The Story of Ginny

Chapter 7- Realization

I spent the next week pouring over the book I had found on soul bonds, trying to learn as much about it as I could. I wanted so much to tell Harry what I knew, but I was also a bit nervous. I mean, he had a bloody crush on Cho Chang and was soul bonded to me... what if he was mad about it? I needed to know everything I could find out about the bond before confiding in him. I couldn't risk losing him as my friend, he meant too much.

From the first book, the Connected Wizard's Emotions, I learned that a soul bonded pair will become more connected as their relationship grows. We don't have to be together romantically for the bond to be healthy, but we can't be mortal enemies. As for what powers we could develop as the connection grows, the next step in our bond would be to help control each other's emotions. Sort of like in my dream, but less cartoonishly, I could send Harry a happy feeling and his sour mood may lighten a bit. That could be useful, Harry might need me to help him calm down for the next task or something like that. After mutual emotional regulation, we were likely to gain the ability to communicate telepathically and some pairs even have the ability to "call" themselves to the other. Sort of like apparition but they can only bring themselves to the side of their bonded mate. After this, it seemed that the abilities differ by the individual power of each side of the soul bond and by how quickly the bond is progressed. Those powers were not very clearly detailed in the book and I felt it might be interesting to just see how it goes with increasing my power.

I spent a lot of time in the library reading what books I could on advanced magic, trying to find something that seemed plausible to increase my power. It was really fortunate to have Colin join me almost every day, because he never asked questions and just stayed enthralled in what he was doing. I read about advanced transfiguration and charms and found that I was able to quickly memorize the spells and even perform a few of them. Like turning a beetle into a button, changing a person's physical appearance, or I even figured out a lovely new hex called the earwig hex. It made the person feel like there were bugs crawling out of their ears and mouth, I sincerely hope Fred and George never find this hex. The one that I was most excited about, however, was still my Bat Bogey Hex, which I had improved immensely and had used on at least two Slytherin students.

All the while I studied and became more powerful, I kept searching for a time to talk to Harry about what I had learned. We spent plenty of time together but it was rarely one on one, and even when it was, it took me so long to get the courage to tell him, all I could ever say was, "So, Harry, I was thinking..." cue Ron's or anyone else's entrance, then all I could finish with was something like, "we should go fly" or "I want to work harder at DADA, could you help?" Neither of which we did because of the person who had newly joined us. It was really quite infuriating, I needed to tell him soon, I didn't want him to feel like I was hiding this and risk ruining our friendship. Being his enemy was dangerous for us both, according to the Connected Wizard's Emotions. Finally, I realized I had to force it, it had already been a month and I couldn't wait for the right time so, when I saw Harry in the common room sitting in a chair by the fireplace, I walked over to him and said, "Harry, I need your help with something in the library, let's go." he looked at me, slightly confused then stood and threw his bag over his shoulder. I suppose he can feel my nerves about this.

"Harry, can you still feel my emotions?", "Yea, right now you're really anxious about something. What's going on, Gin? I'll do what I can to help." his words made me relax a little. We don't have any obligation to each other besides not hating the guts of the other. There's nothing to worry about. "Okay, here it goes." I took a big breath to steady myself, "I was really curious about what was happening with our ability to feel the other's emotions, the feeling of warmth that spreads over us when we touch, and, well, the fact that I can't see your magical energy anymore." Harry looked at me patiently, waiting for more.