Chapter 9
Harry stood by the entrance of the cafe, shifting nervously from one foot to the other as he resisted the urge to check his watch. He heard a familiar voice call his name and turned with a smile toward the beautiful red-haired girl who was walking toward him.
"Hullo Ginny." he said.
She smiled at him, "There you are, I was starting to think you'd forgotten."
He turned and held out an arm to her, "Never, shall we go in then?"
She took his arm with a quiet giggle and they walked into the cafe for their date.
They were just sitting down when a silvery patronus swept up in front of them. They froze their smiles slowly fading off their faces. The small hawk-like bird turned to Harry, "The demon prisoners have escaped, all Aurors are ordered to return to the ministry to help with the search." It stated before fading away.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other in alarm. "Ron was on duty wasn't he?" Ginny asked fearfully.
Harry nodded, "Let's go."
When they arrived at the ministry they saw a small crowd of witches and wizards gathering in.
"Harry! Ginny!" They turned to see Hermione and Ron jogging toward them.
"Ron, you're okay!" Ginny exclaimed in relief.
Ron looked confused, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"When they said the prisoners had escaped we thought you were probably hurt since you were guarding today." Harry explained quickly.
"Oh no, it was Barrow and Johnson who were on guard when it happened. Lewis and I came to replace them and found them unconscious. None of the other prisoners saw anything, it seems that most of them were unconscious as well."
"But how could they have knocked out everyone else in the prison from inside their cell?" Ginny asked.
"Who knows, they are demons after all."
Before they could respond to Ron's comment Minister Kingsley stepped forward and the crowd turned to hear what he had to say.
"As you all know by now the three demons that were being held in Azkaban have escaped. We are unsure if they managed it themselves or if someone from the outside helped them. Regardless finding the leaders behind the recent demon attacks is now top priority for all Aurors. The details will be worked out shortly and formal raids and searches organized, until then if you see or hear anything that may lead us to the culprits inform the ministry immediately!" With that the minister dismissed them.
Hermione glanced at her three friends, "I'm going to see if I can find any information on demon abilities that put people to sleep." She said determinedly, and started toward the library, the others following close behind.
"It's too bad there isn't a way to just track the demon's magic." Ginny said thoughtfully. "Kind of like the trace on under-aged wizards."
Harry froze, "Hermione, is there a way to track demon magic?"
She looked thoughtful, "I don't know, I think I remember reading something about demons using a specific type of magic, so there may be. I need to look through the old tomes again."
She rushed off leaving the others behind.
"So this place is called Hogwarts huh? Dumb name." Yusuke commented as he and Kurama approached the huge stone castle.
The fox demon threw him a sideways look but otherwise didn't respond. Yusuke took this as permission to continue his train of thought.
"I mean think about it, hogs and warts. Why would you want to name a place after hogs and warts? Especially a school.
Unless the people who built it hated schools, but then why build it in the first place? It just doesn't make sense."
Kurama sighed slightly, "Wizards aren't really known for their sense Yusuke."
"Well obviously, no one with any sense would ever try to kidnap Hiei. You or me maybe," He ignored Kurama's dark look, "but definitely no one in their right mind would ever deliberately aim for Hiei."
They finally reached the large doors of the castle, effectively bringing the topic to an end. Kurama went to knock, but before he could the doors opened. A tall, stern-looking woman stood in the entryway. She eyed the hanyous with suspicion before speaking.
"Yes, may I help you?" She asked briskly.
Kurama stepped forward, bowing slightly, "Hello, are you by chance Headmistress McGonagall?"
She nodded, "I am."
"My name is Kurama Minamino, I'm traveling the world learning about different types of magical plants and I was wondering if I could have a tour of your greenhouses. The people I've spoken with all agree that your school has an uncommonly good sample of the types of magical plants in this region."
The Headmaster studied them for a moment, but couldn't find a reason to suspect they were up to anything besides what they had told her. "My herbology teacher and her assistant are in the greenhouses right now, you can ask them if they'd be willing to show you around. The greenhouses are around the west side of the building."
Kurama bowed again and thanked her and the two hanyous began the long walk around the outside of the castle.
They found the greenhouses without too much trouble. The herbology teacher, Professor Sprout, was preparing lesson plans; but said her assistant, a boy only slightly older than Yusuke named Neville, could show them around and discuss the plants with Kurama.
Yusuke followed Kurama and Neville toward the first greenhouse. He scanned the surrounding grounds restlessly as the two older boys talked about plants. he was bored nearly out of his mind. So far there had been absolutely no action on this mission and he was starting to get antsy.
Movement near the eves of the dark forest that bordered a good third of the school grounds caught his eye. He squinted, looking closer; several black skeletal creatures were walking just inside the tree-line.
He turned toward the kitsune, "Oi Kurama,"
The two plant nerds stopped their conversation and looked at him questioningly.
"I'm going to go check out that forest, see if there's anything interesting." He said gesturing at it.
Kurama shrugged, "Alright, try not to get into too much trouble."
Yusuke grinned and started to jog toward the forest.
"I don't think that would be a very good idea." Neville's words stopped him in his tracks.
He turned, "Why not?"
"The Forbidden Forest is extremely dangerous. There are all sorts of creatures in there that would attack you without a second thought." The older boy explained.
Yusuke snorted, "I don't think that'll be a problem, it sounds like fun."
He turned back, ignoring Kurama's pointed glare. He knew what the Kitsune was thinking, A normal human wouldn't be so blaise about danger Yusuke! Blah blah blah. but he was BORED and if something did attack him, which he doubted most magical creatures knew better than to attack something as powerful as an S-class demon; it would be a good workout.
"At least stop by Hagrid's first," Neville said hurriedly, seeing that the short-tempered Japanese visitor wasn't going to change his mind. "He can show you some of the creatures and then Kurama and I can join you when we go in to look for some of the native plants that we don't have in the greenhouses."
Yusuke scowled, he did NOT want to wait around for a 'tour' of the forest, he wanted to find out what those skeletal things were and possibly find something to fight. He opened his mouth to say something along those lines, but stopped when Kurama caught his gaze with a warning look. With an internal sigh he agreed and headed toward this Hagrid's hut.
But not without a detour, the small herd of creatures was heading in roughly the same direction and as long as he reached the hut before the other two he would be fine. As he neared the strange creatures he was able to make out that they looked vaguely like black skeleton horses, except with huge leathery wings. They looked up as he approached, and of the largest ones stepped forward to meet him.
"Well hello there," he said quietly, "What exactly are you?"
"Ther' called Thestrals."
Yusuke jumped as a loud voice spoke from behind him, mentally kicking himself for not being more aware of his surroundings. The speaker was a small mountain of a man, with a huge snarly beard and mop of hair. Yusuke blinked up at him for a moment before turning back to the thestral that was still watching him.
"Thestrals huh? Weird name."
He reached out a hand inviting the thestral to come closer, it sniffed at his palm for a moment before butting its head against him. He reached up and began to scratch behind its ears and it leaned into him, clearly enjoying the feeling.
The big man came up next to him. "He seems to like you, now what're you doin' out in the forest? I don' think yer a student, and I don't recognize you from the staff of the school."
Yusuke shrugged, "My cousin's here learning about plants and I got bored and saw these guys and decided to come check them out."
"Ah, and what's yer name?"
"Yusuke, yours?"
"Hagrid."
Another thestral wandered over, apparently curious as to what was going on, Hagrid patted it absently on the flank as he watched Yusuke's interaction with the thestral's curiously.
"Ya know, most people don't seem to get along with thestrals too well." He commented, "They're scared of 'em cause o' the whole death thing."
Yusuke looked over curiously, "What death thing?"
"Well, ye' see, only people who've seen death can see thestrals; it gives 'em a bad rep, even though ther mostly harmless."
Yusuke snorted, "I don't think anything with teeth like that would be considered harmless."
He pointed at one of the small heard who had just yawned, displaying long pointed fangs.
"Well they don't really bite people unless they're threatened see?" Hagrid protested.
"Yusuke shrugged, "Whatever, So if you're Hagrid I'm supposed to meet my cousin and Neville at your hut whenever they're done with the tour of the greenhouses. Neville doesn't want us going through the forest without you for whatever reason."
"Well if yer interested in magical creatures I got a few more over there you could take a look at."
Yusuke shrugged again and turned to follow the large man through the forest.
He was throwing food at the blast-ended skrewts and snickering as he watched them fight over the larger pieces when Kurama and Neville finally arrived. Hagrid and Kurama spoke for a few minutes, then Hagrid agreed to give them a brief tour of the forest.
Yusuke ignored most of it, and instead amused himself by tracking which plants Kurama connected to his information network, and where he threw what seeds. He noticed as the walked along the edge that small sprite-like creatures were peaking from the tops of many of the trees. When asked, Hagrid called them bowtruckles. Yusuke saw Kurama eying them with considerable interest, maybe he would be able to use them in his information network, Yusuke mused as they walked. Plant creatures, plant master, it would probably work.
The sun was setting when they finally finished and left the castle. They returned to their room in the Leaky Cauldron and turned in for the night. Hopefully they would hear something soon and be able to get this mission over with.
Hiei pushed at the barrier, it was weakening again. He didn't know how long he had been fighting the strange power that kept his body in a sleeping state; it seemed that no matter how many times he found a way to subvert it, the barrier reapplied or strengthened its-self again. He felt the Jagan's power pulsing, fighting against the foreign restraints.
He flexed him mind again, coordinating it with a surge of power from the Jagan. Something gave, and suddenly he was conscious! His eyes flew open, the red almost glowing as his power rushed back. He heard the sound of frantic chanting and tried to look up to find the source of the sound. He felt chains holding him down. With a snarl he flared his youki, the flames biting through and melting the chains.
He leaped to a crouch and glared around; he saw a large group of humans wearing long black robes and skull-like masks standing in a circle around him, all of them chanting in a strange language. He could sense the power gathering around them and being directed toward him. It gathered in the circle of runes that surrounded him and he felt it pushing against his mind, trying to turn his youki against its-self and put him back to sleep. He concentrated through the haze of power and used the Jagan to send a pulse of energy through the flow from the humans, directing it back at them.
Several of the humans fell back with cries of pain and he smirked as the flow of power weakened. A flicker of movement to his left caught his attention. A man pulled a strange-looking amulet out of a hidden pocket in his robe. He spoke firmly and Hiei's eyes widened as he recognized the language of Rekei. The power suddenly intensified, laced with "Holy power" the antithesis of youki. It rushed over him, strengthened by the power circle and forced his mind back and his body to sleep.
He felt chains reappear around him as the chant changed and the restraining barrier fell back into place, cutting off his sense of his surroundings. He cursed internally as he began once again the process of subverting the barrier. Next time he regained consciousness, he would be sure that any human within the reach of his power died.
Achan stood back as the chant died. The demon had been contained once again, but it had managed to regain consciousness and somehow caused several of his followers to lose consciousness. This was getting too dangerous, the creature had been fighting more strongly, and the spells holding it now had to be renewed every few hours. He stalked away from the underground cell angrily. How dare that creature defy them so frequently! It was a demon, barely capable of conscious thought, there was no way it could defeat them, and yet it continued to do just that. He glanced at the amulet in his hand, the ritual to bind the creature's will was ready. They merely needed to secure a blood sacrifice, but he new exactly where to find one. it was part of the reason he'd chosen the place that he did. If they could just keep the demon contained for a few more hours there would be no stopping their glorious work.
Author's Note: Sorry about not updating in so long. my creativity has been non-existent for several weeks now. But hopefully that's over and I'll be able to get the next chapter out fairly quickly.
As always, please Review. I love constructive criticism and random comments alike.