Unintended Consequences

The pain had been unbearable! His head still ached from whatever had happened. It felt as though his skull had been split by a railroad tie centered on his jagged, cursed, lightning shaped, scar. Then came the flames, the feeling as though he was in the center of the sun as his agony exploded from his chest.

His thoughts were dazed, unclear, unable to form coherent thoughts. He lay there breathing, empty eyes staring at the ceiling. He tried to remember what he had been doing to put him in this state. Slowly, frustratingly so, his memory returned; a flash of his bed in the fifth year dorm, a book that Hermione had foisted upon him from the library, almost falling asleep and then the whole thing came rushing back to him.

He had been attempting to approach occlumency from another perspective. Hermione had suggested meditation to achieve the clearing of his mind, something Snape had harped on about, without issuing even the most basic of instruction beyond yelling at him and then slamming his magic into Harry's mind like a bull in a china shop.

It had felt really funny, he'd been on the edge of falling asleep as he focused on his breathing slowly drawing away from what was going around outside him, and then repeating the process to block off his awareness of his limbs. The hardest part was remembering what he'd been trying to do through the whole process, that and not falling asleep. The book had mentioned that most people took several weeks of trying each night before getting to this point, and he'd somehow managed it in three nights.

He remembered finding himself in front of something that resembled the pictures of the sun he'd seen in muggle school. He stared at an angry ball of energy, warmth rolling off it towards him, it was composed of two colors, green and gold, with one color chasing the other like a massive yin-yang symbol. Harry wasn't quite sure what the whole thing symbolized, the colors or the ball of energy, but he knew immediately that the jagged mass of black goop that looked like it was trying to latch onto it and only barely held back by a dim red mesh wasn't a good thing.

The other thing he noticed was a braided cord of green and gold going from around the area of his belly button up towards the ball of energy. The gold cord looks damaged compared to the green, and without realizing it Harry had the cord in his hands. Stupid really he had a manual that he could have stopped to read and look for any information on this phenomenon, but instead he just started doing without stopping to think.

He wasn't sure how long he'd focused on forcing the gold cord to strengthen and thicken, but he was trembling from exertion and sweat dripped from his forehead, sometime during the process the jagged mass of black had been shredded by angry flares from the ball of energy. His vision was dimming and he felt himself blacking out a few times while working, He'd thought it was just due to the effort he'd put in but given how he felt, maybe he was wrong there too.

The sun was guttering wildly, no longer two distinct separate colors but a muddied mess of grass-stain greenish yellow. As the ball that once held a blazing warmth grew dark, he had felt an icy cold seep into his limbs and trickle towards his chest. And for a moment, just a moment, he thought he saw a cloaked figure carrying a scythe.

Just when he thought he'd be joining his parents the cold dark ball made as if it to implode before a shudder pulsed through it and a single note like that of crystal bell sounded out causing it to explode into a fiery supernova just before he found himself blacking out.

His self reflection ended, Harry forced his eyes to open and made as if to sit up before he felt something stir on his chest, his shirt from the night before lay scattered in ashes around him. Carefully tilting his head to look down at his chest there was a baby phoenix colored golden with large green eyes and the edges of it's feathers a rich emerald green.

The skin on his chest underneath the phoenix twinged with lingering pain as though he'd been burned but felt like the burn had already healed over days ago. He sat there staring into the eyes of the bird on his chest and feeling completely content and happy and maybe for the first time loved, not for what had happened before he could even talk, but simply because he was Harry. For a moment as Harry stared into the eyes of the phoenix he thought he could see himself staring back at him.

"Wow," someone said from his left breaking the spell as he looked over to see Neville sitting on his bed looking over at Harry and the golden-green phoenix on his chest.

Harry looked back at the phoenix, and it winked at him before disappearing in a flash of green and gold.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The phoenix had returned to his bed each night, curling up on his chest as if it had never left for the next two days before he had to return to Snape's office for one of the unwanted torture sessions. But this time, even though he was anxious about the coming meeting and afraid of what would happen if Snape dug into his memories and discovered the phoenix, he felt the green bird in his mind pushing aside those feelings and filling him with confidence and reassurance.

He steeled himself and walked into the room where Snape barely looked up from his desk before growling, "Have a seat, Potter."

After a few minutes of the sound of Snape's quill scratching on student papers, Snape stood up and proceeded to empty strands of memory into the stone basin that he pulled out of a cabinet and set on his desk.

When the potions professor had finished, he put the pensieve back into the cabinet and turned back towards Harry.

"Stand up Potter, we shall see if you are yet trainable," the professor spoke through gritted teeth.

Harry obeyed moving away from the lab table and into the open space in front of the professor's desk without giving any more acknowledgement of the command than his actions. Snape sent a colloportus charm at the door and turned back towards Harry.

"Clear your mind Potter," Snape snarled pointing his wand at the young teen and then shouting, "Legilimens!"

Harry felt molten heat surge up from his chest and into his eyes, it didn't hurt just felt like an almost too warm hug only on the inside; and he heard phoenix song trilling, almost mockingly happy, making him want to smirk. But he suppressed the smirk and watched as potions master stumbled backwards clutching his eyes and screaming.

Snape stumbled towards his desk and in between agonized breaths snarled, "get—out—Potter."

Harry shrugged before casting finite at the door and leaving the office.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Neville finally worked up the courage to go over and sit next to Harry as the gold and green phoenix flamed in again for it's nightly nap on Harry's chest.

"Hi Neville," Harry said grinning at the other young man.

Neville nervously shifted before squeaking, "H-hi, Harry."

Harry continued to gently scratch the phoenix just above the wings. "Need anything, Neville?"

"N-no," the boy shuffled before working his courage back up and asking, "Can I?" motioning towards the phoenix on Harry's chest.

"Sure," Harry said his embarrassment having faded since the first night after the phoenix returned and flamed Harry's night shirt off before getting comfortable.

Neville carefully stroked the phoenix as if afraid it would turn on him before asking, "What's its name?"

Harry froze and looked at the phoenix for a moment before replying, "You know mate, I never thought to give him one."

The bird made a noise that sounded like it was laughing at them.

Harry looked at it some before asking the bird, "What's your name, huh?"

It returned his stare and he felt like he was looking into the eyes of a guardian knight like one from the stories he'd snuck into the library to read.

"Edmund, then," Harry said remembering one such character by the name and receiving a trill of acceptance in response.

"Where'd he come from, Harry?" Neville asked in awe at the phoenix on his friend's chest.

"Dunno really, mate, was trying something last week with that book Hermione forced on me and next thing I know I'm waking up and there he is," Harry said pointing at the bird on his chest.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Harry stood there staring at the Gargoyle, wondering how he was supposed to get in to meet with Dumbledore like he'd requested without the bloody password.

"I don't suppose you'd let me just go on up?" Harry said to the Gargoyle with a skeptical eye. The gargoyle just remained silent and motionless. "Hmmph."

After what must have been several minutes Professor McGonagall walked up the corridor and looked at him askance before asking, "Mr. Potter, what are you doing out here?"

"The Professor asked me to meet with him about some lessons I was taking, but forgot to give me the password, Professor McGonagall," Harry replied.

Professor McGonagall looked at him as though she were weighing his words to see if he was up to something. "Very well then Mr. Potter," she said before turning to the gargoyle and saying the pass phrase as though it was she were embarrassed, "Fizz Wiz."

Professor McGonagall turned to him and said, "Go on up Mr. Potter. I'm only delivering some paperwork in person."

As soon as her papers were on the desk she turned and left the room without a second glance at Harry.

"Sir? You wanted to see me?" Harry asked.

"Harry my boy, Professor Snape tells me you haven't been to this week's occlumency lesson."

Before he could reply Harry felt the warmth again moving up into his eyes and watched as Dumbledore cringed and sat back into his chair gasping, "I see."

Dumbledore sat back stunned, It felt like staring into a solid gold and green sun trying to use legilimency on Harry and that was the wandless wordless version, He'd hate to have tried the full spell like Snape did.

"See what, Prof—" Harry started to say before a flash of green interrupted him and Edmund settled onto his shoulder staring at Dumbledore as though daring him to try again.

Before Dumbledore could say anything Fawkes looked up from his perch and trilled before flaming to the desk in front of Harry and the other phoenix, looking back and forth between the two as though trying to figure out what was going on and then throwing back his head and letting out a melody of happy phoenix song.

To Harry it looked as though the weight of many years lifted from Dumbledore's shoulders as the older wizard relaxed into the chair with a nostalgic half-smile, and as Fawkes' song ended the weight seemed to come back, but lessened.

After a few moments of silence, Harry stood and left the office with Fawkes riding on his other shoulder, leaving Dumbledore to his thoughts as it appeared he would get no more out of the older man this night.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Harry glared at the toadish woman as she handed him the quill. "What about ink, professor?" he asked.

"You won't be needing any, Potter, the quill will provide," the pink cardigan wearing woman replied with a sickly sweet tone.

Harry nodded and put the pen to the paper, wincing with the first line, as it cut into the back of his hand. He paused and looked up at Umbridge sitting behind her desk now with a fuzzy pink quill in her hands. He looked down at the paper and saw the spot where he'd written starting to smoke, then he looked at the quill the tip beginning to glow. "Professor?" he asked. "Is it supposed to do that?"

"Do what dear?" Umbridge said in the same sickly sweet tone without looking up, before the smell of burnt feathers started to fill the room and she looked up in alarm and yelled, "What have you done boy!"

"Nothing professor," Harry said shoving the quill at her, its tip now bright red, a thin trail of vaporous smoke rising from it. The parchment he'd written on turning dark and curling up as though on fire.

"Get out! Get out you silly boy!" she howled at him, staring at the smouldering quill in morbid fascination and muted horror.

Harry left grumbling something about being kicked out of all his detentions and wondering what the point was if he was just going to be kicked out.

Fragment by: Stephenopolos

DBC's note: He wrote and typed this one up.