Flamel's Flames.
The smell of coffee, bacon, and fried diced potatoes woke him up from his silk sheets and plump pillows. His crimson sleeping robes were thick and warm. As he moved to stand, he picked up his wand, and with a thought and a wave the bed was made, his hair combed and his teeth cleaned. He tucked his wand into his internal pocket and rushed to the bathroom seeking relief. As many things as magic can do for a very talented wizard — and especially one as old as himself — there were just some things that are just better taken care of in the normal way.
As he came out of the bathroom he remembered the date: his anniversary with his wife. He smiled fondly, all the memories of countless previous anniversaries coming to his mind. He picked up a little box, wrapped in deep-green paper with a little bronze-colored bow. Making his way to the kitchen from where such enticing smells came from, he stopped at the doorway of the large modern kitchen and stared for a few seconds at the deeply familiar figure.
"Good morning Nelly!" He called enthusiastically, moving inside the tiled floor. Casting a glance out the window, he looked at the sky outside, checking for the weather. The few visible clouds told him his plans for the evening may be possible without too much discomfort.
"Morning Nick." The woman in front of the stove answered without turning. "How did you sleep?" Her green robes reflected the sunlight coming from the window at the end of the kitchen.
"Like a rock, honey." The man smiled fondly at his wife.
The Icelandic landscape seen from the one-story house was simply mesmerizing. The green-covered hills, the huge plains surrounding the house in every direction, up north, you could barely make out the outline of a few snow-covered mountains against the horizon. A few clouds flew up high in the sky, illuminated by the bright sun. A couple of miles east of the little village of Flúðir sat the quaint little country cottage — magically enlarged inside, of course, — surrounded by a very lush garden, despite being incongruent with the harsh and cold weather, the wonders of magic made it flourish.
Innocently and smiling still, he put the little package he held onto the counter next to his wife. He hugged her from behind and planted a kiss on her cheek.
"Do you have any idea what day it is today, Nelly dear?" He kissed her below her ear and she leaned into the soft touch.
"I really don't, what you are talking about Nick?" She answered airily, as he kept trailing his lips from her jawline to her ear.
"The word 'anniversary' rings a bell?" He stopped his nibbling for a second to whisper closely.
"Not… really…" she said with a frown. Suddenly, a look of understanding flashes across the face of Perenelle Flamel. "Nick! You're thinking in Julian again!"
Looking back to the bewildered face of his husband she couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. Nick blinked a couple times and looked at her sheepishly, rubbing her arms with his hands.
"Well, after one thousand five hundred years using the Julian calendar, its kind of difficult to not think in Julian dates for all the important ones." He scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Dear, you really are sweet, don't get me wrong; but for a three-thousand-year-old genius, you can sometimes be really dumb." She laughed again, and with a smile and a look filled with mirth she kissed him.
"Hey! Any chance I get to give my wife another present is a chance I'm going to take." His own smile betrayed his words, and they both knew it.
"It also means that you now must get me another present for our real anniversary."
"Don't be so sure, Nelly." He gave her a smug little smile, "This gift might still be worth it after all."
Nelly just smiled and accepted the little package. Pulling her wand from her robes and waving it over the frying food so it didn't burn, she got to it. She turned around in her husband's embrace and smiled at the color of the wrapping paper, her favorite shade of green adorned with leaf patterns. Despite the color, she tore into the wrapping paper like a giddy child at Christmas, and after removing it completely, she opened the lid of the little jewelry box revealing two bronze-colored earrings, each with a tiny ruby in the center of their circular shape.
"You found them!" The blindingly bright smile she gave Nick was entirely worth the incredible effort that went into locating her long lost earrings.
"It took me almost six hundred years, but I did. I finally have them back, and I can gift them to you again." Nick was saying as tears were filling in the corners of Nelly's eyes, and doing the utmost to not let his own fall. "I still remember the first time I saw you wearing them… the horrible clothes you were wearing…" he continued, looking directly at his lover's eyes as the tears finally started to flow from her now swollen eyelids, "…the fact that those rags were better than what I had, and still… you were beautiful." He closed his eyes as he joined their foreheads, embracing her face with his hands and wiping her tears away, smiling his own away.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love you, Nelly."
After a few seconds, Nelly finally regained the ability to speak as he backed away from her. "I love you, Nick." She took her wand and with a simple flick, she was wearing her long-lost heirlooms again for the first time in almost a millennium.
"Thank you very much for returning these to me, dear. I so very much want to hear the story of how you managed to find them. But before any of that," she rose on her tiptoes to give her husband a thank you kiss, "we need to have breakfast. The potatoes are done and the bacon is getting cold."
Nick nodded and made his way to the table as his wife busied herself serving both her plates. As he passed, he picked up both of their cups of coffee and set them on the table.
"And Nick," she turned to face him, "my clothes weren't that bad!"
"Oh, yes! Yes, they were!" Laughed Nick, taking a sip of his coffee. "In fact, they were so bad, I think that was the reason I noticed you in the first place!" The smile never left his face. She gave him her patented 'you're-making-a-fool-of-yourself' glare and cleared her throat.
"So I guess someone doesn't want their breakfast…" Nick immediately stopped laughing, "… I'll just have to throw it out!"
"Okay, okay!" Cried Nick in surrender, "I take it back honey, now can you give me my food? Please?"
"Fine. But only because you gave me such a thoughtful gift for our Not-Anniversary."
"Now that's more like it."
They finally sat down and ate their food amidst playful conversation and cheerful banter. The Icelandic breakfast did its job filling them with the joy of a full stomach. After they finished their meal, Nick retired to his study.
It was still relatively early in the morning, and the deep green plains surrounding the old property contrasted beautifully with the white clouds covering the entire sky. The light of this frosty morning shone through the window of the study. Sitting on his desk, Nicholas Flamel, The Immortal Alchemist, was startled away from his gizmos and artifacts by the sudden flash of light a couple of inches over his head.
He knew what this meant, he somewhat reluctantly opened one of the wards around his property, granting access to one of his old friends, someone who he respected a great deal, someone who he had even been granted the great honor of witnessing the birth of. Several seconds later, that same someone flashed in a small ball of orange flames into the room.
"Hello, Fawkes. How've you been, old pal?" He told the magnificent firebird, as the orange phoenix settled carefully on top of his desk, without disturbing so much as a tiny piece of paper.
Nicholas reached with his hand and lovingly ruffled the feathers of his fellow immortal, by which Fawkes reciprocated with a joyous and magically soothing trill, just as he brought his golden beak to meet his human friend's hand.
"Now, what is that whiskered bastard having you deliver to me?" He asked his old friend before attempting to grab the parchment that Fawkes had brought with him. You could hear the reproach in Nick's voice; he never approved of his winged friend's choice of companion, and he'd let the firebird know it. Many times.
Fawkes in turn just stood a bit taller not allowing him to take the missive and steeled a glare towards his friend, with the clear message: My choices are my own.
The staring contest went on for a few seconds and finally, Nick huffed and reached for Fawkes's left leg again, this time, Fawkes raised the missive in acceptance.
The moment Nick touched the letter, he felt as though whatever it was written in it would be a great idea. He surely needed to follow whatever instruction was on the inside. Surely. Fawkes trilled again; this time though, it was a sound of warning.
Nick had finished unfolding the inner parchment, and he read it silently. When he finished reading, he had a very deep scowl on his face. He took out his wand and after a second of concentration, the pressing sensation to follow every command the letter had delivered was finally gone. A questioning trill from the firebird still posed on his desk brought him out of his reverie. He dropped the letter on the desk and responded to the phoenix's question.
"What?" He asked. "You really think, after all this time I wouldn't have something to detect and counter compulsion charms?"
Fawkes trilled in mild outrage and raised his steely glare at Nick again.
"Yes, yes. I'm sorry, it's not your fault we don't see each other that much." The glare didn't falter. "And yes, I'm not angry at you, I'm angry at your bonded. Do you want to know what Albus fucking Dumbledore wants from me? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to borrow my STONE!"
Fawkes had the decency to stop his glare and trill in a sigh-reminiscent manner.
"MY STONE! Can you believe that!?" Nick was getting heated now, "Supposedly, he wants it because of whispers of stealing it have begun in those blasted isles." Nick glare went from the parchment to Fawkes and back. "He wants to help me 'secure' it. According to him, almighty Dumbledore, he and only he can lend me the help that I need." Sarcasm dripping from every word, as Nick vented.
The feathered one's gaze remained steely, but there was some understanding layered in his flaming black eyes. He knew that his old friend's immortality was not like his own, he didn't depend on an object to keep himself alive, as that was the nature of his existence. Still, it would not do to have his old friend die just for the machinations of his bonded.
Fawkes trilled in acquiescence and Nick heaved a long sigh. Nick raised his wand and a bright light sped form the end of it and through the wall, deeper into the house.
"I need Nelly here to think of something." He said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "But let me tell you something Fawkes, the sun will swallow the Earth, before I give Dumb-bledore, my stone. Seriously, who does he take me for?" The frown on his face was very pronounced.
The two immortals waited a bit for Nelly to come to the study, Nick's frown disappearing the second he saw her wearing what clearly were her gardening clothes, he figured she must have been taking care of her beloved plants, as she did almost every morning.
"What's this I hear about a Dumb-dumb and our stone? Nick?" In response, Nick handed his wife the letter Fawkes had brought. She read the missive quickly and silently. When she finished she directed a bewildered questioning look over to Fawkes.
"Is he for real? Seriously? He wants to help safeguard the integrity of our stone?" She asked in rapid succession. Fawkes, still sitting on the office desk, trilled in a somewhat half-hearted affirmative.
"What could possibly make him think we would be willing to part with it? Especially since we know that the only place he would be able to put it is in Hogwarts?" now she turned her focus to her husband, who had been rubbing his eyes nonstop for the few seconds she took to read the letter.
"Would you believe me if I told you that he put strong compulsion charms in the parchment?" He actually managed to smile a little. "Because he did."
Nelly laughed at that. She could not understand Dumbledore's thought process, which made her pause in her reasoning and analysis of this situation. Her laughter subsided and she stayed pensive for some time, ruminating over the implications of Dumbledore's 'request'. Nick just kept an eye on the rest of the things in his desk and engaged in a more sedated conversation with his phoenix friend. He knew to wait for Nelly's assessment.
"At last, you managed to learn how to land on things without your stupidly strong wings blowing everything away, huh, Fawkes." He was saying to his friend, with a smile on his face. "Took you long enough, only like two centuries." The mirth was clear in his light, teasing tone.
The ancient avian, not to be outdone, spread his massive wingspan, and without taking his eyes off his friend's, flapped with two pointed flutters, and lifted a few inches off the surface of the desk. No object remained unperturbed after the winds swept by it, and Fawkes descended once again to what was now a clear, empty desk.
"Thank you. Very much." Nick deadpanned. All traces of laughter gone from his face. Now it was the firebird's turn to look amused.
Finally, the audible pacing stopped and Nelly turned to look to her husband and her friend, the pensive look still on her face.
"I've given it some preliminary thought, and I have reached a number of conclusions. Before I reveal them though, I want to run some things by you two." She raised a hand and extended one finger. "First and foremost, Dumbledore is desperate for something, or at the very least is waiting for something to happen."
She paced a few more times back and forth while Nick and Fawkes took in what she said. When she turned back to them, Fawkes trilled an affirmative and Nick nodded in agreement.
"Then," she raised another finger, "if my first assumption is true, then we can assume that the possibility of that same 'something' happening is substantially higher than the possibility of whatever 'it' is, not happening."
"Yes, honey, but that thought process hangs on the unhinged mind of a senile bastard." Nick remarked.
"Yes, yes. but that same bastard has given us the biggest clue on what is happening, and by his own hand no less." Nelly said, returning to her pacing.
"Whatever 'it' is, has to do with us, or more specifically, our stone. Yes I can see that." Nick followed.
"But, what this also means is that we have the possibility to decide what to do, we can either not send anything, tell Dumbledore to stick to his problems and leave us out of it; we could also be a bit daring and just send Dumbledore a fake stone that is a good enough replica to fool him, just to shut the annoying man up; or...", she trailed off.
"Or...?" Nick's expression held a barely restrained excitement. "Nelly... are you saying what I think you're saying?" Nick asked, intrigued.
"Yes, Nick. I believe I am saying that this period of isolation has come to an end." Nelly answered Nick's question with an honest and excited tone.
"Finally!" Nick celebrated. "I agree wholeheartedly, I want to be in the thick of things once again! So? I know how you think and I think that I know, what is your game plan?"
"Don't know yet." She finally sat down to think in the little settee that Nick used for that very same purpose.
Nick, meanwhile, had taken his wand out and with a few swishes and flicks had every item neatly on his desk once more. Fawkes and him kept exchanging pleasantries after that, it had really been a long time since they had last seen each other and they were catching up and sharing some stories during the time it took for Nelly to come up with a plan.
"Nick?" Nelly had finally came out of her thinking, and by now Nick's conversation with his feathered friend had ended, and both of them were looking expectantly at her.
"Yes, my love?"
"Do we still have some of that sample of Discontinuous Matter that we got in-"
"Oh! That old thing? Yeah, as a matter of fact we do."
"Right! Then we could Alchemically create-" Nelly started.
"You're letting me do Alchemy!?" Nick interrupted, a huge smile on his face.
"YES! Now, if you'll let me continue-"
"Carry on, my love." Nick interrupted with an even bigger smile. Again. Nelly glared at him, took out her wand, and with a wave silenced her husband. Then, she turned to Fawkes, who had been watching the interchange with amusement, and continued her explanation. Nick pouted at her.
"We could use this opportunity and send some kind of monitoring device to that castle, that we could create with alchemy so that it connects to good old Hogwarts and allows us more possibilities of monitoring, maybe something ward related..." Fawkes bobbed his head at her. "That would mean that we are going with option number three, and would put us in a narrow time crunch, as I'm guessing Dumbledore would like an answer before the day ends, and the 'stone' before this weekend, as any later would probably make him suspicious. That leaves me with the task of coming up with a suitable replacement for the stone that can fool Dumbledore into thinking that it's real, and can accomplish whatever it is that I want it to do outside of that; all of it in less than four days time."
At this point, Nick had pulled out his wand and was in the middle of dispelling the Mongolian-based spell of Quietness. At hearing the time constraints his wife had put to them both, he finished battling with the spell and said,
"Wait! Nelly, we could probably get away with giving him the stone on Sunday. I already had plans for today's afternoon, I was planning on treating you somewhere nice, you know, for our not-anniversary."
"Is that so, Nick?" Nelly raised an eyebrow at her husband.
"Yes!" He confirmed with a grin. "I had it all planned, and I don't want to ruin it. Will you do me the honor of coming to our non-anniversary celebration?"
"Fine. I will." She sighed. "It's not as if I have something better to do, creating that device will be tedious, I can already feel it."
"Wonderful! We'll have so much fun, and I bet you can't even guess where we're going, oh, I've been planning this for months! And I... "
Nelly just shook her head while listening to the ramblings of her husband that continued even as he stood, paced a few seconds and left his office in a hurry, without silence. A small smile of satisfaction playing on her lips. Her eyes shining with a love so unfathomably deep, so firmly held onto through the centuries, it made even the bird of fire warm with its expression.
So it was, that the youngest immortal in the room put his little head in between his right wing, determined to catch a few hours of sleep, and staying in his friends' home until they had their package ready for the white-one. He could do with a short reprieve of that castle.