A/N: Hello everyone! This is a new fic written as a part of a challenge for the Facebook group Lovers of the Potions Master. The challenge was outlined as follows: "What if Fawkes wasn't just a phoenix, but instead under a spell that could only be broken under the most extreme circumstances. Write a one-shot of Fawkes revealing herself to Severus to save his life etc."

Although this is technically a one-shot, since my fic is approaching the maximum 10,000 words I have chosen to break it up into four smaller chapters for ease of reading. Thus, please enjoy Chapter One below! Thanks for reading! :-)

Disclaimer: All material from the Harry Potter books belong to J.K. Rowling. Also please forgive me if I erred a bit on the history portion of this chapter, where I tried to work a Wizard/Muggle conflict into a historical battle which was new, but very interesting, to me to learn about.

CHAPTER ONE: THE FORBIDDEN FOREST

Tangled, claw-like branches closed in overhead as Severus Snape ran through the Forbidden Forest in swift pursuit of his enemies. The pair of Aurors had disappeared into the darkness ahead just a few minutes back, and although the starless, moonless night was so black he could no longer see them, he had other ways of tracking their presence.

At approaching twenty years of age, Severus was already one of the Dark Lord's most trusted Death Eaters. He was mastering Occlumency and Legilimency and thus was adept at extracting the thoughts of the fleeing witch and wizard, sensing their direction and even their speed. His Master had also been teaching him how to fly without a broom, but Snape had not yet perfected the skill and thus, although it would assist his pursuit, it was unwise to attempt in these dark woods with so many obstacles in his path. Thus, he followed them on foot.

For now. But imagine their shock if he was able to drive them into a clearing and attack them from the air, aiming a deluge of powerful spells they could not hope to avoid. The thought brought a sneer of delight to the young Death Eater's lips.

Severus cast a silencing charm on his feet, rendering what would have been the noise of the crunching leaf litter below into nothing. They could not hear him coming. He was a predator, and his prey was unaware. This was just the way he liked it.

But their thoughts were dimming the further he ran in the woods. No. No, he would not lose them. Perhaps they were also trained in the spells of the mind, but that was of no consequence. If they were using Occlumency on him then so be it. He had other skills. His senses were sharp. He would find them.

He had been traveling for only a few more minutes when he heard it. The sound of human treads crunching through the litter and the brush. Severus licked his lips. They were close. And they had forgotten to silence their footfalls.

He turned down a new path in the direction of the sounds, their echoes getting louder with each step he took. If he didn't know any better he would have said the forest was getting darker, but that was impossible on a night as black as this. It was probably only his mood that colored his surroundings. And that was a good darkness. The darkness of anticipation of a capture. He left the killing to the Dark Lord, and the Dark Lord assured he only killed when it was necessary to prevent the Muggle-loving fools from perverting the possibility of a pure world. Severus was merely an agent for this greater mission, eliminating corruption.

After growing up with his father and seeing the evil Muggles brought into the world, there had been only one Muggle-loving fool Severus could abide in his life, and yet she had abandoned him. Abandoned him years ago and now, rumor had it, she and her husband were expecting a child. He still did not understand how she could live that life without feeling any guilt or remorse over their lost friendship.

Maybe she did feel guilt, but Severus had no way of knowing. She had cut him out of her life. And so now all he had was this glory. The glory of being a Death Eater. And maybe one day Lily would see that, abandon Potter and her old ways, and come back to him. But if not, at least he could make his mark on this world. That was what the Dark Lord offered, and that was what Severus had chosen. It was now all he desired.

A rustle from above disrupted his thoughts and he imagined he heard footsteps again, but from the air. Severus's reflexes were lightning fast and he looked up into the trees, but all he saw was a strange shimmer, like a long, glittering thread...

It was nothing. Merely the wind and tricks of whatever light remained this night. Complete darkness was, after all, impossible.

Severus continued into the forest, toward the ever-loudening paces of his prey.

Fawkes soared through the moonless night, over the towering turrets of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and towards the castle ground and the Forbidden Forest in the distance. Usually she did not fly at night, rather remained comfortably on her perch in sleep, awaiting the next morning when Albus would greet her with treats and friendly words before starting his headmaster's work for the day.

But tonight was different. Something was afoot, something dark and unusual. Even cruel. She knew only that she needed to be here, to see it. Because it was important.

These days a dark threat had been brewing, and it was the one thing that kept Albus up nights, that worried his brow during the day, and that distracted him from his normal duties. This was a dark wizard ten times worse than Albus's lost love Grindelwald, because he had mutilated his soul to gain this power. Lord Voldemort, formerly wizard Tom Riddle, and his army of Death Eaters ravaged the land, growing more and more powerful each day.

It was common knowledge that they wanted to eventually take Hogwarts, defeat Albus, gain control of the Ministry and the school, and build a new world based upon hatred and bigotry against Muggles, Muggle-borns, and creatures they considered 'half-breeds', such as the goblins and centaurs.

Albus was making every effort to counter this threat. He had even established a powerful group of Aurors and other strong witches and wizards, the Order of the Phoenix, named after Fawkes herself, to fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Many times the two groups had clashed with each other, and as yet, no one had come out the stronger. And so the battles raged on.

Tonight there had been a battle.

A battle that had infringed on the very walls of Hogwarts herself.

Their battles often took them to this area these days. As they gathered more and more followers they came to make further attempts to breach the school's defenses. Similar attempts were often made on the Ministry, and thus Aurors were consistently patrolling both locations to head them off. Thus far, the Dark Lord, as his followers called him, had not yet amassed enough power to overtake either place. But it was only a matter of time.

Fawkes diverted her flight to just outside the gates, to see if she could get a sense of what deeper meaning this battle held, so she would know what her role was.

The area outside the gate was dark and quiet, but the keen eyesight of the phoenix allowed her to make out a few figures in conference. Their hoods and masks covered their faces, but she could hear the hissing voice of Voldemort himself, and the garb convinced her unequivocally that the remaining two were Death Eaters.

Eons ago, in her youth as a human, the presence of such evil would have made her shudder, but Fawkes had seen so many dark wizards in her time, ever since that date long ago... the date that she had been transformed.

Nearly a thousand years had passed since Fawkes had last seen her human reflection in the mirror. In those bygone days, Muggle and Wizard society had existed together, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in discord. Fawkes, given the unusual first name which had been a family surname of her ancestors, had been a courtier in the time of King Edward the Confessor.

They had been peaceful times, the Muggle king a good ruler. But as it was in those days of growing unrest between two very different peoples, trouble had brewed. The Godwin family, a race of strong wizards, had begun to rise in power in hopes to take over the throne. Most were ambitious, but good, and yet one... The Forgotten Godwin, as Fawkes liked to think of him, because his name had been erased from the Muggle history books, had used his dark magic to ensure that his family would eventually come to power. It was because of this man's, Aldous's, largely-unnoticed efforts that upon His Majesty's death their king was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, a good man, but also unknowingly manipulated by Aldous.

The reign of Aldous and the Godwins did not last long, however, as William the Conqueror and his Norman army invaded the British Isles. The conquering army won the war for two reasons, both of which Fawkes would never forget. First, their army had consisted of both Wizards and Muggles, working together. That solidarity gave them a distinct advantage over the Anglo-Saxons whose magical and non-magical populations had become bitterly divided due to Aldous's influence. And second, their army had had inside help. Fawkes's help. A participation that had directly led to the phoenix spell being cast upon her.

In the good days, before the war, Fawkes had been famous for her haunting voice, often singing for the court, and for her aptitude for fire spells. She had had many suitors, but none had struck her fancy. Among the Muggles, arranged marriages were common, but as a witch she had been given greater choice in who she would marry.

Long story short, she did not have the blissful life she had hoped for. Aldous, The Forgotten Godwin, heard her sing in court and decided to make her his wife. Alone, his strength was no match for her, and he took her to his bedchamber each night of their extended engagement, forcing her to sing for him and then having her body. His powers of manipulation were so great that no one knew. All the remainder of the court could see was her songs growing sadder and sadder, more and more haunting, as she waited and hoped for someone to take her away from all this.

The only positive aspect of being imprisoned as Aldous's secret fiancée was that her nightly proximity to him allowed her to stay up when she should have been quietly sleeping, listening to his meetings, learning of his plans and his weaknesses. Her only remaining strength was to somehow use that information to put a stop to him. For not only was he hurting her more and more each day, but if his plans would come to fruition he would likely have destroyed their beautiful country as well.

And then William came.

Before Aldous, Fawkes wouldn't have thought for a moment of betraying her country to a conquering army, but as it was now the future of her people depended upon the conquering army's success. At great risk to her own life she assisted them, until finally Willam's army cornered Harold and Aldous with him at the Battle of Hastings. In a last-ditch effort to make everything all right Fawkes was able to convince Harold of Aldous's treachery, but it was too late.

Her role exposed, Aldous's last act before the conquering army, working together, defeated him, was to cast a spell on Fawkes, her fire spells and haunting songs condemning her to life as a phoenix, to be born and to die in the flames only to be reborn again in a never-ending cycle. Never to truly live. Never on her own, not as herself, and never the way she had dreamt.

And yet, in a twist of fate similar to that in the Muggle tale of the sleeping princess, before his death Harold Godwinson had helped her. Despite her assistance to the enemy, he forgave her, now that he knew Aldous's true colors, and did the only thing he was strong enough to do. He could not break the spell on his own, but he gave her a glimmer of hope. If ever there was something she was truly needed for, something that only she could do, the spell would break.

And yet, in the hundreds of years following that fateful event, Fawkes had slowly lost her belief in such a thing ever happening. Anything she could do, after all, any phoenix could do. It didn't seem to matter whether they were available or not for the job; if it wasn't something that was only for her, the spell would not break. But what could only she do? There seemed to be... nothing.

It was not a total loss. She had spent many years on the wing, searching for the means to break the spell, traveling all over the Earth and watching time pass. As a result, he knew the detailed history of most countries at least as far as the first half of the second millennium. By then, her hope for an escape from the spell was all but naught, and she had come to terms with her phoenix form. But she was tired of flying, and wanted to find a home, thus returning to the closest thing to home she knew that still stood the same as it had in her days as a human.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Fawkes had been among the first few generations of witches and wizards to attend Hogwarts after its construction, and it had comforted her to see that it did not change. Like her, it cycled, new students, new teachers, new generations, yet always it was still the same. Like a loyal friend. It was a match made in heaven, and Fawkes had stayed.

She had known many headmasters and headmistresses in her hundreds of years at Hogwarts, but she had never bonded closely with anyone. Rather, she had been the school's resident phoenix, keeping the company of many but never for too long or too closely.

Until Albus.

He had been a student at Hogwarts when they had met, and there had been a bond. Something there, something that Fawkes hadn't felt for another being since she had been human, and especially ironic since Aldous and Albus's names were so similar. They had become close, and Albus had told her all of his secrets, including the tragic tale of his family and his poor dear sister Ariana. She had even flown to visit him in Godric's Hollow from time to time after he graduated, and it was there that she had another run-in with a dark wizard.

Gellert Grindelwald. Albus had been smitten, and told her in hushed tones of their plans to rule the world together for the greater good. It had been in those days that Fawkes had most desperately wished she could become human again, if only so that she could tell Albus who she was and why she knew deep in her heart that the greater good could only be accomplished if wizards and Muggles lived in harmony. Then, she had begged every conceivable force in the universe to let the spell be broken, to allow her to do something. And yet, she hadn't been needed.

It was a cruel twist of fate, that the only thing to change Albus's mind had been the loss of his innocent sister. Her spell could be so cruel. It didn't matter that she could have helped him, and helped him in a way that hurt no one, but since she wasn't the only one who could have set Albus back on the right path... the spell had not been broken. He had to lose both his sister and the trust of the man he had thought to be the love of his life in order to find himself again. Too cruel, indeed.

It was then that she decided never to leave his side. There were no bonds of romance involved, but she loved him. He was her friend, her brother, her companion. And they had remained together ever since.

Now, yet another dark wizard threatened. In her years as a phoenix Fawkes had lost the fear she had originally had of Aldous and of relationships. She had grown stronger as a bird than she had ever been as a human, and so if she stayed like this forever perhaps it would not be so terrible. Her wish to be human again, to know friendship with many others and to know love as a woman, real love with no abuse and no pain... perhaps it was just foolish fancy. It was no longer something she dwelled on much. There were things she could do as a phoenix. Maybe not things that only she could do, but she would not let that stop her from doing everything she could, whenever she could do it.

Hence, here she was, listening in on a conversation between the fearsome Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

"I killed one," the shorter of the two Death Eaters bragged in hushed tones to his master, none of them bothering to look up and see the phoenix perched on the school gates, hidden in the shadows of the moonless night.

"I killed two," the second seemed even prouder of his Auror-slaying accomplishment, perhaps because he had bested his companion.

"And yet we are no closer to breaching the school's defenses than we have ever been," Voldemort hissed, and Fawkes was not surprised to see that he refused to stoop to the level of complimenting his underlings on a 'job well done'. "How many did we lose?"

"I saw them take two," said the shorter.

"And one other," added the taller.

"And where is Severus?" Voldemort demanded.

Severus! The sound of the name caused Fawkes's heart to skip a beat. She knew him. He had been another one she had gotten close to. So he had become a Death Eater after all, then, had he? Yet another person she hadn't been able to help, and one that had needed it, perhaps even more than Albus...

Fawkes had to use all of her inner fire to prevent herself from uttering a sad coo at Severus's fate. He hadn't talked much of his feelings, but she had seen him on the grounds and in the halls before, with his friend Lily, until he had lost her to James Potter. Once, at the end of his first year, she had found him alone on the grounds terrified because he had to go home to where his father hurt him. She had landed near him on that occasion, not the first she had seen him but the longest she had stayed with him, as he had stroked her feathers and, she hoped, been comforted a bit. By the time Lily abandoned him he had been less approachable, but once he had offered her a treat while waiting in the headmaster's office in the hopes of getting James Potter and Sirius Black expelled. Needless to say, he had not been successful.

"I saw him chase two Aurors into the Forbidden Forest," said the tall Death Eater, "but that was quite a while ago."

"Pity," Voldemort's voice held no true pity, however, only selfish regret. "He had potential to become one of my best Death Eaters."

"Pardon me, My Lord, but do you mean to say he is a lost cause?" the shorter one asked.

"Yes, Avery, I'm afraid that is just what I mean. There are things in that forest..." he smiled and his teeth positively shone with vindictiveness, "Never you mind."

Fawkes ruffled her feathers in fury, glad that a gust of wind in the nearby trees drowned out the sound. How dare he... just leave Severus there in the forest... he could still be alive...

"Then we're just going to leave him there?" the other questioned.

"Do you have a problem with that, Lucius?" the evil wizard purred, danger in every syllable, his hand reaching for his wand.

Ah, then the other was Lucius Malfoy. Both he and Avery had known Severus in school. At least they showed some reluctance to leave him behind. In Fawkes's experience, the followers of dark wizards were, by and large, never quite as evil as their leader. They were more... misguided, generally. Although you did have the true sadists as well.

"I... that is, no. Perhaps he'll find his way out anyway. After all, if we go back in we'll only be in danger, won't we? And I did promise Narcissa I would come home tonight..."

"Yes, My Lord. Let's make our retreat now," Avery said, his tone just as uneasy.

And, with that, their Dark Lord lowered his wand and the three Apparated away, Lucius taking one last look back at the forest before he disappeared into the night.

Fawkes took off from her perch, making her way towards the forest. Had she been imagining things or had Lucius looked straight at her for a split second? She wasn't sure. All she knew was that if they were too cowardly to go search for their friend, she was not. If Severus Snape was still alive in that forest, she was going to find him and get him out.