Prologue
Muggles Macabre

There are a fair few people in this world who are so wrapped up in themselves that they can see nothing beyond their own disgraceful noses. They care nothing for the well-being of others, and lead very dignified lives, at least in their own minds, seeing as a nice home, nice job, nice car, nice wife, and nice children is all a man could ever want in life, of course. What does every self-absorbed, pompous London schoolboy dream of except to become an accomplished businessman, banker, doctor, or attorney? We can't really blame them for that, though, because they have simply grown up in such a manner as to be expected to accomplish such "great" things, so I suppose we should blame their fathers. Well, no, we can't really blame them either, for who taught them the meaning of materialism but their fathers, and their grandfathers before that? No, only society is to blame, and if society is to blame, then I suppose it shall never change, now will it (at least in England, that is)? So, in short, those self-absorbed entrepreneurs cannot be blamed – that's simply the way it is.

Mr. Edward Ackerly, VI, esq., was one such person. Educated first in a Cambridge prep-school, then moving on to study at a Cambridge University, and finally finishing at a Cambridge law school, Mr. Ackerly held his head high in court, a well respected individual in society. Moving back home and living at the family manor, Mr. Ackerly received a position as an attorney at Blackwell Sanders, a large, respectable law firm in London at the age of twenty-seven. Three years of perspiration later, Mr. Ackerly made partner, and married a most curious woman, Judith Perkins.

Mrs. Judith Perkins Ackerly was a woman of class, prestige, honor, and, most importantly, wealth. From the moment he set eyes upon her across the ballroom at an eloquent dinner party wearing a shimmering navy dress, black as night, which almost matched her eyes, Edward was smitten. They married, and Judith was soon expecting a baby boy. However, the doctors diagnosed Judith with a chronic disease which would make childbearing very dangerous. Though she had the highest medical care, even the doctors at Barts and The London could not help her, and she died while giving birth to her baby boy, whom she named Stewart just before her death after her father, Piers Stewart Perkins.

Edward was crushed by Judith's death, so crushed that he could not even bear to look into the eyes of his son – those same eyes which had been so mesmerizing on the late Judith, but were purely haunting on little Stewart. Three months later, Edward gave Stewart to a Catholic orphanage, unable to look at those eyes.

Stewart never saw his father again.