Dumbledore's POV.

Albus Dumbledore stood on the lawn outside his home in Godric's Hollow, looking at Fawkes' grave. Sadly, there was nothing left of the body. They had to use a stone with an inscription as a grave. More than once, Albus had compared the Order of the Phoenix to Fawkes at meetings. When Voldemort killed the Prewetts, the McKinnons, and the Bowsons, it seemed that the Order of the Phoenix would never recover. But they found the strength to continue the fight.

When the Potters and the Longbottoms died, and Sirius Black turned out to be a traitor, it was as if some inner trust in the Order disappeared. But they continued the fight. After Crouch's resignation, they lost too many. But the Order of the Phoenix, completely finished off from the outside, rose from the ashes time and again and continued the fight. Again and again. Like a phoenix. And now they could not even save their own banner. The death of the phoenix seemed wrong and unnatural.

Albus never knew when Fawkes hatched from the egg. But sometimes he reached Fawkes's memory and saw the world as it had been long ago. A very long time ago. The phoenix seemed like a living piece of eternity, embodied by time. But Voldemort got to him, too. The circumstances of the death were not encouraging. Fawkes himself flew into the trap and did not have time to call Albus for help? How could this happen? After all, the Imperius does not work on phoenixes.

And all this lasted for several hours, all the time happiness was transmitted through the familiar's connection? As Robert said: "The bird committed suicide." It was possible to reconstruct the events. First, Fawkes for some reason flew to a clearing on which a masking charm was cast, then somehow ended up in Egypt, where a powerful emission of Dark Magic occurred. The plan to eliminate Fawkes seemed strange, and its implementation seemed miraculous.

It was the most absurd murder Albus Dumbledore could remember. Neither probability theory nor set theory provided an answer to how it could have happened. The best explanation was that Fawkes found Voldemort and asked him to kill him. One thing was clear—if someone killed someone, for example, by dropping a safe on them, it would be Voldemort.

The protective charms of the house informed him that a guest had passed through the barrier. "What time is it?" he heard the voice of Alastor Moody. Albus looked tiredly at his watch. The main thing is not to forget to add the correct number to the watch, otherwise Moody would try to kill him.

"Two hours forty-three minutes past noon," Albus answered.

"And why are you not at school or the Ministry?" Moody asked.

"For the same reason why you are not in the Auror Office. Time-Turner."

"I have my doubts about your authenticity. The Time-Turner winds up time, and then our twin watches would have diverged!" Moody answered.

"Alastor... I've told you this a hundred times. My watch is not a Muggle mechanism. It is a Tempus spell tied to the artifact. It always shows local time. And to track the Time-Turner, you need to use the first dial, not the magically hidden one. And my watch, in principle, cannot show the wrong time—it either shows the correct value or shows nothing."

"Okay. Now you test me," said Moody. "I am standing in my own home, where the protection is better than in Gringotts. And the protection that Albus Dumbledore installed obeys me. There is also an identifier for all members of the Order of the Phoenix. And no matter how much Severus complains, at your insistence, I made it so that a person with the Dark Mark will not be able to enter here in principle. Who am I after that? Don't pull the wool over my eyes. Go on and test me. You-Know-Who doesn't have the Dark Mark either. Next time I'll hit to kill," Alastor said, standing in front of Albus with his wand pointed at him.

"At the last meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, you said that I was wrong to publish the information that I had lost Fawkes. I should have reported that the phoenix had gone on a top-secret mission. You also assumed that Fawkes was a traitor. Then you threw Snape out of the meeting room, criticized my decision not to negotiate with the Death Eaters, and offered to make peace with them, only to kill them all at the treaty signing ceremony.

In addition, you came up with a plan—to organize an exchange of Aberforth Dumbledore for captured Death Eaters. Him alone for seventeen Death Eaters. You yourself offered to volunteer—to pose as a Death Eater from Azkaban under Polyjuice. Why seventeen? That is how many wizards with an acceptable level of wandless magic you considered loyal enough in England to take part in this adventure," answered Albus. In vain he let Moody speak then, oh in vain… For the first time since school, he wanted to draw a donkey on someone's back with wandless magic.

"Why an adventure? A normal plan!" Moody answered, hiding his wand, finally convinced that Albus was standing in front of him. "We'll eliminate a bunch of Death Eaters, and then, when we've got a numerical advantage, we'll pelt You-Know-Who with rank-and-file fighters. And when he's already standing there, leaning on his wand, we'll throw you at him. Try to take him alive. We'll somehow open his mental shield, find out about all his supporters, his secrets, test him—if he's immortal, we'll wall him up somewhere. Or throw him in the Arch of Death. Or have an orgy with Dementors. If he's mortal, first avad him, cut him into pieces, pour Necromancy Blockade potion over him, and then burn him."

"If we try to play on Voldemort's field, we'll either lose or become like him—a cure that's no better than the disease," Dumbledore answered. Sometimes Albus felt like a parrot. It's a pity that Fawkes couldn't be taught to talk—then he could have attended half the meetings instead of him. He even felt sorry for Barney Skadrow, a cheerful guy who had to think of becoming an animagus, turning into an owl at a Wizengamot meeting and cooing when he agreed.

"Besides, it won't be so easy to deceive Voldemort—he will send internal opposition to conclude peace, getting rid of disloyal personnel and making us incapable of breaking our own word. If he gives Aberforth away, it will only be under such poisons, from which even Flamel won't be able to pump him out. Not to mention that we would then actually recognize the Death Eaters legally.

And regarding your plan of military action... Putting aside the moral aspects—throwing 'meat' at Voldemort won't work. He has Dark Creatures, like Dementors and fighters who burn themselves and others with Hellfire with equal efficiency. And with the beginning of the mass migration of werewolves to Magical England, the situation has worsened even more. Neighboring countries pretend not to notice the outflow of werewolves from themselves to us. They think that the emigration of disloyal population will make their countries better. At the same time, our problems are growing like a snowball. I barely managed to dissuade Scrimgeour from trying to drive all the werewolves into a reservation.

Now I see two possible solutions—to convince the wizards, including his supporters, that Voldemort is not omnipotent and that they will be better off without him, or to isolate or kill Voldemort so that everyone starts pulling the blanket in their own direction and the alliance of the Dark Forces falls apart."

"I would still try my plan, Albus," answered Moody.

"It will not work, Alastor. Something similar worked with Grindelwald. But the war with Grindelwald is just that—a war, with a front line and supply facilities, where there were places that Grindelwald protected. This situation is different. Voldemort will not protect anything."

"Why such pessimism, Albus?" asked Alastor Moody.

"Dark Magic is distinguished by increased lethality and penetrating effect. Hellfire is much harder to block than ordinary fire of the same temperature," Albus smiled sadly.

"Says the Light Wizard who defeated the previous Dark Lord and intimidated the current one, capable of single-handedly killing the entire inner Circle of You-Know-Who," said Moody.

"I was just lucky. Several times in a row," Dumbledore smiled completely differently. "And there are no other wizards in England as powerful as me."

"Yeah. I'm a fictional character, the Aurors and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement are actors from the theater, and the Order of the Phoenix is just collecting ingredients for school potion-making. We will definitely win, they will rot in Azkaban forever. And when the Dementors return there, they will get what they deserve," said Albus.

"I don't recognize You-Know-Who lately," said Alastor Moody. "Playing with Muggle hardware and explosives. He has begun to appear less often in raids and uses Crucio less. The captured werewolves say that he gave his student werewolves and earth. What kind of medieval feudalism is this? It's not typical of our time. Maybe the Heir of Slytherin overdid it with the Well of Slytherin? Slytherin's family was apparently killed by Muggles, which would explain his interest in Muggle weapons. Albus, do you think transmigration of souls is possible?"

"I don't know. But it's definitely not Salazar Slytherin," the Hogwarts Headmaster shared his knowledge.

"How do you know?"

"I can't say. But I know for sure. However, there are indeed oddities," Albus continued. "Despite the Grindelwald-like rate of destruction of prisoners, Severus reported that friendly casualties from fits of rage had become less. Tom Riddle hardly seemed mad anymore."

"How is that possible?" asked Moody.

"I think he is the same mad Tom Riddle, but careful not to kill anyone important to his own people, to avoid starting internal strife that could throw him from the throne," answered Dumbledore. "I spoke to him during the battle at the Crouch house. I remember Tom as a boy, I remember his mad red eyes when he came to ask for a place at Hogwarts. But now… Just believe me, when I looked into his eyes, I saw only cold calculation, without the slightest sign of humanity, and it terrifies me," admitted Dumbledore.

"Fawkes. Most loyal friend," Alastor Moody read the inscription on the grave. "And I thought I was your most loyal friend! Is it because I can shield you from Avada once, and a phoenix can many times? How about you make yourself a unicorn familiar, and when You-Know-Who kills it, it will become cursed? Alastor Moody... Where did this crippled man get so much life?"

"Alastor, you are incorrigible," Albus noted.

"Work does not wait. Let's cry after You-Know-Who is buried. I have already thought of an epitaph for him: 'If you were standing, I would be lying,'" Moody mused. "Let's go to the Department of Mysteries. We brought the Unspeakables such a thing! According to the reports, it appears as 'Abomination'. We covered one of the Death Eater bases. There were no casualties. I mean, among our own. And they even took prisoners, though they were small fry — they only watched the objects."

"These Dark Wizards," said Alastor, spitting and wiping the spit with magic, "tried to assemble something from body fragments, parts of magical animals, Muggles, and Muggle hardware! And it seems very strange to me that the Death Eaters are trying to use Muggle materials and technology. I still don't understand where so many Muggle-lovers come from among the Death Eaters."

Albus had no explanation for Moody's last statement. But what worried him most was that too many Death Eater creations were ending up in the Department of Mysteries. Voldemort had offered him knowledge, and he had refused. But he wasn't so sure about all the employees in the Department of Mysteries. They'd have to tighten surveillance...

"Okay. Let's go to the Department of Mysteries. We'll see," said Dumbledore.

All the same, no matter how long he stood over the grave, Fawkes would not rise again.