Author's note:
It all belongs to JKR. I own nothing.
One of my betaed chapters. Thank you Strangeways
Children of the Flame Saga
Book 1: Death's Daughter
Chapter 6
Home
Harry poured juice for himself and Ginny at breakfast before their practice later that morning. Less than five hours ago he'd asked her to be his girlfriend and he still couldn't believe she'd actually said yes. He was very much looking forward to getting through practice and classes as quickly as possible and hoped to find some small speck of time to be alone with her. Ok, he was really hoping he might get to kiss her a bit … More than a bit really … Fine, he was certain he'd be perfectly happy to spend the rest of his life with his lips against hers. That would be quite nice, thank you very much indeed. But given their schedules for the day, after practice, he didn't hold out too much hope of seeing her before dinner again tonight.
"So are you going to tell me what you did to it?" she asked.
Harry glanced at her. "Sorry?"
"My bracelet," she clarified.
"Oh, right." He turned to face her more fully. "So the first thing is I put an Unbreakable Charm on it. It also has a charm so only you or I can remove it. Not even someone Polyjuiced as us could take it off. It's got a Notice-Me-Not Charm, as well as a Confundus Charm on it. Ideally no one will ever actually really register that you have it on. But just in case someone did and they tried to take it from you, I also put a Duplication Charm on it. If someone tries to take it from you it will fade behind a Glamour and they will end up with a reasonable fake in their hand. And, once I finish with this," Harry held up his hand, indicating the ring signifying him as head of the Potter family Remus had brought from his vault, "you'll be able to talk to me through it."
Ginny's eyes widened. "As impressive as all that is I get the impression those are just to hide what you really did to it."
Harry grinned. "Smart girl."
She returned his smile. "I try."
Harry smirked. "So it would be safe to say that you know gemstones are naturally capable of storing magical energy, right?"
She nodded. "Yes. Bill says emeralds are one of the best; along with rubies, sapphires and of course diamonds."
"Right," Harry agreed. "Another thing they're really good for, or they would be if they weren't so rare, is as ward anchor stones."
Ginny nodded. "We have seven common crystal ward stones at home. Each one is as big as me though. They have to be because they're so inefficient. Bill says seven Snitch-sized diamonds could do the same thing but they would cost about a ten-thousand times as much."
Harry grinned. "Exactly. Diamonds are the best, but emeralds are way up there too and you have a bracelet consisting of exactly fifty-seven near perfectly cut 1/8th carat emeralds. Not enough to ward The Burrow, but more than enough for me to ward you."
Ginny's eyes slowly widened. "You–"
"One stone for the trigger, seven for anchors and for the power, seven to the second power. Let me tell you, etching the appropriate runes in them was no small trick. I ended up having to replace about half the stones 'cause I messed them up. But they're all good enough that they work properly now. So as of this moment, you are almost as safe as if you were at Headquarters. You can't be taken by Portkey or even Apparated away because you have to be outside your ward for that to happen. The thing is, it's pretty hard to be outside a ward that you are literally wearing. Pretty much the only way to remove you from inside the ward is to remove it from you; hence all the spells to keep that from happening. Obviously, it's not fail safe; any ward can be overloaded. But it will take a fair bit to do it. Right now the power stones have only the minimum charge needed to activate the ward and keep it in place under assault from two to three wizards for about two minutes before it would start to fail. Now here's the coolest bit. If I did absolutely everything perfectly, fully charged your ward should stand up to a four-headed assault for close to half an hour. I probably don't have every power rune exactly perfect so most likely you've got twenty to twenty-five minutes. The thing is it would take me weeks yet to actively charge them fully, so you're going to do it just by wearing it."
Ginny stared at him in awe, unable to come up with anything in response but for a dumbfounded, "I am?"
Harry nodded. "Just running the ward for a single day takes about the equivalent of casting thirty Protegos. If you don't recharge the stones with at least that every day you will eventually deplete them to the point that the ward will fail. So when making something like this the last spells you put on it are basically on and off switches."
"On and off switches?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah," Harry answered. "There are going to be times in class, or," he glanced around, "where you're practicing," he said significantly, "where you don't want the ward on, right?"
Ginny nodded. "Of course."
Harry gestured towards the bracelet. "May I?"
Ginny raised her hand for him. "Of course, Harry. And so we're perfectly clear, no matter how mad I am at you, and rest assured we'll have days where we're livid with each other, unless I specifically tell you not to touch me, know that taking my hand is never off limits to you."
Harry grinned and took her offered hand. "Good to know." He turned her hand over and slipped the bracelet around her wrist. "This stone, right here," he pointed to the first stone on one end, "is the trigger stone. If you touch it and say, 'Protect me.' the ward will activate. If you say, 'Collapse.' it will power down leaving you unprotected. If you say 'Charge.' you will activate the charm to slowly siphon raw magic from you into the stones. Over twenty-four hours, it will take about fifty Protegos worth; enough to replenish what running the ward takes and a bit more. At that rate I figure the stones will reach their full charge in about a year. Once they reach full capacity, the spell will only take what it needs to keep them there … I'm afraid you're going to be a bit tired till you get used to it. Really though, it will be good for you. Using your magic is just like exercising. The more you do it, the stronger and easier it becomes."
Ginny stared at him, completely astounded. She knew a fair bit more than she had let on regarding what it took to make something like this; she'd been talking with Bill for the last two years about becoming a Ward and Curse-Breaker, but she hadn't wanted to spoil any of it for Harry as he told her about it. And she could hardly fathom that he'd gone and done all of it for her. "Harry, have you slept at all the last six weeks?"
Harry's eyes darkened. "I need you safe, Ginny. Even if I could I don't think you'd want to spend every minute of every day with me never letting you out of my sight. So just wear it. Wear it, power it on and charge it. Give me this and I swear I'll never attempt to pull some stupid noble git thing on you. If I'm still stupid enough to try it, then you have my permission to hex me six ways from Sunday. Hell, give me to Bill because I'd fully deserve it."
Ginny reached up and touched her finger to the trigger stone. "Always," she said quietly. "I'll wear it always." She paused, locking eyes with him. "Protect me, Harry," she added his name significantly.
Something in Harry's chest roared approval of her adding his name to the words needed to activate the bracelet. Just as quickly, the feeling of triumph was wiped aside by concern as her eyes widened almost as if she'd heard the creature in his chest. "What? Is something wrong?"
"No!" she said quickly. "Nothing's wrong. It's just …"
"Just …?" Harry prodded when she didn't go on.
"Comfortable," she answered, obviously struggling to find the words she wanted. Then, suddenly, with finality, she said, "It's home."
"Home?"
She nodded. "It feels like laying on the couch with you last night."
"I don't understand. It feels like home, or it feels like laying on the couch with me."
Ginny blushed but didn't back down. "Being with you is home, Harry. I've never felt safer than when I've been in your arms. Your ward feels like I am."
Harry stared back at her for a few moments before a brilliant smile lit his face. "I think I like that."
Ginny glanced around the great hall. There were just too many people around to chance anything; not if they really were going to try and keep things secret for a bit yet. And she really did like that idea; even if it only ended up being a day or two, of having something that was just theirs. Well Dobby knew of course, but she was pretty certain the little elf would die before betraying either of them. Actually, she knew he'd die before betraying her. "Do you want to go down to the pitch early?" she asked quietly.
Harry turned back to his breakfast. "Give me five minutes," he answered.
"Deal," she agreed doing the same. Very quickly the two of them finished off everything they'd taken and she was standing. "Ready?"
Harry chugged down the last of his juice before standing too; stuffing a couple apples and a banana in his bag as he did. "Yep." They turned as one and were out the door before anyone knew they were gone.
Saturday morning three days later Harry downed the last of his juice and turned to Ginny. "Ready?" he asked, stuffing a couple pieces of fruit in his bag for later.
Ginny grabbed a banana and apple herself and stood from the table. "Yep." They turned and nearly ran into their Headmaster.
"Harry, Ginevra," he greeted them with twinkling eyes.
Harry stilled instantly. In his experience it was never a good thing when Professor Dumbledore sought him out; especially so when he used his name. "Sir?" he asked guardedly. He wasn't certain why, but he felt very glad that Ginny had activated her ward before they'd finished with breakfast.
"Good morning, Headmaster," Ginny greeted him. "How are you today?"
"I'm well, Ginevra. Thank you for asking. Yourself?"
"Never better, sir," Ginny answered in such a manner as to cause Harry to blush profusely.
Dumbledore beamed at her. "Most wonderful, my dear. Your smile these last few weeks has been good to see. And this morning, well, you are positively radiant."
BLOODY…! Harry exclaimed silently, He knows! He bloody well knows! Wanting just a few days of their relationship to be theirs and theirs alone, they hadn't told anyone yet; but somehow Dumbledore knew. He glanced at Ginny and instantly knew she knew that Dumbledore knew too. Though she managed to appear completely unperturbed by the fact. Unperturbed! I'm starting to sound like Hermione now.
"It started a bit rough but it was a good Christmas, sir," Ginny answered. "Term is going well. I got a letter from my mum the other day saying Dad is nearly completely healed." She paused, giving Harry a sly look as she edged a bit closer to him. "I seem to have a lot to be happy about I guess."
Dumbledore chuckled. Yet once again she gave not the slightest indication she'd noticed his subtle attempt to use Legilimency on her. As always he saw nothing but what one would expect to see in the mind of a fourteen-year-old girl. "Indeed … You two are off for yet another early practice then, I suspect?"
"Yes, sir," Harry answered, regaining some semblance of coherence
"Good, good. Though I did wonder if I might trouble you both to come by my office afterward?"
Harry frowned. For more reasons than the fact that Dumbledore had virtually ignored him the whole year. He and Ginny had worked frantically the last two days to get their revision done so they might spend some time just being with each other later today and now the man was summoning them both to his office. Honestly, he was inclined to decline. In the end though, the desire to possibly find out anything at all about what was going on with Voldemort won out … Besides, he didn't really think he had a choice. He exchanged a look with Ginny, somehow not being surprised at all to find that was all it took to understand she felt pretty much exactly as he did. He turned back to the Headmaster and answered for both of them. "We'd be glad to, sir."
"Most excellent," Dumbledore said. He turned to leave, paused and added, "I do sometimes wonder what a Canary Cream might be like," before ambling away from them.
Harry and Ginny stared after his retreating back. "Seriously," she muttered in disbelief, "one of my brothers' inventions made it as his password?"
"The man is mad," Harry agreed turning for the doors. She followed and they were halfway down the front lawn before a rather disturbing thought regarding where he and Ginny had spent the past Wednesday night hit him. "You don't think he's going to expel us do you?"
Apparently the thought must have occurred to Ginny too. She snorted. "For Wednesday night? Please, he's not going to expel us. Not when he could just have my mum murder us instead." Harry stopped dead and it was a few paces before Ginny turned back to him. "I'm joking, Harry. It's only me she'll kill."
"You don't think he'd tell them, would he?"
"What, that we slept together the other night? No, he'd only tell my parents they needed to come to the school to talk to us. He'd make us confess our 'sin' ourselves. It's the way adults work." Harry stared at her with horror in his eyes. "It's too late to break up with me, Harry. And I'd kill you if you tried."
It was another moment before Harry shrugged and started towards the changing rooms again. "In that case, I guess I'm going to go make whatever trouble I'm in well worth it. And then I'm going to hope for a Bludger to the head. Your mum'll have forgotten all about anything else by the time I wake up."
Ginny laughed and fell in next to him. "Pretty much my exact thoughts, Potter."
They reached the changing rooms and Harry held the door for her and followed her through where they flopped down together on one of the couches in the team meeting room. She settled against his chest and they sat in silence for a minute before she started playing with her bracelet.
"Would you mind not taking it off for practice?" he asked.
"I kind of need to," she said. "It's not exactly sporting when the Bludgers find me untouchable because of it."
"Just power it off," Harry said. "That way if you need it you can actually get to it."
"It's just practice, Harry."
"Rogue Dementors, rogue Bludgers, that demon woman teaching Defence, I swear Malfoy is getting worse every day and you are the girlfriend of the bloke with a direct mind link to Tom-Someone-Pissed-in-my-Porridge-this-Morning-so-I'm-in-a-Really-Bad-Mood-This-Life-Riddle, could you please just humour me, Ginny?"
Ginny laughed before sighing in acceptance. "You're right. I'm sorry, Harry."
Harry shifted so he was sideways on the couch and pulled her so her back was to his chest as she sat between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Thank you."
Ginny settled into him. "You're welcome."
Harry played with the bracelet on her wrist for a minute, twisting it around. "You should tape it though," he said.
"Tape it?"
"It's unbreakable, but your arm isn't. If you slip and it catches you could get really hurt. So just wrap a couple strips of tape around it so it can't catch, yeah?"
"Ok," she agreed easily.
"Thanks."
She sighed happily and they were silent for a minute or two before she quietly called, "Dobby?"
Dobby popped into the room, took one look at them and said. "Dobby will warn you when the others is coming, Miss Ginny."
"You're amazing, Dobby," Ginny answered.
"Dobby is glad to help his friend, Miss Ginny."
"And I'm glad to be your friend, Dobby. Thank you."
"You is welcome, Miss Ginny … Harry Potter, sir?"
"Yes Dobby?"
"Dobby is most pleased with the magic you is protecting his Miss Ginny with. You is a truly great wizard, sir."
"Thank you, Dobby. It means a great deal to me that you think that and I'm very glad to know that you are such good friends with Ginny and that you are looking after her too."
The little elf straightened proudly. "Dobby will always take care of his friends."
"My friends call me, Harry, Dobby. I'd be honored if you did too."
If possible, the elf seemed to almost grow an inch or two with Harry's continued kind words. "Dobby can do this most well, Harry, sir."
Harry chuckled. "Excellent, Dobby. And thank you for keeping watch for us. We both appreciate it very much."
"It is Dobby's honour. But he must go now or he will be talking and not watching and that would not be very good at all." He popped out of sight before either of them could respond again.
"I really do love that elf," Ginny giggled.
"How did you become friends with him?"
Ginny hesitated. They'd promised no secrets, but like she'd said the other night it might take a bit to reveal them all and they'd not had but a few moments alone since then so no really significant conversations had occurred. Given the opening, now might be as good a time as any to come clean on this particular subject. "Harry," she said quietly. "Dobby isn't just my friend."
"What do you mean?"
"He came to see me after the Chamber. He wanted to apologize for not being able to do anything to stop his rat-bastard former master from giving me the Diary. The thing is he can be rather tricky and persistent."
"I'm aware," Harry chuckled.
"Yes, well the problem, at least for him, is that as my friend there are limitations in what he can do to protect me. For instance, within the school he has no trouble finding any student who calls him by name. The school's magic works with his and he knows where you are. But outside it, it's very difficult, if not impossible, for him. He might not even hear you call him; especially if he's separated from you by unfriendly wards. But if he's bonded to you, he can find you almost anywhere." She paused to let that sink in with him.
It was a few moments before Harry quietly said, "Hermione is going to kill you."
"Once I figured out what he'd done I freed him," Ginny answered. "I had to do it twice before I managed to find something that would work. The thing is, long ago, when the elves first pledged themselves to a witch or wizard, it wasn't as the slaves they are today. It was a partnership between them. One they could end at any time they chose. It's been twisted now, but I found the old way. All Dobby has to do to free himself is speak the words, 'Dobby ends his bond with Ginevra Weasley.', three times without interruption or any other words mixed in and he's free. And I pay him Harry; I'm not able to hold him against his will but he's able to protect me with all his abilities."
"You pay him?" Harry asked.
"Yes."
Harry frowned. He knew her parents gave each of their children pocket money as they could, but he also knew it wasn't much. Ron rarely had more than a few Sickles and almost never spent more than a Galleon or two on a Hogsmeade weekend. He doubted she received even a Galleon a week. "Is it possible for me to pay his wages for you?"
"No. And I wouldn't let you anyway."
Harry didn't say anything. He'd expected as much. I guess I'm just going to have to find some way around it, he thought. He shifted, wrapping his arms around her more tightly. "Hermione is still going to kill you."
"You're not angry with me?"
"Hermione's problem is not realizing her choices are not the choices everyone else would make. If Dobby is happy with your arrangement and is free to end it as he chooses, who am I to say anything about it?"
"Thank you, Harry."
He kissed her crown. "Welcome."
"I just want to make sure you understand he really is my friend, Harry … For a while it seemed he was the only friend I had," she added, her voice becoming small and vulnerable.
Harry crushed her against his chest. "Never again, I swear it."
Ginny reached up, cupping her hand to his neck to try and hug him back. "Home," she whispered vehemently. "This is my home."
"For as long as you want it, Ginny. For as long as you want it.
Author's note
A bit longer chapter, that I hope will satisfy some of the more voracious Harry/Ginny fans.
As Always, thank you to all my readers and a special thank you to those who reviewed. You make my day.
