Prophecy

Revelations

The common room froze as the two students fell, and then a babble rose as everyone tried to crowd around. Rose was leaning on a table, eyes closed. Her link with James was pushing a lot of what he was experiencing at her, and she was trying to block it out, but she had never tried to block James before, and she wasn't sure where to start. Emma noticed her distress and came to her. "Rose are you alright?"

"Not really. James and Tiffany just Soulbonded I think, and the twin link is pushing his thoughts at me."

Melissa Xavier was pushing through the crowd. When she reached James and Tiffany, she cast the "Perlego anima viscus" spell that told her his vitals, and then cast it again on Tiffany. "Somebody get Madame Pomfrey, and some of you help me start them to the Medwing." Melissa was issuing orders with the unthinking assurance of the Healer. When a sixth year prefect tried to say something, she rounded on him, eyes blazing. "Do you know anything about healing? Or any medical spells? Do you know what happened here? No? Then get out of my way."

Prefect Moore pulled the other prefect away. "She seems to have this under control. Go get Madame Pomfrey." The prefect disappeared through the door of the common room.

Melissa cast the "Corporis Tabula" spell, and the unconscious students were lifted into the air, and hovered there. "You, take James, and you take Tiffany. Do not bump into anything with them." That last comment was reinforced with a glare that would have done credit to an angry Griffon. Emma was already helping a disoriented Rose out the door, and Melissa and the two students she had chosen to guide the pair followed. Close behind them were the rest of the first year students from Gryffindor, including Adam Brooks.

In the Medwing, Madame Pomfrey and Ginny Potter met them, and the two were soon in bed. Melissa gave Madame Pomfrey a rundown on their condition so far, and released the vital signs spell to her. Albus Dumbledore was there, having been alerted by Madame Pomfrey as soon as she knew they had patients.

He looked at a visibly worried Ginny, and pulled Melissa over to the side. "The Xaviers have been Mediwizards and Healers for almost a thousand years. Would your family have any ideas about helping them with the Soulbond?"

"Sir, there is nothing anyone can do now. They have to come to terms with the dual input first. Where before they saw things as we do, now they will see through two sets of eyes, and the same with all their senses. Everything they experience will be doubled, and they have to accept that or they'll go insane." Melissa was speaking in a detached tone, trying not to think that the people she was talking about were people she knew and liked.

She continued. "After they accept that, and I think they might, simply because of that strange bond James has with Rose, they will have to accept the harder part. That somebody else knows everything about them, every evil thought, every time they did anything that they never wanted anyone to know. If they get through that, they will settle down into the Soulbond. Then they have to learn to live with the fact that they will age three years for every year that passes. Something about the Soulbond causes accelerated aging."

Dumbledore nodded, thinking about what she had said. "Two questions. First, how do you know all of this?"

"Sir, you might know that Debra Xavier was the Mediwizard that treated Elric Evans after Cassandra died. Since then the Xaviers have tracked down everything known about Soulbonds, and when the prophecy fell to me, I studied the Soulbond materials." Melissa looked at him. "We have our own copy of the Prophecy."

Dumbledore smiled faintly. "I think I will have you talk to Madame Pomfrey before you go, so she knows what to expect. Second, what do you mean strange bond? I was under the impression that what James and Rose had was merely a strong twin bond."

Melissa snorted. "Horseflies. I'm not sure what they did, but that is not merely a twin bond. There has never been a twin bond strong enough to carry on conversations like they do, and when you look at their auras, you can see where they did something, although I haven't figured out what yet." Dumbledore considered that carefully.

Madame Pomfrey came over to talk to Dumbledore. "Headmaster, the Soulbonded are resting, but they are just starting their bonding, and it is much too early to tell you anything about it, so could you please get the rest of these students out of the wing?" Albus Dumbledore looked around. Counting the three in beds, there were nine first year Gryffindors and the two older students that Melissa had drafted to help. Dumbledore sent everyone but Melissa off to the House, and introduced Melissa to Madame Pomfrey.

He left the two of them discussing the Soulbond and what they could expect out of it. He went back to his office and cast a spell available to the Headmaster. The spell allowed him to look at the aura of any person in Hogwarts, and he used it now to look at the new Gryffindors.

Dumbledore came away from his aura readings a troubled man. In the thousand-year history of Hogwarts, almost every variant of aura had come through the school, and all of them were recorded in a Magicrystal that each Headmaster passed to his or her replacement. His reading of the nine had been shocking. That all of them would be strong wizards he had expected, but the raw power in Adam Brooks had dwarfed anything he'd ever seen. Not even Harry Potter had had that much raw power. He came to a quick decision and sent a house elf for Professor McGonagall.

When she arrived in her bathrobe, the Gryffindor Househead was not happy. "This had better be important, Albus," she said acidly. "I do believe it's three o'clock in the morning."

"My dear Minerva, I believe you're right, but I have a few things to tell you, and I thought since I was going to have a sleepless night, I would share it."

McGonagall sighed. "This is about the Eight, isn't it?"

"No, about the nine new students in Gryffindor. Adam Brooks has more power than anybody I've ever seen, including myself and Harry."

McGonagall stared at him. "You're not serious? The Muggle born boy?"

"Oh yes. Also, James and Rose have somehow transformed their twin bond into something far more, Emma Weasley is a budding Warlock, and Hangeld has magic from both sides of his family."

The Professor stared at him. "A Warlock? Are you certain? There has not been a warlock in nearly 900 years."

Albus called up Emma's aura, and showed it to her, along side the aura of the last Warlock. "See, right here and here, where they match perfectly? Then, here, here and here they match again. Emma Weasley will be a Warlock when she hits puberty."

Professor McGonagall thought about what this would mean for Emma's training. She thought about Warlocks. Warlocks were the single rarest talent any wizard could have. Something inside a Warlock replaced the need for a focus tool, allowing the Warlock to cast any spell without the wand a wizard needed for any but the most basic spell.

She looked at Albus. "Hangeld has magic from both sides of his family, you say. I can safely assume you mean he has the giant magic also?"

"Correct, Professor. Hangeld carries the Elemental magic of his giant ancestors. We'll have to find him a teacher." Giant magic was strictly elemental in nature, and each giant mage used one type of element. Fire, Water, Air or Earth though, a wizard could not teach it, because the magic was vastly different.

"Do you have any other good news for me?" Professor McGonagall waxed sarcastic.

If Dumbledore noticed the sarcasm, he ignored it. "As a matter of fact, I do. All nine have Animage potential, Melissa is a Healer and Empath, Rose has the Sight, and a Soulbonded couple has always developed unusual abilities. Lisa Malfoy is the most normal wizard in the bunch magically, but her mental gifts more than make up for that. To top it all off, Tiffany Potter has something in her aura that is not in the aura crystal here. She has something I can't identify."

Professor McGonagall stared at him again, and then dropped her head into her hands. "Albus, can I take a leave of absence?"

"Minerva, look at the interesting time we're going to have. As each of them begin puberty, and their gifts manifest, it's going to be very interesting around here."

She looked at him sourly, and then sobered. "Albus, why do they need all this? Who or what is the enemy, that they need this much power?"

Dumbledore sobered as quickly as the Gryffindor House head had. "I've been asking myself that for nearly three months now. I still have not found an answer."