A/N: here's chapter 7. To all of you who have reviewed this story: Thank
you, you rule!
DISCLAIMER: (being read by Ginny today) She doesn't own us. If she did, pwoplw wouldn't love us as much. We belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers, and no one else.
Chapter 7: A Very Long Day.
The days settled into a pattern for Harry and Ginny. They woke up early every morning and had a quick run around the Quidditch pitch before eating breakfast. After a small meal of eggs, bacon, and English muffins, they returned outside for physical training. They practiced boxing, Twai-Kan Do, and fencing, along with learning dueling spells. After a quick lunch, Ginny made her way down to the dungeons, while Harry walked solitarily to Dumbledore's study. They met with Professor McGonagall for Transfiguration, then with Professor Flitwick for Charms. They had dinner with the teachers, Remus, and Tonks in the Great Hall. After dinner, Ginny followed Snape to his office again, and Remus and Harry went to Hogsmeade so Harry could learn Apparition. Tonks, who slept in the girl's dormitory with Ginny, made sure that they were both asleep by ten.
The two weeks passed peacefully. Harry would have forgotten about the war and Voldemort if it hadn't been for his Occlumency lessons. He was able to hold Dumbledore off for a full entire hour without using defensive spells by the end of the first week. He also did excellently in Charms, and had impressed McGonagall so much with his Transfiguration skills that she promised to talk to Dumbledore about giving him private classes to become an animagus. Remus and Tonks exalted both him and Ginny in their dueling skills and beamed proudly at them every time they did a series of moves in fencing correctly.
Ginny had made unbelievable progress in her Dark Arts training. Even Snape couldn't criticize her; she always got every spell right in her first attempt. By the second day, they had covered all the defensive Dark Arts spells and potions. Ginny was learning so fast that Snape covered entire books in one lesson. And release of her magic suited Ginny very well. She looked less tired, more cheerful, and she now had almost twice as much energy as the twins combined, which always made their instructors frown when she bounced into the room happily. It worried Harry a little that the Dark Arts were becoming almost like a second nature to Ginny, but she had laughed at him when he voiced his concerns, telling him his worries were unsubstantiated. However, even Dumbledore had to have a strict talk with Ginny after she had almost blown Harry's arms off during a duel.
The day before the rest of the student population was to arrive, Harry and Ginny made their routine run around the Quidditch field silently. They usually were usually quiet during these runs, still not fully awake. They rushed through breakfast, then followed Remus and Tonks outside for their lesson.
"Okay, my friends," Tonks said, rubbing her hands together. "Today we will not be training."
Harry raised his eyebrows. He knew something was up from Tonks' tone, and he had a feeling he'd be working out more today than he had in the past two weeks combined.
"Professor Dumbledore wants to see your improvement himself," said Remus. "He should be down in a few minutes. Then the two of you will duel one another, and we'll se what happens."
"Are we going to continue training after school starts?" Harry asked. He really enjoyed all his lessons at the moment, but he had his N.E.W.T.S classes to keep up with and the Quidditch team to look after.
"Only thing I know is physical training will be only on weekends," answered Tonks. "I don't know about your other lessons."
While they waited for Dumbledore, Ginny and Tonks started to talk about a new group on the WWN. Harry, who had never listened to the WWN, drifted over to where Remus stood looking at the Whomping Willow. Harry felt a pang of guilt. Remus had been Sirius's friend, and he knew him better than Harry ever did. He couldn't even imagine what he must be going through, dealing with that loss.
Lupin sighed audibly and turned to look at Harry. "I need to speak with you sometime," he said. "We have found Sirius's will-"
Harry cut him off. He didn't want to be reminded of the fact that Sirius was gone, out of his life for good. "That's got nothing to do with me," he said simply. He felt a tightening in his throat and his vision became blurry.
"He left us everything," was the simple reply he received. He didn't have time to question him either, as Dumbledore was making his way to the Quidditch pitch.
"Good morning," the headmaster said pleasantly.
"Morning, Professor," they responded.
"Well, let's get started," Dumbledore said, drawing up three comfy looking armchairs. He sat in the middle, with Remus and Tonks at each side of him. They waited patiently for Harry and Ginny to get into their positions, and the duel began.
"Expelliarmus," exclaimed Ginny, hoping to get the upper hand in the duel. Harry quickly countered it with Skourge before the disarming spell could hit him. Ginny deflected it almost lazily. She cast Rictusempra. The spell made contact with Harry's arm, and he froze for a second. Ginny took advantage and cast Captivum. Ropes magically appeared around Harry just as he was able to move again. He quickly cast Diffindo, which cut the ropes and allowed him to move freely.
Harry had gotten to know Ginny very well in the past months. He had learned her dueling style: attack, capture, conquer. It seemed fairly straightforward, but she had many tricks up her sleeve. Winning a duel against her was like winning a chess game against Ron: It didn't happen often. So he knew that all of the capturing spells would be worthless. Instead he cast Portaio spell, not wanting to cause any harm. Ginny was thrown back, not having had a chance to cast a Shield Charm. He ran forward as Ginny stood up. Out of the corner of his eye he could see their 'audience' looking back and forth between.
The duel became intense. Harry was shooting spells and curses faster than he could count them, making sure to cast a Shield Charm between each to protect him. Ginny's face was screwed up in an odd concentration. She blinked furiously a few times, and Harry hesitated, thinking she was crying and that one of his spells had hurt her. She fooled him. In a second, Ginny cast the Portaio spell. Harry felt himself lifted off the ground and flew back quite a distance. He dropped his wand halfway through his flight, and landed face down about a yard from it. Without thinking, he raised his hand up and felt a sudden burst of energy leaving his body through his palm. He heard Ginny scream, and Dumbledore's voice as he called for a halt to the duel.
Harry stood up with some difficulty. He bent to pick up his wand and straightened immediately. He saw one of the Quidditch hoops near where Ginny was standing was on fire. He turned to look at the others, who, with the exception of the headmaster, were gaping at him terrified.
"Well, that was interesting," said Dumbledore, putting out the fire and restoring the hoop with his wand.
~*~
Ginny paced up and down Snape's cold dungeon. She had come straight down from her duel with Harry to talk to the surly potions master. Dumbledore had ordered Harry wait for him in his office, then turned to Ginny and sent her to Gryffindor Tower. Instead, she came to talk to Snape.
"Ms. Weasley, what are you doing here?" asked Snape as he entered the potions classroom.
"Waiting for you, sir," she answered nervously. "Professor, so you remember that book you told me to read for homework?" Snape nodded curtly. Ginny continued. "Well in it there's a section on Paxturus wizards. Do you think that Harry might be one?"
Snape considered Ginny for a second. If you read that section then you would know that Paxturus powers are inherited-"
"Most of the time, yes," she interrupted. "But there's always the possibility that harry got those powers some other ways. I mean, the Parititic potion-"
"Would kill those who had not met the requirements for taking it," he interrupted her. "And the potion only makes you a carrier of Paxturus powers, not make you a Paxturus wizard."
"But there's always a possibility that Harry is a Paxturus?"
"Yes, I suppose there is a slim chance of him being one," relented Snape.
The truculent professor could almost see the wheels turning inside the redhead's brain. "Professor, that prophecy the Order was protecting, the one the Death Eaters wanted at the Department of Mysteries; what did it say?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "Now if you please, Ms. Weasley, go back to your common room. Our class for today has been cancelled." He turned and went into his office, closing the door.
Ginny sighed. 'That prophecy said something important about Harry,' she thought.
~*~
Harry paced the length of Dumbledore's office impatiently. Did he set that hoop on fire? If so, how did he do it?
"Harry," said a soft voice behind him. Harry turned to see Professor Dumbledore looking at him interestedly. His blue eyes were twinkling merrily.
"Professor," Harry began. "I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened down there-"
"Relax, Harry," Dumbledore held up his hands. "This is really something you should be happy about, not sorry."
"Professor, I almost set my girlfriend on fire," Harry stuttered out.
Dumbledore gave him a small smile. He sat down in his chair and waited for harry to sit across him before saying, "After your parents learned of the prophecy, Lily started to research many forms of magic and special magical arts to protect you. I belive that just three months before you were born she stumbled upon Paxturus magic. Paxturus wizards are considered by many to be like metamorphmagi- born, not made. Your mother, however, found out about the Parititic potion. This potion makes the drinker the carrier of the Paxturus gene, if they meet certain requirements. If they don't and they still drink the potion, then they die quite a horrific death. Your mother took the potion two weeks before you were born, so we were never sure if it had worked or not."
The old headmaster leaned back in his chair. "Paxturus wizards are very powerful magical people," he said. "They can control the elemts. They can use wandless magic, and they can control animals. We haven't taught a Paxturus here at Hogwarts in over one hundred and fifty years- they're very rare, you see. And I have reason to believe that you are. I believe that Lily's potion worked its magic."
Harry sat completely stunned. He didn't know what to say. He didn't even know if this was a good thing or not. "Professor, maybe today was a fluke," he said. "I mean, wouldn't it have shown before if I was a Paxturus wizard?"
"You have done more wandless and 'accidental' magic than all the boys in your dormitory combined. And what you did today was quite impressive," Dumbledore said, rising from his seat. "There is way for us to know for sure. It's a simple potion. Professor Snape is working in it as we speak. But he will need a small blood sample."
"Blood sample?" Harry asked. No way in hell he was going to let Snape come near him with a sharp or pointy object.
"Yes," Dumbledore handed him a tiny and thin vial and a needle. "If you would please fill that up with some of your blood, Harry."
Harry pricked his finger with the neddle. He frowned as the vial was filled with his blood and he handed it to the headmaster.
"I will let you know what the result is," Dumbledore said. "Now, you should return to your common room. There will be no more classes for today, but you will have them tomorrow."
A/N: This is only half of this chapter! I know it ends awkwardly, but the second half picks up from right here. I have decided to change a few things in it and combine it with a another chapter that turned out to be shorter than what I expected, but I wanted to get at least this posted today.
Please review. No flames.
Thank you, Amalia
DISCLAIMER: (being read by Ginny today) She doesn't own us. If she did, pwoplw wouldn't love us as much. We belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers, and no one else.
Chapter 7: A Very Long Day.
The days settled into a pattern for Harry and Ginny. They woke up early every morning and had a quick run around the Quidditch pitch before eating breakfast. After a small meal of eggs, bacon, and English muffins, they returned outside for physical training. They practiced boxing, Twai-Kan Do, and fencing, along with learning dueling spells. After a quick lunch, Ginny made her way down to the dungeons, while Harry walked solitarily to Dumbledore's study. They met with Professor McGonagall for Transfiguration, then with Professor Flitwick for Charms. They had dinner with the teachers, Remus, and Tonks in the Great Hall. After dinner, Ginny followed Snape to his office again, and Remus and Harry went to Hogsmeade so Harry could learn Apparition. Tonks, who slept in the girl's dormitory with Ginny, made sure that they were both asleep by ten.
The two weeks passed peacefully. Harry would have forgotten about the war and Voldemort if it hadn't been for his Occlumency lessons. He was able to hold Dumbledore off for a full entire hour without using defensive spells by the end of the first week. He also did excellently in Charms, and had impressed McGonagall so much with his Transfiguration skills that she promised to talk to Dumbledore about giving him private classes to become an animagus. Remus and Tonks exalted both him and Ginny in their dueling skills and beamed proudly at them every time they did a series of moves in fencing correctly.
Ginny had made unbelievable progress in her Dark Arts training. Even Snape couldn't criticize her; she always got every spell right in her first attempt. By the second day, they had covered all the defensive Dark Arts spells and potions. Ginny was learning so fast that Snape covered entire books in one lesson. And release of her magic suited Ginny very well. She looked less tired, more cheerful, and she now had almost twice as much energy as the twins combined, which always made their instructors frown when she bounced into the room happily. It worried Harry a little that the Dark Arts were becoming almost like a second nature to Ginny, but she had laughed at him when he voiced his concerns, telling him his worries were unsubstantiated. However, even Dumbledore had to have a strict talk with Ginny after she had almost blown Harry's arms off during a duel.
The day before the rest of the student population was to arrive, Harry and Ginny made their routine run around the Quidditch field silently. They usually were usually quiet during these runs, still not fully awake. They rushed through breakfast, then followed Remus and Tonks outside for their lesson.
"Okay, my friends," Tonks said, rubbing her hands together. "Today we will not be training."
Harry raised his eyebrows. He knew something was up from Tonks' tone, and he had a feeling he'd be working out more today than he had in the past two weeks combined.
"Professor Dumbledore wants to see your improvement himself," said Remus. "He should be down in a few minutes. Then the two of you will duel one another, and we'll se what happens."
"Are we going to continue training after school starts?" Harry asked. He really enjoyed all his lessons at the moment, but he had his N.E.W.T.S classes to keep up with and the Quidditch team to look after.
"Only thing I know is physical training will be only on weekends," answered Tonks. "I don't know about your other lessons."
While they waited for Dumbledore, Ginny and Tonks started to talk about a new group on the WWN. Harry, who had never listened to the WWN, drifted over to where Remus stood looking at the Whomping Willow. Harry felt a pang of guilt. Remus had been Sirius's friend, and he knew him better than Harry ever did. He couldn't even imagine what he must be going through, dealing with that loss.
Lupin sighed audibly and turned to look at Harry. "I need to speak with you sometime," he said. "We have found Sirius's will-"
Harry cut him off. He didn't want to be reminded of the fact that Sirius was gone, out of his life for good. "That's got nothing to do with me," he said simply. He felt a tightening in his throat and his vision became blurry.
"He left us everything," was the simple reply he received. He didn't have time to question him either, as Dumbledore was making his way to the Quidditch pitch.
"Good morning," the headmaster said pleasantly.
"Morning, Professor," they responded.
"Well, let's get started," Dumbledore said, drawing up three comfy looking armchairs. He sat in the middle, with Remus and Tonks at each side of him. They waited patiently for Harry and Ginny to get into their positions, and the duel began.
"Expelliarmus," exclaimed Ginny, hoping to get the upper hand in the duel. Harry quickly countered it with Skourge before the disarming spell could hit him. Ginny deflected it almost lazily. She cast Rictusempra. The spell made contact with Harry's arm, and he froze for a second. Ginny took advantage and cast Captivum. Ropes magically appeared around Harry just as he was able to move again. He quickly cast Diffindo, which cut the ropes and allowed him to move freely.
Harry had gotten to know Ginny very well in the past months. He had learned her dueling style: attack, capture, conquer. It seemed fairly straightforward, but she had many tricks up her sleeve. Winning a duel against her was like winning a chess game against Ron: It didn't happen often. So he knew that all of the capturing spells would be worthless. Instead he cast Portaio spell, not wanting to cause any harm. Ginny was thrown back, not having had a chance to cast a Shield Charm. He ran forward as Ginny stood up. Out of the corner of his eye he could see their 'audience' looking back and forth between.
The duel became intense. Harry was shooting spells and curses faster than he could count them, making sure to cast a Shield Charm between each to protect him. Ginny's face was screwed up in an odd concentration. She blinked furiously a few times, and Harry hesitated, thinking she was crying and that one of his spells had hurt her. She fooled him. In a second, Ginny cast the Portaio spell. Harry felt himself lifted off the ground and flew back quite a distance. He dropped his wand halfway through his flight, and landed face down about a yard from it. Without thinking, he raised his hand up and felt a sudden burst of energy leaving his body through his palm. He heard Ginny scream, and Dumbledore's voice as he called for a halt to the duel.
Harry stood up with some difficulty. He bent to pick up his wand and straightened immediately. He saw one of the Quidditch hoops near where Ginny was standing was on fire. He turned to look at the others, who, with the exception of the headmaster, were gaping at him terrified.
"Well, that was interesting," said Dumbledore, putting out the fire and restoring the hoop with his wand.
~*~
Ginny paced up and down Snape's cold dungeon. She had come straight down from her duel with Harry to talk to the surly potions master. Dumbledore had ordered Harry wait for him in his office, then turned to Ginny and sent her to Gryffindor Tower. Instead, she came to talk to Snape.
"Ms. Weasley, what are you doing here?" asked Snape as he entered the potions classroom.
"Waiting for you, sir," she answered nervously. "Professor, so you remember that book you told me to read for homework?" Snape nodded curtly. Ginny continued. "Well in it there's a section on Paxturus wizards. Do you think that Harry might be one?"
Snape considered Ginny for a second. If you read that section then you would know that Paxturus powers are inherited-"
"Most of the time, yes," she interrupted. "But there's always the possibility that harry got those powers some other ways. I mean, the Parititic potion-"
"Would kill those who had not met the requirements for taking it," he interrupted her. "And the potion only makes you a carrier of Paxturus powers, not make you a Paxturus wizard."
"But there's always a possibility that Harry is a Paxturus?"
"Yes, I suppose there is a slim chance of him being one," relented Snape.
The truculent professor could almost see the wheels turning inside the redhead's brain. "Professor, that prophecy the Order was protecting, the one the Death Eaters wanted at the Department of Mysteries; what did it say?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "Now if you please, Ms. Weasley, go back to your common room. Our class for today has been cancelled." He turned and went into his office, closing the door.
Ginny sighed. 'That prophecy said something important about Harry,' she thought.
~*~
Harry paced the length of Dumbledore's office impatiently. Did he set that hoop on fire? If so, how did he do it?
"Harry," said a soft voice behind him. Harry turned to see Professor Dumbledore looking at him interestedly. His blue eyes were twinkling merrily.
"Professor," Harry began. "I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened down there-"
"Relax, Harry," Dumbledore held up his hands. "This is really something you should be happy about, not sorry."
"Professor, I almost set my girlfriend on fire," Harry stuttered out.
Dumbledore gave him a small smile. He sat down in his chair and waited for harry to sit across him before saying, "After your parents learned of the prophecy, Lily started to research many forms of magic and special magical arts to protect you. I belive that just three months before you were born she stumbled upon Paxturus magic. Paxturus wizards are considered by many to be like metamorphmagi- born, not made. Your mother, however, found out about the Parititic potion. This potion makes the drinker the carrier of the Paxturus gene, if they meet certain requirements. If they don't and they still drink the potion, then they die quite a horrific death. Your mother took the potion two weeks before you were born, so we were never sure if it had worked or not."
The old headmaster leaned back in his chair. "Paxturus wizards are very powerful magical people," he said. "They can control the elemts. They can use wandless magic, and they can control animals. We haven't taught a Paxturus here at Hogwarts in over one hundred and fifty years- they're very rare, you see. And I have reason to believe that you are. I believe that Lily's potion worked its magic."
Harry sat completely stunned. He didn't know what to say. He didn't even know if this was a good thing or not. "Professor, maybe today was a fluke," he said. "I mean, wouldn't it have shown before if I was a Paxturus wizard?"
"You have done more wandless and 'accidental' magic than all the boys in your dormitory combined. And what you did today was quite impressive," Dumbledore said, rising from his seat. "There is way for us to know for sure. It's a simple potion. Professor Snape is working in it as we speak. But he will need a small blood sample."
"Blood sample?" Harry asked. No way in hell he was going to let Snape come near him with a sharp or pointy object.
"Yes," Dumbledore handed him a tiny and thin vial and a needle. "If you would please fill that up with some of your blood, Harry."
Harry pricked his finger with the neddle. He frowned as the vial was filled with his blood and he handed it to the headmaster.
"I will let you know what the result is," Dumbledore said. "Now, you should return to your common room. There will be no more classes for today, but you will have them tomorrow."
A/N: This is only half of this chapter! I know it ends awkwardly, but the second half picks up from right here. I have decided to change a few things in it and combine it with a another chapter that turned out to be shorter than what I expected, but I wanted to get at least this posted today.
Please review. No flames.
Thank you, Amalia