A/N: Takes place during Harry's 5th year cause I wanted to have a chance to write for Sirius Black and cause I don't like Umbridge. I don't own anything in the Harry Potter world, I only own Desdemona Phoenix(AKA Kiara Lupin) and Hikaruhino(won't see till chapter 2). Please feel free to tell me how I'm doing. I appreciate comments of both what's good and not so good.

Child of the Phoenix

'It has been so long since I've seen this train last.' A woman thought to herself as she approached the scarlet engine that pulled the famed Hogwarts Express. It had been over twenty-five years since she had seen it last. Luckily she had arrived before most of the students and their families so she didn't have to worry about anyone getting in the way. Quietly, not wanting to disturb the silence that was still settled over the train she climbed aboard and chose a cabin towards the front.

'Just as I remember it.' All she had with her was a single black bag, that looked somewhat like a briefcase, since everything had already been sent up to the school during the summer. Albus Dumbledore, once again asked her to come fill the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, and this time decided to take the offer. Once inside the compartment she set her bag down on the floor and sat in one of the seats by the window. She smoothed out her solid black robes as her long black hair cascaded down around her shoulders. Her almost unnatural ice blue eyes looked out the window to see students arriving with their families. Her mind began remembering the last time she rode to Hogwarts on this very same train before closing her eyes as she drifted off to sleep.

"This is the only one left." A boy with messy black hair told his two friends as he opened the door a few cabins down from the woman. There was a girl that looked about seventeen sitting inside. "Do you mind? Everywhere else is full."

"No I don't." The girl didn't look up as three made their way into the cabin. Her long dark hair hung around her shoulders completely covering the top part of her black robes. She turned towards them revealing her unnatural looking ice blue eyes. "Normally I sit with my brother and his friends, but they all left at the end of last year when they finished their studies."

"I'm Hermione Grainger." The only girl in the trio walked over and sat down across from the black haired girl. Odd blue eyes examined her brown eyes and hair before turning to the red head next to her.

"Ron Weasley." The red head introduced himself as he sat next to Hermione when he felt the girl's gaze land on him briefly before moving on to the black haired boy who sat next to the other girl.

"Harry Potter." The girl continued to inspect both boys before she told them her name.

"I'm Kiara." The two boys were starting to feel uncomfortable as she spoke, under the gaze of her strange eyes. "Kiara Lupin."

"Lupin, did you say?" Hermione asked with a look of suspicion in her eye.

"I didn't know Remus had any kids." Harry said a little coldly. Kiara chuckled.

"Remus isn't my father, he's my brother. Well half brother actually. We don't look much alike so few realize that we're related." All three of them looked at Kiara with wide eyes. "Come to think of it you look a lot like James Potter." Kiara looked at Harry before turning back to Ron. "And you look just like Arthur Weasley. Are you two their younger brothers?"

"Huh?" Ron was a bit confused. Where had this girl been for the past twenty-five years?

"Funny, I don't recall seeing you at Hogwarts before." Hermione commented. She was pretty sure she knew all the students at Hogwarts that were around the same year as she was.

"Gryffindors, right?" Kiara paused while the three of them nodded. "Thought so. You three look like Gryffindors, just like my brother and his friends. I, however, am in Slytherin." Kiara moved her thick dark hair out of the way so that the others could see the Slytherin uniform beneath. The other's faces showed their disgust at the mention of the hated house name. Hermione spotted an unusual charm on the girl's necklace as she stood up. "If you'll excuse me I should probably go." Kiara had a sad look in her eye as she vanished into thin air.

"What just happened?" Ron asked with wide eyes.

"Did either of you two notice that charm around her neck?" Hermione asked as the two look at her oddly.

"A girl vanishes into thin air and you're asking us about her jewelry?" Harry asked with a rather annoyed tone to his voice. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"She had a clear teardrop shaped charm on her necklace that had a pearly sheen to it. If I didn't know any better I'd say that charm was a real phoenix tear." After a questioning glance from both boys Hermione continued on. "I was reading a book on various types of phoenixes during summer vacation."

"The only question is how did she get it to stay on her necklace?" Harry asked knowing from his own personal experience with Fawkes that it was hard to gather phoenix tears, let alone turn them into a piece of jewelry.

"Maybe it's charmed to look like a phoenix tear?" Ron suggested and shrugged his shoulders when Hermione glared at him. "What?"

"Somehow I don't think so. I think perhaps we should send an owl to Professor Lupin and see what he thinks." Hermione replied. Little did the three Gryffindors know, but as the girl in their cabin vanished into thin air a woman a few cabins down the train woke up to find four students wearing Ravenclaw uniforms sitting and talking animatedly in her cabin.

'How strange.' The woman thought to herself as she lifted a hand to the tear shaped charm on her necklace. She was recalling the dream she had about her train ride to Hogwarts when she was a seventh year, only it didn't happen at all like she remembered.

"Look she's awake!" The voice of one of the students in the cabin with her brought the woman out of her thoughts. Scanning the cabin she realized that there were three girls and one boy in the cabin with her.

"Hello, I'm Amy Anderson." The girl nearly sitting across from her in the seat held out her hand. Her short blue hair and eyes shown with cheerfulness at starting a new year. Sitting next to her was the boy.

"Terry McGinnis." The boy had black hair and blue eyes. His eyes were cold and he didn't seem to trust the woman sitting with them at all.

"Tohru Honda." The girl sitting next to her offered her hand. Her brown hair fell straight around her shoulders as her cheerful eyes appeared to be welcoming a new friend.

"I'm Jean Grey." Sitting on the other side of the short Tohru Honda was a tall girl with red hair. Jean flashed a big smile as she reached to shake hands with the woman.

"I'm Desdemona Phoenix." The black haired woman held her breath waiting for what came next. It had been too long since she last did this and had no idea how the students would react to her.

"Are you the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?" Tohru asked in a cheerful voice.

"Yes I am." Desdemona let out the breath she had been holding.

"The position is cursed." Terry commented looking away from Desdemona.

"Oh?" Desdemona hadn't heard anything about that before.

"Just ignore him." Amy assured her new professor.

"Yeah, he's just saying that because we're entering our fifth year and we've had a new professor for that class every year." Jean Grey informed Desdemona. The four students proceeded to inform their new teacher of what happened to each. The name Harry Potter kept being mentioned and Desdemona kept thinking back to her dream. Was it more than a dream? What did all this mean for her? She felt slightly guilty because she was only paying attention to about half of the stories the students were telling her. Soon the train pulled into Hogsmead Station where she was supposed to be meeting a fellow professor to take her up to the castle. In among the bustle of students going here and there she stopped dead in her tracks when Desdemona saw a face that she thought was long gone from her life.

"Severus!" Desdemona called out to the man who was still several feet away. He appeared to be searching for someone.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Kiara. What are you doing here?" Severus sneered as he waited for an answer from her. His black eyes burrowed into her. The two of them standing together looked like a matching set with black hair and robes.

"I'm supposed to be meeting someone here to take me to Hogwarts. I am the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Impossible, Albus sent me down here to fetch the real professor, a woman by the name of Desdemona Phoenix." His eyes narrowed trying to figure out just what she was lying about now.

"For your information I am Desdemona Phoenix. I stopped using my birth name a few years after I left Hogwarts. Kiara Lupin died and since then I've become Desdemona Phoenix." Desdemona watched Severus closely to see what his reaction would be.

"Then I suppose we'd best be off." His suspicious, untrusting façade never faltered as he led her towards a carriage reserved for the two of them. Desdemona saw the thestral chained to it and wondered briefly if Severus could see it as well. The thought quickly passed from her mind when she heard him talking to her again. "So you're that daft private auror that went on all those missions which most would call suicide missions."

"Yes I am and as you can see I'm still alive and well. What about you? What have you been doing since you left Hogwarts?" Desdemona took the time to reacquaint herself with one of her old friends.

"Let's get one thing straight, Lupin, or should I say Miss Phoenix, our schooldays were many years ago and too much has happened since then. I am no longer one of your 'chums'." Severus stared out the window the entire time he spoke. Desdemona sighed as she looked out the window on the other side of the carriage. It took all of her self control to keep her eyes from drinking up his appearance. She hadn't thought about him much since her last year at Hogwarts, but now being in his presence again brought back feelings she thought had long left her.

'I didn't remember this drive ever being so long.' The black haired woman thought to herself. Every second of silence felt like an eternity. Never in her life had there ever been anyone who she so desperately wanted to get away from, yet at the same time, never wanted to leave. She looked over at Severus again. Why did he have to be so cold? He was acting exactly the same towards her as he had when she was finishing up her sixth year, and Severus was finishing his seventh. The two had been really close, practically a couple, but that was before the incident.

"We're here." Severus snarled just as the carriage stopped moving. Desdemona breathed a heavy sigh as she followed him out of the carriage. She walked behind him into the castle looking at the ground while she fought back tears that were threatening to fall. She entered the castle behind Severus and felt all sorts of emotions tugging at her heart as she recalled memories she had long ago locked in her memory. He lead her into the Great Hall, though once she set foot in the castle again she recognized where she was going.

"Kiara?" Minerva McGonagall asked as Desdemona passed by the Head Table to speak with Albus Dumbledore. Severus was already taking his usual seat at the table.

"I'm sorry, but Kiara Lupin no longer exists." Desdemona spoke with obvious pain in her voice. She was blinking back tears. It hurt that Severus was being so cold towards her yet. Desdemona figured that after all this time he would have softened a little, but apparently not. She continued walking past McGonagall and didn't stop until she was next to Albus. "Professor Albus Dumbledore?"

"Ah, Miss Phoenix, right on time!" Albus stood up to greet her as Minerva headed off to meet with the first years to begin the sorting ceremony.

"Please, call me, Desdemona, Professor Dumbledore." Desdemona offered her hand to the older wizard.

"Likewise, there is no need for you to use such formalities. I'm no longer your teacher, so please call me Albus." Albus told her as he took her hand. "Have you been to the Dark Forrest yet?"

"Not yet. I only just arrived." Desdemona was slowly relaxing in Albus' presence. She was able to push the carriage ride up to the castle with Severus out of her mind.

"I told a friend in the forest that you were coming." Albus informed her, his usual twinkle sparkling in his eyes.

"I'll have to go out and visit after the feast is over." A light of hope lit in Desdemona's eyes. It had over twenty-five years since she had visited her friends in the Dark Forest. They were almost like family and she missed them dearly.

"Why don't you take your seat and we'll begin the ceremony?" Albus spoke the question as more of a command while motioning to the empty seat next to Severus. Albus noticed the hopeful light die out as the new teacher headed over and sat down next to the Potions Master. Desdemona left out a heavy sigh as she sank into the seat next to Severus, refusing to let herself look at him.

The Sorting Ceremony began, and was longer than she remembered it. Unconsciously Desdemona brought a hand up to play with the flame of the candle floating in between her and Severus. She nearly jumped out of her seat when a hand latched around her wrist still a few inches away from the flame. Her eyes wide in shock she turned to face the owner of the hand only to meet eyes with the one person she was trying to avoid.

"Stupid girl, you nearly burned your hand!" Severus growled at her. Desdemona could have sworn that she saw concern for her flash in his eyes, and then as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. What he didn't know was that the fire couldn't burn her, but she couldn't tell him that without revealing at least part of the secret that has weighed heavily on her heart for her entire life. Turning away from Severus, Desdemona yanked her hand away and began playing with the charm that hung on a silver chain around her neck.

The Sorting Ceremony was finishing up when Desdemona began looking around at the students before her sitting at the house tables just as she once did. A knot formed in her stomach when she realized that all of the students there were now her students. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she barely heard Albus introducing her.

"I would like to introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Miss Desdemona Phoenix." Albus motioned to her to stand, but she just sat there staring at the students. "Miss Phoenix!" Dumbledore spoke her name a little louder and was just enough to grab her attention. She quickly stood and nodded at the students while murmuring a quiet hello.

A/N: I couldn't think of who all is in Ravenclaw in Harry's year so a few characters from various cartoons have made cameo appearances in this chapter. Bonus points to anyone who can name them and what show they come from!