A/N: THANK YOU for all the wonderful reviews I have been receiving and thank you to everyone who wished me to get better. It meant a lot guys! (Goes away to blow nose on tissue). Right now I know this is late (goes to duck from flying tomatoes) but I have had an A2 German Oral. Yuck! Hate, hate, hate it! Anyway, on to replies to the e-mails, this will not be me writing down what happens every single day for the next twelve or so years to Harry and the gang because, let's face it, that would get extremely dull and boring. So this will be me just writing on their first week or so and then jumping forward a lot until their 17th birthdays. Savvy? And yes there will be flashbacks. No, none of the children are death munchers; think of them as blissfully uncorrupted. Yes, Dumbledore will get manipulative but no I will not reveal anymore. There will be some telepathic communication at some point in this chapter so just to warn ya.
Also, thanks to my beta, greenfly, who I would be absolutely lost without. She really keeps my work cohesive so a nice big round of applause for greenfly! (Starts clapping enthusiastically before plopping back down onto computer chair.)
Right, (cracks fingers expectantly) the time you have all been waiting for. On with Chapter 3! (Oh yeah. Sorry about the delay in updating. My bad! Runs away as rotten tomatoes are thrown)
CHAPTER 3: THE WARRIORS EMERGE
It had been a long night for Harry but a restful one. As he gradually opened his eyes to the noise that was permeating his sleepy mind, he sighed as he felt the cool sheets beneath his small fingers. He slowly sat up and wiped his hands across his face, trying to get the sandman's dust out of his eyes. He could hear Ron sleeping in the bed next to him and another boy he couldn't remember the name of in the bed opposite snoring equally loud. Another boy had already awoken and was dressed looking expectantly at his dorm mates sleeping soundly before glancing at a figure that Harry had only just noticed. He looked at the figure curiously before realising that it was Calrian from the night before. He looked at him curiously for a moment before yawning and sliding out from his warm soft bed.
Calrian looked at him mischievously and motioned for him and the other boy to cover their ears before taking a loud breath and blew long and hard on the brass trumpet that he carried.
All at once there was an almighty shriek as the sleeping boys awoke and leapt up into the air at the sudden noise from the trumpet. Ron only looked up from his pillow sleepily before turning over and moving to get up saying all the while, "Yes Mummy. I'm up, I'm up."
Harry looked at him inquisitively. Ron responded by saying, "For a minute there I thought it was my mum yelling at me to get up. Makes the same noise."
Harry would have responded but Calrian cleared his throat from his place in the middle and all chatter stopped abruptly. "I know that you are all hungry," he said as Ron's stomach growled audibly accompanied by some of the other boys, "So we will get dressed, go to the Hall and have some breakfast before we tell you why you are all here and what is in store for you." The boys looked at each other nervously and nodded their heads very quickly in agreement. Slowly the remaining boys got dressed and they all walked down the winding stone staircase to their common room where they were made to wait for the girls.
"Why are we waiting?" a young boy moaned out whom Harry was able to identify as Dean Thomas from the night before.
"Because we have to wait for the girls," another one answered.
"But I don't like girls," Dean said petulantly, "They have cooties." Calrian seemed to just have a hold on his laughter.
"I promise you boys," he said, "That one day you will fall in love with a girl." All the boys made faces at each other and grimaced painfully. "Right," Calrian went on, "I think it is time we made our way down to the hall." During the boys' conversation, the girls had made their way down their own narrow staircase and were standing behind a tall witch, whom Harry wasn't able to identify but looked like the lady beginning with the 'K' from last night.
"Alright then. Let's all make our way to the Hall," said Katharina. The children all trailed behind her with Harry, Hermione and Ron bringing up the rear though that soon changed as they entered the impressive doorway leading to the Hall. At the sight of the enormous table completely laden with scrumptious looking doughnuts, cereal, bread, sweets, etc, everything a child could ever want, Ron took a running leap and was off and seated at the table stuffing his face, faster than Harry or Hermione could turn their heads. Needless to say most of the other children needed no further encouragement and by the time Harry, Hermione and the other boy, Blaise, had walked calmly to the table there was enough sugar around each of the other children's mouth to make a new Mt. Everest.
Hermione looked over at Ron with disgust as she said, "Why do you need to eat so quickly?"
Ron just looked at her incredulously before stating quite proudly, mouth full to the brim (he had just stuffed half a jam doughnut into his already teeming mouth) when he answered, "'M hungr'. Wan foo," with bits of his beloved food spraying across the table, liberally coating each child opposite with great globs of doughnut. Harry swore that he could see a potato crisp in there sitting on a blonde girl's head.
After the children had all eaten and another adult had cleaned up all of Ron's food, Calrian stood up and said, "Right, now we will say why you are here." At this point all the children quieted down and looked up with doe eyes at this man who had taken them away from their parents and also, in Dean's case, his beloved football. As Calrian looked over at the children, he sighed and glanced over at Katharina, his second. She gave him a small smile and nodded her head slightly. Calrian realised that he couldn't tell the children everything for fear of them running off screaming and instead would simplify the important bits and would tell them later when they were more mature.
"This is a story. Long ago when there was an evil man, a powerful wizard decided to. . ."
Calrian had barely gotten past the first sentence when a voice shouted out, "What was the bad man's name?"
"YEAH!" shouted another. "Who was the good guy?"
Calrian sighed to himself and looked over at William. "Were we as bad as this?" he whispered.
"Probably worse," William smirked, "I don't envy you your task."
Calrian looked over at the children. "Right no more interrupting otherwise you all get grounded!" he said forcefully. The children all looked scared by this and sat back down on their chairs. "Right now as I was saying, this powerful wizard wanted to save his people from this bad wizard so he created a special group of witches and wizards known as The Phoenix Warriors. When they turned five they would all be brought here and would all be taught how to fight bad men." The children at this point glanced apprehensively at each other and one petite brunette grabbed a nearby boy by the arm and squeezed very tightly. This caused Athena to go and rescue the poor boy from losing a limb.
Calrian continued regardless. "Right now these Phoenix Warriors would be able to perform magic at a very high level and would be able to fight any bad person. They would be a team and would all work together, boys and girls," he added after seeing some of the boys blanch and grimace at the idea of having to work with girls.
He carried on, "Now with these Phoenix Warriors, the good wizard didn't want there to be none of them left whenever there was a bad wizard so he decided to cast a spell that whenever a bad person was around they would be born. Also in order to teach the new Phoenix Warriors, the old ones would still be alive."
Hermione was waving her hand around impatiently, slightly lifting off her chair. "Excuse me, Mr. Calrian, sir, but how would they live for such a long time?"
Elizabeth, another of the adults, looked over at the brunette, smiled and said, "Well he made it so that none of the Phoenix Warriors can die."
The children looked at her with grins on their faces. Harry thought that Ron caught the feeling when he said, "Wicked."
"Yes," Calrian continued, "But there will be a lot of work." Several of the children seemed to deflate at this. "Anyway carrying on, in order to make the warriors work together well, the good wizard made it so that there would be one main leader and 3 other leaders. Each leader will have three people that he or she," he said hastily after seeing the female adults along the table glare at him, while the other men snickered at his misfortune, "That they will lead. Do you all understand?" He sighed with relief when all the children nodded their heads. "Good," he continued.
"Now I know you have taken a lot in and we will allow you the day off to get in touch with your surroundings but starting tomorrow we will start to teach you. Now who here know Albus Dumbledore?" The majority of the hands went up, though a few children looked decidedly confuse. "Well for those of you who do know him, do you remember how powerful he is?" The children nodded their heads again while Harry was drawn back into a distant memory. In the background he could hear Calrian say, "Well you will be more powerful than he is," before he slipped back in time.
FLASHBACK
Harry stood at the top of the landing looking down onto the scene below. The headmaster of the school his parents went to was sitting on the couch talking with said parents.
"Now I know that this will be difficult," he said coldly and casually, "But you will need to ignore Harry completely. He will get in the way of Jamie's training and this will hinder Jamie's improvements. Unfortunately," though he didn't sound so apologetic, "Harry will never be able to compete at Jamie's level and Jamie will constantly be having to help his brother. We know that Voldemort will come back at some point and Jamie MUST be prepared!" he said.
Lily and James looked at Dumbledore in disbelief and Harry did as well. Have his parents forget and ignore him! Dumbledore continued before Lily or James could stop him, "If Voldemort does come back, Jamie will need to be prepared. Are you willing to sacrifice the entire Wizarding World for the sake of one child's happiness?"
James and Lily glanced at each other and sighed. Well when Professor Dumbledore put it THAT way, they couldn't help but agree. If sacrificing Harry meant saving the rest of the world then they would do it and make it up to Harry later, not knowing that they would dearly regret their decision later.
Dumbledore meanwhile looked at James and Lily Potter having the silent conversation. This was going better than he had hoped. Ignoring Harry might mean that the little brat would run away leaving him able to mould Jamie into the perfect martyr for the Light and showing himself off as the Tutor of the Light's Hero. Heck he might even get another Order of Merlin thrown in as well. He had never liked Harry, who always seemed so distrustful of him and cautious whenever he was around. 'Ah well,' he sighed to himself, 'I most likely won't have to deal with him for much longer.'
Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing or seeing. Why did his parents listen to that old man? He had never liked that man. There was always something off about him. Heart sinking he looked down at his parents.
James and Lily looked over at Professor Dumbledore before James said, "Fine. We will go along with your wishes. You are right. We cannot sacrifice the entire Wizarding World's future for the sake of our son's happiness. We will start to ignore him starting from today, but don't expect us not to worry about him!" And with that Harry felt his little heart break. He knew that having his parents ignore him would mean that Uncle Padfoot and Uncle Moony would start to ignore him as well.
He slowly climbed to his feet and padded his way down to his room that he felt might not be his in the nearby future. He slowly pushed the door open and climbed onto his bed. Curling himself up in a foetal position he hugged his pet wolf and cried.
END OF FLASHBACK
Harry jolted out of the memory. He could remember it surprisingly clearly despite the fact that it happened two years ago when he was around 3. Then again, Harry prided himself on his amazing memory. He glanced over at Hermione and Ron who looked at him curiously with Hermione displaying a bit of worry in her chocolate brown eyes. Harry smiled at them so that they wouldn't worry about him anymore. Ron turned back to Calrian and so did Hermione but he felt a small hand slip into his under the table and Harry smiled to himself. He was glad that he had at least one friend here.
Calrian looked over at the table of small children sighing to himself that this would be the next batch of hardened warriors; children whose innocence would be lost very early on just like his and the rest of his team's had been. He hated how he had to be the one to guide the next Commander and Leader of this batch as was his job as the Commander of his own team. It could be so stressful sometimes. As mark of being a Commander, he could sense who would be the next main leader and who would be appropriate sub-leaders of the group.
He calmed his senses down and let his eyes drift towards the children at the end of the table. He wouldn't be sure until the Crystal of Truth had pointed the leaders out but he felt positive that those four children would be the next leaders. 'Strange,' he thought, 'there is only one girl.'
-And what is soooo strange about that?- Katharina spoke in his mind.
-Oh nothing, my dear,- Calrian 'said' back.
-Oooo Cal, someone is whipped- Geoffrey and Dominic said.
-Shut up!- came the response.
-Oh how dignified!- Guinevere said.
Calrian shook his head and glared down the table to see eerily similar smirks greeting him. He shook his head again before having his eyes drift to the end of the trainee's (the children's) table to the young boy at the end with the messy black hair. He knew that this boy was the Commander for this bunch but there was something else that he couldn't shake. Something that told him that this boy wasn't all that he seemed to be. He frowned even more than he was and didn't even notice the worried glances that were being shot at him from along the table.
The rest of his team, Athena, Dominic, Brian, Geoffrey, Elizabeth, Katharina, Arthur, William, Guinevere, Draconis and Ferdinand, all looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces. The only time that Calrian got THAT look on his face, then they knew something was off. He never looked like that unless there was a problem that he couldn't work out and was frustrated with. Whatever it was, it would most likely have a knock-on effect with the rest of the teams that they had here in the Phoenix Academy, of which there were just 3 other teams, apart from the new trainees.
Meanwhile the rest of the children, not knowing of the adults' worry, left the table and started to wander off to witness and explore the rest of this huge place that they were in. It touched many hearts as the children were seen in the hallway, not off in separate groups, but rather all together as a single unity.
This fun game they had of 'Let's explore as much as we can!' was soon disbanded after a few hours as they started to get hungry. Half an hour of back tracking and asking for directions had lead them back to the Hall where the fabulous food once again enticed them into a feeding frenzy.
Harry smiled slightly before letting loose a very large yawn and lowering his head very slowly to the table. The other children soon followed suit and one by one they all fell asleep at the table. Some, like Ron, had fallen asleep into their bowls of spaghetti.
The adults looked at the heart warming scene with a smile and each of the old team of Phoenix Warriors moved to pick up one of the five year old trainees. They all knew that it was exhausting for them and knew what it was like to be that age although for them that was a very long time ago seeing as most of them were approaching 750 years old. The age gap between most of the groups was around 1,200 years and all the four groups were still alive after so long a time. It certainly helped that all their friends were immortal and if they ever fell in love with a mortal, the Warrior's magic would grant their loved one immortality too. For most of the adults working in the castle, this was an ideal way to live.
After the old team had picked up their charges, Calrian went to pick up the boy he had dubbed as the next Commander. As he looked around the room to see who had picked up which charge, he found it intriguing that his own Second in Commands had picked up the three that he had dubbed the next Seconds. 'Strange,' he thought to himself.
As he walked out of the Hall and walked towards the new Warriors' dorms he glanced down at the child he carried. He felt so small and light in his arms. Not what a normal child should weigh. He looked as though all the worries of the world rested on his thin shoulders as his face was scrunched up as if in deep thought. Calrian, in a bid to ease some of the child's worries, held the boy close and rubbed his back gently and slowly but surely the boy's face eased into a calmer expression.
As Calrian walked up the narrow stone staircase he pondered this unusual boy and why he was getting strange vibes off of this particular boy. It didn't have to do with the fact that he had predicted this boy to be the Commander. No. It was something far deeper. Resolving to find out the answer when the children faced the Crystal of Truth, Calrian pushed the door open gently and made his way to the centre of the room where he wondered which bed was whose.
Thankfully for him, some bright sod had put each child's picture followed by their name on the trunks in front of each bed that were held as storage. Calrian glanced at each picture before settling this boy into his bed and tucking the sheets up to his chin.
He turned away and followed the rest of his male team members out of the room before glancing back at the strange boy. Somewhere deep inside of him, he knew that this boy would be facing many trials in his future. Sighing deep inside he whispered, "Good luck, Harry Potter."
In his safe warm bed, Harry settled contentedly into his afternoon nap, hands slowly furling over the soft luxurious sheets. The bed hangings swayed gently in the light breeze that drifted through the room and all went quiet save for the gently snoring that Ron was emitting behind his own bed hangings. Indeed, Harry had no idea of what awaited him the next day however, for now, he was content to sleep his troubles away.
A/N: I am so sorry that this took soooo long. I just had a lot of work, A-Levels, more work, illness, more work and oh lookie! More work! Ah well. Anyway, I have written the next chapter and promise to make it a lot longer than this one! Please keep the reviews coming in as they really help me with my creativity (or rather serve to increase what isn't there!) Thanks a bunch guys!
Miraen