And so it begins

When they say you need the power of three to achieve a magical balance and promote the highest of all spells, they are lying. After all, nothing comes in threes. Magic-or most forms of it-are based upon the four elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth. That would bring the number to four, a more symmetrical number, therefore a better balance, yes? Of course.

But when one considers these four separate elements you discover that there is no true balance-something is needed to bind them together so that harmony and balance can be achieved, and through this the access to the higher levels of magic can be achieved.

And this brings the total up to five.

There is a prophecy, as there is for most things about the four elements and their binding force. However, it was lost in the folds of time, and to this day has not been found-though the details of it have come to pass-so far as we know.

It all started on the day the Dragon, Phoenix, Snake, Sphinx and Unicorn came together that first time. The air was alive with magic, so none but themselves noticed the subtle changes within themselves. And even they did not understand.

For it is a complicated process for those five creatures to come together, for the four elements to rally under the fifth. But it began on platform 9 ¾, on the first day of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the students of the school clambered on board the train, said goodbye to their parents, ran up and down the platform to find the friends they had met only last year.

In the middle of this commotion stood a child, ten years old with a shock of red hair, separated from his mother when his younger brothers, twins, had decided to pull a disappearing act. He had easily been left behind, unable to follow his mother through the crowd. So he stood, waiting for the crowd to disperse enough for him to get through and find his family before the train left.

While he was waiting two girls, around eleven stepped into his line of sight; a small circle seemed to be growing around them. The two girls stopped, letting their trunks drop, still talking animatedly. One was tall with pretty blond curls dancing round her face and shoulders; the other was smaller, with jet black hair that hung past her waist. They had met just seconds before entering the circle and something had clicked.

The red headed boy watched them in mild curiosity before his attention was diverted by the appearance of a burly boy with brown hair, and a scowl fixed on his face, his aunt and uncle had left him to make his own way to the platform, a fact he was none to happy about. He kicked his trunk irritably after he'd let it drop and looked over at the train.

In that second the fifth walked into the circle, a compact boy with brown hair and laughing brown eyes, talking excitedly about Quiddich with his father.

Time froze, only for a moment as the magic bounced between them.

And then it was done, the boy left the circle, still talking excitedly about Quiddich with his father. The boy with the scowl kicked his trunk again for good measure before starting to pull it toward the train. The two girls, having decided that they had had enough of a rest began to tug their own trunks towards the train. Leaving the red headed boy standing, the smallest of frowns on his face at what had just passed.

"Percy! There you are! I'd thought I'd lost you too!"

The red headed boy looked round to see his mother, the twins, his youngest brother and baby sister all standing there. He smiled. "I couldn't get through the crowd."

She gave him a good, long, hard hug. "You'd best get on the train love, you don't want to miss it."

"Bye mum." He said, hugging her back.

Fifteen minutes later he was on the train heading to Hogwarts, that strange instance on the platform forgotten for now.

And that was how it began.

For they had yet to become a brood, a family. That would come with time.

For now, they were aware.

Nothing particularly astounding happened in the first year, the red headed boy, also know more commonly as Percy Weasely was put into Gryffindor house after nearly ten minutes deliberation on behalf of the Sorting Hat. The only reason it didn't go on longer was because Percy, becoming a little annoyed at the indecisiveness of the hat snapped that it should just pick a house to put him in. so the hat had picked Gryffindor, because that was where Weasely's usually ended up, though he was apparently well suited for all four houses-something the hat had never encountered before.

The blond haired girl, Penelope Clearwater as it turned out, was placed in Ravenclaw because she showed something the Sorting Hat had not seen in a long time. It appeared that Penelope was a seer, though she had yet to come into her full power. But that was only a matter of time.

The black haired girl, by the name of Helen Bubbles, was put in Hufflepuff, because she possessed great heart and a fierce loyalty. Her thoughts and actions were the very heart of purity, and they would, the Sorting Hat noted, remain so throughout her life.

The scowling boy, a Marcus Flint, was placed in Slytherian because he was full of a cunning and intelligence none would have granted him on first sight or meeting.

The Quiddich obsessed boy, Oliver Wood, was placed in Gryffindor, for his bravery and his passion, he was true of heart and loyal-the epitome of all things Gryffindor.

And so they were settled, each element in its proper place.

It became obvious early on that these five could not be enemies-though Oliver and Marcus did give it their very best shot, in the beginning. Fire and earth had never been truly compatible, but that was of course, why there was a binding force to keep them in check.

It had started off as a simple disagreement over Quiddich, Percy and Oliver had been disagreeing over a player, and Marcus, drawn over to them had thrown in a comment about the team-which sparked Oliver's temper.

Percy, wisely stayed out of it, but the argument escalated to a full blown shouting match, which would have come to blows had Percy not felt a sudden throbbing between his eyes, and seeing Oliver's fist clench, he just had to stop them, he didn't know why, he just did. He easily pushed between them, facing Oliver, who just managed to avert his punch in time to miss Percy's nose.

"What're you protecting him for!" Oliver demanded.

Percy frowned at him. "Because you shouldn't be fighting!" he snapped, and hearing Marcus' snicker behind him he turned. "Don't think I don't mean you too!"

Marcus blinked at him, but stopped snickering. "You can't tell me what to do-stupid Gryffindor." He said snidely. It was too early yet, they were not closely enough bound for Marcus to be unable to say such a thing-but over time it became more and more difficult for him to disregard or insult Percy.

Oliver however, being in such close quarters already had a hard time disobeying the red head, especially when he drew himself up to his full height, which was only slightly smaller than Marcus and Oliver, and using what would later in life be termed his 'Perfect Percy' voice. "I can and I will!" he said, surprising himself that he was taking a stand on this. "You shouldn't be fighting! Can't you feel it?" he asked-he could, deep down he knew they shouldn't be.

It became obvious later in the year that it was only Marcus and Oliver that Percy had the problem fighting each other, Oliver could have easily punch another Slytherian, and Marcus another Gryffindor, but not each other. Something rebelled against it. Maybe it was Percy, but neither knew, and neither asked. So they settled for glares and yelling matches.

Percy himself could not explain it, he just knew that they shouldn't be fighting; he tensed up when it looked like they were coming to blows, a pressure creeping between his eyes, like a storm. And if either got into a fight with someone else he always felt an irrational need to jump to their defence, like some kind of protector. It was the same with the two girls, Penelope and Helen. There was always that same protective surge that went through him when he saw them.

Too young to really understand what it meant, though he looked it up in any number of books, he eventually chalked it up to the fact that he was an older brother, and without his younger siblings to look after he projected onto others. What he couldn't figure out though, was why he had projected them onto those four specific people.

He was too young to understand the true meaning behind what was happening-as where they all. But the first thought that goes through the mind of a parent is to protect their young, and truly, that was all Percy was doing, to the smallest degree. He was protecting his brood-even if it was those within it from each other.