So this is a Harry Potter AU that I've had floating around in my mind for a while now. There will be OCs as main characters, so this is a warning.

READ: This will not be a long fic, I designed it more to be a launching point for a lot of other storylines and crossovers involving the characters. I don't know if I'll ever write them all out but that doesn't mean I can't show you this at all, it will be able to stand alone.

Six Points of Divergence

Prologue part 1

When they were young they had been taught that music was power. That music and magic were intertwined. Magic came in many forms; there was magic in words spoken or written, in blood, in rituals, and natural magic in the ground below and the heavens above. They moved with it to a beat only they knew. Not even their teacher, the one who had first shown them the power in music, knew the melody they had found and lived by.

Only they knew, only they knew the steps, only they knew the cords, only they knew the lyrics to this song. They moved freely but with measured steps, they had done this so many times before it honed the instinct that was already there. Music was everything magic was even in the fact it came in many forms; a dancer's moves, a singer's voice, a musician's instrument. It bound them in a way few could ever understand, only they knew and they would never, could never tell.

Music was power; music was everything in this moment. It was in their blood, their minds, their hearts, their magic, and especially their souls. Their bond with music was almost as strong as the one they had with the moon.

They had been blessed.

It was under the full moon they moved and it had been under the full moon that they had been bound together down to their very cores. From that day on they weren't just themselves anymore; each was a part of the other no matter how small that part was. It had changed them, made them whole in a way they had never known. It had become them when the symbols, a visible mark of their bond, had been engraved into their spines, into their very core. Their voices rang into the night hushing the natural song of the forest around them. They moved slower now, the song coming to its end, for now at least.

Something was wrong. The closer they got to the end the move the sense of wrong grew. They didn't falter once, they never did. It had been like this for years. It grated at them, like ice down their backs, so cold it burned. It drove them slowly mad; flashes in the corners of their eyes, sudden movements that faltered half fulfilled, murmurs at the edges of their hearing, a heavy quality to the air, smothering them.

Something was missing. They knew it, they were solid yet unbalanced. There were times when they were snappish for no reason. There were times when the ground felt uneven under their feet. There were times when they got no sleep, when they had no appetite. There were times when all they did was sleep, forgotten dreams plaguing them in their waking hours. The worst moments were when it felt like their magic was twisting and withering inside them wanting to do something, but what that was they didn't know. It had gotten worse as time wore on. But it had not always been like this, when they had lived not even streets from each other they had never had this problem. This problem had appeared when they had all moved away from each other. One healer had thought it was the separation but if anything it was worse when they were together, their feelings ran into each other, compounding the feeling of wrong even more.

As their steps finally ended, their voices fading, the feeling hit them full force and the cause of it pulled at their hearts. Someone was missing. As they looked at each other their minds shoved their number to the forefront. Five, there were five of them here but that was wrong. Some would think five was fine, a perfect pentagram, a perfect star, the symbols often used in magic. But no, five wasn't right, there should be six. They were uneven, a gap in the way they stood, a spot left empty. But their sixth was gone, vanished and for years they hadn't even known.

Their teachers had found last it year after a fit had knocked them unconscious for a week. It was a block on the last part of the bond; a powerful one that was so tied with compulsions and memory charms the teachers wouldn't let anyone touch it except a professional out of fear. But even that did nothing because they had no idea who was on the other side and what would happen to them if they forcibly broke the block. Everything was so entangled that trying to unravel it could cause a backlash of magic that could kill them. There was some good news at least. Their magic was already breaking the block but it was a slow process, the sense of wrong they felt was the bond being denied and the 'leakage' of their sixth through the cracks in the block. It was disjointed and there were never images or memories but other senses did get through like taste and smell along with feeling and half-thoughts.

When they had found out four of them had thrown a fit. Their teachers had panicked when they learned that the collapse was from the sixth bond almost breaking. Their sixth had almost died and they might not have known until it was too late. Only one of them had been silent, sitting too still with glazed eyes staring at nothing. Desperation barely concealed and magic tightly constrained. Even now they were the one who seemed most affected yet not. They seemed to bear the brunt of what slipped through the cracks but never showed any rage or worry. The other four knew they feared the block instead, what it did and what it meant. Even without knowing who their missing sixth was one thing was clear, whoever they were the bond this one had with them was stronger than either of their bonds with any of the other four. This was both a source of unknown joy and deep worry. If it was like this on their end what was it like on the other?

As all five moved back to the building beyond the trees where they would separate to go to their own schools when the air suddenly froze. They could hear the warning alarms blaze to life in the distance, tied to a monitoring charm that they had to always wear when they left without anyone else. They could feel their very beings screech something incomprehensible as the world darkened and noise muted.

Their sixth was slipping, being ripped away piece by piece. It was worse than the last time, so much worse. They weren't sure if it was because they were aware of it this time or that the threat against their missing part was worse. The only thing they were certain of was that they felt a surge of fierce defiance suddenly run through them. Whoever they were they could not have them, have him! They felt their magic rear up, the bonds stretch, something almost finally slip into place only to freeze at the very edge, as if waiting for a cue. For a moment they feared the worse, that they were too late but just as they heard the sound of voices coming through the woods toward them they felt it all take that final step, that final push and they fell to the ground unconscious as a deafening crack filled the air.