The father watched his son almost reverently. The power he had demonstrated, the ability, the sheer force of will… And then, that final call, like a bird as it crested the top of a thermal, feeling so right…
He had never though he would be able to experience fatherhood; truly, for when his own Phoenix had died, it had felt like the part of him that held the capacity for love had died as well. Through the years his son was at Hogwarts, though, he had found himself protecting and saving his son, over and over again, but had brushed it off as the blood debt.
The blood debt had already been repaid with the joining of souls. Soul mates cannot keep blood debts against one another because they were one soul in two bodies, one life in two receptacles.
Which was why it puzzled Severus so that he was not dead as well. He had only heard myths, of course, myths of how soul mates died within hours of each other, and yet…
And so, with one adoring look at his son, he put on his trademark scowl and stalked to the library, while inside he felt like dancing merrily in the sunshine with a wide smile on his face and neon yellow and hot pink polka-dotted jumpsuits.
Well. Perhaps it would not be quite that drastic.
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Wards are powerful things, webs of charms woven together to create a safe haven within. Hexes and spells, and occasionally potions can be attached, but the intricate base of spells are the true source of power in wards.
In order to augment wards, it is necessary to take the wards down first, because a darned ward isn't half so good as the original.
At the Weasley's Burrow, the wards were spelled to certain magical signatures being allowed.
Which is why a certain 'Dragon' was flung from a trip in the Floo to a field in the country after a short jaunt into the fireplace.
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"Mum, a bird tried to pass through our wards again!"
"I thought I'd fixed that."
"Maybe you did! Mum, it looks like the ferret is at the detour point! Why was he trying to get here, anyway?"
The family all rose to see the 'ferret' that their youngest son was speaking of. Almost every pair of eyes had narrowed by the time that they had registered the presence.
One Draco Lucifer Malfoy was trying to access the Burrow. A Malfoy.
Grins spread across the faces of the Weasley clan. Their revenge might finally happen- revenge for years of oppression and rivalry, revenge for the cheating of property, and the revenge for their only daughter's second year, where she had been possessed.
Revenge is a dish best served cold. Imagine the ecstasy had the weather been that of winter, rather than summer…
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Athena's eyes opened, pure and silent, full of the knowledge of one thousand years, lacking the knowledge of a friend-filled lifetime. The aching maturity in those eyes was near enough to bring the hardiest warrior to his knees and bring the simplest of people to knowledge.
Truth was in those eyes.
The hair, color of the first rays of daybreak, splayed around the head in seeming splendor, a halo against the dark green of the field of grass.
A god was among mortals.
Truth was in that soul.
The breezes and mild changes in magical energy, as caused by Apparition, made the presence of several people known to the young godling. He was curious- were these the people that he had been attempting to reach? Glory help him if they were and were unwilling to listen to reason.
Redhead after redhead came up to him, and claustrophobia set in- the first moments of freedom, and now this? What would become of his plans to find Phoenix and settle down and become the greatest of companions?
Time stood still- innocent godling against hardened hellfire. An unvoiced conflict- age-old rivalries as the came into the fore were all that was necessary to fuel the conflict, and yet the ire seemed one-sided.
"I take it that you would be the Weasley clan? I am terribly sorry to inconvenience you, but I knew few names with the slightest bit of… How to phrase this… Good connotation attached, and yours was the only one I could trust. You see… I barely remember anything. I wake up in this huge house with black and green and stone everywhere, and this mean man with a cane and a sadistic streak, and a woman who looked like ice and didn't want a birthday cake. I just wanted to be safe- the man reeks evil."
The Dragon-Tamer, eldest son in residence, stepped forward with a sneer on his face and distrust in his eyes, wand at the ready. "How can we believe your tale? You're a Malfoy, a Slytherin, brought up to act before you could walk, able to trick the baby into giving you the candy, and then giving it back to steal it again out of spite. Worthless, Death Eater scum!"
The father, standing behind the son, shakily raised his wand to cast the spell as learned by all Ministry officials. "Accedo." Come.
Aurors collected around the place, tempers high.
"This boy, son of a known Death Eater, attempted Floo transportation from his locale of residence to our own. The wards displaced him to here. We call for his arrest and subsequent trial as soon as possible." The words rang as one between husband and wife, their magical request prepared for acknowledgement. Such was the Pureblood Law- if you are pureblood, certain rights may be invoked, such as incarceration of trespasser in precedence to the trials and imprisonment of others.
Kingsley Shacklebolt grinned ferally. Almost the entire Wizarding world had a grudge against the Malfoys- and here came the child, primed for the slaughter. He fingered his wand, and touched the young man's elbow, expecting a dark scowl and a fierce look.
The look that he saw surprised him entirely. It was a look he'd seen so often before, a look he'd hoped never to see again. It was the look of an abused child, the look of one almost too far gone to truly heal, the look of one that could never be reproduced by anything or anyone.
His grip around the elbow tightened as he made split-second decisions in his head and cleared his throat. "I think I'll take this one in, boys. He and his family have a lot to answer for, Death Eater filth." His face was twisted in the faintest parody of a sneer, but it worked, and they applauded him.
The pop of his Disapparition muffled his great cheer as he left for his own home, and not for Headquarters or the Ministry.
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"Marguerite! Rita, I need to speak with you!"
"Honey, I'm in the shower."
"But Rita, I have Draco Lucius Malfoy here!"
"What? Are you yanking my chain again- you said that you had personally met Harry Potter and now you expect me to believe this!"
Sigh. "First-off, Rita, I DID personally meet Harry Potter, and second-off, this kid's another one! Neglect, abuse- physical and emotional, I'd warrant, not sexual, but he's better off than some."
Halt to the water. "If what you're saying is true, why isn't he terrified, and what was he doing to come under your jurisdiction? Doesn't seem right."
Blush. "I stole him from the ministry- unauthorized Floo to the Weasley home. I almost reacted too harshly- I'm still enraged that his father squirmed out of incarceration. I do hope that he's alright altogether, though."
Stirring, a new voice enters the conversation. "Safe now?"
Smiles of familial affection. "Of course."
?\?\?\?
Drool dripped into the long white beard, eyes unfocused. Garbled noises like those of a tiny child trickled through the still silence.
A hand clutched closely a broken stick of wood, the liquid imprisoned inside seeping through the fingers. The hilarity of the robes halted at the spreading stain of blood and ichors, the green attacking from outside, the red leaking from inside.
When one is deemed unworthy of a phoenix, when they've changed too much to be trustworthy, dreadful things happen. If one is that terrible and changed, the creature- for they are no longer worthy of being considered a person- does not deserve the delicate privilege of life.
As the sanity fled, the livid headmaster clutched at the tool that was meant to ensure that all his efforts were not in vain. Voldemort, Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagal, Remus Lupin, Hagrid, and various persons from the ministry had, implanted within them, a probe meant to destroy them physically from inside out.
Instead, it had turned upon him and left him in the same state.
Although many would mourn the headmaster, the phoenixes that knew the truth were perfectly willing to sing their song of things beginning to come together for their chosen saviour and saved one.
?\?\?\?
Severus berated himself. His child was lying in front of him, weak from magical exhaustion, and when he'd previously awakened he'd fallen into a pattern he'd sworn to break. Self-directed fury disguised the absence of the influential magicks meant to shape him into a thing of fury and biting wit.
Before him, Harry stirred. He'd seen things in his dreams, but where they started out horrible, like the memories of the third task and Sirius' falling through the veil, they cleared into a far more peaceful set of dreams, like that of a golden-haired child with Athena's eyes being brought to safe haven from vicious past. The vicious taint of magic slowly faded away into nothingness, and had the unique accursed eyes been open, they would have cleared into a beautiful emerald and tarnished silver.
Remus' curse too began to fade. When he'd read in the past the pain of Lycanthropy, he'd thought he was lucky, and the pain merely mild. Now, as he released all of the curse but for the presence of the wolf as a part of his mind, he realized that his had truly been brought about by some fancy wandwork. The only thing that would have left him in such a state as to be a permanent werewolf would have been to curse another. Instead, he was now free.
Hermione murmured to herself as she thought things through. Why had she sent that scathing, but true letter of separation to Harry? Yes, Dumbledore had originally been the one to orchestrate the friendship, but she felt, inexplicably, that he didn't deserve that. Which, in and of itself, was exceptionally odd. She generally didn't have such violent swings of opinion like that.
Neville stood abruptly. Every day that he remembered, he felt like there was an invisible hand set upon him to ensure clumsiness. Now, though, freedom was first and foremost on his mind, and the freedom of his magic crackling at his fingertips was amazing and uplifting. Dancing for joy, he laughed as the worry and pain he'd forever felt was washed away, as though by rain pouring down.
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Eyes snap open, gaze around the sterile white room. Settle on a hunched figure at his side. "Professor, sir?"
Soft black, like velvet as opposed to his normal obsidian, peeked through the fallen hair. "James- no. Harry. Harry." Smile creeping through unused muscles to transform a face.
Fingers against an invisible pendant. "Everything feels better now."
Agreement. "Everything does."
Companionable silence.
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"Mister Shacklebolt? Hello?" The tremulous voice echoed over the small apartment.
"Draco, you're awake!" A flinch in response to the name. That name had not been his for years- he'd been dubbed Boy for years, and Dragon for fewer, but not by much.
"Please, Mister Shacklebolt, not Draco. That's the name of…" A mild smirk, the only genetically-inflicted piece of his personality, stretched across his lips. "That's what they named my replacement when I turned out unworthy. Of course, they couldn't just get rid of me, what with Mother's incapacity for bearing more children and the fact that a simulacrum can't perform in bed worth dragon-dung.
"Oh, and if you figured out about my less-than-spectacular childhood, it has gone on since I turned five. He- he was the only one to get me through these many years of pain, and I him. If we knew each other in the physical aspect, we'd be inseparable, of that I have no doubt."
"He?" The only word he spoke was an eternity of questions.
"The person at the back of my mind. I think he's real- human- another person. I'm also not sure of his parentage- wizard or muggle- but because there have been so many more of them and because I really don't want to ease our inevitable meeting to the fore, I've counted him as such- a muggle. I call him Phoenix, and he calls me Dragon. We are magical creatures, stronger than other mortals, for we have yet to break.
"We will never break."
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I'm ALIVE! Really, I am! I promise! I didn't die a horrible death! There have been no car crashes!
I've just been exceptionally lazy! teh blush How long has it been since I really updated this story? checks ACK! I'm almost worse than Midnight Blue! Except that a) she writes more quantity-wise, b) she went for more than a year and I less, and c) I don't give out these horrible half-chapter teasers and promise too much that I can't give- like Midnight saying that if she's overly incapacitated then she'll give us, her faithful reviewers, the planned outline for the story (if there really is one).
To my faithful reviewers: Um, well, I love you all! Yeah… And… showers chocolate frogs And I promise to give sumptuous gifts of chocolate-dipped H/D figurines. Which will, of course, be made of sugar, 'cause that stuff's awesome. Seriously.
Um… I am not going to incorporate any of book six. Why? Because… Well, let's see, Dumbie's dead, Draco was never going to be initiated, therefore Severus has no blood oath, and really, how would I incorporate Sevvie as the HBP?
Um… I think that I will do something unorthodox to Voldie when the time comes. You also have to vote for various things.
1. Will Harry remain Harry Potter, or will he, in his efforts to leave the spotlight, 'masquerade' as Severus Snape's son and go Slytherin?
2. Who will remain a steadfast friend of Harry's through all of this? (Only one (or two, if they're the twins) of the Weasleys is allowed, so vote for which of them you want. Everyone else is fair game.
3. Will Draco return to Hogwarts on September first, or will he stay with Kingsley and Marguerite for a while?
4. When should Draco and Harry become known to each other by both aliases- Harry/Draco and Phoenix/Dragon?
5. Who will be the new professors, and who will take over Dumbie's job? (I'm thinking of sending away Minnie at the moment.)
6. Should Harry and Neville become really close friends this time around? This is separate because they were never as close as they could have.
7. Which fastly-growing chain that is planning to take over the world should be Dumbledore's brainchild? Starbuck's, McDonald's, etcetera.