--Prayer Of The Faithless, Chapter One--
The skies were dark and omnious as an endless number of corpses were scattered among the ground. The once-famous school of witchcraft & wizardry quickly turned into canvases of blood. A war had been raging between Hogwarts and a as-of-yet unknown enemy for nearly a year. Yet no matter how many times both sides fought, there was very little information that could be gathered. But, one thing was in fact certain: this enemy would not stop until Hogwarts was either conquered or in complete ruin.
High above the moonlit skies was a woman: her eyes were a soulless green, while her silver hair shimmered in the moonlight. She looked over this 'kingdom' and smiled.
"All of this will be Hers very soon," she said aloud. Turning her attention to some wizards & witches who had decided to join forces with the enemy for one reason or another, she quickly gave them orders:
"I don't care if you have to look all night! Search every area of this place until you find those damned brats!" In a flash, they had vanished.
Unbeknownst to her, hiding in the shadows of the forest were two young wizards and a very intelligent witch: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. These three had barely escaped with their lives thanks to Hagrid, but now they were being hunted down - more specificly, Harry - with a high bounty on his head.
"Harry, we can't stay here forever," Hermione said in a hushed whisper. "I think it's best that we should go ahead & get out of here."
"But we can't just leave them!" Harry replied. "There might be more survivors. We have to go back and - "
"For once, I agree with Hermione," Ron added. "Besides, we're already being hunted down by whoever's attacking us. And I thought You-Know-Who was scary!"
Hermione motioned for them to be quiet as a voice was heard:
"I'm hearing something from this direction. You two, comb over the area. If you find anything, report to me immediately."
Ron turned to Harry and pleaded, "C'mon, Harry! We've got to go now!"
Clutching his fists with his wand in his left hand, Harry reluctantly nodded. As much as he hated to leave any other survivors behind - if in fact, there were survivors, which was a scarry thought indeed for him - it seemed as if they had no other choice. Trying to be as quiet as possible, Harry, Ron, and Hermione slowly crawled away, for they feared being spotted if they just got up and left. This continued for a while, and when they thought it was safe enough, they got up and started walking around.
The forest was unusally thick with fog; because of this, they had been wandering for what seemed like hours; suddenly, they heard a loud 'THUD!' Ron had fallen to the ground out of exhaustion. Immediately, Hermione and Harry went over to help him up, though they could barely make him out through the fog's thickness.
"I've had it!" Ron yelled as the others helped him up. "If there's anything we need, it'd be a miricle - someone, anyone, to help us."
"Of course!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of this before?"
"Didn't think of what before?" Harry asked with a quisitive look on his face.
"Help, of course," she replied.
"Wait a second: you just realized thast we need help NOW!" Ron said in shock.
Hermione planted her hands on her hips and shook her head.
"Of course I have. What I mean is I just remembered a spell that I read about in 'Summoning Creatures and Other Magical Aides'. Supposedly, it allows one or more wizards to summon help from another world should a great crisis arise."
"And how exactly do we use this spell?" Ron asked.
"Simple. We stand in a circle, raise our wands into the air and shout 'Portus Helios'," she replied. "Since we're running out of options, I say we give it a try."
"Wait a second - what if this spell's a dud?" Harry inquired. "What if it doesn't do anything, or - "
"Let's face it, Harry. It's better than running around in circles here," Ron said. "Let's just go ahead and try this thing out."
Ron and Hermione did have a point: the only thing they'd been doing so far is running away. This was the time to finally fight back. Harry nodded, took out his wand, and pointed it into the air. After standing in a circle, Hermione and Ron soon followed suit.
"Okay, ready?" Hermione said. "On three: one, two, three - "
"PORTUS HELIOS!"
Out of the tips of their wands, white, silver, and pink trails of lights appeared and merged into a giant spiral of colorful lights. Just as quickly as it appeared, it flew up into the sky and vanished.
"Well, you got to admit, that was one hell of a light show," Ron said in awe.
"Indeed," Harry said. "Let's just hope this spell actually works."
"Let's also hope noone saw that light," Hermione muttered under her breath.
"Hmm?"
"Oh, i - it's nothing, Harry," Hermione replied. Still, she couldn't help but worry: she had a bad feeling that things would get worse long before they would get better.
End of Chapter One