Chapter 3

The last stop Dumbledore made was to a house outside of Surrey. He laid the last Potter child on the front step, whispered the last good luck, and then apperated away. By morning nobody in the house had came to get the waking child and it wouldn't be until a few hours later that somebody would pick him up and take him home, letter and all

November, 1, 1981.

Phoenix Delaney trudged through the darkening streets as he made his way home. It had rained earlier making his worn shoes stick in the mud and when he walked they made a sicking sounds as they lifted off the ground. This continued until he reached a dead end street called Mulberry and then he took off at a run for the last house. It was small and a few of the windows were broken, but it was his.

Originally, Phoenix had lived with a scientist going by the name of Crow and his assistant, Raven. He had known from an early age that he had brothers and that his name wasn't actually Pheonix. As soon as he had been old enough to understand, Crow had handed him the letter and photo with a cheery, "I'll be in the lab if you need something!" And had left him to it.

When Raven had found out what her boss had done, she had refused to leave him and had told Crow exactly what she thought of the scientist. The man had apologised eventually, but it had been a good few years too late for it to matter much. A few days after the scientist had apologised and before Pheonix's ninth birthday, Crow and Raven had been doing an expirement when it backfired, badly. Crow died in the blast and Raven survived just long enough to later die in the hospital, leaving Pheonix the only survivor of the explosion since he had been away from the lab when the explosion took place.

The social worker had been a tired looking woman who seemed as happy as he had when he was first placed in the forster system. It had lasted less than three months before he decided it would be easier living by himself. Crow had taught him several survival skills and Raven had as well, some of them less legal than others but he hadn't been picky. Putting those skills to the test, Pheonix was proud to say that he had managed by himself for almost three years.

Pheonix slowed as he approached the house and patted the bag at his side before entering. The inside was dusty with a layer of grit on the floor. Adjusting his partially broken glasses, he walked towards the back of the house where a single, reletively clean room was. He turned to light the battery lantern before setting his bag on a makeshift desk made from a slab of wood and two old chairs. In one of the cornors was a single mattress and in another were a few crates stacked on top of each other as a persudo table and a rickety chair next to it.

All around the room were bits and pieces of junk and tools. From toasters and wrenchs to small bits of metal and screw drivers. There wasn't a surface that wasn't covered in something either broken or completely different.

Pheonix shuffled towards the makeshift table where a greased coated set of screw drivers were before going back to the desk. Inside the bag were various sized screws, a broken alarm clock, and a rusty bike chain that he had managed to pry off.

While he worked on taking apart the alarm clock, he thought of his brothers. Today was their birthday, he mused. Were they by themselves or surrounded by friends and loved ones, maybe even a pet or two? Did they think about him?

He chuckled quietly at that, positive that if his brothers knew about him that they would think about him.

Pheonix absently worked for several hours, lost in thought about his brothers and what they were like. He would later swear to build a brid alert, perhaps a specialized light that briefly confused the bird of where it wanted to go, as an owl flew through one of the broken windows and landed on his desk.

In its feet was a stiff piece of parchment, the expensive kind with a blob of red wax sealing it closed. He gingerly grasped the letter and, keeping an eye on the tawny owl watching him, broke the seal before removing an identical piece of parchment.

HOGWART SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Superme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress.

Magic, huh. Pheonix blinked as he re-read the letter, adjusting his glasses as he did. Much like Crow, Pheonix was a scientist, and the thought that magic existed seemed a bit doubtful. He also was a lot like Raven, which made him think, of course magic is real. In the end, he decided to approach the odd letter like the inventor he was and treat it like an oppurtunity to learn something new. If he was a, he checked the letter again, wizard then his brothers were as well. Of course, if not then he would be able to find them easier if magic actually existed. He eyed the owl again before slowly grabbing the least grease stained paper he had and writing out an affirmative reply followed by a request as to where he bought his supplies.

He carefully handed the owl the letter and tentively asked it to take the letter back to Hogwarts. With a screech and flap of its wings, the owl sailed out the window and into the warm night.

Pheonix spent the rest of the night trying to build an owl alert and thinking about his brothers, hoping to meet them sooner rather than later and planning all the ways he could utilize magic to find them. He wasn't even half way done when his head hit the desk, the sun starting to rise and dead asleep to the world, dreaming only about reuniting with two black haired boys and magic.