Chapter Seventeen:
The Phoenix Tear
"Calm down Hermione," said Harry putting his arm around her. Since he had known her, the only time Hermione ever got emotional was always because of Ron. She would not have been in the girl's bathroom crying that day Quirrel had let the mountain troll into the dungeons. It was the very same when Ron didn't ask Hermione to the Yule Ball and accused Hermione of 'fraternizing with the enemy'.
"It was horrible, Ron wouldn't even listen to anything I had to say!" she sobbed, "No matter how hard I tired, he just wouldn't listen! I love him so much!"
"It's going to be okay Hermione, just give him time to cool down," said Harry soothingly.
"He can be such a stupid git!" Ginny said furiously.
"It gets worse," she cried.
"What else did he do?" asked Ginny her voice seething with hate.
"No it's not Ron, its Harry," said Hermione. Harry looked confused and Ginny shot him a quick glare. "After the whole incident with Ron, Draco and James Collins came up to me and gave me this tome…" she then told Harry and Ginny what had happened.
She left the small tavern, tears streaming down her face. She could barely see where she was going. She bumped into someone, but she didn't care. Hermione neither stopped nor slowed down, even after she heard someone call out her name.
"Hermione? Hermione, wait up!" they shouted, it was Draco Malfoy.
"Ms. Granger, I don't know what's going on, but we need to talk," said another familiar voice.
"Why would I want to talk to you?" asked Hermione, who wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.
"Because it's about Harry Potter," said James Collins, "Draco told me that Malak Ruglia talked with Potter this morning."
"What of it?" Hermione glared at Draco.
"Because we're all targets now," said Draco, "They know Harry won't join, so they'll either try to get to him sometime during the Tournament or shortly afterwards."
"Why? Hasn't Harry suffered enough? Why is Harry so important to your war?" asked Hermione suspiciously.
"It has to do more with a transformation called the Phoenix Tear," said James, "What do you know of it?"
"Only the little bit that was in that journal that Professor McGonagall gave Harry," said Hermione, "But it's incomplete, though I've never come across anything like it."
"We know of the journal that was in the possession of Albus Dumbledore. We gave it to him because he was one of the few people who had a phoenix as a familiar," said James, "However that journal was far from incomplete."
"What do you mean?"
"That even in death that foolish old codger can't keep from meddling," said Draco disdainfully, "He's even gone as far as to tamper with Gryffindor's Journal!"
"Gryffindor's journal?" Hermione gasped.
"To understand fully, you have to understand who we are," said James. They went to a small area and he and Draco set up some silencing wards and concealment wards. "A little over two decades ago, three of the world's finest wizards came together to form an alliance against a powerful dark wizard who was steadily growing in power and gaining followers through out the world. They each formed their own orders, which made up the Tri-Confederation of Wizards. They were Albus Dumbledore, who formed the Order of the Phoenix, Lance Hall, who formed the Order of the Sphinx, and Artemis Grant, who formed the Order of the Dragon. They were each powerful in their own right and were masters in their own fields. Dumbledore was one of the finest alchemists in the world and had no equal in transfiguration. Hall was a fine botanist and had a strong aptitude with Charms. Grant had an affinity with all creatures magical and non-magical and was better with Charms than Hall. As you know, Dumbledore taught Tom Riddle and the Order of the Phoenix fought him most directly," Hermione was shocked, the only people she'd ever heard refer to Voldemort as Tom Riddle were Harry and Ginny, "After his first fall the Order of the Phoenix disbanded, mostly because many of its members were either dead or otherwise in disposed," Hermione instantly thought of Neville's parents who had been tortured into madness, and Sirius Black, who had been wrongfully imprisoned without trial, "They no longer had the resources they once had at the start of the war. The Order of the Sphinx eventually began to die out as well. Arcturias is really the only member left, as their reckless tactics found many of their number joining the ranks of the specters and ghouls they sought to exorcise. The Order of the Dragon is the only one that still remains at full capacity. We've even risen to face other Dark threats."
"Dumbledore never mentioned the Order of the Sphinx or the Order of the Dragon," stated Hermione.
"Artemis figured as much, that's why we were instructed to give you this," he said as he handed her a moldy tome, "A friend of mine found it when we raided Malak Ruglia's Mansion in Nova Scotia."
"He's suspected of practicing Necromancy and he's not the only one," said Draco.
"Necromancers…" Hermione said in with horror and understanding.
"They seem to be working towards releasing a darker force, but we're not sure what it is," said James, "We've traced their activities to the area, but from all we can tell, they're just gathering more allies to their cause. We don't know what they're up to, or how any of this fits with Harry Potter other than this tome and Gryffindor's journal. All we can tell is that Harry Potter is in danger, he seems to be the key to everything."
"So because I came back from the dead because of something called 'The Phoenix Tear', the Necromancers seem to have taken more than a slight interest in me," said Harry.
"I read through it, and it lists some of the things the other wizards went through, though it's rather vague. The tome also mentions a prophecy about 'A Hero rising from the ashes to face a Greater Dark Power'. It's all rather cryptic," Hermione said sadly.
"They always are," said Harry, who had hoped to have left the prophecy business behind.
"You're not the first person to have bonded with a phoenix, so the prophecy may not even mean you," said Ginny, not quite believing herself, "Even Godric Gryffindor had went through the Phoenix Tear."
"The tome says that Merlin faced it first, but was not strong enough so he contained the Dark Force, and concealed it somewhere. The prophecy appeared not long after, and so far none of the other 'Chosen', as they're called, have succeeded in 'Banishing the Darkness'," Hermione told them.
"Well, it's easy enough for you," said Harry more than a little depressed, "Neither of you have prophecies made about you every five minutes."
"There is also mention of A Warrior of the Light's Betrayal… General of the Light will falter in the face of Darkness… a Second Dark Lord will rise to battle the Darkness… and this is what's very confusing… Only a Hero of both Light and Dark will forever defeat the eternal darkness… It hardly makes any sense at all," said Hermione concentrating on the book. She then closed it suddenly. "We'll just have to take time to research it later."
Harry and Ginny were both shocked; Hermione was never one to let a mystery go unsolved. In fact, she never gave up on anything she didn't understand except for Divination, but then again, it was prophecy they were talking about.