"Salem Cross"

Like a drop of water in a silent room, the voice seemed to echo throughout the darkness. Suddenly a light turned on in the center, shedding a circle of light down on one of the occupants of the room.

Kneeling on the cold looking gray tiled floor was a young man, his arms shackled fully behind his back to the point of not being able to move them an inch.

The young man was very much handsome with ice blue eyes and short black hair combed away from a face that looked as if it were carved by the gods. His attire was out of place, with an open black frock jacket, silk grey vest, pure white button up tucked into black suit pants, and a neatly made cravat. All in all he looked like a noble aside from the shackles.

The voice that had sounded out through the blackness just outside the ring of light began once again. "For your transgressions against life and death, time and space, and against the gods you have been a prisoner for four-hundred and thirty years. Your current remaining sentence being two-thousand two-hundred and thirteen years. Do you have anything to say in response?"

The young man on the floor had been staring at the floor as if it held the answer to life itself before finally looking up into the darkness. "Yea." Came the raspy response, his voice clearly not having been used in a while. "These shackles make it impossible to scratch my goddamned nose. Do you realize how itchy it is?"

There was a brief amount of silence in the room before a growl sounded out and the voice from before spoke out. "You insolent bug! You dare make a mockery of us?" The room, at this point was full of the voices power and was attempting to push down on the shackled man in the center, though the man simply smirked in response. This, in turn, riled the voice up even more as more and more power cascaded down upon the man until he made a grunt of effort trying to keep himself from moving from his spot.

"That's enough Herodotus." A new voice spoke up, this one softer in comparison and clearly belonging to that of a female. "You should be used to Salem Cross's behavior by now."

"Ah, if it isn't the lovely Faith. Excuse me for not kissing your hand in greeting my lady, I seem to be having issues standing up in my old age." Salem Cross spoke up with a passable mix between a charming and a mischievous smile.

"That's enough out of you as well Cross. We'll get straight to the point and tell you why we've brought you here. We have an offer."

Salem adopted a bland facial expression and almost blurted out 'no shit' but managed to reign it in at the last second. Instead opting to quit messing around and get to the business part of this 'meeting', if you could call it that that is. It was closer to bullying really. "Cut to the chase and cut all the vagaries while you're at it. Tell me what you want and what I get out of it."

The pressure in the room lightened up significantly as the original voice, now revealed as Herodotus, took the time since his outburst to reign in his emotions. "We call upon you again to be the shield and sword, so to speak, of another chosen one. Someone who has been blocked from fully coming into his own as fates chosen."

Salem stared into the darkness waiting, however as Herodotus didn't continue speaking, he did instead. "And what is it I get out of this?"

"Two-hundred years off your sentencing." Clearly feeling as though this was a damned good deal he expected it to be immediately snatched up.

"If that's all there is to it then no thanks." The shock was evident in the silence that followed the rejection. "This chosen one must not be very important to you if that's all you'd offer for my services. Though granted he's probably a little more important than some since I was the one carted here in the first place."

This time as Herodotus' emotions peaked yet again and power washed through the room Faith cut him off before he could explode. "And what do you believe is the worth of your power?" While there was exasperation and annoyance in her voice there was also clear curiosity as well. She truly wished to know what he thought he was worth.

"Two-hundred years off my sentence, plus one-hundred years on earth after the chosen ones destiny is met properly, an extra fifty if we do it before the boy reaches majority." Then thought for a second more before adding onto it. "Oh and my wand, staff, and potions too, for the sake of being sentimental... well that and the fact if i'm going to be training this kid then he's going to have to need demonstration. I just hope this isn't like the last time."

Silence dominated the room as the voices thought it through, though Salem suspected they were also talking to each other and discussing it mentally so he couldn't hear. God's he hated when they did that. They probably knew it too. Bastards.

"We accept on one condition. That the years on earth do not contribute to the years of your sentencing here, and that you give up your weaponry upon your return. We would do it anyway but I wanted you notified. We don't need any more of the headaches you cause."

After what felt like an eternity of silence and Salem staring at the floor, he looked up into the darkness and nodded his consent, muttering a 'sure' so they would stop bothering him already.

"The chosen one is Harry James Potter."