Heritage

Chapter 14


Harry leaned against rippled trunk of an ancient oak, high among its scattered branches, and gazed out over the quiet forest with the soft sound of leaves rustling in the wind filling his ears, but the sight failed to calm him as it had recently come to. It was as though his soul was trapped in some terrible nightmare from which he could not wake. Harry stared up at the stars, pondering his lineage.


He had been raised as a boy with a family that hated him. The news that he was a wizard had been his salvation. Now, he was told that he wasn’t who he thought he was. The small amount of history about his family that he had pieced together over the years had suddenly crumbled as he found that it was all a lie.


He clenched his jaw against the threat of fresh tears, refusing to cry. Harry bowed his head and buried his face in his hands. A part of him wished that Dumbledore hadn’t told him anything, that he could have gone on believing that he was but a simple orphaned wizard raised muggles.


With the news of his family’s history, his life and future had completely changed. In a matter of moments he had ceased to be Harry Potter, son of James and Lily Potter and had become someone else. \"Harry Potter, heir of Godric Gryffindor,\" he rolled the name of his tongue hesitantly. The words tasted bitter in his mouth. Harry ignored the soft footsteps behind him.


Ginny stood at a distance, watching her friend seated upon the branch of a tree just on the outskirts of the dark forest. Harry stared into the forest. His posture was stiff and his eyes were wrought with turmoil. If He was aware of Ginny’s presence, he wasn’t acknowledging it.


Ginny had rushed from the castle in search of Harry, but now that she had found him, she didn’t know what to say. As she got closer, she noticed that he was fingering a very delicate crystal pendant that hung about his neck. Hesitantly, she stepped toward him.


Harry was lost within his own mind as he sought to purge his new heritage from himself. He had always wanted to know more about his family, but he hadn’t anticipated this. He looked down with bloodshot eyes to the sight of Ginny below him, watching him intently with kind, worried eyes.


\"Ginny\" He whispered, the misery in his voice almost palatable.

\"Harry Potter, get down from there before you fall!” Ginny didn’t know what else to say.

Harry looked away quickly, \"My name isn’t Potter,\" he mumbled hollowly. “It’s Gryffindor apparently.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Harry snorted softly.

Stretching up on her toes, Ginny grasped the lowest branch that she could, slowly working her way up to Harry’s perch. \"You will always be Harry Potter to me; your family line can’t change that. We’re friends.\" Settling next to Harry, she gasped for air, winded from her climb.


\"How can you be my friend when you don\'t know who I really am!? I don’t even know who I am anymore!\" Harry buried his face in his hands and shook his head.


Ginny grabbed Harry’s chin, forcing Harry to look at his in the eye. \"Now you listen to me,” she said fiercely. “You are Harry Potter, son of James and Lily Potter. That is who you are. Nothing can take that away from you.” She released his chin with a sigh. “You’ve always been of Gryffindor blood, just now you know it.\"

\"That blood has me marked for death! That blood has me bound in a battle to the death with Voldemort. That blood has me changing into some ancient species that isn’t even human.\" Harry exclaimed.


He hesitated for a moment. “Everyone just expects me to be this great warrior whooingoing to destroy Voldemort forever. Somehow I have become the hope of all wizard-kind and everyone is counting on become some sort of super wizard and I can’t.” He turned to her sharply. “I don’t know how.” He let his head fall back against the tree trunk. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” Harry sighed heavily.


“It’s just . . . It’s not fair, you know? Why do I have to be the to to fight him? Why me?” he whispered.

“Because someone has to, with all the evil in the world . . . the responsibility has to fall on someone’s shoulders.”

“But what if I can’t do it? What if I’m not strong enough?” He looked up again, heaving a great breath.

\"All I have ever seen in you is strength, Harry Potter. Even at 11 years old, you were fearless in the face of evil.\" Ginny said fiercely. Slowly, Harry met Ginny’s eyes. She grasped him by the shoulders and for a long moment, neither spoke.

“Harry, do you really think you could give up fighting Voldemort? Let the rest of the wizarding world handle him, knowing that at any moment our world could end and you were the only one who had the power to stop it?”

\"I don’t want that kind of power. I never wanted it.\"

“That,” she smiled grimly, “is why fate picked you.”

At that he did smile, but it wasn\'t a very happy expression. He pulled her close and buried his face in her fiery locks. His nose picked up the faint scent of lavender. The Dursleys were not an affectionate lot, especially with Harry whom they despised, so Harry was not used to touching or hugging, but this felt nice, just holding each another.

“Do you trust me?”

She looked at him in confusion and tilted her head. “Of course I trust you.”

Stepping in close, he wrapped his arms around her tightly. “Good.”

Leaning backwards, he slid off the edge, taking her with him. Ginny shrieked in panic and clung fiercely onto his neck. With a tinkling laugh, he swung them hard towards a massive tree. He sprang away again with a powerful thrust. \"A little warning would’ve been nice.\" She grumbled into his ear.


He grinned at her and leapt for another branch. As they gathered speed, the wind whipped the thick black locks across his face. He released one branch and grabbed another. Harry released his right arm over his head as his eyes followed its path. He shot out, snagging limb as they swung just above the ground. Ginny breathe caught in her throat at their momentary suspension in mid-air. Lifting her head from where she\'d been hiding it against his shoulder, “You did that on purpose.”


They rounded a large oak and swung up onto the dense foliage. He wrapped his arm around her, gazing down at her. Her face blushed almost as red as her hair as he asked her, “Do you still trust me?” He mentally kicked himself for sounding so husky.


“Yes,” she released a breath she hadn’t realized that she was holding.

Obliging her with a grin, Harry’s eyes darted from her to the course in front of them. The fear of running smack into a tree had her clutching to him tighter.

He swung them to a tree branch, adjusting her weight against him before making a diving leap for another branch.

“Branch!\"

They hung in the air for a split second as he released his grip and captured a branch in a muscular hand, swinging in suspense above the deep drop below. He looked at her with a grin as they hung there.

\"I saw it.\"

He released the bough and they plunged violently down through the lower canopy, leaves and bare branches whisking against them as they dropped. Ginny’s stomach leapt violently into her throat as he captured an overhanging limb in passing, swinging them upward and into view of Hogwarts.


Harry propelled them a final time through the sparse forest before he swung a deep arc, landing into a catlike leap behind Hagrid’s hut. Harry maneuvering himself so his feet were first to land, otherwise Ginny would have broken both legs from the impact. He took the sudden landing in a cushioning crouch.


Ginny laughed and let out a loud whoop of excitement. “That was amazing!” She stood up on legs still shaking from the ride. “Do you do this often?”

“A bit,” he laughed lightly.

“So this is what you do when you disappear?”

He rose up and brushed off his trousers. “Yes, I find it very…” He trailed off when he caught sight of the castle.

Ginny placed her hand on Harry’s shoulders intending to comfort him. “Harry?” She began tenderly.

“Does anyone else know? About me?”

“No, Remus only told Ron, Hermione, and I.” She took his hand in her own, gently pulling him towards the castle. “Come on, the longer you wait, the harder it will be to confront them.”

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Author\'s note:

Yes, I know that was a bit Tarzan of the Jungle, but every time I think of the forest elves I just see these beautiful creatures dashing thorugh the trees. Creatures of the earth, at one with the forest, this wild untamed spirit racing arcoss the palins and trees.

(think the TWO TOWERS scene where the guys chase after the hobbits) Something about the scene and the music makes me want to run with them. Free and wild, the wind in my hair. Makes me want to race a horse across the plains or something.

And it\'s torytory so I can make Harry as wild as I want so uggg (sticks out tongue)