A/N: Holy crud! I haven't updated since… like… ummmmmmmmm…. errr…. Hmmm….
Now, this isn't full proof, but I tried my best, and I may re-update this later this weekend.
Summary: You all should know this by now, but…
It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly odd about those girls……
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The characters that you don't know, mostly the people not from Hogwarts, are owned by me, though the people they are based off of are real. Every character in this story is based on someone I know and even some people a few of the readers know.
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It's A War
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The Explaining Begins
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The red-headed girl and the young blonde boy didn't seem to hear him as books flew off the shelves and landed on the table before them with the pages flipping all ready, turned by invisible hands.
The girl reached for the nearest book and waited while it finished turning. She looked up at the boy and said something, but her words were lost in the sound of the pages. However, he seemed to hear her just fine and responded.
Ron gaped at the both of them and Harry gaped at Ginny. He made to move toward her, but Torrance stopped him. "Wait they won't be able to hear or see you." She waved a hand at the couple and the pages suddenly stopped turning.
The girl and boy glanced up at each other, then at the door where the new group still stood. The girl gave a sort of surprised shriek and flung herself at Ron.
"RON!!!" For a moment she blubbered incoherently, then she buried her head in his neck and sobbed.
Unable, or unwilling to detach the young girl from his neck, Ron smiled, he had his sister back.
Harry stared in awe at the small red-head. He knew she was alive, but what about them? What about their relationship? His mind went off in a whirlwind of questions brought on by the sudden reappearance of the red-head. But that all ended when the blonde boy spoke.
"Really Red. I thought you'd stopped crying years ago." HE said folding his arms across his chest and leaning against a nearby bookshelf.
"Shuddup Draco." Came the tearful reply. "I have a right to cry when I see my favorite brother after five years of not seeing anything of the outside world." She hugged him a bit tighter and said, "It's good to see you bro, I missed you." She then jumped from his arms and back toward Draco. "So what are y'all doing here?" She said avoiding looking at anyone save her brother.
Harry noticed how she wasn't looking at him and frowned. She hadn't even acknowledged his presence yet. Hello?! He thought. This is your boyfriend over here! He wondered when she had started to call Malfoy "Draco". He tuned back into the conversation just as Ron responded to Ginny's question.
"…And then the light hit Hermione and we brought her here. Lilah got hit too."
Ginny blinked twice then shot a weird look at Draco who glanced worriedly at her, then swept from the room.
The boys watched him go, then turned back to Ginny. "What was that all about?" Seamus asked.
Ginny's gaze flickered to him and his eyes widened. For a moment he could have sworn that her eyes had turned a misty white, butt hen she blinked and they were brown again. He shook his head dismissing it as his imagination and waited for her to respond.
Ginny looked at Torrance and her eyes flickered in color again, but this time they were blue, then brown again. "It's nothing, he just had to check on something…" She titled her head a fraction to the left as she looked at Torrance.
The young vampire blinked and nodded, then turned away from the group. "If you'll excuse me boys, I have some business to attend to." Like calling the whole Circle together… "Ginny will direct you to where Hermione is." She gave Ginny a slight bow, then exited the room.
Harry had never looked away from Ginny's face and when she finally looked at him he offered her a small smile, but her eyes slid over him like he wasn't even there. He frowned and continued to stare.
She walked past them to the door, her formal robes swishing over their feet as she walked by. "If you will follow me, I'll take you to Hermione, she should be waking up by now." She walked out of the door and into the hall.
They followed her just as a bell rang somewhere in the depths of the manor. (But now that they thought about it, is was more of a castle, it was even bigger than Hogwarts!) As the bell stopped ringing, young people spilled into the hallway talking loudly. A scuffle broke out down the hall a ways and Ginny walked calmly towards it. "MACLAUGHLIN! GIBBERS! Break it up! Now!" She shouted. When the fighting continued, she raised a hand and both boys flew to opposite sides of the hallway. "I said break it up." She said calmly. She grabbed both of them by their collars and threw them at the feet of a near-by teacher. "Detention, for the both of you, I want to see the two of you in my office directly after dinner." To the teacher she said, "Andrew, could you take care of them for me? I'm on my way to a meeting in the Outer Quarters."
"Sure Virginia, they'll be in my class next." He grabbed the boys and led them off.
Ginny thanked him and straightened her robes, patted her hair down and began walking again. The boys stared after her for a minute amazed at the power she wielded, then they scurried after her.
A short ways down the corridor she began to speak. "I'm sure you're all wondering what in all hells I'm doing here, and with Draco Malfoy of all people, so I'll tell you. After we arrived here at LunaSoleil, Draco and I became the apprentices of some of the teachers. Shortly afterward we were deemed worthy of the right to teach and teachers we became. I teach the Control class and Draco teaches The History of Power and Its Sources."
"So this is a school?" Dean asked eyeing a group of giggling girls.
"Yes, and no. LunaSoleil is a school a shelter, a hospital and a refuge for those children that have have lost their parents to the Undria'im. The children are given a place they can call home, and an education." She paused to open a door and lead them into another hallway. "The wars of this country have become to great to stall and more and more deaths are occurring. LunaSoleil was built by Lord Charles Orion Weston with the hopes that children with special gifts, who lost their parents, would have a refuge. Then Lilah began to bring in those who were just plain orphans thanks to the Undria'im and, well, we expanded from there to the booming community we are now. There are over a thousand students and over a hundred teachers. There are eighteen different houses and eighteen different liecrandle teams. We've had to expand the manor so many times and add on so many rooms that the maps from when it was first build don't even apply anymore. LunaSoleil itself is probably seven times as large as Hogwarts and we've had to fraction the eating times."
"If a growing population is such a problem, what about the other wizarding schools?" Asked Seamus.
They passed a group of seven-year-olds playing hopscotch and Ginny smiled at them. "Not everyone here is a witch or wizard. Some don't have powers at all while others…" Her voice trailed off as they passed a small girl sitting on a windowsill in a pile of glass shards. As they watched, the shards flew into the air, fitted themselves back together and set themselves back into the window creating a brand new window. Ginny smiled at the girl before the child went running off then continued walking. "That young girl is Hannah St. Claire. She's nine years old, from New Orleans, lost her parents to the Undria'im when she was five. But, she's muggle."
"But if she's muggle, how could she do that whole window thing?" Seamus asked.
This is turning into a history lesson…I thought that was Draco's job… Ginny thought. "Muggles have their own magic." She said with a slight smile. "Some of them are blessed with the gifts of the Old Thalanderish people. Old Thalanderia is a world unlike our own where magic and monarchies hold reign over the people. From the research we've done it appears that they seem to be trapped in a King Arthur era. Back when our times were parallel, more than half of their "cahrin", or their wizards or magicians fled their world and a terrible evil and came here. They were seen as blessings from the gods and treated like kings. But as you should know, the influence of the White Christians was everywhere in Britannia, so they again fled the wrath of an enemy and migrated to the Americas and Australia and New Zealand, though some went to Asia and the farther reaches of Europe. They settled here and created a government of their own. It was a task emmersing themselves in the culture of the pilgrims when they first arrived, but they succeeded and the tale fades from there."
"Who did their magic survive so many years?" Asked Dean.
"The magic of the cahrin is an ancient one. It was given to them by the gods of their world in the guise of magic stones, each with it's own name. They formed a group called the Circle of Fire that would find out a way to preserve their magic if the time came to use the power again. The magic of thirty of the gods of the cahrin were set into the magic stones so that the magic could be called upon by those the gods deemed worthy. The power of the earth from Elanère and Banyan, the power of water from Dalit and Visola. Fire from Nuria and Adish, moonlight from Aysel and Bade, starlight from Sidra and Astin. The leaders of battle Caden and Pallaton, Toril and Anakin. The god and goddess of the wild beasts Karria and Griffin. The gift of healing from Althea and Galen, the gift of calling forth flames from Aideen and Blaze. The power of the dragon and the virgin from Kaida, Naiara and Orinda. And an all-powerful force from Amandla, Charisma, Devi, Zalika, Eyad, and Medwin. Of thirty Mage Stones left by the cahrin, eight were destroyed by people afraid of their powers, yet twenty-two escaped the fate of their brothers." She pulled a chain from around her neck revealing a purple and white stone. "This is Naiara, the virgin of the gods. It was presented to me in the forbidden forest outside of Hogwarts while I was searching for ashwinder eggs and billywigs." She placed the chain back under her robes and continued walking. "However, the rest of the magic comes later. The preserved magic of the cahrin themselves came in the form of a spell cast by Trondir the Great, the last of the cahrin. It was one of his more extraordinary feats. Every year, ten children bearing the magic are born. But it is not theirs to keep. Before age ten, they must give up the gift, giving it to someone they deemed worthy of it. But why children you may wonder. It's because children know a lot more that we give them credit for, especially babies. They know who is trust worthy and who is not they are perfect for giving the gifts."
"I'm confused, so how did you and Malfoy get yours?" Harry asked.
"Do y'all remember General Hawkins's daughter? Stephie?"
"Yeah."
"Well, one day, Draco and I were supposed to be watching her when we started fighting and she went 'You'll be perfect, oh they'll be so happy!' Then she holds up her hands and this white light surrounds us and the next thing I knew I was here under the care of one Lilah Farstone and my own little Danika."
"How is she?" Asked Ron. He hadn't seen his favorite niece in so long he almost forgot that she was there. The poor thing was so quiet half the time she seemed to just float from place to place.
"Just lovely and so happy now. Turns out that she had the giving gift. Most children who are going to give it away don't talk much or at all until they give it away. After Danika got rid of it she was a new kid. She was literally bouncing off the walls with speech. Draco said she was like a human fizzing whizby." Ginny smiled at the thought of her daughter literally bouncing off the walls.
"Why didn't you ever just send an owl and tell us you were here?" Ron said. "We were worried sick, mum and dad thought you were dead and most others thought you and Draco had turned tail on us and joined the death eaters."
"Owls can be intercepted Ron, and the reestablishment of the Circle must remain a complete secret! Which means that now that you are here, no one must know!" She looked at them frantically. "No one must know or all of our plans will be ruined!"
They al nodded and she sighed in relief. "Good. I was hoping you'd understand."
Dean shook his head and said "I'm trying to, but it's a bit much to take in, in one day."
"I know Dean, but if you have any questions, ask away."
Harry scratched his nose. "What about these wars you were talking about. Where did those come from?"
Ginny's eyes clouded over with hurt and anger and when she spoke her voice was filled with anger and passion. "These wars have everything to do with darkness and every evil out there. You witnessed some of it today. When the cahrin fled Old Thalanderia, they were fleeing a world corrupt with darkness. An ancient evil called the Undria'im had infiltrated their lands and were terrorizing the people running mass murderings and setting whole towns afire. So the cahrin fled and came here where the taint of the Undria'im did not reach. However, the evil followed them here and began a war of magic that has continued since. Like I said earlier, the cahrin settled mainly here in the Americas, in Australia and remote parts of Europe and Asia. The war is not as obvious back home or in Asia. Minor slips in temperature and a failing environment are from the multitude of magic building. But here and in Australia the war is common knowledge. People not involved think the battles are some sort of reoccurring scientific phenomena. Flickering lights with no apparent source, changes in organic growth, and all sorts of things. The Northern Lights? That was an after effect of one of the battles. The last one almost made another Niagara falls on the border of New Mexico, I should know, it was kind of my fault…" She paused to open yet another and lead them up a set of stairs. At the top was yet another corridor. The students here were older, more staid and mature.
One tall blonde girl rushed up to Ginny. Tow large boys with black hair and brown eyes stood behind her. "Professor, the research you asked me to do is on your desk in the purple folder, everything you wanted is there. Matt and Brian helped, so they should get credit too." She said indicating the boys behind her.
Ginny smiled. "Thank you Charli, and the boys will get credit also." The girl smiled and walked off down the corridor. As the group walked in the opposite direction, the hallway gradually cleared of students gone to their rooms until dinner. "That girl is Charlene Trine."
"The minister's daughter?!" Dean said.
"The one and only girl of eight children. I really connect with her." She smirked at Ron and he smacked her arm. She only smirked and Ron shrieked like a girl as something knocked him down, but when he stood up with wand drawn, nothing was there. Suddenly he was on the floor again and couldn't figure out why.
Harry, Dean and Seamus were laughing uproariously and Ginny stood smirking with her arms crossed. "Don't mess with Gin." She said. Ron was pulled into the air and hung upside down infront of Ginny.
"I'm sorry Gin! Please don't hurt me!" He pleaded in a squeaky voice. Seamus and Dean were leaning on each other for support and Harry was rolling on the floor clutching his stomach.
Someone walked along the hall, probably another teacher and noticed all the commotion. He walked up behind Ginny and tapped her shoulder. "Ginny, put him down."
Ginny paled and set Ron down on his feet she turned to the man with a guilty expression. "Look, Blake, we were just playing around… He's my brother…"
"…"
"Oh fine!" She snapped. She swung around to Ron and snapped. "I'm sorry I used my powers to scare you and it'll never happen again and if it does you have my permission to kick me extremely hard and tell Blake, Master of all that is Fire so that he can kick me again for using my powers to scare someone." She swung around and glared at the man behind her. "Are you happy?"
The group of boys was suddenly in awe of the newcomer who could shut Ginny up so quickly and bend her to their will.
"Ecstatic." He said. "Now, would you care to tell me where my sister is?"
"Ummm… Which one?" Ginny said wringing her hands nervously. Ron's mouth dropped open. Never in his life had he seen his sister act this way to someone when they weren't a certain Molly Weasley. She actually seemed afraid of him!
"Don't play games with me Weasley, where is Lilah?"
Ginny stared at the ceiling and rocked on her heels. "Uhhhhh… In a coma?"
The man's face reddened. "Wong answer Virginia! You and Malfoy were supposed to be watching her! You knew she was going out today!"
Ginny flinched and tried to apologize. "I know! But when Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Hermione showed up in the radar I tried not to go spare, but then I had a little wobbly and - and I was a real prat! I'm sorry!" She was almost in tears by now. Why does he ALWAYS do this to me! It's like he likes to make me cry! She thought with frustration.
Blake stared at her in silence. "Okay, say that again, this time in coherent English."
Dean stepped forward. "I think I can help you there mate." He cleared his throat. "She said that she freaked out when my friends and I showed up on "the radar", what ever that is, and had a tantrum and that she was a real fool and that she's sorry." He backed away and whispered "Aaannnnddd action!" Harry smacked him on his head and apologized for his friend.
"Sorry about him, hasn't had his medication today. But really, Lilah should be fine. From what Ginny's told us, I can cotton on that it was just a mere power transfer from a young girl. Don't slag off at her just because she went a little mad." He said.
"Is that all?" Blake asked looking at Ginny. When she nodded he shrugged and smiled. "Well, why didn't you just say so?! That's nothing!" He shrugged and walked off down the corridor.
Ginny stared after him with her mouth open. "I just can't believe the nerve of that daft git sometimes!" She fumed. She shrugged it off and straightened up. Within moments it was like nothing even happened.
She continued down the corridor with the boys shortly behind. "Do you have any other questions?" She asked turning a corner.
"Yeah…" Said Seamus thinking back to five minutes before when he was going to ask a question… "Oh! I remember! You said that witches, wizards and muggles make up only a portion of the school population… So, what makes up the rest?"
"Glad you asked. A large portion of the student body is made up of the lhim'as and halflings, another portion are shape shifters like Tonks, but on a higher scale, the others are misilanious races like vampires, some of the yenisim, elves, etc. we've even got a few werewolves here I think…"
They reached a door with a combined sun and moon and Ginny said a couple of words in a different language and the door swung in to reveal a sort of common room. "This is the antechamber to the commons to the Outer Quarters. You can wait to see Hermione here. Before I go are there anymore questions?"
"Yeah, who are the lhim'as and the halflings?" Dean asked.
Ginny smiled. "I was hoping you would ask that." She walked t the corner and pulled a rope. A minute later there was a timid knock on the door and two sets of brown eyes partially hidden by shaggy strawberry blonde hair peered into the room. Ginny smiled and started speaking in French and succeeding in completely confusing her friends and brother. "Entre mes fils. Ilya des gens qui je veux tu faites le connaissance."* Two small boys walked in and hung onto Ginny's hands. She smiled at the, then looked back at her friends. "Guys, This is Aidan and Devon. They are three now, but by the time they are ten, Devon will have given up his gifts to someone he deems worthy and Aidan will have started his halfling training." She pulled back Aidan's shaggy hair and revealed two slightly pointed ears. "Devon is one of the lhim'as, they are the children that give their powers to others. The halflings have both elf powers and the powers of the cahrin. They are not necessarily of elf blood but they have the gifts, and they are blessed with the ancient magic at birth, unlike the rest of their kind who have to wait until someone chooses them for the gifts."
"Wait a minute…" Dean said. "You lost me. How could a kid have elf powers and now be an elf?"
"Elves are solitary creatures, yet they like to watch what goes on in our world and sometimes that even come here. They watch people for traits that they see in themselves and observe their charge's mate. If they think the union satisfactory, and if the timing is right, then they bless the child with the gifts."
"What do you mean by timing?"
"The elf can only give the gifts is they are preparing to pass into the Eternal Lands, their 'life after death'. If they find two people that they think will create the perfect child, they may make a match and help the relationship along."
Aidan looked up at Ginny and spoke in French. "Comme tu et papa? Ma s'appelle est le pareil, n'est pas?"**
The boys on the couch shot glances at each other not understanding.
"Oui Aidan. Mais tu ne leur dit rien."*** Both boys nodded then she spoke in English again. "Why don't you and Devon go find your sisters and try and keep your father occupied, all right?"
Aidan smiled brightly and grabbed his brother's arm. "Oui." They ran from the room and their footsteps faded down the hallway.
"They're cute." Said Lor waking in the room from behind one of the curtains surrounding the room. She turned to the boys. "You can go see her now. Second door on your right through that curtain." She pointed back the way she came.
They all jumped up at once and hurried to the curtain. Harry froze at the hanging cloth and looked back at Ginny. "Hey, don't you want to come see Herms?" He said.
"I'll see her a dinner I suppose. But I've got some things that I need to take care of." She smiled and he shrugged ducking behind the curtain. After he disappeared, he smile fell into a slight frown.
"They talked about you, you know…" Said Lor walking towards the bookshelf and removing her favorite. She walked towards the door also; she had a "friend" to meet.
Ginny sighed and fiddled with the doorknob. "Thanks Lor, way to make a girl feel good about herself."
Lor shrugged. "It's the truth, they thought you were dead."
Ginny shook her head, but said nothing.
Lor looked at her with an odd glance. "How long are you going to keep this up?" She asked. "He has to know sometime. You know, I thought Seamus was going to flay Tally alive when she asked about you. It's obvious that they missed you terribly."
Ginny glared at her. "You didn't tell him anything did you?"
"Acted as if I had no idea who Ginny Weasley was. It's your story to tell Gin, not mine. I just hope you do it soon, and try not to break the poor boy's heart." She said.
"I wanted to do it earlier, but, this is going to sound terribly selfish, but…"
Lor, always the keen one when it came to human nature saw the rest of the sentence written all over her face. "But you're afraid that they'll make you go back."
"Yeah." She leaned against the doorknob and sighed. This seemed to be the moment for sighing. "I don't want to go back to England. I can't, there are just too many things keeping me here, the Circle, my responsibilities to you guys, to others, my hotel is blossoming… I just can't up and leave…"
"They're not going to make you go back." Lor said.
Ginny pushed herself up off the door and stormed to Lor in a whirl of purple silk. "How would you know? My brother is the most stubborn arse in the world, and Harry is still in love with me even though I've moved on!"
"What about Dean and Seamus?"
Ginny smiled. "Dean and Sea just want what's best for me. They only want me to be happy, they don't care what it is." Suddenly she turned frantic. "Lor, please don't say anything. If Harry finds out from someone other than me, he might kill him."
"Did you talk to him yet?"
"Who?"
"HIM?"
"Oh, yeah, right before they got here, um, he's agreed to stay remotely civil, though he's just itching to go at Harry, I know."
"Well, give them time."
"Yeah, I know, time heals all wounds…" Yeah right… I know from experience that that is in no way true.
Lor smiled thinking the same thing. "Well, I'll see you later, got to go meet Demitri." She slipped from the room and Ginny followed shortly after intent on going to find someone she depended on in times like these.
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-A/N: Okay, the scene with Lilah's brother was kind of sudden, I had a moment and I can hope that it never happened again, but honestly, this chapter kind of sucks, but I had to at least kind of explain what's going on, I don't even understand half of it!!!! But if you really got lost, email me at: greeNdragoN198@hotmail.com
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-Well *sigh* review and tell me what you think.
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-Here are the translations for the French…
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-*Entre les fils. Il ya des gens qui je veux tu faites le connaissance.- Enter boys, there are some men that I want you to meet.
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- ** Comme tu et papa? Ma s'appelle est le pareil, n'est pas?- Like you and (Will be given at another time, say next chapter)? My name is the same right?
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-*** Oui Aidan. Mais tu ne leur dit rien.- Yea Aidan, but don't tell them anything.
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