"Good morning, Mr Crowley."
Crowley reluctantly tore his gaze away from the book he was reading.
"Oh. Hi girls. What time is it?" He had only realised after the children had left that he was not wearing a watch and he couldn't magic one up.
"About 11am," Heather said.
Crowley realised that he had been reading Harry potter for about seventeen hours straight.
Lilly walked up to the edge of the circle. "Oh no! You must have been in the dark all night long! I'm sorry! We should have left you a torch."
"Nah. Demons can see in the dark, it's okay."
"Cool! And you've been reading my books! Yay!"
Crowley turned his full attention to Heather. "Hello… Helga!"
She looked confused. "Helga? There's no one called Helga in the books."
"Yeah there is. Helga Hufflepuff! She was the founder of Hufflepuff House."
"My name is definitely not Helga. And I'm in Griffindor, not Hufflepuff."
"I would definitely be in Slytherin House," Crowley said confidently.
"You don't get to choose," Lilly said. "The sorting hat chooses."
"You'd probably be a Death Eater," Heather muttered under her breath.
"You need to do the quiz on the Pottermore website to find out which house you're in. We are both Griffindores. You should do the quiz too!"
Lilly pulled out her smart phone and tapped the screen for a few seconds to find the website. She started to pass him her phone, but then Heather leapt towards her, making her jump.
"No! Don't give him your phone, you idiot! He'll call Satan or something!"
Crowley raised an eyebrow.
"Oh. Er. Okay." Lilly looked thoughtful, then she turned towards Crowley. "Mr demon, please magic up a tablet that only has access to the Pottermore website."
Heather nodded. "Yeah. That should be okay, he can only magic up what we say, after all."
Crowley created the tablet out of raw firmament and found that he was indeed bound by her rules. He could not wish up anything without her permission, no matter how he tried, and so the tablet was only able to reach that one website.
Crowley did the test. He was so eager and excited, so convinced that he would be a Slytherin, that he forgot himself and rather than answering the questions how the human he pretended to be would answer them, or even how an evil demon would answer them, he answered them truthfully.
"Huffle-fricking-puff!" Crowley cried. He hissed angrily at the tablet then threw it out of the circle. "Fuck off!"
"That's a bad word," Lilly said quietly.
"Yeah, well… I am bad! I'm a demon! And I'm not a Hufflepuff! I don't care what that stupid website says!"
"Well, anyway..." Heather said, giving Crowley a disapproving look, "I've got loads more wishes."
"Fine, whatever," Crowley said grumpily. He went to close the book he had been reading, but hesitated. He turned over the corner of the page carefully.
"Wow!" said Lilly. "You're on Prisoner of Azkaban already?! You've almost finished the third book!"
Heather piped up. "So, I want some more games for the switch, I need-"
"Who is your favourite character? Mine is Luna."
"Shh! I'm trying to make a wish, so stop interrupting!"
Crowley waved a hand dismissively. "Listen, just wish for all of the games in the online-store to be free, and you'll be all set."
"Great idea! I wish for all the games to be free!"
Crowley waved a hand lazily. "There you go, kid." He returned his full attention to Lilly. "My favourite characters are Sirius and Lupin."
Lilly looked sad. "Oh, but they-"
"Crowley, magic up some McDonalds, I'm hungry!" Heather said, not looking up from the games console in her hands. "A cheese burger and fries with a strawberry milkshake."
Lilly smiled. "I want chicken nuggets and fries and a Coca-Cola! Please, Mr Crowley. And you can magic up some food and drink for yourself too if you want."
Crowley snapped his fingers and some McDonald's meals appeared for the children, and then he conjured up something worthy of the Ritz for himself.
"Lilly, what were you about to say about Sirius and Lupin?"
"Nevermind. Spoilers," Lilly said before stuffing her face with french fries.
Lilly glanced at Heather, who was still engrossed in her Switch, then she looked at the big television which was currently not in use. She grinned. "Let's watch a film! The Philosopher's Stone! We can watch all the Harry Potter films that you have read the books for so far, Crowley!"
Crowley was 100% up for this.
They were half way through the second film when Heather, who had only been half-watching the television while playing her games, got up and walked over to the cardboard box.
Crowley caught sight of her just as she was pulling out several giant candles.
"Woah, woah, woah! No! What are you doing?! There's at least another couple of hours left on the candles already there, you don't need to add any more!"
"Yes, I do."
"Put them away! I am not staying here overnight again. I've humoured you long enough. You can both leave a little while before the current candles burn down, because I need to go home. "
Heather jutted out her chin. "It's not up to you. You're going to stay here for as long as I say."
"My patience is really wearing thin. If you light any more candles, then I won't do any more wishes for you. No more magic."
"You can't do that!" Heather gasped.
"Yes, I can."
Heather hesitated but then a determined look appeared on her face and she marched towards the circle, carrying six candles in her arms. "I'll keep lighting candles anyway."
Crowley glared at her. "I won't do any magic for you then. I'll just ignore you like you're not even here."
"Then we won't let you do any magic either. No more food! Or- or new books!"
"I'll just read these seven until the pages fall out."
Lilly made a sad sound. "But I don't want you to go away, Crowley!"
"You can summon me back again another day," Crowley said, fully intending to join forces with Aziraphale in the meantime to hunt for the children and the book.
"No!" Heather said. "We are in charge, demon. Not you!"
Heather added several more candles to the circle and then lit them.
"Now then," said Heather, "I want an Oreo Mcflurry!"
There was an awkward silence in which Crowley and Heather glared angrily at each other. The silence was broken by the sound of Lilly drinking noisily through a straw.
Heather put her hands on her hips. "Do it, demon, or else! I want a Mcflurry!"
"Can I have one too?" Lilly asked hopefully.
"I'm not doing any more wishes for either of you. I said not to light any more candles, and now you have to face the consequences."
Lilly bit her lip. "Maybe we could blow out some of the candles, if Crowley agrees to-"
"No!" Heather cried. "He has to do what we say! And the book says what to do if he doesn't obey us or if he's bad!"
Heather stormed over to the cardboard box and started rooting about through the candles until she pulled out a large, plastic Pepsi bottle, but the liquid inside was clear and definitely not Pepsi.
Crowley's eyes went wide. His throat tightened. "What is that?"
"Holy water," Heather said with a smirk. "I told the church I needed it to stop evil demons and they gave me loads."
Crowley hoped desperately that they had just humoured her and given her normal water, but when she took the lid off, he could smell it.
He backed up to the far side of the circle, as far away from Heather as he could get. He pulled his wings in close, trying to flatten himself against the invisible wall.
"Don't! It'll kill me!"
"It says to just flick a little bit at you, then you'll behave," Heather said, carefully pouring a little bit of the holy water into a small, plastic cup.
"Don't! I'll die-!"
Heather stepped towards the circle, dipped the tip of her index finger into the cup, and then flicked it at Crowley, who stood, frozen in horror, helpless, on the far side of the circle.
Only two small droplets soared into the circle. One landed on his wing and the other his forearm, soaking through the material of his pyjama sleeve as though actively seeking out the demon beneath.
Searing, blinding pain shot out from both of these points, devastating his physical body and bleeding through into his demonic form underneath.
Crowley had felt pain before, but nothing like this. Earthly pain he could control to a degree, lessen it with his occult powers, even fix an injury with a thought if he were fast enough before discorperating. But even if he had full control over his magic right now, he would not have been able to stop this.
A long time ago, he had felt something similar, and he flashed back to when he had fallen. He could remember the fire and the brimstone surrounding him as his divinity burned away. It had been agony, but the worst of it had been that he hadn't known what was happening to him, hadn't known if he would survive it or how much of him would be left if he did. He had felt himself changing, and all around him he could see the other fallen angels through his tears, their wings blackening, their bodies mutating, and he didn't understand why God, who he thought loved them all unconditionally, was doing this to them, was doing this to him.
The pain engulfed him, and Crowley screamed and screamed, flailing and colliding with the invisible barriers. He felt sure he was going to die.
He collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness.
Crowley was awoken by arguing voices. His head was pounding and everything hurt.
"You killed him! You killed him!" Lilly screamed.
Heather's voice was angry, but with a hint of remorse. "No, I didn't! The book said it would only hurt him a little bit! He's probably fine! I bet he's just trying to scare us into running away. I bet he's faking!"
"No, he's not! Look at him! Look what you did to him!"
"I didn't know it would do that! And it's not like you tried to stop me or anything! The book said-"
"I don't care about the stupid book!"
"He's just a demon anyway! He's not a real person!"
"He is real!" Lilly sobbed.
"He's evil!"
"He's a Hufflepuff!"
"I bet he answered the questions wrong on purpose to lull you into a false sense of security!"
Crowley opened his eyes. Everything felt too bright. He winced. "Shhh."
"You're alive!" Lilly cried.
"Ssshhhhhh," he hissed desperately, his head spinning.
"Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Lilly whispered.
"I've felt better."
Crowley tried to sit up but he quickly changed his mind. He lay back down on his side.
He assessed the situation. He had ripped his pyjama shirt off at some point, probably to get the holy water splash on his sleeve away from his skin. He had ripped out several feathers, probably again because that was where a droplet of holy water had fallen. There was a wound on his wing and one on his arm, the skin around the injuries had turned black, raw and blistered. The same thing had happened to his fingertips, probably from where he had grabbed at the contaminated feathers and his shirt. Glancing around, he saw some feathers and his shirt strewn just outside of the circle. He looked for any more water droplets that might have fallen nearby but he saw nothing. If there had been any more drops, he was sure he would have known about it while he had been thrashing about wildly. He pulled his blanket around himself, feeling cold.
"See? I told you he would be okay," Heather said, sounding relieved.
"He doesn't look very well."
"He's fine," Heather snapped. "Crowley? Can I have my Mcflurry now, please?"
Crowley was too upset to argue. "Okay."
"I don't want one anymore," Lilly said, her voice quiet.
Crowley didn't do a dramatic hand sweep like he usually did. He just blinked and wished for a Mcflurry. Nothing happened. He tried it again, but still nothing happened. He started to panic.
"Crowley?" Heather said, her voice full of frustration. "You must have learnt your lesson by now? You have to do what we say."
"I- I'm trying…" Crowley focused all of his attention on the wish. Nothing happened. "It's not working." He had never been unable to use his powers before and it terrified him.
"You're lying," Heather said. "Try again."
"I- I- I'm not lying." Crowley tried it again but his magic refused to work. He sat up, his head spinning. Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. He tried it one more time but it wouldn't work. "I- I can't do it. I don't understand-"
He was scared of what Heather would do if she decided he was lying, scared she would hurt him again.
"I don't think he can do it," Lilly said. "He doesn't look very well. I think you broke his magic."
"But the book said to do it…"
Lilly ignored her. "Crowley, try to heal yourself."
Crowley held up a trembling hand over his injured wing and tried with all of his might to heal himself but his powers still refused to work.
"I can't…" he said, voice shaking.
Crowley had never been injured by holy water before and he didn't know of any demons that had survived coming into contact with it. He didn't know if his powers would ever come back. He felt weak and defenceless.
"Well, let's try it again later," Lilly said gently. "You probably just need some time to recover."
Heather was eyeing Crowley with suspicion. "Who is Aziraphale?"
Crowley froze, caught completely off guard by the question. He stared at her. "How do you know about him?" A flicker of hope flared. Aziraphale must be looking for him, he must be hot on the trail of the kids. Maybe he had seen the serpent scarf.
"Never you mind how we know about him. Who is he? Tell us the truth or else."
"He- he's my friend."
"Is he a demon too?"
"No."
"What is he then?"
Crowley hesitated. He was scared of what Heather would do if she thought he was lying, but if he told them the truth, that Aziraphale was an angel, they might not believe him anyway. He could lie and say that Aziraphale was a human or a witch, but he didn't know how much the children already knew and he did not want to get caught in a lie. He had learnt how dangerous Heather could be when she was angry.
"He's an angel."
"Wow!" said Lilly excitedly, "A real angel?! With a halo and everything?"
"An angel?" Heather asked doubtfully, "You're telling us that you're friends with an actual angel?"
"…It's complicated."
"Why would an angel help you anyway? You're a demon."
"He's a helpful sort of guy."
"How did you even meet him when demons live in Hell and angels live in Heaven? They must be miles and miles apart."
"We both live on Earth actually. He lives in a bookshop in Soho. It's called A Z Fells." He looked directly at Lilly as he said this, hoping that she might want to find someone to help him.
Whilst Heather did seem to feel bad for hurting him, Crowley was sure that she saw him as being less than human.
Lilly was the closest thing he had to an ally right now, as far as he was aware.
He hoped that Aziraphale was on his way to save him. Perhaps he was just outside. Perhaps this nightmare was almost over. "How do you know about Aziraphale?"
"When you were yelling and thrashing about in the circle because of the holy water, you shouted for him," Heather said.
"Yeah, added Lilly, "You shouted, 'Help me! Aziraphale, help!' We wondered who he was."
"Oh…" Crowley felt his hope crumble away. "I didn't know I said that."
Crowley felt dizzy and tired, he wanted to go home. Sitting in the middle of the circle, he wrapped his arms around his knees.
"Angels are real then? Is Gabriel real?" Lilly asked.
Crowley was feeling faint. It was difficult to keep his eyes open and he really wanted to lay down and go to sleep. He started to sway, but in that moment it felt important to reply to Lilly. "Gabriel… is an arsehole."
Crowley fell over.
Laying on his side, eyes closed, Crowley decided it would be nice to fall asleep. He gave it his very best, but the children were being thoughtlessly loud.
"Get up, Crowley! Please!" Heather cried.
"Crowley! Wake up!" Lilly shouted, then her voice became scared. "What if he really is dead this time?"
Crowley wanted to tell her that he was fine, he just really needed a good nap, but it felt as though moving or speaking would take up an impossible amount of energy.
"Wake up, Crowley-" Heather made a terrified noise. "Lilly, no! Get out of there! He'll get you!"
A small hand pushed at Crowley's shoulder.
"He can't get me, he's too hurt! You saw to that!"
"Get out of the circle, you idiot!" Heather cried hysterically.
"This is your fault! He was nice, and now he's dying!"
"Get out of the circle, for God's sake! He might kill you! And he's not nice, he's a demon!"
"That's racist!"
Crowley opened bleary eyes and saw Lilly stepping back out of the circle.
"He isn't well, we have to let him out of the circle so he can go back to Hell and get help from the other demons. Or maybe we should take him to a hospital."
"Are you stupid?! We can't take him to a hospital, the doctors can't heal demons! And we are not going to let him out of that circle! This might all be a clever trap! No! Stop that!"
Lilly had started blowing out the candles. "We have to let him go!"
Heather grabbed her and pulled her away from the circle.
"Let me go!" Lilly started to slap her, and suddenly they were both hitting each other.
Normally, Crowley encouraged this sort of thing, but it was counterproductive under the circumstances.
"Girls, calm down," he demanded hoarsely, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of their shouting.
"You're a stupid little girl!" Heather screamed.
"You're the stupid one! Ow! And you're a bitch!"
Heather gasped, outraged. "Shut up! I hate you! We are not friends anymore! Go away!"
"I hate you more!"
Heather pushed her towards the door. "Get lost!"
"B- but, I don't want to leave Crowley behind-"
"He's mine. I found the book, and this was all my idea. You're not allowed to play anymore! Get lost!"
Lilly burst into tears and fled the room.
"Come back," Crowley cried, watching as the only one who seemed concerned about his welfare vanished. He turned to Heather. "Go after her."
Heather slammed the door closed and turned furious eyes on him. Tears streamed down her face. "Shut up! This is all your fault, you horrible demon! I bet you were trying to make us fight all along. I bet just having you around makes people act bad, so shut up before I dump that entire bottle of holy water right on your head!"
Crowley hoped it was just a hollow threat, but he wouldn't dare take the risk. He went silent and curled up into a ball. He watched her wearily as she sat down cross-legged and picked up the Switch. For a while the only sounds were the clicking of the console's buttons and the occasional sniff from the girl.
Crowley closed his eyes but he couldn't sleep, he was too frightened and the floor felt cold and hard. His head pounded and his injuries ached.
He became aware that Heather was crying.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Heather said miserably.
Crowley opened his eyes.
Heather put down the console and hesitantly came towards him. "Do you feel any better? I'm sorry about the holy water, I promise I won't do it again. Try to heal yourself."
He tried, but he still couldn't use his powers. "Not working," he said weakly.
"I'm really really sorry I hurt you, I didn't know it would do that. The book should have said. In fact, I should have just let you go home like you wanted."
Heather took out her mobile phone from her pocket. "I'm gonna ring Lilly." A few moments later she made a frustrated sound. "I've not got any phone signal. I'll go and find her."
Heather came over to the circle and blew out half of the candles, the tallest ones. "There. The others should burn down soon, then you can escape, and I'll still have plenty of time to get away. Do you think you will be okay?"
"I think so. But could you ring Aziraphale to come get me? I don't know how I'll get home without my powers working."
Heather gave him a suspicious look. She looked torn, but eventually she nodded. "Alright, I suppose – just because you're not very well. You must be really good friends if you want an angel to save you instead of a demon. But you'd better not give me a demon's phone number instead - I'll be cross if you do! I'll ring your angel's bookshop, okay?"
Crowley knew Aziraphale's phone number by heart and recited it to her. Heather typed it into her phone and then eyed him with distrust. "I can't help but think this is all a trap. Is this guy gonna trace the call and pinpoint my location or something? Why are you laughing?"
"It's just the thought of Aziraphale having the know-how to trace anyone's phone call - he's the least tech savvy person in the world." Although, in truth, Crowley hoped the angel would use his divine powers to somehow figure out exactly where they were.
"Hmm. Yeah, well, I'll use a payphone just in case, then I can run away super-fast. I wouldn't be surprised if Aziraphale isn't actually an angel at all."
Heather packed her bag, and Lilly's too. She was just picking them both up when there was the sound of a door opening somewhere else in the building. Heather froze. "Lilly?" She said hopefully, but her voice was quiet enough to betray her nervousness.
"Hello? Crowley? Are you here?"
She spun to face Crowley. "Is that Aziraphale? How did he know you were here?"
Panic flared in Crowley's chest. "That's not Aziraphale - that's a demon. You need to get out of here. Now!"
He recognised the demons voice. It was Hastur, one of the most horrible and vicious people he had ever met.
"B- but-"
"Get out! He mustn't find you here!" Crowley looked around, but the only door out of the room led to the corridor where the voice was coming from, and the window was too high up for her to be able to reach it. She was trapped here. If Crowley had his powers, he would just wish her away somewhere safe, but he was as helpless as Heather was right now.
He desperately tried to think of another way to save her. "Let me out! I'll go and meet him then he won't need to come in here." Crowley got to his knees, and tried to get to his feet, hoping that he would be able to walk away without collapsing. "Blow out the candles."
She looked at the candles, then her gaze lifted to Crowley's face and she looked petrified. "I can't! You'll get me!"
"We don't have time for this, you need to trust me! He's a bad demon, really bad!"
"You'll get me if I let you out!" she cried.
"I won't. He will!"
"How did he find us? You must have let him know you were here somehow! This is all a trap!"
Crowley hissed in frustration. "I don't know how he found me – maybe the spike in magic like I said. It doesn't matter!"
"Crowley? Where are you, you pain in the arse?" The voice was close now.
"Grab the holy water, quick!"
"I don't want to hurt anyone!"
"You have to defend yourself! He's dangerous!"
Crowley knew that he would not be able to protect Heather. Nothing he said would be enough to stop Hastur from doing whatever he wanted.
Shaking, Heather went to fetch the cup of holy water and the pepsi bottle. She stood far away from the door and put the bottle down next to her feet. She held the cup tightly in one hand, and hovered her other hand over it.
The door opened.
Hastur stepped through the doorway. He caught sight of Crowley first, on his knees in the circle.
"What the fuck happened to you? You look like death warmed up. Ligur! He's here!"
Then Hastur saw Heather, and his face split into a horrible grin. "Oh! Hello, little girl! Been playing at summoning demons, have you? How about we play a little game of our own- Woah! Fuck!"
Heather dipped her hand in the holy water and stepped forward. "I'm more than just a little girl, I'm tough! Go away or I'll splash you with holy water! I've done it before, I'm not scared!"
Hastur could have done any number of things. He could have shrunk down, moved faster than the human eye could see and come up behind her to attack. He could have wished up a gun, or used his powers to push her backwards or even set her feet on fire. Absolutely anything. The only limits were his own imagination, which unfortunately for him were extremely limited.
Hastur yelped, staggered backwards, and once he was on the other side of the doorway, he slammed the door closed with a wish. There was the sound of retreating footsteps.
Heather was panting and shaking.
"Well done," Crowley said, "you were very brave."
"I know," she sobbed, "but what if he comes back?"
"He won't," Crowley said, and he was sure of it. "You've got him scared. And Hastur and Ligur wouldn't risk their lives for anyone, least of all me."
Crowley also knew that the two demons would never give up, they would just come up with another plan, something that would keep themselves safe while placing Heather, and perhaps even Crowley himself, in terrible danger.