In a Cottage at Florence

Harry was enjoying the feeling of the rush of air as he glided through the sky. 

There was just something about flying that just made Harry's heart beat freely as the feeling of freedom filled him. 

For the wizard, nothing felt more freeing than flying. 

Before he managed to gain his animagus form, Harry took his obsession with flying with Quidditch and brooms. Despite how well he played as a seeker, he had always preferred the flying part of it rather than the game itself.

Harry knew even before he found out that his animagus form was a phoenix that he had to be a bird. With how much he loves flying, there was nothing else he could possibly be.

Hermione had theorized that his bond with Hedwig would influence him to turn into an owl. While Ron argued that Harry would be something cooler, like a falcon.

Everyone in their little group made bets. Neville voted for a smaller kind of bird, more for speed like his position as a seeker. Ginny had jokingly bet that he would turn into something like a hummingbird and dropped five galleons on the betting pool. The twins exchanged smirks and bet a coupon from their shop that their little Harrykins would be a sparrow. They then made another betting pool and placed 20 galleons that Draco would end up a peacock.

The blond Slytherin rolled his eyes and cast a stinging hex on the twins before placing his bet that he would be an eagle.

Luna in her dreamy voice had placed a single sickle on the betting pool and said that he guessed he would be a phoenix.

They then looked blankly at the Ravenclaw with clear skepticism. While Luna was eerily correct most of the time with her unusual knowledge and riddle-like words, it was unlikely that she would be right.

Animagus forms are strictly limited to normal animals. Magical creatures are not included in the list. Maybe, someone did gain an animagus form of a magical animal. But that would be Merlin or Morgana.

So when he ended up bursting into flames and turning into a phoenix when he finally managed to turn. Everyone was gobsmacked. Murmurs and agreement of Potter luck were spread within the group and safe to say that Luna had fun shopping in Diagon Alley with her well-earned galleons.

But there was still some controversy as to just what type of phoenix Harry was. While he was indeed a flaming bird of legend there were many kinds of phoenix within different countries or religions. He was not completely a western phoenix because his appearance wasn't exactly the same as Fawks. But he wasn't just like the others as well since he wasn't made up of different parts of animals. They just ended up chalking it to being just a phoenix and left it at that.

Being a phoenix had its perks. It came with the ability to heal any injury with his tears, pyrokinesis, near invulnerability to attacks of any kind, pyroportation, and high healing factors.

When it came to dangerous locations and situations on their job, his animagus form comes really handy.

Harry was happily gliding through the air at great speed when he smelt a sweet pungent and earthy zing. He smelt a storm coming.

While the sky was still bright and the sun was shining, it wouldn't be like that soon. Storms come in unexpected times and can change the weather almost immediately. They arrive fast and are dangerous. Based on the smell he still has about one or two hours left before he sees the storm clouds incoming.

Harry decided to wait it out since he could just use pyroportation to leave anytime he wanted.

It was then that his instincts blared like red lights in an emergency room. He looked down where his instincts warned him and saw a battle scene.

Even from the great height that he was flying, he was able to discern that a fight was happening below him. An unfair fight.

He saw a figure in red fighting multiple opponents dressed in all black.

The lone figure was battling about thirty people all on their own.

But miraculously, the red figure seems to actually have the upper hand. Decimating their opponents with ease using martial arts and storm flames.

Harry observed with awe and with the disillusionment charm still on him, tried to get closer to see the scene better.

When he got a better look, he saw that the storm martial artist was male. He had a long braid and was fairly attractive looking with his Asian features. They were dressed in red linen Chang Pao and white pants. The storm kept a serene expression on their face yet their eyes were sharp. Flickering fast on his targets and incapacitated them quickly with deadly blows.

Harry had met martial artists on their many trips to China. He even met their magical counterparts. Monks that used qi, a type of energy in their martial arts. He remembered their squad helping them break a curse on one of their members who had a nasty encounter with a cursed object that left them comatose.

The wizard—now phoenix—kept their distance enough to observe but not any closer. Flying in a phoenix form doesn't allow him to wear his necklace. The disillusionment charm hides his flames along with his presence thankfully. But if he came close enough, with how potent his flames were, he could be noticed.

In a span of a few minutes, his opponents were down to five. If Harry was in human form right now he would have whistled in appreciation.

But then his instincts kicked in just as it did when a mist appeared to attack Renato back then.

He was right when the space twisted in mist flames behind the storm and two mist appeared wearing the same kind of clothing as the rest of the attackers.

'Why is it always mists!', he screamed in his head before he flew on to help the martial artist who was too busy fighting with five assailants at once.

He felt his disillusionment charm snap when he dove in like a flaming meteor and flew in between the mist and the Chinese storm's back.

Harry was practically bleeding bright sky flames and he boosted it using pyrokinesis. Making flames deadly with a mere touch and directing it to the two mists whose reaching arms turn to char and soon ash when they come into contact.

His presence seems to disrupt the entire scene as time seems to pause. Then it was broken by the pained shout of the two mists who fell while clutching their now amputated right arms.

The storm looked at him with wide charcoal eyes with their lips parted slightly in awe. He felt their warm flames light up and flared towards him. Curious and fierce, they approached and tried to mingle with his flames.

But the sudden flare of weaker lighting and sun flames disrupted the moment between their flames. A dark look passed through the storm's eyes as his expression blackened. He did make quick work on the five attackers by sending a wave of Strom flames in the form of a dragon to them, incinerating them before Harry could even blink. The two mists have already misted away in fear with their critical injuries.

Now Harry was left awkwardly flying alone with the Chinese storm right beside him. 

The wizard didn't want to look at the storm and decided to pretend that he wasn't there. His saving-people-thing kicked up again and he was now left to deal with the consequences.

The martial artist, while clearly flame active, was still a muggle. He didn't know how he would react to the presence of a mythological bird. He somewhat knew that phoenixes were a sign of good luck in China but it didn't always mean that people would all react positively.

He once accidentally exposed his phoenix form in Peru on a job and was chased by people with nets before teleporting away. The obliviators had to work overtime after that.

It wasn't like he could just say that he's just a normal flaming chicken. Nothing magical here, shoo.

With the skill that the Martial artist performed, along with their powerful storm flames, this man was not going to be obliviated easily. Hell, Harry might not even be able to do it without damaging the other's mind in the struggle and him getting blasted with potent storm flames.

So he did the next best thing and tried to teleport away. Keyword on the word 'tried'.

He then felt a gentle tug on one of his claws and looked back at the storm who did it.

The martial artist was looking at him with excitement and awe. Harry could swear that those eyes were sparkling. The man was about the same age as Renato if he had to guess.

The storm then began to speak in Chinese, he clearly tried to calm his voice but you could hear the enthusiasm in their tone.

Harry's eye would have started twitching if he was in his human form. The thing was, with just how much country traveling they did back then, it was useless to try to learn all of their languages. So he heavily relied on translation spells. The only language that Harry was fluent in was English and Italian. He could understand and speak some French, German and Spanish. But he sucks balls at Mandarin.

So he had absolutely no idea just what this guy was babbling about. And with that light grip on his claw, he would end up transporting the guy with him if he used pyroportation. He could shake the man's gentle hold off but the problem was his flames.

His shitty sentient flames were clinging onto the martial artist's storm flames like a sticky child unwilling to leave his playmate at the park. Harry wanted to pull his hair out and scream. 

His flames were not this sentient and rebellious when he was in human form. But his phoenix forms seem to amplify their presence and control. And they decided that they wanted to keep storm. 

Harry now feels those hair gripping moments that Kawahira told him when the pacifiers were acting like spoiled brats who decided to mess up his plans by picking random sacrifices.

Now his sky flames were doing the same and is deafening Harry whenever he tried to urge it to let go of the storm flames.

Merlin, if this was what having a kid is like then he'll gladly be celibate. He already has his Guardians either way.

In a moment of sheer stupidity—that Harry tried to blame off as Potter luck on some days—he got fed up with his flame yammering at his ears about harmonybondwantwantstorm and forced it out.

Then he felt a click. With dawning horror, he felt the tell-tale sign of the Harmonization. But it seems that Harry's reluctance much to the annoyance of his flame only allowed it to be halfway still.

He felt the burst of emotion that came along with Harmony. The feeling of happiness and awe, of curiosity pouring down along with the insecurity that every damn element seems to have when it comes to harmony.

Yet the feeling wasn't as strong and pronounced since they were still halfway through the harmony.

The feeling of fiercewarmwarmsafehome made him dizzy with how it was amplified by his animagus form.

He looked at where he heard a soft thud and saw that the Chinese martial artist had collapsed onto a knee on the ground. They had let go of him and one hand was clutching their chest. Light red blush spread on their cheeks and the same drunken haze that came with harmonization appeared on them.

Harry let out a thrill and flew down on the ground to check up on the man. They didn't know whether the mists that escaped would come back with reinforcement.

"Wǒ hěn hǎo, fènghuáng dàshī. Xièxiè nǐ de guānxīn¹."

He heard the man utter while sending him a serene smile. Then he saw the man sit in a lotus position and begin to meditate.

After nearly twenty minutes, the storm had regained its composure and the red blush on their cheek had lessened.

"Lái ba, ràng zhège bēiwéi de rén zài wǒ de zhùchù xiàng nǐ biǎodá wǒ de gǎnjī zhī qíng²", they smiled with eyes curved before gently lifting Harry from the ground and cradling him in his arms. They then began to walk away from the scene.

Harry turned his head and looked incredulously with wide eyes back at the man kidnapping him to who knows where.

The only saving grace was that his instincts weren't warning him about the guy. He could not leave the storm's side for now because it's a really bad idea to do so while in the middle of a Harmonization according to what he had learned from Renato's lessons.

It would strain and possibly tear the bond they had, it would cause immense pain and even damage to their flames. And here were his flames happily purring like a content cat. Merlin help him.

He tried to change back to human form in order to cast a translation spell on him and discuss with the Storm before he brought Harry to wherever he wanted to be.

But when he tried to feel the familiar shift, it did not come. Harry tried again but he felt like a string of large rubber bound him.

He felt panic flitter in and tried again to no avail. 

Harry was stuck in his animagus form. He couldn't shift back and he didn't know why. 

A thought passed through Harry's head as he stared dumbfounded into the air 

'My guardians are going to have a conniption. It's only been literally a day'