CHAPTER ONE: THE RISE OF THE CONSORTIUM


A wizard wearing a blue cloak walked down a dark hallway in the Ministry of Magic. He headed toward a wall. A passerby might have thought him nuts as he tried to play with a cobweb. However, it wasn't a cobweb in the sense that one would have thought. He touched the first strand of the web, followed by the fifth, then the twelfth , then the twentieth, then the forty-fifth. A door appeared in the wall where none had been before. He opened the door, walked through it, then closed the door behind him. The door vanished, leaving no impression around on the wall that it was there.

The wizard stopped beside what appeared to be an old rusty toilet. He pulled the handle. A holographic image of another wizard, one wearing a dark red cloak, appeared. "I don't like being bothered like that. I trust you have something to inform me of." said the wizard.

"Yes Achim. I do. As you know, we've been trying to grow the power of the Ministry here in order to carry out our plan. However, we've reached a snag." said the blue-cloaked wizard.

"What kind of snag, Augustine?" asked Achim.

"Hermoine Weasley, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She keeps trying to weaken the power of the Ministry. She blames the power of the Ministry for the rise of Lord Voldemort and says that if the Ministry wasn't so powerful, it wouldn't have been so corrupt, and Voldemort might have been able to be stopped sooner." said Augustine.

"It's true. But we thought the rise of the Dark Lord a necessary evil. Of course, we did know of his Half-Blood status and would have revealed it had he become strongly situated enough, thus causing a civil war among his Death Eaters, bringing about his disposal." said Achim.

"Yes, but as you know, Harry Potter, a now-current head of the Auror Office, defeated Lord Voldermort and ruined our plan to do that." said Augustine.

"Most unfortunate. But all is not lost." said Achim.

"What do you mean? That was the second time that century that we failed. As you know, the Consortium also backed Grindelwald's scheme to take over Europe. We planned to depose him we he got powerful enough, as we knew the secret to his power was the Elder Wand he had." said Augustine.

"Yes, I recall. However, Albus Dumbledore, the late headmaster of Hogwarts, foiled Grindelwald's rise to power." said Achim.

"So, it would seem that our plans are at a standstill. We have no rising Dark Lords or Ladies to back at the moment, now do we?" said Augustine in disgust.

"Our failures were in the 20th century. This is the 21st century. We will take over from within our respective governments. In time, they will be mere puppets of the Consortium." said Achim. "And, these failures can be used as fuel to justify our rise in power. We will empower our own governments even more on the premise that we wish to prevent a future Voldemort or Grindelwald." he added.

"Brilliant sir!" said Augustine.

"Why thank you." said Achim, leaving.