Disclaimer: Not mine.

Phoenix stands

Chapter Three

By Felflowne aka Espion

Elly looked between them.

'D-Do you two know each other?'

Malfoy didn't say anything, so Harry supplied, 'yeah, we were at school together.'

His mind was reeling. Malfoy? Malfoy, here? In Phoenix? It made no sense whatsoever.

Elly turned to Malfoy again.

'Harry…' she turned back, 'can I call you Harry?'

He nodded.

She turned back again.

'Harry's been really nice to me and Tom,' she said, 'and the red haired girl, is it… Ginny?'

Harry nodded again.

Her face hardened.

'But all the others…'

'Cool it,' said Malfoy, 'we've been through this.'

She fell silent.

Harry felt very awkward, but then she spoke again.

'Being afraid to go outside is something I expect of Dox, not Phoenix.'

Harry felt anger rise up inside him, but to his surprise Malfoy spoke again.

'Ahh, so you'd rather go back?'

She gasped, and Tom whined.

'No! How could you even suggest that?'

'Well then,' he said, 'be grateful that you're here.'

'Fine,' she said in a small voice, 'I'm staying with Ginny at the moment, if you want to see me.'

She grasped Tom's hand and walked out of the tent, leaving Harry and Malfoy alone.

Harry really didn't know what to say.

'Are you going to tell me about Phoenix then?' There was a hint of the familiar sneer.

'Malfoy, what the hell are you doing here?' Harry took a few more steps forward.

The young man sighed a little.

'D'you really want to know the whole story?'

'Better to tell it to me, who'll listen, than to the mob which'll appear when they realise who you are,' Harry said shortly, crossing his arms.

Malfoy struggled a little, and managed to raise himself onto his elbows.

'I guess,' he said, 'all right. As soon as I got to Dox I realised that I'd made a terrible mistake, even though Dad had decided for me. I stayed there for a year and saw more horrible things than I hope anyone here will ever see. Then my father displeased someone high-ranking. They killed him, and threw me in with the prisoners.'

'Where had you been before?' snapped Harry.

'Locked in my father's room mostly. Dad knew that he couldn't trust me not to ruin everything, but he couldn't bring himself to turn me in. When he was killed, I was found and thrown with the rest.'

He paused, rubbing his face absentmindedly.

'Then what, oh yes. I met Elly. She was plotting to escape, and we had a plan half formed when her mother intervened. We were dragged before a kind of high council. They killed half of us, and cursed the rest.'

'But Elly's not cursed,' Harry interrupted.

'No,' Malfoy agreed, but continued, 'so we had to pretty much crawl back to our holding area. I have to admit, I was all for giving up, but Elly persuaded me. Together, we got everyone and stormed one of the walls.'

'Did that work?'

'Depends what you mean,' Malfoy replied dully. 'I'm here talking to you, so on some level, it must have.'

'But…' Harry prompted.

'But only twenty-three of us survived the first wave. We ran for the valley. They picked us off leisurely. When we reached the treeline, there were only ten of us, then six, then three.'

'You, Elly and Tom.'

'That's right. And they sent the Dark storm to finish us off.'

He looked up.

'Did you drive it away?'

Harry nodded. 'We did. We used a mass Patronus Charm.'

'Yeah…' said the young man tiredly, '… I can see how that would work.'

Feeling brave, Harry hazarded, 'you've changed.'

Malfoy smirked.

'Disappointed?'

'No, not at all,' Harry was surprised to hear himself saying. Malfoy lay back down, falling heavily despite his efforts to keep the movement smooth.

'I'll… leave you then,' Harry said jerkily, turning around.

'All right,' he heard the reply. He turned. Malfoy looked like he'd K.O.ed again. That curse was a bitch.

Harry stepped out of the tent, to be met by Neville.

'Oh, hi Harry,' he said, 'is he awake?'

'Yeah…' Harry said. Should he tell Neville?

But Neville made that decision for him.

'Oh, great. Sorry, though, really busy, got to go.' He trotted away, leaving Harry a little relieved.

He started to walk. He really didn't want to tell anyone that the newest arrival in Phoenix was Draco Malfoy. It would go down like a lead balloon. But why didn't he want to? Surely, after the way the guy had behaved in all their memories, a little hardship would be well deserved. Was he holding out for the man's own sake? That didn't fit.

**

The next day, Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey that he was feeling well enough, so she let him out of her tent with a wave.

'Oh, dear? You said you were an old student!' She said, smiling warmly. 'I do like to keep track. What was your name?'

'Draco Malfoy,' he replied, turning. She blinked.

'Really?' Was all she said.

He nodded, thanked her, and walked away

**

'Ginny?'

The woman looked up.

Elly was standing in her doorway.

'This may seem like a stupid question, but is there a library here?'

Ginny nodded.

'Neville runs it.'

'Neville?'

'Yes,' said Ginny, and then without thinking, added, 'Neville Longbottom.'

'Oh…' Ginny looked up and saw the woman's face fall.

'It doesn't matter, thanks,' she said, beginning to back out again.

'Wait! Elly!' Ginny strode quickly to the door flap, but the girl was already gone.

**

Harry spotted her immediately, just by the way people shrank away from her. She began to run.

He followed her.

**

Elly just wanted to get as far away from Phoenix as she could. What had she been thinking? No one would ever accept her here.

She tripped on a root and lay still, allowing Harry to catch up a little, but he turned sharply when he realised that he wasn't the only one who'd been following her.

**

'Just where exactly are you going?'

She glared up at him, looking down at her.

'Just away from this awful place.'

Malfoy sat down beside her.

'Tom doesn't seem to think it's so awful,' he said mildly, 'I saw him playing with some local kids.'

He glanced up.

'Are you escaping too, Potter?'

'No,' said Harry coldly, 'I wanted to see if she was all right.'

He expected a comeback, but none came.

Instead, Malfoy turned to Elly, who had folded her arms and was staring mulishly at the ground.

'I give in, Elly, you're right. What kind of scum would track down a woman in distress through dense woodland to see if she was all right?'

Elly didn't look up.

'You did.'

'I didn't, actually,' Malfoy said, 'I just happened to be sitting over there. Potter followed you.'

Elly looked up.

'Sorry, Harry,' she said, 'but the others, they all hate me.'

Malfoy glanced at him.

'A little help?' he said wearily. Harry sat down on the other side of her.

'Malfoy's right,' Harry said eventually, 'they'll come around, it's just hard for them.'

Elly laughed a bit.

'Whenever I couldn't handle life at home, I always used to read,' she said sadly, 'so I thought maybe that would help.'

'Oh…' said Harry, making the connection.

'What?' Malfoy asked, looking at him.

'Neville runs the library,' he said simply.

'Oh,' said Malfoy, 'I see.'

'So I can't even go there and get a book,' Elly said.

'Why not?' Malfoy asked.

They both looked at him.

'What d'you mean?!' cried Elly incredulously, 'my mother tortured his parents into insanity!'

'But you didn't,' Malfoy said.

'It doesn't matter,' Elly said thickly, and Harry watched as a tear slid down her face and splashed on the earth below.

'Neville's a really nice guy,' Harry said quietly, 'he'll understand.'

'You think so? Really? That's not the impression I've been getting off of everyone else here.'

'I'll come with you,' Harry said kindly. 'I'm sorry you've had a rough time. You really don't deserve it.'

'In a way, I do,' she said sadly. 'When I was younger, I really wasn't very nice. Well, let's not mince words, I was a bitch. My mother had told me that Slytherin house was superior to all the other houses and I should act accordingly.'

Malfoy nodded.

'My dad told me the same thing.'

Harry growled.

'But you didn't have to do as they told you!'

'I enjoyed it,' Elly said shamefully, 'and Mother egged me on. She was delighted.'

Harry looked at her, his gaze a little colder.

He glanced at Malfoy, who was arranging twigs into a little mound on the forest floor.

'Tell him about the horses,' he said, without looking up.

'Yes…' Elly's eyes threatened to spill over with tears again as she began to speak. 'At home… We had a very big house… I had two horses. I loved them to bits, and I could never bear to see them suffer in any way. I went out of my way to see that they ate before I did, that they were warm enough… Well, you understand.'

She paused and sniffed.

'Then, just one day, in my fourth year, I suddenly realised that it didn't make any sense. It was like I was two people. The kind person I was when I was with my animals, and the cold aloof cow I was at school. I decided to just try being nice to people.'

She laughed croakily.

'Pathetic, isn't it? But I found that I enjoyed it, even if the other Slytherins shunned me. I started to hang out with a gang of Ravenclaws, and they accepted me. I was happy.'

'Then what?' said Malfoy, although Harry was sure that it was for his own benefit, as he got the feeling that Malfoy had heard this story before.

'Then my mother found out,' Elly whispered, 'she found out that I was good friends with a group of people who weren't from my house. Even worse, most of them weren't pure-blood.'

She was trembling now. Harry watched as Malfoy glanced at her worriedly.

'Elly, you don't have to tell me,' Harry said quickly, and Malfoy flashed him a glance in which Harry could recognise gratitude.

'No… I will… But if you don't want to hear it…' She waved her hand frantically, 'or if it's boring…'

She looked so distraught that Harry conceded.

'I want to hear it,' he said quietly. She began again.

'She said that she wanted to meet all my new friends. I was suspicious, but she was so sweet that I gave in. I should have… I should never…'

She began to actually cry, tears running down her face.

'It was my fault! She killed them all! It was my fault!' She wailed.

Harry felt the hairs on his neck prickle. Elly suddenly turned towards Malfoy and fell against him, sobbing openly.

He awkwardly put an arm over her.

'C'mon,' he said gently, 'he wants to know. He'll listen… c'mon Elly…'

Harry was absolutely dumbstruck. He might have looked the same, but other than that this man bore no resemblance to the Draco Malfoy he remembered at all.

Elly clutched at him, her sobs dying down.

'I'm sorry,' she said quietly, 'but they were my friends. After she killed them, she turned to me. She told me that she was going to teach me a lesson, as if killing all my friends wasn't enough. She walked past me and out into the courtyard.'

Elly sniffed.

'I knew what she was going to do, and I couldn't do anything about it. She came back in, and just looked at me, sitting on the floor crying, with all my friends dead around me, and said, "You'll know better next time, won't you?" then she walked out.'

'What had she done?' Harry asked, morbid curiosity filling him.

'She killed my horses,' Elly said.

'But why?' Harry cried.

'Because she didn't understand me,' Elly said dully, 'she killed my friends because she thought it was their fault I was turning away from her. Death was their punishment, and my horses' death was mine.'

She sighed heavily.

'When the Dark Lord returned, he took my mother. She had pleased him. She threw me into the prisoners' camp.'

'Elly?' Harry asked suddenly, 'who's Tom's father?'

'Harry, no!' said Malfoy sharply.

'No, it's all right,' said Elly.

Malfoy looked unhappy.

'A lot of the prisoners were ex-inmates of Azkaban,' Elly said flatly, 'the ones that were insane and therefore no use whatsoever. They prowled around like predators at night.'

'You weren't…'

Elly shrugged.

'That's how I met him,' she said, nodding towards Malfoy, 'he found me after they'd run off.'

'Literally,' Malfoy added unexpectedly, 'I saw them running off, but I couldn't follow them.'

'Why not?'

'Because Elly was lying unconscious on the ground, and I wasn't going to run off and leave her. What if it happened again?'

'I had no idea Dox was so…' Harry cast around for a suitable word.

'It's hell,' Malfoy said, and Elly nodded fervently.

'Exactly,' she said, 'hell on Earth.'

For a while they all sat in silence.

'I heard about Phoenix from a batty old woman who was almost completely gone,' Malfoy said, letting Elly take a break.

'She told me, but I thought it was one of her fantasies, but then other people piped up about it as well.'

He stopped, and looked up at Harry.

'I've told you the rest.'

'Yeah,' Harry agreed.

There was a brief silence.

'Did you want to go to the library?' Harry asked Elly, who had now moved away from Malfoy, who was looking most relieved.

'Oh! Yes!' she cried, but then her face fell. 'But…'

'No 'but's!' Harry said, with as much fervour as he could manage, 'we'll go now!'

Elly got up, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

'I'm pathetic,' she apologised, 'I can't believe you listened to me ramble like that without going insane.'

'Don't be silly,' said Harry softly, 'how could you think that?'

Elly smiled gratefully at him and got up. She looked over her shoulder at Malfoy.

'Are you coming?'

'No, it's all right,' he said quietly, then seemed to change his mind, 'actually, OK. Maybe there'll be something about how to lift this curse.'

'Harry,' said Elly, suddenly gripping his arm tightly, 'if there's ever danger, we'll fight with all of you, if you'll let us.'

'Really?' said Harry, taken aback, 'but I thought you hated it here.'

'I do, at the moment,' Elly said, 'but I would never ever wish this place destroyed. It is a haven, no matter how sarcastically I might've said that before.'

Harry nodded, then looked over at Malfoy.

'What d'you think of it here?'

'This place is wonderful,' Malfoy said.

Elly turned to him.

'Really? Haven't people been really nasty to you at all?'

'He didn't ask that,' said Malfoy, getting up as well.

'So they have?'

'Yes, but I expected that,' Malfoy said, 'and that doesn't detract from Phoenix.'

'I see,' said Elly, although Harry could tell that she didn't at all.