The Unicorn Rider

This is where the edge of darkness begins

Follow light and spilled moon-fire into bright eyes,

Crimson glows a courage wont to bear.

Through ice and midnight weaves a troubled time,

The champions of light cannot despair.

The warriors instilled with strength,

Will fight beside the one who lives,

And only by the measure of their love

Will this dark stain be cleansed and light'd.

****

Chapter 1: Take a Ride Alongside Darkness

A white and crimson flash wove its way through dark shadows. Tall, black trees stretched as far as Ginny could see, and fog rolled along with brambles and leaves to obscure the view of the unwary prey.

It's a good thing we aren't prey, then, isn't it? said Sephona with a noise that Ginny translated as a chuckle.

"Can you see beyond the fog?" Ginny leaned down and whispered into Sephona's ear. She was hanging onto a glorious silver mane that tickled across her arms when they sped up.

Of course, Sephona snorted, I've told you before. I see magic and energy rather than boring solids that obstruct sight. To prove her point, Sephona wove between the trees, sped up, and took a long leap across a dark creature's nest.

Ginny held on tight, and closed her eyes to feel the gust of wind dance across her body and thread through her long fiery hair.

"You're going to get us killed one of these days," Ginny said under her breath. Secretly, though, she loved being able to take risks like this, it reminded her of flying, only this was a hundred times better. Flying through the forest on the back of one of the most mystical and illusive creatures, a unicorn.

Sephona was large and sleek, with white hair that gleamed like moonlight, and a long silvery mane. When Sephona had saved her that night in the forest, Ginny had been eternally grateful. Instead of just taking her back to the edge of the forest, the unicorn had whispered into her mind.

Ginny hadn't been able to stop dreaming about the unicorn, and what she had said. She had gone through the school-day in a daze, fluttering from class to class, and daydreaming. Soon enough, Ginny had found herself at the edge of the forest, waiting for the unicorn. After that first ride, Ginny knew she had found something special.

Sephona was a true friend, unlike anyone else. Sure, she could talk to Hermione, or other girls in her year, but she wasn't very close to any of them. Every other night, Ginny snuck out into the forbidden forest and rode with Sephona. She told Sephona of her dreams, her fears, and happenings in the wizarding world.

They stopped at the edge of the unicorn grove. It was a safe clearing within the forest, a place dark creatures generally avoided. Ginny leapt off of Sephona's back and onto the soft, blue grass.

Sephona took a drink out of a nearby stream, and then settled down to talk with Ginny. It was hard for Ginny to talk while riding, as she had to talk out loud, unlike Sephona, who used images and words to transfer meanings into Ginny's mind.

How fares the war? Sephona asked.

"Azkaban is in ruins." The news had come during the first week of school; any Death Eaters that had been caught during the summer had escaped.

Completely?

"There weren't enough Aurors to keep all the prisoners there after the Dementors left."

Then the battles shall break out soon. Voldemort and his army against the champions of the light.

"Champions of the light?"

You didn't think I chose you just to gallop across the forest, did you? I chose you, Virginia, because I want to fight for the light, to revenge those unicorns that Voldemort had slain and drank of.

"No ones going to let me fight! I'm only fifteen."

You won't be fighting any battles yet, but don't be so sure you won't at all. I'm afraid you'll see...

"Please don't tell the future."

Very well, we must start our training, anyway.

"Training?"

Sephona got up and shook herself out before offering her neck to Ginny. Ginny threaded her hands through the soft hair and swung onto Sephona's back. Sephona immediately leapt away, and they were off.

Thus began a month of vigorous training, in which Ginny used her wand to stun, bind, and disarm dark creatures of the forest. Never kill when you can avoid it, was one of the many pieces of advice Sephona gave her young rider.

Ginny spend her free time during the day either sleeping or holed up in the library. She researched hexes and jinxes, and then convinced Harry to start up the D.A. again, so she could get in some more practice, even though, for once, they had a competent D.A.D.A.s teacher.

"We still need to keep practicing, more so than what we do in Defense Against the Dark Arts, if you know.... we're going to be prepared." Ginny had found Harry in the library, in the section that she was slowing working her way through, Defense Against the Dark Arts. He held a book awkwardly in his hands, his robes looked slightly rumpled, and his hair was messier than ever.

"Er, yeah. Hermione and I have been talking about it," Harry said, looking away. Suddenly, Ginny noticed that his oddness was reminding her of herself. The distant eyes that wouldn't quite meet hers....

She didn't ask him if he was okay. He probably got more than enough of that. Ginny remembered the summer after her first year, everyone always asking her how she was doing, if she wanted to talk with them, and on and on when all she wanted to do was hole up in her room and cry. Instead of asking of he was okay, she just smiled and said, "I'm looking forward to it."

Green eyes (were they darker than before?) looked up and met hers.

She didn't hold onto any fantasies. And even though Ginny knew that Harry didn't like her that way, she couldn't help but feel...something when she looked at him.

Harry gave a forced half-smile and continued on his way.... wherever that was.

****

They wanted her to play Quidditch. They wanted to know why she looked so tired. They wanted to know why she never talked to them anymore.

Ginny wanted to scream at them: "How can you think about Quidditch, and boys and school when there is a war going on?!"

Screaming never helps though, so she didn't. Instead, she put all of her frustration and energy into her training. At night, she and Sephona patrolled the perimeter of the dark forest, looking for spies who might be trying to enter Hogwarts, or any manner of dark creature. When she was riding Sephona, Ginny felt free, and what's more, like she was helping; she was actually doing something for the Light side, when the time came....

It's on the verge of war that everything becomes, if not clear, simpler and more complicated all at once, because you can see and taste the levels of complexity, the driving reasons being everything that powers what we feel.

That night, Ginny saw the camp of Death Eaters where the forest spilled onto the edge of Hogsmeade. Silent dark figures gathered in the shadows, and Ginny shivered. Dark energies spilled out and flooded the moonlight with blackness.

Ginny whispered a word to Sephona, and they were off to warn the light; it was time for the sun to rise.

The first real battle was about to begin.