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Author: Gridley Story: Harry Potter and the Bond Rating: Young Teens Setting: Pre-HBP Status: Completed Reviews: 7 Words: 22,128
Author's note: a fast recap for those who, like me, can't remember what happened in THIS fanfic as opposed to all the other ones out there, especially when the author hasn't updated in over a month, the git. In Harry Potter and the Grand Alliance, we learned of a secret group of half-blood and Muggle-born witches and wizards called the Company of Tebo, who were using Muggle technology to oppose Voldemort. Harry had a strange mental linkup with Ginny and started dating her, Ron had a blazing row with Hermione and started dating her, and there was much rejoicing. Ron was taken out by a Bludger and then kidnapped by Death Eaters (though he was quickly rescued), and in a climactic battle I killed off one of my own OC's along with a bunch of middle-management DE's and dark creatures. So far in Harry Potter and the Bond, Harry and Ginny have had several more mental linkups (and a few physical ones as well). Fudge has been killed by Voldemort, Lupin has died of silver poisoning, and Pettigrew has decided to become a double agent. We now return you to your very irregularly scheduled fanfic, already in progress. "Hufflepuff takes the lead, twenty to ten!" Harry yanked back on the handle of his broom and went into a steep climb. The Bludger that had been heading in his direction zoomed past, and turned to follow a Hufflepuff Chaser. Harry returned his attention to looking for the Snitch. It wasn't easy. The wind forced tiny drops of cold rain into his exposed flesh like little needles. The rainfall wasn't heavy, but the wind was easily gusting at thirty kilometers per hour, enough to blow unwary flyers off the pitch entirely. "Gryffindor Captain is calling a time out!" Harry heard Madam Hooch's whistle and turned toward the Gryffindor goal area. A sudden downdraft brought him to a stumbling landing, and Ginny reached out a hand to steady him. He held it while Ron spoke. "We need to change formation. We've only gotten one good shot and that was a fluke. We'll go with a Gable flanking strategy." "In this weather?" Colin protested. Harry's mind wandered slightly. Tactics and strategy weren't his business - his job was to catch the Snitch. He squeezed Ginny's hand and shivered slightly. It was cold on the pitch. Almost as cold as another match, when Dementors had come to the field.... 'But the wards are stronger now.' Harry had a fraction of a second to realize that the words, in Ginny's voice, had just appeared in his head before he noticed his vision was strange. He turned his head... ...and froze as he realized he was seeing the group of soaking wet group of players from two perspectives. 'Harry? What's happening?' 'I don't know. Can you hear me too?' 'Yes. Um. I don't think that's all.' 'All?' 'Look at the others. Look at their mouths. Listen to them.' Harry looked at Ron, who was apparently speaking very, very slowly. 'Either they've all slowed down...' '...or we've speeded up,' Ginny's voice finished in his head. 'What do we do?' 'Can you still fly?' 'Seeing two things at once? We'd be lucky to stay in the air!' He paused. 'Are you dizzy too?' 'Now that you mention it, yes. What if I stay low, and only turn slowly? Could you filter that out and still see the Snitch?' Harry grimaced. It was dizzying just being on the ground. 'I guess I'll have to.' Harry realized that the time out had ended. He let go of Ginny's hand and kicked off into the air. It was strange, dreamlike. His mind felt normal, his senses alert, but his body felt as if it were moving through quicksand. Comparing himself to the others, he guessed that his mind (and Ginny's) was running faster than normal while his body wasn't. 'Harry! Watch out!' Harry instinctively spun left and the Bludger missed him by a wide margin. What should have been a sharp turn felt drawn out in his mind. 'I think we're thinking a lot faster than normal, but moving normally.' He sent back to Ginny. Then he noticed something else and bit his lip. 'And that's not all. Look at the air.' 'Look at the... oh!' It was like watching motor boats racing on the sea. Each person left a visible set of ripples in the air as they passed; a wake of tumbling raindrops. 'Harry! Look for a big ripple in the air! A long one!' 'Why...? The Snitch!' Of course! The Snitch moved quickly. It would leave quite a trail. But... 'Um, would that be cheating?' 'Harry... I'm not sure I can take much more of this.' 'Right.' For that matter, I'm not sure I can. His head was spinning and the odd lag between commanding his muscles and the response was ruining his control. Luckily, looking for a long trail of raindrops was easier than for a small golden ball. Harry spotted the trail in seconds, and less than a minute later closed his hand around the Snitch. He landed on the field hard, and almost stumbled as Ginny landed. The entire team was quickly mobbed with well-wishers. Harry suddenly realized he wasn't dizzy anymore. He was looking out of his own two eyes and seeing only what they normally saw. What happened to Ginny? He looked around frantically, and found her looking around herself. The both relaxed when they saw each other. "Are you okay, Ginny?" he called over the cheers of his housemates. "Fine! You're not dizzy?" she called back. "I'm fine!" he answered, meaning it for once. They had won, and Ginny was okay. "Harry? You didn't get hit, did you?" Ron was looking at him, apparently having noticed Ginny's concern. "Ginny! What happened to you out there?" Harry was still swarmed with fans. This didn't seem like a good time to explain, but it was important that they do it soon. "Find Hermione! Meet us at the stone gargoyle!" He hoped Ron would understand. Ron nodded, and Harry began pushing his way closer to Ginny. Now to hope that they could escape to Dumbledore's office without anyone noticing. ~~ Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione sat with Dumbledore in his office. Harry and Ginny finished explaining their latest link. Dumbledore stared at his fingertips for a moment, then nodded. "I think I am beginning to understand a few things about the bond between the two of you. Firstly, you seem to need to touch each other, not merely look at each other as I originally supposed. Secondly, it must be a period of strong emotion for the both of you. However, this most recent link gives me hope. Not only were you able to control it, but it may prove to be an incalculable advantage." "How?" Harry asked. Being dizzy and disoriented didn't seem like much of an edge to him. "You could see the whole board." Everyone's eyes swung to Ron, who blushed. Dumbledore smiled at him. "Please continue, Mr. Weasley." Ron was still blushing, but he spoke easily enough. "You remember our first year? When I played Professor McGonagall's giant chess set?" Hermione went a little white and took Ron's hand. Harry just nodded. "Well, remember at the end? How I said I needed to be taken?" Ron sighed and looked down at his hands. "I remember every move I made that night. Once, a few months later, I was practicing moves and decided to replay the game. I saw it then, right at the point where I had said I needed to be taken. There was another way - a mate in five - that wouldn't have needed any of us to be taken." Ron paused, and looked back up. "But the piece we needed for it was behind me, and I was too busy looking in front." He looked at Harry and Ginny. "I couldn't see the whole board." And Harry understood. If he and Ginny could control it, they could watch each other's backs, and warn each other of dangers instantly. If Ginny and I can control it. Big if. ~~ The following day was bright and clear, with just a hint of chill in the air. Since Harry and Ron had, as usual, put off their homework to focus on the upcoming Quidditch match, they found themselves trapped in the common room while their less devoted housemates enjoyed the break in the weather. Hermione had gone to the library to forestall any requests (or outright begging) to copy her work. In the middle of the afternoon, Hermione charged through the portrait hole and came running up to where Ron and Harry were doing their Charms homework with, as usual, a book in her hands. "I think I've found something!" "I hope it's the effect of improper wand movements when casting a detection charm," Ron said, somewhat sourly. The essay was due tomorrow. "Is it something about my bond with Ginny?" Harry put in eagerly. "No! A way you might be able to defeat Voldemort!" "What!?!" Ron and Harry gasped in unison. It's a good thing we're alone in the common room, or everyone would be staring at us by now, Harry thought. "Listen!" Hermione opened the book to a marked page and read, "'Rarely, however, a witch or wizard is found who is so closely attuned to one of the Elements that they are capable of Calling that element, and even more rarely, its adjacent Elements. The power of such a Calling has not yet been able to be measured, but nothing, living or not, has been found that is not vulnerable to at least one of the Elements when Called in this way!' Don't you see, Harry? If you can call an Element, and Voldemort is vulnerable to it, you could destroy him!" "I don't know, Hermione, it said that people who could do it were rare..." Harry knew he was powerful, but that didn't mean he could do everything. "Hermione, are you sure that's right? I mean, anyone can cast... oh, incendio, for example." Ron sounded skeptical. "Calling an Element is a lot more than that, Ron! The book talks about someone who Called Fire and destroyed four dragons all by himself!" Hermione was starting to get angry. Anxious to head off a Ron/Hermione fight when there was something much more important at stake, Harry tried to intervene. "But even if it were powerful enough, how do we know if I can Call one? Or whether it would be the right one?" he asked hastily. "Well, we'll just have to try, won't we?" ~~ The sun was noticeably lower in the sky as the trio stood out on the castle lawn. "By the heat of the Sun By the stars' twinkling light I Call the quickness of Fire Set this wood alight!" Harry held his wand pointed at the small pile of logs that Ron and Hermione had levitated into position, then sagged as nothing happened. Again. He sighed and added, "I don't think this is working." "Well, maybe we need a better verse," Hermione suggested. "Hermione, I've thought of six now! Don't you think we should try something else? I'm out of ideas!" Ron's creative talents had been honed sharp by years of Divination, but he was clearly getting exasperated by the repeated failures. "Maybe we should at least try a different Element," offered Harry. "But Fire fits you so well, Harry! I mean, you can't possibly be Earth, and Water just doesn't make sense..." "Wait," Harry interrupted. Something that had been nagging at him since Hermione had first mentioned this came back to him again. That was it! He looked at Ron. "Neville!" "You're cracking up, mate, I'm Ron. You've known me for six years." "No! Remember back around Halloween, how Luna said Neville was Earth? If we can get Neville to Call Earth, we can figure out how it works!" "You're relying on something Luna said?" Ron sounded more than a little skeptical. "You really are cracking up!" "She makes sense sometimes! Think about it, what could be a better fit?" Harry knew he was on the right track now. "Well, it's worth a try, I suppose," said Hermione dubiously. "Come on, I bet he's in the greenhouses." Harry dashed off with Ron and Hermione trailing a little behind. ~~ "Are you sure this is safe?" Neville clutched his wand nervously as he eyed the pile of rocks that had been set up. "The book said that if you can Call an Element at all, it obeys your will." Hermione was trying her best to be reassuring, but to Harry, she sounded less than completely certain. "Well, I'll give it a try. Um. What was that verse again?" "Here, Neville. I wrote it down for you." Ron handed him a paper and strolled away. He took a nervous glance at Neville and quickened his pace, until he was over twenty meters back. Neville, with his attention fixed on the paper, didn't notice. Neville took one last look at the paper, then aimed his wand at the rocks and chanted: "By thundering avalanche, By mountains high thrust I Call mighty Earth Turn these rocks to dust!" A beam of light shot out from Neville's wand, and he staggered from the force of the spell. Harry and Hermione cheered as the rocks... Stayed exactly where they were. Ron sighed, "Good try, Neville. Thanks. I guess that's what we get for listening to Luna." "But I felt something! I did!" Neville protested. "He's right, Neville. The rocks didn't even move. The Elements are supposed to be massively powerful if you can Call them at all." Hermione patted him on the shoulder. Harry shrugged. "We tried. Let's go back to the common room." The four turned away, walking back towards the castle. A light breeze drifted across the lawn. As it reached the rocks, it began to pick up a powder, fine as ash, and send it drifting with the wind. A gust reached the pile and the mounds of powder, which had held the exact shape of the rocks they had come from, drifted away like snow before the wind. End Chapter 5 Author's Note: Well, after my wedding, honeymoon, and moving out of my seven year-old email account to a new one, I'm back writing again. Hopefully the rest of the story will follow with much shorter gaps. Beta's Note: Welcome back, Gridley, we missed you. And congratulations from all of us at PhoenixSong!
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