Chapter One: Prophet
The days were getting darker. Even the muggles could tell it. The winds that came from the North of England smelled and felt like change.
And so felt the wizards. The lonely man in his intense purple cape walked on his own, his head bent down as the shadows of the cloudy day hid his face from the curious muggles who saw him. No one could tell how he simply appeared from the back of a dark alley a few blocks behind that street. No one noticed his wand, which he hid so easily on his belt.
Not even when he entered the muggle Prime Minister's office.
They did not greet each other. Not as normal leaders would anyways. But the muggle minister would not make a comment on it. He knew better than to point mistakes from wizards.
"To what do I owe you this pleasure, Shaw?" The man behind his wooden desk said. The other could feel it in his voice how scared he was.
"I am not here for a long talk, minister." The wizard said, stepping into the office and sitting gingerly on the chair in front of the table, face to face with the muggle Prime Minister. "I want to take care of these rumours."
The muggle knew exactly which rumours he was talking about. Even though the wizarding world was a secret among the muggles, the sights and occurrences that had shaken the news lately made people speculate about the disappearances, the strange snake-like shapes in the clouds, and those strange spontaneous lightings in the midnight sky in an apparently calm night. Many people saw the flashes that erupted from the skies, and among with a few dead bodies scattered around the city.
However, the exposure of the wizarding world was not something to be jerked with. The two men in that room knew that very well.
"So what is this Obscurus thing you have mentioned?" The Prime Minister asked, trying to absorb the shattered fragments of the strange words he heard. He could not make sense of any of it.
"Nothing you need to worry about now, but something that is threatening the non-wizard community just as much as the magical these days…"
"Oh, you wait," To that, the prime minister had to raise his voice. "So you are telling me that I do not need to worry about the death of my citizens? By the hands of your people?"
"No, I think you've heard me wrong." The wizard was not affected by the harsh tone on the prime minister, he only stared straight into the eyes of the prime minister.
"Then do enlighten me." The other demanded.
"What I am saying…" The wizard minister finally stood up, heading towards the small chimney on the wall. "Nice to know I won't have to walk from here." He mumbled to himself as he grabbed a small pack from his pocket, full of a dense ash-like powder. "What I am saying is that if these attacks keep happening, and our own kind cannot contain it," for the prime minister's surprise, the wizard stepped into the fire, the orange glow turning green. "Then there is absolutely nothing you can do about it."
And with a swift motion, the fire engulfed the wizard in bright green flames, twisting ashes and sparks around, and then he was gone, leaving behind an astonished prime minister and a death promise.
#
But none of them knew about the secret meeting at midnight.
The dark hooded figures that walked into the streets, their steps echoing against the dark wooden walls that surrounded them. The crime alley, as the wizards called it, where at least a dozen of hooded wizards stood in a circle. All of them silent, waiting for his arrival. There was blood in the air. They could feel it.
As soon as they felt the burning sensation, though, they knew it. And one second after, the air twisted in a horrible sound, and the new figured appeared, this one taller and stranger than the rest.
"Where is she?" a cold, horrible voice emanated from the last figure.
With no ceremonies, the woman's figure materialized above them, her body still, but her eyes open and focused, not on them, but at something no one else could see.
"Talk." The leader commanded, his wand pointed at the woman's face, which twisted in agony before she could release the words:
"The reckoning is coming. The ones around you shall fall, and you cannot tell who will fall next, for it is raw and unprejudiced. The Key will open the box, and the balance between all dual things will settle. Only the ones who guard the darkness within can perform the darkest magic of all time, but there will be one who will subdue the shadows and conquer the bloodlines, and when this cursed child is made free, time will reverse and the affliction shall at last come to an end."
They all stared, the words still being processed in their heads. That message meant no good for them.
"Avada kedavra,"
There was a flash of green, and the woman's body sank in the ground. Dead.
The leader stared for a moment, before his voice made presence again.
"They never make it easy for us, now do they? Always talking in riddles, shaping their worlds from…" He took his time to find the words, not before removing his hood and showing his face. "Enigmas."
His skin was as grey as a stormy sky above them. His piercing grey eyes, as if colour had been extracted from them, leaving behind a lifeless vision.
"Keep yourselves awaken, lads," his eyes scanned all the faces around him as they too removed their hoods, "We have work ahead of us."