Chapter 7: In a Flash of Flames
A/N: Time for a little plot development, cause we haven't had much of that.
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been busy. Maybe this will keep you occupied. Thanks for the reviews everyone, they make me continue writing. I already have the end of this one plotted, and a sequel is in the works...
Water dripped steadily from the hard stone walls. Normally the sound was irritating, but now it went unnoticed. A fire roared along one of the walls, popping and crackling to match the cold laughter echoing off the walls. The lone figure in the room pressed his fingers to his left arm where his Dark Mark was. Moments later his followers appeared in the home he had taken over, awaiting their orders.
Voldemort left the dank room he had inhabited for more than a year, walking out into a narrow hallway and down to a larger room where the Death Eaters had Apparated, an evil, twisted smile playing across his serpentine face. His followers glanced at him eagerly when he entered. When he saw Wormtail slide into the room from another doorway, he made his announcement.
"It seems that the accursed thorn in our side has been removed. Harry Potter is dead."
Eight hours earlier, Harry Potter woke in Gryffindor Tower after only two hours of sleep. Once Amanda had gone to bed, he returned to his dorm and pondered her words. After all his thinking, he still had no idea if she meant that she loved him or not. Now Ron was shaking him, saying something about breakfast.
"Gerroff, Ron… I'm… hippogriffs… fire crab." Ron stepped back, puzzled about Harry's mumbled words. The redhead shook his friend harder, finally stirring him from his sleep. "Wha? Ron?"
"Come on! Breakfast is almost over, and you have to go by Dumbledore's office before Hagrid's class." Ron poked him with his wand. Harry finally disentangled himself from his blankets. Ron left Harry to dress, returning to the Great Hall.
Harry joined his friends moments later, kissing Amanda briefly before piling food onto a plate. Ron gawked at him; shocked that Harry was eating much faster than normal, much faster than Ron, actually. Amanda and Hermione glanced at each other with amusement dancing around in their eyes.
"Busy night, Harry?" Ron asked before increasing his own eating speed. Amanda blushed furiously as Harry continued eating like he hadn't heard the comment.
After breakfast, Harry made his way to the headmaster's office, pushing all thoughts of the previous night from his mind. Now was not the time to dwell on it, especially if this were an Occlumency lesson of some sort; Dumbledore had been trying to arrange a test against Snape for a few weeks, and that was not something that Snape was going to see… ever.
The giant stone gargoyle moved aside when Harry gave the password, revealing the moving, spiraling staircase. Dumbledore's door was open and the headmaster was standing nearby with Fawkes. Before Harry could announce his presence, Fawkes trilled and left his perch on Dumbledore's shoulder and flew to Harry. Dumbledore turned to the doorway and saw his pupil standing before him.
"Ah, Mr. Potter. Fawkes has agreed to help Hagrid out with today's lesson. Will you be so kind as to take him when you go? He could fly himself, of course, but for some reason he refuses to do so. I would take him myself but I have urgent business to attend to." Harry nodded, absently stroking the beautiful red and gold plumage of the phoenix. Harry turned to walk back down the staircase, but Fawkes had other plans. The phoenix lifted Harry and disappeared in a bright flash of flames, appearing by Hagrid's hut.
"An' now tha' our guest is here…" Hagrid said, laughing as Harry and Fawkes appeared. Most of the class looked stunned by Harry's entrance, with the exception of the Slytherins. Harry looked around, confusion evident in his features. Fawkes refused to leave Harry's shoulder.
"Er, Who can tell us abou' phoenixes?" Hermione's hand shot up but Harry had already started talking.
"Every five hundred years or so they die in a burst of flames, then are reborn from the ashes. If they are killed before their burning day, they're reborn. Fawkes here had a burning day in our second year and was hit by the Killing Curse in our fifth year." Harry looked around, smiling inwardly when he saw the interested faces. "They can carry immensely heavy loads." Harry grabbed Hagrid's arm and Fawkes's tail feathers. The phoenix lifted them up and flew around the assembled students.
"Their song inspires courage in the pure of heart and fear in evil." Fawkes began singing the song that had filled Harry with the determination to escape from Voldemort in his fourth year. "And their tears have healing powers." Harry thought back to the Chamber of Secrets when the basilisk had bitten him. "Oh, and the Chinese phoenixes are depicted attacking snakes." Harry glanced toward Malfoy as he said it, remembering that it was Malfoy's father who had slipped Ginny the diary containing Tom Riddle's memory.
"Their tail feathers can be used in wands. In fact," Harry stroked Fawkes's head, "Fawkes gave two feathers." Harry held up his wand, "I have one. Voldemort has the other." The few Gryffindors that didn't know about Harry and Voldemort's wands being brothers gasped. The Slytherins had heard about what had happened when Voldemort and Harry dueled from their parents after their fourth year, and Harry had told Ron, Hermione, and Amanda. The rest should have recalled the interview with Rita Skeeter from fifth year…
"Righ'. Good job, Harry! Twenty points to Gryffindor." Harry walked to his friends; Fawkes still perched on his shoulder, to begin his assignment.
Midway through the lesson, Harry fell asleep. By the time class was about to end, Harry was still slumbering like a baby. As Amanda reached out to wake him, she squeaked. He was nearly on fire. She had woken him from his fever-inducing dreams a few times in the summer, but it was nothing like this. Reaching out to him again, she gently shook his back, trying desperately to wake him. After a few moments she succeeded, triggering a series of events. Harry's eyes bolted open, Fawkes let out a loud, piercing cry, and Harry, Amanda, and Fawkes all disappeared in a flash of flames.
Great gray mountains loomed all around. A deep forest lay ahead of the lovebirds, a beach behind them, grassy plains to their left, and a swampy marsh to the right. Harry immediately recognized the place from his feverish dreams. The hauntingly beautiful music that penetrated their ears was oddly familiar to Harry, not only from his dream, but from other places as well. It sounded similar to Phoenix song, but with something else added in.
"Harry, where are we? What is that sound?" Amanda asked from beside him, fear evident in her voice.
"I don't really know, but I think we should go to the forest."
"What? Why?"
"That's where I am every time I wake up. Then again, I always have a fever when I'm here in my dreams."
"This is the place you dream of? Maybe it's one of you-know-who's traps." She moved closer to him, allowing him to wrap his arms around her reassuringly.
"Fawkes brought us here, I doubt he would do anything to put us in danger." He looked down and smiled. "Besides, that music sounds like phoenix song. Voldemort hates it, he wouldn't be here." Amanda nodded meekly, still afraid but trusting in Harry's faith in the phoenix that had brought them there. Harry led the way as they walked toward the thick forest.
Voldemort stood in a large room in the large house he had been staying in since he killed the owners. A roaring fire held his ruby gaze. All at once his head jerked around and a look of triumph crossed his face.
"WORMTAIL! Get in here!" the Dark Lord commanded.
"Y-yes M-m-master?" the sniveling little man asked tentatively.
"It seems that our friend Mr. Potter's life is fading. You see, Wormtail, I am aware of his thoughts, feelings, and activities at all times, whether he knows it or not. Right now, however, his life signs are dropping. I can barely detect his presence. I know his Occlumency is not to blame for this, because I know that his Occlumency is useless where I am involved."
The blank look on his servant's face forced a cruel smirk from Voldemort. "Wormtail, you are to wait outside this room until I call for you again." The small little man bowed and backed out of the room, closing the door and stationing himself in the dank hallway outside. Voldemort peered into the orange depths of the flames and looked almost afraid. And what will happen if one of us dies without the other being the cause? What would become of both of us if "one must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives," and you die now, Mr. Potter?
From a distance the forest looked similar to the one on the Hogwarts grounds, but up close it looked more foreboding. Harry didn't feel like there was any reason to be afraid of what might be hiding in the shadows, but he knew something was there, watching and waiting, though it chose not to move on them for reasons known only to whatever it was.
Harry and Amanda had stood at the edge of the dark forest for almost thirty minutes, contemplating their choices, what Harry's dream had meant, and why they had been brought to this place. Eventually Amanda suggested they move on, that they were there for a reason and she wanted to know why.
Tonks and Remus were furious. They had just left the headmaster's office after learning about the disappearance of Amanda and Harry. Dumbledore couldn't offer any answers to their questions, and he even seemed calm about it! The newly married couple ran into Ron and Hermione as they made their way to the doors in the entrance hall. Sensing the onslaught of their young friends' questions, Remus shook his head. The younger couple gazed at the floor. Tonks stopped and wrapped Hermione in a hug, noticing her gently shaking shoulders.
"It'll be fine, Hermione. Fawkes took them somewhere and you know Fawkes wouldn't let anything happen to any student, especially Harry." Remus said as she pulled away from Tonks and collapsed against her boyfriend's chest.
"I know, I'm… I'm just so worried. After…" Hermione didn't need to finish; the other three knew she was referring to Ginny.
Remus and Tonks were pressed for time. They had been at Grimmauld Place when Dumbledore contacted them, and Molly had been with them. Remus promised that he would return quickly to tell her all about the situation. Ron and Hermione weren't nearly as lucky. Since Care of Magical Creatures, they had been bombarded with endless questions about what had happened, as if they were experts on what went through Fawkes's mind at the time he took them.
After dozens of unanswerable questions, taunts from Slytherins who believed that Harry was with Voldemort, and their own fears and worries, they had gone to Dumbledore's office to ask if the headmaster knew anything. They were given the same answers Tonks and Remus got. Fawkes took them, Fawkes isn't back, Fawkes wouldn't harm them in any way: Fawkes has been acting odd around Harry all year. Everything always came back to the phoenix that Harry had escorted to class. Their conversation with Dumbledore hadn't settled their anxiety any.
The deep forest was insanely hard to navigate. Anything without wings would find it nearly impossible to move. Luckily, Harry and Amanda knew severing and cutting charms.
The sunlight faded after a while due to the closeness of the trees and their overlapping canopies of thick leaves. Lighting the tips of their wands was pointless, anything could be waiting for them and that small amount of wand light wouldn't give them much visibility. Instead, they conjured cool flames in the palms of their hands and continued slicing their way through the dense undergrowth. After another half mile or so, they stumbled into a small clearing. The mid-afternoon sunlight made their flames obsolete, and also caused them a moment of near-blindness as their eyes adjusted. There were no trees in the large, circular area; only grass and strange wildflowers grew there.
The phoenix song that could be easily heard from every place they had been since Fawkes brought them to wherever they were had suddenly stopped, causing Harry to step closer to Amanda, instinctively readying himself to protect her if the need arose. Four bursts of flame signaled the arrival of the same number of Phoenixes, Fawkes among them.
Three things happened so suddenly that neither human had time to relax. Fawkes trilled softly, Harry was forcibly jerked away from Amanda by an unseen force, landing in the center of the square made by the phoenixes, and a golden light flickered, forming a circle around the red and gold birds and Harry. Amanda rushed forward, trying to reach Harry, but was knocked backward when she reached the place the light had shimmered.
The four phoenixes moved slightly, aligning themselves with the cardinal directions but keeping equal distance from each other and Harry. When they stopped moving, their beaks opened and very different but perfectly harmonious songs erupted, breaking the uneasy silence.
Amanda gazed into Harry's eyes and was shocked to see no fear or apprehension. For some strange reason he was perfectly calm and trusting. Before she could wrap her mind around what could possibly be calming him like this, his head was thrown backward and his body levitated and started spinning so fast it looked as if it would kill him. Amanda slumped to her knees and pounded the ground with her fists as tears poured down her face, only looking up when the phoenix songs ended. Harry remained spinning in the air.
Flames erupted from the phoenixes, bright golden flames. The phoenixes began spinning around Harry, creating a ring of fire around him. As the flames became a continuous circle, the haunting melody began again. The ring grew smaller and smaller as the phoenixes started moving closer to Harry's body. When they reached the point where their wing tips touched and formed a circle, they stopped. The fire continued to encircle Harry, though it was now moving up and down his body. After passing over his body and returning to its starting point, the flames began shrinking again. Within seconds they touched Harry's skin and passed into his chest, making him shine as brightly as the sun.
Harry's body continued spinning until the shine had diminished. When the glow had dissipated, his body stopped spinning all at once, he stopped levitating, and his unconscious form hit the ground with a sickening thud.
Voldemort's high, cold laugh caused Wormtail to nearly jump out of his skin. The small, mousy man scrambled into the room and awaited his master's orders.
"Go inform our guests of their hero's tragic demise." Voldemort turned to face his servant. "We have another guest arriving within the hour, make her as comfortable as the others." Wormtail backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.
The dank hallways became dirtier, wetter, and colder as Wormtail ran through them, eventually stopping at an ancient black door. Using his wand to open it, he cautiously entered, not trusting Bellatrix's binding spells on the girls after Wormtail had led her husband, brother-in-law, and sister to their deaths.
Two girls, clad only in their underwear, lay on the floor. Dried tears had collected dirt on their normally clean, beautiful faces. Wormtail was the only one allowed in the room, bringing the girls food and water twice daily, and though he wanted to conjure some clothes for them, or even a blanket, he dared not attempt it. Perhaps it was the life debt he owed Harry that made him care for these girls who played major roles in the young boy's life, or perhaps decades of being on the wrong side of everything had finally started to tear at his heart and his mind.
"Ladies, Mr. Potter is dead." He said and left the room, pausing before closing the door and listening to one girl's hopeless sobbing. The other girl had no tears left to cry. Wormtail turned to close the door, pausing when another young girl was forced into the hallway in her bra and panties. Bellatrix Lestrange delighted in tormenting these girls by removing their clothing in front of some of the other Death Eaters by using cutting charms. The humiliation they suffered from the lecherous stares and disgusting comments seemed to send Bellatrix into a state of euphoria.
"Here." Bellatrix spat at Wormtail and shoved the girl to the ground then cast a binding charm. She shot a death glare at Wormtail and stormed away.
Wormtail helped the girl into the room and shook his head, noticing the expressions on the other girls' faces. He shuddered inwardly and left the room, sealing the door behind him. The Dark Mark burned on his arm, he ran to his master's side.