CHAPTER 1 - OF THE FLAMES

The cold streets of London wasn't a welcoming place for homeless orphans, it was in the shadows of society that the powerful wandered and manipulated the gears behind the curtains. Syndicates, hidden cults, secret societies... There was always someone with power trying to shake the balance of the world in his favor.

But some who were exposed to this shadow vowed to fight until their very last breath to change things, to ensure that the people would always be free.

Archibald Wright wasn't one of these, ever since he was born, the streets had been his home, from drug dealers to mafia bosses, he had seen all, and believe it or not, he also triumphed over them. But the reasons behind this were very unexpected.

If you asked Clara's Brotherhood Of Orphans, the biggest, most hidden, and efficient spying organization of London, about this so-called Archibald, the kids nearby would shudder, and most would refuse to open their mouths, but the bravest or foolest, wouldn't mind doing so for a price.

Stanley O'Brien once answered to the man with a red sash, "He is the son of the devil, or so they say, weird things happen around him, he can make cars break for no reason, he can take the light from people's eyes and the fire from hell protects him."

Rumors say that the police officers arrested Stanley the same day he spoke of Archibald, apparently, he was caught transporting drugs for a local dealer, but no one believed that, it was all too coincidental.

Archibald, however, was mostly unaware of most rumors circulating around him, he learned how to fend for himself very early, and never paid attention to whatever those people liked to say. But he knew as a matter of fact that he was special, different...

He considered himself a son of the fire because the fire was his first ally. It all started when he was four years old, an old monster wandered the streets at the time, butchering those he deemed weak, the police searched for him everywhere, but the man was intelligent, he knew how to stay hidden in the middle of the crowd.

It didn't help that he was working for the police as well, he knew every single one of their moves.

When he acted, he kidnapped people and brought them to a place under a bridge, where a large bonfire would be waiting for them. After beating his victims just for the pleasure of hearing them screaming, he would throw them in the fire and watch them burn.

But when Archibald was his victim, something weird happened, the fire healed his wounds, it danced around him like an ecstatic pet, happy for finally uniting with its master, then the flames created form, they become a snake with two rows of sharp teeth, four legs, each with four claws, in the end, and a yellow mane around its reptilian head that also had two horns.

Even without consciously knowing, he still used the fire to burn the man to the death and escape.

It's for that reason that many know him as the son of the devil, but those saved by his fire would always call him something else, a more fitting title... They would call him Archibald of the heavenly flames.

...

Snape walked through the street with hurried steps, he couldn't stand the muggles and their things, every time he came to the muggle world he felt like he would puke just by looking at them.

But as disgusted as he felt, he had a mission to accomplish and would do so no matter what.

He took a turn on the nearest street and stopped when he saw a commotion happening in front. People were shouting, shooting with their horrible fire weapons. He took out his wand and wore a cloak that made him invisible.

As he approached he opened his eyes wide but never moved to stop what was happening.

"Quick! Take the goods out of here, don't let the Devil's son approach!" A fat man with short black hair and a scar across his left eye shouted.

Twenty or so men hurriedly ran around the alley, doing the best they could to put the covered cages within the truck.

Archibald slowly walked towards them, four rings of fire surrounded him and moved with speed superior to that of any bullet, acting on its own to protect him every time someone shot at him.

"Damn you, demon! Die!" One of the men took out a frag grenade from his pocket and threw it towards him.

However, when Archibald's eyes fell on the object it stopped in mid-air before bouncing back towards him.

"NO-" Before the man could voice his anguish, the grenade exploded hitting him and some of the nearby people. His body became a mess of broken flesh and bones dues to his proximity to the explosion and died together with the others.

Archibald reached out his hand and one of the rings took a more physical shape, becoming just like a sword, he then started waving the sword left and right, every slash would send powerful sword beams of fire that not only cut but also burned whoever it touched, killing all but the man who was giving the orders.

He approached the man with a scar on his face, which was shaking on the ground, breathing heavily and looking at him with a hanging mouth and wide-eyes.

"Where is the money, I want everything, tell me and maybe I'll let you live."

"Ha-Hahaha! So that's the reason? To think that they were right, even with what we were doing you just wanted the money! You are indeed the Devil's son-" Before he could finish his words, Archibald waved the sword with speed faster than his eyes could follow, either because he was too shaken by the whole situation, or just because of how illusory the things seemed to be. "AAAGGGHH!"

The man held his arm as tears fell from his eyes, the place where his hand should have been now was just charred flesh. There was no blood, despite his hand having been chopped off. The pain was such that he could barely think in this situation, he just looked at the boy, this time he was truly scared, he pointed to the left, where a bag was hidden by the shadows of the nearest building. "I-It's th-there..." He could barely speak.

"See, it would have been way less painful had you cooperated." Archibald walked past him, then came the sound of a thud, and a head that had a scar across its left eye rolled to the side.

After taking the money Archibald walked towards the truck which was once being loaded with the covered cages, and with a single motion of his hand, he burned the loan used to cover them, revealing cages filled with kids, boys, and girls, all badly nourished and some might have even been sick.

Seeing this, the sword in his hand disappeared, together with the fire rings surrounding him, they became a single wave of fire, that cut through the bars of every cage without hurting the kids, freeing them all.

But the 20 or so inside the truck wasn't all of them, inside the warehouse to the left of the truck was where the men took out the cages from. There he found 20 more cages and freed everyone.

"You! I know you! You're... Archibald of the heavenly flames!" One of the kids, the oldest one, recognized him.

"Do I know you?"

"I... I'm from Whitechapel, I was working in one of the factories, spying for Clara... Those bastards never paid us the agreed amount of money, and the owner suddenly said that we were owning him so he decided to sell us to the Chinese..." He explained the situation as tears fell from his eyes. "Thank you, Archibald, we will never forget your help."

"Don't mention it..." Archibald suddenly frowned and turned his back to him, he looked towards the alley, his eyes swept the whole place, again and again, four times, but no matter how much he looked, he couldn't find anything, but this weird feeling of being watched didn't leave.

Shaking his head, he gulped and threw half of the money that was inside the bag towards the oldest kid. "There should be more or less 20 thousand pounds inside, give it to Clara."

"H-how do you know!?"

"I'm used to carrying bags of money... Don't forget what I asked. And remember to take those kids with you, don't let them rot in the streets, fending for themselves."

"Yes, sir!" Although he was at least 3 or 4 years older, he couldn't help but answer as if he was talking to someone older, Archibald had this air of superiority about him that worked like a charm. Not that it mattered though, in the end, he was a normal human, and the boy was no different than a god in his eyes.

Snape stood motionless as he watched the boy leaving and the bodies of the slavers being turned to ashes before being carried away by the winds. He still had it fresh in his mind the moment the boy somehow noticed his presence.

To think that this kid was so powerful despite his age, such fine control of the magic without a wand is something that most would only see in the middle ages from wizards like the ones who created Hogwarts or those like Wendelin the weird...

'I have to tell Dumbledore about this... But first, I must take care of my mission.'

Sighing, Snape took a deep breath and prepared himself for any problems that may arise from this situation. He had experience with less conventional kids and knew that there was danger in interacting with one so brazen about his magic and cold in the face of death despite his intentions.

Once they left the alley, Snape kept following the boy for almost an hour. Thankfully for him, it seemed that the boy did have a place where he rested, although it couldn't be called a residence, it was an abandoned house in the outskirts of the city, a place where green still existed and only he lived at.

The house itself albeit very damaged wasn't as bad as Snape thought it would be, the floor and the furniture were all very well cleaned and the whole place smelled like flowers.

Archibald had just closed the door when he heard someone knocking on it. Surprised by this, he opened the door again and looked at Snape with wide eyes. When? How? Who is this guy?

"You must be Archibald Wright..." Snape showed him a letter addressed to him. "My name is Severus Snape, I'm a Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Hearing this, Archibald took the letter and went inside, leaving the door open for Snape who followed him. He sat down on a chair and started reading the content of the letter.

After some time, he gulped and looked at Snape.

"I won't pretend I fully believe in this, my abilities sure are supernatural in a sense, but magic? Can you prove?"

Hearing this, Snape felt like smiling because he found a way to make his job faster, after all, he was already late by months practically, the school terms were about to start, there was only a day for them to buy the materials and everything else.

"If I can prove, will you want to be a student at Hogwarts?"

"Sure, I don't see why not, especially so if this makes me stronger, it would greatly help me in the future."

Snape pretended he didn't hear Archibald's words and touched the boy's shoulder. Before Archibald could react, he felt the world around him spinning, the space deforming as a great pressure fell on his body from all sides, twisting, pulling, and pushing.

When it stopped he fell on the ground, breathing heavily as an entirely different place filled his vision. Seeing this Archibald stood up and looked around completely amazed.

Those foreign houses and those people wearing strange clothes are things he never expected to see, in fact, he never expected to simply travel from his home to this unknown place.

"This is the Diagon Alley, the place where you'll buy everything you need."

"Really?" Archibald looked to the left, where he saw a store called Ollivanders, before continuing. "I don't have money."

"Don't worry about this, the school has a fund for children like you. It's enough to buy what you need, although none of it will be of high quality. Let's go."

Snape wasted no time, not even letting Archibald go through the list to know what he had to buy. He just pushed him inside the stores, asked whatever was needed and then hurried to the next place.

In less than ten minutes, he was already wearing his uniform, carrying a cheap enchanted backpack filled with books, a cauldron, glass vials, a telescope, and a Brass scale.

"Alright, will you want a pet? Be quick, we don't have all the time in the world."

"Yes."

"Which one?"

"A cat."

Their quick exchange of words was painfully watched by the startled vendors. They could barely understand how the two were capable of communicating and just blinked their eyes whenever the two interacted.

In the end, Archibald bought a white cat that had rare purple eyes. "Your name shall be Leo, we might have met today, but I assure you, that from the beginning to the end, I'll always take care of you."

"Meow..." The cat licked his face, making Archibald smile. He put him on his shoulder and followed Snape who was already frowning at the 'disgusting' show of affection, or maybe he was just jealous because he didn't have a cat... who knows?

"You can go inside, I'll wait here."

Archibald nodded and went inside Ollivanders. The place was small and slightly dark, countless boxes were piled up in the table in front and at the shelves at the sides. Archibald felt weirdly affected by this place's atmosphere as if something in here was related to him in a sense he couldn't describe.

As he approached the counter, the hair on his body stood up and he quickly created a fire sword before turning back, only to find an old man with grey hair looking at him with a smile. Thankfully he had very good self-control, otherwise, he feared he could have ended up killing the man for no reason... or so he thought.

"Ah, young, fierce, talented, and control beyond what children like you usually have... and those eyes, I have seen eyes like those before, many, many times. Especially during the wars, yes, children who unfortunately had seen death, but yours are a little bit different, they remind me of a great wizard, evil like no other, but great nonetheless."

"Who are you?" Archibald dispelled the sword and looked at the man startled, never had someone read him like that before, who could this man be?

"I'm Garrick Ollivander, a fine maker of wands, and owner of this shop." He smiled and went behind the counter.

"You know it has been quite some time since I saw such a precise and powerful wandless magic, for someone like you, I already have a feeling of what kind of wand would be interested in you." Mr. Ollivander started looking through some objects, changing them of place, as he searched something.

"What do you mean by interested in me? Shouldn't I be the one choosing the wand?"

Mr. Ollivander chuckled but never stopped moving. "Only if you want a wand of bad quality, Mr. Wright." Hearing Ollivander saying his surname, made him gulp and become less bold in the man's presence, he was feeling at disadvantage there. "You see, this place has a history that runs deep within my family, every Ollivander that inherited this shop, learned wand-making by his father, who also learned by his father, and so on.

"However, I always searched for perfection when crafting wands, because of this I ended up creating what I like to call a supreme system, where I use just a few different types of high-quality wood, and only three different cores, such as Dragon heartstring, Phoenix feather, and Unicorn hair, besides a few other things. This allowed me to make wands that would most certainly, at least 99% of the time, have a wizard that is perfectly aligned with it... Ah, here it is!"

Mr. Ollivander approached Archibald, pulled a long tape measure, and said. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Eh... Right arm, I think..." Ollivander then nodded and started taking measures of his arm, from shoulder to finger, wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit, and round his head. Mr. Ollivander let the tape measuring him on its own and proceeded to take a few boxes from the nearby shelves.

"Alright, why don't you try this one first, Alder and-" Before he could finish his words, Archibald touched the wand, and it blasted away from him flying as far as the other room at the back of the shop.

The two looked at the wand with blinking eyes, then Ollivander smiled. "Haha, I always like when the first wands aren't the best-suited ones, don't worry, we have many more to try."

The next six attempts were all failures, some had no reaction at all, others exploded the boxes from the counter, or just jumped away from him. Seeing this, the smile on Ollivander's face got bigger and bigger.

"Quite the tricky customer, aren't you, Mr. Wright... Just what wand should we try next..." As Ollivander wandered about the matter, one of the boxes at the shelf behind him kept shaking until it fell down on his head. "Ouch! What's this?"

Ollivander took the box and blew away the dust on top of it, taking the wand from inside, he looked at Archibald and smiled. "This one is rare, made many years ago, the design is simple, but don't let its appearance fool you, the number of wands made with similar materials can be counted in one hand, Elder Wood, thirteen and a half inches, not too flexible nor too rigid, with Pheonix feather as the core."

Archibald looked at the wand with curiosity, this is it, that feeling, it was coming from it... Once he took the wand, a warm feeling coursed through his body and he instantly felt a connection with the wand.

"This is the one, this is my wand..."