Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived

Chapter Two - Beyond the Imagination (TBWL)

Fawkes appeared with a ‘pop’ in an otherwise silent room. He settled onto the second tier of his perch and faced the crowded portraits. Each occupant in the Headmistresses office had hurried to get a good view of the debriefing. This caused a ruckus in the four canvasses immediately surrounding Dumbledore’s. Dumbledore nodded his head and Fawkes began to share his memories of the previous hours.

“I see that my confidence in the young Miss Granger was not misplaced,” he stated slowly.

Fawkes turned a jeweled eye on Dumbledore.

“We should prepare for their arrival. I’m afraid their questions are imminent, though they are not all easily answered.” Dumbledore nodded a second time and the silence was broken as Fawkes disappeared.

“Albus, how will you explain?” questioned Armando Dippett.

“Do you really thing they can comprehend the enormity of their situation? They are only teenagers,” smirked Phineas Nigellus.

“Witches and Wizards, if you please...I am sure that we will have answers, and many more questions, within the hour,” Dumbledore’s voice rang out in the stone room. As the echo of his voice died, there was only silence to fill the great room.

Ginny rose to a sitting position. She was feeling much too unsteady to do anything else. She felt an odd burning sensation on her right shoulder. When she concentrated on the source of the unfamiliar feeling, she had a fleeting vision of a beautiful white unicorn.

She blinked, not wanting to lose the comforting image, but needing to see what had happened to the others. She peered around the room cautiously, not knowing what to expect. She saw Harry and Hermione both sprawled out on the floor. Ron, she noticed, was curled up like a baby. She reached out to Hermione, who was closest, and touched her hand gingerly. When she felt her fingers brush against Hermione’s bare skin, both her fingertips and her shoulder glowed with warmth. Again, Ginny had a brief vision, this one showing her a majestic Eagle. The Eagle was sailing across the clear blue sky, low to the earth, racing neck in neck with the unicorn from her previous vision as it loped across the grassy plains.

As the vision faded, Hermione’s eyes flew open. She too seemed unsteady as she attempted to push herself into a sitting position. A quick assessment of the situation told Hermione that everyone was out of immediate danger. She began to focus on Ginny, and the strange warmth in her shoulder. She visibly relaxed as she turned to Ginny with a questioning look in her eyes.

“How did you send me that vision?” she asked.

Ginny looked thoughtful for a moment. “I haven’t the foggiest notion. When I woke up, you lot were out cold. I concentrated on that peculiar feeling in my shoulder, and suddenly I had a vision. Then when I reached over to touch you, I had another vision. It was the same one that you saw.”

Hermione appeared to be deep in thought. “I wonder if we could,” she began uncertainly, “I wonder, would work if we touched the guys?”

They linked hands and together they reached out to Ron and Harry. There was no glowing warmth in their shoulders this time; there was only a soft glow where their skin met. Both girls smiled as the new vision began.

A great white Albatross soared across the open blue sky. Even the Eagle flying alongside was dwarfed by his impressive 12-foot wingspan. They swooped down towards the grassy area at the edge of the lake. They landed on an old, mossy log. The log was a popular place for the 6th and 7th years to go to sit by the lake together and watch the giant squid. In a flash, a brilliantly colored Phoenix appeared. With the ‘pop’ of his arrival echoing across the lake, a pure white unicorn shimmered into place next to him.