The Bond of the Links

Chapter 9

I really need to ask Madam Pomfrey to check my ears.

'S-sorry?' he stammered.

'She's your sister. Adopted, actually, but your sister nevertheless,' Dumbledore said, looking at him kindly over the rims of his half moon glasses.

Harry was stunned. Was this some kind of sick joke? Not that he disliked Shalimar, but this was- well, he didn't know what it was. He shook his head in disbelief.

'But how can she- I mean how come I never met her before?' he asked. Looking around, he saw that Hermione had clapped a hand to her mouth and Ginny was looking on in disbelief. Ron was looking stunned.

'It all starts when your parents found out that Voldemort was after them. Shalimar was adopted a few months before your first birthday. As soon as Sirius became their Secret Keeper, she was handed over to him. Because she is a Link.'

Harry was extremely confused. What was a Link? Dumbledore answered his unasked question.

'Links have existed for centuries. They have special powers that can be used defeat any kind of Dark Magic. If Links are Animagi as well, their human forms will have that particular animal's attributes. There is always a pair of Links. When Shalimar was adopted, your parents knew that she was a Link. A bond is created between the Link and his or her sibling. As one person, the Link has a lot of power; as a pair they are almost invincible. So, if the Link is an only child, the power is less, though useful.

'When Sirius was made Secret Keeper, Shalimar was given over secretly. Even Remus and Pettigrew did not know about her whereabouts, for safety reasons. When Sirius was in Azkaban, she grew up with his cousin. Why do you think we introduced her as Shalimar, without a last name? Voldemort knows about the Links, since Pettigrew does know that Shalimar was adopted. He just doesn't know whether Shalimar is alive or not. If word had got out that she was a Potter, you would be harmed first. Once you were reunited, you got the powers, Harry. You only didn't know how to use them. I hope you understand,' Dumbledore spoke softly.

'Harry, please. We should have told you about his before, but since I was on the run, and Voldemort only came back last year, we couldn't. Try to understand,' Sirius said pleadingly.

Harry looked up, anger written on his face. Ron, Hermione and Ginny were hovering uncertainly, not knowing what to say. Shalimar was looking at the floor guiltily. Harry recognized the feeling and felt sorry for her. He couldn't imagine how it must feel, not knowing your real parents or the parents she had come to accept as real family. He felt twice as bad for being so hard on her.

Forcing a smile, Harry reached over and held her hand. She jerked her head up, facing him. Slowly, her face relaxed into a smile. Sirius let out his breath.

'Hey, I'm sorry for being so stubborn, all right? I guess I just hated being kept in the dark' he said, keeping his voice neutral. Shalimar gave a relieved laugh and pulled him into a hug. Hermione's eyes looked suspiciously bright. Dumbledore was being his usual self, eyes twinkling under his glasses.

'Harry, you'll have to have your physical training. Shalimar will teach you how to control your powers. Your Animagus attributes are quite under control, but some have not been displayed yet. Shalimar tells me that you could control your Empathic powers on the first try. That's good. Your magical capabilities have increased; that's quite evident. The only thing you haven't touched on at all is Wandless magic. You have a couple of days before term starts. We'll take this chance to train you without other students around,' Sirius told him.

Harry only nodded. In truth, he was angry and hurt for being kept in the dark, but he knew too well what Shalimar must have been feeling to say anything. Turning to Dumbledore, he asked, 'Will you be letting the school know about this? It won't really be easy, keeping this a secret.'

'As soon as you get your powers under control, we'll tell them. Voldemort has been keeping quiet lately. I think his first priorities are to get the giants and Dementors on his side. He won't fail to act as soon as he hears about you two,' Dumbledore countered.

Dumbledore turned to the other three, who were still looking surprised at this unexpected event. 'As for you three, I called you here to witness this, because I wanted you to hear the whole story. You will help Harry, I have no doubt. We want you to join him in his physical training. Being his closest friends, you are in danger. All right, now off to bed, all of you!'

On their way back to the common room, Shalimar and Harry walked slightly behind the others.

'Thanks, Shalimar,' Harry said suddenly.

'For what?'

'For being with me. For everything. I said that day that you understood me more than others did. Now I know why. You are my sister. Not adopted, no. My real sister.'

Shalimar smiled again. Harry looked at her grinning face and couldn't resist smiling too.

'You know what? You should tell Hermione that you like her. She likes you too you know,' she said.

'What? Oh! How do you know?' Harry said, taken aback by this unexpected statement.

'Today, she came for a walk with me because you were distracting her while reading.'

'I wasn't even talking!'

'You were sitting there, weren't you?' Shalimar said teasingly. He went red. Fortunately, they had reached the portrait hole. The group climbed in. Fred and George were sitting there.

'Where were you guys?' Fred exclaimed, holding something that looked suspiciously like a Croak Cookie.

Shalimar nodded at Harry, whispering that the rest of the Weasleys would know sooner or later.

By the time Harry had finished telling the twins about it, their mouths had given in to gravity. To add to his amusement, Shalimar transformed and circled both of them, looking like she was going to hunt them.

'Here kitty, kitty. Go away. Don't hurt us. Shoo!' George said, sending Harry into fits of laughter. The cheetah looked like it was laughing too, and a second later Shalimar was rolling on the floor.

The twins looked embarrassed. For once, they were the butt of a joke. Soon, everyone was yawning and they went up to bed. Lying on his four-poster, Harry couldn't sleep. He had just found out that Shalimar was his sister. He didn't know what to feel. He was angry.

Always seems that Dumbledore keeps secrets from me. Why? Why couldn't he just have told me?

Then again, he had been given time to adjust to this newcomer for this reason. For the first time that night, Harry realised that his feelings had been thought about before bringing this on him. Silently he thanked Dumbledore and Sirius before drifting off to sleep.

***

The next day, Harry woke up early and went down to the common room, expecting the room to be empty. To his surprise, he found Hermione sitting in a large armchair, staring into the fire.

'Hermione?' he said softly. She jumped at the sound of his voice.

'Harry! Don't do that!' she squealed. He grinned.

'Sorry. What're you doing here? It's early.'

'I should ask you that question.'

'I just woke up early. What about you?'

'I was thinking,' Hermione replied.

'About what?'

'About you. I mean, how everything happens to you, and you take it. I wish I were that strong. Shalimar's like you too. Strong. Confident. I wish I were that way.'

'You are. Don't ever change,' Harry said softly. Hermione stared at him as he sat down next to her.

'Hermione, if you weren't strong, you wouldn't have helped me in any way in the many years I have known you. If you weren't confident, you would never have dared to raise your hand to answer a question in Potions. Don't underestimate yourself,' he said. Even while saying that, his heart was fighting against his ribcage. He was subconsciously aware of her watching him.

'I love you Hermione,' he suddenly blurted, and jerked away from his dream-like state. Shit. Had he said that aloud?

'What? Of course you do! I mean, you are like a brother to me!' she exclaimed, her brown eyes widening as she spoke. This was so going the wrong way.

'No I mean...really- er...Ok, sorry. Forget I said that. I must have lost-'

Harry's words were cut off by the feel of her lips against his own. Suddenly, his heart wasn't hammering against his chest. It wasn't even there.

'Ahem. May I excuse the lovebirds for a while?' Ron's voice made both of them spring back. Behind a grinning Ron were Ginny and Shalimar. They, too, had delighted expressions on their faces. Harry wished Voldemort could come and finish him off there and then.

Hermione looked like she had been caught cheating in a test.

'So you two finally got together huh?' Ginny said, giggling.

'Finally?' Hermione asked. Ron rolled his eyes.

'Duh, what did you expect? Although I doubt the other Gryffindors know, we have been hoping you'd get a move on.' Hermione went, if possible, even redder.

Harry mumbled something like 'breakfast' and pulled Hermione out of the portrait hole. Ron sniggered and followed the other two out.

Throughout breakfast, Harry and Hermione were quiet until the point Sirius asked them if they felt all right. Ron kept sniggering, and Shalimar had a smile plastered on her face. Ginny's giggling fit had thankfully ended. Harry suspected that Sirius understood what was going on though, because halfway through breakfast, a look of understanding passed over his face, and he choked on toast.

McGonagall frowned at him. Harry was hoping he wouldn't comment, because he didn't want Malfoy making any comments. He didn't. Not yet anyway.

Heading towards the grounds for their training, Harry and Hermione walked hand in hand. It was all so sudden, but Harry found it quite comfortable. At least he didn't need to keep it a secret anymore. Yet, he still felt somewhat wrong.

'Congratulations, Harry,' Sirius said, coming up behind them, his eyes dancing.

'Oh shut up, Sirius. Give us some peace,' Harry retorted.

'Talking about peace, hurry up. You need to start training,' Sirius said, motioning for all of them to gather where he was standing.

'Ok, first, Harry, you need to get your powers under control. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, you will have to watch until he gets it under control. Then you can train together. First Harry, Empathic Powers. It's the easiest of the lot, besides your Animagus attributes, but we'll be doing them with physical defense. Shalimar go ahead,' he continued, motioning her to take charge.

'All right, Harry, I want you to try and read me. Try to concentrate and feel my emotions. Go on. Close your eyes first, concentrating on your aim. Then make sure you open them and look at the person you intend to read.'

Harry did so. He felt very foolish, standing there, closing his eyes. He summoned all his power and concentrated on wanting to feel Shalimar's emotions and feelings. He opened his eyes and looked straight at her. He saw a vision of her laughing; happy. At the same time, she had a cautious look on her face, as if watching her back for anything suspicious. Zapping out of his reverie, he saw her smiling.

'With this power, you will be able to pick up other's feelings and emotions, though not read their minds. Because of this, you will also be able to locate anyone. Just trying to feel their emotions can let you know where they are. It's just like a vision. Anyway, now you try to channel any feeling into me. With this, you can make anyone feel the way you choose: angry, hurt, blind, deaf; the possibilities are numerous. Go on, try to make me feel something,' Shalimar said, obviously enthused by his performance.

Harry concentrated hard. He visualized himself, lost at first. He saw himself being shown the right path by Shalimar. He intended to make her understand just how much he had helped him, although he was exaggerating it. Shalimar jerked out of her vision with a slightly stunned expression. Harry grinned and winked at her, showing her that he was not very serious.

Shalimar's face relaxed, and she nodded at him, showing that she understood. Watching this exchange, Ron let out a frustrated cry.

'Stop it you two! Either you tell us what you're "talking" to each other about, or quit it! D'you know how maddening it is to see two people having a silent conversation without even having the ability to read minds?' he burst out.

Harry and Shalimar glanced at each other and burst out laughing. They seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Hermione started giggling as well. After their laughter had subsided, Shalimar turned to Sirius. I think he's got that under control. The only thing I'm really worried about is Wandless magic,' she told him. She faced Harry.

'Well, Harry, basically you know what Wandless Magic is; the name says it all. However, the good thing about Wandless Magic is that unless it is a powerful spell, it does not require an incantation at all. Like that day, when I used that shield against Malfoy, it was powerful and I had to say an incantation. But if I wanted to levitate you like this,' she flicked a finger at Harry, who soared up into the air, 'I don't need a spell. Basically I can do whatever I want- throw you against the wall, unlock a door, whatever, without a specific spell. It's a lot like telekinesis, but with other bonuses.' Finishing her speech, she let Harry drop onto the ground. His feet found the ground, managing to stop a fall.

He practiced. And practiced. And practiced. In half an hour he could do most basic spells without his wand. Waving his hand over his hair, he changed its colour. He aimed at the grass, wanting to make it glow. It caught fire instead.

Oops. Wrong one.

Putting the fire out with an impatient flick of her wrist, Shalimar told him, 'You're progressing well. You'll need about a week to get every single thing perfect. Maybe less, at this rate. Come on. We'll stop here for today. I want to get some defense skills done.'

They walked over to the rest, who, getting tired of standing, were sitting on the ground some distance away.

'So Hermione just walked out on her. Guess she couldn't stand so many predictions of Harry dying. Trelawney was right in a way though. That Grim she saw was probably you in your Animagus form,' Ron was telling Sirius, who grinned.

Seeing them, he jumped up. 'How did it go?'

'Not too bad. I'll have to keep practicing though. We're planning to do the harder stuff tomorrow,' Harry told Sirius, who took charge at once. All of them took off their robes and got ready for their physical defense training. This time, they started with Sirius and Shalimar sparring and they used free contact.

Both were wearing chest guards and face guards, but Ginny, who was an excellent medi-witch (though not qualified), was on stand-by in case something nasty happened. She had just recently discovered her ability to Heal without using a wand. That was the main reason that Dumbledore had requested her to train along with them.

Standing in a universal fighting stance, both of them waited a second before Sirius pounced. He punched. She blocked. She side-kicked. He dodged. She slammed his leg in his face, though not hard enough to break his nose. Whirling away, he delivered a chop right into her chest. Sirius whirled again, trying to sweep his leg underneath hers, so that she would fall. She jumped higher than was humanly possible- the only other time she had done this being in front of Malfoy.

Harry was starting to understand. That was another attribute of a feline. Jumping up to or down from normally too-high places was a specialty of theirs. Looking back at the fight, he saw Shalimar give Sirius a wicked grin. Her eyes turned feral- and she jumped high again. Somersaulting in mid-air, she landed behind Sirius, blew him a kiss and kicked- sending him sprawling, face-first onto the ground.

Rubbing his back, Sirius got up and gave her a grin, indicating that he was fine. Hermione was watching with her mouth open. Harry understood what she felt. How were they supposed to do that? Although they had covered this in DADA, it was pretty intimidating, watching someone else fight.

Sirius and Shalimar paired them up. Harry went with Hermione, and the two Weasleys went together. Putting on their guards, the partners faced each other. None of them noticed a pair of grey eyes watching them from one of the lower floors of the castle.