Title: Harry Potter and the Elemental Destiny

Author: Elemental Destiny

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does. I just mess around with her characters. Anyone you don't recognize is my own creation .As a matter of fact, I own nothing you recognize, period.

Summary: With 5th year over, Harry is stuck in a deep depression. Yet with his 16th birthday approaching he will come to learn that not all magic is wizarding magic, not everything dark is evil, and that sometimes the correct path to follow is lying right before your eyes. AU Post OotP

A/N: Back again. Hope everyone had a good holiday and a happy new year. Well I'll keep this brief. Thanks for all the support! I love to hear from you guys and see what you think. Please don't hesitate to share your ideas or feelings about the story with me; you are the ones I'm writing it for. Well Harry has his element and his familiar and even a place to stay. We get to meet Talasien's family in this chapter and see a bit of the training Harry will do. Now on to chapter 8, Happy Reading.

Italics = Thoughts

~ Italics ~ = Thoughts between Harry and his familiar

Chapter 8: Home Is Where the Heart Is

The group of four left the Grand Hall and entered the woods. Talasien led with Selena at his side while Harry trailed back a ways walking next to Kayla. They trudged through the woods for many hours before finally reaching a large hill. As they climbed up the hill Talasien spoke quietly to Harry, the first words spoken during their entire trip,

" A shadow druid huh, that pretty impressive, they are normally very powerful."

" Yeah, it's awesome." Harry answered simply.

" You got a wolf as a familiar, that's pretty awesome to. All familiars are loyal but for wolves it's in their animal makeup as well as their familiar one. You two should end up being really close." Talasien said, trying again to draw Harry into some kind of conversation, anything to end the awkward silence that had enveloped their group since leaving the Grand Hall.

" Yeah it's great." Harry answered again, still distracted.

" So, you're going to dye your hair green and silver, that's pretty nice it should work well with your complexion." Talasien told him.

" Yeah, it should look, wait." Harry stopped mid sentence and looked up to see Talasien's eyes twinkling mischievously.

" Ok I get it I'm a little distracted, you don't need to joke with me to make it so obvious" Harry said, smiling slightly in spite of his words.

The desired smile achieved Talasien also smiled and pointed at the top of the hill.

"Well while you're in such a good mood I thought I'd point out that my village is just over the top of the hill."

" Really?" Harry questioned.

" Really, we should make it home in time for dinner. You will be able to see all of my family at once." Talasien told him.

" You never really talked much about your family, I mean I figured you were married with the ring on your finger and all but…" He trailed off looking at Talsien.

" You're right I am married. My wife's name is Kiray, Ki for short, and I have 2 kids, Celeste and Orion. They kids are actually just about your age, their twins. " Talasien told him.

" They are all druids right?" Harry asked.

" Yes," Talasien answered. " Ki and Orion are fire druids and Celeste is a light druid."

" None of them are earth druids like you, I mean, it doesn't run in the family?"

" No, not really. I mean you tend to see trends in families, look at Ki and Orion, but every person is an individual and a persons personality is what determines their element." Talasien said.

Harry sighed, " It is all so confusing, I feel like there is so much information I need to know that I could drown in it."

Talasien smiled sympathetically, " It will get easier and you have me, Selena, and Kayla to help. For now don't worry about all the specifics, jut get the basic concepts down and you will be alright, there will be time to learn the rest later."

Harry nodded and once again silence enveloped the group, but this time it was companionable silence, and it stayed with the group as the continued to trudge up the hill.

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After some more walking the group finally arrived at Sekotai and though the village was small and rather unimpressive by druidic standards to Harry it was amazing. He stared wide-eyed at every aspect of the village as they passed through it, walking towards the white house near the far end of the village.

Kayla looked at her human and smirked.

~ You look like a little kid in a candy store ~

~ I can't help it Kayla. I still can't believe this is happening and everything here looks so amazing, so pure and untainted. ~

Kayla smiled as she continued to watch him.

~ Well start believing human mine cause it's real. ~

They continued chatting together until they reached the white house. The door opened and a woman with reddish brown hair stepped out and began to run towards them. Talasien smiled and stepped forward throwing his arms around the women. After a few moments they released each other and after taking her hand Talsien made the introductions.

" Harry, Kayla, this is my wife Kiray, Ki, this is Harry and his familiar Kayla."

Kiray smiled at the pair of them and said, " Welcome to our home. Harry, it is so wonderful to meet you, you as well Kayla. Please call me Ki and if you wait a moment I can introduce you to my familiar. "

" Aiden!" She called.

At her call a large tiger ran out the door racing towards the group before coming to a graceful halt by Ki.

Ki rolled her eyes before saying, " Harry, Kayla, meet my familiar Aiden."

"Hello young ones." Aiden said, his voice deep and strong.

Harry and Kayla exchanged greetings and the group made their way into the house.

" The kids are so excited to meet you, it's not often that there are many kids their age here." Ki told Harry.

" There aren't a lot of druid children?" Harry asked.

Both Ki and Talasien sighed but it was Ki who answered, " No, there aren't that many. In the larger villages, like where the school that Talasien teaches in, there are a decent amount but not here. Our numbers have been dropping steadily for a while now. There are only so many people in the druidic realm. "

" Oh." Harry said awkwardly.

Ki smiled at him and said, " Don't worry about it to much, I'm sure you and the kids will get along great."

On that note she got up and walked over to the stairs calling, "Kids, your father is home and Harry is here."

It wasn't long before Harry heard footsteps moving around above him. A little while later an average sized boy with brown hair shot down the stairs a cheetah at his heals. Behind him a girl walked calmly down the stairs, a kind smile on her face. At her side walked a husky.

The boy came over first and boldly shook Harry's hand while saying, " Hi Harry, I'm Orion and this is my familiar Apollo."

Harry shook his hand and introduced himself and his familiar. The girl came down the stairs and headed straight for Talasien and threw her arms around him, holding on for several moments, before coming over to where Harry stood. She pulled Harry into a quick hug, which was awkward but nice. She smiled at him and introduced herself, " Hiya Harry, I'm Celeste and this is my familiar Leon."

After going through some more greetings Ki sent Harry and the twins outside to get better acquainted.

" I'll call you when dinner is ready." She said.

The kids all went outside and sat in the backyard. Their familiars, after making sure they were ok went off to talk amongst themselves.

" So" Harry began, " You guys are druids."

" Yeah, I'm a light druid and Orion is a fire druid like our mom." Celeste told him.

" Hey, can you guys explain the whole element thing, I'm still a little lost. Your dad told me that your personality determines your element but what does that mean." Harry asked, confused. He was aware that he was really behind on information and hoped that the twins could help.

" Well, look at me and Orion, we are a great example of the concept your having trouble with. We are twins right, so it would make sense for us to have the same element, but we don't. Our personalities are way too different and that is why our elements are different. Orion is all action; all, the best defense is a good offence. In short, he's a pure type A personality. It makes sense then that his element is fire. It is an element that is very fast paced and dangerous, it matches his personality. With me so far?" She explained.

" Yeah I think so. Fiery personality, fire as an element. You're a light druid though, what does that say about you?" Harry asked.

Celeste smiled. " It says that I'm a peaceful person. I always look to work things out before I fight; in fact I rarely fight at all. I'm quick to help people and I stick closely to my own set of morals."

" She's a goody goody basically." Orion interjected.

Celeste stuck her tongue out at her brother. " I'll have to find the books for you, but I own some that talk all about what type of people certain element druids are supposed to be. I mean its not like the rules are set in stone. Ultimately you decide what kind of person you are going to be, not your element but its usually pretty accurate."

"I don't suppose that you can recall what type of people shadow druids are, do you?" Harry asked, worried after meeting Lord Shayden of what his element would say about him.

" Not off hand, sorry. I don't think I really read the entry on shadow druids as they are pretty rare. I do know that they almost always are really powerful so that's a plus. " Celeste said.

They sat together for a while longer, talking about lighter topics and just enjoying each other's company. It was apparent to all of them that they were going to become fast friends. After some more time had passed they heard the call of Ki, summoning them for dinner.

" Lets go get some dinner, it's late so we won't have much time before bed. " Celeste said.

" It seems like we are going to go to bed really early, why? " Harry questioned.

Orion got a wicked look on his face as he said; " You start training tomorrow Harry, trust me when I say you cant go to sleep early enough. "

" It's going to be that bad, " Harry asked.

The only answer he got was a smirk from Orion and a sympathetic glance from Celeste as they made their way to dinner.

After dinner Harry was shown his room and after a little while he and Kayla settled into bed.

~ This is it Kayla, tomorrow is basically the start of my life as a druid. I hope I'm ready. ~

~ What will be will be human mine, if we are ready then we are ready and will train hard. If we aren't ready then I suspect we will have many who will help us become so. We cannot control our situation; we can only control how we react to it. Go to sleep now my human, the morning will come quickly. ~

Harry smiled at her and her wisdom; glad she was by his side.

~ Good night Kayla ~

~ Good night, human mine ~

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Two weeks later Harry stood at the top of the hill that overlooked the village. He had run all the way from the house to the hill, the farthest he had ever been able to go. He chuckled mirthlessly when he thought of Orion's warning on his first night in Sekoti.

And the understatement of the year award goes to…

Training was intense; there was no other word for it. He got up and ate breakfast with Talasien and his family then went out for his run. He had been surprised at first to realize all the physical training he would be doing but Talasien had informed him that using elemental magic was far more tiring than using regular magic, thus requiring a druid to be in far better physical shape than a wizard. Talasien had told him that as he was both he should be in top shape.

The physical part of training he was excelling at, the elemental part however, was not going so well. Talasien had taken him out to an old clearing and taught him how to meditate and also the beginnings of Occlumency, which he found himself surprisingly good at. He glared remembering Snape's barked comment of " Clear you mind Potter". While Occlumency was difficult, with a better teacher he was really making strides.

After his meditation was at a proficient enough level, Talasien taught him to seek out his elemental core, the place wherein he could call forth shadow magic, as Talasien called it. He fond the core fascinating, a huge swirling mess of silver strands, woven around each other. Everything had gone great until he tried to summon a shadow ball.

Talasien told him it was the simplest exercise in elemental control. You used the magic from your core to summon your element to you, forming a small ball of the element in your hands. He explained that while druids have part of their element living inside of them, due to his age it was very small and hard to reach. Summoning the element from the world around you would have to do until he got older and more experienced. The only problem was he couldn't do it. He had been trying for days but he couldn't get the magic to work. Talasien was patient and tried not to let his worry show but Harry could tell that something was wrong and when he confronted Talsien he was told,

" I've just never seen someone take this long to get it, and you doing all the right movements and techniques and your meditation skills are strong. You should be able to do this Harry and it concerns me that you cant."

He went on to guess that perhaps it had something to do with his wizarding magic but he wasn't certain.

While Harry was very upset at first, he had done a lot of thinking over the weeks and decided maybe it wasn't such a terrible thing that he wasn't good. His mind went back to the book entries he had read on shadow druids. Celeste had been true to her word and found him not one but three different books on druids. He remembered vividly the passages they had contained on shadow druids.

The entry in the first book hadn't been awful,

Neither dark nor light they are often very determined and ambitious as well as fiercely loyal to friends and family. Though they do not trust easily and are somewhat aloof, giving rise to the claim that they are dark and cold. They also have a high control over their own emotions, though when persuaded to speak can be extremely passionate and charismatic. They are fearless fighters are powerful allies in battle.

The entries in the next two books however had shocked and worried him.

One of the most dangerous and rare elements, shadow is dark and mysterious as are the druids who wield it The triggering emotion is betrayal, which says a lot about the type of element that shadow is. The druids tend to be cold and serious, caring only about their familiar and the ways they can use their powers to the biggest advantage. They are the black sheep of the druidic world, worse even than the dark druids. All know that a dark druid is not to be trusted, but the danger in the shadow druid is that with him, one is never entirely sure whether a he is on their side or just waiting to stab them in the back.

Dangerous and lethal, they are among the most powerful druids to exist in the realm. Often times this power can corrupt the mind of a shadow druid turning them, no pun intended, to a shadow of their formal self. The many gifts of the element are dangerous assets that the druid in question can use to achieve their ends. While there have been a few notable shadow druids, (See Kyron, Shadow and High Master of the 1st High Council) There are few who are able to resist the alluring and seductive power of the shadow element. Treat with caution and watch your back.

Perhaps if he went along slow enough he could avoid this corruption that the book spoke of. Despite his concerns he tried his best as to not disappoint his teacher. It had been a long two weeks.

Done with his break Harry stretched some before starting a light jog back down the hill. He had come to love his morning runs as they gave him a chance to think. After some time had passed he saw the white house coming into view. He smiled as he saw a girl and a dog playing fetch by the trees and a boy and a cheetah racing in the backyard. Despite the hardships and difficulties of his training, he had come to love the new life he had and wouldn't trade the past two weeks for anything.

A wolf raced out to meet him and quickly fell in step next to him.

~ Ready for the day human mine? ~

~ With you by my side, I feel ready for anything. ~