The Phoenix's Fire

The Beginning of the End

Chapter 9

When Harry returned home, he knew immediately that Alexia was gone. The house was dark, silent, and cold. It hadn't felt this empty since before the Seer had moved in. Before, even when she wasn't there, the building had held a type of glow, as if it were waiting, as if it knew that the woman would return. Now only the deserted husk remained, there was only the cold.

Walking silently into the living room, he glanced around. Every plant in the room was dead, there were layers of dust and one of the windows was broken. Before Alexia had come, Harry had kept this room closed off, never bothering to fix the window, or clean up the glass and dirt. Alexia had fixed it up- or so he had thought. It had all been magic, a simple illusion spell.

Heading upstairs through the dust and grime, Harry paused at the door to her room. Carefully pushing the door open, he stepped soundlessly into the room. Drawers were open, hangers were on the floor; Destiny had definitely made a quick exit. What caught his eye though was a piece of paper that had been taped to the wall directly across the room from where he stood in the doorway. It was a letter that had been meant to be found. Snatching it off the wall, Harry read it quickly before rereading it aloud to himself.

"When ice does shine,

The Mage will die.

Through fires flame,

The Queen shall rise.

When all is lost and hope is gone,

The Phoenix shall rise to free them all.

When evil rules and darkness reigns,

Lives are lost, with no gain.

Love so pure, love so bright,

Only love will end this night.

Through love, through pain,

The purest sacrifice made.

Of ash shall rise, the heroes purest light,

One to set all free, no matter the oppositions might."

Taking the papers, Harry ran out the door and Apparated to headquarters.

*****

As the weeks passed, September became October and October became November. Voldemort had stepped up his attacks and the death rate was rising. The threat of an attack on Hogwarts was so great that on the 25^th of November, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Arabella, Sirius, Remus, two fairies, an elf, and two vampires made their way to the famous school.

Arriving was strange. It had been years since Harry had lived at Hogwarts and to be back was exhilarating. It was difficult to walk the halls though and be forced to remember what had once been and know that many of his old friends were now dead and gone.

The three friends quickly settled in and were soon seen wondering around the halls, sitting in on classes, and generally getting in the way.

Christmas came and went, time passed and more people began to join Voldemort or chose to die. Time after time Harry went on raids, captured Death Eaters, and prayed that today would not be the day that the Phoenix would fail to appear. The red and silver phoenix had begun to be seen as a good luck charm. If the bird appeared, there were little to no injuries; if it failed to, the losses for the Light were tremendous. Entire teams had been wiped out and the Order couldn't afford to lose any more people. Harry had been lucky several times now. The one and only time the Phoenix had not shown up for him, five people of a ten manned team had died, including Arabella Figg. Arabella's death was such a huge loss that many people had abandoned the cause in favor of Voldemort's forces.

"Any more losses like this" Albus Dumbledore said one morning in a rare show of pessimism, "and we may very well lose this war."

Days crept by as one session of grieving ended and another always began. Things were becoming bleak and hope was all but gone.

"What are we going to do Harry?" Hermione asked one afternoon.

"I don't know 'Mione, I just don't know."

On the morning of February 1^st, during a meeting of the Order at Hogwarts, the Order of the Phoenix headquarters was attacked and destroyed. Over five hundred people died in the attack.

Bowing his head in defeat, Dumbledore whispered in horror, "Five hundred... There were children there..."

"We were lucky though," Harry replied quietly. "Most of our strategists, generals, and leading field agents were here and many of the people who would usually have been there weren't scheduled to come in until late afternoon."

"We're losing Harry," Sirius muttered, his face in his hands.

"We will not lose."

"Have you found the girl?" Dumbledore asked.

"No Sir. Not yet."

"Find her or we may all end up bowing at Voldemort's feet."

Battles occurred; some were lost, some were won. Through all this no Dark Creature participated in the fighting. The entire army that had once been at his disposal had vanished the day that Alexia had been revealed as what she truly was. Dread settled into every member of the Orders hearts as February turned to March and the Necromancers birthday month arrived.

It was in March that the final decision on who would win the war was made. On this day, the final prophesy came true.

*****

March 21^st dawned gray and cold with rain threatening to fall in sheets. Sitting at the table that had been set up for the Order that inhabited the school now that their primary headquarters had been destroyed, Harry was quietly enjoying his breakfast while listening to Ron recount stories from their childhood.

"And then," Ron exclaimed, "in my second year, Harry and I flew my family's car to Hogwarts after-"

Ron was cut off suddenly when a house-elf came running into the Great Hall.

"Master Dumbledore, Master Dumbledore! Come quick Sir!"

"Cici, what is it?" Dumbledore asked, trying to calm the distraught elf.

"Men, Sir, lots of men in masks are approaching the school!"

Rising swiftly to his feet, Dumbledore ordered all of the students to go back to their houses. Next he ordered the hundred Light wizards who were living at the school to prepare themselves for battle.

Stepping out of the school, Harry felt as if the air had been knocked out of him at the sight that greeted them. Over a thousand people dressed in black approached slowly on the small army that had gathered to protect the castle.

Swearing softly, Harry drew his wand and prayed for the best. Keeping his eyes locked firmly on the approaching sea of blackness, Harry asked quietly if anyone had seen the Phoenix. There was no reply. Sighing, Harry raised his wand and prepared to die.

*****

Moving swiftly, a small white fox ran through the forest, sending up howls as it went. Reaching the edge of the forest, the fox quickly became a man and went to join the ranks of the Death Eaters.

*****

Taking a deep breath, Harry called out, "We will fight until the last man is dead! There will be no retreats! We cannot lose here; there will be no other fights after today! This battle will determine who wins. The righteous WILL prevail!" All of his speech was spoken with more confidence than he felt. Speaking so quietly that only those nearest him could hear, Harry whispered, "Make me proud..."

As the Dark army reached them, the Light stepped out to meet them.

*****

Very quickly it could be seen that, while well trained, there were just too many against them. Victim after victim fell and still the battle raged on. Large chunks of stone fell as spells rebounded off the walls of the school.

Inside the school, the students huddled together and cried in terror. In a flash of blinding light, the apparition wards fell. Horrified, the prefects ordered the students to ready themselves to fight for survival.

Immediately, hooded figures began to apparate into the common rooms. Standing tall, the older students began to fight back. As the students were beaten back and quickly killed, others began to apparate into the rooms. The tide of war began to turn as the unmasked group quickly destroyed anyone who rose to fight them- students included.

Ravenclaw was the first house to be secured from the Death Eaters and with the help of portkeys, was evacuated to the mountains in the north. As the student arrived, they were all greeted with the same sight: giants, werewolves, fairies, vampires, nymphs, satyrs, gremlins, hags, centaurs, shape-shifters, gnomes, dwarves, and in a small lake, a variety of sea creatures all running around in organized chaos. Some gathered swords and others sharp objects, while others moved to organize the children and remove them from the opportunity to get in the way. At the far end of the camp, a large group stood calmly and at the shout of a fairy was the size of a Barbie, the entire group apparated away.

Once all of Hogwarts had been evacuated, wards went up around the large cave where the students had been taken. Nobody could go in and nothing was coming out.

From where she stood, Mia smiled sadly. No matter what the outcome was today an entire generation had just been saved and were safe and able to be trained for war in the future. No matter the outcome, the Light forces still had a chance.

Nodding at a group of elves who were to remain behind, Mia vanished with a small pop.

*****

Spell after spell flew at him and, instead of wasting energy blocking them, Harry simply dodged. Unfortunately, even dodging became tiring and he was quickly wearing down. Exhausted, Harry failed to dodge a banishing charm and was suddenly thrown across the war zone and into the front doors of the school. Grunting in pain, Harry rose unsteadily to his feet. Glancing out over the flashes of light and falling bodies, Harry felt his eyes widen and a grin creep over his face.

Entering silently, moving like shadows, wave after wave entered from the Forbidden Forest in perfect position to flank the Death Eaters. Where the Death Eaters had once out numbered the Light ten to one, the odds had suddenly become more even. The odds were now reduced to two to one as more than five hundred Dark Creatures emerged from the forest. In one movement, the Dark Creatures rushed Voldemort's army from behind and swiftly began to execute the masked men.

None of the new army even glanced up as a musical cry floated through the air. Harry and the rest of the humans did though and what they saw caused a cheer to go up and rise to an exalted crescendo. A beautiful red and silver phoenix flew through the air, landing briefly in places to cry on the most injured.

Instantly it was as if the Light Side had suddenly gotten a burst of much needed energy as every agent began to fight back twice as hard.

Gripping his wand tighter, Harry headed back into the fray.

*****

Apparating into the Owlery at Hogwarts, Dakota Lupe made her way over to where Harry's owl sat.

"Hello Hedwig. Would you do me the favor of delivering this letter to where the Muggle World leaders are staying for their meeting?" Reaching out to put the letter on the birds' leg, she quickly snapped her hand away when it tired to bite her. "Look you stupid pigeon, Harry's in trouble. There are more of them than us and we need help. Harry could die out there if you don't take this letter. Will you do this for Harry?"

Seeming to think it over for a second, Hedwig finally stuck her leg out with an annoyed shake of her head and allowed the letter to be tied to her. After making sure that Hedwig made it out and away from the fighting, Dakota disapparated.

*****

By the time that night had begun to fall, the tides had once again shifted sides. After the Dark Creatures had arrived, it had seemed that the Light had a guaranteed win on their side. Soon after though, more Death Eaters had arrived to replace the old fighters and were fresh and ready to kill.

Shifting into an eagle, Dakota flew to Harry's side, landed, yelled for him to make his way into the school, and quickly flew to safety.

Hurriedly running to the front doors, he yanked them open and darted inside before slamming them shut. The doors had barely closed before the shape-shifter grabbed on to him and portkeyed them to a Muggle military base. Staggering slightly, Harry glanced around. Standing before him were hundreds of Muggles dressed in camouflage, guns in place, planes sitting on the runway ready to fly.

"What's going on here?" Harry asked, reaching up to wipe blood off of a small wound on his forehead.

"Remember negotiating with the Muggles last summer for help?" Dakota asked.

"Vaguely..."

"Well, help has just arrived."

Stunned, Harry finally snapped, "You can't just bring Muggle equipment into Hogwarts! It's like a complete dead zone for all Muggle technology! Nothing will work there and all of these people will get killed!"

Smirking, Dakota nodded towards the planes. "Already thought of that. All of these planes are being run on magical crystals instead of gas. This way they will never need to land and, when this war is over, the crystals are easily removed. We're planning on having the planes fly over the forest and shoot any Death Eater groups that are waiting in there to attack. A ground crew will go in and destroy those who are too close to the good guys to be shot accurately by the planes. Sound good?"

"How long have you been working on this?" Harry asked in amazement.

"Around five years. It takes a long time to recruit this many people and to find and charge this many crystals."

Shaking his head and smiling in disbelief, Harry finally murmured, "You know, this just might work. Do they know what to do?" Harry asked, nodding to the Muggles.

"Yes, they've had months of training for this and every one of these people are volunteers. Nobody has been forced to be here."

"Alright then, let's go!" As some of the Muggles ran for their planes, Harry asked how far away they were from Hogwarts.

"Flying: about five minutes. We're just on the other side of the mountains from Hogsmeade. The foot soldiers all have portkey necklaces. They'll be transported there by them and if they are injured, they can activate the portkey to allow them to escape back to here." Nodding his approval, Harry raised his wand to apparate when Dakota spoke again. "The children are safe. They've been moved to a secret location and will be safe should anything go wrong."

"Thank you. That's helpful to know."

*****

Sitting on his throne, Voldemort watched the war progress through a mirror in front of him. Hearing the thrumming noise, the snake-like man focused the mirror above the forest. Seeing the large metal planes shooting bullets into the trees where the Death Eaters were resting, Voldemort snarled, "Release the Dragons."

*****

As dusk became full night, exhaustion was quickly setting in. Some of the men had been fighting since the battle had begun and wanted nothing more than to rest. The Muggles arrival was a blessed relief to the fatigued people. With the planes and guns on their side, victory looked certain. Unfortunately what came was not expected. Three large dragons flew through the air and caused planes to be engulfed in flames and plummet to the ground. The pilots were able to kill one dragon before being forced to retreat. Using the trees for cover, the Muggle ground team took aim on any and all masked men and fired. The Muggles with guns didn't last long as more men came from behind and systematically slaughtered those hidden in the trees.

In a last ditch effort to gain the upper hand, Mia apparated back to the mountain where the Dark Creatures had set up their base and gathered the next wave. With bows, arrows, and magic repelling shields, dozens of elves disapparated to the edge of the fighting. Keeping themselves squatted behind their shields with their back to the castle wall; the elves dug the metal into the ground and created a sort of phalanx. On the count of three, all of the elves rose from behind the protection and promptly shot their arrows into the crowd before ducking back down and preparing for the next attack.

Panic took over as arrows flew and, when hit, caused the victim to explode into flames, disintegrating within seconds. Unfortunately, one out of ten of the victims was a good guy.

"Whoops," Mia murmured, reloading in the blink of an eye and quickly shooting again. Before Mia could drop back down though, she was hit with an exploding hex. Feeling her organs begin to overheat, her body bubbling and expanding, she whispered, "Oh, shi-", before her body exploded.

The elves around her didn't even turn when they were hit with a wave of blood, guts and pieces of skin. After this incident though, many were a lot more careful about how much of themselves was shown when firing.

As the war raged on and more and more people fell, hope seemed like a distant memory and the end almost nonexistent. In the middle of it all, covered in blood, Harry threw curse after curse, praying to live to see another dawn.