Birds of a Feather
Chapter 10: Showdown
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
Trader Jones and his wife Susie were an attractive young couple who were dressed as if they were about to set out on safari. They were thrilled to see the unconscious bird. They'd never dreamed they'd have an opportunity to buy a phoenix. He would be reborn repeatedly, no matter what they did to him, so they could sell parts of him over and over again!
Jones shook Dolohov's hand firmly. "It's good to see you again! I was so sorry to hear about the loss of the Dark Lord. Tragic, it was." He shook his head sadly. The Dark Lord had been one of his best customers. "I was saving some nice human pineal glands for him. The pineal is the seat of the soul, they say."
He beckoned to his wife. "Bring whiskey for our guests, dear."
After Susie had poured each of them a generous glass of firewhiskey, Jones lead them out to a large barn behind the house where he kept a variety of cages and tanks. There was a large iron cauldron in one corner, and flies were circling around a heavy wooden table and very bloody chopping block.
"Lock your phoenix in that empty cage over there and take a look at these lovely specimens." He pointed to a pair of wyverns in a large cage. "Magnificent, aren't they? I've been selling their teeth and scales, and their brains will bring a pretty penny when I'm done with them. Watch out for their tails - they have poisonous stingers!"
Next he showed them a panda cub. Its ears had been cut off and sold for potion ingredients. There were also a couple of sad-looking orangutans, and a cage full of Cornish pixies. Shelves by the back door held preserved specimens. There were bottles of pickled pygmy puffs, assorted eyeballs, a few baby skrewts, and some nasty-looking dried insects. Human hands floated in a large jar near the door. Dolohov thought he saw one of them twitch, and he downed the rest of his whiskey in one gulp. Susie promptly refilled his glass. It was always so much easier to negotiate a favorable price when the guests were sloshed.
~~~~~
Severus crept toward the barn. If these fools had any wards, they'd taken them down to admit the Death Eaters. He'd seen five people go into the barn: the three Death Eaters, a man who was probably the potions dealer, and a woman who was probably his wife or girlfriend.
He reached the barn and pressed himself against the wall. There was an open window beside the front door and he peered in cautiously. The Death Eaters were near the back door, chatting with the dealer and the woman. Fawkes was lying unconscious in a cage. If he was going to take on five people with Stan Shunpike's wand, Severus knew he would have to be very careful.
~~~~~
Captain Clark rode his broom across the waves. He was flanked Biscuit and Stan on one broom, and Kat and Jack on the other. A dragonfly perched on Jack's shoulder. They could have apparated to the shore, Clark realized. The roar of the breakers would have drowned out the sound of their arrival.
They landed as close to the house as they dared. It was a quaint little cottage sitting alone on a vast moor. The only other building in sight was a large barn in the distance behind the cottage.
"All of you stay put while I take a look around," Clark told them sternly, but of course as soon as he was out of sight they took the opportunity to creep up to the cottage and peek through a window. They didn't see anyone inside, so they decided to do some investigating of their own. Kat slid the window open and climbed in. The others followed cautiously, except for Lydia, who flew off behind the house.
The place was definitely creepy, despite the cheery flowered curtains and pink couch. There was a collection of strange-looking skulls on the mantelpiece, and a stuffed gorilla stood by the front door. The mounted heads of a hippogriff, a dolphin and a giraffe stared blankly from the opposite wall. All the animals had fierce expressions frozen on their faces, even the dolphin. "These folks are definitely into some weird stuff," Kat observed.
They were snooping through the books on the bookshelves when they heard a grunt behind them. The stuffed gorilla had started to move and was shambling forward slowly, its arms outstretched toward them.
~~~~~
Very carefully, Severus pointed Stan's wand through the barn window and cast a nonverbal Alohomora. Despite his use of an unfamiliar wand, the spell popped every lock in the place. No one noticed except the Cornish pixies, who immediately started trying to get their cage door open. The dealer and the Death Eaters were still busy drinking and talking. Susie was refreshing everyone's drink again.
Good, thought Severus. Now all he'd have to do is wake the phoenix and create a diversion while the bird escaped. He cast a silent Finite Incantatem. Everyone noticed that right away because it ended the dealer's Glamour. Suddenly he and Susie were revealed as they really were: a drab, shifty-looking couple dressed in old work clothes. The Death Eaters stared in surprise.
It also ended the sleeping spell, and Fawkes' eyes popped open.
~~~~~
If Severus had seen Fawkes in action against the basilisk, he would have known that escape would be the last thing on the bird's mind, but all he'd been told was that the bird had 'helped Potter' and brought him the Hat. He didn't know what Fawkes had done in the battle at the Ministry, either. Albus never told anyone anything more than he had to, and it goes without saying that the Dark Lord had never mentioned the matter.
Fawkes shrieked and exploded out of the cage. In all the millennia, no one had ever dared to attack him like that! Baboon-Face would pay for this outrage!
Dolohov spun around and saw Fawkes flying straight at his face with claws extended. He started to raise his wand, but then thought better of it and ducked instead. That probably saved his life because Fawkes barely missed his head. The phoenix was moving too fast to turn and shot out through the open back door.
Severus leaned in through the window and snarled "Stupefy!" as he cast a stunner at Dolohov. The red flash streaked through the barn, but with Stan's wand the spell wasn't quite strong enough and Dolohov managed to deflect it with a shield charm.
Rowle took cover behind a stack of crates and cast Crucio at Severus, but he was tipsy from the firewhiskey and nearly hit Dolohov instead. While Dolohov was swearing at Rowle, Severus took a quick look around for Yaxley. He couldn't spot the third Death Eater anywhere, but he saw the dealer and the woman standing beside an empty cage, swatting frantically at a swarm of pixies.
Dolohov had been relatively restrained in his drinking and unfortunately he was much more sober than Rowle was. He pointed his wand and started to shout "Petrificus …" but Severus cast again. This time his spell hit the shield so hard that it knocked the words out of Dolohov's mouth and forced him backward. Then he cast at the crates and sent them crashing down on Rowle.
In a drunken rage, Rowle cast a ferocious Killing Curse that was accurate enough to make Severus duck back out the window and drop down flat on the ground. The green flash exploded through the window and showered Severus with glass shards and wood fragments.
~~~~~
As soon as he saw Severus, Yaxley had slipped behind the orangutan cage. There was no way he was going to duel Severus Snape. No, he had a much better plan. He would sneak around the outside of the barn and get behind Snape. With luck he'd have a clear shot at the man's back. This was going to be fun!
While the others were distracted, he cast a charm to hide the noise and then he opened a nearby window and slipped out of it unnoticed. He grinned drunkenly as he tiptoed through the grass along the edge of the barn, anticipating his victory.
~~~~~
"Open that door!" Kat shouted, pointing at a heavy wooden door that probably lead to a cellar. It creaked ominously as Jack pulled it open, and a nauseating smell poured out. Stan gagged.
Kat pulled down a curtain and stepped in front of the lumbering gorilla, waving the curtain like a bullfighter's cape. "Come on, King Kong, come to Papa," he crooned as he backed toward the open door. At the last moment he threw the curtain over the gorilla's head and dodged to the side. Working together, they pushed the gorilla down the stairs, slammed the door, and barricaded it with the pink couch.
"Crikey!" Jack said as they listened to the gorilla bumping around in the cellar.
Biscuit piled a coffee table on top of the couch. "Let's get out of here before the captain finds out."
"Yeah," Kat agreed. "I don't think he'd be too happy that we stirred up a zombie gorilla."
Stan was already on his way out the door.
~~~~~
Lydia hovered near the panda's cage. She could see the entire interior of the barn with her huge multifaceted eyes. Severus had ducked out the window and appeared to be safe for the moment. Then she noticed a pixie trying to let the wyverns out of their cage. She darted over and clacked her mandibles at it. It squeaked and fled. "Ah ha!' she thought, "they're frightened of me."
The rest the pixies were still taking their revenge on Jones and Susie. They bit them, pulled their hair, and poked at them with sticks. "Such nasty little things!" Lydia thought happily. Buzzing and clacking, she darted over to the pixies and separated a half-dozen of them from the rest of the group. Then she started to herd them toward Dolohov.
~~~~~
Dolohov swore. Everything was going wrong. He'd lost the phoenix, and it was all Snape's fault. He should have killed that treacherous, back-stabbing son of a muggle when he had the chance. And where the hell was Yaxley, anyway? That useless idiot had picked a fine time to disappear.
"Keep Snape pinned down!" he shouted to Rowle. He would slip out the back door and surprise Snape with a sneak attack. Snape would be caught between him and Rowle, and he would have no trouble stunning the traitor. Then they could go after the phoenix, and finish Snape off afterward at their leisure. That would be entertaining. Maybe they could even sell his pineal gland to Jones after they were done with him. Dolohov would enjoy that.
To be continued …