Disclaimer: In chapter one.
AN: Sorry for the delay. Please review.
Deep within the Forbidden Forest firelight splashed amongst the trees. Centaurs cast shadows out into the night filled forest. They stood waiting for the other creatures of the forest to appear. It had been nearly 1,500 year since the last meeting of the Confederacy of the Forbidden Forest. That meeting had happened just before the battle of Cat Coit Celidon when a nephew of the Grandfather had come and asked that the forest walk at his side. The forest had agreed and so the nephew had won his battle for his King Arthur.
Now though it was not an ally of the Grandparents who brought a need but the forest itself. Albus Dumbledore had been searching the forest looking for the home that Hogwarts lived in. His search had brought him to the heart tree. He, like those men who had come before, was filled with fire and had needed to be driven from the forest by force.
So the Confederacy had to meet. Centaurs had ridden across the ancient forest at speed with the word that the elders of the herd were summoning all to the heart tree.
The shadows at the edge of the lake began to shift as all manner of creature stepped out of the forest's edge and into the light of the fire that the centaurs had been stood around.
"The night is dark. Men have discovered the heart tree here once more, and once more they have set upon themselves to burn it. Such is the fear men have when they set sight upon the heart trees. While the heart tree so do we, and so does this forest. I have summoned you here today so that we might arrange for our home be protected." The chief of the centaur herd spoke calmly into the group.
"We remember what happened the last time this forest marched on into war, Centaur! Have the stars cleaned your mind? Or perhaps there are some ancient whisperings you keep to yourselves! There is so little left of Coed Cugg after this Confederacy let a man call us into a man's war." A voice shrilly cried out from the undergrowth. Many others nodded in agreement.
"This is not a man's war, we need not follow men into battle of steel and iron. This is our home, where shall you wander to, Spider, when the heart tree burns? Your future is tied to this forest as closely as mine. Either we defend our home or we shall burn with it." The centaur's anger was fierce as his legs reared up, kicking.
A cold voice pitched in from another side. "And how shall we defend this forest, if he has found his way to the heart tree who shall stop him from finding it again. You want to save us from the burning of the heart tree by bleeding us dry in an endless war. We cannot fight wizards, we know this, and we have tried so many times before."
"We have a fire here tonight, dancing for us. Who amongst us shall throw its burning wood upon the heart tree, for each of you who does not stand in alliance with this confederacy when it defends the heart tree, is doing just that."
Silence descended upon them. The flames dancing in the darkness. "Let us now be civil. It has been a long time since we have met here, it has been many generations since the man Merlin broke his faith with us, let us not break faith with one another. The Coed Cugg has grown here since the ice melted, tonight we must decide. Shall it stand until the End of Days comes?"
Approval rang out into the night and shook the very foundations of Hogwarts Castle over five miles away.
It was two moons later that Sir Buckbeak of the Hippogriffs was slain, bound by chains. Arrow fire rained down on his murderers and spell fire was returned. Several birds took flight to bring word to the Grandparents of the Forests. The Confederacy of Coed Cugg had chosen a path of vengeance.
Centaurs rushed through the forest calling out to warn them that battle had begun. Many rushed forth to the forest edge, creatures who hunted one another and were vicious rivals poured out together onto Hogwarts grounds to face almost a hundred aurors.
The battle was fierce, centaurs fired upon the aurors, several centaurs found themselves tied and strangled in ropes. Acromatulae rushed forwards hundreds being caught in fires, the edge of the forest was cratered and aflame. Those who could fight through the burning forest did, those who couldn't hurried to out the fire before it could spread.
The trees themselves came alive with fury, their roots catching at the aurors and snapping legs, branches whirling in anger. The ambient magic of the forest no longer held its calming soothing magic as usual, it brought only fear and anger and pain. The shadows of the forest swirled and the mist thickened.
Through the mist and the shadows and the smoke, Albus Dumbledore saw a man walking purposefully forward. He stepped into the light of the blazing forest and the fires turned a bright green yet still his armour showed that emblem that had puzzled Albus for so long, the three bloody heads.
The creatures of the forest fled back into the forest depths and Albus wondered if perhaps he and the aurors should flee back to Hogwarts also. The man's hands rose and the flames grew brighter and larger. Albus' eyes widened. "Run! Retreat! Get back to Hogwarts!" The aurors couldn't apparate, the oppressive magic of the forest gripping them whenever they tried.
They ran, the burning forest set against the fresh night behind them. A loud crack chased them throwing them off of their feet. The flames had gone. Only the blackened ground and trees showed that a fire had been there. The man was stood in front of the slightly smoking forest. Albus called for Fawkes, he didn't come.
The man vanished.
Cysged wandered through the forest, already members of the Hand had set up camp healing the wounded and injured, many were severely burnt and a few wouldn't see sunrise. Tear rolled down her cheeks as she saw the scorched earth beneath her. The wizards had gotten far before Carrog arrived, they had burnt the defenders back almost a half mile. Albus Dumbledore had gone too far. She looked to Carrog and he nodded, still tending to a serpent who was bleeding heavily from his tail.
The shadows of the forest surrounded her.
She stepped forwards into the open fields around Port Mullanog. The sea whistled as it swam to her right and the cliffs rumbled against the oncoming waves. She walked a ways down the coast until the town was out of her sight. She slipped down the cliffs into the waters below and submerged herself.
This part of the shore was notorious for being home to the Irish Krakens. They had no unified governance for real leader but she knew that most would do as the strongest did. It was how they worked.
She swam deeper until she came across a large opening in the rock that hummed. A green tentacle reached out from the depths a flicked about in the water as if it were a snake's tongue testing its surroundings. Then from the opening another nine tentacles were followed by the large bulbous body of the creature that must have measured at least four hundred metres in length.
She touched a hand to its face and one of its eyes watched her intently. Then with a sudden burst of speed it slung itself out into the Irish Sea, a great roar sending shockwaves through the water. Moments later dozens of roars came reverberating back. Cysged smiled.
Captain Jameson was on the bridge of the destroyer HMS Daring. He had been assigned to a distress signal coming out of the Irish Sea. The third one this week, and Lord Fallon hadn't been able to ignore that neither of the other distress signal ships had made it into a port.
The Daring came across the merchant ship just out of sight of the Isle of Mann. It was an odd ship, they apparently had no radio since there was a man with semaphore flags at the stern of the ship, and they were all wearing robes and wizard hats.
After that everything happened quickly. A long green tentacle wrapped itself around the merchant ship. Then two more appeared. Men were jumping from the ship and trying to swim towards the Daring. The ship snapped into three pieces with a loud bang and was pulled under. Most of the crew of the merchant ship were caught in the sinkhole created by the sinking ship.
Jameson's crew were trying to pull as many men out of the water as they could but several couldn't be reached and went under. Once everyone had been brought aboard Jameson had the ship turned around to make land at Mann. A bright blue light appeared where the ship has sunk and the men who had been pulled down by the sinkhole all suddenly resurfaced. A shrill cacophony of screaming came with them as blue mermen deposited them back on the surface of the water near to the Daring.
Miraculously the crew of the merchant ship seemed to all be alive. They were pulled aboard and those who had gone down with the ship were different. They were all dry, they had evidently recently been severely injured, broken bones and large splinters of wood were some of the more obvious injuries, yet they had all fully healed leaving only scars and they all had a white sheet wrapped around them with a golden torch logo across it.
He would have to question them when they awoke, something odd was happening here and the Lord Fallon would certainly want to know what.
Carrog appeared on the Dover coast. He walked out into the sea and swam along the shore line, being sure to keep away from the white cliffs. It was burrowed into those cliffs that new phoenixes were born, the phoenix magic had stained the cliffs white. The birth of a phoenix was a very sacred event to phoenix kind and no outside was permitted to see it. He came across the meeting place of the phoenix High Court.
Twenty thin towers of stone stood in a ring in the sea. Not even on a stormy day would the waters wet the tops of the towers. A wider stone platform stood lower down in the centre. Carrog climbed up onto the central platform and flames burst into being on the towers around him.
Twenty of the oldest phoenixes in the world were perched atop the towers. Alexander and Auradain were the only ones who were still bonded with a non-phoenix.
"Good day." Carrog called out to the members of the High Court. "I come to ask for your support, for phoenixes to come into war and battle once more. Men have declared war upon the heart trees of the forests. I need not remind you of what shall happen should the heart trees die, I'm sure."
"And if we have forgotten, brother?" A phoenix called down from Carrog's right.
"You have not. When the heart trees burn the End of Days shall come. This isn't something you should take lightly."
"When the Heart Tree burns, the End of Days comes, it is not the heart tree that the men seek to burn though, is it?"
"They seek to burn all heart trees, the Heart Tree amongst them. The End of Days is not something that you can burn back from. Not even as phoenixes do. The Prophet Sagittarius warned us of a great fire. And then after the great fire, his prophecy will come to pass. Do not think that it will not include you."
"Phoenixes are pure, there is nothing to forgive of us. The prophecy may come to pass but it will mean nothing to us."
"Nothing?! You are fools! The skin of the earth shall burn unto ash, and the waters shall retreat unto the salt, and mountains shall be plucked from the ground like pegs from soil, and all shall become dust and salt and ash, naught shall be forgiven! How can you think that you don't need forgiveness? Phoenix kind is not pure. You doom yourselves. I have wasted my time here clearly." Carrog turned back the way he came and slipped down into the waves.
A soft singing followed him before a loud screech came from the High Court. He looked back. The High Court member who had spoken was burning on the lower platform. The other phoenixes vanished into phoenix fire. Alexander came to Carrog's side as he swam.
"We shall ready, not all of us are so foolish." He trilled in phoenix song.
Carrog returned home, phoenix flames shining amongst the stars as they sang in the night. Cysged lay on the grass in the garden watching the new stars flit across the sky preparing for the storms to come. He leant down and picked her up. He carried her to their bed. The bed had only ever been slept in by Taranau when he was younger. The next day rose quickly.
Both of them arrived in the mountains of the spine of Scandinavia. The sky was flocked by dragons as it had been those centuries before when the pair had lived in this mountain range. One particularly large dragon with snow white wings landed in front of them. "Good morning Himmeljakt." Carrog spoke in the draconic tongue.
"We seek assistance in battle, the men of magic in Britain seek to burn the heart trees. They must be stopped." Cysged stepped forward, she had always been influential amongst dragon-kind.
"And what might be asked of us?" Other dragons had settled to listen in on the conversation.
"There are lonely islands in the north of Britannia, islands that were once home to the Faraeyar dragons. If they might become home to dragons once more, then perhaps other islands, more southerly ones may also be suitable reward to you all."
The dragons nodded in agreement. "We will see it done Aunt." Himmeljakt took to the air. Cysged looked over at Carrog and they faded into nothingness.
The Hearth had become busy. Envoys from as far afield as the Nocturne Imperium had responded to the call to arms and even the Goblins, who gained much from wizarding business had agreed to close their doors to wizards.
Guardsmen within the ministry had crippled several departments. Archives had been torched, an explosion tore through the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the night and the systems that monitored magical travel had been destroyed. The ministry woke the next day to find that over fifty reliable members of staff had vanished leaving a simple resignation citing that they had found better employment elsewhere. The number of Unspeakables who had mysteriously vanished was still uncertain, they were in a fury again. The Department of Mysteries had been ransacked of everything of use and much research had been destroyed.
When Madame Bones had gone to the Muggle government to have the Black Knights made an official terrorist group in both Wizarding and Muggle Britain, she was driven away by armed police. The Muggles had chosen to sever all ties with the Ministry of Magic.
The year continued to go well for the Guardsmen. Wizarding merchant ships would sink shortly after Lord Fallon was warned of attacks by Guardsmen agents, the creatures of the Forbidden Forest had reformed the Coed Cugg Confederacy and were holding their ground, several other forest confederacies had formed and fortified their homes. The ministry was struggling to regain its footing and wizarding settlements on the Outer Hebrides had quickly chosen to allow dragon rule on their home islands.
Then came Taranau's dream. They knew then which Potter the prophecy meant. Carrog and Cysged had vanished for several days after the dream to prepare for a second front. Taranau and Ginny had quickly risen to be in the top of their class at Cadair, they both had lots of raw magical power from having lived only a minute's walk from the oldest heart tree in Britain.
The world cup quidditch final had the lowest attendance of any in history. Taranau and Ginny had managed to get Carrog to take them, however, and so had discovered that both Carrog and Taranau were immune to the veela magic. When Cysged told them after the match that it meant that Taranau's love for Ginny was so strong that it had overpowered the combined magic of all the veela, Ginny had dragged Taranau away to their tent for a rather long time.
Albus Dumbledore was rather surprised, although he had not found the Hogwarts heartstone, he had found the heart tree of the forbidden forest. Unfortunately the forest's inhabitants had fought to protect it there were miles of forest still between him and the heart tree. Elsewhere similar forces had gathered, protecting many forests as well as highlighting which ones held heart trees. Albus intended to eradicate the heart trees they seemed to unite the magical races against wizard-kind, he was certain that these Black Knights had organised the attacks against the ministry ships and the villages on the Hebrides especially since he had seen one of them in the forest that first battle.
They were definitely something to be feared but he was sure that they wouldn't be able to sustain a fight against the raw power of wizards for long.
He had been forced to teach transfiguration this year and unfortunately James had told him that he wouldn't be continuing to teach as he would be helping the aurors in their attempts to seize Gringotts.
An even more surprising event was the Triwizard Tournament. Indeed he had been trying to get the other schools to agree as it would allow for a controlled rebirth of Tom but he hadn't truly expected them to agree due to the turmoil in Britain. The Tournament would be taking place at Beauxbatons to avoid any students being harmed on the way to Britain, apparently Karkaroff had been worried about the krakens that were plaguing British shores. Soon even the Black Knights would recognise the need for peace, he thought.
For Tom was on his way home.