Disclaimer:

I do not own Harry Potter or the characters of the Harry Potter series. I do own Shihosa Leviathan, Techy, Agent Michael Darcy, and any other characters outside the HP universe that may invade this story.

Pronunciations:

Shihosa = She-ho-sah

Techy = Tek-ee / Phelan = Fay-lin

Kralaq = Krah-lack

Important!:

When you review please let me know if you want shorter chapters with frequent updates or longer chapters with a slower update rate. I mainly write this when I'm at work so shorter chapters would most likely come out every 1-3 days while long chapters could take 1-2 weeks. Thank you for your input!

Previously:

After Techy put Harry to bed Shihosa leaned over and kissed the lightning bolt that peaked out from between his black fringe, "If he chooses the ceremony life will indeed become quite interesting around here."

With that the two adults left the room and all that could be heard was the soothing sounds of the forest at night.

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Lysander Foster Leviathan (formerly known as Harry James Potter) was quite sure he was not going to see his eleventh birthday, which coincidently was tomorrow. How was he so sure of his imminent doom? Well the completely rocky hard ground that was rushing up to meet him at infinity miles per hour, head first mind you ,along with being bound hand and foot, would be playing a large part in his worry.

The young boy tried to wiggle and flex, testing the bonds, but they would not give one inch. Lysander then tried a strong cutting spell but that didn't work either. Seeing the ground so very close he winced and began searching his mind frantically for a focus song. Giving a resigned mental sigh that this would be a humiliating experience he let "Ride of the Valkyries" fill his mind and he felt his magic take shape.

Blushing beet red as he began wiggling in time to the music like a demented snake, Lysander felt the magic surround him and he barely skimmed above the ground as the ability of flight took hold of him and he escaped the deadly grip of gravity.

Despite his brush with death, again, Lysander was more worried about what he was going to see when he reached the top of the cliff that his mentor had chucked him from. He had a feeling that when he got up there his teacher would be howling in laughter and Hermione, considerate as she was, would be struggling to hold her laughter in and soon would fail miserably. The wriggling boy grimaced in mortification, as coming close to the cliff top; he already heard the deep rumbling of laughter from his mentor ringing out in the crisp morning air.

As soon as Lysander had crested the top of the cliff he swiftly let his focus fade and gave a small grunt as he quickly dropped to the ground. Not wanting to be even more mortified by the bright red blush he knew he was sporting, Lysander kept his forehead pressed to the ground, mentally refusing to look up until the blush faded.

After a moment, over his mentors gales of laughter, he heard footsteps coming towards him and Hermione's amusement laced voice say "hey Zander? Are you ever going to look up?"

The grass on either side of Lysander's face fluttered as he spoke, "nope. I think this patch of grass is quite soft so I think I'll take a nap right here. Yeah, maybe if I sleep for a bit this whole embarrassing situation will just pass by."

Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes at the dramatics her friend was displaying as she pulled the dagger, that Aunt Shihosa had given her for her 9th birthday, out of her boot. Stooping over she gave a few quick flicks to the bonds that held Lysander and Hermione watched in amusement as he collapsed fully to the ground and stayed there. After a minute with no movement from her friend she huffed and went over to their magic mentor. Seeing him still on his back chuckling she began to wonder if men ever grew up and promptly smacked him in the shoulder.

Large golden eyes with slit pupils popped open and stared down an impressive ivory hooked beak to look at the diminutive girl tapping her foot with impatience.

A deep rich voice flowed into Hermione's mind as the ebony gryphon at her feet flipped up and tried to regain a modicum amount of dignity, "you wanted something fledgling?"

Hermione shook her head at their mentor in exasperation, "well now that you've stopped laughing like a loon can you help me with him?"

The "him" in question was one Lysander Leviathan who still had not moved at all from his spot.

Tilting his head in an inquisitive manner Kralaq looked at the prone form of his student before fluffing up his neck ruff and giving a thorough shake, "bah, fledgling insecurities."

Marching over to Lysander, Kralaq hooked the raptor claws of his front arm around Lysander's belt and abruptly jerked the boy upright; causing a sharp yelp of shock to escape from Lysander.

"Fledgling, no matter what the world throws at you always face it standing tall; so you can see over the problem and find the solution behind it."

Lysander stood there for a moment, thinking about what Kralaq had just said before nodding and gave his mentor and Hermione a sheepish grin. "So-o, how'd I do?"

Kralaq fondly nudged Lysander in the chest saying, "You got back up here and didn't go splat down there so you passed, even though you did not get out of your bonds."

Lysander wrapped his arms around the dangerous predator's beak with not a single fear while placing his forehead against Kralaq's, "I couldn't reach any of my weapons and my magic was repulsed by them. How could I have gotten lose?"

The two males turned as the answer came not from Kralaq but from Hermione, "just change."

Lysander stared at her obviously confused "just change? How in the world could that-"

Lysander was cut off as he was still holding Kralaq when the gryphon nodded in agreement with Hermione "it was what your mother did when she had this test."

Giving a derisive snort Lysander retorted, "mother is a freakin huge dragon! She would have snapped them in a second!"

Hermione and Kralaq looked at each other with shared exasperation causing Lysander to bristle.

"Lysander," Hermione began saying "aunt Shihosa didn't get bigger, she turned into a smaller form."

Lysander opened his mouth to give a scathing reply when his mouth abruptly clicked shut as he realized how foolish he had been. Running a hand through his long silver/black hair and sighing, he then looked at the two watching him and winced.

He then stood perfectly straight before giving a flourishing bow towards his mentor "I'm sorry for having an attitude during the precious time you've taken to teach me."

Kralaq watched the boy for a second before nodding stately, showing that he accepted Lysander's apology.

Lysander turned to Hermione and taking her hand he bowed over it in a courtly gesture "forgive me friend of mine, for being a prat."

Hermione laughed and tackled Lysander "it's never that easy bucko!"

Lysander gave a shout of gleeful surprise and soon the two children were tussling around the ground like two wolf pups, growls and yips included. It was this scene that Shihosa and Techy came upon when they got to the top of the hill to check on Lysander's progress. With a gleam in his eye Techy shifted to his wolf form and leaped into the fray, causing the two children to squeal in shock before tackling the new target.

Kralaq chuckled and settled to the ground to watch them all and turning his head to Shihosa he motioned to his side for her to take a seat. Giving the large guardian beast a delighted smile, Shihosa quickly settled her back against Kralaq's side and watched her family play. After a time the bundle of arms, legs and bodies came undone and all three lay sprawled on the ground panting.

Lysander and Hermione were almost reflections of each other as they lay head to head panting from their rough play. Hermione tilted her head back to look at Lysander just at the same time he went to look at her. The two blinked for a moment then wide grins spread across their faces and for some reason that struck them both as the funniest thing in the world. Within seconds they were curled up in little balls of laughter while the adults looked on in bewildered amusement. Finally the children's laughter died down and they slowly got to their feet a small giggle escaping every so often.

Raising an eyebrow and giving the two a wry grin Shihosa said, "quite finished are we?"

Lysander and Hermione blinked owlishly at her then turned to each other only to start giggling again. Shihosa rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in a I-give-up gesture before herding the two down the path towards home.

Sometime later they were all gathered in the large open living room that was the center of Shihosa's house in the Ancient Realm. A warm breeze flowing through large arched windows caused the gauze like curtains to flutter and twist in lighthearted patterns. The glass that had been encased by the thin metal scroll works in the triangular arched windows had been spelled away to allow the playful wind and trilling songs of the birds to come through. Wine colored velvet over stuffed couches were in the middle of the room in a large circular depression that was made in the floor; creating a cozy nest like feeling.

Kralaq was sprawled along one of the long couches, his leonine tail lazily swishing back and forth like a pendulum; as his beak was partially cracked open in a gryphon grin, watching the two pairs on some of the other couches. Both Techy and Lysander were sitting upright with their heads resting against the back of the couches while Shihosa and Hermione were lying down with their heads on the leg of each of the respective guys.

Barely opening her eyes Shihosa shifted her head a bit to look towards her son, "so Lysander, how did your test go?"

Lysander stiffened slightly but did not raise his head as he replied, "I passed."

Seeing her son's reaction Shihosa raised an eyebrow before saying, "congratulations. I knew you could do it."

There was only the sound of the wind and the birds for a few minutes before Lysander said "aren't you going to ask what I did?"

Shihosa gave a yawn, stretching fully, before saying "if you want to tell me you can but from your reaction it was a bit of a blow to your pride. One thing you have to remember son is that this test was not about grace or pride, but about being able to think on your feet in a situation that escape or further actions seem impossible. I want this for you so that no matter what gets thrown at you, you will always be able to come back home to me alive."

Carding his fingers through Hermione's curls, Lysander sat there for a few moments thinking on what his mother had said. Sure Ancients were all pretty powerful and near immortal but they still could die. Ancient Dragons, besides Ancient Phoenixes, were the longest living people of the Realm and unless they were killed by un-natural causes or by just giving up, you could say they lived forever.

Raising his head and giving a mental chuckle at the sight of his mom and uncle sprawled on the opposite couch Lysander's thoughts began to wander. He knew his mother was powerful, so powerful that she had put a binding on herself that would alert certain people if she ever crossed that threshold. When her mother would joke about infinite cosmic power he knew that it wasn't really a joke. If she wanted to she could very well tear their two worlds asunder or at least rule them as she saw fit and he wondered why instead she partially complacently let the worlds go on as they did.

"Mom? Why don't you rule the two worlds?"

Lysander calmly watched the chaos his query inspired as everyone had a different reaction. Kralaq's head snapped up from his folded forelegs and his beak gaped open in shock while his neck ruff puffed up in surprise. Hermione quickly shifted from her side to onto her back to stare up at Lysander as if he'd grown another head. Techy's head whipped up from its laid back position and his jaw dropped in a mirrored imitation of the look that Kralaq sported. Lysander ignored all of them to concentrate on his mother's reaction to the question and found he was kind of disappointed in that she barely moved.

What he failed to realize was that Shihosa didn't have a visible reaction because she had totally froze up at his question.

Sounding calm, though she was anything but calm, Shihosa looked at her son as she said, "Why do you want to know that fledgling?"

Lysander gave a slight shrug and leaned his head back against the couch "just curious. I was thinking about how long Ancients live and their powers and then I thought about how powerful you were and everything and just wondered why if you can do so much then why isn't everything perfect or something?"

Shihosa let out a long sigh and everyone tried to get back into their previous positions as the young woman tried to put her reasons to words that would get through to her son.

Giving a slight grin Shihosa said "well partially it's because I'm lazy."

Shihosa grinned impishly as her brother laughed out loud, Hermione's giggle rang out and Kralaq's mental chuckles fluttered through their minds, though when she saw the look on her son's face the grin wiped away instantly. Lysander was looking at her as if she had betrayed him by treating his question as if a joke. Giving a mental sigh she realized that, despite his nonchalant manner, he was really serious about the question.

Shihosa swung her legs up and over the couch so she was now sitting upright and looking at Lysander. "Look honey, when I said I was lazy that isn't far off the truth. I don't think you realize exactly what power, thought, time, and manipulation would go into creating a perfect world."

Getting up Shihosa began to pace back and forth with a frown on her face "first everyone has a different idea of what paradise should be like. Sure there are similarities, never going hungry, always having shelter, ect., but then there are the other things that make people, people that you have to think of."

Gesturing with her arms as if encompassing everything Shihosa continued, "consider bigotry, their perfect world is not having the religion, race, and so on that they hate in the world and only having the people who have the same ideals as them living on the planet. Think of the people who bike or drive and how their paradise would be only having people who do one or the other on the roads. Then after you get past all that the idea of climates for a paradise are different as well, not to mention people who want to work and who don't, and even more decisions thrown into the equation of what a perfect paradise is."

Turning to face her son with a very serious look on her face she concluded "so unless I wipe off every single living creature on the planet and replace them with single minded individuals with no imagination perfection will not happen."

Crouching down and placing her hands on Lysander's knees and looking up at him she softly said "despite my power I am no goddess, no ultimate being that has the right to screw around an individual's fate line as if playing cat's cradle with it. I will use the power I have to help those around me that I can, those that call me, those I hold dear to my heart; and then and only then will I fiddle with another's fate line."

Shihosa got up and placed a kiss on her son's forehead and one on Hermione's "I have set rules for myself and adhere to them because I will not become a dictator, a person who steals free will, nor will I become the killer of imagination."

She then got up and quietly left the room leaving them all to think about what she had revealed to them.

After a time Kralaq's mind voice echoed to all of them "well fledgling, what brought on such a serious question?"

Lysander sighed, "Hermione and I are going to Hogwarts soon right? So with everything that both of us can do how can we make sure our powers don't get away from us when we are trying to use the wizard way for doing magic? I mean even though it takes a focus and energy, from what I can tell the Ancient way is better than the wizard way of doing magic and I just want to be sure I don't accidently cheat."

Techy waved a hand, "oh don't worry about that; if you want your mom can set up something and I'll have you know she going to bind both of your shifting abilities a bit."

Hermione's head just barely grazed Lysander's chin as she abruptly sat up and started getting up with a protest on her lips, "bind our forms! But-but what about the running and the pouncing and the flying for powers sake!"

Lysander would have laughed at Hermione's expression if he wasn't joining her in the feeling of protest hearing about their shape-shifting being bound.

Eyes wide and his arms waving as if staving off an attack Techy said "whoa, whoa there pups! I didn't say she'd bind all your forms, just most of them. She's going to let you choose one simple form of each element and Lysander will have his four and up to a dragon-half."

Hermione sighed as she sat back down "well I guess that won't be too bad. I don't have that many forms to begin with but I bet it'll be torture for you to choose Lysander."

Giving a shrug Lysander replied "it won't be too bad choosing. I already have some forms I like over others so I really just have to choose from a few as well."

Just as Hermione was about to say something more Lysander gave a jaw cracking yawn and looked kind of surprised after he closed his mouth. "Err excuse me."

Kralaq gave a chirring type of noise before saying "you both worked hard today, and as for you Lysander all that adrenaline you were riding on earlier has now disappeared with the evening breeze." Looking to the sun slowly setting the black gryphon continued "if you two fledglings are to be awake for Lysander's birthday party at midnight, I suggest you both head to your rooms here to take a cat-nap."

Nodding to the stately creature the two began heading out of the room.

"Hermione? Are you going to be staying in your room here or head home?"

Hermione blinked tiredly at Lysander, "I'll be sleeping here, I don't think I'll get very far if I try to go home."

Chuckling Lysander threw an arm over his best friend's shoulder and the two stumbled sleepily together to their rooms which were across the hall from each other. As they were entering their rooms Lysander heard Hermione whisper a good night and he responded in kind.

After he closed his door Lysander leaned against it sighing tiredly. Kralaq had been right; after the adrenaline had faded he was so tired! Pushing off the door, he stumbled over towards his bed before stopping suddenly as a movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Turning to his left Lysander let out a low chuckle as his image in the mirror copied him. By the powers he needed sleep if his own reflection was making him paranoid!

He actually had one foot lifted to take the first step towards his bed before something made him place his foot down and stare at the mirror. Long black hair with silver trailing bangs, fell past his shoulders and ended at the bottom of his shoulder blades. Looking up at his forehead with emerald green eyes surrounded in silver he looked at the faint mark of a lightning bolt that pretty much could only be seen if you were really looking for it. Tracing the faint jagged line, Lysander winced slightly at the memory of chaos that simple looking little scar had caused when his mother had been performing the parental binding ceremony.

Stepping back and putting his hands in his pockets Lysander grinned at the healthy looking boy in the silvery glass; being so happy that he was actually having the chance at a normal… well, semi normal life. He was wiry from all the training and hard playing that he and Hermione did while living in the Ancient Realm; but he was not the starved waif that Shihosa had first rescued years ago.

Suddenly he gave a jaw cracking yawn that made him blink then laugh at the look on his face in the mirror. Blinking tiredly Lysander let a soft lullaby drift through his mind and he felt his clothes change to the boxers and a tank top he used for sleeping in. Turning he headed towards his bed but paused midway and set the alarm on his clock to be sure he got up in plenty of time to get ready for his birthday party at midnight.

As he stumbled into his soft bed he smiled in gratitude to the tiny sylph, which always seemed to hang around him, as she had pulled the covers away before Lysander could collapse on top of them. Blearily looking up at the small wind sprite that he and Hermione had named Lily; due to her dress made of a Lily flower, he gave her a smile that soon ended in another yawn. Hearing the tinkling of wind chimes the boy chuckled at the sound of Lily's laugh.

"Thank you for helping me Lily" Lysander murmured while his voice faded as he began to fall asleep. "Wouldn't have made it under the covers without you."

The small fae elemental smiled softly at her charge as his breath evened out letting her know he had fallen into a deep sleep. Puckering her lips she blew lightly and the folded back covers flipped over to cover the young boy and Lily quickly darted here and there, lovingly tucking the edges around the slumbering boy. Seeing that Lysander was well tucked in the sylph circled once in the air before drifting over to her small bed which was actually attached to the far right corner post of Lysander's bed.

The design of the sylph's bed looked like someone had molded a relief of winding smoke up and around the post of the bed until halfway up the wood it seemed to drift off the post and turned into a fluffy cloud. The bottom of the cloud supported Lily's mattress which was actually a golden silk pouch stuffed with dove feathers and lavender. A single curl of "smoke" wound up from the main cloud to rise above the middle of the tiny bed. That small part held the middle of a bright rainbow colored scarf that became the canopy for Lily's bed.

Entering the alcove the scarf made Lily smiled softly as she ran her hand over the silky mattress. She remembered the day the two children had presented her with the bed and had mentally vowed that in return she would protect them with everything she had. Before Lysander and Hermione had presented the gift to her, Lily had been sleeping in an open drawer next to Lysander's bed and though the boy had tried to make it comfortable for the small elemental, the enclosed space made the sylph a bit edgy. Lysander had noticed this and together with Hermione, Shihosa, and Techy they each made a part of the little bed. Hermione selected the fabric for the pouch and had hand dyed the scarf, Lysander had gathered the softest feathers and freshest lavender; Shihosa had placed a stabilizing spell on feathers and lavender, while Techy had created the winding smoke relief.

Looking at Lysander through the gauze like material she sighed sadly thinking of the day when the fledglings would leave the nest for school. She knew it was just for a little while and that he would be making friends in the new school and she wouldn't be able to follow. Finally she settled her head onto the golden moonsilk and just as he eyes drifted shut she suddenly shot up with a thought; just why couldn't she go with the children? She was an elemental of wind! She was as free as any creature to go wherever she pleased and none save the children would be any wiser since only they would be seeing her. Grinning at the new resolution Lily curled up on her bed giggling; causing the sounds of tinkling wind chimes to fill the room as she finally let sleep claim her.

A few minutes later Lysander's brow furrowed and he shifted restlessly in his sleep. Finally his shifting stopped as he lay on his back and his right hand had crossed over his chest to rest upon the emblem that still seemed to shift as if restless itself. Unbeknownst to Lily her charge was re-living one of his fondest, yet gut wrenching times in his life. Lysander was dreaming of the time when Shihosa had bonded him to her and the Leviathan family and though she had warned him repeatedly of the pain and trials of the ceremony, none of them expected the chaos that had actually occurred.

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Ok all chapter 7 is finished! I'm sorry this took so long, but work and other things have kept me busy. I'm going to try doing shorter chapters so I can keep up with a steady update time unless you all vote otherwise. The next chapter will be of the binding ceremony and Lysander's birthday bash and the following after will be their trip to Diagon Alley; then finally will be their trip and first day of school.