A/N: I DID say sporadically updated, didn't I? Well, on with the chapter.

Chapter 4

Firmly grasped in his concept of independence, Harry was exalted at finally having legal leverage over Dumbledore. A person of age does not have to be forced under someone's discretion – one can choose their own school, their work, or their place of residence.

I let Harry have his moment. He has had precious few victories in his life before. Everything he has accomplished up to now was orchestrated by someone. The sorcerer's stone was a ploy from Dumbledore to align Harry firmly against the dark. The basilisk was a way for Harry to believe he is Gryffindor's Heir. Sirius' escape was a bittersweet one – he didn't even achieve his freedom before he was killed. The tournament ended in a student death weighing heavily on Harry's conscience.

Noticing that Harry was ready to fall asleep, I led him to the Leaky Cauldron for a room. Thankfully, nobody recognized him. As he slept, I decided to read up on the past of Voldemort. I saw many similarities between what I remembered and what was written, but there were some differences, so I memorized the differences, and filed them away later.

Harry woke up slowly after dawn, and after a quick breakfast, I decided to get Harry thinking on the right track, so I asked him about his future plans.

"You know, now that you are independent, you can have control of where you live, where you go to school… If you choose, you no longer have to live at Privet Drive. You can find your own place to live. The blood wards were real, but Dumbledore believes that you do not know that Voldemort's ritual caused you to share his blood – He believes the blood wards are completely useless now, and so does Voldemort. Strangely enough, Voldemort knew about the blood wards all along."

Stunned by the flow of information, Harry blinked.

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too fast?"

"Well, considering the only people I talked to were the Death Eaters and yourself, you would be the first." I allowed myself to smirk.

Deciding to return to the matter at hand, Harry thought over what I said.

"So we can have a new house, and place new blood wards on it? Would that work?"

I thought it over – sure it would work in theory, but what would be enough to fool Voldemort and Dumbledore at the same time? Fidelius is too obvious – Voldemort broke it in 1981, and he can do it again. Maybe through different methods, as I am no traitor, but once a spell is defeated once, it becomes easier to break it time and time again. Besides, runic magic has always been one of my weaknesses, and Harry doesn't know enough about it to cast it. Celo Scelero has always been one of my favorites – but would Harry allow a sacrifice to be made? It can be small, but it must be a warm-blooded animal.

"There are a few different variations of spells and rituals that can hide something," I began.

"Like the fidelius?" Harry asked.

"Yes, but the fidelius is obsolete now – it was broken once, it can be broken again. What we need is something stronger."

"What if we cast a fidelius, and we cast it on an inanimate object, and then destroy it?"

Harry's logic astounds me – he basically came upon the answer, although he seems to be leaving the main part out – the blood ritual.

"That won't work – the fidelius works on the soul of an object – an inanimate object has no soul. However, I know of a ritual – dark magic – that will work instead. It is called the Celo Scelero, and it works in a similar way as you described. You must chant the spell over a small animal, and then sacrifice it. The blood of the animal must be spread to the four corners of the area you are protecting, and after that, the secret is sent to the underworld – nobody can ever find it."

As expected, Harry winced at the word sacrifice. But surprising me, he nodded as I finished.

"Yes, I expected as such. Now what we need is to find a house that would work."

I decided to let him go search around for the house, and transformed myself into a phoenix form in order to check on Privet Drive. The order guards are incompetent, but Moody can see through walls, and Lupin can smell people inside. Either one of them can tell if Harry left.

A quick call to the fire burning inside me, and I traveled to the inside of Harry's house. The first thing I saw there was a long white beard – Crap, I thought. Deciding to scare the old man, I turned from my phoenix form to my demon form, drawing the transformation out for a further effect.

My theatrics had their effect – Dumbledore's eyebrows were both raised in a shocked expression, and he was having the shock of his life. I'm sure I have started a great many legends about phoenixes bound to the dark side.

Muttering a quick tracking spell, I smirked at Dumbledore, looked around, grabbed Harry's photo album, and called upon fire to take me back to Harry.

When I found Harry, I saw him getting ready to purchase a flat in the muggle side of Diagon Alley. Mentally congratulating him on a smart move, I saw that he had a cage with a small rabbit levitated near him.

"You seem prepared today." I remarked telepathically.

Smirking towards me, he responded "I had a feeling I would need to be."

Towards the sales lady, he said "I'll take it – would it be possible to receive the keys and paperwork now?"

Surprised, the sales lady answered "I have all the paperwork prepared – all you need to do is to sign it."

Signing the paper, Harry received his paperwork and let the woman out the front door. Turning towards me, he asked "So how do we perform the ritual?"

I responded – "I can prepare the ritual in a few seconds – but you must cut it with a jewel-encrusted knife, with your birthstone. I believe it is ruby?" I took an ordinate crafted knife out of my pocket, and gave it to him.

The first thing I heard from Harry shocked me to the core "Dors Nox."

He looked at me, and said "Just because we are sacrificing it, doesn't mean it has to suffer." The rabbit was in a lethargic state, with all his pain receptors numbed.

Deciding not to waste time, he cut the rabbit's chest open as I chanted the rest of the ritual. Taking a bit of blood, he went around to each corner of the flat, and as I finished chanting, the room glowed in a dark red light.

"Ignosco Dolor." The rabbit's corpse flashed a pure white light, and disappeared.

Harry's humanity still amazed me – he does not stray from the darker magics, but if it requires a sacrifice, the sacrifice will be painless, and once it is performed, the animal will die in the way it wishes. Harry even asks it for forgiveness!

Just then, a bright green flash emanated from my wrist. Harry looked shocked, so I explained – "I placed a tracking charm on Dumbledore when he was at your house today – don't worry, I'll explain. Just watch for now."

With both of us looking into the amulet, we could look at the order meeting that was called at that moment.

"I call this meeting today for an urgent happening that has occurred earlier today."

Dumbledore's pompous manner could not be mistaken for anyone else – except maybe Fudge. Around the room, people's attitudes were all different. Remus had a satisfied smirk on his face, Moody had a disapproving look aimed toward Dumbledore, the elder Weasleys had sad looks, but Bill and Charlie had looks similar to the werewolf's. The twins were their old selves, and looked askance at their brothers. The professors from Hogwarts were all their usual masks – Snape looked evil, McGonagall looked like she agreed with Dumbledore, and the others looked confused.

"As some of you know, today, Harry Potter left his house at early morning, and has not been seen since. And some of you may consider me senile for this, but today I saw a new creature. When I was in Harry's house, I saw a dark-looking phoenix. It was the same size and shape as a normal phoenix, but it was black with red, and when I looked at it, it turned into a demon-like figure. It took some of Harry's things before I could look at them, and then flamed out.

I don't know what many of you think, and judging by the looks of disbelief I'm getting, not all of you take this as truth, but I believe this is solid evidence that Harry is turning dark."

As Dumbledore finished this sentence with a triumphant tone, the Weasley parents gasped, while everyone else looked at him as if he were insane.

A relatively new Order member, Blenheim Stalk, responded with what everyone was thinking – "But Harry Potter is the savior of light – why would he associate with demons? What if this is some joke played by Voldemort?"

Now Stalk, a wizened old wizard, who was an expert on muggles, was used to thinking as one. Especially looking at the world through a muggle perspective, he was amazed how circumstantial evidence was used in court – especially last year, at Harry's trial. Usually people looked at him as a wizard almost as crazy as Dumbledore, he was nevertheless an expert at his field.

At this Harry commented to me – "Stalk seems like he knows what he is talking about – what did he do?"

"If you are going into politics, Harry, you need to learn people's names better – he is the author of Muggles Who Notice, and he is considered an expert on muggles."

Harry nodded, and we went back to watching the meeting.

During the few seconds we were gone, the Order meeting was divided among Harry-supporters and Dumbledore-supporters.

Dumbledore, noticing the split over his statement, was quick to fix his statement.

"For those of you that are still in doubt, let's ask his friends. I invited them to this meeting because they approached me with their questions about Harry."

He pointed towards the corner, where a trio of students was coming out from under Harry's invisibility cloak. Hermione had an eager expression, and looked to be happy to testify against Harry. Ginny herself looked disgusted at this display, and looked like she was forced to be there. Ron was indescribable. He seemed to agree with Hermione, but there was something else there, as if he wanted to agree with his sister as well.

"Hermione here ran into Harry yesterday, during lunchtime. What was he like then?"

Hermione, eager to get revenge for Harry's attitude, responded – "Well, he was really different – he did not seem at all upset about Sirius' death, and he was rude to me! He had this arrogant attitude, that he was the one to kill Voldemort, and other junk like that. He then left me hanging, and didn't listen to me at all!"

During the performance, both I and Harry noticed Ron look at Dumbledore's eyes just as something sad passed along his eyes.

Dumbledore, eager to continue and get past the issue of the prophecy – Harry was glad he at least didn't reveal it – apparently he wanted to keep it as a trump card – asked Ginny to speak.

Ginny seemed hysterical - "Harry has NOT changed! He was perfectly nice to me in his letters, and he was grieving over Sirius' death – he just expresses it differently! He even…" At this, she cut off, and refused to speak even more.

Dumbledore looked shocked – she was getting letters under his nose? That couldn't be allowed.

"You have been conversing with Harry? How do we know you aren't under a spell?"

Ignoring her cries of "Harry would never do that," he said to Mrs. Weasley – "She is overwhelmed – lock her in her room until she listens to reason.

Seeing Ginny's look, Harry could see she was sincere. "We have to help her," he said. Seeing his face, I knew I couldn't decline, so I just made a joke of it.

"We only have one bed, you know. Or are you counting on that?" I smirked at Harry's blushing.

"Yes, but we still have to…"

I cut him off, assuring him that we would, just after the meeting.

Seeing his sister carried away, Ron knew the side he would choose. Winking at the ceiling, he said "Harry has been distant with me as well. He always wanted to talk, but after Sirius' death, he was retreating into himself. He may be going dark, but I wouldn't know."
More surprised about the fact that he knew we were watching, Harry knew the message that Ron was sending – I'm on your side, but I will pretend not to be.

I was still processing the information – Ron had an extremely rare talent, but I could not know what it was until I met him. Filing that away, I saw Harry's determined face.

"We are getting Ginny out of there. Now."

Not wanting to argue, I turned into my phoenix form. Seeing him writing a letter, I craned my neck to read it.

To Ginny:

This phoenix is mine, I will explain later, but grab his tail and he will take you to me.

Love, Harry

I flamed to the Grimmauld Place room where Ginny was sitting, and was shocked at her look. She was in tears, but as she saw me, the sad look was replaced by a hopeful one. Reading the note, she grabbed my tail, and we both flamed to Harry.

Enveloping her in a hug, Harry said – "Take your normal form, please?"

Seeing Ginny's confused face, I mentally sighed. He was going to reveal everything to her. I suppose it's a good idea, so he doesn't have to hold anything in, but she is an interesting case.

Morphing into my normal form, I had time to hear Ginny shriek "TOM," see him catch her in his arms, and then blackness took over me.

Review Responses:
As usual, a bit on the short side. I love leaving people on cliffhangers, but don't kill me - killing me makes updates even rarer!

Treck: Not yet, Harry probably won't be meeting with Dumbledore for a while.
Ranma Hibiki: All of the above?
SilverAegis: Vampires aren't true canon - they might come, they might not. Goblins, werewolves, etc. are true canon - I know a bit about how they work, so they will probably be in the spotlight.
lmill123: Niamp is like Harry? You don't even know how much :D
CloudySky: Voldemort's reaction will be quite different than what you are expecting :)

Everyone else, thank you for reviewing, and don't kill me for my schedule!