FicWad

(Disclamer: Don't own Harry Potter or the characters...except for a few OCs)

(Chapter 1 Start)

It was a dark and stormy night, much like that out of a cliché mystery novel. The place in which this story starts off at is in a quiet little town called Hogsmeade. Walking down the rain covered road was a stranger in a dark cloak. The stranger's motives for being out so late on a horrid night were unknown, but one thing was certain, they moved with a sense of urgency. The stranger made their way to the Hog's Head paused and glanced around before entering.

The seedy pub was as dark and grimy as ever. Many people kept themselves hidden under cloaks as was the norm for such a place. It was a bar filled with some dark history and a commonplace for suspicious characters. It was one-such character that led the stranger into coming to this bar. Approaching the counter, the stranger was quick to speak with the bartender.

"I was told that you've been serving a suspicious person as of late," the stranger questioned in a feminine voice.

Aberforth, the bartender of the Hog's Head replied, "Missy I served countless individuals, all of which can be deemed suspicious. You'll need to be more elaborate if you expect any information from me."

The stranger raised her hood to reveal a young heart shaped face with shoulder length purple hair and matching eyes, "The name's Tonks, Albus sent me."

"Did he now? Well I never expected my brother to send someone so young, Ms. Tonks. In fact I half expected that grizzled auror of his."

"Moody is busy at the moment. Besides who better to send..." she paused as her face changed its appearance, "Than someone that can blend in?"

Aberforth hmphed and discretely pointed to a corner of the pub. Turning to gaze at the direction indicated, Tonks saw a stranger in dressed in odd clothes...which for a society dressed in robes, that was saying something. The man or at least it looked like a man was dressed in a tattered grey cloak with crimson runes going up the edges. His robes were a plain grey to match the cloak, but the most unique article of clothing was his pants. From what she could see it didn't seem to have pant legs. Instead it resembled more of a dress, but at the same time it didn't give off a feminine appeal. She couldn't make out the face, but even if she could, she was sure it was cast in shadows. The final part of the ensemble was made up of a belt with, what appeared to be two short swords on either side. (1)

"Sure is dressed oddly," Tonks said, stating the obvious.

Aberforth nodded in agreement, "Yeah he's been coming here everyday for the past week. Always at the same time and he even sits in the same place!"

"Has he caused any trouble?"

"Girl, that is a dumb question. If he did he wouldn't be sitting there, he'd be out in the rain."

"So then why did you call Albus?" Tonks was still uncomfortable using the first name of the leader of the light, but since she was dealing with his brother, it seemed rather pointless to say Dumbledore.

"Call it a hunch. With You-Know-Who back it is best to report anything that seems odd now an days. In this case it goes double since we're so close to Hogwarts."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on girl, Hogwarts is practically the most powerful stronghold in all of Britain. If the dark lord gets his hands on it there will be no means of stopping him, since no one would be able to reach him."

"Right. Stupid question."

"So what are you planning to do?"

Pulling her hood further down, Tonks replied, "Find out if he is a threat or not."

Aberforth hmphed again before telling her to be careful. Ordering a drink, so as not to be suspicious, Tonks made her way to a nearby table and kept a careful eye on the "Greyman" as she called him. Doing her best to not be noticed, she made a more detailed observation of him.

There wasn't much to add to his appearance, but she was able to confirm that his face was cast in shadows, most likely due to a spell since no light even reach his face. Another thing she confirmed was that he did indeed wear a dress-like lower garb, however it showed itself to be wide enough to allow plenty of movement.

Ten minutes had passed by without incident. Greyman had ordered another drink and was quietly sipping away at it. Tonks, herself had to order another round to remain inconspicuous. Another five minutes passed and she was about to give up when something happened, Greyman turned to look at the door. Tonks noted that whoever just entered must be an acquaintance of Greyman's since he had ignored anyone else that entered the pub. She waited for the new person to approach Greyman in order to get a clear look at them without drawing unwanted attention.

The new figure was dressed in black and Tonks had to resist the urge to draw her wand. Her first thought was Death Eater, but the new figure didn't resemble one. He was dressed in a tattered cloak like Greyman but it was black and in the center was a crimson crescent moon, in-between the tips of the crescent moon was a crimson circle. The upper part of his outfit had a crimson circle on the chest and his pants (which and two pant legs) had a crimson crescent moon on each leg extending from the bottom to top. Lastly he wore a crimson belt with an ornamental dagger strapped to the side.

As he approached Greyman he said in a raspy voice, "When the light from the sun fades from day..."

Greyman replied in a young, yet deep voice, "...The moon and stars will light the way."

Darky, as Tonks labeled him nodded and took a seat across from Greyman.

"First things first, what about the rat?" Darky asked.

"The rat isn't a threat to us, by the time it realizes what's going on it won't matter." Greyman answered.

'Rat? Are they talking about Wormtail?' Tonks thought to herself.

"Very well then, if that is your decision, Jericho then so be it. What do you have to report?" Darky asked.

Greyman, now identified as Jericho started his report, "This will be day seven that I've been stationed here and no signs of any activity. I am starting to wonder if this is just a waste of time."

"I see...," Darky said with a nod. "Alright then. You are to return to Headquarters right away."

"I was uninformed of this. Is the council aware-"

"This order came directly from Ferres," Darky said, interrupting Jericho. "He said that if you have yet to encounter any trouble then this was a false alarm and to return to base immediately."

Jericho thought over Darky's words before replying, "Fine, I shall leave tonight."

Darky nodded before getting up to leave. Taking one last glance at Jericho he said, "Be sure to report to the council first thing."

Jericho calmly took a sip of his drink and waved Darky off, as if he had heard that line a thousand times. With that Darky left. Jericho remained seated, continuing to finish his drink.

'What the hell is going on? What were they talking about? What council? This makes no friggen sense?' Tonks kept on questioning the topic of Darky and Jericho's conversation. Trying to piece together anything that could be related to the Death Eaters and their Lord...but nothing seemed to connect. Having no other option Tonks decided to wait for Jericho's departure. At the very least she could tail him and hopefully learn more.

It was twenty minutes since Darky's departure and Tonks was amazed with how long he nursed his drink. The storm had passed sometime during the conversation, so it wasn't likely that he was waiting for the rain to stop. Finally, Jericho put down the empty glass and stood up. Leaving some money on the table, he made his way to the door. Tonks waited a moment before getting up to follow.

Making sure to keep her distance, Tonks trailed Jericho. He didn't seem to have a destination in mind, going through alleys, cutting through the main street. It was like he was lost. He cut through a few more alleys before coming back out on the main street. He walked to the center of town before finally stopping.

Glancing around slowly, he mumbled two words, "...Their here...," glancing back at Tonks he warned, "You best be careful or you'll get caught in the cross-fire."

Before Tonks could question what he meant a series of pops alerted her to a group of people apparating into the town. Death Eaters were everywhere and were casting spells at anything and everything. Without a moment's hesitation, Jericho drew his two short swords.

Crisscrossing his blades in front of him, Jericho chanted, "With the sun's fading rays, empower my blades!"

All attention was focused on Jericho as a burst of glowing golden light enveloped his blades. As the glow started to settle down to a pulsating aura another burst of light came, this time from under his hood. The golden aura was focused on his eyes, giving them a fiery glow. Tonks was hoping that the light would illuminate his face somewhat, but not even the powerful glow emitting from his eyes seemed to pierce the darkness of his hood. The effect was quite intimidating.

One Death Eater regained his bearings and cast a spell at Jericho, one that made Tonks's blood run cold, "Avada Kedavra."

The green lightning from the spell raced towards Jericho, who showed no signs of moving. At the last second Jericho raised one of his glowing swords to meet the deadly spell. The spell connected with Jericho's blade and Tonks closed her eyes, she couldn't stand to watch someone die so foolishly, but a series of gasps made her look again. The green lightning seemed to be fighting with the golden aura on the swords, a fight it seemed to be losing. Sure enough the golden aura swallowed the spell and Jericho showed no signs of it having an affect on him.

"You'll have to do much better than that!" Jericho stated as he charged the Death Eater that cast the spell. Tonks was surprised with how easily he moved wearing such clothes.

Before the Death Eater had time to recover Jericho was in front of him, thrusting his glowing blade into the man's chest. This was the signal that the fight was now on. The Death Eaters all trained their wands at their new adversary and let spells fly. Jericho who had freed his blade was now charging through the Death Eaters, dodging all the spells and slicing at anyone he could reach. Since the only other person that was there besides Jericho and the Death Eaters was Tonks there was no fear of civilian casualties.

Tonks who was still amazed with what was going on didn't stay rooted where she was very long. She too joined the battle, stunning any Death Eater that was caught unaware, which was quite a few since they were all focused on Jericho. Not wanting to be mistaken as a Death Eater, Tonks kept a close eye on Jericho. Whenever he was within fifteen feet, she would apparate to a safer distance.

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Jericho was having the time of his life, it had been a while since he last fought and now he was able to relieve his frustrations at the lack of action for the past week. Suddenly he saw a spell coming out of the corner of his eye.

'Shit, won't be able to dodge that one.' He cursed. Focusing more magic into his blades, the aura grew brighter. Raising the blade over his head he slashed at the spell and did something that shocked everyone present for the second time that night. He cut the spell in half. The spell no longer held together by the magic it was made of diminished. Nodding in satisfaction Jericho continued to hack and slash at the Death Eaters.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tonks who had seen the whole thing stopped attacking entirely.

'Who the hell is this guy? More importantly what the hell is he?'

A Death Eater that noticed her lapse in concentration cast a blasting hex at her. Seeing the incoming spell, Tonks jumped out of the way. However, the resulting explosion still caught her and threw her a couple yards away. Wanting to get back to her feet as quickly as she could, Tonks pushed herself up with one of her arms only to cry out in pain. It was obvious the arm was broken. Before she could turn to use her other arm a shadow loomed over her. Looking up she saw the Death Eater that had attacked her.

He then started to say the spell that was every witch and wizards nightmare, "Avada..."

Tonks closed her eyes not wishing to see the end coming.

"Keda-" The Death Eater suddenly stopped his incantation. The unexpected pause forced Tonks to sneak a glance at the source. Then she saw what cause the Death Eater to stop his spell casting. A glowing blade was protruding from his chest. Tonks was shocked and the Death Eater looked surprised. Jericho was a few yards away, his arm still in the throwing position.

The Death Eater started to fall and Tonks scrambled to get out of the way, not wanting to be skewered herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jericho glanced around and saw that all the Death Eaters were either dead or unconscious. A few had gotten away...but not many. Looking back at where he had thrown his blade, he walked towards the fallen Death Eater. Upon reaching his destination, Jericho savagely ripped his blade free. He was still riding his battle high, the magic emitting from his blades and eyes were proof of that.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm down, the glow from his blades and eyes faded away. With the magic no longer affecting his swords, he sheathed them. He glanced at the fallen form of Tonks, but said nothing. Another series of pops drew his attention and he quickly reached for his blades. However, the sight before him made him relax.

'Those must be the "good guys"...whatever my job's done.' Jericho thought.

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An old man with a long flowing beard quickly glanced at the scene around him. His name was Albus Dumbledore, leader of the light and the main opposition against the Dark Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. As the main opposition he considered it his responsibility to lead the fight, which was his reason for appearing...but the scene before him wasn't a fight. A fight is when two forces combat each other. That being said, there was no combat and from what it looked like the battle was over and only the Death Eaters seemed to have suffered.

Taking a second glance around he came to one conclusion...this was no fight to begin with, it was a massacre. The likes of which he had never seen. Blood was everywhere, on the ground, on buildings, but mostly on a figure in a grey tattered cloak in front of him. Taking a more detailed look at the blood soaked figure he gasped.

'It's not possible. What are they doing here?' he thought.

Everyone behind Albus were speechless, some were even gagging at the sight before them. Albus on the other hand remained unaffected, he had to be strong. There were questions to be asked after all.

"What are the Templar doing here?" he said in a strong respectful voice. This wasn't just any man he was talking to this was a Templar, someone not to be trifled with.

Jericho paused before answering, "...That is no concern of yours. Be glad that I saved you the trouble of dealing with these...insects."

Everyone was shocked by his response. Not only did he blow off Albus Dumbledore, but he also referred to the killing of human beings as if they were nothing but a parasite. Not caring what they had to say, Jericho clapped his hands together and focused his magic. Soon his arms were enveloped in that same golden energy that Tonks recognized surrounded his blades. Slamming his hands on the ground, he disappeared in a burst of light.

Knowing there was only one other person that had send what had happened, Albus approached the young woman and said, "Tell me everything."

Tonks looked at Albus with a large amount of fear in her eyes. Where should she begin? How could she bring herself to say what she saw? Albus seeing the look on her face lowered himself to her level and put a reassuring arm on her shoulder.

With the kind and gentle atmosphere that he was renowned with, he said, "It's ok you're safe now. But I must know what happened."

Tonks swallowed hard before opening her mouth to speak. The best place to start...would be the beginning...

(End of Chapter 1)

1. To get an idea of what they look like. Think of the swords the Spartans used in "300".

Before anyone says I stole this. I will have you know this is Blah-the-Sixth from ff.net. I'm just using my old account here on ficwad.