Summary: Twenty years after the death of Voldemort. A murderer is on the loose, and he is using a powerful weapon - a creature known as the Atronach, a beast of fire that leaves traces of sulfur where it makes its kill.



Ron Weasley is the first to stumble across these murders, and Harry Potter arranges for the old trio, plus Ginny, to team up and face this threat. The mysterious orphaned teenage girl Amanda, whom Harry keeps as a foster child under nebulous circumstances, also offers her help.



However, underlying the case of the murders is a much deeper conspiracy, one involving the last true disciple of the Dark Lord, a man who operates in the shadows, a man who seems to be directing and predicting the every move of the trio and their quarry...a man who may be more powerful than Voldemort himself. Even though the threat of a sadistic murderer is high, it only conceals a far greater one. And in this story of love, deception, fear, hate, anger, betrayal, courage, and passion, the unanswered question is - when will this mysterious orchestrater tip his hand? Part One of a trilogy.