SUMMERY - Did you know that Phoenixes can take human form? My father did.

DISCLAIMER - I do not own Harry Potter or any affiliated trademarks. Nor do I get paid for my writings.

CHAPTER WARNINGS - None

Chapter I - Hecate's Daughter

Slowly the long line of first years thinned; in the pauses between the names and the Sorting Hat's decisions, Harry could hear Ron's stomach grumbling loudly. Finally, "Zeller, Rose" was sorted into hufflepuff. Oddly, Professor Mcgonagall did not clear away the hat and stool as Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet.

"As some of you may know, Hogwarts was once part of a student exchange program. Unfortunately, that program ended some years ago. But this year, due to a request from the Daughters of Hecate, we will once again have a foreign student in our midst."

"Zyphera, Phoenix" Professor Mcgonagall's voice called,and a side door opened, revealing the transfer student.

Phoenix was a small girl, but not someone to be overlooked. A torrent of flaming gold fell to her feet, framing a slender, boyish body held straight as an arrow. Eyes the color of amber ran over the assembled students as she set the hat on her head. Her skin was the color of alabaster and seemed to glow with its own soft light.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Whoops and cheers rose toward the enchanted ceiling as the grinning fifth year joined her new house, pulling her long hair out of the way before sliding into an empty spot. On Phoenix's left, Ginny Weasley offered a friendly smile. Dubledore raised a hand for silence.

"To our newcomers," said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, "welcome! To our old hands - welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

Phoenix laughed appreciatively along with the others as Dumbledore sat down. Her hands, small and square with long, slim fingers, were instantly busy. She piled nearly as much on her plate as Ron did. Though she was, of course, much more polite about it, and didn't talk with her mouth full. Instead she sat in silence, listening intently to the conversation between the golden trio and Nearly Headless Nick.

When Ron accidentally insulted the house ghost she laughed quietly into her pumpkin juice, and turned red with suppressed giggles at his name. Thankfully the spirit didn't seem to notice, so angry was he with Ron. Hermione didn't seem to notice either, a fact which probably kept Phoenix, newcomer or not, from suffering through a lecture such as the witch gave her friend. When she was finished, Hermione turned to the new Gryffindor. An act which, conveniently, allowed her to turn her back on a certain Weasley. But before she could ask her questions, he broke in.

"What are the Daughters of Hecate?"

Hermione threw up her hands, despairing at Ron's ignorance. Phoenix just grinned. She found Ron's cluelessness rather amusing.

"We are members of a small, exclusive, school of witchcraft. Don't feel bad about not knowing, very few people outside of Greece are aware of our existence."

"Why did your school send you here? Dumbledore said they specially requested that you come to Hogwarts."

"I asked it of the matron. Someday perhaps, I will explain why. But the story is a long one, and dark. At this point in time the knowledge would cause more harm than good."

The noise in the hall came to an abrupt halt as Dumbledore got once more to his feet and gave the start of term announcements. When professor Umbridge interrupted the headmaster, Harry notice Phoenix's eyebrows snap together. Obviously, that was not the way things were done at her school either.

By the end of Umbridge's speech, Phoenix was as distant as most of the other students, humming softly under her breath in a minor key. Se said nothing to Hermione's ominous words, and Harry wasn't sure she'd even heard them. When he got up to leave, she was still sitting in her place, head slightly cocked, staring towards the far wall. It wasn't until he nearly ran into a certain someone standing in her line of sight that he realized what, or more accurately, who, she was staring at. That someone was Draco Malfoy.