The Phoenix Prophecy

The Phoenix Prophecy

Book II – Chapter 1 – Part 1

Sunday, August 16,^, 1998

Ron: (7:00 AM)

I awoke in our bedroom to the sounds of eerie silence. Light from the small window above our bed told me that it was well past sunrise. Abruptly, I bolted out of bed and almost fell flat on my face as my feet got tangled in the top sheet. Freeing myself from the pesky sheet I quickly moved to the side of Jessica’s crib, which was located at the foot of our bed. Every morning for the past two weeks, she had roused us from our sleep with earsplitting and demanding wailing just before sunrise. I was sure that something must be wrong or she would have woken us long before now. My stomach was in knots by the time I reached her crib and looked into it. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw her looking up at me with wide-open eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Gretchen asked sleepily, as she sat up in bed, yawning and stretching.

“Nothing. I was just startled when I woke up and realized that Jessica wasn’t crying.”

“Hey, how about that. This is the first time she has slept past sunrise. The supplement that Mystie gave me must be working.”

“It would appear so,” I replied as I picked Jessica up and cradled her in my arms. Even though parenthood had landed on us much sooner than expected—the understatement of the century—neither of us regretted it for a second. Holding other people’s children is one thing, holding your own is entirely different. From the moment I picked Jessica up, she started kicking and squirming. She loved to be held, and I loved to hold her. Carefully I climbed back into bed and set our daughter down between us. She was still too young to notice anything that was not right in front of her, but she knew instinctively that her mother was next to her. After a several minutes of touching our fingers with her tiny hands, she started to fuss.

“I think she has gone without food for as long as she is going to,” Gretchen said as she opened her nightshirt, pulled Jessica to her breast and began to nurse her.

“This little girl is definitely her father’s child,” Gretchen added after Jessica had been nursing for a couple of minutes.

“Oh, you think so?” I replied questioningly, as if I doubted her.

“Absolutely! She loves to eat and she can’t keep her hands off me.”

“You won’t get any argument from me on either of those points,” I replied, grinning at her wolfishly.

After a few more minutes had passed, she added, “I realize that nursing Jessica has put a kink in our love-life.”

“Don’t worry about it, dear. There is more to you than just a couple of milk spigots.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Gretchen replied, pretending to be offended.

“Ron, I am thinking of weaning Jessica off me and onto a bottle.”

“Why? I haven’t complained that much, have I?” I was taken completely off guard by her statement. The look on my face must have showed my surprise.

“No, you haven’t. I was thinking that it would make it easier on her while we are away collecting the rest of the ingredients for the ‘Impervious’ charm.”

“Are you sure you want to do this? We don’t even know for sure if we are going to continue the quest?”

“Madelyn and Sirius are both convinced that Harry and Hermione will want to continue with the quest, once they get over the shock of the portal being closed.”

“Speaking of Harry and Hermione, I wonder when they came in last night.”

“I’ll bet they didn’t come in at all. After seeing Professor Dumbledore killed before their very eyes and then on top of that to learn a year had past and that we have no way to get home, I’m quite sure they went off some place to be by themselves. That is what I would have done in their place.”

“You’re probably right,” I said after a moment’s silence. The fact that I would never see my family again was still hard to accept. For the most part Gretchen and Jessica kept my mind from dwelling on the fact that we would never see Earth again. “Anyway, back to Jessica. Assuming we do continue the quest for the ‘Impervious’ charm, that should not take you away from the baby for more than a few days, at the most. If you want to keep nursing her, then there must be some other option.”

“I don’t want to give up nursing, but it seemed like the only way for us to continue with the quest, which is something that I feel we must do. If we back out now, Harry and Hermione may start having second thoughts. You and I can just walk away, but they can’t. Seeing the quest through to its conclusion is the least we can do for them. Besides, having the protection it affords could save our lives someday.”

“You’re right, of course. We do owe them that much. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes for all the gold in Gringotts.”

“Me either. I’m sure we will come up with a way for us to continue the quest and make sure that Jessica doesn’t starve in our absence.”

“What about Martha? Could she fill in for you while we are away?”

“I thought about that, but she has two of her own to feed. We can only produce so much milk in a day. We aren’t dairy cows, you know.”

“Yes, I know. It was just a thought. Maybe Mystie can come up with something.”

“Possibly, I haven’t brought up the subject with her yet. I wanted to discuss it with you first.”

“I think you should wean Jessica only as a last resort, but the choice is up to you.”

“Our little piglet seems to be finished. Would you put her back in the crib for me?”

“Sure, anything for a steady customer.” She handed Jessica to me, got out of bed, and headed for the bathing room before I managed to swing my feet out of bed. Being careful not to get tangled up in the bedding once again, I placed my sleeping daughter gently in her crib. The room was warm enough that I only covered her with a sheet and jumped back into bed to wait for Gretchen’s return.

Gretchen: (7:15 AM)

I was thankful that Lemke’s brothers had rearranged the large open sleeping area into eight separate bedrooms, each with its own bathing room. Not that I minded being all in one room, it just made it easier to have our own room. It was next to impossible to sleep through Jessica’s demands for feeding. I would have felt very self-conscious if she had woken everyone just before dawn each morning. I’m sure Martha and Walt, not to mention Madelyn and Sirius, enjoyed having their own rooms as well. Being able to get away from each other for the past few days had helped to minimize the friction caused by the constant worry over what had become of Hermione, Harry and Professor Dumbledore.

I knew Ron was waiting for me so I didn’t dally. Washed, refreshed, and my teeth brushed, I slipped back into bed and snuggled up next to him.

“Damn, your hands are cold,” Ron yelped when I grabbed him by his love handles. “What did you do, soak them in cold water?”

“Sort of. I didn’t wait for the water to get hot before I washed up. But I do have a warm heart. That should count for something,” I added pertly and kissed him.

“You do, and it does,” he replied sincerely and gathered me into a big hug, which ended in another kiss.

“Ron, what are we going to do with the rest of our lives?”

“You mean besides raise kids and live happily ever after?”

“Yes, exactly. Except that just now I’m more interested in ‘how’ we are going to do that.” I had not said anything to Ron about it, but I couldn’t help worrying about where and how we were going to live after the quest for the ‘Impervious’ charm was over.

“Walt and Martha are planning on returning to the farm, at least for the time being. Walt told me that we are more than welcome to live with them while we decide where we want to live.”

“I know. Martha made me the same offer.”

“I think we could be happy there, but I’m equally sure that the others would go stir crazy before long.”

“Yes, I’m sure they would…if they stayed,” I replied. Hesitating, I decided to broach a subject that had been weighing heavily on my mind for the past week. “Ron, I think the time is going to come when we will have to decide if we are going to make our home here in the Realm with Martha and Walt, or go with Harry and Hermione as they attempt to find a way to return to Earth though the portals that connect the other worlds. No matter how hard Sirius and Madelyn try, they will not be able to persuade them that attempting to return to Earth will be futile.”

“I know. It is not a decision I look forward to making.”

“I think the decision should be yours. I have no family to return to, but you do.”

“Oh no! This is not going to be just my decision,” Ron replied, rolling onto his back and pulling me on top of him. “We will hash this out until we both come to an agreement. This is too big a decision for me to be the only one with a say-so.”

“Does Jessica get a vote?” I asked as I absent-mindedly curled the hairs on his chest.

“If she can count to three, she gets a vote.”

“I’m sure we will have to decide long before she can do that.”

“You never know. As you said, she is her father’s daughter. She may surprise you,” Ron added as he combed his fingers though my hair.

“Ron…do you every think about how we got her?”

“All the time.” Ron stopped running his fingers through my hair and looked me straight in the eyes. His affectionate mood had instantly evaporated, replaced with uncustomary seriousness. “At times I keep expecting her to just vanish. If it were not for the fact that a year had pasted here in the Realm while we were in Eden, I not believe that she could possibly be our child. More than once I have woken in the middle of the night, sweating because I dreamed that she had disappeared.”

“I didn’t know that. Why didn’t you wake me?” I was more than a little surprised by this revelation. A look of despair and anguish flashed across his face and disappeared as quickly as it had come. I shuddered as a cold chill shot through me. Ron noticed immediately and his normal good-natured mood returned quickly.

“It was just a silly dream. No need for you to be awake any sooner that you had to be.”

“Promise me that if it happens again you will wake me.”

“Okay, I will,” he replied and kissed the tip of my nose.

“I am a little puzzled about one thing though.”

“Just one. Boy, are you lucky.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, I am not a ‘boy’,” I replied, pretending to be insulted.

“Oh, I’ve noticed alright,” he replied as his hands slid down my back and came to rest on my butt. “You are decidedly female. A little slow on the uptake, but you get an ‘A’ for effort.”

“And you are a big dumb brute. Kindly remove you hands from my behind,” I demanded playfully. Ron did as I commanded, but his hands ended up elsewhere, which lead to several enjoyable minutes of wrestling around on the bed. A great way to start any day, and one that I highly recommend. If everyone started each day with a little affectionate cuddling, the world would be a nicer place.

“What I started to tell you a few minutes ago was that Kai and Nyssa must have taken us to some place where time passed much more quickly than it did here in the Realm,” I said when we finally settled down. “Think about it. According to Mystie, we were away for about five minutes, from her point of view. We would have to have been away for at least nine months to have a baby.”

“That sounds logical, but what’s your point?” Ron asked after he propped his head up with a pillow.

“Given that I am right, then we know for a fact that Kai and Nyssa have taken us to worlds where time runs slower and worlds where time runs faster than it does here in the Realm. Add to that, time on Earth and time in the Realm seem to be the same. This tells us that some worlds experience time in the same way. What if Kai and Nyssa can move through time as easily as we move about this room?”

“That’s an interesting thought, but I don’t see what it has to do with Jessica,” Ron replied, a puzzled look on his face.

“It has nothing to do with Jessica, at least not directly. I was wondering if it would be possible for us to travel back in time so that we could return to Earth shortly after we left.”

“I have no idea. Even if it is, we don’t have a clue as to how to do it.”

“Yes, I know that. All I was trying to say was that if it ‘is’ possible to travel back in time, then someone must know how.”

“And you’re thinking that maybe we could locate that someone and they would take us back to when the portal was still open?” I could tell from Ron’s voice that he was a little skeptical of my idea.

“Possibly. Look, if it’s possible, then there must be a way to do it.”

“Honestly, dear. I just don’t know. I’m not doubting you. I just don’t know.”

“Neither do I.” I was frustrated because I thought I was on to something, but didn’t know what to do about it.

“Speaking of time, how old are we today?” Ron asked interrupting my thoughts.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. How old are we today, taking into account the nine months that must have passed and the loss of a year?”

“No way to tell for certain, but we must be about a year older than we should be. I’m not sure that makes any sense.” It didn’t make much sense to me, but maybe it would to Ron.

“That is just about the way I figured it. For all practical purposes we must be just over eighteen yeas of age.”

“I’m not sure I see the importance for knowing our exact age,” I asked. I was at a loss for where Ron was going with this.

“There probably isn’t any, I was just curious.”

“Do you think Kai and Nyssa are really gone for good?” I asked after neither of us said anything for almost a minute.

“I don’t know. Part of me sure hopes so. Another part of me feels bad because they did save our lives and the life of our unborn child. It’s hard to believe that they would take the effort to save us and then turn around and kidnap us for their own personal amusement.”

“It doesn’t make any sense to me either, but maybe we aren’t meant to understand.”

“As long as I have you and the baby, I can live with a little lack of understanding. You and Jessica are what is important to me now.” Ron pulled me to him and for a while we just rested quietly in each other’ arms.

“I don’t know about you, but I am getting kind of hungry. Maybe we should go and get some breakfast,” I said when I suddenly realized that my stomach was grumbling.

“Good idea. Now that you mention it, I’m starved.”

Madelyn: (7:15 AM)

“Did you get any sleep at all?” I asked after I awoke to find Sirius lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling with his hands clasped behind his head.

“Not much.”

“You can’t change what has happened no matter how much sleep you loose over it.” I rolled next to him and rested my head on his shoulder. I wanted him to talk about what was eating at him, but I didn’t know how hard to push.

“I know that,” he replied, his voice barely more than a whisper. Rolling onto his side, he wrapped me up in his arms and began to tremble. It wasn’t long before I felt drops of water running down my shoulder. Gently stroking the back of his head, I just held onto him while he shed some of his pent up grief. After a few minutes, he lifted his head and looked directly into my eyes.

“Albus was there for me when I needed him, every time I needed him. I…” Sirius’ voice wavered considerably as he was having a difficult time speaking. “I should have been with him.”

“I know you feel that you might have been able to save him if you had been there. Maybe you could have, but you will never know and you are going to have to live with that for the rest of your days. If there were anything I could do to lighten your burden, I would do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, there is nothing anyone can do. I’m sure Albus would not blame you for what has happened. You are the only one who feels to blame for Albus’ unfortunate demise. I love you dearly, but in this I cannot help you, other than to stand by your side and wait for you to realize that you are not at fault, and that life, yours, mine, and the rest of us, must go on.”

“In my gut, I know that you are right,” Sirius answered after a few moments of silence. “I just can’t help thinking that I have failed him when he needed me the most.”

“Sirius, look at me,” I said tenderly after his gaze had wandered away. “Maybe now is when Albus needs you the most.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Albus specifically asked you to return here with Minerva, Ron and Gretchen, the Blyth’s and myself. I think he wanted to know that no matter what happed to him, or Harry and Hermione, that someone he trusted would be around to take care of those that were left. In short, he knew that if he did not return, you would be here to look after us all. You are a survivor, especially when times get tough. From the looks of things, our future looks pretty rough from where I am sitting—present company excluded, of course.”

“Madelyn, you are going to make a hero out of me yet,” he replied, a small smile forcing its way across his face.

“You already are my hero, my love, my future husband and the father of the child I carry within me. What more could any one man ask?”

“Breakfast in bed would be nice.” The gloominess that had hung over him since returning with Albus’ body suddenly lifted. The smile on his face was warm and genuine. When he pulled me into a big hug, I could sense that he had finally accepted what had happened and was ready to focus himself on the future.

“Isn’t the woman supposed to be the one who is served breakfast in bed?” I asked, returning his hug and adding a warm, lingering kiss.

“So I have heard, although I thought the custom was primarily reserved for wives and mothers.”

“Speaking of wives and mothers, when are you going to make an honest woman out of me?”

“As soon as possible. We have been a trifle busy the past couple of weeks, or hadn’t you noticed?”

“Yes, I have noticed,” I replied warmly. I knew Sirius was just teasing me. Getting married immediately was not all that important to me, but it did seem to add some legitimacy and permanence to our relationship. Actually, there was another reason that marriage, and the commitment it implied, was foremost on my mind this morning. If I was not mistaken, Harry and Hermione had most likely comforted each other in the only way that would do them any real good. I was not upset over the prospect that they had become sexually active. Given everything that had transpired since the night before last, I could not fault them for their decision, as I probably would have done the same in their position. How to present this new development to the man that I dearly loved was what had caused me to get a fretful night’s sleep.

“Madelyn, do you want to get married right away?” I was so deep in my thoughts that at first I didn’t hear what he had said. Sirius was just about to say something when his words registered in my brain.

“I would like nothing better, but we have more pressing problems to deal with at the moment.” For some reason I was having trouble making light of my desire for a quick marriage. Possibly it had something to do with the child I was carrying, or maybe it had more to do with the fact that we would have to make our life here in the Realm, but whatever the reason I truly did want us to get married, and sooner rather than later.

“Look me in the eye and tell me that you don’t mind waiting.” I’m not sure how Sirius knew that I was trying minimize my desire to get married at once, but one look at his face told me that he did.

“I thought so,” he said after carefully looking at me for just a few seconds. “Madelyn, you are a big fraud, but I love you just the same. Unless you refuse, we are getting married as soon as we possibly can.”

“My dear man, refusing is the farthest thing from my mind. I will do my best to make you a good wife and be a good mother to our children.” Suddenly the world seemed a little brighter. The future didn’t seem quite as ominous as it had when I first awoke. I knew that the problems we faced were still waiting for us, but they seemed a little less formidable. Funny how a little thing like commitment could change your whole perspective.

“Would today be too soon for you to shed your wicked, evil ways?” Sirius was practically grinning, which for him was a real accomplishment.

“Today would be just perfect, but I thought you liked living with a wicked woman. Are you sure you want to tie yourself down to a dull life with just one ordinary woman?”

“Life with you will never be dull, Madelyn. That much I have learned already. And you are no ordinary woman, not in the least. As to that wise crack you made a few seconds ago about trying your best to be a good wife and mother, trying won’t be necessary, you will be both without trying. If all of the pain and suffering I have endured in my life was necessary to end up with you as my wife, I would do it all over again without the slightest hesitation.”

For several seconds we just lay in each other’s arms, gazing into each other’s eyes. Words were not necessary to express the feelings we were sharing with each other, they would only have gotten in the way. Slowly, our faces drew closer until our lips touched and I felt the spark of passion ignite inside of me.

“Isn’t it customary for the bride and groom to not see each other on their wedding day until the ceremony takes place? Perhaps I should go and…

“You are not going anywhere. If you think you can just light my fire and stroll away, think again. Besides, I am feeling extremely ‘wicked’ and you are to blame, so it is up to you to cure what ails me.”

Harry: (7:15 AM)

I awoke to the sound of a sharp crack coming from somewhere in back on me. Softer cracking and snapping sounds from the fireplace filled the air as I listened intently with my eyes still closed. Opening them, I could easily see about the room. Daylight was filtering through the windows of the small cottage, bathing the room in soft light. I shivered involuntarily from the cool air on my face. Hermione’s back was pressed tightly against my chest. This was not the first morning that I had awoken with her cuddled this close to me, but it was the first morning that we were both completely naked. I was terrified and excited all at the same time. My left arm was wrapped around her waist. I could feel my fingers begin to tremble slightly. Hermione seemed to be asleep. I started to remove my arm from her waist, careful not to disturb her. I had barely moved my hand an inch when she placed her hand on top of mine and pulled my hand to her breast. Murmuring softly she pressed her back even tighter against me.

“Are you awake?” I whispered after a short time had passed during which neither of us moved.

“Umm,” was all that she replied.

I was just about to ask her again when she rolled over and looked at me.

“I love you, Mr. Potter,” she said, a devilish smile on her face.

“That’s probably a good thing seeing that we don’t have so much as a stinky sock between us.”

“Yes, isn’t it wonderful?”

“It certainly is for me,” I replied and kissed her tenderly.

“Any regrets?” I asked after our lips had parted.

“If you are referring to sex, then no, not a single one.”

“That was the topic I was referring to. I too have no regrets. Even though all of this is decidedly new, and exciting, it feels right to me. I am not the least bit ashamed of what we have done. Anyone that has a problem with us can keep it to themselves.”

“Harry, you have no idea how proud you make me feel. Knowing that you have no regrets or shame tells me that the time was indeed right for us. Tell me, now that you have had the night to ‘sleep on it’ do you still wish to marry as soon as possible?”

“Yesterday would have been nice,” I replied as I brushed her hair away from her eyes.

“Agreed. So how do we go about breaking the news to everyone?”

“I think we should start with your great grandmother.”

“Do you want me to talk with her by myself?”

“No, I think we should do it together. Anything that involves us or our future we should do together, and that includes telling your—why are you crying?”

“I’m not.”

“Your eyes are certainly watering enough. What’s wrong?” I was completely unprepared for her sudden outburst of tears that were streaming down her cheeks.

“I’m just happy, that’s all.” For the next minute or two, she shed more ‘happy’ tears. Unhappy tears I could sympathize with, happy tears I didn’t quite know how to handle.

“Want to tell me what that was all about?” I asked once the tears had stopped flowing.

“You wouldn’t understand, but thanks for asking, and for being you.”

“Any time. Now, about telling your grandmother, I think we should do it before we talk with anyone else.”

“I agree, but before we go and find her, there are a couple of things that I would like to tell you.”

“Are they what you wanted to tell me last night?”

“Yes, partly.” For a long moment, Hermione seemed to be struggling with herself, but after a few seconds, she continued to speak. “What I want to talk about is children. As you know, I am an only child as was my mother and her mother before that. A year or so ago mum told me that I might not be able to have any children, or just one if I was very lucky. Exactly why it was difficult for mum and grand mum to conceive I do not know and neither did the doctors they visited. It must have something to do with the genes that have been passed on down through the generations. I guess what I am trying to say in a round about way is that we may not have any children, or at the very least it make take a while for me to get pregnant.”

“That is one thing. What is the other thing, the one that frightens you so much?” Hermione’s possible inability to get pregnant was something that I would eventually find out about, but it was not something that would frighten her. I was pretty sure what it was, but I though it best if she brought up the subject.

“I am scared to have a child…No that’s not what I mean. I’m scared of seeing our child killed by some evil creature as I did in the vision that Nyssa forced us to experience. I don’t know if I could live through the loss of a child.”

“I know the vision was terrifying, especially with the prophecy about our child being the one to defeat Voldemort’s successor. It scared the hell out of me too. All we can do is take each day as it comes and be as prepared as we possibly can for any harm that may come our way.”

“I just wanted you to know those things in case I seem to be a little irrational about children some time in the future.”

“You? Irrational? Never!”

“Now you’re making fun of me?”

“No I’m not. You are the most rational person that I know,” I replied seriously, meaning each and every word.

“Does that mean I am not allowed any moments of feminine weakness?”

“Take as many as you need, but I doubt you will need very many.”

“Thanks, Harry. I suppose we should get up and go find grandmother.”

“I suppose,” I replied just before I covered her lips with mine.

Author’s Note

Chapter 1 of Book II is a transitional chapter. In it, the characters will reflect on the events that have happened and what is in store for them in the future. The pace will be slower, no mortal danger to face this day. The scariest thing in store for a couple of our characters will be a trip to the alter.

There are many questions from Book I to be discussed and possibly find some answers. The remainder of Book II will be concerned with the quest for the Impervious Charm. Book III will chronicle their exploits as they make their way back to Earth through the various Worlds and Portals that make up the Magical Universe. Book IV will detail their fight against the evil forces that have enslaved Earth in their absence.

As always, I hope that you are enjoying the story. Reviews are always welcome and greatly appreciated.

Mark

The Hogwarts Oracle