Chapter 10 Crickleberry Pub

Dumbledore had followed a curious trail, walking the entire path of chaos from Hyde park. He arrived in front of the ruined north entrance of Victoria Station. The air was un-naturally quiet for six o'clock in the evening on a Friday. There should have been thousands of people filing in and out, on their way to and from work or shopping or dressed for an evening on the town. A dusty, smoky haze obscured the view into the station. A greenish cloud of smoke snaked its way from the innards of the building, flowed along the ceiling, then drifted upwards as it seeped out of the entryway. The lazy, greenish smog gradually dissipated as it blew away to the east, over the buildings and became part of the normal pollution.

Wizards were busily repairing the entryway. The crumpled edges and debris took on the appearance of a clue that something had recently been forced through the entrance, knocking down the ceiling and crumbling the walls on either side, while squashing everything else in the way. The rubble was strewn with trash that appeared to be the discarded armloads of shopping and belongings of commuters. Just inside the entrance was a large bloodstain. The trail of blood leading into the station was evidence that the body that made the bloodstain had been dragged from that spot. It was a brutal scene.

"Where's Humphries? I thought we were supposed to meet him here." Bill Spry, one of the other aurors said as he turned to Dumbledore. "We've got teams spread all the way back up to Hyde Park, cleaning up the mess and looking for clues as to what happened. We have reports of monsters, vicious fairies, flying horses, explosions, and a black wall smashing into the station. Just slightly out of the ordinary." Bill finished with a bit of an ironic smirk.

Then he turned his gaze back towards Victoria station and said with a more serious tone. "We have no idea what happened inside here. We're the first ones to arrive and we've sent in a house elf to check on the safety."

At that, the house elf appeared with a 'POP' hovering with his nose an inch from Bill's nose. "Everything looks clear, Gov." Bill jumped half a foot in the air and yelled "Don't Do That!" at the house elf.

The house elf continued. "All the evil wizards and the gargoyles have been destroyed. Some of the house elves that live here told me that Magical Tom saved all the people with some help from two aurors that arrived in the nick of time. One of the aurors flew off, but the other one with the fire and Magical Tom are still inside. I was told to tell you that if Tom survives, he needs to know that they know that he worked in time with time making more time and that if he's not dead yet and he's not careful, someday, he will pay a heavy price for the time he's taken."

The two wizards looked at one another, clearly not understanding the meaning of the rambling elf. "None of this is making any sense. Can you explain what you're talking about?" Dumbledore asked the house elf.

"I was very clear. If you don't understand, then that's your problem." The house elf disapparated.

The two wizards looked at one another, and Bill gave a shrug. They gave a shout and gathered up their forces to begin the walk into the main concourse of the station. Dumbledore made his way through the trail of broken, charred stone, glass, and metalwork and piles of debris. There was a pile of cooling, molten rubble and ash in the center of the concourse. Most of the debris was unrecognizable.

"What in the world happened here?" Dumbledore said as he stepped forward, kicking through some of the rocks and ashes around the margins of the pile. As he walked around the perimeter of debris, a large, brown and white eagle-like bird with an orange beak flew in through the entryway, landed next to Dumbledore, and transformed into Sweeney Humphries.

He looked around and took in the remains of the concourse as Dumbledore said, "Well that's pretty surprising… and somewhat remarkable. Are you registered as an animagus? Since when are you transforming into a bird?"

Humphries cocked his head in a quizzical, bird-like fashion and replied, "Where are Fenice and Ben? Didn't they get out? What happened to all the masked wizards and the gargoyles?" He was looking down at the pile of rubble and ashes, registering what was left of everyone he'd left behind in the concourse after he'd flown. He was starting to get a worried tone to his voice and his face had turned two shades paler. "Oh sheesh, if they didn't get out, I'm not going to be able to forgive myself…"

"Sweeney, what are you talking about? What do you mean. Could you please explain what happened here! I'm at a total loss. Why are we standing in a burnt, rubble strewn, empty Victoria Station?" Said Dumbledore.

As Humphries caught his breath and began to explain about the tree in Hyde Park, "Well, there was this odd, animated willow over in Hyde Park…" he was stopped by a shout from an auror that had been kicking around in the ashes.

"Oy! Gents! Come take a look at this. I think I may have found something." He called over to Humphries and Dumbledore.

They went over and saw the wasted, burnt, half de-feathered body of a large bird. The feathers laying around its body were blackened by fire, but had apparently been red. Humphries bent to lift the body, but burned his hands on the bird's corpse. As Dumbledore used his foot to turn the bird over, Humphries shouted. "Hey be careful with..."

Humphries was cut off because his clothing had erupted in flame. Dumbledore looked down and saw beneath the red bird was a small, apparently dead, black bird. As he looked down at the small bird, he noticed it had red eyes. What's more, the red eye was looking back at him. The little black bird with the ragged crest hopped up and flew off, out of the ruined entryway. As Dumbledore stared off at the bird flying away, he mumbled with a bit of surrender in his voice, "At some point, I can only assume that explanations will start showing up, instead of more questions."

One of the aurors walked over as the large bird started to move "Oh for goodness' sake!" and said, "Hey you guys, that big one isn't dead. At least, not yet."

The larger bird struggled to lift its head and gaze up at the people standing around it, then, with all its strength used up, its head fell back down, limply. Sequeris began to speak and point at the bird with a surprised shout, "Hey, that's a…"

"A Phoenix!" Dumbledore shouted "Everybody get back." As the bird burst into a pillar of flame, the pillar consumed the bird and surrounding rocks and shot upward, burning a new hole into the ceiling. The heat forced every person to step backwards several tens of feet. As they struggled to watch, they all did their best to protect their eyes and faces from the heat. The center of the pillar coalesced into a human form, and out of the flame and rubble stepped Fenice. She had a fierce and determined look on her face. As she waved her wand, she became clothed in a fiery red dress and stepped toward the crowd with a menacing glare.

"This was no feint or isolated prank. If we hadn't stopped this, we'd be neck deep in a problem that would have sent our whole society into chaos. I assure you that would be a lot tougher problem to solve." A bit of smoke was still emanating from her clothing and hair, and the floor crackled with each step she took as she strode forward. "We need to track the root of this down, then have a long discussion about what just happened here. If it wouldn't have been for Ben, we would be in a much deeper mess. People are dead because of this and what they… we… I… did…" She looked around as the reality of what had happened began to sink in. "and I need to know why."

Dumbledore and the other aurors just stared in bewilderment. Dumbledore held his hands up in helpless futility and a complete surrender to the absurd irony of one-thing-after-another happening with absolutely no warning or explanation… "Is everyone here some sort of animagus?"

East of town, after crossing the Prime Meridian, a small black phainopepla swooped down from the sky in front of a particular business establishment. Ben Adarwayne lit on the sidewalk. He looked around and walked into the Crickleberry Pub. "Tom! Whaddleyahave?" a voice called out.