17. The Rise of the Phoenix
The three weeks of the Easter holidays stretched out before them, Harry and Hermione travelled with the rest of the Tyr
to the Burrow. The reunion of the Weasley clan was something to behold, even Percy was there once more in the bosom of
his family. His relationship with the rest of his family was still a little uneasy, but during the visit of the
Ministry personnel to Hogwarts Harry had seen Percy and Mr and Mrs Weasley returning from a walk along the banks of the
Hogwarts Lake, some bridges had been repaired then; others may take a little longer.
The gathering at the Burrow was enriched by the presence of Neville's parents and Luna's father, who insisted that given time the entire wizarding world would know what had really happened, he and The Quibbler would see to that.
Although Frank and Alice Longbottom had taken part in the battle Harry hadn't seen them since that Christmas Eve two years before when they had returned to sanity. He was amazed at how well they looked, then it suddenly hit him that had his own parents survived they would have been of much the same age and as full of life and vitality.
It was Neville who saw the change in Harry. He sat quietly on a bench in the garden, a little away from all the noise and bustle, as a meal was being prepared and set out on a long table under the trees. Neville walked over to his friend, sat next to him and put his arm around his shoulders, and silently tried to give back to Harry some of the hope and freedom he had given all of them.
The pair sat for a few moments alone, then as if drawn to them Ginny came over and sat on the ground at Neville's feet and laid her hand on Harry's knee, who covered it with one his own. The three were joined by Ron sitting down on Harry's other side repeating Neville's embrace. Then Luna sat on Ron's knee, bent down and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek.
Harry smelt her perfume before she reached him, and he lifted his head to gaze into the eyes that were the windows to his life. The sun was behind her and was filtering through her hair, Harry always knew she was beautiful, now he knew he would never see anything that was more so. He stood to face her, and the others stood with him, Harry put his arms around Hermione and that single embrace included them all. As it had before the forces that held the Tyr together became visible for all to see. Everyone in the garden stopped and turned toward the group. Remus Lupin, helping Molly carry plates to the table, was the only one there who had seen this before. That was in the hospital ward at St.Mungo's two Christmas's ago and it in no way lessened the experience.
"Oh Merlin, will you look at that," he said in awe.
The golden glow that surrounded the Tyr was stronger and clearer than it had been before, 'Well they have grown and been through a lot since then,' Remus thought, but this time he could feel something radiating from the group. Not a physical heat, but something deep in him was being affected, and it was warming him.
He could tell that everyone else in the garden was feeling it too, but he didn't realise that the effect travelled far further than that. Those people shuffling down the poorest alleys in the wizarding world felt it, it lifted their spirits and gave them hope, and they wondered what it was. Those wizards whose houses were the grandest in the land felt it, it let them see past their riches, opening their eyes to the world around them and they wondered as much as the others. Solomon Aegis sitting at his desk in his office at Hogwarts felt it, and he smiled because he knew what it was. It was love, unbounded, unfettered, unequivocal love.
Draco Malfoy in the dark and damp surroundings of his ancestral home howled in despair, because he felt it, and he knew what it was as well. He howled so desperately because he knew that he was truly damned, and he would never feel any love like that again.
As the feeling began to fade, there was a metallic click, which sounded loud to those in the silence of the garden. The glow which surrounded the six friends was still there, but dimming, as Mr. Lovegood lowered his camera. He looked at the faces that had turned in his direction at the sound of the shutter.
"I don't know if anyone else felt what we did, but everybody deserves to see that," he said, nodding toward the Tyr "I think everybody needs to see that."
……………………..
That evening Harry and Hermione demisted to Avalon but not to the road outside The Refuge. As Hermione stepped out of the cloud she realised that she was on the top of the Tor, and Harry, wiping the mist from his glasses, led her over to the large stone block where they had first gazed into the crystal pyramid. The sky was clear and the sun had set. Being early April it was a little chilly, but the stars were as magnificent as they had been that night on Harry's birthday. The crescent moon gave them enough light to see by, but did not diminish the brightness of the heavens.
"Why did you bring us out up here, Harry?" Hermione asked. "It's really beautiful but it's a long walk back down."
Harry was a little unsure of how to start. "Err… I wanted to ask you a question, and I wanted us to be alone and I couldn't think of anywhere more suitable than here," he said.
Hermione stood close to him, slipped her arms around him and pulled him to her. Their faces were so close that when she spoke Harry could feel her breath on his lips brushing across them like a butterfly's wing.
"You know there is nothing you can't ask me," she said quietly, "I would do anything for you Harry."
"Would you marry me?" he asked, his voice just above a whisper.
The world stopped, just for an instant but it stopped, waiting for the answer.
"Yes" Hermione whispered back, and she kissed him.
Hermione felt the tingle on her finger before she saw the radiance that followed it. Holding up her left hand the pair of them stared in wonder at the ring with the pale blue sapphire held on a white gold band.
"Did you….?" she asked.
"No I didn't, but someone must have."
Down in the village Lady Niniane and Eleanor Wicca looked up at the Tor, the little flash of light, as the ring which had been nestling in Eleanor's palm appeared on Hermione's finger, was all they could see.
"Happy now, are you, Eleanor?" Lady Niniane asked.
"Oh yes, I like to get all the little ends nicely tied away. Now we can look forward to the next challenge." The old woman said brightly.
"Umm… I think you are just an old sentimentalist."
The old woman laughed, and together the two of them turned and vanished into the night.
Anyone watching that night would have seen two bobbing lights descending from the Tor, as Harry and Hermione lit their way down with their wands. They arrived at the Granger's cottage slightly out of breath, and so waited in the shadows for a moment to let it catch up. The cottage door opened, and two figures emerged.
"No sign of them yet?" said a woman's voice, sounding rather anxious.
"No, but Solomon did say they were OK, it's just a matter of time," her husband reassured her.
Suddenly there was the sound of rushing feet and his daughter launched herself at him, throwing her arms wide around him.
"Oh Daddy, I'm so sorry, I didn't realise you were so worried," Hermione was beside herself with concern that she had upset her parents.
"Whoa there! It's alright pumpkin, we knew you were coming, it's just that it was getting late," David Granger consoled his daughter.
Harry appeared in the light that was streaming out through the doorway.
"I'm afraid that's my fault dad," he said, "Hermione and I have been up on the Tor, it's taken us a while to get back down."
"What on earth have you been doing up ……Ohh!" Natalie Granger stopped mid-sentence, for she had seen the flash of the ring on her daughter's finger.
"Inside everyone," said David, for once in matters concerning his wife and daughter, taking charge.
As Harry walked in past him David placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze, Harry gave a nervous grin in reply.
Mother and daughter were sitting side by side on the sofa; mother was examining the ring on her daughter's hand. Natalie Granger gave Harry an expectant look, waiting for the explanation.
"Err…," said Harry, wondering why, all considered, he was feeling nervous. Hermione's parents must have realised this was the logical extension to their relationship, didn't they? We talked about it ages ago, didn't we? They couldn't have got it all so wrong, could they? Then he saw the twinkle in his surrogate mother's eyes and the fact that she was holding back a smile. Harry breathed a sigh of relief…. "I just asked Hermione to marry me,… and she accepted," he added in case anyone had any doubts.
Natalie Granger smiled "That's nice Harry, I thought you would," was all she said.
………………………
Harry and Hermione spent ten days in Avalon, which gave the Granger's time to get used to the idea that their little girl was a woman now and would at some stage be out in the wide world with a husband of her own. Not that they had ever thought otherwise, but now it was official, and that adjustment always takes a bit of time.
Harry and Hermione had decided that eventually they would make their home in Godrics Hollow, the place would be just what they would need, a haven of peace and quiet and somewhere to call their own. So, at the end of their stay in Avalon, it was to the little white cottage they travelled to spend the rest of the holiday.
Dobby as usual was back in residence, it was uncanny how he knew when and where he was needed and he was deliriously happy when they told him they were engaged. As a house elf he had all he ever wanted, a house to look after and a family to call his own. He was also prepared to let Hermione pay him for his troubles because that made her happy, and the happiness of his family was important to him.
His family spent the whole of the remaining time doing nothing, well not strictly nothing, nothing important. Well not important to the world in general, but to the world inhabited by two young people very much in love very important indeed. They began to fulfil the last part of the prophecy; Voldemort hadn't survived; now Harry could start to live.
Harry never tired of making that mysterious pendant, round his fiancée's neck, burst into blue radiance, and Hermione loved it each time he did. They explored their innermost feelings, their wants and hopes, and allowed themselves to be carried away on waves of ecstasy and emotion. They were completely in tune with each other, they had been before of course, but they certainly were now. All the barriers were gone, they let their love for each other expand and fill them up.
In all their efforts to enjoy living they left one visit until the end of their holiday. It was a bright spring morning when they climbed to the small stand of trees hiding the two white cover stones. Harry looked down at the resting place of his parent's mortal remains. He felt sadness but he could not be really unhappy because he knew that they were still together. Now Harry understood death a little better he knew that James and Lily were just as much soul mates as he and Hermione. They were happy wherever they were, and maybe one day they would all meet again.
As the day they were to head back to Hogwarts drew closer they settled to a calm acceptance of each others presence, in the knowledge that at school they would only be Head Boy and Girl and not the budding Mr and Mrs Potter.
The day arrived and Hermione retrieved their school robes from the wardrobe, they hadn't seen the light of day for quite a while, so they needed a bit of a dusting off. As she waved her wand down the front of Harry's robes she noticed the school badge, and remembered how he had reacted when Dumbledore had given it to him last July. Then she noticed something strange, the top right hand corner of the crest was blank, the Slytherin snake was gone.
"Harry, look at this," she called.
He looked up from the book he had been reading. Then squinted so that he could see what she was pointing at. "Umm… there's something going on here. I noticed that all the Slytherin robes had lost their markings at the end of term celebrations. Perhaps we'll find out when we get back."
………………………………..
When they did get back they found that their badges weren't the only places the Slytherin snake had disappeared from. None of the school crests carried the snake anymore and most obviously the large banner behind the Headmaster's chair in the Great Hall only held the Lion, the Badger and the Eagle.
The pair had perigated to the school the day before the Hogwarts Express was due to arrive, so that they could get themselves settled in, and be ready to meet the train at the station. They walked up to their common room on the sixth floor, the password spoken in low tones almost caught in Hermione's throat.
"Do you want to change it?" Harry asked, for he knew the image those words now produced for her.
"No, in time I will see a smiling face again instead of a sad tombstone. We'll leave it as it is. Thanks for caring."
They opened the doors and received their second surprise, the back wall of the common room contained four not three doors as it had at the end of last term. Three of the doors worked as they had before, one to the Headmaster's corridor, one to the Gryffindor Common Room and one opened the camera speculator. The fourth opened onto a short passageway with a further two doors at its end.
One of these led to a small bathroom, the other that Harry opened gave him the biggest surprise of all, for it contained a bedroom, very obviously made for two, and all their luggage was stacked in it. They both stood in shock there must have been some mistake this couldn't be for them, but as if to deny this on the bed was an envelope marked with their names. Hermione opened it and unfolded the parchment it contained.
Dear Harry and Hermione
This is for you. The least the school can do is not to keep you apart. Please be discreet as it is a favour not usually handed out to students. Its continued presence will depend on the co-operation of the new Head.
Solomon.
"Do you think he knows something we haven't told him yet?" Hermione asked.
"Wouldn't surprise me it the least," said Harry, flopping down onto a very comfortable bed.
Their call to visit the new Head came early in the afternoon, with some trepidation they mounted the stairs and waited outside the door.
"Ready?" Harry drew a deep breath.
"Ready," Hermione replied.
Harry knocked on the door, there was no 'Come in' the door silently swung open to reveal an office quite different from Dumbledore's. The book cases were gone, instead were racks to hold rolls of parchment. All Dumbledore's intricate machines had been replaced with several large carved stones and a stand of long thin crystals. The portraits of the past Headmasters were as before, except that there was now one that contained a smiling Albus Dumbledore who gave them an encouraging wave and winked at them.
It was then Hermione saw it sitting on the new Headmasters desk. She hadn't seen that particular thing since the day of the battle. She remembered that on seeing Voldemort fall she had turned off her shield, jumped to her feet and ran over to Harry. It must have still been in her lap and tumbled to the grass when she stood. Now it was there, the crystal pyramid on the new Headmasters desk that meant… Then a figure appeared through a door from a side room and Hermione flew across to him, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him on the cheek.
Harry stood rooted to the spot, his fiancée had gone mad, she had run over and kissed some white haired old man as he emerged through a side door, there was going to be hell to pay. Then he realised that the man wasn't as old as he had at first seemed. The hair gave a false impression, then as he came fully into the office and into the light Harry could see that it wasn't the new Headmaster at all, it was Solomon.
"Hello Harry," Solomon said, as he walked over to the Headmaster's desk "Everything OK?" he continued, as he placed the scrolls he had been carrying down on the desk. "New rooms to your satisfaction?" he finished, as he sat down behind the desk.
"But…," said Harry, "what…? err…how?" he gave up the struggle and stared at Solomon, his mouth open in surprise. Perhaps he should have expected it, but to be truthful it had never crossed his mind.
Hermione was trying very hard not to laugh and failing miserably. Harry could hear titters coming from the paintings on the walls. He could see Dumbledore wiping a tear from his eye, and one fat, round, red-faced, past Headmaster was rolling about so much that he looked as if he might fall off his chair. Harry regained his composure, looked calmly at Solomon and Hermione who was standing next to him.
"Do you mind if I borrow one of Ron's favourite sayings?" he asked, they both nodded, "Bloody Hell!" he exclaimed with feeling. The laughter from the paintings doubled and the little fat Headmaster succumbed to gravity and disappeared out of his frame altogether.
They spent much of the afternoon talking. Solomon had told them that Minerva McGonagall had declined the position of Headmistress, mainly for the reasons Harry had overheard in the Hospital Wing at the end of last term. There had been one other candidate put forward by the Ministry, but the Governors had declined the applicant on the fact that he was too old. Then Solomon had been offered the position and he had accepted.
"Bit ironic really when you think about it," Solomon said.
"What do you mean, Solomon, Sir, err… Headmaster?" fumbled Harry.
"Oh Honestly Harry," Hermione slipped back easily into her bossy school girl mode.
"Solomon's mother is Lady Niniane,… right?"
"Err…yes"
"Solomon's father is?"
"Err…Don't know," admitted Harry.
"Merlin, Harry"
"There's no need to swear Hermione, I'm sorry but I don't know."
Hermione dissolved into gales of laughter, grabbed Harry round the neck and hung weakly to him. "No you nit, Solomon's father is Merlin."
"Oh," said Harry, not sure he had heard right. He looked at his Professor, "but that means you must be…."
"Really old," Solomon finished for him, "but what you have to remember Harry is that time, and therefore age, is relative."
"Relative?" said Harry, not having a clue as to what Solomon was on about.
"That's right Harry, relative," he confirmed.
"So, if you don't mind me asking," said Harry, "how old are you?"
Solomon smiled at him, and not for the first time Harry saw the depth of wisdom in those eyes.
"Relatively old Harry, relatively old," he replied, then in a conspiratorial tone he added, "and if you keep that quiet, I won't tell Minerva about your sleeping arrangements, OK?"
"Err…Fine by me," Harry assured him, completely convinced that his new Headmaster was going to be even more confusing than the last.
…………………………………….
Harry and Hermione met the train at Hogsmead station as they had on many occasions over the last two years. Ron, Luna, Neville and Ginny walked across the platform towards them, it was Neville who nudged Ginny and drew her attention to Hermione's left hand. Ginny gave a little squeal of delight and rushed up to the pair and kissed them both soundly. The news of Harry and Hermione's engagement took about thirty seconds to reach the far end of the platform and much to their embarrassment they had to run a gauntlet of congratulations on their way to the carriages. By the time they were safely ensconced with the rest of the Tyr both Harry and Hermione's faces were as red as Ron's hair.
Fortunately their engagement was not the only piece of news. A lot of conversation concerned the new Headmaster, some were intrigued by the choice, some were very happy, but none seemed disappointed.
All the school gathered, as usual, in the Great Hall, for the start of term feast. Solomon sat in the Headmasters seat looking a lot less like Dumbledore now he had changed his hair colour back to the way it had been before the events of last term, he had got rid of his extra wrinkles as well but as he had feared he would still need to use his reading glasses more. He waited patiently, because Harry had sent him a thought and asked him to wait until he arrived.
The students were talking excitedly to each other, for some had noticed that there was one unexplained presence in the Hall, and one absence. Flopped on its customary stool was the school Sorting Hat, which shouldn't have been there, and Harry, who should have been with Hermione, was nowhere to be seen.
Harry was in fact on his way back from Hagrid's hut carrying with him the last animal he expected to find still at Hogwarts. Fawkes the Phoenix, Dumbledore's pet, was clinging to his shoulder. Harry had heard him singing and been drawn out of the Castle to find Fawkes perched in a tree by the gamekeepers hut, and the bird was still singing quietly in Harry's ear as he walked back. Fawkes was telling Harry what he wanted him to do; Harry wasn't sure how he was telling him, maybe it was in the song, but however he was doing it, the bird's wishes were clear in his mind.
Harry opened the doors to the Great Hall, the students fell silent, and all turned to stare at him with the bird still on his shoulder. Harry caught Solomon's gaze and the Headmaster nodded to him. Fawkes' murmuring song increased in volume so that the notes soared round the hall, it was the most beautiful sound any of them had ever heard.
Then as the song finished the Sorting Hat began to speak.
To those of you who have survived
You know the war is won
That light has triumphed is a blessing
Now hear what must be done
The house that made the evil line
We wish to be no more
It has no head so it must die
A casualty of war
But houses four there still must be
For that has been our lore
This thinking cap has had a thought
A house for Dumbledore
Four houses then this school shall have
And will be always so
Those with courage, and brave of heart
To Gryffindor will go
A ready wit and sharp of mind
Then to Ravenclaw you'll cling
Heart loyal? Unafraid of toil?
These Hufflepuff will bring
But those who have a special gift
To help the weak and poor
For you we have our newest house
You'll go to Dumbledore.
Not a sound, not a cough, not the scrape of a bench, just absolute silence. Then the sound of Phoenix song rose from Fawkes' throat again, he looked down once to Harry and bowed his head in thanks, then spreading his great wings he took to the air.
He flew towards the staff table over the floating candles, faster and faster until there was no way for him to stop before he crashed into the end wall. Then as he passed over the staff table he burst into flames and the flames splashed into the banner behind the Headmasters chair and where they had hit in the top right hand corner of the school crest was a golden Phoenix rising from its ashes, the new symbol for the new house.
a/n
One more chapter to go.