Chapter Four: Finding Their Gifts
The following morning Ron and the others were walking past the dean's office just as
Teren opened the door.
"Oh, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. Just the four I wanted to see." Teren smiled
widely. "Could you four come in here for a moment please?"
The four of the looked a bit shocked but nodded and entered the dean's office. They looked off to the side as they entered to see four older trainees standing there patiently.
"These four are to be your mentors. I must first apologize to you four for not getting you teamed up with a mentor sooner. Generally I do this when you first get here but I got a bit sidetracked." Teren explained. "Harry, your mentor is going to be Daemon.
Hermione, your mentor is Sera. Ron, yours is Aisley, and Ginny, you will be paired with Maila."
As Teren said the names the four Trainees stepped forward. Daemon was a handsome man and had a good-natured smile. He had blue eyes with jet-black hair and a chiseled face. Sera was a slender woman with red hair that came to her shoulders. She had green eyes and reminded them a lot of how Harry's mother would have looked at her age. Maila and Aisley looked so similar they had to be siblings. Both had blonde hair and brown eyes and were about the same height.
"Hello, Harry," Daemon smiled as he shook Harry's hand.
"Hello, Daemon," he smiled back.
"The mentors will be here for you if you have any questions or just need to talk." Teren told the four new students.
"Yeah, in other words we are to be at your disposal," Aisley said jokingly. "Neither sleet nor rain, nor sleep deprivation shall stop us from being at your aid!"
The others giggled as Teren rolled his eyes. "Right, now off with you all. And don't let Aisley fool you, we don't deprive our students of sleep." He chuckled. "Not for the first few months at least!"
The trainees left the dean's office chuckling.
"Is he always like that?" Hermione asked when she stopped.
Sera looked at her. "Yes, dean Teren is a good natured man and is not afraid to joke with us now and then."
"That's good," Hermione smiled. "When we first met him I couldn't help but think he was so ... well."
"Uptight?" Aisley threw in.
"In a manner of speaking, yes," Hermione nodded.
"That was him acting like a dean" Maila explained. "Mainly he acts just like any other herald. When he's on duty he's quite strict but when he is off duty or what he is doing does not require him to be so authoritative he's actually quite nice to be around."
"So, Maila," Ginny turned to her mentor. "Are you and Aisley related?"
"Yes," Maila sighed. "He is my twin brother, unfortunately."
"Hey! I resent that!" Aisley smirked at his twin. "What could possibly be unfortunate about being my twin?"
"Sorry to say, dear brother, but you just answered your own question," Maila grinned back.
"Hey, now that really hurt, Mai." Aisley said in mock gloom.
Ginny watched this interaction and realized just how much Aisley reminded her of Fred and George. Thinking of her brothers made her realize just how homesick she felt.
As they continued their training, Harry began to notice a rapid increase in the feelings that he was developing for Ginny. He found himself noticing every movement that she made and wanting to be with her more as time passed. He just wished that he had an explanation for it. But he didn't, and he continued to pray that no one would notice. His prayers were ignored, and Ron finally started to notice just how much attention his best friend had been paying to his baby sister. Then the unthinkable happened. Ron and Harry were sitting in the eating hall one morning when Ginny and Hermione entered and Harry's attention was immediately on the stunning redhead.
:Wow: Harry thought to himself. :She looks incredible:
"Huh?" Ron's head snapped up as he looked at Harry in confusion. "Who looks
incredible?"
Harry's eyes widened as he looked back at Ron, "What?"
"Who looks incredible?" Ron asked again. "I heard you say that someone looked incredible."
"No, I didn't." Harry looked at Ron as if he'd gone mad.
"Yes you did! I heard you." Ron said as he started to flush with anger.
"You must have heard someone walking by, Ron. I didn't say anything a moment ago,"
Harry told him as he turned his attention back to Ginny, who was now walking toward them.
:Do I ever wish I had the courage to ask her out: He thought wistfully.
"Ask who out!" Ron practically shouted making Harry jump.
"How are you doing that?" Harry finally asked speculatively.
"Doing what?" Ron looked taken aback.
"How do you know what I'm thinking?" Harry hissed as the girls approached.
"Wh-what?" Ron stuttered. "What do you mean thinking?"
"Just what I said, Ron. How do you know what I'm thinking?"
"You were saying it!" Ron glared at Harry.
"No I wasn't, Ron," Harry snapped. "I was thinking to myself and you heard me even with my shields up. So tell me how you did it."
"Hi, guys," Hermione said cheerfully as they sat down. Then, as she noticed them glaring at each other, added, "What's wrong?"
"Ron's reading my thoughts, and I want to know how!" Harry seethed.
"I am not! You said it aloud!" Ron snapped back.
"Okay, now wait just a minute." Hermione interjected. "Just how did this get started?"
"I was thinking to myself and Ron listened in on my thoughts, then he asked me who I was talking about!" Harry glared at Ron. "But the thing is, I wasn't talking, I was thinking."
"But I heard you as plain as day saying that someone looked incredible and that you wished that you had the strength to ask that person out!" Ron stated exasperated.
"But I did not say that!" Harry insisted. "I thought it, but I didn't say it!"
"Okay, that is enough!" Hermione glared. "This is above you both."
Ron turned to Hermione. "What in the bloody hell are you talking about?"
Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron. "Arguing over something this petty? Come on, Ron, Harry is your best friend and all you guys can do is fight over what? A petty thing such as what you thought you heard?" Hermione scolded him. "It's time to grow up, Ron."
Ron gaped at Hermione in shock as Ginny snickered.
In the meantime, Harry had turned his attention back to Ginny again. :I never thought I would think this about Ron's sister, but I have never had such strong feelings for anyone like this. If he knew that I truly wanted to date her, he'd go crazy: he thought with amusement that quickly faded with Ron's yelp.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT TO DATE MY SISTER?" Ron yelled at
Harry, making him blush as every eye turned towards him.
"Would you mind keeping your voice down!" Harry hissed, still red in the face.
"NO! First you said that I was reading your thoughts, then you say that you want to date my sister!" Ron glared at him.
"Umm, Ron?" Hermione looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "Harry never said that."
"Sure he did! I just heard him!" Ron said, looking from Hermione to Harry and back.
"Didn't he?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, Ron, he didn't."
Ron chuckled. "You're joking right?" And when she frowned at him, he faltered.
"You're not joking. So I can read thoughts!"
"As far as I know, it's called thought sensing, and apparently you can," Aisley said, over hearing the conversation as he and the other mentors sat down. "It's quite common to have that paired with mindspeech."
Hermione turned to Ron. "Then that would make a total of three gifts that you have."
"Three?" Ron looked confused.
"Yes, three." Hermione said, exasperated. "You have what they call mage gift, mindspeech and now thought sensing. Three gifts total."
"Oh," Ron muttered, looking thoughtful.
"Do we all have three gifts?" Harry asked.
"I don't know, Harry. I only know of two of my own, mage gift and mindspeech."
"Me too," Harry sighed wistfully, then turned to Ginny. "What about you?"
Ginny shrugged. "Same here."
:Good. At least she won't be able to hear my thoughts like Ron does.: He thought happily. :Although it would be nice to find her sharing my thoughts instead of Ron. I'm just not sure I like the idea of him hearing my thoughts. Especially when I am feeling this for Gin. I wonder what she would say if I did ask her out.:
"WILL YOU STOP THINKING THESE THINGS ABOUT MY SISTER?" Ron bellowed, making everyone jump.
"I will when you stop invading my thoughts!" Harry retorted.
"How can I when you think them so loudly?" Ron grumbled.
"You know what, Ron, I don't give a..." Harry started but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"What is going on here?" Harry heard a strong voice say.
Harry paled as he turned to look into the face of Herald Dirk. "Nothing, sir," he said quickly.
"Nothing? Then I would suggest you lower your voices and let the rest of us get back to our dinner."
All of them blushed a brilliant shade of crimson as Harry and Ron both said, "Yes, sir," simultaneously and quickly began to eat as the Herald left their table.
As time went by, the rest of their gifts developed. All four of them had a minor gift of mindspeech as well as the mage gift, but each had a gift in addition to that. Harry had developed farseeing along with mindspeech and mage gift, and Hermione possessed fetching. However, the gift with the most potential for trouble developed in the Weasley siblings.
Neither Ginny nor Ron expected to share a gift, but by some quirk of fate they did and they discovered it on the same day. The four of them were walking towards the salle for weapons training when Harry suddenly looked toward Ginny with longing. He couldn't block his feelings, and they seeped from him like energy. This would not normally be detectable, but both Ron and Ginny stopped in their tracks and looked at Harry.
"What!" Harry asked blushing at Ron's glare and Ginny's amused look.
"I can't explain it, Harry, but I just felt your feelings for my sister," Ron grumbled.
"I did too!" Ginny looked at Ron, shocked.
"Okay, now wait just a minute!" Harry looked taken aback. "You mean to tell me that you both felt my emotions just now?"
At both of their nods Hermione squealed with joy. They all turned to her with looks of confusion.
"What!" they asked in unison.
"You both have empathy!" she laughed.
"Empathy?" Ron looked at her as if she'd gone mad.
Hermione sighed with exasperation. "Yes, Ron, empathy. You can feel other people's emotions." At Ron's bewildered look she sighed again. "Look, you can feel what other people are feeling at any particular moment. Both you and Ginny can, and it had to be a particularly strong emotion for you to be sure of exactly what he was feeling."
Ron groaned. "Why me? First I have to hear his thoughts about my sister and now I have to feel them too? This is no bloody fair!"
Ginny burst into laughter, grabbed Harry's hand and continued to make their way to the salle.
Ron groaned audibly as he watched them walking hand in hand.
"Oh, Ron, you really need to get over it!" Hermione scolded him. "Both of them are old enough to figure out what they want."
"Yeah, I know, but why did it have to be my sister and my best mate?" he whined.
"Ron, I'm sorry to say this, but you can't have everything go the way you want it to," Hermione soothed. "None of us can."
Ron thought about what she said for a moment before nodding grudgingly, and he followed Harry and Ginny silently