Chapter 6
12 Grimmauld Place, London
Harry couldn't move. He didn't want to. He didn't want to move, or breathe, because it was in his room. He could smell the beast, the bitter cocktail of blood, ash, and animal stench filling up the black room. He could hear it growling. Harry bit his lip, the only action he could muster. Ron was in the next bed, still sleeping. How could he not smell the thing, hear its giant paws scratching over the floor? It should be right by the foot of Ron's bed.
No. No, not Ron. Not like this. Cedric had been bad enough, but Harry didn't think he could bear losing Ron to such a bloody, terrifying end like the one that waited at the end of this monster's claws and teeth. He kept thinking this, but he couldn't move himself from his huddled position under the thick covers, giving all he had to just mold into the bed and disappear.
"Go away. Please, please just go away!" His internalized pleas were ignored as the mattress dipped under a great weight. The smell became overwhelming, and even through the thick fabric of his covers, Harry could see the blood-red eyes looming over him. He let out a squeak, refusing to scream, even now as the creature had him cornered.
The deep growl morphed slowly into a murderous chuckle. "Nowhere to hide, Harry."
The covers were torn away, and Harry let out a desperate gasp. This was it.
"Harry!"
He blinked confusedly at the sudden voice change. Instead of that awful voice that sounded somewhat like Voldemort's but at the same time not, this voice sounded like a girl's. Hermione's voice, to be exact. She was hissing urgently, going so far as to shake his shoulder. Not that he wasn't shaking enough on his own. He was damp with sweat, and he could still feel his heart pounding.
"Harry, wake up!" Hermione hadn't seemed to notice his current state, which Harry was grateful for. Now that he was fully aware of waking from another one of his nightmares, Harry did a quick scan about his and Ron's room, just to calm himself down. As it should be, there was no unseen monster, no red eyes, and Ron was blearily coming to in the next bed. The redhead didn't seem pleased at being woken. The only thing that could be classified as unusual was the sound of a thunderstorm raging over the roof.
"Really, Hermione? It's still pitch black outside," Ron grumbled, already rolling over and snuggling beneath the blankets.
Hermione, however, was not discouraged, and once the two boys heard what she had to say, they could see why.
"Dumbledore's back. He's downstairs now, calling an Order meeting. Fred and George have the Extendable Ears at the ready. They think since it's so late, they might not bother putting up the wards, so we might catch something." Hermione wasn't the greatest advocate of their spying, but an opportunity like this was too much for even her to pass up, it seemed.
Harry flung aside his covers, the lingering tremble in his hands pushed aside. Dumbledore was back, and Harry needed answers, whether Dumbledore was willing to provide them or not.
Sirius clenched his fists, trying to contain his impatience as the various yawning members of the Order leaked into the kitchen, all moving cautiously and quietly. Sirius didn't much see the point. Knowing his godson and the Weasley twins, the scamps were probably lying in wait to listen with those ear things, and Sirius wasn't inclined to let the others know about his suspicions. Molly might strongly disagree, or think Sirius a poor guardian for it, but he believed it was Harry's right to know what was going on. He might not be able to get the boy into the meetings proper, but he could look the other way as the young'uns went about it on their own.
At last, the door swung shut behind the skulking Snape, and every head turned to their leader. Dumbledore's face was pensive, and he was silent for several minutes. Sirius was on the verge of moving this along with a loaded cough when Dumbledore finally spoke. "In this case, I believe it best I start with the bad news first. We are in much more dire straits than we had first believed. Voldemort has summoned a force against us that we have very little knowledge of or experience with."
"Perfect. Just perfect," Sirius thought. That was the only constant they got, it seemed, that the situation only ever got worse. The Dark Lord was on the move, he was cooped up in this dark hole for the foreseeable future, the Ministry had their heads stuck firmly up their arses, and now Voldemort had a whole new force on his side that had it out for the Order and Harry.
An impatient growl came from one Mad-Eye Moody. His large blue eye, which normally swiveled about in his head with no rhyme or reason, was fixed on Dumbledore. "Enough with the dramatics, Albus. If we're facing some new, unkillable beast or a host of foreign supporters, I'd prefer you'd just tell us so we can figure out how to deal with it."
Dumbledore folded his hands. "I ask you all to bear with me. I imagine many of you won't readily accept this, but believe me, this is very real."
Unconsciously, Sirius leaned forward a bit, and outside the meeting room, the lowered Extendable Ear practically twitched from transmitted anticipation from the listeners upstairs.
On the road, Wyoming
Sam yawned sleepily, despite the bright sun shining through the Impala's windows. He could do with a snooze, but Dean was snoring away loudly in the passenger seat, making it a little difficult. Sam wanted to clock him out of sheer, exhausted jealousy. He and Dean had finished their hunt only yesterday afternoon, and he was still worn out. Mad scrambles through prickly brush and getting tossed around by a gangly spirit with a wicked grip didn't make for a relaxing nature hike through the park. The creepy bruising on his arms in the shape of unnaturally long, skinny fingers guaranteed Sam would be wearing long sleeves for a while.
That very same evening, the Winchesters picked up out of Cave Creek and headed for South Dakota, which constituted a straight, twenty-two hour drive with no real stops, making the fatigue a shit-ton worse. But, according to Dad, he'd be damned if he walked them into this situation without being as prepared as humanly possible. Bobby was the largest standing repository of demon knowledge that they knew, and he also had more info on these wizard types. Dad had explained that he knew a few stories, but not nearly enough to put him anywhere close to being good with this.
Sam, on the other hand, couldn't help but feel a weird excitement about the whole thing. Sure, he wasn't totally trusting of these wizards, that would just be stupid, but the fact that it would mean going to England and exploring a whole new kind of culture was kind of thrilling. It felt much more like an adventure than he was used to. Most people would say that Sam's life seemed adventurous enough, but the life of a hunter wasn't nearly as…well, romantic as it sounded. They traveled a lot and saved people, but they did it with no pay, crappy lodgings, a surprising amount of boring information scouring and stakeouts, more fear than fun, and growing up feeling like such an outsider left Sam with an empty feeling in his gut. Oh, and don't forget the exhaustion. Sam gave a half-hearted kick to the back of Dean's seat, scowling petulantly. The big jerk just grunted and rolled to face the window, smacking his lips.
Oh well. They weren't that far out from Bobby's at this point, three hours at most. He could catch some shut-eye there. Until then, he could occupy himself with wondering what weird things they were going to encounter in a world of magic.
12 Grimmauld Place, London
The Order was silent. Dumbledore sat patiently, waiting for some kind of response to his telling of his findings.
Sirius was the first. He let out a bark of disbelieving laughter that sounded a bit forced. "You can't be serious! Demons? Those mythological creatures some muggles believe in? Come now, if they existed, then we would have some knowledge of them. Did you actually see one?"
"No, Sirius, I did not. However, I did encounter several people who have."
Sirius' mouth snapped shut. Once again, the atmosphere in the kitchen grew tense. This was different, real accounts rather than evidence retrieved from books. Still, Sirius couldn't quite bring himself to believe it yet. How could such creatures exist and manifest throughout the world without the wizarding community being aware of them?
Arthur Weasley spoke next, both curiosity and fear in his words. "If we have little knowledge of demons and their nature, who does know about them?"
A glint returned to the Headmaster's blue eyes. "Now this is where things become interesting. In my searching, I unexpectedly stumbled across a whole other hidden world, not unlike our own, entire communities spread across the globe that I had never heard of. These people have awareness of many things the wizarding world has not heard of, demons being one of these. And here is where the good news lies. I not only gained clarity, but I also gained the help of experts who are willing to come here and help us neutralize this threat."
The whole Order was buzzing now, throwing out questions about whether that was safe, when they would arrive, and what kinds of wizards they were. Sirius remained silent, still not quite believing, but he wanted answers just as much.
Dumbledore's lips twitched at the corner. "I believe I should answer a particular question first, as I think it will cause the most discussion. These experts are not any kind of wizard. They are muggles."
The uproar returned with a vengeance.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Dean munched away at his sandwich, keeping an ear out for the end of Dad and Bobby's little shouting match they were hashing out outside while occasionally twitching an eye toward Sam, who had conked out on the other side of the table. Didn't matter that they'd signed up for the job, Dad was still pissed about the older hunter tipping their location. Dean didn't care much; he knew Bobby wouldn't have done it if there were any chance of real danger. He wasn't too worried. The old guys would squall it out for a bit and then be back in, same as always.
He leaned back, peering around affectionately. As much as Dean loved the open road, no place had ever felt quite so much like home as Bobby's house did, full of ancient books, weapons, and dust. Seeing as this had been a regular stay-over of his and Sam's since Dean was eight, it wasn't that big of a surprise. Back when they were kids, whenever Dad encountered a hunt that would take him longer than the typical week or so, this was where the brothers would end up. Dean had accumulated quite a stock of memories here: when Bobby played catch with him for the first time, that one Christmas two years ago when they got snowed-in by that blizzard, when Sam got that raging flu, the time Bobby caught Dean and one of the local girls appropriating one of his old junkers for…well, that was certainly memorable, but Dean would personally rather forget it, as well as the verbal tanning Bobby had given him for it. Now it seemed he was going to be adding something new to the list, which would be learning everything they could about wizards and demons for this crazy-ass job. Dean groaned, his appetite decreasing rapidly. He let his sandwich fall to the plate with a pathetic plop.
Dean straightened when it went quiet a few minutes later. The front door swung open, admitting the two older men inside, Dad still looking pretty steamed about the whole thing. Bobby didn't look much better, but his expression got more cheerful when he saw the boys, Sam jerking awake and giving him a disoriented wave as Dean saluted snarkily.
"Still sproutin' like a weed, Dean?" Bobby said with a grin, patting the older boy on the shoulder as he went for a glass of water. Probably had voice strain from all that yelling. Dean grinned with satisfaction, and couldn't help but take a shot at his brother. "Yep, but I can't say the same for poor Sammy." Dean could practically hear the cranks coming from his brother's head as he rolled his eyes. He wondered if they would just roll out of Sam's head one day with the frequency he was doing that lately.
"Don't get too cocky," Bobby warned. "You were a late bloomer yourself. Keep talking like that, and Sam's gonna pass ya out of sheer spite."
Dean didn't even need to dignify that with a comment. It wasn't like it could ever happen.
Dad, as opposed to the other three, wasn't one to tolerate chatting when a job was lined up, especially one like this. Dean had actually expected him to interrupt sooner. "I'd rather we get right down to business, Bobby. I don't know when this Dumbledore expects us to get there, and I want as much info as possible before we jump into this."
"You got four days," Bobby said, opening a drawer and pulling out what looked like plane tickets. It took Dean's most stalwart effort to keep the horror out of his face. Goddammit. Bobby continued, thankfully oblivious to Dean eyeing the tickets as if they were deadly cobras. "By the way, trying to help a wizard order these things ain't no cakewalk. Might have magic, but they can be pretty damn clueless at the same time. Sounds like something you'd probably want to know, John. It isn't just demon info you want."
John straightened in attention. "The last thing I'm gonna do is walk in there blind, with the wizards or the demons, especially since Sam and Dean are coming along. Whatever we can cover in four days, we need to know."
Dean, who was about to move into his senior year of high school, was strongly reminded of cramming for end-of-year exams, which typically wasn't a good thing. Still, this was for the sake of a hunt, and not only that, probably the biggest hunt of their family's career to date and likely the only one they were ever going to get paid for. Dean might not have been the research buff that his brother was, but it didn't mean he was a slouch, or all for shotgunning this type of thing. Demons were nothing to be screwing around with; sadistic little shitheads that could body-hop and be a lot trickier than most would like. He also had to agree with Dad on the wizard side of things. Dumbledore and some of his allies might be on the up-and-up, but the wizard himself had told them that this Voldemort crackpot wasn't the only magical person to watch out for. Oh no, book-weary or not, Dean was not about to get on that damned plane without every leg-up on this situation he could get.
Bobby had no argument. He retreated back into his library, beginning to rifle through the numerous stacks of tomes and volumes. The Winchester family couldn't suppress subtle winces as he just kept on pulling out giant books that could be secondarily classified as footstools and possible murder weapons. Bobby shot them a smirk. "I think these are a good place to start for now. At least, once we cover the Key of Solomon."
"What's that?" Sam asked, his voice dull with sleepiness. Dean felt bad for the kid. It didn't look like he'd be getting a proper lie down any time soon.
Bobby pointed upward to the elaborate circular sigil that marked his ceiling. "Also called a devil's trap, and that's a pretty complex and powerful version. Demons walk into it and can't walk out again unless the trap's broken. Trust me, it's gonna be pretty damn useful. After that, we'll see how much we can cover in four days."
Dean could feel a long night coming on.
12 Grimmauld Place, London
"You can't be serious!" Sirius cried out over all the other voices clamoring to give their opinion on Dumbledore's unexpected course of action. "What could muggles do against such creatures when you act as if we are helpless against them?" He had gone along with Dumbledore's plan so far, but this seemed like too much. Internally, Sirius felt some guilt, knowing that he was probably emulating his bigoted mother more than a little, but the only kind of muggles he could think of were folks like Harry's relatives: oblivious and without understanding of the wizard world. Even if his vision of these "experts" was incorrect, how could muggles hope to protect his godson or anyone else?
Sirius wasn't alone. For the first time in months, he and Molly Weasley were in agreement on something, though she also seemed guilty about voicing her doubts about these people's ability to fight these creatures. Alastor was bellowing about the safety risks such presences would present, and old Snivellus was doing what he did best and was sneering away. Everyone else was a mixture of disbelief, curiosity, and even a little disdain.
Dumbledore didn't bother to silence them this time, waiting for everyone to settle and wait for their answers before speaking. "I understand your doubts, but believe me, I have seen the capability of hunters, as they are called. They are muggles who have seen the hidden world that we are familiar with, and even parts we aren't, and they elect to fight against its darker side. I have learned by experience not to underestimate them. Whether or not you can trust my word, they have knowledge of demons that we do not, and I have hired some of their best to assist us against Voldemort's new allies. They will be arriving in just a few days."
Sirius clenched his fists. Once again, it was a situation where they had no choice but to go with Dumbledore's judgment. No doubt the man was capable, but it was feeling less and less like a combined effort in this fight and more like Albus Dumbledore and his cronies. Sirius could only hope for all their sakes that the old man had made a good call, and that these supposed hunters were all he proclaimed them to be. Sirius, however, would wait to see proof with his own eyes what these muggles were really capable of. His hopes were not high.
Around about the hour of three in the morning, the resident teenagers of Order HQ retreated back to their rooms, or at least Harry and Ron's room. It had been twenty minutes since they had caught anything aside from the sound of whispers over the Extendable Ears, and even though Fred and George were still manning stations just in case, the other four doubted anything else would come their way tonight.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny sat quietly, trying to make sense of what they had managed to catch. It was only when the Order shouted or occasionally when Dumbledore was speaking that they could make anything out. Still, they had managed to catch the gist; Dumbledore knew what was causing the recent insanity in the wizarding world, and he had managed to find somebody capable of dealing with it who just so happened to be muggles.
Ron was the first to speak. "Sounds bloody ridiculous to me. I mean, demons? Dumbledore can't possibly think they're real."
Hermione's expression was dark, her hands twisting together as she gnawed on her lower lip. "Well, we can't be sure, can we?"
Ron gaped. "You too? Come on, Hermione! Out of all the books you've read, have you ever found any proof of demons?"
Hermione's face twitched into the frustrated look she wore whenever she couldn't give a solid answer to a direct question. "Solid proof, no. The wizarding world doesn't really have religion of any kind as an established institution, so the concept isn't taken too seriously. Still, there are accounts of them all over the world."
"Most of which came from muggles," Ron pointed out. "No offense or anything!" he added swiftly at Hermione's venomous glare; she was Muggleborn, after all. "I'm just saying that they were probably seeing something they teach us about in Defense class, not demons or any nonsense like that."
"Well, then what has been doing this?" Hermione snapped back. "No creature we know of does this kind of thing. The disappearances, all the magical creatures going mental, the thing that attacked…" She stuttered off, casting a wary glance to Harry. Ron and Ginny copied her; Harry had been unusually wired lately, and they were never sure what might set off his temper.
Harry, however, had not been paying attention in the slightest. His conscious was still hovering at the stairway bannister, and also down below among the gathered Order members, churning through everything they had heard. Everything they had heard only because of their own initiative and the twins' perpetual need to break rules.
Harry's fists clenched. Demons. Other secret communities apart from the magical world. Muggle experts.
And no one had told him.
If what Dumbledore said was true, one of these theological monsters had gone after him, apparently on Voldemort's orders, and they were still keeping him in the dark as if he were still a child. Did they all think so little of him? He had faced Voldemort three times already, every time without any help, aside from Fawkes in the Chamber of Secrets, but somehow he wasn't worthy of this information? A pit of fire flared in his stomach, compressing his chest and causing his fingernails to dig deep grooves into his palms.
"Harry?"
He was jarred from his furious brooding by Ginny's clear voice. He looked up into three pairs of eyes watching him questioningly. "What do you think?" Ron asked hesitantly.
Still not totally on track with the others, Harry only shrugged. Whether he believed this or not, it wasn't like they could do much about it. It wasn't like they would be allowed to do anything about it, either.
Out of all of them, Ginny seemed most on track with Harry's thinking. "Whether we believe it or not, the only thing we can do is trust Dumbledore and these experts he has coming." She seemed the most curious and open out of the four.
"Muggles. Still can't believe it," Ron muttered, shaking his head.
"Just don't jump to conclusions, Ron," Hermione warned. "Not every non-magic person is like Harry's relatives, or totally oblivious. If Dumbledore thinks they're so capable, we'd better not underestimate them."
Now that was something Harry could get behind. If he could do nothing else, he would be on his guard. Voldemort, these supposed demons, or mysterious muggles; it didn't matter. Harry wasn't going to be caught unawares again.
Harry said many a silent thanks that his friends were talking again and weren't looking at him, because he couldn't restrain a great flinch when he swore he heard a deep rumble, like a sinister and cruel laugh, echo in his ears.
"Don't be so sure of yourself, Harry Potter."
A/N: Okay, back after a bout of break because of real life being a bitch. Wow, that was some stellar alliteration there. Not my favorite chapter, so I might go back and adjust, but for now this is as good as I can make it.
Alright, so someone pointed this out in a review, so I thought I'd clarify. Yes, the timeline for Harry Potter is shifted back two years, so OotP is taking place in 1997 rather than '95. This is one of the few alterations I'll be making to canon beyond this being a crossover, obviously, just so you all know.
A big thank you to all favoriters and followers, and special thanks to all reviewers: Wanderstar, loveofharrypotter, esperanza100, Guest, Karla Colt, Beawr, Kitsune1818, brooke.h16, Sakura Mikan91, Naivaraeladrin, SoSking,and Band-Potter-Geek.
