DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. I know, truly shocking revelation.
LUXAEVUM
Harry could not believe the day he was having. The whole school though the was the damn heir of Slytherin and then everyone had found him, alone, with the two frozen forms of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick. How did a ghost get caught like that anyway? Ernie Macmillan's words played through Harry's mind once again. "Caught in the act!" Harry felt a shudder run through him.
And then, because the universe obviously wasn't done with making him pay for whatever he had done to anger it, the moment Harry got near Dumbledore's pet turkey, it had burst into flames. None of this made any sense, but Harry knew he had no hope of ever explaining this all away, even if it was the truth. He might as well just head to whatever form prison took in the magical world and just get them to lock him up.
Dumbledore's sombre face appeared through the office doorway and Harry made his final plea, "Professor, your bird – I couldn't do anything – he just caught fire-"
Dumbledore just grinned.
"About time, too," Dumbledore said. "He's been looking dreadful for days, I've been telling him to get a move on."
Harry's heart fell out of his chest. The Headmaster was completely insane.
"Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry," Dumbledore continued to Harry's puzzlement. "Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch him..."
Harry peered at the dusty remains and saw a magical creature's tiny head poke its way out of the ashes. Harry found himself once again marvelling at the power of magic, while also wondering why nothing ever made any sense.
"Sir, does that mean that Fawkes," Harry indicated the little wrinkled face, "can live forever? How does something like that even work?"
"Indeed Harry, phoenixes can live incredibly long lives although I am unsure as to how exactly they reform themselves. Phoenixes are incredibly powerful magical creatures as they can heal every injury they might have by burning up into a new form." Dumbledore smiled at his immortal companion. "They can turn their healing powers to others as well, since their tears can cure almost any injury on a person, and a phoenix can also lift incredibly heavy loads. They can re-appear any place that fire can burn, even taking a wizard along with them. However, I will always consider their best ability to be their incredible intelligence and devotion to their masters."
"That sounds like an amazing bird, Professor," Harry said, grinning, before he grew puzzled. He loved Hedwig and would do so forever, but - "Why is it that they don't sell Phoenixes at pet stores? They seem even more impressive than owls."
"Alas Harry, gaining a Phoenix is much more complicated than simply walking into a pet store and picking from a selection. Their loyalty must be won, and one of the few things that can call a Phoenix to a wizard is an act of bravery in the face of something greater than oneself." Dumbledore's face fell for a moment and when he looked up again, Harry could see anguish in those once twinkling blue eyes. "When I was much younger, there was a man named Grindelwald who I longed never to meet again, but I knew that I was perhaps the last hope for him to be defeated. He was the terror of nations, but I stood against him."
"It was very possibly the last few days of my life however I did not bow to my fears and began to hunt him down." Dumbledore smiled briefly, although it didn't reach his eyes. "I am a Gryffindor after all. When I found him, I felt the world turn in to me. Magic brought me strength for the coming duel, but also clarity. I could see that even in defeat, I would still not truly lose..."
Dumbledore paused in his thoughts and Harry saw flickers of agony in those ancient eyes. It was there only for the briefest of moments and then it disappeared as Dumbledore turned to Harry with a smile. Harry felt confused by what the Headmaster meant by his comment on defeat, but decided to let him finish the tale.
"It was then that I felt a heat surround me. It was definitely hot, but it didn't burn or even feel that unpleasant really. Magic swirled around me and suddenly Fawkes was there," Dumbledore said, as his eyes began to twinkle again as he remembered his first meeting with the Phoenix. "From the moment he appeared, I knew exactly why Fawkes had come. It felt like an old friend returning and Fawkes, he sung for the first time. He sung for what felt like forever. When he finished I turned to Gell- Grindelwald and I pulled my wand. We fought for hours and when it was over, Fawkes was the one who took me home, to Hogwarts. He's stayed by my side all these years and he has always been there to give me hope whenever things looked bleak, to give me strength to push on."
Dumbledore and Harry both were silent for a short while and Harry looked upon the strange bird which had given the Headmaster before him so much. It was honestly the first time that Harry had realised that Dumbledore was a real person, someone who dealt with his own demons and not just some mysterious, powerful, perfectly light wizard. Harry smiled at the bird lying there in his own ashes and thought he might have even caught the phoenix winking at him.
"He really is incredible sir," Harry told the Headmaster. "Thank you for telling me about him."
Dumbledore twinkled at Harry for a moment before settling into his high-backed chair behind the desk and fixed Harry with a penetrating, light-blue stare. Of course at this point, Harry realised he hadn't quite been cleared of being the Boy-Who-Is-Trying-To-Kill-All-Muggleborns, even if the Headmaster had a ludicrous explanation for how Harry hadn't actually killed his Phoenix.
Luckily, this was the moment where Hagrid burst into the office, proclaiming Harry's innocence. Then the Headmaster ignored all the rules about the universe being out to get Harry and admitted that he didn't suspected Harry to have any hand in these events at all.
As Harry turned to leave a few moments later, Fawkes gave a 'Caw' that was much nicer sounding than the gagging noises he been spewing earlier. Harry left the office feeling much better than he did going in. Hopefully turkeys would burst into flames more often around him.
xXx
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
Harry would have laughed if he wasn't scared for his life. Did this seriously mean that the name most feared across the entire wizarding world was made up while Tom Riddle was messing around with anagrams? It made it more likely that it was a pure accident. Harry thought 'Voldemort' was made with some clever (albeit kind of cheesy) meaning in mind, like shoving in a foreign word for death or something, but no it looked like he had made it up in trial and error. If Harry didn't know better, he would have suspected that Tom Marvolo Riddle was the made-up name, just being reverse engineered back from 'I am Lord Voldemort.' But no, that made no sense.
It occurred to Harry that as Riddle in front of him rambled on, he should have been paying attention to what was actually being said, but instead he felt like kicking himself for being stupid enough to expect that Voldemort would just let him be this year. Killing someone usually gets them to leave you alone, but no, Harry never got it easy. Here he was without a wand, Ginny dying and Voldemort not only had a wand, but had a Basilisk as backup. Harry's backup was a useless phony on a good day (which today certainly was not) and a thirteen year old with a broken wand. They couldn't even fight with Harry either, since they were trapped behind a pile of rocks.
As Riddle yapped away about his 'filthy muggle father' and his oh-so-noble heritage, Harry tried to think of what his next move would be. Riddle had his wand, but he was still fuzzy round the edges. Harry suspected that if he could defeat Voldie yet again, that might be able to wake up Ginny, but how could he do that...
And then a thought struck him. Why would Riddle use Harry's wand to write the words if he had Ginny's wand? Maybe, just maybe he hadn't got around to taking Ginny's wand yet.
Slowly, without wanting to get Riddle suspicious, Harry reached into the inside of Ginny's robes and felt around for her wand. It wasn't on the left so he moved over to the right side and- Yes! There it was.
Harry glanced back at Riddle as he palmed the wand. He could feel tingles of magic, but it felt off somewhat to him, as if it didn't quite agree with Harry. Harry hoped that whatever spells he used would work and work first time as well, since he reckoned that his first chance would be his last. Harry tilted his body to get the shot off on Riddle and muttered his spell, "Expelliarmus"
Harry's wand flew from Riddle's blurred hand towards where Ginny and Harry were. Harry felt a small thrill at managing to get the shot off just right, especially just as Voldie was going on about being 'the greatest sorcerer in the world!' Harry scrambled for his wand and had it in his hand in moments, turning to face off against Riddle again straight away. Harry nearly threw a tickling charm as he thought of his duel with Malfoy, but instead he yelled, "Flipendo!"
Riddle moved fast, just as you would expect a Dark Lord who nearly took over the world to, but the blur that he still had left wisps of himself behind. Because Harry had two wands in his hands when he cast, there were two jets of silver light flying towards the blurred wisps and as they hit the misty parts that Riddle had left behind, Riddle staggered backwards like he had taken a gut punch. When he stood up again, his face held a fury that Harry almost fell back from.
"So the great Harry Potter wants to fight," Riddle spat out, his face contorting in anger. His face then twisted into a sickening smile, "so be it. It is time for you to meet your end!" Riddle turned to the giant stone face of Slytherin and spoke in a voice which echoed with hisses, "speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"
To Harry's horror, the mouth of the face began to open and Harry found he could almost sense the evil within. At times like this, he really wished he had weapons like a rooster, which would be incredibly inconvenient to carry around all the time, but at least it would kill any super rare giant snakes he found during random encounters. Okay, maybe that wouldn't be the most efficient thing to have on you at all times, but it was hard to think rationally at times like this.
Harry was terrified and although there were pipes all around the chamber that he could use to run through, he knew that the basilisk would catch him before he made it too far. Then there was also the fact that he couldn't just leave Ginny here alone with Riddle. Even though he knew it was futile, Harry stepped towards the opening where the serpent was approaching from, putting himself between Ginny and this monster.
And then suddenly, for absolutely no reason at all, Harry was on fire.
Great, Harry thought to himself, that's exactly what I need in a situation like this. What is it with Voldemort and fire anyway? Harry could feel the flames licking at him, although surprisingly they didn't burn or even hurt him. Harry looked down and was surprised to see that his skin wasn't scorched and that there wasn't actually any fire at all. Then suddenly the most magnificent creature Harry had ever seen appeared.
It spread its golden wings, flecked with red and hovered in front of Harry. It looked him right in the eyes and began to sing the most beautiful music Harry had ever heard. Harry felt his heart lift up as he felt tears come to his eyes. He could feel all the love his parents had ever felt for him and all the hope for the future that there could be for him. Harry looked deeper into the phoenix's eyes and felt his heart race as he connected with the creature. Harry spoke the name in reverence, "Luxaevum."
Then the phoenix disappeared between the jaws of a dirty great snake. Well, it was good while it lasted.
Harry leaped back in shock, crying out and jamming his eyes shut as he put as much distance between him and the basilisk as he could, throwing random freezing charms over his shoulder as he ran, trying to immobilise it. He opened his eyes while facing the other direction to the snake but strangely saw some golden flashes out of the corner of his eye. Just then Riddle yelled, "No, get the boy. Kill him now!"
Harry turned before he could help himself and saw the basilisk's right eye disappear in a flash of golden flame. Harry saw that the left eye was also missing and before he could even puzzle over it, Luxaevum flashed right back in front of him. Without even thinking about it, Harry reached forward to grab the phoenix with his wandless hand at the same moment Luxaevum stuck one of his legs out to Harry. An instant later Harry was on fire again.
But this time the fire was different. Harry could feel the fire burn all the way through him and although it still didn't hurt, he was certain there were actual flames this time. An instant later he could see again and found himself twenty feet above the basilisk. He looked up to Luxaevum flapping his wings to stay in position, not even straining as Harry held onto his leg. Harry didn't feel strained either, even though his whole weight was being held up by only one arm.
Harry swung his other arm around, which still held his and Ginny's wands and threw as many curses and hexes as he could think of at the snake below him. A knockback jinx hit the snake's thick hide and ricocheted off, which Harry took to mean that none of his spells were really connecting. The basilisk did seem to have realised that spells were hitting him from above though, which didn't bring Harry much comfort at this point. It aimed its head up at him and Harry couldn't help but see the empty eye sockets once again. He wondered briefly where Luxaevum had flamed the eyes out too, but this train of thought was quickly cut short as the serpent suddenly launched itself upwards, mouth open wide, attempting to snare the boy and his phoenix.
Luxaevum switched them both out to another location again, just before the snake managed to get a limb or two off of Harry. Realising that his current approach really was not working, Harry considered his options. He needed to deal with the basilisk quickly and then find a way to wake Ginny up or defeat Riddle. He could try and get Luxaevum to try and flame the basilisk to another place entirely, but he wasn't sure if a phoenix could actually move that much mass and of course, moving the threat to another place wasn't exactly dealing with it. Harry thought about the eye sockets once again and he suddenly had a plan. It was incredibly risky, but he didn't have much of a choice.
Luxaevum and Harry had flashed down to a point closer to the ground which was further away from the basilisk's jaw. Unfortunately, the snake knew that its prey was nearby and had started to swing its tail about. When this tail struck Harry, he lost his grip on Luxaevum's leg and found himself flung a good ten metres down the chamber. Harry crumpled onto his back, feeling a shot of pain, but he pushed through it and staggered to his feet, using his adrenaline to stay up. He was winded and had managed to cut his leg in the fall, but Luxaevum swooped down and lifted him out of harm's way before the basilisk's tail caught him again.
Harry took a few moments to catch his breath again, before turning to Luxaevum and gasping out, "Lux, I need to get as close to its eye sockets as possible. I think if I can get some spells in there, they won't be deflected."
Luxaevum just looked at Harry for a moment, making Harry wonder whether 'Lux' disliked his new nickname, but then the phoenix let out a 'Caw!' and flashed out next to the serpent's head again.
The basilisk was still trying to sniff out Harry, but when Lux flashed them right in front of the serpent's mouth, Harry threw out the first spell he could think of.
"Slugulus Eructo!"
The spell went crashing into the snake's eye socket and didn't ricochet back out again. Harry hoped it had taken, because in the next second, he could see giant fangs approaching.
Harry held his breath.
The basilisk stopped moving.
A gurgling came out of the basilisk's throat.
Then suddenly the snake's head reversed as it threw up a giant slug.
Slime very quickly covered the entire Chamber of Secrets, the legacy of Salazar Slytherin and the Dark Lord Voldemort found himself trapped under a slug the size of a small car.
Harry, having put the basilisk and Riddle out of action temporarily, quickly pursued his advantage. "Lux, I need you to hold the basilisk down as best you can while I fire off some more spells on it!"
Luxaevum flashed Harry back down to the floor again and then launched himself back up into the air before grabbing a hold of the basilisk by the nostril slits and pulling it down to the chamber floor. The phoenix's incredible strength kept it mostly in place, even as it hurled up a few more giant slugs. Harry leaped onto the basilisk's head, taking care not to touch any of the fangs. His leg burned where he had cut it on the Chamber floor and he felt his ribs ache from the motion, but he held steady to the top of the snake's head.
He switched Ginny's wand to the other hand and then poked a wand into both of the creature's eye sockets and yelled, "Glacius!" Once the freezing charm took effect, he gathered up his magic once more and pushed all he had into the knockback charm in both wands. The frozen flesh in the sockets indented heavily and the basilisk stilled as the shards of ice pierced the creature's brain.
All of a sudden, the chamber was deathly quiet. A dozen or so giant slugs were scattered around the chamber, with Riddle still trying to wriggle free of the one on top of him. Harry looked down upon the snake he had killed and for a few moments he felt sick about what he had done. He pushed the feeling away as his thoughts turned to Ginny.
He quickly slid off of the giant snake and rushed over to the still deathly pale redhead. She was even colder now than she had been a few minutes ago and Harry knew she didn't have long left. How could he save her? He knew no spells that could revive a person. This was ridiculous. He could defeat a basilisk with a prank spell from Ron and freezing spell from Hermione, but he had no way at all to save the person he had actually come down here for.
"What do we do now, Luxaevum?" Harry whispered, with a chill running up his back as he realised there wasn't anything he could to do save Ginny.
No, that wasn't true. There was one thing that might work.
He could kill Voldemort. Again.
Harry stood and staggered over to Riddle, who was still trying to wriggle his way free from beneath giant slug. Harry reached out, feeling sick yet again about what he needed to do next and placed his hand on Voldemort's skin.
Riddle began to scream.
Harry fought to retain consciousness; he couldn't go under while he was here. He needed to make sure that he was there for Ginny when she woke up. If she woke up. But he could feel just how much this was taking out of him even as Riddle began to crumble to dust under the contact with his skin.
But then Harry felt lighter. Harry turned to see Luxaevum on his shoulder, looking down at Riddle as he squirmed underneath the giant slug. Harry couldn't hear the phoenix song, but he could feel it. It was in his bones, it resonated with his very being. Luxaevum kept him strong to see this through to the end.
Soon, but far too long for Harry to have to think about, Riddle's screams had stopped. Harry felt cold, but he rushed over to where Ginny lay, begging her to wake up. He closed his eyes and held her hand as Luxaevum begun to sing his song again.
Harry didn't know how long he waited there, listening to Lux's song, but eventually he felt Ginny stir next to him. He opened his eyes just in time to see hers flutter open. She slowly raised herself up and, seeing Harry, then just started babbling.
"Ha-Harry, I'm so so-sorry – I tried at breakfast to tell you, b-but – Harry it was me all along – but I – I s-swear I didn't mean to – Riddle m-made me." Ginny stuttered out, her eyes filling with tears as she latched on to Harry, "O-Oh, I-I'm going to b-be expelled! I always, always w-wanted to come to H-Hogwarts, but now-" Ginny suddenly broke off as she finally looked away from Harry to the chamber around them.
"It's okay Ginny, everything will be fine," Harry said, before gesturing towards the dust and ashes from where Voldemort used to lay. "Riddle is gone; it's done, so let's get out of here."
While Harry was saying this Ginny was taking in the phoenix on Harry's shoulder in awe, the dead basilisk in shock and... giant slugs? Her face clouded in confusion as she momentarily forgot her troubles.
"H-Harry," Ginny whispered, "what did you do?"
xXx
When Harry returned to the rubble that Ron was shifting and had Luxaevum move everything in about ten seconds flat, Ron was a little confused about how Harry suddenly had a phoenix, but in the end he decided it was pretty cool quest reward item. Originally Harry was going to have Luxaevum fly everyone up, but then he realised it would be much quicker and easier to just flash everyone to somewhere in Hogwarts, preferably the staff room since he was pretty sure that was where most of the teacher's would be at a time like this.
The moment they appeared, Professor Flitwick was upon them. He quickly carted them all off to McGonagall's office where Ginny and Rons' parents were, as well as Dumbledore who had conveniently returned but not helped Harry in any way. Once they arrived, Harry found himself explaining everything that had happened, even if he had no idea how a diary could possess someone, how nobody noticed that Ginny was possessed for a whole year (even when 4 other Weasleys went to school with her) and how he had ended up with an epic tier familiar. Everyone seemed shocked, impressed and probably a little creeped out by what Harry had done to defeat the basilisk and Riddle. When Dumbledore asked to see the diary, Harry pulled it out of his pocket. He didn't know whether it would still work since he had killed Riddle, but he hoped it would be able to prove Ginny's innocence. Dumbledore seemed very interested in the diary, which got Harry thinking about how much the Headmaster just loved to invade people's privacy.
Soon afterwards Harry found himself alone with Dumbledore for another end of year chat. As before Dumbledore spoke a lot of words and said absolutely nothing at all. Harry did find it entertaining to drop a sock on Lucius Malfoy's head when he appeared though, especially since when he threw it aside, Dobby caught and yelled that he was free. Lucius stormed out looking particularly angry after that.
Not much else happened that term, although the fact that Harry now owned a phoenix kind of flipped the 'Heir of Slytherin' rumour on its. Suddenly Harry was being proclaimed as the Heir of Gryffindor instead, which he did feel quite a bit better about. Luxaevum decided it would be hilarious to teleport Ron to the top of the astronomy tower when he started acting jealous of the attention Harry was getting. The rest of Gryffindor agreed it was pretty funny too.
Hedwig and Luxaevum got on well. A little too well in Harry's opinion, who constantly caught them with no clothes on (they just gave him weird looks when he exclaimed about their lack of modesty and Hermione was trying to Harry that birds didn't wear clothes, but Harry didn't fall for her insanities). Harry also wondered what mischief he could get up to over the summer at the Dursleys, especially with a bird that let him teleport around like no one's business. Once again, Dumbledore realised he hadn't spoken to any students apart from Harry all year and decided because of that to give him a truck load of points for taking pity on the old man's social calendar.
In the end though, Harry was pretty glad that the year hadn't managed to kill him. He did decide though, that he would prepare a little more for when Voldemort tried to kill him again next year.
AN: Please review. Using these one shots to get a feel for writing fanfiction. Let me know where I can improve my writing! :D
