Chapter 3: The Truth About Phoenixes
(dialog note: R: ron, Hr: hermione, G: ginny, F: fawkes, H: harry.)
Around the kitchen table stood Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, with Fawkes perched on the rim of the big mixing bowl. With his talon, he scooped up the memory he had just shared, and restored it to his own mind. And then came the questions.
R: "Swung you like a cricket bat, he did?"
H: "What was that big explosion?"
G: "Is the you-know-who horcrux destroyed now?"
Hermione, though, asked the first question Fawkes deemed worthy of an immediate answer: "How exactly is it you deal with... with souls?"
F: "That will require quite a bit of explanation. You see, the phoenix is a creature of the soul. This bird body (spreads his wings) is but a shell; We have no DNA. Instead, we pass on to the next generation a bit of our own souls."
Hr: "If each of your chicks gets some of your soul, wouldn't you run out?"
R: "Maybe they only give each chick a tiny bit of soul, and it grows."
F: "No, Ron, a soul cannot grow. And yes, Hermione, we would run out, except for one thing. This may at first sound quite macabre, but please hear me out."
Everyone was staring at Fawkes, with expressions that ranged from wide-eyed wonder to guarded suspicion.
F: "Into each egg must be imparted a complete soul. Therefore, before any pair of phoenixes can reproduce, they must possess between them enough extra spirit to build that complete soul."
This statement clearly begged the obvious question: "How do they get that extra spirit?". And Ginny, realizing that Fawkes had paused specifically expecting someone to ask it, did so.
F: "We assimilate it from other beings."
R: "From other... ?"
F: "From those who have died, from those who have lost a part of their own soul, from ghosts..."
R: "Holy Merlin! You eat souls?"
Hr: "I thought I saw you eating birdseed."
F: "Such foods as birdseed sustain this body. But as I said, phoenixes are creatures of the soul. For you, as for all beasts of DNA, the body creates the soul. Forus, the soul creates the body. This is why, when killed, we can rise from our own ashes. The soul survives, and promply creates another body to reside in. This is also why, before reproducing, we must consume spirit, build it on like blubber on a seal, bulk it up like cytoplasm in a cell; so that when that cell is split, there'll be enough in each."
G: "So that's why you've been acting like Dumbledore; you ate part of his soul?"
F: "I have recently feasted on three fragments of soul, and human soul at that; one half of Albus Dumbledore, and two sevenths of Tom Riddle."
H: "Two sevenths?"
F: "Remember our battle with the basilisk? After you destroyed the Tom Riddle diary, the portion of Tom's soul it contained did not simply vanish. I ate it."
G: "Won't the Riddle soul make you, um... evil?"
F: "No, it needn't effect me so. Phoenixes can encapsulate soul fragments as inert entities. Also, we can, if need be, mix, combine, and meld their spirit with our own, keeping what we find to be good, and letting the rest dissipate, to leave this earth behind."
R: "Holy crap!"
F: "In a manner of speaking."
The others smirked at Ron. Fawkes sat back on his perch, for by then, it was quite late. Off to their rooms went the residents of the Weasley house, and off to sleep.
Review reply:
mellyone: This is a story I plan to continue with, and the chapters should be about one a week, or one every few weeks, depending on my schedule.
G: "Hey Fawkes! You could eat Moaning Myrtle!"
F: "Ewww, Blecch!"
