Chapter 26
Hermione started to panic. She who was the most levelheaded person of the group was panicking. She knew however that by screaming she would give them away, so she did the next best thing. She let the earth have a rumble.
The earth started shaking around them. The dwarves started to scramble around in a panic.
"Stop!" the dwarf leader yelled. The others obeyed. "Hold your ground. They should be here soon if they felt the same earth movement we did." He smirked feeling so sure of himself.
"BLOODY HELL!" Hermione screamed in her head. "HARRY, WHERE ARE YOU?"
"What are you screaming about, Hermione. I'm right in front of you." He sounded confused.
"You git! I can't see you!" Then she felt his arms around her. She calmed down then and the earth stopped shaking. The others couldn't believe their eyes. First Harry disappeared and then Hermione. They were frozen in place. They didn't know what to do, but they had enough sense not to run out into the arms of the enemy.
Harry and Hermione re-appeared and stared at their friends. "What?" Harry mouthed.
"Bloody Hell, Harry." Ron started in his head. "You disappeared. And then all of the sudden, Hermione disappeared."
Harry couldn't believe it. He was able to make himself dematerialize. He concentrated on his hand. He watched his hand disappear before him. He'd only read of another wizard with the same power. However, the wizard had died and gone into a coma for almost a year. The man was called the Phantom. He was not a well-known person because of his work with the unspeakables, but a lot of the unspeakables had documented history within the department of mysteries and some were in the restricted section of the library at Hogwarts.
Harry knew that the Phantom was able to make himself disappear and walk through walls. There were three stages of the invisibility powers. One was to make oneself invisible by will, meaning the person could just as easily make himself/herself fade away at will. The second stage of the power was to be able to dematerialize one's body to be able to walk through walls. The third stage was something the Phantom was never able to accomplish and that was to make others he touched invisible as well.
Within minutes Harry was able to control his newfound power easily. He was a bit anxious on how many people he can make invisible at once, but he didn't want to test at that time. They were surrounded by warrior dwarves after all. He knew he was able to make one invisible because Hermione had disappeared when he touched her. They didn't have time to stand there and test out how many people he could make disappear with his touch.
After they let the light flyer go, they flew straight for the exit. Draco who was still disguised as a dwarf could not let his light flyer go or he'd be found out. However, the light flyer created a diversion that the gang wasn't expecting. It took the dwarves attention away from the doorway long enough for the others to take them by surprised.
The six split up to cover all the dwarves. Draco immediately let his light flyer go and started to fight those around him. The other dwarves were surprised when Draco started to fight against them instead of with them. There was a bit of shock on their faces, which left them caught off guard. Draco changed back to his normal state for fear he would get attacked by the others as well.
The odds were against the gang almost three to one, but their training came in handy as they ducked, kicked, punched, flipped and clobbered the dwarves. Apart from the height advantage, they were at a disadvantage with weapons. All the dwarves were armed with their spears, while the gang had to rely on their hand-to-hand combat skills.
"Look out!" Harry screamed at Hermione when he saw a spear coming towards her. He wanted badly to use his powers, but that would forfeit the deal. Hermione on the other hand heard Harry's warning in time to do a back flip to get out of the way and serve a side kick right at the dwarf's jaw. He was out cold and Hermione continued to her next opponent.
Ginny was doing well too. She'd just defeated two of her opponents by jumping up in a split and hitting two dwarves in the face. She came down and received a punch in the stomach by the other dwarf she'd disarmed a little earlier in the battle. She quickly recovered just in time to roll on her side to avoid being stomped on by the dwarf. She swung her legs around and sliced through her opponent's legs bringing him to the ground. She gave him a right cross across his face to make sure he stayed down.
Neville was being ambushed by three dwarves all pointing their spears at him. But with reflexes like lightning, he was able to grab one of the spears, ducked and rolled and knocked down the lot of them. He didn't really want to kill any of them so he used the wood end of the spear to hit the dwarves, one in the head, the other in the abdomen and the other in the neck. He didn't have time to celebrate his accomplishment as two more dwarves were charging towards him.
Ron on the other hand was knocking the dwarves down as they approached. He was caught by surprise by one and was scratched up on his left shoulder. It only made him angrier and started throwing punches and kicks with a vengeance. He kept throwing glances towards Lavender's way to make sure she was holding her own as he kept dishing out the powerful blows onto the dwarves who dared attack him.
Lavender was using her gymnastic skills as well as other fighting skills she'd learned from Tonks. Seeing her without caring if she broke a nail only emphasized just how much she'd changed since she'd started hanging around the others. Her hair was a mess, but she didn't care much. She was fighting hard. A dwarf grabbed a hold of her hands and then showed her a toothy grin. Lavender smiled back and banged her head on the dwarf's head. He was out cold.
As more and more dwarves were knocked out cold, the others became fearful of the teens. They started running away in defeat.
"Everyone all right?" asked Harry.
"Fine, those little pain in arse weren't a match for me!" Ron gloated and everyone rolled their eyes heavenward. He had two scratches on his arm, a little one across his cheek and some internal bruises. It reminded Harry of the time when they were caught inside a devil's snare during second year. He had to hand it to Ron though, he does have his way of dealing with fear and panic.
"Come on, we'd better get out of here." Hermione suggested.
They moved towards the exit of the cave and found Urnalda waiting for them outside holding Emrys and Rhia at spear point. Emrys smiled at Harry when they walked out and it didn't look as if he had any scratch on him. He then remembered that if Harry had the power to heal then his body would have healed itself, just the way his did.
"Ah, so you be alive I see. You sent my men running out like they be scared children. You must have used magic." She really wanted the glasses and was trying to do everything to get it. "So, you forfeit and those things are mine." She pointed at Harry's glasses.
"You're wrong. You never intended for us to live through your army. We didn't have to use any magic, and you can ask your men. If we used magic, do you think any of your men would have made it out of the cave still conscious? Besides, our deal was that if everyone learned the power of protecting then you would get the spectacles, but I am the only one who learned the lesson and therefore I do not have to give you anything."
"Seize them!" Urnalda screamed but none of her army moved to help when they saw a ball of fire sitting on Harry's right hand. Urnalda too was afraid at the realization of Harry's power. "You, you are not of this world!"
"Let my friends go!" Harry bellowed. The dwarves immediately let their spears down and let Rhia and Emrys walk towards them. "All right you two."
"We're fine, but I suggest we get out of here before she thinks of something else. And I suggest you do something with their memory." Emrys suggested.
They all held hands and before they leapt, Harry murmured a little spell to modify their memory of the past few hours. They were back inside Arbassa within minutes. Harry and Emrys healed each one of their cuts and bruises and everyone was back to normal after another hour. Harry and Emrys were drained and needed rest afterwards. Especially Harry, he needed to rejuvenate his mind and body before attempting to leap them back out of Fincayra.
Their trip to Fincarya proved to be adventurous and fruitful. They'd learned the third song's soul and added more to Harry's powers. He'd spent the week trying to see just how many he could make invisible and what else he could make invisible. He'd found that he could make the others disappear while he was still visible as long as they were somehow connected to him or any of the items in his being. They discovered that the pendant he'd given them for Christmas was a great way to become connected to him without actually physically touching him. They were excited with the discovery to say the least.
They'd also taken down the third song from the wall and replaced it with the fourth song:
"The art of Naming be the fourth
A secret Slantos keep"
The training continued daily as each day brought them closer to what they knew was an inevitable confrontation between Voldemort and Harry. They all wanted to be strong enough, fast enough and skilled enough to be able to support Harry in his effort to destroy the great evil that had overrun the wizarding world for over fifteen years.
Each day they also brought them to the uncertainty of their future. They'd like to continue to believe that they still had a wonderful future, but they all knew that in a battle, especially a battle against pure evil, the only thing they can truly believe was that they would do whatever it took to secure their future and the future of their world. They knew that it could mean death for any one of them or others they loved, but they also knew that somehow if it rid the world of Voldemort, they would accept the sacrifices that would be made with the cause.
In addition to their extra lessons and training, they also had to prepare for the NEWTs. Being the destined teenagers that they were didn't exempt them from taking the tests, so the preparations were becoming more important for that as well. They had to believe that they would succeed and that failing NEWTs would also be a failure in securing their future.
They knew that they couldn't wait for another Hogsmeade weekend to search for the soul of the fourth song. Their nightly trip though short would have to extend to a weekend trip. They knew they'd have to gain special permission, but somehow they didn't think they'd be rejected at that point. The staff knew only too well that their fate as well as the fate of the whole world rested on the seven teenager's mission. They all knew that in the final battle, they would only be the supporters for them and not the protectors. The battle was imminent and the future was at stake.
Being related to the current headmaster of Hogwarts did have its perks at times. They'd talk to him about the trips to Fincayra during weekends and Dumbledore had compromised for them to take the trips only on Sundays when their absence won't be noticed too much. They'd devised a plan to have some type of special type of club that only the seven would pass. They thought of an advanced dueling club where the only way to be accepted was to somehow pass the test to be given by Professor Lupin and Professor Snape. The thought of passing through Lupin and Snape was enough to ward off over half of the interested parties.
The handful of students that decided to try out was mostly sixth and seventh year. Of course they'd have to take into account that some of them may pass the tests and will have to be broken off into two groups that will supposedly train separately and have a match at the end of the term. Dumbledore didn't want to discourage the students and didn't want to dampen any hopes of someone bettering themselves by just simply rejecting them because he only wanted the seven to pass the test. The students who passed were Susan, Ernie, Pansy and a few more Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor. Dean, Seamus and a few in Ginny's year also made it in.
They'd split the students in three groups of seven. The gang naturally went together, the other fourteen were split between Remus and Snape. The others were informed that Professor McGonagall would take them. They saw smirks in their classmates' faces as the name of their dueling trainer, but didn't let it bother them. They knew they'd had to duel with them to fulfill Dumbledore's requirement of the dueling club finals. They couldn't wait to wipe the smirks off of their faces.
Harry and Hermione discussed the plans in the confines of their room after the end of the day. They'd met with the others and talked about their schedules and when it was feasible for them to meet on Sundays. Professor McGonagall had to make herself scarce on those days, but was not worried because then it gave she and Dumbledore some alone time where they didn't have to make an excuse to be together.
"So, do you think we can make this work?" Harry asked Hermione.
"What is that? The schedule or our marriage," she joked and earned a little nip on the neck, which wasn't a punishment at all on her part.
"You're in a frisky mood tonight, aren't you?"
"I have no comment," she smiled a brilliant smile that had many sensual promises looming behind it. Harry smiled back and gathered her close in his arms.
It was times such as those that made the risk of telling her how he felt truly worth it. He loved the feeling of her next to him, waking up next to her in the mornings and just having her to talk about his feelings and his concerns were all pluses. Of course, they'd talk to each other about their days and then make passionate love and drift off to sleep in each other's arms, they almost seem like a normal couple.
It seemed to Harry though that he hadn't really been getting much sleep as of late. But, he didn't feel tired at all. He would wake up a couple of hours after he and Hermione would drift off to sleep. He'd astral project himself to Fincayra for training with Merlin. His astral projection had improved so much with the power of leaping that he was able to be with Hermione while he trained at nights. When training was over, he'd practiced his second sight by searching the halls of Hogwarts and the perimeter of the school for any danger that may be lurking in the dark. In order to keep himself from waking Hermione up for another bout of lovemaking, he'd leap into her dreams and make their fantasies come true in her dreams.
In the morning Hermione would wake up with a giant smile on her face and Harry would kiss her then would ask her if she had a nice dream.
"You know bloody well, I did," she'd answer him and kiss him back. "Thanks," she'd tell him. "You know we can always do those things physically as well."
"Didn't want to wake you."
"Well, I'm awake now. Care to try again?"
"Thought you'd never ask."
They would relive what they did in the dream and get up full of energy for the rest of the day. Hermione had a feeling that Harry wasn't sleeping much but it didn't show. He looked rejuvenated every morning and had no physical signs to tell the world he wasn't sleeping well. Then it dawned on him that his healing abilities were becoming powerful enough to heal Harry's body of any type of ailment almost immediately. She discussed it with him and he only smiled and kissed her.
"Does this mean that you'd be immortal?" she asked.
"No, but I will live a long and healthy life as your husband." I hope he wanted to add, but didn't want to dampen the mood.
"Oh, and when I'm going to be old and gray, and you're still as young and lively as ever, are you going to trade me in?"
"Not on your life. Face it. You're stuck with me forever."
"Just the way I want it to be." She sighed and leaned back into him. She had faith in Harry's ability to defeat Voldemort, but there were other factors around them that they would not be able to control and for that she was scared.
A/N: As someone pointed out, it's been a month since I updated this fic. I apologize. I updated my other fic and holidays and lots of other responsibilities in life. Thanks for keeping up with the story though. I hope you liked the powers I gave Harry. Someone suggested a chameleon, but oh well. You did make my think about it a lot. That was probably one thing that was keeping me from moving on so quickly with this. I was having a battle with what type of power Harry would have. Anyway, thanks for your reviews.
I haven't seen the Azkaban movie yet because I just didn't want to deal with the long lines and the sold out shows. I am waiting a bit for the crowd to die down a bit (which is really hard for me, but I deal with it by writing the fic and reading all the stories about it) Opening was the highest of the three movies at 92.65 million dollars. You go gang!