The Cry of the Phoenix
Chapter Two
Morpherkidvb
A/N- Thanks T.G. Stewart for the review- I guess Harry Potter moves quickly- I got a review an hour after I posted! And this in chapter you actually see a bit of Dumbledore's life, which was extremely fun to write! Starts out when Albus is eleven.
Harry landed rather hard on the pavement, rolled a meter or two, and stood up. He checked his robe pockets for his wand and the permutor, a habit he had picked up ever since training with Alastor Moody in his fifth year.
He surveyed the scene properly and had begun to examine the house when he suddenly recognized it. He swung his eyes to the house number to be sure… and there it was. The number four was written in green paint right above the mail slot.
He was standing right outside his Aunt and Uncle's house on Privet Drive.
He had a wild thought that he had just woken up and that his time at Hogwarts was just part of a very intricate dream. But of course, he realized he was inside Dumbledore's memory. Maybe, he thought excitedly, he was going to see the day he was brought to here…
Knowing he couldn't be seen or heard, but not sure if he could be felt, he slipped cautiously into the house.
Harry gave a laugh as he thought of what Uncle Vernon would have thought of his normal, average house now.
A huge Hogwarts crest hung from the back wall, and popped wizard crackers were strewn all over the living room floor. Several owls were perched on a post that had been added to the rafters, and all of them hooted loudly as five abnormally large chocolate frogs began hopping around the room. In the middle of the room there was a large chocolate cake with messy white icing reading 'Happy Acceptance Day' in sloppy red gel.
And there, amidst the confusion and mess, were two boys excitingly swapping chocolate frog cards on the multicolored knit rug.
One boy looked to Harry to me around ten, or maybe eleven. He was tall, with deep blue eyes that were boring into the other boy's. The boy sitting across from the younger one was around twelve. He was the same height as the blond boy, but he had dark hair and eyes.
Harry stepped closer and heard their voices.
"Alberforth, you codfish, you're trying to cheat me! You know Morgana is not worth a Ptomly, let alone a Ptomly with a Circe attached!"
"Aww, come on, Albus, I was jus' playin'! How's about a…"
But Harry didn't hear the rest of it; he was too busy being confused. Albus? Had the older boy just called the younger one Albus? The answer finally dawned on him- Dumbledore had lived in this house! The coincidence was too great for Harry to pass over- he said aloud, "Well, I reckon this place must be a bit less boring than I expected- I wouldn't be surprised if Minister Weasley made it a monument!"
He turned back to the boys' conversation, where Alberforth was now trying to sell his Cloidna card for three Sickles.
Alberforth… that was the name of Dumbledore's brother, wasn't it? The one who was fined for practicing illegal charms on a goat? Must be…
But in sixth year Dumbledore had said something about another brother and sister- where were they?
Conveniently, a tall slender young witch around twelve or thirteen chose this moment to walk down the stairs, carrying a large sparrow.
"Mum!" she called, and Harry had to hastily step aside to avoid being plowed into as she walked towards him. He wasn't sure what would happen- maybe the girl would walk right through him! He shuddered at the thought.
"Mum!" she called again.
An answering call of, "Yes, honey?" was heard from the kitchen. Harry followed the young girl and the sparrow into the kitchen and found it strongly reminded him of the Weasley household- magical cooking instruments around a counter and a cauldron boiling over a nonexistent flame. A tall, broad witch in deep blue robes was making a book called, 'Magical Concoctions for Every Occasion' float at eye level with her wand (wingardium leviosa, thought Harry) and holding a metal stirring spoon in her other hand.
The girl, still carrying the sparrow, walked in and begged her mother, " Please, Mum, oh please, can I keep him? She held out the sparrow for her mother, then hastily put in back near her. "Please?"
Mrs. Dumbledore (for who else could she be? Harry reasoned) considered for a long moment. "Well…" she said finally, "as long as you learn a proper silencing charm and put it on him thing at night, lord knows I need some sleep…" The girl squealed with delight and skipped back up the stairs, bird clutched securely to her breast.
A loud thump was heard coming from the direction of the garden- Harry caught sound of Mrs. Dumbledore muttering to herself, "Must be Aermanzo again, that boy, always killing himself with that broomstick…" She swooped off towards the back door, growling about dangerous sports.
"Aria! Watch the younger two for a minute, ok? I've got to see to your older brother again…" The girl grumbled down the stairs with her sparrow and sat down to watch the boys trade cards.
Harry stumbled, trying to keep up with Mrs. Dumbledore as she threw open the back doors to reveal a mangled blond boy of about sixteen being helped by a black-haired boy up from under a wild broomstick. Harry laughed when he read the inscription- Comet 180. "Ancient history", he said aloud, 'no wonder the kid crashed."
The boy was now being scolded furiously by his mother, while his friend slunk off towards the gate. A nod from the boy and the black-haired kid left quickly before he could be reprimanded as well. Meanwhile, the blond boy was clutching his broomstick tightly as his mother gave a scolding worthy of a Howler.
"Aermanzo Dumbledore, I swear, if you ever, ever do anything like that again, I'll put a locking charm on that for the rest of the year! "
Aermanzo shrugged. "Mum, come on, I've got to practice- without Quidditch, Hufflepuff doesn't have a chance for the house cup! "
'I don't care if Hufflepuff house is about to be eaten by dragons- don't do that again, look what you've done to the shrubbery…"
Two extremely confused gnomes wandered out of what had been a rosemary bush and began stumbling around.
"Look, Mum, I've de-Gnomed for you!"
Exasperated, Mrs. Dumbledore stomped back toward the kitchen, calling back to Aermanzo over her shoulder.
"Well, come wash up for supper then- we're having Albus's favorite because he just got accepted to school…"
"Mum, everyone in our family has gone for ages…"
"And everyone has gotten an Acceptance Day party. You didn't think it was unfair when you had yours, did you? "
Haughtily, Mrs. Dumbledore whisked back to the kitchen. Harry stayed outside long enough to watch Aermanzo shoulder his broom and brush dirt off his knees, then went inside.
He wanted desperately to eat with the family- the Leaving Feast had been right after his visit to Dumbledore's office and it felt like forever ago. However, he didn't know if he could interfere with the memory. If it was like the Time-Turner, he couldn't do much without being seen. But it could be like watching a Muggle video- what will happen is inevitable and is the same every time.
Harry decided he might as well find out- it would be better than guessing wrong and tripping up in the middle of something important. He went over to the cabinet over the fireplace and tried to pull it open. He couldn't. He tapped Mrs. Dumbledore, who was now humming a lively ditty to herself, on the shoulder. Nothing. He tried kicking the table and nothing moved. He tried using the stunning spell on Aria, who had just entered the room with her younger brothers to wash in the sink. Nothing.
An uneasy feeling settled in Harry's stomach- he didn't like being helpless; it made him feel angry and a good bit queasy. But at least he could move around and stuff, he reasoned.
He sat down in an extra chair near the table as the family set the table.
Alberforth and Albus quibbled over who should get the lucky blue plate, and Aria begged to be able to feed her sparrow, whom she had named Merlyn, her leftover scraps. The whole scene looked very odd to Harry, who could never have imagined such a likable and lively family as this living at such an insipid place as Privet Drive.
The family sat down to dinner and ate heartily, with sploshes of conversation in between gulps of beef, tomato, and oregano stew and hunks of wheat rolls.
"Yeah, I sent my friend Josep an owl, but he still hasn't answer…"
"And he tried to get me to give him a Ptomly for a Morgana, the git…"
"And I can't believe she said that! I mean, of all things…"
"Albus, don't talk about your brother like that…"
"I dunno what to feed Merlyn, he chirps all the time and he's hungry…"
" Yeah, come off it, Albus, 'twas only a joke…"
Soon most of the stew was devoured, and Mrs. Dumbledore, with a ceremonial accio, summoned the huge cake from the living room.
The acceptance cake landed neatly in the center of the small table, and immediately it began being dished out.
"I want the corner piece!"
"See, that one there, with the frosting? I want that one!"
"No fair, she always gets the corner pieces, I want that one!"
Mrs. Dumbledore put an end to that by saying that since it was Albus's acceptance day; he should get to choose his piece first.
"Erm… how 'bout that one, with the frosting and the red stuff, no, not that one, the other one, yeah."
He dug in, his brothers and sister dug in soon afterwards.
Harry marveled at the scene- he, having never had a birthday cake from his family, was beginning to quite envy Dumbledore.
When they had all eaten to the point of bloating, Mrs. Dumbledore banished the cake to the icebox and hurried them to bed.
"Chop chop, men and women, we've all got to go down to Diagon Alley tomorrow, and this time we have to buy four sets of things, so get some sleep!"
Harry watched Albus Dumbledore climb the stairs into the room that was the guestroom in Harry's time. Albus read for a couple of minutes, then turned off the lights by saying nox. The boy fell asleep immediately as Harry was, totally unexpectedly, was surrounded by a silver mist and disappeared from sight.
A/N- Ok. Now the little box on the bottom that ensures you weren't wasting your time, please. Thanks.