A/N- Welcome to the new version of Harry Potter & The Mystic Squadron. I always intended to finish the old version but on review, I really didn't like it anymore. I've been meaning to do a full rewrite but I haven't had the motivation…until now.

Anyone familiar with the old version won't notice any major changes to begin with, in fact I'd say 60-70% of the story is largely the same. Few points to note, this story is set after Dino Charge. In addition its set in the same universe as my original Dino Charge story "Heroes Of Their Time". That will be come relevant later on. Hope you like the new version, be patient with it, like I said most of the first few chapters will be fairly similar to the old one.

Chapter 1 – Ancient Seals

The sun was beating down on the Gobi Desert. This remote part of China was amongst the desolate parts of the world but this didn't concern the shadowy figure walking across the sand. The man wore a long black robe that brushed against the ground and in his hand was a small wooden stick. He paused briefly and held the stick in the palm of his hand. It moved all by itself like the needle of a compass, almost like it was pointing him in the direction of his target. After a few minutes, the man came across a small pile of rocks and stopped. Underneath the hood of his robe he smiled before waving his arms in an elaborate gesture. The ground began to rumble as the rocks began to rise out of the sand until they formed an archway, "Perfect", the man hissed before walking through the arch.

In a flash the man had been teleported to another location. The room was lit with a few torches and water periodically dripped down the walls. Lining the walls were crude drawings of five different animals, a red dragon, a lion, a griffin, a unicorn and finally a phoenix. The man lowered his hood, revealing his pale white skin and bald head. His red eyes glowed as he rubbed his bony fingers across some Chinese symbols, "And they said this place was a myth", he snorted.

Lord Voldemort, the fearsome Dark Lord, had spent the last nine months obsessively searching for something to permanently remove the threat of his nemesis. Harry Potter had escaped his grasp at the Department of Mysteries, destroying the only copy of the prophesy in the process. The Dark Lord knew that the prophesy said that Potter possessed a power that he knew not. If he couldn't find out what that power was, then Voldemort would find his own mystical power, the likes of which the Wizarding World had never seen.

During his extensive period of research, he came across a reference to a tribe that lived in China thousands of years ago. According to his research, they could have been the original magical users. Wizards had obsessed for centuries about the origins of magic, numerous rumours littered various historic texts but this was the earliest reference Voldemort had found. Further research told him that the Gormal Tribe hadn't existed for several millennia, however, he did find several references to their possible home. After extensive travelling and numerous dead ends, Voldemort found himself in rural China. Almost as soon as the Dark Lord arrived, he could sense the radiant power coming from nearby.

Now he was in the lost temple of Gormal, a dark dank hole that hardly seemed fitting for the birth place of magic. He allowed the ambient magic of the temple to wash over him and quickly he pinpointed the presence that he sensed from the surface. It was hidden behind a stone wall but that wouldn't stop the most powerful Dark Lord of the century. One bombarda spell later and the wall had been turned to rubble.

Lord Voldemort quickly banished the dust and the larger pieces of debris until he saw something of interest. Behind the wall was an ornate chest that was locked with several giant bolts, "This is it", he said almost with reverence. He tried to pull the locks but nothing happened, even the standard unlocking spells didn't work. "I will not be denied", he boomed and pushed all his magic into the bolts. If Voldemort had stopped for a moment, he would have seen the paintings on the wall glowing behind him.

Suddenly the bolts flew off and the lid of the chest popped open. Voldemort looked inside but he couldn't anything. Crying out with rage, he was about to blast the chest to piece when the temperature in the room dropped by several degrees. The Dark Lord felt like all the air in the temple had disappeared as a faint glow began to emanate from the chest. A cloud of smoke and dust shot into the air and engulfed the Dark Lord but something told him not to fight back. He had to stop himself from coughing as the dust entered his body but soon he understood what was happening. He began to laugh manically; the Wizarding World would soon be his.

In a magical town of Hogsmeade in Northern Scotland, three teens exited a carriage and stepped out onto the pathway. The trio were students at the fabled Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, however, they had abandoned their traditional robes for muggle clothing today. The first was a tall red headed male wearing beige trousers and a blue long-sleeved top. Next out the carriage was a girl who was a few inches shorter than the boy. She had bushy brown hair, blue jeans and a yellow jumper. Finally came a messy haired teen with glasses. He wore black jeans and a grey hooded top with a red shirt underneath, "I still don't understand how you persuaded the Professors to let you out today Harry", the girl said to the boy with glasses, "I thought you still had detention for that incident with Malfoy".

"I dunno Hermione", Harry shrugged, "perhaps I got time off for good behaviour".

"Leave him alone", the other boy, Ron, smiled, "isn't there a muggle phrase involving horses that fits this situation".

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth", she recited automatically, "and no I don't know what it means".

"Wow something the great Hermione Granger doesn't know", Harry laughed, "this must be a first". Hermione slapped him on the arm but she was laughing along with Harry and Ron. The trio had been best friends for almost all their time at Hogwarts. Sure, there had been times when they had fallen out but their bond had remained strong for almost six years.

This year had been extremely challenging for all three of them. Classes had been getting harder, hardly surprising considering they were studying towards their NEWTS. There was also the ever looming presence of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eater. Harry was convinced that his long time rival Draco Malfoy had taken the Dark Mark and events had led them to a confrontation in the toilets. Harry had used an unknown curse that nearly killed the Slytherin, earning him several week's worth of detention. He was surprised that he was allowed to visit Hogsmeade at all today but he wasn't about to complain.

Perhaps the biggest strain on their friendship this year had been their romantic interests. Ron had finally dumped Lavender Brown which was a relief for the other two, especially Hermione. Her not so secret crush on Ron was exasperating Harry, almost to the point where he wanted to lock them in a broom closet so they could sort out their feelings. Harry had just begun a relationship with Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister. There had been the usual big brother style threats from Ron but Harry got the impression that his best friend was secretly pleased. He just did a very good job at hiding it.

"Right I think we should have some lunch at the Three Broomsticks before we do anything else", Ron clapped his hands together and marched towards the pub.

"Always thinking of your stomach", Hermione grumbled under her breath, drawing a small laugh from Harry. He suddenly stopped and rubbed his scar, it wasn't painful but Harry could tell something was wrong, "Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked with concern in her voice.

"Yeah, I think so", Harry began, "just a bad vibe that's all".

"That's the third time today mate", Ron called out, "I think Dumbledore needs to know about this".

"Yeah I'll do it when we get back", Harry replied absentmindedly. He hadn't told his best friends this but four nights ago, his scar caused him more pain than he had ever experienced before. Something told him that Voldemort was extremely happy but also suffering an extreme amount of pain. He also received some kind of vision but it was confusing, mostly consisting of sand, drawings of magical animals and weird symbols.

Harry remembered telling Professor Dumbledore about this the following day. The aged wizard said nothing initially, just leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face. After several moments he dismissed Harry and thanked him for sharing this information. The teen didn't know what to make of this response but eventually he pushed it to one side.

A few minutes later, the teens were sitting in their usual spot in the Three Broomsticks with a Butterbeer in front of them, "I think I'll have the Shepherd's Pie with extra chips", Ron said as he looked through the menu.

"How can you still be hungry", Harry shook his head, "we only had breakfast two hours ago".

"I'm a growing boy", Ron shrugged.

Suddenly the pub was rocked by several powerful explosions. Wooden splinters flew everywhere, bottles shattered on the floor and all the windows were blown out. The trio threw themselves to the ground as quickly as possible, "Death Eaters?" Harry asked the others.

"Seems like their type of attack", Ron replied.

"But in broad daylight though", Hermione added.

"Well I'm not going to hide in here", Harry announced and quickly ran for the door, closely followed by Ron and Hermione. Outside there were people running in terror and the smell of smoke filled the air. Harry spotted a familiar face heading in his direction, "Neville", he called out, "what's going on?"

Neville Longbottom had a look of fear etched on his face, considering he had faced down a dozen Death Eaters last year told Harry that this was serious. "I'm not sure", Neville stammered, "some kind of creatures, I've never seen anything like it".

"That's the residential area isn't it", Hermione asked her pudgy faced friend.

"Yeah but don't go down there", Neville called out but it was too late, the trio were already halfway down the road.

When they arrived, they found several bodies lying in the street, all residents of Hogsmeade. They looked around expecting to see Death Eaters but instead they were in for a nasty surprise. Marching through the village were dozens of black bodied humanoid creatures. Their bodies were styled to look like a tuxedo which the trio found a little strange. Their dark coloured heads were completely featureless except for a white patch where their mouths should have been, "What the bloody hell are these things?" Ron exclaimed.

"I'm not sure", Hermione replied, "I've never seen anything like them before".

"I don't fancy asking them", Harry pulled out his wand and fired a stunning spell at the nearest creature. To his horror the monster absorbed it without even flinching. He fired another stunning spell but again this had to effect, "Erm little help", he said to the others.

"Love to mate", Ron replied, "but nothing's working on them". Whatever spell they tried, the black suited creatures kept closing in on them. They used everything in their repertoire, apart from an unforgivable but they still kept coming. The nearest creature lunged for Harry but the black haired teen was able to dodge out the way.

"We need to run", Hermione called out and they slowly began to back away.

"No arguments from me", Ron replied and turned around, only to come face to face with more of the creatures. "Come on that's not fair", he cried.

"Quickly between those buildings", Harry pointed to a gap between two burning houses. The trio moved as quickly as they could, shielding themselves from the heat of the fires.

"They're right behind us", Hermione shouted as she looked over her shoulder. One of them grabbed her ankle and she fell face first to the ground.

"Hermione!" Ron cried and stopped to help her up but in the process one of the creatures punched him in the stomach before kicking him in the chest. The red head tumbled down an Earth bank, landing on a pile of branches.

"I've had just about enough of you", Harry said and grabbed a fallen tree branch and smashed it over the head of the nearest creature. It let out a horrible cry and fell to the ground completely immobile. He offered his hand to Hermione and helped her up, "That seems to be the secret", he found a branch and offered it to the girl, "hit them as hard as possible".

"I'm not sure if I can", she stammered.

"They just took out Ron", Harry replied, "use that as motivation".

"I heard my name", Ron crawled up the bank. He had blood pouring out his mouth but he was ready to fight, "that one's mine". He hit the nearest creature so hard that his branch broke in half. Another one tried to sneak up behind the red head but Hermione came to his rescue and smashed her branch across its back.

Ron smiled in appreciation before noticing that another creature was charging in from his right hand side. He lowered his shoulder and flipped the creature over his back. The creature sailed into the air and it landed face first on the ground. Ignoring the pain in his ribs, Ron grabbed a broken branch and stabbed it through the creature's body, permanently immobilising it.

"Alright now what", Hermione began, "we've used all of our weapons".

Harry looked around and his friend was right, there was nothing else to use in the immediate vicinity and they were a long way from safety. As the trio shuffled towards the top of the earth bank away from the dozen or so monsters, frustration grew inside Harry. He was about to die at the hands of these weird looking creatures and he was powerless to save himself or his friends. Three of the black suited creatures jumped towards the trio and instinctively, Harry thrust his hand towards them. To his shock, a small fireball flew out of his hand and struck the creatures. They cried out in pain before turning to ash, "Harry what did you just do?" Ron asked.

The black haired teen looked at his hand, "I have absolutely no idea".

TO BE CONTINUED