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Chapter 95 - The Fates

Dimension: 1375 - Earth
Date: 8th October 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Corridors
Time: Evening

The following day, the Scoobies (minus Dawn) were heading for the Room of Requirements for their first combined DA,

MD and Duelling lesson.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Xander "I mean you know if we actually help to teach the miniature tea

drinkers how to fight they are bound to need to at some point."

"Yes Xander, I'm sure." Buffy replied "You heard Fleur explain about Harry's life and the Moldywart person during

our tour and while he maybe trained, from what we've seen and learnt of them from that conversation all his friends

are going to be involved too and I would rather teach them to fight now than play the odds. Besides I need to prove

I am better at teaching than Anne."

"You have got to get over this complex you have about her Buff," he continued "I mean she is not exactly a threat

to you, your stronger and she obviously likes it here with all her magical friends."

"Just like you were totally fine when you were split in half or when Willow's Vampire double showed up."

"Hey, don't bring me into this." The witch in question complained from behind them.

"Besides," Buffy continued, ignoring the redhead "I'm still the better Slayer, she's been out of the game for

weeks."

"I do so hate to interrupt Buffy's insecurities," Spike began "But has anyone realised that we have been down the

same corridor three times."

Coming to a stop the group started looking around.

"It definitely looks familiar." Agreed Giles cleaning his glasses.

"Oh nice," exclaimed Xander, throwing up his arms "Way to loose us Buffy."

"Hey, I was just following you." She countered.

"Well I was following you."

"Well whoever the rest of us were following lost us." Interrupted Anya "And I don't like being lost. I once cursed

a disloyal husband who caused his wife to loose her arm in a car crash by insisting that he knew the right

directions to the mall and drove them straight into oncoming traffic, I made him walk around a labyrinth for

eternity trying to find the exit while he was chassed by a minotaur who would tear his limbs off if he was caught

before starting all over again."

"Minotaur's and labyrinths, that's not very original." Said Tara.

"You've got to respect the classics." She replied "Besides, this place is scarcely easy to navigate."

"This way." Announced Buffy, walking back down the corridor the way they came.

"Are you sure."

"Sure I'm sure." She replied continuing down the corridor and turning left at the end.

They followed her down some stairs, around several corridors and began back up another flight of stairs before

Spike could not take it any more.

"For god sake Buffy, you haven't a bloody clue where you are going so just ask someone. We've passed at least a

dozen of the little pimply faced wand wavers already, just admit you're lost."

"We'll find it; it's got to be around here somewhere."

"Actually it's on the other side of the castle?" came a familiar voice from the top of the flight of stairs.

Turning the group spotted Hermione, Dawn, Ginny and several other female students.

"You're much closer to the Gryffindor Common Room."

"Would you be so kind as to lead the way Hermione?" asked Giles.

"Of course, though you may wish to jump over the step immediately in front of Buffy."

"Why?" asked the Slayer in question.

To answer her question Hermione came down the stairs to the step two up from Buffy and pulled a quill from her

pocket.

Pointing the quill downwards she let it go and waited.

It took the Scoobies a couple of seconds to realise that they had not heard it hit the stone, in fact there was no

sign of it at all.

"What the?"

"Where'd it go?"

Drawing her wand Hermione summoned the quill and it flew back out of the step.

"It's a trick stair, almost every student falls through it at least once. You have to watch out for things like

that around here."

"Lovely." Snorted Spike as they moved past the step and joined the group at the top "I thought schools were

supposed to teach students, not try to kill them."

"Where's the fun in that?" asked Ginny, she had been having a lot of fun teasing him ever since the incident in the

Hospital Wing.

"She's got a point." Agreed Dawn "Imagine what Sunnydale High would be like without killer prom dogs, Vampires and

the odd Werewolf running around."

"The school would be positively normal," replied Willow shuddering "It wouldn't be natural."

"I don't think I could cope with a normal Sunnydale High," agreed Buffy "Or UC Sunnydale for thatAAAHHH!!"

She was cut off as she and most of the assembled group gasped and cried out as water balloons rained down on them,

followed shortly by an evil giggling.

"He he he, poor little Muggle's, soppy and wet, they'll catch flu and be stuck in bed, he hehe."

"Peeves!!" growled Hermione drawing her wand and pointing it at the poltergeist as his head emerged through the

ceiling.

She shot a jet of water at him but he dodged as he did the next three that Ginny and the Patil twins aimed at him.

"He hehe," he laughed as he disappeared through the floor "Can't catch me Miss Bookworm, he hehe."

"I swear one day we'll find a way to teach him a lesson." Growled Ginny as she and the rest of the wand wavers

started casting drying charms on themselves and their guests.

"Everyone alright?" asked Hermione while drying off Willow and Tara.

"Just a bit moist." Giles replied while regarding the way that the witches used their wands "How many other

everyday household spells do you know?"

"Hermione knows virtually every spell invented." Laughed the Patil in blue "Why?"

"Do all wizards and witches use magic so casually?" he continued, bypassing the question.

"Most do yes." The other twin nodded "Why?"

"I'm just thinking about the differences between Wiccan and Wand magic." He replied

"To be precise," interrupted Willow sadly, saying exactly what Giles hoped she would not realise he had been asking

about "He is thinking that when a Wiccan uses magic that casually like I used to they are called addicts and are

likely to become dangerous."

The students watched as the Scoobies exchanged looks, none were aware of all the emotions and histories being

displayed before them but those who had beard about Willow trying to destroy the world after getting addicted had a

fairly good idea.

"Our magic is internal so it's safer," explained Hermione "Yours comes from around you so it can be influenced

especially if you live somewhere like a Hellmouth."

"She's right Willow," nodded Tara, pulling closer to her lover to comfort her "It's easier to become addicted when

the magic is tainted like that over the Hellmouth, it wants to be used."

This obviously did not sooth Willow as much as they had hoped as she continued to look down all the way to the RoR.

She finally brightened up a bit when they reached the room and the door appeared after Hermione walked back and

forth three times over the same spot. She explained that Harry had been very careful when creating the room this

time so as to only allow those who wanted to learn to fight against Voldemort and those who wanted to help teach

them to fight into the room.

Opening the door they were forced to duck as a fireball passed over their heads.

Entering the room, expecting to have to defend themselves they saw a line of students standing in front of them

looking into the room with the sounds of battle coming from the other side of the line.

Pocketing what weapons had been drawn they joining the line of spectators.

Over their heads the group were able to see the combatants, battling each other with swords and sai's were Harry

and Fleur, while off to the side in front of the line of students Adam was standing with his staff glowing

directing several dummies to attack the pair.

Battle dummies in the Wizarding World are nothing like those in the Muggle World, they are made of wood in the

rough shape of a human with movable metal joints. They come in two types, target and combat; target dummies stand

still and are for target practice though unlike Muggle dummies they fire back with varying levels of skill, while

combat dummies are like facing another wizard, they will dodge and attack like a human would do, again with varying

levels of accuracy. Adam was currently commanding five of said combat dummies to attack the pair with either hand-

to-hand weapons or wands so as well as each other the pair had to fight off the dummies whenever they approached.

What made it harder was the fact that the dummies auto-repair themselves, if you fire a blasting hex at one and

blow its head off it will magically reattach and return to the fight after about thirty seconds.

"What the!!" was all any of them could manage as they watched Fleur and Harry completely in sync plunge their

blades into two of the dummies before spinning back around to clash against each other to the sound of ringing

metal.

"We all got here early," explained Ron easing his way through the crowd towards them, which was difficult as he did

not want to take his eyes of the action "As you hadn't shown up the two of them felt like having a little warm up

sparring session."

"This is a warm up!!" said Dawn doubtfully.

"It started as one," continued Anne coming up beside them "But when Adam arrived and set the dummies on them and it

started to get more interesting, especially when they both started throwing fire at the dummies."

"Hey Buffy," spoke Willow for the first time since the awkward conversation earlier "Why don't you and Anne go and

join the fight, show them how Slayers are."

The Slayers looked at each other, neither really liked the other but who were they to turn down a good fight.

Exchanging a grin the pair shrugged out of their jackets and handed them to Xander, heading for the wall with the

weapons fixed to it, Buffy picking up a pair of small daggers while Anne picked up just the one while she

brandished her wand in her other hand.

"On my mark." Smiled Anne.

"Let's show them how to really fight." Nodded Buffy.

"Three, two, one, NOW!!"

The pair launched themselves into the fray, decapitating the dummies that turned towards them before leaping at

Harry and Fleur.

The pair obviously saw them coming as they were already bringing their blades to bear upon them.

The four met with a huge crash of steal, Harry's blades blocking Buffy while Fleur did the same for Anne's.

Spinning away from the pair Buffy and Anne begin to circle them....which turned out to be a mistake as it meant

that Buffy was out of play as the only person who could not attack at a distance without loosing her weapons.

Fleur and Harry pocket one weapon each and conjure fireballs.

Quick to react, Anne casts a shield, Fleur's fireball impacting harmlessly against it. Buffy on the other hand had

to dive sideways before regaining her feet with a tuck and roll as Harry's sailed around the shield, she threw one

of her daggers at him in an attempt to distract him and give her enough time to recover.

Harry fired another fireball, this time at the blade, knocking it sideways causing it to spin to a stop, harmlessly

impaling itself into the floor, but still giving Buffy enough time to regain her feet and lunge at him.

Behind them Fleur and Anne were engaged in a proper wizards duel, Anne being forced to do a lot more ducking and

weaving than casting due to Fleur's greater skill with a wand, though luckily Anne had Slayer agility and managed

to get the odd one or two well aimed spells in every four or five sent her way.

The Slayers got their chance though when Harry, who had been wrestling unsuccessfully against Buffy's superior

strength while she pinned him down managed to get his feet into a position where he could flip her off him.

Scrambling to his feet he moved alongside Fleur while Buffy did the same next to Anne.

"Dodge this one!!" shouted Anne before an Incendio erupted from the end of her wand, the flames surrounding the

pair making many in the audience gasp.

Anne and Buffy watched, slightly worried that the flames hadn't stopped and had in fact continued to swirl around

their opponents, even though Anne had only fired a short burst of flame at them.

"That's not supposed to happen is it?" Buffy asked.

"No." Anne replied worriedly.

They watched as the fire storm swirled around the pair, before seaming to break and begin swirling inwards,

gathering somewhere in the middle of the raging flames.

The entire class watched in astonishment as the fires continued to dissipate, feeding inwards to gather in an

intense fireball held in the hand of a completely unharmed Harry, while Fleur stood beside him looking smug.

With a grin Harry launched the ball at the Slayers who, still startled by the fire show and Harry's control over

the flames, were slower to react than normal resulting in them throwing themselves out of the way without having

time to plan their landings.

The pair hit the ground hard and barely had time to roll over as Harry and Fleur descended on them.

In a rapid movement the pair brought their weapons up just as their opponents reached them resulting in all four

having a blade at their necks.

They stayed like that for several seconds, breathing heavily, not moving before the sound of clapping echoed around

the room.

The entire population of the room turned to see who was applauding.

The sound was emanating from the hands of Professor Dumbledore who, along with Professor McGonagall was standing at

the far end of the room looking intently at the formerly battling quartet.

"Most impressive Harry." He congratulated "I had no idea you control of magic was so advanced."

"Thank you Professor," he replied as the quartet stood and stowed their weapons "But that was not magic, that was

Elemental Skill."

The room went quiet for a moment as people either mentally asked ‘what's Elemental Skill?' or ‘Elemental Skill!!

How in Merlin's name does he know that?'

Even the Headmaster was temporarily shocked.

"Where did you learn that Skill Harry?" asked the Headmaster.

"From Adam, though it also helps that Veela are natural Fire Elementals, my skills just go a bit further than

Fleur's."

"I thought Elemental Magic in humans was a myth." Stated McGonagall to which Adam, Harry and Fleur shook their

heads.

"It's not a myth, just very rare." explained Adam "One in ten thousand may have the gift but very few know how to

use their powers. With the help of myself and the Delacour's Harry is now a Master."

"Most impressive." Nodded the Headmaster "I noticed that you also picked up some skills with a blade Harry?"

"Adam again." He replied "He was most helpful in teaching me to fight."

"So I see," replied the Headmaster before turning to Adam after a moments thought "Is there an easy way of telling

if someone is an Elemental?"

"I can charm a device to detect if a person is; what did you have in mind?"

"I was contemplating testing those of the student body who wish to find out if they have additional skills which

they do know about, and if so who could teach them to hone their skills."

"Fleur, Colette and myself can teach them Fire Elemental Skills," suggested Harry "And Adam could teach them the

rest, he has skill in all four of the elements."

"I would be more than willing to teach Elemental Skill." Agreed Adam, casting his staff about the air and using his

other hand to focus on whatever he was conjuring, moving his fingers like a pianist at the climax of a piece.

"Excellent." Smiled Dumbledore "How long will it take you to make the device you need?"

There was a flash in front of Adam and a large smoke filled sphere appeared before him, dropping onto his hand.

"It's already finished."
________________________________________________________________________

The next half hour was taken up with students (not just those who had come to the class) flocking into the room to

queue up one by one to touch the sphere.

To demonstrate how it worked, Adam asked Fleur to touch the sphere (it only needed a slight tap to reveal an

Elemental) which responded by the smoke turning red before returning to its original grey.

"Red indicated fire, green earth, yellow air and blue water, no response means you are not an Elemental."

What followed was almost an hour of absolute boredom as student after student touched the sphere with no response

what so ever, until those that had actually been in the room got their chance, they had all had to leave the room

so Harry could let anyone in to be tested, as such many of them got pushed to the back, others from around the

castle having joined the crowd and got there before them.

Ginny was the first to get a response when the sphere flashed red.

"We have our first Elemental." Smiled Adam as Ginny jumped at the reaction of the sphere, most of the rooms other

occupants were equally shocked by the sight, most had been lying down or even nodding off due to lack of any sort

of response from the object.

"Congratulations Miss Weasley." Smiled Dumbledore at the rather shocked girl "You have just beaten the odds."

"Looks like Little Red is hotter than we thought." chuckled Spike to himself from his position against the wall,

receiving a death glare from the girl in question.

"When they've finished teaching you," grinned Ron "Your Fire Powers could be even more infamous that you're Bat-

Bogey Hex."

"I wonder," pondered Adam turning to Ron "You're next Ron, try the sphere."

"O....k." agreed Ron slowly, not liking being put on the spot.

Everyone turned to watch him as he touched the sphere....and nothing happened.

"It was just a thought," added Adam before turning back to Ginny "You may have got it from your father genetically,

probably in his ‘X' gene which is why you have it and your brother has not as he received the ‘Y' gene."

"Either that or its just pure chance," continued Harry, knowing that neither of the Weasley's would have a clue

what Adam was talking about "One or the other anyway."

"Come over here with us Ginny," smiled Colette moving to an open area of the room and conjuring a candle "We'll get

a quick lesson in while others are busy testing the rest."

"Ok, next student." Called Adam as Harry, Ron, the Headmaster and some of the others who had already been tested

gathered around Ginny and Colette.

More time past with no more successful tests, most of the rooms occupants had resorted to watching Ginny make the

candle flicker, almost going out several times only to wobble back to life, fifteen minutes later Xander (who had

tried and failed the test like all the others and who had been watching the sphere) exclaimed:

"Strike two!!"

Everyone spun around to see Draco's hand on the sphere, it was red again.

"We have another Fire Elemental." Smiled Colette "Come join the class."

Draco groaned, this couldn't be good, as if he wasn't exiled enough as it was, he was now getting thrust even

further towards the ‘good guys' and therefore becoming even more of a target for the Death Eaters and most of the

rest of Slytherin, at least he had Ginny.
________________________________________________________________________

Only three more times during the next hour did the sphere react.

Next was Neville, receiving a refreshing change of colour when he received a green result, Hogwarts first Earth

Elemental.

Following him was Dawn, who was the last of the Scoobies to try, returning another fire result (to the worried

looks of both of her sisters), joining Ginny and Draco with Fleur, Harry and Colette, each respectively teaching

one student to the point where Ginny could now stop the candle burning and was working on the reverse with Draco

quiet close behind.

The last to trigger a response was Hermione who, much to the surprise of most of the rooms returned a double

result.

The sphere flashed blue for a few seconds before following that up with yellow.

"Two for the price of one." Grinned Xander "Air and water."

"I didn't know you could control more than one element?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Of course," replied Adam "Though it is even rarer, one in a hundred thousand can do so, if the trait is genetic it

just requires the offspring to receive the right genes from the father."

"Hermione," asked Harry walking over followed by Ron, Ginny and the rest "Have you had a chance to read through all

the books I gave you for your birthday?"

"No, I've read the older version of history of Hogwarts, Durmstrang's history and half of that of Beauxbatons.

They're long books you know." She added hastily trying to justify why she hadn't read all of the thousand plus page

books in three weeks.

"I take it that means you have not read ‘Powerful Magical Beings Through the Ages' or ‘The Lost History Of Wizards'

then."

"Not yet." She replied, hurrying to her bag to retrieve the first of the two books which she had on her.

"Go to the index and search for Elementals." He instructed as most of the room crowded around her.

"Elementals, elementals," she chanted to herself as she went to the back of the book and began to look down the

list "‘E', ‘Ek', ‘Ela', ‘Ele', ‘Elem' Elementals, here it is. Page five hundred and seventy three."

She flicked back through the book, though given its size and age that wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"Page five hundred and seventy three, got it!!" she smiled satisfied before beginning to read allowed:

"Elementals: The Elementals are a group of beings, both human and humanoid magical beasts that have the ability to

control the elements without the need for wand or incantation. The ability to control the elements is divided into

four; air, water, earth and fire, with some rare individuals have the even more uncommon ability of controlling

more than one of these elements, such events usually occur where two Elementals produce offspring that inherit the

abilities of both parents. The ability to control the elements is not only based on family but also on random

chance. Elementals have been discovered that have no Elemental ancestry like Muggle-Born Wizards, while others like

our Squibs do not inherit the abilities of the parent and either have no Elemental skill at all or have the ability

to control a completely different element. The above instances of random Elemental Skill only occur in humans,

humanoid beasts like Wood Nymphs, Veela, the Merpeople's, Sirens, Kelpie and others all genetically have the

ability to control their element and only when these beasts mate with humans and dilute their blood over many

generations do the abilities wane."

She paused for a breath.

"Elementals come in all power levels but by far the most powerful is The Avatar!!" Harry watched Hermione as she

read the name out. He had blundered; it only occurred to him a couple of seconds before that she might react a bit

too surprised to the use of the title than to be passable.

Unfortunately she did indeed sound very surprised when she heard the name but fortunately for those in The Alliance

she recovered very well. Looking up she frowned and spoke, half to herself:

"Where have I heard the name before?"

"Probably in a book." Covered Adam "There are probably more writings about Elementals in the Hogwarts Library

somewhere. Go on Hermione."

"Errrr...." she thought as she tried to find her place "The most powerful is The Avatar. The Avatar is an extremely

powerful being with mastery of all four elements and is effectively the Elemental Messiah; he is worshiped by

Elementals and is regarded as their head of state. If more than one being possesses the ability to control all of

said elements only one can be The Avatar, the other will just be an extremely powerful Elemental. There are some

forms of Elemental Skills which are almost unique to The Avatar which help to mark him or her out as said being.

The Avatar is a recurring being that reappears every few hundred to a thousand years meaning that there are large

spans of time when the Elementals are led by the most powerful of each Skill before returning to the command of The

Avatar for his or her life time."

As she finished several people turned to look at the Veela.

"Is there an Avatar at the moment?" asked Willow.

"It's been rumoured that The Avatar has returned to the world," replied Fleur "But I am unable to say more than

that."

Those in the know, inwardly smiled at the way Fleur answered the question, she didn't say she didn't know more but

made it sound like she didn't.

"Is The Avatar likely to follow Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore seriously.

"It depends entirely on the individual Avatar." Explained Colette "But Elemental species are likely to follow The

Avatar."

"Will you follow The Avatar if he sides with Voldemort?" asked Giles, coming up beside Dumbledore from where he had

been reading over Hermione's shoulder.

"No." Fleur replied certainly "The old loyalties are not as strong as they once were, it has been many hundreds of

years since the world last saw The Avatar and many Elemental species have died out since, the Sirens are gone, the

Wood Nymphs are too few to be of any use, the Kelpie have become too wild which leaved only the Veela and the

Merpeople's who hate each other bitterly, it will be difficult for The Avatar to gain leadership of both species."

"What about human Elementals?" asked Hermione.

"I know of no remaining humans other than those in this room that can wield the powers of the elements," replied

Colette "The civilisation disappeared over a thousand years ago."

"What happened to it?" asked Ginny.

Colette and Fleur were silent for a moment before looking up taking on rather annoyed and angry looks.

"Let us just say that if that book was written a few hundred years later than it was then it would not have given

so nice a view of Elementals."

"What do you mean?" asked Draco.

"Over two thousand five hundred years ago, before Merlin or the Hogwarts Founders were even born, one particularly

powerful Avatar named Atlas," the group noted how both of the Veela paused slightly in reverence of the name

"Decided that instead of moving from city to city to avoid one group of Elementals seeming more favoured than

another, that she would build her own city to rule from."

"Where was this city?" asked McGonagall.

"On the water." Colette replied "Built from earth and stone and kept afloat by huge sealed chambers of compressed

air throughout the city."

"It was built by all the Elemental groups, the Water Elementals carved the earth and stone into shape, the Earth

and Fire Elementals moved and sealed the stone and earth together and the Air Elementals created the massive

bubbles of densely compressed air which the others sealed in chambers creating a vast city afloat on the waters of

the world. A city named for its creator; ‘The Island of Atlas'."

"Dear lord." Giles exclaimed.

"What?" questioned Buffy "What's so special about that name?"

"In Greek," he replied "'The Island of Atlas' translates as Atlantis."

"Atlantis!!" Hermione explained at the same time as several other Muggle-Born's did "Not the lost city of

Atlantis."

"The same." Nodded Fleur "The other magic users of the world were jealous of how powerful the Elementals were by

being able to create a floating island that could move as commanded, this led to fear among the Wizarding community

despite the fact that the Elementals were nothing but peaceful. The Wizards gathered together a massive army of

magic users while convincing those Muggle's that would listen to them that we were dangerous, unfortunately some of

those that listened were the powerful Persian Empire under Xerxes I, you may have heard of him."

"The Battle of Thermopylae against the Greek City States." Nodded Giles.

"Yes, they convinced him that they needed to attack Atlantis before they were attacked themselves, so he created a

vast army of over one hundred thousand men under the deception of using it to attack Athens which he was intending

to do anyway."

Fleur stopped and Colette took over.

"Atlas herself was Athenian so she immediately steered ‘The Island of Atlas' towards the Mediterranean Sea to help

her birth city which would be obliterated by any seriously sized Persian force. As they neared Athens they were

assaulted by a vast fleet of ships, over a hundred strong filled with the most powerful Wizards and Persians."

"The wizards used their magic to hide the ships until they were close and accelerated the ships above the top speed

of the city when they got near resulting in the city being taken almost completely unawares. The combined forces of

thousands of Wizards and Persians ransacked the city."

"During the attack six extremely powerful wizards managed to corner Atlas after she had taken down several

battalions of Persian that engaged her, they started a running fire fight which culminated at the very peak of the

city, the wizards overpowering her, making her fall to her death."

"With the Elementals defeated the Wizards and Persians celebrated their victory which turned out to be their

undoing. Without Elementals to control the city it was swept out into the Mediterranean, with all the ships in tow.

As they celebrated in one of the halls a storm began to blow up and without Elementals to repel all the water that

was crashing down on the city it began to flood, that added to the damage to the buoyancy system that the city had

sustained during the attack, resulting in the city being torn apart, thousands drowned, including the wizards who

at that time had not discovered the ability to Apparate."

"As great as the victory sounded, to the Wizards it was nothing short of a disaster, the vast majority of the

combined army could not fit on the ships and so was left encase reinforcements were needed. The few Persians that

escaped on the ships reported to Xerxes that having seen the power of the Wizards, that they were just as dangerous

as the Elementals."

"So Xerxes ordered his Persians to kill all the Wizards, over ten thousand, all the best and brightest being wiped

out in a matter of days all because of their own fear, resulting in a dark age for wizardry while they tried to

recover. It is a period which wizards have tried very hard to forget."

"And succeeded," nodded Dumbledore "As none of us have ever heard of this Elemental city. Go on Professors."

"Both the Wizards and Elementals were persecuted throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, anywhere within trade reach of

Persia, the message was spread of how dangerous both peoples were and how the Persians had selflessly defeated both

to protect the world from their evil at great cost to themselves, resulting in the Wizarding population as a whole

going into hiding, leaving only a few who refused to hide their talents and the Elementals cities being wiped out

with only a few in distant parts of the world surviving, we know of none that still exist."

"What happened to the rest of the army?" asked Xander.

"Xerxes brought it back to Persia, strengthened its numbers and invaded Greece as had been his original plan before

the Wizards convinced him to attack the Elemental's first, this resulted in the Battle of Thermopylae and the

legend of the Greek armies stand and the three hundred Spartans that led it." Concluded Fleur.

There were several moments of silence as the tail ended.

"Quite the legend." Said Dumbledore breaking the silence "Are there any others still to be tested?"

"No," Adam replied "All that wanted to including yourself have been tested, the only human Elementals here are

Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Draco, Dawn and Neville, we will train the later five during these lessons."

Some noticed how deep in thought Adam appeared as he spoke.

"Very well," nodded the Headmaster turning to the mass of students "As this has taken many hours I suggest we call

it a day for now and we will see you all next week for a more active lesson."

The students and many of the Professors and Scoobies filtered out of the room until only Adam, Dumbledore,

McGonagall and Giles were left, the latter two remaining to see what was about to be discussed by the former pair.

"You appear deep in thought Adam." Dumbledore pointed out, conjuring chairs for them to sit on.

"I'm feeling slightly apprehensive." He replied "Six Elementals, all within a year of age of each other, out of

less than one thousand people....That is more than just chance."

"What do you suspect?" asked Giles.

"I believe we have a Fate Convergence on our hands." He replied slowly, still deep in thought.

"A Fate Convergence?" asked McGonagall "I am not familiar with the term."

"It's as it sounds," he replied "The Fates have arranged it so that this group, the only six Elementals at

Hogwarts, covering all four elements, some of whom already posses more than your average magical strength, a group

that includes our resident peoples hero, two of his best friends including an example of exactly what our enemy

hates, a solid supporter who would follow him anywhere, his former rival, the girl who binds said rival to the

group and a mystical one of a kind girl who was formerly a ball of green energy....That is far too planned a group

to be an accident. Then there is the double occurrence of what I call the ‘The Rule Of Three Plus Two'."

"Three Plus Two?" asked Giles.

"Yes, it's something that usually happens around Fate Convergences. ‘The Rule Of Three' refers to the champion and

the two people closest to him. In this case Harry, the reluctant champion who is evils worst enemy and who has a

grudge against him, Ron, the devoted, loyal, slightly less intelligent friend and Hermione the highly intelligent

friend. This is also true of Buffy, Xander and Willow."

"What was the ‘Plus Two' bit about?" continued Giles.

"The Plus Two' refers to the optional additions of a love interest and an experienced teacher, in Harry's case that

would be first Cho before he moved onto Fleur and for the teacher the Headmaster. Buffy had Angel, Riley, Spike

etcetera for the love interest and Giles for the teacher. It's almost always three that The Fates throw together,

almost always three."

"I see your point." Nodded Dumbledore "Going back to your point about the group of Elementals amongst the student

body, how exactly do ‘The Fates' arrange such an occurrence, if as you said some Elemental Skill is genetic, they

would have to plan for events that had not yet occurred."

"Is Professor Trelawney not a seer?" Adam asked "She can, although she does not know it, see the future. The Fates

are a group of three beings who live outside of time as you know it; their sole purpose is to make sure that things

go as planned and to maintain the equation of existence."

"I am afraid I do not follow." Said Professor McGonagall.

"I believe he is referring to the balance," began Giles "Like that between light and dark, if there are Demons in

this world their needs to be a Slayer to oppose them."

"Precisely," nodded Adam "Though in this case it is the champion groups of light and dark that are being balanced.

In any monumental battle like that which is to come they need to give the core group of both factions, those that

affect the decisions of others, a roughly equal chance to sway the war, so if Harry has the ability to control

fire...."

"So will Voldemort." Finished Dumbledore.

"But who gave who the ability to control fire," asked Giles "To whom did it originally belong?"

"If I had to guess," answered Adam "I would say Fleur was the source, being Veela she has a genetic control over

fire, being mated to her meant that Harry, if he could control it he could also use it and from there is probably

past to Voldemort down the link that connects them, though that I think would have happened even without The Fates,

but the others abilities were probably due to an introduction for the potential of the ability at some point in

each of the other fives ancestry."

"How...." Began McGonagall "How far would The Fates go to ensure that things go as planned?"

"They would not kill someone if that is what you are asking. They would however make sure someone would turn their

head half a second slower so as to miss seeing one woman so as to see another they would then marry, they may make

a warrior dodge a killing arrow shot at him so that he could live for one more battle to die protecting someone who

had to survive it, but they will never interfere with free will, if a person is aware enough of themselves then

they can ignore The Fates."

"So what does this mean for us?" asked McGonagall.

"It means," replied Dumbledore "That this is going to get much more interesting before it ends."