I hope you'll forgive me as this is the first time that I've been able to actually sit down and write on this story. Due to Covid-19, I've been swamped with work. My employer is considered essential, vital, and we are a state agency as well, so we've had massive amounts of work and this is literally the first time I've had a chance to do this. I hope you like it. Creative Constructive Criticism welcomed. Flames will be ignored or deleted.

Here you go,

War Part One

The Phoenixes owned some of the most powerful artifacts in existence. Well, that is to say, they guarded some of the most powerful artifacts in existence. The other magical creatures, human wizards in particular, had a knack for creating powerful artifacts, or at least they used to. Most of the old ways were lost with Uther and his anti-magic purge of the world.

The rest of the old ways were lost with Grindelwald and his rise to power. The governments of the world overreacted and purged their libraries of anything they considered dark. Fortunately, most of what they purged was actual black magic and thus, no great loss. Also, fortunately, the Supreme Vampire held the largest magical library on the planet, and no magical government was stupid enough to attack the Supreme Vampire. But, when the Arrogant Minister of Magic of Great Britain demanded he turn over his library, and the ICW backed her up, The Supreme Vampire told them that no magical human would ever touch his books and if they dared to come to his castle, they would never return.

The French sent a squad to the Supreme Vampire's castle. Only their heads were returned. The only record of the old ways exists in the Supreme Vampire's castle, in his library, protected by the most powerful magic on the planet, magic so powerful that not even a phoenix can bypass them. Of course, the Mother Phoenix can, because she and the Supreme Vampire respect each other.

The most powerful artifacts on the planet exist in the chests of the Phoenixes, waiting for the day when Humans are ready for them. Oh, she could give them many wondrous and good artifacts but the Time Phoenix foresaw that they would destroy the planet; they are still very young and in their destructive phase.

In any case, she was now going to unlock the war chest, where many powerful weapons existed, some were magical and some were technology and some were a mixture of both. She hated to do this, but with the Quartet skulking about their world, and the threat of a demon invasion, she had no other choice.

The weapon she was going to give to Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy was three functional artifacts, but only working together could they bring the three artifacts together and activate the weapon. It was a weapon that fired a unique energy that would drive the demons from their world and once that was done, The Mother Phoenix would use another artifact to seal their reality against them, permanently or at least as permanently as she could. Sometimes, humans could be very foolish and unfortunately, she could not prevent them from being stupid enough to summon demons and if they did that, then the seal would be broken and they'd have to go through this again. Fortunately, most humans either had fake summoning rituals which got them nothing more than a nose full of sulfur and some angry pixies, or they just didn't summon demons. If they did summon anything, it was usually the djinn; the djinn were not good but they weren't demons; they were a type of imp and used their power to feed off the desires of people. The person made a wish, the djinn granted it and fed off the resulting emotional energies.

Weapons were necessary to combat threats to the world and its people. That didn't change the fact that the Mother Phoenix hated them. She didn't hate them, per say, rather she hated the fact that they were necessary. She hated that creatures harmed each other. She hated that some creatures would harm others and that those who would be victims, to stop the harm, had to retaliate with harm to those who would do them harm. She wished for peace, but until such time, weapons were necessary so that creatures could stop themselves from being harmed by others. It was the way things were until they changed. This would come with maturity, in time.

So, she sighed, and she was about to perform the magic to open the chest, when her wards alerted her to a visitor, but that was not possible. No one, outside her children, knew where the first nest was and it was locked down. How could there possibly be a visitor? The first nest was invisible to all but phoenixes, and only those the Mother Phoenix allowed could travel to the first nest.

She stood up and waved her hand, the chest disappearing back to the dimension she kept it in, a dimension only she could access. She walked over to the entrance and waved her hand, the entrance becoming transparent, but only on her side. The person standing there looked human, but she could sense that she most certainly was not human. The Mother Phoenix spoke, willing her voice to be heard outside.

"Identify yourself. You are not what you appear to be."

"No, I am not what I appear," the visitor said, "Dearest Mother Phoenix, may I enter your nest, so that we might talk in safety, without enemies overhearing?"

The Mother Phoenix reached out with her senses. Whatever her visitor was, she could sense no hostility, nor ill intent, nor evil.

She turned from the door and waved her hand, closing off the rest of the nest, so the visitor would only have access to her front room. She turned back to the door and waved her hand, opening the entrance so her visitor could enter.

"Thank you, Dear Mother Phoenix," the visitor said, before turning and sitting, a chair appearing beneath her.

"It is a courtesy to ask before performing magic in another person's dwelling," said the Mother Phoenix.

"My humble apologies," said the Visitor, "My name is Giydera, the Avatar of Magic."

The Mother Phoenix bowed and knelt before the Avatar of Magic.

"Oh, do get up. Do not kneel before me," said Giydera.

The Mother Phoenix stood up, and turned, waved her hand to conjure a chair and sat across from Giydera. "What does the Avatar of Magic need from me?"

"The upcoming war with the demons concerns us. I have forseen the possibility of the demons feeding upon magic. The weapon you were going to give to Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy will drive them away in the final conflict, but it will not be adequate for the war itself. You must be prepared to use the Staff of Agamemnon."

"The Staff of Agamemnon was lost centuries ago," said the Mother Phoenix, "It was lost during the Driving Out of Cthulu."

Giydera smiled and shook her head slightly. "When will you learn to never underestimate magic."

Giydera reached into nothing and pulled out a knarled and twisted black shadowy root, it oozed with evil and ill intent. "And when will you learn not to be so Naive and trusting, you foolish Phoenix Bitch!"

The Phoenix Mother stood up and backed away, "Shydera!"

"Oh yes, but my name is now Giydera since you cast me out and made it so I am no longer a phoenix. I serve a new master now, an evil master, and with this root of darkness, so shall you serve The Evil One!"

The Mother Phoenix willed her wards to activate and Giydera was flung from the nest. The Mother Phoenix took flight, transforming into her phoenix form, flaming outside the nest to where Giydera landed. Giydera stood up, the root was broken, broken by the wards, and it oozed black liquid as it shriveled up.

"Do you…" Giydera started to say when she was blasted with lightening.

As she stood up again, the Mother Phoenix began to sing and suddenly Giydera was encased in stone. It began to glow red.

The Mother Phoenix truly hated harming another creature but her lost child was turned forever evil, rejecting even the most basic good within her.

The stone began to melt away and Giydera screeched, "Did you seriously think that would hold me you senile old bitch!"

The Mother Phoenix calmly hovered above Giydera, "Do you think me so weak child?"

"DON'T CALL ME CHILD! YOU DISOWNED ME! I AM NOT YOUR CHILD AND I WILL KILL YOU!" Giydera screeched in rage.

The Mother Phoenix opened her mouth and sung a powerful song. The skies darkened and black lightning struck Giydera, going straight through her. Giydera fell to the ground, a large wound in her chest, glowing with the black light.

"So you aren't that weak after all," said Giydera, "and you are capable of killing when necessary. I'd be almost impressed, if you weren't such a sanctimonious self-righteous bitch!"

And with that, Giydera dissolved into a puddle of black liquid, which evaporated, whispering, "You haven't seen the last of me," as the vapor blew away on the wind.

So Giydera had given herself to the Evil One in exchange for a form of immortality. That Black Lightening would have killed almost anything permanently; it was specifically designed to kill creatures of evil, but creatures of the purest evil would only be mortally wounded by it. Giydera was of the purest evil; she would be back. That means that the Mother Phoenix might have to call upon the White Fire to destroy her for good.

What the Mother Phoenix could not figure out was how did Giydera shield her intentions?

The dimensional pocket; she must have gathered her intentions into some sort of object and pushed the object into a dimensional pocket. That black root must have been what held her ill intent and she pushed the rest of her evil inside the pocket, giving her a facade of good. It was the only explanation and she'd seen it done one time before.

A Necromancer managed to hide her evil within the bone of a dog she wore around her neck; this gave her a façade of good. She then tricked people into letting her inside their homes, where she proceeded to perform arcane rituals and feast upon their souls. She was one of the 13 and she was transformed into the Prime Dementor, the only one who can actually create other Dementors, probably because she turned and fed on the souls of the other 12 Necromancers during the dark ritual.

The Mother Phoenix flashed back into her nest and made the wards even stronger. She'd been fooled; she needed to be more diligent. She couldn't let herself be fooled again. She needed rest, so she entered her nesting room and curled up in her phoenix form. She would meditate on her memories of the events, so that she could learn from them and improve her senses, so that she wouldn't be fooled again.