I won't keep you waiting any longer than needed so enjoy the story. Please! review.
italics= Thoughts.
Disclaimer: As always I do not own Harry Potter and it makes me sad.
ENJOY
Prologue/ The Arc Phoenix
The valley was cold, dark and empty as far as the eye could see. The only light was the full moon large and round in the night sky. A stiff wind swept the dew covered grass to the side. The howling of the wind covered the crunching of the leaves as heavy feet left their impressions upon the ground. The feet belonged to a man of impossible size, he was tall as a redwood and very nearly as narrow. He wore a loose sleeveless vest that looked to be made of..leaves, with pants to match. His bare feet sank a few inches into the moist grass as he made his way forward. His slow pace belying the great distances he covered due to the above average length of his legs and broad stride. The giant of a man stopped suddenly and sniffed the air closing his eyes to take in the scent that caught his attention. He opened round luminous yellow eyes as his nostrils flared. He gave a snort and broke into a wide grin showing off perfectly straight but yellowing teeth. He moved forward again at a much faster pace, the broad grin still plastered upon his narrow face, the deep purple of his skin sparkling like stars in the night sky as sweat began to bead upon his forehead. He stepped forward and the world changed around him. Where one second before there was an empty valley bathed in moonlight was now a sunny lake, the sun shining high above looking down upon the vast blooming trees and bushes. But that wasn't the most exciting aspect of this scene, for before the giant of a man was a great congregation of wondrous creatures. There were deer, and rabbits, and bears; all the usual woodland creatures. Mixed in with all those however were wolves walking around on their hind legs, the male wolves wore loincloths to cover their genitals, the females were adorned with elaborate necklaces made of strings of ivory long enough cover the swelling of their breasts. Their young however ran around naked as the day they were born jumping and snarling and wrestling upon the thick grass playing with each other. By the lake shore women and girls with long hair in shades varying from deep blue to sea foam green adorned in pearls and seaweed swam around in and rose out of the water. Men and women with skin of forest green wearing armor made of thick wood that moved with them like fabric made their way out of the very trees. Every few of them carried great long bows and quivers full of arrows with glowing black tips. Fairies flew around blazing trails of sparkling dust in all colors imaginable, even a few unimaginable in their wake. In the distance a great lion ran through the trees and let out an almighty roar that sent tremors through the ground and shook all manner of birds from their perches. The many creatures waved to the giant of a man, the younglings in particular made a game of running through and around his legs as he went along, releasing peals of excited laughter as only children can, as he made his way to a clearing not far from the edge of the lake. There gathered what looked to be representatives of each race of creatures present in this hidden lake and at it's center was a lone olive tree. There was nothing special in particular about this tree, in fact it was the most ordinary aspect of the entire surroundings except of course for the the small pulsating white flame at its base that was giving off a song. The most beautiful song that was growing louder as the flame grew.
"A'ashuir you've finally made it. You didn't have any trouble with the creatures of the Night lands did you?" asked a woman dressed in blue silk robes that trailed behind her as she came forward to greet the giant of a man. She was tall, fair skinned with long golden hair and protuberant blue eyes that spoke of much knowledge.
The giant of a man, A'ashuir bellowed a deep grumbling laugh as he sat before the tree. His yellow eyes upon this woman.
"I thought you were the Seer among us Celeste. Would you not have seen it?"
"You know as well as I old friend that my gift of sight has always been cloudy at best where you are concerned. Now hush the hour is at hand." Celeste chided going towards the flaming tree. With each step she took the flame grew larger and brighter, it gave off immense heat yet the tree it engulfed stood strong and undamaged. With one final step to the very edge of the flame the song which had been building in volume and tempo reached it's crescendo and the flame burst outward passing over every living creature, there was a flash of light and everyone save for Celeste and A'ashuir covered their eyes. When they deemed it safe to look again all the creatures present looked to the tree where Celeste cradled something in her arms. She smiled down at the new thing in her arms then looked out at the gathered crowd.
"Behold." She said, her voice low and strong but reaching every ear. "The birth of a new creature, The Promised Flame. What is your name youngling?" Celeste lifted her hands and helped the new thing perch itself upon the branches of its birth tree. It was a bird, no bigger than a pigeon, with pure white, downy feathers and a neck like a swan. It looked out at the gathered congregation of magical creatures with eyes to match Celeste.
'I am Dhelila...and I have seen our Salvation'
7,000 years later
It was a pleasant summer afternoon in Little Whinging. Today was one of those rare perfect days where the sun was bright, humidity low and a cooling breeze swept about the neighborhood, and it was being enjoyed by the inhabitants of Privet Drive. Mr. & Mrs. #2 were enjoying a refreshing glass of lemonade beneath the awning of their front porch; chairs turned towards each other, laughing good naturedly, discreetly playing footsie as they overlooked their well manicured lawn. Mrs. #1 had opened her living room window in order to let the pleasant breeze in. While Ms.# 5 busied herself with a stroll around the neighborhood. Mrs. Petunia Dursley of #4 meanwhile was tending to her flower bed just beneath her own living room window. It would seem that everyone was taking advantage of the weather, everyone that is except for a fair skinned, black haired young man named Harry Potter. He sat in the smallest bedroom of #4 Privet Drive with his legs crossed, eyes closed, breathing deeply and evenly seemingly in a trance. In actuality Harry was practicing an obscure form of mind magics known to very few of his people. for you see Harry Potter was a wizard and he was running through an Occlumency exercise . After several minutes Harry opened his vivid green eyes, untangling his legs he stood up from the dull but immaculately clean carpet and walked over to his desk. There he pulled a large notepad with the words "Daggobar's magical drawing pad" emblazoned on the front towards him with a pencil and set to work. After about an hour's time had passed Harry was finally done. Looking up at him from the paper as if looking through a mirror was a great shaggy black dog . It amazed Harry to no end that he could look upon the image of the man who was the closest thing he had to a father without feeling empty sorrow. It had been over a month since the fiasco at the Department of Mysteries, but surprisingly he felt, despite anything else,okay. Of course that wasn't the case when he first returned to the Dursleys.
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Harry sat by the desk in the smallest bedroom of his annual summer prison...his room, reading by the poor light of a half broken ancient lamp a letter from one of his best friends at Hogwarts. In fact more than one letter was strewn across the fairly large desk. Dribbles of ink scratched across bits of parchment, symbols, letters clustered together to form hollow sentiment. He knew that Hermione meant well, as did Ron, and Mr. and , and Remus. But he could not help the feeling that their words were just that, empty meaningless words. No matter how many times they wrote how sorry they were that Sirius was taken away from him before he really got a chance to know him, and how they knew in their hearts that Sirius loved him more than anything in the world, and that Sirius would want him to live his life...not blame himself. They were just words to him. Harry of course knew this, but in his opinion it was easier said than done. If he had taken the time to stop and think, to really think instead of running off trying to play the Hero. If he had listened to Snape, trusted Snape...
"HA!" A cold bitter snort ripped its way out of Harry's throat before he could stop it. It wouldn't do well for the Dursleys to be woken up in the middle of the night by his grief-fueled outburst but the mere thought of trusting a man like Severus Snape was beyond absurd. Besides...
'Sirius never trusted him'
'Hush now youngling, let the dead rest."'
"What the-" Harry yelped only just remembering to keep his voice down lest he wake his relatives.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash of white light. Harry was on his feet his wand poised ready to curse the intruder and possible threat. His mouth fell open slightly at the sight that met his eyes. The hand brandishing his wand quivered for scarcely half a second before being lowered completely because sitting serenely on his bed as if it belonged there was…
'I didn't know that there were white phoenixes' Harry thought, sure enough perched in the middle of Harry's bed was a pure white phoenix, its breast and beak were of deepest gold. It's eyes were a protuberant silvery blue with a odd dreamy look that was vaguely familiar to him.
"Hello" he finally said aloud to the bird.
It sat there staring at him, he didn't know why but this phoenix reminded him of someone. It let out a soft trill that washed over Harry like cooling rain on an overly warm summer day. His head felt like it was spinning for a bit while something deep inside him...If he was a more religious man he would say his soul, soared bringing forth a wash of pleasant emotions. Harry opened his eyes and steadied himself, he felt disoriented but at the same time his head had never felt lighter, that was when he noticed that there was a letter and book resting in front of the magnificent creature. Stowing his wand in his back pocket Harry walked over to his bed and picked up the letter to see who it was from.
'That would explain the eyes' Harry thought as he began to read the letter.
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I know that we do not usually correspond outside of school, but I was
compelled to write to you. I got the feeling that you would need this.
It helped me a great deal when my mother died. I don't need it anymore
so you can keep it. It's especially useful for keeping the Wrackspurts out...
There is a storm coming Harry Potter, the spirits of nature are all abuzz.
Ive seen what you are capable of, before long we are going to need you.
Dhelila agrees.
Luna
P.S. This is Dhelila she's an Arc Phoenix. She offered to help you start
off you're training.
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'Training?' Harry thought. He decided to pick up the book and was surprised by the title, Mastering the Mind: An Extensive Guide to Occlumency by Dragomir Despaar
"How does Luna expect a Phoenix to help me learn Occlumency?" Harry wondered out loud.
'Arc Phoenix'
"My apologies Arc Phoen-…" He looked around bewildered. "Who said that? Who's here?" Harry asked loudly drawing his wand once more. He cringed as a loud snort came from beyond the closed bedroom door. By the bass in the guttural sound it was probably Vernon. Harry waited a moment before releasing a breath when no further sounds came from the other rooms.
'I did, over here'
Harry stared blankly as the gentle voice came from the bird resting on his bed.
"You can speak?"
'Not exactly, I can hear the thoughts of and project my own to whomever I choose. Arc Phoenixes are masters of the mind arts. I am particularly gifted with such talents. My kind are extremely critical of who we bond ourselves to, Arckind even more so than normal phoenixes. It is a true testament to the character of the human an Arc phoenix bonds with. We are a thousand times more magically powerful than normal phoenixes, a bond with a creature of great magical potential and mental strength is needed.'
'You should know that I'm rubbish at Occlumency' Harry thought. He didn't feel his voice would work very well in this odd situation. 'I've tried before and it didn't work too well'
'There is always hope, even for one with a mind as damaged and tormented as yours to learn Occlumency. It just requires dedication. And time.'
'Brilliant, a talking bird just told me I was touched in the head'. Dhelila let out a note that sounded almost like a soft giggle.
"You misunderstand my intentions youngling, I do not mean to say that you are crazy. Your mind has been tainted by obscenities that no one should ever have to bare. With a mind so burdened by pain and anger and loss there is no hope for you to learn Occlumency. I can help"
"Really, now? That would be wonderful"
"Be wary my young friend, while the outcome will be great, the pain of the healing process will be greater…are you sure you are prepared to face what that entales?"
"… yes" Harry said resolutely.
"Very well"
Dhelila spread her wings and rose into the air. As she slowly glided around the room she began a song that was if nothing else sorrow-filled and beautiful. The song began softly but slowly grew in intensity while Dhelila flew faster and faster. She began to glow with a white light that only got brighter. Harry's head began to swim again. In a great bout of vertigo he felt himself fall. If he had more of his wits about him he would have noticed that he hit the ground beneath his feet too softly and quietly. He became overwhelmed with grief as he began to cry, truly cry for the fist time in his life.
'You have a great destiny about you Harry Potter. A storm approaches and you will have your part to play, farewell for now...we shall meet again'
In another blinding flash of light Dhelila disappeared. The song though greatly lessened in volume lingered leaving Harry Potter on the floor of his room crying from his very soul reliving the horrors of his life one by one, and gently finding peace. In a small corner of his mind, beyond the howling and sadness and cold laughter echoing Harry focused on one thought before slipping into chaos.
'What storm?'
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And there you have it folks, the first chapter in the newly rewritten A Great Destiny About Him saga. What did you think of the changes I made? Do you think I included enough imagery? Please review and tell me what you guys think. Even though I do have the other chapters rewritten I am not promising a weekly update simply due to the fact that as I write fresh chapters I may need to add more details to the earlier ones in order for it all to make sense. Cruel I know but if you guys didn't think it was worth it you wouldn't have stuck around all these years. Chapter 2 will be posted next Monday September 9, 2013.
-Aubrey.