ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

-CHAPTER ELEVEN-

BETA: Tammy

INFO: www. livejournal. com /users/draycious

"I'm finally getting out of here! Hell, it feels good!" said Raven with a relieved laugh and tossed a newspaper at Blade. They were leaving the hospital. Raven was free to go if he took it easy for a couple of weeks. No running and no quidditch what so ever was allowed. He could live with that, he would probably agree to anything just to get out of there. He was supposed to sit as much as possible and drink a lot of water for some reason. He wasn't supposed to lift anything heavier than a pillow so Blade would be the man for the job.

"Ready to face your school duties?" Raven groaned. Why did Blade have to remind him of that right this minute? Couldn't he be allowed to feel some happiness without being interrupted? He made a grimace and answered.

"No but I'll have to do it I suppose?" he asked Blade and showed his resentment over the fact.

"That's right!" Blade said in a voice much far too bright for Raven's liking. If he didn't know any better he'd say Blade was a real sadist.

"You know what? I think I'll stay here after all..." he joked.

"Oh no you don't! Get your ass in that fire!" Blade shouted playfully and pushed him gently over towards it. Raven had to smile as well when he thought of how that comment would have confused a muggle. Blade helped him to travel through the fire, and made sure he didn't injure himself any further by slamming against the fireplaces' walls.

Two days later and Raven was called to Blade's office in Hogwarts. The days had passed quickly, and he could hardly separate one day from another.

"Hi there stranger! Are you ready to go and visit Rafael?" Blade asked once he entered. They hadn't been able to see much of each other, since Blade had begun his teaching and Raven was busy otherwise.

"And Master?" Raven asked hopefully.

"Maybe he'll be there. I would not know about that. Master tends to do whatever pleases him for the moment," Blade said dryly but you could hear the admiration for master in his voice.

"Great," Raven said enthusiastically for the prospect to get out of Hogwarts and visit some of his favorite persons on the planet. "I'm ready to go whenever you are. How are we supposed to pull it off without anyone noticing? I've got Severus breathing down my neck and Remus acts like a blood dog, sniffing my traces," he said aggravated. He hadn't had one peaceful moment since his little memory relapse. "I can't believe Snape accepted Remus as his assistant in potions just so they can both keep their eyes on me!" said Raven incredulously and threw himself down in the chair in front of Blade's desk.

"Fatherly love, you know. When I was younger my father always had a bodyguard for me. I was never allowed to be alone, even less go to a party on my own. The bodyguard was irritating like an ass sniffing dog!" Blade exclaimed. He still looked angry when he thought about it, even if it had happened years previously.

"That's different!" Raven said and waved his hand dismissively. "You're the son of the USWW Minister! Of course you had a bodyguard," he said. When you really sat back and thought about it, it wasn't strange at all.

"Alright... but you're the boy-who-lived... Anyway, I thought we'd tell them I am taking you to a check up at the hospital, right? From there we can apparate to our place in Transylvania," Blade said, getting tired of always arguing about things.

"Great plan, only, it sounds too easy," said Raven thoughtfully. When Blade put it the way he did it sounded like they had forgotten something important.

"It's often the easiest plans which are the best," Blade reminded him in a gentle voice.

"Fine! But they'll notice we won't return tonight you know... how do you explain that to them?" he asked, he thought he was onto something. Blade tilted his head.

"We'll leave a note."

"Oh yes indeed! Let's write that we tricked them but we'll be fine and please don't punish us when we return!" Raven cried sarcastically. What happened to Blade the whining one? Now he was suddenly acting like a responsible adult, something Raven knew Blade would never truly be. Well ok, maybe he was responsible when needed, but not in a boring I'm holier than you way.

"C'mon! Does it really matter? Think about it. We'll get to spend time in Transylvania," Blade said to him and took off his robes. Underneath it he wore simple but stylish dark blue jeans and a black sweater. "Just relax and let me take care of everything. You know you should rest since your magical levels are still low."

"I'll let you take care of everything just this once. God knows I have a million things to study. No one can beat me in defense and DADA and DA but I can hardly levitate a fucking pillow, not to mention transfigure a feather to a hen!" said Raven annoyed.

"Stop being an asshole! I admit that you suck in most subjects accept for DADA and maybe Potions but all you need is practice!" Blade said sternly. It was his way of encouraging Raven.

"That might be true but I need to work on transfiguration. As it is, I'm in the bloody bottom of my class!"

"I'll help you. But the most important thing is DADA and you're already better than most grown wizards in it!"

"But still-"Raven was interrupted by Blade.

"Still nothing! Don't you see? You don't need the other shit! If you do standard- good! If you're below that, that's fine! Just concentrate on DADA and the dark arts!" Raven sighed and nodded. Blade was right of course. He didn't know why he felt like he had to argue. He already had a future; he didn't even need his OWLs. Knowing the USAWW minister had its perks. He could basically do anything he wanted. He also had all the money in the world, he could never work a single day and spend as much money as he possible could, and it would still be more than enough left for several generations to come. He knew all this, but he wasn't the kind of person who walked around and did nothing, he needed to have something to do and he wanted to work.

"Alright," he said and gave up. This conversation would get them nowhere and it was already too drawn out. "So are we leaving tomorrow then or when?" he asked with a sigh.

"Tomorrow it is. I was thinking that maybe we could visit Lucius at Malfoy manor after we've met Rafael?"

"Sounds good," said Raven and picked up a book from Blade's desk and flipped through the pages. He found it very appealing. "Where did you get this book?" he asked interested.

"It seems like every dark arts book catches your interest. Should I be worried for another Dark Lord?" Blade asked and grinned at his own joke. Raven rolled his yes and decided to play along. He narrowed his green eyes and said:

"Not unless you displease me. You know I'd let you get away from punishing most of the time. But seriously, where did you get it?"

"Rafael borrowed it from Master and I borrowed it from Rafael."

"I knew this wasn't yours!" he exclaimed knowingly. " It's far too good because your taste in books suck! Look, here's a page about an old ritual to bring the old demon Raducult to our physical plane, our dimension!" he said in an intrigued voice.

"Um... I haven't studied demons for quite some time. Who is he, now again?" Blade asked and tried to look in the book but Raven removed it from his view. He didn't want Blade's fingers to taint the book!

"He's the pain demon. Quite decent I believe," he said distracted as he read through the paragraph in the book.

"Decent? Yeah right!" Blade murmured disbelievingly. He sat down on top of his desk and waited for Raven to explain himself. He wasn't disappointed.

"He is! He's cool. I've met him. If I wasn't dreaming Master let me have a training session with Raducult. He was very nice, nothing like I pictured him to be."

"Nice? I'm sorry but I find that hard to believe. He's a sodding pain demon for God's sake!" said Blade with dismay. Nice wasn't usually synonyms with pain.

"That's what I first though," raven admitted. "I was mistaken, he was nothing like I first pictured him to be. You should see for yourself. I think we should make an attempt at this ritual. It's fairly simple so I think we'll manage. I'd like to meet him again and perhaps you'd enjoy his company as well. He's very clever and very old, even if he looks young."

"What does he look like?" Blade asked curiously. Most demons he had met were ghastly to look at, and they smelled pretty bad.

"In his demon form I guess that he looks like this picture of him, reddish skin with fangs and black eyes, but in his human form his skin moon-white with midnight black eyes like my dad, and he's got brown hair. I don't know if he always looks the same in his human form or if he can change from time to time, all due I find it hard to imagine he'd change looks often. He didn't seem to be the typical vain type." Raven showed Blade the picture of the demon in the book. It was a drawn picture of course, not many could play necromancers or call on demons from other worlds. Most people didn't even know such worlds existed. People thought it was myths and fairy tales, even the wizards didn't always believe in other worlds.

"You really do seem to like this demon!" said Blade with surprise.

"That I do," he said and read through the page carefully once more. You could always miss something the first time.

"Um, perhaps you should wait to do the ritual." Raven looked up sharply. He new something was up, something Blade would rather not talk about. He could hear it in Blade's voice.

"Why?" he asked him dangerously. Blade sighed and stood up. He placed a hand on Raven's shoulder.

"Look, a ritual is a piece of serious and difficult magic. A great deal of power is required to perform it."

"So? I've been doing those kinds of rituals before. It's a piece of cake. I don't find it difficult for me in any kind of way. I've got more than enough of the magic that's required for this task," Raven interrupted what he presumed would become a long speech.

"I'm aware of that!" said Blade with a slight frown. "But what concerns me is what happened during your flash back, when you reviewed Voldemort's vision. Your magical levels must have been low; I can't explain what happened in any other ways. For as far as I am concerned you had done nothing that should have drained your magic in the way that it did. Until we can figure out why that happened in the first place I think you should wait to do anything big with your magic. If we don't wait it might happen again and you're under a great threat every time you can't defend yourself. It leaves you vulnerable for enemies to strike and you can do nothing about it. Voldemort could regain free access to your mind if your shields should fail. Even before I taught you occlumency your magic had its own kind of shields, even if it was an unconscious act on your side, but you know that already. Let's just wait a while, that's all I'm saying," Blade's voice was final and Raven found himself agreeing to what he had said. It wasn't worth it, and the ritual would only be performed for his amusement so it held no real purpose. Raven burrowed his face in his hands and sighed.

"Ok. Let me think... I only used magic to bring me some chairs that day. That action couldn't have drained me in any way. I hadn't been sick. I hadn't trained mind defense. I wasn't tired at all. I ate nothing unknown; I drank nothing unknown... Wait! I've got it!" Raven said with a new light after the reservation hit him.

"What?" Blade asked quickly.

"The truth potion! It was a new form so I could talk normally with emotions and I could move even if I had to tell the truth..."

"Do you think you're allergic to it? Because you've been under truth potions before without any complications," Blade said skeptically. Raven shrugged, it didn't sound far fetched to him. It was in fact quite likely something had happened with his magic when he drank the potion. It was the only explanation he could provide. The potion was the only foreign object he had been in contact with that day.

"I don't know. Maybe Fudge had something to do with it, to get even for the doors in the Ministry." Blade looked at him in disbelief. "Give me another possibility then," he said sourly when he noticed Blade's expression.
Now it was Blade's time to shrug. "I don't have a better one yet. I' will do some research and then I will let you know what I come up with," he said.

"Fine. I have to go anyway. I've got physical defense with Mr. Evil!"

"Don't call him that! Call him Professor Meller like you're supposed to do! If you don't you only make it harder for yourself to remember not to call him that to his face, so what's the point?" Blade asked him logically.

"I swear this Meller has it in for me! The idiot has already tried to deduct points from me just because I happen to breathe!" he whined.

"Be careful around him. I do not know who he is yet. I expect to find out this afternoon," Blade warned him.

"Dumbledore wouldn't hire anyone who could be a danger to me, would he?" Raven asked.

"Don't fool yourself Raven. I wouldn't be so sure if I were you. Just look back in your past."

"But this year-" he began to say but was interrupted.

"Isn't any different from the others," Blade finished.

"Fine! I'm seriously pissed over having to watch out for teachers with Voldemort shoved up their ass or wherever he's hiding!" said Raven sourly and Blade laughed at that description. Voldemort certainly was a parasite.

"Just keep your eyes open. You know where to find me if you need to talk. You can always summon me for help..." Blade said when Raven was on his way to the door.

"No, that's OK. I can handle it. I'll see you later today."

"Bye then. Try to keep your temper in check," Blade shouted after him.

"I'll try," said Raven and left Blade's office.