Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize from any of the Harry Potter books, but I do own all that you don't recognize. Get it? Got it? Good.
Author's Note: Ok. . . this is a long chapter. . . longest I've ever written anyway. . . It's kind of weird but you need to know all this stuff. And if Tennis Fairy reads this, I want her to know that I say, "HUZZAH! IT'S STORYTIME! WEEEEEEEE!" But she should be saying that, not me. . . Don't ask: inside joke. Oh yes. .. And this also has a tiny bit of a crossover to Lord of the Rings (which I also don't own). That has to do with the "Alqua" in Phoenix's name. . . Now on to the story!
A wedding! I love weddings! Drinks all around! . . . . and yet, something so normal after something so horrible just doesn't seem right. . .
Phoenix Riddalia stood in the Weasleys' living room. All of the groomsmen and the groom were waiting for their final inspection. Fleur Delacour asked Phoenix specifically – after Phoenix gave her a very helpful fashion tip – to make sure that they all looked their best for the wedding that was to begin in a little less than an hour. Phoenix felt like a sergeant inspecting her troops. She walked past Bill: he looked good, not a wrinkle in sight. Then she straightened a seam on Bill's best man Don's dress robe. Charlie looked okay so she passed him up. Ron was next in line. "Ronald Weasley! What have you done to your hair!" Phoenix asked in mock anger. She quickly conjured a comb to fix his tangled mop of red hair. Fred and George found this greatly amusing and were laughing so hard that they were crying.
"Ow! Phoenix! Not so hard!" Ron yelped as she tried to get out an especially large knot.
"Well, Ronald, if you would comb your hair once in a while, you wouldn't have to worry about acromantula sized knots in your hair," Phoenix laughed. Over the last couple of days, she had become significantly closer to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and learned about their previous years at Hogwarts. During these conversations, she also came across Ron's fear of spiders.
"WHAT? THERE'RE SPIDERS IN MY HAIR!" Ron yelled and started to frantically brush the "spiders" from his hair.
At this, the twins laughed ever harder. "I wouldn't be laughing, you two. You're next," Phoenix said, pointing the comb at them. Hearing her threatening tone, they tried to muffle their laughter.
Next it was Ron's turn to laugh hysterically. Bill and Charlie had to help hold down the twins so they could get their hair combed.
After a few minutes, Phoenix said, "There. Now that wasn't so bad, now was it?"
"That was hell, Phoenix!" Fred exclaimed as Charlie released him. "You owe my big time!"
Phoenix just laughed as she double checked the boys' appearances. When she finally approved, she headed to her white folding chair that was set up in the Weasleys' backyard for the ceremony.
-
The ceremony was beautiful! But with the whole Delacour family decorating, that was an understatement. They transformed the Weasleys' backyard into something fit for royalty. Garlands of flowers were hanging from tree branches, about fifty cushioned white folding chairs were set up for the ceremony, and an extravagant tent was set up for the dining room. The dinner that was served was marvelous too. Guests were served a five course meal at circular tables covered in white table cloths and candlesticks. Everything was perfect. "But of course, our daughter deserves ze best on er wedding day, no?" Mrs. Delacour had said to answer all the gaping looks from earlier.
After the ceremony and dinner, a wizard band played their own renditions of popular songs. When the traditional first dances ended, numerous other couples entered the dance floor. Before she joined in on the dancing, Phoenix wanted to congratulate Bill and Fleur, who were now making their rounds.
When they finally reached her, Phoenix said, "Congratulations!"
"Thank you," the newlyweds replied together, apparently accustomed to the routine.
Phoenix smiled, "Fleur, you look absolutely stunning!" Fleur did look amazing. Her normal beauty was accompanied by another that one can only have on her wedding day. She seemed so happy, and her dressing gown – white with beautiful, pale golden flowers embroidered near the bottom hem – also helped with the "wedding day beauty". Her long silvery blond hair was up in an elegant bun. "I could only hope to look half as beautiful as you today on my own wedding day. . . if I ever do get married, that is," Phoenix finished.
"Phoenix, you weel be just as beautiful as moi if not more!" Fleur said kindly. (A/N: Remember? She slightly favors Phoenix now. . . that's why she had to make the boys presentable. . .) "You almost beat me today on ze beauty scale! You really, ow do I say zis, 'pull off ze red air'."
"Well you certainly pull of the blond hair," Phoenix said, smiling at the compliment. "And, Bill, you just look so handsome! Who ever helped you look so dashing?" she joked.
Bill laughed, "A certain dictator who has a liking of combing poor people's hair."
Phoenix laughed as they moved on to the next person. It feels good to laugh again, Phoenix thought. Her depression period was finally over, and she had her red hair back. She remembered her little trip with Fred and George to their parents' house the day before.
Fred and George led Phoenix into their parents' living room. Ron and Ginny sat there with Hermione and Harry. The twins wanted to make this visit short and sweet: grab the box full of extra Skiving Snackboxes and then skedaddle. But that plan was interrupted when Ron asked, "Hey, Fred, George! Who's that with you?"
Fred, George, and Phoenix stopped at the stairs and gave Ron confused looks. "What do you mean?" George asked.
Ron replied, "Well, you're kind of dragging a red haired stranger up to possibly your old bedroom. . ."
"You mean you don't recognize her?" Fred asked, slightly shocked.
"Recognize her?" Ron, Harry, and Hermione said together.
"Oh!" the 'mystery girl' said in her odd accent. It sounded like a mix between a British and an American accent. "They have never seen me with my red hair!"
"I've seen you with it! That's how I met you!" Ginny said indignantly.
"Well, I'm talking about Harry, Ron, and Hermione," Phoenix said back. She paused to give the three some time to think, then asked, "You still don't recognize me?"
The three looked her over. She had fiery red hair, a very unfamiliar trait, but her face and eyes – amazingly blue eyes – looked like someone's they had met before. . .
"Phoenix?" Harry and Hermione said together.
The twins rolled their eyes. "About time. . ."
"Then what happened to your black hair? You had black hair yesterday," Ron said confused.
Phoenix knew that this could take a while to answer so she sat down while the twins ran up to their old room. She sighed before saying, "Well, you all know my full name: Phoenix Raven Alqua Riddalia. I don't know exactly why my body does it, but my hair changes from red to black or vice versa. Ron, stop looking so confused! It's really quite elementary. My first name is Phoenix, and phoenixes have what colored feathers?"
"Red," Ron answered slowly.
"Well, actually, phoenixes' feathers are numerous shades of red and gold," Hermione stated matter-of-factly.
Phoenix then held up a lock of her hair. It had just as Hermione described: numerous shades of red and gold. The colors could only be seen if you looked very closely for them as they all blended together to give Phoenix her distinct shade of red hair.
"Where does the black come in?" Harry asked curiously.
Phoenix answered with a question, "What color are raven feathers?"
"Black," Hermione answered quietly like she was trying to put together a puzzle. "What about 'Alqua.' I've heard that word in History once. What does it mean?"
Phoenix smiled a knowing smile, "It means 'swan' in Quenya. That's the ancient language of the elves. . .but not house elves. These elves disappeared from the earth years ago. . . My mom and I figure that at some point or another, my hair with have white in it and not the kind from old age either."
"Well your mum named you; shouldn't she know why she named you as she did?" Hermione asked, still trying to put together the pieces.
"My mom named me through a prophecy. When the nurse at the hospital asked what I was to be named, my mom answered in a prophecy. . . Weird huh? Luckily, the nurse was a witch. Otherwise, we could have had a problem. . ."
"But, Phoenix, you don't have the slighted idea as to why your hair changes color?" Hermione asked, still puzzled.
Phoenix thought about it. "Actually, we're pretty sure but notone hundred percentsure that my hair turns black either when I'm really mad or in a state of depression. The state of depression one has been happening a lot lately. . ." she trailed. Her thoughts were on the deaths of Will, Sirius, and Dumbledore. . .
Phoenix sighed and looked up. Fred and George stood at the bottom of the staircase holding numerous boxes. "Only one box, eh?" Phoenix teased.
"Let's just say we got a little. . ." George began.
"Carried away," Fred finished. "Now are you done telling your life story to the children?"
"Hey! She's our age you know!" Ron exclaimed.
"Always seem to forget that. . ." Fred said in mock shame. "Anyway, are you coming?"
Fred and George walked out the door. Phoenix was about to follow but stopped in the doorway. "Harry, where are you staying for the summer?" she asked abruptly.
Harry was caught off guard but quickly answered, "At my aunt and uncle's. I'm only here for the weekend while the Dursleys are on vacation in France. They left me at the house and forbade me to leave. . ."
"But you needed to come here for the wedding and so you wouldn't be so bored. And you also figured what they don't know won't hurt them," Phoenix finished like she already knew the answer.
"Yeah. . . that's exactly. . . how did you. . ." Harry stammered; the others looked amazed.
A mischievous smile played across Phoenix's face before she walked out the door and Disapparated after the twins.
"Daydreaming again?" a voice said from behind her.
Phoenix turned around to see Fred smirking behind. "So what if I am? What are you going to do?" Phoenix said back.
"Well, I guess I could ask Fleur's cousin Faye to dance if you were so busy. She looks so alone, and she is quite pretty," Fred smiled.
"In that case, I am not daydreaming," Phoenix replied.
"Good. . . May I have this dance?" he asked in mock formality.
Phoenix laughed as they walked to the dance floor.
-
Meanwhile, Harry Potter sat alone on one of the white folding chairs from the ceremony. Ron had asked Hermione to dance, and Ginny was chatting with one of her cousins. I couldn't dance with her anyway. . . Harry thought. So he just sat in the chair watching the couples dance. He noticed that Fred and Phoenix had just begun to dance. Harry watched them for a while; soon he began to imagine what Ginny would look like is she was dressed like Phoenix: her hair tied half up with a white ribbon, the rest flowing about her; the light blue dress twirling about her at each spin. . .
"Why aren't you dancing?" a woman's voice asked. Her accent was British, but she had a hint of American in it. Harry recognized the dark red haired woman with piercing blue eyes from Dumbledore's funeral.
She smiled at his confused face. "No answer, I see," she chuckled. "I haven't introduced myself yet. I am Elizabeth Dalia, but just call me Elly," she said as she held out her hand.
He took her hand and said, "I am Harry Potter." Elly smiled; her eyes said that she knew a secret. "You're Phoenix's mum, right?" Harry inquired.
Elly's eyes glittered more. "Why, yes, I am. I presume that she told you about how I knew your parents.
"Yes," Harry said eager to ask her questions.
Elly laughed, "What do you want to know first?"
Harry thought about it for a while. Then he decided to ask about something Phoenix mentioned at Dumbledore's funeral. "Were you engaged to Sirius?"
Elly at first seemed surprised by Sirius's name, but then she laughed. "Yes, I was engaged," she answered. When she saw Harry's questioning look, she began, "I started going out with Sirius in our seventh year, the same year as your parents, but Sirius and I fancied each other for much longer than that. . ."
"Why didn't you go out before then?"
"Well Lily despised James. . . Actually, she didn't, but she didn't want him to know that. He thought he was very conceited, yet she had a total crush on him. It's kinda confusing. . . She didn't want it to seem like she liked him at all so she cut all ties with the Marauders. . . You know who the Marauders are, right?" Harry nodded so Elly continued, "So your mum wasn't too happy when I joined the Quidditch team. . . Anyway, I didn't want to lose my friendship with Lily so I tried not to talk to them – I mean the Marauders – too much. Unfortunately, that didn't work to well. . . accidentally came across the Map one day. . . funniest day ever. . . but that's another story. . . Moving on, Sirius – being a Chaser and all – and James – being the Seeker – were at all the practices as was I. . ."
"What position did you play?" Harry asked, intrigued by how she acted so "teenager-ish".
"I was a Chaser. SO Lily would come to a practice here or there, and whenever that happened, James would show off. That didn't help improve Lily's opinion on him so Sirius and I were unofficially forbidden to go out. . ." Then Elly chuckled, "Finally, events caused the two to really see each other. After that, James, Lily, Sirius, and I were pretty much inseparable. That was pretty much the end of the "Mischievous Marauder Days". But now as I look back, I feel really bad for Remus; he didn't really have a girlfriend. . . I'm so glad that he has Tonks now," Elly concluded as she looked at Lupin and the pink haired Tonks talking happily to some other guests.
It was quiet while Harry soaked up this information. Then he asked, "What were my parents like?"
Elly smiled reminiscently, "Well, your mum was the nicest witch I have ever known. She was a prefect in our time – probably one of the reasons she didn't get along with James and Sirius too well. She was great at almost every subject. . . It's actually really hard to describe her. . . she was just. . . Lily. . . and your father. . . he was hilarious! He and Sirius were always getting in trouble, but they were better. . . behaved once they got older. He was a brilliant Seeker, your father was. I don't think he ever missed catching the Snitch. . . cept that one time. . . ANYWAY great people. . . they understood me in a way that no one really could." She sighed and looked as if she was remembering something.
Harry thought about what she just relayed to him. Then another question popped into his mind: "Why were you and Sirius never married?"
Phoenix's mother looked at him sadly. "He proposed to me on October 30, 1981. I'm sure you know what happened on Halloween that year. . ."
In Harry's mind, he heard a woman screaming. The night my parents died. . . Then it occurred to him: Sirius was arrested that night too! Harry met Elly's eyes;her eyeslooked as if she felt guilty. "It's not your fault though. . . that any of that happen. . ." he told her.
"I'm afraid it is," she sighed; Harry was shocked. How could it be her fault. . . it's because of the prophecy that Voldemort came after my family. . . he thought. Elly continued, "Well, Harry, Sirius was over at my house; Phoenix was taking a nap. In about an hour, we – as in your parents, Sirius, and I – were going to your mum's Muggle friend's Halloween party. Phoenix was going to your house so Remus could watch the two of you. . . he didn't want to come. The full moon was two days prior, and he wasn't up for a party.
"Anyway, Phoenix began to cry so I held her. As I did so, she passed a premonition to me."
Harry interrupted, "I thought my parents were in hiding, and you can pass on a premonition?"
Elly answered, "They were in hiding, but as long as they're secret keeper didn't say where they were, no one would be able to find them, even at the Muggle party. And about the premonition, I think Phoenix is a special case; she's really gifted in Divination – better than I am and even her teacher at school. . . any more questions before I continue?"
"Wait, you said that Lupin was going to baby sit Phoenix and me while you, Sirius, and my parents were gone. If Voldemort waited another hour or so before coming, the three of us would probably. . ."
"Be dead," Elly finished. "But Voldemorthas no patience. . . . . he always gets what he wants when he wants it. . ." she said darkly. Harry didn't think that the last part pertained to his parents, but he didn't dare question something that apparently made Elly so angry.
"Back to the story then?" Elly asked. Harry nodded so Elly continued, "This. . . premonition. . .was. . . not good. . . at all. I don't know how she had it, but Phoenix saw. . . your parents. . . dying. Imagine my reaction when I saw two of my best friends' deaths. I panicked! Finally, Sirius understood what I was saying and was at your house in seconds. Unfortunately, the deed was already done, and Sirius was greeted by Hagrid. After Hagrid confirmed the premonition, Sirius abandoned his motorcycle to him and began to wander. Then he blamed it on Pettigrew and sought him out. I found him just in time. I stopped him from killing Pettigrew, the filthy traitor. . . but the Aurors wouldn't believe me when I said that Sirius didn't kill him! It was Dumbledore who pulled me away and made me go back to America. . ." Elly was on the verge of tears upon concluding the story.
After a long moment, Harry wiped away his own tears and said, "It's not your fault."
Elly looked at him for another period of time before saying, "You sound like your mother." Then she continues, "If I could have told Sirius right away, we could have gotten your family out of there. If I didn't tell Sirius, he would not have been charged with murder. If I let Sirius kill Pettigrew. . . Voldemort wouldn't be back and numerous people would still be alive. . ."
Harry couldn't comfort Elly on the last two points, but he knew they weren't her fault. He also knew that there had been pretty much no hope for his parents. "He will mark him as his equal. . ." Without his mother dying, Harry wouldn't be alive. Harry sighed. At least, I know what the truth about what happened on that night. . .
Harry looked at Elly; she was now crying. He soon realized that he was too. He wasn't exactly sure why he did, but Harry hugged her. They stayed like that for a moment. Then Elly said quietly, "Harry, there's something else you should know." She paused before saying, "I'm your godmother."
Harry slowly pulled away to see if she was kidding. Why would she joke about something like that? he asked himself. As soon as he saw her, Harry knew that she was telling the truth. Elly Dalia was his godmother.
-
A few minutes later, Harry was alone again. This phase didn't last very long. Harry was soon tapped on the shoulder.
"Hey, Harry," Ginny smiled as she sat down.
"Hi, Ginny. Having fun?" he replied.
She smiled again, making Harry's heart skip a beat. "Not really."
"Oh," Harry replied. He really wished he could think of something to say to her, but nothing came to mind.
Ginny sighed, "Why don't we dance together?"
"Ginny, we can't! I told you!" Harry was interrupted by Ginny putting her finger in front of his lips.
"We're dancing for fun," she said as she took her finger away.
"It's a slow song," he protested verbally, but inside, he wanted to dance with her.
Ginny smirked, "Friends are allowed to slow dance, and I'm off limits anyway. I'm Ron's sister, remember? And it's a wedding: everyone dances at weddings."
"Fine. You've convinced me," Harry smiled. "Are you used that spiel on your parents?"
"On anyone who asks, really," Ginny laughed as she led him to the dance floor.
Harry and Ginny slow danced with enough room for another person to dance between them at first. As the song progressed, the pair got closer. Soon they were only a hand's length apart. Before he or Ginny realized it, Harry was kissing Ginny. It was nothing serious; it only lasted a few seconds, but it sent fear through Harry anyway. He tried to pull away from the dance, but Ginny whispered, "If you leave now, you'll just cause a scene." Harry knew she was right so he continued to dance with her. He scanned the people around them. No one had seemed to notice. Just then, Phoenix caught his eyes. She was still dancing with Fred (or at least he was pretty sure it was Fred), but she was smiling and had a knowing gleam in her eyes. Harry swore mentally; she saw! Don't worry. No one else saw, and your secret is safe with me. Those words floated through Harry's head, but they weren't his own thoughts. Then the sentence: Don't worry; I'll relieve you of your 'torture.' drifted through his mind. Just then the song ended.
Harry and Ginny left the dance floor. Who --or what -- was telling me these things? he asked himself. As if to answer his question, Harry remembered some of Elly's earlier words. "She's really gifted in Divination. . ." That could explain whyPhoenix could finish his sentence yesterday. . . Is she a Legilimens? He glanced at Phoenix. She was now talking to both Weasley twins. Harry had a feeling that his first impression on her was wrong, and there was a lot more to learn about the one named Phoenix Raven Alqua Riddalia.
A/N: Well, I'm trying to make my contacts clear again; they got all blurry from looking at the screen for too long. . . anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. Like I said, it has a lot of story and history stuff. . . I don't know if I'll ever be able to write another one this long ever again, but chances are I will. So PLEASE PLEASE PUH-LEASE REVIEW! I love to hear from all you people out there. Otherwise, I can't change anything that's wrong or wonky or something! So please review. I don't know when the next chapter will be up. I just started school today so it's harder to write. Anyhoo, thanks for reading!