Harry Potter and the Order of the Mage

By B. Peter Adams

Chapter V: Setting Everything Into Motion

Shrouded in the shadows sat a grand throne, raised on great dais. The feet of this ceremonial seat took the form of two snakes, intertwined with each other; eight snakes supporting the structure. On the winged back was inscribed some words, unreadable by the vast majority of the population: "In Purity Lies Power."

The occupant of this throne sat, allowing the robed figures at his feet to bow, to grovel, to plead in favor of their continued existence.

"My master, what will you have us do?" whispered the one at his feet, as he kissed the hem of his master's robes. His master gazed upon his servant, and smiled. A malicious smile graced his lips, making any who dared look upon his face shudder in fear and revulsion. With a sweeping gaze around the throne chamber, he began to laugh. His laugh caused even the bravest amongst his servants to shrink in fear, their skin to crawl, a cold to set in the room.

"My dear servants," intoned the dark one at the head of the room, "today we assemble an army of the darkest, most foul creatures in existence. Tonight, our enemies will fall and I shall have my ultimate revenge. We shall set into motion a plan, that I have fostered within my mind for decades. Our collective enemies shall have no clue what hit them. Before they know it, their institutions shall fail, everything they know will crumble. And I shall rule supreme! Begin phase one, and I will begin phase two!"

With the implied dismissal, the host of servants left, most to do various tasks previously assigned to them. And the Master sat back and laughed.

"Hear my call, for I, Lord Voldemort will have my ultimate revenge…"

September 1, 1997

It had been more than a year since their friend had disappeared, and Ronald Weasley could not believe that Harry Potter was not here for their final year of Hogwarts. He gazed upon the scarlet engine that was the Hogwarts Express. This occasion was no longer as joyous as it once had been. Voldemort wrought havoc at every turn, eliminating families, tearing families apart, and shrouding all of Wizarding England in fear. Voldemort had gone on a rampage since Harry had disappeared.

As such, Aurors had been stationed on the Platform as a layer of security. They would ride the Express to Hogwarts with the students and patrol for threats: threats they all felt coming. Ron glanced towards his family, and gave his mother a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. Upon bidding goodbye, he, his sister, and Hermione boarded the train for Hogwarts. They walked the train, finally settling in the second to last carriage, where their friends Neville and Luna sat.

"Hey guys," started Neville, "rough summer?"

"Yea," answered Ginny, "It's been horrible, just training, waiting for the next attack to show." Ginny had greatly changed over the past year. While she had previously been a force to be reckoned with, she had trained herself into a ruthless warrior. With threats coming in from all directions, this group of five, commonly referred to as Potter's Circle, had thrown themselves into their training. They jointly operated the DA in Harry's absence. The DA had evolved into a respected gathering amongst the student body. They looked out for the safety of the students, patrolling and training as a kind of student army.

The train started to move, and the five of them continued to talk, trying to ignore the ominous feeling in the back of their minds. They knew that even with the Aurors here, there was still that chance of attack. And it made them uneasy. However, hours passed, the trolley lady came, and eventually they pulled into Hogsmeade Station. Every student got off the train and into a carriage; the First Years got into their boats for the traditional start of their Hogwarts careers. The carriages were half way to Hogwarts when the first spell was thrown, setting the first carriage ablaze. The carriage that the five sat in rocked as it abruptly stopped.

"Why'd we stop?" asked Ron, as he looked out the window, seeing the orange and red flickering of the blaze. "Merlin!" shouted Ron, "The carriages are being set on fire! Duck and roll!" The five of them immediately jumped out of the carriage, rolled to their feet, and simultaneously drew their wands, ready for attack. Suddenly, their carriage was lit ablaze by a blast of spell fire. Setting up some quick shields between them and the splintering wood, they sheltered themselves from the potential damage inherent in the shrapnel.

"Hurry, we need to take out the attackers! Get the other DA members to help the other students. We need to get them onto Hogwarts property where it's safe!" commanded Neville, who took control of the situation. The five of them fanned out, trying to find their comrades in the carnage. Neville crept towards the ruin of their carriage, which still smoldered from the fire. As he got nearer to the forest, he saw the spell-fire coming from an entire line of trees, which hid the attackers, who he assumed were Death Eaters, from view.

That was when he saw their assaulters. He saw the black robes and masks, so emblematic of Voldemort's followers. Without hesitation, Neville engaged the enemy, trying to take him out with a quick stunner. The spell hit its mark, but alerted the other Death Eaters to Neville's presence. Neville dodged the attacks from multiple angles, attempted to get back to the carriages, which could provide some kind of cover. A furious duel arose between some students and Death Eaters, while the younger students fled, with the help of some of the older students providing cover. But the tide was quickly turning. In favor of the Death Eaters.

"Shit!" exclaimed Neville, as he was backed into a corner. He had nowhere else to move if he needed to.

"Oh, is little Neville scared, does he not think that he will live?" asked the nearest Death Eater. Neville's blood boiled in anger as he recognized the voice, which belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange, the witch who tortured his parents into insanity. Suddenly a second wind overcame Neville, who struggled out of his corner, raining his opponent with spells and hexes. He quickly advanced on the woman, incensed. Just as he was about to overwhelm the witch, he heard a shout.

"Neville look out!" shouted Luna from across the field in which the battle took place. He quickly twirled on his heels, just in time to see a werewolf coming after him. He jumped to the side, just as the wolf was about to maul his face. Neville shifted his attention to the wolf, but quickly realized that Bellatrix had taken advantage of the situation, and started to attack him as well. Neville was now being backed into the corner that he had just vacated. Exhaustion was quickly overcoming him, attempting to defend against two simultaneous attackers at close quarters.

The werewolf lunged at him, and at the same time a killing curse was released; one of the attacks would ring true unless a miracle occurred. Suddenly, just as the wolf would strike, a blade appeared through its belly, carving up and slicing through flesh until it exited at the throat. Without pause, the blade's wielder deflected the killing curse with another sword, killing Bellatrix.

This mysterious man, Neville's savior, wore black battle robes, lined in red. The robes had several patches on the sleeves, denoting what, Neville did not know. On the man's shoulder were several pins, denoting, what Neville guessed was rank. The man bent down, and lowered his hood, looking at Neville with kind, brown eyes.

"Boy," he said, "we can take it from here. Take this portkey, which will transport you to Hogwarts. My comrades and I will begin an evacuation." The man did not give Neville any choice, simply handing the boy something, and he felt the familiar hook of a portkey behind his navel.

Neville appeared in the Great Hall, and immediately noticed the hysteria around him. All the students that had been evacuated by these strangers were running around trying to tell the professors what was happening. Just then, Dumbledore shouted for silence, and the entire congregation stilled. Dumbledore picked out Neville, who he recognized as one of the few with a level head, and immediately began to walk towards him.

"Professor," began Neville, "there's some kind of vigilante group out there fighting the Death Eaters. They're evacuating all the students that they can, it seems." Neville then looked down at his hand, noticing the shape of his portkey. It was a phoenix, gripping a miniature globe, which was wrapped by a snake, in its talons. The emblem was similar to one of the patches that he had seen on the man that had sent him here. He presented the piece to the Headmaster. "What can you make of this, sir?" Neville asked.

Dumbledore looked at the piece of metal in his hands, scrutinizing it closely. He began to pace, murmuring to himself; no person in the room had ever seen Dumbledore ponder something so much. Many had seen him deep in thought, but none had seen him react this way to a mystery. Usually he simply quietly contemplated the problem in front of him, giving his observers no clear indication what he thought. However, here, at that moment, he displayed his confusion for the entire Great Hall to see. His pacing, some thought, was beginning to wear a hole into the marble floor. It was almost like he was searching the edges of his memory for a piece of information, but it simply kept flitting out of his grasp. Every time his thoughts came close to an epiphany, the thought floated away, as if it didn't want to be known.

Dumbledore suddenly snapped his head up, and began to bark out orders to the other professors. "Count the students!" He shouted, "we need to determine how many students still need to be found! I don't know who this vigilante group is, but I trust them to send the students that they encounter this way."

He then promptly settled down into a chair, frowning over the medallion in confusion. Why couldn't he remember, he knew he had that information, somewhere in his mind. But his thoughts simply hopped right over it, very similar to how the muggles could not perceive the entrances to magical areas: their eyes simply skipped over it. And that was when the cause of his confusion became clear. Someone had done some sort of variation of these charms to hide a piece of information from him. While he knew the information, he could not access it until the correct circumstances came into being.

Dumbledore then did something that no person had ever seen him do: sigh in frustration, and bow his head in defeat. He realized that if whoever this organization was could protect information without him even knowing, there was no way for him to break the charm. And so, he decided, he would sit and wait until the time that they revealed themselves to him.

The Death Eaters attempted to scatter as soon as resistance presented itself, all while still wreaking havoc on the Hogwarts carriages. They posed a surprisingly organized and efficient force, taking out their targets as fast as they could.

"Bellatrix, take out that pocket of resistance over there!" ordered Lucious Malfoy, who had been put in charge of this mission. Bellatrix Lestrange went off to eliminate the few students in that area who were putting up a fight. Malfoy began barking out orders, all the while flinging curses left, right and center. Just as he was about to kill a young looking girl, Malfoy felt a sudden pain in his chest. He looked down briefly at the arrow that had pierced his ribcage. He looked up, just in time to see another arrow flying towards him. Thinking quickly, he apparated, back to his master, leaving his fellow Death Eaters to the fate of this mysterious enemy.

And that was when disaster struck. As soon as they began this assault, their numbers quickly began to dwindle. The unknown assailant quickly and efficiently took out the Death Eaters, by any means necessary. Some found themselves slain by archers from the woods behind them; others were cleaved in two by swordsmen. This group, of which they knew nothing about, was making quick work of the Death Eaters. Before the Death Eaters knew it, they were down to only about ten of the fifty that had been sent on this mission, and most the students had been sent to safety. Realizing that they could not win against this foe, they fled, scurrying back to Lord Voldemort.

Master Mage Michael Fillum attacked the area he had been given to guard, protecting the students to the best of his ability. He twisted and pivoted, looking at his commanding mage, Chief Master Mage of this mission, Micheal Pyrosin. He cut down each enemy that came between him and the students, while another member of his team gathered up the students and sent them to Hogwarts via a modified portkey.

The Death Eaters had no idea what hit them. They had come into this raid expecting little resistance from the students. When a few of the students began to defend the others, they simply went after these upstarts, and tried to eliminate these pockets of resistance. That was when the Mages moved in, taking this situation into their own hands. Their objective was clear: protect the students of Hogwarts at all costs.

The easiest and most efficient way to do this was to eliminate the Death Eaters as quick as they could; leave none alive to tell Voldemort of their presence, and leave the mystery of the loss of his servants unsolved. And so, Fillum attacked with a vengeance. With each slice of the sword, he took out the unsuspecting Death Eaters, giving them very little chance to fight back. And he reveled in the battle; he kept constantly alert, striking down any that came in his path.

The mission was to be done in three parts: elimination of these Death Eaters, ensure the protection and survival of any and all possible students of Hogwarts, and use the school as a base of operations. The Mage High Council, the supreme governing body of the Mages of Atlantis, had decreed that Lord Voldemort was a threat to their way of life. As such, their mission was to aid in his extermination.

And so, Fillum continued, taking out Voldemort's servants one by one, with the aid of those in his battalion. This battalion, made up of one team from each Order within the Mage system would occupy Hogwarts and use it as a base of operations for the take down of Voldemort. Within the Order there were eight Orders; each specializing in a branch of magic. There was the Light Order (which was the original), the four elemental orders (fire, water, air and earth), the transformative Order, the Healing Order, and the ever elusive Grey Order. The Light Order was the first section of the Order of the Mages to form; it specialized in the lightest of magical arts. The elemental orders specialized in manipulation of the elements. The transformative Order specialized in the magical arts that shifted the shapes of its users, and the Healing order, while still formidable fighters, operated as the Healers for the battalion. Then, the mysterious Grey Order, which had not existed for more than half a century, but had recently made a comeback to operational status. The Grey Order made use of most magical arts; dark, light, transformative, elemental, it did not matter. It melded each magic, and as such, members of the Grey Order were often the most formidable in battle. Fillum was of the Fire Elementals' Order himself, and everybody in his Order could manipulate flame to their bidding.

The battalion of twenty-eight people swiftly moved through the carnage of the burning carriages, freeing the thestrals from their bonds, and thus saving them from the flames. They sent each student they encountered to the castle, even the ones that were fighting back. Although the Mages appreciated the efforts of the groups of students helping, one of their objectives was to avoid student causalities. Student involvement ultimately led to student casualties. Therefore, as swiftly as possible, students were evacuated from the battle site.

Eventually, in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, most students of the school had been accounted for. Once the Headmaster had realized that the mysterious mercenaries were sending each and every student into the school, he instructed the populace to gather at their House tables; this would serve to expedite the counting of students. There were several students missing, but for the scale of the attack, this amount was not great. However, the missing students worried Dumbledore greatly; had they perished before help had come? Or were they simply too injured to be moved?

Suddenly, one of the ghosts burst into the Hall, through one of the walls, shouting at Dumbledore: "Headmaster, Madame Pomphrey has received several injured students in the infirmary, she says that she needs assistance!"

Everybody in the room froze for a couple of seconds, as if unsure what they should be doing. And then, once again, Dumbledore sprang into action, instructing Snape to assist Pomphrey with the potions that she would need. Snape immediately rushed up to the fourth floor infirmary, his stature as decomposed as any person in the room had ever seen him. He veritably looked rushed and worried, a state in which many of the students had never seen the man; they were used to the stony-faced potion's master being able to handle anything that came his way. This Severus Snape acted very different from the person that many had become accustomed to.

Once Snape left, the room settled back into an uneasy restlessness; the situation did not allow for anybody to relax. The uncertainty about what was going on had affected the population of the school so drastically that nobody could act normally, even if they had wanted to. The tenseness in the room persisted for about five minutes, before, quite suddenly, the front doors of the school banged open with a surrounding crack.

Into the Great Hall trooped a group of people, as one unit. Cloaked in black, and proudly displaying a wide range of weaponry, the mysterious group of warriors marched into the room, advancing on the staff table, thoroughly ignoring the students, who were mostly giving the interlopers wide berth. As the group advanced, Dumbledore rose, as if to intercept the incoming threat to his school.

The leader of the mercenary group suddenly stopped and signaled to the men and they followed his lead, coming to a halt in front of Dumbledore, who stood in front of these strangers with his wand out, and eyes and body alert and ready for action.

"Dumbledore," intoned the leader of the group, "we come in peace, and have been sent to guard the school from the followers of he who calls himself Lord Voldemort. You need not fear us, we are only doing our jobs."

"Really," exclaimed Dumbledore, as if he did not believe them, letting skepticism show on his face and in his voice. "To whom does your allegiance belong to… and who sent you?"

"Really, old man, I believe that you reasoned it out before we even arrived. But if we must clarify, we are a defensive force sent by the Grand Order of the Atlantean Mages." As he spoke, he drew back his sleeve, revealing a tattoo depicting a phoenix perched upon a globe, with a snake encircling said globe. The emblem of the Atlantean Mages.