Phoenix Flame
Child of the new Dawn
Disclaimer: don't own don't sue
A/N Alright, wow I know it has been a while. I just want readers to know that I am not giving up on this story. I've already outline the next couple chapters and I'm planning on writing out some of the big parts to come to help speed things along. Thanks to all those who kept with this story, I hope you continue to enjoy it!
Knowledge Gained
The golden rays of the sun had just crept into the window when Harry's bright green eyes snapped open as if an alarm had sounded. He yawned and stretched before slipping out of bed and pulling his clothes on. It was only when he realized that his shirt was on backwards and he was trying to pull one of his old Hogwarts hats on his foot as a sock, did he fully wake up. He jumped slightly, as he pulled off his shirt, when he felt something bounce off his collar bone. Reminding himself that it was just the necklace the Seer had given him, he pulled the shirt on the correct way. He had gotten into the habit of wearing the necklace after the first few days of training had him falling asleep fully clothed on top of his bed covers.
It had taken some time for Harry to grow used to his rigorous schedule after keeping odd hours at Tiernan's castle and then a few sleepless nights in Azkaban. He was soon very grateful for what physical and magical training he had already possessed.
His mornings began with a grim-looking Takara who seemed to find pleasure in calling forth creatures so fast that Harry was out of breath within a few moments of practicing. Phoenix, nuncamy, wolf, phoenix, jaguar, wolf… Harry swore softly and gave another mental push to his human form to calm the agitated adder in front of him only to throw himself to once side to avoid the massive paw of a bear roaring in anger.
Trying to ignore the burning pain and the sense of wrongness that came with his nuncamy form, Harry curled slightly and gave a full out roar towards the bear.
"TAKARA!"
Harry gave a sigh of relief and gave another mental push back into his human form, as the bear disappeared and Takara turned to face an amused Rekem.
"Times up, Harry needs to do something other than play with your pets." He continued, nodding in greeting at Harry, who was too out of breath to do anything but nod in return.
Takara simply nodded and waved her hand dismissively, strolling off the platform. Rekem jumped up and soon took her place standing in front of Harry. Once Harry caught his breath and stretched a little he gave a small nod. Raising his hand, Rekem snapped his fingers and a bright blue line of light outlined the platform and everything went dark.
Expecting this, Harry closed his eyes for a moment letting them adjust to the complete darkness. Opening his eyes, he pulled up what Rekem had called his 'mage sight', allowing him to see areas that were affected by magic as well as magical auras; a skill he would need for the first task of the Delany Syn.
He blinked as he saw the entire floor outline in a deep red and looked up to see a figure outlined in what looked like red flames. He tensed and took a deep breath before taking a step forward towards Rekem. The large stone blocks shifted immediately, as they had every practice, some rose and fell in one continuous spot; some flew from side to side, while others still, simply spun pointlessly until Rekem commanded them to move.
Moving quickly, Harry kept as low as he could, jumping from one block to the next following the figure wreathed in red flame. He dodged a spinning block as it went careening towards him, and blinked quickly as his magic sight flickered slightly, and he was momentarily drowned in darkness.
Rekem took advantage of this and sent a large clump of blocks towards Harry at full speed. With a push of his magic, Harry returned to his mage sight and had only enough time to take one step back, to be blown back five feet from the impact of stone on stone, and grazed his shoulder against a spinning rock.
Cursing, Harry rose and once again took off after Rekem, this time shifting into his wolf form. Rekem yelled in surprise as a wolf tackled him to the ground, loosing his concentration and causing the platform to erupt with light. Shoving, a now human Harry, off of him, Rekem raised his arms and allowed the blocks to fall back into their places.
"You're getting much better," said a quiet voice next to Harry.
Harry jumped and looked into the pupil-less sliver-blue eyes of Frost. Vaguely reminded of Luna, he smiled at her and pushed himself up onto his feet.
"Aren't you training with Harry today?" Rekem asked as Frost made no move to jump onto the platform. Harry usually trained with all the members of Isidro first thing in the morning and then worked on his metamorphosing and more physical training in the afternoon.
Frost shook her head, "I'm showing Harry the library. Jaegar says he's progressed enough to take a break and that he has some things to look up."
Rekem looked down at Harry who shrugged and hopped off the platform. Frost smiled and handed Harry a sack with a small water container and sandwich. He took a swing of water as he followed Frost towards Telekos tower.
Unlike in the Isidro tower, the floors in the Telekos tower were a polished wood, slightly worn from years of use, and there was a staircase leading down into the earth. It was down these stairs that Frost led Harry. Torches lining the walls lit themselves as the two passed down deeper into the earth.
After a few moments of walking, they reached a large ornate wooden door with the words Hunter's Library engraved into the wood. Frost touched the lock with her finger and, after a series of clicks, the door swung open. "You can stay here as long you like." Frost said abruptly, "Just shut the door when you're done. I hope you find what you're looking for."
Harry stared as Frost beamed at him, turned and walked away without another word. He stared for another moment, before walking slowly into the library.
The Hunter's Library took up many rooms. The first room was filled with catacombs holding thousands of ancient scrolls with little tabs of paper attached, explaining, with a spell that changed the language according to who was reading the scroll, what the scroll contained.
The second room, separated by another ornate wooden door, were great tomes of history, spells, enchantments, and countless other subjects. The names on the spines were cracked and the words faded but the books were still preserved by anti-ageing spells.
The final room was also covered in catacombs only these held little glass balls with some sort of magical mist ever swirling inside them. At the bottom of each wall were built-in shelves filled with pensives of varying quality. Each little glass ball had a memory of some important event from great battles to political events. Once the memory was viewed, the swirling mist would return to its original state inside the ball. Some of the memories dated back past the time of the Hogwarts founders.
Harry found himself simply wondering around for a long time, trying to imagine what Hermione would make of this place. To be honest with himself, Harry hadn't given much thought to his friends since he had arrived. He didn't even know if they knew where he was or if he was alright.
He shook his head slightly; right now he had to focus on getting out of this place. With a sigh he reached up and pulled out a random scroll. The words on the scroll shifted around for a moment before it read 'The accounts of the Greek heroes: Percous, Theseus, and Alekos'
The name 'Alekos' rang a bell in Harry's head. The seer had mentioned him… hadn't he been the one to seal the Breaden Tree all those centuries ago?
Taking the scroll toward one of the many tables scattered around the room, Harry unrolled if fully. He scanned the scroll quickly and found Alekos mentioned at the very last part.
'Little is known about Alekos. He was the only son of the merchant Adapa, prophesied to seal in the greatest evils of the world. Barely past his eighteenth birthday, Alekos set out to fulfill his destiny. Gathering as many priest and priestesses as he could, he set them all to work blessing the largest tree in the land. With blessed chains and years of training under his belt, Alekos waited for the darkness. The demons were attracted to newly formed purity and set out to kill the youth, led by the seemingly indestructible Nightghasts. As the evil creatures approached, Alekos cast the binding spell using the elements in a pentagram. With the last of his energy, he waited until the demons had reached him and opened a portal into the tree. The tree erupted in pure magic, making it shine a pure white from root tip to the highest leaf, and it is said that Alekos smiled as he used his very life force to seal the tree. The dark creatures were sucked into the tree, and the blessed chains formed a great golden band around it. But Alekos understood that all evil could not be trapped, and allowed the lesser demons to escape in small numbers. However, deep inside the tree near its core, lies the most deadly of creatures the Earth has ever known.
The location of the Breaden Tree, as it was later called, remained a mystery for many years. Rumors say that the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had discovered the tree, during their early years before they built their school, but no solid proof was ever found. It was said that Godric Gryffindor had found the tree and wanted to study it, but was put off by the negative responses of Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin. Rowena Ravenclaw was said to have wanted a chance to study the tree, but after many debates on the subject, Godric agreed with the other founders and refused to disclose the location.
Alekos' remains were never found and the any records of him, along with the prophecy, were destroyed. However, a necklace worn by Alekos, a laborite stone, was said to have been found by the renowned Seer Armes.'
Harry stared at the scroll for a moment, as if he hoped more information would appear. The scroll hadn't said anything about the Nightghasts, but that they were seemingly indestructible, which didn't help him at all. And if it had cost Alekos his life to seal the tree what would it take to reseal it or to stop if from breaking? And why would Slytherin be against studying the tree?
"Judging by your expression, I take it you haven't found what you were looking for yet?" Jaegar asked, appearing out of nowhere, causing Harry to jump.
Harry ran a hand through his hair sighing, "It mentions the Nightghasts, but it doesn't tell you how to kill them. And it tells you how the tree was sealed but not how to reseal it or prevent it from breaking."
Jaegar seemed unimpressed at Harry's findings, "Did you honestly think you could find what you were looking for the very first time you looked?"
"This isn't the first time! We've been looking almost all summer!" Harry burst out angrily.
Raising an eyebrow, Jaegar gestured around the room, "But you haven't looked here yet."
Harry looked at him sharply, "You don't know how-"
The Hunter rolled his eyes, "If I knew how to kill those beasts, they would all be dead and you wouldn't be here. What I am saying it that if there is a way to kill Nightghasts, it would be here, you will just have to look harder. But for now, it is time to eat and you must get some rest, the first part of the Delany Syn is only in a few days."
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Dumbledore had just finished an Order meeting at Hogwarts, leaving Tiernan, Remus, and himself sitting at a table in one Hogwarts' many rooms awaiting Ashon's return.
"Are you sure he's coming tonight, Albus?" Remus asked glancing at the clock atop the fireplace mantle.
"Oh ye of little faith…." Ashon called from the doorway, leaning against the frame, "We can't all be as punctual as you are Remus."
Remus said nothing and waited impatiently as Ashon took his time getting into his chair and propping it up on its back legs, grinning openly at the look Remus as giving him.
"Any sign of Potter?" Tiernan asked, not interested in watching the staring contest going on between the other two werewolves.
"Potter's fine." Ashon said indifferently, still watching Remus intently.
"And where exactly is he?" Remus ground out, forcing himself not to rise as his sire wished him to. Ashon had been pushing his buttons on purpose ever since he had blown up at Snape when Harry was in Azkaban. The werewolf seemed determined to 'unleash his wolfish side'.
"Safe with the Hunters," Ashon said softly, before turning towards Dumbledore, "As far as I am aware, Harry will be staying with them for quite some time. He may be a little late for the school year, but if things go as planned he'll be back to torment his teachers within a few weeks after start of term, if not sooner."
"What plans?" Tiernan asked, glancing over at Remus who was staring at a spot on the table.
Ashon shrugged, "Oh this and that, Jaegar wasn't specific and I wasn't planning on snooping around a castle full of fully trained killers after what Greyback pulled last week."
Remus blinked and straightened in his chair, "Fenrir Greyback? He's acting as Voldemort's marshal for werewolves isn't he?"
Ashon nodded, "He's taken to this nasty habit of killing while in human form. Along with his insane fascination with turning children and setting them against the society where they were born, this new thirst for blood has put him even higher on Voldemort's 'good' list. The Dark Lord is even threatening to unleash him on the wizarding world's children."
Tiernan rubbed his face wearily, "I've had problems with him before, during the first war. Some of my people were agreeing with his belief that we werewolves should take revenge on the wizarding world for making us exiles. They believed they could have a better life with Voldemort in charge, allowing us to feed on human flesh."
Remus sighed, "I went to one of their camps before. Their living conditions are horrible and shun normal society to live on the margins, stealing and even killing just for food."
Dumbledore place the tips of his fingers together and looked over them at the other men, "The Ministry has been notified of Greyback's actions and I am sorry to say the Rufus Scrimgeour, the head of the Auror office, is not going to settle with just more passing of anit-werewolf legislature." He looked over at Tiernan, "We must brace ourselves for slander and accusations against us. Hopefully Arthur will be able to control high tempers at the Ministry, else I fear our alliance with both werewolves and vampires will come to question. The Ministry would fear a spy sneaking in and reporting back to Voldemort."
Tiernan laughed mirthlessly, "Of course, one lunatic happens to be a werewolf and gives everyone else of our kind a bad name."
"Greyback is easily the stuff of nightmares for wizarding parents," Remus said grimly, "A monster that comes out of the dark to kill or infect your children. I can't say I'm surprised Voldemort gets reactions out of threatening to unleash Greyback."
Ashon snorted, "Greyback is nothing but a senseless animal. He has allowed his animal side to overtake him so completely he is nothing than a brainless bloodthirsty beast, not even worthy of calling a werewolf."
"And you're so much better than he is?" Remus snapped suddenly.
"I don't run around biting children's throats out in or out of my wolf form." Ashon sneered.
"Yet you still managed to bite me as a child." Remus said rising.
"That's enough!" Dumbledore said loudly and looked at Remus and Ashon sternly, "This is something the two of you will have to work out on your own." Then his voice softened, "Harry will be safe at the Hunter's Keep, Remus. Jaegar will not let anything happen to him."
Remus sighed, "Forgive me for being rude, but the word of a Hunter gives me little peace of mind." He ran a hand through his graying locks, "If there isn't anything else, Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore nodded, "That is all for now, I suggest that you all get some rest."
'At least I know where you are, Harry.' Remus thought as he entered his room. He pulled off his shoes and cloak, and was fast asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.
A/N Thank you to Lupinlover88- don't worry I do intend to finish this story and I do remember you asking about Kenani and I think I wrote back but knowing how well my email's working now, you probably didn't get it, I'm fine with you taking it! Thanks for your review it does mean something to me and sometimes I do need someone to get on my back and tell me to write! Lol
Tonks lupin- lol you named so many people and none of them are going to be the betrayer!
Albus- thanks for your review I will keep updating this fic and I will finish it! It just might take a while!
Hope you enjoyed, and the next chappie should be out before 3 months! Till next time! Dawn!
