fist which Aang fistbumped with a smile.
"Though I don't agree with your method, I must say it worked very well." Katara said, looking at the both of them.
"Eh," Hari said, "Flying does something. It blows your worries away and makes you feel light and free." He stood up and put his arm around Aang's shoulder. "Right, my fellow flier?"
"Right!" Aang said. It was different to have someone who understood. His two other friends might have had other ways to calm him down but to have someone who actually got the feeling was… irreplaceable. It really felt like having a brother, Aang thought to himself.
"But I'm still a bit worried." Aang finished.
"It's going to be okay, Aang. If you want, I can try to teach you some of the stuff I know." Katara said.
"Really? You'd do that?" Aang said, his face lighting up even more.
Katara nodded and looked over the saddle down on the landscape below.
"We'll need to find a good source of water first." She said.
Sokka, who had taken the spot near Appa's head, taking the reins, looked back at the three benders.
"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in." He said, smirking at his own joke.
.
.
.
Standing on a riverbank, our four friends were looking at a beautiful waterfall, cascading down the mountainside into a small lake which became the river where they were standing.
"Nice puddle." Sokka said sarcastically.
With a low rumble, Appa took off, flew to the middle of the lake and dropped down into the water where he started floating around like a big fluffy catgator.
"Don't start without me, buddy!" Aang shouted as he started to run while undressing.
"Aang!" Katara shouted, getting his attention, "Remember the reason we're here."
Aang stopped and looked back at Katara.
"Oh right." He said, as he rubbed his neck. As he walked back he awkwardly picked up and put on his clothes.
"Time to practice waterbending." He said with a smile.
"Great," came the groan from Sokka, "So what am I supposed to do while you two are playing with water?"
Katara opened her mouth to shout something back to her brother, but was beaten to it by Hari who said "Well, for one, let's hang our supplies up in the trees in case these two get too trigger-happy in their training and wash away our things."
"I would never do that!" Katara said back.
"Can you promise the same about your promising student?" Hari said back.
Katara opened her mouth, but stopped and looked over at Aang who was smiling innocently back at her.
She looked back at Hari, who smiled at her softly, not smirking at all, and started hanging up their supplies with Sokka's help.
"Done and done!" Sokka said happily.
"Nice job Sokka." Hari said as they fistbumpped, "You can let the two others know that they can start."
"What are you going to do?" Sokka asked, hoping he was something where he could participate.
"I'm going to meditate up on top of the waterfall." Hari said.
That made Sokka's shoulders slump, as he turned around, but before he got far he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Hari looking at him with a small smile.
"Sokka, spars are not everything. You remember how Suki would go through the patterns and steps with the other warriors back at Kyoshi Island?"
Sokka had been training and getting better doing spars with Hari, which they had tried to keep up when they had time, ever since they received training from the Kyoshi Warriors. They had both gotten better and Hari had been great, not using bending (at least not consciously) in their spars. Sokka hadn't won a practice-match yet, but they were both getting a lot better.
"Yeah?" Sokka replied.
"Well, I know you remember some of them, so why not go through them?" Hari said.
"You want me to learn danci-ow!" Sokka answered, making a face. He had received a flick to the forehead.
"Sokka, I honestly thought you knew better by now. You see those movements are not just 'dancing' as you call it, but it is, yes choreographed, but pretend fights. Every segment or part has a purpose and when you do them, don't just go through the movements but pretend that there are attackers you're defending against. Make it real!" Hari said, poking him in the chest, his smile growing as he spoke.
"But how does it help?" Sokka asked.
"You're smart Sokka, I believe you'll figure it out." Hari said as he turned on his heels, took two steps and glided into the air towards the top of the waterfall.
As Sokka stood there, his mind wandered back to Suki. He tried to remember the series of movements she did, what they were, hand movement, where she looked, her hair, her face, her sme-stop!
Sokka took a deep breath and tried to concentrate. He started to move but it just felt like a weird dance. What was it Hari had told him? When he moved his hand like this in a short sweeping motion, it was like in the spars, it was a parry! Because what followed was a small one foot sweep and a… strike? Take-down? Maybe a mix. And here was a strike with the fan, I can use my boomerang!
Slowly Sokka's movements began to have a rhythm and sharpness. While it still did not look like much, it would be the beginning of Sokka's path towards truly becoming stronger.
High above them, on top of the waterfall, Hari found a couple of stones sticking out in the middle of the river right before the fall, where he found one that was both big enough but also comfortable enough for him to sit on.
He hadn't told the others everything. He had told them of his meeting with the spirits but not everything that happened between them, such as the full conversation he had with Baem and he hadn't told them about Mul. It wasn't because he didn't trust them, it just felt very personal and he didn't know how they would take it, him having a spirit living inside him.
As he sat down cross-legged, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Breathe in, breathe out, in and out. Even though his occlumency was shoddy at best, he still remembered his lessons and tried his best to empty his mind. Breathe in, breathe out. He felt a calm wash over him and the world around him faded away behind the sound of rushing water.
He tried to focus on the river, following its flow by the sound. It slowly visualized in his mind. How the water moved by the pressure it created that affected the air. As his senses spread out he felt it. He felt what Baem had told him, the rushing of the river of wind outside him, around him, and slowly how inside him, he was connected to this. As he began to focus on this feeling he felt a playful note in the rush inside him. He started to float up into the air as he slowly straightened out his legs and ever so softly landed on his feet.
"Mul?" He said quietly.
The advice Baem had given him was simple in itself; to learn from them. He pulled his senses back and looked within. He didn't know if he saw a glint or felt it but he tried to follow it with his senses. It was not easy at first but after a while he felt like he got the hang of it. It was like playing quidditch in his mind, chasing a glowing white snitch. It didn't take long before, in his mind's eye, he snatched it and heard a giggle.
"You got me!" the snitch hissed happily. As he looked in his hand he saw Mul curled around his fist.
"Hi Mul." He said with a smile, "Your mother said that I should learn from you and I wondered if you wanted to teach me something."
"Yes! Yes, I do!" She hissed, "Since Papa is Mul's Papa, Papa need to learn how to be a proper snake!"
He felt as if the river agreed with Mul, like he could hear agreeing hisses in the rush of water. "Old Slytherin must be rolling in his grave." He chuckled to himself.
"Watch, follow, do, Papa!" Mul hissed strictly, making Hari nod his head. "No energy!" Mul finished with a sharp look.
With closed eyes he stood there, just watching within himself as he saw, or more appropriately, felt how Mul was moving. It was a strange sensation. Slowly he started to move, on the small rock. Knees bent slightly and arms in front he started. He tried to emulate Mul's movements, but it seemed like it was easier to do with no arms and no legs and there was a couple of times where he nearly fell off the rock into the rushing water and lost his concentration, making Mul higgle at him and start again.
He moved in a circular pattern on the rock, moving his hands in wavelike patterns, not unlike coiling snakes, his hands open and flat. It was only movements, but he felt the river of energy inside him wanting to rush out to greet the ocean outside, but he kept it in. His motions were becoming softer in the transitions and sharper in the movements and just as he felt he was truly starting to get the hang of it, sound greeted him. It was so loud it was like a sledgehammer on wood, or more true, a tsunami on a beach.
It made him stumble but he caught himself, hanging over the edge of the waterfall, looking down where there was a lot of water where there once was a beach and three very soggy teenagers.
He let out a sigh and sent a mental apology to Mul before he let go and dropped down towards the pool below, straightening out just before he hit the water and glided over to his friends, who all had very specific looks on their faces.
Sokka looked a mix between angry and frustrated, Aang looked apologetic and embarrassed and Katara… well, she didn't look happy, but it was hard to tell… there definitely was some frustration there but it was hard to read without some context.
"So… what happened?" He asked.
"Well~" Aang started.
"He waterbended half our supplies down the river!" Sokka shouted and swung his arm in a wide arch pointing at Aang.
"I said I'm sorry. I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace it." Aang replied.
"How did it happen?" Hari asked confused, "We hung it up in the tree?"
Three heads slowly turned to Momo, who in turn looked at Appa, who grunted at Sokka, who looked at the ground, shuffling his feet.
"Sokka?" Hari asked.
"Well, all the training got me hungry…" Sokka mumbled.
Hari sighed as he shook his head.
"It's no good crying over spilt potion, I guess. Let's go shopping." He said as he started to walk, making Aang mouth 'potions?' to Sokka who shrugged back.
.
.
.
Walking out from a shopping street down to the harbor Hari threw a bag to Aang who caught it with a grunt.
"We've got three copper pieces left from the money King Bumi gave us. Let's spend it wisely." Sokka said.
"Uh," Aang said from behind the bag, "make that two copper pieces, Sokka. I couldn't say no to this whistle!"
He then pulls out a white whistle that looks like a bison, takes a huge breath and blows into it.
Katara and Sokka look at him blowing into the whistle but it barely makes a sound.
"Bravo Aang, it doesn't even work." Sokka said.
"What!" Hari said in a loud voice making the others and even passers by look at him, while Hari rubbed his ears.
"You okay, Hari?" Katara asked.
"By Mother Minnie, that was loud!" Hari said loudly, seemingly not hearing what she said.
"But it didn't work?" Sokka said, looking at Hari confused.
"It must be a real Bison whistle!" Aang said happily, holding it up in the air, "We used to have something like this back at the Air Temple!"
"But why can't we hear anything, Aang?" Katara asked.
"Well, you see, this whistle can make a very high sound, higher than we can hear and Bison are more sensitive to sound so they can hear sounds that we can't!" Aang answered, looking over at Hari who was shaking his head, as if he tried to get water out of his ears. "And I guess that Hari can too."
"You know," Harry mumbled, "I know I should be grateful, but being this sensitive to sound is not always fun."
His statement was met with chuckles from the others.
As they continued down the harbor they looked around at all the different merchants selling everything from people shouting about the freshness of their fish to pottery important from other places around the world and vegetables. Hari was wondering how hygenic it was to rub your face into the cabbage you wanted to sell.
Further down, one guy seemed to try his best to draw attention to himself. He was talking very loudly and waving his arms around, as to emphasize his words.
"Earth Nation! Fire Nation! Water Nation! So long as bargains are your inclination, you're welcome here! Don't be shy, come on by!" He said out loud. When he saw that Aang had stopped to listen he appeared as if apparated next to him.
"Oh! You there, I can see from your clothing that you're world-traveling types. Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?" He said to them.
Aang looks up at him with a smile "Sure! What are curios?"
The sailor rubs his chin in thought. "I'm not entirely sure. But we got 'em!" He said as he put his hand around Aang's shoulder and smiled, walking him into the ship, the others following them.
The inside of the ship is filled with a lot of curios to satisfy a curious person's curiosity. It truly seemed like they had many things from all over the world.
As they all were perusing the shelves a voice from the back of the room spoke out to them.
"I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur. That beast would fetch me a hefty sum if you'd be interested in bartering."
Out of the darkness stepped a man with long graying hair, brown clothes and an iguana parrot on his shoulder. He was looking very intently at Momo.
Aang pulled Momo closer to his chest and told him "Momo is not for sale."
Katara, turning back to the scroll-filled shelf she was looking through, saw a scroll with a waterbending symbol on it. She takes it out and opens it, and sees it filled with diagrams of waterbending moves.
Just as she is about to call out for Aang, she feels a hand on her shoulder. As she looks she sees Hari standing behind her. He leans in closer and whispers in her ear, making her blush.
"Don't raise your voice, Katara. Small advice. If you find something you like, never draw attention to yourself, since they'll make the price higher for nothing else but the simple reason that you really want it. Is it something helpful and can we use it?"
She gave him a small nod.
"Then, put it back quick and let me take care of it." He said as he stood up a bit straighter and said in a normal level. "Very interesting selection you have. I wonder though, how you were able to procure some of them, such as…" He pretended to look through the scrolls as if he was looking through them for the first time. "Ah, this watertribe scroll." He put his index finger on the waterbending symbol on the scroll.
"You have a good eye," the captain said, "I got it up North, at a most reasonable price… free" he smirked at them.
Sokka turned around and looked at the captain.
"Wait a minute…" Sokka said, "Sea loving traders, with suspiciously acquired merchandise and pet reptile birds?" He turned around facing the guy who brought them aboard the ship, nearly spitting in his face, "You guys are pirates!"
The guy put his arm around Sokka's shoulders and said in a friendly voice "We prefer to think of ourselves as 'high risk traders'."
Hari looked at the captain, still keeping his finger on the scroll.
"But a scroll like this must not be able to fetch a high price since they're still being made. It's not that rare and looks pretty easy to sell." Hari put on a wondering expression.
The captain took a heavy step towards Hari, making Aang and Katara take a step back. He stood in his full height, looming over Hari, his attitude not threatening, but there was a dangerous feeling in the air.
"Watch what you're saying, boy." The captain said in a low voice.
Hari's eye twitched at being called boy, bringing forth not the happiest of memories in the form of walruses and horses. He felt a small tug at the back of his shirt. When he looked he saw Katara standing behind him looking worried. He closed his eyes and turned his head towards the captain and opened his eyes staring back at him.
"Did I say anything that wasn't true? Now I'm guessing you already have some ideas for a buyer for this scroll but… I have a better deal for you, or more correctly a trade." Hari said, opening his bag and taking out a scroll.
"Is that what I think it is?" The captain said.
"Well, if you think that this is an authentic airbending scroll, you're right." Hari said with a smile.
"Hari, what are you doing?" Aang said, worry coloring his voice.
"I'm trying to make a trade. You see, these 'fine' gentlemen probably have many contracts. Selling a rare scroll like this is not the easiest thing in the world, so I think it's luck to meet these traders. I need to be able to get rid of this scroll since I myself sometimes take the path of a 'high risk trader'. I'd be willing to trade this scroll for something that is easier to sell and not be questioned about where or how I acquired it. I think it's at least worth this waterbending scroll and…" Hari slowly went around the room and took a couple of things, such as a couple of knives, two fans, a whetstone and an ornate earth nation carpet.
Katara whispered to Aand "What do we need the carpet for?" and not a small shrug in return.
"Hm…" The captain said, "I can't agree on this. You value the waterbending scroll too little and the airbending scroll too highly."
"You know that I don't, sir. This is relatively priceless. After all there's no airbenders left."
Hari twirled the airbending scroll between his fingers.
The captain looked at Hari for a moment before crossing his arms and looked down his nose at him.
"Since we both know the trade, what's stopping me from acquiring your scroll free of charge?" The captain said to Hari.
"Oh, that's simple!" Hari said, grabbing one of the room's lanterns. "If you try, my hand might slip and my scroll together with every scroll in this shelf might accidentally catch on fire, and the time it'll take you to kill it, you might have lost much more than just the things in this shelf."
Sokka was starting to sweat, the air was tense and the only thing you could hear was the noise from the people and shops on the harbor outside the boat.
Breaking not only the silence but also the tension was the loud laughter of the captain.
"You're not too shabby, boy." The captain said with a smile, but the smile quickly turned serious. "But, that just means I'm willing to haggle, don't try to take me for a fool."
Hari looked back at the captain with a smile.
It took a bit of haggling but in the end the airbending scroll got traded for a waterbending scroll, two fans and a whetstone. Just before they shook hands the captain put one of the knives on top of the table and told him that it was a gift as a thanks for one of the more interesting trades he had had in quite some time.
Hari packed the stuff in his bag and put his hand forward. The captain took it and shook on their deal. As he turned around his friends were looking at him with a bit of a blank expression.
"Let's go." Hari said as he walked past them and off the boat.
.
.
.
They had reached a bit distance to the ship when Sokka turned to Hari.
"Okay, okay, okay, just wait a moment, I just need to ask you… What was that?" Sokka ask Hari.
"What was what?" Hari asked innocently.
"I think he's talking about what happened on the ship." Katara said, crossing her arms.
Hari looked around at his friends and took a deep breath.
"I saw the way you looked at the scroll, Katara. Can you look me straight in the eye and tell me that you would have left the scroll behind?" He asked her.
Katara looked away for a moment and opened her mouth.
"Look at me Katara." Hari said softly.
She looked at him and then said defiantly "No. I wouldn't have left it behind."
"You wanted to steal the scroll?" Sokka exclaimed.
Katara looked angrily at her brother. "Thank you Sokka, why don't you say it louder, I don't think the guy over there with the hammer, fixing his roof heard you!."
"I did!" Came from somewhere behind them.
"Where do you think they got it from in the first place! They stole it from a waterbender!"
"So you were ready to put our lives in danger for a piece of paper?" Sokka retorted.
"Not just a piece of paper," Hari cut in, "and hey! Nothing happened. Nothing happened and everything is fine!" He said as he patted Sokka on the shoulder.
They were out of the city limits and heading towards their camp spot where Appa was waiting.
"Everything isn't 'fine'."
They turned towards Aang who hadn't said anything until now. He was looking down at the ground with a frustrated look on his face.
"You okay there, Aang?" Sokka asked.
"Am I okay? No I'm not okay, this is not okay!" Aang said angrily. His whole body was tense as his fists were clenched.
"Aang?" Katara asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"You!" Aang said. "How could you, Hari! How could you trade a piece of our culture just like that? You said it yourself, that it's priceless, but you still traded it just like that!" At the end he was nearly shouting.
"Do you truly want to know, Aang, or would you rather be angry and shout at me?" Hari asked him. There was no heat in his voice.
"I, I…" Aang took a couple of deep breaths and looked at Hari. "I'm angry with you, but I know you don't do things without reason." He looked down at the ground, his shoulders slumping a bit.
"Yeah!" Sokka said, "What was up with the carpet?"
They had now reached the lake where Hari sat down on the grass a bit away from the shore where the others joined him.
"First," Hari said, "Aang, thank you for trusting and believing in me that I have a plan with what I'm doing. Also that you asked me why and not just blaming me immediately, I really appreciate it. I know it might not be easy to understand, but that scroll is now out there, not hidden away, spreading the culture, even if just a little to the rest of the world, reminding those who see it what airbending was. Those pirates will sell it to the highest bidder, who will brag to others about owning this scroll, probably showing it off. For you and me, it has fulfilled its purpose by teaching us what it could and like other books or lessons, once learned we move on. It has become part of us and will never disappear. It must be incredibly hard for you to see how much the world you knew has changed. Abandoned temples and leftover scrolls are just history if there's no people to keep the culture alive. Aang, you are the history and culture of the Air Nomads, and even though I feel incredibly flattered that you count me as one, I haven't lived with them to truly understand what it's like. So even if all the temples should crumble, Aang, you don't need a place, a temple or a scroll. They are but a speck in what you know and you can make a thousand more if you want and if that's what you dream of, I'll help you."
They all sat still for a moment, all except Momo, who was chattering away in Aang's lap.
"Oh, and the carpet looked expensive. It was just a way to up the price and make sure we got as much stuff as we could out of the deal." Hari added winking at Sokka.
Aang was looking down at Momo, seemingly lost in his own thoughts, when he suddenly grabbed his glider, stood up and looked down at Hari who was still sitting down. They all looked at Aang when he out of nowhere tapped Hari on the head with his glider and said "you're it" and sped away into the forest. The three sat dumbfounded until Sokka and Hari started to chuckle and Hari shot from his sitting position up and after Aang.
Sokka went over to a spot to start going through some of the series that Suki taught him, while Katara shook her head and thought out loud "Boys".
.
.
.
It didn't take long for Hari to catch up to Aang, but that didn't mean he was easy to catch. Hari felt it was like chasing after a niffler with wings, but Hari wasn't the youngest seeker for nothing, and even though he had Aang a couple of times he didn't tag him, but let him escape. When he finally tagged him, they kept the game up for a while, even including Momo until they landed on top of the cliff, next to the waterfall, where they let themself fall on their backs, laughing.
"Flying always puts you in a better mood." Aang said with a smile, looking up at the sky.
"Yes it does. Nothing better in the world!" Hari said, his eyes closed and his arms behind his head.
"It's not easy," Aang said, "to accept everything has changed. I understand in my head that what you said was right, but it still hurts in my heart."
"Yeah… I understand that…" Hari said, thinking back on some of the people in his life, Dumbledore, Sirius and the choices they made.
Aang sat up and looked into the sky.
"One of the fundamental things about being an airbender is spirit. For airbenders, we feel closer to ourselves when we're in the air. The wind carries us. It supports something inside us, something even lighter than air, something that takes over when we fly. That is what we call spirit. It made me sad when you said that you'd never truly understand, because I think you do. You grew up with sky bison and lemurs, in an air temple, learning from the scrolls and I think you love being in the air more than anyone I've ever met and I'm over a 100 years old!"
They both laughed.
"What I want to say is that you are an air nomad, not just in ability, but spirit too! I care a lot about Katara and Sokka but they don't understand me like you do and I hope they never will. We're the last air nomads. You understand me and I…" Aang looked down at the ground. "I think of you as a brother."
Aang felt an arm going around his shoulder and he was pulled into an one armed hug.
"Thank you Aang. That means a lot to me." Hari said.
They sat like that for a couple of seconds before Hari let go and stood up.
"Okay, what do you say about joining the two others and I'll make us some dinner?"
Aang smiled up at him and stood as well.
"Sounds great to me!" He said as he ran to the edge where he threw his glider into the air where it folded out as he jumped after it, grabbed it and glided down, Hari joining him in the air once more.
.
.
.
Unbeknownst to our friend Zuko and his uncle were discussing the need for more instruments for their ships music night, never noticing the pirates who were happily celebrating the deal of their lifetime. A real authentic airbending scroll! Collectors would be going crazy over this and they would be rolling in gold. Iroh decided to avoid their party even though the he really thought that the monkey statue he found would've looked great in their gallery,
.
.
.
Using the spices he bought and fish that Sokka had caught in the river, Hari began making them a simple meal.
While Aang and Sokka were making a bonfire, he had used the whetstone to sharpen his knives and scavenged some roots and vegetables in the forest. He put the pan over the fire and while he waited until it had become warm he prepared the fish. He cleaned, deboned and cut it into smaller pieces. He then diced up vegetables. When the pan was warm, he put in water and waited for it to boil. Then he threw the vegetables and roots into the pan and let it simmer for a while before pouring the water into a pot and fried the now boiled vegetables, while adding spices. He then took it all out of the pan, before putting in the fish, frying it a bit and then putting in most of the vegetables, leaving some for Aang, and fried it all together, adding more spices and a bit of the water from earlier. He tested the fish and vegetables and when they were the right texture he yelled "Foods done!"
They all sat around the fire and ate in silence, enjoying the heat from the fire, the clear sky and the food.
After a while Hari swallowed a spoonful and said "So, I guess we stay here till tomorrow since somebody wants to play with water?"
Aang had a big smile on his face and looked at Katara who smiled back, though Harry noticed that the smile didn't reach her eyes completely.
When they were done eating and cleaning, Hari went to get the waterbending scroll. As he turned around, Katara was already there with a very eager expression and then it hit Hari. Her expression now and her smile at dinner made sense. Her eagerness reminded him of Hermione and the expression she made at dinner was like Hermiones when he was using the Half-Blood Prince's potions book.
As Katara tried to take the scroll she found that Hari was not letting go. She tried once more and found that Hari didn't lose his grip. She looked at him questioningly and tugged at the scroll, Hari still not letting go.
"What?" She asked him.
"Remember how you reacted when Haru got taken?" Hari asked her.
She looked him in the eyes for a few seconds before she looked down at her feet, her cheeks gaining a red glow. "Yes…" she said.
"Please remember that." Hari said with a soft smile and let go of the scroll.
Katara gave a quick nod and headed down to the beach, already looking at the scroll where Aang was waiting for her, Sokka and Hari followed.
When she reached Aang she handed him the scroll and said "I really want to try this one move, is it okay I start?"
Aang nodded, holding the scroll open for her
"Hmm, the single water whip. Looks doable" she said to herself. She studied the scroll for a moment before she tried to copy the move. The water moved in a whip-like movement but instead of snapping in front of her, it ended up hitting her on the forehead. "Ow!" She exclaimed.
A snicker made her turn around and give her brother a mean eye. She took a deep breath and tried a couple of times, but each time it seemed to get worse and worse.
"Ugh, why can't I get this stupid move?!" She said out loud in frustration.
"You'll get it." Aang said. Not noticing Katara glaring at him, he put the scroll down and continued. "You see, just gotta shift your weight through the stances." As Katara clenched her fist, Aang then goes on and does it perfectly on the first try. "There, see, the key t-"
"Aang!" Hari cut in.
Aang looked over at Hari who was walking over to Katara, stopping in front of her. "Deep breaths Katara, deep breaths. Relax your shoulders and deep breaths." He told her softly.
Katara slowly controlled her breath, lowering her shoulders and unclenched her fists.
"Good. Now that you've relaxed, is there something you'd like to tell Aang?" Hari asked her.
Katara took another deep breath, looked up at Aang who looked at them, oblivious to what just happened.
"Aang," She said, "thank you for wanting to help, but I would like it if you waited till I asked for help next time. It's just… You're just so good at waterbending without really trying, while I've been trying my best my whole life! It's just so frustrating!" She looked at Hari. "So I got jealous, hurt and angry."
"I'm sorry too, Katara." Aang said, now realizing how annoying he must've been.
"It's okay Aang, you just wanted to help." Katara said. Then she took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders, "So, what do you mean by shifting your weight?"
Aang smiled at her and said "well, my old master used to say that"…
It didn't take long before Katara had mastered the water whip and together with Aang, they slowly went through the scroll until it was getting too dark to see.
As they all were laying in their sleeping bags Katara was looking over at Hari, thinking of how much had changed since he came along and fell asleep with a smile on her face.