Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 63: Before The Storm
Harry inserted the small arkstone crystal inside an opening in the tree, then he sealed it up and ran his finger across the runes he had just carved.
These began to glow in a pure white tone, emitting a subtle buzzing sound.
"Is it done?." Ginny asked. She had been patiently watching Harry work without interrupting or asking too many questions.
Something that he was very grateful for.
"There is one last thing to do before I activate the ward. I need one drop of your blood." Harry expected the girl to freak out a bit at the request.
"Blood?. You mean to bind the wards to me?. Okay, give me a moment." Ginny responded right before tearing apart one of the smaller branches of the tree and then using its sharp tip to pierce her finger.
"Ehm… yes. Not just to you, but also to anyone with a strong blood connection with you. So, your most immediate family." Harry pointed at the runes. "Just run your finger over those runes."
Ginny did as he told her and touched the runes with her bloody finger.
The blood was quickly absorbed into the rune cluster.
"Its done… and it only needed one drop." Harry noticed that her finger was still bleeding.
Ginny didn't say anything, but her lips were pressed into a thin white line, showing that she was in pain.
"Show me." Harry grabbed her hand and applied a mild healing charm to it. "I think you pressed a bit too hard with that tree branch."
"But luckily, I had an excellent healer with me." She watched as the skin of her finger was fixed and the blood disappeared. "Thank you. That felt nice."
Harry shook his head. "I'm the one who asked you. And I'm not much of a healer."
"Really? For what I have seen so far, you could give Madam Pomfrey a run for her money." Ginny said.
"I…" Harry was interrupted by a sound coming from the tree. The previous buzzing sound grew much louder.
"Is something wrong?." Ginny sounded a bit concerned.
"No." He pointed up. "Look."
The three rune clusters became active at the same time, sending thin lines of light towards the sky.
When the three lines met in the middle, they formed a translucent structure made of light, shaped like a pyramid.
"Whoa! It's the first time I've seen a ward becoming active." Ginny watched with wonder at the spectacle.
The light soon dissipated, and the runes lost their previous glow.
"Its done," Harry said. "The ward is fully functional."
"It's not going to glow again?. That's a shame, it was very pretty." Ginny pointed out.
"It will only glow if it encounters intruders and needs to consume more magic from the crystal to stop them from entering your property." Harry hoped that would never happen.
This ward was fairly simple and would not be able to stop the advance of a skilled attacker for too long. It was only meant to be a temporary insurance until he could secure the materials he needed.
Now that the light show was over, the Weasley garden went back to being bathed in darkness.
"Its very late. We should go back to the house." Harry suggested.
"W-wait." Ginny grabbed the sleeve of his robes.
"Hmm?." Harry stopped and turned to look at the girl. Her expression was hard to read, and under the dim light of the moon, he could not see much.
"Yesterday, when we were in Paris, you asked me something important. And… we ended up returning home without having a chance to talk things through properly."
"Ah… that." In a very clumsy way, Harry had kind of asked Ginny out when they were at the ice cream parlor. But then they started talking about the frozen world incident, and the conversation never went back to that topic.
"I think I owe you an answer, right?." She stood in front of him.
Ginny was only a few inches shorter than he, so their faces stood very close to each other.
"So… wha—" Harry wasn't sure what he was going to ask there, but he never got the chance to try, as Ginny crashed her lips against his.
The two of them became entangled in a long kiss as Ginny kept her grip on his sleeves.
When they separated, Harry was entranced by her smile, which he could now see much better under the moonlight since she was extremely close.
He could also smell her pleasant floral scent, now mixed with the humidity in the air.
His mind had become numb, and it took him a moment to react. "That was… nice."
Ginny chuckled. "I'm glad you liked it. By the way… that was a yes to your question."
"So… does that mean th—" Harry flinched.
"Harry!" V shouted in alarm.
Ginny became startled, as he had not said a word in so long, and suddenly shouted.
But just as she was about to ask what this was all about, she saw lights appearing above her head, forming a pyramidal shape. "The wards?." She sounded confused. "But you told me that…" Ginny felt a cold shiver on her back.
"We have intruders," Harry confirmed her fears.
"What great timing," V commented.
"W-what do we do?!. We need to warn my parents." Ginny said in a nervous tone.
Harry held her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "There is no need to worry, Ginny. For as long as I am here, you and your family are completely safe."
"That's right. Harry and I are more than enough to deal with a bunch of Death Eaters." V said.
"They are Death Eaters?!." Ginny exclaimed. After the terrifying adventure at the Ministry of Magic, she wasn't too eager to see those individuals again.
"V, you talk too much…" Harry huffed.
"Oh… oops."