Chapter 24
As usual Ron was the first one to panic. Although he'd outgrown some of his more immature habits, sometimes something happens that made him revert to the old panicky Ron. The ground shaking beneath him called for the old panicky Ron to resurface.
"Ron, calm down will you?" reprimanded Molly who stood on his left while Lavender who stood on his right side gently squeezed his hand.
"Calm down! The ground is probably going to swallow us all up and you tell me to calm down!" Ron practically bellowed as his fear surmounted his calm demeanor.
Harry sensing Ron's agitated state looked down at Hermione and smiled. "Honey, you need to get yourself together. You seem to be frightening our guests."
Hermione gave him a questioning look. "What are you talking about?" she asked and smiled sweetly. Then it dawned on her that the earth was still shaking. "Am I doing that?"
"'Fraid so, sweetheart. I guess you'd just solved the second song, didn't you?"
"What? The strongest bond of all is from the heart?" For priding herself as one of the most intelligent witches at Hogwarts, she felt a little stupid at that point. "Do you mean then that my hidden powers is having power over the earth element?"
"Looks that way. Now, will you please calm down? You're scaring Ron to tears." She relaxed and the earth resumed its peaceful state.
"Well, it looks as though you have a new power, Miss Granger or should I say, Mrs. Potter." Dumbledore smiled down at his new granddaughter in law. She smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Welcome to the family, Hermione. Harry did you forget to kiss your bride?" Harry smiled at his grandfather and gave his bride a proper kiss.
Everyone finally recovered from his or her earth shattering experience and let out loud whoops that could probably heard all the way at Hogsmeade. They tabled her new powers until after their reception.
The reception was lively even though there were only a few people. The people present were the only people that mattered to them. Besides a party will always be lively given the wonderful fireworks courtesy of the twins. They'd let out the filibuster fireworks in the great hall after everyone was inside.
After the meal, they'd danced and toasted. Ate the cake courtesy of Winky and Dobby. They were so overwhelmed with emotion when Harry asked them to join the party. They'd let out loud wailing and then Dobby asked if they could have a food fight. Harry smiled and told him that it was one of those moments that would be highly inappropriate for a food fight. Dobby smiled up at Harry and profusely thanked him again for the invitation. They'd stayed a bit before returning to the kitchens to join the others who'd flat out refused to join in the celebration.
Everyone was provided for lodging for the night; even the Grangers who'd never spent the night in the wizarding world were enjoying themselves. They'd given their congratulations and their goodbyes to Harry and Hermione. They had to leave early the next day to arrive at a Christmas party they'd been previously engaged in.
Hermione and her parents hugged each other. She was so thankful that they changed their minds about her relationship with Harry and the whole event. She didn't know what she would have done had they flat out refused to acknowledge her decision, but she was so happy they did.
The Grangers also gave Harry a fierce embrace and made him promise to take care of their baby. "I promise," he told them and they were excused to spend their night as a newly wedded couple in their own room.
Since they already shared the Head Boy and Head Girl common room, their rooms were easy to modify. Harry's room was expanded as well as the bed and Hermione's room was turned into their study room.
They'd been given the talk earlier about keeping their relationship as private as possible. Only a few people knew about the handfasting, but like all secrets in Hogwarts it was bound to spread and with many different versions of the truth. As the Headmaster, Dumbledore reminded them to leave their relationship in their room and conduct themselves in a proper way befitting Head Boy and Head Girl.
They'd promised profusely and Dumbledore smiled in the end telling them how happy he was for them.
They entered their newly renovated rooms with great anticipation of the night ahead. Harry decided to put protective charms on every possible entrance into their rooms as well as silencing charms. He didn't want anyone, including the house elves, to disturb them in the middle of their activities.
Harry put his hand around Hermione's waist and she put her arms around his neck. They'd immediately worked on nibbling on each other's lips. The nibbling went further and became passionate kisses. Since it was both the first time for either of them, they'd be learning to please each other together.
They didn't talk much. They'd let their hands and mouths do the talking. Their magical union seemed to emit a white glow just as they joined together. Their hearts, souls, minds and magic entwined as they reached the summit of their binding.
"This is the best Christmas ever for me," Harry whispered and kissed the top of Hermione's head. She was making circles around Harry's bare chest and was driving him crazy at the same time.
"Me too," she sighed.
"You know if you don't stop doing that with your finger, we won't make it down for breakfast and we'll never hear the end of it from our friends."
"Sorry."
They decided they'd better make an appearance and have Christmas breakfast with their family. Harry was so overwhelmed with the thought that his family was getting bigger and bigger every year. He can only hope that by that time next year, he will have another to add to his family: his and Hermione's family. He'd never felt so content and happy in his life.
During Christmas day, Ron prepared a wonderful candle lit meal for he and Lavender in their own private meeting place. Of course Harry and Hermione helped with the setting and Dobby and Winky helped with the food, but everything else was Ron's doing.
He'd prepared the music courtesy of the WWN and the long stemmed roses were delivered via owl. Ginny was keeping Lavender busy while everything else was put in place.
After the Christmas meal, all the others left Hogwarts. Only the seven teens remained. They'd decided to open their presents together in their meeting room after everyone had gone.
Everyone liked their presents. Harry had given them each a small charm in a shape of a phoenix to attach to the necklace he'd given them before, except for Draco and Neville who were given the whole package at that time. He explained about the other charm, which warned the others if anyone was in danger but the phoenix was something different. He'd enchanted the phoenix would activate a protective bubble around the person wearing the charm when activated by saying the magic word: FAWKES. He'd also put in a fail-safe spell on the charm to be activated in the event that the bearer cannot speak and he told them so.
"You'd thought of everything then?" asked Draco.
"Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out how to protect all of us from the unforgivable curse." Harry answered.
"It's better than nothing, mate," answered Ron who remembered how the protective bubble kept them from being hexed. "Thanks Harry."
Everyone left to have their alone time with their significant other, except for Neville who was still obsessed with Tonks.
When Ron let Lavender into their room she was stunned. She couldn't believe what Ron did to the room. He told her that he had helped, but she didn't care. She was a bit teary eyed with just the thought in planning such a feat. He pulled out the chair to let her sit and poured them each a drink of pumpkin juice in a long stemmed champagne glass.
"I want to propose a toast," Ron told her keeping his eye on her. "To us. May we live a long and healthy life." They clinked their glass together and drank the contents. As soon as Lavender drained her glass she felt something hard in her mouth.
She opened her mouth and pulled out a ring. Harry helped Ron put a spell on the ring to only appear once the juice was gone and in her mouth. She gasped at the sight of the half-carat diamond ring. She looked up at Ron while trying to hold in her tears. He smiled and took the ring from her hand.
"You didn't let me finish the toast. I meant to say, may we live a long and healthy life together as husband and wife if you will have me?"
"Oh, Ron," she jumped to hug him and showered him with kisses. "Yes!" she told him after each kiss. She stopped long enough to have Ron place the ring on her finger. "It's beautiful, Ron. This room is beautiful."
"You're beautiful."
"I never imagined you'd asked me today."
"Ah, but you're sure I would ask you?"
"It's what I saw in the Lake, you asking me to marry you, but I didn't see all this," she lifted her hand in a flourish.
"Remember what Harry said. Nothing we saw in the lake was as it seemed and we have the power to change it. I saw me proposing to you, but in a most unromantic way that you cried and refused."
"I don't think I would have refused had you asked me a different way. I love you so much. I want to spend my whole life with you."
"I love you, too" They kissed once again more passionately. They didn't leave the room for many hours. No one bothered to look because they all knew about Ron's proposal. They all figured it was a success when they didn't show up for dinner.
The following week after term began their focus returned on the mission. The focus was set on the third song.
"The skill Protecting be the third
Like dwarves who turned deep."
Draco had mastered his metamorphagus powers brilliantly. He'd played a joke on each of them during one of their meetings by pretending to be like each one of the six. None of them took his actions personally since they knew him better than before. It was great that each one of them could laugh at themselves.
Hermione was slowly learning how to control her elemental power. As with everything else, she'd spent a few of her free time researching exactly what she was capable of or what she would be capable of doing once she'd reach her full potential.
She practiced making the earth protrude from a flat ground to a little mound on the ground while they walked around the lake. Remus had added a special time for her to practice on her elemental power just as he did for Draco to practice becoming a metamorphagus. Of course he'd assigned him to Tonks, but with Hermione there was no one in existence that they knew off anyway that could help her out with her power, well except maybe for Merlin. So she started accompanying Harry during his nightly training to learn more about her earthly magic.
She'd learned to focus her senses in tune with nature. She was slowly learning how to communicate with the plants and animals at Fincayra. She'd have long conversation with Arbassa on things that took place years before. She was fascinated with her powers and learning to use it was just another challenge she was sure to master.
Harry was proud of her. She was becoming more adept in her new power. Sometimes they end up just staring at each other not even saying a word because their senses were somehow in tuned. Though Harry had never actually told her or anyone else, he already had the power to control all the four elements. He used it in front of them, but he never voiced his actual powers.
Their nightly visits became more bonding time for both of them. Then they would return to their physical bodies and have physical bonding in the early morning before they had to get up to face the day.
During their meetings they would discuss the song, their training, ideas and for those whose powers were already revealed the additional training.
"Okay, I guess a trip to Fincayra would be the next step. I think it's safe to assume that we need to look for the dwarves' home," Harry started.
"Do you think they look like the dwarves in the muggle movie Lord of the Rings?" asked Hermione.
"There's a muggle movie with dwarves?" asked Draco incredulously.
"Of course. They've loads of movie with magic and such, but of course they call it fictional because they think it's only a figment of someone's imagination."
"Really?" asked Ginny. "Do they have movies about witches and wizards too?"
"Well, yes. But every time I watch it I end up laughing about it because they just seem so fake when you've actually done magic."
"Wow. We need to watch these muggle movies. They sound like loads of fun," Neville voiced.
"They are for the most part. That's why they call them entertainment," Harry commented.
"Do you think if they knew about you and how famous you are in the wizarding world they'd make a movie about your life?" asked Ron.
"Oh, please. It's bad enough as it is in the wizarding world. Do you think I want to be recognized in the muggle world too?" Harry cringed at the thought of having his personal life made into a muggle movie.
"Besides," Hermione added. "There would be no actor in the world crazy enough to play you Ron."
"Hey, and I suppose someone would like to play a know it all." The others rolled their eyes heavenward. Though they'd grown up a bit, their banter, friendly though it is, was something that didn't escape the others on a daily basis. They still loved to drive each other crazy occasionally.
"Whoever plays me, better be as dashing and handsome as me," joked Draco.
"Oh, and who has the big head now?" asked Lavender.
They all started bickering about who would play them in a muggle movie until Harry had enough and cast a spell to remove their voice. He laughed then as they still continued to try to argue with hand gestures until they finally realized that the only sound they could hear was Harry's loud laughter.
They all turned and glared at him.
"Okay, I'll give you your voices back as long as you lot stop arguing about muggle movies. Really! Like I would let someone make a movie of my sorry life." He snorted and gave them back their voices. They all tried to hex him, but he was prepared and had cast the shielding charm.
When they were done hexing him, he smiled at them. "Okay, are you done yet? Can we get back to business? No more movies?" They all nodded in agreement.
He decided instead to leap them to Fincayra for a few hours to search for the dwarves.
A/N: Well, that was it. I hope it was entertaining. Thanks for the reviews. I just want you to know that though I don't answer you all personally, I do appreciate your comments and suggestions…