Dark Phoenix Rising

Prologue: The Almost Leo

"The Dark will rise once more... aided by the Storm and the almost-Leo... both are unwilling... both have no choice... the Storm was born the twenty preceding the thousand-year, the almost-Leo will become in the Sum of Five infra the thousand-year, raven haired and with eyes of gems...they will meet, and the world as we know it will cease to exist... but there comes a time when all is imaginary, a world is created by the flower of the pond..."

~Trelawney's last prophecy

The pain crescendoed into unimaginable limits and then it stopped. The cries of not one, but two new lives filled the tiny private hospital room at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. There were only two people besides the twins in the room: their mother, and her trusted friends, who were the Healers.

It was 12:01 a.m., Greenwich Standard Time, the twenty-third of July in the year 2003. That was the birth time of the younger twin, the girl. The boy had been born a minute and forty-two seconds before hand, at 11:59, on July the twenty-second.

The new mother was cleaned up by a quick charm, and she sat up, smiling for the first time in nearly eight months. Hermione Granger, the divorced Head of the Department of Charms, grinned back at her friend. Next to her, Luna Longbottom, a Healer, looked glad. "You haven't smiled since November," she said. "Not since... never mind."

Ginny looked happily at her two children, and then looked up sadly at Hermione and Luna. "It's all right. I'm fine now. It's Grandmother you should be worried about. I don't think she'll ever get over it. With me...well, we all knew it was inevitable. And it was his choice to sacrifice himself to the Phoenix Well. And we'll all heal eventually. After all, he left us with these two. Theodore and Maia. And I'll be able to continue as an Auror in his place, after your department found out the 'susceptibility' was just something created by the first Auror captain to make sure his wife couldn't be an Auror."

"I hate Myrtle," Hermione said savagely. "She's torturing Anne, the poor woman. Teasing her every day. She's even begun to stay around at your manor, you know, while you were here."

"I hate Myrtle too," Ginny said softly. "Grandmother's a very nice person, if a bit eccentric at times. But this isn't the place to talk about Myrtle. Has Trelawney come up with any little so-called 'fortunes' for the twins?"

At Trelawney's name, Hermione suddenly paled. "Ginny? Remember... remember her last prophecy that she made in my seventh year?"

Ginny was puzzled. "Yeah," she said. "I don't understand, Hermione. What about it?"

Hermione looked at the boy before continuing. "Ginny... doesn't it all fit? The almost-Leo will be born in the sum of five infra the thousand-year, with raven hair and eyes of gems. This year, 2003: when you add two and three, you get five. And it's after the millennium. Ginny, don't you understand? Theodore's the almost-Leo! The astrological sign Leo starts on the twenty-third. Theodore was born less than a minute before midnight, on the twenty-third. He's almost a Leo, but still a Cancer. And he's got the black hair and eyes of gems... emeralds! His eyes are emerald green, most likely. He's one of the two unwilling participants!"

Ginny's jaw dropped. "But we can't just kill him! And what if his eyes are brown?" she said. "I won't let you!"

Luna looked around, and placed a stronger Silencing Charm on the door before Hermione continued. "We don't have to kill him. We just have to make sure the Storm, whoever that is, doesn't find him. Our department has been working on an experiment Glamour Charm that supposedly works for life. If we disguise Theodore, and send him to live with someone else, then the Storm can't find him."

"But you can't send him away! He needs to grow up with family!" Ginny said.

"If we don't send him away, people will get suspicious that he doesn't look like either of his parents," Hermione said.

"But who said anyone heard the prophecy?" Ginny said.

Hermione looked grim. "Every prophecy is recorded in the Department of Mysteries. Whether anyone heard it or not, it's there. And with all the Death Eaters and other hopeful Dark Wizards around, it's more than possible that someone has heard it. We can't take any chances. Ginny, we have to. Do we have any really trusted friends that live in another country?"

"There's your friend, Su Li," Luna suggested. "In the States."

"Yes, but she's an Auror. And she's not married. Do we know any married couples who aren't Aurors?"

"Seamus and Lavender, in Spain," Luna said.

"Perfect," Hermione said. "They were both in Gryffindor, and Seamus was in the D.A. If I'm to leave here with Theodore, it needs to be soon."

"But..." Ginny said.

"We have to," Hermione said sadly, a tear running down her cheek. "I'm sure Seamus and Lavender will let you see him."

Reluctantly, Ginny nodded, looked at Theodore one last time, and handed him to Hermione. "Tell everyone that the charm was wrong, and there was only one baby," Hermione instructed. "And tell them there was an emergency at the Spanish Ministry, and I'm needed to help sort it out."

She left abruptly, looking rushed. Ginny looked down at Maia, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I've got to be brave," she murmured to herself. She wiped the tear away, and put a smile on her face. The door opened, as visitors were let in.

Grandmother rushed in. "The charm was wrong. There was only a girl," Luna notified her. "And Hermione's needed in Spain, so she had to leave."

"Oh," Grandmother said. Then she brightened. "Well, let's see Maia, then, Ginny darling." Ginny handed her Maia. Grandmother automatically began to talk to Maia kindly, beaming. If only Theodore was born a minute later, Ginny thought sadly. Then Grandmother would have her great-grandson, who seems to look more like Harry.

"She's got the most beautiful dark red hair," Grandmother said. Arthur Weasley came in, followed by most of the Weasley family. Percy seemed to be busy at work again, Ron had been in Australia since his and Hermione's divorce, and Mrs. Weasley was still regaining her memory from Munzer's disease, but everyone else was there.

"Let's see, then!" Fred said excitedly.

"Where's our newest niece?" George said. "Ah, girls are so much more fun to corrupt." He and Fred smiled at each other evilly.

"Ah, shut up, you two," Bill said, holding his year-old son Pierre. Fleur just raised an eyebrow, probably wondering what kind of family she had married into.

***

Hermione clambered onto a Muggle plane. There was no time to ride a wizarding train. It had been easy enough to sneak past the passport checkers. All it had taken was a simple Befuddlement Charm.

"Oi, miss, you don't need help, do yeh?" a man said, watching Hermione try to put the baby holder in the correct position. "Is that baby yours?"

Hermione nodded. The charm had worked perfectly. After she had called Seamus and Lavender the Muggle way (it was faster than owl, and Floo calls only worked domestically), she had given Theodore a whole new face, sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and a new stature. She had also made sure that he would have freckles in the future, just as an extra precaution.

"He's very cute," the man said. "Looks a lot like yeh, miss." He smiled, and pushed the baby holder down.

"Thanks," Hermione said.

"Anytime, miss," the man said, moving off to his own seat.

Hermione sat down in her seat, watching Theodore. Her nephew. "I'm sorry, Theodore," she said. "I suppose you'll probably live your life differently than if you lived here in England. You probably will go to Hechicero Barcelona Colegio de Magia instead of Hogwarts. You will speak Spanish. But you will be safe from the Storm."

Theodore made no sound. Hermione sighed, and sat back. The tiny Theodore did not know that he would soon become a Spanish citizen, be known as Matteo for the next eleven years, or that he would be the Finnigans' child for that time. And Matteo Finnigan would not know that he was truly a British citizen, who was the son of the great Harry Potter and the Auror Ginny Potter. He would be a normal child, growing up.

***

Eleven years later

The boy found himself in a windowless room. Two robed figures were in front of him. "It worked, Master," one of the figures said. It was a woman, who sounded hoarse, as if she had died and resurfaced from her grave.

"So it did. Add that to the list of powers," the second figure said. He seemed to have a commanding aura around him that forced everyone nearby into frightened submission. The boy shuddered.

"Master, may I ask: Will we begin to take power soon?" the first figure said.

"Soon, Lestrange, very soon."

"Master, if we don't move soon, I will be discovered. It will be known that Longbottom's curse missed me, and I was hit by Dolohov's Stunning Spell, instead."

"Then you will be discovered, Lestrange. We need to be cautious."

"Yes, Master." Lestrange turned, looking at the boy. "Where will we put him, Master?" she said.

"Leave him. He can't escape anyway," her Master said. The boy gulped, and slipped out of the room after Lestrange. She seemed like a better choice than staying with this man. He walked after her.

"Excuse me?" he said. Lestrange didn't answer. The boy didn't follow her as she rounded a corner. Instead, he walked around the corridor. It seemed to be part of a castle, though the boy was sure it wasn't Hogwarts. He found a window and peered out. A cliff was on one side of the castle, the sea at the bottom. On the other side was a familiar forest: the Forbidden Forest. Ahead was a strange, different forest.

Another robed figure rushed past, dropping something. The boy, curious, picked it up. It was a canary yellow and seemed to be a folder. The gold lettering on the front read: Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes: Flying Folder.

Intrigued, the boy opened the folder which immediately sprung out of his hands, grew, and levitated onto the sill of the window, as if waiting for the boy to mount it. The boy looked around. This was his chance to leave. Wondering where the folder would take him, the boy got on the folder, hanging on tightly as it took off in the direction of south.