Fire in the Sky
Present Day
Lyra woke up right before the sun came up. Her body was filled with anxious energy.
There was no one around to stop her, and she had been planning this since the night before. She reached into the tangled pile of Hidden next to her and put her hand over Whispers's mouth as she woke him up. His eyes opened and glowed blue for a moment before he crept with her out of the bed of discarded clothing and quietly snuck down the trunk of the tree with Lyra.
When they got to the bottom of the tree, Whispers retrieved lengths of braided rope from a box while Lyra fetched her new broom. Together, they snuck out of camp towards the bug farm. This was the perfect place to take off since there were no trees around them and could shoot straight into the sky.
Using the ropes they had collected, Lyra made a harness to strap Whispers to her chest and sit in front of her on the broom. It took longer than she thought to make sure her little brother was secure. Once he was completely set, she let her magic flow into the broom and commanded it to float. After a couple of seconds, the broom became lighter and she hopped on. With one last look towards the ground, they lifted off into the sky.
As they cleared the tops of the trees, they just floated about a hundred feet above the ground and surveyed the area around them. Mango's village was a bit to the west, and past that was a rocky shoreline. Everything around them just looked so quiet and peaceful in the pre-morning light.
Whispers was admiring the view from their vantage point, then looked up at Lyra and said, "Up, up!"
Smiling a bit more, she slowly pulled back on the handle and coaxed the broom to go higher until they were about halfway up to the peak of the volcano. From there, they could see the whole island and the sun was now peeking over the horizon that they could see further away.
She looked down at Whispers tied to her front and shared a look. They were both ready to do something a bit more than hover.
Tilting the handle down a bit, they started a slow descent toward the rocky shoreline. Seeing the wind blow through the Hidden's hair as he gripped the broom tightly made her accelerate more to feel it whipping through her hair as well. As they got down above the shoreline, she banked tightly and coasted along the tiny beach, breathing in the salty air as small waves crashed onto the rocks.
She pulled out and started to head over the water, building speed as she went. When she had enough speed, she tilted the broom slightly and let her hand trail into the water, creating a spray of water that got all over them. Then she tilted the other way and they both got to dip their hands in the water as the water sprayed up alongside them.
Looking back, the island was getting smaller behind them, so Lyra pulled up a bit to gain some altitude and turned back, accelerating as much as she felt comfortable with as she shot back towards their home. Upon arrival on the island, she slowed down considerably and started to weave her way through the trees, near ground level. As she got accustomed to dodging the trunks of the trees, she sped up. At one point she nearly collided with a tree and stopped before flying back up above the canopies.
They spent the next two hours flying around the west side of the island, dodging trees and skimming the ocean waters before both of their stomachs growled simultaneously. The sun was up now, so Harry was probably awake. He probably went to the beach looking for her, so the two of them flew out over the water to circle to the south side and arrive at the beach.
She saw the boat, tied up on the dock as they approached, and past them, Harry was talking with all of the adults on the beach. Kailee looked up and saw her approaching first, pointing to her for the others. Harry waved to her and she came in for a landing. She hopped off the broom and untied the harness that secured Whispers to her, and then approached the group with a big smile on her face from her flight.
None of them looked happy. She stopped a few paces away and looked at all of their serious eyes.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "I just went out for a flight with Whispers."
Harry approached her and gave her a big hug without saying anything for a while. Now she was getting very nervous. He took her by the hand and led her silently back into the jungle. Only Tina followed them.
The entire time, she kept asking what was going on, but Harry wouldn't say a word. When they got back to the village, Harry pulled a hoohoo feather out of his bag and threw it on the ground in the center of the trees, then ignited it with his wand. Tina stood back a bit and leaned against a tree.
Now she was scared and tears were starting to form in her eyes, "Harry, tell me what's going on. I won't take out my broom again, I swear!"
Harry looked at her with fear and anger mixed on his face, "The first thing you need to know is you are safe. This is your home, and nothing changes that. I am your brother and I will keep you safe from anything. You understand that, right?"
She was starting to tremble a bit, but she trusted her brother and nodded her head.
He took her by the hand and told her, "Yesterday, back in England, your father was released from prison."
Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't that. She started to shake even more and looked terrified, frantically looking everywhere as Harry tried to reassure her. Whispers was also trying to hold on to her, but she shook the two of them loose and vanished. Her footprints showed that she had made a run for their tree and climbed up inside.
Tina made a move to run after her, but Harry stopped her, "She needs time to process this right now. Whispers will stay with her."
He turned to his brother who was looking back with eyes full of questions, "Bring family to Lyra, keep her safe."
Whispers nodded and let out a large screech. A moment later, Hidden poured out of the nearby trees. He chittered and whispered with all of them before they scrambled up the tree Lyra had gone into.
"Take me back to the beach," he told Tina. "I need to read the paper."
The two of them came back to the beach and entered the cabin to find Brandt, Tina, Newt, and Nestor sitting around and eating breakfast. Their conversation immediately stopped when he entered.
"Give me the newspaper," Harry told them. Newt immediately handed it over to him.
Large bold letters were written at the top of the front page:
LUCIUS MALFOY
RELEASED FROM AZKABAN
Below the headline was a detailed sketch, unmoving, from the trial, with Lucius chained to the large wooden chair. The text below it read:
Dec. 25, 1992, London - Today, in a surprise move by Minister Cornelius Fudge, he performed a very rarely used power of the Minister of Magic to dismiss the remaining sentences of ten Azkaban inmates incarcerated for non-violent crimes with less than two years remaining on their sentences. A statement released by the Office of the Minister of Magic is as follows:
Today, Minister Fudge will be commuting the sentences of ten upstanding members of Wizarding Britain who have been model inmates in Azkaban prison. None of the crimes they committed were inherently violent, nor have they left any lasting imprints on those affected.
These upstanding members of Wizarding Britain will be paroled early and allowed to return to their families for the winter celebrations. This is a time of year for gifts and joy, and the goodwill we are sending with these men and women will likely impact them and keep them from returning to the life that had them incarcerated in the first place. They will instead be a benefit to their communities and Magical Britain at large.
If any citizens feel this move will endanger them in any way, they may feel safe knowing that these former inmates of Azkaban will be confined to house arrest for the remainder of their original sentence. They may only leave their places of residence while under Auror guard for that period.
The full list of released inmates, along with the crimes they were imprisoned for is below:
Patrick Bulwark - Trespassing in a restricted area of the Ministry
Veronica Crabtree - Theft of the Knight Bus
Matthew Fogs - Obstruction of justice
Valerie Frizzle - Illegal usage of shrinking charms
William Gorgon - Burglary
Fae Hickories - Muggle baiting
Jerome Leiber - Criminal use of a love potion
Lucius Malfoy - Criminal abandonment of a minor
Clyde Oleander - Trading in illegal goods
Shou Tucker - Unlicensed magical cross-breeding
While not many will recognize the other names on the list, we all recognize Lucius Malfoy.
Malfoy was found guilty of the assault and illegal use of tracking charms on his ex-wife, Narcissa Black, as well as attempted assaults on his daughter Lyra Black and Harry Potter. He managed to skate through the minister's commutations as he was not incarcerated for any violent crimes. The assaults and attempted assaults were already punished through fines paid to the court and the individuals involved.
As to the reason why the Minister has decided to use this power of his office for the first time during his stay in office, we can only guess as to how he was persuaded and why these particular offenders were chosen. No other information has been released by his office as to the nature of his thought process.
Our reporters will stay on top of the details of the inmates released and report on any pertinent details to the public. We have also reached out to those connected to the cases and will inform our readers if and when they reply.
Harry put down the newspaper.
He had needed to meet with the Minister anyways to ask about Sirius Black, now he would need to do it sooner. He would meet with this fool and hold his staff to the man's throat until he could explain why he had endangered his sister, and if he didn't get an answer he could accept…
Brandt broke him out of his thoughts by clapping his hands in front of his face.
"You're doing it again," he told Harry.
"What?" he asked.
"The pressure, you're doing it again. Now that you know what triggered it, try it again."
Harry tried to regain the focus he just had. He thought about meeting with this Minister and demanding answers from him. He thought of sticking the antler of his staff under the man's chin until he whimpered and cried.
He looked back up at Brandt, "Anything?"
"No, not that time. You need to find the exact emotional trigger. Whatever you were thinking about just now wasn't exactly right. What were you thinking of?"
"Threatening the Minister," he said casually.
"Well, you do need to talk to him anyway," Brandt said, thinking the same thing as Harry.
Newt looked at Harry with concern, "You're a bit too young to be threatening Heads of State."
Thinking back to his lessons with Severus, he frowned, knowing he hadn't completed his homework assignment yet. He looked back to Newt, with disappointment, and said, "I know, I haven't learned enough for that."
Tina smiled uneasily, "It's not about how much you've been training to intimidate people," she glared at Brandt, "which you shouldn't be doing anyway. It's about your age and you shouldn't be doing that since you are supposed to be a child."
Harry glared at her with a bit of sadness in his eyes.
"Um, speaking of meetings with Ministries," Nestor spoke up, "The kids have a meeting with the Filipino Ministry on Tuesday."
Seeing it as a good excuse to change topics, Brandt asked, "What do they want from the kids anyway?"
"They're going to be asking to send more members of the ministry to the island for exploration and material gathering purposes," Nestor told them
"But why do they need permission?" Brandt asked. "I can understand the initial agreement where Harry and Lyra paid them to establish protections on the island, but not why they would need to ask permission for anything."
Nestor shifted a bit uncomfortably at the question.
Newt nodded his head solemnly, "I thought that might be the reason, but I wasn't sure until now. It's a question of ownership, right?"
Nestor nodded.
"Ownership? The kids own the island?" Brandt asked.
"It's kind of our fault," Nestor told them, as Harry stared at the man who just said he owned an island.
"See, the Filipino Ministry has never really cared about this island. I can't find a record of our government having any activities on it, ever. Technically, it is in our territorial waters, and luckily it isn't close enough to China's territory for them to claim. Because we haven't had any activity on the island, that left it open for another party to claim ownership of it. Because the children are magical, they've left their signatures all over the island. Then, there was the incident with the poachers which we were told about. The children fought and drew blood in defense of their home. Even The Giver can't make that claim."
"So how is it your fault?" Harry asked.
"When we accepted payment from you for establishing defenses around your home, it was essentially an acknowledgment of your ownership, even if it wasn't explicitly spoken."
"Huh, ok," Tina commented.
Brand smiled a bit, "I'm guessing though, if the kids were anyone other than the heir to the Black family and Harry Potter, your ministry would have threatened to take it back, offered to buy it, or just had someone kill them in their sleep to reclaim ownership."
Harry's eyes went wide at those possibilities.
"Well, I hope we could just come to a financial agreement in those cases," Nestor said while rolling his eyes at Brandt. "However, we have to tread lightly because both children are essentially like Heads of State. They hold all the bargaining power here, so they can ask for almost anything they want or just tell us to shove off. I'm only telling you that because I like the kids and I like working here. However, every government has a few cutthroat and corrupt officials that might think of going another route."
"So what do you suggest they do?" Newt asked.
Nestor looked to Harry, "You need to think about what you would allow people from my government to do on the island and what you would not. Know what your limits are. Then also think of what you want, if you could have anything, and see if my people would be able to provide it in exchange for their requests."
Harry didn't know what he wanted, he wanted his family to be safe. Now the most important member was feeling threatened, he thought of asking if they would kill Lyra's father, but knew that only Brandt wouldn't be shocked by that idea. So he kept it to himself for now. Arcturus had told them to talk to him if they were ever planning on killing someone. So in the end, he just shrugged.
"Well, you should think about it," Nestor told him.
Brandt switched the subject back to Lyra, "How is your sister doing?"
"She freaked out, but at least she didn't run away. The rest of our family is with her now."
"Do you want any breakfast?" Tina asked him.
Harry shook his head, then looked to Brandt, "Brandt told me he wanted to go flying with me sometime, I'd like to go do that."
Brandt nodded slowly, he hadn't said that to Harry, so the boy must have something else in mind. They exited the cabin and the two of them walked back to the village to retrieve his broom.
Along the way, Brandt asked, "So what did you want to talk about? Your subtlety is getting a little better."
Harry smiled a little bit, and without reservation, asked, "Do you think Nestor's people would kill Lyra's father whatever they want on the island?"
Brandt was a bit shocked by his bluntness, but responded, "No, I don't think they would. Or if they did do it, they would ask for a lot more than just the rope, and I don't think you'd be willing to part with something that valuable."
Harry frowned and kept walking. Brandt added, "You can rest assured though, that as soon as Lord Black believes that Malfoy is a big enough threat to be killed, he may even do it himself."
They continued to walk a while longer in silence, then Harry asked, "Can you teach me the preservation charm now?"
Brandt nodded, "Let's check on Lyra, then fly out to the north end of the island. We can retrieve some samples and I'll teach it while we are there."
Harry nodded in agreement.
When they arrived at the village, most of the Hidden were wandering around performing their regular activities.
Harry saw Teacher and signed to her, [Where Lyra, Whispers]?
She pointed up towards the top of the mountain, and then went back to her work corraling up some of the small Hidden.
"Lyra and Whispers went to visit the hoohoos," he told Brandt. "She feels safe there, we can go visit after the buffalo."
Harry mounted his broom and floated up above the trees, leaving Brandt to follow. They flew over the trees in silence, though as they passed the mountain, Harry started to bank wide to the east. Brandt looked in the other direction and saw a wide-open space with a small tree in the center of it.
Brandt flew closer to Harry and asked, "Is that the tree that we need to stay away from?"
Harry nodded and continued flying in silence. After they had passed it, Harry let out a large breath he had been holding and scratched at the scar on his forehead. They continued to fly for a while before the north tip of the island came into view. Brandt went ahead and led them out over the water, before circling back down to an empty patch of land, away from where the buffalo gang was currently grazing.
When they landed, Brandt pulled out a potion vial from his pouch. He held it in front of Harry, "This is a nutritional potion. It normally lasts a long time on its own, but I'm going to cast a preservation charm on it anyways. The incantation is 'inmobilis aeternum,' and the wand movement is a figure-eight, repeated over and over until you see the effect. You need to time the incantation so that it starts at the beginning of the movement and ends when the figure-eight is finished. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it perfect. When it is correct, you will see a shimmering effect, like a soap bubble."
He held the vial in front of Harry, and while waving his wand, incanted, "inmobilis aeternum, inmobilis aeternum, inmobilis aeternum." On the third try, Harry could see a ripple of translucent rainbow across the top for just a moment.
"Did you see that? That was the spell. It helps to keep in your mind the idea of something slowing down and stopping. Not freezing though, try to leave the temperature out of it. Do not slow down your wand movement though."
He pointed his wand back at the potion and said, "Finite!" Then just like a soap bubble, the film became visible again and popped off the top. "You try now," he instructed Harry.
It took Harry nearly an hour of frustrating practice to get the incantation, the timing, and the mindset correct for it to work. Once he got it the first time, he repeated it another four times before he could do it as easily as Brandt. From there, they followed the buffalo until one of them dropped some of the precious ingredients behind. As soon as they moved away a little bit, Harry snuck towards them and scooped it into a plastic bin he had been carrying with him. When he got back to where Brandt was waiting, the Steward used a spell to separate a piece of it and levitated it into a smaller glass vial of his, then shrunk the bin of Harry's with the remainder.
He went ahead and cast the preservation charm on the sample he took, "I would like to run a few tests on it myself. Go ahead and cast the charm on yours too." He watched as Harry performed the charm. "Good work, do you want to go visit Lyra? You can try teaching her the spell as well."
Harry nodded and they mounted their brooms and took off toward the volcano. Even as they were very high in the air, Harry still took a wide route around the scary tree in the clearing below them. When they got near the peak of the mountain, Harry dove low and landed outside the crater.
Once on the ground, Harry told Brandt, "Stay outside the crater until I tell you to come in. You've seen Tristan's scar? They didn't like him, and they tolerate me only when Lyra is around. If we say run, apparate to the beach. Got it?"
Brandt wasn't used to being told what to do by a pre-teen, but he just repeated in his head "Scary island, scary island," as he nodded.
The two of them crept up toward the edge of the crater and peeked over. There was grass covering all of it, to make it look like a beautiful valley. On the other side, there was a large number of rocks that made a small cave on the edge. Harry pointed Brandt to a small red bird that was eating something in the grass about thirty feet from them.
"That's one of the newborns," Harry told him. "It can't be more than seven or eight months old."
Brandt wasn't sure how he didn't notice them before, but after he watched that one bird, he started seeing them all over the little valley. Most of them were similar to the chick near them, but there were quite a few that were larger, some with long tail feathers and sharper-looking beaks. Now and then one of them would vanish in a puff of smoke. This happened so often, he couldn't figure out which were which as they reappeared.
As if reading his thoughts, Harry said, "Don't bother trying to count them, it will just give you a headache."
"Where's Lyra?" Brandt asked.
Harry pointed across the way to the cave area. Leaning against the side was her Cleansweep 7. "She's probably inside the cave, I'm surprised she can still fit in there. Follow me."
Harry climbed down the outside of the crater a bit and mounted his broom. Just before he started moving, he looked back at Brandt floating next to him. "You have no idea how much easier this is with magic and brooms."
"A little bit, I do," he told them as they started moving slowly around the outside of the crater. "Remember my parents weren't magical. Until I went to Durmstrang, it was just accidental magic for me."
They coasted slowly and eventually got to the side where the cave would be below them. They crept up above the rim again and looked down. From this angle, they were above the outcropping of rocks that made up the cave, but sometimes while they had been moving around, Whispers had come out of the cave and was feeding berries to some of the chicks below them. Brandt pulled out his camera and started taking pictures. After the berries were gone, the chicks moved on to somewhere else.
Harry leaned over to Brandt and passed him a small rock, "Throw this at Whispers." Brandt looked at him funny. "Go ahead, it will be fine."
Brandt lobbed the pebble at the unsuspecting demiguise only for him to roll out of the way at the last second and look up to see the two of them at the top of the hill. His eyes opened wide, and he vanished. Brandt looked all over for him as Harry just seemed to be waiting for something. A minute later, as he was still looking around for Whispers, the little guy appeared out of nowhere and screamed in Brandt's face, almost causing him to fall and roll down the hill. Harry grabbed his arm to keep it from happening as he laughed along with Whispers at what happened.
Brandt looked sourly at Harry, but Harry just said, "What? I didn't throw the rock at him." Then he giggled a bit more. Turning to Whispers, he asked, "How's Lyra?"
Whispers looked a bit sad and said, "Frayed. Ly-ra frayed."
"Can you go get her?" Harry asked.
Whispers nodded and ran down the hill and into the cave. A minute later, She crawled out of the cave on her belly and climbed up the hill to her brother.
He gave her a big hug and waited for her to say something… but she just stayed silent. After a while, he said to her, "You know we have to go back to Hogwarts eventually, right?" She nodded sadly. "Do you think the hoohoos could meet Brandt?" she shook her head no. "Do you think you could have them come out so he could take some pictures? He knows to apparate away if we tell him to." She nodded and headed back down to the cave, taking a mango out of her pouch as she went.
At the entrance, she started to rip apart the mango with her fingers and throw some of the meat into the entrance and around the outside. She was speaking quietly towards the entrance as well. Half a minute later, a head poked out of the cave. It looked to Brandt like a large eagle, with a beak made for tearing at flesh and muscle. It had a fierce determination in its eyes as it ripped at the pieces of mango. He crouched at the top of the crater and took a few pictures.
As it came out further, he could see it clearly wasn't an eagle, as its body was much longer, with tail feathers almost half as long as a peacock's. The entire body was in a shimmering red and it had sharp-looking talons on its feet. Lyra reached down and stroked its head as it ate. Brandt was in awe of the bird. Dumbledore's phoenix was well-trained and quite magnificent, but this was something else entirely. More than twice as big as the Headmaster's firebird, this one looked wild and noble while Dumbledore's pet looked like, well, a pet.
He adjusted himself a little higher on the hill to get a better vantage for the pictures, but as soon as he was a little higher, the bird twisted its head to look right at him. Everyone froze. Harry started taking tiny steps away from Brandt, along the ridgeline. The firebird let out a mighty screech and Harry yelled, "GO!"
With only a half-second of hesitation and as he saw the bird starting to twist its body and tail feathers towards him, he apparated away, back down to the beach near the cabins. It was probably the most clumsy apparation he had done in some time and ended up falling as soon as he arrived. Luckily, he held onto the camera and it didn't break. Looking back up to the peak of the mountain, he saw a spiral of flame shoot into the sky at least a hundred feet upwards. He managed to raise the camera and take several pictures of the fire before it dissipated.
Nenita had been relaxing on the beach with Dougal when he arrived and Newt and Tina came out of the cabin at the sound of the apparation. "What's going on?" Tina asked, her wand drawn and on guard.
Brandt was staring at the top of the mountain where he had just been, "Remember the warnings the kids gave us, that if they say 'Go!' to go?" Newt and Tina nodded. "We were visiting the hoohoos and I just got one of those. When I appeared down here, I saw a 100-foot tongue of flame shoot into the sky from where I had been a second before. I think I got a few pictures of it."
Newt looked excited, "You got to see the hoohoos?"
"Yeah, the younger ones look more or less harmless, but the patriarch looks like the lovechild of a peacock and an eagle, all red, and twice as large. It makes Dumbledore's phoenix look like a housecat."
There was wonder and curiosity in Newt's eyes, "I hope they can take me to see them sometime soon."
Tina looked at Brandt and tilted her head, "How did you get up there?"
"I took my broom, of course," gesturing to the side of him where no broom existed. "Oh, drat, I left it up there. I'll give it a couple more minutes before I go and retrieve it."
As soon as he yelled 'GO!' Harry slid down the outside of the crater away from where Brandt had been standing. He heard the crack of apparation just as he felt a wave of heat behind him. He rolled over to see the fire from the patriarch shooting into the sky right where Brandt had been standing a second before.
When the fire had vanished, Harry peaked over the top of the crater to see the hoohoo looking straight at him. It stared at him and gave a short 'caw,' then went back into the cave.
Lyra called out to him, "Brandt made it, right? I think I heard a crack."
"Yeah, he made it. He left his broom behind though. When you can do that much fire, we'll burn down the Creeping Death, ok?"
Lyra nodded with a scared smile. Harry still needed a way to cheer her up, so he sat on the edge of the crater and thought about something to do as Lyra flitted around the area and fed the smaller birds with Whispers. Right before Brandt popped back in, he got an idea.
As their tutor appeared, he slipped a bit on the uneven surface and caught himself before sliding down the side.
"You got out of there ok? Nothing burnt off?" Harry asked
"All here, I just keep repeating to myself how scary this place is. How on earth did you survive here as children?"
"We almost didn't a few times," Harry said with incredible vagueness. Then switched topics, "I have an idea on how to cheer up Lyra, but I have a few questions." When he had Brandt's attention, he continued, "Are our brooms fireproof?"
He had no idea what the boy was thinking, but answered him, "A little bit, though I don't think they'd stand up to the fire I just witnessed."
"Can you put flame-freezing charms on them anyways, and anything else you can against heat?"
Brandt nodded and took Harry's broom, casting a large number of charms all over it. Then after peeking very carefully into the crater, he summoned Lyra's broom and performed the same charms all over it. When he saw Harry watching him closely, he thought about anything else he could do and put a few more esoteric spells on hers and then repeated those on Harry's as well.
"Anything else?"
"Do you have those warning vials you gave us before?" Brandt dug them out of his pouch and passed two to him. Harry gave one of them back. "You can go ahead down to the cabin. Sometime after dark, I'll break this one. Be ready with the camera."
"Any chance you'll tell me what you're thinking?"
"It's a surprise for everyone. I'm not even sure it will work, but if it does, it will be amazing."
Brandt just nodded and jumped on his broom to fly back down to the beach. Harry joined Lyra and Whispers just interacting with all the younger birds, feeding them, collecting feathers, and occasionally trying to scare Whispers.
When the sun started to set, Harry pulled a couple of sandwiches out of his bag and sat with Lyra to eat them. He gave a bunch of flobberworm jerky to Whispers, who happily ate it.
When they had finished and were just sitting around, Harry finally spoke, "I know you're scared, but we need to go back. There will be plenty of people to protect us, and we can help as well. Even Whispers too. Ok?"
Lyra nodded, "I guess so."
"I have an idea I want to try that I think will cheer you up a bit, is that ok?" She nodded. "Help me make the harness for Whispers first."
It went a bit quicker to create the harness for Whispers and tie him onto the broom with Harry. Then he and Lyra floated up into the air directly over the center of the crater.
Harry moved in close to Lyra and started to undo all the braids in her hair. Lyra just let him do it and felt the extra set of smaller hands belonging to Whispers working to undo it all as well. After nearly twenty minutes all of her hair hung freely so that it was about four to five feet below her broom as she sat on it. He held up his hands for her to stay still and then coasted over to the front of the cave, ripped open a mango and dropped pieces all over the entrance, then floated backward and started licking his fingers as he waited. After a minute, the patriarch came out of the cave and started eating the pieces, but then looked up to where Lyra was floating above him.
"Light it up," he told his sister.
"But the broom," Lyra said fearfully.
"Brandt put protections on it. Go for it."
Lyra concentrated, and after a few seconds, sparks started to shoot out of her hair. The hoohoo started twisting his head back and forth to look at her, then stood up tall as her hair burst into flame. At first, the fire was billowing out of every strand, but slowly it changed into pulses of flame starting from her head, moving down every strand, with bursts when they got to the ends.
"Go ahead, fly around," he told Lyra, and at that moment, Harry crushed the vial in his pocket.
Starting slowly, she started to make circles around the crater area. A few more hoohoos came out of the cave to watch as Lyra soared around the area with her flaming hair. Harry kept his eyes on the patriarch as he watched Lyra circle over and over. After she had done a few laps, she returned to the center and just hovered there.
The patriarch ducked down and jumped up, spreading his wings out as he did. With every flap, sparks descended downwards and his plumage grew brighter. Eventually, he was flapping his wings slowly to hover in front of Lyra, his feathers looking bright as day, almost like a beacon was inside him. Then he took off towards the edge of the crater to also perform a few laps around her.
Harry whispered loudly, "Play with him, as I do with the Lampong."
Lyra started to fly around the large bird, making swoops in close, almost touching, then darting away. After a few minutes of them playing this game, one of the medium-sized birds flew into the air and started to join in on the fun. That one also started to glow and let loose sparks into the air as they flew. Ten minutes later, there were maybe a dozen hoohoos, plus Lyra and the patriarch all having mock dogfights in the air, swooping at each other and throwing sparks around in the sky.
Harry flew up higher and dove towards Lyra, breaking away at the last moment, daring her to follow. She broke away from the group and followed him, but when she looked back, the entire group was following her. Harry was flying down the side of the mountain, with Lyra and the birds following him. He really hoped that Brandt was taking pictures.
Harry rushed ahead and started to fly directly toward the coast. He flew down towards them but purposely went over the beach where he saw the adults standing around watching the show. He continued out above the water and lit up his wand with a bright white light to direct Lyra to him in the darkness of the night. When she arrived, she brought the flock of glowing, sparking birds out above the water just off the beach. The group of birds and Lyra skimmed the surface of the water and engaged in another series of aerial maneuvers and dogfights.
This went on for another ten minutes with Harry and Whispers just hovering nearby watching her play. Harry could see Lyra starting to slow down and her hair wasn't as bright as it had been in the beginning. She seemed to have noticed it too and started to fly back towards the mountain, with the firebirds following her up. Harry trailed along with her, far to the side, so he didn't interrupt their flight. By the time they reached the top, Lyra's hair had completely gone out and she was looking a bit tired.
When she landed, she just laid down on the ground near the cave, with the other hoohoos, resting on the ground near her. Harry landed as quietly as he could and unstrapped Whispers from his chest. Their little brother loped over to her and laid down next to her. Harry approached as delicately as he could. He still had his shoulder cloak in his pouch from the party, so he pulled it out and draped it over her. Then he pulled out one of the hoohoo feathers he had collected that day, stuck it in the ground, and lit it up.
One of the smaller firebirds close to the burning feather looked at it and let out a long trilling call. All of the other birds nested around the crater echoed the same call. Then, one by one, they started to glow again as they had been while in flight like little feathery lanterns all around Lyra. As he stared at the amazing sight, he knew that everything would be alright. With that feeling in his chest, he mounted his broom again and soared down the mountain towards the beach.
When Harry landed on the beach, everyone seemed to have already gone inside, so he headed for the main cabin. When he got inside, Tina was pouring drinks for everyone from a tall bottle that said Odgens on the side. All eyes turned to Harry.
"I can't even think of something to say," Nenita spoke up.
"I'm completely out of film," Brandt said casually.
Kailee completely drained the drink that had been poured for her and then blew out a breath of fire. "This is an incredibly appropriate drink for the occasion," she mused.
Newt just stared at the ceiling and whispered, like he was counting something. Then he turned to his wife, "I think that is #5."
Her eyebrows rose dramatically, "Really? You don't want to put it higher?"
"My top two are more nostalgic than anything, #3 will always be the world serpent, #4 was the Kitsune migration, and I think I'll bump the Nyuvwira encounter to #6 in favor of this."
"What?" Harry was a bit confused.
Tina answered, "I'm sure you can imagine all the incredible animal sightings my husband and I have had in our lives. What we just saw with Lyra playing with those hoohoos was incredible enough to bump an East African Hydra, called a Nyuvwira, eating a herd of zebras down a spot in favor of your sister. She just made the #5 spot on Newt's list."
"Oh…" Harry said, not knowing what else to say. Than and Thao drank their shots in one go and breathed out a stream of fire as well.
"I'm so glad I gave up being an Auror to do this," Nestor commented.
"I'm glad you did too," Nenita said while slipping an arm around him.
"How's Lyra doing?" Brandt asked.
"She's asleep with Whispers up at the top of the mountain. The Hoohoos are all around her and they lit up like glowing red lanterns before I left."
"And I had to run out of film," Brandt said sadly.
"We can head for the mainland on Monday to do some shopping before the meeting on Tuesday. I'm sure my mother wouldn't mind hosting a few people," Nestor told them. "You can do some shopping while the rest of us report to the Ministry."
"Will the island be ok without any of you on it?" Harry asked.
"That's what the ward stones are for," Nestor told him. "We're not here all the time normally, we just show up a couple of days a week on average. Most of the time it's just two of us, maybe once a week all four of us are here. And Nenita shows up when she wants some private beach time."
"I do like to write on the beach, that is how I met you," she said while sipping her drink. "I'll probably need to buckle down soon though, and write another book instead of the little pieces I do for the papers."
Harry let out a big yawn, "Is there a bed here that I can use?"
Brandt directed Harry over to the next cabin where there was a bed ready for him to use and he went to sleep.