Disclaimer - Pretty much all thats good bout this belongs to a genius who made a fortune off it. Neither apply to me
As the weeks to the end of term ran down, Harry applied himself to his work with vigour. His teachers, most noticeably Professors McGonagall and Flitwick commented on his new found dedication to his studies. Hermione of course was ecstatic. During the first of the free lessons caused by the lack of defence professor Harry made his way to a new part of the castle in the hope of catching one of his future professors. He had managed to see Professor Vector the previous day after lunch and she had recommended a number of rather scary looking tomes as 'a basic grounding in the principles of Arithmancy.' It was all Harry could do not to go and tell his familiar to stuff it.
Nevertheless, if he had done it for Arithmancy he could do it for Runes and so it was he found himself knocking on the door of the Ancient Runes Professor.
"Come in." He heard a woman's voice call out from behind the door. Walking in to the office he was shocked by the sight that awaited him pictures of what appeared to be tombs covered the wall in front of him. He could see what he thought where hieroglyphics among many other pictures. The wall to his left was covered with elaborate diagrams which looked like muggle blueprints. Each indicating a cross section of a dome, with an array of Runes noted at various points.
Finally Harry looked to his right and was surprised to see a middle aged woman peering out at him from behind a desk and through a sea of paperwork.
"Ah Mr Potter. I thought I might be seeing you. Minerva has already spoken of your switch in electives. It's all to the good I hope, I thought about trying to contact you in regard to your electives, your mother was rather gifted in Runes after all." Harry was rather taken aback by the casual mention of his mother and couldn't think of an adequate response. "Septima also mentioned that she spoke to you yesterday and that you left her office with a rather dazed look." The Professor smirked at him while Harry winced.
"I-It was just a lot to take in." Harry stammered trying to defend himself.
"Oh don't worry dear boy, I'm well aware of what Septima can be like on one of her rants, it's enough to scare anybody." Harry smiled and relaxed finding himself really rather liking the quirky Professor. "So you're interested in learning about a bit about Runes before the start of next year are you?" Acknowledging Harry's nod she continued. "Well you'll need to get the textbooks for next year, they're rather dry I'm afraid, Rune dictionary's and the like, but they're a necessary evil and you'll have to learn them." Harry nodded already resigned to the volume of work he would have to do.
"Now I could give you copies of those books but you're as well getting your own. It might even be worth speaking to one of the current fifth years who plan on dropping the subject to see if you can buy their book off them.
"Instead I would like you to look at these." She said pulling out a pile of seven books which though smaller than his Arithmancy pile was still rather intimidating. Looking at the young student in front of her Professor Babbling chuckled. "Don't be so nervous Mr Potter, I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised by these books. Each is a study on ancient magical cultures and the way in which they used Runes." Seeing the student visibly gulping she bit back another chuckle.
"I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, for instance, did you know that it's entirely through the use of Runes that the Great Wall of China is still standing, and how the magical areas of the libraries of Alexandria are protected, vicious things the wards there are, same with the pyramids, then you've got Stonehenge and the circle at Avebury, the statues on Easter Island and don't even get me started on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon." Harry found himself rather intrigued, Professor Babbling's enthusiasm was infectious.
"The problem with the Runes syllabus as it stands Mr Potter is that students must know the different Runes and what they all mean, and learning of that sort is really rather tedious." Harry agreed, easily imagining how dull just learning rune after rune would be. "As such most students get bored, never really paying attention to the beauty of runes, the power that a true Runemaster has. You see Runes in themselves are like let of the alphabet, there is no specific power to a rune, be it Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian cuneiform, Elder futharc anything, the power comes from the combination of those Runes, in the right combination, the Runes of the magical languages can do almost anything. These books should teach you some of the different specialities of various magical cultures, for example the battle magic of the Sumerians was largely based on Runic casting. Ultimately it's why they were defeated as while powerful, unless done by the truly gifted it can also be extremely slow." Harry found himself fascinated, caught up in the enthusiasm of the Professor for her chosen field. "The Egyptians were much more interested in building long term protections and their warding systems are phenomenal and are barely surpassed even now. Norse people were much more interested in strength of arms so much of their rune systems are built around the enchanting of weaponry. The Celts and Druids were much more in tune with the natural world so their work is on improving plants and animals and working in harmony with the seasons, other cultures such as Maori's are all about improving warrior skills strength, endurance and reflexes. Really with enough time, dedication and skill Runes can be used to do almost anything."
Harry sat in silence contemplating the speech he had just heard looking in awe at the books in front of him. If he had wanted to get as far away from Kali as possible after what he called the 'Vector Incident', then he could kiss her now. This is exactly what he needed.
Seeing the gleam in her future students eyes the Professor knew she had a convert, she decided to go for the kill; from the vague explanation from Minerva about Harry's change of heart on the subject of electives, she gathered that with the dangerous situations he had been involved with over the past two years he had decided he needed to know as much as possible in order to adequately defend himself. "Mr Potter, I understand from the other professors that you are trying to rededicate yourself to your studies." Harry looked up startled that he was being discussed by the professors. "You know, Runes and Potions are the two subjects that can allow magic to be carried out during the holidays without registering at the ministry, the amount of magic involved isn't large enough to register on the sensors. Just a thought. Now I'm afraid I have to prepare for a class, but feel free to come and see me again or if you're having trouble with some of the information in those books feel free to owl me over the summer."
After leaving the office it took Harry a couple of moments to regain his bearings. He couldn't believe a second new teacher had left him in a daze as well though this time for a completely different reason. He knew he'd been manipulated slightly, but frankly if half of what Professor Babbling had told him was true he didn't really care. Resolved to studying the books as closely as possible he moved on to his next lesson.
It was a week before the end of the year and lessons were over and Harry and Ginny were on the way to visit Kali. Harry had made the time to see Kali every day since their bonding and regularly brought Ginny along with him. In spite of the communication problems Kali and Ginny got on exceptionally well the young griffin allowing the girl to slowly break out of her shyness around Harry. The most obvious result of this opening up was the apparent shared dedication for improving their magical knowledge. While Hermione was pleased with Harry's sense of purpose, she disagreed with his learning methods.
One thing Harry had learnt while at Hogwarts was that while he could learn from books he did much better learning in a practical situation. Hermione baulked at the idea of practicing brand new spells without direct supervision. Ron on the other hand, though he understand Harry's point of view just did not share the same drive to learn.
Ginny was different, the desire to protect herself from ever being used again led her to follow Harry in his studies. More often than not Harry found himself teaching Ginny second year material rather than studying ahead. Strangely Harry didn't mind, partly because it gave him a better understanding of previous work but largely because he himself understood Ginny's need.
It was while Harry and Ginny were walking towards the forbidden forest for their meeting that they came across a distraught Hagrid.
"Hagrid, what's wrong?" asked Ginny concerned
"It's the animal's!" he wailed blowing his nose loudly on a damp former tablecloth. "There's been a fight in the forest." The managed to get Hagrid back into his hut where even Fang was subdued. Ginny put on the kettle and sat down while Harry questioned the kindly groundskeeper.
"Why did they fight Hagrid."
"Well the it's the acromantula, they've been restless since tha' fight with you and Kali. Not 'ad a proper meal see." Answered Hagrid still dabbing his eyes. "Anyways, some of 'em, bout twenty took it upon 'emselves to get any food they could. Th-They attacked Fluffy." He burst into a renewed bout of tears, soaking Ginny who had her arm on his elbow trying to comfort him.
"I-It's worse than tha' even." They heard through muffled sobs. Fluffy and his mate were killed, but they took out Aragog and Mosag, now they won't let me near the place in the forest and the damn centaurs are up in arms." Ginny patted Hagrid's arm gently looking at Harry, neither of them really knew what to say. "L-least I managed to rescue the pup though."
At that the pair of students looked round and sure enough noticed small three-headed ball of grey-brown fluff. Each of the three pairs of round eyes looked at Ginny intently.
"Oh my! Well aren't you gorgeous!" she exclaimed, completely taken with the three foot tall puppy she knew would someday turn into a vicious twelve foot tall brute. As she slowly edged her hand towards the pup, he responded in kind, all six eyes never leaving Ginny's.
Harry and Hagrid looked at the spectacle in front of them, Hagrid in wonder, Harry contemplating why this seemed familiar. That was it! He thought, familiar, the baby Cerberus wants to bond with Ginny! He was unsure whether to interrupt the situation, admittedly he loved his familiar bond but he wouldn't have minded having some say in the initial situation.
"Err Ginny." He whispered
"What?" she replied quietly eyes never leaving the approaching puppy.
"I think he wants to form a familiar bond with you."
Ginny's head whipped round to look at Harry who now had her full attention, as he did with the Cerberus.
"A-are you sure?" she asked voice quavering. She had always wanted a pet but never dreamed she would get a familiar, and such a powerful one at that.
"Ask him" Harry responded, I'm sure he understands. "don't you boy?" he asked, this time looking at the dog.
All three heads nodded in response, tongues lolling outside their mouths and panting excitedly. The heads turned as one back to face Ginny.
"W-would you like to be my familiar?" she asked nervously, her voice barely audible.
The response was overwhelming as all three heads nodded as the creature barked excitedly.
"I thinks that's a yes Ginny" said Harry quietly, not wishing to intrude on the intimacy of the situation.
Ginny held out her hands and each head systematically took her small hands in its mouth and pierced the skin. Ginny winced, but then she as Harry had done, saw the animal in front of her inflict small wounds on its legs. At this point Harry told her to place the cuts on her hands over the cuts on the creature's legs. As she did so she felt a strange sensation. Harry had told her about his own familiar bond and the pain of the process. She had been expecting something similar, instead she felt an indescribable warmth and a new cleanliness, as if her soul had been cleaned.
After a few moments the feeling disappeared, and she felt more like herself than she had done all year, the playfulness and mischievousness her brother's had all noted had returned. It was as if the effect of the diary on her psyche had been muted. She knew it hadn't been removed. There was a hard edge to her personality which had never been there before, an aggressive streak, a desire to protect people from the same situation she had been in.
Hagrid had been watching the unfolding situation in awe, silently astounded by what he had seen, it was a rare thing to see the formation of a full familiar bond. Full familiar bonds were rare in themselves but to have two occur so soon. As far as anyone knew no one had ever bonded to a Cerberus, some like Hagrid managed to tame them, but much like griffin's the combination of power and the required personality traits was rare. Playful and carefree, but with a hard edge, what Hagrid had just seen was history in the making. A shy yip brought all three of the humans back to reality and focused their attention fully on the creature in front of them.
"Well first of all we need a name for you don't we beautiful." cooed Ginny to her new familiar," any preferences?" there was a small bark which only Ginny could understand but the others interpreted as 'no'. "Well then how about Samson? You look like a Samson, all big and strong but cuddly." The excited yips from all three heads told them all that the name had been accepted.
"Well Samson I'm sorry to say I've only got a week here that we can be together before I have to leave for the summer." They both looked sad at that and one of the heads let out a small whine. "I know boy I'm upset as well but Hagrid here will look after while I'm away, won't you?" she turned and looked pleadingly at Hagrid.
"Course I will, yer've go' nuffin' to worry about and I'll right to yer let yer know how he's doin'."
"Thanks Hagrid!" responded Ginny earnestly. "and hopefully," she continued turning back to Samson and rubbing behind the ears of two of his heads, you'll be able to play with Kali, Harry's familiar too." She looked at Harry questioningly.
"I don't know" he replied "but we can go find out now, we're late for meeting her now Samson can come with us and we'll find out."
As it turned out they needn't have worried and both Kali and Samson took to each other immediately, the playful nature of each seemingly excited to find a partner as their bonded looked on amused.
A large shadow passed over them scaring the human pair, but they settled once it was established as Kalcon. He too seemed amused by the pair of familiars and eyed them a moment before turning to Harry.
"How goes your progress Harry?" they had not seen each other since the meeting with McGonagall, in spite of the daily meetings between Harry and Kali.
"Well sir. I've bonded with Dobby and he's agreed to help me this summer. I've begun work on my new subjects and found some of it fascinating, and I've been teaching Ginny here some of the second year while revising it myself, as well as looking at some more advanced stuff."
Kalcon nodded, clearly pleased with his surrogate son. "Well it seems like progress has been made, what of the plans with your professor for a new home?"
"I have a meeting with the professor after lunch today to discuss arrangements sir, I should know much more after that."
"Very well, one more thing, while the familiar bonding healed the poor physical condition you were in, it did nothing to improve your physical prowess, as an adopted griffin, which is what you are now" inside Harry swelled in pride at these words "you should be aware of a fundamental part of our society and that of the animal kingdom, to reach your complete potential you need a fully functioning mind in a fully functioning body. I have seen that ridiculous game that wizards pass off as exercise." Harry bristled at the slight against quidditch but decided to hold his tongue. "It will not get you into the correct physical condition to defend yourself. You need to work on alternative exercises to improve your physical condition."
Though still somewhat annoyed by the casual dismissal of quidditch Harry couldn't help but agree with the sentiment regarding it's lack of conditioning.
After the meeting Harry discussed what was said with Ginny who agreed with Kalcon's assessment, though she too bristled at the slight against the sport, much to Harry's surprise. It was Ginny who suggested Harry learn Martial Arts. Harry was surprised by her knowledge of such a thing until she explained that Charlie had wanted to take classes when he heard about them from a muggleborn friend. The only reason she remembered was because it had turned into a blazing row between Charlie and her mother because Charlie had mispronounced it and Mrs Weasley didn't believe in allowing a twelve year old boy to practice 'marital arts'.
They both laughed at the story over lunch before Harry headed off to his meeting with his head of house.