The Shadow Collective

CHAPTER ONE

Sirius Black landed his magical motorcycle at the Potter's cottage; he just came back from Peter Pettigrew's hideout to check on him only to have found an empty apartment with no signs of struggle. Being unable to contact him, Sirius had flown with haste to Godric's Hollow where his best friend and brother in all but blood James Potter, his wife Lily and his two sons Harry and Damien lived underground.

The Potters were on the run for Voldemort, the most powerful Dark Lord the magical world has ever seen. He and his followers called Death Eaters have brought civil war to Great-Britain for eleven years, killing everyone who opposed them or didn't belong in the magical world according to the Dark Lord views. Muggles, squibs, muggle born wizards and witches and halfbloods were murdered in cold blood; halfbloods from important families and purebloods who opposed Voldemort were given one chance to join him, only to be slaughtered should they refuse. The Ministry of Magic and Albus Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix have done whatever they could to stop the dark forces, but it was not enough. The auror forces and the Order were spread too thin and were only allowed to use stunners while the Death Eaters fought to kill. In the darkest hour of the war, Dumbledore listened to a prophecy which stated that only one person could end the terror of Voldemort once and for all.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Dumbledore concluded that only two persons came to his mind as 'the one' in the prophecy, the families Potter and Longbottom both were expecting children around the month of July. Unfortunately, one of the Dark Lord's spies heard the first part of the prophecy and reported back his master who figured out who 'those who have thrice defied him' were. Dumbledore had told the families about the prophecy and advised them to go into hiding under the Fidelius Charm. He offered the Potters to be their Secret Keeper, but they chose James best friend Sirius Black only to switch the role to Peter Pettigrew without informing anybody, not even Dumbledore, about it. James and Sirius reasoned the latter would be the perfect decoy while nobody would expect Peter to be Secret Keeper. The Potters moved with their two year old son Harry to Godric's Hollow after the arrangements and a couple of months later Damien Potter was born. All was well until this Halloween night that would be noted as one of the most important moments in magical history.

Sirius paled when he saw the big blast hole on the roof and sank to his knees in shock and despair, sitting there for a couple of minutes which seemed like hours. 'Wormtail, what have you done?' he thought in anger and rage. As he was about to jump on his motorcycle to look for the traitor, he heard a faint crying. 'Harry, Damien…' Sirius thought as he realized the room where the hole was situated was the child room and stormed inside to find James' body on the stairs. He had a sigh of relief when he found a pulse to promptly 'enervate' his friend.

"Prongs, I thought you were dead." Sirius said as he hugged his fellow Marauder with tears running down on his cheeks. James was confused at first to see his childhood friend, but then remembered the previous events that happened in the cottage.

"Padfoot, HE was here. Peter betrayed us. I tried to fight him, but I didn't have my wand and… LILY!" James screamed as he jumped on his feet and climbed the stairs two steps at a time to the child room. Sirius rapidly followed him to see Lily lying on the ground and a crying Harry and Damien in the latter's crib. James checked his wife's pulse and sighed in relief.

"She's alive. Could you 'enervate' her, Padfoot?" James said as went on to see if the children were all right and calmed them down.

"Sure thing, Prongs. I'm so relieved the four of you survived, I wouldn't know what to do if you died. You are my family." Sirius responded. James smiled to him; he fully understood how important he was to his fellow Marauder. Sirius abandoned the Black family at the age of sixteen, he was sick of the dark reputation his family had for generations. The Potter family took him in for which he was forever grateful. James was brought back from his thoughts as he heard a gasp from Lily as she came back to conscious.

"DAMIEN, HARRY!" Lily screamed as she sat up, fearing for the lives of her sons. She looked around her to see her husband, the children and Sirius in the destroyed room eying her worriedly. She started to cry when she saw that Harry and Damien were okay.

"Lily, are you hurt?" James asked fearing for an injury. Whenever Voldemort left any survivors, which was rare, he left the victims mortally injured with very dark curses that even the healers at St. Mungo's couldn't heal them.

"I am fine, James." she sobbed. She was so glad that everybody was alive and well. "I thought you died? HE mocked how bravely you fought him without a wand."

"He put me in a body bind and told me how he was to punish us by killing Damien without us being able to defend him. It would be 'our entire fault'. After that, he stunned me." James sourly said as he recalled that conversation.

"That bloody bastard!" Sirius shouted and kicked a broken toy. He couldn't believe that Voldemort would do something like that. 'Killing Damien to bring his parents to their knees believing it was their fault?! How sick do you have to be to make such a plan?' he thought.

"Speaking of Voldemort, where is he? Damien is still alive. What happened here?" James asked Lily as he looked at his youngest son.

"After he mocked your 'death', he told me to go out of the way with Harry. He only wanted Damien; I refused and told him to kill me. He insisted and I refused again, he got frustrated and stunned me as well." Lily told him. She went to the crib and took Damien out as James picked up Harry. They had a closer look to the boys and saw that Damien had a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead, Harry was uninjured.

"Harry, what happened to Damien?" James asked his oldest son, looking worriedly to Damien as a little blood was pouring out of the scar. As soon he asked the question, Harry started to cry again. James felt horrible as he had forgotten how traumatic this could be for a child. After a couple of minutes, he succeeded in calming Harry down.

"We should go to Dumbledore. Maybe we can watch Harry's memory in his pensieve." Sirius suggested. He also wanted to know what happened to the dark bastard. The Potters agreed and flooed to Dumbledore's office in Hogwarts surprising the old wizard.

"James, Lily. What are you doing here? You know you can't leave your hide out if you don't want Voldemort to find you. And why is Sirius with you?" Dumbledore asked concerned and curiously at the same time. The Potters and Sirius told them everything what happened; from the switch of the Secret Keeper to the moment Lily was stunned. When they asked to see Harry's memory about the attack, the headmaster nodded in agreement. He gently tapped his wand to Harry's temple, took a silver string out of it and poured it in the pensieve. The three men touched the surface of the liquid with the tip of their wand and were sucked into the magical device leaving Lily behind with the boys who fell asleep. Five minutes later they returned with awestruck expressions on their faces.

"What happened? What did you see?" Lily asked cautiously as she took up the men faces.

"Harry was covering Damien as a shield, but when Voldemort casted the killing curse he flinched a little. That was enough to let the curse slide over his shoulder and hitting Damien in the head. Miraculously the curse rebounded back to Voldemort whose body was destroyed in the process and now lives as a wraith." James explained happily. Lily looked at her husband in shock, she couldn't believe it. Nobody had ever survived the killing curse, not even the most powerful wizards in history had accomplished that.

"I hate to interrupt, but we must start planning Damien's future." Dumbledore cleared his throat with a sad smile on his face. The Potters and Sirius looked at him with confused expressions.

"As you saw in the pensieve" he nodded to James and Sirius, "Voldemort is now a wraith which means he will seek out a method to retrieve a body. He isn't defeated, he's temporarily put down. Once he has a body again, he will come after Damien." This statement worried the adults; they knew the headmaster was right. Damien had to be trained if he wanted to survive another encounter with the Dark Lord.

The plans were quickly made. Damien was allowed to lead a carefree childhood till the age of seven when his training would begin under his parents, Sirius and Dumbledore. James would teach him Transfigurations and flying lessons, Sirius DADA, Lily Charms and Potions and Albus Occlumency when he was older. When Dumbledore told them to separate Harry from his family till he was eleven, the child's parents and godfather were angry. The old wizard explained Damien's fame, the future attention from the Ministry and the press and the special lessons that he would receive could lead to Harry's resentment and jealousy towards his brother. Lily argued that her oldest son should be given the lessons as well; she won't deny him the education he needed. Dumbledore pointed out that Damien was the one who was destined to destroy Voldemort and must carry that burden alone. The Dark Lord was a formidable opponent; there could be a chance Harry would die if he faced him alongside his brother. James agreed with this, he rather have both of his sons alive when Voldemort would be brought down. Lily finally relented and swore to Dumbledore if something happens to Harry, she would hex him in St. Mungo's for a month. Upon Sirius question where to send his godson, the headmaster came up with the idea to bring Harry to the Dursleys. The three adults protested loudly, but Dumbledore's reasoning won the argument. If there was a chance Voldemort would use Harry as bait to lure Damien out, he would never think about looking for him in the muggle world. Lily reluctantly agreed and swore again to Dumbledore if the Dursleys treated Harry miserably, she would painfully remove every hair of his beard and hair. Dumbledore gulped at this, but promised to keep an eye out on the oldest of the Potter children.

That night Lily and James brought Harry to the Dursleys at Privet Drive and made arrangements with them to ensure their son was treated fairly. Petunia and Vernon weren't happy about this, they knew it was foolish to protest the plans the Potters and Dumbledore made without their consent. They were both annoyed and relieved to hear that Harry only had to stay until his eleventh birthday and they would never see or hear from him ever again. The Potters had tears running down their cheeks when they said their goodbyes to their firstborn.

"We're sorry about this Harry, but this is for your own good. As long as Voldemort is out there, he will come after you to kill Damien. Your brother needs all the help he can to prepare himself and you could distract him from his destiny. That doesn't mean we don't love you lesser than him." James said with a heavy heart as his wife hugged Harry with all her might like she would never let him go. It seemed hours but it was mere minutes when she finally released him. Lily wanted to say something but failed and started crying, before disapparating with her husband back to Hogwarts. They would never know how much Harry would despise his family for leaving him behind in favour for his younger brother.