"Today we're going to learn something fun!" Ash was bouncing happily around, while Harry stood uncertainly looking between her and George.
"Sit down! It'll be easier for them to get to you that way, and I'd really rather not burn up my house. Which is where George comes in. If you don't get it right, or your little friends are too excited, he's going to douse you." She nodded and flopped down on the floor in front of the fireplace. Patting the ground next to her when Harry didn't immediately sit as told.
Harry slowly lowered himself to the floor. So far, everything out of Ash's mouth was worrying him. "Uh, Ash?"
"No time for questions! Just do what I tell you. Point at the wood in the fireplace and make it burn." She looked far too excited, nearly vibrating off the floor.
Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he opened them and pointed at the logs in the grate, and concentrated on making them burn, but not explode or anything else too dramatic. As a cheerful blaze began, he dropped his hand and looked at Ash again.
"Oh good! Now for the fun part!" She clapped her hands and looked at Harry with a big grin. "Hold out your hand, palm up, near the fire but just barely off the floor."
George suddenly inhaled and leaned forward, looking as excited as Ash. Harry couldn't tell if this was good or not. And there was an almost echo of excitement in the back of his mind, as well as a slightly stronger touch of awe and slight boredom. Shaking his head, he refocused, slowly extending his hand as instructed.
"Now, what you need to do is... no. Hmmm... Maybe... Oh! Okay, so what you need to do, is focus on your fire magic and request, mentally mind you, request a little bit of help. Don't make the request too strong, my house won't survive depending on what you get. Just, like, a small request." She nodded and looked at Harry expectantly.
Harry wondered if Ash had finally lost her mind. No hints as to what they were doing today, just dragging him off to get George. And now this as his instructions? With a mental eye roll, he sighed softly and "requested" some help. Not expecting anything to happen. And for a while, nothing DID happen.
And then, just as he was getting ready to drop his hand and tell Ash she was going to have to give better directions. He realized the fire was staring at him. Or more accurately, there were eyes in the fire and they were staring at him. He froze, staring back and trying to figure out what he was seeing.
Then one pair of eyes suddenly darted out of the fire, and jumped into his hand. It was about as long as his hand, from the tips of his fingers to the beginning of his wrist. With a tail almost as long. It was a dark red like banked coals, with gold eyes, and a gold tongue. Which he saw when it flicked out and licked his thumb. It looked kind of like a lizard, but it was giving off heat like the flames in the fireplace.
"You did it! You called a salamander!" Ash squealed and bounced like the mad woman she was.
"Wicked!" George laughed. "Laric taught us how to call nixies last week."
Harry stared at the salamander curiously, then reached out his other hand and cautiously stroked down it's back. The little creature's eyes closed happily and it layed still in his hand. It didn't really feel like much, which was kind of strange. There was almost no weight to it, and while he could feel that he was petting something, it didn't feel like it was solid.
"Salamanders and other elemental creatures like nixies and sylphs are mostly magic. Demons of the same element, can call them and handle them, but they're almost entirely made up of magic when they're here in the Realm. In the mortal world, some of them have a bit more substance. And of course, if you put more power into it, and once you have more control, you can call other things. Like phoenixes, or dragons. So please don't try this without me. The terror twins destroying my house is more than enough!"
"Hey! We haven't damaged your house in..." George paused to think. "Almost a week!"
"Yes, but the last time it happened you blew out all the windows in my kitchen, and sent the refrigerator dancing down the street." Ash deadpanned. "WHY is it always my kitchen?"
"You never use it! It's not like you would have noticed anything happened, except the fridge tried to run you over as you came in the door. And we fixed everything!"
"That's beside the point! No more being mean to my house! I mean it!"
"Uh, guys?" Harry didn't dare move, he was now covered in three salamanders with two others starting to creep out of the fireplace towards him.
"Oops! Okay, so you need to reward them for coming and send them back to their home. Since they're basically made of magic, they eat it as well. So make a small bit of fire on your fingertips and once they eat it, they should leave on their own. Then George can put out the fireplace."
Harry quickly sprouted fire on all of his fingers, and shortly after it appeared, each salamander seemed to inhale the flame before hurrying back into the fireplace.
George shot a stream of water in after they were gone, and once nothing but steam rose from the logs, Ash had bounced up and went off to make sure her kitchen was still there.
"I need to go help Fred with a tricky charm we're working on."
"Yeah, ok. Don't let Ash catch you though. She'll be wound up about the last time for at least another five or ten minutes."
"You sure she can keep from being distracted that long?" Laughing, he left the room to find Fred.