I feel the need to apologise slightly here because this chapter has been a long time in coming, it's the one I have been trying to write for the last THREE chapters and so now that it's finally here I'm actually quite happy that it's over. Hehe!
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Having said that… I have to wonder if anyone's noticed the word count for Wings at all? I have (but then I would care about daft things like that, being the author and all) and if my maths is right then THIS chapter will be the one to kick Wings over the edge and up into the 100,000 category and frankly I think that's fantastic! I don't mean to sound too big headed here, I just… I'm really proud to get into the category! So I'd like to say one MASSIVE thank you to every single one of you that has ever read or reviewed Wings because I never would have made it to that kind of spectacular word count without a lot of support!
As for my specific comments, on to the reviews!
Last of the Trifecta – I'm really very sorry for the wait on the chapters, I know it must be annoying as a reader, so I want to say thank you so much for waiting, it's really good of you. Particularly when there are so many other stories out there to read, the fact that you still look at my updates is wonderful.
Dare-deviless – well… if you want to be technical, then maybe not quite 'explosive' … but there is some action at last! Hope you like it! And thanks, as always, for your review!
Goodygurl – I'm really glad you like it! Actually the spell-shards do seem to have been a popular idea! … even if they were inspired by one too many viewings of Labyrinth!
DukeBrymin – Okay, this one IS the end of things but there will probably be a conversation or two about it in the next chapter. As for the attraction between Ginny and Draco, there is a reason for that… which I'm hoping will be clearer after reading this chapter, but it'll be explained soon too, so don't worry. Also, I hope you like the chapter!
Elliott – Hello there! It's really nice to hear from both sides of the argument here, so for you I have some slightly sad news: that the majority of the triangle is over with now (remember how it was for a specific purpose?) But I'm not done with Draco yet so he'll still be around, I promise!
Eragonsarmy – I love Daine and Numair! Actually I just started re-reading Wild Magic for about the millionth time … But it's all about 'Falling' for me too, so I can't wait to get up to book 4!
Chrissy – Hiya! Okay, so… I failed a little bit in replying to you (rather a lot actually) and I'm sorry about that, but as a peace offering I can show you why I haven't been around: enjoy the chapter hehehe!
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Ron had not been there to witness the entire show in the common room that day, in truth he didn't understand some of what had happened – the complex spell being broken down into glitter was still beyond him, but he had to admit that he'd been reduced to laughter by it all several times. Even the fact that the glitter-shards of the spell had attached themselves to Hermione's hair so thoroughly that she now matched Ginny's bright gold eyes, hair and nails with her own shining silver eyes and hair only improved his mood. The look of utter shock and indignation he found on his girlfriend's face as she tried (unsuccessfully) once more to charm the shards from her hair had been enough to bring tears of laughter to his eyes.
"Oh this wretched spell!" Hermione sighed at her hair.
"Wretched?" Ron grinned from behind her, despite the fact that his knowledge of spells had come on in leaps and bounds this year, he had no particular desire to echo Hermione's mastery of the more obscure words of the English Language despite the way she insisted her vocabulary made spell casting easier due to the larger amount of words available to form a spell.
"You know what I meant, Ron." She was still pulling at the strands coated in glitter that had woven themselves through the rest of her hair. "It won't be affected by magic, not the kind Hogwarts teaches or the kind we learnt from the founders."
"Did you try Water? And Air?" He tried to be supportive, but secretly he rather liked the added sparkle Hermione had been 'cursed' with by the spell.
"Nothing seems to grip it." She shrugged.
"Maybe you should ask Lavender? She seems to have some control over it." Ron sat on the end of the bed as he watched her pace their room.
"Lavender? Really?" Hermione listened absently to Ron's laughter as her mind worked through the implications of the statement. There had been something that had drawn her attention to Lavender recently, not in a strong way, just subtly… as though the other girl were kin of some sort. Hermione had thought nothing of it for the most part: what was there to consider? She had assumed that at most she would like to become a better friend to Lavender, which was slightly out of character for her usual self, but over the past school year everyone seemed to have changed so much that there was no use in worrying over one slightly unpredictable friendship in the face of all that was different.
It was getting late now, Hermione observed as she checked the clock she passed on her way to the common room. She and Ron had lost the thread of their conversation as she puzzled over Lavender and he mused about the spell shards, but they would have time later to catch up.
"Lavender?" Hermione found the other girl in the Gryffindor Common room surrounded by spell crystals of various sizes.
"Hmm?" Lavender's eyes were fixed on her work as she willed the pieces to lie where she wanted them.
"Lavender are you alright?" Hermione took a step closer to Lavender and as she did, the candlelight shifted and illuminated Lavender's hair, which suddenly glittered.
Hermione could not suppress the "Oh," of shock that escaped her.
"Can I … did someone…?" Lavender was half lost to the spell she was laying over the crystal shards and she seemed unaware that she was doing anything at all.
"Lavender?" Hermione knelt next to the other girl and hesitantly reached for a shard, which quivered happily beneath her touch and jumped obligingly into her palm. This time Hermione felt the underlying pull of power, it was subtle and harmonious and it was secretive: Moonlight.
The shards were Moonlight, which ought to have given Hermione power over them, but the moon itself was content to do as it would as far as she was considered: the Moon had claimed Hermione Granger as it's own and if it willed it's glow into her hair, then her hair would shine.
"Lavender didn't you tell me there was a mermaid in your family?" Hermione drew Lavender's hands away from the shards; hoping to allow her to think without the Moonlight's influence.
"What? Oh… Hermione? Yes, yes there's someone." Lavender frowned slightly as she tried to remember. "A Grandmother? Or Great-Grandmother, I think."
"What does the crystal feel like to you?" Hermione suspected that when the elements came to Hogwarts to choose their vassals, they might have woken a smaller gift in Lavender.
"They're warm and cool at the same time. Peaceful and soft, but there's fire here. And that smell… like the forest after dark. But the crystal is … is…"
"Like the moon?" Hermione smiled gently. Lavender was feeling Ginny's Fire and Harry's Earth and Darkness, but she felt the pull of the Moonlight beneath it all.
"Don't be silly; how can something feel like the moon?" Lavender tried to laugh, but she stilled.
"You tell me." Hermione moved across the empty common room until she reached the window from which the lake was visible. "Stand here, Lavender, and tell me you can't feel it."
Lavender did as Hermione asked. She couldn't understand what it was that compelled her to listen to Hermione… or why Hermione looked older somehow in the moonlight cast through the window that she did in the candlelight. Lavender saw the rings of silver in Hermione's eyes for the first time and she saw the glitter of Hermione's hair was even more pronounced than her own.
"Hermione? What's happened to you?" Lavender asked as she crossed the room.
"It's a little like what happened to you." Hermione explained, while she tried not to give everything away. "You can feel the Moon on you, can't you?"
"Yes." Lavender admitted as they stood under the glow cast from the almost-full moon above them.
"You have the element in you." Lavender gave the strangely-powerful Hermione an odd look and Hermione added, "The things you can do with the remnants of the spell, they're because of that elemental power. If you think of the moon as sentient then she chose you, she gave you this power."
"And this is different from Charms and Transfiguration?"
"Yes. It's more to do with will power than words." Hermione suspected that while Lavender was most certainly gifted with the magic, Lavender's gift would have been much smaller than that granted to the Chosen or else Lavender would have been undeniably aware of it's presence before tonight. Arguably Lavender would have known about it when the four became Chosen… it could even be possible that Lavender would have been chosen also, if the elements hadn't made the selection they had, as her genetics fit her to the power.
"Then as long as I want it to happen, I won't need words or a spell." Lavender turned the idea over in her mind and found that it suited her. Spells felt restricting when she compared them with the way the crystals wanted her to mould them.
"That's it." Hermione nodded.
"Is there any way… that is, is there a book or something to help me learn?" Again Lavender was asking Hermione; wanting her advice, to follow her lead in this new form of magic… how strange.
"Well, mostly this is intention, like I said…" Hermione chewed her lip as she tried to think of something. Lavender had not had the instruction she had received nor the other forms of training which had helped lead the Chosen to their elemental control. Had Lavender not stumbled across the shards of the spell, it might have taken her a lot longer to recognise the power there.
The trouble came in separating the Moon from the Water. The powers were so attuned within her that Hermione had never consciously needed to isolate just one (and the added Air only tangled things.)
"Here," Hermione opened the window and summoned water from her lake. There was enough that it would have rested neatly in the palm of her hand and Hermione called more until she had a globe. She was careful not to let it touch her skin tonight. Next she encased the water in crystal, leaving no air inside. "If you can call light to this without words, that'll be because you've used the Moonlight to do it."
Lavender rolled the orb from hand to hand. "Thanks"
The women smiled, and Hermione felt a connection settle into place between them. Lavender's mermaid self might have been small, but it was most definitely there! Hermione's siren-self accepted the newcomer as a friend and welcomed her to her lake with the gift of its water.
It had been such a strange moment that Hermione hadn't identified the exchange of water as anything other than a careless gesture: a means to showing Lavender where her power lay. Yet as she thought upon the moment more, she understood the significance of it even though she had not been aware of it at the time. It seemed that mermaid (or more likely Siren) blood ran proudly through the Brown family's veins. Hermione suspected that there may have been more than one fully-fledged mermaid in the family tree, and that with a different set of catalysts Lavender might well have matched Hermione's transformation upon unexpected contact with water. But that was not to be; Water and Moonlight had chosen Hermione, but Moonlight had woken Lavender as a gesture of goodwill or kindness and Hermione was grateful for the company.
There was one other thought driving her: how had the Moonlight gotten into the thrice-cast spell in the first place? Ginny may have seemed like an obvious answer, but Ginny had been granted the transformation only and none of the other power. Then there was Harry who (as far as she was aware) had no Moonlight to him. Draco on the other hand… Draco might have been the one?
Hermione bid Lavender goodnight, leaving her engrossed once more in the spell-crystals and letting the practice orb rest against her knee. She suspected that the Moon was enticing Lavender into exploring it's power in much the same way the Water and Moon had drawn herself to the lake where she opened herself to the power.
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Hermione found Ron in the Private Common Room with his hands braced against the blank canvas 'map' they had affixed to the wall. She could tell from his expression that he was concentrating hard on his work and it allowed her to sneak across the room until she could slide her arms around him.
Ron tensed at the contact and relaxed as he felt her ease her way into his arms as she slid around to the front of his body and he broke off the spell on the map.
"Hi." Ron commented as she looked up at him. "I love your hair."
He ran a hand through her silver brown curls and drew her in for a kiss.
"Why is it," Hermione murmured against his lips, "that when Harry and Ginny do this, we find other places to be. But when we try it…"
"Sorry." Ginny had been trying to cross the room silently and escape without having been noticed.
"It's alright." Hermione assured her.
"No it's bloody not." Ron huffed as he winked at his sister.
"Oh Hermione, your hair!" Ginny blinked at the sight.
"It's beautiful." Harry commented as he joined the group, having returned from a trip to the kitchens.
"Thank you." Hermione blushed. "I think that the elements, the lesser ones at least, might have done more that we'd realised."
"What makes you say that?" Harry tilted his head to one side.
"It's Lavender, she has some Moonlight in her. She's using it now to effect the crystals from the spell the three of you made."
"How did she get it?" Ron asked. "Was she Chosen?"
"No. Not Chosen at all, but the element is definitely there." Hermione sighed gently as the four gathered.
"Then how…?" Ginny frowned.
"The first four elements were summoned, weren't they?" Ron aired his theory. "They came to us because Hogwarts chose us… maybe the founders even summoned them."
The others nodded.
"But the other two elements weren't planned, so maybe they weren't playing by the same rules?"
"Moonlight would be the one to be so… tricky." Ginny grinned sheepishly. "Giving me a water transformation was strange enough."
"Then why was Lavender the one?" Harry asked.
"She has the element in her blood; she's got a mermaid in her family so if that was all the invitation the Moon needed to wake her power… maybe it did?" Hermione finished.
Silence descended upon the group for a while until Harry recognised the opportunity he'd been waiting for all day.
"Since we are all here, I wanted to show you the map properly." Harry crossed to the wall and pressed a hand against the canvas, mimicking Ron's pose of a few minutes before.
Harry called out to the power of the map and it obliged him. The map of the United Kingdom drew itself from the canvass in minuscule flecks of earth summoned from each of the places they were intended to represent. Next the harder part: Harry had the earth held while Ron sealed it and then he called the second layer into wakefulness. The second layer to the spell was a layer of darkness that would, rather like a magnet attracting a paperclip, be attracted to the particular specks of earth which had seen dark magic performed upon them.
Harry and Ron had created a map that would register dark magic. It would need to be re-set to get an accurate image of Britain, but doing so only took a moment's concentration from Harry. Via a spell Ron and Dumbledore had created, Harry could connect each speck of earth back to the place they came from, which would attune them once more to the magic in that area and display any changes on the map.
The countries displayed on the canvass looked ill. They were plagued; diseased by the choking mass of black marks scattered across them. There were hundreds at first sight, perhaps three or four hundred all told, but of course the map would change.
"Is that…live?" Hermione groped for the appropriate work "Is that where the country stands?"
"Yes." Harry sighed as he looked back at the map.
"We have a lot of work to do" Ron stood tall. The task was going to be large; a truly massive undertaking… but they were built to master it.
"That's half the country," Ginny's eyes roamed down from Scotland to England and then across to Wales and Ireland "All the countries, they're all more than half dark."
"It's going to take time." Harry was itching to begin and desperate to strike that one inspirational first blow. To save that one tiny corner of the map was the start of everything: his own personal declaration of war and The Chosen proclaiming that they were ready to face whatever that war might bring.
While the map remained Tom's personal chessboard, the blackness of dark magic would swamp the countries unopposed. The Order of the Phoenix could do little to help; there was no one to gain help from, no one at the ministry to trust. They gathered what information they could and saved anyone they came across who could be saved. Their greatest asset was Severus Snape and his position was still unthinkably precarious.
Ginny took the few steps until she stood at Harry's side and reached out to touch the map.
"Pick one." He invited.
"What?" She turned to him.
"Pick one, Ginny." Harry looked to Ron and Hermione. "We need to start somewhere."
"I…" She scanned the map. "Here."
Ginny chose the place with no small amount of care. It was nowhere near her home, nor Harry's, nor Hermione's. It had tempted her to choose the dot worryingly close to the Burrow, but that was a clear indication of who she was and why they were fighting. They needed to be faceless for as long as possible.
It wasn't a massive leap of logic to assume Harry Potter to be leading the fight against Tom Riddle, but there was no proof as of yet and she wasn't about to leave any hints of who was and was not involved.
The dot was away from anywhere she recognised; she hoped it was not too close to any of the other students' homes.
"Now?" Hermione was startled. "We're doing this now?"
Harry took in the wide-eyed expression Ginny and Hermione were sharing and he saw the way Ron worked to hide the fear which had flashed through him even though he'd known of Harry's plan.
"Starting will be the hard part. Once we realise we can do this once, going back will be easier. We need to begin somewhere and chances are we'll be saving people right from the first moment." Harry explained. "It doesn't matter where we start as far as the map goes: I can't tell you which are registering because they've seen dark magic, and which are because they have Deatheaters there."
"There's only one way to find out." Harry concluded.
"How," Hermione looked again at the map. "Exactly how do we get there? The time we lose in travelling could be all the time they need to move on. We'd have to get through the wards to apparate since we can't all move through the shadows. I didn't think you'd be able to carry us at once, Harry?"
"We did think of that." Ron suppressed the butterflies in his stomach. He wasn't sure about their approach: the magic was sound, but the phrase 'leap of faith' was suddenly lodged in his mind.
Harry touched the dot of Ginny's choosing and the map rippled as he sent a pulse of power through it. The map shimmered and ebbed like water.
"What have you done?" Ginny breathed.
"We can ride the magic." Harry smiled in anticipation of the act. "It's a bit wild but I think with the armour we'll manage."
"Ride?" Hermione cast a look at their Alpha.
"Ride." He nodded. "Armour first."
As one the Chosen drew in a deep breath as each calmed their nerves.
"Henge!" Was half shouted by each of them in the fight to stay in control of their tumultuous emotions and not fall too far into fear.
Their armour answered their call as always. Hermione felt her skirt settle around her hips and checked her sword and then adjusted her boots. Ginny pulled at her gloves as she moved her weight from foot to foot and she bent to be sure her shorts weren't twisted beneath her skirt. None of these checks were necessary, but making them made the girls feel more secure for now.
Ron and Harry stood patiently, giving the girls time to breathe and giving themselves a moment to overcome any of their own anxiety that could not be suppressed.
"Familiars next." Harry growled to the group. He didn't sound harsh, it was determination that drove his voice lower and they all understood. Inwardly Harry was nowhere near as calmly determined as he looked to the group and all of them understood the facade as they relied upon Harry's appearance of calm to stop them all from losing their nerve.
"Truthsong." Ron called his phoenix into existence. The spectacular bird appeared next to him in an instant note of song and he reached out a hand to press against the phoenix's too-warm feathers.
"Silversong." Ginny echoed her brother, and saw her magnificent winged unicorn appear before her. Today would be Silversong's first chance to live up to her 'War Unicorn' title. "Hey there girl." Ginny greeted her familiar.
"Shadowdance." Hermione did not waver. The Black Fox greeted her with a lick against her cheek and he winked at his witch, closing one moon-glow eye and swishing one of his tales.
"Darkmane." Harry finished the group as the winged lion's purr echoed against the stone walls. Had Harry been paying more attention to their location instead of being so focused upon their actions, he might have wondered how far the noise of what they were doing would carry: the purr or roar of a lion is by no means a subtle thing.
The familiars greeted each other with nods or a soft brush of fur against feathers as they passed. They each approached their human s again, taking care to manoeuvre without breaking anything or knocking anyone else with the tip of a wing or a too-enthusiastic swish of the tail. The familiars were as intrigued and excited as their human counterparts as they observed Harry's map of things.
"Mount up?" Ginny asked.
At Harry's nod, the group climbed with hard learned grace onto the backs of their familiars. There had been many not-so-graceful attempts under the founder's watchful eyes, and Ron still swore that he would never have managed it at all if his element wasn't able to give him that extra push. Ginny was internally grateful of her familiar's form as it was surely the easiest to ride… except perhaps for Hermione's Fox which had no wings to trouble her. (And being a creature of the wind, Shadowdance was still perfectly capable of flight if he so chose.)
After Hermione and Ron magically cleared the room of furniture to give the group enough room to spread out, the four Chosen found themselves in a neat line as the animals arranged themselves and stretched to get used to the feel of the stone room they were currently occupying. Harry backed the line until they were almost pressed against the far wall.
"H-Harry I just…" Hermione shook against Shadowdance as she imagined how much a collision with the wall would hurt.
"Are you SURE we'll get through?" Ron couldn't hold the question in.
"Are you?" Harry asked. "It was your spell, Ron!" It was a lot easier to be confident before he was faced with the prospect of jumping into a stone wall.
Harry was silent for a moment too long and the others turned from their places in the line: Ron at his right with Hermione on Ron's right, and Ginny close on Harry's left, to look at him.
"If you really want to wait for morning-" Harry began.
"No." Hermione shook her head. "Now that we're here, -"
"It feels like its time." Ginny continued.
"It's just … getting there." Ron sighed at the wall.
"I'll go first, okay?" Harry felt panic bubble within and he pushed thoughts of it away. "If anything goes wrong, we can hit the shadow and not the wall, Right Darkmane?"
The lion shook himself as Harry gripped tighter onto his mane and tightened the grip his knees had against Darkmane's sides. Harry bent low over the lion's back and Darkmane roared magnificently as he surged into motion. He had room for one bound across the room and then the lion crouched for an instant, and leapt for the canvass.
There was a blinding surge of magic as a wind swept through the room and whipped everyone's hair across their eyes. As the wind lessened, Harry was gone.
"Harry?" Hermione asked the now-empty space where he had been.
Harry?
For too long Ginny heard only silence
Harry! She called again.
Gin?
Harry! Are you safe? Did you make it?
Were you calling before? I … I'm here. Watch the landing, okay? It's a bit higher than we imagined it'd be.
Are you hurt?
No, Gin. It's brilliant! It's like a rollercoaster, It's –
Like… what?
Oh… well, you'll see… Hold on tight and watch the landing, love.
Thanks. You're crazy for thinking this up Harry, but thanks all the same. Ginny felt Harry's laughter and she let the conversation go.
"Who goes next?" Ron was next according to the hierarchy in that he was Second in command, but as Ginny's rank came through Harry she might have outranked Ron had Harry been in the room. The group had never looked too closely at the way their rank measured against each other's.
"I'll take Ginny with me, if you don't mind?" Hermione felt the need for moral support. Jumping into unknown magic was still daunting alone, but coupled with thoughts of what might have been waiting for her on the other side, she was still left fighting not to panic.
"That's fine, I can close the portal that way." Ron nodded.
"Ready, Ginny?" Hermione and Shadowdance took one step forwards.
Ginny swallowed visibly and wound her fingers more tightly into Silversong's mane.
"Ready." He voice cracked slightly over the word, but she shook her head and joined Hermione.
Ginny and Hermione reached for each other's hands at the same instant and they shared a nervous smile as they let go and bent forwards in anticipation of the familiars' movements.
"Oh!" Ginny sat up again for a moment. "Harry says to watch the landing."
"Okay." Ron frowned when Ginny turned from him; had Harry told Ginny more about the map before tonight? Had they tested it together? … but then why was Ginny so pale if she had done this before? … it was as if Harry had told her after his own journey… but that was impossible, wasn't it?
"On three?" Ginny asked hopefully.
Hermione nodded.
"Three!" Ron shouted with a wink.
Silversong reared back as Ginny nudged her sides with her toes. Silversong spread her wings and failed to suppress a whinny of triumph and excitement that was echoed by the yip from Shadowdance who had crouched low to the floor as he whipped his tails furiously from side to side, calling a fearsome wind into existence.
Together (and with a shout from both of the women lost in the moment) the two creatures leapt. Shadowdance could leap further than any Lion might manage and so he entered that picture-portal in a single bound. The War Unicorn at his side beat her wings mid-jump and was flying by the time their small group approached the canvass.
Again the magic around them surged and gave a great leap which pulled the four beings normally too large to fit, into the canvass neatly as the portal rose up to meet them.
Ron lowered his arm from where he had been using it to shield his eyes. Now he stood alone in their common room and he smiled wistfully at the noise of the students on the other side of the far wall. It was as the first knocks were made on the door to the Private Common Room and before the teachers themselves arrived to discover the source of the commotion and of the two vast pulses of magic that had been rolling through Hogwarts that Ron and Truthsong spoke the spell which would close the path after the next traveller had been admitted.
Ron held his breath as Truthsong rose into the air, screeched a piercing note and he laughed because it was all he could do as the spectacular creature made for the portal.
Riding the magic was not easy. Ron and Truthsong were buffeted by bursts of power form every direction. Ron was left clinging to Truthsong for all he was worth in fear that the next pulse of magic to collide with them would unseat him. He didn't want to think of what would happen if they were separated. Truthsong let out a few notes of indignation as he was knocked from his own course as the wind, (or tide?) of magic rose around them. There was one clear path laid out for them but sticking to it was immensely hard.
There was one final swell of wild magic that came for them in an uncontrolled burst of power. This time Ron gripped his phoenix with all he had to spare and he stretched his own wings and used them in a perfect echo of Truthsong's and together the human and phoenix rode out the last burst of power.
As they were released into the night air, the sudden chance if wind speed and direction tore them apart and Ron was thrown to the side as Truthsong struggled to right himself in the suddenly calm sky.
Ron could see the other chosen far below: Hermione sitting in Harry's arms and Harry wearing wings of Shadow as Ginny flew into the night to meet her brother.
"Are you alright?" She asked as she drew level with him.
"Fine, I lost it towards the end though." Ron watched Truthsong land safely and he and Ginny began their descent.
"So did we." Ginny looked down, ashamed. "It took me too long to realise… to call my wings, I couldn't get to Hermione… she fell."
"Harry has her, Ginny." Ron prayed for her to be safe, he begged whoever might hear him that this was not Ginny's way of explaining that his love was badly injured, that she had fallen from so high up to collide only with the Earth.
"Yes. He caught her before she fell too far, but I was closer Ron." Ginny looked at her brother. "I think we need to practice this. That's twice it's happened to the group and last time no one could make the catch and Harry fell."
"You're right. And if this is how the portal will always work then we need to get better at travelling through it and saving someone who falls."
By now the two redheads were only inches from the ground and Ron ran as fast as he could manage to Hermione who was standing next to Harry and smiling.
The Chosen re-united and for the first time they took in their surroundings fully. They were in the Lake District it seemed, from the contours of the land around them. There was a hill to their left which had a large house positioned half way up its side. There was no other visible sign of civilisation and so that house must be their destination.
"Are we sure that's the right place?" Hermione questioned.
Harry closed his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds.
"I'm positive, 'Mione."
"What do we do now?" Ron was the one to ask, but all four of them had been thinking along the same lines.
"Are there wards? Will they see us coming?" Ginny was glad for the cover of darkness, it meant that they had time to plan things here… not a great deal of time, mind you, but enough that they didn't need to run in without any kind of plan.
Are you scared, Gin?
Me?
Yeah.
Harry I'm terrified! This is the single most frightening thing I've ever done.
Me too. I'm scared too.
Ginny paused to look at him. Harry's hands shook as his eyes stayed fixed on the house in the distance. She cast a quick glance back at where Ron held Hermione tightly within his arms, assuring them both that she was safe while he mentally cursed himself for not anticipating her need and being there to catch her.
Ginny pulled Harry into a brief but searing kiss. Automatically he reached for her as she sent the most delicious warmth coursing through his veins. When they parted, the four familiars were watching them intently and they blushed dully in the night.
"Um…" Ginny turned away from their dazzling menagerie and towards the other two Chosen.
"Yeah, we should-" Harry kissed her swiftly once more and then drew back and called for Ron and Hermione.
Once the group was completed, the humans and familiars standing in a loose circle, Harry raised a circle of Shadow around them. There was very little chance of them being spotted, but now that it had occurred to him to do so, he felt certain that he should have hidden their presence before now. He wished dearly that he could have found a way to leave the others hidden when there were alone, but he couldn't find a way. There was the invisibility cloak, but it would only hinder their fighting and spell casting.
"Firstly, I think we're going to need our magic back." Hermione was the first to speak and Ron nodded, as did Truthsong and Shadowdance. They faded from sight after a moment and Hermione and Ron felt their magic return to them. Harry and Ginny sent their familiars towards the house knowing that between the animals, Ron and Hermione's spells and anything Harry and Ginny might sense, they ought to be able to get a clearer picture of what kind of defences they were up against.
There was a tense wait as three of the Chosen concentrated and Harry climbed once more onto Darkmane's back so that he could hide both the unicorn and lion with Shadows while they ran the distance to the house and back.
"Hermione?" Ginny reached for the older woman's hand.
"Yes?" Hermione was shaking but Ginny wouldn't give that away.
"What if it's just a house?" Ginny was shaking too now: this was terrifying.
"What if they moved? And some nice muggles live here now?" Ron took Ginny's other hand as he spoke and he was unsteady as well.
It had been so easy to pretend everything was obvious when they were at school but now that they were out under the sky and approaching an unknown house in a deserted valley, what if things were more complicated? What if there were no Deatheaters in the house.
"What if we made a mistake?" Hermione nodded.
"We have to be sure." Harry spoke from behind them, making the entire group visibly flinch. "There has to be no doubt."
He was certain there had been dark spells cast here and not in a small quantity. Someone had cast unforgivables over and over on the land around the large house with its quaint thatched roof.
It was Hermione who reached out with her magic once more. "There are some nasty spells protecting the house."
Harry nodded: they'd kept him on one side while the remaining familiars had approached the walls and windows of the house.
"Okay, so we're safe to assume we have to look into this." Ginny spoke up. "We can't leave without checking it."
Harry smiled "We have a plan now: we lower the wards and we get into the house. We go quietly and secretly, we look for a sign that they're muggles."
"If they are, we back off. Retreat and head back to Hogwarts but we leave an alarm here, something to call us back if the magic happens again." Ron stepped up to his place as Harry's beta.
"If they're wizards, we get a wand and Ginny and I will guard Ron and Hermione while you work out if it's the one casting the spells. Once we have proof, we…"
"There's no way to take prisoners, is there?" Ginny had been trying to think of some way, but even Azkaban was of no use, and bringing Deatheaters to Hogwarts would be a disaster.
"If we have proof, they we stop them from hurting anyone again." Harry looked around the group slowly. This was different from their desperate actions in saving Hermione; this was a planned and calculated act of murder from one point of view. Otherwise this was the first act of defiance in too long, from the light side of the war.
"Okay." Ginny shook off the last of her fear; it would only get her killed if she couldn't master it.
Hermione and Ron moth nodded their agreement and then got to work lowering the defences around the house. It didn't take them as long as they'd imagined: rather than breaking through the wards or lowering them entirely, the pair lifted the wards along with the ground they had been anchored to. It was a plan that would never have worked in any other location, as it would have been too much of an eyesore, but hidden away with the house, there was nobody to see the floating ring of earth.
"Come on, then." Harry rolled his shoulders and drew his sword. After a look towards Darkmane, Harry felt his magic return to him and he took the first step under the wards.
"Coming." Ginny reached out to Silversong and felt the rush of her magic across her palm.
"Me too." Hermione hurried to catch up to Ginny.
Ron wished them luck while he concentrated once more on holding the earth where it was. Arguably it might have been easier for Harry to hold the earth aloft than it was for Ron to suspend it there with carefully controlled winds, but Harry wouldn't have been able to monitor the wards at the same time.
Harry, Hermione and Ginny approached the back door in silence, and Hermione was startled to note that she had no reflection as they passed a window before she remembered Harry would have hidden them.
Hermione whispered a spell under her breath and the door swung open.
They found themselves in a kitchen that would have rivalled Molly Weasley's for its state of improbably usefulness. There were pans stacked high across the counter as a scrubbing brush tiredly scrubbed at the front of the queue. In the background, a pattern of birds flew across the wallpaper and a clock declared that it was 'too late to be in here!'
Not muggles then.
No, it doesn't look that way. Harry reached behind him for Ginny's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He turned silently to the women following him, and saw that they were finally free of their fear and nerves: they were following his lead (quite literally as he guided their small procession through the kitchen) and they were not panicking.
Harry was immensely proud of them and greatly relieved that he had found the strength within himself to do this, and to justify their trust in him.
With each step they gained a little more confidence at their actions. Each inch of floor they crossed made them more comfortable with their code and their choices. All they would do was test the wands of the people living there, if there was nothing to be found then the owners would never know the Chosen existed.
It all might have gone smoothly, if not for Ginny's senses screaming at her that there was fire approaching.
"Get down!" She yelled as the wall of the kitchen was blown towards them.
Hermione flattened herself against the floor as Harry dropped next to her. She heard his growl as pieces of plaster and chunks of brick continued to strike the floor around them.
Ginny stood tall in the fire; catching what she could and dragging the rest away from Harry and Hermione. She made a desperate grab for the flame and directed it up and away from the three of them, staggering slightly against the backlash, and saw their opponent's face clearly for the first time. It was lit by the light of the blaze she was now pulling into a spiral around the ceiling so as not to damage any of the walls, and she saw the man's lips form the word 'crucio.'
Harry had clearly been faster in overcoming his shock because he hurled what looked like a pan into the path of the oncoming spell as he rose to his feet. The man before him snarled a curse and raised his want to cast again at the intruders in his house.
Hermione did not move from the floor, instead she was concentrating intently on the man attacking them, as Harry distracted him and Ginny tried desperately to control the fire. Hermione finished her spell; it would reveal the colour of the man's magic – the blacker his magic turned, the darker his spells were on average. The colour would only be visible to her, she hadn't had time to make up anything better.
"Harry!" Hermione choked as she tried to breathe. She stood at Harry's side, waving a hand to counter one of the spells the Deatheater sent at them, while the duo kept Ginny protected.
"Yes?"
"He's evil… the spells he's performed, they have no light in them!" She knew she was condemning the man to death, but there was little in his magic to make her want to save him.
Hermione watched the conflict rage briefly in Harry's eyes before the ceiling above them all gave an almighty screech and the Deatheater smiled as he hurled yet more fire at the group for Ginny to try to control.
"I don't know who you think you are," He approached the worthless thieves who had broken into his house. Well, the house he had acquired after killing the family who had occupied it before. "But the Dark Lord and we who follow him, will not stand for such insolence!"
Once more he let loose the powerful flames, and this time the ceiling screamed as it started to give way.
Hermione threw up a shield as Ginny was forced to her knees by the pressure against her magic.
"Ginny!" Hermione shouted. "Heat rises! Heat it up!"
It was not the best logic in the world, but Hermione was sure that if Ginny put her mind to it, she might manage to make it work in spite of this. Hermione kept her barrier in place, and looked at Harry and the Deatheater who were once more throwing spells at each other. The Deatheater laughed and said something which must have made Harry scream at him, Hermione only saw his mouth open as her shield seemed to melt under the fire and the roar of Ginny's work filled the night.
Ginny had stopped fighting the flames and trying to slow them. Instead she urged them on: further and faster and hotter. They swirled over and around each other, endlessly circling the room, forming a vortex. She had the disk held flat enough that it was almost a solid wall, and she prayed that if she kept it moving fast enough then it would protect them from the falling debris as the ceiling tried to fall.
Heat washed through the room as Hermione once again threw a barrier into existence: she needed Ron for this. This time both women cried out as the pressure increased once more: Hermione felt her own knees hit the floor as Ginny reached for her hand. They had put too much power into the spells to stop the fire now: doing so would have nasty (and quite conceivably explosive) consequences. The domed shield Hermione had constructed would have to hold against the force of the fire while Ginny tried to keep the fire moving fast enough that they could hold up the ceiling. Removing any part of the pressure would have thrown off the balance before Ginny and Hermione could compensate.
Harry felt a spell graze his arm, and winced as he felt the pain which came a moment after the injury. The Deatheater thought him distracted enough to run and Harry didn't have time to do anything other than chase him.
Hang on, Ginny.
The Deatheater bolted through the back door of the house and tried to escape across the lawn. Harry wasn't taking chances now, he sunk his power deep into the earth and called it into movement. The earth that clung to the Deatheater's boots attached itself to the ground as he stepped, and there it clung.
The force of his motion flung the man forwards and he fell with a sickening snap to the side. Harry forced back the urge to vomit at the sight of the doubtlessly broken legs the man was now cursing.
Ron saw the commotion from the corner of his eye and he had been watching the increasing amount of smoke pouring from beneath the roof of the house for some time, as he saw the brightness in the kitchen increasing past the point where he could stand to look at it.
"Ron, I can hold the wards." Harry shouted to his Second. "Help them!"
Ron nodded and slid into his wolf form for the extra speed it would give him. He sprinted for the back door so fast he blurred and he left Harry to deal with the man.
Ron found the girls kneeling together beneath the onslaught from above and as he took in the extent of the situation, at first his mind was blank, and then as the house (which seemed to be threatening to fall down around them, as well as simply the hall and kitchen ceiling) gave another almighty moan.
Instinctively Ron called his shield into existence and positioned it over the top of Ginny's fire. Both Girls felt the addition of more magic and they flinched away from it as the pain of channelling more than they could stand started to creep through them. Desperately, Hermione reached out a hand to let Ron through the wards and he was suddenly at her side, holding onto her and Ginny.
Ginny felt the weight of the ceiling removed, but the pressure held the fire in place. She drew breath as she recognise her cue. The fire was slow to respond now that it had so much momentum built up, but she redirected it from the spiral and guided it between the two shields until the edge of the flame was level with her face.
"Hermione, can you let my hand through the shield?"
"I…" Hermione took Ginny's hand in her own and pressed them both against the wall. "Can you keep the fire from burning me?"
"I can if you can." They shared a smile because neither was certain they could uphold their end of the bargain. Ron had magic compatible with the shield, Ginny did not.
The fire bucked wildly under Ginny's control but as Hermione pushed their hands forwards, Ginny pulled the fire into her own hand before it could reach Hermione. Ginny screamed as the flames filled her and the barrier numbed her wrist where it passed through it's surface and Hermione in turn let out a whimper as her hand was subjected to the head from the flames, but not the flames themselves.
The ten seconds it took for Ginny to drain the fire seemed endless, but finally there was no more: the double shields stood empty and the three Chosen were free to make a break for the door. Hermione's shield faltered and she swayed on her feet. Ron was sweating with the effort it took to keep his own shield in place.
They small group found Harry kneeling in the mud outside the house, and Ron felt his barrier splinter and fall as they approached their leader.
"Is he?" Ginny was the only one to speak, primarily because Ron and Hermione succumbed to coughing fits as their bodies rejected the smoke they'd been unable to avoid. Luckily there had not been much inside Hermione's shield and so both would be fine in a minute. Ginny was not affected by smoke, and so she was the one to question Harry.
"He's gone." Harry looked once more at the earth around him.
Wordlessly Ginny slid an arm around Harry as they turned to look back the house. Ron had a hand placed against his chest and he was concentrating on clearing the air in his lungs: if he'd thought of it in time, he could have protected himself from the smoke. Once his own lungs were clear, he helped Hermione work with her smaller gift of Air to ease her breaths.
The four Chosen were left standing in a slightly ragged line and all staring at the house.
"Should I stop the fire?" Ginny wondered. "I can do it now, now it's burning naturally."
"Let it burn." Harry decided.
"What about the rest of the people living there?" Ron asked, alarmed.
"There were some pictures in the hallway and kitchen," Hermione explained. "That man wasn't in them."
"He killed the family." Ron sighed deeply. "Should we save anything? The pictures?"
Hermione looked over at Harry "They might still have relatives…?"
Ginny concentrated hard on the fire, she felt like she'd let the others down by not stopping the fire in the first place, by saving any belongings she might make up for a little of the trouble she caused.
"It… It won't burn anything but the walls and floor." Ginny said as she finished binding the fire to the path she wished it would take. "Anything else can be fixed if it's found."
Hermione nodded and then began to walk in a circle around the house. She explained what she was doing as she went and so the others stayed to watch while she worked. Hermione called water from the river and laid it over the circle the house's wards had followed so that the fire would not be able to spread any further than her barrier.
"This didn't go very well, did it?" Ron looked over to Harry as he spoke.
"That depends how you measure it." Harry looked back.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't very - " Ginny began.
"Don't do that." Harry cut her off. "We shouldn't get into the habit of laying blame. We came to do this together, as the Chosen, and we didn't manage it perfectly… but nobody on our side was hurt badly and the Deatheater can't hurt anyone else." Harry knew that they would improve over time; all they needed now was practice.