The Keeper's Cryptic Vol I

by Lumina Nocte

The magic world is bigger than Harry's eyes could see, there was so much more than Hogwarts and the British Ministry of Magic; so much more evil than Voldemort and his Death Eaters. We invite you to meet James Alynore, a gifted Magus from the Mage's Association of Britain submerged in political struggle and supernatural events alongside the Auror Harry Potter.

1. Chapter 1: The Coldest Night

The Keeper's Cryptic.

Vol I. The Grand Order.

Chapter One: The Coldest Night.

Unexpectedly, the cold weather was now affecting the United States and this was not good at all, it could only mean that somehow, the influence of the dark arts coming from Great Britain was getting stronger.

James Anders Alynore and Caydern Flamberg had jumped from New Jersey, in USA. After they tracked and captured an irregular target involved with certain illicit activities, the mission overall was a fun ride assigned to the Luminescent Brigade lead by Flamberg, High Enforcer of the Association who did not lose her chance to do some shopping in the big apple before focusing on the task at hand; the target to capture was Igor Karkaroff, ex Headmaster of Durmstrang now living in Manhattan under the identity of Vladimir Lucashenko, he used to be a Death Eater during the first Wizarding War and received a pardon from the Wizengamot for turning in his fellow Death Eaters after Voldemort's defeat, later on turning out to be the brilliant Headmaster of the famous Durmstrang Institute, but during the Triwizard Tournament held in Hogwarts he fled without a trace when Voldemort returned. For this treachery he was hunted down and killed by his former comrades in Northern Europe by the summer of the ninety-six and two years later he was found in Manhattan with a new identity, pretending to be a wandering wizard doing little amusement acts in subway stations such as making cards fly and transform into birds or mere illusion tricks to pickpocket unwary muggles on the street, this immediately caught the attention of the Justiciars within the International Confederation of Wizards, who marked him as an Irregular (A magic user involved with illegal or dangerous activities that may harm the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy.) and after some depth research, he was identified as Karkaroff, authorizing his capture or elimination if possible, mission commended to two of the best Enforcers the Mage's Association could offer even above the local authorities.

A plan was developed and carried on, but Karkaroff turned out to use violent means to avoid his capture and even when everything went okay in the end, the current situation was not expected at all; After a long hot pursuit and many damages on the New York subway, the Irregular was captured but his extraction was delayed and halted due to the sudden assault of the Chelon Canticle Brigade on the British Ministry of Magic led by the corrupted Pius Thicknesse. The CCB was an Elite above the Luminescent since it was lead by the Vice-Director herself: Lorelei Barthomeloi, the strongest mage within the Association. The Association handled intelligence reports that placed the Ministry and the whole Britain in a corrupted whirlwind related to Voldemort and the black arts, many things were not a secret and even knowing that there was a resistance fighting this new order, the Mages kept themselves away from it until Rufus Scrimgeour was murdered, small offensive moves were made since then and many spies were dispatched to aid the resistance that would not yield to the Dark Arts, but still it was no secret that they, the Association, had the power to bring the conflict to an end, yet they refused to act, it was not Lorelei's desire to finish the war in one strike.

'There was no resistance?' Flamberg squeezed the phone on her hand. 'at all?'

She went pale within seconds. Attracting the worried gaze of James, her second in command. His leader dropped the call with her brows furrowed and turned to see the Lieutenant and their prisoner, both looking at her curiously.

'Hogwarts is going to get attacked tonight…' said the young magi with a strange voice. 'Intelligence made a slip… You-know-who is gathering his forces.'

'And you're surprised about that?' James smirked. 'DEFCON Four, I take it?'

Caydern looked at her watch and bit her lip.

'Three.' said this, she started walking. 'If we jump now we'll be able to be on time.'

'oi what about…' James was still looking at her, pointing at Karkaroff with his head.

'Eh… Yes…' she growled, suddenly reminding that they were on a mission. 'You will come with us, Irregular.'

'And face the ones who killed me? I thought you wanted me alive.' Karkaroff spoke with a hint of fear.

'Only because I'm interested on knowing how you cheated death, but He-who-must-not-be-named is meant to die tonight so you are pretty much disposable in this precise moment.' answered the woman in a cold tone.

'Die?' Karkaroff gave her a daring smirk, his yellowish teeth making him look more like the bearded Headmaster of Durmstrang they met in the Triwizard Tournament. 'You can't possibly dream of defeating the Dark Lord, let alone kill him.'

But James snorted and gazed up at the enormous man, who tilted an eyebrow and smiled even wider.

'Am I wrong, Alynore?' Karkaroff asked in a gruff tone.

'Want the arrogant answer or the honest answer?' the young mage merely smirked. 'either way, how can you ask that after trying to enroll me in Durmstrang?'

'Being the son of the White Magistrate of course you had potential, but not even Dumbledore could defeat him so what exactly you intend to do?'

'Kill him.' Anders said calmly.

There was a sudden silence where Caydern smiled and looked away just as Karkaroff started laughing very loudly, stopping after some seconds and nodding slowly in odd approval.

'Yes… I would like to see that…' he said beyond hesitation.

'As long you stay alive, Irregular.' added Caydern with a chuckle.

Central London, May 1st of 1998.

21:22 - King's Cross Station.

It was hard to ask for a perfect weather these days, rainy and cold with few dimly sunlights, depressing overall, not many would even bother with trying to unfold this mysteriously gloomy ambience and instead they could only withstand it for as long it lasted, completely oblivious about the real reasons behind this. The first day of May had brought many hardships for the Central District of London. Right in the early noon, a bomb alert was triggered in King's Cross station and the whole area was evacuated and heavily protected by the armed police and members from the British SAS who kept the area free from civilians the rest of the day. Though no explosive artifact was found, the red alert remained and no one else suspected the true reasons behind this apparent conspiracy. It was no terrorist threat in the end, but safety measurements to protect many from the ambitions of a few, that night was going to be a fateful one for the whole society and staying idle was in their plans.

It was a cold, clear night that one. The clearest in so long and the coldest so far, one of a kind for certain, if it weren't for the cold you would entirely forget about the times of turmoil going on around the world, that night had something unique within the cold air, a sort of hopeful silence, waiting to see what kind of events were going to unveil, there were already bad news for only a selected group of people, shared through well preserved nets of communication: Hogwarts was about to be sieged by Lord Voldemort and the Ministry of Magic was revealed as a corrupted organism at his service, being intervened by a special brigade of mages outside the Ministry and the resistance against the black arts, the Mage's Association on the other hand was ready to send a Task Force to face the dark forces head on for what they thought would be Voldemort's showdown.

King's Cross Station was under strong surveillance from the military, well armed men who were assigned to patrol the building overnight to avoid any unnecessary situation. about thirty soldiers were stationed on the different levels and areas from the Terminal, the lights were dim but lighted enough to show the hooded figures walking down the platform twelve, the smallest figure lead the march and was flanked by two taller ones, after passing platform eleven; Caydern dropped her hood to reveal her short, crimson hair and bright ocean blue eyes that sparkled when she increased the pace, Karkaroff and Alynore increased their pace behind her, both with their faces hidden under the black hood.

'Your plan is taking the Hogwarts Express?' Anders had asked before they entered in King's Cross. 'Voldemort will attack the school tonight, you already know how long that train will take in getting there.'

'without going at full speed we'll arrive tomorrow morning, yes.' Caydern answered with her eyes fixed on the station. 'I'll conjure familiars to keep the train running at the top speed and cast some spells to make it lighter, we should be there by midnight.'

'But why the train… We could just take three broomsticks and-'

'A loud train will attract more looks and there is a chance that Voldemort tracks us first, we can decimate his force that way.'

'His army got giants, dementors, werewolves, imperiused wizards and even ministry officials, wanna roll the dice and see how only the two of us deal with all that?'

Caydern smirked at his last comment, that fire in her blue eyes only made him shiver but grin at the same time. The platform nine and three quarters, however, was deserted when they arrived and only the scarlet steam locomotive was there, partially lighted by dim lights around the platform, everything was clean and seemingly deserted; Anders sealed the platform behind them as Caydern ran up to the locomotive and whipped her wand forward, sending a blast to detach the locomotive and the first wagon from the rest of the train, she then sprinted around it multiple times, muttering quick words and placing feather-light charms on essential parts of the structure. Karkaroff remained in silence with his hands cuffed to his back, with a celtic symbol magically engraved in his forehead, made by Anders to keep the Irregular peaceful towards them.

'The train is bound to go faster now.' she panted, looking at the train with pride. 'now let's see if my second year theory truly works.'

'Theory?' Anders and Karkaroff asked at the same time.

But Caydern plainly ignored them and climbed the train with a happy yelp, she was actually enjoying the moment. Afraid of how things would turn out, they entered the passenger carriage and Anders chose the middle compartment to leave Karkaroff cuffed to the armchair, he said nothing, his fear for a possible encounter with Voldemort was easy to feel even above of what could be a catastrophic disaster in the hands of Flamberg; everything trembled at that moment and the train started moving within a couple of minutes with the whistle letting out a loud sound that echoed through the whole platform.

Anders was now more than certain that his boss was having the time of her life, but the way the train accelerated like a regular car only made him sit down in front of Karkaroff and hold the armchair really hard as they passed through the first curve with a feeling of the train leaning slightly to one side like it was about to derail. But Caydern's excited scream made them aware that everything, for now, seemed to be okay.

The bright moonlight bathed the Hogwarts Express as it was marching through the mountains bordering the silvery Scottish waters. James Anders Alynore kept gazing out the window as Karkaroff in front of him was snoring peacefully with his hands cuffed to the armchair. It has been quite a long day, indeed, his energy was partially depleted to strike down Karkaroff, who practically turned New York's subway into a labyrinth to run off their reach, for two hours of the morning the chasing was on, Karkaroff took hold of a train and forced it to disapparate and apparate in different tracks and lines throughout the tunnels, being tailed by Anders and Caydern on board of a motorcycle to be finally pushed off his course and getting reduced in the abandoned City Hall Station. Of course all the explosions and detonations caused quite a commotion among muggles, forcing the MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) to dispatch cleaners to fix all what the Red Coat's Mages had left behind them.

His eyes trailed off, irises bright blue contemplating how Karkaroff snored loudly and considering him lucky, it has been a long while since the last time he had such a peaceful sleep thanks to the continuous raids and offensive measures against the Death Eaters, yet it was the very first time in so long that he had a chance to sit down and relax in the way he was doing it now, he got lost around the misty mountains on the distance, a familiar and nostalgic sight for him... It was a beautiful night after all, highly strange since the return of Lord Voldemort, yet he couldn't avoid noticing the fast approach of dark clouds in a distance not too far from there. Perhaps a storm? The perfect night was too perfect to be real.

His meditation was interrupted by Caydern's cough, who was standing by the open door of their compartment. 'Mind walking with me?' she asked with a smile and walked out with Anders behind her. They stood in the corridor, Caydern turning towards him with a gentle smile he hasn't seen in a long time.

'At this speed we will be there in less than two hours.' she said proudly. 'Did you send the owl?'

'to McGonagall, aye… Haven't got an answer yet.' Anders sounded worried. 'Think we should call for reinforcements?'

'Blackhawk and her Stonebirds are on the way, although I don't know what way are they taking since she's not here yet; and Thornbreak will be escorting the Queen.'

'The Queen?' Anders let out a snort and laid his back on the window. 'Weren't they in the Ministry?'

Caydern shrugged, letting out a sigh.

'as for the Irregular…' Caydern looked at Karkaroff. 'The augur gave red light about him, but…' She stopped and smiled. 'Long time without hearing a 'but' from the augur…'

'Yellow then?' Anders asked. 'You think he qualifies to take the black?'

'Perhaps. That's your call, Lieute... Woah!'

The train abruptly triggered the brakes and everything trembled with a roaring sound, James fell to the floor mostly by Caydern's weight who fell on him, looking up to the window they noticed that the train had entered into the storm, but there was something surreal about the big drops of water hitting the window, there was something out… Something was terribly wrong. This was the only thought in his mind as a chill ran down their spines and a strong screeching sound confirmed the danger.

'Looks like the plan worked.' groaned Caydern as jumping on her feet. 'Take the six, Anders!'

And so she ran off to the locomotive, pulling out her wand from her pocket. Anders turned back towards the door as the carriage trembled again, the train stopped with a last shake and dark silhouettes started moving outside in the rain, Anders' mind got suddenly invaded by a sharp pain on his right shoulder, a distant cry pierced his ears as he withdrew his own wand from the pocket. He glanced at Karkaroff who snored even louder.

"Dementors..." Anders gasped, clenching his right fist at the pain at the end of his shoulder. "Well played..." he aimed at the door with a trembling wand. "Bombarda!" he shouted.

The door broke open in a loud explosion and a wave of cold rain sprayed inside the wagon as dark, tall hooded figures entered slowly. The lights blinked and a feeling of despair got extended through the whole wagon, Anders groaned and almost falls as the pain on his shoulder got heavily extended through his muscles, the cold drastically increased, crawling through his clothes and making him tremble. The pain kept increasing and the distant sound was approaching: a little kid with an ear splitting cry, his head started pounding, his strength fading... His eyes watered quicker than expected and he gripped his wand harder than before, breathing harder in an effort to remain strong. It was a large group, probably a dozen as he could see from the darkened windows, they approached very slowly, like mocking his efforts. The joint of his arm was hurting too bad to remain conscious and the lights went out with a last shake of the train, only the tall shadows could be easily distinguished, coming closer, the one leading the march was lowering his hood.

"Expect..." he tried to shout, his arm shaking harder, a sharp pain running across it with a metallic noise. "Expecto... Fuck!" he groaned as an angry smile got pictured on his sweaty face. The memory came to him in an excited whirlwind. "Expecto Patronum!!"

A bright platinum light flooded the whole carriage and a new figure made the dementors let out a high pitched shriek, falling back harshly as a platinum beautiful pheasant stood in the middle before running towards them, forcing them to flee and leaving a mortal silence that got immediately broken by another strong shake of the train, then it started moving forward. Caydern had probably turned on the engines again. Then gazed at Karkaroff who had barely moved from his seat. The rain subdued just a little bit.

'Blimey... Wish I could sleep as much as this guy…'

Meanwhile, Caydern had secured the locomotive after finding about five dementors flying at the sides of the train. 'This is all the Dark Lord managed to send?' she muttered with a daring smirk on her face. 'What a bummer.'

Her feet got surrounded by a bright blue light and jumped through the roof in the middle of the raging storm, the dementors swiftly attacked her but she had already chanted the Patronus charm. Her wand issued a bright light and made the whole train tremble violently. The bright light acquired a gigantic shape that grew solid with majestic features and charged forth as Caydern slashed the air towards the Dementors, the massive sound of wings breaking the air was heard and the dark creatures tried to escape but three were disintegrated when the light passed through them.

"Get those two, Nydian!" Caydern shouted as a bright silver dragon pierced the darkness and storm alike, flying towards the dementors who were now shrieking loudly. The patronus beast let out a strong roar when it opened its jaws and another dementor disintegrated as Nydian devoured it. The last two, the tallest ones, got knocked down from their flight and fell onto the carriage's roof right in front of the Magus. Nydian roared again.

'Good job.' She said as the rain intensity started to decrease. The dragon pierced the sky with a sharp sound and the bright light disappeared with the roaring storm, the dementors rose from the floor and attempted to remove their hoods when Caydern turned with a swift flick of her wand; "Ion." she muttered as her eyes acquired a bright silver glow. The dementors froze on their spot, like they were suspended in time.

'Who said you filthy creatures had the permission to kiss an Enforcer from the Association?' asked the woman with a wide, dangerous smile.

But as the dementors fell on her feet, she saw it, and like her mind was in sync with Anders' she heard him yell something before the train screeched loudly once more as the emergency brake was pulled, the magic surrounding it made the train stop immediately, pushing her down and almost falling off the roof, the last thing she saw were the dementors flying away from her at high speed but she couldn't care less in comparison with what they had ahead of them…

The bridge between them and the last half of hour to reach Hogsmeade has been blown off. And if this was not enough, footstep started to be heard, but not ordinary footsteps… She saw Anders running out the carriage, locking all the exits so Karkaroff wouldn't run off, then looked up to the roof. 'You okay?' he asked, and for a moment she, Caydern, seemed to have no idea of who he was talking to, then she nodded and slowly got up to see what approached them from the flanks, the silvery moonlight had returned, shining above four massive figures; two from each side.

'Brass.' Anders called out. His hands holding a weapon she haven't seen on him before; a beautiful sword with obsidian coated blade extended to the very hilt, the handle was covered by a bright pearly cloth and just above of it, the hand guard had four sphere shapings cutted out from the steel that seemed to catch the moonlight above them, ending on sharp edged spikes, the whole blade was shining brightly and beautifully, captivating at first to those who seen it. 'I mentioned it before, but just in case you didn't hear… I'm no giant slayer…'

'But you know how to slay humans, right?' asked Caydern with a smirk.

'Obviously! Most of them, at least.'

'Well then…' she extended both hands forward and summoned two Gunblades with the edges surrounded by a dark mist. 'just imagine they are very big humans.'

Anders did know the basics of how to fight giants, their size for starters was a disadvantage, but the gigantic clubs and scythes they were carrying was the first thing freaking him out, if he failed to dodge just one attack…

'Very big humans…' he repeated to himself, knowing where to aim.

Caydern shot, which instantly triggered the battle, Anders ran towards the pair of giants who roared as they ran at him waving their weapons above their heads, the ground shaking with each of their steps, he evaded the first slashing on his direction with a scythe by jumping above it, pushing himself against the giant's belly and using it as an impulse to jump towards the giant who was now behind him, he slashed forward and the gigantic steel club blocked his blade within centimeters from the giant's neck; Anders landed on the floor for long enough to dodge another mortal hit with the scythe by jumping backwards, he heard a roar from the giant who knocked him down and the floor trembled hard enough to make him lose balance, falling on the ground he saw a giant piece of steel piercing the air towards him, barely had time to roll before it hitted him and when he jumped on his feet he raised his blade and blocked an aggressive slash from the scythe directly to his head.

Anders sprinted away from the train and taunted at the giants who rushed at his meet. His heartbeat was out of control but his motions were controlled, he counted backwards as they approached, ready to attack; they approached running and as soon they reached him…

'Gotcha.' muttered the young mage as the edges of his blade acquired a brighter color.

The sword slashed the air and left a trace of it in the air, the burning rush of power extended itself through his body directly to his left leg, stomping on the ground and making it shake, lifting the earth in form of sharp stalagmites, piercing and impaling both giants, they roared in pain and dropped their weapons, the stalagmites vanished in red spots of light and Anders took advantage of the disarmed giants to launch himself to attack. He sprang forward with his flaming blade piercing the flesh of the giant's chest with a sickening sound followed by a whimper of pain from the massive enemy, the magus' body then disappeared and reappeared behind the other giant while the first one stumbled avoiding the inevitable fall, he, Anders, smirked when he saw the still breathing giant trying to pick up his steel club while the blood trickled down his legs copiously.

'One down, brass!' The young magus called out while catching up his breath.

On the other side, Caydern had already killed one and was shooting her rounds to the second who rushed at her with his enormous club lifted, she warped when he striked and only hitted the ground where seconds ago she was standing. She warped in the sky above the giant and fell above his head, sinking both blades inside his thick skull with great effort, the giant let out a roar and attempted to hit himself with the club, like willing to take her down with him.

She reacted late…

She jumped off with a hurry and lost her balance before falling, she reinforced her entire body before reaching the floor with a loud thud, remaining unconscious as the giant fell beside her, almost crushing her with his weapon. Anders did not notice this, he was running around the remaining opponent and evading his crushing stomping on the ground. The magus warped behind the giant after evading his enormous feet and sliced through the Achilles tendon of the right leg with precision. The result as expected was the giant instantly losing balance and falling abruptly on the floor, bleeding profusely from the wound. Now he was only hearing the cry of pain from the creature followed by agonizing groans. Anders laid the weapon over his shoulder as the bright lights subdued from it and walked to the head of the giant with his right hand casting a hovering ball of blue fire.

'Framkvæma' Anders ordered to the blue fire and it went straight to the dying giant's chest, who let out a loud groan of pain and immediately stopped breathing afterwards. 'Clear here, Brass… Brass?'

He turned around to find Caydern lying unconscious between her two fallen enemies, Anders ran to her to certify she was still breathing when his eyes caught sight of something that had managed to pass above his instincts; he very slowly lifted himself up, clutching his sword tightly…

'Lower your weapon, swordsman. We bring no harm.' said a profound voice that instantly shocked him.

They were brighter than he could have ever imagined and even was having his doubts that his eyes were actually showing him what he was seeing, his sword remained in the air, mostly because he had no idea of how to react all of a sudden. Of course, his first reaction was…

'What in oblivion…'

Anders was facing at least a dozen of pure white stallions with majestic wings at their sides, the one who spoke was dark as the night sky and indeed none of them seemed to be attempting to bring harm to them, yet Anders took a bit of a time to get a hold of himself.

'Are you… Pegasus?' he asked as lowering his weapon, doing his best to hold the urge of touching the leader.

'Pegasi, since we're a flock…' said the creature calmly. 'We approached to deal with the dementors, thinking this was a train full with innocent, then we saw you dealing with all this… It was astounding,'

'He is Crene, our eyes in the stars…' Another stallion walked past the dark one called Crene, a silvery one and brighter than the rest, like the pure reflection of the moon above them. Had a female but severe voice. 'And I am Astra, leader of this flock.'

'Anders Alynore…' he crouched beside his leader and cleared the hair from her face. 'She's Caydern Flamberg, we were halted by force in here…'

'And the sleeping man in the train is…?'

'Our prisoner.' Anders couldn't believe that Karkaroff didn't noticed the whole uproar. 'He's arrested in the name of the Mage's Association.'

Soon as he named the Association, the flock started whispering among themselves and both Crene and Astra looked at Anders and Caydern with curiosity.

'Enforcers, I take it… A rare sight that truly explains how you single handled two giants…' Crene said while gazing at the Hogwarts Express. 'You're joining the great battle.'

'Well I cannot believe Firenze was right…' Astra muttered to herself, yet Anders managed to hear her.

Firenze was a centaur, professor of Divination by the time Anders was in his last year at Hogwarts when Dolores Umbridge was eating more than she could chew in the name of Cornelius Fudge, one of the infamous Ministers of Magic he ever had the disgrace to meet. He met Firenze for the first time back in his third year with the help of Hogwarts' gamekeeper: Rubeus Hagrid, to finish a homework for Astronomy, he came to understand that he, like the rest of the centaurs, were quite amazing with their skill to read the future written by the planets and stars in the sky, he also had heard of the existence of Pegasi but never thought they actually...

'How you know Firenze? Are you from Hogwarts?' he blurted out.

'He is a wise advisor… A little touched but wise.' answered Crene. 'The stargazers saw your approach last night, Enforcer Alynore. But not any normal approach.'

'What you mean?' asked the magi with caution.

'It is too long to explain in the current circumstances.' Crene flapped his wings and turned to Astra. 'We must act with haste.'

The leader of the flock nodded vigorously and let out a loud neighing, answered by two of the pegasi behind them who took flight immediately and disappeared behind the mountains. Anders felt the sting of a bad feeling and reached his sword with one hand, but Crene walked towards him, bending down his front legs and his head, as if inviting him to climb on his loin.

'You can trust on us, Enforcer Alynore… You have a meeting with destiny and it is our duty to take you there.' said the Pegasus with a comforting voice.

Despite Anders' confusion they took flight with an astonished Karkaroff and a still unconscious Caydern on their backs; Anders' knowledge about Pegasi was vague but he understood that most of the magical creatures retain a code of pride and honor, specially these stallions. Astrid led the flock and right behind her Crene was carrying Anders and Caydern, closing the march one of the bodyguards was carrying Karkaroff who was silent as a mouse, there was half an hour left of travel to reach Hogsmeade in their current speed according to Anders' digital wristwatch so he remained in silence, staring at the mountains in front of them and ignoring everything else around them, they were so close and he kept looking for the wizarding town anxiously trying to ignore the whirlwind of thoughts his mind had turned into, the sky was turning darker as they advanced and the wind was blowing colder against them; was then when he noticed his clock had stopped working, being the signal of them entering the magical field, but it was so dark that he could hardly see anything under them and his body started shaking from the cold. They were close, so close.

'You're holding me… I'm not dead after all…' said Caydern weakly, stopping the whirlwind in his head.

'Welcome back, brass…' whispered Anders with a sigh of relief.

'Right on time.' Crene spoke for the first time in a while. 'We're above Hogsmeade, currently taken by Death Eaters.'

'They're heading to the Shrieking Shack…' Caydern muttered, her body shivering with cold. 'We must land here and…' she groaned with pain.

'Unwise given your current state, Enforcer Flamberg.' said Astrid firmly. 'We will take you three to the forest where you'll be safe.'

'The Forbidden Forest?' Anders looked at her with a smirk. 'safe?'

'Hogwarts have changed, Enforcer Alynore.' answered Crene grimly.

Certainly… Things must been worse than they thought for the Forest to be safer than any other place.

'Don't make sudden moves, the centaurs are in distress.' Astra's hushed voice broke the sudden silence into the darkness of the Forbidden Forest.

They had a first visual of the castle when they were descending into the forest and it looked like the defenses were being built at high speed, Anders had the urge of running into the castle but Caydern looked too weak even though he was sure she wanted to join them up as well, so they stayed with the Pegasi as they advanced into the depths of the Forbidden Forest; it got darker with each step and the silence started to discomfort them, Anders had started walking besides Crene with his hand holding the handgun on his waist, he hadn't gone this deep inside the forest since his fourth year when he went inside the forest with Hagrid and Alina to investigate the spiders' odd behaviour (with the basilisk on the loose, the spiders were massively fleeing from the castle to the Acromantulas' nest) and for a moment he could only shiver by remembering the existence of such gigantic creatures, he clutched his handgun harder, having the uncomfortable sensation of being observed, very common by wandering this far from the outskirts.

Finally they reached a clear but small area of the forest surrounded by dark trees but with a clear view to the starry sky above them and the flock came to a halt, staying in silence for one or two minutes. Anders looked back, having a clear view of the castle's tallest towers above the thick trees of the forest, in matter of seconds something terrifying happened…

A voice echoed throughout the forest. It was high, cold and clear: there was no telling from where it came; it seemed to issue from the trees themselves.

'I know that you are preparing to fight.' Everyone looked around, looking for the source of the voice, Caydern dismounted Crene slowly. 'Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood.'

There was sudden silence now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, a strange, abnormal silence.

'Give me Harry Potter,' said Voldemort's voice, 'and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.

'You have until midnight.'

Silence again, this time broken by a soft click and the shuffle of a cloak, heads turned to see Caydern strapping her gunblade to the waist, she was trembling and her eyes were strangely wide open.

'Caydern?' Anders called out in what he noticed was a whisper.

'Huh?' she stuttered and the magazine from the second gunblade slipped off her fingers.

She remained standing, covering her face with a trembling gloved hand as Anders approached her with worry.

'Thought I was being clear when I said we must not meddle with the humans' conflict.' said a voice coming from the forest. 'Yet you bring three here, on your backs as if you were mules, and insisting that we must participate in their issues.'

'Let Astrid do the talk.' whispered Crene to Caydern and Anders.

Five centaurs walked out to the clear, the one in front of the other four had a dim chestnut color and walked straight towards Astrid, who kept her firm composure.

'You keep denying what the stars are telling us, Magorian?' Astrid sounded entirely calm in comparison to Magorian's anger.

'They do not involve us in the fight, and you heard the Dark Lord's voice.' said one of Magorian's centaur. 'They're looking for the Potter boy.'

'What makes you think they're not going to enter here, Blaine? The stars-' Crene started.

'The stars have different meanings for centaurs and pegasi, Crene.' Blaine cutted him roughly. 'If they're telling you to go fight then go ahead and do it, but don't expect us to go behind you.'

'It's true we have different interpretations of the stars.' said Astrid. 'But Firenze confirmed that all of us are sharing the same fate tonight.'

There was a general uproar from the centaurs when Astrid named Firenze, Magorian stomped and stepped up to Astrid who hadn't moved at all.

'That fool doesn't have any reason to claim being centaur!' bestowed the enraged leader. 'I thought you had more sense than believing his misleading prophecies!'

'I did not believe until I found the starlight.' Astrid spoke louder but still calmed, pointing at Anders with her head. 'Then I understood he was right, we're all in danger.'

Anders almost flinched when he felt all the eyes falling on him, even Karkaroff and Caydern were all now looking at him and all he could do was clear his throat to break the silence.

'I still don't know what you mean with starlight' he said confused.

'Wonderful.' Blaine snorted.

'But…' Anders cutted him this time. '... I have come to kill Voldemort, and I intend to succeed.'

There was a general silence until Caydern broke it with a trembling voice.

'If You-Know-Who wins this battle you all will be killed unless you share his ideals and I'm sure none of you share them.' she did her best to keep herself firm as she spoke. 'Whether you join us or not, we don't need your help, we handled four giants and a dozen of dementors on our way here, we can sure as hell strengthen the walls of Hogwarts.'

Said this she looked at Magorian straight in the eyes and silence swallowed them once more, suddenly interrupted by several explosions in the distance and bursts of light near the castle. Anders looked at his magical wristwatch right above the digital one: it was already midnight, the battle has begun.

Magorian turned and him with his fellow centaurs walked away into the forest, disappearing in the foliage. Astrid turned towards Caydern with pride in her eyes.

'They'll surely considerate it now.' more bursts of light and distant screams kept being heard. 'We must prepare ourselves for the battle, here is where our paths get separated.'

'Thank you for bringing us here, guys…' Caydern answered slowly, bowing her head to Astrid and her flock.

'Thank Firenze instead,' Crene snorted. 'He was the one who saw you in the skies.'

'May the stars guide you, James Alynore. Don't let darkness swallow our world.' said Astrid as she turned with her flock, leaving the clear by the same path used by the centaurs. 'watch the skies, you're not fighting this war alone.'

So the three humans were left alone in the clear, hearing only the distant explosions and screams coming from the castle.

'Why exactly we were brought here?' Karkaroff got closer to them, looking around like afraid of something jumping at him from the darkness.

'Looks like Astrid wanted to brag to the centaurs…' Caydern giggled and looked at Anders. 'Do you have a plan?'

'Not stumbling across giant spiders would be a nice start.' Anders groaned as looking up to the castle, seeing how the Astronomy Tower was being covered by numerous bursts of red and green lights. 'There was at least seven objectives related to my plans but all that crumbled apart when the giants cutted our path.'

'Should we improvise again?' asked the red haired girl.

'I'm afraid so, yes.'

'I don't like how that sounds…' Karkaroff looked from one to the other.

'It worked for catching you, actually.' Anders pulled out the man's wand from his jacket. 'now, Irregular, you have become a burden so I have a proposal.

'From this moment you're no longer into custody and as you can see, there's actually a reason why we needed you alive; there is a project you been selected to play part in along with us, you're free to join us and tag along with us into this battle but you're also free to run off and I'll be nice enough to give you five minutes of advantage until I finish what we started in New York. Both options however will end with the same result, it's your choice to either die like a hero or die like a fugitive, mate.' he tossed the wand towards Karkaroff.

The Irregular caught the wand in the air and held it in silence for few seconds, he then gazed at Anders with a malicious grin.

'Show me what Hogwarts taught you, Singularity boy.'

Forbidden Forest Outskirts, May 2nd of 1998.

01:37.

A group of snatchers had stayed behind fighting a couple of gargoyles from the entrance to Hogwarts' grounds, they stood victorious for few moments until they heard footsteps approaching quickly from the forest, before they even had a time to react, a snapping sound was heard and one of the snatchers in the back got pushed off to the ground. They turned only to see Anders cleaving the ground with his sword, making it shake as the pistons started spinning.

'Heartbeat Blitz.' he whispered.

His chant casted bright, crimson spears that came from his blade and in odd shapes, like they were directed straight into the hearts of each snatcher around him, not a single sound from them was heard despite their looks of horror engraved on their faces, the spears retracted themselves into the blade now stained with a reddish glow. He laid the weapon above his shoulder and looked at Caydern and Karkaroff walking out the forest looking at the castle; once magnificent during the night, was now under heavy siege. Several parts of the tallest buildings were surrounded by black smoke and flames while the lower levels were being lighted by duels and bombings from inside and below.

Anders looked to the forest where they were wandering for an hour (even though it felt like five hours instead.) and swore in a whisper.

'Let's go.' Caydern said in a weird tone, running past Hagrid's hut that was now under roaring flames. 'You saw all the smashing Grawp did in the forest, it's recent, I hope they're okay…'

'Everyone is.' her fear couldn't be more obvious, yet he did his best to make her feel better.

It wasn't easy... Looking at Hogwarts engulfed by chaos and flames, more from inside the forest where all what could be heard where distant yelling and explosion after explosion. Caydern was terrified just as Anders was and he knew this, so all he could do while running up the stone stairs towards the Circle of Stones, was to reflect confidence on the outside even when he was numb and choked in the inside.

'Avada Kedavra!' someone shouted from the shadows.

'Protego!' Karkaroff shielded Caydern and immediately aimed towards behind one of the rocks. 'Reducto!'

The Death Eater screamed loud and, to Caydern and Anders's surprise, his body disintegrated in front of them.

'Oh bloody hell…' Anders walked past the spot where the disintegration happened and pulled out his wand. 'Lumos'

The covered bridge that connected directly to the clock courtyard had been blown off, on the other side only countless bursts of light could be seen non stop. The distance was way too big for them to warp and he could only jump alone since he didn't tried jumping with other people too often.

'We'll go through the Training Grounds.' Anders turned and both Caydern and Karkaroff followed. 'Brass, where the hell is Blackhawk and the bloody Stonebirds?'

'I'll go to the Owlery and see if I can intercept them.' she answered as running past him.

'Brass!' Caydern turned and grabbed the keys he had tossed at her. 'Do NOT press the red button! We will look for McGonagall!'

She nodded and sprinted up towards the Owlery tower while Anders and Karkaroff ran down towards the cavern that lead into the training grounds, their wands held ready and the adrenaline rushing quickly as listening yelling and fighting inside the cavern, Anders pulled out a Colt M1911A1 from his jacket with his free hand, the gun was nickel plated with tiger's eye handles and engraving, it issued a low silvery glow when it was fully drawn, Karkaroff eyed him with disdain. 'A muggle firearm?' he asked in a whisper.

But Anders only smiled at him and removed the safety of the weapon, entering into the cavern.

Enforcers from the Mage's Association never should be underestimated.