Prologue
It was well past midnight, and the small town of Bakewell was fast asleep. The eerie silence of the moonless night was only broken by the soft hooting of a snowy white owl with three large dark stripes across its body as it glided through the skies, like a pale white ghost.
The owl flew through an open window of a posh white-stoned mansion at the edge of the town, beyond the slow-flowing River Wye.
Inside, the room was dark and silent, lit only by two fluttering candles on a long wooden table that was littered with leftovers and bits and pieces of parchments. Several brooding figures, who were previously still and silent, staring into the abyss, stirred at the arrival of the animal.
Seated at the head of the table, with the tips of his fingers touching each other, was a thin, scrawny man. There was a large ring on the right ring finger of the man.
It was, however, the man sitting to the right of the scrawny man that held out his arm, the owl dutifully landed and held out its left leg. A small scroll was neatly tied to it with a thin copper cord.
The man slowly removed the scroll from the leg of the owl. With his right hand, he reached for his wand and with a flick of his wrist, summoned one of the candles towards him, with his left, he unrolled the parchment. The crinkling sound of paper rang across the room, by the light of the candle, the Owl Man started reading. The snowy owl, now few of its duty, leaped onto the messy table and started plucking at the remains of a meal. Some of the surrounding figures were sitting on the edge of their seats, their bodies leaned forward, towards the Owl Man.
"What did he say?" the scrawny man asked, unlike some of the others in the room, he did not look the least bit anxious. He remained sitting comfortably in his chair, his fingertips on either hand touching each other.
"He has the package," the Owl Man announced, his voice calm and composed.
There were mutters of excitement across the room as the rest of the assembled members let out signs of relief and exuberance. Even the scrawny man let a grin appear on his face, he was pleased with the news. A man with brown hair sitting to the left of the scrawny man was the most elated of them all, he punched the air with his fists and let out an exhilarated shout of joy. The snowy owl looked up from its meal, startled by what was happening. As the light shone on their youthful faces, it became obvious that this was a meeting of green boys. Many of them looked barely of age, the oldest among them could be no more than twenty. The Owl Man was the only one not to smile or show any glee, his eyes had not left the scroll he was reading from, and they looked concerned.
"Calm down boys," the lady sitting on the right of the Owl Men told her comrades. While she was grinning from ear to ear, she had her eyes firmly on the Owl Man. She has also noticed that he had not shown any glimpse of happiness. She placed her hand on his arm, her long silvery hair shimmered in the weak candlelight as she moved closer to him, the rest of her graceful features were illuminated slightly more clearly as the candlelight fell upon her.
"Has he nominated a place for us to retrieve the package?" she asked, "A spot that is convenient and not monitored by the Ministry."
The Owl Man slowly replied, "He wants more payment. Said that with the Ministry on high alert, it wasn't easy getting what we wanted."
The scrawny man closed his eyes, the grin on his face disappeared, for a moment, an exasperated expression flashed on his face. "I can prepare more Galleons-" he stared, his eyes were still closed.
"No," the silver-haired lady interrupted, the scrawny man's man eyes opened wide in surprise at being interrupted mid-sentence. The silver-haired lady continued: "It is the third time he has asked for more gold, this is absurd. We are now paying him almost twice his initial asking price. We can threaten to walk away and engage the service of someone else."
"There are plenty more snatchers around," the brown-haired man echoed in support.
"True," the Owl Man replied, "But that will take us more time, and we make enemies with people who know our names and our families. Such a package is hard to obtain, we cannot afford any more delays, especially not if we want to finish this before school starts."
"At this stage, we have no choice but to activate and implement our continuation plan," the scrawny man reminded him, speaking softly.
"That is too much trouble," someone sitting further down the table added worryingly.
"It is too much trouble, but that may be our only way," the Owl Man reiterated, "The potion might not work, the package might not be the one we need, the full moon might not be bright enough, a million and one things could go wrong.
"We have to try and keep trying, no cost is too great, to achieve greatness, we will have to show greater devotion and commitment."
Mutters broke out at his last sentence.
Sensing that the hearts of many in the room have started to waver, the scrawny man stood up. Silence fell upon the room once more, only broken by the flapping of wings as the snowy owl, who had its full of the leftovers on the table and flew out of the room.
The scrawny man watched the owl fly out of the window, out into the night, light a tiny ghost, gliding through the air, eventually fading into the darkness. Only then did he turned his focus towards those gathered in the room and address them: "I have told each and everyone here frankly, and personally, my cause.
"All of you here have sworn an oath to join me my cause, and each and every one of you knew that this is no small commitment. You will need to delicate not months, but years of your life and your youth to the cause. I have not made any of your swear an unbreakable vow, or anything of that kind, but I have made it clear the consequences of betrayal, or disloyalty."
Several of the gathered figures glanced at each other as the scrawny man uttered those words.
"But I know you all as friends and family, some, I have known for many, many years. So I am giving everyone here this one and only chance, if you cannot commit to the cause, leave now."
For several minutes, the only movement in the room were the shadows, shifting as the flames danced in the night.
"I am fully committed to the cause," the Owl Man said calmy, he was still looking at the letter that the snowy owl had delivered.
"As am I," the silver-haired lady added, her hands still on the arms of the Owl Man.
One by one, everyone around the table renewed their oaths to serve the cause.
After the last man had renewed his vow, the scrawny man sat down in his seat once more. He looked at the Owl Man and said, "We will meet them tomorrow, she is right, we cannot cave in to their every demand."
The Owl Man nodded, keeping the letter in his robes.
Finally, a grin broke out on the face of the Owl Man.