Chapter 1; Beginning
It all started Halloween night, 1981. That night, Voldemort traveled to the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow, only to find them out. Undeterred, he found those he desired in the nursery. When the Killing Curse was cast and backfired, the Potters were alerted and rushed back from the Order Meeting to find two identical mops of black hair, two pairs of bright green eyes, and two identical lightning bolt shaped scars on two identical foreheads.
"… Alright, now one more thing," I say to the 'employers' in front of me. "How do you want the targets to be taken care of, once identified?"
"What do you mean?" the woman in front of me asks, slight looks of confusion paint the faces of her and her partner.
"You know my profession. Is that how you wish for me to deal with them, or would you prefer something… less harsh?" I ask with a slight smile on my face. Both partners look decidedly uncomfortable at this point.
"We'll leave that for your discretion. Judge based on the situation and the… target's actions," the man responded, causing my smile to widen slightly.
"Very well said, sir. I'm starting to see why they put you in a high place," I say as I stand to leave.
"Wait," the man calls after me, looking decidedly nervous. "I know it's likely not enough and we're not exactly giving you much of a timeframe, but after all this is over, we can-"
"Don't worry about it. What you have is enough," I attempt to assure him. "Besides, I owe you something."
They won't understand that; not really. But still, they do have a right to be somewhat nervous in this case, I suppose.
"We've kept you a bit late; the train will have already left. Do you need to use the Floo, or…?" the woman trailed off as I waved aside her offer.
"Never mind, I'll have more fun my way!" I say with a small laugh as I turn to walk out the meeting room door, and the front door straight ahead down the hall. It's then and there that I decide using the front door once and awhile is actually kind of fun.
As I walked away from the manor and down the lane, I kept my senses alert for the wards. Not fifty feet from the gate, I felt the barriers fall back behind, and I turn to watch. Before my eyes, the building began to dissolve or vanish as new wards were put up.
'That woman really does know her stuff,' I thought as I turned away and wrapped my thoughts and memories in my own form of magic, more widely called chaos magic. Forming a shield akin to Occlumency, the magic trying to pull the specific details of the manor I just left dissipated on contact. I had to give the woman props; she really knew her stuff. That probably affected even the 'great' Albus Dumbledore.
Turning to go, I checked myself over once. Most of my attire was white clothing, most of the color coming from belts and the like meant to hold blades, which were mostly empty. Over the white tunic and pants was a white hooded cloak, completely undone near the bottom. The hood was deep and always cast my upper face in shadows, which was only partially due to magic. It was, however, spelled to never fall off. Smiling to myself in satisfaction, I held out my arm, then began to focus magic above it, and into the spirit perched there. In a flash of light, the phoenix took form and gave a soft thrill.
"Got a new job, Talon; mind giving me a lift?" I ask the bird, who coo's softly.
Talon was my shikigami; my spirit familiar. He was a shade of my soul, which was somewhat odd, with him being male, and I female. He's mainly just a being sustained purely by magic. By giving him less or more, he can regulate his physical attachment and presence in the Real World on his own.
With another thrill, Talon took off and flew in front of me. As he did so, he began to lose tangibility and grow. By the time he was done, Talon was little more than a ghost, but this time he was equal to me in standing height. Climbing onto his back to the part that I knew from experience would be real enough to hold my weight, Talon took off and, with a trickle of magic from Talon, we vanished from sight.
Flying low and fast, we had no need to worry about detection by any muggle or magical means. We were soon in downtown London, then directly above Kings Cross station. From there, it was a simple matter to follow the only track that was literally 'bleeding' off magic. Having become quite familiar with the workings of chaos magic, I had begun to sense magic in just about everything. Most things can be ignored on a daily basis aside from making sure no one sneaks up on me, but it makes for an easy time hunting down magical people who decide to hide for whatever reason in the muggle world. Not much help where I'm going, but you can't have everything. A couple more hours of easy flying put us in the Scotland countryside by late afternoon, and at the ancient castle itself just after nightfall.
Landing a short distance into the surrounding forest, I drained off most of Talon's energy until he was normal sized, but with even less of a presence than when I rode him. Without my bond to him, even I would not notice him there. He became the perfect spy.
"Hey, Talon? Go see if we're interrupting anything, will you?" I ask him motioning to the castle turned school before us. With a soft thrill, he flies away as I begin my walk to the edge of the forest to the border of the castle wards.
Closing my eyes, a focused on Talon and saw what he saw. He was in a large Hall, with students sitting everywhere. There were a handful that were still standing; waiting, it seemed, to try on a hat. The Sorting Ceremony? No matter, it'll be over before I get there.
Walking across the ward lines, I felt around them as they did the same to me. Frankly, all these wards seemed to be to detect malicious intent to the castle and/or its inhabitants. I wasn't too worried, seeing as I lacked any sort of harmful intent, for the moment anyways, but I still watched closely. Apparently, I passed inspection, as there was no pulse of magic to alert the current Master of the Castle to my intrusion.
Looking at the castle exterior, I began to search out window sills, ledges, outcroppings of rock and stone before stopping. With a slight smile, I gave in to my new-found fondness for front doors and leapt straight up to them, and a brief pulse of chaos magic had the main doors creaking open. Slipping in once I had the room, I allowed the doors to close on their own, before turning to what seemed to also be the main dining hall. A brief check with Talon confirmed that everyone was still seated and eating. Letting subtlety go out the window, I physically opened the doors enough to slip in before closing them as quietly as I could behind me.
By the time I turned around, the excited chatter had turned into a quiet murmur. As I walked down the center aisle, my eyes scanned the room from the shadows of my hood as my face stared resolutely forward. Down at the teacher's table, Albus Dumbledore watched me carefully, hands concealed below the table.
"Good Evening," he began in a pleasant tone. "And what can I do for you tonight?"
"Not much," I hummed mostly to myself. "Just know that I'll… be around."
I could help but smile as I saw him watching me even more closely, and my face almost split into a wide grin when I saw his eyes widen. He jumped to his feet, knocking over the high-backed chair he'd been sitting in to point his wand straight at my head. His voice rang coldly throughout the Hall.
"What do you want here, Assassin?"
chapter 1; end