White Horses

Prologue

Fifth Year Girls' Dormitory, Gryffindor Tower, Late May 1996

"SO, EXPLAIN TO ME AGAIN just why I am here?"

Harry Potter looked askance at the girl next to him, who also happened to be one of his best friends, Hermione Granger. He was asking for clarification for what had to be the fortieth time that night. Rather than a logical explanation from Hermione though, Harry got a slightly less useful response from Parvati.

Parvati Patil was one of Hermione's house-mates and was positively quivering with excitement at the moment. "Look, I explained to you already, Lavender told us--"

"Lavender, who is currently trying to break Ginny's record of dating every guy in Gryffindor?"

Hermione and Parvati both glared at him--though probably for different reasons--before Parvati pushed on again, "Lavender told us about this old charm, which witches-"

"I am not a witch." But Harry was pointedly ignored once again.

"--which magical people have used for generations, because it is supposed to--"

"'Supposed to'? Come on, Hermione, since when would you believe in any hogwash like this bogus charm?"

At this point, Parvati gave up her explanation in favour of glaring daggers at the boy, before rolling her dark eyes and asking him nastily, "Honestly, Harry, are you consciously trying to channel Ron here, or have you finally become as dense as him after all these years together?"

But she had only given Harry more ammo, which he was not going to pass up as he asked in a bewildered voice, "And why not have Ron here? Why me, eh? Why not some other of your girlfriends?"

Parvati was the one to respond to Harry, while Hermione had developed a sudden fascination with the duvet she was lying on as soon as Ron Weasley, Harry's other best friend, had been mentioned.

"Look. The charm requires three single witch - er, 'magical people' - in order to work. And Lavender already has a guy, who she found using this charm. Ginny, as you so tactfully pointed out, is in no need of a boyfriend. We don't really associate with any of the other younger years and the upper years are all taken as well. As for Ron--" Parvati paused to glance at Hermione, who had looked up with a strangely determined expression on her face. Harry knew that look. It was lecture time.

"Harry, now you know that I don't go in for these superstitious rumours. They positively border on the trash that Trelawney dishes out. I am participating for the sake of scholarship." Hermione paused--ignoring Parvati's indignant spluttering over the insult to her beloved Divinations professor--and slipped back into her familiar lecture-voice: the one which usually caused Harry and Ron to slip into a stupor for the subsequent fifteen minutes it would take her to get to the point. "There are so many supposed 'charms' like this in the magical world, which those who were raised with magic assume to have at least some truth. As Muggle-borns, we of course have no such inundation in magical lore and thus have no reason to believe there is any truth to such silly rituals. However, this is magic we're talking about. We have so many other gibberish incantations that can have effects ranging from making something levitate to giving you complete control over another person's mind, that it would be fascinating to see if there is any truth in these old wive's tales. Thus I am participating and plan to take full notes on the repercussions, if any, of performing the charm and perhaps with more study I could write a treatise on it for Flitwick. It could improve my outlook for the N.E.W.T.s."

Both Harry and Parvati looked slightly ill at this last comment, since they were still just finishing up their O.W.L.s. Harry opened his mouth to protest again, but Hermione cut him off with an evil glint in her eye. "Come on, Harry. You can't tell me you wouldn't enjoy a little company. Especially after the whole disaster with Cho."

His teeth clicked audibly as he snapped his mouth shut again. Great, just what I needed reminding of: the Cho debacle. Cho Chang was the Ravenclaw Seeker who was a year ahead of him and their brief but disastrous relationship still remained a favourite subject for entertainment around Gryffindor Tower. And in the Slytherin dungeons. And just about everywhere else in the school. With a dull flush in his cheeks, he nodded shortly--it would probably be less painful just to go along with Hermione anyhow. Hadn't they all seen what happened when they tried to stand up to her in the past, like with S.P.E.W.? Yes, definitely better to just play along.

Hermione looked pleased as she checked the procedure with Parvati one last time, "So we get together three single 'magical people' with the same name, correct? Who then sit around a table together and everyone says 'white horses' simultaneously?"

Parvati nodded and then gushed excitedly, "And one of the three will find true love within a years time!"

Hermione only nodded clinically to this claim, although Harry thought she might be a bit flushed. Then again, they were sitting in front of the fire, here in the sixth year girl's dormitory, so perhaps it was just the heat.

He was just about to open his mouth to ask Hermione about the names, when she turned to him. "Yes, Harry, you want to know about the 'same name' issue." She sighed, looking at him with pity, before continuing in a slightly disapproving voice, "If you had taken any worthwhile courses, you wouldn't need to ask. For example, in Arithmancy much of what we learn is about borders and parameters in magic and how we define the elements used in our spellwork." She looked at him hopefully, but didn't seem to take much from his blank stare.

"So, that means that we can skew the focus of what we define as our names. We obviously do not all have the same first names, or even the same last names--as Lavender did when she performed this charm with her cousins last summer--but we do all share the name of Gryffindor." Harry looked like he was catching on, which was more than Hermione could say for when she had first explained it to Parvati. The other girl had been so disappointed after hearing how the charm had worked for Lavender, only to realize that she didn't have two other people with the same name to perform it with. Hermione, being of course the cleverest witch of her age, had come up with the solution of using their house identity as a name.

Harry was still rather dubious, but he had agreed to participate in this little experiment of Hermione's (before really knowing what is was, of course). He glanced rather miserably at the two attractive girls in front of him, sprawled over their beds, and mused how many of his year-mates would kill to be where Harry was now. But boys could not come up to the girl's dormitory without a girl physically taking them up and holding onto them the entire way, or the stairs would turn into a smooth chute that would eject the offending boys quite speedily, accompanied by a shreeking alarm. He'd had Hermione hold his hand all the way until he'd sat down where he currently was in front of the fire, just to be safe, and hadn't moved since.

With both Hermione and Parvati looking at him so expectantly, he finally agreed reluctantly. Holding his hands out to Hermione, he muttered resentfully, "Fine, all right--let's try it then." He was nearly jerked off his feet though, as both Parvati and Hermione grabbed his hands eagerly to drag him over to the table. Even Parvati had seemed to forget how she had been teasing him earlier about wanting Hermione to hold his hand the entire way. They settled at the table, each girl holding one of his hands and then joining their free hands as well. Hermione looked at the two of them rather magisterially and clarified one last time. "Alright, just focus on our unity as Gryffindors. And on the count of three..."

Parvati's grip tightened slickly on Harry's hand, which was feeling rather sweaty at the moment.

"One."

Hermione nodded in time with her counting, and the other's joined her for,

"Two."

Harry felt a peculiar tingling sensation down his spine, but wasn't sure if it was magic or just dread.

"Three."

He didn't have time to guess which.

"White horses."