Chapter 41

Two months had passed since his acceptance letter arrived, and during that time his life had been, from his point of view, quite satisfactory. Perhaps what he liked most was the fact that his parents no longer had any influence in his life. Legally they had no rights or obligations towards him.

He fondly remembered the day of his emancipation when his father came as if the devil was chasing him and was furious. Without paying attention to anything, he went straight to where the potions master sat and with a furious expression placed in front of him the corresponding letter in which his eldest son was informed of his legal emancipation.

" Can you tell me what this means, Snivellus?"

" I think you're addressing the wrong person, Potter. You should be asking your son, not me."

" I know you're behind this, I know it... It was you who did it, Harry would never do it himself..."

" Father," Harry cut him off with the same courteous coldness he had used all summer, "Emancipation has been my idea all along."

" What?" That comment left the man stumped, for a brief period of time, he had thought that he had managed to make some kind of progress in their relationship and both the tone of voice and the content showed otherwise.

"That emancipation was my idea, my Master was not aware of my request until he received my affirmative response."

"Why? Why did you do it?" The man looked like he had been punched in the stomach, but the young man was not moved in the slightest.

"It's a bit unfair that I've completed my studies and am not able to use them outside of school, don't you think? Besides, according to the Education Act of 1765, a wizard/witch who is able to complete their studies has demonstrated a level of adult maturity and should therefore have the rights and obligations as such, regardless of their physical age."

After that, the man left the school, knowing that he had been defeated, but thinking that he still had a chance to repair the non-existent relationship…

It was not the only visit of his parents to the castle, if it was not because they wanted to see him it was because there was a meeting of the Order, and if not because they had to talk about some very important matter with the Headmaster. And of course, whenever they came, despite how 'busy' they were, they always made time to talk to him, although their conversations were always so short and very cold on the part of the teenager.

When the term began there was a slight change in routine, apart from the many potions he had to make under Snape's supervision (in fact, Harry was in charge of refilling the infirmary pantry), he was also the man's assistant during his classes, which considering that he had been a classmate of the vast majority of them made things slightly uncomfortable for him.

And even though his life was quite busy at the moment, he still always found time to make his potions, as well as to periodically disappear whenever there was a Death Eater attack. There were many times when he had wondered why he kept going to meet dangerous wizards, who were not only much more aggressive and violent than him, but also had more experience, but he always ended up reasoning that he more or less saved lives and that was always better than letting them die.

His life could have continued with that pleasant routine for a long time, but as always things could not continue like this... Destiny had decided a long time ago what the course of his life would be and as such, tranquility was not for him.

It all started in early October, just like he had a hundred times before, the boy had been checking the water for any indication of another attack on Britain's wizarding population, and he could see an image of a familiar town begin to develop... so familiar in fact because it was Godric's Hollow, the place he had lived his entire life. Not long after, he saw what he had been looking for, Death Eaters attacking without rhyme or reason.

In the vision it was nighttime, which meant that he had at least three hours before the attack would take place… That is, if it was that night when it was going to take place. He had been so startled when he saw his city that he had forgotten to look when the attack would take place.

He wrote a message before leaving and left it in Jonathan's room. He would be in charge of alerting the others. Then, without thinking twice, he transformed into a phoenix and appeared in the Town Hall square, placing himself on the branch of one of the tallest trees there was, from there it would be easy for him to see where the attack would begin and counter it.

The truth was that he shouldn't have been surprised in the least. As soon as night fell, dozens of Death Eaters silently appeared on what had been his own street. This was not just another terrorist attack, it was aimed at his own 'family', a thorn in the side of the Dark Lord for many years.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he made his way slowly towards where the Death Eaters were standing, waiting for the one who was obviously their superior to appear. He knew from previous experience that it was best to wait for the entire contingent to start moving, to avoid surprises, and that also meant that he had to wait for whoever Voldemort had chosen to lead this relatively important attack to arrive.

He didn't have to wait long, shortly after he had placed himself in a nearby tree, a woman he recognized very easily appeared in the clearing, Bellatrix Lestrange. Ohhh... How he loathed her, she was a cruel and evil woman, who enjoyed the pain she caused with an intensity that made him sick.

He saw them start to move too, and he didn't think twice before diving towards Bellatrix, intending to do some damage beforehand... If he was lucky, she wouldn't notice until his claws or beak had done some serious damage to her... And he was lucky, because before she could react, he managed to tear one of her shoulders with his claws. Then, with a fluid movement, he transformed from phoenix to human and looked at the group with a serenity that came with experience.

The Death Eaters, for their part, looked at him with fear. 'The Phoenix' as they knew him, already had a reputation for power and for being against the Lord. Bellatrix, on the other hand, looked at him with a mixture of pain and hatred, and a burning desire for revenge.

"I don't want to fight," Harry said calmly. "If you leave, it won't go any further."

" So the famous 'Phoenix' is a child." Bellatrix laughed. "A mere child thinks he's strong enough to defeat the Dark Lord's servants?"

" I may be a kid, but I've done it before."

Whatever he was going to say was cut short by a well-aimed crucio from the fanatic, a curse that he had to quickly dodge before giving his opponents an advantage. The Death Eaters, emboldened by his lack of response, or rather, counterattack, did not hesitate to also hurl several very unpleasant curses at them.

The teenager let them charge at him for a few minutes, knowing he could dodge very quickly and allow them to tire themselves out, and the best thing of all was that none of them noticed due to their desire to kill him. By the time a while had passed, many of the Death Eaters were exhausted, while Harry was still fresh as a daisy.

It was then that he took the opportunity to point his wand and cast a silent curse at one of the Death Eaters who seemed the most tired and least likely to be able to dodge. Just a few seconds later the man was lying on the ground unconscious and with no chance of being helped because his companions were too busy not getting hit themselves… And seconds later, he was joined by another one of them, who had not been fast enough to dodge. That scene was repeated several more times, before Bellatrix realized that if they were to succeed she had to change her strategy, or they would not be able to defeat the brat, whoever he was.

This time, she didn't cast her usual crucio, instead she cast a blasting curse on a nearby wall so that the rubble would bury him alive and if it didn't kill him, it would do quite a bit of damage... And it would have succeeded if the boy hadn't reacted quickly enough and using his phoenix power he transported himself out of the rubble's reach.

Harry knew he had to act fast, Bellatrix had adopted a new strategy, a different one and much more effective than the one she had been using until now. In addition, there was the fact that he couldn't use his power as a phoenix in his human form, it drained him too much.

Knowing what he had to do, the boy aimed at the leader of the group, Bellatrix, and tried to immobilize her as quickly as possible, but she was an old dog, and her experience in fighting made it not as easy as with the others, not for nothing was she a member of the inner circle.

[T/N: This was so funny that I left it like that]

The fight continued between the two for a few minutes before Bellatrix was hit with a modified Cutting Curse, one that would only make shallow cuts instead of the one that was capable of killing. That was enough to distract her and he managed to land a Stunning Hex on her… and then sigh in satisfaction.

What the boy hadn't noticed was that during his fight with the Death Eaters, several members of the Order of the Phoenix had been approaching. Alerted by the Potters and the characteristic sounds of a fight, they had come with the intention of stopping any Death Eaters who had shown up in the city... Only to find the mysterious 'Phoenix' fighting with them, specifically Bellatrix.

As the duel lasted quite a while, they could see how as it developed and both opponents became exhausted, the already characteristic incredibly white aura that usually surrounded the 'Phoenix' began to fade, allowing them to finally see who the person hiding was, producing exclamations of surprise and disbelief, when they saw a simple teenager, and a very well known teenager.

None of those present moved a muscle as they watched the duel unfold between the two, scared that the slightest noise would make them lose concentration and could cause them to get hurt, but also. They saw Bellatrix fall and let out the breath they were unconsciously holding.

"Harry?" Lily Potter whispered, almost in disbelief, and seeing how he visibly tensed up.

When the boy heard his name in his mother's familiar voice, he instantly tensed up. Slowly, he turned around praying that the impossible would happen and that whoever he thought was there would not be there, but of course, that was not the case.

"Shit!" He exclaimed before transforming into a phoenix and disappearing from there as quickly as he could.

[T/N: We all knew it was going to happen. If you enjoyed this chapter then leave a comment, write a review, and drop some stones. If you can't wait to finish the book then check out the final chapters on P@treon and Ko-fi. If you enjoyed this book, maybe you'll like my other book, check out A Gamer in Game of Thrones.]

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