I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

Chapter 47.

Space Travel, Part IV: Biases of the Phoenix

9:48 am, July 21st, 1993

"I have already asked Fawkes, and he has agreed to take this mission - thank Atlantis, Fawkes wasn't locked up in Time together with Headmaster Dumbledore." Harry petted the bird of fire perching on the armrest of his couch, and said to wide-eyed Draco, Severus, and Mad-Eye.

Severus slowly nodded: "I will go to Kazakhstan, then. Hopefully, Baikonur Cosmodrome is as badly managed as the rest of the former Soviet Union is. More importantly, I think I should be the one to go up to the Moon, instead of Miss Granger."

-Well, this is indeed a proposal that is entirely in character with Severus, self-sacrifice, and things like that. But, how should I phrase "I don't trust you enough for this mission"?

Before Harry could respond, Hermione said: "Professor Snape, as you already know, I am quite hard to kill, and I am probably blessed with a lot of luck."

"No, Miss Granger, we can't risk your life. Grindelwald and other top wizards in the world may not attack you, and a lot of them would even go as far as to personally protect you from harm, for they do not want the world to end by the retribution from the Universe. However, I am afraid that the vacuum, extreme temperature, meteoroids, and other things up there may not be as reasonable as the top wizards." Severus rebutted reasonably.

Mad-Eye also spoke up: "I agree with Severus on this. It is way too risky to let the lass go up there. However, I think I should be the one." He gave Severus and Draco a pointed look.

It seemed that Severus wanted to scoff, but that black-haired man checked his tongue as he had previously promised Harry that he would. Severus said instead: "I think there is a rather practical reason for me to go: I can understand or semi-understand written materials in fourteen different languages. I know this number is quite unimpressive when comparing to the records of the top wizards in the world, or even that of Crouch Sr., but this is the largest number among us. I think Minerva knows seven or eight, and how many do you know?" Severus politely glanced at Mad-Eye, as if it was an entirely innocent question.

Mad-Eye sent Severus an embarrassed and angry look, but he checked his tongue, and mumbled: "Four."

Harry remembered some of the notes he got from Albus and the Line of Merlin Unbroken. Those notes seemed like complete gibberish and doodlings to him. He couldn't even tell if the notes were written in English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or whatever languages - although Harry knew the letters of some of the possible languages looked quite different from that of English or Latin, he literally couldn't tell the difference from the notes.

-This is a very reasonable concern. We can't pre-select what notes to send up, so many of them might be written in languages that Hermione can't understand. If this can bypass the Interdict of Merlin, eventually, we have to send someone else up. For all I know, a lot of languages use Latin or Cyrillic alphabet, and it would be hard for someone without proper knowledge to tell the difference. Geez, I've heard that the current top wizards all speak hundreds of languages, do they even have time for anything else? Is this the reason that the development of magical society is so slow? Is it because all the clever people spend most of their time studying languages?

Harry wondered if he could trust Severus on such a mission, and he needed to buy some time before he figured out what to say. Therefore, Harry said instead: "Professor Snape, you must have realized, err, it is very dangerous up there, and, err -"

-For the sake of Atlantis, how should I properly phrase "you can't tell your best friend what you find up there, even if his brain depends on it"?

"Of course, Mr. Potter. The consecutive disasters with the Apollo 1 and the Soyuz 1 are considered to be the reason why neither the Soviets nor the Americans tried to send any wizards up to the space again. I suppose, it is much better to be the third wizard to die in a space mission than to die by the hands of You-Know-Who." Severus replied with a white face and a straight back, as if he was going to die the next moment.

Harry had to admit that Severus had his points. Harry suppose, getting killed by Voldemort would be a long and painful process, while death in a failed space mission would be much quicker, and it would involve much less pain. Moreover, to sacrifice your life in the mission to explore the Universe indeed carried much more meaning for the entire human race than getting yourself killed in some pathetic war among wizards.

Harry did a quick mental re-check on the information he just glanced over this morning: The failure of Soyuz 1 mission in April, 1967 sounded really like a series of electronic malfunctions caused by magic: the solar panel failed first, the orientation detectors followed, then stabilization system was gone, the parachute didn't unfold, and finally, the reserved parachute got entangled. As for how the Apollo 1 failed, err, I need to look it up.

-However, Severus probably has some misconceptions about the danger involved in space traveling. Well, according to information available to Severus, the two previous trials to send wizards up to the space both failed with disastrous results, so he expects himself to die as well. What he hasn't realized is that, in this mission, we do not rely on Muggle electronics, so it is much safer...

Hermione's head turned quickly toward the large window in Harry's office first, and then followed by Mad-Eye's magical eye.

"What the f-" The old Auror murmured.

The unfinished F-word from Mad-Eye pretty much expressed the same feeling Harry was experiencing, because he saw some red-golden fire appeared besides the sun, and it was dashing toward the window.

-A phoenix?!

The black-haired man also seemed to be stunned by this unexpected development. He stood there like a statue for a whole second, before he dashed toward the window to remove the anti-phoenix charms placed there.

-Ahh, the phoenix doesn't want to take Severus to the Moon immediately, does it? For that would mean instant death for sure.

Harry wanted to warn Severus, but he couldn't, for the same reason that Albus Dumbledore couldn't tell Harry before he made the decision to refuse his phoenix.

Severus opened the window, and gazed at coming fire.

The golden phoenix entered, letting out a piercing cry.

COME!

The bird of light and fire said, and everyone in the room understood.

The black-haired man stared at his phoenix, opened his mouth, and closed it again.

Harry dearly hoped that the bird wouldn't fly away when it heard some completely reasonable statement such as "I need to get a spacesuit and a space capsule first".

Severus took in a deep breath, and said: "Let's go to Baikonur Cosmodrome and get start with the preparation."

The phoenix grabbed Severus' shoulder, and they both disappeared in flames.

All parts of Harry was screaming: What? That's unfair! I only asked my phoenix to wait for six months, and it left! Did I just need to say that "let's get a preparation that may last six month going" to retain my bird?

-And by the way, why was there no bird coming to Hermione before she went to Azkaban? I didn't even tell her that she had a horcrux back then! Is it just because she knew she had unicorn blood in her, and she was less likely to die? Or is it because I turned down my bird for the same mission? Is there a one phoenix per mission thing?

Judging from Hermione's expression, she was probably thinking along the same line.

In the semi-interposed space of Lady Rowena Ravenclaw's chamber, amongst mountains and mountains of trash, at the back of the Mirror of Noitlov, Lord Salazar Slytherin had a wide grin on his face.

-Yes, phoenixes are indeed from the Mirror. And as for my two guesses - one, the Atlanteans have a preference for people to explore other stars; or two, you have to believe you have a more than seventy-five percent of chances to die - either one of them, or both of them, must be true. Too bad that I can't test these two separately this time.