Disclaimer: all unfamiliar characters are either mine or WOTC, the HP characters belong to JKR as well as some of the plot.

A/N: Sorry for the delay, I had to rewrite this chapter to fix the fast flow of it and to introduce two more characters that I had put into the second chapter, plus I had to reinstall Windows several times because of viruses.

Chapter 1

The two ghosts watched as a bronze colored circle appeared in the smoldering wreckage of what had until recently looked like a comfortable mansion. After a couple of seconds, a tunnel started to grow in the circle, until it claimed the entire inner area of it. A demon-winged male stepped out of the tunnel and looked around carefully then turned to the tunnel and nodded, two seconds later an angel-winged female and a female with black skin stepped through. The sudden arrival of the unknown figures made the ghosts carefully note each of their appearances. The solitary male of the group not only had demonic-looking wings; he also had pointed ears, red cat-like eyes, and a tail similar to those that muggles have painted on demons for centuries. Both the angel-winged female and black-skinned female had pointed ears and cat-like eyes. However, in spite of the obvious interest that her winged partners had, the black-skinned one looked like she was ready to jump right back through the tunnel. Where, presumably, she felt safe.

The dark-skinned female, Akordia, wasn't eager to abandon her winged companions. But, she really felt like she should be at home with her newly born daughter However, the winged female, Talindra, had insisted that Akordia accompany her mate, Aravilar, and herself on a short trip. After all, Akordia hadn't left her frail daughter's side since birth. Akordia probably needed a little time to herself, a few hours at most. Akordia had regretted letting them talk her into it since she agreed to it. She hoped that no fanatics would harm her daughter even though as a high-ranking member of the city's guard she worried that someone would want to either blackmail her or kill her child since her daughter was half-vampire. While looking around, Akordia spotted the two ghosts and established their appearances. One was male with messy hair, of what she assumed to have been black when he was alive. He also appeared to wear some type of lenses and was of average height for human males. The other ghost was female with an unusual shade of red hair and very noticeable green eyes that manifested brightly in her ghost-form. She seemed to be worried, almost as though she wanted to protect something. After looking the ghosts over, she turned backed to her companions, then looked wistfully at the Gate. She was wishing to go back through and try to find a way to either cure or help her recently born daughter with the curse she had been born with. Shaking her head, Akordia cast a detection spell to see if there were any other living beings in a 90 foot range. Another benefit to the spell, was that it would tell her what they were. The spell detected another being immediately and she waited for it to inform her what it was. She gasped when the entity was identified as part-celestial with a very rare gift and an improbable curse for such a being.

Akordia's gasp alerted her companions that she had found something and they turned towards her awaiting the results of the spell.

"There is an Aasimar with Spell-Fire and Lycanthropy upstairs," Akordia said when she recovered from the surprise of the spell's identification. "From what I can tell it's a child not much more then a year old."

Once she finished speaking she cast another spell to lead her directly to the child and started up the stairs. Her companions looked at each other then shrugged and followed her.

"They're looking for Harry!" the female ghost exclaimed. "We have to protect him James."

James rested a hand on her shoulder, "I know Lily, but we can't do anything besides hope that they don't want to hurt him. The dark-skinned one sounded sad about something, so maybe they want to help him."

"I hope you're right. She did seem anxious to head back through that tunnel, maybe she has a child of her own and we could talk them into raising Harry." Looking at the strangers as they walked up the stairs she sighed and hoped they weren't going to hurt Harry then flew up to his room to wait and hopefully talk the strange beings into raising Harry away from her former headmaster's manipulations. James watched her fly to their son's room and decided to follow her.

Looking back at the spot where the ghosts were Akordia saw that they had left and assumed that they had headed to the child's room. "We're going to have company when we get there," she said over her shoulder to her friends. "Let's try to get out of here quickly, but without doing anything to harm the child or the ghosts of what I believe to be it's parents, got that Aravilar?" She looked directly at Aravilar as she said the last part and gave him a look that said she would make him suffer if he didn't do as she asked.

Shrinking back Aravilar nodded then paused. "What ghosts?" he inquired quizzically. "I didn't see any."

"You really are unobservant aren't you?" Talindra scowled at him. Seeing the lecherous grin he gave her she reached over and smacked him upside the head. "Now is neither the time nor the place for that."

Shaking her head at Aravilar's antics she wished that the father of her daughter would have been like him instead of the monster that had raped her. She forcefully pushed the memories of what had happened into the back of her mind and resumed trying to figure out how to help her daughter. Stepping on to the landing she headed for the next staircase which was at the end of the hall.

Watching her concernedly Aravilar decided to tell her what he had discovered. "Akordia," he called softly, "I think I might have found a way to help your daughter." Seeing her stop and turn to stare at him in hope he took a deep breath and continued, "It's a complex spell and we would need a second being to put it on with her, essentially forming a soul-bond between them. The problem is that we would need to use a being around the same age as her and that couldn't contract Vampirism, because the spell would share the trait if the other recipient was without a similar affliction." Upon seeing the happy expression on her face he started to get concerned. "Akordia did you hear what I said?" he asked cautiously.

Nodding rapidly she grinned at the look of confusion on his face and the dawning look of comprehension on Talindra. "I see you know what I'm thinking Tal," she said happily.

Grinning at Akordia, Talindra looked at her mate at saw the confused look on his face. "You don't look and you don't listen do you?" she asked exasperatedly. Upon seeing him shake his head she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "The child those ghosts are with is a Lycanthrope Aravilar. You know the beings that change into an animal or an animal-hybrid?" Seeing that he still looked confused, Talindra growled and smacked him forcefully upside the head. "It means if we got permission from the ghosts to use that spell on him we would have a being that won't contract vampirism."

Comprehension finally dawned on him and the two females started giggling at the look of embarrassment on his face. "I was distracted checking the residual magic in the area," his deep voice sounded defensive. Glancing at the other two he saw their curiosity. "That was a very powerful Necromantic spell the child absorbed. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are permanent scars from backlash of absorbing and redirecting that much power in a child's body."

A look of pure shock appeared on Akordia's face and she immediately turned and started running for the upstairs, Talindra not far behind her. "Aravilar get moving!" Akordia yelled.

Aravilar started running after them as soon as he heard that for fear that one of them would come back and drag him after them by his ears(Talindra) or his tail(Akordia). Muttering prayers to various gods and goddesses he hoped that they would calm down and not attack him if the child was ok. Spotting Akordia slowing and turning towards him he cast a speed enhancement spell and gave a sigh of relief when she turned back towards the stairs and scrambled up them and down the hall above. Frustrated he cast a transport spell and went through the dimensional door stepping out a few feet from the other end of the third floor hall. His smug smirk quickly became a yelp of pain as Akordia grabbed his tail and dragged him after her to the door. He shot a pained look at Talindra when he saw her snicker at their friend's actions.

The sight of the dark-skinned female dragging her male companion into the room by his tail caused Lily to start laughing and James to stare at them. Aravilar sighed as he heard the laughter and gave his best "please-help-me" look to Talindra, in the hope that she would take pity on him and get Akordia to release his poor tail. Sighing in relief as his tail was released without his mate saying anything he turned and looked at the ghosts that Akordia had mentioned. Carefully scrutinizing the female ghosts appearance he noticed that she had the exact same color hair and eyes as Talindra, looking at her more closely revealed that she had signs of being descended from Elves. Switching to the male he wondered why his hair was so messy and what the lenses he wore did. Shrugging to himself he turned to the child and studied it, eyes widening in shock when he saw a bird in a cloud shape faintly covering one side of the child's face. Rapidly he turned to Talindra and opened his mouth to comment when he spotted a long, black haired human approaching with a wand drawn and pointed at Talindra's back, growling he flung out a hand and watched as the human's face turned to shock as his shield was overwhelmed by the force wave that had been flung at him. Stalking towards the unknown human Aravilar caught the looks of disbelief on the faces of the ghosts and the amused looks on Akordia and Talindra. Stopping next to the human he reached down and lifted him up then carried him over by the crib and dropped him.

Talindra was carefully studying the child's features when she saw her mate turn towards her then suddenly stop and fling out a hand releasing a spell at something behind her. Turning around she saw a human male collapsed in the doorway, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Aravilar start moving towards the unconscious figure. She watched in amusement as he carefully picked the man up then carry him over by the crib and drop him. Seeing the shocked looks on the ghosts she decided to start talking to them and see what she could find out.

Smiling Talindra said, "I guess it would be a good idea for us to introduce ourselves since my mate decided to knock that man unconscious. My name is Talindra, the oaf who knocked just dropped an unconscious person is Aravilar, and the anxious lady looking at your child is Akordia." Gesturing towards the child, she asked, "Has he ever shown any unusual abilities? Like making a light appear or making something magical lose it's charge for a while."

Sighing in relief Lily responded, "My name's Lily, and this is my husband James." Moving over to the crib, "This is our son Harry. The man your mate knocked out is a friend of our's named Sirius Black. Why would you want to know if he ever created a light or make an object lose it's magic?" Lily looked really interested in the answer to that.

"We think that somewhere in one of your blood-lines, probably your's Lily, that there was a celestial being that put the potential for a Celestial-blooded being called an Aasimar to be born and Harry came up on my detection spell as one. The ability to create a light is a trademark of Aasimars. The draining of a magical item's power is from a very rare ability called Spell-fire, it allows a being with it to absorb and redirect magical energy to either harm or heal other beings." Aravilar said while looking closely at Harry, trying to figure out why only he had noticed the faint marking on the left-side of Harry's face.

"What makes you think that the 'Celestial' blood comes from Lily's side?" James inquired while trying to figure out why Aravilar had such an interest in the left side of Harry's face. Looking to one side he saw Akordia start walking towards Harry's crib with a hopeful look. James turned to Lily with a confused expression, and whispered, "Any idea why those two are behaving like that?"

Lily shrugged and replied, "No idea. Maybe Akordia wants to raise him and Aravilar is interested in learning about him because of his abilities."

"Actually, you're partially correct," Talindra's voice broke in, "Aravilar is interested in him because of his abilities, but that's not the only reason, your son is also a tiger lycanthrope. And the combination of Aasimar and lycanthrope is so rare that no-one has ever seen it before."

"I thought lycanthropy only had a wolf form?" James said.

"No, why would you think that?" Talindra asked.

"One of my friends is a werewolf and according to everything we've found that's the only kind of lycanthropy there is."

"Hmm, that might be true in this world. But where we're from there are many types of lycanthropes. And to answer the question you're getting ready to ask, the only thing I can think of is that he's too young for his body to change on the full moon." Talindra tapped her chin thoughtfully, "The reason Akordia is so interested in Harry is because her daughter has a unique problem. Akordia was raped by a vampire who had captured her and drank fresh blood a half-hour before raping her. She wants to help her and Aravilar just found a spell that might help, but there are problems with it." Getting a nervous look Talindra continued, "The spell creates a soul bond between two beings and allows them to communicate with each other through telepathy as well as find each other if they get separated, the downside is that unless both recipients of the spell have similar afflictions the spell duplicates the affliction on the unafflicted person."

James looked curious, wondering why Talindra was sharing this. Lily looked at Akordia then Harry and tried to figure out what a similar affliction to lycanthropy was. Both gasped at the same time as they realized why Talndra told them about the spell and Akordia's daughter.

"You want to bond our son to her daughter?" Lily inquired not certain whether she should be angry at the idea or not.

"Yes," Talindra stated. "But we will only do it if it's allowable by you two. Either way we would like to take him with us and teach him, there are many things our people can teach him about magic. Out of curiosity, why were you so surprised when Aravilar knocked your friend out?"

"I take it your people don't need wands to cast spells?" James queried.

"Ahh, I see what the difference is. For you wands are a focus, for us they are used to store spells for use when a spell might be needed repeatedly and a spellcaster doesn't want to use up his or her own magical power. It's probably the same difference for staves too." Talindra answered.

"So, the magic you know would be something unexpected to someone from this world?" James scratched his head. "Oops, obviously it is since Aravilar knocked Sirius out with one spell. Definitely sounds like a good idea for you to train him then. Personally I think the bonding spell might be a good thing for him, so you got my permission. What do you think Lils?"

Lily floated there looking at James in surprise. "James, what makes you think that the bonding spell is a good idea?"

Getting nervous James answered, "If he has the soul bond then he'll have someone there to keep him out of trouble, and if he's anything like me when he gets older then he's definitely gonna need it. Plus it makes sure that he'll always be with someone who loves him."

Staring at James Lily said in a surprised voice, "I agree too, Talindra. Another benefit is that in this world if not your's it'll mean that he doesn't have to worry about getting married since the bond will show that they can't be separated."

James smiled in relief that Lily had agreed, he saw that Aravilar and Akordia had heard the conversation and were smiling at the agreement to use the spell.

Akordia rushed over happily and surprised the two ghosts by hugging them. Releasing them she saw the surprise on their faces, "Just one of the many spells Harry could learn while he's apprenticed. If cast on an object the object can be handled by ghosts and if cast on a person the person can physically interact with ghosts."

Aravilar motioned Talindra over as Akordia and Lily started talking James followed curiously. "He's definitely related to you Tal, he has the mark of the Winged Lady."

James looked confusedly between them for a few moments, "Umm, could I possibly get you to tell me what that means?"

"It means," Talindra started with a surprised voice, "that there is a Half-Celestial Winged Elf in Lily's ancestry, and the celestial blood is showing itself through the symbol of the deity the elf served."

"Ah, just wondered if it meant anything like if he was more powerful or something." Relief was obvious in his voice.

"Oh, it just means that he's the Chosen of the goddess Aerdrie Faenya." Aravilar said, then started laughing at James's expression of shock.

Talindra groaned and grabbed Aravilar's ear. Turning his head towards her, "That was a very mean joke to play on him, especially with all he's learned in the past few minutes. Is that clock of your's set or not?"

"Not yet dear, I'm going to set it right now." Aravilar whimpered. As soon as Talindra let go he moved to the other side of the room and pulled out a cylinder with two clock faces on either end. One face was active and moved rapidly, Aravilar muttered a chant under his breath and watched the unmoving face start to move then he compared the speed the two faces were moving at. "Talindra, Akordia, we have to leave soon. Time's moving six times slower here then at home!"

Akordia looked over and started to move towards Harry. Lily reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Behind the painting at the head of Harry's crib is a trunk with my old school things so he can learn the basics of this world's magic. Please promise that you'll bring him here in eleven years this world's time to attend the magic school here."

Akordia saw the sincerity in Lily's eyes, "I promise Lily. We'll bring him back so he can learn your world's magic." Turning she went to the painting and pulled it off the wall revealing a trunk set in a nook. Pulling out the trunk Akordia turned and set it down then carefully lifted Harry out of his crib, then leaned down and grabbed the trunk's handle. She dragged it only a few feet before she felt Aravilar take the handle out of her hand and lift the trunk. Akordia turned to face James and Lily again. "I hope we'll see you when we come back," she said sadly.

Lily floated forwards and kissed the top of Harry's head. "Good luck Harry," she said softly, "I hope we will as well."

James floated up next to Lily, and placed a hand on Harry's head. "Good luck son," he said, "I know you'll do us proud. I'm gonna do my best to make sure that we're here when you come back."

Akordia followed her friends through another Gate while looking back at the ghosts of Harry's parents.