Chapter16: They were waterbenders, Your Honour!
Unfortunately, he didn't find much of anything. There was no sign of the avatar in this district, and nobody was talking about him. If the weird government agents had gotten him, they probably wouldn't have put him in a poor section of the town, which means Harry would have to sneak in the rich neighbourhood. How he wishes he had his invisibility cloak.
As he walked back to the shop, he tried not to let his thoughts wander back to Zuko. He had never seen Zuko look so vulnerable, not even when Iroh had gotten injured. It was the first time he's seen the ex-prince look so … soft.
No, no, he shakes his head at the thought, what am I thinking.
Probably nothing. He probably wasn't thinking at all.
He got back to the shop an hour or two later than he should have, if the glare from Pao was any indication. The older man hadn't really warmed up to him, only accepting his presence due to Iroh's insistence. The main reason was probably due to Salathiel often scaring the daylights out of him whenever he would sneak in and try to eat the bread that was sometimes served with the tea. He'd quickly become obsessed with the stuff; when he wasn't hissing complaints in Harry's ear, he was begging for bread.
Said wizard in question had simply decided to give up on the logistics of this universe. Snakes obsessed with bread, sure. It's not the weirdest thing that's happened in the last few weeks.
He smiles at the older man, taking an apron and heading over to make some tea in the back. There's already a small line forming outside of the shop, even if most citizens should be working at this time. That's probably why Pao wasn't pleased by his absence. Tea isn't that hard to do even if he'll probably never get Iroh's skill with the trade. He's heard Zuko in the previous week complain about "doing chores," but this honestly doesn't feel like a chore. He's not constantly looking over his shoulders, feeling the sun bleaching his skin, his hands sore with making a meal he won't get to eat. Not washing a house, he doesn't exist in.
No, this, this isn't a chore at all.
He's greeted by a warm smile and pleasant hum as they sip what he made. A chorus of polite thank you, words that don't belong with the word chore. He gets money for what he does, actual money that doesn't come from people he doesn't know and will never get to. And he's not working alone, he has Iroh, Pao, and a reluctant Zuko.
"Welcome back Harry, have you seen Zuko?" Speaking of. He turns his head to look at Iroh who just came back from the front. The old man gently grabs his wrist as he's about to add another leaf, setting the herb back in its container. He takes out the hot water, pouring it gently in the cup.
"We took a walk together," Iroh sends him a wry look which the wizard ignores with already practised ease, "but he started heading back here before me, and I haven't seen him since."
"He should be back soon then." The older firebender smiles at him once more, patting his back gently to quickly check for further injuries, before heading back in. Harry wills his blush to die out, not quite used to those caring gestures yet. It makes him feel warm inside, his insides melting a little like when Mrs. Weasley gives him a Christmas sweater every year.
Here, in this world, everyone is so … caring. Maybe it's because they're at war, and they never know when they're going to see you next. Or maybe because he doesn't have a status here, they're more willing to accept him as just anyone else.
He jumps slightly as shouts ring out from the street, quickly putting away his tea leaves, taking off his apron in a hurry.
A small crowd is forming outside the shop, a small circle of people clutching each other in fear and confusion. Harry's breath catches in his throat as he sees Iroh and Zuko in the middle of the circle, angry frowns and mutters targeted at them. He hears the word firebenders being thrown around, as he forces himself into the circle. He curses in English as he recognizes some of the people from the incident earlier. He's not sure why he thought that there wasn't going to be any kind of consequence for what happened earlier, but it's hitting him in the face right about now.
"We saw him firebend."
"He could be dangerous."
"What if he's a spy?"
"Look at that mark on his face, it's clear he's not from here."
Harry clenches his fists, grinding his teeth at the comment from the crowd. He understands their fear of firebenders, they're all here because they're running away from the Fire Nation. They all have trauma from firebenders coming into their homes, killing their family, their neighbours. But simply seeing a flame means ostracizing the firebender out of the city? Just like that? He's probably biased, seeing as he's a firebender and he has no thoughts of taking over the world. Just because fire burns don't mean that he wants to. And Iroh is the nicest old man that he's ever met, feeling much more of a paternal presence in the weeks that he's known him than Dumbledore ever was.
It's unfair. It's unfair that they are being judged for being born with fire instead of water. The wizard freezes at the thought, his fists unclenching. Water… He fiddles with his wand as he eyes the growing crowd, a young man with a sword looking way too pleased about this turnout. He takes a deep breath, hiding his wand up his sleeve, before forcing himself through the crowd, shaping his face into a fearful look he darts in front of the other two firebenders.
I'm about to be such an obvious Slytherin right now.
"Lee, Mushi, what's wrong, what's happening?" He rushes to them, appearing to fret. Zuko stares at him like he's gone nuts, Harry rolling his eyes subtly in response.
"They think we're firebenders, Harry." Says Iroh, very calmly, looking at the crows with a cool gaze. The wizard gasps, trying to bring his best shocked and scared look to his face as he gazes back at the crowd.
"What! B-but we're not firebenders! Firebenders attacked our village, that's why we're here!" He looks around the group wildly. "You have to believe us, we're waterbenders!" He shows his necklace to the suspicious gaze of the crowd. The guy with swords from earlier scoffs, stepping up with his hands on his weapon.
"Yeah right, I've seen those two use firebending earlier. I don't know about you, if you've been brainwashed or something but these are not good guys." He threatens with a dark grin that doesn't fit well with his bowl cut. He reigns in the sarcastic remark, instead pretending to fiddle with something in his sleeve.
"No, I'm telling the truth!" He twists his hand, concentrating hard on his magic, praying that this will work. He's been practising over the past few weeks, his control over his Aqua Eructo spell. Sitting on Appa or waiting for hours on a boat with nothing to do except conversation made him almost perfect the spell. He'd realized early on that just spouting water wasn't very convincing for waterbending. And so, he'd been trying, with very little success, to use his magic to make water, and then make it move so it would convince others that he was really waterbending. He'd kind of given up on the idea when Azula had mistaken him for the Avatar, but now? Now this could save them. He closes his eyes, willing his magic to listen to his prayers.
"Harry! Are you even listening?"
He snaps his head from where he was staring out the window to look back at Hermione, sheepish.
"No, not really, sorry." He throws her an apologetic smile, turning his body fully in her direction. Ron is staring at a Potions essay like it's going to eat him alive as Hermione rolls her eyes at his lack of attention. She's way too used to them not paying attention when she rambles.
"This is really important! I think it could be a great asset in the fight against You-Know-Who!" Harry rolls his eyes at the name, which she promptly ignores, "Practising wandless and wordless magic could be a great advantage against the Death Eaters!"
Ron puffs up indignantly.
"Hey that's what I said yesterday, and you told me that even sixth and seventh years find it difficult and it would be impossible."
"Yes well, I've thought about it as I was doing my essays, and it can't hurt to try! When we were little, we did plenty of magic without our wands or spells, we didn't know any! There must be something that we can use against them!" She almost shouted, creating a tension amongst the trio. With Umbridge slowly and surely taking over, the dreams that Harry keeps having, he's not quire sure about the safety they have in the school.
"As kids, we didn't have control, though." Mutters Ron, looking as demoralized as the rest of them. Hermione straightens up from the slump she went into at record speed.
"Yes, but we might be able to now! We're trained in magic; we know how to do basic spells. With a little bit of training, we might be able to do it. And anyways, it's better than nothing, right?"
In the end, they didn't really have enough time to focus on wandless and wordless magic as the exams were coming upon them and Umbridge was rallying her forces on the school. It had always sounded interesting, but the real world was waiting for them. However, he wasn't in his world now. And honestly, he had nothing to lose.
Harry focused all his willpower in the magic flowing through his body. Magic had never felt like a tool to him, but a companion, something warm in his chest that would always be there for him, always willing to help him. He focused on the ball in the centre of his chest, his magical core, and pleaded.
I have to help my friends, I know we can do it together, we have to do it together, he begged, reaching out and surging his magic. The spell itself was not that difficult, he had done it plenty of times in his journey, but controlling the water afterwards, that was the hard part. There was no spell that he knew to control the magic as if he was waterbending. Sure, there were spells to create a serpent of fire or something similar, but bending the water? That was difficult, and something he had almost never tried to do.
The warmth in his chest surged as he mumbled the spell. He opened his eyes, only a few seconds having passed as water surged from his hidden wand. He took a deep breath, sending some of his magic in the ball, urging it to flow. His magic obeyed, following the easier path that his wand had carved for it. It flowed in the water where it settled, before starting to be weighted by gravity. He gritted his teeth, focusing. This was the problem that he had run into most of the time, the intent that his magic should follow.
He focused on Katara, and her amazing capacity to control the water, how it flowed between her fingertips, following her graceful movements, always moving together. He thought about all this as he fed these images to his magic, giving it intention. For a moment, nothing happened, the water continued to drip on the floor. He gave a grunt of effort, pushing more magic into the ball as it started to flow in a simple pattern in the air. He didn't even have time to feel relief at the murmuring of the crowd, Zuko and Iroh's incredulous stares as he pretended to pass the water over to them. He did not think he could move in this position, his grip on his wand that was warming up due to the spell harsh. At the back of his mind, he wondered if this is how wixens initially invented spells. Luckily, Iroh caught on, imitating waterbender movements with precision and fluidity that Harry would not be able to copy. The old man followed the water's movements, looking like he was the one bending the water.
He "passed" the water over to Zuko who played along, though his movements were a bit too stiff and harsh to be perfect. Now that the crowd was clapping at the display, Harry let the water dissipate, pretending to put it back in a water pouch. Everyone was applauding them, though the couple of citizens who had seen Zuko's firebending were doing so with a confused look on their face. Harry really hoped they didn't think the prince was the Avatar, he did not want to have to deal with that again.
The only one unconvinced, was the teen with the bowl haircut from earlier. "That's not possible, it must be a trick! I saw them firebending, I know it!" The crowd didn't even react to the message, overwhelming relief in their faces. Even if some were clearly confused, they couldn't say anything against a clear use of waterbending, and it didn't really look like they wanted to. Even if none of them looked like they belonged in the Water Tribe, there was no denying the visible truth. The fear of firebenders was grand in this universe, especially amongst the refugees. It reminded Harry of the citizens of the Wizarding World; they'd been desperate to be reassured that Voldemort was still dead.
"They are firebenders! I saw it!" Bowl cut snarled, reaching for the weapon at his back. The guards that had been staring at the three of them suspiciously moved towards him, each grabbing one of his arms with sneers. "You're gonna have to come with us, son." Bowl-cut looks startled, before rage crosses his face as he struggles against the arms holding him. "They're trying to trick you! I saw them firebend!"
One of the guards scoffs, "Right, so they're all the Avatars?" he asks mockingly, eliciting chuckles from the crowd who's already starting to disperse. "No, obviously someone out there is manipulating the water!" The guards took Bowl-cut's sword, before dragging him out. Harry doesn't necessarily want him to be dragged away to prison for being, well, right, but he doesn't think there's a way to save him without outing himself.
He's suddenly jerked to the side as Zuko grabs his arm, dragging him back into the shop. Salathiel hisses in complaints from his sleeve.
"We are going to talk."
Zuko marches through the shop, ignoring Harry's half-hearted protest, the wizard still feeling equally elated by his progress and tired from it. Zuko ups the stairs, closing the doors of their "bedroom" behind them before rounding on him. Harry figures that if the doors could lock, the other would've done it with vigour.
"How did you do that?" Zuko asks, leaning very close in his personal space. Harry stares at him, " … I thought you knew I was a wizard?"
"Yeah, and I still have no idea what that means! You just…" he seemed to struggle with his words for a second, "waterbended! Made me look like a waterbender!"
"Yes, that was kind of the point," Harry answers drily.
"You could have been captured or something if they'd believed that boy!"
"I couldn't let one of you get captured either!" Harry shouts back.
Zuko stares at him at the outburst, a look in his eyes that he can't recognize. Harry stares back, unsure what the prince wants from him. He's looking at him, a slight widening to his eyes, something almost vulnerable in his face. Zuko seems to realize that he's staring, as he coughs and looks away to the side.
"I didn't know you could do that with your…" he struggles with the word.
"Magic?" "Yeah, I always thought magic would be related to spirits." Harry chuckles a bit.
"Yeah, when I was a kid, I didn't believe magic was real at all." Zuko startles, looking at him again.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, there's not that many wizards and witches, and the people who don't have magic don't know magic exists?" The prince looks at him, baffled. In this world after all, thinking of separating benders and non-benders must seem ludicrous.
"But, how do they not know? Isn't magic a part of you? Even as a child?" Harry shifts uncomfortably for a second, suddenly realizing that the witch burnings resemble what the Fire Nation did to the airbenders.
"They used to, but they grew scared of us. They, uh, started to rally us up and try and burn us alive." Zuko's face immediately grows stony, his fists tightening. "Turns out that they killed mostly muggles-a non-magic user—because we could get away from the flames, but we were still heavily persecuted. So, the government created the Statue of Secrecy, a law that states that we have to stay hidden from muggles. We went into, like, secret hideouts, created spells so that muggles couldn't see us and obliviate the people who realized."
"Obliviate?"
"Oh, it's a spell that can erase memories." Harry doesn't really think about the impact of these words, but Zuko's horrified look makes him rethink it. "Oh, don't worry! I'm not very good at it! I had a professor that tried to use it on us, and he was apparently a master, but he managed to obliviate all his memories! The caster chooses what to erase usually." He adds, not wanting Zuko to think that the person is left amnesiac. It doesn't need seem to help, however, and the other looks at him like he grew another head.
"A professor tried to erase your memories?" Harry snorted, sitting down on the bed now that the conversation moved away from the dangerous and deep topic.
"Mate, all my Defense Against the Dark Arts professor tried to kill me at least once—even if some were involuntary—every year. Someone trying to erase my memories is nothing."
Zuko was standing still, his face frozen in disbelieving anger. It slightly puzzled Harry, as he doesn't seem to have had great teachers who supported his wellbeing. He resists the urge of scratching against the scar at the back of his hand.
"You…" The other started to talk, before cutting himself off with an angry huff, before changing the subject, "I always thought magic would be spiritual, something so beyond our understanding that we wouldn't be able to grasp it. Talking to snakes, or that killing spell you mentioned, or just erasing memories." He emphasizes, something like wonder in his eyes, "But then you did bending! You bent another element, even if you're a firebender and it's not your domain! And you can do all those wonderful things! Whichever side you're on, they're going to have so much more chances!"
Harry frowns, opening his mouth to refuse, but the look on Zuko's face keeps him quiet and wary.
"Yet, you chose to save me!" he whispers, "I've been trying to capture your friend and deliver him to my father, and you chose to save me. You have all that magic, you were sent here by the spirits and—" Harry stands back up, a furious look in his eyes.
"No! You are not going to start treating me like I'm the spirits' saviour! I'm just a wizard really far away from home. I'm not overpowered, I don't have a grand mission, I just want to go home. How dare you for treating me like that! You want to know why I saved you?" he bits out, grabbing a handful of Zuko's robes to look him in the eyes, "I saved you because you don't deserve to be handed off to prison just because you're a firebender. They were going to take you away just because you can shoot fire out of your hands rather than controlling earth. Maybe they should've grabbed you for what you're trying to do with Aang.
But I'm not like you. I'm not going to get you imprisoned for one bad choice. Not because I'm a saint, but because I don't think you deserve it that bad. Maybe that's a bad idea, maybe you're just going to stab me in the back later." Zuko is looking at him, so startled, with a look in his eyes that he didn't know what to do with.
Harry can feel magic encircling his body, making his eyes glow and the furniture rattle. "But I'm human! I'm just a dumb kid trying his best when being sent from one war to another. I'm not some saviour for you to start making good decisions, and I would rather chuck you off to prison than have you think that!" he screams that last sentence, one that was ripped out of his heart with the emotion of the conversation. Harry is panting in Zuko's face, before he shoves him out of the way and storms out of the room with only one thought in his head,
"What a prick."
