Chapter 7: Bagging a Man for Cash and Controversy

They arrived early Friday morning after flying for several hours, when everyone was asleep. They spent the entire night looking around Wimbourne Minster in the South West of England, using a piece of hair that Bagman had sold for money long ago. Dawn had spelled it to point its roots back at the owner, so they followed it all over the area. Throughout the entire day they searched and searched, until at around early Saturday morning they found some Vampires up and about in the cemeteries. They used a Sunshine spell to dust the Vamps, and they even robbed the cemetery of some of its more decorative items when they came upon a small hovel nearby one of the crypt entrances. They looked in and saw a little old lady dressed in rags and covered in hair peering worriedly at them. The hair they had pointed directly at her, causing her eyes to go wide with fear.

"Sorry ma'am," said Dawn as she pulled Mordred and Faith away, "we just got lost in the cemetery. We'll be on our way now."

She then led the other two off until she was certain that the lady wasn't watching them anymore, and then she spoke to them very quietly.

"That's probably Bagman using Polyjuice Potion to make himself appear as a female," she whispered quietly, "we've got to put her to sleep and check out her things to be sure. Here's my idea; Faith, you get up behind her while I distract her by asking for directions. Mordred, you be the lookout in case someone comes by. We don't want to be surprised by anyone."

"Ten-four," replied Faith as she silently crept back to where the hut was. Dawn went with her and went around the front, knocking on the door while Faith got into position. Mordred melted into the shadows and went around the area as a lookout.

"Excuse me ma'am," Dawn began, trying to lure the bag lady out of her home, "but we seem to be lost. Could you please tell us what this map says?"

Dawn held out a map of one of the locations that Bagman had once played at, and as the bag lady looked out her window Faith clocked her over the head with her fist. The bag lady fell back into her house unconscious, and the Triumvirate went it and looked around the place.

"A ha!" Mordred said triumphantly as he held a bottle up for the others to see, "Polyjuice Potion!"

"And not only that," added Faith as she uncovered a hidey-hole, "some of his trophies that he won. I guess he didn't want to lose these to the Goblins he owed money to."

"Better tie him up and wait for him to change," said Dawn, while Faith used Bagman's own wand to Conjure up some ropes that went around their unconscious victim while Mordred grabbed up the trophies and other valuable items he could steal. "I do hope that we're right about this, otherwise we've got a lot of explaining to do."

"We'll just have to wait," replied Mordred. The three of them waited over an hour, and just when they were getting antsy the bag lady began to change forms. She slowly turned into a male with a squashed nose, thinning blond hair, and glazed blue eyes. He tried to move about as he slowly woke up, but Dawn pulled out some Veritaserum that Mordred had pilfered from Snapes' Potions lab and poured it into Bagman's mouth before he was fully awake.

"Are you Ludo Bagman?" she asked directly, knowing the answer before he even said it.

"Yes, I am Ludo Bagman." Replied the bound man.

"Ok, we got our man," said Faith as she picked up Bagman and placed him over her shoulder, "that's very lucky on our part."

"Luck had nothing to do with it," said Mordred proudly, "it was pure skill, that's all."

"Sure it was." Said Dawn as she rolled her eyes while Mordred beat his chest theatrically.

"I love my job," he said, "Marilyn's Rainbow, this job, I would pull for free."

"Then can I have your share?" Asked Faith cheekily.

"No." Mordred quickly responded.

"Question is," asked Dawn, "where do we put him until Dumbledore's birthday?"

"I was thinking of an early birthday present," said Mordred cheerfully as he and the others mounted their brooms, "that way we can see if he likes our idea or not."

The three of them flew with Bagman and their loot in tow back to the Castle that morning, where they found an irate Buffy and some very concerned Professors.

"Where have you been?" snapped McGonagall in a stern voice. "School has not even really begun and already you three are already flouting school rules."

"We were Patrolling," replied Faith as she shifted Bagman over her shoulder, "didn't Headmaster D tell you about us Patrolling?"

"He may have made mention of it," replied McGonagall, "but according to the elder Miss Summers, you three went off to kidnap someone instead of Patrolling with her."

"Well, we were Patrolling," replied Dawn before pointing at Bagman, "but we ran across this guy here, and figured we'd do our civic duty and bring him to justice while we're at it. We just wanted to see if Dumbledore would like to be the one who gave Bagman to the Goblins so that he could persuade them into supporting the Order of the Phoenix instead of the Death Eaters."

"Where did you hear about the Order?" asked McGonagall shrewdly.

"We found their name when we read about the First War with Voldemort." Dawn said with a shrug of her shoulders, while the other two Slytherins nodded their heads. Dawn grinned when she saw McGonagall cringe at the use of Riddle's title, but then stopped when she saw Dumbledore arrive.

"Hey, um, Happy early Birthday Headmaster Dumbledore," said Dawn, gesturing at the captive Bagman while Mordred and Faith both said Happy Birthday as well. "We figured this would help the Order, at least in getting support from the Goblins."

The three Slytherins smiled sheepishly as Dumbledore bent over and inspected Bagman. After a minute he rose up and looked at Filch, who had come to investigate.

"Please inform the Ministry that we have a felon at the Castle," said Dumbledore, "who was captured by three of our students. Make certain that it is Ministry officials who take him away instead of just Goblins, as they might be prone to cause any sort of 'accidents' on him that we'd all like to avoid."

Filch went off at a limping run while Dumbledore turned back to McGonagall.

"These foreign students do have a strange religious ceremony which requires them to be out of school during the night," he said in a kind voice, "but it is not applicable to Dawn as she is not of age just yet. I will be providing the other three with notes regarding this ceremony shortly, so I apologize for its lateness."

"Religious duty?" asked McGonagall perplexedly. "What sort of religious duty puts its followers at such risk?" She then turned to the four students and asked them directly.

"Aren't you worried you'll be injured in the Forest?" she asked.

"No, we never worry about that," Mordred quickly responded. "Semper Fi bit- I mean, Professor."

The four students and the Professors then turned to look at the Aurors who arrived via Floo powder, followed very shortly by Goblins from the Gringotts Bank.

"He's ours!" cried one of the Goblins while shaking his fists. "He owes us money so he belongs to us!"

"Now, now," said Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour while watching his Aurors pick up Bagman and drag him through the fire to Floo him to a holding area, "we can't have you Goblins taking their own form of justice out on people, even if they did cheat you. Otherwise, everyone would be going into the streets and vigilantism would run rampant. Nobody wants that, especially with Harry Potter's trial coming up soon."

"What's your view of his trial?" asked Buffy while the Goblin stamped off muttering about cover-ups. Scrimgeour ran his hands through his mane of grey-streaked tawny hair while Mordred followed the Goblin at a reasonable distance.

"I have to tow the company line," he said dejectedly, "as a Ministry at war with itself will not be able to function properly, regardless of what dangers may or may not face it."

Buffy and Faith looked over at one of the fireplaces as the Goblins stomped back into it with angry faces while carrying some bags of gold, Vanishing in a flash of green light. The Triumvirate, Buffy and Dumbledore were all given some gold by the Aurors for capturing Bagman before the Aurors all Floo-ed out of the Castle.

"Looks like we're a bit closer to getting the Goblins on the Order's side," said Mordred with a grin as Dumbledore went back to his office, "at least Bill Weasley will have a better time at the negotiating table now that the Goblins have some of their money back along with the person who stole it all on trial."

The four students then went to bed, and the three girls slept through most of Sunday. Mordred took off to gather more potion ingredients, leaving the three girls to spend the Sunday afternoon practicing spells. When he came back in the evening he was carrying a huge sack filled with stuff and a cane with a silver wolf's head on it while huffing and puffing.

"I do believe I got the last of my ingredients for my wand," wheezed Mordred triumphantly. "I can now begin work on my wand."

Mordred then went into the boy's dorm of Slytherin, where he stayed for the rest of the night. Buffy, Faith and Spike Patrolled without him, and Dawn checked on the boy's dorm occasionally (although it was locked, so she had no idea what Mordred was doing.) On the Monday morning there was the sound of a huge explosion that rocked the entire Castle, and many Professors went with the three girls to the boys dorm. There, they found Mordred lying on his back, clutching his arms with his hands next to a crater in the floor.

"What on Earth were you doing?" asked Snape.

"Making my own wands," replied Mordred as he slowly got up off of the floor. He flexed his fingers, and then held out his arms above his head. Two sharp wands quickly poked through his wrists and went into his hands, leaving behind holes in his wrists that quickly closed up. He held both wands before spinning them in his hands, and then placed the tips of the handles together. The wands looked like sharp black stakes that were a foot long each, with four claws on the ends of the handles that closed around one another when he placed them together. He let go of the wands, leaving them in the air to float while the others looked on in wonder.

"Now I can start using my own wands," said Mordred as he grabbed the wands and put them both back into his hands. Veins reached out from his wrists and clamped onto the ends of the wands, causing the wands to retract back into his wrists.

"Ouch," said Dawn, "that looks like it hurts. You're gonna have to get some wrist sheaths to hide those holes, as you look weird enough without being able to open up your own wrists at will." The other two girls winced and nodded in agreement.

"It does hurt," agreed Mordred, "but I'll get used to it in time. And I do have some wrist bands to help conceal them."

Mordred began extending and retracting his wands from his wrists multiple times in a row while he and the three girls went back to the Room of Requirement while Snape tried to fix up the crater Mordred had caused. They looked at books on portals for several hours until Buffy just tossed a book through a table, leaving a hole in the wood.

"There's nothing at all on how to make a portal to another world," she complained bitterly, "more than enough on 'Apparating' and Flooing, but none on traveling between worlds. This is useless."

"Oh well," replied Dawn, "at least we're not stuck cleaning up a mansion full of Dark Magic materials. That's what Harry and his friends are doing at his Godfather's place."

"Face it B," said Faith, "we're stuck here until we fix the problem."

"But what is the problem?" asked Buffy, "yeah, Voldy needs to be beaten like a red-headed stepchild in K-mart but that's going to happen with or without us anyways. What does the Wizarding World need us for?"

"Well, there are the monsters out there," replied Mordred, "they weren't a part of the original stories. We need to kill them all off before school starts, otherwise they'll be attacking the students whenever they go anywhere near the Forbidden Forest."

"Hey, here's an idea," suggested Faith, "why don't we find out where these monsters are coming from and set it up so that they're too busy fighting one another to be bothered fighting us."

"That's a good idea Faith," replied Buffy, "question is, where are all the monsters coming from?"

"It doesn't say in the books as they're new like us," Dawn answered uneasily. "It's too bad we can't go over to Harry's Godfather's place and find out any ideas the Order have for this problem."

"What is Harry's Godfather's name?" asked Buffy curiously in spite of her initial attitude towards the situation they were in.

"His name is Sirius." Replied Dawn. Buffy rolled her eyes and then looked back at Dawn.

"I know his name's serious," she said, "but what is it?"

"Oh for the love of Abbot and Costello!" exclaimed Mordred as Dawn burst out laughing at her perplexed sister. "His name is Sirius, S-I-R-I-U-S, as in the Dog Star, not serious as in the situation."

"Oh, ok," replied Buffy, "how can they help? Why not just ask Pumplepour on what they're planning on doing, since he's the head of the Order?"

Dawn's eyes went wide, and she shrieked in joy.

"Great idea Buffy," she said with a clap of her hands, "I knew there was something I was forgetting. I can ask Dumbledore this Friday if he knows anything."

"Why not before?" asked Faith. Dawn shook her head.

"Because he's got enough on his mind already with Harry's trial on the Thursday," replied Dawn, "I don't want him to lose his focus."

That night during Patrolling, the two Slayers and Mordred approached Spike with the idea of a monster civil war.

"Sounds like a good idea," replied Spike after taking a drag from his cigarette, "as it is, the monsters are only being held in check by about four Big Bad's from what I heard from the rumour mill."

"Did you get a look at them?" asked Buffy.

"No," replied Spike after taking a long drag, "I only heard about them from some fellow Vamps. According to them, there's supposed to be an army forming together on the last day of August. Something to do with St. Bartholomew's Day on the twenty-fourth and the massacre that once happened there in Transylvania. Count Vlad Drakul, which is this world's Dracula, had over sixty thousand people impaled on that day using Magic. They want to harness the souls of the people and animals they plan on sacrificing and create a really Big Bad to take out Hogwarts with. They're gathering all sorts of Demons to their cause."

"What sorts of Demons?" asked Mordred.

"Ubervamps, Vampires, Death Dogs, Bugbears, Felhounds, Mumblers, Cherubs, Demon Imps, Dread Lords, Garthim, Boggles, Beholders and Shamblers." Replied Spike as he counted them off of his list. "Oh, and there may be some walking corpses that they call Inferi, they can only be hurt by fire, so be prepared to whip out your wands and roast a few Zombies."

"Ok, then lets go scouting," said Buffy as she and the other two students got on their brooms. Spike hopped on Buffy's broom and they flew into the air, following Spike's directions towards the cave in the mountains that accommodated the growing horde of monsters.

Before they went into the cave, Mordred tapped his three friends and himself over the heads with a wand, putting a Disillusionment Charm on all of them as they went deep into the cave. They wandered about a mile or two before they found some groups of Vampires patrolling the caverns. Mordred and Spike held the Slayers off from Slaying the Vamps, as that would raise too much suspicion too soon, and continued on to where they found the main part of the monster army.

In a huge cavern that spanned several hundred feet deep, not unlike the one back in Sunnydale that contained all the Ubervamps, there was a massive group of various monsters all wandering around the area. Amongst the Ubervamps and Vampires that crowded the cave there were rat-like Death Dogs and visceral Felhounds all baying and gnashing at one another. There were also toddler-sized Mumblers waving knives at the similar sized Cherubs that buzzed around them. Pale Boggles waded through these smaller creatures while trying to avoid the larger ones, their mole-like eyes glistening out of their skeletal faces. Multi-eyed humanoid Demon Imps scrambled around the floors and walls, igniting their hands with plasma anytime their path was impeded. Huge Bugbears armed with axes argued with Balrog-like Dread Lords that flapped their bat-like wings while waving swords made of fire, ice and bone, while headless Shamblers watched on, gnashing the teeth where their heads should have been and dragging their huge claws on the ground. Beetle-like Garthim lumbered mindlessly by while clacking their claws, and multi-eyed Beholders floated through the air, their tentacles hanging off their bodies and staring at everything with their eye-stalks.

The two Slayers, Spike, and Mordred went to a nook high above as they watched the masses of varying creatures tussle with one another. Before a fight could break out though, one of the leaders of the group appeared on a flying carpet while wearing a suit of bronze and leather armour with a kind of bronze helmet on his head that reached down the back of his neck to his shoulders. He had on a long, hooded black cloak that failed to hide the heavy-bladed sword on his back. His eyes were dancing with flames, and he had an oddly archaic look about his features that made his face look dead in spite of the dancing flames in his eyes. As he flew over the monster army, they started to chant the name 'Ghend' over and over again.

"My Demon brethren," he began as the crowd quieted down, "I myself have full confidence that if we do our duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves worthy to once again be able to reclaim our Demonic home, to raise up a storm of war and wipe out the plague of Humanity. Even though many of our number and many places we called home have fallen into the grip of Mortal kind and all the odious apparatus of Mortal rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the outside world, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall reclaim our world, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this cavern or a large part of it were subjugated and destroyed, then our friends beyond the walls, armed and guarded by the very forces of Hell itself, would carry on the struggle, until, in good time, our Demon World Order, with its power and might, steps forth to the reclamation and liberation of the Old World which we strive to return to." Ghend then stopped and looked over the monster rally, whom had all stood spellbound at Ghend's speech.

"Now I ask you," he said in a deep voice, "do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?"

The rabble of monsters all roared in approval, shaking the very walls with the sound of their roars.

"Then let us stop fighting amongst ourselves," cried out Ghend, "and strive to prepare ourselves for the time when we shall attack at large. We only have two more weeks, for on the day of St. Bartholomew, we shall unleash our secret weapons and strike the Mortal world with such fury that the flames of our war will last for a thousand years."

Ghend then flew his carpet back into a hole across from where the four invisible eavesdroppers were hiding.

"We've got to get rid of him," whispered Buffy to the others, "otherwise he'll recruit more monsters and people using those World War Two speeches he stole."

"Yeah, let's take him out now." Said Faith as she manoeuvred herself into position to fly into the hole Ghend had gone into. But before she could fly Mordred held her back.

"We've got to find out who the other three leaders are," he cautioned, "if we can set it up that by assassinating one will get the others to attack each other with armies then we'll have an easier time wiping out the armies. Also, I don't think he was bluffing about 'secret weapons' in his speech. We've got to find those and neutralize them before they can be put into use."

"Ok, then let's go in for a closer look," suggested Buffy. The four of them flew over on their brooms and went into the hole that Ghend had escaped to.

It took them only a moment to find a smaller room with a square table in the middle of it. Ghend seated himself on one end while the other monster leaders waited impatiently for him. Across from him was a Kakistos-like Vampire dressed in battle-armour, with cloven hooves in place of hands and a permanently Vamped face and a crown of thorns on his head, making him out to be king-like. On the right side of Ghend was a small girl with long black hair, cute pink Hello Kitty shoes and a white dress stained with blood. Her smile showed a mouthful of needle-like teeth, and the black cat on her shoulder licked at her mouth with its' tongue while both watched on impassively with their yellow cat's eyes. On the final side of the table sat a huge wolf-like creature the size of an ox, with large jaws that sprouted sharp yellowish teeth and bright eyes that shot green fire from them. It glared and growled at the cat on the girl's shoulder, and then opened its mouth up.

"Why must you always carry such a foul thing on your shoulder, Anya," it growled menacingly at her, causing her cat to hiss at him. "Egyptian Cat-Demon or not, it's really annoying."

"Piss off, you cur," said Anya, "and it's Supreme Pontiff of Vampires or VamPope to you, as I am also of Holy Vampire heritage, and I am beyond explaining my heritage or powers to a mere talking dog, even if you are a servant of the Void."

"Enough bickering," said Ghend, "we already have enough problems with our separate armies fighting amongst themselves as it is, we don't need to add to it by fighting each other."

"Easy for you to say," said the Kakistos-rex darkly, "my Vampires and Turok-Han are near starving due to your refusal to let them all hunt at will, what little blood we get is not enough to feed us as all. In spite of our similar ancestry VamPope," he said sarcastically, "you yourself have done nothing to help your fellow Vampires!"

"What of the pathetic Mumblers you own?" asked the VamPope with her eyebrows raised, "surely thy can be used as fodder for your Vampires, or is killing things that look like toddlers too much for a King of Vampires? I have my own Dread Lords to worry about feeding blood to, at least my Cherubs are easy to feed scraps to."

"And what of your Imps?" asked the Wolf-like creature. "My Death Dogs and Felhounds are being attacked and almost eaten by your foot soldiers, if it weren't for my own Bugbears you would have used my army as a food source!"

"Peace, G'Mork!" cried Ghend as the Wolf-creature and the Cat-Demon snarled at each other. "I admit that we all have our own problems. But we also have forces that, when combined, will be unstoppable to any force on this world. My own Shamblers are enough to take on any opposing forces, and my Beholders will rule the skies while the Boggles clean up any things left over. Combined with your armies, this grand army will be unstoppable."

"If we can keep each of our armies from killing each other," said the Kakistos-rex tensely, "those Garthim soldiers are worse than useless when it comes to keeping order amongst our forces."

"I'm sure that once we unleash our Balroglords from the Void from which they come from," said Ghend, "our forces shall keep in line with one another. We each have a connection to the Balroglords; G'Mork with your knowledge of the Void and your services to it in the past, the VamPope with your Demonic powers and Dread Lords who'll worship the Balroglords as their Gods, and Kakistos-rex with your Vampiric hoards and dark forces. I also have my own connection due to my brief stay in the Void long ago, but we must keep our connections together so that we may first unleash, and then control, these Dark beings."

"Hold my friends," said the Kakistos-rex suddenly, "I sense that a Vampire is watching us."

With that, the four eavesdroppers quickly fled from the area, flying nearby the ceiling and just barely escaping out of the cave. They flew back to the Castle and went over what they had heard in one of the corridors leading to the Great Hall.

"We've got to warn some of the others," said Buffy, "like Lumpledore. He'll be able to discreetly tell others -"

"Not exactly," interrupted Mordred, "nobody believes him regarding Riddle's return, any mentions of a Demonic army will get him laughed into the loony bin or worst. We've got to tell Dawn about this."

"What for?" asked Buffy defensively, "she can't fight those monsters, even with her Magic."

"I know that," replied Mordred irritatedly, "but she can research them and help give us ideas on how to fight them or, better yet, get them to fight one another."

"How about we talk about this in the morning," said Faith, "I'm beat, and we still do have classes to go to. I'm starting to sorta regret getting back into school again."

With that, the four split up and went into their separate dorm rooms, with Faith and Buffy heading to bed. Spike went to the Chamber of Secrets while Mordred went to meditate and work on some potions he was making.

On the Monday morning during History class, Mordred discreetly filled Dawn in what had happened while both Faith and Buffy snored away. Dawn went to work helping them research the monsters right away, and was so into it she mixed up a Summoning Charm and sent a frog careening into Buffy's face (or so she said, although the smirk on her face almost gave it away as a good prank.) During Potions class Buffy got semi-even with her by causing her Potion to explode all over the three Slytherins, covering Dawn, Mordred, and Faith with a Hair-Raising Potion that made the hair on the girls' heads stand up as if they had been hit by lightening bolts for the rest of the class (Mordred didn't have that much hair so he didn't look any different.) That night during Patrolling the Slayers and Mordred noticed that the amount of monsters had trickled down to a very few, with a general exodus going to the caves around the place they had found the army located the other night.

The next day, they studied Mandrakes again in Herbology class. Mordred and Dawn both managed to get their baby Mandrakes planted on their first tries, but Faith and Buffy both ended up killing several Mandrakes as they both tried to silence the screaming plants when Buffy accidentally choked hers out and Faith just punched her Mandrake in the head.

"Annoying thing just wouldn't shut up," was the only explanation Faith had for Professor Sprout as she was given her homework.

During Transfiguration, Mordred used both his wands to not only animate the paper animals that the class was working on, he also turned the paper birds into real doves which flew around the room while the three other students looked on in surprise and wonder. McGonagall was so impressed she didn't give out any homework to the four students, but she did tell them to study hard for when they were to have their O.W.L.s in the upcoming year. Mordred's joy at his Transfiguration abilities didn't last long, as the pack of Crups that they were shown all began barking at him the moment they saw the four students. Mordred was attacked and bitten by snarling Crups, so he sat out while the three girls were able to tame the dog-like creatures only using some small dog biscuits.

"How is it most of the creatures we're supposed to be learning about go nuts every time I go near them?" despaired Mordred as the four of them walked back into the Castle. "How am I supposed to pass the course if I can't handle them?"

"Maybe you should try some spells on yourself to make you give off a less Demony vibe?" suggested Dawn.

"Or maybe Caring for Magical Creatures is just your one bad class," said Faith, "like Potions class is B's. You can't be good at everything, yah know. Look at B; she's good at DADA and Flying, but horrible at Potions."

"Hey," shot Buffy indignantly, "I could be good at Potions if the teacher wasn't such an ass-clown."

"And I'd be better at Care of Magical Creatures if the animals didn't go crazy every time they saw me," Mordred shot back, "all this needs is a segment on Oprah titled 'Why We'd Do Better At Our Classes.'"

"He's sorta right Buffy," said Dawn, "despite all of Snape's attacks on you, you can do good at Potions. And in spite of Mordred's lousy performance with animals, I'm sure you'll learn how to deal with the animals we are going to learn about in the future."

"How would I be able to do that?" lamented Mordred pitifully while Buffy frowned.

"Just use your natural Magic," suggested Dawn, "you know, holding them still with a Freezing Charm while you study them."

"Or you can use some mind controlling spells," interjected Faith, "at least then it'll be on animals instead of humans, so maybe you'll be able to use that sort of Magic on them?"

"Faith does have a point," said Dawn, "just don't use the actual Imperius Curse or you'll wind up in a lot of trouble."

"Ladies," said Mordred while laughing, "that's the best advice I've had yet. You've just blown my mind."

"It would blow your mind," replied Faith cheekily, "to learn that circles are, in fact, round."

"Please," said Mordred casually, "I can only be blown so many times in one day."

"That's it," stated Dawn, "I'm outta this conversation."

She stomped off while the other two girls laughed at Mordred while he looked on in puzzlement. They just didn't have the heart to explain to him what he said wrong during Patrolling that night, although they did do a lot of snickering when he wasn't looking.

On Wednesday morning Dawn and Mordred learned how to translate various Runes from Celtic, Icelandic, Norwegian, and other cultures into English while Faith and Buffy both happily slept in. During their DADA class, they had Moody as their Professor again.

"Hello again," growled Moody as they all sat down, "today is your lucky day." He rubbed his hands together and pulled a chair into the center of the room before he paused and looked at them.

"Why d'you suppose I'm saying today's your lucky day?" asked Moody shrewdly, "take a guess or two."

The four students raised their hands, with Dawn waving her arm back and forth to get Moody's attention. He took his time before pointing at her, smiling crookedly as she stood up to answer.

"I'm just guessing," Dawn said, "but I think you're going to try out the Imperius Curse on us to see how well we'd do against it."

"And how do you know that that's what I was going to do?" asked Moody quickly, "do you have the ability to perform Legilimency or are there spies in Dumbledore's office?"

"Well," began Dawn nervously, "that's what your impersonator Crouch did last year with the Fourth Years, so I figured that that's what you would do as well since Crouch was trying to be exactly like you all year."

"Well then missy," replied Moody, "since you know so much about it, you'll be the first one in line for it. Stand next to the chair."

His order shocked the students, and as Dawn went to stand next to the chair Buffy jumped up.

"How about you try it on somebody bigger," she challenged, "or is picking on little girls the best you can do?"

"She is bigger than you are," said Moody with a grin, "and you'll all get your turns soon enough. Now Dawn," he said as he turned to her, "try to resist as much as you can. Don't worry if you fail, not everyone can throw off the Imperius Curse."

Dawn nodded her head, and then Moody pointed his wand at her. With a cry of "Imperio", he shot the Curse at Dawn, causing her to stand almost stock-still. She moved her foot towards the chair, but before she could go to the chair her knees buckled and she dropped down on the floor. She crawled away into a corner and began mumbling to herself, causing Buffy to jump up in front of Moody, breaking the spell.

"Enough!" she cried, as Dawn slowly recovered, "she's had enough! You can control her already!"

"Actually," replied Moody, "no I can't. I was trying to get her to get on the chair; she fought against it with all her strength of will. I guess that means it's your turn now."

With that, Moody pointed his wand at Buffy.

"Imperio!" he cried, only to look on in astonishment as Buffy ignored it completely as she walked away from him. He tried it several more times on Buffy, and then tried it on Faith with the same results. Neither Slayer succumbed to the Imperius Curse, leaving Moody confused yet happy.

"Very good ladies," he growled in an almost cheerful manner, "now it's Flaggson's turn."

Mordred went up to the chair, but when he was hit with the Curse his Shield Spell kicked in, covering him with a sphere of energy that crackled as Moody tried to break through it.

"Very good Shield Charm Flaggson," said Moody as he dropped the Curse, "but what happens if you get hit when you don't have it up?"

"I'll try to turn it off," said Mordred before popping out both his wands. He placed them both together by the handles, and they floated out of his hands, going just over his head and spinning slowly in the air. While he was doing this Moody went up behind him and pointed his wand at Flaggson's back.

"Imperio!" he cried, catching Mordred right in the back with it. But before he could command Mordred to do anything, Mordred back flipped into Moody, knocking them both down on the ground. Mordred span around and wrapped his hands around Moody's throat, snarling savagely like a wild animal. Buffy and Faith jumped on Mordred before he could choke Moody out, grabbing his arms and prying him away from Moody. After taking ten minutes to compose themselves, Moody went back to Mordred.

"Did you attack me of your own free will," he asked, "or was that another one of those weird things you seem do be able to do?"

"It wasn't what I was planning on," replied Mordred as he looked at Moody, "it was like my body suddenly had a mind of its own, or in truth, a whole bunch of minds of its own and they all just saw you as one too many minds inside my head."

Mordred was silent all throughout their Divination class, leaving any questions Trelawney asked to be answered by the three girls. He went off from Buffy and Faith when they went Patrolling, leaving them to fight some Demonic stragglers that they found nearby the caves. They found Mordred hovering above a gang of monsters, but instead of firing spells at them he was just pointing his wand at them. As Buffy and Faith watched, the gang of monsters fought each other as Vampires bit into Imps, who they themselves threw fireballs at Death Dogs that were tackling Boggles. The Boggles themselves were swiping at the feet of the Vampires, causing a roundabout assault that went not only back and forth between aggressors, but all over as every time an attack missed its intended victim it hit a different victim instead. The Slayers watched Mordred occasionally point a wand down at the infighting hoard as if he was directing traffic. Buffy had a sudden insight and rushed up next to Mordred.

"You're using the Curse we learned today," she chastised, "it's an Unforgivable Curse. You could get thrown into jail for that."

"Only if I use it on a Human being," replied Mordred, "and only if I get caught. As far as anyone else knows, these monsters are just having a falling out right now."

"You're not gonna wipe them all out like that, are yah Mordy?" asked Faith, "cause I'm still itching to do some major ass-whuppin right now."

"Actually," said Mordred cautiously, "I'd like for a few survivors to head back to their bosses of their own free will so that my spell isn't traced. That way, they'll be so busy trying to hold their armies together that when they do create a big Balroglord, they'll be powerless to control it."

"And then what?" asked Buffy, but Mordred had an answer for that also.

"We kill the four bosses," said Mordred, "set the Balroglord up in an area where it'll kill any Demons that go there, and set up the armies outside to attacking one another for the rest of the year. That way, during school we'll have only a minimal amount of Slaying to do, giving us more time to do school work."

The others paused before flying over and clapping him on the back in appreciation.

"You're smarter than you look," said Faith to a smiling Mordred, "but then again, nobody could be that stupid and live."

"It's better than looking smarter than you actually are," replied Mordred as he jabbed his wand down again, "and may I remind you that out of all of us, I'm the one with the highest grades as well as the ability to do the Imperius Curse."

The three of them then continued floating up in the air as Mordred directed the fighting amongst the Demons. He allowed for one deserter from each group to flee the area every hour so that the news of infighting could be spread, before sending a group of controlled Garthim to wipe out the last of the Demons. The mindless brutes outnumbered the Demons three-to-one, however if it weren't for their extremely hard shells they would have been killed off due to their stupidity. The three students then flew back to the Castle where the Slayers went to bed and Mordred worked on his potions.

On the Thursday after Dawn and Mordred did their Arithmancy class, Dawn read from the fourth Harry Potter book to the others during lunch.

"We may have missed Harry's trial," she said as she closed her book and helped herself to some turkey, "but I think we should go check out Bagman's trial."

"How do you know Bagman's trial is today?" asked Buffy as she ate some roast beef, "it's not like there's a news report on it. As a matter of fact, the newspapers haven't said anything about his capture at all."

"That's because it was Dumbledore who was the one who handed him to the Ministry officials," said Dawn, "and they don't want to say anything good about him, as the Ministry are labelling him as a crackpot."

"As for us finding out about it," Dawn continued, "I made some snakes to go looking around after I Disillusioned them. I've been making quite a few to help you guys in keeping an eye on any Big Bad's in the Forest, so just ask for them and I'll make more for you."

"Ok, thanks," said Buffy as she looked at Faith and Mordred. Mordred had a huge helping of Blood Pudding going down his throat, so he couldn't speak, so she directed her question at Faith.

"Did you know that we could have been sending out snake scouts without having to go ourselves?" asked Buffy. Faith shrugged her shoulders.

"I knew Dawnie was making snakes," replied Faith, "but I figured that the only way to know for sure about any monsters was to go see them ourselves. Besides, Patrolling keeps us in shape, what with all the fights we get into."

After lunch they traveled through the secret passageways to Hogsmeade, where they flew over to an area for Floo transport. They went to the Ministry of Magic headquarters, where they identified themselves as tourists and received their badges (this was after knocking out some officials whom they ran into at the entrance). Once inside, they went towards the courtrooms and were about to start looking through them when they found a rather strange sight.

"Hey Dawn," said Mordred, "there's Bagman! What's he doing out of his chains?"

The others turned to see that several different Wizards were escorting Bagman towards one of the fireplaces while they looked around to avoid being spotted. When they believed that they had not been seen, they handed Bagman some Floo powder and a big brass key with a ring on the end of it before putting him next to the fireplace.

"Now remember," the four students heard one of them say, "you've got to stay out of sight completely this time. No more going to places you're famous at. You've got to stay hidden until the Goblins revolt, that way we can take over the banks when we defeat them. Then you can come out of hiding. And don't touch any of the money in our vault, or Goblins will be the least of your worries."

Bagman nodded his head before tossing in the silvery powder into the fireplace, causing emerald green flames to burst up. He then stepped into the flames and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Moutohora Macaws Mansion!" he stated, causing him to disappear in a burst of flames. Mordred tapped the three others on their shoulders and showed them the Floo powder he had with him.

"We know where he's gone," he said as he handed them each a handful of the silvery powder, "we just need to catch him again before he completely disappears."

The four of them went to separate fireplaces and waited until the people before them went to their destinations. They each used the Floo Powder to go to the Mansion of the Moutohora Macaws, where they found themselves in a New Zealand mansion that looked out over the ocean from one of the mountains. They passed by the group inside that was gathering around Sparky the Phoenix, who was their Quidditch team's mascot, and went to one of the balconies that looked out onto the ocean. They looked around from it, and saw Bagman standing on one of the balconies below, his head covered in a green bowler cap and his eyes shielded with sunglasses. The two Slayers went on the ledge, and after looking around so that no one would see them, they leapt from above and tackled Bagman to the ground. They knocked him out before putting him into a sack, and then Buffy carried him back to one of the fireplaces where Mordred and Dawn were waiting. The four of them went into the fireplace and Mordred tossed some Floo Powder at their feet, causing a burst of green flame to envelope them.

"Gringotts Bank in England!" stated Mordred, sending them into one of the fireplaces located in Gringotts. As the four of them stepped out Buffy dropped the sack containing Bagman and turned to Mordred.

"Weren't we supposed to go back to the Ministry so that he could be tried," asked Buffy. Mordred shook his head.

"They would have just released him again," replied Mordred, "and this way the people he swindled get the satisfaction of getting him back." Mordred then grabbed up the bound Bagman and carried him off with Dawn and Faith in tow while Buffy looked on in shock.

"What if he gets hurt by his creditors?" asked Buffy to no avail, as Mordred had already dumped Bagman out of his sack in front of several Goblins.

"Here's a small present," said Mordred with a bow, "from the Wizarding community to the Goblins whom we owe our gratitude for managing the banks for everyone. We want you to know that we do understand that people whom steal from others should be punished for it, and that the best punishments for it are sometimes decided by the people whom were robbed."

With that, the Goblins converged onto a hapless Bagman and dragged him off as the Slytherin Triumvirate were thanked by some other Goblins. Buffy watched on from the shadows as the Triumvirate had their pictures taken with the jubilant Goblins, who had to reach above their heads to give out small bags of gold and shake hands with the taller students. Afterwards, the four students looked at the brass key they had swiped along with the gold from Bagman and read the legend on it.

"Pure-Blood Banking Clan," read Dawn out loud, "for Wizards and Witches against Goblin-controlled Banks dominating the entire world economy through international banking."

"Sorta like what the Nazi's said about the Jews," observed Buffy, "right before they start rounding them up and gassing them. We should tell someone about -"

"Wait!" Dawn interrupted, "there's more on the back. 'Cave of the Black Springs Headquarters.' That's in Wales! I know where this is!" She went to one of the fireplaces with the others right behind her, and had Mordred toss some Floo Powder into the fire.

"Main Floo station in Wales please!" she said, and they went on in with their brooms. They managed to avoid any line-ups as they walked out the doors there, and flew over to the Upper Swansea Valley area where the Cave of the Black Springs was located underneath a hillside. Mordred Disillusioned them all before they went into the cave, and found it full of Vampires that hid in the mazes that made it up. They went all the way to the back of it and found a small door with a lock on it, guarded by two Vampires whom they quickly Slew. Then Dawn used the key to open up the door and found a room filled with Firebolt brooms and a vat the size of a small pool filled with liquid gold. Next to the vat was a stamp for making coins with various numbers on it.

"If I was a betting woman," said Buffy, "and I'm not, I'd say that this is where they plan on making a new currency to go against the current one."

"Let's relieve them of all this gold so that they can have more room to lounge about in," suggested Mordred, "and maybe we can take some of their brooms as well to help us carry it?"

"Yeah, just fly past all those Vampires and hope they don't notice the huge flying vat of gold whizzing past their heads," remarked Buffy in a sarcastic manner. "I'm sure that plan would work."

"Well, we could fry the lot of the Vamps with our Sunshine Spell," replied Faith, "and the Welsh Floo station wasn't too full so using these Firebolts, we could get to the Chamber of Secrets in no time. We just have to stick together as we go along so we don't get lost."

"Great idea Faith," said Dawn, "so who's going to do the spell?"

Mordred answered by popping out one of his wands and going to the entrance as Faith and Buffy each grabbed a side of the vat while getting on a Firebolt. Dawn tied up some more Firebolts to the vat to help it fly, and grabbed up some brooms for herself. When she whistled, the Slayers and her shielded their eyes as Mordred let loose a powerful Sunshine spell that filled the caverns with sunlight, dusting all the Vamps. Before he had completed the spell, the four of them were sailing thorough the air with the vat towards the entrance of the cave, narrowly missing cave walls and rocks that jutted out in their way. They flew through the entrance as the Vampires not hit by the spell tried to capture them in vain, and they flew back to the Welsh Floo station where Mordred tossed his Floo Powder into the fireplace.

"Chamber of Secrets!" he said, and they rushed in on a very surprised Spike as he was enjoying an evening drink of blood. He was only irritated until they showed him the gold they had, as well as the brooms, and he helped them hide it in one of the areas behind the statue of Slytherin with the rest of their loot. Afterwards, the four students went around Hogsmeade in celebration, hitting the Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and each getting a sundae before heading back to the Castle. When they got into the Castle, McGonagall was waiting for them at the entrance.

"May I speak with you all privately?" she asked in a tone that brooked no other options. They followed her back to her office, where she had them all sit down around her table.

"I know that we all have our own secrets to keep," she said briskly, "but I really must ask you on how you knew about the Order in spite of me not telling you about it. And I don't mean the Order during the First War, I mean what you know about the current one now."

"Well," said Dawn as she paused to gather her thoughts, "we are using snakes to travel around the school and other areas to gather information for us."

"I've run into a few of those," said McGonagall with a hint of distaste in her voice, "and there's no way they could have gotten as much information for you as you claim they have done. Where else are you getting your information fr-"

At that moment, Dumbledore appeared in the room, sweeping majestically through the door and drawing everyone's attention.

"Relax, Minerva," he said in a calming voice, "these are no spies of Voldemort, I assure you." He then looked over the four students as they breathed a sigh of relief.

"I do however," he continued, "have reservations against the students leaving Hogwarts en masse just to go capture an escaping debtor and to commit robbery."

"Bagman was in Australia," replied Mordred, "and the courts were the ones who let him go. Also, he and his friends were planning to use that gold to eliminate the Goblins from their position as Bankers."

"I know that they had let him go," said Dumbledore, "as we had Order members waiting for him in Australia at the time. Your capture of him before giving him to the Goblins while getting your pictures taken was not what we had planned on, however."

"If you had caught him," asked Buffy, "would you have given him to the Goblins?"

"Merlin's Beard, no," replied Dumbledore, "we would have placed him back into the courts. As corrupt as they may be, if people start practising their own brand of justice it would tear the Wizarding World apart with vigilantes running all over. Voldemort and his Death Eaters won't need to spread strife and fear; it would already be done for him then."

Buffy turned around and elbowed Faith and Mordred in the sides as Dumbledore was talking, causing them and Dawn to grin sheepishly at her, Dumbledore and McGonagall. Buffy then strode up to Dumbledore when he was finished.

"We need to talk privately," she said, "about what we've found on our 'religious' Patrols."

"Very well," said Dumbledore as he nodded his head and dismissed McGonagall, "what have you found so far."

The four of them told him about the converging Demon armies that they had found, and the plans that were being made by both the Demon leaders and their own plans on how to get rid of them all (excluding Mordred's ability to use the Imperius Curse). Dumbledore was silent throughout, only nodding his head here or there when they looked to see that he was still listening. When they were done, he then spoke up.

"I agree that the Balroglord could be used to destroy the armies located in the caves," he said, "but that monster will not just sit and wait for others to venture in, nor can it be controlled in such a manner as to be put to any non-violent use. I'm afraid I'll have to veto the idea of letting the Balroglord free at all."

"Ok," said Buffy, "we'll think of how to get rid of the army before they get a Balroglord. Any suggestions you would like to add?"

"Perhaps your Vampire friend Spike could rally the regular Vampires against the army," suggested Dumbledore, "and you replace any innocents that are to be sacrificed with members of the army as well. That way you'll be able to cut down on the numbers, as not many beings would be willingly sacrificed for others. Here's a map of the areas where the captives that they already have can be located."

"Good idea," said Buffy as the others nodded in approval while grabbing up the map Dumbledore handed to them. "We'll get to working on that right away."

The four of them left the office and went to the Room of Requirement, where they began planning on what to do to wipe out the army. Faith and Buffy sparred with one another as Dawn and Mordred worked on spells and potions to help out even the odds. Mordred and Dawn began creating more snakes, with Mordred adding explosive properties to them so that they could be used against the monsters. They worked well into the night on plans, and they came up with several good ones as a main plan and a few back up plans. When Mordred and the Slayers went out Patrolling Dawn continued working on various ideas to help out, even though she wouldn't be a part of the actual fighting.

During Patrolling they informed Spike of their ideas, getting his input on some of them and telling him how he'd be able to help out. He set to going about the Vampires that they found, telling them that they were the ones to be sacrificed in order for the Demons to wipe them out and take over their territories. This incensed the Vampires, who then spread the word amongst each other and dampened the flow of regular Vampires to the caves that the armies owned. The Slayers and Mordred went after the other monsters around the caves, collapsing several tunnels onto the creatures and blasting them from above with spells that they knew. They also found the caves used solely for sacrificial transports, so they left them open after rescuing a herd of Unicorns that were being taken into the caves. They followed the route and found that these caves led to offshoots of the main cavern that the armies were located in, with several giant pots hanging off the ceiling filled with Humans, Unicorns, or other creatures in each pot. The guards of the area underneath these pots were all Garthim, as the other Demons would have killed off the sacrificial victims already. Mordred set about using the Imperius Curse on several Garthim, as they were extremely easy to control, and set them to attacking the other monsters used to bring in the victims. Buffy and Faith freed the victims by using Levitation spells to lower the pots down, allowing the Unicorns to guide the humans back to their homes before replacing the sacrifices with Felhounds, Mumblers, Cherubs, Boggles and other monsters they had lured using Mordred's Imperius Curse into separate pots each. They replaced the pots back on the ceiling and closed them up so that the bosses would not be able to see what was inside them until too late, and then they grudgingly left and went back to the Castle, as any fighting would draw too much suspicion to their trap.

On the Friday Dumbledore gave their small group an announcement after breakfast, one that led to both joy and grumbling.

"Dear students," he began with a slight chuckle, as his student body consisted of only four, "I have some good news for you. Due to your admirable grasp of Magical knowledge, as well as the upcoming school year, next week will be your last week of actual school work." The four students began clapping, but before they finished Dumbledore had some more news for them.

"However, we will be giving you tests," he cautioned, "to see on how much you have learned, and to help you find out where you are lacking so that when real school begins, you know what your strengths and weaknesses are."

As they left the Great Hall Dawn was quietly laughing while Buffy and Faith looked on gloomily.

"Don't you see it?" she asked, "Dumbledore's given us a full week to wipe out that army, as well as some time off of school."

"But he also gave us tests!" complained both Buffy and Faith. Dawn waved off their outraged protesting.

"Those tests don't actually mean anything," replied Dawn, "they're just there to show us what we're good at and what we're not good at. It's actually a good idea, come to think of it. Besides, Mordred and I have more tests then you two do, so you shouldn't complain as much."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," conceded Buffy, "but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

That night, the four students spent their time studying over the notes that they had taken (or more precisely, the notes Dawn and Mordred had taken). They also went over plans on how to best attack the cavern of monsters, where to start and how to best attack each monster. Mordred had set up more of the Garthim to be on their side when the fighting began, and Dawn had set up the exploding snakes to be her way of fighting from afar as well as a link in case something went wrong during the battle for the others. During the weekend the Slayers, Mordred and Spike did mostly recon work during Patrols, only occasionally Slaying when they saw an opportunity to get away without raising any suspicions amongst the Demons. Spike continued to preach to the Vampires, turning away about a hundred of them from the caverns and also causing the Vampires that were already there to begin to question their part in the army as they saw less and less members coming. By the time Sunday night came to a close, they were more or less ready for both their exams, and the upcoming fight.