Right Here Waiting::Chapter 6

[indigodots]

Right Here Waiting
A W.i.t.c.h./Harry Potter Fic
Author: indigodots (aka jixy)
Rating: T
Warnings: Harry is a bit OOC.  And this story is confusing.  So don't really try to understand.  Just know the guy is Harry and the girl is Will. 
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.  If I owned this stuff, I would sell this story and make millions, not put it on lj.
Summary: After Phobos rips Will's life to shreds, she has no where to turn.  When she gets the oppertunity to start over, she accepts, but the past doesn't like to stay where it belongs.  WillxHarry
Notes: A Song runs through the whole story.  It's called I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) from Treasure Planet.
Chapters: 6

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Chapter 6: Head First

Harry looked up from his dinner as Will sat down across from him.

"So who was she?" he asked.

"Cornelia Hale," Will answered, leaning on her elbows.

He wasn't really looking for a name, but let it go. "You two seem to be good friends."

"Er...well, yes...and...no. She was my good friend, once upon a time."

He raised his eyes. "Was?"

"You know how I said I don't use earth, ever?"

He nodded.

"She's why." Will picked up a fork and twiddled it idly. "It's good to see her, but I was honestly hoping she wouldn't get caught in the time travel thing."

"Wait a minute," Harry realized. "She got caught in the time thing too?"

"Yeah, she's my age."

Harry frowned. "How old are you, anyway?"

She looked at him quizzically. "Seventeen, why?"

"Just wondering. So is she in the old dorms with us?"

"I dunno. I hope not." Will sighed.

Harry could tell she wanted to say something more, but she just shook her head.

"I"m sorry," he finally siad.

She raised her eyebrows. "For what?"

He looked down at his plate. "For...um...earlier. It might have looked a bit...well, um...bad, you know. You being, you know, on top of me and all. I didn't mean to embarass you." He met her eyes finally.

She grinned. "It's okay. You didn't embarass me too bad. At least, not in front of her."

He frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? You hate her that much?"

She shook her head, grinning. "No, it's not that. Not at all. I've walked in on her and her boyfriend in more--er, how do I put it--seriously embarassing positions."

He laughed. "So it's okay?"

She nodded. "But next time, let's try to keep it private, at least if I'm on top of you."

He shook his head, laughingly. "No problem." After a moment. he added, "Would you like to, um, go for a walk tonight? I kind of have something...I need to...um, we should talk." he finally managed.

Will gave him a curious look. "I suppose."

"Meet me in the common room at...er...9:45?"

She nodded, then got up. "I should probably go see about Cornelia."

He nodded. "See you tonight, then?"

"Tonight."

ooooo

Harry was already waiting when Will walked into the common room at 9:30.

"Oh," she fumbled for her watch, almost dropping her stack of books. Harry was suddenly at her side, taking them and setting them on the table.

"Is it time?" Will asked, following him across the room.

"No, you have fifteen minutes," Harry said, looking at her strangely.

"Oh," she looked down at the floor.

"Unless you're ready now," he prompted.

"Oh, er, um, yeah, okay," she looked up at him nervously. This would be the first time she had intentionally put herself in a potentially romantic situation with him.

"Okay." He stepped over to the couch and lifted something shimmery silver off it.

"We're probably going to be gone a little past curfew," he said. "And we really don't need to be caught sneaking out."

She nodded and he wrapped the invisibility cloak around them. It was a close fit, and they had to walk very closely to keep inside the cloak. She suspected Harry had known this would be necessary.

They made their way outside in absolute silence.

It was a cool, crystal clear night. A crescent moon hung lazily over the velvety sky.

When they finally were a ways from the castle, Harry spoke. "Do you mind if we take a short ride?" He gestured to his Firebolt, hovering in the air several yards away.

He swung his leg over, and she hesitantly got on behind him.

As they lifted into the cool night, she felt her shivering slightly behind him.

"I thought you weren't afraid of heights," he commented, grinning.

She looked down as the castle dropped away. "I'm not."

"Cold, then?" he asked.

She decided not to explain the real reason. "Yeah, a little chilly."

"Hang on," he whispered.

They shuddered to a halt, and to Will's suprise, he swung nimbly off the broom and suddenly appeared behind her.

She scooted up, astonished at his complete disregard of their 500 foot altitude.

He leaned forward, arms on each side of her, holding lightly to the broom. She felt his cheek just over her shoulder.

"Better?" he asked, lips near her ear.

"Mmhmm," she tried with little success to stop the shaking that had been less to do with the cold than his proximity to her.

"I thought so," he rocked gently forward, and they began moving again.

They flew out over Hogsmeade, rarely speaking, simply enjoying the feeling of being so close.

After a while, Harry circled around and they headed back to Hogwarts.

Will was almost sad when they touched down on one of Hogwarts's many towers. It was small, barely ten feet around, and she didn't recognize it.

"Which tower is this?" she asked.

"The Quarter Tower," he said. "Better known as the Twinkling Tower."

Will looked around. There was an excellent view of the Black Lake.

"I've never been here before," she commented.

"It's only here on the quarter moon," he said.

"Oh," she glanced up at the moon, shining brightly in the pitch blackness of the sky.

Harry sat in the middle of the tower, then laid back, letting his feet dangle over the edges of the worn turrets.

After a moment, Will joined him, feet sticking out over the opposite edge.

She noted, somewhat cautiously, that the tower was so slim that just the two of them formed a line all the way across the top of it.

Over her head, Harry's hand found her own.

After a moment, she commented, "I thought you had something to tell me."

"Well," he paused, then finally said, "Some other time. You should tell me something about yourself. You're so full of secrets."

She shrugged. "Like what? Where do you want me to begin?"

"What I really want to know is..." he trailed off. "Nevermind. You don't have to tell me."

Will tilted her head back and caught a glimpse of his eyes. "What is it?"

"I want to know...about the scar." His hand, still holding hers, dropped down and his thumb brushed her shoulder.

"Oh." she said. "That."

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me."

"No, no." she shifted uncomfortably. "I do. It's dangerous for you not to know."

She paused, shivering again, more violently this time.

Finally, she continued, "But it's a long story. I can't possibly tell it all tonight. So what part do you want to know exactly?"

"Um, well," he began. "What parts are there?"

"Well, there's the beginning, how I became who I am, with all the magic and powers and such. And there's my friends, and why Cornelia and I don't get along. Then there's Caleb, and Matt, and the queen, and the scar. And there's coming home, and my family, and coming here." Will sighed.

"Um, the scar, I guess," Harry prompted.

"Okay," she agreed. "But you'll have to just accept some things and not ask questions."

He accepted that, and scooted their heads closer, so their eyes were even.

"I am a Guardian of the Veil. My duty is to keep the worlds at peace and keep them from crossing over into each other and mixing. My power comes from a crystal orb, the Heart of Candracar. I am the Keeper of the Heart of Candracar." She brought out the Heart, let it hover above his face. "In essence, I am the Heart. We are bonded so strongly that to seperate us without my consent eventually brings death to me, and will destroy the person who holds the Heart."

He nodded, watching curiously as the glowing pink orb revolved above them..

"Cornelia is also a Guardian. There were five of us at first. The particular world we were working with at the time is called Meridian.

"The first time we went to Meridian, it was controlled by an evil ruler named Prince Phobos. His sister, Princess Elyon, was the rightful ruler, but she had been smugled to Earth to hide her from Phobos's cruelty.

"We restored her to Meridian's throne, and Phobos was thrown in the Tower of Mists, a prison in Candracar. But somehow he escaped.

"In secret, he rounded up those loyal to him, and somehow he managed to kill Queen Elyon.

"Every world has a Heart, or a center of power and energy. Hearts have enormous levels of power. The Heart of Candracar is so powerful that it can give not one, but five Guardians the more power than even the most powerful wizard.

"Elyon was the Keeper of the Heart of Meridian. Destroying a Keeper of a Heart and living through it was thought to be impossible. But somehow, Phobos managed it. To this day, we're unsure how.

"When he killed her, he absorbed the energy that came from the Heart. He became incredibly powerful, more so than any of us could have dreamed. But he did not escape completely unscathed.

"Like I said, a Heart will not live in an unrightful owner. It cannot be taken or stolen, and it won't go to an unwilling host. It can only be given and recieved. If anything else happens, the power of a Heart will slowly mutilate and kill the unrightful owner.

"But that's the problem. If you don't willingly give it up, there's nothing anyone can really do. You suffer, they watch. If they take it, they suffer with you. It's a catch-22.

"Phobos's unrightful possession of Meridian's Heart is slowly causing him to lose control of his power. He has almost limitless power at him command, but he can't always even control what he does with it. A Heart will have its way, you see, one way or another.

"Anyway, after Elyon was dead, he took over Meridian with ease. No one knew how to contact us, and by the time we paid a visit, it was too late.

"Phobos needed the power of the Heart of Candracar to regain his control. But he knew he couldn't just take it again. He had to make me give it up.

"He captured us, tortured us, all five Guardians. It was like that for the good part of eight months. We had just come to pay a pleasure visit to Queen Elyon, so noboby sent a rescue squad, ar attempted to help us or anything. A total of seventeen people knew we were in Meridian, and every one of them was on Phobos's side.

"So for eight months, we waited. As Guardians, we are naturally more elastic than normal people. We bounce back quickly, heal ten times faster than normal, and can perform incredible feats when necessary. If we couldn't have, we would have been dead within two weeks.

"Finally, Phobos got bored with his usual torture. He knew it wasn't working. He knew I would rather die than give up the Heart. And if I died, the Heart would go back to Candracar to await a new Keeper. Unless I gave it up willingly, he lost. So he found my weakness.

"Like I said, he couldn't kill me and still get the Heart. But that left my friends wide open.

"He threatened their lives. Most of the other Guardians said they would die gladly for the cause. They told me not to give him the Heart, no matter what Phobos did. But one wanted me to give it up."

Will signed and continued.

"I never really thought he would do it I guess. But one day, we're brought into the castle, and he just sits there and kills Hay Lin. She was almost defenseless. After eight months of starvation and torture, even a Guardian gets weak.

Harry could sense her sobbing, and he scooted around the circle until their bodies were pressed close together.

He geld her as she cried, then pushed back the emotion to finish the story.

"It hurt, more than I could ever tell you. That night we just sat together in our cell, so broken, we couldn't even cry. But we did do one thing. We vowed to avenge her.

"They still, for the most part, at least, refused to even suggest giving up the Heart. Irma said it was our duty to protect the people. If we died, we died with honor and had done our duty. We really doubted Phobos would kill again, seeing how killing Hay Lin had, if anything, strengthened our resolve. But still, one of them wanted me to give it up. She had always had trouble with personal sacrifice, and she said the price was too high to pay.

"But he did. It was Irma this time. I still knew I couldn't give up the Heart. Irma had expressly told me not to.

"So we waited. We all knew who would be the next to go. She was not the weakest, but she did not have the gift to make her untouchable. She told me never to give it up.

"And one day it happened. We were brought in and once again, Phobos killed, Taranee this time.

"Only two of us were left. I, who Phobos would not kill, and she, who had the untouchable gift. Phobos didn't know about the gift, so we knew he would go for her next. We knew what would happen, and we were going to take the oppertunity luck gave us.

"But she was the one who had resisted from the beginning. She now blamed me for the deaths of the other three."

Will looked up at Harry, teary eyed again.

"Cornelia," he breathed.

She nodded, voice high-pitched after the tears.

He pulled her closer, resting her head on his collarbone.

"The day came, and we were brought in so she could be killed. But when he tried, he could not, because she had the untouchable gift.

"So he poured his full power into killing her, all his own power and everything the Heart of Meridian would give him.

"But we had the Heart of Candracar. Candracar is not a world, it is the Heart of the Universe. It holds the energy of the universe, not just a world. You don't win strength-for-strength against the Heart of Candracar.

"We didn't let it last long. Remember, he was not in full control of his power. He accidentally opened a portal, and we escaped to earth.

"But the portal was not a pure portal, and the energy used to create it was corrupted. It scarred us in our escape."

She peeled her shirt sleeve off her shoulder, exposing the scarred flesh.

"The Seal of Phobos."

oooooooooooooooooo

so how was it?

the song has taken a one-chapter hiatus. 
i know how i want the next verse to fit with the story and it doesn't go here.
but it'll be back,
((ooooooooh how ominous!))
Chapter 7 coming soon!