Greetings Snowwolf! Thanks for chiming in.
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Ice and Fire ~*~
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Kaneene Moody was sitting in the great hall at Hogwarts with her brother and four cousins. She was trying desperately to immerse herself in a book that she'd been reading over the week long holiday, but she kept laughing as the older Moodys took turns picking on Keath, and accusing him of robbing the cradle.
"Oh, get off it!" Keath said with exasperation at his cousins' merciless teasing. "Hermione is interested in what it's like to be an Auror, and I've been merely spending time with her.."
"Wowing her with tales of your daring adventures," finished Brandon for him.
Keath rolled his eyes. "You're making more out of...."
Dixon cut him off, wearing a mischievous grin. "So, exactly how impressed is your young Miss Gryffindor?"
Keath frowned at him. "Her name is Hermione," he insisted.
"Her name is Hermione," Dunstan mimicked, speaking in sappy falsetto. He continued on as his other cousins laughed. "Oh, Keath, you're just so brave." He batted his eyelashes and snuggled up to his now blushing younger cousin.
Kaneene resisted joining in, but she didn't go to Keath's rescue either. She knew the Granger girl had a mind of her own and was a brilliant witch for her age, but still, she was a bit young... Kaneene had already lectured her younger brother about minding his manners, among other things around the younger Gryff.
She was suppressing a chuckle when her attention was caught by the entrance of two people sweeping quickly toward them across the hall. Kaneene frowned and stood immediately when she saw that the headmaster and Minerva McGonagall where looking very grave as they approached her. The men around her sobered quickly when they saw what had captured her attention.
"Headmaster, what is it?" she asked, hand instinctively going to the wand in her belt.
Dumbledore looked serious indeed.
"I'm afraid that I need your help," he said, gaze sweeping the group and coming back to Kaneene. "I have just received an owl from the Red Witch requesting immediate assistance. It seems as though Death Eaters have invaded Harris Island, where the Nemorosi are gathered."
Dumbledore took a deep breath and went on. "She's afraid that Voldemort may very well be on the island as well," he continued looking into Kaneene's eyes. "All of them, especially Harry, may be in great danger. I've already alerted the Ministry."
Kaneene nodded. "Right, we'll leave at once," she said, turning to her cousins. "Brandon, send an owl to Uncle Alastor, and then you and Dixon follow us." She looked back at Dumbledore. "You'll tell us the way?"
"I'll do better than that," Dumbledore replied. "I'll show you." It became quite clear that the old wizard and his deputy headmistress were planning to go themselves.
Kaneene nodded, and as the group cast the necessary tracing charms to follow Dumbledore to the Herbrides, her thoughts went to what Dumbledore had said a moment ago. ALL of them were potentially in danger.
'Sirius,' she thought, and she did her best to banish her feeling of dread as she disapparated along with the others.
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Harry stared in horror at the long skeletal fingers that held his wand, as he tried to force the pain in his hand to the back of his mind for the moment. A low hum was beginning to be generated from the blue-white ring as it accelerated around him.
Voldemort stood there, looking triumphant, and he sneered at Harry's alarmed expression. "Now, Harry, you've done all that work, trying to master wandless magic," he began, laughing once in that high cruel voice. "Surely, you'd like to demonstrate what you've achieved for me?"
Harry was terrified. True he'd been studying Nemorosi magic religiously with Lorien, but working with her after classes, and THIS were two entirely different things.
Voldemort changed his tone and adopted an conspiratorial whisper. "I suspect that you'll not be needing this anymore." Voldemort held the wand poised between his fingers. "I'll just dispose of it for you, shall I?"
Harry panicked and lurched forward a step with an outstretched hand, but was held back from taking another as he glanced down with deep concern about coming in contact with the blue ring. He hadn't even looked back up yet when he heard the 'SNAP!'
Harry gasped and staggered at the meaning of the noise, reeling as the implications slammed home. He raised his eyes slowly in time to see the two pieces of holly slip between Voldemort's fingers and watched them fall, seemingly in slow motion to the ground. A ragged piece of phoenix feather floated on the air, rocking back and forth as it made it's slow way to the ground to land lightly next to the broken wood.
Harry stared at the small tattered red feather open-mouthed, unable to believe what he was actually seeing.
Voldemort spoke up again, voice quite apologetic, but expression not nearly so. "Sorry, Harry, but it'll just waste my time, and your very limited time, if we stand there pointing our wands at each other. Yours seems to have, sorry..HAD that annoying habit of canceling the effects of mine when we have these little...reunions."
Harry heard every word as if someone was speaking to him from across a great distance instead of a few feet as he continued to stare in anguish at the tiny red spot of feather on the ground.
He was doomed.
He was alone - Taber remained unconscious on the ground, and his wand was in pieces. If the Nemorosi elder had been defeated so brutally, he would last at best, what, two minutes?
The humming noise from the ice-blue ring around him was becoming more intense and higher pitched as it spun even faster. Harry's eyes were drawn involuntarily to the source of the noise. He knew that at any moment a volley of deadly ice shards would be fired at him from all directions, and he had the vaguest mental image of himself falling over, body pierced by a dozen or more icicles. How would he ever deal with something like that? Harry mourned his apparent fate, and then that of his wand again as he glanced in a dazed fashion back at the red feather.
Harry shook his head a little as his momentary stupor was interrupted by the tiny flash of color he saw on the ground. He frowned slightly as he concentrated on the red spot that was flickering in front of him.
The feather had ignited into a tiny flame that flickered unnoticed by Voldemort at his feet.
Had the phoenix feather started to burn on it's own? Harry wondered if the feather would retain the properties of the entire bird when the thought finally penetrated his brain.
Fire.
The defense for ice, a form of water, was fire.
Harry glanced at the Nemorosi mage on the ground nearby out of the corner of his eye, and was startled again. The man was looking at him from where he lay crumpled, and he saw the barely perceptible nod, a slow blink more than anything, from the older wizard.
Fire.
Had the phoenix feather igniting been the doing of the man on the ground?
"Now," Voldemort continued, gathering himself up, "shall we go for another round?" He laughed again shrilly, amused by his apparent impending victory.
Harry's own eyes narrowed in determination as he realized he wasn't as alone as he thought, and that he had a chance of defending himself after all. 'Fine, so let it be trial by fire,' Harry thought. He gritted his teeth and forced his breathing to slow as he looked back up at the black robed wizard.
Voldemort spoke up again as if making a grand announcement. "Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort..what is this, round four?" He asked, still gloating.
"Five." Harry said in a calmer, determined voice.
"Ah, yes..five," Voldemort hissed dangerously.
Harry suddenly became a little calmer. 'Five, and I've survived four of them so far!' That thought went a long way towards improving the odds he gave himself.
Voldemort went on to say something more about joining his parents at last that Harry wasn't listening to as he tried desperately to clear his mind. He was sure that he was going to get only one chance at this, and he struggled to create an image of a shield of fire in his mind. He glanced once more at the tiny fire on the ground where the feather was alight, and the image of Fawkes, who had been there in his time of need in the past, appeared in his mind's eye.
Harry might have smiled if the situation weren't so desperate. Fawkes had once again just given him what he needed to defend himself, and Harry concentrated on the image of the bird erupting into flames in Dumbledore's office.
"Well then, Harry Potter," Voldemort was saying, "since you have nothing to say for yourself.."
Harry pictured himself engulfed in fire as the phoenix had been; emerging whole and renewed from the depths of the flames. He felt his already rapid pulse quicken, felt the radiating energy stir, and drew desperately from the well of magic that resided deep within him. He needed it all, and needed it now.
"..let's just be done with it, shall we?" Voldemort finished saying, and raised his wand.
Harry raised his arms at his sides, palms outward, and took a deep breath. Faint phoenix song echoed in the far corners of his mind, and then he heard it - the faint crackling of fire. THAT was what he needed, and he drew it to him as hard as he could.
Voldemort's eyes narrowed to fierce red slits as he saw that Harry was actually going to attempt a wandless defense, and he sneered and flung his wand hand in front of him, pointing it sharply at Harry and invoking the circle of ice.
Everything happened at once.
The whining hum of the blue light screeched to a crescendo as a score of white flashes exploded from the circle simultaneously.
Harry never heard the noise as the crackling of the flames around him instantly became the deafening roar of an inferno. Sizzling and popping erupted all around him as the ice shards evaporated instantaneously upon contact with the fire.
Voldemort cried the command word again, screeching at the blue circle, and flashes began leaping from the ring in a rapid, staccato pattern, peppering Harry from all directions with deadly icicles.
Harry closed his eyes, and saw only the flames; heard the roar, and listened to nothing else. Sweat had broken out on his forehead as the temperature around him soared, and his hands trembled as he tried to counter the renewed attack.
A large cloud of steam billowed up into the night sky, roiling and rolling as the continuous onslaught of ice met the wall of fire.
Voldemort, furious at being thwarted, channeled his anger at the boy, and the white-blue ring began to constrict, threatening to close down around Harry.
Spitting and hissing sounds sprang up in intensity as the circle hit the barrier of magic flame.
Harry was trembling all over now with the effort to keep the ring away. His breathing was ragged, and he felt the ground begin to sway as he became light-headed from massive exertion. He felt the temperature drop alarmingly in the air around him as the circle closed, and he put everything he had left into holding the fire as he staggered and dropped to one knee. Sounds of hissing, and screeching, and roaring became one loud rushing sound, and the last thing that Harry knew, everything went very quiet and black as he fell to the ground.
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Whether it was late morning, or early in the afternoon, Sirius Black didn't know. He'd lost track of time as the hours had worn away as he paced, and then sat, and then paced some more next to the bedside of his unmoving godson.
Harry had been unconscious, and unresponsive since last evening when they'd seen him collapse in the dirt in front of Voldemort. Sirius knew that Harry must have put everything he had into defending himself from the Dark Lord, and shuddered to think that it might not have been enough if he hadn't arrived the moment the flames died and Harry sank to the ground.
Although, truth be told, the blue ring closing around the boy had flashed brightly and winked out at the same instant.
Sirius had witnessed Voldemort standing there, nearly beside himself with rage at being thwarted by the boy's defenses, but he never had a chance to renew an attack thanks to the arrival of himself, Remus, Lorien, Draco, Beska, and Snape, who had all seen the enormous cloud of steam rising not far off in the distance and rushed to Harry's aid.
The winded dark wizard might have taken them on, but the arrival of the Red Witch, accompanied by Dumbledore himself, as well as six Aurors had prompted Voldemort to disapparate rather than face those odds in his tired state.
Sirius got up and went to the window of the room in Perth Taber's house to stare out for the sixth or seventh time, gazing at the garden outside that looked so peaceful and inviting as he blamed himself again for letting Harry get into trouble.
"Huh! Some godfather I am," he scolded himself angrily.
"You're a great godfather." A weak voice from the bed behind him.
Sirius spun around, and crossed quickly to drop into the chair at Harry's bedside, and placed his hand on the teenager's arm.
"Thank Merlin! I didn't know if you were ever going to open your eyes," Sirius said, still looking at Harry in a very worried way.
"That would make two of us," Harry replied, managing a tiny smile. The smile was replaced with a look of concern as he glanced around the room and realized where he was.
"Is Perth....?" He asked tentatively, looking worried.
"He's going to be fine," Sirius answered. "Lorien and Beska have been looking after him all night."
Harry frowned for a moment in concentration. He remembered nothing after the struggle with fire and ice spells. "Sirius? What happened? I mean, all I remember is the fire, and the blue ring...."
"I should be asking you that same question," Sirius replied, watching the teenager carefully.
Harry looked at Sirius for a long moment, and then heaved a great sigh and related the events leading up to Taber's confrontation with Voldemort, and then his.
"That is quite a story, Harry."
The voice was not Sirius's and it drew Harry's attention to the doorway where he found himself looking at Dumbledore.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed weakly, trying to sit up a little. "When...?" Harry was too tired to sit all the way up and sank back against the pillow as Dumbledore crossed the room.
"Last night, Harry," Dumbledore answered softly. "I came as soon as I got word from the Red Witch that there was a possibility that Voldemort was on Harris Island."
Dumbledore moved across the room to stand on the opposite side of Harry's bed from where Sirius was, and peered at Harry closely. "How do you feel, Harry?"
"Um, ok." Harry answered. "Pretty tired, actually."
"Not surprising." Dumbledore smiled behind his half moon glasses. "My guess is that you're beginning to become a bit of an annoyance to Voldemort by this point, Harry."
Harry smiled at Dumbledore's humor. "You think?"
Dumbledore sobered a little and spoke again. "It looks as though all those lessons with Mistress Lorien paid off last night, Harry, although I didn't realize that you'd come quite so far with your abilities," the headmaster said.
"Neither did I," Sirius admitted. "I'll be sure to thank Lorien again for spending so much time with you. She worked you pretty hard in your defenses."
Harry's brow knitted a little. "Yes, but the odd thing is, the only fire spells she taught me were offensive spells," he admitted.
"What prompted you to come up with a fire defense, then Harry?" Sirius asked.
"It was the feather," Harry answered. "It burst into flames right after Voldemort destroyed my wand, and it gave me the idea."
Dumbledore actually looked a little surprised. "You say that Voldemort actually destroyed your wand, Harry?"
Harry nodded. "He snapped it in half. I saw the pieces on the ground along with the feather inside from Fawkes."
"Interesting," Dumbledore said, almost to himself.
"What is it?" Sirius asked, seeing the look in the headmaster's eyes.
"Well, it's just that I wanted to give this back to Harry when he woke up." He held out his hand, where Harry's wand rested on his palm.
Harry's eyes went wide. "You fixed it?" He asked incredulously, taking the wand and looking it over.
"No, Harry," Dumbledore chuckled. "It would have been quite something even for Ollivander himself to repair a wand broken by Voldemort."
"But, I SAW it," Harry insisted. "It was in half on the ground. The feather went up in flames..." Harry paused in mid-sentence as the answer hit him, and he looked up at the headmaster, who was watching him carefully.
"That's it, isn't it?" Harry asked. "The phoenix feather."
Dumbledore nodded. "I believe so, Harry. From what I gather about last night's events, evidently your wand re-emerged from the fire started by the phoenix feather... intact."
"If I understand what you two are saying," Sirius said, "it's unlikely that Harry's wand can be destroyed."
"At least by conventional methods," Dumbledore agreed.
Harry spoke up again quietly. "Then that means that it's unlikely that Voldemort's wand can be destroyed."
Dumbledore nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so, Harry, but you've had enough to worry about this last day. Sleep, now."
Harry was about to protest that he was fine, when he realized just how exhausted he was after his ordeal, and with the headmaster and his godfather watching over him, he drifted off again into a deep sleep.
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It was the next morning when Harry woke again at last. He remember waking once briefly during the night to get up to go to the bathroom, and he had checked his wand on the night stand again to make sure that he hadn't dreamed his conversation with Dumbledore.
He was looking at his wand again when he heard Lorien come into the room.
"Oh good, you're awake," she said, coming to stand by his bedside and scrutinizing him. "How do you feel today?"
"Better," Harry replied. "Hungry, actually."
"Well, then you'll probably want to get down and have some breakfast before your godfather finishes it all off," she said with a smile. "Before you go," she said as Harry started to push the covers off himself, "there's someone that would like a word with you."
Harry looked at the door to see Perth Taber standing there, smiling at him.
"Perth!" Harry cried, thrilled to see the Nemorosi mage up and about again.
Taber crossed to the bedside, walking with a bit of a limp that Harry noticed. "Alright there, Harry?"
"Yes, I'm doing fine, Sir," Harry answered.
"Good." Taber paused for a moment, and looked at Lorien and then back at Harry. "What you did the other night was amazing, Harry. I've rarely met anyone so young with so much raw talent, not to mention I've rarely met anyone that I thought could stand against Voldemort."
Harry knew that what Taber was saying was true, but he still felt his face getting warm as he reddened.
"Lorien and I have been talking," Taber continued, "and we both agree that you should take your training further. I'd like to offer for you to come and stay for the summer to study wandless magic. I'd oversee your lessons, as would Fagan LaRue, herself."
"Seriously?" Harry asked.
Taber nodded, as did Lorien behind him.
"Wicked!" Harry cried, leaping out of the bed.
"Now, Harry, before you go getting all excited," Lorien cautioned him, "I've already spoken with Sirius, and he and the headmaster both agree that you should...."
"I know, I know," Harry said, rolling his eyes a little. "I have to go back to the Dursleys for at least part of the summer."
"I'm afraid so," Lorien said with an apologetic smile, "but not the whole summer."
"Thank Merlin!" Harry exclaimed with exasperation, but he was already beginning to smile. After all the summers he had spent at the Dursleys' with nothing more to look forward to but September 1st, putting up with Dudley for a month in order to get to study wandless magic for the rest of the summer would be a piece of cake, he was sure.
Speaking of cake, Harry realized he was starving, and after thanking the Nemorosi Elder, bounded happily down the stairs to join his godfather at breakfast.
Lorien looked at Perth after Harry left the room. "Well, it should be an interesting summer around here, don't you think?"
Taber smiled and walked with her to the door. "That it will, my dear, and by the time Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, I'm willing to bet that it's going to be an even more interesting fall."
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A/N: One more chapter to tidy things up a bit....
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Ice and Fire ~*~
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Kaneene Moody was sitting in the great hall at Hogwarts with her brother and four cousins. She was trying desperately to immerse herself in a book that she'd been reading over the week long holiday, but she kept laughing as the older Moodys took turns picking on Keath, and accusing him of robbing the cradle.
"Oh, get off it!" Keath said with exasperation at his cousins' merciless teasing. "Hermione is interested in what it's like to be an Auror, and I've been merely spending time with her.."
"Wowing her with tales of your daring adventures," finished Brandon for him.
Keath rolled his eyes. "You're making more out of...."
Dixon cut him off, wearing a mischievous grin. "So, exactly how impressed is your young Miss Gryffindor?"
Keath frowned at him. "Her name is Hermione," he insisted.
"Her name is Hermione," Dunstan mimicked, speaking in sappy falsetto. He continued on as his other cousins laughed. "Oh, Keath, you're just so brave." He batted his eyelashes and snuggled up to his now blushing younger cousin.
Kaneene resisted joining in, but she didn't go to Keath's rescue either. She knew the Granger girl had a mind of her own and was a brilliant witch for her age, but still, she was a bit young... Kaneene had already lectured her younger brother about minding his manners, among other things around the younger Gryff.
She was suppressing a chuckle when her attention was caught by the entrance of two people sweeping quickly toward them across the hall. Kaneene frowned and stood immediately when she saw that the headmaster and Minerva McGonagall where looking very grave as they approached her. The men around her sobered quickly when they saw what had captured her attention.
"Headmaster, what is it?" she asked, hand instinctively going to the wand in her belt.
Dumbledore looked serious indeed.
"I'm afraid that I need your help," he said, gaze sweeping the group and coming back to Kaneene. "I have just received an owl from the Red Witch requesting immediate assistance. It seems as though Death Eaters have invaded Harris Island, where the Nemorosi are gathered."
Dumbledore took a deep breath and went on. "She's afraid that Voldemort may very well be on the island as well," he continued looking into Kaneene's eyes. "All of them, especially Harry, may be in great danger. I've already alerted the Ministry."
Kaneene nodded. "Right, we'll leave at once," she said, turning to her cousins. "Brandon, send an owl to Uncle Alastor, and then you and Dixon follow us." She looked back at Dumbledore. "You'll tell us the way?"
"I'll do better than that," Dumbledore replied. "I'll show you." It became quite clear that the old wizard and his deputy headmistress were planning to go themselves.
Kaneene nodded, and as the group cast the necessary tracing charms to follow Dumbledore to the Herbrides, her thoughts went to what Dumbledore had said a moment ago. ALL of them were potentially in danger.
'Sirius,' she thought, and she did her best to banish her feeling of dread as she disapparated along with the others.
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Harry stared in horror at the long skeletal fingers that held his wand, as he tried to force the pain in his hand to the back of his mind for the moment. A low hum was beginning to be generated from the blue-white ring as it accelerated around him.
Voldemort stood there, looking triumphant, and he sneered at Harry's alarmed expression. "Now, Harry, you've done all that work, trying to master wandless magic," he began, laughing once in that high cruel voice. "Surely, you'd like to demonstrate what you've achieved for me?"
Harry was terrified. True he'd been studying Nemorosi magic religiously with Lorien, but working with her after classes, and THIS were two entirely different things.
Voldemort changed his tone and adopted an conspiratorial whisper. "I suspect that you'll not be needing this anymore." Voldemort held the wand poised between his fingers. "I'll just dispose of it for you, shall I?"
Harry panicked and lurched forward a step with an outstretched hand, but was held back from taking another as he glanced down with deep concern about coming in contact with the blue ring. He hadn't even looked back up yet when he heard the 'SNAP!'
Harry gasped and staggered at the meaning of the noise, reeling as the implications slammed home. He raised his eyes slowly in time to see the two pieces of holly slip between Voldemort's fingers and watched them fall, seemingly in slow motion to the ground. A ragged piece of phoenix feather floated on the air, rocking back and forth as it made it's slow way to the ground to land lightly next to the broken wood.
Harry stared at the small tattered red feather open-mouthed, unable to believe what he was actually seeing.
Voldemort spoke up again, voice quite apologetic, but expression not nearly so. "Sorry, Harry, but it'll just waste my time, and your very limited time, if we stand there pointing our wands at each other. Yours seems to have, sorry..HAD that annoying habit of canceling the effects of mine when we have these little...reunions."
Harry heard every word as if someone was speaking to him from across a great distance instead of a few feet as he continued to stare in anguish at the tiny red spot of feather on the ground.
He was doomed.
He was alone - Taber remained unconscious on the ground, and his wand was in pieces. If the Nemorosi elder had been defeated so brutally, he would last at best, what, two minutes?
The humming noise from the ice-blue ring around him was becoming more intense and higher pitched as it spun even faster. Harry's eyes were drawn involuntarily to the source of the noise. He knew that at any moment a volley of deadly ice shards would be fired at him from all directions, and he had the vaguest mental image of himself falling over, body pierced by a dozen or more icicles. How would he ever deal with something like that? Harry mourned his apparent fate, and then that of his wand again as he glanced in a dazed fashion back at the red feather.
Harry shook his head a little as his momentary stupor was interrupted by the tiny flash of color he saw on the ground. He frowned slightly as he concentrated on the red spot that was flickering in front of him.
The feather had ignited into a tiny flame that flickered unnoticed by Voldemort at his feet.
Had the phoenix feather started to burn on it's own? Harry wondered if the feather would retain the properties of the entire bird when the thought finally penetrated his brain.
Fire.
The defense for ice, a form of water, was fire.
Harry glanced at the Nemorosi mage on the ground nearby out of the corner of his eye, and was startled again. The man was looking at him from where he lay crumpled, and he saw the barely perceptible nod, a slow blink more than anything, from the older wizard.
Fire.
Had the phoenix feather igniting been the doing of the man on the ground?
"Now," Voldemort continued, gathering himself up, "shall we go for another round?" He laughed again shrilly, amused by his apparent impending victory.
Harry's own eyes narrowed in determination as he realized he wasn't as alone as he thought, and that he had a chance of defending himself after all. 'Fine, so let it be trial by fire,' Harry thought. He gritted his teeth and forced his breathing to slow as he looked back up at the black robed wizard.
Voldemort spoke up again as if making a grand announcement. "Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort..what is this, round four?" He asked, still gloating.
"Five." Harry said in a calmer, determined voice.
"Ah, yes..five," Voldemort hissed dangerously.
Harry suddenly became a little calmer. 'Five, and I've survived four of them so far!' That thought went a long way towards improving the odds he gave himself.
Voldemort went on to say something more about joining his parents at last that Harry wasn't listening to as he tried desperately to clear his mind. He was sure that he was going to get only one chance at this, and he struggled to create an image of a shield of fire in his mind. He glanced once more at the tiny fire on the ground where the feather was alight, and the image of Fawkes, who had been there in his time of need in the past, appeared in his mind's eye.
Harry might have smiled if the situation weren't so desperate. Fawkes had once again just given him what he needed to defend himself, and Harry concentrated on the image of the bird erupting into flames in Dumbledore's office.
"Well then, Harry Potter," Voldemort was saying, "since you have nothing to say for yourself.."
Harry pictured himself engulfed in fire as the phoenix had been; emerging whole and renewed from the depths of the flames. He felt his already rapid pulse quicken, felt the radiating energy stir, and drew desperately from the well of magic that resided deep within him. He needed it all, and needed it now.
"..let's just be done with it, shall we?" Voldemort finished saying, and raised his wand.
Harry raised his arms at his sides, palms outward, and took a deep breath. Faint phoenix song echoed in the far corners of his mind, and then he heard it - the faint crackling of fire. THAT was what he needed, and he drew it to him as hard as he could.
Voldemort's eyes narrowed to fierce red slits as he saw that Harry was actually going to attempt a wandless defense, and he sneered and flung his wand hand in front of him, pointing it sharply at Harry and invoking the circle of ice.
Everything happened at once.
The whining hum of the blue light screeched to a crescendo as a score of white flashes exploded from the circle simultaneously.
Harry never heard the noise as the crackling of the flames around him instantly became the deafening roar of an inferno. Sizzling and popping erupted all around him as the ice shards evaporated instantaneously upon contact with the fire.
Voldemort cried the command word again, screeching at the blue circle, and flashes began leaping from the ring in a rapid, staccato pattern, peppering Harry from all directions with deadly icicles.
Harry closed his eyes, and saw only the flames; heard the roar, and listened to nothing else. Sweat had broken out on his forehead as the temperature around him soared, and his hands trembled as he tried to counter the renewed attack.
A large cloud of steam billowed up into the night sky, roiling and rolling as the continuous onslaught of ice met the wall of fire.
Voldemort, furious at being thwarted, channeled his anger at the boy, and the white-blue ring began to constrict, threatening to close down around Harry.
Spitting and hissing sounds sprang up in intensity as the circle hit the barrier of magic flame.
Harry was trembling all over now with the effort to keep the ring away. His breathing was ragged, and he felt the ground begin to sway as he became light-headed from massive exertion. He felt the temperature drop alarmingly in the air around him as the circle closed, and he put everything he had left into holding the fire as he staggered and dropped to one knee. Sounds of hissing, and screeching, and roaring became one loud rushing sound, and the last thing that Harry knew, everything went very quiet and black as he fell to the ground.
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Whether it was late morning, or early in the afternoon, Sirius Black didn't know. He'd lost track of time as the hours had worn away as he paced, and then sat, and then paced some more next to the bedside of his unmoving godson.
Harry had been unconscious, and unresponsive since last evening when they'd seen him collapse in the dirt in front of Voldemort. Sirius knew that Harry must have put everything he had into defending himself from the Dark Lord, and shuddered to think that it might not have been enough if he hadn't arrived the moment the flames died and Harry sank to the ground.
Although, truth be told, the blue ring closing around the boy had flashed brightly and winked out at the same instant.
Sirius had witnessed Voldemort standing there, nearly beside himself with rage at being thwarted by the boy's defenses, but he never had a chance to renew an attack thanks to the arrival of himself, Remus, Lorien, Draco, Beska, and Snape, who had all seen the enormous cloud of steam rising not far off in the distance and rushed to Harry's aid.
The winded dark wizard might have taken them on, but the arrival of the Red Witch, accompanied by Dumbledore himself, as well as six Aurors had prompted Voldemort to disapparate rather than face those odds in his tired state.
Sirius got up and went to the window of the room in Perth Taber's house to stare out for the sixth or seventh time, gazing at the garden outside that looked so peaceful and inviting as he blamed himself again for letting Harry get into trouble.
"Huh! Some godfather I am," he scolded himself angrily.
"You're a great godfather." A weak voice from the bed behind him.
Sirius spun around, and crossed quickly to drop into the chair at Harry's bedside, and placed his hand on the teenager's arm.
"Thank Merlin! I didn't know if you were ever going to open your eyes," Sirius said, still looking at Harry in a very worried way.
"That would make two of us," Harry replied, managing a tiny smile. The smile was replaced with a look of concern as he glanced around the room and realized where he was.
"Is Perth....?" He asked tentatively, looking worried.
"He's going to be fine," Sirius answered. "Lorien and Beska have been looking after him all night."
Harry frowned for a moment in concentration. He remembered nothing after the struggle with fire and ice spells. "Sirius? What happened? I mean, all I remember is the fire, and the blue ring...."
"I should be asking you that same question," Sirius replied, watching the teenager carefully.
Harry looked at Sirius for a long moment, and then heaved a great sigh and related the events leading up to Taber's confrontation with Voldemort, and then his.
"That is quite a story, Harry."
The voice was not Sirius's and it drew Harry's attention to the doorway where he found himself looking at Dumbledore.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed weakly, trying to sit up a little. "When...?" Harry was too tired to sit all the way up and sank back against the pillow as Dumbledore crossed the room.
"Last night, Harry," Dumbledore answered softly. "I came as soon as I got word from the Red Witch that there was a possibility that Voldemort was on Harris Island."
Dumbledore moved across the room to stand on the opposite side of Harry's bed from where Sirius was, and peered at Harry closely. "How do you feel, Harry?"
"Um, ok." Harry answered. "Pretty tired, actually."
"Not surprising." Dumbledore smiled behind his half moon glasses. "My guess is that you're beginning to become a bit of an annoyance to Voldemort by this point, Harry."
Harry smiled at Dumbledore's humor. "You think?"
Dumbledore sobered a little and spoke again. "It looks as though all those lessons with Mistress Lorien paid off last night, Harry, although I didn't realize that you'd come quite so far with your abilities," the headmaster said.
"Neither did I," Sirius admitted. "I'll be sure to thank Lorien again for spending so much time with you. She worked you pretty hard in your defenses."
Harry's brow knitted a little. "Yes, but the odd thing is, the only fire spells she taught me were offensive spells," he admitted.
"What prompted you to come up with a fire defense, then Harry?" Sirius asked.
"It was the feather," Harry answered. "It burst into flames right after Voldemort destroyed my wand, and it gave me the idea."
Dumbledore actually looked a little surprised. "You say that Voldemort actually destroyed your wand, Harry?"
Harry nodded. "He snapped it in half. I saw the pieces on the ground along with the feather inside from Fawkes."
"Interesting," Dumbledore said, almost to himself.
"What is it?" Sirius asked, seeing the look in the headmaster's eyes.
"Well, it's just that I wanted to give this back to Harry when he woke up." He held out his hand, where Harry's wand rested on his palm.
Harry's eyes went wide. "You fixed it?" He asked incredulously, taking the wand and looking it over.
"No, Harry," Dumbledore chuckled. "It would have been quite something even for Ollivander himself to repair a wand broken by Voldemort."
"But, I SAW it," Harry insisted. "It was in half on the ground. The feather went up in flames..." Harry paused in mid-sentence as the answer hit him, and he looked up at the headmaster, who was watching him carefully.
"That's it, isn't it?" Harry asked. "The phoenix feather."
Dumbledore nodded. "I believe so, Harry. From what I gather about last night's events, evidently your wand re-emerged from the fire started by the phoenix feather... intact."
"If I understand what you two are saying," Sirius said, "it's unlikely that Harry's wand can be destroyed."
"At least by conventional methods," Dumbledore agreed.
Harry spoke up again quietly. "Then that means that it's unlikely that Voldemort's wand can be destroyed."
Dumbledore nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so, Harry, but you've had enough to worry about this last day. Sleep, now."
Harry was about to protest that he was fine, when he realized just how exhausted he was after his ordeal, and with the headmaster and his godfather watching over him, he drifted off again into a deep sleep.
*
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*
It was the next morning when Harry woke again at last. He remember waking once briefly during the night to get up to go to the bathroom, and he had checked his wand on the night stand again to make sure that he hadn't dreamed his conversation with Dumbledore.
He was looking at his wand again when he heard Lorien come into the room.
"Oh good, you're awake," she said, coming to stand by his bedside and scrutinizing him. "How do you feel today?"
"Better," Harry replied. "Hungry, actually."
"Well, then you'll probably want to get down and have some breakfast before your godfather finishes it all off," she said with a smile. "Before you go," she said as Harry started to push the covers off himself, "there's someone that would like a word with you."
Harry looked at the door to see Perth Taber standing there, smiling at him.
"Perth!" Harry cried, thrilled to see the Nemorosi mage up and about again.
Taber crossed to the bedside, walking with a bit of a limp that Harry noticed. "Alright there, Harry?"
"Yes, I'm doing fine, Sir," Harry answered.
"Good." Taber paused for a moment, and looked at Lorien and then back at Harry. "What you did the other night was amazing, Harry. I've rarely met anyone so young with so much raw talent, not to mention I've rarely met anyone that I thought could stand against Voldemort."
Harry knew that what Taber was saying was true, but he still felt his face getting warm as he reddened.
"Lorien and I have been talking," Taber continued, "and we both agree that you should take your training further. I'd like to offer for you to come and stay for the summer to study wandless magic. I'd oversee your lessons, as would Fagan LaRue, herself."
"Seriously?" Harry asked.
Taber nodded, as did Lorien behind him.
"Wicked!" Harry cried, leaping out of the bed.
"Now, Harry, before you go getting all excited," Lorien cautioned him, "I've already spoken with Sirius, and he and the headmaster both agree that you should...."
"I know, I know," Harry said, rolling his eyes a little. "I have to go back to the Dursleys for at least part of the summer."
"I'm afraid so," Lorien said with an apologetic smile, "but not the whole summer."
"Thank Merlin!" Harry exclaimed with exasperation, but he was already beginning to smile. After all the summers he had spent at the Dursleys' with nothing more to look forward to but September 1st, putting up with Dudley for a month in order to get to study wandless magic for the rest of the summer would be a piece of cake, he was sure.
Speaking of cake, Harry realized he was starving, and after thanking the Nemorosi Elder, bounded happily down the stairs to join his godfather at breakfast.
Lorien looked at Perth after Harry left the room. "Well, it should be an interesting summer around here, don't you think?"
Taber smiled and walked with her to the door. "That it will, my dear, and by the time Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, I'm willing to bet that it's going to be an even more interesting fall."
*
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A/N: One more chapter to tidy things up a bit....
