I own NOTHING... all owned by JK Rowling
Chapter 10: Harry and Ginny
After their first match, though Ginny thought of it more as Harry beating her down, they settled into a bed. Harry had his back on the headboard with Ginny in his arms. He caressed her shoulders tenderly while she held an ice pack over her bruised eye.
"That was a cheap shot, Harry. Elbowing your Girlfriend in the face, Mum is so going to give you hell," said Ginny as she winced teasingly.
"Well I was warned to actually fight you to start with, otherwise Allan would be giving me a black eye when we got out of here." Harry reflected on the lecture Allan gave him about training Ginny properly, it meant lumps and bruises.
So far Harry was proud of her, though. She fought him well, even nicked him in the ribs with that red stick of hers. Even bruising her eye was an accident. What happened was that Harry had twisted his elbow over her head and was about to stop to call for a break when Ginny's head quickly turned. Her eye went right smack into the tip of his elbow.
"Here, stop being stubborn and let me heal it properly. You'll be getting worse scars then this when the training gets more serious and I'll need you to be in tip top shape for tomorrow."
"Fine, but you know, I like the battle scar. It gives me something to remember you by," she sighed mock dreamily.
I'll give you something to remember me by, thought Harry as he probed her mind with his feelings of loss. That one day he had experienced without her was unbearable.
She giggled and turned around so that Harry could use his wand to heal her eye.
Ginny felt good fighting Harry the way she did in their match, even if she did get hurt. She was finally able to show him that she wasn't weak, that she had the strength to take care of herself. It was self-satisfying to see Harry actually breathing a little harder after their spar.
Harry waved his wand over her eye and the black and blue swelling went down considerably. Now her eye injury looked as if it happened 4 days ago rather than four hours ago.
After they were finished with their match, they had an early dinner. Since then, they've spent the past two hours in each other's arms. To say Ginny was content was an understatement. She felt she could just melt in Harry's arms. His rubbing of her shoulders was even better, as she just pressed herself into him even more.
"So I was thinking that since Allan only really worked on physical exercise with you that tomorrow after the laps and weight lifting we could hit some books. I got a surprise for you tomorrow. We'll first begin on what animal you'll be, then see the element you have an affinity to," he said casually. "Remember, all elemental magic is done wandlessly, so if you access it then that will be an even greater surprise."
She already knew this about elemental magic, what surprised her was what Harry had said about himself. Her eyes went wide when he said it. "Wait a minute Harry, did you say animal?" She asked bewildered.
"Yeah I did. You don't think I'd be an animagus and leave you out of it, did you?" Harry asked with a smirk.
"What the hell? What do you turn into?" she asked excitedly.
"Tomorrow buttercup, tomorrow. Anyway, I have some books I want you to read before we try anything. I'll just give you this book in the mean time," he said as he eased her off of him to get the old books he carried in his pack. "Here, you can start with this one. It will teach you how to find your core. Tomorrow after I've worked you down we'll find the shape of your core. It's a good thing we're doing this in the chamber, because when we leave here you'll be equivalent to seventeen. After a person ages seventeen, they're not able to shape their core into an animal figure. It's too bad because I could've helped Hermione and Ron too. Anyway, you can start the reading."
Harry didn't notice it before, but now that he had stopped talking he realized Ginny looked a little troubled about something. Before he had time to duck, Ginny had picked up a pillow and aggressively threw it at him.
"Don't ever call me buttercup again! Can't you think of anything better than buttercup?" she said hotly.
"What? I thought you'd like me using a pet name for you? Plus butter, it is appropriate, you did stick your elbow in a butter dish after being charmed by my awe inspiring presence," he said arrogantly, which earned him another pillow to the face.
"Live it up Potter, don't make me start to call you something utterly stupid too," she threatened.
"And what would you call me anyway?"
"Boy-who-couldn't-see-what's-in-front-of-him, or Blind-Thick-PRAT!" she shouted.
He chuckled, "Well whatever, but you know what you'll be if you don't read that book. Not an animagus, so get to reading."
She huffed but gathered the book and started reading about how to find your core and how to shape it. A couple of hours went by and Ginny found that she was actually very fascinated by the book. Even when Harry hugged her from behind she wouldn't put it down. She just said, "Later let me finish this paragraph." That was seventy-five pages ago. It was quite late into the night when she finally closed the book and saw Harry sleeping in Allan's former bed. She walked up to his sleeping form and gave him a kiss on the forehead, then went to her bed to sleep.
-&-
Ginny woke up the next morning to the smell of bangers and bacon. Harry was setting up breakfast for them. He even conjured a vase full of flowers to make the atmosphere a little more romantic. That boy really knows how to spoil me, she thought.
Oh, I don't know about that. If I spoiled you then I'd actually bring you breakfast in bed, he thought to her with a smirk.
"Well, why don't you do that then?" She raised her eyebrow at him, speaking out loud this time.
"Because I don't want you getting lazy, now get up so we can eat and do some training."
They ate in silence, just happy to be in each other's presence. They both felt complete now that they were together, and neither needed confirmation from the other. After a few minutes, they closed the curtains around their beds and got dressed for a light workout.
Harry was the first to finish getting dressed. He wore a pair of trackies and a t-shirt, as he stretched and waited for Ginny to finish getting ready so they could start their run. He was blown away by what he saw when she finally came out from behind her curtain.
She walked this walked that drove him absolutely bananas. She wore high cut jean shorts and a loose muscle tee that showed off her sports bra underneath. Her long hair was pulled back in a braid and it showed off every part of her lovely face. He was in a mid side stretch when he just stopped and stared at her. All he could do was watch as she approached him.
"Be careful or you might pop something," she said, eyeing the stretching position he was in as she started to stretch too. Like my clothes, Ginny thought with a smirk, never breaking eye contact with him.
He finally broke out of his trance and tried to continue his stretches without looking at her. However, this was an obvious lost attempt. The only way he wouldn't be facing Ginny was if he moved away from the spot he was in.
He tried to get his mind on other things and reflected on the war they had to prepare for. He would definitely not lose, in the end he knew he couldn't.
After an agonizing twenty minutes of stretches, Harry finally got them to start running. What helped him was that he felt Ginny's frustration through their link, though she hid it well. He felt her eyes on part of his anatomy as they were running. I think you have a good poker face there, Weasley.
What's a poker face? She thought to him.
I'll teach it to you later, he replied. He was dreaming of strip poker with her.
For another hour and a half they continued their work out before settling themselves underneath the Lishma tree. They sat across from each other and stared at one another. This would be very intimate if it wasn't for what they were about to try.
From what Ginny read, this would be a different way of finding the animal within you. Instead of going through the long process of taking a potion that needed to be brewed for a year, the way to do this was with self-exploration. This was also the more dangerous way to do things because if done by yourself, you could actually lose yourself in the core of your magic. The only way to stop the self-exploration process was to have an anchor to the real world, and Ginny had the best anchor with Harry's conscience always in her mind. Harry had also stated that the self-exploration would be a key in finding the element that would most represent her.
"The first thing in finding your core is to get into a meditative state. Follow my voice and listen to it," Harry instructed. "I want you to picture yourself completely calm and shut away from everything except my voice. Now picture yourself floating in space and watch as a tunnel forms. That tunnel will take you to your goal. Go to it and let it suck you in, don't be afraid, I'm right here." Harry felt that she had seen the tunnel and was apprehensive about touching it. He guided her in, but still kept his link to her very strong.
Ginny could feel her body being pushed through a tunnel of stars. It was like traveling through space, like a portkey, but without any physical agitations. When the ride stopped, she just stared at a big red- green ball that looked like a planet. She figured it had to be the center of her core. She also saw huge land masses appear in this newfangled world. They were brilliant and bright with energy, easily able to encompass the biggest mountain in any world. She then spotted an animal circling around. It looked to be large with big leathery wings and a long neck. Looking as if it spotted prey, the animal finally stopped its movements. With that, Ginny at last got a good look at what it was. The animal was a large vibrant dragon, the color of bright red. It resembled a Hungarian Horntail, but with less spikes that gave it a sleeker build. Even without the spikes the dragon still looked very aggressive and dangerous to Ginny. It spotted her and let out a huge roar, grinning a toothy grin. I didn't know dragons could grin, Ginny thought.
I didn't either until I saw it first. Dragons are actually very powerful, intelligent creatures that are protective of their own. That's why they were perfect for that first task at the tri-wizard tournament, it's because they protect their eggs fiercely, responded Harry with his own thoughts.
So what do I do now?
Well, go up to the dragon and see if it wants to be your friend, then lead it towards your core.
And that's what Ginny did. She went to the dragon and petted its rather large head. When the dragon nuzzled back, she let it lick her hand with its massive hot tongue. If she was in her own body she knew she would've been burned. She then led it towards the planet-like ball she now associated as the center of her core. She gestured for the dragon to go into it. The dragon took one look and nodded again with a grin. With that, the dragon literally flew straight into the planet-like ball.
A huge explosion took place after that. The ball started to shift and shake with power, it looked like it would collapse at any second. Ginny felt her chest tighten as the world around her looked like it was going to crash. That was her magical core, she knew it had to be, and she didn't want anything happening to it.
After a few minutes, the world started shifting. The landmasses started forming into a shape. The ground started to become alive as it grew into a dragon, her dragon. The dragon smiled again and looked at her. She let out a roar and settled back down with the flames around her.
Ginny felt a pull again, like a call and she was thrust back into the opposite direction of the hole. She felt Harry calling her back to him and in a moment she was staring at his emerald orbs underneath the Lishma tree.
"You're a dragon too, eh? I guess our souls are meant for each other," Harry said with a wink.
"You're one too? What do you look like?" She was asking excitedly.
He stepped back to gain proper space and started to transform. His body started to morph into a huge twenty-foot dragon. Like Ginny, he had a resemblance to a Horntail but with less spikes. He looked like he would be incredibly fast. The style of his scales were unusual. The top of each scale was dark blue but faded to a white and his body was a sky blue color with white stripes. What intrigued her was that he didn't billow smoke like her dragon form, but had electricity arcing around him and held an aura of cool air. To her, he looked perfect and she really wished she would be able to do that soon. She couldn't wait for her and Harry to explore the different sensations of being a dragon together.
He transformed back into himself and looked straight into her eyes. She was able to feel everything he went through when he turned into the dragon, from the actual transforming to how he actually used his magic to accomplish the act. She could feel how he pushed his magic outward, the way he pictured in his mind the paws, tail, and head forming. Ginny could also feel each part of the dragon-Harry being formed, she knew Harry had to control the actual formation with magic within himself. It seemed like a complicated process to Ginny, and one that would take getting used to, but having an idea of the transforming process before hand would give her a head start.
He walked towards her and said, "Well that's how it's done. With my help it should take you about a month to finally transform, then we'll work on sustaining the transformation and your form's powers. As you saw with my form, it didn't do the whole fire thing. My two elements that I control are water and wind. That's the reason for the markings and why you probably felt a cool air around me. It's also why I have lighting. Water and wind are in opposite directions. They face each other and help each other greatly. Water is pushed when wind blows in a direction, and wind carries water to different places so it can populate it with it's seed of life. When water is in the air with wind, it can create certain friction, which then creates lighting. So, I have control over lighting and ice because of the mixture of wind and water.
"Ginny, from what I saw in your mind, you contain two elements that are both strongly influenced. I believe you control fire and earth. Fire and earth also combine with each other to create shadow and metal. Earth elements feed fire and fire helps create minerals. You'll have powers that will be very different from mine, but will be similar in use. That doesn't mean you can't access the other elements, it just means that they'll be severely weak compared to your natural ones," Harry concluded.
"Er, but I thought you could only use one element strongly? What you just said wasn't normal."
"When were we ever normal, Gin?" Harry asked with a grin.
"Anyway, you also have to know that we can't mix powers. Fire and earth don't interact with wind and water that well. Too much water with fire can douse the flames, while too much water with earth will imbalance the earth. Wind can be stopped by earth, yet can blow out the fire on a candle. Although, fire ashes would poison the wind. In other words, we have to be careful with how we interact with each other using the elements. From what Allan explained, because of the power boost we've gotten from each other and from Voldemort, our elements can range extremely harsh. We need to learn how to control these powers, especially since they're linked with our emotions. You saw Allan when he got mad; he literally burned fire. While you can probably burn things to ashes when you get angry, I get somewhat sparkly when I get volatile, as was seen when the incident happened. So first thing we need to do is learn how to access our cores easily, to do that we sit here and meditate. Well actually, you sit here and meditate while I measure you.
"Remember, when you access your core you need to be completely calm. Let yourself blend into the planet of your core. Be one with it. This will help you access your dragon too. Tomorrow we'll start with trying to change parts of yourself into the dragon form, then we'll work on trying to control parts of the elements. Well, that's tomorrow. Today must be used to maintain balance, especially with the bond of the core being so new. So let's get to it."
They spent the rest of the day meditating and Ginny now had easy access to her core of magic. When it was time for them to take a break for dinner, she was able to bring fire to her fingertips and banish it back. She also observed that she could create stones from the ground, though they were just pebbles, it was still encouraging.
Wanting to see what Harry could do, Ginny asked him to show off a little bit. Harry sheepishly grinned and relented when he gazed into her beautiful brown eyes.
The first thing he showed her was how he could control water. He summoned rain clouds and let the clouds bring rain. He then conjured the sword of Gryffindor and cut his hand open. Ginny gasped, but Harry just winked at her. He let the rain that he brought forth heal his hand like phoenix tears would. To demonstrate his power over wind, he spread his hands apart and brought them together to create a massive gust of wind. What surprised Ginny the most was when he had the gust of wind lift him about three feet into the air. He didn't fall, quite the contrary, he started to literally float over to her and tenderly stroked her cheek. Ginny could feel a spark of electricity coarse through her at his touch. He grinned and landed to the ground, picking up a tiny stone. He placed it on his palm. With concentration, he started to freeze the stone. All around her she could feel the cold seeping from Harry's arm. When he finally stopped freezing it, he dropped the stone to the ground. It shattered into a million tiny shards. She looked into his eyes in awe. He was panting a little at that exertion.
"You of course won't do that. From what Allan said, controlling fire and earth lets you travel through the shadows, like a shifting between two planes. You'll also be able to make your body as hard as any metal. That's good for defense purposes since I'm purely offensive. We'll be able to have each other's backs with your ability to scorch anything and my healing abilities with water. The only thing is that combining the two elements would take considerable amounts of power and concentration, not even Allan would be able to do it easily. That's the reason why I'm feeling kind of tired now."
"With all these powers there's no way Voldemort could possibly beat you!" Ginny said excitedly.
"Well actually there is a simple way for him to beat me. He'll go the extra mile to learn things that I wouldn't ever learn. He is the Dark Lord, after all. He'll be able to use the dark arts far better than I could use my elements. His use of the Avada Kedavra is just one of the reasons why he's feared. From what Allan has said, during his reign of terror he developed spells that helped control death. He's what you would call a Necromancer. His uses of the Horcruxes are just one way he's learned to control souls and the dead. When we confront him, it's not only him we have to go after, but death itself. This is what scares me most. At any possible moment he could bring back something feared from the underworld and... I don't know if I can stop it." Harry gave a great shudder as he fell to his knees.
Ginny ran up to him and quickly gave him a hug. "We won't let that happen, Harry. Allan truly has made you powerful and you're going to make me just as powerful. We'll be able to stop him. Hermione will help figure out how to stop the dead, Ron will plan a way to attack the forces, and you and me will be right at the forefront, using all our abilities to take Voldemort and his cronies down with everything we have. Oh and don't forget we have Allan! He'll be like a heaven's flaming blade against unsuspecting demons. We also have the Order. They'll help brace the light from the impact of the dark. Harry, we can do this. Remember that. We have the light on our side and we can control the darkness. You told me not to lose myself, well don't you either. We're in this together no matter what and you shouldn't feel like you have to take Voldemort down by yourself any longer." She had a glint in her eyes as she told him all this. She gave him a determined look, almost as if she was staring right into his soul.
"Why do you always say the right things to me?"
"It's because I know what makes you happy, Harry." With that, they walked to the shack hand in hand and started their dinner. After that, they got a good night's sleep in the same bed. They needed each other now and let nobility be damned if it helped them heal.
-&-
The following month and a half Harry and Ginny built a routine that was similar to what Allan had made them do. Mornings were the same as before: running, weights, and eating. The difference was that they now dueled for a good hour after they ate, and then did weights. Afternoons, after lunch, were devoted to spell training. The spell training mostly consisted of working with elements, Ginny's animagus form, and Occlumency and Legilimency. It took Ginny a whole month to get comfortable with using her elemental powers, but they worked beautifully. She could cascade herself in a globe of fire and raise shields of earth whenever she needed to block spells. Although, she couldn't send out streams of fire yet. Fire needed to be controlled in a specific way that she couldn't master right now, but she could still hurt someone if she was close enough to them.
Her shadow and metal powers took a little time to master. After the first month, it took an additional three months for these powers to become useful. She learned that she could travel by the shadows and could harden her body to that of titanium, not even the sword of Gryffindor could penetrate her skin. The only downside, as Harry put it, was that Ginny could only do the shadow shifting for limited amounts of time and she didn't believe she could do it for any longer than one hundred miles. The metal skin could only be held for five minutes before she totally passed out from extreme exhaustion. When she and Harry were able to leave the room, her growing core wouldn't be big enough to sustain the metal skin for more than ten minutes.
On the plus side, after three difficult months, she was finally able to master keeping her dragon form out whenever she needed to. The problem with animagi training was that it was possible to lose yourself to your animal form. This was the reason why it normally took awhile to sustain the change for the first few years. The fear of losing oneself was great among wizards and witches. It was tricky becoming a dragon. Ginny had to learn how to think like a dragon and how to integrate herself into one. Dragons were just as intelligent as humans, but were lax in the controlling of a situation as long as their own were provided for. This was the main reason why they remained in dragon camps. They got free reign to move, eat, and hunt, while they let the humans think they were in control of their populations.
It wasn't the losing herself that Ginny had a problem with. Dragons had the same higher brain functions as humans, the problem was accepting the dragon nature within her. She had to distinguish herself from the dragon, yet understand that the dragon couldn't be controlled. It was like forming a symbiotic relationship that had to be beneficial to both. One reason why people training to become animagi usually didn't become magical animals was because most people's minds weren't able to handle this type of mind melding. With Ginny's first year and Harry's every year, they were the exceptions from people who couldn't mold their minds in the way that they could. The trick that Ginny had to understand was that she was both dragon and witch. When she figured that out she would be able to separate the two, this way she would be able to help guard her being from getting lost in either form.
Harry was overjoyed when she was finally able to keep her animagus form. He quickly transformed into the dragon that he always became, and they played an elaborate game of tag in the air. The connection Harry and Ginny had seemed to grow stronger since they were now both able to transform into dragons. This was probably due to the fact that, in general, dragons communicated on a mental level. In any case, with the help of their connection, Harry assisted Ginny with understanding the inner workings of a dragon's powers. At the end of the day, Ginny was able to breathe fire hot enough to melt rock to molten lava. She was able to conjure earth and create metal spikes on her body and what really took the cake was that she could become invisible using the shadow magic. Harry explained to her that because of the different nature of both human and dragon power, the elements would work in different ways depending on what form she was in. It was just like Allan with his tengu nature. Allan had the ability to do a lot more things than they were able to do with their magic.
Seven and a half months had passed for Harry and Ginny. They now had just about eight weeks left in this room together. Since Ginny was officially up to speed with her new powers, they started doing pure, hardcore dueling and teamwork training. They also tried to meld their human magic to see if they could combine it, just like Voldemort had used their similar signatures to go past Harry's walls. They found that charms, jinxes and hexes were much more powerful when they were openly sharing their magic. They also found that if either of them concentrated enough, one could send their magic from a distance without the means of touch. This also helped them see through the other's eyes, which helped them keep an eye out for one another. Harry explained that this was kind of like a muggle camera, but that was lost on poor Ginny's ignorance of muggle technology. Harry was then struck with an idea. He decided to share it when they were reunited with Allan.
One day during their eighth month of solitude, Harry and Ginny were laying rather intimately on Ginny's bed. Though their relationship had progressed, where Harry was actually okay with the touching constantly and the occasional kiss, nothing more than that had ever happened. They would occasionally sleep with each other, but sleep was all that was involved.
One day, Harry had opened his eyes to see that his nose was buried in Ginny's hair. He took a big sniff of it and smelled the flowers that he always smelled when he was around her. It took him back to the day in Slughorn's classroom when he had first smelled the intoxicating scent of Amorentia.
His soul knew what he wanted all along; too bad his mind was too thick to see it. He felt peace as he hugged her tightly to his body. "I'm falling in love with you all over again. Ginny Weasley," he whispered. It was the first time he had ever admitted that he loved her, even before the Malfoy incident he had never said it.
"Finally," she said snuggling closer to him. "I was wondering when your mind and soul were going to agree. Now all I have to do is convince your body and I think we'll be all set."
"Well, let's not jump into anything. We're working way too hard and all I can think of at the end of the day is bed. A bed with you, but nonetheless a bed to just sleep in. I don't think my body could handle anymore strenuous exercise," he added with mock drama.
All of a sudden they heard a knock on the doors to the room. They rushed outside to see the doors swing open to reveal Allan peering in. He had a smirk played on his lips and a Dumbledore-like twinkle in his eyes.
"You lovers been okay in here? I have a few things to discuss with you." Harry and Ginny looked at him questioningly but he ignored the looks and went on. "I'll be gone when you leave on the morning of August 10th but I'm coming back in the afternoon. From there we'll be playing a little game before we leave in the evening, well evening for London that is." Harry didn't particularly like how he said "game."
"After we return to Grimmauld Place we'll have to go through some things, one being your shopping for Hogwarts. No Harry, you will go back to school, you have too. I'll explain why when you come out of the room on August 10th. Now there are some that wish to spend the rest of the time with you. Come out guys."
Harry and Ginny were stampeded by an owl, a dire wolf and two golden gryphons. They happily accepted each of their companions. "Anyway, you guys play nice with each other. You'll need to work together since these animals will be accompanying you when we leave the island. Goodbye and good luck."
After Allan had closed the door, two phoenixes joined the group. All of them played around, as Harry and Ginny changed into their dragon forms. They all had a wonderful time. At that moment, Harry felt completely overjoyed.
-&-
The final days passed swiftly for Harry and Ginny. They were always training with each other and the animals aided them in any way possible. Harry and Ginny found themselves trying to learn how to best use, not just each other's strengths, but the strengths of each animal in all their situations. For example, they used either Hedwig or the Griffin's eyes as a means for spying on detailed things, or the dire wolf's sense of smell. The connection they had with the animals heightened because of their stronger connection with each other. The animals and them were now a team and they ran well together.
Harry envisioned him and Ginny like a sonnet he had once read, by Pablo Neruda. They knew each other so well that they didn't know where one ended and the other began, but they were just fine with that. He nuzzled her hair, smelling the flowers again, as she finished packing. He felt comfortable around her and constantly wanted to hug and kiss her, or rather more like ravish her. Being alone together definitely had it's advantages. They had explored each other without destroying their total innocense, but got close four or five times.
Finally the last day, August 10th, was upon them. Before they were ready to walk out of the room, the pedestal was brought back into place. Harry and Ginny moved towards it and the room became dark. The twenty-five-foot dome appeared and their animals stayed in a perimeter around them for safety. The four animal gods came before them. Each one gazed at the two humans for a hard minute. They were soul searching and both teenagers could feel their eyes probing their bond. As each animal god made a sound and stamped their feet loudly, light pulsated for a second and then brought an intense beam to the couple unconsciously holding hands. The beam of the light burned their hands but they wouldn't let go. When the light faded, they were marked.
On the outside of Harry's right hand held the mark of the tiger's paw, while the underside was the dragon's head. Ginny had the wings of the phoenix dancing on the outer part of her left hand, while on the underside of her hand was the tortoise shell. Each symbol glowed with power and color faded from them. The animal gods left them in peace, as the doors were pushed open with incredible force.
We have marked our Weapon and Shield. Go and follow your destiny for our avatars are you. Safe be with you and those you hold dear, the room whispered to the recesses of their mind.
Before them, Harry and Ginny spotted Bitsy the house elf. She stood there with a note. "Master has left this for you." Harry took the letter, as she left with a pop.
The letter read: Come find me children, its hide and seek magic style! Love Allan.
Harry crushed the note irritably at the use of "children" and looked at Ginny. She glanced back and gave him a smile. She then mounted Gubernatis while he mounted Gold-sight and they flew out of a nearby window. Hedwig and the dire wolf followed, as the phoenixes flamed out ready to stalk their prey.
Again thanks to Jen for her betaing!