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If The Fates Allow | ||||||
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Category: Post-OotP Characters:Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny Genres: Drama Warnings: Sexual Situations, Extreme Language Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 596 Summary: Ginny has been forced to marry Draco Malfoy, but her heart still belongs to Harry. Will she ever be able to break free from this unwanted marriage? Will Harry help her? A story of passion, blackmail, Greek gods and a most surreal place for playing Quidditch! Join Harry and Ginny on their odyssey through despair and hope, faith and love, amidst Voldemort's machinations! Hitcount: Story Total: 114779; Chapter Total: 4208 |
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220;Every exit is an entry somewhere.” (Tom Stoppard) Quick as lightning, Harry yanked Ginny out of the way of the monster, so that it crashed into the wall behind the spot where she had stood a nanosecond earlier. The monster didn’t stand up right after it ran into the wall, it seemed to be a bit dizzy to round on them immediately, so they had a few seconds to run to the door they had just come through, trying to pry it open – only it was locked. “Alohomora!” Ginny shouted desperately, but it didn’t budge. “Leave it, we’ve got to fight our way through this room if we want to reach the Fates!” Harry yelled. “Fight this?” she yelled back. “Harry’s this is a Chimera!” “As if I didn’t know!” he grunted as the animal managed to pull itself together, and somewhat shakily turned in their direction, its huge red eyes gleaming menacingly. “Could you freeze it in time?” Ginny suggested, her wand hand trembling. “Not bloody likely,” he replied, flattened against the magically locked door. “W… why not?” she stammered. “Because of its tail. See, it’s a dragon’s tail, and dragons are the only creatures that cannot be frozen in time…” “But this is just part-dragon,” she reasoned. “It’s still impossible, tried it during my Circle-training, no use…” The Chimera, however, didn’t seem to like their little chitchat, so it rather decided to end it by advancing on them with an ear-splitting roar, opening its horrible mouth to reveal a row of razor-sharp teeth. “Eurgh, don’t you ever clean your teeth? You’ve got a terrible breath, fellow,” grimaced Harry. “I fear he understands us…” Ginny whispered. “So don’t rile him, will you?” “He doesn’t need riling to want to eat us,” Harry replied under his breath. “He looks damn hungry.” “Then… conjure some food for him?” she suggested. “Won’t help,” Harry replied as the beast pounced. He Disapparated from the spot and appeared several meters to the left. “Chimeras prefer human flesh.” “Now you tell me,” she gulped, her wand still shaking in her hand. The monster turned around – it took him about four second to properly turn around, since Chimeras are like rhinos in this respect: they have difficulties with changing direction – and lunged at Harry again. Harry again Disapparated to appear on the beast’s right this time, aggravating it more and more by the second. The poor Chimera was looking from left to right, right to left, as though watching a table-tennis game, because Harry kept Apparating so quickly all around the room to confuse it and to divert its attention from Ginny. The monster kept jumping back and forth, according to where he had last seen Harry, while Harry was actually having fun. It was really fun driving a Chimera mad… until you accidentally Apparated right under its feet. That’s exactly what happened to Harry: he randomly Apparated at the middle of the room, not counting with the possibility that the monster might instinctively jump to the very same spot at the very same second. The odds against such things happening were about 725:1, but Harry was unfortunate enough to be the exception. “Harry!” shrieked Ginny as she saw the enormous creature land on Harry. Seemingly its success appalled the Chimera as much as it shocked his ‘future snack’. For a second it looked down at the human sprawled under him, confused, its lapse of attention giving Ginny time to cast her famous Bat-Bogey Hex on it. With a tremendous roar the monster jumped off Harry, wriggling its goat-legs towards its lion-head to chase those terrible, flapping batwings off it, to no avail. “You needn’t have, I could’ve Apparated out from under it,” Harry said as he stood up and stumbled several steps sideways until Ginny caught him. “Oh, really?” she arched an eyebrow at him. “Then why didn’t you Apparate out from under it?” “I just fancied a bit of a rest… you know, if you’ve fallen, why stand up at once, why not stay there lying, resting a bit?” “Admit it that you were too crushed under the beast to Disapparate and that I saved you,” she folded her arms with a demanding expression. “All right, you win,” he grinned and pulled her out of the way of the howling Chimera that was still trying to get the batwings off its head. “Nice charm, by the way. Is this your favourite? You used it in Atlantis, too.” “It’s just too good not to use,” she smiled proudly. “But the batwings suited Draco better than the Chimera.” “I’m still sorry I didn’t have a chance to see him like that,” he sighed happily, but in the next instant all happiness disappeared from his face. “What?” she frowned, seeing his frightened expression. He pointed at something behind her back, and already dreading what she’d see, she turned around to face the most bizarre creature she’d ever seen. The creature was human-looking, though at least twenty feet high, and had a huge eye in the middle of its forehead. “I fear this is a nightmare come true,” she muttered, remembering the frescos they had seen in the tunnel that Harry had so appropriately named Tunnel of Zeus. “I start to agree. First a Chimera, now a Cyclops… what’s next?” However, she didn’t have a chance to answer, for the Cyclops came running towards them, its huge arms stretched out, its enormous yellowish teeth bared, its only eye glinting hungrily. “You’re asking what’s next?” she breathed, pointing her wand at the one-eyed giant. “Either a Harry and Ginny Burger, or… Conjunctivitis!” she shouted at the Cyclops that clapped his hands over his only eye, howling with pain. “That was below the belt, to give the poor bloke an eye-disease, when he’s only got one…” said Harry with a smirk. “Well done.” “Thanks…” ; Ginny started when the Chimera, still struggling with the batwings blurring its view, ran headlong into the Cyclops who obviously didn’t see it coming. The Cyclops stumbled from the beast’s ‘attack’ and Harry and Ginny jumped aside to get out of the way of the falling giant. The giant hit the floor with a thud, jerking his enormous hands off his face. “Watch out!” yelled Ginny as the Cyclops’ left arm flailed around him, almost tripping Harry. In the meantime, the roaring, and still barely-able-to-see Chimera hurtled over the sprawled out giant’s legs, making it let out a yowl of pain as it trod on the limbs, its dragon-tail whipping madly in all directions. Harry, who was still struggling to sustain his balance after the Cyclops had almost tripped him, couldn’t jump aside quickly enough and the dragon-tail smashed him hard in the back. “Damn it,” he doubled over and Disapparated to reappear several meters away from the rampaging Chimera. “We should at last get out of here, Gin…” he wheezed, still not able to straighten his back properly. “I agree,” she put an arm around his shoulder, steering him away from the Cyclops and the Chimera, towards the other end of the room where a door in the shape of an owl could be seen. “Come, before those beasts start to look for us again,” she tried pulling her injured companion across the room as fast as possible. “You don’t need to prop me up, okay?” he hissed through gritted teeth. “Oh, stop acting the hero,” she snapped, trying to take as much of his weight as possible to lighten the walk for him. They were merely five meters from the door when a loud rumbling indicated that the Cyclops had come round and was trying to rise to his feet, also the Chimera came roaring towards them… With the last of his strength, Harry raised his wand. “Impedimenta on the count of three, okay?” “Right,” Ginny nodded. “One… two… three… Impedimenta!” Both the giant and the monster got blasted backwards, as though they had been blown away by an unusually strong gust of wind, and the young witch and wizard ran for the owl-shaped door and yanked it open. “Whew, lucky it wasn’t locked, too,” Ginny remarked as she slammed it shut behind them. “Yeah, lucky,” he agreed and had to sit down on the sandy ground. “Are you all right?” she crouched down next to him. “Never better,” he grimaced. “Little Horntail-Wannabe out there got me right in the back… a wonder none of my vertebrae broke.” “What sort of room do you reckon this is?” she looked around, making sure that no new beasts would attack them. However, in this room she couldn’t see anything moving, there were several bookshelves around, carved marble owls perching atop them, but besides the shelves there was nothing else, save some sort of a board built into the opposite wall. “Must be that of Athena,” he replied. “The one we just escaped from must’ve been that of Ares. Remember the pictures in the tunnel? They followed each other like that: Ares – the bloke in armour, he obviously set a task of fighting his favourite little pets… I bet those pets were guarding this room, or whatever that is in this room. After him Athena came on the fresco, it’s obvious, the woman in helmet must have been her, and the door to this room depicted an owl and the shelves are full of stone owls…” “Oh, the owl is the symbol of Pallas Athena,” Ginny nodded. “So, if we get through this room, then we can expect some task from Poseidon,” he said, still doubled over. “Does it hurt very much?” she worried. “I’ll live, don’t worry. I’ve been through worse in the Circle training and on certain missions,” he waved nonchalantly, then his face contorted with pain – even the wave must have hurt him a lot. “I rather feel ashamed, I should’ve remembered how to do away with a bloody Chimera… and I should have been more cautious, I saw that damn tail coming towards me from behind, yet I wasn’t quick enough to jump aside… I should have at least Disapparated or something…” Ginny put her arms around his neck and snuggled her face into his damp-with-sweat hair. “Harry, you’re good in a fight, but you’re not a superhero, accept it. Not even you are invincible or invulnerable…” He gave her a sour look. “I’ve screwed it up, Gin. There’s no excuse for someone with a Circle training to screw up! If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead!” “Oh, and you feel miserable about me saving your life, eh?” she pulled away from him, looking sulky. “No!” he replied hastily, then made an embarrassed grimace. “Well, yes, but…” “No buts!” she jumped to her feet. “You men are all the same: can’t except that we females can also be just as clever or skilful or brave as you are! You all give us this male-chauvinist shit that you should be the ones to protect us, but it’s not how things work, Harry!” By the time she stopped her tirade, she was panting and flushed. “What?” she glared at Harry who was eyeing her in a weird fashion. “I love you when’re you’re shouting, you know…” he replied quietly, his green eyes glinting mischievously. “Only when I’m shouting?” she raised her eyebrows challengingly. “C’mere,” he beckoned to her, though even this little movement must have caused him suffering. But even if it did, he didn’t show it. Somewhat reluctantly, she sat back down next to him. He sneaked his left arm around her waist, gently pulling her to him. “I love you, always. No matter what happens, Ginny.” “I love you too… just accept it that you’re only human, like all of us.” “It won’t be easy… but I’ll try.” He kissed her cheek lightly. “Well, time to find out what this room has in store for us, eh?” She nodded and helped him off the ground. Though with some difficulty, he managed to straighten his back and looked around in the room. “Weird shelves,” Harry said, reaching out for a book on a shelf, but his hand went simply through it. “What are these? Ghost-books? Or holograms? I doubt whether the ancient Greeks knew about holograms.” “I think these bookshelves are just here for… decoration,” said Ginny. “As we surmised, this must be Athena’s room, and she was the Goddess of Wisdom, that’s why she decorated her room with books and owls. But, with the exception of these shelves, there’s nothing else here, the only thing seems to be that board over there,” she pointed at a huge rectangular board set into the wall at the farthest end of the room. They walked up to the board and Harry touched it to make sure that it wasn’t just a fake one like the bookshelves. However, this one felt solid and since there was no other door in the room but the one they had come through from Ares’ room, he suspected that the board might be the key to their continuing their journey. He stepped slightly back to read the script on the board – but he couldn’t. “What the heck?” he frowned. Ever since the all-language charm had been cast on him, he had been able to interpret all sorts of scripts written in all human languages… but not this one, for this one seemed to be nothing else but a random order of the letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. At the bottom there were four separate, circle-shaped stones, each bearing one of the first four letters of the Greek alphabet. Ginny started chewing her lower lip, her eyes fixed upon the mysterious board and when Harry opened his mouth to ask what was going through her mind, she waved him to shut up and not disturb her in the concentration. Harry was getting annoyed by her silence, he didn’t like being left out of things… He was just about to remind Ginny that he was still there when she suddenly turned away from the board and pointed her wand at the floor, using it like a pencil, drawing something into the dust. Harry peered at two pictures she had drawn, to see the Greek alphabet organised into a square, and next to it, she had drawn the English version with Roman letters. “What are you doing?” “I’m drawing Polybios Squares,” she replied. “Whats?” She turned to him, her face radiating excitement and something that suggested to Harry that she had solved the riddle. “I was taught Ancient Runes by the private teacher Draco hired for me… He taught me all sorts of runes, and even some cryptography. The Greek Polybios had made up this square that can be used for coding texts. See,” she pointed at the English version that she had only drawn to help Harry understand it, “if you want to write HI GINNY, you have to write it as BCBDBBBDCCCCED. Each letter can be given by the combination of A, B, C, D or E. Look, A is AA, B is AB, C is AC, and so on… and of course, in Greek, you have to combine Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. With the help of this square, we will hopefully be able to read that text on the board.” Harry gave Ginny an admiring look that she accepted with a smug grin. “So, let’s see it, then,” she crouched down next to the squares she’d drawn into the sand and started deciphering the text on the board with its help. “Well?” asked Harry after a while. “It’s a riddle. Or rather a quiz-question with four possible answers,” Ginny replied. “And? What does it ask?” “It’s the following: ‘Which one of the following didn’t serve as a sea-obstacle in Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaka? A: Scylla B: Charibdys C: Sirens D: Circe’ Push the right answer.” She sighed. “Pity that I never read the Odyssey.” “I have, but hated it. It was a set book in the final year at my primary school, we had a mad Literature teacher called Mrs Perry who insisted that we read it,” Harry grimaced at the memory. “It was horrible for a ten-year old, reading a several hundred pages long Greek epic, most of which I didn’t even understand. All that I remember is that there was a nymph called Calypso who held Odysseus as her sex-slave while his wife weaved some cloth that she undid every night to fool her stupid suitors… then there was this chick who turned Odysseus’ friends into pigs… Hey, that was Circe!” Harry’s face lit up. “The chick wanted to turn Odysseus into a pig, too, but he was shrewd and bedded her instead but didn’t let her magic him. Circe lived on an island, and when Odysseus met her, he was also on the island,” Harry carried on enthusiastically. “Scylla was some six-headed monster that ate several of Odysseus’ men when they sailed past her, Charybdis was a whirlpool that tried to suck his ship in… and the sirens, well you know the story,” he winked at her. “Did Odysseus also sing ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’ with the Sirens?” she raised an eyebrow. “No, he told his men to tie him to the mast so that he wouldn’t be able to leave the ship when he heard the Sirens’ tempting song. The point is that he met the Sirens while on his ship, while sailing on the sea, so the only one of the four that wasn’t a sea-obstacle was Circe.” “So then, should I push D? I mean, Delta? Are you sure that’s the right one?” she asked. “Well,” he seemed hesitant for a second. “I wouldn’t say I’m a hundred percent sure about this, I mean, I was only ten and really didn’t understand much of the whole stupid epic and hated all dactyls and spondees and I got a rather bad mark for the test about the Odyssey, so… no, I’m not sure.” “Arggh,” she growled. “What shall we do, then?” “Push one of them, then see what happens,” he shrugged. “I still suggest the D. Fortune favours the brave, Gin.” “Jawohl, Herr Gryffindor!” she said sarcastically and pushed the circular button with the sign Delta. For several seconds nothing happened, making Ginny think that perhaps Harry’s Literature teacher had been right to give him a bad mark, then suddenly they heard the sound of cogwheels whirring inside of the wall and the huge board with the cryptic text slid aside to reveal a hole in the wall. “Yessss!” Harry punched the air. “Ouch!” he doubled over in the next instant. “All right?” she asked with a worried expression. “Yeah, yeah, just a too sudden movement,” he replied through gritted teeth. Ginny could see that he wasn’t all right at all. He propped his hands on his knees a bit, then straightened his back without a wince, though she could have sworn he’d like to scream with pain. “Thank you, Mrs Perry,” Harry whispered and stepped through the hole, followed by Ginny. “Apparate to Delos, then?” asked Draco with a wide grin after he and Phaedra left the oracle’s underground lair. “We can’t,” she replied. “Why?” he furrowed his brow. He wanted to go there this instant, curse Potter and yell at him ‘get your dirty hands off my wife and don’t ever come near her!’ “Why can’t we?” “Because Apparating to Delos has been restricted.” “Restricted? Is that a problem?” Draco waved indignantly. “The Greek Wizarding Authorities or what wouldn’t have to know that we Apparated there.” “All right, then, let’s rephrase it, Malfoy,” Phaedra said in a voice that again sounded like explaining something to a five-year-old: “Apparating to Delos was not only restricted but made impossible.” “But why???” “Because Delos is a place mostly used for meditation and the meditating wizards didn’t want to be disturbed by randomly Apparating wizards… You can Apparate on the island once you’re there, but you can’t Apparate to the island. The point is that we’ve got to go by the Hippobus. If we reach the one that goes from Pireus at five o’clock, we’ll get to Delos at eleven. If we don’t reach it, then we’ll have to take the one that stops in Atlantis for the night, but I take you don’t want to waste a whole night in an underwater city?” “Actually it’d be fun, never seen anything like that, but… no, of course not,” Draco replied. “I want my wife back, as soon as possible.” “Then come, Blond Prince, let’s Apparate to Pireus.” “Do – not – call – me – Blond – Prince!” “Wow,” Harry breathed as he stepped through the hole from the room of Athena onto a beautiful, sandy beach that didn’t look a thing like the beach of Delos, it wasn’t as dreary as that: this one had several small sand dunes, a pretty rock in the water with an elegant arch in it, and – to his greatest surprise – a ship was moored in a nearby lagoon. “An ancient Greek ship,” Ginny stated, looking at the longish eye painted onto the side of the ship. “What do you think, do we have to sail on it?” “I don’t know…” he replied. “But it seems that there’s not much else we could do… I see no monsters attacking us, no script we have to decipher… the ship has to be here for a reason.” “Then? How do we get there?” she mused. The ship was moored at least fifty metres from the beach. “We could swim, of course, but with my aching back I wouldn’t care to try,” he admitted. “I think we could walk there.” “Walk???” she blinked, giving him an expression that suggested she thought he’d gone mad. “Another useful little charm based on the Bible,” Harry smiled, pointing his wand at her feet, then at his own ones, muttering some spell. “There, we’ve been made feather-light, so now we can walk on the water.” Ginny squinted at the sapphire waves with a huge deal of mistrust. Seeing her doubtful face, he stepped onto the water and held out his hand for her: “Come on, trust me, you won’t sink.” She took his hand and placed one of her feet onto the surface, trying it with her toes. It felt weirdly solid. With a huge intake of breath she stepped forward, and the water indeed sustained her weight. “This is wonderful!” she squealed with delight. “I’m walking on water!” “Race me to the ship?” asked Harry challengingly. “Right! One, two, three!” she yelled and sprinted off towards the ship swaying gently ahead. He ran beside her, but his back began to ache so badly again that it hindered him in running. “I win!” Ginny said cheerfully. “Just because I’m hurt,” he said. “I would have won even if you weren’t hurt,” she replied, leaning to the side of the ship. “I’m a damn good runner. Beat Fred and George at it, even Ron. Only Charlie can run quicker than me in the family, that’s because he had plenty of exercise running from the dragons when they went on the rampage.” “Aha,” he said and started climbing the rope ladder hanging over the ship’s side. “I’ve always dreamed of this.” “Of what?” she asked, going aboard, too. “This,” he grinned, then pointed his wand at himself. In the next instant he was wearing a loose white shirt with slightly frilly cuffs, a pair of tight-fitting navy blue leather trousers, a huge sword on his side and a shawl tied around the top of his head. “Captain Jack Sparrow at your service.” “You forgot the golden earring,” remarked Ginny, and added the missing element of the pirate’s costume. “That’s better.” “Thanks, sailor,” said the Captain, conjuring a fitting outfit for Ginny: navy blue-white striped blouse, a white little skirt and a jaunty white hat. “And now… let’s put out to sea, shall we?” “A moment, Captain, we haven’t named the ship yet,” Ginny pointed out. “Sailing out on a nameless ship is highly unfortunate.” “Have you been talking a lot to Trelawney?” he arched an eyebrow at her from behind his oval glasses that looked quite terrible on Harry the Pirate. “No, but I still want to christen her,” insisted the young witch. “Conjure me a bottle of champagne, will you?” “Can’t you?” he asked. “You’ve just conjured an earring for me.” Harry pointed out. “That’s easy to do, I learnt it in my sixth year, but conjuring food of any kind is seventh year material, and I never got a chance to learn it,” she shrugged. “All right,” he nodded, and flicked his wand to make a bottle of champagne appear out of nowhere. She took it from him and walked to the rail. She turned around. “What should we name her?” “Queen Virginia?” he suggested. “Eurgh, I hate that name,” she grimaced. The name Virginia always made her think of the morning after her terrible wedding night, when Draco teased her about not being a Virginia anymore. “Then simply Ginny,” Harry said. “And if I had several similar ships, I’d call them Ginny1, Ginny2, Ginny3…” “Like Jenny1, Jenny2, Jenny3?” she smiled. “I loved Forrest Gump, too.” “You’ve seen it?” “Mmm…” she gazed into the crystal-clear water. “With Michael, when we were still dating. He took me to the cinema.” “Did you love him?” he asked the question he had wanted to ask ever since his sixth year at Hogwarts. “Nah. I liked him. There’s a big difference,” she replied, still not looking at him. “I was just fourteen when he first asked me out, and I wanted to forget my infatuation with you… and I had never dated anyone before, so, I thought: why not? But in fact he was just a tool… someone I used to forget you.” “He must have been a great means of forgetting me, because in my fifth year you didn’t seem to like me a bit. At least… not like that.” “Did it bother you?” she cast a sideways glance at him. “No. I was too preoccupied with having no news of Voldemort, that old toad Umbridge, Cho, and everything to want your attention… it just surprised me that you no longer blushed when I was nearby.” “But you liked it when I blushed again in your presence,” she smiled at the bittersweet memory of their first ‘therapy meeting’. It seemed to her like coming from an earlier life, so distant, so hazy… for a moment she wished she were fifteen again, that she could go back in time and change things… then perhaps she wouldn’t have had to marry Draco, she could have stayed with Harry… “Yes, I did,” he grinned. “Come to think of it: what happened to Umbridge?” “Hah, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she sniggered. “Why?” “S he married Filch.” “What???” &# 8220;You heard me well, she married old Argus. But she died not long after their wedding, so I heard. Filch was devastated.” “Actually I’m sorry that Umbridge died. Those two deserved each other,” Harry remarked. “Yes, they did. Well, let’s name this little beauty, shall we? And I’d rather call her Hermione, it’s a Greek name at least, while Ginny definitely isn’t.” He shrugged. “Let it be Hermione, then.” Ginny leaned a bit over the rail and smashed the champagne bottle to the ship’s side. “Hereby I christen you Hermione.” Draco was gazing out the window of the Hippobus, bored. The underwater scenery was really nice, but he wasn’t the type to get enthralled by the beauty of such things. “You know, I’ve been wondering something,” Phaedra spoke up. “What?” “The Fates Charm. What did the oracle mean by your wife wanting to get rid of it?” “None of your business, Potter,” he grunted. “So, now I’m just Potter to you?” she folded her arms. “C’mon, Malfoy, I know what The Fates Charm is, I know how it functions… but who have you put it on? Your wife?” Draco heaved a huge sigh, knowing that this woman wouldn’t leave him alone until he answered her question. “No, it’s been put on her dad, and not even by me, but my dad. Satisfied now?” “Yeah, quite a bit,” she nodded. “You Malfoys are real bastards, you know.” “Thanks,” he propped his chin into his hand, staring out the window again. “I bet you blackmailed her into this marriage with this charm.” “Why’d you think so?” he drawled. “Simple. Harry told me how much he and Ginny had loved each other. Then, one day, totally unexpectedly she just married you. He had no idea, why. But now it’s obvious that you made her, with the help of The Fates Charm.” “Bingo, Potter. That’s how it happened. Now will you leave me alone?” She pretended not to have heard him. “Do you realise that if they manage to free your wife, then she’ll leave you?” “That’s big news,” he growled. “Lucky that we caught the five o’clock bus, then we’ll be on Delos in…” he pulled a richly adorned golden watch out of his pocket, “five hours.” “Yes, let’s hope so,” she nodded. “I must tell that I despise what you’re doing to your wife to keep her around, but if her freedom means that I lose my husband, then I’d rather see her back in your dirty hands, Malfoy.” “Good that we understand each other this wonderfully,” he smirked sarcastically and directed his attention back to the fish outside. They had been sailing for about ten minutes now, without any disturbance. At first it had been quite difficult for Harry and Ginny to get the ship going, since neither of them knew anything about steering, but Harry quickly got the hang of it. The sea was tranquil and wide, stretching as far as the eye could reach. “I can’t really imagine how this could be another room in the Row of Gods,” Harry said. “No room is big enough to house a whole sea, is it? Bet we’ve long left Delos.” Ginny waved. “You’re not thinking abstractly enough again, Harry. Use your imagination and you’ll be able to imagine anything, for example that we’re still on Delos, and the sea is indeed inside of some room, but it’s magicked to seem so vast…” “Possible,R 21; he shrugged, “though still hard to believe.” A seagull swept across the sky above them. Harry managed to jerk Ginny out of the way of its droppings just in time. “Wow, you have great reflexes,” she said, nestling herself into his arms that were still clutching her. “Not always,” he sighed. “My reflexes failed me in the room of Ares.” “Does your back still hurt?” she slid her hands gently from his shoulder to his back, caressing it. Even her feather-light touch made him wince. “No, it doesn’t.” “Yes, it does!” “Doesn’t.̶ 1; “Does…” “Ss shhh!” Harry pressed his index finger to his lips. “What?” “Can you hear that?” “What?” she looked around. “I don’t know…” he let go of her and stepped to the rail. “Heavens…” “Hea vens what?” she ran to him, but he didn’t need to reply, for she understood it at once. They were heading for the largest whirlpool imaginable. Not wanting to waste a single second, Harry Apparated to the helm and grabbed it, frantically turning it right as quick as he could. “Ginny, furl the sail!” “Furl it? How? I’m no sailor, for Poseidon’s sake!” she yelled back. “Which string should I pull or how should I do it?” “Aren’t you a witch?” he shouted. “Oh, yeah!” she slapped her forehead and pointed her wand at the sail, casting a Vanishing Charm on it. Harry shot her a ‘you-could’ve-done-it-otherw ise-you-know’ stare. “Well, it doesn’t propel the ship anymore, does it?” she asked. “Surely it doesn’t,” he replied through gritted teeth, still jerking the helm right to turn the ship starboard and put as much distance between the Hermione and the whirlpool as possible. “A little more to the right!” yelled Ginny. “Easy to say,” he grunted, sweating profusely as he tried fighting the forces of nature. His hands had already turned red and sore and all he could think of for a chance of survival was to steer the helm by magic. “Ginny, come up to the bridge!” he shouted, feeling that he no more could hold the helm like that, his arms got cramp, but he needed both hands to keep the ship going right, he couldn’t let go of the helm for a single second to whip out his wand. She joined him on the bridge in no time. “What can I help with?” “Try to make the wheel turn right with magic,” he panted, screwing up his face to try and levitate his own wand out of his back pocket. He had sometimes done wandless magic, but he was too exhausted and hurt to do it now, it needed one hundred percent concentration. “Okay, I’ll try,” she nodded, her face white with anxiety. She pointed her wand at the helm, giving it a magical boost. Harry had to yank his hands back, because the wheel started spinning like mad in the right direction. “I think we’ve did it!” he whooped happily as the Hermione drifted considerably to the right. “I… I’m not sure…” gulped Ginny, staring at something that came into the sight – something that the ship was directly sailing at. The young wizard turned around and a sharp intake of breath told Ginny that even the Hero Harry got frightened. “Scylla?” he muttered. “Must be… she has six heads,” Ginny replied, her heart hammering at her throat. “Can’t we avoid her somehow?” “Hardly. If we try to avoid her, we’ve got to sail to port, but there’s Charybdis… We’re in a trap.” “Great,” she sighed as the ship approached the monster more and more. Scylla was already hungrily stretching her six long necks towards the dinner that was so kindly sailing right at her. “Can’t you freeze her in time?” “Nope. Scylla is remotely related to dragons,” he replied darkly. “But I think we could…” “What?” “Oh, of course we could!” he slapped his forehead with a ‘how-could-I-have-been-this-stupid ?’ expression. “We were trying to avoid Charybdis instead of making it avoid us.” “What???” Ginny was getting really confused. “A Portcharm,” he replied. She just frowned, bewildered. “Watch me.” “What’s the spell for it?” she asked, before he started to show her whatever he had in mind. “No spell, just concentration. Imagine it hovering… towards the monster.” With that he pointed his wand at the whirlpool, screwing up his face in concentration. Slowly, very slowly the water around the whirlpool stirred and started to sever itself from the rest of the water. It was the weirdest thing Ginny had ever seen: as though some invisible scissors had cut the waves around the whirlpool, making the whirlpool detach itself from the sea. Beads of sweat were running down the sides of Harry’s face that reddened with the effort he was making. “Help,” he wheezed as he levitated the whirlpool from the sea. With a great deal of scepticism, Ginny pointed her wand at the flying whirlpool and focused her mind on trying to keep it in the air. Well, making a feather fly with Wingardium Leviosa was definitely easier… “Just a little more, Ginny…” Harry panted as Charybdis slowly floated towards Scylla. The sea monster clearly didn’t know what to expect, she had never seen a flying whirlpool, so she found it too interesting to think it could be dangerous. “And now… let’s surprise little Scyllie, shall we?” said Harry with a vicious grin. “On the count of three.” “Okay. One… two… three…” Ginny and Harry jerked their wands in the sea monster’s direction, making the whirlpool zoom right at it, then ended their magical grip on the whirlpool. “Cool,” said Ginny admiringly as Scylla got swallowed by Charybdis. Now they only had to steer the Hermione to port as quickly as possible. They both pointed their wands at the helm that began to spin to the left, turning the ship away from the now satiated whirlpool. “You know, levitating a feather is much easier than levitating a whirlpool,” she remarked as the ship reached peaceful waters again. “Yeah… size does matter, doesn’t it?” he winked at her. “Just don’t say this in front of Yoda,” she grinned back. “Don’t tell me you’ve seen Star Wars with Michael, too.” “No, actually I saw it with Bill and Percy.” “Percy?” Harry raised an eyebrow. “Uh-huh. Bill and me became huge Star Wars fans, but Percy said it was the worst film he’d ever seen… not that he’s seen many movies… I think the only other movie he saw was Dead Poets’ Society, but he loved it. He said it was an ‘artistic’ movie while Star Wars just a stupid made up story.” “Typical Percy,” Harry grimaced. “He’d love anything boring and depressing, wouldn’t he?” “Yeah,” she nodded. “What’d you think, is this task over?” “No idea… but I can’t really see the end of the sea yet,” he replied. “Neither can I,” she sighed, propping her elbows on the rail on the bridge, gazing onto skyline of ever-dancing waves. It was close to sunset, the sun ready to disappear below the horizon. “Is that an island?” he pointed at a dark dot. “Must be,” she replied, straining her eyes to see what it was. Something was moving on the island: three golden shapes. As they got nearer, the golden shapes turned out to be the golden hair of three… “Sirens?” Ginny made a disgusted expression. “Again?” “Mmmphh̷ 0; they seem to be the mermaid-type sirens,” Harry stated. Indeed, three gorgeous women were languidly sitting on the small, rocky island, their fins splashing idly to the rhythm of the song they were singing. As the Hermione reached the island, the sirens’ song got louder so that Harry and Ginny could understand the words of it. Ginny got more and more miffed by the second, listening to the three blonde sirens’ song, for it was mostly about kinky things they’d do to Harry if he only left the ship and joined them… “Sorry, ladies, I’m not interested,” Harry yelled down at them. The three sirens looked up, baffled. No man had ever spoken to them – men just left their ships to their song to get drowned by them afterwards… why was this idiot talking to them then? And why wasn’t he interested in them? The three sirens exchanged meaningful looks and continued their song, but much louder than before. “Haven’t you heard him, merchicks? He’s not interested!” Ginny shouted. “Who the hell do you think you are to say whether he’s interested or not?” huffed one of the sirens. “She’s my fiancée, well sort of,” Harry replied, putting an arm around Ginny’s shoulder. “So no use, ladies, I’m too much in love with her to want your services. But if you’d like, I’d gladly sing a quartet with you. Do you know the song ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’?” The three blondies looked at each other, horrified, their expressions radiating: ‘swim for your life, this bloke’s a raving maniac!’ With a loud splash the sirens disappeared into the sea. “Hm… it seems they don’t like that song,” Harry shrugged. “Pity.” “What is this strange noise, Harry?” “What?” he perked up his ears, listening. Indeed, there was something funny going on… something was roaring, and it wasn’t the usual sound of the sea… it rather sounded like a… “Waterfall,” breathed Ginny. “Waterfall?” Harry knitted his eyebrows. “Come on, why would a waterfall be in a sea? Surely the sea’s not flowing down a waterfall?” Ginny’s eyes widened at the mere mental image of Harry’s words, then, in the next instant, she was running towards the prow. “Oh, no!” Harry Apparated next to her. “Shit.” He Apparated back to the bridge, pointing his wand at the helm to try and make it turn the ship around. Soon Ginny arrived to assist him. The Hermione started to turn, but slowly, too slowly… she was drifting closer and closer to the end of the sea, where it simply ran down into the abyss… into nothingness. “Don’t give up!” Harry shouted to out-bellow the roaring of the enormous waterfall. “I’m not giving up!” she yelled back, gritting her teeth in effort to keep the ship from tumbling down into the abyss. “Whatever happens, Ginny, I love you!” he bellowed, his voice getting muffled by the ear-splitting noise the waterfall was producing. “I love you too!” she shouted back, her wand-free hand grabbing Harry’s wand-free one. For a second the Hermione teetered on the verge of the fall, then gravity took possession of her, pulling her over the bottomless precipice. Author’s note: in case you didn’t fully understand the Polybios Square, then you can view a picture of it in my yahoo group, in the Photos/Fatesficpics section. Big thanks to C Rose (I promise you a happy ending), Angie, J.C., jenn, ally and Erin for reviewing chapter 13. Please drop a review this time as well! (and not only the above mentioned people! My stats say that there are at least 150 of you following this fic, so come on, review, please!) |
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