Alright, so just a disclaimer before anyone gets the wrong idea. This story exists entirely outside of the Harry Potter canon, save for the existence of the wizarding world. No Hogwarts, no Harry, and will primarily deal with entirely original characters and their actions. I want to avoid the feeling of a "small world" as much as possible. Also, this has nothing to do with Percy Jackson or Rick Riordan get that thought out your head right now. Feel free to comment and criticize, and I will try to update the story regularly.

I

A phone call before noon is never a good thing, a phone call before 9:00 am even more so. When Jack Backermen awoke to the sound of his phone's dull buzz at 4:53 in the morning, he knew that there was no force on this earth that could turn his day around. It took several attempts for Jack's numb hand to reach across the nightstand and find the source of his suffering. Grabbing his comically out of date mobile phone, he fiddled with the buttons for a bit and then pressed the lump of cold plastic against his ear.

"Backermen"

He was greeted with silence from the inert device, followed by more buzzing from across the room. 'Great' he though, as Jack sat upright and slowly regained something resembling consciousness. He managed to turn on the wireframe lamp on his nightstand without knocking it over, illuminating the shabby one room flat with its dull orange glow. Head still groggy, he shambled over to his desk on the opposite side of the room where his sleek "work phone" was trying to get his attention.

"Backermen"

"It's Kahn. Look, sorry for waking you this early, but we have a serious problem."

Jack clicked on his stove, desperate to get least one cup of tea in him before everything went to shit.

"Is this the problem that can wait till morning?"

The majority of his clothes were currently in a pile in front of his bed, save for two shirts folded haphazardly on his nightstand and the signature brown trench coat of the auror on a hook by the door. It was said that aurors don't get a proper uniform and badge because they might as well be painting a massive target across their backs, but Jack was sure that by now any dark wizard figure out they all seem to have the same choice of outerwear. That's just the price you pay when your jackets are subsidized by the ministry. Jack was also certain he was wearing his only clean pair of pants.

"I'm 'fraid not. We have a possible murder down by 50 and 7/10ths Slone Square, and, well, and you just need to come down and take a look at this."

Jack settled for the plain white shirt over the plain white one, grabbing his polished oak wand off his desk to assist with his dull blue tie.

"Alright give me a few minutes to get ready. And if Potter starts breathing down your neck remind him that the sun's not even up yet."

"Actually, Potters not working this case. Once you get over here and brought up to speed Minister Granger herself has you acting head of the taskforce."

Jack pulled a packet of tea from a tin on his desk and looked around for a clean mug.

"Taskforce? What are we dealing with here?"

"Look, it's bad. I've never seen anything like this, I don't think else anyone has. Just get over here, the faster we can tell Potter what we're dealing with the better. 50 and 7/10ths Slone Square, I'll fill you in soon."

The phone clicked as Bruce Kahn hung up. It wasn't a natural clicking sound, Jack had set the phone to simulate a traditional hang up click whenever someone hung up, click or no. Sometimes it would click twice when he got called from someone with a phone that would normally make such a sound, but this happened less and less. 'Well fuck me' he thought as he finished getting dressed. The day was already ruined. And before he could even make his tea, much less drink it. Jack sighed and pressed his wand against the pitch black kettle.

Oddly enough the kettle seemed to whistle in harmony to the ringing in his ears.