Well now! Another year has turned up and so it's about time we had a new chapter! (I'll keep this intro short seeing as it's been yet another long gap between chapters)

I hope everybody had a very Happy Holiday, and anyone who was in the UK… How brilliant was that snow? It was the first White Christmas I can remember… and I hope you weren't all snowed in for too long!

Allonz-y! (Yes, I'm a Doctor Who addict… as are you if that reference made any sense hehehe)

Terraferme – Ahh yes! The 'Hermione' spelling did escape me for quite a while! Having said that, it should be all fixed now that my spell checker seems to recognize it as a word =) And here's a new chapter to boot! Hope you like it and it's always lovely to hear from my readers!

quirky-chick1001 - Thank you so much, I hope you enjoy the new chapter too!

Jennifer - Hi there! I'm happy to say that yes, I am still writing… not as fast as I'd like, but we're getting there! I hope you like the new chapter and so far, this is all there is… but hopefully there'll be more soon!

kats24 – Well I'm sorry to say that there's no Draco in this chapter… but the NEXT one might just answer your question! Thank you so much for the review, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Goodygurl - Hi there! It's always wonderful to hear from you, I hope you're still out there and reading! I'm planning on a bit more conversation next time so there should be some Chosen/rest of the world interaction to look forward to then! Hope you're well and enjoy! Hehe

Chocoholicteen - Brilliant name you have there! Okay, you asked a few questions so here we go … Looking at Draco's winning the sword fight, if you take a look back you'll notice that Draco won the fight because Harry took the opportunity to win the 'war.' Harry gave up on the actual sword fight because that wasn't really the point of the fight; it was all about the flags, you see? And as far as Draco's skill goes… personally (and so as far as Wings Canon goes) I think that the son of Lucius Malfoy would have had rather a lot of practice with a sword… particularly when the swords were Draco's idea in the first place. But thank you so much for asking and feel free to get in touch if there's anything else you'd like to know =)

"Well that was…"

Ron couldn't seem to find words that might sum up what they had done. He couldn't even work out if they should be proud or guilty over their actions. He knew that of all of them he probably had the least to feel guilt over in that the majority of his work had been conducted without committing crimes: he'd not broken into a house, not been involved in a duel without rules to ensure safety, not been involved in the subsequent destruction of said house, he'd not been the one to commit 'murder' he'd even not been the one to harm the wards which were in place around the rubble and flames of the house. Once the fighting was done, the wards had been lowered back into place.

Yet it was Ron who felt the weight of his guilt might crush him. He had done nothing to help in the real fight. Hermione had firstly fallen from the sky and he had failed to catch her, then when the fight had erupted and the house blazed with firelight and through it he swore he could hear his sister and his love scream, he had still done nothing. He had been trapped outside with the wards.

Then it had been Harry to chase down the Deatheater and to put an end to him. In that Ron felt grim satisfaction beneath the guilt. Guilt again because the man had run from the house and that put him into Ron's hands and yet Harry had been the one… It wasn't that Ron felt cheated out of the kill, it was that he worried that Harry had thought he might not have been able to take care of the Deatheater alone. Ron's guilt stemmed from that one point entirely: his Alpha did not trust him because Ron hadn't given him enough of a reason to do so. Even as he thought it, he knew that it wasn't entirely true because harry had trusted him with something more important: running to the aid of Hermione and Ginny, but the doubt stayed with Ron even as he tried to accept the facts.

So it was Ron left standing in the wreckage unscathed and Harry who looked to be near the point of collapse. Harry staggered as the Chosen found each other, every one of them lost in their own thoughts and memories of the past… how long? Half an hour? An hour at the most? So much had changed in that small progression of time.

"Yeah…" Harry's lips quirked into a mockery of a smile. "It was."

"What you said about blame was important." Hermione nursed her fiercely burning hand and firmly ignored the tears streaming across her cheeks from the smoke and the pain.

"Yes." Ginny murmured. She couldn't stop the violent trembling in her hand and it was burned so badly that she could feel herself fast approaching the point of nausea where she would have no choice but to try and find a secluded spot while it overcame her.

"We shouldn't blame anyone" Hermione continued "but we need to discuss this… it was the best we could manage."

"It was good… in a way: we did what we came to do, like Harry said, but we need to make our best better." Ginny went even more white as she spoke.

"She's right; if anyone else found us now, Ginny and I would be useless-"

"That is not true" Harry snarled the words, they were wounded and fading but they were by no means finished. He could see in even if they could not. They were all capable of doing more but it was sadistic to force any of them to do so.

H-Harry?

Gin?

My h-hand, Harry-

"What?!" Harry was at her side in an instant and pulled her hand away from her body as she cringed away from the movement. "God, Ginny… Hermione!"

The brunette had been trying to hide her own burn; studiously telling herself that Ginny's was worse but as a wave of fresh agony boiled across the two women, they both wrenched away from the group so they could empty their stomachs in relative privacy. The pain had surged as the wind caught the fire and brew the sparks and the blaze itself even higher up into the sky.

"We have to get home, Ron." Harry ordered with every nuance of his Alpha self that he could put into his voice. "We need help!"

Ron nodded, instantly obedient to the order because he understood Harry's overwhelming need in giving it.

"I don't know how, Ron, I don't know how to get back!" Panic leaked into this Alpha's voice and Ron stepped up to Harry's side.

"Let me handle this one, okay?" Ron assured him. No matter what his own insecurities might be, there was his pack to protect first.

Ron called Truthsong and the magnificent creature materialized and filled the night with song. Truthsong was too much a being of Air to be a true phoenix; in actuality he was something new and something altogether spectacular, but he could not cry tears of power which would heal his human's love or his human's sister. Instead he screeched, and the sound sent the Chosen screaming to their knees with their hands vainly attempting to block the sound.

The screech was more base and far more powerful than a spell, and as it lengthened, Truthsong began to burn with the sound and to light up the air with power. Ron reached out desperately to his familiar and in the moment Ron's hand brushed the edge of one radiant wing, his own power fulfilled the summoning Truthsong was singing into existence.

The portal re-opened but this time at ground level.

"Huh" Ron fell to his knees as Truthsong dissolved back into Ron's own magic.

"Did we know that was possible?" Harry spared a moment to puzzlement as he stood.

Ginny and Hermione remained on their hands and knees, both lost to tears and white-heat agony.

"Make it stable, Ron" Harry took his place behind his Second in command and laid a hand on Ron's shoulder.

"What? How?" Ron tried to look back. "It doesn't work that way."

Harry knew that. He knew it in his bones but he also knew that his idea would work… and that it would be stupid. He knew that this was the kind of plan only to be used in emergencies because it violated something within him.

"Do it!" Harry's voice was firm. "Start a spell, make something up."

Ron began a whispered stream of words, faltering and never-quite-right, but it was beginning to do something.

Harry placed his right hand against Ron's back, feeling his spine against the palm of his hand. He took a moment to brace himself – found his balance and closed his eyes. Then Harry forced his power through Ron the pressure drove both men to their knees as Harry's cold, dark power surged into Ron's unfamiliar hands.

Ron stumbled to control the rush of force and the sheer screaming fight of the magic, but Harry was there too teaching control and letting Ron shape the spell while Harry struggled to fuel it.

When the power finally exploded from Ron's outstretched hands and arrowed into the portal, Harry noticed the tears on Ron's cheeks as he felt the cascade down his own.

"N-never again." Harry whispered to his Second. "We are never trying that again"

"Yeah." Ron turned weakly, feeling nauseas at having someone else's magic within him. "Good, but…"

"What?" Harry met Ron's look as he waited for his power to calm down.

"We couldn't have done it alone." Ron shrugged even as he forced the bile back down his throat and he saw Harry pale at the thought.

"What are you saying?" Harry sounded scared.

"That it was worth it." Ron looked at his Alpha with strength filling his eyes. "That this is what we needed to do and so we have done it. It's our job, our duty… this is what you've been waiting for us to realize."

Though Harry's heart broke at the state his Chosen were in, that Ron understood the driving need which had been forcing Harry into action was a vast relief. Words could not be enough to explain the calling to take necessary action, but Harry had answered the call on behalf of all of them and now thankfully Ron could understand why. More than that; Ron was endorsing Harry's choice.

Any other conversation would have to wait, and Harry knew that there was a lot more which needed to be said.

Resolutely, Harry pushed himself to his feet and felt his muscles protest against the movement. He staggered with that first step, but it got him a few inches close to Ginny. She needed him.

"Ron? Can you… Hermione." Harry was inarticulate in explaining his plan, but Ron had been his friend for long enough that he understood and he nodded weakly as he crawled over to his beautiful, hurt girlfriend.

"Hey" Ron whispered weakly to her and she smiled shakily back.

"Hi"

Ron mirrored Harry's earlier fight to stand as Hermione clutched weakly at her stomach.

Harry eased his arms around Ginny and lifted her into the air so he held her safely.

What are you doing?

Can you walk?

I don't… yes!

Gin

Okay, no. But… I feel silly.

I don't care. As long as you're safe, you can feel as silly as you like.

Harry could hear a similar conversation occurring between Ron and Hermione and the two men shared a smile as the mortified girls avoided eye contact and tried not to let the pain from their still-burning hands get the better of them.

Ron and Harry strolled over to the portal as Harry heard the vaguest beginnings of a police siren in the distance. This time, the path through the wild magic was just that: a path. There was a cloud of black and white feathers waiting and though the magic pulled at them and tried to break apart the path altogether, the feathers held fast to each other. This magic was not stable, it was a thing wrought of power and desperation and will alone, the white feathers were black-tipped and the black were shot through with white. Neither Ron nor Harry had done this and it made the path stronger in its magic even as the two Chosen rebelled at the process which had called it into being. They both knew that the path would not last long.

Calling on strength which neither man possessed, they began a half-desperate race back through the magic, and away… so blissfully away, from that house and all that had been done there.

Harry and Ron stumbled and staggered the last few steps because they could each feel the power of their path was fragmenting and it would soon fade entirely out of existence. At some point during the journey, while Harry and Ron did their level best to keep the women protected and to keep moving towards the safety of the castle, both Hermione and Ginny had lost the fight against consciousness.

There was a last jarring leap from the feathered floor to the lush carpeted haven that was their private common room, looking every bit as innocent and empty as they'd left it.

There was an instant of calm, during which both Harry and Ron were able to catch their balance and then the almighty racket which was emanating from the common room reached them. There seemed to be some kind of half-riot as students banged on the door to the private common room.

Harry only then understood that the noise of their leaving would have travelled throughout Gryffindor Tower but there simply wasn't time to deal with the aftermath of their actions until Ginny and Hermione were healed.

"Harry?" Ron smiled tightly as a familiar voice cut through the mass of students "McGonagall's there."

"We can't go that way; too many people." Harry chewed absently on his lip as he considered their options. "Right. This way."

Harry once more drew on power that frankly he no longer had.

HARRY! Ginny's voice screamed at him and she fought to be free of his arms; pulled back to consciousness by the feel of him draining his reserves.

Harry lost their brief fight and Ginny stood alone once more although the hurt coursing through her veins burned more ferociously with every breath. Her vision danced and swayed and glowed red at the edges.

Harry was beyond her now, he pulled the group through the shadows and they fell; the four of them, into the entrance of the Hospital Wing. Harry felt the edges of his vision darkening as he forced their path through the shadows, he felt the darkness tearing as they went and was unaware of Ron's horrified look.

Ron was the last of the chosen left conscious and he saw Harry's fall as the wings of shadow were torn apart from his Alpha's shoulders and they broke to pieces as his body fell. Thankfully they were out of the shadow element's blackness by the time Harry faltered and Ron was truly in awe of the way he had stretched himself to see his friends to safety. Now three of the four Chosen lay unconscious and it was then that Ron saw the smoke rising from Hermione's hand.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Ron shouted as he hammered his fists against the door to the Hospital Wing. It was far too late for her to be ready, but there must have been some magic to inform her of the state of the infirmary because she had never abandoned a student in need.

She was still burning! Hermione's hand was still on fire… and not just her, Ginny too. Ron turned in desperation and shock to see where Ginny's flesh continued to char. How much had it cost them to stay silent? He wondered how much time had been lost because they hadn't been able to tell him or tell Harry what was happening to them.

"MADAM POMFREY!" This time Ron shouted with all his might and threw a deal of Air into the call so that he was certain it would reach the matron's ears.

Ron had a few moments to try and quell the blind panic within himself, and he turned back to the three Chosen who were sprawled across the corridor knowing that he should have looked after them first. Now he called upon the gentlest wind her could summon and added power to it. Under his tutelage the wind learnt what Ron was asking of it and it shaped itself obligingly. Again this night saw something unlikely to have been attempted before then; Ron created three platforms of Air upon which his friends now lay, hovering away from the harsh stone.

Ron hoped that their hurts had eased, but knew he could not do anything more for them; he simply didn't have the knowledge.

"What on Earth?!" Madam Pomfrey opened the door to the infirmary.

"Please!" Ron's knees steadied as he saw her, without someone there to see him, Ron found it infinitely harder to keep himself together. Now that there was another present, it wouldn't have mattered who they were, he could act the way he needed to act.

"Mister Weasley?" The matron was frankly astonished at the sight which lay before her.

"They need your help." Ron sighed as the intimidating woman looked carefully at the three bodies suspended behind him and then stood aside to usher them all through the doorway.

Briskly, Madam Pomfrey waved her wand at the three students. "Is that … Mister Potter?"

"Yes, and Hermione and Ginny." Ron followed her and watched her purse her lips as she waved her wand again.

"This spell… " She shook her head, assuming she was tired. There was no logical reason for the three levitating bodies not to have obeyed her.

"Oh!" Ron flushed as he flapped a hand at each of the winds. He lay Hermione as softly as he knew how onto the bed closest to Madam Pomfrey and then placed Ginny on the bed next to her. Harry he directed to the bed on the far side of Ginny because as far as Ron was aware, Harry's condition was more due to overexertion than it was any specific injury.

"What has happened here?" The matron demanded as she descended upon Hermione and ran every diagnostic spell she could think of, while casting the same spells at the next two beds as well.

"I can't really say." Ron answered truthfully. "I wasn't there when they got hurt. Harry's exhausted, I think, and there was some kind of fire…"

"These burns are more than a simple fire would cause." She had never seen their like and the worst part was that (she moved from Miss Granger to check her condition against that of Miss Weasley to be sure, the burns seemed to be worsening as she watched.

"It was a curse" Ron supplied.

"And the gloves, Mister Weasley… would you care to tell me why they cannot be removed?" She eyed him warily and with a dawning suspicion showing plainly in her eyes.

"I think, Madam, that I had better not say anything until Harry is awake" Ron even bowed slightly as he spoke, calling on the most meticulously polite manners his Mother had tried to teach him. "As for the gloves, I believe I may be able to help there."

Ron took his place at Hermione's side and drew the material into his hands before realizing that it would pull at the wound.

"One short, sharp movement would be best." Madam Pomfrey advised calmly.

"Right." Ron braced himself and even they the way the material stuck to the wound still threatened to undo him. At this point he was glad that Hermione was unconscious because he wouldn't wish the experience of this upon her.

Once the glove was removed, and Ron spent a few green-tinged moments arguing with his stomach, Ron rushed to Ginny's side to free her hand for inspection as well. As he did so he was not expecting the wry comment from the Nurse.

"I would wonder if you mother is aware that you were sure you could have extracted Miss Granger from her clothes?"

"My Mother?"

"Yes dear, I believe that seeing you and Miss Granger together would cheer her up no end." Madam Pomfrey had to wait a few moments for the results of her spells to be formulated.

"I didn't realize…" Ron floundered slightly as he tried to pay attention to anything outside his gravely injured friends. "Are you friends with-?"

"With the number of times I have seen a certain pair of inventive twins in this room, a certain level of acquaintance with their Mother was inevitable and I – Oh dear." She trailed off as she frowned down at Hermione's hand.

"What is it?" Ron leapt to her side.

"This burn will not heal." She murmured. "I have another potion or two which might be tried. I am not out of tricks yet, dear."

For the next ten minutes potion after potion was produced and applied to Hermione's hand and eventually Poppy debated sending word to Severus as she was clearly in need of something more powerful than the potions she routinely stocked. Worse than the potions proving ineffective, it seemed that they simply could not touch the wound. She could not tell if they were being burned away before they came into contact with the skin or if there was some kind of magical or physical barrier to their application.

"Madam Pomfrey? Please, what's the problem" Ron heard the beginnings of a whine in his voice as he vainly tried to find something helpful to do. The sight of the other three being so still and so helpless would, he was sure, be haunting his nightmares for quite some time.

"The wound needs to be cooled and treated and I can do neither." The call to Severus was perhaps overdue. "I believe we need something more potent."

It took Madam Pomfrey less than a minute to call Severus via the floo but he was not able to travel through it: potions as sensitive as Severus Snape might concoct did not respond well to other magics being placed upon them. A simple summoning spell would damage them beyond all usefulness.

"What about more of a 'brute force' plan?" Madam Pomfrey thought aloud.

"In what way?" Ron looked up from his place between Hermione and Ginny.

"Perhaps there is no time for subtlety; total immersion might be faster than this burning."

Ron thought very carefully about his response. Already tonight Madam Pomfrey had seen more than was supposed to be revealed, yet they had been desperate. However strange seeing four Gryffindor students dressed in a gothic way and carrying weapons might have been, seeing Hermione and Ginny grow tales would be a lot harder to explain away.

"If there's no other way…" Ron trailed off. Their safety was more important than their secret. If this could help to heal Hermione and save his sister then Ron would gladly accept the consequences.

Madame Pomfrey conjured a bucket of water to begin with and she lowered the poor unconscious girl's hand into it. The hand bubbled and the water closed over it, suggesting that some water was indeed coming into contact with the flesh that needed it most. There was a strangely loud sigh from her spectator as he glanced the girl, the water, and back again counting under his breath. She did not have a moment spare to try and fathom the mind of Ronald Weasley.

Ron counted down the seconds and nothing happened. He held his breath but the change never came. This scared him even more deeply than the burn had; it was as though Hermione's magic was gone… as though it was drained entirely.

Unless... a thought pulled his eyes back into focus, what if her power was not necessarily gone, perhaps there was none left to transform her because she was using it to try and cool her hand.

He acted on instinct now, his inner wolf calling to him the safety of familiarity and the healing of pack brothers and sisters and mates. Hermione needed power and she drew that from the Chosen and from her Lake.

Ron blew the glass of the infirmary windows into thousands of pieces as he sent a wind shrieking towards the lake.

"Stand back, Madam Pomfrey." The new strength and purpose in the boy was astounding. The man who stood before the Matron was glowing with power and even through the howl of the wind, she heard him clear as day. She was pushed back from her patient and saw Hermione's hair whipped against the pillows as the spell continued to build.

The wind howled and Madam Pomfrey cowered from it. No, it was not the wind, she realized, but wolves. The wind and the wolves together cried out for … for what?

Ron heard the pack-song join his spell and, as he'd known it would, power surged through him as their symphony rose. This was not a summoning and so the ribbon of water from Hermione's Lake was pulled by the Air and the wolves and their chosen. It flew in defiance of everything proven to be lesser than their combined strength.

Hermione gasped as the water reached her. She threw back her head and arched her back as the blessedly cool water found her. She pulled at it, hearing nothing of the tornado Ron had summoned and held for her; she simply called and the water answered.

Within seconds there was a perfect sphere encasing her from head to foot as she lay on the bed and there the water swayed, hesitating until it found Ginny's hand. Ginny was not pulled under as Hermione had been, but then Ginny could not have survived in her human form.

In this state neither woman was quite conscious and so their magic acted in response to their need. It would heal all that it could and they were approaching the living world once more as the power rode through them to provide a cure.

"Fire." Harry coughed weakly. His state of exhaustion had been self induced, but as one of their group became more powerful, they all seemed to gain a little strength if they were close enough to do so. Equally, as they had seen tonight, if one person fell then the others would have a harder time standing.

"Harry?" Ron forced the sounds to pass easily through the wind.

"For Ginny. She needs a fire to pull strength from." Harry was talking franticly to Ginny (although he could hear no reply) and had only the vaguest idea of what might work, but it was clear that without Ginny and Hermione removing the barrier, they could not be healed.

Ron needed no further provoking; the time for hesitation was past. He called the most powerful fire he could wield into existence and he let it billow across his baby sister. For that moment his heart seemed to have frozen in his chest as he waited for the blood curdling screams to find him.

They never came.

Ron could not tell what was happening in the globe of fire or in the globe of water but it seemed to be under the control of Hermione and Ginny and he could no longer begin to guess if they were awake and in control or not.

Madam Pomfrey cast aside her terror at the spectacle threatening to blow apart her infirmary and with a slight feel of glee she began to force Harry Potter to drink her strongest batch of pepper-up potion as fast as the boy could stand to swallow it. His exhaustion would be gone in moments. This one, at least, she could heal.

Being a witch was not enough to help her understanding of the elemental forces at play within the walls and she had, by necessity, distracted Harry so much that when the explosive mixture of water and fire began to ignite and expand, it was Ron who was the first to act.

Without being aware of it, he'd called his wings into existence and they held him suspended perfectly at the centre of the globe of wind he had formed from the remnants of the wolf-singing wind. He threw himself and all that magic over Harry and Madam Pomfrey at the instant the fire burst outwards and the water hissed as it evaporated.

Ginny and Hermione opened their eyes and saw their franticly clasped hands stretching across the gap between their beds. There was a perfect imprint of Ginny's wings burned into the sheets and mattress upon which she had lain and Hermione saw the iridescent scales laid out in a pattern to match her tail which were now attached stubbornly to the bed upon which she had rested.

As they pulled their hands apart, Ginny saw the deep blue and moonlight-white glove which had replaced her usual black, and Hermione inspected a similar creation in gold and scarlet upon her own wrist.

"What, um… what just happened?" Ginny and Hermione turned as one to look for anyone who might explain the situation to them.

"Ron… just saved… us all" Harry gasped between panting breaths as smoke continued to pour from his ears and he and Ron looked at the formidable figure of Poppy Pomfrey lying across one of her own hospital beds, starring at each of them in a way which demanded a decent explanation.