The Forbidden Forest
When I was born, when the egg that was holding me captivity finally released me, I was silver, and my sister gold. My mother was nearing her burning day, so she had not the strength to name us. So my sister and I named each other. I was Fawkes. My sister was Kelvar. She is now a Silver phoenix, I a Red. My mother's Burning came shortly after she approved of our names. She had no recollection of us later. This is how we were made.
When we were a month into our first cycle, we left for the Forbidden Forest. On our way we met a human male, who could understand our speech, and taught us English. He was an interesting character, and a wand maker, and asked me for a two tail feathers, for I had a strong magical aurora. I was grateful for his help, but we each had our own directions to travel. He passed out of my life like a breath. The journey was long, but enjoyable. We knew we had a place in life. But we did not know yet that it was called the Forbidden Forest, and if we had, we could not have imagined the perils it held. Not yet.
We settled into a new lifestyle. I took over the duties of Hunting while Kelvar started creating a nest. It is common for brothers and sisters to share a nest, until about halfway into the third cycle of Burning, which marks our age. However, we stayed together much longer than that. We stayed together until we were deep into our 70th cycle, but that comes later in the story.
The Hunting was hard, in a place like the Forbidden forest. However, I knew that Kelvar was enjoying her stay here, so I said nothing. There were near misses for me, though. There was an occasion where I got stuck in a magical rosebush. It grew magically, so that it looked like honeysuckle, but was thorny and hard to escape. I flew into it willingly, but then got stuck and just barely escaped when a giant wolf came nearby. However, that is off the subject.
We were into our 50th cycle when we had a serious argument. There had not been much to eat that cycle, or year, as humans call it. A baslisk was roaming free again, as it had just after we had first come here. It was interfering with my hunting. I had not told Kelvar of this. However, when the problems of food arose, I told her of the baslisk, and she was terrified.
"Fawkes," she said when she heard of this. "Fawkes, we must go! We must leave this place! This place will not do to shelter two phoenixes! This place is cursed!"
"Kelvar," I said reasonably, "We have done alright until now, haven't we?" Kelvar would not listen. She was frantic. She would not hear of staying.
Before we go any further you first must understand phoenix communication. Phoenixes do not talk with their beaks, as humans do with their mouths, for everything would come out with clicks and clacks in it and not a word would be understood. Phoenixes use music to communicate. We will use the notes in a line or sentence to . . . well its very hard to explain. Some humans are born with the gift of phoenix communication, just like parseltongue. However those humans usually 'forget' when they begin to mature, and can no longer speak to the phoenix. There is a way to learn it, though, and you do it just the same way you would learn any other language. Any wizard or witch can learn this.
Kelvar was near to shedding feathers, if you will. She almost fell out of the nest. I was worried for her. I tried to reason with her, but I wanted to leave this hell also. I argued for form's sake. At last I gave up though, and cast about my mind for a safer place to reside.
"There is a place on the east side of this forest. A castle, fully occupied and operational." I said this slowly and gently, in an effort to calm down Kelvar. "This would be an ideal place to stay." Kelvar took to this immediately.
We could not fly, for lack of food had drawn Burning Day nearer. We tore up the old nest and built a temporary nest ideal for Burning Day. It came quickly and painfully, that cycle.
When we were renewed and full of spirit, we soared above the treetops to the castle. At long last we were standing on the marble staircase. Kelvar took flight again, and rapped sharply on the great wooden doors.
We waited patiently, for about five minutes. I told Kelvar to knock again. She had just taken flight when the doors opened. Inside the doors stood a tight faced woman with thick black hair. She fell back in shock, and then recovered herself. I wondered why she was shocked to see us. She regained her composture quickly, and started talking.
"Welcome to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. My name is Minerva Mcgonagall. Please come in." As we stepped inside, the great oak doors closed behind us, causing Kelvar and I to start. However, soon we were flying alongside this strange woman, and the doors were far behind us.
"Fawkes," I said, introducing Kelvar, "and myself We are siblings. You said your name was Minerva?" The woman nodded. "Interesting," I muttered, surveying her. Kelvar was looking curiously at her too. Minerva seemed uncomfortable.
She led us down several long passages, one of which contained several pictures of the founders of Hogwarts, who even I recognized. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin, the four founders of Hogwarts. At last, though, we reached a queer looking gargoyle.
"Fizzing Whizzbee!" Minerva shouted. I stared. Was she mentally ill, perhaps? But the gargoyle sprang aside, to reveal a small side-passage. The woman led us in, and suggested that we walk, for the ceilings were low and the walls were narrow. We waddled in, and at the end of the passage, there was a door, upon which Minerva knocked twice.
When the door opened, there stood a man who's age I could not guess, for he looked young and spry, but he had white hair and a white beard, both of which were long enough to tuck into his belt.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," he said in a friendly voice. "My name is Albus Dumbledore." The way he said his name, I think, did something to me . . . I fell in love with the man. Not the way that male and female fall in love, but more like the way that a sister loves a brother. "You can explain where you have come from in the morning, and for now I think that you need sleep. Would you like to have a temporary nest built for you? Or would you prefer to make one yourself?"
Kelvar nodded courteously and said, "We will make one, thank you. Simply provide us with ample materials, and we will gladly make one."
"The entire of Hogwarts is open to you for your nesting place. The students are on summer vacation, so if you would like to nest in the common rooms, that is fine." Kelvar and I looked at each other and nodded our thanks. "Then I bid you good night. Minerva, show them where the proper materials can be found," Albus said with a glint in his eye.
"Good night!" I called, as Kelvar and I turned. Minerva hurried to catch up. We walked in silence down the halls. Minerva showed us where her room was, 'just in case we needed anything.' When we were trying to decide where to sleep, Kelvar suggested that we sleep in the Ravenclaw common room. I said that I was going to nest secretly in Albus Dumbledore's room. Kelvar was disgusted. She said that sneaking around would be disgraceful, and especially sneaking into the Headmaster's room. I considered this, but decided that I wanted too much to find out about Albus.
Thus I could be found, in the dead of the night, trying to sneak into the room where Albus Dumbledore slept. I whispered the password, although I had to use my throat and beak, because the gargoyle could not understand what I was saying. It was a bit difficult. When I finally got past the gargoyle, I had trouble opening the door. But I managed, and then I snuck in the room and found a shelf upon which to sit and wait. I had gotten there only too soon. Albus came through the door precisely 2 minutes and 34 seconds. When he entered, he immediately started scanning the room. I wondered if I had left any signs of my entrance. I settled deeper into the shadows. The man did not notice me.
When he was tucked in bed, I flew down with him. He noticed me at once and started.
"Fawkes," he cried. "What are you doing here?"
"You said that the whole of Hogwarts was open to us," I responded. "I wanted to get a closer look at your room."
"And what of your sister?" he said, clearly unnerved. "Is she also waiting in the one of the teacher's bedrooms?"
"No. She told me off for wanting to come here to admire your room." The compliment to his room did not seem to make him feel better. It seemed strange that it did not, for if someone had complimented me in that manner and on my nest, then I would be delighted. Evidently humans have a different nesting tradition.
"She was right to tell you off!" Albus said. What was wrong with this man? Perhaps I had given him a fright. So I came closer and told him the truth, that I had wanted to learn more about him, and perhaps we could become friends. He settled down at once.
"If you had wanted this, I believe that you should have come earlier in the day. But as you did not, then we shall have to make do with this. Would you like to tell me your story, of how you came here?" And so I told him about our birth, about our stay in the Forbidden Forest. I told him about the baslisk, and about Phoenix 'cycles'. He listened quietly, only interrupting to make a point, or to ask a question. It took until dawn, and then I suggested that the man get some sleep. Before he slept he said that he would tell me about him in the afternoon. So I flew back up to my shelf and slept in deep reverie.
In the morning I woke up drowsily, to find that Albus had left. I exited the room to go to the Great Hall, which Minerva had shown us the previous day. Minerva had told us to expect to get lost, but I did not, once. It did seem as if the halls had shifted places a bit, though.
The Great Hall seemed smaller that day, perhaps because more people were there than last night. All the professor's, and several staff members. I took careful note of one in particular, a huge man with thick black hair and beard. I flew up to Albus, and he asked me what I wanted for eating. I said politely "fish liver with holly on the side please." Albus stared. I stared back. It was then that I noticed Kelvar sitting next to Minerva. She had some strange concoction of meat and . . . something. It looked like the inside of a cracked phoenix egg. Perhaps it was. Albus quickly told a mean looking man on his side to go tell the cooks what was wanted.
After 'breakfast' Albus and I departed to the man's room. I noticed Kelvar leaving with Minerva. She was looking cocky. I wondered why.
We entered the room and Albus pulled up a chair with comfy looking arms. I perched on the arm, and Albus sat down.
"So you want to hear about me," the man said. I nodded. "Hmmm, well, it's a long story."
"I am a direct descendent of Godric Gryffindor, and related by marriage to Rowena Ravenclaw. I was born to Lyra Talmien and Celmor Talmien. I gave the name Dumbledore to myself. My parents were witch and wizard, and both went to Hogwarts. My father was in Ravenclaw, and was not very smart, but eager to learn and perform. My mother was in Gryffindor and was top student in her grade. However, she never was a Prefect or Head Girl, because she got in too much trouble. About a year after they graduated, my mother and father got married." Here Albus paused. "I cannot remember much of my childhood, except that the wizard Grindlewald killed all of my family and relatives except my mother, father, and I. I never knew them, but it was devastating for my parents.
"When I went to Hogwarts, my parents came to teach, because it was rumored that Grindlewald wanted to kill them. He never did manage, though for he never dared attack Hogwarts. Hogwarts was the best time of my childhood. I knew Grindlewald would never attack here, so I was safe. I was in Gryffindor.
"When I graduated, I applied for a job teaching at Hogwarts. I got to teach Astronomy for until I was 24. Then the Headmaster switched me to Transfiguration. I loved that subject. It was in that year, though that a boy named Tom Riddle came, and changed my life.
"Riddle was a boy of many strengths, his main ones being dueling and Transfiguration. However in his 3rd year he started learning the Dark Arts. There were many prophecies about him, most of which saying that he had a important role in the future of the Dark and Light magics. Now, though he is the one called Lord Voldemort, the Heir of Slytherin."
"Lord Voldemort? Who is he?" I asked, looking at Albus strangely. The man stared.
"Lord Voldemort is just now gaining power. His name is known throughout the British Isles, even though he is just an upstart now. He will grow powerful soon..." He trailed off. "Lord Voldemort - or Tom Riddle - opened the Chamber of Secrets in his 5th year, and was never able to return to the Light after. In his 6th year, he murdered a girl. He gave false proof later that Rebeus Hagrid had committed the crime. Hagrid had been expelled long before I found out about Riddle and his murder.
"Lord Voldemort entered my life once again after he graduated, and it was to murder my father." Albus's eyes dimmed for a minute and then lit up with even more ferocity. "I hunted him down, and found him in league with Grindlewald. I caught them both together and killed Grindlewald, but Voldemort escaped. It was devastating to tell the Ministry . . . you know about the Ministry, do you not?" I nodded eagerly. "They had thought Riddle to be one of our main supporters. He had not yet given himself a name. When he did, Tom Riddle died, and Lord Voldemort was born. The Ministry had him marked as killed by one of their Auror's.
"About three years ago Lord Voldemort started attacking muggles and wizards the same. Since then Hogwarts has been a refuge for wizards and witches. There is not much to tell, and not much has happened since." I nodded; feeling greatly relived that I now knew the man's story.
"When will the students be returning?" I asked, trying to take Albus's mind off rekindled memories.
"September the first. If you wish to meet them, you can come to King's Cross with me."
"That is fine." There were a few uncomfortable moments of silence, and then I took my leave.
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When I was born, when the egg that was holding me captivity finally released me, I was silver, and my sister gold. My mother was nearing her burning day, so she had not the strength to name us. So my sister and I named each other. I was Fawkes. My sister was Kelvar. She is now a Silver phoenix, I a Red. My mother's Burning came shortly after she approved of our names. She had no recollection of us later. This is how we were made.
When we were a month into our first cycle, we left for the Forbidden Forest. On our way we met a human male, who could understand our speech, and taught us English. He was an interesting character, and a wand maker, and asked me for a two tail feathers, for I had a strong magical aurora. I was grateful for his help, but we each had our own directions to travel. He passed out of my life like a breath. The journey was long, but enjoyable. We knew we had a place in life. But we did not know yet that it was called the Forbidden Forest, and if we had, we could not have imagined the perils it held. Not yet.
We settled into a new lifestyle. I took over the duties of Hunting while Kelvar started creating a nest. It is common for brothers and sisters to share a nest, until about halfway into the third cycle of Burning, which marks our age. However, we stayed together much longer than that. We stayed together until we were deep into our 70th cycle, but that comes later in the story.
The Hunting was hard, in a place like the Forbidden forest. However, I knew that Kelvar was enjoying her stay here, so I said nothing. There were near misses for me, though. There was an occasion where I got stuck in a magical rosebush. It grew magically, so that it looked like honeysuckle, but was thorny and hard to escape. I flew into it willingly, but then got stuck and just barely escaped when a giant wolf came nearby. However, that is off the subject.
We were into our 50th cycle when we had a serious argument. There had not been much to eat that cycle, or year, as humans call it. A baslisk was roaming free again, as it had just after we had first come here. It was interfering with my hunting. I had not told Kelvar of this. However, when the problems of food arose, I told her of the baslisk, and she was terrified.
"Fawkes," she said when she heard of this. "Fawkes, we must go! We must leave this place! This place will not do to shelter two phoenixes! This place is cursed!"
"Kelvar," I said reasonably, "We have done alright until now, haven't we?" Kelvar would not listen. She was frantic. She would not hear of staying.
Before we go any further you first must understand phoenix communication. Phoenixes do not talk with their beaks, as humans do with their mouths, for everything would come out with clicks and clacks in it and not a word would be understood. Phoenixes use music to communicate. We will use the notes in a line or sentence to . . . well its very hard to explain. Some humans are born with the gift of phoenix communication, just like parseltongue. However those humans usually 'forget' when they begin to mature, and can no longer speak to the phoenix. There is a way to learn it, though, and you do it just the same way you would learn any other language. Any wizard or witch can learn this.
Kelvar was near to shedding feathers, if you will. She almost fell out of the nest. I was worried for her. I tried to reason with her, but I wanted to leave this hell also. I argued for form's sake. At last I gave up though, and cast about my mind for a safer place to reside.
"There is a place on the east side of this forest. A castle, fully occupied and operational." I said this slowly and gently, in an effort to calm down Kelvar. "This would be an ideal place to stay." Kelvar took to this immediately.
We could not fly, for lack of food had drawn Burning Day nearer. We tore up the old nest and built a temporary nest ideal for Burning Day. It came quickly and painfully, that cycle.
When we were renewed and full of spirit, we soared above the treetops to the castle. At long last we were standing on the marble staircase. Kelvar took flight again, and rapped sharply on the great wooden doors.
We waited patiently, for about five minutes. I told Kelvar to knock again. She had just taken flight when the doors opened. Inside the doors stood a tight faced woman with thick black hair. She fell back in shock, and then recovered herself. I wondered why she was shocked to see us. She regained her composture quickly, and started talking.
"Welcome to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. My name is Minerva Mcgonagall. Please come in." As we stepped inside, the great oak doors closed behind us, causing Kelvar and I to start. However, soon we were flying alongside this strange woman, and the doors were far behind us.
"Fawkes," I said, introducing Kelvar, "and myself We are siblings. You said your name was Minerva?" The woman nodded. "Interesting," I muttered, surveying her. Kelvar was looking curiously at her too. Minerva seemed uncomfortable.
She led us down several long passages, one of which contained several pictures of the founders of Hogwarts, who even I recognized. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin, the four founders of Hogwarts. At last, though, we reached a queer looking gargoyle.
"Fizzing Whizzbee!" Minerva shouted. I stared. Was she mentally ill, perhaps? But the gargoyle sprang aside, to reveal a small side-passage. The woman led us in, and suggested that we walk, for the ceilings were low and the walls were narrow. We waddled in, and at the end of the passage, there was a door, upon which Minerva knocked twice.
When the door opened, there stood a man who's age I could not guess, for he looked young and spry, but he had white hair and a white beard, both of which were long enough to tuck into his belt.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," he said in a friendly voice. "My name is Albus Dumbledore." The way he said his name, I think, did something to me . . . I fell in love with the man. Not the way that male and female fall in love, but more like the way that a sister loves a brother. "You can explain where you have come from in the morning, and for now I think that you need sleep. Would you like to have a temporary nest built for you? Or would you prefer to make one yourself?"
Kelvar nodded courteously and said, "We will make one, thank you. Simply provide us with ample materials, and we will gladly make one."
"The entire of Hogwarts is open to you for your nesting place. The students are on summer vacation, so if you would like to nest in the common rooms, that is fine." Kelvar and I looked at each other and nodded our thanks. "Then I bid you good night. Minerva, show them where the proper materials can be found," Albus said with a glint in his eye.
"Good night!" I called, as Kelvar and I turned. Minerva hurried to catch up. We walked in silence down the halls. Minerva showed us where her room was, 'just in case we needed anything.' When we were trying to decide where to sleep, Kelvar suggested that we sleep in the Ravenclaw common room. I said that I was going to nest secretly in Albus Dumbledore's room. Kelvar was disgusted. She said that sneaking around would be disgraceful, and especially sneaking into the Headmaster's room. I considered this, but decided that I wanted too much to find out about Albus.
Thus I could be found, in the dead of the night, trying to sneak into the room where Albus Dumbledore slept. I whispered the password, although I had to use my throat and beak, because the gargoyle could not understand what I was saying. It was a bit difficult. When I finally got past the gargoyle, I had trouble opening the door. But I managed, and then I snuck in the room and found a shelf upon which to sit and wait. I had gotten there only too soon. Albus came through the door precisely 2 minutes and 34 seconds. When he entered, he immediately started scanning the room. I wondered if I had left any signs of my entrance. I settled deeper into the shadows. The man did not notice me.
When he was tucked in bed, I flew down with him. He noticed me at once and started.
"Fawkes," he cried. "What are you doing here?"
"You said that the whole of Hogwarts was open to us," I responded. "I wanted to get a closer look at your room."
"And what of your sister?" he said, clearly unnerved. "Is she also waiting in the one of the teacher's bedrooms?"
"No. She told me off for wanting to come here to admire your room." The compliment to his room did not seem to make him feel better. It seemed strange that it did not, for if someone had complimented me in that manner and on my nest, then I would be delighted. Evidently humans have a different nesting tradition.
"She was right to tell you off!" Albus said. What was wrong with this man? Perhaps I had given him a fright. So I came closer and told him the truth, that I had wanted to learn more about him, and perhaps we could become friends. He settled down at once.
"If you had wanted this, I believe that you should have come earlier in the day. But as you did not, then we shall have to make do with this. Would you like to tell me your story, of how you came here?" And so I told him about our birth, about our stay in the Forbidden Forest. I told him about the baslisk, and about Phoenix 'cycles'. He listened quietly, only interrupting to make a point, or to ask a question. It took until dawn, and then I suggested that the man get some sleep. Before he slept he said that he would tell me about him in the afternoon. So I flew back up to my shelf and slept in deep reverie.
In the morning I woke up drowsily, to find that Albus had left. I exited the room to go to the Great Hall, which Minerva had shown us the previous day. Minerva had told us to expect to get lost, but I did not, once. It did seem as if the halls had shifted places a bit, though.
The Great Hall seemed smaller that day, perhaps because more people were there than last night. All the professor's, and several staff members. I took careful note of one in particular, a huge man with thick black hair and beard. I flew up to Albus, and he asked me what I wanted for eating. I said politely "fish liver with holly on the side please." Albus stared. I stared back. It was then that I noticed Kelvar sitting next to Minerva. She had some strange concoction of meat and . . . something. It looked like the inside of a cracked phoenix egg. Perhaps it was. Albus quickly told a mean looking man on his side to go tell the cooks what was wanted.
After 'breakfast' Albus and I departed to the man's room. I noticed Kelvar leaving with Minerva. She was looking cocky. I wondered why.
We entered the room and Albus pulled up a chair with comfy looking arms. I perched on the arm, and Albus sat down.
"So you want to hear about me," the man said. I nodded. "Hmmm, well, it's a long story."
"I am a direct descendent of Godric Gryffindor, and related by marriage to Rowena Ravenclaw. I was born to Lyra Talmien and Celmor Talmien. I gave the name Dumbledore to myself. My parents were witch and wizard, and both went to Hogwarts. My father was in Ravenclaw, and was not very smart, but eager to learn and perform. My mother was in Gryffindor and was top student in her grade. However, she never was a Prefect or Head Girl, because she got in too much trouble. About a year after they graduated, my mother and father got married." Here Albus paused. "I cannot remember much of my childhood, except that the wizard Grindlewald killed all of my family and relatives except my mother, father, and I. I never knew them, but it was devastating for my parents.
"When I went to Hogwarts, my parents came to teach, because it was rumored that Grindlewald wanted to kill them. He never did manage, though for he never dared attack Hogwarts. Hogwarts was the best time of my childhood. I knew Grindlewald would never attack here, so I was safe. I was in Gryffindor.
"When I graduated, I applied for a job teaching at Hogwarts. I got to teach Astronomy for until I was 24. Then the Headmaster switched me to Transfiguration. I loved that subject. It was in that year, though that a boy named Tom Riddle came, and changed my life.
"Riddle was a boy of many strengths, his main ones being dueling and Transfiguration. However in his 3rd year he started learning the Dark Arts. There were many prophecies about him, most of which saying that he had a important role in the future of the Dark and Light magics. Now, though he is the one called Lord Voldemort, the Heir of Slytherin."
"Lord Voldemort? Who is he?" I asked, looking at Albus strangely. The man stared.
"Lord Voldemort is just now gaining power. His name is known throughout the British Isles, even though he is just an upstart now. He will grow powerful soon..." He trailed off. "Lord Voldemort - or Tom Riddle - opened the Chamber of Secrets in his 5th year, and was never able to return to the Light after. In his 6th year, he murdered a girl. He gave false proof later that Rebeus Hagrid had committed the crime. Hagrid had been expelled long before I found out about Riddle and his murder.
"Lord Voldemort entered my life once again after he graduated, and it was to murder my father." Albus's eyes dimmed for a minute and then lit up with even more ferocity. "I hunted him down, and found him in league with Grindlewald. I caught them both together and killed Grindlewald, but Voldemort escaped. It was devastating to tell the Ministry . . . you know about the Ministry, do you not?" I nodded eagerly. "They had thought Riddle to be one of our main supporters. He had not yet given himself a name. When he did, Tom Riddle died, and Lord Voldemort was born. The Ministry had him marked as killed by one of their Auror's.
"About three years ago Lord Voldemort started attacking muggles and wizards the same. Since then Hogwarts has been a refuge for wizards and witches. There is not much to tell, and not much has happened since." I nodded; feeling greatly relived that I now knew the man's story.
"When will the students be returning?" I asked, trying to take Albus's mind off rekindled memories.
"September the first. If you wish to meet them, you can come to King's Cross with me."
"That is fine." There were a few uncomfortable moments of silence, and then I took my leave.
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