Hey, what do you know, I decided to do a Harry Potter fanfic! Amazing that I've relegated myself to MR, considering when each Harry Potter book following the fourth (which is when I got into the series) came out, I sequestered myself away in my room for hours until I had finished reading it… and then proceeded to re-read it the next day AND the following… So now I'm going to write a Harry Potter/Maximum Ride crossover fic. No, I'm not doing any of the clichés, like "Max + Flock wind up in England and *bang* are wizards/witches! No, I'm making a new OC from the Maximum Ride universe, and implanting him into the Harry Potter verse… with hopefully good results. As usual, R&R.

Disclaimer: I only own original characters. There. Happy? Good.

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I was sitting on top of Big Ben again. Interesting that I considered England my home; I'm American by birth, speak English with and American accent, and don't use British mannerisms at all, and yet I live in London of all places. Go figure.

I always sat on top of Big Ben while thinking about the world, about my past, about the future. My past was horrifying, and so torturous that I would not wish it on my worst enemy, no matter who they may be.

Oh yeah, I guess introductions are a good thing, aren't they? Name's Jonathan Parker. Or so my file said, anyways. I gave myself the nicknames Phoenix and Flame, because those two names pretty much described me. And so a little more about myself is in order.

Ever heard of recombinant DNA experiments? Nope, you probably don't. Anyways, that's what I am: a cross of some previously unknown bird and a human. I don't know what bird I was crossed with, butmy wings have scarlet and gold feathers on them that gleam in the sunlight. Unfortunately, I was shorter than most eleven-year-old avian hybrids: only about four foot ten. But that's life, now isn't it?

I was born in a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. According to my file, I'm a twin: I have a normal, human twin sister living somewhere in the US of A. Anyways, back to me. I was abducted, and the sick, depraved doctors told my parents I'd died shortly after birth. In actuality, I was sent to a place called the Institute to be experimented on. When I got there, they injected me with a primer that shucked off 2% of my human genes with whatever unknown bird they'd somehow secured and anesthetized.

I lived in that hellhole for ten and a half years, enduring torture every single day that would make the most grizzled and hardened war veteran weep. But after the age of five, when the only other hybrid I considered friendly died, I had not let a single cry of pain escape my lips. No tears, no crying out, no yelps, no nothing. My pain tolerance was unheard of; it was almost as if I couldn't feel pain anymore. Almost… my body registered pain, but I didn't react to it anymore. The scientists couldn't figure me out. They changed all their tests to torture tests; they wanted to see how much pain I could bear.

Eventually they made their mistake. It came in the form of putting me in an incinerator. As soon as I was put down in the incinerator, I didn't feel the heat. It was burning hot enough to destroy a corpse, but I felt nothing. I thought I'd finally lost all sensitivity in my nerves when I noticed the fire circling my hands. It engulfed them, but they weren't burning. All the fire in the incinerator converged on me, and it took me over. I wound up destroying the entire Institute by burning it to the ground; that was one year ago.

Immediately after having fled the ruins, and somehow learning how to fly with absolutely no prior experience, a strange bird appeared in front of me while I was in the process of leaning up against a tree. It looked like a swan, but it had the same crimson and gold feathers as I did. It had a strange wrist guard in its talons, and I don't know why, but it put the wrist guard on my left wrist. The object was incredibly ornate: it was worked in some form of hardened gold (I tried biting it to see if it was real gold… it was bent, but the metal snapped back) and had a crimson gemstone with a phoenix carved onto it in the middle.

Next thing I knew, the bird landed on my shoulder, and we disappeared in a burst of flames, reappearing in none other than London, England. And so I'd been living here for the past year: stealing what food and supplies I needed, and making a quick getaway before anybody could find me. Ah, the joys of being a mutant hybrid: enhanced speed, strength, agility, and flight. You can't beat that.

So imagine my surprise when I hear a cat meow at me while I'm sunning myself on top of Big Ben. I made sure my wings were pulled in: if a news chopper saw me they'd just say some crazy prankster had somehow made it up there.

I shooed the cat away. "Go away kitty. I'm not quite sure how you got up here, but if there are two things I don't like, they're wolves and cats."

"And if there's one thing I don't like, it's obnoxious, American preteens." I very nearly jumped out of my skin. I got up, and lo and behold, some older lady was standing next to me. She was wearing very nice, fancy robes, and… a witch hat? I tried hard to stifle a laugh.

"Who are you, how did you get up here, and how did you know I'm American… besides the accent." She didn't answer. Instead, she reached into the folds of her robes and withdrew a letter. I took the note and ripped it open, feasting my eyes upon the strangeness that was inside.

You have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

And I stopped reading right there. I put the letter down, looked at the lady, looked at the letter, looked at the lady again, and was stumped. "Please tell me this is some kind of practical joke…"

"No, Mister Parker, it is not. You are, in fact, a wizard. You happen to be one of the few wizard candidates that I have personally had to track down. You have no address, and you never stayed in one place, so it's understandable that—"

"Yeah yeah, yadda yadda, whatever. This sounds better than living on the streets of London. Where do I sign up and get this…" I looked at the list of supplies, "interesting requirement of objects?"

The woman smiled at me. "First, my name is Professor McGonagall. I am the Transfigurations professor at Hogwarts. Now, if you will hold on tight to my arm, I will take you to Diagon Alley, where you can purchase your school supplies."

Cautiously, I reached out and laid a hand on her arm. "Okay where's tha—whoa!" Before I could finish my sentence, I felt something tugging at me, and closed my eyes. This was making me nauseous… and I'm never nauseous! I opened my eyes… and saw a dead end.

"You would do well to remember which brick I press," Professor McGonagall said. She went over to the wall, and pushed a brick in. It sunk far back and moved out of the way. Instantaneously, all the brick completely peeled away from the wall, leaving open an entrance to a shopping district.

"Whoa…" was all I could say. I had never seen anything like this before. There were people running to and fro, with bags levitating behind them, carrying broomsticks, cages with animals in them, etcetera. "Well, um, where to first?"

Professor McGonagall smiled slightly. "We shall stop by Ollivander's first. There, we shall find you a wand." Okay… this was turning into a fairy tale real fast. I pinched myself, fully expecting to wake up. Nope, this was real. I could still feel my wings against my back, so I knew this was real. I checked my left wrist; the vambrace (that's what I had taken to calling it over the past year) was still there. Yep, definitely reality. If you could call it that…

As we approached Ollivander's, I saw some really big, tall guy that looked inhumanly tall (even by my standards) and a boy about my age with green eyes, glasses, and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead pass by. Professor McGonagall said a word of acknowledgement to the man, so softly that I shouldn't have been able to hear it if I was a normal human. I learned the big guy's name: Hagrid. Interesting… I'd have to save that for later. I didn't know who the kid with him was, but something about him seemed… I don't know, important. My gut was giving me a feeling that I'd be wise to get to know him, and after ten years of having it keep me alive, I learned to trust my gut's instincts.

I stepped into Ollivander's, and was greeted by a strange old man who I presumed was Ollivander himself.

"So this one has come for a wand? Yes, yes, I shall find him one…" His voice trailed off; one of the boxes on a shelf was rattling. His eyes had gone wide for some reason. Suddenly, the box opened, and a wand flew out of it. I reached out with my superior reflexes and grabbed it in midair. Professor McGonagall was incredibly impressed with this display apparently, because she let out a golf clap. Ollivander turned to me.

"That wand… 13", torchwood, with the core being a tail feather from the ancestral mother of all phoenixes… I have wondered when that wand would react to a young wizard. It seems that it has finally chosen its wielder." He let out a small bow. "You may have that wand free of charge. I have been trying to sell it for well over two decades now, and I feel that you are worthy of wielding it. Have a good day, Mister…"

"Parker," I said. "Jonathan Parker."

"Ah, yes… good day, Mister Parker. Farewell." He turned around, and went back to whatever he had been doing. I went over to McGonagall. Seemed the bookstore for my textbooks was next.

As I walked in, I bumped into some pale skinned boy with blond hair, and the books all fell from his arms.

"You there! I demand you pick up my books and hand them to me this instant!" What the heck? Who did this kid think he was?

"And who's going to make me, twerp?" He really was a twerp; I had a good four inches on him, so I stared down at him, with as much malice as I could muster, which trust me, was a lot.

"How dare you! Do you know who I am?"

"A spoiled brat with no manners and no concept of how to treat other people?"

"What is your accent? I can swear I've heard it, but the answer eludes me."

"I'm American. Name's Jonathan Parker, and don't you forget it."

"Draco Malfoy." He reached out his hand, and I shook it. "Just make the right choice at Hogwarts, and join the Slytherin house. It's where all the real wizards go." He gathered up his books, and walked off. What his problem was, I don't know…

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"You're telling me to run into this wall?" I looked up at Professor McGonagall. I thought she was trying to pull a fast one on me, but her look was one of utter seriousness. I turned back around, and saw a couple of redheads running into the wall… and disappearing through it. Huh? That's strange… the last person to go through the wall looked just like that other boy I'd seen coming out of Ollivander's… maybe it was the same person?

I took a deep breath, and ran through the wall. I opened my eyes on the other side… and saw a new platform. It read Platform 9 ¾, and had a train docked called the Hogwarts Express. Professor McGonagall came in after me.

"So, I assume I'm getting on this train?"

"Yes, Mister Parker. Now hurry along; you don't want it to leave without you, now do you?" I nodded at her, and got on the train. And now I was off to the first place that I could actually call my home…