A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philospher's Stone

by gerandakis


50 - Making Arrangements

Chapter Fifty

Making Arrangements


The flames in the fireplace suddenly flared green and the head of a teacher appeared in their midst. "Severus, are you there?"

With a grunt, Professor Snape looked up from his analysis of one of the potion samples from his fourth-year class. "Yes Filius, I am here. What's the matter?"

"If you could come by my office for a moment? We have something here that might interest you."

"Very well. But this better be important, Filius. You know I don't like being interrupted."

"Yes, yes, I know. See you in a minute." The head retracted and the flames returned to their normal size and color.

With a wave of his wand, Severus lifted up the row of bottles and placed them in a warded cupboard, closing the door over them. It wouldn't do to lose a student's potion sample before he got a chance to grade it, and there were several students who would be all too happy to make just that happen.

Assured that the samples wouldn't be touched until he was back, he swept out of the office and made his way up to that of his colleague. As he turned into the corridor that held Filius' office, he came across another familiar face, walking in the same direction. "Headmaster. Did Filius call you as well?"

"Indeed he did. He claimed he had something to show me. He didn't sound urgent, so I chose to walk."

"I got the same impression. He sounded rather giddy actually."

"This is about the time for his weekly comparative study sessions with Miss Shimmer. Perhaps they have made a breakthrough."

"A likely possibility." The two men had come to a stop before the door to Filius' office. "Shall we?"

With a nod, the headmaster knocked. "Come in!" The door opened to admit them, revealing Filius and Miss Shimmer, as they had expected. The pair of boxes on Filius' desk, one made of brass with several crystals and metal rods poking out of its top and the other made of wood with several switches and dials under a glass cover, they had definitely not expected.

"Filius, Miss Shimmer, what do you have for us?"

"Well Albus, I told you about our work on fire spells last week, didn't I?"

"You did indeed. Am I to assume this has something to do with this?"

"It does. I happened to know that several potions were currently only hypothetically possible because the necessary temperature regulation couldn't be achieved with enough precision. When I told Miss Shimmer here about that, she had an idea." He turned to the girl standing beside him, looking up to her. "Would you care to demonstrate?"

She nodded, standing behind the desk and momentarily lighting up her hand a faint teal, causing the wooden box to fly over to her and open, its glass cover flipping aside. With a flick of a switch on her control board, the brass box came to life, the four smaller crystals on its top emitting a glow of magic and projecting a shield around it. "Activating the system projects a shield around it, capable of withstanding some physical force and a substantial amount of heat. I haven't had a chance to test it, but it should theoretically be able to resist anything up to and including a cauldron melting on top of it."

Severus was beginning to suspect why he was here, but held his tongue. If anything he was intrigued by what Miss Shimmer had cooked up.

The girl in question meanwhile flicked the second switch, causing a flame to appear above the larger crystal in the center, just above the shield. "This is the flame at minimum settings. With the dials its possible to change the temperature and size of the fire independently." Twisting one of the dials, she caused the flame to grow larger and larger until it was about a foot tall. "This is as big as it gets."

Severus watched with mild concern as a smirk came to her face and she twisted the other dial. The flame grew brighter and, he noted, hotter. He was used to the heat coming of a fire and the steam coming off a cauldron, but after a few moments even he started sweating. Finally, she stopped. "And this is as hot as it gets." She then quickly twisted both knobs back until the flame was back to its original size and temperature.

While she flicked the switches, turning the device back off, Severus was lost in thought. He had noted that Miss Shimmer had had very fine control over the temperature just from the single dial she had on the device. He could think of several dozen experimental potions he had attempted over the years that had failed because he hadn't been able to control the temperature fine enough. And those were only the ones he had attempted. Several more he hadn't because he had known from the start that he would never be able to control the temperature to the degree he needed.

While he was caught up in his thoughts, the headmaster had a different worry. "Are you certain this won't violate the restrictions on the enchantment of muggle artifacts?"

Miss Shimmer tilted her head slightly. "I'd be very surprised if it did. I didn't enchant a muggle artifact. I modified the magic in such a way that the muggle technology could control it. It wouldn't work without it, just as the muggle tech wouldn't do anything without the magic."

"I see. Severus, what do you think?"

"If it truly allows for such fine control of the temperature, it could pave the way for innumerable breakthroughs in potion making."

Miss Shimmer smiled widely. "You can keep the prototype." She waved him over. "Come, I'll show you how to use it. The switch here on the far left toggles the shield and the control circuitry. The one next to it ignites and extinguishes the flame. The displays above them show the charge of the internal power supplies of each of the devices, the controller on the left and the Hearth on the right.

"The left dial controls the temperature. You can regulate it in steps of one degree between twenty-five and nine-hundred degrees. The display above it shows the currently chosen value. It's the only one that isn't percentile."

Severus nodded. "Then I take it the dial on the far right regulates the size of the flame?"

"Exactly, and the display above it shows the current value between one and one-hundred percent. Now here at Hogwarts, at least, the ambient magic should be strong enough to keep it well charged, but just in case, there is a small contact crystal on the side of both the hearth and the controller that you can use to manually charge them with your wand. Just channel some magic into it. But make sure you switch on the controls before you do, that way you'll know when it's fully charged."

As Severus walked out with the two devices in hand, he heard Miss Shimmer speak to the Headmaster. "By the way, Princess Celestia will be coming tomorrow, so we can discuss things directly with her."


"Come in."

The wards on the way up to his office had alerted him to the arrival of two more guests. The door opened to reveal Harry and Miss Shimmer. Sitting in a chair before the desk, Sirius turned to look at his godson. "Harry."

Albus Smiled. "Harry, this is your godfather. Sirius Black. Miss Shimmer, when will Princess Celestia be arriving?"

The girl turned to the 'eagle' on her shoulder. "Philomena, if you would?" A flash of flame later, the bird was gone, causing Sirius to stare at the place where it had vanished.

"Was that a phoenix?"

"That it was. Miss Shimmer apparently raised her from an egg."

By the time Philomena returned, now undisguised and on the shoulder of a woman of otherworldly grace and beauty, Sirius was still staring.

"Ah, Princess Celestia, I presume?"

Miss Shimmer nodded. "Yes. If I may introduce-"

"Sunset," the woman interrupted, "just my name will suffice this time."

"Fine. Gentlemen, this is Princess Celestia of Equestria. Princess, these are Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Sirius Black and you've already met Harry Potter."

"A pleasure to meet the both of you. And it is good to see you again young Harry."

"Quite the same, your highness. Please, do take a seat."

As all three new arrivals took a seat on the chairs he had prepared, Albus considered the situation. He had already explained Lily's spell to Sirius, along with the things Miss Shimmer had told him about the way it connected to the Equestrian magical field. He had left it to him to understand the consequences of these facts.

"So then, I must ask your highness, how much have you been informed of?"

"Everything, as far as I am aware. But I believe we can go over the relevant facts while we bring young Harry up to speed on matters."

Albus nodded. "Very true." He focused on Harry who sat in the middle of the group. "Very well then Harry. The first thing you need to know, the reason why you are so famous, is how you managed to resist a killing curse by the most feared dark wizard of all time.

"The whole truth is that you didn't. The spell never fully reached you. When Lord Voldemort tried to kill you, your mother stepped into his way, so he killed her first. What he didn't realize, is that, in doing so, he allowed her to invoke an ancient magical protection, stronger than any curse: A Mother's Love. When he then tried to kill you, he couldn't, and was instead reduced to little more than a ghost by his own spell, as it was bounced back at him."

Albus couldn't prevent a sad smile coming to his lips as he saw Miss Shimmer wrap an arm around the obviously distraught boy's shoulder. With a meaningful glance, he signaled for Sirius to continue.

"Now, what you need to know, Harry, is that, at the time, there were still supporters of Voldemort out there, and they may well still be there to this day. That was why you needed the protection of your mother's spell. The only known way to maintain it, was by having you live under the roof of a blood relative of your mother. And since her parents had already died at the time, her sister was her only option."

Sirius stopped his explanation and simply stared as Sunset got up from her seat, transformed into her equine form and curled up in Harry's lap, allowing him to gently stroke her mane. Her horn lit with pale golden magic, comforting him further as she continued the explanation.

"You see, Harry. When I took you to Equestria in the summer, something changed. I recognized the harmonic magic of your mother's spell, and I guessed that it might react with the ambient harmonic magic in Equestria. As it turns out, it did. The spell linked with the ambient field in Equestria and is now fully fed from there. The new link has fully supplanted the connection to Petunia Dursley, so there is no point to you living under her roof any longer."

Harry's hand actually stopped as he looked at the little unicorn in his lap in utter bafflement. Apparently he hadn't seen where this explanation was going. "You mean, I won't have to go back to the Dursleys in Summer?"

A playful smirk came to Miss Shimmer's surprisingly expressive face. "Not unless you want to."

"I don't."

"You don't say."

"Then I suppose it would be my turn to continue," Princess Celestia spoke up, all eyes focusing on her. "We don't know if it would be necessary for you to actually live in Equestria to maintain the spell your mother used to protect you, Harry, but we are not all that keen on taking chances, so it would be best if you did."

She turned to Sirius. "I've also been informed that, while you, Mister Black, do indeed own a house,  Headmaster Dumbledore estimates that you are less than likely to want to return there."

Recovering from his surprise, Sirius let out a barking laugh. "Not really, no. I ran away from there when I was sixteen. I have no wish to go back there."

The princess gave him an understanding smile. "In that case, I would be happy to offer you a home in Equestria. One young Harry could also return to for the holidays."

Judging by the expression on Sirius' and Harry's faces, neither one of them had seen the implications of what had been explained to them, and of the Princess' presence.

The conversation quickly turned to explaining multiple aspects of Equestria, something Albus followed with great interest while Harry and Miss Shimmer seemed to be watching both his and Sirius' expressions with mild amusement. Finally, they agreed on giving Sirius a small home in a town not too far from Canterlot, so he could stay in contact with the Princess if need be. She would also see to it that he was given a magical journal like the one Miss Shimmer had that would continue to work even across dimensions.

Finally, Harry, Sirius, Miss Shimmer and the Princess went to Equestria with Philomena's help Albus still had some paperwork he needed to finish. Miss Shimmer had arrived a little earlier than he had expected. He would join them later. He had Fawkes, after all.

It only took a few minutes to finish up the remaining paperwork, so he got up and held out his arm, prompting Fawkes to fly over and land on the offered perch. "Now, if you could take me to follow them, old friend."

Fawkes trilled majestically and spread his wings, as he liked to do before flaming away.

And nothing happened.

"Well, this is awkward."