Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER TWO – Understanding
"So tell me Fawkes, now that we can converse, should I be worried I will lose my favorite companion?"
Fawkes seemed to smile. "No Albus. I've stood by and accepted you long ago for exactly who you are. My friends or brothers will never affect us in that way. Though I am a little disappointed that you even have that small fear."
"Well, as you can tell you've assuaged it plenty with your response. So how did you and Harry do that anyway? I've never heard of anything like it. I'm definitely jealous and curious why we never did something similar."
Fawkes laughed, "I suppose it's because even I still don't know what we did. He merely informed me that we were compatible and wanted to try. I don't know if I could do that with anyone else, even if I did want to, and actually knew how. And from what I saw of his magic, I'm not too sure it would be possible with anyone else. His magic was different."
"Different? What do you mean?"
"It seemed more refined. Maybe more integrated within himself. It's not exactly easy to explain, but it wasn't the same as any other wizard's magic I would assume. And before you ask, yes his core was as big as yours. Maybe a little bigger."
"Ah now, size isn't everything. Now what's this about crapping in my lemon drops?"
"Hey there's someone in your fireplace!"
Albus grudgingly turned around and heard the telltale fwoosh of phoenix fire travel behind him. He could only laugh at his companion's playfulness.
The Order had gathered in the Headmaster's office. Some were hoping Harry Potter would be there, but the majority of them were glad he wasn't.
"Do we have any issues or reports to discuss before we get into Harry Potter and his future?"
Severus Snape spoke up, "The Dark Lord has informed all of his Death Eaters to try and leave Harry Potter alone. If I didn't know better I would think he's intimidated by him."
A few of the more vocal detractors of Harry's voiced their assurances he was no doubt on his way to being Dark. Most didn't think he would join Voldemort, but perhaps become the new Voldemort.
"Silence please. Is there anything not Mr. Potter related we need to address?"
No one said a thing. It seemed they were all eager to get into the meat of tonight's main topic.
"Very well. In that case, Severus, I must concur. I suspect Tom is very intimidated by Mr. Potter. I certainly was."
Several gasps could be heard. It seemed Albus still had to fight the occasional appearance of infallibility.
"Please! Before any of you jump to conclusions, please allow me to relate the events of this afternoon.
"I arrived at Mr. Potter's cell and found him in quite good physical and mental condition. It appears he had developed immunity to the Dementors effects after just two years." Many people looked frightened and awed at this. This was not a good sign.
"I can see fear in many people's eyes, and let me put them to rest immediately. In my opinion, Harry holds no ill will towards any of us. He is not evil or turning dark as we like to call it. He is quite indifferent towards all of us. But he is extremely skilled in magic and were anyone to attempt to attack him, I have no doubt he could defend himself most likely quite forcefully."
Ron Weasley exclaimed "What! How is that possible? He was in prison. You cannot just learn and practice new magic in prison."
"As far as I can tell, he can, even if none of us could."
Severus narrowed his eyes "What makes you come to these conclusions?"
"Well, for example, I never let him out of his cell. After a brief greeting with me, he snapped his fingers and his entire front cell wall and door disappeared. It is almost disturbing that he could have escaped at any time but instead chose to serve his complete sentence."
Molly Weasley yelled out "He's dangerous! No doubt using some dark magic in Azkaban."
Albus shook his head. "No, he cannot be too dark. Fawkes immediately connected with him, and they did something with each other. Harry was then able to turn into a phoenix as well as be reborn it appears."
Hermione Weasley nee Granger shook her head and spoke up "That shouldn't be possible for a dozen different reasons. What sort of magic was it?"
Albus was chuckling, "well, it was a new one to both me and Fawkes. And oh yes, thanks to Harry, I can now converse openly with Fawkes."
There were several minor discussions going on about how it sounded evil, but a phoenix submitted and shared with him, and if he could turn into one of the most light creatures, then he couldn't really be evil, could he?
"I will admit Harry seems to have a much closer connection to magic than I thought possible. And he has no respect for many of our rules about magic."
"What do you mean?" Harry's inquisitive bushy-haired former friend asked.
"Well he took my hand and apparated the both of us straight through Hogwarts wards. He then had a private discussion with Hogwarts."
Many members did not like the sound of this one bit. An extremely powerful young man with every reason in the world to be angry at just about everyone.
"I see you are all getting more worried. Let me assure you I do not believe Harry to be any threat to us or our way of life. But I do not see us getting much assistance from him either."
Tonks was heard muttering "Now that's a surprise." Ron seemed to turn his anger in a different direction "That coward! Why won't he help us? Surely he wants to see Voldemort dead as much as we do."
"No he appears to hold no ill will towards Tom anymore. I think he's just going to ignore us. He claims he has no friends alive and that his parents would want him happy. Not fighting what he called our war. I believe he intends to disappear from the wizarding world."
"He's really not going to fight?" Hermione asked.
"No. In my best estimation, he cares for magic, and he cares for most magical creatures and species, but he has no interest or respect for humanity or specifically wizards and witches. I am disappointed but I cannot blame him."
Ron spoke up, "So let's get Voldemort to annihilate some race like centaurs or something."
A number of people were outraged by that suggestion but there were a few considering it.
Albus frowned and narrowed his eyes. "I would never condone any attempts to attack others like that. And for what its worth I suspect Harry would see straight through that subterfuge and we truly would have him as an enemy. I think we must respect his wishes and leave him be."
Tonks asked a question that she knew would get an ugly response. "Do you think he will ever forgive us? Or at least understand why he went to prison?" Many members were appalled that she would want forgiveness from him, when everything Harry got he brought onto himself.
"I think he does understand why he went to prison. And he merely disagrees with our system. He respected our laws enough to serve his full sentence rather than do what many would have expected him to do and break out and leave forever then."
Albus listened to many members further arguing about what to do about Harry Potter and whether he should be forced to help, locked back up, or apologized to. Seeing firsthand just how little respect they had for another's free will, Albus found himself sympathizing more and more with Harry. And it seemed no one else realized just how badly they had messed up with regards to him.
Severus was studying Albus intently. "Headmaster, do you believe the prophecy has not been fulfilled and is a true one?"
Albus had a frown on his face. "I never had as much faith in it as Tom did, but for that reason alone we had to respect it. For our sake, I hope it is not the only prophecy. There could have been newer ones negating it since for all we know. And even still there are too many ways to interpret this one even if you do believe in it. It may not refer to Harry, or even to this Dark Lord. Or it may not be a true prophecy. Or it could be true and Harry will have a change of heart. Or perhaps we could incite Tom into attacking Harry and force the two of them to fulfill it. I fear for our sake if we did that though. I have no doubt Harry's ire would be directed at us if he discovered we had anything to do with that. And quite frankly I'd put our odds better against Tom than Harry."
Severus didn't like the sound of that. It seemed the Dark Lord felt the same way towards Harry. Severus had a sinking feeling that neither of the two sides he served would emerge victorious or at least remain victorious for very long.
Tonks seemed one of the most sympathetic towards Harry and asked "So what's he going to do? Should we be keeping close tabs on him?"
"I believe we wouldn't be able to keep on tabs on him, if he wished to prevent us. He left this afternoon and took his friend Dobby and traveled away by phoenix fire. I'm not sure where they went but I heard that he was seen at Gringotts today."
"He's got a friend? I thought he didn't care for anyone?"
"He doesn't care for any wizards and witches as far as I can tell. Dobby is a house elf."
Bill Weasley spoke up. "I heard some rumors about him coming by Gringotts. One of them was that he was speaking fluent Gobbledegook with the goblins. I thought them completely ridiculous at the time but now I'm not so sure."
"From what I've seen that seems very possible. He was quite capable of communicating with Hogwarts as well as Fawkes even before they became brothers of some sort. It appears as though anything magical will have an affinity towards Mr. Potter."
"Do you think we are in danger if he's got some control over the castle? Should we still even be meeting here?"
"No I don't think we are in danger from him. The only danger we have is if we keep assuming he is our enemy and treating him as such. To be honest, I think he may help to defend the castle if she were attacked. That is not to say he would defend its inhabitants, but merely Hogwarts herself.
"For now, I want all of you to recognize the immense power he wields and respect it. We do not wish to make an enemy out of him. I firmly believe he would prefer not to make us his enemies, but that if we force his hand he will show us little mercy."
"So basically the same as the Death Eaters?" Severus snidely put in.
Albus nodded. "Exactly. Because as of now, from Harry's point of view, we are no different than they are. Fawkes related it as if he thinks of me as a kinder, gentler Voldemort." Many people gasped at the comparison.
"Not the most favorable comparison I've received, but we should take solace in the fact that we do in fact have a semi-clean slate as far as he's concerned. We just never may have his trust, confidence, or assistance ever again."
The meeting adjourned, some of the members left, while others remained and continued to argue about Harry Potter. Almost everyone was happy to leave him alone and many hoped to never hear from him again.
Tonks approached the Headmaster. "Sir, do you think leaving him alone is the best thing for Harry? I mean in terms of his own personal health and mental condition."
"No, Miss Tonks, I do not. But I feel I have wronged him too many times already and doing anything other than respecting his wishes exactly as he requests would be just another mistake to add to the list."
"I feel rotten about this whole thing, sir. He never should have gone to prison. I know you said it would be necessary to derail him from the path to the dark, but I'm not sure that's enough reasoning for me. Do you think we made a mistake in not breaking him out or fighting harder for his freedom? Fudge has been dead for over three years, and we never even brought it up to Minister Diggory."
"After this afternoon, yes I think sending him to prison was a mistake. It took him a mere hour or so to have me completely convinced it was not possible for him to turn evil. His ethics and sense of justice are too strong. To be honest, I think it is us who are going to suffer most for imprisoning him. And as horrible as it sounds, I suspect getting him out three years ago would have made little difference. I think his mind has been made up for many years now."
"Do you think he'd be upset if I sent him a letter? I would like to at least talk to him myself."
"I'm not sure whether that would be a good idea or not. He probably thinks he doesn't want to hear from any of us. But I suspect if you're open and honest with him, he will be courteous and honest in return. Though you can expect the same amount of warmth and generosity you get from a goblin teller at Gringotts."
"Thank you sir. I think he'll be glad to receive this owl."
