A/N: First the obligatory slash reminder - not only is this story about a relationship between two girls, but Lavender and Parvati no less. Thanks to the brave-hearted readers from part 1: Amanita Lestrange, Wotan, Hype, Zoe Bromelow, Tessie, Cloudstrife73, Bookcat87, and Cassandra Claire.
Special thanks to my ace beta-reader, Heath. She is not only an impromptu geography tutor but also a keen-eyed editor.
DEMON LOVE PART 2
Parvati's scream brought the whole house running.
"What is it? Are you okay?" Mrs Brown followed close on Lavender's heels, and Mr Brown soon appeared after huffing up the stairs.
Parvati had slammed the door shut and now stood in front of the wardrobe trying desperately to produce a normal expression for the Browns. "It was – that is, I saw a, er, a spider," she stammered. "A really big one."
"A spider? Oh dear," murmured Mrs Brown and turned to her husband. "I knew I should have dusted more carefully."
But Mr Brown refused to be upset. "No reason to be afraid of a spider," he declared, stepping towards the wardrobe. "Let's just have a look at him –"
"It's gone," Parvati said quickly and pointed across the room. "When I opened the door it ran away."
"Well, if you girls see any more spiders just squash them with a shoe," advised Mr Brown with a wink, then he and his wife went downstairs.
Lavender closed her bedroom door and ran to Parvati's side. "What did you see?" she demanded, placing her hands on Parvati's shoulders.
Parvati remained in front of the wardrobe. "What did you see, during the crystal-gazing?" she asked and looked straight into Lavender's eyes.
"You first."
"Alright." Parvati shook off Lavender's hands and crossed her arms, wishing she had her wand. "I saw a hand and it was holding a dagger. Sound familiar?"
Lavender looked ashen. "Are you sure? Maybe it was a Boggart."
"I don't think so. This isn't a magical house. Which brings me to my other question: what is any sort of hand, dismembered or otherwise, doing floating in your wardrobe?"
Lavender pushed Parvati aside and opened the door. "There's nothing here," she said, turning back with a puzzled expression. "Are you sure you saw something?" She closed the door and turned the latch.
"I saw a hand. A hand holding a sword." Parvati sat down on one of the beds. "What did you see?"
Lavender sat on the bed opposite her friend. She looked down at her knees and said, "I saw you. You were fighting - it didn't really seem like you. You were different, but I just knew it was you."
"You didn't see a small dagger? You didn't see my hand getting chopped off or something?"
Lavender looked up. "Ew! Gross, no I didn't see your hand getting chopped off."
"What was I fighting with? Did I have a sword?"
Lavender squinted and regarded her knees again. "I don't think so," she said finally. "It was just really…icky."
"Great. Icky. That's something to go on, that is."
Lavender raised her eyes to Parvati's. "You don't know how it felt, seeing you like that. I could just tell something bad was going to happen, that's why I couldn't look any more."
Parvati got up and moved next to Lavender. Putting an arm around her, she said, "I'm sorry. I just wish you'd been able to look a little more, now that I've seen an armed hand."
"I thought you said it was dismembered," replied Lavender solemnly.
Parvati groaned. "Why doesn't anyone else know how funny you are?"
"Because I only tell my best jokes to you." With a smile, Lavender got up and walked over to her own unpacked trunk. Opening it, she removed her wand and gestured for Parvati to do the same. Now armed, the two girls proceeded towards the wardrobe once again.
"This time you open it," directed Lavender. "Maybe only you can see it."
"Alohomora," commanded Parvati and the doors flew open. Once again the hand appeared. "Can you see it?" she whispered to Lavender.
"No. Is it there again?"
"Oh yeah." Parvati trained her wand on the hand which, although gruesome in concept, hovered in a non-menacing way. "Think I should talk to it?"
Lavender made face. "It's a hand, not a brain."
"Worth a try." Parvati cleared her throat and asked, "What are you?"
No response. Feeling a little bolder, Parvati said, "Why am I the only one who can see you?"
Now the hand's silence was really starting to irk her. "Accio!" she yelled, but amazingly, the spell had no effect.
Parvati had to admit she was somewhat relieved. She wasn't sure what she'd planned to do if the hand actually flew over to her. Still, the thing seemed more and more harmless by the minute. Maybe it really was a Boggart. "Watch this," she joked to Lavender. Raising her wand dramatically, Parvati brought it down with a rush of gold sparks and said, "I, Parvati Patil, command this hand to –" she looked again at Lavender "- what should I command it to do?"
"Dance?" suggested Lavender, giggling.
"I, Parvati Patil, command this hand to dance!"
Parvati nearly dropped her wand when the hand zipped from the wardrobe, landed on Lavender's desk and began to dance.
"What's going on?" demanded Lavender, following Parvati's open-mouthed stare towards the desk. "Is it dancing?"
"Uh-huh," Parvati nodded. "I think it's attempting a Highland fling."
"Tell it to do something else," Lavender urged.
"Stop." The hand stopped. "Show yourself to my friend."
Now both girls gasped as the hand moved to the center of the room. "I can see it," whispered Lavender. Gradually, however, it became clear the hand was not alone. In fact, a number of limbs began to appear, and eventually the complete body of a very strange creature shimmered before their eyes. Parvati could see what looked like tusks and three eyes. It also had a number of arms, too many to count. All but one of the hands grasped some sort of weapon.
"Tell it to go back, tell it to go away," urged Lavender, not giggling anymore.
But Parvati took a step closer and stared. "Durga?" she whispered.
"Daughter," came a deep voice.
Now Parvati backed up and put out an arm, preventing Lavender from moving forward. "Uh, should we bow or something?" she finally asked, glancing worriedly at Lavender, who clearly had no idea that somehow, Parvati had just conjured up the ancient, defending-warrior spirit of Durga.
"I have waited years to come to you," the voice continued and the three eyes rolled around to fix on Parvati's face. "You have passed the final test."
"Test? What test?" Parvati did wish ancient spectres could be a little more straightforward. Then again, perhaps they found it taxing to follow modern conventions of English. After all, Durga wasn't even British.
"You have shown the courage to separate yourself from your sister - your twin - and bind yourself with her." Durga pointed one of her hands to Lavender, who squeaked and clung to Parvati's elbow. "Together, you will continue the tradition of my daughters."
"But she couldn't even see you until I commanded it," said Parvati, not certain she wanted to become a daughter of Durga, especially if it meant growing another set of arms and an extra eye. "Why her?"
"You need her. She gives you a completeness your twin does not."
"And I'm so special because…?"
"You are my namesake, Parvati," the creature said simply. Then its eyes rolled again, this time coming to rest in Lavender's direction. "She knows what you must do. She has seen it. I leave you my weapons, and this relic." The hand floated closer to them.
"What am I supposed to do?" Parvati asked, exasperated.
Three eyebrows raised in surprise. "Surely you know. The Dark Lord is wreaking havoc in your land. You must do your part." And with that, Durga vanished and the weapons she'd been holding clattered to the floor.
"Damn!" Parvati lowered her wand and stared around the room. "Where is Hermione Granger when you need her?"
"Forget Hermione," gasped Lavender, who had taken a seat on her bed and watched the floating hand apprehensively. "Maybe we should owl Harry. Isn't defeating You-Know-Who his destiny?"
"She didn't say we were supposed to defeat him, just do our part." Parvati sat next to Lavender. "But I wish Hermione was around. I don't remember much about Durga."
"What – you two have met before?"
"No. I just know a little about her. Supposed to be the founder of a magical group of women warriors in India. I just didn't expect her to turn up in a farmhouse outside Swindon, you know?"
"I do know." Lavender leaned against Parvati. "Maybe you should write to Hermione, like you said. She's helped Harry in almost every weird thing he's done - maybe she could help us."
"Okay." Parvati got up and moved towards her trunk.
Lavender added, "Could you get my crystal ball from my trunk? I'm going to see if I can get the images back I saw last week."
"What?" Parvati regarded the other girl in surprise.
But Lavender had already seated herself at her desk and looked more composed. "Well, she did say she'd waited years for you, and now she'd gone and chosen us. I think the least I can do is try to figure out what we're supposed to do. And do something with that hand – if Mum comes in it's going to be a bit difficult to explain."
**
"What did she mean, you were her namesake?" whispered Lavender. It was almost midnight and they were supposed to be asleep but neither of them felt very tired.
Parvati squirmed. Lavender's twin bed was much smaller than their four-posters at school, especially with two people in it. "The original Parvati was the Great Mother. Durga is one of the enchanted forms she later took."
"And this Durga, what did she do?"
"She fought demons." Parvati felt Lavender stir beside her and heard her draw a sharp breath. "What is it?"
"Um, these demons…what do they look like?"
"Depends. The most famous one she defeated was a buffalo demon. Forget his name, but he was the You-Know-Who equivalent on the Indian subcontinent centuries ago. I've only seen pictures, of course, but he was pretty ugly. Not that Durga would win any prizes today, either, I guess," she added, recalling the multiple limbs and eyes they'd seen earlier.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Lavender sat bolt upright and began pulling at her hair in the way she did whenever she was getting an idea.
"What?" asked Parvati.
"That's it. That's what I saw in Professor Trelawney's room, in the orb. A buffalo. But it didn't make any sense, I thought I was mistaken. Then I saw you -" Lavender had jumped out of bed and paced nervously in front of Parvati. "But if he was defeated, why would I see him now?" she wondered aloud.
"Well," began Parvati, feeling a chill come over her despite the summer evening, "when I said Durga defeated demons, she didn't always kill them. She usually just made them work for her, used them in her fight against evil. So he's not necessarily dead."
Lavender stopped her frantic walking and kneeled in front of Parvati's bedside. "Do you think there could be a mistake? I mean, why would that Durga person say we're supposed to be her daughters? I don't like swords! And I really, really don't like demons! I didn't even like Flobberworms!" Lavender's voice began to rise hysterically.
"Um, I think she was using the daughter term symbolically. But it is kind of weird." Parvati had to admit that of all the Gryffindors, she and Lavender seemed - except possibly Neville - the least likely to fall heirs to a bunch of enchanted weapons. Still, the idea was starting to grow on her. The handles of the things were encrusted with jewels and offered interesting potential as accessories. Plus she knew if Durga had appeared to her at home, Padma would already be hogging all the best-looking weapons. At least Lavender wasn't greedy.
Parvati reached out and tugged at Lavender's nightgown. "Come back to bed. We can't do anything else until morning anyway. Maybe Hermione's owl will come," she added. "She got the highest marks in Demonology - this should be right up her alley."
Lavender sighed, then slid into the narrow bed again. "Let's hope so."
"Bet I can make you forget all about that buffalo demon," whispered Parvati, putting her arms around Lavender and kissing her between the shoulder blades. She felt the other girl relax and Lavender turned over to face Parvati.
"I never knew you were named after a famous magical creature."
Parvati smiled. "Just one of the many things you didn't know about me."
"Not really. I think I know you better than anyone else does." Lavender kissed her lightly. "And don't you forget it."
"I won't. I can't." Parvati said and ran her hand along Lavender's leg, as far as she could reach.
"Can you tell the hand to be invisible again?" asked Lavender after a few more minutes. "It's giving me the creeps, just floating there."
Parvati sent the hand to the wardrobe, then resumed her activities with Lavender. "Better?" she whispered.
"Much." Lavender reached her hands to smooth back Parvati's hair, then took her face and kissed her. "Promise you won't leave me? I don't think I could deal with any of this without you."
Parvati placed her hand over Lavender's heart. "Like skin to back," she whispered. "That's what you are to me."
**
Parvati felt a little shy the next morning but Lavender seemed unperturbed. "What are you staring at?" she giggled, getting dressed.
"Nothing." Parvati dropped her eyes and hoped Lavender didn't notice how she blushed. They must have changed clothes hundreds of times in front of each other, but now it felt different.
But Lavender did notice, or at least sensed how her friend was feeling. "Nothing's changed," she said, doing up her shoelaces. "You don't have to get shy on me."
"Right." Parvati nodded but inside, she knew everything had changed. Kissing Lavender, seeing Durga - Parvati felt drawn into something that was beyond herself, something powerful.
"Well, get dressed. Today is field trip time." Lavender spoke impatiently.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Just get ready. I'll be downstairs, packing a lunch."
By midmorning, Parvati found herself hiking with Lavender, who remained uncommunicative yet insistent on finding an area she claimed to have viewed before in the crystal.
"Where exactly are we going?" Parvati asked, watching as the hand bobbed alongside them.
"I'll know it when I see it," replied Lavender, scanning the horizon.
"That's what Padma says whenever we go shopping and it takes her hours to find anything she likes," grumbled Parvati. "Besides, I don't see why I have to carry all the weapons – they're a lot heavier than carrying sandwiches around I can tell you."
"Durga gave them to you. I don't think I'd better touch them," called Lavender over her shoulder. She gave a great jump and a small shriek as she felt something brush against her arm.
Parvati, however, saw what it was: an owl, and it had something tied to its leg. "Hermione's answer!" she said, rushing forward to the owl perched nearby.
**
When Hermione had seen the owl at her window she'd been puzzled. It wasn't Pigwidgeon and it wasn't Hedwig; she couldn't think of anyone besides Harry or Ron who would owl her over the summer holidays. She certainly hadn't expected to hear from Lavender and Parvati. Curious, she read the short letter.
As she digested its contents, Hermione felt jealous. How had Parvati Patil - not the worst student of course, but certainly not one to take on extra homework - managed to conjure up the spirit of Durga? It just wasn't fair. She, Hermione, had got the top marks in Demonology, History of Magic, Charms - all of it. When she thought back to their Demonology lessons, all she remembered Lavender Brown commenting on was how ugly most of the demons were, and teasing Parvati about which one was her boyfriend. Now they had a bona fide magical creature in their house and had no idea what to do with it. And of course, they wanted an immediate reply. With an impatient sigh, she scribbled a quick response and sent the owl back into the night. Then she went over to her bookcase, drew out some reference works and began to read.
**
"What's it say?" Lavender peered over Parvati's shoulder, which was difficult to do, Parvati being the taller of the two.
"Not much. She's working on it, but thinks it would be best if she could actually see what weapons and stuff we have. Apparently Durga's kind of obscure."
"Oh, so you were named after an obscure magical spirit?" teased Lavender, feeling more lighthearted now that Hermione was on the case.
"I wouldn't say that about something with ten arms." Parvati removed her heavy backpack and gestured to the countryside. "Any of this look familiar?"
"Of course it does. I've spent practically every summer here."
"You know what I mean."
Lavender took a seat on a fallen log. "It's not what I saw. But that was so blurry. Even when I tried to look again, all I really see is that buffalo demon."
Parvati nodded glumly. The particular stretch of countryside in which the Browns resided was picturesque, hardly the place one would expect to find demons. But after yesterday's events, Parvati had begun to eye the place with a new perspective. The Browns' house was solitary and set far back from the main road. It was easy to drive right past it if you didn't know there was a house at the end of the overgrown lane. And the wood around them, which had always seemed friendly and cheerful to Parvati on previous visits, now appeared more sinister. Durga had left them a bag of enchanted weapons for a reason; who was to say something evil couldn't appear right in this clearing? Parvati had always felt safe at Hogwarts, but as she well knew even her school was not immune to dark forces. And if the demon had somehow escaped and gone to You-Know-Who, no place was safe - not even Wiltshire.
**
Following a fruitless afternoon, the girls returned to the house. Lavender's shoulders and nose were red with sunburn and both girls were feeling increasingly anxious over their inability to know how to proceed.
"You need to invite Hermione over here," said Parvati, dumping the bag of weapons in a corner of their bedroom. "Think your mother will mind?"
Lavender gave a short laugh. "What parent would object to Hermione Granger? I'll invite her, but I'm warning you - all we'll hear is 'why can't you get marks like she does'."
"I don't care." Parvati flopped onto one of the beds and stared at the ceiling. Then she turned her head to look at Lavender, who was brushing out her hair. "What'll we tell her about us?"
Lavender paused in mid-brush. "What do you mean? Why should we tell her anything?"
"If she stays up here she's bound to notice, don't you think?"
"We'll just have to be careful, then," decided Lavender, resuming her brushing.
Parvati rolled over onto her front. "I don't know if I can be careful around you. Besides, she's a girl, I bet she'd understand."
Lavender had finished with her hair and now hunted through her things for a bottle of lotion for her shoulders. "I doubt it. Hermione doesn't even hang out with girls. Her best friends are Ron and Harry. All she cares about are books."
"I don't think so. She's pretty perceptive. Besides, I just feel like everyone must be able to tell how I feel about you, every time I so much as look at you."
Lavender frowned, but came and sat with her back to Parvati and handed her to lotion, indicating she should rub it on her shoulders. "They can't tell. When people see us together, all they see are two girls who are friends. That's all. Nobody would even suspect anything romantic existed between us."
Parvati paused, her fingers thick with lotion. "You say that like it's a good thing."
Lavender twisted around and looked at Parvati. "Isn't it?"
Parvati looked into Lavender's eyes. Then she gently pushed her around and continued rubbing Lavender's red shoulders, staring at the disappearing sunburn. "I don't know."
**
The first things Hermione wanted to see were the weapons. Neither Lavender nor Parvati had wanted to handle them too much, so this was the first time they'd really inspected them closely. Hermione had brought with her a number of books, and as each piece was shown to her, she tried to match it with one of the entries. Lavender jotted down the names and special attributes of each weapon. By the time they were done, the girls had to acknowledge they had quite an arsenal sitting before them.
The jeweled swords had unbreakable blades and could cut through anything. The trident worked especially well on water-demons, Grindylows or Red Caps, the gold spears were equipped with special accuracy charms, and the shield repelled almost every curse except, of course, Avada Kedavra. And the largest sword reputedly cut through entire mountains.
Parvati picked up one of the smaller, jeweled daggers and flipped it in her hand. "Slices, dices, even cuts this tomato after severing someone's hand," she said, imitating the advertisement she'd seen on the Brown's television earlier that evening.
Hermione was not amused. "Be careful. They really can sever a limb."
"Yeah, I think we know that," replied Parvati, glowering at the floating hand.
Lavender sighed. "Let's not fight. Hermione, what are we supposed to do with all this?"
"Well, if I were you I'd learn how to use it first. It's not meant for amateurs."
Parvati flicked her plait across her back. "Okay, so we'll practice. But what about the demon? Do you know anything about him?"
"I did some reading, yes." Hermione pulled out several rolls of parchment on which she had scribbled notes. "Mashihasuri, or the buffalo demon, was once the most powerful of his kind. Of course, the original Mashihasuri is long since dead, but there are other buffalo demons and variations roaming about. My guess is You-Know-Who has located them and is working to bring them back to full strength. They're quite massive, and difficult to kill. Their one weakness is they're a bit slow-moving so if you can catch them off guard, that's your best chance. Of course, they like to move in groups so it's hard to catch them all off guard at once."
"Great. So where do you reckon we're going to find a bunch of buffalo around here?"
Hermione looked surprised. "Didn't I explain? One of the buffalo demon's powers is shape-shifting. As long as he has a host with hooves, he can reside in the host form. When my parents drove me out here we passed quite a few farms. This is an ideal place for these demons to gather and hide."
Lavender didn't look very happy to learn one of their neighbors could well be harboring demons in his pasture. "Why here? What could You-Know-Who possible want that's here? And if these demons can take the form of ordinary farm animals, how will we even know if we see one?"
"I don't know." Hermione shook her head. "I think we should owl Professor Lupin. He's the Dark Arts specialist. He'd know what to do."
"But we're the ones Durga came to," interjected Parvati. "How many people do we need to bring in?"
Hermione eyed her skeptically. "She didn't say you had to do it all by yourselves, did she? Just do your part. Unless you figure out what that entails, you won't be much help to anyone."
Parvati crossed her arms across her chest. She did hate it when Hermione was right. "Fine. But no way does Professor Lupin get to be one of Durga's daughters."
"I don't think there's any danger of that," said Lavender hurriedly. "It's still early. Hermione, how about a make-over?" she suggested brightly.
At this, both Hermione and Parvati looked at her in astonishment. "Lavender, there's no time for that now," said Parvati. "We've got to master these weapons, owl Lupin, and figure out a plan for tomorrow."
"Master the weapons? I'm really much better with cosmetics charms. And Hermione, I've been dying to try something new with your hair." Lavender eyed the gleaming pile of armaments apprehensively and gave a resigned sighed. "Couldn't I just write the letter to Professor Lupin?"
Hermione shook her head. "You're the ones Durga came to. I'll write the letter. You two practice."
Lavender gingerly picked up a small sword and held it at arm's length. "Eurgh! Do you think this ever killed somebody?"
"Maybe. More likely a demon," said Parvati, who shouldered a spear, then returned to the jeweled swords.
Lavender held the hilt with just two fingers. "That is really disgusting. What does demon blood look like, anyway?"
Parvati had begun sparring with the hand, which proved to be quite capable despite its diminutive size. "Hey, look at that! I nicked it!" she cried.
Hermione glanced up from the desk and looked at Lavender. "Demon blood? It looks like that," she said calmly, pointing to the hand.
A clear, almost shimmering substance oozed from the spot where Parvati had nicked the hand. She'd assumed the hand had once been attached to Durga, but now she wasn't so sure.
"Um, Hermione?" she asked, sword still raised. "There are good demons, aren't there?"
************
We'll just have to wait until part 3 to learn the answer to that question. In the meantime, I would like to acknowledge the 'skin to back' phrase first comes from Daniel Defoe's Roxana, which features the bold and bawdy 18th-century duo, Roxana and Amy.