YAY!!! People are FINALLY reviewing!!! Thanks loads and loads to:

MidnightMuse (Bwahahaha…) Star Dust (You're actually pretty close to what I'm gonna do… you go girl!) eegurl (Teehee ^_^) SiamesePG007 (::snicker:: I like that one…) and Keita twice (that was interesting… we're just too lazy to change ^_^ and where the heck do you live? I'm near enough to the shore that 87 is definitely considered fairly warm- I thought Canadia was cooler than CT!  Guess I was wrong. Oh well.).  Oh, and Keita brought up a good point- 75 or 80 really isn't that hot out- I was thinking more like 85 or 90.  That makes more sense.  So yeah, I'm totally fixing that.

Introducing a few new people near the end of the chapter; Amara Singer, Katie Flagstaff, and Sarah Bones are my creations, the rest are minor characters you might remember from various books.  So yeah, on with the story! 

Chapter 5

As Draco looked on in shock, the red alicorn nuzzled Ginny's shoulder gently and nickered softly.  Ginny smiled and released him, stepping back and looking at Draco.  She frowned, confused, as she took in his absolutely white face and trembling hands as he slowly pointed at Aestus.

"How-"  Here his voice cracked with strain, and he tried again.  "Where did that alicorn come from?"

Ginny's eyes widened.  "How did you know what he is?" she demanded, paling nearly as much as Draco.  "I don't even know how I know, how the hell do you?"

Draco swallowed and closed his eyes for a moment as what little color there had been slowly came back to his white cheeks.  "I-" he cleared his throat and tried again.  "I need to talk to you, Weasley."

"About what?" she asked mistrustfully.

He took another step towards her, and she backed up nervously.  "I know you should have class now- you skipped."

"So?" she threw back.  "I've seen you skip before, what's the big deal?"

He took a closer look at her.  Under the defiance, and a touch of fear, he saw circles under her eyes.  He remembered the nightmares he had seen her having, and figured he might as well see if his suspicions had been correct.

"Have you been having… odd dreams lately?" he asked after a moment.  He knew he had hit the mark when he saw her stiffen slightly.  "Though so."

"Why?  How?" she half-whispered.  He flushed slightly and averted his gaze from hers.  She stared in astonishment.  "You too?" she asked, shocked.

He nodded, pink-faced.  "Was… I know this sounds odd, but… was I in your dream?"  This time it was her turn to turn red, and he grinned at her discomfort. 

The moment was interrupted when Aestus's ears pricked up, and he reared high in the air, pawing madly and sounding a shrill clarion call.  Ginny and Draco backed away nervously from the excited, prancing stallion, then whirled as an answering neigh reached their ears from above.  Draco's eyes widened as he saw what was unmistakably another alicorn circling above them, coming lower to land at last on the beach a few yards away. 

The newcomer was a tall, finely-boned mare; her body was a pale gold, her wings a shade or two darker, with a pure white mane and tail.  Her pearly, iridescent horn gleamed in the bright afternoon light, and she shone as she tossed her head when Aestus walked over and seemed to greet her joyfully. 

Draco stood for a long moment, his mind absolutely whirling; in the midst of the chaos, a single name surfaced from the depths of his memories. 

"Aurea," he murmured; the name was a derivative of the Latin word aureus, golden.  Every witch or wizard needed a basic understanding of the Latin language; it was the language of sorcery, the basis of many of their incantations.  Golden one, he thought bemusedly, it certainly fits. 

He suddenly glanced over at Ginny, who had appeared beside him.  She looked up at him and quietly asked, "Did you just know her name without knowing why?" 

Draco swallowed and nodded carefully.  "How did you know?" he half-whispered.  She just looked at him with those great hazel eyes of hers, then sighed and returned her gaze to the now-calm alicorns.  Draco gave a slight sigh and slowly walked up to the pale mare.  He held his hand out as Ginny had done; Aurea sniffed his hand, then nudged it with her nose and nickered as Aestus had.  A smile tugged at Draco lips as he stepped forward to stroke the lovely mare's neck and scratch her behind the ears, which she clearly adored. 

Ginny caught her breath at Draco's expression; with such a peaceful, happy look on his face, he was unbelievably attractive- just like my dream, she thought in the back of her mind.  She dismissed the thought and approached the trio, smiling widely as Aestus stepped forward to meet her and nudge her shoulder again.  She turned to look at Draco just as he did the same.

"You up for it?" she asked mischievously.  Draco just grinned in response and vaulted onto the mare's back, who then threw her head up in excitement.  Ginny laughed and did the same- or at least tried to; Aestus was at least 17 and a half hands high, possibly more, so this was more difficult than it seemed. (A/N- horses are measured in "hands"- one hand is 4 inches, therefore 17 ½ hands= 5'10".  ^_^ yes, I am a horse nut.)  Draco laughed at her attempts, then said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" and swished and flicked her onto Aestus's back.  Ginny stuck her tongue out at him and grinned in excitement as the tall alicorns pranced beneath them.

Draco placed a hand on Aurea's neck and urged her forward by squeezing lightly with his calves.  The golden mare eagerly trotted where he directed her- to the edge of the water where the trees came down to the shore.  Ginny encouraged Aestus to follow the other pair, and they rounded the trees to look upon a long, flat stretch of grassy lakeshore. 

Draco looked back at Ginny, daring her with his eyes to do what they both knew they could.  Ginny just grinned back and tapped Aestus lightly on the shoulder.  The spirited stallion eagerly sprang forward into a gallop, Aurea close behind him.  When the racing alicorns had run about fifty yards, Aestus's wings snapped open and flapped hard to get him airborne, Aurea doing the same a moment later.  Ginny and Draco instinctively hunched over their mounts' necks, making as small a obstacle for the wind as possible. 

As the alicorns soared higher into the air, Ginny started laughing from sheer exhilaration.  Draco heard her; it was joyful, infectious.  He looked over at her, his heart contracting at the sight of her face.  She just lights up when she smiles, he thought, hard put not to laugh himself.  The girl was practically glowing now; she sat up, gripped Aestus firmly with her legs, and spread her arms wide, letting out a shriek of absolute joy-

Which promptly turned into a cry of fear when Aestus and Aurea were buffeted by a strong gust of wind- there had been faint, playful breezes down by the shore, but since they were by now a hundred yards in the air, the winds had grown to at least 20 mile an hour gusts.  Draco's head whipped around as he saw her clutch at her steed's mane in terror, only still aloft by that grip; the gust that had jolted Draco had thrown her off Aestus's back, and she had grabbed his mane as her only chance.

"Ginny!" he shouted, and somehow directed Aurea up to where Aestus was flying, obviously frightened for Ginny.  The wind was not cooperating with their efforts- separate gusts drove the red alicorn higher and the gold mare farther back.  They were now separated by about 25 yards, and he watched in agony as Ginny's hands seemed to slip farther down her mount's mane.  Aurea sensed his urgency, and began to drive herself closer to the dangling girl with great thrusts of her feathered wings, until they were a few feet below her.

Ginny moaned in terror as she felt herself slip a little more.  Her heart leapt when she heard Draco from below her.  "Ginny!" he called, "I'm right underneath you; I'm going to try and go a little higher, but I can catch you if you fall, don't worry."

Don't worry?!? she thought frantically.  Let's see if you can dangle three hundred and some-odd feet in the air and not worry!

Just then she felt her numbing fingers losing their last grip on Aestus's mane.  "NO!" she screamed, but in vain; the long hairs slipped from her grasp and she plummeted-

The six feet into Draco's arms.  She grabbed onto him, shaking in fear and adrenaline rush.  He grunted as the impact drove him slightly off balance, then felt Aurea shift herself under him to steady him.  He brought Ginny's nearest leg over his mount's back so that she straddled her, facing him.  The terrified redhead buried her face in his shoulder as he urged Aurea earthward, the chastened Aestus in tow.

*   *   *

Hagrid cursed fluently as he tracked the loose alicorns through the forest.  "Damn flighty beasts," he muttered to himself.  He followed the prints of the male onto the beach, then spotted a blue beach towel and bag.  He frowned in concern- could the animal have chased the kid off? No, he saw footprints- small, probably female- leading directly to where the big male had halted a moment.  He spotted another set of hoof-prints a few feet away; apparently the female had found him and landed.  His brow furrowed again as he saw another, larger set of human footprints approach the mare's tracks, then disappear.

"Could they have…?" he mumbled.  "Naw," he said, dismissing the idea from his head.  There was no way those two skittish creatures would have let two kids on their backs… was there?

He followed both sets of hoof-prints to where they stretched into a gallop across the grass.  He smiled proudly at the length of stride of the pair- he had certainly found two fine specimens!

He came to the unhappy conclusion that the two alicorns had taken flight here.  Would he ever be able to find them?

He stood a moment, shaking his head, when from behind him came the sound of large wings flapping.  He whirled and blanched as he saw Draco Malfoy land, seated on the back of the gold female, Ginny Weasley in his arms.

"What do you think yer doin', Malfoy?" he bellowed as the red male landed beside the other.  Ginny stirred in Draco's arms, and turned her pale, set face to Hagrid.

"It's all right, Hagrid," she said weakly.  "He saved my life."

"Well what'n blue blazes where ye doin' on that alicorn's back, then?" he demanded, correctly guessing what Draco had saved her from.  She flushed slightly, but said nothing as she, then Draco dismounted.  The blonde boy stayed by the mare's head as Ginny walked over to the stallion and soothed his nervous prancing with quiet words and soft touches. 

Hagrid's eyes widened respectfully as he saw her quickly calm the beast.  "How in the world did ye get him ta let ye mount?" he asked in a more normal (for Hagrid) tone of voice.  "The ruddy mare wouldn' even let me near 'er, and that blasted stallion almos' gave me a good swift kick in the ribs."

Ginny stared at this revelation.  "You couldn't control them?" she asked; the huge grounds-keeper simply shook his shaggy head in answer.  Whoa, Ginny thought, how does that work?  "Umm, I… don't really know, I suppose," she replied, glancing at Draco.  He shook his head as well; he had even less of an idea than she did. 

Hagrid studied the pair for a moment, then shook his head again.  "Well, what do ye do?" he asked rhetorically, his black eyes crinkling at the corners.  "Can ye at least help me get 'em under control fer now?  And maybe when I have class with 'em?"  He quickly added, "Don't worry, I'm only usin' 'em fer sixth and seventh year classes, and I'd give ye extra credit fer helping- say thirty house points apiece if ye help 'till the end of the semester?" he ended hopefully. 

Ginny and Draco glanced at each other and turned back to him.  "I think we'd both have to be in each class," Ginny said.  "I know I can handle Ae- this guy-" she didn't know how Hagrid would react to her already naming him- "but I don't know about the mare."

Draco quickly concurred.  "Same here, I think.  I don't know if the stallion would listen to me like he does to Ginny."  Hagrid looked at him oddly for a moment, and he realized, cursing mentally, that he had just called her Ginny, rather than Weasley- what would the big oaf say to that?

Hagrid just turned his attention back to the both of them.  "If ye can arrange it so ye can both be there, that'd help greatly, but if ye can't, I can always use just one fer the lesson."  He frowned.  "Though what I'm gonna do with th' others is beyond me…"

"How many did you get?" Ginny asked curiously.  Hagrid looked at her sheepishly a moment then scratched the back of his neck and said, "Eight.  The chap I bought 'em from sold me the whole herd- fer a real bargain, considerin' they're so rare!"  He smiled at this, but his brow furrowed again as he tried to think of something to do with the six other animals.

Ginny cleared her throat.  "You might want to check and see if any other students can handle them," she suggested.  "There is a good chance that you'll be able to find at least one in most classes. 

Hagrid smiled at her.  "Great idea, Gin!" he exclaimed.  "Any ideas who might be able to do it?"

Ginny thought a moment, then remembered her dream.  "Harry, Ron, and Hermione might- possibly…" she said slowly.

"Try Blaise Zabini," Draco suggested. 

Hagrid brightened again.  "True, he always did do well with animals- loved those flyin' horses Olympe brought over that time."  He smiled at the two of them.  "Now," he continued, "Got any ideas fer names?  We can' go 'round callin' 'em Horsie or somethin' like that."

Ginny giggled, then replied, "He's Aestus."  When Hagrid looked at her quizzically, she flushed slightly and said, "I had a dream, and he was in it- his name was Aestus there, so I figured, why not?  It means Flame of passion," she added, blushing slightly, "Or something like that."

Hagrid shrugged and turned to Draco.  "What about you?" he asked.

Draco kept his eyes on his mare.  "Aurea," he answered softly.  "Golden One."

*   *   *

Over the next week or so, Hagrid cautiously introduced his sixth and seventh year classes to the herd of alicorns.  Ron and Hermione bonded with another, younger male-female pair, this time with the mare, a gentle chestnut-brown lady, going to Hermione, and the blood-bay stallion taking to Ron.  Harry, nervous at first, had finally smiled and picked a black male with startlingly green eyes (A/N: yeah, kinda cheesy I know, but whatever, I feel like it ^_^).  As Draco had figured, Blaise had immediately singled out a young dapple-gray stallion with sparkling amber eyes.

When Ginny went to the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff class of sixth years, she was delighted to see two of her best friends find alicorn mounts.  Amara Singer, a sweet, Muggle-born Ravenclaw, had shyly stepped forward to be greeted by a small mare the color of a brand new penny; Katie Flagstaff, a bubbly brown-haired Ravenclaw, had delightedly greeted a dark brown mare who had pranced up to her excitedly.  (A/N- explanations in A/N at end)

Hagrid was absolutely delighted that all of the alicorns had found "friends" as he called them; he had been afraid that there would be some left that no one could control.  Once the alicorns had chosen whoever they would from each class, he began to tell them about the beautiful creatures.

"Alicorns're related te flyin' horses and unicorns, as ye can see by the horn and the wings.  They're extremely rare," here he grinned, "so it's bloody lucky I could find this many.  In order to be tamed, each alicorn has te bond with a specific person; if it doesn't find someone te bond with, it absolutely refuses te be controlled and mos' likely tries te escape.  No one really knows why they pick whoever they do, but there ye have it."  There was also plenty of information on the care and feeding of the animals, breeding, known history, and many other things.

After the last class of the day, Ginny and Draco would head down to Hagrid's hut and work on designing tack for the alicorns; Ginny was not in any way eager to relive her terrifying experience, and no one wanted any of the others to get hurt.  Eventually, they came up with a basic idea:

The "saddles" (a loose term, since they resembled them only superficially) were basically soft leather pads to cushion the rider's backside from the rather prominent backbone of his or her mount- Draco had specifically requested that they be comfortable, wincing in remembrance of his soreness for days after he and Ginny's adventure.  The pads had metal stirrups attached so that the rider could keep their seat easier, as well as post when the alicorn was trotting on the ground.  The alicorns also had cloth halters with reins to use as a sort of bridle; there was no bit to go between the teeth, but it wasn't really needed.  The alicorns were almost always very obedient to their riders' wishes, so that all the person had to do was pull gently on the reins and the mount would go whichever way they directed. 

Draco and Ginny grew closer in the weeks that they practiced their riding together; neither spoke about the passionate kiss they had shared, or the dreams that still occurred at least once a week, but they were at least more comfortable around each other.  Indeed, since all of the alicorns were in mated pairs, some of the lucky riders found themselves getting friendlier with people they wouldn't have expected to.

Hagrid wanted all eight people to spend some free time, if they could, working with and getting to know their alicorns.  Only the seventh years had free periods, and since Harry and Ron usually spent theirs flying around the Quidditch pitch, everyone usually stopped by after the last class period.   Amara was slightly disappointed by this; she had been using the time between class and dinner to practice music, which she had refused to give up once she came to Hogwarts.  Since, for some reason, magic tended to send instruments out of tune (and no one wanted to be constantly tuning the piano) McGonnagal had found a small room and woven an incredibly impervious shield that kept out all stray magical energy.  The formidable teacher had had a soft spot for Amara ever since; Ginny rather thought that the woman missed hearing music. 

The four Gryffindors had been rather nervous about Blaise Zabini; after all, he was a Slytherin- and a friend of Draco's.  They kept a close watch on both Slytherin boys, but when they had been perfectly pleasant (for them) Harry and Ron decided to give up and ignore them.  Both Gryffs were extremely wary of Draco in particular, and Ron especially didn't want Ginny anywhere near him, but as Aestus was rather sullen without his pale mate by his side, the boys were forced (oh, horror!) to let Ginny actually use her own judgment about him.

All the while, Pansy- and her Death Eater father- were extremely curious about the youngest Weasley child.  What was so special about her that the lead stallion of the herd had chosen her?

And what could they do to exploit that?

Really long A/N: For all you people who had no idea what I was talking about with some of the alicorn stuff, here ya go (I didn't want to interrupt the flow of the story):

· Chestnut: reddish brown. Can range from fairly light coppery color (i.e. Amara's mare's color) to pretty close to brown, but more reddish.

· Dapple (dapple gray): lighter spots on the coat. 

· Bay: brown or chestnut-colored body with black mane and tail.  A "blood bay" horse has a reddish body with the usual black mane and tail. 

· The coloring Draco's Aurea has (basically any color body with a white or very light mane and tail) is called palomino- they're kinda rare, and really pretty.

· Any horse can have black or white socks and/or a white blaze, star, snip, or other kind of marking on their face.  Obviously some colors are more likely to have different markings than others, just like people.

· Posting to a trot is half-standing, then sitting back down while the horse trots.  It sounds confusing and kinda stupid the way I put it, but trust me, it's a LOT more comfortable than being bounced around trying to sit a trot.

Told ya I was a horse nut! ^_^

Anyway, sorry the second part of this chapter was so boring, but I needed to put in that info.  This chapter was hard… :-(