Harry Potter and the Dark Pheonix

Disclaimer: I really don't own anything

Dancing With the Devil

After dinner all the adults in the room grew serious. Harry and Hermione started to feel nervous when Mel was asked to leave the room. Harry visibly paled when Mr. Granger turned and faced him. Sirius threw on a playful smirk and that eased the tension in the room somewhat, and finally Mrs. Granger spoke.

“Harry, Hermione, it's like this. We aren't stupid. We were all your age and we know that you two are very much in love,” she told them. Her face, while stern, was also loving and compassionate.

“But we don't want you to make any mistakes before you're ready to handle them,” Mr. Granger added. Hermione and Harry both blushed at this and Harry spoke up.

“We're waiting for marriage for that,” he told them quietly, blushing like mad all the way through it.

“Okay, that's a load off our minds, but Hermione. Now answer truthfully here, your parent's wont yell at you. Were you planning on sleeping in Harry's bed over the holidays?” Rita asked, her face the same stern but loving face Mrs. Granger had. Hermione blushed even redder and nodded meekly.

“Well, then I'll show you a charm to help you both keep that promise,” Sirius declared with a smirk. Harry and Hermione shared a glance; they both knew it wasn't a request, but nodded affirmatively anyway. Sirius led Hermione away and Mr. Granger again faced Harry.

“Now I know that magic isn't foolproof, so I want your word Harry that you will wait until marriage to be with my little girl.” Mr. Granger's face was stern and slightly threatening, so Harry decided he had better put his fears to rest.

“Sir, I give you my word, and if I go all the way with your daughter, you can personally castrate me,” Harry said, looking the Elder Granger in the eyes, and a smile graced his features, a nod of the head and Harry left the table and went up to his room. Once there, Harry collapsed on the couch and waited for Hermione to enter. Before long, he and Hermione were cuddled up on the couch with Harry's television on, and the fire crackling in the background.

“So what did my dad say?” Hermione asked, voicing the question Harry knew was coming.

“Oh, just wanted assurance that I wouldn't break the charm Sirius placed on you,” Harry replied.

“Oh…what did you say?” Hermione asked, suddenly very curious.

“I said he could castrate me if I went all the way before marriage with you,” Harry replied. Hermione was shocked at this, but suddenly very flattered. Harry really respected her decision.

“So…that charm…” Harry started. He wanted to know about it, but not give Hermione the wrong idea.

“It wears off on its own, but I know how to remove it. It pretty much stops all physical contact in any area you place it. A more complicated version of the charm on your sword,” Hermione told him while laying her head on his shoulder.

“Tired?” Harry asked, suddenly feeling weary.

“A little, yeah,” Hermione replied after yawning. Harry nodded and led her up to his bed. They quickly changed for bed and climbed under the covers; Hermione snuggled up to Harry's left side and laid her head on his chest.

“G'night, Hermione,” Harry said sleepily.

“Night, Harry,” she replied before closing her eyes and falling asleep almost instantly.

Harry opened his eyes and realized he was standing at the front door of Number 4 Privet Drive. Curiosity got the better of him and he entered. He felt suddenly drawn to the kitchen so he traveled the hall and opened the kitchen door. His eyes traveled the room before the settled on a figure he never expected to see. Lord Voldemort.

“Ah! Welcome Harry, welcome. Please take a seat,” Voldemort said in a cheery tone, he motioned to the chair opposite him. Harry sat and looked around questioningly; he didn't see any dead Dursleys so he spoke up. “What are we doing here?” His voice sounding braver than he felt.

“This is neutral ground for the both of us. And I brought you here to talk, no to threaten, not to fight, but to talk…call it a peace offering if you will,” Voldemort said. Harry looked skeptical but held his tongue, waiting to hear what he was going to say.

“I'll cut right to the chase, shall I?” Harry nodded. “I'm not as powerful as I once was, and you won't stop until you defeat me, yes?” Again Harry nodded. “So we have hit a snag. I don't want to die, and you don't want anymore lives lost,” Voldemort told him. Harry just sat there, his face kept neutral. He wouldn't let Voldemort see that he was interested. “Now there is something you must know before we go any further. I have an army awaiting my order to attack Hogwarts. If your DA and the Order fight, people will die. You may win, but at what cost?” Voldemort told Harry, his jaw tensed up at what he was saying. “Now to stop all this killing, I want you to join me. If you do, I'm prepared to not kill any muggle-born or half-bloods. But they must all leave the magical world and any pure-bloods who choose to marry a muggle must leave the magical world.” When Voldemort finished, Harry let his composure slip. Here, Harry Potter was sitting with the ability to end the war without any more killings.

“Now Harry if you refuse, I will attack Hogwarts, and many will die. I will seek you out and duel with you. One of us won't survive. So what is you answer?”

“I suppose we will both be staying in the magical world if I side with you?” Harry asked, a quick flash of anger passed over Voldemort's features before he nodded at Harry's question.

“And Hermione, will she leave?” Again Voldemort nodded. Harry felt torn, he could end the war, or risk everyone's lives, and he shouldn't be here to decide the fate of many. Suddenly the words from the sorting ceremony came floating into his mind. `We must act like one, Even though we are four, We must fight for what is right, Fight for those we care for' Harry felt a smile go across his face and Voldemort leaned in greedily, thinking that he now had Harry Potter where he wanted him.

“Sorry Tom, it's not happening. Sure, my friends may die when you attack, but they will die so that others may live in peace…” Harry started, but Voldemort cut him off.

“You made your choice, don't try to bore me with melodramatics. I will leave you now, but remember when you lay dying. You could have stopped this.” Voldemort waved his hand after he said this and the world around them changed. Instead of the bright sunny day it was previously, the sky had gone ash red, the ground was now black with scorch marks, and the house around them was rubble.

“You made your choice!” Voldemort told him before Harry woke up with a start.

“Harry what is it?” Hermione said from beside him, her voice laden with worry.

“Tom offered me a choice, to fight or to join him…I chose to fight,” Harry told her, staring intently into her chocolaty brown eyes which were glistening with tears. Hermione gathered him into a hug and they held each other for the rest of the night.

The rest of the Easter holidays went by without any confrontations, although the first few mornings were tense before Sirius had checked the charm. Soon, the holidays and April were over and Harry found himself in the last month of term with exams coming up. Harry also had to endure Ron's fierce Quidditch training régime, so most nights he would sit and study with stiff, sore muscles while Ron would multi task and come up with seemingly impossible plays while barely scraping by in his classes.

“Honestly Ron, if you put as much time into your studies as you do your Quidditch, you would get top marks, too,” Hermione chastised him, when she saw a Quidditch book open on their shared study table.

“Hermione, I'm doing this now because next year I won't get a chance to prepare plays with all the studying we will be doing,” Ron told her. This took the wind right out of her sails. She sat there, her mouth opening and closing before Harry came to the rescue.

“Come on Hermy, let's go for a walk,” Harry said as he led her out of the common room. They headed down to the lake and started to walk around it, both in quiet contemplation.

“So, who do you think will win the DA competition?” Harry asked, trying to make conversation. Hermione hadn't really shown much interest in the competition after she was eliminated. Sure, she cheered her friends on, but that was all.

“Well…Cooper is stronger than Draco, but he is also over-confident,” Hermione said, her forehead wrinkled in concentration. So wrapped up in their conversation, they didn't notice how close they were to Hagrid's hut until he called out to them.

“Hello Harry, Hermione. What yeh doin' down here?” Hagrid called to them, his giant hand waving them over. Harry and Hermione looked at each other before they both ran down to Hagrid and gave him a hug. The gentle giant was taken aback for a second before enveloping the two teens in a hug. After he had set them down, they all went inside Hagrid's hut for a spot of tea.

“So Hagrid, how're things?” Harry asked. Even though he didn't elaborate, he was asking about the Order.

“Good, good. Dumbledore is on top o' things o'course. And I been keepin busy with Grawpy. The Trolls though, they been gettin restless lately,” Hagrid replied looking gravely at Harry and Hermione. Harry visibly paled at this. Voldemort had been talking to Wormtail in one of Harry's dreams about trolls, and recently Voldemort had told Harry they were poised to attack Hogwarts.

“Hagrid…the trolls are working for Voldemort,” Harry said forcefully, looking Hagrid straight into his eyes. Hagrid just nodded.

“Well yeh two had best be one yeh way. I gotta talk to Dumbledore abou' somethin. Now off with yeh,” Hagrid told them as he ushered them out of his hut. Hermione instantly turned on Harry.

“The dream over Easter, he told me his army was poised to attack. I planted that thought into Hagrid's mind,” Harry told her as he rubbed his eyes in exasperation; she just gave him a supportive smile and kissed his lips gently.

The next week was on of the more tense weeks of Harry's life. The final of the DA competition was coming up that Saturday and every time Draco and Cooper were near each other, they practically started to duel. Even in the Great Hall in front of all the teachers at meal times. Ginny had now taken to bring food up to Draco in the common room so he wouldn't be provoked.

Finally, the day of the match was upon them and at breakfast that morning, both vampires were ready to kill. As soon as they saw each other, they were in each other's faces. They both had transformed and waves of magical energy radiating off each of them. All the students had backed away in fear of being caught in the crossfire; even the teachers had kept a reasonable distance from them. The warnings of detentions and point deductions were only half hearted due to fear. The only two people that weren't openly scared by the vampire's display were Dumbledore and Harry. Dumbledore, because he was powerful enough to stop them, and Harry, because he knew Draco would control his temper for Ginny's sake. The day flew by quickly and soon the DA was assembled in the Great Hall, waiting for the competition finals to begin. Dumbledore had allowed them to host the match in the Great Hall so the teachers could supervise the event and so Dumbledore could congratulate the winner, whomever it was. Harry was sitting next to Hermione over near where Draco was standing for the match; Ginny was over next to him, offering her advice. Harry got up and walked over.

“Good luck tonight, Draco.” Harry said, looking into Draco's pale eyes.

“Thanks, Harry,” he replied.

“Don't use any Dark Magic; he'll be able to counter it too easily,” Harry pointed out. Draco only nodded and set his jaw, indicating the conversation was over; Harry clapped him on the shoulder and went back to Hermione.

Draco looked over to see Cooper standing over by the Slytherins. Draco smiled bitterly at this. A few months before would have found Draco in the exact same position. How pitiful. Cooper had thrown his lot in with the Dark Forces and was typically overconfident about it. Soon Dumbledore had stood atop the dueling platform and started to announce the match. Draco was much too focused on Cooper to make out what Dumbledore was saying. He barely heard the cheers from the students around him as he made his way into the dueling circle.

Draco squared off against Cooper. They both stood confident, but inside, Draco felt like mush. Although Draco's face held that of a cool and calm warrior, he knew that Cooper was a full blood vampire, a merciless killer, and wouldn't hesitate in killing him. As the platform changed, Draco caught Cooper's eyes. He saw loathing in them, hatred and destruction, but also…fear? Draco couldn't believe it. Cooper was afraid of him. Sure, he was a Gryffindor Knight, but was that the true reason for Cooper's fears, no. It couldn't be. Coopers fear lay in his unfamiliarity with Draco's abilities. This could only work in his advantage. Wasting little time, Draco summoned a malevolent spirit. Many students gasped at this, but Draco was in complete control. He had, after all studied the Dark Arts for most of his life. Cooper tried a variety of dark curses on Draco's spirit, but they just passed straight through it. It was closing in on Cooper when he finally stumbled on the counter-curse. Once it was disposed of, the pair of them started flinging jinxes and curses at one another, their wands flashing around them like swords of pure light.

“Better than I thought you were,” Cooper said between curses. Draco just smirked slightly. He had a perfect jinx set up to hopefully win the match; he just needed the window of opportunity. As they were dodging each other's spells, Cooper stumbled on some rubble, which was the opportunity Draco was waiting for. He raised his wand tip high above his head and started to draw upon his magical energy.

“Spectorial Sphere,” Draco said silently. The ball above Draco's head flashed a pure white before changing into a haunting blue. Draco released it down at Cooper's prone form. At the very last second, Cooper apparated away to the edge of the platform. Draco let out an angry sigh before refocusing his attacks on Cooper.

“STUPIFY!!!” Draco yelled with all his might. The red beam traveled the length of the platform in mere seconds, but Cooper managed to roll out of the way just in time.

“Looks like you only train in running away, Cooper!” Draco called to him as he fired a full body bind his way.

“Looks like you need stronger finishing attacks, Malfoy!!” Cooper shot back at him as he dodged another curse.

“Corperalus Sceptrius!” Draco cried as he used his Vamperic speed to cross the ground between himself and Cooper in mere seconds. Cooper merely just smirked and nimbly dodged out of the way. He immediately summoned his own soul sword, this one pitch black as opposed to Draco's slightly off white one. Draco leapt back to assess the situation before attacking.

“Scared, Malfoy?” Cooper said with a cocked eyebrow and a clear smirk playing on his face.

“You wish,” Draco replied with surprising confidence. He remembered back in his second year when Harry and himself were in a similar position. Cooper leapt at Draco which caused him to roll under his swing. Once on his feet, Draco swung his blade in a high arc, clipping his shoulder. Cooper let out an anguished scream and swung his blade, but with the damage done to his shoulder, Draco easily parried the attack and pressed his advantage. He had pushed Cooper back to the edge and was about to administer the final blow when Dumbledore shouted, “WAIT!” Draco spun around and looked the headmaster straight in his eyes; begrudgingly, Draco backed off Cooper and extinguished his soul sword.

“This match is over, Draco Malfoy of Gryffindor is the winner,” Dumbledore announced. The crowd around them broke into sudden applause.

Harry ran up to the platform with Ginny. While she rushed off to congratulate Draco, Harry headed towards Dumbledore.

“Sir, why did you end the match?” Harry asked, still in shock as to the Headmaster's abrupt end to the match.

“Draco would have surely killed Cooper, given the chance and would have angered his father and Tom even more. I felt it necessary to put a stop to Draco's actions before he lost himself,” Dumbledore replied before leaving for his office. Harry stood there dumbstruck until the Gryffindors marched past, holding Draco atop their heads as their champion.

The Gryffindors' good mood hadn't subsided for days, and this seemed to infuriate the Slytherins even more. Fights were breaking out all over the school, and the final Quidditch match of the season quickly approaching didn't make things any easier on the teachers.

Ron drove the Quidditch team hard in their training sessions; so hard that the team was suffering from sleep deprivation and falling asleep in classes. Harry was suffering more so, as Ron would keep him after practice and run him through several seeking drills each night before finally letting him go. When he finally made it into the common room, Hermione made him study hard for their upcoming exams. Finally, after a week of this, the day of the final match dawned. Harry couldn't have been happier, because after this match, win or lose Ron couldn't make him train anymore and he would finally get a good night sleep. After a hurried breakfast, Harry and the team were sitting in the changing rooms listening to Ron's pre-match talk.

“Alright guys. Seamus, Dean, you two have become as good as my brothers, and that's saying something!” Both Seamus and Dean blushed at this. “Sarah, Gin, Draco, you three, well you three put every other chaser team at Hogwarts to shame. Past and present!” Ginny beamed at Ron as he said this. Draco gave him a small smile, while Sarah, who was very shy, just blushed. “And Harry here, well let's just say we have no worries about winning when he is on the field.” Harry smiled at his friend and spoke up.

“Lets not forget you, Ron. I mean Weasley is our King!” Ron blushed at Harry's statement but recovered quickly.

“Alright then, let's go out there and beat those Slytherins at what Gryffindor is best at!” The team cheered at this and picked up their brooms.

“AND HERE COMES THE GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH TEAM, IT'S WEASLEY, WEASLEY, SHACKLE, MALFOY, THOMAS, FINNIGAN, AAAANNND POTTER! THEY'RE 3-0 IN THIS COMPETITION AND HAVE A LEAD OF 50 POINTS OVER SLYTHERIN. AND THE CAPTIANS SHAKE HANDS AND THE QUAFFLE IS RELEASED. WEASLEY CAPTURES THE QUAFFLE AND PASSES OFF TO SHACKLE WHO DODGES PAST A BLUDGER SHOT BY CRABBE. SHACKLE WINDS UP AND SCORES! GRYFFINDOR LEADS 10-0. COOPER NOW HAS THE QUAFFLE, DODGES MALFOY AND TAKES A SHOT. SAVED BY WEASLEY…”

Harry stopped listening to the commentary and started his search for the snitch. He ascended high above the pitch and scanned it intently, looking for that tiny speck of gold. His eyes were passing the Ravenclaw stands when he saw it, flittering around near the ground. He took off in a dive.

“AND POTTER HURLS HIMSELF TOWARDS THE GROUND AT BREAKNECK SPEED. HAS HE SEEN THE SNITCH OR IS THIS THE WRONSKI FIENT? BROLY ISN'T BUYING IT. WAIT! POTTER IS REACHING FOR SOMETHING…IS IT? YES! HARRY POTTER CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS 170-0 AGAINST SLYTHERIN; THEY WIN THE CUP FOR THE 4^TH YEAR IN A ROW!!!

Harry closed his fist around the snitch and raised it high to show Madam Hooch. The Gryffindors' cheers were deafening as they made their way onto the pitch. Harry was immediately seized by Hermione. She hugged him tightly and he captured her lips with his. Hermione them climbed side straddle onto Harry's broom and they took off for a victory lap around the pitch when they saw it. Hundreds of trolls were leaving the Forbidden Forest and heading straight for Hogwarts.