Title: Of Those who Walk in the Shadows

Author: Kaede Maxwell

Prologue

The room was dark, in dim light at best. Little, if any, light infiltrated the room, giving the room a ghastly cast. The night was clear, so the moon shone down on the hideout without any cloudy interference. There was no convenient storm (as there usually was in such a scene) to complete the foreboding setting. (Dr. Frankenstein had been lucky that evening, as were many other mad scientists who conveniently had bad weather during the initiation of their most diabolical plans. We aren't so lucky…)

Five figures gathered in the room that was so dull, so damp, so dreary, so…There was absolutely nothing in the room, spare the people in it, a few rat and a broken oak chair. Three of the five were seated on the floor slumped in various positions of boredom while the other two were standing against the wall in poses of coolness. That was, until you realized that one of them was actually asleep. Due to the bareness of the room and the skilled dressing of its occupants, the five could blend finely into the darkness without ever needing the muggle kitchen aid called the blender.

He had never quite understood the use of the muggle blender. All it did was turn perfectly good, normal looking, good tasting food into globules of smashed up…stuff of something or another. However, that was not important. He had not been sent to ponder on the use of the muggle blender. He had been sent with a mission…that none of his agents were paying attention to.

Looking gravely over his charges, he noted that they were, as was their usual practice, not paying attention to the important message that he had brought in from Mom. They never did. In fact, they were currently playing 'I spy' in complete darkness, or near complete darkness, in an almost empty room. When were they going to learn that 'I spy' had to be played in an area where there were things to 'spy' in the first place. Why couldn't they just listen? Why couldn't they pay just a nano-bit of attention to Mom? Why hadn't he listened to his mom when she told him to work in the bookshop with his dad? Noooooo…he wanted the life of adventure, danger, excitement. What a load of crap that was. He was certain that his counterpart did not have these sort of problems with his team.

Somewhere, half way around the magical world that could be crossed with the floo-express, someone sneezed. Four heads turned to stared at him, all with one eyebrow raised. The agent squeaked as his team stared at him. Dad didn't like ANY of his agents to be 'weak', and due to the necessity of the mission, none of his agents could risk getting sick. A quick apology, and the meeting resumed.

Back halfway round the magical world, Mom was giving her final words to his best operatives.

"Weiß, White Hunters of the night, hunter down the tomorrow of these dark beasts and restore peace to world." Mom flickered once as the message ended before completely disappearing into the darkness.

The four who had just received their instructions, turned to look at their informer questioningly. He stared right back at them. He knew what was coming. Despite the fact that Mom had repeated the message four times, as was expected, none of them had been listening.

"Well?" asked the de facto leader of the team. The agent sighed and made a mental note to tell Mom that such 'personal' messages were useless. Post script note to himself – it's never too soon to retire, not in this line…it was a rumor that Mom gave great pensions, it was about time that he started to seriously consider retiring, he had been with this team for two weeks, one week and three days more than the last, now retired, agent. It was about time for retirement, he really wasn't getting any younger.

The agent turned to the quartet and sighed. He opened his file; the action was useless of course, he was in near total darkness and couldn't see a thing in it, but it always made him feel stupidly superior, so he did it anyway, and finally started to brief the team again.

At the previously latter mentioned hideout; where sneezing was forbidden, another team was receiving similar instructions from Dad.

"You get the first half of the money now, the second half after the mission. Bonuses follow usual requirements. Dad out."

Short, simple, money-filled, sweet. Any wonder why every other agent wanted to work for Dad?

This hideout was neither dark nor damp nor dreary nor ghastly nor anything else spy hideouts were usually associated with. It was well lit, with good olden Victorian décor, comfortable and delightful detail furnishings and had a fantastic view of the sun setting over the river. Maybe that was why no one ever though of spying on it.

 Compared to the dark, damp, dreary, empty, cold hideouts of Mom's agents, Dad was definitely good to his agents.

To his best agents at any rate.

His best team was made up of team Schwarz and their informer. The best of the best, the crème de la crème. Schwarz was unscrupulous, vindictive, ruthless, poisonous, cunning, honorable (in their own twisted way) and every other 'negative' term associated with the bad guys. They were loyal to eight things. Firstly, the team, secondly money, thirdly, themselves, fourthly, money, fifthly, their agent, sixthly, money, seventhly, Dad, eighthly, money.

Money made their world go round. They worked for it, lived for it, killed for it. Unlike the agents of Mom who were; honorable and etc (every other term associated with the good guys), over worked, under stuffed, under paid, permanently on call despite being the third highest ranking officers under Mom, Dad's agents had life easy.

Mom and Dad usually did not clash, but this time, it was necessary. The two teams were sent on a mission to stop each other from trying to stop Voldemort from coming into power by their own personal ways. Weiß was sent to protect, while Schwarz was sent to destroy. Who would win the power struggle? Who knows. What makes it even more interesting is that they all have to go back to school. The school? Its name is Hogwarts…