Harry Potter and the Call of a Phoenix.
Part One:
The Introduction - New Beginnings and Explanations:
To put it simply, Harry James Potter was having a strange week. It had begun, perhaps naturally, like every other week he'd had for the last two years, ever since the war had ended. Harry had supposed, over the last four days he'd had to think of it, that this had, in fact, been the world lulling him into a false sense of security. He hadn't, after all, been overly paranoid or expecting anything bad or unusual to happen. At least, not anything as serious as this; a sudden surprising death – and more importantly to him, his sudden surprising death. Or, should he even say, his second death.
And this, Harry thought, as he looked around his empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express, was his second life – or, more accurately put, the payment of the life debt he felt he owed to Fawkes.
The beautiful phoenix, even more stunning with its red and gold plumage in the other world, had appeared in the limbo version of Kings Cross, where Harry had once again awoken, content and un-pained, and had trilled a heart breaking story about an alternative world, his already-moved-on-counter-part, and a deathly accident – which, apparently, would condemn that world to so many decades of darkness, if he hadn't agreed to intervene.
And how, exactly, was Harry supposed to refuse after Fawkes had said that? Even if he would have rather been spending his afterlife with his loved ones, which he very much would have, he still had a conscience and, according to popular belief, a "saving people" complex.
So, here he was. An underweight, rather malnourished, just out of the hospital medical marvel, eleven year old other world Harry, with the mind, memory and skills of a twenty year old war veteran, with a shaky plan, a crap load of worries and a baby phoenix, named Ember, who was actually Fawkes, but was pretending not be.
Basically, Harry mentally concluded, rubbing at his temples, it was a brilliant job that he had long since perfected adapting to unusual situations and just rolling with them.
Author's Note: It's short, I know, but I feel it's a necessary introduction to the story. Anyway, I feel like every fanfiction author should have an AU – largely because I'm obsessed with them – and so this is going to be mine. It's going to be Light!Harry and Slytherin!Harry, and I'm going to try and keep the characters true to themselves, though certain situations, and Harry to a certain extent due to his maturity, will differ from canon.
This entire work, from Harry's Hogwarts beginning to Tom Riddle's defeat (I'm thinking that Harry will aim for the end of fourth year) will be based off the original canon version of the fantastic JK's works (which – disclaimer! – I am most definitely not her and I do NOT own Harry Potter. This is for fun and I'm receiving nothing for it.).
Also, this story is also going to be a challenge for me. I'm aiming to finish it within eight weeks, due to my sudden lack of incentive to write any of my original stories (and because I've left them that long, I'm a little worried that I've somehow forgotten how to write an actual book length story). Ergo, this: Harry Potter and the Call of a Phoenix.
Please let me know what you think - and, as always, thanks for reading! :)