Hey guys! Sorry about the long update, school started and I was having some writers block problems. But, now that it's gone, here's Chapter 4!
Previously
Well, this would be really long so I'll sum it up real quick. Harry and the others all got their sweet armor and amazing weapons. I told you it'd be quick, lol. Anyway, now for chapter 4!
Chapter 4 – Dragons!
The group went to sleep that night, after much practice with their new weapons. They had been told that the next day they would lean what was next in their training. They had been slightly annoyed that Adila or Honruh had not told them but it gave them a sense of excitement. They did not know what was next, but they did know it was going to be useful and powerful. They all crawled into their respective beds and slowly fell asleep, thinking about what was next.
Later that night all the teens were awoken by a scream. They all jumped out of their beds with newly acquired agility and flexibility, wand in one hand, weapon in another. They looked around the room quickly, all to see Harry lying on his bed, panting and clawing at his forehead. Hermione and Ginny were by his side in seconds, hugging and comforting him. Mary also rushed over and gave Harry a one armed hug, all girls trying to comfort him. Zach and John came over and each put a hand on his shoulder. They all knew what had happened, it had already happened once during their stay, and they all couldn't stand seeing the dead look in Harry's eyes after his visions.
"What happened Harry? Is anyone hurt?" Ginny asked worriedly.
Harry looked like he was in space for a few more seconds before answering. "He attacked. Voldemort attacked The Burrow. Him and a bunch of Death Eaters." Harry faltered, too shaken to continue. Ginny began whispering comforting word to him as she hugged him harder, pulling him right up to her. "H-He killed… Voldemort killed two people. He killed Percy… it was horrible. But then he went after Arthur. Your dad fought, he fought hard. He stunned six or seven people, maybe killed a few of them. Then Voldemort came, and Arthur didn't stand a chance. Voldemort laughed at his attempts, but then killed him in one curse. It wasn't Avada Kedavra though, it was something else. I can't remember the words, but it sounded powerful."
"It was probably ancient, dark magic. Something no one would use unless they were as twisted as Voldemort." Hermione said knowingly.
Harry was about to move when he realized that Ginny was still hugging him. He smiled as he looked back at all the time they had been there. They had all grown to know each other quite well. Hermione was like a sister to Harry, so was Mary. Zach was a great friend, he always seemed happy and could break anyone's bad mood. John was quiet, but when he said something, it was sounded logical. He knowledge of the world, magical and muggle, bordered Hermione's, maybe even passed it. But Ginny was different. She wasn't like a sister, but not a friend. She was something more to him. He wasn't sure what, but he knew it was a good thing to feel this way.
"We should get back to sleep, tomorrow will probably be really tiring." John said quietly. Everyone nodded and moved back to their beds, except Ginny. Harry looked down and realized that she had fallen asleep, arms wrapped around his waist. He laughed to himself and picked her up easily, thanks to his new strength. He placed Ginny on her bed and pulled the covers around her. Ginny curled up instantly, dreaming about who knows what. Harry smiled and then got back into his own bed, already pushing the vision to the back of his head.
The next morning the teens were surprised to wake up on their own accord, not by the smash Honruh made every morning. They began to go about getting in their armor and strapping weapons on. They were so used to the armor that it felt like nothing with their strength. They all went to the kitchen, shown to them by Adila. She had said that it would be wise to learn how to cook. They couldn't expect their parents to do everything for the. Harry, Hermione, and Mary didn't seem to mind, saying they had all been cooking for awhile and knew how to cook many different meals. The rest groaned at the thought of learning the skill, but knew it had to be learned.
The group quickly ate breakfast and went back to the room that they slept in. They waited there for about thirty minutes before Adila came through the door, carrying three large, round objects. Honruh staggered after her. They both placed their load on Harry's bed, being the nearest to the door they had come through. The bed sagged and groaned, confirming that the objects were quite heavy.
"Anyone want to take a guess at what these are?" Adila asked cheerfully, looking at the confused teens. Hermione was the first to answer.
They look like… dragon eggs. But they are much too large to be dragon eggs, and there is no way a baby dragon could be that heavy."
Honruh snorted, "Not all dragon eggs are the same. These aren't the normal dragons you know of. They are your elemental dragons. I hope you can guess which one is yours." Harry looked down and saw that the six eggs were each differently colored. He saw the one that he knew was his and reached down to pick it up.
"Wait, before you pick it up, know that these dragons will be teaching you your elemental abilities. By touching the eggs, you will instantly know the very basic bits of your abilities." Adila warned. Harry nodded and touched the black egg, the egg he knew was his. The instant he touched it he felt a prick at his mind and then an odd rush. He tried to stop it, but before he could do anything, the rush was gone. 'Very odd, that must have been the things Adila told me about. The basics of being a… Shadow Mage.'
He looked up to see everyone staring at him, dumbfounded. Harry was confused for a moment before he saw they were looking at his scar. He conjured a small mirror and lifted it. He saw his scar and gasped. It had become black, as black as the night. He searched his mind for the new knowledge he now knew was there. He found it and quickly learned how to shift into another world, a world where he could move instantly anywhere there was darkness. Harry smiled to himself as he used this new knowledge to melt into the semi-darkness in the cave. He learned in this world, size did not matter, nor did distance. In the blink of an eye, he was at the other side of the room. He shifted out of the shadow world and laughed as the teens started searching for him. He laughed out loud and they jumped. They had an idea what had happened and gawped at him.
"That's amazing! You learned how to do that just by touching your dragon's egg?" Zach asked.
"Yeah, it's amazing. I can go anywhere instantly and can be any size I want." Harry laughed at the looks on their faces. He shifted to standing beside his egg and picked it up, surprised at its weight. He looked at Adila and asked "Why did you bring these? I thought the dragons would be full grown."
"No. You must learn how to care for a dragon from child to adult. We can't really say full grown because these dragons never stop growing." Honruh stated, before Adila could answer, looking bored.
"Well that makes plenty of sense. That way we can teach new things to dragon keeper's back at home, like Charlie." Ginny said.
"That might not work. These dragons are very different from the average dragons your brother takes care of. These dragons are born to be matched with you and only you. We won't tell you about any of their abilities, you'll have to learn from your dragon or learn from taking care of it. Now why don't the rest of you get your eggs so you can begin to learn about your abilities." Adila said. The five remaining teens moved foreword and picked up the egg that matched their elemental color. They all had a shocked look on their face for a moment before looking ecstatic.
"Now before you all go wrecking everything, we have to tell you your next job. You all must care for these eggs until they hatch. That shouldn't be too long, only about a week. By taking care of basically means you must keep them warm and protect them. The eggs may be strong, but they still can be broken. In the meantime, you will be learning elf magic from Adila." Honruh said. "And just so you know, the eggs should be kept at about two hundred degrees fahrenheit. How you are going to do that, I have no clue. Between six of you though, you should figure out how. Now we are going to leave you to test out your new abilities. See you tomorrow, bright and early!" Honruh shouted from the hall that appeared in the wall.
"He forgot to mention one thing. Don't overdo it, this does take magical energy and if you use too much you could really hurt yourself. Start doing simple stuff, like Harry's shifting. Only go to your limit, which will help your power grow. Then you can use more powerful techniques and you can use smaller ones longer or more often. Shifting uses basically no energy, even a muggle could do it if they had the power."
"Alright, thank you Adila! We'll make sure not to overdo it." Mary said gleefully as she floated around in circles near the ceiling.
"The last thing is some of your dragons will hatch before others, so don't think yours died or something. When they hatch they will already have a name, we don't know how, but they will tell you." Adila said over the noise some of the teens were making already. She watched them for a few minutes before leaving.
The teens were using the most basic techniques they could think of. Harry had already moved onto shifting into the shadow world, but not fading into shadow. He knew this was the same state as a ghost, and he hoped then he could actually have an effect on them. Ginny was lighting parts of her body on fire, but her armor was enchanted so it would not even warm from her fire. She suddenly lit her whole body on fire and almost burnt John who was near by, shooting light at Harry.
John had already learned how to shift like Harry, but through light instead of shadow. He was now shooting beams of light from his fingers at Harry. When the light hit him, it pulled that part of his body from the shadow world and it felt very odd. Harry was getting frustrated at John and kept shouting at him to stop. John eventually stopped and went about the opposite of Harry, shifting to light but still being visible.
Now Harry was shooting bands of shadows at John and the same thing happened. John swore he would not do it to Harry again.
Mary was picking up object and moving them about the room with the air currents she now controlled. Occasionally she would pick a person up to their displeasure and push them around the room.
Zach was conjuring water from his finger tips and throwing it at the ground to make puddles, or he would drink it. When he had enough puddles around the room, he put his foot in one and seemed to melt into it. He appeared on the other side of the room from another puddle. He gleefully hopped from puddle to puddle around the room.
Hermione was in the middle of the room, concentrating hard on the ground. Harry and John noticed and watched her. She held her hands out in front of herself and closed her eyes tight. She stood in that position for a moment, when a mound of rock suddenly sprang from the ground, making a small dome. Hermione looked at it satisfied and turned to see Harry and John. They both approached and saw the mound. On one side was a large hole.
"Hey Mione, what's the hole for?" Harry asked, squatting down to look at it. Hermione smiled and went to her bed and picked up her egg. She walked back and placed it in the hole. It fit through perfectly. Harry and John knew what it was now. It was an incubator. The got their eggs and placed them in the hole as well. The told the other three what they should do and when all the eggs were in Hermione turned to Ginny and asked "Ginny, could you pour enough fire in there to keep the eggs hot? I'll close the hole so less heat can escape."
"Oh! Of course I can! Hold on, let me see." Ginny looked into the hole and examined every inch of the inside. "Well, can some one get something that'll burn for a while, and still be really hot?" John swished his wand and a bunch of wood filled the rest of the incubator.
"We'll just keep filling it until it's full of coals. Those should stay plenty hot." John said as he inspected his work. Ginny nodded and leveled her hand at the hole. A string of white hot flames shot into the hole. Ginny held it for a few seconds before she stopped pouring fire into the mound. Hermione shifted some rocks and made the hole smaller. They nodded at their work, and then continued practicing. The boys were just fooling around while the girls tried to make new techniques with the limited power they had. They didn't get very much done.
By the end of the day the teens were tired, hungry and a little sore. They took turns showering while the first one done cooked the group a meal. Afterwards they checked on the eggs to make sure they were alright. They talked for awhile before heading off to bed. Harry stood by for a moment, thinking. He then trotted after Ginny and gave her a hug around the waist. She smiled before giving Harry a peck on the cheek. Harry was instantly red, but felt quite good. He knew what that feeling was now. Harry now knew that the feeling was love. He knew he had fallen in love with Ginny Weasley. He smiled happily as he walked through the darkness to his bed.
But there was no darkness. Harry looked around and saw Ginny fumbling with her bed sheets, trying to get under them. Harry then realized his Shadow Mage abilities gave him the power to see perfectly no matter how dark it was. He smiled wider and crawled under his sheets, drifting off to dreams of a fiery redhead girl.
Sooooooo… how was it? Longest yet, I feel so proud! But anyway, please review, I'm not getting many and if you guys aren't saying you like it, why should I continue it? Anyway, sorry about the long update, stupid writers block… and school. Please review!