War and Passion

Chapter Sixteen

Symbols

Harry awoke to streaks of pink sunshine radiating into Ginny's room. He moved and Ginny reached out to him in her sleep, curling against him, her fingers wrapping themselves around his neck and upper arm. It was only the control of two years of War Mage training that kept him from moaning out loud and waking Ginny.

Powerful feelings of love and peacefulness surged through him. He could feel her comfort at being next to him, her enjoyment at the warmth his body provided. God, he'd never get used this. The fact that she was doing it when she was asleep was cause for concern. He thought that she'd done it on purpose the night before. She was mischievous and he was sure she enjoyed torturing him with her touch, sending unbelievable feelings of lust and pleasure through him when his own feelings were enough to make him almost lose it. But, now he wasn't so sure.

He had to admit it was incredible, feeling her, feeling her love for him. He'd slept more deeply than he had in years, waking only once when Voldemort's evil had been enough to break through the barriers Ginny somehow put up when she was around. But, she had reached out to him and they had once again made love, then fell back to sleep, leaving them both feeling like it had been a dream.

Ginny stirred again, and Harry watched her blink awake. She smiled up at him, and he smiled back. At least he knew some of the reason why he always felt like such a lighthearted fool around her. Ginny, being Empathic, also explained several other errors in judgment he made when she was around, sleeping in her bed when the whole Weasley house was about ready to wake up, being one of them.

As if to reiterate the thought, the sound of two stocky red heads bounding down the stairs, echoed through Ginny's room. The twins were obviously trying to be quiet, but they weren't really all that good at keeping their voices down.

Once the conversation drifted farther down the stairs, Harry smoothed Ginny's hair away from her face. "I've got to go," he whispered, even though there was still a silencing spell cast.

"I know. We wouldn't want Sirius to get worried about you," Ginny said as she rolled out of bed and retrieved her dressing gown that was hanging from a hook on her door.

Harry had been rather caught up in the sight of a naked Ginny and was more than a little disappointed when she slipped the dressing gown on and tied it closed. He could have easily stayed with her all day and forgot about all the occupants at Lupin Lodge.

"Harry, are listening to me?"

"No, not really," Harry shrugged as he leaned far enough out of bed to reach the tie on Ginny's dressing gown, and pulled it undone.

Ginny just grinned and let it remain open as she leaned over him. "You have got to go. My mum will be looking for me if I don't go down soon."

Harry was still only half hearing her as he moved the dressing gown aside, to reveal one of her pink-tipped breasts, he leaned forward to taste her, when her fingers sank into in his hair, causing him to gasp at the variety of feelings Ginny sent to him. Among them, was genuine concern at getting caught by her mum.

"You ruin all my fun," Harry moaned as he slipped out of bed to look for his clothes.

"I want you to come back tonight. That will be impossible if my mum comes in here and finds you starkers in my bed," Ginny taunted as she handed him his trousers.

"What if I can't come back tonight?" Harry asked. He hadn't really considered sleeping at the Burrow on a regular basis.

"Why wouldn't you be able to? Just Apparate here after everyone goes to bed. I'll wait for you."

Harry picked his shirt up while he thought about it. There really was no reason why he couldn't just Apparate to the Burrow at night. He slept better when Ginny was near. He felt better than he ever had. His headache was still gone, and that was nothing short of miracle as far as he was concerned.

"Okay, but I don't know what time I'll be. Who knows what I'll have going on?"

"That's fine," Ginny said happily as she leaned up to kiss him.

Harry touched his lips briefly. "Gin, you need to work out what you did. I can still feel you, and I know you're not doing it on purpose. You need to undo it."

"I know. . . I don't understand. There's no good reason why it won't stop. I never heard of such a thing," Ginny said, shaking her head in bafflement.

"Well, look into it today." Harry said, still feeling cheerful and not to overly concerned. Whether it was Ginny's effect or just him, he couldn't tell.

Ginny agreed and touched him once more, mischievously, and Harry caught all sorts of naughty feelings. The woman would be the death of him. He was going to have to read up on Empathy, and soon.

He disappeared before she could do something else. . .

*

Harry had a much easier time Apparating than he'd had the night before. But, he was well rested and in an all around better mood, too. He arrived in his room at Lupin Lodge to catch the rays of early morning sunshine filtering in.

He must have been standing there for all of twenty seconds before the door to his room burst open, and Ron filled the doorway. Harry couldn't believe his good luck. If he had taken a minute longer Ron would have walked into an empty room.

"Good, you're awake," Ron said as he went straight to his trunk and started looking through it.

Ron rummaged through his trunk for a while, until he pulled out an old pair of Muggle jeans and a blue shirt from the bottom. Since he had been wearing nothing but his boxers, he just pulled the clothes on then went to the mirror to look at himself.

"You're in a good mood this morning," Harry observed as he watched Ron critique his appearance in front of the mirror.

"Not really. . . But, I have things I want to do." Ron turned to him, his eyes narrowing at the black training uniform Harry had on, the same uniform he had on last night. "We're not training today. Why are you wearing your uniform?"

Harry arched an eyebrow at him, giving Ron the time needed to retract the question. After all, Harry wasn't going to lie to him.

"Never mind," Ron said, throwing his hand up. "Can you wear that into London?"

"Why?" Harry asked in alarm.

"I'm going into Muggle London and you're coming with me," Ron said as he grabbed his boots from under the bed.

"Why am I going to London with you?"

"I can't very well go by myself. You know I have a hard time with all that Muggle stuff."

"Yes, but why are you going?"

Ron turned to him and grinned. "I'm getting a tattoo."

"What?" Harry said incredulously.

"A tattoo. . . I want one. Daniels gave me the name of this place not far from the Leaky Cauldron that does magical tattoos."

"If they do magical tattoos then just Apparate there," Harry shrugged.

"I can't. They do most of their work on Muggles. The wizards who run it just do magical tattoos on the side."

"And why am I being picked for this excursion? Hermione would be a better choice, she goes into London all the time." Harry sighed, as he started to change.

"Are you mad?! I can't take her. She'd go on and on about how tattoos are permanent and I should really think it through and wondering about the dangers of magical ink. I can just hear her. . ."

"Well, you have to admit those are valid points."

Ron stopped tying his shoes to look at Harry in annoyance. "Get your clothes on and let's go. I want to get out of here before Hermione wakes up."

Harry went ahead and changed into some Muggle clothes. Ron was in the worse position of all of them by getting the summons to duty. He was torn up with guilt over Harry and Hermione insisting on going with him. If getting a tattoo made Ron happy Harry was willing to oblige.

They decided to Apparate into the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron and walk to the tattoo shop. The only real obstacle they were facing was having to walk through the Leaky Cauldron. Neither one of them had ventured out since the attack at Platform 9 3/4. They knew that the press was still eager to get a hold of them. But, it was still very early, not many people would be out, especially since the prison break. People weren't leaving their houses if they didn't have to.

They were fortunate. Only a handful of people were inside the Leaky Cauldron, but it still took them almost fifteen minutes to make it out onto the London street. The two of them together always caused a ruckus; if Hermione had been there they might never have made it out.

Harry looked at the address Ron had written on a small piece of parchment. Lord, it was over four streets away. He didn't mind the walk so much as having to rein Ron in from being openly unusual. He tended to catch peoples eye anyway with his size and hair color. Put that together with the fact that he was completely fascinated with a crossing light or a parking meter, and there was a real potential for Ron to cause a scene.

"Blimey, Harry, look at that bloke's hair. You think he did that on purpose?" Ron said loudly as he pointed over peoples' heads to a blue haired teenager, causing several people to turn and look at them.

Harry stopped to glare at him.

"What?" Ron shrugged before he got sidetracked by a young woman talking on a cellular phone, leaning in closer to get a better look at the small device.

The woman stopped talking and raised a surprised eyebrow at Ron, then flashed him a cheeky grin that Ron returned readily.

"Let's go, Ron," Harry said through gritted teeth, earning him a death glare from the woman.

Ron turned his head to look at the woman once more as Harry pulled him away. "Muggle women sure do dress nice. Much better than old drab robes, don't you think?"

Harry turned around and noticed the woman was wearing an extremely short skirt and tight top. No wonder Ron liked it.

By the time Harry spotted the dingy tattoo parlor, he was totally worn out. Ron had a hard time keeping his thoughts to himself. He just blurted out whatever came to mind and his voice carried something awful, even when he whispered it tended to echo over crowds. Plus, tact wasn't really one of Ron's strong suits.

Harry looked into the window with skeptical expression. "Are you sure they do magical tattoos in here? This place looks pretty Muggle to me."

Ron was looking at a group of giggling girls who were walking past, all dressed in similarly revealing clothing. Harry sighed in exasperation, the man had a one-track mind.

"Ron!"

"Huh?" Ron said causally, still looking.

"Do you want to get your tattoo or not?" Harry barked, sending the girls into a deeper fit of giggles as they all looked appraisingly at Ron. He just gave up and forcefully shoved Ron inside.

"Don't say anything!" Harry whispered fiercely. All he needed was for Ron to start asking Muggles about magical tattoos.

Harry walked around the corner, glancing at the walls that were covered in drawings of Muggle tattoos, leaving Ron to look around in the front. He cursed under his breath when he heard the shop attendant ask Ron if could help him. Harry glanced around the corner to see the man drop a large book of drawings when he caught a good look at Ron.

"Ron Weasley," the man stuttered excitedly. He was a short bloke who couldn't be more than nineteen or twenty with greasy brown hair and more than a few tattoos.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief; only a wizard would recognize Ron and call him by name.

"What can we do for you?" the man asked as he all but jumped over the counter to shake Ron's hand.

Ron arched an eyebrow as he looked down at the man. "Well, I'm not here for a hair cut. . ."

"Right, right. . . Of course, of course," he shook his head at his foolishness. "You'll be wanting a tattoo."

"Very good," Ron said slowly as he looked at Harry and tilted his head, clearly indicating that he questioned the man's sanity. "You don't do the tattoos, do you?"

"Who me? No, no, Artimis does all the magical tattoos. Tricky business with the ink, have to be very careful. But, Artimis is the best, the very best," the man said, still vigorously shaking Ron's hand.

Ron roughly jerked his hand out of the man's grasp and wiped it on his jeans. Harry could tell he was getting annoyed and decided to step in before Ron hurt someone.

"What was your name?" Harry asked the man kindly.

"Darvey," he answered, still gawking up at Ron, not even turning to look at Harry when he spoke.

"Right, well, Darvey. . ." Harry clasped him on the shoulder, snapping him out of his trace. "My mate here wants a tattoo today. Do you think you could help us with that?"

"Yes," Darvey nodded as he finally turned to look at Harry and squeaked. "You're Harry Potter!"

"Oh Jesus," Ron sighed in exasperation as he turned away and went to go look at the drawings on the wall.

Fortunately, a second man walked in from the back room. He was considerably older, in fact, he could have been well over a hundred, you never could tell with wizards.

Harry left poor Darvey standing there in a state of semi-shock to talk to the other wizard.

"Artimis?" Harry questioned.

"Yes," the man nodded slowly, his eyes flicking up to the scar on Harry's forehead. "What can we do for you, Mr. Potter?"

Harry gave him relieved smile. "My friend wants a tattoo of. . ." he stopped, realizing that he had no idea what Ron wanted.

"A lion. The Gryffindor Lion," Ron tossed over his shoulder, still looking at the different muggle tattoos in interest.

Artimis looked around Harry to Ron, appraising him. "Yes, I think that would suit him very well. He's a Lion, is he not?"

Harry looked at Ron too, and laughed. "Yes, he is."

"Good, and you, Mr. Potter. . . What are you?" Artimis asked, looking at Harry intently.

Harry frowned. "I don't think I'm anything."

"Everyone is something. You think about it. . ." Artimis said as he patted Harry's shoulder then headed toward where Ron was. "Come with me Mr. Weasley."

Ron and Artimis walked into the back, leaving Harry with Darvey. It took Darvey a full twenty minutes to get himself under control and talk in a normal tone to him. Harry was patient and answered all the normal questions without getting too annoyed. He was thinking about what Artimis said. . . It was an interesting question really, what was he?

Ron was a lion if ever there was one. Strong, proud, courageous, temperamental. . . After all, you didn't want to hack off a lion and you definitely didn't want to hack off Ron.

Harry knew Charlie had a large Dragon tattoo on his back, again something that suited him to a tee.

Sirius changed into a dog that looked like the grim, tragically fitting in more than one way.

Harry could go on and on with his list of people, his Dad, Wormtail, Remus. . .

Artimis was right. . . everyone was something.

"Hey, Darvey, can I have a look at the magical tattoos?"

Darvey stopped rambling about what he read in the paper about the attack at the Platform. "Of course, they're in the back."

Harry walked into the back to see Artimis leaning over Ron, painstakingly painting the Gryffindor lion on his upper arm in amazing detail.

"Over there, Mr. Potter," Artimis pointed without looking up.

Harry turned in the direction that Artimis pointed and took in the floor to ceiling wall of tattoos. Many were things that only magical people would want. But, that wasn't what made them different from the Muggle tattoos in the front. These tattoos were startlingly realistic. They didn't move, but they looked so real you wanted to reach out and touch them. They shimmered in a way that only something magical could.

Harry looked over almost every single one and couldn't find anything that even remotely fit him. He was starting to get a little irritated. Ron had picked his without even thinking about it.

He bent down to look at the few that were left in the corner when one caught his eye. He reached out and ran a finger over the picture, leaning even closer to get a better look.

"Fawkes," he breathed to himself.

It was a picture of a phoenix. It had its wings spread, soaring in flight. It reminded Harry of what Fawkes had looked like, flying into the Chamber of Secrets when he and Ginny had no hope of escape.

Harry sat on the floor and stared at the picture for a while. He thought about his duel with Voldemort and the phoenix feather that had saved his life. He thought about the phoenix rising from the ashes. Hadn't Harry himself risen from the ashes when Hagrid pulled him from the ruble at Godric's Hollow?

"You've chosen?"

Harry looked up in surprise to see Artimis smiling at him. He looked back at the picture, the phoenix flying proud and free like a beacon of hope, a symbol of salvation in Harry's darkest hours.

"Yes, I think I have," he nodded.

"Well, then let me finish up with your friend then you can have a seat." Artimis said as he picked up a small vile off the shelf on the opposite wall.

Harry got up to watch Artimis do the finishing touches on Ron's tattoo. He had to admit, Ron looked like he was born to wear that lion, it just took him until now to get it. It was actually quite large, but Ron's bicep was large, so it fit perfectly.

"Now, this might pinch a little," Artimis warned Ron as he uttered the charm that would set the magical ink.

"Fuck! No shit, it will pinch a little!" Ron gasped in pain. He lifted his arm to look at it set into his skin as it hissed and sparked.

It took longer than Harry would have imagined for the tattoo to set. He looked closer when the smoke had cleared. It really was incredible work, the Gryffindor Lion sitting there looking just as proud and fierce as Ron.

"Hermione's going to kill you," Harry laughed when he sat back up.

"You think so? I think she might like it. . ." Ron smiled as he sprang out the seat. "Let's go."

"Not so fast, your friend wants one too," Artimis said as he put a hand on Ron's shoulder to stop him from leaving.

"What? No way," Ron said as he looked at Harry in surprise. "What are you getting?"

"A phoenix," Harry said as he sat down in the seat Ron had just vacated.

Ron thought about it for a while, before he nodded. "Yeah, I guess you could use one of those."

"I thought so," Harry agreed as he lifted up his sleeve on his right arm.

*

By the time they made it back to Lupin Lodge it was early afternoon and Hermione was sitting on the couch tapping her foot in irritation. She rounded on them when they landed in the living room.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked with her hands on her hips.

"We were out," Ron said as he reached for Hermione who swatted his hand away.

"Out where? You had us worried to death!"

"Because we were gone for a few hours? We're big boys. We can take care of ourselves," Ron laughed.

"And you," Hermione said turning to point at Harry. "Did you even stop to think what disappearing would do to Sirius? He's beside himself."

Harry felt his heart sink. He hadn't thought about Sirius. "Where is he?"

"He and Remus went to the Burrow. He found a note on your bed saying that's where you'd gone," Hermione said, reaching behind her back to slap Ron's hand once more when he tried to reach for her again.

Ron had been looking at his hand in amazement wondering how Hermione was able to know where he was coming from when what she had said sank in.

"I knew it! You Apparated there last night, didn't you?" Ron snapped as he glared at Harry.

"Spare me the lecture, Ron. You just got me in whole world of trouble with needing your damn tattoo today," Harry said, as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Your what?" Hermione gasped.

Ron glared at him, but Harry could care less. He was busy worrying about what Sirius had said to the Weasleys.

Things were about to get really tense when Sirius and Remus arrived with less grace than usual. Sirius was dusting off his robes when he noticed the three of them standing in the living room.

"Where in the hell have you been?" Sirius thundered at Harry.

Harry looked to Ron uncertainly, but Ron was busy trying to back away from Hermione who had grabbed his arm to look closer at the tattoo. She licked her thumb and tried to rub it off, causing Ron to grimace and look at her strangely.

"It's permanent. You got a permanent tattoo. That's forever, Ron," Hermione said in near panic. "Did you even check to make sure that everything was sanitary? Who knows what kind of harmful side effects could come from having the ink burned into your skin. They burn it in, did you know that. . ."

"Yes, I know that. I remember that part quite clearly," Ron said, as he jerked his arm out of Hermione's grasp.

"Harry, how could you have let him do that?"

"I'm not his mother," Harry said as he cast a look at Sirius who looked to be debating between being amused at Ron and Hermione and being upset with him.

"Besides, Harry got one too. . ." Ron chimed in smugly, obviously trying to ease some of the heat off himself.

Sirius frowned and walked over to Harry. "Well, let's see it."

Harry reluctantly lifted his sleeve to show Sirius the phoenix. It shimmered just like the one on the wall and when the light caught it, you could swear the wings were moving. The brilliant red and gold plumage of the bird looked so much like Fawkes that Harry had to wonder if they had used him to draw the design to begin with.

Sirius looked back up at him after studying the tattoo for a while. "And you had to get this?"

"I wasn't planning on it. It just sort of jumped out at me," Harry shrugged as he dropped his sleeve.

"We were worried. . ."

"I'm sorry. We should have told you where we were going. It was a last minute thing. We weren't thinking," Harry said as he looked from Remus to Sirius.

"Yes, well, that was obvious. We went to the Burrow," Sirius said with one eyebrow arched.

Harry winced. "And?"

"We were tactful. We just said that we we're looking for you. Of course, Molly was a little frantic when she found out that we couldn't find either of you. But, Remus assured her that you two were probably somewhere blowing off steam, or what not," Sirius said as he sat on the couch and ran a hand through his hair, breathing a sigh of relief. "You might want to floo fire talk to your mum real quick, Ron."

Ron nodded, walking towards the fireplace in the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, Sirius," Harry said genuinely.

Sirius just waved off the apology. "I guess if you're old enough to go fight a war than your old enough to go get a tattoo."

"Still, I shouldn't have worried you," Harry sighed as he sat down next to Sirius.

"Well, it won't be the last time." Sirius looked at Harry and smiled. "Besides, I do like the tattoo. Those bloody things hurt though, don't they?"

"Yes! I felt like my whole arm was burning off," Harry said, as he leaned back against the couch.

"Yeah, I remember," Sirius mumbled to himself, wincing slightly.

"You don't have a tattoo."

"Says who?" Sirius questioned with an evil grin.

"Where?"

Harry looked up at Remus who was coughing and giving Sirius a pleading look to drop it.

"Some place. . . Er. . . private," Sirius said as he smiled at Remus defiantly.

Remus just threw up his arms in surrender and walked with Hermione into the kitchen to join Ron. Both Harry and Sirius laughed hard. They were always tittering on the edge of disaster. It was nice to have a brief moment of normalcy.

"God, I'm a pain in the arse, aren't I?" Harry said after while, as he looked at Sirius who still had circles under his eyes from obvious lack of sleep.

"I won't argue that. But, you have your good points. You keep me on my toes. . . I guess it's worth it." Sirius shrugged, before turning to Harry in seriousness. "Just promise me you'll keep yourself safe. When everything starts happening, just try to stay safe."

"I'll always try to stay safe Sirius."

"Well, try harder. I'm not losing you. It just wouldn't be fair."

"Life's not always fair," Harry sighed. Thinking of all the people who had already had their lives ripped apart by Voldemort.

"Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know. . ." Sirius said in a haunted voice as looked out the window. "But, my luck's got to change sometime."