Northern Lights

by barnettdidit

Three years after the first of many Obscurial massacres after the war, Hermione Granger is on the cusp of getting promoted to Head of the Obscurial Elimination Division. She only needs to finish one last job in the rural Norwegian north with Draco Malfoy, who just returned after a mysterious three year absence from England, and she is determined to get it done, no ifs or buts.

1. Prologue

Excerpt from "An Introduction to Obscurials, Obscurus' and the modern phenomenon of deadly beasts", the 2000 Edition, by Earnest MacLeod:

Obscurus [def]: the manifestation of a young wizard's magic, resulting in a dark and parasitic force. Created through the child's conscious or forced repression of their magical abilities, usually caused by physical or psychological abuse. The obscurus may manifest as a separate entity that erupts in a violent, destructive fury.

Obscurial [def]: the child that developed the Obscurus, also called a host. Once the Obscurus takes control, the host rarely survives past the age of ten.

Intro Chapter:

The modern Obscurus differs greatly from those born from medieval times, when witch hunts and anti-witch trials were household practices.

Whereas the traditional Obscurus responded to, and was triggered by, its cause – the person whoever physically and psychologically forced an Obscurial to repress their magic – the modern Obscurus seems to be more random, less focused, unable to direct its parasitic energy onto one specific point. It is a strong-minded force with nowhere to go but into itself, and so anyone could fall victim to its destructive, violent fury.

The cause of the modern Obscurus is not known. It is a global phenomenon, unprecedented and unforeseen, impossible to detect ahead of an attack. Only a few things are known; they are always lethal when in contact with a witch or wizard, unpredictable and thus, far too dangerous to handle on one's own.

This makes the modern Obscurus impossibly more dangerous than the traditional one. For no one knows what may trigger it to attack, except the proximity to another witch or wizard, it is impossible to detect what is to blame for its development.

Obscurials are incurable. They are not in a state of disease, so there is no way to heal them from the Obscurus. The only way to neutralize the threat they pose is to detect and remove them from society. Why they develop, and how to keep them from inevitably killing the Obscurial – or possibly more – is for now, virtually unknown.