"Who are you?" I asked the white clothed figure in front of me. He wore no shoes and was garbed only in a white silken shirt and soft white silk pants. Both seemed to glow iridescently. That or the boy's skin itself the source. I shivered at the thought. A faded and worn set of letters could barely be made out initialed on the cuff of his sleeve. He looked like he could be no older than sixteen but he felt as light as a newborn and yet simultaneously... as singularly heavy as death.
"What are you?" Al corrected reaching into his pocket for his wand. That frightened me. Al never needed the thing unless he wanted to either pretend he was normal, like in class or in front of others... or if he needed to blow something particularly large to pieces. Not even to freeze the black lake had he used his wand… what on earth was this thing that it scared Al enough to draw on it?
The figure noticed the action and made no move whatsoever, after a moment he merely smiled. Beautiful...
"Well… my parents … named me Phoenix. Although my other names are many..." the creature almost sang.
"My family name I'm certain Fate would wish kept secret if even I could remember it now to tell you." He continued strangely tilting his head as he spoke. Names did not belong labeled on this creature...
"I must admit it is indeed strange to be meeting the two of you like this, since yours is such a sad tale to be sung. As far as what I am… not even the goddess would know, for I have roamed these woods through time both forward and back, even beyond the realms of magic. You have no concept, my dearest ones what I truly have become." he finished cryptically.
The figure spoke in such a strange sing song voice that it seemed too eerire for speech. It was as if the design of his voice was not intended for anything other than song. His words were like bells, and the way he tilted his head when he spoke told me he was no longer human, if ever he could have been called that. Al was right to ask what he had.
Strangely I didn't get the same horrible feeling I did around Marvolo. This was different, and worse almost. Whereas Volo was clearly malign, this entity was even more frightening for I could not place what on earth he was or what his intentions were. His long blond hair shone like pale spun gold in the dim moonlight that filtered though from above the trees. The golden mane reached as far down as his back and flew freely in the wind. His green eyes sang even brighter than Al's, spoke deeper than envy, and whispered greener than moss. They were winter and summer at once. He was unnaturally luminescent. He was light itself and his face… looked…so familiar...
"I was once one of the seven, or will be one day… but I resigned that role… and have become something… more." He said sadly looking up at the moon, catching its light with his hand and twisting it like silken threads between his fingers.
"You shouldn't be here." said Al wide-eyed and frightened at the creatures movements. This Phoenix was playing with the very fabric of magic itself, as if they were his toys to play with.
"Hmhmhm…" He giggled melodiously. His laughter was children and tears, rain and ocean mist, and life.
Yet he was not light or life! I almost screamed at myself. He bore a weight that said age and death were wrapped up in him as well. He was neutral or something grey… a prospect more frightening than concepts like good or evil. I was terrified because I realized I was looking at something beyond the mind's ability to comprehend.
Something that should not have been written when the world was wrote.
"I shouldn't really be anywhere my friend, my family, my fate… but I'm sure you would feel differently, AlBuS if you knew my story, my sadness, my song."
Achh...
The way he said Al's name physically hurt me. It was so strong and crippling that I thought I might choke on it, or grow deaf should it be repeated. It felt like a different name entirely. It was like crystal and metal and glass ringing, swords crashing together, fire and love made manifest. It felt wholly too personal for me to hear, yet familiar all the same.
A name.
What could be so strong about one word I thought, suddenly realizing why… It was Albus himself, unraveled like fresh parchment blown open in the wind.
Torn open… I corrected petrified.
Al winced at the sound and let out a gasp of air as though wounded. I was about to move towards him when...
"As would you, ScOrPiUs." he said turning to me. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. It felt like he had reached into my chest and wrapped his slender fingers around my heart, no… my very soul. He was squeezing it as though he thought to slowly end its fluttering. My whole being shook and shivered as would a leaf in the harsh autumn wind.
All of a sudden i was cold and empty... the only thing I could feel left was a thin ribbon of something bright, something connecting me to Al. I think if Al had not been here with me, the word…
my own name… would have killed and devoured me. Eaten me whole and left no trace that I had ever existed. The feeling inside my chest wasn't cold or evil merely alien and powerful.
"Tell me then, where is there room left for a creature as sad as me?" he asked in continued answer to Al's statement.
"Since I am the tragedy that comes after yours as well as the one that came before. Where do I then belong?" He asked watching a flower blossom on the ribbon of light that danced through his fingers. His green eyes looking sadly as the glowing wings of a butterfly spread from the blossoms core. It emerged and flew delicately around his hand before turning to dust and ash and flame and smoke the second it touched his extended fingertip. His eyes... they looked...
"Ah so sooon? The moon is calling me back. It would seem my time here is almost up once again." He said sighing autumn and spring from his mouth. What a perverse thought… the ability to sigh seasons from one's mouth…the very air he breathed seemed to resonate with magic.
"There are all manner of curious things in this wood... Wouldn't you agree, Firenze?" The creature said without shifting his body or gaze from its entire focus on the moon. We heard a rustling and turned to see a centaur approaching us from behind.
"A child of the stars and heavens… you do not belong here." said the centaur approaching, mimicking Al's earlier words. It clearly did not belong... and yet… Why did the creature have letters on his shirt if he wasn't from our world? I thought curiously. Why did he have clothes at all? What were those letters? P…F…M… or P...F...N or maybe it was P…P…M... i couldn't quite make out...
"That stone may once have interested me if death were a concept still beyond my understanding." The Creature said interrupting my thoughts and pointing at the stone in Al's hand, ignoring Firenze's words entirely.
"Alas it is I now who is beyond Death." he said with a sigh turning back to gaze up at the moon, with those eyes. Always back to the moon. My own eyes were starting to hurt...
"To share a name is a rare thing indeed my fatelings … fontlings. Perhaps your futures were to fill the seventh seat. Even I cannot recall what was to be your doom. The future is where I'm from but the past was where I was born. I know only to share a name is to share a destiny. You are: bound beyond blood, tethered throughout time, luminous like life... Creatures born of light and darkness… mist and shadow… Sun and Moon. Like me…" he said lifting from the earth fading into the air. Ethereal, Ephemeral, Evanescent.
Al hadn't wasted a second after the creatures departure. "Al what on earth…" I began as Al ran to catch the seven petaled flower drifting softly on the wind. He brought it over to me and the centaur looking wide eyed and terrified. "Are you all right child of Harry?" the centaur asked approaching. 'Oh well thanks I'm fine by the way'... i thought sarcastically... in truth i wasn't.
"I think so…" Al said looking unsure.
"Are you certain?" The beast asked again softly, looking deeply into Al's eyes for answer.
"That creature was not of our world, not of our plane. It is best not to deal with their like… as for his words, they are strange indeed." The centaur said once he had ascertained that Al was alright. He turned looking at me curiously. What had I done now? Besides what he had said was obvious even to two normal eleven year olds, you imbecilic horse.
The flower was indeed beautiful i thought looking down at the thing. "I don't suppose we'll know how to read those until ancient runes…" I asked looking at the symbols written on each petal of the blossom until I actually realized I recognized them. Seven fonts. "It couldn't be." I said.
"These are etched on the walls of the department of Mysteries. Even in our story books. Everywhere." He whispered quietly.
"Seven secrets, seven mysteries, seven fonts of magic crowned." Al started the rhyme. "Through: Thought, Nature, Fate, Time, Death, Hate and Love are bound" I finished. The oldest riddle in the magical world. "The Goddess's song." said Firenze.
"Well solving that most certainly would make us famous." I said trying to shake the tension and the feeling of otherworldliness that clung oppressively to the air. This was wrong… very wrong…how could we deal with this new devilry? What...
"Young one, these are not matters to be trifled with. This song is old and filled with meaning to all races and creatures of magic." The beast said reproachfully contemplating the flower in Al's hand. "That is a sacred thing, son of Harry. Keep it veiled from the eyes of others… As for that stone… it should never have been found." Finished the centaur eyeing me even more strangely than before. Why me? Al had tripped me, his stupid father was the one who...
"O ello ther' Firenze… this be just like the firs time yer dad came her innit?" said the idiot Hagrid coming into the clearing completely forgetting that the first time Harry Potter had come here it was with Father and that Firenze had saved Al's dad from Voldemort himself. Coincidences of this magnitude were not coincidences at all.
Al shrunk the flower and put it in a vial he kept handy for potions ingredients… gods my Al is such a Ravenclaw. "Hello Hagrid you had best return these boys to their beds… they have seen enough for tonight I believe." The centaur said turning to Al. Why were strange things always happening to us. I felt very afraid all of a sudden. All I wanted to do was crawl up inside my bed with Al and Rose and Lou and Aurora. A Malfoy does not fear, should not fear. Yet that creature would haunt me until the day I died. As would my real name. What were we going to do?
Seven again. Seven… the most powerful number in existence. Peverell was the fifth family wasn't it? The masters of Death. Thats what father said once. Something about old myths... The Malfoys were descendent from another, blast which was it? Merlin and his Avalon descendants were keepers of Time or Thought... although I could never really remember which…
And of course the Valo…
"Alrigh' Firenze I can finish up my trackin' another nigh'… come on boys its back te yer beds." cried Hagrid.
Blast... It wasn't likely we could get to sleep now.
Fate was cruel and unusual.
APOV
The last thing i noticed before we left the clearing was the color of Scor's eyes and the way the light seemed to play even more strangely with them.
The look he gave me told me he could have said the same about mine.
The Goddess's song... i thought incredulously to myself...
I can't believe it...
Scor's name...
Our Name...
So I couldn't help myself. I know i said i would wait for cookies or reviews but this chapter was too insane for me not to post for the weekend. This time i'm serious i am not posting another chapter until the cookies arrive... (unless... it is merely fluffy filler... or i lose control ... again...).
You may at some point wish to reread this chapter later on as i most likely will be making alterations to make sure everything is set up properly for the plot a few years later.
This was one of my favorite chapters to write since Phoenix is an entity entirely beyond the comprehension of our two prodigies, so i got to play with a myriad of literary devices and not have to worry too much if they felt weird since that was my intent.
Phoenix is basically He/she/it/them and much, MUCH more... you may or may not ever see him again... he is... something lost and something as entirely beautiful as his life's story was tragic. (That may be all you ever get...although...maybe not.)
(o0o_o0o)
If you are incredibly excited please tell me! (I screamed after rereading it this afternoon.)
Hope you enjoyed.
