A long A/N- Okay before moving on to the next chapter, I want to address
some concerns people are having about the story. Number one- I feel
terrible in making Harry look powerless when compared to Ginny. But I have
a reason for that. I have a reason for writing everything I am. And I will
get there gradually. Patience is a virtue. I just hope that the end result
is something you will like.
Number two- Ginny and Snape. We all know (or at least we think, as we're not really sure) that Snape is a reformed Death Eater. He now works as a spy for Dumbledore. He truly does hate and despise Harry, in this story, but he has been working closely with Ginny since her second year. Ginny thinks Snape is a horrible person who is trying to redeem himself. So while everyone else will try to give him a hard time about, whether to his face or not, Ginny tolerates him. He is impressed by her abilities and the fact that she can learn so quickly, but he knows the only reason she can learn so fast is that she already subconsciously knows all these spells, as Riddle's memory is still in her. So he has her try out a spell and if she gets it right the first time he moves on to the next. Hence the going through a book in each class thing. I'm sorry that I didn't make that quite as clear as I should have.
Now on with the story.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognize. That belongs to J.K. Rowling, her publishers, and Warner Bro.
Chapter 8: Nothing is impossible. (A/N- the second part to Chap. 7 titled A Very Long Day)
Harry entered the common room, still in shock. He found Ginny at one of the tables surrounded by books. The school year hadn't even started and she was turning into Hermione. A tray of sandwiches lay nearby, untouched. Or it could have been that the tray magically refilled itself, but Ginny's look of deep thought and concentration led him to believe that she hadn't even notice the food waiting for her.
"Ginny?" he said.
"Oh, hi Harry," said Ginny, not looking up from her books.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking up some stuff," she shrugged.
"And you felt you had to bring the entire library into the common room?" he asked, noticing the books on two other tables and on the floor behind her.
She finally looked up at Harry. "What did Dumbledore say?"
"He thinks I'm a Paxturus wizard," he mumbled.
"And?"
"And what?"
"He must have said more than that!" exclaimed Ginny, exasperated. "Is he going to check? Did he explain how you could have possibly gotten those powers? Why didn't they ever show up before? Anything?"
Harry frowned. "He said my mom took some potion that made sure I had those powers two weeks before I was born. And he took a blood sample to add to a potion Snape is brewing to check. Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm your girlfriend and I love you and I want to know what's going on in your life," she said, in a tone that indicated that she thought it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Ginny," Harry sighed. He had decided to not tell her about the prophecy. He felt that he was putting her life in danger by just going out with her; he wasn't about to make it worse by telling her about the prophecy. "I can't tell you."
"Why not?" she crossed her arms.
"Because,"
"Because is not a reason," she argued. "Did Dumbledore tell you not to tell anyone?"
"No," he replied. "But-"
"So tell me, Harry!" exclaimed Ginny, exasperated. "What's going on?"
He looked away from her shaking his head. He wasn't going to tell her. It was too risky. Besides, he wasn't ready to tell anyone, much less her. That night at Grimmauld Place she had said her biggest punishment was having to see him die. He couldn't tell her that there was a huge possibility he was going to die. He didn't want to hurt her.
Ginny walked back to her table and started to close the books on it. She tossed Harry one of them, then gathered up about five books. "I see now that you don't trust me," she said, sounding hurt. Harry opened his mouth to disagree, but she cut him off. "No, Harry. You don't have to explain. It's fine. I just thought you could put a little faith in me. Look, I won't know what's happening until you tell me, but I know it's hurting you somehow. And you need to talk about it. Whether its with me, or Ron, or Hermione, or Dumbledore, whoever. You need to get that out. I just thought it would've been with me. I guess I was wrong." She turned and walked up the girls' staircase, leaving him in the common room alone.
Harry stood to follow her, dropping Ginny's book in the floor. He made it to the staircase before remembering that as he was a boy, he couldn't get up the girls' staircase. He sighed and walked back to his chair, plopping down unto it ungracefully.
It was worse than that night at Grimmauld Place. 'She feels betrayed,' he thought guiltily. He felt that way the night Dumbledore told him about the prophecy. He knew that Dumbledore didn't tell him about it before to protect him, but it felt more like Dumbledore didn't trust him. Like he didn't have any faith in him to keep his head in that situation. Like Dumbledore didn't think that Harry was mature enough to handle it.
'But this isn't for Ginny to handle,' another voice in his head said. 'It has nothing to do with her. She wasn't mentioned in that prophecy. It's not for her to deal with. It's my problem.'
A deep sense of misery and pain rose through Harry. Why was it always him? Why couldn't he just live a normal life, have normal friends, a normal family, and worry about normal teenage stuff like sports and girls and his classes? "I don't want this," he said, tears obscuring his view.
A warm and wrinkled hand squeezed his shoulder lightly and softly. Harry looked up to see Professor Dumbledore smiling sadly at him. "I can't tell you that I understand what you're going through," he said softly, his voice almost a whisper. "And I wish more than anything that I could take it all away. But I can't. All I can do is help you prepare yourself for what will come, and be your friend. If there's anything else that you need, please don't hesitate to ask."
Harry looked down at the floor, praying that he would stop crying. He saw that Dumbledore took the seat across from him and looked intently at the fire.
Dumbledore waited for a few minutes so Harry could calm himself down. When the young boy looked up again, he began, "I've just gotten back from Professor Snape's workroom. We've added your blood to the potion and it turned green before turning gold. That means that your powers have been dormant, but you are very much a Paxturus wizard."
Harry merely nodded. He didn't trust himself to talk. Dumbledore continued, "If you would like, we could train you in these powers, as I think they will come in handy later on. If you don't, then I will respect that decision and push the matter no further."
"What would training be like?" he asked, a little surprised that he had been asked to make a decision about this.
"I really don't know," Dumbledore answered honestly. This time shock was evident on Harry's face and his jaw fell. The headmaster chuckled. "I don't have all the answers, Harry. Especially on this subject. The Paxturus wizards and witches keep themselves to themselves, and tend to stay away from both the muggle and wizarding worlds. They also release no information on their education and training."
"Oh," was the only thing Harry could think of saying.
"Would you be interested in training?"
"N- Yes, professor," he answered.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. Harry explained, "My mom did this for a reason. I want to find out what it was for."
"Very well, then," the headmaster stood up. "I will start planning for your training. Oh, and before I forget to tell you, I want to see you and Ginny in my office after lunch to discuss your classes during the school year."
Harry nodded mutely. Dumbledore bent down and picked up the book that lay near Harry's feet. "Ah, this is a very good book," he said appreciatively. "It would do you some good in reading it." He handed Harry the book before leaving the common room.
Harry looked at the cover of the hardcover book. 'The Lives of Paxturus wizards of Britain' by Abigail Peralt. He frowned as he opened the book and started reading the first page:
'Considered the most powerful race of magical people in the world, Paxturus wizards and witches are very passive and quiet. Their lives are filled with the most beautiful magic. Although they keep away from the non- magic community and magic community alike, there have been many famous Paxturus wizards, including Merlin, Morgana, and Kathryn du Gwann. These amazing people have given a small view of what their lives and powers are like.
'I lived in the only existent Paxturus city in the Europe for a year, and I am still in awe of them. I have never met people like them in all my travels. I am very grateful to them for their permission to write this book. I must warn you now, however, that these 137 pages will not cover half of the Paxturus are really like.
Signed, Abigail Peralt July 31st, 1959'
Harry turned the page. A drawing of a redheaded girl in the middle of a heavily forested area stood across a white wolf, their eyes meeting and gaze intense. He expected the picture to move, as it usually did in the wizarding world, but the girl and the wolf remained still. He looked at the title of the first chapter, 'Plisvert,' with a curiosity he had never felt before.
~*~
Ginny threw her books down on her bed and rushed into the girl's bathroom. She needed a bubble bath right now and could continue to look up the prophecy and the Veil later. She turned the knobs over the tub rather roughly and took off her clothes as she waited for it to fill. She accio'd her towel into the bathroom, then sank down in the warm water.
Was it that Harry didn't trust her? She had never given him reason not to. She trusted him with her secrets- really big ones that she hadn't even told her parents about. She felt sure that he trusted her too.
Everything was going so well. They had really become close this last month. They had talked, laughed, and trained together. Harry seemed to have relaxed during their time together. He laughed louder, and his eyes were filled with life and joy. He seemed as though he enjoyed the time they were together. And she had too. She loved him so much, and it made her exceptionally happy to be the one bringing such happiness into his life.
Ginny understood that Harry had probably never trusted anyone. The environment he was raised in was not exactly friendly. She was willing to give him as much time as he needed to learn to trust her. But it still hurt for him not to rely on her.
Another thing that had been bothering her was the lack of progress her research was taking. She had secretly started to work with Hermione on discovering what was behind the Veil down at the Department of Mysteries. They spent their nights during the entire summer vacation looking it up in Hermione's countless books, hoping to find any reference to it. They had come up with nothing. When she arrived at Hogwarts, she put to good use it's extensive library. After two weeks of searching, she had come up with nothing.
"Why can't I just be normal girl with normal problems, like what make-up to wear and how to accessorize, and who's dating who?" she asked the ceiling, getting no answers.
~*~
Harry was half-way through chapter seven (Irridansa) of 'The Lives of Paxturus wizards of Britain' when Ginny came back down from the girls' dormitory. He was so into the book that he barely noticed when Ginny sat on the floor in front of him, her legs crossed Indian-style. She waited silently for a moment but cleared her throat when he made no move to acknowledge her presence.
Harry's green eyes met Ginny's brown ones as he raised his gaze from the book. Ginny bit her bottom lip nervously. "It's dinnertime," she said. "Are you going to come downstairs with me, or would you rather stay here?" "No, I'll come with you," said Harry as he marked the page in his book.
Ginny nodded and stood up. She let Harry lead the way to the Great Hall, following two steps behind him. Every so often, he would look behind him as though to make sure that Ginny was still there.
Dinner was a subdued affair. It was just Harry and Ginny at the Gryffindor table and Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick at the High Table. While the teachers talked with one another, Ginny seemed to be avoiding any type of conversation with Harry. She kept looking away, and she refrained herself from making any comments other than "pass the salt" and such.
After the meal, the couple made their way back up to their common room. It was only about 7:30 PM, and the sun was just setting. Harry went to sit in his chair and picked up the book. He had learned a lot about what he was from it. Abigail Peralt did leave a lot of questions unanswered, explaining that it was a part of Paxturus they did not want others to know. However, he learned that he could enter the minds of animals. He couldn't control them, as people often thought, but he could convince them to do things and talk to them telepathically. Also, although it was not used often, Paxturus could easily control the elements- this gave them the power to throw fire at will, the power to control the weather, wind. He could, if trained properly, very easily cause storms, floods, even droughts. And they held the power of shape shifting. The only part of their training really known to the rest of the magical community was this, as they copied it to form animagi in the wizarding world. Shape shifting for Paxturus was mostly the ability to transform into any animal at will.
Ginny sat in a couch across from Harry, making a point of ignoring his presence. This annoyed Harry a bit. How was he supposed to apologize if she wouldn't talk to him? He saved having to break the silence between them though, when Hermione's head appeared in the fire.
"Hermione!" squealed Ginny excitedly.
"Hi, Ginny, Harry," smiled Hermione. "What's going on?"
"Oh, nothing much," said Harry kneeling in front of the fire to talk to one of his best friends. "Just hanging out."
Hermione looked understandingly at the both of them. "Well, Ron and I couldn't wait until tomorrow to talk to you. We've missed you so much."
"We've missed you, too," said Ginny.
Hermione bit her lip. "So, Dumbledore was here today," she said.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"
"There was an Order meeting. Fred and George told us about everything that was discussed," the brown-haired girl continued. "They told us that Dumbledore said that you were a Paxturus wizard."
"Oh, yeah," said Harry, smiling a bit despite himself. "And I've been reading this book Ginny gave me, and it's really interesting. And Dumbledore is going to find someone to train me."
"Won't that be hard?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"How is it that you are a Paxturus anyway?" the bushy haired girl asked.
"Well, two weeks before I was born, my mother took the Parititic potion, which made her a carrier of the gene that causes Paxturus powers."
"Sounds complicated," commented Ron, whose head showed up next to Hermione.
"Hello to you, too, Ron," said Ginny.
"Oh, hey Ginny," he replied carelessly. "So what else is new?"
"Nothing, really," lied Ginny. "We've been very bored since we got here, with nothing to do."
"Yeah, Hogwarts can get really boring when it's empty," agreed Harry.
The foursome spend a few more minutes talking before saying their good- byes. Ron and Hermione had been allowed five minutes to talk to Ginny and Harry from Dumbledore so the conversation had to be cut short.
Harry and Ginny were left sitting side by side on the floor in front of the fire. There was an awkward silence between them. Harry couldn't take much more of this, so he went straight to the point. "Gin, it's not that I don't trust you, it's that I'm not ready to talk about it just yet."
Ginny turned her brown eyes towards him. She tilted her head slightly. "So there is something going on?"
He nodded. "And I don't want to put you in any danger. Knowing about it would propel you to number two in Voldemort's hit list."
"Harry, this is my battle too," she said sadly. "Tom Riddle took things from me that I'll never get back. And he killed me. If it wasn't because of you, I wouldn't be here. Please understand that I need to be involved in this war. I want him to pay not just for what he did to me, but for all the lives he has destroyed."
Harry looked at her for a moment. She had a point. No matter what he did he couldn't protect her from him. Especially if she wanted to fight. He swallowed. "The prophecy that we found in the Department of Mysteries is about me and Voldemort. The way he could be destroyed."
Ginny's brown eyes went wide. She couldn't believe it. "Well, what did it say?"
Harry focused on the fire, wishing for the millionth time that Sirius's head appeared in the fireplace and gave him advice. He took a deep breath and recited the words that haunted his dreams every night:
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, Born to those who have thrice defied him, Born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other For neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."
"Oh, Harry," Ginny hugged him. "It might not be you after all."
"Yes it is. The only other person who fits the description is Neville. And Voldemort marked me as his equal when he gave me this scar," he pointed to his forehead, where the lightning bolt scar was visible.
"And you have powers that You-Know-Who doesn't know about," she whispered, mostly to herself. "You-Know-Who doesn't know you're a Paxturus. And even if he did, there's not much he could possibly know about it."
Harry hadn't realized this. Then again, he had only known he was a Paxturus for only a few hours. He hadn't had time to make the connection yet.
Ginny pulled back. "So you're going to have to kill him?"
He nodded. "Or he'll end up killing me."
"So what now?" she asked.
"We'll keep training," answered Harry. "And then you're going to help me do the impossible."
"We'll find a way," she said. "You'll see. Nothing's impossible. Some things are just not done often."
~*~*~
A/N: So now that you've read it, the only thing left to do is review. The next chapter should be out in a couple of days. I've had a bit of a family emergency and needed to go to New York, so I'm really behind on everything. Have a little patience, please, and you'll read the next chapter soon.
Love, Amalia.
Number two- Ginny and Snape. We all know (or at least we think, as we're not really sure) that Snape is a reformed Death Eater. He now works as a spy for Dumbledore. He truly does hate and despise Harry, in this story, but he has been working closely with Ginny since her second year. Ginny thinks Snape is a horrible person who is trying to redeem himself. So while everyone else will try to give him a hard time about, whether to his face or not, Ginny tolerates him. He is impressed by her abilities and the fact that she can learn so quickly, but he knows the only reason she can learn so fast is that she already subconsciously knows all these spells, as Riddle's memory is still in her. So he has her try out a spell and if she gets it right the first time he moves on to the next. Hence the going through a book in each class thing. I'm sorry that I didn't make that quite as clear as I should have.
Now on with the story.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognize. That belongs to J.K. Rowling, her publishers, and Warner Bro.
Chapter 8: Nothing is impossible. (A/N- the second part to Chap. 7 titled A Very Long Day)
Harry entered the common room, still in shock. He found Ginny at one of the tables surrounded by books. The school year hadn't even started and she was turning into Hermione. A tray of sandwiches lay nearby, untouched. Or it could have been that the tray magically refilled itself, but Ginny's look of deep thought and concentration led him to believe that she hadn't even notice the food waiting for her.
"Ginny?" he said.
"Oh, hi Harry," said Ginny, not looking up from her books.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking up some stuff," she shrugged.
"And you felt you had to bring the entire library into the common room?" he asked, noticing the books on two other tables and on the floor behind her.
She finally looked up at Harry. "What did Dumbledore say?"
"He thinks I'm a Paxturus wizard," he mumbled.
"And?"
"And what?"
"He must have said more than that!" exclaimed Ginny, exasperated. "Is he going to check? Did he explain how you could have possibly gotten those powers? Why didn't they ever show up before? Anything?"
Harry frowned. "He said my mom took some potion that made sure I had those powers two weeks before I was born. And he took a blood sample to add to a potion Snape is brewing to check. Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm your girlfriend and I love you and I want to know what's going on in your life," she said, in a tone that indicated that she thought it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Ginny," Harry sighed. He had decided to not tell her about the prophecy. He felt that he was putting her life in danger by just going out with her; he wasn't about to make it worse by telling her about the prophecy. "I can't tell you."
"Why not?" she crossed her arms.
"Because,"
"Because is not a reason," she argued. "Did Dumbledore tell you not to tell anyone?"
"No," he replied. "But-"
"So tell me, Harry!" exclaimed Ginny, exasperated. "What's going on?"
He looked away from her shaking his head. He wasn't going to tell her. It was too risky. Besides, he wasn't ready to tell anyone, much less her. That night at Grimmauld Place she had said her biggest punishment was having to see him die. He couldn't tell her that there was a huge possibility he was going to die. He didn't want to hurt her.
Ginny walked back to her table and started to close the books on it. She tossed Harry one of them, then gathered up about five books. "I see now that you don't trust me," she said, sounding hurt. Harry opened his mouth to disagree, but she cut him off. "No, Harry. You don't have to explain. It's fine. I just thought you could put a little faith in me. Look, I won't know what's happening until you tell me, but I know it's hurting you somehow. And you need to talk about it. Whether its with me, or Ron, or Hermione, or Dumbledore, whoever. You need to get that out. I just thought it would've been with me. I guess I was wrong." She turned and walked up the girls' staircase, leaving him in the common room alone.
Harry stood to follow her, dropping Ginny's book in the floor. He made it to the staircase before remembering that as he was a boy, he couldn't get up the girls' staircase. He sighed and walked back to his chair, plopping down unto it ungracefully.
It was worse than that night at Grimmauld Place. 'She feels betrayed,' he thought guiltily. He felt that way the night Dumbledore told him about the prophecy. He knew that Dumbledore didn't tell him about it before to protect him, but it felt more like Dumbledore didn't trust him. Like he didn't have any faith in him to keep his head in that situation. Like Dumbledore didn't think that Harry was mature enough to handle it.
'But this isn't for Ginny to handle,' another voice in his head said. 'It has nothing to do with her. She wasn't mentioned in that prophecy. It's not for her to deal with. It's my problem.'
A deep sense of misery and pain rose through Harry. Why was it always him? Why couldn't he just live a normal life, have normal friends, a normal family, and worry about normal teenage stuff like sports and girls and his classes? "I don't want this," he said, tears obscuring his view.
A warm and wrinkled hand squeezed his shoulder lightly and softly. Harry looked up to see Professor Dumbledore smiling sadly at him. "I can't tell you that I understand what you're going through," he said softly, his voice almost a whisper. "And I wish more than anything that I could take it all away. But I can't. All I can do is help you prepare yourself for what will come, and be your friend. If there's anything else that you need, please don't hesitate to ask."
Harry looked down at the floor, praying that he would stop crying. He saw that Dumbledore took the seat across from him and looked intently at the fire.
Dumbledore waited for a few minutes so Harry could calm himself down. When the young boy looked up again, he began, "I've just gotten back from Professor Snape's workroom. We've added your blood to the potion and it turned green before turning gold. That means that your powers have been dormant, but you are very much a Paxturus wizard."
Harry merely nodded. He didn't trust himself to talk. Dumbledore continued, "If you would like, we could train you in these powers, as I think they will come in handy later on. If you don't, then I will respect that decision and push the matter no further."
"What would training be like?" he asked, a little surprised that he had been asked to make a decision about this.
"I really don't know," Dumbledore answered honestly. This time shock was evident on Harry's face and his jaw fell. The headmaster chuckled. "I don't have all the answers, Harry. Especially on this subject. The Paxturus wizards and witches keep themselves to themselves, and tend to stay away from both the muggle and wizarding worlds. They also release no information on their education and training."
"Oh," was the only thing Harry could think of saying.
"Would you be interested in training?"
"N- Yes, professor," he answered.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. Harry explained, "My mom did this for a reason. I want to find out what it was for."
"Very well, then," the headmaster stood up. "I will start planning for your training. Oh, and before I forget to tell you, I want to see you and Ginny in my office after lunch to discuss your classes during the school year."
Harry nodded mutely. Dumbledore bent down and picked up the book that lay near Harry's feet. "Ah, this is a very good book," he said appreciatively. "It would do you some good in reading it." He handed Harry the book before leaving the common room.
Harry looked at the cover of the hardcover book. 'The Lives of Paxturus wizards of Britain' by Abigail Peralt. He frowned as he opened the book and started reading the first page:
'Considered the most powerful race of magical people in the world, Paxturus wizards and witches are very passive and quiet. Their lives are filled with the most beautiful magic. Although they keep away from the non- magic community and magic community alike, there have been many famous Paxturus wizards, including Merlin, Morgana, and Kathryn du Gwann. These amazing people have given a small view of what their lives and powers are like.
'I lived in the only existent Paxturus city in the Europe for a year, and I am still in awe of them. I have never met people like them in all my travels. I am very grateful to them for their permission to write this book. I must warn you now, however, that these 137 pages will not cover half of the Paxturus are really like.
Signed, Abigail Peralt July 31st, 1959'
Harry turned the page. A drawing of a redheaded girl in the middle of a heavily forested area stood across a white wolf, their eyes meeting and gaze intense. He expected the picture to move, as it usually did in the wizarding world, but the girl and the wolf remained still. He looked at the title of the first chapter, 'Plisvert,' with a curiosity he had never felt before.
~*~
Ginny threw her books down on her bed and rushed into the girl's bathroom. She needed a bubble bath right now and could continue to look up the prophecy and the Veil later. She turned the knobs over the tub rather roughly and took off her clothes as she waited for it to fill. She accio'd her towel into the bathroom, then sank down in the warm water.
Was it that Harry didn't trust her? She had never given him reason not to. She trusted him with her secrets- really big ones that she hadn't even told her parents about. She felt sure that he trusted her too.
Everything was going so well. They had really become close this last month. They had talked, laughed, and trained together. Harry seemed to have relaxed during their time together. He laughed louder, and his eyes were filled with life and joy. He seemed as though he enjoyed the time they were together. And she had too. She loved him so much, and it made her exceptionally happy to be the one bringing such happiness into his life.
Ginny understood that Harry had probably never trusted anyone. The environment he was raised in was not exactly friendly. She was willing to give him as much time as he needed to learn to trust her. But it still hurt for him not to rely on her.
Another thing that had been bothering her was the lack of progress her research was taking. She had secretly started to work with Hermione on discovering what was behind the Veil down at the Department of Mysteries. They spent their nights during the entire summer vacation looking it up in Hermione's countless books, hoping to find any reference to it. They had come up with nothing. When she arrived at Hogwarts, she put to good use it's extensive library. After two weeks of searching, she had come up with nothing.
"Why can't I just be normal girl with normal problems, like what make-up to wear and how to accessorize, and who's dating who?" she asked the ceiling, getting no answers.
~*~
Harry was half-way through chapter seven (Irridansa) of 'The Lives of Paxturus wizards of Britain' when Ginny came back down from the girls' dormitory. He was so into the book that he barely noticed when Ginny sat on the floor in front of him, her legs crossed Indian-style. She waited silently for a moment but cleared her throat when he made no move to acknowledge her presence.
Harry's green eyes met Ginny's brown ones as he raised his gaze from the book. Ginny bit her bottom lip nervously. "It's dinnertime," she said. "Are you going to come downstairs with me, or would you rather stay here?" "No, I'll come with you," said Harry as he marked the page in his book.
Ginny nodded and stood up. She let Harry lead the way to the Great Hall, following two steps behind him. Every so often, he would look behind him as though to make sure that Ginny was still there.
Dinner was a subdued affair. It was just Harry and Ginny at the Gryffindor table and Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick at the High Table. While the teachers talked with one another, Ginny seemed to be avoiding any type of conversation with Harry. She kept looking away, and she refrained herself from making any comments other than "pass the salt" and such.
After the meal, the couple made their way back up to their common room. It was only about 7:30 PM, and the sun was just setting. Harry went to sit in his chair and picked up the book. He had learned a lot about what he was from it. Abigail Peralt did leave a lot of questions unanswered, explaining that it was a part of Paxturus they did not want others to know. However, he learned that he could enter the minds of animals. He couldn't control them, as people often thought, but he could convince them to do things and talk to them telepathically. Also, although it was not used often, Paxturus could easily control the elements- this gave them the power to throw fire at will, the power to control the weather, wind. He could, if trained properly, very easily cause storms, floods, even droughts. And they held the power of shape shifting. The only part of their training really known to the rest of the magical community was this, as they copied it to form animagi in the wizarding world. Shape shifting for Paxturus was mostly the ability to transform into any animal at will.
Ginny sat in a couch across from Harry, making a point of ignoring his presence. This annoyed Harry a bit. How was he supposed to apologize if she wouldn't talk to him? He saved having to break the silence between them though, when Hermione's head appeared in the fire.
"Hermione!" squealed Ginny excitedly.
"Hi, Ginny, Harry," smiled Hermione. "What's going on?"
"Oh, nothing much," said Harry kneeling in front of the fire to talk to one of his best friends. "Just hanging out."
Hermione looked understandingly at the both of them. "Well, Ron and I couldn't wait until tomorrow to talk to you. We've missed you so much."
"We've missed you, too," said Ginny.
Hermione bit her lip. "So, Dumbledore was here today," she said.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"
"There was an Order meeting. Fred and George told us about everything that was discussed," the brown-haired girl continued. "They told us that Dumbledore said that you were a Paxturus wizard."
"Oh, yeah," said Harry, smiling a bit despite himself. "And I've been reading this book Ginny gave me, and it's really interesting. And Dumbledore is going to find someone to train me."
"Won't that be hard?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"How is it that you are a Paxturus anyway?" the bushy haired girl asked.
"Well, two weeks before I was born, my mother took the Parititic potion, which made her a carrier of the gene that causes Paxturus powers."
"Sounds complicated," commented Ron, whose head showed up next to Hermione.
"Hello to you, too, Ron," said Ginny.
"Oh, hey Ginny," he replied carelessly. "So what else is new?"
"Nothing, really," lied Ginny. "We've been very bored since we got here, with nothing to do."
"Yeah, Hogwarts can get really boring when it's empty," agreed Harry.
The foursome spend a few more minutes talking before saying their good- byes. Ron and Hermione had been allowed five minutes to talk to Ginny and Harry from Dumbledore so the conversation had to be cut short.
Harry and Ginny were left sitting side by side on the floor in front of the fire. There was an awkward silence between them. Harry couldn't take much more of this, so he went straight to the point. "Gin, it's not that I don't trust you, it's that I'm not ready to talk about it just yet."
Ginny turned her brown eyes towards him. She tilted her head slightly. "So there is something going on?"
He nodded. "And I don't want to put you in any danger. Knowing about it would propel you to number two in Voldemort's hit list."
"Harry, this is my battle too," she said sadly. "Tom Riddle took things from me that I'll never get back. And he killed me. If it wasn't because of you, I wouldn't be here. Please understand that I need to be involved in this war. I want him to pay not just for what he did to me, but for all the lives he has destroyed."
Harry looked at her for a moment. She had a point. No matter what he did he couldn't protect her from him. Especially if she wanted to fight. He swallowed. "The prophecy that we found in the Department of Mysteries is about me and Voldemort. The way he could be destroyed."
Ginny's brown eyes went wide. She couldn't believe it. "Well, what did it say?"
Harry focused on the fire, wishing for the millionth time that Sirius's head appeared in the fireplace and gave him advice. He took a deep breath and recited the words that haunted his dreams every night:
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, Born to those who have thrice defied him, Born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other For neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."
"Oh, Harry," Ginny hugged him. "It might not be you after all."
"Yes it is. The only other person who fits the description is Neville. And Voldemort marked me as his equal when he gave me this scar," he pointed to his forehead, where the lightning bolt scar was visible.
"And you have powers that You-Know-Who doesn't know about," she whispered, mostly to herself. "You-Know-Who doesn't know you're a Paxturus. And even if he did, there's not much he could possibly know about it."
Harry hadn't realized this. Then again, he had only known he was a Paxturus for only a few hours. He hadn't had time to make the connection yet.
Ginny pulled back. "So you're going to have to kill him?"
He nodded. "Or he'll end up killing me."
"So what now?" she asked.
"We'll keep training," answered Harry. "And then you're going to help me do the impossible."
"We'll find a way," she said. "You'll see. Nothing's impossible. Some things are just not done often."
~*~*~
A/N: So now that you've read it, the only thing left to do is review. The next chapter should be out in a couple of days. I've had a bit of a family emergency and needed to go to New York, so I'm really behind on everything. Have a little patience, please, and you'll read the next chapter soon.
Love, Amalia.