Disclaimer: I am not as you have probably guessed the owner of Harry Potter or it's character's in any way. They belong to the actual creators of Harry Potter. I do however claim this plot and any characters I may make up for it.

This fic is un-beta-ed, so be gentle. Constructive criticism is appreciated, Flames are not.

Chapter 1: Sorcerer

No matter how many times he came here Severus could never help wondering how on earth the Wizengamot managed to continue functioning.

He suspected it was mostly the efforts of Albus, who held the position of their Chief Mugwump, and always seemed to know when there was something that needed to be done.

Take today for example; the man had somehow contrived, (most likely with the judicious use of his special lemon drops), to get into the ministry stores and check the status of the truth potions that would be required for upcoming trials.

Predictably, they had been running low on their supply of Veritaserum and would likely have run out at some point very soon. Having caught the shortage before there were any problems, Albus had arranged to have the supply issue dealt with.

Of course, by 'dealt with', he actually meant bothering Severus himself until he gave in and agreed to make and deliver a new batch to the ministry, but Albus no doubt considered that a minor detail.

This was of course, why Severus was currently stuck in the middle of a throng of people in a ministry elevator, on his way back up from dropping off the Veritaserum with Albus on the Wizengamot level.

Unfortunately for Severus, Albus had been too busy to meet him in the lobby because he was preparing for the trial of a wizard accused of being a Dark Magic practitioner that was supposed to start in twenty minutes or so.

The same wizard, (or so Severus assumed), that Kinsley Shacklebolt and a junior auror he didn't recognize were leading across the atrium away from the floo they had just emerged from.

Severus wouldn't normally assume someone was a criminal just because they were with an auror, but on this occasion he figured it was pretty obvious by the way the old man kept raving to himself and spinning around as he walked.

Of course, most of the ministry employees didn't possess a single brain cell between the lot of them, and a particularly dense specimen seemed to have decided that it would be fun to go over and mock the old man.

The old man in question took this as an attempt to kill him, and promptly announced to the room that he would 'get them all, before they got him if it was the last thing he did'.

Crossing the atrium, Severus made sure that he was walking as far away from the spectacle as he possibly could as he made his way to the apparition point, because he had honestly wasted enough of his day running Albus's errand for him, and had no real wish to waste further time with the idiots at the ministry.

He was about halfway to his destination when all hell broke loose behind him.

At first he tried to ignore the commotion, but when an unearthly howl sounded and the junior auror who had been guarding the old wizard went flying past him into a wall, it quickly became obvious that he needed to reconsider that strategy.

Turning around, Severus found himself looking upon a terrible sight.

The towering figure of a Void Demon, covered in black flames and seeping a poison mist, a creature of the Otherworlds, never appearing in theirs unless summoned by the darkest of magics known to wizard kind.

Void Demons were so powerful, so uncontrollable, that even Dark Lords such as Voldemort would never even consider summoning one to use, not if they had even an ounce of self preservation instincts.

Death incarnate, Void Demons will not return to their world until they completely run out of the magic that allows them to sustain their presence in this world, slaughtering any creature that crosses their path in the meantime, including the wizard or witch who summoned them.

The last time a Void Demon had been summoned into this world it had slaughtered one hundred and seventeen people before finally returning to the Otherworld it came from.

Wizards were hardly immune to the slaughters either. Most magic, potions, and enchanted items were useless against Void Demons hardly leaving a scratch even when performed by the most powerful of Defense Masters. Normal wizards and witches couldn't even make a scratch usually.

The only advantage a wizard or witch had over muggles was their ability to flee magically, a fact which was rendered moot inside the ministries anti-apparition wards and with the Demon blocking access to the floo for most of the people in the room.

In all of known wizarding history the only people who had ever managed to effectively deal with Void Demons were the sorcerer-class wizards and witches.

Sorcerers were extremely magically powerful and capable of extreme feats of magic normally impossible for members of the magical community.

They were also incredibly rare.

Merlin was probably the most well known Sorcerer in history, but there were actually one or two born every couple of hundred years.

Currently there were thought to be 2 known Sorcerers alive, although only one had actually been proven to definitely be a Sorcerer.

Albus Dumbledore was the confirmed Sorcerer, his ability having been proven in his youth battling Grindelwald when he had performed a Sorcerer-class spell and officially earned the title.

Voldemort was also thought to be a Sorcerer, but the fact was that no one had ever seen him perform any sorcerer-class magic, and the Order of the Phoenix believed it was just another one of the Dark Lord's scare tactics.

(Snape himself was inclined to go with the Order's opinion on the subject).

Sorcerer or not however, the Dark Lord was hardly going to show up in the Ministry atrium to fight a Void Demon of all things, and while Albus was in the building, by the time someone managed to inform him of the situation and extract him from the Wizengamot downstairs, it would be too late for the thirty or more people in the atrium, most of them would be dead.

(This presented a problem, since Severus himself seemed to have been chosen by the Demon as his next target).

Severus was now left with a dilemma.

He was a Slytherin, he had secrets, secrets he had told to no one, not even his two so called 'masters', Dumbledore and Voldemort. Secrets he would have taken to the grave with him if he had had any choice in the matter.

Unfortunately, these secrets also gave him the ability to save the lives of the thirty or so idiots in the room with him, (one of whom he actually quite liked and considered to be actually semi-intelligent).

Sometimes, Severus reflected, it really sucked to be one of the good guys.

Then, raising his wand at the demon, (and ignoring Kingsley's frantic yelling), Severus promptly paralyzed the Demon, and then he banished it back to the Otherworld.