Decisions and Bonds

"Helga was the only one kind and loving enough to create a strong bond with an owl. Godric was too fascinated with bigger creatures like dragons and gryphons, and Rowena cared more about intellect. I had initially found phoenixes to be interesting, although that was before I had met Caladrius."

"I take it you're not his biggest fan?"

Salazar snorted, before swearing a bit in Parseltongue.

"The bloody thing was a nightmare. Any and every time it saw me, it would drop pieces of fruit on my head! Even when I was teaching, the blasted pigeon would use it's flame travel to appear in the classroom, attack me with fruits, and vanish! And when I said anything to the other three, they simply said, 'Oh Sal, he's supposed to be playful!'. I should have trained my basilisk to hunt that bloody thing! It's the reason I created wards against phoenixes in the first place."

"What happened to him then?" Harry asked, holding in his laughter.

Salazar shrugged.

"For the time I was alive he stayed with Helga. She was alive when I passed though, so I am not sure. I would expect he's living in the mountains somewhere. There's a photo of the bloody thing in the file, you can take a look."

Harry's eyebrows rose at that.

"A photo?"

"Yes, it's essentially a portrait, but it's smaller and - "

"I know what a photo is!" exclaimed Harry, "It's just I didn't know you had cameras back then."

"We had magic, what more did we need?" said Salazar sarcastically.

Harry pulled open the file, searching through it until he found a photo of a phoenix. The ancient bird rested upon the shoulder of a kind looking woman in yellow robes. Both of them were moving; the woman was even waving at the camera. But there was something familiar about that bird.

"That's Fawkes." declared Harry, his eyes looking up to meet Salazar's.

"What are you on about?"

Harry stood up, walked over to the portrait, and held out the photo.

"This phoenix is Fawkes. Do all phoenixes look different?"

"I have never seen one connected by a soul bond, so I do not know about them; it is possible that the bond changes their appearances in some way. The ones I have seen were all red and yellow-gold, and the flames are orange. But regardless, they all are, in one way or another, different."

"Then that's Fawkes." Harry stated again, "That's Dumbledore's phoenix. He's been here as long as Dumbledore has, from what I know."

The portrait froze for half a minute, most likely in shock. When he unfroze, the words that came out of his mouth were not particularly kind.

"Done yet?" asked Harry, several minutes later. As Harry had suspected, Salazar had gone on a rant on how Harry should have the 'bloody pigeon' imprisoned.

"Yes, yes, I am fine." said the portrait, panting all the while, "You don't have to worry, the pigeon will be dead soon."

"Why would Fawkes die soon?" asked Harry curiously.

"Use the intelligence that you surely must have as my heir, even if they are buried within the depths of your mind!" complained the portrait, "Caladrius was created a long time ago, 996 A.D. to be precise. He'll be dead within a few years, and Hogwarts will be safe once more."

"Yes, I'm sure Fawkes' reign of terror will end, and people will be celebrating all across the school." said Harry sarcastically, "But he's Dumbledore's phoenix, how does that work out?"

Salazar shrugged.

"How should I know? He probably just found the phoenix in the mountains or something. The bloody pigeon must have realised he worked at Hogwarts, and decided to spend his dying days here. And your headmaster probably doesn't know about phoenixes or the phoenix ritual, or he surely would have tried to make his own."

"But they aren't bonded or anything?"

"Soul bonds, or familiar bonds as they are called for this specific variety, can only occur during the Phoenix Stasis, which Caladrius experienced just short of a thousand years ago." said Salazar in a bored voice, "In other words, no."

"So Fawkes can leave whenever he wants?"

"Even if the pigeon shared a soul bond with your headmaster, he could still leave whenever he wanted. The soul bond simply ties the life of the phoenix to the life of the master. The reason as to why phoenixes that are soul bonded never leave their masters is because of love. The emotion for those phoenixes is love, and it is typically directed towards their masters. As such, they will refuse to leave their masters."

"And Fawkes - "

" - Caladrius, although pigeon is also acceptable."

"Yes, him. He's playful, which is just his personality. So he could leave whenever he wanted."

"The true explanation is much more complex, but for the sake of both of our sanity and time, sure." replied the portrait.

"I didn't even know playfulness was an emotion."

"Neither did I, but apparently it is. I originally theorized that Caladrius' emotion used in the ritual was 'demonic', or something similar. Helga didn't like that much."

"Can't say I'm surprised." said Harry. He moved his eyes back down to Hedwig, who was snuggling into his chest, fast asleep.

"How do I know that she would want to become a phoenix?" Harry asked.

"It's evolution, it's impossible to not want it." replied the portrait.

Harry nodded, putting Hedwig gently down beside him, before standing up and moving to the desk, bringing the books and file with him. He put the file back into the desk, before sitting down, turning the chair to face Salazar.

"I'm fine with doing the ritual for Hedwig, as long as it isn't painful and there's no risk." he said to the portrait.

"There are neither of the two, do not worry. Simply read the two books you have before you; they will cover everything and anything you need to know for the ritual. Order the ingredients, we can do it in a week's time, that should be more than enough time for you to understand it. I will be here, of course, assisting you. You can even ask your owl if she wants to do it, she should be smart enough to figure out what you are saying"

"I will, this seems particularly interesting." said Harry, placing the two books into his book bag. He gently woke up Hedwig, moving her to his shoulder. Harry made his way out of the study, beginning the journey to the Transfiguration Classroom.

"Don't forget to change the book covers!" yelled Salazar from the study, "If you get my books on phoenix rituals confiscated, I will lock you out of the chamber!"

Harry wasn't entirely sure if he was joking.

.....

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