Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Nineteen (IX)

IX

For a moment, Harry thought it hadn't worked at all. He shot down the chimney stack, and aside from a moment of weightlessness, it felt like he simply fell all the way to the bottom, bouncing painfully off of a pile of dry wooden logs.

He cried out as Rocky the robin took flight from his shoulder, flying anxiously in several quick circles. "Are you alright Harry?" he chirped, fluttering by Harry's head to land on his shoulder as he groaned and righted himself.

"I think I'm okay," he uttered, rubbing his lower back and blinking his eyes.

It was then he realised that he was not, in fact, inside the town hall of Christmas Land.

He was instead surrounded by stack upon stack of red envelopes, towing over his head all the way up to the ceiling. There was a narrow pathway left leading away from the fireplace, which forked left and right several feet from where Harry was shakily getting to his feet. "Where are we?" he asked Rocky, brushing debris from his trousers and picking up the hamper containing his lunch and resting the stick on his shoulder again.

Rocky fluffed up his wings and pointed forwards with his beak. "Not entirely sure," he admitted. "Shall we go and find out?"

Harry rolled his head, making his neck crick, then stepped forward to investigate. Deciding right over left, he followed the narrow pathway through the identical towers of red envelopes until he caught a glimmer of sunlight, then marched through the twists and turns towards it. He was torn between moving slowly and cautiously so as not to disturb any of the thousands of envelopes with the bindle on his travelling stick, and hurrying ahead to discover where he was.

The hallway opened up into a workshop framed by a window that showed a street outside that looked not entirely dissimilar to an average scene in Christmas Land. Cobbles lined the ground and wooden signs swung in the wintery sunshine that Harry couldn't quite read through the square panes that made up the window in front of him. It didn't help either that his view was blocked by a girl about his age sat at a desk facing out towards the street, and she turned at the sound of Harry's entrance.

She had long black hair, light brown skin and slanted, almond eyes that narrowed at the sight of Harry and Rocky. She had a sheet of red paper in her hands, halfway folded, and Harry realised she was flanked by a pile of regular paper on her right, and finished folded envelopes on her left. A gummy paintbrush was tucked behind her right ear, and her silk tunic was stained with countless streaks of what Harry guessed to be glue.

"Um, hi?" he said.

"Nai Nai!" the girl hollered, spinning on her stool to face her work bench again. "We've got another one!"

Harry glanced at Rocky, who shrugged his little feathery shoulders. So not knowing what else to do, Harry moved closer to the girl. "Um, I was hoping you could tell me what land this is?" he asked. "You see, I'm looking for someone and I've never been outside Christmas Land-"

The girl sighed loudly as she finished folding the red sheet of paper and whipped the paintbrush free from her hair to dip into the pot of glue waiting on the desk and slapped a good amount on the folded seams. "Of course you haven't, you're an elf. Nothing's more important than Christmas, so why should you bother going anywhere else?"

Harry opened his mouth to reply, stung by her hostile words, but he was cut off by an elderly lady entering from another narrow corridor made up by the envelope stacks. "Now, now Fan," she chuckled as she hobbled forwards with the aid of a walking cane.

Like the girl, who Harry guessed was named Fan, she wore a red, silk tunic buttoned to the right side of her body, black trousers, and red and black slippers embroidered in gold with something that could have been a snake. Harry wondered if it was a sort of uniform, like he and his friends wore to work, that he was still wearing in fact.

The older lady shuffled over to inspect Harry and Rocky, and Harry stood up straighter under her scrutiny and she peered over her half-moon glasses. "You look a little lost, boy?"

Harry cleared his throat and tried a small smile. "I'm not lost, exactly," he said, "but I'm looking for someone who I think is. And, um, I'm not sure what land I've come to."

That got another scoff from Fan as she angrily made fast work of another envelope. Once she finished one, it would fly up of its own accord and joins its fellows at the top of the nearest stack, adding to the winding labyrinth of the business' interior.

"Don't mind her," the elderly lady said with a wave of her gnarled hand, and she trundled over to take a seat in a well-worn armchair, the only other furniture visible other than Fan's desk and stool. "She just thinks Spring Festival should be a major holiday no matter what part of the world you are from."

"One billion Chinese people, Nai Nai," Fan grumbled, finishing another envelope in record time. Harry could see how the shop was so easily filled with them. "These Westerners need to be told."

"I'll leave that to young minds like yours," Nai Nai said cheerfully, resting her hands on the top of her cane, which Harry realised was also decorated with the head of a snake. "You might call Spring Festival 'Chinese New Year', am I right?" she asked Harry and Rocky.

"Ohh," they said together, and Harry immediately felt bad. He'd heard of many places outside of Christmas Land, and Chinese New Year was indeed one of them. "I'm sorry," he said, feeling the heat of embarrassment rise up his neck. "That was terribly rude of me, of course I've heard of Spring Festival Land. You make the best fireworks, everyone says so."

Actually, he knew all too well of theongoing competition between these people and those of Guy Fawkes Land as to whomade the most impressive firecrackers, but he decided against mentioning thefeud in that moment. Largely, because atthe praise Fan seemed to relax a little, and was attacking her envelopes with afraction less ferocity.