Hogwarts: Era of Darkness

For the past few days, we have been lying low in the vicinity of the three prisons. We separated our group into three parts to make sure we were not missing out on anything. Professor Lockhart was sent away in disguise, equipped with one of the weaker invisibility cloaks, lying low next to the prison of the Death Eaters. I knew that he was extremely nervous, but compared to everything, he was one of the safest places out of the three. For one, he knew how they operated, being part of a similar process once before. Then, there was the fact that if anyone attacked it, they would be the Order members, so my guess would be that they wouldn't open with the killing curse. Lastly... Any other Death Eater, especially Voldemort, would probably be focused on attacking the Order's camps.

His main mission was to observe the location, and when or if something happened, he had to choose some targets and escape with them, bringing them home while chaos reigned supreme. As for the Order's camps, one was surveyed by Quincy and I, while the second was left for Grindelwald. We were in touch constantly, and if any of the prisons were hit before the others, we would apparate and work as a team.

What I didn't expect was the fact that all three were attacked at the same time... it was like some kind of sick joke. The first to signal that something was happening was Professor Lockhart. Only two days after we sent out the letters via our agents, the Order already made their move. We were about to teleport over when Grindelwald's message arrived that Voldemort himself appeared with a bunch of others, beginning to kill everyone within it indiscriminately.

"What... the actual... fuck?" I murmured, looking at Quincy after hearing it, sending word for Grindelwald to just stay back and out of sight. This was not something I was expecting, not at all.

"Look!" She held my hand, and sure enough, I watched as the black night sky was lit up by a green spell, creating a skull above the land, a snake coming from its mouth, showering the land in an eerie, ghostly light.

There they were, masked Death Eaters appearing, beginning to kill everybody who was not theirs. A complete massacre... The prison we were at was located in the countryside, under a protective spell, mostly against muggles, hiding their operation from prying eyes. The place itself was some kind of old slaughterhouse that was now living up to its purpose thanks to the crazed Death Eaters. Only, it was humans who were being butchered instead of cattle...

"What should we do?" Quincy asked because this was not in the plans. None of us expected such a drastic measure coming from Voldemort.

"It is our time to get some name for ourselves. Let's join the fun and save some bastards. I don't see any Order members appearing to reinforce the guards here anyway!"

"Be careful!" She nodded, kissing my lips,

"You too. We go in, save a few souls until they can disappear, and then we leave! Five minutes tops or until one of us sends a flare-up!"

"Um!" With that, there was no more hesitation between us as we jumped into the fray, quite literally.

I landed straight within its main slaughterhouse, between a masked Death Eater and a man who had magic-preventing cuffs strapped to his wrists. The huge, open place where once animals were killed and slaughtered was now transformed into some kind of interrogation chamber... well, not that I had time to look around as a spell was flying toward me the moment I appeared.

"Woah, shit!" I cursed, deflecting a blasting curse, surprising both of them with my appearance and counterspell. Capitalizing on it, I was using the killing curse at once, finishing the Death Eater before it could think about what to do next.

"Who... are you?" The man asked, already crying, wanting to beg me too, but I just pointed at his cuffs, letting him go, "Conrad Anguine. Now go!" I nudged him, and at least he didn't ask more questions but apparated away at once. "Good... let's save some more bastards!"

I don't know why, but I felt fired up. Was it the noise of battle? The spells flying around me? The noise of explosions? I couldn't tell, but my blood was boiling, and I honestly felt I was having fun.

"Keep focused." Herpo echoed within my mind. "It's the blood within you. Emotions within a life or death battle could lead you to unnecessary danger."

"Thought as much." I answered while I was already dancing with two other wizards, one from the Death Eaters and one from the Order.

Both of them thought I was with the other when they noticed my presence and attacked me at once. Then, they were confused by the other's reaction. It gave me enough time to deflect their spells, but the Death Eater reacted earlier, using a killing curse to finish off the guard he had fought with previously, preventing me from making any kind of quick alliances. I think their orders may have been total annihilation because he attacked me at once right after... or maybe it was because he was a Death Eater.

"This one is more experienced..."

But he was not as fast or adaptive as Grindelwald. Still, I needed to focus and use twice as much time to find an opening and take over the flow of the battle. The moment I managed to become the aggressor, my spells were flying off much more quickly, pushing him onto the backfoot, forcing him to only defend and look for an exit from our fight.

"Slow..."

With a smile, I already saw the end of our duel. I was distracting him by trying to freeze his legs into place, always mouthing the spells, making him focus on my lips to read what would come next. Right until I mouthed a different spell than what I indeed used. Before realizing it, I was already flicking his wand out between his fingers and hitting his chest with the killing curse, ending it once and for all.

"Shit!"

My cursing was warranted because I barely managed to dodge not a spell but a physical attack. Rolling in the mud, sending a fire spell behind me, lighting up the dark night with blue flames, I managed to stop the ambusher from jumping after my back. Standing up, I was facing not a human, well, not entirely one, because the thing before me was a werewolf, wearing rags.

"Sorry-looking bastard." I sent another spell towards it, but this one was quick.

Its reflexes overshadowed any human, dodging the curse easily, howling as it rushed at me, wanting to bite me and make me one of its own. Werewolves... It was the first time I met one, and at that moment, I let my blood come forth, keeping a tight leash around its 'neck.' There are times when fire needs to be fought with fire.

Turning into a basilisk was not something the werewolf could have ever expected, but its reflexes were still sharp enough to realize the main problem. Avoiding my gaze, it wanted to run, but I was not about to let him go. Whipping my tail forward, I hit the creature so hard I felt and heard its body breaking as its mangled corpse shot through the side of the building.

Following it, breaking through the hole, keeping in my giant snake form, I was met with a group of people looking on, confused as to what happened... then they died.

"Fuck." I grunted, transforming back, watching the five stone statues, two of them being cuffed prisoners.

"Told you." Herpo added, and I could swear he was laughing. "The power of a basilisk is no joke. But overusing it is the sure way to land yourself in trouble when it fails you."

"Got it. Now... where is Quincy?" I shook myself as I looked around, seeing green and red flashes streak toward the sky nearby, prompting me to head there.

I was about to take my fourth step when I felt the ring squeeze my finger and deflect a stunning spell I had never felt or had seen coming my way. With my wand raised, my heart racing in my throat, I used protego, turning towards the source, seeing another Death Eater standing there... Out in the open, but he didn't attack me a second time. Was he just as surprised as me? Or...

"Good one!"

A second shout echoed as a killing curse was being aimed at me from my left. I was already disturbed and caught off guard, which is precisely what Herpo was warning me about. Still... I wasn't training just for show. Using all that Grindelwald had taught me, or more so, beat into me, I remained collected. Using all my knowledge and my artifact to save my sorry ass, I managed to divert the incoming spell. Using my own curse, I managed to hit the incoming green jet, canceling it out while I was relying on my ring to protect me from a second attack coming from the first Death Eater, the one who initially surprised me.

"Here it comes..." I thought as I felt a hex flying towards me. To my bad luck, I knew it was green, and it was... going to miss me?

That surprised me because I was about to transform once again, deciding that if I was going to be hit, I wanted to risk it in my snake form. Everything happened in only a few seconds, but by the time my senses returned to normalcy, the second Death Eater was lying on the ground, finished.

"Go." Said a voice I recognized after hearing it... and I knew it belonged to someone I didn't expect to meet again. "I promised your Father."

"..." I couldn't help but keep looking at the skull-masked man, knowing that under it, Severus Snape was looking back at me. In the end, I simply nodded, took a deep breath, and used my nose to locate Quincy, shooting a red, flare-like spell into the air before apparating away, meeting up with my wife at our determined hideout before heading back home...