Fawkes' Guy
by Oxnate
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Summary: A phoenix is a very unique bird. It's also quite colorful, like a certain headmaster we know.
A/N: There are well over half a million Harry Potter fics on FFN, so I can't be completely sure that no one has done this before. According to Wikipedia: During the 19th century, "guy" came to mean an oddly dressed person, but in American English it lost any pejorative connotation, and was used to refer to any male person.
Chapter 1.
A man wearing long, gray robes and a beard nearly as long and gray stepped through the rubble that had once housed very dear friends of his. Tear tracks clearly cut through the dirt and soot on his face. Was it all worth it? Was the Dark Lord even dead? If he wasn't, could he ever be stopped? Such questions flowed through his mind and he resolved to answer them all.
Just then a brilliant flash lit up the night sky. Dumbledore dove for the cover of some still smoldering beams. He heard the flapping of wings and a quiet Phft of someone landing in the ashes.
"You can come out now," a voice assured him. The voice sounded very trustworthy. He should know, it was his own voice calling him.
Albus chanced a peek while bringing up a shield charm, just in case. Standing there, with his empty hands raised was... himself! Only not himself. This Albus Dumbledore was oddly dressed even for a wizard and wore robes so bright they were making the real Albus' eyes tear up. He also wore half-moon spectacles that the real Albus didn't quite need yet. Though probably soon as he had to hold papers he wanted to read further and further away from his eyes.
"Careful now. It would be a shame to come all this way to be killed by my past self." the interloper said. With that, he carefully open his robes to reveal a time-turner. "It has been a while, but if memory serves, you were just wondering if Lord Voldemort were truly dead and if not, if he could be stopped. The answer is that he is not dead, but he can be stopped. The price, however, will be very steep."
"Tell me." the gray Dumbledore begged.
"Why tell you when I can show you?" the new Dumbledore asked rhetorically. He took off the time-turner and tossed it to his double. "Put it on. You will need to keep it safe as sometime in the future, all other time-turners will be destroyed."
Albus did as instructed.
"Now take your animagus form. Hurry. Sirius and Hagrid will be here soon."
The real Dumbledore took a deep breath, that this other Albus knew that he was an unregistered Animagus almost proved that he knew what he was talking about by itself. Only three people in the world knew that he had an animal form and one of them was dead. He changed into his other form.
The new Albus Dumbledore walked over to his past self and smiled as he picked up the elder wand. It felt good to have it in his hand again and the wand clearly recognized him. He had seen the future and knew exactly what was in store for him. He had many years left before he would leave this world and the Dark Lord would be defeated once and for all. It would cost greatly, but it would happen, and he would see it happen. But first... "This is the mask you will wear while you watch the future. And while you are wearing this mask, I shall call you... Fawkes."
Dumbledore was probably not the first man to ever attend his own funeral. He may have been the first to sing at his own funeral though. He was definitely the first to attend and sing at his own funeral while in Animagus form. His future self had kept the information that he would die to himself. It was a very jarring piece of news to take in. And now Albus was gifted/cursed with knowing the exact date, time, and method that he would shuffle off this mortal coil.
Only one thing remained. Would the clues that future Dumbledore left be enough for the children to suss out in time to defeat the Dark Lord? He got far away from the funeral before using the last time-turner in Britain to transport himself into the future.
Again and again he traveled. For several hours he popped forward, bought a paper, read the ever more dire headlines, and popped forward again. Until he finally bought a paper that announced the death of Tom Riddle. It even talked about the journey of the three heroes as they searched for the Horcruxes and what gifts that Dumbledore had left for them in his will had done for them. Dumbledore made a mental note to make sure he gave them those gifts... again.
Then he transformed one last time and used the time-turner to take himself back.
He found himself gliding down into the still smoking ruins of Potter Manor. He transformed back into his human form one last time. "You can come out now," he assured himself.