Prologue
It was a cold winter's night a Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry. The rain lashed down against the windows and the wind blew hard against the castle ramparts. The threes in the forbidden forest swayed in the gale force winds, which caused the doors and windows of the castle to creek under the strain. Every few seconds a flash of lightening would dance across the sky, followed shortly afterwards by a crack of thunder. Though the storm raged on directly over head, through the magical walls of Hogwarts, no not a trace of it could be detected.
It was in the dead of night and all students were in their rooms, fast asleep. Even those who took to sneaking about the castle after hours had returned to their beds, by choice or by force, by this time. The teachers and prefects had give up their patrols and retired. With the cleaning done the house elves had returned to the kitchens. The ghosts, all though didn't sleep, had moved to the dungeons where they conversed with each other, mainly about the manor of their own deaths. Even the many portraits had fallen to sleep. It was the rare time of the day when nothing much of any interest happened, or at least if something did happen, there wasn't anybody around to notice it. In short the castle had fallen silent, disturbed only by the occasional sound of a portrait snoring, or the rumbling as one of the many stairs switched position. It was just another seemingly ordinary night at Hogwarts. However, its normality was soon be shattered, for events had been set in motion that not even wisest such as Dumbledore himself could comprehend.
Deep into the castle, the ceiling of the Great Hall was only betrayer to Hogwart's serene atmosphere. Although it offered no sound, it showed the black swirling storm clouds that filled the nights sky, the howling wind, torrential rain and bolts of lightening that illuminated the hall for a few seconds, before it sank back into total darkness. Again and again the hall was momentarily lit up with a flash of lightening, revealing it's occupants. The four house tables that stood length of the room, the house banners resting above them, the staff table, the many chairs, one or to processions forgotten from the day before and nothing else. As the night progressed, the storm intensified. At present, the lightening was striking every five seconds or so, giving the room the appearance that it was lit by strobe lights. Then with a particularly vigorous blast, the lightening revealed a new presence in the room, which had not been there seconds previously. A single man was revealed, clad a black hooded coat that prevented any part of him from being visible, standing forebodingly in the centre of the room, before his fleeting image was lost to the darkness. A few seconds latter another flash reviled a second man, identically dressed and equally fleeting, standing next to the original. The first waved his arm lazily as a large ball of light formed in his open hand. It grew until about a foot in diameter, before raising it self into the air coming to rest just short of the ceiling above them. As a result the hall was now bathed in a constant though unnatural white light, but despite it the men's faces remained shrouded within the shadows of their hoods. The second man turned to the other and spoke to him deep, calm and cold voice.
"Is he here?"
"…Yes" the other replied in an equally frozen tone.
"Is it time?"
"…No" the first replied simply as if uninterested in what the other had to say.
"How long?"
"…Soon…soon enough" the man said slowly, "but until than we will remain in the shadows. When the time comes we'll make are move, but not until." He added.
"And until it is time?" the man's tone betraying his slight disappointment, as if he had been deprived of a cause of great amusement.
"I shall remain here. No one suspects me for anything other then what I appear to be…" pausing to relish in the thought. "They are completely oblivious to what is coming, to involved in their pathetic war to see the greater menace. When we come for him, we will not unopposed". The man laughed to himself, in an unmistakably sinister tone. "It will be far to easy" he declared, more to himself then to the other.
With that, the second man turned away. He paused a few seconds, before an oval of darkness opened up out of nothingness. It shimmered slightly, as it gave off dark-purple gas, which hung closely around its edge. It's intense black colour, seamed to pull in the light from its surroundings, as hit hung silent and motionless in front of him. The second man tuned his head and nodded to the first before walking through the dark portal, vanishing, the entity closing up immediately behind him. The first man smiled underneath his shadowy hood, the thought of what was to come playing in his mind. His thoughts were interrupted however, as a large suit of armour clattered down a flight of stairs onto to the hard stone floor.
"Peeves" he said angrily to himself. The near continuous interventions of Peeves's unwitting antics were fast becoming a source of great annoyance to him. He looked forwards to the time when he would be able to shut him up once and for all, but he couldn't allow him self that pleasure just yet. If he were to be discovered now the plans would be ruined, he couldn't risk that for anything. With a grunt of frustration he turned and quickly left the great hall. As he did so the hovering ball of light dissipated, leaving the room in complete darkness once again. No traces of the night's events were to be found by anyone the following day.