Disclaimer on Chapter 1

Novus Edge

Chapter 2

Reborn Fayte

Harry-Hermione walked into the Leaky Cauldron pub. It was smoky and grimy but it was better than nothing because it had wards to protect him until he found a place he could use, and set up some wards of his own. He wondered whether it would be big-headed to have his very own castle with loads of cute servant girls wearing 'risky' and cute uniforms. He knew he was wealthy enough once he got the goblins to give him all of his family's loot. He hadn't beforehand because he knew other than his trust vault that Dumbledore would stop him touching the real treasure trove of Potter accumulated stash, which was apparently enough to buy a castle and servant girls.

He was glad the pub wasn't crowded as he didn't like crowds, and he wished that the magical world outlawed smoking inside public buildings like the muggle world did. She managed to get a room without the man behind the bar even looking at her as he was trying to chat up a level eight to nine waitress while he was barely a level three, and she knew it by the exasperation she showed.

Harry-Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes before frowning as Harry wasn't sure he had heard of the rating system before, but shrugged it off as unimportant as she made it to her room, walking into room 9 she closed and locked the door behind her. She or he, sighed in relief; she may have gotten away with his own 'murder', and uncle Vernon's real murder, or as she put it earlier, accidental homicide.

She flopped back, laying on the huge bed. It had huge covers of pure white cotton that were soft and so very comfortable. It was squishy to the touch, and the room was spotlessly clean and bright, just his sort of place without being too tidy, though he supposed a seven star muggle hotel would have been cooler, but beggars couldn't be choosers, and she wasn't sure that the goblins would ward a whole muggle hotel for her unless she owned it.

At least the room had a homely feel to it. He felt exhausted and sweaty so as soon as she, or he was different, or there about, after a good long rest in the bed he would have a nice long shower in his private bathroom.

"Wow," he whispered to herself smirking smugly about her newfound freedom. "So, time to see Hermione starker's," she giggled as she hopped off the bed as she had to abuse his powers as much as she could because that was something an 'evil' genius like him would do.

She hesitated for a moment before she shrugged as she looked into the body length mirror, and stripped down until she was naked, blushing brightly. He looked down her smooth body, stroking her fingers down her soft flesh from her small, growing breasts to her smooth 'area' wondering why he felt so embarrassed when he felt his own touch, not Hermione.

"Hermione need NEVER know about this!" he said to herself giggling in more embarrassment as she felt tingly in her lower region, as he quickly pulled her clothes back on. He wasn't sure how girls solved 'that' problem, and it would take some self-investigation another time to figure it out, but probably not with Hermione's body. He doubted that prude had ever even done that to herself before because she read a book written by the stupid that said it was wrong.

He honestly hadn't thought that Hermione got those feelings neither; she probably squished them away to the back, dark recesses of her mind. Though, he was sure he wouldn't be able to play with himself as Hermione because her annoying conscience told him that it was naughty and wrong and that it was her form, not a toy, and he didn't want to feel awkward doing 'that' because he figured it was supposed to be fun.

Harry-Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes while thinking. He needed to learn how to control his shifting power. Therefore, he concentrated on thinking about his other best friend, Ron, and being Ron because he was the first person who popped into his head. The light burst through her skin in moments as he felt his body reforming, getting taller, Gryffindor, black and red robes folded out from her clothes, and then it was done.

Staring in the mirror, he shook his head, trying to not look so dopey, but he could feel the lack of - what - intellect? There was certainly an abundant lack of common sense too. And no matter what he couldn't wipe that stupid look off his face. There was no way he could become an 'evil' genius with any aspect of Ron, even strategy was out as that seemed to be just a chess thing, too bad, strategy like that could have been useful.

"Wow, Ron..." he mumbled to himself in Ron's voice, shaking his ginger head as he even sounded dim if that were possible. How in the hells did he not realise he hung out with a dimwit? "You look like an idiot. I wonder why I never noticed before. You got a small dick too… no wonder you always covered up in the showers," he laughed, amused with himself, but he didn't like Ron's laugh; it was something, he couldn't tell, but it and he reminded Harry too much of Dudley.

Harry shifted his form again, and this time it took little thought on his part to turn into one of the Weasley twins. He frowned as he wasn't sure which twin he was, and he suddenly had the urge to cause someone some mischief. He wondered whether that was his own father coming out in him, as he was a mischief maker, or some kind of pranking gene the twins had that he never inherited from his father.

He shrugged as he shifted again into Mr. Weasley. "Ha-ha, I'm thinking about muggle things but have a feeling like I won't ever understand them, odd… the only time I touched him was when we first met; I shook his hand, and he asked me about a rubber duck. I thought he was joking but he really was seriously asking what muggles did with them. Was he that stupid? Didn't magical kids have bath toys…? This is brilliant, now who next? Mrs. Weasley," he shivered in disgust. He had nothing against the woman, but she ate too unhealthily for his liking and he would rather not deal with the nag all hex.

"Um… Ginny…?" he suggested to himself as she wouldn't have that problem, and if she stayed thin and healthy and got blessed with, large, assets was awesome. No, who was he kidding, it wouldn't matter the size of her boobs as long as she was always cute. He took a quick breath before shifting into her. She was small, and wearing Gryffindor robes like the one's she wore when he saved her life from Riddle and the diary a few months back. The cute red haired girl in the mirror looked concerned and frightened; her brown eyes were wide and tearful as she felt fear, shame, guilt, and anything in-between.

"She-she feels so unhappy, scared, and worried. Holy crap, I-I didn't think about her, she must be terrified of what she did in the chamber," he sighed sadly in her voice and it made him smile a little to hear her properly before Harry-Ginny brightened as a clear thought came to mind, and it didn't hurt that Ginny's mind was surprisingly as smart as Hermione's in a more imaginative way, but thinking about it he was surprised that Fred or George was secretly smart too.

"I know. I'll find a way to cheer her up!" She grinned. "I wonder whether I could shift into someone I could just make up from scratch? And then I could become her friend and go to Hogwarts with her, as a girl friend, or girlfriend if she was - well. Could I really be a girl? Well I suppose it is kind of nice and girls are cute and cool, and get all sorts of nice things to wear, so I suppose I could try it out.

"I don't think she has any friends… I could feel a connection with the others, but not her. Though, could I really hide out as a girl...? Well I suppose it makes sense nobody would ever expect me to be the new girl? It might even be fun to have a… new experience that isn't terrifying and involve Voldemort trying to kill me? Though, I think I might miss that, but then I'll have new experiences as an 'evil' genius."

She took a deep breath, concentrating on a girl in his head. Her eyes shifted emerald green, and her hair darkened; the cute freckles around her nose disappeared, and her uniform changed into black and blue with Ravenclaw crest; his choice because he wanted a change. Her skin got a light tan, and her nose shaped slightly differed from Ginny's. Her hair flared out naturally, longer. She was still around Ginny's age and had small feet and small soft hands; she was really pretty.

"Not very imaginative are you, young Novus!" sang a highly amused voice.

She spun from the mirror in shock. She had never imagined to be found out, yet at least, but sitting on the bedpost was Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix familiar staring at her. He had only just arrived as she saw the flaming embers flutter to the floor around him. He was staring at her. He was quite the beautiful bird, scarlet and gold, and she was sure the bird had just talked to her.

"D-did you just speak to me Fawkes?" she asked with an uncertain waver in her new softer voice as she felt stupid asking a swan sized legendary bird whether he could speak when she had super powers and magic, so of course the bird could speak, well he was the only other creature in the room, and it was a male voice, so she felt validated that she was correct.

"Yes, of course," the bird chirped with a regal and smug tone. "You are the first novus I have met to just make themselves into the female version of themselves to hide. They'll think Lily and James had another baby before they died. In fact, if I'm not mistaken you have only taken your mothers form when she was twelve. I would try again if I was you, and go for something different rather than making Harry Potter into Harriett Potter," he chuckled amused with her.

She looked back into the mirror, surprised the bird was right, and smiled a little as her mother was really cute, but no wonder her mother was so good at magic, now she took note that her mind was better than Hermione and Ginny's, but in a different, more scientific way where Hermione was the research, Ginny was the imagination, and his mum was the experimentation: the practicality.

She scrunched up her face, and concentrated again. She couldn't let a stupid bird make fun of her like that so she had to do it right this time. She could feel the change again even as she felt tiredness creeping up with hunger as she hadn't eaten anything since the Leaving Feast at Hogwarts, and she was using so much magic it was tiring.

Her eyes changed from emerald green to a sharp and bright yet dark blue, the colour of sapphire, which held an odd and unusual pigmentation and glow that seemed both wild and deceptively innocent at the same time, and a beautiful shine to them as she mixed and matched her mothers, Hermione, and Ginny's intelligence and added to it with her own, Harry's untapped mind held potential he had never noticed before he looked inside himself and others that she wanted to keep.

Her hair pulled up to hang loose between her shoulder blades and shifted colour, sliding into a deep purple, pulling up and back in the centre of her bangs over her forehead in waves without puffing but lying flat, curving out to the sides and back, lose down the sides in curtains over her ears, hanging in tails over her shoulders and small chest. Her eyebrows had turned the same deep purple, and her pouty lips were painted a lighter shade with some shadowing over her eyes.

Her teeth straightened to near perfect white, but not so they shined or looked too perfect. Her skin was the perfect alabaster white, milky smooth. Her nose was small and cute. Her reflective eyes shone in the mirror, blurring out into the whites.

Her clothes shifted next. She wore a tight black leather skirt, showing off her legs, and a white, form hugging top that had no sleeves and tied around her neck with a collar. Her socks were long with the right black and left white, up her thighs leaving only a few inches of skin on full display. She wore leather half boots on her feet, the right white and the left black. Then she wore a white leather belt. It was thick and hung to her right with a large pocket attacked at a jaunty angle over her hips.

She turned and smirked smugly at the bird. "Now tell me that anyone will ever suspect a cute, beautiful, hot young lady like me of ever having anything in common with Harry Potter, let alone blood," she asked. She had even changed her accent giving it a semi-royal, yet deadly and strong flare.

"Okay, Novus... that is a lot better," agreed Fawkes, surprised with her quick grasp of her new powers.

"Novus?" she managed to ask.

"New, always new," he replied, and she frowned and chose to just go with it.

"Yeah, o-kay!" she said slowly, "but how can we speak to each other? I've never heard you chatting before, and Dumbledore never mentioned phoenixes talking," she asked worriedly when that made her frightful. "Y-you're not going to tell Dumbledore are you?" she demanded timidly.

"Even if I could communicate with him I wouldn't tell him anything of worth, least of all about you," the phoenix said. "The reason you can understand my language and vice versa, though I can understand humans through years of watching is because you're a Novus, and you've touched me before. It is more of a mental communication to each other, since neither of us has the vocal capability to speak each other's language, but you would find you spoke other languages that you do have the vocal needs for. It also means you can turn into me, and use all my abilities, and can now speak with me. I suppose you could also make a phoenix form that is different to me."

"Huh? I don't quite understand," she replied, frowning in confusion as she wasn't sure she had read anything about this ability before, and she had read up on a lot of weird powers, and she made sure she kept Harry's parseltongue ability as it could be useful talking to snakes on her quest to become an 'evil' genius.

Fawkes sighed. "A Novus can turn into anyone he or she physically touches; skin contact is needed. However, you can also make people up as you have with this form. You can also transform into any creature, though with most magical creatures you have to have touched one to be able to shift into one because otherwise you won't get a piece of what one is and their abilities would be lost to you until you touched one."

"Oh, so I could change into a Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon if I wanted?" she asked eagerly, as the thought honestly intrigued her as dragons would be cooler if she could turn into one, though frowned thinking about it as she realised Norbert the dragon was female, odd how she just knew, and maybe she could drop hints to Hagrid one day that the dragon would need a new name.

"Yes," Fawkes agreed. Though he looked disapproving at the mere thought, or at least sounded it through the song notes she could hear of his real voice and language; it may be a part of that expression?

"A Novus can also shift other things," he said while she listened with rapt attention, "such as clothes and even other people. You could shift the wind around you into a weapon if you chose. Novus are very rare. I believe you are… well…

"I sensed what you were as soon as I saw you in the Chamber of Secrets. I'm afraid that I was too out of it to notice the first time we met, and after that was still immature from after the burning as my kind, Birds of Rebirth grow up fast because of necessity. I decided to let you discover your ability for yourself.

"Though, looking at the circumstances everything may have worked out if you discount the original beating because now you have no desire to tell Dumbledore of your abilities for him to try suppressing them, afraid of you growing a mind for yourself, and I don't have to try persuading you to see him for the silly old fool he has become in the past twenty or so years."

"Oh, well that's cool, I suppose, if a little - well..." she smiled and sat on the bed beside the post the bird sat on. "Anything else you think I should know?"

"Yes, maybe you should name this new form of yours?" he suggested reasonably. "Humans tend to like names, but I suppose it is better than just calling out because then everyone nearby would turn to you too," he said jokingly.

"Oh, you're right," she said with a giggle, hoping he didn't think she had too much time on her hands that she had thought about it before, while still a boy.

"Um… err well, how about… ...Fayte?" she suggested with a grin. "After all fate either loves or hates me, I still haven't decided yet, but whatever." She laughed sheepishly, but Fawkes secretly agreed with her. "Well… umm… how about my full name being Fayte… umm… Evans, my mother's madden name, because people are too stupid to make any connection!"

"Yes, well - anyway if you're done trying to become someone you were not," retorted the bird, shaking his head in mild fascination. "I have a friend for you to meet."

In a flash of black and blue embers, she appeared sitting beside Fawkes. She was a beautiful black feathered phoenix with the tips of her feathers coloured a fiery blue.

"This is my mate, Nifes," Fawkes introduced her. It took all of Faye's (that new name would take getting used to too) willpower not to laugh at the 'cutlery' birds. She wondered what they would have called their offspring, Spoons.

"Um, Hi, Nifes," greeted Fayte with a smile, trying to hold off the laugh threatening to escape.

"Hello," the black phoenix sung trying not to notice the pale girls red cheeks from suppressed laughter before looking to Fawkes with narrowed yellow eyes.

"She is the Novus you want me to stay with?" she asked interestedly.

"Yes," he agreed with a chuckle. "This is, or should I say was Harry Potter, she is now Fayte Evans, Faye for short. I suppose that is acceptable as names go."

"Yep, I had been so board I had actually thought of this a lot before," she said sheepishly while the birds stared at her, "hey, I seriously had nothing better to do than read at the Dursley's, so my mind wandered… a lot, and I thought of silly things, so sue me!"

"Well, okay," Nifes agreed just to humour her. "But I am confused as to why you choose this female form."

"Well," began Fayte nervously. "I was just feeling bad about not being there for Ginny after her ordeal through her first year and the chamber, and um, thought she could use a friend. But I guess I think I'm going to grow attached to this new me as I certainly won't have to worry about Voldemort or Dumbledore… much at least because I sure as hell am going to piss them both off, lots, and lots because I don't think I could help myself."

The black bird nodded reluctantly. "I suppose that makes sense," she conceded, but she didn't sound convinced by her own words. "So how are you going to make friends with her?" she asked, reasonably.

"Um, I don't know yet," she replied sheepishly. "I'll think of something when I see her. It can't be too hard, and I could always be upfront and force her to let me be her best friend-."

"Well I should get back to the old git," interrupted Fawkes watching Fayte nervously and wanted to get away from her in case odd ball rubbed off, but then crazy from Dumbledore hadn't, so maybe he would be fine for a while. "... before the idiot does something stupid. It is with no doubt that he has already found out that you're no longer at your home, and that his devices will say you're dead."

"They will?" asked Fayte, surprised by the revelation as she had expected the old man to 'monitor' her, but he wasn't doing a very good job or he would have let Harry die. In his ignorance he probably didn't even consider death by muggles, just death by magic.

"Yes," he agreed. "When you shift you don't just change your appearance; you become that person - ish - or someone entirely new, down to the exact genes."

"Oh, so whatever monitoring charms he had on me and the house no longer work because my blood is different?" she asked interestedly, and both birds nodded in agreement. "So you think Dumbledore's an idiot too?" she asked in surprise as she thought she was the only one.

Fawkes rolled his little black eyes. "Of course," he agreed. "An example being where he made you stay for most of your life, with those horrid people, with no friends, no love, and no life. Then letting you take a beating for their enjoyment, and that fat human male trying to kill you today. If Albus doesn't know how you have been treated I'll eat the Sorting Hat!"

"Alright, alright, I already knew he was an idiot, and... that! There is no need to remind me of why, as this body may look small and weak, I assure you I made myself… so much stronger, in every way possible," she sighed falling back on the bed. She shifted her clothes without thought into black shorts and short sleeved PJ's with little red bats on them, and her half boots and socks faded away into nothing, leaving her small feet bare

"You can go home now Fawkes," she said with a tired sigh.

He chuckled in good humour as he flamed away. Fayte watched as the little phoenix-fire embers of red and yellow drifted down and reached out. One passed through her hand and disappeared. It felt warm to the touch, and like a sprinkling of sand through her fingers. It was a very odd sensation, but it was nice to know that she had a couple of cool new 'companions', and that Nifes would be around to look after her.

"Get some sleep child; you'll need it to be awake when you go shopping tomorrow and arrange for Hogwarts," commanded Nifes motherly. "The goblins will keep your secret when you arrange for your inheritance to be your new-selves. I shall watch over you," she continued as Fayte crawled into bed, pulling the covers up over herself, she snuggled into her pillows.

"I'll pretend to be home schooled," mused Fayte suddenly. "Then, um, my 'parents', or dad or something moved back to England from travelling with me in tow, and I decided I wanted to go to a magical school so I'm getting sent to Hogwarts, so they'll be free to travel for business and stuff."

"It should work," agreed the bird. "Especially since you chose that accent, they would realise the lie if you weren't born and raised for most of your life in the UK."

Fayte put her hand out and the air vortexed softly, and sparked with light created an envelope. She smiled as that was quite simply the coolest thing she had ever done; turning the fluid state of air into the solid form of paper and ink as she concentrated on the message she needed to convey. It had only been a whim, but a healthy one it seemed.

"Could you take this to McGonagall Please?" Fayte asked her newly equated familiar hoping that her owl Hedwig would find her, and not be annoyed that she didn't get to deliver the post. "It's still early enough. I don't want to leave it too late, and I'll need to get myself a Hogwarts letter with school supplies and stuff so I can begin my conquest of… umm… never mind that last part," she said sheepishly as the bird looked at her suspiciously before shrugging her wings.

Nifes sighed after a moment's thought and flew up, and snatched the envelope in her beak, flaming away in a flash of black and blue embers while Fayte smile with dreams of phoenix travel and being an awesome dragon, drifting off, finally free and happy.

to be continued…