Harry Potter, Heir of Gryffindor

Soul Mates

When Harry opened his eyes he was on a grassy knoll looking up into a deep blue sky heavy with humidity. The air was warm and a gentle breeze whispered through the nearby trees. Sitting up he saw that the grass was green, the trees were filled with leaves and several birds were flitting through the air. The small lake in front of him looked very familiar. Looking down the hill to his left he saw the Weasley's ramshackle home and realized that he was now at the Burrow. Turning to his right he saw Ginny sitting on the bank at the upper end of the lake absentmindedly tossing pebbles into the water. Standing up he quietly walked around the lake until he was standing a few meters behind and to the left of the beautiful redhead. "Ginny?" he asked softly.

Ginny turned her head and looked up at him. There was a somber expression on her face and she looked as if she was about to cry. "Are we dead?" she asked without bothering to acknowledge his greeting.

Walking over and sitting down beside her Harry looked into here eyes and said, "With God as my witness, Ginny, we are not dead. We are, however, in the one place in this world where you feel safest."

"What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. Ginny looked at him like he was crazy for a moment so he defended himself the only way he could. "I have to know what part of that question you are asking before I can answer it."

The expression on Ginny's face softened and she smiled briefly as she nodded her head in understanding. "How did we get here?"

Harry picked up a broken twig and examined it for several seconds. "What's the last thing you remember?" he asked.

Ginny thought for a moment then said, "The last thing I remember is my broom exploding and falling through the air. Then I woke up here."

Harry grimaced slightly then tossed the twig into the lake where it bobbed once or twice and then started gradually floating back towards the shore. Sighing heavily he studied his hands for several seconds then looked out across the lake. "To make a long story short, sometime during your fall your mind retreated to the one place where you feel safest, the Burrow. I caught you before you hit the ground but my broom was nose heavy and before I could pull all of the way out of the dive we crashed. Our bodies are pretty badly damaged but they are in the hospital wing back at Hogwarts."

"But how did you get here?"

Harry looked at her, trying to think how he was going to explain it to her. Then, deciding the direct approach was probably best, said, "before I passed out the first time my mother came to me and said that the only way I am going to be able to save your life and bring you back is by bonding with you, by sharing all of my energy with you and essentially merging our souls so that they will become one. Our bodies are too badly damaged for anything else to work."

Ginny rolled over onto her knees and turned to him, gently reached out she turned his face towards her own. You really do love me don't you?"

Harry smiled and nodded. "Yes, I do," he said softly then looked into her soft, chocolate brown eyes. Taking hold of her hands he said, "I don't want to lose you, Ginny. I've already lost my parents and my godfather. I don't know if I could live with myself if I lost you."

A single tear escaped his swollen eyes and Ginny reached up and brushed it away with a gentle caress. "I don't want to lose you either, Harry. But can't we just stay here. I mean, we are safe after all."

Harry smirked and shook his head. "No," he said softly, "we can't. I almost wish we could but if we stay here we will be condemning ourselves to a perpetual existence in a state of limbo. We can stay here for a while but I have to go back because sooner or later I have to face Voldemort and I would like you to come back with me. It's entirely up to you. That choice is yours but I have to go back."

Ginny frowned slightly. "I'll go back with you, Harry." Then looking at him curiously she asked, "How do you know all this?"

Smirking, Harry smiled and chuckled lightly. "You learn a lot about the real facts of life when you die. I learned a lot back in August and it's helped me quite a bit."

Ginny laughed merrily and threw her arms around his neck causing him to fall back into the grass. She lay on top of him and kissed him gently but forcefully enough to let him know that he meant the world to her. After almost half an hour of continual snogging she sat up and, straddling his abdomen, sat resolutely on his stomach smiling down at him with a playfully suggestive look in her eyes. "Wow," she said.

Harry nodded his head as a wide grin spread across his face. "Yeah."

Ginny playfully slapped his shoulder. "So how do we go about merging our souls?"

Harry vigorously shook his head and smiled up at her. "You expect me to be able to think after that?"

Ginny laughed and stood up and offered Harry a hand up. "Of course, silly. You can't stay here and I go where you go. So if you have to go back and fight Tom I'm going with you."

With Ginny's help Harry pulled himself to his feet and brushed some of the dirt from his robes. As they began to walk hand-in-hand around the lake and down towards the Burrow Harry bent down, picked a wild lily and laced it into Ginny's hair. "Well, to begin with, it is essentially a marriage ceremony that takes place on the spiritual level. It will bind us together as soul mates for all eternity. I'm not saying that we will always have to be together or anything but no matter what happens to either of us we will always know that there will always be someone in this world who loves us unconditionally just as we are."

"Does everyone have a soul mate?"

"No," Harry said shaking his head sadly. "Everyone has the potential but not everyone has found their one true mate. It takes time and a certain spiritual maturity to be ready to find one's soul mate. That's why most younger souls - and I'm not talking about the physical age of the person but rather the experiential age of the soul - don't have them yet. They are just too rebellious to handle the responsibilities of this kind of relationship."

For the next several hours Harry and Ginny walked around the Burrow discussing the particulars of the soul mate relationship and getting to know each other more intimately and more personally than most ordinary couples could achieve in a hundred lifetimes together. As the sun was beginning to set and the sky in Ginny's place of safety was beginning to burn with various shades of red, orange, yellow, purple and pink Ginny turned to Harry and asked, "Now that I understand it, how do we do it?"

Turning to face her Harry took both of her hands in his own. "It's not really all that complicated but it does have to be done from our spiritual centers and it has to be done willingly, honestly and with all of out love in attendance."

Ginny smiled and said, "Then let's do it."

"Are you sure?"

Ginny nodded, her warm smile lighting up her face more effectively than a noontime sun. "Yes," she said.

"Then let's get down on our knees," Harry said as he lowered himself to the ground still holding onto her hands. When they were seated comfortably, hand-in-hand, knee-to-knee, Harry said, "I'll start it. All you have to do is follow your heart and repeat its instruction."

Closing his eyes and bowing his head slightly Harry whispered a short incantation then said, "In the name of all that is holy and with all of Creation as my witness I pledge all of my love to you, Ginevra Weasley, and pray that you will accept me as your soul mate."

Following Harry's lead Ginny closed her eyes and bowed her head. After whispering her half of the incantation she said, "In the name of all that is holy and with all of Creation as my witness I pledge all of my love to you, Harry Potter. I accept you as my soul mate and pray that you will accept me as yours as well."

They both opened their eyes and slowly raised their heads. When their eyes met Harry smiled and said, "I do."

With the pronouncement of those two simple words the air around them began to shimmer and glow brightly white. They stood up and wrapped their arms around each other in a warm and loving embrace. Their combined aura began to glow even more brightly as Ginny's place of safety faded.