A/N - Sorry for the delay on putting this chapter up. I had a few technical difficulties that prevented me from adding the chapter. My deepest apologies to anybody who wanted to read my story but found that it wasn't there (esp. you, Herculeha).

Chapter One - Friends of Old

In the south of England, no more than ten miles from the channel, stood a large house, where the sun never seemed to shine. It was old, and in desperate need of repair. Nobody could figure out when it was built, because nobody could remember a time when it wasn't there. They couldn't even remember a time that it didn't look old. The only thing that people knew about the house was that it was old, and it was haunted.

There was no doubt in the nearby town of that. Anybody who dared go near that house was doomed to die. One night, a crazy kid dared to throw a stone at the house and broke a window; he was found dead in his bed the next morning. Another night, a bunch of punks dared one of their members to go up to the porch. Although they were drunk, they swear that the guy dropped dead right there on the porch. The next morning, when the police looked at the porch (from a safe distance), his body was nowhere to be found.

Perhaps the most terrifying incident was when five boys made a combined dare. They all entered the house, together, one night. Terrified screams were heard from the house for only a moment, and then the house was silent again. The boys were never seen again, and nobody dared to search the house for their remains.

Needless to say, it only took a few incidents until the house was left in peace, with no danger of interruptions. The lawn was long and dead, and where there must have been a garden at some point in time, there were dead weeds. The paint was peeling off, and what shutters hadn't already fallen off looked like there were going to very soon.

What nobody knew was that inside the house, there were living people. They were not your everyday, ordinary people, but people none the less. They even lived a rather luxurious life, for what it was worth. They had house elves run the place, and it actually wasn't half-bad.

One summer evening, an elf walked into the kitchen with a note. At first, nobody was surprised. The Master never spoke to them directly; he just wrote notes. It was his way of separating himself from the elves. It made them seem like lesser beings, if he didn't talk to them. But as the note circulated, the house elves knew that this was no ordinary note.

This note said that the other Master would be returning that evening. That Master had not been in the house in over fifteen years. The elves were not sure what to do. After much discussion, they decided that for the evening's tea, they would prepare his favorite tea, and hope that it was still his favorite. The only other thing they did that was different was to put two tea cups on the tray as an elf carried it out, instead of one.

The elf entered the parlor, where the Master liked to drink his evening tea. The Master sat in one of two armchairs that faced the fireplace, which held a green fire that gave off no smoke. The elf sat down the tray on a small table between the two chairs. He turned one of the cups up and poured the tea from the kettle. The elf then left without a word.

The Master waited until the elf had left the room before he picked up his tea. As he stared into the fire, he heard the door open and close. A man entered the house, threw his cloak at a waiting house elf, entered the parlor, and sat down in the other armchair. It wasn't until he had poured his tea that either of them spoke.

"It's about time, Tom," the first man said. "I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten about me."

Tom said nothing for a moment, then, "You know I couldn't have, Mike." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "It's been a long time."

"Yes it has, and you're only here because of me." Mike sipped his tea. "You haven't been doing a very good job since you went public."

Tom laughed. "If you call what I've done bad, I don't know what you'd call what you've done. Besides, it's done more good than bad. I've rounded up a whole group of people who will act under me. They have the same beliefs as we do, but they needed a little organization to get together and act."

"But what have you accomplished in the last fifteen years?" Mike asked. "Almost nothing, if you ask me. If you weren't so stuck on that boy, we might actually accomplish something."

Still calm, but a little irritated, Tom replied, "Then why don't you do something? As far as I can tell, you haven't done anything in the last fifteen years, either. And, you didn't do nearly as much as I did before that."

Mike chuckled. "I thought you'd never ask." He paused for a moment to take a drink. "Even if you didn't, I was going to act, anyway. The window for one of my plans is very short. I only have a few more years left to do it, so I might as well do it this year."

"So, what's your plan? I'm curious to know what you've come up with in the last fifteen years," Tom said with mock curiosity.

"You may mock me now, but you'll be thanking me later. It involves the child. They're at Hogwarts, you know. So not only do we have an insider, but they can act, too. Of course, they don't know the plan, but they don't need to. That would probably mess us up, anyway. I'll just feed them information.

"So, they can take care of Number One," Mike continued. "That's the hardest one, anyway. I've arranged for Number Two to spend a considerable amount of time there, too, so the child can take care of him as well." He smiled slyly. "I've also got your man in a reasonably good position, so that at Number Two's demise, he can replace him. I'm also trying to arrange for a suitable replacement for Number One. That is my only difficulty."

"You seem to have it all planned out," Tom commented. "But can you be sure that it will work?"

"The only threat there is, is if the child figures out what they're doing. Despite all I've done, they don't seem to agree with us. It's all disguised, and they aren't too bright. I doubt they would figure it out," Mike said confidently.

"So, what do you plan to do? I mean, I'm just curious as to what this plan is if you have to depend on the child." Tom chuckled, and almost snorted into his tea.

"If you must know, I'll be using an Entourer Spell. They've got all year, so it'll be a good job. The hardest one will be the first one. But if I've played my cards right, they can do it before the school year even begins. They're scheduled to meet Number One at Hogwarts later this summer.

Tom pondered this for a moment. "Well, if you're doing that, can I ask you a favor?" Mike nodded. "Can you dispose of the boy, too?"

Mike laughed. "You're asking me to do that? You must be desperate. Well, since I don't have much of a choice, I'll try. I can't guarantee anything, since we might not be able to place the first one, but I'll try. You just have to do the spell itself. I've already wasted a week of my life being out cold and recovering from the two I've already done"

Tom didn't even hesitate to think. "Sure I will. It's just a little boy, so he won't need as much as the other two. What's the date?"

"May nineteenth, at noon," Mike responded.

"May nineteenth…a day that will go down in wizarding history." Tom started laughing, although it was more like cackling. Mike joined in, and a starting storm thundered as well, as though to add to the creepy sound.

Around the world, billions of people were in danger because of this plan, but the world slept on in oblivion.

A/N - Hey! What did you think? Well, regardless of what you thought, please review and let me know. If you liked what you've read, great! Let me know and I'll keep it up. If you didn't like it, let me know and I'll try to improve. And if you were in the middle, review just for the heck of it.