cloudy with a Chance of freedom

chapter 27

Blaise had had enough. He grabbed Skull and held him to the wall with an annoyed look on his face.

"Harry, as your Left Hand and dorm mate, it is my solemn duty to inform you that if you don't stop singing along to that damn opera music then I will have no other choice but to smother you in your sleep," said Blaise.

"Meanie."

Blaise twitched.

"If I were mean I would do it without giving you any warning," said Blaise flatly.

"Skull, I have destroyed every copy of the CD you've been using and I have a seek and destroy order on any that make it's way into this house. Give it a rest," said Verde.

Skull looked to Fon and Viper. Their faces were equally flat.

He pouted.

"We're not saying you can't sing... you have a rather surprising range for some reason, just that you need to diversify your song list," said Viper.

"Phoenix tears," mumbled Skull.

"Excuse me?"

"Putting undiluted phoenix tears directly in the blood stream when it's already on overdrive counteracting another agent like say, basilisk venom, causes them to integrate into every cell to insure survive. As a side effect it also alters the vocal cords, especially when you have an affinity for them in the first place," he explained.

Verde stared at him.

"You're sure of this?" he asked intently, already in science mode."I was completely tone deaf when I was a kid. Imagine my shock when I found out people weren't complaining about my singing after the curse," snarked Skull. "Took the healer's ages...once they got over the shock of how much damage my body and soul have taken over the years, to pin it down as phoenix tears being the root cause."

"Fascinating," said Verde.

"Yes, I'm sure I could somehow trick Fawkes into crying for you if you really want to play with them," said Skull, rolling his eyes.

As if summoned by his name (and he likely was), Fawkes appeared. He was positively meek and subservient when a less than amused Lark showed up and gave him a Look.

"What. The. Hell."

Skull openly stared at Fon with open disbelief, and so was Verde.

"What's wrong?" asked Camellia.

"He's already bonded to a Feng-Huang. I've never heard of anyone bonding to a normal phoenix on top of that," said Fon with a pained voice.

Skull snorted.

"Well I've been known to do six impossible things before breakfast and still have time to do seven more before dinner. I think in this case it's more along the lines of Fawkes not wanting to get caught in the line of fire when Dumbledore's idiocy comes back to bite him in the ass. That and he damn well knows who's at the top of the food chain among the birds I have," said Skull amused.

Fawkes gave a trill that seemed to confirm Skull's analysis. Then he gave another trill almost in question.

"Sure, you can crash with me until this entire mess is sorted out once and for all, or they put a proper replacement that isn't going to fall back on bad habits as the head of the school," said Skull.

Fon pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You speak phoenix."

"To be more specific, I speak Mythic," said Skull.

"Mythic?" repeated Blaise incredulous.

"Oh dear sweet Loki don't tell me that you were being serious about when you told the Lovegoods you speak mythical beast!"