Fire was every bit as hard to control as it had been before the brand was removed. However, the reasons were completely different. Before, it had been hard because it took every bit of his concentration and power just to get the smallest flicker of Fire to appear. Now? It took every bit of his concentration to get the Fire to not consume everything. Getting it to appear when he wished it to was no longer an issue at all, he needed it to disappear when he wished. And that was the current problem. Every time he thought he had the last of the flames he had called put out, a new one would spark up somewhere on his body.

Ash had laughed at him the first few times she told him to douse the flames for the day, and he couldn't seem to do it. But as time dragged on, she was getting less and less amused. At least the Fire wasn't actually burning him, it kind of tickled as it danced across his skin, and while he could feel the heat, it was a pleasant warmth, not the burning pain he had expected it to be.

"Harry! Don't daydream, the more your mind wanders, the less able you are to get rid of your Fire. Concentrate, think about what will happen if you suddenly go up in flames out in public. The Fire may not hurt you but it most definitely will burn others. Including Fionn, and any other mates you end up with."

Harry jerked his thoughts back on track, there was no way he was going to allow his magic to hurt anyone. Not unless he wanted it to hurt them at least, and since he couldn't think of a reason he'd want to set anyone on fire, he had to get control over this now. Frowning in concentration, he willed the flames on his left arm to shrink and vanish. With a soft almost hiss, they grew smaller, becoming tiny pin pricks of fire, and then they were gone. He quickly ran a quick check on himself, and finding no more flames anywhere, he sighed with relief.

He and Ash had been working on control for a few hours now. She had told him it was the most important lesson. When he could call Fire and then make it vanish on command, consistently, she would teach him other things. He was beginning to wonder just how long it was going to take before he was ready to learn something else. It had sounded easy in theory, call Fire, then tell it to go away again. In practice however...

"All right. I think that's enough for today. Go take a shower, Fred and George will be back from their training sessions soon as well. Once you're all back and showered, I have something fun to tell you about!" Ash grinned as she spun around and hurried out the door of the training room.

Harry just shook his head and walked slowly out after her. Even after this long, it still scared him a little bit when she said she had something fun to show or tell him. When he reached his room, he grabbed clean clothes from the wardrobe and hurried into the bathroom. A long hot shower sounded wonderful right now.

When he reached the sitting room, the only one there was Fionn. The Fae was curled up in one corner of the couch, flipping through a sketch book. When Harry sat down beside him, Fionn promptly put the sketch book on the table next to him, and cuddled up against Harry's side.

"Any idea what Ash is planning this time?"

Fionn shook his head. "She just said she wanted to tell you and the twins something. Fred and George haven't come back yet."

As though they had been conjured by the words, Fred and George hurried into the room with mischievous grins on their faces.

"Merlin... What have you two done now?" Harry sighed. They hadn't been Demons for long, but they had already gotten into more trouble than Harry or Ash had thought possible. He now knew why Ash had been so adamant about not being their Guide as well as his.

"Us? Why Harry you wound us!" Fred mock-gasped.

"We barely get into the house and he already thinks the worst of us Forge!"

"Well! We don't have to stand here and listen."

"We could lay here."

"Or sit here."

"But I think it would be better to go shower. There's an annoyed Storm Demon somewhere behind us, remember Forge?"

"Right you are Gred! To the shower!"

"Better hurry, Ash has something she wants to tell us. And you know how impatient she is. Do I even want to know what you did to Laric?"

Fred and George just waved a hand each at him as they hurried on through the room, without answering his question. Harry looked at Fionn and rolled his eyes. The Fae's golden eyes were shining with silent laughter and he settled himself back more comfortably against Harry's side. Harry put his arm around Fionn and had just opened his mouth to speak when Laric entered the room.

The Storm Demon was drenched. There was no other way to describe it. His braids were dripping water into his face and down his back, his shirt was plastered to his skin, and his boots squelched with every step he took. It looked like he had jumped in a lake with all his clothes on. And by the expression on his face, he hadn't gone swimming by choice.

Harry's eyes went wide and he stared in silence a moment. "Uh..."

Laric swept the room with his eyes, and then he nodded to himself. "If they wish to have a war, they picked the wrong target." His words were soft, but Harry could hear the slight thread of amusement behind them. With a polite nod to Fionn and Harry, Laric turned and walked out of the room again.

"I think... the twins are in for a surprise." Harry snickered and Fionn nodded in agreement.

When everyone had finally assembled in the sitting room, Ash began to speak excitedly, her hands waving around as she talked. "So! The Freedom Festival is coming up! It's a yearly festival, and it lasts for 7 days and nights. The entire Realm celebrates, and people come from all over for games, food, shopping and other things. It's a lot of fun! Though you two," she pointed at Fred and George, "will need to exchange claiming studs before then. Otherwise you'll have a lot of people trying to split you up and Court only one of you. Some will try for both of you of course, but it'll be easier on you if they know you're already in a mateship."

"What exactly is the Freedom Festival? I mean, what is it in celebration of?" Harry asked.

"It's supposed to mark the date when the Realm was finished and first inhabitable. So basically it's a celebration of our getting our own Realm away from Wizards and Muggles. There will be lots of stuff to see and do, and fireworks shows almost every night. Since we're in one of the larger cities, a lot of people travel here to celebrate. Which means it will be very crowded, and you three will need to work on your control so your elements don't get out of hand." Ash looked at Harry, Fred and George seriously for a moment. When they nodded, she continued. "The first day, not a lot happens because people are still arriving and setting things up. But there will be a parade, and booths get set up along all the main streets. You'll most likely run into some of the races you haven't seen much of during the Festival, and there will be a great deal more people around then you're used to. I can hardly wait!"

Harry just shook his head. Huge groups of people and partying all day and night? Yeah, that sounded like an Ash version of fun. But it didn't sound all that fun to him. But at least here he wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived, he might able to be just Harry during the Festival. So far, he'd just been treated like a mostly normal Demon, except for the whole brand incident and such. It was a nice change, though he did have to wonder, if Fred and George had to exchange claiming studs before the Festival, what about Fionn and him? They weren't mated yet, would people try to separate them? His arm tightened around Fionn at the thought. It had been weird when he first was told about Courting, and weirder still when he entered into it with Fionn. But now that he had gotten to know him better, and the brand was gone so the Courtship Magics were working, he couldn't imagine not having the Fae in his life. The thought of someone trying to take Fionn from him made him angry.

Fionn turned to face Harry, with Harry's arm still wrapped around his waist. He reached out and touched Harry's cheek lightly to get his attention, then kissed him. "No one will take me away. We just tell people we're Courting, and most will back off." His voice was soft, the others most likely didn't even hear him since Fred and George were asking Ash more questions and she was happily rattling off answers about the Festival. Harry blushed faintly and nodded. "Sorry, I-"

"It's okay." Fionn smiled and kissed Harry again gently before turning back around to face the others once more.

"So you have about two weeks to learn to control your Demon Magics before the Festival begins. Which means we'll be working you every day just to be sure there are less likely to be accidents during the Festival." Ash grinned. "So off to bed with you! More working in the morning for all of you! Well, except Fionn." She laughed and bounced to her feet before skipping from the room humming to herself.

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