AN: Here's what I have gotten done so far... hopefully you guys like it.. and I greatly appreciate constructive criticism... and i want to thank all of you who has been with me and been beyond saint like patient with me and my lack of updates... so here it is... the new Ch 2! read and enjoy!
Hermione
"Hey sis, before ya finish packing and leave me all alone forever," my not-so twin brother Max began, "I need a favor, and it can be a bonding experience for us," I chuckled knowing his belief that a good demon vanquish kept the family together. Max was technically my twin brother, but he looked nothing like me, with his almost black hair and grey eyes.
"How many times have I told you, Max, not to shimmer in my room?" I asked my routine question. He shrugged in response as he started looking through my Arithmancy book. I took a deep breath, "at least it wasn't an eye roll" I thought.
"Anyways, what demon are we vanquishing this time, Max?" I said deciding to cut to the chase. I had to second guess the people at Hogwarts now, since that my friends' lives were in danger at least once a year due to other people's secrets. I just grew tired of playing strategy games in conversations, trying to find a way to make the other person show their hand, it just got to be tiring. Home with my family, I got to take a break from that. I could just be tactfully blunt and not worry about how it'll come back to bite me in the rear. Max understood he didn't mind the fact that I didn't spend time on playing with our conversation anymore.
Of course, the problem with Max is that he searched for trouble. He liked getting into battles and basically being in the thick of things. Whereas, with Harry and Ron, we didn't go looking for it; trouble found us. Max hunted down demons in his free time for two reasons: 1) he was an adrenaline junkie, something I never understood; and 2) He said for every demon he vanquished, he has immediately saved at least three innocents, and that I can't argue with. He has gained a reputation in the Underworld of being as almost undefeatable as The Charmed Ones, and we're only fourteen!
"It's just a simple vanquish," he said coaxingly, trying to convince me. He looked at me practically begging to go with him. I knew it was most likely no simple vanquish, in fact knowing Max it was probably an upper-level demon. He always loved going after them the best. I shook my head at this thought, knowing that I would go with him and do this before the Weasley's came to pick me up. To the Weasleys I was just a simple muggle-born, I had to hide my Wiccan powers and act as a regular wand-wielder as the Underworld called wizard-kind. They were not supposed to know of each other.
"Fine, who's the demon, what are his powers, and do we need Prue's help?" I said after a minute of us staring each other down. He jumped up yelled 'yes!' before he started telling me everything he knew about this demon. I smiled at his enthusiasm, glad that he was better at Wicca magic than I was. Despite what my friends thought, it got tiring being the "smartest witch of the age", the only one who knew about the fact I was both wiccan and witch was Dumbledore, and he did everything he could to make sure I was able to practice my other magic while I was at Hogwarts; but without other Wiccans the best I can do is learn the theory.
Another difference between us is that I'm better at wand magic and he's a genius when it comes to Wicca. During the summers, we taught and trained each other when we could. He was still telling me about the demon we were about to vanquish when we heard our mother's voice come from downstairs. Mom and dad both had their powers bound when we were born because they didn't want demons to come looking for us. However, when we were younger, our grandmother on our mom's side and our grandfather on our dad's came by often just to check if we had powers when it was found out that we did they trained us every time they came to visit, they wanted us be able to protect ourselves. We went down to breakfast; Max finished explaining this demon and kept looking at me expectantly.
"Fine, but we're taking Prue, knowing you there's something you're holding back because you think it'd be more 'fun'," I said sending a light glare at him. I couldn't help but wonder how much he was holding back, and how much of excitement was real.
"I would never hold something back from you, just to make the vanquish more fun, " Max replied in false indignation. After we finished breakfast, we ran upstairs and I called for Prue, while Max grabbed the necessary potions and few sheets of paper that I knew were experimental spells.
"Hey guys," Prue said after a flash of light burst through the room, signaling her arrival. Prue was our Guide, a type of guardian angel for neutral witches. They are supposed to help neutral witches be good witches or at the least keep them from turning evil. Guides were witches who died in the line of battle, and when the Elders choose a witch to be a guide they are allowed to keep the powers they had from when they were alive.
"So what did you guys call me for?" Prue said as she looked at us. I glanced over at Max, gesturing for him to tell her what he wanted to do. She sent a demanding look to Max who was still trying to figure out if he should bring a certain spell or not. "Max, are we going on another vanquish?" she asked exasperatedly.
"Yes Prue, didn't Hermione tell you?" he asked as he looked at her for the first time. He glanced at me, I shook my head. I wanted him to be the one to tell Prue. He sighed in what seemed like disappointment as he started to explain about this demon named Dornan. I was still trying to figure out why Max was so hopped up on this urge to kill Dornan. I just chalked it up to vanquishing an upper level demon.
"Wait a minute, did you say Dornan?" Prue asked interrupting Max in mid-sentence. Max nodded as he resumed his explanation. Prue looked at Max in a calculating way, like she knew there was more to the story that he was holding back. "Dornan hasn't been seen in forty years, Max. Nobody's been able to track him, not even the Phoenixes."
"I know, but thanks to a tip, I was able to find him." He said as he grabbed a light jacket. This was the first I had heard of a "tip," I was worried by this. Max didn't seem to be thinking beyond the vanquish; I had seen Harry do this as well, only with trying to save somebody.
"A 'tip' Max? That's kind of convenient don't you think?" I said while trying to think of the possible outcomes from this vanquish.
"Yes, 'Mione a tip. Before Dornan disappeared, he obtained the reputation, of being especially cruel to his victims, it is also rumored that he was the one who trained Belthazor. I want to get before he strikes again." I started to get a bad feeling about this 'simple vanquish'.
"Okay Max, I'm just going to grab my wand." Max shimmered to the door.
"No you're not. You depend on that thing too much; no we're doing this with Wicca magic, not wands." I raised an eyebrow at his command, before I orbed to my room. I knew that Max would follow me in a second. "'Mione, I'm serious. Gran's right, you keep using wand magic and you'll forget how to use the other magic that was gifted to us."
"I know how to be a witch. I'm just bringing my wand on the off chance that this is more than a simple vanquish."
"But-"
"Max let her. She's better with her wand, and complications may arise. We'll deal with the fact that she can't fight without her wand later, okay?" Prue interrupted Max. He nodded and shimmered back into his room. Prue turned to me. "Keep next to one of us. I don't know how I feel about this one. Max isn't telling us why he wants us to go after Dornan."
"I thought he liked going after the upper level demons?"
"He does, but he doesn't do the effort of actually hunting one down. He just normally goes to where he knows he can find a minion, after he gets the info from the minion he goes after the demon. Of course, you'd know that if you actually came to him the few times he asked you to, and don't lie about not being able to orb out of Hogwarts." I didn't know that Prue knew that I told Max 'No' the last three times he shimmered into my room at Hogwarts. I felt shame at this, but Harry, Ron, and Hagrid needed my help a lot last year. Max just coming at the wrong times, besides he had friends of his that could help him.
We made our way back to Max's room just as he was grabbing the last of the experimental potions. Max loved to try new things, he was always trying to make up new spells and new potions. The things that worked, he added to our family's book of shadows. For Max, magic was life; he loved the feel of it, the emotions behind it, and the art of magic.
We looked at each other making sure we had everything. The plan was that Prue and I would distract Dornan, and then Max would come in from behind and hit him with a vanquishing potion. If the potion didn't work, then we'd do a combined spell between Max and me.
"Let's go. We don't know how much longer Dornan will be there."
Mom walked in at that moment and shook her head slightly as she looked at Prue, "They rope you into another vanquish?" Prue nodded with a grin on her smile, Mom looked at me. "Okay, remember Hon, that the Weasleys are coming at four so try to be back before then so you'll have enough time to clean yourself off without magic, okay?"
"Yes Mom," I said she nodded and walked downstairs. I was hoping that wouldn't get too injured before the Weasleys came to pick me up. Max shimmered us to the Underworld outside of Dornan's lair. Max shimmered inside to hide. When Prue and I walked into his lair, we looked around seeing nothing but a big giant cave like everywhere else in this place. That was when the demons shimmered in, and we all realized the one thing that Max forgot to tell us, these demons were swarm demons. We needed to kill the king or queen in order to kill the rest. Prue and I looked at each other worried by this turn of events. Did Max get possessed?
"Okay, I'm thinking we might need help." I muttered to Prue. She nodded while she tried to think of a way for all of us to survive. Not only did we have Dornan to face off, now we had swarm demons to take care of. Max! You forgot to warn us about the Swarm Demons! I yelled at through our telepathic connection.
The Swarm Demons aren't supposed to be here! Dornan hates working with other demons, he believes that they'd try to take his glory. What the hell are Swarm Demons doing here? We couldn't see Max; we knew he was somewhere in here though.
"You're not welcome here, Witch." A demon with a rough voice said as walked out from behind the demons. He was muscular with blood red and electric blue markings. His pitch black eyes studied us intently, searching for weaknesses.
"Sorry, we didn't think it was a private party. We were just two girls looking for a good time," Prue retorted as she looked at the forces that surrounded us. I kept quiet and tried to look brave, but I felt like I was break down any moment. I couldn't count how many demons surrounded us, not that it wouldn't matter because Swarm Demons are a hive species and when going into battle with them, it feels like that they just coming.
"Well you brought a good time for us. I am Dornan and this is Traxia, the King of these Swarm Demons." He gestured to a demon that looked like an Egyptian Priest. Traxia nodded to us in acknowledgement. Prue grinned as if she already won the battle. Prue walked in front of me, then subtly nudged my arm and acted as if she was shooting the ground. She wanted me to use my crossbow! I nodded and picked out the two targets; if I could at least kill the King we'd win. However, I couldn't stop myself from thinking: Where was Max?
Prue moved to fight as three demons shimmered tried to attack us from behind. I conjured my crossbow and aimed at Dornan and Traxia.
"Hold it!" We heard a feminine voice say come from our left. We turned around to find a woman dressed in a silver dress that left little to the imagination, with blonde hair and yellow eyes. All in all, she was actually pretty attractive for demon. She looked us over and smiled.
"And you are?" Prue asked with an air of annoyance. We need to be extra careful now that she's involved, Max told me telepathically, I could sense his trepidation radiating from his thoughts. She looked annoyed to be addressed in that manner; she sent a glare toward us before replying.
"I am Lila, a demonic Seer."
