Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm J.K. Rowling and I've decided to take a break from writing the sixth Harry Potter book (no, I won't tell you anything about it!) to relax, sit back at my computer, eat some cheese doodles, and write a Harry Potter fanfic (although can it really be called that if I'm the actual creator of Harry Potter? Why am I doing a disclaimer; can I sue myself?) that focuses around Ginny and Draco (with a romance between the two, of course!) instead of boring old Harry. ... Okay, you caught me! I'M NOT J.K. ROWLING, i.e., I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER. You no sue-ee me, I no sue-ee you. Capisce?

Author's Note: Okay, I'm pretty sure the Harry Potter books don't say anything much about what kinds of animals animagi can turn into, so I'm going to make up the rule that animagi can't turn into mystical creatures, for the sake of this story. (Although that sounds really familiar to me, as if I've read that somewhere, but I can't find anything saying that in the books or on the internet... If anyone does know that it says that somewhere, it would be great if you could refer me to that quotation. Thanks! =D) Also, I have no idea about the Quidditch teams around the world, so I'm just making that up as I go along.

--

Nine redheads stood inside the Weasleys' dining room in the Burrow, smiles shining on all of their faces. In the midst of the redheads stood two brunettes, a boy and a girl, laughing and talking with the rest. They were surrounding a table that, if one didn't know that it belonged to a wizarding family, seemed to be unable to withstand the pile of mostly homemade goodies stacked on top of it. On the Weasleys' dining room table sat a humongous chocolate birthday cake (with candles that were enchanted to burn for four hours), chocolate chip cookies, Molly Weasley's famous fudge, some sweets that were courtesy of Fred and George (which were being left alone by everyone in the room), apple pie with whipped cream, all different kinds of flavors of ice cream, and many more mouthwatering desserts.

The party was to celebrate the sixteenth birthday of the only daughter and youngest child of Arthur and Molly Weasley—Ginny Weasley. The guest of honor was seated at the end of the table, talking to her brother Ron, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger about a recent development in the Quidditch World Cup. Ginny's face was alight with ecstasy and delight at the surprise party her family and friends had thrown for her. Her whole family was in attendance, even Percy, and she was so happy that she didn't care about the fact that she wouldn't get any gifts from her parents, not that she was unused to it.

Ginny had grown up to be quite unspoiled due to the monetary status of her family. In recent times, though, her family had grown even more destitute, and Ginny had to get a summer job at the nearby wizarding library to help pay for some of the expenses. This was all due to the fact that Arthur Weasley had received a pay cut in his salary, along with many other Ministry workers, because the war against Voldemort had been using up the Ministry's financial resources. (At this point in the war, things seemed to have died down and everyone knew this was because Voldemort was planning something big. Because of the magnitude of the situation, only the trained Aurors of the Ministry were assigned to work on it, and the Weasleys were doing their best to keep things normal for now.) Despite the impoverishment of her family, Molly Weasley had still been able to whip up all of those desserts for the party, being the genius in the kitchen that she was.

"I can't believe Bulgaria got kicked out of the running yesterday! I figured they were a sure thing to win the Cup this year!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Yeah, they're good, but I never really did expect them to make it to the semi-finals myself. I mean, they have really strong beaters, but only fair chasers and a mediocre seeker, compared to the other top teams. Their main problem, though, is their defense; they have a really bad keeper in Hasselvich this year. The team has seemed to have lowered its standards," Harry pointed out.

"My money is on Britain to beat Ireland in their semi-final match, America to beat Spain in their semi-final match, and Britain to take it all at the World Cup," Ron declared with a mouth full of fudge. "The USA seems to have a wicked team this year, but good ol' Britain will beat 'em, I just know it."

"I'm not so sure about that, Ron..." Hermione said, then adding, "and don't talk with your mouth full."

"Why would you say that, Hermione? You don't even keep up with the Cup!" he replied indignantly, pretending to ignore her second statement but swallowing and wiping his mouth all the same.

"Well..." Hermione began, smiling because she had something to say in the discussion and she knew something that the others didn't. "When I visited the library in Diagon Alley yesterday while you guys were at the quidditch shop—"

"It's the summer before our last year at Hogwarts, and you were spending it in the library? When you could've been hanging out with us?! Wait... There's a library in Diagon Alley?" Ron interrupted, earning glares from Harry and Ginny, who were interested in the information Hermione was about to indulge them with. They had no clue what she was about to say, because in their eyes the United States were actually the best bet to take the World Cup home this year.

"Yes, Ron, there is," Hermione answered, not answering his first two questions. "But if I may continue... I was at the library, doing some research when I heard two men talking rather loudly a few tables away from me. They were so loud that I was distracted from my potions research and I couldn't help but overhear their conversation. They were making early bets on the World Cup, and one of them said, 'I think I'm going to put all of my money on USA,' and the other told him that that wouldn't be a very good idea, due to the claims that have been made recently..."

"Claims? What sort of claims? How come we haven't heard about them in the Daily Prophet?" Harry wondered.

"Well, America is probably trying to keep it all under wraps at the moment. Also, from what I heard, it only happened a few days ago..." Hermione's voice was rapidly getting quieter as she spoke, heightening the dramatic tension of her words.

"Gosh, Hermione, you really know how to drag out suspense, huh?" Ginny joked. Her whole upper body was leaning over the birthday cake and across the table as she tried to catch every word Hermione was saying. Her fiery red, waist-long hair was falling across her shoulders and into the cake.

"Virginia Weasley, I know it's your birthday, but please don't get so close to the cake or you'll catch your hair on fire!" Molly Weasley scolded from across the table.

"What?" Ginny said, looking down at her hair and seeing that it was centimeters away from her birthday candles at the moment. "Oh, sorry, Mum," she apologized distractedly while leaning back in her chair and pulling her hair behind her back. "I'll be more careful."

"Okay, well, go on, Hermione! Tell us what's going on, we're dying!" Ron persuaded.

"Okay, okay. Well, apparently the American team has been using illegal charms and things to enhance their strength, speed, and all sorts of other things in order to win their games!"

"No way!" Ginny breathed, eyes wide.

"I can't believe they'd stoop so low!" Harry exclaimed, angry that such a thing could happen in Quidditch.

"It's exactly something that those Americans would pull! Americans are just plain wrong, I tell you! Dirty, lowdown little—"

"Ron! You can't make a generalization about a whole country like that! That's just plain bigotry!" Hermione reprimanded, rolling her eyes from exasperation at her boyfriend.

"I can't see how you're defending them when they've done something so horrible, Hermione," he replied.

"So what's going to happen with the World Cup? Will America be disqualified and Spain put in the finals by default?" Ginny asked no one in particular.

"Heck if I know, Gin. I don't think anything like this has ever happened before, and there will be a lot of problems this year if those claims are true," Harry replied, staring at the wall opposite him as if the answer were written there for him to read.

Ginny looked at Hermione and Ron, who had apparently somehow gone from arguing about Americans and prejudice to arguing about arithmancy. "Honestly, I don't know what goes on in their heads..." Ginny thought to herself, smiling. Suddenly, she felt a tingling sensation on her left hand for a quick second. Confused, Ginny turned to Harry to see if he had just been touching her to get her attention, but Harry was no longer in his seat; he'd gotten up to go talk to Fred and George about their latest inventions. She looked back down at her hand, but didn't see anything. She decided it must've been a few loose strands of her hair tickling her hand or something, but then she felt it again, and her mouth dropped open at what she saw before her. Her hand was turning a rich red color!

"Could you excuse me, Hermione? I've, er, got to go to the bathroom," Ginny lied, trying to squeeze between Hermione's chair and the wall.

"Oh, sure, sorry," Hermione answered, scooting her chair closer to Ron's, causing him to grin for a second but then remember he was fighting with her and replace the smile with a frown.

Ginny bounded up the Burrow's narrow steps and threw herself into her bathroom, locking the door behind her. The bathroom wasn't elegant, but it was very large and comfortable. Instead of having a floor made out of tile like most bathrooms, this one had carpet that wasn't extremely soft, but it wasn't rough. There were large mirrors along one wall, above the counter, and the wallpaper was blue with seagulls on it, which always made Ginny think of the beach.

Ginny jumped in front of the counter and looked down at her hand again, but it was the same flesh color it always was. Maybe she had just imagined things in all her excitement... She glanced at her face in the mirror, trying to notice if her face looked any different than usual. No, her face was still pale (but not in an unattractive way) except for the very light shade of pink that was permanently etched across her cheeks that would always glow brighter when she was happy. The same dusting of freckles was across her nose, annoying her to no end. Her eyes were not red, but the same chocolate brown that she had always found so dull and boring. Her nose was still too small for her face, she thought, and her lips were still light pink and as thin as ever.

A sigh escaped her pink lips as she thought about how unexciting her features were and wondered how she'd ever gotten the boyfriends she had gotten in the past. She'd been told by many guys and girls that she was beautiful and petite, probably one of the most beautiful girls in her year, but she couldn't understand what would make them think that. "Maybe I'm just too hard on myself..." she though. "The fact that I had six older brothers tease me about my looks as a child probably didn't do much for my self-esteem when it came to my outward appearance." She looked back into the mirror to examine her freckles when she noticed that her lips had gone from a pink color to a yellowish color.

"Am I getting sick, or am I just mad?" she said out loud as she begun to notice her ears shrinking. She squeezed her eyes tight shut in an attempt to rub the crazy images from her eyelids, but pretty soon her whole body was tingling and she decided to keep her eyes shut. She felt her hair grow shorter across her back and her legs began to shorten also. The sensations she was feeling were indescribable, and they lasted for a whole minute. Finally, slumped against the counter, Ginny felt it all cease suddenly. She felt...different, somehow, but once more she couldn't describe the feeling. Bewildered, Ginny opened her eyes and was met by something that took her breath away.

A PHOENIX. Staring back at Ginny was a beautiful, red phoenix with tints of orange and yellow hidden amongst its feathers. Its sky blue eyes were glistening and its feathers were shimmering and glittering, as if they were actually on fire. It wasn't the beauty of the phoenix that blew Ginny away, or the fact that she was actually seeing one in the Burrow. No, she was awestruck because she knew that that was her in the mirror. Somehow, miraculously, she had transformed into a phoenix! Was this a dream? Ginny moved to pinch herself to check the reality of the situation, but when she lifted her arm it was just a feathered wing.

"Oh...my...gosh..." she said. "Wait, whoa! I can talk!" she exclaimed, shocked that she still retained her verbal communication skills even though she was a bird. "What is going on here?..." she whispered, beginning to shiver from the freakiness of what was happening. She had just turned into a phoenix. This wasn't even something that Ginny had even heard of being done before. Animagi, she had learned, were only capable of becoming animals that weren't magical, and they had to undergo years of training to even do that. And here Ginny was, becoming a phoenix out of the blue!

Suddenly someone knocked on the door and Charlie's voice could be heard through it. "Ginny, are you all right in there? What's taking you so long?" If Ginny wasn't in the situation that she was in, and if she had the ability to, she would have smiled. Charlie was Ginny's favorite brother, and he was always looking out for her and worrying about her well-being. She loved Charlie; Ginny loved dragons almost as much as he did and that bond had always been there between them. However, Ginny knew she couldn't tell Charlie what was going on. Heck, she wouldn't even be able to unlock the door for him if she wanted to let him in!

"I'm fine, Charlie! I'm just fixing my hair a bit. I'll be out in a minute!" Obviously she had no idea of the last statement were true or not, considering she had absolutely no idea what was going on. She hated lying to her brother like this.

"Oh, well, okay then." Ginny heard his footsteps as he descended the steps and rejoined the party.

"Oh man, oh man..." Ginny whispered as the realization of it all seemed to sink it. The dreamlike state she had been in at first was drifting away and she began to panic. What was going on?! Would she ever turn back?! How did this happen?! Why did it have to be today, of all days?! As the terror filled her, she began to flap her wings in helplessness, causing a bottle of Skele-gro ("You never know what can happen, Ginny, and you should always be prepared!" her mother always said) to fall down to the floor. Suddenly the room's small size registered in Ginny's brain and she began to flap her wings harder, attempting to somehow make the room larger. In the back of Ginny's mind were the instincts of a phoenix, and right now its instincts were telling Ginny to just get out.

As Ginny continued to flap her wings in a frenzy, she felt the tingling sensation across her body again. Closing her eyes in relief and hope, Ginny tried to relax and see if she would turn back to normal. "Please, please, please..." she begged, squeezing her eyelids together as hard as she had during the first frightful transformation. Just like before, a minute passed of this until everything stopped all at once. Ginny opened her eyes and stood up, looking down at herself. A warm wave of relief shot through her body when she saw a normal teenage girl's body. She gazed into the mirror and she looked exactly the same as before, except her cheeks were now a bright red color. Glancing at her clothes, Ginny realized that they must have transformed with her each time.

Letting out a sigh, Ginny made her way out of her bathroom and back down to the dining room, vowing that as soon as the party seemed to be over (which had to be soon, considering they'd been celebrating for hours now), she would visit the library she worked at and see if she could find out anything about what had just happened. To her delight, she saw that Harry, Hermione, and Ron had moved downstairs into the living room to talk and Bill and Mr. Weasley were now in the kitchen discussing a new spell Bill had picked up in Egypt.

As soon as Ginny stepped into the dining room, Mrs. Weasley noticed her right away. "Ginny, honey, why are your cheeks so red? Are you sick?"

"I'm fine, Mum. It was just a bit hot in my bathroom and I had my hair all around my face, heating me up."

Mrs. Weasley believed this and instead chose to gripe about Ginny's hair. "You wouldn't have burned up so much in there if you would just cut your hair like I keep telling you to. Hair shouldn't be the length of half your body! You need to cut it, as does your broth-er!!" Molly's voice got louder as she said the word "brother" so that Bill could hear her, but Bill wasn't listening.

"I know, Mom, I know," Ginny replied patiently, having heard this about a million times. "But I have to leave now, Mum."

"What? Where do you have to go?"

"I need to go to the library."

"The library? But you've got the day off today because it's your birthday!"

"I know, but I've just remembered something that I have to speak with my boss about, and it can't wait. I hope you don't mind?" Ginny said, lilting her voice at the end to make it seem as if she were asking permission instead of telling Mrs. Weasley that she was leaving.

"No, that's quite all right, dear. We were pretty much finished in here anyway, and I need to get started on cleaning up the mess that you all have made," Molly said teasingly.

"Thanks, Mom. I won't be back too late, I promise." Ginny moved across the room to give her mother a peck on the cheek, and then she left the house, prepared for the fifteen minute walk to the library.

--

"Ginny!" Mrs. Slate exclaimed as Ginny stepped inside the building. Mrs. Slate was the librarian at the Ottery St. Catchpole Library and also Ginny's boss. She was a plump woman with terrible taste in clothing, always wearing the same two cotton dresses, one pink and one blue, with roses decorated on them. Ginny loved her because she was kind and fun to be around, unless she thought someone was treating her library materials poorly or any other such thing. "What are you doing here? Today's your day off! You aren't trying to get in some overtime, are you?" Mrs. Slate teased. Ginny would often ask if she could do overtime to earn some extra money if she found something she wanted to buy for herself, but Mrs. Slate would always sadly refuse due to the low amount of funding the library received.

"No, Mrs. Slate," Ginny laughed. "No, I'm here to do a bit of research, actually."

"Okay, Ginny, I hope you find what you're looking for. If you need any help, you know I'm right here!"

"Thanks, Mrs. Slate, but I'm sure I'll be fine."

Ginny walked over to the nonfiction section of the library and, because she knew her way through the library inside and out, immediately was able to find a book about phoenixes. After a quick skimming through, however, the book proved to be useless. After replacing the phoenix book, Ginny found a book on animagi, but it didn't mention anything about turning into mystical creatures. Replacing the animagi book, Ginny picked up a book on magical creatures and looked through it. Again, she found it to be useless.

This process of finding, skimming through, and replacing books continued for about 45 minutes. "Will I find anything here about what happened?" she wondered. She began to think back about all she'd learned from working at the library all summer. "Where else could it possibly be?..." she thought. She then remembered the library's storage room where all the new books waited to get coded and shelved, but it was only open to employees during their work hours.

"Mrs. Slate, is it okay if I go into the storage room for a bit, even though I'm not on shift?" Ginny asked.

"Of course, honey! Go right on in."

Inside the storage room were piles of brand new books and Ginny inhaled the new book smell of the room that she loved. She walked over to a pile of nonfiction books in the corner of the room that were stacked in two piles and began to sort through them. Before she could find one she thought would be helpful, though, her eye caught sight of a thin paperback book wedged inbetween one of the other books. Wondering what it was, she pulled it out and saw her name printed clearly on the top: Virginia Elizabeth Weasley. "What the—?" she whispered, staring at the cover. Smoothing the cover with her palm as if to erase her name and uncover the real name of the book, she opened it up to the first page and began to read what looked like an encyclopedia article:

Mystimorphs - Mystimorphs are people similar to animagi in that they can transform themselves into animals. While animagi can only turn into animals that have no magical aspects to them, mystimorphs can change into such mystical creatures as dragons, hippogriffs, phoenixes, etc. Until four centuries ago, very little was known about mystimorphs, and they were even thought to have just been a myth. However, more is known about them today. Mystimorphs are similar to animagi in that they cannot control which creature they transform into, but mystimorphs are natural-born and more rare than animagi. A pattern has been found where two people are born as mystimorphs around each century. The last known mystimorphs were born around 1880. Mystimorphs are discovered on their sixteenth birthday, when they transform unwillingly into their creature. Following the first transformation, the mystimorph's destined amulet or other piece of jewelry must find its way to him or her. This jewelry, when being worn by the mystimorph and when the individual spell is uttered by him or her, can transform the person to their creature immediately or vice versa. Mystimorphs are said to still have the ability to speak while in creature form, and also they can think normally other than obtaining the instincts of their creature.

"Wh-what?" Ginny breathed after finishing the article. "I'm a...a mystimorph? How come I've never heard of one of those before? I'm going to find an amulet or, or whatever that's going to transform me into a phoenix whenever I'd like? Do I have to register with the Ministry like an animagus? And why was my name on the cover of the book? Maybe I should see if there's anything else in here..." When she turned the page, she saw there was more writing:

The preceding was an encyclopedia article from the year 1979. After the year 1985, however, the article stopped printing and any of the articles already in print were burned except for two. These two were meant to be contained in two separate books, one of which is this one, enchanted to find out who the mystimorphs of the century were and somehow end up in one of the mystimorph's hands. They have also been charmed so that if anyone else sees them, they will see a completely different book. If you are reading this then you have the very rare gift of a mystimorph, and you should be very proud of that. You have learned all you need to know for now about mystimorphs from the article, except for one thing—why the articles were burned and never to be printed again. This might scare you, but in the year 1985 a prophecy was made that predicted that when the mystimorphs were found, they would have a crucial part in the Second War against Voldemort, which had already been predicted. That is your destiny, and after that prophecy was made, the Minister of Magic demanded that mystimorphs be kept secret from the public from then on so that the Ministry could find you both in peace and increase its chances of defeating Voldemort. This is a great burden to have, but please don't be afraid of it, and the enclosed amulet of yours will soon find its twin piece of jewelry and you will find the other mystimorph. Good luck!

Ginny stared at the book in shock, millions of thoughts and feelings swarming in her head. Her father had always warned her to never trust anything that thinks for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. Somehow, though, Ginny just knew that this book wasn't evil like the diary back in her first year. It had been more than five years since the whole Chamber of Secrets incident, and Ginny had moved on from that, although it had still remained a part of her. She had told herself in third year that she didn't have to live in fear anymore just because of that, and things had gotten better afterwards. However, Ginny knew now to be more careful, but she couldn't describe why she knew she didn't have to worry about this book. Also, it didn't even technically think for itself... It was just enchanted and someone years ago had put the article and message in there. Ginny knew she had nothing to fear when it came to this book.

However, that didn't mean she had no fears when it came to the situation. First of all, Ginny's mind was still reeling with the fact that she was apparently some legendary mystimorph person that seemingly had special powers and a destiny. Speaking of the destiny, she was going to play a big part in the Second War against Voldemort?! This was the sort of pressure that Harry Potter had to deal with, not Ginny Weasley! What did she even have to do with Voldemort, other than the fact that she'd communicated with his old diary? "I can't help in the war against Voldemort! I can't transform into a phoenix! This is all just a horrible dream! I can't do this..." she sighed as she closed the book in an attempt to make it all go away.

As she closed the book, though, she noticed that a large bump had suddenly appeared there. Upon opening the book back up, she found a bright red amulet with a silver chain attached to it. Attached to the chain was a slip of paper reading the words "Mutatio Phoenix." Ginny assumed this was the spell she would have to say while wearing the amulet in order to transform.

"Well, I don't have to transform at all, nor do I have to accept this amulet. If I don't do those things, then no one will be able to find me out and I won't have to fulfill my 'destiny'! Everything will just go back to normal!" she said, trying to convince herself. "I should take these things home with me, though..." she thought, as if in a trance. The amulet seemed to be calling out to her as if it were a child that needed her to take care of it. "I won't have to use it," she decided. "I'll just take it home with me. And I'll need to take another look at this book, too..."

Ginny stood up from the room with her newly acquired book and amulet and left the room, walking over to Mrs. Slate. "Mrs. Slate, can I borrow this book for a bit even though it's not coded yet?" she asked.

"A Russian cookbook? I had no idea you were interested in cooking, Ginny! But no, I won't let you borrow it. I'll do better than that and let you keep it; it's yours. Consider it a birthday present from your ol' boss," she said with a twinkle in her eye that reminded Ginny of Dumbledore.

"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Slate!" Ginny exclaimed gratefully. "You're too kind to me. Well, I've got to be getting home now, though."

"That's fine, Ginny. See you tomorrow at work?"

"As always. Bye!"

"Goodbye, dear!"

--

When Ginny got home, she ran straight to her room and hid the book and amulet inside a hidden compartment in the floor of her closet. "I can't let anyone find this stuff, no matter what..." she thought. "And I'm definitely never going to put on that amulet, ever." After that she went downstairs to hang out with her family and friends like a completely normal teenager whose sixteenth birthday was today.

--

Author's Note: Whoa, this chapter turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be! In fact, I had planned this to only be a fair third of chapter one, but since I personally don't like very lengthy chapters, I decided to end it here and start back up again in Chapter Two.

Also, "mutatio" is Latin for "change" or "transformation," and "phoenix" is obviously Latin for “phoenix.” =)

Anyway, please review!