The Phoenix Speaks

I am as old as the sun and the moon. I have seen stars burst to life and I have seen the same stars collapse into themselves, tired of being. I have seen the creation of solar systems and watched as they crumbled, indifferent. I have seen the rise and fall of countless civilizations in this universe and others. I have seen the beginning and end of thousands of religions, all falling prey to the same, stupid mistakes. I have seen nations go to war for a single woman and I have seen those same nations ignore the cries of thousands.

I have seen man rise from the earth to become master of all he surveyed. I have seen him start from a being who simply gazed at the sky and stars to become something that soared above them. I have seen him grow from an Icarus who flew with feathered wings to a being who could conquer the the sky and gravity in a metal bird. I have seen him succeed in overcoming the natural limitations of his body to accomplish things only Gods used to be capable of.

I have seen him do acts both good and evil, cause abundance and hunger, commit kindness and petty wars. I have seen men who suffered for their beliefs and I have seen men who died for the beliefs of others. I have seen men who rose as gods in the eyes of their fellow men and seen those men pass into memory long forgotten.

I have lived an eternity that passed in a moment and I have lived moments that did not end or want to. Time has a different meaning when you’re going to live forever and I will.

Hopefully.

I have seen family feuds that stretched for a millennia, causing both needless and pointless deaths, the reason long forgotten. I have seen wives watch helpless as their husbands and sons left to fight wars that were not needed.

I have known the answers to the age-old questions and come up with some of my own queries. I have bested the Sphinx, bringing it to its knees as it begged me for the answers to the simple, childish riddles I asked of it. I have seen the wonders of the worlds, wonders that existed for centuries until they were found and destroyed in ignorance. I have seen it all and I have seen it replaced by the newest and latest, time after time after time.

My eyes have seen. Have no doubt of that.

I have seen the destruction ignorance can cause as well as the devastation of complete knowledge coupled with indifference. I have come face-to-face with Gods who thought they were worthless and known men who thought they were deserving of reverence. I have seen adults with the innocence of children and children with the hard and unjustly earned maturity and wisdom of grown-ups.

I have sat on my perch for a thousand lifetimes...Watching. Waiting. Over time, my perch has changed, as varying as the blades of grass in a meadow or the leaves in a forest. But I have always been steadfast, always faithful. It is the way my kind is.

For years, I have held my peace. Submitting to those who believed they had the right to control and own me. I allowed them this belief, fools that they were. They possessed no inkling of the insignificance of their lives in the scheme of things. I knew because I have watched the scheme come into being, watched it grow from tiny threads that wove together, becoming a tapestry of humanity and what it had been, was and could be. To these ignorant people I submitted myself.

A few years ago–perhaps decades, or a millennia; who knows? Time means nothing to one like me–I came into the “possession� of the greatest of wizarding kind I’ve ever known. He piqued my curiosity, his eccentricities intriguing, his train of thought nearly impossible to follow. I attached myself to this man, satisfying my own interest.

I witnessed things I never had before in my time with him. I went through two Burning Days under his watch, one nearly immediately after coming to him and yet another decades later, under the horrified eyes of a boy with a destiny yet untold. This boy made me curious as well. Amazing how he allowed himself be led on; if he wasn’t watchful, he would find himself on a treacherous path to pain and despair. I knew that the wizard I “belonged� to was doing his best to guide this boy, yet I feared for their success.

I became incredibly close to my “owner� over the years, creating a bond of loyalty possible only between a phoenix and its “master.� And a few months later, I was beckoned by a heartfelt cry of loyalty to my master, finding myself in a hidden chamber within the depths of the castle we resided in. The boy lay dying. I landed beside him, saddened that one with such deep faith as my own in my master should die. I began to cry, my tears falling on his wound, healing him within moments.

I saw the boy sporadically from then on. Nearly two years after our meeting, he was brought to my master’s chamber, confirming that the Dark One had risen again.

I only saw the boy once or twice more since.

Two years after that night, my master was killed by one he
had trusted. I lamented his death, knowing there would never come to the world another like him. Dumbledore was dead and the phoenix flew.

I knew that many more would die in this battle of good and evil that man has created for himself. How trivial such a thing is to one as I am. Man believes himself immortal through memory. He is wrong. Nothing is immortal, not even one as myself.

And yet...after thousands of years...I am still here.

A/N: Well?