Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Thirty Three (XII)

XII

It turned out Spring Festival Land had a dozen districts, and each one was affiliated with a different animal, which Fan explained each represented a different zodiac in the Chinese calendar. Harry was pretty chuffed to discover he had been born in the year of the monkey.

After joining together to fend off the skeletons, Fan had become a lot less hostile towards him, especially because he was genuinely interested in finding more about her land. The more she explained her people's customs, the warmer and friendlier she got, until finally she and Harry swapped hot, tasty dumplings for candy canes and mince pies, and from the appreciative noises of contentment they both made it seemed they were now officially friends.

They passed through several streets that were first adorned with depictions of horses, then goats, then finally rabbits. "This is the one we want," Rocky announced, taking them down an ally and away from the main bustle of the street. There were fields on the outskirts of the town, and Rocky zipped ahead to land beside a hole in the dirt.

"What's that?" Harry asked, eyeing it up with even more distrust than he had the chimney back in Christmas Land.

"Rabbit warren," said Rocky proudly.

"We're not going to fit down there," Fan said dubiously, but Harry was already shaking his head.

"Don't worry," he assured her despite his own reservations. "I don't think it really works like that."

"Then how does it work?" she asked, creeping closer. "Holding your breath and thinking skinny thoughts?"

Rocky laughed. He obviously had nothing to worry about. "Don't worry," he said, flying up to sit on her shoulder. "I'll go first and activate it, see if I can't take us to a fun land."

"And we'll definitely follow after you?" she asked back. Harry was secretly glad he wasn't the only one with questions about this stuff. It seemed Fan hadn't travelled between lands before either. "We won't go somewhere random?"

"Just concentrate on me and the portal will do the rest," Rocky told them as Harry looked back down at the entrance to the warren. Had it been that dark before?

He didn't get a chance to think much more on it, as Rocky dove from Fan's shoulder and plummeted through the hole. "Okay," he said heavily. "I'll go next – unless you want to?"

"I'll follow you," she said thoughtfully, not taking her eyes off the hole.

Harry sat down and, like before, swung his legs around to drop them down the opening. He found it helped if he didn't really look at what he was doing. "Okay," he said decisively. "Here we go."

He squeezed his eyes shut and dropped. He inhaled sharply as he felt that same pause, as if gravity had changed its mind for a fraction of a second, before he fell once again, landing heavily in the dark.

"Ow," he said.

"Are you okay?" Rocky asked.

"Yeah, I just-" He only thought about rolling away just in time. He shoved himself and his bindle to the left, a moment before Fan dropped in a heap of limbs beside him. "It's a bit of a sudden landing," he finished telling Rocky.

"Ouch," moaned Fan as she sat upright and rubbed her elbow.

They may have been in the dark, but Harry realised there was a small amount of light to see by; enough to work out they were in some sort of cupboard or service hatch with wires crisscrossing all around them, and that the illumination was actually coming from a square below them.

"Where are we?" Harry asked.

Rocky pointed at the sliver of light by Harry's knees. "Only one way to find out," he suggested, and Harry shrugged in agreement.

Without thinking he pushed against the hatch to test its resilience...and it came away easily, once again depositing him and Fan unkindly onto the floor several feet below. "If this is what it's like visiting other lands," Fan snapped, squeezing tears from her eyes and rubbing her back as well as her elbow. "No wonder everyone bloody stays at home."

"It's not always so violent," Rocky said dismissively, having flown his way down quite happily.

They were in a corridor of sorts. The floor was black with metal grating and the walls and ceiling were circular, like a tube and they were sitting on the flattened bottom. White panels formed rings every few feet along the hall, but they were going a greyish-cream with age and neglect, and several were hanging open with their circuitry poking lose. The floor was littered with nuts and bolts as well as mechanical tools and scraps of metal. There looked to be a couple of scorch marks along the wall, and Harry shuddered.

It was so grey and dull compared to the frivolity of Christmas Land, and he couldn't fathom where they might have found themselves. Rocky though, seemed pretty excited. "Oh boy oh boy oh boy!" he cried as he flew in fervent circles. "Come on, let's find a way out of here." And he was gone, disappearing out of sight before Harry could ask where 'here' was, so he and Fan scrambled to their feet and hurried to follow him. "Come on, open it up," Rocky begged like a child on Christmas morning as he zipped back and forth in front of a closed door that presumably lead outside.

"Alright, calm down," Harry told him with a chuckle. In truth, it was a nice change to the day to have someone just be happy rather than scared or confused. He wasn't really sure what to do, but after pushing a few buttons there was a hiss, but instead of opening on the left or right like a regular door, the top cracked open and away from them, lowering to form a ramp.