The Celestial Guidance

by FlyingPixie (Lady Lyssa)

Disclaimer: Everything in this fic belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. Everything you do not recognize belongs to me! (That makes me feel so special :D)! If I were her, I would be writing the Half Blood Prince in a small café, rather than sitting here, typing on fanfiction!

A/N: This story takes place in Harry's sixth year, after OotP. H/G, R/Hr, PG-13 rating.

Second Sight

It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest people.

Brutus Hamilton

Harry awoke in the smallest bedroom of Number 4 Privet Drive with the noonday sun streaming through the windows. He was tired, but thankfully not as exhausted as he had been yesterday morning. He got out of bed, stretching lazily, before taking his glasses and hitting the shower.

Refreshed, he went downstairs and made himself a quick brunch before walking back up the stairs, two at a time. The clock in his room read 1 o'clock. Harry was about to reach into his trunk to take out The Standard Book of Spells (Grade One) by Miranda Goshawk, when he remembered Merlin's last words: "Don't forget to practice during your waking hours, especially over how much power you pour into the spells."

What is that supposed to mean? How on earth was he supposed to train at home? Harry knew that Merlin wasn't crazy: if he said something, he meant it. Merlin knew about the age restriction on magic. Can I now do magic without the Ministry noticing it? The more he thought about this, the more it made sense. Perhaps the Ministry could not detect wandless magic!

Then Harry remembered the incident the summer before his Second year. Dobby had used wandless magic, and the Ministry had detected it. Perhaps house elves could use wandless magic without getting caught, but by the same token could make their magic detected by the Ministry if they wanted to. Harry's mind was reeling with the great potential this information could have.

Harry had no choice but to ask Merlin about this tonight. In the meantime ... should he try some wandless magic? On one hand, he didn't want to risk it and have the Ministry breathing down his back like last summer, but on the other hand, he had used wandless magic (albeit accidentally) on the lamp post. He had yet to receive a letter from the Ministry, which further proved his point. He would have to trust Merlin on this one.

Resolving that he would have to adjust to casting wandless spells by standing rather than sitting down comfortably sooner or later, Harry remained standing as he calmed himself and entered a trance. He reached his core in record time. Pulling on his orange branch of magic, he was intent of casting the Wingardium Leviosa on his bed. However, unlike the last few times, he did not draw on as much of the magic, hoping that this would decrease the power of the spell, and save his energy.

He cast the spell onto the bed, intending to make his hand direct its flight. However, it did not work, and the bed simply soared into the air and hit his ceiling. Harry had managed to stop it in time, and only a small dent was made before he could lower the bed slowly.

Harry sighed. How was he supposed to gain control? Resolving himself to a long day of practice, he entered another trance and began again.

Harry groaned. He had been working non-stop for nearly two hours. He sat on his bed, drenched with sweat. This was not as easy as it looked! He had managed to slightly lower the amount of magic he put into the Wingardium Leviosa spell, and was gaining a bit more control, but when he tried other spells, he still used too much magic. He had tried casting a color-changing spell on a portion of ceiling. However, it resulted in a florescent room of over twenty different colors on the ceiling and all four walls before he had changed it back! This was never going to work...

The wind was picking up outside, and when he turned around to see, he was forced to squint his eyes and do a double take. In all of his training, he had failed to notice it. The outside world swam in a sea of colors. As the wind passed by, he saw the indigo tempestus veneficus swim by. All living plants, from the trees and shrubbery to the grass, glowed intense shades of green. Harry saw a muggle walking his dog; both sporting a faint, white aura. He was amazed. How hadn't he noticed this before?

Harry gazed, entranced, at the view for nearly a half-hour. A flock of birds flitted past his window, their white auras moving to the same beat as their flapping wings. Indigo-colored clouds floated above him lazily. Several white-auraed children walked past, holding their mothers' hands. One stopped, and plucked an acorn from a tree. Harry gasped as he saw the glow in the nut disappear. The child's mother apparently told him not to play with it, and he threw it without a moment's hesitation and joined the rest of the group. He watched the acorn get carried by the wind, before falling to the ground, several meters away. As it hit the grass, it glowed green again, its inner seeds coming back alive to plant a new tree. Amazing! Was this the Second Sight Merlin was talking about?

Harry saw a bright white beam of light approaching him. He opened his window and stood aside to allow Hedwig access. She flew to her water-bowl inside her cage and drank the liquid greedily. She was visibly tired, and rightfully so, for she had traveled a long distance. Once appeased, she flew to his shoulder, allowing him to untie the attached letters.

He took the first, which had Ron's messy scrawl on the front. Harry shrugged, wondering why Ron simply hadn't sent the letter with Pig. He opened the letter and read:

Dear Harry,

Everything's going great here too, except for Percy that is. He came back just last night, begging to 'be forgiven'. Something about 'acknowledging his mistake, and apologizing because he had been wrong, but that it had been his duty to stand by the Minister', or something ridiculous along those lines. I can't believe his insolence.

If Mum and Dad weren't so happy about the whole thing, I would have hexed him till next week. Just my opinion. Bill and Charlie stopped by as well. They seem to have forgiven him for the most part. Fred and George are the only ones that seem to be thinking along the same lines as me. Thank Merlin I'm not the only one. Don't worry, we're not hexing him ... too much. Ginny seems undecided, and particularly more quiet than usual. Who can understand women?

Harry was uncertain: what Percy had done was horrible, abandoning his family like that. But did that make what Ron, Fred and George were doing okay? He would have to think about it.

Speaking about Gred and Forge, business is booming for them! Mum seems to be pleasantly surprised, even though she still doesn't entirely approve of the whole situation.

And about last year mate, apology accepted. We could have a bit more understanding as well. No hard feelings? And speaking about the Department of Mysteries, I have to say that I have been getting more headaches than usual. I might be imagining it, but I asked Hermione to research it for me anyway if she had the time.

Harry hadn't thought about what the brains had done to him, and the plausible side-effects. Then again, he had been a little preoccupied at the time...

About the Order, we haven't been able to discover much (now that they know about the Extendable Ears), and what we have overheard from our parents I cannot relay back to you in case someone else takes the letter. Sorry mate. I know you want to be in the loop, but there isn't much I can do about that. What I do know, and can tell you, is that they will be taking you away soon.

Hope to see you soon.

Your friend,

Ron

Harry sighed. He had figured that he wouldn't get that much information, but this was even less than he had expected. He also noticed that Ron had strayed far from the topic of Sirius, which annoyed him for some reason. Frustrated, he felt emotions from last summer come forth again. He couldn't believe that he was still being left in the dark. He had done so much already!

Before he could do anything about it, a beam of red light shot out from him and blasted his bed into smithereens. Uh oh! Wandless magic was obviously keyed to the emotions, and he was having a lot of trouble containing his. Staring at the empty space in his room that used to contain his bed, he sighed. This could cause many problems. Deciding to worry about his bed later (He didn't want to tell the Order that he had blown up his bed, because that would mean telling them about his new powers. He wasn't ready to do that just yet. The more he had thought about it, the more keeping quiet had made sense. He did not want to risk Voldemort learning about his powers, because that would mean giving up one of his only elements of surprise.) He grabbed the next letter of the pile.

Harry recognized Hermione's neat and steady handwriting at once. He didn't open the letter as eagerly as he had opened Ron's, not expecting much more information:

Dear Harry.

Everything is going good! It's great to be able to see my parents again. They still don't know about the war, and I know that I'm going to have to break it to them soon. It's only fair for me to do so before school starts. However, I am terrified as to what their reactions might be, and am really not looking forward to it.

I accept your apologies. Ron and I should have been more sympathetic towards you.

As for the Daily Prophet: so far, so good. They haven't mentioned you very often, and when they do, it is not associated with a lunatic! I know that Skeeter's time is almost up, and I do believe that she will have learned her lesson (especially with my threat of exposure hanging over her head).

I'm not bored because of the lack of homework. I decided instead to re-read all of our textbooks –

How ironic of her.

– and to go over our course-notes. I suggest that you and Ron do the same.

Little did she know.

Have you received your OWLs yet? I simply cannot wait until I get mine! Write back soon.

Your friend,

Hermione

Again, not much information, but it did bring to light the problems Hermione would have with her parents. He had never really thought about it, truth be told. He also noticed that she, too, did not mention Sirius.

At that exact moment, a white ball of fury flew into Harry's room, flying around in circles. Hedwig hooted indignantly and flew back to her perch, trying to show off how well-mannered she could be, compared to the flying menace that had just flown in, also known as Pig.

Seeing the now-vacated shoulder, Pig flew down and perched himself comfortably, sticking out his leg to allow Harry to take the letter. Curious, he took the offered letter, freeing the owl of its burden. Pig flew over to Hedwig's perch and began to drink water. Hedwig was obviously displeased, but kept quiet.

Harry opened and read Ginny's letter, written in her usual elegant script. Now he knew why Ron had been forced to send his letter via Hedwig. After reading the letter, Harry was no less than shocked. Ginny had been completely upfront about Sirius, rather than beating around the bush like the others had done. She had brought up many valid points, and he admired the courage it must have taken her to say some of those things.

Harry was beginning to realize that she wasn't just Ron's little sister anymore. She had a sense of humor, was intelligent, and always stated what was on her mind. He really admired this about her. She was right, she was no longer the little girl she used to be.

This, however, was not the thing that had struck him the most as unusual. The fact that she had used the word Voldemort, even if it was in writing, was astounding! He wondered what had overcome her, and would have to ask in his response to her. She had definitely matured!

He wrote Ginny's and Ron's responses, and sent Pig off when he was finished. He then wrote Hermione's and sent Hedwig off as well. With that done, he focused on more pressing matters. What to do about his bed, or lack thereof...

"Harvey, you almost done?"

"Hold your horses already. You aren't the one who got assigned to cleaning up the mess in the Brain Room. I can't believe that one of them escaped! Do you know how much work it took to settle it down again? How could they not have noticed sooner? It's been at least a month," Harvey ranted as he worked.

"Please hurry though, and do not forget my invisibility cloak like you did yesterday. I really want it back!"

It took Harvey nearly another twenty minutes to finish his work, before he went down to join the other Unspeakable. The two walked away, the invisibility cloak far from both their minds, which lay forgotten on the Department of Mysteries' floor.

Sirius walked out of the room, his hand wrapped around his wand in case of emergency. As he passed by the Brain Room on his way out, he noticed a shining material on the floor. Curious as ever, he walked towards it.

Grinning madly as he recognized the invisibility cloak, he slipped it on. Fate was often said to work in mysterious ways...

Sirius walked out of the Department of Mysteries unnoticed. However, he was stuck. There were anti-apparition wards set around the Ministry of Magic, so apparating was out of the question. How was he supposed to get into a lift unnoticed? Even with an invisibility cloak on, it would appear very strange for a lift to stop on a random floor to pick up an invisible passenger! Way not to be noticed!

As luck would have it (the Fates seemed to favor him today) a late-night caretaker had just finished his rounds of the floor, and was awaiting the lift so he could get home. Here I was, wondering if I would have to blast my way out of here!

He entered the lift, unnoticed by its other occupant. They made their way down to the lobby, where Sirius simply followed the other man, hoping he wouldn't get noticed. Uh oh! He had to pass a magic detector on his way out. He remembered from his auror training (the one time in his life that he had actually paid attention in class!) that all major magical centers were equipped with a new model every year. It could 'see' through invisibility cloaks, which was one of its main functions. What was he supposed to do now?

Sirius' thoughts were interrupted by the security guards' voice.

"The MagiDetector 2000 is down again. Apparently the new model we were shipped has some charm defects. We've been having problems all week. Could you check it out tomorrow?"

"No problem. I'll fix it first thing tomorrow morning."

Sirius couldn't help the smile that graced his face at these words! He quickly followed the other man out. He was free at last!

Harry stood in front of the area that used to contain his bed, deep in thought. Conjuring items was Seventh Year material. What on earth was he supposed to do? Resigning himself to the fact that this was not a problem that could be solved by wizarding means, he went downstairs and grabbed a few pillows and blankets from the cupboard under the stairs (a.k.a his previous bedroom). When he passed by the Dursleys, he noticed with a start that they, too, had a white aura surrounding each of them. Harry quickly ran up the stairs, trying not to fall to the floor with laughter! How ironic the situation was! Little did they know...

Harry placed the pillows and blankets he had retrieved on the floor and went to sleep, hoping that he wouldn't be too sore when he awoke the next morning.

A/N: Another chapter up! I know that there wasn't a lot of action, but this was more of an intermediary chapter between two training ones, which have most of the action. Hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Thanks to all those that reviewed my last chapter! They really meant a lot to me! Sorry that this chapter is a little bit shorter than I had expected. I had planned to include his training with Salazar, and I know several of you were looking forward to it! I promise it will be in my next chapter, you have my word for it! Hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Review responses:

Lady of the Dragons2: Hope you enjoyed Sirius! I know it wasn't a lot, but I'm not ready for him to meet Harry! More training next chapter! Glad to know that I won't bore you with it. Thanks for the review.

mysticruby: Thanks for the review! Glad to know you enjoyed the chapter!

Dr Gero: Yes, the magic names are in Latin. Not nature magic, but rather weather magic, will enable him to create storms and such. Glad you liked the quot!. It is often difficult to find one that matches the chapter, and I spend a long time finding one, so it is nice to be appreciated! Thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed the training; more will come next chapter!

Addax: I love training scenes too! Glad to know that I won't bore you with them! Sorry that Salazar didn't make an appearance into this chapter! He'll be there next time, and I promise that it will have been worth the wait (in my opinion, because I don't know whether or not you will enjoy it, but I do think you will). Thanks for the review!

Dobbiesweet: Thanks for the review! Glad to know that you like training! Your comments made me blush! Thank you so much for saying that this story is one of the most exciting you've read recently! And in my opininion the real action hasn't even started yet!

Eternity of Twilight: Glad you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for the review! Salazar will act like Snape in some respects, but he won't be as mean! Sorry if this disappoints you, but that isn't how I picture my Salazar! He will be a very interesting character however! Of that you can be assured. XD

Fangfoot: Thanks for the review!

Lina Thanatos: Thanks for the review! Why did you find her letter annoying? It wasn't perfect, but I did like how it turned out. Perhaps if you explain why, I can prevent it in future chapters!

andrea10: Thanks for your review! I'm so pleased to know that you enjoyed the wandless magic! It did take a long time to write, and I'm happy you enjoyed it!

Harry/Ginnyfan4ever: Thanks for the review, milady. backs away slowly as she says this, so as not to get hit by the dancing Dirgie who seemed to have had a few too many Butterbeers and is now doing an insane war dance around the room Have fun dancing!

Blue-skies: Glad you liked how I switched points of view! You were the first person to mention it! Thanks for the review! I will try not to make the switching back and forth seem arbitrary!

totallystellar: Thanks for the review! Glad you like my grammar and writing style!

Little Marauder: blushes I can't believe you think that this is one of the best stories ever! I had hardly expected many reviews, let alone this! Thanks for the review! It definitely lifted my spirits!

Tanydwr: Thanks for the review! Glad you like my story!

Hope this chapter was what you expected! Next chapter will be all training, I promise! As well as some more of the Fates! Please REVIEW! Your reviews lift my spirits and improve my writing!

Constructive criticism rocks, but flames will be shredded and put into my cat's litter box. (For those of you that don't know, I have a small Tonkinese kitten! He is so cute!)

FlyingPixie