Special. A Dark Story in the Wizarding World

  Sirius stood there, looking with interest at the large building in front of him, nodding with a certain appreciation for the architecture of this foreign country. Being used to the ancient structures that dominated the British wizarding world, even if his own house was hidden within a perfectly ordinary non-magical neighborhood, always made him appreciate just how high Muggles could build without a single trace of magic.

  The glass of the building reflected the grayish afternoon sky; clean, orderly, perfectly Muggle. Nothing was out of place. No sign that changed language if you looked at it twice. No door that vanished if you blinked. Nothing. And that, more than reassuring him, unsettled him.

  “Pick up the pace,” Elara said, her expression slightly annoyed.

  “Yes, yes, madame,” Sirius replied, rolling his eyes with his usual relaxed smile before following the knights at an unhurried pace.

  “Why did we even bring them? If we wanted to search for the magical communities in this place, we could have brought one of our own men. The brat from Alaric’s kennel, or the children’s mother,” Elara said with irritation, clearly uncomfortable having to deal with Sirius, who quite obviously looked like the kind of man who would not follow a basic order without questioning it first.

  “Sally cannot come to this country at the moment, and Mark is busy with something else. At least he will help us, since he has some business on this side of the world,” Adrien said calmly, glancing slightly toward Sirius, who looked as if he were simply on some sort of sightseeing excursion. He could not help feeling annoyed, but at least the man was lending them a hand to enter a place that would have been far more complicated than England.

  “Is she always this lovely?” Sirius asked in a sarcastic tone toward Luther, who walked right beside him.

  “Well… the three elders tend to have interesting personalities, each in their own way,” Luther replied with a faintly amused smile, thinking of the other two.

  Sirius smiled calmly as they kept walking. Still, Luther seemed to have something lingering on his mind.

  “May I ask you something? Why does the magical community in the United States seem a bit more…?”

  “Closed? Overdramatic? Stupid?” Sirius said with mockery.

  “Less tolerant toward non-magicals, I was going to say,” Dorian cut in from the side. “We have some information about this place, but it is not quite like the British magical community, which, by the way, has its own issues,” he added.

  “Yes. Supremacists, terrorists, and an incompetent government,” Sirius said lightly. “I suppose everyone has their own problems,” he added, even though he was speaking of his own country.

  Then he seemed to think for a moment as he looked around. In England, if a wizard walked through the streets, even within a non-magical community, there was always something hidden. Sometimes even in plain sight. For all they claimed to be concealed from the Muggle world, there were still countless threads connecting them. A simple aquarium could hide a section where only wizards could enter and see magical fish, right there in front of everyone. There were all kinds of magical barriers that kept non-magicals from seeing magic; unless, of course, some idiot decided to use it right in front of one.

  But in the United States, that presence seemed to vanish, as if magic did not exist anywhere. Even a wizard would have difficulty finding their way. Their magical communities were so closed that it was even forbidden by law to marry or date a non-magical. Not in the British sense, where blood supremacists pushed that nonsense about magical dilution, but simply to remain distant from anything that was not magical.

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  “Well, there is a simple explanation and a slightly longer one,” Sirius said calmly. “The simple one is that during the witch burnings, many magical communities truly suffered at the hands of non-magicals. Non-magicals even killed other non-magicals while taking advantage of the chaos, which says a lot about the madness of those times,” he explained, his tone unexpectedly serious.

  “Yes, but that was even worse in Europe, and I believe European magical communities still remain in considerable contact with non-magicals,” Luther said with genuine interest.

  “Yes. That reminds me that knights and Templars were largely responsible for the chaos back then, were they not?” Sirius said with faint mockery.

  “And it is because of that guilt that magical communities established their own government on land that was not originally theirs. Out of remorse. Now get to the point,” Dorian said dryly.

  Sirius looked at him with amusement before his expression turned serious.

  “It is because of Salem,” he said at last. “I do not remember the entire story clearly; it is something I learned at Hogwarts. But Salem was a magical community that was genuinely friendly with non-magicals. They were something like protectors or patron saints. They healed those who came to their lands seeking cures, and they taught those who needed to learn how to control their magic so they would not lose control. Essentially, it was something like a magical school that was slowly taking shape. Over time, it became a fairly large community.”

  He paused briefly, as though sorting through his memories.

  “At that time, Ilvermorny was still in its early foundations. Although it had been founded years before, it had not yet gained the full acceptance of the magical community. But Salem was much older. Many young people went there to learn to control their powers, especially as the witch burnings were just beginning and everyone wanted to hide. The irony is that some of the very locals who had once been healed by those witches, wizards, or whatever you want to call them, were the ones who pointed at them and called them enemies. And then… well. What you would expect happened.”

  Sirius stopped walking for a second as he said it. Not because he needed to dramatize it, but because even he, who usually made a joke out of everything, knew there were things that did not come with a clever punchline.

  “Most of the magical community in the United States was nearly wiped out. A massacre in every sense of the word. Unlike our magical communities in Europe, where some wizards even amused themselves by taunting non-magicals and letting themselves be set on fire just to walk away unharmed, in Salem the first ones to fall were children who were barely learning how to use their magic. Children who did not even understand why the fire would not obey them yet. Children who were only just beginning to realize they were different.”

  The silence that followed was not uncomfortable. It was heavy.

  “I see,” Luther said, his expression more serious now. After all, more than anyone, he was a protector of the young, and hearing that part of the story was far from pleasant.

  “Of course, there is much more to it,” Sirius continued with a small shrug. “But that is what I remember for now. It only proves that the world is always darker than it looks at first glance.” A faint, forced smile appeared on his face.

  The other knights remained silent. More than anyone, they understood that. They had seen too much; some things they would rather never have witnessed.

  Luther looked away toward the street, as if searching for something in the flow of passing people. Gema tightened her jaw slightly. No one said anything.

  “Well. That turned gloomy rather quickly,” Sirius said suddenly, recovering his amused smile. “Even if the wizarding world is full of stories like that, there are also some quite interesting ones. Remus always loved reading about them. He would get excited and tell us everything that had happened in the past while the rest of us were not particularly interested.” His gaze softened just a little at the memory. “He really was one of those nerds who could not help wanting to know everything. Always had a book under his arm, even when it was unnecessary. Used to say it never hurt to understand the past if you wanted to avoid repeating it.”

  “That is why you came to the United States, is it not?” Luther asked, helping steer the mood away from the heaviness.

  “Yes. I have some information suggesting he might have come here before disappearing. I hope I can find him and give him a proper punch for leaving Harry alone while I was in prison,” he said with a smile that did not quite reach his eyes.

  “Then let us finish this investigation once and for all. I have a great deal of work waiting when we return,” Elara said seriously, picking up her pace with determination.

  And the group moved forward once more, the weight of the story lingering invisibly in the air, as if even the city around them carried echoes of something that should never be allowed to happen again.