AN: I do not own Harry Potter and I may have created a Malfoy Oreo.
Chapter 8.1
Everyone in their little group was sitting in the Room of Requirement the next day after classes, all of them staring at the golden egg sitting on the coffee table in the center of the room. "Let's just open it," Alec says reaching for it and turning the clasp. Shrieking filled the room as the egg fell open and everyone moved to cover their ears, all of them glaring at Alec who was trying and failing to get the damned thing closed.
Once the screaming egg was closed, Aiden kicked his brother. "Thanks for that, Alec, my ears now feel like their bleeding," AJ growls as she rubs her ears, trying to relieve the ringing and failing.
"Here's a suggestion," Hermione whimpers keeping her hands pressed to her ears. "Let's not open the murder egg until we find out what the hell's wrong with it." Everyone nodded in agreement, still glaring at Alec who looked like he was going to open it again and AJ floated the damned thing up onto the chandelier above their heads, placing a sticking charm in Parseltongue on it so it couldn't be moved by anyone but her or Harry.
===============POV=Change=================
Neville stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom at Longbottom Manor, playing and replaying his and his Gran's visit to Gringott's last Friday, he hadn't been back to Hogwarts all last week, he'd missed the First Task.
"What do you mean my grandson has another father, as well as my son?" Augusta Longbottom screams and Neville winced' satring down at the Heritage Test their Account Manager had insisted he take after finding so many Compulsions and Blocks on him.
"Like I said, Madame Longbottom, young Heir Longbottom is the son of, not only your son, Frank, and his wife but also Rabastan Lestrange," Goldclaw says calmly, trying to keep the appointment from getting out of hand. "Blood does not lie and, because of this, Heritage Tests can't be fooled."
Augusta stared at the goblin as she turned every shade of red imagineable before going deathly pale. "What kind of man attacks his own family?" she murmurs and Neville flinched, dropping the parchment to the desk and leaving the office, needing to get away from what was going on.
His Gran had found him a few hours later at St. Mungo's sitting in his parents' room with a blank look on his face. She insisted on returning to Gringott's and getting everything reversed, even the complex glamour Dumbledore had cast on him when he was a baby. When he looked in the mirror, he was a completely different person. He was taller, had wider shoulders, was missing what little baby fat he'd had left on him and his brown eyes had turned blue while his hair had darkened. Rolling over, he stared at the plants that literally filled the desk in his bedroom and a small smile graced his lips for a second before he sat up. "Well, it's time to stop moping," he breathes packing everything he was taking with him in his bookbag and left his room, heading downstairs. "Gran, can you take me back to school?"
Augusta Longbottom emerged from her sewing room on the ground floor, giving Neville a weak smile and ruffled his hair. "Feeling better, Neville?" she asks holding her arm out for him to take.
"Yes, Gran," he breathes and she nods, apparating them to the gates of Hogwarts.
===============POV=Change=================
Luna paused in her skipping through the seventh floor corridor, cocking her head and smiled before running towards the stairs. "Neville's back, Neville's back," she hums to herself as she skipped down the stairs towards the entrance hall so she could meet him when he arrived inside. She was kind of surprised when she arrived before he did but thought nothing of it and waited for him at the door, watching him walk up.
"Hi Luna," he murmurs as he came to a stop in front of her, glancing around for Cedric.
"Glad to see you looking like yourself," she says smiling brightly as she grabs his hand, gently tugging on it so he'd follow her. When they arrived at the Hospital Wing, Neville shivered and followed her in as she tugged him over to a curtained off bed. "You have to be quiet so he doesn't wake up. The Dragon was a rather difficult creature, burned his face so Pomfrey put him to sleep while it heals."
Neville sat down in the chair beside hers and stared at Cedric's sleeping form before leaning back in his chair. "Sorry I wasn't here," he murmurs and she turns her head to give him a dreamy smile.
"It's alright," she murmurs patting his hand, "I explained it so he's not upset, you just took longer to stop sulking than I thought you would."
She giggled at the annoyed glare he sent her way before he smirked, shaking his head and looked back at Cedric. "Did Pomfrey happen to mention how long it would take?"
"A couple of days."
===============POV=Change=================
Dean was muttering angrily to himself as he stalked through the dungeon on his way to detention with Snape and turned the corner, smacking into someone and Parkinson fell back on her arse. "Watch where you're going, Mudblood," she screeches and Dean rolls his eyes, stepping around her still whining on the floor.
"Stupid bint," he breathes running his hand through his dreads as he continued on his way towards detention. Glaring down at the floor, Dean forced his hands into his jean pockets and jerked to a stop when he bumped into someone walking in the opposite direction. "Sorry," he says, not bothering to look at the person he bumped into and turned into the Potions classroom, glancing around for Snape.
He groaned when he realized he was early for detention and stepped back out of the room, leaning against the wall. "What's got you so grumpy, Thomas?" a voice he recognized as Malfoy's asks and he lifted his head to look at the blond, taking a guess that he'd been the one Dean had bumped on his way into the classroom. "Professor Snape had to cancel his detentions for tonight to do something for the Headmaster."
Sighing, Dean pushed away from the wall and rubbed his forehead, keeping an eye on Malfoy who was watching him with piercing silver eyes. "Thanks for telling me, knowing my luck I would've just waited here until curfew," he murmurs and Malfoy nodded, crossing his arms over his stomach. "Why did you tell me?"
The blond shrugged, leaning against the wall across the hall from him and glanced down the hallway. "I don't see the point in putting people down for something they have no control over," he answers as his silver eyes moved back to Dean. "Were you the one Parkinson was screeching at?"
Dean nodded, a dark look passing over his features for a second before disappearing and he looked over the blond across the hall from him. "She's actually a contributing factor to me being a bastard a few moments ago," he says leaning against the wall.
"You said one of the factors," Malfoy murmurs cocking his head to the side. "Meaning more than one, although if someone was calling me a Mudblood, they'd probably be one of the top reasons I'd be pissed off."
The darker teen chuckled, running a hand over his dreadlocks and his brown eyes warmed with the noise, surprising the blond. "The word doesn't bother me," he snickers, "it's her tone when she says it and the fact she's wrong about the word even applying to me." At the blond's raised eyebrow, Dean chuckles again and tilts his head towards Malfoy, looking at him with eyes that glittered in amusement. "I'm a Halfblood, my Wizard father left my mother without telling her that he was a Wizard. As for the other reasons I'm so angry, it goes like this, Weasley, Weaslette and the garbage they spew on a daily basis now that they're against Harry."
Malfoy laughs, silver eyes glittering in amusement and Dean chuckles, looking down the hall where he could hear voices heading towards them. "How did you lose Draco, Blaise, normally he's glued to your side?" a girl snickered before turning the corner and Dean recognized AJ walking along beside Zabini. "Oh, look, there he is."
Zabini gave a hollow-sounding laugh and glared playfully at AJ. "Har, har," he growls and she stuck her tongue out at him. "There you go, AJ, proving that I am once again more mature than you."
"Says the guy who's been going mad looking for his boyfriend," AJ snickers dodging out of the way with practiced ease when Zabini swatted at her. "Yes, really mature, Zabini." She turned to Draco, dismissing Zabini completely which caused him to roll his eyes. "So, who's your new friend, Draco?" That caused Zabini's attention to immediately zero in on Dean as he glanced between the other boy and Draco, a blank look taking over his features but not before Dean saw a flash of jealousy in Zabini's eyes.
"AJ, this is Dean Thomas, a friend of Harry's, Dean, this is AJ," Draco says and AJ stepped forward, holding her hand out for Dean to shake as he moved forward as well.
Dean stared into the girl's eyes for a second before accepting her hand, lifting it up to brush a kiss against her knuckles. "Nice to meet you, AJ," he murmurs and AJ raised an eyebrow before smirking.
"You, as well, Dean," she says pulling her hand free of his grasp and taking a step back as Zabini walked forward, stepping around them to get to Draco. Zabini brushed against Dean on his way to Draco and froze on the spot, a wave of lust breaking free of Zabini's shields, filling the hallway. "Control yourself, Incubus," she murmurs throwing up barriers at each end of the hallway.
Zabini threw a glare at her, "Easy for you to say," he growls as he tried to pull his emotions back into his control. "You're not an Incubus stuck in a hallway with both his mates."
"I'm just glad you're in control enough not to attack me for being in the same space," she breathes pulling her shields tighter around her to keep Blaise's loss of control from affecting her.
He growled, eyes flashing a smokey purple with a horizontal slit pupil and AJ took a few small steps back, putting space between herself and the other three occupants of the hall. "Not the best time to be reminding me that attacking you would've been normal," he hisses.
Dean moved back from her, as well, closer to Blaise as he smirked and brushed against him again, reveling in the spike of lust that shot through him and the shiver that went through Blaise's frame. His eyes turned black, overtaking the whites of his eyes as his iris turned bronze and he flared his nostrils, taking a deep breath of the scents in the hallway. "Bakhtak," AJ murmurs and Dean's attention snapped to her as a feral growl ripped from his chest, showing off a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.
Draco watched his two mates with blank, silver eyes as Dean brushed against Blaise again, causing him to growl at him. 'Wonderful, both my mates are Demonkin and they're both dominant,' he thinks watching them as Blaise snarls when Dean rubbed up against him, testing Blaise's boundaries and finding himself pinned, wrists held above his head, to the wall next to where Malfoy was leaning.
"Mmm, this is fun," Dean purrs bronze eyes flashing with heat as he cocks his head to the side, letting Blaise claim dominance over him and hummed when his wrists were released, one moving to cup the back of Blaise's head as he marked Dean's neck.
Smirking against Dean's neck, Blaise pressed him back into the wall and let his power flow into every inch of the body pinned between him and the wall as his canines lengthened. Dean shivered, a quiet groan slipping from his lips as his head lolled to the side and Blaise struck, burying his fangs as deep into Dean's neck as he could. Removing his fangs, he lapped at the wound to seal it and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the mark, loving the full-body shiver that went through Dean's body.
===============POV=Change=================
AJ stuck around long enough to make sure Blaise and Dean weren't going to kill each other before high-tailing it as far from that part of the dungeons as she could get, ending up on the highest balcony in the castle. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, she stared out over the grounds and let her eyes drift closed as a sense of peace enveloped her. "Who would've thought that there was a Bakhtak here?" she murmurs turning a little so she was staring out over the Forbidden Forest and watched a few Thestrals flying above the trees. "Hmm." Leaping up to balance on the railing, she walked back and forth along it a few times before getting down, heading back inside, determined to find something to do for the next three and a half hours before dinner.
Fred and George caught her a couple of minutes later as she started to pace in front of the blank wall to the Room of Requirement. "Can you go ahead and take us to Gringott's now, we won't have any time later this week?" they ask and AJ lead the way into the room, waiting for the door to fade away before holding her hands out to them. "Thanks, AJ."
"Told you I'd take you, you guys told McGonagall, right?" she laughs out and they nod each taking a hand as her power swirled around them before they were gone.
===============POV=Change=================
AJ left them just inside the doors of Gringott's before disappearing back out into the alley, telling them she'd be at Valeria's Formal Wear, next to Ollivander's if they happened to finish before she did. Fred glanced at George as his brother did the same before approaching one of the tellers that didn't have a line. "May I help you?" the goblin asked when he noticed them standing in front of his desk and the twins glanced at each other before looking back at the goblin.
"Yes, um, we're here to speak to Brokenaxe," Fred says as he unconsciously bumped his shoulder against George's.
The goblin raised an eyebrow, looking the two young Wizards up and down before motioning another goblin over. "Take these two to see Brokenaxe," he says and the other goblin nods, glancing at the twins, motioning them to follow him as he headed down a hall to the left.
Fred and George looked around nervously as they followed the goblim to one of five large doors at the end of the hallway. The goblin knocked, glancing over his shoulder to make sure the twins had followed and George wondered why the goblin seemed apprehensive around them. "Your brother, Bill, talks about the two of you," the goblin says when he sees George's questioning look and the twins chuckle before the door to the office was pulled open. A large, black-haired goblin stood in the doorway looking the twins over before giving a dismissing nod to the smaller goblin as he stepped back and to the side, motioning the twins into the office.
"I assume that the two of you are here to see your bearer," the big goblin says once the door to the office was safely shut and the twins glance at each other in confusion before turning that look on the goblin. "Ah, you didn't know yet, so, I assume, Lady Sinclair showed you your father's information for the case against Dumbledore?" The twins nodded and the goblin nodded, moving to sit behind his desk and nodded his head to the chairs across from him for the twins as he opened a desk drawer. When the twins sat across from him, he sat a folder on the desk in front of him and closed the drawer, glancing at the clock to his left before looking back to the twins. "It probably distressed her to know something about your father that you did not but the information sent to her was just an overview and didn't go into too much personal detail."
The twins stared at him for a few seconds, "You mean there was more?" they ask and Brokenaxe nodded, sliding the folder across the desk to them. Opening up the folder, both of them stared at the top page in disbelief.
'Arthur Weasley
Light Elf Submissive
Mate to Fabian and Gideon Prewett
Bearer of William Weasley-Prewett, Charlie Weasley-Prewett, Percival Weasley-Prewett,
Fred Weasley-Prewett and George Weasley-Prewett.'
"Bloody hell," they whisper, shocked so badly that their thougts were fuzzy before looking at Brokenaxe. "Can we see him now?"
The goblin nodded, standing from his seat to lead them down to the Madical Ward and pulled open his office door. "Your brothers are also here, though Percival is in a Magical Coma until we can have someone look over a set of blocks on him that we've never seen before," the goblin says and the twins follow him down into the bowels of Gringott's. "Actually, we were going to ask Lady Sinclair to take a look the next time she came in as we've pinpointed that the blocks are very old demon magic and they baffled the Demonologist we brought in to look them over."
The twins glanced at the goblin before George asked, "If an expert can't figure it out, how is AJ supposed to?"
"Lady Sinclair is a Blood Demon," the goblin answers leading them down a flight of stairs. "Their bloodlines are known to mix with lots of other Demon lines, collecting knowledge which is handed down in their blood. She's extremely powerful and has centuries of Demon knowledge locked away inside her head that has never been recorded for fear of someone using it against them."
The twins looked at each other before remembering that AJ was powerful enough to frighten the great Albus Dumbledore and make him back off. "Makes sense," they say to each other before falling silent and following Brokenaxe even further into Gringott's.
The door to the Medical Ward was open, surprising Brokenaxe until he saw that the two eldest Weasley boys were sitting with their father beside Percival's bed and the twins bolted past him, joining the rest of their family.
===============POV=Change=================
After handing over Luna and Hermione's dresses for alterations, AJ perused the dress racks at the back of the store after not finding anything she liked on the racks in the front. Now that she knew that there was going to be a Yule Ball, she wanted the perfect outfit and she hadn't liked anything she'd seen today. "Do you, maybe need some help, Miss," the clerk asked when she saw that AJ was beginning to get irritated. "I have a catalog you could look through, chose the style of your dress, the color and materials. It'll cost a little more than the dresses off the rack because it'll be a custom order."
"That might take less time, actually," AJ murmurs stepping back from the rack of dresses she'd been going through and followed the clerk to a circle of chairs who handed her two catalogs before leaving her to look through them. Looking through the first catalog, she found a couple of styles she liked but continued to look until stopping on a style that she loved near the back of the catalog. It was a floor-length dress, tight-fitting bodice, flowey skirt and slightly off-shoulder sleeves. Dog-earring the page, she opened the other book and started looking over the materials available, as well as the colors to choose from. After careful deliberation, she finally chose the Acromantula silk in green with amethyst beading on the front of the bodice and a part of the skirt.
She glanced up from the books when she felt a wave of familiar magic move through the store and saw Bill following the clerk over to her. "Are you ready, Miss, or did you need more time?" the clerk asks and AJ shook her, standing with the catalogs in hand, giving the clerk a smile before turning her attention to her mate.
"Hello Bill, the twins tell you I was here?" AJ asks and Bill nodded, giving her a small smile before wrapping an arm around her waist as the clerk led them to the counter. The clerk took down the order and AJ's measurements and put the order in a stack on her desk after writing down the date it needed to be finished by.
"The two of you have a nice day," the clerk says giving them a bright smile. "You'll get the bill in two to three days time."
AJ nodded before following Bill out of the shop as they headed towards Gringott's and she cuddled up against his side. "You need to go down to your vaults?" he asks and she glances up at him to nod. "Would you mind going to the Medical Ward with me first?"
"Of course, I'll go meet your father, Bill," she murmurs threading her arm through his, "after all, he was still asleep last time I was here."
Bill smirked, bending his head down to kiss her forehead and straightening up as they walked through the doors of Gringott's. "And to meet the two brothers between me and the twins," he says and she nods as they head down the stairs.
Arriving at the Medical Ward, they stepped inside to see another red-head and the twins wrestling around on the floor away from the occupied bed that Arthur Weasley was sitting beside. AJ giggled at the three rough-housing on the floor and slid away from Bill's side, approaching the Weasley Lord shyly. "Lord Weasley," she says bowing her head to him and he smiles, standing from his seat.
"You may call me Arthur, Miss Sinclair," he says holding his hand out to her to shake, surprising her when he pulled her into a hug.
"Then call me AJ," she says returning the hug before pulling away when the twins came over, dragging their brother with them.
Arthur chuckled at his children's antics as Fred and George pushed Charlie so he was standing in front of AJ. "AJ, this is my second eldest, Charlie," he says and AJ cocked her head at the red-headed Dragon Handler she'd seen when her and Harry had gone to speak with the Horntail after the Task. "Charlie, this is one of Bill's mates, AJ."
Charlie looked over his brother's mate, wondering why she looked so familiar until he remembered the Tournament. "You were with Harry Potter when he came to say goodbye to the Horntail," he says and she nods, shaking his hand when he offered it to her. "You were talking to the dragon, as well."
AJ nods again before turning her attention to the man lying asleep in the bed Arthur was sitting beside. "This is Percy, the goblins have him in a Coma," Arthur says patting his son's hand and AJ cocks her head to the side when she felt old magic coming off of Percy and walked around the bed so she was on the other side of the bed from Arthur.
The magic reached out towards her and she raised an eyebrow as it made contact with her own, mixing. "Ah, Lady Sinclair," Ragnok says and she jumps, turning around to glare at the goblin standing in the doorway before glancing at the black-haired goblin behind him. "This is Brokenaxe, the Account Manager for the Weasleys." AJ nodded her head at him before returning her attention to Ragnok. "If it wouldn't be too much to ask can you examine the blocks on Percival?"
Surprised at the polite way Ragnok asked she nodded, looking back to the man lying in the bed and touched his hand. Power rolled through the room, causing AJ to shiver as more of the other's magic wrapped around her and her mind whirled before clearing, causing her to close her eyes when the twinged from changing as her Demon magic roared to the front of her mind. As the magic wrapped even tighter around her, AJ watched as a gate made of twisted, black metal appeared inside her mindscape. Moving cautiously towards the gate, she reached her hand out and placed it against the handle. Memories immediately swamped her and what she saw made her gag, pulling away from the gate in her mind at the same time, she wrenched herself away from Percy's bedside. She fell back on her arse, putting her hands over her nose and mouth, taking deep, even breaths to keep from vomiting, trying to block out what she'd seen.
A cold hand pressed against her forehead and her vision cleared enough that she could see Bill kneeling beside her, blue eyes anxious. "You okay?" he murmurs pulling her into his arms when her eyes focused on him. She nodded as his magic flared over hers and he froze, feeling the other magic that was mixed in with hers before laying his head atop hers. "What caused that reaction?"
AJ balked at his question and she gagged, hugging herself in the circle of his arms as she shook her head, Bill took it as she didn't want to think about it so he just tightened his arms around her and concentrated on sending her calming emotions. Once she was calm, AJ freed herself from his embrace and stood up, holding her hand out to help him up. "Let's try this again," she breathes moving back to the bedside and held her hand out to touch his again when a black glow from his chest caught her attention.
Distracted as she was, she didn't notice Bill's eyes widen when he stood next to her as his brother's magic began twining with his like it had with AJ's. When he noticed AJ was staring at something on Percy's chest, he glanced down and when he didn't see anything, he looked back at her face. She was frowning at whatever it was she could see before she pulled the sheet down a little, exposing what looked like a tattoo on Percy's chest, above where his heart would be. Looking closer, Bill saw that it was a circle of runes, but they were runes he couldn't read and AJ hissed what sounded like 'fuck' under her breath. "What does it say?" he asks and she looked at him with eyes that had become blood-red with a four-pointed star pupil.
"Bind this creature and lock it away so no one will see it for the monster it is. Someone used Demon Runes to bind him," she breathes eyes tracing the mark and the runes began to glow with red and black light as AJ's magic tried to remove the binding runes. After several moments of the runes refusing to budge, AJ stopped pushing her magic at them and took a deep breath, really not wanting to have to return to the gate that had appeared in her mindscape. Summoning one of the chairs across the room, she set it by the bed and sat down, placing her hand on his as she closed her eyes.
Standing in front of the gate in her mindscape, she reached for the handle only to stop when a small, pale hand slid through the bars, reaching out to her. Moving closer to the gate, she knelt down and came face-to-face with a child that couldn't be amy older than five with red hair and cerulean blue that had a diamond-shaped pupil. "Who are you?" the boy asks bringing his hand back to himself and gripping the bars of the gate.
"I'm AJ," she answers scooting a little closer to the gate and the boy flinches back.
"Please don't hurt me," he cries and she moves back to show she meant no harm.
Watching him as he started to hyperventilate, she trilled at him, letting her wings flap out behind her and trilled again. His eyes widened as his breathing started to calm and he cocked his head at her. "Why do you think I'll hurt you, little one?" she asks and he glances away from, her wings to look her in the eye before going back to staring at her wings.
"The bad lady is always hurting me," he mumbles so quietly that AJ had a hard time hearing him. "She doesn't belong with us and I'm the only who remembers that."
AJ let her wings lay along the floor in front of her, putting them within reaching distance of the child. "What does this lady look like?" she asks watching as his fingers twitched, wanting to reach out and touch her wings.
His curiosity finally got the better of him and he reached out, running a single finger over the scaled appendage closest to him. "She's short and kind of round with curly red hair and brown eyes, he answers as he placed his whole hand on the wing, blue eyes glowing happily. "Why do you have wings?"
Not at all surprised by the question, AJ moved closer to the gate so he could reach more of her wing and let the rest of her dragon attributes out without changing form. "I'm part Dragon," she says and watched his eyes widen as he glanced down where his hand was petting her wing.
"Your eyes aren't like a Dragon's," he points out and AJ felt her eyes change from her demon's to her dragon's. "How'd you do that?"
"I can switch between my creature forms at will," she murmurs watching the hand that was petting her wing and saw that all of the fingers were thin and crooked, probably from being broken several times. He must've noticed that she saw because he pulled his hand away, hiding it in the shadows around him so she couldn't see them anymore. "Did the bad lady do that?" When he nodded, AJ felt a flash of rage shoot through her but pushed it back so that the boy wouldn't notice. "Why?"
Watching her with blank, blue eyes, he moved back so the shadows hid him. "Because I remembered that she wasn't my mommy, remembered something she didn't want me to," he says causing AJ's eyes to widen when he said that.
She sat staring at the gate, even knowing that the boy had left before she could ask any more questions and stood up from the ground. Placing her hand on the latch to the gate, she jumped when a small hand reached around to grasp her fingers. "She killed me, you know, but I came back," the little boy says before releasing AJ's hand and disappearing again.
===============POV=Change=================
Bill watched AJ for any change from his chair beside his father and knew AJ was learning things that even he wished he didn't remember. The twins had left with Ragnok and Brokenaxe to get the spells on them, if there were any, reversed while AJ was busy undoing whatever binding had been put on Percy. "Are they okay?" Charlie asks from where he was standing at the end of the bed and Bill nodded, feeling the comfortable ebb and flow of their magic against his. "Tell them I said bye, I need to get back to Romania before my boss goes ballistic."
Arthur stood and gave his son a hug, ruffling his hair. "Okay, we'll see you the next time you decide to pop in," he murmurs and Charlie smiled, waving at Bill before disappearing out the door. Returning to his seat beside Bill, Arthur watched Percy's chest rise and fall with deep, even breaths. "So, you, Percy, Marcus and AJ, that only leaves you guys one mate short?" Bill glanced at his father before his gaze returned to AJ and Percy to make sure they were okay.
===============POV=Change=================
Dumbledore sat behind his desk, looking over the the endless sea of paperwork that seemed to be get bigger and bigger each year, though if he'd actually do what he was supposed to each year, it wouldn't be such a problem. "Maybe, I should start forwarding this to Minerva," he murmurs reaching into the sweet dish on his desk and popping a lemon drop into his mouth. Glancing towards the perch standing empty in his office, Albus shook his head and ran a hand over his beard. A clatter from the cabinet where he kept the containers for his stolen magic caused him to stand and make his way across the room, opening the cabinet to check which one was acting up. The clatter happened again, drawing his gaze to a glass figurine with dark black smoke swirling inside it and he raised an eyebrow. "Percival? It's been a long time since the little whore's magic has so much as moved and now it's moving so much that it's making noise, odd."
===============POV=Change=================
AJ moved through the shadowy halls that made up Percy's mindscape and stepped sideways to avoid a medieval booby trap that she'd had to activate to get farther into his mind. "Why are you here?" a hollow, disembodied voice asks from the shadows that surrounded her and she glanced around to see if maybe Percy would show himself this time.
Catching not a sight of him, she sighed and looked down the hallway in front of her. "I'm here to help you, Percy," she answers hoping he'd show himself now that she'd answered his question. A hollow chuckle echoed all around her as the shadows thickened, some even going so far as to brush up against her.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward into the thick shadows, intent on continuing her search through his mindscape. "Sorry to burst your bubble but no one can help me, Dumbledore made sure of that," Percy says still not showing himself and AJ shrugged, smirking into the shadows.
"Dumbledore can go get himself buggered by a Devil's Snare for all I care," AJ snickers continuing on her way through the shadows. "He's supposedly made sure of a lot of things that haven't been working out lately."
The shadows pulled back ever so slightly when Percy realized they weren't bothering her and gave a hollow-sounding sigh. "Do as you wish, then," he saus and she denly knew that she was alone again, his presence pulling back farther into his mind, a part she couldn't reach yet.
AJ sighed, continuing down the seemingly endless corridor as the shadows brushed against her every once in a while. She started hearing an almost-constant scream from farther down the hall and quickened her pace, her instincts at her to stop the sound. A large, heavy oak door wrapped in chains appeared at the end of the hall and she ran the last few feet to reach it as the screams got louder. Ripping the chains free, she them back down the hall and tried the handle, finding it locked, she called her magic. As she pushed her magic into the door, she willed it to unlock and nearly whooped in relief when she heard the locks click open.
Rushing into the room, she froze in her tracks at what she was seeing, playing over and over on the wall farthest from the door. Once her brain could make sense of what she was seeing, she felt her stomach roil in disgust as bile rose up in the back of her throat. Controlling the urge to be sick, her gaze zeroed in on the small form tied to the chair facing the wall of horrors and gaggedso he couldn't scream, the wall was doing enough of that for him. Syanding over the boy in the chair was a ghost-like image of Dumbledore leaning close and whispering in the boy's ear. "Worthless, little boy. You're not worthy of being loved. Little monster," the image says and AJ's hands curled into fists at her sides. "You'll never be loved, who could ever love someone as dirty as you, not good at anything but spreading your legs."
AJ snapped, her magic swirling around her fists as she lunged forward, running across the room and slamming her fist as hard as she could into the figure's face, growling, "Get out." The part of the phantom's face where she'd punched him began to disintegrate. Turning away from him, she moved to stand in front of the child-version of Percy, making sure he couldn't see past her and began pulling the restraints off him. Once he was free of the chair, she ripped the gag from his mouth, turned him towards the door and covered his ears as she propelled him ahead of her towards the door. The door to the room slammed shut behind them and disappeared, showing another endless hallway. Sliding down to sit against the wall, she released Percy and fought the urge to cry even as she felt tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "Are..." her voice cracked when she tried to speak and she swallowed, wiping the tears out of her face. "That would've been a stupid question to ask, of course you're not okay."
"Why do you care?" the boy asks and AJ began to cry again, unable to stop it as her thoughts flashed back to what was playing on that wall and bile rose in her throat. Turning her head, she retched into the shadows, tryong to banish those images from her mind and wiped her mouth. "You shouldn't care, I'm not worth anything and no one cares, why do you?"
AJ's eyes flashed in anger when she heard that and she choked beack the snarl that wanted to force it's way from between her lips. Pushing her rage back, she moved so she was now kneeling in front of Percy, looking down into his eyes as she wrapped her arms tightly around him, hugging him to her. "He had no right saying those things or doing any of that to you," she breathes rubbing soothing circles on his back. "None of what he said is true."
"That's a lie," he mutters against AJ's hair and she flinched at the bitterness in the kid's voice. "That last part is true. Who could ever love someone as dirty and broken as I am, someone who let him..."
AJ pulled away from the hug, grasping his chin softly so as not to scare him and made him look her straight in the eye. "How old were you?" she asks and he tried to pull his face away. "Come on, Percy, answer the question."
His face went blank as he stared into AJ's swirling green and silver eyes. "Nine," he breathes finally pulling free of the hand on his chin and glaring at AJ. "Why does that matter? I still let him..."
"Did you fight back?" she asks cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. "Did you try to get away from?" He stayed quiet and AJ wrapped her arms back around him, not as tight as before, though. "Considering, I saw every-bloody-thing playing on that wall, I can tell you right now, you didn't let that old bastard do anything. No one expects a nine-year old, even a Magical one, or one with Creature blood, to be able to fight off a fully-grown, fully-trained Wizard. As she'd been speaking, Percy had started sobbing into her shoulder and had wrapped his small arms tight around her ribs. AJ started ing his back ina comforting motion as he cried for a few moments before disappearing in a swirl of black smoke. Standing up, she waited to see if the real Percy had anything to say before continuing down the hall, towards whatever was in store for her next. So focused on helping Percy get free as soon as possible, she didn't notice the cerulean eyes with diamond-shaped pupils watching her from the shadows.
===============POV=Change=================
Albus sensed the backlash of magic before it hit him and watched as a crack formed across the surface of the figurine that held Percival's power. Glaring at the figurine was not an option if he wanted to keep the damned whore's magic so he picked it up, carrying it back to his desk so he could sit down while performing the spells that would allow him to absorb the power. Gathering his power to begin casting, he gaped in surprise as the crack began to spiderweb over the figurine and he growled, beginning to chant. As he pushes his power into the spells, he begins to wonder how the whore was even fighting against him. He had destroyed the boy so completely that he'd never thought he could possibly fight him so how was he doing this now and then a thought entered his mind. "Impossible, nobody could possibly want or love that boy, not after facing what I did to him," he says not noticing the medium-sized, black snake with gold eyes watching him from the shadows underneath one of the many cabinets in the room.
===============POV=Change=================
Marcus was trying to focus on helping Isadora with her Potions essay as AJ and Bill's emotions kept fluctuating, though he knew that they were together so he was trying to avoid rushing to them. Alec and Aiden seemed to notice that he was having problems because he came over to help Isadora and Marcus moved away from them, closing his eyes as he leant back on the couch. He was just beginning to calm down when another set of emotions began reaching out to him, and all of them were confusing him. "I'll be back," he murmurs before porting away and leaving a slight chill in the room. When he appeared in the Medical Ward of Gringott's his first thoughts were AJ or Bill were injured but when he looked around he saw Bill, hus father and an unglamored AJ sitting around an occupied cot. "Bill, what's going on?"
Bill jerked in surprise as his eyes moved from AJ to Marcus who was standing in the doorway, watching them. "Uhm, hi Marcus," he says and Marcus raised an eyebrow at him before glancing at AJ. "She's, uh, how do I explain this?"
"Beginning?" Marcus suggested dragging a chair over to sit next to AJ, looking over the form in the bed. "Hmm, I knew there was a reason I didn't like it when people messed with him." Leaning back in his chair, he looked back at Bill with an expectant look on his face and Bill squirmed, looking away from Marcus to AJ.
"Percy is under a Demon Rune binding and AJ is inside his mind, undoing it," Arthur says and Marcus glances at him before nodding, turning his attention to AJ and Percy. "He's got a very Alpha presence."
Bill groaned, leaning back in his chair and covering his eyes with an arm as Marcus snickered, eyes flitting to a blushing Bill for a second. "Mr. Flint," a thunderous voice growls from the door and Marcus turned his head just enough to see Ragnok. "Did you have to rip through the wards?"
===============POV=Change=================
AJ was starting to get tired, she was so exhausted that the glamours she'd had over her Creature attributes were gone and she was dragging her wings along the ground behind her. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and stretched to pop her back, running a hand through her hair as she opened her eyes. Finding herself in a large, circular room, half of it hidden in shadows, shewhirled around to see what the hell was going on and turned just in time to watch the door slam shut, disappearing. "What the hell?" she murmurs looking around the room, searching for another way out and gasping as she was slammed back into the wall across the room where the door had disappeared. Her eyes slid closed as the back of her head slammed into the wall and a familiar laugh reached her ears from across the room, causing her eyelids to flutter open.
Dumbledore stood there, watching her with furious, blue eyes and AJ pushed herself away from the wall, stumbling a bit as her vision wavered. "How dare you," he snarls and she sneers at the pathetiv attempt to cow her, straightening up even as her back twinged in pain. "You have no right to be here."
"More right than you do," she growls as her wings flare out to either side of her as the green and silver in her eyes begins to swirl around her pupil, a drop of red adding to the mix. "After all, he is one of my mates and I'm going to destroy you for what you've done to him."
Dumbledore laughed softly before waving his hand in a dismissive gesture at her. "Yes, the mate of a used and broken whore, whose only use is spreading his legs and providing me with a nice magic boost," he chuckles and AJ clenched her fists, "frankly, it's a wonder that you even want him. Maybe, it's because deep down, you're just as broken as he is."
A hollow-sounding chuckle echoed throughout the room as the shadows on the other side of the room pulled back to reveal Percy, well AJ thought it was Percy, he didn't look anything like his body did outside his mind. "Could the two of you have this conversation outside my head, you're interrupting my peace and quiet?" he asks taking a drink of whatever was in the tumbler balanced on the of the chair he was sitting in.
"It's good to see you again, Percival," Dumbledore says and AJ saw the way Percy's hand tightened on his glass and the pupils of his eyes changed into that diamond shape she saw on his child form.
"You, old man, don't get to speak to me," he growls taking another swig of his drink, "just get the fuck out." Dumbledore looked murderous and AJ snickered, turning it into a cough as she put her hand over he mouth to stifle the sound further, drawing Percy's attention. "You've made plenty good points over the last hpur and a half that you've been here, please don't make me kick you out like I'm about to do with the old man."
"Do as you wish," she chuckles leaning back against the wall and sliding down it so she could sit, staring across the room at Dumbledore as his face turned several different colors as he stared at Percy. "But the longer he's in here, the better the chance he has of stealing your magic for good."
Percy's attention snapped to Dumbledore as the shadows in the room darkened, filling the room and swirling around AJ, while wrapping around Dumbledore tightly. "Get out," he snarls as a wave of magic moved through the room, striking Dumbledore and sending him stumbling backwards as he was sent out of Percy's mind.
===============POV=Change=================
The figurine sitting on Dumbledore's desk shattered, pieces bouncing off the shield he'd tossed up at the last second and he stared at the shards in disbelief. "Damn it all," he roars as a large chunk of his magic was ripped away, disappearing back to it's master. "What to do, there are only half a dozen containers left before I'm back to being an average-level Wizard?"
All of the portraits in the office stared down at him in disgust as the man fretted away, talking to himself. "I could always..." he cuts off glancing across the room at the four, rather large, crystal figurines sitting upon their own shelf, safely put away from the others. The wolf, stag, lily and dragon seemed to glare down at him in loathing and he shuddered, shaking his head. "No, their magic would fight me more than I could control."
===============POV=Change=================
Marcus stood up on the seventh floor balcony at Hogwarts, glaring off into the distance and wanting to break every bone in Dumbledore's body, peel off the old man's skin, castrate him and leave him bleeding to death somewhere no one could find him. He'd brought the twins back so no one would miss them at dinner managed to convince Draco to spread a rumor that AJ had caught the Flu while he'd told her fathers what was really going on. His thoughts flashed back to what he'd picked up from the random bits of thought that had passed through AJ's shields and felt the urge to be sick. "Are you okay, Marcus?" Luna's dreamy voice asks from behind him and he turns, giving her a nod. "Is this about Darkness?" At his raised eyebrow, she chuckles and moves closer, looking out over the grounds as Marcus felt a privacy bubble snap into place around them. "Is Percy awake yet?"
"I'm going to assume Darkness is your name for Percy?" he asks and she nods glancing at him for a moment. "He wasn't when I left to bring the twins back."
Luna gave him a small smile, patting his arm and walking back towards the door. "Don't worry, AJ will finish breaking the bind and he'll wake up," she murmurs as she disappeared back inside and Marcus turned back to the view.
"I hope you're right," he breathes running a hand through his hair.
===============TO=BE=CONTINUED===========