Chapter 50

"Welcome to the Valley of the War Mages." Harry said, watching with undisguised amusement as his new apprentices gazed in awe about the huge valley from where they stood in the pass. It was a nice day, crystal blue sky completely free of clouds, a slight breeze brought him scents form the valley. Harry closed his eyes and breathed deeply, a faint tang of blood, undoubtedly a wolf kill, the scents of the animals and the plants. He opened his eyes again, they'd have enough time to gawk later.

"Come on, this way." He said, leading them down into the valley, wincing at the noise they made as they scrambled down a trail even his horse could run down almost silently. Then again, the Zoran was no ordinary breed of horses, perfected by centuries of work they needed no shoes, left almost no hoof prints, and made almost no sound even on asphalt.

"Ha Harry, I um, just noticed.you don't make any sound when you walk.how do you do that?" Ginny asked him curiously, drawing the other's gaze back to Harry.

"You'll learn too, it is not that difficult, and you'll notice as you learn to use your powers other such changes. Your sense of smell should improve greatly, along with your hearing, eyesight, and reflexes." Harry replied, leaping from rock to rock on the hillside in a cat-like fashion as they descended the mountain.

Harry led them in the front doors, grinning at their gasps of delight at the Palace. He led them along the main hallway, listening to their murmurs of surprise at the works of art all around. On the right was a huge silver carving of a wolf, it's side had been carved into a bench. A life sized grizzly bear made form wood, its belly sloping into a rounded seat.

"This is the main hall, where we eat." He said, opening a pair of golden wood doors. The main hall was spectacular, one of Harry's favorite rooms in the Palace. On one end the rock wall had been carved into the form of huge black dragon, very lifelike it loomed out of the rock. It's wings outstretched to form the walls. Its head was near the ceiling, where its belly met the floor was a gigantic fireplace. The dragon's wings unfurled form its shoulder out in front of it, the wing across form them was built so that where the claws along the wing met the floor and the skin lifted slightly there were huge open spaces, leading out onto a balcony. The dragon seemed to be in flight straight through the hall, its wings on the downbeat ahead of it. Every black scale exquisitely carved from obsidian. Where the wings finally ended he wall was plain gray stone, filling with large niches were huge statues of animals stood. About the fireplace at the dragons belly was another large collection of animal statues, all of them formed seats in a semicircle about the fireplace, room for twenty to thirty people to sit. The hall was gigantic, two long table stretching out, then the slightly raised table, one single large one, running the same direction as the other two. Each chair was beautifully carved, the ones at the hight table extremely fancy, the one at the head of the table was fit for king, with phoenixes leaning outwards form the backrest. Tapestries and paintings hung on the walls, randomly spaced about them were smaller projections of rock, carved in the forms of small animals, coat or weapon hangers. The huge open arches along the far wall allowed in plenty of light, and a view of the golden forest. Overhead was a hundred chandeliers made form elk antlers, each with fifty small candles set into the antlers. Harry waited patiently as his new apprentices explored the hall before calling them back and leading them to their rooms.

"Your training will take several years to complete. The first class Elementals, who have been in training for a few months, will help to train you but I will be doing most of it. The training will of course continue at Hogwarts, but it will be spaced out so that you do not fall behind in your classes." He said as he showed them to their rooms, it was the same set up as the other were, only much less fancy.

Harry watched them all put their things away, Severus, who had followed them on the tour, was standing to one side, apparently rather amused by their awe of the Palace. And rather annoyed about having students he had to deal with during the school year as his equals for the rest of the summer. Finally Harry called them all together in one of the lounges.

"Now that you're reasonably settled in it's time for you to meet the First Class Elementals, Severus here is our First Class Water Wizard." There were mutters and a few shocked stares. Harry could see the Gryffindors faces fall. "Severus would you please gather the others in the hall? We'll be eating soon." Severus gave him a short bow and left, Harry blinked in surprise, then he smiled, Severus was trying to help by getting the new apprentices to respect him, and the first class elementals. Harry led them down to the hall again.

"What if we get lost?" Cho asked him as they walked.

"Ask any of the painting to point you in the right direction, and other than that you'll just have to learn, I'll know where you are at all times so don't worry about never being found." He assured them as they entered the hall.

The only table left was the high table, already seated around it were Albus, Neville, Severus, and Sirius. Harry gestured for the newcomers to take their seats.

"Alright, everyone Albus here is our First Class Air Guardian, Neville is the First Class Earth Warden.and Sirius is the First Class Pyromancer."

As he had expected they all leaped to their feet, Cho fell over in shock, quite a few wands came out, the five seated wizards just watched in amusement.

"Hm, yes I hadn't explained to them yet." Harry said in answer to Sirius's raised eyebrow, "sit down all of you, he's not going to go on a killing spree or anything." Harry distinctly heard Albus snort. He began to explain Sirius's story as they gradually relaxed and sat down. Xenrose flew in, in her true Rah Phoenix form, to sit on the back of his chair.

"Harry your phoenix! What.?" Clara Vale asked in shock." Xenrose gave a small whistle.

"Xenrose is a Rah Phoenix. Meaning, basically, she is the queen of all phoenixes; she chose me as her master a few centuries ago. A Rah Phoenix will have no master other than a Grand Master War Mage, and then they will only choose a Phoenix Lord as their master. A Phoenix Lord is an exceptionally powerful Grand Master War Mage, my soul brother Godric Gryffindor was one as well. We are very rare, there have only been four of us to date, including me. We only.occur.when there is great need of us among the War Mages and for the world and we only occur one at a time. The Lord Phoenix is basically the master of the War Mages, their leader, though at the same time there is often a king or queen of the war mages, they are the Phoenix's second." He paused for a moment, waiting.

"Wait a sec, Phoenix?" Harry smiled at Andrea Lizal's astonished outburst. "Yes, I am the Phoenix, of the Order of the Phoenix. I picked you all as my agents because of your elemental ability, I got the chance to test you before starting to train you." There was a very long silence, and then Ginny spoke up.

"What then is the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Whatever I want it to be. Usually it is a group of the best of the war mages, I say usually meaning that twice that was what it was, but the other two times, including this one, it is agents of the war mages, who are not war mages themselves, and all of the war mages who are special agents of the Phoenix. I used it as a name for the underground organization at Hogwarts, why I'm not going to tell you yet." They listened to his explanation with interest, especially Severus and Albus, who had had no idea of this underground organization in the school. Harry was highly pleased that he had been able to keep the Order secret from the observant headmaster.

** Harry called out to his first class apprentices; the four of them came over to where he was sitting astride Diablo. They had all been out riding, while the second and third class apprentices worked on a series of very old spells Harry had taught them, using them to complete an obstacle course.

Two days ago Harry had sent his four first class apprentices into the horse pasture for a day and a night, by the end of that time each of them had been chosen by one of the Zoran.

Neville was the first to arrive, riding Dusty, who had chosen Neville as his master. The brown horse with his silver/gray mane and tail and white speckles on his legs and face was a perfect match for Neville. Neville had taken to riding very well, he was a quick learner and loved to ride. Next came Albus on the white/gray Cloud, her darker mane and tail streaming behind her as they galloped across the field, Albus's hair and beard flying about him, looking rather like he had his own mane. A few second later Comet came running up at top speed, Sirius guiding his blood red mount skillfully in a series of figure eights. Severus was the last to arrive on his Leopard, the dark colored faintly spotted horse prancing across the field. All of them rode bareback, as War Mages usually did, saddles were occasionally used in battle, or if the terrain or situation required them, but only rarely.

"Today you'll be trying a little challenge in team work, rather dangerous too so think carefully before you act, this way." Harry turned Diablo and led them at a canter out of the Palace ground and into the woods, across a small bridge over a stream, and along a forest path to where a spring bubbled forth from the ground at the base of a cliff. Here there was a deep pool of water, and a cave leading off of it into the cliff face. They dismounted and knelt beside the pool.

"It's seventy feet deep, the cave is at forty feet. Your task is to go into the cave, and map the entire thing. You'll be underwater almost the entire time so you had better think up a method for getting good air. The water is very cold, about fifty to forty degrees in the cave. There's six miles of cave down there, I just want a rough map of where it goes. You'll have to note all important landmarks so don't just use some mapping spells, you'll have to actually go there. And no wands." With this last their wands vanished and appeared again in his hand. "Your elemental powers only." Here he stopped, watching them with an amused glint in his eyes.

"Ah so we're supposed to just dive into forty degree water and map a cave? Get real Potter, can't you think up anything better?" Snape growled.

"Yes Severus I can, I need someone to go to Azkaban for a few days and make a thorough map of all the cells and passages, guard shifts, guards quarters, and a list of prisoners. Would you like to do that with just your element, alone?" Harry asked, raising a hand to teleport them there.

"Point taken." Snape said hurriedly.

"What are you trying to do kill us if we make a mistake?" Sirius asked him angrily.

"Yep. Good incentive isn't it?"

"Isn't there some rule about not killing your apprentices?" Neville asked nervously.

"Heck no, where do you think we are? Good grief this is possibly one of the easier assignments you'll get, now hurry up!"

"Training as an elemental, risk you life on a daily basis." Sirius sighed.

"What do you want? A guide book?" Harry asked, exasperated.

"That would be useful, you've got no right to take away our wands for something this dangerous!"

"For once I agree with slimy, we could get killed."

"I'll make sure you don't. But every time I have to rescue you, you start over."

"We'll be here for hours!"

"Don't get so optimistic Severus, I'm starting to think it might be days." With that he leaped onto Diablo and was gone; at his whistle their horses followed him. As he left called back over his shoulder to them.

"Velsahi erladan!" (Good luck) And then was gone around a bend in the trail, leaving them with the difficult task before them.





Sorry it's short, review please!