Beyond Boundaries

Chapter Fourteen: The Chiantesh'alfh

Hermione was tired when she finally went to bed that day. She'd chattered with her parents, and she had told them about being a Pectal, but they didn't really seem to grasp it. She sighed. They were worried. Of course they now knew about the war in the Wizarding world, and when they heard she'd probably be in the front lines... It had taken her hours to get her father to understand that she had to do what she had to do, and that leaving the Wizarding world, as he suggested, wouldn't help one bit. Her mother though, seemed understanding. But then, she probably knew her daughter a bit better than her husband did. She knew that if Hermione had settled on something which she deemed important, nothing could get her to waver. She also understood the Pure-blood/mudblood concept better, as she'd grown up in South Africa, and knew a lot about racism, even though she'd seen it from the white side. So Alicia Granger just hugged her daughter fiercely, and told her to be careful. Hermione neglected to tell just how dangerous her future seemed to be.

They both agreed to the Fidelius Charm, however reluctantly. They didn't quite understand why they had to hide, until Hermione calmly told them that someone might kill them just to hurt her, as she, Hermione, was an important key in the defence. (Again she neglected to tell them one important thing; she wasn't a part of the defence, but the offence.) Then she happened to mention her tutor, who was training her in 'defence'. Alicia Granger, knowing her daughter very well, and being a very observant woman, immediately sensed that it was something about this 'Harry Potter', (There is something familiar about that name...) that her daughter hadn't told her. She questioned Hermione about him, upon which she quickly answered that he was the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts.

"Tell me about him," Alicia had prompted, and watched as her daughter blushed deeply. And then came the whole story about Harry, who she'd met in her first year at school, (Oh yes, she talked about him and another one named Ron, if I remember correctly...) and then the tale of Harry's imprisonment, escape, the Professor position he now held, and so on. Even Mr. Granger started to get suspicious by the end of her speech.

"So," Alicia said. "Is he handsome?"

"Mum!" Hermione cried, but her blush told everything, not that Mrs Granger hadn't figured the whole thing out already. Hermione had indeed spent a rather embarrassing evening in her parents' company, an evening she hopefully wouldn't experience again. It was weird how they felt that they had to repeat their ... advices with every boyfriend she had. Of course, it had been different with Victor, but then again, it had only lasted a bit less than a year. Hermione couldn't imagine breaking up with Harry. As her mother voiced it: Ahh! Young love!

~*~

Harry spent the evening going through some papers. It had been decided by Dumbledore that he'd continue as Professor Christian Atos. Dumbledore trusted his staff completely, and knew they wouldn't tell anyone about his secret identity. It was unlikely that those who had heard Harry tell Snape he was a Shapeshifter would draw the connection, other than perhaps the other professors at Hogwarts. To secure his position, Dumbledore had decided to take him, Christian, into the Order as a member. For this, they needed three Order members as witnesses. As all the Hogwarts professors knew about Harry being Christian, or would soon know, it wouldn't be hard to find witnesses who wouldn't reveal his identity. Harry would, however, need to pledge his loyalty (and real identity) under truth serum.

So Harry was again set on the boring task of preparing lessons. True, it could be fun sometimes, but being a teacher definitely wasn't something he wanted to make a living of. Besides, right now he couldn't really concentrate as his brain was churning on different matters; mainly Voldemort. He knew he ought to find out exactly what Voldemort was, because a normal wizard he was not, and neither a Citatio. If there was one thing the books which spoke of Citatios and Pectals agreed on, it was that there couldn't be more than one Citatio and one Pectal in the world at once, and they were born in each others' lifetimes. That bit of information was one of the very few things all sources agreed on. But only Citatios and Pectals could Wander, because that was a Children of Power treat. And if Voldemort wasn't a Citatio, how could he then Wander?

Harry growled in frustration and tried to concentrate on the lessons. He'd tell the students about the Vikings next week. Centuries back, there had been a group of wizards who had manipulated numerous Scandinavian Muggles into raiding other countries to gain riches for them. The Muggles didn't know that these people were wizards, and had been reluctant at first. The wizards had persuaded them with the help of spells, and it had only taken a generation or two before they'd adapted to this new way of living, and turned half of the population into blood-thirsty thieves. However, they weren't only blood-thirsty thieves, because at home, when they weren't raiding, they were in fact rather peaceful. They had an intricate society, with the King above all, then the Earls, then the Chieftains, then the farmers who owned their own land, then the farmers who rented land, and then the slaves, which were stolen from their homes during the Vikings' raids. They even had strict laws.

Harry thought this could be a nice introduction to what he planned to teach about mind spells, among them the Imperius Curse.

He sighed. He had to get some sleep before the morning came, and fortunately, he rapidly fell into a peaceful slumber. When he thought about it, he had slept well since the day Hermione healed his headache...

~*~

Hermione bolted upright in her bed. The Chiantesh'alfh! Now she remembered! 'The Era of the Chiantesh'alfh'! The book in the library! The box which she hadn't been able to open before she used her Pectal powers!

~*~

Hermione ran into Harry's bedroom with the box in her hands. "Harry!" she cried. Harry woke immediately, and jumped right out of his bed, alert, with his wand in hand.

"What?" he asked. "What's happening? Is Voldemort attacking?!"

Hermione blushed bright red and turned her back to him. "No! I just have something to show you!"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "In the middle of the night?"

"Yes!" Hermione cried. "In the middle of the night!"

"Err...Right," Harry said. "Well then, what is it?"

Hermione didn't move. She stood with her back turned towards him.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, confused.

Hermione still didn't move. "Harry, you're not decent," she said.

Harry looked down at himself. He had nothing but his boxers on. "Well," he said, trying not to blush himself. "That ought to teach you not to come barging into my bedroom in the middle of the night."

"Just get some clothes on!" Hermione cried.

Harry chuckled and quickly pulled a T-shirt and some pants on, before following Hermione out of the bedroom again.

"So," he asked. "What so important that you come rushing into my bedroom at..." he looked at his watch, "three o'clock in the morning?"

"This!" Hermione eagerly showed him the box, before explaining how she'd found it, and about the book which had been entitled 'The Era of the Chiantesh'alfh'. Harry's attention was immediately perked.

~*~

"The book just disappeared, and left a small hidden room in which you found these books?" he asked, and Hermione nodded.

"Yes, and since you have a Language gift, I thought you might be able to read them!" she said.

Harry nodded, looked at the books and frowned. "I might. It'll take some time though. It usually takes a few hours to learn a new language..." his eyes shot open. "Wait a sec! I can understand that title already!" He squinted his eyes. "Directly translated it is 'The Time Which Belongs to the Two Power Children'. Yes, that's it." He opened the book on the first page. Frowning, he tried to read the words. "As I thought," he murmured.

"What?" Hermione said, impatiently.

"It's the language the Pectals and Citatios spoke in ancient times, when there were more of us. That's why I can understand it so easily, since I'm a Citatio myself." He went back to examine the book, murmuring to himself.

"The title," he announced after a while, "will, in English be 'The Era of the Children of Power'," he said. "The book which disappeared was a clue. Half the title being English, the other half being in Citatio/Pectal language, it would trigger something in every Citatio and Pectal, even though he or she couldn't read the language, or had any Language Talent, so he or she would try to take it upon seeing it. If a non-Citatio or a non-Pectal had found the box, they would have been unable to open it."

"Yes, yes!" Hermione nodded impatiently, "but what are they about!"

Harry furrowed his brows. "This one," he said, and pointed to 'The Era of the Children of Power', "is about the People we once were." He picked up the other book, trying to decipher the title. "This one is named 'Talents'." He raised his eyebrows and whistled softly. "Valuable information in both, I would suspect. Perhaps we can even find something about Voldemort."

Hermione nodded eagerly. "Can you translate it?" she asked, however, the question ended in a large yawn. Harry followed suit, and this sent them into a laughing fit.

"Right," Harry said. "You go back to bed, and I'll have the language figured out by tomorrow." He ignored her protests and shooed her out, before he propped into a chair with both books in his lap.

That day Harry spent in his rooms, his door locked. Hermione knocked on the door once, but he refused to let her in, he just told her he was fine, and that he had to get through these books. And she had to do that Fidelius Charm, where he wasn't needed, firstly, because he didn't know the Charm (Ministry Top Secret, and of course Dumbledore knew it too), and since Hermione had decided to be Secret Keeper herself (after all, she wouldn't betray her own parents), he didn't have anything to do with it. All day, he only had a few breaks to get something to eat. He completely ignored Sirius when he came to visit, just absentmindedly told him to leave. Late Sunday evening, he knew that the Vikings wasn't what he'd teach his students about this week.

~*~

Monday morning the news had spread. The Daily Prophet's headline was: CITATIO HARRY POTTER ALIAS THE GOLDEN MASK FOUGHT DEATH EATER ATTACK! First, there was information on what a Citatio was (almost completely wrong, too) after which followed a description of the attack on the Ministry, minus the horrific details. Harry apparently was the sole hero, who had done the whole job, and almost defeated Voldemort, who, probably helped by serious Dark magic, had appeared out of nowhere. A small note on the bottom, reported that all the children who had been with their parents at the election, mysteriously had vanished, only to re-appear in Gringotts.

Harry couldn't really understand Rita Skeeter; first, it was the thing in fourth year; then it was quite a lot about him before and after his trial...err... imprisonment; and when he'd escaped, he was quite sure she'd written that his 'escape could do nothing but prove his guilt'. Now she praised him like there was no tomorrow.

Marice Newman however, had gotten in a nice, truthful article, on page two. She had also, helped by both her own contacts and Dumbledore, managed to get it printed it several smaller tabloids, as well as in a few other countries.

THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

'When He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacked the Ministry, the mysterious Order of the Phoenix was there, fighting alongside the Golden Mask, now known to be Harry Potter, who we all once thought of as a murderer and a convict. How wrong we were. Harry Potter now co-operates with The Order of the Phoenix, which is led by Albus Dumbledore. A few days ago we saw them in action, but yet, we also saw that they almost lost.

Albus Dumbledore tells the Daily Prophet that they have decided to reveal all facts which are not a danger to the members' security (which means; only the names of full-time members will be revealed) because the Wizarding world needs to know. Why does the Wizarding world need to know? "Because now, more than ever, we need to unite. People have seen how powerful He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (The Abomination's name was uttered here) is, and I do not blame them for being frightened," the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore says. "However, it is now that we must stand up and fight. If we lose the initiative, which we will do if we don't stand up against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (again, The Abomination's name was uttered), we have already lost the war. Therefore, it is important that people know who's protecting them, fighting for them."

When I asked concerning the rumours about a Pectal and Citatio at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore merely smiled. "Ahh, yes, I do indeed have the pleasure of the company of two young, talented and powerful beings."

Thus, we can confirm that there really is a Pectal and Citatio at Hogwarts. The Citatio is believed to be Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, who was wrongly imprisoned in Azkaban two and a half years ago.'

(Here followed the tale of what really had happened, as Arthur, being the new Minister, had insisted that it should be publicised. He hadn't yet met Harry, but he had gotten the facts about the Golden Mask confirmed.)

'The Pectal however, the article continued, we have no clear identity of. However, rumours say her name is Hermione Granger, a Muggle-born witch, and Head Girl at Hogwarts. She is currently in training, with the Citatio (Harry Potter), and Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Christian Atos, as her tutors.' (Yes, Harry thought to himself, when he read the paper, she has gotten the information spoon-fed.)

Not all the students at Hogwarts got the Daily Prophet or any other newspapers delivered by owl, but those who did spread the news. When Harry (Christian) entered the Great Hall, he was attacked by students, who wanted to know if Hermione really was the Pectal, and if he really was training her, together with Harry Potter! Christian sighed, as he was hungry, and wanted breakfast. The students just didn't seem to understand that. Using his Telekinesis, he levitated the students aside, so he had a clear path. They would only believe it to be wandless magic. Then, he marched up to the Staff table, where he sat down with a slight scowl.

"Can't go anywhere without drawing attention, can you Potter?" Snape spat nastily, however quietly, so no one could hear.

Harry forced a pleasant smile. "You weren't quite so nasty when you didn't know who I really was, Severus," he said, and emphasised 'Severus', before he ignored the Potions Master completely, and concentrated on looking around for Hermione. Fortunately, Hermione had the insight to keep away from the other students today, and didn't show up at breakfast.

~*~

She did show up to the lessons however, as he knew she would. She walked in five minutes before the rest of the class showed up. Christian gave her a quick, reassuring smile, and she smiled back, nervously. Christian's heart leaped slightly. He was worried about her. She didn't really know how she should handle this new 'fame'. Oh well, he thought. If -when this is over, they'll probably put the whole thing on me, and forget about her. It's a whole lot better that I'm the one in the spotlight, than she is.

The class arrived, and as soon as they spotted Hermione, they tried to get over to her, to question her. They found themselves frozen in mid-walk. A second later, they were all sitting nicely on their desks, faces turned towards Professor Atos.

Christian raised an eyebrow. "No questions will be directed from any of you, to Ms Granger during my class, or anyone else's. As my trainee, I hereby allow her to use what she possesses of knowledge and power to keep you at bay. You can however, ask me questions, as I had planned to let this lesson centre about Pectals and Citatios," he finished his speech. The class looked eagerly, almost hungrily, at him, and all of them shot Hermione a glance now and then. He hoped they wouldn't fear her for what she was. Hermione was looking at him curiously. he told her telepathically.

He then noticed that he had a few students absent. "Where are Ms Zabini and Mr Weasley?"

"Hospital wing," one of the students answered promptly. "There was some kind of accident."

Christian frowned. He'd been so busy with the books that he had totally forgotten about Blaise. He sent his magic out, and found her in the Hospital wing. He also found evidence of a Cruciatus curse and cursed silently to himself. Talking about helping his spies! What was weird was that Ron wasn't hurt at all; he just sat by her bed, as far as he could determine. Oh well, he'd figure that out later.

"So," he asked brightly. "Any questions?" All hands shot up.

~*~

Several minutes, and several questions later, Christian decided it had been enough. Most of the questions had been directed towards Hermione, and 'What can she do?' was repeated over and over again. There were also quite a lot of questions about Harry.

Christian sighed. "That's enough, put down your hands," he ordered. The class looked disappointed. "Let's take another approach. Yesterday, the Citatio presented to me two books," he said, adding a small lie. They didn't have to know everything. "One of these books is named 'The Era Of the Children Of Power'. The 'Children Of Power' are the Citatios and Pectals. This book told me very much about what happened to them, to the People Ms Granger and Mr Potter belong to." At this, his class looked confused. "Yes, indeed, once upon a time, Citatios and Pectals were a people. This story goes far back in time." His class, both Slytherins and Gryffindors, were listening eagerly. He continued. "At the time, Earth was still shaping, in fact it was about to be torn apart. If it had, Earth would now be an asteroid belt, like those we find between Mars and Jupiter, and outside Pluto."

"Earth, though she isn't really a sentient being, intelligent as we are, found a way to save herself. She created the Antesh. Antesh was a Power which helped Earth, holding her together until she herself could manage it without help. But also Antesh didn't have unlimited strength. So, using the six elements-"

"Six? There's only four!" one of the Gryffindors interrupted.

Christian glared at him, and he fell silent. "As I said before I was so rudely interrupted, he, or she, because it didn't have a specified sex, used the six elements, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Light and Dark, to reproduce. It created a Child of itself, with the strength it had left. And then, it vanished, dissolved, died, or whatever you want to call it." Christian paused, and looked at the class, who were listening intently.

"However," he continued softly, "Before this Child had outlived its time, Earth had managed to 'pull herself together', so to speak. She didn't any longer have use for the Child, and tried to pull it back. But the Child, being made of the six elements and its parent Life-force, wasn't like Earth, and neither like the Antesh.

It had intelligence, and it had a will to live, rather than just an obedient nature to serve. So instead of just going back to be absorbed by Earth, and be the world's magical core, it fled. In fact, if it hadn't been so stubborn, Muggles wouldn't have existed today. All of them would have been just as much wizard or witch as any of you," he said, looking pointedly at his class. Heh. They didn't expect that...

"So," he smiled at his shocked class, "the Child fled. However, it wasn't immortal, and couldn't live on forever, and what was worse, it weakened. Its strength diminished, and it was drawn towards Earth, which it had fled from. Do not misunderstand. It hadn't fled from Earth's surface, it just existed, refusing to listen to Earth's call. But its days came to an end, and it understood that if it created a child like the Antesh had done, and its child did the same again, its power, and also its life, would diminish and in the end disappear completely. It did the only thing it could do. It created the Citatio and the Pectal, who could reproduce without using their Power, only their desires and nature. The Power was split evenly, and the Pectal was just as powerful as the Citatio. At the time though, they called themselves Antesh's Children, after the first one. Today, 'Antesh' means 'Power' in the Children's language."

"As they reproduced and grew many, there were, naturally, variations, as some were strong, and some were less strong. The Power and Life of the Child of the Antesh though, remained."

The class stared at him. "Is this true?" one of the Slytherin asked.

Christian nodded. "It is. It was seen by Helga Hufflepuff, who had a strong Seer Talent, of the kind which Sees the past rather than the future. Much like Iset-Nofret, an Egyptian Queen had, though hers wasn't nearly as strong. The whole thing was written down by her and Godric Gryffindor, who also was a Citatio."

"What happened then?" a Gryffindor asked. "Where did they go?"

"That has been a mystery since it happened," Christian answered, "but now it isn't." The class looked questioningly at him.

"You see, in the beginning the Children remembered how they had come into being, and lived in peace. After a while however, they forgot, and they soon noticed the differences between them; the biggest one being that some were males and other females, and the females carried forth the children. A split grew, the females thinking that they just had to keep some males captured, and then they would be able to make the children they needed to keep on existing, and the males thought the same way."

"Thus, history's first war started, the Children fighting each other, Antesh's Children against Antesh's Children. However, in war, two parties can't go call themselves the same, can they?" Christian asked the rhetorical question with slight sarcasm and amusement. "So therefore, they made their own names: Citatio and Pectal. Today, in the Children's language, 'Citatio' means 'Power of a Male', while 'Pectal' means 'Power of a Female'."

Christian paused a bit, giving his class time to scribble some notes. "What they didn't know was that they were all made of the same material, mainly the Elements. When the Children started to work against each other, the Elements did the same, both inside and outside the beings." He looked around in the classroom. "Have any of you heard of Pangaea?"

At this, a few hands shot up. "Yes, Ms Brend," Christian said.

"Isn't that was Earth's landmass was called before the continents drifted apart?" she asked.

Christian nodded. "Yes indeed. It was the Element's struggles which did that, and at the same time they fought their way out of the beings they partially were in, trying to get free. And they did. New Children who were born had less control over the Elements, even though they still had full control of the Antesh's Life-force, which we today call magic. After a few hundred years this diminished too, because Earth had started to call for the Force again, and because the Children had grown weaker, they couldn't resist it."

"Years passed, and their number diminished. However, since Earth had drawn much of the Life-force from the Children, Children-like beings started to pop up. I say pop up, but it was a part of Earth's evolution, in which she used this Life-force. These beings are today called Humans."

The whole class's eyes went to Hermione. "So you say she's really an entirely different species?" one of them asked.

Christian shook his head. "No. You see, the Children, the few who were left, realised that they were about to disappear. So, they noticed that these humans reproduced much faster than they did, and they decided to mate with them, and the result became Wizards and Muggles. Some of their children were magical, which means they had a bit of the Antesh's Life-force, and some had not. It has something to do with recessive and dominant genes, just a bit more complicated, but it is the reason why there exist squibs and Muggle-borns." Hah. That'll give them something to think about, Christian thought.

"Well, then," he said pleasantly. "Any questions?" One didn't need to be a Seer to predict what question would be asked.

"Professor," Neville said. "How is it then, that...err..." he glanced at Hermione. "Hermione is a Pectal... and... erm... you said they disappeared..." he trailed off.

"Good, question, Mr Longbottom," Christian said, nodding. That was something that had gotten lost centuries ago, when the Elemental Guardians had gone into hiding.

"The next few weeks, you will do research on the Elements, and the Elemental Guardians, which has a lot to do with this. It is a pity that you're in your last year, because next year Pectal and Citatio history will probably be on the book-list. What I have given you is just a very short summary, where the main points are included." He looked around at his class, who looked rather excited. "The book the Citatio gave me included very much on Elements, since those are very much a part of the Children of Power. Your task is to find out as much as possible on the Elements and the Elemental Guardians, and then I will supply you with the rest," Christian said. This perhaps, was more History than DADA, but they had to know it all, in order to understand it. And by the way, it would get them to think, especially the ones who followed Voldemort, when they heard and understood how they all came from the same being, which was Earth, and their magic also came from the same being, which was the Antesh and Earth. And the Antesh had been 'created' by Earth.

He wished he could take every little detail with all his classes, but he didn't have the time for that. The exams were only a few months away, and even if he'd had a whole year, it wouldn't have been enough. Godric Gryffindor was good at putting much information in on a relatively little amount of parchment.

~*~

The students chattered lively when they exited his classroom, some doubtful to the whole story, others enthusiastic and eager to start researching.

Hermione had gone to Potions. Christian/Harry felt a strange desire to follow her and protect her from everything she might get from other students, but tried his best to ignore it. Hermione was capable of protecting herself. He had insisted though, that she use the Avada Kedavra shield. He didn't doubt that Voldemort could order one of his spies to openly kill her. Fortunately, she would only attend classes till she'd taken her NEWTs, which she would do before the end of the week.

He was quite positive that she'd demand a thorough explanation of everything tonight.

~*~

"Good evening, Ms Zabini, Mr Weasley," Christian greeted. He eyed Ron for a moment. Something was different in the boy.

Blaise smiled at her teacher. "Ron," she said. "Please leave. I have to speak with Professor Atos for a moment." Ron nodded silently and complied, but sent the professor a warning glance before he left.

Christian took the chair beside Blaise's bed. "I understand you were hit with a Cruciatus yesterday night," he said. "I apologise for not paying you a visit sooner, but I've been busy. You will have to borrow your classmates' notes." He raised his eyebrows at the girl. "Now tell me what happened."

"Well," Blaise began. "I was summoned like I've always been. I found it odd though, as we're never summoned so early, since it would cause suspicion if many wizards and witches were suddenly gone, closely after one of His attacks. It appears like they'd gotten suspicious, and when He is angry, like he probably is now, he likes to have someone to blame. Thus, they decided it would be nice to take a young girl, just to make an example." She smiled grimly. "It's not like they would have cared whether I was innocent of my 'crimes' or not."

"I'm sorry for putting you in that situation, Blaise," Christian said earnestly.

Blaise waved dismissively with her hand. "Nothing to be sorry about, Professor. I could never have carried the play on until I was ready to receive the mark anyway. Sooner or later I would have escaped, or something. I don't know." She smiled brightly. "But it's alright. Now I'm under the protection of the Order of the Phoenix. I won't have to go to a Death Eater meeting again."

Christian chuckled. "That's nice. I could organise it so you could take your NEWTs together with Ms Granger, since I don't doubt that some of the students who follow Voldemort won't like you as soon as the news comes out."

Blaise frowned. "Why is Granger taking her NEWTs now?"

"You'll find out soon enough, just to read the paper," Christian stated dryly. "Now, tell me, why did I find Mr Weasley in here? Did he get hurt too?" he asked, smirking.

Blaise blushed. She had never told the professor about Ron's blackmail, but she knew that he knew something anyway, even though he hadn't said much about it. She had told Ron about her co-operation with the Order of the Phoenix, and she was sure he was scheming things already. That he'd ended up in Gryffindor would always be a mystery to her. It was time though, to show her true self. She couldn't call herself a proper Slytherin if she couldn't twist a male around her little finger.

~*~

Ron had had a nice day. Okay, his plans were ruined. So what? He'd finally found someone worth his attention. It had taken him a bit of time, but he'd been thinking about his career! That could be an excuse. It explained why he'd had such problems with Parvati too, as he'd been in love with another woman all the time. Blaise was much prettier than Parvati, and she was already halfway into the Order of the Phoenix. Could work to his advantage that, too. He did feel remorse for his actions towards her, but after all, he'd been working for a noble cause; ridding the world of Voldemort. Okay, he had perhaps been a bit ambitious there, now that he'd heard about Voldemort's power and figured it was okay to leave that to the Citatio and Pectal, or, in other words, Harry and Hermione. He grinned to himself. He was a friend of the two most powerful magicians in the world, and had a beautiful girlfriend. Now he only had to find a way to promote himself. Couldn't be too hard.

Could it?

~*~

Harry asked, watching Hermione struggle alongside him in her kneazle form. After Sirius left on 'Order business', Harry had taken his place when it came to training Hermione's Animagus abilities. Since Shapeshifting was very much easier than Animagus-shifting, it was mainly McGonagall who did the work. His job was helping Hermione get used to her forms. So far she'd managed her horse form, her dragonfly form, her Abraxan, and was currently working on her kneazle form. She did seem to have something with horses though. Both the Arabian horse and the Abraxan had gone easier than the dragonfly and the kneazle.

Harry assumed they'd start on the Graphorn next. Or the dragon. Those would be the most difficult to manage, but very useful if she had to be dangerous.

First however, she had to get control over the kneazle body she was in, and override the cat's mind.

Hermione panted mentally. Harry was a white tiger. After all, they were in the Forbidden Forest, and Hermione, who was new to the kneazle form, wouldn't have big chances of defending herself.

Hermione grumbled.

Harry chuckled to himself.

Hermione said impatiently.

Harry laughed.

Hermione said.

Harry shook his head, a movement which seemed very weird on a tiger.

Harry sighed.

Hermione said, whining.

Somehow, Hermione managed to send him the telepathic equivalent for a pout and puppy eyes.

I wish she wouldn't do that! thought Harry. He who had planned to have a very nice little while in his rooms while he told her about that...in front of the fire, in one of the big chairs. He had spelled one of them, so it was big enough for two people to sit comfortably, but also small enough so the said two people had to sit close.

Oh well.

Somehow, Hermione managed to nod mentally. A very enthusiastic nod.

Hermione thought about that. Earth could draw them back to herself, but Hermione's own experiences with her elements told her it wasn't that easy. If you lost control over a task when using elemental power, it was very difficult to stop it again. It was possible to guide the uncontrolled power into something that didn't mind being harmed... and if you pulled the element Earth into earth, it wouldn't do much harm at all...

The kneazle had started to chase a small mouse it had spotted. Hermione smacked herself mentally. She did know about the Elemental Guardians! she exclaimed.

Harry laughed. He bent down and deftly picked up the kneazle with his mouth. he teased.

Hermione ignored him, but managed to get her form to stop struggling in his mouth.

Harry dropped her to the ground again, and heard an indignant from Hermione. He turned his yellow cat eyes at Hermione.

~*~

"Told you so," said a triumphant and amused voice.

Another one chuckled. "I know, I know. But that's only because it's tradition for those who have found theirs to tease the last one with that."

"Indeed, indeed. Pity I didn't bet on it."

"Oh be silent you. The matter is that we have a balance. The two of them are perfectly matched."

The first person nodded. "An exciting event, William. You understand what this means."

"Of course, Asham, of course. But now we have to tell the others."

"Spoilsport."

~*~

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