"This is a prime tactical opportunity," Alan muttered under his breath. After a split-second of intense battlefield calculation, he realized he absolutely could not just sit frozen in the shadows and passively wait for death. He certainly didn't harbor the naive expectation that these two masked assassins would simply finish their brutal execution and peacefully depart, nor did he entertain the foolish fantasy that they hadn't already sensed his presence nearby.
Seizing the fleeting moment, Alan exploded from his crouched position. He raised his black-jade wand and snapped off a heavily compressed Impediment Jinx. The spell shot through the darkness like an invisible, high-velocity cannonball, aimed dead-center at the bulkier Death Eater who was actively charging his area-of-effect curse. The very instant the magical kinetic force left the tip of his wand, Alan dropped his center of gravity dangerously low and broke into a dead, silent sprint directly toward the figure standing just behind the one Sirius had called 'Snivellus'.
Avery and Severus Snape had finally managed to pick up Sirius Black's elusive trail, ruthlessly tailing the blood-traitor all the way into the labyrinth of Knockturn Alley. Avery had been on the verge of unleashing a devastating, wide-scale curse to finally bring Sirius down when a sudden, violent surge of magical kinetic energy streaked out from the dense shadows directly behind him.
Violently startled by the ambush, Avery was forced to completely abandon the lethal curse he had been meticulously charging. He spun around on his heel, his dark cloak billowing, and frantically threw up a standard Shield Charm to intercept the incoming blast. The invisible cannonball slammed into the magical barrier with a heavy, concussive *boom*. Avery reflexively fired a retaliatory curse blindly into the dark, but as the sickly light of the spell flew off harmlessly into the distance, he found himself completely unable to visually lock onto his hidden attacker. A frantic, sweeping glance of the immediate area revealed absolutely nothing—until a short, incredibly fast figure suddenly lunged into his peripheral vision, charging in astonishingly low to the cobblestones.
Closing the critical distance in the blink of an eye, Alan maintained his low, aggressive posture. He lunged directly into Avery's personal guard, firmly planting his left foot onto the damp pavement to establish a rock-solid pivot point. With explosive, practiced torque, he whipped his right leg in a brutal, ascending arc, lashing out with a devastating roundhouse kick aimed squarely at Avery's extended wand hand.
The heavy physical strike landed with sickening precision. A sharp, audible crack echoed as intense, blinding pain shot straight through Avery's right wrist, forcing his fingers to involuntarily spasm and release their grip. His wand went spinning uselessly off into the dark alleyway. Thoroughly shocked and completely unprepared for a brutal, close-quarters physical assault from a supposed wizard, the masked Death Eater desperately tried to backpedal and regroup near Snape's position.
Avery certainly wasn't a slow combatant, but his heavily conditioned, martial-artist opponent was exponentially faster. Before the disarmed Death Eater could even retreat two full steps, Alan ruthlessly pressed his tactical advantage. The absolute second he successfully swept the enemy's wand away, Alan pivoted sharply on his heel, stamped heavily forward with his right foot to close the gap, and snapped a punishing, spinning left kick directly into Avery's unprotected gut.
"Ugh!" Avery gagged violently, the sheer kinetic force of the blow completely emptying the oxygen from his lungs. He nearly vomited his dinner right then and there, his torso involuntarily folding sharply forward as his abdominal muscles collapsed under the strike.
But Alan's relentless, lethal combination was far from finished. The moment his left foot returned to the pavement, he lunged forward, aggressively reaching out to clasp both hands firmly behind the back of Avery's skull in a vicious martial clinch. Using the man's own forward momentum against him, Alan violently yanked Avery's head downward while simultaneously driving his right knee straight up in a brutal, ascending strike.
A sickening, bone-shattering crunch echoed through the alleyway as the Death Eater's masked face met the devastating knee strike head-on. The white bone mask shattered into jagged fragments, and a spray of dark crimson blood erupted into the air. The sheer kinetic impact lifted Avery entirely off his feet, sending him flying backward to crash heavily against the unforgiving cobblestones, instantly knocked out cold before he even stopped sliding.
The entire, brutal physical takedown had taken a mere three seconds to execute. Without pausing for a single breath to admire his handiwork, Alan smoothly raised his black-jade wand and fired another highly compressed, kinetic Impediment Jinx straight toward the back of Snape's head.
Snape, who was still actively engaged in a furious, high-speed exchange of lethal curses with Sirius Black, reacted with terrifying, seasoned instinct. Calmly and precisely batting aside one of Sirius's aggressive hexes with a flick of his wrist, the dark-haired wizard spun smoothly on his heel, his dark robes flaring out like bat wings, and hurled a devastatingly dark spell of his own to meet the new threat.
*Sectumsempra.*
With a vicious, tearing hiss that sounded like a massive blade slicing through the very fabric of the air itself, the dark curse shot from the tip of Snape's wand.
The two opposing forces of magic violently collided in mid-air. However, instead of an explosive kinetic shockwave, the result was entirely different. Alan's heavily compressed, solid Impediment Jinx was sliced perfectly and cleanly in two, right down the middle, exactly like a sharp blade effortlessly cleaving through a ripe watermelon. The severed, invisible halves of the barrier bypassed each other, while the lethal, cutting dark magic continued racing straight toward Alan's chest unabated.
Alan's dark eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock. *What in the absolute hell kind of dark spell is that?* his tactical mind screamed, realizing his primary defense had just been completely invalidated.
Operating purely on survival instinct, he aggressively channeled every single ounce of his remaining magical energy into rapidly manifesting another, vastly thicker Impediment Jinx, forming a dense, layered shield directly in front of his body. But even that massive expenditure of raw power couldn't fully halt the momentum of the *Sectumsempra* curse; he watched in absolute, paralyzed horror as the razor-sharp magical edge slowly and methodically began to physically slice its way through the dense layers of his defensive barrier.
Realizing his physical position was rapidly becoming entirely untenable and that the shield was seconds away from catastrophic failure, Alan prepared to throw his body into a desperate, evasive dive to the side. Just as his muscles tensed to roll, a blinding, brilliant flash of pure, ethereal light suddenly erupted from the center of his own chest. In an instant, a secondary, incredibly powerful magical shield blossomed outward, enveloping him in an impenetrable dome of protective energy. Shimmering vibrantly across the surface of this new barrier was the majestic, glowing silhouette of a silver-white doe.
Upon seeing his lethal strike completely fail to penetrate, and specifically recognizing the unmistakable, luminous outline of the doe-shaped patronus shield, Snape's cold, dead eyes flickered with a profound, unreadable emotion for a fraction of a second. Instead of ruthlessly pressing the offensive attack to finish the boy off, the Death Eater abruptly halted. He casually flicked a blinding distraction spell toward the advancing Sirius, swiftly lunged over to grab the collar of the unconscious Avery, and instantly Disapparated from the alley with a sharp, echoing *crack*.
Alan let out a long, shakily exhaled breath, his heart hammering wildly against his ribs. That brief, violent exchange had been genuinely terrifying. Experiencing the full, lethal force of a seasoned adult wizard's dark magic firsthand was a sobering reality check. Without the sudden, miraculous intervention of that mysterious, silver-white shield, he would undoubtedly have been sliced into ribbons right there on the filthy cobblestones.
With trembling fingers, he reached into his inner robe pocket and fished out the small copper token: the protective amulet that Lily Potter had so kindly gifted him earlier that afternoon. The intricate, etched surface of the coin, which had previously gleamed with magical vitality, was now noticeably blackened and entirely dulled.
*So, Mrs. Potter's parting gift genuinely just saved my life,* Alan realized, a profound sense of gratitude washing over his pragmatic soul. The so-called trinket of an amulet had truly lived up to its protective name in the most dramatic fashion possible.
While Alan was still standing there, silently collecting his scattered wits and waiting for his adrenaline to recede, Sirius Black, seeing that the immediate, lethal danger had fully passed, hurriedly jogged over to discover exactly who had just intervened and saved his life.
Spotting the dark, disheveled figure rapidly approaching his position out of the corner of his eye, Alan's combat instincts flared once more. He instantly raised his black-jade wand in a strict, tactical warning, the glowing tip trained dead-center on the newcomer's chest.
"Hey, hey, easy there, wizard, just relax," Sirius called out, immediately raising both of his empty hands in a universal gesture of surrender. "I am absolutely not a Death Eater, I promise you. Was it really you who just drove Snape and Avery off?" As Sirius stepped closer into the dim ambient light, his jaw dropped slightly as he realized his mysterious, highly capable rescuer was, in fact, an underage wizard.
"Hardly," Alan replied coldly, his posture remaining rigid and intensely wary. "I merely managed to take one of them entirely by surprise while they were tactically distracted by your firefight."
"Ha! Well, color me incredibly impressed anyway. I'm Sirius Black—just call me Sirius," the aristocratic wizard introduced himself with a barking, breathless laugh. "That was some genuinely slick, brutal physical fighting back there, mate; I saw the whole bloody thing unfold. You managed to drop that masked coward in exactly three physical moves!"
"It was purely tactical luck, that's all. I nearly managed to get myself killed by the other one you called Snape," Alan stated plainly, keeping his guard up. "Before I lower my weapon, I need you to confirm your affiliation. Are you an official Ministry Auror, or are you operating with the Order of the Phoenix?"
"You actually know about the Order?" Sirius paused, looking genuinely surprised by the boy's highly specific intelligence. "Well, yes, I am currently operating with them—though I suppose it's hardly a closely guarded secret anymore."
"In that case, it is a pleasure to formally meet you. My name is Alan Wilson." Only upon hearing the verbal confirmation did Alan smoothly lower his wand, allowing a faint, polite smile to touch his lips.
"The absolute pleasure is all mine, Alan. I have to say, that final, blinding shield you managed to deploy was profoundly impressive—it certainly doesn't look like anything a standard underage wizard could possibly cast on their own," Sirius praised, his grey eyes thoroughly analyzing the boy.
"The tactical credit for that goes entirely to Lily Potter's protective amulet, not to my own magical reserves. I absolutely could not produce a defensive spell that structurally strong yet," Alan admitted with a heavy, honest sigh.
"Wait, Lily? You mean Lily Potter? You actually know her?" Sirius's eyes widened, completely intrigued that this highly lethal, mysterious youth was somehow acquainted with his closest, dearest friends.
"Yes, I do. I had the pleasure of meeting her yesterday when I came to the alley to purchase my first-year school supplies. Her husband, James, was there with her as well. She kindly gifted me this highly valuable amulet during our very first meeting—I honestly still do not know how I will ever be able to properly thank her for it," Alan explained, recalling the warm, maternal encounter. He had possessed absolutely no idea that the small, copper gift contained such immense, life-saving power.
"Ha! That sounds exactly like her. Lily has an absolute heart of pure gold. James, Lily, and I all started our first year at Hogwarts at the exact same time—they are the absolute best friends I have in this entire world, and the people I trust most with my life," Sirius said, his voice instantly radiating a profound, familial warmth.
"Well, since you clearly know them and they trust you, then consider us fast friends too. I'll just call you Alan. But wait—hold on a second, did you just say you were buying supplies to *start* school? Are you telling me you're an incoming first-year?" Sirius was utterly stunned, his jaw dropping in disbelief. The sheer concept of a completely un-sorted, eleven-year-old wizard taking down a fully trained Death Eater in a solo, brutal physical ambush was completely unheard of. Plus, Alan's highly conditioned, muscular build and stoic demeanor had easily made him look like an established third- or fourth-year student.
While Alan and Sirius were standing in the aftermath of the skirmish, casually chatting and exchanging intelligence, the sharp, overlapping *cracks* of displaced air echoed through the narrow space as several new, heavily cloaked figures abruptly Apparated into the alleyway directly beside them.