The Fabled Ones: Blithe

THE FABLED ONES: Blithe

Chapter 1: Beginnings

I could hear someone talking to me. It was like it was coming to me from the other end of a tunnel. Pain raced through my body. In some way I could feel my heart beat in the pounding rhythm behind my eyes. I could feel something warm and wet on my fingers where they rested on my side. I started to make out what was being said to me.

"Blithe...come on honey you need to open your eyes....dammit get me that potion before she dies on us!!!" It was Simon and he sounded really , really angry about something. "If you can hear me Blithe open your mouth......give me that potion....open up Blithe." I fought through the pain, slowly opening my mouth. "That's my girl." Something nasty tasting slid over my tongue and down my throat. Whatever it was the pain started to ease some. I opened my eyes, and smiled up at the face of my very best friend. Simon's eyes were worried. I licked my lips, they were very dry, and I could taste blood.

"Weasley...,"I managed to croak out past my cracked lips,"...can't keep me down...Potter's don't quite." I raised my hand to brush a piece of hair from my eyes. There was something red on my hand. It was blood, my blood.

"Simon......I...I'm bleeding?" I'm not fond of blood, especially mine, so the fact that I was bleeding made me panic some, "Simon I don't like blood." I laughed a slightly crazy giggle and then promptly fainted.

I should go back though, I should start at the beginning. You need to know who I ....no not who, what I am. My name is Blithe Potter. I am the great, great granddaughter of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, and his wife Hermoine Granger. I've seen portraits of them, and I look like Harry, only my black hair is bushy and uncontrollable much like Hermoine's hair. I have the Potter eyes, every Potter born since Harry has had emerald green eyes. A Potter without green eyes would be as odd as a Weasley without red hair.

My best friend is a Weasley. Simon Ronald Weasley, he looks exactly like his ancestor. Ron Wesley's portrait hangs on the wall near the Headmasters office in Hogwarts, right next to one of Harry and Hermoine together. His wife is in the picture as well, her name was Luna Lovegood. When Simon and I first came to Hogwarts we used to sneak down to the hallway and stare at the pictures. And the first time that Simon stepped up to it, the portrait Ron said, "Oi! You've got to be one of mine...look Luna, another Weasley." The portrait Luna looked at Simon with a dreamy look on her face.

"Why yes Ronald," she smiled at Ron over her shoulder, "he does look very much like you." Portrait Ron looked at us with his one good eye (the story goes that he lost the other one while saving Luna's life during the Final Battle, it's a very romantic story). There was a sparkle in that eye that suggested that he knew more then he was letting on. "Hope you're not to much like Fred and George, but well, you are a Weasley. Do us proud mate."

I was born in Godric's Hollow, and raised in a house built by Harry to replace the one that Voldemort destroyed when he killed Harry's parents. I had good parents, Aidan and Audrey. And I also had a younger brother, Brody. I was raised on stories of my ancestors. I never thought I was very special, but I did realize that I was destined for something. You see one of the stories that I was raised on was a story about Harry's Divination teacher. Harry's Professor made very few true prophecies. One was about Harry, the other is partially about me. On her deathbed Professor Trelawney said words that would effect my family, and me in particular, for generations to come. She said, "There will be four. Four of the Potter line will be called upon to fight the dark forces as their ancestor did. They shall be marked as he was." Unfortunately I was born with a very faint birthmark on my forehead. It's a lightning bolt. And when I look at a picture of Harry, I can see its mirror image in the scar on his forehead. So I was marked, I am what came to be known as a Fabled One.

I never wanted the responsibility that came with what I am. I don't imagine Harry wanted to be the savior of the Wizarding World. And I can't see how the three Fabled ones who will come after me will like the pressure much either.

I really wasn't sure what being a Fabled One meant until my 7^th year at Hogwarts. When I was growing up everyone made it seem like I would stop some icky bad thing and go on with my life. We were very naïve; nothing is ever that simple, especially when you have Potter blood in your veins.

Things seemed to be going fine. I was doing well in all my classes. I had been made a Prefect, but not Head Girl. I was Captain and Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. But then I started having nightmares, really bad nightmares. After a particularly bad dream, I often found myself sitting by the fire in the common room. I would feel cold and couldn't quite get the image of glowing red eyes from my head. The comfy red velvet chair I would sit in made me feel safe but I couldn't help but think that the safe feeling I had wouldn't last very long.

In my dream, I was being chased through the Forbiden Forest. Tree branches were catching on the sleeves of my school robes, and my shoes constantly slipped out from under me in the mud. It was very realistic in the fact that I could smell the rain in the air, and could feel the slight mist on my skin. I could hear Simon yelling for me in the background. But something told me that if I stopped to wait for him the red-eyed thing would get me. I seemed to run forever, and after a while I could no longer get a full breath. I began to trip up on my robes and the very trees seemed to reach out and clutch at my ankles. I ran into a clearing, almost a perfect ring of oaks surrounded me. The clearing reminded me of my Grandmother Annondale (Mum's mum) description of a fairy circle. I fell; something grabbed me from behind, lifting me into the air. Knife like claws seemed to cut me but the pain was nothing compared to what I feel when I see Simon run into the clearing. I watched helplessly as the monster turns quickly, and with one swipe of its claws slices Simon. That was usually where I jerked awake, drenched in sweat and shaking.

Halloween night was when the nightmares were the worst. I woke up from the same dream three times before I realized I wasn't going to sleep that night. So I got up, pulled my robe on over my nightgown, and made my way down the stairs to the common room. I was only there for a few minutes before I heard a noise on the stairs to the boy's dorm, and when I looked over my shoulder Simon was standing there. I figured eventually he would figure out that I was getting up almost every night. He crossed the room and sat in the chair across from me.

"You all right?" His voice was gravelly with sleep, and I could tell he was worried. I didn't want to worry him with my problems, but I knew Simon would not leave until I confided in him. You see, as long as there are problems for the Potters, there will be a Weasley there to help them.

"I've been having dreams, really bad dreams. I think they mean something is coming, but I'm not sure what. If the dreams are right it's bad, really really bad. I think my destiny is coming and it's not going to be pretty. It's going to be very ugly, and bloody." He sighed and leaned forward to rub his face in his hands.

"Are you sure?"

"Very."

"When?"

"I'm not sure. It's raining in the dream....so spring most likely."

"So we'll saaay...March? And it's," Simon glanced at his watch, "five minutes into November. So we have four months to figure out what's going on. We can figure this out Blithe. And it's not like I'm going to let you do this alone. I'm a Weasley. It's our job to help our Potter friends out of trouble," his face broke into a mischievous grin, "and sometimes into trouble as well." I smiled, and moved across to sit beside him in the oversized chair. I fell asleep with his arm around me. It was the first time I had slept in two months. We would get through this thing that was coming, we would survive; at least I really hoped we would.