Chapter 27 Phoenix Song
Corin and Laurea had been wandering around Hogsmeade for a couple of hours now. They had been to Honeydukes, where the two had bought all their normal favorite candies, some Fizzing Whizbees for the knealins, and a couple other sweets which they had never tried that looked interesting. They had also stopped off at Gladrags Wizardwear to look for costumes for the upcoming Halloween costume ball. The store had been completely packed with students as this and the next weekend were the only Hogsmeade visits left for students to get a costume. They had finally left deciding to write Aranel and Serie asking them to make them their costumes, as Gladrags had nothing near what they had in mind.
They had just entered The Three Boomsticks when they became aware of a commotion near the back to the room. Malfoy and several of his cronies were standing around the table where Ron, Hermione and several other Gryffindor sixth years were seated. Hermione and Seamus could be seen holding Ron in his seat, keeping him from starting a brawl. They could hear snippets of the conversation taking place.
"…probably insane. Who wouldn't be after four months surrounded by dementors? And what do you think he heard during all that time? You two, and everyone he ever loved…condemning him. He'll probably never forgive you, no matter how much you beg!" At this, all the Slytherins started laughing cruelly.
Corin's mouth had, by this time, compressed into a thin line. He could feel Laurea's worried looks, but paid them no mind as he made his way over to the table. It was his duty as a teacher to break this up, and besides, Malfoy's remarks had struck too close to home.
"Is there a problem over here?" his cold voice interrupted the laughter, and several students took a couple steps back at his tone.
Malfoy looked startled at his interference, then sneered. "No problem, professor." He spat the last word as if it was an insult.
Corin's eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise. So far there had been no complaints because of elves at Hogwarts, but he should have expected some of the purebloods to resent his presence eventually. "Your tone would suggest otherwise." He scanned the rest of the students, many of them had trouble meeting his eyes. "I believe all of you have gotten your drinks, so if you would gather your things and either find another table, as this one is full, or leave the bar. It is a pleasant day, and I would hate to have to send all of you back up to the castle over such a trivial matter."
There were a few grumbles, but most of the students followed his directions. The only exception being Malfoy, who looked revolted at the thought of following the directions of an elf. Crabbe and Goyle, seeing Malfoy not moving took their usual posts flanking him and looking tough and intimidating.
"Unable to follow directions Mr. Malfoy?"
"Not from the likes of you. You and your kind are the worst thing to ever happen to Hogwarts. Little better than house elves, and you presume to teach me? The Malfoy name dates back to the time of the founders. It's disgusting that Dumbledore forces us purebloods to learn under such filth!" As he finished his ranting, the pub had grown quiet. Most of the room was now glaring at the blond boy either because of his bad mouthing Dumbledore, or the elves of both. Corin himself was taking slow deep breaths, his narrowed eyes focused on Malfoy, trying to calm down enough in order to speak.
"You pride yourself on the legacy of your family name, yet I know elves who lived during the time of Merlin and who knew him well. It disgusts you that you must learn from someone less than pure of blood, yet Voldemort's Deatheaters bow before a halfblood. You may not like me or my kind Mr. Malfoy; but you will respect me and follow my directions, or you'll find yourself in detention for the next week. Now, back to the castle. Your Hogsmeade weekend is officially over."
"You can't do that! My father…"
"Is a known Deatheater and his no authority here. Back to the castle or your detentions will be two weeks instead of one."
"I'd like to see you give me a detention after today!" Malfoy muttered with a malevolent glare as he turned towards the door. But Corin's ears caught it and he swiftly reached out and stopped him before he could leave.
"What do you mean?" But Malfoy just stood there smirking, and a feeling of foreboding swept over him. "You know something, tell me!"
Finally Malfoy spoke, barely whispering, knowing Corin would hear him. "Haven't you noticed the lack of Slytherin students here? They've been warned. But my friends and I plan on finding somewhere comfortable to sit back and watch the show." He glanced down and checked his pocket watch. "Not long now, must get going." He forcefully shrugged off Corintur's tightening hand and straightened his robes. "Please forgive me if I doubt your ability to carry through with your threats of detention. I think the only thing left in your future is a long and agonizing death." And with that, Malfoy spun his cloak around himself and was gone before Corin could stop him.
Corin could just stare at the spot where Malfoy had been standing. Laurea put a hand on his shoulder, and he turned towards her with fear in his eyes. Her lips were trembling, but she looked at him bravely.
"Whatever is coming, we'll beat it. Don't be afraid." She reached out and hugged him tightly. The rest of the room had gone back to chatting and drinking, but the Gryffindors at the table next to them watched silently. They hadn't heard the whispered conversation between him and Malfoy or understood Laurea's elvish, but the expression on the two elves faces made them wary.
"Professor, what's wrong?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
Corin and Laurea turned toward her and studied the looks on the Gryffindor's faces which were full of fear, yet set bravely also.
"Something's coming, something bad." Corin stated softly. "I need you to quietly collect the students, especially the younger ones, and head back to the school. Don't fight whatever it is unless you have no other choice. Leave that for the adults. I want your main focus to be on protecting the students. I don't know how much time we have, but not long. Will you do this?" He could see their desire to help fight, but knew they would do as he asked.
"Yes sir." Ron stated resolutely as he stood.
The rest of the table followed and he watched as they split up, one going from table to table in the Three Broomsticks and the rest headed down the street for the rest of the shops that were populated with students.
He turned to Laurea, "You get word to the rest of the elves at Hogwarts, and send someone to tell the headmaster. I'll contact all the teachers in Hogsmeade and the aurors stationed around town. Let's go." They headed out the door along with several nervous students and before many astonished eyes, Laurea immediately transformed to her golden unicorn animagus and thundered down the street towards the school.
At this unusual display of her animagus form, all elves within sight converged on his position, knowing something was wrong. Corin started explaining the situation in rapid elvish and all elves present reached for their weapons and got them ready. Anarion started relaying orders and Corin turned to go find whichever teachers were in town when he saw Sirius and Remus headed towards him.
"Corin what's going on?" Sirius asked as he eyed an elf who was stringing his bow and testing the tautness.
"Voldemort's sending something into Hogsmeade, soon. Your guess is as good as mine as to what it is. It could be deatheaters, dementors, or five chimeras. He could even be bluffing, but my gut tells me he's not. So we need to be ready."
Both marauders' faces turned grave. "I'll alert the aurors." Sirius stated and headed towards the nearest one as Corin turned to Remus.
"How many teachers are in town?"
"Besides you, me and Sirius, only Severus and Minerva are here. We didn't expect an attack so soon."
"We should have. After his last defeat on the train, he'll be wanting some payback. And how did the Slytherin students know this, but not Snape!" He whispered furiously.
Remus opened his mouth to reply, but was cut of by a loud roar. They both whipped around, but almost wished they hadn't as they took in the scene before them. A dragon, unlike any they had ever seen before stood in the center of town. It was about eight stories tall and fifteen stories long. A metal ring was around it's neck which must have been the portkey that caused it to appear so suddenly. It's scales were pitch black but looked as sharp and shiny as obsidian. Cracks ran all over it which glowed as if lit by fire from with in the creature. The phrase 'shadow and flame' from the Lord of the Rings ran through Corin's mind as he took in it's glowing golden eyes and huge claws.
"Corin…"
"Go Remus, protect the students. Somehow I doubt even the killing curse could stop this thing."
"Be careful." Remus said, gripping his shoulder before turning and hurrying towards several students who seemed frozen where they stood.
Screams filled the air now and the dragon narrowed it's eyes and snorted a short shot of flame at the running wizards and witches. Several arrows had already been shot at the creature, but they just bounced off the scales. Aurors could be seen shooting spell after spell, but like the arrows, nothing could get through these impenetrable scales.
"Oron!" He yelled as he saw his friend headed towards the dragon. Oron turned with a questioning look on his face. "Turn into your animagus form and try to communicate with it." At the incredulous look he got, Corin continued. "At least try." Oron nodded, and in a couple of seconds, a small slate blue dragon was flying towards the Morgoth Dragon as Corin had mentally dubbed.
Flame let out a long keening note and the huge serpentine head whipped around and glared t his friend. It gave a low rumbling growl and lashed out trying to catch him in it's jaws. But Everest Slate dragons are incredibly fast and Oron evaded it to stop it's attack, but had to dodge a column of flames this time. Finally Oron gave up and flew back to Corintur, covered in soot.
Changing back, he spoke, "There's no talking to it. All it talks about is pleasing it's master and 'burning, killing, flaming, destroying' and so on."
"Alright, thanks for trying." Corin looked pensively at the beast. Has anything succeeded in penetrating those scales?" He asked, wincing as a third building went up in flames. The attack had really started now. So far no one had been killed yet that he had seen, but many had been injured and it would only be a matter of time if the thing wasn't stopped soon.
Oron came back from conferring with another elf and answered his previous question. "It looks like the only thing that can cut it is an elvish blade. One of our people gave it a shallow cut on it's right flank. But unless we wanna just start hacking away at it's feet we're going to need to hit something more vital. Their problem is getting close enough. I think the only lethal strike we can make is through one of it's eyes and into the brain." Both elves looked back at the dragon, which was now raking it's claws down a shield conjured by Dumbledore, who had flashed in with Fawkes a couple of minutes ago. They looked back at each other, resolve on their faces.
"We can do it." Oron stated.
"Oh yea, no problem." Corin agreed.
"Yep, just tie a rope around it's neck…"
"Pull really hard…"
"Tie the rope to a tree."
"Pose for pictures."
"Jab sword in."
"Done."
"Yep, no problem." They both nodded decisively and turned back to the dragon who had just melted a statue in the square to liquid metal. Finally, they sighed and looked at each other seriously.
"Be careful, Laurea would kill you if you died." Oron finished speaking with a smile.
"You too. So, animagi?"
"Sure, it's a better plan than our last one."
At that, Oron turned into Flame and Corin turned into Talon his phoenix form. As they flew towards the dragon, it must have caught glimpse of them out of the corner of it's eye. It turned to face them with a malevolent look and shot a huge column of flame at them. They swerved in opposite directions with Oron the left and Corin to the right. Thinking back to his and Fawkes flight with the basilisk he tried to get close enough to blind it. But the basilisk hadn't been able to shoot flame or have wings that could send a sudden gust of wind to send them off course.
Getting frustrated now, he let out a loud cry of frustration. The dragon winced, and then hissed at the noise. Stilling, Corin thought hard about it's reaction, then let out a short stream of phoenix song. The dragon let out a shriek and then wheeled towards him and tried to fry him. As he dove to void the fire, he called out to Fawkes. Fawkes! I need your help!
Fawkes joined him in the air. What do you need Harry Potter?
Corin looked at him, startled. That's not my name anymore Fawkes.
But it's still part of who you are. We will discuss this some other time, now why did you call me from my bonded?
The dragon cannot bear to hear phoenix song. If you could sing and distract it, I will try my best to kill it once and for all. Corin replied.
Very good young elf-wizard, be careful. It is a long ways to fall. At once, Fawkes began to sing and the dragon cried out in agony, more so than before because Fawkes song was more powerful, since the phoenix was so much older than Corin.
The dragon's eyes were clenched shut and it's claws were scratching at it's head, trying to stop the sound. Corin swooped in, right over it's head and before he could consider what he was doing turned back to his elvish form. He cried out as his hand grasped one of the dragon's horns but held on tightly, even though it sliced his hand open with it's sharp edges. The dragon hadn't noticed him there yet as it was still nearly immobilized by Fawkes singing. The dragon's head was about the size of a small car and he was hanging precariously from the horn on the right side.
Grimacing, he tightened his hold and reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out his glaive. Then, using a silent elvish spell, he enlarged it back to full size and hefted it in his hand, aiming it for the eye. Taking a deep breath, he held it as he plunged the blade into the eye before him. Suddenly, the eye snapped open, and Corin saw the comprehension come to the Morgoth dragon's eye. As it died, it snapped it's head up sending Corin flying 160 feet in the air, and took a final swipe at him. It's claws caught him mid-air and sliced all down his right side from his shoulder to his knee and got a little bit of his face as well. As his vision began to go black, the last thing he saw was the dragon falling and Fawkes diving to catch him before he hit the ground.
Mwaaahaaahaaaaaaaa! My first cliffhanger! heehee. well, okay, maybe Ch. 17 'Mist' was a bit of a cliff hanger too. Not as big as this one though! lol. anyways, here's an actiony chapter for you all. I already have the next chapter written, so as soon asI type it up on my computer and fix a couple things, it'll be up too. I'm not cruel enough as to make you wait after an ending to a chapter like this. The next chapter will answer some questions, kindof, actually it's pretty vague but ah well... As always, please review and let me know how I can make my story better. No flames though. If you don't like my story, feel free not to read it. Well, I think I've babbled enough. Thanks for reading.
Arye
