Chapter Sixteen

Burrowing Deeper

In a marked repetition of the previous day, the two followed the Weasleys on their shopping trip. When they were getting potion supplies at the apothecary, Sunset suddenly stopped, reaching into her bag.

After they had returned the evening before, she made sure to set up alarm charms for both her journals, so that she wouldn't miss a message again. One of those spells had just triggered. She pulled out the journal she used to communicate with Harry. Opening it she read.

Hey Sunset, are you there?

Yes, I'm here, why?

Where are you right now?

The apothecary in Diagon Alley. Wanna come too?

I'd love to.

You in the alleyway yet?

I am.

Okay. Stand by. Be right there.

She closed up the book. "Philomena could you wait here for a moment. I'll be right back."

Trilling softly, Philomena took off from her shoulder. A moment later, the air around the girl wavered and she disappeared with nary a sound.

Having heard the flapping of wings, Molly, Ginny and Ron came around the corner, just catching the end of her vanishing. Molly sighed. "There she goes again."

"I suspect," Hermione spoke up from beside Ginny, "that she went to fetch Harry. That right Philomena?"

"That cannot stand," They exclaimed in unison. Ron, Ginny and Molly sighed. Hermione just giggled. This family was fun.

The air wavered again and two people appeared, once more without a sound. Sunset was now accompanied by Harry, whom Hermione promptly hugged in greeting. Sunset watched with a smile. "Allow me. Harry, these are Ron and Ginny Weasley and their Mother. Fred, George and Percy, their older brothers, should be around here somewhere. Guys, this is Harry Potter."

Harry was, evidently, still recovering from being transported halfway across the country in the blink of an eye directly into a hug. The transit itself had been extremely smooth, but hugs were still new to him.

After Harry and the Weasleys had recovered from their shock and finished greeting one another, they finished their shopping. By then, it was closing in on noon and Mrs. Weasley insisted that the three come over for lunch.

Five minutes later the six Weasleys and their three guests stood in front of the Fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. Mrs. Weasley was introducing them to the concept of traveling via fireplace. "Have any of you traveled by floo before?"

Sunset looked on in fascination. "So that's what that's called. I've seen it before, but never used it."

Once Harry and Hermione indicated something similar, Molly continued to explain. "It's rather simple, you take a bit of floo powder, wizards usually keep a bowl of it near any chimney connected to the floo network. Breathe in, throw the powder into the fire, step in, and state your destination without breathing in. If you do that, you'll get a mouthful of ash and won't be able to talk clearly.

"I'll let my kids go first, I'll go last. The destination, in this case, is 'The Burrow'. Watch."

Percy dutifully stepped forward, taking a pinch of floo powder from the bowl and throwing it into the fire. The happily crackling flames turned a bright emerald green. He took a breath and stepped in. "The Burrow," he calmly stated. The flames flared up and he vanished.

Fred, George, Ron and Ginny then repeated the process. Sunset had cast her aura sight charm again and was watching the process carefully, she saw how the floo powder burned up in a split second, releasing its magic into the flames, turning it into a nascent arcane phase gateway and, in the process, removing the heat as well. Once a destination was stated, the gateway connected to a terminus on the other end and flared open, taking whomever was standing there with it. Judging by the similarities, she would guess that it was inspired by the flame travel of phoenixes.

She stepped up next, keeping her spell active, she took a pinch of powder and a deep breath, threw the powder into the fire, creating a nascent gateway, stepped in and calmly spoke. "The Burrow." And off she went.

A normal floo traveler would have focused on the various fireplaces that came into view and flew past, but Sunset was focused on the phase energy streams of the portal around her. This was noticeably slower than phoenix travel, she also noted an energy resonance building up within her as she traveled, bleeding off into kinetic energy. Understanding that, she realized that she would exit out of the other terminus of the gateway at considerable speed and braced herself accordingly.

Ron and Ginny had taken positions on two arm chairs on either side of the fireplace, while Fred and George claimed the couch across from it. Watching new floo travelers land always made for an amusing show. Even Percy couldn't escape its attraction, leaning against the far wall.

The Fireplace flared green and, in a flare of red and yellow, Sunset and Philomena emerged. The latter was now without her disguise and visible in all her proud glory, flying out of the fireplace in a graceful arc and gliding around the room in a circle.

Sunset meanwhile was flying towards the floor. As she had trained countless times, she tucked into a roll. Then, at her lowest point, she pushed off with her arms and flew in an arc over the couch and the heads of the stunned twins, twirling into a spiral with a slight bit of magic, and landing on her feet behind it, her arms stretched out. Amusement clear on her face, she bowed and walked over to lean against the wall beside Percy.

The Weasleys were stunned, Sunset and Philomena had certainly given them a show. Not the show they had been expecting, but a show none the less. After a moment's stunned silence, they broke into applause, while Philomena landed lightly atop Sunset's head, giving off an amused trill.

They stopped their applause when the fireplace flared green again. In a mix of blue and brown, Hermione appeared. Having taken part in the same Parkour training, she rolled like Sunset had, rising back to her feet before the couch, twirling on one foot and landing without losing momentum on the couch between the twins.

In another flare of green, Harry appeared, flying out of the fireplace faster than the two others had, straight towards Hermione on the couch. With a pulse of magic, she pushed herself up and caught him in a hug, breaking his fall as they both tumbled back to the couch.

Sunset, in turn lit up her magic, giving the couch a slight shove as it threatened to fall over backwards. The moment it stopped moving, the fire flared green again and Mrs. Weasley calmly stepped out of it. She looked at the soot spread out in front of the living room and sighed. Pulling out her wand, she pointed it at the soot. "Scourgify."

Sunset, having not yet deactivated her scanning spell, saw how the charm removed the soot. It seemed to be little more than a selective vanishing charm.

Sunset chuckled. "That's Philomena. Good to know that floo travel removes the disguise."

"Mister Ollivander is making Sunset a wand with one of her feathers," Hermione added as she disentangled herself from Harry.

Adjusting his glasses, Harry looked at her more closely. "Say, Hermione, weren't your eyes brown yesterday?"

"They were. Turns out becoming a unicorn has side effects. Who would have guessed?"

《Fair enough.》With a smirk, Sunset walked into the center of the room and transformed.

For a moment, the Weasleys just stared at her in silence, then came a shout of 'Mine!' and Sunset suddenly found herself in Ginny's lap, her hands scratching behind her ears.

"Okay," Percy managed after a few moments, "you have some kind of strange apparition spell that isn't apparition, you have a phoenix and you're an animagus. Any other surprises we should know about?"

Mrs. Weasley just sighed after a moment. "Oh let her have her fun, just make sure to stop her so she's coherent when lunch is ready." With that, she walked off to prepare the meal.

The Weasley boys dragged Harry off to do ... something ... Sunset didn't know what. She was too relaxed to care. Hermione seemed to quietly amused, and Ginny, it seemed, was enjoying herself.

Time flew by, without either of them caring much. Only when Mrs. Weasley called that lunch would be ready in five minutes, did Ginny let up. Still it took a moment, for Sunset to regain coherency.

"Well those animals can't talk either, can they? They don't have the necessary physiology to do that."

Sunset got back to her hooves, stretching out like a cat, startling a giggle out of Ginny and Hermione who quickly conjured a small shield platform next to the couch for her to jump to. She did just that, jumping over to it and then off it, flipping both times before transforming in mid air to land on her hands, push off again and land once more, on her feet this time. Hermione just giggled. "Show off."

Sunset smirked, walking over and holding a hand out to Ginny. "Now, I do believe there is lunch to be had. Shall we?"

Ginny giggled again, took the offered hand and pulled herself up, followed quickly by Hermione. "Let's go. Knowing the boys we'll have to go get them from the Quidditch pitch anyway." She walked over to the back door and looked out over the large orchard behind it. Seeing several dots in the air, she nodded. "Yup, there they are, come on then." She turned back inside. "Mum! We're gonna go fetch the boys!"

A minute later, the three stood on the edge of a clear field, watching Ron, the twins and Harry flying around on broomsticks, throwing a ball back and forth. Sunset and Hermione grinned at each other.

When she got a nod from Hermione, Sunset disappeared in a flash of light, Hermione followed a second later.

Ron was enjoying himself immensely. Harry was an impressive flier for someone who was doing that the first time. He was startled when his broom suddenly sagged down.

"Lunch is ready," a voice called from behind him. A moment later, the broom went back up.

Ginny watched in amusement as Hermione and Sunset teleported onto her brothers' brooms and delivered the message, finally Hermione vanished completely and Sunset reappeared before her with a smirk. A moment later there was another flash of teal and they were back at the house.

The two older girls turned to Ginny with questioning expressions. "Well, I have six brothers not four. The two oldest are already out of Hogwarts and working abroad. Bill is in Egypt working as a Curse Breaker for Gringotts and Charlie is in Romania studying dragons."

"I see. Still, we need to fetch Percy. Unless you want me to go fetch them as well."

"Teleport, not apparate. And no. I can't. Not to Egypt anyway, pretty sure I'd manage Romania in my natural form. But I'm pretty sure Philomena can."

"Oh right, I'm still getting used to you having a phoenix. Well, let's go then. Percy will be in his room. It's across from mine."

With that, Ginny walked back into the house and over to the stairs. With a final look up at the building's crooked structure – They had both used a spell to visualize the magic keeping it standing and found it sufficient – they walked in and followed her. Getting Percy was a simple matter of knocking on his door and telling him that lunch was ready.

With nine people, Lunch at the Weasleys' was a rather large affair. Still, there was enough for everyone and it was quite tasty. Sunset quietly thought that Mrs. Weasley could probably give half of the castle chefs a run for their money.

Hermione was enjoying the meal as well, but also kept careful watch of the Weasley children and their mother. This was a unique chance to learn about how wizarding families lived, and she wasn't going to let it slip past her.

Harry was simply enjoying the food. It was good, better even than anything he could remember eating, and genuinely nourishing. If he ate enough now, he might not go hungry later.

Judging by how often she remarked on how thin he was and insisted on giving him extra, Mrs. Weasley certainly wouldn't stand in the way of that. All in all he was quite content.

Mrs. Weasley calmly ate her lunch, but also carefully studied her guests. Hermione was eating normally, but seemed to also be keeping a close eye on her and her children, observing everything they did. Sunset seemed to be eating slowly, carefully tasting every bite and genuinely enjoying it. Harry was eating rather fast, looking like he hadn't had a proper meal in days. Judging by how thin he was, Molly suspected he hadn't. She couldn't let that stand. If at all possible, she would make sure to invite him over more often.

Ron was eating at immense speed, as he usually did. He considered the guests, as he did. Sunset had a phoenix, that alone was impressive. She also seemed to be physically fit and magically skilled. Where she could have learned all of that was beyond him, but he didn't care. Hermione was interesting. She was clearly muggleborn, yet she didn't bat an eye at all the magic happening around her, occasionally even joining in. He suspected that Sunset had taught her. Harry seemed to be an okay bloke, and he had an impressive talent for using a broom. Ron would have to get in some training with him.

Percy was caught up mainly in the political implications of Sunset having a phoenix. That alone would cause a shift in the magical landscape. The only one to have had a phoenix with him in well over a century was Headmaster Dumbledore. What did that say about Sunset? And where did she come from? Her name clearly wasn't British and she kept speaking to Hermione in a language he didn't understand.

Fred and George were thinking about ways to prank Sunset, she seemed like the kind who could take it. If her statements were anything to go by, they would have to look out for her retaliation, and she was good. They wouldn't be beaten at their own game.

Ginny was simply content having met two new girls whom she could befriend. That they could turn into adorable, colorful unicorns was simply a bonus. Well, one of them could, but the other would gain the ability in due time. That they would go off to Hogwarts and leave her behind was a pity. But they had a phoenix, surely they could stay in contact.

A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philospher's Stone

by gerandakis

[RVS]16 - Burrowing Deeper