The Phoenix's Serenade
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Co. belong to J.K. Rowling… Not me.
A/N: I probably made a lot of spelling errors so I'm sorry if you happen to come across some. Either way, I hope you enjoy:)
Warnings: Language, violence, some spelling errors & perhaps spoilers – if you read the books.
Chapter One:
Silence In Both Mind & Body
Dumbledore's man through and through…
Words spoken from the mouth of a sixteen year old. Anyone who knew what had happened during that night where both Harry and Dumbledore's disappeared would understand this. Why they went off in search of a single locket that would surely weaken Lord Voldemort's defenses and his chance at immortality? Why they returned with Dumbledore weaken instead? Why had the wizards found Dumbledore dead in front of the Astronomy Tower with the Dark Mark set above them? Why had it been Severus Snape to be the one to kill the headmaster? And why the locket, after both Harry and Dumbledore work so hard in retrieving it, had turned out to be a fake?
So many question raced through this young man's head. Harry Potter now laid in the open fields looking up at the sky, sprawled over the ground with his head pounding and a fake Horcrux clutched in his pale, sweaty hands.
Harry sighed. "He's really dead…" He remembered the pain that swept over him when he first realized it. He saw Dumbledore dead but he didn't quite catch it until his funeral.
It's only been a week since the students of Hogwarts were sent home. There's been reports in the Daily Prophet about the 'Death of Dumbledore'. All filled with fake stories and pictures of Harry Potter and there 'Disappearance During the Attack.'
With much effort, Harry pushed himself up off the ground and stood there for what seemed like hours.
"Seven Horcruxes… Two destroyed… And as for the others," Harry thought for a long moment and re-read the note that hid in the locket.
"To the Dark Lord. I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more." Rubbing his head Harry repeated the writers name over and over again in hope of recognizing just who it might be…
"R.A.B."
Maybe it's someone I haven't met yet… It did say that he or she would be long dead before Voldemort would read this.
Harry grunted and started walking towards the west side of the field. After being sent back on the Hogwarts Express to Platform 9 3/4, Harry often wondered if he should return to the Grimmauld Place, perhaps the Dursleys or even… Godric's Hollow. The place where it all started…
"…But mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godrick's Hollow," Ron's words entered the tired man's head, now blocking all other thoughts away.
"Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?"
Harry indeed remembered and as he looked around he saw the Borrow's lands and saw just how empty everything was. All the animals disappeared and now only stands a house and an opened fence.
With the house coming closer in view, Harry thought he saw a white flash a bit above his head, but he ignored it. After about another few seconds another white flash came around. This time Harry looked up as a snowy white owl landed on a dead tree branch near by, ripping a rat apart with her sharp beak.
"Hedwig, come here girl!" Although he usually didn't bother his owl during her dinner, Harry felt very cold and it wasn't because of the short sleeve shirt and baggy, ripped jeans he was wearing.
Hedwig took a quick glance towards her master but wanted to finish the load of meat she held.
"Fine, finish your supper," Harry huffed. "I'll just go see Ron, then." With that, Harry walked in faster pace towards the Borrows.
A short ways and he could have swore he heard a loud crash and Ron's mum screaming on the top of her lungs.
"FRED! GEORGE! RONALD WEASLEY!!" There was another crash as three boys burst out the front door, all panting.
"Harry! Bloody hell," Harry looked at his scared shitless, friend as the other two fell over the ground laughing there heads off. "Harry, mum's pretty mad. I don't think it's a good idea to go back inside."
"What did you guys-" Fred and George both answered before I could finish.
With tears falling down Fred's face, "You little dim witted, twit."
George spoke next, half of his words I couldn't quite get through his laughter. "He- He gave mum one of our prank inventions-"
"By accident-" Ron tried to defend himself, but the twins went on as though they didn't hear him.
"We were still testing it so it wasn't put in safe place where no one would tough it-"
"The invention looked like a spell book and was supposed to give anyone who touched it-" Harry saw movement behind the door.
"A powerful sleeping charm that would knock them out for the next five hours."
Ron now spoke with a hint of anger in his voice. "I was helping her clean the second floor rooms, I had a pair of gloves on so the spell didn't effect me but my mum took hers off quickly to rub this foot sore she had-"
"Ok, Ron. I don't think I want to hear about your mum's foot sores or any other sores she might have in that case." The twins were laughing so hard that they seemed to have choked.
"Oh, right…" He replied back. "Anyways, I find this old book lying around and pick it up to put in the book shelf down stairs but mum tells me to give it to her since it doesn't look familiar. So I did, afterwards I went back to cleaning but mum suddenly screams as she goes to clean that dusty old mirror up stairs." Harry looked sideways a bit to see more movement in the windows.
"I turn and see this-this ugly looking beast behind me!"
Fred interrupted now. "I thought she was already ugly."
"Guess that woman's anger and supidity made her more look more her age-" George said through teary eyes with Fred ending his sentence.
"Or even older."
"EXCUSS ME!!" The movement Harry saw earlier had now turned up to be a full height monster, with matted down hair all over its body and held a stench that made Harry want to hurl, towering above all three boys with the purest loathing.
"Oh, shit! Run!" George said quickly. All three of them got up and ran off in different directions. Ron grabbed my wrist and pulled with all his strength to get me out of there. As Ron guided Harry to safety, Harry glanced back at the Burrows where Ron's monster of a mum roamed, snuffing the four boys out and digging around with her claw-like-hands.
"Some days I just want to kill those two," Harry heard Ron mutter to himself.
"Well, I just leave that to you," Harry said sarcastically. Ron looked at Harry and gave a small laugh.
"So…?"
"So what?" Harry response was a bit hoarse. He knew what he was going to ask. He didn't enjoy it when he had to think about it but…
"You know… Where do you think you're going to go to find the next Horcrux?"
Harry remained silent.
"I'm sure He-Who… Lord Voldemort," Ron pause for a moment. He didn't shudder or shiver but just hesitated. "-hid it somewhere hard to find."
"I'm sure of that too," Harry said quietly. "But it would also be at a location that's hard to reach and has a good magical defense… like the other place…"
"Other place?" Ron looked at Harry. "You mean the one you and the headmaster went to?"
Harry nodded with that Harry kneeled down on the rough ground with his expression filled with grief.
"If I was the one who took the draught then maybe, just maybe, Dumbledore would have stood a chance against Snape."
Ron didn't say anything. He didn't quite know what happened on that night nor did Hermione but he didn't want Harry to hate him for being so… insecure about it.
After a long while, Ron finally broke the silence.
"Hey… Harry?" Harry looked at his friend who was now looking up in the sky with an empty expression. "Even though I hate him to hell… What do you think happened to… Malfoy?"
Harry looked at Ron and stood back up next to him.
"I don't know. I haven't really thought about that since…"
"Yeah," Ron muttered through tired eyes.
"Maybe he's still killing other people under Voldmort's command," they both stood there for a while longer before heading back to face Ron's mother.
Harry had told Ron and Hermione at some point that Draco Malfoy was being threatened by the Dark Lord. Said that he would kill Draco's parents if he should fail something as important as Dumbledore's down fall. Being so rapped up with the Horcrux thing, Harry truly didn't think much of Draco since he left Hogwarts.
One more thought, one more question now fell from Harry's lips;
"We really screwed up this time, didn't we, Ron?"
TBC…
A/N: This really didn't turn out the way I imagined it but I might replace it if I happen to re-write this. Still hoped you enjoyed this. Please Read & Reivew, thx!