Knight of Angels

1: Trainee

Phoenix Argent stretched in her bed—unable to rise from the warmth of her comforter. Blonde hair fanned out on her pillow, she yawned again and reached for the wand on her bedside table.

Phoenix always kept her wand close by.

Anyone who knew her story would understand that peculiar habit perfectly—it was a pure (and perhaps necessary) self-defense.

At age ten, Phoenix had been kidnapped by the most evil wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort. He had revealed to her magical heritage, and instructed her in powerful magics. By the end of a year, she was ready to do anything for him, and that something was to bring Harry Potter to the Dark Lord.

Only then had Phoenix realized the identity of her "teacher", and together, she and Harry had managed to escape. But only barely.

Phoenix told the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, everything then. She had shown him everything she could do, and told him everything she knew about the Dark Lord’s inner circle, the Death Eaters. Professor Dumbledore had sent her on to the Aurors—and she had thus skipped six years of schooling at Hogwarts.

Sleepily, Phoenix murmured a charm that sent a small flock of glittering little fireballs whirling around her. Satisfied that this would keep her warm, Phoenix rose from the bed.

Both Ariana and Dram Argent had been Aurors. With a threat to their daughter, they had split the family up so that they could help fight the menace of Voldemort. Phoenix was being trained as an Auror now at the British Auror’s Institute for Agent Training (commonly referred to as the "Academy" by Aurors, teachers, and trainees), and had been for the three weeks. Her teacher, Anderi, said she was doing wonderfully.

The clothes she wore here were comfortable and practical. Instead of the stiffly formal school blazer and skirt of the Hogwarts uniform, Phoenix wore a loose cotton shirt and jeans that were much more like the Muggle clothing before…the magic. There was, of course, the robe that seemed to be a part of wizarding heritage.

Phoenix stepped out into the hallway, where cheerily blazing torches lit the white walls of the dorm.

The worst part of the "Academy", Phoenix thought, is this bloody long walk from my room to the Dining Hall.

There was a soft creak. Phoenix grabbed her wand instinctively.

"Immobilus!" shouted a voice from within one of the doors.

"Pyras Procteca!" Phoenix screamed. A wall of fire sprang up around her, a cyclone of yellows, scarlets, golds, crimsons, and oranges, and the purple light of the jinx was sucked into the swirl.

"Good, lass!" called a familiar voice.

"Ignitias Fin!" Phoenix whispered to her wand, and the flames died down, and she turned around to face the speaker.

"Better already, Phoenix," Davy said, patting her back as he came up from behind you. "But you were looking in the wrong direction for my voice." Davy was another instructor, a tall man with wild orange hair.

"It’s hard to hear with a Fire Wall roaring and blazing all around you," Phoenix muttered sullenly, looking down at the ground.

"It’s hard to accept excuses from the quickest student here."

Phoenix blushed.

"Now, just for that, I want to see you in the Dining Hall in less than five minutes. And no Apparating to it, either," he looked away to take out an hourglass.

"I wasn’t planning on it," she smiled. "I have something better."

"Oh?" he asked, looking at her. She was much lower than she had been before. "Oh well, I guess flying is exercise as well."

The small blue-winged merlin chirped back at him, and lifted itself off the ground.

"No going through the windows!" Davy yelled after Phoenix.

It took Phoenix only a moment to reach the Dining Hall in her Animagus form. She wondered why she had never considered that method of transportation before now.

The Dining Hall was not a particularly large room, but it made Phoenix want to feel very inconspicuous. She was by several years the junior of everyone else in the Hall, and had received quite a few stares on her first day at the "Academy". The trainees sat at large, round tables with their instructors, and the remaining Aurors sat at a long table at the center of the room.

"’Lo," Phoenix said, slipping into a seat next to her teacher, Anderi Nebulai. Anderi was a tall, elderly lady with white hair, a rather grandmotherly looking woman. But she was still as tough as any witch or wizard in the rest of the Auror’s force.

There was no reason to tell Phoenix she was being treated specially. Anderi was pretty much going one on one with Phoenix, and teachers like Davy dropped in on her for specialized things.

Phoenix picked at the bacon on her plate. It wasn’t as crispy as she would have liked it, but it would have been rather rude to fry the bacon with a bit of magic. The waffles were much better—piping hot and dripping with syrup.

"Hello, Phoenix," Anderi said absentmindedly after her charge had been sitting down for several minutes and was halfway through her breakfast.

"Good morning," Phoenix said, greeting Anderi again.

"You’re studying more of the Auror’s Code today. I get to teach you all the horrible little details like ‘you may lie for the better good of the public’ and then debate endlessly about what the ‘better good of the public’ is with you. Worst part of the job, can’t break a rule or it’s off for a spell in Azkaban. Follow some of ‘em, and you aren’t doing your job."

"Oh," Phoenix blinked.

"Finished, dearie?"

Phoenix nodded, pushing the plate of fatty bacon away from her.

"Let’s go then. Maybe we can get another bit of that camouflaging in today as well, if you’re quick enough getting the Code down."

Phoenix had to skip a bit to keep up with Anderi’s long stride, but it wasn’t far to the little room where she had her "indoor lessons".

While her teacher rummaged through some papers, Phoenix sat down on the floor—back not facing the door or windows like she had been taught. I, Phoenix thought, will walk out of this as the perfect assassin. Trained by both sides, and I know each side as well. Even though I’m only eleven going on twelve, I have more magical power than most adults. A match for anyone except the Dark Lord. Easily.

That wasn’t the way she should be thinking though. As an Auror she fought for the people, not for her own power or honor.

"Ready?" Anderi asked.

"I—I guess," Phoenix said, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Okay then, girl. This is probably the most important section of the Code, so pay attention. ‘The three curses deemed "Unforgivable" by the British Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards are usable to certified Aurors (and their counterparts abroad) in situations where the good of the general public is confirmatively at stake.’ Phoenix, what does the ‘good of the general public’ constitute?"

"When people are going to die and a lot of things are going to be destroyed? Umm, when there’s going to be a lot of pain and suffering with possibly catastrophic effects for the magical and Muggle worlds as we know them today?"

"That’s just about it, but you could have left it with just the death and destruction part. ‘The Imperius Curse is permittable upon those suspected of criminal actions.’ Criminal actions in this case are murder, extreme property damage, and non-Auror use of the Unforgivables. ‘The curse must be removed upon the confinement of the suspect and removed also for trials and hearings within a legal court and/or in any part of a legal procedure.’

" ‘The Curse of Crosses, the Pain Curse, may be used to subdue criminal suspects who will not bend to the Imperius Curse. The curse may be held no longer than two minutes without relief upon those not confirmed guilty and sentenced by a legal Ministry (of any region) or International court.’ That’s to keep Aurors from settling personal grudges against suspects, and to make sure the suspect doesn’t die before we can hear the alibis and excuses.

"This last part is the most serious. ‘The final unforgivable, the Killing Curse may be used upon only those who have been convicted of the worst Dark Magic or those who have been seen by Aurors killing or attempting to kill any sentient being.’ Sentient beings…those would be humans, mer-people, centaurs, possibly unicorns…the rules on trolls and goblins are sketchy though. Never, ever use that unless you have a very good reason for doing so, Phoenix."

"I wasn’t planning on it. I don’t want to ever use it or any other of those curses." What Phoenix wanted, however, meant nothing. She had used them before. The Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, she had only used on animals, as was with crucio. But she had used the Imperius Curse before…and she would use it if her life or anyone else’s depended on it. Voldemort gave me the raw power to work with, and now the Aurors are refining that power. I know the most dangerous spells from the Dark forces, and the Light siders have taught me to harness them well, and a bit of hand-to-hand, physical fighting too.

To her credit, Anderi said nothing, and dove into another section.

* * * * *

"Exams today!" Davy yawned.

"Is there a reason I’m doing this at two in the morning?"

Davy shrugged. "It’s traditional. Supposedly it tests your night vision."

It was the first week of July, so the night was warm and hazy, but there were so many bugs that Phoenix had put a light Shield Charm up around herself.

"And wasn’t I supposed to wait another few weeks?" Phoenix asked.

"Phoenix, I have no idea. I just watch. Anderi’ll tell you, but wait until this test is over with so she can’t fail you just because your question annoyed her. I think she’s done that before. Here she comes, by the way."

Phoenix spun toward the light sound of Anderi’s footsteps.

"Are you ready, Phoenix?"

"Ready as I’ll ever be, Anderi."

"Good enough. Shoot me with a Stunner."

Was that how difficult this would be? "Consio Nox!"

Davy revived Anderi, and she shook her head to get rid of all the dirt in it.

"Good. You didn’t go for the easy stupefy way out. That’s for the Ministry and schoolchildren. Now…what’s the underwater breathing spell? Not the Bubble Head?"

Phoenix closed her eyes and recited like a Muggle child. "The Meraquan Lungs may be used by pointing to one’s throat and saying the Atlantian Lifeline. For longest effect, the user must crescendo and increase the tempo. The Lifeline goes—"

"No, don’t need to hear that," Anderi said, and Davy smiled behind the old lady’s back. "Next…"

Anderi took Phoenix through a recitation of advanced spells, jinxes, and survival skills, as well as drilling her on the Auror’s Code.

"Now," Anderi told her, and Phoenix could tell this would be a different phase of testing from the less monotonous tone of her instructor’s voice, "We do a bit of dueling with you…an old Auror by the name of Roger Jaqueat will be dueling with you, he’s fairly good, but" Anderi whispered, "I think you can beat the old coot."

"Jaqueat!" Davy yelled, and Phoenix could hear the sharp tone of magical amplification in his already booming voice.

Several minutes later, Phoenix saw a cloaked figure striding across the moonlit lawn, the cloak billowing in the light summer breeze.

"Yes, Anderi?" the man said in a light tenor voice.

"Ah, Roger. You offered to duel with our young prodigy Phoenix."

"Of course. The rules?"

Anderi thought a moment. "No rules, really."

"We bow now, Phoenix," Roger said.

Phoenix dipped into the slight bow fitting for a quick duel.

"READY!" Davy shouted. "BEGIN!"

"Consio Nox!" Phoenix shouted, hoping she could get this over with quickly.

Roger quickly sidestepped out of the way. "Adia Finite!"

"Sola Guarai!" The spell was deflected. Phoenix heard Anderi and Davy talking amongst themselves, but focused again on her opponent.

"Morte Syria!"

Phoenix put up another shield. Adia Finite and Morte Syria were rather similar spells. Spells to steal ones voice away. This man thought he could stop her from casting spells if he took away her voice with spells that were counteracted only by potions she had no access too.

"Larki Non!"

Another jinx aimed at her voice. With an ordinary opponent, that strategy might have worked, but Phoenix had enough raw magic in her to perform spells silently, and many without a wand, if simple bursts of raw magic were needed to knock an opponent out or simply shove them out of the way. She had been good at voiceless magic from the start, but had gotten even better at the "Academy". Hastily she put up another protective charm. But it didn’t work.

"Imperio!"

Come on, brat

The will-voice was familiar to her. It was from her very first encounter with magic, the night this had all begun. The mental voice belonged to Lucius Malfoy.

I know you…

Move, before they get suspicious!

Phoenix broke the curse quickly. The Dark forces hadn’t learned from their encounters with Phoenix at all.

But Phoenix had missed Malfoy’s strategy as well. The vocal charms were a carefully planned ruse to keep her off guard, not useful to the imposter at all. Anderi and Davy were shouting something to "Roger" about something. Phoenix didn’t take time to listen to them.

"Consio Nox!" Phoenix screamed, putting as much power as she could into the spell, trying to broaden the beam of light so that Malfoy couldn’t dodge it.

Lucius Malfoy’s face—or rather, the face of Roger Jaqueat with Malfoy controlling the emotions—was contorted with shock and anger. His game was up, and Phoenix was fully prepared for him now. There wasn’t much time before Phoenix would get the better of him, even if she did stick to the rules. "Syria Morte!"

This time, Phoenix was just recovering from her previous, draining, hex. The curse hit her in the chest, and she was knocked over momentarily, and felt herself start to bleed. Malfoy used several more jinxes, and she heard Davy and Anderi faint. Play dead, she thought. Make him underestimate me and then jump up in his face.

Phoenix channeled all her magic to her throat, and it burned like small bits of fire to clear the iron bands around her vocal cords that prevented her from even screaming.

"Well, well," Malfoy said. His footsteps were coming closer. "The Dark Lord will be very pleased with what I have for him."

You don’t have me yet. Not by a long shot, Malfoy.

The footsteps were coming closer. Phoenix got a good grip on her wand. Nobody would fault her for using the Killing Curse now, but that would be a little tasteless and as well as overkill. A simple, embarrassing-to-succumb-to Stunning Curse.

The footsteps were about two feet away now. Using everything Davy had taught her about jumping up, Phoenix sprang into the air. "Stupefy!"

Malfoy wasn’t expecting that. He fell to the ground.

Phoenix ran across the rippling, moonlit grass to Anderi and Davy. "Enervate!"

"We were too late," Anderi muttered.

"Too late for what?" Phoenix asked.

"Too stop them," Davy sighed. "We’d heard they were going to try and get you."

"Dumbledore started to get reports in about a week ago from one of his main sources. The Dark Lord’s forces were going to try and get you from us, so we decided to hurry up your exams and get you out of here A.S.A.P."

Phoenix stared at Anderi. "Does Professor Dumbledore know what Voldemort wants?" she asked. "Because Malfoy could have just killed me and gotten out of here and he might have succeeded."

Davy shook his head. "Dumbledore doesn’t know much about it. But judging by that stunt Lucius Malfoy tried to pull, they want you alive."

"I’m sorry," Anderi said softly.

"Sorry for what?" Phoenix smiled. "You’ve given me a direction for my magic, and I should thank you. You were doing everything you could, and that’s more than enough for anyone."

Davy stood up, and Anderi and Phoenix followed suit. "I think Phoenix passed her tests," Davy said, rubbing his head with one hand and shaking dirt off with the other.

"I think after catching one of the most wanted Dark Wizards on our list, Phoenix is more than qualified," Anderi told him. "She’s ready for anything we could prepare her for here."

Phoenix blushed faintly, but neither of her teachers saw that in the faint light of the moon and the almost non-existent light of the "Academy".

Davy sighed. "I don’t think you should stay here any more though, Phoenix. It’s obvious the Dark Lord knows where you are now."

Anderi nodded. "Phoenix, as soon as we finish up your paperwork and all the tedious little details, it would be best if you left. You’re better off if nobody announces that you’re there, like we did. More than a few Daily Prophets had articles about the amazing twelve year-old."

"I wasn’t twelve then. I’m not even twelve now, I still have a month to go."

"Those people get things wrong all the time," Davy shrugged. "Get used to incompetent media. If you think that’s bad, you should have read the article about how Harry Potter was an insane, evil lunatic."

Phoenix giggled.

Anderi smiled slightly too. "Davy, can you clear up Phoenix’s paperwork? I’ll come back to stamp them in a while, and Phoenix and I can take that scumbag up to the Holding Box until we can get an appointment for the Azkaban ferry."

"Of course, Anderi," Davy said. "Goodbye, Phoenix."

"’Bye," Phoenix said softly. "I’m going to miss you, and thank you so much for everything, Davy. I really, really, really, really mean it."

Davy stuck out his hand, and Phoenix clasped it tightly. "It was an honor to teach you, Phoenix," he said gallantly, and then started to jog back towards the "Academy."

"Let’s get this piece of filth into jail," Anderi said.

Phoenix kicked Malfoy in an affirmative. "Mobilcorpus!" she told her wand, and Malfoy’s body jerked into the air and hovered in front of Phoenix as she followed Anderi to the Auror’s prison.

The prison was a gloomy two-story structure made completely out of grey stones. There were anti-magical objects that would block any magic used by prisoners in every cell, and Aurors were constantly patrolling the halls.

"Anderi!" called a voice from the roof. It was a man with ruffled, sandy hair. "Bringing someone in? I’ll go get Tatiana…just hold on a second, okay?"

"Will’s a good boy," Anderi smiled.

"Did you have him as a trainee?"

"Mmmhmm. I wonder what he could have possibly have done to have earned sentry duty here yet again?" she sighed.

A willowy brunette came flying out the doors. "Aunt Andi! It’s so good to see you again! But I didn’t know you were out—Merlin’s beard!"

"Lucius Malfoy, Tati," Anderi said. "He made an attempt to get Phoenix…but that didn’t quite work as well as he planned as I think you can see."

"Amazing," Will said, coming up behind Tatiana. Both of them glanced at Phoenix. "Would you care to take this git inside?"

"We’re in somewhat of a hurry…but every Auror needs to see the inside of the jail, don’t they?" Anderi sighed. "Bring him in, Phoenix.

The inside was even gloomier than the outside.

"We asked for money to do some redecorating…" Tatiana sighed.

"But as you can see by the beautiful grey shade of the walls--don’t you just love that windowless, earthy smell? —We haven’t gotten the galleons quite yet. And that bare stone floor is just such a pleasure to walk on. We all absolutely adore this place, don’t we, Tati?" Will grinned.

"Right," Tatiana said sarcastically. "It’s just a pleasure to be in here. I absolutely adore sitting around and doing nothing at all while staring at those—did you use the word beautiful? —Stone walls. Thank Tara for the radio."

"Could we hurry up here?" Anderi asked impatiently. "Phoenix and I have to get going to Diagon Alley after this."

Diagon Alley? Phoenix thought. What are we shopping for?

A look of understanding flashed between Anderi and the two guards. "Right," Will said. "We’ll show you into the Super Cell."

As they walked along the dreary stone corridor, Phoenix experimented with "accidentally" bumping Malfoy’s head on the ceiling.

"Stop that," Will said solemnly. "You might give him a concussion if you do that too hard, and then he won’t be able to defend himself in the trial."

Phoenix bumped Malfoy’s light hair against the ceiling one hard, last time, and then stopped and looked seriously at Will.

"That would be absolutely horrible wouldn’t it?"

Anderi, Will, and Tatiana laughed.

"Here we are," Tatiana said. "The Super Cell, as Will here has willed it to be."

The "Super Cell" was a tiny, barren room scarcely larger than a large bathroom, with a single burning torch and a thick, heavy door. There was no window, and it was bitterly cold, with no furniture except a thin grey cot.

"It’s so grey," Phoenix said.

"You noticed our color scheme!" Will exclaimed. "She’s a fashion genius, Tati! An absolutely brilliant girl!"

"Stop that," Anderi told him. "It is starting to get annoying."

"Just dump Malfoy in there," Tatiana told her. "Don’t bother to wake him up. When he comes ‘round he’ll realize he’s been caught and on his way to Azkaban shortly. Not exactly the best way to start your day, don’t you think?" she asked wickedly.

"Nope," Phoenix agreed. She flung Malfoy’s limp form across the room so that he landed on the cot and skidded into the opposite wall of the cell.

Anderi closed the door behind them, and Tatiana locked it with a large iron key from a key ring as large as a saucer.

I got you, Malfoy, Phoenix thought. Someday, I’m going to lock you all up, or worse. All of you, and Voldemort too. I swear it.

"Let’s get out of here now," Anderi whispered.

"Right," Phoenix said.

I’m an Auror now. I’ve come a long way from the person I was two years ago—from even one year ago. I’m fighting for life, and hope. I’m fighting against the Dark Lord, and I’m going to win the war.