On a completely irrelevant note, I HAVE A NEW BABY BROTHER! :D
More relevant: I am reaaally sorry about how long this took :(. I got busy with stuff, and then since I was busy and didn't get much done on it for a while I got a bit of writers block trying to get it done. It also doesn't help that this chapter is more than double the length that I expected it to be...
If there is anyone that is still reading this story, please enjoy.
Oh, and if the wording of things seems childish, keep in mind that I'm writing from the perspective of a six year old. I couldn't have him thinking words that he doesn't know.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the books that they came from. They are the creations of JK Rowling and Tamora Pierce. All that is mine is this particular scenario that I am putting them in.
…
Most of the remaining hope (or fear) that Harry had of things going back to normal was pretty much crushed by his first real day in Emelan.
He'd woken up that morning in the infirmary feeling still sort of dizzy, but better enough to walk around. Moonstream came to visit him, and he sat on his bed and tried to pretend that he hadn't been listening to her and Dedicate Lark talk the day before when she told him that they'd found some people he could stay with. He got changed back into Dudley's old clothes quickly when they told him to, and ate the food they gave him for breakfast quietly.
As soon as two of the people in robes – who he had been told were called Healers and had been really, really nice to him – led Harry outside he started squirming uncomfortably. He was too hot. He struggled with the oversized sweater, flinching a bit when the movement hurt his bandaged arm. Once he had it off, he froze.
This was definitely nowhere near Privet Drive.
No part of Privet Drive would have had dirt paths, especially not ones that criss-crossed through each other like that (it took Harry a while to realize that the bigger roads he could see were actually one long one, looping around and around). Most of the buildings didn't really look much like each other, with some being big or small or cozy or imposing, and right in the middle of everything was a giant tower with a clock on it. There were trees and flowers that Harry was sure had never been in Aunt Petunia's garden. Everything seemed brighter, more alive.
And surrounding everything that Harry could see was a huge wall.
There were people walking around. Mostly it was adults with the same kind of clothes that the Healers had, but in different colours, going between some of the big, spread-out buildings. There were a few teenagers dressed in white too. One group was standing near the path, watching him and talking quietly. Moonstream was with them.
She came closer and smiled at him before turning to the two Healers and asking, "Are you sure he's well enough to travel?"
One of them, a woman with blonde hair, nodded. "Apart from his arm, we couldn't even find anything really wrong with him. It was probably just exhaustion and stress. As long as you don't do too much with him, he'll be fine."
Harry was feeling much less tired and sick than he had felt before, but he still wasn't sure that he agreed with her.
"Moonstream!" a gruff voice snapped loudly. Harry jumped and looked around. There was a man marching over to them with red clothes and red hair that was turning grey, and he looked angry. Moonstream walked quickly to meet him, and led him a little farther away from Harry. The Healers and the other people around the path turned to watch them.
They looked like they were arguing, but they were being really quiet, and the man kept looking back over at him. Harry tried to shift a little closer to hear, being careful not to stare at them.
Luckily for him, the argument was getting a bit louder. Harry was finally able to catch the man say "–serious breach of security. Did anyone even ask how he got inside the Hub? There isn't even any record of him being inside the temple a few days ago."
"Of course we asked," Moonstream told him, looking a bit annoyed. "He said he couldn't remember, and Lark told me that he seemed more confused than we were. Honestly, Skyfire, does he look like a threat to you?"
"I'm just saying that you shouldn't be leaving him unsupervised like this."
"He won't be unsupervised. You saw how those four acted during the pirate attack, and they were just children then. They're more than capable of…"
They got quieter again, and Harry couldn't hear the rest.
Skyfire? he thought feeling bewildered. 'Those four'? Capable of what?
Pirate?
"Hey, kid!" a voice hissed. Harry looked around to see a boy with brown hair peering around the edge of one of the buildings. He was older – maybe ten or even eleven. He stuck his head out farther and grinned when Harry uncertainly moved closer.
The boy gestured towards the adults, letting Harry see a sleeve that that was different from what everyone else was wearing. "What did you do?"
"What?" Harry asked, bewildered.
The boy rolled his eyes. "Don't play dumb. If you got all of them out here" – he waved at the grown-ups again – "you've gotta be in trouble for something."
Suddenly, Harry felt twice as nervous. Was he in trouble? Was that why everyone was paying so much attention to him? They hadn't seemed angry with him so far, except for the man in red, and he didn't think that he'd done anything really bad...
Not since he'd woken up here, anyway. Just before he'd gotten to…wherever this was, he'd snuck out of the Dursley's house when they had told him to stay there. He'd gone out and gotten candy that he never would have been allowed to have, and when the people that had been chasing him had said that they were going to hurt that girl from his school if he didn't come out…
The girl was something else that Harry had been trying hard not to think about, but he felt bad for it. He shouldn't stop thinking about her, because if something bad had happened to her, it was his fault.
The boy was still waiting for an answer, and he looked impatient.
"I didn't do anything," Harry told him, wishing that it were true. The words didn't sound nearly as tough as he had wanted them to.
The boy's forehead wrinkled. "Why are you talking like that?"
"Talking like what?" Harry said, a bit defensively.
"I dunno, just...the words sound funny." He tilted his head a bit. "Where are you from?"
Harry wanted to tell the boy that he was the one that talked funny. He wanted to tell him that he wasn't in trouble and to mind his own business, but he couldn't. The boy was talking like everyone else here, and Harry didn't really know much more than he did, and he was the one that didn't fit here...
Suddenly, the boy glanced over Harry's head and then ducked out of sight. Harry turned to see Moonstream headed back towards them.
Apparently, the boy hadn't ducked quickly enough. When Moonstream got to him, she said, "I see you've met one of our wards." She sighed. "I'm fairly sure that he's supposed to be in classes now, I'll have a word with the head of his dorm later."
The red man that she had been talking to was still standing near where she'd left him. He was watching them, and still didn't look happy, but he wasn't coming up to them again.
"Now then," Moonstream began, and Harry turned back to her. "Are you ready to go?"
No, he wanted to say. Instead, he nodded.
She led him out towards the wall, with the other people around watching them go.
"Er…" Harry started quietly, after they'd walked for a minute. He wasn't sure if asking was a good idea, but when Moonstream turned to look at him he knew he had to keep going. "Is…is Dedicate Lark going to come?"
Moonstream shook her head, but she didn't look annoyed with him for asking. She smiled a little. "Lark was going to come, but there was…a bit of an incident involving one of the young people she takes care of, and she had to sort things out."
Harry couldn't help feeling disappointed. He knew that Lark didn't really have any reason to do anything for him, but she was nice, and he would have felt a lot better having her there.
Looking at the wall and lost in thought, Harry didn't even notice the horse until he walked right into it.
Harry stumbled backwards and fell over. He heard people laughing quietly, and a snort, and then a big brown shape reached down in front of him.
Stunned, Harry looked up to see that there wasn't just a horse standing there, there were three horses. The one that he'd walked into was staring at him curiously, sniffing at his chest.
Harry didn't move. All he could do was stay where he was, his eyes huge, his glasses knocked out of place, and his sweater clutched near his side. He had never seen an animal bigger than Aunt Marge's dog Ripper up close before, and after meeting Ripper, Harry hadn't wanted to see anything bigger.
Harry only really noticed the two men (wearing red too) when one grabbed onto the rope that hung from something in the horse's mouth to pull it away, and the other reached down to him. Harry stared at the man's hands blankly, not quite sure what he wanted until he grabbed Harry's hand and helped lift him to his feet.
"Since no one is ever satisfied with letting me leave here unprotected," Moonstream explained, "these two will be coming along as guards."
Moonstream and one of the men climbed onto two of the horses. The other lifted Harry (who was still in too much shock to really do anything about it) up onto the third with him.
"Ever been on a horse before?" the man asked as he tried to get Harry seated in front of him.
Harry managed to shake his head.
"Don't worry about it," the guard told him. "I've got you."
I've got you. No one had ever said that to Harry in this way before, but it felt nice.
That feeling lasted until they went through the big gate.
Harry wasn't even aware of his breathing rate picking up, or that his heart was pounding in his chest, or that he was shaking
Harry had grown up in a suburb, with rows upon rows of nearly identical houses all neatly lined up. To him, the long road and open field between the temple and Summersea was like nothing, just a big, empty space. A distant crash had made him look to his left, and all that he could see there was water. Nothing like the little garden ponds if Privet Drive, or even like the river that he'd seen once on a school trip, this seemed endless, stretching out until it simply disappeared over the horizon.
In that moment, Harry wanted more than anything to be back in his cupboard at the Dursley house. Because it wasn't until then that he started to understand just how far away it was.
No matter how terrible the Dursleys were, adventures are always more fun when there's a way back to what you know.
"Harry!" a voice shouted, and he looked around to see that all three of the adults were staring at him. Moonstream turned her horse around and moved in closer.
"What is it?" she asked, reaching out to touch his forehead. "Maybe you aren't well enough to leave yet, after all."
That got Harry's attention, and he forced himself to take a deep breath. He was causing enough trouble for them as it was.
"I'm okay," he whispered. Moonstream didn't look so sure, but then she thought for a moment and let it go.
Now that he was calmer, he could make out the dim shapes of houses far off in the distance, and maybe another wall. So this place wasn't really empty.
Then the two men and Moonstream got the horses moving, and they soon were heading down the road into Summersea.
Harry didn't like the way that the horse rocked at first, but after a while he stopped noticing it. The first buildings that they reached were tiny houses next to the water. They kept moving past those, but Harry could see people off in the distance in boats by the waves, dragging nets over the sides. Something about it made Harry feel like he wouldn't mind so much if he was being taken there, but the next place that they went through didn't look so good. Whatever houses there were there looked like they were about to fall apart, and the people that watched them go by didn't look much better. They were dirty, thin, and their clothes (women in dresses, men in trousers and shirts), were patched and worn. They kept going through there (much to Harry's relief), and soon they were passing through another gate.
As soon as they got through, things looked better. People in the streets seemed to know who Dedicate Moonstream was, and many looked surprised to see her. Some stopped them to talk to her, asking about people and things that Harry had never heard off. All of them looked at Harry curiously. Three people asked about who he was or why he was with them, but all that Moonstream would tell them was that it was "Temple Business."
As nervous as he was, Harry was craning his head around as they went, trying to take in everything around him. He almost forgot where they were going until they stopped.
"This is it," Moonstream called back to him.
Harry instinctively shrank back against the guard he was riding with. The man reached up and ruffled Harry's hair reassuringly.
Harry stared at the house. It was big, probably double the size of the Dursley's house. The others on the street were big too. After that, the only thing that Harry could pay attention to was the garden.
Even though the other flowers that he's seen so far were wilting, these ones were still in full bloom. Instead of being in neat little rows, they filled all of the space in the dirt. Ivy was climbing up the side of the house, and a tree with bright red apples sat about halfway down the grass.
What would he do if the people here didn't want him? he thought suddenly. He didn't know how to get back to Private Drive, and even if he did know, the Dursleys might not let him come back. Did they have orphanages here?
Moonstream got off of her own horse as Harry was lifted down and set on the ground. Harry stumbled a little; being on the horse had made him feel stiff and sore. She turned to look at him and the men moved back to give them some privacy. Harry tried to keep from fidgeting, but couldn't help twisting his sweater (which he'd managed to hold on to for the entire horse ride) in his hands.
"You will do fine here," she began, her voice quiet, "but I cannot in good conscience leave you here without giving you fair warning. These people are…" she hesitated, "very unusual. They are very well known in this city, and many people are frightened by them. But I can tell you now that you need not be. I have known them since they were children, and I know that they would not do anything to harm you. If I doubted that, I would not have brought you to them."
She paused for a moment, like she was thinking of what to say next, and Harry loosened his grip on his sweater.
"They can, and will, do things that you have never seen before. I do not know anything about the people that you were running from, but you will be protected here. They are more powerful than anyone else that I know, possibly more powerful than they themselves realize."
"You should also be prepared that they might not all agree to take you in right away," she went on, but before Harry really got a chance to start panicking again she kept talking. "They will let you stay here, so you don't have anything to worry about, but this will be unexpected for them. Just know that you may have to be patient, but you can trust them."
For another moment, she just looked at him, before quietly adding, "And I am not entirely sure what kind of people family are, but from what you've said of them so far, I do know that you will be much better off."
She put her hand on his shoulder, and then turned and headed towards the door of the house. Harry stayed where he was. He wasn't sure what she meant by "better off", but the way that he was shaking now felt very different from before, and there was a lump in his throat.
Harry looked back at his guard uncertainly. The man stayed where he was, but smiled and waved him in Moonstream's direction. Harry followed after her.
They both stopped on the doorstep.
From there, they could hear someone – no, two people – inside the house yelling. Harry looked worriedly at Moonstream, but she just knocked on the door anyway. Not really expecting that the people they'd be noticed for a while, Harry tried to figure out what they were saying.
"-second time this week she's broken something in there!" a man was saying.
"She doesn't know any better!" That one was a woman.
"Well, if you can't teach her, maybe you should keep her in your room."
"Maybe you should just start shutting the window in your workroom!"
"I told you, the shakkans want air from outside-"
The door was jerked open, and Harry nerves were so bad at that point that it was almost enough to make him fall over in surprise. The woman that opened it definitely didn't look like anyone he had ever seen on Privet Drive. Her skin was like Dedicate Moonstream's and her black hair was all in tiny braids with metal beads on the ends. Unlike the other women that he had seen on the streets, she was wearing trousers and a shirt instead of a dress. Her clothes were dirty, with odd black smudges on them. She was an adult, and seemed really big, but she still looked young, much younger than he had been expecting. She looked tired too, and really happy to see Moonstream.
"I've been trying to figure out how to make them stop," she said, waving her hand a little back inside the house. The people inside were still yelling. "Come on in."
As she moved her other hand off of the door, Harry briefly saw something gold-coloured in the light. He didn't get a chance to see what it was before Dedicate Moonstream followed her into the house. After taking a deep breath, Harry hurried after them.
"Cut it out you two," the one that had let them in called. "We have guests."
The two people arguing were a man with light-brown skin and black hair, and a woman with red hair that had even more braids in it and glasses. They both looked young too. As soon as the woman saw Moonstream she stopped yelling right away, and her face went almost as red as her hair.
Harry watched her apprehensively – it never ended well when Uncle Vernon's face changed colours – but all she did was mumble something before quickly disappearing into the house.
"Is Sandry here?" asked Dedicate Moonstream, who didn't seem to find anything strange about the whole situation.
"Upstairs. She's getting changed out of her Court clothes," said the man as he watched the red-haired woman leave. He looked like he was trying not to laugh. "She'll be down in a minute."
"Come sit down," the one that had let them in the house said. She and the man waited for a few seconds, looking at Harry curiously, but then walked down the hallway that the other woman had gone through. The Moonstream went after them and Harry ended up following a few steps behind again.
They kept walking though the hallways a while before pausing near a staircase. For a moment harry thought that they were going to go upstairs, but instead they turned through a doorway that was straight across from the steps.
The room that they were in now had two sofas in the middle, with one on either side of a low table. There were armchairs in the corners, and an unlit fireplace against one wall. Along the windowsills and mantle were even more plants in pots, and instead of photographs, hanging around the room in frames were pictures stitched into cloth. Harry's noticed that the picture of a cottage with a garden out front that was hanging above the fireplace had the clock tower from the temple in it.
"Have a seat wherever you'd like," the woman told them, and Moonstream sat down on the sofa that faced away from the door. She motioned for him to sit next to her, and he hurried over. The man flopped down on the other couch, and the woman stayed standing, leaning back against the wall.
After a minute, the one with red braids came back, carrying a tray with cookies, cups and a pitcher. Her face looked more or less normal-coloured again, and as she set the tray on the table Harry could see that she had freckles.
When she saw that Moonstream was looking at the pitcher, she said, "It's just cider."
"I should hope so," Moonstream told her sternly. "And I trust that you four haven't been drinking since the barn incident."
This time, all three of them blushed a bit.
"No one is ever going to let that go, are they?" the man muttered. "Come on, we were thirteen!"
The staircase behind Harry creaked. Moonstream looked over the back of their couch and smiled. "Hello, Sandrilene."
Harry turned around in his seat. There was a woman standing on the bottom step. She was wearing a blue and white dress, and her dark blond hair was tied back in a single braid. She was very pretty, and she smiled back at the woman as she came off of the step and moved closer.
"It's good to see you, Moonstream," she answered as she sat next to the man. She glanced over at Harry (her eyes were blue too, a much nicer blue than Dudley's) and did a slight double take. Her smile dropped and her lips tightened as she looked him over.
Harry's nerves shot right back up as he suddenly became very conscious about how he must look. The Dursley's always complained about how messy his hair and clothes were. It was even worse now. The temple people hadn't tried to battle his hair like Aunt Petunia always did, and he could feel it sticking up even more than usual. His clothes, as big on him as ever, had been washed, but the sleeve of his shirt was still torn and stained from when he had been cut the other night. He wished that Dedicate Moonstream had let him wear the clothes that he had had on at the temple. If they already thought that he didn't look good enough…
He shifted uncomfortably, turning slightly in an attempt to hide his ruined sleeve from her. The woman noticed, and quickly looked back at his face and smiled at him. Not really sure how to respond, Harry just looked down at the floor. She looked away from him when the red-haired woman came back into the room carrying a tray. As soon as she stopped paying attention to him, he reached up and tried to squash his hair down.
The others had started talking with Moonstream. He couldn't understand most of it, but it sounded like they were talking about people. Some he knew, like Lark, and that Skyfire man, but they were saying names like Rosethorn, and Frostpine, and Niko and Crane, and didn't anyone have normal names here (he liked most of them, but still)?
Just sitting there and listening to all of that was making Harry feel more uncomfortable, but he tried his best to stay still and quiet.
But really, it was probably for the best that he was so anxious that he wasn't feeling well. If he wasn't, then he would have really wanted some of the cookies sitting on the tray, and he didn't know if he was allowed to have any.
Finally, Moonstream asked about someone called Chime.
"Chime's doing very well," the red haired woman answered. "We still don't know if it's even possible for her to get sick or break. She's upstairs sleeping right now," – here the man glared at her for some reason – "but I can bring her down if you want to see her."
"No," the older woman said, looking briefly at Harry. "I think it best would be if Chime does not join us quite yet."
Moonstream's quick glance had drawn their attention back to him, and he ducked his head a bit when they all looked over too.
"What are you doing here?" the red-haired woman asked Moonstream. "You've never come to see us here before."
"Tris!" the woman that had been looking at Harry's clothes (Sand…something?) scolded instantly.
"Actually, I'm wondering that too," the man said. He gestured at Harry. "And what's the kid doing here?"
"In all honesty," said Moonstream, sitting up straighter, "'the kid' is the reason that I came.
They all looked at each other for a few seconds, and then the man asked, "What do you mean?"
This was it, Harry thought.
"Harry came into our care...unexpectedly," Moonstream told them. "We found him at the temple, at we still aren't quite sure where he came from, or how to contact his family."
Then she told them a bit of what he'd told Lark. That he'd been alone in his house, left to go outside, and had met someone that seemed to know who he was. That he'd ran and hid while they'd tried to make him come out.
She didn't say anything about Halloween, or about them seeming to know his dead parents instead of him, or much about the Dursley's really.
She didn't say anything about the girl, either, but Harry hadn't even been able to tell Lark about the girl.
When she was done talking, the four of them stayed quiet, glancing between Harry and each other.
"Harry," Moonstream said, turning to him, "I would like you to meet Lady Sandrilene Fa Toren" – the blue eyed woman sitting on the couch smiled at him again – "Trisana Chandler" – the other woman on the couch suddenly looked annoyed at something, but nodded slightly – "Daja Kisubo" – the dark-skinned one lifted her hand – "and Briar Moss".
The man, who must have been Briar, barely looked at Harry. He was still watching Moonstream.
"Thanks for sharing," he said, "and we'll be on the lookout for...whoever these people are, but why exactly are you telling us this?"
Moonstream, who had picked up her cup to take a sip, placed it back down on the table before speaking.
"For the time being, we feel that it is best to find Harry somewhere to stay. Since we are not sure if he is still in danger, we cannot foster him off to a normal family, and for various reasons we feel that Winding Circle is not the right place for him."
They were all quiet again, but this time it was a different kind of quiet. This time, they got it.
"Wait," Briar said, sitting up straight. "You expect us to just take him in? Just like that?"
"Yes, I do," Moonstream told him. "Just as the Gods and Winding Circle Temple did for you four."
Briar shifted and looked a bit guilty, but he kept going. "You said yourself that you have no idea where he came from. How do you even know that his own family is so out of reach?"
Moonstream just looked at him, and then over at Harry.
"Trust me," she said, "we know."
Harry's heart was sinking, and he stared down at his sweater in his lap. It didn't sound like the man wanted him here.
"And why are–"
"Briar."
It was the one with red hair. He thought Moonstream had called her 'Trisana'
"What?" Briar asked. He was looking at her, and she was looking at Harry.
"Be quiet for a minute"
Briar choked. Trisana shifted on the couch until she was straight across from Harry.
"What's your name?"
"Harry," he whispered.
"How did you end up at the temple?" she asked.
Harry thought back, struggling not to cry when he remembered the gap. Being in the dark schoolyard one moment and in the room with the silent stone faces the next.
"I don't remember," he whispered.
Briar spoke up again. "What kind of accent is that?"
Daja frowned. "I haven't heard that one before either."
Harry's stomach clenched. Should he not have talked?
"Oh, shush," said Sandrilene. She looked at Harry and smiled again. "Whatever it is, I think it's cute."
Most six-year-old boys wouldn't have liked being called cute, but it made Harry feel a bit better. Cute was good, right?
Trisana didn't pay much attention to the others. She was still looking at him thoughtfully.
"Do you remember anything about the people that were chasing you?" she asked.
Harry thought for a moment, and then said, "They were wearing masks". Masks weren't that strange on Halloween, but it was all he could think of right then.
She glanced back at the others and didn't talk for a few seconds. They all looked like they were thinking, but none of them said anything.
"How far away are you from," she went on. "Do you think that your parents might look for you around Summersea?"
"My parents are dead," Harry said right away, surprised at the thought of them looking for him. Then he found himself wondering why they all seemed surprised too. Even Briar had a strange look on his face.
"Do you...mean that the people with masks killed them?" Trisana asked. Her voice sounded strange too.
Oh, Harry thought. They were just confused about what he'd meant. He should have said it better. "They died a long time ago," he explained. That did make them seem to relax a bit, but they looked even more confused.
"Who do you live with now, then?" asked Daja.
"My aunt and uncle," he said. Then he remembered what he'd actually been asked in the first place and added, "but I don't think that they're looking for me."
It wasn't until he saw Trisana go very still and the other three start to look worried again that it occurred to him that he shouldn't have told them that.
Now, he realized, he was going to be asked why his aunt and uncle wouldn't be looking for him, and then he'd have to tell them all the reasons that the Dursleys didn't want him in their house, and of course they wouldn't want him here then...
"If you could," Trisana said quietly, and Harry braced himself, "would you want to go back to your Aunt and Uncle?"
The question was so different from what Harry had been expecting that his brain seemed to stop working for a little while. Then it took another while to make sense of what she'd said.
Once he'd figured it out, Harry almost said yes right away. He didn't really like the Dursleys, but they were what he knew, and what he had. Even if they were never nice to him, he had never felt scared the way he'd been scared when he saw what was outside the temple with them before. But before he answered, he stopped, because for some reason he noticed then that her eyes were grey like a thundercloud, not blue or green like he'd thought, and once he noticed her eyes he noticed the way that she was looking at him.
The Dursley's never really looked at him much, and when they did it was usually glaring or sneering. The kids in his school either ignored him or were Dudley's friends and looked at him like the Dursley's did. Teachers usually seemed either disapproving or sad. And then there were the people that he sometimes saw when the Dursleys took him out somewhere. People that for just an instant would be standing somewhere in funny clothes and looking at him like they'd never seen a kid before, but then would seem to disappear as soon as he could blink. But this woman was staring at him without looking away from his face. He didn't see any of the usual things in hers, just a complete focus, like whatever he did or said in that moment was all that mattered. Harry realized then that if his answer was really that important to her, then he needed to take it seriously too. He thought harder.
For years, the Dursleys had told him how lucky he was that they had taken him in, how much easier things would have been for them if they had just taken him to the orphanage when he'd turned up on their door. He knew that he was being ungrateful, but ever since he'd started school and seen what other families were like he had wanted something, someone, else.
Whenever he'd imagined leaving the Dursleys, he had always pictured someone who had wanted him enough to come for him themselves. Now, it looked he was finally away from the Dursleys, but he was just being dumped these people too. They had even less reason to take him than his Aunt and Uncle did.
She was still watching him, waiting silently for an answer.
Whatever he should have said, it seemed impossible for him to lie with those stormy eyes focused on him. He gave a whispered "No" and hoped that it wouldn't make them think he was bad.
Trisana kept looking at him, but something in her gaze changed. Somehow, Harry felt like she knew exactly what he was thinking, and she didn't look angry at all.
"And do you want to stay here?" she asked next.
Did he want to stay here?
Harry blinked. He had concentrated so much about what could happen if they didn't let him stay here that he'd forgotten to think about what might happen if they did.
He liked the garden, and the pictures on the wall, and that the house stood out, but none of that was probably the important part.
None of them had really said that they wanted him here yet, although it looked like Briar maybe didn't. The woman that had called him cute seemed to like him, but he wasn't sure about the others.
Still, he needed to stay somewhere, and so far they seemed alright. From what Moonstream had said, and some of what he'd seen of them so far, he got the feeling that the Dursley's wouldn't really approve.
Maybe that wasn't a bad thing, though.
Even if he wasn't sure if they liked him, at least they didn't seem to dislike him. Even Briar hadn't actually said anything bad about Harry himself. And even if the way that Sandrilene had smiled and Trisana was talking to him made him uncomfortable, he still thought that he liked it.
Then he looked over at Moonstream, and he remembered her telling him that it would be okay.
"Yes"
She didn't say anything, she watched him again for a few more seconds, and then gave a tiny nod and moved back to her seat
"Well, Tris is in," Daja said. Harry blinked and looked at her, not quite sure what was going on.
"And you?" Moonstream asked. "It's your house"
She shrugged. "I don't mind as long as he stays out of my workroom."
"Sandry?"
"Of course he can stay!" the woman in blue cried, so excited that Harry couldn't really do anything but stare at her blankly, his mind still trying to catch up to what was happening.
"You don't even live here!" Briar yelled, but Harry thought it looked like he was starting to give up a little.
"She might as well, for all the time that she spends here," Trisana muttered. "Besides, you know that she's just as involved if she lives here or not."
Briar rolled his eyes, but didn't argue.
"I can make him new clothes, too," Sandry added happily.
Briar looked at Moostream accusingly. "You dressed him like that on purpose, didn't you? You knew that it would bother her."
"Don't be ridiculous. This is what he was wearing when I found him," Moonstream replied. She still seemed dignified, but Harry didn't really feel sure that she was completely telling the truth.
Briar took a deep breath, and Harry could suddenly see in the man's green eyes that something was wrong.
"I know that you talked to Rosethorn about Yanjing. Do you really think that I'm in any state to look after a kid right now?"
Something in the room changed. The women were all still looking at Briar, but now it was...softer. After becoming a little more used to them, Harry would eventually realize that that look meant that they had still been fully intending on getting their way, but were now being a bit more understanding, and were probably going to have a talk about it later.
At the time, all that Harry picked up on was that Briar had probably said something important, but it wasn't important enough, because Moonstream kept talking.
"You don't have to 'look after' him. The girls seem more than willing to care for him. All you have to do is let him stay. And Briar?"
"What?" he asked, looking a bit suspicious again.
"I have talked to Rosethorn, and she has instructed me to tell you that if you are stubborn about allowing Harry to stay here, then you can explain your concerns to her personally."
Sandry gave a startled laugh. Tris gave the man a triumphant look. Daja raised her eyebrows and watched with interest as Briar's eyes widened and his face paled.
"The kid can stay," he said hurriedly, and Sandrilene laughed again.
TBC
If Harry seems timid to the point of being OOC in this chapter, keep in mind that he's not really in the best mental state right now. I think that if he had been introduced to Emelan better prepared, he would have been excited about having an adventure. However, he arrived via a traumatizing experience and has no idea what's happening. Plus, my 3½ year-old sister has taught me that there is a direct correlation between a child's level of tiredness and her/his mental stability, and Harry is still pretty drained.
Also, Harry is so unsure/shy because most of what he has been told about the world and himself has come from the Dursley's. I think that he didn't really start getting rebellious until he got a bit older and he became more aware of how other families worked and more resigned to the fact that the Dursley's are just horrible, horrible people. I can see him at this age still trying to please.
Reviews:
...
...
o.O
This could take a while ...
soulknight121: Not quite the reactions I went for (nailed Sandry though), but next chapter is going to have some circle!pov, so you can see a bit more of my reasoning then. :)
IDreamOfDistantSeas: Here you go :D
Malacoda: There's a lot of things that Tris is going to have interesting reactions to. And Sandry. Sandry will be fun.
Hanzo of the Salamander: ...Sorry for making you wait 3
Jerichan: Thank you! And there can never be too many Circle of Magic crossovers...
Kila9Nishika: *feels guilty all over again for hiatus*
the fifth marauder: Hope the meeting was satisfactory. If not, there is more to come...
Avatar of Wurms: Well...at least you not alerting me meant that you had slightly less time to wait for an update. And it's always cool to recognize someone from my other story :D
And the adult Harry thing...I could easily see him turning out to be a bit of both options
CrazyDyslexicNerd: Here's another chapter. I'm really sorry about the wait, and I hope that this lived up to the beginning.
The Blasphemous Contessa: Here it is. Probably not as speedily as either of us would have liked...
MissBliss8527: The Lasagna thing is always appreciated ;)
Wolfspeaker01: It might get more intense, but I promise to distribute the drama properly, and that there will be not-so-intense stuff too. And I have plans for the magic thing...(resists random urge to insert maniacal laugh for some reason).
Sorry if I missed anyone.
I really need to start PMing people instead of waiting until the chapters are posted...
...
*Huggles readers*