AN: So, My lovely readers, I got a review that was most encouraging, and made me want to write the first chapter at least, so everyone wasn't as lost as they were before. Hopefully this chapter clears up most of the confusion. It was like a season ending, I had to leave everyone in suspense. I don't think I could have explained it in that chapter without missing the cut off. I am not going to be with holding chapters until I get a specific number of reviews, but they are welcome.
AN2: If you have just found this story, I recommend you go to my profile and read The Book of Fire first. Otherwise this will make no sense at all.
Phoenix Phire Series
Book 2: The Book of Earth: Vines Entwined
The Earth Phoenix is supposedly based with brown and green plumage. However, no one has ever seen a Earth phoenix. Many believe that, like the Dark, Light, Water, and Air Phoenixes, they do not exist. - An Excerpt from Phoenix and You by L.M. And D.R. Evans
Chapter 1: Things Begin to Get Sorted Out
August 1, 1996 – 7:05 pm – In Front of Daphne's House, Somewhere in Canada
Daphne had always considered herself to be rather levelheaded. However, when her ex-lover seemingly went from a stranger to her neighbour, she began sobbing her eyes out.
Fortunately for her case, she had managed to sort out most of her emotions an hour later over a cup of tea that most of the Order members were sharing. She clutched her lover's hand, (he would later say painfully, but she would disagree), while everyone seemed to attempt to get over the hurdle that the man that they had fought for almost 12 years total was not the man they thought. Tom was perfect evidence of that fact, and most could not stop staring. She really didn't seem to care, so long as he stayed beside her for the foreseeable future.
After numerous questions from Dumbledore, he accepted the fact that the man sitting beside her was indeed Tom Marvolo Riddle, and moved towards identifying who attempted to commandeer his identity.
Questions were directed at her, and she barely noticed until Remus poked her in the side. Looking around, she questioned who spoke.
"What exactly happened?" Dumbledore asked. Sighing, she began gathering her thoughts for her story. She spoke of Lily and her finding their phoenixes, her attempts to flash without proper knowledge, managing to do so on one of the rotating stairs in her seventh year. She spoke of her travelling through time to Tom's time, and unfortunately falling from where she stood. As fire phoenixes had their flashing ability to move anywhere, her ability was to move anywhen. Glossing over the details of her story, briefly mentioning that she lost all memories before falling, she fast forwarded to the time when her and Tom had been living in their home in Canada for almost a year. She had fallen down the stairs, regaining memories she had once lost. Knowing now that Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort, she, for lack of better word, freaked out that she had been deeply in love with the future dark lord. She transformed into her phoenix and flashed out, too distraught to think.
Tom joined in that he was close enough for her power to almost affect him. He was running towards her after hearing her fall when she flashed away leaving both of them in the current time. When she tugged off her locket, he grew confused, and lacked understanding. Vowing to watch her closely over the future, he waited. He never understood why she removed their locket. The story ended there, and Dumbledore nodded. He took the rest of the Order, minus Daphne, and flashed out of their home, leaving them for the first private moment they'd had in five years.
August 2, 1996 – 9:06 am – Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, 12 Grimmauld Place, Somewhere in London, England
Harry jerked from his spot in the chair beside Burt's bed. Being given a brief outline of the events that transpired that night, he had fallen into a troubled sleep. His worry for his close friend, Burt was getting stronger. He rubbed his eyes and slipped his glasses into place.
Finally noticing what had stirred him awake, he waved to the Weasley twins, ushering them inside of the small room. The twins had come on fierce instructions of their mother to bring Harry down for something to eat, give him a break from sitting beside that young man's bed.
Unknowingly to Harry, the word had spread about Burt by those who had not seen the young woman themselves. Everyone now seemed to assume that Harry was gay, and Burt was male. Mrs Weasley was one of the many in Headquarters that thought that Harry was gay.
The twins, actually giving a fairly logical argument (at least, Harry believed it was fairly logical. He had only just woken up after a few hours of sleep), had convinced Harry to go eat something while they watched over the unconscious cross-dresser. Harry, stumbling slightly as his feet decided to awaken from their awkward position, slowly made his way down to the kitchen, where he sat beside Ron and Hermione. They immediately delved into another conversation about Harry's well being as Mrs Weasley brought him breakfast.
Changing the topic, Hermione asked: "How is er.. Burt doing Harry?"
"Still unconscious. It's weird being on the other side of unconscious. Usually I'm the one in bed, and you guys are watching over me." Harry said with a grin. Ron and Hermione shared an uncomfortable look between the two of them. It was then that Ron decided to burst.
"Why didn't you tell us you were a poofer mate?"
Harry frowned, unfamiliar with that word. "I don't know what you mean."
Hermione glared at her boyfriend. "What Ron meant to ask was how long have you and Burt been seeing each other? When did you notice that you developed feelings for him?"
August 2, 1996 – 9:24 am - Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, 12 Grimmauld Place, Somewhere in London, England
While Harry's conversation with Ron and Hermione was happening, Burt began to stir upstairs, in the presence of the Weasley twins.
When she opened her eyes, she immediately shut them. All she could see was blotches of white. She could hear a conversation happening on her left, but was unfamiliar with most of the words being spoken, as well as the voices.
"Who's there? This isn't funny Shelly. If I find out it is you, you're going to be dead." She asked, slightly fearful of the answer.
"She's awake." Voice one said.
"Shall we begin the tests then?" Voice two said. Narrowing her eyes, Burt sat up, and attempted to go towards the voices. Her training with martial arts kicked in and she almost immediately pinpointed where the voices were coming from. With a few kicks, she had both voices screaming bloody murder.
Harry, downstairs, heard the twins begin to yell, and powered upstairs to Burt's room. Standing in her doorway, he regarded the scene before him. Burt held one of the twins by the collar of his robes, demanding to know where she was. The other twin was curled into a foetal position, crying for his mother.
"Burt!" Harry yelled, snapping her out of it. She dropped the twin , and he fell to the floor in a ball.
"Harry?" Burt turned towards his voice. "What the fuck happened?"
"It's a bit of a long story. Suffice to say, you are safe right now. Can you see anything?"
"No." She said. The twins groaned at being beaten by someone who was blind. Harry came over to his friend and lead her back to the bed. Madame Pomfrey seemed to come from no where and began checking on her blind patient. Within a few moments of casting diagnostic spells she declared the issue of Burt's sight was solvable. Passing a piece of paper to Harry, she wrote the cause of the blindness, giving Harry the responsibility to explain everything to her. Reaching into her medical bag, she extracted a pair or simple wire framed glasses. She cast a few spells on the glass itself before handing them to Burt.
"Try looking through these and tell me what you see." Burt's hand shot out attempting to grab the glasses, and failing before Harry took them from her and slipped them on her face.
"Open your eyes." Burt's eyes slowly opened behind the lenses. Her eyes focused quickly on Harry who had not moved out of the way yet.
"Harry." Burt spoke quietly. "I can see. These glasses are like magic!" With that exclamation, an elephant seemed to enter the room. Madame Pomfrey dragged the Weasley twins out of the room to give the two some privacy.
"That's great." Harry said, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. Burt frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"You almost instantly identified the key element of the long story." Her frown deepening, Burt patted the side of her bed. Harry moved to sit there.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Harry nodded.
"I just don't know where to begin."
"I am very tempted to say the clichéd, at the beginning, but I think I would have to put my wig on first." Harry truly smiled at that.
"You know how you said that the glasses seemed like magic?" At Burt's nod, Harry continued. "Well, you we completely dead on." Burt frowned again. "Magic exists."
Burt giggled at that statement. Seeing his face, she rushed to explain: "It is so weird. Out of everything you could have said, magic was the lowest on the list of probablities." She laughed aloud. "It would be hard to believe, had I not been blind moments before." They continued to talk briefly about magic before Burt asked what happened when she went blind. Harry froze.
"Well, from what I've gathered from what Daphne's said, there were some impressive wards. Native American wards that prevented anything magical to come onto the land. Wizards and witches could set foot on the land, but could not use magic." At Burt's nod, Harry spoke again. "That's the easy part to understand. The harder part is a lot more complex.
"See, about twenty-five years ago, there was this bloke, er- guy, who went completely bonkers. Crazy, mad as a hatter, nutcase. He was a elitist. He believed that those who were born to a long line of wizards were better than those who were born to those who did not have magic. Pureblood elitists. Anyway, this guy got some major power and went on a large killing spree. Not like a serial killer, but like almost mass genocide. Got some followers. He disappeared Halloween in 1981. The theory is that I as a child killed him. Unfortunately, guys like him don't seem to stay dead. He was resurrected June of 1995. His followers are back.
"For some reason, he targeted the Native American Wards and brought them down. When they collapsed, everyone that could have had magic immediately got a lot of it, including me and Daphne. You seemed to be one of the people. Madame Pomfrey, the matron er... school nurse, cast a few spells on the glasses, because for some reason, when the wards collapsed, you gained the ability to see magic. According to what Madame Pomfrey wrote, you will get to a point where your sight will have adjusted and you won't have any need for the glasses, but until then, you should wear them all the time."
Burt took a few moments to swallow what Harry had told her.
"That's insane." Harry grinned at her reaction. They talked for a few more minutes until Harry offered to give her a small tour. Nodding, Burt accepted, and took his arm. He brought her downstairs, thinking to show her the kitchen first. It seemed that Harry's luck struck once more and the second they hit the ground floor, Kingsley Shacklebolt came rushing in.
"Dumbledore, we've got a problem with Canada!"
Oh! We've got a cliffhanger. This is a good one I promise. The whole premise of this Book follows the problem with Canada. Tootles!