Approaching the door of an unused classroom, Harry heard a small voice issue a command.
"Get that wall in place!" the voice ordered. "We must defend this place until we can return to the Za-Lord!"
"The Za-Lord!" a chorus of voices cheered in response.
Harry was a bit surprised and a little confused by the voices and the cheers. On an impulse, he stopped at the door and slowly pushed it open.
"Hello?" he called in.
"An intruder!" the commanding little voice cried. "Prepare to defend our space!"
"Hoo-hah!" the chorus cheered.
"Easy," Harry said, "I was just curious what is going on in here."
"Advance and be recognized!" came the order.
Harry pushed the door open and was met by a bizarre sight. A large round table was positioned ten feet into the room. It looked as though it had been anchored down and reinforced to the point Harry doubted Hagrid could be able to move it. On top of the table, walls had been created out of stone. In fact, it was an almost perfect replica of Hogwarts except for some modifications that even to Harry's unpractised eye made it look more defensible. But the truly bizarre sight was the small, 4-6 inch tall, winged guardians that stood guard on the table. They were definitely fairies but wore bits of cast of armour and tiny weapons in their hands. Most of them were box cutters but a few looked like cooking skewers.
"What's going on in here?" Harry asked.
"We are preparing to defend ourselves until we can return home to the Za-Lord!" the leader of the small Fairies announced. Harry assumed this Za-Lord was a major Fairy that these little ones reported to.
"What do you mean get home?" Harry asked.
"We didn't want to come here; we just got sucked along. We're Winter because the Za-Lord is but most of them aren't much fun," the spokes-Fairy answered.
"And they don't have pizza!" another voice announced. This led to another round of cheering by the assembled Fairies. Harry had to smile because they reminded him of the house elves.
"So, you like pizza?" Harry asked. "Dobby?"
The elf appeared in a blink. "Master Harry Potter call his Dobby?"
"An elf! Prepare to defend our castle!"
Dobby whirled to see them miniature Hogwarts and its Fae defenders. "Harry Potter, sir! Get away from the Fairies! Dobby will delay them!" The Fairies started to swarm and Harry recognized the danger.
"No! It's okay!" Harry shouted. "Dobby, will you please bring us a pizza?" That settled the Fairies and Dobby looked up at Harry in astonishment.
"Harry Potter, sir, wants pizza now?" he asked.
"Yes, please Dobby."
Dobby blinked away only to return five seconds later. "Here is pizza, Harry Potter sir!"
Harry took the pizza saying, "Thanks, Dobby." He turned and placed the box on the floor in front of the table. "Here you go." Then he flipped the lid open.
The Fairies swarmed up and prepared to dive on the pizza. But they paused.
"Why is it flat?" came a question. And, "Why is it round?" "Who destroyed the pizza?"
Harry was a bit bemused. The pizza looked fine to him. "What kind of pizza are you used to?"
"Deep-dish! Meat Lovers! Deep Dish!" they chorused.
"Ah, I don't know that we have that here," Harry said. "I can take this back…"
"No!" the lead Fairy shouted. "Charge!" And the cloud of Fairies dove on the pizza. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie as the cloud rapidly consumed the pizza in lots of little bites. Once it was gone, the cloud moved back to their table fortress.
"Not bad, pizza-man," the leader announced. "It needs better crust though. I am Major General Toot-toot of the Za-Lord's Guards! And who are you?"
Harry grinned. "My name is Harry. Nice to meet you!" The Fairies looked up at him in shock.
"Are you a wizard?" Toot-toot asked curiously.
"Yes," Harry admitted, "but I am still in school."
"It's a mini-Za-Lord!" Toot-toot proclaimed. "That must be why we are here! We must defend the mini-Za-Lord!" Shouts and cheers filled the room. It was like a whole swarm of Dobbies.
Harry could only look on in bewilderment. Why did he think his life had just gotten even more complicated?
Dresden lives in Chicago; of course he was giving the Toot-took and company deep dish pizza!
…..
Preying for Time
The Great Hall was in chaos with the disappearance of Harry Potter. The Fifth year Gryffindor had managed to stare down the entire school, tell them exactly what he thought of them, and then manage to completely disappear. The students discussed Harry's oath and his rant.
In the end, it didn't change much. The junior Death Eaters still wanted him destroyed (although now they were a bit more wary having felt Harry's power personally). The Light-Siders conceded the oath made it highly unlikely Harry was involved with the disappearances but he was still dangerous and a murderer. The group it had the biggest impact on were the neutrals. They accepted Harry was innocent of involvement with the disappearances and they felt guilty for joining in on shunning Harry. But since they still didn't want to get involved in the fighting it would give Harry little additional support aside from not participating in such activities themselves.
Individually there were some changes. Susan Bones was furious with Harry using her parents and the crass way he talked of their deaths. Since she first learned the truth her parents were her heroes. They managed to create her an emergency 'safe room' under the floor boards that was charmed against discovery and magical fires while the Death Eaters were tearing down their house's wards. They knew creating a space with room for all three of them was beyond their power and time so they consciously sacrificed themselves to give their baby a life. She would always honour them for that. But while Harry's words infuriated her, she also felt some sympathy for what Harry felt on Halloween and it shamed her. The 14th of September was never a good day for her and it would be worse to have everyone celebrating that day. As the niece of the Head of the DMLE, she also knew oaths and recognized the simplicity of Harry's. It left no wiggle room for his involvement. It made her start to reassess what she thought she 'knew'. Susan's world got a little greyer that morning.