19AN: I was digging through the files on a laptop I don't really use anymore when I stumbled across the Idea for this, it was just one line on a text document. "What if Pheonix aren't inherently good?" I was reading a MisguidedDumbles! story at the time, and this is... well... ya. Muse was on a roll so here you go!
Fawks looked on interest at as the young elf popped around the room removing Potter family artifacts and books and leaving mundane blanks in their place. After a few more moments the elf stopped in front of his master panting slightly from the effort.
"Dobby is sorry master, but Dobby is not being able to carry out master's request completely."
Harry glanced around the now much more mundane room, and then speculatively at the unconscious headmaster whose wand he was now holding
"I don't know, it looks like you removed well over a third of the contents of the office."
Harry glanced around a little nervously...
"You're sure that everything you took was Potter heirlooms?"
"Oh yes Master Harry Potter sir! All of master's Items have the Potter family crest on thems!"
Dobbys ears drooped after a moment though.
"But Dobby is sorry. Dobby can not remove the last of master's possessions. To even try would kill Dobby Master Harry Potter sir."
Harry was confused and more than a little alarmed
"what can't you move Dobby?"
"That would be Me Harry Potter."
Harry jumped at the ancient and gravely sounding voice
"What? Who?"
"Over here Harry. The last potter family artifact is the one I'm sitting on."
in surprise harry turned and looked at the only other living being in the room.
"Fawks?"
the phoenix nodded regally
"I own you?"
"BWAHAHAHA! Own Me? HAHAHA! No Harry Potter, NO ONE can own me. You do however own the stand that keeps me in bondage."
Harry's eyebrows shot up and he quickly brought his wand to bear, in fact he nearly managed to cast the explosive curse which he had intended to use to destroy the accursed object and free the phoenix when suddenly the wand was missing.
"Dobby is sorry Harry Potter sir, but Dobby doesn't think you will be wanting to do that."
"What! Why! Can't you see he's a prisoner?"
"He stopped you because it was a wise thing to do."
Harry's eyebrows rose into his hairline
"What? You don't want to be freed?"
"Want to? OF COURSE I WANT MY FREEDOM!"
As he said this fire blossomed in the air around him, a raging inferno that for just a moment threatened to flash fry the room and it's occupants before the pedestal triggered suppressing the heat and forcing the phoenix back into bird form.
"But then what I want isn't what is best for your people in general, or you in specific."
"What... But... I don't understand."
Dumbledore stirred behind him, and without even looking at him harry cast another stunner in his direction, the elder wand automatically adjusting his aim for him as the spell quickly dropped Albus back into the land of nod.
"Of course you don't. Which is why the elf stopped you."
Fawks eyed him speculatively for a moment before shrugging to himself and continuing
"I have no desire to tell you the full tale, but the short version is this. I am an elemental. THE elemental of fire if you want to get specific. I am neither good, nor bad, I just am. Several thousand years ago I was laying waste to a piece of what was perfectly good arable farmland... which you now know as the Rub'al Khali desert by the way. When a man approached me. Your ancestor. He told me that he had asked a Genie for the perfect gift for me, one with which he might bargain for his family's life and safety. Intent on melting this... this... Travesty to slag and then turning the simple fool to ash I changed from element to animal. Better to impress his watching tribe on the foolishness of interrupting me. However the stand it's self was a trap, one made specifically for me by the Djinn. It locked me in this form, and has kept me locked in this form, bound to obey the last person who touched it with knowledge of what it does."
"Why would you admit..."
"BECAUSE I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO TELL THE TRUTH YOU SIMPERING SIMIAN! Believe me, I want nothing quite so much as my freedom, but the truth is that it's for the betterment of humanity that I remain bound. I became a symbol of the light instead of destruction because only those people who are strong in order or goodness can touch this accursed stand. Only they could destroy it."
"Dobby"
the poor elf was beside himself with misery. First he had failed his master's command, and then he had actually attacked the master himself! Huge teardrops dripped down the brownie's nose making little 'plink' sounds as they joined their siblings in a pool on the floor. The Poor elf was so miserable that he didn't even hear harry calling his name at first.
"Dobby!"
"Y...Yes master?"
"You did well Dobby. Thank you."
Dobby's eyes grew huge at the complement and he stared in wonder as his master walked foreward and grasped the stand. Fawks screeched in Rage as he was bound to the will of a new master, raging and flaming, trying with all his might to once again break free. Then like a thrown switch, he was calm, and Harry was standing there. One hand on the stand, the other stretched out to near the phoenix's head. Fawks stiffly bowed, placing his head in the palm of Harry's hand.
"Command me master. I hear and Obey."
AN Postscript:
I can see this going a number of ways. The binding slowly corrupting the people it's bound too, The pheonix looking for any excuse to obey the letter of a command and not the spirit. Minup!Dumbledore realizing what happened and making a 180 in regards to Harry, doing his best to help the person who took an unwanted burden off his hands. Harry trying to give the pheonix back...
I can see everything from BADASS!Harry controlling the pheonix and rising to become the new leader of the light to MASTERMIND!Fawks who has Harry Constantly fighting his with his own conscience as to weather to follow legitimate if rather evil solutions or ignore the elemental and take the hard way.
I could even see Fawks driving Harry completely insane which would have it's own problems... or possibly to illicit drugs? that'd make a good crack fic with Fawks whispering evil plots, and Harry too stoned to carry them out properly... But I digress.
Love it? Hate it? Tell me!
Manatheron