XF → Harry Hook [2]✔

Harry's Dream

He stared up at the grand hall, with all its black banners bearing the golden sigil of a dragon draped on the walls. On either side were rows and rows of seats resembling that of an amphitheater, filled by Auradonians on the left and Islers on the right. By some miracle, they weren't trying to rip the other limb from limb. But the force that was powerful enough to keep them from blades being held to throats was no miracle, and one look at the throne was enough to confirm that the new monarch wasn't one the Auradonians had wished for.

A black carpet with golden patterns flowed from the platform where the throne was raised upon, separating the Auradonians and the Islers like the sea had before the coalition. A coalition that had not been without blood and steel.

XJ sat on a massive chair gilded from gold as if it had been made for her, an obsidian crown nestled in her hair. Although the throne was massive, it did nothing to dwarf its occupant; in fact, all it seemed to do was magnify her presence, which was stifling enough to strangle any thoughts of rebellion.

Harry was enamored by the way she looked. Regal and powerful and queenly. His feet were pulled towards her, as if magnetized, and he wanted nothing more than to –

"What do you think you're doing?" A cold voice asked, while an even colder tip of a spear met his chest.

Harry blinked. "Xiao?" He looked down at the weapon he had tossed to its owner on more than one occasion; a weapon he was so familiar with that he could feel its wood that never splintered beneath his fingers. "What...?"

XJ raised an eyebrow. "Your queen asked you a question, or have you forgotten your ruler?"

Jeers came from the Islers while practiced laughter sounded from the Auradonians. Harry felt his face grow hot with anger and confusion. "I - " His voice was stolen away from the mocking noises of the court that watched him.

XJ looked up at both sides of the grand hall. That was all it took for them to fall silent. She returned her gaze to Harry expectantly. "Have you remembered, then?"

He gaped, having no clue what she was getting at. "What?"

"How to speak."

The court erupted into laughter once more, and XJ's head snapped up. Her eyes narrowed, and the laughter died in their throats. Harry thought it unlikely that some would ever laugh again.

"XJ, I don't understand - " The point of XJ's spear bit deeper into his chest, and Harry winced.

"You refer to me as 'Queen'," XJ said sharply, her voice ringing through the room. "Or I'll carve out your heart."

Once upon a time, XJ would have said something along those lines to him. When they first met, Harry had almost been choked to death by the small Asian girl he wouldn't have believed to be capable of such strength. But after all the things she had done – they had done, together – Harry hadn't heard a single threat leave her mouth that she truly meant directed towards him.

"Queen?" Harry asked incredulously. "You want me, your bloody boyfriend, the one you love, to call you 'Queen'?"

The spear that dented his skin lowered, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He had reminded XJ of who he was, of what he meant to her and she to him, and they would never talk of this strange interaction ever again and they would go up to her room and fall into bed and he would never, ever let her go...

A hysterical laugh shocked him out of his thoughts, followed by a flood of the same noise. It was as if the funniest joke in the world had ever been told. Harry looked around the hall at the Islers who were holding onto their stomachs, double over, to the Auradonians who had tears rolling down their cheeks at the hilarity of something he couldn't grasp.