Chapter Ten

The New Marauders continued to practice their transformation each night in the study. Each time, one of them would keep watch while the others worked so they could help any of the others if they got stuck. They soon found it was a wise decision; several times they had to rescue someone and transform them back.

Several weeks later, Harry and Ginny were the first to complete their transformations, they told the others that they were ready to try the full transformation. They all sat around the edge of the study and waited with excitement as Harry and Ginny started the transformation at the same time. The others looked on in awe at the two Phoenixes that appeared before them; Harry had black features, striking green eyes and a slight mark above one eye where his scar would be. Ginny had striking red features that matched her hair and chocolate brown eyes. They were about to transform back when Fawkes and Xavier flashed into the room and carefully studied them.

'Congratulations to both of you, no one has ever managed this transformation before,' Xavier told them.

'Thank you, Xavier. When we found out we had this form, we were excited to try it,' Harry responded.

'Hello, Harry and Ginny,' Fawkes said as he landed before them. They both looked at him in surprise.

'Ah, yes, I can see you are surprised. You can now talk to me as well; Phoenixes communicate with each other this way, and since you have now transformed, you have all the abilities of a Phoenix. Xavier and I will train you in Phoenix magic and help you to understand everything.'

'Thank you, Fawkes, this is just so amazing,' Harry said in response.

'Harry, it has been for us too. As I told Professor Dumbledore after you bonded, never before has a second Phoenix witnessed the bonding process, and now we both are witness to your transformation.'

They continued to talk for a few more minutes as Xavier and Fawkes explained to them about Phoenix magic.

'It's time to transform back; if you don't, then you risk staying in this form forever. Over time you will be able to stay in a form for longer,' Xavier told them.

They both transformed back to the stunned faces of their friends.

"What happened?" asked Hermione.

"Fawkes and Xavier came to talk to us about our transformation. We are the first to ever achieve the form and they wanted to make sure we understood about Phoenix magic," Ginny told them.

"Wow, that is so cool, so do you have all the abilities of a Phoenix," Hermione asked who looked at them jealously.

"Yes, we do; they are going to train us on how to use them," Harry said with a smile.

"Can you tell us about Phoenix magic?" Hermione asked hopefully.

Harry asked Xavier and Fawkes who both answered that it wasnt possible to discuss it.

"Sorry, we can't," replied Harry honestly. Hermione looked upset at this as she loved learning anything about magic.

Over the next few days the other Marauder's completed their first forms. They had a little party to celebrate when they had all managed it. Harry and Ginny had already started working on a second form. Harry wanted to do the Stag as that represented his father, and Ginny decided on the mermaid because she loved swimming and thought it would be fun to try. In order to do that, however, she needed a large tank of water.

One evening not long after that, they entered one of the bedrooms off of the main study and were surprise to find that it had been transformed into a massive swimming pool. They asked Godric about it and he told them that the school had responded to Ginny's request for a pool to practice in.

The second transformation was easier for all of them basically because they knew they could do it, they had all completed them a couple of days later.

As February ended, they realized the second task was in less then a month. Hermione asked if Harry had worked out the clue. He admitted that he hadnt yet, and decided to spend some time studying the egg. He opened it again, expecting to hear the terrible screeching. However, this time, he heard a song. He looked around and could see that Ginny was also hearing the song but that the others were in pain due to the sound.

He quickly wrote down the words he heard, and then closed the egg. Hermione wondered what he was doing when he started writing, but it soon became clear that he was hearing something else besides the screech. Hermione looked at the words of the song and remembered what Harry had told her about his forms. She quickly realized that it must have been mermish that he heard; that would explain why Ginny could hear it too.

"Harry, I think that was mermish that you heard," said Hermione a few minutes later. "All I could hear was the terrible screeching but you didn't hear that did you?"

"No, Hermione, I didn't; it was a song; Ginny heard it too. I think you are right, do you think there are merpeople in the black lake?" asked Harry.

"That would make sense, Harry; it seems that you are going to have to go in the black lake for the second task and find something that you care about," Hermione concluded.

"I guess I need to work on my merman form," Harry told them.

"Yes, Harry, at least we have the pool," said Ginny.

"I wonder what I will have to search for; it sounds like it will be something important. I don't like the way the end of the song is worded, and cannot believe that they would allow such an outcome if we don't succeed," said Harry.

As they had already been down to breakfast, Harry headed to the pool room as they had named it so he could begin practicing. Ginny offered to join him as she had already completed the transformation and looked forward to spending some time with him. Harry focused on the merman transformation and was able to transform fully on his first attempt.

'Wow, that was fast, Harry,' Ginny said as she just stared at him.

'Yes, and I haven't even thought about doing it before; that was weird.'

'Hmm, I wonder,' said Ginny as she suddenly transformed into her Doe form.

'Well done, Gin,' Harry told her as they both transformed back and kissed.

'So, it appears that only one of us needs to learn the transformation and then we are both able to complete it,' Ginny said with a smile.

'It would appear so,' said Harry.

'Wow, this will really cut down the amount of time we need to finish all our transformations; I am going to try the Eagle form next,' announced Ginny as she transformed into her mermaid form in the pool.

'I think I am going to try the Snake, we could have some fun with that one,' laughed Harry as they swam around in the pool.

'Sounds good, Harry. Well we don't have to worry about those just yet; we should focus on getting ready for the second task and then worry about the next forms.'

'Yes, that sounds like a good plan,' said Harry.

'I think we should go out to the black lake this afternoon and spend some time swimming out there; at least you will have an idea of what is in the lake,' Ginny suggested.

'Yes, I think that would be a great idea.'

After lunch, Harry and Ginny spent the afternoon in the Black Lake. They soon discovered that there was a whole community of merpeople in the lake. They were initially hostile toward them, but once they showed that they meant them no harm and just wanted to explore the lake, they left them alone. The lake was a lot deeper than they expected and had a lot of creatures they had never heard of.

They both decided that they would visit the lake regularly whilst at school; they found it relaxing as they swam around effortlessly. They had not met any more merpeople that day, but hoped they would in the future.

After their swim, they returned to the castle and decided to relax. They had completed all their homework so didn't need to worry about that. The common room soon became busy as the rest of the students returned from their activities. Rather than deal with the noise, Harry and Ginny headed off to the study.

They settled down on the large couch and just cuddled into each other. The last few weeks had been so hectic that they hadn't had much time together. As they continued to relax together on the couch, Harry moved Ginny so she was sitting between his legs and started to slowly massage her shoulders; he could tell that she tense.

He continued to massage her shoulders and then moved to her back making sure not to hurt her as he applied pressure to her spine and upper back. Twenty minutes later he had finished on her whole back and was starting to work on her feet again. Harry spent almost an hour massaging her and it was the best she had felt in a long time; she didn't want him to stop, but he was now very tired.

'Oh, Harry, that felt so good, thank you.'

'Youre welcome, Ginny.'

They then swapped positions and Ginny proceeded to massage Harry exactly as he had just done for her.

'Hmm, Ginny, that does feel good,' said Harry as she continued to massage his back.

After dinner, the twins walked into the study; they wanted to propose something for the group.

"We have been thinking, Harry, we really should start dueling; with Malfoy and his goons returning to the school, we need to be able to stand up for ourselves," George said.

"Yes, we know that idiot Lockhart tried to teach us but he was useless. Do you think we could add it to our morning workout or something," said Fred.

"Hmm, that does sound like a good idea guys, we will think about it tonight and let you know tomorrow morning, how does that sound?" asked Harry.

"Great! Thanks, Harry," they said together before leaving the room.

'It is a good idea, Harry. I think we should do it,' said Ginny.

'Yes, I think we should too, we will tell them in the morning.'

Before heading to bed, they decided to look at Merlin's list of spells to see what they could find on dueling. There were several spells, so they decided to incorporate each of them before going to bed so they could review them overnight and be ready for them morning. They were amazed at the amount of knowledge that those memories had given them. Luckily they had only done one at a time as they may have overloaded themselves.

They quickly fell asleep when they got back to their rooms. Once they arrived in their mind, they reviewed all the information about dueling and decided that there was far too much to share with the others. They selected some of the more important topics and would share those for now.

The next morning, the others arrived as normal for their run, but Harry announced that they were going to start learning to duel, and that they would need to get up earlier from now on so they could include some time for it. They were all excited by the prospect, and agreed to get up earlier. Instead of their normal run that morning, Harry transferred the dueling knowledge they had selected. They allowed the others time to review the knowledge whilst Harry and Ginny got up to practiced dueling. They bowed to each other and then started throwing curses at one another.

The others watched in amazement as the duel continued, and they were both throwing curses so fast that they became a blur. None of the others noticed that they were now using both hands for the duel, or that the spells coming from the wands were stronger. To their surprise, they were able to cast weaker spells wandlessly. After twenty minutes they both called it a draw as they were completely exhausted; they had not realized just how fast or hard they had been dueling.

"What's wrong?" asked Harry.

"Harry, you just had a twenty minute duel with Ginny, and after five minutes you guys were moving so quickly we could not even see what you were doing," Hermione said.

They both looked at each other in amazement, then realized that it was mostly because of the bond that they were able to move like that; they knew what the other was going to do so were able to adapt quickly.

They told the others to pair up and start dueling; Ginny agreed to partner Hermione whilst Harry watched and offered advice to each pair. They continued for the next forty minutes until it was time to go down to breakfast. All of them agreed that they had learned something useful already and committed to work as hard as possible.

As they walked down to breakfast, Harry and Ginny reviewed the duel again in their mind.

'I think that we should each get a second wand, Harry. During the duel we were using both hands; if we had two wands we would be able to attack and defend at full power.'

'Yes, I think that is an excellent idea. I think I saw my parent's wands in the vault. We should see if they will work for us. I would also like to find a better way of keeping them on us; having them in our pockets isn't ideal,' replied Harry.

'If we had a holster on our wrists that held the wands, then we could just flick them into our hands,' suggested Ginny.

'Hmm, that might work if the wands where shorter,' Harry said.

'What if the holster shrunk the wand when it retracted, and returned it back to normal size when releasing it?'

'Yes, that would work, and if we placed an invisibility charm on it then no one would know we had them, I think that could work, Gin' said Harry.

'Now, we just have to find someone who can create it,' Ginny said.

After breakfast Harry and Ginny had a free lesson, so they decided to continue working on the holster idea.

Harry called Maxim who appeared a few seconds later. He explained what they were looking for and Maxim told them that they had everything they needed a Potter Castle and that he would create them when he got back. Harry asked him to create nine holsters, two each for Harry and Ginny, and one each for the other Marauder's. Maxim disappeared after promising to return the next morning with the holsters.

Harry then asked Xavier to flash them to Gringotts so that they could get the wands out of their vault. To their surprise, Xavier took them directly to the vault. They quickly grabbed the two wands and returned to the study.

Harry and Ginny headed into the bedrooms that they had converted into a training room. They had added some test dummies as well as other objects that could absorb spells, and this allowed them to practice some of the nastier spells they were learning without having to practice against each other. They started practicing with the new wands by casting a few simple spells and soon found that they did work but not as well as their main wands.

After the practice they got ready for their next lessons. Before leaving, they hid the second wands in Harry's trunk as they didn't want anyone else to know about them.

The next morning as promised, Maxim had returned with the holsters. Maxim told Harry that they had also added Charm to stop anyone from forcefully taking the wand.

Each of them took one and placed their wands in them, they then attached them to the wrists and they re-sized to fit perfectly, and then disappeared. They each practiced releasing the wands until they were able to do it almost instantly. They didn't want anyone else to find out about the holsters so needed to make sure that they were quick enough that no one would noticed how the wand appear in their hands. Whilst the others continued to practice Harry and Ginny attached their second wands, however they didn't practice releasing them until they were in private again.

During their next duel, they again became a blur of movement, before releasing the second wands to practice with; they soon noticed the difference, they were able to duel for thirty minutes before they started to get tired.

Several days later, Harry and Ginny were relaxing in their mind after falling asleep when Ginny noticed a door that she had not seen before.

"Harry, what is that door?" she asked.

"Ah, that would be a secret, Gin; I can't tell you at the moment."

"Why not, Harry?"

"Because it is a surprise, you will find out when the right time comes; it is nothing bad; I promise," said Harry.

She could see that he was being honest with her, and she trusted him fully so didn't think about it again. They continued to relax and talk before finally falling asleep.

Two weeks before the start of the second task Dumbledore approached Harry and Ginny looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Harry, I need to talk with both you in my office, please," said Dumbledore.

"Certainly, Professor, is something wrong?" asked Harry as he noticed the twinkle in his eye was gone.

"I will tell you when we get there; it isn't something that we should discuss here," he replied.

They proceeded to follow the Professor to his office. As they approached the Gargoyle, they noticed that Professor McGonagall was waiting for them.

"Ah, thank you for coming, Professor McGonagall," said Professor Dumbledore.

"I felt it important to be here when you spoke with them, Headmaster; after all they are in house," replied McGonagall as they made there way up to the office.

'I don't like this,' stated Harry as they got into the office.

'I don't either, Harry, I think we should call Xavier just in case,' replied Ginny.

As if on queue, Xavier flashed into the room and settled down next to Fawkes on his perch.

"Harry, normally we shouldn't even be talking to you about this but given the special circumstances we felt that it was necessary. As you know, the second task is in two weeks; hopefully you have worked out the clue by now?" said Professor Dumbledore after they had all taken their seats.

"Yes, Professor we have worked out the clue and have been training. We have already spent some time in the Black Lake," stated Harry.

"Excellent, at least we don't have to worry about that," said Dumbledore.

"Now, to the problem at hand; unfortunately, Ginny is the one you have to find during the task. Someone important to each of the champions has been selected; they will be placed in a suspended state whilst in the water and will recover once they are rescued."

Harry and Ginny both reacted instantly to the news.

"There is no way that I will allow this, Professor, you heard the end of the song," Harry shouted as he started to get very angry. Both Fawkes and Xavier started singing to trying and calm him down.

"Harry, please you need to calm down; if there was any other way around this then we would have used it, but we cannot. The rules are set and nothing can stop it. I am sorry, Harry, however, I have spoken with Morander and he has told me a guard will be present with Ginny the whole time she is in the water," said Dumbledore in a soothing voice.

"I don't like this one bit, Professor, but as you stated, it doesn't appear we have much choice. I will tell you now, if anything happens to Ginny, I will not stop until I have found out who is responsible and they have been dealt with."

"What we don't know, Harry, is what effect it will have on you when we place Ginny in the suspended state, therefore we would like to try it now. If it is going to be a problem, then we will need to see what we can do about it," said Dumbledore.

"Okay, Professor," they said together.

Professor Dumbledore proceeded to place Ginny into the suspended state, as he did, Harry felt the change in Ginny, but was pleased that they could still talk in their mind. The only real difference was they could not feel Ginny's body at all, or use any of her senses.

"Thank you," said Professor Dumbledore once they had finished.