Check first chapter for summary, disclaimer, and other warnings.

Chapter 29 – Phoenix
posted June 17th, 2020

Dear Diary,

After three long years, after more and more hands-on experience on the job of Auror, I finally graduated from the Academy. I still wonder why we spent three years there, and why a Potion NEWT was mandatory.

After all, seeing the old hands lounging and not applying a lick of whatever we learned, and the fact that the Aurors' potions were bought en masse at the apothecary, we could certainly shorten the training and take more recruits.

Now that I'm a full-fledged Auror, I can write the suggestion and drop it into Madam Bones' inbox. Her holler told me it arrived, and I arrived to explain. Instead, she held her hand up and warned me about Dumbledore.

Sorry, but… what?

Apparently, she had been warned by Kingsley that the old Headmaster had restarted a kind of bird-watching club for old geezers – and isn't that a disturbing concept, in and of itself?

I told her I would never ever consider joining them. Why? Firstly because of the Auror oaths I took, which I take quite seriously, and they prevent the kind of double-agent scenario the old man may have in store for me.

And secondly, and more importantly, the old man fucked with my little brother, last year.

And this year as well, if what John writes is true. Not content to have three independent women surrounding his precious boy-who-lived, he changed some timetables in order to keep them way apart, while pushing him in the arms of geographically closer girls. And not knowing his exact preferences, he didn't put all his eggs in a single basket.

That's how John found himself dragged in broom cupboards and abandoned classrooms by random witches… all from Gryffindors.

Sure, Ginny Weasley is cute. Lavender Brown is buxom. Katie Bell is athletic. And all three enjoyed their mutual exploration with him, especially when it led to a deeper connexion between John and them.

But when it was Natalie MacDonald who acted that way, John suspected foul play – as a second year, the girl was quite young, and not at all ready for the kind of relationship the encounter was going towards.

When he suggested they went to the infirmary, she resisted. He nodded, and hugged her, but then took hold and bodily lifted her. She squeaked in pleasure, thinking that his control had crumbled. While in fact he held her there and walked to the Hospital Wing. Each time she complained, he calmed her with a kiss.

"Madam Pomfrey." he said. "I suspect she's been dosed with something. She's quite young to want… this."

The matron was quite red in the face, because the girl was actively trying to remove both of her own clothing and John's, ignoring her location and witness.

Acting quickly, Pomfrey stunned her, examined her… and discovered several active potions in her.

John told her that other girls have displayed the same symptoms, but that he thought their affections were genuine due to the fact that they were older. He brought the three over, and, sure, Ginny and Katie were dosed with the same cocktail.

However, Lavender was not: the buxom blonde has been seduced by his performance during the previous year – as well as his candid appearance on the lake shore.

And she was not alone.

Now that she was aware that John had had romps with others (and not shocked at this, since John wasn't her only partner), she gave herself the job of Social Secretary for him. Why? Because she knew that several other girls wanted a slice of time with the Boy-Who-Lived (now the Champion-Who-Won), and she had the means to bring them inside his dorm, at night.

And John found himself with quite a handful of witches competing for his attention – even some ambitious young Slytherins barely older than Natalie. "I want to secure a strong husband." one of them explained, after shrugging when he rejected the offer.

As his behaviour with Natalie (and this young Slytherin) proved, John wasn't one to chase girls much younger than he was. Gabrielle was one of a kind, and the girl appeared much older now, anyways.

Thinking about it, I realize that the culprit must have had Gabrielle's previous youth in mind when the culprit sent a second year in John's arms. What next? A first year? A girl not even in school yet?

As an Auror, I can't let this pass. And after a quick discussion with Bones (who appears to have taken me under her wing, so to speak), she won't either.

Conferring with Pomfrey and I, as the three Hufflepuff alumni we were, the suspicions led to only one person. Someone with the power to alter timetables and provide illegal potions in young students' drinks – many people had either, but only one had both: the Headmaster.

Confronted about it, he didn't budge. For him, Voldemort wasn't dead, and Harry (I mean John) has a destiny to fulfil. And he was to be guided by the only mentor worthy enough according to him: himself.

But while Bones yelled at him (Pomfrey couldn't join us because of her oaths to the school), I witnessed something strange: Dumbledore's phoenix seemed to roll its eyes when the old man uttered something patently wrong. And he even shook its head a couple of time, lifting a wing to hide the action. Two very human gestures.

Inching towards the perch, I spoke lowly to it. "You know, if you want to discuss with other fiery birds, I know two that might be interested."

It looked me in the eye, then watched as Dumbledore refused to answer Bones' questioning again. It sighed, before nodding.

"Have you seen the Delacours, last year? A teen, and a kid. Do you remember them? Can you go to them?" Since it nodded three times, I then asked why it wasn't there already. And the cheeky bird travelled there at that moment, its fire transportation singeing my eyebrows.

"Ah, Miss Tonks." the man said condescendingly. "The phoenix is a creature of fire, and quite independent and mischievous. He likes to pull pranks, like some students (and ex-students) I know."

"Doesn't it bother you that it's gone?" I ask.

"He always comes and goes. He'll be back when I'll need him."

Well, the phoenix didn't come back, because the two fiery birds it met in France (Fleur and Gabrielle) took a liking to it, flew with it, and treated it as a friendly equal.

And Dumbledore's little group of vigilantes became frayed at the seams, too, its members wondering if the phoenix's disappearance meant that their chief as lost his moral compass.

John spent each and every holiday with his favourite little Veela, sharing his time there with her and his coven of human witches – Hermione has been quite active, and had integrated Lavender and several other witches to the growing group of same-minded young women.

And by spending time there, John's perfect ear perceived almost inaudible variations in the phoenix's cries. Having heard the shrieks Fleur and Gabrielle emitted when morphed into birds, he deduced that the burning turkey had its own language.

And he resolved to learn it, gaining a new friend in the process.

To be continued in next chapter: Princes...