Disclaimer: I don't own any of JKR's characters. I only take credit for my own original ones

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CHAPTER FIVE

Harry flew out the window trailing not far behind Ginny. He couldn't help the feeling of bliss that hit him when he felt the cool wind in his hair. He closed his eyes for one second before the reason for his midnight flight came back to him. His seeker reflexes immediately came rushing into him as he searched for a blur of red hair that would be Ginny. He saw her flying low over the grounds of the Burrow. She was flying in the opposite direction of the village, Harry thought relieved that she wasn't about to let a bunch of muffles see her flying. As she swerved through trees, easily avoiding any obstacles that got into her way, Harry realized that he had never seen her fly before, and was surprised that she was quite good. With that thought in the back of his mind, he dived after the red head, wanting nothing more than for both of them to be back safely in The Burrow.

Ginny however knew she was being chased and sped up her broom, knowing that it wasn't as fast as Harry's, but hoping she had gotten a good enough head start. As she flew over the boundaries of the Burrow, she heard Harry cursing behind her. Ginny knew that they were both unprotected between now and when they reached the forest, but Cassia had been very stern on how important it was that she make it. Besides, Ginny thought smugly, with her new abilities already quite well along, she and Harry could probably take a small raid without much trouble. The forest was in view now, and Ginny slowed down her broom before dismounting in front of the wall of trees. Harry landed beside her and grabbed her arm angrily.

"What do you think your doing? We are well outside the wards, you're going to get us killed!" Harry was whispering as though he expected a group of death eaters to pop out of the trees any moment.

Ginny merely smiled mysteriously at him and moved forward starting into the forest. Trying not to laugh at Harry staring at her incredulously, torturing him like this was quite a bit of fun, she mused to herself.

"Damnit!" Ginny heard Harry mutter to himself before he stepped into stride beside her. "Alright, are you going to tell me what's going on or not?" Harry growled, ducking his head under a low branch.

Ginny finally relented, filling Harry in on her interesting summer training. She went on and on, as Harry listened silently. When they reached a clearing, Ginny stopped her explanations, and gave a high-pitched whistle, just like Cassia had taught her to do. It would be impossible for her to find the actual Druid village on her own. Only those who lived there could find there way back to it. So this whistle would alert someone of her presence, and they would come and lead her to the village for training.

Harry was looking at Ginny in surprise; he had never heard some one whistle that loudly before. It just didn't seem natural coming out of Ginny's small frame. His head was racing with all that Ginny had told him; waiting for her to laugh and tell him it was all a stupid prank. But she seemed completely serious, and not even a great actor could have pulled off such a flawless performance. He had after all seen her ease with wand less magic. That definitely wasn't normal. Well he would find out soon enough. Harry told himself, she was apparently taking him to see these people now. It suddenly occurred to him that these 'Druids' Ginny would be taking him to see could very easily be Voldermorts supporters. They could have convinced Ginny to lead him out here and then capture him. Maybe she was under the imperious curse. A sudden chill ran down his spine, how could he have been stupid enough to let his guard down and follow Ginny here. They would probably kill her after they were finished using her body. He heard the sound of something approaching and grabbed Ginny's arm and hurled her behind a bunch of trees, pulling his wand out peering out from the bushes he and Ginny were crouched behind.

"Harry! What's wrong with you?" Ginny shouted none to quietly. Wrenching her arm from his grasp, she made to stand back up and back into the clearing, but Harry was faster.

"Stay down! Some one's coming." Harry warned, pulling her in close to him to keep her from trying to escape.

Ginny gave up fighting Harry, partly because she knew he was physically stronger than her, and partly because she secretly liked the feel of his warm body pressed against her back. His arm was like a warm steel bar, securely wrapped around her waist. Harry tightened his grip when there was a rustling in the trees on the other side of the clearing. Ginny could hear his unsteady breathing, and feel his breath tickling the back of her neck. Her skin burned everywhere Harry was making contact with her. Her breathing became ragged as she started to picture Harry holding her in his arms, hand stroking her everywhere. His warm, soft lips trailing kisses down her neck…Ginny almost let out a moan before reminding herself sternly that there was no point in thinking about something she knew very well would never happen. Besides, she was completely over Harry Potter. She adamantly ignored the fact that her body certainly still wanted him, and struggled to get out of his tight grasp. However, this achieved nothing apart from rubbing herself up against him. Is it just me, Ginny thought to herself, or has Harry's breathing become a lot more ragged? Pushing that delightful thought out of her mind, Ginny started to tell Harry that the Druids were not evil or anything, before he could curse the person answering her whistle. Harry however, was refusing to listen to her. He held his wand ready, eyes never leaving the clearing.

"Gin! Shut up will you?" Harry hissed angrily. "You probably brought us right into a bloody trap. You know very well there are none of those ancient Druids left, they are probably just pretending and tricked you so you would bring me to them. Maybe your confounded or something…" Harry's voice trailed off as none other than Alainez appeared in the clearing smiling cheerfully. Of course Harry had no idea who this was, and Ginny wasn't about to let him do anything to hurt that sinfully gorgeous face. Alainez frowned in confusion when he couldn't see Ginny.

"Hey Red?" Alainez called, he had given her that nickname, claiming that he had never met anyone with red hair before. "Come on, I can sense you somewhere around here, and whoever you brought with you really needs to get trained up!"

Alainez was smiling again, thinking Ginny was just fooling around or something. He had never met anyone other than the people in his village, so meeting and helping Ginny train had been something to look forward to. He was very happy with her progress; she had the unicorn riding down flat in hours. Her senses were really coming along according to Cassia, soon she would be able to sense people without having to make direct eye contact. He was supposed to start working with her today on becoming her animal. Cassia would take the other and start to train him up as well.

Alainez sighed and listened to the wind for a moment. It was immediately obvious where the two were hiding, Alainez turned in that direction and looked at the trees and bushes that he knew were their hiding place. Just as he started to make his way forward, he heard a male voice shout out a stunning spell. Alainez put up his shields and the spell bounced off the invisible wards around him harmlessly.

"Harry!" Ginny shrieked, for a moment she thought Alainez would actually be hit with Harry's spell. "Put your wand away this instant," while Ginny said this, she managed to get out of Harry's tight hold on her. He had loosened his grip when he saw his superb stunning spell bounce off the silver haired guy pointlessly.

When Ginny realized that Harry wasn't paying any attention to her, she flicked her hand and Harry's wand shot straight to her.

"Hey!" He cried out in surprise and panic. Is it possible that Ginny could be working with them? Harry thought suddenly Why else would she disarm me like that? Harry immediately shook this thought out of his mind. If anything she was being controlled, she had suffered too much at Voldemorts hands to join with him. However, she had also proved in her first year that she could indeed be controlled…

To Harry's horror, Ginny then stepped out into the clearing greeting the powerful wizard warmly. "Sorry about my friend, he's a bit paranoid…"

Harry then heard the silver haired man chuckle, "I understand, do you think he'll come back to camp without fighting us on it?"

Ginny sent an annoyed look Harry's way before saying "Probably not, he thinks you all are working for Voldemort and set this up as a trap or something." She sighed looking thoughtful, "maybe we could use some gentle yet forceful method of bringing him along if he doesn't oblige." Ginny sent a mischievous grin his way before waving her hand in the air and muttering something under her breath.

Harry felt as if he had touched a port key. The only difference was that he could see exactly where he was going, and he was swiftly placed right in front of Ginny and Alainez unarmed. Ginny was grinning triumphantly. Alainez put out a hand for Harry to shake, "nice you could finally join us!" He said grinning. Harry backed away wearily, and looked at the outstretched hand as if it were a Malfoy.

"Who are you?" Harry demanded rather rudely. With Voldemort trying to kill him at every turn, he was a little bit weary of trusting strangers.

"Alainez, I'm here to bring you and Red to our village to train up your powers." Alainez said, totally unfazed by Harry's obvious lack of trust in him.

"Come on Harry, he's telling the truth," Ginny began, she knew what this must look like, she had thought something similar the first time she had met the Druids. "I've been here countless times, I wouldn't lead you into danger." Ginny felt a surge of anger when Harry looked like he doubted what she said.

Harry seeing her expression quickly explained, "I know the Ginny I know wouldn't lead me into danger, but Ron said you have been acting a bit odd lately. How do I know you aren't under Imperious, or someone else completely!?" Ginny only rolled her eyes at this.

"Are you coming with us peacefully or not Harry?" She asked bluntly.

"Er…" Harry's eyes darted back and forth between Ginny and Alainez, as if waiting for one of them to do something evil. However, he only saw impatience in Ginny, and amusement in Alainez expressions. Knowing that he couldn't do anything without his wand anyway, Harry reluctantly agreed not to cause any trouble. After all, he would find out soon enough what was really going on.

And find out he did. After arriving at the village, it only took a few minutes for Harry to realize that everything Ginny had told him had indeed been the truth. He would be being tortured or dead if these people had anything to do with death eaters. Instead, he was learning that he could do things he never thought possible of himself. Voldemort definitely wouldn't want to make him stronger. After about five days in the Druid village, Harry was pretty good at wandless magic, and could get along with almost every magical creature, even ride unicorns! He barely saw Ginny while he was there. Since she was ahead of him in the training, she was always off learning something else. At the moment Harry was sitting in his hut like room levitating anything he could find. "At this rate I won't even need a wand!" He muttered, immensely pleased with himself.

"I would stick with the wand if I were you." Came an amused voice from directly behind him. Harry was so startled he jumped half way across the hut, losing concentration and dropping everything he had been levitating. He only caught a glimpse of red hair before something landed on his head, blocking his vision. Harry quickly pulled the garment off his face, and was horrified to note that they were the silver boxers one of the male druids had lent him for his stay. He shoved them away quickly, but Ginny's hysterical laughter told him that she had already seen them.

"Sorry Harry I forgot to tell you to pack a weeks worth of clothing." She said between chuckles.

Harry scowled at her, "how do you know these ones aren't mine?" he asked her in mock offence.

"I don't know…just a hunch." Ginny's grin faded and Harry suddenly realized how tiered she looked. Her face was drawn and pale, and her eyes kept drooping like she hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep.

"Hey, are you alright?" Harry asked taking a step forward incase she passed out or something.

"Hmmm…yeah I'll survive. I just had to learn to become animagus in the span of one week." Ginny replied weakly.

Harry blinked a few times before the meaning of her words fully sank in. "You're an animagus now?" He asked slowly.

Ginny nodded her head before sitting down on a near by chair.

"Holey shit!" Harry exclaimed, he really couldn't think of anything better to say. It usually took full-grown witches and wizards ages to accomplish such a thing. Some never even got to that level, and if they did they had to be closely watched by the ministry.

"Mm hmm, but you can't say anything or I'll get into trouble because I'm not registered, and I don't plan to be."

Harry nodded, if it was up to the two of them to defeat the Dark Lord, than keeping all of their abilities secret would be to their advantage.

It suddenly sunk in how serious all of this was. For the last four days he had been having fun, learning new tricks he didn't need his wand for. He hadn't given much thought for the cause of it. Now it felt like a huge weight had settled inside his stomach. Dread was what he felt, dread for what would surely come in his future, now Ginny's as well. Pushing the unwanted feelings away for the time being, he turned to Ginny, "What sort of animal are you?" he asked curiously.

He watched as a smile touched her lips and her eyes got back their twinkle. Suddenly, he was no longer looking at Ginny Weasley but a…he didn't know really know what he was looking at, but it was breathtaking. She kept her human legs, but they had a golden tinge to them and she seemed to shrink several feet in height. Her legs blended evenly into the golden plumage that covered her body. Her arms became deep long scarlet wings. Her tail was mixed beautifully with golden and scarlet feathers. Her neck and head were now white and smooth with an eagles beak protruding from her beautiful white eagle head. Her brown eyes sparkled merrily seeing his reaction of awe. After letting Harry get a good look, Ginny quickly changed back into her human form.

"Well?" She asked out of breath. She had used up almost all of her strength to accomplish that short transformation, but it was worth it seeing Harry's shocked/impressed face.

"That was…amazing" Harry managed to stutter stupidly, "But…what is it exactly that you turned into?"

"Oh!" Ginny laughed, she had been quite shocked herself when she had finally managed to transform and looked at her reflection. Alainez on the other hand was ecstatic. Apparently the magical creature she had become was long extinct and even more powerful than the phoenix. "Well, it doesn't exist anymore…but Alainez said it was once called the 'garuda' he compared it to the phoenix, said that they were somewhat similar in ability.

"Oh…" Harry said, once again not knowing how to react. He couldn't believe that this girl in front of him was 'little Ginny' she had changed so much since he had last saw her at Hogwarts. He suddenly had the urge to get to know her better. Now that they were sharing this prophecy stuff, he had a very good excuse.

"That was truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen." Harry declared truthfully, finding his voice again. Ginny beamed at his complement and thanked him. Telling him that he also would probably have to go through the same tiring training shortly. With that Harry and Ginny were escorted from the druid village, and they returned to their beds at the Burrow undetected.

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Authors note: I'm suffering from a bit of a writers block...I have most of the next chapter done...but it is rather short and I don't like short chapters...they make me angry. I will be sure to thicken the plot in the next few chapters. (I think it's high time for a bit more thickening don't you?) So I will work on that but I don't know when it will be done, I need to be hit with inspiration :) (I don't think it will be too long a wait though...for all I know I could come up with an idea after I finish with this authors note.)

PS: I am very sorry to all of you that are bothered by my occasional spelling slip with 'Voldemort' (it's not that I don't know the correct spelling, it's as if my fingers are compelled to spell it 'Voldermort'...it even bothers me when I see them. If you find some that I missed just tell me and I'll be sure to change it...it is very easy to overlook these things in your own work) :)

*cheers

*Imp