Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Thirty Five

   Something bashed into Harry's leg, and he snapped his head down in surprise. There was a small droid that had rolled through the sand over to them, and now it was looking up at Harry expectantly. "Hello?" he said.

The droid looked a little like a snowman with a smaller half-ball shape on top of a full-ball to create its body. He had a wonky antennae and circular orange markings on its main body, as well as a main black orb on the top part that looked like a sort of eye. It rolled backwards to regard Harry and his friends.

"Um, can we help?"

The droid rattled off a series of beeps that Harry frowned at. Was he supposed to respond to that?

"Good day to you too," Rocky said with a tilt of his head.

"You understood it?" Harry said in surprise. He was rewarded with another bash to the leg that made him jump back. "Ow, watch it," he said irritably, scowling down at the droid. It wasn't one he recognised from the production line, it must be a background character or something.

Rocky hooted out a laugh as the droid let out another string of offended sounding bleeps. "BB8 says don't be so rude, he can hear you, you know?"

Harry exchanged a wary glance with Fan, before addressing the feisty little droid again. "Sorry," he said, remembering his manners. "Nice to meet you BB8, I'm Harry, and this is Fan and Rocky. We're, um, just visiting."

"We're on a quest," said Fan excitedly, bunching up her fists.

Rocky nodded sagely. "A quest of true love."

Harry scuffed his toe through the sand. "I really wish people would stop saying that," he mumbled, feeling the heat rise up his neck. "We don't know it's that, I just had a silly dream."

"A nightmare," Rocky corrected, his tone becoming grave. "Nightmares are serious business in Christmas Land Harry, you know that."

He only knew it because every else had told him so, and that was still bothering him. He jammed his bindle stick into the sand and dropped on to a vacant stool by the workstation Rocky was perched on, taking his glasses from his face and wiping the dust off them. The other people around them were largely ignoring them, but Harry was hot from the sunshine beating down, and it was like there was a spotlight shining over his head. What would these hard working folks think if they knew of his frivolous little trip? "I don't even remember him properly," he protested as he put his glasses back on. "Or at all."

"But you know he's real now," Fan jumped in. "His face was all over those wanted posters."

"Exactly," said Harry feeling despondent again. "I know what you said Rocky, but what if he's really no good? What if he's some sort of terrible outlaw that I imagined I met?"

BB8 bleeped at Rocky. "I know," said the robin. "It's all a bit complicated, but basically Harry had a nightmare that a boy he loved was in danger, and when we ventured out into the lands to find him, we discovered the HSP were after him. Which means," he added pointedly. "That Harry was right. He is in danger and we need to find him."

"We know he's no longer in Halloween Land, thank goodness," Fan added. "Otherwise they wouldn't be looking for him elsewhere."

"But it's likely he started in Halloween Land," Harry protested. "And everyone says Halloween Land is full of trouble; bad people that are no good."

Fan shrugged. "Their job is to scare people once a year," she apologetically.

Harry shook his head. "This is ridiculous," he said. "Those skeletons might start hurting people if they don't find him soon. Why am I being stupid and adding fuel to the fire?" His shoulders slumped, and he scrubbed his hand over his face. "I should just go home."

"What?" said Fan in surprise.

Rocky blew a raspberry. "Nonsense, you can't give up now."

"Rocky," Harry said tiredly. He looked around the work camp again. These people, and even the aliens beside them, looked tired and hungry. He came from a holiday where there was always scrumptious food to eat, cheery friends to while away the hours with, and everything they did was geared towards the happy, hopeful celebration of Christmas. He should just be grateful for what he had, and head on home. "This is stupid," he said. "I'm behaving pathetically. He probably doesn't even know who I am, it's probably – urgh!" He threw his hands in the air. "Some magic spell gone wrong, that's why I had the dream. They have witches over there, right?"

The word 'witches' jolted something in him though – as soon as he said it – it was the strangest thing. It didn't make him think of old hags with warty noses, the likes of which he knew resided in Halloween Land. He immediately thought of a young lady with light brown skin and an enormous amount of bushy hair, toiling over a cauldron and flicking through a spell book. The image...comforted him, and he had no idea why. Was it a story he had once read, or perhaps a present he had once worked on?

BB8 twittered. "That's a good point," agreed Rocky. "If so, why would anyone go to such trouble Harry? You've never been to Halloween Land, it's not like anyone over there has a grudge against you, do they?"

"That I know of," Harry admitted reluctantly.

Rocky nodded, with only a slight hint of exasperation. "So why trick you with a nightmare?"

"Harry," said Fan gently, stepping over to him and cautiously reaching out to take his hand. He didn't resist, so she cradled it between both of hers. "Don't you want to find him?"

A flare of pain shot through Harry's chest at the idea of not finding him, his fantasy boy. Of truly abandoning his mission and never seeing that face from the posters in real life. How could he carry on, without finding out for sure what there was between them? "Desperately," he admitted to Fan thickly, looking at their entwined fingers.

BB8 bleeped and nudged Harry's shin lightly. "Yeah," said Rocky. "So what gives? Why wouldn't you want to keep looking for him, what have you got to lose?"