AN: EXTREMELY SHORT CHAPTER!!! All of it owned by JK Rowling except Phoenix and the new kids
7
Nobody learned about Phoenix's new
talent. She never used it in front of
her friends, who looked to her for magical aid. She was allowed to skip Transfiguration now, McGonagall said
there was nothing she could be taught now. Professors Black and Flitwick allowed her to read advanced books in
their classes, on extremely powerful spells.
Now more
people were dying—Kara's Auror mother had been killed, a hush lay over
Gryffindor Tower. She
wondered more about Voldemort than she had before the
Animagus transformation. In a duel,
what would she do? She
compiled spells to use against him, out of Black's books,
and it became something to do in her spare time—wonder how she
could defeat him if he came after her.
Phoenix
stared around her common room. It was
Easter Eve, tomorrow she would have to bag Potter for Riddle.
She needed a plan, but there wasn't any way to draw Potter
out of the company of his friends. Her
mind wandered,
Ravenclaw had really pounded Hufflepuff in that last
Quidditch match… Oh well, she'd watch
and wait.
****
It was
five in the afternoon on Easter Day. Phoenix had been tracking Potter from under her Invisiblity Cloak all
day,
watching for a point when he'd be alone from his
friends. She had finally got it, as he
strode around the library. Hermione
and Ron were bickering several floors above.
After
this, she'd be free of Riddle forever. She shivered at his name. Something in her brain connected him with bad
things, not good, however well he had taught her.
She
stuffed the Cloak in a robe pocket and stepped out from behind a
bookshelf. "Hi, Harry."
"Oh, hi
Phoenix. Hermione, Ron and I haven't
seen you in a while."
"Well,
I've been busy with some things. Umm,
I've been wanting to ask you some things about You-Know-Who,
because Kara told you you'd met him before."
Potter
closed his book and slid it back onto the shelf. "It's kind of a longish story… and it's a bit… well, yeah, sure.
Come on, I'll walk around while I tell you some parts of the
story."
This was
exactly the response Phoenix had wanted. They walked out of the library and Potter begain. Steering their
direction toward the witch with the hump she had been told
about, she listened. She could have
used the Imperius Curse then
and not have had to worry, but she really did want to know,
"—He's
really easily upset you know. And he
doesn't care about anyone, not even his closest supporters. Uses the
Cruciatius Curse all the time… he used it on me… It hurts
like a million knives, you know, and fire, too. He laughs while he
does it to, I don't think he is really completely sane. I can't see why he does it otherwise. Hey, why'd you stop here?"
Potter eyed the witch suspiciously, did he suspect anything?
"Somebody
sent me to bring you to them, my teacher. So just follow me…" Then Phoenix said the word she
had been taught, "Imperio!"
She tried
to control Potter's mind as she tapped the hump and opened it. Just go in there… Normally the subject
did whatever she wanted then, but something in Potter kept
him from doing it. Go in! Now! she screamed in her head, and
then the contol disappeared all toghether, Potter had thrown
off the curse."
"What are
you doing?" He gasped at her, "What are you playing at?"
"God,
Potter, just come! Stupefy!" She shrieked in frustration. Potter was crumpled on the floor. She regained
control of herself and whispered to her wand,
"Mobilcorpus!" Like a puppet on strings
he jerked up, and Phoenix forced his
body into the hump.
Phoenix
ran, magically dragging Potter's body down the tunnel under the witch's
hump. She panted for breath at the
end of the passage, and tried to calm herself. What if she had been heard, or seen? What if Potter woke up soon? She
relaxed herself muscle by muscle, and used a Binding Charm
to make sure she could Apparate with the fainted body.
Phoenix
Apparated quickly into the Malfoy Manor, it was almost six.
"Eneverate!" She muttered, and Potter woke up as she stuffed her wand
into her robe. She expected him to rant
and yell, but he was looking over her shoulder, open
mouthed.
"Voldemort!" He whispered fearfully.
Phoenix spun around—it was only Riddle. And then her mind made the connection.