Harry sat alone in a waiting room while Hermione, Ron and Ginny visited the Grangers in their private hospital room at St. Mungo's. Harry rather detested hospital rooms owing to the fact that he spent an excess of time in them. He had only visited for a few moments.
He picked up a Daily Prophet which had just been dropped on the table by a passing doctor. Harry scanned the front page at the screaming articles.
Ministry cover-ups, scandal with the office of the Minister, Fudge lied, and Muggle Attacks. Harry sighed. Just what the wizarding world needed at this precise moment. Chaos. Dumbledore was right. Harry would not be surprised if Fudge was ousted from office before the end of the week, if not sooner.
Harry waved to Arthur Weasley who had dropped in early to say hello. Mr. Weasley approached and sat next to Harry. "Well Harry, you've done it again!"
Shrugging uncomfortably Harry replied, "I do what I can."
"That's certainly more than the rest of us are able to do Harry," Mr. Weasley said.
"I see that there's some trouble at the Ministry," Harry said, trying to steer the subject away from the incident.
Mr. Weasley nodded sadly. "Yes, a great deal of trouble. Those attacks should have never happened. Unfortunately for the Ministry, the public knows and understands that all too well."
"What went wrong?" Harry asked.
"A great deal of things." Mr. Weasley answered. "It's no one's fault directly. For example, if one person had done something a little more right then it wouldn't have happened. But, what the person did wasn't all that wrong. It's hard to explain."
Harry nodded understanding perfectly. "They're blaming Fudge though."
Mr. Weasley thought for a moment. "Yes, they are. Ultimately the responsibility is his. I think that if he had listened to Dumbledore after the Tournament we would be a lot better off."
"How are Hermione's parents doing?" Harry inquired.
"They're doing fine Harry. No permanent harm fortunately. I have to run now. They scheduled a last minute meeting about this mess. Department heads and other officials mostly. Unfortunately they know that I was in with Dumbledore and was working against You-Know-Who from the start. That qualifies me for the meeting I suppose."
"What are they going to talk about?" Harry questioned.
Mr. Weasley shrugged. "I don't know. The current crisis supposedly." He stood up and said good-bye before leaving Harry once again, alone in the waiting room.
About a half-hour later Ron, Hermione, and Ginny came down the hall. "How are they?" Harry asked Hermione.
"They're doing great," Hermione replied. "The doctor says that they'll be out of here in practically no time at all."
"That's good news," Harry said as he replaced the newspaper on the table. He stood up. "Let's get back to Hogwarts then."
* * * * * * *
About a week later Harry quickly and effortlessly took roll for Professor Lupin's class. All the students were in his year after all. It was the time of the month for Lupin and he was feeling ill. While Lupin was sick, it was Harry's job to substitute. He was able to miss classes for it because he was well ahead in them all.
As he picked up a stack of quizzes Harry addressed them. "As most of you know, Professor Lupin is sometimes ill. While he's away, he as arranged for you all to take a quiz on everything you've learned so far."
"Is that because he doesn't think you can teach?" came Malfoy's snide voice.
Keeping his calm Harry answered cooly as he distributed the quizzes, "It's because he thinks I don't k now how to teach pre-school magic to some of the students in this class. That'll also be five points from Slytherin."
Harry noted Ron restraining himself from laughing out loud. "You may now begin."
Harry walked back to the desk and pulled a heavy book from his bag. He had finally found a book that could enlighten him about magical artifact domination.
One of the most popular methods of Dark magic forcefully dominating magical objects in the use of sister-objects. The best example that can be referred to is King Arthur's sword, Excalibur. At some point during King Arthur's reign, the evil sorcerer Milanel attempted to turn Arthur's sword to him. Normally he wouldn't have stood a chance. However, he had the broken sword of Gomalaan, Excalibur's sister. Although Gomalaan's power was broken, it was still related to Excalibur. Milanel attempted to dominate Excalibur by channeling his power into the broken Gomalaan and then onto Excalibur. Excalibur was unable to defend itself due to the fact that it could not exert massive amounts of power without being wielded by a magical being. Milanel's attempt was brought to an end when Arthur came and took up Excalibur. Milanel was captured, tried, and executed. He could have perhaps escaped if he had been a strong sorcerer. The remains of the broken sword Gomalaan were also destroyed forever.
Harry frowned deeply. This proved that Nosyl Sharod's sister-staff was in danger. No matter how it had hid itself, it could not fight Voldemort. Harry sighed and leaned back. He now knew what and how. Now they needed to know about Lord Seilftrist and where the staff was hidden.
The bell rang and Harry collected the quizzes as everyone walked out the door. "You did great Harry!" Ron congratulated Harry as he turned in his quiz.
"All I did was give a quiz," Harry replied.
"Not that, Malfoy." Ron said grinning.
Harry laughed while Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'll meet you down at the Great Hall. I just need to clean up quickly and close the classroom."
Ron and Hermione smiled and promised they would save a seat before leaving. Harry quickly stacked the quizzes on the desk and closed up the classroom. He didn't want to be late for the Halloween Feast.
On his way down to the Great Hall he was cornered by Ginny. "Harry! I tracked down that stuff about High Lord of Phoenix."
Harry blushed. The title really embarrassed him. What would Ron and Hermione think. "Oh that's nice. . . What about it?"
"Don't worry Harry, I won't spread it around," Ginny reassured him as they continued to walk to the Great Hall. She had correctly read the look on his face.
Harry smiled happily. "That's great. What did you find out?"
"There was not actually anything about High Lords of Phoenix. However, I did find loads about Lords of Phoenix. I figured that it was close enough."
Harry nodded in agreement. "Sure, why not?"
"First, Lords of Phoenix are tremendously powerful. You can throw the part about you being a mage out the window Harry. Lords of Phoenix are about ten times more powerful than any mage. Since you're a High Lord that probably means you are more powerful than that." Ginny proceeded to explain.
"Is that all there is to it?" Harry inquired.
"Not at all," Ginny replied. "It can wait until after the feast though. I have prefect guard duty tonight and tomorrow is a Saturday. Therefore you can afford to stay up and listen to me."
"Shouldn't you be patrolling instead of lecturing me?" Harry pointed out.
"That's what the Marauders Map is for," Ginny replied mischievously.
* * * * * * *
It was nearly midnight and Harry sat in his dim office while Ginny continued to explain about what she had found out about Lords of Phoenix. Everyone once in a while one of them would glance at the Marauders Map to check for students who were out of bed.
"Lords of Phoenix have a great amount of responsibility. Whenever they turn up, they usually find themselves in leadership positions. These positions are not very cushy at all because they usually turn up during Dark times." Ginny lectured.
"Aren't there any Ladies of Phoenix?" Harry asked tiredly.
"Of course there are Harry. I just always assumed you were a boy. . ." Ginny said impishly.
Harry coughed uncomfortably. "I didn't mean it that way. I just wondered. . ."
"I know what you meant," Ginny said cutting him off. "A woman becomes a Lady of Phoenix by marrying a Lord of Phoenix. Or, they're both born as Phoenix nobility and then are attracted to each other."
"Oh, so that means that there can be more than one Lord or Lady at the same time?"
"It seems so," Ginny answered slowly. "The more perilous the time the more Lords and Ladies of Phoenix born."
Harry gave a sigh of relief. "It wouldn't be fun to be a Lord of Phoenix alone I think."
"Don't worry about that," Ginny said. "The book mentioned a few Lords of Phoenix. Professor Dumbledore is one. Not exactly something that gets spread about though. In all likelihood, no one else knows."
Harry thought carefully for a moment. "Didn't you say that Phoenix nobility is attracted to each other?"
"Yes. . ." Ginny replied.
"That means that Ron, Hermione and you could be Lord and Ladies of Phoenix as well! Is there a way to test if they're a genuine Lord or Lady?"
Ginny laughed. "You just brought up what I was going to talk about next. You need to have someone perform the spell on you because the test subject can't see the results. We'll do it after we finish going over everything. The charm is 'phoenixius.'"
"Is there anything else about this?"
"Of course," Ginny said. "There's loads to go over. We probably don't have enough time though. Supposedly when a Lord of Phoenix's life ends, he sort of goes to a different realm or place. There, they just enjoy life and come back once in a while to lend a helping hand to the living. That means that if things get too bad you have an army of very powerful beings to help you fight."
"That's interesting," Harry mused. "Anything else?"
"Yes, but I think you might as well just read the rest yourself," Ginny said. "I think we should do the charm now to check." She pulled out her wand and pointed it towards Harry. "Phoenixius!"
Ginny stared at Harry for several moments while Harry tried to look at himself. "Well? What happened?"
"The book said to expect a faint red and gold aura from a Lord of Phoenix. You had a spectacular aura of sapphire blue and gold." Ginny said in awe. "I think it means that you're a High Lord of Phoenix. Not just a Lord of Phoenix."
Harry shrugged uncomfortably and looked down at the Marauders Map. "Ginny! Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle are in the Restricted Section."
Ginny stole a glance at the map. "Uh-oh. I think we need to do something about this. I doubt that they're snogging."