The Mystimorph Chronicles

Ginny shifted under her red and gold Gryffindor sheets, trying to fall asleep, but to no avail. She had been trying to fall asleep for an hour now, and for some reason she just couldn't. She wanted to get a good night's sleep, as tomorrow was the first day of classes, but something was keeping her up.

She opened her brown eyes to the view of her bed's canopy, which was decorated with a complicated pattern of painted green vines. Ginny sat up in her bed and pushed aside the curtains quietly, making sure that all of her roommates were asleep. After seeing that they were, Ginny stood up and walked over to the only window in the room, where a light autumn breeze was gently blowing.

Leaning against the cold stone, she looked out onto the beauty that was Hogwarts's campus, letting the cool breeze blow her hair slightly. The grass was swaying in the wind, giving Ginny the illusion of a dark green sea flowing hundreds of feet beneath her. She could see the lake to her far right, waves ebbing onto the shore. Ginny turned her head to her left, smiling to herself at the sight of Hagrid's cozy hut and his garden full of various vegetables and fruit.

Beyond Hagrid's hut, Ginny could see the seemingly endless Forbidden Forest. The sight of it usually scared Ginny, as she had always heard horrible stories about the goings on inside of it, but this time it was different. The forest seemed to be calling out to her somehow; she couldn't take her eyes off of it. Ginny felt she had to get into there somehow... But how? There was no way she could sneak out of the castle and into the Forbidden Forest without being caught.

Suddenly a rattling reached Ginny's ears, and she turned around to see if it was one of her roommates. "Did I wake one of you up?" she whispered tentatively. In response, she heard the rattling again, and this time she realized it was coming from her side of the room. Cursing herself for leaving her wand inside her trunk, Ginny slowly walked over to her bed to see what was making the noise, arms raised to defend herself if necessary. When she reached her bed, she heard the rattling again, but this time she knew where it was coming from. Her trunk was shaking, and a strange red light began to shine from within it! That's the same red color of my amulet... she realized. I knew I shouldn't have brought it to Hogwarts with me...

Ginny unlocked her trunk to take out the amulet, hoping that the sudden brightness in the room hadn't woken up anyone. Reaching into the chest, Ginny moved her school books aside to reveal the amulet, which she grabbed. Once in Ginny's hands, the amulet ceased to glow red and sat still in the dark. After making sure that her trunk was safely locked once more, Ginny walked back over to the window. Was her amulet trying to tell her something? Is that why she felt she had to go into the forest?

As if in answer to her questions, Ginny's amulet began to vibrate and glisten again. The amulet! I can use it to become a phoenix and see why it wants me to head into the Forbidden Forest... Ginny placed the necklace around her neck, earlier promises of never putting it on erased from her mind.

Ginny squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the odd feelings of transformation to overcome her. When nothing happened, she remembered the paper that was attached to the chain. Her fingers searched the necklace to find the slip of paper, and when she found the object of her search, Ginny tore it off and read the words out loud. "Mutatio Phoenix." Immediately Ginny felt the strange sensations move down her body as she took the shape of a phoenix, but this time the transformation only took a few seconds. Once the transformation was complete, she took flight out the window, heading towards the Forbidden Forest.

--

Draco lay in his bed inside the seventh year Slytherin dorm room, impatiently waiting to hear the rhythmic snores of his fellow roommates that would confirm their heavy slumber. Once his roommates fell asleep, Draco would be able to do what he'd been waiting to do for three months.

When Draco could finally hear his fellow Slytherins' snores, he quietly snuck out of his bed and moved next to his expensive, one-of-a-kind trunk. After unlocking the priceless trunk, he hunted for the silky surface of his invisibility cloak. He had received the invisibility cloak on his sixteenth birthday from his father, and it was his second most prized possession.

Once his trunk was locked and safe once more, Draco moved in front of his mirror to check that his earring was securely in. Finding that it was, Draco stared into his reflection, relishing his devilishly handsome appearance. His curved lips were a pale pink color, and his eyes were shadowed in a satisfyingly sinister way. His eyebrows were a dark brown color, clashing with his silver-blonde hair. Moving his eyes back to the earring, Draco began to finger it gently. The earring had a green emerald set in it, and he had also received it on his sixteenth birthday, but not from Lucius. It had all started on that day...

Draco sat inside his room at the Malfoy Mansion, bored to death. It was August 22^nd, his sixteenth birthday, and no one seemed to care, not even Draco. It was just another day, full of boredom inside the enormous mansion. With all the wealth of the Malfoys, people imagined that there were a million different things to do when boredom overtook the family, but it was exactly the opposite. Rarely did Lucius ever spend his money on fun things to do; instead, he spent most of it on items related to the Dark Arts, which Draco had had no interest in for years.

The only exciting thing to do at the Malfoy Mansion was play Quidditch in the state-of-the-art stadium on the property. Lucius never used it himself, but he had had it built when Draco was born. Draco had always assumed it had been a gift to him, because he was the only one in the house who seemed to use it, but he eventually realized that Lucius only had it built so that he could brag about it to his friends. It definitely was something to be bragged about. It was one of the only Quidditch stadiums in the world that was built inside, and it was twice as big as the stadium at Hogwarts, probably due to the fact that there was no need to include stands around it. The ceiling was enchanted to look like the sky outside, just like the ceiling of the Great Hall. The ceiling also seemed endlessly high up; Draco had never been able to reach the very top. There was no floor built, only real grass that was kept watered every day by house elves so that even in winter it would stay fresh and green. It was the only thing about the Malfoy Mansion that Draco liked.

After another few minutes of racking his brain for something to spend his time on, Draco just decided on playing Quidditch. It was the same ritual every day: wake up, eat breakfast (alone), try to think of anything to do besides Quidditch, then finally give up and play Quidditch. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy playing Quidditch, but playing it every day for the three months of his summer vacation grew somewhat tired. All of the practice made him get continuously better at Quidditch, however, though he was still unable to beat that blasted Potter.

After walking across the large backyard to get to the Quidditch building, Draco opened the large wooden doors and stepped into the completely empty stadium. Leaning against the wall to his right was his Firebolt, the broom he had convinced his father to buy at the beginning of the summer. It was just his luck, however, because days after he'd received the Firebolt, a new broom replaced it as the best broom out there--the SonicSpeed. Draco only hoped that Potter hadn't somehow found a way to get his hands on one by the beginning of the school year.

Draco decided that he would start off by practicing with the Snitch first, so he set it free, then mounted his broom and took off. Testing out a new strategy of his, Draco flew hundreds of feet up into the air and moved to the far end of the stadium, past the goals and close to the wall. This way, he could get an overall view of the entire stadium rather than just the section that he was facing, but he had to make sure his eyes could still catch a glint of gold at the other end of the stadium.

After waiting patiently for about five minutes, concentrating on the entire pitch, his eyes caught a flash of something high above the goalposts that he was that he was closest to. Flying off in the direction where he'd seen the flash, Draco kept an eye out for the Snitch, but it had seemingly gotten away. He stopped at where he'd seen it and hovered there for another minute or so, watching for another glimpse of the speedy ball.

Suddenly, his eyes flew to his right as the Snitch soared across his shoulder and ahead of him. Taking flight once more, Draco focused on the Snitch and raced after it, getting inches closer by the second. When the tip of his broom was just feet behind the Snitch, Draco reached his arm out and leaned forward, but his hand was still an inch or two from the ball. Before Draco could maneuver himself to grab it, the Snitch pulled off a 90-degree turn up into the sky, but the turn slowed it down, giving Draco the chance to reach up and capture it in his fist.

With a triumphant smirk on his face, Draco took note that his strategy had worked, at least this time. He'd even set a personal record for fastest time to catch the Snitch--seven minutes. He'd be sure to use the same strategy again in a few minutes when he set the Snitch free again.

As he began his descent back down to the grass of the pitch, Draco felt a strange tingling on his arm. Confused, Draco stopped and looked down, but saw nothing. Assuming it was enchanted wind from the ceiling, he continued to float downward. Again, Draco felt the tingling on his arm, but when he looked down this time, he saw silver scales emerging! Shocked, his hands loosened their grip on the broom and Snitch, causing Draco to slide sideways and the Snitch to fly free. When Draco tried to steady himself, he began to feel the tingling across his whole body, throwing his mind off of what he was doing and causing him to fall downward fifty feet onto the ground. When his body made contact with the earth, Draco fell unconscious, unknowing of the transformation that was befalling him while he was knocked out.

Minutes later, Draco awoke quickly, lifting his throbbing head to rub it. However, his head was misshapen and much heavier than usual! Not surprised, Draco took a look at himself, revealing a large, silver dragon with large wings. His scales were a white-silver metallic color that covered every part of his body except for his underside. He had a long tail that had several white horns on top that were each half a foot long and sharp enough to stab any animal that dared upset him. Glancing downward, Draco saw his clawed feet and scale-less white belly. Lifting a front leg up to feel his face, Draco felt a long snout and two more horns protruding out of his forehead, though they were much shorter than his tail ones and more blunt. Altogether, Draco concluded that he was about eight meters long, not counting his tail.

Smiling to himself, Draco decided to make the best of this dream. He often had these dreams where he was a dragon, each time being a different-sized, different-colored one. He had to say that this was his favorite so far. Lifting his wings and spreading them to their fullest extent, Draco lifted himself off the ground and flew around the pitch in circles, reveling in the feeling of flying with no broom. Opening his mouth wide, he breathed fire into the air, watching in satisfaction as a bit of fire burnt a section of brick high up on the wall. After a few more circles around the pitch, Draco found that his head was beginning to throb again and he was exhausted from lifting his heavy body off the ground. Landing back down onto the grass, Draco curled himself up and immediately fell asleep.

After a few more minutes, Draco woke from his restful slumber, looking down at himself to make sure he was actually awake this time. Because the transformation only lasted a few minutes, he had gone back to human form while asleep. Once he was sure he was fully awake this time, Draco mounted his broom and flew into the air to search for the Snitch, but a large throb in his head reminded him that he had just taken a fall to the ground and was in no condition to continue playing Quidditch.

As Draco led his broom back down to the grass, his eye caught a black spot on the wall. Wasn't that where he'd burned the wall in his dream? Was he still asleep? Pinching himself, Draco found that he was in fact awake, so why was the wall burnt? Had that not been a dream...?

When Draco's head began to pound once more, he forgot his thoughts and landed down onto the ground near the door. Choosing to leave the Snitch to fly around for a while until he once again felt like catching it, Draco leaned his broom back against the wall and left the stadium, heading back towards his mansion.

After making his way through the labyrinth that was the hallways of the Malfoy Mansion, Draco walked into his room, planning to lie down until his head stopped hurting. As he walked over to his bed, however, he took notice of a thin paperback book sitting on the corner of his desk that hadn't been there earlier. Confused, Draco reached for it and looked at the cover. "Draco Lucius Malfoy," he read out loud. "Why is my name on this? Did Lucius put this in here?" he wondered. When he turned the book over to look at the back cover, a small slip of paper fell out onto the floor. Picking it up, he found that it was wrapped around something else, but before he could open it, he heard his door open. Quickly slipping the mysterious object into his pocket, Draco spun around to see that it was Lucius standing in his doorway.

"I assumed the Firebolt would be good enough to satisfy your mother as a birthday gift, but she insists that I give you another present today. Be grateful. Here," he spat, throwing an invisibility cloak at Draco. He glared, adding, "You know what will happen to you if you dare use it to sneak around any of my private property."

Draco lunged for the cloak with wide eyes, needing to touch it to confirm its realness. Doing so, however, caused him to drop the strange book onto the floor.

Eyeing the book, Lucius swiftly walked towards it and picked it up a half second before Draco realized what he was doing. "What is this?" Lucius asked with a raised eyebrow.

Realizing that it must not have been from Lucius after all, Draco wanted to get it back from him. "Who cares? It's quite obviously mine, and I would appreciate it if you would give it back to me," Draco replied coolly, not wanting his father to read whatever might be in the book.

"1001 Types of Muggle Carpets?" Lucius read. "What sort of garbage is this?" Shocked, Draco leaned over to see if the cover had somehow changed, but he still read his name on it. What was Lucius trying to pull? "I know exactly what to do with this," Lucius declared, tossing the book into the fire.

"No!" Draco yelled, watching as the book immediately burnt into ashes. Now he'd never know what was in the mysterious book! Turning back to Lucius with a glare, Draco was about to let out his anger at his excuse for a father when Lucius slapped him across the face.

"Maybe you'll think twice next time you want to buy something muggle related," Lucius scolded, leaving the room with his cloak swishing behind him before Draco could utter another word.

Glaring at the door that Lucius had just slammed closed, Draco rubbed his sore cheek with his hand. Taking another look at his new invisibility cloak, he tossed it onto his bed carelessly and stared into his fireplace in hopes that a bit of paper had somehow remained intact.

Then, remembering the slip of paper that might hold a clue to the book, Draco reached into his pocket and pulled it out. He unrolled the paper, revealing a single tiny earring with an emerald set in it. Taking out his dragon earring that he wore in his right ear, Draco replaced it with the emerald earring and looked down at the paper he'd unrolled. On it were the words "Mutatio Draco."

"Is this some sort of spell?" Draco wondered aloud, choosing not to say it in case it was. "Wait... These are Latin words... This strange spell must turn the person into a dragon... Wait! That's what happened to me earlier, but I didn't say a spell! That must not have been a dream! I really became a dragon!!! So what's going on...?"

Draco had never discovered what was in the book, but he eventually learned that the spell did in fact transform him into the silver dragon, but only if he said the words while wearing the earring. That earring had grown to be his most prized possession. Though he had no idea what exactly was happening whenever he used it, Draco loved the power he felt as a dragon. His dragon instincts always told him that he could overpower any creature if it bothered him, and he loved the fact that this was mostly true. As long as Draco didn't let himself get caught in dragon form, he figured he could continue to transform any time he felt like doing so.

This fear of being caught was the reason that Draco hadn't transformed for the rest of that summer. If a house elf or, even worse, a family member wandered into the Quidditch stadium while Draco was in transformation, then he feared what would happen to him. Lucius would probably use Veritaserum on him to find out what was going on, and then he would take the earring from Draco, possibly to use for himself. Draco didn't want that to happen.

So he tried out the spell on the first night of his sixth year at Hogwarts. Using his precious invisibility cloak, Draco had snuck out into the Forbidden Forest, the only place he could think of where he might be able to transform. He had remembered the night only five years earlier when he'd been terrified of the forest, but now he was five years older and braver. Plus, he figured he could turn into a dragon at any moment and kill anything that attacked him.

As if the animals of the forest could sense the dragon inside of Draco, they had all stayed clear of him as he wandered through the night. Carrying his invisibility cloak in one hand, Draco had searched the forest for an area large enough where he could test his theories.

At one point, Draco had hit a very dense portion of trees that almost deterred him from continuing. However, after a minute or two of walking through the thick wood, Draco had stepped out into a clearing that was almost as big as his Quidditch Stadium at home. Draco spent almost every night after that in the clearing, just relaxing in dragon form.

Tonight, Draco was enthusiastic about the transformation, as he hadn't undergone it all summer for the same reason he hadn't the summer before. Quickly pulling his invisibility cloak over his head, Draco once again checked the mirror to make sure he was completely invisible. Draco silently and swiftly left the room and began his walk to the clearing.

As soon as Draco had made it into the clearing, he tossed the cloak onto a mound of moss under a large oak tree and spoke the words, "Mutatio Draco." In seconds his body had taken the shape of a dragon, and Draco stretched out his wings and flew around the clearing as high up as he dared to. As Draco had respect for living plants and animals, he avoided breathing fire at the trees or creatures in the forest. Instead, he'd blow fire straight up into the air, watching as it first grew larger from the oxygen, but then put itself out in the way that only dragon fire would do if it had no target.

Once Draco had grown tired of flying low to the ground and craning his neck to puff out fire into the sky, Draco settled back onto the ground and made himself comfortable. Closing his eyes, Draco was about to doze off when he heard a surprised screech that sounded like a kneazle dying. Opening one of his eyes halfway to see what had made the noise, Draco was shocked at the sight before him.

--

Flying through the trees at top speed, Ginny relied on her amulet to lead her and her phoenix instincts to keep from running into a tree. She could only hope that if anyone happened to see her flying into the forest, that they'd assume it was Fawkes. Or, if they didn't know of Fawkes's existence, that they'd tell a teacher, who would assure them that it had just been Fawkes.

When Ginny arrived at a dense mass of trees, she slowed down to avoid hitting one. Finally, she breathed fresh air once more when she found her way to a large clearing, but just as she breathed in the clean air, she let it back out in a large squawk. Her phoenix instincts kicked in, commanding her thoughts. There's a dragon here! What is a dragon doing in the forest?! There would be no sense in attacking it... I must fly away before it notices me!

Ginny's common sense overpowered her instincts once more, however, and she concluded that there couldn't be a dragon living in the forest without being detected by Dumbledore. Also, her amulet had begun to glow and she noticed that the "dragon" was wearing an emerald earring in his ear. This was no dragon; it was the other mystimorph!

What is a phoenix doing in the Forbidden Forest? Draco wondered. It didn't seem to want to attack him. Should he just leave it be and let it be on its way? It wasn't moving... He watched as the phoenix looked him over, then landed on a branch in a tree near him.

"Are you the other mystimorph?" the phoenix asked excitedly, flapping its wings expectantly.

"W-what?" Draco answered, stunned at hearing a human voice come out of the phoenix's beak, but even more stunned at the fact that he had just spoken. As he had never tried to before, he'd had no idea that he could speak in dragon form.

"I said, are you the other mystimorph?" the phoenix repeated, somewhat impatiently.

"What's a mystimorph?" Draco asked, still astounded by the feel of words on his dragon tongue. "I have no idea what you're talking about, nor do I know whom you are."

The boy's confusion and rudeness somewhat discouraged Ginny, but she was sure that this just had to be the other mystimorph. Her amulet had brought her here! Keeping her cool, Ginny replied, "Well, as I don't know who you are either, I don't think I shall tell you who I am just yet. But I know you must know what a mystimorph is! You are one!"

Draco narrowed his eyes at the phoenix. She seemed to know a lot more about the situation than he did, as she kept calling him a mystimorph or some such word. How much did she know? Draco decided to not blow this person off and simply walk away, as his Malfoy instincts told him to do, because he wanted her to tell him everything she knew. "I truly don't know what a mystimorph is, though I don't like being called a liar." Unbeknownst to Draco, Ginny blushed inwardly at his last comment, realizing that she basically had been calling this stranger a liar. "Would you be so kind as to explain to me what exactly you're talking about?"

"Well... Didn't you get a book with your name on it that explained everything to you? Inside of the book was supposed to be the transformation jewelry, and as I see yours in your ear there," Ginny pointed a wing at Draco's ear, "you must have received the book!"

Remembering the mysterious book that his father had burnt in the fire, Draco tilted his head at the girl. How much could he tell her? "Yes, I received the book and found the jewelry, but due to certain circumstances, the book was destroyed before I was able to read it."

"Oh..." Ginny muttered, taken aback. "Well, then I'll tell you what the book said." Ginny began to quote word-for-word everything that she had read inside the strange book. Ginny had read and reread the book after she'd first received it; she had found herself reading it tens of times over, possibly over a hundred, so she eventually had the entire thing memorized. As she finished reciting the book's words, Ginny added, "So here I am. My amulet led me here to meet you, and we're both going to help in the Second War."

Draco sat on the ground in silence for a few minutes, processing the many bits of information with which he had just been provided. What she had just told him explained everything--the earring and its spell, his first transformation, why Lucius had seen a different book than himself, why he'd never heard of his condition before... So this phoenix and he were the only ones of his kind this century?

Definitely the hardest part of her words to digest, however, was the prophecy. He was meant to play a large part in the Second War? Not only was this a shocking piece of information that had been revealed to him, but how could he help defeat Voldemort? His family was on Voldemort's side! Was he truly meant to fight against his family? Sure, Draco hated his father and everything he stood for, but he had been raised by this man, and fighting against him seemed unimaginable. He'd always disagreed with Lucius's inclusion in the Dark Arts, but he'd always figured he just wouldn't join him and accept the consequences. He'd never planned on joining the Light Side and fighting against Lucius...

After finally getting it all absorbed, Draco spoke quietly and deadly, "Speak for yourself."

"What?" Ginny asked. Obviously phoenixes didn't have the most acute hearing in the animal kingdom.

Speaking a bit more loudly, Draco repeated, "Speak for yourself. I don't plan to take part in any war."

Feeling braver now that she'd found the other mystimorph, Ginny reassured him. "Look, I know it sounds a bit scary, but it's obviously our future because it's been prophesized, and I think we might be able to get through all of this together if--" she was cut off in the middle of her heartfelt speech.

"Listen, I don't want to hear anything you have to say. I'm not going to let some dumb prophecy rule my future and I'm definitely not going to fight in any war with the likes of you. Now, I would appreciate it if you would leave now," Draco finished, trying to keep from completely lashing out at this innocent, naïve girl who unluckily was in the line of fire as he had grown terribly angry.

Hurt and inding herself much more dispirited than when she had first reached the clearing, Ginny exclaimed, "But I don't even know who you are!"

Giving Ginny a poisonous glare, Draco commanded in a calm, low voice. "Go...away."

Frightened at his sudden maliciousness, Ginny took flight without another word, leaving the boy to his peace. Something about that glare had flipped a switch in her mind, however... It seemed so familiar...

Shaking her head, Ginny decided to just be happy that she'd found the other mystimorph so quickly, and she started to think about the clues that she'd been given as to whom the other person was. He's touchy, and not at all keen to the idea of taking part in the Second War, that's for sure. And I know he's got to be at least my age or older...

Shooting out the forest, Ginny flew as low to the ground as possible, hoping that this would seem less obtrusive. When she had found the window to her room, she flew in silently and landed on her bed, whispering the amulet's spell and tucking the necklace back into her pajamas. She would fly to the clearing again the next night, as she was sure she would find the other mystimorph there again. For now, she just needed to sleep.

In the clearing of the forest, Draco continued to glare at the branch where the phoenix had been sitting just seconds earlier. "Mutatio Draco," he spoke, immediately turning human once more. He had too much on his mind to relax anymore that night. Harshly grabbing at his invisibility cloak, Draco made his way back through the forest, into the castle, and into his room. Lying in bed, Draco found that he couldn't sleep. Instead he lay awake for hours, contemplating everything he had learned that night and thinking about the mysterious girl and whom she could be...