[Cinema Competition: Avatar - Write about any sort of creature]

[Fanfiction Categories Competition: Profile - Write about someone revealing a secret]

[Legendary Gods & Goddesses Challenge: Horus - write about a bird]

[Interesting Words Challenge: Toska - a dull ache of the soul, a sick pining, a spiritual anguish]

[The Number of your Pen Name Challenge: Rowena Ravenclaw/Salazar Slytherin]

[Star Light, Star Bright Challenge: White Dwarf - write about someone's loss]

Fawkes stood on his perch, pecking softly at the frayed edge of the Sorting Hat. "Come on, now," the Hat said. "That tickles. Cut it out!"

Fawkes let out a gentle squawk.

"I don't know what that means," the Hat said tiredly, as if he'd used those words a thousand times before.

Fawkes squawked again, and then began to coo.

The Hat sighed. "It's a wonder," he said to the bright red bird, "that you're the one who's supposed to be intelligent, and yet you can't figure out how to communicate with me."

Fawkes turned his head to the side, blinked, and then began to peck furiously at the Hat.

"Stop it!" the Hat cried. "Don't make me start to sing."

But the phoenix didn't stop, and so the Hat screwed up his eyes and began to belt:

"Only those of sharpest mind
Were taught by Ravenclaw
While the bravest and the boldest
Went to daring Gryffindor!"

"You do have a terrible voice, Ricky."

The Hat opened his eyes. Standing before him, just where Fawkes used to be, was a beautiful woman clad in a dress the color of flames.

"Ah, Rena," the Hat said with a lopsided grin. "Human again at last."

"Hm." Rowena Ravenclaw sank into the headmaster's couch and began to massage her temples. "It has been a long time, hasn't it," she murmured. "At least several lifetimes. And not since Dumbledore's taken office."

"No," said the Hat. "And I've been lonely, Rena. I thought you'd forgotten how to transform."

Rowena scoffed. "Forget how to transform? Me? I'm the original Ravenclaw. We don't just forget things."

"I wasn't sure," the Hat said snidely. "You'd been stuck as a bird for nearly a century."

"Phoenix," Rowena said, bopping the hat with the flat of her hand. She tucked her long, blue-black hair back behind one ear. "My animagus is a phoenix."

"And a phoenix is a type of bird," finished the Hat.

Rena rolled her eyes. "If you must know, Godric, I prefer my phoenix form to my human one. I feel so free when I have wings instead of legs . . . Feathers instead of hair . . . "

"Endless fiery agonizing deaths instead of one normal one?" offered the Hat.

"The fire isn't so bad." Rena stood and crossed to the window. She looked out over the lake, where she knew another animagus was submerged beneath the ripples. "I should go visit you," she said to the Hat. "The animagus you, I mean. Not just . . . you you."

The Hat sighed. "It's insulting, you know, that you don't consider me a real me. Or something. What did you say, actually? I didn't understand. I just know I'm usually insulted where you're concerned."

Rena smiled and rolled her eyes. "I meant I should go visit the you that's - down there."

"Oh." The Hat pursed his worn lips. "I see. You want to go visit Godric-the-Giant-Squid, because you think he's the real Gryffindor. Never mind that I have an exact copy of his brain - put there by you, I might add - and talking to him is no different from talking to me!"

Rena patted the Hat gently. "I didn't mean to offend you, Ric," she said, planting a kiss on the tip of his head. "Would you rather I go visit someone else instead? Maybe Helga, out in the Forbidden Forest? Or my daughter? She's probably ghosting around here somewhere. Or Sal - " But she stopped herself before she could finish his name. It had been two years since the Chamber of Secrets was reopened, two years since Salazar's animagus form had been stabbed to death with Godric's sword, but even though Rena had been there - even though Rena had helped destroy him - she still couldn't quite believe it was true. Yes, Sal had gone bad in the end, but he was still her friend, still her more-than-friend, and it was impossible to accept that he'd been there for hundreds of years, and now he was just gone.

"Helga," she said finally. "I'll visit Helga."

"Oh, Rena," the Hat said, and his voice was sympathetic for once. "Don't think about him."

Rena gave a tight smile. "I try not to."

"Just - just forget him. Forget what happened."

Rena felt tears crawling up into her eyes. The last time she'd cried was the night she'd watched Sal die. "I think I'd like to go back to being Fawkes now," she said quietly. "And I think I'd like to stay that way for awhile."

"Don't - "

"It's easier, when I'm not human," she interrupted. "I don't have to think so much. I don't really feel. My emotions boil down to boredom and hunger, and there isn't any room for anguish, or yearning, or - or this ache inside of me." She shook her head and smiled as tears spilled off her cheeks. "I wish I weren't immortal," she said, and the Hat couldn't tell if she was laughing or sobbing.

"We all do, Rena," he said gently.

"I wish we'd just let ourselves die."

"You know we couldn't do that. We had to watch over Hogwarts. It needed us. We had to find a way."

"Hogwarts watches out for itself. It doesn't need us."

"Well, maybe we need Hogwarts," the Hat said quietly.

Rena looked out over the lake. "I'm going to visit Godric," she said quietly. "Not you Godric, I mean. The animagus."

The Hat sighed. "I miss talking to you, Rena."

The dark-haired founder pressed her forehead against the window. "I miss talking to you, too."

"Don't be a stranger."

Rena smiled a little. "D'you think Sal can see us right now?"

The Hat sighed again. "Do you think he can?"

She shook her head. "There's no Heaven."

"You don't know that," the Hat started, but Rena shook her head.

"I meant, there's no Heaven for him." She turned back to the Hat. "I won't be away so long this time," she promised. "And maybe I'll bring Hel or Ric - the real Ric, not you - up here to visit you. Maybe we'll all reveal our secret identities to Dumbledore at the same time, give him a bit of a shock."

The Hat smiled. "I'd like to see the others again," he said. "I'd like that a lot. Oh, and Rena, when you see Other Godric, would you tell him - "

But Rowena Ravenclaw was gone, and in the spot where she'd stood was a giant red phoenix, and even though the Hat knew better, he couldn't help wondering whether he'd imagined the entire conversation.

A/N: Read the sequel - Unicorn Blood

Or catch up on what you missed - The Sorting Hat