Dawn and Dusk Chapter 1
Hello everybody! Iskander Mandoraekon here with another story idea. Though one I've been sitting on for a very, very long time.
The year is 1994.
The Triwizard Tournament is just beginning, when James Potter takes his daughter to the Ministry of Magic to give her a sneak peek at the potential Triwizard Tournament he is helping set up between Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Father and daughter are greeted by the ever happy, ever incompetent Minister Cornelius Fudge, who is always ever eager to please.
Primrose Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, and the only surviving member of the Potter twins wants to see the prophecy that started it all. Voldemort's downfall. Her brother's death. Her parents' near deaths. Her celebrity status filled with adulations from all around her. So, they head into the Department of Mysteries to visit the Hall of Prophecy.
Only something is wrong.
Primrose finds the prophecy detailing Voldemort's downfall, however… she can't lift it.
The Wizarding World is shocked and in shambles! The Girl-Who-Lived is a fraud! A liar! The true Child of Prophecy! The true Child-Who-Lived! It is her missing twin brother, Harry James Potter, who is not as dead as the Wizarding World was led to believe when Albus Dumbledore declared the surviving twin as the child of prophecy in 1981. After all, there was nothing left of poor Harry Potter after Voldemort's failed attack on the Potter Cottage!
Immediately, search parties of all kinds are sent out to locate and retrieve the missing Potter heir while a smear campaign is run against poor Primrose by the Ministry despite Dumbledore, Sirius and Lily's attempts to ward off the anger of the unintentionally deceived public.
The public doesn't care that Primrose and even Dumbledore were duped themselves, just that they'd been lied to for thirteen years!
When a ritual to retrieve Harry fails after failing to locate him through mundane means, Dumbledore turns to the last available option… an option that is heavily guarded by their distant cousins of the Magus Association.
Now begins the motions for the beginning of the Great Britain Holy Grail War!
Read up and I hope you guys like it. This story will be part of a greater whole with the other story being worked on as I write and you read, though that story won't be posted until this one runs its course.
Also, I know I made a previous story with the title of Dawn and Dusk. But that one was stalled and going nowhere, so I reinvented it for this purpose since I didn't really want to waste time coming up with new names for the Factions that will be taking part in this story.
I do not own Harry Potter or the Fate series, that right belongs solely to J.K. Rowling and Kinoko Nasu.
-Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts Castle; 1995-
"Greetings Minister!" Dumbledore smiled widely beneath his long beard as he flicked his wand to open the door to his office just as Cornelius Fudge raised his hand to knock on the ancient wooden frame. "Come in. Come in."
"Professor Dumbledore." The Minister of Magic nodded his head respectfully before pulling off his lime-green bowler hat from his head to rub his hand fretfully against his forehead. "Is it done then? Were you able to obtain… the You-Know-What?"
"Of course, Minister." Dumbledore's smile became secretive as he decided to amuse himself by following Fudge's attempt at discretion. Like the portraits on the walls would betray any headmaster. "Would you like to see it?" The older of the two wizards didn't wait for an answer to his rhetorical question as he rounded his desk.
Why else would the Minister of Magic make his way all the way to Hogwarts for anything else?
The headmaster brushed past the two Aurors trailing the Minister and silently led the Ministry group down the flight of stairs that led to his office.
"W-Was it difficult to obtain, Professor?" Fudge asked after several long minutes of awkward silence just as they arrived on the second floor.
"Only a little." Dumbledore admitted as he came to a stop outside the second-floor girl's restrooms and gestured for the younger man's two guards to remain outside. "It went off without a hitch for the most part aside from finding a way to move such a massive object without being seen by the muggles out of the city it was placed in and move it across Eurasia."
"I will never be able to get over the fact that the Chamber of Secrets that the wizarding world search for, for over a thousand years…" Fudge said as he watched Dumbledore activate the sinks, with the one the older man stood in front of sinking into the floor. "Was hiding in the girl's restroom…"
"I agree." Dumbledore smiled ruefully as his blue eyes glanced back at the Minister with mirth. "It certainly brings into perspective what types of inclinations Salazar Slytherin may or may not have held."
Fudge grimaced at the thought of the idol of all Slytherin House being a pedophile. There were many purebloods that would be more than happy to flay a man alive if such a thing was heard.
Despite his advanced age, Dumbledore had no qualms jumping down into the large pipe entrance and was reluctantly followed by Fudge.
A few more minutes later of tense silence as Fudge fought the urge to race back to the surface with each crushed bone beneath his feet and the sight of the gigantic basilisk skin, and Dumbledore led the Minister of Magic into the legendary Chamber of Secrets. It's once sealed door that only a parseltongue could get through was off its hinges and set off to the side of the entrance.
Fudge felt his breath be snatched away at the sight of the legendary chamber, just as he had felt five years ago when he'd first set foot inside the Chamber after being informed of the Girl-Who-Lived finding the long-lost location and slaying the Monster of Slytherin.
The thought of 'the Girl-Who-Lived' soured his mood slightly as he remembered the incident a year prior that had dire revelations for the wizarding world and acted as the overall catalyst for this blatantly dangerous move they'd made against their distant cousins.
He banished those thoughts from his mind as his eyes landed on the massive object that occupied the space that Salazar's statue once stood in.
It was a massive, orb-shaped magical artifact with a great opening at its front that revealed a set of five beautiful women carved in its center. Even from far across the room, he could feel the sheer magical power wafting off of the artifact that promised the fulfillment of a wish.
This was the Greater Grail of Fuyuki.
"It's beautiful…" Fudge muttered as he found his gaze trapped by the artifact.
"That it is." Dumbledore agreed as he smiled in amusement at the politician's shock and awe. "It is such a shame that our barbaric cousins, the magi, were the ones to create such a marvel."
Almost instantly at the mention of their counterparts in the supernatural world, the Magi of the Magus Association, Fudge snapped out of his daze and shuddered at the very real thought of running into one of those amoral monsters. He didn't think that even the Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, was as bad as the monsters running around the Clocktower.
He'd had the misfortune of having several meetings with the Moonlit world during his tenure as the Minister of Magic for the British Wizarding Community, and each time had been enough to make his stomach turn and his blood freeze.
Especially when he had the misfortune of meeting the Wizard Marshall once…
Fudge still shuddered at the memory of the trauma that blasted vampire had put him through…
Too much yellow…!
Too much giggling and talking…!
"-and we'll be ready to commence the summoning rituals in a year's time at the latest." Fudge flushed slightly when he realized he had zoned out when his thoughts had turned to the Magus Association and had missed what Dumbledore had been saying.
"Do-Do we have the catalysts we need for the rituals?" Fudge asked as he tried to pretend like he'd been listening. It wouldn't do to let people think he had ignored somebody as important as Dumbledore in these harrowing times.
"Yes, we have." Dumbledore nodded as he gestured to a desk that had been set up between a pair of the snake statues that dominated the walkway. "The only one that is currently missing is the summoning catalyst for your new Senior Undersecretary, Mr. McCrae. We initially had one suitable for the task, but he apparently has his sights on a specific one. I have been made aware that he intends to obtain his own catalyst for the ritual."
Fudge shook his head slightly in exasperation at Victor McCrae's antics. Sure, he liked the man much more than his prior Undersecretary, Delores, but sometimes, scratch that, a lot of the time, he wished he had gone with the pretty blonde that he knew was a plant from the Auror office. She'd investigate him sure, but at least he'd have something pretty to ogle at.
"Do we have all the Masters yet?" Fudge asked, turning his mind away from the fantasy of the pretty blonde being a naughty secretary for him.
"Of course." Dumbledore nodded as he picked up the broken shaft of an ornate, black staff with blue tribal markings decorating it and inspected it for a moment before putting it back down. "Aside from you and myself, as well as Mr. McCrae, our Faction will be hosting my potions professor, Severus Snape, as well as my Deputy, Minerva. We have you and Madame Bones from the Ministry, and of course, young miss Potter."
Fudge frowned at the last two names, Amelia, while the director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and technically his subordinate, was one of his rivals for the seat of Minister of Magic. That last one, however, was partially to blame for the whole mess they were in.
"Are you absolutely sure that you want to have Primrose Potter as one of the Masters?" The Minister asked with a slight tone of disdain. "She's already been exposed as a fraud."
"My dear Cornelius." Dumbledore chided the portly man sternly with a frown on his face as he turned to look down at the politician. "Miss Potter is not to blame for the misinterpretation of the prophecy. The mistake was all mine when I deemed that she was the Girl-Who-Lived all those years ago instead of her missing brother, after all, up until very recently everybody in the wizarding world was positive that young Harry Potter perished the night Voldemort attacked Godric's Hollow and that Ms. Potter was the child in the prophecy, after the revelation that she wasn't the subject the prophecy spoke of. There was nothing left of the poor lad after all."
Fudge flinched at the Dark Lord's name.
"Even still…" Fudge stated sourly directing a frown up towards the castle he knew to be sitting just above their heads.
It had caused an uproar just a little over a year ago when the wizarding world learned that Primrose Potter wasn't the real child of prophecy destined to vanquish the Dark Lord when she had failed to lift the prophecy orb in the Department of Mysteries while visiting the Ministry with her father James Potter just prior to her fourth year at Hogwarts when Lord Potter had been collaborating with the Department of Magical Sports and Games to bring the Triwizard Tournament back.
She was a nice girl to be sure, befriending anyone no matter what their blood status was, but it had been a great blow to learn that her fame was not her own.
It was even more shocking to learn that Harry James Potter, the girl's twin brother that everybody had assumed was dead for the last fourteen-and-a-half years, was not only, possibly still alive, but the true child of prophecy and Boy-Who-Lived.
Part of the last year had been spent searching for the missing Potter, only to discover that he was somewhat out of phase with their reality when an attempt to use an ancient and nearly forgotten ritual to summon him via the link in blood he had with the Potter family had failed, yet not failed. A byproduct of how he defeated the Dark Lord perhaps. And then the esteemed headmaster had gotten wind of the Holy Grail War that took place in the far-off land of Japan from a source he wasn't sharing with the Minister.
The Grail War was supposed to be the Fourth of its kind and in their urgency to capitalize on the opportunity, Dumbledore interrupted the ritual by stealing away the Greater Grail before the participants could, well, participate.
The intent was to cause a Great Holy Grail War between the Wizards and the Magi in order to prime the powerful magical artifact into locating and returning Harry Potter to his rightful place as their protector, and failing that, to send a group to his location to bring him back.
Fudge had offered up the simple idea of wishing for the Grail to eradicate the Dark Lord wherever the mad man may be hiding, but Dumbledore had been adamant that only Harry could truly defeat Voldemort and to try defying the prophecy could invite potential calamity to the wizarding world.
Fudge had kept his opinion to himself afterwards.
"So…" Fudge grimaced as he broke the silence between them to get the discussion back on track. "You said it would take a year to prime it? Shouldn't it already be ready to go since the magi were intending to start their Holy Grail War just before your group stole the Grail?"
"Yes. It technically should be." Dumbledore nodded first to Fudge's words, then to one of the Unspeakables the Department of Mysteries had sent to study the powerful artifact. "However. When my Order removed the artifact from its resting place, we disrupted its connection to the Fuyuki city Leyline. Causing… how would Ms. Granger put it…? A software crash." Fudge shook his head at the headmaster's use of muggle lingo. "We've connected the Grail to the leyline that Hogwarts had been built on, however, it is recovering from the sudden halt to its function it experienced when we moved it and will need to recalibrate properly before we can commence with the Grail War we intend to host."
"…and what of the Magus Association?" Fudge frowned with a shudder. "Are they aware of who stole the Grail from Fuyuki?"
"Not as far as I am aware." Dumbledore shook his head at the politician. "I have an old contact from the War with Gellert that was an enforcer for the Association that aided our efforts in bringing down Gellert that I meet with from time to time to keep up with any troubling news that might involve both of our respective societies. As of right now, the Association knows that the Grail is missing; the Tohsakas, Makiris and Einzberns are causing an uproar in their investigation, but they have no leads and no suspects as of yet."
Fudge wiped the sweat from his brow. "That's good."
The two leaders of the British wizarding community sank into companionable silence for a few long minutes as both examined the awe-inspiring artifact dominating the Chamber. Eventually, Dumbledore led the Minister back up to the girl's bathroom and then up to the Entrance Hall.
"Is there anything I should have the Ministry do to prepare?" Fudge asked grimly as he stood just outside the entry to the castle, wringing his bowler hat as he glanced back at Dumbledore.
"Not as of yet." The headmaster smiled while shaking his head at the nervous wizard. "As I mentioned, we have at best a year before the Grail is fully acclimated to the leyline and is fully functioning. Just leave it to me. By this time next year, the Grail War will have begun and the first step to finally ending Voldemort's threat will be underway."
Fudge nodded to the older wizard's words and motioned for his auror guards to follow him.
After watching the Minister reach the edge of the castle grounds and vanishing in an apparition, Dumbledore turned his blue gaze towards the horizon, his smiling lips set into a frown. It troubled him that he had chosen this path considering the damage it would cause once underway, but he could only hope that when the war did happen, that the wizarding world would triumph over the magi.
-One year later; Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts Castle; 1996-
Primrose Potter wringed her hands fretfully as she paced the vastly changed Chamber of Secrets, her red hair occasionally falling over her emerald eyes as she tried to avoid the gazes of nearly everybody occupying the Chamber.
This wasn't the first time she'd been down here over the course of last year since her father and Uncle Sirius had returned from helping Dumbledore steal the giant orb from Fuyuki. But this time was different. This time the long anticipated Great Holy Grail War would begin.
And she was chosen as one of the Masters for their 'faction'.
Primrose hadn't been much of a conversationalist to people outside her closest, remaining friends and family since the revelation that she wasn't the child spoken of Trelawney's prophecy, and had greatly changed from the extrovert Quidditch star seeker to an introvert that actively went out of her way to avoid people.
Especially former friends.
"Hey pup." Speaking of family. Her godfather and adoptive uncle, Sirius Black, sidled up to her with a gently smile on his roguishly handsome face, his hands pulling slightly at the front of his uncomfortable robes. "How ya feeling?"
Primrose smiled at her favorite uncle. He'd been one of the very few people that hadn't changed his opinion or interactions with her since her failure to lift the prophecy orb.
Even her father had changed.
"A little nervous…" The Potter heiress admitted as she graced her godfather with one of her rare, nowadays, smiles. "I'm not even sure I should even be part of this. You or papa would be a better choice, mama even."
Sirius smiled wistfully as he patted the girl on the shoulder. "Yeah. Well, ultimately, you are the one the Grail chose." He gestured to the otherworldly red markings on the back of her right hand, which she began wringing again at the sight of. It had been nothing but trouble when those blasted symbols appeared on her hand, just when she'd gotten used to the whispers and looks of her peers for 'lying' to them all these years, and yet again she found herself the center of attention, and it wasn't because her father had snuck her name into the Goblet of Fire this time.
She exchanged a glance around at the other Master candidates gathered in the Chamber. Most were keeping to themselves, preparing for the coming summoning, though there were a couple that were looking at her like she didn't belong there.
Primrose didn't think she belonged here…
She was just a Faker…
Sirius frowned and nudged her when he noticed she was spiraling back into depressive thoughts. "Buck up, kiddo." Strong arms pulled the shorter redhead into a tight hug and Primrose pressed her face against her godfather's shoulder. "Everything will be all right. Don't let anyone else tell you how to be. Not Fudge. Not random strangers. Not your former friends. And definitely not your pop. Not even Dumbledore. Just be yourself, and I know you'll get through this."
"Now." Sirius pulled back and used his thumbs to wipe away the tears falling down her cheeks. "How about you show me this fancy catalyst Dumbledore arranged for you."
Primrose lightly smiled at Padfoot's infectious enthusiasm. She led the man over towards where her specific summoning circle and catalyst had been drawn and set out by one of the Unspeakables. "It is a dragon's scale." She informed Sirius as she opened the case to reveal a dark grey scale that was almost fossilized. "Professor Dumbledore believes it to have belonged to the legendary dragon Fafnir, and that it had fallen off when the dragon slayer Sigurd slew it. And had it brought here from northern Norway."
Sirius whistled at the sight of the ancient scale.
It may have been separated from the greater whole a very, very long time ago, but he could still sense a powerful ambient magical energy wafting off the remnant.
It just goes to show the might that the dragons of old wielded compared to the paltry remnants that lived on the reserves in the modern age. The wizards certainly wouldn't have thought it a good idea for their champions to fight a dragon in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament if they'd retained such levels of power.
"So, you're intending to summon the Dragon Slayer himself, huh?" Sirius hummed as he looked over the catalyst with subtle envy. He almost wished that he had been chosen by the Grail to participate, but quickly stifled any jealousy. His beloved goddaughter was going to be on the front lines in a very dangerous war and he wasn't going to act like Prongs was acting.
"I guess." Primrose shrugged helplessly.
"You will do fine. Potter." A new voice drawled out from just in front of them, leading to two pairs of eyes looking up to see the dour face of the resident potions professor standing just outside the drawn circle, a vial of mercury in his grasp. The seemingly severe Snape nodded almost imperceptibly at the troubled redhead. "Just keep your eyes on the goal and you will do just fine."
Sirius scowled lightly at his old schoolyard nemesis but kept the scathing remark he wanted to say to himself. He and Snape may not see eye to eye on just about anything, but Lily's recent re-friend was trying to be helpful to Primrose, so the Animagus would mind his own business.
"Thank you, professor." Primrose nodded, getting a grunt in return as the professor set about filling in the lines of the ritual circle with the mercury in his hand.
He and Lily may have rekindled their friendship recently, and he may be striving to be nicer as a result, especially to Lily's daughters, but he was still an anti-social man who'd spent the last decade and a half avoiding positive contact with his students and peers.
"May I have your attention please?!" Dumbledore's voice sounded out across the Chamber, getting everyone from the chosen Masters to the helpers to turn their focus onto the headmaster where he was standing on a raised dais in front of the summoning line. Just behind him stood an ethereally beautiful young woman with long white hair coupled by a crown and a veil covering her face from view. She wore a black dress that exposed her navel and abdomen and was lined with blue.
That was the Caster-class Servant of their Faction and the first Servant summoned by their side in the newly ignited war. Dumbledore had summoned her two days prior and her first act had been to annihilate the force of seventy-five Enforcers the Magus Association had sent in an attempt to subdue the wizarding faction and regain the Great Grail after Dumbledore had confessed to the Magus Association that he'd been behind the theft of the Fuyuki Grail and had declared the commencement of the Great Holy Grail War against the Magi.
The power of just one Servant was terrifying. And the headmaster expected her and the other Master candidates to summon a Servant of their own.
"Do I have everyone's attention?" Dumbledore asked in a kind, yet redundant fashion. "Good. Now, we are about to commence with the start of the Great Holy Grail War. All preparations have been met, we have all the catalysts that we need and the circles are set. In a moment, all of you will summon your own Servants."
"What about Undersecretary McCrae?" Madame Amelia Bones asked from where she had been standing by her own circle, conversing with the tall, dark-skinned brickhouse known as Kingsley Shacklebolt. The stern woman's attention fully on the headmaster. "It does not appear that he is here yet."
"Mr. McCrae has obtained his catalyst." Dumbledore nodded to the director. "However, he ran into complications and will be summoning from his current location before joining us."
Bones frowned slightly before nodding.
"If everybody would please place their catalysts in the center of their circles, we can begin with the summoning." Dumbledore continued on while everybody, but the chosen Masters retreated from the summoning area, Primrose's eyes following Uncle Sirius when he moved to stand next to her mother and father, Lily smiled encouragingly at her daughter when they made eye contact while James remained stoic and distant like he had been acting ever since he discovered that she wasn't the real Girl-Who-Lived.
As if she'd betrayed him somehow even though she hadn't known the truth either until learning it at the same time.
Meeting his brown gaze, Primrose frowned and glanced away, refocusing her attention on the task at hand.
"Now then." Dumbledore announced once Professor Snape finished filling the last circle with mercury. "All Masters ready? Good. Then please incite the incantation I gave you all to read."
"Let silver and steel be the essence." Primrose began chanting alongside her fellow Masters, their voices echoing in the Chamber of Secrets, as she raised the hand bearing the command spells towards the summoning circle that began glowing lightly.
This was it. She was going to summon a Servant!
Such a daunting experience…
"Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation." They all continued chanting, a previously non-existent wind picking up in the Chamber as the circles began glowing brighter. "Let the Dawn be what I pay tribute to."
"By the gods…" Lily Potter muttered from where she was watching the summoning with awe alongside her husband and Sirius. Even James had dropped his cold exterior in surprise at the feeling of raw power that was washing over them all.
It was intoxicating for the watching bystanders, so Lily could barely imagine how it felt for the people performing the summoning.
"Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate." The combined voices of the Masters sounded like thunder amidst the rising level of magical energy the Grail was letting off. It was like experiencing the feeling of the Age of the Gods. "Let it be filled. Again. Again. Again. Again. Let it be filled fivefold for every turn, simply breaking asunder with every filling."
"Let it be declared now; your flesh shall serve under me, and my fate shall be with your sword." Primrose shuddered as she felt something latch onto her core and the feeling of something old and powerful scrutinizing her very being covered her. She was being judged. Yet she soldiered on. "Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail. Answer, if you would submit to this will and this truth. An oath shall be sworn here. I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven; I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell."
Dumbledore couldn't help himself as his lips spread wide in a smile beneath his beard. He and his Servant watched the summoning's with interest. The Heroes summoned forth wouldn't just be their allies, but they would also be beings from across Time and Space that had carved their very names into the fabric of history. The headmaster felt a thrill in his old bones at the prospect of meeting and conversing with an ancient hero and hearing the stories they could tell him.
"From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the holy balance!"
All five of the summoning circles exploded with blinding light and great clouds of smoke as the summoning reached its zenith.
Everyone within the Chamber of Secrets watched with rapt attention as the smoke cleared away to reveal five figures.
In front of Professor McGonagall stood a tall man with long brown hair that reached down to his shoulders, with a short beard gracing his jaw. His grey eyes held an intensity to them as he stared down at the witch that had summoned him. His attire consists of a set of red colored armor similar to a knight that had a spike on each shoulder, though his lower half was covered by a tartan kilt with red, black, and yellow colors. A fly plaid stretched up to and over his left shoulder, held in place by the spiked pauldron. And finally, upon his back was a large 13th century, two-handed claymore with a cross hilt. He stood a good foot in height over the tall Transfiguration Professor and his appearance screamed a wild nature.
Occupying the space in front of Madame Bones was a tall and lean young woman with vibrant purple eyes and long, silky black hair that partially covered her right eye. Her attire consisted of Lincoln green clothing and a dark green cloak, along with bandages on her wrists, and brown boots. Her back was adorned with a beautiful brown bow and a quiver made of boar hide that was filled with green-fletched arrows. She appeared serene, and those closest to her could detect a feeling of nature wafting off of her.
Placed directly before the sweating Minister Fudge was a tall, muscle-bound man whose skin was pulled tight across the surface of his powerful muscles. He was adorned with armor similar to the Ancient Greek hoplites, and across the surface of his skin were various red tribal lines. He wore a full-faced war helm with a red plume resting on top, and wrapped around his shoulders was a long, crimson colored cape. Attached to his left arm was a circular bronze shield with an A-design on the front and grasped loosely, yet tightly at the same time in his right hand was a simple spear. His very demeanor seemed to scream of overwhelming physical strength.
Presented before Professor Snape was an intoxicatingly beautiful woman with jet black hair and yellow eyes, her ears were strangely knife-shaped and longer than a normal human. She was adorned in a black gown that wouldn't look out of place in a royal court that left her shoulders bare. Wrapped around her shoulders was a great, black fur collar that was attached to a regal black cape. In the middle of her palms was a golden spike that connected to each other by a long black ribbon with gold trimming.
Lastly, before Primrose herself was a huge man adorned heavily with a full set of armor that looked to be made of bones of some kind and mixed with a black metal that gleamed wickedly. The great helm covering his head and face was designed in a draconic manner, with actual horns protruding from the sides and angling back. He stood even taller than the towering Scotsman that Professor McGonagall had summoned, and he was powerfully built from what Primrose could see through his armor. Black hair tumbled down to the center of his back and through the mouth of his helm, Primrose could see a beard covering his jaw and upper lip. Red eyes with a draconic slit shone from the eye holes in the helm. Attached to his back with a large triangular shield that resembled the bones his armor was made of, and beneath it, held securely to his back was a longbow made of bone, and a quiver filled to the brim with long arrows. A bearded axe rested on his right hip, and a set of daggers graced the other side. Lastly, his right hand held the shaft of a large lance made of a mixture of a black metal and what seemed like gold, but was different, that was even taller than he was.
"We are the Servants of the Dawn!" The summoned heroes all declared at the same time to the spectators, before in unison they knelt before their respective summoners. "Thou who hast summoned me! Art thou my Master?"
-In a remote location, Lower England-
"Such an interesting bit of magic." A voice hissed out smugly as baleful red eyes inspected the black-armored figure that now stood in the summoning circle he'd usurped from the original summoner. "To summon the ancient heroes of yore from the annals of history for a devastating contest. Marvelous."
The summoned Servant didn't say a thing in response to the wizard's words, though he could tell that the heroic spirit was scrutinizing him, though it would be hard to tell since the Servant hadn't moved since the summoning and was covered head-to-toe in a full, heavy suit of pitch-black armor, completely hiding any features from view. A long, crimson cape adorned the figure's shoulders and a large, clawed hand was grasped tightly around the hilt of a large sword.
"I am the Dark Lord Voldemort." Voldemort declared with a wide, cruel smirk as he spread his arms open in triumph. "And I am your Master. Name yourself Servant."
Off to the side, where Rudolphus Lestrange stood over him, William McCrae, the Minister's Undersecretary, scowled in anger and pain while clutching at the bloody stump that used to be his right arm.
He was supposed to be the Master of the newly summoned Servant but had been ambushed while in the midst of summoning the knight dominating the circle by the Death Eaters suddenly invading his home. Voldemort had used a cutting charm to remove his arm and had stolen his command spells.
"Ber-zer-kar!" A deep, rumbling voice that sounded a great deal like a growling dragon emitted from the helmeted head. An aura of madness erupted from the knight, making many of the Death Eaters sans the most deranged of the group flinch back.
Voldemort frowned at the madness-filled words. It would appear that there was madness muddling his new Servant's mind. Oh, he was sure the knight understood him perfectly and was capable of thinking, well, almost clearly, but it was severely affecting his communication ability.
"Well then. Berserker." Voldemort scowled at not having his question answered properly. "I look forward to your service. We have a war to win."
Greetings my friends! I hope you liked the start of that story. I have been sitting on this for a very long time, have fleshed out a lot of the timeline, plot and characters that I want to include, but have been trapped in how to officially start the story. Thankfully, I've managed to overcome that annoyance.
The Servants will be introduced properly next chapter, along with the Magus Association's faction, though I am sure you can recognize one or two of the ones I've selected. Though with that faction, there will be a lot of old and familiar faces.
That's all I've got for now. Iskander Mandoraekon is signing off once again! Stay safe!