Chapter 1- Origins
Long before mankind took its first steps upon the Earth, magic had existed upon the earth. An omnipresent force, with veins of its power flowing through the planet since its creation filling the planet with its power, veins that would eventually come to be known as leylines. Plants were the first to mutate from its presence, magical flora slowly growing near those leylines and spreading out from there. Animals were the next to adapt. Some creations simply mutated slightly, gaining enhanced abilities or a new unique gift. Other animals though, such as dragons and phoenixes, changed so heavily and completely that if magic were to ever disappear they simply wouldn't be able to exist.
Mankind, on the other hand, took far longer to evolve. Still, eventually they too began to adapt to magic. On rare occasions as time passed, magic mutated mankind's offspring, giving birth to an entirely new race. The very first of wizardkind was born onto the earth, able to harness and manipulate the magic that filled the planet. Slowly, the newly made wizardkind learned of the gift they'd received and found their place in the world. Wizards experimented, studied and practiced, learning how to wield the miraculous power they possessed. Over the course of millennia they created magical languages, discovered runes, and even researched other magical beings, all in the name of being able to understand their power.
Eventually, they succeeded in their quest. Wizards mastered their new power, the strongest of them becoming worshiped as gods. Across the world, wizards who had truly mastered their power were the strongest beings bar none. They were kings, gods among men. For how could a mere human be compared to a wizard who could slay entire armies by summoning a storm of lightning? How could even a dragon stand before the might of a wizard who had truly reached the peak of what magic could offer?
However, it was not to last. The greed so often attributed to mankind was not mysteriously purged from wizardkind when they gained their power. As wizards slowly reached the peak of what their abilities were capable of they craved for more, and turned on each other to get it. For nearly two centuries wizards waged an internal war, ravaging the earth. Forests were leveled, mountains split, plains that had once been grasslands turned into wastelands of ash, even kingdoms fell as wizards dragged their non-magical counterparts into their fights as nothing more than collateral damage. The greatest of wizardkind had slaughtered millions of non magicals in their duels as well as thousands of their own kind for daring to stand against them.
However, just as all things must, the might of wizards began to fade , falling victim to the only thing powerful enough to truly threaten them, themselves. For each wizard killed knowledge was lost, techniques once used to assist wizards in controlling their power were slowly forgotten, the knowledge of how to wield their power without them all but lost. The strongest of their kind having killed each other off. To make matters worse, they were a race on the verge of extinction, with much of their knowledge lost, and with it much of their strength.
Over millennia, wizardkind slowly recovered as their population grew once more, However, time did nothing to restore the knowledge that had been lost. Despite this however, all was not lost, tiny pieces of the various magical languages had survived, and through it they were able to piece together new techniques to use, and new spells to cast.. They created new ways to harness their power. The brightest minds remaining of their people even created a more efficient way to use magic, channeling it through wands crafted with painstaking effort in an attempt to reach the levels of power the mages of old had possessed. Despite their efforts though, wizardkind never quite reached the power it once had. Mages capable of truly shaping the earth around them on a whim were far rarer than they had once been, most of their kind trapped in mediocrity, unable to progress further.
Still, not all was well with the wizarding world. The ordinary humans had grown extremely fearful of them after the damage their war had wrought upon the earth and witch hunts slowly became more and more common. Eventually things came to a head when a famous and respected Seer, Rosemary Trelawney, foresaw the potential destruction of wizardkind if something wasn't done. Wizards across the globe united to find a solution in the famous Greenland Gathering of 1689. Some argued for war, however, the risks of heavy losses of wizards made the option a poor one. Firearms were on the rise and the vast majority of magicals at the time were unable to properly defend against one. War was hardly an option, especially so shortly after their population had decimated by internal fighting. Eventually a solution was proposed that all sides agreed with. Wizards must go into hiding, concealing all traces of their existence from their nonmagical counterparts. Several years later, their plan went into effect, with the last wizarding settlements finally being concealed and thus the Statue of Secrecy was enacted.- A History of Magic Volume 1 Chapter 1
Linebreak
It was one descendent of the very seer that had warned wizardkind of the danger non magicals posed, that Albus Dumbledore was on his way to meet at the Hogshead in order to interview as a potential candidate for a new divination professor. He was rather inclined towards simply discontinuing the class and reassigning the funds set aside for the position's salary towards elsewhere in the school, however, he felt the applicant deserved a chance. While difficult to learn, divination was a powerful form of magic. The problem with the class lay in the fact that the field was teeming with frauds, the classes' old professor being a prime example. The man had consistently pretended to divine students future's only to warn them of their upcoming untimely demise, calmly explaining that only he could save them from their fate. To make matters worse the previous school year, some students had actually believed him, soliciting his help with exorbitant amounts of money. The worst part of the matter was that the man was actually extremely skilled at divination when he wanted to put his skills to actual use. While Albus had fired the man promptly upon finding out and called for aurors to arrest the man for the scam he'd been running, the professor had conveniently fled Hogwarts several hours prior, simply leaving behind a note, this time predicting Dumbledore's actions and even the exact aurors who'd been present to arrest him.
Despite his rather poor history of the subject though, Dumbledore was more than willing to offer the applicant a chance to prove her skill in the subject. She was a descendant of a famous line of seers, including the famous Cassandra Trelawney, the very seer who had accurately predicted the exact date of the rebellion of Wizarding Britain's colonies in the Americas, as well as the infamous Rosemary Trelawney. Divination abilities were often passed down in families and while basic divination could be learned by anyone, being a natural born seer certainly helped in using the skills.
Pushing open the door to his brother's pub, the room went eerily quiet for a moment as all eyes settled on him. Quiet murmurs began moments later, the patrons of the bar no doubt recognizing him. Despite that though he noticed several of them had shifted their hands to their wands, and no one in the room had their backs to the door.
"The type to frequent this bar never were the fondest of me, but even then people here weren't this on edge around me before Tom began this war," Dumbledore thought with a sigh as he glanced around, taking note of his brother standing behind the bar, a rag in one hand and a glass in the other. A quick flick of his wand cleared the water his robes had accumulated during his walk from the castle. Whilst he enjoyed the rain as much as anyone could, he saw no reason to meet with his interviewee while dripping wet. He walked over to his brother, who still hadn't acknowledged him entering the pub, seeming as if he was focused on cleaning a particularly stubborn stain on the glass in his hand.
"Ah Aberforth, is the interviewee I told you I was meeting-" Albus began, smiling tentatively at his brother, only to be cut off.
"She's in the first room on right at the top of the stairs," Aberforth grunted out without waiting for him to finish, still not looking up from the glass he was wiping down. Albus stilled for a moment, shoulders slumping as his brother continued to refuse to look at him. Realizing his brother was once more refusing to give him the time of day, Dumbledore turned away from the bar doing his best to ignore the snickers coming from several of the bar's patrons at his misfortune.
"Oh Aberforth, will we ever be able to be as we once were?" He wondered to himself as he walked up the stairs. He never should've started that fight. He was mature enough nowadays to know that Aberforth hadn't been wrong in the least when he'd warned him of how he'd been changing for the worse back when he'd met Grindelwald. However, at the time he'd been a hotblooded young man and he'd let anger blind him. Dumbledore regretted it deeply, but there was little that could be done about it now.
Reaching the top of the stairs, his legs aching slightly from the effort, Dumbledore once more lamented the effect his age was starting to have on him. Moving towards the door Aberforth had indicated had his interviewee inside, a movement out of the corner of his vision, had Dumbledore's eyes scanning the hallway, only for rows of closed doors to be all that greeted him.
"Odd, but of little consequence I suppose, it must have been someone slipping back into their room," Dumbledore mused, turning his attention back to the door in front of him, knocking sharply. Several moments later the door cracked to reveal a timid looking woman poking her head out the door, eyes peering out and spotting Dumbledore at the door.
"Ah Headmaster! Just on time, always so punctual sir, I appreciate you making time for you to come interview me! Come right in!" Trelawney greeted him politely, a smile appearing on her face as she opened the door the rest of the way to invite him inside.
"Ms. Trelawney! Why I haven't seen you in almost 15 years my dear! How are you?" Dumbledore inquired politely, walking into the small meeting room, and taking a seat across from her as she sat down.
"I'm doing well enough I suppose, Headmaster, at least as well as can be expected given the state of England right now, we live in troubling times sir," She said with a sigh, slumping slightly in her chair.
"I'm glad to hear that my dear, though I'm afraid you're quite right about the troubling times we find ourselves in," Dumbledore replied genially, "Now my dear, what did you have in mind to showcase your divination skill to me? A scrying perhaps? Tarot cards?"
"Oh no sir, I have something far more impressive than that planned!" She answered excitedly, reaching down into the bag beside her chair and pulling out a magnifying glass.
"A magnifying glass? I'm not quick sure I follow Ms. Trelawney," Dumbledore said, genuinely baffled. As far as he was aware, the only methods of divination considered at all reliable for true divination were tea reading, astrologically, or through tarot cards.
"Your palm sir! I'm going to read your palm!" She explained, sounding even more enthused than she had previously. "Palm reading? She intends to impress me with that muggle parlor trick!? It's a fake method used to scam imbeciles among muggles! Surely she's joking," Dumbledore thought to himself in disbelief. Locking eyes with her, Dumbledore gently probed her thoughts, merely enough to understand her intentions. Fear, desperation, and shame shone through all the others. She was broke and had no other job options left. She was nearly entirely talentless and the job opening for divination professor had simply drawn her attention due to her family's impressive history in the art. Dumbledore rose to his feet with a sigh. He'd cleared time out of his day for a mere desperate scam artist. It seems the divination class will be canceled after all.
"I'm afraid that this meeting has no need to go any further, Ms. Trelawney. While I have great respect for your family's history in the art of divination, hence why I granted this interview despite your lack of recommendations, I'm well aware of the value of palm reading as a divination skill, namely that such a skill is entirely nonexistent from a magical standpoint," Dumbledore said calmly, despite feeling rather irked by the situation. He turned away from her right as her face crumpled into one of despair, the sound of slight sobs filling the room.
Mere moments later though, he froze in place as he felt magic fill the room, causing him to whip back around towards its source, flicking his wand to his arm from its position in its sleeve. Trelawney had frozen in place her eyes had glazed over and her face waxy as a strange aura of magic emanated from her. After a moment of eerie silence, Trelawney began to speak.
One with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches,
Born to those who have thrice defied the Dark Lord,
Born as the seventh month dies,
A mage shall fall before their might,
Yet the chosen shall be marked an equal,
Yet forged in hell the they shall rise,
A war to break the veil,
A duel to end all duels,
A single choice to decide it all,
One world to rise,
One world to fall.
Partway through Trelawney reciting what Albus was able to recognize as a genuine prophecy instead of the drivel she had been spouting before, shouting in the hallway began, reminding him to cast a quick privacy charm towards the door. Mentally, he cursed himself for not casting such a spell sooner. Depending on who had been outside the door and how close she'd been, at least part of the prophecy could be in Voldemort's hands within days. He stood in place, contemplating the lines of the prophecy. Some had been relatively straightforward, others had been… less so.
"Someone will be born at July's end with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, that part is at least somewhat straightforward. Born to those who have thrice defied the dark lord? Who has defied him thrice? A mage shall fall? There's only five currently alive outside of Tom and I. I'd wager my lemon drops it's referring to Tom. Still a war to break the veil? Does Tom intend to break the veil in the Department of Mysteries? For what reason? If not, what other veil is it talking about? The duel part is fairly straightforward, and the single choice line obviously goes hand in hand, but will the duel truly determine the fate of the world? Why are there two worlds mentioned? The ICW may ignore Britain's pleas for help whilst this war remains confined to the country, but that could change quickly if the statute of secrecy is threatened meaning Voldement shouldnt want the muggle world to become involved. How far away is the duel? I need to find this child and prepare them," Dumbledore pondered to himself, plans flashing through his mind rapidly.
He glanced back towards where Trelawney stood, seemingly coming out of her prophecy induced stupor. She certainly had absolutely no skill in divination, still, her ability as a seer required he find some way of protecting while still keeping her close, lest he miss out on another prophecy she may one day deliver. Settling on a course of action, he smiled slightly towards her as she looked around in confusion.
"On second thought Ms. Trelawney, the position is yours if you desire," He told her, his eyes sparkling madly.
"T-thank you Headmaster! Thank you!" She replied in joy, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes out of sheer gratitude; completely clueless to the prophecy she had just given to Dumbledore.
"In that case, I'll expect to see you in the castle two weeks before term starts in order to present me with your lesson plans," Dumbledore answered cheerily, hastily walking towards the door. Protecting her, while necessarily, didn't require him to spend any more time than the absolute bare minimum in the woman's presence. He pitied any students to take divination as a class in the near out the door of the small room and into the pub below, he saw his brother waiting outside the door.
"I'm not sure what all was being discussed in that little interview of yours but a man I'd bet money was a death eater was listening in on the other side of the door and he seemed mighty interested, I almost caught him but he managed to get past the wardline outside and disapparated," Aberforth explained gruffly. Albus paused slightly, pondering just how much of the prophecy Tom may have learned. Locking eyes with his brother, Aberforth understood his unspoken question, pushing a memory towards his mind with his admittedly limited legilimency skills. Watching it briefly, Dumbledore quickly recognized the man in question, one Severus Snape, a recently graduated Hogwarts student who, as his brother had guessed, Dumbledore recalled as part of the crowd that had become death eaters upon graduation. Interestingly though, he vaguely recalled the boy had a nearly obsessive crush on Lily Potter. Something he could use perhaps. It was something to ponder at least.
"Thank you for letting me know, I'll see you soon Aberforth," Dumbledore said politely, as Aberforth grunted and headed back into the pub.
Dumbledore began his walk back towards the castle, deciding the time to think would be better than simply apparating. Things had rapidly become a race to find this so-called chosen. Whoever it was that had defied the Darkness thrice before and had a child due in July, he needed to find them and fast, before Tom did. He couldn't allow yet another dark mage to rise due to his actions, not with how the last two had turned out. He needed to ensure they grew in the right way; that they followed the correct path. If he failed well… he wouldn't allow another monster to rise, one way or another. For the Greater Good.
AN: Hopefully you enjoyed the story so far, much like my other story I've started posting, I have the arcs for this one planned out, and its shaping up to be a long one. I plan for it to be roughly 300k+ words though that could potentially vary. Unlike my other story, I have a bit more prewritten on this one so the next chapter will be posted tomorrow instead of a week from now. Whether you enjoyed or not, please leave a review and tell me what you liked and didn't like, I'm always looking to improve as a writer. For those of you wanting to know, Harry will eventually become OP in this story, but it'll be a considerable length of time before he reaches that point. He won't be on Dumbledore or Voldemort's tier (which in this story I refer to as a Mage) until his fourth year, which is literally hundreds of thousands of words away.