Disclaimer - It isn't mine. It all belongs to a millionairess and a rather famous one at that.

It was two days after Harry had killed the Basilisk and he needed to get out of the castle. Sure he wasn't being stared at for being the heir of Slytherin anymore but the speculation about what happened down in the Chamber was driving him crazy. That was why he was out wandering the grounds this early. It had started before Christmas, when the rumours were particularly bad, he would put on the invisibility cloak and walk through the castle grounds. The walk round the lake was nice, if a little long but the outskirts of the forbidden forest were good too. He figured it was all the years in his cupboard which made him long for the outdoors.

The cry of anguish from deeper in the forest startled him and before he could stop himself he was running towards the source of the noise. Within minutes he came upon the chilling sight of the five of the acromantula herd surrounding what looked to be a limping four legged creature. Despite his nerves Harry knew he had to do something.

"Incendio" he cried pointing a shaking wand at an unsuspecting spider.

The clicking and shrieking of acromantulas intensified as they whirled around to face this new threat. The smell of charred flesh reached Harry's nostrils making him gag and causing the flames from his wand to sputter and die. The burnt spider crept away warily its attention now fully focussed on Harry as the four other spiders tried to surround Harry.

Harry stumbled his way towards the limping creature, a griffin, it was larger than he had thought, its white birdlike head reaching chest height, with the deep chestnut feathers of its body giving way to powerful looking talons. Both of the creatures chestnut coloured wings looked to be broken and its back left leg which appeared to be that of a snow leopard, appeared slashed an bloody and the creature was clearly favouring it.

Having little choice but to turn his back on the creature and face the oncoming acromantula that were now attempting to surround the pair. Harry was desperately trying to think of something that would help. Trusting that the two spiders behind him were being stalled by the young griffin, Harry focused on the sea of legs approaching him. Legs, Jelly-legs. Quickly firing off a Jelly-legs curse he was delighted to see one of his attacks lose control and smash into a tree, he tried the same tactic on the other two attackers and was again delighted with the result. The screeching behind him followed by the angry clicks of apparently desperate spiders told him his comrade was successful too. Eyeing his attackers warily as they struggled to stand he was surprised by the great shadow the passed over him and turned round to be confronted by startling yellow eyes and a vicious looking beak staring at him from above.

The excited if seemingly pained squawking from the young griffin beside him told him that this must be some relation to his recent comrade as Harry tried to maintain eye contact with the powerful creature. He apparently passed the inspection as the older griffin turned to inspect the younger, injured party and with series of screeches appeared to berate the younger griffin whose head began to droop. Feeling suddenly protective of the animal Harry started towards him laying a protective hand on the back if his neck and stroking the surprisingly soft feathers before glaring defiantly and the older griffin. After a long moment the older creature let out another loud squawk which Harry interpreted as amusement before bowing his head to the younger griffin.

At this the younger griffin bounced and screeched excitedly before turning to Harry and looking deep into his eyes. As Harry stared back into the fierce, intelligent amber eyes he became aware of another presence in his mind and he was bombarded with thoughts of excitement and nervousness that were not his own. Without thinking Harry reached out his left arm, palm upwards to the creature, who slowly paced towards him, and using his beak gently pierced Harrys wrist. Before Harry could cry out, the griffin facing him quickly manoeuvred the pierced wrist to a wound on his own front leg.

The moment the wounds touched Harry dropped to his knees in agony, a scream ripped out of his throat and was answered by an agonised shriek from the creature opposite. The pain seemed to go on forever and Harry felt as if a thousand knives were scraping across his very bones. As suddenly as it had started, the pain vanished and was replaced by a feeling of well being and contentment Harry could never remember.

"So how was the bonding?"

The noise from Harry's right startled him as not only had he forgotten that they were not alone, but it could only have come from the griffin.

"Wonderful father. Even my wings have been fixed."

"You were lucky youngling, were it not for the human you would not be alive for me to berate you." The older griffin replied sternly.

Turning to Harry who was still too shocked to respond he spoke again. "So human what compelled you to save my daughter?" eyeing Harry warily.

"I-I was out walking, heard her cries and new she was in pain, by the time I got here she was surrounded, I've been surrounded by acromantula before and nearly eaten, I know how scary it is, I wouldn't wish it on anyone." Harry replied, more confidently than he felt.

Accepting the answer the older griffin moved on to another topic. "So young warrior, why are you worthy of a familiar bond with a griffin?"

"A-a what?" Harry stammered.

"A familiar bond. Surely you know what that is. How do you think you can now talk to us? My daughter insists you are worthy of a full bond. I am yet to be convinced."

"Please sir, I don't know what a familiar bond is, all I know is I saw she was in trouble and tried to help. I'm just glad I could save her." He answered, looking fondly at the fully healed young griffin beside him.

"What on earth do they teach at that school of yours if they don't teach familiar bonds?"

Harry shrugged unsure of what to answer and vaguely insulted by the remarks about the only place he had ever called home

"A familiar bond is a bond between two creatures of different species, it is more than friendship, it is the ultimate contract, it is an agreement between magical creatures with similar ideals that they will always look after each other. Are you aware of the phoenix at the school?"

"Fawkes, yes, he helped me kill the basilisk that was attacking the students."

At this there were two strangled screeches coming from the griffins, the griffin equivalent of a startle gasp.

"You, young human, you killed the basilisk which slept under the school?"

"Yes." Replied Harry bashfully. "My best friends sister had been possessed by the memory of Lord Voldemort who was using it to attack the students, and was trying to use her to come back to life."

There was a moments silence as the two griffins looked at Harry, the younger apparently in awe, the older seemingly re-evaluating him.

"Perhaps I was wrong about you young warrior. You are more worthy than I thought." The older griffin was silent for a moment before continuing. "Fawkes is the familiar of your Headmaster. Phoenixes are among the most common of the powerful familiar's. They bond with powerful, light wizards, wizards are similar to them in nature. At any one time there are at least five bonded phoenixes in the world.

"Griffins are different, while we are light creatures, we understand that there is a time and a place for darkness, for fighting. Griffin's bond only to warriors. Powerful warriors. We have powerful protective instincts and as a species we can be aggressive and ruthless when required. Not many mages have ever had both the power and personality required to attract a griffin familiar."

At the start of the explanation Harry was excited, but as it continued he became increasingly despondent. "B-But I'm not that powerful" Harry stuttered, still unable to get over the shock of last fifteen minutes.

This was met with a derisive snort from both griffin's. "While modesty is an attractive quality in this case it is unbecoming. Your magic completely healed a griffin with two broken wings, a broken back leg and multiple lacerations. We are extremely resistant to outside magic, even through a familiar bond. You are powerful."

The excitement which had died in Harry was reignited. "My magic did that?" he asked looking again at the fully healed griffin."

"Yes much as my magic healed all your injuries." The female griffin answered shyly

"My injuries?" Harry queried "The acromantula didn't get me."

"No but you had old injuries, and your taller now." Came her reply.

"Taller? How did I get taller?"

"Something in your past clearly made you not as well physically as you should have been. The magic of the initial bonding process seems to have corrected it."

Harry scowled. He had thought he was short because his parents were but given the height he was now he should have always been four inches taller. The Dursleys had a lot to answer for.

"But would you really want to fully bond with me?"He asked looking at the female griffin "How is a full bond different from this?"

"You are a protector. I can feel it." She looked at her father "we can feel it, you are a warrior a fighter, you protect those less powerful than yourself from harm. That is the way of the griffin, to fight, viciously when needs be. A full bond would allow us to call each other whenever one of us needed help and our respective magic to combine more effectively. It would be an honour to fully bond with you."

Harry was astonished. "O-Of course I would love to fully bond with you. The honour would be mine."

The older griffin looked on approvingly. "In that case young human your wrists need to be pierced again. Both this time. While the same must be done for Kalicene."

Harry held out both wrists for his future familiar and she pierced both before making incisions just above her talons on her own front feet. Slowly both Harry and Kalicene moved forward and Harry gently reached out to the griffin to cover both incisions with his wrists.

The pain he expected was not forthcoming, instead a powerful feeling of warmth and comfort swept through him. Harry basked in his own feelings of contentment until slowly the feeling receded leaving him with a slight sense of loss. Realising he had closed his eyes he slowly opened them and gazed into the face of his new familiar.

"Kalicene. It is an honour I don't deserve." He turned to the older griffin "If there is anything you ever require you have but to ask. I cannot repay you for the honour you and your daughter have shown me."

"Ney youngling. It is I who should thank you, you saved my daughter's life and then fixed her injuries, You are now griffin kin and all of our kind ill know of it."

"Sir please I'm just Harry." He pleaded, rather embarrassed by the praise lavished upon him.

At that the older griffin looked suspicious and eyed Harry more closely. Eyes resting on his lightning bolt scar. "No, you will never be just Harry, even our kind have heard of you, Harry Potter. It seems you are destined to be the great protector of this age, for that is what it means to bond to a griffin."

Feeling both embarrassed and emboldened by his words Harry looked deeply into the elder Griffins eyes. "I hope I prove worthy."

"As we all do Harry"