Chapter VII: The Shadow and Fire

A hooded figure knelt before Voldemort, The Dark Lord sat upon his throne like chair, his eyes gleaming with an unreadable expression. The room was silent for a few moments.

"Look at me," Voldemort commanded, his voice both smooth and sharp at the same time.

The figure lifting his gaze and met Voldemort’s own. Voldemort looked at the blue eyes and whispered, "Legilimens."

The mental barrier the wizard held was formidable, but allowed Voldemort to pass the barrier and brought the events of the Peverell trail to his mind. Voldemort watched as the mysterious wizard who had killed eight death eaters with ease, turned the situation which was stacked against him in his favour within a matter of minutes. He showed his power to intimidate the sheep present and destroyed the arguments against him with every word calculated, but uttered in a nonchalant way. The display of his power was undeniable. His name is Harry Peverell. An old name steeped in legend.

A big concern for Voldemort was the behaviour of Black. The behaviour of Moody, Potter and Bones in the trail was not surprising, but Black was the head of a Most Noble and Ancient House. He was a pureblood supremacist.

Eight wizards dead, shouldn’t it be nine, Voldemort mused. That means Bellatrix Black is alive. Is this related to Black’s behaviour during the trail? This needs further attention.

Voldemort withdrew from the mind of the hooded death eater and leaned back on his chair. Harry Peverell is no ordinary wizard. He was dangerous, not just in magical strength and skills but also in his ability to sway the sheep. If he chose to oppose him, he would be a thorn in his side.

As Voldemort was musing on Harry Peverell, the heavy doors creaked open once more. Lucius Malfoy entered, he stepped forward and bowed gracefully. Voldemort dismissed the hooded figure. He departed through the same door Malfoy had entered.

"Speak," Voldemort ordered.

"My Lord, recruitment within Hogwarts continues as per your order," Lucius reported in a smooth voice. "As Atticus Rowle had graduated last year, my cousin Caspian Malfoy is overseeing recruitment at Hogwarts now. This year alone he had bought nineteen wizards and five witches into our ranks, most of them from Slytherin, a few from Ravenclaw and one," his lip curled slightly, "from Gryffindor."

Voldemort regarded Lucius for a long moment before replying with a faint smirk on his lips. "Interesting. It seems not all lions are brainless idiots." Voldemort internally thought that Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs are more valuable followers as their bravery and loyalty to the cause will be valuable assets. They are better suited to be followers, rather than be leaders. Unfortunately he had chosen the pureblood agenda as his path to power, this repels the majority of the lions and badgers from becoming his followers. He might need to do something about that once he takes over Britain.

Lucius inclined his head and said. "Indeed, my Lord."

Voldemort dismissed Lucius with a wave of his hand. Voldemort's mind drifted to bringing in more dark creatures, he was happy with recent success in negotiations with Greyback’s pack. Greyback had taken the dark mark and pledged his pack to his cause.

His gaze flickered to the side, landing on another robed figure standing in the shadows. "Theseus Lestrange."

The Lestrange from a cadet branch stepped forward and bowed deeply. "My Lord?"

"Summon Fenrir Greyback. I wish to meet with him in one week."

Theseus inclined his head. "As you command, my Lord."

As the Death Eater departed, Voldemort leaned back once more, he thought about starting negotiations with the vampires of Transylvania. They had remained neutral for too long. If they could be swayed, their power would bolster his forces considerably.

—--

It’s been five days since Harry had visited Arcturus and Charlus in Blackwood Manor, Harry had been communicating with Charlus through owls daily. Charlus had started discreetly recruiting members to their new organization. They will have their first meeting in a few days at the Hogs Head Inn, meanwhile Harry visited all the Peverell properties to select a suitable property to serve as headquarters for the organization.

Harry had decided on using Deathmoon fort, an unplottable fort as old as Hogwarts that can support a thousand people comfortably. It had been maintained by merpeople who were living in the deep and large moat surrounding the fort. Peverell's had a deal with them which gave them ownership of the moat in return for regular upkeep of the fort. The fort is situated not very far from London.

The fort also has grounds large enough to train a large group of people. The merpeople agreed to make the necessary changes to the fort. Harry promised them fair compensation for their work.

—--

Three days later, four minutes past nine am, Harry Peverell arrived at the Hogs Head Inn, he was greeted by the damp wood and the smell of ale as he walked in through the door. He nodded at the innkeeper Aberforth who nodded back, gave him the key to a room on the first floor and continued wiping the dirt on a table . Harry ascended the creaking stairs to the first floor and entered room number 3.

The room was small, it could comfortably seat 5 people, eight people if people crammed together. Drawing his wand, Harry performed a space expansion charm. The room could now easily accommodate fifteen people. With another flick of Harry’s wand, two chairs and a bed present in the room were temporarily transfigured into three comfortable chairs and eleven more chairs were conjured simultaneously.

Charlus Potter arrived after half an hour. The older man glanced around the room and smiled approvingly. They exchanged brief greetings before settling in to wait for the others. Over the next thirty minutes, one by one people entered the room. Some of them already knew Charlus, who greeted them enthusiastically. Charlus introduced himself to the others. Harry shook the hands of everyone who came in and showed them to an empty seat.

By 10 am, twelve people had entered the room. They all introduced themselves one by one. Elliott Creevey, Fiona Jenkins, Malcolm Thompson, Beatrice Thomas, Winston Parker, Imogen Winters, Nathaniel Wright, Violet Clearwater, Zachary Perkins, Oliver Davidson, Matilda Bell, and Sophia Abbott. Ten of them were muggleborn. Fiona Jenkins and Imogen Winters had lost loved ones to Death Eater attacks in the muggle world.

When they reached out to Aurors, in the best case, they were treated with empty platitudes and promise of an investigation and in the worst case outright apathy. Other muggleborns who had come here were friends or acquaintances of those two who were distraught with the wizarding world on the way they were treated and how their lives were assigned less value than their pure blooded counterparts.

Matilda Bell and Sophia Abbott were both half-bloods, they tried to advocate for their muggleborn friends but had met with resistance at every turn. Charlus had contacted them, and they had in turn reached out to others.

Harry’s eyes swept across the room. “This meeting is strictly confidential. At the end of this meeting, those who choose not to be involved must either swear a magical oath never to speak of it or consent to have their memories altered by obliviation. If neither option is acceptable, this is your chance to leave.”

The mood of the room changed instantly, a tense silence followed, but no one moved or said anything.

After waiting for a few moments, Charlus broke the silence. “What we are about to tell you is not speculation. A new Dark Lord is on the rise. His followers, named Death Eaters. They have been recruiting for years and they have been conducting attacks on Muggle areas in the past few months. The Ministry will not do anything to combat this and there are many in the Auror Department who are supporters of the Death Eaters agenda, which is pureblood supremacy.”

Imogen Winters stood up, with a furious expression on her face. “My niece was killed in a death eater attack on a camping site, more than 20 people died. It was covered up as a forest fire. The Aurors covered it up and closed the investigation, there was no mention in the Daily Prophet. I was practically thrown out of the DMLE office when I tried to make them reopen the investigation.”

“The Ministry does not value the lives of muggles and muggleborns” Sophia Abbot added.

Charlus nodded grimly and said. “That’s why we are here, if the Ministry will not protect us from the Dark Lord and his followers, we will protect ourselves.”

The attendees exchanged uneasy glances. “What do you expect from us?” Oliver Davidson asked.

Harry leaned forward, and said in a steady voice. “We will form a new organization. This organization will not only counter the Death Eaters but it will also fight for equality for all magicals irrespective of their blood status and irrespective of them being humans.” Harry paused for a moment before continuing “We will not wait for the war to come to us. We will fight in the shadows, we will use their own tactics against them. Hit-and-run attacks, anonymity and precision strikes to make them feel unsafe, we will make every death eater question their life choices.”

A quiet murmur spread across the room. “I expected something like this when I was invited, after all it was presided over by Peverell who killed eight wizards to protect muggles.” Fiona Jenkins said. “But I’m just an average witch. I don’t have the skills to be a vigilante.”

Charlus smiled reassuringly. “That is why you all will be trained. Harry and I will ensure that every member is ready before stepping into the field. Those who do not wish to fight will be assigned other crucial roles like intelligence, law, finances, medical aid. We need all types of skills.”

Matilda Bell hesitated. “How will this be funded?”

Harry answered, “I and Charlus will personally finance our operations, and I have others who will soon contribute. Money will not be an issue.”

Charlus continued, “This will not be just about fighting. We will form a faction within the Wizengamot to push for legal reforms, We will gather like minded individuals in all walks of life and push for changes everywhere. We will fight the bigots both in the shadows and in the halls of power.”

One by one, every person in the room agreed to join the new organization. Harry said with a stern voice. “This is a magically binding document. Once you sign it, it will strip your magic if you knowingly betrayed the group”.

“What if we are forced?” Zachary Perkins asked, his voice laced with apprehension.

“A forced confession will not break the oath. It works on intent, as long as you try your best to not give out details, then you will be safe.” Harry said.

“Every member would be provided with protections against mind control, emergency portkeys and various other countermeasures.” Charlus added.

For more than an hour, everyone voiced their concerns and doubts, Harry and Charlus answered each and every one of them. Finally, one by one all twelve of the attendees agreed to become a member of the organization.

Elliott Creevy, who was mostly silent until now stood up. “We missed one very crucial matter.” He said seriously.

Everyone looked at Creevy questioningly. “What did we miss?” Charlus asked.

“We have been talking about an organization for more than an hour. All of us even agreed to join the organization, but none of us know the name of the organization. Does this organization even have a name yet?” Creevy asked with a smile slightly visible.

The tension in the room melted to smiles and laughs.

For the next ten minutes, the room was filled with unexpected laughter as everyone tossed potential names back and forth. The tension that was present until now was replaced with laughter and camaraderie.

"The Order of the Wand?" offered Elliott Creevey.

Imogen Winters snorted. "Sounds like a children's club for amateur magicians."

"The Marauders of Justice?" Malcolm Thompson suggested.

"Now you are just stringing some big words together," Matilda teased, not unkindly.

Names flew across the table, some with earnest others increasingly ridiculous. "Merlin's Avengers," "The Anti-Death Swallowers," "The Real Aurors" and "Dark Lord's Worst Nightmare" were all suggested and immediately rejected with growing laughter.

Violet Clearwater said thoughtfully, "The Shadow and Fire".

The laughter died away as everyone considered the name.

“We operate from the shadows,” Violet continued. “And we burn away the darkness of bigotry and hatred”

Charlus exchanged a glance with Harry, who gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"The Shadow and Fire," Harry repeated. "It has strength. It defines our purpose."

"It's perfect," Winston Parker said. "It is a mission statement."

As murmurs of agreement rippled through the room, a sense of identity began form. They are no longer just fourteen individuals, they are the first members of something larger than themselves.

"The Shadow and Fire it is, then," Harry confirmed.

Harry then conjured a rope, turning it into a portkey. The group grasped it, and in the next moment, they found themselves standing on the grounds of Deathmoon Fort.

The training grounds were ready and accommodations for at least thirty people were already in place. The fort was transformed into a stronghold, into a base of operations.

Zachary Perkins, a former Auror who had resigned after being passed over for promotion in favor of a less qualified and junior Auror. The only difference is the other was a pureblood. He volunteered to become a full time combat trainer. Charlus and Harry would train the members whenever they could. Harry vowed to spend at least a few hours per day training members.

Everyone decided to visit the fort via portkey for at least an hour every day. They agreed to bring in more people and prepare for a war.

On July 31, 1976, exactly four years before Harry Potter will be born in this timeline, “The Shadow and Fire”, an organization dedicated to rid the world of Voldemort, his followers and the ideologies that caused all this was born.