Chapter 0: Prologue (Route 1)

The autumn of 1998 saw the defeat of the Dark Lord, Voldemort, just after the Hogwarts school year had begun again. The cataclysmic final battle resulted in devastating losses for both sides, and saw the deaths of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Remus along with his wife Tonks (Nymphadora Lupin), along with a large number of Order of the Phoenix and an equal proportion of the DA (Dumbledore's Army) and Eaters. The hero of the day, Furensō (Nickname: 'DarkRock'), was severely injured (by a stupid oversight of his own) with a dark spell on his torso and spent several long days in St. Mungo's, recovering from his injuries and the overwhelming depression that resulted from his own survival at the expense of his friends' lives. As he lay in his hospital bed at St. Mungo's, mired in pain and misery, he was in danger of becoming a cliché of the wounded hero.

Ironically, he was saved from this fate by the endless stream of visitors he would rather never see. Almost all of the Ministry's sycophants, healers, nurses, journalists, and a variety of stooges managed to slip past the inept guards who were supposed to be watching him, but these only spent most of their time going to the cafeteria for a cup of tea or coffee. Furensō had gotten used to keeping his wand under his pillow and hexing the worst offenders and even had to restrain himself from sending them flying from a punch of his own, which were the ones that caused so much fear in the Wizarding World, but luckily most of his visitors got the hint after he gave them a look of few friends. Although, on the other hand, scaring the busybodies was a way to clear his mind in a fun way, in his opinion.

There were some who resisted his stormy temper and continued with their visits; Mrs. Weasley refused to lose yet another precious person whom she regarded as another child, whether by birth or not, and kept pestering him until he relented and accepted the woman and her unconditional motherhood. Andromeda Tonks came by to show off the newly orphaned baby Teddy, son of Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin. Furensō promised his friend Harry before he died that he would take care of Teddy if he ever needed a home, he would be welcome to his home anytime. Mrs. Tonks thanked him gravely and refrained from pointing out that DarkRock didn't actually have a home at the time, but what it was worth was the attempt.

Her parents and younger siblings never learned of her condition because they were away on very important business and it would take several weeks for them to return.

One of his other persistent visitors was a doctor from St. Mungo's. Since Furensō had little knowledge of the man's specialty, they had little to talk about. Healer Sallow, however, was sincere and understanding and was not interested in the "Strongest Man in the Magical (and non-Magical) World" who had triumphed over the Dark Lord ... or perhaps he did not show it superficially. Instead, his interest was in the hero's views on Muggle technology, especially medicine.

While the two never became friends, the distance between them allowed them to talk about all sorts of things, including Furensō's role as a practitioner of the Martial Arts and his views and opinions on the Magical World's relations with Muggles, goblins and centaurs. They spent long afternoons drinking tea and playing checkers, while DarkRock lay with a bandaged torso trying to heal from the dark magic that left him in that state. Eventually, he was able to talk to his new friend about the precious people he lost in the war. In return, Sallow talked about his fears and hopes for the future. The healer was deeply concerned about the population of the Magic World. He confessed to Furensō some truly frightening statistics he had compiled about the births of Squibs into pureblood families and the decline of Muggle-born babies.

The MI, or Merlin's Index, was a test performed on girls and boys born in both the Magical and Muggle Worlds. It was completely harmless and took only a moment, but it was an indication of a child's magical potential. Of course, the potential was just that and many other factors contributed to that child's magical maturity in later life. But Sallow's biggest concern was already happening; that wizards and witches were dwindling in both numbers and magical ability.

Furensō listened sympathetically and told Sallow that he was saddened at what was happening, and another reason that increased his sadness was that his friend Hermione was no longer there, for surely she had a dozen ideas that could help him. Sallow dithered and dithered, and finally admitted that he had an idea and needed the war hero's help to implement it.

Later, DarkRock would blame Sallow's damned persuasive skills that reminded him too much of Hermione for agreeing to the request. But as it was, he was perfectly lucid when he signed a contract with St. Mungo's, where to his stupidity he failed to read it, and became part of the great Douglas-Furensō scandal that began on his doorstep at 8:30 on a cold winter morning some three years later.

Note 2: If you want more information from Oc (Furensō- DarkRock) I can write a prequel to the first Harry Potter movies, so you can see what life was like for our beloved protagonist before this story.