The Sactum Scutum's chronicles
Story 1- The capture
Lily Evans gradually regained her consciousness. She felt she was lying on her back on a kind of stretcher, with her upper and lower limbs restrained. She felt terribly afraid to open her eyes: the last memory she had was about a bloody battle against the Death Eaters, in which the very Dark Lord himself was present, when at one point she felt like being hit by something and then she immediately was knocked out. "I was captured." she thought, "They're going to torture me to get information about the Order of the Phoenix; I need to be strong and endure everything."
She began to slowly open her eyelids, an intense light coming from a single spot illuminating a dark room invaded her retina, before this light there were three people. The first face she could see clearly was disturbingly familiar: pointy features, gray eyes, silver-blond hair. This character, flanked by two other taller ones, started talking to the person on its left with a drawling sounding voice.
"No, this witch is not bad. The enemies wear black robes and masks that resemble skulls. Those ones who do not hide their faces fight against the masked wizards who are raising hell. The ones like her don't hurt anyone. " You could tell by the flute-like sound of the pronunciation that it was a young woman.
"There is no such thing as a 'good witch'." Said a middle-aged man with a solid and formidable body build, hazel hair and eyes, a haircut just as square as his features. "They all have pacts with the devil, when they fight each other, it's evil against evil. Of course, it's convenient for us to let evil fight evil until one of them is destroyed. And, though we shouldn't love sin, we should love the sinner. Because of this we let the witches that at least don't attack innocent people to go back home, for God has given each one of us free will to seek salvation or not. "
"Yes, sir, exactly. I would not have said it better. " Replied the blonde woman.
The third figure remained silent, watching Lily carefully with an almost morbid curiosity. He was a very tall and thin young man, pale with huge dark circles under his eyes and hardly any eyebrow over them, tiny nose, black and straight hair cut in an uneven manner with a jagged fringe over his huge forehead; at the back of his head he had the small amount of hair that went beyond his neck tied in a minuscule ponytail. His peculiar appearance made him look like some sort of lanky panda bear.
Finally, she could see that those three people were wearing wine-red silk shirts and black pants. The older man wore a discreet silver string with a little crucifix around his neck and looked like an uncanny combination of a soldier and a cleric. He looked at his wristwatch, and then said he was supposed to be somewhere else.
"Repent, there's still time," he said to Lily in an almost fatherly tone while suddenly realizing she was awake, then he walked to the exit of the room with measured steps.
As soon as he closed the door, the blonde woman winked mischievously to Lily.
"She looks confused." said the slender panda-boy, with a much more low-pitched voice than his physical appearance suggested he had.
"More confused than afraid, so I suppose she have no idea of who we are." added the blonde.
"Who are you, anyway?" asked Lily with effort, while still feeling the muscles of her face severely anesthetized.
"Ah! Long story short, we're a post-modern version of the witch-hunters from the old days." Said the blond girl with a smile like it was something funny, as he ran her fingers over her hair, which was cut at the height of her chin.
"But instead of making barbecue with all magic holders we manage to lay our hands on, we only attack those who are acting up in order to offer a threat to Muggles like us. We usually go with non-lethal weapons, although we eventually rely on less 'gentle' gear depending on how bad things get. "Said the boy.
"You're here by mistake. As you may remember, the Death Eaters planned an attack at a crowded Etihad Stadium during a Manchester City vs. Liverpool match. Our intelligence had means of obtaining this information beforehand, then we communicated it to the Ministry of Magic and we went there along with them to try averting a tragedy. However, apparently we and the Ministry were not the only ones who knew about this: you and some other wizards showed up to meet the Eaters too. In the heat of battle, you were hit by one of our tranquilizers darts, simple as that. " Enunciated the girl.
"So you 're like… A kind of Muggle secret police specialized in fighting wizards?" enquired Lily.
"Exactly, my dear." answered the blonde. "After all, we can't count on the fact that when wizards are harming Muggles there will be always another group of wizards that will contain them ... There is a real possibility that at some point all wizards or at least a very large amount of them may unite to attack Muggles, because it HAS HAPPENED in the past, and it was in this distant past that our group has emerged, and since then it still exists for keeping non-magical people safe. We've had a lot of work lately because the Ministry of Magic is failing miserably to hold against You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters alone, I think you agree with us, because it seems you're part of a clandestine group which fights dark wizards, 'The Order of Phoenix', Am I right? "
"Yes…" muttered Lily, though she regretted her answer in the next second because she still didn't know if she could trust those people.
"Nice. I'm Agent Lucrezia Bonafide and this is Agent Gary Smith. Our organization is called 'Sactum Scutum', that's Latin for 'Holy Shield'… I know, SS is not exactly a friendly acronym for a secret police, but we are much older than that other police ... Like the name suggests, we were originated at a time when the act of fighting witches was strongly linked to the Christian religion, as witches were seen by then as Lucifer's minions. Even today there are still traces of this mindset in this organization; this is especially true with the called 'old-school members'. You've seen a fine example a little while ago: Monsieur Jerome Flambeau; his family is in the witch-hunting 'business' for centuries and a medieval ancestor of him was one of Sactum Scutum's founders, so taking out of his head the idea that all witches and wizards are evil is a seemingly impossible task, I've learned quickly that arguing with him about this is useless. But, despite having rather conservative ideas, he's not a bad person; he strictly follows the rule that says we shouldn't attack someone who doesn't attack first. Actually, it's kind of funny: I grew up listening to stories about the deeds of his ancestors as horror tales and had trouble sleeping after listening to them, and now he's my superior! Who could see that coming?"
Bonafide's last sentence did not make sense right away to Lily. Why stories about witch-hunters would be frightening for a muggle child? It would only make sense if it were said by a person who grew up in a wizarding family. Suddenly, a striking conclusion hit up her reasoning, and she mumbled:
"Were you banished from your family? Are you a…"
Lucrezia blushed profusely and then whispered, "Yes, I am. And I'm far from being the only one here; don't be surprised if you find surnames such as 'Black', 'Zambini' or 'Prince' here: although this is something that few people know, Sactum Scutum is a common destination for squibs that were exiled from their pure-blood families. That actually makes a lot of sense: most of us are quite resentful with the wizarding community, and there's also the fact that this is a place where we can apply our knowledge about the magic folks and our ability to see things that ordinary Muggles can't. It makes us feel useful! You know, not everyone is able to suddenly make themselves integrated into Muggle society after living the first fourteen years of theirs lives isolated in a pure-blood family and having no one to help them in this endeavor. "
Gary added: "So there are some pure-blood wizards who call us pejoratively 'The Squib Squad' ... And this is not the most derogatory nickname we have, there's also 'Sanctum Scum', 'Sactum Scrotum', 'Sactum Scrementum '... "
"Are you also a squib, Agent Smith?" queried Lily, shyly.
"No, I'm just a regular Muggle who was very interested in the occult, eventually I found out about the wizarding community by accident. Enrolling to Sactum Scutum was a way I figured out to prevent the Ministry of Magic from taking this knowledge from me by erasing my memory. It also gave a renewed sense to my life. "He stated that while placing a lock of his hair behind his ear with his fingers. At that moment Lily could see he had an ugly scar on his left wrist.
"Well ...," Lucrezia said, "You will be released shortly once the effect of the tranquilizers wears off completely. At least for something that dart that hit you was useful: now we know the 'Order of the Phoenix' actually exists, and probably we're going to make some kind of alliance with them. 'Big V' is gathering more and more power, and it's important that everyone interested in taking him down join forces. Don't worry about Flambeau, although on the inside he judges you're all going to hell, he doesn't reject alliances that are able to protect innocent lives. Now, if you excuse us, we need to go now to a room with a real Death Eater in it. He's probably a cousin of mine in some degree and Smith and I should interrogate him while my mere existence makes him feel uncomfortable. Have a nice day! "
"You too!" beamed Lily.
Already out of that room, Lucrezia and Gary whispered as they walked toward their destination.
"We've been running a background check on her. She's a Muggleborn called Lily Evans." She stated.
"Apparently Death Eaters and pure-blood wizards in general aren't fond of Muggleborns at all. Do you know why, Bonnie? "He questioned.
"This is just one of the many facets of historical resentments that Wizards and Muggles hold up against each other, Gary. However, this particular prejudice is pretty stupid... I'm going to tell you a secret, keep it to yourself: I can't really prove anything, but combining the many stories I've heard throughout my life with some knowledge of genetics I personally think about 90% of 'Muggleborns' are not real 'Muggleborns', if you know what I mean. "
"Blimey, really?" inquired Gary, his wide-opened eyes looking like saucers.
"You'd be amazed at the amount of respectable 'family wizards' I know who have what I like to call 'Zeus complex'. Trust me, I used to live in 'Mount Olympus'. "