Call to Destiny

From Now Until Eternity

Chapter 11

Week: 8

Days till departure from San Francisco: 1

~

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Ginny slammed her hand down onto her alarm clock, groaning. She turned over in bed, pulling the pillow over her face. Why? Why did everything start so early? Nothing should start until at least noon.

Suddenly something stirred in Ginny's mind. She pulled the pillow off of her face, wide awake. She jumped out of bed, grinning.

As she'd expected, Draco was still sleeping. This not fazing her in the least, she grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt out of her trunk and headed towards the bathroom.

There were two reasons for Ginny's euphoric state that morning. One, today was the day they received their rankings. Ginny had no idea how, but today she'd really become one of the Warriors. She had to fight the urge to jump up and down and laugh giddily at this thought. Finally, something she'd been waiting for for so long. Until about eight weeks ago, she didn't know exactly what she'd been waiting for, but she'd been waiting and now here it was. Her part in the war.

Reason number two was that today was August 23^rd. Also known as, Ginny's birthday. Today she was sixteen years old. One more year till she was of age.

Ginny took a look in the mirror. She didn't feel any different. Or look any different, she noted sulkily. Why was it that she always expected to wake up the morning of her birthday and look beautiful? She sighed. Nope, not any different. Same pale skin, same insanely large amount of freckles, same straight, fiery red hair that would never cooperate. Same muddy brown eyes, same long, thin nose.

Ginny stuck her tongue out at herself. Actually, her nose was the only part of her face that she really did like. It wasn't too long like Ron's, but not too short either. If you looked closely at her nose, you could sort of see the constellation of Andromeda. She'd told that to her brothers once, and they'd said that she could probably find any constellation on her nose. Ginny made a face. Brothers were vile sometimes.

Shaking her head, she decided to take a shower. On such an important day as today, she wanted to at least smell nice.

~

When Ginny got out of the shower, Draco was leaning on the wall next to the bathroom door, head tilted back and eyes closed.

Ginny grinned. "Good morning."

Draco opened his eyes and looked at her, scowling. "What's bloody good about it?"

"It's my birthday,"

His mouth curved up into a smirk.

"And?"

Ginny's jaw dropped.

"Hey!"

She made a swipe at him, but he dodged her swing and closed the door to the bathroom behind himself.

Damn it, she thought. She could never hit him. Ah well, today nobody could bring her off of her cloud. Not even Draco.

As she made her way into the kitchen, she saw the door knob on the front door shaking. Puzzled, she went over to the door and opened it.

Sage, Alexis, Julianna and Maria fell into the apartment.

"Happy birthday!" Alexis shouted, enveloping Ginny in a bear hug.

"Thanks," Ginny said, a little shocked, it wasn't everyday you opened the front door and got ambushed by four very hyper girls.

"Cake!" Sage shouted.

"Erm, sorry Saysay, but no cake," Ginny informed her, disentangling herself from Ali.

Sage looked at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

"No cake?" she asked softly, in a little kid's voice.

Ginny shook her head, trying not to laugh. "No cake."

Sage hung her head. "No cake."

"Oh, who cares about cake?" Maria said. "Today is Ginny's birthday and we get our ranks. Who needs cake?"

Sage looked outraged. "I need cake!"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Can we get off the subject of cake?"

"Did you say cake?" Roby asked coming into the apartment, David, Ryan and Nick right behind him.

The redhead put her head in her hands. "There is no cake, okay? Everybody got that? No cake."

"What about cake?" Draco asked, coming into the room.

Ginny made an angry noise.

"Happy birthday, Ginny," Nick wished her.

She smiled at him, running a hand through her hair. "Thanks."

Julianna clapped her hands together. "Now, what are we waiting around for? I want to get our ranks!"

There was an affirmative chorus from the others.

"Then get out the hell out of here!" Draco said, with a slight grin.

Alexis stuck her tongue out at him.

"You coming Gin?" asked Sage.

Ginny nodded. "I just want to get something to eat, go on without me."

As the other Warriors ambled out into the hall and away, Ginny walked into the kitchen, where Draco was. She couldn't help but grin. The Warriors were amazing. Ginny couldn't imagine life without them. Or Draco, for that matter. He handed her a bagel.

Ginny took it and sighed.

"What?" Draco asked, biting into his bagel.

She gave him a rather pitiful look. "I miss my mum's cooking."

He chuckled. "Living off generic food for eight weeks is bloody awful."

"Tell me about it," Ginny said rolling her eyes.

Draco grabbed the key off the counter. "Let's go?"

Ginny nodded, shoving the rest of the bagel into her mouth. "Lets."

He shook his head, making his blond hair fall into his eyes. "I am still astounded by the amount of food you can eat."

Ginny shrugged, following him out the door. "It's a gift."

Draco chuckled, and they set off down the corridor in relative silence. Birthdays always made Ginny think about the past year. As she looked at Draco walking beside her, she smiled. What a year it'd been. A year ago, she would have never imagined that she'd ever have a civilized conversation with Draco Malfoy, let alone be friends with him. She conveniently forgot the Truth or Dare kiss. Forget it ever happened, she told herself forcefully.

A year ago she'd still been a child, today; she was one of the Warriors.

Well, almost.

Without even realizing it, they'd gotten to the gym.

"Ready?" Draco asked her, his hand on the door.

"No, but go ahead anyway."

He opened the door. "After you, milady."

Ginny walked into the gym, Draco following right behind her. As she got her first look of the gym, her jaw dropped.

The gym had been transformed into the large room again, although with a few significant differences from last time.

In the center of the floor, there was a very large, white, pentacle, about 10 meters in diameter. At each point of the star inside stood a tall, dark candelabrum which was each holding two thick, white candles. What looked to be animals wound around the stem of the candelabrum, but Ginny couldn't be sure. They kept moving, so it was impossible to tell what they were. They made her skin crawl, though. The ten candles were the only sources of light in the whole room, casting eerie shadows along the walls and the floor.

Ginny shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. She wished she'd brought a jacket, but not because it was cold. She wanted an extra layer of protection between her skin and the magic that was in this room.

In the center of the pentacle stood Kiara. She was wearing a long, black robe with the hood up, casting her face into shadow. There were silver designs on the robe that seemed to moving around. It gave Ginny the creeps.

"Join the others," she said to Ginny and Draco.

They walked over to base of the pentacle, where the other eight were huddled up into a group facing the Wildcat.

Sage gave Ginny a look.

"This is awesome," she whispered into Ginny's ear.

Ginny rolled her eyes. Trust Sage to find this fascinating. She looked over at the pentacle, and saw that the white outline of it seemed to be withering, too. A little chill went up her spine. In all reality, this was freaking her out. It all just seemed, so... so... Dark. She looked back at Draco, who was standing behind her with David.

Ginny supposed the look on her face must have been a very pitiable one, because Draco put his hand on her shoulder.

"You'll be fine, Weaslette," he whispered.

She gave him a weak smile and turned back to face the front, Draco's hand still on her shoulder. It calmed her a little bit. Just a bit though. There were now what seemed to be a hundred butterflies in her stomach. Ginny took a deep breath. This is what she had been training for and waiting for this whole summer, she couldn't turn tail and run now.

As Ginny watched, Kiara raised her arms above her head, chanting in what seemed to be a mix of Old English, Latin and the Old Language. A deafening wind started howling through the room, whipping Ginny's hair around her face. Suddenly, a large beam of light shot through the ceiling and enveloped the Wildcat.

The girls gasped, and Draco's hold on her shoulder tightened for a second. The Warriors-to-be all moved closer together, out of what seemed to be pure instinct. Ginny cast a glance around at the others. Juli was clutching onto Ryan as if he was the last thing left in the world, David had his hands around Sage's waist, holding her close. Alexis had grasped Nick's hand and Maria had backed up into Roby's arms. How had they all paired off like this? The thought flitted through her mind. Who they had trained with, they now sought protection from. Ginny shuddered, not dwelling long on the thought. A ceremony like this, although awe inspiring, was terrifying.

A magick had filled the room. An old and powerful one. Ancient, in all reality. If the one before had chilled Ginny's skin, this one chilled her to the bone. She'd never been near such magic. It was a magick of the oldest sort, one that witches and wizards of today were incapable of handling. She didn't wonder why. It was too powerful. It could easily kill the person using it.

The beam seemed to linger for a second longer and then disappeared all together. The Wildcat now seemed to be glowing. Ginny drew in a shuddering breath.

"Sage, come forth."

Kiara's voice was odd, seemingly to be masculine and feminine, high and low, pleasant and terrifying all at the same time. Ginny shrunk back, not wanting to have to go anywhere near that pentacle.

Sage shot Ginny a glance. She was scared, Ginny could see. For the first time that she'd known Sage for, Ginny saw that she was scared.

The other girl managed a weak smile, and stepped forward. She looked oddly out of place in the room, with her bright blue jeans, purple and black shirt and blond, black and brown hair.

Ginny watched her slowly walk towards Kiara. She was shaking, Ginny saw. As she stepped into the center, Kiara spoke in that same unearthly voice.

"Extend your left arm."

The brunette girl did so, looking unsure. Kiara took her hand and turned it so that her wrist was laid bare. She touched one glowing finger to the center of Sage's wrist and chanted a spell.

"Inde nunc donec

Infinitas spinx mutus

Regnum insum te."

A beam of light struck Sage just as it had done to Kiara moments before. Ginny looked closely at the beam of light. There seemed to be something in it, or as part of it, she couldn't tell. Just as quickly as it had struck, it disappeared, but the moment before it did something extraordinary happened.

Where Sage's body should have been, for a moment, just a moment, there stood a sphinx. Then, it was Sage again.

Ginny gasped.

Sage was the Sphinx.

The Wildcat said something to her, and Sage walked over to one of the points of the pentacle. Her usually grinning and joking friend looked serious for once.

And then it hit her.

This was real. After she did this she was bound. Forever. Suddenly the butterflies turned into chimaeras. Big, angry chimaeras. Once she did this she would be bound forever, there would be no turning back. She could get hurt. Hell! She could die! Ginny's breath suddenly stated coming short.

Draco leaned forward as the Wildcat called David.

"Ginny, are you alright?"

She turned around and clasped his arm. "No. No I'm not. Draco, I'm scared."

Ginny didn't care what he thought of her at this moment. She was scared to death, and everything seemed so surreal, and she was about to burst into tears. He seemed to be the only real thing there right then. She didn't care if she thought she was a wimp, or if he thought she was a coward. She just didn't care.

For a moment, he looked surprised and more than a little confused, and then, to her great surprise, he wrapped his arms around her. Tears started to roll down her face.

"I'm so scared, Draco. I don't belong here," she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Yes, you do," he said, trying to calm her. At this point she was much too petrified to realize how odd this behavior was for him.

"I'm scared," she whispered.

"It's alright," he muttered. "You'll be fine."

Somewhere in the distance she heard Nick get called.

"Draco, this is forever. I'm so scared, I don't want to die."

"You won't," he placated her. "Ginny, you'll be alright."

The wind suddenly picked up and Ginny shut her eyes, shaking. Draco tightened the circle of his arms. "Shh. It's okay, you're alright."

Ginny looked up at him and her panic started to seep away a little. Draco would be there, she realized. He'd be bound forever just as she would, so he'd be there. She trusted him. She didn't know why, but she did. She let out a shuddering breath.

"Are you alright now?" he asked, wiping a tear off of her cheek.

She nodded, still shaking a little. "Can I just stay right here for a minute?"

"Of course," he said.

Ginny rested her head on his chest, breathing deeply. Draco was right here, everything would be fine. Her shaking stopped, and her heart rate slowed.

She didn't want to be called. She wanted to stay just like she was right then forever. But the Fates seemed to have a dark sense of humor.

"Ginevra, come forth."

Ginny pulled away from Draco, eyes wide.

"You can do this, Ginny," he told her and she realized that the wall behind his eyes wasn't there. It hadn't been for a while. She'd gotten behind the mask he showed to the world without even realizing it. This was who Draco really was; this was the person she had begun to consider her friend. She trusted him. "You're stronger than you think."

She nodded.

"Go," he told her.

Ginny spared one last glance at him before stepping forward. A myriad of emotions seemed to be running through her. Fright, panic, awe, and something she couldn't quite name. This was it. This was the fulcrum on which the rest of her life turned. But she wasn't afraid anymore. Draco would be there. He wouldn't let her die.

She saw that David stood beside Sage in one of the points of the pentacle, and Alexis beside Nick in one right beside them. With a deep breath she stepped into the center.

The world stopped.

Everything seemed to be blocked out inside the pentacle. She couldn't see the others, but she could feel their presence. All that she could see was Kiara, glowing.

"Extend your left arm," she said.

Ginny did so calmly, to her own amazement. Seconds before she had been sobbing into Draco's shirt, and now she was calm as can be. She would have shaken her head in the pure confusion of it all, but felt that it was inappropriate in the current situation.

Kiara touched a finger to Ginny's exposed wrist and the beam of light descended upon her.

"Inde nunc donec

Infinitas phoenix mutus

Regnum insum te."

Everything seemed to go in slow motion at that point. A wind raged inside the column. All she could see was white light. Pure white light. She tilted her head up, her hair flying up around her head. Then she saw something descend from above. The something seemed to be flying in a circular pattern around the column. When it was about two meters above her head, she saw what it was.

It was a phoenix.

She gasped as the phoenix flew lower until it was level with her eyes. The phoenix seemed to be looking at her face. No, it was looking at her eyes.

Ginny closed her eyes and a rush of memories overtook her.

The memories weren't her own, she realized, but those of the Phoenixes that came before. There were battles and wars, and yet there was laughter and love. She saw the souls of all the others, albeit in different faces, but it was still the same people. She saw Sage, Alexis, David, Juli, Nick, Roby, Ryan, Maria.

Draco.

No wonder she felt so close to them. She'd known them since the beginning of time. She just hadn't remembered.

She opened her eyes and the beam of light disappeared. The phoenix looked at her, turned into a beam of light, and shot into her left wrist.

A picture of a majestic phoenix bloomed on her wrist and glowed with the same pure white light.

Ginny looked up at Kiara who nodded. Without being told what to do, she knew. She walked into the point of the pentagram on the other side of Sage and David. She turned around just as the Wildcat called Draco.

He walked up, looking as confident as ever. He extended his arm and Kiara touched one of her glowing fingers to his wrist.

"Inde nunc donec

Infinitas draco mutus

Regnum insum te."

The beam of light descended upon him and this time Ginny could see what it was inside the white light. It was a dragon.

Somehow, she wasn't surprised. And somehow, she knew why she felt so attached to him. The Phoenix and the Dragon seemed to have history from what she could tell by the memories she'd glimpsed. What the history was, she didn't know. She did know, however, that she was now forever bound to him, and the thought didn't scare her at all.

The light disappeared and a silver dragon stood where Draco was, only for a moment though. The Wildcat nodded at him, and he walked towards Ginny, joining her in the point of the pentagram, standing on the other side of the candelabrum.

All the rest were called and dubbed in the same way. As Maria joined Roby in the last unoccupied point, Kiara lowered her hood.

"Place your left palm over your right," she instructed them, her voice still as unearthly as it had been.

Ginny did so, seeing that the phoenix on her wrist was still glowing. The candles came floating off the candelabrums towards their hands. They stopped and hovered a few centimeters above their palms.

Ginny cast a glance at Draco. He looked so serious, yet oddly calm. Well, maybe not too oddly seeing as Ginny herself, who had been in hysterics moments earlier, was calm. Maybe it was because, in a way, they'd done this before. Turning her attention back to the ceremony, she wondered distantly if any of the other Phoenixes had had panic attacks and were comforted by the Dragons.

Kiara raised her arms above her head once more.

"First Warriors send down

Thy powers and bind your

Kind once more.

Bound they all shall be,

From now until eternity."

A beam of white light shot from Ginny's wrist, stinging terribly. She saw that the same had happened to all the others. The ten beams of light joined above the Wildcat's head, forming a dome.

"Bound they all shall be,

From now until eternity."

Another unearthly light spread from Kiara's palms and into the web of beams above her. The light, which seemed to be every color at once, wound along the beams of white light and shot into the wrists of the ten Warriors.

A fire ripped through Ginny's body. A painful, burning fire that consumed her.

She'd never experienced pain like this before, and it seemed as though she was burning from the inside out. Her body, her soul, her very essence, all burning. Another, stronger ripple of fire went through her. She screamed. She was burning, she would always be burning. It felt as though it would never end. And then, it did.

Ginny opened her eyes and saw that she was sitting on floor of the gym, hands on the floor. The candles were back on the candelabrum and extinguished, although the witchlights were now on. She turned around and saw that Draco, too was sitting on the floor. He was staring at the ground, breathing hard.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He looked at her without really seeming to see her. "I'm not sure."

She nodded, looking around at the others. They all seemed to be in much the same state, but they all looked to be alright.

"The Wildcat," she whispered, realization finally hitting her.

Draco had gotten to his feet.

"What about her?" he asked.

Ginny looked up at him. "She's gone."

Draco scanned the room, a frown creasing his face.

"She said the force of giving us our powers would kill her," he recounted. Ginny nodded.

He shook his head and looked down at her, still sitting on the floor.

"Can you get up?"

"I don't know," she said. He extended his hand to her and Ginny saw on his wrist the image of a silver dragon. When she was on her feet, she looked down at her own wrist. There was the image of a phoenix, just like it was before, although now it wasn't glowing. This was the mark of the Warriors, she realized. In a frightening way, it made her think of the Dark Mark.

Draco took her hand, running his thumb over the picture of the phoenix, and sending chills down her spine.

"We're the Warriors, now."

Ginny looked up at him. "Yeah, we are."

The others slowly drifted over to them, everyone seeming to be in a state of shock. Everyone seemed so serious and solemn.

"So you're Phoenix, now," Sage said, softly, but grinning a little. "I should have known."

"Seeing as the two of y'all are in charge now and gonna have to work with each other, make us a promise, alright?" Ryan asked.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Don't kill each other."

They all laughed a little uneasily.

Maria looked around the room, and sighed. "What do we do now?"

"Pack?" Nick suggested.

The others looked at him.

"He's right," Alexis sighed. "Kiara's gone, and we're leaving tomorrow."

There were murmurs of agreement. Ginny bit her lip. She didn't want to leave. This place and these people had become so familiar to her. Well, maybe become wasn't the right word, she thought, and then shook her head. This was going to be so confusing now.

"What are we gonna do with the room?" Juli asked, looking around.

"I have a feeling the room is going to take care of itself," Draco said.

And indeed, as they all exited out into the hall, the door to the gym disappeared altogether. The ten Warriors just stood there, staring at the door in silence.

"Anybody else have the feeling that the hotel's gonna do the same thing?" Sage asked.

Ginny chuckled with the others.

"Yeah, I do," she said.

Ali suddenly looked over at her, the gleam returning to her eyes a bit. "Let's all pack and then I say we throw a party in honor of, well, this. And in honor of Miss Fe's birthday."

Ginny looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Fe?"

The blond girl grinned. "Yeah, as in short for Phoenix."

Ginny rolled her eyes. Now Ali was going to call her that.

"So, what do you guys say?"

"Hear, hear!" David shouted.

"Hear, hear!" chorused the others. They seemed to be regaining their usual personalities.

Ali nodded. "Alright then, it's settled. After we all pack, party in Draco and Ginny's room."

"Wait, why our room?" Draco asked.

Sage shook her head. "Silly little man."

"Just accept it and move on," Ginny advised him, placing her hand on his arm.

The Warriors continued on, still chatting.

"Stop!" Maria ordered, as they got down to the end of the hall.

They all came to a halt, looking at Maria.

"What is it?" Roby asked brow furrowed.

Maria looked very solemn. "Look back. There's a good chance we'll never be here again."

Ginny turned around, looking down the hallway. Everything was going to change. Everything already was changing. For better or for worse, she didn't know.

"Let's go," Juli said softly, turning around.

Ginny swiped at her eyes before turning around and following the others.

~ Two Hours Later ~

Ginny had been packing for the past two hours and was now nearly packed. Okay, maybe that was lie, she thought looking at the mountain of clothes on her bed. She was sitting by the foot of her bed packing her things. Nope. There was no maybe about it. She was still in the same unpacked state she'd been in two hours ago, not for lack of trying though.

"Catch," Draco said from the doorway.

Ginny turned her body around and caught the green apple he had thrown to her.

"An apple?" she asked, looking from him to the apple dubiously. He was standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

"It's good for you," he said. Ginny shrugged and took a bit of the apple, the sweet yet sour juice squirted into her mouth. Draco looked over at her bed and raised his eyebrows. "Still not packed?"

Ginny looked back at her bed and sighed. "No. I swear, I think my things have multiplied, or reproduced, or something! I did not come here with so much...stuff!"

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Reproduced?"

She shook her head, setting the apple down on her History of Magic textbook. "Nevermind."

"I still don't know why it's taken you so long," he drawled a few second later.

Ginny, who had been in the midst of folding a shirt, looked up and glared at him.

"Some of us, who don't happen to be seventeen yet, can't use magic to make our things pack for us."

Draco chuckled, and got his wand out of the back pocket of his jeans. "Move aside, Red."

Ginny did so, watching him. He muttered a spell and all of her things jumped into her trunk, folding themselves as they did so and when all was in the trunk, the lid snapped shut.

"Thanks," she muttered as he walked into the room.

He shrugged, putting his wand back into his pocket and sitting down on his bed. "No problem." He set his apple down on the bedside table.

Ginny turned around so that she could face him. She felt that a thank you was in order for what had happened that morning.

"Listen, Draco. Thank you for...what you did this morning. I really owe you," she said, looking at the floor as she did so. "I just sort of panicked. I don't know why, I just did."

"Well, you're welcome," Draco said, somewhat awkwardly.

Ginny looked up at him. He looked at her for a second before turning away. Ginny couldn't help but grin. She'd managed to make Draco Malfoy uncomfortable. She didn't think it was even possible. He looked back at her and saw her grinning.

"What?" he asked irritably.

She just shook her head, grinning. "Nothing."

Draco shot her one last skeptical look before standing up.

"The others should be here soon," he said.

Ginny nodded. "Okay."

He raised an eyebrow. "That's it? 'Okay?'"

"Well, what do you want me to say? Get the cannons ready?"

He crossed the room, shaking his head.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Ginny asked.

He turned around in the doorway, a looking a little confused. "What?"

Ginny pointed to the half eaten apple on the dresser.

Draco laughed.

"Oh, that. I thought you meant..." he shook his head. "Nevermind."

Ginny watched him, eyebrows raised. This was a side of Draco she hadn't seen before and she was finding it a little disturbing.

He turned back towards the door and then paused. "Ginny?"

"Hmm?"

He looked back at her. "Happy birthday."

"Inde nunc donec infinitas tigris nutus regnum insum te."

Draco phoenix basilisk sphinx lupus oscen(raven) aquila(eagle) panthera leo