Eventually the team reached the village which was located at the base of a mountain, as the neared the entrance they heard the turkey-ducks quacking, they had barely spent a few minutes there when they came across a man dressed in black robes, standing by a round doorway.
"Aunt Wu is expecting you." The man said with a smile before gesturing to the door as he stepped out of their way.
"Really?!" Katara grinned excitedly before she and Aang quickly rushed in.
"We're both going to walk away from this with massive headaches, aren't we?" Sokka whispered to Harry.
"Yep." Harry sighed before he and Sokka followed after Katara and Aang. As Harry entered he saw Aang and Katara talking with a young girl clad in a pink robe and wearing her hair in braids that stick out from the sides of her head.
"I'm Meng," The girl introduced herself to Aang, an excited look on her face. "what's your name?" She asked.
"I'm Aang." Aang said in a disinterested voice as he glanced at Katara.
"Aang?" Meng softly repeated before allowing a beaming smile to appear on her face. "That rhymes with Meng and...oh, your ears are quite big, aren't they?" She grinned.
"Uh...I guess." Aang said awkwardly.
"Don't be modest, they're massive." Sokka chuckled.
"Well Aang, it was nice meeting you." She said with a blush before she walked off.
"If she tells me that this 'Aunt Wu' predicted that the love of her life is a guy who has a rhyming name and big ears then I am going to burn something." Harry whispered to Sokka just before an elderly woman wearing a yellow robe enters the room.
"Greetings travellers, I am Aunt Wu." She said with a kind smile. "Now, who is first?" She asked.
It was ten minutes later when Katara had come back from her 'reading' with Aunt Wu, in the meantime Harry had been waiting outside along with Sokka and Aang. For a minute or two Aang had left to go to the bathroom and had come back surprisingly happy, though neither Harry or Sokka asked why, nor did they really want to know why.
"So, who is next?" Aunt Wu asked.
"Eh, I'll go." Sokka shrugged as he stood up. "Might as well get this over with." He said. Aunt Wu stared at him for several seconds, looking at him like one might look at a bug in a jar.
"Your future is full of struggle and anguish. Most of it, self-inflicted." She predicted in a dry voice, Harry snorted at that despite himself.
"But you didn't even read my palm or anything!" Sokka protested, looking at her with disbelief.
"I did not need to read your palms, it's written very clearly all over your face." She said simply before turning to Harry. "Perhaps you?"
"I'd rather head-butt a tiger-goat in the head." Harry replied, his tone efficiently demonstrating how he felt about getting a reading.
"I'll do it." Aang smiled as he stood up.
"Very well." Aunt Wu nodded, she gave Harry an odd look before gesturing Aang to follow her.
"Harry," Katara frowned as she sat down next to him. "you could be nicer to her, you know."
"I could also have stayed in the Fire Nation and enjoyed a nice life filled with great food instead of camping out in the woods with you lot." Harry said in a dry voice. "Anyway, what did she tell you?"
"Well," Katara blushed slightly. "we mostly just started talking about hand lotion," She admitted. "but she told me that my future husband will be a powerful bender." She said, smiling at Harry.
"Wow," Harry rolled his eyes. "so you've got it narrowed down to basically any above average bender in the Fire, Water and Earth kingdoms. She told you what you wanted to hear, Katara."
"Do you have to be so negative? It could be true." She said quietly.
"Have you ever heard of Occam's razor?" Harry asked suddenly.
"Um...no..." Katara blinked at him. "...what's that?"
"To cut a long story short, it basically means that the simplest solution or answer is usually the right one." Harry explained. "Now, let's look at this situation. This woman tells you that you're future husband is a powerful bender, now either you're right and she can see the future or I'm right and she told you something that you wanted to hear, if we go by Occam's razor then I'm right since that is far more simple than your explanation."
"You know, I've got to ask," Sokka spoke up. "why do you hate fortune tellers so much?" He asked, staring at Harry curiously.
"Yeah, I'd like to know as well." Katara said quietly. "You seem to have a real problem with Aunt Wu."
"It's not just her." Harry sighed. "Look, like I said before, the majority of them are just fakes, and those who aren't can cause serious damage. The future is not set in stone, every action we take changes it. These fortune tellers and prophecies and oracles all get as much power as people are willing to give. Now, I want you imagine what would happen if Aunt Wu said the best thing these villagers could do would be to join the Fire Nation, what then?"
"Oh crap, these idiots would all join!" Sokka gasped.
"W...well, we don't know for sure." Katara protested.
"Come on, Katara, wake up and smell the herb tea." Harry replied. "One of these idiots was willing to stand in front of a platypus-bear on her word, they'd of course join the Fire Nation if she asked, most of them at least. You realize how much damage could be caused by people blindly obeying fortune tellers or if they try to fight against the future that they supposedly have?" Harry asked.
"What is that last part supposed to mean?" Sokka asked while Katara digested what Harry had just said.
"There's this story," Harry began in a tired voice. "of a boy named 'Potter'."
"That's a stupid name." Sokka snorted.
"Your face is stupid!" Harry snapped at him before taking a calming breath. "Anyway, Potter was born to two loving parents that loved and cared for him. Unfortunately he was born in a time of war, the leader of the opposition was a feared man who many called the 'dark lord', only the bravest people dared to fight him, two of those people were Potter's parents. Before Potter was born, an oracle made a prophecy about the dark lord stating that a child born at a specific time from the parents of people who had defied the dark lord three times would eventually defeat him. Unfortunately Potter's parents had defied the dark lord three times and him being the unlucky idiot that he was, was born at that specific time.
The dark lord found out about the prophecy and decided he couldn't risk it and went after Potter."
"He killed him?" Katara softly gasped, her expression one of horror.
"No, that would be one thing." Harry shook his head. "First he killed the father who tried to buy enough time for the mother and Potter to escape, then he killed the mother. The mother, a woman who everyone always referred to as brilliant, a woman who had a bright future, had her life cut down really short because she refused to step out of the way to let that madman kill her son." Harry said, noting that by this point Katara had tears in her eyes and Sokka's face had hardened significantly. "Then he was ready to kill one year old Potter when he stumbled into a trap that the mother had left behind for him." Harry continued, allowing himself a brief smirk. "Unfortunately he wasn't killed but was in no state to finish off Potter, he left and then the next time he would meet Potter would be when he was eleven when he tried to kill him again. Then again when he was twelve, then again when he was fourteen, and so on until eventually Potter was forced to kill him. This dark lord brought his own demise because a prophecy stated that if he didn't kill Potter then Potter would kill him.
The woman who made the prophecy was a drunk idiot, though the prophecy of hers was seemingly genuine. However it only had power because the dark lord believed that it did, because of him and his insistence on killing Potter, he cost himself so much. As for Potter, who wanted nothing more than a peaceful life, he lost his parents and spent years in an abusive home while nearly dying every year once the dark lord was able to put him in danger again, all because of an overheard prophecy from a drunk dullard in a pub." Harry said, glaring into nothing. "His family, his childhood and the rest of his life lost because of one moronic man's obsession with a goddamn prophecy."
"That...that's horrible." Katara said, her voice a near whisper. Harry didn't immediately respond, he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, a few moments later his whole body relaxed and he finally opened them again.
"That's the power of fortune tellers." Harry softly spoke. "Perhaps there are real fortune tellers in this world, perhaps there aren't. Either way, they only have as much power as people give them." Harry added before he stood up. "If you'll excuse me guys, this village isn't for me. I'll meet you guys in the next one, be there before evening time or I'll come back and look for you." Harry said before he turned and walked off.
"Do...do you think that story is real?" Katara asked Sokka once Harry was gone.
"I hope not." Sokka answered honestly, shaking his head.
"It...it sounded real." Katara shivered.
"Hey guys," Harry said later that day when the Aang and the others finally arrived in the next village and joined him in a room he had brought in an inn. "enjoyed yourselves?" He asked.
"Not really." Sokka huffed as he and the others plopped down into their seats.
"What happened?" Harry asked curiously.
"Well, it kind of went like this..." Aang began before he started telling Harry exactly what had happened once he had left. After several minutes Harry was able to get a basic summary of the story, apparently Aunt Wu had incorrectly predicted that the volcano next to the village wouldn't erupt by reading clouds of all things. When the gang realised it would erupt they managed to use air and waterbending to change the clouds into a symbol of 'volcanic doom' (because apparently there was a symbol for that) which thankfully managed to kick Aunt Wu's ass into panic mode and got her to evacuate the village. When the volcano erupted the lava that spewed from it was thankfully dealt with thanks to a combination of Aang and a few earthbenders from the village.
"I'm sorry," Harry apologized. "I should have been there to help you, I..."
"It's alright," Aang waved him off. "nobody got hurt. Plus I think I sort of understand why you didn't like it there, Katara and Sokka told me about that story you told them, it wasn't nice." Aang frowned.
"No, no it wasn't." Harry agreed as he shook his head.
"Well, for whatever it's worth, I don't think I like fortune tellers anymore." Katara admitted. "An entire village could have been killed because Aunt Wu made a wrong prediction."
"Hey, we tried to tell you." Sokka shrugged as he gestured between himself and Harry.
"Yeah," Aang nodded solemnly before turning to Harry. "though she did say something you might like. She told me I have the power to change my own destiny."
"So she's not completely full of shit." Harry hummed thoughtfully, the others stayed silent since they figured that was the closest Harry would ever get to giving a compliment to a fortune teller. "Well, I can't say I disagree with that." He shrugged.
"Hey, if you don't mind me asking," Sokka spoke up. "if you don't believe in destiny and prophecies and all that then why do you think Aang has to be the one to fight the fire lord?" He asked honestly, he along with Katara and especially Aang, looked at Harry with curiosity.
"Look, if it was up to me then I'd just do it myself." Harry admitted. "But if I went and just killed him or tossed him in jail then nothing good would happen, everyone would call it a bid for power or just say that I was out of control. If the Avatar, protector of the world and bringer of the balance stopped him, then that would mean something to people. Plus...I can't kill him, no matter how much I want to."
"Why not?" Sokka frowned.
"I made a promise." Harry sighed.