Characters: (In order of mention/appearance)
Antonin Dolohov (Dark Wizard)
Alistair (Demon, Chief Torturer for Hell)
Benny (Vampire)
Leaning against the window, Dean waited for Kevin to get ready for the shopping trip. He hadn't left his room all week and although Dean wasn't complaining about him working on the Demon tablet, the kid needed to get out sometimes...and take a shower. He could definitely use a shower.
While their prophet made himself easier on the nose, Sam looked through his notes. It was mostly nonsense but he still wanted to see if he could find a hint of what he would be doing for the next Trial.
Dean was watching the wind play with the trees of the Forbidden Forest, when he spotted a great, reptilian winged horse with leathery wings spread wide like a pterodactyl's, rising from the treetops. "Awesome! Sam come look!" Dean said pointing to the creature. Sam arrived just in time to see it drop back down below the canopy.
"What was that?" Sam asked.
"No idea. Maybe a Dragon-Pegasus or a Dragasus." Dean wiggled his eyebrows at Sam a silly grin on his face.
"Sure Dean." Sam laughed. "But seriously we should go talk to that Care of Magical Creatures Professor sometime soon. The forest looks like it's the home of lots of things we haven't seen before. It should be interesting."
Dean nodded, looking out of the window to see if it would come back.
"What are you guys looking at?" Kevin asked as he walked into the room.
"A Dragasus." Dean said. "Welcome to Jurassic Park"
"What?" Kevin asked confused.
"Nevermind." Dean said, as the two brothers looked Kevin over. He definitely looked better than he had at the Start of the Term feast. He was dressed in a blue hoodie, tan T-shirt and jeans. The bags under his eyes had disappeared, and from the looks of it, his eating habits had improved. He was starting to lose his starved look, and a lot of the tension that he had been holding onto in the safe-boat was also missing.
"Ready for our weekend out?" Dean asked.
"Are you sure I should be coming? I feel like I'm getting closer to deciphering the next Trial. I really don't think I should be leaving right now."
"The Demon Tablet will still be here when you get back." Sam said.
"It will be fun. You love learning new things." Dean pushed Kevin out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"I love learning normal things." Kevin replied. "I thought things were weird when I became a Prophet. This school is on a whole new level of weird."
"True, but good weird." Dean said, "I think."
Sam shot Dean an annoyed look.
"What? I haven't been through their dirty laundry, and I'm still not convinced we're not in a school full of demon worshipers."
"I'm pretty sure if they worshiped demons, Dean, that Crowley would have been here the first hour we arrived."
Dean just shrugged. "But for now we're on vacation. So whatever passes for food in the village, some drinks and good company." He nudged Kevin suggestively.
"Dean. You are not allowed to flirt with the students."
"I'll only flirt with the ones over eighteen." He replied, "Guess how many there are?"
"I'm serious Dean, no flirting with the students, we don't need annoyed magical teenagers throwing us around the castle because you did something you shouldn't have."
"I agree with Sam." Kevin said as they went down the long flights of stairs. "We don't need more trouble than we already have."
"Fine, but you didn't say anything about the locals." Dean replied.
They left the castle with the instructions that Minerva had given them, following the path to the two tall stone pillars topped with winged boars at the edge of the school grounds, they turned left onto the road to the village.
Antonin Dolohov followed behind the three muggles as they explored Hogsmeade Village. Wandering through the stores one after the other, acting like First Years as they excitedly dragged each other around to see whatever caught their interest.
The Dark Lord had sent Antonin with strict orders to observer the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers and their pet, but not to interfere. Which was one of the reasons he had specifically ordered Antonin and not another Death Eater. The Wizarding World was ignoring the fact that the Dark Lord had been reincarnated and he very much wanted it to remain that way. Even if it meant not killing these Hunters while their guard was down.
The three left the Hogsmeade Post Office and joined the traffic on the main Hogsmeade road. Antonin followed behind, noticing in amusement the crowd parting around him thanks to the Notice-Me-Not spell he had created years ago. It wasn't an invisibility spell, but in some ways it was better. People still knew you were there, as shown by the crowd that moved out of the way as he walked down the road, but they forgot you almost as soon as they saw you.
Stopping in front of Gladrags Wizardwear, the one named Dean asked "Hey Sam! Wanna cosplay?"
"Seriously?" Kevin asked as Dean pushed him in first.
"Come on it will be fun." Dean replied.
Sam just laughed as he followed the other two into the shop.
Antonin followed them in, and took a seat near the mirror as he watched them each get measured by the wizard in the shop.
Bored, he looked over at his own reflection. The long, pale face of his forty-year old self stared back at him. A little spell and fifty human sacrifices really wasn't too high a price for immortality. One of the perks of being one of the Dark Lord's inner circle. Finding fifty sacrifices was child's play during the war. He ran his finger over his cheekbones admiring the outcome for a moment before turning back to the task at hand.
Fun as following these Muggles may be, it was time to get to work. He waited until the two Professors went into the dressing rooms to try on some dress robes, then focusing on their pet through the mirror he whispered "Legilimens."
He could have done the spell wordlessly, of course, but mind magics really weren't his forte. Much safer to get as much power behind the spell as possible.
The muggle, Kevin's, surface thoughts were mostly filled with a vague excitement from being outdoors; he didn't seem to have been out much lately, and trying to figure out which robe wouldn't make him look as ridiculous as he felt.
Antonin push further into his mind while trying to make the flow of thought feel natural. Most Legilimencers were discovered because of their forceful attempts to view what they needed instead of carefully leading their prey to the thought; a trick he had learned from Severus Snape during the first war. But to his disappointment and confusion the boy seemed to be thinking in ruins. Very old ruins. He tried to explore further into his thoughts but nothing he found made any sense...The most vivid memory was of a man with a well trimmed beard and a Scottish accent, wearing a completely black suit... He gave up when the muggle left to try on a black and red robe, not far off from the Gryffindor colors, he noted in amusement. Animals really.
After that he was forced to watch a ridiculous montage as the three of them wandered into and out of the dressing rooms, making even more ludicrous jokes about each other.
He was far enough away that luckily he didn't hear most of it but what he did catch made very little sense to him.
"You look like Gandalf the Gray. You just need a beard." Dean told his brother, when he emerged in full robes and a wizard hat. Sam laughed and went back into the dressing room.
A few minutes later Dean flung the doors open to reveal what looked to be a woman's green kimono. "I think that would look better in pink." Kevin said with a straight face.
"Shut up! How are you suppose to tell which are for women and which aren't? They all look the same!"
Antonin rolled his eyes. Playing at being people, he thought with a sneer.
"...Sam are you going for the Dalaran look? Purple really suits you." Kevin asked.
"The what?" Sam asked as he retreated back to the dressing room.
"From Warcraft." Dean yelled over the door. "And I thought you were a nerd. And you," Dean said pointing at Kevin, "need to try on more outfits. You look like that Harry Potter kid in the one you picked out. I'm already going to have problems with having another Dean around."
"No nicknames Dee." Sam said from the dressing room.
Dean winked at Kevin "I was thinking 'little D'"
Sam came out of the dressing room in a midnight blue robe. "We're not making some poor kid's name into a dick joke. Just call him by his last name Thomas. That's how most of the students go around calling each other anyway."
Antonin rolled his eyes in exasperation as he waited for another opportunity, but none were forthcoming. He resigned himself to having to follow these oafs for longer.
They left the store with four full bags, including socks that screamed at you if they got too smelly. "These are so you don't forget to take a shower every once in awhile." Sam had said as he put the pair in Kevin's bag.
The longer the day went though, the less patient Antonin became. The three stuck to each other like glue as they explored the small village.
Well, he had made plans in case this scenario came up, but he wasn't happy with having to use it. He made his way in front of the group so they would walk towards him naturally, then pulling out his wand he murmured "Legilimens!"; once again grateful to his Notice-Me-Not spell that allowed him to do this in broad daylight on a crowded street.
He aimed the spell at the older of the two Winchesters.
Once again he found himself floating on surface thoughts. Mostly of Dean enjoying their vacation as he absorbed his new surroundings. I need to know more. Antonin thought as he pushed a little deeper.
Pain! Sudden intense pain and heat, unlike anything any mortal could live through. Far worse than than anything he'd ever felt under the Crucio curse. Antonin tried to see through his streaming eyes but the world he saw was impossible... Physics didn't exist here... The rack that he was on was held up in nothing... Screams filled his mind, some of them his own...and a lisping voice could be heard.
"You know Dean, you can end this... We don't have to keep having these...heart to hearts." The thing in front of him said as it caressed his beating heart, then brought it up to it's lips and licked it. "Just pick up the knife little grasshopper."
With a strength and defiance that he couldn't understand he watched himself spit blood at the thing. "Go fuck yourself, Alastair."
"Dean, Dean Dean. That really is no way to speak to your Torturer . Well, we'll just have to continue this tomorrow...and the day after...and the day after that...until...Forever...You know there's no escape...We'll have so much fun." Then somehow through all the pain he could still feel it when the thing called Alastair began to squeeze his heart...
In an act of self-preservation, he desperately and carelessly pulled himself out of the Winchester's mind before his vision blacked out, his body collapsing on the side of the road. Only his Notice-Me-Not spell preventing anyone from stepping on his unconscious form.
00
"Son of a Bitch!" Dean exclaimed, as his head exploded into the worst migraine he had ever had.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked as he pulled his brother off the path, concern flickering across his face. He looked over at Kevin who was just as confused.
Dean had his hand covering his eyes from the suddenly to bright evening. "Yeah, but I think we're going to have to cut our date short. Sorry Sammy."
"I don't think it's a problem, Dean." Kevin said, as he took the bags out of Dean's hand. "At this rate we would have spent all our money anyway."
Sam laughed as he pulled Dean's arm around his shoulders and lead his brother back to Hogwarts. "I think Kevin's right." Sam said. "I even saw you buy blood-flavored lollipops at that candy store."
"S'not for me." Dean said trying to push the pain back, "I got'em for Benny."
Dean could feel Sam stiffen under his arm, before his brother forced himself to relax. "Have you been keeping in contact much?"
"Not for months." He replied. This migraine was really making this conversation more difficult than it should be.
Benny was the first Vampire, or monster for that matter, that he had liked. And after fighting with him for almost a year in Purgatory, Dean considered him a brother. But the Mortal world and Purgatory were two very different places. Vampires ate humans here. So they made a deal: if one of them said it was the end of the line, then they would break off any contact, or if Benny went back to feeding on living humans, then Dean wouldn't stop another Hunter from killing him.
Dean had broken off contact at a time that Benny had really needed help. Something that still hurt him to think about too much. So when he had seen the blood-flavored lollipops at Honeydukes he couldn't help himself and had bought some to sent to him later. From what the wizard at the Post Office had said Owls could find almost anyone.
As they passed through the stone pillars topped with winged boars, Dean stopped the group. "Do me a favor and check our bags for a hex-bag or hex-coin. I don't think these people use those, but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following us all day."
"No problem, Dean." Sam said.
It took them twenty minutes to go through everything they bought, but they didn't find anything that they hadn't put there themselves.
"Great." Dean said, his migraine still pulsing behind his eyes. "Then let's get to the infirmary and see if they have morphine."
