The Dumbledore estate was comprised of several acres and a large country mansion that sprawled over the land like some sort of fungus. It was on the outskirts of an all-wizarding village that was, to Fawkes' dismay, suffering from some sort of baby boom - dribbling little humans were everywhere.
Although not yet an expert on humans, Fawkes could tell that the Dumbledore family were none too short of Galleons. The floors of the mansion were either of marble or highly polished wood and the walls were hung with pictures and tapestries. Several pointless statues of heroic-looking wizards waving their wands in the air were scattered over the grounds (Fawkes made a point of defecating on all of them upon arrival) and there were, in Fawkes' opinion, an alarming number of house-elves.
There were also a number of human servants, one of whom was assigned to look after the Dumbledore children. Fawkes determined them to be a dumpy female of the species, who attempted to sing lullabies over the relentless screaming and pushed the children in a pram around the grounds whilst whistling an annoying tune that made Fawkes want to defecate over her, too.
It was whilst said dumpy human female was asleep on a bench outside with the pram nearby that Fawkes got his first proper look at the brothers.
He sailed down from the nearby oak tree and landed on the pram handle. Both infants were, thankfully, asleep, so he did not have to listen to any of their accursed screaming.
"So… am I going to have to waste my precious time with one of you two brats?" he muttered, eyeing them both suspiciously.
To Fawkes' eyes, both children looked pretty much the same. Both were small, pink and utterly unimpressive. They both had tiny, clammy little hands that seemed permanently clenched and eyes that seemed far too large in proportion to their heads. Perhaps Albus had a greater amount of down on his head and maybe Thomas was a smidgeon paler in skin tone but there really didn't seem to be a great amount of difference. Fawkes felt no amazing, magnetic pull towards either brother, no deep instinct rung any bells in his head, no heavenly group of angels descended from the sky to sing either brother's name in any meaningful chorus - it didn't seem as though either of them was the one he was meant to stay with.
Just as Fawkes was about to take off and resume his search elsewhere, one child stirred. A pair of sapphire eyes opened and looked directly at Fawkes. The baby's small brow wrinkled. It appeared unable to decide whether to cry or gurgle.
"You have pretty eyes, kid," said Fawkes in a bored voice. "But that's the only thing going for you."
Thomas moved his head and opened his eyes as well. They were identical in colour and they, too, soon found the large golden bird perched over him. His mouth opened and drool ran down his chin.
"Disgusting!" said the phoenix, having had his worst fear - dribble - realised.
Thomas suddenly let out a piercing wail that made Fawkes bush out his feathers and take off suddenly, startled. Albus joined in, howling as well, so that the nurse woke up in time to see a golden bird fly up away into the trees.
She rushed over to the pram and made hushing noises. "Oh - oh - don't worry, Nurse won't let that nasty bird hurt you, darlings-"
"This 'nasty bird' is so going to poop on Nurse," said a voice in the background that the Nurse merely heard as squawking noises.
She turned around and waved her hands in the direction of the trees. "Shoo! Shoo!"
"Charming!" snapped Fawkes, before flying off to explore the village. Surely somewhere in this baby-infested village would be a child that was less disgusting than the rest.
Unfortunately, over the next few months, Fawkes discovered that there seemed to be a multitude of children even worse than the Dumbledore brothers. The Malfoy boy was simply dreadful - he spent the whole time screaming and throwing up. The Snape boy on the other side of the village was pale and sickly and the Abercrombie girl was repulsive, burping constantly. All infant humans seemed to do was scream, throw up, burp, poop and sleep.
But then, Fawkes didn't know much about humans. Perhaps that was all they ever did?
Fed up, Fawkes decided to give up for a while and settled in a tree in the Dumbledore grounds. Whilst this meant that he had some sort of shelter from rain and didn't have to forage far in order to find food, it also meant that he was forced to watch the Dumbledore brothers become older, noisier and even more revolting.
From what Fawkes gathered, or cared, Mr Dumbledore seemed to spend most of his life away at the Ministry or riding around in a carriage visiting people. Mrs Dumbledore, on the other hand, sat at home and read, or played with her children. It was obvious to anyone that Mrs Dumbledore actually rather bored of her 'stately lady' existence - otherwise, as Fawkes thought, she would not have wanted to spend any time at all with the demonic dribbling duo.
Thus Fawkes had to observe such inanities as Albus's first word ("Dad," to the joy of his father), Thomas's first steps (that came some time before Albus's; Thomas seemed a little more physically enthusiastic), Albus's curious attempt to copy a bird in eating a worm (something which Fawkes didn't understand anyone's objection to) and Thomas's joy in throwing food at his father (something which Fawkes thoroughly understood). It was not until the Dumbledore brothers were two and Albus had stopped pronouncing Dumbledore as "Dubbledore" that anything happened that caught Fawkes' attention.
He was watching the brothers play in their nursery under the supervision of Nurse one sunny summer afternoon, from his position in a tree outside the open window. Nurse was dozing in a rocking chair whilst Albus and Thomas played with a miniature set of Gobstones. Neither brother was old enough to understand the real game but both seemed greatly amused whenever one of the Gobstones squirted water at them; Thomas kept trying to drink the water and spitting it out and Albus kept giggling.
Nurse eventually stood up from her chair and made to leave the room. She turned and smiled at them before speaking to them in a baby-voice.
"I just have to go to the toilet, my dears. You stay here and play nicely. You'll be all right without Nurse, won't you?"
Thomas and Albus, both of whom had now sprouted thick auburn, wavy hair, nodded - Albus so violently that it looked as though he would hit his head on the floor. Nurse left and Fawkes saw Thomas drop the Gobstone he was holding.
Albus lost interest in the Gobstones and began putting wooden blocks on top of one another. "…Build a big tower…" he murmured. "Up to the sky…"
Thomas's head turned to look at his brother and Fawkes got a perfect view of the little boys face. His plumage puffed out and he nearly fell off his perch.
The expression on Thomas's face was one beyond his years - and what's more, a horrible one beyond his years. He was staring at the oblivious Albus with a look of such utter loathing and hatred that Fawkes was surprised that Albus had not crumbled to dust. Thomas's eyes darkened, until it seemed as though anyone gazing into his eyes would be staring into infinite night.
"Albus," he said suddenly.
"Yeh?" Albus looked up and froze, transfixed by Thomas's expression.
He got to his feet, as did Thomas. There was an ominous silence and Albus began to back away towards the doorway, eyes wide and face pale. Fawkes watched the scene uneasily.
"Albus, I think I'm going to kill you."
Albus moved just in time - a ball of black fire destroyed the patch of floor where he had been standing - a ball of black fire thrown by a two-year-old who was not even three feet tall.
Fawkes was immobile with disbelief as he watched Thomas snarl with fury and Albus flee through the doorway - and then he plummeted off his branch to squeeze through the window. Thomas had meanwhile bounded towards the doorway and Fawkes followed.
Albus was running full tilt down the hallway, seemingly too frightened to even scream. Thomas, eyes narrowed, sent another dark orb of black fire flying after him. It destroyed a table bearing a vase of flowers and missed Albus by inches - but the force of it flung him off his feet so that the little boy went skidding in a heap to the end of the hallway.
Thomas giggled in a way that frightened the phoenix and then raised his hand to aim another sizzling dark ball at Albus, who was whimpering with his hands over his head. Fawkes flew forward, not really knowing what he was going to do - but it was too late, black fire was hurtling towards the boy faster than he could fly.
"No - don't!" cried Albus.
There was a sound like a gong, as if the black orb had hit something solid and invisible around Albus - and then, suddenly, a burst of white flame had soared through the air to hit Thomas.
Thomas screamed and ran down the hallway towards Albus, blazing with white fire, as his flesh blackened and cracked. Albus let out a cry and threw himself backwards.
"I'll kill you, Albus! I will!" shrieked the boy madly, a pair of black eyes in a white inferno. "You can't kill me that easily-"
There was one last scream before the fire utterly consumed him and where Thomas had been, there was only a pile of black ashes, smoking slightly. Fawkes fled the house and spent the night hunched up under his wings.
He had been wrong, that was for sure. Thomas had been damned unusual and Albus was equally as abnormal.
Nurse returned to find Albus crying hysterically in a corner, completely unresponsive to any hushing, a pile of mysterious ashes that seemed to have no source and Thomas missing. The alarm was raised and there was an extensive search of the village and the surrounding area, but Thomas was never found and Ulfin Dumbledore was at last forced to abandon the image of two identical young lads working in the Ministry. Albus was frightened and miserable for several weeks, after which his young mind seemed to erase the traumatic memory and he returned to normal, albeit minus a brother. As Thomas's disappearance had seemingly affected him so badly, his parents resolved never to speak of him in front of Albus again and eventually Albus ceased to have any memories of his brother.
Fawkes, however, did not forget, and resolved to watch Albus more closely and also more warily.
A/N: Soooooo… what do you think? And pssst that isn't the last we'll see of Thomas!