Narration is in italics

Chapter one

Darkness crept into Hogsmeade under the cover of night. Slipping past guards and sliding under doorways as silently as the smoke it so resembled. No one knew it was there, not even when it slid into mouths and down throats, lodging itself into brains and leaching away life. Slowly, so to avoid detection. The remaining darkness left the town and crept its way down the cobbled road to the castle atop its hill. It moulded itself into the stones of the castle, seeping into the very foundations that the ancient school rested upon. By the time dawn crept over the horizon and began chasing all vestiges of night into the corners of the world, Hogwarts was under siege...and nobody knew it.

But now let us leave the doings that were done by the servants of the night and focus yourself on the castle on the hill. Many an airplane flew over it without spying it, many a person walked past the village of Hogsmeade without seeing anything amiss. And it was all thanks to a wonderful chap by the name of Dumbledore, the only person Voldermort was scared of and the reason why nothing evil could get inside Hogwarts. Sadly the old fellow was dead. Luckily the wards he erected around the school for witch craft and wizardry was not. And until about five minutes ago did a wonderful job of keeping the things that go bump in the night away. Unfortunately darkness is not wholly evil and therein lay the loophole into breaching Dumbledores wards. And so breached it was, because where there's a loophole there's a way

And now let's turn back time to about...hmm...let's say the beginning of the first age, you know the one before the various ice ages and bronze ages and various other ages of metal. You know the age after the age of stars, the one with all the wars? No? Ok let's just call it Arda when the Feanorions were hunting down silmarils. This is where the darkness began, well actually it began a long time before the first age when Melkor became Morgoth, but the first age is when it becomes relevant. The darkness used to be called unlight, the opposite to sunlight and just light in general. To get lost in unlight ment almost certain death, not even the most bravest and wisest were spared the trap.

And now let us go forward in time, back to the castle in Hogwarts or more specifically the children inside, after all they are who the story is about. And now dear readers for now my job is done and I shall leave you to the story...

"Careful Harry"

"Shh Ron, be careful youself"

"Be quiet both of you!"

"Hermione!"

"Who goes there?" Asked the particularly nasally voice of Snape, but all tat answered him was the silence of too may people trying to be quiet. "Come out Potter…I know you're here somewhere".

Nothing

Snape was suspicious…but then again Snape was usually suspicious and Harry Potter was always trying to sneak around so nothing else was new here. In fact the two enemies considered it a sort of game between them. It was really quite silly but there you go.

"Hmn", was Snape's suspicious mumble before the potions master turned on his heel and, skirts flying, marched off in the opposite direction.

A sigh of relief came from behind an old ratty tapestry and seemed to echo along the hallways. Out of sight Snape stopped, turned around, and tip toed back the other way.

Meanwhile, Hermione opened up the room of requirement and the three students slipped quietly inside. The big door slid shut behind them. Other students were already there, waiting as patiently as a group of students ready for another 'Defence against the Dark Arts' lesson could. Another session of DA was about to commence and no toad faced teacher was going to stop it.

On the opposite side of the Castle, Said Toad Face sat in her horribly pink room on her horribly pink fluffy armchair. Interviewing a particularly nasty treacherous git.

"So…" said Doloris Umbridge sweetly, tapping her fingers upon the shiny desk. "You are Marietta Edgecombe, am I correct?"

A fine layer of sweat coated the girl's forehead and upper lip as she tried to steel herself to say what she must say. "Yes", she said in a voice barely above a whisper. Clearly the girl wished to be anywhere but here, observed Doloris. But something has compelled her to speak out.

"And what is it you want to ask me, girl?"

"Not ask…tell". Another flicker of uncertainty danced across Marietta's face before disappearing under a mask of resolve and…was that desperation. "But first you must swear that you will protect me", she begged.

Despite herself, Doloris was intrigued. "Why?"

"Because a lot of people will be very angry with me…maybe angry is too light a word to describe how furious they are going to be".

Well, well, well. Could this be the lead she had been searching for? "You have mine and the ministry's full protection…now go on".

"Dumbledore's army are meeting in the Room of Requirement…tonight". And then Marietta shrieked in agony, collapsing onto the floor as pussy boils and large pimples boiled and roiled onto her previously perfect skin. Doloris watched with a sort of grotesque and perverse fascination as the word traitor branded itself onto the girl's forehead, sending wisps of smoke up into the air.

At last the spell ceased and the girl's face ruined beyond hope of healing and Marietta collapsed into a sobbing heap at the foot of a chair. Doloris's face twisted into a sneer as she strode past the girl and called for Severus…she had no time for traitors.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore's army readied themselves for the greatest spell any of them would ever cast. Hermione drew the pentagon on the floor in chalk while Neville and Luna lit the sticks of incense. They were going to open a window into the past.

Harry stood back and surveyed the working students with satisfaction. It had been Hermione's idea to open the window and at first Harry had opposed it, saying that the past is better left alone. Hermione had argued, saying that the spell was a simple one and that they weren't actually going into the past…just taking a peek. For the spell to work, she had said. All you needed was a pentagram- just in case someone tried to get through the pentagram was there to repel them- some incense and an object from the past you wished to visit. Hermione had eventually convinced Harry, with the help of Ron, and so here they were. The object they were using was a piece of Ron's broken wand, they didn't want to go too far back during their first foray into time magic.

At last, preparation complete, the members of Dumbledore's army stood in a loose circle around the pentagon and linked arms. Harry, flanked by Ron and Hermione, began reciting the first part of the spell, the first of three he had learned off by heart.

'Dominus tempore suscipe humiles intrusione mtua domain. Quae simplex olim velit nunc concede'.

Unnoticed, a slither of darkness detached itself from the wall and edged warily towrds the pentagram.

Hisses of suprise echoed around the chamber as the chalk lines began to glow faintly, each of the points emitting a light that arched upwards in faint lines as it connected with the others.

'Cumad noset ostende nobisom nelig numerat'

Ron nudged the piece of wood with his foot, kicking it up and over the chalked lines and into the centre. A filmy sheen rose upwards to the arching lights and the stunned audiance of wizards and witches watched as a black nothingness filled their window.

The slither of darkness edged closer, it was almost at the pentagon.

'Tumquod Dominus ostendit nobis, quae nos a malo humoreer atut excludatur.inincanta toresest nunc perfecta.'

Hermione spotted the slither of darkness too late.

"Harry, break the spell!" She screamed and Dumbledore's army dropped their linked arms. However, it was all too late for the darkness had already pounced, scraping a thin line through the chalk as it knocked the wood aside. The spell was complete…they had their window.

Dumbledore's army watched in horror as a forest scene formed, giving them a clear view of the young boy on a horse galloping towards them at high speed, looking behind his shoulder and laughing his head off. He turned, giving the students a clear view of his fair face as it twisted into horror. The stallion bucked, throwing the boy forwards…

…the great doors crashed open and a triumphant Doloris strode in. Only to stop in horror as the cogs in her brain began to work and she figured out what the students had done. She lifted her wand and began the desperate incantation to close the window.

'dominus tempus claude fenestram'

…The window began to collapse in on itself, but not before giving the wizards a clear view of the boy's companions as they watched in terror as the child crashed through the window. The gate way closed with a snap, leaving the poor boy lying spreadeagled in the pentagram. One slender hand lying over the chalk.

Doloris's voice cut through the panic and guilt. "Get him to Dumbledore's office…NOW".

TBC