Disclaimer: See prologue
Chapter 6
Hagrid,
Have you noticed any of the magical creatures of the Forbidden forest acting unusual lately?
- Hermione
Hermione,
No-one in the forest's been acting any stranger than usual. Why do you ask?
- Hagrid
Hagrid,
Lots of magical creatures that live in areas with a lot of concentrated magical energy are acting more hostile that usual toward wizards in those areas. I hadn't heard of anything in your area, but I wanted to make sure.
- Hermione
Hermione,
Well nothing so far, but I'll watch out for anything and let you know.
-Hagrid
Achan was in a state of near ecstasy, the code that hid the contents of the second scroll had finally been broken, and, as he had hoped, it detailed how one might bring a powerful demon under their control. The instructions and ingredients were complicated, and if the ritual failed the consequences would be dire, but they were completing the work of their great lord and master, there was no way they could fail!
He looked down at the demon that would soon be his to command, the eye was still open, straining against it's restraints, but the thought no longer bothered him.
"Soon demon, you will become part of our glorious work, and no one, not even that wretched half-blood who killed our master will be able to stop us!"
The demon didn't respond, and after a few moments Achan turned. He had a small army of the weaker demons now, it would be prudent for him to practice controlling them, and what better way than cleansing a part of London? He laughed to himself, this would be an amusing day.
It was several days after they had received Hagrid's last letter that Hermione met Harry and Ron for lunch in a state of excitement.
"It took a bit of searching but I finally found a book that might give us some insight on what type of ritual whoever this is could be doing." She said as she set a large tome on the table.
They were sitting in the kitchen of number 12 Grimmauld place, a now much depleted pile of sandwiches sat on a plate in the center of the table.
"What does it say?" Harry asked.
Ron leaned in for a closer look at the cover.
"Well there are many different types of rituals," Hermione said as she opened the book to a marked page, "but the ones that require highly magical locations are: necromancy, life or will bindings, demon summonings, and rituals to create control amulets. I haven't been able to find out what control amulets are, but I think we can agree that none of those options are sounding good."
Harry and Ron nodded, this was sounding darker and more evil the more they uncovered. Hermione closed the book and glanced up at them, "So have either of you found or heard anything else?"
Ron scowled, "I've been trying to eavesdrop on the older Aurors, but I haven't been able to hear anything interesting yet."
"Me neither." Harry added.
"I guess we'll just have to keep listening and researching." Ron said in a disheartened voice.
"We could tell Kingsly what we've found." Hermione suggested tentatively.
"No, he'd want to know why we were researching and then we'd have to admit to eavesdropping." Harry said, "Besides at this point we're just speculating, we should wait until we have something concrete to tell him."
They lapsed into silence.
"So, any other news?" Ron asked weakly.
Hermione brightened, "Did you hear that Neville is assisting Professor Sprout in teaching Herbology at Hogwarts now?"
"Oh? Where did you hear that?" Harry asked.
"I saw Luna in Diagon Alley the other day, she mentioned it to me."
"How is Luna?" Ron asked, "I heard she took over The Quibbler from Xenophilius a few months ago."
"She did, and it's been doing very well." Hermione acknowledged.
Suddenly a silvery lynx appeared in the center of the room, the three friends stood as they recognized Kingsley Shacklebolt's patronus. The deep voice of the minister of magic emanated from the glowing creature, "All aurors and aurors in training are to report to the ministry at once, there's an emergency."
Harry and Ron shared a glance, then all three of them turned on the spot, disapparating and heading to the ministry of magic.
Achan was laughing, the sound of it was covered by screams and shouts, but he laughed anyway. His demons had taken to their work with an eagerness that was almost frightening. Muggles ran in all directions as the demons chased them down, smashing and breaking things as they went; already numerous dead lay in the streets.
Loud popping cracks alerted him to the arrival of wizards, most likely aurors, he decided. He checked to make sure his invisibility spell was still in place, then settled back to watch the show.
The aurors began throwing spells into the fray, some shield spells to protect the muggles and some attacks on the demons. The latter didn't seem to have any visible affect. Achan grinned, just as he had hoped, most spells were ineffective against the demons.
Achan whispered a command into the control amulet and some of the demons turned toward the attacking wizards. The aurors quickly learned that almost none of their spells had an affect on the ogre-like demons; only shield or transportation spells managed to phase the creatures. Until three wizards cast stunners at the same demon at the same time; it wavered, then fell to the ground unconscious. Achan's eyes narrowed as word spread and other wizards began teaming up to do the same. Perhaps it was time to leave.
He muttered a command to return to the base where his army was hidden, then turned in place and disapparated.
Hermione was very glad she had taken the extra time to return to school and learn healing spells. The number of wounded muggles was more than the aurors themselves could handle and so she walked around healing cuts, bruises, broken bones, and any other injury that she could.
The muggles, once healed, were quickly stunned and obliviated, but there was still the matter of what to do about the dead. A few stores were left un-repaired, by the cleaning crews, Kingsley had already gone to see the muggle minister and had arranged a cover-story about a gas explosion which had caused the damage, and deaths.
It took several hours, but finally the work was done and the witches and wizards who had been helping had left. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had returned to the ministry; in light of what had just happened they agreed that it was probably a good idea to tell the minister what they had uncovered.
Kingsley listened to what they had to say in his office, and sat in silence for several moments after they had finished.
"So you believe that the recent hostility in magical creatures, the strange symbols, and magical flares from the same areas are a result of some dark wizards summoning an army of demons that they just used to attack those muggles with."
"Yes." Harry replied.
"Well it does make sense; Potter and Weasley, you're going to be working with Aurors Smith and Fields on looking into this. See if you can find where this group is hiding. Ms. Granger, if you could work with our research division, see if you can find out more about this summoning ritual."
They nodded and left the office.
Author's Note:
Another chapter up, Please review with any comments or deep thoughts. I love reviews.
