17. Chapter 17

**FIREFLY**

_**000**_

**AN:** I'm really sorry about the delay on this chapter! But have no fear, Firefly has not been discontinued in the slightest! I have even set myself a challenge...

I am to have this story finished before October 1st rolls around.

To do this, I'll need your help. Send me plotbunnies, send me well wishings, send me whatever you like. But most of all, please DO NOT demand an update. Nothing puts me off writing more than someone treating me like their writing bitch, as if they have the authority to order me to work for them. And I am a stubborn bitch. Give me an order like that and I guarantee I will not even touch this story until October 2013.

You have been warned.

_**000**_

It was like watching Vitkor Krum's Wronski Feint back at the Quidditch World Cup and _knowing_ that his Irish counterpart was going to plough into the dirt and crack his skull open. And all Harry could do was watch as Neytiri and Jake grew closer and Tsu'tey stewed in jealousy, anger and fear. It would have almost been amusing, even sweet, the way the Na'vi girl maintained an aloof demeanour even as her eyes tracked the marine's every clumsy movement, her body leaned in his direction when he spoke and the tense lines of her expression softened whenever he looked her way. It would have been, if Harry hadn't known he would one day betray them.

Even Tsu'tey knew it would happen some day, but his fear was a more personal one. That the Dream Walker would steal her away as his own. That Jake would win the heart of his ice Princess and be instilled as the next Olo'ekan because of it. An Olo'ekan who knew nothing of their ways and had no training as a leader of a clan.

Harry had even heard Ninat and Zuleika muttering over the growing affection between the two, Ninat giggling like Lavender Brown while Zuleika hummed thoughtfully and admitted that what Jake lacked in experience and knowledge, he made up for with muscle and looks. Harry could have sworn his eyebrows nearly leapt clean off his forehead and rose to the top of Hometree of their own accord. He had _never_ heard Zuleika speak of males or mating in that sense. He had been under the impression she was... well, batting for the same team. That impression became fact when he saw the Forge Mistress lean over and land a kiss on the young singer's mouth – he quickly turned and fled before he saw anymore. Zuleika was an intensely private woman who knew how to use all those pointy objects she happened to keep close to hand.

Neytiri seemed to be the only one who couldn't see what was growing between herself and the Marine.

And she wouldn't hear a single word about it from Tsu'tey in those quiet moments when Jake slept and she sought companionship elsewhere. Inevitably, they always ended up snarling and hissing at one another, tails lashing and ears folded back before Neytiri stormed off back to Jake in a petulant huff while Tsu'tey growled and paced and complained bitterly to Harry whom he felt was the only one on his side. And all the while, Harry sat, and he listened, and he channelled his magic.

The Magi shook his head, "Tsu'tey, you cannot change whom you fall in love with. The heart isn't that easy," he pointed out softly after a particularly blistering rant regarding how much time Neytiri had been spending with the Demon Walker outside of the village – how she had been covering their tracks so he could not follow and keep an eye on her. "Love is deaf, dumb, and blind. It has no sense of right, or wrong. It is as much a force of nature as Eywa herself, but one born within people, within their hearts and the memories they have of those they love."

The Warrior shot him a look that was a mix of frustration, anger and admiration, "When did you become so wise?" he demanded churlishly as he ceased pacing and crouched in front of the dark haired male, keen eyes spotting the way the greenery around him was glowing. He smiled, spotting the small wild flower shoots beginning to split and reach up from the earth. It happened almost every time Harry practised or reached out for his magic, the plant-life around him would grow and blossom. There were patches of moss in Hometree with flowers growing on them because Harry had been meditating there.

Harry chuckled, "Since I started having to be the mature one," he retorted, cracking open his eyes and smiling at the taller male. "Give it time, Tsu'tey. There is no point fighting or railing against a woman's heart. She will have to see with her own eyes before she believes." He shook his head, smile dropping, "I only hope she doesn't discover it too late."

Tsu'tey's frown became more pronounced, "You are certain he will betray us, aren't you?" he murmured softly.

"Yes. Whether by choice or not, I don't know. But he will," Harry stated quietly.

Eywa and Gaia could trust him and love him as much as they wished, but Harry did not trust him at all and he knew what muggle Military did and how muggle Business worked. Vernon was always very vocal about his business meetings with Petunia, complaining about this and that. It was a cutthroat world out there and given how much money this planet was worth, Harry could safely say that nothing short of an all out war between the Sky People and everything Eywa could bring to bear would remove them. Killing them would only prompt Earth to send more people to find out what happened. If they won and then forced who survived to return...

The two were silent a while before Tsu'tey stood and extended a hand, "Come. It is time for Omati's send off."

Sighing and releasing the magic he was channelling, Harry stretched and got to his feet, ignoring the way the flower buds around him suddenly burst into colour and bloom. "Yes," he murmured reaching out and accepting it. Omati had been one of the elders who oversaw the Loom and the one who taught him how to fashion needles for sewing out of bone slivers. She had passed away the previous evening, peacefully in her hammock and today they were burying her, returning her to Eywa's side.

The two stood side by side at the gathering, watching as members of the clan stepped forward, giving offerings of flowers, fruits, trinkets to the deceased woman so that she would be comfortable and know of their love for her. Tsu'tey was a warm presence at Harry's side, all Na'vi having a slightly higher body temperature than humans due to their environment.

The songs and offerings lasted all afternoon until finally everyone returned to Hometree and told stories of the elderly woman whilst eating their meals. It was not sombre, if anything, it was mirthful and joyful. They were celebrating her in life and while they would miss her they decided that with Eywa she would be happiest.

Jake's confusion was obvious, even from the otherside of the chamber.

Harry shook his head and burrowed against Mo'at's side, the Tsahik doing nothing more than wrapping an arm around him and holding him closer as she sang, her voice mixing with that of Ninat and her husband as they told the story of Omati.

_**000**_

Grace was back.

Harry watched from his perch as the children went sprinting towards her, like eager puppies, to greet their teacher. He smiled a touch and chuckled as the children immediately began to pick at her hair and braids. They loved nothing more than to play with people's hair. He wondered if it was just something that all Na'vi did but learned to tone down as they got older. Neytiri still had her odd moments when she would fiddle with his hair if he sat still long enough.

He near enough jumped clean out of his skin as a heavy weight landed just behind – almost on top – of him, "There you are." It was Tsu'tey, and the bastard was grinning which meant he'd _meant_ to terrify him on purpose.

Harry glared at him, "What is it?"

"I need you to show the younglings how to fight bigger warriors," he explained. And had the sudden feeling that perhaps he'd said the wrong thing when a _very_ predatory grin split his companion's face.

"Well, we had best not keep the younglings waiting," Harry purred, already forming ideas of how to put Tsu'tey on his ass in the most embarrassing ways possible for being a jackass.

_**000**_

Today was the day Jake and two of the Younglings who had advanced far enough were going up to the Ikran rookeries. They were going to become fully fledged members of the Clan.

And Harry still couldn't find it within himself to swallow his distrust of Jake enough to be concerned about whether or not he would survive the fight against the Wyverns. He knew it made him an awful person and he felt like scum for even thinking it, but at the same time, he couldn't help it. For so many years he had been afraid of his kind, been distrustful, been hunted and assaulted and attacked. And then he came to Pandora where there were only the Na'vi and Eywa. Both of which accepted, closeted and protected him, even from himself.

And then he comes.

And Harry _knows_ he will cause them heart-ache. He can feel it with every breath the man took and every flick of his false eyes.

It made him a horrible person, he knew, but he didn't stop wishing.

Wishing that Jake would die before he could truly hurt them.

_**000**_

His wish did not come to pass and now things between Jake and Neytiri had taken off even further, she didn't even pretend to be resentful of her task now. She spent more time with the Marine than she did with them, often times not even greeting them as she concentrated all of her energy and attention on him.

It was heartbreaking to watch because as Neytiri became more and more focused on Jake... Tsu'tey couldn't hide the betrayal in his eyes, nor the hurt on his face, whenever she passed him over in favour of the Outsider.

He no longer even ranted about it, not even to Harry. Instead he just kept quiet and sat with the Wizard as he stretched

his consciousness to Eywa and opened himself to her magic. They didn't speak during those quiet moments when the Warrior wrapped himself around the Wizard, clinging to his only steady rock in this whole sorry mess. Almost everyone in the clan was blindly accepting the Dream Walker, as if he were a pet dog that their leader's daughter had taken in from the wilds. They were even welcoming him into the Clan as an Omaticaya, rebirthing him as their brother, as a child of Eywa.

"What do we do?" the Warrior finally asked quietly the evening before Jake's rebirth, his forehead resting at the base of Harry's neck.

"All that we can do," Harry told him softly, touching his hand. "That is all that anyone can do."

_**000**_

The night of Jake's acceptance, there was dancing and singing the likes of which Harry hadn't seen before. They were celebrating the curing of the Marine's insanity. He had been accepted as one of the Omaticaya, he had been saved from the Sky People. All they had to do now was rescue Grace and soon the other Dream Walkers. Premature. Foolish.

Harry swallowed back his unkind words and allowed Ninat to pull him to his feet, her young face joyful and bright as she whirled him across the hard-packed earth that had become an impromptu dance floor. He had to laugh. While normally he couldn't claim to be graceful by any stretch of the imagination, watching a Na'vi, even one as fluid and graceful as Ninat, trying to to dance was hilarious and made him feel very graceful indeed. They were so gangly with long limbs and almost no ability to move their hips. Their dancing seemed to mostly revolve around stamping their feet, jumping, flicking their fingers and waving their arms. It would have looked perfectly savage to any muggle looking on but to Harry... it was perfect as he found himself being passed to Zuleika who, smirking in that mischievous way of hers, manoeuvred him to stand on her feet like a child and taught him the dances as he clung to her waist and squawked in hilarity and alarm.

Attempting to teacher her one of his dances had a lot of the Na'vi falling around in laughter as it got to the point where he had to forcibly hold her hips and move them – and got swatted over the head by her tail with every movement.

Alcohol was drank – at least Harry thought it was alcohol, he was finding it a little difficult to focus his eyes on objects far away and the world seemed to lurch a tad with every step he took. Food was eaten – the good stuff! His Banana bread was going down a treat too. And Harry was pounced upon by the children, his hair braided and filled with feathers and beads and the iridescent wings of Ikranay – the smaller Wyverns who lived in the treetops.

Zuleika and Eytukan teased him mercilessly over how pretty he looked while they partook in, perhaps a little too much, of the fermented drink that was being passed around. It was news to him that the Black Smith and the Clan Leader had been drinking buddies since way back in the day when they were both Warriors in Training.

Zeus had also demanded to be let in on the festivities, lounging like a dog in the far corner with children crawling all over him and Peyral giggling as she teased him with strips of smoked meat. Harry chuckled. As long as no one got it into their heads to see how a drunk Ikran looked he didn't mind much. Zeus was pretty much considered more of a pet than a Warrior mount amidst the Omaticaya – the fact that he was the most friendly of all the Ikran any of them had encountered was also another point. Most children were never even allowed near an Ikran unless it belonged to a parent and even then they were held at a distance. The Na'vi understood, perhaps better than any, that no matter what bond they held, an Ikran was still a wild animal.

At least Tsu'tey was no longer sulking as the Warriors managed to cajole him into wrestling contests and eating contests. It was funny to watch them cram their faces full of berries until their cheeks bulged like a hamster and then try to swallow the huge mass – purple juice spurting from between their lips and running down their chins to raucous cheering from onlookers.

As long as it stopped him from noticing that Neytiri and Jake had yet to return from their trip to the Tree of Voices, Harry would encourage the distracting whole-heartedly and even join in. Which happened without his agreement as one of the Warriors, Gra'an bodily picked him up and flung him into the middle of the wrestling contest, shouting how he was tired of Tsu'tey always winning.

The last thing Harry remembered clearly of the night, aside from copious drinking, laughter, being forced into dancing, was Tsu'tey laughing at the ridiculous mess the children had made of his hair before Harry pounced on him, the Warrior laughing too hard to defend himself.

_**000**_

No one really felt like rising with the sun the next morning. Hometree looked a right state with bodies strewn across the ground and huddled in hammocks and branches and roots, anywhere where the surface was soft or large enough to accommodate them. And even then, the more inebriated from the night before hadn't been that picky.

Harry would have been more than happy to remain unconscious and asleep but there was a sunbeam _right_ there, _right_ on his face and in his eyes. Damnit. He groaned and whined in complaint as he rolled over and huddled into whatever warn body was closest, idly noting that he was currently sandwiched in a huge knot of bodies and that he was probably crushing someone's tail – oops.

The sight of Zuleika tangled up in vines, treating them like some kind of hammock was the first thing he saw when he mustered the energy to crack his eyes open. He arched an eyebrow. And there was Ninat, using the older woman as a pillow. He grinned a little and levered himself up, unable to sleep with that nagging feeling that he was supposed to be doing something that day.

Well, at least he hadn't fallen asleep somewhere ridiculous. He was currently in a huge cluster of the Warriors, packed between N'deh and Tsu'tey – both of whom were very comfortable and now scrunching their faces up at the loss of warmth that his sitting up caused. Whoa, he could _smell_ the booze from here! How much had they been drinking last night?

That feeling was getting worse.

He slithered out of the tangle of limbs and in practised, still half asleep, movements he navigated his way through the sleeping bodies of the Omaticaya. It seemed as though very few people had made it to their hammocks the night before as he could see the majority of the Clan fast asleep around him, cuddling their loved ones like oversized teddy-beards.

"Hari?" he heard Tsu'tey grumble from behind him as he made his way to the plains outside, still unable to shake that feeling. Distantly he was aware of the Warrior moving, getting up, but his eyes were fixed on the horizon as he climbed over Zeus's sleeping form – the children still sprawled out across him.

Eywa _**screamed**_.

Harry's whole body seized with pain and shock as the Mother's pain and anger and horror washed over him like a Tsunami.

He wasn't even aware of his mouth opening or his voice tearing through the peaceful atmosphere of the tree-roots.

Every voice of the Na'vi, every voice that spoke through the Tree of Voices screamed in pain and dismay and ripped him to shreds as his eyes blanked, bleeding blue-white and his body crumpled, thrashing.

Voices outside his awareness shouted, exclaimed, squealed and gasped.

For Tsu'tey it was like a whirl-wind. One moment he was grumbling about the loss of his goddamn pillow and how there was a draft on his ear, the next he was stalking over to the Wizard, frowning over how distracted he was. Then the scream. It still rang in his ears even as he grabbed the tiny figure, holding on tightly even as he snarled at someone to fetch the Tsahik and N'deh, hold his legs before he does himself more harm! It was hard enough keeping a hold of the trashing body without him using his legs to get some leverage – or ruin his ankles and feet beyond repair.

Hari's eyes were white-blue, glowing in his face as his screaming tapered into pained whimpers and gasps, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"What is it? What happened?" the Na'vi demanded, his heart in his throat. The last time Harry had reacted so badly it was when the Sky People had murdered the children. This was worse! So much worse! What had happened?

A tiny hand gripped his fingers weakly, shaking with the amount of force the Wizard was exerting and yet, it was so weak... Tsu'tey felt sick with fear.

"Th-the Tree of Voices," he whimpered, his voice hitching with sobs and yet so quiet and croaky he almost couldn't make out what was said. "G-gone. Th-they tore it up. It-it's gone!" the Wizard's voice broke as he trembled and sobbed.

Tsu'tey felt cold.

They had... The Sky People had _ripped _up_ Utral Aymonkriya?

He didn't even notice when Mo'at appeared and gently gathered up the Wizard, but the grip on his hand suddenly tightened and his attention returned to Hari, his eyes now green.

"Neytiri is still out there," he whispered and fear managed to push itself to the forefront of Tsu'tey's mind.

He nodded and Hari released him.

The Olo'ekan in training jumped to his feet and whipped around, "Warriors! Mount your Pa'li!" he roared, pumping a fist.

And no matter how hung-over they may have been, the answering cry from his men and women caused Ikranay from the near-by trees to raise in fearful flight.

_**000**_

**Chapter 17 finished. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Apologies for any errors, I was trying to get it out ASAP.**