DISCLAIMER: I only wish I owned this! Anything you may recognize belongs to JK Rowling, and I ain't makin' a dime off of this. Wish I was though, and then maybe I could move out of this spacious cardboard box, lol!

A/N: Well, by my estimates I have 1-2 chapters left after this one before part 2 in this trilogy. We'll just have to see how this chapter goes. I hope ya'll are enjoying this story, the reviews have been great, thanks everyone.

Chapter 11: The Fog Of War

Over the next couple of months Dielare and Seliv spent a lot of time together. While she was recuperating and retraining her body they were discussing the experiences they both had as a child.

Flashback

Eliz and Leos had just left to have a 'word' with the Royal Guards about their conduct that day, or rather, the lack thereof, and Dielare was sitting patiently waiting for Seliv to wake up trying to figure out how to broach such a delicate topic. Just come out and ask, his mind grumbled. Oh sure, I'll just say 'Hey Seliv, I heard you were beaten as a kid too, wanna have a pity party with me?' I think not, he argued with himself. Note to self, arguing with your own mind is a sure sign of madness. Just as that thought flew through his mind he noticed that Seliv was stirring and his breath caught in his chest as he still had not figured out how to say what he wanted to.

"How are you feeling," he asked once he saw her eyes open and he regained his ability to speak.

"Like a gorilla decided it was a good idea to play the congas on my kidneys," she joked. They both laughed lightly as the tension seemed to ease from the room.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save Zolegran," he began before she interrupted.

"It wasn't your fault," she told him as forcefully as she could, "We knew what we were getting into when we decided to help, and I know that he wouldn't be blaming you. I know I don't blame you in the slightest."

"Still, I feel responsible. I should have realized that you two were there," again she interrupted before he continued.

"There are a million 'what ifs' whenever something bad happens, you can't let yourself fall into that trap Dielare. It wasn't your fault," she scolded broking no room for argument. He just nodded knowing that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Seliv…can I ask you about something?"

"Of course you can Dielare, you know you don't have to be afraid to ask a question. I thought we got you past that," she told him concerned.

"Well, this is kind of a sensitive topic. Your father…he told me about…he said that…he said that you were abused when you were little," he told her, his voice getting quieter with each word until she had to strain to hear him. She had a pretty good idea of where this was going so she just nodded her head urging him to continue. Seeing that she wasn't angry by the topic he felt a little more secure, not much, but a little so he continued in a stronger voice, "Before you woke up I told him and Eliz what happened when I was little and he said that your step-mom did a lot of the same things to you before he banished her."

"What did your Aunt and Uncle do to you Dielare," she asked though she already knew. She knew that he needed to voice it out loud to someone who could understand and not pity him for it. She knew that it would take quite a few of these talks before he would begin to heal from those wounds but she vowed to Deus himself that she would do everything in her power to make sure he understood he wasn't at fault for what happened.

End Flashback

Over the time the Seliv was recuperating he told her in much more detail than he had ever told anyone ever before what happened to him. He told her about every name they called him, of every way they said they should have disposed of him, of every way they beat him, of his starvation, of his cramped quarters, of his endless labor, of the lies they spread about him. She in turn told him about what her step-mother did to her, and Leos was quite correct when he told Dielare that there were correlations in the way they were treated. Seliv was often told she was a burden on the family, and that she should have been sent off into the wild as a child or that she should have died with her mother. Seliv was quite often beaten by her only to threatened into silence if she ever dared utter a word about it to anyone. She was starved for days on end while her father was out defending the kingdom and forced to clean the waste of her step-mother who would purposely not use the lou. As the princess could not be seen by anyone doing manual labor she was only forced to do it in the queens chambers, but the queen made sure that there was plenty there for her to do. Dielare found that talking about his experiences was helping, and Seliv was able to help him get over the majority of what he went through. He no longer felt that he would always be unloved, though he still had a hard time trusting. He could ask questions easily now and no longer flinched when around someone who was angry which was a blessing as they were now in a war.

(Break)

An official declaration of war had been delivered to the castle the day before Seliv had been proclaimed in full health. The entire message was the head of Seliv's mother showing that it had been no accident. It had been preserved through the years so it could be sent when the forces of darkness were ready. Leos was so incensed when he received this that he declared Monarch Rule into effect. This law was old and rarely used since the times of old. The law basically said that, until revoked, the council was dispersed and the King or Queen held all the power. The only stipulation to this law was that it could only be invoked by a Phoenix descendant in a time of war, but most of the population did not know that only the Phoenix descendant could do it. They knew that it could only be done in war-time though, which brought a frenzy to the population to Atlantis. Leos ordered the recruitment to any loyal man or woman who was willing to fight for the light side in this war to be trained and inducted into the Guard.

Once Seliv had been healed and Dielare was feeling quite a bit more sociable, Leos began training him in his animagus transformation. Dielare had asked why Eliz hadn't trained him in this or Seliv seeing as how Leos is the King and obviously has a lot to do especially now that they are in war-time and Leos had to sit him down and explain a few things.

Flashback

"First off, the reason Eliz didn't train you in this is because she wasn't sure that you were an animagi until the day that Seliv was injured. She said that once you had disposed of the chimeras and manticores that you transformed into a phoenix and transported Seliv to the medical ward," Leos explained, "As for Seliv, well, in our line the phoenix transformation is slightly different from male to female. Granted, both are phoenixes, but females are able to change almost instinctually so she wouldn't have been much of a help to you. Us men have to do it the hard way." Leos chuckled a bit when he said this and Dielare cracked a grin.

"I s'pose that's natures way of trying to make up for them being the ones that have to give birth, I think we get the better end of the deal," Dielare pronounced before his face lost all color.

"I quite agree Dielare," Leos told him before turning around to see why Dielare went pale. "Hello my daughter. Hello Eliz," he said hesitantly, "Is there anything that we can help you with?"

End Flashback

Needless to say both Dielare and Leos were walking with a limp for the rest of the day after that episode and they had taken to casting a privacy ward whenever they were having a discussion of this nature so as not to repeat the same mistake. While learning the theory behind the transformation Leos explained to Dielare that every now and then when the line becomes somewhat diluted the forms of the line with vary from that of a phoenix but will remain light creatures. Generally they will be that of a Royal Stag, any kind of wolf (excluding the werewolf variety of course), or various kinds of eagles, even an odd lion or two. Male descendants generally end up sticking to the Royal Stag form if they are not a phoenix, but the females are pretty evenly spread between the wolves and the eagles. When the line becomes diluted two very distant heirs, so distant they are not even considered related, are drawn together. Though one of the two tends to fight it for the first half they eventually give up. The first offspring produced by the pair has the phoenix ability and is the rightful heir. It usually takes 1,000 years for the line to dilute to that point though.

It took Dielare a month to reach the point where he was able to transform for the first time willingly, and when that happened every doubt that he was the heir was thrown out the window for on his back was a mark only seen three times in recorded history. It was the mark of the Phoenix Lord showing that not only was he the heir, but that he was the beginning of the cycle for the phoenix line. The mark took up the majority of his back and showed an emerald green phoenix with an ivory colored beak and golden eyes. The plumage of the phoenix was mostly the emerald green, but it had a few feathers white as snow mixed into it's wings and tail feathers. The phoenix was in the familiar pose of a phoenix rising from flames except instead of red and orange flames these were navy and pale blue flames. It was a site to behold.

"My goodness," Leos exclaimed, "I though both Eliz and I had been seeing things when we saw you transform but there is no trickery about this. You are a Phoenix Lord," he nearly yelled.

"Um, other than having royal seed, what's the big deal," Dielare asked unsure of why Leos looked like he was going to pass out.

"Most of our line is unable to understand the song of the phoenix when they are in their human form, but as a Phoenix Lord you will be able to understand it and speak it. They won't necessarily listen to you, but you have a better chance of getting phoenix allies than anyone else," Leos explained, "Also, your normal tears have a small amount of healing properties while your tears in phoenix form are the most potent healing potion on Earth."

"That's cool," Dielare grinned, "I guess I should start practicing this a lot more."

"That you should Dielare, that you should. I had been wondering why your dormitory door had never been decorated, I guess now we know."

"What do you mean," Dielare asked.

"It was rumored long ago that when a Phoenix Lord first transforms the door to his rooms takes on the mark, until then the door remains plain," Leos told him.

"So everyone is going to make a big deal over this," Dielare asked disheartened, "Can we cast a concealing charm on it?"

"I suppose we could," Leos responded thoughtfully, "It would not do well to have it known that the Phoenix Lord was residing in the castle at this time as it is not time for a new one to be born."

"Thank the gods," Dielare muttered.

(Break)

One of Leos' spies had heard from a Dark Wizard that on October the 31st there would be an full attack on the castle with the hopes of completely destroying the line of the phoenix and taking over. Leos called the council together and declared them his war council to help him plan for the inevitable attack (I'm just evil aren't I? LOL!). They brought in experts in the field of Dark Magic in the hopes of raising defenses to counter anything that the Dark Lord Darice might throw at them, but they were not stupid enough to think they would get through this without casualties. While the planning was going on Dielare and Eliz were training the new recruits as best as they could in battle magic and defense spells as Dielare had an apt for this subject he was able to help. While they were not teaching they were spending as much time together as they could getting to know each other better, and learn as much as possible. They knew that there was a possibility that either of them might not survive this war, but they didn't want to consider that possibility. They planned for the future, discussing what they would do when they reached Dielare's home.

Finally it was the day of the attack, the traps had been laid and the troops assembled. While 60 of them were not trained up to a professional level they were hopefully trained well enough to survive the oncoming battle. As the sun set and the moon rose into the sky Dielare and Eliz took their positions in front of the castle gates each conjuring their Earth staff preparing for what was going to be the toughest battle of their lives. Each and every soldier waited on baited breath for the forces they knew were coming to show themselves and they were shaking with anticipation. Fortunately, Leos was able to slip Seliv a sleeping draught and put wards on her room so she wouldn't be able to get out and join the battle. Should he fall she would need to rule in his stead. As the air got unnaturally cold Dielare and Eliz shared a look and a quick kiss before jumping into action and summoning their patroni, this action immediately signaled the start of the battled which would claim many lives on both sides.

As the Dementors were driven off by the thousands of patroni that were sent by the fighters guarding the castle there were pops ranging all over in front of them indicating the arrival of mass portkeys. They hadn't yet developed a portkey that was safe enough for human transportation, but animals and materials were safe to transport this way, well, animals only if you didn't care if you lost a few on the way. What they saw in front of them cause more than a few to consider running, and even one or two of the veteran guards wet themselves. There were no less then 20 chimeras, 10 manticores, 5 nundus, 5 graphorns, and one of each kind of dragon (Antipodean Opaleye, Atlantian Spiked-Tail, Chinese Fireball, Common Welsh Green, Hebridean Black, Hungarian Horntail, Norwegian Ridgeback, Peruvian Vipertooth, Romanian Longhorn, Sweedish Short-Snout, and a Ukranian Ironbelly). Which meant they had 50 different creatures to face on top of battling the Dark Wizards. Luckily the spy, that only Leos got information from and didn't share, informed him that the Dark Wizards only were bringing 50 of their own number tonight, but Darice was coming as well. He was a formidable adversary and would not easily be defeated. Once the shock had worn off all of the fighters opened up with everything they had in the hopes of surviving the night.

While the nundus where attacking the east end of the castle, and the graphorns the west, mercilessly killing any who were foolish enough to attempt to get in their way, Dielare and Eliz were doing their best to try and herd the chimeras into a single area so they could repeat what Dielare did in the town to take out the chimeras. Unfortunately it wasn't working out as planned. While the fighting was taking place on the ground a flock of phoenixes immerged from the forest on the grounds to the south of the castle driving away the dragons with their song whom could not bear to hear so many phoenixes singing at once. The song had a rejuvenating effect on the troops on the ground and they fought with a renewed spirit doing their best. Once the Halks(so named for Lt. Halk, if you can name the movie I'll tell you one thing you want to know about the future plot, within reason) noticed that the dragons had fled they landed their brooms and began their own attacks hoping to quickly wrap up this battle. They knew that there would be people waiting, Cornil had informed them of this, thus the reason for all the dark creatures.

A few of the troops near Dielare and Eliz realized what the were attempting to do and began banishing all the chimeras they could see towards a single location letting both of them prepare their magik for the spell that would open the chasm to swallow the beasts. Once that was accomplished Dielare and Eliz shared a look that almost appeared to be silent conversation before they opened up with everything they had on the Dark Wizards. When Darice saw that his forces were being beaten he took off to fight another day knowing to stay would be suicide seeing the fire in Dielare's eyes. They spared no one in front of them, and while they didn't use Dark Magic, the amount of power they were putting into their stunning spells was nearly, if not, lethal. A small portion of the remaining fighters left helped them while every Elemental used their magic on the remaining dark creatures in the hopes of destroying them. Some were burned to a crisp, some sucked into tornadoes and thrown, some encased in a permanent block of ice, and some were swallowed into chasms like the chimeras.

The next few days was dedicated to cleanup and cataloging the dead, when they came across one of them they were thoroughly surprised. Cornil Farew was lying dead, cloaked in the robes of a Dark Wizard. It seemed that he was one of the unfortunate ones that didn't survive a stunner from either Dielare or Eliz. When his family was notified of his crimes they were grief stricken that someone of their flesh and blood would help ruin so many innocent lives. They petitioned the King for an official change of name to Malfoy.

(Break)

"Brother, the time is drawing near for you to return Harry home," Destiny said as she materialized next to Timeus.

"I know sister. I just hope that this is enough training for him, because what he has to face when he returns is a lot worse than this," Timeus responded.

"The war was not meant to begin so quickly, but there is nothing we can do about it now. Harry will need further training before he can return home," she told him.

"Where do you suggest I send him," he asked.

"Near his own time so that he will be able to get training in potions. Maybe in the time of Grindewald, or the first rise of Voldemort," she suggested.

"Do you think it wise to place him so close to his relatives? If I place him within the first rise of Voldemort he will be with his parents," Timeus pointed out.

"Do what you think is best, but he needs the training," she responded before disappearing.

"As if I really have a choice," he grumbled to himself, "You already know where I'm going to send him. Why you never give me a straight answer is beyond me."

A/N: Sorry about that last bit, I just thought it'd be funny if the first of the Malfoy family were firmly on the light side. Well, next chapter will probably be the last chapter in this portion of the story, and then I'll start work on the next. No idea on the title yet so if anyone has any ideas feel free to give 'em as I'm sure you know what's going on by that last bit. Thought I'd give ya'll a teaser as to what's gonna happen, lol.

Review responses:

Uten: The Dark PTA, hmm, has a nice ring to it, LMAO. I can't answer any of your questions really cause it'd give too much away, if you know the answer to the question I posed in the chapter I'll tell you though, I'll email you the answer so you don't have to wait for the next chapter as it'll be answered next chapter anyway. Well, I guess I can answer the romance question. Yes, Harry and Eliz are hookin' up, but it'll be more in the background cause I can't write romance to save my life, nor can I hold a relationship. :Grins: I'm glad you liked how I wrote things out. I know I moved the healing process along rather quickly in this chapter, but I kinda had to so I could get this chapter out and progress the story how I wanted to. I hope you liked the chapter!

Makotochi: Thank you.

Athenakitty: Not long, very, Seliv, he didn't get scolded rather he scolded someone, maybe, Cornil's heart stopped and his boss will die in an unnatural way.

Lady Phoenix Slytherin: Thank you, I hope this is soon enough.

Shitza: I'm glad you're enjoying it. I don't plan on abandoning this story again. I'm gonna finish it this time around.

Thanach: Yes they were, I didn't answer it in this chapter like I thought I would. Basically Cornil placed them under an early version of the Imperious. They were given a truth potion and testified that a Dark Wizard (they don't know who) stunned them and then cast it on them. I'm glad you like the story.

TuxedoMac: I asked people to vote on whether they wanted me to stay at shorter chapters and update more often or longer waits and try to make longer chapters. If I'm not trying to make long chapters I can get more out. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter and like how I set things up. Things are going to get quite a bit more complicated for those two before the end so just sit back and enjoy!