Eye For An Eye: Part I: Ron and Hermione
Disclaimer: Characters from the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling. All original characters belong to ladykyo and the separatesisters.
NOTE: This story will jump around from pov to pov, so I'll let you know whose pov is being used at the start of each new section/ where the povs change.
ladykyo
ps: I know that the powers are derived from those on the TV show "Charmed". I love that show, and I'm sad that it is off the air. Here's hoping for a movie.
Chapter 3: What Happens in 2nd-year…
Hermione's pov
When I arrived at Platform 9¾ to take the Hogwart's for my second year, I searched high and low for the girl that had helped me last term. I even arrived there early to be able to look for her. No dice. Sighing, I gave up and got on the plain. It was still early, and therefore, Pia had not shown. Luna was there, but she was murmuring about the heaviness again, trolling the platform in search of where the heaviness was most evident.
I picked out a compartment not too close to the front, but not at the back, either. I settled my trunks into the shelving provided and plopped down into the plush cushions of the seats with Crookshanks on my lap. I was stroking his bushy back and tail when I felt his hackles go up.
"Crookshanks, calm yourself. I'm here, and you know almost everyone else who'll be getting on the train. You like Pia, remember?" I crooned, trying to get him to curl up and sleep, which would provide me with ample time to catch up with my friends and compare notes on the strange heaviness.
I stopped trying to calm Crookshanks when a red head popped into the compartment.
"Oh, Pia, am I glad you're here. Luna's outside, lamenting the heaviness. I'm afraid she's going to let the cat out of the bag, as it were," I said, the relief audible in my voice.
"That's quite lovely, but who's Pia?" The red head turned to face me, and it wasn't Pia that was looking back at me. "And what's the heaviness you're referring to?"
"Oh, my, umm, it's nothing. Wait! You're the girl from the platform last year, aren't you!" I cried as I thought she was going to leave. "You're Gin, aren't you?"
"Um, actually, the name's Ginny. Ginny Weasley. And no, I'm afraid that this is the first time I've ever been here before. I'm the only daughter, I mean, the only child of Arthur and Molly Weasley. I have never laid eyes on you before," Ginny said, and her eyes seemed charged with an inner light. I felt calm as she told me this, and I felt the heaviness again, but it was a good feeling.
"'Mione, Luna's going on about the heaviness again, and everyone on the platform's going to Oh. Who are you?" Pia raced into the compartment.
Pia received the same answer I did, and reacted the same way. I don't know how I was able to connect the two incidents, but I managed it. Pia sat next to me, and we struck up a conversation with Ginny. In the back of my mind, I waited for Luna, wanting to see how she would react to the newcomer.
As I waited, I listened to the conversation between Pia and Ginny. According to her, Ginny was the only child of two full-blooded wizarding parents, she was an entering first year, and she hoped that she would get into my House and room, because she could already tell we'd be close friends. Pia scowled at her for that, but went on to say that she knew no one would ever eclipse her in my heart. We all laughed, and the door opened for what would be the last occupant for that trip.
Luna walked in, and I could see that Ginny was about to give her the same treatment Pia and I had gotten, but as Ginny opened her mouth, Luna cut her off.
"You're held by someone. You feel the heaviness, but it doesn't touch you the same way. I wonder why. And I wonder why you were drawn to us?" Luna said, and her brown eyes were glazed over in their milky haze. Ginny shut her mouth and turned instead to Pia and me.
'Well, well, well, it does seem as if some things are meant to be."
And that's how I met the one who would become like a sister to me. Ginny, who ended up in Gryffindor, roomed with Brenna and me for the remainder of our years at Hogwart's. She was always ready to visit my family, but not so when I wanted to visit her and her own. I only visited a few times before she was no longer going to her family home doing the summer breaks; instead, she was opting to stay at the school over breaks, to study and try to graduate early. During my sixth year, Brenna graduated along with Andrea. They became accomplished Aurors, but they used their contacts and expertise to investigate the heaviness and the depression that we all began to feel around my third year.
I thought that our depression had an obvious cause: Luna had been so overwhelmed with the heaviness that she had gone a little off; she was admitted to St. Mungo's psychiatric ward. Halfway through that term, she disappeared from there. We haven't heard from her, or of her, ever since. I think we all missed our most mystical sister in the fey. Not long after her disappearance, my other friends began to exhibit gifts not unlike my own.
Pia could stop time for short bursts, and her temper often made her make things blow up. Brenna and Andrea, already animagus, showed even more talent along that line: they became metamorphagus; it had never happened in history, at least not since the 5th century, not unlike my own talents. I learned from Pia that Pansy Parkinson could call things to her; it was as if she could Apparate things to and fro. Whenever I find myself thinking about Luna, I wonder what her talent would have been. Ginny tried not to show her talents around us, but I caught her using hers one time after a Quidditch match.
Ginny had made the House Quidditch team on her first try-out. She was a Chaser, perhaps the most physically demanding position, save for Seeker. It was during a match against Ravenclaw; the Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang, a girl none of us particularly liked, was racing to catch the Golden Snitch when she overshot her mark and flew into a goalpost. She fell dead from the sky. I could almost feel her soul leaving this earth when Ginny caught her in mid-air and gently carried her down to the field. I darted out of my seat. Pia froze the field and stands in order to buy us time to fix things: it just wasn't her time to go. I met Pansy and Pia on my way down to the field where Ginny was holding Cho Chang. We walked onto the pitch together, but Ginny was already working on her. We stopped and held our breath. Ginny was speaking, whispering, really, and we had to strain to hear what she was saying.
"Cho, darling, daring girl, it's not your time. I can't let you take him away from me, but I can not wrest your life from you now. Let her flow into you, heal you, and never remember how this happened. But always remember this: if you try to take him, I'll rip your life away as easily as I gave it back to you," Ginny whispered, breathing softly into Cho Chang's open mouth. Abruptly, Cho woke up, spluttering. "S'alright, Cho. You just fell. Time to get back to the match. Someone's got to catch the Snitch." Ginny looked directly into Pia's eyes. "Isn't that right, Pia? Time for the match to resume?"
Pia couldn't resist the fey light in Ginny's eyes. "Right. Time to resume the game." Pia got a distant look in her eyes, and time played on. A strange light that had suffused Ginny faded away. The game continued, and Gryffindor managed to win, even though Cho Chang did manage to catch the Snitch.
I think that I loved Ginny at that moment. We had beheld her using her power, the power to heal and catch life before it escaped. I know that I feared her power, but at that time, I knew that she would be a sister to me for the rest of our lives.
The rest of our years at Hogwart's were much like that. Professors mostly ignored our talents, never offering aid but giving it when we asked. After a while, we gave up and relied on our won research and experiments.
During a particularly frustrating research session in which Pia and I were reading ancient Celtic and Druid texts, trying to figure out how to help Pansy make the best of her talents, I threw up my hands and screamed. Madam Pince glared at me and I sat back in my chair, glaring at Pia.
"It's times like these that make me willing to do anything to fix these nutter powers we were given. I'd side with Morrígan herself if she could help us out here!" I whispered loudly.
"Never offer to side with her. That's what she wants. That's what they all want," Ginny had appeared out of nowhere. She was deathly pale, but then, she always was. It was as if she never went out into the sun, ever. She said her piece softly and left us.
"I think that she just wants us to know that she'll miss us. Supposedly, this type of separation anxiety exhibits as anger," Pia said, breaking our silence.
"You sound like a muggle psychology textbook," I laughed, trying to ease the tension.
"Thanks to you. At least I'm not quoting 'Hogwart's: A History', like some muggle-borns I could mention."
Our exams were awful. Even I was worried about my marks. But I got high enough marks to ensure my entrance to the Auror program through the Ministry of Magic. I wanted to continue my research, and the travel that was entailed in being and becoming an Auror would be quite helpful. Pia and Pansy joined me. I was not surprised at Pia's choice, as she was adamant about not returning to her parents' home and rules. Pansy was surprising, though; she refused her parents' attempts at matches with high-born, rich boys and men from other old wizarding families. The Auror program offered her hope to find her own way.
Pia was dispatched to Italy not long after our initial training and tours of duty. Pansy was sent to Romania, but they shared contacts, thanks to our sisterhood: Brenna and Andrea. I was the last to be posted. None of the others had any luck when I received my posting: not far from Dublin, Ireland, in a village called Wicklow in county Wicklow. From there, I kept watch over counties Kildare, Carlow, Wexford, Meath, and the surrounds of Dublin. I was not to interfere with the affairs of the wizards in Dublin, however.
I was doing research on our powers in the old Anglo-Saxon stronghold in Wicklow when I met him.