The Phoenix's Fire

The First Battle

Chapter Five

Leaving Alexia with Dakota turned out to have been a wonderful idea. Everyone seemed to love the vampire and willingly did as they were told.

After a brief meeting with the strategy and research department, scouts were sent to find the Dark Lord's exact location. Twelve hours later, the final preparations were being made for the attack.

*****

"Dakota..."

Hearing her name being called, the shape-shifter turned to look down the darkened hallway.

"Where are you?" she whispered quietly in return.

"In the closet; sitting on a bucket. Come here."

Glancing around to be sure that nobody was following her, Dakota slipped soundlessly into the tiny space.

"Lady Destiny, how are you?"

"I have to pee, but I'll deal with that later. Is everything set?"

"I believe so. The attack is scheduled for tomorrow. Will you be coming?"

"What kind of Queen would I be if I wasn't willing to die for my people?"

"An awful Queen, but if you die; who will lead us?"

"Stanton is fully capable of replacing me."

"Ew! That blood sucker?"

Smiling slightly, Destiny murmured, "He will be good to the people." Pausing, Destiny continued. "How does Harry appear to be accepting Alexia?"

"He is accepting her, but My Lady, Alexia will not be able to make Harry forget about you."

"We shall see."

Sighing, Dakota sat on a bucket across from the Necromancer. "Have you given anymore thought to finding a cure?"

"A cure for Necromancy? No, I am what I am. I'm not a little girl anymore and I no longer wish to be something I am not. Besides, time has a way of giving back what has been lost, through memories... and wisdom." Seeing that the other girl was blinking back tears, Destiny reached out and squeezed her hand. "I haven't given up yet."

Sniffing, Dakota changed the subject. "Harry didn't notice you, did he?"

"No. He's searching for a child, a girl he once knew. If he doesn't remember, he will never find me... Go now. I'll see you on the battle field."

"Goodbye Milady. I'll see you soon."

*****

The next day dawned cool and clear, a perfect September day. Harry, who was just putting on the last pieces of his War Mage garbs, turned at the knock on his door. Calling for her to come in, he smiled at the vampires outfit. She appeared in the doorway wearing a dark maroon, corset style shirt and a long skirt that opened in a V at the knees revealing her long white legs. Wrapped around her shoulders was a black cloak, made of the finest material around.

"Hello Alexia. Nice dress; are you going somewhere?"

"I'm coming to the battle with you."

"In THAT?"

"You just concentrate on you; I'll take care of myself."

Shaking his head, Harry tried not to laugh at his housemates bizarre habits. "Whatever you say," he mumbled, sliding his knives into their holsters.

*****

Trying to inconspicuously move an entire army, even under the cover of trees, was not an easy thing to do at the best of time. Splitting up into groups of five, the army was to spread out along the outer perimeter of the stone fortress and wait for Harry's group to disable the wards and give the signal to attack.

As Harry, Ron, Sirius, Remus, and Arabella Figg crept closer to the fortress, Harry whispered, "Keep low. We don't want to be seen until it's time."

Hunching over, he ran to the cover of a tree. Pulling out the magical glasses that would allow him to see the wards surrounding the building, he squinted as a red line appeared a mere foot in front of him.

"Don't anybody move! There are wards all over!"

Sirius, freezing in a comical position, hissed, "Are you sure? How did you manage to make it that far then?"

"Pure dumb luck," Arabella whispered looking through her own pair a glasses."

Passing the glasses to Sirius, the Animagi's eyes widened. "Stay here. I'm going to disable them," Sirius hissed.

Twenty minutes later, Sirius had yet to make a dent in the wards and motioned for his Godson to try. Within ten minutes, Harry had managed to make it through half the wards when Sirius hissed, "Hit the dirt!" Moments later, a group of Death Eaters walked through the wards as if they weren't even there and entered the building.

"How did they do that?" Harry frowned.

Nodding at his sudden understanding, Remus said, "The Dark Mark on their arm allows them to pass unharmed."

Twenty minutes later, the small group was moving silently along the outer perimeter of the building, looking for an entrance when they saw it. It was a Phoenix, its feathers a deep red with silver tips. The deep red seemed to glow as if on fire and made a soft halo of light encircle it.

"Wow," Remus murmured. "What is such a pretty creature doing in a place like this?"

Feeling as if he should recognize the creature from somewhere, Harry said slowly, "We can't worry about that now. We need to get the attack started before we're found."

Giving the signal, invisibility charms were placed over the groups as they all made their way silently into the fortress. Upon entering, everyone froze. Sitting on a throne was none other than Lord Voldemort.

"Hello little boy," Voldemort sneered. "We've been waiting." With a wave of his hand, the invisibility charms broke and the screams began.

*****

Leaping forwards from where he had hidden in the shadows, Stanton grabbed the first Death Eater he could catch and snapped his neck. He cared nothing for who won or lost. His only care was to get as many Dark Creatures out of this hell hole alive as possible. He had warned Destiny of what would happen but she had refused to listen.

'Just as you knew she would,' he thought to himself bitterly, battling his way to that idiot Potters' side.

He had promised Destiny as they'd headed to the battle that he wouldn't let the boy die. He'd lived long enough to know the consequences of messing with prophesy. Having grown up in the time of the Crusades, Stanton was well aware of battle techniques and knew how to survive in a guaranteed loss.

Jumping forwards, he grabbed a Death Eater that was aiming for The Boy Who Lived, and sank his fangs into his- no her- neck. The woman struggled briefly before going limp.

Smiling evilly, he started forwards again. 'This could actually end up being the most fun I've had in centuries!'

*****

From where she stood, Destiny smiled. So far Voldemort had yet to take part in the fight. Walking to where the snake-like man stood, she tilted her head and looked at him inquisitively.

"Death, something you love," Destiny said, looking around serenely at the blood and broken bodies. "Does this please you?" Eyes suddenly flashing, she bared her teeth. "Or do you prefer when it's NOT your people dying?"

"Hello Destiny Black," Voldemort replied, completely ignoring her questions. "You've changed," he added, taking in her drastically failing health.

"You haven't. I may not be more than a ghost of a person, but I am more powerful than ever."

Drawing his wand, Voldemort twirled it idly. "Care to prove that?"

"This isn't our battle. We will duel when the time comes."

Without farther comment, she vanished into thin air. Reappearing on the other side of the room, she watched the death with an impassive expression.

'No, it isn't time yet. Soon though...'

*****

Cringing in pain at the wound that marred his side, Harry leaned against the wall, watching his army fight.

And die.

They were losing, yet they didn't retreat.

"They're waiting for the order..." a voice whispered in his mind.

'Destiny?' he thought, confused and wondering if he had begun to hallucinate from loss of blood.

Feeling as though a soft hand had brushed over his cheek, he heard her voice whisper, "My people are dying. Retreat and live to fight another day."

Snapping out of his trance, he glanced around. Harry felt as though much time had passed but, looking around, he saw that it had only been a few seconds.

Raising his wand, he sent out a shower of sparks and yelled for an all out retreat. Grabbing their wounded and dead, the Dark Creatures vanished with a pop before the humans even began to process the order they had been given.

Grabbing a teenage elf-boy that had been injured, Harry made sure that his people were leaving before apparating back to headquarters.

*****

The scene that greeted Harry was much as he had expected to see. People were lying broken and bleeding on the floor while medi-witches tried desperately to save as many as possible. Walking through the disaster scene, he finally managed to corner a nurse.

"What should I do?"

The frazzled witch pointed down the hall to an open door. "Go find people that are dead and take them to that room. We need to be able to get to the injured without having to sort through the dead."

Nodding, Harry hurried to the nearest person and felt for a pulse. Feeling nothing, he turned the woman's corpse over and closed his eyes.

When it had just been nameless, faceless people suffering, it hadn't really hit him to how real this was. Lying before him though was the proof. The girl was not much younger than him; the daughter of a man who worked in his department.

"If you're not going to help," a familiar voice snapped, "then get out of the way."

Looking up, he could see Dakota and Alexandria standing over him.

"Stop it Dakota. He obviously knew the girl," Alexia said sternly.

Scooping the girl into his arms, he stood, turning his back to the two females and walked away without a word. He knew he should have responded but his heart felt like lead.

Reaching the open door, he froze. The room was being piled with bodies, each tagged with their name.

"Sad, isn't it?" Alexia murmured, coming to stand beside him. "Maybe now you can understand what this is like from a Dark Creatures prospective."

Looking at the white haired woman beside him, he snapped angrily, "I don't see why they would suffer any more from the death of a loved one than anyone else would."

"No," she replied tonelessly, "I don't suppose you would."

Pulling the girl from his arms, Alexia walked silently into the room. As he watched her, he was confused when he saw her put the body in a different corner from the large pile. In this corner, the corpses were being laid out nicely, not stacked. Horror began to dawn on him as he looked between the two piles: one massive, one with five bodies.

Stopping beside him on the way out, she whispered almost to herself, "It's amazing how human they look in death, yet not even then are they considered equals."

*****

It was hours before things returned to a semblance of calm.

"Mr. Potter?" a young witch inquired. "We have the final count."

Raising his head from his hands, he sighed. A final death count, a list of MIA's, and the names of all that were injured.

"How many are dead?"

"Fifty-three humans; one hundred and twenty Dark Creatures are dead, Sir. There are only twenty injuries that can't be healed with time. They're to be moved to St. Mungo's within the hour."

"How many are missing?"

"Surprisingly only ten. It seems that everyone was prepared to take back with them a body."

"No, not everyone- only Destiny's army. What were we thinking in that attack?"

"I don't know Sir. I wasn't there."

"Could I have the list? I'd like to personally contact families if possible."

Taking the list, Harry made his way to his office before sitting down heavily.

'What an awful day...' Rubbing his eyes, he looked down at the list. On it, there was only one name that he recognized. 'No!' he thought frantically, terror causing him to begin to shake.

Sirius Black's name seemed to stand out, almost supernaturally, from the parchment.