A Journey so Far - A Harry Potter Fanfic

12. Discoveries

The rest of the holidays were just as good as Ellie had hoped. She and Jamie spent loads of time outside helping Hagrid and in return he helped them build a treehouse just inside the Forbidden Forest. Dumbledore had offered to do it by magic but they had all been keen to actually do the work. The result was brilliant. There were two levels in the tree, the bottom one with a roof and walls, the top one only accessible by rope ladder and it was just a platform, with a large telescope for watching out for approaching enemies! The roofed part had a table and three chairs and also a cupboard containing pillows, duvets and sleeping mats incase they decided to sleep up there one night. Ellie and Jamie spent many happy hours playing up there. They even attached a pulley system with a basket on the end so that Flapjack wouldn't be stuck on the ground the whole time.

They also spent many nights in Ellie's Garden with Kirja. They explored the extensive rainforests and woods and found the ruins of a medieval castle, complete with only slightly rusty medieval swords which they cleaned, blunted and then used to play pirates and damsel-in-distress with. Ellie also spent lots of time learning with Kirja and she was now very adept at making underground caves - in fact, she and Jamie now had an underground secret lair full of rushing waterfalls and dripping stalactites.

Hermione arrived to join them a week before term restarted.

"Paris was amazing! We went to all the muggle attractions of course, but then we also went to the wizarding ones - they were incredible! And I ate all sorts of French food, including snails! They sound disgusting, but are actually quite nice! What about you two - what have you been up to?"

"We'll not much!" Said Ellie, laughing at her friend's enthusiasm. "We built a treehouse in the forbidden forest and did loads of exploring in my Garden! We found a castle ruins and I made a really cool underground cave system which we can play in! How was your Christmas?"

"That doesn't sound like not much! Oh of course, I nearly forgot! Thanks for the presents! I haven't had a chance to read the book from you Ellie, although I did find the section on Theriantrist, which I think you must have seen! I hope you like my presents!"

Jamie nodded, grinning at how excited Hermione seemed to be back! After she had dumped her bags in Ellie's room and they had set up the spare bed she would be sleeping on, Ellie and Jamie pulled Hermione out into the grounds and towards the forbidden forest. They ran past Hagrid who was on his way to feed the hypogriffs and so they tagged along with him. They had a wonderful, carefree half and hour feeding and bowing to the hypogriffs before they ran on to the treehouse where they collapsed in piles of giggles and lay on the top level gazing up at the leaves.

They spent the rest of the day playing outside and it wasn't until it was nearly pitch black that they trudged back up to the castle and had supper. They were all so tired that they dropped straight into bed and didn't even think about visiting Ellie's Garden.

Ellie, however, awoke in the middle of the night because the book was under her pillow, vibrating. She decided not to go and visit Kirja but instead she pulled out the invisibility cloak from under her bed and gently fingered the material. She remembered her dad being very proud of his cloak, but she also remembered that it was supposed to pass to her brother, Harry. Something about tradition! She sighed. She would give it to him for his birthday one year when he was at Hogwarts - she could teach him about it and his family, although she assumed her aunt and uncle would have done that already.

She swung her legs out of bed, shivering slightly as she did so, and placed her feet inside her fluffy slippers. Then she slipped on her dressing gown and threw the cloak over her head, making herself invisible. Then she crept out of her room, avoiding stepping on Hermione, down the corridor, past Dumbledore's room and out to explore the castle. She had done this several times when she was younger, but she never got very far in the dead of night for fear of the dark and Mrs Norris. She made her way down to the kitchens and got herself a midnight feast of milk and chocolate before heading back out towards the dungeons. She had never gone very far down here before for fear of Professor Snape mainly, but as he had gone home for the holidays she thought she might have a look. It wasn't until she got to entrance hall that she realised she didn't have a light, as she had left her wand on her bedside table, and the dungeons were definitely dark. She wished she had a lantern to guide her, and as she thought this a flame flickered into existence on the top of her left thumb. She stared, dumbstruck at it. That wasn't possible. She had no way of creating a flame without her wand, so how come there was one flickering on the end of her thumb? She stared at it for a few moments, a frown creasing her pretty face, before she decided to do some experiments. She slipped off the cloak and stretched out the palm of her hand. The flame winked out. She concentrated on thinking of a little ball of flame and seconds later one appeared in her hand. She cradled it and concentrated on it getting bigger, which it duly did. It reached a point when she had to use both hands to hold it before the ball became too big for her and it popped out of existence, leaving her in the complete darkness again. She created a small flame and picked up the cloak, making her way towards the dungeons once more.

She explored the dungeons for about 15 minutes, but couldn't find anything interesting. She poked her head into one last classroom before turning to leave, but stopped abruptly. She turned around again and stared at the giant mirror in the corner of the room. She recognised it and with a jolt she realised what it was - The Mirror of Erised. She ran towards it, the flame dying and the cloak falling in an untidy head on the floor. She remembered this mirror, and wanted to look into it again. She had found it in another disused classroom when she was nine and playing hide-and-seek with herself, a common occurrence when she had been younger and had no-one to play with. The sight of her parents, brother, grandparents, aunts and uncles had sent her crying to Dumbledore when she had realised that they couldn't talk or be touched. He had explained the mirror too her and let her look into it for a bit, but the next day it was removed, and now she had found it again.

She positioned herself in front of it and the images of her family appeared before her. Her brother looked older that he had done the last time, but the rest of her family was unchanged. Her mother and father smiled down at her and she sat cross-legged on the floor for a long time before getting up to leave. She knew that Dumbledore didn't think dwelling on dreams was a good idea but there was something about the mirror that gave her the opportunity to believe that her parents were still alive and everything was alright, and she cherished that. She knew that this wouldn't be her last visit to the mirror.

The next morning Ellie gathered everyone in the sitting room and summoned Kirja as well. When they were all sitting down, looking utterly bemused, she turned all the lights of and closed all the curtains, so that they were in complete darkness. She had handed Dumbledore her wand earlier, and then she created a flame. The response was immediate. Jamie and Hermione gasped, whereas Dumbledore and Kirja made no sound, but Ellie could see in the flickering flame light that Dumbledore was frowning and glancing at Kirja, who was smiling. Ellie turned the lights back on, extinguished the flame, and looked to Kirja for an explanation.

"Between the ages of 11 and 14 a Theriantrist develops all of their powers. They become more powerful and gain more skills. The earlier you develop them, the more powerful you are. Some Theriantrists also gain some extra skills. These are rare, but they do exist, and one of these powers is the ability to control and element; fire, earth, air or water. Ellie here has been given the power of Fire. She will be able to, with a bit of practice, create, manipulate and destroy fire. You must be careful Ellie, this is both a gift and a curse."

"Can you control any element?" Hermione asked Kirja, keen to know more about something she had never heard of.

"Yes, fire, which means I will be able to give Ellie some help, but I didn't develop this power until the day before my 15th birthday meaning I am much less powerful that Ellie and she will be able to do things I have only dreamt of."

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Kirja and Ellie talking about the uses of her new found power, Jamie playing Dumbledore at Wizard Chess and beating him by a long way, and Hermione reading the book Ellie gave her for Christmas. When Ellie clambered into bed that evening Hermione beckoned Jamie into the room and closed the door behind him.

"What is it Hermione? What do you want?" Groaned Jamie, "I want to go to bed."

"Hold on lazy, just wait until you hear what I have to say."

"And what do you have to say?"

"That I've found him. I've found Nicholas Flamel."

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Hi guys.

I'm soooo sorry that I've been so slow to upload - I have had so much school work (GCSEs this year :-( ) that I have had no time to write anything!

Anyway, it's here now, and I hope it isn't too boring!!

As always, please vote/comment/follow!!

What does everyone think of Ellie's new power??

I'm going to start putting a question at the end of each chapter so if everyone could answer it that would be amazing!!

Thanks!!