The Chronicles of Blood and Fire (HP Fanfic)

The shadows inside the abandoned maintenance room flickered softly—enough light to see each other's faces, but not enough to carry beyond the door.

There were three of them tonight.

Talwyn, standing near the cracked window, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

Mara, leaning against the stone wall, silent as always, eyes unreadable.

And Julian, pacing slowly, lips pulled into a scowl.

"He's not part of this," Julian muttered, voice low.

"Doesn't have to be," Talwyn replied, "but we both know he's not just another rehab case. You've seen what he is."

Julian snorted. "What he is is unpredictable."

Mara finally spoke, quiet and flat. "He listens. That's more than I can say for most."

Talwyn glanced between them. "One of ours is gone. Taken last night. No reason given. No return. We can't act blind. We need someone who sees what we miss."

Julian stopped pacing. "You're suggesting we bring in the boy with the shadow-eyes? The Ministry's favorite walking question mark?"

Talwyn didn't blink. "Yes."

A beat of silence passed.

Julian sighed. "You're lucky I'm desperate."

They found Caelum in the library. Of course they did.

He was seated cross-legged on the floor behind a fortress of books—titles on advanced concealment charms, mental fortification, magical anatomy. He didn't look up as Talwyn approached, but he spoke first.

"You've lost someone."

Talwyn paused at the edge of the carpet. "We have."

Caelum turned a page slowly. "How long?"

"Since last night. Midnight. No incident report, no mention from staff. Just… gone."

Now Caelum looked up.

Golden eyes met Talwyn's. They weren't cold. Just steady—measured.

"Who?"

"Her name was Lina. Quiet. Empathic magic. Sixteen. One of us."

Caelum closed the book.

"Who else knows?"

"Just us three. And now you."

Caelum stood.

It had been exactly one year since he woke up in a white bed, bandaged and bitten, with no name and too many questions.

He was six years old now. But no one in Greystone ever treated him that way anymore.

He had earned that silence.

"What do you need from me?" Caelum asked.

Julian, standing behind Talwyn, stepped forward now. "You're not one of us. But you watch like you already know where every blind spot in this place is."

Caelum didn't deny it.

Julian continued. "We need to find out where she went. If she was taken for a transfer… or something worse."

Caelum's gaze sharpened.

"I assume you've already checked the logs."

"Falsified," Talwyn said grimly. "Staff claimed she was 'temporarily relocated for health concerns.' Which means nothing. No room reassignment. No escort record. No medical logs. They wiped her."

A long silence stretched between them.

Then Caelum nodded.

"All right," he said. "I'll help you."

Julian raised an eyebrow. "Just like that?"

Caelum glanced back at his books. "She was one of yours. And if they can make someone vanish with no trace... then they can do it again. To any of us."

He turned to Talwyn.

"I'll need the original Circle meeting schedule. Any detail on her routine. Who she spoke to. And one of you to act as cover while I move."

Talwyn smiled faintly.

"I'll handle that."

That night, as Caelum slipped out of his room cloaked in disillusionment, he whispered to himself:

A year ago, I was hunted in a forest.

Now I'm hunting in one made of stone and lies.

He moved through the halls like a wraith. Silent. Invisible.