So, are we going to talk about that?" Sokka asked once they arrived back at their camping spot, he had asked that question as he gestured to the locket that Harry had around his neck.
"No." Harry said simply before tucking the locket into his shirt.
"Are we going to talk about the fact that you just threatened a bunch of pirates over it?" Sokka calmly asked.
"Nope." Harry replied.
"What if I ask nicely?" Sokka asked.
"I'll nicely tell you to 'fuck off'." Harry said with a roll of his eyes before stepping next to Katara and looking at the scroll she had opened. "Wow," Harry breathed out as he looked at the drawings of movements on the scroll. "that is definitely worth the price."
"I know!" Katara happily agreed.
"We got it for free." An amused Aang reminded them.
"Well, that's just even better then." Harry shrugged, looking at the scroll along with Katara.
"Yeah," Sokka nodded as he began sorting their newly brought supplies. "you should introduce yourself more often if it means getting all this free stuff."
"Sokka." Katara said disapprovingly. "Harry is not going to use his name and reputation to scare people into giving us free stuff."
"Ahem." Harry coughed and gave her a look that quite clearly said 'how sure are you about that?'.
"With exceptions, obviously." Katara added, satisfying Harry. "Besides, those pirates definitely stole this scroll in the first place."
"We need it more than them as well." Harry said as he scanned the scroll. "This isn't as good as a teacher but it will most definitely help out a lot. We should try and learn as much as we can until we get to the North Pole, after that we won't need the scroll and can just give it back."
"True." Aang agreed, sounding happy about returning the stole property. "So, let's get to learning!" He said enthusiastically
"Wait a sec, I just want to try this one move first and then it's all yours. Just hold this for a sec." Katara said before handing Aang the opened scroll, she looked at it, focusing on one move in particular. "The single water whip. Looks doable." She smiled before turning to the river of water. She took a deep breath before attempting the move, only for it to backfire and hit her on the head. "Ow!" She hissed in pain, she rubbed her head as Sokka began laughing. "What?!" Katara demanded, turning to Sokka.
"I'm sorry, you deserved that." Sokka shrugged before turning to Aang and Harry. "She's duped the both of you, she just wants the scroll for herself."
"They'll get their turn once I learn the move." Katara said angrily.
"Turn?" Harry repeated. "This isn't a goddamn toy, we're not doing 'turns', you said you wanted to try the move first, you tried it, you failed. You can try again later, Aang is the priority here."
"Guys, please don't fight." Aang said, cringing slightly. "I don't mind waiting."
"Yeah, well I do." Harry replied.
"Of course," Katara huffed. "shouldn't keep Mr 'Scary Dragon' waiting." She said before she attempted the move again, only to nearly hit Momo who was saved by Harry who had picked up in time. Momo screeched at Katara before climbing up on Harry's shoulder's and rubbing his head against Harry's to say thank you.
"You're welcome." Harry calmly told Momo.
"Ugh, why can't I get this stupid move?!" Katara said in a frustrated voice.
"You'll get it." Aang said before he tried the move and naturally did it perfectly. "You just gotta shift your weight through the stances. There, see, the key to bending -"
"Will you please shut your air hole?!" Katara screamed, interrupting him. "Believe it or not your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!" She demanded before realising that Sokka and Harry were both glaring at her. "What?" She asked before she looked back at Aang, who was now standing with tears in his eyes. "Oh my gosh, Aang, I am so sorry," She said, sounding almost horrified. "I don't know what came over me, I-"
"Aang, Sokka," Harry interrupted. "the two of you go and take a walk, a long walk. Far from here." Harry said before he shifted his shoulder so Momo would fly off of him.
"W-what?" Sokka blinked as Momo landed on him. "I don't know if-"
"Relax," Harry cut him off in an irritated voice. "your sister will still be alive and unharmed by the time you get back. Go, now." Harry said, he and Sokka looked at each other for several moments, both of them seemingly having a silent conversation.
"Aang," Sokka sighed. "come on, let's go."
"A-are you sure?" Aang asked hesitantly.
"No." Sokka said honestly before dragging Aang away.
"So, why did you send Sokka and Aang away?" Katara asked several minutes later, the last few minutes had been very awkward for her as Harry had not talked to her at all and she couldn't decide on what to say.
"Because, quite frankly, you were being a total bitch." Harry said with blunt honesty.
"What?!" Katara blurted out in an offended voice.
"You heard me." Harry said, glaring at her. "Your jealousy over Aang's success in waterbending is causing more problems than you seem to realise."
"I am not jealous of Aang!" Katara replied, glaring back at Harry.
"You quite clearly are," Harry said in an annoyed voice. "you don't seem to remember why Aang needs to learn waterbending, nor do you seem to remember that we have a deadline. Your obsession with trying to do better than Aang will cost us-"
"I am not obsessed!" Katara vehemently disagreed.
"Aren't you?" Harry snorted. "You stopped teaching Aang when he started surpassing you, and then when we finally get a scroll to help teach him how to waterbend, you demand to have it first and then when he tries to help you, you bloody yell at him!"
"And I'm sorry about that! I didn't mean to hurt his feelings but I-"
"This isn't about his goddamn feelings!" Harry interrupted. "This is about his life! He can't have feelings if he's dead! Well-there is the spirit world-but you know what I fucking mean!"
"Oh, go and keep lecturing me." Katara rolled her eyes. "Do you even care about Aang beyond him being the Avatar?" Harry rolled his eyes and turned away from her, but Katara was undeterred and continued. "No, I bet he's just a means to an end for you. You probably don't even care about him beyond what he will do, you just want to use him. And you want to lecture me about wanting to learn when you're one of the most powerful firebenders ever?! What do you know about what I'm going through?! You don't care about Aang and you don't care about me, why would you? The 'Emerald Dragon' doesn't seem to care about anyone because he thinks that-" Whatever Katara was about to say was cut off as Harry turned around and stomped his foot on the ground, a wall of air shot into the air and Katara felt her words die in her throat as she stared into his furious, emerald eyes.
"Watch your tone." Harry said in a slow voice filled with tightly controlled anger. Katara gulped slightly, within that moment she felt like she had only just truly remembered who she was dealing with. At the end of the day a dragon was still a dragon, even if was nice enough not to eat you. "I've spent some time with you guys, do not for a moment think that that means you know everything about me. I thought you were capable of being talked to like an adult, but apparently I had too much faith in you." Harry said in a disappointed voice, Katara visibly wilted in front of him.
"Harry, I-"
"No, shut your water-mouth and pay attention." Harry said before he stomped his feet on the ground three times, a short distance away a trio of five feet tall rock pillars rose up. "Without Aang mastering the elements he can't stop the Fire Lord, which means that the Fire Lord will try and end the hundred year war with the very thing that started it. That means everyone who isn't Fire Nation will have two options, bow down or be destroyed. Look at that pillar on the right, imagine it's your friends and family back in your home. Let's see what happens if they don't surrender their freedom and lives." Harry said before he sent a powerful fire blast that crashed against the pillar, causing Katara to jump back slightly.
"Harry, I don't-"
"Imagine that left pillar is Sokka, let's see what happens to your brother if he refuses to spend his life as a slave or a prisoner." Harry said before blasting that pillar, his blasts hadn't knocked over or destroyed either pillar but had damaged them both significantly.
"I-I get it, you don't have to keep-"
"Yes, I do." Harry said before he focused his attention onto the middle pillar. "You know something really interesting, there is an advanced part of firebending called 'lightning bending', it's really impressive. Not many firebenders can do it, but I know a few that can, including the Fire Lord. Imagine that middle pillar is Aang, now let me show you exactly what will happen if he fights the Fire Lord right now." Harry said before he closed his fists with the exception of his first and middle fingers on both hands, he joined the two fingers together before performing his lightning kata. Harry waved his arms in a circular motion as blue lightning appeared.
Katara could not help but take a step back as she heard the sound of the lightning rip through the air, the movement he was showing her was controlled, precise and very deadly. Harry aimed his hands and a large, canon blast-like sound, ripped through the air before the lightning shot towards the three pillars, destroying them with ease.
Harry shook his hands slightly as the lightning died down, he turned to face Katara and saw that the girl had dropped to her knees, tears in her eyes. Harry paused and wondered if he had perhaps gone too far, he shook his head, deciding that he may as well finish what he started.
"Katara," Harry said as he knelt down in front of her, "Katara," he said again, only to receive no reaction. "hair loopy." Harry called, lightly tapping her on the forehead so she looked at him. "You listening?"
"Y-yeah." Katara nodded slowly.
"Now listen to me, I'm not trying to do all of this to make you feel bad, or at least that's not the only reason, I am a bit sadistic." Harry admitted. "You need to understand, this is not a game where we take 'turns'. Lives are on the line, not just your own, but everyone else's. I'd love nothing more than for all of us to live in a war-free world, but that's not our reality. If you can't handle this then say the word and it can be arranged for you to go home. But if you're here then our priority has to be Aang, you and I will have to do our best to improve as well, but we can't hold Aang back because we get jealous. I know that I'm an asshole but I am here if you need to talk through any problems, really, I am."
"I-I know," Katara sniffed. "it-it's just that for years I was just a helpless girl, unable to do anything when the Fire Nation attacks our village. But then I started learning waterbending, it seemed like I was finally strong enough to do something but...it took me ages to just to get simple moves and then Aang shows up and gets them easily, I...I can't help but feel weak in comparison."
"I get that." Harry said in an understanding voice.
"Really?" Katara asked, looking quite surprised.
"I wasn't always as strong as I am now." Harry admitted before he continued speaking. "Tell me, if you have one person who practises waterbending for ten years straight and he happens to be better than someone who has only practised for one year, should it make sense for the less experienced waterbender to be jealous?" Harry asked.
"Well...no." Katara said, shaking her head slightly.
"Then why are you jealous of Aang?" Harry asked. "You've pretty much self-taught yourself everything you know, the fact that you're as far long as you are is frankly amazing. But Aang, he's had hundreds of past lives. Think about that, imagine if each Avatar reached the age of fifty at least, can you imagine how much waterbending experience that is? Aang isn't learning from scratch, this is basically revising for him. Any information he learns about waterbending is information that a past life of his already knows. Besides, waterbending is similar to airbending in a lot of ways; it's easier for him than it would be to learn the other two elements. Besides, look at me, water is like the opposite of fire, didn't you see my attempts? Out of the three of us, I'm the weakest waterbender."
"Y...yeah." Katara nodded, looking sorry for agreeing.
"See, that should make you feel better, the Emerald Dragon just admitted that you've beat him at something." Harry said with a smile, causing Katara to laugh.
"Thanks for making me feel better," Katara said in an appreciative voice. "I guess I probably apologize to Aang. For what it's worth, I'd like to say sorry to you too, I'm sorry about how I've been acting."
"Apology accepted, just...please don't do it again, I don't have the patience to go through this argument a second time." Harry replied.
"I won't." Katara smiled. "Oh, if you don't mind me asking, why don't you use that lightning technique of yours more often? Today was the first time I saw you use it."
"I avoid it unless I really need to use it," Harry shrugged. "normal fire is easier, plus I only use it when I definitely want to kill."
"Oh." Katara said softly. "Sorry for asking."
"It's alright." Harry waved her off. "Now, Aang and Sokka should be back in half an hour, that's plenty of time for us to practise while we're waiting." Harry said as he stood up and walked over to the scroll, picking up and grinning at Katara.
"Really?!" Katara said excitedly as she stood up.
"Yeah, I never said we couldn't practise when Aang wasn't here." Harry said before tossing her the scroll.
"Awesome," Katara grinned as she caught it, "wait," she said suddenly as her smile shifted into a frown. "I...I'm worried about Aang. I mean...you're talking about putting the fate of the world on his shoulders, and I don't think that it would be helpful to have Aang train non-stop."
"Oh definitely," Harry agreed. "the two worst things we could do to Aang is train him to exhaustion and death or not train him at all. We're going to work him hard, but he will need time to rest and relax. He needs a life worth fighting for."
"Is that why you're doing this?" Katara asked. "Because you have something worth fighting for?"
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't." Harry responded, his eyes softening slightly.
"What is it?" Katara asked curiously. Harry looked at her for several moments before replying.
"Tea." He said with a straight face.
"What?"
"I like tea."
"Harry," A voice called for him as soon as he entered the room, "I did it!" Azula said as she ran up to him, she stopped in front of him and started bouncing on her feet excitedly. "I did it! I did it!"
"Great," Harry smiled before looking at her questioningly. "now...what did you do?" He asked.
"I can make blue flames now!" Azula said, smiling widely. She held up a hand and blue flames came out of her hand. "See?!"
"Nice." Harry said in an impressed voice as he stared at the flames, missing Azula beaming with happiness at the compliment. "I can feel the heat off of it, impressive." Harry said before he raised his own fist and allowed it to be covered in green flames. "I prefer green personally." Harry smirked.
"They are both magnificent," Another voice said as General Iroh walked into the room. "and I am quite impressed by the both of you." He added.
"General." Harry greeted him respectfully after he and Azula stopped making fire.
"Uncle." Azula nodded towards him.
"Azula, would it be safe to assume that you're going to be joining us again?" Iroh asked in a knowing voice.
"Unless that's a problem." Azula said with a hint of challenge in her voice.
"Of course not, I'm not one to stand in the way of my niece when she wants to spend so much time with such a wonderful young man." Iroh said with a smile.
"Excuse me?" Harry blinked at him while Azula's face turned very red.
"It's not like that!" She quickly denied. "I just want to learn firebending!"
"Of course." Iroh said, continuing to smile, sounding like he didn't believe her. "Before we start, do either of you want tea?"
"I'll go for some." Harry said, causing Iroh to smile like he had just won a large amount of gold.