Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Twenty Three

   Rocky took flight in a blur, landing on the stick as if it had been made for him to sit on. "Then I'd say you were right – that he's definitely in some trouble if the HSP are after him!"

Harry frowned, not liking the sound of that. "The what?"

"The HSP," Rocky repeated. "The Halloween Secret Police, those skinny looking buggers in desperate need of a coffin to lie down in."

"That's who the skeletons were?" Fan squeaked, and Rocky nodded.

"I can't even remember the last time they left their Land," he said gravely. "Oh this is bad Harry, really bad."

Fan hugged herself. "Nai Nai warned us that nothing good ever comes out of Halloween Land." She looked sceptically at Harry. "Are you sure that's him? And if it is, that he's not trying to trick you or something?"

He swallowed the lump in his throat, and tried to ignore the people hanging out of their doors and windows to hear what they were talking about. That was, except for Fan's Nai Nai, who was stood at her threshold, her cane in front of her with two hands placed firmly over the top. She gave Harry a single nod of encouragement, and he steeled himself.

His boy was real, he wasn't just a dream. But he was in trouble, and Harry had to help him, however he could. "Yes, it's him," he answered to Fan. "And, no...I don't know what his intentions are, I just know how I feel." That sounded so stupid, but he couldn't ignore the way his heart was tugging him towards the mystery boy. He felt such a strong urge to protect him, to know he was safe.

"Look, we all know Halloween Land isn't to be trusted," Rocky said as people began to lose interest and drift back inside. "But from the sounds of it your boy is wanted back there quite fiercely. Which can only mean he's done something bad."

Harry swallowed. "That's not good," he said worriedly.

Rocky scoffed. "Well, no, not good in that they want to catch him, but if he's pissed the mayor off enough, good folks like you and I would probably consider whatever he did a very good thing indeed."

Harry's eyebrows rose hopefully. "Really?" he said. He didn't like the idea of his boy doing anything bad or wrong. But Rocky nodded firmly.

"Oh yeah," he said with a beaky grin. "I'm liking the sound of this boy of yours more and more."

Harry's insides flipped. It was all very well when he had been on a whimsical adventure looking for a dream date, but now it seemed his love was not only most definitely flesh and blood, but was also on the run from some very scary people.

So if he was real, did that mean him and Harry had actually met before? How had Harry known to dream of him? Did that mean...he knew of Harry? That sent a wash of coldness through him, and he shivered despite the bright sunshine now bathing the street. Here he was, chasing all over the holiday lands, but how did he know this boy even liked him? If they were meant to be together, if (like everyone kept saying) he was in fact Harry's true love, how come he couldn't even remember his name? What if they had met, but the boy hadn't liked him, and had somehow made Harry forget?

The truth of the matter was, he told himself sternly, that whilst all of these were valid questions, he knew it wasn't enough to make him give up. Especially not when he knew the boy was in trouble. He just needed to focus on finding him, and then he could hopefully discover why he fancied himself in love, despite not knowing for certain if the two of them had ever actually met.

"Where to then?" he asked his companions.

"It probably won't do any good for you to go to Halloween Land after all," pondered Fan out loud. "If they're looking for him elsewhere, he must be in a different land by now."

Rocky nodded. "Good thinking," Rocky agreed, and Fan beamed. "Nope, I reckon our best bet now is to go down again."

Harry looked between the bird and the girl. "You mean, to the third level?" he said hesitantly. He knew a lot of the second level holidays, but even then he'd struggled to recognise Spring Festival Land. However, all he really knew about the third level was that there were hundreds of lands, possibly thousands, dedicated to holidays people didn't even necessarily know about. The thought made him shudder – people not even being aware your holiday was happening?

How was he ever going to find his boy in all of those places, especially if the HSP were also on the hunt for him? It was like trying to find a pine needle in a hay stack.

Well, he most definitely wasn't going to get anywhere by hanging around on the street and not trying at all. "Okay," he said decisively. "I guess that means we need a different portal then?"

"It does if we want to go downwards," Rocky confirmed, then took to the air once more. "Follow me, I think I spotted somewhere on my way back over the districts!"

Harry glanced at Fan. "Did you want to come?" he asked, figuring the more help he had, the better, as well as feeling a bit mischievous. "I mean, your Nai Nai only said it wasn't a good idea to go to Halloween Land. She didn't say anything about the third level, did she?"

Fan's face lit up like Christmas morning, and she grabbed his hand tightly. "Let's go find your friend," she said, and they bolted after Rocky as fast as they could run.