Note
I'm so sorry about the long wait, please forgive me!
Also, the response to this story has really blown me away and I did not expect this at all when I first started writing. I appreciate the support so much!
Throughout his life, Harry had been called many things: courageous, reckless, kind, stupid but he had never been naïve, no matter what others had been let to believe. His childhood had been anything but a walk in the park and he had learned quickly that actions bore consequences, nothing came the easy way. He would not say that he was grateful for his upbringing at the Dursley's but at least he had been prepared for the price of becoming a wizard. You see, Harry had learned from a young age that you couldn't have food unless you worked for it. Becoming a wizard at the age of eleven he had instantly known that having magic wouldn't be for free and he had spent many years compensating for it by dealing with Voldemort. Call it wrong but Harry felt he had to give something back for having friends, for going to Hogwarts, and for having magic. After having finished his education as a healer he had come to terms with his unjust situation but chose not to dwell on the past for he was proud of the person he had become.
Looking at the quill in the jewel inlayed hand he knew that he couldn't take it. After having been warned by Sanix, Bifur and Bofur time and time again not to take any gifts from strangers, he just knew, he wouldn't be willing to pay the price that came with the gift. For all he knew he could owe the red eyed man a favour, be in his debt until a wish had been fulfilled, or the quill could be enchanted, leaving him to the cruel fate of servitude or torture. Maybe he was being a tad overdramatic for it could just turn out to be a kind gesture, but the forewarning from his three new friends wouldn't leave his mind, making his arm hang beside him.
The unique wine red eyes didn't leave his form not even to look at the crowd of people, whom Harry now noticed had gathered around them. The stranger's eyes were calm. It was as if he had already foreseen the outcome of his offer and was now only waiting for Harry's acceptance. If the stranger's clothes and jewellery hadn't been a big enough hint about the man's status, then this act of arrogance could only strengthen that claim. He was an important, well known man and Harry wouldn't do well by being rude or insulting a dwarf of high standing on his first day in Erebor. The only problem was how to go about this when he had no idea how to handle the situation.
Harry parted his lips slightly to make some kind of refusal but the words got stuck in his throat at the swift flash of desire clouded in the red eyes. Desire. Was this some kind of sexual favour? Maybe even a courtship proposal? It wasn't unheard of in the wizard world that gifts were exchange between the courting couple. If this was the case he couldn't believe the cheek of this dwarf! How could he come up to Harry like that, offering to buy sexual favours or offer a courtship without introducing himself or asking for Harry's name first, the nerve.
"I couldn't possibly accept this beautiful gift from a complete stranger." Wide red eyes beheld him and Harry only smiled in return as he stepped forward and lightly took the quill out of the bigger hand. "But I can see that you are a kind noble man who would help me, a newcomer, by letting me borrow your quill for a few minutes. I promise that you shall have your quill back in the same state by the end of this ordeal."
With the quill in hand, Harry turned around to his small stack of papers on the table. Skimming through the content on the first page he hoped to finish in record time so he could return the quill and get out of here. No such luck. He could feel the stranger's heat as he came up to stand directly behind him, feel the red eyes on his body. Harry ignored him for now and pretended to do his business by writing down the few pieces of information he could about himself, which weren't all that much. He needed help for several reasons. The first problem was that he had to write the year of his birth, which was impossible seeing as he didn't even know what the year was now. Second, he had to state an address so the departments could contact him when news of a free home or job position was open. He didn't for the life of him know where Bofur and Bifur lived. Maybe he could just write `Bofur's toystore´ but he wouldn't take the chance, he had to be sure that he would receive his mail.
Being unable to get anymore work done Harry folded his papers in half and turned around, hoping to make his escape. His eyes were immediately captured by red. Escape would seem difficult for he was cornered, with the table desk at his back, by the strong figure ahead. Harry wouldn't be intimidated; His eyes didn't wave nor did his form draw back. No, he stood strong.
Trying to act like everything was in perfect order, Harry broke the silence. "Thank you for letting me borrow your quill. Here it is, as I promised" Harry said while holding out the beautiful silver quill. Big, thick fingers brushed against his as they took the silver object from Harry's hand and Harry heard the deep voice of the stranger once more as he spoke;
"You may borrow, take or ask of anything you want from me, abnâmul. I'm Ralec son of Reivic at your service."
Harry's still slightly outstretched hand was touched once again by the same fingers that seconds ago had taken the quill from their gasp. Ralec held his hand lightly and then right before Harry's eyes he bowed down to place a kiss right over his knuckles.
Ralec lips lingered only a short moment on the skin of Harry's hand. His red eyes found green and his voice filled Harry's ears; "I want nothing more than to be familiar with you, please tell me your name?" Ralec took a step back to give Harry more space, to Harry's comfort, before he once more stood at his full height.
It all happened so fast. The stranger had just called Harry beautiful, then kissed his hand. He was now certain that, this, Ralec wanted to be more than just helpful.
"I'm Harry son of James. It was nice to meet you Ralec but I must be going." With that said Harry stepped around Ralec, going toward the door where Khîm would be waiting outside in the hall. He was stopped by the light grip around his left wrist.
"Harry," Ralec spoke "I'm sorry if I have scared you with my unorthodox behaviour. I know that it was unbecoming of me to establish my interest so suddenly without introduction. But in my defence I must say that I have never met one other like you, you blew my sense away."
Harry had met many liars in his life and he could not detect any falseness in Ralec's apology, he truly regretted his behaviour towards him. It would even appear that Ralec's action didn't fall in favour of any strange dwarven traditions either.
"Your further refusal of my gift was unexpected as was your action towards my showing interest in you. You do not seem interested in my company Harry and I must say that I find it refreshing," Ralec kept eye contact, his voice becoming deeper with each word he spoke, "And exciting."
"I accept your apology for I can see that you are sincere but beyond that I don't know what to say." Harry answered, adverting his eyes to the side while his hand automatically came up to rub the back of his neck in nervousness. Instead of meeting his bare neck Harry's hand came into contact with his soft long hair. His fingers wandered through the length of his hair in wonder, still not used to its presence. He looked to Ralec again to explain further; "I have only just arrived to Erebor today and came here to settle things. To be completely honest I'm unfamiliar with the way of dwarves. I woke up yesterday, unable to remember anything from before in my life." Harry figured that it was best to feign amnesia. This way he wouldn't have to answer questions about his life before waking up outside Mirkwood, preventing him from lying even more.
Ralec's dark eyebrows came together, his exspession worried. He stepped towards Harry, maybe to get some form of privacy from the still watching crowd around them, as he spoke. "I'm sorry to hear that, you must have a lot of unanswered questions. I want you to know that you can ask me for help if you are in need of it."
"You're being awfully kind towards me Ralec. I wonder if you show such hospitality towards every new face here in Erebor?" Harry couldn't help but let the scepticism in his voice show and he was sure Ralec heard it to when he gave Harry a sharp smile and replied.
"I will admit that I'm doing this for my own selfish reason, abnâmul," His gaze shifted to the papers in Harry's hand, "If you are looking for a home here in this mountain I happen to have two places of residence, I would be willing to let you live in any of them. We can go take a look on them now and you can choose the one you like the best."
Harry cursed himself for the light blush he felt creep up his cheeks. He would admit that he found Ralec quite charming, his voice, the upturn of his soft looking lips. God, Harry would confess that it had been years since he had received flattery like this and the attention from Ralec was getting to him. That being said he wouldn't jump into Ralec's big, strong looking arms, but he was flattered.
"It's a tempting offer," Harry replied while daring to take a little step closer. "But, I'll have to meet up with my friends now and talk it over with them first before I make any decision."
"I'll respect that. I will be willing to meet up with you tomorrow at the entrance hall, where you can tell me of your decision."
"That would be acceptable. When should I meet you?" Harry asked.
"Well," Ralec mused, taking Harry's hand to place it over his right arm, steering him through the crowd of stunned dwarves, towards the exit. "I wouldn't mind spending the whole day with you tomorrow but unfortunately I'm to attend a meeting around midday. I would prefer we meet up a little after dawn."
When they passed through the big doors into the sleek black marble like halls, Ralec lead them to a stop. He took Harry's hand in his, bowed once more to lay a kiss to the back of his hand, and said; "I'm afraid this is where I have to part from you now Harry. I'll see you again in the morrow." He then gave Harry a final big smile and turned to go down the left side of the corridor.
Harry only had to turn to the other half of the corridor to see a stunned Khîm. "Was that Lord Ralec you were just speaking with, Harry?" He asked shocked, looking over Harry's shoulder to glimpse at Ralec's still retreating figure.
"Lord? Well I guess I was. Why, do you know him?"
"Know him?" Khîm said disbelievingly. "His family owns most of the mithril mines in Moira, of course I know him, everyone does. What were you and he talking about just now?"
Harry couldn't put his finger on it but Khîm seemed rather down for some reason. When Harry had left him Khîm had been smiling but now he bore this sullen expression on his face. It reminded him of the look that would cross Ron's face whenever he would see Malfoy in the corridor at Hogwarts.
"I meet him by accident. We were just talking a bit and he offered to help me get settled here in Erebor." Harry answered the young dwarf. "I don't see what all the fuss is about. We had a huge crowd of people staring at us and now you're acting weird. I get that Ralec is an important figure but he is still just a man, you shouldn't treat him any differently than anyone else."
Now Khîm was nervously twisting his fingers looking everywhere but at Harry and Harry was suddenly feeling tired and hungry. "Can't we just forget about the whole thing?" He asked Khîm. "I'm sorry it took me so long and that you had to wait for me all this time."
"Oh no, you must not think that I'm angry at you Harry." Khîm exclaimed.
"That is good to know," Harry quickly assured the young dwarf, "I also consider you to be one of my very first friends in this mountain."
"Friends?" Khîm asked, the two red dots on his cheeks were adorable, making him appear even younger and led Harry to laughter.
"Well of course," he said after his laughter had died down. "Now will you show me the way to Bofur and Bifur's house, I'm getting quite hungry?"
And so Harry followed a happy Khîm the rest of the way to the cousin's house.
::::::::::
The house, if you could call it that, was lovely. It was part of the mountain like all the other great halls, built in the very fundament they live in. None the less it was a home with old solid furniture, the smell of food wafting through every room and the presence of the people who live here. Harry wanted nothing more than to set his boots by the door and let his feet sink into the many different carpets littering over the floor.
For some reason he combined relaxation with the state of having no shoes on. When he had worked as healer he could only finally relax when he came home from work, took off his shoes and then he could proceed to make dinner, read a book, take a shower, and go to bed in peace. It would be difficult for him to get used to wearing shoes all the time now.
He stood in, what he would guess to be, the family's living room. It was a quarter of the home where the family could sit together in the afternoons. To the right side stood two brown mismatched couches facing each other with a low iron table between. There were also two different armchairs, one red, the other brown, which stood facing away from the fireplace, in the back wall, towards the couches and the centre of the room. The fireplace would warm the whole family in the cosy area and the fire would be lighted by the wooden blocks and coals in the metal basket in the corner. The room was bathed in the light from the small oil-lamps throughout the room and though Harry couldn't see a single picture on the black walls they were decorated by engraved patterns.
Bifur's head poked out from one of the two doorways in the left side of the living room. He must have heard the door open when Harry came in.
"Thank Mahal, its Harry." Bifur called back over his shoulder to the other occupants behind him. Then the dwarf's smiling face turned back to address him; "We were starting to wonder if you had been kidnapped. Where did you leave young Khîm?"
"We parted outside, he said he had to hurry home. Really Bifur, Kidnapped?"
"Well I wouldn't put it past some old possessive lord to grab you and stuff you into his deep pockets. Come in and meet the rest of the family."
He followed Bifur into the Kitchen and dining room where the biggest dwarf Harry had ever seen was placing pots of hot steaming food on the cream-colored stone table. "Harry I want you to meet my cousin Bombur," Bifur said and gestured toward the larger dwarf, "and my beautiful wife Karga" Bifur walked towards the other unknown smiling individual in the room whom had to be Bifur's wife. She had orange coloured curly hair and beard and shiny blue, sliver eyes. He would admit that he had mixed feelings about women with full grown beards but it was easy to see that she was a woman. She was big busted, had big hips, and her face bore an expression of kindness.
After introductions were done they sat down to dig into the feast of meat pies, spareribs, and meat stew Bombur had prepared for them. Normally Bombur would still be at work but today he had taken a day off to welcome his brother and cousin home.
Bombur was abnormally shy around him. When Bifur introduced him he glanced towards the ground like a man who hoped the ground would open and swallow him whole. When Bombur took the initiative to talk to Harry over dinner he would fight to find the right words, which resulted in stutter. Bofur took far too much delight in his brother's nervousness and Harry had to shoot him more than one glare. Neville had also been horribly shy during his first years at Hogwarts, but he was also uncommonly kind hearted and he could see that Bombur shared this trait with his old school comrade.
It seemed that Bofur and Bifur had already explained Harry's circumstances to Karga and Bombur. Bombur would be more than happy to have him help in the royal's kitchen when Harry had expressed his joy for cooking to the family. Harry was delighted by the opportunity and they agreed that he would help out while he waited for a chance to work at the Hall of Healing.
Karga was a calm woman who possessed deep patience and understanding. Mrs. Weasley would have grown grey hairs if she saw the bad table manners here but Karga didn't even blink. She handled the men's bad habits well but then again she worked as a teacher. All young dwarrows were expected to learn how to read, write and calculate but they would mostly be taught at home by their parents. Karga taught the children of the lords and ladies of the court and he could very well imagine that it would take patience to do so.
"Would you be up for a small shopping trip Harry? You really do need some extra clothes and I have some free time after school tomorrow." Karga asked him over the smooth dining table.
"Actually," he said gald that he could bring this up. "I'm to meet with Ralec son of Reivic in the morrow but I'm free to meet with you later in the day."
Bofur spurted "What? Lord Ralec. How did you come by him?"
"After I had received the application formulas from that, excuse my language, horrid teller lady, I wanted to file them out and get away from the staring crowd as quickly as possible." He knew that he was rambling by the stunned open-mounted expressions that greeted his explanation. But he continued his story anyway about what happened between Ralec and him. "Also, I still haven't filled the papers out completely, could you help me with that later?"
"He offered you to choose one of his residences to live in, at what price?" Karga asked excitedly.
"He wanted to know more about me and I told him there wasn't much to know. He didn't say anything about the price for renting one of his homes and I didn't think to ask. Would it even be acceptable for me to agree to such an offer?"
"It would be acceptable but you cannot live there for free."
"For that would be the same as accepting a gift, wouldn't it?" Harry interrupted Bofur.
Then they proceed to explain what he could and couldn't accept as the price for renting Ralec's home. It would be shameful to pay to little but he couldn't pay him to much either since he where currently unemployed and even as a helper in the kitchen or as a healer's apprentice he wouldn't have a large salary. If he chose to receive a gift, be it a quill, a tissue, jewellery or a palace, he would accept the suitor's advances and they would then enter a period of courtship. A courtship wasn't a biding deal but even then one shouldn't enter one lightly. Harry could of course enter a courtship with Ralec and get to know him though the courting period. There was no time limit and the couple could choose to court each other for years before they reached a decision for marriage or break up.
"Harry, can I ask you how Khîm reacted to the presence of lord Ralec?" Bofur asked curiously.
Harry's hand lowered the fork with food and he turned his attention to Bofur; "They didn't really meet, Khîm was waiting for me out in the hall and he only saw us when we stepped out to go our separate way. But when I talked to him afterwards he seemed very upset."
"I'm sure he did," Bofur examined, "I just want you to remember that Khîm is very young and he can be a bit rash, don't be mad at him. When he saw you together with lord Ralec; a man of wealth, charisma, looks, with all the pretty dwarrowdams after him, he thought that we would be history to you."
Harry smiled and replayed; "Khîm will learn that money doesn't appeal to me. He doesn't know me very well yet but I want us to be friends and some rich lord could never make me forget my friends."
After dinner was done and every plate was cleaned Karga and Bifur took the half sleeping Bombur out of his chair and bid Harry and Bofur goodnight.
He stood to make them a small cup of tea while Bofur went through the papers.
"What do you make of it?" He asked, taking a seat besides Bofur and placing a little cup next to his friend while sipping of his own tea.
"It's typical of the government to make everything so damn fancy and proper. When I applied for my job as a wood craver's apprentice some years ago there was only one piece of paper, and look, now there is three. Bofur replayed, shaking his hat covered head.
"But luckily this is easily solved." He said scribbling down his address which appeared to be a large sum of numbers, go figure. Then they discussed Harry's birthdate. It was currently year 2791 and if Harry was or wanted to be 120 years old he would be born in year 2671, which was fine by him.
With the paperwork done Harry knew that he could deliver them both tomorrow if he didn't reach an agreement with Ralec.
Turning the lights off, Bofur showed him through the second door from the living room down a corridor. They had one bathroom by the end of the hall and four bedrooms. The bedroom first to the left would be Harry's for the time being.
"Goodnight Bofur" Harry bid the smiling dwarf farewell and went through the wooden door into his temporary room.
The room was of the same dark marble like material. It was equipped with a metal framed bed, a chair with a small stone table, a rack for clothes, and a big cobber chest with two oil-lamps on top for light.
Harry dropped his tunic, pants, and shoes without any thoughts of weird customs to uphold. He turned off the lights and crawled under the duvet, letting the darkness surround him.
The first tears escaped him unwillingly but then he let them flow freely. He had lost all that he knew and loved most in the world. He was grateful for meeting this wonderful family of dwarrows, who took him in, gave him food, and sheltered him but for tonight he would mourn his loss. Tomorrow would bring a new day.