Willow had her lessons with Dumbledore in his office. Tara and Giles each had seats on one side of the desk, with Willow and Dumbledore on the other. Grey, as always, reclined on the book ladder. Fawkes perched by his shoulder, and Grey absently stroked the phoenix while he watched. He had decided not to say anything about his interlude with Snape to anyone.
"I am glad you could join us, Miss Maclay."
"Th-thank you, Professor."
"I hear Professor Snape is quite taken with your work." Tara blushed. "You should be proud. I have known Severus a very long time, since he was a boy, and he has rarely liked anyone's work but his own." Willow giggled, sending the rest of them into a fit of laughter. After it subsided, Dumbledore faced Willow intently.
"Miss Rosenberg. I have spoken with Mr. Giles and Professor McGonagall, and we believe the time has come to introduce you to a different brand of magic. One that is, with your condition, potentially quite dangerous." Grey sat forward, realizing what was coming.
"Dangerous?" Willow asked.
"We would like to see how you handle the basics of combat magic." Willow suddenly appeared very nervous. Grey came off the ladder and took her aside. Pulling her into his arms, his words came in a whisper. He felt her tiny shakes.
"You don't have to do this."
"I think I do." She clung to him like a life preserver. "If Jess comes back, I'll have to do this. I need to control it first, or we could be faced with two of the same."
"Can you?"
"I don't know. I have to try. Stay with me while I do?"
"I'm here. Giles is here. Tara is here. You'll be fine."
"I want you to promise me something." She lifted her eyes to his. "If I lose it, now or later, you'll be the one to face me. No one else. Just you."
"Why?"
"Because…" She trailed off, not wanting to tell him that she loved him. "Because I trust you to help me."
"Of course. I promise. I'll always help you."
"Smile at me." He did, and she felt safe. The shaking that had begun to build in her subsided. She rested her head on his chest for a second, and then pulled away.
"Let's do this." The others had looked away, offering a semi-private moment. Tara glowed inwardly, happy that Willow had found someone again. She hoped she would be so lucky.
"Very well, my dear." He took an unlit candle from his side table and placed it in front of her. "You will not need your wand for this exercise. Close your eyes and picture the candle. Please focus as intensely as possible on its unlit wick. Do not light it until I tell you." She focused on the wick and felt the power gathering. It would be so easy to light it, then she could move on to the next part; she knew the exercise would be to light the wick anyway. She could feel the air warming around it. A slight touch would ignite the flame. That was its natural state, to be aflame. The candle was meant to burn. All she would really be doing would be returning it to its desired state.
"Now, Willow," she heard Dumbledore's soothing voice in the background. He seemed distant. "I want you to imagine a sphere around the wick. The air in that sphere is solid ice, while the air outside of it is extremely warm and getting warmer. Can you imagine that?"
She could see it as he said it. The air she had felt warming rapidly encircled the candle, but inside the sphere it was ice cold. That was why the wick wasn't in its natural state. Because of the cold. Her anger bucked and twisted, seeking permission to obliterate the cold. All she had to do would be to turn the heat up, and the cold would be gone. She wanted more than anything to light the wick. Everything else in the world had disappeared but her desire to do that.
As she felt the heat respond to her will, she realized that she could easily light the candle. Why did she want to, though? It would be so pretty, to have a ball of ice inside such a warm flame. As she pictured it, she decided she wanted more than anything to see the ball of ice inside the flame.
"Willow, open your eyes." She opened them, looking for the candle.
She saw the upper half of the candle encased in a sphere of ice. The surface of the ice had flames dancing from it, but it did not melt.
"Now, if you would, allow the ice to cool the flames, please." She imagined the cold sucking the heat from the flame, and suddenly it vanished. Without a verbal prompt, she imagined the ice dissipating as the air sucked the cold from it. Suddenly the candle stood untouched.
Open-mouthed and staring, Grey, Giles and Tara said nothing.
"Remarkable," Dumbledore said. "Absolutely remarkable. Tell me, my dear, what did you feel?"
"I felt the wick. When I focused on it, it was like it was calling me to light it. Like it wanted me to light it. Then, you asked for the ice, and I could see the ice."
"I see. Then what?"
"I felt the ice, blocking me from the wick. And I began to heat the air, to get at the wick. But I wondered why I wanted to burn it so badly, and then … then I decided I wanted to see both together, that no matter how hot I made it I wanted to see flames on the ice."
"And you saw them, did you not?"
"I did. What happened, though? What did I just do?"
Dumbledore grinned.
"Actually, you passed the trial. Rather ingenious of me, I must say. I enchanted the wick to call upon your power to light it. Your subconscious fought your magic for control and won, preventing the lighting of the wick. Then, when I called for the ice, I was asking you to balance the elements, which requires a great deal of power and control. You did it perfectly."
"Way to go, Willow!" Grey's shout drew an amazed look from everyone else.
"Indeed. Good show," Giles said. Tara smiled.
"I don't get it. What did I do? And how is that combat magic?"
Giles answered her.
"Combat magic is generally elemental magic like this at its heart," Giles said. "Proper control is difficult, because whatever elements you manipulate are augmented by the ones that exist naturally."
"Also," Grey chimed in, "With elemental magic, there's always the urge to do more, to use more power. That's what got Jess into trouble against Voldemort. He kept urging her power to do all that it could. Eventually, it took over. Albus did the same thing to you, magically instead of verbally. Your subconscious, which is the important part in controlling magic, said no. It used the power appropriately when you didn't even know which were the appropriate uses. What that means, essentially, is that your subconscious is learning to guard you from what happened to Jess."
"That's correct, Grey," Dumbledore said. "How do you know that?"
"After this ordeal? I've read more than most people ever will about the intricacies of controlling magic, Albus. I just don't know how it feels." Dumbledore nodded. "It's really amazing, Willow."
"Do I get a gold star?"
Dumbledore waved his wand and mumbled a few words. He handed her a two-inch wide gold star.
"You certainly do, my dear. You certainly do."